The Basics of becoming an Expert DM

Blue Box Expert Advice

Yes, this title is a bit of a play on words. In my opinion the best "Beginner" version of The World's Most Popular Role-Playing Game is Basic/Expert edited by Frank Mentzer and released circa 1981. Frequently referred to as BECMI, the acronym for Basic, Expert, Companion, Master and Immortal box sets, this version builds upon the original 1974 edition authored by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (often called ODD or White Box), and the previous "Basic" versions of J. Eric Holmes, and Tom Moldvay, David "Zeb" Cook and Steve Marsh (B/X). BECMI seems to be the most novice friendly and complete edition while retaining much of the spirit of free innovation and creativity that characterized the early days of the hobby. Using clear language accessible to everyone, in his Basic and Expert sets Mr. Mentzer describes how to roll the unusual dice, record important game data on your character sheet, map your first dungeon as a DM and create your own setting including home town and wilderness. 

In the Red Box BECMI basic set, the author describes how to begin play as a character (using a solo game) and how to draw and populate a beginner dungeon to run for your friends/family. Like the previous versions of Basic, this set covers play for character levels one to three and encourages the gamer to pursue higher levels by purchasing the next product.

Turning to the next in the series, the Blue Box Expert Set, we find a concise explanation of the process for designing a setting and suggestions for running a successful FRP campaign. In two short pages (pp. 28 & 37) of Expert, the essentials of "mastering the game" are presented in an organized and easy to follow manner. 

A careful reading of these two pages will reveal that taking the time for "thinking it through" is more important than anything you may put on paper. The setting "lives" in your head more than it exists in the maps, notes and boxed text you put on paper. By imagining a character "living" in your fictional world and making a mental note of their point-of-view, what they know, what they likely see, etc., we start to develop the "facts" regarding our fictional world. 

Mr. Mentzer suggests we start with what we know about the "real world" borrowing from things like gravity, weather, and technology (15th Century Europe is the game's default assumption, but it need not be yours) before we add in some fantasy "magic". This assumption of reality forms the basis for improvisation as we continue to imagine how the characters interact with their fictional world, especially during play when the unexpected is sure to happen. We simply cannot pre-plan for everything. Preparation for the campaign is primarily getting yourself into the mindset of our fictional setting.

Blue Box Expert suggests one start the process of actually putting things on paper by designing the home town. In Basic we learned that the dungeon is the "basic" setting for the game. Expert adds a wider context, the world in which our characters spend their days and will find the dungeon. In this way the game shifts from a series of episodic delving sessions to campaign play and continuity takes on meaning. 

In designing our fictional world, the guiding principal is to start local and to keep it relevant to play. One need not create all the heavens and earth prior to our first session. A small area will suffice. Place the home town/starting place from which the characters will venture out seeking fame and fortune at the center. Place the dungeon nearby so the party can easily go back and forth. Give some thought (from a characters' perspective) as to what lies just beyond the local area. Expert suggests giving some thought to the area under human control, the area under non-human control, and how power is exercised. (A rumor or two may be a nice incentive for exploration.)

Home Town is a place where services are available, NPCs abound, and rumors can be heard. It is wise to make Home Town a safe place (at least in the beginning of the campaign) as the dungeon and wilderness will offer enough danger and excitement. (If we think about it, a place of safety is probably why the town was built to begin with.) The PCs may be seen as "intruders" by the locals or themselves be natives to Home Town. Home Town will connect by road or river to other sources of trade and will offer a local market place for goods. It will thus likely attract the attention of thieves or bandits at some point. 

When thinking about the setting, it is important to keep some objective perspective. The PCs are the most important drivers of play, but they are a relatively small part of the world in which they live. By portraying the NPCs as having their own business to go about you will add to the richness of your setting.

Expert doesn't do your work for you, however. The maps, descriptions, encounter tables, and adventure ideas presented in this section of Expert are merely examples meant to inspire your own creations rather than being "ready made" adventures. Setting down in type something for you to run simply by reading to your players was Basic, Expert teaches the art of running the game by first showing you (the DM) how to design our own version of a setting. To "master" the game is to go beyond merely applying the rules. To become a master is to become a "creator". 

Thus we have Expert step-by-step advice on designing your own setting and running a successful campaign all on less than two pages of text. 

Flavors of D&D

...and A Game About Nothing.

Almost a half century ago Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson created The Original Fantasy Role-Playing Game and with its publication, started a new hobby - adventure gaming. As authors of  The World's First RPG, they forged ahead into uncharted territory while drawing upon their past experiences with another game genre, notably their shared interest in tabletop wargaming with miniature figures. It is perhaps no coincidence that Mr. Arneson looked to his Napoleonic wargames for inspiration, and Mr. Gygax relied  heavily for the new game's combat mechanic upon his previously published medieval miniatures wargame rules, Chainmail. What we the consumer got in their product, White Box D&D, is a somewhat incomplete guide "for running fantastic medieval wargames campaigns playable with paper pencil and miniature figures".

Over the decades since its publication, the original game has been altered, added to, and advanced so that we hobby gamers currently have multiple versions of the World's Most Popular RPG to choose from today, including several official editions and many other less official flavors which are not published by the current IP holder. Each version of the game seems different enough, while all remain somewhat the same, so that I tend to think of them collectively as "the various flavors of the D&D hobby". A summary of the menu includes the following "official edition" entrées:

Do it yourself - The Original Edition heavily based on tabletop miniatures wargaming, seems aimed at a wargame audience. Typical of miniature wargames rules of the day, it requires a referee to run the game and one who is willing to add to the rules as written and customize play at their table. It relies on the referee having access to the previously published Chainmail rules (especially its Fantasy Supplement) and a popular boardgame (Outdoor Survival) in order to make full use of this product.

  

Tournament style - The Advanced Game delivered in a new hardcover format is the author's personalized vision of how the game should be. Written in full Gygaxian style and tone, the author's stated intent is to standardize the game so that tournament play is reasonably attainable. Advanced establishes the game as a distinct brand and will define "fantasy" for an entire generation.

Accessible for everyone - Basic, especially in its Red Box version, places emphasis on being user friendly and inviting. It teaches the uninitiated how to play and DM using a programmed introduction and solo play to ease one into the game. Far from being an inferior version of the rules that are just aimed at beginners, the Basic Game retains much of the original philosophy and appeal of the original version for veterans such as myself.

The Open License - 3/3.5 is a fresh vision of a new publisher for just how to play the game. This version seems to envision the IP as everything for everyone and it combines various subsystems borrowed from various other games under the familiar IP branding. This edition makes use of miniatures as the standard for play and its many tomes demonstrates that a desire to be all things to all gamers can result in too much of a good thing.

Going almost digital  - A continued desire on the part of the IP holder for the game to be the all-purpose solution for all your gaming needs, 4e is an acquired taste. While it has its loyal fans, it remains the least popular version of our game. Its lack of universal appeal leads to products such as those published by Paizo and the OSR - all using the famous game's OGL. Did I mention that the Open Game License is a really good thing for the hobby in general.

Finally, the Next version - It is an 800 pound gorilla in the game room and has outstripped all others in popularity. The IP holder has again borrowed ideas from a number of independent press RPG products (many using the OGL) in an initial attempt to win back the fanbase, but coincidentally also stumbles upon a large number of new consumers thanks to certain internet influencers. Capitalizing on the popularity of online streaming and televised shows that include dramatic interpretations of tabletop play or nostalgic scenes featuring classic versions of the game, the current edition outstrips all previous versions in popularity despite being frequently derided for having abandoned its roots. Criticism aside, record sales for nearly every official 5e release is virtually assured as the game has become a pop culture lifestyle brand. 5e is seemingly poised to be the one game to rule them all. 

We've come a long way from being just a bunch of nerdy hobbyists with a shared love for games and fantasy stories.

Acquisition & Investigation

Why I Play TTRPGs

The simple answer is of course "we play for fun and fellowship". It is my nature to question the obvious and to dig a little deeper and what follows is my (current) thoughts on the role of "acquiring" and of "discovery" as they pertain in the hobby of tabletop gaming.

