Attention: An Open Letter to OSR Publishers

I will never again order a Hardcover product you've published, if it's coming from Lulu. Period.

I am sick and disgusted by yet again, really looking forward to enjoying an item, only to have it arrived fucked up, bent and with an utterly shitty glue/binding job.

If a bookseller at a physical location tried to sell me an item like the one I received today I would laugh my ass off and tell him to go to hell!

Now, I get to deal with the utterly tedious process, that is Lulu Support. The last time, my replacement item was every bit as fucked up as the original and I just gave up.

This is the fifth such book, that those bastards have had the temerity to mail to my address!

I've got three more, with merely piss-poor, loose binding jobs. I was willing to deal with those, though, I bloody damn well shouldn't have been willing to do anything of the sort! But, binding that's just shoddy, is typical enough in RPG books, nowadays. Bloody, fucking hell!

There's three other times, where Lulu has gotten it right enough, that I didn't feel like I was being taken advantage of.

Three times out of eleven I was pleased. Three times, I was willing to settle for what I got. Five times, Lulu's service was totally, completely, unacceptable.

I certainly don't expect perfection from POD. And very, very few publishers of any sort, go to the trouble of crafting a decent book anymore. But this repeated, egregiously slipshod quality control from Lulu is one bit of bullshit, I refuse to put up with, any longer. They have, to my mind, proven themselves unwilling to go to the trouble of producing even an acceptable low-quality hardcover with anything, anywhere near consistency.

I am not blaming anyone but Lulu here, but I would urge you to look into other options, when it comes to POD. Lulu is just not making the cut and it will factor into my decisions, about where I spend my money.

Because enough is fucking enough.

My Proof Copy - Now I Must Proof

Of course, I immediately spotted several errors as I began going over the text. Now, I'll have an actual book to point to when a player asks me what I'm running.

New Cover/Title - Excerpt from the Alignment Chapter. Now awaiting my proof copy

All set up on Lulu. Ordered my proof copy. 43 pages. HC. Download will be free and if anyone likes it enough to want a print copy, it will be at cost for $16.08. In the near future, I'm going to do a perfectbound version, so I can have some cheap copies for use at the table.

As mentioned previously, Lulu is running a special between now and December 13. They'll send you a coupon code, worth up to $25 off of your proof copy, when you publish. Once you publish, the code must be used before any revisions are made to the book, otherwise it won't work. If you have anything laying around that you want printed, now's the time!

So, I got my first copy for just shipping costs. Cool!

Also mentioned previously, this is basically my Player's Handbook, minus spells. I may go ahead and write a spellbook, just for the sake of completeness, but then again I may not. I'm happy with my current options. Ditto for monsters. I do have some ideas for further books in the series, though.

At any rate and if nothing else, when my players ask me what game I'm running, I'll have a book to show them. :)

Alignments.

Appendix B

On Alignment

Lawful – Lawful beings believe in working with others towards common goals, with an eye towards building a civilization and in creating and upholding government and law. The main focus will often be that of striving for the common weal, though in some, the belief in Law will be bent towards a tyrannical, enforced stratification. In either case, the advancement of civilization, will be central to the point of view held.

Chaotic – Chaotic beings believe that no authority or rules, should be allowed to interfere with their wills and that so-called civilization, is just another case of the strong, dominating the weak. While some Chaotic beings are respectful of life and even altruistic, if anarchistic, most tend towards wickedness.

H. P. Lovecraft described the Chaotic point of view, when he wrote:

"The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild, and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and reveling in joy.“

The more sophisticated adherents of Chaos, actively and assiduously work to overthrow civilization and its fruits.

Neutral – Neutral beings are, for the most part, selfish, disinterested in any cosmic conflicts and are mostly out for themselves. They will uphold Law, if it is to their benefit and undermine it, for the same reason. Such beings tend to act in a more “lawful” manner, when dealing with family and friends, or, sometimes, more extended “families,” such as fellow cult members and so forth. Basically, Neutrals look out for themselves and have small-minded attitudes, about what and who constitutes their community.

True Neutral – The True Neutral, believes Law and Chaos to be necessary parts of Nature and seeks a balance of these powers and values, both within themselves and within the multi-verse as a whole. To this end, they endorse the “Law of Nature,” as they see it, which often leads towards the sort of conduct that is seen in the Neutral alignment, above. That being a more “lawful” stance towards what they see as their communities, and a “chaotic” approach to dealing with others, reflecting the sort of dominance and submission, which they see in nature: the so-called “law of the jungle.” Druids, in particular, take their interpretations to a “cosmic” level, often leading to a bizarre mixture of sophistication and savagery.

Houserule Doc on Lulu - And Another Stab at Disarm

I decided to write up another Disarm Maneuver ruling, as the one I was using previously was based on something Michael Curtis worked up and I don't know if he intended it to be OG content, or not. I'm going to release my houserule doc, shortly and wanted to get everything properly squared away and set up on Lulu. I was going to contact Michael about it, but I was awake in the middle of the night and decided to write a new ruling, mainly to see what I might come up with. Also, it was faster than writing Michael. :)

My releasing the doc, is for the purposes of one DM talking shop with a few hundred others, not because I think I've edited the latest and greatest version of D&D. I know most of you would have already taken it that way, but for the benefit of any drive-by commentators, I thought I'd mention it.

Milieu Master Rulings: Book I - Characters & Combat is basically an alternative Player's Handbook, but without any spells included. I may or may not write my own version of the spells at a later date. In my campaign, I'm using the MU and Cleric spells from Swords & Wizardry Core 4th printing. For Druid spells, I'm using John Stater's work.

My main reason for putting this up on Lulu, is so I'll have a HC copy for myself and copies for the table. The PDF will be free. If anyone expresses an interest, I'll send the link for the print copy, which will be available at cost, $16.05.  It's an 8.3 X 10.7 HC and clocks in at 42 pages, plus the covers.

The doc is written by myself, though the vast majority of the rules originally comes from OGL sources, of course. While some of my own ideas and tweaks are present, mostly this is just a re-edited version of D&D, with material drawn from the usual sources; retro-clones and OGL work of some of my fellow bloggers.

Lulu is also running a special: If you publish a book, you'll get a discount code, good for up to $25 off of your proof copy!

Disarm: A Fighter, Paladin or Ranger may attempt to disarm an opponent, who is wielding a one-handed weapon. An attack roll is made at -2 To Hit, -3 if the defender is wielding a small-sized weapon. If a hit is made, the attacker must make a Saving Throw at -3. If he rolls a true 18 or 19 To Hit, then there is no penalty to the save. A True 20 rolled To Hit, or on the attackers Saving Throw will automatically succeed with no further rolls being necessary. Otherwise, if the save is successful, the defender must then make a saving throw to hold onto his weapon.