As you can tell, just by skimming this, today’s blog is very short. It’s mostly just housekeeping, really, with a couple of Interesting Things at the end. Between strange emergencies, slight illness, and a full freelance docket, I’ve accomplished and overcame much this week, just not enough to get together more for a full blog.

I did do an impromptu poll on my personal Facebook, and within the Delve RPG Discord channel about other topics, you might want to see from me. There was a lot of interest in my thoughts on games, borrowing ideas an themes, and where the line is drawn between homages and fuckery. I do have thoughts on that matter, but I think I want to wait until Robert Bodine unveils his last blog on the subject of Wizard of the Coast’s attempt to get him to shut down his One-Stop Stat Block project. I think his take on the OGL will be eye-opening to many folks, and I have a feeling I will want to riff on it a bit when I tackle the subject.

But that’s not than long of a wait. I will be back next week with maybe that subject or perhaps some more updates about Delve. Who knows? Maybe both.

The only thing else I have to tell you is that Rick Hershey of Fat Goblin Games sent me the finals for two of the Delve iconics–Ez Shadowalker (and her faithful hound, Tojo), the iconic rogue, and Brumtha Doomhammer, the iconic warrior. I love both of them, and they are sitting on the Patreon site as the Sneak Peek Friday offering. Backers get to see them first this week, while the rest of you will have to wait until next Friday. A select few of you have played these character in the various Delve events I’ve run at conventions. For those of you who haven’t. I’ll give you a little spoiler about Brumtha: I hope you like dwarven women with beards as much as I do! And again, I want to thank all of my patrons for making these first artistic steps possible. I’ve taken your wonderful support and given the game its first artistic vision and there is more to come!

Interesting Things

As I noted above, Robert Bodine has published the second part of his retort to Wizards of the Coast’s cease and desist letter. If you found the last one chunky, you may hit a wall with this one. It’s about spells and at times can seem just as endless and esoteric as an archmage’s spellbook. To be honest, I’m still digesting it, but if you have the time and inclination, it’s well worth the read. And watch out, he’s tackling the OGL this coming Monday. Expect him to dissect that wonderful and strange document to a state that will make your head spin. Here is my guess at a spoiler: that document only gives you permission to do things you could already do legally anyway.  Of course, when I say legally, I mean the Platonic form of legality, not the real legality with money, corporations, and those pesky lawyers buzzing about.

The second Interesting thing I’ll point out is a little “gem” called, “The Implied Apocalypse of Dungeons & Dragons” over on the brain leakage blog. As a fella who is very happy that D&D and roleplaying games of their ilk have grown into a larger audience, I try not to look things with my Mr. Cynic hat, but I have to admit that this blog got my goat a little. Really, do you think that early D&D implies a post-apocalyptic setting? You weren’t aware that a considerable chunk of the authors who inspired D&D was struggling with the ramifications of the atomic threat and what might happen to the earth after? Did you not know that the Medieval period itself is, for all intents and purposes, was a post-apocalyptic setting? The fall of fucking Rome?

Okay, okay. I’ll settle down. Maybe I’m too hard on the guy. Perhaps just him name dropping Jeffro Johnson brought back the acid-dipped enema of that writer’s hugely masturbatory and deceptively titled Appendix N: The Literary History of Dungeons & Dragons. That fucking book.

Yeah, Jeffro, I read your book. I want my money back.

But maybe, I’m just feeling overly judgy this week. Just maybe. I’ll let you be the judge.