A Winning Concept
The usual way to think about a game is that it pits two or more players against each other to determine a single winner. Sometimes a game will break players into two teams and they will compete to determine which team wins. Each player on the winning team shares in the excitement of winning. But isn't a game supposed to be fun for everyone who plays?
White Box introduced the gaming world to a new concept, adventure gaming or role playing (the two may differ somewhat), but more importantly cooperative gaming. Rather than pit players against each other, the new game was cooperative in concept where players work together to everyone's benefit. Winning at this new game was defined as having fun. Even the player taking the part of the referee is supposed to assist in making the game fun for everyone. The referee is not (usually) the opponent of the players. The power invested in the referee, who acts as creator and final word on the game setting, means he/she can easily slay the PCs at any time, so there is no incentive to play against them. Rather the referee helps the fun along for all by setting up a situation, playing all the non-player characters, and fairly refereeing the rules so that play is both challenging and rewarding for all.
White Box is a class based RPG system as are many games that have followed. The distinct classes provide players with different roles to play during the game adventure. Some players control a character who fights well, others control a character that casts magic spells to solve problems, heal damage or shape the environment. One character class specializes in turning and destroying undead creatures. No one character class is good at everything and a party is best served being made up of at least one character from each class so as to have the full set of abilities available. Distinct classes with limited overlap insure that each character has their own specialty. Sometimes this is referred to as niche protection and is important so that everyone has something to contribute and is not likely to be overshadowed by other player characters.
The popularity of the cooperative game concept has caught-on and spread to other types of games including card and board games. There are a number of titles available today in which the players all cooperate to win (or sometimes lose) together as a group. Two of my favorite cooperative games are Zombicide and Fantasy Flight's Lord of the Rings Living Card Game in which the players work together playing cards from their decks to beat the Shadow forces before time runs out. Each mission is different and the variety of game challenges seems limitless. Cool Minis or Not makes a number of Zombicide board games, all are cooperative. Zombicide games pit survivors of a zombie apocalypse against the game system in a cooperative effort to accomplish missions and not get eaten by zombies. The game has a very tactical feel to it and definitely encourages teamwork. It is much more difficult to survive if players don't work together.
I find cooperative games are challenging both in terms of playing well individually and in terms of communicating and cooperating with the group. Social interaction within the game context is even more important than in traditional face-to-face games and teamwork principles are essential. The shared outcome of all succeeding together or failing together means there are no losers. Failure to complete the mission is often motivation to try again.
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Hit Point Enigma
What is a Hit Point?
Abstraction is a part of any game. The problem with abstractions are that not everyone sees them the same. It takes a bit of work to adequately explain the abstraction inherent in hit points. The explanation I currently favor is that they represent everything from wounds to luck and skill at avoiding being injured. Damage reduces hit points which as a referee I may describe as getting one's shield between the blow and your body deflecting the worst effects, but lowering your ability to continue to do this. Or you just used up some precious limited luck, or drawing on your experience and training you turn slightly at the last moment taking the worst of the blow on your armor, but wearing you down. Eventually your pool of luck plays out, fatigue hinders skill and small bruises and scrapes add up. Can you still fight and cast spells, yes, are you closer to death? In a way the answer is yes, because your resources are nearing the end, but the real damaging blow, the severe wound that could kill has not happened yet.
So when does PC death occur? At 0 hit points? At 1 HP you are fine, at 0, dead? That is one way to play it, but the above quote from vol I gives the referee some discretion I believe. One way to play is at 0 HP the PC falls to the ground, spent, the accumulated fatigue, small injuries and stress has rendered him/her helpless, maybe even unconscious. Many referees play that death occurs at a certain negative number, say minus 10 HP. Until that is reached the PC is either bleeding out or dying or just unconscious. A negative damage equal to Constitution score is sometimes used in a similar way to determine PC death. The referee may set a number of rounds until death occurs during which stabilization or healing is possible, i.e. the death count-down. Some use level as the number of turns until actual death occurs. Some of these ideas appear in later editions and in other systems as official rules.
The concept of being bloodied once a PC, NPC or monster reaches 1/2 HP or less is used in 4th Edition and I think has some merit as a house rule for other editions. As I interpret it, bloodied does not imply a gushing wound, but rather the visible presence of their own blood on the injured. They have sustained visible damage that is a rough estimate of how far along the path to defeat they are and which may kick in additional effects at the referee's pleasure. A possible result of reaching 1/2 HP might be reduced combat effectiveness, or reduced movement whatever is agreed upon before play. It could also trigger an ability in either the bleeder or the opponent as it frequently does in 4th Edition.
However the referee treats HP, natural healing should be consistent with the model and support verisimilitude. PCs who reach 0 HP should heal more slowly than those who have not been taken so low if HP represents mostly luck, fatigue and other easily recovered resources. The very slow rate of natural recovery, 1 HP every day of rest after the first according to vol III The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures, seems to suggest that lost HP are actual wounds. Vol III does say "common wounds" when referring to the healing rate. Suppose "wounds" only occur when PC HP reaches negative numbers. Then healing occurs at the slow rate. Otherwise it occurs much faster in PCs who have not reached 0 HP and therefore suffered no real "wounds". Another interpretation is that healing of even small wounds takes a long time and the rate of 1 HP per day of rest is just what it is.
Fortunately the referee has great leeway in how HP and wounding is treated in the campaign. Perhaps no other area of the game is as heavily house ruled as the subject of Hit Points, with the probable exception of character generation...what referee really rolls the ability scores for their players?
...being the number of points of damage the character could sustainThe explanation above is from vol I of the White Box titled Men & Magic and it leaves a lot up to the players so far as explanation goes. So what do these "points of damage" entail? If a PC with 28 hit points takes 2 points of damage from a dagger, what has happened? Obviously White Box is a game and it's a game mechanic, nothing more. That doesn't help the story that is developing at the table or add to verisimilitude. For decades players have sought to explain hit points as something other than a game mechanic.
before death. Whether sustaining accumulative hits will otherwise affect a character
is left to the discretion of the referee.
Abstraction is a part of any game. The problem with abstractions are that not everyone sees them the same. It takes a bit of work to adequately explain the abstraction inherent in hit points. The explanation I currently favor is that they represent everything from wounds to luck and skill at avoiding being injured. Damage reduces hit points which as a referee I may describe as getting one's shield between the blow and your body deflecting the worst effects, but lowering your ability to continue to do this. Or you just used up some precious limited luck, or drawing on your experience and training you turn slightly at the last moment taking the worst of the blow on your armor, but wearing you down. Eventually your pool of luck plays out, fatigue hinders skill and small bruises and scrapes add up. Can you still fight and cast spells, yes, are you closer to death? In a way the answer is yes, because your resources are nearing the end, but the real damaging blow, the severe wound that could kill has not happened yet.
