LotFP: RPG
5 hrs ·
'allo all...
Jim here. Let's get this over with.Do note that I have been advised by legal counsel to not comment about the content of statements released by various parties involved in the current situation.
Similarly, I have been advised by legal counsel that LotFP is responsible for the comments left on our pages, so we will have to be heavy-handed moderating comments about this matter. There's a whole internet out there for you to express your unfiltered opinions, please respect our situation concerning this matter in our spaces.
(thank fucking christ for lawyers, eh?)
And something I would have thought could go without saying, but I have been advised to go ahead and state: Lamentations of the Flame Princess publications are purely fiction. There are many things our books portray imaginatively that are absolutely unacceptable in reality, including all forms of violence, which also includes sexual harassment and assault. Keep the bad things in make-believe, and the good in reality.
And now on to the business at hand:
1. All of Zak Smith's upcoming work with LotFP is canceled. We are not destroying stock or erasing things that have already been published (there isn't anything on this Earth that would make me a book burner), but should current stocks sell out, they will not be reprinted.
Breaking this out, and clarifying the grey areas:
2. Zak's financial interest is in Vornheim, Red & Pleasant Land, and Frostbitten & Mutilated, and that's it. He is not and has never been LotFP management and doesn't make decisions concerning books that he's not specifically credited on, and he doesn't have further financial involvement in the company beyond royalties from sales of just these three books.
3. Zak had some time ago received considerable advances for two new books. One was in quite late stages of development and was planned to be released in April, and we had been preparing another printing of Red & Pleasant Land. These of course are not moving forward. Zak's Ref book contributions will also not be happening. I think that's all that was on his docket for us, but if I've missed mentioning anything here, they're still canceled.
4. A new printing of Death Frost Doom, that has a considerable amount of Zak's work, is already at the printer and there's not much to be done about that. At this point I'm getting charged a near five-figure printing bill whether they deliver the books or send them straight in the landfill, and I'm not sending them to the landfill. His work on this one was done and paid for in early 2014 and he does not receive any royalties from sales of this book.
5. Zak is credited as editor of Veins of the Earth but the writing there is all Patrick. Zak's involvement in that project ended in 2015 and he was paid his fee at that time, and he does not receive any royalties from sales of this book.
6. We've got two full-time (including myself) employees and one part-time employee (who doesn't have another job), and investments in literally dozens of other Zak-free projects in various stages of completion. Many people are making royalties off of books that have nothing to do with Zak. Some people already have bailed from their upcoming projects. Some might still. But I plan on fulfilling all my current obligations and continuing to release for a long time to come a lot of things that uphold the LotFP standards of quality, intensity, and pure "What the hell were they thinking?"
And now a personal note...
I've talked to a lot of people this past week, people with different perspectives, from the deeply affected to my printer representative who doesn't know anybody involved. People who had all sorts of opinions on the matter, some favoring one side, some favoring the other. People I agreed with, and people I disagreed with.
You know what they all had in common? They were bummed out. They recognized this was a tragedy from top to bottom. Even the people who agreed with my course of action here, hell, even someone that thought I wasn't going far enough, recognized what we were losing, even while they said we needed to lose it.
But there are other people out there. People who don't think this is a tragic situation. There are people out there thrilled about how things have turned out. They're going to tell you they were right all along about things. And they'll be most helpful suggesting all the things that still need to be done.
You all need to keep your eyes out for these snakes slithering among us, feigning compassion when they once spat only cruelty, loving what this has done to us, ready to take advantage of the situation for themselves and further erode what we've all collectively built as a creative community.
Don't let them.
And one last thing. I'd like to thank Zak for all the work and support over the years. I am absolutely crushed that we cannot continue to collaborate.
It’s been a very busy and long day between the Army and GC but I feel this is important.
I want to share some more information to stop the rumors and give those of you that care to know some insight as to why I made the decision to remove Frank as a Guest of Honor. I believe that it was Frank himself who emphasized the importance of communication in our community way back in Polyhedron number one. That is sage advice that I want to heed. The way things get better is through communication and that is what I was trying to do with Frank. I called him several times over the past months. Sunday was the first time he called me back and we had a chance to talk.
