So whats up?

[GameOgre]

I do not understand why but once we moved back to the trolls forums I stopped posting and thinking about the Society. I love the Trolls so it isn't over some protest or anything like that. It wasn't because I was mad or angry or any silly reason like that either.

I guess it was that I post on the trolls site anyway and since we all post here now as well it seemed silly to speak to just the Society. Something like that anyway. At the same time though the Society came up with some really cool creative stuff and had a way of getting the old juices flowing that I find lacking now.
Maybe its that as a Society we seemed to be willing to do large projects that just us a group of guys chatting on the boards are unwilling to do.

Am I alone in this? Am I just being a freak or has there really been a slacking of creative fan work done as a team. I do see some awesome stuff being put out (im looking at you mister Rules Compilation!

What do you guys think?

Kinda funny that anyone being a dunderhead like me isn't going to be here to read this haha.

[Go0gleplex]

Nope. Not really alone. The society has become largely inactive...mainly due to real life issues consuming the time of the more active members. Chat has been nearly dead the last many months with sporadic good nights here and then. There are a couple of us that have noticed this and are thinking about what to do to shake things up a bit. But in the end, time to commit is the main limiting factor. Even on the new society page, there is a marked lack of communication among members. It's really been disappointing and depressing.

[Piperdog]

I hear you guys.

You have to remember that the leadership of the Society shifts from time to time, and my good friend John Wright was responsible for really shaking things up in times past. I took over for a bit, but real life now has both of us insanely busy. It's tough, because those of us who want to do the most are actually the ones with little to no time. There are members who are currently unemployed and have a lot of time on their hands who are probably the better choice to get things rolling. John Wright is a university professor who continues to get promoted into the higher rungs of leadership there, with more and more duties thrust upon him. I am working overtime like crazy, and with four kids that are in musicals, sports, etc. Sooooooooooo, yeah. We were the guys pushing the Domesday Book and con events but real life stepped in.

The new site is cool but it Ning is a fledgling company run by a handful of guys....the chat features kind of stink right now and customer support is severely lacking. That being said, I think long term it is going to be awesome. Members may not be communicating very much right now, BUT our membership is growing all the time, which is promising. I am hoping for better file sharing/collaboration apps to be available so we can more easily upload and share our stuff.

The other point of inactivity, as far as putting fan material out there goes, is that many members who have contributed in times past are now focusing on putting their material out for actual publishing, whether to magazines like the Crusader, Knockspell, etc. or self-publishing venues. Seriously, why put out production quality material for free? Don't get me wrong, because I love doing stuff for the pure comradery of it all, but still. I know when I did the layout for Domesday 3 (and the sometimes shoddy artwork) that I could be doing the layout for my own self-publishing ventures. I have mods and material that could go into another Domesday, but I have TLG looking seriously at publishing them, so why would I choose a fanzine instead? Actually, I am the kind of guy that would do just that, but I have a wife who would beat my butt if I didn't try to at least get some sort of compensation for my time. Being a grown up can be a downer eh? So I think many of our members are in that same boat....all of them very talented....talented enough to publish.....so with them going their own way, that leaves what exactly? Let's face it, some of the stuff we see fans put out isn't, well, isn't stuff most of would want to use, let's just put it that way. And that isn't something to put together for the rpg community to see on the site for download, right?

Ok, so what does this all mean? Doom and Gloom? Lol. Absolutely not. I think the Society has a bright future! Yep. It will all be good man. So many folks are joining that someone out there will want to step up, put compilations together, and be altruistic enough to just give away there best stuff. It'll happen. Maybe soon. I can't get over the jump to 120+ members in such a short time. Steve has made it clear to me recently that he has big plans for the Society, and I know Tim Burns will be instrumental in taking this thing to the next level (You go Tim!) The Society's role will be more dedicated to organizing events and promotion I think than putting out books; that being said, I am hoping that we can start work on a "Best of" the Domesday with the material we have so far. But again, anyone can jump up and take the reigns and blog an entry on the site to start a collective project, put out a book, etc. .....and I think it will happen.

The ball is rolling, slowly perhaps, but I see it picking up steam. And I know it will roll faster and faster until it becomes an awesome out-of-control harbinger of rpg badassery.

-P

[Go0gleplex]

The question to ask then, is what does the society wish to see in terms of projects or activities?

[Treebore]

How about coming up with a super cool magic creation process?

The other thing I always love is well done organizations. From thieves guilds to mages guilds to merchant guilds, etc... Generic ones can be done and then numerous customized ones that could better fit the more popular campaign worlds and their more popular cities.

