Says here I have published 2,161 posts on this blog. About three a week since August 2011. All but eight have been reviews. Let’s post a ninth, shall we?
The tenfootpole is a place of crap. Full of shit and worthless writing about it. A monument to the hubris of man that stinks like a trash container full of dead squirrels sitting the June heat for a week.
What it is not is an outpost of the great internet hype machine. But the hype machine has made a foray, testing the borders of the volcano lair. You see, Greg Gawron, Founder, Advanced Fantasy Games, has responded to my review of The Lost Tomb of Kazcuk Mot the Undying. You can read the response for yourself, or simply rely on my cherry picking. Fear not gentle ones, while there is no bad publicity, I have no great conceit here. Nothing matters and the tilting of windmills must be done, as Camus says, in spite of the results.
Our goal was to hit the market with a fun and challenging adventure that sets a new standard for Old School formats, use of cool artwork reflective of the earlier days of D&D, and other traditional things like a removable cover, blue map, challenging encounters, 12 point font for easy reading in low light, and more. However, we didn’t just put extra effort into the module itself, we also made a commitment to our customers with a quickly delivered product immediately after the Kickstarter closed. Also through our timely communications, packaging, shipping, and little details needed to earn their business again and again.
We see here, the Advanced Fantasy Games creed. This line is a nostalgia play. It is an appeal to nostalgia, no doubt to those middle aged people who have a fond memory from their past about D&D. And now have money to spend. It’s a member-berry. And, note, as a major selling point, the commitment to a quickly delivered product, timely communication, packaging, shipping, and other little details needed to earn the repeat reader business. Great for your fucking revenue stream, eh? Lots and lots of shit mentioned there isn’t there? Oh, hey, wait. Do you think it’s weird that not much is mentioned about the ACTUAL ADVENTURES? I mean, i don’t. Why would he write a decent adventure anyway when the focus is clearly on the repeated buyer.
Let us look now at the comments about the adventure that Greg Gawron, Founder, Advanced Fantasy Games, specifically called out to us, as convincing testimonials as ” direct messages received from our customers:”
“Just wanted to let you know I received my copy in the mail today and it looks fantastic the art print is getting framed and hung in my game room. Thank you again. I can’t wait to play it.” – Eric F.
Eric F. there didn’t say anything about the adventure. Eric F. got his in the mail. Eric F likes the art print and the way it looks. Eric F didn’t actually say anything about the adventure though, did they?
“Well packed. Carefully packed. Thanks Greg!” – Bill A.
Bill A there likes your packaging. Both well packed AND carefully packed. That certainly means a fun night ahead, right? The correlation between “I literally received it in the mail” and “a great adventure to run at the table!” is obvious, no?
“Layout is beautiful and so fantastically readable, Greg, great job!” – DTFA
A vote for reading the adventure from DTFA! I’m sure there will be many future readings of the adventure as well! And, well, layout, sure, right?
“OMG! This is awesome! Thanks Greg!” – SJ
Hey, it’s awesome! Weirdly nonspecific though. I wonder what was awesome. They seem very excitable. Maybe they think Applebees is awesome also? No specific comments about the adventure.
“Just got mine today! Love it!” – Steve J.
They got theirs. Presumably in the mail also, although, I must say, the lack of noting HOW they received it does raise my eyebrows more than a little. I do hope that the trend here is obvious, and was obvious from the second quoted one.
“I was lucky enough to get to play test and let me say it brought me back to my childhood and how much fun the OG of D&D was and still is very challenging and so much fun… Thanks.” – Vincent F.
Sounds like someone had a good DM. That’s great! I wonder if they actually played this adventure though? Or something else? Awwww, look, a direct reference to an aging person wistfully looking back at he lost days of their youth.
“Now, after having given it a 1st “Read Through” I must say, Excellent Work! Well Done! This is a great little adventure that will serve as a perfect introduction to OSRIC/AD&D, especially with the pre-gen characters. Thank you! I’ll be looking forward to the sequel.” – Joseph Y.
Maybe the closest to an actual comment about the adventure. Again, very non-specific about what is excellent and what is well done. At least they, unlike everyone else, actually read the adventure?
“Just got mine in the mail and I couldn’t be happier! Really nice job, and ahead of schedule.” – Rob H.
