The Foundry

The Foreman stands above a piece of machinery, his fists clenched around a large hammer, arms held high for a strike. He waivers, unsure of his actions. A surge of anger floods through him as memories of greed and deception return to him, causing his to grip to tighten as he brings the raised hammer down. But before the blow connects, more thoughts enter his mind. Memories of satisfied customers and the joy his creations bring them. He relaxes, letting the hammer drop to his side as he gazes upon dozens of other machines, a smile on his lips.

The Foreman returns to his workshop and grabs a dusty catalog from a long forgotten corner of the room. The Foundry only had tooling for producing Coastal Wizard items, but perhaps it was time that changed. He flips though through the booklet, eyes scanning the pages. Golarion. Ironlander. Weyland. Cypher. Countless companies, each offering tooling and licenses for manufacturing, and each less restrictive than his previous supplier. “Well then, looks like I better make a few calls…”

Hello again friends. It’s been over a week since we last spoke and in that time I’ve done a lot of thinking. When I made my last post, I was in a pretty bad place. I was on the verge of tears more than once writing it, and when discussing my decision to cut ties with D&D with my friends. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m an incredibly emotional person and I often have trouble regulating those emotions, especially when things I love are involved. This has gotten me into trouble in the past and will likely do so again in the future, but I’m working on it. I’ve made many poor decisions based on my own fickle feelings and I believe this is no exception. I should have stayed quiet, taken time to think, talk it over with those I trust. Could have, should have, would have, didn’t.

I will say, however, making that decision was oddly freeing. A certain clarity that comes from detachment. Cutting ties with the game allowed me to think clearly as I no longer had any stake in the situation. But I still love the game, nothing will ever change that, and I heard someone say amidst the chaos of it all something that really hit home for me: Don’t let WotC’s greed ruin the game we love. It is clear WotC can’t be trusted so it’s up to us to make sure this wonderful game gets the love and support it deserves while making sure WotC doesn’t get a cent of profit from it. We made this game what it is today and we’ll keep it that way, with or without them.

So, as one can probably guess from my shift in tone, I’m not done with 5e anymore, as a player or content creator. I’m going to continue making content for 5e just as I always have, regardless of how this OGL situation turns out. WotC may be trying to control D&D, but they won’t control me. If I ever start selling my content, however, things might change, but for now it will be business as usual. I will, however, be alternating between 5e content and other systems as I explore them. I’ve wanted to play other games and make content for them for a long time and going forward I really want to diversify my content both in terms of what I produce and in what form it’s produced. This will be a year of change, growth, and diversity for the Foundry and I couldn’t be more excited.

So what can you all expect from me in the future? The homebrew content will continue, but spread across multiple system, namely 5e, Pathfinder 2e, Starfinder, and Ironsworn. They’re currently the systems I either have the most experience with or are the most interested in (mostly the latter). It’s unlikely I’ll make content for games outside of those but anything is possible. I just don’t see it happening anytime soon.

On the topic of other systems, I want to start spotlighting other games that I find interesting. There are thousands of wonderful RPGs out there and I want to share some of them with you and my thoughts on them. I’ll talk about their rules, any fun systems, whatever world they have, that sort of thing. I figure these will be things I can post in between projects.

Speaking of projects, what do I want to work on next? Well sadly, my latest project that I’ve been working on was a commission and both my client and I decided to scrap it so that project is dead, for now at least. Now free to work on whatever, I would love to release something in honor of the upcoming Dead Space remake, which I could not be more excited for. But on such short notice, I can’t do anything too crazy if I want to release in time. After that, I have a big project I want to work on using another game entirely which I’m very excited for.

Anyway, I’m glad to be back and I’m thankful for the support I’ve received while away. Things are about to get a lot more interesting around here and I’m hoping you’ll all come along for the ride. As always, stay safe, don’t forget to love each other, and I’ll see again you soon.