Roughly 4 years ago, I wrote a little story titled Waking Dogs about a World Eater space marine who simply decided he had enough. Enough of his legion, enough of the blood god, and enough of the godsdamned Butcher's Nails... Crixus was going to put down every rabid dog he'd once called brother, and wipe the entire legion from the galaxy. He was going to erase the mistake that Angron had made, and if he was very lucky, die in the process of trying to complete this fool's crusade.
I'd originally written it to be a stand-alone piece of fan fiction, hoping it would maybe drag some eyes over to my novel Old Soldiers, which is a dystopian sci fi thriller about 9-foot-tall albino super soldiers dealing with their own dark conspiracy that I figured would appeal to some of my fellow Warhammer 40K fans. However, several years later, Waking Dogs is now a 3-part series with several hundred thousand views on YouTube, and it seems to have made a far bigger impact on folks than I could ever have predicted.
And it's not done just yet.
The Warhounds rise... but will they fall once more?
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Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!
The Old Warhound's Saga Continues... Or Does It?
Originally, Crixus's story was a fun little what-if story. It was a question of what would happen if a World Eater went rogue, and dedicated himself to wiping out all those like him. What would it be like if their personal rage was so constant that it attuned itself to the Butcher's Nails, and those terrible engines became a weapon he was capable of wielding rather than becoming a mere slave to?
And overall, those who read it seemed to like it. They didn't buy any copies of my novel, though, and I would have just abandoned the project as a good try... except that I crossed paths with Paul Graham, the individual behind the YouTube channel A Vox in The Void. He was looking for unique, grim stories to read, and this was one of the stories I said he was welcome to put on his channel. All I asked was that he link the original story on Vocal so I could maybe get some extra traffic.
The story honestly did a LOT better than I ever expected... and looking back at it today, it just crossed 101,000 views. Which still boggles me a bit!
While this wasn't the first story of mine Paul had dramatized (if you check the archive, it's the second story of mine on the channel), it did make a pretty big impact. And it led to me writing additional stories for him over time. And as I read the comments about Crixus, and I saw there were folks who had really enjoyed his tale, I figured I'd add to it. So I wrote a sequel, Broken Chains, which has him hunting down his former Brother Sergeant to settle a grudge, and it gives us a psychic flashback to his childhood, before he was made part of the Warhounds legion in the days of the Great Crusade.
Folks welcomed Crixus home with roars of enthusiasm, and this story did even better than the first one had... in terms of YouTube views, at least (most folks don't read my stories in text format, even if they really enjoy listening), and at time of writing, that story has over 167,000 views!
Since a few years had gone by, I felt it was time for injecting a little fresh blood into Crixus's saga. My most recent story, which involves him being taken prisoner by a World Eaters warband and forced to fight for his life in the arena against several daunting opponents to the roars of the crowd, dropped a few months ago... Waking Dogs, Part 3: War Hounds.
Though this story just rounded 37,000 views, it's only been up for 3 weeks... and if you haven't checked it out yet, you should!
While Crixus hasn't met his end just yet, I do have a plan for how I'd like to end this particular series... but for folks who'd like to see it draw to an epic conclusion, I'm going to need your help to make it happen!
How You Can Help Give The Old Warhound A Proper End
Over the past few years I've had a lot of time to think about Crixus's stories, and where I'd like him to go. And while I acknowledge I could treat him like Conan, and just add a few more stories here and there until there was no longer an interested audience, honestly, I don't want him to just fade away like that. I'd much rather give him a proper and deliberate sendoff...
But I'm going to need all of your help to make that happen!
So, here's how you can help!
So, here's a list of things that would really help me get the last two parts of Crixus's tale slotted into place:
- Read the original three stories on Vocal (Waking Dogs, Broken Chains, War Hounds), and share them on your own social media pages to help boost the signal!
- Check out the audio dramas over on A Vox in The Void, subscribe to the channel, and leave some comments on the videos to let them know I sent you!