The online "old school renaissance community" has a saying/mantra, "we play to find out". This sentiment suggests that we won't have a script to follow, no pre-written story as it were. It also alludes to the investigation side of adventure games as is evident on many levels in all that we discover through the act of playing. 

Exploration and discovery may lead to the acquisition of great (character) wealth, magic and power as we advance our in-game persona - the player character - through application of various aspects of the game's mechanics. Experience for all those gold pieces snatched from monstrous lairs and brought to the surface, and maybe spent on training or other services, can be one common old school source of "experience points". 

XP or experience points are accumulated through treasure or defeating monsters and as it adds up will eventually allow the player to "level up" their character, thus acquiring greater (superhero!) abilities and power. Higher level characters are better equipped to delve deeper into dungeons and can undertake more dangerous quests by virtue of having more hit points and access to more damaging weapons and magic. This is the essence of  the acquisition side of the game (although the game always hinted at establishing a stronghold from which one would wield political power).

Investigation is the defining activity in some tabletop roleplaying games - Call of Cthulhu player characters are called "Investigators" and it therefore immediately comes to mind. But investigation (asking questions), and discovery through both exploration and role-play, is not unique to Call of Cthulhu and they have been an essential play element of the hobby even from its earliest days. 

The dungeon environs are by their vary nature unusual and filled with tricks and traps and fantastic creatures. The discovery of just what lies buried beneath the surface of our fictional world of fantasy adventure is a huge part of the fun to be found in playing. Balancing knowledge of what is different than the real world, and what is the same, is an essential part of "playing the game". 

Designing and Stocking the dungeon is a significant part of the enjoyment I get from taking the role of game referee. Discovering just how my players will solve the challenges they uncover while exploring my "dungeon" is the reward I have in mind when planning my sessions. Invariably my players will surprise me as they come up with ways to interact with my encounters that I could never have imagined. 

A typical tabletop RPG is two parts imagination (what the referee comes up with and what the players come up with), one part rule procedure and one part chance (the dice rolls). Applying the game rules during play (and adjusting the narrative per outcome of dice rolls) is always a constant challenge as I seek to improvise and act as game judge/referee, reacting to creative ideas as they are put forth by my players when they face-off with an interesting challenge. The more understanding the players have regarding the nature of our imaginary world serving as "the stage" upon which their characters "act out their part" in our "play" (as it were!), the better they are able to devise clever solutions to the problems being faced down by their characters. Example - consider the various oozes! (the mindless cleaning crew of dungeon halls) Some oozes (molds, etc.) are harmed by fire, others may feed on it, etc. Figuring out the specific vulnerabilities of these "dungeon ecology" creatures can be an enjoyable aspect of classic dungeon exploration and play. 

Originally aimed at a wargames audience (role-playing didn't exist as a gaming hobby until the 1974 publication of TSR's Original Edition), much of the emphasis of the classic game is on combat mechanics. The Original Fantasy Role-Playing Game has been described as a "dungeon skirmish" game. This is undoubtedly true, but there is a lot more to unpack. It is a game about acquiring and about investigation and discovery. 

Combining tactical combat wargaming elements with a fantastic setting filled with wonderous creatures, supernatural forces and virtually anything a referee can imagine (or lift from a source of inspiration), the games we now call tabletop RPGs are as much about climbing the ladder to character success and power, and finding out what is lurking unknown in the fictional world setting as it is about slaying monsters. 

High Fantasy

A Time and a Place for Imagination!

It has now been more than four decades since my personal journey in this hobby began. We today call what we do "playing role-playing games", but in the early days it was just a new sort of game, a bit different, but approached much as tabletop games had always been. The year 1977 saw my entry when I acquired a copy of the white box and little brown books just three years after its publication. The Original Fantasy Role-Playing Game was released in 1974 and had taken off in a way that probably exceeded even the most optimistic expectations and was from its start prompting many enthusiasts to experiment with rule variations, in addition to designing their own setting or dungeon. 1977 was also the year Jeffrey C. Dillow self published his ideas on tabletop role-playing in a game he called High Fantasy.

One need only glance at the cover of the first edition of High Fantasy to see that it is obviously an amateur publication. Almost everything in the then new hobby was in those early days of the 1970s. TSR, the company that introduced us to tabletop role-playing via its Original Fantasy Role-Playing Game rules, released the first of their hard cover Advanced Game book in 1977 (Monster Manuel) and with it the quality of production in the hobby moved from the strictly amateurish to a more polished and professional standard. TSR's first version of the Basic Set, edited by J. Eric Holmes, came packaged in a neat box featuring an engaging color illustration of a dragon atop treasure made it's debut in 1977 as well. It was a big year for the hobby.

As a collector of tabletop games, old and new, I have read a lot of rule systems, setting material and adventure modules. I have even played a few of them! High Fantasy is a system that I have returned to again and again, in my reading although I have only ever played it solo. I find the game interesting because it pioneers a number of ideas that will reemerge in later games, it shows a remarkable understanding of many of the finer points of running the game and because it is the work of a fellow Hoosier from the Indianapolis area. 

Like most fantasy role-playing games, High Fantasy relies on the character class archetype distinction of warriors verses wizards - those who adventure and fight with muscle power and those who rely upon magical power. The author of High Fantasy adds two original classes to the mix, Animal Masters and Alchemists - character classes that will also be revisited in many subsequent fantasy systems. The impressive part of character creation, in my opinion, is Mr. Dillow's introduction of Subclasses which add skill abilities to the Main Classes just described. In High Fantasy Thieves and Assassins are a Subclass available to a character of any Main Class. Seems appropriate when I consider the implications of playing a "thief". Other Subclasses include Hunter/Huntress, Healer, Historian (Archeologist), Martial Artist, Sensitive, Jeweler, and Armorer. With the probable exception of the Sensitive, all of the Subclass abilities are probably intuitive. The Sensitive Subclass bestows the following "skills" which are in addition to the Main Class abilities: Being able to transmit and receive thought; Being able to detect truth/falsehoods; Being able to locate a known person; A chance to deliver a "mental blast attack; and Being able to detect magic. All of the abilities function according to High Fantasy's percentile dice roll mechanic (yes this is an early example of a "universal mechanic").

In addition to the Subclass system, High Fantasy offers an optional "Talents" aspect to character creation. Talents include abilities acquired as part of the character's background and are diced for on tables including Business Background, Musical Background, Nautical Background, and several others. The specific background table rolled on can be at the player's discretion, but the actual Talents are determined randomly - yes this is 1977.

The person setting up the game and running it at the table is called its "Judge" in High Fantasy and Mr. Dillow has some advice for the Judge that seems appropriate across the several decades since the 1970s and useful for many systems. When creating your own "world" start small/local and build onto the setting as play expands. Giving some thought to why things exist as they do, treat NPCs as if they have their own motives and schemes separate from the player characters. (I have found this is an excellent way to bring life to the campaign.) Offer objectives to the players allowing them to choose their course of action, going where they will, exploring what interests them and attempting the task they find most appealing. High Fantasy lists a number of optional "Investments" into which players may wish to place the hard-earned cash of their PCs and there-by providing motivation beyond the immediate mission. A Wizard may Invest in magical or mundane studies. An Alchemist may wish to Invest in constructing a laboratory and experimenting with various alchemical recipes. The results of such Investment not only benefit's the PCs through gaining advanced abilities, but helps shape the campaign setting offering the players that much more agency. 

In the 1970s we had no internet community. The best place I found to make connection with other people interested in gaming was university and hobby shops. This seems to have been fairly common in those days. As a result, gaming groups tended to be local. It was conceivably quite common for a gaming group to accumulate a set of preferred practices or "house rules" that might eventually prompt one or more in the group to say, "Hey, these seem pretty playable, maybe we should write them up in a nice format and make them available for others to try!"

