Well, I just got done with my first Google+ Hangout. Pete Figtree and I had a lot of fun talking about the magic rules and a lot of other parts of how AiO works. If you missed out on the fun as it was happening, you can see it here:
Monday, May 13, 2013
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Making a Hash of things... Again
Oh, the things I do for my fans.
Some of you might recall the computer animated adaptation of The Tin Woodman of Oz that I reviewed a while back. Well, that team reunited and decided to adapt another Oz story. This time, it's The Scarecrow of Oz.
I'll start with what I did like about the movie: It did a decent job of tying the pieces of the story together. The Oz books have generally leaned toward the picaresque, with even the more plot oriented stories having some side adventure or unusual encounter along the way. So rather than winding up in Jinxland after some other adventures, Trot and Cap'n Bill find adventure while traveling to Jinxland.
I want to give this movie a lot of credit because it was made on a completely volunteer basis. Volunteer voice actors, volunteer animators and donated rendering time. From that viewpoint, it's kind of astonishing what amateurs can accomplish these days. But it never really lends itself to comparison with professional productions.
Some of you might recall the computer animated adaptation of The Tin Woodman of Oz that I reviewed a while back. Well, that team reunited and decided to adapt another Oz story. This time, it's The Scarecrow of Oz.
I'll start with what I did like about the movie: It did a decent job of tying the pieces of the story together. The Oz books have generally leaned toward the picaresque, with even the more plot oriented stories having some side adventure or unusual encounter along the way. So rather than winding up in Jinxland after some other adventures, Trot and Cap'n Bill find adventure while traveling to Jinxland.
I want to give this movie a lot of credit because it was made on a completely volunteer basis. Volunteer voice actors, volunteer animators and donated rendering time. From that viewpoint, it's kind of astonishing what amateurs can accomplish these days. But it never really lends itself to comparison with professional productions.
Particularly when it comes to Trot. Her eyes are often shadowed in a way that make her look partly like a creepy doll and partly like a creepy old lady. And the Jinxland guards look like they came from a video game, animated suits of armor with no evidence of a person underneath. I'm sure it was easier make one model and copy & paste it where needed, but it was one more thing that pulled me out of the story.
Overall, the character designs are in three major categories: attempted realistic (Trot) that looks odd, stylized characters (Gloria) that look interesting, and cartoony (the Witch, the Jinxland guards) that just don't work.
The story itself is changed from the book, though not as severely as Tin Woodman was. Perhaps the biggest change to the story is that it is set as a sequel to their previous film, even though Scarecrow came first in the novels (Scarecrow was #9 and Tin Woodman was #12). Well, that and the aforementioned tying the story together.
The Scarecrow is introduced earlier in the story, and is shown having an argument with his friend, the Tin Woodman, over his ability (or inability, as the case may be) to scare crows. Then there's a scene with the Tin Girl, who I didn't care for in the first movie, calling the Tin Woodman "Tinny." While I have no problem with pet names and the like, I would have preferred she called him "Nicky" or something. Something that shows she loves him beyond his tin nature, you know?
Scarecrow also meets Trot and Cap'n Bill earlier as well, meeting them in the land of Mo and participating in their encounter with the Bumpy Man. Button Bright fails to appear in this scene, or the story at all. They travel to Jinxland in a boat held up by balloons where they meet Pon, who was exiled from Jinxland because of his love for Princess Gloria.
Once they get to Jinxland, we meet Gloria (who is Trot's cousin in this movie), King Krewl, and Googly Goo. There's an attempt to make these characters look at least a little exotic, with Gloria wearing an elaborate outfit including harem pants.
Overall, the character designs are in three major categories: attempted realistic (Trot) that looks odd, stylized characters (Gloria) that look interesting, and cartoony (the Witch, the Jinxland guards) that just don't work.
The story itself is changed from the book, though not as severely as Tin Woodman was. Perhaps the biggest change to the story is that it is set as a sequel to their previous film, even though Scarecrow came first in the novels (Scarecrow was #9 and Tin Woodman was #12). Well, that and the aforementioned tying the story together.
The Scarecrow is introduced earlier in the story, and is shown having an argument with his friend, the Tin Woodman, over his ability (or inability, as the case may be) to scare crows. Then there's a scene with the Tin Girl, who I didn't care for in the first movie, calling the Tin Woodman "Tinny." While I have no problem with pet names and the like, I would have preferred she called him "Nicky" or something. Something that shows she loves him beyond his tin nature, you know?
