Here's an idea spawned from a review of Mythmere's Advanced Adventure Design Deskbook and the recent discussion about the difficulty of sandbox play.
Mentors.
Another group I've involved with runs a year long mentoring program each year for people new to it but serious about it who are interested in the controlling role. A combination of classes, meetings, and one on one mentoring by an experienced member are provided. More commonly, individuals find mentors (it is highly recommended by serious people in the lifestyle) to go to with questions and for support. In this case it's not just the particular role the formal mentoring program covers but everyone is advised to get one or two mentors.
It is often said that a good DM can make any game better and a bad DM should ruin a perfect game. We can identify at least some of the masters both hobby wide and locally.
So, perhaps those of us trying to see the hobby thrive and make sure we have a supply of good DMs and players to play with are trying the wrong thing. It's not the perfect boxed set or licensed game or level of rules complexity we need to provide. We need to take new people, especially new DMs, under our wings. Give them someone to bounce campaign ideas and problems off. Maybe even be their sponsor they can call when their game goes wrong. Sure, it's more like something out of KoDT than our lives as gamers now.
Maybe it shouldn't be that way.
Showing posts with label theory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label theory. Show all posts
Monday, May 2, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
Personal Appendix N: Short Fiction and Why It Matters
In yesterday's discussion of the canon for the May Project I said:
First, I did acknowledge, albeit indirectly, that this has been brought up if you read the full quote. However, my indirection is the reverse indirection of what I'm talking about. Many, many people have all discussed the key early sources for D&D but I can count on one hand how often the difference between these sources and most modern fantasy in terms of length is discussed. We've had long discussions on the transition from Conan the free-booter to Tanis Half-elven the Heroic World Saver with the introduction of Dragonlance. What we have not had is a discussion about how we moved from a canon built of a variety of tales whose longest tale is a 72,000 world novel and a canon which is made up of three books averaging 120,000 word each which form a single story.
Why is this distinction important? Because one of the most common way to express what an RPG is "it's like a novel or movie except you're the main character". This idea creates a certain set of expectations. First is the highly detailed overall world. Second is the idea that the campaign forms a single cohesive narrative. Third is it emphasizes the importance of every event in the process to moving towards the common end of the narrative (digressions are possible in a cohesive narrative but it is rare in modern genre writing).
If we emphasized the source material made up of short stories as in "it's like a series of short stories or a television show where you're the main character" we would create different expectations. The most obvious difference is the lack of the larger narrative which everything has to support. Some modern TV shows, especially genre shows, have used narrative arcs of various strengths but even they have plenty of irrelevant to the broader plot episodes. However, it goes beyond that. Nothing detailed in Dragonlance early on existed for anything but its use the story. If this sounds similar to my points in memoir is story it is. Conan's tales read much more like episodes in his own memoir than a novel.
If you don't think what kind of sources we use influences our expectations let's do a thought experiment. Let's say I wanted to set a game primarily based on Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar. Using Jeff's rules I can have two fluff sources.
First, imagine the game setting I'd design if I based it on the Queen's Own trilogy and the The Last Herald-Mage trilogy. It would be a very top level game. Most of the threats would be existential for my central kingdom. The characters would be primary heroes charged with "saving the world". My setting details would high level discussions of rulers, borders, and long reams of history. Why would I have these things? Because much of these stories are centered on these things over smaller local details.
If, instead, my primary sources were Finding the Way and Other Tales of Valdemar and Sun on Glory and Other Tales of Valdemar what would it look like? I would be more likely to have inspiration for a bunch of individual locations whose broader connections would be more nebulous. I would know kingdom B was to the left and duchy C was to the right of my primary setting, but beyond B is good guys and C bad guys I wouldn't have a lot of info on the relationships. Instead of a few big heroes, I'd have details and ideas on a lot of prominent figures who none the less didn't dominate things. I would have a better picture of how characters fit into the setting without saving it.
Another dimension is the kind of campaigns short stories, series novels, and episodic TV inspire over epic novels. It is hard to imagine a sandbox if your only inspiration is The Lord of the Rings, novel or movies. It's much easier to imagine a sandbox or episodic game when you're reading the combined Conan novels or watching Star Trek: TOS. In fact, the linked Grognardia post about Star Trek: TOS is one of the few discussions about short fiction as RPG inspiration and why it works although even then James doesn't discuss that directly.
If you go to the primary sources Gary et al uses this is obvious but that doesn't always help. For one thing, if I'm interested in modern magical games I need a way to distill what makes Conan work better for designing a game than Tolkien. To take it to visual media why Space Seed is better inspiration than Wraith of Khan which is better than Undiscovered Country. Another reason it's worth knowing if I want something more modern in its sensibility it helps to know that it's better to use the short stories in my favorite world than the epic novels as we saw in the Valdemar example.
If there is one area the OSR dances around but I've yet to see someone directly address is the importance of short fiction. A large amount of what is considered primary source material for D&D, via Appendix N and other sources, is short fiction. The Dying Earth is an interlinked collection of short stories, for example. The Hour of the Dragon was Howard's only novel about Conan and it comes in at 72,659 words making it short relative to the fantasy novels of today.This brought two responses. First from Trollsmyth:
I'm very curious about this comment, however. I've always seen the bedrock of the OSR being the short stories of Howard, Lovecraft, CA Smith, Leiber, Vance, etc. Or, at least, the D&D thrust of it. How do you think this has been ignored? How is a foundation based on the short-form significant?and the second from Scott:
Co-sign. I'd say Gygax was influenced as much or more by the fruits of Argosy and other short fantasy fiction markets than novels. Some of the bedrocks rarely or never worked long, and others such as Dunsany did some of their best work in short form.which both wonder why I think this is ignored.
First, I did acknowledge, albeit indirectly, that this has been brought up if you read the full quote. However, my indirection is the reverse indirection of what I'm talking about. Many, many people have all discussed the key early sources for D&D but I can count on one hand how often the difference between these sources and most modern fantasy in terms of length is discussed. We've had long discussions on the transition from Conan the free-booter to Tanis Half-elven the Heroic World Saver with the introduction of Dragonlance. What we have not had is a discussion about how we moved from a canon built of a variety of tales whose longest tale is a 72,000 world novel and a canon which is made up of three books averaging 120,000 word each which form a single story.
Why is this distinction important? Because one of the most common way to express what an RPG is "it's like a novel or movie except you're the main character". This idea creates a certain set of expectations. First is the highly detailed overall world. Second is the idea that the campaign forms a single cohesive narrative. Third is it emphasizes the importance of every event in the process to moving towards the common end of the narrative (digressions are possible in a cohesive narrative but it is rare in modern genre writing).
If we emphasized the source material made up of short stories as in "it's like a series of short stories or a television show where you're the main character" we would create different expectations. The most obvious difference is the lack of the larger narrative which everything has to support. Some modern TV shows, especially genre shows, have used narrative arcs of various strengths but even they have plenty of irrelevant to the broader plot episodes. However, it goes beyond that. Nothing detailed in Dragonlance early on existed for anything but its use the story. If this sounds similar to my points in memoir is story it is. Conan's tales read much more like episodes in his own memoir than a novel.
If you don't think what kind of sources we use influences our expectations let's do a thought experiment. Let's say I wanted to set a game primarily based on Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar. Using Jeff's rules I can have two fluff sources.
First, imagine the game setting I'd design if I based it on the Queen's Own trilogy and the The Last Herald-Mage trilogy. It would be a very top level game. Most of the threats would be existential for my central kingdom. The characters would be primary heroes charged with "saving the world". My setting details would high level discussions of rulers, borders, and long reams of history. Why would I have these things? Because much of these stories are centered on these things over smaller local details.
If, instead, my primary sources were Finding the Way and Other Tales of Valdemar and Sun on Glory and Other Tales of Valdemar what would it look like? I would be more likely to have inspiration for a bunch of individual locations whose broader connections would be more nebulous. I would know kingdom B was to the left and duchy C was to the right of my primary setting, but beyond B is good guys and C bad guys I wouldn't have a lot of info on the relationships. Instead of a few big heroes, I'd have details and ideas on a lot of prominent figures who none the less didn't dominate things. I would have a better picture of how characters fit into the setting without saving it.
Another dimension is the kind of campaigns short stories, series novels, and episodic TV inspire over epic novels. It is hard to imagine a sandbox if your only inspiration is The Lord of the Rings, novel or movies. It's much easier to imagine a sandbox or episodic game when you're reading the combined Conan novels or watching Star Trek: TOS. In fact, the linked Grognardia post about Star Trek: TOS is one of the few discussions about short fiction as RPG inspiration and why it works although even then James doesn't discuss that directly.
