Note: We are looking for your feedback, possible participation, and your friendship; not your money.

At the behest and suggestion of your friendly SysOp, I am writing this thread to introduce you to the premise and purpose of The Mages' Guild, so that you can understand who and what we are, and understand why our posts may have different signatures attached to them, depending on who writes them on behalf of us as a whole, or for themself (as a member).

'The Mages' Guild' is a technocratic, not-for-profit organization, founded with the principle of helping authors, editors and artists and literary agents in the fields of science-fiction, fantasy, horror and of course, RPG literature. Anyone is welcome to join, which grants you the basic (Acoluthus) tier of status. You can gain promotion in one of two ways: Dues, which gets you 1st-Degree (of 8 possible degrees of) status, or by contributing to the organization. We appreciate dues, but we prefer the latter, and contributing in some way is the only method of further advancement.

Our primary goal if to assist writers of our covered genres to achieve some means of publication, as well as offering play-testing, contributions, editing, layout work, artwork and other aids in making your written material ready for public consumption.

We do not charge for these services, or at least, not in any direct way. Instead, we ask that when your product is finished and published, whether by us or a print publisher, that you donate part of your net proceeds back to us. We don't go out and spend that money on ourselves: We use it to assist other authors with their projects, or even you on your next one.

We feel that one of the reasons that many good ideas never see the light of day is that authors can't both write and support themselves simultaneously. We overview ideas pitched to us, and accept those that seem plausible, or even those that may not be, if we have enough people on hand and a light-enough workload to help you. The base donation is 10% for basic help, or more, based on exactly how much other members do to make your product salable. You can donate as much as you want above the agreed amount, and whatever you don't give back is yours to keep. Every cent, aside from paying our very minimal expenses (as most are covered by donations of members) goes toward the next project.

If we had enough backing, we could produce something new every few months, but as it stands, we all need normal jobs to pay our own bills, even if that means eating Ramen every night. Likewise if we had the time to reply to every thread on every forum, we would and could. We can only pick and choose good points to project in our spare time, and for most of us, between normal work, and our own literary projects, and Guild activities, that is slim-to-none. We'll never have a post-count of thousands on any forum, even our own, but what we do post is generally well-though, conceived, reasonable and objective.

Writing assistance isn't the only possibility: I even took-in another member who fell on hard times as part of our mantra, and he lives under my roof, working on Guild productions. Aside from designing RPGs, I am also a paid journalist, and writer, editor and layout editor of software and hardware manuals. In the market today, that pays peanuts, but a man needs to eat.

In any case, it is the purpose of our organization to help these authors gain public notice, and we have our own community BBS/Portal, chats—often used to playtest games—and meetings, plus live events.

Our Guild never fails to give any member a fair hearing: It's part of the point of our function. Any member, whether they have newly joined or if they have been involved for years is given the same opportunities, and longevity is never considered for its own sake, althour rak Ibased on your level of contribution and any office that you hold, is). The only factor that we consider in high-regard is how much effort they are willing to put forth to further the organization and our ideals.

A member that joins and immediately offers to provide a vital function--and actually does it--surpasses long-term members who do little to help out in the ranks. One such member, Michael McCormick joined, and on the same day volunteered to Moderate our forums. He did this successful for one month, and earned his first promotion.

After that, he earned a second, beyond most of our member body, some of which have been around for years, by assisting in editing the work products of others, and by contributing (running events, producing literary materials, etc.).  He has been a member for under one-year, and holds a higher office than most of the original members. We're a technocratic society, and it works for us.

One of our reasons for being here is bi-fold: To gain public notice, and to get feedback on the active projects of our members from an objective viewpoint. This can be in the form of reviews, playtesting them, or actively playing those that we publish. We are happy to provide complementary copies of them to those interested in helping, and we are always happy to help out new members. Just how much assistance you receive is based on how much involvement and time your put into the Guild, either by helping with the projects, our other members, or by performing some other needed task.

When we do offer something to your community, then it is a gift, with no hidden strings attached. We want your members to get to know us, but we want them to know us based on who we are and what we do, not based on our opinions on which game mechanic is better than another. The best way to do that is to show it to them in a tangible sense, which is what are attempting to do.

The Mages' Guild is not me; not one man. it is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to assisting writers and editors of science-fiction, fantasy, horror and RPG literature to achieve publication and gain market-awareness. It's a way for the little guys to get a niche in the business world, which is dominated by horrible offerings, such as D&D 4e, and repetitive supplements that do not enhance the industry in any way.

