Answers from Beyond: Book Delivery Update and OGL updates
about 3 years ago – Thu, Feb 02, 2023 at 05:55:47 PM

Our last update about WotC’s new OGL left some folks with a few questions, some of which we couldn’t answer until the coin finally landed on the future of the license. Now that we have the answers we need, we know that these answers may have come with more questions. And that made us dizzy. So we invoked our resident elder thing, Strato, to explain.

But before that, one piece of business. The books have officially arrived at the warehouse and are being packaged and ready to ship! We will be locking addresses on Sunday, so if you need to update your shipping address, now is the time!

Once more, for emphasis

ADDRESSES LOCK THIS SUNDAY (FEB 5), SO MAKE SURE YOUR SHIPPING ADDRESS IS CORRECT

Now for the other bit… just fit this piece here and…

Salutations! I am Strato, cursed with knowledge, and I am here to share my curse! The announcement of the newest decisions regarding the OGL and the SRD has led many to ask me questions about what it all means, and while I may not grant you knowledge of the deeper secrets, I can certainly help to shed some light on a few things.

What is the SRD? - For those that have not been following what I have begun to think of as “The Saga of the Wizards’ Folly,” you might not have reason to know. This is the System Resource Document, or the most basic form of D&D 5e. This is the document that allows us to build 3rd party content using the same ruleset, and make it all compatible.

What is the OGL? - The Open Gaming License, a document that worked alongside the SRD. This is what gave creators the permission to use the rules in the SRD. For over 20 years, the license agreement has been unchanged, and the newest announcement says that it shall stay that way.

What is the Creative Commons? - The Creative Commons is an open license with a much broader scope than the OGL. More accurately, the Creative Commons is a set of different licenses, all intended to make a creative work available for other creators to then make derivative works. These licenses can be made with different restrictions on how the new work has to credit the original, whether the new work can be sold, and even whether the new work is required to also be released under Creative Commons.

The specific license that concerns us here is CC-BY-4.0. Under this license, a new work derived from a work with CC-BY (which somehow stands for Creative Commons Attribution License) is allowed to be sold for profit, and does not need to be released under the same license, but must credit the original.

What does this release of the SRD as Creative Commons mean? - Because the SRD 5.1 carries the CC-BY-4.0 licensing, this means that creators can choose to forego putting the OGL license information on 5e works moving forward. We can credit them using the CC instead. This gives us permission to use most of the same content that the OGL did (give or take a few proper nouns), meaning that for now, we can treat them as basically interchangeable.

How do we know Wizards won’t try to change that agreement like they tried with the OGL? - Simply put, because they can’t. Wizards of the Coast (and their parent company, Hasbro) does not have any control over the Creative Commons, and they have no legal right to amend the licenses. Further, once a work has been released under Creative Commons, that stamp cannot be revoked. It’s out there and belongs to the Commons forever.

Do we really believe that Wizards is going to release the SRD under that license? - Well, they’ve already done it. The document is already out there on the web, and the first page includes the license. Our trust may have been shaken, but they’re not asking us to have faith. The die is cast.

What does this mean for Action Fiction? - This means that after all the hand-wringing, contingencies and fallbacks, and bracing for impact… We can proceed exactly as we had originally planned. We can change up which license we use if we decide to, but otherwise, our planned projects and the continued existence of our existing products can just keep chugging along.

Does this mean that all the hashtags and boycotts were for nothing? - Nothing could be further from the truth. All of the work that the entire community did to tell Wizards not to move forward with their license update, all of the effort you all took, it could not have been more important to this and to us here at Action Fiction. The decision that was reached, and the outcome we have here, could only have happened because of all of you. This is a victory for the entire community, won by the entire community. If it looks like very little has changed, just remember that the goal was to keep things as they were, and be proud of the fact that we were able to make that happen. I know that we are  proud of you all.

When will the fourth Murka book be announced? - I said I would not share information on the deeper mysteries. This interview is over.

Thank you, Strato…

We thank you all for sticking with us through this, and we are just as excited to finally put our books in your hands as you are to get them.

Until next time,

Love and lucky rolls from Strato and The Action Fiction Faction

First update of the year!
about 3 years ago – Tue, Jan 24, 2023 at 03:23:17 PM

Hey howdy hey y'all it’s ya Snail!

Back at it with a Kickstarter update to answer the question I know is on everyone's mind.

Where the hecky-hey are the books?

