This time Last Year over at the GR fora...

[RPGPundit]

So just before I left for Buenos Aires last week, I had gone to the True20 forums at Green Ronin, and decided to write a comment in a thread for the first time in a couple of weeks, since the whole thread about post count.  Only, to my surprise, my account was blocked.

And I was surprised: I had received neither a PM nor an email message indicating that I was going to be banned, and in fact some of my recent communications with Nicole Lindroos seemed to make it pretty clear that I was not being banned. Naturally, I found all this very curious.

I sent off an e-mail to Nicole, and she wrote back in a curt letter confirming I was banned from the Green Ronin fora.  After expressing my surprise to her, she mailed back that it wasn't her action but she supported it.

Now hold the phone; I was under the impression that she was the moderator of the forum, if it wasn't her decision, who's decision was it? Chris Pramas? Steve Kenson?

No; apparently, and very much to my surprise, Green Ronin has taken on some non-employees to act as mods for the forums, and one of those mods first visible acts was to ban me, without so much as a notification.  And Nicole "supported" this.

What Nicole wouldn't do, it seems, is actually reveal who these secret fascists are.  Not only was their action of banning me clearly retaliatory, but these "secret mods" are clearly a gang of fucking cowards who don't have the balls to tell me to my face what they think.

Nicole's a coward too, of course. She wasn't willing to ban me herself, but is quite willing to hide behind the authority she has conveyed to non-GR-employee mods, and yet lacks the courage to tell people who her choices of mods are.  What a neat little way to stifle dissent and wash your hands of the whole affair at the same time.

So much for gratitude.  My last mail to her was an inquiry as to whether this means I shouldn't be expecting a complimentary copy of the True20 print edition when it comes out; and her lack of reply to me seems to indicate that I shouldn't hold my breath for that.

I really expected little else.  Its an absolute fucking tragedy that the most brilliant innovation in D20 should have come out of a company that is absolutely incompetent at managing it. A company run by a gang of mush-headed idiots who's stubborn interest in their own political agendas would have allowed them to miss out on the best innovation in D20 unless people beat their heads in with pressure to move forward.  And let's cut the crap, Steve Kenson is not some manly die-hard conservative who's only writing Blue Rose for kicks, neither is Nicole Lindroos a thatcherite; both of them were so stubbornly determined to back Blue Rose over True20 for as long as they did because they are both radically commited to the kind of political ideas that underly Romantic Fantasy, namely radical feminism and nanny-state socialism, not to mention a deeply misguided effort to address "gay issues" in the RPG community.  They wanted to ram these politics down people's throats so badly, they were almost willing to miss out on the fact that True20 was going to be a huge success.
And now, the desperate effort to re-write history; to try to make it seem like True20 was the plan all along.  That's fine; Nicole & co. know the real truth, and I know the real truth, and now you know it too: True20 apart from Blue Rose was completely unthought of until people started clamouring for it, and it was deeply opposed by the GR gang until the screws were turned on them in the form of threatening to release competing product.  It was my idea to start the True20 boards, and Nicole resisted any effort to make it visible, trying her hardest to bury the forum in the boonies of the GR fora, privately sending me attack PMs when I tried to argue that there needed to be a link to the True20 forum in the "noble assembly" section. Of course, these days, that link exists, after she vehemently argued with me that it was unnecessary.

Nicole and co., we know that you had no wish to release True20 as its own game, and this very blog documents the evolution of the massive lobbying effort that had to take place before you finally agreed to release the PDF, after repeatedly denying that you had any plans to do so.

And we both, we all, know the truth of what is GOING to happen also.  Blue rose will fail, it already has.  If you continue to release books for the BR setting it will be at a loss, and out of a stubborn desire to create the illusion that anything other than a tiny and radical minority of gamers are interested in gaming in a nanny-state utopia.
And True20, the game you resisted so hard, will go on to become your flagship product, and a rousing success, ASSUMING you don't shoot it in the kneecaps by chaining it to unorthodox, ideological, or too-bizzare-to-be-playable settings (and you very well still might, you have yet to announce your setting choices and I for one have zero trust in your judgements, if BR is any indication).

And you, and I, and now everyone else know who you should be thanking, rather than distancing yourselves from.

But hey, like I said, I expected nothing better from you.  You no doubt despise my attitude, and despise even more the fact that I was right, and you were wrong.  That's understandable. And given the ethical spinelessness of your ideologies of choice, its likewise no surprise that you wouldn't be man enough to concede your errors, but would rather lash out at those who prove you wrong.  Epictatus had pointed it out 1900 years ago: "you can prove an ignorant man wrong, but he will resist your efforts to show him wrong and once proved wrong he will hate you rather than thank you".

So, goodbye to Green Ronin and good riddance. I only lament and fear for the future of True20, a great system that is likely to end up being mismanaged grossly in the hands of people who never intended to use it in the first place, abused like an unwanted child.

RPGPundit November 22nd 2005

[Mr. Analytical]

You really are highly skilled at making enemies for yourself aren't you?

[Sosthenes]

So, goodbye to Green Ronin and good riddance. I only lament and fear for the future of True20, a great system that is likely to end up being mismanaged grossly in the hands of people who never intended to use it in the first place, abused like an unwanted child.

RPGPundit November 22nd 2005

I'm really glad you were wrong.

[Silverlion]

I'm really glad you were wrong.

You know I think True 20 is succeeding (because the rules are so good) in spite of Green Ronin decisions (considering the relatively poor opinion of most the settings in the core book...for example, not just me either)

[Sosthenes]

Well, maybe those _are_ the best settings GR got in their search...

