I think the observations that you've made could well apply to most people's dungeons and adventures. You'll see tons of posts on rpg forums by people who brag that they never run published modules, they always write their own original content and 9/10 of them probably are just generic dungeons with generic stuff on a generic map. Of course, for the most part that is fine as you don't have to be a superstar to have fun with a group of friends at a gaming table. However, don't then come on the internet and act like you're some superstar that runs super cool stuff that those hack published writers can't come close to touching you or proclaim that people who do run published modules are somehow inferior to your awesome home brew stuff.

Quote from: Justin Alexander;583628I talked about this a couple pages back: The original key is pretty much completely uninspiring. I've only skimmed the material developed from that key, but my initial impression is that this is a generic dungeon with a generic map filled with generic stuff.

Again, this is based entirely on a skim read of incomplete material. But it seems to lack the identity of the Caverns of Thracia or Rappan Athuk. It lacks the attitude and heft of the Temple of Elemental Evil.

And the individual encounter key simply lacks cleverness or interest. For example, I just randomly stopped on a page featuring: A room full of webs with two giant spiders in it. A room with an animated statue that will attack anyone entering the chamber. A room with four gargoyles sitting on pedestals who will attack anyone entering the chamber.

Earlier in this thread a few people championed the idea that you can key a room with "8 skeletons" and then provide all the necessary details during play. Which is true. But unless you actually do something clever with those 8 skeletons, anybody can do that. And they can do it from a random stocking table. Most of what I'm seeing in Dwimmermount is just James using multiple sentences to write the equivalent of "8 skeletons".

Quote from: Haffrung;583697I take some satisfaction seeing my predictions that the decline of professional publishing would not herald a happy new world of amateur content are coming true. You're seeing the same issue with kickstarter boardgame projects: starry-eyed fan thinks it's a piece of piss to publish a professional-quality game/book/rpg, and learns to his dismay that those nasty, greedy companies actually serve a purpose. Namely, experience, expertise, project management, quality control, and all the un-fun labour like laying out, proofing, editing, dealing with printers, etc.

Sorry dude, but I'm really not seeing a hobby-wide (nor OSR-wide for that matter) pattern here. You should check out this thread: http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=24072

It's not EVEN an Autarch-wide pattern because Adventurer Conqueror King was kickstarted and delivered (and awesome), The ACKS companion is soon to be delivered IIRC, so ... this here is really James M's issue at this point.

Quote from: I run with scissors;583655Rather than attack me, or wish for sunshine and lollipops, those who are so vehemently denouncing me, need to stop and think about how bad this looks.

Stop fucking with my sunshine and lollipops!

Quote from: Settembrini;583672...Stargate RPG never even took off meaningfully...

It's interesting to see when particular RPGs get hot in certain regions. In LA, I rarely saw Stargate being played at cons even when it was published, yet in Central California the game has a hefty following and its been at PolyCon every year with full tables.

Quote from: Spinachcat;583730It's interesting to see when particular RPGs get hot in certain regions. In LA, I rarely saw Stargate being played at cons even when it was published, yet in Central California the game has a hefty following and its been at PolyCon every year with full tables.

Weird how these things work, heh?

Quote from: Jacob Marley;583703Nearly everyone I know who has discussed ACKs has done so in a very positive light. Even those who are upset with Jim still appear to be giving Tavis the benefit of doubt.

True, and believe it or not I like the game. Yet ACKS came before the Dwimmermount (almost typed Dwimmerdust lol) Kickstarter. I can see doing it to get some good PR. However, the PR since then, I feel, has not been good. I would think twice about ever doing a Kickstarter run by Tavis and company. The reason? Jim and the epic fail of the Dwimmermount Kickstarter. I cannot be the only one who feels this way either.

QuoteI am not sure why you think this is exclusive to gamers? I spent a number of years in commercial banking and I can assure you that this is fairly common of people of all stripes.

I don't. However we were talking about this, which happens to be a gamer. You can apply it to a lot of hobbies Hell, check this epic fail out: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/schuyler/lockpicks-by-open-locksport/posts

My point was only addressing that this was a gamer, and in my experience gamers tend to feel running a company is nothing but a piece of cake.

IRWS

Quote from: Endless Flight;583688Seems like there's a lot of censoring going on at his blog. Are only fanboys allowed to comment?

Yup.

Jim hates free speech. Jim has principles you know.

IRWS

Quote from: I run with scissors;583747Yup.

Jim hates free speech. Jim has principles you know

Wow, that's a good one. So he could've held his nose and voted for McCain despite being soft on dead baby parts, but outlawing torture was the final straw?

Quote from: I run with scissors;583747Yup.

Jim hates free speech. Jim has principles you know.

IRWS

Wait. That's not a blog post from James M, is it?

Somehow I think the only natural conclusion of this thread is for  Running With Scissors to go make out hard with James M.

Quote from: Benoist;583751Wait. That's not a blog post from James M, is it?

Yes it is. This was the other blog he kept between June 15, 2007 and September 5, 2008.

IRWS

Quote from: TristramEvans;583753Somehow I think the only natural conclusion of this thread is for  Running With Scissors to go make out hard with James M.

Um, no. Jim would have problems with same sex kissing.

IRWS

Quote from: I run with scissors;583756Um, no. Jim would have problems with same sex kissing.

IRWS

Then you could just bend over and take it.

Wait what? JM is also a catholic nutter?

(note that nutters can come in various flavours, catholic being just one of them)

ADD: linked livejournal-> Ontario, JRR Tolkien,  Birthday: 1969-10-29
BGG JM:
James Maliszewski (born October 29, 1969 in Heerlen,  Netherlands) is a game designer who has written a lot of gaming  material.  He is is perhaps best known now for his retro imperial  science fiction game Thousand Suns, although he might select the Gear  Krieg role-playing game as his personal favorite.
  He has been living in Toronto, Canada.


Seems very likely!

Quote from: tristramevans;583757then you could just bend over and take it.

like the dwimmermount backers lol

So as a backer, I have access to about half or so of the promised 13 levels in complete, un-copy-edited draft form.

It's pretty much what I expected. There is some good mega-plot stuff, the encounters and tricks and traps are pretty standard.

But the maps are this cliched, 10th grade "let's jam loads of rectangular rooms into one piece of graph paper" job. They get somewhat more interesting around level 6 or so, but I can't see a bunch of players plodding dutifully through the first couple. After Stonehell and Mad Archmage showed what you could do there's just no reason to design that way any more.