Taking a Look at ENWorld's Hot Roleplaying Games (Hint - the OSR places fairly well)

ENworld's Hot Roleplaying Games List

I stumbled across this earlier today while bouncing around the web. Very interesting numbers. I'm not surprised to see 5e having over half the the attention of gamers / posters / bloggers online, but I am surprised to see where the OSR places. A solid 5th place, right after FATE.  The thing is, if you add in OD&D and 2e to the OSR numbers, it comes it at #3.

And folks wonder if the OSR has a voice these days (well, I assume some folks wonder.)

Over 1000 sites and counting! What's the current zeitgeist? What are the hottest games being talked about right now? This isn't a list of sales figures; it tracks what's currently being talked about using a top secret algorithm. Each game is also conveniently linked to a search for discussion about it right here on EN World, should you want to find out more. The spotlight list changes from time to time. The red and green arrows show a game's general trend over the last 90 days - is it being discussed more or less than it was in the previous 90 days?

How important are Taverns in Your Campaign?

Taverns. They are a staple of fantasy roleplaying.

"You are in the tavern when a mysterious man approaches you."

"Sitting down at a table in the local tavern, a man bursts through the door and crumbles in a lifeless heap. In his right hand he holds an envelope addressed to (some random PC)."

You know the spiel. You've payed it or run it or read it in a commercial adventure countless times.

So, do you detail the taverns that get used in your games? Do you name the tavern, it's workers, the patrons, detail the food and drink and pricing? Or is it just a backdrop to kick things off for the night?

Tell us your thoughts.

and the Free Basic Fantasy RPG Print Package Goes to...

Alright, I broke out my Gamescience percentiles and ignored any results above 57.

Rolled a 05

Which means +Peter Schweighofer , you win the Basic Fantasy RPG collection of books in print.

Peter, I'll need you to contact me at tenkarsDOTtavern at that gmail thing so I can get this sent to you via Amazon.

Thanks to all that commented. There wouldn't be a blog without the community that's has formed around it. I can't thank everyone enough.

Huzzah!

THIS is Why I Blog

I don't blog for the money, as there is little to none to be made. If anything, it costs me money.

I don't do it for fame, because really, what fame is there to be made?

No, I do it for moments like this:

Good Morning Erik (Morning at least on the USA East Coast),  

I downloaded the free BasicFantasy and Field Guide items this morning with great delight. 

OSRIC is excellent and indeed, as you recommended, the BF array closely tracks with the feel of OSG (old school gaming? I don't know my acronyms yet).   

Both systems collectively turn my old lapsed gears and it is a wonderful feeling.  A feeling of simple joy.  What an elusive condition, simple joy: an ice cream cone when you're a kid, or tossin' the ball with your Dad, or a new bike.  New houses don't do it, fast cars don't do it, beautiful women don't do it (though we can make a strong case for them), exotic vacations, power and promotion in our careers . . . it's a long list.   

Just fucking give me simple joy.   

And I was going to buy a vineyard.   

Please tell the primary parties at OSRIC and BF how they have touched a man many miles away.  A different kind of sorcery.  I don't have a gmail account or whiddle with Facebook so I can't contribute to your comment sections.  Supply those men my email address if you like.   

I owe them money.   

Thanks again for everything.  Looking forward to Pod-2 from Tavern Radio.  

Best,  

-Rick  

"Gnoll fritters for EVERYBODY!"

Alright. I'm done. Can't top this. Time to turn out the lights ;)

I think Swords & Wizardry is up next...

The OSR for the Lapsed Gamer - Free PDFs - Basic Fantasy RPG

Basic Fantasy RPG is pretty much a bridge between 3x and the older editions of D&D. It was the first OGL based game that was meant to emulate Old School play and be used as such (OSRIC was originally written to make it easier for publishers to write old school adventures).

What Is Basic Fantasy RPG? 

The Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game is a rules-light game system modeled on the classic RPG rules of the early 1980's. Though based loosely on the d20 SRD v3.5, Basic Fantasy RPG has been written largely from scratch to replicate the look, feel, and mechanics of the early RPG game systems. It is suitable for those who are fans of "old-school" game mechanics. Basic Fantasy RPG is simple enough for children in perhaps second or third grade to play, yet still has enough depth for adults as well. 

Basic Fantasy RPG is an Open Source game system, supported by dedicated fans worldwide who have contributed hundreds of pages of rules supplements, adventure modules, and other useful and enjoyable game materials...

It succeeds in this goal of replicating early D&D based RPGs very well, not just in the look, feel and mechanics but in presentation too.

Probably the most amazing thing about the Basic Fantasy RPG is the quality of the supplements and adventures, available for free in PDF and at cost in print.

How inexpensive?

Less than 11 bucks for the rules and two campaigns with multiple adventures in each. Personally, I really like BF1 Morgansfort: The Western Lands Campaign. It has a B2, Keep on the Borderlands feel while still being different

Here's what I'm going to do. One random commenter on this post will get the above three books in print sent to their home. US residents only, as this will be shipping via Amazon Prime. Don't fret, everyone can grab the above and more for free in PDF directly from the Basic Fantasy RPG website.

You need to comment by 930 PM Eastern Time, September 24th, 2014 to be considered.

Magic Shops - Do You Use Them?

There are times that I think magic shops (and their inclusion or exclusion) are one of the more controversial aspects of a campaign.

If you have one (or more) it makes magic common and no longer as special. If you have none, where do the player's sell off their excess magic (assuming they have any) or spend their gold in bulk?

I have no problem with the apothecary or scrivener adding an occasional permanent magic item to their inventory of wares, but I shudder at the idea of magic shops popping up like used car sales men:

"This here wand of fireballs was just used by the mage Bobulast to clean vermin out of his storage cellars. Hardly been used. Command word? Oh, that's an extra 50 geld."

If I did have a magic shop, I'd want it to be more like an antique shop with perhaps an anti-magic effect over the shop, preventing items from being misused against the proprietor.

"That there is a rare piece. One of a kind even. Look at the patina on that blade, shows it's age and it's heritage it does. You'd want to leave the patina. I wouldn't clean it more than a slight buffing or you'll ruin it's value. Yep, might only be a blade of minor power but it has a history well worth it's weight in gold. Er, careful with that snow globe. Iffin it drops we may find ourselves in the midst of a snow storm, magic protections or not. Remember, you break it, you bought it."

So, do you use magic shops? To what extent?

Brainstorm Podcast Episode 3 - Let's Talk Alignment

Join +Vincent Florio , +Glen Hallstrom and myself, +Erik Tenkar as we talk about alignment in your favorite editions of D&D.

Find us at the BrainStorm Podcast.

Kickstarter - Broken World - A Post-Apocalypse Tabletop RPG

Let me see if I have the lineage correct: Apocalypse World, the game without failure, just complications, begat Dungeon World, and there was much rejoicing as the hordes of fantasy role players could now play a game without failure, just complications.

And so it was that Dungeon World begat an offspring, one that would climb the no longer so high gates of the land of Kickstarter, and the offspring it left unto the Worlds was a broken one. A Broken World to be exact.

This Broken World was to be a post-apoc RPG.

Say what?

Didn't this all start with Apocalypse World, which is by it's very name "an apocalypse world?" Did we come full circle so soon? No one wanted to do a Star World or Cthulhu World or even Land Before the World?

A retread of the game that started this line of gaming? Which has already hit over $9k against a $3k goal.

Shit. I need to quit my job and roll out some games written with the Apoc Engine. Maybe tack on some fate. FATE World. Ka-Ching!

Wayward Kickstarter - CHUGS, a Collectible Drinking Card Game

What could be wrong with a collectible drinking card game?

