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Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

In non-discrimination news, Fred Hicks posted this on G+ yesterday, and it's an interesting take on how to handle a project that, for one reason or another, has gotten away from you.

tl;dr: back in 2012 Evil Hat wanted to publish a bunch of settings using the Don't Rest Your Head system, so they put out an open call for submissions. They got a good number of them, but other projects and things got in the way. As a result, the project is being scrapped before they get tangled in a sunk-cost fallacy, and Fred is encouraging the people who sent in submissions to share them so fans can still use them.

quote:

Some of you may be familiar with Don't Hack This Game, a project to anthologize a number of different setting and system hacks for the Don't Rest Your Head roleplaying game. It's been on our project status page at Evil Hat for a while now, but today we're removing it. It's time to admit that it's not going to get done, at least not by Evil Hat.

I personally own the blame on this one. I love the original project-runner +Ryan Macklin like a brother, but in practice we're sort of the brothers who get into fistfights with each other as often as not when we're under the same roof. Not Ryan's fault! As such, we're continuing to cheer for each other from the sidelines (bring on the Katanas and Trenchcoats #icmf ), but (healthily) avoiding working together on the same projects.

A natural consequence of this is that Don't Hack This Game has to get retired for good. The project was conceived by Ryan, and besides myself there are few people I can point to who have internalized the workings of Don't Rest Your Head as well as he has. I am not ever likely to have the time to devote to this project, and as an Evil Hat project it's not something Ryan can work on (fistfightin' Fred lives in that house!), so I've decided it's time for Evil Hat to move on and stop trying on this one. (Additionally, it's important not to fall into the sunk cost fallacy � and we fell into it for a while, here; time to stop that, too.)

When troubles for this project first came up, I made sure to see that everyone who'd done work for it got paid, even if it wasn't certain we'd publish. So I think we're making as clean of a break on this project as can be managed.

That said, there was a lot of great stuff that was done with the project, and I'd love it if folks got a chance to see that stuff in whatever state it happens to be in. As such, I invite the contributors to the project to post and share their work, wherever best works for them, and link to it in the comments here on this post. (This will help me make sure that we're only putting out for free into public stuff that folks are comfortable with us putting out there!) I'll try to make a habit of consolidating those links up to the post itself when I see those comments come in, so folks don't have to scroll through comments and hunt for the particulars.

Canceling a project always means eating a big bowl of disappointment soup, and that's certainly the case here, but I hope that we can sweeten the bowl by sharing enough of the materials that would have gone into it.

Thanks as always for your interest and your support, and naturally you'll continue to see us do plenty of great things that will get published in the months and years to come. And special thanks to Ryan Macklin, who's always been DRYH's number one fan.

# ? Mar 31, 2015 18:46

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# ? Apr 29, 2024 08:35

FMguru: Sep 10, 2003; peed on;
sexually

I hope nobody here falls for the obvious scam Mr. Hicks is trying to perpetrate by relying on old tricks like "communicating in a clear and timely manner" and "taking responsibility" and "releasing the content for free". He just wants your money! Open your eyes, sheeple!

# ? Mar 31, 2015 18:57

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

FMguru posted:

I hope nobody here falls for the obvious scam Mr. Hicks is trying to perpetrate by relying on old tricks like "communicating in a clear and timely manner" and "taking responsibility" and "releasing the content for free". He just wants your money! Open your eyes, sheeple!

I know, right? He clearly should have done absolutely nothing, sat on everything for years, and only done anything about this when he was finally backed into a corner and given no other choice.

# ? Mar 31, 2015 19:05

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

Evil Mastermind posted:

I know, right? He clearly should have done absolutely nothing, sat on everything for years, and only done anything about this when he was finally backed into a corner and given no other choice.

And then we can apply this satirically about the Indiana governor! It is all coming together nicely.

Also it will be so beautiful if they change the law so that it only lets people discriminate against gay people being TOO GAY, like getting married or something. Rolling eyes infinity

# ? Mar 31, 2015 22:33

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

Quarex posted:

And then we can apply this satirically about the Indiana governor! It is all coming together nicely.

