tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64952420908809266032024-02-02T10:13:21.366-08:00Oaths and FatesAuld-school gaming in Eald EnglalondRick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-40310307556552286362016-01-29T23:58:00.000-08:002016-01-30T09:11:37.033-08:00In Search of the Unknown: Evadne Moon-touched, Part One<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb67MNNPEVhRdsmWzZXbHFkR8SJlDqhppGaHQWbG-orC4rh6pLwQzj2LDIUY4AfVr3rBn2oWif0C2aQc7AGjNJxnC58ftePdagsJANVcScGhg1DGTYujNO2y4UwFZ0FLLwHmxLefARHWU/s1600/Beverly+Marshall+Saling+Post-haircut+20160104.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Beverly Marshall Saling" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb67MNNPEVhRdsmWzZXbHFkR8SJlDqhppGaHQWbG-orC4rh6pLwQzj2LDIUY4AfVr3rBn2oWif0C2aQc7AGjNJxnC58ftePdagsJANVcScGhg1DGTYujNO2y4UwFZ0FLLwHmxLefARHWU/s200/Beverly+Marshall+Saling+Post-haircut+20160104.jpg" title="Beverly Marshall Saling" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beverly Marshall Saling</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Beverly plays Evadne Moon-touched, a character originally created in 1995 for Mike Ryan's AD&D Second Edition campaign. Beverly has updated Evadne a couple times for new rule sets and for the Englandia campaign, this time bringing her under Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet's 13th Age RPG.<br />
<br />
Evadne's a Lelegian Greek, born and raised in Ortygia Grove west of Ephesus. The daughter of a goat herder, Evadne grew up herding, hunting, and exploring her native woods and mountains until she was unexpectedly struck with cyclic moon madness.<br />
<br />
At the New Moon, she's brilliant but foolish (intelligence 20, wisdom 8), but at the Full Moon she's wise but stupid (wisdom 20, intelligence 8), and she cycles back and forth. Under the 13th Age rules, this is her One Unique Thing, that she was "gifted" unwilling with this divine favor from the Greek goddess Artemis. Sometimes at the Full Moon she's even possessed by Artemis.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIleUemu0e0i-M-xza58w8vYh2lwHK7iUJ5f481-vq85D-1iau28uQ4DLUbw6y97XpkjZ1zQGmn_J0E5hHFUpKRL-l6zqfmNh2Jq3bigyVUEy1Kor0Qqjptq5T-5F3vkZf2lpudw5CaCg/s1600/Evadne+Appearance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Evadne's Facial Features" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIleUemu0e0i-M-xza58w8vYh2lwHK7iUJ5f481-vq85D-1iau28uQ4DLUbw6y97XpkjZ1zQGmn_J0E5hHFUpKRL-l6zqfmNh2Jq3bigyVUEy1Kor0Qqjptq5T-5F3vkZf2lpudw5CaCg/s200/Evadne+Appearance.jpg" title="Evadne's Facial Features" width="113" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Facial Features</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
(All this requires the GM to track the phases of the moon in his games; fortunately, the Internet is a wonderful place, so finding moon-phase calculators that go back to 1000 CE cures the potential headaches of computing Evadne's intelligence and wisdom on any particular game day.)<br />
<br />
There have been other Moon-touched priestesses of Artemis from time to time over the millennia, but never more than one at a time, and never an unwilling one. Artemis sees something special in Evadne, but Evadne is powerfully ambivalent about Her favor. More specifically, her feelings about her calling are cyclic. The wiser she is, the more she loves serving Artemis and is filled with deep intuitions. The smarter she is, the more she hates her service, sometimes in a fey, mischievous, or self-destructive way.<br />
<br />
The Change rendered her fit only half the time to herd goats. The other half, when she wasn't making foolish choices, the goats were outsmarting her. Her family found refuge for her in the service of Artemis, where her affliction was revealed to be of divine cause. As the Greeks knew, it's a terrible thing to be a favorite of the gods. She moved to the sacred isle of Delos, where Artemis's priestesses taught her to harness her mental oscillations and to summon the Goddess's powers at need to serve sacred causes, growing into a Goddess-touched priestess and oracle.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiefojwTENWkAcqfDipcuzM7fr_ZAA8aGlZlwvtOjl7WFtDvvq4sXlRI_gbcETamIyhIgLN9Q9TzzD7_4ayg5_Tg3emdUC5H8hQ9ioG52NGQNLStFPLU4c5iTeu82VxEKCvxFMA9skDDP8/s1600/S6.1Artemis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Artemis" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiefojwTENWkAcqfDipcuzM7fr_ZAA8aGlZlwvtOjl7WFtDvvq4sXlRI_gbcETamIyhIgLN9Q9TzzD7_4ayg5_Tg3emdUC5H8hQ9ioG52NGQNLStFPLU4c5iTeu82VxEKCvxFMA9skDDP8/s200/S6.1Artemis.jpg" title="Artemis" width="122" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Artemis</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The temple taught her the history of her people, including the millennium of oppression of the Hellenes - first pan-Hellenist domination by the Macedonians, about which the Greeks felt ambivalent, then outright conquest and militarist cosmopolitan domination by the Romans, until Emperor Theodosius I banned pagan religion in 391 and 392, which began a religious struggle that has lasted over half a millennium, continued under the Byzantines since the fall of the Roman Empire.<br />
<br />
Evadne's situation under the Byzantines in Englandia is very different from what it would have been in our world. Following the principles Beverly and I established in the late 1990s, Englandia's history deviates from ours in the ways that must inevitably follow if the supernatural and the divine worked for each culture how that culture historically thought it did. This means that, contrary to monotheism's core cosmological principal in our world, in the imaginary game world of Englandia, every ghost and goblin, demigod or goddess, actually does exist more or less in the ways they were believed to.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB8TOtRTqLdiZAfR9CSFp2uptEiMwlLJ9xZa8BWGWpsZr6kCtGW8xPK9wdtXKjIMbW78bhoKjxTXS6VHfkGZzRp0hpPJuB3KRWNEBpYHigmmCMtFDrB9g5c5FRDRPVUDWrtgLdp0RgMxU/s1600/Archery+Kit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Evadne's Archery Kit" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB8TOtRTqLdiZAfR9CSFp2uptEiMwlLJ9xZa8BWGWpsZr6kCtGW8xPK9wdtXKjIMbW78bhoKjxTXS6VHfkGZzRp0hpPJuB3KRWNEBpYHigmmCMtFDrB9g5c5FRDRPVUDWrtgLdp0RgMxU/s200/Archery+Kit.jpg" title="Evadne's Archery Kit" width="151" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Evadne's Archery Kit</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We made this choice to increase the diversity of factions, monsters, and personalities we have to play with, which makes for a far more entertaining experience. "May you live in interesting times" could be the motto of Englandia - though its imaginary inhabitants might wish otherwise.<br />
<br />
In Englandia's history, the Romans and Byzantines never fully eliminated the Olympian religion, because the Olympian deities are real in Englandia. Though the Pagan Greeks were pushed back to the strongholds of their sacred sites, they could not be eliminated, because their deities could neither be disproven as myths nor defeated as mere demons. As actual (well, imaginary) deities, they held their own, and their believers survived down the centuries.<br />
<br />
One pattern in Englandia for resolving such clashes is that it's hard on empires. The farther would-be conquerors get from their own centers of magic and sacred places, the weaker their influence. The closer conquerors come to their opposition's sacred places, the fiercer the resistance. So in the world Evadne grew up in, Olympian Greek culture was pushed back but survived.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCanGH5bgr6fyqVLIn6H_LglZNQ0kk-NCVBwhtRM-ZKu3zX7fWN8YiEtQ5l8wGdS_waA7hMB8w_GuEqSYHni8Fmhe_Ru48998aYyEb34XUBvfAB9LvVd3a_QsVJ3VtAhpPDrPdua9EkzY/s1600/Zephyr+and+Zoe%25CC%2588.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Zephyr and Zoë and Friend" border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCanGH5bgr6fyqVLIn6H_LglZNQ0kk-NCVBwhtRM-ZKu3zX7fWN8YiEtQ5l8wGdS_waA7hMB8w_GuEqSYHni8Fmhe_Ru48998aYyEb34XUBvfAB9LvVd3a_QsVJ3VtAhpPDrPdua9EkzY/s200/Zephyr+and+Zoe%25CC%2588.jpg" title="Zephyr and Zoë and Friend" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zephyr and Zoë and friend</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Evadne the Acolyte learned that first the Romans and then the Byzantines - especially during the latter's two periods of iconoclasm - had not only stolen Hellenic territory but also sometimes destroyed, sometimes taken sacred artifacts from her people. Given her unstable affliction, Evadne was never going to be consistent enough to be a temple priestess, so instead she trained in languages, history, geography, and combat - archery, naturally.<br />
<br />
Once trained, she set out into the world as an international artifact retriever. Accompanied by her two Hellenic hounds, Zephyr and Zoë, she follows leads from chronicles, folk memories, and legends to guide her toward her people's stolen ancient relics. When she finds them, she "liberates" them and brings them back home to her people's sacred places.<br />
<br />
Her current investigation took her farther from home than ever, to the British Isles, first to York to study ancient inscriptions, then up into the wilds of Scotland, north of Hadrian's Wall, tracking 880-year-old traces of the long lost Roman Legio IX Hispana, who her sources say had collected myriad stolen Greek artifacts from around Roman Britannia, hoping to use them in their ill-fated final battle against the Picts. In a decrepit Pictish chronicle, she read accounts of Roman survivors who, instead of wielding those ancient artifacts in a surprise defense of their embattled compatriots, lost heart and fled with them to the Isle of Skye.<br />
<br />
Almost a millennium later, she and Zephyr and Zoë follow them to Skye, on the hunt.<br />
<a href="" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a>Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-49133232643794667412015-12-03T23:27:00.000-08:002015-12-03T23:27:20.251-08:00In Search of the Unknown: How the Party Gathers<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBJvgTadGA6BsXMl18FXbylJwQQZf6lPYBrW6rDDrh1RhuxSld1inPFXVmvSKz6ud-MhHAxRW0CXiqdB8rAQ99I5H58Ey47fF5i_B7zv8ZzA_PftvptC-LwI-zxUp03TYH3p9tHQ2UsGU/s1600/B1-pg27-Characters+-+Sutherland+lg.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="B1: The party gathers by David Sutherland" border="0" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBJvgTadGA6BsXMl18FXbylJwQQZf6lPYBrW6rDDrh1RhuxSld1inPFXVmvSKz6ud-MhHAxRW0CXiqdB8rAQ99I5H58Ey47fF5i_B7zv8ZzA_PftvptC-LwI-zxUp03TYH3p9tHQ2UsGU/s400/B1-pg27-Characters+-+Sutherland+lg.tiff" title="B1: The party gathers by David Sutherland" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">B1: The party gathers by David Sutherland</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In a classic D&D adventure, characters in search of adventure find themselves meeting by chance in an inn or tavern where, listening for rumors and looking for fellow adventurers to join forces with. They simultaneously learn about a potential adventure, find each other, and agree to work together. Time is pressing, the stakes are high, they at once equip themselves and set off to begin their adventures together.<br />
<br />
In many ways, <i>In Search of the Unknown </i>is a classic adventure, but this is not one of those ways.<br />
<br />
Dungeons and Dragons evolved from wargames, in which the real reason the two sides fought was that the players wanted to have fun together. In the early years of D&D, the characters' motivation was that their players wanted to play. As we gamed together over the years, the theatrical and role-playing side of the game grew, until it became normal to focus on how the world looks from the characters' perspective rather than the players', and modules began to invest more column inches in explaining why the characters joined together and embarked on this expedition.<br />
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<i>In Search of the Unknown </i>was an early TSR module. Author Mike Carr developed a backstory for the dungeon and an entertaining table of rumors the players might randomly know about it, but when it came to why these characters per se wanted to get involved with this place, here's all the module has to say:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>If all this is true, their hideaway and treasure lie abandoned somewhere in the wilderness, awaiting discovery and exploration. </i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Now comes to you a crude map purporting to show the way to their hideaway, a place apparently called “Q.” If it is accurate, it might lead you to the mystical place that was their home and sanctuary. Who knows what riches of wealth and magic might be there for the taking? Yes, the risk is great, but the challenge cannot be ignored. Gathering a few of your fellows, you share the secret and embark in search of the unknown.</i></blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp6hPXUbgx38zeQb2VaAD8HcQ4Hk7UPE2EClaR_UAKW_m-iP3NGdnFVxy8Lsj21QjIc_ebdaeegtk0RzEiodnJM7OB2PI15v117T6DTV6564jBRG2qK9XH0WZTu7UA1Rg8sB1AyXM4POs/s1600/B1-pg31-Party+-+Sutherland+lg.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="B1: Journey into the wilds in search of adventure by David Sutherland" border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp6hPXUbgx38zeQb2VaAD8HcQ4Hk7UPE2EClaR_UAKW_m-iP3NGdnFVxy8Lsj21QjIc_ebdaeegtk0RzEiodnJM7OB2PI15v117T6DTV6564jBRG2qK9XH0WZTu7UA1Rg8sB1AyXM4POs/s400/B1-pg31-Party+-+Sutherland+lg.tiff" title="B1: Journey into the wilds in search of adventure by David Sutherland" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">B1: Journey into the wilds in search of adventure by David Sutherland</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
In other words, loot and pillage and excitement!<br />
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Later, during the scaremongering of the 1980s, when people made up lies about D&D being a Satanic ritual of some kind, TSR worked hard to revise the D&D narrative to one strictly about the forces of good mustering to face off against the forces of evil. But back when Carr was writing this module, there was an amusingly practical Fafhrd-and-the-Grey-Mouser quality to most D&D adventures.<br />
<br />
More than a few reviews of B1 cite this threadbare character motivation as a weakness, but some note what I note: this is an introductory module designed to be customized. It's an adventure template, not an adventure. Each time you run the module, you lay out different monsters, treasures, stories - and motivations. All Carr needed to provide was a generic sample motivation; after the first run-through, even novice DMs could come up with suitable motivations based on how they stocked the module.<br />
<br />
I began gaming with the Holmes <i>Dungeons & Dragons </i>set and this module, but I was quickly caught up with everyone else in developing increasingly elaborate premises for adventures and motivations for player characters. In revenge, my players came up with increasingly centrifugal character personalities and goals - self-disintegrating parties.<br />
<br />
With Englandia, I turned the tables on them. It's now the players' jobs to come up with characters who want to be together and want to pursue the adventure. This fits well with <i>13th Age</i>'s focus on collaborative storytelling, and it has replaced an old chore with a new delight.<br />
<br />
For this module specifically, the players came up with characters so highly motivated that I cut Carr's front-loaded exposition - the dungeon backstory, the rumors - and left the premise of the dungeon a mystery onto which each of the three characters at first projected a different concept, based on their goals and personalities. This added a stronger element of mystery and story-discovery to the module and has lent itself to some amusing discussions and differences of opinion between the player characters, as we shall see.Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-51550764940070492232015-12-01T22:33:00.000-08:002015-12-01T22:33:04.320-08:00In Search of the Unknown: Setting in Englandia, Islandia, Skye, The Minginish, Dun Merkadale<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4knkr_mC9Of6whSoNgeJDGvK8FwKLtrxSGg_aU4WP4KHCpEQdYAA7J2lzPx1LZOGcoON3Jjg2l8zBvX32kBPLJFyfJNuL-_8iamISFbc-osqklZGG2MR8_8xtszZswf-VMq_rWIet-4A/s1600/Pendragon+Beyond+the+Wall+11+20151201+toad.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Pendragon's Caledonia map from Beyond the Wall" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4knkr_mC9Of6whSoNgeJDGvK8FwKLtrxSGg_aU4WP4KHCpEQdYAA7J2lzPx1LZOGcoON3Jjg2l8zBvX32kBPLJFyfJNuL-_8iamISFbc-osqklZGG2MR8_8xtszZswf-VMq_rWIet-4A/s400/Pendragon+Beyond+the+Wall+11+20151201+toad.png" title="Pendragon's Caledonia map from Beyond the Wall" width="252" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Pendragon</i>'s Caledonia from <i>Beyond the Wall</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As described in "<a href="http://oathsandfates.blogspot.com/2010/02/road-to-englandia.html" target="_blank">The Road to Englandia</a>," after too many years of studying history, science, and so on, I need my game world to have a lot of verisimilitude and depth to it or I find it unsatisfying, so in 1997 Beverly (my history-major wife) and I settled on the British Isles in the year 1000 as the base setting for my gaming campaigns.<br />
<br />
(Extreme verisimilitude is not something I require when I'm a player, just when I'm running games, because the internal coherence makes it much easier for me to think on my feet about what might happen next. As a player, I don't need those crutches, since the character's personality and understanding of the world are all I need to figure out what to do next. I can play in much less grounded worlds than I can run, oddly. YMMV.)<br />
<br />
Over the past eighteen years, I filled two bookcases with reference materials to help flesh out my understanding of that time and place (Anglo-Saxon Books has been a godsend). Although some would find this a chore, for me it's a pleasure, since I love to learn and am relieved when the game does not distract me with too many anachronisms—other than those I put there myself on purpose, to advance the fun in the game. As with a poet who writes haikus or other structured poems, I find the structure and limitations imposed by the details of what we know about this setting stimulates my creativity about the many, many things we don't know. They don't call it the Dark Ages for nothing.<br />
<br />
For a year I set Englandia adventures in the rural lowlands of Cheshire, but for the following nine years they were south in the Shropshire Highlands, near the border with Wales. I still think of those Shropshire adventures as my main Englandia game, despite not running anything there for eight years. I painted myself into a storytelling corner with too many non-player characters at a Jane-Austen-meets-Beowulf social dance with a lot at stake. Then my nonprofit ate my life, leaving me too few spoons after work to solve the problem, though I've known for years what the solution has to be.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZB8iaaKqABo6YIk9bGEXKR9WUAtT9lZ2jCb0Jqu6rsnMhxH999WStbXEjz2uxknv3AMCkJJHppX3qx1acSdg9bY0ARWyiBUlk898Of7UA19Q1Sxespgqt3NZ7KnrBj-iefZ3NdoQGXuc/s1600/Hebridesmap.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Wikipedia's map of the Hebrides" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZB8iaaKqABo6YIk9bGEXKR9WUAtT9lZ2jCb0Jqu6rsnMhxH999WStbXEjz2uxknv3AMCkJJHppX3qx1acSdg9bY0ARWyiBUlk898Of7UA19Q1Sxespgqt3NZ7KnrBj-iefZ3NdoQGXuc/s400/Hebridesmap.png" title="Wikipedia's map of the Hebrides" width="257" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wikipedia's map of the Hebrides</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I still think of those Shropshire adventures as just paused, so for the new and different dungeon-based adventures I planned to start a few years ago (after reigniting with excitement from reading all the wonderful old-school renaissance posts about dungeon design and the mythic underworld) I did not want them to take place anywhere near Shropshire, to reduce the odds of cross-contamination of the adventures.<br />
<br />