I needed to talk to him about something that had become clear to me; making Frank a Guest of Honor gave the perception that Gary Con condoned some behavior that was against our policies. I feel I am taking better actions now than I have in the past. The gaming community is in the midst of change and it is change for the better. Gamers are speaking up and demanding that we provide safe and inclusive environments for all of us to gather, play games and have fun. In the past we have had to talk to Guests about their behavior at Gary Con and even tell some not to come back the following year. Sometimes an attendee has crossed the line with a volunteer, and we addressed that with them and got resolution. I believe that due to Frank’s status and friendship with my Dad, I treated him differently in the past.
However, I want to make some things clear. No one strong-armed me into making a decision. Sure people talked to me and gave me their opinions, but no one demanded that I remove Frank as a Guest of Honor. In fact when I talked to Frank I left the door open for him to attend Gary Con as he did last year. At the end of our communication it was Frank that closed that door. I respect Frank’s contributions to our hobby and all that he did to help Gary Con over the years. I hold no animosity towards him, he is a practically an uncle to me along with Tim, Jim, Tom and Mike. Quite the opposite is true; I wish Frank well. I am saddened by this entire situation.
This is our hobby and in my mind it is about friends sharing good games and going on great adventurers together. Someone messaged me saying that a GM or GMs were considering canceling their plans to attend in protest. I hope that isn’t true, but if anyone is thinking about it they should realize that the people you are punishing is your fellow gamers who signed up to play in your game. As I said above, communication is critical, it is what will help us be better. I am willing to listen and I have read and replied to the messages that I received. If you have a concern or a suggestion please contact me. I hope that we can focus on what things unite us and get back to enjoying ourselves by rolling dice, creating new stories and forging strong bonds of friendship.
To all D&D fans,
We spent the last week listening and learning from the D&D community.
Zak Smith, along with many others, was engaged by Wizards to provide feedback on D&D Next, the playtest which evolved into D&D fifth edition. We have not contracted with him since, and regret our choice to do so in 2014. Because of that, we are removing Zak’s credit from future physical printings and digital versions of the Player’s Handbook.
We applaud how the D&D community supports one another and fully support the planned Dungeon Masters Guild bundle raising funds to donate to RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network). The bundle is live now and we will be amplifying it going forward!
We are grateful to be a part of this wonderful community, and we thank you for your passion. We remain committed to working with and learning from you, the D&D community. You may always share your comments and thoughts with us on our social media platforms and we are setting up an email address to receive feedback more directly.
Sincerely,Interestingly enough, now there are NO consultants at all listed anymore:
The D&D Team
After much deliberation, I made the decision to remove Frank Mentzer as a Guest of Honor from Gary Con. His past misconduct and threatening behavior violate the ethics and harassment policies established by Gary Con. This was a difficult decision for me because Frank was a long-time friend and employee of my Dad, he has been to every Gary Con and had the honorarium of Old Guard attached to his name. He made significant contributions to the gaming industry in the 1980s with Basic D&D and the RPGA. However, Frank’s harassing behavior, threatening communications, tone-deaf and unapologetic responses are unacceptable to say the least and not the kind of behavior that represents what Gary Con is about. This form of toxic aggression is detrimental to the safe space we as a gaming community strive for.Wow. So, nothing new. Its the same drama that was attached to Frank at last year's Gary Con and he didn't get uninvited. It is also especially harsh wording. After Frank was removed as a Guest of Honor from Gamehole in fall of 2017 he was left, primarily, with two of the three Old School Cons a year. This past fall, citing health issues, Frank was limiting his convention appearances to one on a year - Gary Con. It's looking like Frank is done on the convention circuit.
I want to make something crystal clear, Gary Con is about celebrating the love of gaming, making friends, having fun and sharing camaraderie. All while we honor the memory of my father, one of the most important figures in RPG history. In order for Gary Con to continue to be the premiere gaming convention that it is, we must ensure that everyone feels welcome, safe, and believes that they are a valued member of our community regardless of their gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or what edition that they play. I want everyone to understand that if someone acts inappropriately, the staff will take action swiftly to correct it. It is my reasoned judgment that having Frank as a Guest of Honor was counter to these principles. That is the bottom line.
Luke Gygax
Founder, Gary Con
Over 42 years in the making, this is the definitive guide to the world of the Lost Lands!
This massive volume includes the history of the Lost Lands, a wealth of detailed maps, cultural information about its nations and peoples, and a huge gazetteer containing descriptions of the world's countries, cities, waterways and geography. For the first time, readers can explore the length and breadth of the great continent of Akados, including regions never before described, and far Libynos, home of the Desert Kingdoms and many ancient cultures alien to the folk of Akados.
