ENWorld... sigh

In light of the OGL debacle, I thought ENWorld would be a good place to go back to short term for up-to-date news and discussion on the issue. Boy, was that wrong. I can't get over how toxic that place is, how much the lying SJWs have thoroughly infested all aspects of discussion there, with the tacit (and maybe explicit, actually) approval of the narcissistic beta moderation staff. I absolutely hate that place and most of the people that you'll find there. I can't believe that I ever enjoyed it. Although, to be fair, most of the people I enjoyed interacting with over there seem to have been long gone themselves, and I suspect some variation on the same rationale is at least a contributing factor. I'm done. Again. Not going back. I'll get my news from the overly long-winded and self-aggrandizing pundits on YouTube, who frequently don't know anything useful but won't stop talking anyway. I don't really love most of them either, but at least they don't act like entitled, demanding, narcissistic, bratty little princesses. At least the YouTubers eventually getting around to referencing actual articles, tweets, or quotes, and sometimes they even interview people who know what they're talking about.

In any case, I'm going to do a final once-over of the current version of Dark Fantasy X and make sure that it is completely and thoroughly divorced from anything that even has the appearance of having come from the OGL, and then I'll republished it, reprint it (I mean, just with a normal InkJet or something; and then stick it in one of those fancy report covers) and then move on, not really caring except maybe in an academic sense if any of the bigger publishers like Paizo or Kobold Press come up with something else on their own. As Mr. Darcy said, "My good opinion, once lost, is lost forever." This is the third time D&D has lost my good opinion. Why do I even care what it's doing? Honestly, I don't think that I really have since the end of the 3e era. I never cared much about 4e or 5e either one except in an academic sense, and to see if the artwork was any good (surprisingly, not as good as you'd think, given the deep pockets for art budget) or the campaigns or setting material was intriguing to at least read and potentially steal from. Again; quite surprisingly, not as much as I'd have hoped. And I haven't bought a single 4e or 5e product, except some stuff I saw during garage sale week in our sub, for pennies on the dollar, and a handful of 3pp pdfs here and there. As Gary Gygax himself said years ago, "The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules." Indeed. I, like most people, get a little dopamine hit temporarily when I get new stuff, and there's always some interesting stuff to read here and there, but I have quite a few books in the RPG space that I literally haven't read even though I've owned them for years. I have no need to ever buy anything RPG-related ever again, except maybe some more fancy Q-workshop or metal dice, some dice cups to throw them with, and other peripheries like that just for the heckuvit. And no, I don't need any of those. I just can buy them, so I probably will. 

Dark Fantasy X will not be an open game at all. It's just a game in the normal, usual sense, like they used to be before 2000. I don't actually care if anyone uses it, unless they somehow make millions off it if and don't offer me a reasonable cut, but c'mon. That's not going to happen. I might get rid of the way magic works, because it seems pretty fiddly now compared to my alternative magic system, which I like more and more the more I contemplate it. We'll see, though.

I'll probably refer to the OGL debacle over the next few weeks as new news comes out—and I think it debacle will end up proving to be the correct word from Hasbro's perspective, so I'll refer to it as such until such point as I'm proven wrong. Otherwise, this blip in attention to a topical topic is probably about ready to fade into the obscurity it deserves, while I pay more attention to more useful things. Including:

• I've been promising to wrap up the CHAOS IN WAYCHESTER 5x5 top level plan with some sample stuff related to my iconic characters. In an actual game, of course, I'd have to do it with the characters I have, and nothing I'm using here would probably work, but it's just to show the process. Maybe it'll be useful for fiction efforts in the future. In fact, I have deliberate (albeit vague) plans to do exactly that.
• I need a redrawn map of the area specifically covered by this campaign, with more details which I've partially filled in as I've done the 5x5 matrix.
• To actually play, I need something beyond the high level stuff; I need a revised GM screen with material that's useful for my current version of the setting, I need some encounter lists for my travel stuff, and a few other details. 

Once those tasks are done, we're on to CULT OF UNDEATH.