Building Bridges in 2024

In 1974 the then new Tactical Studies Rules, TSR for short, released their premier product, Dungeons and Dragons. This revolutionary product consisted of three little brown booklets that according to gamer legend were three typed on a typewriter, hand assembled and put into a box with a glue-on label bearing an amateur illustration closely resembling comic book art. The publisher reportedly sold copies from the trunk of a car. The product, which really was an extension of a previous product, Chainmail, published by another amateur company, Guidon Games, started a gaming revolution as the concept of playing a character going on adventures rapidly caught the imagination of hundreds, then thousands of hobbyists.

A half-century later things are much different. The past year has demonstrated that most convincingly. The positive side of this change is that the hobby of fantasy role-playing games has become widespread, maybe even mainstream in our society. The stigma once felt by people who played at being elves and magic users is nearly gone, and few people today are completely unaware that the game exists as a harmless form of entertainment. It has never been easier to find a group - or has it?

The game released in 1974 contained options, and required decisions to be made by the referee, as the person who set the game up and ran the adventure for the players was then referred to. An early observation made in those days was that each group played the game differently as custom content was added and rule adjustments made including interpretations and additions. By the end of the decade, the principle author, Gary Gygax, would promote a more standardized version of the original game he titled Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. The idea was that all groups should have a more common understanding of how to apply the rules of the game, even if they were still expected to create their own setting and adventures.

Fast forward fifty years to 2024. As I gaze into my crystal ball in order to "see the future" of our hobby, the corporate giant looms large and in charge of the famous brand. In the giant's shadow, however, I see many interesting things. As a person often out of step with popular trends, I frequently find the 'one size fits all" approach to not fit me at all. While this may describe me, it leaves aside the many who enjoy precisely the popularity of going with the crowd. Hence, the subject of this post. How to enjoy a more personal version of the hobby within the wider context of the popular "giant in the room" phenomenon.

As said giant stumbled and perhaps stepped on a few toes in 2023, an opportunity born of necessity presented itself. In my last post I touched briefly on three games that were released in the wake of this kerfuffle. Notably, new versions of Swords & Wizardry, Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, and Pathfinder have appeared devoid of all reference to the branding and licensed materials. The familiar holds a certain appeal and the popularity of a thing rests on more than marketing hype - there must be some good substance or it can't last. Rather than complete rejection of the familiar, some game designers have instead chosen the path of revision, remastering and re-imagining the game. There are three products that I see in my crystal ball which I believe hold significant promise for bridging the separation between those who enjoy the familiar, yet desire to put the past behind us. 

I have had the pleasure of running a couple of sessions using the preview version of Tales of the Valiant from Kobold Press. The game's mechanics are (imo) an improved version of a popular system. The creative folks at Kobold have produced some of the best supplemental material in the past and I look forward to the final release of Valiant. 

The image above may be familiar to some readers. Shadowdark is written by Kelsey Dionne, illustrated by Brandish Gilhelm and others and it should be published next year by The Arcane Library following a successful crowdfunding 2023. Shadowdark leverages the familiar mechanics, but gives them a decidedly "old school" twist some will appreciate. The Shadowdark quick-start and digital beta release have already generated interest in the game across the hobby including some additional adventure material as any quick online search will reveal. If crawling through some dark and dangerous dungeons sounds appealing (it does to me!) then Shadowdark may be just that answer. I am reasonably certain that once we have the physical books there will be people playing Shadowdark. 

When a gamer for whatever reason becomes dissatisfied with the game they are currently playing, the tendency is to look afield and see what else is available. Shadow of the Weird Wizard by Robert J. Schwalb is yet another game I hope to see more of in 2024. Mr. Schwalb has contributed to various versions of the worlds most popular fantasy role-playing game and is the author of Shadow of the Demon Lord. Anyone familiar with that product knows Mr. Schwalb has a lot of ideas as Shadows of the Demon Lord has been very well supported with additional materials. The Weird Wizard takes a bit more of a "traditional" approach in its fantasy world setting as compared to what we see in his Demon Lord game and of course, he applies the same creative design talents that Mr. Schwalb has demonstrated in all his previous work. I expect good, fun things when the Weird Wizard project is published. Shadow of the Weird Wizard is still in its alpha stage and as a backer I have some digital content, I don't have a cover image to share.

The year 2024 holds promise of even more creativity to come. 

Bridging Troubled Waters

It is the time of year, as the days grow shorter (in terms of daylight hours) and the holiday season approaches with all its associated buying and gift-giving - it's a time of looking backward and a time of looking forward and above all, a time of hope and promise - that my thoughts once again turn to the future of our hobby and my participation in said hobby. 

To say that 2023 has been "uneventful" would seem to completely ignore the reality of our past year, but rather than rehash the past year's "drama", and in so doing risk adding to exactly the sort of negative divisiveness I would like to avoid, I will instead look forward - with the hope of joy to come - and write about the future.

We currently enjoy a wealth of tabletop role-playing game choices availably today. There are (I believe) more good games than anyone can ever find the time to play, or the funds to purchase. We have excellent games that are free for the download, and excellent games that are beautifully printed, bound, boxed and widely available at what I consider to be very reasonable prices. Much of what was once in print, is available again, at least on the secondary market if not in digital or print-on-demand. Creativity in game design has never been more evident, and there are titles available that address nearly any play-style, setting preference, or game design philosophy imaginable. Dungeon crawlers, story telling games, combat simulators, romance themes, licensed products, and original way-out-there imaginings are all just an electronic transfer away. 

