Monday, January 20, 2014

Continuing to be Humbled + Upcoming Interview Info



First off, thank you all again for the wonderful reception to the d30 Sandbox Companion. Except for a few hours on a few different days which have featured some great new releases from both large and small publishers, it has been maintaining the #1 spot at RPGNow for three weeks straight (as of today). And if that wasn't surprise enough, I noticed on the RPGNow page this morning that it is now listed under the header "New from Top Publishers." The titles in this section rotate and I just happened to catch it this morning, so I'm not sure when I became a "top publisher" at RPGNow, but that kind of blows me away. So thank you to all who bought, and use, and talk/blog/etc. about the d30 Sandbox Companion. You are the real reason for these overwhelming results.

I have no doubt this has been due in large part to Erik Tenkar who has blogged about (or at least mentioned) the d30 Sandbox Companion in more than a half-dozen blog posts, as well has his interview with Gaming Ballistic. And speaking of Gaming Ballistic, Welbo and I had the privilege of being interviewed by Douglas Cole at GB on Friday evening. When the interview has been transcribed and edited and posted, I'll make sure to put a link/post here. (BTW, Doug, like many of us in the gaming blogosphere, runs things out of his pockets, and the transcriptions of his interviews are an out-of-pocket cost for him; if you'd like to donate to offset his costs, you can do that from the Gaming Ballistic home page.) And here's Doug's original d30 post at Gaming Ballistic.

There area a few other bloggers out there that have given more than a fair share of kind words to the d30 Sandbox Companion, and I'd like to thank them here as well.
Gaming-Guy.com's review -
"Not Your Father's Book of Lists: A Review of d30 Sandbox Companion"

The Frugal GM's post about the Sandbox Resources Hex Map Pack
(which was created both to answer a request from users of the d30 Sandbox Companion, as well as a shameless plug for it)

Terre Tromentate's mention in Italian
(you'll have to have your browser translate if you don't happen to speak Italian,
which I don't)

Sologamer mentioned it this weekend in a play report
(you'll have to have your browser translate if you don't happen to speak Polish,
which I don't)

Martin Ralya has included in his list
"Looking for Tabletop RPG Products on Lulu? Try These"

The Venomous Pao at the Strange Stones blog posted
a bunch of NPCs generated with the help of the d30 Sandbox Companion

And my continued thanks and appreciation to
those who've reviewed the book at RPGNow

If I've missed someone, it may be just that I missed your post or mention, so please forgive me, and thank you as well!

9 comments:

  1. As long as you're linking to me, you might as well land on the page that led me to drive to interview-land: my own review of d30 Sandbox!

    http://gamingballistic.blogspot.com/2014/01/d30-sandbox-companion-generically.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. See... I knew I'd overlook something completely obvious (added into post above, as well).

      Delete
  2. Yes, I mentioned it on my blog and maybe will write more about it. It is easily in Top 3 of the best OSR supplements. I only wonder about one thing, why there is no lair generator, and lairs are even mentioned in hexcrawl sheet. I mean something to decide how entrance to the lair look like: a burrow, cave, a tree (like in Ready Ref Sheets). But it is a minor issue.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually, the original intention was to include some sort of lair generator. But, from my point of view, there's no easy way to do a lair generator without first creating some sort of monster encounter system tied to it. For example, it's one thing to say there's a human ruin here and (monster name) moved into it. It's quite another to do the same thing with a burrow, since the burrow is completely dependent upon the animal that created it. So, from the way I would approach it (and tried to approach it in the abandoned charts that were attempted for the d30 SBC) you have to generate the monster first, and the lair second. Again, IMO, doing a proper monster lair encounter table for sandbox use needs to be broken out both by level and by climate/terrain. When you consider that similar encounter tables in the back of the MMII take about 20 pages (without any mention of lairs at all, just monsters), and the typesetting on those pages is maybe 6-7 pts. (quite small), and there are 5 columns on each page... well, doing the same thing with d30 charts (in a way that would be quick and effective for DMs) might take an entire book. I didn't want to do a half-ass monster encounter/lair generator (and something like that would take an incredible amount of focus and time), but there's definitely thoughts toward the possibility of something along that lines in the future.

      Delete
  3. I just tried to make my own d30 generator and realised how much work it requires to do properly. My result is only fair, but I will post it for laughs. I made it because my player complained that all magic potions were without smell or taste.

    Determine color, first digits are shades:

    1s. Light
    10s. (Medium)
    20s. Dark

    1. Pink
    2. Red
    3. Orange
    4. Yellow
    5. Green
    6. Aquamarine
    7. Blue
    8. Brown
    9. Black*
    10. White*

    * No shades

    Smell/taste: combine TABLE A with TABLE B (d10)

    TABLE A

    1. Apple
    2. Pineapple
    3. Cherry
    4. Cranberry
    5. Plum
    6. Hazelnut
    7. Coconut
    8. Almond
    9. Walnut
    10. Pine nut
    11. Fennel
    12. Ginger
    13. Cinnamon
    14. Vanilla
    15. Mint
    16. Pina colada
    17. Chocolate
    18. Tropical
    19. Chardonnay
    20. Oriental
    21. Sesame
    22. Papaya
    23. Cashew
    24. Toffee
    25. Brown sugar
    26. Grape
    27. Guava
    28. Banana
    29. Blueberry
    30. Strawberry

    TABLE B

    1. Tart
    2. Pie
    3. Yogurt
    4. Cookie
    5. Pudding
    6. Honey
    7. Jam
    8. Sauce
    9. Jelly
    10. Ice Cream

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually, there is a very complete potion generator in the d30 DM Companion (the predecessor to the d30 Sandbox Companion). Page 32 of the DM Companion (available for only $3 from RPGNow) accounts for the container type (and # of uses inside), taste, odor, color and look/consistency (as well as effect). When you consider there are 30 choices for EACH of those, it's over 1.45 billion combinations!

      Delete
  4. Just wanted to post and say thank you for the terrific work. You're creating some truly great resources. Between your great supplements and Frog God Games' Tome of Adventure Design, my hexcrawl game is proving super fun to flesh out.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dude it's a great product; you deserve the sales/accolades. Now where's that monster book?

    ReplyDelete