The take away here, for everyone actually writing good adventures, is that no one gives a fuck about your quality. They care about getting it in the mail and ahead of schedule. Well, presumably tat’s the baseline anyway. I should hope that writing something good raises the floor a bit in what one can expect … as long as you deliver it. And Early.
“I have to say this was one of the fastest campaign completions I have ever seen!” – Aaron T.
Again and again and again, we can see the important of commerce and not anything actually related to the adventure.
“I received mine today – looks great!” – JBCTCJoe
And again.
“I received my physical copy in the mail this week! It arrived in great condition, your packing skills & package nomenclature (DO NOT BEND) precede you, Greg!
What the fuck is obsession here? I guess you can make $6k a month slopping out adventures as long as you ship it with a DO NOT BEND on it.
The module itself is a work of old school trade dress & format beauty & I cannot wait to dive into it! Thank you so much for this!” – Robert W.
Our final comment. An appeal to nostalgia.
Do you think it’s weird that NOT ONE PERSON commented on anything specifically about the adventure? It was all delivery and nostalgia trade dress. I think its weird that not one person said anything about the adventure. I also think its a lot weirder that Greg Gawron, Founder, Advanced Fantasy Games, selected those quotes to post. “Great commerce!” huh?
The post ends with Greg Gawron, Founder, Advanced Fantasy Games, making a direct appeal to marketing their latest and hyping it and noting that they are a good DM. That’s what it means when you run an adventure and people have fun. That you are a decent DM, at a minimum. Or, you don’t know what polite people look like. But, no, let’s remain optimistic and take you at face value, that you are a good DM.
I don’t really give a shit man. You’re just another in a long line of slop artists churning out nostalgia crap for an aging population that doesn’t actually play D&D anymore but just reads it. It’s their money. They can do what they want with it. Make your money. But let us not pretend you are producing anything decent or for any other reason than cranking out the old bank account. Not on this site.
I mean, the preview shows off the TSR trade dress, blue and white maps (to eat up your cyan toner), and the TSR era fonts and layout, but none of the actual adventure. It shows an “Adventure Summary” which is not, in fact, a summary of the adventure, and a “Players Background” which does not, in fact, provide any background.
The summary and background are both reminiscent of ChatGPT’s voice, so either it was generated by an LLM, or it was written by someone so steeped in LLM writing that he is, intentionally or not, mimicking its style.
We’ve been having a conversation on Bryce’s forum about who writes this stuff, and whether it is coming from people who love the hobby and are just bad at writing and design, or whether it is from people who don’t really give a shit and are just trying to make a buck. I think Mr. Gawron’s module and comment, and the other comment from Mr. Taormino also trying to hawk his wretched stuff, are two significant data points in that conversation.
I have had dreams where i find a rpg shop selling 2nd hand stuff and they have some classic AD&D modules ive never seen before. I leaf through them and judge them excellent but alas no actual content enters my brain. The dream always conspires against me to stop me reading properly: i wake up, or i dont have my wallet with me etc
Any time I see someone trying to emulate TSR trade dress, I know they’re only doing it for the nostalgia bait. TSR trade dress was born of necessity and antiquated technology, not from proper utility or best practices. Those blue maps were blue for a reason – a reason that’s no longer required or relevant. Ditto the removable covers, the fonts, the TSR-columnar layout, the low page counts with super-dense content, the curt introductions…
I will say this in defense of Greg Gawron, Founder, Advanced Fantasy Games – at least he’s not throwing a Lopez-style nuclear meltdown tantrum in the comments section over a poor review.
Agreed, the TSR trade dress is a major turn off for me when I’m looking at new modules. Especially when they give the module a letter-number code. Nope! Nostalgia-bate bullshit.
The Heretic
Classic trade dress is functionally fine.
Detachable covers that can be DM screens: good
Clean fonts: good
Concision: good
Blue maps: harmless
And lots of later design decisions are garbage. Eg what moron decided yellow pages were a good idea?
The problem is the talentless nitwits utterly superficial emulation
Yeah, classic trade dress from a good author doesn’t bother me at all, but it’s not going to persuade me to take a chance on an unknown author (and at this point it might even make me more suspicious that it’s form over function).
