Good News Everybody!

Well I was going to write my usual long post, with explanations, and excuses, and so on. Luckily Firefox crashed (probably due to my excessive tabs issue), and steered me in the right direction. In fact I almost feel like it's cosmic confirmation (that'd be a great game title...) for the decision I've been making over the last few days. So to sum up what I was going to write, I'll just sort of list off what I'm thinking in quick points.

First off I've been playtesting an awful lot of Arcane Adventures lately at my FLGS, and it was very successful, but I'm not very happy with how it's gone. It's very clear to me now that mechanics do have a large impact on how the game is played. It's also lead me back to OD&D, how beautifully simple it is, the lack of powergaming aspects, and the general aesthetic and nature of the game.

I also just read through my copy of the Arduin Grimoire  and I loved it. The nature of it, how it's just a collection of awesome material, new ideas, and generally helpful material for OD&D. It spells out the differences from the core system, instead of retreading an entire game. It's just the useful new bits, and that's that.

So what does all of this mean? For right now I'm shelving the idea of my own retroclone. Instead I want to focus on creating new and interesting material, and maybe compiling new and interesting material from other sources (like Arduin). Maybe even redo-ing or revitalizing some old-school material, that has kind of been neglected or forgot (Arduin, Judges Guild, etc.).

Tonight I had a sort of realization: zines. When I first got into old school D&D, I read a few e-zines/fanzines (whatever you want to call them), and thought they were kind of interesting, but relatively useless. Of course I might have just downloaded some bad ones (they were free after all), and that could explain it. However I realized that what I'm currently developing, the ideas I have, the subjects I'm pondering over and want to discuss, would all be perfect for a magzine/gazette style publication.

I won't have to worry about releasing more of the same material, only the new stuff I come up with. That also means no copyrighted material, or trying to rewrite stuff that is copyrighted. No worrying about how to word a description for strength, or how a "...turn is ten minutes...". I'm sure some of this shift in mentality comes from the fact that I've recently purchased a bunch of AD&D material, so I know longer feel the need to print it at home. It's also made me realize how ridiculously easy it is to convert any old school material on the fly.

Oh as a side tangent, part of why I'm switching back to OD&D, is my realization of what I want. See I want to use material from any roleplaying game; OD&D, AD&D, Pathfinder, Runequest, Arduin, etc... Trying to shove all of that into AD&D was a terrible idea, because AD&D really is a complete game already. OD&D isn't, so its easy to shove whatever I want in there. See OD&D has no inherent sense of balance; AD&D does; and when you start shoving material from non-AD&D games, or even other editions of D&D in there, it does start to break.

Back to e-zines. Another reason e-zines would be a fantastic route for me is the ease of publication, and the lack of expectation. I know that sounds horrible, since I just talked about how poor some of the ones I read have been. However I just read a post on Grognardia about how I should only be publishing for myself, and you know what's important to me? The rules, the material, and the text. I don't care about art, hardcover books, leatherbound this, or special edition that. If I was to try and publish my stuff as a full role playing game, there is so much expected; art, layout, explanations for every little detail.

I'd personally make a digest size e-zine, so layout would be even easier (single column, instead of two). Plus it would have that awesome OD&D old school feel to it. Of course later, if I decide to make my own full game, I'll have my stuff organized and ready to shove into a full game. In fact Arduin started as a set of supplemental booklets, and eventually turned in to the Arduin Adventure (IIRC). Imagine that I could start with the "Arcane Grimoire" and turn it into the "Arcane Adventure". Just thoughts.

Once again, I know I keep changing my mind. This time though I feel a certain level of confidence, contentedness, and almost "rightness". Expect a lot less excuses, explanations, rants, etc... And hopefully if all goes well, expect more material, monsters, rules, etc... and maybe a few musings.