So, the 2009 Ennie Award Nominations are out this morning:

http://www.ennie-awards.com/nominations/nominees.asp

As someone on Twitter said, my fingerprints are all over 'em. This is good, because I like the Ennies, and it's really great when the Ennies like me back. I'm already a proud papa lately, but this magnifies the feeling, and for my other 'babies' to boot. :)

Evil Hat's Nominations

• Best Writing - Don't Lose Your Mind
  
• Best Setting - Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies
  
• Product of the Year - Don't Lose Your Mind
  
• Product of the Year - Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies

One Bad Egg's Nominations

• Best Electronic Book - The Death Mother
  
• Best Electronic Book - Hard Boiled Armies

I declare TRIUMPH with chadu at this point, since we went back and forth on the presentation of the Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies' setting so much, and lo and behold a BEST SETTING nomination. Yes, I'm jazzed as all hell for having two entries on Product of the Year (out of 10), but the setting nod is the real marker there as ultimate validation of the goal we had in producing S7S.

And Ben Baugh getting BEST WRITING for his work on Don't Lose Your Mind? Well, yeah. He did such wonderful things with language and vignettes and all that in DLYM, I would have been sorely disappointed if that hadn't gotten a specific nod, too.

The One Bad Egg stuff is a happy thing, finally, as that's the place where I actually wrote some stuff this year instead of doing higher-level production and layout stuff. I'm a little startled that Armies and Mother beat out Cultures (Cultures has been a consistent strong seller) for nomination, but they're both results from me working at the top of my game at OBE, so I'm pretty tickled.

It doesn't stop there, though, as I look towards the question of "What non-Fred IPR-carried products got the nod?"

IPR Nominations

• Best Cover Art - 3:16 (BoxNinja)
  
• Best Interior Art - HELLAS (Khepera)
  
• Best Interior Art - Mouse Guard (Archaia)
  
• Best Writing - Hot War (Contested Ground)
  
• Best Production Values - Mouse Guard (Archaia)
  
• Best Production Values - HELLAS (Khepera)
  
• Best Rules - Starblazer Adventures (Cubicle 7)
  
• Best Setting - Dreadful Secrets of Candlewick Manor (Arc Dream)
  
• Best Setting - Hot War (Contested Ground)
  
• Best Podcast - Voice of the Revolution (IPR!)
  
• Best Game - Starblazer Adventures (Cubicle 7)
  
• Product of the Year - Mouse Guard (Archaia)
  
• Product of the Year - Starblazer Adventures (Cubicle 7)

I'm mixed, of course, in my feelings about Mouse Guard. Mouse Guard is a fine work, worth the nods it has gotten (and more that it curiously didn't). But Luke and I are on the outs (something I don't really want to talk about, but also don't want to pretend isn't true) after he decided that it was more important to spit in my face than accept an apology for a big goof-up I made earlier this year. As such, I am doubtful that I'll be continuing The Summer Revolution past this year, and am on the fence as to whether I'll use that promotional site this year at all, since it was based on a partnership with Luke, and Luke's temper makes him a poor partner for me. I might be giving Mouse Guard some vote love, but that love's all for Archaia at this point.

Anyway, enough of that drama.

Overall, that's a pretty good spread. It's a great spread from the Evil Hat perspective, too, given that Starblazer Adventures is based on the Spirit of the Century SRD, but I'm also intrigued that IPR's catalog includes three of the five Best Setting nods, given that I think there's a sort of general perception out there that "indie means setting light". I'm sad that Master Plan isn't on the Podcast list, but Ryan's influence is still strongly felt, as he's been doing the audio production on Voice of the Revolution, which has improved the show's quality in all sorts of subtle-but-palpable ways. Don't Lose Your Mind author Ben Baugh is getting some love for Candlewick, too, which is good & just; he's probably one of my top five setting authors these days anyway, and it's *hard* to get me to love setting writing.

In the end sum, it's important to realize that in one very big way, the Ennies are already done for us (speaking in the smaller EHP/OBE sense, and in the larger IPR sense). Nominations are hard-won and carefully considered by the judges each year, but the voting is in the hands of the general public. It's particularly hard getting actual wins from that everyone-in-the-world vote; our catalogs do their best work not in quantity, but in quality, so to some extent creating the product familiarity necessary to garner a vote is the biggest obstacle of all.

So when you hear folks on the above list say things like, "It's an honor just to be nominated" -- and it is! -- listen a little closer. That nomination they're talking about is a win all by itself.

Edit: Chad's post: http://chadu.livejournal.com/743514.html

Second Edit: Somehow I failed to mention I did the layout on Starblazer Adventures, so I have an actually-palpable connection to that product beyond contributing to the SRD on which it's based.