New blood is what keeps things fresh! We value that, and want to ensure that everyone has their fair share. I myself wrote SRPGmand of the sales, I donate round 90% of the net to the Guild to finance other writers, of my own free will. Other members donate what they feel is appropriate, with the minimum based on how many people contribute, and how much the Guild does to help them. For example, the base is 10%. This money then goes to help other authors, or even the same author, to make even more material.

If we also edit the publication, the percentage jumps to 20%, and maybe 25% or 30% if we contribute further. This is based on the sheer amount of work involved, but the majority of the proceeds go to the author in the end. If they want to give more back, we are glad to accept their generosity, but we don't do anything to drag them down. We want them to produce more literature, and we have a set of standards to ensure that anything we sponsor or endorse is worthwhile to see a bookshelf in a retail store in the end.

If someone is good at coming up with ideas, they can pitch them to other writers and collaborate to make a whole product. We have workshoppes on game design for items that our members make, where they can pitch ideas back and forth. This allows for good product design and testing before something is ever released, all without having a commercial interest of our own. All of what we take in goes to pay our extremely minimalistic basic operational expenses, and the rest goes to helping authors, editors and artists.

At present, we are offering the published, 'Simple-RPG' system for your review and feedback. We have five other RPGs in the works, two of which are available for examination and potential play by you at zero cost. Just a simple download. These are far from finished, but they are playable.

I hope that this helps to explain who we are and why we are here. If you would like to know more, please feel free to ask any questions that you desire and to discuss this subject at length. (X|S)

Is there a secret handshake and hoods and vestments allowance? I could go for some sonorous chanting as well.

So you're hooking up designers with proofreaders, playtesters and artists basically, and completing half finished works for a cut of the monies?

Quote from: The Traveller;595350Is there a secret handshake and hoods and vestments allowance? I could go for some sonorous chanting as well.

So you're hooking up designers with proofreaders, playtesters and artists basically, and completing half finished works for a cut of the monies?

That is...partly...correct. Firstly, we also run events, and editorial assistance, writing cooperation, and anything else the Guild provides costs the member that receives it nothing. The money given back to the Guild afterward isn't used by the hierarchy as a salary. it's used to help finance other projects, belonging to members, present, future, new and old.

It's a form of a charity, with a unique structure. Full-membership is something you can earn without ever paying a cent in dues, just by participating. Out only dead-expenses go for basic, very cheap promo items to hand out at conventions, and for a few web services that are not donated to us. All other monies goes into fundraising items, and products of our members.

As a shining example, I wrote [ur=http://simplerpg.magesguild.org]SRPG[/url] by myself, with a bit of proofing done by one of our other members, and I am donating almost all the revenue tot he Guild to use on other projects. We have a sponsor in Gamescience, who have provided us dice and books as gifts int he past, and who (regardless of their support, and in my own personal opinion that I've had for ages) make the best dice on the market.

I would like to see Simple-RPG packaged in retail with three Gamescience d6s, nd I hope to commission a special full die-type set for Zoria when I have it ready to publish.

At present, we have five or six other RPGs in active development, and at least four novels. Once we have enough on the market to build up any revenue, we can wholly-finance impoverished writers in advance, allowing them to dedicate their time to working on a product, when they would otherwise be stalemated by scraping money together to afford a meal and rents.

There are many talented people who have ideas that can never see the light of day, because they can't afford to work on it, or find a publisher, or editorial assistance, or playtesting help, or any of the like. The idea here is to work with the small guys and help make them known.

I am one of the founding members of the Guild. When we started, the idea was to get people together to work on custom game settings for ou own enjoyment. Then, as we added people, we discussed the idea of making a technocratic order out of it; from there, the idea of making it a charitable society that adds tot he community and helps support new authors became a major goal.

Even so, we have members that are only interested in playing games or participating in film nights, or video game nights, or whatever is on their agenda. Some pay dues to gain the perks of membership; they don't want to do any work, but only want to have fun, with already-published products.

Keep in mid that you can earn a full-membership merely by playing games here, as long as the games are playtests. If you want to play 'Pathfinder', that doesn't get you an elevation in the degrees.