Well, perhaps we'll start with the graphic above, where apparently they can't spell. What exactly is a "Collec Table" game anyway? I guess it's CHUGS. (edit: maybe it can be spelled both ways, but the spacing of the graphic is STILL wrong, and the "i" is more proper than the "a".)

Hey, shit happens, even when one is looking to raise $18k Canadian for a drinking game with misspellings right on the tin.

19 backers - $3,000 raised. Basic buy in for the game is 20 bucks. So, where did all of the extra money come from? Well, having a $1k backer and a $500 backer does that pretty well. That's half the current funding right there.

So, how many are in for the basic buy in of 20 bucks? 4 backers. Yes, 4.

Oh, and first created, zero backed.

Now, we only get glimpses of backers in groups of 10, so with 19 backers, we only get to see the first 10. Two of those 10 have supported previous projects - for 8, this is their first. Two have the same last name. Gee, it's like stuffing a tip jar, right? Need to put some money in so others follow.

I actually liked The Chugs CDCG Starter Kit: Includes: 1 – Starter Deck, 1 – Chugger, 6 – Chug Shots, 1 – Ugh Chug Shot Glass/cards. Estimated retail: $74.00

Guess how much it is if you want to back the project? $100. Is that some new sort of math they're teaching up in Canada?

And it's collectible in that each deck has a 31% chance of having a rare, ultra rare or autographed card in the deck. Yes, that's what makes in collectible. Or rather, "collec table."

Steer clear of CHUGS for your drinking game needs. I'd rather point you to Drinking Quest.

The OSR for the Lapsed Gamer - Free PDFs - OSRIC

OSRIC - Old School Reference and Index Compilation

Doesn't sound all that sexy when you actually break it down, does it? Well, it wasn't supposed to.

OSRIC was initially envisioned as a safe harbor for publishers that wanted to post "old school adventures." As it was a reimagining of AD&D 1e, it would allow publishers to use it as a reference for their "old school adventures", without stepping on the toes of WotC and falling back directly on Wizard's 1e IP.

It's was officially released 1/20/07 (with a preview that had released on 6/23/06)

OSRIC v2, which is the version one is most like to encounter online (or at Lulu) is written with the idea of actually being used as a reference in play, whereas OSRIC v1 was written with the idea of it being used as a reference for published material. OSRIC v2.2 is the latest version available.

It includes the usual AD&D 1e classes with the exception of the Bard (who never fit in the first place system wise) and the Monk (who was usually out of sorts setting wise). Strangely enough, Swords & Wizardry Complete includes the Monk but drops the Illusionist. Just an observation.

OSRIC is the 1e Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual rolled into one comprehensive volume. Even if you still like running with your original 1e rules, having OSRIC as an additional reference at the table doesn't hurt.

It drops Weapon Speed (which I don't recall ever being in a group that used the rule, let alone understood it.) It retains segments as a time measurement in combat and spell interruption if hit while casting.

OSRIC plays close enough to AD&D 1e that I was able to run a campaign with both 1e books and OSRIC being used at the table interchangeably. Sure, the experience point tables are tweaked a bit to change the math, but all in all, it is simply a much easier to read and understand rewrite of the original AD&D 1e rules.


Some history about the Why's and Wherefore's OSRIC (as supplied by +Guy Fullerton )

http://www.knights-n-knaves.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?p=11108#p11108
...plus the post immediately following it.

http://www.knights-n-knaves.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?p=11245#p11245

http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=18307

http://www.thedelversdungeon.com/forum2/viewtopic.php?t=81

+Stuart Marshall , OSRIC's Editor in Chief, would prefer you play with your original AD&D 1e books when possible  http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1306092#p1306092

OSRIC Pocket SRD (Free PDF and OBS $13.50 POD)

OSRIC v2.2 (Free PDF and Lulu various prices POD)

OSRIC v2.2 (Black Blade Publishing $21.00 HC)

add reviews, reflections, impressions, experiences, corrections and the like to the comments below.

next up will be Basic Fantasy RPG

The OSR for the Lapsed Gamer - The Timeline

I figure if we are going to present the OSR RPGs in some sort of order, actual release dates should have some sort of influence on that order. Then the question became: "has anyone done such a list?"