If you go to the primary sources Gary et al uses this is obvious but that doesn't always help. For one thing, if I'm interested in modern magical games I need a way to distill what makes Conan work better for designing a game than Tolkien. To take it to visual media why Space Seed is better inspiration than Wraith of Khan which is better than Undiscovered Country. Another reason it's worth knowing if I want something more modern in its sensibility it helps to know that it's better to use the short stories in my favorite world than the epic novels as we saw in the Valdemar example.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Memoir is Story...
I got to thinking about story in RPGs after reading the Hack & Slash analysis of O Glossary entries at the Forge. Specifically, of interest is the idea of "Ouija Board Roleplaying". The idea evolves out of the belief at the Forge that one must prioritize and create story intentionally for it to occur in roleplaying. Edwards et al would go on to claim that players in Simulationist play (defined by them as play that prioritizing exploration), especially those who who concentrate on exploring a world as is the case in most OSR influenced games were expecting story to simply emerge which, according to them, was impossible.
While the analysis does skewer the issue appropriately I think it misses something crucial. It's conclusion gives a key to this:
What is confused here is that story, or better yet narrative, is not restricted to fiction. In fiction, narrative is a planned thing. The author chooses which events occur in the fictional universe. If the author chooses it to happen it happens and until he inserts it into the story it hasn't even happened. We may presume Harry Dresden eats every night at Burger King but until Jim Butcher inserts a visit to BK by Harry it hasn't happened. Remember our ability to insert such events because they create an interesting symmetry later.
In contrast, a memoir constructs a narrative out of a set of pre-existing events. A person takes everything they've experienced in their life and selects a series of events that tells the story of their life. Biography does the same thing but the process is done by someone else. Journalism and history can also be done this way. Shelby Foote's history of the Civil War is not groundbreaking in the sense that Foote perused primary sources to create a unique history of the war. Foote worked strictly from secondary sources but created a narrative version of the war. Foote's success is not in finding new facts but creating a coherent story that organized facts about the war.
That is what Edward's misses in what he calls simulationist play. Players in these games are living parts of the life of their characters. Story emerges not because the people at the table are co-authors creating a story in the fictional sense. Instead, they are individuals who, after the fact, create memoirs of their characters' lives. This is how story "magically" emerges during play. People look at the events they experience, decide which are important, and arrange them into a story. In the broader sense the game can be seen as creating history which I think is what -C is after when he talks about things like motivations for NPCs and external events. However, in saying we're not waiting for interesting events I think -C goes a few degrees off target. As he points out we create interesting interactions but we only know which ones are memorable and important (those part of the story) after the fact.
I think the problem many people have with this concept of story emerging from play is its lack of uniqueness. If we view the emerging story from play as memoir constructed by each player then Osric the Fighter will tell a different story that Mallamabar the Druid and both will be different from the story of Ian Lee the Monk. This maps very well to my experience. Ask all your players to summarize what happened last session separately and you will get roughly the same story but some will include parts omitted in others and the emphasis of common parts will be different. If your goal is literary story via play you won't get the Lord of the Rings. You will, however, get the first three volumes of Durrell's Alexandria Quartet.
Note: When I first posted this I forgot about the interesting symmetry I pointed out in the fiction example: We call also take fiction and back fill the other details. This is what much of fandom is about, filling in the non-story details that interest us or move the story closer to the one we want told.
While the analysis does skewer the issue appropriately I think it misses something crucial. It's conclusion gives a key to this:
The entire category is a strawman, because there is not a single actual real world instantiation of his example. People aren't sitting around tables, and rolling them, waiting for an interesting occurrence, they are playing a game, and characters, and it's those interactions that create something special.I would argue in sandbox and other OSR playstyles we are in fact waiting for interesting occurrences. In fact waiting for interesting occurrences as opposed to having them fixed in place as much happen items is one of the defining characteristics of sandboxes and other open play forms (another mistake I think he makes but that's a quibble, a sandbox is always open play but not vice versa).
What is confused here is that story, or better yet narrative, is not restricted to fiction. In fiction, narrative is a planned thing. The author chooses which events occur in the fictional universe. If the author chooses it to happen it happens and until he inserts it into the story it hasn't even happened. We may presume Harry Dresden eats every night at Burger King but until Jim Butcher inserts a visit to BK by Harry it hasn't happened. Remember our ability to insert such events because they create an interesting symmetry later.
In contrast, a memoir constructs a narrative out of a set of pre-existing events. A person takes everything they've experienced in their life and selects a series of events that tells the story of their life. Biography does the same thing but the process is done by someone else. Journalism and history can also be done this way. Shelby Foote's history of the Civil War is not groundbreaking in the sense that Foote perused primary sources to create a unique history of the war. Foote worked strictly from secondary sources but created a narrative version of the war. Foote's success is not in finding new facts but creating a coherent story that organized facts about the war.
That is what Edward's misses in what he calls simulationist play. Players in these games are living parts of the life of their characters. Story emerges not because the people at the table are co-authors creating a story in the fictional sense. Instead, they are individuals who, after the fact, create memoirs of their characters' lives. This is how story "magically" emerges during play. People look at the events they experience, decide which are important, and arrange them into a story. In the broader sense the game can be seen as creating history which I think is what -C is after when he talks about things like motivations for NPCs and external events. However, in saying we're not waiting for interesting events I think -C goes a few degrees off target. As he points out we create interesting interactions but we only know which ones are memorable and important (those part of the story) after the fact.
I think the problem many people have with this concept of story emerging from play is its lack of uniqueness. If we view the emerging story from play as memoir constructed by each player then Osric the Fighter will tell a different story that Mallamabar the Druid and both will be different from the story of Ian Lee the Monk. This maps very well to my experience. Ask all your players to summarize what happened last session separately and you will get roughly the same story but some will include parts omitted in others and the emphasis of common parts will be different. If your goal is literary story via play you won't get the Lord of the Rings. You will, however, get the first three volumes of Durrell's Alexandria Quartet.
Note: When I first posted this I forgot about the interesting symmetry I pointed out in the fiction example: We call also take fiction and back fill the other details. This is what much of fandom is about, filling in the non-story details that interest us or move the story closer to the one we want told.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Monday Pointers: Unemployed Edition
D4:Starting Like a Kid with a Sears Catalog
Scott at Huge Ruined Pile suggests building a campaign like you just had the Moldvay Basic set and addiing the Cook Expert set when someone reaches level four. I'll discuss changing this to a more recent boxed set later this week.
D6:But What if I Added Harry Dresden and Dr. Who, then where are we
I'm actually linking to a comment, not a post but riffing on Jeff Rient's excellent description of D&D: "You play Conan, I play Gandalf. We team up to fight Dracula." in describing what a true sci-fi game in that vein would be: "Luke Skywalker and Spock team up to fight Cylons." James Mal would add "on Arrakis" and change Spock to Kirk but either way it is a goal worth shooting for if I ever get back to Space Monks.
D8:What Fits in a Session
A new blog gets to Monday Pointers: Telecaster's Receding Rule has a great little bit about dungeon design and what will fit in a session. Although I've been playing (and DMing) a long time my dungeons aren't the greatest. So I love collecting bits and pieces to help me get better.
D13:Yep, I'm Looking for Work
As the title says I'm out of work. My employer had large layoffs the first of September and that accounts in part for my absence for September. I have another month of severance and good leads.
Scott at Huge Ruined Pile suggests building a campaign like you just had the Moldvay Basic set and addiing the Cook Expert set when someone reaches level four. I'll discuss changing this to a more recent boxed set later this week.
D6:But What if I Added Harry Dresden and Dr. Who, then where are we
I'm actually linking to a comment, not a post but riffing on Jeff Rient's excellent description of D&D: "You play Conan, I play Gandalf. We team up to fight Dracula." in describing what a true sci-fi game in that vein would be: "Luke Skywalker and Spock team up to fight Cylons." James Mal would add "on Arrakis" and change Spock to Kirk but either way it is a goal worth shooting for if I ever get back to Space Monks.
D8:What Fits in a Session
A new blog gets to Monday Pointers: Telecaster's Receding Rule has a great little bit about dungeon design and what will fit in a session. Although I've been playing (and DMing) a long time my dungeons aren't the greatest. So I love collecting bits and pieces to help me get better.
D13:Yep, I'm Looking for Work
As the title says I'm out of work. My employer had large layoffs the first of September and that accounts in part for my absence for September. I have another month of severance and good leads.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
It's About Sticking with Your Choices
James Maliszewski has asked about advanced old school games. His basic contention is that old school does not equal rules light. While he is true in chronological terms, and even uses the obvious example of just about anything published by Fantasy Games Unlimited there is a problem with including these games in the modern old school cannon.
The modern old school definition seems to have settled out onto three basic pillars. They are do it yourself, rulings over rules, and player skill over character skill. You can arguably add a four pillar which is literary sources over gaming sources. Advanced games strike directly at two of these, rules over rulings and player skill over character skill. The first of these should be fairly obvious while the second may not be.