Looking back at the early games we played over 45 years ago, I am amazed at how much the early designers seem to have gotten "right". The advice given to players and referees regarding "how to play" demonstrated a depth of understanding even in those days about what makes a tabletop game fun to play. Looking back upon many of the products marketed in the 1970s, they often seem as relevant now as anything I encounter being published today - at least in some respects. Fun, creativity, and comradery based upon a shared interest remain central themes across the hobby. High Fantasy is most definitely a product reflecting a specific time and place. I doubt that it ever gained a huge following, but it provides a glimpse into our hobby's past and is a unique vehicle for exploring science fiction and fantasy adventure for anyone with an interest in doing so using a system that seems fresh with new discovery each time I reacquaint myself with it.

And did I mention there are some pretty decent solo adventures written for High Fantasy which I have found to replay quite well.

Nuts!

Musings on Game Design and other Remembrances
In 1965 the Avalon Hill Game Company published The Battle of the Bulge - a map and counter strategy game for ages "12 years & up". Founded in 1952 by Charles S. Roberts, the Avalon Hill Game Company regularly released new strategy games through the 1970s, many new titles (as I recall) were published each year, all aimed at a mass market audience and widely available when I was a young gamer. Their catalog included games based on various subjects related to sports, business and military history. As a boy who was especially interested in sports and military history, I suppose I was part of their target market demographic even before I reached the suggested age of "12 years".

I recall being desirous of laying my hands upon the intriguing history games as soon as I saw one in a local store. I eagerly anticipated the fun promised by the mere thought of playing such an "advanced" game. The Battle of the Bulge was not the first Avalon Hill game I acquired, but it is a game that holds up well today - even though it was designed 57 years ago - and it is the game that is prompting me to write about today's subject. Some games are classics because their appeal seems timeless. 

In 1965:

Lyndon B. Johnson was president of the United States and his "Great Society" was taking form in the wake of an expanding war in southeast Asia.

The NASA space program launched its first two-person Gemini mission - the moon was a dream. 

The Beatles were still taking the music world by storm.

The musical drama film The Sound of Music won the Academy Award for Best Picture (along with 4 other awards).

I make mention of these items of remote historical interest by way of demonstrating that the world was in many respects a very different place in 1965 from what it is today.

But back to the present and the topic of games: I recently played Avalon Hill's 1965 version of The Battle of the Bulge. It has been some time since I had last played this game and in the interval have played many other games based on the same events history knows as the Battle of the Bulge and I have read a number of books on the subject in those years since last playing the game. It seems not unlikely that several thoughts on the matter have been brought into my mind in the intervening years since last I played Avalon Hill's classic. 

I am delighted to say that I enjoyed my recent revisit with the old Avalon Hill "hex and counter" wargame pictured above. In all honesty was not expecting the game to provide the level of engagement that I experienced while playing and the degree of mental challenge the system seems to present in different ways to both the Allied and German player. (I had also forgotten the game has an "Introductory" and an Advanced or "Tournament" mode of play, but that fact seems less significant.) Incidentally, I consider the "Introductory" game, as it styles itself, a decent strategy game - and one that is probably well suited as an introduction to the hobby of wargaming. 

Even more to my surprise is the take-away idea that I now have that The Avalon Hill Game Company's The Battle of the Bulge game is probably the basis and inspiration of many of the more detailed games on the subject that I have played since 1965. Informed as I am today by material and ideas I did not have access to years ago, my perspective has "evolved". I thought new thoughts as I worked my way through an old game design and made comparisons and had many "what if" moments as I thought about how I might "house rule" the 1965 game. 

During my recent play of The Battle of the Bulge I  also found myself wondering whether this Avalon Hill game may have served as a starting point for many of the later games, those featuring more elaborate rule mechanics, including many of the ones that I have personally encountered playing more recently released games on the subject. Traffic congestion, limited supply, weather conditions, surprise, and many other historical details written about this battle have been incorporated into various other games in an effort to make them a more "realistic" Battle of the Bulge game.

It is the nature of things that they be improved upon over time. Human beings find inspiration in one idea and in combination with data, experience and innovation, expand upon the idea and sometimes improve it!

If this sounds familiar, I think it should! The fantasy role-playing hobby has often taken a similar development path with respect to the original game designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson back in 1974. By adding to, and by adjusting things, even by taking away from one rule or another, and by replacing various mechanical aspects of the rules with a different mechanic, game developers have sought to improve upon play and to customize the game, all while making use of some of the basic concepts established in that original design. Variations on a theme - I would say borrowing an analogy from my study of music. Simply put, we build upon what came before.  

So one may ask about the title of this post - "Nuts!". As it is explained on the cover of The Battle of the Bulge 1965 game box, "Nuts!" is the famous one-word reply the American commander gave to a German Commander's request for the American troops to surrender during the actual battle.

Tool-Kit TTRPGs

GURPS

My continuing thoughts on the nature of tabletop role-playing games and my personal quest for a game to devote my hobby energies to for the near future bring me to ponder the class of "generic" role-playing game systems I like to call "tool-kit games". Perhaps the first entry in this group should be to mention our Original Fantasy Role-Playing Game, the White Box edition of Mr. Gygax and Mr. Arneson. Being both modular and seemingly designed to be very open to modification, the original edition of The World's Most Popular Role-Playing Game has spawned numerous homebrew rules. Some even saw publication as games in their own right. 

Today, my thoughts turn to GURPS, the Generic Universal Role Playing System designed by Steve Jackson and published by Steve Jackson Games (1986, 1988, 2004). It's one of the first games to openly state the attempt to provide a universal system that can be adapted to any genre.  Rather than switching systems every time one changes genre, GURPS attempts to provide players with a "one game to rule them all" type of solution. 

Built on the bones of an earlier game designed by Steve Jackson (The Fantasy Trip, Metagaming, 1977), GURPS in all its editions includes a number of mechanical features that place emphasis on a tactical feel and which reference real world measurement units and real world data. Known scientific phenomena about our world and universe is a starting point with GURPS, both as a way to ease transition between game system and reality and as an aid to verisimilitude. Use of supplemental material that is written for other game systems is encouraged and the use of real world terminology is meant to ease the process of doing so.

Despite Mr. Gygax famously deriding "realism in gaming" as a "bugaboo" the concept holds water in my estimation. As a fan of horror in gaming, a central feature of that "sense" is connection to the "real". (There is a good reason writers of horror fiction go to great lengths to describe the mundane such as describing "a sweating coke can on a wooden desk...because it is something we can all see in our mind's eye and it sets the stage for contrast.) 

The feeling of "realism" in a game can be helpful in certain aspects other than horror, particularly when dealing with baseline assumptions about how things should work. Generally I am a fan of game mechanics that seem to simulate real world conditions. Magic seems so much more fantastic when the backdrop is mundane reality and is a lot more imaginable when everything else seems real. 

The real appeal of GURPS, however, is its adaptability. It can be just the game you want it to be. By including some mechanical systems, and excluding others, the gamemaster can pick and choose among the tools GURPS offers. Rather than being a game where all the rules apply to every game, GURPS is a collection of "optional" rules to include, or not to include in any particular game. The person running the game obviously has a lot of decisions to make prior to the first game session - and that can be a joy or a chore depending upon how one approaches preparation. 

Fortunately the basic system in GURPS is quite easy to grasp and being a system based on real world data, I find its methods intuitive and logical to use. To put it simply, at its core, GURPS is an easy game to play. It boils down to "options". Include as many as you like, or just run with the barest of mechanics, the 3d6 dice roll under a stat to succeed mechanic. 

All this isn't really the point of discussing GURPS in the present, rather what recommends GURPS to me at the moment is its adaptability. I can customize GURPS to give me what I wish for in a game - and by extension leave aside all the stuff I find distracting and frustrating about other systems that assume one will use "all the rules as the authors present them". GURPS is in fact built with a "design it yourself" mindset. 

