Kickstarting the Revolution

“No other game I’ve played has so casually included gay & lesbian couples as well as females in non-traditional roles. This is subtle, but my god it’s made such a difference. Treating all these non-traditionally gendered & sexually oriented NPCs so staunchly casually is really great. Numenera isn’t about shouting equality from the rooftops, but this treatment of people is just taken as a given.”  ~Darcy, gamer

About a month ago, I was on a crowdfunding panel at Geek Girl Con here in Seattle. There were four women on the panel (Julie Haehn, Lillian Cohen-Moore, Nicole Lindroos, and myself) — all women with successful crowdfunding projects in the game industry. It was incredible, listening to the four of us talk about the experience of working in the industry, running Kickstarters, and, perhaps most importantly, having the opportunity to make games that we are passionate about, games that reflect our values, games that create memorable, exciting and fun experiences around the table for everyone who wants to play. As we talked, I could see the audience members, men and women both, get that glint in their eye. That glint that says, “Thanks to crowdfunding, this thing I’m passionate about just might become a reality.”

And that, right there, is why I really really love Kickstarter. Because it has the power to create the change we want to see in the industry (and dare I say it? — even in the world).

Bear with me for a second, while I explain what I mean. Not that long ago if you wanted to create a game (or, really, almost any creative product) that featured main characters who were female, gay, transgender, non-white, or gender queer, you were sort of screwed. You could either: go through the same gatekeepers everyone else went through (the gatekeepers who seem to think that games don’t sell unless they’re about heterosexual white males) and get rejected. Or you could pour all your time, money and passion into your game and hope that you could get the word out and get a few people to buy it.

Fast forward to today and look at how Kickstarter (and namely the BACKERS of Kickstarter) are changing all of that. Here’s why: Kickstarter is the ultimate tool for market research for companies and individuals. Anyone can put their idea out into the world and they see whether people like it enough to fund it. If people hate the idea, the product doesn’t get funded. If they love it, then it gets super-funded.

And that’s where you come in. Never before has the opportunity to make change been so clearly in your hands. Every single person can make an equal difference. Don’t like seeing scantily clad women who are just there for titillation? Don’t back the games that only feature that type of art. Tired of seeing games where everyone is white? Skip those games. Sick to death of undertones of misogynism, sexism, racism, and homophobia? Don’t help fund them. Wish there were more games where topics like rape and sex crimes weren’t a forced part of play? Just say no.

However, I think that NOT supporting the products that piss you off is only step one. Step two, the really important step? That’s SUPPORTING the companies and products that align with your values.

When you find a company and/or product that seems to be doing the things that are important to you, how can you actually make a difference? You do so by giving them your money or your mouth (or both). Here’s how:

• Back the Kickstarter at whatever level you can afford.
• Back the KS at whatever level you can afford, and then spread the word about why you backed it.
• Don’t back the KS, but spread the word to people who share your values and who might be interested.
• Back the KS at the playtest or feedback level, if the company offers that option. And then actually playtest and provide feedback.
• Be the person in your playgroup who brings new games to the table.
• Talk to your local game store about the games that you love. Ask them if they plan to have the game in stock or if they intend to back the game’s KS.
• Offer to GM games at conventions or at your local game store.
• If the game has a fan use policy or limited license or open license, take advantage of that and create your own awesome tie-in products that are full of strong, smart, positive minority characters.

Here are some of the things that I look at when deciding where to spend my money or my mouth:

• What are the values of the company or individuals who are creating the product? As always when making decisions that matter, be wary of Internet suppositions and guesstimates and really do your research as best as you can. Forums, people’s blogs, social media, and comments are not always the best place to get solid information about companies and individuals. Instead, look at their actual actions: do they actively and loudly support the things you believe in? Do they donate money, products, or time to organizations that support your beliefs? How diverse is their staff? Do they take good care of their artists, writers, and other contractors?
• What are the values of the product itself? Does it include positive depictions of both minorities and the majority? This is important to me because to me inclusion and acceptance means including and accepting EVERYONE. I won’t buy a product that knocks heterosexual white men any more than I will back a product that knocks gay women. No one deserves to be treated as “less than.”
• Where has the product or company fallen short in the past and have they attempted to improve? Everyone makes mistakes, no matter how strong their desire to do good. How did the company handle these mistakes? What are they doing to improve?

It probably won’t surprise you, then, to hear that Monte Cook Games, the company that I co-own, is actively involved in all of the above, because they are important to me, not just as a consumer, but as a producer.