And yet many of us find it difficult to find a group that is keen to play the game we desperately want to play. To be sure, online play has made this task easier, but for those who are fortunate enough to have a group of friends with whom to game, deciding on what system to play can present a challenge. Do we play the "giant in the room" or an independent somewhat niche game system? Do we go "old school" or avoid that label entirely?

Contentiousness and the Pursuit of Fun in our hobby seems antithetical - at least to this peace-loving old gamer. 

I will end this reflection with a favorite quote:

"My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all." - John Lennon

(Images are of three new TTRPGs that all interest me, Dragonbane, Swords & Wizardry revised, and Pathfinder remastered.)

Tolkien’s Middle Earth and D&D

A Coming-of-Age Story
Once upon a time there was a professor in England who wrote tales of a fantasy world which he called Middle-earth. In many ways this fantasy realm resembles our own world, although much is also different. Technology in the good professor’s Middle-earth resembles our dark ages or medieval times long ago in the sense that folks went to war using horses, armor and swords. There are men and women in his stories that seem much like ourselves, but there were also creatures of legend and imagination in Middle-earth. An in the historic middle ages, there is magic in Middle-earth!
Professor Tolkien was a well educated college professor and for inspiration he drew upon many sources. The fairy tales and traditional stories about the knights of King Arthur, which he had first read as a youth, and from his experience of war as a soldier during the Great War of 1914-18, and also from his academic study of historical sources such as the epic of Beowulf, he borrowed ideas to include in his Middle-earth. To the roots of these inspirations, the good professor added a great deal of his own personal creativity and his active imagination, and he gave to our world a very engaging tale, or two, of an epic struggle between the forces of good and that of evil. A tale that from the time of its first publication right up to the present day has captivated an eager audience.
Coinciding with the rising popularity of Professor Tolkien's fantastic fictional Middle-earth has been the publication and growth of a little tabletop fantasy game which has changed first the wargaming hobby and ultimately entered popular culture bringing a widespread awareness to many of those same fantasy themes found in Middle Earth. The world’s first role-playing game did not claim to be based on Middle-earth and it contains many elements drawn from sources of inspiration other than the good professor, some quite contrary to the subject matter found in the creation of the notable college professor. There was however enough overlapping themes between the two phenomena to make both products appealing to a number of people who came to enjoy both game and fiction. In fact, the popularity of the tales of Middle-earth and of games based on the original fantasy role-playing ideas have continued to grow right up to our present time. we are told that the hobby of fantasy role-playing has never been more popular. Fantasy tropes have become widely known and appear in computer, video and console games, in movies and other media and of course in many novels written in the wake of the Middle-earth volumes. Today elves, wizards and hobbits can be seen throughout much of our popular culture. It's been a grand journey.

From Simple Beginnings

How Complex should the Game be?

The original three little brown books which gave start to the hobby of tabletop roleplaying are each relatively short volumes. Even taking the three volumes together with Chainmail, a supplemental tabletop miniatures rule booklet I feel is essential to have in order to make full use of the original fantasy game booklets, taken all together there are not a lot of pages. 

The original rules describe themselves as "guidelines" and the referee is expected to make many rulings (hence the assignment of the title "referee" to that role). In order for the game to work at the table, the referee has responsibilities for preparation of a map and giving some forethought regarding any missing rules (such as covering how initiative works). The text of the original volumes are all very brief, sometimes so brief that their meaning is open to interpretation (and many references are made to rules found in Chainmail). Again, the role of the referee is assumed in order to make fair rulings on whatever is lacking, either beforehand or during actual play.

This is how tabletop miniatures wargaming was approached in the 1970s and ODD is not unusual in this respect. (It can still work today, it's just that our expectations have changed somewhat.)

As has been noted elsewhere, Gary Gygax and TSR followed ODD with their publication of an Advanced system in which they sought to fill in certain gaps in rules and to add additional details, all in an effort to standardize play with an eye to tournament play. Also published during the late '70s is a boxed basic set aimed at introducing new gamers to the hobby. Meanwhile, the ODD system continued to be offered in a collectors box edition presumably because some players (myself included) continued to enjoy the original version of the game even after newer versions emerged. This has proved to be the case for many and ODD retains a loyal following up to the present day.  

In recent years there has been a resurgent interest in minimalist RPG rules. Several games have appeared which offer an enterprising referee the basic framework from which to formulate a unique tabletop fantasy game experience. Many of these products contain very clever variations on the traditional concepts found in more typical FRPs. Maze Rats, the Black Hack, and Tiny D6 all immediately come to my mind as I think about such minimalist products and particularly of the ones I have found to be most innovative and useful. Whether your taste runs to complex systems with many official options, and perhaps lots of crunchy rules, or to a minimalist game system that leaves lots of room to expand upon the rules as written introducing concepts of your own devising, today's RPG market likely offers what you are looking for. And if that is not the case, modification can perhaps lead you to (self) publish your own version of the perfect RPG system.

