# AMA Russ Morrissey (Morrus) (EN World, EN Publishing, ENnies, WOIN)



## Morrus (May 6, 2015)

I'm no Keith Baker or Wolfgang Baur, but I figured I could set another example of how to do an AMA right here on EN World, so here I am.  Ask Me Anything!

Remember, anybody can start an AMA here.  Just go right ahead and start it!  

For those who don't know, I'm Russ Morrissey, better known as Morrus. I run EN World, and am responsible for exciting things like the ENnies, EN Publishing, my own _What's O.L.D. is N.E.W_. roleplaying game system, EN5ider and TRAILseeker, and more.  I've been doing this since 1999, which makes it 16 years now that I've been posting rumours and news scoops about roleplaying games, and selling PDFs of awesome adventure paths. I also have a cold.

I'll let this run for a couple of days and pop in when I get chance. 

I'm happy to answer most questions, but I won't deal with tech/site support or customery/producty support type stuff here.  I do that all day every day, right here on this forum, so if you need that stuff, it's easy enough to get pretty much all the rest of the time!  I'm also not the go-to expert for ZEITGEIST, so you may be better asking Ryan Nock in the ENP forum for that stuff!


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## bedir than (May 6, 2015)

With WOIN, why did you decide to go with a broad do everything game rather than something narrow and specific?


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## Morrus (May 6, 2015)

bedir than said:


> With WOIN, why did you decide to go with a broad do everything game rather than something narrow and specific?




Actually, it isn't a broad, do everything game.  There are many things I'm sure it really can't do, and I wouldn't want to try -- high powered supers, for example, or very narrative gaming.  Or even super high fantasy gaming like D&D.  What I originally wanted to do was emulate two specific genres very well - my two favourite RPG genres, being medieval fantasy, and futuristic sci-fi.  Tolkein and Trek.  The third game, _N.O.W._, came later; and that's written by somebody else, Mike Myler, who is far more of an expert on that genre than I am.  I guess, with the three, you do get a sense of a reasonably broad range of possibilities, especially when you start mixing and matching them, but the intention isn't to be GURPS, FATE, or Savage Worlds.  It's much more focused on doing a couple of things as well as I can.

Now, if third parties were to take that and find other things to do with it, that's fine with me.  They can likely bring stuff to it that I can't!


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## Mike Myler (May 6, 2015)

Why do you guys call chinese food "curry"?


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## Morrus (May 6, 2015)

Mike Myler said:


> Why do you guys call chinese food "curry"?




Uh... we don't.  We call Indian food "curry", on account of it being curry.  We call Chinese food "Chinese food".

I assume by "you guys" you mean "astonishingly handsome people"?


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## Mike Myler (May 6, 2015)

Morrus said:


> We don't.  We call Indian food "curry", on account of it being curry.  We call Chinese food "Chinese food".




Well that would explain what confused me about this.


What was the inspiration to get EN World up and going? Were you up to RPG scoopery/design before that?


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## bedir than (May 6, 2015)

As a fan of lower fantasy settings that has to reskin a lot of DnD for his homebrew I'm kind of enthralled now. Thanks for the response.


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## Morrus (May 7, 2015)

Mike Myler said:


> What was the inspiration to get EN World up and going? Were you up to RPG scoopery/design before that?




16 years ago when I was ... yikes.... in my early 20s.  Wait, I'm not in my early 20s any more?  What the hell?  That wasn't the deal!

Anyway, Eric Noah ran his Eric' Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News site. It was awesome. I have it archived at that link.   Eric and I became friends, and at the same time I create EN World for the creation of homebrew 3E game settings. To that I ended up adding a reviews database and d20/OGL news reporting. Back then, nobody else was doing that stuff -- now everybody is! It was an exciting time - pre social media, the OGL was new and people were doing awesome things with it (they still are, but we're used to it now).

Anyhow, Eric emailed me one day to tell me he was closing his site.  I was devastated, to be honest.  I loved that place, its forums, his news scoops, the community. But then, after we talked it over for a while, we both agreed it would be a real shame to close the community (and, again, it wasn't like there were a billion RPG forums back then, or Facebook, or Twitter) so we figured I should take it over.  Which I did.  And now it turns out I'm, like, 40 and have been doing this for most of my adult life.

So I've been doing this 16 years now.  The site's grown, shrunk, crashed, been rebuilt more than once, been hacked, been popular, been unpopular, but we're still here. The community has evolved, and the faces change, but having made so many friends through this job, I can't imagine doing anything else.  To be honest, I doubt I _could_ do anything else now.  It's too late!


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## RangerWickett (May 7, 2015)

What games are you playing in or running these days? What do you like in a game - by which I mean both a rules system and a particular ongoing story?


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## Morrus (May 7, 2015)

RangerWickett said:


> What games are you playing in or running these days? What do you like in a game - by which I mean both a rules system and a particular ongoing story?




I've just finished running a 5E campaign, and I'm also playing in a _Pathinder Kingmaker_ campaign.

