On one of mailing lists I’m on, someone asked me if I was confident that 4thh edition D&D; would revive the d20 market. I’ve been getting a lot of questions like this since Gen Con, so I figured I might as well post my answer here. To whit:

I don’t have enough info to have confidence in 4E yet. It may create an opportunity for third party publishers, but I don’t think it’ll presage a return to a real boom time of 2000-2001. Too many gamers and too many retailers were burned by shitty products last time around. I think gamers will be approaching 4E cautiously and that’s probably double true of third party material. For this to really work for a company like mine a lot of things need to happen:

1) The new rules need to be good.
2) WotC needs to convince the lion’s share of their fanbase to make the switch.
3) The new rules need to be more successful at recruiting new roleplayers.
4) The d20 brand needs a new iteration that sheds the bad connotations the original took on.
5) WotC needs to get us the new rules in time to learn them well enough to design good product and to make strategic plans that can capitalize on the game’s launch.
6) WotC needs to do something to prevent a second d20 glut.

In other words a lot of things need to go right for this to work for third party publishers and to date none of the crucial questions have been answered.

Friday night Nik and I went to see Speaker Speaker at the Crocodile Café. They are a good local band, and Nik really likes them. We saw them a couple of times and then for the last year or so every time they’ve played we’ve had something else going on or been out of town. Not only were we free on Friday, but also Kate was up at her dad’s so I made sure we took advantage of the opportunity. We didn’t get advance tickets, since Speaker Speaker was playing with (of all things) a Pixies cover band and I didn’t figure we’d have any trouble. As we were walking over to the Croc, Nik was feeling certain we’d somehow be screwed out of seeing them. I pointed out that in nine years of going to bands in NYC I almost always just walked up at show time and got in. So we show up and pay and head inside. Turns out we are the first people there. We then spend over an hour sitting on this bench as people dribble in. When Speaker Speaker started, there were about a dozen people in the audience. This grew to perhaps thirty by the end of their set, which was energetic despite the size of the crowd. More folks arrived for the Pixies cover band, but after the opener of “Debaser” we had our fill and left.

Yesterday I picked up a copy of the Seattle Weekly and it had a story in it about how the Crocodile is going through hard times. The owner was married to Peter Buck for a long time, so there was always REM royalties to fall back on. They got divorced though and the club has been struggling the past four years. The neighborhood it’s in, Belltown, has been gentrifying rapidly and a grungy rock club is not exactly in step with the new crowd. Other venues, like Neumo’s and the Tractor, are also siphoning off the Croc’s audience. It is possible that the place will end up going out of business. That would be strange. I don’t go there all that often, as places like El Corazon and the Funhouse tend to book more of my kind of bands, but I have a soft spot for the Croc. The first month I was in Seattle after the big move from the East Coast I went to see the 5,6,7,8s there (several years later they would appear in Kill Bill, Volume 1). While the Crocodile isn’t as historic as CBGB, it’d still be a shame if it closed down. If the Speaker Speaker show is any indication, I can see why things aren’t so rosy right now.

On Sunday Erik Mona came by Chez Ronin to do a guest spot on the podcast. We chatted for over an hour about the announcement of 4th edition and what that means for the OGL and d20. I thought folks might enjoy hearing two of the most prominent d20 publishers talk about recent events, amongst other gaming nerdery. The podcast is now available on the Green Ronin website and on I-Tunes for your listening pleasure.

I must say that I’m enjoying doing the podcast. It’s a new challenge and I’m learning a lot as I do each episode. I was initially planning to try to do one every month, but so far I’m turning them out faster than that. It’d be great to do it weekly, but I don’t think I have the time to do that at the moment. Hopefully, folks are enjoying the show.

This is one of those weeks where I have something going on every night. Tonight we were over at Ray’s for his birthday dinner. Nicole cooked Beef Bourguignon for the occasion and it was delicious. Since it was technically game night, there was some talk of playing Ticket to Ride Marklin but after a rich dinner and plenty of wine it was food coma time. I then made the mistake of having two cups of coffee and that’s why I’m awake now.