The answer is yes. Thanks to +Rob Conley mentioning it on his Bat in the Attic blog a few year back, I found out that +Guy Fullerton had put together an amazingly comprehensive list - with a spreadsheet no less, that offers an OSR timeline until June of 2012. For the sake of our needs, I've filtered the list by system releases.

I'm going to use "full" release dates, not previews and such, so the initial order of the free OSR releases that are being highlighted will be:

OSRIC - 1/20/07

BFRPG 2/17/07

Labyrinth Lord 8/4/07

Swords & Wizardry 10/15/08 (note - S&W comes in 3 versions and a number of rule sets use it for the base of their variant. Each version of S&W will get it's own post. The variant rules will get a post at the end where applicable)

Dark Dungeons 5/26/10

LotFP Weird Fantasy Roleplaying 7/26/10

Mazes & Perils 8/7/12

Delving Deeper 3/18/13

BLUEHOLME Prentice Rules 1/9/13

Seven Voyages of Zylarthen 6/1/14

Planning a Series of OSR Posts for the Lapsed Gamer

I've gotten a number of emails recently from folks "coming back to the hobby" after 20 or 30 years and looking to reignite the fires. Say what you will about 5e, but it is certainly bringing attention back to the hobby of RPGs. I can't say it's going to grow the hobby as a whole (but it should, at least initially), but I have noticed an uptick in lapsed gamers looking to find their old love. 5e might have stirred the spark, but the OSR is where they feel at home.

The problem with the OSR is the sheer number of choices and flavors one can find. Heck, it's not just systems themselves, but subsystems, as both Labyrinth Lord and Swords & Wizardry both come in three flavors each.

Now, for those of us immersed in the OSR, this isn't daunting, it's exciting. For a lapsed gamer whose old gaming books are long since gone and is looking for a current version of the rules, in PDF or print, there's a crapload to sift through.

I'm planning to start a series of posts highlighting the various OSR systems and point out the classic sources they seek to emulate as well where they differ. I'll be starting with the systems that are available in one form or another for free in PDF and then move on to the ones that have a cost involved in the basic rules. The end of the series will wrap up with the more extreme variants that are drawing inspiration from the old school games but may have stepped a bit further afield.

The initial list I plan on looking at includes:

Labyrinth Lord
Swords & Wizardry
Delving Deeper
Basic Fantasy RPG
LotFP Weird Fantasy
OSRIC
Mazes & Perils
BLUEHOLME Prentice Rules
Dark Dungeons
Seven Voyages of Zylarthen

I'm open to further suggestions I may have missed. The free Myth & Magic Starter Guide is NOT on this list, as I have no idea how well the system will be supported.

As always, open for input :)

Kickstarter - Slumbering Ursine Dunes (Hill Cantons Mini Sandbox)

Remember last night's post where I mentioned the "elevator pitch?" Well, I find this to be an effective elevator pitch:

Straight from the Hill Cantons, comes a mini-sandbox played the hell out of by six play groups and over 40 players. Run, play or splice up 50-plus pages of mayhem and weirdness in this Slavic mythic-inspired (with an acid fantasy-twist) adventure for Labyrinth Lord or a well-aged fantasy rpg of your druthers.

Evocative and exciting. Tells you exactly what is in the tin. Short. (not +Tim Shorts , but there can be only one ;)

Looks like Slumbering Ursine Dunes is going to be yet another Kickstarter that I'm backing. And look, it's already hit a stretch goal. Go figure ;)

The great thing about this project is two things actually:

1 - you can go to the Hill Cantons blog and get a pretty good idea of the writing style of the current Kickstarter

2 - if you support for as little as a buck, you can download the text only version of Slumbering Ursine Dunes. If you like what you see, up your pledge. If you don't, you're out the cost of a can of Coke.

