FormCritic wrote:It's pretty clear that the clip art was driven by finances and not artistic tastes.SNIPThis is also (or even especially) true with maps. The computer mapping programs I see in use in so many publications were intended to produce color maps for private use. When these color maps are slugged down into black and white, they look sloppy, dark and second-rate. I'd much prefer a hand-drawn map created by a non-artist...especially for town maps, where the CGI sins are magnified. These sins make a product seem ill-conceived and poorly produced.
Bill Owen wrote:I kept everything that I won from Bob's dungeon. He would draw these great maps, spells etc. Typically they were made to look olden by either some sort tempura paint I think but mostly tea bags (very into reuse/recycle then!) and the piece de resistance the toasted edges of these made with cigarettes or stove burners. And he did occasionally burn up his lovely artwork. These were labors of love long before we ever talked about doing a little service business for game judges.So I totally understand the appeal of the "starter" (in your case) though ours were desserts! If we had been clever, we should have provided something from the beginning... ambiguous like what you described that the refs could xerox. I think it would have added even more value and I would have paid for that art if Bob couldn't keep pace.
FormCritic wrote:As far as I can tell, the collapse of Judges Guild in 1982 or so had much more to do with changes in the game market, TSR's revocation of the game license and the national economy than it did with business decisions by Bob.WOTC made similar decisions about staffing and headquarters before they sold out to Hasbro. Anyone who visited their gamers' paradise world headquarters in Seattle (as I did) would have seen the minds of gamers at work rather than the minds of businessmen. Yet, WOTC was wildly profitable at that time. The gamers' paradise they made was hardly breaking the bank.
Bill Owen wrote:I also realized that I implied that Gary Gygax was "biggest, fattest capitalist" but in my universe that is high praise not a criticism. If an entrepreneur can ethically stay in business that seems like a roll of 11-12 on two six-sided dice, so I really salute them. Nowadays it's fashionable to either minimize a businessman's achievement or actively loot it...
brvheart wrote in Keeping JG World Alive:Hey don't knock those d20 rehash works. They kept JG alive until Bob died in 2008. We tried to get new material approved, but no one would let us write any. Writing new or rewritten material for OSR or Universal will not keep JG alive. To do that it needs to be written for the latest systems. A combined S&W/Pathfinder release might have worked, but like many I fear that ship has sailed. Putting out product that will only sell a few hundred copies isn't good for anyone except people on these forums. The hard core fans will be happy and the collectors if that. This isn't 1976, it is 2013 and there are hundreds of small companies that will sell pdfs in greater volume than your POD. You have to have a certain base of quality in print design now, also artwork and cartography. All of the websites are down and the Bledsaws have burned every bridge with their publishers. I hate to say it after 33 years, 27 of it working for JG, but it is time for me to say Rest In Peace.
Thork N Hammer wrote in Keeping JG World Alive:Understand I do. I've had a bit of my own family tragedy this year. So, please do not be offended by my quieries.I do not claim to know how to run a business--especially one that might actually have employees. But I hope JG succeeds in coming back. Not with a fancy, frilly, shiny new product! however. There are scores of those being cranked out every day by comps and indies all over the place. Part of TSR's reason for toppling, IMO, was that it got entrapped by the $ and satisfying the kiddies that needed shinier toys each month. I'd hate to see JG return if it meant it was attempting to do that.