And yeah, nothing special. I browsed through the Worlds of Adventure book recently, discovered they got yet another asian setting, looked for the weapon page, discovered yet another case of Katana envy and put the book back on the shelf.

The bestiary though is very, very deceptive. Looks like a straight conversion of the SRD monsters, but it has a few gems hidden in there...

[JongWK]

The Bestiary is gold. The settings... not so much. If anything, you can grab their special rules for your own setting.

[Sosthenes]

The Freeport Companion sounds very promising, too. They hinted at another magic system. Which would be the 532st for Green Ronin...

[ConanMK]

Glad to hear you guys liked the Bestiary!  

I think it just took a while for the fine folks at GR to realize they had a big hit on their hands. Now that hundreds of fans have voted for True20 with their pocket books, I hope to see some strong support for the game in the future... and I hope to be writing some of that support material myself.

I believe the folks at GR know what they are doing.

Opinions on the setting search winners vary depending on who you ask, but the search served its purpose. It got a number of other publishers producing additional support for True20 without creating the same glut of material the OGL initially produced for d20. I doubt any one person will like all or even most of the setting search winners, but between those settings, Blue Rose, Freeport and Damnation Decade most gamers will probably find something they like. If not, I expect GR will continue to support True20 with generic toolkit type supplements.

[RPGPundit]

I think it just took a while for the fine folks at GR to realize they had a big hit on their hands.

This here? Understatement of the fucking century.

Now that hundreds of fans have voted for True20 with their pocket books, I hope to see some strong support for the game in the future... and I hope to be writing some of that support material myself.

I wouldn't be too confident about that.

I believe the folks at GR know what they are doing.

I'd be even less confident about that.
They've been either bullishly ignorant or willfully obstinate about True20 at every turn, apparently out of resentment over the failure of their preferred game, Blue Rose.
Now, its almost like they're engaged in a titanic struggle with their own crapulence, contrasting the desire to make money with the desire to produce pretentious inferior game settings.
With people like Nikchick and Steve Kenson and John Snead involved, its a total crapshoot which side will win out at the end.

RPGPundit

[Aos]

True20 is a great system- but the book is poorly organized- at best. The damage/recovery systems are poorly explained and the index is a sadder than a dead clown. And, no offense, but saying that "opinions on the setting search vary depending on who you ask" is puting a crazy level of positive spin on the issue. Judging by the reviews I've read and the people I've spoken to I don't believe that "most" gamers will find what they are looking for in the published setting, to say otherwise seems a bit self serving and more than a little patronizing.

[ConanMK]

True20 is a great system- but the book is poorly organized- at best. The damage/recovery systems are poorly explained and the index is a sadder than a dead clown. And, no offense, but saying that "opinions on the setting search vary depending on who you ask" is puting a crazy level of positive spin on the issue. Judging by the reviews I've read and the people I've spoken to I don't believe that "most" gamers will find what they are looking for in the published setting, to say otherwise seems a bit self serving and more than a little patronizing.

No offense taken.

I did not mean to come across as "patronizing," I was merely saying that I think the setting search served its purpose, to get other publishers involved. Which it did. I myself am not usually one for published settings, but I do like Freeport quite a bit (Sosthenes seems to share my anticipation), and Caliphate Nights looks interesting.

I understand that many people on this forum thought the setting search winners were "crapulent." That is fine by me, I'm certainly not here to sell a setting to anyone who isn't interested. I am personally more interested in True20 as a toolkit for making your own monsters/equipment/setting.

No setting is going to be as rich or as rewarding as one that you have carefully crafted yourself.

I would even go as far as to say most published settings (for ANY RPG system) are crap, but I acknowledge that while I dislike most of them there are others who seem to enjoy them quite a bit.

[Aos]

The setting search may well have served it's purpose from GR standpoint, I wont quibble over that-  but the purpose of the people who buy the book is to play the game, and if the sadness that takes up the final 71 pages of the book is any indication of what can be expected from published settings in the future (and why would I or anyone else think otherwise?) I don't think anyone should get too excited about the involvement of other publishers regardless of which side of the transaction they are on.
I'll agree that most published RPG settings are not so great- but the settings in the True20 book (except for Caliphate Nights, which doesn't really interest me, personally, but is still pretty solid) don't even approach the fairly low bar set by extant RPG settings.
That space in the book could have been used in a far better way- tool kits for creating one's own genre setting, for instance.
Keep in mind that I really dig True20- it's all I use these days and I don't see that changing anytime soon, but based on what I've seen so far I can't imagine spending another dime on books (the Beastary may well be solid, buy it is of no real use to me, as I tend to create all my own creatures, anyway).

[ConanMK]

That space in the book could have been used in a far better way- tool kits for creating one's own genre setting, for instance.

I will have to agree with you there.

the Beastary may well be solid, buy it is of no real use to me, as I tend to create all my own creatures, anyway.

F.Y.I. It does have a chapter on creating your own creatures. I'm not sure if that alone would make the whole book worth buying, particularly if you are already creating your own critters without any problems and don't want the rest, but it is in there. From the sound of it though I'd say you probably don't need it.

[Aos]

F.Y.I. It does have a chapter on creating your own creatures. I'm not sure if that alone would make the whole book worth buying, particularly if you are already creating your own critters without any problems and don't want the rest, but it is in there. From the sound of it though I'd say you probably don't need it.

I am tempted, but poor.

[ConanMK]

That space in the book could have been used in a far better way- tool kits for creating one's own genre setting, for instance.

Tool kits for creating ones own genre setting? Your wish is my command:
http://greenronin.com/catalog/grr1708