So a while back I discussed how B/X is annoyingly perfect, and soon I'll be publishing a review about where they went entirely wrong with Advanced OSE. This won't be about that, it's just going to be about the product and the failure of the company. 100% Necrotic Gnome's mistakes in making the game.
Mistake 1: Two formats.
That's stupid. Don't do that. If you can make a one-book D&D, make one-book D&D. Multiple book format takes up more space and also makes it harder to reference things. That's right I said it. Because figuring out which book you need to pick up, then sorting which one it is, then picking it up and thumbing through it takes more time than one-book lookups. This is objectively true. Five book game in a slipcase is bullshit. Get rid of it. I will no longer be talking about the 5 volume version because it's stupid.
Mistake 2: Bad art.
You raised a bunch of money on Kickstarter. Give some to Jeff Easley, Clyde Caldwell, Erol Otus, Tony DiTerlizzi, or one of the other great artists of AD&D and make your product stand above all the crap art in the OSR. The fucking covers are garbage art in comparison, no offense to the artists in question but y'all ain't Erol Otus. Goddamn it Erol Otus is still producing art (see Swords & Wizardry Complete, second printing). You don't need 50 goddamn color plates, just a couple of REALLY GOOD ones. That leads me to...
Mistake 3: Bad organization.
Even though the game prides itself on layout, there are several major issues with the game - nearly 30 pages of wasted space on color plates that are the opposite of essential.
Several pages wasted on backers (I don't care if they paid for all the special art, neither was needed).
Two pages wasted on OGL when this could be a print out stuck in the cover to be thrown away by the consumer as it adds nothing to the game (as could the backer list, really).
For some reasons Magic Swords and Sentient Swords have a section on other magical weapons jammed between them. That's stupid.
Lastly a section on changes and clarity that should have been a blog post somewhere instead of in a book that aims to be sleek and streamlined. These are all obvious to anyone looking at it. The game sits at 300 pages when it could easily be 250.
Mistake 4: Relying on Print Runs.
Basically when your game is out of stock, you're failing as a producer. You can't get it anywhere, and if you do manage to snag it in print, they're charging fucking $80 for it. While the 2nd print is finally back ins stock at Exalted Funeral, I already made the tweaks I discussed here and uploaded it to Lulu to print a personal copy. That's money lost because they didn't already have an actual streamlined version available for purchase.
Mistake 5: No Credit for Moldvay. Cook, or Marsh.
This is simply bad form because OSE is not in any way designed by Gavin Norman. It was plagiarized design from the three men I said, who in turn were working off of Arneson and Gygax's ruleset. OSE is practically scared to mention these five mostly or all dead white guys' names. I think it's a product of the culture war. Basic Fantasy and even LotFP both call them inspiration or outright dedicate their games to these great men. It's frankly insane not to give them their due credit.
Mistake 6: Advanced Fantasy Genre Rules.
This one is going to be it's own post, later.
Long story short, even though the company only had to regurgitate rules, like Pathfinder or Labyrinth Lord they managed to fuck it up.