Wednesday, as I’m sure you all know, is Talk Like a Pirate Day. Flying Lab is having a party down by the waterfront to celebrate. Not sure what that’s going to be like. Apparently the founders of Talk Like a Pirate Day have recorded a video message for the event and they’ve named Pirates of the Burning Sea the official TLAPD computer game.

In other news I have finally sorted out the problems with my web page. A domain transfer is in progress and I’ve got new hosting set up. By the weekend I think it should finally be restored. Hooray.

I finished the various graphic novels series that I’ve been plowing through over the past few months. Then I paused, undecided on what to read next. Last week Ray recommended a few things to me, including Grant Morrison’s run on the Justice League of America. I hadn’t read a team supers series since I tried (and discarded) Whedon’s run on the X-Men, so I picked up the first three graphic novels to give it a shot. I like Morrison, so I figured I’d like the books and largely I do. What’s really irritating me though is that these stories were apparently forced to maintain the continuity with the characters’ regular comics. This means that major developments occur offscreen and are never really explained. So in between the first graphic novel and the second, Superman is transformed into a being of pure energy who must wear a containment suit. Then between the second and the third Wonder Woman dies. It’s like picking up the Two Towers and finding a footnote from Tolkien that says, “PS Samwise is dead and I won’t tell you how or why it happened.” I’m on the fence on whether or not to continue after #3. Anyone got some good suggestions for other graphic novels to check out?

The stars have been right the last week and I’ve gotten in an unusual amount of gaming. Woot.

Spirit of the Century: Gaming fun started on Labor Day with a Spirit of the Century game. It was a bridge session as we left behind the first big adventure and transitioned into the next one, so not a whole lot to report. I still haven’t picked a tenth aspect for my character. After I said, “I knew I should have killed him when I had the chance,” the other players suggested that’d be a good one. I am considering it.

BattleLore: Thursday night Rick and I played BatteLore with the new Hundred Years War expansion. It’s got some nice new rules, troop types, and scenarios. We played the battle of Crecy and I was sure history was going to repeat itself when Rick drew Darken the Sky on turn 1 and bombarded my army with his longbowmen. It actually turned into a nailbiter though and with one lucky die roll I could have snatched victory from his grasp on the last turn. Much to Rick’s relief I did not pull off one of my patented last minute wins though and the British took the field.

Runebound: Saturday Rick and I went over to Jon’s new place and played Runebound with him, Seth, and Jason. I get together with this group irregularly for boardgames and after the end of the con season we finally had another chance to play. Runebound is like a more modern version of Talisman that learns some important lessons from its forbearer. We enjoyed it but also felt the game had a few issues. There’s a lot of downtime between your turns and the endgame takes too long. I do have some of the expansions and I wonder if those smooth out some of the rough edges.

Ticket to Ride: Yesterday I played Ticket to Ride Marklin at lunch at FLS. I had gotten the game for Jess for his birthday a couple of weeks ago and he was keen to try it. We drafted Cory and Raymond and taught them how to play. This was the first time I had tried the Marklin version and it had some additions I quite liked. The passengers made it more worthwhile to do shorter connections and gave a nice way to score some extra points. I also liked that you had two decks of tickets to choose from.

Tomorrow night it’s back to Rick’s, though I’m not sure what we’re going to play. Maybe more BattleLore. Maybe the Lord of the Rings minis game. Maybe something else. Damn, it’s good to be a gamer.