- Consider picking up a copy of my novel Old Soldiers, then when you leave a review mention that you bought a copy because you wanted me to have the time and energy to finish Crixus's story.
This list is in descending order of free-to-you as the reader, but in reverse order of what will help me most as a writer. So, just something to keep in mind... because if I could get 10,000 people (to say nothing of 40,000 or 150,000) to grab a copy of my novel, I would have all the time and energy to dedicate to bringing the old Warhound's saga to a satisfying close!
Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!
That's all for this week's Table Talk. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!
To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!
Anyone that's sat in the big chair as a Game Master has likely heard the advice that you should work with your players to create a cooperative environment whenever possible. Nothing spikes the game harder than the GM keeping a white-knuckled grip on the reins, and taking away the independence and creative autonomy of the rest of the table.
We already know that the higher-ups at Wizards of The Coast who've been largely responsible for the current crisis don't play the game. Because if they did, then they would know that the harder you try to control the players, the more problems you make for yourself.
What do you mean they'll just make their own games?
Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron!
Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!
Capital Doesn't Create (It Simply Tries To Control)
I know we're all sick of this OGL talk, so I want to draw everyone's attention to something that a different gaming company did in the recent past. A year or two back there was a big kerfuffle with Games Workshop, a company that's rather notorious for having a contentious relationship with its own community. They were leaning hard on fan creators who made video content, they were sending out rather angry messages to third-party mini makers and 3D printing folks, and generally being even more snappish than usual.
Why were they doing this?
First and foremost, GW was trying to clamp down on control of the minis market regarding its IP. It was getting a lot stricter about requiring players to buy official products for participation in events, but more than that it wanted to try to build walls to keep 3D printing away from anything that might look vaguely like a space marine, tyranid, or tau. Secondly, though, the company had plans to build its own streaming service, Warhammer+, where it was going to put out multimedia content to those willing to pay a monthly fee.
Short answer, they wanted to make sure there wasn't competition who was doing it better than they were.
Now, if we were to Monday-morning-quarterback this whole thing, we can see that this approach was a massive mistake. Games Workshop coming out swinging, particularly against smaller companies and fan creators, made them look like a bully who was trying to crush other people's livelihoods, steal content that took a lot of work to make, and generally just take things away from fans. This left a particularly bad taste in the community's mouth, and it's a big reason why so few people signed up for Warhammer+ when it was announced, and it led to a lot of fans out and out abandoning Warhammer 40K as a game, moving over to games like Mechwarrior instead.
So what could they have done differently?
Well, if you have fan creators who are putting in long hours of work to make passion projects, and they have hundreds of thousands of followers on YouTube, that shows there's a thriving community with a big interest in your IP. Each one of those people represents a doorway into your hobby, and a way to expand your community. So rather than kicking in their front door and demanding they kiss the ring, a smarter move would have been to offer them some kind of sponsorship deal. Get them to help move figures, get eyes on upcoming games, or recruit them to make content for the company without the underlying threat that if they don't say yes you'll force them to remove their channel from YouTube. Be magnanimous, and show the community that you support them, and you want them to keep talking about how much they love your products.
But what about those 3PP minis producers? Surely they need to go, don't they?
Let's get one thing straight here; Games Workshop only produces miniatures for a small fraction of the forces and factions that exist in the grim darkness of the far future. There are hundreds of space marine chapters, thousands of imperial guard regiments, dozens of orders of the adeptus sororitas, and that's just the human faction. You throw in the diversity for the eldar, the orks, the tau, the tyranids, chaos, and more, and it would be impossible for GW to ever make full runs of minis for every option someone might want to play without losing a massive amount of money. As a company they need to move minis in bulk in order to justify the cost of doing a particular run, which is why they tend to focus on the units with the broadest possible appeal.