So when does PC death occur? At 0 hit points? At 1 HP you are fine, at 0, dead? That is one way to play it, but the above quote from vol I gives the referee some discretion I believe. One way to play is at 0 HP the PC falls to the ground, spent, the accumulated fatigue, small injuries and stress has rendered him/her helpless, maybe even unconscious. Many referees play that death occurs at a certain negative number, say minus 10 HP. Until that is reached the PC is either bleeding out or dying or just unconscious. A negative damage equal to Constitution score is sometimes used in a similar way to determine PC death. The referee may set a number of rounds until death occurs during which stabilization or healing is possible, i.e. the death count-down. Some use level as the number of turns until actual death occurs. Some of these ideas appear in later editions and in other systems as official rules.
The concept of being bloodied once a PC, NPC or monster reaches 1/2 HP or less is used in 4th Edition and I think has some merit as a house rule for other editions. As I interpret it, bloodied does not imply a gushing wound, but rather the visible presence of their own blood on the injured. They have sustained visible damage that is a rough estimate of how far along the path to defeat they are and which may kick in additional effects at the referee's pleasure. A possible result of reaching 1/2 HP might be reduced combat effectiveness, or reduced movement whatever is agreed upon before play. It could also trigger an ability in either the bleeder or the opponent as it frequently does in 4th Edition.
However the referee treats HP, natural healing should be consistent with the model and support verisimilitude. PCs who reach 0 HP should heal more slowly than those who have not been taken so low if HP represents mostly luck, fatigue and other easily recovered resources. The very slow rate of natural recovery, 1 HP every day of rest after the first according to vol III The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures, seems to suggest that lost HP are actual wounds. Vol III does say "common wounds" when referring to the healing rate. Suppose "wounds" only occur when PC HP reaches negative numbers. Then healing occurs at the slow rate. Otherwise it occurs much faster in PCs who have not reached 0 HP and therefore suffered no real "wounds". Another interpretation is that healing of even small wounds takes a long time and the rate of 1 HP per day of rest is just what it is.
Fortunately the referee has great leeway in how HP and wounding is treated in the campaign. Perhaps no other area of the game is as heavily house ruled as the subject of Hit Points, with the probable exception of character generation...what referee really rolls the ability scores for their players?
Friday, August 26, 2016
Mythras
The wait is over and the end product looks great! The Design Mechanism released Mythras this week and although I was hoping to have a physical copy in my hands at Gencon, I am quite happy to be viewing the digital copy now - the printed book I have pre-ordered. Last year when Chaosium announced the name RuneQuest would return to their stable of Glorantha products, it put questions in my mind as to the future of The Design Mechanism's RuneQuest 6th Edition game. I really like RQ 6th and have been hoping The Design Mechanism folks would be able to continue the game under a new name. Earlier this year, they announced exactly that and the new name would be Mythras. The first Mythras product was Classic Fantasy, followed by the 34-page Mythras Imperative, a bare-bones player version of the Mythras system suitable for introduction to the game.
If RuneQuest 6 is not a familiar name, it is a d100 game with a long hobby pedigree extending back to 1978 when The Chaosium released RuneQuest 1st Edition. Using a classless, skill based percentile system RQ 1 was at the time a novel product joining a "realistic" game system (percentile systems tend to be very transparent) with a rich fantasy world, Glorantha, based on bronze age myth and magic runes. The d100 engine would soon be separated from RQ as Basic Role Playing (BRP) and would power most of Chaosium's subsequent games including Call of Cthulhu. RuneQuest would be separated from Chaosium during the late '80s and out-of-print for a number of years. It was re-introduced to the hobby by Mongoose Publishing about a decade ago and received a mixed reception. Pete Nash and Lawrence Whitaker (now with The Design Mechanism) MRQ as it became known a much needed overhaul which became Mongoose RQ II and later renamed Legend (when Mongoose lost the RuneQuest TM). Mr. Nash and Mr. Whitaker formed their own company, The Design Mechanism, expanded and improved on their ideas for RuneQuest and published RQ 6 in 2012. Some very well done setting books soon followed (particularly notable are Mythic Britain and Monster Island).
Mythras is a 306-page book in comparison to RQ 6 which is 458 pages. A quick comparison results in difficulty finding anything that's been left out? Mythras is essentially the same system as RQ 6, the same combat mechanics, the same chargen system with a few tweeks, the same five magic systems, lots of information on cults and the game mastering advice section is improved although it is fewer pages (24 vs. 16). I am thinking the shorter page count may be mostly layout as RQ 6 had considerable space devoted to side-bars. In several cases, cults and game mastering come to mind, I think Mythras' text is clearer and easier to comprehend. The Design Mechanism folks have produced two cut-down introductory products, RuneQuest Essentials and Mythras Imperative, since the initial publication of RQ 6 and may have developed some less wordy rule explanations along the way.
Regardless, Mythras feels like everything RQ 6 was and more. Released from the strange limbo land of being RuneQuest without Glorantha, The Design Mechanism can finally make Mythras it's own complete package. The bronze age feel is still here along with a fantastic d100 system, but it doesn't seem like a product with the serial numbers filed off anymore.
Random Character Generation
Roll the Dice
It's a popular phrase to say "There are two kinds of people in the world, those who..." I suppose one could group people in our hobby according to their preference for character generation (chargen) method - point buy or random roll. It's no secret that I have an immense fondness for the original game which came as three little brown books in a white box. On page 10 of vol. I Men & Magic the authors instruct:
The player looks at the scores (average, above average, below average) and decides which class and race to make the character. The player may presumably reduce scores in some abilities in order to increase the prime requisite for the purpose of gaining additional experience. Otherwise the scores are what they are. The list of benefits and penalties that high and low ability scores give is relatively brief compared to later editions and the chief benefit seems to be the experience bonus for a high prime requisite score.
The player then selects what stance a character will take, in other words select an alignment, either Law, Chaos or Neutrality. According to the chart given, men may be of any alignment, but there are no dwarves or elves of Chaos and hobbits/halflings are aligned with the forces of Law. To complete the PC three d6s are rolled and the total is multiplied times ten for starting gold and a single d6 is rolled (with class adjustments) for hit points, some equipment is purchased and possibly a magic spell chosen for an elf or magic user and the character is finished. Gender, hair and eye color, height, weight, etc. can be just stated by the player (or if one prefers, can be determined randomly). There is no need for skill selection because PCs are all adventurers who have the basic adventuring skills. It doesn't specifically say so in the rules, but rolling against an appropriate ability score (or throw a d6) seems a logical way to handle skills. This type of chargen is a fairly quick process with a lot of randomization produced by the dice, but the real work of fleshing out the PC is still to be done by the player.
What one makes of all these numbers the dice produce is the real player skill in the random chargen system. It takes some thinking and imagination to bring life to a set of ability scores, a class (maybe a non-human race), and some hit points. Even a low or high roll on starting money can be used to extrapolate from. Maybe the PC is from a wealthy family, maybe down on his or her luck? A low ability score may be from an injury or illness. The numbers on the character sheet together with what happens at the table during play should suggest a number of personality traits to a player eager to get to know their PC.
If you like meeting new people and getting to know them. If you like surprises and challenges. If you like unravelling a puzzle. If you just like rolling dice or if you would rather spend time playing rather than in chargen, maybe random is the way to go. There is a time-honored tradition of letting the dice decide. I find it fun.
