Guardians of Order's Mark MacKinnon Resurfaces...On Kickstarter!

Back in 2006, it all started with a post from George R.R. Martin on his website (I couldn't find an archival version but I copy/pasted it onto a blogpost here back then, and I copy part of it again now:

I regret to announce that Guardians of Order, the Canadian games company that issued the GAME OF THRONES role-playing game last fall, is closing its doors and going out of business.

Although the GoO website remains open and there is some fan activity on the message boards there, it would appear that orders are no longer being fulfilled and emails to Guardians itself are going unaswered. The company's office has been vacated, and the company phone has been disconnected, When I finally reached GoO's owner and president Mark MacKinnon last week, he confirmed what many had come to suspect -- that he is shutting down operations. MacKinnon is presently attempting to place some of GoO's games with other companies.

Interestingly, at the time, the speculation was that Mongoose would end up with Guardians properties (a little known fact is that Mongoose white knighted the publication Guardians last few books before White Wolf stepped in to help with the Game of Thrones and BESM 3e games). We all know now that White Wolf ended up owning the properties.

MacKinnon followed up with a classy post on the (now defunct) Guardians of Order website:

First, an apology. I am terribly sorry that George Martin broke the news about our situation. That is certainly not how I wanted the information to be released, and I had thought that my frank conversation with him about A Game of Thrones-specific issues was in confidence. This is the second time now that someone other than me releases very important news about Guardians Of Order, which leaves me frantically trying to patch the holes. The polite and proper thing for me -- as President of the company -- to do would be to contact all of our creditors (which includes some great freelancers and industry associates) FIRST and explain the situation to them. I was working on that process when my efforts were derailed by one simple website post. So I am very sorry that someone else took it upon himself to release this information. It's not how I was proceeding to handle things.

The archive is also non-existent but (with forethought) I also copy/pasted MacKinnon's post onto a blog post. I also did an extended blogpost that archived a timeline of the blowup and meltdown. Updated:Thanks to +Eric Franklin I have a link to the Guardians LiveJournal (which has some interesting things to show). We probably shouldn't be surprised if this suddenly disappears.

It also came to light a year or so ago (over in a thread on RPGNet) that MacKinnon had not only failed to pay freelancers for a number of the final http://guardiansorder.livejournal.com/ products, and had stiffed publishers in the company's Magnum Opus program, but he had also kept PDFs up on the OneBookshelf site that he no longer had the rights to sell. Unfortunately I do not have a link and the RPGNet site is notoriously hard to search. If someone can find a link to this, plese let me know in the comments here, or over on G+, and I will put the link up in this post. Updated: I found the thread wherein it was discovered that MacKinnon had been selling the PDFs (including licensed anime properties that he no longer held the license).

Now, MacKinnon has resurfaced, with a project for a board game called Upon A Fable over on Kickstarter. He even uses shots of games that freelancers never received payment for in the video on the project page. Some have called for funds raised from the Kickstarter be used to to pay back those who were never paid. I doubt there's any legal recourse, since Guardians is long gone and I am sure that they held the debt rather than MacKinnon directly, and I'm not going to assert moral recourse in this case. My reasoning for posting all of this is so that people can be informed and, hopefully, not throw good money down a deep, dark hole. This is someone who has already demonstrated a willingness to take money from a number of sources, not pay the people who have done the work and ignore communications before disappearing.

There are also a few red flags with this project. This isn't the first time this project was attempted on Kickstarter. According to a post over on the Board Game Geek site, made back in March:

This game marks my first published design in over seven years ... and I made a critical mistake. I assumed that a professional Kickstarter campaign presentation, combined with attractive graphic design and engaging game mechanics, would be sufficient to reach my Kickstarter funding target. How wrong I was. Within the first 48 hours of the campaign, I knew the funding attempt would fail; shortly thereafter, I made the decision to cancel the campaign.