Poisoncraft: The Codex Venenorum

The Codex Venenorum — a venomous tome of poisoncraft from the quill of master poisoncrafter Nylson Veld — has long been sought by those who wish to work their subtle and deadly arts upon the unsuspecting. It is an outlaw tome, penned by a pragmatic poisoner whose decades of experience have yielded a lethal harvest.

Bringing the principles of poisoncraft to Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, the Codex contains detailed poison creation rules and over eighty sample poisons for use at any level, from the vile hopemelter to the subtle blue deception. Whether practicing mortal politics in the halls of power, or wielding an assassin's blade on the battlefield, the Codex is your poisoned path to victory.

Purchasing options at http://www.onebadegg.com/egg/store/#OBE2101

The Codex Venenorum -- a venomous tome of poisoncraft from the quill of master poisoncrafter Nylson Veld -- comes for you on Monday. Containing detailed poison creation rules and over eighty sample poisons for use at any level (from the vile hopemelter to the subtle blue deception), the Codex is a necessity for anyone looking to deal a hated enemy a poisonous blow.

But don't ask us about the Codex... Ask one of the recipients of our draughts what he thinks about that.



... Oh, dearie me. The cat quite seems to have his tongue. You'll have to take our word for it after all.

(One Bad Egg Bookshelf users may wish to drop on by to get their draughts of Poisoncraft early ... avoid the rush, and get there before your rivals do. It's the prudent thing.)

Quoth WotC:

This month, we kick off a new rollout of exclusive material for the Dungeons & Dragons game that you can only get as a D&D Insider subscriber. This exclusive material won't appear in any core rulebooks or supplements, but it will be totally official and ready to use if you're a D&D Insider subscriber. We start out with the revenant, a new player character race that I predict is going to be all the rage. The revenant is an undead creature who could have been of any other race in life but returns after death as a revenant with a new life and a new purpose. With a connection to the Raven Queen, vague memories of past lives, and some cool undead powers, the revenant provides great opportunities for roleplaying and new approaches to character death — because for the revenant, death is only the beginning! Look for the revenant player character race on June 15, exclusively available to D&D Insiders.

Where have I seen that idea before? Hmmm...

Up until June 15th, you can get the Half-Dead PC race from One Bad Egg at RPGNow for only 99 cents (but you'll have to follow this super-duper secret link):

http://www.rpgnow.com/index.php?discount=29630

May featured yet more of me having no time for One Bad Egg, due to the advent of a higher-paying contract job (art direction & layout for Hero Games), Dresden Files RPG priority items, and the impending birth of my daughter (due date: June 14th).

Can't exactly feel bad about that. :)

Apelord: 178 (up 2 this month)
Unbroken: 112 (up 5 this month)
Half-Dead: 131 (up 4 this month)
Death-Mother: 92 (up 1 this month)
Gods: 111 (up 9 this month)
Shroudborn: 75 (up 0 this month)
Cultures: 253 (up 16 this month)
Syrallax: 63 (up 4 this month)
Purifiers: 44 (up 1 this month)
Witch Doctor: 90 (up 4 this month)
Armies: 215 (up 39 this month)

If I get a chance, we'll have a new, really large, product out sometime this coming month (I'm not talking about the baby). Will I get that chance? Can't say.

So how does a One Bad Egg month go when we don't release anything that month?

Not half bad, it turns out.

April's summary (lifetime sales and sales for the month):

Apelord: 176 (up 5 this month)
Unbroken: 107 (up 6 this month)
Half-Dead: 127 (up 6 this month)
Death-Mother: 91 (up 8 this month)
Gods: 102 (up 12 this month)
Shroudborn: 75 (up 5 this month)
Cultures: 237 (up 34 this month)
Syrallax: 59 (up 5 this month)
Purifiers: 43 (up 3 this month)
Witch Doctor: 86 (up 18 this month)
Armies: 176 (up 88 this month)

Strength had to do with Armies releasing late in March (it did the same amount of sales in April as it did in March), the bundling of Gods with Reality Deviant's Scarrport, and the "Everything Must Stay!" 10% off everything sales event following WOTC's questionable move on PDFs.

Y'know, after playing D&D 4th edition, I find myself just a bit more favorably inclined towards the idea of publishing stuff for it.

The game's just fun at the table. We did a 3-player game, and had two fights that felt pretty white-knuckle at certain moments as hit points got played close to the wire. I was at single digits and nearly out of healing surges at least once over the course of play, and our final fight against an occasionally-invisible baby-eating demonic dire badger and his cultist and skeletal minions was exciting -- you gotta love the sudden urgent necessity of fighting that erupts when someone blows their Stealth roll.