It's a popular phrase to say "There are two kinds of people in the world, those who..." I suppose one could group people in our hobby according to their preference for character generation (chargen) method - point buy or random roll. It's no secret that I have an immense fondness for the original game which came as three little brown books in a white box. On page 10 of vol. I Men & Magic the authors instruct:
Prior to the character selection by players it is necessary for the referee to rollThe abilities are the classic six, Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Constitution, Dexterity and Charisma. The ability scores range from 3-18 distributed along a bell curve with 9-12 being the most common scores. Scores in these six abilities are supposed to give the player a sense of who the character is. Are they strong, smart, nimble and quick? Are they charismatic? The referee rolls the scores randomly (and may throw out any they see as unplayable) and hands the character sheet over to the player, who then is left to make something from this set of scores - a personality, a role to play.
three six-sided dice in order to rate each as to various abilities, and thus aid them in
selecting a role.
The player looks at the scores (average, above average, below average) and decides which class and race to make the character. The player may presumably reduce scores in some abilities in order to increase the prime requisite for the purpose of gaining additional experience. Otherwise the scores are what they are. The list of benefits and penalties that high and low ability scores give is relatively brief compared to later editions and the chief benefit seems to be the experience bonus for a high prime requisite score.
The player then selects what stance a character will take, in other words select an alignment, either Law, Chaos or Neutrality. According to the chart given, men may be of any alignment, but there are no dwarves or elves of Chaos and hobbits/halflings are aligned with the forces of Law. To complete the PC three d6s are rolled and the total is multiplied times ten for starting gold and a single d6 is rolled (with class adjustments) for hit points, some equipment is purchased and possibly a magic spell chosen for an elf or magic user and the character is finished. Gender, hair and eye color, height, weight, etc. can be just stated by the player (or if one prefers, can be determined randomly). There is no need for skill selection because PCs are all adventurers who have the basic adventuring skills. It doesn't specifically say so in the rules, but rolling against an appropriate ability score (or throw a d6) seems a logical way to handle skills. This type of chargen is a fairly quick process with a lot of randomization produced by the dice, but the real work of fleshing out the PC is still to be done by the player.
What one makes of all these numbers the dice produce is the real player skill in the random chargen system. It takes some thinking and imagination to bring life to a set of ability scores, a class (maybe a non-human race), and some hit points. Even a low or high roll on starting money can be used to extrapolate from. Maybe the PC is from a wealthy family, maybe down on his or her luck? A low ability score may be from an injury or illness. The numbers on the character sheet together with what happens at the table during play should suggest a number of personality traits to a player eager to get to know their PC.
If you like meeting new people and getting to know them. If you like surprises and challenges. If you like unravelling a puzzle. If you just like rolling dice or if you would rather spend time playing rather than in chargen, maybe random is the way to go. There is a time-honored tradition of letting the dice decide. I find it fun.
Thursday, August 25, 2016
The Death Test
"Underneath his palace, the ruler keeps a special labyrinth - an obstacle course for the mercenaries he hires. But this 'obstacle course' is a tough one. And if you're not tougher...you'll be dead."
Who could resist such a challenge?
I have a great fondness for the Death Test cover illustration by Pat Hidy. It reminds me of the barbarian stories of R.E. Howard, the fantasy art of Frank Frazetta, and so many fantastic things I love. I am sure part of my fascination with the image is because of my fondness for the product it illustrates so well. Death Test and I go back a long way. Appearing in 1978, Death Test is a simple, challenging game with great replayability and a game I can share with friends or play solo. As the illustration depicts, the Death Test consists of a labyrinth of several rooms which you enter through a magic curtain with one to four player characters and have encounters. Each room has various challenges and combats and some contain treasure. Learning the best tactics and weapon combinations can take some time. Teamwork is essential for success. Monster challenges encountered in the various rooms include many of the standard fantasy troupes, wolves, spiders, gargoyles, hobgoblins...etc. and each poses unique challenges.
Death Test is not a stand alone game, it is a MicroQuest for use with the Melee and Wizard system authored by Steve Jackson in his days working for Metagaming. It is part of The Fantasy Trip family of products as indicated at the top of the cover of the 21-page booklet. Microgames Melee and Wizard power the MicroQuest series of adventures which are designed to be played either solo or with a group of friends. Melee (fighting) and Wizard (magic) are set-up as arena games and Death Test follows that format using the arena map from Melee (Wizard is not really needed for this MicroTest) as the basis of the individual rooms of the labyrinth.
I still occasionally play Death Test solo. It has been many years since I last played it as a group game, but I think the idea still has appeal. Metagaming seemed focused on inexpensive games and the components of Melee, Wizard and Death Test reflect that. I think it compares favorably, in terms of playability and fun, with much more expensive games which use plastic minis, custom dice and lots of fancy cards. In today's market, consumers are more used to video games with pretty graphics, board and card games with (pre-painted) minis and impressive artwork. The rules aren't any better and often not as good as those of The Fantasy Trip, however, and therefore the game experience is often lacking despite the glamour. Death Test, though long out-of-print, gets more play on my table than most of the much newer games. And that is not entirely due to nostalgia.
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Pre-White Box Wargaming
Found this oldie over the weekend...looks like someone used it as a coaster for awhile. The back is stained even worse and has several circles, probably from a coffee cup. This takes me back... Back before I ever saw a copy of White Box, back before White Box was even published there was the hobby of historic miniatures wargaming. The authors of the White Box, and many of it's earliest players, had been wargamers for some time prior to White Box bringing about the new hobby of role-playing. I was one of those wargamers.
Napoleonique was a game for playing with historic miniatures set during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th Century and an influential set of rules for the hobby in its day. Those of us playing back in 1970 know how much of a jump ahead in rules design this little book was. Before Napoleonique we had rules like Column, Line and Square and Frappe, cumbersome 1 to 5 or 1 to 10 figure scales that required tons (literally) of figs. and revolved around changing formation and fighting as a battalion! The idea was to paint 100 figures and bunch them together shoulder to shoulder and you have your battalion. Now measure out your movement so you can change from column to line or square (this is literally done one stand of 4-5 figures at a time and may take a number of turns, as I recall). Tactics involved getting your "boys" into a good formation in time to be effective. Being shot at or charged whilst changing formation was usually how "battles" were lost. The figs. were twenties or twenty-fives (20mm or 25mm tall) so they take up a lot of room. You can get two battalions on the dinner table, more troops and you are on your knees on the basement floor.
Jim Getz (co-author of Empire III) really did the young hobby a great favor and perhaps kept it alive when he re-invented the way we played with Napoleonique. Using a troop scale of 1:30 those battalions we had been building became regiments or brigades and we were able to add cavalry and artillery and to fight combined arms engagements (still on the floor). The rules glossed over a lot of the detail that earlier systems had focused on so that we "generals" could concentrate on commanding groups of units up to about a corps. The hobby really came-of-age using Jim Getz-style rules and I don't think he gets the credit he should. Mr. Getz is I believe the first and if not the first, then the person who made it popular to play wargames in the modern style rather than the old small unit/toy soldier style of other rules authors including H.G. Wells, Fletcher Pratt and Fred Vietmeyer. Napoleonique seems to me to be the inspiration for later rules such as Empire, Fire and Steel, Rally Round the Flag and many other "standard" horse & musket rules of the '70s and '80s. The next big change would come with Empire III (Scott Bowden & Jim Getz), and especially Johnny Reb (John Hill) which did away with written orders and made tedious games fun again. About the same time (late '80s), the hobby shifted to a smaller figure scale and we got off the floor! (John Hill was a big proponent of 15mm figs.)
