Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 6 Jun 2007 to 7 Jun 2007 (#2007-61) From: MYSTARA-L automatic digest system Date: 08/06/2007, 17:00 To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 11 messages totalling 968 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Mystara d20 - A Resurrection and a Revolution (4) 2. [Spam] [MYSTARA] Mystara d20 - A Resurrection and a Revolution (4) 3. Vedr. [MYSTARA] Mystara d20 - A Resurrection and a Revolution 4. Why not 3.X? 5. [Forwarded from Mystara D20] Re: A Resurrection and A Revolution ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2007 23:21:50 -0700 From: Jenni Merrifield Subject: Mystara d20 - A Resurrection and a Revolution Hello to all, especially those of you who remember me from years ago when I was one of the earliest, long standing members of the MML. And to those who have never heard of me before today, I look forward to making your acquaintance now that I'm hanging around again. :-) =20 The information in this email has been posted to a few other Mystara communities, but I wanted to make sure it would come to the attention of anyone who might be interested. Apologies to those who've seen it once or twice already. =20 The main purpose of this note is to let you know two things: =20 1) The Mystara 3E web site, which has been down for almost a whole year, is back up at http://www.mystara.jamm.com/.=20 =20 2) I'm in the slow process of resurrecting the conversion efforts that many of us worked on and which went into this site. However, I'm taking a decidedly different tact this time around: Essentially, I'm staging a coup over the "old guard" where I was the BD (Benevolent Dictator) and have declared myself to be OGL (Our Glorious Leader) instead. ;-) =20 The new project will effectively be managed as a Liberal Autocracy - many participate but final authority lies with a single individual. Ergo, I want (and, in fact, encourage) other Mystara-philes to participate in the project because good ideas are more likely to become great ideas when developed, reviewed and constructively criticised by interested and knowledgeable people, but this time the game will be played in my sandbox and, at the end of the day, the bucket and shovel go home with me. (Or, in other worlds, the insight, advice and suggestions from anyone with a love for Mystara and an enjoyment of the d20 system will be welcomed gladly, but what is eventually posted on (what will eventually become) the Mystara d20 web site will, ultimately, be determined by my choices.) =20 Anyone who is interested in participating in the resurrection of a Mystara to d20 conversion and who is willing to do so under the rules of my new "regime" can make a membership request at the new Mystara d20 Group (http://groups.google.ca/group/mystara-d20). I hope I will hear from a few of you, especially those of you (you know who you are) who were especially involved in the original project. =20 Jenni Merrifield OGL, Mystara d20 Project =20 -- Jenni A.M. Merrifield | walking on water and | designing to requirements are easy | so long as both are frozen design - development - usability user experience specialist software engineer --=20 ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 14:08:32 -0300 From: "Vinicius R. de Moraes" Subject: Re: [Spam] [MYSTARA] Mystara d20 - A Resurrection and a Revolution What other communities, Jenny? The Ogre is back... ;-) Vini Jenni Merrifield wrote: > Hello to all, especially those of you who remember me from years ago > when I was one of the earliest, long standing members of the MML. And to > those who have never heard of me before today, I look forward to making > your acquaintance now that I'm hanging around again. :-) > > > > The information in this email has been posted to a few other Mystara > communities, but I wanted to make sure it would come to the attention of > anyone who might be interested. Apologies to those who've seen it once > or twice already. > > > > The main purpose of this note is to let you know two things: > > > > 1) The Mystara 3E web site, which has been down for almost a whole year, > is back up at http://www.mystara.jamm.com/. > > > 2) I'm in the slow process of resurrecting the conversion efforts that > many of us worked on and which went into this site. However, I'm taking > a decidedly different tact this time around: Essentially, I'm staging a > coup over the "old guard" where I was the BD (Benevolent Dictator) and > have declared myself to be OGL (Our Glorious Leader) instead. ;-) > > > > The new project will effectively be managed as a Liberal Autocracy - > many participate but final authority lies with a single individual. > Ergo, I want (and, in fact, encourage) other Mystara-philes to > participate in the project because good ideas are more likely to become > great ideas when developed, reviewed and constructively criticised by > interested and knowledgeable people, but this time the game will be > played in my sandbox and, at the end of the day, the bucket and shovel > go home with me. (Or, in other worlds, the insight, advice and > suggestions from anyone with a love for Mystara and an enjoyment of the > d20 system will be welcomed gladly, but what is eventually posted on > (what will eventually become) the Mystara d20 web site will, ultimately, > be determined by my choices.) > > > > Anyone who is interested in participating in the