Quote from: THE_Leopold on February 25, 2023, 04:10:14 PM
Make 'em yellow then.

That would be what the definitions of the categories would suggest is appropriate. Which you don't appear to have read before weighing in.

I bumped into this one reading "Chris B." reviews -- Authentic Heroines by Wyatt Hamby and Angela Zavala.

FWIW, his reviews are even-handed, but he doesn't pull any punches. Whoever wrote the creator reply was so ticked off, they left a second response.

The title was pulled, no idea when though.

Does Drivethru have a "Hostile Creator Reply" policy?

And another chuckle I found today on Drivethru -- Beyond Deep by Wesley Ascolese and Chris Koger.

Certain people are not welcome under their big tent. Here's the preface:

Quote from: Punch and Pie on March 01, 2023, 01:16:07 AM
And another chuckle I found today on Drivethru -- Beyond Deep by Wesley Ascolese and Chris Koger.

Certain people are not welcome under their big tent. Here's the preface:

Some serious double-think on the author's part.

Quote from: Punch and Pie on March 01, 2023, 01:16:07 AM
And another chuckle I found today on Drivethru -- Beyond Deep by Wesley Ascolese and Chris Koger.

Certain people are not welcome under their big tent. Here's the preface:

And this person acts as if a time period dealing with racism, sexism, bigotry, etc., is DIFFERENT THAN TODAY.  As if it doesn't exist now.  And it's almost exclusively coming from his type.

Quote from: Punch and Pie on March 01, 2023, 01:16:07 AM
And another chuckle I found today on Drivethru -- Beyond Deep by Wesley Ascolese and Chris Koger.

Certain people are not welcome under their big tent. Here's the preface:

Ah, yes, the old fascists not welcome statement. Words cause harm, right? So a magic warding statement should work to repel fascists.

Does anyone know anything about Kelsey Dionne and the Arcane Library? I mean, I only just heard of her "shadowdark" book at all today. When i also in very short order learned it uses a system very similar to Lion & Dragon's background, xp, and especially level benefits (random tables) system. And that she paid Dungeoncraft and Questing Beast to do Infomercials disguised as "reviews". Questing Beast at least had the courtesy to say so right at the start of the video.

But I know nothing about political alignment.

Quote from: RPGPundit on March 02, 2023, 07:19:22 AM
And that she paid Dungeoncraft and Questing Beast to do Infomercials disguised as "reviews". Questing Beast at least had the courtesy to say so right at the start of the video.

Easy to miss though https://youtu.be/fqO68ZjkNgA?t=43

Quote from: Venka on February 23, 2023, 01:21:42 AM
Basically everyone either wants 5e (or something real similar)

Why would anyone want an inferior fantasy game when there are better ones out there? 

(Yes I'm being facetious here lol)

Quote from: RPGPundit on March 02, 2023, 07:19:22 AM
Does anyone know anything about Kelsey Dionne and the Arcane Library?

I know she doesn't have a bunch of easy-to-find political stuff, because I looked for it when she made some videos during the Attack On OGL a couple months back, and didn't find it.  That doesn't mean it isn't there, my searches are pretty brief.  I went ahead and did a date-bound twitter search of her @arcanelibrary account over timespans that a lefty activist would be constitutionally unable to avoid proganda-tweeting, and found nothing except her geeking out over cool stuff and promoing her own cool things.

I'm not particularly good at really digging though- I just know enough that if someone is on the record with a bunch of preachy-screechy political slogans, I should run into that.

As I'm sure you know, she's denying any payola besides Questing Beast (who announces it in the video, as linked in this thread).  She quote tweeted someone who called you a nazi and "generously" refused to assume you were a nazi, which to me seems definitely giving a baseless detractor the highest position on her timeline as possible, but possibly she has an entire army of your haters calling you various things and she wanted to address one and state that she doesn't buy it yet.

QuoteI mean, I only just heard of her "shadowdark" book at all today.