I agree. Nothing wrong with appealing to nostalgia. Detachable cover? Sure. Blue maps? Yes! TSR font, why not? Having grown up playing AD&D/D&D in the 80s, TSR trade dress is a powerful nostalgic lure for me.
However……..
…the adventure has to be good. Appealing to nostalgia is worthless if the product is garbage. Is this product garbage? That’s a pretty strong take, and I wouldn’t go that far.
Detachable covers aren’t as useful when the product is only available in pdf. Which is the case here.
I’m with you on the coloured paper, though. I’ve been pushing through a bunch of modules, where the readaloud is dark beige italics, and the pages are light beige.
I, for one, enjoy being pandered to.
“You’re just another in a long line of slop artists churning out nostalgia crap for an aging population that doesn’t actually play D&D anymore but just reads it. It’s their money.”
Kill shot.
I’m an aging Gen X DM who grew up on AD&D, and I still DM two campaigns (not with AD&D rules, but often with AD&D content or similar feel). I don’t care about trade dress as I mostly use PDFs.
My interest in OSRIC-like stuff was sparked by Bryce’s reviews. It’s s a bit like a movie review: sometimes he’s right, sometimes he’s wrong, but a decent review gives you an idea of what the product is and whether it works for your needs. You’re free to share Bryce obsessions (too many words!!1!) or ignore them and still get info from the review.
No opinion about this adventure as I haven’t seen it, but Bryce provides enough info for me to know “ah, not going to go look for it at this time”.
Glad to see you address this – that comment from Greg made my gorge rise. (So did Mark Taormino’s on the same review, also hawking his stuff.)
I will forgive a lot when I’m reading free stuff from Dragonsfoot – it’s free, and somebody put a lot of time into it, if it’s not up to my standards, that’s no sin. But something about the slop merchants congregating around the “OSR” label is repulsive. A movement to rediscover an old way of gaming, which resonated with me (I’m still re-discovering it, currently in the process of moving from B/X retroclones back to AD&D 1E), has become just another marketing demographic, a label to cynically slap on your 5E garbage with no regard to how completely different the games are (even between AD&D 1E and 2E the base assumptions about treasure and XP are completely different), or a brand to pump out garbage under, maybe with some help from LLMs. I’m not a spiritual person, but it feels spiritually damaging – and damaged.
Bryce took it easy.
There is also multiple references to making sure to include skill checks in the module (oh fun a skill check!)… in an OSRIC/1e module..?
Black pill is shipping and fulfillment is the job humans *should* focus on now. AI can handle the adventure writing.
We should also remark excitedly that we received a mail! And it was not mauled by owlbears! It was indeed a whole book with pretty colours.
Would just reading a shitty adventure not also be lame? Is the content secondary to the formatting?
Hahaha! That was hilarious! What a loser!
“Greg, fast shipping! Thanks for ass blasting shit all over the OSR! Keep the diarrhea flowing!” —Valued Customer
Mad props for having standards and brutal honesty and not taking this crap sitting.
Can’t decide if this is LG, LN, or LE. I am leaning LE since this is your personal standards.
The “nostalgia crap for an aging population that doesn’t actually play D&D anymore but just reads it” hits a little hard for me and made me chuckle. There’s a lot of stuff I buy simply for that sweet whiff of nostalgia or I want to support the authors whose blogs I read and enjoy. Then there’s Echoes From Fomalhaut which I regularly buy to use at the table and tingles rather strongly in the nostalgia erogenous zone.
Keep up the excellent work.
This guy is one for the books. Nothing says “I want to give back to the hobby” like charging $40 for a crappy module. And what’s with him putting his face on everything? He looks like a Serbian car salesman.
The people that got duped into buying the first one won’t be fooled again by his future offerings, despite his true his goal being “repeat customers who buy again and again.”
This hobby never ceases to amaze me.
Your Dungeon IS Suck!
Late to the party here, and not disagreeing with people’s assessment of the use of 80’s TSR trade dress, but I want to add one more category of creator who might want to emulate that style: The kid who grew up in the 80’s dreaming he’d one day work at Lake Geneva and see one of those beautiful books with his name on it on the hobby store shelves.
Who’s got two thumbs and is an aging demographic buying and creating books for nostalgia?…