GenCon

[Jake Norwood]

Man, I really, really hate to tell you this, but there are going to be lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of typos. Yes, we'll proofread our own work and each others and we'll have at least 3 other people--at least two of them with degrees in english and one of them with an actual job as an editor read over it, but there WILL BE ERRORS, both with apostrophes and otherwise. Sorry.

Jake

[shoplifter]

I can deal with a few typos. I've been waiting for this for what seems like forever. :)

[Jake Norwood]

It has been a long time, hasn't it. Well, that speaks well for the longevity of TROS (and poorly for it's makers!).

Jake

[Vagabond Elf]

Jake, I'm not trying to get on your case, I know there will be mistakes.  But when I compare the main book, with a handful of errors, to Of Beast and Men, I can only conclude that no-one actually proof-read it.

Forgetting an apostrophe or two on a page is a typo.  Failing to include any of them means the writer actually thinks the possessive of "one" is "ones".  (It's not; like any other nough except "it", the possessive is "one's".)  Not to mention the chronic misuse of "effect," though I've stopped expecting the gaming industry to get that one right.  (I actually began to wonder if that was a case of American vs. Canadian English, but the American magazines I read use it the same way I do...)

I don't think it's asking too much to hold the gaming industry to the same standards as a monthly video-game magazine, and OBAM fails miserably.  I'm just asking that you put the same effort into the grammar that you put into the content and appearance.

I'll stop harrasing you now, and end this with a compliment:  Your game actually got me to break my vow that I wasn't going to learn a new rules set because everything I wanted to play could be done with something I knew already.  You proved me wrong.

[Jake Norwood]

Jake, I'm not trying to get on your case, I know there will be mistakes.  But when I compare the main book, with a handful of errors, to Of Beast and Men, I can only conclude that no-one actually proof-read it.

*snip*

You're wrong. Just no one very good at it.

I don't think it's asking too much to hold the gaming industry to the same standards as a monthly video-game magazine, and OBAM fails miserably.  I'm just asking that you put the same effort into the grammar that you put into the content and appearance.

Again wrong. In fact, the comparison is sooo far off It's hard to describe. The video-game industry is a multi-billion dollar *professional* industry, featuring people that actually get paid for their work and who use advanced educations to provide a product. The RPG industry, in contrast, is primarily composed of people with unrelated educations (if any) who lose money to get their version of their hobby to you in an underpriced product. The RPG industry is a hobby industry for everyone except the employees of just a few companies. This is my hobby. What I charge for my books doesn't really cover the costs of what I'm doing (though its getting better). I do it 'cause I like it, and when it stops being fun my wife will celebrate the end of me spending so much time and any money at all on a business that really isn't one. That's not to say that RPG companies can't be profitable--they can be--but never by much withought losing their edge as a product of a hobbyist for a hobbyist.

I'll stop harrasing you now, and end this with a compliment:  Your game actually got me to break my vow that I wasn't going to learn a new rules set because everything I wanted to play could be done with something I knew already.  You proved me wrong.

I appreciate that. *That,* as I see it, is my responsibility, my oath, to you guys. I do my best to get everything proofread and checked up on. I do my best to purchase or otherwise provide good art and decent writing. But when it comes down to it, the only true responsibility of a company my size ("one" plus the help I get from Brian) is to provide a good, fun, innovative game--the rest is stuff that I "try" very hard to do, but which I know is secondary. It's the whole form/function thing.

TROS is just my hobby--and it's my third-hobby-in-line at that.

Jake