2010 Aug 25 4:53 PM

Hmph: Frog God Swords & Wizardry

It’s a good thing if an old-school game can get broader distribution with a new publisher. On the other hand, the Frog God press release seems a little tone deaf:

We won’t sell you hand drawn maps and clip art laid out by amateurs and posted up on Lulu.com as a cheap book that you look at and discard.

And speaking of tone, I’ve always felt that Peter Mullen’s art strikes just the right note for any old-school gaming material. Frog God Game’s new S&W cover—not so much:

I mean, it’s nice and all, but to me the new cover art says “d20-era Call of Cthulhu” not OD&D.

UPDATE: Mythmere (Matthew J. Finch) comments on the “by amateurs and posted up on Lulu.com” statement.

4 comments:

A Paladin In Citadel August 25, 2010 at 5:17 PM

More excitement in OSRland. I think Matt Finch has pretty much cleared up that the Frog God comments were about sub-par Pathfinder stuff.

Paul August 25, 2010 at 5:47 PM

Yes, and there is some change-is-scary-ism, but the announcement might have been handled better.

Mostly I’m upset that I never got a chance to buy the hardcovers with the Mullen art.

Scott August 25, 2010 at 7:16 PM

I gather that LotFP and its production values are getting attention outside of the “OSR ghetto” section of the FLGS and the gaming community. I can’t imagine that’s going unnoticed by other OSR publishers. I’d expect more modern-looking OSR products in the future and fewer callbacks to the old visual style. Just my guess.

Paul August 25, 2010 at 7:36 PM

I’m happy for these games to get higher profile. As far as art and product design, I’ll express my concerns in a post tomorrow.

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