ISFDB:RPG Cleanup

The RPG Cleanup page is used to keep track of rogue RPG (Role Playing Games) related items that have made their way into the ISFDB except RPG related fiction. Once found, they will be deleted from the database.

A search on "title contains module" comes back with a couple dozen hits, most of them RPGs. Looking for a heuristic to find and kill them all. Ahasuerus 13:53, 2 May 2006 (CDT)

• If you do find a heuristic, I'll implement it in Dissembler. It doesn't need to be simple - it can be a combination of names plus keywords. Alvonruff 05:38, 21 May 2006 (CDT)
  • Well, for starters, any publication with "Wizards of the Coast" or "TSR" in the Publisher field and "accessory"/"rule[book]"/"source[book]"/"figure"/"reference"/"supplement"/"miniature"/"figurine" in the title field is highly likely to be non-SF. Ahasuerus 16:05, 21 May 2006 (CDT)

Heuristics

I just started a Dissembler run, and noticed I didn't get the RPG heuristics in. Since you've been looking at lot of these, are the following rules correct?:

 if isRpgPublisher(publisher) and hasRpgKeyword(title):
     workIsRpg = TRUE
 elif isRpgPublisher(publisher) and isRpgAuthor(author):
     workIsRpg = TRUE
 elif isRpgAuthor(author) and hasRpgKeyword(title):
     workIsRpg = TRUE
 else:
     workIsRpg = FALSE

Publishers and Authors will have a lot of overlap since TSR and White Wolf have what amounts to RPG factories complete with "house authors". They also churn out a fair amount of fiction as by their most popular RPG module creators. The idea here is that the customers who enjoyed playing these RPG modules would be more likely to buy books bylined by the people who created their favorite modules. I would guess that 70%+ of the "target" Author/Publisher combinations will be non-SF, but even 20-30% of their voluminous output is quite a bit of fiction that we would be missing.

Title keywords are tricky. We really need two separate subcategories here. Some are series names, e.g. "Dark Sun", and include both RPG paraphernalia and SF novels, so they don't necessarily tell us anything up front and require human intervention to categorize. Others are clear indications that the record in question is non-SF, e.g. "accessor", "module", "rulebook", "sourcebook", etc. The latter type will give us a 98%+ success rate, which is pretty good. I will create two subcategories accordingly shortly. Ahasuerus 08:50, 30 May 2006 (CDT)

Done. At this point if isRpgPublisher(publisher) and hasRpgKeyword(title) should have a very high success rate. Hopefully :) Ahasuerus 08:59, 30 May 2006 (CDT)

What about if isRpgAuthor(author) and hasRpgKeyword(title)? (Just trying to find a way to use the author list...) Alvonruff 09:03, 30 May 2006 (CDT)

Hm, that may work too, but there is a caveat. Given that Authors can (and often do) do non-RPG work when working for non-RPG publishers, there will be cases when an otherwise "RPG author" will write "Jim's Adventures in the Solar System", an SF title, that we will miss because of the keyword "system". I think it's somewhat safer to go by the publisher/keyword, but there is no harm in trying both approaches and checking what kind of overlap we will get. Ahasuerus 09:44, 30 May 2006 (CDT)

Targeted Publishers

Note: Substring search on the Publisher field withi Publications is currently broken.

• Chaosium
• Decipher Inc.
• FASA
• Fast Forward Entertainment
• Guardians of Order
• Green Ronin Publishing
• Mongoose Publishing
• Steve Jackson Games
• TSR
• White Wolf
• Wizards of the Coast

Series names (may include works of fiction)

• 1492 Conquista Del Magico
• Accordlands
• crossgen
• dark sun
• everquest
• forgotten realms
• game of thrones (definitely has fiction)
• Marvel Super Heroes
• ravenloft
• Silver Age Sentinels
• spelljammer
• spycraft

Targeted Keywords

The following is a list of RPG-related keywords that suggest (but don't guarantee) that a Work with this keyword in its title may be an RPG-related item and not a work of fiction. Once you have confirmed that it is indeed an RPG-related item, make sure to follow its Author(s)' links to find and kill other Publications first.

• accessory
• accessories
• advanced
• booster
• campaign
• d20
• d&d
• deluxe
• dsm
• dungeon
• dungeons
• edition
• expansion
• figure
• figurine
• frq3
• game
• miniature
• pack
• reference
• role playing
• rule
• rulebook
• sourcebook
• stock
• supplement
• system
• TSR

Cleaned up Keywords

• Module

Targeted Authors

The following Authors are responsible for numerous RPG Works and can be used to trace other suspect Authors via collaborations:

Andrew Bates
Paul Beakley 
Carrie A. Bebris
Thomas Biondiolillo 
Eric L. Boyd 
Mike Breault
Anne Brown
Stan Brown aka:
Steven Brown 
Eric Cagle 
Rachel Caine
Clyde Caldwell 
Craig Robert Carey 
Jason Carl 
Genevieve Cogman 
Loren L. Coleman 
Andy Collins 
William W. Connors 
Monte Cook 
John Crowdis
Gary Gygax
Paul Daly 
Graeme Davis
Jesse Decker
Thomas Denmark 
Dave Dorman
Dale Donovan 
Charles Dougherty
Tom Dowd 
Darrin Drader 
Jeff Easley 
David Eckelberry
H. J. Eysenck
Fanpro 
Fred Fields 
Nigel D. Findley 
Matt Forbeck (a number of legit TSR novels as well)
Fast Forward
Jason Fry 
Scott Gearin 
Bruce Graw
Jeff Grubb
August Hahn
Shane Lacy Hensley 
Dale Henson 
Dell Harris
Geoff Hassing
Rob Heinsoo 
Keith Herber
Don Hillsman
John Hopler
Miranda Horner 
Jeff Ibach
Steve Jackson 
James Jacobs 
Paul Jaquays 
Harold Johnson 
Myranda Kalis 
Steve Kenson
Gwendolyn F. M. Kestrel
Steve Kurtz 
Michael B. Lee
Ian Livingstone
Roxanne Longstreet
David Lyons
Michelle Lyons 
James Maliszewski 
Hal Mangold
John W. Mangrum 
Julia Martin 
Duane Maxwell
Colin McComb 
Will McDermott (some fiction)
Mike Mearls
Matt Milberger
David Miller
Steve Miller - possibly not the Liaden one
Kim Mohan
Erik Mona
Ryan Naylor
John Nephew 
Jessica M. Ney 
Wes Nicholson
Douglas Niles 
David Noonan
Allan Nunis
Patrick O’Duffy 
Bill Olmesdahl 
Andy Park 
Keith Parkinson
Steve Perrin 
Michael Phillippi 
Jon Pickens
Chris Pramas
Anthony Pryor 
David L. Pulver
Jeff Quick 
Jeffrey Quinn 
Sam Rakeland 
John Rateliff 
Roger Raup 
Nicky Rea 
Thomas Reid (also known as Thomas M. Reid)
Mark Rein-Hagen 
Gordon Rennie 
Sean K. Reynolds and Sean Reynolds and Sean K Reynolds 
Ken Rolston
Aaron Rosenberg
Alex Ross
John D. Ruemmler 
John Ruemmler (same as above, but no middle initial)
Robh Ruppel 
Charles Ryan 
J. M. Salsbury 
Carl Sargent
Steven E. Schend 
Robert J. Schwalb
Jesse Scoble 
Mike Selinker 
Janice M. Sellers
Matthew Sernett 
Kevin Sharpe
Geoff Skellams
Bill Slavicsek 
Lisa Smedman 
John Snead 
Lucien Soulban 
Greg Stafford 
Ed Stark 
Owen K. C. Stephens
Doug Stewart 
Travis Stout 
Ian Sturrock
Tony Szczudlo 
John J. Terra and John Terra
Chris Thomasson 
Rodney Thompson 
Michael Tresca
Jonathan Tweet 
Wil Upchurch 
Ray Vallese 
Allen Varney 
Loston Wallace 
J. D. Wiker 
Jennifer Clarke Wilkes 
Skip Williams 
Bill Willingham - comic books, waiting for Al to give me the go-ahead to zap them
Steve Winter
David Wise 
White Wolf (sic)
World of Darkness (sic)
James Wyatt
Patrick Younts
Tracey Zamagne

Cleaned up/eliminated Authors

• W. G. Armintrout
• Aron Crown Enterprises (sic)
• Walter M. Baas (aka Walt Baas)
• Keith Baker
• Richard Baker aka Rich Baker aka L. Richard Baker, III aka many misspellngs
• Jack Barker
• Thomas Baxa
• Wolfgang Baur, Wolfgang Bauer and Wolf Baur
• Richard L. Baker, III
• Kevin Barrett
• Tim Beach
• Kraig Blackwelder
• Brian Booker
• Chad Brinkley
• Brom (a legitimate cover artist also responsible for many RPG items)
• Frank Brunner
• Rich Burlew
• Anthony J. Bryant
• James Butler (aka Jim Butler)
• Brian Campbell
• Joseph Carriker
• Doug Chaffee
• S. Coleman Charlton
• Jennifer Clarke-Wilkes
• Williams Connors
• David Zeb Cook
• Zeb Cook
• Bruce R. Cordell (also Bruce Cordell)
• Dave Gross
• Elizabeth T. Danforth
• Daniel Dover
• Ian Eller
• Newton Ewell
• Peter C. Fenlon
• Todd Gamble
• J. F. Gonzalez cleaned up except for the lost Award record -- see the Bug section
• Ed Greenwood
• "Green Ronin"
• Eric Haddock
• Dori Hein
• Iron Crown Enterprises (sic)
• Michael A. Goodwin
• Geoff Grabowski
• James Jacobs
• J. Wallace Jones
• Michael Kessler
• Dana Knutson
• Laura Lakey (cleaned up, the cover art work left intact)
• Kolja Raven Liquette
• Anne Gray McCready
• Angus McBride (and "Agnus McBride")
• George MacDonald, who had an RPG manual to his name (!)
• Kevin Melka
• Christopher Perkins
• Saul Peters
• "Pocket Books"
• Thomas Prusa (Tom Prusa)
• Jean Rabe (also a legitimate fantasy novelist)
• Kathleen Ryan (legitimate cover artist or namesake?)
• Stephen Schubert
• Jonathan L. Shepherd
• Malcolm Sheppard
• Art Slade
• Stan (sic)
• Stan! (sic!)
• Georgia S. Stewart
• George Strayton
• Rick Swan
• Michelle Vuckovich
• Pierce Watters
• Jennifer Clarke Wilkes
• Mark Williams
• Penny Williams
• Wizards of the Coast (except for the ones that are labeled "unknown as by Wizards of the Coast")
• Rich Wulf