Napoleonique also helped convert many board wargamers to miniatures by using a hexagon based ground scale familiar to anyone who played Avalon Hill or SPI map wargames (and there were a lot of us in the day). Looking at the pictures in Napoleonique of hex boards and Der Kriegspielers miniatures brings back a lot of great memories. Der Kriegspielers was an early manufacturer of gaming miniatures and rules under the leadership of Duke Seifried based out of a hobby shop he owned called The Tin Soldier. Mr. Seifried, always a great promoter, brought a lot of us into the hobby over the years and has had wide-reaching positive influence wherever he went. I feel fortunate to have grown-up when I did, where I did, meeting the people I did, and being so close to Dayton, Ohio, a hot-bed of gaming ingenuity in the '70s. Who knew!
Tuesday, August 23, 2016
The Elf
My Take on a Classic Race
White Box allows the player to make a character one of four races, human with three classes to choose from, dwarven fighter, hobbit fighter, or elven, which can be played alternately as a fighting man or magic user. This makes the elf a unique fellow from the start. This suits me fine because I tend to think of elves as the most complex and non-human of the PC races. Hobbits in White Box are pretty much straight out of Tolkien, even after they are relabeled halflings. Dwarves are the Tolkien variety with maybe a bit more of a martial feel (I tend to think of Tolkien dwarves as craftsmen first). The White Box elf could be a Tolkien elf, but seems to also be drawn from fairy tales and works of fiction by Poul Anderson, Alan Garner and others.
There are very brief descriptions of the potential PC races in Chainmail and White Box, but much is left unsaid. In the published settings of TSR and others, the various PC races have taken unique form peculiar to each setting. Elves may be immortal, live for thousands of years or just a few hundred. Halflings may have big hairy feet, or not. Additional PC races may be available, or not, depending on the setting. Like most referees, I have my own home brewed setting, Dreadmoor, which borrows from a number of sources and which I much prefer running games from.
The Dreadmoor elf is a somewhat alien being, completely a-moral and with no understanding of deities. They are their own "higher power" as the term is applied to supreme beings. They are closely tied to nature, with an understanding and appreciation for nature that vastly surpasses any other sentient race's understanding. This doesn't mean they are pacifists. Dreadmoor elves seem to follow the "law of the jungle"/survival of the fittest principle. Elves possesses a skill for manipulating nature which appears as magic to humans and other observers. Elves frequently sing to themselves when engaged in such craft. Money and wealth mean little to elves, but they do have an appreciation for things they find beautiful. Their idea of property is very different from human culture and can be a source of contention between races. (An elf is more likely to say "I belong to this land" rather than it belongs to me.)
In appearance the Dreadmoor elf is androgynous, fair of skin and hair (although exceptions do occur) with eyes of a metallic color. Females tend to wear diaphanous dresses and males jerkin and hose. Both sexes are extremely promiscuous by human standards and marriage seems to be reserved for royalty. Reproduction is rare and seems to occur only when the female wills it. Iron is a very uncommon ore among elves and they seem discomforted by its presence.
The elves of Dreadmoor live in a parallel (fey) world with frequent contact points allowing passage between their twilight world and the human world of day and night. Time passes differently in the two worlds and the twilight world is home to many creatures and beings not usually found in the human world, trolls and dragons being two examples. There are locations which seem to exist simultaneously in both worlds, they are called places of mystery. Many Dreadmoor adventures take place involving these places of mystery.
Playing a Dreadmoor elf can be challenging. Role-playing a human with a different personality from your own can also be challenging, but role-playing non-humans adds an extra dimension to the problems. I therefore encourage players to create human PCs, characterizing Dreadmoor as a humanocentric campaign setting. Half-elves exist and if a player insists on playing an elf, I encourage them to try a half-elf, especially if they are fairly new to Dreadmoor (and have not seen the way I run the elven NPCs). The PC of half elven blood, who has had no contact with elves, would be likely to act either like a human or like they think elves act (which can be quite amusing for all). Those players that have played the Dreadmoor elf have told me they enjoy the character because it doesn't feel like playing a human with pointy ears (or something similar). And yes, I let them go back and forth between fighting man and magic user.
White Box allows the player to make a character one of four races, human with three classes to choose from, dwarven fighter, hobbit fighter, or elven, which can be played alternately as a fighting man or magic user. This makes the elf a unique fellow from the start. This suits me fine because I tend to think of elves as the most complex and non-human of the PC races. Hobbits in White Box are pretty much straight out of Tolkien, even after they are relabeled halflings. Dwarves are the Tolkien variety with maybe a bit more of a martial feel (I tend to think of Tolkien dwarves as craftsmen first). The White Box elf could be a Tolkien elf, but seems to also be drawn from fairy tales and works of fiction by Poul Anderson, Alan Garner and others.
There are very brief descriptions of the potential PC races in Chainmail and White Box, but much is left unsaid. In the published settings of TSR and others, the various PC races have taken unique form peculiar to each setting. Elves may be immortal, live for thousands of years or just a few hundred. Halflings may have big hairy feet, or not. Additional PC races may be available, or not, depending on the setting. Like most referees, I have my own home brewed setting, Dreadmoor, which borrows from a number of sources and which I much prefer running games from.
The Dreadmoor elf is a somewhat alien being, completely a-moral and with no understanding of deities. They are their own "higher power" as the term is applied to supreme beings. They are closely tied to nature, with an understanding and appreciation for nature that vastly surpasses any other sentient race's understanding. This doesn't mean they are pacifists. Dreadmoor elves seem to follow the "law of the jungle"/survival of the fittest principle. Elves possesses a skill for manipulating nature which appears as magic to humans and other observers. Elves frequently sing to themselves when engaged in such craft. Money and wealth mean little to elves, but they do have an appreciation for things they find beautiful. Their idea of property is very different from human culture and can be a source of contention between races. (An elf is more likely to say "I belong to this land" rather than it belongs to me.)
In appearance the Dreadmoor elf is androgynous, fair of skin and hair (although exceptions do occur) with eyes of a metallic color. Females tend to wear diaphanous dresses and males jerkin and hose. Both sexes are extremely promiscuous by human standards and marriage seems to be reserved for royalty. Reproduction is rare and seems to occur only when the female wills it. Iron is a very uncommon ore among elves and they seem discomforted by its presence.
The elves of Dreadmoor live in a parallel (fey) world with frequent contact points allowing passage between their twilight world and the human world of day and night. Time passes differently in the two worlds and the twilight world is home to many creatures and beings not usually found in the human world, trolls and dragons being two examples. There are locations which seem to exist simultaneously in both worlds, they are called places of mystery. Many Dreadmoor adventures take place involving these places of mystery.