Why System Matters

A Suggested Paradigm for Understanding The Game:

At the far extremes of the roleplaying game's PC power continuum there resides at one end the idea that the player characters are society's dispossessed who are trying to carve out a place for themselves in a hostile world; and at the other end of the continuum are the PCs who are played as gifted heroes seeking to save the world from the forces of evil. As with most continuums, the nature of any specific roleplaying game will usually fall someplace in between the extreme ends, offering players a little of this, and a bit of that. Making the game fit the players' expectations regarding the power level and role PCs will play is a significant part of taking on the responsibility of setting up the game.

A published game system often supports one of these extremes, but not the other - at least to the extent that it comes ready to run out of the box. One way to look at the current division in tabletop roleplaying schools of thought is to examine the preferences for where the game falls on this continuum. Games dedicated to roleplaying comic book supers can be viewed as an obvious example of the "gifted heroes saving the world" style. The "supers" genre typifies a game style that is near the powerful from the start end of the continuum. At the opposite end may be games that pit "normal" human PC types against supernatural monsters or alien beings of god-like power. Thwarting their evil designs while retaining a sliver of the PC's sanity may be the only successful outcome in this style of play. 

The popular fantasy RPG genre includes titles which are clearly aimed toward one extreme or the other, either super-heroics or a fight for survival, but the majority seem to fall some place in the middle on this continuum. Individual players may push a system in their preferred direction, heroic or just barely above normal, and usually can do so without resorting to a major modification of the system rules. So-called generic systems have greater flexibility built into their game design, including power scale, but even they tend to favor play at one end or the other of the power continuum. One easy way to shift the focus in a game without much attention to mechanics is to address the role the PCs play in the game's society. Are they the local heroes or are they outcasts, mercenaries and traveling opportunists?  

With its roots in wargaming and Outdoor Survival, the original fantasy role-playing game rules started player characters at a power level ranked just above normal humans. Veterans are what the level one fighting men are called. They roll melee dice as a normal man plus one pip - just a slight improvement over the combat capabilities of a normal soldier. Combat effectiveness and the ability to survive encounters with deadly enemies increased\s as the player character advanced in level. By the fourth level, the original edition fighting man has earned the title Hero and has increased in melee power to fighting as effectively as four normal soldiers - rolling four melee dice and possibly scoring a hit or "kill" on each die. In return, a monster must score four hits in one turn against the Hero in order to effectively "kill" that fourth level "Hero" character.

Comparing the modern game to computer and console roleplaying games, the starting character is already heroic in ability and PC "death" is not a permanent condition as your "killed" character will typically respawn alive and well after a short pause in gameplay. Progress in the game is barely interrupted and all that is usually lost if the last encounter. All presumably because the market research has indicted that players having to re-start the game after losing your character is "not fun". 

This attitude toward character death, together with the starting power level of the player characters constitute two of the often cited reasons explaining why a player may prefer one style of tabletop roleplaying game over another. To be fair, there are many factors that influence why we choose any particular game system over its competitors, and the availability of ready players for that system is often chief among the reasons, but the power paradigm and preferences for where a system falls along the continuum has some face validity in understanding our preferences in my experience. 

O.S.R.

Olde Swords Reign
The OGL fiasco has given rise to a number of promising projects and new life to several existing products. A recent discovery brought to my attention through a recent effort on the part of its designer, Damien Fegan, is Olde Swords Reign (OSR). Olde Swords Reign is a tabletop roleplaying game based on 5th Edition as it states in the first paragraph. As the name implies, O.S.R. has much of the feeling of playing the original edition games. It's a bit deadlier, a lot simpler and includes a number of clever fixes for the most annoying bits that I personally find in the 5th Edition upon which it is based.

Human, dwarf, elf and halfling, four classes, an incentive for rolling PC stats "down the line", and plenty of "optional" additions like "feats" and "hindrances" if you so desire, all make this an appealing alternative for those who like something more familiar, more simple, or just not published by a corporate giant. The tabletop role-playing hobby has a wealth of choices when it comes to rule systems and often what we play comes down to what we can find players for. Based on 5th Edition mechanics, O.S.R. should find a ready audience among those who have familiarity with the World's Most Popular Role-Playing Game and are displeased with the current state of affairs.

Third party content producers have written a lot of material for 5th Edition, some really good, some not so good. The player running an O.S.R. game can utilize anything written for 5th Edition with confidence. The two games are compatible, but each offers a different "flavor". It ultimately comes down to preference. 

Mr. Fagen is offering the digital version of his game as a free download. The printed book is readily available at the cost of print on demand. The Player's Guide pictured is aimed at providing players just what they need, while to Complete Rules includes additional material for the referee. Personally I prefer a little "mystery" in my game and having players discover certain things (such as monster vulnerabilities) during play seems preferable to them just reading all the details beforehand. "Mileage may vary", as the saying goes, and nothing prevents a player from reading the Complete Rules if that is their preferred way to play.

A Timeless Classic Game

Replay Value and More!

Some games continue to provide fun and challenge many years after we have learned the basics and even developed winning strategies. Chess is a game that rewards close study and creative strategies and can be a source of enjoyment across a lifetime.