resurrection of a > Mystara to d20 conversion and who is willing to do so under the rules of > my new "regime" can make a membership request at the new Mystara d20 > Group (http://groups.google.ca/group/mystara-d20). I hope I will hear > from a few of you, especially those of you (you know who you are) who > were especially involved in the original project. > > > > Jenni Merrifield > > OGL, Mystara d20 Project > ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 20:34:24 +0200 From: Havard Faanes Subject: Vedr. [MYSTARA] Mystara d20 - A Resurrection and a Revolution Yeah, welcome back! I joined :) Havard --- Jenni Merrifield skrev: > Hello to all, especially those of you who remember > me from years ago > when I was one of the earliest, long standing > members of the MML. And to > those who have never heard of me before today, I > look forward to making > your acquaintance now that I'm hanging around again. > :-) > > > > The information in this email has been posted to a > few other Mystara > communities, but I wanted to make sure it would come > to the attention of > anyone who might be interested. Apologies to those > who've seen it once > or twice already. > > > > The main purpose of this note is to let you know two > things: > > > > 1) The Mystara 3E web site, which has been down for > almost a whole year, > is back up at http://www.mystara.jamm.com/. > > > 2) I'm in the slow process of resurrecting the > conversion efforts that > many of us worked on and which went into this site. > However, I'm taking > a decidedly different tact this time around: > Essentially, I'm staging a > coup over the "old guard" where I was the BD > (Benevolent Dictator) and > have declared myself to be OGL (Our Glorious Leader) > instead. ;-) > > > > The new project will effectively be managed as a > Liberal Autocracy - > many participate but final authority lies with a > single individual. > Ergo, I want (and, in fact, encourage) other > Mystara-philes to > participate in the project because good ideas are > more likely to become > great ideas when developed, reviewed and > constructively criticised by > interested and knowledgeable people, but this time > the game will be > played in my sandbox and, at the end of the day, the > bucket and shovel > go home with me. (Or, in other worlds, the insight, > advice and > suggestions from anyone with a love for Mystara and > an enjoyment of the > d20 system will be welcomed gladly, but what is > eventually posted on > (what will eventually become) the Mystara d20 web > site will, ultimately, > be determined by my choices.) > > > > Anyone who is interested in participating in the > resurrection of a > Mystara to d20 conversion and who is willing to do > so under the rules of > my new "regime" can make a membership request at the > new Mystara d20 > Group (http://groups.google.ca/group/mystara-d20). I > hope I will hear > from a few of you, especially those of you (you know > who you are) who > were especially involved in the original project. > > > > Jenni Merrifield > > OGL, Mystara d20 Project > > > > -- > Jenni A.M. Merrifield > | walking on water and > | designing to requirements are easy > | so long as both are frozen > > design - development - usability > user experience specialist > software engineer > -- > > > ******************************************************************** > The Other Worlds Homepage: > http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp > The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com > To unsubscribe, send email to > LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM > with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. > _________________________________________________________ Alt i én. Få Yahoo! Mail med adressekartotek, kalender og notisblokk. http://no.mail.yahoo.com ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 12:41:06 -0700 From: Jenni Merrifield Subject: Re: [Spam] [MYSTARA] Mystara d20 - A Resurrection and a Revolution On Thu, 7 Jun 2007 14:08:32 -0300, Vinicius R. de Moraes wrote: > What other communities, [Jenni]? I sent a message to the original Mystara-3E project email address, and Shawn Stanley also posted a copy of my notice on the MMB (Though, as it was as a reply to another thread he started trying to locate my address a while back I re-posted it as it's own thread) > The Ogre is back... ;-) Was I also "The Ogre"? That sounds vaguely familiar, but I don't really remember that... I do remember having +4 "boots of stomping" though - they're still in my cupboard after all. A bit dusty from lack of use perhaps, but fully functional nonetheless. ;-) :-J(enni) ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 13:08:24 -0700 From: Jeff Heikkinen Subject: Re: [Spam] [MYSTARA] Mystara d20 - A Resurrection and a Revolution I don't mean to be rude by asking this but I really have to. (Perhaps I simply haven't been around long enough to know the answer?) Aside from heading up one project - the previous incarnation of MystaraD20 - that frankly, pretty much went nowhere, what is Jenni's track record? She seems to be somewhat of a revered figure in Mystara circles and everyone seems really happy MD20 is kinda-sorta back from the dead, but, well... I haven't seen anything that gives me any clue as to why. Does she have some game design and/or (*successful*) project management credentials of which I'm not aware? Also, I'm wondering what the practical difference between a "Liberal Autocracy" as defined in Jenni's first message and the previous "Benevolent Dictator" arrangement is supposed to be. They sound pretty much the same to me. ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 23:43:34 +0200 From: Giampaolo Agosta Subject: Re: [Spam] [MYSTARA] Mystara d20 - A Resurrection and a Revolution On 07/06/07, Jeff Heikkinen wrote: > > She seems to be somewhat of a revered figure in Mystara circles and everyone seems really > happy MD20 is kinda-sorta back from the dead, "Revered" may be a bit much... but she's one of the "old ones", those people who were on this mailing list in the early times (10 years ago or even more, in a few cases). For me at least, that's a good reason to be glad to have her back -- though certainly I'm also glad to have new people around, regardless of whether they have game design credentials or not. As to the Mystara 3e project, I suppose that depends on the interest/expectations people have about it (and perhaps the fact that there has been no other more successful conversion?) GP ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 22:52:31 -0300 From: "Vinicius R. de Moraes" Subject: Re: Mystara d20 - A Resurrection and a Revolution Wow, the Finnish is rocking! ;-) Man, I have to admit that Jenni's msg scared me. But I gave her what we call in Portuguese - and she told me that it also exists in English - a "vote of confidence". And why? Exactly due to her long Mystara story: she was one of the MML "ogres" (the moderators). Besides that, she was bold enough to start the "Mystara3E" egroup. Unsuccessful? Remember king Leonidas spoke of victory and Faramir... ooooops... Dilios... hehehe took a whole year to understand why. Jenni's group did more for Mystara 3E than mine (you're right, I have NO Mystara 3.X ed group! THAT is the point!). All I ask of you is YOUR "vote of confidence" to Jenni and your support on the starting project. As for the dictatorship thing, let's hope she was just being funny - she definitely is a witty, smart person. If you say you want to have the final word - and not only she -, so do I. Talking of dictatorship to a South American is something very serious. We have barely freed ourselves from such a terrible reality. :-/ BTW, talking of my list, mystarabrasil@yahoogroups.com, we have been doing some 3.X ed work there. Maybe ingenuous Atila wants to say a word about it (Lupins). :-) I hope we can deliver some serious, precious material directly from that list to Jenni's. Ah........ Giampaolo and I have been doing some work towards it as well (Rakastas). Peace to us all. And success. In any edition. :-) Vini Giampaolo Agosta wrote: > On 07/06/07, Jeff Heikkinen wrote: >> >> She seems to be somewhat of a revered figure in Mystara circles and everyone seems really >> happy MD20 is kinda-sorta back from the dead, > > "Revered" may be a bit much... but she's one of the "old ones", those > people who were on this mailing list in the early times (10 years ago > or even more, in a few cases). > For me at least, that's a good reason to be glad to have her back -- > though certainly I'm also glad to have new people around, regardless > of whether they have game design credentials or not. > > As to the Mystara 3e project, I suppose that depends on the > interest/expectations people have about it (and perhaps the fact that > there has been no other more successful conversion?) > > GP ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 23:10:22 -0300 From: "Vinicius R. de Moraes" Subject: Why not 3.X? I know this is like discussing politics, religion, soccer/football/rugby etc. So we must not. Let me just ask you to open your minds. Accepting other rule set is like accepting other cultures, races and points of view. So if GURPS have something to add, why not? And Players Options was born. Let's go back to the table top strategy games. And D&D 3.0 was born. I'm starting a PbeM with some Brazilians from this list plus dear Giampaolo. What is the edition? Answer: none and all. Darkblood does not care much for anything newer than OD&D. Giampaolo does not care much for 3.X. Atila is excited about converting old stuff to 3.5. We'll all have to play together. It's a PbeM, therefore roleplay counts more than rules. Even so, Giampaolo is doing a huge effort to learn some 3.5 rules so that he can understand what "3.5 players" like Atila do and say. We'll play in whatever language is needed: we speak some Italian, Giampaolo can read Portuguese and we all speak "Common" (English). Taking that example, why don't we try to give 3.X a chance? Maybe Darkblood could be a hell of a help to Jenni and us with his long experience, creativity and competence (I played with him, and you guys know the quality of his posts!). How many Darkbloods and Giampaolos are why missing in such a titanic effort as that of taking beautiful Mystara to 3.5 ed? Rules Cyclopedia's Mystic, Hatra and Knights of the Order of the Gryphon as a prestige classes and Rakasta abilities as feats are just few examples of what we can accomplish together. How cool would the 3.5 ed nosferatu be? (http://www.pandius.com/zsulescu.html) Please do think of it. We need all people we can get. :-) Vini ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 20:43:42 -0700 From: Jenni Merrifield Subject: Re: Mystara d20 - A Resurrection and a Revolution Jeff