What does Monte Cook Games do about all of the above? Where does your money go? What change does it support in the world? Here are the answers to that:

• We are a company that actively supports our values, with our money and our mouths. We create campaigns like the We Are All Strange project, we donate to organizations such as The Able Gamers Charity, and we actively promote people, companies and products that are doing awesome things.
• The core team that built Numenera was 6 people — 3 of us are women, and 2 of us openly identify as GLBT. Our group of contract artists and editors is even more diverse than our core team.
• We are in the process of talking to a variety of gamers about their experiences at the table, and are putting together a comprehensive survey about what makes a game inclusive for everyone. From this, we hope to make our future games like The Strange even better in that regard.
• We believe in creating games that encourage inclusion and acceptance. The Numenera corebook includes positive depictions of couples and people of all sexual orientations, people of all genders, people of all abilities, ages, and physiques. Everyone wears armor that is appropriate for their personality and skillset. We don’t have a variety of races because (with a few exceptions) nearly everyone is mixed race in the Ninth World.

There’s a lot more that we’re doing, ways in which we are attempting to create great games for EVERYONE. But the point here isn’t that we want you to support US. The point is that we want you to support what supports you. You have the power to be the change you want to see in the geek world. Your money or your mouth — that’s all it takes to make change. You matter. Everything you do, say, or buy matters. And perhaps doubly so when it comes to crowdfunding.

Accept. Support. Embrace. Kickstart the Revolution.  

99 Ways of Looking at the Numenera Limited License

 Okay, there are really only three ways here, but the Internet has pretty much already covered the other 96 (including some nicely written, thoughtful pieces like this and this). However, since the Internet is occasionally incorrect or incomplete, I thought I would offer a few more possible ways of looking at Numenera’s limited license.

Here they are, in no particular order:

A Limited License is Voluntary

By which I mean that it’s voluntary for you—you don’t have to create Numenera products if you don’t like the IP or the license—but that it’s also voluntary for Monte Cook Games. There is nothing that says we even have to have a limited licensing policy (or any licensing policy for that matter).

However, we love our fans and we love small publishers and we want to support them. Charging $50 is an inexpensive way to let fans use the Numenera setting to create products for profit without us taking a percentage of their sales (as we do with full licenses).

To be honest, creating and maintaining limited licenses are an awful lot of work on our end for $50, so at least from our perspective, a limited license never was and never will be about money. It always has been—and always will be—about supporting our fans and the small publishers who want to support us right back.

A Limited License Protects Our Fans

Here why:

1. If someone doesn’t take the time to read and comprehend the website page clearly enough to understand that:

a. what’s been published on the web page is not the entirety of the limited license (despite the fact that it says, and I quote: “This is not the entirety of the limited license”)

OR

b. that for full details they need to contact us (not the internet or a fan site or Twitter (again, despite the fact that it says right on the page, “if you are interested in pursuing a publication under our limited license and would like additional information about what it entails, please contact…))

then the chances are good that they will have a difficult time creating quality products in a field where reading comprehension and communication are vital. Our fans deserve quality products.

2. If someone can’t afford (or doesn’t think that Numenera is worth) the $50 licensing fee, then the chances are good that they might be better off pursuing something else that they love more or can afford. Our fans deserve products created by people who love and support the game.

3. If someone doesn’t understand the difference between licensing a game system (d20, for example) and a game setting (Numenera, for example), then this gives them a chance to learn the difference. (NOTE: We are not licensing our game system here. We’re licensing the Numenera setting. Your arguments about d20 OGL/OGC do not apply). Our fans deserve people who care enough to learn the difference.

4. If someone comes out on the Internet and says that the Numenera limited license is the worst thing they’ve ever read, that’s an absolutely fine opinion and one we won’t argue with. However, if someone comes out on the Internet and says that the Numenera limited license is the worst thing they’ve ever read and that they will never work with us because we’re awful, horrible, money-grubbing jerks who make shitty games, well, they’re right in at least one aspect: They will never work with us. Because why would we want to work with someone like that, ever? And more importantly: Why would we want to subject our fans to that kind of mentality? Our fans deserve a supportive, positive fan culture.

-Make amazing games that bring good things to people’s lives: company motto #1

-Only work with people who give a damn: company motto number #2

-Create a supportive, positive work and fan culture: company motto #3

-Give fans only our very best: company motto #4

A Limited License Supports Small & Starting Publishers

For the low, low cost of $50, you are getting the opportunity to get your foot in the door in a big way. It’s a low-risk way to get into the game industry. Not to mention get yourself some amazing publicity. If you are supportive of Numenera, are generally a nice person, and your product is awesome, we will probably talk about you. A lot. To everyone we know.

Case in point: Numenera fan Ryan Chaddock. He originally came to us a while back to ensure that his fan creations fit our fan-use policy. Then he made beautiful fan work! (You can see it here). When he approached us with a professional query recently to apply for a limited license, do you think we said yes? Of course we did. And then we talked about him publicly and often. Because he is awesome and he thinks Numenera is awesome and that is how you show support for the people who support you.

