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Yeah, same here, Disenchanter. I need it in my hands to be able to read it comfortably. I can browse .pdf's, and glance through them for things I need, but actually sitting down to read them is too clunky for me and hurts my eyes.
I think Joseph Goodman underestimated how popular this kind of product would be at this particular time in the RPG industry. Hopefully, he gets a lot more in to send to all the purchasers that need them (like Paizo) soon.
I'm with y'all totally. I like holding a book in my hands when I really want to digest it. I just can't do that with a PDF. I hounded the local gaming store until it was in and went down and picked up a copy of the book because I was too impatient to wait for my copy from Goodman. (...and my Mom wanted a copy.)
I really hope that those of you that ordered the book get it soon. As much of a blast as it was to work on, honestly, we wrote it for you and can't wait to finally share it by having a copy in each and everyone of y'all's hands.
Thanks again.
I heartily second the bit about preferring a nice solid physical copy, even if I *am* running out of room to store my tomes. Ah, well. I'm planning on taking up carpentry anyhow for fixing the barn roofs for our horses, might as well build myself a bookcase or three while I'm at it.
I'm guessing this is what's holding up my order from a couple weeks ago; understandable, though, since RPG books are the kind of thing a distributor would be really wary of eating the cost on...
Sorry. My copy still hasn't shipped yet. I know that I can get the PDF, and I likely will. But for all the convenience of having my library in PDF form on my laptop, I still can't really read a product on it.
Read a pdf on a laptop?
hehe.... NEVER.
Big reclining office chair, prodigious monitor.
Dig?
Yeah, same here, Disenchanter. I need it in my hands to be able to read it comfortably. I can browse .pdf's, and glance through them for things I need, but actually sitting down to read them is too clunky for me and hurts my eyes.
So how do you write, on paper with a pen?
;)
Yeah, same here, Disenchanter. I need it in my hands to be able to read it comfortably. I can browse .pdf's, and glance through them for things I need, but actually sitting down to read them is too clunky for me and hurts my eyes.So how do you write, on paper with a pen?
;)
Heck no! Are you nuts? Somehow writing is less of a burden and gives me less of a headache than reading books in digital format. However, when I proofread my own work I ALWAYS print it out and go through it sitting on the coach, in bed or wherever. Just anywhere except in front of damned computer monitor! ;)
Cosmo, Vic or anyone else at Paizo. My dead tree format of this is on back order still. As Lilith was so kind to point out, it appears that you have that version back in stock. How soon will I be getting my Dead Tree format version? Thanks is advance!
Our distributor has received stock again, but we're still awaiting receipt of our reorder from them.
I ALWAYS print it out and go through it sitting on the coach, in bed or wherever. Just anywhere except in front of damned computer monitor! ;)
That's how I used to do it, but I usually proofread a few times and I can't bear using up all that paper and printer ink so it always bothered me. What really changed me was a posh office chair... and I mean I can sleep in the damn thing if I want. Orient the widescreen monitor portrait, and the pages are well over twice the size of a book.
But then writing only accounts for only about 25% of my workload.
Cosmo, Vic or anyone else at Paizo. My dead tree format of this is on back order still. As Lilith was so kind to point out, it appears that you have that version back in stock. How soon will I be getting my Dead Tree format version? Thanks is advance!Our distributor has received stock again, but we're still awaiting receipt of our reorder from them.
Thanks Vic. I kind of figured that.
Our distributor has received stock again, but we're still awaiting receipt of our reorder from them.Sigh. We bought them out of everything they got in, and we still need more.... working with other distributors now...
So, uh, I guess this is kind of good news, then? I mean, you managed to sell out... twice...
To those that are downloading our book (or anybody else's) from torrent sites...please go to this site (NSFW).
Not cool! :(
Edit: Yes, I know this happens far too often, but seriously $9 is like two, three lattes from Starbucks.