It is interesting that you cannot find the original project, and that the BGG posts don't actually list MacKinnon by name. According to some emails I've read, posts on BGG threads asking about the previous non-payment to freelancers have been deleted from the site.  Also, there was a quote from their Facebook page that came to me in my email that said:

With our reworked pledge plans we are also in the position to lower our funding goal to $25,000 from $30,000. Although our costs to proceed with the project will exceed $30,000 -- printing high-quality board games is expensive! -- we are backing Upon a Fable with some of our own money as well since we will selling additional copies through retail store channels as well. Any profit to be made will be on those back-end sales and not just by meeting our minimum Kickstarter funding goal. We want to give Upon a Fable the best chance to succeed, which is why we settled on the $25,000 target.

Undercharging for a project is never a good sign that the people will be able to deliver on the project. They are already in a hole on funds, and should something unexpected happen...they will be even further in the hole. The email gave this link, but when I followed it I couldn't find the exact passage. I may just be blind. Updated: I am blind. It turns out that the above quoted bit came from an April 11th update to the Dyskami Publishing Facebook page.

Hopefully people will read all of this, follow the links and read a bit of the history before deciding to put their money on something like this.

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day: Pre-Mortem

The Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day is coming on April 17th. For me, this is a day that has been months in the making. Last summer an online friend decided that she wanted to give tabletop role-playing a try. Unfortunately, she was in California (still is, actually) and I am down here in Florida. That would require a really big tabletop. Then G+ started up their Hangouts, a way to do browser-based video chats that was tied in to your Google account. It was good. I was surprised, honestly. I had avoided online play for a long time because I had believed that it wouldn't be the same sort of experience as face to face gaming. It turns out that I was wrong (which isn't something that I announce very often) and the gaming was a lot of fun. I think that luck had a lot to do with it, finding the right mix of people that worked well together.

I've never really considered myself a part of the OSR, or any old school movement. When I decided that I wanted to run this game online I started looking around for a system to use. Free was the first consideration. This was a game for someone who might not actually even like it. I didn't want her to go out and spend a bunch of money on a game, or hobby, that it might turn out that she wouldn't like. Simplicity was the next consideration. I am, at heart, a pretty rules light kind of guy these days, and games with a lot of crunch really aren't really my thing anymore. Even with those two considerations, that still leaves a lot of games as contenders.

Eventually I narrowed it down, and I ended up settling on Swords & Wizardry as the game to use. I liked the clearer explanation of the rules from the original (and better organization). I had hoped that it would make it easier on someone who had never gamed before to be able to get into the rules. We start with Whitebox, because of all of the available versions of the game, this was the simplest of them. It seemed a good starting point. The game clicked for all of us, and the mechanics were mostly easy enough to understand for her as well. She had a few difficulties understanding some of the finer points that those of us in the group who were more experienced with gaming had come to grips with long ago, but some further explanations (and none of us being afraid to look stupid helped a lot) smoothed things out eventually. However, one of the things that seemed to help her out the most was when I reccomended that she read Matt Finch's (that's the creator of Swords & Wizardry) Quick Primer to Old School Gaming. I don't agree with all of it, and I certainly never played all of the ways that are talked about in it, but it is definitely a great resource for understanding this style of play, and it helped her to better understand a lot of the things that already made sense to the rest of us.

Over time everyone fell into their characters and the idiosyncrasies of my style of GMing, and we all had a lot of fun. Battle were fought. Scars were earned. Narrow escapes were made. Along the way we even playtested a few things, and my friend wrote her first adventure and tried her hand at GMing herself. Really, not so bad for about seven months of gaming.

As I said at the beginning of this post, Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day is coming, and there are going to be a lot of bloggers talking about the game around the internet. It is very cool and I am glad to be a part of it. This is just another step the journey of gaming that I've taken over the years, only now I have at least one more friend who is walking on that trail as well. I've also made some cool new friends and gamed with them. I've also discovered an awesome game in Swords & Wizardry and I see myself getting a hell of a lot of mileage out of it over the rest of my life.