My tastes fluctuate a lot. I flit between sci-fi and medieval fantasy; right now I think the former is in ascendance, but it changes!  As far as rules go - it depends on what I'm doing with them.  For a one-shot, a convention game, etc. I like an easy rules-lite system; for an ongoing camapaign, I like my rules to be heavier and for a strong sense of character advancement.  In terms of game flavour, unless it's a licensed system for a specific property, I like fairly neutral sounding terminology - in D&D terms, a class name like "fighter" is good, and a class name like "astralzoom shadeassassin" is bad. I guess I like the class name to do what it says on the tin, and if I have to ask what it is, I don't like it.  That's probably just me, though!


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## MerricB (May 7, 2015)

How much gaming do you tend to do each week, Morrus?


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## Morrus (May 7, 2015)

MerricB said:


> How much gaming do you tend to do each week, Morrus?




I'm in two groups. Assuming all goes according to plan, both have one season each week (though things rarely work as scheduled!) The D&D group tends to be a few hours on Saturday afternoons, while the Pathfinder group is 2-3 hours on a Thursday night.


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## Paraxis (May 7, 2015)

You have done this for a long time and through going to conventions, running the ENnies, and in general being around people in the industry you must have some real good memories of time spent gaming or talking games with a few giants in the industry, can you tell us about a couple of those times?

I know Gary Gygax was a poster here and did a couple AMA type things, did you ever get to just hang out with him?


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## Morrus (May 7, 2015)

Paraxis said:


> You have done this for a long time and through going to conventions, running the ENnies, and in general being around people in the industry you must have some real good memories of time spent gaming or talking games with a few giants in the industry, can you tell us about a couple of those times?
> 
> I know Gary Gygax was a poster here and did a couple AMA type things, did you ever get to just hang out with him?




I can tell you about the time I FAILED to game with Gary Gygax! A few years back, Gary ran a game for the EN World moderators. It was on Wednesday night at Gen Con. As has happened every single year I've ever been, flight delays and immigration made me completely miss what was happening on Wednesday night (that's included a WotC D&D press dinner when 4E was announced, an event with Trapdoor Tech last year, and, og course, a friggin' game with Gary Gygax!)  

All I have to remind me of it are the gloating jeers of the likes of [MENTION=2]Piratecat[/MENTION], [MENTION=158]Henry[/MENTION], [MENTION=99]Rel[/MENTION], etc.  Damn them.  But no, I never got to actually game with him.


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## tgmoore (May 7, 2015)

Morrus said:


> My tastes fluctuate a lot. I flit between sci-fi and medieval fantasy; right now I think the former is in ascendance, but it changes!!




Sci-Fi RPGs have always been poor cousin to the traditional and original fantasy rpgs. Could you elaborate on why you think sci-fi rpgs are ascending in popularity? Any specific ones to check out?


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## neobolts (May 7, 2015)

(Some burning questions about this site's history...I've been around since the pre-3e launch days, but didn't follow the inner workings as closely.)

1)When Eric decided to step back, how did the transition work? What was the switch like from the old Eric Noah website?
2)Have you been running the site since then, or did you come on board later?
3)Does it ever feel weird that you ended up at the helm of website, award show, and publishing company with a naming scheme based on someone else's initials? 
4)How did you (or others) come up with the plan to drop the full name but keep the initials?


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## Deuce Traveler (May 7, 2015)

Are you currently playing in any of the ENWorld PbP threads?
If not, have you ever?
If yes to any of the above, what was your favorite PbP thread that you were ever a part?
If you ever had time to run a PbP game, which setting would you DM and what scenario would you create?


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## Morrus (May 7, 2015)

tgmoore said:


> Sci-Fi RPGs have always been poor cousin to the traditional and original fantasy rpgs. Could you elaborate on why you think sci-fi rpgs are ascending in popularity? Any specific ones to check out?




Honestly, I don't know why. Maybe it's just as simple as that the first and biggest name in RPGs happened to be fantasy? The two biggest RPGs in the world are both flavours of D&D, although one doesn't use that name.

There's a lot of great sci-fi games in the tier below those two. And licensed stuff, too, like FFG's Star Wars. Warhammer 40K and its cousins are big. I wonder if Traveller had come first, whether the situation would be different?

Or, in short, I don't know! Sci-fi popularity comes in waves in movies too -- it's ascending right now.  Interestingly, sci-fi has traditionally done better in the movies/TV than fantasy, although LotR, GoT, etc. took a sledgehammer to that!


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## Donny Rhye (May 7, 2015)

1st I'd like to say Maybe you should fly to Gen Con on Tuesdays. What would you like the website doing in the next 10 years? Have you played any memorable Forgotten Realms Adventures? What are the top 3 things you are watching on British television at the moment?


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## Morrus (May 7, 2015)

neobolts said:


> 1)When Eric decided to step back, how did the transition work? What was the switch like from the old Eric Noah website?




It was very easy. It took a couple of days, and involved a database move for the forums, IIRC, but it didn't break. Eric simply left a message on his old site directing people to the new location. 

I don't know that we could do that so easily now. Back then we were talking a database a fraction of the size it is now. 16 years is a lot of growth!



