_www.FantasyLibrary.com [Visit Who Is Joseph Teller?] Synthesis & Synchronicity 027

Synthesis & Synchronicity #27

Personal Notes: This began as the Sept 17th edition, but I had far too little to write about and far too much writer's block to get the job done. Jury duty hung over my head and placed a great amount of anxiety in my thoughts... its now the 21st and I feel obligated to get something new up on the website.

On the 19th I had to go in town for the jury duty process to begin.... and I can't say much about it except that its nowhere near over yet. I don't have to go back in, yet, I have to call in on this Friday evening to see if I need to show up on Monday. They had us filling out some of the most obtrusive forms I've ever had to regarding my life, that of Kiralee, Cindy's, my family and even some of my friends. They wanted to know far too much about too much and we were forced to do so under oath. I have enough trouble dealing with my paranoia and distrust of the government, but when they want to know about medical history, job history, charity donations, religious affiliations, relationship with police, pastimes, whether I know any of some 150 or so people involved in the case in any way, whether I know any of the 500 or so people that were also called for jury duty at the same time, etc... well the forms took nearly 3 hours to fill out as completely as possible.

No, this is not normal for jury duty. I've been in for a state jury duty before and the form was 2 pages. No, its not even normal for Federal Jury Duty. This first case they are putting a pool together for isn't normal, and if I get stuck on it my life isn't my own in regards to weekly schedule until Mid-December potentially (although it won't be sequestered) and involves a case sufficiently high-profile that they had to confiscate all the morning newspapers from us to avoid us seeing anything about the case. And we're instructed NOT to read about it or see anything about it on radio, tv etc.

Hopefully they will not choose me as a juror in all this.... of course, that means I'm back into the pool of potential jurors for other cases come Monday if they decide I'm not appropriate for this specific trial, and that means I may be sitting in the jury room again filling out more forms. Sigh.

I have managed to get some NPC design work done, and put together the initial Bureau-13 Team Smorgasbord web page and kept the household running. I haven't decided on my specific plot-plans for when the group convines for the first game, but am working on a variety of ideas. Its turning into a mixture of ideas, because B13 has always been a mix. I'm aiming more for the feel of the books rather then the game books (since the Tri-Tac version of the game is very different from the upcoming D20 version), and have decided to make it into a version of the setting with a lot of 'reality leakage' from popular movies, tv, and books of the genre of modern fantasy and conspiracy stuff (MIB, X-Files, etc.)

I also have been helping Cindy and Kiralee on creating their characters, so that they will be ready in time for the campaign.

The end of the assertiveness training course leaves a slight hole in my schedule (presuming that the Jury Duty doesn't become worse), one I wish there was something interesting to fill in with. Going back to school for a few weeks was, in many ways, relaxing. This is especially true since this was more a class of people who wanted to be there and wanted to learn what the course entailed, rather then the forced kind of educational experiences I had in High School and College for the most part. Learning, for self improvement, curiousity or to follow up on a personal interest, is far more fun then doing such because you need the credits or need the accredidation for a job position.

I've always prided myself in my personal studying of history, culture, etc., but that's almost always been a matter of personal research and study, without having the interaction and discussions that one gets from a classroom situation with a handful of other folks involved. The experiences are very different.

Well this past week the first shoe has dropped, and they have changed the licensing terms. I found this out from a press release by the first company to realize it would mean that Hasbro got to decide what they could publish if they wanted to use the license. Here's a copy of the press release:

Michael Hopcroft of Seraphim Guard writes:

"As many of you may know, Wizards of the Coast has instituted some changes in the d20 System Trademark license, the document that determines which documents can and cannot use the d20 System logo and promote themselves as d20 products. The license has become much more restrictive in terms of content. More importantly, it gives Wizards of the Coast the right to review d20 products after publication and remove the right to use the trademark if they deem anything at all in the book improper. The ban would apply to all products of the violating company.

We are a highly ethical publisher and we will never willingly publish the sort of obscene or ultra-violent material the new license is intended to discourage. Nonetheless, we are disturbed by this development for two reasons. One is that the objectionable content listings are so broad that they could mean anything of which Wizards of the Coast, or more specifically their parent company Hasbro, might disapprove. In going over our upcoming HeartQuest 2nd Edition book, we found material that could, under a very loose definition of the license terms, be considered objectionable. This material, while only a small portion of the manuscript, is vital in simulating the genre that HeartQuest represents. We were very uncomfortable with the idea of removing this material.

In addition the d20 STL license, unlike the Open Gaming License, used by gold Rush Games and others prohibits the use of any sort of character creation mechanics in products bearing the d20 logo. We find this provision entirely too restrictive creatively, especially as we produce dual-system books that require us to provide character creation material in the non-d20 sections.

Finally, since these new provisions were added without prior notice, there is no way of predicting that Wizards of the Coast or Hasbro might not add new, even more restrictive provisions at a later date that could be applied retroactively. After much soul searching and research into the situation, Seraphim Guard has determined that we cannot abide by the terms of the d20 STL and still produce the quality of games our customers have come to expect. Therefore, after much consideration we have decided to drop the d20 logo from our upcoming products and abide instead by the less restrictive Open Gaming License.

We will be removing the d20 logo from our promotional material as soon as possible and are seeking a replacement OGL logo. We hope our customers will understand our reasoning behind this decision and will continue to retain interest in our products. It was a very difficult decision to make and we did not undertake it lightly."

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Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings.....

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