Healing Fireball

4th Edition was released at the beginning of June and the new GSL license has been out now for some time. We here at Healing Fireball Publications have had a chance to examine both the core books to this new edition and the license regarding its use. So I thought it was about time to answer the question that the community has been in such a tizzy over asking there favorite companies – what are your plans for 4th Edition and what does this mean for my favorite 3.X lines?

In short the answer to this question is at present is that Healing Fireball Publications has no plans to update any of its lines to the new 4th Edition rules or to launch any new lines that focus on this new system. Of course in the case of our generic lines we will strive as always to make them compatible with as wide a range of games as possible including the new 4th Edition rules.

This rather large decision comes not as a result of lack of ideas for this new line but as a direct result of our understanding of the new GSL. As with the OGL before it, it fell to me to examine this new legal document, the GSL, and its accompanying SRD documentation to determine how the license could be used by our company and what kind of products we could make with it. After thoroughly reading both the GSL and SRD through several times and picking over several details I presented my information to the rest of the company And after much debate we decided that several legal issues with the license kept us from making the decision to make new products for the 4th Edition system. Below I have outlined our legal reasons for not moving to 4th Edition:

1. After careful review of the GSL and legal consultation we have found that this new GSL license fails to provide the security Open Game Content provided in the OGL. For a small company like ours it is a major concern that without the open game content safety net other larger companies might chose to sue us if we develop a game mechanic that is similar to theirs.

2. The limitations found in the SRD and GSL about what we can publish appear to be extremely stifling and would prevent us from releasing several of our initial ideas. Plus the lack of being able to redefine any rule that Wizards has already defined or even reprint the definition for easy quick reference would lead to products that would in our opinion cheat the purchaser as they would just receive a book of flavor text and cross-references. These restrictions have already led to much debate about whether a publisher could even publish a quick reference stat block for an NPC or monster.

3. Finally the stringent conversion close would force us to remove the already successful OGL versions of products if we wish to make new 4th Edition versions of those items or even new 4th edition products in that product line. We here at Healing Fireball Publications feel that to remove these items from our catalog would be unfair to our previous customers who are staying with 3rd edition and would then be unable to obtain replacement copies or updated versions of these books.

And so for the reasons listed above we here at Healing Fireball Publications have put any ideas we have for 4th Edition products on the back burner. We do not rule out publishing in this system in the future as since its unveiling several discussions and companies have begun talking about work-arounds for the GSL and there is always the hope that the contract will be changed to be more community-friendly. But for now we will continue publishing and supporting our existing 3.X lines and watch the community closely to see the trends.

~Chris Baldi “The Healer”~
~August 1, 2008~

Anyone that knows me knows that in addiction to being a role playing game addict, I am a board game fiend.  I have quite a large selection of board games in a myriad of topics but because of the personal interests of me and my wife, two large subcategories of games have emerged in this collection – pirate games and zombie games.  Since there was a lot of interest by my group to play these zombie games, we hosted a zombie and dip night a few weeks ago.   

The night started with junk food and dip at my dining room table as we decided which game we where going to play for the evening.  We decided on one of my newest games and the only one where the survivors are supposed to work together to reach a common goal – Last Night on Earth by Flying Frog Productions.  The Game started well with me playing the zombies and my wife and three friends playing survivors.  We started with the basic game, and the players’ goal was to kill a certain number of zombies before sun set.  The players quickly became well armed from searching the near by houses and begin blasting away.  We quickly determined that while the cop’s revolver gave him a slight edge at the start of the game, it was nothing compared to the power of the shotgun.  And in the end, while wounded, a few survivors cleverly set up an ambush in the corn field where I had trouble seeing them, but the farmer’s daughter had an advantage and could pick the zombies off. 