Did I mention the art rocks too?

I'm Not a Kickstarter Expert, But I Play One on the Internet - 5 Rules Inquiring Minds Need to Know

I'm averaging 2 to 3 inquiries to look at pre-release Kickstarters per week at this point, and this doesn't include the heads up I get from my readers to point out some of the winners (and losers) that are out there.

It can be a bit overwhelming at times, and there are ones that I'd like to highlight here at The Tavern, but I've fallen a bit behind. Trust me, I'm working on it, but my days of five, four or even three posts a day seem to be far behind me.

In any case, to help me maintain what little sanity I currently retain, I'm going to throw a few helpful guidelines out there to my readers and others that send me Kickstarter leads:

1 - Don't bother sending me links to the latest 3.5 / 4.0 / Pathfinder Kickstarter. Even if it is "has ideas usable with any edition of your favorite game" those ideas are not going to be worth the price of full admission for me and my readers. It's a waste of your time and mine.

2 - Do give me your elevator pitch in the email. If you can't get me interested in 2 to 3 sentences, how do you plan to get the masses interested?

3 - RPGs are my bread and butter, especially with Kickstarter and the like. Well, and beer related products. If it isnt a game or beer-ish, that pitch really better be good.

4 - If it's a pre-release page you are linking to, expect direct feedback. If you don't wan't direct feedback, send me the link when you've gone live. Then you can expect public feedback.

5 - "Good, Bad... I'm the Guy with the Boomstick!" (to paraphrase Ash) - If you bring my attention to your project I'll point out the good and the bad as appropriate, assuming I post about it at all. Be sure you want me to post about it BEFORE calling my name three times in the bathroom mirror (Candyman reference).

I try to go into these Kickstarter (re)views with an open mind but organization is not my strong point. Make your emails short and informative and enticing enough that I want to go to your Kickstarter / Indiegogo / MyLittlePony Crowdfunding site.

The time you save me upfront I will return to you when I look at your site.

Thank you.

The Management

Brainstorm Podcast #2 is Live - Let's Talk about Balance in the Game

Join +Vincent Florio , +Glen Hallstrom and myself in the 2nd episode of the Brainstorm Podcast, where we talk about balance in the game - encounters, classes - all of the good stuff.

We had a lot of fun doing this episode and it shows :)

Indiegogo Has Effectively Done Away with Campaign Deadlines - To Infinity & Beyond!

You know about Indiegogo's "Flexible" campaigns - those are the ones that keep your money even if they fail to fund.

Now Indiegogo is taking it in the other direction - funded or not, the campaign no longer ends.

Continuing Your Success on Indiegogo 

We have heard from many in our community the desire for and positive impact of the ability to keep their campaigns open beyond the deadline.  Since our mission is to democratize funding, we believe we must continue to pioneer this industry through innovation until all people can fund what matters to them – whatever it is, wherever they are or however they’d like to do it. 

To that effect, we’ve launched a new pilot program that will let campaigners continue raising money even after their campaign deadline, providing a new way to deepen their engagement with funders. 

By allowing campaigns to continue after they reach their goals, this turnkey pilot project reflects the increased use of Indiegogo by businesses, artists and activists who seek to attract and develop new audiences. The new functionality will enable campaigns to:
Continue receiving contributions from around the world
Maintain the exposure, SEO and links that they’ve already built during their campaign, without having to start elsewhere from scratch
Capitalize on the existing web traffic
Manage ongoing funding and communication efforts from a single location
Utilize data obtained through Indiegogo’s Campaigner Dashboard and Google Analytics integration 

As the world’s largest online funding platform, Indiegogo routinely looks to customer feedback to help drive the innovation of new products and features to improve the user experience.  The pilot program will be open to select campaigns starting today – including Tens and TrackR bravo – and will expand to all campaigns that have reached their initial funding goals in the coming months.  Stay tuned…

Evil PCs - Do You Allow Them?

