The Same Game

RPG Smash Up
A teacher once told a class that our history shapes our future, or something similar to that. My life in this hobby begins with White Box, which in some ways is a tool-kit for fantasy role-playing rather than a full-on game. Its popularity, or maybe the popularity of the idea it introduced, quickly led to un-official published alternative sub-systems which could be used with White Box, or conceivably any other RPG. Within six months of my introduction, my friends and I are experimenting with some alternative systems (Metagaming's Melee for combat) in our White Box play. As the Advanced volumes and Basic Set are released we incorporate them into our game. It's not uncommon for us to have the three Little Brown Books, the Blue Basic rules and one or two of the Advanced hardbacks all at our game table and to pick and choose among them during play. Any conflicts between the versions are settled by a referee ruling and we quickly move along.
That's my history. How it affects my future is a matter of continuity. Some say the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior and when it comes to my approach to role-playing rules I suppose this is true. I tend to play my games in the same way as I started out, combining a little of this and a little of that and mashing it all together. This is rather easy when it comes to class based d20-type fantasy games. Whether one adds in a skills system or not, prefers descending or ascending AC, uses three alignments or nine, it is all the same game in my world. In the early days there was some necessary practicality to this approach. The group I gamed with didn't all have the same game product. I had White Box, another had Blue Basic and yet another the Advanced Hardback. We all liked to draw from the material we had been studying at home and use our own books at the table. Each of the separate products has its own strengths and all seem incomplete without the others. Basic only takes a PC to third level and Advanced would appear one book a year over three years starting with the monsters. The PHB came next, but included rules we didn't really understand, so we ignored parts of it. The Advanced combat tables would be part of the final release, so until it came along we used the White Box combat tables and were quite happy with our game.
In the early days this was quite easy and caused us little trouble. Fortunately the basic system has remained very similar across all the early versions of Our Favorite Game. Published play aids labeled for one version of the game work quite well with any of the others. Eventually the group I most frequently gamed with in the '80s started to search for a better game system. One that would seem more realistic. We tried several because the hobby had by this time produced several good games, many with dissimilar, non d20 mechanics. My approach to RPG rules, is based on my experience with White Box, and continues to be one of borrowing and combining. I still think this way. It is very hard for me as referee to stick strictly to the rules as written. I much prefer to bring in a fun way of doing something from another game rather than struggle at the table figuring out the correct way according to the current rules. (This I believe at times frustrates some of my players.) Generally I find this approach works for me and seems acceptable to the folks I game with. Maybe they just know it is my style and tolerate me. Tolerance can be a good thing!
As a result I still refer to any class-based FRPG as playing D&D.

Fight On!

Old School Fanzine
With a title inspired by the illustration on the last page of White Box vol. III The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures and a cover subscript that says "for Fantasy Role Playing Campaigns played with Pencil, Paper and Your Imagination" it is evident who the target audience for this publication is. Aimed clearly at those gamers who appreciate the Original Role Playing Game and its simulacrums, each issue includes a selection of creative articles, dungeon designs, rule suggestions, cartoons and art, all reminiscent of the early days of gaming and authored by some of the best talent in the hobby.

No other hobby provides as many creative outlets. You are a performer, designer, illustrator, tactician, and philosopher, while socializing with friends. - taken from "What is a Role-Playing Game, Anyway?" via FO!

