So I'm doing a contest...See, I did this D&D book and, judging from the links I've been getting, people like it...
"It is inspirational reading; the most so I have seen in maybe 25 years for any sort of RPG. "
Dragonsfoot Forum
"It’s probably the most-bang-for-the-buck RPG product I’ve ever bought in my life. "
Lost Papers of Tsojcanth 1 and 2
"This is quite simply one of the best and most useful RPG products that I have every purchased and read through in my entire gaming career."
WrathofZombie'a Blog
"[Vornheim] is like the first crash of Johnny Ramone's guitar across the bow of fantasy arena rock. Vornheim is, as I have said elsewhere, like the Sex Pistols covering Ptolus."
Hite, Kenneth
"I can't recommend it enough. No matter what edition you use, or retro-clone, this is going to help any campaign you make. Not just for the city games either."
RPG: Rants and Raves
"I can pretty much guarantee you that if you have any interest in running urban-based fantasy at any point in your campaign, then you, too, will find it worth every penny."
Alexandrian, The 1 and 2 and 3
"The stated goal of the book is not only to allow a GM to create a city on the fly, but to make it interesting, memorable and fun, and I would argue that it more than succeeds in that task." Brighton Role-Players
"So the real magic of the book, like I said before, is how it becomes easy to create textural elements, randomly or semi-randomly, with very little effort"
Drawings and Dragons
"This compact book does contain enough genuinely useful material for detailing a fantasy city on the fly to make it indispensable to any referee whose campaign involves regular urban forays outside the dungeon."
Grognardia
"Smart and yet playful. A bold kick up the arse to other setting books."
Haque in Black
"For me, Vornheim - The City Complete Kit is the most innovative role-playing product for a long time and is a hot candidate for an Ennie."
LeckerTHAC0! (English Translation)
"And it's all a very inspiring and stylish package"
Metagame (English Translation)
"I have to admit I am rather impressed... 5 out of 5 stars"
Other Side, The
"It's inspiring and I want to skip work, press gang my players or co-workers and use it right now."
Places to Go, People to Be
Planet Algol 1 and 2 " It's an innovative product, but it shouldn't be; that not an indictment of Vornheim but of what RPG products are generally produced."
"In terms of art and graphic design, Vornheim looks like no other RPG book ever."
RPG.net Forum Discussion
"This is definitely not your daddy's Greyhawk or 2e Renfaire Realms anymore."
RPGSite Forum Discussion
"This is really my cup or tea."
Savage Swords of Athanor
" It gave me a whole lot of flexibility that I've never really experienced in a game before. Seriously, if you haven't bought Vornheim yet, you really need to. Even if Zak's game isn't your style, use the format and concepts and fill in the tables with things that meet your style. It's that useful."
Gaming All Over The Place
"Everything you've read about it is true. Including and especially the talk about changing how people make stuff for their games."
Seeking Wing, The
"I want something that will make it easier for me to run sessions in cities with little or no prep, and I really want this Kit to do that for me; so, first impressions, does it do the job it sets out to do? My quick answer: yes!"
Sky is Full of Dust, The
"HOLY **** IT'S **** AWESOME!"
UK Roleplayers Forum Discussion
"I will definitely use the book at the table."
Apprentice of Old School (English Translation)
(the Underdark Gazette liked it, too)
"I think this is probably the best product I think I've ever come across."
This guy did a video review (cue up to 7:29)(and even though it's from "Scary Hair Studios" I swear I had nothing to do with this video)
"It's exactly what it says on the tin: a thunk-provoking tool kit that'll probably be great fun to unleash on the players."
Vaults of Nagoh
"In some urban RPG’s, an unexpected player decision might be disastrously time consuming; not so with the aid of Vornheim. Vornheim provides the referee tools to handle any number of circumstances that might occur within a city adventure."
Vorpal Dice
"It crawls with cunning charts & maps"
"The biggest problem I have with Vornheim: The Complete City Kit is that it's going to make all other city sourcebooks seem dull by comparison."
"It is a beautifully illustrated and very well constructed book."
"...Vornheim is an amazing approach to doing a city sourcebook which, although intended for old-school D&D, has plenty of utility for story gaming."
"...felt like a breath of fresh air after all these colorful, overproduced RPGs"
"Looking over Vornheim. Wow. this is really, really good."
"Infinite *s out of 5...The book is almost insidious in nature as it seeps into your own creativity and basically challenges you to be more creative, to raise your game to another level, and to be better at running your games."
"Zak dribbles more creativity and inspiration on page 3 (territories surrounding Vornheim) than most books manage in their entirety. And that's a pale shadow of page 7..."
"... too valuable not to have in you DM arsenal."
"I read Vornheim during my vacation and was amazed. Zak's really got something great here. I'd say award-winning."
"Random tables and charts, strange characters and locales, and snakes as books. Brilliant."
"The quality of the book is exceptional in every way."
"This totally raises the bar, you realize."
"Where Ptolus is a huge, whopping, incredibly detailed city book, this is stripped down the the very basics, the bare minimum, so that all that’s left is the raw rock and roll. It has exactly as much as you really need, leaving the gamemaster to play around and flesh out the rest..."
"...Vornheim is Byzantine, brilliant, and exhilarating..."
"Vornheim is, in my opinion, one of the most innovative RPG products I've seen in years. It is exactly what it claims to be, a city building toolkit designed to make life easier for the DM and provide a vast and interesting urban sprawl for your players. If you are even remotely entertaining the possibility of a city-based campaign, you need this book."
"It's a damn good book, full of useful stuff."
"If you are planning urban adventures, Vornheim is AWESOME for it. I ran adventures in a small town of 1300 and it was very useful."
