Instant Death, No Saving Throw
In 1974, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson created Dungeons and Dragons. Sometime around 1978, I acquired a copy, and my leisure time pursuits were changed forever. I owe the both of them a debt of gratitude I can never repay (and a debt of finance as well).
They made one mistake, though, and my gamer friends and I have been dealing with that mistake since then. I don’t know how it got into the game originally; in fact, sometimes I wonder what it was like gaming with them under this philosophy. The attitude is never openly stated in the books, but the early game materials make it clear: the Game Master is the other players’ enemy.
Why Warhammer 40K Makes Me Unhappy
Today, the social media channels are abuzz with the ongoing story that Games Workshop got the e-book of M.C.A. Hogarth’s “Spots the Space Marine” pulled from Amazon on the dubious grounds that no one else is allowed to use “Space Marine” in an e-book. They may or may not have the law on their side – most folks suspect not – but it remains a dirty, unethical, and ridiculous thing to do either way. It’s costing Hogarth real money, and one notes that they didn’t go after any well-established, well-funded estate or media organization that’s featured space marines in e-books since such were invented. Also, this event exposes flaws in Amazon’s due process which concern many an independent writer.
But that’s my problem with Games Workshop in general. Why am I down on Warhammer 40K specifically? Well, I’m glad you asked that. (Of course you did, don’t you remember?) Let me fire off a few disclaimers right at the beginning: I have never had the chance to actually play the game and would love to give it a try if it could be done without supporting GW. And if you love the game and have been playing for years, this isn’t an attack on you. Having fun? That’s *excellent*.
My tabletop battle experience is primarily through FASA and its descendants. I had seen Battletech materials in my game stores, thought it gauche that they were using Macross and Dougram mech designs, and given it little more thought before getting caught in a blizzard one weekend and giving it a fair try. I fell in love with the game, still play when I can, and even enjoy the click-base version as an entirely different game in the same setting.
But I’d seen lots of 40K stuff in the stores too, all of it illustrated by photos of Games Workshop’s brilliant modelmaking and paintwork. Of course I was curious! And I knew a gamer or two who loved it, though none of them happened to game with me. Finally, I learned enough to discover how many figures a player uses for a basic game, and checked on the price.
A Slightly Classier Agreement
I have a lot of fun making “DVD covers” in Photoshop for my little video efforts. It’s weird, because they don’t show up in hard-copy very much any more, but it does make the movie files look better when I’m browsing them in a media manager.
To that end, I made this today:
If this had been a real DVD cover, I’d have added a lot more info about the actors and crew, and copyright disclaimers and the like. But this will do for now. It looks a whole lot better in iTunes.
Oh, and for the few readers of this blog who don’t know, the two parts of this video are right here:http://youtu.be/3nnLbQ1JvXs and here:http://youtu.be/iS6iGACneEQ Be kind.
No Such Thing As A Free Badge
Reason number 724 that I am a very lucky man: Despite not having much in the way of cash flow in the recent months, I’ve been able to keep attending cons.
For the most part, this is because I have convinced several conventions that I have skills of enough value that they should be covering a fair chunk of my expenses. I’m pretty proud of those skills, and I work hard in return for my badge or whatever, but it generally means I miss out on a lot of the event, and am a little more worn out for the remaining parts. So, these days when I get to go to an event at which I’m not preforming / presenting, it’s a nice vacation.
On, the other hand, it means that right now I can’t really afford to do that. Which means that I was pretty darn disappointed to hear that MystiCon, a con in Roanoke I’ve been wanting to attend for years, was going to feature Sylvester “Seventh Doctor” “Radagast the Brown” McCoy*. I made vague promises of going, but the closer the con came, the less likely it appeared that my cash would handle it.
Well, lady_or_tyger wants to go, and feels that since she’s never been to a Roanoke con, that I’d make the perfect guide. So she’s going to cover my expenses as a gift, and I’m actually going to get to see some of my fandom peeps for the first time in ages. I’m very excited!
*McCoy has had a schedule change, and now they have Peter “Fifth Doctor” Davison. That’a a bit less cool to me than McCoy, but that still leaves lots of room for Pretty Danged Cool.