Dorkland! Roundtable with Eddy Webb

I spoke with Eddy Webb of CCP/White Wolf on the Dorkland! Roundtable recently. It was a good talk and we spent some time talking about all things LARP and LARPing. I've never done any LARPing, so it was an interesting discussion for me. It is good to see how other people approach their modes of gaming, and to learn how you can take the approaches from LARPs and tabletop RPGs and see how you can apply them to each other.

Norse Mythology-Inspired Monsters For Swords & Wizardry

This post is taken from some notes that I made for a campaign world for Swords & Wizardry inspired by Norse mythology. Norse myths were one of the first that I got into when I became interested in mythology as a kid (I think that the copy of Edith Hamilton's Mythology that I received from a grandmother was to blame for all of that). The ideas that I have had for this world are probably the most "metal" of my D&Dish ideas, being inspired by Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Jack Kirby's Thor: Tales of Asgard and the myths themselves. Maybe one day I will get to expand this into a full setting. Characters would be Aesir and Vanir warriors, roaming the Nine Worlds looking for adventure.

I think the fact that I picked the version of Immigrant Song from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo movie is telling that I'm not going to be all that traditional or "metal" in my interpretations. Keep in mind that this isn't intended to be a strict historical or mythological interpretation, so liberties have been taken for the sake of fun and gameablity.

We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow.
The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!

Fenrir
Fenrir (also known as Fenrisulfr or Vanagandr in the Northern tongues) is a monstrous black wolf that bedevils the Aesir and Vanir of the Nothern Lands. Fenrir is close to the size of a full-grown bull elephant and is covered in dark, mangy fur. The wolf is highly intelligent and is prophesized to be one of the forces that will take part in the world's end.

Many adventurers have claimed to have brought the end to the wolf, including many Aesir and Vanir warriors, but still the beast comes during the night to raze and kill.

It is said that the wolf can move freely among the Nine Worlds.

HD: 8
AC: 2 [17]
Attacks: bite (1d10), 2 claw (1d8)
Saving Throw: 8
Special: reforms within 6 days of being killed (roll 1d6 to determine the number of days), hit only by magical weapons
Move: 20
Alignment: Chaos
Number Encountered: 1
Challenge Level/XP: 10/1400

Jotunn
Also known in the Northern tongues as the Hrimthurs, the Jotunn are a race that plague the Northern Lands from their ice and mist-filled lands of Niflheimr. The both fight against the Aesir and Vanir, and sometimes work along side of each other as well. The relationships between the three races is complicated and it is not unusual for them to interbreed. While called giants, because of their large size, Jotunn are in fact not Giant in size (as the S&W game thinks of giants). They tower over the Aesir and Vanir, by a foot or more, and are exceptionally strong.

Jotunn are either extremely beautiful, sometimes rivaling even the most beautiful among the Aesir and Vanir, or monstrous in appearance. The monstrous Jotunn are chaotic and twisted in their appearance, with claws and multiple limbs and heads. The Jotunn are an older race than the Aesir or Vanir, being the offspring of Ymir, the first being.

There is another race of Jotunn that live in the land of Muspell and are known as "fire" Jotunn. Like Fenrir, they are prophesized to take part in the end of all things when they raze the Nine Worlds with their fires. "Fire" Jotunn are not often seen, and do not wander the Nine Worlds, like their brethern. Referees may want to use the Jotunn as a template and add fire-based abilities to that to simulate these fiery giants.

HD: 5
AC: by armor worn (which has to be specially made to fit their larger bodies)
Attacks: punch (1d8), by weapon
Saving Throw: 12
Special: --
Move: 15
Alignment: Chaos
Number Encountered: 1-10, plus a 6 HD leader if more than three
Challenge Level/XP: 6/400

Einherjar

Not strictly monsters, the Einherjar are the heroic dead picked by the Valkyries to reside in Valhalla until their need in the battles at the end of days.  They look as they did in their lives, like strong and brave Northern warriors. They spend their time waiting in Valhalla, drinking, eating and practicing their fighting with each other. Any Einherjar killed again in combat rises up again in Valhalla the next morning.