Scarecrow also meets Trot and Cap'n Bill earlier as well, meeting them in the land of Mo and participating in their encounter with the Bumpy Man. Button Bright fails to appear in this scene, or the story at all. They travel to Jinxland in a boat held up by balloons where they meet Pon, who was exiled from Jinxland because of his love for Princess Gloria.
Once they get to Jinxland, we meet Gloria (who is Trot's cousin in this movie), King Krewl, and Googly Goo. There's an attempt to make these characters look at least a little exotic, with Gloria wearing an elaborate outfit including harem pants.
The local witch is never referred to as Blinkie, mainly because the character has two functioning eyes. And while she does turn Cap'n Bill into a grasshopper, she doesn't manage to change him back. And the flying armada that saves the day is nor Orks, but crows, since the Scarecrow's inability to scare crows means that he can attract them in prodigious numbers.
Unlike their previous effort, none of the characters sing. There are a couple of songs in the movie, but they are in the background. Too much in the background, really. The sound levels are so quiet most of the time that you can barely hear the lyrics even when a character isn't talking over it.
In summary, the adaptation is at least a little more faithful than their previous effort, the animation is good on a technical level, but odd character designs and amateur writing and voice acting make it difficult to watch.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
What's in the Wizard's Magic Bag?
Okay, The Wizard's Magic Bag is slowly but surely becoming a thing. Although a lot of the stuff going into it is from the blog, it still takes some time.
For one thing, I'm rewriting everything that I had previously written. Not only with this allow it to have a unified voice, I'm also rewriting it trying to replicate the writing style that I used in AiO. I don't know how many of you have noticed, but the writing style in AiO is not what I use on this blog. It's much more simplified, though I try to avoid being overly simplistic. My primary enemy is commas. Not that there's anything wrong with commas, and I don't misuse them, but I tend to use an awful lot of them. In fact, all but one sentence in this paragraph uses a comma for some purpose or other.
For another thing, I'll be adding some things. Not just more magic items, but new magical options. Including some rules for letting your character chuck fireballs with the best of them, and an alternate system for sorcery based on Oz Points.
Here's the current list of what's going in:
Errata & Clarifications
This is where the "Effect Power is a penalty to your Brains Skill" is explained to those customers who don't read the blog. (Note: Make sure to include a link to the blog) The expanded Transmutation rules are going in there as well. This is first so that when RPGNow and DriveThruRPG show a preview on the product page, customers can get the patches for free.
New Rules
Here, we'll have rules for minor magics, battle magic, and using friendship as magic. Stuff that I haven't mentioned on the blog before. Something totally new.
Magic Items
Here's the big list of magic items from the books. I also want to touch on some interesting details and quirks of the magic rules, like when an item is just a spell, or having a magic item as a character's starting friend. I'd also like to try to find some room to discuss the story possibilities
For one thing, I'm rewriting everything that I had previously written. Not only with this allow it to have a unified voice, I'm also rewriting it trying to replicate the writing style that I used in AiO. I don't know how many of you have noticed, but the writing style in AiO is not what I use on this blog. It's much more simplified, though I try to avoid being overly simplistic. My primary enemy is commas. Not that there's anything wrong with commas, and I don't misuse them, but I tend to use an awful lot of them. In fact, all but one sentence in this paragraph uses a comma for some purpose or other.
For another thing, I'll be adding some things. Not just more magic items, but new magical options. Including some rules for letting your character chuck fireballs with the best of them, and an alternate system for sorcery based on Oz Points.
Here's the current list of what's going in:
Errata & Clarifications
This is where the "Effect Power is a penalty to your Brains Skill" is explained to those customers who don't read the blog. (Note: Make sure to include a link to the blog) The expanded Transmutation rules are going in there as well. This is first so that when RPGNow and DriveThruRPG show a preview on the product page, customers can get the patches for free.
New Rules
Here, we'll have rules for minor magics, battle magic, and using friendship as magic. Stuff that I haven't mentioned on the blog before. Something totally new.
Magic Items
Here's the big list of magic items from the books. I also want to touch on some interesting details and quirks of the magic rules, like when an item is just a spell, or having a magic item as a character's starting friend. I'd also like to try to find some room to discuss the story possibilities
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Part 2 of the Party
I just wanted to announce that Part 2 of the Ruthless Diastema Podcast series on Adventures in Oz: Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road is live over on Geeky & Genki. This one gives a basic rundown of the rules of the game. If you missed Part 1 from last Friday, it's here.