In the face of all that, given the fun that it brings, given the inevitable development of a fan-base, I know I WANT to see it supported with good, interesting stuff. And given the GSL's "by product line" restrictions, so long as any effort to support it is well quarantined, and risks are appropriately managed (sticking to a combo of PDF, POD, and short-run printings) it might even be attractive. Sure, having to play stupid tricks to be able to put statblocks in your product is a hassle, but so is doing anything for a system/property you don't wholly own yourself, if you ask me, so that stuff comes out in the wash.

This isn't to say that Evil Hat will do 4e products in the future (though I have an idea or two). But the issue's definitely a bit more grey and a bit less black and white for me, having gotten a chance to play it.

My initial impression after reading a bit of the GSL hullaballoo is that it's nothing really worrying about...

... so long as you're willing to walk away from it. Yeah, it represents a sticky legal bog into which many a game company could walk and few could come out. Yes, it's a disappointment for many folks who thought they could make some more money like before by creating products supporting the biggest dog on the block.

But for Evil Hat Productions (and hopefully, for many others), it's a big So What. Sure, maybe EHP could someday put out a 4E supporting product (I certainly think I have a setting concept that could go interesting places, and Rob's been talking about a modular add-on concept that could fit to nearly any campaign world), but it's not essential that we do -- and it never really was. The 3E OGL days gave us a lot of opportunity to get us some strongly developed second and third tiers. Plenty of companies and one-guy shops made their bones in that environment; they've got a name and a brand from that time. If they play their cards right and leverage that brand well, they don't need 4E to continue growing their fan-base. It'd just be nice. Phil Reed has plenty of folks standing shoulder to shoulder willing to follow Ronin Arts wherever he takes it. Green Ronin's supporters are legion. And so on.

If anything, the GSL tells us that we can probably comfortably give 4E a year to see where it goes, to see how it settles out from its awkward early stages. But more than anything, at least from where I stand, the 4E GSL is -- for my money -- a move by WOTC to support diversity in the RPG market (however unintentional that move may be). Fewer companies will be producing 4E stuff. Some will because some are willing even in the face of some pretty nasty legal terms -- every swamp-bog has its explorers, however few -- but many won't. But those many won't be standing still.

And as a few folks have pointed out, there are plenty of options for the second and third tier to get some all-star team-up action going on. True20 and Pathfinder provide successful, proven branches of the d20 oeuvre for folks interested in staying "close to home". If WEG ever gets off its ass, there's talk of making d6 an open license. Savage Worlds now has a free license (once you're approved) and a second license that provides solid support of fan-sites doing whatever they want, legally. And, yeah, Evil Hat's Fate system (and the open content of Spirit of the Century) remains free for use via the OGL (plus, we're happy to negotiate reasonable brand license terms for SOTC and DRYH if someone becomes interested -- as we already have).

So I'm not worried. I'm excited.

Maybe you can be, too.

So I tried my hand at creating a character for 4th Ed today. It was a hit and miss experience, in part because I got frustrated trying to understand the implications of taking that feat that gets you an extra Daily spell in your spellbook, which is to say, maybe I should have explored whether or not it's possible to have something more straightforward to create than an Eladrin Wizard.

I was reminded mightily of how much I like character creation as a social rather than solo experience, these days -- a real 180 from the days of my youth, where the "lonely fun" of character creation solitaire was a vast, vast portion of my RPG experience. Getting together with people to play? Bah! I could spend hours creating ... things! Things that had... potential to be something!

So, I yapped with Rob a lot, asking him the questions that my not-quite-up-to-snuff reading comprehension skills had (predictably) failed to answer, and he set me as straight as one can set someone over instant messenger. Which is to say, I was still a little confused about the spellbook thing, but I had the character frickin' done, and was eager to just send it over to him in anticipation of playing tomorrow evening.

After letting it sit for a few minutes I realized my problem was that my freaking WIZARD did not have enough HARRY DRESDEN in him. So now, I have the Astral Fire stuntfeat (more damage from fire powers!) and a focus on the fire spells in the catalog instead of something (yawn) more diverse, and I owned up to the fact that I'm a freakin Eladrin and can carry a LONGSWORD instead of a quarterstaff.

That's more like it.

I'm lookin' to melt some faces Tuesday night.

Thanks to the folks on the RPG Podcasters group for sharing this:

D&D 4th Edition Game System License FAQ
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4news/20080502

Q. Can companies still produce 3.x products under the OGL?
A. Yes, but we anticipate that interest in the 4e GSLs will be greater.

Q. Can publishers release new products under both the OGL and 4E GSL?
A. No. Each new product will be either OGL or 4E GSL. If a new product is published under the 4e GSL, it cannot also be published as 3.x product under the OGL; and vice versa.

Q. I have multiple product lines. If I update one product line to 4th Edition, do they all have to be updated?
A. No. Publishers are able to choose on a product line by product line basis which license will work best.

In summary: you can't do both OGL and 4E in the same product line, but you can do them in the same company.