Looking for isolation, I found it in the far North, which led me to Greg Stafford's marvelous supplement <i>Beyond the Wall, </i>which describes North Britain for his magnificent role-playing game <i>Pendragon. </i>If you're going to do Dark Age historical gaming in the British Isles, you need <i>Pendragon, </i>which is brilliantly constructed, meticulously researched, and beautifully mapped, with gazetteers full of concise place descriptions as stimulating as the best work Judges' Guild ever put out for their <i>Wilderlands of High Fantasy </i>supplements.<br />
<br />
My players tend to be a bit disruptive—the Shropshire campaign has so far accidentally set two enormous, angry, warring dragons upon Normandy, which is currently in flames, and refugees are fleeing all over Europe and so unlikely to invade England in another sixty-five years, oops—so even with the help of the physical dimensions of dungeons to constrain them, I wanted to place this new cycle of mythic-underworld adventures someplace isolated even from the isolated places, to limit the damage.<br />
<br />
Thus, I turned from the mainland of Scotland and Pictland to the islands, quickly settled on the Hebrides, and dubbed this new cycle of dungeon-based adventures Islandia. After all, the history of the Hebrides at this time was already so disrupted that historians and archaeologists are still struggling to piece it all together, like a dark age within a Dark Age, so those lacunae can cover a lot of player-induced chaos, allowing the mainland of Britain to still stay enough on course to leave me an intuitive baseline to work with for what's happening when the players aren't around.<br />
<br />
Some of the first fantasy novels I read as a child were C. S. Lewis's <i>The Voyage of the Dawn Treader </i>and Ursula LeGuin's <i>Earthsea Trilogy, </i>and British Celtic legends are packed with moody seascapes, mysterious islands that come and go, and hollow hills. I could at once see how this setting could greatly enrich gaming in the mythic underworld, inspiring changes in the modules that would make them less generic fantasy, more a unique experience for the players and me.<br />
<br />
To avoid cross-contamination from the increasingly epic Shropshire adventures, to create the space needed for these mythic-underworld adventures to develop their own flavor, I also isolated them temporally. The Shropshire cycle had advanced up through 30 June 1001, so I reset the Islandia games back to mid-Spring 1000, before my players upended the table on history.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6H7r1R7KLJf7mmI7VSu19Zb0KOliF6OGd8mcwq7HR9UDNXkMeO3GwbB-Ispmbq4Xpw7e2emlx0BfOTsbpVy6blWCsPD38OWLg7dTBuqaanf2feDYpK4hqu3pZMoXkgdBI5nvll-YIY60/s1600/Skye+with+Landmarks+20151201+toad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Campaign map of Skye, based on Wikipedia's topographical map" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6H7r1R7KLJf7mmI7VSu19Zb0KOliF6OGd8mcwq7HR9UDNXkMeO3GwbB-Ispmbq4Xpw7e2emlx0BfOTsbpVy6blWCsPD38OWLg7dTBuqaanf2feDYpK4hqu3pZMoXkgdBI5nvll-YIY60/s400/Skye+with+Landmarks+20151201+toad.jpg" title="Campaign map of Skye, based on Wikipedia's topographical map" width="353" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Campaign map of Skye, based on Wikipedia's topographical map</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
With the general time and place set, it was time to dial in and place where <i>In Search of the Unknown </i>could best take place.<br />
<br />
Of the Hebrides choices, <i>Beyond the Wall</i>'s gazetteer described the most adventure material for Skye. Google searches revealed this was no anomaly. Skye is packed with ancient brochs, cairns, duns, ghost villages, and other material ripe for fantasy gaming development, and Skye has a rich tradition of documenting their folklore. It was an embarrassment of riches, so Skye was the obvious choice.<br />
<br />
The combination of small population (to avoid the players' disruptive powers being too early inflicted upon a population center), central location, and a pleasant writeup in <i>Beyond the Wall </i>(which we won't be sharing with my players yet, because the details of that gazetteer entry have not yet come into play for the party) led me to the small village of Drynoch on Loch Harport, on the north edge of The Minginish peninsula. Our first game walkthrough, which we'll start in my next post, takes place in what passes for a public house in wee Drynoch. And as a small reference to <i>A Wrinkle in Time</i>—another early read, courtesy of my fourth grade teacher, Helen Yorozu, at Emerson Elementary School in South Seattle—it opens with a blustery, stormy day; anything or anyone might blow into town on such a day, even—gasp—player characters!<br />
<br />
I started with some fairly empty maps of Skye to work with, which was fine at first because the players were going to have their hands full dealing with their immediate environs, but after a little over a year of gaming I finally broke down and built the above campaign map of Skye, capturing all the ancient settlements and structures I could. Drynoch's isolation from big (well, "big"; this is Skye, not Yorkshire) population centers in 1001, already evident to me before I built this map, is nicely visualized here. I have no way of knowing if Drynoch existed at all back then, since William the Conqueror's <i>Domesday Book</i>—so useful to my Shropshire adventures—never reached this far north, but that works in our favor, too, since it leaves us free to invent, so long as we retain verisimilitude and internal consistency.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgosx9J_4rA9UEggyzeIN3c6c6ApeAJ9zudT-yr2VS8J4u87iu5Khx7PeJDI7bLNf1ye7q1quo06aAXNYhD37upKvt8lOh-QGc_euACZMQ8rYZh232MSVEp-NNlQ6G7mHpMxd6GvYd2w8U/s1600/20090801-dun-merkadale-close-toad.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Ordnance Survey map of the vicinity of Drynoch, showing Dun Merkadale" border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgosx9J_4rA9UEggyzeIN3c6c6ApeAJ9zudT-yr2VS8J4u87iu5Khx7PeJDI7bLNf1ye7q1quo06aAXNYhD37upKvt8lOh-QGc_euACZMQ8rYZh232MSVEp-NNlQ6G7mHpMxd6GvYd2w8U/s400/20090801-dun-merkadale-close-toad.tiff" title="Ordnance Survey map of the vicinity of Drynoch, showing Dun Merkadale" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ordnance Survey map of the vicinity of Drynoch, showing Dun Merkadale</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Great Britain's lovely and indispensable Ordnance Survey maps let me scout the immediate environs of Drynoch from the comfort of my home. Even though much has changed in the past thousand fifteen years, it's surprising based on the <i>Domesday Book </i>how much has not. Unlike America, which lost a lot of its history in the Great Plague and subsequent conquest of the Native Americans, Great Britain's history is deep. Wee villages and even the boundaries of fields have in many cases remained stable for twelve hundred years or more, so even a modern map like this is very helpful, when seen after spending years comparing modern Ordnance Survey maps to the <i>Domesday Book.</i><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcryO7Ln_-rT-PU4UvXeg4AAJt6ET-wscnioH3T_G9OGYzA6x5TjiItFwkO1LQsZIGJM0dx0jECWR0lQz3hWEORdr7ACf9JcldcfjB0csZqXBCpcL_W-Nq4N8Yc6CthV18HJ9WQI_Jedo/s1600/Dun+Merkadale+Close+3+20140512+toad.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Ordnance Survey Map of Dun Merkadale" border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcryO7Ln_-rT-PU4UvXeg4AAJt6ET-wscnioH3T_G9OGYzA6x5TjiItFwkO1LQsZIGJM0dx0jECWR0lQz3hWEORdr7ACf9JcldcfjB0csZqXBCpcL_W-Nq4N8Yc6CthV18HJ9WQI_Jedo/s400/Dun+Merkadale+Close+3+20140512+toad.tiff" title="Ordnance Survey Map of Dun Merkadale" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ordnance Survey Map of Dun Merkadale</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In keeping with our haunted-isles-and-hollow-hills theme for the Scottish mythic underworld, I chose the nearest dun—Dun Merkadale as the setting for my take on <i>In Search of the Unknown.</i><br />
<br />
The Ordnance Survey website also includes an option to look at the same location using some of their earliest maps, which date back a century or two. Those maps are <i>much </i>closer to the geography of 1000, with a lovely look and feel, and make valuable gaming references if you're lucky enough to be running games in the British Isles.<br />
<br />
For my Shropshire games back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I ordered both folding and rolled up maps to cover the areas we were gaming in. Seeing the locations of copses, wells, streams, cliffs, and ruins is extremely stimulating to story- and scenario-production when gaming, so it's a good investment if you're going to stick with a setting.<br />
<br />
I've not yet made that investment for these adventures based on <i>In Search of the Unknown </i>because the remarkable professionals at Ordnance Survey somehow never got around to mapping the hollow hills and other settings of the mythic underworld with the same level of attention to detail and professionalism they brought to the surface world of mere mortals—and who can blame them, since the lands of the fae are so often difficult to pin down—so for the players' home base and other aboveground needs, captures of online maps are all we need for now.<br />
<br />
I'm sure many of you are bemused by the absurd lengths to which I went to choose the setting for a module that originally had almost no description of the surrounding area, but I had good reasons. First, that very absence was noted by several reviewers of the module as a weak spot and was among the reasons Gary Gygax replaced it in the <i>Basic D&D </i>sets with B2 <i>Keep on the Borderlands, </i>because sandbox play is a fun element of D&D but it demands a sandbox, which B1 failed to provide. Second, just as the wells and springs and ruins on the Ordnance Survey maps for the Shropshire Highlands were creatively stimulating, so the details of this choice of settings has already proven very fertile ground for me, as I knew it would. Third, though, as I noted at the outset, for me this is not work; it's fun. There's no right or wrong way to prep your games, so long as you and your players are having a good time. Do what works for you. This works for me.<br />
<br />
And so, without further ado, starting next post, we'll begin to recount the tale of Mahdi al-Wali, Sorcha the Urchin, and Evadne Moon-Touched as they venture <i>In Search of the Unknown.</i><br />
<a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D6495242090880926603%23editor%2Ftarget%3Dpost%3BpostID%3D6038570701571913340%3BonPublishedMenu%3Dallposts%3BonClosedMenu%3Dallposts%3BpostNum%3D47%3Bsrc%3Dlink&media=https%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-wZ1heibRH-U%2FVl6ImvZpdOI%2FAAAAAAAAAw0%2FFykQwM1KJVU%2Fs400%2F20090801-dun-merkadale-close-toad.tiff&xm=h&xv=sa1.37.01&xuid=gfSF4L4KU8_D&description=Ordnance%20Survey%20map%20of%20the%20vicinity%20of%20Drynoch%2C%20showing%20Dun%20Merkadale" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 32px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 2238px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.blogger.com%2Fblogger.g%3FblogID%3D6495242090880926603%23editor%2Ftarget%3Dpost%3BpostID%3D6038570701571913340%3BonPublishedMenu%3Dallposts%3BonClosedMenu%3Dallposts%3BpostNum%3D47%3Bsrc%3Dlink&media=https%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-wZ1heibRH-U%2FVl6ImvZpdOI%2FAAAAAAAAAw0%2FFykQwM1KJVU%2Fs400%2F20090801-dun-merkadale-close-toad.tiff&xm=h&xv=sa1.37.01&xuid=gfSF4L4KU8_D&description=Ordnance%20Survey%20map%20of%20the%20vicinity%20of%20Drynoch%2C%20showing%20Dun%20Merkadale" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; left: 32px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; top: 2238px; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a>Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-85201276910438209602015-11-30T22:23:00.001-08:002015-12-01T07:40:39.270-08:00B1E Dun Merkadale: aka B1 In Search of the Unknown<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX5b8yOodwXO_zwxLngM6M0qr1BNeYx5maCBD3fyZLKySDR6Hab1LtF5I7sclftAHU0FBuFHoklD0_I4GVSv1VjC7pw-jM362mLBMhPuiedBxyvjgC_YM6Pr26Nlvo_eQf6oymaJ6bICs/s1600/B1-cover-back-1979+Sutherland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="In Search of the Unknown back-cover art by David Sutherland" border="0" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX5b8yOodwXO_zwxLngM6M0qr1BNeYx5maCBD3fyZLKySDR6Hab1LtF5I7sclftAHU0FBuFHoklD0_I4GVSv1VjC7pw-jM362mLBMhPuiedBxyvjgC_YM6Pr26Nlvo_eQf6oymaJ6bICs/s400/B1-cover-back-1979+Sutherland.jpg" title="In Search of the Unknown back-cover art by David Sutherland" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In Search of the Unknown: David Sutherland's back-cover art</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
My regular Thursday-night gaming group—Brendan Barr, Eileen Gormly, Kathy Ice, and Beverly Marshall Saling—has been playing in Brendan's 13th Age campaign once a month when Eileen can join us, usually the first Thursday of the month. The remaining Thursdays I've been running them through the classic 1979 Dungeons & Dragons module B1, <i>In Search of the Unknown</i>.<br />
<br />
B1's stated purpose is to introduce new dungeon masters to the art of designing and running their own dungeons. Author Mike Carr did the hard work of creating a dungeon—came up with the premise, built the maps, described the rooms, wrote guidance about how to DM, and built tables to help stock the dungeon with monsters and treasure—but deliberately left out the most creative parts for novice DMs to fill in: deciding which monsters and treasures to place where, working out their story, if any, and deciding whether or where to place a boss monster. One of B1's virtues, therefore, is that it's never the same module twice, because the DM's design choices can change everything. Its replay value is excellent.<br />
<br />
When I found out my gaming group had never played any classic D&D modules, I knew that I wanted to be the one to introduce them and that this was the one I wanted to start them with. I never run a module the way it was published. I started gaming before there were modules, so building or at least tinkering is second nature to me, and this module is tinker-friendly.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5ZG1BnynfItkyx_Fo58ZVObwJJlBzbk3EgaTXJjAqaSvuSyqV89wUrR-oiML-EP2IdL3AV9_aoaiFTPa7K6w85G6kIOjHsNgETQKV5ej2RNFUPMV6u78-egL1zOS-IDL5HqXSjnEYjwE/s1600/Mousa_Broch_20080821_02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5ZG1BnynfItkyx_Fo58ZVObwJJlBzbk3EgaTXJjAqaSvuSyqV89wUrR-oiML-EP2IdL3AV9_aoaiFTPa7K6w85G6kIOjHsNgETQKV5ej2RNFUPMV6u78-egL1zOS-IDL5HqXSjnEYjwE/s400/Mousa_Broch_20080821_02.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In Englandia, Sutherland's tower becomes a mysterious Scottish broch.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Besides, I have to tinker with any module I run today for three reasons:<br />
<br />
1) I've read far too many excellent articles from the Old-School Renaissance about the finest qualities in dungeon design not to want to apply them in my own dungeons. Who wants to play in an underground fortress when you can play in the mythic underworld!<br />
<br />
2) Our game group isn't playing original or Holmes D&D, which B1 was written for, but Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet's <i>13th Age, </i>which adds intriguing dimensions to the game, some of which I need to prep beforehand.<br />
<br />
3) Since April 1997 I have DMed neither generic fantasy settings nor any commercial ones such as Greyhawk, Blackmoor, or Mystara but rather my own homebrew world of Englandia, based on Earth in the year 1000—if the supernatural were real, rare, and worked the way each real-world culture thought it did at the time. For example, instead of generic clerics, thieves, and fighters, Englandia has:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>a Moon-touched Greek priestess of Artemis with a waxing-waning love-hate relationship with her goddess;</li>
<li>an inconspicuous basket-wielding Scottish urchin who only takes things because they call out to her and insist on going with her; and</li>
<li>a Persian Sufi demon-hunter traveling the world to free people from demons in the name of Allah the most merciful.</li>
</ul>
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When the setting is this specific, the rules this different, and the mythic-underworld potential this rich, the module is definitely going to go through a transformation.<br />
<br />
In this next series of posts at <i>Oaths and Fates, </i>I'll share our party's play sessions, with diversions about the module, the setting, the rules, the Old-School Renaissance, and whatever else strikes my fancy. Since my players are having a blast, they agreed we should share the fun with all y'all.<br />
<br />
One caveat: since my players have never been through this module before, I'm not going to explain things they have not encountered or figured out yet, and I ask that you do the same. <i>In Search of the Unknown </i>is known for its mysteries and surprises, so let's ensure these players get to enjoy them.Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-66920675603223584152015-04-25T14:59:00.000-07:002015-04-25T14:59:00.181-07:0013th Age<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoNXJhi2yXjCwdY2rIJh05dSbm973oqhiQ64cMqrQY3dbjQdESpLiQutFXbNZw2k0re846syXC1LZQyHlxp8Pb0AuWvjZdZysXM_aAthlyviEfZ2VqD_ECkMw6ccb8kC_40ncnXmwAMnU/s1600/Rick+at+Hollys+Grad+Party+2013-05-18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoNXJhi2yXjCwdY2rIJh05dSbm973oqhiQ64cMqrQY3dbjQdESpLiQutFXbNZw2k0re846syXC1LZQyHlxp8Pb0AuWvjZdZysXM_aAthlyviEfZ2VqD_ECkMw6ccb8kC_40ncnXmwAMnU/s1600/Rick+at+Hollys+Grad+Party+2013-05-18.jpg" height="133" width="200" /></a></div>
Work has continued to consume my life, but it's long since time to reassert some better work-home balance. Life must hold its share of joy and mirth. To that end, I'm resuming work on Oaths and Fates. The continuing history of Wizards of the Coast will resume a little later; several of us are discussing teaming up on the project, which can only help enrich the history. For now, let's return to some simple gaming fun.<br />
<br />
What's happened in my gaming world since 2011?<br />
<br />
My 2010 plans to run my regular party - Beverly Saling, Kathy Ice, and Eileen Gormly - through Michael Curtis's <i>Stonehell Dungeon </i>using Jonathan Tweet's <i>Everway </i>game system was sidelined by work and illness, so I shifted to playing instead of running games. We were joined by Brendan Barr to play <i>Danger Quest </i>and <i>D&D 4th Edition </i>in 2010 through 2012. Late 2012 and early 2013, I played an early draft of <i>D&D Next </i>with Peter Adkison DMing and filming for his project <i>The First Paladin, </i>which gave me some quality time with our dear friend CJ before his unexpected and untimely passing. I also did some prep with a third gaming group to play <i>Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, </i>which has not yet come to fruition, though someday it may yet.<br />
<br />
All of these entertaining distractions helped postpone my plans for <i>Everway, </i>but it was Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet's <i>13th Age </i>project that put an end to them, because <i>13th Age </i>is a fascinating creation and the focus for my playing and DMing these days.<br />
<br />
We've been playing <i>13th Age </i>- intermittently, as illness and my work schedule allow - for the past two years and enjoy it greatly. I've even started DMing again - I ran sessions in May, June, and December of last year, and resumed again this month.<br />
<br />
Some day I'll pick back up my <i>Stonehell Dungeon </i>project with <i>13th Age </i>instead of <i>Everway, </i>but for now I've shifted my DMing focus to the classic D&D and AD&D modules we grew up with. Beverly never got to play in those modules, and she'd like to experience them, so we're recreating the classic modules of D&D using <i>13th Age </i>rules set in the mythic Englandia of 1000 AD. I'll be sharing background and play sessions of the party's complete run through these adventures, starting with the module that launched so many of us, <i>B1 In Search of the Unknown </i>by Mike Carr.<br />
<br />
