Jeffx wrote:
Nothing. Really? So how does Paizo do it?
You're taking my "nothing" statement out of context, which is precisely why I added that explanatory stuff afterwards.
Paizo does what they do by paying lots of money and actually selling derivative material via the OGL (by derivative I mean it's derived from AD&D but is not AD&D due to the OGL). That's not OOP AD&D gaming. It's 3E, or rather d20 gaming.
I'm wondering if we're not seeing eye to eye on what the BIP Project is all about. We're not interested in developing OSRIC or d20 or Creations Unlimited material, or any such quasi-AD&D stuff. It's for AD&D material for AD&D fans who don't want modules with 1E-style covers and d20 content or game systems that kinda/sorta feel a little bit like AD&D 2E but mixed with d20 rules.
Castles and Crusades is close to the feel of the older editions, it could be done under that brand.
C&C is crap. It's d20. It limits a great many things. You cannot, for example, write a C&C adventure using copyrighted monsters that do not appear in the OGL, such as beholders and mindflayers. Again, totally different than AD&D.
OSRIC is also an option. I couldn't let the personality of another project team stand in my way of accomplishing something.
We don't need OSRIC to accomplish anything. If we don't need it, why bother with it? What we're doing now is several orders of magnitude higher in quality than anything I've seen published under OSRIC or d20 rules.
I am a bit of an optimist.
I'm just a realist.
I can list my failures and people would run out of bandwidth downloading the simple text of the message. It hasn't stopped me from trying again. Some people claim that is the sign of insanity. I will eventually get a better result.
Me, I know when to stop banging my head on the wall and when to redirect my energies a different way. You may get a better result. Maybe. But it is worth the effort in the long run? Does the pay off justify the head banging?
Please don't take this personally. That is a failure in project management. Many times it is unavoidable. If I can't keep people excited in a project, I am the wrong person to manage that project. It is the wrong project to do.
I disagree totally. In most cases it's a people problem. People have larger desires than they do the ability to back those desires up. They get excited about a project until they come up against the inevitable reality of how much gut-wrenching work is involved, along with the time and energy commitments. And they back out. It's like the old saying "Your eyes are bigger than your stomach." Or perhaps, "You can bring a horse to water but you can't make him drink". People need to have that spark inside themselves to begin with. Either they do or they don't. Nobody can give that to them.
Did I say anything about free? Did I say anything about people volunteering their time to this project? I already have an artist and an editor. I am actively trying to learn some things to fill the remaining staff holes. I have my attorney trying to find where I stand with core rules. I am about 25 days into this dream. In 45 more days it will either be dead or a project map will be in place.
Good luck. But I suspect you'll find that you're stuck using the crappy OGL if you want to actually sell something.
And the output, Doirche's map, is what brought me to this forum.
That's why I can't wait to release RoUIII. That should really grab everyone's attention.
Don't want "artists" I want professionals. Worst case scenario, I pay artists for commissioned work.
That's all well and fine if you're going to be able to sell the product and recoup that investment. But I'll be damned if I'm going to pay an artist ("professional" or otherwise) several hundred to several thousand dollars for doing far less than a fraction of the work I'm doing writing, editing, proofing, and overseeing a free product. It's not fair to me, to the proof readers, to the cartographers, or anyone else involved. It's not what BIP is all about, ie fans doing fan work for the love of the game. Ask Doirche how many hours of work he put into the Level 7 map alone. Level 8 is twice as much work, and the sub-level is the same amount of work as Level 7 was.
After Jared went in and corrected the lies, one of the moderators jumped down his throat and actually issued him a warning for bringing up my name and correcting false information and lies being told about me personally and about the BIP Project. 