> 2)Have you been running the site since then, or did you come on board later?




Yeah, I created EN World myself when Eric's site still existed. 



> 3)Does it ever feel weird that you ended up at the helm of website, award show, and publishing company with a naming scheme based on someone else's initials?




Not weird, because I'm so used to it.  I wonder if it's ever weird for Eric.



> 4)How did you (or others) come up with the plan to drop the full name but keep the initials?




The etymology makes sense in a way -- it was for a hosted shared setting (the first of oh so many....) made by some members of Eric's forum. That setting eventually got a name (Daemonforge) but in the meantime the site needed a name. "The E.N. World" was supposed to be a placeholder. 

The only thing about it that's not ideal is that it's not great for search engines and the like. It doesn't have "RPG News" in the URL or anything. You don't hear it and know immediately what it does. It's not an optimised name, but it's hard to imagine it being called anything else now.


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## Astrosicebear (May 7, 2015)

ENWorld has evolved alot of the last few years, from a news site, to a community, and now a publisher and content deliverer.

Where do you see ENWorld going in the future? What's the grand vision, or at least your wildest dream?


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## Morrus (May 7, 2015)

Deuce Traveler said:


> Are you currently playing in any of the ENWorld PbP threads?
> If not, have you ever?




I never have done. I simply don't have the time, sadly. I've never played any RPG online. 



> If you ever had time to run a PbP game, which setting would you DM and what scenario would you create?




Hmmm. A Star Trek campaign using N.E.W., possibly. That would be fun!


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## neobolts (May 7, 2015)

How long were you kicking around the idea of WOIN before you launched?
In your own games, are you more interested in keeping the flavors separate or doing a mash up?


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## paleblade (May 7, 2015)

How have things progressed with upgrading the webpage from the Kickstarter?
How are things going with the final rewards from the KS (dice, t shirts)?
What issues did you have running a KS?


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## Morrus (May 7, 2015)

Donny Rhye said:


> 1st I'd like to say Maybe you should fly to Gen Con on Tuesdays.




Surprisingly, we did think of that.  There are various reasons why that's not particularly feasible.



> What would you like the website doing in the next 10 years?




I don't know what the internet will look like in 10 years, but I suspect that communities like this will look very different - if they still exist at all.  EN World will still be here, but the platform/tech isn't something I can predict.  Hell, it predates social networking by a whole bunch of years!  I'd ideally like much more comprehensive coverage of tabletop RPGs, but I do as much as I can about the stuff I know about.



> Have you played any memorable Forgotten Realms Adventures?




Nope! 



> What are the top 3 things you are watching on British television at the moment?




It's a quiet season for the sort of stuff I watch.  I guess _Have I Got News For You_ is about it right now.  Generally, my stuff is Doctor Who, gritty British crime drama, and science shows. _Top Gear_ is gone now.


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## Morrus (May 7, 2015)

Astrosicebear said:


> ENWorld has evolved alot of the last few years, from a news site, to a community, and now a publisher and content deliverer.
> 
> Where do you see ENWorld going in the future? What's the grand vision, or at least your wildest dream?




Heh - you got the order wrong!  It started as a content deliverer, then became a news site, and then - when Eric's site closed - finally became a community.  EN Publishing (back when it was called Natural 20 Press) was part of that first rush of OGL products.  _Wild Spellcraft_ was our first release, and it did *really* well (then again, there was no competition back then - I couldn't replicate that success now!)

I'd like to do more of the TV/video stuff but I'm not very good at it! And I'm naturally quite shy, so I have to work my way up to that sort of thing.


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## Morrus (May 7, 2015)

neobolts said:


> How long were you kicking around the idea of WOIN before you launched?




Hmmm.  Years, I think. Not that I planned to do it years ago, but I thought about it.  I certainly thought about how I would do certain things.



> In your own games, are you more interested in keeping the flavors separate or doing a mash up?




Separate. I like strong themes.


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## neobolts (May 7, 2015)

Morrus said:


> Separate. I like strong themes.




Interesting. The mash up of OLD/NEW/NOW is what excites me most about WOIN. For me, WOIN has tapped into a bit of GURPS nostalgia of all things. I'm picturing some gonzo mashup where space wizards crash land on 1980s Earth.


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## plancktum (May 7, 2015)

AMA with the Guvnor. Nice. 

What is your favorite character concept you've ever played and why?


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## Mistwell (May 7, 2015)

What happened to your Doctor Who board? Do you ever miss it? Would you consider doing it again?


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## Morrus (May 7, 2015)

plancktum said:


> What is your favorite character concept you've ever played and why?




I'm quite enjoying Captain Agathe Drake, my elven musketeer Iconic for _O.L.D._ I even based a Pathfinder PC on her!  In the latter game, she's spent nearly all her loot over 10 levels on one big gun; if she doesn't kill her target in the first round, she runs into trouble.... but she often kills her target in the first round. BOOOM!

