[Sorcerer Kickstart] Conversation with Jim Raggi

[Ron Edwards]

Conducted last August, now available here.

[glandis]

Thanks Ron - I was wondering when this was going to show up. Good stuff. My only immediate reaction - something I've kinda been sorting through in the aftermath of the D&D Discussions - is that "campaign" is just as problematic a concept/subject as "sandbox" ...

[Jesse Burneko]

Hey Ron,

That was very interesting.  There's a thought that struck me when you were talking about trying to generate discussion and archives of play, like the interactive Trollbabe map idea.  I find that when play is successful, it's very difficult to find time/energy to organize and post thoughts and materials about it.  After all, it was a satisfying game, you got all the validation you needed right there.

People tend to turn online when they have a problem or question.  They want outside input/validation when something isn't quite right.  So you're more likely to get activity from new comers or people struggling with their group.  The successful groups are off enjoying their success.

As example, I was trying really hard to maintain an Obsidian Portal site for my Stars Without Number campaign with adventure records, and planet up dates and so on, but beyond just going in to quickly update some absolutely necessary notes, it was proving daunting to try and organize it to be engage-able by an outside participate and keep it up to date with the latest game events.

I think the reason that OSR/D&D/Pathfinder people have more success with getting that kind of stuff out there often going so far as to actually publish stuff is that those games already require a huge amount of work to prep properly and therefore taking that extra step isn't that much further.  They're already spending a huge amount of time and energy what's another 30%?

Jesse