You might think of us as 'The Technocratic Freemasons' of the RPG, Science-Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Steampunk genres. That is part of the goal, including having hosted 'lodges', either on an as-needed basis, or eventually, open at all times, day or night, to all members, like the inns of a fantasy setting, with recreation, a gaming area, cheer and a place to crash.

We also participate with other fraternal orders, to which some of our members belong, and 'network' in that way.

I hope this answers some of your questions. If you are wondering, aside from writing Zoria, I am also working on another RPG called 'Barf!', which is a humor-oriented, tiny product, aimed to people that want a chuckle for about 75p/$1 or thereabout, depending on its end-size. If you sell a thousand of that, we can afford to front more projects.

In a way, it may sound like a pyramid-scheme, except that it doesn't work like that. Every full member has a voice, but the amount of actual work you do, helping others or the order by volunteering earns you promotion, and thus in turn gives you more authority over decisions. We're working on our new charter at present (the Third Charter), so when that is done, and approved by the hierarchy, it will be available for anyone to read.

I would also love to have someone volunteer to either translate, or help translate it into Latin, and then ink it (as illuminated calligraphy) onto vellum or parchment, and have everyone sign that.

To answer one of your other questions. we have some quirky 'secret-society-esque' qualities, but we don't yet have a special wardrobe or our own lodges or special places to have 'Hellfire Club'-like fun.

One of those is that every office, title and position in the hierarchy and all major terminology must be in an ancient (or alternative) language. The order of precedence i: Latin, Ancient Greek, Fantasy Languages, Other Ancient Languages; if no word exists, the we assemble one that would be appropriate, based on the vocabulary that does exist. We would love to have some antiquarian linguists in the order to help with this as well.

Once we do have a way to use then assuredly, we could have a special 'ceremonial' type clothing, for the fun of it, assuming enough people are into that. Perhaps requiring the wearing of any historic or science-fiction, horror-themed or fantasy-styled wardrobe for special functions would suffice. That's a side-issue, and entirely up to the members to decide in the future. (I did chant the battle-dirge of the Brunnen-G today.)

The most important thing to remember is that this is not a democratic body, or a shareholder structure: We use a form of technocracy, where to hold a position, you must posses the skill to fulfill it, and actually do the job correctly, else you can't have or keep it; and the amount of effort you put into the order is what permits you promotion, not money, or bureaucracy. Your degree of achievement is what gives you authority, and certain degrees are required to make specific kinds of decisions (i.e. to vote on them).

The idea is to stave-off corruption as best as we can, as well as to ensure that anything we sponsor is worth sponsoring, based on the actual content, not by how much the person's work would gain us, but based on if it is a product that the world should be able to have. Therefore, we can sponsor unorthodox literature that otherwise would never see the light of the moon. This far, this structure works.  

Again, anyone can join, and joining as an Acoluthus is free. Dues are optional, and if you want to be elevated to a Guildsman, you can pay a meager sum in dues, or do something to have someone sponsor you. That something might be as little as running a monthly game in our BBS chat.

In the end, it is an association for people into the genres. You can get as much or as little out of it as you desire, and as long as you put some effort into being a member, you'll get as much as you give. (X|S)

Ok, I'm glad that the question of where and how to post seems to have been cleared up after a couple of attempts that got moved or closed or whatever. I appreciate the PMs you wrote to me attempting to clarify your positions.

Now, regarding what you're actually promoting here: I would have to say that there is some pretty big talk in these posts, grand-sounding verbiage, for something that I've never heard of until now and that seems to not really have any proven track record outside of your own personal game, that I also never heard of. You appear to have no well-known industry figures involved with your guild.  You say you have a half-dozen RPGs in development, but what are they, and who is writing them? I think you'll have some chance of being taken more seriously when and if any of these actually get published and are at least moderately successful.

So how would you respond to all this?

RPGPundit

In a way, you're quite right: The idea is big, and we're still growing. The more people we have as members, who actually want to write, or to contribute in some way, the more productive we become.

The authors and direct contributors involved are (aside from myself)
Michael McCormick
Erick Kienitz
David Hanley
Miles Guenther and
Michael Adams

This is in regard to active development of new materials. We also have more members who assist in playtesting or provide other help. We are by no means a giant, but the idea, again, is to support small / new authors, not to provide material to sell to WotC.