I hope you find our weird mix of historical fantasy, classic role-playing structures, and modern role-playing rules entertaining and enlightening.Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-47348272361678460572014-03-04T15:59:00.001-08:002014-03-04T15:59:03.768-08:00History Repeats Itself, But Never the Same Way TwiceMy little nonprofit, the VISTA Expertise Network, just went through its dark winter. From April last year through now, we have weathered a tough time.<br />
<br />
This was not the result of any lawsuit, the way it was with Wizards of the Coast. We are highly respected in the VISTA community, and had just completed phase one of a contract to upgrade the toughest application in VISTA - File Manager - which we did on time, on budget, and with all promised features delivered. We got glowing reviews from our contract officer, and we were riding high, but then all the cards fell wrong for us on the table, so that suddenly no one had any full-size VISTA gigs for us to work on. The sponsors of our VA project all simultaneously left VA, leaving our project without a champion. Multiple sure things fell through. Other projects were a year or more late in actually starting, leaving us with very little income for most of 2013 and the start of 2014.<br />
<br />
In November, after we put on our successful VISTA Expo and Symposium in Seattle, we had to lay off most of our staff, because we just did not have the income to pay them. We shrank down to a small core and stayed there for four months, but now things are finally turning back around, and we are beginning the process of bringing everyone back on board.<br />
<br />
The parallels with what happened to Wizards did not escape me during that time, nor did the irony of my previous post - that I was celebrating my restart of this blog right as my opportunity to do so was taken from me, and that I quoted Ward Proctor's insight about why simple survival is the key to success, so that we get the chance to execute when the right time comes along.<br />
<br />
It took all my concentration to keep our little nonprofit afloat, and the hard work of Sam and Linda, and the sacrifices by those staff members who agreed to go on unemployment, with only our shared faith that this was only an aberration in our economy that when corrected would let everyone come back. It also took the small but vital opportunities given us during that interregnum by our allied organizations in the VISTA community, who found small projects here and there for us to do, which brought in the small stream of revenue we needed to cover the costs of the small core, from which we can now rebuild. That left no time for written reflections on Wizards's history, though we spoke of it often during the past year.<br />
<br />
Paradoxically, although this means things are about to get a lot busier for the Network, it means I can go back to normal hours and income, which gives me back the time I need to pick this story back up and carry it further for you all.<br />
<br />
In light of the recent untimely death of beloved Wizards alumnus Cliffton Anthony "CJ" Jones - about which more soon - many of us felt it was time to resume telling the Wizards story. Beverly and I are discussing the right sequence for the next series of posts, and in the meantime I have some housekeeping posts to do, to link in other discussions from the past year about Wizards of the Coast and its history.<br />
<br />
I hope you will enjoy them.Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-67184560398058437692013-04-03T21:54:00.000-07:002013-04-03T21:54:17.002-07:00Wizards: The Moment Pregnant with the Future<br />
They say a picture's worth a thousand words, and they say brevity is the soul of wit, but they aren't always right. Some things that are important can only be explained in words - in more than a few words - because we don't have precisely the right words to explain them, and because there can be no sufficiently illuminating pictures of them.<br />
<br />
The answer to this question is one of those things:<br />
<br />
How did things for Wizards of the Coast go from so good (first professional product) to so bad (the edge of bankruptcy) to so much better (Magic)?<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
A wise friend of mine from the South, a painter named Ward Proctor, once told me that the secret to success is survival, not because survival is success, but because no one knows when opportunities to succeed will come along. You have to last long enough, until they do, and when they happen you have to be healthy and competent enough to know what to do with them.<br />
<br />
Gamblers are losers, because what looks like the right opportunity will actually be the wrong one more often than not; even if you win now, you'll lose later. If you bet the farm on one moment in time, on just making it to some arbitrary goal post, then you're going to fail, because you can't control when the real opportunity will come, as opposed to the illusions that lure us into overextending ourselves. Murphy's Law is no joke. Most of the "sure things" are just traps to lure you into commiting yourself to a failure. Life ain't like it is in the movies; most of the time, we can't know what the genuine thing looks like until it has already happened.<br />
<br />
You have to have a lot of lines in the water, because you don't know which one the big fish is going to bite - you certainly can't tell the size of the fish from the pull on the rod. And when you seize the moment, you have to do it in a sustainable way, in case it isn't the real thing, so you don't lose track of the other lines. While you're attending the pole that has a tiny fish tugging away on it like anything, the big fish might be quietly nibbling on the rod that's hardly moving at all.<br />
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You have to play the long game, the patient game, learning what success looks like, learning the landscape, gaining experience, improving your ability to survive, and making yourself better able to seize the moment when it comes. Above all, you have to protect and develop your capacity to do your job well and to go on doing your job. You have to keep your feet under you and not get carried away by hopes and first impressions.<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
The ancient Greeks had a word for this; they called it <i>kairos, </i>which means the moment in time you need to seize, the one that's different from all the others, the time when what you do matters in a way it just doesn't most of the time, the time you have to prepare for your whole life sometimes just to be good enough to be able to handle it when it comes.<br />
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Kairos is hard to recognize unless you're a master in your field, and even masters often fail to recognize it. Most people who act at that moment have blundered into it by accident. Most people who have the chance to act at that moment miss it; they don't recognize it at all.<br />
<br />
Most people who do act at that moment, whether they recognize it for what it is or not, screw it up. It is so very easy to screw up. Usually they're just not ready. Kairos has arrived too soon in their lives; if it had arrived a few years later, when they knew more, they could have been wildly successful, but instead they squander the moment and everything falls apart. Sometimes it arrives too late.<br />
<br />
But even when it arrives exactly on time, and we act on it then, when we should, kairos is fraught with peril. When people say power corrupts, they do not realize they are actually talking about kairos, the time when all the threads of our lives and the world around us seem to fall into place, when we are magnified. It's the moment when what we do matters, when the things we do right suddenly make a difference.<br />
<br />
The good is magnified, yes, but so is the bad. The things we do wrong are also magnified, and we make mistakes on a scale we normally never could have. The bad habits we let slide, that we defensively hid from others instead of dealing with, the things we put off, the things we didn't bother to learn, all those things suddenly matter now, bad habits seeming to burst out of us, like seeds frantically flowering in a brief Arctic summer. We are put under pressures we never before experienced, and our true character is revealed, warts and horns and clay feet and all.<br />
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That's why even when kairos arrives in our lives at the perfect time, the results are never perfect. Even when they're wildly exciting and successful, they're also simultaneously more confusing and difficult than we ever could have dreamed, because until then, until we were put to the test, we did not really know ourselves and each other as well as we thought we did.<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
That's why things for Wizards of the Coast went from so good (first professional product) to so bad (the edge of bankruptcy) to so much better (Magic). That's the most concise explanation I have for everything that happened. The details of the story - the interesting part to most people - illuminate kairos with a clarity few things can, once you understand how to interpret them, because the story of everything that happened at Wizards of the Coast around Magic: The Gathering is the story of how my friends found themselves in that rare moment that matters; suddenly everything good and bad about them was magnified. Their successes or failures, their enlightenments or benightednesses, friendships shattered or forged, the overcoming of obstacles or squandering of opportunities, the painful lessons or naive mistakes - all of this came from who they were at the moment when it mattered as it never had before.<br />
<br />
So with my break from this tale complete for now, let's go back and shed some more light on what happened, why my friends did what they did, and why things played out as they did.<br />
Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-48640543736385225982013-04-01T16:17:00.002-07:002013-04-02T19:09:12.393-07:00Freeport and Other Great RPG Cities<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ9Ehs7MtopGXrINOrbPGzIY7dneuen2yI-VTA0D6yJZhLwtuLciJb1vNhwAXxys7HpLQQU9-t9eAjHg2fHoJl2YoIN0g-SLkyMmJZp8eKe9z5ZZ3GE6xWAYghf7xMr1cC8zIGrRR_QIE/s1600/beabfb4aeea53052a2de99509f541572_large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="85" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ9Ehs7MtopGXrINOrbPGzIY7dneuen2yI-VTA0D6yJZhLwtuLciJb1vNhwAXxys7HpLQQU9-t9eAjHg2fHoJl2YoIN0g-SLkyMmJZp8eKe9z5ZZ3GE6xWAYghf7xMr1cC8zIGrRR_QIE/s320/beabfb4aeea53052a2de99509f541572_large.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
In fantasy role-playing games, dungeons get all the love for adventuring in, but as Fritz Leiber taught us, cities can be incredible places to adventure in. They heve some of the same advantages - a (semi-)pinned down geography that frees up the DM's cognitive real estate to focus on the players' reactions to suggest further adventure embroidery. An RPG city occupies that sweet-spot middle ground between the structure of a dungeon and the structurelessness of wilderness adventures, creating one of the best kinds of sandbox environments for player-driven gaming.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ1Vc_MWyxCosSv-5IakQnyJ_FWzCQxZ1U_nQcyod55v_mDeVWrjI7LdCyxEa1yWc3GcCg6jiu5CLHgQUR-cmRSMt7IgLzK1MjnW0EdCUuzPn2GzAhKxYSCeTxP_XF9b1NuVWY5GRgc7U/s1600/photo-main.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ1Vc_MWyxCosSv-5IakQnyJ_FWzCQxZ1U_nQcyod55v_mDeVWrjI7LdCyxEa1yWc3GcCg6jiu5CLHgQUR-cmRSMt7IgLzK1MjnW0EdCUuzPn2GzAhKxYSCeTxP_XF9b1NuVWY5GRgc7U/s200/photo-main.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Consider Freeport, one of the classic FRPG cities. If you've ever tried to develop an entire city suitable for role-playing, you know how hard it is, but Chris has done a great job of it. Freeport has its own distinctive character as a fantasy city, and it's a rich environment for catalyzing adventures.<br />
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Also, pirates! Arrrrrh!<br />
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Green Ronin and Fiery Dragon want to treat it right with a new, hefty sourcebook. My friend Chris Pramas has just forty-five minutes left to raise the last $3,000 to make his final Kickstarter stretch goal. If you enjoy role-playing games, you should go pledge to help him get there (<a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1780208966/freeport-the-city-of-adventure-for-the-pathfinder">http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1780208966/freeport-the-city-of-adventure-for-the-pathfinder</a>).<br />
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After you go pledge, come back here and tell me about your favorite RPG city to game in and why. Tell us a story about something that happened in a game set in that city that helps us to understand why you like it so much.<br />
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Here is a list of FRPG cities to help stimulate some memories:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgpQcbIKCeeMv9dtk2kghlRkwgTZChY0Huz2GUu1ppcV5WTYnRo11SD3TNfOY15odO3gXT0Zl3bP3ZWfwSyGfVTq1unLLKeFzmuFVNvjPOo9QSbPPZPunKaUWlyg0E24HncdqHkiKljcM/s1600/CSIO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgpQcbIKCeeMv9dtk2kghlRkwgTZChY0Huz2GUu1ppcV5WTYnRo11SD3TNfOY15odO3gXT0Zl3bP3ZWfwSyGfVTq1unLLKeFzmuFVNvjPOo9QSbPPZPunKaUWlyg0E24HncdqHkiKljcM/s200/CSIO.jpg" width="155" /></a></div>
City State of the Invincible Overlord (1977, Bob Bledsaw and Bill Owen; Judges Guild)<br />
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generic city in (in Cities: A Gamemaster's Guide to Encounters and Other Rules for Fantasy Games, 1979, Stephen Abrams and Jon Everson; Midkemia)<br />
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Carse (1980, April and Stephen Abrams; Midkemia Press)<br />
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City State of the World Emperor (1980, Bob Bledsaw and Craighton Hippenhammer; Judges Guild)<br />
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Haven (in The Free City of Haven, 1981, Richard Meyer and Kerry Lloyd; Gamelords)<br />
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Sanctuary (in Thieves' World, 1981, Greg Stafford, Dave Arneson, Steve Marsh, Midkemia Press, Marc Miller, Steve Perrin, Lawrence Schick, Ken St. Andre, et al; Chaosium)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPpzUe9AM-pEpTc6dznMMiem7bSoG4Hf9uQUfkXEHGPKqw0z3fQpvQdlJNaXnk6VUM95L0mBHC7n8LmHdu9chQMCV6Vg3KIdHi-dqzFFc-qkWw9i45Kndqsm2pt1TzDbx4MZ8lq-09ICY/s1600/pic685362_md.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPpzUe9AM-pEpTc6dznMMiem7bSoG4Hf9uQUfkXEHGPKqw0z3fQpvQdlJNaXnk6VUM95L0mBHC7n8LmHdu9chQMCV6Vg3KIdHi-dqzFFc-qkWw9i45Kndqsm2pt1TzDbx4MZ8lq-09ICY/s200/pic685362_md.jpg" width="148" /></a></div>
the Citybook city (in the Citybook series, 1982-1997, Ed Andrews, Dave Arneson, Norma Blair, Grant S. Boucher, Stuart Bute, Deborah Cady, Thessaloniki Canotas, Deborah Christian, William W. Connors, Brandon Corey, Steven S. Crompton, Kevin Crossman, Liz Danforth, Lawrence DiTillio, Lee Duigon, Panda England, Joe Formichella, Janrae Frank, Greg Gordon, Bob Greenwade, Jeff Halsey, Beth Hannan-Rimmels, Scott Haring, Ed Heil, Dave Helber, Paul Jaquays, Stefan Jones, Thomas M. Kane, Mike Keller, William Kerr, J.D. Kirkland-Revels, Rudy Kraft, Randall G. Kuipers, Charles de Lint, Rick Loomis, Seng Mah, Anita Martinez, Dennis L. McKiernan, John Merkel, Shawn Moore, Ashley Morton, John Nephew, Paul O'Connor, Mark O'Green, Stephan Peregrin, Bill Paley, Jim "Bear" Peters, Glenn Rahman, T.L. Riseden, Jennifer Roberson, S. John Ross, Tom Rushford, Jason Sato, Richard Shaffstall, Lester Smith, Warren Spector, Michael A. Stackpole, Lisa Stevens, Hank Stine, Brent Stroh, B. Dennis Sustare, Tim Taylor, John Terra, Allen Varney, Lisa Walker, James L. Walker, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Don Webb, Wayne West, Allen Wold, Debora L. Wykle; Flying Buffalo)<br />
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Aleath (in Cities of Harn, 1983, N. Robin Crossby; and in Son of Cities, 1987, Edwin King and Brian Clemens; Columbia Games)<br />
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Cherafir (in Cities of Harn, 1983, N. Robin Crossby; and in Son of Cities, 1987, Edwin King and Brian Clemens; Columbia Games)<br />
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Coranan (in Cities of Harn, 1983, N. Robin Crossby; and in Son of Cities, 1987, Edwin King and Brian Clemens; Columbia Games)<br />
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Golotha (in Cities of Harn, 1983, N. Robin Crossby; and in Son of Cities, 1987, Edwin King and Brian Clemens; and in City of Golotha, 2003, N. Robin Crossby, Ed King, and John Sgammato; Columbia Games)<br />
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Pavis: Threshold to Danger (1983, Greg Stafford and Steve Perrin; Chaosium)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sUOn3VHDDFP-bFuYdKfGyJacQVmJ8g-Q82Vlzhv-Mp9KrPusl2h2LmEl6bEcXm1lBurRnH6pqXvXMvIQ9oZoJI7ni9aArcvkKFLF0zVUOB2zRCiK_5t0KQn6V8KLjD3owylL8xdD2Y8/s1600/61AK5CZZJ8L._SS500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1sUOn3VHDDFP-bFuYdKfGyJacQVmJ8g-Q82Vlzhv-Mp9KrPusl2h2LmEl6bEcXm1lBurRnH6pqXvXMvIQ9oZoJI7ni9aArcvkKFLF0zVUOB2zRCiK_5t0KQn6V8KLjD3owylL8xdD2Y8/s200/61AK5CZZJ8L._SS500_.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Shiran (in Cities of Harn, 1983, N. Robin Crossby; and in Son of Cities, 1987, Edwin King and Brian Clemens; Columbia Games)<br />
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Tashal (in Cities of Harn, 1983, N. Robin Crossby; and in Son of Cities, 1987, Edwin King and Brian Clemens; and in City of Tashal, 2005, N. Robin Crossby, Ed King, and John Sgammato; Columbia Games)<br />
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Thay (in Cities of Harn, 1983, N. Robin Crossby; and in Son of Cities, 1987, Edwin King and Brian Clemens; Columbia Games)<br />
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Lankhmar: City of Adventure (1985, Bruce Nesmith, Douglas Niles, and Ken Rolston; TSR)<br />
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Laelith (in Empires & Dynasties, 1986, Patrick Durand-Peyroles)<br />
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Middenheim (in City: A Complete Guide to Middenheim, City of the White Wolf, 1987, Carl Sargent; Games Workshop)<br />
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Minas Tirith: Cities of Middle-earth (1988, Graham Staplehurst, Peter C. Fenlon, and Angus McBride; Iron Crown Enterprises)<br />
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Waterdeep and the North (1988, Ed Greenwood; TSR)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdl-Khe_9TA5McFiCdgl34CjMwGqPtSGS0e2q3ksIhag5DGKjNnf9h3q4SFs0C7HmNK8f4qA9tZIE1jgLHV-8UlMGgAXIMoGms_soc4i9oVgns8YHO6-jbXqwNf2ICQoS_Fkp5YxWyBx4/s1600/gh-city.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdl-Khe_9TA5McFiCdgl34CjMwGqPtSGS0e2q3ksIhag5DGKjNnf9h3q4SFs0C7HmNK8f4qA9tZIE1jgLHV-8UlMGgAXIMoGms_soc4i9oVgns8YHO6-jbXqwNf2ICQoS_Fkp5YxWyBx4/s200/gh-city.jpg" width="158" /></a></div>
The City Of Greyhawk (1989, Douglas Niles, Mike Breault, Kim Mohan; TSR)<br />
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Tantras (1989, Ed Greenwood; TSR)<br />
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Arkham (in Arkham Unveiled, 1990, Keith Herber, Mark Morrison, and Richard Watts; Chaosium)<br />
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Eldarad: The Lost City (1990, Chris Watson; Avalon Hill)<br />
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Kingsport: The City in the Mists (1991, Kevin A. Ross; Chaosium)<br />
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Bral (in The Rock of Bral, 1992, Richard Baker; TSR)<br />
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Waterdeep (in Volo's Guide to Waterdeep, 1992, Ed Greenwood; and City of Splendors: Waterdeep, 2005, Eric L. Boyd; Wizards of the Coast)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1VzAZ6K42Mtf7AU0joNcBXus8rxL8hwxg0ZzED7FhS3K-96uF7KeOtf-9ssNaWfcEnPynyEi5F-E4FGXgBerm3zxjUiwujhs-YU0X6FaMM5iQyDobFoigGXiYr5qPIGh3P0WTf_VvxIA/s1600/aq-cod.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1VzAZ6K42Mtf7AU0joNcBXus8rxL8hwxg0ZzED7FhS3K-96uF7KeOtf-9ssNaWfcEnPynyEi5F-E4FGXgBerm3zxjUiwujhs-YU0X6FaMM5iQyDobFoigGXiYr5qPIGh3P0WTf_VvxIA/s200/aq-cod.jpg" width="161" /></a></div>