To briefly cover the case for complex rules emphasizing rules over rulings you have to ask why more complex rules exist. In general they developed for two reason, which are somewhat interlocking. The first was realism, more correctly called verisimilitude. This was a major concern across the wargaming community throughout the 1970s and when wargamers began creating roleplaying games the concern crossed. Among readily available games today that date to the period the classic example of this is Rolemaster, most specifically Arms Law. The second reason is to cover all possible cases. The full Rolemaster system is also an example of this. It has twenty armor types, tables of modifiers, and hundreds of skills to cover every possibility in action and characters.
This last point shows how this starts to attack the player skill over character skill paradyme. This is really an extension of the process that brought up the theif. Complex games, with their breakdown of character abilities into finer and finer points as well as creating more situational modifiers encourages players to optimize against the rules set as opposed to optimzing against the situation. When you have a simple game the player's do not have a laundry list of possible advantages and have to interact with what the judge describes. When you do have that laundry list players are encouaged to listen to the description through a filter created by that list.
At this point I have to ask, why is D&D3 not old school? I don't think it is, but the only existing pillar it seems to really violate that complex older games like Rolemaster do not is the literary influences over gaming influences. Yet, I think most people will agree third edition was not old school even if it was recognizible as part of the family.
I think the difference, the fifth pillar, is up front choices versus continuous choices. In old school games your upfront choices were much more limiting than in new school games. Rolemaster opens every skill to every character and there are no per level forced abilities. In fact, leveling in Rolemaster beats the complexity of any third edition I played (although I quit before the insane prestige class prep that seems to have characterized late play based on my reading). Yet, a Rolemaster character is much closer to a pre-third edition D&D character in terms how his class defines him. He won't multiclass, has no prestige class to graduate to, and will pay a high penalty for going outside his core skillset in terms of overall abilities. While you might emphasize character skill more that player skill in more complex old school games that skill is still more narrowly defined. When you choose to play a fighter of some kind you are playing a fighter at level ten, not a fighter/sorcerer/cleric hybrid who is going to join the Order of Draconic Lightbringers for some weird capabilities. Sure, your fighter is a two handed weapon specialist who knows ten psychic healing spells while their fighter is a bowman who also mastered savate for when the drunken dwarf calls a bar fight, but fighting is still their defining characteristic.
What really interests me is how we can apply this insight to make D&D3 a much more old school game. Perhaps d20 is the jumping off point for the advanced old school James is looking for.
The modern old school definition seems to have settled out onto three basic pillars. They are do it yourself, rulings over rules, and player skill over character skill. You can arguably add a four pillar which is literary sources over gaming sources. Advanced games strike directly at two of these, rules over rulings and player skill over character skill. The first of these should be fairly obvious while the second may not be.
To briefly cover the case for complex rules emphasizing rules over rulings you have to ask why more complex rules exist. In general they developed for two reason, which are somewhat interlocking. The first was realism, more correctly called verisimilitude. This was a major concern across the wargaming community throughout the 1970s and when wargamers began creating roleplaying games the concern crossed. Among readily available games today that date to the period the classic example of this is Rolemaster, most specifically Arms Law. The second reason is to cover all possible cases. The full Rolemaster system is also an example of this. It has twenty armor types, tables of modifiers, and hundreds of skills to cover every possibility in action and characters.
This last point shows how this starts to attack the player skill over character skill paradyme. This is really an extension of the process that brought up the theif. Complex games, with their breakdown of character abilities into finer and finer points as well as creating more situational modifiers encourages players to optimize against the rules set as opposed to optimzing against the situation. When you have a simple game the player's do not have a laundry list of possible advantages and have to interact with what the judge describes. When you do have that laundry list players are encouaged to listen to the description through a filter created by that list.
At this point I have to ask, why is D&D3 not old school? I don't think it is, but the only existing pillar it seems to really violate that complex older games like Rolemaster do not is the literary influences over gaming influences. Yet, I think most people will agree third edition was not old school even if it was recognizible as part of the family.
I think the difference, the fifth pillar, is up front choices versus continuous choices. In old school games your upfront choices were much more limiting than in new school games. Rolemaster opens every skill to every character and there are no per level forced abilities. In fact, leveling in Rolemaster beats the complexity of any third edition I played (although I quit before the insane prestige class prep that seems to have characterized late play based on my reading). Yet, a Rolemaster character is much closer to a pre-third edition D&D character in terms how his class defines him. He won't multiclass, has no prestige class to graduate to, and will pay a high penalty for going outside his core skillset in terms of overall abilities. While you might emphasize character skill more that player skill in more complex old school games that skill is still more narrowly defined. When you choose to play a fighter of some kind you are playing a fighter at level ten, not a fighter/sorcerer/cleric hybrid who is going to join the Order of Draconic Lightbringers for some weird capabilities. Sure, your fighter is a two handed weapon specialist who knows ten psychic healing spells while their fighter is a bowman who also mastered savate for when the drunken dwarf calls a bar fight, but fighting is still their defining characteristic.
What really interests me is how we can apply this insight to make D&D3 a much more old school game. Perhaps d20 is the jumping off point for the advanced old school James is looking for.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Note on "What I'm Reading"
As I'm sure you've noticed I have a "What I'm Reading" sidebar with links to the books at Powell's (yes, I'm in their partner program).
Traditionally I've only listed fiction that would seem to have a gaming bent there, but that's far from all I read.
Today I decided to add the non-fiction book I'm reading right now, Seth Godin's Linchpin. The reason is much of the book is about work that is also art. Godin defines art as
This blog actually has an elevator pitch. The one line version is the subtitle above:
Championing tabletop role-playing games as the most accessible form of public creativity and self-expression.
A book about art and connection and creativity is certainly one that fits that pitch. I tend to read books about creativity, self-expression, and art. From now on I'll consider them fodder not only for Dark Etiquette but this blog as well. That includes adding them to "What I'm Reading".
I promise not to subject you to my computer and mathematics reading, however.
Traditionally I've only listed fiction that would seem to have a gaming bent there, but that's far from all I read.
Today I decided to add the non-fiction book I'm reading right now, Seth Godin's Linchpin. The reason is much of the book is about work that is also art. Godin defines art as
a personal gift that changes the receiver. While I'm not 100% happy with that definition it, and much of Godin's discussion, applies to roleplaying games in my mind.
This blog actually has an elevator pitch. The one line version is the subtitle above:
Championing tabletop role-playing games as the most accessible form of public creativity and self-expression.
A book about art and connection and creativity is certainly one that fits that pitch. I tend to read books about creativity, self-expression, and art. From now on I'll consider them fodder not only for Dark Etiquette but this blog as well. That includes adding them to "What I'm Reading".
I promise not to subject you to my computer and mathematics reading, however.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
An Idea Has Been Eating My Brain
I came across this comment by the Trollgod himself via Grognardia:
I think this could be the basis of a second alchemical proposal with three ingredients:
Rules: Pick a core rules set. You can use any game but only the core rules. Then add a single supplement for any game, not necessarily the one you are using.
Setting Inspiration:Pick the core book of your favorite fantasy setting. You may pick any setting but go for the core book/books. If you want Valdemar you get the original Heralds trilogy. For Pern, you get Dragonflight and Dragonquest. For Narnia you would get the four books with the Pevensie children. However, you're not directly taking the setting but using it as an outlines: geography, character types, magic style, etc. You can also get characters and broad setting plot lines (wars, etc) from here.
Imagery and story types: Use one entire year's output of your favorite comic company. From these get your imagery to describe fights, plots and motivations for NPCs, and even NPCs outright. Where the fantasy books provided your macro scale outline the comics provide your micro scale inspiration. For me it would probably be either 1977 DC or 1984 DC (I was always more of a DC fan), but you could do some minor or even indie company. The reason I say pick a year at a company over the run of one comic is there is more likely to be a distinct flavor to a given year than to a given comic, especially at the two majors.
For example, imagine your next Microlite20 supplemented with Testament game built using Narina (as above) with the DC 1984 run. Or imagine a Mutant Future game supplemented with Palladium's After the Bomb that took its broad outline from Farmer's Dark Is the Sun and the 1971 DC run (which brings in all of Kirby's Fourth World among other things).
I think Jeff's proposal was a brilliant idea. I think mine is pretty good, but I'd love to see others of you post formulas that you've used or just think would be interesting. Limited pallet is a powerful creative force. A sense of direction is as well.
Yes. My conception of the T&T world was based on The Lord of The Rings as it would have been done by Marvel Comics in 1974 with Conan, Elric, the Gray Mouser and a host of badguys thrown in.Original Source
I think this could be the basis of a second alchemical proposal with three ingredients:
Rules: Pick a core rules set. You can use any game but only the core rules. Then add a single supplement for any game, not necessarily the one you are using.
Setting Inspiration:Pick the core book of your favorite fantasy setting. You may pick any setting but go for the core book/books. If you want Valdemar you get the original Heralds trilogy. For Pern, you get Dragonflight and Dragonquest. For Narnia you would get the four books with the Pevensie children. However, you're not directly taking the setting but using it as an outlines: geography, character types, magic style, etc. You can also get characters and broad setting plot lines (wars, etc) from here.
