Running Adventures

Describing the Unknown
"You see a clawed hand reaching out of the shadows..." The role of the referee is to bring to life exciting adventures for the players. This is often facilitated by the use of colorful descriptions involving action.
"You enter a dimly lit room. While moving into the cold room, your nostrils constrict with a pungent smell of animal urine and damp straw. From the dark far corner you hear a rustling noise..." By describing the setting quickly and leaving much to the imagination, the referee is more likely to hold the players' attention and help them to identify with their characters.
"The light of your torch reflects from a pair of luminous round eyes, which rise slowly from the floor of the shadowy corner until they appear nearly man-sized tall..." Mystery is the goal. Let each player wonder what may be before them. Let them imagine what might be behind those eyes.
"Stepping into the light you see a sickly pale, skeletal figure with over-sized round eyes. As the mouth opens, long, dirty fangs and a lolling red tongue drip saliva..." Describing the monster rather than naming it keeps the mystery alive and makes the players work just a little harder at figuring out what they are facing. It helps to immerse the players into the scene.
"Among the gnawed bones, bits of rusted metal and dirty coins, your light suddenly reflects off a shiny ring..." Magic treasure should be described as unusual in mundane ways so that even without the use of a detection spell it is obvious there is more to this item than may be readily apparent. By not tipping their hand too soon, the referee heightens the anticipation and mystery and therefore the enjoyment of discovery.

The inspiration for these ideas and more comes from my reading of just one small section of the newly released Old School Essentials (an updated version of B/X Essentials) Retro Adventure Game by Gavin Norman at Necrotic Gnome.

Sandbox or Playground

A World of Opportunity Awaits!
It has become common to use the term "sandbox" to describe a certain old school style of campaign play in which the referee creates a setting and sets the players free in this setting to explore and follow their interests according to their own timing. It's an open world concept where there are things to interact with and adventures to be had, but there is no set plot or preconceived story. It may involve the referee furnishing the players a map, perhaps with hexes printed on it. Moving from hex to hex and rolling for encounters is termed a hex-crawl which can be a type of sandbox. The open world empowers the players to shape the game.
For some players presenting the "empty sandbox" where anything is possible can result in paralysis. The referee who places a map before the players which shows a village, a forest, a road, a stream and a castle and asks "What do you want to do?" may be asking a very difficult question.
Perhaps redefining the setting as a playground would be more appropriate. A playground typically offers a number of objects, clearly visible, which can be explored and interacted with in a manner that encourages use of one's imagination. Children develop elaborate narratives to go along with their playground adventures and I see no reason why our adult role-playing cannot offer a similarly rich and rewarding experience. By placing a number of easily recognized opportunities into our setting, things such as rumors, reward offers, a treasure map, help wanted, abandoned mines, ruins, and old legends, the referee can make things easier for players to decide what they want to do. Populate your setting with possibilities and inform your players that it is up to them to decide what they would like their characters to investigate further. If the players decide to ignore all of your "hooks" and go off on their own, perhaps for a walk in the countryside (or want to take over the local tavern) that is all the better. By providing a rich and varied environment you have set the stage for your players to explore and have adventures.

D&D is a GAME

Play Nice and Get Along!
People tend to forget that D&D, White Box, 5e and other role-playing games are just that - games. Nothing more. It isn't a story, or a movie, or a novel, or even a comic book, just a game. It isn't a lifestyle or a community, it's just a game we play sitting around a table, or online, with friends who also enjoy playing the game. It's shared entertainment.
Players roll dice. Sometimes the dice are in your favor and sometimes the dice are not. It is a game about rolling dice and winning stuff, or losing stuff. That stuff consists of imaginary coins, hit points, gold and gems, PC levels, magic items...even character death...and it's all just game mechanics. Nothing is real, except the fun and the friendships.
Whose game is it? I think it's everyone's game. Group ownership, shared ownership, is a tricky thing for some people to grasp. Gary seemed to think it is the DM's game (he says as much in his Advanced Edition Dungeon Masters Guide and elsewhere). Today's popular internet culture often says it's each individual player's game, in other words, it's your game. Then again maybe it's the license holder's game (many lawyers think so)?
Does ownership really matter?
It's a game that we play together for fun. None of the gold is real, we don't win or lose money playing a table-top role-playing game (I am glad we don't!). It just doesn't make sense to be selfish about our game.
It seems rather simple. Remember to play like you care about the others at the table. That is how friendships are eventually formed. It's also the best way for everyone at the table to enjoy each game.