Panzerblitz is a challenging game that continues to delight its fans decades after its publication. There are similarities between a game like chess and Panzerblitz, of course, but there are a number of significant differences as well. A feature both games share is they contain a variety of playing pieces, each with distinct characteristics. The playing surface or gameboard marked in spaces that govern movement of the playing pieces is another shared feature. But whereas chess is played using a consistent set of pieces and is played on a standard board with a goal of capturing the opponent's king, Panzerblitz can vary in the number and type of pieces, board layout and victory conditions. In this way, Panzerblitz has the potential to be many games rather than just one. It can also be viewed as a designer's toolkit inviting a nearly endless opportunity for players to design situations of their own creation.

The innovative features which Panzerblitz brought to the wargaming public include the game's basis on the scenario (PB calls them Situations). An idea borrowed from tabletop battle games using miniature figures, the scenario allows the designer (often called a referee) to vary the composition of opposing forces, the terrain and the victory conditions. Each scenario is in essence its own game. Strategies useful in one scenario may not be as useful in another as the situation demands a different approach to the use of forces and terrain.

Interest in the Panzerblitz game quickly led to there being a multitude of published scenarios for the game. Many of the early ones are collected in the Wargamer's Guide To Panzerblitz. The Wargamer's Guide also includes articles on the nature of the pieces and analysis of the Situations included in the boxed game. It's a nice example of the fan produced content that was common in the hobby before the internet.

Panzerblitz is a game I that have returned to many times and has again recently occupied a place of prominence on my gaming table. As a creative outlet it has few rivals. Online communities continue to make new scenarios, maps and playing pieces available for Panzerblitz and the game, together with its close cousin, Panzerleader, continues to enjoy a positive reputation among gamers. 

Not Too Serious

A game is a fun and joyous thing. It is a vehicle to entertain, to make us think a little and to challenge our minds and engage our curiosity and hopefully to help us share a few laughs along with others. Taking a game too seriously has always struck me as a case of  entirely "missing the point". 

Some games obviously aim to have a laugh at their own expense and I appreciate that. Some other games seem to take themselves fairly seriously and any laughs are secondary. Artistic presentation in the game is a good clue indicating what the designers have in mind - whether it's the game's subject matter, or its genre or its attitude toward play. Even a fairly serious game such as chess can be presented in a more humorous light when the chess pieces are sculpted to represent cartoon characters or other "comic" subjects rather than using the traditional style chessmen.

Tabletop roleplaying games run the gamut from the very humorous to the very serious, and many are in between the two extremes. At its heart, the adventure game is about exploration, combat and acquisition. The illustrations that excite our imagination also inform us about the game designer's vision for what the game will offer. (It's also an aspect of marketing, but I have less to say on that topic.)

The illustration above is taken from the "advanced" edition and seems both humorous and informative. The dark corridor is the setting for a likely encounter between an adventurer and a hideous monster, both are winding the same string about a stick and this is leading them around a corner and into a surprise situation where they will suddenly be face-to-face. It's a bit dark perhaps, but I find the situation humorous.

The Advanced game is ripe with more serious illustrations suggesting that the game is about "scary" creatures who seriously threaten the lives of the paper warriors and wizards we players control as our in-game alter egos. A quick glance through the Advanced books will reveal the designer's intent is to be both seriously dangerous (to the paper heroes) ...

...and humorous. 

In this way, the game offers a juxtaposition between dark and dangerous adventuring and an occasional chuckle that is both light-hearted and fun. The Advanced game essentially "pokes a bit of fun at itself".

What is ultimately revealed is that a sense of mystery and discovery is to be had in the game's milieu that is both fantastic and a bit familiar. This is indeed what the Advanced game promises. 

We can see that a fantastic setting is suggested by the cover illustration to most all editions of The World's Most Popular Role-Playing Game and something similar also appears on the covers of its many imitators, all leading us, the hobbyist and consumer to conclude a lot of this type of thing will occur during game-play. The artistic style and amount of heroic violence on display in the illustrations varies considerably from product to product, but there is a common theme to most - fantastic creatures, especially dragons, warriors and wizards facing a degree of peril and magical violence, and perhaps the seed of a story to prompt our imagination. 

For me personally, I find no better single depiction of what the hobby is about than this full-page interior graphic from the pages of the 1978 Advanced players handbook.

In this scene we see a party of delvers, specifically characters who are likely controlled by the players and consist of peoples drawn from familiar fantasy traditions who armed with torches and swords are traversing the dim halls of some ancient and long abandoned (underground?) edifice. As the delvers pass by the massive stone support column either on their way in or out of the place of mystery they have triggered a "magic mouth spell" appearing upon the wall. The message the mouth delivers is perhaps a warning, a clue to wealth or survival, or it even may contain a curse that will give give players pause. Whatever the message, the magic mouth spell gives the referee a means to engage with their players so as to help them bring the setting alive through imagining the in-fiction action, and to deepen the sense of wonder they may be experiencing as part of the fun of the game.

In the nearly half century since its first publication, I have watched as The World's Most Popular Role-Playing Game has evolved from its origins as an amateurish outgrowth of wargaming, through its more mature "advanced" version as seen in the illustrations featured in this post, and beyond - currently into a 5th edition that seems on the cusp of becoming predominantly an experience on a digital game platform that will perhaps include an A.I. "game master".