In other news, I have been invited to participate in a Google+ Hangout to discuss the intricacies of AiO's magic rules on May 13th. And if you aren't able to attend, it will be recorded and posted for later consumption.
It's been suggested that I get deeper in to this whole social media thing to try and promote the game. I've already got a fan page on Facebook and a small presence on Google+. I'm reluctant to join Twitter out of fear that I'll wind up posting a steady stream of inanities like everyone else there.
What do you think? Where do you get your social media buzz?
In other news, I have been invited to participate in a Google+ Hangout to discuss the intricacies of AiO's magic rules on May 13th. And if you aren't able to attend, it will be recorded and posted for later consumption.
It's been suggested that I get deeper in to this whole social media thing to try and promote the game. I've already got a fan page on Facebook and a small presence on Google+. I'm reluctant to join Twitter out of fear that I'll wind up posting a steady stream of inanities like everyone else there.
What do you think? Where do you get your social media buzz?
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Q2 2012 Quarterly Report
Slowly but surely I am getting caught up to the current day.
Adventures in Oz: Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road
| Sales Channel/Product Type | April | May | June | Quarter Total | YTD | Last Year | Grand Total |
| Lulu/Print | - | - | - | - | 1 | 7 | 69 |
| Lulu/Digital | - | - | - | - | 2 | 2 | 12 |
| Lulu/Total | - | - | - | - | 3 | 9 | 81 |
| CreateSpace/Print | - | - | 1 | 1 | 3 | - | 11 |
| One Book Shelf/PDF | - | 5 | 2 | 7 | 27 | 3 | 131 |
| One Book Shelf/Print | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 2 |
| One Book Shelf/Bundle | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | 10 |
| One Book Shelf/Total | - | 5 | 2 | 7 | 28 | 5 | 143 |
| Paizo/PDF | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 5 |
| Amazon Kindle | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 8 | - | 8 |
| Totals | 1 | 6 | 4 | 11 | 42 | 15 | 249 |
Adventures in Oz Characters Pack
| Sales Channel/Product Type | April | May | June | Quarter Sales | Total Sales |
| OBS/PDF | 1 | 2 | - | 3 | 34 |
| OBS/Bundle | - | 2 | 1 | 3 | 26 |
| OBS/Total | 1 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 60 |
| Paizo/PDF | - | - | - | - | 1 |
| Totals | 1 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 61 |
For those of you wondering why I'm not participating in this year's A to Z blogging challenge, I think you'll see the answer on this chart. The sales for April set a historical low. The only times I have sold less product were when I had no product to sell. I'm tempted to blame the blogging challenge, since this is the only April to perform this poorly and the months surrounding April were not similarly suppressed.
Also for the month of April, OneBookShelf put together a charity bundle to support the Center for Missing and Exploited Children. (It's Child Abuse Awareness Month again this year, too). I donated the Characters Pack this time, since I had already donated the corebook to a previous charity bundle.
It may have been a "perfect storm" of the two events that caused sales to drop like this. But it's enough to make me rethink my marketing strategy.
Friday, April 12, 2013
A Few Minor Notices
This last week, we have lost 2 actors with Oz connections.
Annette Funicello, while famous for a number of reasons, was cast as Princess Ozma in a proposed Disney Oz film entitled The Rainbow Road to Oz, that unfortunately was never produced. (Jared Davis at the Royal Blog of Oz has more on that, including footage of Annette and the other Mouseketeers in costume as various Oz characters singing some of the songs from the proposed film).
Today, we lost Jonathan Winters, a brilliant comedian and actor, who appeared on The Shirley Temple Show in an adaptation of L. Frank Baum's The Marvelous Land of Oz as Lord Nikidik.
On a brighter note, Pete Figtree at the Ruthless Diastema blogcast has begun a multipart series on Adventures in Oz: Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road. I don't know how many parts he's planning on, but part 1 went up today!
Annette Funicello, while famous for a number of reasons, was cast as Princess Ozma in a proposed Disney Oz film entitled The Rainbow Road to Oz, that unfortunately was never produced. (Jared Davis at the Royal Blog of Oz has more on that, including footage of Annette and the other Mouseketeers in costume as various Oz characters singing some of the songs from the proposed film).
Today, we lost Jonathan Winters, a brilliant comedian and actor, who appeared on The Shirley Temple Show in an adaptation of L. Frank Baum's The Marvelous Land of Oz as Lord Nikidik.