Imagery and story types: Use one entire year's output of your favorite comic company. From these get your imagery to describe fights, plots and motivations for NPCs, and even NPCs outright. Where the fantasy books provided your macro scale outline the comics provide your micro scale inspiration. For me it would probably be either 1977 DC or 1984 DC (I was always more of a DC fan), but you could do some minor or even indie company. The reason I say pick a year at a company over the run of one comic is there is more likely to be a distinct flavor to a given year than to a given comic, especially at the two majors.
For example, imagine your next Microlite20 supplemented with Testament game built using Narina (as above) with the DC 1984 run. Or imagine a Mutant Future game supplemented with Palladium's After the Bomb that took its broad outline from Farmer's Dark Is the Sun and the 1971 DC run (which brings in all of Kirby's Fourth World among other things).
I think Jeff's proposal was a brilliant idea. I think mine is pretty good, but I'd love to see others of you post formulas that you've used or just think would be interesting. Limited pallet is a powerful creative force. A sense of direction is as well.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Mentzer Dungeon: Introduction
This week I pulled the trigger on BCS Redbox and BCS Rebox Meetup. Our first meeting will be Sunday the 17th of April.
I don't have anyone signed up but me. As such, I need to be ready to run something. While I have a ton of modules and such I thought, "since we're playing Mentzer why not build a dungeon by the book."
So, over the next week I'm going to try and pretend I've never done this before and design a dungeon step by step with random stocking of most rooms and all the other hallmarks of Mentzer's procedure. For those wonder, the outline isn't much different from Moldavy's outline but the text is somewhat different.
For those who don't have Mentzer handy the steps are:
My goal in this is two fold. First, I'd like to get back to basics and see if I can rediscover things I've forgotten, both in process and in response. Second, I'm hoping these posts will inspire those, especially those who have never designed a dungeon, to take the leap.
Other articles in this series:
Introduction
Scenario
Setting
I don't have anyone signed up but me. As such, I need to be ready to run something. While I have a ton of modules and such I thought, "since we're playing Mentzer why not build a dungeon by the book."
So, over the next week I'm going to try and pretend I've never done this before and design a dungeon step by step with random stocking of most rooms and all the other hallmarks of Mentzer's procedure. For those wonder, the outline isn't much different from Moldavy's outline but the text is somewhat different.
For those who don't have Mentzer handy the steps are:
- Choose a Scenario
- Decide on a Setting
- Select Special Monsters
- Draw the Map
- Stock the Dungeon
- Fill in the Final Details
My goal in this is two fold. First, I'd like to get back to basics and see if I can rediscover things I've forgotten, both in process and in response. Second, I'm hoping these posts will inspire those, especially those who have never designed a dungeon, to take the leap.
Other articles in this series:
Introduction
Scenario
Setting
A TED talk that has the soul of the OSR
Larry Lessig on laws that choke creativity | Video on TED.com
Most of this isn't particularly relevant but two things are:
1. A lot of people complain using the OGL to create the retro-clones is just laziness at best and parasitism or piracy at worst. I think Lessig has a better interpretation in that the OGL has created a remix culture. While the first few out of the gate hew close to the original newer games like Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Roleplaying and Emprise are certainly going new (and very different) directions. My Chest of Wonders, which I haven't discussed much, will hopefully be a new direction for another part of the family tree.
2. The core of roleplaying, to my mind, is expressed in Lessig's "Read Write Culture". Late last year I actually wrote a mission statement for this blog, the short version of which is now the subtitle. The long version, the elevator pitch is, "Places to Go, People to be champions tabletop role-playing games as the most accessible form of public creativity and self-expression. We provide reviews, ideas, rules, inspirational sources, and other guidance and encouragement for people to play tabletop role-playing games in a traditional manner. We prefer homebrew settings and mix-and-match rulesets. We want each game-master to build a unique game that tells the stories he and his players have in them instead of acting out stories already written. Are you ready for old fashioned adventure?"
Mix and match rule sets and telling the stories you and your players have in you are the essence of the OSR for me. While I do again with JER IV in that all it takes to be a member of the OSR is to play one of our games honestly and without irony I see that as lay membership. Initiate membership is when you start remixing the pieces of our games (and other games for that matter) to create your own (for those curious about Rune Lord membership see Grognardia for how it's done...for Rune Priests, get busy creating your own material that becomes part of the common vocabulary).
So as a closing note, let me make two recommendations, one of which I pledge to follow with any products I produce and the other as another suggestion on where to find not only new players but plain fellow travelers:
1. Embrace open gaming via the OGL or Creative Commons. You don't have to give up the farm but at least give back 10% of the total you have drawn from the open gaming world.
2. Meet and talk to the kinds of people doing the video and music remix culture. Listen to Paul's Boutique (20th Anniversary Edition) and Fear of a Black Planet, two of the greatest sample albums of all time. When you meet a local remixer or YouTube video maker, invite them to your game. The ReadWrite culture is our culture and they are our people.
Most of this isn't particularly relevant but two things are:
1. A lot of people complain using the OGL to create the retro-clones is just laziness at best and parasitism or piracy at worst. I think Lessig has a better interpretation in that the OGL has created a remix culture. While the first few out of the gate hew close to the original newer games like Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Roleplaying and Emprise are certainly going new (and very different) directions. My Chest of Wonders, which I haven't discussed much, will hopefully be a new direction for another part of the family tree.
2. The core of roleplaying, to my mind, is expressed in Lessig's "Read Write Culture". Late last year I actually wrote a mission statement for this blog, the short version of which is now the subtitle. The long version, the elevator pitch is, "Places to Go, People to be champions tabletop role-playing games as the most accessible form of public creativity and self-expression. We provide reviews, ideas, rules, inspirational sources, and other guidance and encouragement for people to play tabletop role-playing games in a traditional manner. We prefer homebrew settings and mix-and-match rulesets. We want each game-master to build a unique game that tells the stories he and his players have in them instead of acting out stories already written. Are you ready for old fashioned adventure?"
Mix and match rule sets and telling the stories you and your players have in you are the essence of the OSR for me. While I do again with JER IV in that all it takes to be a member of the OSR is to play one of our games honestly and without irony I see that as lay membership. Initiate membership is when you start remixing the pieces of our games (and other games for that matter) to create your own (for those curious about Rune Lord membership see Grognardia for how it's done...for Rune Priests, get busy creating your own material that becomes part of the common vocabulary).
So as a closing note, let me make two recommendations, one of which I pledge to follow with any products I produce and the other as another suggestion on where to find not only new players but plain fellow travelers:
1. Embrace open gaming via the OGL or Creative Commons. You don't have to give up the farm but at least give back 10% of the total you have drawn from the open gaming world.
2. Meet and talk to the kinds of people doing the video and music remix culture. Listen to Paul's Boutique (20th Anniversary Edition) and Fear of a Black Planet, two of the greatest sample albums of all time. When you meet a local remixer or YouTube video maker, invite them to your game. The ReadWrite culture is our culture and they are our people.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Robert Dubois of Dream Pod 9 Follows Up
First, before we get to the content of his reply let me publicly thank Mr. Dubois for taking the time to respond.
Second, let me appologize to him for letting this post sit for weeks.
Now, his response:
I'm glad to see they are looking at it. I'm disappointed that are doing so little. As I said in my original post I understand the issues with PDFs of books currently in print. However for PDFs of out of print books different rules apply.
As for having to pay his staff: if five plus years out of print books aren't amortized off they never will be. If he is depending on PDFs above reasonable price points to fund future projects he also has problems.
The simple fact is, as is proved by a post over at RPG Blog 2 about The Cortex System PDF being over priced, there is a ceiling to PDF prices. If you can't get under it I would say don't bother being in the market.
Dream Pod 9 has ceded my business to the used market as has White Wolf. Perhaps I'm unique but I doubt I am. In a business with razor think margins pushing customers to the used market or piracy is not a smart long term strategy.
Second, let me appologize to him for letting this post sit for weeks.
Now, his response:
We talked it over at the office and will be correcting the price of a few of the titles next week (after the GM's Day Sale ends) mainly a few of the older books that are priced at 70% off the printed book price they will be reduced to 50% off, for Tribe 8 its only the 2nd edition players handbook that will see the price decease. Our newer books for Heavy Gear Blitz will maintain their current pricing. I read the post you linked below and can understand peoples point of view, we have to live with piracy and we still have to pay all the writers, artists, sculptors, and production staff that work on the products, be they printed books or eBooks. One thing we came up with at the office was the idea of making bundles the eBooks for each gameline and selling them for a special additional 25% off discounted price for people that want to pickup the entire gameline at once. We'll be putting those bundles up next week after the sale ends. Let me know your comments about our plans.