Huzuz (in City of Delights, 1993, Tim Beach, Steve Kurtz, and Tom Prusa; TSR)<br />
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Sigil (in In the Cage: A Guide to Sigil, 1995, Wolfgang Baur and Rick Swan; TSR)<br />
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Zhentil Keep (in Ruins of Zhentil Keep, 1995, Kevin Melka and John Terra; TSR)<br />
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Daggerford (in The North: Guide to the Savage Frontier, Slade; Wizards of the Coast)<br />
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Calimport (1998, Steven E. Schend; Wizards of the Coast)<br />
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Palanthas (1998, Steven Brown; Wizards of the Coast)<br />
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Ravens Bluff (1998, Ed Greenwood; TSR)<br />
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Skullport (1998, Joseph Wolf; TSR)<br />
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Mordheim: City of the Damned (1999, Alessio Cavatore, Tuomas Pirinen, and Rick Priestley; Games Workshop)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiokar7Y2VSH0xazhaISElq9XRGArtU1flxHWD87NXYtsVEapxlUEzO2Jz5b8aT92A_WVp2jgqDRW82khsjQke6Rwcrv4AYxxz6cCZm_Ju_CrM_5rakcakj8bK4_vq5I8KUGALnKo0O3E/s1600/05c61aa8e43be8de0aec136dedbd161d_large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="93" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiokar7Y2VSH0xazhaISElq9XRGArtU1flxHWD87NXYtsVEapxlUEzO2Jz5b8aT92A_WVp2jgqDRW82khsjQke6Rwcrv4AYxxz6cCZm_Ju_CrM_5rakcakj8bK4_vq5I8KUGALnKo0O3E/s200/05c61aa8e43be8de0aec136dedbd161d_large.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Freeport (2000, Chris Pramas; Green Ronin)<br />
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Hollowfaust: City of Necromancers (2001, Ethan Skemp; White Wolf)<br />
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Mithril: City of the Golem (2001, Deidre Brooks, Ben Lam, and Anthony Pryor; White Wolf)<br />
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the city (in Urban Blight, 2002, Doug G. Herring and Andrew Thompson; Mystic Eye Games)<br />
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Bluffside: City on the Edge (2002, Jim Govreau, Curtis Bennett, Jeff Quinn, and Andrew Troman; Mystic Eye Games)<br />
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Geanavue: The Stones of Peace (2002, Ed Greenwood; Kenzer and Company)<br />
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Marchion (in Splinteres Peace, 2002, David Chart; Atlas Games)<br />
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the city (in Citycraft/Cityworks, 2003, Mike Mearls; Fantasy Flight Games)<br />
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the city (in A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe, 2003, Joseph Browning, Suzi Yee; Expeditious Retreat Press)<br />
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Dun Eamon (in The Grey Citadel, 2003, Nathan Paul; Necromancer Games)<br />
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Loona: Port of Intrigue (2003, Ed Greenwood and Phil Thompson; Kenzer and Company)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLY0rS7XWu1zsNdxNY2kpRuUJuOeltaHKIRh8j8VXQOzW1yhYzzvN0L8r_DxZK2HcyCvg24WbQ_3JdBE-dEiSuvLX4elZlQbsIspUF6R7oRheuw1t3Y-5AlKhAZKhPrLjZ3iaVqvWAodk/s1600/lcob_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLY0rS7XWu1zsNdxNY2kpRuUJuOeltaHKIRh8j8VXQOzW1yhYzzvN0L8r_DxZK2HcyCvg24WbQ_3JdBE-dEiSuvLX4elZlQbsIspUF6R7oRheuw1t3Y-5AlKhAZKhPrLjZ3iaVqvWAodk/s200/lcob_cover.jpg" width="155" /></a></div>
Endhome (in The Lost City of Barakus, 2003, W.D.B. Kenower and Bill Webb; Necromancer Games)<br />
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Parma: Streets of Silver (2003, Thomas Anderson, Evan Bernstein, Shayne Brown, Marcy Canterbury, Jacek Chodnicki, Celeste DeAngelis, John Faugno, Larry Fitzgerald, John Fornish, Mike Grenier, Inger Henning, David Hoenig, Steve Kubat, Lee Lucsky, Steve Novella, Edward Povilaitis, Joe Unfried; Living Imagination)<br />
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Shelzar: City of Sins (2003, Dave Brohman and James Maliszewski; White Wolf)<br />
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Liberty (in Thieves Quarter, Temple Quarter, and Arcane Quarter, 2004-2006, J. D. Wiker and Jonathan Kirtz; The Game Mechanics)<br />
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Sharn: City of Towers (2004, Keith Baker and James Wyatt; Wizards of the Coast)<br />
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Yggsburgh (in Castle Zagyg Volume One, 2005, Gary Gygax; Troll Lord Games)<br />
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Bards Gate (2006, Casey Christofferson, Scott Greene and Shane Glodoski; Necromancer Games)<br />
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Five Fingers: Ports of Deceit (2006, Doug Seacat and Wolfgang Baur; Privateer Press)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitVMieweLMG5ZwW_u6DkztTvsVkDkZBDreNgJIYV9mJooXNzNHcXbHNcs1bVRmrPlzrGat_RlMAOfWYWppJMYz4I3d9_Q0J4TR_7ZfF2tUimGPte0LzN8Zb0hjmmXcsNMPQ5assFZ94oM/s1600/Ptolus_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitVMieweLMG5ZwW_u6DkztTvsVkDkZBDreNgJIYV9mJooXNzNHcXbHNcs1bVRmrPlzrGat_RlMAOfWYWppJMYz4I3d9_Q0J4TR_7ZfF2tUimGPte0LzN8Zb0hjmmXcsNMPQ5assFZ94oM/s200/Ptolus_cover.jpg" width="131" /></a></div>
Ptolus: City by the Spire (2006, Monte Cook; Malhavoc Press)<br />
<br />
Cillamar (in Castle Whiterock, 2007, Chris Doyle and Adrian Pommier; Goodman games)<br />
<br />
Shadowdale: The Scouring Of The Land (2007, Richard Baker, Eric L. Boyd, and Thomas M. Reid; Wizards of the Coast)<br />
<br />
The Great City (2008, Mario Barbati; 0one games)<br />
<br />
If you can think of any other classics I'm missing, let me know about it. My thanks to the good folks over at ENWorld for their FRPG city discussions, which helped me build this list far beyond the ones I was familiar with.Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-56429325991410752902012-07-18T22:06:00.000-07:002012-07-18T22:06:13.488-07:00Wizards: Nostalgia, Part One<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A page from Castles and Conquest by "Wizards of the Coast" in 1983</td></tr>
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<br />
Let's turn back the clock a bit.<br />
<br />
On Monday, 16 October 1989, Ken McGlothlen was working three jobs: (1) at the University of Washington (UW) Biostatistics department typesetting a biostats textbook in TeX, (2) being a computer consultant/operator at NOAA/PMEL on Sand Point, and (3) working as a system/network administrator at StatSci. Peter was working at Boeing.<br />
<br />
Ken was living in an apartment in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood (at 5603 7th Avenue Northwest #1, fourteen blocks from where Beverly and I live now). His apartment was a three-bedroom, two-story unit in a triplex. It was evening, and Ken was alone upstairs on the computer in the southeast bedroom. Internet access was not as easy to come by in those days as it is today, but Ken had access to the Internet via Unix machines at the UW thanks to his job there, and Peter had access through his job at Boeing. That evening (in the days before Facebook and Skype) they were nevertheless chatting electronically.<br />
<br />
Peter remembers this initial conversation taking place over his lunch break at Boeing, but both Ken and Peter agree the followup discussions went on for days and weeks thereafter, so who knows which came first - the lunchtime chat or the evening one.<br />
<br />
Although Ken and Peter had been best friends for years, things between the two of them had been difficult since 1986 (for reasons we won't get into here), and their conversations had been pretty rare since then. By October 1989, though, the two of them seemed to be moving beyond their past difficulties, which came as a relief to both of them because they both had a lot invested in their long friendship.<br />
<br />
In their chat together, Peter was waxing nostalgic about <i>Castles and Conquest, </i>an amateur <i>Dungeons and Dragons </i>supplement they had worked on together between 1982 and 1984. At the time, Peter had taken some game mechanics out of two wargames; he added some original content after Ken pointed out that what they had was uncomfortably close to copyright violation. Ken hand-drew the cover on fine graph paper. Peter's tagline on <i>C&C </i>was "What's <i>D&D </i>without <i>C&C?</i>"<br />
<br />
This was long before affordable laser printers, much less scanners. <i>Castles and Conquest </i>was printed out on a pin-fed dot-matrix printer, on the old green-and-white-striped landscape printer with the tear-off hole-punched strips on each edge of the page. Here's a sample chart from the supplement that shows the combat stats of different types of units, by "level" (<i>D&D </i>style).<br />
<br />
Peter sold maybe fifty copies, never through retail but at various gaming conventions, and used the proceeds to cover the cost of attending the cons. As a young college student, being able to sell enough copies to attend cons for "free" made him feel like success, so he was very happy with the project.<br />
<br />
From the perspective of this history, though, <i>Castles and Conquest </i>was important for two reasons. First, it was published by "Wizards of the Coast," which at that point was a private amateur imprint used by Ken and Peter for their projects. Second, chatting about it together over the Internet was fun and nostalgic, and led both of them to remember their dream of some day starting a game company.<br />
<br />
They then began to reminisce about the day they first dreamed that dream together.<br />Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-47791937712755615452012-07-10T22:44:00.001-07:002012-07-10T22:47:09.983-07:00Wizards: In Media Res<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyR11AuzNLydlCSKJPUhtA7btXy31PbmUtWhSVCRtND3uRw26T6QMZfqU72t7T7QrYS0DPgeWMI_-ka-Qti-jmXbGGSVNX0gF4OMI5g628TSxU8jsx1zlPNJD0u7kiYWz-ufrF8ha9BDw/s1600/once-upon-a-time.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyR11AuzNLydlCSKJPUhtA7btXy31PbmUtWhSVCRtND3uRw26T6QMZfqU72t7T7QrYS0DPgeWMI_-ka-Qti-jmXbGGSVNX0gF4OMI5g628TSxU8jsx1zlPNJD0u7kiYWz-ufrF8ha9BDw/s200/once-upon-a-time.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Real stories begin in the middle.</td></tr>
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Altogether now: "Once upon a time . . ."<br />
<br />
No, forget it. Like tragedy, like life, our story begins <i>in medias res.</i><br />
<br />
That's <i>in the middle </i>for all you who never took English Literature in school. It means we showed up late to the story and it's already been going for a long time now. We don't get to start things just the way we would like, because we're not at the start of the story, but instead find ourselves already committed to all kinds of things the moment we show up, before we get to make our first decision.<br />
<br />
Starting <i>in medias res </i>may entertain the reader, but it's traumatic and confusing for our protagonists. They don't know how things got this way, or what's really happening to them, or how to change things for the better. They don't even know who they really are inside, and they're going to be disappointed to find that most of the ways they try to make things better end up backfiring.<br />
<br />
Starting <i>in medias res </i>- as we all do in our lives - means we are in the position of being able to act, and wanting to act, yet understanding hardly any of the consequences of the actions we're about to take. We set things in motion that end up surprising us. It was the ancient Roman poet Horace who taught us that great epics begin here, at this moment in the middle of our story.<br />
<br />
That's where our story is, poised between two moments.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE867sFtHGqDSp64x6QAHETym6tX63Q1ZcFW8Yk6wZsix6M4iOUYnmAcHzIoMkAeBBV5Bib_9WD0SiaRda9Qd20L3BMt4cV0tdLofxulBukQIrS0dU8dPUqvATajPJ4wqVgmBuCWnUVYo/s1600/peter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE867sFtHGqDSp64x6QAHETym6tX63Q1ZcFW8Yk6wZsix6M4iOUYnmAcHzIoMkAeBBV5Bib_9WD0SiaRda9Qd20L3BMt4cV0tdLofxulBukQIrS0dU8dPUqvATajPJ4wqVgmBuCWnUVYo/s320/peter.jpg" width="230" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Peter wrote "We're not dead yet."</td></tr>
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The first moment is December 3rd, 1992, when Peter reluctantly sent a memo he hated to send, a memo that admitted that they were in trouble, that Palladium's lawsuit had forced Wizards to miss payroll, and they were about to miss another one. He candidly laid out their options, which included bankruptcy. But he also showed several ways the company could keep going, even in a scaled-back state. His most important two sentences were these:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
But we're not dead yet, so in the meantime let's put on the best face we can and continue to give this our best shot. Many many times great success stories come on the verge of what seemed like a great tragedy.</blockquote>
<br />
He writes these words dead center in the most important period in the life of Wizards of the Coast, in the middle of the year and a half that changed everything for them. Our protagonists don't know it yet, but that sad memo Peter had to send and the staff's response to it comprise the most important moment of their most important year.<br />
<br />
This moment is the crossover point, the turning of the tide.<br />
<br />
From Palladium launching their lawsuit to the grim December of this memo, everything seemed to get worse and worse until this terrible thing dominated the life of the company and seemed poised to blot it out.<br />
<br />
But it was an illusion, because things were also getting better, quietly, in ways that only began to flower at this tipping point and become visible a month later, when the good things gradually began to overwhelm the antagonism in their lives. In the years leading up to this reversal, Wizards had been developing things and setting them in motion, things they did not realize they would need to survive this test, things they did for other reasons, but that bore life-giving fruit that sustained them through their darkest hours.<br />
<br />
In this second series of posts about the history of Wizards, we're going to focus on this year and a half from 2 April 1992, when <i>The Primal Order </i>arrived from the printers, to 16 July 1993, when the first shipment of <i>Magic: The Gathering </i>arrived at the Origins gaming convention barely on time to demo and sell on the last day. That journey is balanced right on this first moment, when most of the threads that led them into trouble and most of the threads that would lead them to success were just about to change places.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipzAJAF0kKSs4ToTYG0dsSvfNfapakApvWRNocrYhl7ElTAtZLvdnZZZ1pVspAnwqlqXXwq-pbqkWjeUPFL18JyR-B9lJ_6ORq7TTwS0gtdnAAdgbyIlzTvrb7DFfeYQxnTtTXuOUxr2U/s1600/500px-Usenet_Big_Nine.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipzAJAF0kKSs4ToTYG0dsSvfNfapakApvWRNocrYhl7ElTAtZLvdnZZZ1pVspAnwqlqXXwq-pbqkWjeUPFL18JyR-B9lJ_6ORq7TTwS0gtdnAAdgbyIlzTvrb7DFfeYQxnTtTXuOUxr2U/s200/500px-Usenet_Big_Nine.svg.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Before Facebook: Usenet</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The second moment is seven weeks later, January 23rd, 1993, when on the Usenet group rec.games.frp.misc, James A Seymour asked Peter:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
Peter, could you please post a brief history of your company? I'm curious from both a casual standpoint, and from a game writer wanta be viewpoint.</blockquote>
<br />
And Peter responded with the short essay we followed in the previous series, "Peter on the Cusp." Unconsciously, Peter answered his own memo by describing how Wizards managed to scale back and survive. Because it's been almost a year since that post about the memo, and since it's been nine months since the last installment of the first series, I'm going to requote this paragraph from his 1993 narrative:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
But a couple of weeks ago for some reason things started picking up. I'm not sure why, but partly it's because we realized that we can actually move forward and continue publishing products with all of us working on a part-time basis. Probably because we've gotten pretty proficient at our respective tasks here. Jesper's living at home and said he could go without pay indefinitely, particularly since his involvement here at WotC has gotten him some free-lance contracts for other companies (an upcoming White Wolf book is being entirely illustrated by him, and I hear they liked it well enough that he's going to be doing another one). I'd been working full time here and at Boeing (I've averaged over eighty hours of work a week for the last two years) and didn't need WotC income, Jay said he could work part time for WotC and full time elsewhere and manage Design & Development from home through e-mail if he could take home one of the computers, Beverly said she could probably get by with her husband's full-time job if she could pick up some free-lance editing, and Lisa's working part-time freelancing too (she just edited a book for TSR, for more money than I'd been paying her for three months worth of work!).</blockquote>
<br />
Here, at this second moment, seven weeks after things looked so dire, Peter admits he senses the turning of the tide but does not understand it. He has some ideas about how they survived, but living and working at that moment and planning for his immediate next steps he cannot stop to fully explore how it happened. Nineteen and a half years later, we can.<br />
<br />
How did things go from so good (first professional product) to so bad (the edge of bankruptcy) to so much better (<i>Magic</i>)?Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-10507950814226124112012-07-09T22:02:00.000-07:002012-07-09T22:03:41.994-07:00So What?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibhJwT5nQdrNrWU3quB7iM7vIUdnHELnzyujN8WapLNf2BR0qXOjRoydUJjfbX4MT15jat2LqwTBL5Gy907LcFC8gZTQVTxiGZ2bPGstKke1aidEHIDs3Gl1ZEvlwoKxJOiL-QLktWrxc/s1600/Millais_Boyhood_of_Raleigh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibhJwT5nQdrNrWU3quB7iM7vIUdnHELnzyujN8WapLNf2BR0qXOjRoydUJjfbX4MT15jat2LqwTBL5Gy907LcFC8gZTQVTxiGZ2bPGstKke1aidEHIDs3Gl1ZEvlwoKxJOiL-QLktWrxc/s320/Millais_Boyhood_of_Raleigh.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The storyteller spreads his lies. Or truths. Or both.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Most stories lie to us. They tell us what we want to believe, not what's really so. They teach us false ideas about reality, about success, and then we go into business and expect it to work that way. No wonder 90% of new businesses fail; their founders and staff think they're living in a fantasy world.<br />
<br />
For example, running a game company is not at all like playing a game, yet most who dream of founding one think it will be. Even if we manage to overcome that most common delusion, it's still nothing like we imagine. Truth is stranger than fiction; it must be experienced before it can be understood.<br />
<br />
What if people who had gone through the experience of having their fantasies about starting a game company shattered and replaced by reality, people who had survived the experience, who went on to succeed beyond their wildest dreams, what if they could be the ones to tell you a story about what it's like? Would the people who heard that story be more likely to beat those odds and succeed?<br />
<br />
That's what this blog and the book that will follow are exploring. We're going to try to tell a story about a game business, a story that lies less than most. Maybe what the founders of Wizards learned the hard way, you can learn the easy way, from a story. Probably not, but it'll be fun to try, don't you think?<br />
<br />
And even if the experiment fails and all your businesses fail, it's still a fun story about a bunch of wacky people defying the odds and winning. And win or lose, you can still have fun. There are worse ways to pass the time until you die.*<br />
<br />
So that's what.<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