If the artificial gamemaster does come about, will its designers program in a sense of humor for it? I wonder?

Be Fair

The Most Important Rule!

The Basic Rules edited by Frank Mentzer remain THE outstanding introductory game, at least this is so in my estimation. No product that I have encountered does the "introduction" job as well when it comes to explaining the concepts of adventure gaming, the role of playing a character in the game, and what a referee/DM/Gamemaster does to setup, facilitate and oversee a game session and campaign play. The Red Box Basic accomplishes all this in a brief and accessible manner in two thin booklets - in which the author also manages to include a solo adventure and a starter dungeon for use by the novice DM to run their friends or family through.

The Red Box is packed with good advice from "Be Fair" as the guiding principal to running/playing the game to "play monsters as they would behave". Advice that today can be found elsewhere, but I first encountered it reading the Red Box text. Looking back on the boxed set today, I can see many examples of how the Red Box has influenced the hobby going forward.

An example of just how concise and easy to use the basic rules as presented in Red Box are is to be found when looking at the following "Order of Events" tables. 

By simply following the above tables, the aspiring DM can "manage" play at the table in a logical and organized manner. Mr. Mentzer has gone a long way toward demystifying some of the more obtuse and difficult to grasp concepts and procedures that once bewildered new players and hindered accessibility. I argue that the growth of today's widespread popularity of the tabletop role-playing hobby owes a great deal of credit to Red Box and to the generation of gamers who first delved into tabletop adventure following the guiding text of Mr. Mentzer's Basic. We build upon what came before.

Is This Canon?

... or Lost and Hidden Secrets Awaiting Discovery.

One of the hesitations I have about gaming a well known setting is staying consistent with the source material. A well known historical setting, like 20th Century Earth, poses certain problems for any author of fiction, gaming or otherwise, because there are facts that may limit the fictional narrative. Doing our Research and "getting one's facts straight" have been an accepted and essential part of writing historical fiction, or of making a roleplaying game that feels plausible. Taking "liberties" with what is generally known to have happened, is tricky ground at best. Yes, so called "alternative history" narratives exist, but frankly I find them unappealing (and generally not to my taste). 

This concept of "accepted facts" can be extended to certain fictional settings which are widely known and written about. As a result of this condition, and of my personal bias against alternative history, I have made a practice to avoid using anything in my games that could be easily "fact checked" against the sources, whether one is looking up "what really happened" in history, or merely consulting the accepted canon on a fictional world such as Tolkien's Middle-earth. It just seems more appealing to stick to the fuzzy edges, the unknown areas where known facts are fewer and details are lacking. That way I feel "anything is possible" and I have more freedom to be imaginative and "make stuff up".

As an example, take the classic 1920s mythos setting. Even H.P.L. himself created a fictional New England city and its associated university, mental hospital, river valley and coastal town, all so that he could avoid direct historical or geographic conflicts with the actual happenings in actual places. Inventing a fictional location and a made-up cast of people, none of which appear on the pages of ever really existed but are a close approximation to other better known aspects of the setting, I find helps enormously with the suspension of disbelief that is so necessary in order to engage an audience of readers, or role-players.

With all of that in mind I (much like many other fans) am still drawn to and want to game using certain popular settings including Middle-earth and the 1920s mythos. My approach is as follows... Avoid using "famous characters" drawn from the fiction or from the pages of history and a large element of the problematic becomes less of an issue. Invent a few "fictional" locations and take liberties only with what is essentially the "fuzzy" areas regarding known places or use those for which details are not widely available and I can feel more comfortable with basing an adventure in one of the known world settings.

Another approach is to treat all the generally accepted lore as written by an "unreliable source". Stories about people, places and things are just that. Each witness likely sees things from a slightly different perspective and any narrative they give will reflect just that. Eye-witness accounts, especially when drawn from a memory of remote events, is notoriously unreliable. We can reasonably alter a few minor "facts" and probably not spoil the effect of leveraging our audience's familiarity with the subject setting. In all fairness to ourselves, authors do it all the time.

I have recently read The Book of Lost Tales part one. One title in the 12 volume History of Middle-Earth series, Lost Tales gives us a look at the early, previously unpublished manuscript versions of many of J.R.R. Tolkien's works later published in more "polished" form. It is a peak behind the curtains, to borrow a phrase, which reveals an "alternative" version of some stories, alongside some other narratives which were presumably cast aside in favor of the author's later thinking. What it gives me the reader and fan of the fictional world, is food for thought.

In part one of Lost Tales we are told of a mariner who arrives on a remote island to discover a lost people who tell fantastic tales which our mariner presumably writes down for us to now read. Included are early versions of the story of the musical making of the world, the awakening of the various peoples and the early struggle with the shadowy one who detests light. Yes, the tales I just mentioned appear in other later and more polished versions in The Silmarillion, a work published after the author's death, but also many decades ago and are now accepted canon. 

Alternative versions of the lore, you say? That is very interesting. 

I am reminded that "authorship" of The Hobbit is attributed to Mr. Bilbo Baggins writing his "memoirs" and what comes down to us as The Lord of the Rings is supposed to be a "Red Book" penned by Master Frodo Baggins, with additions by a certain Samwise Gamgee? All completely reliable narrators with complete understanding of their times, at least one would presume so.