I'm glad to see they are looking at it. I'm disappointed that are doing so little. As I said in my original post I understand the issues with PDFs of books currently in print. However for PDFs of out of print books different rules apply.
As for having to pay his staff: if five plus years out of print books aren't amortized off they never will be. If he is depending on PDFs above reasonable price points to fund future projects he also has problems.
The simple fact is, as is proved by a post over at RPG Blog 2 about The Cortex System PDF being over priced, there is a ceiling to PDF prices. If you can't get under it I would say don't bother being in the market.
Dream Pod 9 has ceded my business to the used market as has White Wolf. Perhaps I'm unique but I doubt I am. In a business with razor think margins pushing customers to the used market or piracy is not a smart long term strategy.
Monday Pointers: March 23, 2010 Edition
D4:Customizing 4E - "Old School"
MJ Hanish at Gaming Brouhahah has some notes on optional rules from the Fourth Edition's Dungeon Master's Guide 2 and some campaign restrictions to get a more old school feel out of the current WotC game sold under the D&D banner. He includes core ideas and then some specific recommendations for a Moldavy/Cook or AD&D game. With a lot of people who have never played the older editions and the upcoming new red box knowing how to adapt fourth to our style is worth investigating. If you disagree, try MJ's last paragraph.
D6:Raggi gives the perfect standard for OSR membership
Playing one of these games is pretty much the only requirement to be "one of us." No matter where you came from, what you did before, doesn't even matter if it's your favorite sort of game. You play the game in good faith, you're one of us, and fuck anyone who tries to impose greater "membership requirements" than that.
Word
D8:Feeling Old School
A interesting thread on RPG.net requesting descriptions of old school games other than D&D. With some specific requests. Head on over and share your knowledge.
D10:Musings on Sandbox Campaigns
Bat in the Attic has some interesting points about running a sandbox campaign. I think the second is the most missed point about sandboxes. They exist without the player characters and the GM should have an idea of what is happening outside of what the PCs do. Then, if the PCs run into those plans by NPCs you get plot.
D12:Realms and Remembrance
Having gotten a great response to his Secret Origins post of inside facts about the original Marvel Superheroes RPG Jeff Grubb decided to follow with one about the early publishing history of the Forgotten Realms.
D13:Red Box Bryan College Station
Bringing out the D13 to toot my own horn again, I'm working to start a monthly BECMI game inspired by Red Box New York, Red Box Vancouver, and Red Box Calgary. I'll also be using Meetup to promote. Expect a longer post on my Red Box Network idea later this week (or not...we all know me).
D20:How the Red Moon Came to Glorantha
I found Greg Stafford's personal site recently and it has some interesting articles. This one, on the genesis of White Bear, Red Moon was a revalation. As someone who learned of Glorantha from gaming it was odd to find out the part of the world that has dominated, almost to the exclusions of all others, wasn't originally conceived as part of that world. This only reinforces the drive to create "My Glorantha".
D100:Speaking of the Mythmaker
Allen Varney, in his rotating spot in the High Adventure column at The Escapist profiled Greg Stafford. In light of my mission statement/subtitle here I have to share this quote:
Roleplaying is one way for us to stimulate that mystery sense. Furthermore, its tropes activate all kinds of deeper curiosity and let us exercise both beneficial and gruesome fantasies that lie dormant in us. Choose anything from great heroics to serial murders - what greater opportunities do geeks like us have than to seek these while sitting at a table of friends? Are we heroes as a result? Nah, course not. But we are friends with shared thoughts, and that is good for the soul. And when we romp through those tropes, something deep inside is exercised - the mystery stirs.
Word
So, we start another week. Last week was my best ever in terms of numbers. While I think the fact that I posted five days running might have something to do with it I have to bow to the reality that my TARGA posts got the numbers. Still, to new readers welcome aboard. I hope you find my material interesting to enough to stay. And that Miss Manners post is still getting hits.
MJ Hanish at Gaming Brouhahah has some notes on optional rules from the Fourth Edition's Dungeon Master's Guide 2 and some campaign restrictions to get a more old school feel out of the current WotC game sold under the D&D banner. He includes core ideas and then some specific recommendations for a Moldavy/Cook or AD&D game. With a lot of people who have never played the older editions and the upcoming new red box knowing how to adapt fourth to our style is worth investigating. If you disagree, try MJ's last paragraph.
D6:Raggi gives the perfect standard for OSR membership
Playing one of these games is pretty much the only requirement to be "one of us." No matter where you came from, what you did before, doesn't even matter if it's your favorite sort of game. You play the game in good faith, you're one of us, and fuck anyone who tries to impose greater "membership requirements" than that.
Word
D8:Feeling Old School
A interesting thread on RPG.net requesting descriptions of old school games other than D&D. With some specific requests. Head on over and share your knowledge.
D10:Musings on Sandbox Campaigns
Bat in the Attic has some interesting points about running a sandbox campaign. I think the second is the most missed point about sandboxes. They exist without the player characters and the GM should have an idea of what is happening outside of what the PCs do. Then, if the PCs run into those plans by NPCs you get plot.
D12:Realms and Remembrance
Having gotten a great response to his Secret Origins post of inside facts about the original Marvel Superheroes RPG Jeff Grubb decided to follow with one about the early publishing history of the Forgotten Realms.
D13:Red Box Bryan College Station
Bringing out the D13 to toot my own horn again, I'm working to start a monthly BECMI game inspired by Red Box New York, Red Box Vancouver, and Red Box Calgary. I'll also be using Meetup to promote. Expect a longer post on my Red Box Network idea later this week (or not...we all know me).
D20:How the Red Moon Came to Glorantha
I found Greg Stafford's personal site recently and it has some interesting articles. This one, on the genesis of White Bear, Red Moon was a revalation. As someone who learned of Glorantha from gaming it was odd to find out the part of the world that has dominated, almost to the exclusions of all others, wasn't originally conceived as part of that world. This only reinforces the drive to create "My Glorantha".
D100:Speaking of the Mythmaker
Allen Varney, in his rotating spot in the High Adventure column at The Escapist profiled Greg Stafford. In light of my mission statement/subtitle here I have to share this quote:
Roleplaying is one way for us to stimulate that mystery sense. Furthermore, its tropes activate all kinds of deeper curiosity and let us exercise both beneficial and gruesome fantasies that lie dormant in us. Choose anything from great heroics to serial murders - what greater opportunities do geeks like us have than to seek these while sitting at a table of friends? Are we heroes as a result? Nah, course not. But we are friends with shared thoughts, and that is good for the soul. And when we romp through those tropes, something deep inside is exercised - the mystery stirs.
Word
So, we start another week. Last week was my best ever in terms of numbers. While I think the fact that I posted five days running might have something to do with it I have to bow to the reality that my TARGA posts got the numbers. Still, to new readers welcome aboard. I hope you find my material interesting to enough to stay. And that Miss Manners post is still getting hits.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Runequest Appendix N
I just noticed something last night. I was thinking about posting the Runequest reading list from the appendices. As soon as I sat down I noticed that it is N. Bibliography. That's right, RQ maintained the tradition of putting reading material in Appendix N. For general interest and comparison here it is.
Byfield, Barbarbara N. The Book of Weird (formerly The Glass Harmonica) - a delightfully-written and illustrated encyclopedia of things fantastical.
Coles, John. Archeology by Experiment - excellent description of the practical side of archeology, easily relatable to FRP games.
Conally, Peter. The Greek Armies, The Roman Army, and Enemies of Rome - three educational picture books of incredible detail and content.
Draeger, Donn F. and Smith, Robert W. Asian Fighting Arts - an excellent survey of what it really takes to master a weapon.
Foote, Peter(ed.) The Saga of Grettir the Strong - on version of the making of a hero, direct from the Age of Heroes of Iceland.
Funcken, Lillane and Fred. Arms and Uniforms: Ancient Egypt to the 18th Century - first-class illustrated book of historical costumes and weapons.
Howard, Robert E. Conan (and others) - the archetypical noble and savage barbarian written with muscle and guts; his notes have been finished with less gusto by other writers as well.
Keegan, John. The Face of Battle - the descriptions in this book are a must for anyone wanting to know some truth in grisly detail about ancient and medieval warfare.
Leiber, Fritz. Swords in the Mist (and others) - a basic source of modern fantasy; the stories about Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser are classics.
Magnusson, Magnus (ed.). Njal's Saga - an excellent look at a Dark Ages culture, and some rousing fighting besides.
Malory, Thomas. Le Morte d'Arthur - more information on heroic actions, though of a limited cult. Useful too for inspiration on possible event for FRP.
Moorcock, Michael. Elric (and others) - a basic source of modern fantasy.
Smith, Clark Ashton. Hyperborea (and others) - more standards of fantasy fiction, which everyone should at least taste.
Stone, George Cameron. A Glossary of the Constuction, Decoration, and Use of Arms and Armor - heavy emphasis on Japanese fighting gear, but worth it anyway.
