Quote from: Johnny Utah on August 24, 2024, 11:16:33 AMAlso, almost certainly why the maker of Savage Worlds changed his company name from "Great White Games" to "Pinnacle Entertainment Group".  Shane apparently really likes sharks, but I'm sure some idiots thought he was a raging racist.

I thought Great White Games was separate for PEG similar to Task Force Games relationship with Amarillo Design Group.

According to Noble Knight the relationship is thus:

QuoteGreat White Games is a Virginia-based game company specializing in roleplaying games, and is best known for its smash hits Deadlands, Weird Wars, and Savage Worlds, originally published under the Pinnacle Entertainment Group logo. Pinnacle was founded in 1994 by Shane Lacy Hensley, and became a full-time company in 1996. Great White Games is now the parent company of the Pinnacle brand, and is made up of the same key people who made your favorite games great.

I thought the thing with changing the company name from Pinnacle to Great White Games and then back to Pinnacle had something to do with almost going bankrupt trying to publish d20 material.

Quote from: Angus MacDeth on August 23, 2024, 06:30:02 PMI received no official response from the author or publisher, but I was called a "monster," a "snowflake," and "butthurt" by other backers for daring to suggest that language should not be censored, limited, or curtailed because a tiny minority of people might be offended by it.

Sounds about right.

Quote from: Dropbear on August 24, 2024, 01:39:13 PMHaven't been following along the Discord about it for a while as I having been working too much lately. Scrolling back is a pain, but the "if you don't like it, we don't want your money" is there and as soon as a gaming company finds it acceptable to adopt that sort of phrasing to their customer base, I'm out no matter what it's about.

As am I.

Quote from: Angus MacDeth on August 24, 2024, 02:59:11 PMOne of them actually commented, without irony, "I believe in freedom of speech, so if you want to change the word, you should change the word."

Technically correct.

However they also believe bullying folks into not using the language they find objectionable is also freedom of speech, when in fact it is the very definition of tyranny.

So...bumping this thread to see if anyone actually got the KS stuff and if it's as bad as implied.

Quote from: Brad on November 23, 2024, 02:40:59 PMSo...bumping this thread to see if anyone actually got the KS stuff and if it's as bad as implied.

My hardcopies have not arrived. A kickstarter update on November 6, said that "printing had begun". They have however released "final" versions of all the pdfs.

Nothing has really changed since the thread started. I wouldn't say the setting is Disney level, but it is definitely PG 13. What edgy stuff there is is in the cheap and non-controversial realms of grossout and body horror. Nothing psychological and definitely nothing psychosexual. Looked at with a critical eye, one can see the setting at war with itself. There's a pretty noticeable tonal clash between folk horror and fairy-tale whimsy, which is easily illustrated in the art. There's a split between darker, high-detail pieces like this:


And weird pastel kids-cartoon pieces like this:


Both images are from the same book. The latter is incidentally the Monster Book illustration for one of the three major clans of witches, so yeah, I'm prepared to believe they've had a Wicca-hippie makeover since Wormskin. This is possibly to contrast them with the Drune, who do retain something of a creepy vibe:


I believe at some point there was talk of Drune and Witch classes appearing in the Campaign Book, which they have not. I couldn't say if that was ever a firm promise though.

My own stance on it has also not changed. I will be ending my Dolmenwood Campaign in the next month or so, and have no intention of ever running it again. I have my issues with the setting and while it's been a good campaign, It's not offering something I want to return to repeatedly. That said, I've been using the material and running it for over a year, so I couldn't honestly claim to have gotten nothing for my money.

You can't argue that it lacks substance or is not thorough.  There's around 40 hexes, each with 1-4 points of interest. The towns each have 10-20 named locations. And then locations have named NPCs, with motivations that connect to other named NPCs and locations in the book. Plus 100 saints, 15-ish major factions, 17 fairy realms, and I'd guess a couple hundred named NPCs. If anything, it suffers from being too thorough. At least to me, running it comes with a constant feeling of having to paint within the lines for fear that whatever you change will have a knock-on effect that breaks a dozen other established elements.

Since I bought in after the Kickstarter started, I didn't really go in with the expectation of a particularly dark or horrific setting. The people who did are well within their rights to be disappointed, because it isn't that. I'll let the Kickstarter complete and throw the books on my shelf. When my son is like 12 or 13, they'll be useful to him as a paint-by-numbers campaign he can play with his friends.