Eh, my cynical theory is that Pence did this so he could point at the inevitable pushback and say "see how persecuted we are for our beliefs!" and then run with that.

# ? Mar 31, 2015 23:14

clockworkjoe: May 31, 2000; Rolled a 1 on the random encounter table, didn't you?

Evil Mastermind posted:

Eh, my cynical theory is that Pence did this so he could point at the inevitable pushback and say "see how persecuted we are for our beliefs!" and then run with that.

Mike Pence is not a smart person.

quote:

There are very few members of congress with whom I�ve ever had the opportunity to discuss a substantive matter of public policy. But as it happens, one of them � the one with whom I�ve had the second-longest exchange � is Mike Pence (R-IN) who I�ve seen on television today repeatedly discussing the Republican Study Group�s �plan� for the financial crisis. And I can tell you this about Mike Pence: he has no idea what he�s talking about. The man is a fool, who deserves to be laughed at. He�s almost stupid enough to work in cable television.

Specifically, way back in 2005 I got to talk to him about Social Security privatization at a Heritage Foundation event. Obviously, I have my perspective on this and conservatives have theirs. But Pence had a truly peculiar idea. His idea was that the government ought to reassure people about the risks of losses under a privatization plan by having the government guarantee a minimum annuity level pegged to what�s promised under current law. This plan would, according to Pence, save money relative to current law because most people�s stock/bond portfolio would outperform the level needed to provide such an annuity, so the government would only need to kick in for a minority of people. I said I thought this would create a moral hazard problem for bad investors. He had no idea what I was talking about. Seemed unfamiliar with the term. Then I tried to explain it to him, I said that if the government guaranteed to bail you out in case of losses, then investors would make riskier investments and the number of people who need bailing out would rise. He just flat-out denied this, said the presence or absence of a guaranteed bailout would have no impact on investor behavior. He seemed unaware that some portfolios are riskier than others, or that higher average rates of return are associated with greater risk taking. He didn�t know anything at all, in short, about investing, financial markets, or, seemingly, the basic terms of public policy. And yet there he was speaking on the topic at Heritage. He�s a total fraud.

From: http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2008/09/26/189704/mike_pence_2/

# ? Mar 31, 2015 23:17

Nuns with Guns: Jul 23, 2010; It's fine.
Don't worry about it.

RocknRollaAyatollah posted:

She's one of those people who writes really bad gay "romance novels" and acts like she's blazing the trail for queer people everywhere, isn't she?

yes, except blog posts about how you're not a good liberal if you think Bill Clinton ever did anything wrong.

clockworkjoe posted:

Really? I'd never heard of her before someone linked to her on the metafilter discussion about the RFRA.

eh melissa/shakesville is only really big if you pay attention to internet feminist poo poo a lot and criticism of her tends to get kind of muffled behind her large standing army of fans, so it's not too surprising you haven't heard of her.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 03:11

Alien Rope Burn: Dec 5, 2004; _{I wanna be a saikyo HERO!}

clockworkjoe posted:

Really? I'd never heard of her before someone linked to her on the metafilter discussion about the RFRA.

Also Mike Pence is backpeddling, kind of: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/31/indiana-religious-freedom_n_6977170.html

Many Republicans of Indiana are talking a lot about the "need for clarity" to try and make the "intent of the bill clear", which is of course just another way of saying "we really, really need to spin this better than we have", and certainly not "we did a wrong thing". He doesn't need to add protections to the bill, he needs to add protections against sexuality-based discrimination into state law, which Indiana lacks.

It's not a repeal, and anything else is just him trying to find a way to cover his rear end.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 04:03

Fallorn: Apr 14, 2005

Nuns with Guns posted:

yes, except blog posts about how you're not a good liberal if you think Bill Clinton ever did anything wrong.

eh melissa/shakesville is only really big if you pay attention to internet feminist poo poo a lot and criticism of her tends to get kind of muffled behind her large standing army of fans, so it's not too surprising you haven't heard of her.