Another example is Michael Fienen who runs the wonderful fan site, The Ninth World. He came to us to make sure he was abiding by the fan use policies and then he created a great place for fan-created content. If he comes to us in the future to ask for a limited license on something, do you think we’ll support him? Hell yes we will. Ditto with the fans who are right now working on limited licenses for fiction anthologies, adventures and other support products.

~

A few other questions that people are asking:

1. Do I have to pay you $50 to put something on my blog? No. You do have to read and comply with our fan-use policy, though.

2. Why can’t I crowdfund? You can. And many have, including Torment: Tides of Numenera and Christopher West’s Numenera maps. However, you need negotiate a full license to do so.

3. Dear, Internet: What is the … ? No, please let me stop you right there. You should know better than to ask the Internet anything, especially about legal things or gaming things. Ask us. We’re the only ones who have the answers you seek in regards to this topic. The email address is right on the website.

4. How will you know when I’ve made $2000? We’ll know because you are awesome and honest and professional and we trust you with our whole hearts, and thus you will tell us that you’ve cracked that mythical number. And then we’ll celebrate your success and see where you want to go from there. (Hint: to the Big Time!).

~

In the end, is the limited license the right thing for you? Is it the right thing for Monte Cook Games and Numenera? Most importantly: Is it the right thing for fans?

At this point, only time will tell. But we hope the answer to all of those things turns out to be yes. And if it doesn’t? Then we already have 96 other ways of looking at it for the future.

~iadace~ with a side of kiss kiss bang bang, s.

Love What You Love

It’s been a rough week around here, for a whole lot of reasons. The big one was the loss of Monte’s dad, who passed away after a long illness. Instead of flying to London for Nine Worlds GeekFest, we drove to a wake and a funeral and said goodbye to a man who played a huge role in Monte’s life.

Those events have put everything else into a certain kind of perspective, as you might imagine. They make me feel softer and kinder toward others, but they also make me fiercer — woe to anyone who wants to take away something that I hold dear right now.

In a recent post, Monte talks about finding something that you love, and I feel like that’s the sentiment that feels closest to my own at the moment. It’s easy to tear things down–a life, a game, an action, someone’s quote. (To be clear: I don’t mean constructive critique or thoughtful discussions here; I mean hate, vitriol, knee-jerk ire).

It’s so much harder to love things. Because, of course, you might lose them. Someone might come along and tell you that you aren’t supposed to love that thing because it’s dumb or sexist or ridiculous and that you in turn are dumb or sexist or ridiculous for liking that thing. It’s hard to love something, because sometimes when you love something, it feels like you’re not doing anything to create change. It’s hard to love something because someone might come along and take it away from you. And then that thing you loved so truly, so openly, is ripped from you and the world feels like it’s going to end.

It’s easier to hate, because hate is hard and safe and secure. It builds a wall between you and the world and no one can ever get through it. You are impenetrable, unreachable, safe in your castle of righteous anger. Hate makes you feel like you’re making a difference, like you’re making a change for the better.

But I believe that it’s love–not hate–that changes the world. It’s kindness and thoughtful criticism and having a sense of humor about the horrible, horrible things that happen to all of us that moves us forward. It’s taking the risk to love something–or someone–so deeply that you are vulnerable.

Please love something today. Do it loudly and with fervor and with grand gestures, if that feels right. Drown out the hate, even if just for a few moments. Be a positive force in world, if you can.

Here is where I say thank you for all the positive forces in my world. Here is where I say I love you, with all the softness and vulnerability that I have in me. Here is where I say I forgive you and I’m sorry you’re scared and I understand your need to hold onto hate like a blanket. Here is where I say it’s okay to claw at me if it helps you feel better.

Here is where I say: Keep your hate if you must, but remember that it traps you immobile and scared in the corner, lashing out and destroying the very things that matter to you. Here is a hand, reaching. Here is a way out.

Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast

My novel, Leather Bound, showed up in a cool place on Amazon UK! 

Last week’s six impossible things:

1. The Numenera corebook went off to press. Holler. And breathe. And maybe celebrate. 
   
2. We showed off the Numenera cover!
3. I got some time off. I saw Man of Steel, read some books, played some RPGs and got killed in Don’t Starve.
4. This essay in the Rumpus by Liz Prato made my lungs expand into breathlessness.
5. This fucking dead-on beautiful piece by Amanda Palmer described my life and love in a way that no one ever has.
6. I love you all. Thank you for everything you give to me, every day.

What impossible things did you believe in this week?

Kiss kiss bang bang, s.