Playing a Dreadmoor elf can be challenging. Role-playing a human with a different personality from your own can also be challenging, but role-playing non-humans adds an extra dimension to the problems. I therefore encourage players to create human PCs, characterizing Dreadmoor as a humanocentric campaign setting. Half-elves exist and if a player insists on playing an elf, I encourage them to try a half-elf, especially if they are fairly new to Dreadmoor (and have not seen the way I run the elven NPCs). The PC of half elven blood, who has had no contact with elves, would be likely to act either like a human or like they think elves act (which can be quite amusing for all). Those players that have played the Dreadmoor elf have told me they enjoy the character because it doesn't feel like playing a human with pointy ears (or something similar). And yes, I let them go back and forth between fighting man and magic user.
Thursday, August 18, 2016
GURPS Challenges
I really like GURPS...BUT there are some challenges which I am sure publisher Steve Jackson Games is aware of. I have read about some of them and read about some solutions. As an exercise in logic, I offer here on this blog my own interpretation of the challenges the game presents and the solutions I find most helpful. I only use GURPS for fantasy role-play so that is the perspective I am bringing to this post. I am not going to discuss the merits of the bell curve verses d20 or percentiles, but rather focus on the challenges inherent in using the published system to run a game.
GURPS stands for Generic Universal Role-Play System. The generic and universal parts are both a strength and a challenge. I prefer to let Steve Jackson Games do their own marketing, so see their site for why this is a good thing. I wish to address here the downside. Being all things to everyone means GURPS lacks the specific appeal of a fantasy game or space game, etc. Games tied to a specific setting often have inspiring artwork connected to that setting and are simply more fun to read. Generic systems in contrast often seem dry and uninspiring. They frequently read like a technical manual and in the case of the GURPS comprehensive approach, contain rules that most referees focusing on one genre will never use.
The multitude of rules and many options can make the GURPS Basic Set overwhelming to new, or even experienced players. The genre books like GURPS Fantasy and Space are more general discussions and theoretics offering yet more options rather than cookbooks that tell the referee how-to. The specific setting books, of which there are hundreds if one counts the older editions, can finally get specific, but unless there is one that is a perfect fit, the referee will still need to customize...and that is the solution.
GURPS is a tool-kit, not a typical game rule-book. One does not pick-up the GURPS Basic Set, read through and run a game as one would do with many (most) other systems. GURPS requires (not an optional thing) the referee to use the tool-kit to make a personalized version of GURPS which they will then run. There is little point in the player (other than potential referees) reading the rule book as written in preparation for a game. The referee must take charge, assemble a set of rules picking and choosing from among the many choices GURPS offers, then inform the players of the chosen rules which will be used.
Introduction to the system is therefore a bit of a challenge. I am convinced that the best way to learn GURPS is to sit down at a table with a referee and some players who are in the middle of a campaign and learn how they play the game. You won't learn all of GURPS that way, but this is the point. Reading the rules, even the short GURPS Lite 4th Ed. which is marketed as just the essentials, is confusing because there are too many genres covered, too many options. In fact I have not found a really good in-print introduction to GURPS anywhere. A helpful product document for Steve Jackson Games might be a cut-and-paste friendly version of the rules that would allow the referee to assemble a printable custom rule-book with just the rule bits being used in the current game of GURPS.
Once the referee has decided to use GURPS reading the Basic Set with the setting idea in mind can make the reading more interesting. In this way it is more like research, hunting through the rules, making choices of what is useful and what isn't. This can be a rather time consuming effort and not for the casual referee who would like to spend more time playing at the table than prepping the game.
GURPS has earned a reputation for deadliness and for handling man-to-man combat better than monsters. I think the best monsters are unique one-off critters of the referee's own design which make infrequent appearances in a campaign. Yes that puts more work on the referee to design such monsters, but I think it is time enjoyably spent. Most of the roles filled by orcs and goblins are just as easily handled by humans, not that orc and goblin stats are that different from humans to start. The more infrequent a true monster appears the more "monstrous" it will seem.
GURPS is a point-buy system and players being what they are, tend towards min-maxing or power-gaming when left to their own devices in such a chargen environment. So don't leave them alone. Insist on chargen being a group activity and nudge them toward characters that you would like to see in your campaign. If you are a bit reluctant to be a take-charge referee, GURPS is going to be a real challenge as players will read the books and ask to use this rule or that as they think it benefits them and you as referee must be willing to say what goes and doesn't go in your campaign. GURPS is not for the timid.
The 73-page digital How To Be A GURPS GM offers some useful advice, but I believe falls short of the mark. It's 73-pages and covers everything from choosing genre to NPC design and adventure writing. In other words, it's yet more pages for the perspective referee (GM) to read. I think a short list of advice is actually what's needed. This is what I have come up with.
1) Treat the Basic Set as reference material rather than rule book - you will create your personal rule-book from this material.
2) Start with an idea for a setting - visioning and discussion with potential players to build consensus regarding the game to be played using GURPS.
3) Go through the rules looking to build the vision, pick the simplest rules that you think will work. You can always add more detailed rules later.
4) Be prepared to teach your game - assemble rule material as if you are teaching it to students.
5) Do chargen as a group and direct the players toward skills, advantages, and disadvantages that are likely to make good PCs based around the concepts players bring to the table. Provide cut-down versions of the game material that is specific to the game you want to run. To start, err on the side of under-powered PCs. They will improve with experience.
Above all - be organized! At each step, take notes, rewrite notes to make them more organized. Make copies, organize the material you share and stay organized at the table.
Yes, this sounds like a bit of work and if you wonder why bother? GURPS really is a great game. It's buried in several games, however, and the referee must do some work to customize the system. I view this as part of the creative process and enjoyment of the hobby. If it becomes odious labor, don't do it. Personally, I find it time enjoyably spent.
Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Investigative Play
Solving the Mystery
Sitting in the Red Dragon Inn one evening, drinking a fine ale and sharing memories of your last dungeon crawl you say, "Then around the corner comes the biggest..."
You are interrupted by a gruff voice, "Excuse me, good sirs, but I have a most urgent problem I am hoping you can help me with." says an elderly gentleman in a pointed hat standing over your table. "It seems my apprentice has gone astray. Young lad 'bout this tall," he indicates with his hand, "I sent him to fetch some fresh bat guano yesterday and he hasn't returned. It's most irregular, yes, most irregular. I will gladly pay for your time, and any expenses, if you will locate his where-abouts and of course render any rescue service he might require."
Once the shine of killing monsters starts to fade, the glitter of found gold ceases to gleam, maybe a nice investigative adventure is what your party needs? The investigative adventure brings into play an entirely different set of player and PC skills. Combat becomes secondary and role-play is usually given a more prominent part in the game as PCs question witnesses and seek to gather information. Observation and research skills, which can be useful when preparing for a dungeon crawl or searching for that hidden door, become more important in an investigative adventure where acquiring hidden knowledge is the main objective.
