Clark P. said:
"Matt-"
(One "t" please . . . unusual, yes, but it is my name.)
"In doing that free module, we spent over two months in
writing, playtesting, editing, designing the
publication and converting to pdf. plus, we hired a
professional artist to do some awesome line art. The
total project cost was well over $1000 (not counting
my or Bill's time which would have been astronomical)."
Exactly my point. Even a small module like yours (I have a copy printed
out) which will take perhaps a four hour game session is a large
undertaking.
"Guess what. If anyone thinks I am going to open that
up all the way is on crack. I keep all rights to the
art and to the text (and as further designated in the
module)."
As would I. (As I plan to if I actually release anything under the OGL/d20
licenses.)
"Now we did offer some open content: npcs, monster
descriptions, etc. plus, we created the Leucrotta
(which will not appear in the 3E MM) in 3E terms and
made it open. So we cant be accused of keeping all our
stuff closed. But beyond that, get real."
Which is of course reasonable, since you are using game mechanics to descibe
those things, they're opened.
"Maybe an examination of what we did will be
enlightening. The problem is that both sides of the
debate tend to speak in these poorly defined
hypotheticals. Why not look at our adventure and say
"Clark should have opened this up," or "Clark could
have closed this and didnt and we like/dont like that
he did it that way.""
My hypothetical was pretty on-base though, since it parallels what you
actually went through.
"Personally, I think even the rabidly content open
types will have no problem with our open content. But
it would be interesting to see..."
I think this is a troll for feedback. :) *poke*
Since you've been asking:
I felt the module was interesting and flowed well. I have not played or run
it, however I do not see where the "1st edition feel" is . . . to me it was
more like a 2nd edition feel. I always associate 1st edition modules with a
very non-linear approach, and yours was more typical of an RPGA module in
feel. (I almost expected to see a tourney score sheet, actually.)
All in all, it was a good piece of work. Certainly adequate to changing
situations. You gave insight into combat and modifying difficulty levels,
which is a nice touch. More people should do this, and I suspect I will
"steal" this idea at least in part if I produce an adventure.
Kudos, keep up the hard work.
-Mathew Gray
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