* "Helping you pass the time until you die" was proposed as a possible mission statement for Wizards of the Coast, at the meeting** held one night in Peter and Cathy's living room. We sat in a circle and tried to figure out what Wizards was about. Jesper, force of chaos that he always was, suggested it.*** Everyone in the room laughed appreciatively but dismissively, then kind of got quiet and thought about it, then laughed uncomfortably and moved on. At that moment, Jesper's darkly humorous phrase became the never-before-officially-admitted unofficial mission statement of Wizards of the Coast, at least in the minds of all those present that night.<br />
<br />
** That's one of three or four meetings that I will eventually be describing in detail, because of how much it revealed about Wizards of the Coast and its founders. Along with the one where we realized we didn't know how to make decisions involving more than one person. It's surprising the things you think you know when you go into business that it turns out you really don't know. Embarrassing things, things the founders of most companies would never tell you later, even though those things sometimes have the most to teach us about what it's like.<br />
<br />
*** Actually, he had suggested it before with equal almost-success. Remind me later to do a post about Lisa Stevens's clip-art and advertising taglines, so we can discuss why "Helping you pass the time until you die" barely did not get published as ad copy, but "Well, it's better than broccoli" did.Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-66685095791567062972012-07-09T08:06:00.002-07:002012-07-09T08:06:50.856-07:00A Few Words from Our Author . . .<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT2H-ylhmc2ohadhJCX6wfhDT5ydkCXsMKv06zzsM4sEamBQ7PTDf8hA9_XeKf7PNaw9nlqBW-hOxLX5AZUuWS_QGLBYm3VvzMABUco-9hflcDDOi92w7KlLhoGjK9FOYggTljfXmS-3A/s1600/Beverly-and-Rick-2012-June.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT2H-ylhmc2ohadhJCX6wfhDT5ydkCXsMKv06zzsM4sEamBQ7PTDf8hA9_XeKf7PNaw9nlqBW-hOxLX5AZUuWS_QGLBYm3VvzMABUco-9hflcDDOi92w7KlLhoGjK9FOYggTljfXmS-3A/s320/Beverly-and-Rick-2012-June.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Historical mischief-maker and wife.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
First of all, I want to thank all of you who expressed an interest in this project. It's nice to know someone else is interested in this history.<br />
<br />
Also, second, thank you for your patience during this long period of waiting, during which I was focusing on helping to get my little VISTA nonprofit through its next growth spurt. We're very close to done with that growth spurt (almost back in the black after bringing on new staff - whew!), which is fortunate because my brain is about saturated with it from working long hours for so many months in a row (despite two most excellent vacations during that time). As the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus wrote two and a half millennia ago, "It is weariness to keep toiling at the same things so that one becomes ruled by them" (Heraclitus, translation and commentary by Phillip Wheelwright, Oxford University Press, 1959, p. 83).<br />
<br />
So, third, to help rekindle my brain I'm resuming my Wizards history project this week. While eating Camarones a la Mojo de Ajo at a small table in Peso's restaurant before last night's Seattle Storm game, I sketched out for Beverly what I think the next section of the history is about, how to approach the material, and some remedial work I need to do in flashbacks to flesh out section one and the prehistory (which I barely touched on in section one). In her usual good-natured editorial fashion, she helped me polish the approach up a bit, so now I'm ready to resume writing.<br />
<br />
Here we go. I hope you enjoy it.Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-69234170279793705792011-12-20T21:18:00.000-08:002011-12-20T21:18:03.908-08:00Interlude: Commitment<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKYyFwez8EBKS0fqnxDWA1XsPF3PhQ6G5lLf9V9digmius1BAuUo6M_Xce-0d0RVYi6x0_PtNQk45DxIwI4Eh9mUiZDdwsifObnYlO0q9cqOZJr4zQu4b5jcXHrX1VsHpv2QdHZJhIGXs/s1600/20110128-bird-logo-1-raw-toad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKYyFwez8EBKS0fqnxDWA1XsPF3PhQ6G5lLf9V9digmius1BAuUo6M_Xce-0d0RVYi6x0_PtNQk45DxIwI4Eh9mUiZDdwsifObnYlO0q9cqOZJr4zQu4b5jcXHrX1VsHpv2QdHZJhIGXs/s200/20110128-bird-logo-1-raw-toad.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>There are great men in the world - I've met some of them - but caught like everyone else in the vast Titanic millwheels of our world-spanning culture they can do nothing alone. One person's intense, passionate commitment is necessary but not sufficient to change the world.<br />
<br />
It took a community to keep Wizards of the Coast alive through the bleak winter of 1992-3. Friends, family, fans, and colleagues pooled their resources to keep this tiny venture going through the worst crisis it ever experienced. This crisis wasn't resolved with the creation of <i>Magic: The Gathering. </i>Late in 1993, many months after <i>Magic </i>had already become the phenomenal commercial success it's now seen as, Wizards itself and its staff and contractors were still suffering financially for reasons we'll discuss in the coming year. Friends, family, fans, and colleagues continued to keep Wizards alive, helping it cross the chasm from creating a great game to creating a sustainable company.<br />
<br />
We'll explore how Wizards survived the lawsuit, how such a tiny, cash-strapped company managed to create and bankroll the hit of the decade, and what they hoped for at the time - why they did the things they did. We'll see some of the crude, xeroxed cards that predated the final, fantastic graphic design, explore the essential but ill-examined role of Cornish College of the Arts in <i>Magic</i>'s success, and follow the <i>Magic </i>road show as the Wizards team toured small game shops and conventions introducing people to their little labor of love, building their fan base one person at a time. Along the way, we'll flash back to the earlier years and fill in some of the story that I skimmed so blithely past in my July posts, including the vital role of the Internet in Wizards's survival. We'll see pictures of items from Wizards's history never before shown, and we'll read contemporary accounts of small, quiet, little-known events that set in motion the big splashy results that made the papers. We'll peek inside an early staff meeting that would not end, in which Wizards began wrestling with the sometimes intractable problem of how to get a group of passionate people with different ideas to agree on a single decision. As Lisa Stevens said in that meeting, "But what if in the end you can't agree? Who gets to make the decision when the process falls apart?" We'll start working on the problem of bringing these people to life for you, so you better understand who did these things and why.<br />
<br />
But what we'll come back to over and over is the role of commitment, how very much commitment it takes to do something like this, not just the intense commitment of one or two or a dozen people but also the vast, persistent commitment of an entire community to back their plays and hold them up when they would otherwise fall down. Peter used to laugh when people praised him for this thing "he was doing," because he knew how very many people it took to do it. The search for simple answers, sound bites, and sufficiently scanty column inches strips the truth from our understanding of the world, leaves us believing in caricatures instead of characters, truthiness instead of truth; let's rip those veils aside and see who the Wizards really were.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibmwhTWS-J31IID43SvAtO_rYqeoIEwdXGPt1ybfrvK6cwRcyrSrhu111U5sxstFABc0e86i_D8IgGPOIAGs4Q6hHrnagNsZi0j-VZJ4OU5FWS9LUr5U4q9z7f7EQrz03pfLA7m0zGkUw/s1600/cherry-blossoms-wikipedia-medium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibmwhTWS-J31IID43SvAtO_rYqeoIEwdXGPt1ybfrvK6cwRcyrSrhu111U5sxstFABc0e86i_D8IgGPOIAGs4Q6hHrnagNsZi0j-VZJ4OU5FWS9LUr5U4q9z7f7EQrz03pfLA7m0zGkUw/s400/cherry-blossoms-wikipedia-medium.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>But before we continue this journey, let's be honest with one another.<br />
<br />
This project is not my top priority. I have many commitments ahead of it - to principles, to people, and to the same professional quest that in the 1990s led me to repeatedly turn down Peter's offers to come join his so very happily lost boys and girls. I am committed to those higher priorities in my life, and I will put them ahead of this history project whenever I am forced to choose, but I will often not be forced to choose. Because I have no children, I have room in my life for more than the usual number of commitments. This is one of them. It will not get lost in the shuffle, though it may come and go like a recurring haunting.<br />
<br />
I live a life of tides, and if you join me on this journey you will too. Sometimes I will post every day for weeks on end when the demands of higher priorities on my time ebb, sometimes silent months will pass by when they flow. But I will always be thinking about this project, talking to Wizards folks about what it was like back in the day, looking for the time to post, searching for the thread of the narrative.<br />
<br />
This project matters to me for reasons that may be clear to you by the time you read the book at the end of this road. I'm committed to it, even during these quiet times. During the winters of this blog I'm putting down roots to prepare for the riotous blossoms of its springs.<br />
<br />
Here it comes.Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-47215062491297684812011-10-12T20:01:00.000-07:002011-10-12T20:01:28.985-07:00Wizards: Peter on the Cusp, Part Thirteen<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh76Pc_6-oEAcJciXMM0Ke5dXiQtKk7yoGJdxqnMGigkGc01K2HSzCbGgWyidWx38CjH0l39Ukfa4gsVZ_Lo1RMxXSwwQqJ0ly9Lpv5gPqIE5urz5nUZF1PAvtVsEUDm2faCXznDTyTuQ8/s1600/volos-cover-300.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh76Pc_6-oEAcJciXMM0Ke5dXiQtKk7yoGJdxqnMGigkGc01K2HSzCbGgWyidWx38CjH0l39Ukfa4gsVZ_Lo1RMxXSwwQqJ0ly9Lpv5gPqIE5urz5nUZF1PAvtVsEUDm2faCXznDTyTuQ8/s320/volos-cover-300.png" width="208" /></a></div>Whether they realize it or not, businesses plan in layers. When times get rough, when the pressure's on, we can give up our shallow plans readily enough, but we're reluctant to surrender more deeply laid plans. If things go badly enough for long enough, our layers of plans are stripped away from us.<br />
<br />
Eventually we come to the bottom of our conscious planning and are left with what we think is our foundational desire for our company. That one we do not give up lightly. That one, if we surrender it, we do so with despair, ready to give everything up. But it's only the conscious foundation of our company; it's not our real deal breaker. This "last" plan contains too many optional components to which we are emotionally attached, so though we would never dream it at the time, when the "worst" comes to pass we discover to our surprise after a period of grieving that this too we can give up, because there was a deeper unconscious bottom line that can keep us going so long as we do not have to surrender it. It's only when we must give up what we thought was our bottom line that we discover our real bottom line, what we really care about.<br />
<br />
This is the point of the ancient Greek admonition <i>Gnothi Seauton </i>- know thyself: that we think we know ourselves but we are wrong. It is not until we are fully tested under the right kind of pressure that we begin to discover how many of our attachments are inessential, that we begin to discover what our true bottom line is.<br />
<br />
In December 1992, Peter did not want to move backward. After the long, hard struggle to put together a great team, create a steady stream of products, and approach break-even, he did not want to give that up again. He wanted to move only forward, but the lawsuit gave him no choice. He had to surrender and grieve.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoHdEOFfYfCUW1EvFMrWdzm528uU7RT-zDtOCHqb6mYaKIYq9S_OFqxsjMF1uoUOLJy_Ip148j1njNJUoR4gYowdVaHsbRGzVCRSX5uwEfwefoGPP4Qj0_YJ7Vh4ki_v6_Lhs7-ALIHC4/s1600/drums-cover-300.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoHdEOFfYfCUW1EvFMrWdzm528uU7RT-zDtOCHqb6mYaKIYq9S_OFqxsjMF1uoUOLJy_Ip148j1njNJUoR4gYowdVaHsbRGzVCRSX5uwEfwefoGPP4Qj0_YJ7Vh4ki_v6_Lhs7-ALIHC4/s320/drums-cover-300.png" width="205" /></a></div>But he found when his back was against the "wall" that it wasn't really a wall, that he could step further backward with his team and they could still survive and still keep working (albeit more slowly) on keeping Wizards of the Coast going. They did not know their future anymore, the lawsuit might eventually do them in for good, but at that moment they could keep going, could keep making plans and searching for ways to make things better.<br />
<br />
They discovered that they did not have to surrender when they thought they would, that they could reposition themselves and keep trying, remaining open to opportunities.<br />
<br />
A wise businessman once told me that the most important secret to succeeding in business is just to survive long enough, because opportunities cannot be precisely predicted. You may go through very long droughts that seem endlessly dire, but sooner or later opportunities do come along, and when they do they go to the company that found a way to keep going and to remain open to the unpredictable possibilities that lay ahead. The commitment to survive - avoiding despair, avoiding gambling with your future - is the key to survival.<br />
<br />
During the 1992-1993 drought at Wizards of the Coast, everyone found other sources of income to keep them going while they slowly pushed the company forward through its difficulties.<br />
<br />
Peter Adkison continued to work at Boeing full time, as he had since the beginning of Wizards.<br />
<br />
Lisa Stevens edited <i>Volo's Guide to the North </i>(AD&D 2nd Edition, Forgotten Realms, TSR).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYYledIiOl9n3xNHJJfHJWYyuCiA5A5uAkndfwkm8oonD-Y0kNS3uxtFdW6DSWZtgCOt4AYJ4FJvIwZIZSTgmcmeg4jtwLgFtp-4pbvQmonPTqBvpSYUgj2RSZQy6X7piREN45nCEG3lE/s1600/vampire-cover-300.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYYledIiOl9n3xNHJJfHJWYyuCiA5A5uAkndfwkm8oonD-Y0kNS3uxtFdW6DSWZtgCOt4AYJ4FJvIwZIZSTgmcmeg4jtwLgFtp-4pbvQmonPTqBvpSYUgj2RSZQy6X7piREN45nCEG3lE/s320/vampire-cover-300.png" width="235" /></a></div>Beverly Marshall Saling edited <i>Werewolf: Drums around the Fire </i>(White Wolf) and <i>White Wolf Magazine Issue 37 </i>(White Wolf) and proofed a book for the University of Alaska, but she was largely able to focus on Wizards full time or near full time thanks to my job at the Department of Veterans Affairs.<br />
<br />
Jesper Myrfors contributed art to <i>Vampire The Masquerade Second Edition: Players Guide </i>(White Wolf), <i>Vampire: The Anarch Cookbook </i>(White Wolf), <i>Vampire: Chicago by Night </i>(White Wolf), and <i>Sentinels </i>(Role Aids, Mayfair Games).<br />
<br />
Jay Hays worked at a club.<br />
<br />
Cathleen Adkison, Lisa and George Lowe, Ken McGlothlen, Rich Kaalaas, Dave Howell, Mike Cook, Jonathan Tweet, and the many other people who had not been working full time recently for Wizards continued to rely on their other jobs to pay the bills. These other jobs, these other gaming products, and friends and family kept Wizards alive through this dark time.<br />
<br />
Peter's 1993 narrative about this (in which I make my own oblique appearance in his narrative):<br />
<blockquote>But a couple of weeks ago for some reason things started picking up. I'm not sure why, but partly it's because we realized that we can actually move forward and continue publishing products with all of us working on a part-time basis. Probably because we've gotten pretty proficient at our respective tasks here. Jesper's living at home and said he could go without pay indefinitely, particularly since his involvement here at WotC has gotten him some free-lance contracts for other companies (an upcoming White Wolf book is being entirely illustrated by him, and I hear they liked it well enough that he's going to be doing another one). I'd been working full time here and at Boeing (I've averaged over eighty hours of work a week for the last two years) and didn't need WotC income, Jay said he could work part time for WotC and full time elsewhere and manage Design & Development from home through e-mail if he could take home one of the computers, Beverly said she could probably get by with her husband's full-time job if she could pick up some free-lance editing, and Lisa's working part-time freelancing too (she just edited a book for TSR, for more money than I'd been paying her for three months worth of work!).</blockquote>Postscript: Looking at that list of editing and illustration side projects, once again you can see Lisa Stevens contributing crucially in the clutch to keep Wizards alive. Her experience, rolodex, relationships, and networking savvy continued to make the difference in the survival and development of Wizards.Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-83680488364010875592011-08-17T07:19:00.000-07:002011-08-17T07:19:24.099-07:00Interlude: Work and ResearchFear not. My series on the history of Wizards will resume in a couple weeks.<br />
<br />
This coming weekend is the annual meeting of the board of directors of my nonprofit, so I've been focusing for the last several weeks on preparations for it and on associated support work.<br />
<br />
During this time, however, I've also been continuing with my research, including interviews with Carol Monahan and John Miller and digging through Beverly's Daytimer archives for 1993 and 1994 to help pin down events and dates. After the board meeting I'll start scheduling a series of interviews with various Wizards founders and early alumni, so we'll have plenty of eyewitnesses to history helping to develop the story of how it all came about.Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-42960645514350434702011-07-25T22:41:00.000-07:002011-07-25T22:41:13.285-07:00Who Will Speak for the Dead?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8KJdbbRU8rptHJTsdwbl-MtzzQn137KbTJ6rhYrA919sV8gGFXZa7RgO7v_1idhMJXi5b_Mq89lGkBCtICrRxqHp64TJqYH2R8E5BIzOjD7dq7voTwLuQsRnuCSpGRywkzV2l6-ZiBj4/s1600/paul-joseph-randles-300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8KJdbbRU8rptHJTsdwbl-MtzzQn137KbTJ6rhYrA919sV8gGFXZa7RgO7v_1idhMJXi5b_Mq89lGkBCtICrRxqHp64TJqYH2R8E5BIzOjD7dq7voTwLuQsRnuCSpGRywkzV2l6-ZiBj4/s320/paul-joseph-randles-300.jpg" width="226" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paul Randles, 1965-2003</td></tr>
</tbody></table>When I began this project, I wanted to include the words, stories, pictures, and perspectives of the people of Wizards of the Coast themselves. That would help the reader break free of my perspective and observations, break free of my voice and diction to let the people speak for themselves. It will take some time to put together all the interviews and collect all the writings to make this possible, but it's part of why I jumped into my first series by writing around Peter's 1993 narrative; it gave me a way to start immediately practicing what I want to do in the book itself.<br />
<br />
When I began this project, I also knew to do this I would have to give special consideration to the dead, to those who were just as alive, just as real, just as much a part of Wizards as those still living but whose mute lips no longer give voice to their memories, whose still fingers cannot write their stories, whose candles no longer light our way. The dead are so quiet now, it is easy to forget that they are there, that they have stories to tell, that their lives and perspectives still matter, despite the difficulties we now face in learning and sharing them. Of the many people whose tales I must become custodian to, must help shepherd into this community's shared story, I have known from the beginning that these are the people I must help the most, must not forget, must bring to life on the page so that in today's pretense of an eternal present at least in this one story we will remember our silent friends, their words, their deeds.<br />
<br />
