Love and Monsters

I know I should probably be focusing my writing efforts on Beyond the Deadly Desert right now, but I'm in a little bit of a pickle.

You see, for most of the areas and regions of Oz and beyond that I've written about, I've been able to say something about linking your character to that place. Sometimes, it's about building your character as though they were from that area, like playing a bunny from Bunnybury. Other times, I talk about the benefits of having a friend from that place.

But there are a number of places beyond the Deadly Desert that are really very not nice. Particularly the regions that General Guph recruits from as he built his Army of Conquest in The Emerald City of Oz.

So I'm wondering: Should I make an effort to make the Growleywogs or Phanfasms playable or sympathetic, even though they had distinctly villainous roles in the story they appeared in? Has any Oz writer taken the opportunity to make any of those creatures into relatable characters? Or should I treat them as monsters or villains?

My view might evolve as I knuckle down into that section of the job, and get a better picture of what these guys are really like, but as I'm getting a run-up on it, that's what I'm seeing in front of me.

And This Is Why I'll Never Win NaNoWriMo

Because today is the first day this month I've gotten to sit down and write anything. Between work and other scheduled activities (including a little gaming), I have been run ragged over the last few days. Last night, I finally got to bed at a human hour with no chance of anything else happening first thing in the morning. We'll see how long this lasts.

I still love NaNoWriMo (and NaGaDeMon for those who participate in it). Don't get me wrong. Because it's a good excuse, a kick in the butt to do the thing that you really want to do. And sometimes, that's what I need.

The day job and real life have left me pretty stressed and depressed recently, so I haven't been putting as much attention into some things. Like this blog, for example, or the thing that this blog is supposedly about. I've still got all the work I've done on Beyond the Deadly Desert, but it's been lying fallow for far too long. I think I'll take advantage of the excuse to blow the dust off of it and finish it.

I don't think it will be finished this month, but hopefully I can use NaGaDeMon to build up some steam and momentum and see how far that takes me.

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?

A Couple of Belated Birthdays

As I mentioned last week, May 15 (Tuesday) was L. Frank Baum's birthday. Jared over at the Royal Blog of Oz has put together a few treats for the occasion. Check 'em out!

Tuesday also marked the second anniversary of the release of Adventures in Oz: Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road. This Saturday will mark the first anniversary of the release of the Adventures in Oz Characters Pack. But where's my product for this year?

Well, don't forget that Adventures in Oz took me 3 years of dedicated work to produce and didn't pay all of its own bills until earlier this year. Though part of the issue is that I demanded that it pay its own bills. In August of 2010, I found myself moving and changing jobs, which put me in a very different, and not as bounteous, financial position.

And then there's the challenge of finding that next big idea. Do I continue with Oz (either small adventures or my Beyond the Deadly Desert project) or do I branch out and put some serious effort into another project I've got on the back burner?

A Swift Kick In The Pants!

A lot of people know November as NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. While I may indeed have a novel in me, there's something else that I know you want more: Adventures in Oz: Beyond the Deadly Desert.

But publishing an RPG book isn't just a matter of writing it. Art, editing, layout and a number of other things are important as well. But all of those things cost money, and I don't have a whole heck of a lot of that. Sales aren't terribly strong in my little niche of a niche, so my motivation to complete the project has somewhat wavered.

Then I discovered Kickstarter. Rather than having to take out loans or owe my soul to family members, I can simply plead for the money I need in front of the entire Internet. My goal is to raise $3000 over the next 30 days. (Link Here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/575175333/adventures-in-oz-beyond-the-deadly-desert)

There are a couple of particularly nifty things about Kickstarter. For one, if I don't make my entire amount, nobody pays anything. For another, creators are encouraged to offer prizes to their contributors. And I am. Smaller contributions will receive digital copies, while larger contributions will receive print copies. Some contributors can even receive a special thank-you in the book itself!

Hopefully, with these two powerful motivators, NaNoWriMo and Kickstarter, I can get Beyond the Deadly Desert into the hot little hands of my voracious fans.

Smith & Tinkering

Believe it or not, I actually am working on Beyond the Deadly Desert (And I'll have a special announcement in that regard in a few days).

One of the things I'm wrangling with is letting players take on the role of inventors like Smith & Tinker, the duo who crafted Tik-Tok. The options that I'm thinking of are:

1) A character who has purchased the Craftsman trait can make wonders given sufficient time and effort.

2) A character who has purchased the Craftsman trait can make wonders by following the basic procedures for making magic items (gather exotic ingredients/spend Oz Points).

3) A character must purchase the Craftsman trait as well as an additional 1-point trait in order to make wonders using the rules for making magic items.

The big question is: How rare are such geniuses? Was Mr. Tinker simply specialized in a different way than Ku-Klip the Tinsmith, did he have access to better materials, or did he have a much greater understanding of his craft?

What do you think?

Why Go Beyond The Deadly Desert?

As I still have a plan to put together "Adventures in Oz: Beyond the Deadly Desert", I must pose the question: Why did L. Frank Baum go beyond the Deadly Desert in his Oz stories? Why didn't he just set all of his action there?

I think the answer is: Because it wouldn't have been realistic. Part of the charm of Baum's writing is that there is a level of realism (or more accurately, verisimilitude) along with the fantasy. And despite the Oz fandom's love of tornadoes as plot devices, notice that Baum only used it once. Because to use it more than once would be to stretch credulity just a little too much. Do it three times and you've completely battered any suspension of disbelief into the ground.

In fact, Baum's first Oz sequel, The Land of Oz, doesn't even include Dorothy. This is probably because he thought that bringing Dorothy back to Oz would have been hard to do believably. And when he did bring her back in Ozma of Oz, she doesn't return to Oz, but finds herself in the neighboring land of Ev. Because he had already established that Oz is surrounded by desert and to use a shipwreck to bring Dorothy directly to Oz would have been a cheat.

Then, in The Road to Oz, Baum introduces his Oz readers to a number of characters from his other stories, functionally tying those non-Oz stories into Oz lore. This process becomes complete with Scarecrow of Oz bringing Trot and Cap'n Bill to Oz. So now we've got lots of interconnected material to draw from that happens outside the borders of Oz itself.