Behind the Scenes: I Don’t Do Controversy
Confession. I’m not great at putting myself out there and sharing who I am as a person.
I believe there are a lot of people in this hobby who can relate.
And, these updates are typically meant to be ‘safe’ and not too personal because, at the end of the day, I am trying to sell something I make.
Anyway, getting to my point.
This update is the rare and more personal look into the behind-the-scenes of this project. And it feels important to say.
I don’t know if people have noticed but the hobby (and by hobby, I mean roleplaying games across the board but also mean all the peripheral ‘RPG lifestyle’ accretion from the last few years) is in our day and age weighted with unnecessary controversy.
And, I hate it.
For me, this hobby is the best hobby in the world. I can’t think of anything that comes close to all the things it offers.
It’s about — at 8 years old — getting Moldvay’s Basic Edition of Dungeons & Dragons for Christmas, then running my friends (mostly thieves, for some ignorant reason) through my poorly drawn dungeon.
And then — at 48 years old — running a new generation of teenage and tween-age adventurers through my more awesome dungeons (using the same Basic/Expert rule books from my childhood, mind you) and seeing the magic happen like it did for me as a kid.
It’s about — in my teens — making hundreds of superheroes with Champions or TSR’s Marvel Super Heroes RPG (then throwing them into a battle royale against every character in Chris Claremont’s X-Men). Or making mini-horror-fests with the 3rd edition of Call of Cthulhu (the Chaosium/Games Workshop one).
Or playing MERPS, or Car Wars (bolting on a squad-based dungeon game using DnD), or Star Wars (the good one, with the amazing book design). Or, any of the cool, chit-loaded war games (the one with fighter planes from World War I comes to mind, among others, with its title lost to me at the moment) available at the hobby shops at the time.
And, it’s also about getting an opportunity to work with other people who love this hobby with a similar obsession.
What this hobby is NOT about for me is getting drawn into an assumed controversy about who may or may not be involved with the creation of this project.
And it is definitely not about answering for accusations about who gets approved as a creator worthy of respect and who gets exiled as persona non grata (for reasons I am largely ignorant about, because I do not choose to spend my time making lists of people or harboring grievances).
However, for some people in the hobby (I believe it may be a small percentage), all discussion about my book must be centered around answering the accusation that the ‘wrong people’ are involved in its creation.
My non-compliance with answering the accusation — ignoring it initially, somehow translated into me affirming the accusation.
For the record (and if it wasn’t clear from the title page on the PDF preview offered for perusal), I am the sole creator of Raiders of R’lyeh: From the Tideless Sea.
In addition, there were a few consultants who I paid to read through the 560-page document for feedback, essentially acting as content editors. The RPGPundit was one of them (and the only one of the editors who is actually professionally known; the others were close friends who took time out of their day to offer outside opinions).
And frankly, one reason the RPGPundit was not more involved with this project is because the man is BUSY. I mean, he’s written like a dozen books between the first Raiders of R’lyeh and this expansion — all of them (including the excellent War of the Roses/Game of Thrones-like RPG Lion & Dragon, and the epic occult cold war RPG Invisible College) well-received.
And two, most of his feedback was that this book rocked (my words, not his, but the sentiment is the same) and he didn’t feel right taking money when he had not much more to offer.
So, although I would have liked to have more involvement from him, his involvement on this consisted of a perusal of the document, and a short email of suggestions which I put into a re-edit, followed by a very reasonable payment.
Anyway, this project is mine — a solo effort — outside of some feedback from playtesters and other sources offering critical commentary (a normal practice in game design).
However, the RPGPundit did contribute quite a bit of editorial feedback to the initial core rules developed in 2013. The consultation was extensive — and I may not be remembering exactly the time frame, but it felt like a good 3 to 6 months of dense back-and-forth emailing. He did not write any of the core rules or originate the setting, per se, but he helped tighten up mechanical ideas and expand the setting into more of a sandbox, and he contributed his expertise about the occult to the development of the occult magic rules. There may be more, but I’d have to find the emails.
In other words, his role in the influence of Raiders (core rules) was similar to (and I’m guessing less extensive than) his role in the influence of 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons.
So, for those concerned, his fingerprints are all over the core design of 5th edition.
Which, I guess, for some people, makes 5e DnD another game associated with the RPGPundit and also meriting disapproval.
So, here is my statement — last and final — about who is involved in this project.
And it is also a final statement about how proud I am of the final product.
For people who want to open up the discussion even further about who I thank for patronizing my Kickstarters or who may or may not be associated with this book which is ultimately a one-man operation — made by someone who just wants to make stuff and sell it to other people who love the hobby as much as I do — I am here to have fun and I want to engage with people who want the same.
So, I’m getting back to wrapping up the final touches on this book and getting it ready for the Raiders.
And then when that’s all done, taking a break and getting back to my Dungeons & Dragons campaign I’m running for teenagers. (And yes, I may be working on a commercial OSR/BX DnD project for the future.)
Quentin
You can back the project here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1375282718/raiders-of-rlyeh-from-the-tideless-sea-epic-horror-sandbox