Shame they didn't lean into the dark the way Mork Borg did.

Quote from: ForgottenF on November 23, 2024, 06:44:19 PMstuff

Dang...

Quote from: ForgottenF on November 23, 2024, 06:44:19 PM(snip)

Forgotten F, you're not Marcus Rowland author of Forgotten Futures, are you? Been wondering about your name for ages.

Quote from: S'mon on November 25, 2024, 04:00:01 PM

Quote from: ForgottenF on November 23, 2024, 06:44:19 PM(snip)

Forgotten F, you're not Marcus Rowland author of Forgotten Futures, are you? Been wondering about your name for ages.

Nope, Sorry. The name is an artifact of a plan I had years ago to do a YouTube channel talking about old and/or obscure fantasy and science fiction novels (which was going to be "Forgotten Fantasy"). It turned out I didn't have remotely enough time for it, so now it's just a vague screen-name.

Quote from: ForgottenF on November 25, 2024, 04:16:08 PM

Quote from: S'mon on November 25, 2024, 04:00:01 PM

Quote from: ForgottenF on November 23, 2024, 06:44:19 PM(snip)

Forgotten F, you're not Marcus Rowland author of Forgotten Futures, are you? Been wondering about your name for ages.

Nope, Sorry. The name is an artifact of a plan I had years ago to do a YouTube channel talking about old and/or obscure fantasy and science fiction novels (which was going to be "Forgotten Fantasy"). It turned out I didn't have remotely enough time for it, so now it's just a vague screen-name.

Would it be possible to get the pre-KS Dolmenwood material from you?

Or anybody for that matter. I would love to get the Wormskin zine issues.

Quote from: blackstone on November 26, 2024, 01:01:20 PM

Quote from: ForgottenF on November 25, 2024, 04:16:08 PM

Quote from: S'mon on November 25, 2024, 04:00:01 PM

Quote from: ForgottenF on November 23, 2024, 06:44:19 PM(snip)

Forgotten F, you're not Marcus Rowland author of Forgotten Futures, are you? Been wondering about your name for ages.

Nope, Sorry. The name is an artifact of a plan I had years ago to do a YouTube channel talking about old and/or obscure fantasy and science fiction novels (which was going to be "Forgotten Fantasy"). It turned out I didn't have remotely enough time for it, so now it's just a vague screen-name.

Would it be possible to get the pre-KS Dolmenwood material from you?

Or anybody for that matter. I would love to get the Wormskin zine issues.

As it happens, this thread got me interested enough to hunt down the Wormskin zines on the internet. I'll PM you.

Quote from: ForgottenF on November 26, 2024, 01:32:22 PM

Quote from: blackstone on November 26, 2024, 01:01:20 PM

Quote from: ForgottenF on November 25, 2024, 04:16:08 PM

Quote from: S'mon on November 25, 2024, 04:00:01 PM

Quote from: ForgottenF on November 23, 2024, 06:44:19 PM(snip)

Forgotten F, you're not Marcus Rowland author of Forgotten Futures, are you? Been wondering about your name for ages.

Nope, Sorry. The name is an artifact of a plan I had years ago to do a YouTube channel talking about old and/or obscure fantasy and science fiction novels (which was going to be "Forgotten Fantasy"). It turned out I didn't have remotely enough time for it, so now it's just a vague screen-name.

Would it be possible to get the pre-KS Dolmenwood material from you?

Or anybody for that matter. I would love to get the Wormskin zine issues.

As it happens, this thread got me interested enough to hunt down the Wormskin zines on the internet. I'll PM you.

I'll keep hunting too.

the best I could find was on AnyFlip. AFAICT, it's browser view only, no download.

Well, I already have a cool alternative to Dolmenwood: The Midderlands

It has that same creepy fantasy vibe to it.

Quote from: blackstone on November 26, 2024, 02:06:36 PMWell, I already have a cool alternative to Dolmenwood: The Midderlands

It has that same creepy fantasy vibe to it.

To those who helped: thanks for the link.

I'm reading through Wormskin #1 and I would have to say it would fit perfectly with the Midderlands campaign setting. Both have that creepy, weird fantasy vibe like the movie Legend.

Now that I'm thinking of it, I think I can crank the weirdness to 11: I have a COMPLETE set of the Enchanted World series of books by Time/Life. Man, I can really lean into the lore of those books! It would be an incredibly weird, strange, and otherworldly campaign world. I'm gonna work it out.