Shannon Appelcline's avatar

Shannon Appelcline

@shannonappelcline.bsky.social

207 followers 55 following 55 posts

Writer, RPG Historian, Player of Games

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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Hope you enjoy it! I had so much fun immersing myself in Charted Space for a year and a half to write it.

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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I was pretty shocked when I discovered that people said that En Garde wasn't an RPG due to the lack of GM and that Traveller was an RPG due to the lack of practical experience!

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Ardwulf's avatar Ardwulf @ardwulf.bsky.social
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I've been eagerly awaiting this since @shannonappelcline.bsky.social started talking about it. It was an insta-order this morning, and at a very first glance, it looks amazing.

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The Okayest DM's avatar The Okayest DM @theokayestdm.bsky.social
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If Kat Jones doesn't resign as administrator for the Glasgow Hugos right now and resign from any role on the Glasgow staff, the Hugos for 2024 will be irrevocably tainted.

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Neil Gaiman 's avatar Neil Gaiman @neilhimself.neilgaiman.com
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A kind of "sorry we got caught" email from someone also involved in administration of this year's Hugos.

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Mary Robinette Kowal 's avatar Mary Robinette Kowal @maryrobinette.bsky.social
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One thought about the people who compiled the dossiers. Checking eligibility is usually "what's the publication date." To the best of my knowledge, self-censorship like this has never happened before. It's not unreasonable that they wouldn't have guessed that's how things were going to be used.

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Jason Sanford's avatar Jason Sanford @jasonsanford.bsky.social
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For the last few weeks I've been working with Chris Barkley @cmzhang42.bsky.social of @file770.bsky.social on a report about censorship in the 2023 Hugo Awards.

Leaked emails and files indicate authors and works deemed “not eligible” for the awards were removed due to political considerations. 1/3

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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But they also mentioned Interstellar Wars, and I'd agree, so that's 11. 1. Classic Traveller 2. MegaTraveller 3. Traveller: The New Era 4. Marc Miller’s Traveller 5. GURPS Traveller 6. GURPS Interstellar Wars 7. Traveller20 8. Traveller Hero 9. Mongoose 1e 10. Traveller5 11. Mongoose 2e

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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Thanks! I'd wondered the source. Looks like Wikipedia currently counts the Mongoose 2e Update separately and also lists out two editions of Traveller5 (5.09 and 5.10), but misses the original CD-ROM release.

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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I'd count the 2 editions of Mongoose Traveller, as there were big revisions in some sections (animals, starships).

You could get to 11 if you counted Cepheus, which is Mongoose Traveller 1e + Classic Traveller inspirations.

But my last count was 10.

www.designers-and-dragons.com/2022/04/20/r...

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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This is Free Trader Beowulf: A System History of Traveller is done! I handed it off to Mongoose in October and have already worked through a first series of edits. I believe it's in layout at the moment.

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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Onyx Path Publishing has what's likely the most extensive record of crowd-funding in the roleplaying industry. Here's a look at their 68 campaigns, with charts & graphs, plus thoughts on what they might tell us about the company and about crowdfunding.

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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I don't believe so. I've got little bits about all of TSR's designers in my upcoming volumes of Designers & Dragons Origins.

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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My main history writing page nowadays is designers-and-dragons.com. I should really add in some links to the indexes, especially the recent ones with expanded magazine histories!

www.designers-and-dragons.com

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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A complete listing of my magazine indexes is here:
www.erzo.org/shannon/gami...

It focuses on Chaosium, Traveller, and OSR indexes currently. [5/5] (There are also a number of older indexes in text[!] that I wrote for USENET in the 90s[!].)

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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Nowadays, I also write up mini-histories of each magazine. The Oerth Journal history (to date) is actually quite long because the magazine has been through so many hands. [4/5] (Someday, I'll publish a book of my magazine histories, probably!)

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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This time around, I'm looki ng for references for Designers & Dragons Origins, the four-book product history of early D&D products that I have scheduled to finish in early 2024. [3/5]

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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I like finding out what's in the magazines, and that can be of use for my history writing. I pretty extensively worked through Traveller 'zines while working on _This is Free Trader Beowulf_, my Complete History of Traveller. [2/5]

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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Sounds like there might be a True Crime & Gaming book to write, telling the stories & how they were about unbalanced people, not games.

Designers & Dragons contains my historical writing about RPGs. Right now I'm doing some research into JOC in Spain.

www.designers-and-dragons.com

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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Anyway, another interesting entry for the events that caused attacks on roleplaying, right alongside James Dallas Egbert III & the steam tunnels, the vampire murders, the Bijuv Murder and doubtless others. [4/5]

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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Other sources try to walk that back. But it really misses the point. The murderer was clearly unbalanced whether he invented an RPG or not. [3/5]

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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Today I learned about the Crimen de Rol in Spain. A college student named Javier Rozado created a game called "Razas" and murdered a 52-year-old man as a task in the game. It caused RPGs to be demonized in Spain for at least a half-decade. [1/5]

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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But the Moon Design history didn't actually get written till recently, for the upcoming Designers & Dragons: Lost History book. As I said, everything is a product of its time! [5/5] www.patreon.com/posts/lost-h...

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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If I was writing it fresh today, I'd likely have included Issaries in the Moon Design history, as they have the rest of the HeroQuest story and dovetail it back to Chaosium. [4/5]

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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And of course I knew the story well because I was working at Chaosium around 1997-1998 when the company splintered into Green Knight, Issaries, and Wizard's Attic. That was a nice set of training wheels while I was starting my history writing. [3/5]

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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Still it was an interesting little story, as it showed where Glorantha went after it left Chaosium (for a time) and also the development of one of the first mainstream indie RPGs (Hero Wars). Robin Laws was leading _that_ charge with The Dying Earth out around the same time [2/5]

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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Any book is necessarily a product of its time, including Designers & Dragons. I wrote about Issaries Inc as my fourth history in 2006, when I might have just incorporated it into another history if I hadn't written a year after it ended production [1/5]. www.designers-and-dragons.com/2006/09/18/i...

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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I'd love to supplement them with a system history of either BRP or Chaosium, like the book-length system history I just finished for Traveller (_This is Free Trader Beowulf_, which should go on sale next Spring.) Maybe a future project? [3/4]

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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I've actually written 5 major drafts of my Chaosium history to date. That was my first draft. The third one is in Designers & Dragons: The 70s. New material for the fifth one, written for the German ed, appears later in my blog as "Chaosium Next". [2/4]

www.designers-and-dragons.com/2018/08/23/c...

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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The home page is:
www.designers-and-dragons.com

Over 100 posts about the history of RPGs, from the early drafts that became Designers & Dragons to scores of complementary articles to some previews of my books now in process!

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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They look like a pretty minor entrant to the industry at the time, but nonetheless I picked them as my second history ever. Foreshadowing? [3/4]

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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So I concentrated on their work with Dragon & Dungeon and the trials & travails of magazine publication in the roleplaying industry. Something near & dear to my heart since mags were a major source for Designers & Dragons! [2/4]

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Shannon Appelcline's avatar Shannon Appelcline @shannonappelcline.bsky.social
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Thanks, Matt. Looks like my new server is running out of memory and shutting things down. Hopefully got it fixed. Definitely running again now.

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