Those other companies, though, could create stuff for the parts of the game that GW isn't going to run. Whether it's offering unique head sculpts for space marines, or making unique armor additions, or putting out weapon modifications, bases, or insignia, they have the flexibility that a bigger company doesn't. This goes double if they're selling digital STL files for users to print out at home for their own use. Games Workshop could have approached these companies in good faith, and worked out a deal so that they could produce more obscure sets of minis and parts as they wished, provided they gave GW a small cut of the proceeds. They could even have sweetened the pot by allowing content from official partners to be used in tournaments and events. These other companies get more customers, the community gets more diverse, and GW makes more money overall.
That wasn't the approach they took, however. Instead they simply tried to clamp down on control, bullying and intimidating people not on their payroll. At the end of the day this burned bridges, alienated a lot of known talent in the community, and drove off a lot of people who were active participants up to that point. And, last time I checked, Warhammer+ has been plugged in to a golden throne and has to be fed a dozen GW employees every day just to keep it breathing.
Parallels to The OGL
For those who saw the parallels, you know where this is going. In case you don't, though, let me go through the details.
Prepare your symbols of disapproval!
We have to go back 23 years ago to the creation of the Open Game License. The short version is that, though you cannot copyright game mechanics any more than you can copyright math, you can get contentious with the language used to describe those mechanics. So the OGL was proposed by Wizards of the Coast as a kind of peace treaty between themselves and third party publishers. It was meant to be a perpetual agreement that said while their intellectual property was not open to all (unique creatures they'd made, settings for their games, etc.) that anyone who wished to use this license could use both the mechanics and the language to describe those mechanics without fear of reprisal.
This agreement is what made Dungeons and Dragons' d20 system the most popular basis for dozens of RPGs out there. It wasn't the only option, obviously, but DND became the lingua franca of gaming. Because Dungeons and Dragons was already a popular game, so making your own supplements, settings, etc., that didn't require players to learn a whole new language just to try your product out made for an easier transition, and it netted smaller publishers more fans, and more sales. Not only that, but this allowed publishers to make smaller, niche books and products that Wizards simply wouldn't print because they wouldn't sell enough copies, or they were considered too risky.
And what did Wizards get out of this? Well, folks who wanted to try those other games usually bought the base books from Wizards of The Coast. It allowed Wizards to act as the kind of first-among-equals when it came to DND, and it ensured that a lot of the gaming world thought of them as the default game. So while there were always going to be people who preferred the World of Darkness, or Call of Cthulhu, or Warhammer 40K, DND was something a majority of gamers were going to at least be familiar with. As an RPG creator myself, I can say that up until the end of last year if I wanted to write a module, supplement, etc., for a fantasy RPG, it needed to have a 5E port for the simple reason that if it didn't it simply wouldn't sell.
Some estimates claimed that, for online play, DND 5E was about 85% or so of the market. I can't speak to the accuracy of that number, but I would be surprised if it was too far off.
Seriously, it was the DEFAULT fantasy game until three weeks ago.
As you can see, Wizards of The Coast was in a similar position to Games Workshop. They were a huge brand, their games had a really active fan base, and they were poised to grow even bigger in the near future. And while both companies had dips in profits just before this move, let us be clear, they were not going bankrupt. They were both still hugely profitable companies.
But like Games Workshop, Wizards thought the best way forward was to put up paywalls, and to cut off as much of their competition at the knees as possible. What they didn't realize, though, is that their "competition" was basically creating the rich ecosystem they needed to make money, and remain king of the heap. Because without all those third party publishers putting out fresh adventures, and new subclasses, or unique species guides, Wizards simply wasn't producing enough books, figures, and accessories to keep itself afloat.
And then there's this digital product it's apparently shoveling money into... something that didn't work when Games Workshop did it either.
