Mad Brew Labs

Jonathan Jacobs of The Core Mechanic and my partner at Nevermet Press is a machine that never sleeps. The second volume of the Open Game Table is beginning to take shape as this year’s reviewers wrap up their duties. Soon, Jonathan and his crew of editors will begin selecting blog articles based on the combined opinions of more than a dozen reviewers.

A few days ago, Jonathan posted this update on The Core Mechanic:

Open Game Table

It’s been a few weeks, but I just wanted to let the readers of The Core Mechanic and fans of Open Game Table to know that the review process is entering its fourth and final week. The super secret panel of peer reviewers has, thus far, submitted nearly 600 reviews (!!!), and I hoping to reach 900 by next Friday in a final push to the finish line.

Once the peer review process is over, it’s possible I’ll host a last minute second round of reviews to cover any nominations that were not read by at least two reviewers. So, stayed tuned!

I also want to reiterate my previous Open Call for Artists. If you are an illustrator or graphic artist and you have an interest in contributing to Open Game Table, then please contact me as soon as possible so that I can add you to the list of contributors. Once the final reviews are done, the Open Game Table editorial board and I will be making the final selections to be included in the anthology. After that, participating artists will be asked to illustrate B&W line art specifically inspired by the blog posts themselves. This allows the Anthology to showcase both the best talent in the RPG blogging community, as well as highlight the skills of up and coming artists looking for a means to gain exposure.

For those of you that have yet to grab a copy of the first volume of the OGT, I urge you to head over to purchase your copy today to read the best writing on the web (Disclaimer: I have an article in the first volume, so I may be biased).

Listening to: Reverend Horton Heat – Space Heater – Lie Detector

Because of their default structure, blogs are not very well suited for allowing users to find older or related content. WordPress tries to mitigate this fact with elements like categories and tags and there are quite a few plug-ins available that guess at what might be related material, but I think it benefits both the blog and its readers, especially new ones, to occasionally revisit the best posts.

Instead of reposting the original content, I will be creating a few synopsis posts that gather together a bunch of relevant topics that link to the original content. I will probably end up making a dedicated page(s) to collect these posts to make it easier for readers to find more of what they are looking for.

Online Resources

The Online Resource category is probably the most visited category of Mad Brew Labs. In the last year and half that the Labs has been operating, I have occasionally gathered together massive lists of resources of various themes to make it easier for readers to find the stuff they need for their games.

• General RPG Resources: a list of general RPG resources including networks & forums, game design, worldbuilding, and cartography.
• Virtual Tabletop Software: a list of software that facilitate playing RPGs between friends online.
• Terrain, Cardstock, & Tutorials: a list of resources to help outfit your tabletop with the best imagery and environment available.
• Non-Heroic Scale Minis DB: a database of manufacturers of non-heroic scale miniatures.
• Heroic Scale Minis DB: a database of manufacturers of heroic scale (25mm-28mm) miniatures.
• Level-up Your Mini Hobby Skills: a database of sites that offer tutorials to improve your miniature hobby skills.
• D&D Inspired Webcomics: a list of humorous (and not so humorous) web comic strips.
• Pathfinder RPG Resources: a list of custom content, documents, and software.
• D&D 4e Resources: a list of publishers, custom content, character generators, character sheets, power cards, and combat managers.

Look for me to begin converting all the resources that are not available in a database format (currently, any non miniature resource) into sortable databases.

Listening to: Rob Zombie – Hellbilly Deluxe 2 – Mars Needs Women

Doctors Without Borders

Sometimes it just feels awesome knowing you belong to a community of people that do great things. Today is one of those days. Early this morning I received the RPGNow!/DriveThruRPG newsletter and it contained the following announcement:

As far as I know, and as far as anyone I’ve talked to knows, there’s never been anything like this accomplished before.

We raised $178,900.00

That is the amount we wired to the fine folks of Doctors Without Borders. When I spoke with their representative about this recently, she was literally moved to tears (as was I). And now I want to point out each and every one of our incredible publishers who contributed to the package that accomplished this incredible feat:
4 Winds Fantasy Gaming, A Terrible Idea, Adamant Entertainment, AGES Gaming, Applied Vectors, Arc Dream Publishing, Art Fantasies,Bards and Sages, Basic Action Games, Berengad Games, Better Mousetrap Games, Black Snake Studios, BoxNinja, Brave Halfling Publishing, Cellar Games, Chaotic Shiny Productions, Crafty Games, Creative Conclave, Dane of War, Day Dreamer Interactive, Dork Storm Press, Encompass, Erisian Entertainment, Evil Hat Productions, Fabled Worlds, Fat Dragon Games, Fiery Dragon, Fire Ruby Designs, FJ Gaming, Flames Rising Press, FSpace Publications, Fuller Flippers, Game Monkey Press, GameVein, Generic Universe Publishing, GMC,Grasshopper Games, Green Ronin, Greg Stolze, Gun Metal Games, Hex Games, Highmoon Games, HinterWelt, Jessup Games, Jon Brazer Enterprises, Justin Achilli, Kallisti Press, Keck Publishing, Knowledge Arcana, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Machine Age Productions, Magique Productions, Malcontent Games, Marcus L. Rowland, Margaret Weis Productions, Mesozoic Press, Mystic Ages Publishing, Nevermet Press, Nomadic Delirium Press, Open Design, Open Game Table, OtherWorld Creations, Palladium Books, Paper Make iT!, Pelgrane Press, Peryton Publishing, Planet Thirteen, Point of Insanity Game Studio, Polgarus Games, Prince of Darkness Games, Red Anvil Productions, Rhallen Enterprises, Rite Publishing, Rogue Games, Shield of Faith Studios, Silent7Games, Silver Gryphon Games,Skirmisher Publishing, Skortched Urf’ Studios, Sonic Legends, SPQR Studios, StoryWeaver, Sword’s Edge Publishing, Tabletop Adventures,The Le Games, Thenodrin Presents, Third Eye Games, Tricky Owlbear Publishing, Troll Lord Games, WorldWorks Games, Wydraz, Ye Olde Gaming Companye