The investigative adventure is also an opportunity to get better acquainted with one's surroundings. The PCs may want to take special note of people, places and things nearby. They may want to visit depositories of information, such as libraries, a local sage or churches. Making contact with, and perhaps forming a relationship with, the local people of importance who can not only help with the situation at hand, but can become resources for the future, can be an important outcome. An investigative adventure can be a great way for the referee to show-case all the development work he/she has done on their world.
Mixing in the occasional investigative adventure not only helps keep things fresh in a campaign, it gives players an extended opportunity for in-character role-play and helps players learn more about the referee's milieu. It also gives the player who rather fancies a fast-talking, charismatic type character a chance to shine. And it also presents the referee an opportunity to cast some quite nasty villains and for the party to make some interesting enemies (who may re-appear in a future adventure).
Refereeing an investigative adventure is a bit different than a dungeon crawl, but can be quite fun if you enjoy role-playing the NPCs. One hard-earned piece of advice is to avoid dead-ends. When PCs fail to follow the clues, and they will, find creative ways to get them back on the trail. Failed investigative rolls should mean extra problems for the party, but not a dead-end. Sometimes a nice smack with the clue-by-four is in order.
Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu is the game that taught me about investigations and incidentally, about role-play as well, but there is no reason why White Box or any other rule system can't be used to run an investigative adventure. Investigative play gets players thinking, using logic and thinking outside the box. In a hobby that is all about creativity, this can only be a good thing. So the next time an opportunity to hunt down a missing apprentice comes your way, go for it!
Sitting in the Red Dragon Inn one evening, drinking a fine ale and sharing memories of your last dungeon crawl you say, "Then around the corner comes the biggest..."
You are interrupted by a gruff voice, "Excuse me, good sirs, but I have a most urgent problem I am hoping you can help me with." says an elderly gentleman in a pointed hat standing over your table. "It seems my apprentice has gone astray. Young lad 'bout this tall," he indicates with his hand, "I sent him to fetch some fresh bat guano yesterday and he hasn't returned. It's most irregular, yes, most irregular. I will gladly pay for your time, and any expenses, if you will locate his where-abouts and of course render any rescue service he might require."
Once the shine of killing monsters starts to fade, the glitter of found gold ceases to gleam, maybe a nice investigative adventure is what your party needs? The investigative adventure brings into play an entirely different set of player and PC skills. Combat becomes secondary and role-play is usually given a more prominent part in the game as PCs question witnesses and seek to gather information. Observation and research skills, which can be useful when preparing for a dungeon crawl or searching for that hidden door, become more important in an investigative adventure where acquiring hidden knowledge is the main objective.
The investigative adventure is also an opportunity to get better acquainted with one's surroundings. The PCs may want to take special note of people, places and things nearby. They may want to visit depositories of information, such as libraries, a local sage or churches. Making contact with, and perhaps forming a relationship with, the local people of importance who can not only help with the situation at hand, but can become resources for the future, can be an important outcome. An investigative adventure can be a great way for the referee to show-case all the development work he/she has done on their world.
Mixing in the occasional investigative adventure not only helps keep things fresh in a campaign, it gives players an extended opportunity for in-character role-play and helps players learn more about the referee's milieu. It also gives the player who rather fancies a fast-talking, charismatic type character a chance to shine. And it also presents the referee an opportunity to cast some quite nasty villains and for the party to make some interesting enemies (who may re-appear in a future adventure).
Refereeing an investigative adventure is a bit different than a dungeon crawl, but can be quite fun if you enjoy role-playing the NPCs. One hard-earned piece of advice is to avoid dead-ends. When PCs fail to follow the clues, and they will, find creative ways to get them back on the trail. Failed investigative rolls should mean extra problems for the party, but not a dead-end. Sometimes a nice smack with the clue-by-four is in order.
Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu is the game that taught me about investigations and incidentally, about role-play as well, but there is no reason why White Box or any other rule system can't be used to run an investigative adventure. Investigative play gets players thinking, using logic and thinking outside the box. In a hobby that is all about creativity, this can only be a good thing. So the next time an opportunity to hunt down a missing apprentice comes your way, go for it!
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
The Dark Eye
Perhaps my biggest purchase (at least in terms of pages - 414 of them) at this year's Gencon is the new English translation of the latest version of Das Schwarze Auge - translated as The Dark Eye. Das Schwarze Auge (DSA) is I believe the first RPG in German and is now in it's 5th edition in Germany. The game is named after it's most powerful or famous artifact, which is pictured above...think Tolkien's palantir. The new American version of the rules seems to represent a partnership between the German publisher, Ulisses Spiele and Paizo. The word at Gencon was that The Dark Eye (TDE) will soon be available everywhere Paizo's Pathfinder is sold.
Other than being a 400+ page tome in beautiful full-color, there isn't really much overlap between Pathfinder and TDE. Obviously they are both FRPGs, but that is where the similarity mostly ends. TDE, having developed along German lines independently of the American game market, is a very different game from Pathfinder or the world's most popular game from which Pathfinder is descended. Pathfinder is the outgrowth of a dungeon crawler heritage and combat therefore takes center stage. TDE is characterized as more role-play and is heavily tied to it's world of Aventuria. PCs are created on a point-buy system from one of the 100+ cultures Aventuria offers. Rather than being homeless adventurers out for fame and fortune, i.e murder hobos, PCs in TDE are expected to be a functioning part of a fictional society where one's relationships may be more important than one's deeds or wealth.
TDE uses professions which are rather like backgrounds and may be quite mundane occupations. Advantages, disadvantages and skills and unique abilities are purchased to customize the PC in just about any manner the player fancies. The PC can therefore grow into someone not originally envisioned. Being gifted with magic ability is about the only trait one must have at the start and which cannot be added later. The "blessed" are wielders of holy magic in TDE and each of the twelve deities have their own brand of cleric. Witches are one form of magic user and play a significant role in Aventuria.
TDE is not a rules light system, nor does it have much in common with d20 or other American systems (I am familiar with) and it has taken careful reading on my part to grasp many of its peculiarities. Combat uses Courage as initiative and is a strike - parry system which remains deadly even at higher levels as hit points don't increase that much. Magic is powerful, but mostly because Aventuria is a low magic setting. There is nothing like an area effect fireball spell, although the basic fire spell can be "super-charged" by increasing the points used to cast it.
The rules in TDE seem somewhat more logical than most games and I can see a deliberate attempt at realism. Verisimilitude is a stated goal of TDE and playing "in character" is emphasized. Aventuria is a world based on the European middle ages with Tolkien-esque races included, but it has 30+ years of in-game history which has been incorporated through changes and upgrades. Since I am coming late to the Aventuria party, I am not sure exactly how this has occurred, but Aventuria is described as a dynamic, living world where the actions of players has affected the history of the world over and again. In Germany there have been many novels, adventures and an ongoing newspaper describing the constant changes and developments within the fictional setting. Following along and playing a part in this evolving setting seems to be a major part of the appeal in German play. It will be interesting to see if Ulisses Speile can translate this into American.