Come on. >:(
Paizo has GM Gems back in stock! Yippee and stuff. :)
Did we tell everyone about the *golden tickets? There are five, spread throughout this print run. Only one ticket has been found thus far so keep trying, folks.
* Each golden ticket wins you a weekend at Gene Wilder's place in Connecticut where Mr. Wilder will hand feed you chocolates while you watch a movie marathon that includes Frisco Kid, Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother and Young Frankenstein. The single platinum ticket wins all the above only the ghost of Cleavon Little will come over and the pair will re-enact scenes from Blazing Saddles.
Seems like this thing could top the 'top selling' chart if only there were enough copies to sell.
P.S. UPS says I should get mine on the 12th!
I was thinking the very same, Ross.
I'm just overjoyed that ever-discerning Paizoites are so into it. Sometimes you're almost certain something you create will have appeal, but until the jury is in, you just don't know for sure.
You guys rocketh the realm!
Would someone please go to the distributor and smack the punk around a bit? I'd like to get the print-edition of this that I ordered... Or just inform me where the distributor is, I'll see about doing a Flyby Breath Weapon Attack on his car before leaving an engraved stone tablet demanding he order more copies to fill the demand.
*grumble* Seriously, when there are people waiting a month for the order, he needs to step it up just a little bit.
Unfortunately, there wasn't enough room to put my full review up. So I will post the unedited version in the following spoiler, to save some thread space:
The Ugly (negative): I really don't like the layout. This should not be attributed as fault of the writers. But it feels really cramped to me. “Clean” section breaks are rare, meaning if you aren't paying close attention as you flip through the book, you might not notice you left one section and are almost done with the next. And with most charts having one hundred separate entries, they often span several pages. Also, the Black print on Medium Grey background on every other chart entry can be hard to read for some. Now that thats over with.
The Bad (Neutral): This book, or PDF, will be most useful to those running Homebrew games, or those whose group never seems to follow a plotline. If you have those mythical groups of players that always follow the plot of an AP style game, or don't really care about the world around their characters, you won't have much need for this.
The Good (Positive): There is a ton, metric or otherwise, of material in here. While I pick on the layout, a “better” layout would require more pages, and therefor more cost. If you are the kind of person that loves window dressing your game, but have difficulty keeping it new and fresh – you really need this book. If you are the kind of person that found the Appendix section of the 1st Edition DMG the most entertaining, this is a must have book. It ties in well with those charts, and doesn't replace them in any way.
I doubt there is enough space to write about all the good stuff you will find in here. The blurb doesn't cover it. There are twenty five sections split between three chapters, roughly organized by type. Some of those sections that aren't included in the blurb are 100 Dockside Events – make those occasions arriving/leaving port memorable, Rites of Passage – Events your characters might have gone through to be the classes they are/want to be, Alternate “Wonders” for the Rod of Wonders – (one of my all time favorite items, especially as a player) brings the item back into its chaotic glory, and New and Unusual Light Sources – lights ranging from the semi mundane, to the weird, to the truly mystical. And that is just some of my favorite sections, not all that are in the book.
I dare say that everyone will find something useful, or at least fun to read, in this book.
So I was asked to review an interesting book by two of the authors of said book. Now you might be wondering what that book is; the simple answer is the book published by Goodman Games and written by a group called the Werecabages. That book is titled GM Gems.
I should say at this point that I am married to one of the contributors of said book and if you don’t think this made things interesting please think again. You see I tend to give a complete, honest, forthright, concise and above all as objective a review as possible. This meant that the usual interest I would display for something my wife was working on had to be killed at the start and no matter how many times she attempted to tell me about the project I had to stifle her desire to share. To those of you who think this is slightly cruel I will state right now that one of the people who asked for my review was my wife and in my opinion the only way to show her, the work, and the group the respect and courtesy they deserve is for me to come into the book cold…as a buyer would.