I have found that a significant amount of the enjoyment I gain from this hobby is through my "tinkering" with the game's rules and doing some "beyond the box" amateur designing of almost any published game system I play. Hence the appeal of the Old School approach and games such as White Box and GURPS. Rulings are a challenging part of the fun I experience as referee in setting up and planning a campaign, in running sessions at the table and even when thinking about and writing down my thoughts on the hobby. Looking things up in a big tome of rules is okay, but...

A significant part of the appeal I find in The Original Fantasy Role-Playing Game is the invitation to add to the rules, to make them "my game" through world building, various and myriad in-session rulings and mechanical customizations. The modular nature of the original White Box' rule system makes it easy to add to or alter game mechanic elements without damaging the game's integrity. The blatant absence of particular aspects in the rules as written makes some degree of "design it yourself" almost mandatory. Various "tool kit" games have been published in the decades following the release of the White Box edition and I find the possibilities of a generic system such as GURPS quite alluring. (I am guessing there may be more thoughts to follow.)

A place called Dreadmoor

What the sage says:

Once the Evil was defeated, the men turned on the elves. Having in the before times joined forces with elves, and with dwarves too, in a cooperative effort to defeat evil and thereby bring peace to the land, the nation of free men afterward came to resent elves. The men became jealous of the gods, whom they saw as distant and uncaring to men, and to hate elves whom they saw as unfairly favored by the gods, for did not the gods call elves their "first-born" and grant to them certain natural magical abilities and long lives. The men then practiced their talent for war upon the elves. A lifetime has come and gone - well a human life-span has come and gone and all the while the men have waged war upon elves. 

What the priest says:

Few can now recall the first days of the conflict or how the fighting first began. For most living today and calling themselves "free men of the west" there has only been war against the hated elves. Some say there were a few of the elvish people who dwelt among men prior to the start of open conflict, but most men alive today have never seen an elf, alive or dead, other than on the field of battle. It is said that the war has gone hard on the elves and that few of their people now survive. Some say the remaining elves made allies with evil forces, those who had previously served the dread lords in the before times, and that it is only through such an unholy pack with evil that the nation of elves now hope to continue their war against men. If this is true, and the presence of such evil folk raiding the settlements of men is surely evidence that it is true, this is taken as proof that the elves are an evil people who deserve death.

Building a game world:

The above description is the set-up for my homebrew setting I call Dreadmoor. As a game concept, Dreadmoor has been evolving through four decades of play. Starting in the years before there were any published settings - Greyhawk and Blackmoor were mostly known of at the time through their use as the titles of Supplement 1 and Supplement 2 respectively, I was like most early referees who also handwaved the details of setting and went straight to the dungeon. In those days I had some vague concept of a setting I kept in the back of my mind that was loosely based on whatever reading I could draw upon for inspiration. In this, I was and remain heavily influenced by various and sundry weird tales, favorite sword and sorcery yarns, and more generally so, by my understanding of history and the natural laws of the universe. I enjoy a spooky tale and I strive to include such supernatural elements in most of the games that I run.

It is a dark world of constant warfare and mistrust. The lawful forces of the city state of Dreadmoor are locked in a desperate struggle with the chaotic forces which seek their downfall. There is peril aplenty and death awaits 'round every corner. But if an adventurer is both quick and lucky fame and gold may be their reward. As I explain to players, Dreadmoor is the name of the city and the state, Dreadmoor is the name of my campaign world, and Dreadmoor is a philosophy and the central theme in my personal play-style. Welcome to Dreadmoor and bring your own dice!

(Readers who have a good memory for geography may see a strong similarity in the Dreadmoor map to a certain area on Earth. I find things in real life are often very inspiring.)

After the Red Box

What's Next?

I am of the opinion that the 1983 Basic Set frequently referred to as the "Red Box" version of Basic is the single best introduction to the hobby of tabletop role-playing that has ever existed. The combination of readability, a programmed learning approach, and solo and beginner adventures, both included in the two volumes, taken all together make this a most excellent product for beginners, "aged 12 and up". The Red Box contains some useful advice even for more experienced players and referees, and I still find the red cover booklets to be an enjoyable read  - almost 40 years after I first opened and experienced that new red box edition of the Basic Game.

Like previous versions of the Basic Game rules, Red Box follows a format established by J. Eric Holmes in his 1977 Basic Game by limiting the Basic system included to playing the first three levels of character experience. For players seeking higher levels of play, and more powerful characters, monsters and magic, the publishers recommend consulting either the Expert rules or the Advanced Game system. I am going to break with this advice and suggest the next place to go after mastering Basic is to the independent publisher products, specifically I suggest one give a serious look at the Index Card RPG Core, published by Runehammer Games.

Index Card RPG is a personal vison of how to make The World's Most Popular Role-Playing Game a more playable and dynamic game - written a very gifted and dynamic person! I think publisher/author Runehammer/Brandish Gilhelm succeeds admirably in achieving this vision. Mr. Gilhelm takes the familiar "basic game" mechanics off the beaten path by combining new ideas and fresh advice regarding just how to create your own setting, how to leverage the maximum fun potential in the game, and how to keep things moving along at an exciting pace while playing an awesome fantasy adventure tabletop game. The attributes found in many of the better third-party publisher products often address one or more of these topics to be honest, but none do a better job of it in my opinion than ICRPG. 

The truth is that independent publishers in all fields of endeavor can take things to "eleven" because they are not overly concerned with answering to the stock-holders bottom line. They often publish unconventional works by new and upcoming artists who are experimenting and are unfettered by conventional practices. They express a level of creativity that would make the corporate types "uneasy". If you want something new and different, I have found the independent publishers are a good place to look for such. 

To illustrate my point, I will give one example of creative thinking to be found in Index Card RPG - I turn to magic, which is of course one of the defining elements of any "fantasy" genre product. ICRPG uses magic items (mostly discovered through adventuring) as the basis of the game's magic system in the ICRPG game. The referee will stock the setting (dungeon, etc.) with various and original magic items, many are single use items such as scrolls and potions, but often they are not from the standard list of spell effects. Finding (or at higher levels, creating) such items empowers the player character with "magic" that is novel and interesting and ultimately at his/her/their command, at least until the magic runs out and the item becomes inert. Gone are the classic spell-by-level tables one finds in many versions of the game (including Red Box) as ICRPG does away with such mundane magics. Spell casting in ICRPG is by reading a scroll, or by pointing a wand, or by activating that precious ring you found in the goblin's lair. Of course, one can combine the two magic systems by using a blending of Red Box magic spells and ICRPG item magic to take your game to the next level!

There are many more creative innovations beyond a unique take on magic to be found in ICRPG and a referee aspiring to run creative and fun games can pick and choose among them all, adding what seems most useful while retaining as much of the original system from Red Box as seems appropriate. 

Worldbuilding is an aspect of the hobby which I particularly enjoy and the advice and game world examples found reading through ICRPG are some of the best ideas I've seen. If vanilla fantasy is your goal, you probably don't need (or want) the sort of information found here, but if originality and playing in a world of open potential in setting design is desired, ICRPG and many other indie market game products are an excellent place to look. 

Where one takes their game once the Basic Set rules have been mastered is a matter of personal choice. Do you seek originality or something tried-and-true? Fresh or familiar? If having a real "choice" matters to you, I highly recommend exploring one, or preferably many, of the creative offerings to be found outside the corporate publishing world. 

The Best Introduction

Red Box!

After years of viewing, reading and playing a number of tabletop role-playing game products aimed at introducing new players to the hobby, I have a favorite in this category and therefore a recommendation. In 1983 TSR released a new version of their D&D "Basic" version of The Original Fantasy Role-Playing Game.

Commonly known as "The Red Box", the new "introductory" version of the game is edited by Frank Mentzer and comes just about three years after the release of the "Basic" book edited by Tom Moldvay (commonly referred to as B/X). Mr. Moldvay had done an excellent job compiling the rules of the game to date (1981) and his version of the rules, together with the "Expert" book written by David "Zeb" Cook with Steve Marsh, remains one of the most popular versions of the game (B/X). So why re-write the Basic Set so soon after its Basic predecessor?