Only thing bill did wrong is not say Yeah I'm getting some on the side and I hit was the king of bong rips. Peace Out!

# ? Apr 1, 2015 04:10

ravenkult: Feb 3, 2011

And bomb Serbia.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 04:12

MalcolmSheppard: Jun 24, 2012; MATTHEW 7:20

clockworkjoe posted:

That was a terrible metaphor and missed my point entirely. My point is any generic boycott of all of Indiana won't influence Mike Pence and the GOP legislators that passed this law. They didn't care that Salesforce canceled their expansion plans and they won't care if Gen Con leaves. It won't hurt them at all. I think they WANT Gen Con to leave. They want everyone that disagrees with them to leave the state. They want a theocracy, which is easier to do if there's no opposition.

Boycotts only work when they put pressure on the bad actor. When Rush Limbaugh insulted Sandra Fluke, a boycott of advertising companies hurt his bottom line and he was forced to apologize.

If you want a meaningful boycott, find out what corporations give money to the politicians that voted for the law, publicize it and boycott them.

It didn't miss your point. It disagrees with your point, because affecting Nice People by withholding something that you have the right to withhold is effective and ethical. Boycotts rarely work through direct pressure on the bad actor, because said bad actor doesn't give a poo poo. A homophobic business doesn't give a poo poo that an Indianapolis business puts up a sign. A homophobic business outside the city doesn't care about an ordinance.Pressure that makes it a broad problem even for sympathetic actors so that they take action works. This is actually how your Rush example worked, because the advertisers were the ones who pressures him. Opposing this without broadly avoiding Indiana is sort of like saying you're not going hurt the sponsors, but just refuse to buy Rush mugs. In the case of Indianapolis it's obvious, because limiting a boycott to people who backed a law where the point was not having to serve you is an obvious exercise on capitulation.

Anyway, it's been a blast seeing industry discussion explode over this because so many people capable of broad poo poo-talk over who deserves to be lambasted over Twitter are desperately looking for any reason to slink into Indy without guilt pangs. This year? Sure--like I said, vendors and visitors are locked in, though I sure as hell wouldn't make any plans now. Next? If things are still bad, good luck with that.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 05:00

Terrible Opinions: Oct 18, 2013

ravenkult posted:

And bomb Serbia.

Better than Europe's approval of genocide, but still not good.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 05:21

palecur: Nov 3, 2002; not too simple and not too kind; Fallen Rib

clockworkjoe posted:

Mike Pence is not a smart person.

From: http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2008/09/26/189704/mike_pence_2/

Well, Matt Yglesias calling someone a fool is pretty much an expert opinion right there.

# ? Apr 1, 2015 17:17

Gravy Train Robber: Sep 15, 2007; by zen death robot

John Wick just asked to add me on LinkedIn, and I have no idea why. This subforum is about my only interaction with the larger trad games community, and I haven't bought anything from him so :iiam:

Maybe he is just bad with computers and tried to add everyone on his email contact list but why am I on John Wick's contact list

# ? Apr 2, 2015 18:06

Lemon-Lime: Aug 6, 2009

Gravy Train Robber posted:

but why am I on John Wick's contact list

Does he have an estore, or sell on the unstore? Maybe he has all the addresses from that saved as contacts.

# ? Apr 2, 2015 18:09

Effectronica: May 31, 2011; Fallen Rib

Gravy Train Robber posted:

John Wick just asked to add me on LinkedIn, and I have no idea why. This subforum is about my only interaction with the larger trad games community, and I haven't bought anything from him so

Maybe he is just bad with computers and tried to add everyone on his email contact list but why am I on John Wick's contact list

Sorry for adding you.

# ? Apr 2, 2015 18:11

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

LinkedIn is one of those sites that just grabs any name that appears in your email once you connect your accounts.

