I’ve written a lot about GenCon in the several years I’ve had this column. Not to belabor the point too much, I’m sure I’ll have at least one meal at India Garden, one at the Ram, Four showers, at least one poker game, maybe even a visit to the Red Garter. Stranger things have happened.
The point of mentioning this is that GenCon is the coolest event in the world for people who love games. They don’t call it the best for days in gaming for nothing, and I hope to see several of you at the RPGnet gathering that will be at the Embassy Suites (in meeting room Chancellor 3) anytime from 6:00pm to 11:00pm on Saturday August 16th.
No More Gleemax
Hasbro has announced the termination of the Gleemax experiment September 1st. To which I say good riddance. From their Nazi terms of service, to their incredibly bad name Gleemax just seems to embody all that’s bad. What is it about companies lately that think the only way to have a brand identity is to choose a stupid word that doesn’t even really exist? Just so they can have a unique web name. Like Synovus Bank. Their slogan should be “Synovus Bank, all the good names were taken…” or maybe “We’re Synovus, don’t ask us what it means, we don’t know either…” In any case I have digressed into a rat-hole of MacBreak Weekly proportions. Suffice it to say, Gleemax has been a pustule on the hindquarters of both gaming and social networking sites for far too long. The decision will have no effect on Hasbro’s D&D forums or the new online versions of Dungeon or Dragon. What it does not explain are the incredibly long delays for D&D Insider and all that entails.
The Spinward Marches
The first supplement for Mongoose’s Traveller is out and The Spinward Marches seems to hit on all eight cylinders. Not as exhaustive or encyclopedic as other Traveller works of past editions have been, this is a solid work that gives a strong overview of the Imperium, with a slightly more detailed look at The Marches. If I had developed the project I would have had a main setting book for the Third Imperium (with that cute little roman numeral three logo), then separate setting splatbooks for the Marches, the Confederation, Core, and other areas of note.
Spinward Marches is soft cover and perfect bound; the Core rules are hard cover. Both have been awesome as far as physical construction and durability. I’ve beaten them pretty bad jumping in and out of limos, cars, Paneras, and Dunkin’ Donuts. Both have held up perfectly with no obvious signs of wear. Which should lie to rest a lot of the fears people had when Mongoose chose to switch printing and bindery again. After two examples, I am sold completely. Great job guys!
Robin Crossby
We lost another of the pioneers this month. Robin Crossby, creator of Hârn, lost his battle with cancer. I was just recently discussing how much of a positive impact Hârn has had on gaming. It is a wonderfully full and detailed world, built not just by the creator, but also by hundreds of contributors throughout the world. They have a word in Hârn for fan-created setting material. They call it Fanon, as opposed to Canon. I think it is a great way to see the contributions of other contributors and fans. It is placed in to even more stark relief by the actions of some companies to stifle the work of fans at any cost.
There were some disagreements regarding Hârn, some of them quite spirited, but it was also a community that has shown everyone great respect. Rarely has anyone had as influential or as loyal a following and Mr. Crossby. He will be missed. Unfortunately this also throws yet another wrench in the complicated issues surrounding Kelestia and Columbia Games regarding ownership of the Hârn IP. I just hope that everyone can come to an agreement quickly and with a minimal amount of fuss in this difficult time.
Heisenberg is Dead
I don’t recall if I mentioned this or not, but Heisenberg is dead. Maybe just resting, but it looks dead. Kind of. Maybe. For those of you who weren’t playing along at home, let me explain. About 3 or 4 years ago I overdosed on SF films one night. I came too and realized that I wanted, no needed, to write my own SF game. I had crazed caffeine-fueled discussions with many people around the country. I dusted off my first attempt at an SF game mechanic, from 1982; My first Traveller campaign, from 1979; and a game I had worked on since 1994 to explain anime tropes to myself.
I wrote 12,000 words in three days and had a complete outline in two weeks, then I just went to work. I kept coming back to the project about once a month for two years, but I couldn’t bring myself to finish it. Why, you ask?
The game was a completely brilliant rip-off of Traveller, and I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
The main problem I had with Traveller, and something many players realize is that in the Original Traveller Universe (the OTU for the hard core) a lot of things were completely nonsensical, even in the 1970s, and never explained. So what I did, and what a lot of people do I found, was to write My Traveller Universe (MTU) with rationalizations and explanations for why things were the way they were. Like we didn’t generally have legions of artificially intelligent slave robots toiling away because some time in the past they had risen up and almost destroyed us, etcetera. As I came to realize, Heisenberg was just a really butch version of MTU.
Of course one of the neat things about the new Traveller System Reference Document is that I may yet be able to publish some form of the Terran Dominion. Which I think is cool.
So there you have it...
I hope that you can come to GenCon, pay respect where it is due, play some games, meet some great people. Learn about Hellas from Khepera Publishing, and a million other games. I hope to see you soon.