They deserve special consideration because that's the only way to compensate for their silence now, the only way to give them their fair share of our attention now that they cannot speak for themselves. The past is just as real as the present; what they did then is just as vital and complex and interesting as what we do now. They cared as much as we care, thought as much as we think, worked as hard as we work, loved as much as we love. The past in which they still live and breathe is the larger story of which our lives at this moment are just a tiny part, and their present is our future.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSdHD0efgrGARtFEYMFe8a8uVuyG2e37ASZ3cDv16SrXPtRNFU1VkeZosIDdepm_BOOQHbdzqtv_ArBfxh4C4ISCB6XZZ60fsr7AW7o4kFT1jM_JQduYypVzUt4pcQ-nBLks0HquRVrjI/s1600/judy-m-sorenson-300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSdHD0efgrGARtFEYMFe8a8uVuyG2e37ASZ3cDv16SrXPtRNFU1VkeZosIDdepm_BOOQHbdzqtv_ArBfxh4C4ISCB6XZZ60fsr7AW7o4kFT1jM_JQduYypVzUt4pcQ-nBLks0HquRVrjI/s320/judy-m-sorenson-300.jpg" width="278" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Judy Sorenson, 1954-2011</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Because we all walk the same road they have traveled before us. We will all pass through that mortal veil they have stepped through.<br />
<br />
Blind Homer wrote that we are ephemeroi, creatures of a season, very like the leaves on a tree. We are all born. We all live. We all die. We are one people, quick or dead. We are bound together not just by the ways we touch each other's lives but also by our shared story, our one human, mortal frame within which we work the art of our lives. We are defined not by the nobility of our births or the ease of our deaths, but by the good we do with the time we have, by the art and justice and love we create and share. That is our legacy to the future. That is how we show our gratitude and respect for the past. That is the debt the quick owe the dead.<br />
<br />
When I began this project, I knew we would have to work together to speak for Papa Christmas, to write for Judy Sorenson, to remember the others who should not be forgotten.<br />
<br />
That much I knew, but I never dreamed that Bobby would be among them. Now he has left us to join them, so we must speak and act for him, too, so that his art and justice and love live on, so the part he played in helping Wizards of the Coast become what it was and helping us become who we are is remembered.<br />
<br />
Ars longa, vita brevis, Bobby. Your candle is dark now, your fingers still, your lips silent, but our candles will illuminate you, our fingers will write your stories, our lips will give voice to your memories. The good you would have done, now we will do. We will laugh for you now, dear friend.Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-56756140050681368602011-07-24T10:21:00.000-07:002011-07-24T10:21:43.561-07:00Robert McSwain, Junior, 9 September 1955 - 22 July 2011, Rest in Peace<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv4jQUFYDoRKRpBKqkHMdFxufBDNSRFb2MnD-0WL-wJUnL738j7ZaNdAqi_L53n54LGPAMhh0SMQhNLcftg8bj9g56dpeRA0q9fCGrizPNoPC7kICsDOz0kAe9ARoktqp8e3QJBV8k7Og/s1600/20090803-robert-mcswain-junior.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv4jQUFYDoRKRpBKqkHMdFxufBDNSRFb2MnD-0WL-wJUnL738j7ZaNdAqi_L53n54LGPAMhh0SMQhNLcftg8bj9g56dpeRA0q9fCGrizPNoPC7kICsDOz0kAe9ARoktqp8e3QJBV8k7Og/s400/20090803-robert-mcswain-junior.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mr. Bob, rest in peace</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I just found out this morning that our dear friend Bob McSwain, Jr. (known to many in Walla Walla and at Wizards of the Coast as Mr. Bob) died from cardiac arrest on Friday afternoon at 3:25 pm. It had been a difficult time for Bob recently. He contracted a flesh-eating disease in May and had to have a foot amputated on May 8th, and then his father passed away on June 22nd.<br />
<br />
He is survived by his sister Peggy Stimach, his son Robert McSwain III and daughter Sandra Mejorado. Peggy is planning a memorial and will let us all know the details when she has them figured out. As soon as I know more about the memorial I'll post them, including where flowers or donations can be made.<br />
<br />
I know many of you loved Mr. Bob and will share our grief at this sad news.Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-4931883883187500832011-07-23T14:28:00.000-07:002011-07-23T14:28:05.084-07:00Wizards: Peter on the Cusp, Memorandum<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmlZM8UcjWkcZvzoFyZNZK1_Kw7s8k-XifdzRbuTjOLWFOvXUXhFidni7uaaT2WWieDKjTTQgs7xqRlxd9sdS-MUV6W-7ayGi-rhAXnW5Pfl_EcFXyrILT6x5YWRuBSXs8FlKe-DeZx8U/s1600/peter-adkison-shades-20110329-300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmlZM8UcjWkcZvzoFyZNZK1_Kw7s8k-XifdzRbuTjOLWFOvXUXhFidni7uaaT2WWieDKjTTQgs7xqRlxd9sdS-MUV6W-7ayGi-rhAXnW5Pfl_EcFXyrILT6x5YWRuBSXs8FlKe-DeZx8U/s320/peter-adkison-shades-20110329-300.jpg" width="229" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Peter Adkison, 29 March 2011</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Most startups go through a period that feels like the turning of a vice. We start with excitement and hope and begin to carry out our plans, and fairly quickly we begin to run into the tasks we need to resolve to get where we want to go. We begin to run into obstacles we cannot solve and must instead go around; our goals begin to shift as we search for ways to continue in the general direction we had in mind. Along the way we pick up burdens we have to carry, worries, debts, and responsibilities; just when we get used to carrying the load, we are surprised and disappointed to discover we must carry yet more.<br />
<br />
At some point, we find ourselves lost in our work, turned all about from changing directions so many times, and staggering under the load we have to carry. There comes a point when yet one more task or obstacle or burden becomes the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back. We lose our composure and begin to wonder whether we're being punished somehow.<br />
<br />
Those of you who have never tried to start a company may think I'm exaggerating, but go ask your friends who have. Every entrepreneur knows about the long, dark night of the soul. Every classic story structure runs through this arc, because it is the arc of all our stories, the arc of life. One way or another, anyone who decides to become an actor in their own lives, who strives to change the world or their lives in some way, knows this moment.<br />
<br />
Here is what Peter wrote on Thursday, 3 December 1992 when he faced his moment. He feared his team's disappointment when he sent it, but he stepped up to the plate, described their situation, responsibilities, and options, and helped them to see that there was still hope left, were still ways forward for their little company if only they could keep the faith.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">------------------------------------------------------------------------</div><div style="text-align: center;">MEMORANDUM</div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Wizards of the Coast, Incorporated</i></div><div style="text-align: center;">------------------------------------------------------------------------</div><br />
Date: December 3rd, 1992<br />
<br />
Memo: PDA145<br />
<br />
From: Peter D. Adkison<br />
<br />
To: Cathleen Adkison<br />
Tom Des Brisay<br />
Jay Hays<br />
John W. Jordan<br />
Lisa Lowe<br />
Jesper Myrfors<br />
Beverly Marshall Saling<br />
Lisa Stevens<br />
<br />
CC: Michael Cook<br />
Ken McGlothlen<br />
<br />
RE: The severity of our financial situation<br />
<br />
The financial situation with Wizards of the Coast has continued to deteriorate over the last few weeks. The stock solicitation is proceeding too slowly and my hopes are declining with every passing rejection. I think the company has to face the fact that we may have failed to jump immediately to that top tier in the roleplaying industry that we were hoping for.<br />
<br />
The purpose of this memo is not to announce a major scaling back at this time, but to warn you that this eventuality may be imminent. Two days ago we went through our end-of-the-month bills and payroll and it happened to coincide with a threat about overdue taxes. It was pointed out to me by our friends in the government that if I didn't pay some of our taxes I could go to jail. Needless to say, we paid some taxes and that contributed, along with consignment fees to Steve Sechi, a payment to our attorney, and some other things, to our not making payroll.<br />
<br />
Furthermore, unless we receive a tremendous amount of money, I'm not going to make payroll until after I return from the Palladium lawsuit preliminary hearing on the 14th of this month. At that time our employees will be due two payroll checks and I can't guarantee we'll be able to make those.<br />
<br />
When I return from that hearing we will have to make a serious decision on how we can proceed from there. If we do not win the summary judgement then we'll be looking at a very expensive court case. And before we can even continue with the case we'll have to settle up our current outstanding balance, which I believe is on the order of $8,000 or so. Worse, because this balance has been delinquent so long, we may even have to pay a retainer on top of that. The bottom line is that I've got to posture the company to where we can pay them a sizeable sum in a couple weeks, and since we currently have a negative banking account balance (I'm hoping that some of the overseas deposits which I have no way of knowing about are covering this) this means the company basically won't be writing any checks over the next couple weeks. I think I can scrape together $100 for Beverly, Jay, and Lisa Stevens, but that's it until after the court hearing.<br />
<br />
If everything goes well we'll win the summary judgement and we'll get ten or fifteen grand in investments by the 15th. But if we get less than that, or if we don't win the court hearing, than I think the company will have to go to a major fallback position. This would probably consist of a scenario composed of some steps along the following lines:<br />
<ul><li>No cash salaries. This would mean we'd probably lose most of our current staff. The only work we'd be able to pay cash for would be contract work, on a by-project basis, and only for services that we couldn't find someone to do for stock.</li>
</ul><ul><li>Most of our cash would go first to keeping a bare-bones office open.</li>
</ul><ul><li>We would probably concentrate on paying off debts that various of us have personally co-signed, like the Luc Schepens loan, the line of credit, etc. The purpose of this is to try and minimize the hurt to us personally should the company go bankrupt.</li>
</ul><ul><li>The toll-free number might have to go and subcontractors might have to pay for their own calls; perhaps this would go even further toward encouraging people to use e-mail.</li>
</ul><ul><li>I'd look for a way of running the company in some sort of family or communal setting. Perhaps move into an apartment and run the office out of there with off-site warehousing and maybe talk to Jesper about having a satellite production office based out of his studio. Obviously this is an option only to the extent of my wife's tolerance level, which is already stretched to the point where I'm hesitant to stretch it any further, so I'm not sure where this option would lead.</li>
</ul>Just so you know what the options are, if this scaleback didn't do the trick the last-resort options might be some things along these lines:<br />
<ul><li>Look into what some of the bankruptcy-protection options are, where the company keeps going and is simply organized and protected by the court.</li>
</ul><ul><li>Look into merging with another company.</li>
</ul><ul><li>Look into a cooperative venture with another company, where we'd basically turn into a development house. This way I could perhaps devote my energy to writing only and slowly write books and pay off WotC's debts that way.</li>
</ul>If things go sour you can rest assured that I won't be doing any fingerpointing. As president and acting financial officer I will assume responsibility for the situation and it will be my duty to explain the situation to the shareholders.<br />
<br />
Please put up with my temper people. I've never been this stressed out in my life. I apologize for being this way, but the pressure is like nothing I've ever imagined and I don't always cope as well as I should.<br />
<br />
But we're not dead yet, so in the meantime let's put on the best face we can and continue to give this our best shot. Many many times great success stories come on the verge of what seemed like a great tragedy. Our opportunities are still there; a couple of good breaks and we could be in great shape in no time. So let's remember our responsibility to our shareholders and do our best - we can do no less.<br />
<br />
Peter D. Adkison<br />
President, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-46389208152895176612011-07-22T23:22:00.000-07:002011-07-22T23:22:20.599-07:00Wizards: Peter on the Cusp, Part Twelve<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYsfCJot8WCKjM4ICdHVj3ypGZGGLmcCOOL6GmsYZw9KHq-Qc_V5zY_4NKFclSeFB9XHOZiqV-PsRQLy2HeFkzc8BplpX7sOyOv6_IIsa7qEEmhpIhsxu5VFjxAKf6OXPqlAtiTIafuDg/s1600/steffan-o%2527sulivan-1985-300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYsfCJot8WCKjM4ICdHVj3ypGZGGLmcCOOL6GmsYZw9KHq-Qc_V5zY_4NKFclSeFB9XHOZiqV-PsRQLy2HeFkzc8BplpX7sOyOv6_IIsa7qEEmhpIhsxu5VFjxAKf6OXPqlAtiTIafuDg/s320/steffan-o%2527sulivan-1985-300.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: verdana, 'lucida grande', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 8px;">Steffan O'Sullivan, who saw trouble brewing</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>In June 1992, after Wizards had released <i>The Primal Order </i>and <i>The Talislanta Guidebook, </i>with more products underway and things looking hopeful, a long-brewing crisis came to a boil.<br />
<br />
It was set in motion on 17 November 1991, when Peter posted on the Usenet group rec.games.frp at 4:18 a.m. looking for RPG systems experts. Four hours later, Steffan O'Sullivan warned him in his reply:<br />
<blockquote>If this project involves publishing, you'd better get publishers' permissions, first . . .</blockquote>A day later, Peter responded:<br />
<blockquote>I will be following the procedures outlined for me by my intellectual properties attorney.</blockquote>Experts from all over the Internet contacted Wizards and contributed their conversion notes to <i>The Primal Order </i>to create the first Capsystem product. <i>TPO </i>hit the stores five months later in April 1992, and two months later in June Kevin Siembieda launched the lawsuit that nearly destroyed the fledgling company. The long, difficult road to their very first product release led Wizards of the Coast directly into legal trouble.<br />
<br />
The Wizards staff had wanted to create a stronger RPG community by developing ways for people using different RPG rule systems to play together. The Capsystem line of products was created with that in mind, as was the Envoy system (though that was never published nor even written down beyond the notes stage). The marriage of the d20 system and the Open Gaming License many years later was a return to that goal.<br />
<br />
The lawsuit's claims to the contrary, what got Wizards into trouble was not actually the system-integration notes themselves. Under U.S. copyright law, only the text - not the ideas - are copyrightable, so expressing those ideas in your own words does not count as a violation of copyright. Had Mr. Siembieda patented <i>Palladium</i>'s rules, then Wizards would have been in the wrong, but he did not. Wizards's intellectual-properties attorney was correct, and Wizards correctly followed the procedures he outlines.<br />
<br />
The actual problem came in two parts, which the many very smart and creative but idealistic people out there should pay attention to if they want to learn from history.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqRn-uocX-Idou3MluHOIK5aZJznKaRcd2xZm6AIDU-dSvsOAnluuksuIIozoQlpe0sp3j-gF3_kACuwXOpGktBpaDDbiptU6P8ne21bDcWFzJUM8IPNl7-dOf-Qq-ReUK_P-Wx0AkzyE/s1600/kevin-siembieda-20050409-300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqRn-uocX-Idou3MluHOIK5aZJznKaRcd2xZm6AIDU-dSvsOAnluuksuIIozoQlpe0sp3j-gF3_kACuwXOpGktBpaDDbiptU6P8ne21bDcWFzJUM8IPNl7-dOf-Qq-ReUK_P-Wx0AkzyE/s320/kevin-siembieda-20050409-300.jpg" width="215" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kevin Siembieda, Palladium founder</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The first part is that under trademark law, a company that does not vigorously defend its trademark can be accused of abandoning it, at which point they lose their trademark and it's up for grabs. That is, the law itself drives companies into aggressive attacks upon anyone who infringes upon their trademarks. If you have heard the saying about the Disney company <i>Don't mess with the mouse, </i>this is why; if Disney did not defend their trademarks, they would be considered abandoned. Even if a company will lose a court case, it also benefits by demonstrating that it cares about its trademarks.<br />
<br />
Now simply naming a company or referring to its trademarks is not a violation of trademark law - on the contrary, the whole point of trademarks is the hope that the public will refer to them frequently. Trademark violations occur when you misrepresent your own work as falling under that trademark, or vice versa if you use the trademark in such a way that it seems to belong to you rather than its proper owners. These kinds of dilutions of the brand are the kinds of damage trademark cases are built around. Since Wizards in no way tried to represent its work as part of <i>Palladium, </i>nor presented Palladium Books's trademarks as though they belonged to Wizards, it did not even come close to violating trademark.<br />
<br />
Nevertheless, for the reasons described above (as well as other less noble motives that do not apply in this case), companies are often ready to launch trademark-violation lawsuits even when they are clearly in the wrong. We live in a severely suspicious and litigious culture, in which people try to resolve with court cases what past cultures resolved through etiquette. Because of trademark law, this unpleasant quality is multiplied in the case of companies who want to survive for long.<br />
<br />
The lesson of the first part is this: just because you're in the right legally does not mean you will not be dragged into court. As children we sometimes learn to become so focused on what's "fair" or "right" that later as adults we can lose track of what's prudent. Just because you can do something does not mean you should, or that you will not be attacked for it.<br />
<br />
The second part is that the guarantee of swift justice - that is, of efficient determination of whether someone is guilty or innocent - has long ago devolved into a labyrinthine system of laws and procedures so Byzantine that more than a few defendants have died before being exonerated in court. The American legal system has become so complex that it has itself become the punishment.<br />
<br />
The punishment now precedes the determination of any crime. Merely to be dragged into an extended legal process is often all it takes to punish someone financially with large debts for the rest of their life or even bankruptcy. The threat of court is often enough to make innocent people subject themselves to punitive settlements in an effort to avoid it.<br />
<br />
Those with the money to spend on lawsuits know how to use the court system to get what they want out of the innocent. Although this was not Mr. Siembieda's motivation (Palladium Books had more money than Wizards, but not enough to squander on harassment lawsuits), the consequences were the same - both Palladium and Wizards suffered.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi1pHlC6KIlZACle4NEahqeWrLnRqn6Npd7LHFJRzU85LVQAcic30ikuckaFWkZNGmCdYX54NzSlmAV_OSxHawDbCZ_aYC_-Ob1pbp7KAitK2gacxL1ughQCwDrSptL-POdWZcD1YDTuY/s1600/Palladium_Books_Logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi1pHlC6KIlZACle4NEahqeWrLnRqn6Npd7LHFJRzU85LVQAcic30ikuckaFWkZNGmCdYX54NzSlmAV_OSxHawDbCZ_aYC_-Ob1pbp7KAitK2gacxL1ughQCwDrSptL-POdWZcD1YDTuY/s320/Palladium_Books_Logo.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Publisher of numerous RPGs, including Rifts</td></tr>
