Quote from: RPGPunditBut has anyone, ever, who is confirmably not an alt of this guy actually seen the book?

RPGPundit

Dreadmire? Let's see...Bill Webb, aka Tsathogga at the Necromancer Games board, and one of the founders of NG, apparently had a copy; see this thread at the NG boards, where Q1000 says he has a copy and will send it to Webb. Webb then confirms he got it. I never saw the review Webb said he'd do. It's safe to say that if Webb says he got it, that it's a real book. For what it's worth. From what I gather, it may be a galley rather than a finished book, though.

Hi all, I am Quode or Q1000 per the NG site and the one who seems to be the arch nemesis of Randy.

First there is a book, I have had two copies. One I ordered direct from Randy another from a local book store. So one copy was sent to Bill and another for my collection.
I have a review that Randy wishes was never published and so he works to discredit me as much as he can.

QuoteIf it was destroyed by Katrina, then I won't be able to prove it.

Through all government and business avenues I could not prove the existence of the store. What is odd about the store is Randy never told anyone about the stores location till after Katrina when he published the press release.
Spellbinder games has a mail box etc address and the parent company seems to be in a residential area of the city.

Q

Hi Quode! Welcome to theRPGsite!

Would you care to post your review of Dreadmire to the "reviews" section of this site?
If not, would you at least be willing to give us the gist of your opinion of the finished product?

Finally, as to "proving" it, I think it would be as simple as talking to people who are gamers that live in the town that Randy mentioned as where the game store existed... sleuthing, in other words: finding out if anyone knows Randy in person from there, and what they think of him, finding out if there ever was such a store, or what.

For that we'd need a gumshoe who was closeby though.

Anyways, welcome aboard.

RPGPundit

I'd like to point out that this whole gumshoe angle is obsessive and creepy- and I'm 100% in favor of it.

Thankfully as I said, Wikipedia places the burden of proof on those asserting Spellbinder Games does, verifiably and notably, exist.

Which is hard to do.

The AfD has gone on for 8 days. It's overdue to be closed. Soon.

I'm one for reading that review. I'd like to hear more about it. Oh, and welcome to our site!

The review is up, be gentle.

Q

If anything, I'd say the review wasn't hard enough. It also didn't clarify a lot of the stuff I read about the dude's claims about his game: that it was revolutionary, better than tolkien, etc etc.
You didn't deal with that part of the story at all.
You also don't mention if it actually has all the illustrations, spells, feats, whatever the fuck he was saying he'd have in it (the one I really remember is more than one illustration per page), to the point that people were thinking he'd have to be using a positively TINY font for it all to fit, or he was just lying.

Which was it?

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditIf anything, I'd say the review wasn't hard enough. It also didn't clarify a lot of the stuff I read about the dude's claims about his game: that it was revolutionary, better than tolkien, etc etc.
You didn't deal with that part of the story at all.
You also don't mention if it actually has all the illustrations, spells, feats, whatever the fuck he was saying he'd have in it (the one I really remember is more than one illustration per page), to the point that people were thinking he'd have to be using a positively TINY font for it all to fit, or he was just lying.

Which was it?

RPGPundit

Jeez, Pundit, give the man a break!

I also own a copy of the book. I picked it up because I figured if NG was going to publish it at some point, it must have SOMETHING good in it. While I can see there are a few creative bits (Some of which I now suspect are actually plagiarized.), I honestly don't know what NG saw in this otherwise mediocre manuscript. It certainly could not have been accurate application or use of the d20 rules set! *Shudders*

Generally I avoid talking about the book because I really don't feel it deserves what little attention it gets.

The author is desperately trying to make it "controversial" to boost sales, and frankly I don't want to feed that need for attention.

I also usually don't post about the book for fear of summoning the author and his army of sock puppet screen names to promote the book (just look at all the fake 5 star reviews on Amazon from accounts whose ONLY activity is writing a single review for Dreadmire).

I AM posting about the book here because frankly this is one place I'd love to see him show up, because this is one of the few boards that doesn't allow crap like that to slide without members like RPGpundit reaming them out, and exposing them for what they are. Hurrah for the flaming keystrokes of truth!

Is this guy like "Candyman"?
Can I summon him by staring into a mirror and saying his name three times? Let's try!

Ahem...
Randy Richards, author of Dreadmire
Randy Richards, author of Dreadmire
Randy Richards, author of Dreadmire

How readable is it? I remember seeing Randy claim they had to ratchet the text down to some ridiculous size to get it all to fit.

Of course, that might have been all talk.

How much real content is there?

There certainly is a lot of content, but little of it useful in a d20 game. Rules are not provided in many sections, and they are not particularly well-written in the sections that have the appropriate rules provided.

There are a lot of monsters, but many of them are simpy a M&M monster with 1 minor change to them that adds nothing to the creature. My personal favorite is the "flying phantom fungus." You guessed it... its a phantom fungus that can fly. Thats it. Nothing else was changed or added.

For what it's worth, the print is small enough to make it annoying to read at length. There are a LOT of pictures, many of them are quite small, some are good to decent, others are less than good, and many have nothing to do with the text they are embedded in. The layout is horrendous, wrapping text around these images in ways that severely reduces the readability of some pages. If Spellbinder is a company, they NEED to fire their layout guy (not that the author or editor are all that great mind you). I think Amazon lets you search inside the book so you can see for yourself.

A LOT of content is taken up by discussion of a group of halflings that speak with a Cajun accent for no explicable reason. Personally I found this both bizarre and annoying. If you are looking for a Cajun halfling sourcebook, then this book is for you! Otherwise, I'd have to recommend that you not waste your time or money.

Looking back at my posts, it all sounds a bit harsh. There are a few interesting ideas. There is also a lot of information on swamps, albeit nothing you couldn't get from a good library book or from public sources on the internet. I have just failed to find it useful in my past games that involve swamps. At the end of the day, that is the book's largest shortcoming as it is supposed to be "the last swamp sourcebook you will ever need" to quote the cover.

Its really more of a setting book. A setting filled with Cajun halflings.

Quote from: mattormegJeez, Pundit, give the man a break!

Breaks are for casino workers and the chronically flatulent!
The TRUTH breaks for no man!

RPGPundit

On a more positive note I have found a lot of decent swamp related material out there.

"Monster Geographica: Marsh & Aquatic" by Expeditious Retreat Press has plenty of swamp creatures.

"Bits of the Wilderness: Into the Swamp" by Tabletop Adventures, LLC

"Bite Da Head, Squeeze Da Tail" by Dogsoul Publishing has some interesting swamp related stuff.

"Blood Bayou" by Sword & Sorcery Studios is an interesting read if you like the Carnival Crew and the Jack of Tears from the Scarred Lands setting.

"Ssethregore: In the Coils of the Serpent Empire" by Paradigm Concepts

"Wildscape" also had some really good swamp material in it.


As for swamp related adventures:

"Bleeding Edge #2: Beyond the Towers" by Green Ronin

"Dungeon Crawl Classics #17: Legacy of the Savage Kings" by Goodman Games

"The Magic Dump" by Monkey God

"The Coils of Set" by Necromancer Games

"Palace of Shadows" a C&C adventure by Goodman Games

"The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh" (old TSR 1e module)

"Swamplight" (old TSR 2e module)

"Quagmire" (old TSR oD&D module)

"The Knights of Newts" (old TSR oD&D module)

"The Temple of the Frog" (old TST oD&D module)