Ok so this being said I finally got my hands on a copy of this work and I read it through first with no intention of reviewing it this pass through. I wanted to get a feel for the read first before I decided how to review it. After the first read I came to the conclusion that I should review this work three ways: As a brand new GM with maybe three months to a year of running RPG’s under ones belt; as an experienced GM stewarding in a newbie and finally as a writer since it is my belief that all RPG’ers are artists. So with this in mind and the understanding that this is a review made by one person and not the knowing consensus of an industry or a group let us begin:
In the head of a new GM I read this work and found myself confused; why? simple really: It was incomplete; now you might be asking yourself what the heck I mean by this; well you see there are things a beginner needs such as guidance, ideas, clear explanation of how the ideas could be applied, and the tools to create your own Gems. Although this work tries real hard to provide these things it falls way short due to the fact that in the beginning the newbie needs one thing more important then anything else: Consistency...this is seriously lacking in this work.
Now to be fair we must realize that we define Gem differently and to me a Gem not only inspires you once but simultaneously inspires you to create your own inspiration and in this way the work fails to meet the challenge completely. Oh there is evidence that someone thought about this in the section concerning Inns and Taverns when they came up with a formula to name your own but it felt more like an afterthought instead of a theme...Why? Well if it was given serious consideration something like this would have been added in the storms section or the caravan sections or even the encounter section where I would have thought a section like this would have been a natural fit
Now as a seasoned torturer of players who has sheparded in new GM’s I found myself realizing that I would only recommend this work as part of a larger body of works including a few Rifter Mag from Palladium Press, The DMG 3.5, The new Edition of the Rifts Main Book, Anything by Sean Fannon and Gary Alan Fine. Only with these books at hand would I recommend GM Gems since the other works fill out what is missing which brings me to another disappointment I had: In the introduction it was stated that “This systems-neutral collection of tips, tables, and inspirational articles...” So where was the systems neutrality? I did not see it in the slightest, what I found instead was a heavily High Fantasy-Eurocentric leaning that inspired one phrase: ‘False Advertising’
The tables are not broken down enough to allow for visual examples of how the table was created but then again I believe a Gem should also teach one how to inspire themselves. There is even a useless table dealing with the empty room: Who thought that one up? As a GM I would have thought it would have been more important to find a way to use the room as a plot or character device as opposed to finding some way of telling the characters that the room has nothing of value. An empty room is perfect tool to see how good a GM is and a perfect way for a character to develop as a character...Again this is all determined the creativity of the GM...Something not really fostered by the work.
I am excrutiatingly disappointed by this work; as a “GM Gem” It fails miserably enough that this would be the last book I would recommend....HOWEVER....each section is damned well written....each section showcases the writing prose of what I painfully call some of the potentially best writers the RPG Industry has ever seen. As I read this work I waited in baited breath for more but only got let down over and over again as each writer was cut short. As a writer I would buy this book for the creative inspiration as a writer and writer only.
I so wanted to tell the story of the tenacious obviously hearty gnome who finds himself selling candy and little trinkets, where did he get those trinkets? What is he thinking as he does so? What is he thinking? I found myself wondering how this Gnome is treated by the townsfolk and what their motivations are. I so wanted to find the secrets of the Dancing Blade...Oh come on we all know there have to be secrets there or maybe tell the story of the spirit of the faery bar....or who the heck is Jimagus??? Who was the powerful person who tied the powerful dragon to the Inn and what is their story?
In Conclusion; layout, lack of REAL guides, jagged continuity, and sporadic nonsense tables (‘Empty Room and ‘Rod of Wonder’) seriously hindered the usefulness of tables like the ‘Alchemical Mishap’ and the Random Pocket table. The lack of tools to create ones own Merchants, Rites of Passages, Holidays, and Ruins took away from those very well written sections...Again that disappointment thing. It boils down to this: “Give a person a fish and feed them for a day; teach them how to fish and feed them for a life-time.”
This being said I also have a message for the WereCabbages: Keep writing. This industry lacks freshness that your writing style breaths into the industry...where most people are content to rehash the same old garbage or have the nerve to give elves that painfully useless thing called Manga Ears you guys take the chance to create tables, characters, holidays and storms no matter how useless they may in reality be...All for the love of the industry which you all so obviously have and for the chance to add to this hobby that I love so much. The only way to get good is to keep going.....
