SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Ok folks. Here it comes.

I'm going to have my hands more than full with the various Ruins of Undermountain projects we have going (RoUIII, RoUIV, etc), plus a side adventure or two such as The Curse of Lemora. I literally cannot devote any time to any other projects.

So...

Unless someone can step up to the plate and lead the development of the Complete Illusionist Handbook, I think I'll have no choice but to close that project down and delete it.

I never envisioned the BIP Project with me overseeing each and every project on every level. I always pictured each different project being done by various "development teams".

I really enjoyed seeing Caves of Sydwall developed because PaSquall wrote it, Brannon did the art, Varl proofed it, and Traveller edited it and formatted it. In other words, I didn't need to be involved in every step. I just proofed it a bit. That left me free to work on Undermountain.

I was hoping that the Complete Illusionist Handbook would end up with a driven creative team, but it never seems to happen.

I'd hate to see it dumped, but it's been sitting idle for over a year now. It makes no sense to keep it up and to keep referring to it when in truth it shows no sign of ever becoming a reality.

So...does anyone want to become the Project Manager for the Complete Illusionist Handbook? What this would entail is overseeing the development of the project. You would help recruit site members who want to work on it, set goals for finishing each chapter, and overseeing content. In other words, you'd be the head honcho of the project. I have some material to contribute to it (such as Brodeen's magical deck of cards, for which nobody has yet figured out my inspiration ), and can sit in on some discussion and help move things along, but I couldn't "run it" so to speak.

Well, I hope some brave, confident soul steps up to do it. It would be a fantastic addition to the BIP material, from what I've seen.

[Zherbus]

See my post in the development forum for a proposal.

[McDeath]

I clicked on usergroups and noticed it doesn't show anyone in the various developement teams. I know we have posts in each forum that tells who is on the team (well Undermountain anyway as that's the only team I'm in ATM). Perhaps this needs to be updated. There also hasn't been much of an influx of new people lately. Maybe I should ask directly on a few forums who'd like to join. Another detail I noticed was that the members we have don't seem to be posting much (I realize people have lives but I sure wish they'd post just a little so I know they're out there). Anyone hear from Traveller, Jared, Shacia or some of the other posters that have multiple posts? It can just get lonely here in these dusty halls.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

I know Traveller's been inundated with work and moving cross country, so he's going to be MIA for awhile. There's been a handful of new people signing up but not posting.

It wouldn't hurt to have McDeath and Jared posting at DF and updating stuff to get more people interested. We got a large influx last time. But to update it we really need some new preview material ready.

I tried to post at Candlekeep, but they have some weird rule about not promoting other websites, which makes no sense to me since it's not like we'd draw traffic off theirs, but whatever. I asked a few months back about being able to at least post something there, but it's like talking to a wall. I don't have time to keep after things like that.

We might want to post at the Acaeum, although I'd feel weird since I'm not a very active member there. And those guys are mainly collectors, so I'm not sure what the level of interest would be.

We can't/won't advertise at WOTC because the wannabe internet lawyer bitches will crawl out of the woodwork like the little maggots they are and cause a flame war, along with the mindless WOTC sycophant/sheeple. Can you tell how much I love wannabe internet lawyer bitches?

There are very few other worthy OOP AD&D sites to advertise on. Planet'Tard? We call it Planet'Tard for reason you know. We'd get the same stupid whiney complaints that we'd see at WOTC and then they'd ask me if they could develop a paladin/assassin class for the BIP Project and I'd be forced to hunt them down and clean the gene pool and that gets all messy and all that.

I have a thread at Grognard Tavern, but the place has become like a tomb for years now. I miss that place, it was fun. But it's just dead. I have a post at Rob's PPP site, but they're almost exclusively Greyhawk people who really don't like the FR. The response there is mainly congratulatory as fellow gamers who are proud to see other OOP gamers doing their thing, but not many people there are that interested in FR stuff. Lance Hawvermale from PPP wrote me and was very excited though and said he'd spread the word. I found out he's a big 2E fan, so I'll see if he wants to poin up here.

You couldn't mention the words "Undermountain" or "Halaster" at the Bunker Sites like K&K Alehouse without getting your ass banned because those people have psychological problems and will never bury the hatchet. They'll be the first and only people online who will denigrate and denounce our projects once they're released. Of course, if you want to debate "what is old school" for the 278th time, it's a good place to be.

What other OOP sites are there? Clearly ADNDC.com and Orcforge are already here. But who else is out there?

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Oh yeah, you're right. I gotta update the usergroups. After I figure out how that works!

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Well that was easy! I think I got everyone for the RoU development team in there. There is nobody on the Curse of Lemora development team. Damn. And the Illusionist Handbook needs to get a team assembled so that we can list one.

[Jared Synn]

You're missing someone.

[Taps foot impatiently]

[McDeath]

Yeah, that did bring a big : when I didn't see Jared's name there.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Ooops.

Fixed that!