Harry Potter and the Bag of Dice

So, last month was free RPG day. We all got cool games but how many new gamers did it bring into the hobby.

Two weeks ago was the premier of Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince. How many potential table top roleplayers waited in line to see it at midnight and how many free RPGs did we get to them that night. If you are concerned about bringing new, young blood into the hobby you should treat that as more than a rhetorical question.

I mostly ignored the back and forth over James Mishner's "The industry is dead" post. Probably because I don't read RPG Pundit thus missed the flames getting lit. However, I did catch some of the brush fires around it, most notably Trollsmyth's musings on it. He had a valid point I hear a lot that no one address:

Because there is a huge number of kids out there reading, writing, and yes, even roleplaying right now. A sizable groundswell of interest in fantastical fiction and play that crosses gender lines has risen up in the Harry Potter generation, the likes of which have probably never been seen before. But you'll notice I mention nothing about games. Regular readers know what I'm talking about: fanfic and free-form roleplay. It's easy to laugh and dismiss this sort of thing (just as RPGs were laughed at and dismissed in my youth, when they weren't being blamed for suicide and devil worship), but here are a bunch of kids so desperate for roleplay that they have built websites and software and communities to facilitate their play. They've done it all on their own. Why on their own? Why didn't they take advantage of the 30+ years of RPGs that were available? Probably because they were never invited to.

So, again, I ask, why are we trading free RPGs with each other once a year in a comic book store, where most potential table top roleplayers already are playing tabletop and not out there giving free quickstarts and game out to the Harry Potter kids.

We have two more chances in roughly two years with the Harry Potter franchise. Wouldn't it be great to see every theater with a midnight showing giving out a Harry Potter goody bag sponsored by local gamers. Along with the branded products it could include a version of the S&W quickstart with a more Harry Potter like adventure. Maybe a GORE quickstart (or CARE for Classic Alternative Roleplaying Engine) aimed at the same crowd with 2-3 adventures. Maybe a "welcome to tabletop adventures" website linked to with additional free and pay products building on those materials.

A crazy marketing nightmare? Maybe. It also might be an idea to help the hobby grew a new generation.

Gaming Update 07/22/2009

Friday night we started the Rolemaster campaign. To say it's a change from my house ruled LL campaign is an understatement. In three hours of play we basically had a combat after a tiny bit of ship handling. I have an advantage in two players have a set of charters and one has more extensive experience with RM. I let them handle much of the results look up while I ran combat. It got me to thinking of the possible value of Master/Apprentice DM training via pair DMing not unlike pairs programming. Perhaps I'll write about that or, even better, experiment with it.

Although the situation I was engaged in was somewhat impromptu (actually stolen from The Dice of Life on the same day) reviewing my half-done 5x5 Matrix I was able to fit it in as the first location/event of my one of the plot lines. I have selected a follow-up location for event two in this plot which is also the first location for another.

What's interesting is all was created on the fly. I had a very high level outline of the setting, a sketch map on one piece of notebook paper, player backgrounds, and a Jeff Rients Alchemical Proposal for allowed rules and fluff (although a bit more expansive given on the rules side given RM). Using the Everchanging Book of Names I've added a two places (the island of * and its north eastern port of &) and one NPC (the harbor master #). I kept each on note cards and a sheet of notes which I'll be typing into my folder for the game.

As an aside I've been storing all computer files for the game in a Subversion repository for backup, revision tracking, and general internet accessibility.

I’m better prepared for this Friday and may be engaging one of the characters’ backstory.

If you missed buying Death Frost Doom

have heart.  I just got the following email from Noble Knight Games:

RE: Death Frost Doom

I'm talking with them now, should hopefully be within a few weeks at the most. I'll drop you a line when they come back into stock.

Best Regards,
Aaron Leeder

So, if you haven't bought a copy it should be in next month or September.

If you don't know what I'm talking about well, let James Mal over at Grognardia give you a description and review.

Gaming Update: Markers for a Heartbreaker…

Back when I discussed our shift to Rolemaster I admitted I don’t really like D&D.  That’s not quite true.  I like D&D a lot except for a few things but they become deal breakers.  More and more I’m finding myself writing a heartbreaker for another try at “old school” gaming…probably more a retro-clone supplement more than a full on game.