That's a great question! My answer, unfortunately, is a little vague. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we know the books are in the States and on their way to Maryland. Because of a snafu on the part of our printer, we discovered there was some additional paperwork that needed to be filled out before the products were shipped. However, we've accelerated the process of this paperwork and the delay is minimal thanks to Jaron's quick work. Everything has been taken care of but we are waiting for confirmation on the book's exact whereabouts from the US customs department. Here's an insider tip... dealing with US customs is not fun. Rest assured it's been taken care of

The other issue that we have run into is that Nord Games (our fulfillment partners) shut down the shipping and fulfillment portion of its business in December. We found out about this last week. Our campaigns will now be fulfilled through Flying Cloud fulfillment, which is based out of Maryland. . All that is left is to let the wheels of American bureaucracy grind ever onwards.

The second the books begin to ship out, we will post another Kickstarter update to let you all know!

Flagship in Drydock: On Possible OGL Updates and their Impact on Our Future

By now, many of you will have heard the news of the leaked language of Wizards of the Coast’s (WotC) upcoming update to the Open Game License (OGL). While the proposed changes have been halted for now, we still anticipate changes to come, and we want to inform you of how such changes could affect Action Fiction and the Monsters of Murka world, and what we will be doing if things move forward the way we suspect they will. For those that are unfamiliar with what is happening to OGL v1.0(a), here’s the short version.

Over 20 years ago, D&D created a license allowing 3rd party creators to use their system to create and sell their own original content. This license was not created out of any altruism or generosity, the architect of the document freely admitted that it was a business decision. The goal of allowing people to use the OGL in its original form was to make D&D the biggest and most popular system in the industry. It was successful in that, and D&D is so big now that its name is synonymous with TTRPGs at large, and many independent creators were able to benefit alongside WotC, as this license meant that as our successes grew, the core system grew as well. Creators were protected by the license, because our success was the game’s success, and it was mutually beneficial.

The language in the draft of the coming update takes all of the protections given to creators in the old version away, and gives production and protective rights to WotC instead. Anyone that publishes a work under the new OGL (version 1.1) gives WotC permission to use that work in any way the company sees fit, with no royalties required to be given to the creator; permission WotC retains even if they revoke the license and force the creator to cease selling their work. Even worse, anyone who publishes a new work under the new OGL is required to update all of their past published work(s) to conform with the rulings in the new OGL, nullifying the previous license.

Simply put, if we publish a new product, we risk having all of our work, new and old alike, shut down or stolen from us. Or shut down and then stolen from us.

As a result of community outrage and, more importantly, the threat of canceling subscriptions, OGL v1.1 has been walked back for now. Still, we need to stay vigilant in case the next attempt includes anything that even resembles that.

The OG License was designed to operate in perpetuity, creating a symbiotic relationship between the game and creators. Despite this, people who see our beloved hobby as nothing more than a cash cow wanted to throw away that symbiosis in the interest of increasing revenues and padding their bottom line. In doing so, they will have broken a promise, broken the trust, and spat in the face of everyone that helped to make their product as successful as it has been.

Snails, Strato, and the Action Fiction Faction

December 2022 Update
about 3 years ago – Thu, Dec 29, 2022 at 03:20:34 PM

Hello One And All,

Brad here, with a quick, Holiday time, Post-PAXU Update. You all have been very patient with us regarding delivery of these two precious books and we are more than grateful for it, and in the interest of respecting that patience I’m going to jump straight to business without much additional preamble. Some days ago we received this message from the printing company:

This is a lot of information, so let me break it down for you

Good News First

THE BOOKS HAVE FINISHED PRINTING!

That’s right! The books have finished printing and are on a cargo ship headed for New York City as you read this message. That boat leaves Rottedam Harbor tomorrow Wed, Dec 28th at 9pm. That same boat’s expected arrival time is January the 12th at 8am. From there, it should take a week or two for the books to arrive at their final destination, in your hands.

That puts expected delivery around the Lunar New Year and, provided there are no customs or Suez-canal-related delays, you could have the books, have read them, and be ready to start a new campaign by Valentines day!

Bad News Next

Unfortunately that means your books will not be there in time for the end of the year. If you were REALLY hoping to get them by then (perhaps because they were a planned present for a loved one) please, give them our sincerest apologies and let them know that should they see us at a Con or in the wild, they are more than welcome to cash in a screenshot of this update as a ticket to punch me right in the nose. (Offer valid until end of 2023, not available for use with other coupons. One punch per customer per print out.)