Einherjar are very rarely encountered outside of Valhalla, but sometimes Odin will entrust one or two of them to Aesir that are on particularly important or dangerous missions.

HD: 4
AC: 5 [14] (ring mail and shield)
Attacks: by weapon (typically battle axe or bastard sword)
Saving Throw: 13
Special: if killed, return to life in Valhalla the next morning
Move: 12
Alignment: Law
Number Encountered: 1-3 if guarding, 1-100 in Valhalla
Challenge Level/XP: 5/240

Svartalfar

These so-called swart or black elves are probably closer to what fantasy games think of dwarves than elves. They are the craftmen of the Aesir and Vanir and dwell in the lands of Svartalfaheim. Their disposition towards the Aesir and Vanir tends to bad, as they have put up with generations of being ordered and threatened by the two races. Jotunn tend to be on slightly better terms with the Svartalfar. They tend to stay to themselves in their caverns of Svartalfaheim, creating great items and artifacts and tending to their forges. For enough money (which is often a lot) or pledges of favors, the Svartalfar will work their magics and create items for the Aesir and Vanir. If attacked, or organized into war parties, they will be carrying powerful magical weapons and items that they have created.

HD: 3
AC: 9 [10], 3 [16] if armored
Attacks: by weapon, always magical weapons of at least +2
Saving Throw: 14 (+2 against magic)
Special: --
Move: 10
Alignment: Chaos
Number Encountered: 1-6
Challenge Level/XP: 4/120

Short Order Heroes

I've met some interesting people around Google Plus, a lot of people who are doing more than just talking about gaming...they're doing things and making the games that they want to have out there. One of these people is +Jesse Butler. He's got a Kickstarter coming up for what he's calling a hybrid of card games and RPGs. Short Order Heroes is sort of what he says it is, and what it is isn't half bad.

Obligatory Crappy Phone Picture

I received a promo deck of the cards in the mail from Jesse. What you get is a deck of 50-some (I admit that my phone rang while I was counting the deck and I lost count) playing card-sized cards, each with a quirky and evocative piece of art, an adjective (tied in to the piece of art) and a number. The number is there so that the cards can be used with a task resolution system (there are very brief rules enclosed with the deck). I really like the style of the artist (billed as Eleanor Ferron). I like quirky art. It reminds me a lot of the art of Jana Christy from Very Vicky, a favorite indie comic of mine from the 90s. The art in conjunction with the adjectives can very quickly give you some personality hooks for a character, or NPC.

Now, the idea of these cards is that you "make" a character by drawing three cards and using the adjectives on the cards describe your character. I can see this as a starting point for a character, but I do think that it would definitely need more meat (even for me). The idea of the adjective-based character creation would mesh well with a game like Fudge, where adjectives are already a part of the system. I can also see these cards as a way to come up with a personality for Generic NPC #5 that the GM is recycling a writeup of another NPC and wants a quick way to differentiate the two characters. I'm not saying that this approach isn't without merit, or use, but I think that it just needs a little more meat on its bones. And this is coming from someone who likes rules light games.

I can definitely see using this as a part of my next Fudge-based or PDQ-based game. It is a very cool tool, and GMs can always use a new tool in their toolboxes. The Kickstarter will definitely be worth a look when it starts up.

Bone Hill Remix Adventure

In a conversation with +Wayne Humfleet over on G+ he pointed out the old Internet Archive pages for WotC. Nosing around I found the pages from when they put up some of the old AD&D modules for free download. Nothing is ever lost on the internet.

+Zak Smith has been doing some cool remix projects, both on his blog and over on Google Plus, and one of the items that I found via the Internet Archive made me think of what he was doing, and how something cool could be done with it. Obviously this is still copyrighted material, so all of this is done as homage or parody or fair use...whatever gets the blog into the least amount of trouble.

So, what I found (and that I totally had forgotten about) was a Rich Text File of the text from the AD&D module L1: "The Secret of Bone Hill," along with some maps and a few interior pieces of art. And then I thought that this would make for a cool remix project for people. Go to the link, and the files are just underneath where it goes. Then do a search & replace, or cut and mix the text into something new, cool and fun. Then release it into the wilds so that everyone can share your cool adventure.