DND Shorts broke it down above, but it's looking like what the folks in charge of DND were planning was to create a proprietary virtual tabletop that would act as their primary money maker. People would pay a subscription fee to use it, there would be microtransactions for everything from outfits for your mini to effects from your spells, and it would finally be the answer to how you could get money out of everyone at the table, not just the Game Master who was the one that bought the majority of the rule books, campaign guides, etc. in the past.
The result of all of this, of course, has been a massive backlash straight to Wizards' knees. Players have cancelled their DND Beyond subscriptions en masse, and there is a large boycott of Wizards products. Companies that were using DND as the default rules system for all their products have cut ties completely, and won't be going back. YouTubers, digital play platforms, everyone it seems is abandoning Wizards.
Because they tried to force their community to do something, rather than innovating and providing them something of value.
Second Verse, Same as The First
This might be a controversial opinion, but I think that all of the stuff Wizards has talked about is stuff that, in another context, we really would have been super excited about. Expanded digital tools for making our games better? More options using digital tabletops? The ability to run through modules with a robot GM? I'm sure that a lot of us would have at least signed up for a free trial of that kind of program, if it was presented to us as a cool new option for playing the game.
That's the key, here. Option. Freedom. Choice.
The attitude from Wizards of The Coast has been to take away as many options for their players as possible, while attempting to ram through their own decision. It is, in a lot of ways, attempting to turn Dungeons and Dragons, a game based on imagination and innovation, into just another mobile game filled with microtransactions that reliably earns a profit for the company who holds the rights to it.
It's not working out too well so far.
And I think this could have been done in a way that was beneficial to the community rather than turning it into the firestorm we're seeing now. Wizards could have partnered with popular virtual tabletops to ensure they had multiple digital storefronts to sell to the widest range of players possible. They could have cultivated connections with more live play YouTube channels, and opened the doors for those who wanted to focus more on digital content by giving them a suite of publisher's tools, and taking a cut of what was made just like with DM's Guild. Most importantly, though, they could have left the OGL alone so that even if they didn't want to focus on making print books anymore, other companies who wanted to fill that niche would keep their brand on top by filling that need.
But instead of building bridges and cooperating, polishing up their reputation and growing the community (and thus increasing the number of people who might buy their product) they opted to try to burn down everything they deemed too close to their borders. They chose to share nothing, and to alienate everyone... which is why they'll likely end up ruling over a kingdom of ashes.
So, as a reminder, we cannot let up the pressure if we want Wizards of The Coast (or the next big-shot games company who thinks they can get involved in a land war in Asia) to learn a lesson. Keep supporting third-party companies, and if you have a subscription service to anything Hasbro does, cancel it. Because while they appear to be trying to mollify the fan base, they seem set on forcing through as many poison pills as we'll let them.
For Folks Who Want To Help Me Get Through This
If you made it all the way through this post, and you want to help me haul myself up a rung or two so I can get off this sinking ship and to a safer harbor, here's a handy list of the places you can go where your efforts would be much appreciated!
Lastly, consider checking out my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting. The more sales I can eke out before decisions come down on this OGL situation, the more likely it is my publisher will work with me to convert it to a new rules setting instead of just writing it off as a loss going forward.
Cities of Sundara
The setting first began with the Cities of Sundara splats. Self-contained guides to some of the larger and more powerful centers of trade, industry, arms, and magic, these unique locations provide plenty of fodder for character generation and plots. Not only that, but each one comes with unique, mechanical goodies for players and GMs alike to take out for a spin!
- Ironfire: The City of Steel (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Built around the Dragon Forge, Ironfire is where the secret to dragon steel was first cracked. The center of the mercenary trade in the region, as well as boasting some of the finest schools for teaching practical sciences, Ironfire is a place where discovery and danger walk hand in hand!
- Moüd: The City of Bones (Pathfinder and DND 5E): An ancient center of trade and magic, Moüd was lost to a cataclysm, and then buried in myth. Reclaimed by the necromantic arts of the Silver Wraiths guild, this city has once again become a place teeming with life. Despite the burgeoning population, though, it is the continued presence of the undead that helps keep the city running, ensuring that Moüd is not swallowed up once more.