A couple months ago a thread about her Shadowdark announcement had some upvotes and replies on reddit, and honestly she's been around for quite some time- you can easily find an interview of her in her current role from 2018.  If the math adds up with her teaching career, she looks a lot younger than her actual age too.  The actual announcement of her latest thing has a lot of spammery on reddit, ex:
https://www.reddit.com/user/MythicMountainsRPG
("The sixth edition we wanted, I'm backing this tomorrow!" - posted in a million places)

Honestly the only reason I didn't back it is that it's going to start with just the four core classes, and while that's not a dealbreaker for me, it's enough away from my wheelhouse that I'll wait for it to be completed and have reviews.

There's definitely a sense of over-promotion and hype from her, and I'd find it interesting if she actually did unacknowledged payola reviews.

Quote from: Venka on March 02, 2023, 04:29:39 PM
As I'm sure you know, she's denying any payola besides Questing Beast (who announces it in the video, as linked in this thread).  She quote tweeted someone who called you a nazi and "generously" refused to assume you were a nazi, which to me seems definitely giving a baseless detractor the highest position on her timeline as possible, but possibly she has an entire army of your haters calling you various things and she wanted to address one and state that she doesn't buy it yet.

I was curious, so here are the threads of where Pundit posted his claim on Twitter, and where she responded on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/KasimirUrbanski/status/1631249826942689281

https://twitter.com/arcanelibrary/status/1631351147628732417

Quote from: RPGPunditI don't want to blame @arcanelibrary for wanting to advertise her book, but giving out payola to supposed "reviewers" like Questing Beast & Dungeoncraft to make fawning infomercials is bad form on their part.
I will NEVER take money to manipulate reviews as promotion.

Quote from: The Arcane LibraryThis is a lie and, frankly, slanderous. Unfortunate that I need to hit back over this, but here are the facts:

The only person I paid for a review of Shadowdark RPG was Ben Milton, as is his ordinary practice. Nobody else received any money, "payola," benefit, or otherwise.

I'd want to know on what basis Pundit claims that the Dungeoncraft review was payola.

Also, Questing Beast's self-admitted sponsored review doesn't mean that his review is dishonest. He claims that he is paid for the attention, but gives his honest opinion. Pundit has similar disclaimers when he reviews products that he himself has worked on, and reviews for people that he has business associations with.

Quote from: RPGPundit on March 02, 2023, 07:19:22 AM
Does anyone know anything about Kelsey Dionne and the Arcane Library? I mean, I only just heard of her "shadowdark" book at all today. When i also in very short order learned it uses a system very similar to Lion & Dragon's background, xp, and especially level benefits (random tables) system. And that she paid Dungeoncraft and Questing Beast to do Infomercials disguised as "reviews". Questing Beast at least had the courtesy to say so right at the start of the video.

Pundit - when you cite the similarities to Lion & Dragon, I'm not sure what the point is. Are you just saying that you and she have similar taste as game designers, which is presumably a compliment to her? Or are you implying that there is something unethical about the similarities between Lion & Dragon and Shadowdark?

FWIW, Dungeon Craft/Professor DM confirmed to me that he did not take payment for his review of Shadowdark:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iHmUJ_hUT47hVQSbzem2DtSd_3o85rmV/view?usp=sharing

AFAICS, only the one review from Questing Beast was paid for.

Quote from: Torch Fire on February 21, 2023, 10:44:18 PM
If nothing else, I think I might give Castles & Crusades a look.

I've checked out C&C quite extensively and would like to run it soon. But i will house rule quite a bit. But the system is great for that and it is encouraged from TLG, the creators.
Troll Lord Games are a great company.

If you want 5E but from a seemingly good company, this might be an option:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?keywords=fateforge++&x=0&y=0&author=&artist=&pfrom=&pto=
Fateforge from Studio Agate, currently pay what you want.

Arcane Library is from all appearances apolitical and has good content. This KS is on pace to be one of the largest since Mothership, so I would say they are worthy of a spot on the Green list.

Quote from: FingerRod on March 03, 2023, 09:24:47 AM
Arcane Library is from all appearances apolitical and has good content. This KS is on pace to be one of the largest since Mothership, so I would say they are worthy of a spot on the Green list.

Yeah the fact that she responded well to Pundit despite being called out for potentially paying for reviews (and Pundit being a controversial figure), I'd say she's green.

Still not going to back the product as it uses Ancestry rather than Race (I'm a stickler for tradition), and I've got more than enough OSR/old-school games going around.