While as referee and loremaster I prefer invention over adaptation, I do find there is some advantage in leveraging what is commonly known about the familiar world. Real "horror" is only possible when it is starkly and unexpectedly introduced in contrast with a complacency born of an otherwise mundane and predictable setting.

Or is This the Future?

First Entry in a New Era in FRP Gaming.
Tales of the Valiant - Preview is not a complete game. It's a teaser and hopefully a promise of (good) things to come. One of the effects of poor management in an open market is an opportunity then exists for new producers to offer something better and the consumer ultimately benefits. (At least that is what I learned in college economics.) The summer heat has begun here in North America, and with it we have the first release in a crop of new FRP titles that have come about in response to, well, lets just move along to my thoughts on "Valiant".

Tales of the Valiant began life as a Kobold Press response to the OGL mess announcement of their "Project Blackflag". Kobold Press has previously partnered with other publishers and I have purchased several of their products written for various systems that all contain the iconic image of a reptilian caster, the "kobold" trademark. As far as independent publishers go, I rank Kobold Press among the top tier. The quality of their writing, their artwork and the originality of their creative ideas all impress me. And I generally enjoy the theme, tone and feeling of their setting materials. So Project Blackflag had my attention from the start.

At some point, Kobold Press dubbed their new core FRP system "Tales of the Valiant". What has been recently released as a free 63 page digital document contains the results of the "playtest" releases and is I believe beyond the rough draft stage, but it is not a finished or complete product. (The full release is being crowdfunded at the time of my writing this post.)

Tales of the Valiant is being built upon the back of a very popular SRD, so it is not entirely reinventing the proverbial wheel. But perhaps Kolbold Press will round off enough of the rough edges to make "Tales..." feel like an improvement and fun (mostly) new system.

What we get in the Preview document are the character creation materials to generate the four classic PC classes, Cleric, Fighter, Rogue and Wizard - all the classes are familiar to a large degree, but the "Valiant" Fighter looks to be a much needed improvement over the SRD version. For starters, our new Fighter has "Martial Action" at 1st level which allows for some round-by-round choice among decent combat abilities including the use of the bonus action to "Aim" your next missile shot, or raise your "Guard" while wielding a shield, and several other options. It's always nice to have tactical decisions to make as a player and I have found that the Fighter class has been a bit lackluster in recent years.

In addition to the four standard classes in the Preview we get a selection of lineages, dwarf, elf, human and the new "beastkin". If you fancy a PC with wings, horns or a tail, the beastkin covers all such features found in the animal kingdom under one PC lineage. Heritage is also included as a separate, but complementary, aspect of character creation along with lineage. For example, the cloud heritage goes nicely with the avian version of the beastkin lineage, but it can also be combined with the elf or human or dwarf lineage. You can choose.

Add Background, Talent and Luck and you round out your character in preparation for some tabletop heroics. Following recent trends in the hobby, Tales of the Valiant PCs begin play already feeling much like a "Valiant" hero. The Preview gives us enough information to generate the PC and also contains a handful of spell descriptions and a smattering of monsters, just enough in total to give us a taste for what the future shall bring when we have a full core rule book and monster book.

The Preview contains no combat mechanics and honestly they aren't essential if we just want to see how the new character classes work. Based on what Tales of the Valiant - Preview does contain, I feel it's a safe assumption the inclusion of the usual list of character statistics, proficiency bonus and the familiar list of spells are suggestive of the author(s) intent to stick fairly close to the source. If it remains consistent through to the final version, there may not even be much need for spelling out the system mechanics in the finished core product. We can always just use Tales of the Valiant as a variant of the familiar system and reference the Standard Reference Document for everything else.

So what do I think of Tales of the Valiant?

The intent is to craft a fresh take on the modern version of the game we all love, this is evident when I read the first few paragraphs wherein the author's "philosophy" of design, their expectations regarding the style of play and the role of the GM are all described. It looks like a natural evolution of a now familiar system that improves on some aspects (Fighter class), introduces some new concepts (spell circles) and yet remains familiar enough to not be off-putting to those who would like to keep playing the game they now love (without all the corporate messiness).

Is This the Future of My Hobby?

The Game I Want to Play.

One of the positive things on my horizon this year is my hope to be bringing the revised Swords & Wizardry rules to my game table. I have a familiarity with previous versions of S&W as a version of an older system and of course also with the original version of the rules upon which S&W has been based. The author, Matthew J. Finch, has been a great contributor to my enjoyment of our hobby in recent years. A quick list of Mr. Finch's work in the hobby includes OSRIC, S&W, Tome of Adventure Design and A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming. 

Mr. Finch has been a leader in promoting and supporting the hobby, and especially a classic style of play, for decades and has recently revised his most popular rule system, Swords & Wizardry. This revision came as a response to certain recent licensing issues and has involved a successful crowdfunding campaign. As a backer, I received a digital version of the new edition rules and I am quite impressed with the changes. 

A principal reason for my enthusiasm for using the new edition of S&W with a gaming group is some specific wording which I find reflects my comfort level with the game's underlying assumptions about how to approach the S&W game and the general use of its rules. This attitude can be summarized by looking at a statement I find at the beginning of its referee section.

