Believe it or not I have enough thoughts for a couple of different strands of thoughts, so rather than have one long post with different themes, I’ll split it into a couple.
I’ll start off with the low. There’s been a wee struggle going on for a few years between Steve Turner (MD of Brittannia Game Designs Ltd, publishers of C&S and C&SE) and some individuals who are chopping and changing C&S1 and putting it on the web tie after time.
Now I love C&S1. It showed me there was more to Role-playing than just dungeon bashing. I am aware, however that there are issues. E.G. At that time the Tolkien Estate hadn’t woken up to the fact that people might want to role-play in Middle-Earth, later they did and you couldn’t include that in an RPG without paying Tolkien Enterprises for the privilege.
There’s other problems, but I’ll leave them be.
So. You have these persons unknown doing these retreads. What’s the result?
Steve and Sue, as Company Officers of BGD have to defend the investment they have made in C&S. They have no choice. It is the law. Nasty things will happen.
So they have spent, time and effort defending that investment. I imagine quite a lot of stress too. Not only that, the profits of C&S Rebirth ad to go on legal fees.
Yet the guys causing this hassle claim to be fans.
Moreover there are other people who claim not to be involved, but are cheerleading from the sides. Even if you believe they are not involved they are constantly posting links. The problem as been explained to them, but they do not care. That saddens me, that they want to add to the stress I’d Steve and Sue.
Moreover, see the time and effort that is required to do all this takes away from producing new material. I’ve had stuff delayed because of things like this. Seriously not the behaviour of a mensch.
Now the bit of a high. C&S Essence as been nominated for an award at the up and coming UK Expo. I didn’t have much of a hope for winning, but hearing the competition, The One Ring, Abney Park’s AirShip Pirates and a Steampunk game from Wiggy, who is a creative genius, I wouldn’t vote for me. Unless the the judges go for a cheap and occasionally sarky text.
It’s not really a low though. The One Ring I like and have bought. I have some of the music of Abney Park and like what I’ve seen of the game, and Wiggy is Wiggy. So, go me!