Saturday, August 1, 2015

Luke Crane's D&D Hack, a Side Project, and Ennie Bad Behavior

Last night I found something that I was completely and totally outraged about: +Luke Crane has made a game based loosely on 1980 - 81 Dungeons & Dragons game. How did I miss that?

The game is called Miseries and Misfortunes and it is incredibly easy to pick up (not only because it's free). I've already made a character and now I'm really wanting to play this bad boy. I'm trying to talk my wife, who is a history savant, into running the game because I want to play it so damned badly! You guys have got to check this thing out!

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Last night also found me working on editing together the Let's Forget the World and Be Friends PDF. The editing for this project has been more complex than the last one as I'm attempting a few different methods to what I did with the last one. Nothing major: a few spelling corrections here, a grammar error there. 

But let me tell you, what makes doing a project like this so rewarding is getting to really explore how these guys think because there's a difference between reading something someone writes online and then you move on and actively pouring over a document to make sure that it's what +Mark Van Vlack or +Sean Bircher actually wanted to say. I can't tell you how much my respect for everyone involved in this project has grown through this process (which is hard to fully express since I really like all the cats). I was really blessed that these guys agreed to write this project with me and I can't thank them enough for lending their talents to it. 

Awesome people all around.

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On a more somber note there were some people behaving badly at last night's Ennie awards. By their own admission they began the ceremony heckling the event and then got up and walked out when +Zak Smith and +James Raggi won their first award for Red & Pleasant Land. This small group then went on twitter and attempted to create the impression that their decision was echoed by a majority of the attendees at the ceremony; however, after investigating into what happened it appears that roughly ten people left and that no one really noticed their leaving or poor behavior until they began posting on twitter later.

I want to tell you that their behavior offended me. Not the walking out, that part didn't bother because people leave things all the time - especially award ceremonies when they've got nothing at stake. What bothered me was the heckling of the awards themselves. Look, I get it, they don't mean anything to you; but this isn't about you. +Russ Morrissey organized this show, the judges narrowed down the categories after getting inundated with submissions, over 20,000 people voted, and a group of hard working volunteers put that ceremony together and got things running smoothly all night. By acting like a jackass in the back of the room you were being disrespectful to every person who helped in that process. What's worse though is that you showed your asses in that moment to every nominee in the room and told every single one of them what you really thought of their hard work. 

Without a doubt the behavior of these individuals was inexcusable and the fact that several of them I consider "good" people makes it cut even deeper for me. I hope that for the majority of this group that this was an isolated incident where poor judgement and exhaustion overtook common decency and a basic respect for their fellow gamers.

Time will tell.

19 comments:

  1. That is right, these walk outs showed disrespect for every person in that room. That is what they did, and they should be called out for it.

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    1. It's the heckling that bothers me more than anything else. That was just such a juvenile and disrespectful thing to do to all the people who were involved in the awards.

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  2. My wife was part of the Contessa crew that won. We were unable to attend but were elated when we saw it come across our channels. Only to be followed by other pouting and proclaiming the entire awards ceremony "meaningless" and "useless" because one dude they don't like won some awards that they claim they don't care about. It was truly pathetic.

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    1. I didn't realize your wife worked on Contessa! Please tell her she works on a fantastic blog for me. They deserved to win and I'm so very glad that they did!

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    2. Yes sir. She's Ariana Ramos, articles have Ari as the author. Very proud of her and the Contessa women for kicking ass this year.

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    3. Did not realize Ari was your lovely bride! She's really a good writer. Every time one of her posts comes up on the blog I know I'm in for a good read!

