RPGnet Columns
03-20-2000, 05:46 PM
Post originally by Dan Patton at 2000-03-20 16:46:39
Converted from Phorums BB System
Humans are the most interesting of creatures. Given a seemingly perfect environment, one will chafe at indistinguishable temperature changes and any other imagined shortcoming in order to find reason to complain.
Don't like what the big guns have to offer? Why not play free things (or greatly reduced older games) then?
Miniatures are not required to play free net-posted rules wargames. A pocket full of change will suffice for costly minis as long as everyone knows a quarter with a blue dot is an orc warrior and a quarter with a red dot is a dwarven one.
RPGs more your style? Tons of 'em, not all of them crap as some interject, available for free download. Heck, you can even get mainstream GURPS-Lite straight off the SJG site for crying out loud. Sure, you've got to work as the GM to fill in the gaps, but then you aren't paying those "money-grubbing" louts down at the Company to do your hobby work for you, are you?
Older boxed sets (warning, these may cost upwards of $10) are also good if you're willing to sit down and work with them. Since they were discontinued who cares if the City o' The Dead is on the East or the West Coast of the mainland? It's your game now and truth to tell, your players will never know the difference. Because whether a game's got a Company logo on it or not, it still takes a GM with a weensy bit of imagination to make the thing come to life.
Don't think this is workable? Check out the Star Frontiers WebRing. Nearly a score of sites there are dedicated to keeping TSR's sci-fi entry from the 80s alive. Guess what? Most of the material there is fan made because, for one thing, the Company left a lot open-ended with the original product in the first place. Players and GMs at one time actually built their own concepts and went with them. No reason your favorite game can't experience the same kind of evolution. After all, Star Frontiers supposedly died over a decade ago.
I could own the most expensive guitar in the world, but it will always sound like garbage. Why? Because I don't care to invest the time necessary to make quality output. Conversely, someone willing to spend their time learning to master the strings can make even a poor instrument (this is an analogy folks-ala Ross Perot--so please don't go into 47 posts on guitar quality truisms) sound good.
Get off your duff and expand your game world, play your games the way you want to play them and spend all that energy you've focused on deriding the companies on making your stuff better than all that hoity-toity twaddle. Thanks for listening.
Converted from Phorums BB System
Humans are the most interesting of creatures. Given a seemingly perfect environment, one will chafe at indistinguishable temperature changes and any other imagined shortcoming in order to find reason to complain.
Don't like what the big guns have to offer? Why not play free things (or greatly reduced older games) then?
Miniatures are not required to play free net-posted rules wargames. A pocket full of change will suffice for costly minis as long as everyone knows a quarter with a blue dot is an orc warrior and a quarter with a red dot is a dwarven one.
RPGs more your style? Tons of 'em, not all of them crap as some interject, available for free download. Heck, you can even get mainstream GURPS-Lite straight off the SJG site for crying out loud. Sure, you've got to work as the GM to fill in the gaps, but then you aren't paying those "money-grubbing" louts down at the Company to do your hobby work for you, are you?
Older boxed sets (warning, these may cost upwards of $10) are also good if you're willing to sit down and work with them. Since they were discontinued who cares if the City o' The Dead is on the East or the West Coast of the mainland? It's your game now and truth to tell, your players will never know the difference. Because whether a game's got a Company logo on it or not, it still takes a GM with a weensy bit of imagination to make the thing come to life.
Don't think this is workable? Check out the Star Frontiers WebRing. Nearly a score of sites there are dedicated to keeping TSR's sci-fi entry from the 80s alive. Guess what? Most of the material there is fan made because, for one thing, the Company left a lot open-ended with the original product in the first place. Players and GMs at one time actually built their own concepts and went with them. No reason your favorite game can't experience the same kind of evolution. After all, Star Frontiers supposedly died over a decade ago.
I could own the most expensive guitar in the world, but it will always sound like garbage. Why? Because I don't care to invest the time necessary to make quality output. Conversely, someone willing to spend their time learning to master the strings can make even a poor instrument (this is an analogy folks-ala Ross Perot--so please don't go into 47 posts on guitar quality truisms) sound good.
Get off your duff and expand your game world, play your games the way you want to play them and spend all that energy you've focused on deriding the companies on making your stuff better than all that hoity-toity twaddle. Thanks for listening.