On a brighter note, Pete Figtree at the Ruthless Diastema blogcast has begun a multipart series on Adventures in Oz: Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road. I don't know how many parts he's planning on, but part 1 went up today!
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Future Product Musings
Blog Content Product: It's been suggested that I take some of the content from this blog and turn it into a product. My immediate thought is to take the spells and items that I've posted, along with the improved Transmutation rules and do a "The Wizard's Magic Bag" supplement.
There is also the possibility of just doing a "Best of the Blog" sort of thing. The question is: What counts as the best? I could very easily tell you what my most popular posts are, but there's not a lot of game content in them. What do you guys think? What's the "Best of the Blog" for you? Is there something you wish I would write about so it can go in the "Best of the Blog"?
Either way, I couldn't see myself charging more than $0.99 for it. The content has been free for ages, so my only costs would be putting a little polish on it.
Beyond the Deadly Desert: No, this has not left my mind. Unless I win the lottery or get some other windfall of money, my plan is to try and Kickstart it again. I'm not going to make an official announcement until I have the book at least 75-90% complete and I have a video I can put on the Kickstarter site.
I've had an idea for how I want the cover to look for quite a while. I wanted to do something of a variant on the "Polychrome on the Sand Boat" image that was used as the cover for the Del Rey paperback edition of "The Road to Oz." But mix up the people who are riding in the sand boat to make things interesting. Just like on the AiO cover, I wanted to present an adventuring party that didn't adventure together in the books, but very well could.
I definitely want Tik-Tok on the boat. He's not only a Crafted character, but he came from the land of Ev before he moved to Oz. But who else? I'm tempted to put Betsy Bobbin and Hank the Mule in the boat, since that would cover my Animal character neatly, but all of those characters (Polychrome included) have shared an adventure (Tik-Tok of Oz). Maybe King Rinkitink and Bilbil.
And I wanted to do something with Polychrome as well. I've talked about how I want AiO to be an inclusive RPG, and while I think that Oz does pretty well on gender inclusivity, I think it's got a ways to go in terms of racial inclusion. While a specific ethnicity is not given for most characters, it has been assumed that Dorothy and her friends are white for so long that I don't feel like I can mess with it without being too revisionist. But since Polychrome isn't technically human, I think I might have a little more leeway in her appearance. Rather than simply have her drawn in some particular ethnic style, I think I would mix and match ethnic features, garb and other details while trying to retain the basic idea of a rainbow fairy. What do you think?
There is also the possibility of just doing a "Best of the Blog" sort of thing. The question is: What counts as the best? I could very easily tell you what my most popular posts are, but there's not a lot of game content in them. What do you guys think? What's the "Best of the Blog" for you? Is there something you wish I would write about so it can go in the "Best of the Blog"?
Either way, I couldn't see myself charging more than $0.99 for it. The content has been free for ages, so my only costs would be putting a little polish on it.
Beyond the Deadly Desert: No, this has not left my mind. Unless I win the lottery or get some other windfall of money, my plan is to try and Kickstart it again. I'm not going to make an official announcement until I have the book at least 75-90% complete and I have a video I can put on the Kickstarter site.
I've had an idea for how I want the cover to look for quite a while. I wanted to do something of a variant on the "Polychrome on the Sand Boat" image that was used as the cover for the Del Rey paperback edition of "The Road to Oz." But mix up the people who are riding in the sand boat to make things interesting. Just like on the AiO cover, I wanted to present an adventuring party that didn't adventure together in the books, but very well could.
I definitely want Tik-Tok on the boat. He's not only a Crafted character, but he came from the land of Ev before he moved to Oz. But who else? I'm tempted to put Betsy Bobbin and Hank the Mule in the boat, since that would cover my Animal character neatly, but all of those characters (Polychrome included) have shared an adventure (Tik-Tok of Oz). Maybe King Rinkitink and Bilbil.
And I wanted to do something with Polychrome as well. I've talked about how I want AiO to be an inclusive RPG, and while I think that Oz does pretty well on gender inclusivity, I think it's got a ways to go in terms of racial inclusion. While a specific ethnicity is not given for most characters, it has been assumed that Dorothy and her friends are white for so long that I don't feel like I can mess with it without being too revisionist. But since Polychrome isn't technically human, I think I might have a little more leeway in her appearance. Rather than simply have her drawn in some particular ethnic style, I think I would mix and match ethnic features, garb and other details while trying to retain the basic idea of a rainbow fairy. What do you think?
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