Many of the systems we're making are still in development. The 'Shiftverse RPG', by Eric Kienitz (with tie-in novels in the works) will be done soon, possibly before the end of the year. I will be producing a novelty product that I named 'Barf!', with a hopeful objective of having it available in November, and we are all collaborating on some products that are system-agnostic. Eric's novel 'Immortal Breeds' should be done soon as well.

It would have been, if I wasn't too tied-up editing our RPGs to go over the revised copy of his novel Eric is also working on 'Epiphany RPG'; his domain was stolen, but I can link you to a PDF of Beta version, if you want to read 1+-Year-old copy. The Gamma version is still under the development / refinement stage. None of this is rapid work.

Michael McCormick has designed a setting that he titles 'The World-Jewel of Briosgade', and is working on some other GM tactics documents at present. My other system, Zoria is still in development, and many of the aforementioned members are contributing to it in some way. (That is one of our bigger projects.)

Miles is developing a system that is somewhat of a hybrid of 'Mage', 'Ars Magica' and 'Cyberpunk', that involves a time-travel mechanic, with skill-based magic in a post-modern 'Cyberpunk'-like world. We're just calling it 'Mage-Punk' or 'MagiPunk' at present, as a working development title.

We have around 200 members, but most of them are only interested in social events and in playing games; not in developing them. That's fine, but it's not the reason we are going 501(c)3.

I am writing a series of novels, 'The Legacy of Saeros' and 'The Destiny of The Saerosian Empire' being my primary focus of the series. It's a slow process, particularly when you are also the major editing authority for every other project, and have little time to work on your own ideas.

The only reason I make reference to SRPG is because people can actually buy it as a finished product. Of course, we can supply free review copies to anyone here that wants to review the system (legitimately). It stands out as a published product that is actually something you can own: In other words, it is actually finished. There should be a softcover available in a week or two.

Well have more small offerings in the near-future, with the big stuff coming once we feel that it is ready to publish. As it stands, I feel we published SRPG a week too early, before the final layout was finished, but anyone that ordered it got a free upgrade to the latest release; or, they at least received the link to get it at no cost. I have mo idea who acted on that.

Our reasons to expand into your community benefit us all. We can all work together to make some really brill books, assume people desire to work together on mutual goals. As I said, we may have lofty goals, but we don't go mad, over-reaching to achieve them. it took us over seven years to get this far, with a staff of members in the hierarchy that not only want to work on projects together, but can and do.

We're all pretty laid-back about the whole process, but we have some good, professional people on-board. For the record, most of my literature takes the form of software manuals. You've possible read one in your life... I wrote four different manuals for the programme 'Agendus', which was for both PalmOS and Windows CE/Pocket/etc. The core manual was over 400-pages for the Palm-Edition; the Windows manual about 120-pages, plus the manual for the PalmOS advanced version ('Premiere', IIRC), which added another 100-pages or thereabout, and the QuickStart Guide.

I wrote many manuals for the Palm platform, and for others. Technical writers rarely receive credits; we put 'Easter Eggs' in the manuals though, so that we can point to them and say, 'See, that's from my device.'.

I've also written for, and been an editor for technical magazines, and a ghostwriter and contributing writer and contributing editor for a variety of publications. I'm not interested in if anyone ever knows be by name: I only care about my stories and my products, and those of the other members, being available on the commercial market. Eric wants his name in print and the potential fame that comes with it: I'm a hermit, and prefer a quite life with my pipe, candlelight, whiskey or ale, and some beautiful music.

I considered not crediting myself in my own books, and maybe I won't for some of them.

In any case, think of it this way: The products we are making now will sponsor the products of others in the future; possibly your products.

We publish things when they are ready to publish, and we made it a policy decision not to expand any further until at least one of our projects was something that people could buy, hence as soon as SRPG was available, we expanded to find more people who are interested in joining us.

Also, as someone asked this of me: Authors who work with us still own their own ideas. (You aren't selling your soul to be a member either.)

I also have three science-fiction modules in the works, including two versions of one story: One for a general audience, and one for an 'adult audience', as it involves concepts not-intended for children. Essentially, the former is an edited and cleaned version of the latter.

We all have our own min projects, but we also assist each-other with the open-projects of the rest of the members. The bigger the final product, the more people are generally involved.

I'm hoping to establish our format for posting here too. We'll be sharing one account, so that you can talk to several of our key members and always associate us with the Guild. I hope that it works out without incident.
 