In other news, Ryan Macklin revealed today that the profits from his joke-yet-playable April Fool's Day release "Katanas & Trenchcoats" are being donated to the Seattle Children's Hospital.

# ? Apr 2, 2015 18:13

Jimbozig: Sep 30, 2003; I like sharing and ice cream and animals.

Evil Mastermind posted:

LinkedIn is one of those sites that just grabs any name that appears in your email once you connect your accounts.

In other news, Ryan Macklin revealed today that the profits from his joke-yet-playable April Fool's Day release "Katanas & Trenchcoats" are being donated to the Seattle Children's Hospital.

This is pretty great. I'm not really the best target for Macklin's sort of over-the-top humor, but he seems to be a cool guy who does good things.

# ? Apr 2, 2015 20:05

Evil Mastermind: Apr 28, 2008

I will say that you do pretty much have to be someone who played oWoD stuff in the early 90's to really appreciate K&T. Not that you wouldn't enjoy it if you didn't, but the jokes'll hit home more.

One of the people in my 13th Age game is so young and new to gaming I actually had to explain the "katana & trenchcoat" stereotype to him because he'd honestly never heard it before. :smith:

# ? Apr 2, 2015 20:10

Kai Tave: Jul 2, 2012; Fallen Rib

Evil Mastermind posted:

I will say that you do pretty much have to be someone who played oWoD stuff in the early 90's to really appreciate K&T. Not that you wouldn't enjoy it if you didn't, but the jokes'll hit home more.

One of the people in my 13th Age game is so young and new to gaming I actually had to explain the "katana & trenchcoat" stereotype to him because he'd honestly never heard it before.

I wonder what the current equivalent of the katana & trenchcoat character is these days. Or if there even is one given that RPGs don't seem to be attracting as much of the younger sort of audience that gravitated towards katanas & trenchcoats back in the heady days of 199X.

# ? Apr 2, 2015 20:14

Megaman's Jockstrap: Jul 16, 2000; What a horrible thread to have a post.

Evil Mastermind posted:

One of the people in my 13th Age game is so young and new to gaming I actually had to explain the "katana & trenchcoat" stereotype to him because he'd honestly never heard it before.

And that's what progress looks like!

# ? Apr 2, 2015 20:38

Davin Valkri: Apr 8, 2011; Maybe you're weighing the moral pros and cons but let me assure you that OH MY GOD
SHOOT ME IN THE GODDAMNED FACE
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

Kai Tave posted:

I wonder what the current equivalent of the katana & trenchcoat character is these days. Or if there even is one given that RPGs don't seem to be attracting as much of the younger sort of audience that gravitated towards katanas & trenchcoats back in the heady days of 199X.

Anime hair and noodle people arms?

# ? Apr 2, 2015 20:42

Slimnoid: Sep 6, 2012; Does that mean I don't get the job?

Davin Valkri posted:

Anime hair and noodle people arms?

Giant yaoi hands.

# ? Apr 2, 2015 21:43

bongwizzard: May 19, 2005; Then one day I meet a man,
He came to me and said,
"Hard work good and hard work fine,
but first take care of head"; Grimey Drawer

I saw "Highlander" at a very young age, katanas and trenchcoats will always be cool to me

I also get super hopeful that I will see a sword fight when ever I am in a parking garage.

# ? Apr 2, 2015 22:45

Error 404: Jul 17, 2009; MAGE CURES PLOT

bunnielab posted:

I saw "Highlander" at a very young age, katanas and trenchcoats will always be cool to me

I also get super hopeful that I will see a sword fight when ever I am in a parking garage.

Me too buddy, me too.

# ? Apr 2, 2015 22:47

Kai Tave: Jul 2, 2012; Fallen Rib

Davin Valkri posted:

Anime hair and noodle people arms?

Slimnoid posted:

Giant yaoi hands.

I'm pretty sure you guys are describing DeviantArt OCs, which are a type of "let me tell you about my character," but I don't think there's really been a new come-along "cool RPG character" stereotype that's come along since the height of trenchcoat and katanadom.