"I honestly can’t find anything negative to write about this book, it really is a slice of fantastic RPG creativity and I urge anyone who enjoys fantasy city gaming to pick up this gem before the print-run of 2000 copies disappears."
"Good ideas, great tables!"
"It is an amazing toolkit and wonderful aid."
"It is a work of art, brilliant in how useful it is."
"I have to give you props sir, your experience and insight into city play made for a better night for me and my friends."
"The book is crammed with quirky and imaginative ideas."
"Once I next run a game set in a fantasy metropolis, I will most certainly have my Vornheim by my side, whether it be set in Sigil or Kaer Maga or the City of Greyhawk."
"Actually at last count I have read this think five times. Each time I read it, I realize more and more, this is the perfect city book."
"Lot's of goodies to use for any city-based adventuring. "
"I have to say that thus far it’s really changing the way I look at city campaigns and the build of a fantasy city in general. Zak really is an amazing wellspring of ideas; he’s sort of the Grant Morrison of D&D..."
"It is awesome."
"It's official...Vornheim is freakin' amazing. Best city supplement ever."
"It's quite inspiring...I can't believe that anyone would not be able to take some creative inspiration from it."
"...a beautifully produced handbook for running city adventures."
"...brilliant..."
"...mind-blowingly awesome and original..."
"I would like smaller books that take an approach kind of like what Zak S. did with his Vornheim book: give me the means to make and use good content on the fly for a specific adventure type"
"Vornheim is an amazingly cool supplement. I've been using mine (PDF) almost since the day it came out." (down in the comments)
"Vornheim is awesome; I'm still getting used to it, but there are so many tables in there that allow me to generate interesting things on the fly."
"Flipping thru my copy of Vornheim. I'm pretty sure I want ZakSmith/Sabbath's brain..."
"That thing is a friggin' work of art."
"Vornheim is excellent. Atmospheric, great spur for creativity. Can't wait to use it!"
"This is a damned good game book. Even the first part of the book, which presents Vornheim itself, is full of material that can be directly incorporated into any city campaign. The whole book lives up to the subtitle ("The Complete City Kit"), not just the ingenious shortcuts and excellent tables."
"This little book by Zak S, best known for I Hit It With My Axe, and the D&D with Porn Stars blog, is pretty damned awesome."
But so anyway, yeah.
So here's a contest:
The Official Vornheim: Hack This Book Contest
So what I want (and what we all want, because we like useful new GMing tools) is for you to hack Vornheim. Expand it, make it bigger, make it more fun, make it do things it doesn't yet do....
For example:
-Re-write a table in Vornheim for a different genre of city: a sci-fi city, a modern city, a gilded steampunk city, a pirate city, whatever.
-Re-write something in Vornheim for use outside a city--make it into a dungeon table or a wilderness table or a seagoing table.
-Expand something in Vornheim--like the Immortal Zoo of Ping Feng but feel like it could use an aquarium? Want to make 80 more legal situations? Want to make the encounter chart into a d1000 table? Knock yourself out.
-Did I forget something? Make a whole new table or tool for use in medieval urban adventures.
Point is, take any idea in Vornheim and run with it. Entries will be judged on:
-Usefulness: Does this thing look like it'd produce gameable results at many different tables? How often? At how many different tables? Or how many times at one table? Give us something that makes our job easier or more exciting. Your Random Medieval Funny Hat Table may wow them at your Friendly Local Game Store but, to be honest, it doesn't really do a lot of heavy lifting.
-Efficiency: Did you manage to get what you need across without the GM having to dig for it?
-Style: Did Zak think it was neat?
Rules:
-Enter as many times as you like, however, since the secret reason for this contest is to give us all more game stuff, each entry must be published on-line so that everybody can use whatever tool you've devised. If you don't have a blog or wish to remain anonymous, then send it to me at zakzsmith at hawt mayle dawt calm and I'll publish it if it's any good and I have time and I feel like it. If you do publish it on your own blog remember to email me and tell me you did it.
-Entries should be no longer than a double-page spread in Vornheim itself. Remember: efficiency is beautiful, efficiency is art.
-If it doesn't have to be a pdf DO NOT MAKE IT A PDF (or at least not only a pdf). In an email, text is fine: "cut" "paste". In a blog entry just type it. Pictures are fine.
-Speaking of art, don't just send a picture unless it is also a map or diagram or otherwise part of a game-useful tool.
-I reserve the right to be totally arbitrary and my decision is final and entering the contest means you waive any legal rights to claim damages or claim anything legally-binding about this contest or anything arising from it and me writing this constitutes I'll do my best and try to be a right guy about all this shit and if you don't trust me, don't enter.
-Contest ends on Gary Gygax's birthday, July 27, 2011. Winners will be announced soon after unless there's like a gazillion entries.
Fabulous Prizes:
First place winners will receive a signed copy of Vornheim PLUS a single prize package thingy of their choice from the list below, second place winners will get to pick one thingy from what's left over after that, third place winners get to choose one from what's left over after that...
-Art: Original artwork from the interior of Vornheim signed by me
-Work: A d100 table on a topic of your own devising written by me (if this prize is chosen it will also be posted here on this blog).
-Game stuff: I will give you a list of all the game stuff sent to me over the years that's left around this house and you can pick something and I'll send it to you.
-Booby prize: If you're a fan of one or all of the DNDWPS girls I can get you signed pictures or memorabilia or some other mutually-agreed upon thing--lemme know once you win.
-Hey man, can you...?: If you have a product to pimp, I will read it or watch it and review it and post the review here.
-15-minute Commission: I will take 15 whole minutes out of my day and draw a thing of your choice, then have the girl who works for me mail you the drawing.
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Oh, and PS, here's me and Satine and Mandy and Kimberly and James Raggi on the All Games Considered podcast.