As the Referee of a game of Swords & Wizardry, you do not have a character; instead, you are the player who is in charge of the game. You create the adventure, you run the monsters, and you are the one who decides the results of all the decisions made by the players for their characters. You don’t get to tell the players what the characters do — that is their part of the game — but you referee the results according to the rules, and you interpret what the rules mean.

This statement definitely sounds familiar (and comfortable) to me because it is the way I have always approached tabletop adventure (roleplaying) games and it is the way I would like to play them going forward. I am finding that this assumption is not universally acceptable and that not everyone that describes themselves as "FRP gamers" (or "roleplayers") are open to a referee with this approach to running the game.

Things evolve and I consider myself an advocate of progressive change. I wish to be on the record as fully supporting the variety of gaming styles and preferences that make up our tabletop gaming hobby today. Not every game is going to be a favorite for everyone and that is okay - it's actually more than okay, it's as it should be in my opinion.

My advice is for each of us to "play the game that you want to play, and play with people who are agreeable to that choice". And let's all try to be a littler nicer to each other. This is a fun hobby.

Stumbling in the Dark

Bring a Light!

As my infrequent attention to this blog can attest, I recently have found my interest in our tabletop gaming hobby at a nadir of sorts. In all probability this is a personal transition thing peculiar to myself alone, but with the possibility that others may be feeling the same malaise that I do, I will pursue sharing of my thoughts on the present somewhat troubling matter of our collective hobby future.

From where I sit and ponder, it appears that the TTRPG hobby in America has become divided against itself. The debate between fans of the Most Popular FRP game and the so-called "old school" players (some of whom enjoy the current version of said game) are an obvious example, but even among the divisions there are divisions. Old school gamers (such as myself) don't always agree on what constitutes an "old school" game! If I ask ten gamers what they think roleplaying is, I will likely get at least ten different answers. And if we dare discuss what the game SHOULD be, the discussion is likely to become heated.

One need not look far afield on the internet to see evidence of this trend. Venture into the friendly local game store and I am likely to encounter something less than friendly as the division plays out in real time. The art of "getting along with others" seems to be in steep decline.

Division within the tabletop gaming hobby is not a completely new phenomenon. I can recall during the early days of our hobby when the then new "fantasy games" started to invade gaming spaces previously devoted exclusively to historical themes. And yes, there were heated opinions expressed about that. It made for some unpleasantness at times and the fantasy folk were sometimes rudely treated, but believe it or not, those were more polite times and the rancor had its limits. I am starting to think that we may be returning to the days when gamers were a rare breed and we were on the look-out for anyone who might share our interests. 

I am also starting to wonder if the halcyon days of my little hobby interest being a part of the wider popular culture may be over. It is increasingly difficult finding like-minded gamers who readily embrace the games I would like to play and I am increasingly uninterested in playing the most popular game. The idea of returning to the Underground as part of a niche hobby is something I find ever more appealing.

All is not darkness, however.

Regardless of your FRP preference, there is light on the horizon. The corporate giant is marketing (and miss-stepping) in anticipation of the next big version of their IP/Brand/Lifestyle product dropping from the digital either sometime next year. The current popularity of the hobby and the proliferation of its points of entry made possible through a combination of  the easy accessibility of desktop publishing and the marketplace provided by various digital vendors and independent game producers has all meant there is no shortage of great "alternative" products from which to choose if "popularity" is not your idea of everything. 

I particularly look forward to what our hobby may soon produce including the revised versions of several favorite games scheduled to release later this year. Pathfinder 2, Swords & Wizardry, and Basic Fantasy are all undergoing revisions in light of the threat to the OGL and together with new FRP products like Shadowdark, I remain excited for our dungeon delving future. 

The onus is really on us as gamers to get along. We all need to step up our personal friendliness game and become the change we want to see. Maybe that means trying a little harder to tolerate our differences. Maybe it means agreeing to disagree, and much like the historical gamers and the fantasy gamers of the 1970s, we go our separate ways to our mutual satisfaction. A shared space is not always the right answer. Fences can make good neighbors.

I am starting to think that perhaps I am fine going back to a time when I am constantly vigilant for signs that I may be speaking to someone with whom I have a shared interest, and who may possibly be a like-minded (future) gamer. Sometimes we appreciate the things that require a little more effort.

2023

To be, or not to be. That is the question.

The current year has started with a bit of controversy in the TTRPG hobby. The corporate giant, exercising their considerable muscle and throwing their weight about, has somewhat carelessly stumbled, "apologized", stepped on sensitive toes, "made excuses", covered their electronic ears, "apologized" again and released something that was already in the public domain as a token of "good faith". All while not making any promise to "not do it all again". 

Concerning another popular IP tabletop game brand, also controlled by the same corporate giant, who accidentally shipped new product before its time and then sent "agents" to retrieve THEIR property - property that was legally purchased by and in possession of a private citizen and customer, the mess continues. All the while the corporate executives have been asking us to "get on board" with their 2024 release of their new and improved popular TTRPG.

Well, that is how I see the year to date. (Please accept my apologies for the cynicism and realize that I am no expert on anything, these are my opinions and that obviously others will see things differently.)