Heikkinen wrote > I don't mean to be rude by asking this but I really have to. (Perhaps I simply > haven't been around long enough to know the answer?) > =20 > Aside from heading up one project - the previous incarnation of MystaraD20 - > that frankly, pretty much went nowhere, what is Jenni's track record? She seems > to be somewhat of a revered figure in Mystara circles and everyone seems really > happy MD20 is kinda-sorta back from the dead, but, well... I haven't seen > anything that gives me any clue as to why. Does she have some game design and/or > (*successful*) project management credentials of which I'm not aware? Very reasonable question Jeff. :-) As I think someone else mentioned I was one of the earliest members on the MML - I joined the original list a few short weeks after it was brought to life by one Leroy Van Camp in the fall of 1995. I was never "The List Ogre" (that was originally Leroy and the task fell to others after he left the list in others hands), but I was often the "voice of reason" that spoke up and dampened things down when discussions started to get tense and flames were licking along the edges of every post. I have no formal game design credentials, although I have been playing and/or DM'ing one version of D&D or another since my 10th birthday in 1978 and I have developed many of my own adventures (You can find one, called "Jet Black" that is designed for OD&D at http://www.jamm.com/mystara/#jetblack) Professionally I have over 10 years of experience as User Experience Specialist - that is I participate in and sometimes manage the development and design of the information architecture, interaction design and overall experience of (usually) software applications. I worked on all aspects of a web content management server product for four years before the company was aquired by Microsoft and continued to work on it for two more years at Microsoft. Another three years at Microsoft put me into the Windows security group, working on projects such as the administrative interface for a federated authentication/authorization server and miscellaneous areas of security for what is now known as Vista. I left Microsoft at the end of 2005 and finally returned to my "home and native land" (that would be Canada) last summer where I initially spent six months working at NOKIA Canada on the UX of the podcatcher software for their NSeries multimedia phones. I am currently at an "online entertainment company" (which is really a euphemism for "online casino software company") where I work on improving the user experience for account registration and management as well as some of the games. > Also, I'm wondering what the practical difference between a "Liberal Autocracy" > as defined in Jenni's first message and the previous "Benevolent Dictator" > arrangement is supposed to be. They sound pretty much the same to me. I did not even actually put the original group for Mystara-3E in place but once in place there was no one stepping up to give the project direction and focus - not even the group's creator/owner. After we'd all floundered for a while I tentatively stepped up and asked to be made into a moderator on the list so I could manage the files and folders and then started to guide the project. One of the first things I did was recommend the use of "Personas," a tool commonly used by interaction designers (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personas), to guide project development. (designing a campaign world and designing software are fairly similar processes after all) Because I was essentially the only person who regularly stood up, directed traffic, stomped on erupting flame wars and encouraged people to stop arguing in circles, I was half-jokingly nominated as the "Benevolent Dictator". It really only meant that the list members voluntarily agreed to listen to me when it came to laying out the rules and getting things done. So, perhaps I was really more of a "puppet dictator" ;-) Someone who was on the original Mystara-3E list responded to my note asking me why I decided to switch to the "Liberal Autocracy" mode. Rather than retype it here, I think I'll resend my reply here, so you get a better idea of where I am coming from and possibly where I'm trying to go. :-D :-J(enni) -- Jenni A.M. Merrifield | walking on water and | designing to requirements are easy | so long as both are frozen design - development - usability human factors engineer user experience specialist -- ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 20:49:48 -0700 From: Jenni Merrifield Subject: [Forwarded from Mystara D20] Re: A Resurrection and A Revolution Here's a reply I sent to someone on the original M3E group who was somewhat concerned about the "political" terminology I've been using in my announcements. It's all meant to be read somewhat tongue-in-cheek but there is a grain of truth behind it all. Hopefully the response below will help you see where I'm coming from and possibly where I'm trying to go. =20 :-j(enni) =20 -- Jenni A.M. Merrifield | walking on water and | designing to requirements are easy | so long as both are frozen design - development - usability user experience specialist software engineer --=20 From: mystara-d20@googlegroups.com [mailto:mystara-d20@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Jenni Merrifield Sent: June 7, 2007 6:24 PM To: mystara-d20@googlegroups.com Subject: [Mystara D20] #3 - Re: A Resurrection and A Revolution =20 The short answer is, unfortunately, yes. It really didn't work too well as a democracy, as far as producing actual material went. Longer answer follows. =20 At first the M3E project was a "pure" or direct democracy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Democracy), but we didn't actually produce any output during this phase. Development was frequently bogged by endlessly circling discussions, arguments and counter-arguments for and against different options. Trying to get members to vote on ideas was frequently unhelpful and/or biased due to low turnout and/or having many members of a vocal minority vote. A direct democracy also tends to end up with results that shy away from what are percieved as "risky extremes" in favour of the safe middle road and, really, who wants a bland, middle of the road, version of Mystara? =20 Partway through the first project, we switched from a direct democracy to what was, effectively, an oligarchy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy) despite my honourary title as "Benevolent Dictator." That is, decisive power now rested with a small "elite" development group selected from among the most active members of the main membership. There we discussed topics, made decisions, going to the main list for insight only when we found it difficult to reach a consensus among our selves. This actually worked quite well at first - what was produced by the project and published online came from this period. However, as time went on, it was harder and harder to keep everyone on the developer team equally interested and engaged in the project (including myself!). This was partly due to those miscellaneous personal life issues that everyone has to deal with, but was also due to the fact that not everyone on the team was interested in developing the same things. The result is that some members would drift away when the team was working on a topic that didn't enthuse them, until no one was really working on anything at all.=20 =20 Because I didn't really have complete authority, I did feel that I should not post things to the site until it has been officially approved by the development team. And yet, even then, sometimes, I would post things that I thought we had approved but the rest of the team felt otherwise or where my understanding of the details turned out to be different from what the rest of the team understood. This depressed me and, no doubt, depressed the other developers too. Then life issues seriously got in the way of me fixing up any of these issues (some of which, quite honestly, I didn't/don't actually think should be "fixed") and the project just sort of faded away into nothingness.=20 =20 Well, I still want to see a well developed d20 version of Mystara and, since I own the web space, designed the web site and maintain the content, I could just go ahead and do whatever I want to it. But I don't think that's really the best way to do things either. I think the Mystara community really should have a hand in the development of a significant and coherent d20 Mystara. I just want to feel ... comfortable... if I feel the need to put a foot down and make any educated but otherwise arbitrary decisions just to get something "Out There" - hence the "liberal autocracy" theme. In general, I don't plan to be autocratic unless faced with a situation that needs a good boot in the right direction and where I feel strongly enough about it to want to pick and then enforce a solution. =20 Hope that answers your question and allays your concerns more or less satisfactorily.=20 =20 :-J(enni) =20 PS: Yes, "Vote of Confidence" does actually translate into English. We use exactly the same phrase, and I appreciate that you have given me yours. :-) =20 =20 jenni merrifield -- jenni.merrifield@jamm.com =20 ~~~~~ Designing to requirements=20 And walking on water Are easy if both are frozen. =20 ________________________________ From: mystara3E@yahoogroups.com on behalf of Vinicius R. de Moraes Sent: Thu 6/7/2007 9:36 AM To: mystara3E@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [mystara3E] A Resurrection and A Revolution Why did you decide to change the philosophy? Didn't it work well as a=20 "democracy"? I'm worried, truly. But I've been liking your work for som=20 many years that I'll give you a "vote of confidence" (we say that in=20 Portuguese, dunno whether this makes sense in English or not...) I'm sending an e-mail to mystara-d20-subscribe@egroups.com , hope it works. Curious, Vini =20 ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 22:52:29 -0600 From: "Jonathan M. Thompson" Subject: Re: Mystara d20 - A Resurrection and a Revolution While I am not as familiar with Mystara as others on the list (I = essentially read about it when I was younger choosing to place the locations in my = own world instead of Mystara in the old days). I do run campaigns from time = to time set in it. I started running true Mystarian campaigns when the AD&D = Box sets were released (and then gobbled up the remaining Gazetteers to fill = out my collection). I didn=92t really care that much for the system used in = OD&D is the reason I never really ran Mystara back in the day (yes I am aware that the two are not that different, I didn=92t like the idea of races = being classes). I do have one thing going for me. I have run Mystarian = campaigns using 3.x by converting the AD&D box sets plus the previously published materials into the new system. I am also a professional game designer. = So maybe I can help by editing and proof-reading more than submitting new material, but I am interested in helping in whatever way possible.