As far as my tastes go, TDE is more rules than I usually prefer, although I admit there are times when I am definitely feeling "in the mood" for digging through a rules heavy game. What appeals to me most about TDE is the more European , "fairy tale land" style world of Aventuria and the emphasis on role-playing low-powered PCs as part of their culture/society. I think with the right group of players there are some interesting stories that could come out of playing TDE. I hope my friend, who also made the purchase agreeing to play TDE because it looks European and therefore different, and who usually goes in for the high-powered play of Pathfinder and 13th Age, finds the game as interesting as I do.
Friday, August 12, 2016
Gencon Wrap: Part II
From the Dealer Hall
One of the many things going on at each Gencon is showcasing the new products each game producer has been working on the previous 11 months. There are three companies whose work really impressed me this past year, Chaosium, Goodman Games and Lamentations of the Flame Princess. There are a lot of other good products and excellent companies doing very fine work in our hobby, but these three stand out in my mind this Gencon.
At last year's Gencon I learned that a struggling giant in the hobby, Chaosium, publisher of Call of Cthulhu, was being reorganized with the return of company founder, Greg Stafford, CoC author, Sandy Petersen, and the Moon Design staff including Rick Meints. With the death of Lynn Willis, Chaosium had struggled to deliver the 7th edition Call of Cthulhu game and really had little else going for them as a company. This year has seemed like a complete turn-around for Chaosium. Under new leadership the company finished CoC 7th and it is now in the backers hands as well as for sale at the con in several stylish formats. Mr. Stafford brought the RuneQuest name back under Chaosium and a very successful kickstarter allowed Chaosium to republish the classic 2nd edition of that game as well as many of the original supplements. I am generally not a kickstarter backer, so I don't know much about this process, but from what I observed, the new Chaosium crew has done an excellent job in this regard, delivering a quality product on time and with great communication all along the way. I did buy much of the newly published material which was available at Gencon. It's all top quality.
Goodman Games continues to offer a wide selection of old school themed gaming goodness and their production schedule is hard for even an avid collector to keep up with. New original modules for their excellent DungeonCrawl Classics appeared at the rate of nearly one a month, including specials for the holidays and Free RPG Day. A regular fanzine, several dice sets and other fun accessories were also produced this year. Goodman Games recently released a new edition of the DCC RPG rulebook with a selection of two different covers and they reprinted three more of the Judges Guild classics, Caverns of Thracia, Dark Tower and the Book of Treasure Maps. More Metamorphosis Alpha and an ultimate collection of Grimtooth's Traps printed in three different grades and no doubt I am still missing something. The folks at Goodman Games are amazing!
I am also amazed at the almost single-handed job James Edward Raggi IV does with his Lamentations of the Flame Princess imprint. I have been collecting LotFP product since the GrindHouse Edition and this year I was pleased to add The Cursed Chateau, England Upturn'd, World of the Lost and Two Towers to my collection. These are all new products keeping with the weird fantasy tradition LotFP is renowned for. Basically a one-man show, Mr. Raggi publishes a lot of quality material for his brand of weird old-school gaming and shows no sign of slowing down. The default setting for LotFP has shifted somewhat over the years from a more traditional medieval to a renaissance or early baroque setting (gunpowder) and maybe that has helped the line stay fresh.
I will finish this post with a brief aside. Mr. Raggi has printed two of Zak Sabbath's (Smith) books in the past, Vornheim and A Red And Pleasant Land. Both are works of art and have been well received in the hobby (awards and all that). This year Mr. Sabbath joined with Patrick Stuart to produce The Maze of the Blue Medusa under their own Satyr Press. The book is a systemless dungeon combining the near boundless creative talents of the two authors and I am sure I will have more to say about it once I have read it through. Although he didn't print the book himself, Mr. Raggi offered it for sale at his booth this Gencon so that eager fans like myself might acquire a copy. Team-play is a good thing!
One of the many things going on at each Gencon is showcasing the new products each game producer has been working on the previous 11 months. There are three companies whose work really impressed me this past year, Chaosium, Goodman Games and Lamentations of the Flame Princess. There are a lot of other good products and excellent companies doing very fine work in our hobby, but these three stand out in my mind this Gencon.
At last year's Gencon I learned that a struggling giant in the hobby, Chaosium, publisher of Call of Cthulhu, was being reorganized with the return of company founder, Greg Stafford, CoC author, Sandy Petersen, and the Moon Design staff including Rick Meints. With the death of Lynn Willis, Chaosium had struggled to deliver the 7th edition Call of Cthulhu game and really had little else going for them as a company. This year has seemed like a complete turn-around for Chaosium. Under new leadership the company finished CoC 7th and it is now in the backers hands as well as for sale at the con in several stylish formats. Mr. Stafford brought the RuneQuest name back under Chaosium and a very successful kickstarter allowed Chaosium to republish the classic 2nd edition of that game as well as many of the original supplements. I am generally not a kickstarter backer, so I don't know much about this process, but from what I observed, the new Chaosium crew has done an excellent job in this regard, delivering a quality product on time and with great communication all along the way. I did buy much of the newly published material which was available at Gencon. It's all top quality.
Goodman Games continues to offer a wide selection of old school themed gaming goodness and their production schedule is hard for even an avid collector to keep up with. New original modules for their excellent DungeonCrawl Classics appeared at the rate of nearly one a month, including specials for the holidays and Free RPG Day. A regular fanzine, several dice sets and other fun accessories were also produced this year. Goodman Games recently released a new edition of the DCC RPG rulebook with a selection of two different covers and they reprinted three more of the Judges Guild classics, Caverns of Thracia, Dark Tower and the Book of Treasure Maps. More Metamorphosis Alpha and an ultimate collection of Grimtooth's Traps printed in three different grades and no doubt I am still missing something. The folks at Goodman Games are amazing!
I am also amazed at the almost single-handed job James Edward Raggi IV does with his Lamentations of the Flame Princess imprint. I have been collecting LotFP product since the GrindHouse Edition and this year I was pleased to add The Cursed Chateau, England Upturn'd, World of the Lost and Two Towers to my collection. These are all new products keeping with the weird fantasy tradition LotFP is renowned for. Basically a one-man show, Mr. Raggi publishes a lot of quality material for his brand of weird old-school gaming and shows no sign of slowing down. The default setting for LotFP has shifted somewhat over the years from a more traditional medieval to a renaissance or early baroque setting (gunpowder) and maybe that has helped the line stay fresh.
I will finish this post with a brief aside. Mr. Raggi has printed two of Zak Sabbath's (Smith) books in the past, Vornheim and A Red And Pleasant Land. Both are works of art and have been well received in the hobby (awards and all that). This year Mr. Sabbath joined with Patrick Stuart to produce The Maze of the Blue Medusa under their own Satyr Press. The book is a systemless dungeon combining the near boundless creative talents of the two authors and I am sure I will have more to say about it once I have read it through. Although he didn't print the book himself, Mr. Raggi offered it for sale at his booth this Gencon so that eager fans like myself might acquire a copy. Team-play is a good thing!