I remember quite vividly when AD&D 2e dropped assassins and half-orc when jumping editions. I was upset that TSR had dropped evil classes and races from the realms of PC use. This, after playing in 3 groups in 2 different states and seeing just one evil PC - a half-orc assassin. I really should have been more upset at the filing off of the serial numbers of the demons and devils between editions.

It isn't even like any of those groups had a hard and fast rule against evil PCs - we just used the commons sense rule of "even evil doesn't have to be a dick!"

These days, I'd probably allow an evil PC if he player were able to explain up front how they could play the alignment and NOT be a dick to the rest of the party.

So, do you allow evil PCs? Yes? No? Why? Why not and all that other shit that comes prepackaged with these types of questions ;)

How Much Scheduled Gaming do You do at Cons?

It seems to me you never have enough time at conventions to do all the gaming you want to do. Or, more accurately, you schedule more gaming than you can enjoy. This is what happened at NTRPG Con for my wife and I - the days we had two games on the schedule were literally overwhelming and exhausting. In my mid 40's I no longer have the stamina I had in my mid 20's.

Oh, and don't forget needed to leave time for pick-up games.

I figure in the future we'll limit ourselves to one scheduled game each day.

So, how much gaming do you try to squeeze in at conventions?

Boozing it Up at the Gaming Table - Yea or Nay?

+Vincent Florio had a post yesterday at The Evil GM talking about booze at the gaming table. I had an answer. I was going to post over at Vince's blog, but then I went down to the local pub for dinner and my evening bartender took good care of my wife, my son and myself. As I type this, I remember why I don't drink and DM - I simply can't stay focused enough to herd my usual party of cats.

Back in my college days I refused to allow beer at the RPG table (board games and the such were enhanced by the drinking tho.) I always felt it was difficult to keep the party on track when they were three sheets to the wind.

These days, in the middle of my middle age years, I find myself imbibing liberally during gaming sessions I'm a player in, but I totally abstain when I run a game. I can have difficulty enough staying focused while sober ;)

So, were do you stand with drinking at the gaming table? Or do you say fuck standing up, and just fall off to the side? ;)

Of Simulacra, Emulations, and Transmogrifiers (Guest post by Richard J. LeBlanc, Jr)

(This morning we have a guest post by +Richard LeBlanc , he of New Big Dragon Games and the D30 Sandbox Companion fame. I'm honored that Rich decided to post this here at The Tavern. You can read more of Rich's thoughts over at his blog - Save vs. Dragon)

Of Simulacra, Emulations, and Transmogrifiers.

I've long held that Apple products were superior because... well.. they were Apple products. If you've ever read the book "Insanely Great," you know what I'm talking about. Steve Jobs hired graphic designers and typography experts, in addition to others in various and diverse fields, and it was these things that helped make the Macintosh the truly brilliant product it was. (Granted, we really have yet to see if Apple can maintain its true vision with their visionary gone.) So here I sit, 30 years after the first time I touched a Mac*, and though many PCs now offer the same kind of command over type and layout, I am still a Mac person. How is it I do not hold that same place of honor for the intellectual property protected by the OGL? (You know what I'm talking about. The beholder, carrion crawler, displacer beast, umber hulk, rust monster, githyanki, githzerai, slaad, mind flayer, kuo-toa and yuan-ti all hold such non-OGL status.)

If I see a crappy replicant (sic) property like a Transmogrifier on the shelf at the local dollar store, I'm the first to make fun of it for the sad knockoff that it is. So why am I okay with calling my rust monster a "corroder"? Why am I okay with calling my carrion crawler a "carrion creeper"? Or calling a beholder an "eye beast"? If I were an IBM clone person, maybe it would be easier for me to understand why I'm okay with this, as the concept of an alternately named clone is part-and-parcel of the deal. Which obviously brings me to the concept of retro-clones in general. Why don't I look at something like Swords & Wizardry and say to myself, "Hey! That's the Transmogrifiers of old-school RPG gaming?" From my point of view, what it comes down to is intention.