Pictured above is issue #2 of Fight On! In this issue we have three nice dungeon style adventures including the well regarded The Darkness Beneath: The Upper Caves and a non-canonical Empire of the Petal Thrones adventure, a wilderness adventure/hexcrawl and two nice maps, one urban, one regional, for the referee to work their own imagination on. Several names appearing in this issue are familiar to me including an interview with Dave Arneson, co-author of my favorite rules, a Random Inn Generator by James Edward Raggi IV, author of Lamentations of the Flame Princess, a generic wilderness map by Robert Conley (Bat in the Attic) with setting and hex descriptions by James Maliszewski (Grognardia), a monster generator by Vincent Baker (Dogs in the Vineyard), a selection of fresh magic items and monsters from the imagination of Jeff Reints (Jeffs Gameblog), some new combat spells from the book of Steve Marsh and some insight into the First Dungeon Adventure penned by Greg "The Great Svenny" Svenson.
In the earliest days of the hobby, back when "The Great Svenny" was making his mark around Castle Blackmoor, amateur publications, including fanzines, were a great way to network with other like-minded hobbyists, share creative ideas and gain recognition in the fledgling hobby by writing a good article or submitting some good art. In those days the fanzine was a paper product mailed to you. Today the internet serves a lot of that same purpose, but I still like holding a paper product in my hands. Fortunately others do also, and it is still possible to order printed copies of such publications through online print-on-demand publishers.  

Deadly Dice

...then cast Raise Dead
The dice bag pictured above expresses a sentiment often adhered to by older gamers (like me). Those of us who first wargamed and then discovered role-play and finally story games may have a different view of dice than say someone with a different background. I started wargaming with Avalon Hill's Waterloo, a campaign game about Napoleon's last campaign during the so-called Hundred Days which culminated in defeat at Waterloo. One player took the French forces of Napoleon and the other the allied forces under the Duke of Wellington. As a campaign game, there was no guarantee that the battlefield of Waterloo would be the decisive point, but it often worked out that way when I played. One thing that was a constant in every game, whether it was Waterloo or Risk or Monopoly, was how we treated dice rolls. They were final and often decisive. More than once the outcome of the game would hang on a single roll of the die, always rolled in the open for all to see, and we all accepted that there was no re-roll, no "fudging". One dropped or rolled the dice and the result was final. The outcome was accepted as the "rule of fate". There was no appeal, no do-over, no raise dead.
So we came to White Box play with much the same assumptions about dice. I still roll the dice in the open, for all to see. There are no do overs, but there is raise dead. Dice rolls can be dramatic when rolled in the open with known consequences at stake. The suspense of such die rolls is why I still prefer Save or Die saving throws. The campaign has to be set up to accommodate such play, however, and frequently this is overlooked. A dead PC should not end a player's time at the table. White Box and other systems that allow for quick chargen can usually solve the problem with a few minutes aside while a new PC is generated. Other solutions include raise dead magic, or allowing players to run more than one PC at a time, or to promote a hireling or henchmen to PC status. Once the campaign reaches maturity and higher level PCs are partying, there must be a way for the player who loses a high level PC to continue gaming. This can be handled by having each player control a number of PCs ranging in level from highest on down, which admittedly requires pretty frequent play to keep such a campaign going, or balancing things so that a 1st level PC can run with a high level party and feel like they can contribute. I've seen it done, but it is tricky. Personally, I prefer raise dead.
The above dice bag is by The Gallant's Hand Gamers Gear.

Empire of Imagination

E. Gary Gygax's Story
I just finished Empire of Imagination (EoI) and found it an easy and enjoyable read. It is a biography in the traditional sense of the man who co-authored the White Box and founded TSR Hobbies. The Jeff Easley cover illustration fits the narrative very nicely and really tells much of the story in a single picture. Mr. Gygax was a guy who worked long hours at the typewriter, who was part hippie rebel, part conservative nerd, who fueled his marathon bouts of creativity with buttermilk, beer, wine, coffee and cigarettes, and who gave the world new light in the guise of a game.
In EoI we follow Mr. Gygax from boyhood to death, sharing in his joys and his heartbreaks and there were many of each. Author Michael Witwer reminds us often that Mr. Gygax's inner child was strong and to some extent Gary never grew up entirely, never stopped having fun. We are also shown the weight of responsibility he must have felt as father of five, eventually six, children who often struggled to pay bills, and as the president of an often stressful company, TSR Hobbies. He was subject to early and frequent loss of people close to him, and much like Shakespeare's Hamlet, he was haunted by his relationship at the end with his father. He was demonized by some as a so-called corrupter of youth and inventor of a game they feared and worshiped by others as the father of the hobby they loved.
Through-out the story imagination plays a central theme in the life of Mr. Gygax and the hobby he helped create. Gary's imagination and ability to organize his thoughts and get them on paper and into the hands of others is a central theme in this book. It is full of factual information about a man who has become legendary. Over the years there have been many gamers who have told me their Gary Gygax story, how they sat at Gary's table, or met him once and what he supposedly said to them. EoI gives us a glimpse into the life of the real man with all his gifts and faults.