- Silkgift: The City of Sails (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Built on the cottage industry of Archer cloth (an extremely durable material used for sails, windmills, etc.), Silkgift is a place that prizes invention and discovery. From gravity batteries that store the potential of the wind, to unique irrigation systems, to aether weapons, the city positively churns out discoveries... and then there's the canal they cut through the mountains that makes them a major center of trade across the region.
- Hoardreach: The City of Wyrms (Pathfinder and DND 5E): A center of power across an entire region, Hoardreach is ruled over by a Cooperation of five different dragons. A place for refugees and outcasts of all sorts, Hoardreach boasts some of the most unusual citizens and creations from across Sundara. Infamous for their sky ships, which require the cast-off scales and unique arcane sciences of the Dragon Works to take to the air, one never knows just what they'll find in this city built atop a mountain.
- Archbliss: The City of The Sorcerers (Pathfinder and DND 5E): A floating city in the sky, Archbliss has been a refuge for sorcerers for thousands of years. It's only in relatively recent years that the city has allowed those from the ground below who lack the power of a bloodline to join them in the clouds. However, while there are certainly amazing wonders to behold, there is a darkness in Archbliss. Something rotting away at its heart that could, if not healed, bring the city crashing to the ground once more.
Gods of Sundara
- Gods of Sundara (available for Pathfinder and DND 5E): In a world with no alignment, and where the gods are often genuinely mysterious forces that are far too large for mortals to truly comprehend, the divine feels genuinely strange and unknown... something that really does have to be taken on faith. This supplement provides a sample pantheon for Sundara, but also provides instructions on how to easily make your own gods in a world where you can't cast a spell and tell whether someone is good or evil.
Species of Sundara
Sundara is filled with creatures that many of us recognize, but I wanted to give greater depth to their cultures, and a wider variety of options. After all, humans always get 15+ ethnicities, languages, and unique histories, while elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings, etc. are almost always left with footnotes, or maybe with a handful of offshoots. So, in short, I wanted to give all the fantastical creatures the treatment that humans usually get in our games.
And there is no human book yet. If readers demand to know more, then I may sit down to pen one... but I figured that humans didn't need to be front-and-center in this setting just yet.
- Elves of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Elves are one of the most quintessential fantasy creatures... but if you want to see more than just high elves, wood elves, and elves of the sun and moon, then this supplement has you covered!
- Dwarves of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): The children of the primordial giants who were meant to fill in the details of the world they'd made (or so the myths say) there are as many kinds of dwarves as their are kinds of giants... and possibly more, depending on who is keeping count.
- Orcs of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Supposedly a creation of the elves, none can say for certain exactly how or why orcs have been made. What most agree on is that these creatures are far more than most may think at first glance.
- Halflings of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Little cousins to the dwarves, halflings are tough, clever, and not to be underestimated. From living beneath the hills, to taking up residence in the deep forests, halflings in Sundara come in quite a variety!
- The Blooded (Half-Elves and Half-Orcs) [Pathfinder and DND 5E]: When orcs and elves mix their bloodlines with other creatures, the result is one of the Blooded. This inheritance takes many forms, and it can even wait generations before manifesting when the right combination of individuals come together to have a child.
- Gnomes of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Gnomes are strange creatures, found in places where the spirit of the land has coalesced and made children of its own. The sons and daughters of the ancient nymphs, they are the stewards of these places, and they change as often as the weather and the land.
Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!
That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!
To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!