I woke up at 4:30 am last night and couldn’t get back to sleep. After a bit of tossing and turning I went downstairs to see what late night TV had to offer. I ended up watching The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission from 1988. This made for TV movie was the fourth installment in the series. The only actors returning from the original were Ernest Borgnine and Telly Savalas. Of course, Telly’s character (the psychopathic Maggott) died in the first movie; here he took on the Lee Marvin role. The cast was rounded out by Erik Estrada from CHiPs, Jeff Conaway from Taxi, Ernie Hudson from Ghostbusters, and Heather Thomas from the Fall Guy. If this sounds absolutely awful, that’s because it is!

The plot is that 12 super Nazis are taking a train to the Middle East to act as a seed for the Fourth Reich should Germany be defeated. Savalas must recruit and lead a new dirty dozen to wipe them out and thus prevent National Socialism surviving Hitler’s fall. One presumes this plot was an excuse to shoot the movie on the cheap in Yugoslavia, much like the Guns of Navarone sequel Force 10 from Navarone.

It’s hard to say what’s the worst thing about this mess. Is it the terrible acting? The listless action scenes? The hackneyed writing? Or perhaps the agonizing romantic subplot between the Thomas’s half-Norwegian character and the Jewish convict (take that, Nazis!)? I can say that Dirty Dozen: the Fatal Mission was fatally awful. It did do one thing right though: it made me drowsy. When it was over, I went back upstairs and fell asleep right away.

Thursday night Nik and I went to see the Subhumans at El Corazon. It took four times seeing them but they finally played “Ex-Teenage Rebel”, the song for which this blog is named. Woot. It was another great show, with a good mix of songs from all their albums. That day that had just gotten in the first 300 copies of their new record, “Internal Riot.” This is their first proper new LP in 21 years. Naturally I picked it up at the show and it does indeed rock. Good songs and clever lyrics totally in the spirit of the band’s original output.

My one gripe about the Subhumans US tours is that they always have this “punk poet” with them. Now I’ve got nothing against poets per se, but this guy (Mark something or other) is a menace. I think he wants to be the next Attila the Stockbroker, but his poems are for shit. By the numbers punk politics delivered in by the number rhyming couplets. It’s like listening to someone recite the lyrics of early MDC songs. What’s that, you’ve never heard MDC? Well, here’s a sample song from their first record called “Church and State.”

Nationalism in school
Perpetrating their rule
Lying textbooks rant
Their patriotic slant
“Your country’s great”
cry the church and state
“All that’ve died
Were on God’s side”

President and pope
Your pride and hope
Families build
Christian ethic instilled
The biblical truth?
Faith not proof!
Wield a sword
Walk with the lord
Be a man
Protect your land
Hear your call
Martyrs all

Your life’s lost
Nailed to a cross
Dead on foreign soil
For your God
(And their oil)

Now imagine 15 minutes of being beaten about the head by such “poetry” and you’ve got an idea of what sitting through his set is like. I will give him credit for performing through the abuse being heaped upon him by the audience, but please Subhmans, next time leave him at home.

Here’s a story I submitted for Atlas’s 40 Years of Gen Con book. From my skim of the book it didn’t make it in, so I’m going to share it here.

I went to my first Gen Con in 1989. I had some punk friends in Milwaukee I could crash with, but even though they were actually gamers too and major Cthulhu-heads, they had never gone to Gen Con. Nor did me coming all the way from NYC convince them to give it a shot. So I went to the con itself alone and didn’t know a soul. And I had an awesome time. I went back to NYC and told my friends about it. The next year a few of them came with me and the year after that a few more. Soon it became a yearly tradition. We’d rent a van and do a two day road trip out and back. The crazy conversations and legendary arguments of those long drives became part of the fun. We always came back from Gen Con totally energized about gaming too.

One year we were on the return trip and talking about how we wanted to break into the game industry. I’d say most of us were about 22 at the time. We talked about starting a general interest game magazine (though thank god we didn’t). At one point Sandeep said, “You know, our generation has yet to make its mark on the game industry.” He was right and that stuck with me over the years as I started freelancing and establishing myself as a designer. Sandeep himself never had a chance to do what I did though. He died very suddenly in the late 90s. His father had passed away just a couple of years before, from a previously undiagnosed heart defect. Turns out Deep had the same thing but it killed him decades earlier in his lifespan.