In regard to be 'taken seriously', I agree that we will command more respect once we have completed more product, but it comes down to a risk vs. reward issue. If there is no cost involved other than possibility being asked to assist with other products, I exchange for us assisting you, then the actual risk is minimal to non-existent.

We certainly have no expectation to get a flood of new members, but the only way to become known is to make others aware that you exist at all, at all.

In a way, we are not striving to have a host of huge, well-know writers join, as they already have their market and are less-apt to work with a charitable organization to promote their potential competition. The idea, again, is to build a community of writers who can eventually stand on their own and in appreciation of the assistance they received to gain status, return the favour to newcomers to the scene.

As to the one product that we do have available, if there is anyone that wants to write a review of it, we give review samples. At the least, we can get feedback on if people think it is a worthy product (aide from some of our members that seem to love it), and if it is an acceptable value. We're planning on making some very inexpensive products as well in the very-near future as well as the bigger products.

There's just no point in overly-discussing the release of something until we're ready to release it, but people are welcome to contact us to see 'in-progress' versions of what we are doing at present, and to participate in playtests on-line via our chat system, to try out the games in advance.

Most of our author-members are happy to facilitate a one-shot or two-shot game in our chat system, of any product that is ready to play, so that people may get a feel for it, merely by requesting it, and then if they have fun with it, they can always join the main stories that we run on-line. (X|S)

My God Man!  You don't get paid by word on message boards.

Quote from: SowelBlack;595833My God Man!  You don't get paid by word on message boards.

True, but this is my style for communication of any sort. I prefer to articulate my responses, and to select my words with care. if you do not enjoy reading, you are welcome not to read anything longer than whatever length you have fixed as your point of 'losing interest'.

I'm not being paid by the word, or by the page, to edit the materials that our members toss at me either, and honestly, I don't believe in 'blog' format writing, if you can call it writing, in any case. Frankly, if all you have to contribute to a thread is to complain about the length of a reply, then why bother responding at all? (X|S)

I'll rephrase, although the original was meant partly in jest.

I was initially interested.  This sort of thing can be very helpful.  But when the post is so much text and doesn't include some bullet points up front (or bolding or any of the admittedly limited ways to format text on a message board) and then an easy way to drill down to the parts that strike the reader's interest (or else a "tl;dr" summary) your points will get lost/unread.

But I'm mostly a programmer, so if you learned through your writing that this style is better then by all means keep it up.

MagesGuild, I think it was a good response to a tough set of questions on my part!

I will note that Sowelblack also has a point, in that the way you frame your answers can help you to get your point across, or hinder the same.

RPGPundit

Quote from: SowelBlack;595844I'll rephrase, although the original was meant partly in jest.

I was initially interested.  This sort of thing can be very helpful.  But when the post is so much text and doesn't include some bullet points up front (or bolding or any of the admittedly limited ways to format text on a message board) and then an easy way to drill down to the parts that strike the reader's interest (or else a "tl;dr" summary) your points will get lost/unread.

But I'm mostly a programmer, so if you learned through your writing that this style is better then by all means keep it up.

Again, this boils down to a style issue, both on my part, and on the part of any reader. I have noted that there are to main types of readers: Theose who want only facts, and those who enjoy the detail and the pleasure of reading a composition that was penned with forethought and grace. Take those who love the style of Tolkien or Herbert, like myself, with amazing detail, versus ghe people that complain thatthe style is long-winded. Either you enjoy it, or not.

When I write for someone else, I use whatever style they direct me to use. When I make a product, I use a style best-suited to the product; when I write narrative, I use deep-immersion; and when I write letters--including posts on a forum--I use a formal style.

Normally, in literature, when an author uses bold, italic or underlined text, it is for emphasis or stress within a statement, as when read loud, or within the mind's voice; else to define a function, to grant special recognition to a quote, or to denote a title, which is usually also enclosed in quotes. I did miss a few of those when editing that screed, however I tend to write letters in linear fashion, not as adverts or outlines.

It is also considered bad editorial practice to overuse special text formatting options, and bad style to use more than two fonts on any given section (e.g.Headline vs. Body as Sans-serif and standard Serif, respectively).

If this was an advert, it would appear quite differently, and adding bulleted points would be acceptable, but this is a discussion, and I was answering questions directly, while adding anecdotes to make reading it more interesting to read.