Folks who can read between the lines know that over the past few years I've become something of a Warhammer 40K fan. While I don't play the minis game, I've been enjoying the lore and learning about the setting, and I did recently join a Black Crusade campaign. Part of what allowed me to really dig into the world and start finding enjoyment in it was the vibrant community of fan creators. From lore videos on YouTube, to animations depicting important events, it was an introduction that let me move at my own pace, and to find elements that really appealed to me. I even made a few contributions of my own, such as my character conversion guides for the Imperial Commissar, the Death Korps of Krieg, and the Catachan Jungle Fighters. I also wrote a few fan stories, like Waking Dogs: A World Eaters Tale about what happens when one of the Blood God's berserkers remembers what he used to be, and is very upset about it. Or Almost, a tale about a Cadian trooper who refuses to give up, which was dramatized by A Vox in The Void below!
However, if you are also a fan of this Games Workshop property, then you know about the demolition that recently occurred. For those who aren't familiar I'm going to do my best to break it down, and to make a suggestion as to what I think a better course of action would have been. A course of action that I think Games Workshop could still take in order to undo some damage, and win back some positive regard from fans and creators alike.
Before I get into it, make sure you subscribe to my weekly newsletter to stay on top of all my latest releases. And if you have a little extra cash this holiday season, consider becoming a Patreon patron so I can keep the lights on and the wolf from the door. Lastly, if you want to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my Linktree!
Warhammer +, And What Went Down
For those who have been living under a rock (or who aren't a big part of this community), Warhammer 40,000 has been going strong for decades. With minis war games, board games, novels and short stories, video games, at least one official film, and dozens of other properties, there's always been a strong thread of ingenuity and creativity among the fans. Whether it was kitbashing together different minis to create unique looks, building terrain out of literal garbage, or making all kinds of unique art and stories of their own to tell, there's real passion among folks who enjoy the grim darkness of the far future.
In the past this was encouraged by Games Workshop (with unique creations often being featured in White Dwarf magazine, among other publications), or at the very least tolerated. And while there had been moves more recently to try to limit the impact of fan creations on their product and sales (such as not allowing 3rd-party or 3D-printed designs in official tournaments and such), it seemed to have been more of an irritation than a serious problem for a lot of the fan base.
Then they decided to drop a bomb.
And it looked like some Exterminatus-level shit.
The short version is that there has been a large community of fan creators who made a variety of projects. From channels like Baldermort's Guide To Warhammer (for fellow lore lovers), to readers like A Vox in The Void, to perhaps the most famous fan-created thing right now Astartes, there were people who put time, energy, sweat, and blood into making things they thought were cool. And a lot of people had built up an audience on platforms like YouTube and Patreon to help them keep making cool fan content.
Then Games Workshop changed their policies.
More to the point, they made it abundantly clear that fan animations were no longer allowed. And while some creators received an opportunity to contract with the company (something that had a very shady vibe to it given the alternatives), others were put under serious legal threat. And while this was initially about animators, it seemed like GW might be willing to wipe out creators across the board, dealing a huge, self-inflicted blow to their own community. After all, these creators were essentially doing a ton of free advertising and PR for Warhammer 40K as a product, bringing in all sorts of fans who may otherwise never have engaged with the property at all... and for some reason the company suddenly decided that was a problem instead of a benefit.
The why of all this quickly became apparent. Games Workshop wanted to get into the streaming game, it seems, and their Warhammer + program would have been in competition with a lot of fan creations (many of which are far more beloved than similar things produced by the company itself). While the service comes with shows besides animation including painting tutorials, access to a lot of digital content, etc., this whole clumsy consolidation of power appears to have been an attempt to sweep the board so that fans would feel compelled to subscribe to this service in order to get their fix.
And hoo boy did it not go over well. At all.
What They Should Have Done Instead
There has been a huge problem with streaming services of late, particularly for those coming to the party at this stage of the game. Because the more services there are, and the more subscriptions someone needs, the more it's going to cost... and the whole point of subscribing to a streaming service is to save money by not paying for cable, movie rental, etc. If someone just wants exclusive content, and they don't want to pay yet another streaming subscription, they're just going to pirate it... and if the company making that exclusive content has angered the fans of the content in question then they're more likely to pirate it out of spite. I don't know if that was brought up in any business meetings, but it would have been the first thing out of my mouth if someone had asked what the potential fallout from these kinds of actions could be.