She came out of _O.L.D._ when I was designing the Grand Elves. While I wouldn't exactly say they're innovative or inspired or anything, I enjoy the combination of Tolkein-esque serious elves with gunpowder.  The image came from an idea of elven musketeers lined up in the rain standnig against a goblin horde.  Half _Zulu_, half _The Two Towers_!  We even made an audio thing of it:

[video=youtube;FE3BxQQ0rxU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UUaZ7ByBXPqZRg-Q-J-_0YEA&v=FE3BxQQ0rxU[/video]


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## Morrus (May 7, 2015)

Mistwell said:


> What happened to your Doctor Who board? Do you ever miss it? Would you consider doing it again?




It never really took off.  And I think the year is long gone when it was a good idea to start a new messageboard, unless you have a really strong niche of your own.  Social networks have made it much harder to do anything like that any more.


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## txelu (May 7, 2015)

Hi!

Any possibility of converting Zeitgeist to 5e???

Keep the great work!!

Jose


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## Morrus (May 7, 2015)

txelu said:


> Any possibility of converting Zeitgeist to 5e???




There's no current plan to.  It's an immense, incredibly expensive, multi-year undertaking.  However, we are considering some kind of ZEITGEIST support in EN5ider, though we haven't fully settled on what that might be yet.  First priority is finishing the existing AP (three adventures left!)

We've done two massive APs (WotBS and ZEITGEIST) but I think that'll be the last of those for us.


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## TarionzCousin (May 7, 2015)

How is your dog?


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## Morrus (May 7, 2015)

TarionzCousin said:


> How is your dog?




Odorous.


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## Mishihari Lord (May 7, 2015)

I probably wouldn't answer the following, but since this is ask me _anything_ ...  (In other words, I'll totally understand if you say "no comment")

How is the site doing financially?  Is it meeting your goals?  Do adblockers and such have a significant impact?


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## Enkhidu (May 7, 2015)

Do you still have the old DaemonForge content?


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## Morrus (May 7, 2015)

Mishihari Lord said:


> I probably wouldn't answer the following, but since this is ask me _anything_ ...  (In other words, I'll totally understand if you say "no comment")
> 
> How is the site doing financially?  Is it meeting your goals?  Do adblockers and such have a significant impact?




It's doing fine!  I don't have specific info on the effect of adblockers, though.


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## Morrus (May 7, 2015)

Enkhidu said:


> Do you still have the old DaemonForge content?




All that stuff was lost in the hack a couple of years ago.  Unless other folks still have it, no, I don't.


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## Astrosicebear (May 7, 2015)

What's your favorite game system (that you didn't make)? 
Favorite D&D adventure?
Favorite industry contact?
Favorite D&D monster?
Who did you vote for, today?
Who would win in an olde tyme boxing match, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, or England?
Best UK export? PAtrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Michael Caine, Martin Freeman, or Benedict Cumberbatch?


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## jrowland (May 7, 2015)

Have you seen Heavy Metal yet? If not, why are you posting to AMA when you are sick and not watching Heavy Metal? Dude, its a cartoon with gratuitous nudity, Sci-Fi and Fantasy blended together! Take some good drugs (for the cold! Legal!) and WATCH IT NOW!

Or not.

More seriously: Do you take outside submissions for ENsider? Would you consider solitications if you don't now? What are the guidelines?


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## Morrus (May 7, 2015)

jrowland said:


> Have you seen Heavy Metal yet? If not, why are you posting to AMA when you are sick and not watching Heavy Metal? Dude, its a cartoon with gratuitous nudity, Sci-Fi and Fantasy blended together! Take some good drugs (for the cold! Legal!) and WATCH IT NOW!




Uhhh... is that that thing by that guy we were talking about before?



> More seriously: Do you take outside submissions for ENsider? Would you consider solitications if you don't now? What are the guidelines?




Submissions information is here!


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## Morrus (May 7, 2015)

Astrosicebear said:


> What's your favorite game system (that you didn't make)?




D&D. Without question!



> Favorite D&D adventure?




_I6: Ravenloft_, I think. If you ask me on a different day, I'd probably say something different. 



> Favorite industry contact?




Awww, c'mon!  I can't answer that!  But yes, I do feel differently about different people in this little industry, as I know some do me.



> Favorite D&D monster?




When I was teenager, Lord Soth was my man.  I loved that death knight.  I think that's still there.  He's basically Darth Vader, and everyonve loves Darth Vader.



> Who did you vote for, today?




Haven't voted yet. When my wife gets home shortly, we'll both pop out and vote.



> Who would win in an olde tyme boxing match, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, or England?




England.  We haz all the stuffs.



> Best UK export? PAtrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Michael Caine, Martin Freeman, or Benedict Cumberbatch?




Just out of those choices?  Hmmm.  Wow.  That's tough.

I'm going to rule out Freeman and Cumberbatch.  They haven't yet put the time in.  Picard... Gandalf... I think I might have to go with Caine.

[video=youtube;4LCwF9Mym5E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LCwF9Mym5E[/video]


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## bsmith (May 7, 2015)

Did you yourself vote in the February poll the-Most-Anticipated-RPG-of-2015!, and if so what did you vote for?!