If you would like an outline with answers to specific questions, please ask them, and request that format for answering them, or send a PM with your questions. I don't object, but I also cannot change the mental desires of the skimming reader to appreciate elaborate detail. I tend to read a post at least twice, in full, before I decide to reply, as to best compose and formulate my response in my mind before submitting it, and write my responses expecting people to read them before responding. (X|S)

Quote from: MagesGuild;595927Again, this boils down to a style issue, both on my part, and on the part of any reader. I have noted that there are to main types of readers: Theose who want only facts, and those who enjoy the detail and the pleasure of reading a composition that was penned with forethought and grace. Take those who love the style of Tolkien or Herbert, like myself, with amazing detail, versus ghe people that complain thatthe style is long-winded. Either you enjoy it, or not.

There is such a thing as well-thought-out brevity. We don't all have to be Lovecrafts. Some of us can be Asimovs. Though FWIW most of us fall short of either.

QuoteWhen I write for someone else, I use whatever style they direct me to use. When I make a product, I use a style best-suited to the product; when I write narrative, I use deep-immersion; and when I write letters--including posts on a forum--I use a formal style.

This might be part of the problem. Fora (especially faster fora) are more conversational. They aren't geared towards individual correspondence, and a lot of us are reading/posting as a distraction or as a break from other work.

This is why people prefer brevity, and deliberately broken-up thoughts. They can pace their reading according to what they're being distracted from, select which parts they read based on which conversation they are participating in (when there are multiple conversational threads) etc.

This problem is only exacerbated by the sometimes technical nature of things we discuss, such as game mechanics. Complex topics like these can sometimes call for non-linear reading, or skimming through previous posts for clarification on a given topic. Say this thread gets ten pages long and a person wants to ask a question. It's already been asked. If your stuff isn't formatted for easier skimming, they won't know that unless they read ten pages of stuff that isn't necessarily relevant to them.

QuoteIf you would like an outline with answers to specific questions, please ask them, and request that format for answering them, or send a PM with your questions. I don't object, but I also cannot change the mental desires of the skimming reader to appreciate elaborate detail. I tend to read a post at least twice, in full, before I decide to reply, as to best compose and formulate my response in my mind before submitting it, and write my responses expecting people to read them before responding. (X|S)

You've had good things to say in general, but please reconsider treating a forum post as if it were personal correspondence or an editorial feature. The medium has unique constraints that bear consideration.

EDIT: Note I'm replying to Magesguild, the post above came in while I was writing.

To each their own, but my opinion is that a message board is usually a place for an informational writing style--not a chapter of a novel or short story.  In an informational style you want to be succinct and break sections up with a couple of headings and bullets.  (I'm not saying to stylize every third word as that defeats the purpose of course.)  Telling us about your organization seems to fall under conveying information--not describing the freshness of the blueberries or the dreariness of the day.

My first post really was all of this constructive criticism wrapped in a jest.

Anyway, I'll note that the thread has gotten 3 people to reply here over the course of 3+ days:
-1 making a joke and trying to sum up your post.
-1 is the board admin following up on some partially behind-the-scenes matter.
-and me.

Quote from: beejazz;595966You've had good things to say in general, but please reconsider treating a forum post as if it were personal correspondence or an editorial feature. The medium has unique constraints that bear consideration.

wtf would you let the man type. I enjoy reading a good post now and then, this ain't facebook

Quote from: The Traveller;596055wtf would you let the man type. I enjoy reading a good post now and then, this ain't facebook

We have thousand post threads.

I'm all for saying a lot, but I would much much much rather have it formatted for easy skimming.

And as a rule, the amount of feedback I get on my own personal projects correlates with the effort I put in to making information easy to find. If I reference the massive damage threshold and people can't find where I defined it, they're as likely to just leave as they are to ask for clarification.

Quote from: beejazz;596076We have thousand post threads.

I'm all for saying a lot, but I would much much much rather have it formatted for easy skimming.

And as a rule, the amount of feedback I get on my own personal projects correlates with the effort I put in to making information easy to find. If I reference the massive damage threshold and people can't find where I defined it, they're as likely to just leave as they are to ask for clarification.

So start a wiki, the thread is offtopic enough. I'm interested to hear more about this idea, it jives with some thoughts I've been having myself on the downfall of big publishers courtesy of the internet. Can't say I'm totally sold on the degrees and whatnot, but it would seem like a step in the right direction.