The Myths of Professional Quality

Since the beginning of D&D, there has been a struggle with the problem of hopeless characters. What do you do when the stats are just too low to provide gameplay that the player will enjoy? How do you keep a low-stat character from being marginalized. There have been a few solutions to this problem, but they have all been poor. Point buy eliminates the randomness, which is essential to the core "feel" of the game design. Re-rolling has been the default solution, but it can engender repetitive mulligans and/or other players feeling jealous someone else gets to re-roll until they get it right. Where do you draw the line in the sand for a re-roll? This problem has haunted D&D for a long long time.

Well, Roger the GS solved it yesterday. His solution is elegantly simple, requires no re-rolling, and fits with the "feel" of the game. If you roll low stats, you gain the priviledge of choosing a certain rare class that has some really awesome aspects to it, thus cancelling out your bad luck. He chose Gnomes, I plan on implementing this solution with Halfings in my next game (Novarium). And just like that, this problem is eliminated. Poof!

If you are looking to the gaming industry for innovative new things in the coming years, don't hold your breath. As you can plainly see, this solution didn't come from Wizards of the Coast or Paizo, nor someone like Monte Cook or Mike Mearls. It came from a lone wolf dude on a blog with 107 followers (as of right now. I think we should increase that, don't you?). And that is the real lesson here, that is where the real action is. Not in some glitzy marketing campaign, not in some shiny new book, but in the work of amateurs and independents. The Browncoat is the way of the future.

One of my big role models is a guy named Gary Vaynerchuk. He wrote a book called Crush It! and he is a big advocate of the "thank you economy". He is thinking about marketing in a new and innovative way, using the internet to establish a personalized brand to your own individual nature. There are some amazing talks he has given that you can watch here and here.

One thing that he talks about in Crush It! is the myth that people who are in the jobs that you want to do are somehow better than you. That they have some kind of brilliance you lack. That they are wonderful and you are just some lowly peon without a hope of success. And that is a big fat pile of shit.

The difference between an amateur and a professional is not a question of intelligence, drive, passion, knowledge, etc. It is not an issue of thought, it is polish. The amateur might doodle a map on a piece of paper and scan it in. The professional draws it in Photoshop and makes it nice and shiny. But the content of the map doesn't care about your professionalism. An amateur can make a fantastically functional and brilliantly designed map. It just probably won't look as good. That's the only real difference. And with the internet, that difference is rapidly falling away.

Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 is a beast. It can do everything. Shine your shoes, cook your breakfast, and clean your laundry. It costs about $2,500 US. This is called a BARRIER TO ENTRY in economics. You must pay to play. And if there was no internet, it would be an absolute barrier. But..... thanks to Browncoats out there fighting the power, you can get this software for the low low price of... zero.

There are a hundred ways to do it. I will give you one. Enjoy! (note: don't use Internet Explorer to view this website. It lacks security. You need to pack heat in the wild west. Use Chrome or Firefox).

Now you may need to apply a little brain power to figure it out. But I am sure that you can do it. And if you can't, just drop me an e-mail. I have a little Browncoat in me too.

Once you have this software, you will see that the gulf between you and those people you hold up to be professionals is really not that big at all. The glitz and glam is nothing more than parlor tricks and mouse clicks. What was once an unattainable forbidden city is really only a cliffside monastery. Difficult to get to, but reachable and unguarded. You will see clearly that it is an issue of training and experience, not intelligence or content. You will have the key to open all the doors.

And that is the true gift of the internet. It shatters barriers like glass.

Have no illusions, you won't magically be transformed from Mr. Dunce to Captain Supremo. There is a learning curve. You need to invest the time and energy to accomplish your goals.

But you must know that there really is no all-powerful Oz. Just a man behind a screen. He is no better than you. He is no brilliant genius that cannot be challenged. Have a little faith in yourself.

Consider me your little dog.

Grrrr