What date do you anticipate publishing the entire results to this poll?

Do you have any rpg dice rolling rituals or a lucky dice that you only bring out on special occasions?


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## jrowland (May 7, 2015)

Morrus said:


> Uhhh... is that that thing by that guy we were talking about before?




Sort of. The other thing, and the guy next to he guy we were talking about before. To avoid confusion, this: Heavy Metal To maintain your nerd/geek cred you must watch. That is all.


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## Morrus (May 7, 2015)

bsmith said:


> Did you yourself vote in the February poll the-Most-Anticipated-RPG-of-2015!, and if so what did you vote for?!
> 
> What date do you anticipate publishing the entire results to this poll?




I think I did! I don't recall! It got fairly well sabotaged by a couple of organised voting blocks though. It's a small enough sample that anyone who cares can ensure their choice wins with very little effort. 



> Do you have any rpg dice rolling rituals or a lucky dice that you only bring out on special occasions?




I don't! I use Herolab for a Pathfinder (no dice at all!) and just whatever dice comes to hand for other games. 

For about 10 years I had no dice. I got sick of people walking away with them and decided to stop buying them. Eventually I had none left, and refused to buy any more.

I started buying them again a few years ago, and it seems the problem no longer occurs.


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## The Grassy Gnoll (May 7, 2015)

Is this your full-time job? Because jealousness.


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## Morrus (May 7, 2015)

G. Barrelhouse Esq. said:


> Is this your full-time job? Because jealousness.




Yup. Well, all the various things I do added together are. That said, full time really means full time - it's kinda 24/7/365!


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## dd.stevenson (May 8, 2015)

Have you ever considered setting up a pdf storefront to compete with rpgnow, etc.?

If it were 2008 again, what would you do differently knowing everything you know now?

Which animal is best?


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## Morrus (May 8, 2015)

dd.stevenson said:


> Have you ever considered setting up a pdf storefront to compete with rpgnow, etc.?




Sure. Did that! It was called the EN World GameStore. It was eventually sold to OBS. 



> If it were 2008 again, what would you do differently knowing everything you know now?




2008? What, specifically, about 2008?



> Which animal is best?




Elephants, of course! Everyone knows that!


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## dd.stevenson (May 8, 2015)

Morrus said:


> 2008? What, specifically, about 2008?



I started with 2005, but then hit backspace and replaced with with 2008, which was a bit more of a watershed year. The wordier version of the question I want to ask is: "How would you have done things differently over the last ten years if you'd had a bit of foreknowledge of how the industry was going to change?"


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## Zustiur (May 8, 2015)

What job did you do before EN world?


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## Lanefan (May 8, 2015)

Russ, dream a little here: if somehow Hasbro were to decide one day to drop the entire D&D franchise into your lap for you to keep and develop as you saw fit, what would you do with it, and why?


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## Lawngnome4hire (May 8, 2015)

Other than the occasional news story or forum post this site is pretty narrowly focussed on D&D of various editions, and PFRPG. Do you have any interest in the site expanding its focus to encompass all rpgs, or at least the more popular alternatives to D&D such as Savage Worlds, Fate Core, Numenera, World of Darkness to name a few?

And if so what do you think you can do to help foster this?


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## Stacie GmrGrl (May 8, 2015)

Question time ... 

A) What is your favorite D&D setting?
B) What is your favorite non D&D setting?
C) What movie or novel or TV show would you love to see made into a game setting for WOIN?
D) What finally inspired you to design WOIN and with the game system you used... Err or why didn't you use the d20 system?
E) Have you seen the Daredevil TV show yet, and if so what did you think of it?
F) If you weren't doing this job managing EN World what would you do instead?


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## DQDesign (May 8, 2015)

Hi Morrus,

why didn't You never cite my Istari 5th edition fan-made class (here on ENWorld on the download section) on the home page? Don't You like it?


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## Morrus (May 8, 2015)

dd.stevenson said:


> I started with 2005, but then hit backspace and replaced with with 2008, which was a bit more of a watershed year. The wordier version of the question I want to ask is: "How would you have done things differently over the last ten years if you'd had a bit of foreknowledge of how the industry was going to change?"




I think I'd have not ignored social networking for so long, and admitted, however reluctantly, that web presence requires it.  I don't think I'd have embarked on such large adventure paths (publishing-wise) - while I love WotBS and ZEITGEIST, and honestly feel we put out some of the very best APs ever published, they are such a resource hog over such a long time.  I certainly wouldn't have committed a long-term adventure path to 4E had I known 5E would come  two-thirds of the way through it! I can't think of anything else specific I'd do different, and none of those things  were particularly calamitous to EN World or anything (though social networking will be the challenge in the long term I suspect - competing with Google, Facebook, and Twitter is hard!)


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## Morrus (May 8, 2015)

Zustiur said:


> What job did you do before EN world?




I sold investement products.  Before that I worked for a gas company.  Just a couple of jobs out of college, to be honest -- neither was exactly a 'career'.  Though quitting to do this full time was a hell of a risk.


