SPECIAL NOTICE
Malicious code was found on the site, which has been removed, but would have been able to access files and the database, revealing email addresses, posts, and encoded passwords (which would need to be decoded). However, there is no direct evidence that any such activity occurred. REGARDLESS, BE SURE TO CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS. And as is good practice, remember to never use the same password on more than one site. While performing housekeeping, we also decided to upgrade the forums.
This is a site for discussing roleplaying games. Have fun doing so, but there is one major rule: do not discuss political issues that aren't directly and uniquely related to the subject of the thread and about gaming. While this site is dedicated to free speech, the following will not be tolerated: devolving a thread into unrelated political discussion, sockpuppeting (using multiple and/or bogus accounts), disrupting topics without contributing to them, and posting images that could get someone fired in the workplace (an external link is OK, but clearly mark it as Not Safe For Work, or NSFW). If you receive a warning, please take it seriously and either move on to another topic or steer the discussion back to its original RPG-related theme.

New Woke Novel Destroys Ravenloft

Started by RPGPundit, October 29, 2024, 08:57:45 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

ForgottenF

Quote from: Omega on November 01, 2024, 10:53:42 PMWonder why wotc hired her over their stable of established writers? Aside from most of them being guys.

From Wikipedia:
QuoteIn a starred review, Publishers Weekly appreciated that in Dawson's Wake of Vultures, "themes of self-worth, gender, and the complexity of identity are treated with frank realism and sensitivity",

Quote from: Opaopajr on November 02, 2024, 08:51:07 PM
Quote from: SHARK on November 02, 2024, 04:04:05 PMGreetings!

Well, it seems to me that she already has an established porn audience. Furthermore, she can always continue writing erotica as a side gig, or return to do so as she deems fit. Writing some Ravenloft novel is an excellent opportunity for her to expand her professional resume into something beyond erotica, and also expands her audience into new areas. It is a "Win/Win" opportunity for her in every way.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

You know what SHARK?, you are right, I am being overly reserved on my expectations of her work from her past output. :) It very much is possible she could be expanding her repertoire and fanbase and she will put extra effort into this one. My cynicism is getting the best of me, especially in an age where others in recent pop media show they were not worth the benefit of the doubt.

She is not them, as far as I know of her work, and you've rekindle the triumph of hope over experience in my jaded heart. :) But I don't want to be the first to buy and read it to find out if my benefit of the doubt was misplaced. I'll let others less jaded than I take the plunge, yet I recant my blasé dismissal of her potential outright. :) It was wrong and I look forward to be proven wrong. Thank you for bringing me back to the light.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are some very competent writers out there that also do low-effort porn to pay the bills. I know that is the case for some visual artists and animators. Is she one of them? Probably not, but I'd say the feminist girls-get-it-done stuff she's written is a bigger red flag than the library of cheap smut.

Quote from: Omega on November 02, 2024, 04:45:50 PM
QuoteI don't believe her or WotC would try to pass off a taboo fetish in this published work.

NEVER expect a writer with a fetish to not try to slip it in somewhere. Wanna lay odds Strahd puts the moves on one of his "Heirs"? wotc has no QC and it will slip past till someone spots it in the book. Very brief working with Stephen King taught me this one the hard way.

If the writer has any common sense she will make these heir's very distant relations to the point of irrelevancy. But odds are that wont happen.

Yeah, if it's in there it'll be buried under a thick enough layer of plausible deniability. Strahd will likely hit on at least one of the protagonists --It wouldn't be a proper vampire story if he didn't-- but I doubt they'd go so far as the have the flirtee be his literal offspring. I'd expect the "heir" to be explained away with some magical mumbo jumbo, like they inherited a fraction of his soul or something. And I'm sure WOTC would veto any explicit sex in the book. Funny as it would be if there turns out to be an extended scene of the artificer chick getting her cheeks clapped and calling Strahd "daddy", it's probably not going to happen. Corporate art doctrine dictates that you make a point of everyone's sexual proclivities without ever admitting the possibility that they actually fuck.
Playing: Mongoose Traveller 2e
Running: Dolmenwood
Planning: Warlock!, Savage Lankhmar, Kogarashi

Omega

Quote from: Opaopajr on November 02, 2024, 09:07:30 PMI am welcome to being pleasantly surprised! :) What a golden opportunity for an artist!

Same. The cover could be just baiting or they used the first thing the AI vomited out for the cover and called it a day. But that IS AI and it is pulling heavily from existing art. I just cant place where.

But wotc is involved so odds are that we are in for something wrong in the book. And odds are it would have been an actually good book if wotc had not pushed some agenda.

Omega

Quote from: ForgottenF on November 02, 2024, 10:46:42 PMI wouldn't be surprised if there are some very competent writers out there that also do low-effort porn to pay the bills. I know that is the case for some visual artists and animators.

