TFT Limited Publishing Agreement coming!

[zot]

Originally Posted by Anomylous

Please, do gatekeep aggressively! Better to have less, but high-quality, content than reams of mostly-crap. I'd like to contribute, but I'd rather have my contribution rejected, than see Cidri and TFT become a chaotic, monstrous, self-contradictory mess...or have to deal with players who show up with characters built using obscure and broken rules from some supplement, that make them too overpowered and/or hard to deal with.

I think that's exactly the wrong way to handle it. Gatekeeping is less than one-dimensional, it's either "in" or "out", without even a scale.

Originally Posted by mook

"The limited publishing license will provide fans of The Fantasy Trip with more support than Steve Jackson Games alone can manage."

I may be entirely wrong (we're all just guessing until official word is released), but to me that sounds like there will be "gatekeeping" and oversight only insofar as adherence to the license responsibilities, not for quality. The market will decide by voting with their wallets?

Yes, market-driven is the best way to handle quality. I'd like to see a rating engine that supports curated lists and comments. This would not only let users rate products and comment on them but would also let them group supplements that work well together and allows users to rate the quality of the lists themselves and comment on those.

IMDB has a system like this. Here's an example of a list of "movies coming soon". It supports commenting but not, as far as I can see, rating. Amazon's wish lists can be public but don't look like they support commenting or rating.

[Shadekeep]

Originally Posted by zot

I think that's exactly the wrong way to handle it. Gatekeeping is less than one-dimensional, it's either "in" or "out", without even a scale.

I do think some supplements are going to have to be outright disqualified for one reason or another. But for the overall approach, perhaps company-level curation is preferable to rigourous gatekeeping.

Originally Posted by zot

Yes, market-driven is the best way to handle quality. I'd like to see a rating engine that supports curated lists and comments. This would not only let users rate products and comment on them but would also let them group supplements that work well together and allows users to rate the quality of the lists themselves and comment on those.

This is fine as long as the system is resilient against spurious vote inflation/deflation (people rigging high positive or negative ratings) and sockpuppetry. That's why I advocate SJG providing a level of curation - the administrative oversight helps counteract the worst abuses of such systems.

[robertsconley]

Originally Posted by Anomylous

Please, do gatekeep aggressively! Better to have less, but high-quality, content than reams of mostly-crap. I'd like to contribute, but I'd rather have my contribution rejected, than see Cidri and TFT become a chaotic, monstrous, self-contradictory mess...or have to deal with players who show up with characters built using obscure and broken rules from some supplement, that make them too overpowered and/or hard to deal with.

That would be a mistake and not achieve the goal of quality. It just makes the published material biased towards a particular vision of what a TFT adventure and supplement ought to be. As opposed to letting than let the hobbyists sorting it out for themselves.

It not the same thing as setting no standards only that beyond a basic minimum creative works for TFT should be judged on their own merit.

Keep in mind that The Fantasy Trip is jumpstarting an audience from a very small base and competing with dozens of other RPGs and product lines with far more liberal publishing policy and different takes on fantasy roleplaying. It OK to maintain a certain amount of control but in order to grow beyond the niche it currently in, it needs diversity and quantity.

And historically the response of hobbyists who don't like what 3PP offers is to restrict themselves to official release from the main publisher. SJ Games has plans for their own supplements and adventures. So for somebody who doesn't want to take a chance on 3PP material they will be supported by the official releases.

Finally some 3PP will be TFT purists in every sense of the word. So for hobbyists who feel adhering to every elements of the core rules is important there will be works catering to their interests.

[Anomylous]

Originally Posted by robertsconley

And historically the response of hobbyists who don't like what 3PP offers is to restrict themselves to official release from the main publisher. SJ Games has plans for their own supplements and adventures. So for somebody who doesn't want to take a chance on 3PP material they will be supported by the official releases.

Finally some 3PP will be TFT purists in every sense of the word. So for hobbyists who feel adhering to every elements of the core rules is important there will be works catering to their interests.

Excellent points, and something I hadn't considered..."gatekeeping" can happen at any level, gaming groups can and will pick and choose what they like, and on balance it's probably better to give them more options.

I'm still going to sit over here and be concerned about game balance, but then I suppose some players, maybe even whole groups, will happily sacrifice sanity, realism, and even sometimes narrative tension, for *~AWESOMENESS~*.

[Refplace]

I like the idea of a rating system and W23 already supports it. Uses a 5 star system

[tbeard1999]

Originally Posted by Refplace

I like the idea of a rating system and W23 already supports it. Uses a 5 star system

I think that the ability to leave comments (and confirmation as to whether someone is a verified purchaser) are very important adjuncts to the star rating system. Amazon does that, as does Wargame Vault (and its alter egos RPG Now and Drive Thru RPG). Does W23 have that functionality?

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by tbeard1999

I think that the ability to leave comments (and confirmation as to whether someone is a verified purchaser) are very important adjuncts to the star rating system. Amazon does that, as does Wargame Vault (and its alter egos RPG Now and Drive Thru RPG). Does W23 have that functionality?

You have to be logged in and own the file to rate it as far as I can tell.
I just tested it with books I do and do not own.
No way to leave a comment though.
But seeing how may people rated it and that they own it is a pretty good system. Plus we have blogger reviews

[zot]

Originally Posted by Refplace

You have to be logged in and own the file to rate it as far as I can tell.
I just tested it with books I do and do not own.
No way to leave a comment though.
But seeing how may people rated it and that they own it is a pretty good system. Plus we have blogger reviews

Someone (or I) could rig a site that connects to discus for comments.

EDIT: OK, I added a "Products" page on my TFT fan wiki, which supports comments. People can use that in the mean time. I added product pages for TFT Legacy Edition, Melee, Wizard, In the Labyrinth, and Pyramid #3/118.

[masukomi]

Are there any updates on this? I've been Googling around and all I can find are the various repostings of the announcement in the Kickstarter.

I've got a project that I'm working on that I don't think I can share without this. :(

kickstarter announcement of this: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...?ref=bggforums

[philreed]

Originally Posted by masukomi

Are there any updates on this? I've been Googling around and all I can find are the various repostings of the announcement in the Kickstarter.

We're still working on how we want to handle this. No news at this time.