Anyone familiar with the red box Basic Set will likely know the answer - because red box is so very beginner friendly! Starting with the Basic Set edited by J. Eric Holmes (1977), TSR had been looking for a way to introduce completely new players to the game, thereby spreading the fun to a wider audience and not coincidentally, also broadening the company's consumer base. The original version of the game that I call "White Box" was aimed at experienced wargamers who were interested in "fantasy" and it includes very minimal introductory material that would be any help to a novice in their efforts to grasp the essential elements of play. In the late 1970s Gary Gygax was busy writing the Advanced game books and the task of creating an introductory game version aimed at the non-wargaming or new hobbyists fell on the able and willing shoulders of Dr. Holmes. The version of the game he wrote is in a number of ways very close to the white box version, but it also contains some references to the Advanced game as "the next step" and which was still being written at the time. 

The last volume of the Advanced game (Dungeon Masters Guide) is released in 1979 and perhaps due to a lawsuit happening with Dave Arneson, the Advanced game is marketed as a completely new and separate product line distinct from the original game, which is now termed "Basic D&D" or simply by the original name, "Dungeons & Dragons". This marketing change undoubtedly contributes to the rewriting of the Basic Set as released in 1981.

Efforts at making the game more accessible to non-wargamers ultimately paid off nicely and the hobby is growing dramatically during the period of the late 1970s and early '80s. Unto this scene comes our Red Box (pictured above). The illustrations are captivating (financial success allows TSR to hire more art talent including the gifted Larry Elmore), the printed text is nice and big, the presentation eye-catching, and the rules are written in a step-by-step approach to learning the game, either along with your friends or by oneself. 

And what an introductory adventure it is! Who among hobbyists of my generation doesn't remember the fate of our friendly cleric Aleena, killed in such a dastardly way by the evil magic user Bargle? By the time I had access to the red box version of Basic, I had been playing various versions of The Original Fantasy Role-Playing Game as well as many other games that came after and felt pretty comfortable with the hobby, but I still enjoyed the solo adventure format used by Mr. Mentzer to teach us the game. (A recent re-reading produced similar enjoyment!) The solo has a good story to tell and engaged my imagination then - and frankly it still does. 

The decades since 1983 have seen the release of many a subsequent starter set and various beginner kits all aimed at either teaching an experienced player their new game, or at introducing the totally uninitiated new-comer into the hobby of tabletop role-playing games through their product line. Many are quite good, some are less "inspiring" - at least in my estimation. For me, none have equaled, let alone surpassed, the Red Box version of Basic, especially for easing one into the hobby and doing so with such inspiring context. I venture to say, that most who have come into the hobby through the Red Box have fond a hobby they can enjoy for years.
Following the practice initially established by Dr. Holmes and followed by Mr. Moldvay, Mr. Mentzer in the Red Box, character advancement is only supported in the Basic Set through three levels of play. You are encouraged to purchase subsequent products in order to continue your adventuring careers to higher levels. 

The Red Box stands up quite well in comparison to more recent game releases. The presentation, the writing and artistic style, and the programmed approach to learning the game, taken together all make this the single best introductory product in the hobby and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting this sort of beginner friendly product. (At present, Red Box Basic is available in digital format.)

The Game is Yours

...to do whatever you wish!

Combat is not everyone's favorite part of tabletop role-playing, but for some it's the reason they play. Players may build their character to maximize damage delivered during combat encounters, and referees may excel at designing clever combat encounters with an eye to challenging their players and their player character's abilities. Slaughtering hordes of villains can be a fun power fantasy.

I started my foray into this hobby with The Original Fantasy Role-Playing Game, which I approached much as I would have a typical skirmish combat game, except with some fantastical elements added in. The Original Fantasy Role-Playing Game remains my first love, but...is there more?

My search has led me to trying many games over the years since my discovery of those three little brown books. Many doors have been opened, a few closed and I have learned a thing or two about what i like in my game, and what I don't.

Chaosium has excelled as a publisher of TTRPGs, most offering more than a simple combat skirmish game. RuneQuest, is built around its unique setting of Glorantha, Call of Cthulhu, which features investigative role-play, and Pendragon, which focuses on multi generational play, all focus on the fictional setting and the cast of player characters as part of a culture and society in ways that matter in game play. To approach these games as mere "game engines for combat" would be to miss out on most of the fun they can provide. Yeah, it took me a while to figure this out!

Chaosium's family of Basic RolePlaying (BRP) games, as mentioned above, all rely on the player imagining their character to be a member of a fictional group, with connections and relationships to the setting beyond the basic exploitation and killing of monsters. BRP games encourage player to be asking questions, reaching out beyond the known game world horizons to explore the depths of our imagination through discovery of a fictional world and yes, the games will include some combat, usually in a context where it serves a purpose other than wanton killing, but there is also so much more. Chaosium games have taught me a lot about what this hobby can offer.

Games designed with an interesting setting at their core will often do this. They excite the sense of wonder and curiosity. They delight in revealed secrets that amaze. They push the participants to go beyond their real-life selves, and the world we live in, to imagine things that transcend reality. Incidentally, this is one of the reasons I enjoy reading setting books, even though I seldom run anything other than my own homebrew.

I have frequently found that games that focus on the fun of tactical combat often either omit any reference to a specific setting or include something very generic.

The 4th Edition of The World's Most Popular RPG- and to some extent the current edition - is an example of a tabletop game system built with combat at its core. While it leverages a very generic fantasy setting, one that does little to encourage exploration, a creative and ambitious referee can add what's missing. At this point there is not much novelty to reveal in the realms, and adding your own ideas seems desirable. This is precisely the way that an imaginative (and perhaps willfully independent) referee can adapt the edition to suit their needs. 

I find 4th Edition a remarkably good tabletop miniatures combat game. But that is not all that I desire from my hobby. The rest of what I crave in an RPG experience has to be supplied using my own resources and creations, if I am running a 4e game. Personally, I am not opposed to that approach, so I continue to referee my version of 4th Edition inserting various homebrew elements to deliver the game I am more content to be running. Unfortunately, 4th Edition, with or without modifications, is not an easy game to find players for. My quest continues.

So I ask myself this question, "What do you want from your game?" The question is, I believe, a pertinent one given the limits of time and money, and the host of competition for both in terms of my hobby, and because certain games inherently offer one thing over others. 

Is there a game that I can be truly satisfied with? Maybe this is not possible. I wrote recently about wanting a game where I get to "make stuff up" in terms of rulings as well as world-building.

I will close this post with a quote from the 1983 Basic Dungeon Masters Rulebook wherein Frank Mentzer writes in his Preface,  "A big part of the game is the mystery and excitement that comes from not knowing all the answers."

Making The Game Your Own

A Personal View on "How to Play The Game."

I am a firm believer in making the game your own. Each person who assumes the role of referee is entrusted with a special privilege - the creation of a fantastic make-believe world to be experienced by their players. The players get to return the favor by engaging with the game, and by attempting to add enjoyment through dialogue and the actions of their characters. It's a fairly common scenario today, but this wasn't always the case.

I recall the struggles (at least some of them) I experienced while learning to play this new type of game. I came to The Original Fantasy Role-Playing Game in 1977 as an adult with years of experience at playing all sorts of games, including organized sports. I recall feeling that I had a pretty fair grasp of what "play" was all about. That is until I encountered the three little brown books in the white box and a handful of its similar format supplements. 

"What do I do with this?" I recall asking myself this very questions, then I asked others. (I was not fortunate enough to know anyone who understood the game much better than I did, however.) Reading and re-reading not only the little books, but any articles or related publications that I could find at the time, I slowly began to make a bit of sense out of the "game". Being a fan of the fantastic and supernatural tales that had so obviously inspired the authors of this new "adventure game" I kept at it, until at some point I decided all the details needed to play this game in a logical manner were simply not present in those little brown books. I concluded that in order to play, I would need to start making some stuff up. I even surmised that may have been the author's intent. So I gathered some friends with similar interests and we started playing, even though we were making stuff up as we went. 