The Light in the Darkness

Does System Matter?
People seek various things when they sit down to play a role-playing game. Once upon a time I thought about the experience in terms of a fantasy based wargame, a tabletop game often played out in tunnels and caverns and other underground spaces using mostly our imagination. The investigation of a mystery, the collaborative process of telling an heroic story together through play, or just the fun of talking in a funny voice and pretending to be someone we are not, these are all aspects of role-playing depending on how we play the game.
Some systems are quite flexible and use some fairly generic mechanics, other systems specialize in delivering a particular type of experience for players. Most require some sort of judge, referee or narrator, but not all do. A recent vacation with friends included sessions of The Fantasy Trip using a programmed adventure published by Dark City Games that requires no referee and therefore allows all of the players to run personal figures. The Fantasy Trip by Steve Jackson Games is a tactical combat focused RPG system that can also be used for playing more social encounters using figure skills from In The Labyrinth (and without use of the tactical display and counters).
The same gaming vacation with friends also involved sessions of the King Arthur Pendragon role-playing game published by Chaosium. Pendragon, as it is often called, is a very different system from The Fantasy Trip (or D&D for that matter). The Pendragon mechanics focus on the personality of your knightly character including their passions, loyalties and hatreds. Chivalry, romance and above all, personal glory, is at the focal point of play. The narrator, or referee, presents a situation in which players attempt to interact with the referee's version of King Arthur's Britain in a manner that will achieve glory for their knight while navigating the game mechanically including d20 personality rolls which help determine their character's reactions and likely behaviors. Characters are expected to act in a knightly manner generally consistent with their virtues and vices, loyalties and hatreds. Pendragon includes no "intelligence" score because that aspect of character is determined by the player's own decision making.

Pendragon is a system designed for multi-generational play and romance, marriage and the siring of offspring, some of whom may become playable characters in the campaign, are all part of the game. The Great Pendragon Campaign, a separate volume that details events year by year from 485 to 566, is a great way to play King Arthur Pendragon. Each year may contain a single adventure worthy of the minstrel's song, or may involve little more than some dice rolled on a table to see who the character meets and at what chronicled event they are present. Meeting a lady (or gentleman), having a child, contracting an illness are all possible during a "year" of play. The legendary king and his court are of course the hub around which game events revolve. Drawing from the literary sources, especially Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur, Pendragon and The Great Pendragon Campaign are designed by Greg Stafford to meld play with legend. Playing King Arthur Pendragon is a fun way to explore the magical setting of Camelot and Arthur's Britain and offers something unique in terms of tabletop role-playing.

In The Labyrinth

Steve Jackson's First RPG
I have been playing quite a bit of Steve Jackson's new version of The Fantasy Trip since its release earlier this year. The Fantasy Trip is a tactical RPG experience like no other of which I am aware. Based on the microgames Melee and Wizard of the late 1970's and using markers and hex-map terrain display, The Fantasy Trip rewards cooperation between players and tactical planning. It is a game that brings the role-playing experience to its audience through mechanics that are quick to learn and would be easily recognized by the tabletop wargamer, a demographic that made up a considerable portion of the tabletop gaming community in the late 1970's. With its re-introduction this year, The Fantasy Trip is once again readily available through Steve Jackson Games, and they are providing the system good support following the very successful Kickstarter.
In The Labyrinth uses a 3d6 roll under mechanic for combat and talent (think skill system) resolution. Armor reduces damage which is deducted from Strength. Dexterity is rolled against in order to strike an opponent and wearing heavy armor deducts from one's effective Dexterity thereby lowering one's chances to score an effective blow. IQ, or intelligence, is the third of the main three attributes and is used for Talents and Magic. Casting spells requires a Dexterity roll and burns Strength points as fatigue. A combination of damage and fatigue that lowers the figure's Strength to zero, that figure (as characters in TFT are called) drops unconscious. Should damage reduce the figure to minus one or lower Strength, the figure is considered "dead".
The arena tactical games Melee and Wizard introduce the basic rules for character creation, combat and magic and are stand-alone games in their own right. In The Labyrinth combines the rules from Melee and Wizard with additional material to form a complete role-playing system called The Fantasy Trip. In The Labyrinth can be purchased separately (as can most of the individually named products) or boxed together with Melee, Wizard and the Death Test solo and Tolenkar's Lair refereed adventures, markers, maps, dice and everything needed for play, all in the Legacy Edition Box.

In The Labyrinth hearkens back to the days when the role-playing hobby was new and as yet undefined. The Fantasy Trip gave us wargamers something familiar in that we played TFT using counters on a hex-map, counting hexes and moving our markers and rolling six-sided dice. Combat with the new element of magic thrown in was about all we wanted. As the hobby matured and we matured as role-players, The Fantasy Trip has taken on an additional dimension, that of social encounter and investigative play. And yes, The Fantasy Trip/ In The Labyrinth is a useful tool for enjoying those aspects of role-playing along with combat and exploration.
In The Labyrinth offers a complete RPG experience and a fun, quick playing, easy to understand game. The simple, yet elegant system developed by Steve Jackson during his early days as a designer, and recently improved upon in its new edition, does not disappoint.