The quality of the images isn't great, but there are some great tool to create something new and weird. Just remember: no OGL or publishing these things, because we don't really own them. If you have questions, ask over there.

Once you have your remix, link it in the comments on this post or over on my G+ post and I'll gather them all up and link to whatever you do with them. This could be some fun, I think Go remix Bone Hill!

Swords & Wizardry Blog Appreciation Day

Over in the land of Google Plus, +Erik Tenkar and I discussed doing a follow up to the highly successful Basic Fantasy RPG Blog Appreciation Day with an appreciation of another old school system. Since I have been running a Swords & Wizardry game via G+ Hangout since the summer, and Erik is gearing up to run one for his face to face group, we thought, "Why not do one for Swords & Wizardry?" A couple of emails with +Matt Finch later and we have the basics. A Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day is now set for April 17th and bloggers are rapidly coming on board. At the time of this posting we were about to reach 20 bloggers, and we will probably have more by the time we're done.

I even made a "snazzy logo" for it:

If you're interested in participating, go to Erik's post linked above and sign up in the comments.

Hero Games' Steve Long On The Dorkland! Roundtable

I think that the Hero System gets a bit of a bad rap among gamers. Yeah, it can be a complicated approach to gaming but without variety we would all be playing the exact same dungeon crawls still. I talked with Steve Long about Hero Games, its history and some of the flack that it gets from gamers on the Dorkland! Roundtable. Say what you will about the Hero System, but Steve Long is a man who is passionate about gaming and about the Hero System and this passion came through in the interview. I hope that you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoyed talking with him.

Blog Grooming

I imported the posts from a couple of blogs that I made and really never used. They seemed like good ideas at the time, but it's probably best to just have everything pointing into one place. My 4 Color and Ignition blogs have been taken down (not that there were many people checking them out) and the posts are now a part of this blog. Both of these blog dealt with (long gestating) game design projects anyway.

Probably the only post of any interest to people will be the review that I did of the first issue of Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan's Belit story arc on Dark Horse Comics Conan the Barbarian comic. I'll have to follow up with the other two parts. If you aren't reading Brian Wood's work on Conan the Barbarian, or pretty much any other comic he's writing, you're missing out on some of the best writing being done in comics today.

Crowdfunding A GenCon Trip

I want to go to GenCon. I will admit that part of the reason why I want to go is so that I can blog about all of the cool things that happen there and share them with everyone. Of course, I do want to experience them first hand. I've run this blog for almost 10 years not, the anniversary of this blog will be in September, and I had wanted to do a big tour of conventions and celebrate my bog's anniversary with a gigantic festival of geekiness. The sad truth is that attending conventions, particularly big ones like Dragon-Con or San Diego, is very expensive, particularly when you're flying from Florida.

I had sort of given up on being able to do anything special for the anniversary of my blog (although I still have some neat giveaways planned for the fall). But then I'd seen a few people using this site called GoFundMe to help get money for things like moving expenses and other things. I thought, "why not a trip to Gen Con?" I brought it up online, and some people whose opinions are important to me said that I should do it. So I am.

Click on the badge and you can go to my GoFundMe page. I'm asking for $2000 to defray the costs of travel and hotel to Indianapolis for the convention. In my first 24 hours I made over $100, and I am very thankful for that but obviously I need more. Every little bit will help and will be appreciated.


I'm also willing to line up special interviews or other promotional considerations, if publishers or game designers would like to contribute to the campaign. Just send me a message with your GoFundMe pledge, or contact me via email or social media. I'm not all that hard to find.

Honestly, this wasn't an easy thing for me to do. And I can completely understand if you think that I'm just trying to get others to pay my way. In a way, that is true but I'm not being disingenuous about it and I'm not secretly hiding my millionaire status in order to get others to defray my expenses. I'm this guy who likes geeky stuff and likes to talk about it with other people.