Privacy

All of the personal data in my customer database, including email addresses of customers, remains confidential. Data made available to others (such as sales curves) are always abstracted and contain no information regarding specific customers or specific sales. I don't keep any permanent record of physical mailing addresses, even for customers who order physical goods like CDs or IOR membership cards. I maintain a (private) archive of all my email correspondence, which includes Cumberland orders and customer queries.

Cumberland has no privacy policy concerning credit card information because I never have access to your credit card info (all credit card transactions are made through PayPal or third-party vendors like Lulu, none of whom share sensitive bank data with me, thank heavens). I don't keep permanent records of checking account numbers, in the case of direct-mail orders paid by personal check (but my bank presumably does, when I cash them).

Commercial Mass-Email

I only send mass-emails directly to existing customers when a new edition of, or sequel to one of their registered titles comes available. For example, when I released HexPaper 2.0, I emailed customers who purchased HexPaper 1.x to let them know the new edition was available. When I publish another of Lisa Steele's series of medieval sourcebooks, I'd email Fief customers but not Points in Space customers, since while both Fief and Points in Space are part of the All-Systems Library, Lisa's work doesn't constitute a sequel to Points in Space.

I send all sorts of advertising and release notices to the Cumberland Mailing List. I never add a customer's email to the mailing list; signup is always voluntary and customer-initiated. The same goes for Cumberland lists devoted to specific games and game-lines.

I never send mass-emails to non-customers for any reason. If you get a spam or chainletter or something claiming to be from me, it is a forgery created by a spammer, virus, or both (sadly, a common practice ... I often get spam that seems to come from myself).

As a matter of personal (not company) policy, I don't forward collections of lame jokes, either, and I consider people who do so irretrievably evil.

Warranty & Finality of Sales

Licenses for Cumberland titles are sold without warranty. All sales are final, and all resulting licenses lifetime and non-transferrable unless explicitly stated otherwise.

I do my best to resolve any tech problems, however, and the few folks who've experienced them will attest that I'll go to considerable lengths to do so. I provide "tech support" as a free courtesy, however, not as an obligation of sale. I also, sadly, lack the expertise to provide any sort of tech support relating to Macintosh or Linux-based operating systems. I also don't provide any support for the use of Cumberland titles beyond the scope of their design, so if you have a keen idea for using my "Apple Butter" font to build a weather-control machine (or some kind of new Risus house-rule) I can't test either of them for you or help out if they don't work as you'd hoped.

File Replacement

If you ever lose your files to a hard drive crash or anything, just email me and I'll be happy to provide fresh download instructions. When requesting file replacements, please try to include all of the following information (or as much of it as you have available):

• The name you used when ordering.
• The date of your order.
• Your method of ordering (PayPal, by post, etc).
• The email address you ordered from (if you ordered online).

If I can't find your order in my customer database or email archives, I can't replace the file, so providing this information makes everything go smoothly.

TrueType Compatibility

All of my fonts are in Windows TrueType format. I test them at home in Windows XP. I try to get font-testers for other Windows platforms (preferably multiple testers for each), and sometimes I get them and sometimes I don't. My fonts seem almost universally compatible with Macintosh OS X as well, but that's just blind luck (and, presumably, the quality of the Macintosh). Earlier versions of the Mac do not support Windows TTF directly (but conversion software is available; use at your own risk). Versions of Windows prior to Windows 95 may not support complex fonts like Sparks.

Customers licensing commercial rights to my freeware fonts may request, at no extra charge, a copy of the font in Type 1 format.

PDF Compatibility

As a matter of courtesy, I include backwards compatibility with the simpler, faster, smaller reader programs (and, by extension, with some third-party PDF software and for the Macintosh's built-in reader). I currently prefer to build Cumberland titles for Acrobat Reader 4 compatibility, and for Acrobat Reader 3 compatibility when possible. I make no efforts for Reader versions 1 and 2 (though, miraculously, even Version 1 for DOS can read a few of the CG&D files). As new versions of Acrobat roll out, I will always stay at least 3 versions behind in terms of where I target compatibility.

That said, please try the most current version of Acrobat or Reader before requesting PDF-related tech support, since while Adobe tends to make the program fatter and slower and bellsier and whistlier and pushier, it also gets more stable, more reliable, and more tolerant of unusual creative approaches (I specialize in those).