Fanzines & Creativity

The Amateur Hobby Press
The Gongfarmer's Almanac describes itself as "A Free and Unofficial Zine for DCC RPG" and is a continuation of a traditional form of amateur press that predates the original role-playing game. Often referred to as "fanzines" such newsletters and digest sized periodicals have been popular with hobbyists interested in wargames and science fiction and fantasy literature since the age before the internet. Such printed correspondence provided the hobby with a means to share news and ideas and to establish contacts with others who shared a similar interest. Although less prevalent today perhaps, they do still exist.
The Gongfarmer's Almanac is has been around a few years, I have compilations of the Almanac from 2016, 2017 and 2018. Each compilation contains the volumes from that year and includes additional material that can be used with the old school inspired Dungeon Crawl Classics Role-Playing Game (DCC RPG) published by Goodman Games. Included are additional character classes, adventures, rule suggestions, interesting character sheets, maps and artwork, monsters, patrons and deities, all tailored for use by the DCC RPG player.
The booklet pictured above, Volume #5, 2019 of The Gongfarmer's Almanac, is devoted to playing a weird western (Mythos inspired) version of the DCC RPG. The volume includes some setting specific rules for adapting the DCC system to an old west setting and for playing a more horror style of game. New character classes include the Gambler, the Occultist and the Gunslinger and eight others. New rules introduce Madness and a Poker Deck for adding spell like effects to certain new player character classes. In true DCC RPG tradition a zero-level funnel is included to get things started.
Grassroots creativity, a do-it-yourself approach and shared enthusiasm for the hobby is evident on nearly every page of The Gongfarmer's Almanac. It brings to my mind memories of by-gone amateur publications in an era of self publishing of hobby related content meant to be freely shared and enjoyed. In many ways the internet continues to serve a very similar function, but for me there is something nice about the physical copy held in my hands. The Gongfarmer's Almanac is aimed precisely at one particular game, but a quick search will turn up other amateur zines, both digital and print available "at cost", that support our hobby interests and promote the sharing of our collective creativity.
And if you are not familiar with the term "gongfarmer", a quick web search will inform you. Hey, it's what I had to do!

Chainmail & ODD

Understanding White Box through the lens of Chainmail
Volume I of the Little Brown Books lists the Chainmail miniatures rules among the  "Recommended Equipment" for White Box D&D play. It should probably be mandatory and therefore included in the box itself. I did not process the Chainmail miniatures rules in 1977 when I acquired the original edition of the first role-playing game, nor did I see Chainmail for a number of years after that. Therefore, I devised my own interpretation of how to play this new game. I imagine it was just so for many who came to D&D in those days.
Gary Gygax is listed as a co-author of both the original fantasy role-playing game and Chainmail and one may presume the earlier Chainmail product may inform a complete understanding of the Little Brown Books. The subsequent D&D game perhaps represents a certain evolution of thought on the part of Mr. Gygax as he explored the fantasy game and may shed some light on how one might play the new fantasy game.
Taking the turn sequence as an example, we find that in Chainmail both sides roll a die with the higher score choosing to move first or second (after observing the enemy moves). After each side moves in turn, both sides execute artillery fire, missile fire and then melee, in that order. Since magic spells such as fireball and lightning bolt operate much like artillery in Chainmail, I assume we can fit it into the turn sequence after moves and before missile fire.
Magic spells in Chainmail are not the same as in ODD/ White Box. Each type of caster, Seer, Magician, Warlock, Sorcerer and Wizard in order of increasing power, has the ability to know a number of spells and a two-die casting mechanic is (optionally) used to determine the success, delay (it goes off next turn) or failure of each attempt to cast a known spell. Wizards may more reliably cast spells than those magic users of less power as indicated by having greater chances for the spell to actually go off and to take effect without delay. Spells are rated according to complexity and the more complex spells are more difficult to succeed in casting.
In the Chainmail mechanics of magic use and spell complexity we can see the early thinking of the author regarding magic in the fantasy game. Some magic users have greater power than others in terms of knowing more spells and in terms of having the ability to cast them more reliably. The magic spells themselves vary in terms of complexity. Both concepts will be represented with the term "level" in the subsequent D&D rules.
Alignment is a term that appears in the Little Brown Books, but not in Chainmail, however once again we can see a progenitor to this concept in the Chainmail Fantasy Supplement's "General Line-Up" table. The table lists the terms Law, Chaos and Neutral, which are used to categorize the fantastic creatures available for battle along opposing sides, Law verses Chaos, with the possibility that Neutral forces may show up fighting for either or both these sides.
Many of the game concepts such as the forces of Law and Chaos have their antecedents in popular fantasy literature. Chainmail specifically mentions Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions in connection with true trolls and Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone in the section on Magic Weapons and figures combining elements of the "hero" and "wizard". The fantasy supplement to Chainmail and its later cousin, D&D can be seen as game engines to assist players in further exploring the characters and themes they enjoy from popular science-fiction and fantasy stories.
Morale, movement, the effects of terrain, charging, the number of attacks per turn, figure facing and more, all of which shows up in the Advanced game rules, each has their beginnings here in the Chainmail miniatures rules. To be sure, much has been changed and added through the various editions of the world's most popular fantasy role-playing game rules, but the Chainmail miniature rules helps me to understand where it all began and informs how the White Box may be played.