Oh you'd be very surprised at the number of comic book artists who slummed it doing stuff for Warren and other lurid horror publishers way back. I personally know two published novelists who did a fair share of writing for adult comics on the side. And at least two CCG artists who turned to adult comics as the CCG bubble burst.

This is nothing new. From the novelists I talked to it was fairly common as it brought in a paycheck for those who could handle it. Writing romance novels is -not- easy. Writing steamy potboilers is even harder.

Even more funny is I know of at least one romance writer who also write under a different name some gorefest horror novels. Hard to believe these were the same people.

jhkim

Quote from: Omega on November 04, 2024, 04:01:28 PM
Quote from: ForgottenF on November 02, 2024, 10:46:42 PMI wouldn't be surprised if there are some very competent writers out there that also do low-effort porn to pay the bills. I know that is the case for some visual artists and animators.

Oh you'd be very surprised at the number of comic book artists who slummed it doing stuff for Warren and other lurid horror publishers way back. I personally know two published novelists who did a fair share of writing for adult comics on the side. And at least two CCG artists who turned to adult comics as the CCG bubble burst.

This is nothing new. From the novelists I talked to it was fairly common as it brought in a paycheck for those who could handle it. Writing romance novels is -not- easy. Writing steamy potboilers is even harder.

Even more funny is I know of at least one romance writer who also write under a different name some gorefest horror novels. Hard to believe these were the same people.

Yeah. When you write for a full-time living, it's hard to get by in general. Writing some steamy romance and/or porn is often what pays the bills.

I don't know people who write porn novels, but my best friend from high school is a film writer/director who has had to write and even direct a bunch of soft-core porn in order to make ends meet financially.

Bedrockbrendan

Quote from: jhkim on November 04, 2024, 06:36:49 PM
Quote from: Omega on November 04, 2024, 04:01:28 PM
Quote from: ForgottenF on November 02, 2024, 10:46:42 PMI wouldn't be surprised if there are some very competent writers out there that also do low-effort porn to pay the bills. I know that is the case for some visual artists and animators.

Oh you'd be very surprised at the number of comic book artists who slummed it doing stuff for Warren and other lurid horror publishers way back. I personally know two published novelists who did a fair share of writing for adult comics on the side. And at least two CCG artists who turned to adult comics as the CCG bubble burst.

This is nothing new. From the novelists I talked to it was fairly common as it brought in a paycheck for those who could handle it. Writing romance novels is -not- easy. Writing steamy potboilers is even harder.

Even more funny is I know of at least one romance writer who also write under a different name some gorefest horror novels. Hard to believe these were the same people.

Yeah. When you write for a full-time living, it's hard to get by in general. Writing some steamy romance and/or porn is often what pays the bills.

I don't know people who write porn novels, but my best friend from high school is a film writer/director who has had to write and even direct a bunch of soft-core porn in order to make ends meet financially.

Pretty sure Anne Rice also wrote erotic under a pen name. Even back in the 90s, a couple of the Ravenloft authors wrote vampire romance series (not erotica but not as tame as Ravenloft). I generally don't focus too much on the writers in these cases as writers are hired guns, probably getting a bunch of mandates from WOTC. For me the issue here is really the cover and the premise in the blurb, which suggests the book is unlikely going to be something I will enjoy

RPGPundit

Quote from: Garry G on November 01, 2024, 01:03:49 PMI'm not going to watch a video reviewing something that the presenter hasn't read.

1. Argue for your limitations and you will have them, dude.

2. If you're not on this thread to talk about the video, you are by definition posting off topic. Post on this thread again, or any thread with a video as its topic and you didn't watch, and you will be banned for thread derailment.
LION & DRAGON: Medieval-Authentic OSR Roleplaying is available now! You only THINK you\'ve played \'medieval fantasy\' until you play L&D.


My Blog:  http://therpgpundit.blogspot.com/
The most famous uruguayan gaming blog on the planet!

NEW!
Check out my short OSR supplements series; The RPGPundit Presents!


Dark Albion: The Rose War! The OSR fantasy setting of the history that inspired Shakespeare and Martin alike.
Also available in Variant Cover form!
Also, now with the CULTS OF CHAOS cult-generation sourcebook

ARROWS OF INDRA
Arrows of Indra: The Old-School Epic Indian RPG!
NOW AVAILABLE: AoI in print form

LORDS OF OLYMPUS
The new Diceless RPG of multiversal power, adventure and intrigue, now available.

Omega

Quote from: Bedrockbrendan on November 04, 2024, 07:50:56 PMI generally don't focus too much on the writers in these cases as writers are hired guns, probably getting a bunch of mandates from WOTC.

One of my first customers for my book was a writer for TSR/wotc. I asked him why one of the books ended so abruptly and he told me it was because they wanted the story cut to meet a page length. Tom Wham had some things to say about writing as well as wotc took over TSR.

As for the cover and the blurb. Cover it like 90% certainly AI generated. Blurb is too uninformative to get a handle on the thing yet. Could go the Scooby Doo route. Chainsaw Massacre route, or something in between.