The book weighs in at approximately 700 pages in full color, with maps by award-winning cartographers and beautiful, original artwork to place you directly into the world itself in all its glory and terror.
Entirely system-neutral, the guide can be used with any game system you choose.Yes, you can use it with The Fantasy Trip (a popular choice in the comments section of the Kickstarter.)
The Lost Lands are the setting for a tremendous array of over 150 individual adventures and sourcebooks already published by Frog God Games and Necromancer Games, many providing statistics in multiple game systems. All of this material is available to provide an almost inexhaustible resource of ready-made adventures and epic quests! Future Frog God Games products set in the Lost Lands will be built into the ever-growing canon finally revealed in this volume.
The Lost Lands are opening up! At $75,000, Frog God Games will set up a license agreement that, at no charge, allows third-party publishers to commercially publish adventures, supplements, fiction and other written material set in the Lost Lands. Frog God Games material older than 18 months is available to expand upon and use as a springboard for your stories and adventures. Rights to third party-created content are retained by the creator and can be sold through any gaming or fiction marketplace determined by the creator. Simple guidelines apply (no indecent material, no harassment or encouragement of harassment of actual persons, no *-cist or *-phobic, no real world intrusions into fantasy games, etc.). Want to create new levels in Rappan Athuk? Go right ahead. Wish to reunite the Sundered Kingdoms? Great. Desire to expand upon otherwise unexplored locations? By all means! Want to go into the past and explore ancient times? Go forth and conquer!
Example of the thousands of illustrations and maps that will be available for 3rd party publishers or really awesome Game Masters.
What is more, Frog God Games is currently developing a community hub that will contain resources like reference materials, a published adventure directory and access to almost 2,000 illustrations that have appeared in Frog God Games and Necromancer Games products, all for use by creators. The Hub will be free to backers for at least 3 months and will have a very minimal fee thereafter (only to pay for maintenance and compensate the coordinator behind everything).
Other details will be forthcoming in updates and other channels as they are developed.Dare I say "Holy Shit!" This is literally more than I could ever have hoped for (and I pitched an idea to open up an unused corner of the Lost Lands nearly two years ago but as always, my shots were placing low on the target ;)
DRAGONLOCK™ Miniatures are specifically designed to be the easiest-to-print minis you can buy for 3D printing. These miniatures are optimized for FDM-type 3D printers and do not require slicer-added supports to successfully print, as the sculpts are designed to self-support or in some cases have pre-designed supports built in. All of this means you can print highly detailed miniatures easily without having the hassles often associated with printing miniatures at home. Best of all, the miniatures in the photos you see are all printed on a $220 3D Printer and a standard 28mm miniature only costs around 6-8 cents in plastic to print!Files are distributed via DTRPG (you AREN'T getting physical minis. You are getting the files to print your own)
The Forest of Night has always been a strange place. The trees are far too tall and far too thick here. So full in fact that they block out the very sun leaving the entire forest in the perpetual murk of night. Even the bravest and most experienced of hunters shy away the forest’s higher paths. Far too dark they say, and far too easy to become lost on the winding trails of the primeval wood.
Recently the folk who live upon the slopes of the mountain have complained of strange occurrences, especially around the time of the full moon. Weird shrieks have been heard in the trees. Small creatures acting strangely and deer stumbling into the meadows below the mountain with their brains leaking from their ears.
The locals have turned on one another. Some suspect witch-craft. Others believe an ancient curse has returned to the land centered on hidden ruins thought to be located on the high slopes of Midnight Mountain. Is it a plague? Are the rumor of a curse true? Have demented beings from Sybil descended on the denizens of Hurrie Inn? What’s the deal with all the cats?
One thing is certain. It is going to take a brave band of adventurers to unlock the secrets of Midnight Mountain and perhaps save the land from the depredation of the Encephalon Gorgers on the Moon!The details:
Encephalon Gorgers on the Moon by Casey Christofferson- available in Fifth Edition, Pathfinder or Swords & Wizardry versions is an adventure for mid-level characters. We expect this will be the only time we offer the premium softcover option for sale.
Within its covers (or the digital PDF file) you will find:
The price:
- A stand-alone adventure completed in 2-3 gaming sessions
- A horror mystery from beyond space and time
- Exploration of new worlds and dimensions
- Full Color Maps by Robert Altbaur
- Richly Illustrated by Michael Syrigos
- Cats!
