Back in February 2016, RPGPundit posted this in his forum...

Quote from: RPGPundit;881970Over on G+, Stacy Dellorfano (founder of the excellent Contessa convention), asked the slightly loaded question "Why does the OSR have a bad reputation among women"?

After 8 months and 603 posts on that thread, we FINALLY, we have the answer to Stacy's question!

The ANSWER is the OSR was not paying Stacy and her friends money!

Welcome to Swords & Wizardy: 3rd Printing (Women's Edition!)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/froggodgames/swords-and-wizardry-complete-rulebook-3rd-printing?ref=profile_created

It has butterflies on the cover!

For all the grrls! 'Cuz grrls love butterflies!!

I.am.not.joking.

QuoteWe're starting to run low on our stock of the 2nd printing, and it's time to print some more. We didn't just want to do an exact reprint, and the history of the changes here date back a while ago to when we were talking with designer Stacy Dellorfano about the fact that many OSR games have a physical appearance and presentation that really targets the 40 year old guys who've been gaming since forever, and doesn't have nearly as much appeal to younger or female gamers of the generations following that first wave of players from the 1980s. In point of fact, old-school games, with their light-rules aspect and emphasis on a game master's "common sense" interpretation of situations, are actually a really good tool for anyone who feels like rules-lawyers may be spoiling the game by trying to be over-authoritative or even overbearing with a GM. But if the appearance and presentation make the game look like it's purely a throwback and not a modern tool for good gaming, then there's a real obstacle to the game's push into the mainstream gaming community.

As a result of this analysis, we engaged Stacy as a designer to produce an edition that's no less appealing to older male gamers, while being MORE appealing to younger and to female gamers. Stacy put together a team, all women, to address this dual objective. We think her team has done an awesome job, and when you see the design results, we think you'll agree.

Unfortunately, we think there may be some controversy about the fact that the design team here is made up entirely of women. We've already heard a couple of comments that generally turn on the idea of "Why restrict the project to women designers? Shouldn't the objective be to pull the best talent whether male or female? What a gimmick." We'd like to address that out front, rather than have it turn into a back-channel controversy in the halls of the internet. The missing piece of information is this: there are so many different directions that a project can take that there's no such thing as "the best talent." Given our goal of making the game more accessible, we hired – through Stacy – talent that coordinates with the goal. We asked Stacy to put together an all-woman team not as a societal goal, but because she had the chops to assemble the kind of team we wanted. This isn't a "pink" edition of the rules. It's the more-accessible next printing that we are targeting toward the mainstream market. It has always been our goal to get the open-ended rules of 1974-78 gaming into the mainstream, and this is our objective here. We think that Stacy's team has hit this goal out of the ballpark, and we think you'll agree.

"Out of the ballpark?" Not so much.

I do like the cover design as a piece of fantastical art (not as a RPG cover), but HOLY FUCKNUTS, just imagine the blogowanksphere meltdown if a dude tried selling a RPG with flowers and butterflies on the cover and declared "THIS is the edition for all you ladies!!"

But...they're totally grimdark flowers and butterflies.

The B/W interior art samples are a mixed bag, but the evocative borders for the various sections looks good. But thank goodness, our long nightmare of the OSR having a bad reputation with women is done. All it took was throwing Stacy some cash...and butterflies.

I pledged on it because the OSR needs more women creators.

The fact that it pisses you off is just icing on the cake.

Wait , they went from these awesome covers...




...to a picture of a shrivelled vagina?

Quote from: Ddogwood;923325I pledged on it because the OSR needs more women creators.

Whats adding more women creators changing?

Wouldnt it be better to, oh... I dont know... maybee add more GOOD creators? Rather than hiring someone based on their plumbing?

So I should go on a campaign to force the OSR to hire me because gaming needs to add more handicapped creators? Because theres not many of us.

This is probably a positive thing in the long run, some of the new interior art is quite cool, and they show guts by going out on such a creative limb.

But that cover is a very odd choice. Newcomers would never in a million years associate that image with "Adventure game".

• Claim X is problematic
• Stir up Internet Outrage Machine against X
• Tell X things would be better if only they hired unproblematic accuser to fix things
• Profit

...is such a common con that I'm surprised anyone is still falling for it.

Long time listener, first time caller. Cover's horrible for an RPG main rulebook regardless of whether a man or woman designed it.

Cover does not evoke an old school feel, and the hiring of an all-woman team seems gimmicky, which they admit to in the announcement. If it looks like a duck...

I guess I might be bothered if this was a problem. Instead it's just another Kickstarter. I do count myself among those not wowed by the cover, but the interior art is pretty cool.

In this case though, I don't really need another clone like S&W.

We've already talked about this I think.

But to me the cover looks really good and I don't have any issue with what Stacy is doing.

I like the new cover... it's not really telling me much about what the game is about, but whatever. It still looks like something that could be on a heavy metal album cover.
Stacey is pretty cool too... from what I've seen/read. I'll resist letting this push my buttons until I see more of it.

Quote from: Ddogwood;923325I pledged on it because the OSR needs more women creators.

The fact that it pisses you off is just icing on the cake.

I'm mocking it! I am laughing at it. I'm not pissed off. I AM PISSING ON THE LAUGHABLE HYPOCRISY OF IT ALL.

Butterflies on the cover...for the grrls! LOL. That's amazing.

Just so you know, I'm a long time dedicated S&W:White Box fan so if Frog God is making money, I'm VERY good with that. Your pledge benefits me as a OSR fan so open up your wallet and let it rain!!

But as for your babbling about "women creators", it looks like your reading comprehension needs some work:

Here's what the KS says about the game text:

QuoteWhat's Different?

Just the artwork and layout! The text of the book is exactly the same as it was in the 2nd printing save for some minor adjustments to the gameplay example.

And just in case you missed it, the KS says it again.

QuoteThis is Swords & Wizardry the same as it's been for the last two printings, just with new artwork and layout for the new printing.

It actually would have been a FAR MORE interesting project if the Contessa team had done a ground up rewrite of the S&W text. This is just a new art and layout with an Identity Politics gimmick to boost sales.

Quote from: daniel_ream;923334

• Claim X is problematic
• Stir up Internet Outrage Machine against X
• Tell X things would be better if only they hired unproblematic accuser to fix things
• Profit

...is such a common con that I'm surprised anyone is still falling for it.

And for this I say KUDOS to Stacy Dellorfano and her team. It's smart capitalism to prey on a weak point, snap it open (legally) and suck out some juicy cash. I don't begrudge artists for using every angle to make a living. Easy targets and low hanging fruit should be their first targets.

I do expect the S&W KS to do quite well (some of the interior art is solid, especially the borders), especially as now Pledging = Virtue Signalling (see Ddogwood above). Then we will see if this gimmick draws in some other publishers.

QuoteBut if the appearance and presentation make the game look like it's purely a throwback and not a modern tool for good gaming, then there's a real obstacle to the game's push into the mainstream gaming community.

Simlasa, your forum pic is the best. As I said, I like the cover art (not for a RPG), but yeah its totally death metal album art.

I agree Stacey is pretty cool too. And she's smart. She knows how to push buttons to further herself and her agenda and I respect that.

I'm just laughing at the gimmick...and the grimdark butterflies.

I was curious so I put the covers together below. Yeah, I'm not particularly taken by the cover, either, but then again, I am in the 40-something long-time gamer guy demographic, so the cover pretty explicitly isn't to my tastes. I'm doubtful that just switching over the artwork like they've would make a significant difference in generating sales to a younger demographic. I expect, however, that controversy over the new artwork will generate a lot of discussion and attention and thus generate sales.

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