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  3. Thanks for bringing Miseries & Misfortunes to my attention. I just downloaded it & gave it a quick skim. I'm not particularly interested in the historical aspect but I already have black powder weaponry into my game & I like how Miseries & Misfortunes handles armor. It combines damage resistance via a random die roll similar to Classic Unisystem but also has the ablative feature like Palladium's SDC armor system. It's like the best of both worlds ... at least for me. I had planned on transitioning my one-on-one game from house ruled OD&D to Scarlet Heroes once the current campaign arc played out or my wife's character gets killed (whichever comes first) and I'm seriously considering integrating Miseries & Misfortunes armor mechanic. I also like the idea of the Servant NPC class especially given my wife's love of recruiting NPCs. The only thing I think she might enjoy more is haggling with merchants. That might seem odd thing to enjoy in an RPG but I've watched her haggle in real life at estate sales and she not only loves it but she has mad skills. On a side note, the best bottle of Kentucky bourbon I have ever tasted was part of a lot of alcohol that she negotiate the price for at an estate sale. The bourbon had been aged 8 years when it was sold, was made exclusively for sale at the local naval airbase & the company that made it hadn't been in business since the mid to late-80s so we are talking at least a bottle aged 32 years. It was like sipping an angel's song.
    I have to admit that I don't pay that much attention to the Ennies or any other awards contest for that matter but heckling is pure dickishness. I get that some people have issues with Zak & James but heckling detracts from the honor of all the nominees whose hard work is being recognized whether they picked up an award or not.

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    1. Man, remind me never to try and sell your wife anything then!

      But on a more serious note, I've learned some more about the people who were doing the heckling and they went there with the intention of doing it. So they're complete dicks for no other reason than because they could be. I'm just so disappointed in so many people for their behavior there.

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  4. I voted in the Ennie's just like 20k some odd other folks.
    I voted for R&PL in the categories I thought it was deserving and against it in some others. It's a very good product. I'm not a guy who jumps to Zak's defense he is pretty good at doing that for himself. I think the product regardless of the author sands on it's own merit.
    The thought that some people would make a scene because they do not like an author that won an award is nonsense.
    These awards are voted on by the gaming community at large.
    Don't disparage the awards because in doing so the group with the complaints is disparaging the voters in the community that voted for R&PL, In turn disparaging members of the very community whose better interests they would like to think they are representing.
    In effect making them look, regardless of their intentions like a bunch of twats.

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  5. Thank you very much for the mention above.
    It was a fun project and a pleasure to read everyone's entries.

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    1. Dude, you're fantastic and I love your post!

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  6. Now more than ever I want a "Zak S. Saved D&D" shirt, to wear at Metatopia where the Usual Suspects will all be in attendance. Someone needs to help make this happen!

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    1. Looking for trouble Mr. Bloch? ;)

      I will say that I think the best version of that shirt I saw was on twitter where someone changed it to "____________ Saved D&D." I kind of like the idea of everyone writing their own name in the space because every person who plays, runs, and makes an effort to keep the game going saves it from becoming a footnote in history where nerds worried far too much about imaginary creatures and places.

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  7. Rudeness. What a shame? Pfft. Lie down with dogs, you get fleas. Taken a spin through Zak's comments anywhere, anytime?

    Right.

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    1. I'll tell you what I told Zak, Anonymous: There are thousands of other people involved in this that these individuals were being rude to that aren't named Zak Smith. The behavior of these individuals goes beyond just being insulting to Zak and stretches out towards every single person in attendance at that show, everyone of the more than 20,000 who voted, the volunteers who worked so hard to put everything together and make sure it ran smoothly, and the judges who gave their free time to narrow down the categories. There were thousands of people that were involved in the Ennies this year and the juvenile behavior of these individuals was a slap in the face of every one to them.

      Like Zak, don't like Zak. It doesn't matter. When you show your ass to a whole room you're insulting everyone who was there and not just a single individual no matter how much you pretend. There is no excuse for their behavior.

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  8. This realy reflects on how I felt, seeing the first postings about that act of spite. Its hard for me to understand such behavior and its a real shame.

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    1. From what I can tell there is such animosity between these individuals and Zak that they felt that ruining the event for everyone else would "show him." He wasn't even there. Such juvenile behavior from grown ups just bothers the hell out of me.

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