=20 Jonathan M. Thompson President, Battlefield Press, Inc. (www.battlefieldpress.com) jthompson@battlefieldpress.com Visit our Lulu Storefront - http://www.lulu.com/battlefieldpress -----Original Message----- From: Mystara RPG Discussion [mailto:MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM] On = Behalf Of Jenni Merrifield Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 9:44 PM To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Subject: Re: [MYSTARA] Mystara d20 - A Resurrection and a Revolution Jeff Heikkinen wrote > I don't mean to be rude by asking this but I really have to. (Perhaps I simply > haven't been around long enough to know the answer?) > =20 > Aside from heading up one project - the previous incarnation of MystaraD20 - > that frankly, pretty much went nowhere, what is Jenni's track record? She seems > to be somewhat of a revered figure in Mystara circles and everyone seems really > happy MD20 is kinda-sorta back from the dead, but, well... I haven't seen > anything that gives me any clue as to why. Does she have some game design and/or > (*successful*) project management credentials of which I'm not aware? Very reasonable question Jeff. :-) As I think someone else mentioned I was one of the earliest members on the MML - I joined the original list a few short weeks after it was brought to life by one Leroy Van Camp in the fall of 1995. I was never "The List Ogre" (that was originally Leroy and the task fell to others after he left the list in others hands), but I was often the "voice of reason" that spoke up and dampened things down when discussions started to get tense and flames were licking along the edges of every post. I have no formal game design credentials, although I have been playing and/or DM'ing one version of D&D or another since my 10th birthday in 1978 and I have developed many of my own adventures (You can find one, called "Jet Black" that is designed for OD&D at http://www.jamm.com/mystara/#jetblack) Professionally I have over 10 years of experience as User Experience Specialist - that is I participate in and sometimes manage the development and design of the information architecture, interaction design and overall experience of (usually) software applications. I worked on all aspects of a web content management server product for four years before the company was aquired by Microsoft and continued to work on it for two more years at Microsoft. Another three years at Microsoft put me into the Windows security group, working on projects such as the administrative interface for a federated authentication/authorization server and miscellaneous areas of security for what is now known as Vista. I left Microsoft at the end of 2005 and finally returned to my "home and native land" (that would be Canada) last summer where I initially spent six months working at NOKIA Canada on the UX of the podcatcher software for their NSeries multimedia phones. I am currently at an "online entertainment company" (which is really a euphemism for "online casino software company") where I work on improving the user experience for account registration and management as well as some of the games. > Also, I'm wondering what the practical difference between a "Liberal Autocracy" > as defined in Jenni's first message and the previous "Benevolent Dictator" > arrangement is supposed to be. They sound pretty much the same to me. I did not even actually put the original group for Mystara-3E in place but once in place there was no one stepping up to give the project direction and focus - not even the group's creator/owner. After we'd all floundered for a while I tentatively stepped up and asked to be made into a moderator on the list so I could manage the files and folders and then started to guide the project. One of the first things I did was recommend the use of "Personas," a tool commonly used by interaction designers (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personas), to guide project development. (designing a campaign world and designing software are fairly similar processes after all) Because I was essentially the only person who regularly stood up, directed traffic, stomped on erupting flame wars and encouraged people to stop arguing in circles, I was half-jokingly nominated as the "Benevolent Dictator". It really only meant that the list members voluntarily agreed to listen to me when it came to laying out the rules and getting things done. So, perhaps I was really more of a "puppet dictator" ;-) Someone who was on the original Mystara-3E list responded to my note asking me why I decided to switch to the "Liberal Autocracy" mode. Rather than retype it here, I think I'll resend my reply here, so you get a better idea of where I am coming from and possibly where I'm trying to go. :-D :-J(enni) -- Jenni A.M. Merrifield | walking on water and | designing to requirements are easy | so long as both are frozen design - development - usability human factors engineer user experience specialist -- ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. 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