That said, given we didn’t play last Friday and thus have no gaming update to make I thought I’d throw some markers for a retro-clone 1st generation derivative I might write:

Flatten the Hit Point Curve: While I have no problem with increasing hit points I do have a problem with the D&D curve and it’s a fairly common one: At first level even a fighter can be killed by a house cat and by 10th level the average Magic-User is roughly on par with a White Dragon in hit points (24 vs. 27).  There are a couple of ways to accomplish this: separate wound and fatigue points or just a flatter curve.

Lack of the Ability to Be Good at Things: I have discussed before why “skills” aren’t anti-old school when they are seen as what the character is good at as opposed to what he can do.  In City States of the Apocalypse I tried using the Tunnels & Trolls saving roll and talent system but they didn’t work out well due to poor design (and DMing) on my part.  Today I read a post on using FATE Aspects in C&C that was similar to my idea but not as game breaking.  I think I’ll look into something similar.

Magic Shouldn’t Be Unified: If there is one thing the first edition of The Palladium Fantasy Roleplaying Game got right it was the multiple types of magic-users.  Magic isn’t one method or set.  However, we don’t need a dozen classes either.  I’d say have three or four who do different things.  If you do real campaign time you can have an alchemist as one.  The spell slinger of D&D is another.  A more ritual oriented mage is a third.

Dungeons: I’ll admit I’m a Silver Age quest player more than a dungeon delver.  That said, there Tolkien/modern fantasy super world changing quest doesn’t appeal either.  Is there a middle ground, more of a “Knights of the Round Table” approach?

I’m sure I can come up with others but I think these three will be among the hallmarks of whatever system I come up with.

Gaming Update…

Last Friday my group finished up the character creation for our next game: Rolemaster.

The game has a name, a combo of the two suggested, which seems to indicate I’m headed for long running silliness: Six Savage Salvagers of the Seven Seas.  Before that they had named their ship the Incorrigible.  That seems to fit us.

Our framework is the characters are the officers of a salvage vessel in an archipeligo called The Beard that connects two contients.  On the eastern one is a large empire and a pseudo-Arabia.  The other is more secretive allowing trade and access only through a handful of ports.  The continents are also connected by a more northern archipeligo called The Brow.

The crew is somewhat Firefly like in that they take what jobs they can get and sometimes don’t worry too much about the morality of it all.

Interesting bits of trivia: the ships of the setting are more Chinese Junk than Western Cog/Crack.  This allows a smaller crew for a given size plus a little flavor.  Except for the Frenzing Barbar everyone is a spell caster, although only one pure one (and no hybrids).  Half the crew has a mysterious past (and the others haven’t provided backgrounds yet).  The only elves are aquatic and the only dwarves are Sea Dwarves (campaign secret: if you have the old Heroes magazine with the ships of Glorantha article those Dwarven ships roam the seas south of the beard towards the 10,000 Islands).

We don’t play this Friday so next week’s Tuesday post (gaming update) will be about my prep work for the first week.

My initial set to “An Alchemical Proposal”

Given I mentioned Jeff Rient's Alchemical Proposal in my last post I thought I should list my fantasy set for the challenge:

Rules

1. Core Rules: GORE
2. Similar Supplement: Monster Coliseum (AH Runequest supplement)
3. Dissimilar Supplement: Library of Bletherad from Palladium Books

Fluff

1. Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey
2. Coming of the Horseclans by Robert Adams
3. In Search of the Trojan War by Michael Wood.

No, I won’t give the one sentence outline like people are at Jeff’s blog.  That’s what we did in the old “pick three GURPS books” game.  This is something different.  This is an actual effort at synthesis as a form of creativity.

Alchemy of the Stars

So, inspired by Jeff Rient’s An Alchemical Proposal and a need to revisit how to go about doing my Imperial Space game given I won’t try to base it on OD&D I thought I’d try to boil it down to his rules + 2 supplements + 3 fluff standard.

Here is what I came up with:

Rules

1. Core Rules: GORE (what I picked for fantasy upon reading the original).
2. Similar rules supplement: Future World from the old Worlds of Wonder booked set.
3. Dissimilar rules supplement: Jedi Academy Sourcebook from the D6 Star Wars roleplaying game.
This book is not what I thought it was. I'll be looking for a psionics book of some kind.

