Since December was yet again not another banner month of
activity here at the Society and another year draws to a close, I want to take
a moment to gaze back upon the last twelve months and summarize the
accomplishments, both personal and professional, that occurred.
Amongst the OSR community, I believe 2012 will forever be
known as the year Goggle+ achieved supremacy over the previous “go to” venues
of the blogosphere and message forums for disseminating gaming-related
information, material, and most importantly, avenues of play. The blogosphere
and forums still have their place, but this year belonged to Google+, thanks to
FLAILSNAILS, Meetup pickup games, and the ability to customize and control
readership to fine tune your personal “signal to noise” reception quality.
Obviously, Facebook isn’t trembling in its boots for fear of usurpation of its
status as King of Social Media, but Google+ definitely found a place in the
hearts of the old school role-playing community. Whether this is a flash in the
pan development or not remains to be seen.
Speaking of flashes in the pan, Kickstarter got a big boost
this year from the gaming crowd. Certain projects like Reaper Miniatures’
crowd-funding of their new line of plastic minis demonstrated that when a
Kickstarter campaign works, it can work really, really well. But for ever
success story, there are literally hundreds of projects that either failed to
fund or proposed deadlines they couldn’t meet. And with these failures and
delays, the backlash against Kickstarter projects seems to be building. Other
bloggers than myself have been keeping a keen eye on Kickstarted RPG projects,
so I won’t go into depth about this subject, but even a cursory glance at
recent developments seems to indicate 2013 will see gamers being a smarter with
their wallets and RPG publishers, especially established ones, are going to
have to get wise to this trend and develop their goals and funding plans
accordingly.
What were the big releases in the OSR community this year?
To be honest, I have no clue. Professional responsibilities and personal
developments meant I wasn’t keeping tabs on everything pumped out by gamers and
publishers over the last year. DCC RPG
hit the stores and demonstrated that it’s not another retro-clone, but a beast
unto itself (and one well-received enough to hit the Top Five RPG Sellers’
List). Rappan Athuk made some waves
with its Kickstarter campaign. Adventurer,
Conqueror, King debuted. We saw the megadungeon trend continue in Barrowmaze and the next installment of Anomalous Subsurface Environment. Others
were undoubtedly embraced by the community upon release, but it’s hard for a
single person to keep track on what’s going on these days—even when you have
the free time to do so.
On the personal front, I can’t complain about 2012. I’ve
been busier than ever with projects and, as much as I occasionally gripe about
the workload, I remain grateful to be able to continue doing what I do and get
paid for it. This year saw my name show up in the DCC RPG rulebook, Goodman Games’ Free RPG Day release, and Emirikol Was Framed! I wrote a new game
system for Goblinoid Games and finished up revisions for a new supplement to be
released by Goodman in the coming year. I also had the opportunity to create my
own 1920s’ historical horror setting (“Wildwyck County”) for Fight On! magazine, and I have plenty
more in store for that series as publication allows.
This was also the year that I hit the convention trail in earnest,
travelling to the gaming motherland of Lake Geneva, WI and moseying down to
Texas for NTRPG Con. At those events, idols became colleagues, colleagues
became friends, and people I’ve only known through online correspondence joined
the ranks of my valued fellow gamers. I’m looking forward to 2013 when I get to
do more new conventions and return to old favorites.
I’ve got a few announcements coming in the days ahead, but I’ll
close things down for now as I’m battling an end of the year illness and need
to get more rest. I’d like to wish you all a very happy, healthy, and
productive 2013. May Chance favor the bold in the year ahead!