I think about Sandeep every year when I’m at Gen Con.

August is almost over and I’m ready to chill out a bit. I went down to PAX on Friday night, got my badge, and did my first tour of the exhibit hall. It was not as loud as E3 used to be, thank god. My friend Patrick, who moved to San Diego a few years ago to work for Upper Deck, was in for the show. We met Jess at the Palace Kitchen and had a fun dinner. Pat used to be in my game group, but now we see him mostly at cons and oftentimes only in passing. It was good to get to catch up for longer than 10 minutes. The fresh pasta with prosciutto, pea vines, and chanterelle mushrooms was damn good too.

Saturday morning I did GR work and then headed back to the convention center around 1. I hooked up with ex-SJGer Andrew Hackard, who was there with Wil Wheaton. Wil had given the keynote speech the day before, but I had still been at work so I missed it. Apparently over 5,000 people attended. The PAX goers clearly loved Wil, as every time he appeared at his booth a huge line formed. Andrew and I chatted while Wil signed and people snapped photos. This was right outside the exhibit hall, so just by standing there I ended up getting to see a lot of old friends. Handy.

At 6 I did a panel on the future of tabletop RPGs. My co-panelist was Chris Perkins from WotC. PAX was supposed to provide a moderator, but whoever it was didn’t show so Chris I just did it ourselves. The result was a bit scattershot but came off pretty well I think. We filled up the theater and went half an hour over answering questions. I had feared it might turn into a “tell us about 4th edition” seminar, but it wasn’t until the very last question that anyone directly asked about it. Chris rattled off a laundry list of things they want to improve in 4E. When he was done, I said, “I’m really heartened you guys learned so many lessons from True20.” I think he took my good natured ribbing in the spirit it was intended. He’s a good guy and man does he love D&D.;

After the seminar I stopped into the two big parties of the night. These events are not normally my type of thing, but since fellow punk rocker Jenny Bendel had helped put them together I figured I’d check them out. Vivendi was promoting their World in Conflict game. Do you remember the shitty 80s movie Red Dawn? (Wolverines!) World in Conflict is basically the Red Dawn RTS, with the Soviets invading the USA. The party was one of those things that make hobby game publishers want to cry. I could probably run Green Ronin for a year on what they spent to rent vintage US army vehicles, hire an array of models to wear faux Red Army uniforms and carry fake AK-47s, and redecorate an art space with sandbags, chain link fences, propaganda posters, and the like. Plus the bar of course and the multiple stations showing off the game on big screens. The ArenaNet party was half a block away at Game Works. By the time I showed up all the game cards were gone. I did, however, run into Brian Campbell and it’s always good to catch up with him.

When I had my fill of the parties, I considered going home. I was pretty tired after the previous couple of weeks. I gave Andrew a call though and ended up joining him, his friend Paul, and Wil Wheaton for dinner at the Rock Bottom Brewery (why it almost felt like Gen Con in that regard). That was a good call because dinner was tremendously fun. Wil is a super nice guy and I’m glad we had the chance to hang out. He’s a geek of my generation, so in no time at all we were talking about comics, games, shitty Star Wars prequels, etc. We also compared notes on punk bands and the challenges of being a step dad. I only wish Nicole could have been there, as she’s a long time reader of his blog and would have really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, she was in Minnesota with Kate, so missed out on this and seeing Jonathan Coulton.

I got home late and decided to skip the final day of PAX. Instead Rick and I headed south Sunday to visit the Game Matrix, a store in the Tacoma area I have been meaning to visit for years now. It’s a good store, with lots of game space and some interesting stuff you don’t see often in a retail environment. I ate a Sizzler for the very first time. While it was the best food option we could find in the immediate area of the store, let’s just say it was no Palace Kitchen.