The Designer Monologues

Interesting.

For all the hubbub surrounding 4th Edition, and the constant internet threads surrounding "controversy" of publishers choosing to produce compatible releases without signing the GSL....

After the first week of sales of our 4E product, Scourge of the Rat-Men, I have to say that I'm disappointed.

The PDF is moving sluggishly (a hair less than we see for the first week of a Superlink release, in fact), and we've sold only a bare handful of print copies. Not what I expected, at all. I wasn't banking on cornering the market, but I figured being pretty much the first available third-party 4E adventure would have led to a sales spike of some sort....

Publishers thinking that anything *remotely* like the boom of the 3rd Edition days is going to happen with 4E should seriously rethink their plans.

Kenzer & Co. have announced a 4E version of Kingdoms of Kalamar -- which is being released without the GSL and without the special D&D license they had with WOTC for their 3rd Edition stuff.

Over in their forums, David Kenzer writes:

".... we no longer have an agreement with Wizards. Why? Is there some "magic" restriction in IP law that restricts people from making new creative material that doesn't use any TMs, patents or copyrights of another company?"
[...]"That is not copyright infringement. Copyright infringement is basing your work on someone else's creative expression. Rules are not creative expression. Also, it is not "based" on their rules. It happens to "work with" their rules.

Should every programmer that writes a program that works with a computer have to pay the owner of the OS it runs on? I think not. I could be wrong, but fortunately, the US and International copyright laws agree with me."

Hopefully, this should help demonstrate to J. Random Gamer that existing copyright is valid, and the GSL is not an absolute requirement for support of 4E.



In other news, Louis Porter picks through philreed and my leftovers. Aw, bless.

I picked it up. He spends nearly a full page (of the 6 1/2 pages of actual content) arguing his justification of why he's covering topics which Phil and I did years ago. Ouch.

More proof of the Mainstreaming of Geek: Design Toscano has the following garden sculpture for sale for 90 bucks:

The DNC just announced that Barack Obama's acceptance speech for the Democratic Presidential Nomination is being moved. They're not going to do it in the Pepsi Center (where the rest of the convention is being held).

They're doing it in the 76,000-seat Mile High Stadium.


Meanwhile, John McCain will accept his party's grudging acceptance of his nomination in front of a green backdrop, as he blinks uncomfortably in front of the teleprompters with a rictus "grin" on his face, thrilling the crowd of dozens.


Heh. You almost feel sorry for the Republicans. Almost.

Since tomorrow is Safe Non-Threatening Rebellion By Blowing Up Fireworks Even Though They're Technically Illegal In Many Municipalities Day, and most Americans have the day off.....that sorta makes today Friday.

So, this week's music:

First up, the only vaguely themed entry. A look at the immigrant's experience -- specifically Irish expats living in NYC (and bearing no relation to the James Brown track of the same name): Black 47 - "Livin' in America."

Caught The Wicker Man on the telly a few days back. Not the laughable abomination that is the Nick Cage totally-missing-the-point "remake", but the brilliant 1973 original that mixed mystery, horror, sociology and...oddly...musical. I've always loved the music in that film, and so I finally tracked down the soundtrack. Here's my favorite track, the opening theme -- based on a Bobby Burns poem: Paul Giovanni - "Corn Rigs."

Last weekend, the_themiscyran and I also saw Wanted, and loved it. Great cast, John Woo-on-Meth bullet-fu...and a score by Danny Elfman, including a brand new single from the former Oingo Boingo frontman! Danny Elfman - "The Little Things."

A track from steampunk band Abney Park's latest album. Extremely goofy, but I like it bunches: Abney Park - "Airship Pirate."

One of my favorite tracks from the previous decade: James - "Laid."

Lastly, for those of you who caught the Euro2008 final last Sunday, this is the Official Song (tm) that was peformed during the opening ceremony. I found myself really liking it, so I went hunting the next day and tracked it down. Enrique Eglesias - "Can You Hear Me (Euro 2008)."

OK, I lied. I'll close with another sorta-kinda holiday themed track. An absolute cheese-fest from 1986, but a song that never fails to cheer me up when I hear it, mostly out of memories of the film where it was used (Running Scared): Michael McDonald - "Sweet Freedom."

Enjoy, folks.