Dungeon Fantasy GURPS

Dungeon Crawling with GURPS
The Dungeon Fantasy (DF) line of digital downloads from Steve Jackson Games and published 2008 has been around for a while. The first four products in the line are subtitled, Adventurers, Dungeons, The Next Level, and Sages. At one point they were all available as print books, but are currently digital only. The goal of the Dungeon Fantasy line is to enter a cave complex or other "dungeon" - type environment "- and seeing lots of monsters, killing them, and taking their treasure." Sound familiar?
Dungeon Fantasy supports players who are interested in playing the classic type of game White Box introduced the world to, but using the GURPS rules. DF1 Adventurers contains guidelines for creating the kind of class - based iconic adventurers White Box called fighting men, magic users and clerics, as well as thieves and other later classes, using the point-buy system of GURPS. DF1 does this using templates which describe the iconic character and list suggested attributes, skills, advantages, disadvantages and spells. The resulting characters are described as "two dimensional 'heroes' from a non-culture", but with the necessary abilities to survive in a dungeon environment where combat and deadly traps are common.

Once players have characters ready to adventure the referee using Dungeon Fantasy 2 Dungeons can introduce them to the "dungeon". DF2 is a game aid to help referees design a suitable environment and choose GURPS rules that facilitate a "fast and loose dungeon crawl". The emphasis in DF2 is tailoring GURPS to give a game similar to the classic dungeon experience. Suggestions include handling traps and environmental challenges frequently associated with the dungeon environment and for hack-n-slash combat with monsters, looting and recovering, all in keeping with the GURPS design philosophy of making the game one's own. The DF products are not a stand alone system, but rather tools to help the referee use GURPS Basic Set in a very specific way.
Although I have had the Dungeon Fantasy books 1-4 for some time, they are not something I consider essential to running a dungeon-style fantasy campaign with GURPS. I was already running GURPS as a fantasy RPG before I read DF. I have borrowed ideas from DF and find there are many good suggestions contained therein for the style of game I like to referee. For players who didn't progress to GURPS play by starting with The Fantasy Trip then Man-To-Man, DF might be more essential.
Steve Jackson Games recently started a Kickstarter campaign to fund a Dungeon Fantasy stand alone boxed game powered by GURPS. I am going out-on-a-limb thinking this will not be vapor-ware because Steve Jackson Games has a good history with past Kickstarters. How much this new product will make use of the DF play aids is only a guess. The new product promises five new books, cardboard figures, combat maps and dice. It looks like a beginner box to me, an entry point for the system that is manageable, something GURPS has needed for a while. With new artwork dedicated to the fantasy genre and a streamlined system easier for beginning players, I am looking forward to the Dungeon Fantasy box.