Cumberland PDFs are not DRM-restricted and never require any form of activation. Most are password-protected against alteration. Most do not allow copying or extraction of contents (but if you have a need, feel free to email me and you'll find I'm really very laid-back about that kind of thing).

Revisions & Editions

I revise every Cumberland title at need, fixing mistakes and improving the stability and quality of the files. Every file includes a version number (not always apparent, but it's there) extended if necessary to two decimal places. I announce revisions that affect the primary digit or first decimal-digit on the Cumberland Games Mailing List. I don't generally announce revisions that affect the second decimal-digit; they're immaterial fixes like typos and rephrasings, or little revisions to document coding, colors and so forth. A change from version 1.2 to 1.3 would rate a mailing list announcement, for example, but a change from verson 1.27 to 1.28 would not.

Cumberland titles are licensed per-edition, but I'll offer new editions of of such titles as free or discounted upgrades, depending on the difference in content. HexPaper 2.0, for example, is a free upgrade for users of HexPaper 1.x. Titles offered as discount upgrades are time-limited offers, announced on the general Mailing List and, if appropriate, the line-specific mailing list as well.

Playtest Credit & Comps

All playtesters and font-testers are credited by name and recieve a free license for any title they playtest, in addition to free copies of any earlier titles necessary for the testing process. The only exception is Risus: A Kringle in Time, where (unfortunately) many of the playtesters' names from the early-to-mid 1990s were never recorded. If you're one of Kringle in Time convention gamers, please email me reminding me of your character and I will comp you and revise the credits to include you.

Convention Support

Cumberland provides free support to science fiction/fantasy/horror/anime/gaming conventions in the form of free licenses to be awarded to tournament winners and/or sold in auctions. Certificates and code-numbers are provided in electronic form; the convention is free to print the certificates if they wish.

The amount of support I offer depends on the established size of the convention, and on return perks like advertising space in the program booklet. Conventions granting Cumberland a free full-page program ad get additional support in the form of a free Cumberland e-title for all of their attendees (instructions for claiming it appear in the ad). The only obligation: conventions are expected to send me a single copy of the convention booklet for my files. Conventions that do not provide a copy of the booklet are not eligible for free support in later years.

Convention Appearances

I'm an experienced convention guest, available to run games, chair panels, organize creative workshops, fold chairs, make the punch, get folks enthused, and otherwise make myself a valuable part of any convention that invites me. My preferred topics for panels are GMing, writing, and game design matters, but I also enjoy discussing industry anecdotes and broader fan-community matters like organizing game clubs and the pitfalls of publishing. I always bring freebies, too (both my own, and stuff from other game companies I'm friendly with). If you can budget transportation and lodging (nothing fancy required, but I'm no longer young enough to accept crash space on the floor), feel free to contact me about my services as a con guest. Cons that bring my wife along with me get preference.

Submissions, Proposals and Portfolios

Cumberland Games accepts no unsoliticed submissions of creative work. If this changes in the future I'll herald the change with a press release and replace the text you're reading now with instructions and links.

That said, I'm not entirely a one-man-band, and I do work with illustrators and other writers from time to time. If you have reason to believe that your writing or art has knocked my socks off and rocked my gaming table, then you meet the basic qualification for someone I'd approach for a Cumberland project. Drop me a line and remind me. If you think your work could knock my socks off and demand to rock my gaming table if only I knew of it, feel free to lead me to your portfolio and/or bibliography, virtual or otherwise. If your work achieves the necessary knocking and rocking, I may contact you at some point.

If you own all rights to an existing game or RPG supplement that might make a good after-market Cumberland edition (such as Lisa Steele's Fief or my own Pokethulhu), or if you own all rights to existing paper-miniatures artwork (fronts and backs required) that might make a good licensed Sparks set (as per the Macho Women with Guns set) feel free to drop me a line and we can discuss it. As above: If it rocks my gaming table, I'm interested. I publish only what I game with ... which leads us to:

Mission Statement

I haven't got one; corporate humbug gives me hives. If I did, though, it would be something about providing gaming material for the home/office printer that I personally enjoy as a GM or player, done to my own standards without marketing influences watering down any stage of the design. Then I'd add something about how cool stick figures are, and probably quote a movie or Homer Simpson or somebody to deflate the stuffiness.

Nah, not Homer Simpson. It would be Bill & Ted, as it always is: Be excellent to each other.