Here's a question for my fellow Football (soccer) fans:

Now that we've entered the long drought until August, I'm interested in feeding my addiction by reading. What websites do you recommend? (Or magazines, for that matter -- Borders and other big bookstores import a few, like FourFourTwo)

Generally, I've been reading the website of the Fox Soccer Channel, but it's not that great.

Suggestions?

Can someone explain to me how Gen. Wesley Clark saying that McCain's military experience isn't neccessarily a qualification to be president is "attacking McCain's war record"?

Clark points out that McCain's 40-year-old military experience (getting shot down in a fighter plane) doesn't translate into any experience of executive responsibility during wartime. He points out, in response to a direct question, that McCain's sole command was of a peacetime training squadron. He goes out of his way to say "I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and millions of others in the armed forces, as a prisoner of war."

But says that the heroism doesn't neccessarily translate into a presidential qualification.

That's an attack?

That's "demeaning", "belittling", "swift-boating" or any number of the other things I've heard from various media outlets today?


What the fuck?

The first trailer for the new Bond movie will be running with Hancock later this week:



Quantum Of Solace -- coming November 7th. I'll be there, opening night, as usual.

Not a long list this week -- things have been insanely busy, and I haven't really had the time to search.

First up, for The Minion and for everyone supporting Germany in Sunday's Euro2008 final, here's a novelty tune currently playing on German radio, urging the team to "bring it home." Oliver Pocher - "Bringt Ihn Heim."

One of the new tracks from Coldplay's latest album -- I was drawn in by the title, I'll admit. Makes me want to dust off the eyeliner and Black #1, a bit. Coldplay - "Cemeteries of London."

A brilliant piece of verbal dexterity and turntable skills...Blackilicious feat. Cut Chemist - "Chemical Calisthenics."

We finish up with two new mash-ups. The first is less recognizable to most folks, but I love how it turned out. It mixes Nine Inch Nails "Hand That Feeds" with Roisin Murphy's "You Know Me Better" -- PingPong - "You Know The Hand That Feeds You."

And lastly, an absolutely amazing mix of Faith No More, Queen and AC-DC. I *love* this. DJ Lobsterdust - "Epic Black Rock."

There you go. Enjoy.

The game is over (Spain, 3-0), and I'm back to work -- but not before I waste time with the latest meme.

Rules: Post 3 things you've done that you believe nobody else on your F-list has done. See if anybody else responds with "I've done that."


Three things I've done:

1) Served on a fundraising board with John F. Kennedy, Jr. (Briefly -- in fact, odd story: the day he died I was scheduled to meet with his staff to discuss his intentions to get even more involved.)

2) Sang harmony for Julie Caitlin Brown -- at her request.

3) Provided expert testimony in an Intellectual Property lawsuit.

Not sure how I missed this before.

Watching the semifinal Euro 2008 game between Russia and Spain -- and I spot a tattoo on Spanish striker Fernando Torres' left arm. I'm so used to disliking Torres (he plays for Liverpool in the EPL) that I never noticed: The boy's a GEEK!

Check the tat:



Yup. "Fernando" spelled out in Tolkien's tengwar elvish.

Love it.

"....Because you have to be asleep to believe it."

George Carlin passed away, as you all know by now. Expect that everybody and their dog will be talking about his "7 Words" sketch, his "toilet humor", his language.

What I doubt anybody will talk about is how, over the past couple of decades, his content began to drift -- becoming less and less stand-up comedy and more and more direct, to-the-point social criticism. He recognized that he was in a position to say these things because he had an audience, and the jokes became much less important to him.

So, my favorite bit of Carlin provides the quote that begins this post. His absolutely spot-on editorial (because let's face it, that's what it was) about those who OWN this country:



Rest in Peace, Rufus.

I'm sad to say that I've seen more than one of my fellow liberals decrying Obama's "broken promise" or "flip-flop" on public financing for the campaign.

Sadly, this is another one of those media-driven narratives that doesn't quite match the reality of the situation -- and I'm sad to see that otherwise intelligent progressives are allowing the debate to be framed in this way, and buying into the line.

Back when he was asked about public financing, Obama said "Yes" -- and then went on to say:

"My plan requires both major party candidates to agree on a fundraising truce, return excess money from donors, and stay within the public financing system for the general election... If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election."

By all accounts, he did pursue that agreement, but no agreement was reached. Whether he did so "aggressively" can be questioned, but not that it was not tried.

McCain, on the other hand, was locked into public financing by some extremely shady (and technically illegal) manuevering, whereby he took out a loan for his campaign, using his eventual later public financing as collateral.