An RPG zine series bringing magical realism, the paranormal, and cryptid terrors to a modern day setting. Compatible with DCC RPG.Catchy elevator pitch, but what's the actual skinny?
Ghostlike Crime is a tabletop role-playing game zine bringing magical realism, the paranormal, and cryptid terrors to a modern day dystopia using Dungeon Crawl Classics rules. It expands and hacks the original rule set to place it in a familiar yet darkly skewed setting. The intention is not to unnecessarily complicate the rules or bore you with voluminous background fluff, but to hand the players some quirky character options and throw them into conflict with things that go bump in the night. Imagine the Alpha-team facing off against a family of yeti or Ghosthunters trying to figure out how to keep the local for-profit coroner from continuing to resurrect a mass murdering slasher.
The adventurers are monster hunters and defenders of humanity from paranormal threats. They are not a part of any government program, but an autonomous and clandestine group that also works to keep power out of the hands of oppressors. They are the nail that sticks up. This parallel reality is a dystopia where magic exists, but open practitioners are unheard of. Wealth hoards power and these usurpers who cannot wield it enslave those who do. Ghostlike Crime is set up to be as grim or gonzo as you like.As for contents:
Steve K. Roll20 Team
Earlier today, Roll20 was named in a report as one of several victims of an attack by cybercriminals. While we can confirm a breach did occur, we are currently focused on finding out all the facts. For now, it’s important to note the report makes clear that no financial data was included in the breach.
Our security teams work tirelessly to fix potential weaknesses in our systems, and we take seriously our responsibility to safeguard our users’ personal information.
Here’s how we do that:
Roll20 only maintains the following personal information: users’ name, email address, hashed password, last login IP and time of login, and the last 4 credit card digits.
We use Stripe and PayPal to process transactions; all billing information is handled by them and never touches our servers.
We utilize bcrypt for password hashing, which means that it cannot be reverse-engineered for utilization with other sites or to access Roll20.
We know it’s frustrating to not have all the facts, and we’re working to uncover the full extent of this breach. We will be continuously updating our members with information as our investigation continues.
Clocking in at over 56 pages and crammed with content, Check This Artifact contains 30 brand-new artifacts of the Ancient Makers, plus a brand-new godlike AI, all for use in your mutant crawling or other post-apocalyptic role playing game. Penned by the creator of Mutant Crawl Classics RPG and published by Mudpuppy Games, these powerful technological treasures are more than mere artifacts, because each item in this book is a plot hook and a potential mini-adventure in the making.
Check This Artifact presents artifacts for your players to attempt to track down, tame, and temper — including weapons, armor, robots, AIs, and those extra-special items that are the sole purview of far-future fiction. Just check out the contents page.
Tuesday, 12 February 2019
DriveThruRPG Responds to Current Industry News
Thanks to everyone for your patience as we deliberated on the situation that has unfolded regarding Zak Smith (aka Zak Sabbath). At DriveThruRPG, we want to do our part to keep bad actors out of the roleplaying community, and we don’t want business relationships with such people. As such, you’d think there wouldn’t be much deliberation needed on our part. However, the situation posed a number of challenges for us to consider in terms of precedent and collateral impact on other parties.
I have decided that we will not accept future titles for sale on DriveThruRPG (or our other marketplaces) if Zak is a contributor on the title. If any publisher has a title-in-process to which Zak is a contributor and this policy would impact you financially, then we’d ask that you please reach out to us via the publisher services link to have a dialogue about that title.
For titles currently on our marketplace in which Zak is listed as a contributor, we have checked those publisher accounts, and none of these titles have us paying money directly to Zak. While it is likely that Zak does earn a royalty on some titles sold on DriveThruRPG, any such royalties would be paid directly by the publisher of the title, not by DriveThruRPG.
Further, whatever royalty Zak might get from any publisher on our store is unlikely to be the entirety of what we pay that publisher. We do not feel it’s fair to penalize financially those who worked with Zak in the past, including both publishers and possibly other contributors earning income from these titles. Therefore, we expect publishers to make their own decision to continue selling these titles or not, presumably after consulting with all other contributors.
For our part, we will be identifying all titles to which Zak contributed and diverting all of the revenue shares that DriveThruRPG might make from sales of these titles as a donation to RAINN (https://www.rainn.org/).
I’ll try to pre-emptively answer other possible questions below.
