Quote from: Shipyard Locked;923619My present self wonders why I've never heard of any outrage or identity-politics fretting about the lack of men in hobbies like knitting or candle-making. Hmmm...

A family friend works for A Very Large Romance Novel Publishing Company.  There are actually a surprisingly large number of men writing romance novels, but they have to do it under female pseudonyms because women won't buy a romance novel written by a man.  This tends to limit their careers because they can't go to conventions or do publicity events like book signings.  And the romance novel industry is worth orders of magnitude more money than the tabletop RPG industry.  So I don't worry about this stuff too much.

When people talk about "not enough X do Y", my reaction is always "define 'enough'".  At what point is this problem "solved"?

A couple of things really..

Does it really look like a shrivelled-up pussy? Just guessing, but are there four generic adventuring types facing off against a giant monster vag?

I'm not entirely sure in what circumstances anyone would personally deem my opinion about the cover of Swords & Wizardry could brand me as a woman-hater. As with every other role-playing rules manual in existence there is really only one determinant of objective quality and it has absolutely nothing to do with the authors' genders - Can I read this book this book in the toilet? If I can parse your combat rules while passing my morning constitutional that's a win in my book.

Has anyone tried to pose as a woman or work together with a woman to really earn the shit out of the rpg industry? You could almost by definition start publicity-controversy by announcing you're all about the wimmins. After the initial kick-start fundage could do a girl-band version of Judges Guild cranked out on a weekend. No matter how utterly horrible you got it would be an artisanal a-ok because you were a company by women for women. Collectors would love that shit.

This last joke is probably way over the line into 'Gilbert Gottfried getting fired by Aflac' territory but here goes. Why is it that any all-girl rpg team inevitably has at least one member who is in transition? Does Twitter have a Serious Questions hashtag? If so, that's where I would put that one.

Quote from: TristramEvans;923327Wait , they went from these awesome covers...

Personally, I think those covers are butt ugly.  This deliberately dated looking and, in my opinion, ugly as hell artwork is one of the things that has always turned me off about these retroclones.  For me, the new cover style is a definite improvement.

Quote from: yosemitemike;923627Personally, I think those covers are butt ugly.  This deliberately dated looking and, in my opinion, ugly as hell artwork is one of the things that has always turned me off about these retroclones.  For me, the new cover style is a definite improvement.

Diff'rent strokes

Quote from: TristramEvans;923628Diff'rent strokes

Indeed:). However, if S&W team is after expanding their target group, as it seems they are, it makes sense to include some different strokes.

You know, in order to have a better chance to appeal to people that don't already own 123456667890 OSR rulesets with the usual TSR-styled covers;).

The unified art appeals to me. I like DCC with its retro art and I like this book with its modern take which reminds me a bit of urban fantasy--mystical and powerful which fits perfectly as a S&W motif. It got me to look at the ruleset again.

In addition, the two new adventures are intriguing, especially the mystery/citycrawl. I like that the art style will continue through here as well.

I am very interested to see the stretch goals and possible add ons. And with a price for the PDF of $1 and hardcover $35 it is a fair deal.

Quote from: Simlasa;923566It doesn't tell me much about the game BUT, I think if it were on a store shelf I would probably pick it up and have a look... because the image is intriguing and non-specific... mysterious even. Unlike previous editions.
I'd probably be expecting something more horror-related, or more slanted toward romantic fantasy (not in the Harlequin Romance sense).
I might be disappointed once I find it's just another D&D clone, but maybe the cover would inspire me to approach the game from a different angle.

This is my thinking. I don't need a cover to convey information about how the game is played or what its focus is (it can do that, but it doesn't have to). I need to grab my attention and evoke some kind of interest in the game or some kind of excitement about running it.

Aren't the rules free in PDF form any way? Or I'm thinking of a different something&something retroclone...

Quote from: The Butcher;9235774. I am skeptical towards the idea that hiring more women creators will get more women to game. I'm pretty sure the best way to do it is, I dunno, for people not to be dicks to newbs? But then I'm not even sure this is the point? Ah well, whatever floats FGG's and Stacy's boats.
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I'd be curious on some real numbers here simply because I am a slowly turning into a dinosaur myself and am probably a bit out of touch with what is going on in the gaming community. From my vantage point, I feel like the 90s was a highpoint in terms of the number of female gamers and the number of female creators. Locally, it seems to me that there are fewer female gamers (but my perspective is pretty limited).

I actually remember there being a ton of women designing for lines like Ravenloft in the early 90s (Andria Heyday, Lisa Smedman, Teeuwynn Woodruff, Anne Brown, etc). Lisa Smedman wrote a bunch of stuff as I recall. I haven't counted the numbers but I think something approaching half the books were written by women (maybe more if you include the novels). Whether that caused more women to join the hobby, no idea. I think for me, as a guy in high school it probably made me feel like women were more a part of the hobby than if the names on the books were all men, but not sure). I would agree though, people not being jerks to new players are the best way to make sure any group feels welcome (and over the years, this is something I've definitely seen gamers do to lots of people).

I don't know how the number of female designers with big companies today pairs up with female designers of big companies back then. It should be relatively easy though for someone to crunch the numbers on female game designers over the years (though the explosion of small companies in the past decade could make that harder if you include every single company under the sun).

When I see that cover, it's vague but I see a Leshen from The Witcher 3 videogame

Quote from: yosemitemike;923627Personally, I think those covers are butt ugly.  This deliberately dated looking and, in my opinion, ugly as hell artwork is one of the things that has always turned me off about these retroclones.  For me, the new cover style is a definite improvement.

You have very poor taste.

It might be that in general women trend towards certain genres or settings. Ravenloft, Vampire The Masquerade. But that can't be true given how D&D was popular across genders way back according to the old timer stories.

JHKIM has a list of notable designers who are women: http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/theory/gender/womenauthors.html

I think it needs to be updated because it's missing Sarah Newton, Filamena Young, etc.

I like it. It makes me think of something spawned by Shub Niggurath, or some pagan Horned God (or Goddess). The MOTHS are creepy too (aren't they always?). Makes me think of a Death/Black Metal album cover. Or something James Raggi sponsored. Right up my alley.

I agree with the Pundit: the new cover is more interesting than the others, which are fairly generic, IMHO. Beautiful, but generic.

Pretty funny, though. They flat-out stated that this cover, or even the book as a whole, isn't meant to target traditional 40 somethings of the hobby. Judging by the responses by most 40 something traditionalist gamers, here and elsewhere, she was so fucking right. They also pre-preemptively dismissed statements like "why women-only? What a gimmick!" LOL you guys are matching the stereotype perfectly.

The other editions are still available. Why do you guys give ANY fucks? I mean really?

Quote from: ArrozConLeche;923646JHKIM has a list of notable designers who are women: http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/theory/gender/womenauthors.html

I think it needs to be updated because it's missing Sarah Newton, Filamena Young, etc.

Don't forget Anna Kreider!

Quote from: The Butcher;923577I don't have my copy with me right now but I think Jon Hodgson is the artist.

Nah, I'm pretty sure it's Sardinha. RpgGeek entry.

In any case, I've sometimes confused this cover with the one for Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia. Which is also quite nice.