Matt Finch's goal (or so I believe it is safe to assume) was never to make a cheap knock-off of LBB D&D to be sold dirt cheap at the local dollar store in order to take advantage of those kids who just couldn't afford the real thing. Swords & Wizardry is obviously a labor of love (something I assume of retro-clones in general). By comparison, I don't look at a Transmogrifier and think, "Wang Wěi** must have made this product out of his deep love for the concept of the Transformers, and because one just cannot get a Transformer without having to stalk eBay and throw down a few hundred bucks even without an original box to get one, he must have lovingly made this crafted product in an attempt to share his passion with everyone else."

I currently find myself halfway through writing the monster listings for the Basic Psionics Handbook, and this thought has stayed very top-of-mind. It's amazing how many archetypal psionic monsters are not open content. In able for me to port them over to my BX psionics system, I have no choice but to rename them. Otherwise, I will infringe outrightly on the intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast as outlined in their Open Gaming License. In essence, what I am doing is creating what amounts to an alternate universe where the names are similar to those known by AD&D players, but may only be familiar to dedicated BX players (as these creatures have never made it into those editions—e.g., what point is a mind flayer in BX that has no psionics?)

In some ways, I see my duty with the Basic Psionics Handbook being two-fold. First, and most obvious, it is to try remedy BX's psionics deficit by attempting to create a psionic system as simple as it should be (be no more) for those players. But second, it is to bring a set of monsters to that edition that, while they hold a dear place in the hearts of many an AD&D player, have never had the chance to grow such roots with BX-exclusive devotees. And here's the rub... I may not use the original names for the following, well-established psionically-endowed creatures: githyanki, githzerai, mind flayer, slaad, ustilagor, and yuan ti. Instead, say, "Hello!" to the astral gish, limbo gish, mind thresher, zlod, intellect seeker, and wan-ti.

I must also state, that while I am trying to capture the spirit of these creatures, I am also trying not to just duplicate their old stats in the new format. I am trying to create (in some ways) my own interpretation of them (usually for the sake of simplification and seamless integration to this new psionic system). My goal is not to knock them off in order to "put one over" on the masses. Rather, it is to translate them into the system I have created, making them available (in most cases, for the first time) to many a BX/BECMI DM. I liken it to the translation of a book from one language to another. For example, a literal translation of something like Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" might prove more than a little clunky. (Just try pasting a few passage into any online translator and I'm sure the results will leave something to be desired.) Instead, those of us who want to read the book but do not speak Chinese (regardless of dialect) rely on folks like Ralph D. Sawyer (whom I chose for little reason other than he translated the paperback copy that I own). He takes that original text and interprets the original author's words and intentions for the audience.

When it comes to this sort of verisimilitude, am I Ralph Sawyer, or am I Wang Wěi? Am I an impassioned advocate, or am I a flagrant, self-serving huckster?

Are these types of workaround names (and the associated content) acceptable because: 1) we have learned to accept them (given the proliferation of retro-clones already bearing such simulacra, 2) we know they are a product of passion in the face of license limitations, or 3) both? Or are they unacceptable because they have more in common with the Transmogrifier—we know they're not the real thing, and will NEVER be the real thing, regardless of how much passion they have going for them?

I wonder if it's more like going to a party and drinking Pepsi, even though you're a Coke person, because the host only bought Pepsi. You'd really prefer the Coke, but you know you can't get one, so Pepsi is "acceptable" under the conditions. But with every sip of that Pepsi, you'll just be reminded that it's just not Coke.

FOOTNOTES
* As a side note, the friend responsible for me having access to that 1st-generation Macintosh in 1984 is the same one that gave me my first d30 in 1981.
** I'm just going with the most common Cantonese given name and surname here.