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Post Gencon Wrap
Some thoughts on Gencon 2016
I spent a lot of last week at Gencon and the first part of this week recovering from con crud...the price of too much fun. The convention this year was a combination of surprises and disappointments. The former outnumbered the latter, so it was a good convention. My disappointments are few and will probably amount to nothing in a few weeks. Among my surprises are games that I may enjoy for years to come.
I had hoped The Design Mechanism would be at Gencon with their new Mythras game. If they were I was unable to locate them. I am guessing Mythras, what RuneQuest 6th Edition is becoming, may be released later this year and be available for next Gencon.
I expected to find many new games including the 7th edition of Call of Cthulhu and the reprint of RuneQuest 2nd Edition and Chaosium was there with both. There were also games I discovered which came as an unexpected surprise such as the English translation of the new 5th Edition of the German The Dark Eye (Das Schwarze Auge) by Ulisses Spiele. The presence of James Edward Raggi IV at his Lamentations of the Flame Princess booth was a pleasant surprise and I enjoyed a brief conversation with the master of weird fantasy. Mr. Raggi was selling copies of Zak Sabbath and Patrick Stuart's new Maze of the Blue Medusa, which I considered a must-have given the previous work of Mr. Sabbath (A Red and Pleasant Land, Vornheim) and Mr. Stuart (Deep Carbon Observatory).
I spent my playing time with friends from my local group and divided between Pathfinder, 13th Age and boardgames. There were many sides to Gencon I didn't really expose myself to such as collectable card games, video gaming and LARPs, so I don't feel qualified to comment on them. The traditional tabletop RPGs and boardgames were well represented as usual with many old favorites and several new titles being played. Several old favorites were enjoying new editions and there were some new additions as well. Old school games continue to make a strong showing as evidenced by Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Goodman Games and Tunnels & Trolls. Innovation was also evident in several fresh ideas I heard talking to vendors, Of Dreams and Magic being one fresh game I decided to buy into and bring home for more study. I am recently finding several settings written for the Savage Worlds system to be of interest and Ultima Forsan, Kata Kumbas, Lankhmar and HellFrost all made my short list of purchases.
I first attended Gencon in 1978 and 38 years later I still enjoyed this convention as much as I recall enjoying that first one at the university at Parkside near Kenosha, WS. I still consider myself fortunate to live near the convention site (I lived in Kenosha in '78), but would travel cross the continent if necessary. There is nothing quite like meeting game designers and discussing new ideas, gaming with strangers and seeing how others play the games we all love.
I spent a lot of last week at Gencon and the first part of this week recovering from con crud...the price of too much fun. The convention this year was a combination of surprises and disappointments. The former outnumbered the latter, so it was a good convention. My disappointments are few and will probably amount to nothing in a few weeks. Among my surprises are games that I may enjoy for years to come.
I had hoped The Design Mechanism would be at Gencon with their new Mythras game. If they were I was unable to locate them. I am guessing Mythras, what RuneQuest 6th Edition is becoming, may be released later this year and be available for next Gencon.
I expected to find many new games including the 7th edition of Call of Cthulhu and the reprint of RuneQuest 2nd Edition and Chaosium was there with both. There were also games I discovered which came as an unexpected surprise such as the English translation of the new 5th Edition of the German The Dark Eye (Das Schwarze Auge) by Ulisses Spiele. The presence of James Edward Raggi IV at his Lamentations of the Flame Princess booth was a pleasant surprise and I enjoyed a brief conversation with the master of weird fantasy. Mr. Raggi was selling copies of Zak Sabbath and Patrick Stuart's new Maze of the Blue Medusa, which I considered a must-have given the previous work of Mr. Sabbath (A Red and Pleasant Land, Vornheim) and Mr. Stuart (Deep Carbon Observatory).
I spent my playing time with friends from my local group and divided between Pathfinder, 13th Age and boardgames. There were many sides to Gencon I didn't really expose myself to such as collectable card games, video gaming and LARPs, so I don't feel qualified to comment on them. The traditional tabletop RPGs and boardgames were well represented as usual with many old favorites and several new titles being played. Several old favorites were enjoying new editions and there were some new additions as well. Old school games continue to make a strong showing as evidenced by Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Goodman Games and Tunnels & Trolls. Innovation was also evident in several fresh ideas I heard talking to vendors, Of Dreams and Magic being one fresh game I decided to buy into and bring home for more study. I am recently finding several settings written for the Savage Worlds system to be of interest and Ultima Forsan, Kata Kumbas, Lankhmar and HellFrost all made my short list of purchases.
I first attended Gencon in 1978 and 38 years later I still enjoyed this convention as much as I recall enjoying that first one at the university at Parkside near Kenosha, WS. I still consider myself fortunate to live near the convention site (I lived in Kenosha in '78), but would travel cross the continent if necessary. There is nothing quite like meeting game designers and discussing new ideas, gaming with strangers and seeing how others play the games we all love.
Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Traveling
Source of Inspiration
Eighteen days on the road can give one a lot of new experiences. When playing a role-playing game, one is constantly drawing on experiences, memories and imagination, especially as a referee inclined to improvise. we all have seen, read and heard a lot of details in our lives, accessing those and turning them into fodder for the game is a skill that gets better with practice. Travel exposes us to new surroundings, people and maybe cultures if we travel far enough.
Travel is intensive living and our senses and memories likely respond by taking it all in vivid detail. Use those details, perhaps with minor changes to fit the situation at the game table. A city built on canals can be the inspiration for a similar place in our fictional game world. The sights, smells and details can be re-skinned and combined with other details from other real life experiences to create someplace original and highly memorable for the players. By thinking it through and jotting down some details, the referee can make use of seemingly unrelated experiences from our real lives while constructing our fantasies.
Some of the most entertaining game sessions I have experienced have been the result of a referee who is able to draw extensively from their experiences and weave a detailed tapestry of fantastic fiction from various sources and players who enthusiastically embrace such creativity by drawing from their own experience and adding what they can to the collective imaginings through which our stories develop. By taking time to wonder how this-n-that could be used in the game, we can double the value of travel.
Eighteen days on the road can give one a lot of new experiences. When playing a role-playing game, one is constantly drawing on experiences, memories and imagination, especially as a referee inclined to improvise. we all have seen, read and heard a lot of details in our lives, accessing those and turning them into fodder for the game is a skill that gets better with practice. Travel exposes us to new surroundings, people and maybe cultures if we travel far enough.
Travel is intensive living and our senses and memories likely respond by taking it all in vivid detail. Use those details, perhaps with minor changes to fit the situation at the game table. A city built on canals can be the inspiration for a similar place in our fictional game world. The sights, smells and details can be re-skinned and combined with other details from other real life experiences to create someplace original and highly memorable for the players. By thinking it through and jotting down some details, the referee can make use of seemingly unrelated experiences from our real lives while constructing our fantasies.
Some of the most entertaining game sessions I have experienced have been the result of a referee who is able to draw extensively from their experiences and weave a detailed tapestry of fantastic fiction from various sources and players who enthusiastically embrace such creativity by drawing from their own experience and adding what they can to the collective imaginings through which our stories develop. By taking time to wonder how this-n-that could be used in the game, we can double the value of travel.
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