When this happened, why did you not suspend sale of Zak’s titles while you deliberated?
When we expect that it will take us a few days to deliberate on a title reported for offensive content, our policy is to temporarily suspend sales of that title. In this case, though, it was not the content of any particular title under discussion, and we did not find any titles where we directly paid Zak for ongoing sales during our deliberation.
So DriveThruRPG is now banning certain creators? Will whoever the “outrage brigade” complains about next be banned as well?
We all share a responsibility for the health of our hobby. Any demographic measure we’ve ever seen on the roleplaying hobby shows women are under-represented. Things won’t improve if people shirk the responsibility to make our hobby inclusive.
Zak Smith has a long and well-documented history of behaviors antithetical to a healthy community. In light of recent allegations, which we find credible, we think our business and our hobby is better off without him, so we’re doing our part.
We already have a small list of other bad actors in the industry with whom we refuse to do business: people who have repeatedly abused crowdfunding platforms for personal enrichment, who repeatedly engaged in IP violations, who have repeatedly treated our staff or customers in unacceptably unprofessional ways, and so on. If you repeatedly act like a jerk (or worse, a predator), we won’t wait for other people to complain about you. We’ll just quietly stop doing business with you.
Why are you not banning his existing titles?
Because we don’t want to hurt other people who also contributed to those same titles just to diminish Zak. Banning those existing titles risks doing just that.
Thanks,
Steve Wieck
President
OneBookShelf / DriveThruRPG
Being honest... a great many crowdfunding campaigns greatly underestimate the time it takes to get the projects together and to the backers and end up being late. LotFP still has some stuff outstanding that's past deadline. Guessing a "real" date seems like a losing proposition.
Because there is no real deadline for the book.
But the Ref book is essential to LotFP as a game and as a business, and the company is basically in neutral gear until it's done. So it's in everyone's interest to get it done in as timely manner as possible. And we will do our best not to drag our butts. But we won't cut corners.
Layout for the Rules & Magic book took longer than expected, but the same template will be used for this book so who knows how that will affect things. We might hit some of the stretch goals that affect the book's content (more art, color layout, developmental editing), and those will add unknown amounts of time to the project. Someone pointed out in the run-up to this campaign that "You mean if 50 people add on commentary by Zak, he's going to write 5000 words?" and if that happens to one (or more...! One can dream...) of the commentators, that might add more time in.
While all of these things add time to the project, they also make the book better. And I hope they happen and will push for them to happen, but at the end of the day the people doing most of this stuff are freelancers who will need to fit this book into their schedules at the time it's ready for them.
So the actual delivery date is "When it's done." That isn't an option to enter into IndieGoGo for a delivery date though, and any reasonable guess is still pretty much blindly throwing darts. So why not January 2019 and poke fun at myself and others who have failed to correctly divine past completion dates?
So... You either want the book, or you don't. You either trust that it'll get done, or you don't.
If you don't want the book or don't trust that it'll get done, then backing this project is a bad idea no matter what date we stamp on it.
If you do want the book and do trust that it'll get done, we've put together some incentives to get you to back now instead of waiting until it's properly released.
It's up to you to decide whether those incentives are effective.
Every issue has at least one full character class, compatible with the various OSR rules systems, Multiple generic NPCs, one or more named NPCs with adventure hooks, history, culture, and societal notes to make these species come to life in your games.
Each issue is a small, black and white zine that also contains pin up art pieces of different varieties of the highlighted species. Here's something awesome that you don't get with other zines- every backer gets FREE ART with a commercial license to use in your own products!
Additionally, I'm releasing them with 100% open content. Use this stuff in your own books. ALL OF IT!
The material is setting- and even genre- neutral. Each of the beastmen societies gets presented as a a living culture, with notes not only on traditional fantasy themes, but also notes on how they colonize and fight in space. Yes, fantasy and sci-fi gonzo goodness.Size? Small
The basic $10 pledge includes a PDF of every issue that we produce from this campaign, as well as stock art. The @25 level gets you the discount print code for each issue, as well as discounted minis.If it only produces a single issue of unknown page count, that becomes fairly expensive for a small PDF. "Print code" I am guessing means POD through DTRPG at cost. That's a significant chunk of change for potentially a single issue in print (plus POD cost and shipping). Yes, you get access to the art as future stock art, but that is only an incentive if you plan to do some self-publishing yourself.