</tbody></table>The lesson of the second part is this: you are one lawsuit away from having your life turned upside down. Do not be in a hurry to prove your innocence in a court of law. Unless you have good legal counsel and a wise judge and are lucky, you're gambling with your future. You will certainly pay a much higher price than you expect to in time, money, and stress just to return to the status quo - if you can; today's overburdened courts are fallible. You may be held guilty of something of which you are innocent. DNA evidence in recent years had turned up plenty of convicted "murderers" who we now know cannot possibly have commited the crimes for which they have been punished. Avoid the court system if you possibly can.<br />
<br />
Wizards couldn't. They had relied upon doing the right thing, upon following the law and trusting that it would back what they did. This approach was central to the strategy of the Capsystem product line, which in turn was central to their strategy of carving out their niche in the RPG world by doing things differently than anyone else had done them, by finding ways to grow the pie rather than fighting over it. Concerned about his trademark and copyright, Kevin Simebieda could settle for nothing less than an admission of guilt, but an admission of guilt would set a precedent and open Wizards up to lawsuits from all the other companies they integrated with in <i>TPO.</i><br />
<br />
They couldn't back down, and as things stood they couldn't settle either, so during the second half of 1992 their pride and hope in their growing line of RPG products was increasingly undercut by mounting legal costs and dread about the future. Just as they seemed poised to become financially sustainable, they became financially pressured again. The train had left the tracks and seemed headed unstoppably toward a court battle that would economically destroy them.<br />
<br />
Peter's 1993 narrative about this time:<br />
<blockquote>But just after the <i>Guidebook </i>came out, on June 17th, 1992, we were dealt a devastating blow (although it took several months before the full impact really started to hit). We were jointly sued by Palladium Books and Kevin Siembieda for copyright and trademark infringement due to the <i>TPO </i>integration notes. The further and further we got into 1992 the more time and resources this started to consume, and a cloud started settling over our office that sapped our energy and caused us to start doubting the future of the company. This last November and December were low points, culminating with the fact that the case wasn't thrown out of court on the 14th of December as we'd hoped it would be at the summary judgement hearing we had that day. We had started a stock solicitation in November, but it was proceeding slowly, and on December 28th, during our Christmas holiday, I told our staff that the payroll checks I was writing would be their last, probably for several months.</blockquote>Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-41863581366793527102011-07-21T19:12:00.000-07:002011-07-21T19:12:51.114-07:00Off Sick TodayMy stomach insists I take today off, so no post today, alas.Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-81917300026106404022011-07-20T22:52:00.000-07:002011-07-20T22:52:11.098-07:00Wizards: Peter on the Cusp, Part Eleven<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU1NNJ453ZOF8be5L2iSn32J_j81ll8QeRTxh22H7ZepegURL-xS7_NpJicyjlaaqWxKDo7aYf_ap7TVeyzkshtoFjUQe6qyN1cp1olWLtpzIvmy-yPcQ6Vfboxmb8zhmcwRCC6Vp3kTQ/s1600/talislanta-geographica-300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU1NNJ453ZOF8be5L2iSn32J_j81ll8QeRTxh22H7ZepegURL-xS7_NpJicyjlaaqWxKDo7aYf_ap7TVeyzkshtoFjUQe6qyN1cp1olWLtpzIvmy-yPcQ6Vfboxmb8zhmcwRCC6Vp3kTQ/s200/talislanta-geographica-300.jpg" width="155" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Talislanta Geographica</td></tr>
</tbody></table><i>What if?</i><br />
<br />
Uncounted alternate histories have been written, launched from those two words.<br />
<br />
Wizards of the Coast in 1992 begs us to play the What If? game. It was the year where the first generation's dream of forming a successful RPG company almost came true.<br />
<br />
For about eight months in 1992, from April 1st when the boxes filled with <i>The Primal Order </i>arrived from the printers until December 28th when Wizards distributed their last paychecks for a while, it was an RPG company inching ever closer to success. Had other factors not intervened, Wizards would have been in the black before the end of the year.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1sYWdCQNhfFoSpncTpNaQ7kwaen7vN3R0eGuIwDwjbTsdC7w0z00_qFHkxbLMZeyD2bnQdGlllMuY8kmJbQFmlBDLcGltszleT5RGLLv2E056_CuphSYBOuv4b3xs2_F4h4fYjCN7CLA/s1600/the-scent-of-the-beast-300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1sYWdCQNhfFoSpncTpNaQ7kwaen7vN3R0eGuIwDwjbTsdC7w0z00_qFHkxbLMZeyD2bnQdGlllMuY8kmJbQFmlBDLcGltszleT5RGLLv2E056_CuphSYBOuv4b3xs2_F4h4fYjCN7CLA/s200/the-scent-of-the-beast-300.jpg" width="152" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Scent of the Beast</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Before April 1st, they were trying to be an RPG company, but until you release your first product you're not really there yet. After December 28th, they were too financially disrupted and in some ways reverted to their pre-April 1st condition (though wiser and more professional) of having difficulty keeping up a full production pace of publications, and they soon became too distracted by unexpected success to keep their focus on RPGs.<br />
<br />
Anyone who decides to become an entrepreneur and start up a company is in for a lot of stress and unpleasant surprises on the way to success or failure. Companies start in the red and continue to bleed money rapidly long before they ever produce any income. Keeping up with the new business's urgent hunger for funds to keep it operating keeps the executive and often many of the staff distracted from being able to fully attend to the actual business of the company, because if you look away from the problem of raising funds for too long you're out of business before you realize what happened. During that period of distraction, most organizations make embarrassing mistakes because of the lack of executive oversight. If you've never tried to start a business you may be surprised that the statistic that 90% of new businesses fail in their first year of operations is so high, but if you have tried then the surprise is that the failure rate is so low. It's tough work.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCubp-sZHgYgwBztqeSNCX0GhF9K-UDicAc5zUKKPsbZOPwJxMPdA32sjYPN-5ym1RSnR7iNHBSPadQ-wC0KSQEmHIX2irnZ4NTZTWo7ojxGToPEpmEhLvE3tulgT6dYx7oP-SRc8DgrI/s1600/tpo-pawns-the-opening-move-300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCubp-sZHgYgwBztqeSNCX0GhF9K-UDicAc5zUKKPsbZOPwJxMPdA32sjYPN-5ym1RSnR7iNHBSPadQ-wC0KSQEmHIX2irnZ4NTZTWo7ojxGToPEpmEhLvE3tulgT6dYx7oP-SRc8DgrI/s200/tpo-pawns-the-opening-move-300.jpg" width="152" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pawns, The Opening Move</td></tr>
</tbody></table>From October 16th, 1989 until early 1992, Wizards began as many organizations do, holding down its pace of spending by relying heavily on part-time and volunteer labor. This is not a bad way to begin an organization, since it limits the pace at which you bleed money and gives you time to figure out how to get organized. An underappreciated factor here is that you're going to make a lot of mistakes, and it helps to do so when you don't have much money to lose doing it; mistakes become more and more expensive as an organization grows, which is partly why so many large organizations become so conservative and bureaucratic (which, yes, is also a mistake). Unfortunately, this strategy also holds back the pace at which you can produce, which in turn holds back the pace at which you can develop an income stream to offset your costs, which extends the time you will remain in the red. It's a difficult chicken-and-egg problem that is usually resolved only through loans and investment to pour in enough money to get the company on its feet (or more typically through bankruptcy).<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnWU-HQOdIp6Qsx_idpg9BjS7TJgq_YBOiQTUrzgAkGkbqun29oSZ2zhWTcSTmtHEWNPhMv4rftr-nDs7O0VUSpDOna7mtqsJsKVc_rqqSEkL9gl2sS7EuCLNGT5Xf_wIF_pGF3a4ndH4/s1600/the-archaen-codex-300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnWU-HQOdIp6Qsx_idpg9BjS7TJgq_YBOiQTUrzgAkGkbqun29oSZ2zhWTcSTmtHEWNPhMv4rftr-nDs7O0VUSpDOna7mtqsJsKVc_rqqSEkL9gl2sS7EuCLNGT5Xf_wIF_pGF3a4ndH4/s200/the-archaen-codex-300.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Archaen Codex</td></tr>
</tbody></table>By early 1992, though, Wizards had increased its rate of production by shifting the balance of the core staff more and more toward full time.<br />
<br />
Later, when we go back and cover the early history in detail, I'll get firmer dates for the 1992 releases (I'm sure some of these are wrong), but here are my guesses so far based on studying ads, the books themselves, and Internet sites:<br />
<br />
April 1st: <i>The Primal Order</i><br />
May: <i>The Talislanta Guidebook</i><br />
June: <i>Talislanta Geographica</i><br />
August: <i>The Scent of the Beast</i><br />
September?: <i>The Primal Order: Pawns, The Opening Move</i><br />
October: <i>The Archaen Codex</i><br />
October: <i>Tales of Talislanta</i><br />
November: <i>The Compleat Alchemist</i><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8WasYl7DXzdM4-XMkXS5xldQ59ELXDinx4q5oqhsK4Ulz5rw3TBjxM225tmzGO-Wyi1b-5MjexGPxT9pPUPzK5l9vMdS5FxBoSggQJ2YqVXRQ05A8jYinKvYmJElQiFLWUtnATifPXyw/s1600/tales-of-talislanta-300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8WasYl7DXzdM4-XMkXS5xldQ59ELXDinx4q5oqhsK4Ulz5rw3TBjxM225tmzGO-Wyi1b-5MjexGPxT9pPUPzK5l9vMdS5FxBoSggQJ2YqVXRQ05A8jYinKvYmJElQiFLWUtnATifPXyw/s200/tales-of-talislanta-300.jpg" width="120" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tales of Talislanta</td></tr>
</tbody></table>When you factor in the back stock of Bard Games products they acquired as part of the Talislanta deal with Stephan Michael Sechi, that gave Wizards a respectable product catalog by the end of 1992. When you factor in the many RPG products they had planned and in production by the fall of 1992, 1993 looked to be an even better year. The Wizards team were not yet in TSR's league when it came to the experience of their production team, nor in sales figures, but by hook or by crook they were turning out well designed, well produced products and were getting better and more successful as they went.<br />
<br />
Likewise, although the year began with their in-house organizational systems still being cobbled together - in January they were just beginning to shift from individual assignments to the concept of formal teams, and in March George Lowe was going back and entering their basic financial data from the previous year to try to get it all recorded in one place - by the end of the year their organization although simple was coherent and productive.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOzgTT4fPFZQWezp92K0ybCfZ6FM20dw1JAlXxoqScjxVjbLBaDbrDhsAnF0Oo3ZevwA02K-4Zz_SoyUDVzhkATZ_VQP9Xg_WMgU39JGhIG66ZecKPh5C9nwbtHD6f67otBJqrMZZVP_g/s1600/the-compleat-alchemist-300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOzgTT4fPFZQWezp92K0ybCfZ6FM20dw1JAlXxoqScjxVjbLBaDbrDhsAnF0Oo3ZevwA02K-4Zz_SoyUDVzhkATZ_VQP9Xg_WMgU39JGhIG66ZecKPh5C9nwbtHD6f67otBJqrMZZVP_g/s200/the-compleat-alchemist-300.jpg" width="149" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Compleat Alchemist</td></tr>
</tbody></table>So the game of What If? here is a bit of a cheat. Anyone with access to the before-and-afters can see that all else being equal Wizards of the Coast would have probably been successful for at least the next year, which would have been long enough to fully get their feet under them. If they kept up the standards they'd set for themselves and kept learning lessons and making organizational and process improvements, they would have been on a long shallow curve of slow growth that would probably have been much healthier for them as an organization in the long term than the crisis followed by explosive success and growth they were subjected to instead.<br />
<br />
That would have been more in accord with their dream for their company than what actually happened next. Until their train went off the tracks, their dream seemed to be coming gradually true. As Peter wrote in 1993: <br />
<blockquote>After the <i>Guidebook, Geographica, Tales, Pawns, </i>and the <i>Codex </i>seemed to just fly out the door. Once we had Jesper, we had an incredible team and we started to really get into synch.</blockquote>Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-52979277667368747702011-07-19T22:13:00.000-07:002011-07-19T22:46:00.345-07:00Tuesday Intermission<div>I hope you've enjoyed our history so far. It has been a blast researching and writing it, and there's a lot more to come.</div><div><br />
</div>The Wizards gang are starting to feed me stories and information. Last week Beverly and I had dinner with Peter and Dee, where we traded Wizards stories you'll eventually be hearing, including the wise janitor, the mystery employee, and the attack cat; on Facebook Ken has been walking me through the very early Wizards history from 1989 to 1990; last night I walked Green Lake with Beverly and Dave and tonight with Beverly and Jenny Scott Tynes, and they shared some of their stories and memories with us; Lisa Lowe is hoping to get together with some of us soon to discuss the pre-history of Wizards, going all the way back to Walla Walla, including the May 23rd, 1990 brainstorming session that helped kick things off; and so on. This is becoming the community storytelling I hoped it would become.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>I'm building a master spreadsheet correlating events in Wizards's history with the people who were involved so I know who to ask for more information. People are beginning to dig through their own archives for material, and some of them have agreed to begin writing down what they remember about how they joined and why. We're making lists of stories that definitely need to be included, some funny, some sad. I think you're going to enjoy it; it's certainly going to be a lot of fun to write.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>I'm taking tonight off to be sure I get a full night's sleep, but our history of Wizards of the Coast will continue tomorrow with the brighter side of 1992.</div></div><div><br />
</div><div>Meanwhile, as an apology for not posting tonight, here is a gratuitously cute photo of our cats Rashid and Surya from when they were still kittens back in August 2006.</div><div><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNkXtBru_U4oALJaJgzKNrgFenSSv87mga0Qn91m71PKMql5LKp-mVz1qoCdfr1WcCReSsOA231spxBGjOBNJkyKkhlcU6iTzxvNyK91s6ohyphenhyphenqt3rPpW6-UJV6DlnmnspSdctQ5ck6gM0/s1600/rashid-sleeps-on-surya-20060808.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNkXtBru_U4oALJaJgzKNrgFenSSv87mga0Qn91m71PKMql5LKp-mVz1qoCdfr1WcCReSsOA231spxBGjOBNJkyKkhlcU6iTzxvNyK91s6ohyphenhyphenqt3rPpW6-UJV6DlnmnspSdctQ5ck6gM0/s400/rashid-sleeps-on-surya-20060808.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rashid sleeps on Surya, 8 August 2006</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div><br />
</div>Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-24196753510752655052011-07-18T19:28:00.000-07:002011-07-18T19:28:50.146-07:00Wizards: Peter on the Cusp, Part Ten<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCXF7cw1v0t16JOWC1FqogFZCS78r-KntBW3d9nfI6gD2hSDtcEYJvNDWbSH_DcX4_Ym3_uE9FeI3fhm45OUXDtNkQm_a3HVfgSQrNHq_oDjZXdOnhOxc0ocbAu0wFe0xTx7BZbALUHqY/s1600/jonathan-tweet-20080729-300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCXF7cw1v0t16JOWC1FqogFZCS78r-KntBW3d9nfI6gD2hSDtcEYJvNDWbSH_DcX4_Ym3_uE9FeI3fhm45OUXDtNkQm_a3HVfgSQrNHq_oDjZXdOnhOxc0ocbAu0wFe0xTx7BZbALUHqY/s320/jonathan-tweet-20080729-300.jpg" width="210" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jonathan Tweet, Mr. Creativity</td></tr>
</tbody></table>For seven years as a child I studied Shorin Ryu Karate under my sensei Jerry Gould. Shorin Ryu is a very traditional style of karate, one of the original three styles developed in Okinawa. "Shorin" was more or less the Okinawan pronunciation of "Shaolin," of <i>Kung Fu </i>fame; the school was started by students who studied kung fu under Shaolin monks and then adapted it to the Okinawan culture's approach to fighting. The karate schools with the deepest roots tend to be the most hardline about discipline and struggle, the least softened for Western sensibilities. With that in mind, it may be less surprising to you than it was to me at the time that the very first kata the beginning Shorin Ryu student faces is the longest and most difficult, Seisan. The idea behind this is three-fold: to give the beginning student a long choreography in which to become immersed, the better to absorb the spirit of the art; to teach the student that the art is always hard work; and to weed out those ill-suited to the art.<br />
<br />
Shorin Ryu is designed this way on purpose. Wizards of the Coast designed their own learning curve this way by accident.<br />
<br />
<i>The Primal Order </i>is 231 pages (not counting front and back matter) at 8 1/2 by 11 inches of all new material, on a subject with less than the usual amount of precedent in the RPG industry to draw from, using a systematic approach hardly every tried. A hundred people are credited with contributing to its creation, including eight primary authors (Peter Adkison, Cathleen Adkison, Steve Conard, Dave Howell, Cliff "CJ" Jones, Kenneth W. McGlothlen, Beverly Marshall Saling, and W.R. Woodall). From conception to publication, it took two years to complete. This one really did take a village.<br />
<br />
<i>The Talislanta Guidebook </i>is 327 pages (not counting front and back matter) at 8 1/2 by 11 inches. It is based on a prior edition and a complete initial manuscript, so in theory that should have more than compensated for the greater length. The difficulties Peter alludes to below were three-fold:<br />
<br />
1) Although Stephan Michael Sechi was a published gaming professional and produced better first drafts than the original Wizards team could, they still were not up to Wizards's new standards and required a lot of editing and rewriting to make them sing. Although this was going to be easier than <i>The Primal Order </i>first draft, it might be on a par with getting from the third draft to the fourth, which was quite difficult.<br />
<br />
2) Wizards had no idea that the text would require that much work, so they started out planning just a new chapter and some light editing, but then kept having to incrementally expand the scope of the project further and further. Peter had queried the online community about <i>Talislanta </i>and gotten feedback that although very creative and original it was complex enough to be difficult for beginners to know where to start. Jonathan Tweet was originally brought on because he did such a good job with the introductory module for <i>Ars Magica </i>that Wizards wanted him to solve this problem by having him do the same thing for <i>Talislanta. </i>The timelines for the project were built around just that, plus time for editing. Once Jonathan got into the manuscript, though, he realized the section on magic simply had to be rewritten. About the time Wizards began to accept that it had to shift the timelines to make time for that, Jonathan realized that really the entire text needed to be reworked to better present Mr. Sechi's ideas, so the timelines had to be changed again. The Wizards crew, who had been just about driven into post-traumatic stress disorder through this kind of repeated schedule shift with <i>The Primal Order, </i>began to experience flashbacks. In the end it only required one round of rewrites, not three, since Mr. Sechi's original manuscript was in better shape, but it did make the Wizards crew increasingly nervous for a while.<br />
<br />