Once I settled upon this approach, I quickly found that I liked "making stuff up". In fact, this seemed to be the entire point of the game - making up the characters, making up monsters and dungeons and wilderness adventures and other stuff, it all seemed so obvious and therefore making up the rules went hand-in-hand with this imaginative creative approach.

Forty-five years later I am even more convinced that "making stuff up" is entirely the point of this hobby. To strictly play another's game, consulting the tome of rules for everything, following every word of the adventure path written by another, and adding nothing of my own is simply boring - at least to me. Rules, setting material, published adventure modules, they are all suggestions and inspiration sources to be used by me (or any other referee for that matter) to combine together with liberal amounts of my own ideas to create the game I would like to play while offering it to others interested and trusting enough to join me.

Our Story Begins...

In the third year of the reign of king Humbarton the First, known locally as Humbarton the Cruel, near the settlement of Wolfberry Farm located above the falls of The River Hardbye, a peasant with the martial name of Hector smoked a troll from its lair and together with a mob of angry townsfolk who had lost various livestock and kin to the depredations of the vagrant troll, slew the beast, dismembered it and fed the pieces into the fire. Hector had the good fortune to be the only one bold enough to enter the foul beast's underground lair once the smoke abated and therein he discovered beautiful maiden. Exactly what transpired next is a matter of some debate, but Hector emerged alone and in possession of a goodly suite of armor and a determination to set right the wrongs of this world, gaining gold and glory aplenty through his labors.

A few spoken lines may excite our imagination and set the stage for action to come. The art of saying enough, but not too much can be elusive. 

I think I will end this post here.

What Does Your Game Offer?

In the Beginning...
In 1977 I acquired my first copy of a game that would in time refer to itself as "The Original Fantasy Role-Playing Game" (looking at the cover of Mentzer Basic/BECMI). The Original game had been released in 1974 and by the time I got my hands on the box pictured above containing 3 little brown-cover volumes, it was already in its 5th printing. I was the first, so there was nobody in my gaming group to teach me how to play this game that was so unlike any that we had seen before, as it was simply "The Original" and foundational product in the new hobby. So together with my closest gaming friends, we started to teach ourselves the mysteries of this wonderful new game which we called "adventure gaming" or simply "playing fantasy"!

Entering the discovery process later than some earlier adventurers had, there were several supplements at my disposal to aid me in unraveling said rule mysteries. Greyhawk was especially helpful when it came to filling in some of the blanks and tying up a few loose ends in the rules, but at the end of the gaming day, we had to make a lot of stuff up, or more likely, we borrowed ideas from our experience with previous, but dissimilar games with somewhat dubious success. As our interest in, and enthusiasm for the new game grew, we sought input from others at the local hobby shop who knew something of the game, we thumbed through hobby magazines and finally, my attendance at GenCon the next year, picking up a little D&D craft at each step of the way.

Wow! We quickly found we were not the only ones to "make up" a few things when it came to playing the Original game. Then we discovered that this "making it up" was the whole idea! Yes, we were supposed to make the game our own by adding to what was published. The Original game is more like what we might today call a "tool kit", than it is a comprehensive set of rules to be strictly adhered to and which covers every aspect of play. Too many written rules would have been to miss the mark. As even the later Advanced game presented it, many aspects the game's rules are "suggested guidelines" and may be changed to suit the players, especially the referee/gamemaster. 

So I came into a hobby where each referee, each world builder - gamemaster was expected to make certain customizing adjustments in order to come to a game that they and their players would be satisfied with. Everyone's game was a little (or a lot) different from everyone else's. So much so, that it quickly became common parlance for one inquire about the nature of the fantasy game being run by any particular group of players when first encountered. Not because there were hundreds or even dozens of alternative games, but because everyone's gaming group played the Original game somewhat differently than every other group. 

For me the idea stuck - it was a big part of the appeal of this new hobby that I get to co-design the game. Being both modular in concept and lacking a universal mechanic the Original game is easily modified. Many of us did just that, replacing whole rule sections with ideas of our own, or with products marketed to work with our favorite fantasy game. 

Tinkering with rules, building my own setting/world, and coming up with my own scenario ideas are essential elements of the hobby - at least as far as I am concerned. These are the aspects of play I enjoy thinking about, discussing with others, and that keep the game ever new and alive for me. I also enjoy sitting down at another's table and discovering just how they will interpret their version of each of these elements in their game as well. 

"How do you handle initiative or turn order?" It's mentioned, but not explained in the Original Edition one had to decide how to handle this aspect of play.

"Do you use morale in your game and if so, how do you handle it?" This is yet another concept that is mentioned, but left to the referee to handle in their own way.

"How do you create characters in your world? Shall we roll 3d6 in order? What classes can I choose? How many hit points do we start with?" These are yet more of the variables to consider when designing "your game".

"Do you have a list of deities my Cleric should choose from?" Ah yes, world building. There is more to a game milieu than just player characters and a nasty hole in the ground filled with critters and treasure.

A lot has changed since 1974, but the "fantasy game" is still whatever you can imagine it to be.

My Middle-earth

...and why I don't start with magic.

In the beginning there was a thought. Illuvatar (God with a capital G) is the source of Arda and where my personal thoughts on world-building often begin these days. There is an old adage among gamers that the referee, or DM, has god-like power over his/her/their game. This is especially true in old school games where worldbuilder is one of the cornerstone roles that the referee assumes when they set out to start a new campaign.

In my early RPGing days, I was heavily influenced by the fiction of R.E. Howard, particularly his Hyborean age and most of my settings reflected this. These days I find J.R.R. Tolkien's creation Middle-earth to be more influential on my gaming. Both authors' fictional worlds have heavily informed my stance as referee and worldbuilder, along with a few drabs borrowed here and there from other sources.

So why start with creation of the world? Because, like many I have tried starting at other places, like with figuring out how magic should work in a setting featuring Middle-earth (named as such or not), or just wanting a feeling very similar to that of Tolkien's fiction, and I have found the error in that approach - it's nearly impassible. Middle-earth is not about Vancian magic, or spell points, or even "powers" as have been used in any of the other numerous mechanical ways that games have styled "magical use". 

Rather I start with a mental image of the fictional land, before even maps are created, I have formed some idea of the nature of "being" in this cosmos. The brilliance of our good professor in regard to this creation myth/story came to me only after several readings of The Silmarillion. The song of Arda, the role of Melkor in introducing dissonance, the first born, etc. all reflects the will of Illuvatar and plays out through the developing stories as written by Prof. Tolkien, etc. Magic in Middle-earth is just a by-product of creation and this is a very important matter to consider.

A world is a wonderous if not "magical" thing if one only stops a moment to consider all the things that come together to form a functioning planet full of life. It is with this thought that I begin my worldbuilding. Illuvatar had the assistance of his valar and maiar, which together seem rather like old pagan gods (small g) and angels respectively - at least they do in my limited capacity to imagine them. They are the 'hands on" spirits, however, through which creation takes physical form. Creatures to inhabit the new world and playable beings are next on my creation list. 

In Middle-earth my understanding of the elves is key to informing how to give this fictional setting its proper feel in game terms. They are immortal beings forever linked to the land. They are spirits with physical form that draw upon and are part of nature and sharing its fate, are more a part of the world than the humans who come along later. Dwarves are beings constructed by Aule the smith and we only learn about one of their seven clans in the fiction- the "Longbeards". Halflings are presumably closely associated with humankind in Middle-earth, with whom they share much in terms of physical make-up (other than height).

The immortal elves, awakened prior to the placing of the sun in the sky, are at home in darkness and under the stars. Some elves have traveled to the west and experienced the light of the two trees, which seems to stay with them even after the trees are gone and the high elves, who have been to the west, have returned to Middle-earth and brought much of the influence of this magical light with them. They are resistant to the effects of temperature extremes and can pass without trace even over fresh snow. They are not just humans with pointy ears.