I'm just saying, the numbers don't look good.
In their defense, Games Workshop appeared to realize they were hemorrhaging fans, so they softened up a little bit. They put out rules about fan-made animations, communicated more openly with creators whose work and livelihoods seemed in peril, and didn't push as hard as they'd been threatening to. The damage was done to a lot of people's goodwill, though.
However, I think that the company made a gross miscalculation trying to make their own streaming platform in the first place. Because at the end of the day, they make games, not movies and TV shows. What they should have done instead was to create a community use platform so that all those eager fans could keep making cool content, while also ensuring that GW gets a tithe for the use of their intellectual property.
Again, if I'd been in a meeting to offer advice, I would have suggested creating something like The Administratum Archive as a kind of community-use version of the Black Library. Let fans create 3rd-party rulebooks and splats, supplements for games like Necromunda or Assassinorum, write stories, put out RPG products, and even make animations. Allow those fan creators to sell those things, and to take a percentage of the profit the same way Paizo does with Pathfinder Infinite, or how Onyx Path does with Storyteller's Vault, or how Wizards of The Coast does with DMs' Guild. It makes you money without all that much extra effort, it lets you gauge who the fans want for future potential creators, and it gives you ideas for things you can choose to make official or not going forward.
Would this make the company as much money as Warhammer +? I have no idea, as I don't have the internal numbers. However, what I do know is that a community use platform is basically free money if you have a large number of active fans who are making stuff that you can capitalize on. Because you, as the company, don't have to do any work in this situation. You don't make the videos, write the books, or drum up attention... but you get a cut of the action all the same. And, in this case, it would have had the added benefit that it would have looked like Games Workshop was giving its fans a chance to step up and get paid for all their hard work, even if it meant they were subtly taking a cut of all the action the way a mob boss does from outside dealers who operate on their turf.
And if there's anyone from Games Workshop who comes across this blog who thinks this is a great idea, feel free to make it happen. I want this as much as any other creator because it would open up a whole new sandbox for me to play in, and at the end of the day that's what we all really want.
Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!
That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!
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The Crew had been hard at work since they'd first been hired to work the job. It had been a simple smash and grab in a dungeon, and so the guild had scraped the bottom of the barrel to see who they could come up with. What they got was a bunch of do-most-dirty-job crooks and hard cases who got put together on a team, and told to go find a magic globe. A dragonborn deserter from the army who was always ready to bust heads, a kobold sorceress with a rap sheet longer than her tail, a tiefling warlock with a specialty in blackmail, and a half-orc who'd escaped from a prison colony on false papers, they were a motley bunch who were always hard up for cash. They didn't know what the globe was, and didn't really care, as long as they got their membership cut of the job when everything was said and done.
Will Work 4 Phat Lootz
They outdid themselves, and pretty soon that one job spiraled out into madness. The Crew found themselves on retainer to a secretive organization hunting magic items across the world, facing the marshaling forces of a dire threat from a forgotten world, and dealing with bloodthirsty assassins and fellow thieves around every corner. They even won a landmark court case at one point, as mentioned in That One Time The Party Solved The Plot With a Legal Battle.
Of course, the organization that employed them was run by a dragon, and as long as little pieces of his hoard made its way into their hands, the Crew was more than happy to keep fighting the good fight.
However, as with every campaign, we eventually hit a long, slow patch where schedules got disrupted, the DM was feeling stressed, and we were just having some trouble getting together at our usual time and place. When that happened the Crew was on an airship, flying toward an island of underground tieflings who worshiped the lord of shadows. So, to pass the time without losing the spirit of the game, the DM did something interesting...
He had us play HeroQuest... in game, and in-character!
The Best Game Ever Made!