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## Morrus (May 8, 2015)

Lanefan said:


> Russ, dream a little here: if somehow Hasbro were to decide one day to drop the entire D&D franchise into your lap for you to keep and develop as you saw fit, what would you do with it, and why?




Hah!  Well, first a caveat - I do not think I'd manage D&D well at all.  That would be a terrible thing to happen, and would be a disaster for the game's popularity. But you asked, so here goes:

I'd move away from the_ Forgotten Realms_.  I'd rather see new settings.  I'd - to an extent - use EN Publishing own adventure path model, combined with the shorter length of Paizo's. So each AP would be set in its own world, it woud have a player's guide for that setting, a strong theme, and a great storyline.  One AP might be gothic horor set in a Ravenloft-esque world, another might be a mystery set in a world akin to Victorian England, and so on.  Some would be high fanatsy, others might be more historically-themed, some would be dark, some light, some gritty, etc.  Each adventure path, with its accompanying world, would span about 6 levels, and then move on to the next one. Magazine-style content would then further supplement popular worlds for those who wanted to go beyond 6 levels (though the initial guides for each would have enough info for you to make your own stuff).

I would visit each of the classic settings, of course.  You would get one AP and setting guide for each of the old worlds, but creating new stuff would be more important to me. For this, I would probably consider using the original creators of each, if they were willing.

I'd revisit the OGL.  I'd do it slightly differently, but allow and - more importantly - encourage and support third party content.  I believe that a game with lots of people making stuff for it is a thriving game.

I'd push for a _Dragonlance Chronicles _TV show. Not a movie; _Game of Thrones _would be the model. For a story like that, I don't feel a movie could do it well. TV allows for so much more storytelling.

I'd think along the lines of a living game rather than edition churn.  I haven't fully thought this through, but errata and the like would be incorprated into electronic versions of the material.  Getting around the "oh, I bought a hardback" issue is tough; like I said, I haven't fully thought it through.

I'd have DRAGON and DUNGEON back using my EN5ider as a model.  Rules articles in that would have full official weight.  This would be a primary crunch dispersal mechanism.  Compilations would happen too, of course.  (I'm very likely to do that with WOIN - articles rather than books, all official).

This may be unpopular, but I'd make the rulebook text slight dryer.  That could just be nostalgia talking.  I'd also have each sprayed with an old-book smell.  Maybe not that last thing.

Phew.  That's it for now, I think. I Like I said, I doubt the game would actually survive under my stewardship!


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## Morrus (May 8, 2015)

Lawngnome4hire said:


> Other than the occasional news story or forum post this site is pretty narrowly focussed on D&D of various editions, and PFRPG. Do you have any interest in the site expanding its focus to encompass all rpgs, or at least the more popular alternatives to D&D such as Savage Worlds, Fate Core, Numenera, World of Darkness to name a few?
> 
> And if so what do you think you can do to help foster this?




Well, first - yes, that would make me very happy.

Second, here's what I currently do (and I recognise it's not desparately successful):

1) I post news items about major RPG stuff whatever the game as much as I can.  I've also interviewed folks (like the Numenera people you mention). 

2) I have a reviews section which covers all games.  Anybody can add any product.

3) The ENnies have covered all tabletop RPGs for more many years.  This was a successful change which worked!

4) There's forums for non-D&D stuff here.​
What else could I do?  Honestly, it beats me.  I think that once the public consciousness has branded a place as being a destination for certain types of thing, changing that branding is a heck of a task. Not that it can't be done, but it's not easy.  If I had large amounts of money to spend, I imagine I could increase the news breadth by hiring people (I do what I can, but I'm one guy).  I could even advertise in social media spaces. A lot of this stuff is so unscientific, though - something either hits critical mass or it doesn't, and while I'd love to claim I know the secret, I don't.

But yes, my intention is not to be just D&D.


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## Morrus (May 8, 2015)

Stacie GmrGrl said:


> A) What is your favorite D&D setting?




I'm really not a settings guy, but if I had to choose I'd say Dragonlance (for the stories) or Ravenloft (for the atmosphere).



> B) What is your favorite non D&D setting?




I adore Middle Earth to bits. The _feel_ of Middle Earth is something special.  I'm quite fond of GRRM's setting, though the snow zombies aspect doesn't interest me much.  Sci-fi wise I like _Star Trek_ and _Star Wars_ very much as settings.  I would love to see a dark, evil _Hell_ setting.  Proper dark.  I don't think D&D could do it.



> C) What movie or novel or TV show would you love to see made into a game setting for WOIN?




Hah!  _Star Trek_, and_ Middle Earth_.  Neither of which will ever happen (and _The One Ring_ does Middle Earth so well).  Admittedly there's no _Trek _licensee out right now...

That said, there's also FASA's version of the_ Trek _setting which diverged from the canon.  I like that version very much.



> D) What finally inspired you to design WOIN and with the game system you used... Err or why didn't you use the d20 system?