Dwarves are more than short, stout bearded humans who desire gold and gems (and drink too much). They are the created companions of a crafting god. Laid to rest beneath the earth until after the elves awoke, they emerged to learn, to explore and to name the things they found. Men arrived later with the coming of the sun. Melkor had already been at work corrupting the world long before men awoke because he was jealous of Illuvatar's ability to create (and perhaps wished to claim Middle-earth for his own kingdom).

Taking in all that I have learned reading the good professor - I have come to realize there is magic in the process of discovery!

The "magic" is built into Middle-earth rather than imported from outside. The Magic does not arise from formulas, nor from contacting other planes, or having a bound extra-dimensional being. Magic is inherent in the otherworldliness of our fictional setting and by our "tapping into" the essence of the world's creation, we referees impart a "magic" to everything in our setting - to our creatures, and to our game!

This is how I do Middle-earth (and can do so in any setting that I referee).

With that settled, I can think about the campaign map - my world's map (which will no doubt undergo change as it ages, just as Tolkien's world did). I can think about the characters and cultures, and finally about the rules for the game - all in that order. It all leads back to the setting.

Before I had read The Silmarillion, I thought of Middle-earth as a place where religion plays very little part. That idea now seems naïve to me.  

What's on a Cover?

Illustration Paints a Picture.

We humans are creatures who typically receive a lot of information about our surroundings through our vision. Our eyes quickly process reflected or source light and our brain interprets images almost before we have time to think about what we are seeing. I suppose it is a survival thing - see and react!

People in marketing apparently know much more about this than I do. They often package products to take advantage of the connection we have between sight and thought and emotion, or so it seems. A cliché I have heard often says, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Another is, "Seeing is believing." Obviously we can learn a great deal from looking at an image, but what we make of the image can vary immensely based on our associations and generalizations connected to it.

Judging a book by its cover - or a game by its box - can be tricky. Some cover illustrations seem to inform, others may leave one wondering, and a few may seem misleading. The publisher of The World's First Role-Playing Game communicated several key concepts to be found within their new game quite effectively with cover illustrations. Thinking back on the Basic box art and at the covers of the three Advanced books, I find dragons, and other monstrous creatures, often inhabiting an underground environment, and evidence of magic, and of treasure in abundance - in other words, lots of adventures to be found within. Anyone familiar with the games they contained will likely grant that their cover illustrations reveal much of what the game is about. 

The Avalon Hill Game Company published RuneQuest as a boxed game (1984) prominently featuring the above cover illustration by Jody Lee. The image is attractive and it immediately "caught my eye" and helped to fuel my excitement for the new edition of RuneQuest. The box's cover illustration remains a personal favorite image to this day. 

So what does the box art tell us about RuneQuest? The colors are attractive and the composition is centered on two human figures, one male, one female. The fact that both figures are human in appearance and that the female is outfitted with spear and armor does not escape my notice. RuneQuest is a game that freely allows for non-human player characters, but the default setting (Glorantha or Fantasy Europe) assumes a mostly human cast of PCs. 

As mentioned, both characters appear as warrior types. RuneQuest includes game magic, but does so with a more subtle touch than other fantasy role-playing games often use. RuneQuest is a skill based system that does not use character class as a mechanic. Therefore magic use in RuneQuest is not relegated to a magic user class. Magic is treated more like another skill in RuneQuest. The game does not include openly "flashy" magics either - i.e no fireball or lightning bolts.

The illustrated figures wear armor that reflects the hit-location based system RuneQuest uses for combat and encumbrance. Metal plate armor is heavy and expensive in RuneQuest. Our box art adventurers make sparing use of metal and instead show a lot of areas of their body covered by leather. One is armed with sword and shield, the latter object sporting a motif suggesting possible Germanic or Viking influences. The other adventurer (with flowing '80s hair) is armed with a two-handed spear and small buckler, both consistent with certain tactical considerations found under the RuneQuest combat system. A shield is very handy for parrying incoming attacks, which is vital to avoiding damage in RuneQuest, and a spear provides both reach and the possibility of impaling damage - both have potential advantages for the spear wielder in the RuneQuest combat system.

The illustration background shows a rugged range of mountains suggesting possible geographic isolation for the setting location. Ruined stonework, perhaps of a somewhat alien aspect, is featured in the immediate area upon which the adventurers stand. The plants are suggestive of a warm climate and the presence of a somewhat canine skull (or is it that of a troll perhaps?) which is lying loose upon the stone steps and yet further enhancing the feeling that we are viewing some forgotten ruin - a city or perhaps a temple complex. The stonework death-head motif flanking the steps presents a somewhat foreboding visage. Skull-like images clearly suggestive of some death cult are topped by large stone faces of creatures that perhaps suggest they depict the game's peculiar version of trolls (or they could also be interpreted as stylized lions?). For me, as perhaps by those familiar with the RuneQuest world, they look like trolls.

I do not know how familiar the artist, Jody Lee, was with RuneQuest? Does the interpretations I see in the cover art represent the intended message of the artist? Or are my thoughts merely projections of my having taken perceived or apparent connections between the game and the image well beyond any intent on the part of the artist? And does it matter?

A quick online search of the artist Jody Lee reveals she has produced book cover art for a number of science fiction/ fantasy novels written by notable authors including Mercedes Lackey, Micky Zucker Reichert, Lloyd Alexander, Madeleine L'Engle, and others. It seems logical to assume that an experienced cover artist would get to know something about the subject for which they are creating the cover image. I think Jody Lee did an excellent job conveying the spirit of RuneQuest!

So, What About Those Vikings!

Inspiration for Heroic Dark Age Fantasy Role-Play

The so-called "dark ages" are poorly documented - hence the name. It's not that the sun shone less brightly between the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of the Renaissance in Europe, rather learning took a step backward. Literacy seems to have declined and the established social order that had once been a rule of law deteriorated to a point of decentralized petty warlords who imposed their personal will through might of arms. There is a lack of specific facts in many cases, lending speculation a free hand. It's "dark time" in human history - at least that is the popularized version of sixth through fourteenth century history that I recall, and I find all this very liberating and inspiring from a story-teller's perspective.

Role-Playing games are a form of cooperative story generation. The referee usually sets the stage for the players who direct the actions of their characters within the limits imposed by what-ever rule system and dice rolls are used. We call this a game because the object is for everyone to have some good, social, fun.

What it isn't is a history lesson. When we play, we are creating fiction. Indeed, this may take on the form of "historical fiction" if we borrow certain aspects from history (as we understand it) and the result is something akin to historical novelization as practiced by writers of historical fiction. The popular "Viking" image has roots in history, but it is also so much more, often combining legend, myth and imagination to create something which never truly existed, but maybe should have!

My own FRP games which have been nominally set in a Viking Age have been influenced by years of my exposure to various influences, literary and otherwise, some of them riffs on their author's exposure to diverse sources of inspiration. It's how stories develop.

In this post I shall give credit to some of the more salient sources of inspiration that have greatly influenced my thinking on role-play in a Viking Age.

The Broken Sword, written by Poul Anderson, is not the first book I recall having read about Vikings (that distinction belongs to a children's book by Ingri d'Aulaire titled Leif the Lucky), but it is the first that comes to mind when I contemplate major influences. In The Broken Sword, Mr. Anderson relates a fantastic tale of not only Northmen, but elves, trolls and magic. The cover illustration image above hardly does the novel justice in my eyes, but it's probably a marketing decision. The elves and trolls in The Broken Sword bear little resemblance to those found in Professor Tolkien's fiction or those depicted in Dungeons & Dragons, but they are memorable and have a nice "Viking Age" feel to them.

Eric Brighteyes by H.R. Haggard and Styrbiorn the Strong by E.R. Eddison are two additional novels that have greatly influenced my thinking. Both written more than a century ago, they present a more romanticized version of Norse culture than either The Broken Sword or history books do. Likely inspired by the Old Norse Eddas, both novels tell a tale of a bigger-than-life hero doomed to live out a fate that unravels like the thread of a tapestry.