One of Obama's conditions for public financing was a pledge to reign in the 527s -- groups who could spend unlimited money in advertising in support of their candidate. He got MoveOn to close down their 527 group, for example. McCain, however, refused on this point, saying he had "no control over such groups."

So Obama said "screw you, then."

I have no problem with this.


The media-created tempest in a teapot, where they're all blustering about how terrible this is, how he's going to "buy the Presidency," etc. -- ignores one basic fact:

Obama is funded by 1.5 million donors -- each giving an average donation of $91.

McCain, on the other hand, leads all other senators, and all other Presidential candidates in the 2007-08 election cycle, in contributions from the oil and gas industry.


Which source of funding do you find more harmful to the process?



This is just another example of the double-standard that we're going to see growing. It's OK for Republicans, but when the shoe is on the other foot, it's a horrible injustice that must be covered in the news 24-7. If Obama wins, expect there to be huge scandals about overreaching Executive authority, too -- from the same folks who stayed silent --or actively helped-- during the Bush power grab.

The only way they don't get away with it is if the American people are smarter than that, and refuse to fall for it. Do your part. Make people smarter.

I posted this announcement on the Adamant LJ, but that's announcement-only, so I figured that I'd repeat it here:




Adamant Entertainment's previously-announced product line, Venture 4th, is being expanded! Not only will the line offer printable game tiles for use in fantasy campaigns, but starting in July it will also feature adventures usable with 4E!

The first Venture 4th adventure, Scourge of the Ratmen-- for characters of levels 1-3-- will be released in early July, in PDF and in Print. The overall Venture 4th line will launch this week with the release of Ice River Battle--a set of game tiles depicting a unique encounter location, available at RPGNow and DriveThruRPG.

This July -- Declare Your Independence! Venture 4th!




Freelancers interested in contributing to the Venture 4th line should contact Adamant Entertainment at submissions@adamantentertainment.com.

Here we go....

For the solstice, to kick off summer, one of my favorite tracks from Springsteen's latest album, Magic: Bruce Springsteen - "Girls In Their Summer Clothes."

Another song I associate with summer, since I saw these guys at the Guinness Fleadh in NYC in late June 1999 (and for the edification of The Minion, who tells me that her future college roommate is apparently a big fan): The Saw Doctors - "N17."

Caught the Tony Awards on TV recently, where In the Heights won best musical. I've heard people calling it "RENT for the new century" -- it's the story of a few days in the diverse neighborhood of Washington Heights, and mixes latin music, soul and hip-hop. I immediately grabbed the cast recording. It's brilliant. Here is the number they performed at the awards -- a track where the neighborhood discovers via the newspaper that somebody in the city won the Lotto (New York Lottery): In the Heights Original Broadway Cast - "96,000."

Duffy is a new singer out of the UK -- same sort of retro-soul vibe as Amy Winehouse, with slightly less talent, but massively less train-wreck-drug-abuse factor. Good stuff: Duffy - "Mercy."

PONI HOAX is a french electronic act, who are obviously influenced by the early 80s New Romantics and Italo-disco sounds. This is a fun one: PONI HOAX - "Antibodies."

New singer out of Brooklyn, whose sound mixes 90s neo-soul, 20s jazz, and 70s funk and rock. There aren't enough O's in Smooooooth to describe this one. Maiysha - "Wanna Be."

This is one that I've posted before, but it's been stuck in my head all week long, and I've been listening to it daily. So, to exorcise the brainworm: Mademoiselle K - "Ça Me Vexe."

There you go. Hope you like.

First of the elimination quarterfinal games in Euro2008 was today -- Portugal vs Germany.

I was rooting for Portugal, who played brilliantly in their initial games. Germany, on the other hand, was lacklustre and squeeked through to this round.

Final score: 3-2 Germany.

Portugal couldn't BUY a goal. Christiano Ronaldo, the best player in the world, had a single assist, and no goals. The Germans, who couldn't play well at all in their initial 3 games, suddenly came alive.

BOO.

Tonight in downtown Lawrence is the latest installment of the Film Noir Outdoor Film Festival. They're scheduled to show Notorious, projected on the side of a parking garage, with free seating in the adjacent empty lot.

Naturally, tonight we're expected to get thunderstorms.


BOO.