Well, (a) I wanted to write my own game, not use a game someone else wrote; and (b) the d20 system doesn't do the same job as the WOIN system - it's far more designed for high fantasy. I wouldn't be suitable.  So I didn't use the 20 system for the same reason anybody doesn't use any system, I guess.  

That said, WOIN is certainly _inspired_ by older systems.  Dice pools are well known.  Life-path character creation and advancement was inspired by Traveller and WFRP.  There's sprinklings of the Cypher System in there (in the form of the descriptor, although, to be fair, I had that same idea when I was a kid).



> E) Have you seen the Daredevil TV show yet, and if so what did you think of it?




I have, and I thought it was wonderful. Top tier comic-book TV.



> F) If you weren't doing this job managing EN World what would you do instead?




Astronaut.


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## Morrus (May 8, 2015)

DQDesign said:


> Hi Morrus,
> 
> why didn't You never cite my Istari 5th edition fan-made class (here on ENWorld on the download section) on the home page? Don't You like it?




I don't think I've seen it.


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## Lawngnome4hire (May 8, 2015)

Morrus said:


> Well, first - yes, that would make me very happy.
> 
> Second, here's what I currently do (and I recognise it's not desparately successful):
> 
> ...




I understand there is only so much you can do, the content posted is by and large determined by the community. But when you say "There's forums for non-D&D stuff here." All there is General RPG Discussion, and Boardgames, Card Games, Wargames and Miniatures. This doesn't exactly encourage people to talk about other systems, and finding other peoples posts about other systems is difficult since it all gets lumped together. Adding more forums that are clearly defined for other systems would help encourage more discussion. Obviously you can't add a forum for every game, maybe just the other big names besides D&D and PFRPG, or you could add forums for games divided by genre. There's a lot of different ways it could be done, but I think that if you want to attract players of other game systems, you need to give them a place to go. One generic all encompassing forum isn't very user friendly.


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## Talmek (May 8, 2015)

Morrus - thanks for opening AMA! I've been reading a number of threads from different folks and I think this brings a bit of insight to a lot of subjects that we as RPG fans could spend hours (and thread posts) debating. 

And now, onto the questions!

1 - What do you see as the future of tabletop RPGs? Do you believe there are any "dark horse" contenders that could knock WotC or Paizo off their respective #1 and #2 spots within the industry? 

2 - How would you suggest bringing new players into the hobby? If you've done this with any frequency, what worked? What didn't? 

3 - What were your motivations for creating your own RPG products? Did you see a gap in the existing product lines and decide to try and fill it, or was it something that you came up with for a personal group and develop it into a commercial product from there?


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## Razz0putin (May 8, 2015)

Morrus said:


> Hah!  Well, first a caveat - I do not think I'd manage D&D well at all.  That would be a terrible thing to happen, and would be a disaster for the game's popularity. But you asked, so here goes:
> 
> I'd move away from the_ Forgotten Realms_.  I'd rather see new settings.  I'd - to an extent - use EN Publishing own adventure path model, combined with the shorter length of Paizo's. So each AP would be set in its own world, it woud have a player's guide for that setting, a strong theme, and a great storyline.  One AP might be gothic horor set in a Ravenloft-esque world, another might be a mystery set in a world akin to Victorian England, and so on.  Some would be high fanatsy, others might be more historically-themed, some would be dark, some light, some gritty, etc.  Each adventure path, with its accompanying world, would span about 6 levels, and then move on to the next one. Magazine-style content would then further supplement popular worlds for those who wanted to go beyond 6 levels (though the initial guides for each would have enough info for you to make your own stuff).
> 
> ...





I don't know I've seen it run worse than that.  I'm interested in about 95% of what you propose there.


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## Razz0putin (May 8, 2015)

Did you see/enjoy Avengers:age of Ultron? 

I personally just wanted to thank you for all that you have done on this site.  It is my go to place for what's going on in rpg's even when I wasn't actively playing.  I would lurk and learn.  So I hope you do well in all your endeavors thank you sir.


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## Morrus (May 8, 2015)

Talmek said:


> 1 - What do you see as the future of tabletop RPGs? Do you believe there are any "dark horse" contenders that could knock WotC or Paizo off their respective #1 and #2 spots within the industry?




Honestly, I've not the faintest idea.  If I had I'd put things in place now ready to profit!  As far as dark horses go, I guess that's why they're called dark. D&D, or a variation of it, has been at the top for prety much ever, and I don't see that particularly changing in the near future.   



> 2 - How would you suggest bringing new players into the hobby? If you've done this with any frequency, what worked? What didn't?




I've never really done it; at least not consciously. I imagine OP programs like Pathfinder Society and Adventurer's League are the front line there.  Other than that, I think all the ideas in the world probably circle around the core need: mainstream advertising which makes it look fun to the average person.  Highlighting it in BBT or Community is a start there, I guess. 



> 3 - What were your motivations for creating your own RPG products? Did you see a gap in the existing product lines and decide to try and fill it, or was it something that you came up with for a personal group and develop it into a commercial product from there?