Another thing that has been bouncing around in my head is doing a modern version of that under appreciated series of books that can be used to generate character backgrounds, personalities, family, social class, etc... and since C&C has a sci fi version and up coming pulp version and hopefully even a supers version variants on this to fit those genre's could also be done.

[Go0gleplex]

Magic creation process? Like a system for magic items?

[Treebore]

Magic creation process? Like a system for magic items?

Yep. A system that takes away the abstraction. That gives a way to create formula, ingredients, and items to quest for, or reasons to keep parts of creatures you killed, or gemstones you have found. Things like that. All the way from creating scroll inks to potions, to artifact/relic level. These things are touched upon in the 1E DMG, but as far as I know have never been fully expanded upon.

If they have, please tell me where.

[Go0gleplex]

Magic creation process? Like a system for magic items?

Yep. A system that takes away the abstraction. That gives a way to create formula, ingredients, and items to quest for, or reasons to keep parts of creatures you killed, or gemstones you have found. Things like that. All the way from creating scroll inks to potions, to artifact/relic level. These things are touched upon in the 1E DMG, but as far as I know have never been fully expanded upon.

If they have, please tell me where.

Nowhere that I'm aware of. That's a major tall order just due to the multiple varitions and permutations available.

[Treebore]

Magic creation process? Like a system for magic items?

Yep. A system that takes away the abstraction. That gives a way to create formula, ingredients, and items to quest for, or reasons to keep parts of creatures you killed, or gemstones you have found. Things like that. All the way from creating scroll inks to potions, to artifact/relic level. These things are touched upon in the 1E DMG, but as far as I know have never been fully expanded upon.

If they have, please tell me where.

Nowhere that I'm aware of. That's a major tall order just due to the multiple varitions and permutations available.

Probably why no one has done it.

[Go0gleplex]

Magic creation process? Like a system for magic items?

Yep. A system that takes away the abstraction. That gives a way to create formula, ingredients, and items to quest for, or reasons to keep parts of creatures you killed, or gemstones you have found. Things like that. All the way from creating scroll inks to potions, to artifact/relic level. These things are touched upon in the 1E DMG, but as far as I know have never been fully expanded upon.

If they have, please tell me where.

Nowhere that I'm aware of. That's a major tall order just due to the multiple varitions and permutations available.

Probably why no one has done it.

Got an idea or two that I may bounce around a bit...but even then, there is going to be some amount of abstraction just because there is no way to avoid it without creating "set" formula for every item.

[seskis281]

John Wright is a university professor who continues to get promoted into the higher rungs of leadership there, with more and more duties thrust upon him.

Hey guys, Eric is dead on in the above.... suffice to say that even before, uhm, shall we just say "recent events" in Wisconsin (of which I'll steer clear of any political debate, just enough to know I'm smack in the middle of it) I was asked to take on a variety of faculty and administrative positions in addition to my regular teaching load and play directing (no reduction in regular load, no extra compensation for new stuff to do - just lots 'o extra work... and now a coupla' grand less in take-home per year to top it off.... wheeeeeee are we havin' funnnnn nowwwww!!!!)

Because of that I've been pretty much awol once again just trying to keep about 2 dozen balls in the air around my professional and private life, and yes, once again I let the ball slip away on society stuff.... there's a stack of registrations to be added to the rolls and database that I haven't done and haven't even had time to post or look at boards that much...

Hope everyone understands... I care deeply about my job as an educator and so I find myself committing more in areas I never thought I'd be asked to take responsibility for (like reaccreditation for the UW-Colleges - a big, two-year deal)

We'll see where things take us - but Eric's right, those of us who have tried to carry the torch just find ourselves in places not very good with time, so if any interpid Crusaders with a bit more space in their lives are interested in stepping forth....

[Go0gleplex]

It would be something I'd be willing to give a go, however my health situation is still in recovery mode and my work situation is non-existant and may end up in me becoming a member in abstentia due to lack of web/phone access (and/or worse) within two months. Then there is my full time college attendence to consider for at least the next few months. Given all that, I just can't make a good faith committment to the post...but will continue to support things as long as my situation permits.

[bloodymage]

I'm in trouble. Grew up w/ an Arkie Dad, I'm really old-fashioned and hard-headed, but I'm still trying to keep my gaming licks in. If you check out my sig, I've resurrected my old website and it has a lot links to the doings of the Society and its members, but I continually feel I'm on this machine at the expense of my health, especially with this house and neighborhood. All I want to do is write and game and work on my stuff. Anyway, thought I'd trow a post out here.