Listening to: Rob Zombie – Hellbilly Deluxe 2 – Jesus Frankenstein

Apple's iPad

When Apple unveiled their new multi-touch tablet device ^[1], the [horribly named] iPad, I watched as half of the internet sung praises of Apple to the heavens while the other half spoke of disappointment. In the tabletop roleplaying community, I saw a trend of tech-minded gamers ^{[2] [3]} hail the tablet as the messiah of digital roleplaying.

My personal opinion is, much like the internet, divided between praise and disappointment. However, I strongly disagree that the iPad will be the savior that shepherds tabletop roleplaying into the digital Promised Land. This article assumes there is such a place, but does not serve as an argument concerning any debate over whether there is, or is not, a digital paradise for tabletop roleplaying games.

Evolutionary, Not Revolutionary

Tablets are not new, and a good friend of mine has used his touch screen Lenovo ThinkPad tablet ^[4] as a digital library for gaming for last five years or more. It’s not as slim as an iPad, but it’s not unwieldy either. The iPad looks fantastic as a document reader, but I fear I wouldn’t be able to read any of my existing e-books on it nor could I transfer anything bought through their iBooks ^[5] app on any of my other devices.

Defective by Design Org

The iPad does offer a multi-touch display, but that is not new either. Regular (single) touch screens have been available on tablet notebooks for years and multi-touch became available on tablet netbooks ^[6] last year (primarily with the release of Windows 7 which supports multi-touch ^[7]). I do think that Natural User Interfaces are a revolution in computing, but the fact that the iPad uses it is not.

The iPad does offer an accelerometer, which is great for when you switch between landscape or portrait orientation and for video gaming. The base model (sans 3G and with only 16 GB of storage) did surprise me with its price of only $500. But it’s lack of support for Flash, incapacity to multitask, inability to install apps outside their app store, and Apple’s penchant for DRM ^[8] all prevent me from hopping aboard the iPad fanboy train (the lack of a camera or GPS doesn’t affect me though).

Besides, I think the Always Innovating TouchBook ^[9] does a good job of providing all the features of the iPad I like (sans multi-touch) while still being able to have control over my content/software for a $100 less ($200 less if you don’t want the attachable keyboard) and it’s been on the market since last fall.

iPad, the False Prophet?

If Apple’s tablet is not really anything new, can it still show the path to the digital nirvana of tabletop roleplaying? It’s possible, but the iPad would have some very big obstacles to overcome. First, this assumes there is a financially viable market of gamers that are looking, whether they realize it or not, for the Digital Promised Land of Roleplaying. Second, this market needs to be willing to purchase an iPad for this game or they need to have already purchased an iPad for other reasons (read: market penetration).

Third, there would have to be a company that would develop the platform and publish a game that targets this market. But just targeting the iPad wielding digital roleplaying pilgrims would not be enough. The game would have to be fucking awesome. So awesome, people are blinded by its divine light when they play it. What is more, this divine game would still have to be a roleplaying game (preferably one that meets my definition ^[10]), because that is the only way it could urge the rest of the tabletop roleplaying industry to embrace such a platform… which would truly make Apple’s tablet a messiah.

I do not see all the previously mentioned components becoming a reality; therefore, I do not believe the iPad is the Messiah of the Digital Promised Land of Roleplaying. At best, it is another herald that whispers in the ears of technophile gamers and Macphiles. Publishers looking at utilizing tablet devices to enhance or facilitate tabletop roleplaying would be best served at developing device agnostic platforms that can support any web browser.

Regardless of its impact on tabletop roleplaying, it’s sleek form factor and price point is an important harbinger for things to come in the world of web and document devices.

References

[1] Apple unveiled the multi-touch iPad tablet device Wednesday, January 27^th, 2010.

[2] The Apple iPad: It Will Change the Way We Play. The Core Mechanic. 2010-01-27.

[3] Is iPad a Game-Changer. ICv2. 2010-01-28.

[4] The Lenovo ThinkPad multi-touch tablet.

[5] Apple’s iBooks, a storefront/app that provides e-pub format books for purchase.

[6] The ASUS T91MT is a tablet netbook with an 8.9” multi-touch display for $484.

[7] MultiTouch Capabilities in Windows 7. MSDN Magazine. 2009-08-01.

[8] A Look at Apple’s Love for DRM. Ars Technica. 2010-01-04.

[9] The Always Innovating TouchBook is a touch screen tablet with an accelerometer.

[10] RPP 101: Defining Roleplaying Games. Mad Brew Labs. 2009-01-15.

Listening to: Machine Head – The More Things Change… – Take My Scars