# ? Apr 2, 2015 22:57

Dr. Quarex: Apr 18, 2003; I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

Kai Tave posted:

I'm pretty sure you guys are describing DeviantArt OCs, which are a type of "let me tell you about my character," but I don't think there's really been a new come-along "cool RPG character" stereotype that's come along since the height of trenchcoat and katanadom.

I honestly thought the "Katana and Trenchcoat" thing was just a Matrix reference, I did not realize it was a stereotypical RPG character. That goes to show how much older than me my usual gaming groups tended to be I suppose that I never saw someone play a character like that.

Then I was just old enough that I never saw Dragon Ball Z and at some point a few years ago it occurred to me literally every other person on the Something Awful forums had somehow been immersed in Goku the way I was in Neo.

# ? Apr 2, 2015 23:00

Kai Tave: Jul 2, 2012; Fallen Rib

They didn't even have a katana in the first Matrix movie, jeez.

# ? Apr 2, 2015 23:03

Davin Valkri: Apr 8, 2011; Maybe you're weighing the moral pros and cons but let me assure you that OH MY GOD
SHOOT ME IN THE GODDAMNED FACE
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

Kai Tave posted:

I'm pretty sure you guys are describing DeviantArt OCs, which are a type of "let me tell you about my character," but I don't think there's really been a new come-along "cool RPG character" stereotype that's come along since the height of trenchcoat and katanadom.

I'm sorry, have you not seen the characters submitted in games I submit to? If they aren't bishies, they're kawaiiko girls with twists in the tail.

# ? Apr 2, 2015 23:07

MadScientistWorking: Jun 23, 2010; "I was going through a time period where I was looking up weird stories involving necrophilia..."

bunnielab posted:

I saw "Highlander" at a very young age, katanas and trenchcoats will always be cool to me

I also get super hopeful that I will see a sword fight when ever I am in a parking garage.

If you are talking about the tv show that isn't a trenchcoat. Its a duster. Now excuse me while I crawl into a corner and cry as that is the only thing I know about that franchise.

# ? Apr 2, 2015 23:10

GimpInBlack: Sep 27, 2012; That's right, kids, take lots of drugs, leave the universe behind, and pilot Enlightenment Voltron out into the cosmos to meet Alien Jesus.

MadScientistWorking posted:

If you are talking about the tv show that isn't a trenchcoat. Its a duster. Now excuse me while I crawl into a corner and cry as that is the only thing I know about that franchise.

To nerds, all coats are trench coats. All swords are katanas.

# ? Apr 2, 2015 23:57

homullus: Mar 27, 2009

bunnielab posted:

I saw "Highlander" at a very young age, katanas and trenchcoats will always be cool to me

I also get super hopeful that I will see a sword fight when ever I am in a parking garage.

Be the swordfight that you want to see in the world.

# ? Apr 3, 2015 00:09

DivineCoffeeBinge: Mar 3, 2011; Spider-Man's Amazing Construction Company

Evil Mastermind posted:

In other news, Ryan Macklin revealed today that the profits from his joke-yet-playable April Fool's Day release "Katanas & Trenchcoats" are being donated to the Seattle Children's Hospital.

Welp, that sold me on it. Downloading now.

# ? Apr 3, 2015 00:10

bongwizzard: May 19, 2005; Then one day I meet a man,
He came to me and said,
"Hard work good and hard work fine,
but first take care of head"; Grimey Drawer

Hours later double post that I will edit onto an open ended offer to sword fight anyone who wants meet me at the Madison Square Garden parking garage.

bongwizzard fucked around with this message at 01:10 on Apr 3, 2015

# ? Apr 3, 2015 01:08

Error 404: Jul 17, 2009; MAGE CURES PLOT

bunnielab posted:

Hours later double post that I will edit onto an open ended offer to sword fight anyone who wants meet me at the Madison Square Garden parking garage.

Brb, safety pinning my throat.

# ? Apr 3, 2015 01:19