Partly it was fueled by a nostalgia trip to some of my 80s favourite games and my acceptance that those games weren't quite what I felt they could be to me. So I started anew with concepts.  Partly because I felt a need to have my own property to fall back on, instead of hoping for licenses and permissions.  Partly, just a desire to put my own stamp on something, however small.  Partly because I didn't feel any existing game quite did what I was looking for, and I figured I couldn't possibly be alone - I'm not that special!


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## Morrus (May 8, 2015)

Razz0putin said:


> Did you see/enjoy Avengers:age of Ultron?




I did.  I enjoyed it. But I am currently a victim of Marvel Formula Fatigue (MFF) and am starting to struggle a little with them.



> I personally just wanted to thank you for all that you have done on this site.  It is my go to place for what's going on in rpg's even when I wasn't actively playing.  I would lurk and learn.  So I hope you do well in all your endeavors thank you sir.




That's very kind.  Thank you!


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## Mantriel (May 8, 2015)

I used to be a big enworld fan, till the site got hacked and all the reviews got lost, I'm glad the reviews are coming back.
Although Keith Baker is one of my favourite RPG designers, I haven't read his AMA thread yet, and I didn't have the urge to ask him anything. I have read through your AMA with great pleasure (I'm not sure if I worded this correctly) and I have a few questions.

What part of your news coverage gets the most clicks? D&D-, Pathfinder- ... etc. news or interviews, scoops, art, reviews etc.?
I really would love to see more video interviews with designers from you, I loved the Monte Cook interview. Is there any chance you will make more of those? Perhaps regularly?
What is your favourite part of your job? 
What type of characters do you like to play (both fantasy/medieval and sci-fi)?

Could you tell a little bit about the creation of the AP Zeitgeist? (I haven't read it or played, but the free player materials I've found are fascinating).

What do you think of rpggeek, rpg.net and other similar sites? What do they do better that you would like to implement with enworld?


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## Morrus (May 8, 2015)

Mantriel said:


> What part of your news coverage gets the most clicks? D&D-, Pathfinder- ... etc. news or interviews, scoops, art, reviews etc.?




D&D by at least an order of magnitude.



> I really would love to see more video interviews with designers from you, I loved the Monte Cook interview. Is there any chance you will make more of those? Perhaps regularly?




Well, there's a slight difficulty in that 3000 miles and an ocean separates me from most designers.  And I don't want to do it unless I can do it properly face-to-face.  None of this Skype stuff.



> What is your favourite part of your job?




I enjoy breaking big (for niche RPG values of "big") news scoops.  And, right now, I adore designing spaceships and the like for WOIN.  Sometimes I think "Wait.  I'm trying to design a version of the USS Excelsior from Star Trek... and this is my job!"  Basically, your hobby being your living is pretty awesome, though it can be isolating.



> What type of characters do you like to play (both fantasy/medieval and sci-fi)?




It's bad of me, but simple one-trick ponies.  Honestly, I don't like playing all that much; I prefer to run stuff.  But when I do play, I like mny character to be fairly simple.



> Could you tell a little bit about the creation of the AP Zeitgeist? (I haven't read it or played, but the free player materials I've found are fascinating).




Holy Open Question, Batman!  Without knowing more specifically what you want to know -- we wanted to make a complex AP for experienced GMs.  Seriously, first time GMs should steer clear.  You need to be on the top of your game; but the rewards are comensurate with that.  It's a grown-up, complex plot with shades of grey, where you don't have to just beat an extraplanar threat, which mixes action, politics, mystery, investigation, and intrigue, and represents - in my opinion - our very best ever work.


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## Morrus (May 9, 2015)

OK, this AMA has ended now. Thanks everyone! It was fun! I look forward to asking questions in your AMAs!


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## Henry (May 9, 2015)

Morrus said:


> All I have to remind me of it are the gloating jeers of the likes of [MENTION=2]Piratecat[/MENTION], [MENTION=158]Henry[/MENTION], [MENTION=99]Rel[/MENTION], etc.  Damn them.  But no, I never got to actually game with him.





All I can say is that you were missed!


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## Connorsrpg (May 13, 2015)

16 years. Wow. I think I have been on here for most of that. Not the most prolific poster, but I am still here 

Anyway, I was wondering whether you could elaborate a little on how you came to be in charge here Morrus. Some new visitors may not even know what E-N- World stands for. I may, but still would like to know a few things about the actual evolution of the site, like how did you know Eric Noah? Did you work on the site for him before offering to take over? What is EN up to these days? Does he still remain in contact with you - show any interest in his old site etc? (I really hope I am not asking inappropriate Q's here and EN is okay).

I just wonder if he sometimes wanders back to the garden he created.

You have brought some amazing developments to the site Morrus. Which have been the most supported and what are your personal favorites. Which make you the proudest? You are allowed to gloat a little here 

Thanks so much for maintaining and expanding this site over the years, and for this segment, another great idea.


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## Connorsrpg (May 13, 2015)

Ah dammit! Just realised I missed out. Thanks anyway, I really like reading these 

And now that I have read the whole thread...I see you covered most of my Q's anyway


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