Fluff

1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. Heretics of Dune
3. The Oresteia by Aeschylus

That’s it. Those six books are the canon sources for my Imperial Space game.

Winding down and starting up…

So, my second attempt at an old school game has been very successful.  Play has been nearly weekly for about five months, we’ve had a few character deaths, and I’ve had a blast.  I’ve especially enjoyed weaving pop culture references ranging from the Dresden Files to the old Friday the 13th: The Series to The Cask of Amontillado.  It is the most successful game I’ve run in a decade.

And I’m ending it, at least temporarily.

Why would I end the most successful game of mine in over ten years?  I could blame boredom but that’s too easy.  The problem is the game isn’t fun.

Now, before some old schooler goes on a Flame Princess style anti-fun rant hear me out.  City States is build on a desire to get back to my prime gaming roots as part of the old school movement.  But as I pointed out in a comment over at Grognardia despite having entered the hobby in the late 70s I am more in tune with D&D’s Silver Age (late 1st edition/early 2nd edition).  I think that is part of my issue.

I also poorly setup the sandbox aspect.  I didn’t communicate it well to players and only one really tried to drive his character.  But despite that I think I have to admit to my primary reason for boredom.

I don’t like D&D very much.  I was one of those guys in the late 70s/early 80s trying to fix D&D.  I bought RuneQuest as quickly as I could and played every system imaginable.  I was a big fan of The Fantasy Trip and later GURPS.  What playing D&D did for me was force to remember not only the good times I had playing it but the things that frustrated me.  While I can honestly say that they aren’t as bad as I remembered in the end OD&D isn’t, and probably never was, my game.

I’m sure someone from the old school movement will come to take my card, but you’ll have to pry it out of my hands along with my copy of Tunnels & Trolls.  You cannot deny the old school cred of a confirmed T&T referee.

Beyond that I’ve learned one other important lesson in this: I generally don’t do well with complex rules.  I’ve offered my group and all the players in the local club six options for a new Friday game as well as a second week night game.  Of the six three use very simple systems: Prose Descriptor Quality for two and Savage Worlds for one.  Of the three complex ones two are Basic Roleplaying variants and while the recent BRP book is a good three hundred pages either game is really about 50-100 pages of rules.  In fact, that was my goal: rules in under 100 pages for new games.  I’d also argue all three of these systems have a lot more reliance on the referee’s judgment than many modern games, especially PDQ.

What is the old man out? Rolemaster 2nd/Classic.  Yes, that is the antithesis of simple and ruling driven.  However, I’ve long thought a RM 2nd edition game in the Forgotten Realms had lots of potential and with three players interested in RM and the recent series over at The Society of Torch, Pole, and Rope on the  FR I’m willing to give it a swing, although I pitched it as two games: “Masters/Questers of the Forgotten Realms” with Rolemaster and Questers of the Middle Realms (a PDQ game) as possible rules respectively.

And now it is for us to continue...

Grognardia is reporting Dave Arneson has passed away.

Yes, there are many of the founding generation left but with Dave's passing the two names on those little brown books are gone. For a variety of reasons, both fair and foul, Dave's name is not associated with D&D the way Gary's is. But certainly in our little community he is remembered.

And we should not forget his passing means the last final burden of duty falls to us. Our creators have left us and now it is for us to continue their creation in a way it hasn't been yet, not even after Gary died.

As for Dave, I hope that now both he and Gary have gone on to a place where the old wounds are completely healed and they can once again enjoy together the game they gave us. As Scott over at World of Thool pointed out this is a capstone to two bad years but man, that is one hell of a set of tables they can have going up there.

A Musical Tangent

Tonight's Oscillator Series Show was a multiple band CD release party. Among the releases was the new boxed set by Great Unwashed Luminaries, which gather and releases their first three albums plus a bonus disk. This is worth mentioning here for five reasons:

1. I'm thanked in the liner notes.
2. The boxed set is called Saving Throw vs. Spell.
3. Their second album was Unearthed Arcana with songs: "Power Word: Stun", "Power Word: Blind", "Geas", and "Power Word: Kill".
4. The back cover art for that album includes part of the Holmes cover dragon.
5. All the CDs are numbered with a D20.

For those interested the set is a 25 copy limited edition for $10 at Sink Hole Texas, Inc