Sturlasson, Snorri. King Harald's Saga - a superb epic tale by Iceland's most famous saga writer, proving you do not need fantasy to create a legend.
Tolkien, J. R. R. Lord of the Rings - a modern fantasy classic. Tolkien is rightfully accorded as the Master of fantasy, and if you have not yet read LotR, please do yourself a favor. Of his other works, see also The Silmarilion - notes of the Master compiled posthumously by his son, Christopher. These are a chronicle of the earlier ages of Middle Earth.
OTHER FANTASY ROLEPLAYING GAMES
Chivalry & Sorcery; Bunnies & Burrows; Flash Gordon & the Warriors of Mongo; Starships & Spacemen - all from Fantasy Games Unlimited, PO Box 182, Roslyn NY 11576.
Empire of the Petal Throne; Knights of the Round Table; Space Patrol; Superhero 2044 - all from Gamescience (Lou Zocchi & Associates), 1956 Pass Rd., Gulfport MS 39501.
Advanced D&D; Dungeons & Dragons; Gamma World; Metamorphosis Alpha; Star Probe; Star Empires - all from TSR Hobbies, Inc., PO Box 756, Lake Geneva WI 53147.
Bushido; Space Quest - Tyr Gamemakers Ltd., PO Box 414, Arlington VA 22210.
The Fantasy Trip (included Wizard and Melee) - Metagaming, PO Box 15346, Austin TX 78761.
Tunnels & Trolls; Monsters! Monsters!; Starfaring - all from Flying Buffal, Inc., PO Box 1467, Scottsdale AZ 85252.
Traveller; En Garde! - Game Designers' Workshop, 203 North St., Normal IL 61761.
Legacy - Legacy Press, 217 Harmon Rd., Camden MI 49232.
Arduin Grimoire; Welcome to Skull Tower; Runes of Doom - all from James E. Mathis, 2428 Ellsworth (102), Berkeley CA 94704.
Star Trek - Heritage Models, Inc., 9840 Monroe Dr. (Bldg. 106), Dallas TX 75220.
FOR LIVING IN THE PERIOD
The Society for Creative Anachronism. Write to Society of Creative Anachronism, Inc., Office of the Registry, PO Box 594, Concord, Calif. 94522
FOR MULTI-SIDED DICE
Write for prices to Lou Zocchi & Associates, 1956 Pass Rd. Gulfport MS 39501,or see you local hobby or game store.
Notes:
When contrasting it to the DMG the following stand out:
The presence of other games I think is very telling for two reasons. One, it indicates this work is a product of a period when the hobby was one of associates and friends not rival businesses becoming an industry. Second, it provides a context not only for the stories the designers wanted to tell but the games they knew. It is an interesting addition to the context of the game looking back 30 years later.
[Appendix] N. Bibliography
Bibby, George. 4000 Years Ago - check your library for other titles as well; anything by Bibby is recommended.Byfield, Barbarbara N. The Book of Weird (formerly The Glass Harmonica) - a delightfully-written and illustrated encyclopedia of things fantastical.
Coles, John. Archeology by Experiment - excellent description of the practical side of archeology, easily relatable to FRP games.
Conally, Peter. The Greek Armies, The Roman Army, and Enemies of Rome - three educational picture books of incredible detail and content.
Draeger, Donn F. and Smith, Robert W. Asian Fighting Arts - an excellent survey of what it really takes to master a weapon.
Foote, Peter(ed.) The Saga of Grettir the Strong - on version of the making of a hero, direct from the Age of Heroes of Iceland.
Funcken, Lillane and Fred. Arms and Uniforms: Ancient Egypt to the 18th Century - first-class illustrated book of historical costumes and weapons.
Howard, Robert E. Conan (and others) - the archetypical noble and savage barbarian written with muscle and guts; his notes have been finished with less gusto by other writers as well.
Keegan, John. The Face of Battle - the descriptions in this book are a must for anyone wanting to know some truth in grisly detail about ancient and medieval warfare.
Leiber, Fritz. Swords in the Mist (and others) - a basic source of modern fantasy; the stories about Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser are classics.
Magnusson, Magnus (ed.). Njal's Saga - an excellent look at a Dark Ages culture, and some rousing fighting besides.
Malory, Thomas. Le Morte d'Arthur - more information on heroic actions, though of a limited cult. Useful too for inspiration on possible event for FRP.
Moorcock, Michael. Elric (and others) - a basic source of modern fantasy.
Smith, Clark Ashton. Hyperborea (and others) - more standards of fantasy fiction, which everyone should at least taste.
Stone, George Cameron. A Glossary of the Constuction, Decoration, and Use of Arms and Armor - heavy emphasis on Japanese fighting gear, but worth it anyway.
Sturlasson, Snorri. King Harald's Saga - a superb epic tale by Iceland's most famous saga writer, proving you do not need fantasy to create a legend.
Tolkien, J. R. R. Lord of the Rings - a modern fantasy classic. Tolkien is rightfully accorded as the Master of fantasy, and if you have not yet read LotR, please do yourself a favor. Of his other works, see also The Silmarilion - notes of the Master compiled posthumously by his son, Christopher. These are a chronicle of the earlier ages of Middle Earth.
OTHER FANTASY ROLEPLAYING GAMES
Chivalry & Sorcery; Bunnies & Burrows; Flash Gordon & the Warriors of Mongo; Starships & Spacemen - all from Fantasy Games Unlimited, PO Box 182, Roslyn NY 11576.
Empire of the Petal Throne; Knights of the Round Table; Space Patrol; Superhero 2044 - all from Gamescience (Lou Zocchi & Associates), 1956 Pass Rd., Gulfport MS 39501.
Advanced D&D; Dungeons & Dragons; Gamma World; Metamorphosis Alpha; Star Probe; Star Empires - all from TSR Hobbies, Inc., PO Box 756, Lake Geneva WI 53147.
Bushido; Space Quest - Tyr Gamemakers Ltd., PO Box 414, Arlington VA 22210.
The Fantasy Trip (included Wizard and Melee) - Metagaming, PO Box 15346, Austin TX 78761.
Tunnels & Trolls; Monsters! Monsters!; Starfaring - all from Flying Buffal, Inc., PO Box 1467, Scottsdale AZ 85252.
Traveller; En Garde! - Game Designers' Workshop, 203 North St., Normal IL 61761.
Legacy - Legacy Press, 217 Harmon Rd., Camden MI 49232.
Arduin Grimoire; Welcome to Skull Tower; Runes of Doom - all from James E. Mathis, 2428 Ellsworth (102), Berkeley CA 94704.
Star Trek - Heritage Models, Inc., 9840 Monroe Dr. (Bldg. 106), Dallas TX 75220.
FOR LIVING IN THE PERIOD
The Society for Creative Anachronism. Write to Society of Creative Anachronism, Inc., Office of the Registry, PO Box 594, Concord, Calif. 94522
FOR MULTI-SIDED DICE
Write for prices to Lou Zocchi & Associates, 1956 Pass Rd. Gulfport MS 39501,or see you local hobby or game store.
Notes:
When contrasting it to the DMG the following stand out:
- The presence of a lot of non-fiction.
- The fiction on this list is present on the DMG.
- The addition of commentary
- That this list is specific works for all authors
- The pointers to other games (more about this below)
- The presence of DIY history in two places
- The presence of non-modern texts in the form of sagas.
The presence of other games I think is very telling for two reasons. One, it indicates this work is a product of a period when the hobby was one of associates and friends not rival businesses becoming an industry. Second, it provides a context not only for the stories the designers wanted to tell but the games they knew. It is an interesting addition to the context of the game looking back 30 years later.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Researching Spells: They have to be new
So, I wandered back to an excellent discussion of B/X spellbook limits at Ode to Black Dougal.
Looking at my comment I think I left an important idea out but researched spells, which I allowed to exceed the spellbook limitations, CANNOT be spells in the B/X rulesbooks or that you can be taught by other magic-users. Basically, the idea is there is a common legacy of magic, the spells TSR provided, that make up the limited spells. To become more than a copyist of others you much research your own.
I didn't have this in mind back then, but I think it is a crucial addition. In fact, I could swear this exact limitation (spell research means spell creation) was in the original Dungeon Master's Guide in conjunction with the Intelligence limits on spell (which I believe research allowed you to exceed). Maybe it is in some other early book but I could swear I read it back in the day (maybe one of Gary's rants in The Dragon).
Regardless, I think if you're going to allow Magic-Users to exceed whatever limit your rules set offers (as do all versions up to second edition where it became optional) you should only allow it by researching of entirely new spells.
Looking at my comment I think I left an important idea out but researched spells, which I allowed to exceed the spellbook limitations, CANNOT be spells in the B/X rulesbooks or that you can be taught by other magic-users. Basically, the idea is there is a common legacy of magic, the spells TSR provided, that make up the limited spells. To become more than a copyist of others you much research your own.