A more recent discovery, Guy Gavriel Kay's The Last Light of the Sun has also become a favorite source for gaming inspiration. Set in a version of the period of Alfred the Great, the novel draws upon myth and legend, folk tales and history and weaves an epic tale I have found myself returning to many times to drink of its magical waters (yes, there is an enchanted pond in the novel where a creature of fairyland is first glimpsed).

Blending fact and fiction, gritty realities with mystical fancies, and the traditions found in epic saga, the fictional world of Vikings can offer the FRP gamer a dragon's horde of treasures from which to weave our own heroic tabletop tales.

Festering Wounds, Bad Teeth, and Body Lice!

The dark side of gritty realism.

Yes, I like "realism" in my RPG. I think it helps make the fiction more believable. I think it channels the imagination and promotes immersive gameplay. I think it engages players with personal memories (hopefully not painful ones) and can tap into emotions in a fun way - all leading to an entertaining "adventure" experience much like watching a good film or reading a great book. 

As referees, we talk about our role serving as the player characters' eyes, ears, and other senses. It is through our referee's description that players are able to mentally "visualize" what their characters are experiencing - even down to a bit of fright or disgust, or conversely, affection and empathy, perhaps for a favored NPC. It's all make-believe and it should be a safe, risk-free fun experience, offering no real danger or ill effects for any player, despite their fictional character finding themselves in a tough spot.

To that end, I like a degree of "realism" in my games. It's a personal preference and many others will certainly differ in this regard. (I have friends who have indicated they have "no interest in a game based on gritty realism.") I believe that differing preferences is one of the reasons why there are so many flavors of RPG to choose from. (Obviously the same is true of literary fiction, which also comes in a variety of "flavors" to suit a variety of tastes.)

My recent posts have been centered on a nostalgic look back at RuneQuest Vikings and similar forays into role-playing in a dark age setting having fantastic undercurrents. In previous efforts to set "my dark ages" apart from more modern times 9or even from historic dark ages), I have found that a smoky, fire-lit world of poor hygiene and superstitious belief can be ripe with possibilities for adventure, atmosphere and spooky encounters. But as a game setting, this has its challenges as well.

Realism in terms of a role-playing game can mean a number of things. I like to feature a "common sense" approach using logic based on our real world knowledge. Heavy things are HEAVY, and cannot easily be moved about and doing so will tire or fatigue the people that strain to do so. Wounds hurt. They don't go away overnight and therefore combat is dangerous - if not outright deadly. Hot things are HOT, and cold things are COLD. Thirst is debilitating, as is disease. One avoids these perils when possible. Planning and clever use of whatever is available to improve one's odds of survival are rewarded. Foolishness and carelessness can lead to unpleasant consequences, and the characters live in a society, have neighbors and kinfolk and there are established authorities.

Sometimes the folks at my game table tire of the struggle "realism" can impose on our game. In my experience, a little bit of gritty game reality goes a long way and the realism thing can be easily overdone if the referee is not careful. Honestly, a tolerance for, or even an interest in, game realism varies a lot, even for me. It is small wonder that I have found striking the right balance to be an elusive target.

Debilitating injuries and tooth decay may be the realistic after-effects of a life of adventuring and of character aging, but they aren't what most folks sign-up for when they agree to role-play.

Vikings

A Saga of Adventure Gaming!

Anyone familiar with RuneQuest in any of its editions will recall that it is a d100 roll under skill based fantasy role-playing game system - one of the "second wave" in the once-new role-playing designs of the late 1970s. RuneQuest, being among those games that explore the use of mechanics different from a straight house ruling of The World's First Role-Playing Game's system, it represnts a departure from the class-based roll a d20 to succeed games. As an early percentile based RPG and one that combines a default setting markedly different from the Tolkien/classic fantasy worlds, RQ sets an example that influences many later RPG designs.

As gamer legend has it, RuneQuest (1978) came about as the result of The Chaosium (Greg Stafford) wanting a role-playing game to compliment the Glorantha setting used in previous boardgames and having tried a house rules version of the popular game published by TSR, they instead developed their own ground breaking system (RuneQuest) that would eventually be the game engine for an entire line of games published by Chaosium, known collectively as Basic Role-Playing (BRP). 

Much of the success of the BRP family of games is largely due to the intuitive nature of the D100 roll under mechanic, skill based character profile (rather than class based) and its flexibility and modularity lending itself readily to customization such as can be seen when comparing Call of Cthulhu to RQ (take out RQ's hit location system, add in rules for Sanity, etc.). Adaptability has become almost synonymous with BRP - which is arguably one of the first "generic" systems for RPGs.

In 1984 Avalon Hill published RuneQuest 3rd Edition. Written by the same good folks at Chaosium that had developed previous versions, 3rd edition RuneQuest seems a logical "upgrade" to its predecessors. The Avalon Hill Game Co. added a fantasy Europe setting to the RQ box set - perhaps in a marketing  effort to appeal to the many historical wargamers who had traditionally formed a large part of Avalon Hill's customer base. The "fantasy Europe" idea certainly appealed to me at the time, and it still does. 

One of the early releases for the 3rd edition would be the boxed supplement RuneQuest Vikings (1985).

As anyone who has seen even a single episode of the recent Vikings dramatization on the History Channel knows, the "Viking" image is one that lends itself readily to larger-than-life stories. A blend of fact and fiction accompanies much of the popular images we associate with the Vikings. Explorers, warriors and sailor merchant/pirates, the Vikings are commonly seen as a romanticized mystic warrior culture, familiar yet also fantastic - and a nearly perfect setting for role-play and adventure.

My journey into FRP games, particularly those featuring a more history feel, took a sharp turn in 1986 with the then new Harnmaster rules. Drawn to Columbia Games Harnmaster's cover art which depicts a very Norman looking knight in the forground and a burning village in the background, I soon discovered in Harnmaster 1st edition a D100 skill system that felt familiar nestled within the pages and as a bonus, one that seemed to offer a couple of improvements over the RQ system it most closely resembled. For example, RQ uses what we now call a "degrees of success" distinction in the form of critical, fumble and special success rolls alongside simple success and failure results. The extreme low end and high end of the D100 range being used to calculate the numbers that produce these extraordinary or "special" outcomes. Keeping a running count of what the specific values are that count as a critical or special result could be a bit cumbersome as that target number range changes along with the effects of fatigue and according to various situational modifiers.

Harnmaster uses a D100 roll under mechanic similar to that of BRP/RQ, but substitutes the rolling of "doubles" on the percentile dice for high and low range in determining a critical or fumble result. Double digits (like "55" or "99") trigger the rules for a critical if the total value is less than the target and therefore a success and if a failure, rolling doubles becomes a fumble in Harnmaster.

The hit location and armor layering systems in Harnmaster seem more detailed and "realistic" when compared to those I had experienced in RQ and wounds in Harnmaster are not merely lost hit points, but rather involve a narrative description such as a "minor injury to the skull" or a "grievous elbow wound" (either of which is liable to become infected). In the late 1980s this sort of detail was exactly what I sought in my role-play gaming - a brutal degree of "realism".

Orbaal (a supplement for the Harn setting, published by Columbia Games) was transformative in migrating my Viking dark age low fantasy Europe campaign from RuneQuest 3rd edition to Harn. Orbaal, like other early Harn material, is written without a specific game system, no doubt in part due to Harnmaster being only an idea at the time. The island realm of Orbaal is a kingdom with close connections to mainland Ivinia - itself a fantasy version of the old Norse culture and it therefore shares some nice parallels with the Vikings of myth, legend and history while offering the creative freedom of a fantasy setting. By about 1986 I was referee for a band of Viking enthusiast gamers and using the Orbaal module and my own fictional Otar's Isle lore I had developed for RQ Vikings, drawing inspiration from various sources including several favorite horror and ghost stories. But, that is a saga for another day.