Fire Elemental

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Nicolas Logue wrote:
Firebeetle wrote:

This product clearly and obviously supports a drug lifestyle. I do not do business with any company that sells products that support a drug lifestyle. Until this product is removed, I sadly shall not continue to do business with Paizo.com

If you feel the same, please sign below. Let Paizo know you don't support drugs.

If you have some debate about this, please read my responses on this thread to a similar product.

Baked Baked Plush

Thank you for your support.

Again Firebeetle I'm with you in your original reaction, but you are missing the point. This product deals with legalization. It doesn't say "Hey smoke pot, we don't care it's illegal"...it says "Marijuana is a 'drug' that has less detrimental effect on the user than alcohol does, and oh yeah, thousands of people are thrown in jail for years for using or selling this relatively harmless (compared to alcohol) substance."

This is a separate issue from supporting drug culture. This is an examination of the politics and legality of marijuana.

For the record, I have never used any illegal narcotic in my life (including marijuana) and I am still very much in favor of seeing it legalized. Many of the people I know whose lives have been ruined by pot, I can honestly say, WOULD NOT have had their lives fall apart on them if marijuana was treated the same way as alcohol by this country. Certainly, one of my friends, who is a brilliant artist and musician would not be in jail right now.

Whether or not pot should be legalized is topic in which reasonable people can disagree, and I respect you if you believe it should not be legalized. Again though, boycotting Paizo for carrying a product that promotes this very important high-minded debate (in a humorous fashion) may not be the answer to this country's problems with drug culture.

This product SAYS it is about legalization, but has cards that instruct people to toke, for everyone to toke, and to smoke if you are holding. These cards do not deal with legalization, they are DIRECT INSTRUCTIONS TO USE AN ILLEGAL SUBSTANCE. Until I brought attention to this game, Looney Lab's advice to finding children playing this game was to play it with them. Like any addicts, these people are clearly delusional about the impact of their drug of choice.

As for being "less dangerous than alcohol", if it ever was that, it certainly isn't now. The modern strain of cannabis is highly potent and marijuana cannot be considered a "light" drug. Those who compare it with caffeine are laughable.

Just checking to see if Paizo was still selling this crap. I just they don't care about their customers or children, that's too bad.


Nicolas Logue wrote:


Again Firebeetle I'm with you in your original reaction, but you are missing the point. This product deals with legalization. It doesn't say "Hey smoke pot, we don't care it's illegal"...it says "Marijuana is a 'drug' that has less detrimental effect on the user than alcohol does, and oh yeah, thousands of people are thrown in jail for years for using or selling this relatively harmless (compared to alcohol) substance."

This is a separate issue from supporting drug culture. This is an examination of the politics and legality of marijuana.

For those who don't know, this product promises that a $1 from sales will be spent on legalizing marijuana. On their site they show they have spent THOUSANDS on this issue.

If you believe that this product is simply aimed at legalization, and that those buying the Baked Baked plush are simply making fun of drug users, you are being incredibly naive. It is upon this naivete users feed. The thing they dread most is someone telling them no.

This is a consumer issue. We as a community have the right to say "we do not want drugs to be part of our gaming community" I don't think that is so far fetched, do you?


This product clearly and obviously supports a drug lifestyle. I do not do business with any company that sells products that support a drug lifestyle. Until this product is removed, I sadly shall not continue to do business with Paizo.com

If you feel the same, please sign below. Let Paizo know you don't support drugs.

If you have some debate about this, please read my responses on this thread to a similar product.

Baked Baked Plush

Thank you for your support.


matt_the_dm wrote:

I might be wrong, but I think the phasm was created for the 3E Monster Manual. I sort of remember one of those trivia questions in Dragon having to do with that.

M@

Yes, I just found that one. It's from the original 3.0 MM.

Thank you all for the insight on lamia's, I'm doing some serious research on them now that I have a mythical reference.


I'm thinking about doing an ecology article. These three are candidates. Does anyone know of any history to these? I know Lamia was in an ecology a long time ago, and someone mentioned that the Phasm may be in an Elminster Ecologies. That's about all I know. Any suggestions or hints on where to look?


These articles WERE online freely on the old Wizards site. Again, I would like to see them again. It would be great to have some sort of product regarding them, free or not.


Just wondering what some upcoming themes where for Dragon that are in the planning stage please? This is for the purpose of proposing articles.


Jonathan Drain wrote:

Even if the magazines weren't contractually obliged so, it's not in their best business interests to release their stuff for free. When magazines sell out they still sell back issues, and when those sell out they can still sell PDF copies.

To be honest I'm baffled that anyone who sells D&D products would particularly want to release their stuff as OGL. It's essentially saying, "I'm going to sell this for $5, but it's perfectly legal for a competitor to basically copy it word-for-word and resell it."

You don't get the OGC (Open Game Concept) concept. You're right, someone can copy whatever you make OGC (which a certain percentage of your work HAS to be) and use it in their product freely. In fact, that's the idea.

Delancey envisoned the OGL allowing the game to evolve at it went. Like an open source program it would have the ability to evolve as different users added to it and refined it. We have seen this already to some effect, as some of Monte Cook's work has been inspiration for Eberron material, for example. I suspect you will see it more and more when a publisher realizes they can print an alternate PHB with considerable additional material. We've also seen many compilations of feats, spells, and monsters that have been reworked and revised. These happen usally long after the "sales window" for the original product, so no harm no foul as far as publishers are concerned.

But that's not the only reason for the OGL. The second reason is to make D&D the "lingo franca" of role-playing games. Before the OGL, there were a few big RPGs and loads of little ones. This has a fragmentary effect on the RPG market. The OGL seeks to consoldate the "little guy" effect by giving them the rules to use for free. D&D has always attracted, by it's nature, a lot of tinkering and attempts to publish extra rules or extra games. Now that effect works FOR D&D, not against it. In return, publishers get to sell their ideas and games to a market that knows how to use them and doesn't need further education.

But that's not the only reason for the OGL either. The main reason is the market. A product can only be as big as it's market, and the RPG market was in freefall for a while there. Every dollar spent in a market helps the market leader, even if they don't spend it on the market leader's product directly. Any money spent on an RPG supports D&D, because it supports the concept, the store it was purchased in that sells the product, the publisher who gets his booth at the con were D&D is featured, and adds to the community of potential gamers there. It is known that some buyers will move on and never come back, but if they are buying RPG product, especially OGL product, it still helps the market leader (D&D).

That's why you give it away. Why is Adobe the king of panformat readers? they give it away. Why is Real the king of media players? they give it away. Why is D&D the king of the market, a market that now shows growth instead of loss? They give it away.

So when is Dragon going to give it away? That's my question.


My name is John McCarty, a freelancer for Dragon and various d20 publishers with 25 years of gaming experience. We have a great group of guys but are losing a couple of players soon. If you are a mature individual with a sense of fun you are welcome to join us. Rules weasels, munchkins, rules lawyers, dice grubbers, the unwashed and the just plain ignorant need not apply. Eberron and Forgotten Realms played on alternating Sundays 4-8. Contact me at firebeetle@charter.net for more information. Thank you.


Are there any plans to release anything as OGC? The purpose of the OGL was to build an environment in which the game could be increased and built upon. That process is stifled if you keep it to yourself. Perhaps things could be released on some sort of schedule, or when back issues sold out?


I wonder what Dragon articles and material is Open Game Content, if any? In particular, I'm interested in material from the player's option articles, such as flaws, backgrounds, cleric beliefs, and so on. I'm also interested if the Bloodline feats of Dragon 311 and 324 (?) are OGC. Does anyone know?