S'mon, you're exactly the kind of guy we're trying to reach with OSRIC. Obviously there are some differences with AD&D, but you already have those books, and you need a copy for actually playing.

QuoteActually I have been doing this sort of thing on my blog. But its not a popular blog so it doesn't exactly get commentary. However I tend to post my stuff to forums where it gets a LOT more notice. But then I feel like an attention whore going LOOK AT MY STUFF. LOOK DAMN YOU.

At least in the old school community, the collaborative stuff goes in forums dedicated especially for it. OSRIC was essentially written this way. The Swords & Wizardry forum also has an active working group. Other private forums also exist. In most cases, it's not 1 person just posting material for criticism. Typically something is proposed, broken down in parts, and tackled cooperatively by everyone writing & editing the work together. Only when the thing is nearly finished do individuals take over layout, proofreading and editing. In some cases, even the artwork for a project comes together this way.

QuoteAnd might I ask which of the old school blogs tend to be the pundit/hypothetical talk? I've looked at lots of the big ones I know of (Grognardia, Jrients, this place's Pundit Grand Poobah, Monsters and Manuels) and I really haven't seen much of that.

I should clarify what I meant by punditry, and I'm not trying to point fingers or demean anyone's work. IMO, much of the blog-o-sphere is given over to exhaustive analysis, reviews, or fanboy gushing & ranting. Comparing blogs now, to say, the average free Geocities rpg site 5 or 10 years ago, and you'll find a whole lot more talk ABOUT games and a lot less practical gaming content. After the 'd20 revolution' most of the people who did that stuff suddenly decided they'd be better off selling the 15 page pdf on RPGnow. They're still around, yakking about games, but now they want a $1.50 for that homebrew pantheon.

Quote from: Kellri;272304At least in the old school community, the collaborative stuff goes in forums dedicated especially for it. OSRIC was essentially written this way. The Swords & Wizardry forum also has an active working group. Other private forums also exist. In most cases, it's not 1 person just posting material for criticism. Typically something is proposed, broken down in parts, and tackled cooperatively by everyone writing & editing the work together. Only when the thing is nearly finished do individuals take over layout, proofreading and editing. In some cases, even the artwork for a project comes together this way.

Speaking of, I am still trying to get some time to go over those fantastic maps you sent me.

To the point, KenHR is also working up some maps for use with his world of Lairea to use as a collaborative campaign over at the Citadel.  Along the lines of the 'Living...' campaigns, but we aren't going to let the RPGA touch it.    The whole thing will be up for grabs; pick a spot and lay out a town, city, village, dungeon, dragon cave, whatever, and submit your entry.  At some point, we will probably copy them out, clean up the listing and do some light editing, attribute it properly, and publish it as a pdf quarterly, monthly, or some schedule we have yet to decide.

It's a good time to be an olde schooler.  

The map Stormy refers to is slowly coming along...I'm committed to making this thing look really good!  I think it does so far; I'm basing the area off a rotated and slightly distorted Google Maps screenshot, so it's got a very naturalistic feel, not tied to the hexgrid at all.  I'm hoping folks will like it and be inspired!

Quote from: KenHR;272379The map Stormy refers to is slowly coming along...I'm committed to making this thing look really good!  I think it does so far; I'm basing the area off a rotated and slightly distorted Google Maps screenshot, so it's got a very naturalistic feel, not tied to the hexgrid at all.  I'm hoping folks will like it and be inspired!

And of course, those maps look fantastic, also.  

2009 looks to be the year where the olde school upswing starts to accellerate.  At least, I hope it is!

Quote from: Melan;271426Briefly

(Snipping discussion of development of C&C and OSRIC).

Why, Melan, that wasn't brief at all!

But thanks very much for the recap. I'm very interested in the old school/retro-clone movement, and somewhat interested in C&C, so I'm amazed that I somehow managed to miss all this. I get the impression that it's caused so much bad feelings that people on both sides of the schism tend not to like to talk about it; I can't think any other reason why Grognardia wouldn't have covered this before.

James Maliszewski (proprietor of Grognardia) wasn't around when this was going on (roughly 2004-2006) -- he only joined the online old-school D&D community last year -- so it's not that he's too close to the subject, rather that he's too far from it. If he tried to write about it, he'd invariably get people from both "sides" claiming he was leaving out crucial details or misrepresenting things (surely because he got his info from those bastards on the other side instead of from us...). No wonder he's chosen to steer clear of it.

QuoteNo wonder he's chosen to steer clear of it.

Not to mention that's it's a real creative drag. When you're tied up in a running ideological skirmish it's real hard to write anything worth a shit. Once you step back and cool off, it's easier to just bury the haters in a flood of content. It's one thing to just fume and rant in jealousy, it's another (much more satisfying) thing to be able to hold up something concrete, like OSRIC, and say THIS is what I mean, now what are you gonna do about it?

Quote from: Kellri;272860... it's another (much more satisfying) thing to be able to hold up something concrete, like OSRIC, and say THIS is what I mean, now what are you gonna do about it?

I suspect that most C&C players would simply reply: "Nifty!  Thanks for the cool OSRIC stuff that I can use in my C&C campaigns!"

Quote from: Akrasia;272970I suspect that most C&C players would simply reply: "Nifty!  Thanks for the cool OSRIC stuff that I can use in my C&C campaigns!"

The sane ones. But there's always that fringe-element who will instead send you a "citizen's cease & desist"

By the looks of things over on the TLG boards, they're about ready to start sending each other Cease & Desist letters. It's insidiae I tell 'ya, downright insidiae.

Quote from: Kellri;273118By the looks of things over on the TLG boards, they're about ready to start sending each other Cease & Desist letters. It's insidiae I tell 'ya, downright insidiae.

I must've missed it.  To be fair, I'm not a prolific poster over there.

Okay, so blah blah blah and back-and-forth.  Here, I'll end this:

No.  Castles & Crusades does not "fix" Old D&D.  This is because Old D&D is not broken.  C&C just gives you a different way to play the same-old, and if you don't like it then the flowers will still grow.

Quote from: Kellri;273118By the looks of things over on the TLG boards, they're about ready to start sending each other Cease & Desist letters. It's insidiae I tell 'ya, downright insidiae.

:confused:

I don't get it.

Arduin fixed old D&D.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!;273142Okay, so blah blah blah and back-and-forth.  Here, I'll end this:

No.  Castles & Crusades does not "fix" Old D&D.  This is because Old D&D is not broken.  C&C just gives you a different way to play the same-old, and if you don't like it then the flowers will still grow.

Yep.

I've use a houseruled version to run old TSR modules and Dungeon Crawl Classics. It works just fine, and none of the older games on my shelf feel jealous.