I didn't have this in mind back then, but I think it is a crucial addition. In fact, I could swear this exact limitation (spell research means spell creation) was in the original Dungeon Master's Guide in conjunction with the Intelligence limits on spell (which I believe research allowed you to exceed). Maybe it is in some other early book but I could swear I read it back in the day (maybe one of Gary's rants in The Dragon).
Regardless, I think if you're going to allow Magic-Users to exceed whatever limit your rules set offers (as do all versions up to second edition where it became optional) you should only allow it by researching of entirely new spells.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Miss Manners Wouldn't Play D&D
Some rules I have encountered in my travels:
While a few of you might be able to guess what these are for I suspect most of my readers won't. They are taken from Bridge: Rules of Etiquette by David Braybrooke.
- Refrain from making negative comments during play concerning the contracts made.
- Always pay attention to the play and stop your mind from wandering.
- Making a questionable claim or concession is inadvisable.
- Don't prolong the play unnecessarily.
- To vary the normal tempo of bidding or play in order to distract opponents is not recommended.
- Do not leave the table needlessly before the round is called.
While a few of you might be able to guess what these are for I suspect most of my readers won't. They are taken from Bridge: Rules of Etiquette by David Braybrooke.
You are probably asking one of two questions and possibly both. The first is "why am I bringing up contract bridge in an RPG blog?" The second is "why am I bringing up rules of etiquette in an RPG blog?" The answers are "because bridge is commonly seen as a game for adults" and "because RPGs aren't" respectively. Last week I discussed how TSR's marketing choices moved D&D into being primarily perceived as a kids game. Today I'd like to discuss what I consider the single biggest obstacle to changing that perception; role-playing gamers as a whole have horrific manners.
Before you contend I'm alone in my thinking or that I'm merely subscribing to gamer stereotypes let's look at the evidence. While I had considered this before the topic was rammed home by two postings in the RPG community. The first, and more acerbic of the two, was by Alexis at The Tao of D&D and was titled DM As An Asshole (a how-to guide). The RPG Rules of Etiquette he laid out were very strict and drew on his experience as a chess player, specifically tournament play. However, strict as they are he correctly points out that they are common for many activities such as yoga, theater (performing or attending), and even playing in some musical ensembles. About two months after a similar post was made at RPG.net entitled Critque my table rules by D. Archon.
As for gamer stereotypes, I am indulging them. If we want to move RPGs back to an adult hobby from a kid's hobby which for any niche hobby is vital to its long term survival, we need to confront these stereotypes on two levels. The first is most people have them. The unwashed, mouth breathing, obsessed with his 70th level Paladin/Mage/Dungeon Master and the S&M elf chick that character is having sex with is the broader view of the hobby. Alexis is right. That is exactly what your coworkers are thinking when you walk away after talking about what you did this weekend. They may not think it of you specifically, but even then they wonder why you put up with people like that and what's wrong with you. To claim the same respect hex and chit wargaming had in the 1970s, an acceptable adult hobby even if not for everyone, we need to correct this image.
Before you start writing Alltel or the guys who write whatever sitcom dumped on gamers this week we need to clean up our own house. The fact is the matter is Alexis only went part of the way when he said, "D&D has consistently been, in my experience, the second worst offender when it comes to poor manners, poor habits and unbelievably infantile self-proclaiming posturing. The worst, of course, is any bar with a television where you’re trying to get solemnly drunk." The reality is too many of us not only accept this but celebrate it. When you consider the most popular gaming comic out there, Knights of the Dinner Table, this is driven home. I love the Knights and identify too much with the comic. That is part of the problem. Three different tables are regularly featured and at best one of them has a majority of functional adults at the table, Patty's Perps. To even bring them to that status of majority functional adults we have to include an ex-con as functional. That an ex-con trying to go straight is more functional that all but one of the lead group's players (the only functional adult in the Knights is Sarah) says something. Before anyone says, "but it is just a comic", they should come up with a reason for it being routinely funny and very popular that doesn't involve it reflecting the hobby as a whole.
If you need a more real world example let's return to D. Archon's table rules at RPG.net. Despite being milder than Alexis's rant there were multiple objections to rules I would consider fairly common sense. Some examples that people thought were "bring your own stuff" and "be on time or call". When you're 14 these are common issues that you put up with. When you are 25 or 35 or 45 or beyond and trying to squeeze gaming in along with a full time job, grad school, spouse, kids, maintaining your house, and so on the behavior being explicitly prohibited should not even come up. Even more disturbing, for me, was how much of myself I saw in both lists and how, with one exception (being on time, which is an ongoing personal struggle), they are mostly gaming specific.
The fact is we don't act like chess, bridge, or hex and chit gamers. We don't model their public and tournament play in our public and tournament play nor do we model their casual play in our casual play. We have more in common behaviorally with science fiction fandom. Even adults who love fantastic literature and media often avoid fandom. For the same reason, a large number of adults who love the literature and media that inspire us and love to create stories avoid our hobby. Not only do they avoid it but actively consider it in a negative light.
Yet that occurs in a world where one of the most influential figures on TV, Stephen Colbert, an NBA player, Tim Duncan, and some popular actors, Robin Williams, Mike Myers, and Vin Diesel, are all one of us. As I wrote last week this could be the real golden age of the hobby. It is older than it's been in two decades in terms of players, fantastic media is on the upswing, some prominent people are players, and we are returning to our DIY roots as DIY is on the upswing again. Let we are still considered a childish hobby. If we want to begin to reverse that trend and take advantage of all the possibilities to carve out a place as a stable, adult, niche hobby that will be around for our old age and our grandchildren the first step is to act like adults. Hell, in this day and age that might be another groundbreaking creation of the hobby.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Not a Golden But a Gilded Age
Although it overlaps ages in James Maliszewski excellent D&D chronology the period from 1981 to 1985 is generally considered the golden age of D&D and of RPGs in general. People generally say the early 1980s but I'm putting in specific dates for a reason. They represent the beginning and the end of the worst thing to happen to our hobby. The opening year is the release year of the Moldvay Basic set which is generally seen as the classic version of Basic D&D. The closing year is the year 60 Minutes ran its now famous expose about the game. They also serve as rough bookends for D&D as a fad. The damage of that era is due to how TSR choose to mass market D&D. Unlike many OSR members I do not think that appealing to a mass or broad market in and of itself is destructive to the hobby. The sin against the broader hobby TSR committed was marketing to kids
The Moldavy boxed set reads "The Original Adult Fantasy Roleplaying Game For 3 or More Adults Ages 10 and up". Contrast that cover information with the earlier Holmes boxed set's test that read "The Original Adult Fantasy Roleplaying Game for 3 or more players". The original boxed set had no age information on it.
For those who weren't around in the era you need to understand a few things about games in that time frame. Games for adults, especially in the mass market, were generally party games. Hobby games were mostly hex and chit wargames sold in hobby shops and for some peculiar reason I've never learned Avalon Hill games were commonly found in Hallmark stores. Board games were mostly kid or family oriented games. Major game publishers indicated the target market for their games with lines like "suitable for ages 10-14". In choosing ages 10 and up for their marketing TSR was making a conscious choice to market D&D to tweens. By 1983 and the Mentzer set TSR had dropped any pretense of marketing to adults by removing the word itself from their mass market oriented age range. The Mentzer Basic read "Ideal for 3 or more beginning to intermediate players, ages 10 and up". Star Frontiers, Marvel Superheroes, and other TSR games would bear the same age range in that period.
This had a series of perverse effects. First, adults who even three years earlier might have been open to the game were lead to perceive it as a "kids" game. Second, by marketing to the fickle children's market TSR was choosing a ton of revenue today in exchange for sacrificing a steady income stream in the long term. The worst damage, though, was to both the kinds of kids who were playing and the nature of the groups they played in.
I've written before about the value to teenage players of being accepted into an adult peer group as an adult. Testimony from people who started playing as a teenager in the era of 1975-1985 is quite interesting. Those who stayed in the hobby tend to have been their group's kid while. Those who were in peer group games seem to have left during and after high school. A handful are now coming back in their late 30s and early 40s. I have no hard statistics to prove it, but I suspect most of the former stayed and most of the later left to never come back. Peer group players were taught the same thing adults were taught by the box ages, this is something for kids not adults.
That is the true damage TSR committed and it is both deep and far ranging. Listen to this story from NPR's All Things Considered about the release of third edition. The story talks about designers trying to appeal to a new adult fan base. Anyone with a clue about the hobby knows most third edition books were sold to adults who had been playing for decades. This association of D&D with kids is a huge part of the negative geek image the hobby has. To the average adult choosing to be involved in a kids game puts you in the same category as comic book guy from the Simpsons. For example. just two years later the same show would run this story for the thirtieth anniversary. As you listen to the tone in parts of that story you are paying the interest on all that money TSR made. The surprise that adults still pay a kid's game is palpable.