So you may ask, where is this rambling and generally negative post heading? Where is it heading and what does it all mean for me? That is precisely the question which I have struggled with for several weeks now and has prompted my recent silence. (Well that and my reluctance to join in on the current trend to "take sides" on virtually every issue, but here I am taking sides.)

To get to the point, vis-a-vis the tabletop gaming hobby - I find myself at a crossroads, if I may borrow the often overused travel metaphor. Putting aside the Corporate Giant's Tabletop Gaming issues, I confess that the World's Most Popular Role-Playing Game has not interested me in some time. Furthermore, the games that do interest me seem to be of little interest to the gaming groups that in recent months I have been a part of, and I wonder if I shouldn't "broaden my field" a bit. Or perhaps just find a new hobby.

Reading of both fiction and history has been a large part of my interests and forms the basis of the attraction I have had to the tabletop gaming hobby since the beginning. I generally enjoy reading - reading about games, about settings, about the history connected with the games and about gaming as a hobby. Simply put, I enjoy reading on a number of various topics, discussing those topics with others, and occasionally writing about some of my thoughts on same. 

Reading novels, history and game materials has recently filled much of the time I would have previously spent gaming at the table with friends. The drawbacks to reading is that it is largely a solitary activity, and is a mostly passive experience. In other words it is poorly suited for meeting my very human desire for socialization and for creative expression. 

I write this post today as an exercise in organizing my thoughts and putting them into a coherent statement with a hope that doing so will help me see my way forward. Also, I share these thoughts in some hope that by reading it, another person may find some benefit in knowing about the struggles I have, my attempts to deal with the current events and may find some relief in knowing that should they find themselves feeling something similar, they are not alone. 

Finally I suggest that Life can be viewed as a journey, and we don't always know what lies ahead. Finding out where our chosen road will lead is part of the fun.

Happy trails!

PanzerBlitz

Tabletop Board Wargame

An intense interest in history and a love of games in general combined to produce my enthusiasm for wargames starting at an early age. As I recall, a lot of the games from my youth included a statement such as "for ages 12 and up" and that is about the age I was when I managed to acquire my first board wargame. It was titled Waterloo and featured a blue monochrome image of Napoleon on horseback which seems cribbed from a painting by Ernest Meissonier. I no longer have that game, but I have purchased many other map and cardboard chit wargames in the years following.

The game PanzerBlitz was published by the Avalon Hill Game Company in 1970 as one of their new Bookcase Games. It was widely available in department and toy stores and hobby shops and it ranks today as one of the best selling wargames of all time. Finding a second hand copy is therefore not a difficult task. 

I came to PanzerBlitz (PB) rather later than many, years after its release in fact. My first recollection of playing PB is at a high-school friend's house in the late 1970s. As I recall now, I thought it compared poorly to the wargames we had been playing with miniature tanks. (Today, I would say I was missing the point of PB back then.) 

It would be another decade plus before I purchased a copy of PB for my collection and I started to really look at the game in a serious way. Designed by James F. Dunnigan (publisher of Strategy & Tactics Magazine and founder of SPI) to be a tactical game on the platoon and company level, PB is not meant to feel like "tank on tank" as many wargames using miniatures do. 

As the years have progressed and I have revisited PB numerous times, the game has taken on some additional charm for me. Nostalgia doubtlessly plays its part in my appreciation of PB, but the game design itself seems much more sophisticated today than I originally thought. Although it includes a combat results table (odds based CRT) and units can be eliminated during play, PanzerBlitz is primarily a game of maneuver. It also includes a level of abstraction that probably annoyed the teenage me, but which plays well with me at my present age.

PanzerBlitz was an innovative design for its day and introduced the hobby to a number of concepts we see in many later games. The tank silhouettes used on the playing pieces is I believe the first time I saw that done. The game includes three geomorphic map boards that may be arranged in a variety of ways to produce a number of different battlefield maps. The game is setup and played using the map boards and unit pieces according to a situation card. There are twelve situations included in the game and many additional ones have been published in various sources including General Magazine (published by AH). Replay potential is practically endless as one varies the pieces used, the victory conditions and various map configurations.

PanzerBlitz is quick to learn and quick to play. Many of the situation cards have one side (German or Russian) attacking a basically static defender making the game friendly to solitaire as well as one-on-one play. The situations include a variety of missions, and today I see the game as having value as a tool for learning mobile war(game) tactics. Attacking a prepared position, conducting a delaying or blocking defense, and planning and executing a raid behind enemy lines are among the several challenges that the various situation cards present. Each situation is unique, has levels of victory, and encourages trying different strategies through multiple play-throughs.

The game includes a campaign guide featuring vehicle data and silhouettes (as a teenager I loved this feature and memorized much of the data), unit organizations and designer notes and when combined with the variety of game pieces suggests many design it yourself possibilities to expand play. Although I have enjoyed many board wargames bearing the descriptor, "tactical", I find PB remains a particular favorite with its own niche. While other games offer more detailed combat crunch or chrome (hit location, gun penetration values, etc.) none that I have encountered quite equal PB for its mission based approach. The scope of PB allows me to see the situation from a tactical mission perspective, to picture and plan my methods with an eye toward achieving victory (in game terms!), and to accomplish the given mission (or perhaps to learn why mine was a "bad" plan) better than any other game I have found to date.