Frogs And Wizardry

I usually don't dip into any of these (lame) OSR controversies as I feel it's just a waste of time (it takes a while to whip up a blog post) and everyone is entitled to their own opinions. I felt I might throw in my two cents on the news that Frog God Games will be releasing Swords & Wizardry products including a new updated rule book. It's not so much the actual news of this merger if you want to call it that because any thing that will introduce people into playing a rules-lite fantasy game is fine by me (throws out hint to local RPG Guild) but it is more the way that Frog God Games announced it (which, it appears they have retracted so I'm a day late and a dollar short on this one).

Because I use Swords & Wizardry as my core rule set and I've 'donated' illustrations to various old school products and publications and produced my own publications which I distributed through Lulu I feel I can chat about this from a real personal perspective (really, why stop at this point).

Like Matt Finch said, and I paraphrase, Frog God Games said what they said to entice their Pathfinder fan-base.

So yeah, it's strictly business, it's not personal.

But in what they stated, many people took as a disregard to what has been happening these past number of years in this OSR. And that's understandable. In many ways it is. Frog God Games is saying that they can put out better 'product' material than any of these self-publishing fans. That's a tall tale to live up to.

Like one poster's response yesterday on one of the blogs talking about this very topic; Why alienate the 400 of us who might buy the product?

Am I bothered by what they said? Ah, only slightly. I think it was just off the mark and a bit arrogant. Again, who cares. They said what they said. One just has to look at the publications that have been published by all of these do-it-yourselfers to see that Frog sGames word's are off the mark.

Just flip through any of the rule books and supplements published (S&W, BFRPG, LL, Wilderlands and there are a ton of other). These are all very well produced 'products'. Great layouts, fun illustrations, and a true sense of love for the game in all of these items. As far as I'm concerned, perfect!

Does slick production make an RPG product better? Not really. It's the content inside, the imagination put into the game is what counts. We'll all see if FGGs lives up to their own high standard.

Is this going to stop me from playing S&W? No.

Is this going to affect my gaming at all? No.

Is this going to discourage me from putting out my little gaming aids (or modules if I ever get to another one) on Lulu or my blog? No.

Do I think this will kill the community spirit of this fantasy RPG community? Not at all.

It's just another little meaningless blip on the larger radar of gaming history.

So unbunch your panties and Game On! Everyone!