Con News Last

We went to PAX Unplugged and LOVED it! We got to meet so many of you who backed with us and so many who had never heard of Murka, as well as network so that we can level up the next wave of Action Fiction products and keep making you all proud.

To those we saw at PAXU, thank you for stopping by the booth and talking with us, it was truly a treat to get to meet you all, and many of us were reduced to tears (after sales hours of course) by your love and support.

Conclusion

We are sorry that they are not there now, but your books will be in your hands very soon. So soon, in fact, that we can nearly feel them already, but as always please remember that your support of our small, guerilla, passion-run business is nothing short of spectacular, and that we appreciate it immensely.

Have a fantastic rest of 2022,

Sincerely,

Brad and the Action Fiction Faction.

Hot off the Presses!
over 3 years ago – Wed, Nov 30, 2022 at 10:46:14 PM

Holy Gastropodia, Action Fiction Fam!

We got a couple of major updates and while normally I’d bury the lede but I’m just too dang excited to share this with you. 

THAT'S RIGHT BABY THOSE ARE THE BOOKS BEING PRINTED LIVE BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES! it's(Well, not actually since it's a recording but let's keep the hype train rolling). 

As you can see in the video we have beautiful art from the Walmoria section of the book in all its CYMK glory! But it's not just Restaurants & Retail, OH NO, the core book reprint (with errata fixes) and Chromatic Gamut are hot on its heels! The printing process is an important milestone not only because we want to get these books in your hands and thus bring this multi-year journey to a joyous close, but also because…. 

WE’RE GOING TO PAX UNPLUGGED BAY-BEE!

That's right you can find some of your favorite Action Fictioneers this December 2nd-4th at PAX Unplugged! We will be doing Goblin Cave demos at our booth all weekend (as well as hosting some full games in the Unpub Room) and we will have merch for sale! You can purchase fun stickers and even some of our limited edition coffee Mokahs of Murka.

Not sure what Goblin Cave is? It's a board game we’ve been working on since before Restaurants & Retail! Find out more here! 

We also have some heftier merch… like BOOKS! That's right! We will have a limited selection of physical books for sale. We are air-shipping 25 copies of all three of our Monsters of Murka trilogy as well as their deluxe hardcover editions! So if you missed your chance to back during the campaign or just want a sneak peek at what you can expect in your mail before the year is out, stop by booth 3903! (You can also ask the gang to sign a book if you buy one, it'll be hilarious trust me). And don't worry this won't interrupt the printing of backer books. We were always going to have more books than what was purchased due to minimum order quantities.

We would also like to thank the folks over at Salien-Welf for sponsoring our PAXU booth this year! We will have some promotional contest flyers for them at the booth as well, so come grab a copy, it would help us out and they promised a fun prize for participants! 

We're taking safety very seriously at PAX and while we are following PAX U's guidelines, our team will be taking extra steps as well. This includes rapid testing every day to guarantee we're healthy before entering the con floor and we will be cleaning our Goblin Cave demo pieces between games. To show our seriousness in masking, all bearded members of the team going are going to be clean-shaven the entire weekend so their masks fit properly. Brad would also like me to inform you all that we will be maintaining a "Canary in a Coal Mine" level of Vigilance. I don't really know what that means but it sounds intense as heck! In all seriousness, we will be taking all reasonable precautions available to us; if you'd like to read more about our safety plan you can head over to our Discord for a full breakdown [link].

Your safety and ours are of the utmost importance and the decision to return to cons was not an easy one to make. Please rest assured that we don't take this lightly. 

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, stay safe, stay sane, and may you succeed in your endeavors. 

Yours Goopily, 

Snails and the Action Fiction Crew

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Deluxe Edition Cover Preview
over 3 years ago – Thu, Oct 27, 2022 at 08:17:12 AM

Hey Howdy Hey Y’all 

It's the Snail, back at it again with a short but sweet update! 

THE BOOKS ARE AT THE PRINTERS Y’ALL. You’ve probably heard this already but the books… are.. AT THE PRINTERS!!!!!! That means even as you're reading this –delightfully written– Kickstarter update, some big ass machine is spewing ink onto paper and doing some kind of amazing advanced techno-magic to create your books! 

If everything goes well, there’s a very real chance that the books could ship by December, so fingers crossed we can get them to you before the holidays! 

As a fun little teaser, we have a sneak peek at our Deluxe Edition covers!