Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Money for WotC

Much as it pains me to admit it, I have just now...this very minute...transferred some of my hard earned ducats to Wizards of the Coast via DriveThruRPG. Yes, as a publisher of DTRPG, I realize that not ALL of the money will go to WotC, but even funding them in a minor fashion raises a bit of bile to mouth.

Still, it can't be helped. I needed a copy of the B/X Expert Rulebook for reference and my copy is 7000 miles northwest of my current location. $4.99 was a small (if irritating) price to pay to add the PDF to my hard drive, considering that I honestly have zero idea when will be the next time I make it back to Seattle. Hopefully before July, but I won't hold my breath.

Should have brought my copy to Paraguay.
Some might (perhaps) be wondering what was so immediately necessary that I needed to get my hands on a copy of the book. What could be so all-fired important? Welllll...as I mentioned last Friday, there is this little B/X Campaign Challenge thing going on and, well, I've got an idea for an offering. No, it's not a great idea, but it's an idea, and I'm in the mood to nurture such a project at the moment. Tuesdays are still poor days for me to actually do any writing, but at least I can download the reference materials I need (I already have my copy of Moldvay with me...I refuse to travel anywhere without it...), and start working up an outline.

But really, really, truly...I don't plan on spending too much time on this project. "6.4 months" seems waaaay too long to devote to something that's only supposed to be 64 pages long (assuming it includes random tables and empty spaces for illustrations). 64 days is probably a better timeline for me...I mean, I should be able to write more than a page a day. That would give me a hard deadline of March 29th, or March 30th if I start my count tomorrow. Hell, if I throw out Leap Year, I suppose I could just give myself till the end of March...that seems easy enough.

Sure. End of March.

Updates will follow, of course. Hmmm...maybe I'll do my own illustrations for a change. That should be...well, terrible. But, hey: New Year, new challenges, right?

Sure...why not?
; )

6 comments:

  1. You're a good man, Charlie Brown. The more, the merrier!

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  2. "even funding [WotC] in a minor fashion raises a bit of bile to mouth"

    Why? Seriously, not trolling...

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    Replies
    1. @ Alex:

      Didn't think you were.
      : )

      It was a snarky, off-the-cuff comment on my part. In the past, I've encouraged folks to create their own works rather than give money to WotC, and certainly to not support their constant cash grabs (recycling the same old ideas and adventures with each new edition of D&D, etc.).

      However, WotC's recent policy of making old edition books available (at least as PDFs) is both cool and laudable (if still another way to milk the cash cow). I'm just very begrudging of giving the company kudos (or dollars). But that's MY hang-up.

      As I've derided others in the past for being suckers and shills for WotC, I suppose I feel a little self-derision is necessary when I find myself putting more gold in their coffers.
      ; )

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  3. If you own a hard copy already, don't you think that it would be okay to download the PDF for free off of Pirate Bay?

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  4. Well, despite what I might have implied on the blog, I'm pretty "anti-pirate" in general. If I'm going to actually use something (for play or design purposes) I prefer to pay for it...even if I already own the hard copy (or in this case, TWO hard copies).

    Regardless, $5 is a pretty small price to pay. My coffee drinks in Seattle cost more.

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  5. I'm considering buying the Basic and Expert PDFs myself, so I can print them out and have them bound into a more durable volume (like Timothy Brannan did). And I feel that, even if WotC is guilty of cash-grabbing, someone did go to the trouble to scan, clean up, and OCR-ize these rulebooks. Five bucks is the least I can do to thank them for their efforts.

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