While HeroQuest was a gateway to RPGs for most folks, my group hadn't really heard of it until we came across the above video from Bardic Broadcasts. And as you can see, it's the best commercial that was never made for the game. For those of you who haven't played HeroQuest personally, it's basically a tabletop fantasy board game that's one step down from a full RPG similar to the games Wrath of Ashardalon or Castle Ravenloft from Wizards of The Coast. You all take on roles of the barbarian, the dwarf, the elf, and the wizard, put into a dozen different scenarios that make up their own campaign. You contend with monsters, and the machinations of the evil wizard who sits behind the screen and attempts to lead the heroes to their doom.
Our DM had been searching for a copy of this old game for a while (they tend to go for a few hundred dollars at best, given that it's out of print), and he'd finally gotten his hands on one around the time the campaign hit a snag. So we all decided to let the campaign sit, and play HeroQuest for a while... but we were going to do it as our characters while we were in transit to the next part of the adventure.
And it was goddamn hilarious.
The green dragonborn took the role of the barbarian, and for a while did his best to roleplay the stalwart hero instead of the heavy-drinking, hard-partying skullcracker that he actually was. The kobold sorcerer grabbed the dwarf, adding new aspects to the character's backstory, and bringing in a slew of extended family members whenever one dwarf died. The half-orc monk took on the role of the elf, trying to use grace and flourishes but always falling back on smashing stuff in the face. Even the tiefling warlock occasionally dropped in as the wizard, who was without fail smoking a particularly large blunt in between flinging fireballs and lightning. All the while the game was being run by one of the goliath crew members on the airship, who suggested it as a way to pass the time on their journey.
The Game Within The Game
HeroQuest is a fun game all on its own, and if you can find a copy you should pick it up as long as the price isn't too unreasonable. But roleplaying characters who are, in turn, roleplaying other characters was a trippy experiment, and one that yielded some amusing moments. More than a few jokes between the PCs while they were sitting around the game board recurred even after the campaign picked up and kept going, which was particularly funny.
Every now and again we still do a time skip, and rewind to the HeroQuest scenarios. And I have a feeling that, once the actual campaign is over and the villain vanquished, our heroes will once again pick up their dice cups a flagons to find out just what sort of adventures they can have sitting around that table in the back of the tavern.
Next Time on Table Talk!
With so many games paused thanks to the pandemic, my Runelords tales are on-hold for the time being. But hopefully I can keep sharing a few amusing asides like this week's tale until we can finish out the last of that campaign. So stay tuned, and I'll see you next time on Table Talk!
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The Internet is home to entire reservoirs of great gaming humor. Whether it's the latest memes about murderhobos, or another round of dice shaming, there's no bottom to the chuckle bucket. However, in the event that you missed the Bardic Broadcasts video on why HeroQuest is so great, then you need to have it in your life. Seriously, click play. You can thank me once the video is over.
While entertaining for me as a lover of RPGs, I'd never actually played HeroQuest. Like so many other older games that hadn't found its way past the censors into my childhood, I thought I'd see if I could find a copy. What I found was that this game, cashing in on the fantasy boom in the 1980s and 1990s (1989 release in the UK and Europe, 1990 release in the U.S.), is extremely rare. This adventure game scion, produced by the partnership of Milton Bradley and Games Workshop back before they evolved into what they are today, can run several hundred dollars for a used copy. With missing cards. And broken figures.
And if you want a new version of the game, in mint condition? Then you had better have a pocket book that doesn't shrivel up when it hears you say words like mint condition.
Seriously, though, you've spent more on less from Games Workshop.
And that's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday update. I hope you all enjoyed it, and that you learned a little something about one of the cornerstones of fantasy gaming for older generations. If you'd like to help support Improved Initiative, then why not stop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page? All it takes is $1 a month to keep the content coming, and you get free swag just for signing up! Lastly, if you haven't done so already, why not follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter? That way you won't miss any of my future updates.