This one may just sneak under the radar of the American people -- I doubt the media will cover it extensively, as they're too busy giving us 24-hour coverage of the floods, the election, and the death of Tim Russert (I've seen so much about him on the news recently, I started to wonder if he was, in fact, a Missing White Woman).

It seems that the original partners of the Iraq Petroleum Company -- Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP -- along with a number of smaller companies... are now about to be awarded no-bid contracts to operate Iraq's oil fields, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationlization under Saddam Hussein.

Interesting, eh? The Iraqi Oil Ministry, which is still packed with American "advisers", gave them these contracts -- ignoring offers from over 40 other companies (including Russian, Chinese and Indian firms) in a no-bid process, which is extremely unusual for the industry.

So a brand new "democracy", at a time when oil is at its highest prices, and could have fetched amazingly high bids from any company for the job......"just happened" to hand it's extremely rich oil fields over to the very same companies that were driven out by Saddam.

Mission Accomplished. Heckuva job, Georgie.

Daily Word Count: 509

Favorite Passage:

With a piercing howl, the locomotive belched smoke and steam that trailed out behind the train, swirling and flowing like a great mane around the head of the cast iron temple-lion that formed the entire front of the engine. The trains of the Western Periphery & Frontier Rail were not the newest machines, nor in the best condition. The flags fluttering from the engine’s wheelhouse were tattered by the wind and faded from perhaps too many runs in the Western sun, and the paint on the passenger and cargo cars was worn and dusty, but the engine was kept in top working order, and the temple-lion figurehead on the prow of the locomotive was free of rust and polished to a dull sheen. The crews of the WP&F traditionally believed that the lion represented the guardian spirit of the train, and like all lions, it was a proud creature, so it was kept in good order, for luck on the journey.

Notes on the Day: Back at work on Far West (in novel form, instead of RPG). Not a lot of new words written (as the Daily Count testifies), but a fairly large chunk of older words deleted or rearranged for later use.

Given the amount of time that has passed since I last stepped into this particular world, I found it easy to get into the mix of wuxia and western -- which is a good sign for continued progress. Stay tuned.

Out of the office today, getting back to work on the fiction-writing. The release of 4th Edition D&D has given my brain the excuse it needed to shift my priorities, in the name of slowing down Adamant work a bit while I see how the new dynamic shakes out in the market.

Various things, while I clear my head:

More on 4th Edition: On my initial reading, my view was pretty positive. The more I got into it, though, the more things I found about it that bugged me. The biggest culprit so far: the new encounter system. Whereas the ease of coming up with encounters (when compared to 3.X) is nifty, what bugs me is that it sacrifices any sense of narrative sense in favor of setting up the next collection of points for the players to smack. The Monster Manual might as well be called "The Wandering Experience Point Manual." The new core assumption of encounter groups is the problem.

Take for example, the traditional wildnerness encounter -- the Owlbear. According to the entry in the monster manual, a common example encounter featuring this beastie will now feature an owlbear, encountered with two satyrs. Buh? Why would that be? Doesn't matter, as long as the XPs total up.... on to the next level boss encounter!

Bugs me. At this point, I'm waiting to see the License (which we're STILL waiting for), to see how much room there will be to improve upon or correct those things about the new game that I find irritating (and which, I suspect, a lot of gamers of a similar age and experience will also find annoying).


Phat Birthday LEWT: Had a pretty good birthday. The choicest bits of loot: Firefly: the Official Companion Volumes One and Two (very cool, featuring the shooting scripts for the entire series); a copy, courtesy of gamera_spinning, of the new Mongoose version of Traveller, written by mytholder (excellent work!) -- based on the classic original Traveller rules system; and the biggie: a black , 160GB iPod classic, as a combined birthday and father's day present from the_themiscyran, The Minion, and the In-Laws. WOW. Room enough on that sucker for my entire music collection, almost 3 times over. WOOT!


Quandry: Comfort or Satisfaction? The question comes up with regards to living arrangements -- after our current lease ends (in about another year or so), do we buy a house here in Lawrence, where we'd be comfortable financially.....or do we return to NYC, where we'd really prefer to be, but would be less comfortable financially? Boo.


Fiction: I'm thinking of taking a page from everflame and posting work-in-progress updates on my fiction: Word count, Nifty Thing I Got To Write About, Favorite Turn of Phrase, etc. Not only would it be a way for people to get a peek at the progress (if you're interested), but even that small degree of "audience" might serve as a prompt to get something done every day.


Speaking of which, back to work.