The sad thing is that TSR could have chosen another path to a broader audience. In that version of the past D&D never becomes the fad it was but remains an adult hobby. The mass marketing moved into Hallmark stories along the lines Avalon Hill games or into mass market bookstores aimed at adults. In that world TSR probably still exists and Avalon Hill probably does too. That marketing, after all, marked the hobby as whole and just roleplaying as a kid's hobby. We'd still be different but in the way chess players and amateur painters are today and wargamers were in the 1970s. Do not underestimate the changes to our hobby, internally and externally, that acceptance as an adult hobby would have.
So, I don't consider the mass market era a golden age. It was a gilded age that hurt the hobby for two decades. The silver lining is some of the players who played as a teen and left at adulthood are coming back. The indie movement of a few years ago, the OSR, and even WotC's targeting of people in their 20s with both of their editions of D&D all are doing today what TSR could have done then. The hobby survived long enough for use to get a do-over. Having seen the error of appealing specifically to children we can now appeal to adults, even those 10 and above.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Are Horror RPGs Possible?
So, today I finally watched the original version of The Wickerman having had it from Netflix since before Thanksgiving. While watching it I was reminded of a time when horror meant something other than gore porn which alone was worth the time. It also brought back memories of very frightening thriller horror from that time period focusing on witches and satanism as well as pagan.
Like many gamers it made me want to get out some horror rules (specifically the first edition of Palladium's Beyond the Supernatural) and plot out a campaign. But I was stopped fast.
Can you really create a horror RPG campaign that will be fulfilling for both players and the game master? It is certainly possible to create a mood of horror as Death Frost Doom shows. Consider this, however, in horror there are generally few if any survivors and most horror films, especially of the more thriller type, leave a suggestion if not an outright demonstration that the leads have failed in ending the horror.
As a result we have to create action horror games. Sure, we have horrific events and a variety of supernatural and normal horrific events. That said, from the earliest horror games such as Stalking the Night Fantastic, Chill, and the afore mentioned Beyond the Supernatural you were a very competent individual who stood a chance of defeating the horror for good while surviving. Even the game that began horror as a genre, Call of Cthulhu was more August Derleth than H. P. Lovecraft for this reason. The other path, mostly as a result of White Wolf's Vampire and its success although also see in Stellar Games's Nightlife is you playing the monster.
In the end the best we can do is something like Call of Cthulhu which intersects with horror in a more TV than movie space (I don't feel qualified to comment on horror literature having limited exposure). CoC investigators, with their regular success and survivability are more akin to Kolchak: The Night Stalker and The X-Files (especially the pre-mythology conception of the show) as well as Derleth's The Trail of Cthulhu.
In that way, I think the development of those games has hurt RPG horror. While a horror campaign is probably not possible the proliferation of a "horror light" mentality and horror mechanics to enforce the mood has dampened the ability to bring horror as a style for certain adventures. It has encouraged us to think of horror as sanity points and monsters who eat them (instead of hit points). Horror should be a feeling of doom and that, even if you get out alive, you somehow didn't win.
Like many gamers it made me want to get out some horror rules (specifically the first edition of Palladium's Beyond the Supernatural) and plot out a campaign. But I was stopped fast.
Can you really create a horror RPG campaign that will be fulfilling for both players and the game master? It is certainly possible to create a mood of horror as Death Frost Doom shows. Consider this, however, in horror there are generally few if any survivors and most horror films, especially of the more thriller type, leave a suggestion if not an outright demonstration that the leads have failed in ending the horror.
As a result we have to create action horror games. Sure, we have horrific events and a variety of supernatural and normal horrific events. That said, from the earliest horror games such as Stalking the Night Fantastic, Chill, and the afore mentioned Beyond the Supernatural you were a very competent individual who stood a chance of defeating the horror for good while surviving. Even the game that began horror as a genre, Call of Cthulhu was more August Derleth than H. P. Lovecraft for this reason. The other path, mostly as a result of White Wolf's Vampire and its success although also see in Stellar Games's Nightlife is you playing the monster.
In the end the best we can do is something like Call of Cthulhu which intersects with horror in a more TV than movie space (I don't feel qualified to comment on horror literature having limited exposure). CoC investigators, with their regular success and survivability are more akin to Kolchak: The Night Stalker and The X-Files (especially the pre-mythology conception of the show) as well as Derleth's The Trail of Cthulhu.
In that way, I think the development of those games has hurt RPG horror. While a horror campaign is probably not possible the proliferation of a "horror light" mentality and horror mechanics to enforce the mood has dampened the ability to bring horror as a style for certain adventures. It has encouraged us to think of horror as sanity points and monsters who eat them (instead of hit points). Horror should be a feeling of doom and that, even if you get out alive, you somehow didn't win.
Monday, November 30, 2009
RPG Legos
A common concept of the OSR is the idea of making the game your own. Beyond keeping the rules available in print the strongest reason for the retro-clones is making the game your own. Mutant Future and Ruins & Ronin are among the best examples of this idea, neither being 100% compatible with a prior game even fairly tight clones like Labrynth Lord or Swords & Wizardry put their own spin on the past. Even more important are the numerous mini-supplements, add-ons, and fanzines like Advanced Edition Characters or Fight On!. They embody something common in the early days of RPGs explemlified by early fanzines, The Dragon (especially in the single and double digit issues) and other professional magazines, and the early fantasy games that were essentially house ruled D&D. These new products all aspire to regain the days when "playing D&D" meant you were playing a game whose genesis was in one or more of a series of books plublished by TSR, that you had a character who had a class and improved by going up in levels, and you had combat by rolling a d20. Beyond those basics you needed to learn the lay of the land, including rules and conventions as well as the setting, when setting down with a new group.
Regaining those days is a noble goal. The increased reliance in the hobby on official and "complete" rules and settings has diminished the hobby as a creative outlet. That said, some more modern games, viewed correctly, provide more of that vibe than we in the OSR acknowledge. In particular there are two systems readily available (one in print and one out of print but very, very common) that provide what I'll call RPG legos. There is so much published material for these systems, much of it contridictory and some of it trash, that a GM can easily mix and match his way to a unique game completely distinct from the DM next door while still being able to draw on fans of those systems. They are the Palladium Megaversal system and, wait for it, D&D 3.x/D20.
Palladium, in particular, is very much old school at its core having began as a house ruled version of D&D. Several games with different genres or settings exist or have existed. Checking the Palladium website there are currently in print twelve game lines using the Palladium core system (more or less) and 116 individual items in print or back-ordered. They also have several prior lines now out of print but readily found. The design of Palladium's books make them perfect for a mix or match campaign (as well as great OSR supplements). Each book is a mish-mash of new rules, classes, spells, monsters, and items (magical and tech) with some setting pieces. Even these bits of setting are often easily adaptable to a variety of settings. With new Gygaxian building blocks in each sourcebook you could pick one core rules set and then just pick two more books that wet your appetitate (a la Jeff Rient's Alchemical Formula) to create an interesting campaign. As new ones tickle your fancy or you need new material you can just add a book.
Before moving on from Palladium let me add one final advantage and a caveat. The advantage is Palladium material is often found used if your FLGS has a used section. It is also quite common new or used on eBay for very reasonable prices. The caveat is the Palladium system can be a bit unweildy, especially if using the MDC rules. Combat requires a lot of judgment callsand nothing is consistant across systems. For an OSR game this problem, as well as many other complaints about Palladium's system such as a dozen different classes for soldiers or skills having all different percentages to give, are pure gold. In addition the web abounds with houserules as does Palladium's The Rifter or you can roll your own.
D&D 3.x/D20 (henceforth D&D3 for simplicity) is a tighter system with less room for judgment calls so beloved of the OSR but more than we grognards credit it. At this point it has at least several major variations six or seven by my count) at least two of which have their own minor variations. They cover fantasy (too numerous to list), science fiction at least twice (Star Wars and Traveller), espinage (Spycraft), superheroes (Mutants and Masterminds), and generic modern/historical/future (D20 Modern). Beyond that there exist different tweeks for other styles and conventions (i.e. BESM D20 and True20). Add in a ton of mostly compatible D20 branded supplemental material and you have more than enough to build a unique rules set. More over, much as Palladium, most of this is now in the used market due to 4th edition.
D&D3 has three advantages over Palladium in practical and artistic terms. First, finding players willing to play is easier as the system is more common and familiar to a broad base of players. Next, there is more material available, although almost to the point of being overwhelming. The final benefit is the material is OGL. You can, to a large degree, compose your own player's handbook out of all the pieces you've selected and distribute it. You may have to rewrite lots of descriptions as most OGL materials are OGL only in the game related materials and names while descriptions are considered PI. However, in my opinion this is a plus not a minus. Allowing you to combine the best of OGL game material with your world specific descriptions allows you to create something new and unique to you but clearly built from the widest available game system.
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