Vacant Ritual Assembly

Fan Created Gaming Goodness
Vacant Ritual Assembly (VRA) is what I call a fanzine. Fanzines associated with the Role-Playing Game date back to the beginning of the hobby and really are an indication that what we do is a hobby and not just a game we play. The content of fanzines across the decades range from quite amateurish to quite professional. Fanzines have given the careers of various talents a boost (Paul Jaquays - Dungeoneer) and helped keep the creative spirit of the hobby fresh for over 40 years. Some of the early fanzine's such as Alarums & Excursions have become legends in the hobby.
VRA is from the mind of Clint Krause who has also authored a game or so (Don't Walk in Winter Wood) and has some very good Youtube videos devoted to gaming. The cover illustration is art from Ryan Sheffield (Ritual Abuse Tarot). Mr. Krause is self publishing under the name Red Moon Medicine Show. Mr. Krause indicates that VRA is an outlet for material he has created for his home Lamentations of the Flame Princess OSR campaign and each issue gives more material from that campaign as well as some inspirational references he calls "Evangelism" (lists of songs, books and other creative influences) and most issues contain an interesting interview.
I find most of the game aid material published by the big houses these days of good quality with excellent art, but also rather vanilla in flavor. I like vanilla and I buy what I consider a lot of these game aids. I also like fresh original flavors that don't seem like places I've been to before. The small press, independent and self publishers sometimes produce material as good as anything from the big guys and it's often unlike anything else in content.
Mr. Krause has described the Lost Wood (detailed in issue 3) and the setting around it as inspired by the woods he knew as a boy growing up and the stories he and his friends made-up about the wood. Inspiring us to draw on our own experiences and convert them into something fantastic for gaming through the use of our imagination is something he does particularly well. Each of us has stories to tell. Sometimes creating the fantastic for our game is just a matter of learning to draw on our experiences and stories in a way that fits into the shared fictional game world and adding a little imagination.
Vacant Ritual Abuse (issues 1-5) is available in .pdf from drivethrurpg.com.

PC Interactions

Group Dynamics in the Game
A role-playing or adventure game has an implied social contract. Really any game can. It is implied that everyone wishes to have fun together, that everyone will be respected and that each will have a part to play. Furthermore, it is implied that rules will fairly apply to everyone and that any disputes will be handled in a fair and friendly manner. Do games occasionally fall short of these expectations, of course they do. But I believe a usually unstated assumption of something similar to this social contract is a cornerstone of the hobby.
Hobby folks, as a group are welcoming and eager to share their interest with anyone who shows a similar interest in the hobby. The role-playing hobby from the start has been about showing others how to play the game and sharing in a fun experience. White Box and other game rule systems are set up with a subtle, but powerful group dynamic mechanic to ensure that group fun happens. The class system creates distinct player characters with a niche to fill during the game. No one PC has all the necessary skills and abilities for success and must depend on other PCs in some situations, other PCs have other specialties because they are of another class. This is a unifying mechanic. The game is set-up to be cooperative.
Conflicts are interesting and factions are also a part of the game. White Box allows for PCs to be one of four races roughly based off the fiction of J.R.R. Tolkien (although Mr. Gygax would minimize this connection), humans, elves, dwarves and hobbits (later changed to halflings after the Tolkien Estate contacted TSR). Friction between elves and dwarves is the stuff of legend and frequently enters the game as good-natured banter.
The PC is assigned an alignment by the player, either Law, Chaos or Neutrality in the White Box. This is an idea drawn from literature (Poul Anderson and Michael Moorcock) and intended to be an artificial division of all creatures in the fantastic setting into "teams" or "forces" which oppose one another. The forces of Chaos naturally work against the forces of Law. Neutrality seems to be folks just out for themselves. Game conflict is inevitable and forms the basis of a good guys/bad guys paradigm. 
In reaction to the question, "What does my PC do when not adventuring?" game designers put forth rules for how the PC fits into the fictional society. Games including Chivalry & Sorcery and RuneQuest emphasize the PC's role in the fantasy society. In these games players are encouraged to role-play their PCs interacting with other PC and NPC members of  the shared fiction, forming relationships and progressing upward in society thereby playing a larger role in the setting. Role-playing the same sorts of situations which may occur in real life, such as asking a stranger in a position of power for assistance or confronting a person abusing their power, or just finding out what they know about a missing person is often the goal of a session of play.
From its earliest days the game, regardless of rules used, has been set up as a social interaction using a shared fiction with fun and excitement for all as the goal. Ultimately something more than that usually happens. Social skills are practiced, friendships are formed and stories are made. Stories which then become part of our shared history.