3) Mr. Sechi used language in very idiosyncratic ways and was very particular about what could or could not be changed, making editing and rewriting into a complex and time-consuming negotiation process. One example I remember is that he uses the word "mordant" as an adjective meaning "deathly" or "deadly," whereas the usual English definition is a noun that means a substance applied to cloth to make dyes stick to it so it doesn't fade when it's washed. Mr. Sechi had many such examples of idiosyncratic diction that needed to be preserved mixed in with genuine errors that needed to be changed, so editing required a continual back-and-forth dialog. In the end, though, Jonathan and Beverly found the right balance for the text, correcting mistakes and reorganizing confusing explanations while preserving <i>Talislanta</i>'s unique feel and Mr. Sechi's distinctive use of language.<br />
<br />
When Peter regrets not having done a better job with the <i>Guidebook, </i>he's compressing too much to be fully understood. What he means is this. If Wizards of the Coast had been inventing a world from scratch, this is not the world they would have invented, nor is it explained the way they would have explained it. However, this was not a case of original invention (Peter felt that with great RPG worlds like <i>Talislanta </i>out there, the community did not need another one from Wizards); it was a case of something even more intimate than an adaptation: a seamlessly authentic update. In working on <i>Talislanta, </i>Wizards could clean up the organization and language to a certain point, but beyond that any further changes would have been too invasive, would have crossed the line from helping Mr. Sechi's creation shine through to fundamentally altering it, which that was not their mission. Their job was to midwife Mr. Sechi's baby, which they did to the best of their ability.<br />
<br />
Lisa Stevens was right. <i>Talislanta </i>did give Wizards a clear path into the future.<br />
<br />
It was the beginning of a creative relationship with game designer Jonathan Tweet, who would go on to do many great things for Wizards of the Coast, including designing <i>Everway </i>and co-designing <i>Dungeons and Dragons Third Edition.</i><br />
<br />
It was also the beginning of an important partnership between Wizards of the Coast and Stephan Michael Sechi, in which Wizards helped Mr. Sechi raise the production values of his creation and Mr. Sechi gave Wizards the work they needed to survive and to improve their skills and professionalism, to build their reputation with the game industry as a company that cared deeply about doing high-quality work.<br />
<br />
Having proven themselves on <i>The Primal Order </i>and <i>The Talislanta Guidebook, </i>two tough back-to-back projects, Wizards looked forward to calmer waters ahead.<br />
<br />
Pater's comments from 1993: <br />
<blockquote>After the release of <i>TPO </i>things bogged for a month or two until we got <i>The Talislanta Guidebook </i>out the door--another huge tome that consumed massive amounts of internal resources to get done "right." I have to admit that I'm not sure we did as good a job as we could have, although it's heads above the earlier editions (don't mean to slam Bard Games, but with Jonathan Tweet's coauthoring and Beverly's editing, it really turned out very nice).</blockquote>Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-79019392195223370962011-07-17T19:28:00.000-07:002011-07-17T19:28:56.536-07:00Wizards: Peter on the Cusp, Part Nine<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTnMs9pu0JCjfpIhE0GiIgIgi2VXzjDdow_iScKnGehIMSDPLTBu5hp4Ko1uHpHtLOFyBn38RgHvlRC-THcTNrbZEHOvKbHO_NCfqshnYiYYmjdDNv4Q3NZBwqWsxF7k3qzkLAwcPpsjk/s1600/cathleen-adkison-shades-20080327-300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTnMs9pu0JCjfpIhE0GiIgIgi2VXzjDdow_iScKnGehIMSDPLTBu5hp4Ko1uHpHtLOFyBn38RgHvlRC-THcTNrbZEHOvKbHO_NCfqshnYiYYmjdDNv4Q3NZBwqWsxF7k3qzkLAwcPpsjk/s320/cathleen-adkison-shades-20080327-300.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cathleen Adkison, one of the three original principals</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Writing poised between hope and despair in January 1993, Peter narrated his history of Wizards in fits and starts, pausing over the moments, people, and problems that resonated with his current circumstances, passing lightly over other periods, people, and issues that didn't come to mind when he thought about his hopes for <i>Manaclash </i>(soon to be <i>Magic: The Gathering</i>) or his fears about the Palladium lawsuit. Most of the missing details I'll explore when I finish covering his narrative, but I will take an intermission from the narrative for the next few posts to spotlight two topics that should not wait.<br />
<br />
The second topic is <i>Talislanta, </i>which dominated Wizards's activities in 1992, but which Peter's 1993 narrative dispenses with in three sentences. We'll take a closer look at <i>Talislanta </i>next post.<br />
<br />
The first topic is the other people who made it possible for Wizards to produce <i>The Primal Order, </i>the ones who he didn't have to bring in from the outside because they were already present. There are three in particular I want to pick out in this post for how central they were to helping support Wizards of the Coast between late 1991 and early 1992, the time frame when <i>TPO </i>was being finished.<br />
<br />
Cathleen Couch, Beverly's childhood friend in Walla Walla since fifth grade, married Peter Adkison on Saturday, 11 August 1990. Peter and Cathy had been together for years before that, and their families and friends were present, including most of the early Wizards gang. Understandably, one of the topics of discussion was Peter's new company. Beverly, as one of Cathy's bridesmaids, and I shared a table with Peter and Cathy. This was when Peter first told Beverly that he was starting up a game company and told her who all was doing it with him. After a pause during which she thought to herself "But none of you can write!", Beverly diplomatically asked "Do you have anyone who knows anything about how publishing works?" In the conversation that followed, Peter learned that Beverly had studied publishing arts at Pacific Lutheran University under Megan Benton. It was this conversation at Peter and Cathy's wedding that set the stage for Peter later seeking out Beverly's help in reviewing the early Wizards manuscripts and eventually recruiting her as an employee.<br />
<br />
This also might have been the first time I learned about Wizards. It probably didn't come up in our conversations before then, but you never know. Human memory is unreliable.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxUNRHCu5J4HBj9dOL7sHhKzUrz1gyk8m9dht7GZnALOyzAghW5I8vATbS-iPNOJUqtEeCbTjgOpH4vwNvpLfiBCb9ojnVqhlGbucqvcNHbNjJtszmwgVuMZMmvJJxBGyNIsr5EsWL764/s1600/mike-cook-20071101-300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxUNRHCu5J4HBj9dOL7sHhKzUrz1gyk8m9dht7GZnALOyzAghW5I8vATbS-iPNOJUqtEeCbTjgOpH4vwNvpLfiBCb9ojnVqhlGbucqvcNHbNjJtszmwgVuMZMmvJJxBGyNIsr5EsWL764/s320/mike-cook-20071101-300.jpg" width="228" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michael Cook, quality-improvement guru</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Cathy was there when Beverly and I learned about Wizards. She was also there when most of Peter and Ken's gaming group learned about Wizards, on that kickoff brainstorming session the night of Wednesday, 23 May 1990 three months earlier. Since she and Peter were living together long before then, she was also a part of Peter's life when he and Ken were putting together the initial ideas for Wizards of the Coast over the Internet. Although she was not part of Peter's gaming group in Walla Walla back in the early 1980s, she was just a few years later, and she and Peter would have discussed the emerging plans for Wizards soon after he and Ken began formulating them, which makes her pretty much the fifth person (after Darrell, Terry, Ken, and Peter) in on the dream of starting an RPG company called Wizards of the Coast. And when you look at her longevity with and contributions to Wizards over the years, it makes her one of the original three principals with Ken and Peter.<br />
<br />
Mike Cook never starred in a lead role at Wizards (no media exposure, that is), but contributed much over the years in important supporting roles. Like Cathy, at Boeing he studied the work of William Edwards Deming and brought Continuous Quality Improvement, Plan-Do-Check-Act, meeting facilitation, and many other tools for focusing on and improving quality at Wizards of the Coast. Cathy and Mike worked hand-in-hand to keep Wizards focused on learning from their mistakes and always searching for ways to do better. This focus on high and improving quality made Wizards of the Coast attractive to top-notch game designers like Richard Garfield and Jonathan Tweet and to other game professionals like Lisa Stevens. What many organizations fail to realize is that the very best professionals feel stifled in organizations that focus on delivering the minimum quality for the maximum return and long for the chance to do their best work. Mike Cook helped turn Wizards into the kind of company that could give them that chance, and they noticed and responded. Without Mike and Cathy pushing this core focus of the company, many of the things that Wizards did right over the years could not have happened.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLX_ZwB3pp_YxIs5dhRMdsOs2XP8LyIoNK33wDRzRQrFCLDK6StPTNC71_zDPfGWn9ysIKAhEXLAJqLPFIPMubZlgF0ocofCrl243DTzEwzbNWuZ2OY8Awb68dSQTbYQfzHIMEeShqQ2E/s1600/george-lowe-and-dog-20090310-300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLX_ZwB3pp_YxIs5dhRMdsOs2XP8LyIoNK33wDRzRQrFCLDK6StPTNC71_zDPfGWn9ysIKAhEXLAJqLPFIPMubZlgF0ocofCrl243DTzEwzbNWuZ2OY8Awb68dSQTbYQfzHIMEeShqQ2E/s320/george-lowe-and-dog-20090310-300.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">George S. Lowe, "Primal Caterer" (and friend)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>George Lowe was another supporting actor at Wizards of the Coast who contributed more to the survival of early Wizards than most people realize. Like Jay Hays, he was a Jack of all trades who shifted roles frequently to fill in wherever the company was lacking - and when you're a small company, you're more holes than substance in most areas, like Swiss cheese. Among the areas George worked on in 1991 and 1992 were retroactively building a financial database to get their financial tracking under better control, and cooking for Dave and Beverly during their marathon editing session when they moved into Peter and Cathy's house. In these and many other ways, George helped hold the place together.<br />
<br />
We'll spend more time with the early Wizards personnel in the writing to come, but I felt it would be inappropriate to move on to a new chapter in the history of Wizards of the Coast without bringing Cathy, Mike, and George back into the spotlight so they could begin to be recognized for their early crucial roles. When we finish with Peter's 1993 narrative, we'll go back to the beginning of our history to get to know each of the original actors better, including many so far unnamed in these posts.Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6495242090880926603.post-5613997878355537942011-07-16T23:16:00.000-07:002011-07-16T23:23:47.283-07:00Wizards: Peter on the Cusp, Part Eight<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrFJzwPYFQZnXmm-cP4uOSZMQ4yQuUlwftC1q4mAl6abu7_NlrPViVz3Jsy-lQqAOr3F6G38p7B8cSOHf2_ZJVfgF4mPWS-5i8Zb5Hn8R8IGkISxUq1Rm_NeICFvJnq8rLivhZypw0jTM/s1600/jay-hays-small-1-20090728-300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrFJzwPYFQZnXmm-cP4uOSZMQ4yQuUlwftC1q4mAl6abu7_NlrPViVz3Jsy-lQqAOr3F6G38p7B8cSOHf2_ZJVfgF4mPWS-5i8Zb5Hn8R8IGkISxUq1Rm_NeICFvJnq8rLivhZypw0jTM/s320/jay-hays-small-1-20090728-300.jpg" width="237" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jay Hays, who deserves higher-resolution</td></tr>
</tbody></table><i>Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration. </i>-- Thomas Edison, spoken statement (c. 1903); published in <i>Harper's Monthly </i>(September 1932).<br />
<br />
The same is true of running a company. It is a lot of hard work.<br />
<br />
Running a game company is almost nothing like gaming. It helps a lot to know gaming - that 1% that applies may not be sufficient, but it is necessary - but other than that it's a completely different kind of activity. Most gamers have no idea how different it is and are drawn to do something they would hate or simply be unable to do if they tried. It defies common sense how different they are. Wizards found that out the hard way, which (other than reading accounts like this one) is just about the only way to find out.<br />
<br />
The first generation at Wizards of the Coast largely consisted of Peter's gaming group at the time he and Ken decided to get serious about creating a gaming company. So long as Wizards remained a part-time activity, something people could keep up with during weekends and evenings, the original team remained active. A time came, though, when Wizards had to turn up the heat and push full-time to get their first product to market and make the deals that would lead to their later products.<br />
<br />
This put an unbearable pressure upon the original group, since it began to require a full-time effort with inadequate or no compensation (since as yet there was no revenue). None of the first generation could afford to quit their day jobs under such conditions, so most of them had to either drop out entirely or remain on the sidelines, helping when they could and otherwise trying to keep tabs on progress. Most of those who dropped out returned later, when Wizards could afford to hire them after <i>Magic </i>succeeded so spectacularly, but this created a temporary generational turnover at Wizards of the Coast.<br />
<br />
The second generation at Wizards of the Coast consisted of three categories of people: (1) the few from the first generation who could afford to work without compensation, plus (2) those new employees and contractors needed to get the work done, plus (3) those who were drawn in by the excitement of the work and volunteered when they could. By mid-1992, the first category mainly included Peter, with a few others we'll discuss in the series ahead who helped out when they had the time. The second included Lisa, Beverly, and Dave. Most of those in the third category were eventually hired as part of the third generation (post-<i>Magic</i>), but two, Jay Hays and Jesper Myrfors, were hired as part of the second generation because Wizards needed their help so badly.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7F_3xDNPxam4OawkDNLrMmTd8iZQTgAKQMsej9Pi8Wctn_qmqqvYHP2NzeAJSCIpvzZXCcYL0WtHeAoc7RVY-6tB1w0IBo1mNsTvGa97YQJbhgbJ9ukf2NU8YT0IOuQLwJoFGI9wLk4c/s1600/jesper-myrfors-20090725-300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7F_3xDNPxam4OawkDNLrMmTd8iZQTgAKQMsej9Pi8Wctn_qmqqvYHP2NzeAJSCIpvzZXCcYL0WtHeAoc7RVY-6tB1w0IBo1mNsTvGa97YQJbhgbJ9ukf2NU8YT0IOuQLwJoFGI9wLk4c/s320/jesper-myrfors-20090725-300.jpg" width="306" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jesper Myrfors, in high resolution & high spirits</td></tr>
</tbody></table>James "Jay" Hays, like me, was a part of the Walla Walla role-playing game community, someone who gamed with Peter for years, but who did not attend the May 23rd, 1990 meeting that launched Wizards of the Coast. Five and a half months later, though, he began spending time at the Wizards office (the basement of Peter and Cathy's house at 23815 43rd Avenue South in Kent, Washington) and found that Wizards really needed his help. From project management to design to logistics to facilities management, Jay became the Jack of all trades who knitted the company together.<br />
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Jesper (pronounced "YES pur") Myrfors joined in 1992 during Wizards's push to create and publish new material for <i>Talislanta, </i>after Jay, Lisa, Beverly, and Dave were brought on board. In addition to doing art and design and eventually running production, Jesper built up most of the relationships with the initial group of artists who worked with Wizards of the Coast, many of whom later became famous as the artists of <i>Magic: The Gathering. </i>He had recently graduated from Cornish College of the Arts, and he drew upon his contacts there to create a social network of artists he felt could handle Wizards of the Coast's increasing demand for art and graphic design. Jesper's out-of-the-box thinking and taste for mischief greatly influenced the emerging in-house culture at Wizards of the Coast.<br />
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As for Peter, as his staff grew and took on more responsibilities, he was increasingly freed up to focus on the company's financial survival and expansion, which usually took a lot of work but became a severe crisis starting in June 1992.<br />
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His 1993 narrative continues: <br />
<blockquote>The last part of 1991 and early 1992 was also consumed by the millions of things that had to be done to get going. Getting UPC codes for our books, UPS drop/stamp, bulk mailing permits, distributor announcements and solicitations, learning how to use a fax machine, securing financing on a copier, getting a laser printer and a couple of Macs, etc., etc., etc--all the little things that had to come together. If we wouldn't have had Lisa who knew how to do all this already, we would really have been flailing.<br />
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Of course the biggest hurdle of all was money. Financing has always been the limiting factor for our company's growth; it's very difficult to find people who want to invest in gaming. Well actually, lots of people <i>want </i>to invest in gaming, but most of them are gamers who don't have any money. We were never able to raise our entire stock solicitation, but we were able to get enough of it to get going and we're still paying the consequences of not having been able to raise it all. The biggest day in that sequence was the securing of a $30,000 line of credit, which was enough to guarantee publication of <i>TPO </i>and the <i>Guidebook. </i>The day we secured that LOC is a day I think of as the turning point as to whether all this was really going to be worth it or not. Before that there was always the possibility that we'd have a good product, good people, and a good plan but couldn't move forward because of lack of capitalization. But at that point I knew we were guaranteed of at least being able to make our mark in the gaming industry, that no matter what happened, I'd be able to contribute something to the industry I love so much. No matter what happens now, even if the company goes under because of this Palladium lawsuit [<i>next post --Ed.</i>] and I end up paying back the loans for the next twenty years, I'll always feel that I came out ahead.<br />
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Concurrently to everything I've been describing, we had our share of internal problems. Almost everyone who was initially involved with the company ended up moving on, either because they found that they didn't have the time to do the work on top of their "day job," because they didn't have skills we needed, because of personality conflicts, loss of interest, or what have you. I'm happy to say that I'm still close with everyone I've ever worked with. But now, out of the most active players in WotC, I'm the only one who was there at the beginning. Those primary people are Lisa and Beverly, of course, and Jay Hays and Jesper Myrfors. Jay came on board the earliest, along about November of 1990. He immediately dived into things head long, with tremendous ambition, dedication, and energy. He told me that he'd be a corporate officer within six months and on the board of directors within a year--he succeeded in both goals. He's consistently been one of the most hard working and fanatical members of the team, and he has a stock percentage to show for it. Jesper is the most recent arrival. He is an artist who'd always been a fan of <i>Talislanta, </i>asked to do art, and then just started coming down to the office and started hanging out, looking for things to do, volunteering his time. Within a couple months he was running just about all of the production department and we figured we'd better put him on the payroll. He's been a tremendous part of the team ever since.</blockquote>Rick Marshallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01707062453047354335noreply@blogger.com1