.......”Wait; you just spent the last paragraphs blasting the work but now you are telling them to keep writing. I don’t get it.” The answer to this is simple. These people put together this work living worlds apart. Many states were represented and I know for a fact that MOST of these people had not met once. Think about that. They communicated via e-mail and the internet. This takes a particular level of commitment and dedication that most artists can’t touch.
Write on my Lychonthropic Fiendish Vegetables!!!!!!!
Another sterling review. :)
Thanks for the linkage to my blog. :-) Hybban's been writing some great reviews for me and will be reviewing PC Pearls soon!
Another sterling review. :)Thanks for the linkage to my blog. :-) Hybban's been writing some great reviews for me and will be reviewing PC Pearls soon!
Well thank you so much for posting that thoughtful and oh so kind review!
Another sterling review. :)Thanks for the linkage to my blog. :-) Hybban's been writing some great reviews for me and will be reviewing PC Pearls soon!
Totally! Lilz pointed me to your blog today and I rapidly bookmarked it to share with others. Also, thanks for the review!
I am somewhat ashamed to admit to just finding out about this book. With that being said, here goes nothing. I just received it from Paizo in a shipment that I thought had been lost by UPS. Needless to say I was very happy when the package was found. I have PC Pearls and like that one very much. Now to this one. I have yet to sit with it open and devour it as I am doing with about 4 other books. But what I have seen so far impresses me. I like the d100 tables. When I GM I try to use different ideas from several sources, not just the same old "tried and true" ideas. This little book will certainly help me in that pursuit of unconventionality. I would like to say thank you to all the authors that put their thinking caps on and came up with this. My most heartfelt respect.
Just my 2 cp.
Just an addition to what I said earlier, I have used the descriptions of the different Merchants to flesh out Riddleport as far as the PC's being able to buy and sell equipment they take off of the bad guys. I have chosen to tie in a retail outlet for the Gas Forges production line. It is also run by two Dwarves, a couple (He a Cleric/Fighter, She a Wizard). I am using The Bubbling Cauldron as a place to acquire cheap potions and Alchemical items with some new ones from different splat books and the Dragon Compendium. I am also introducing the Dancing Blade as an Exotic Weapon merchant which allows me to introduce more varied weapons. There is an awful lot of information and available resources out here, but GM Gems is a small handy little "gem". It doesn't add much weight to lugging the library around to the weekly game. Thanks all.
Just my 2 cp.
Update:
GM Gems sold so well in 2008 it made number 70 on RPG COUNTDOWN'S BEST OF 2008 SPECIAL.
And that's just using RPG Now's numbers, I think if we'd had the Paizo numbers Gems would have risen a few slots higher.
Project lead, Steve Greer, gives a brief interview.
If you're an RPG author, editor, developer or publisher and your product is on that list, get ta link pimpin'!
Update:
GM Gems sold so well in 2008 it made number 70 on RPG COUNTDOWN'S BEST OF 2008 SPECIAL.
And that's just using RPG Now's numbers, I think if we'd had the Paizo numbers Gems would have risen a few slots higher.
Project lead, Steve Greer, gives a brief interview.
If you're an RPG author, editor, developer or publisher and your product is on that list, get ta link pimpin'!
Link pimped at RPGAggression!
RPGAggression! (fixed link)
I'm actually using the name of this book and its companion PC Pearls as the names of two regular features in Level Up.
BD
I'm actually using the name of this book and its companion PC Pearls as the names of two regular features in Level Up.
Bah! That silly GM Gems was nothing compared to the inexhaustible wisdom contained in PC Pearls! Why, without the advice of Lord Bedlam Havok to make it shine like that magnificent Collection of Character Inspiration does, Gems is hardly much of a book at all!
It's more like ... not ... a book. For crappy jerks!