Bolstered by this success, we chose to upgrade to the advanced game and drew the mission protect the mansion.  My friend Rob chose to play the zombies this time and I got to play the town’s nurse (once more I am the healer).  Our goal was to keep the zombies out of the mansion in the center of town.  Right from the start it went bad. Rob rolled well and was able to spawn a large number of zombies which went right for the house.  The house was guarded by only me as my friends frantically searched for weapons.  I was wounded trying to fight off a pack of three zombies and had to run away to find aid.  Failing to get aid, I desperately tried to get the three out of the house and was killed.  At the same time, the town sheriff, who had been defending the back porch, was also killed and rose as a zombie hero.  Drawing new players, I got the priest and my other friend Daria got the local jock.  We quickly ran to help the remaining two players who had managed to kill the zombie hero but were beginning to be overwhelmed by the mob now in the house.  As we ran in we made a last ditch effort to stop the last zombies from entering the house and ending the game, but to no avail as two of us were wounded and two were killed.  There Where No Survivors…… 

To raise the spirits and end the night on a high note we watched Shawn of the Dead.

The party was so much fun we plan to have a revenge of the zombie night soon and this time I am prepared, as I bought a zombie survival kit at a local sci-fi convention.
~Chris Baldi “The Healer”~ 
     ~March 18, 2008~ 

When we started this page and, in fact, this company, we really did not expect the amount of response that we received.  We figured we would be lucky if we sold enough to support the site.  But the response has been wonderful.  We received our first check today from book sales and we here cannot thank you enough for receiving us as warmly as you have. 

So in light of this warm reception, our goals for the web have expanded from just maintaining a site for our product to also providing a place where the gaming community can come and interact with us and each other.   

This blog is the first step in this process.  We hope to use this as a place to let you behind the curtain and let you in to our thought processes and give you a glimpse at our lives and our games.  At this point, we will also use this as a place to get your feedback and comments. 

We plan in the future to expand this interaction even further to include a forum where you can come and talk directly.  We hope to create a place where the community can come and discuss gaming and the art of Role Playing.  Finally, as always, we would like to hear from you suggestions, ideas and (gulp) complaints – feel free to drop us a line.
~Chris Baldi “The Healer~     
     ~Mach 18, 20008~ 

As the blog has been up for a while but none of my cohorts seam to have time to post, and since at the moment I am the most active member of the Healing Fireball staff, it has fallen to me to take the lead on this new project.  So, I figured what better place to start than with a rundown of my overall vision for this part of the site.  To begin with, I would define the style of this blog as “freeform.”  By this, I mean at least I will not be attempting to set a regular weekly posting schedule.  I will post willy-nilly and when time allows.  But what I will do to keep some semblance of order is to post in one of two ways: spontaneous one time posts whose content will be random, and fixed subject posts that will reoccur over and over again.  As an example of this second type of post, I plan to regularly post an “At Our Table” section explaining the games we are playing.  I will encourage my other cohorts to also post in some of these fixed columns.   

The types of posts that will be posted here will run the gamut from funny stories to previews of our upcoming products to important moments in our lives or games.  As we have received a rather warm response from the gaming community we decided we should return the favor.  I also hope to expand the links on this blog to include the other parts of our site as well as some of our favorite places on the web, such as Ren Faire links and links to our favorite gaming companies.

Finally, I am aware that at the current time you cannot leave comments or interact with us.  I hope to alleviate this problem soon as one of my major goals is to interact with and get feed back from the community.  So, as soon as we can work the kinks out of the softwhere we hope to allow you to join our community and leave us a comment.
~Chris Baldi “The Healer~      
    ~Mach 18, 20008~ 

Hail and welcome

This is the next step in the roll out of the Healing Fireball Publications web page experience.  This blog will hopefully function as a way for you, our reading public, to find out more about us and our current projects, and as a place to get a rare glimpse of the Healing Fireball gaming table.  It will also function as a place where we will put teasers for up coming products, answer some of your burning questions and get the community’s feed back.

So until then may all your game worlds be vibrant living places. 

~Chris Baldi “The Healer”~
      ~ March 10, 2008 ~