A Pair Of Recent Reads
For some reason I decided that I can't remove a book from the Currently Consuming section until I talk about it. Here's two that need off the list.
Mastering Virtual Teams: I'm working on three projects right now where we don't have everyone in the same place (two at the day job plus the Origins Awards), so I was hoping for some good answers from this book. What I got was two general principles with some specific advice. The principles are these:
- Different tasks have different needs when it comes to collaboration and communication technology. Choose technology appropriate to your tasks.
- Be aware of how different cultural backgrounds (be they national, organizational, or functional) will affect aspects of you team dynamics.
This is good stuff, but I did find myself hoping the book spend more time showing how these ideas apply to particular situations than it did. It also suffered from some organization problems. The big one was that in the section on tech, it showed for each technology what its strengths and weakness are. That's fine, but if I'm choosing a technology based on the task I have hand (as the book recommends I do), I need the lookup table to go the other way. If I know we need to brainstorm, I want the book to tell me what my best choice for that task is; I don't want to have to look at each choice in turn and see how it compares in the brainstorming category.
Overall: Worth reading if you're completely new to the topic (e.g. you haven't seen Geert Hofstede's framwork for assessing culture before), but probably not the Single Most Indespendible Book On The Topic.
The Thin Man: I picked this up from Borders last weekend because it (and The Big Sleep) jumped off an endcap at me. (I mean this metaphorically, not that I'm notably clumsy.) I'd never actually read any Dashiell Hammett, nor had I seen any of The Thin Man films. (This latter fact left me at considerable disadvantage during the drive from Chicago to GenCon last year, when Greg Stolze and Ken Hite were discussing at some length a hypothetical remake of the series.) I enjoyed it, though I found the nigh-constant use of dialogue vaguely disorienting.
Overall: It was nice quick read, so I'm tempted to go back and fill in with Hammett's other novels.
Gaming with Kids: Moving from 1E to 4E for ToEE
As I mentioned in the final comments of my last Temple of Elemental Evil AP post, I’ve made the decision to switch the game from using the OSRIC version of the AD&D rules to 4th edition. This is not a decision I’ve made without quite a bit of reflection, especially considering my somewhat negative experiences with 4E the first time I tried running it with teenagers last year. However, a lot has changed since, not the least of which is my philosophical approach to 4E.
My first attempts of running 4E was by the book (PHB/DMG/MM) and that lead to a lot of dissatisfaction as the game, out of the box, tends to be very grindy, very computer-game like, and nothing like the D&D I grew up playing. It didn’t help that I decided to use the Keep on the Shadowfell adventure which is all of those things in spades. Those decisions were despite the fact that I’ve been roleplaying for over a quarter century and haven’t played D&D by the book since my first couple years – I did so partly because I wanted to see what the designers of D&D were aiming to accomplish, and partly because I wanted to minimize my prep of a game I was still learning. What I ultimately decided though was that the default playstyle of 4E didn’t suit my tastes nor what I wanted for a game involving 12-18 year-olds.
So what has changed?
First off, I picked up the DMG2 on a lark and finally found a way of playing the game that was much more akin to what I wanted. In particular, the inherent bonus alternative rules solve all of the gripes I had about the the necessity of continual upgrades in magic items; magic items can be unique, useful, and flavorful in D&D once again, rather than being an absolute necessity to prevent breaking the game mechanics/balance of the game.
Similarly, I also realized I could create much more flavorful, thematically-driven, and easier to digest campaigns if I took a “less is more” approach to race and class options. By paring away the races and classes that didn’t fit the goal or theme of a particular campaign, I’ve been creating situations and settings that are far more interesting for myself and my players. They’re also one hell of a lot easier to design and run since each game only encompasses a subset of the ever growing plethora of 4E options WotC is shoveling out the door (which has necessitated a lot of errata updates on their part).
I also realized that if I ditched some of the assumptions of how XP work (i.e., stopped worrying about awarding XP on an encounter by encounter basis, but instead awarded it on an adventure by adventure one) that I could eliminate the grind of encounters and instead could focus on meaningful scenes and pace the game the way I wanted to without leaving the players in advancement limbo.
Lastly, my experiences running OSRIC/AD&D have made it clear that the system is no better, or worse, than 4E. It’s certainly different, but fundamentally they’re very similar in the types of experiences you can get out of them, depending on how the group approaches the game and the playstyle they emphasize. I’m going to write about this in a future article once I’ve run both AD&D and 4E with the same group, playing the same characters, in the same campaign. At the moment I’ve played both games side-by-side, but never with the exact same group, so I consider the upcoming change a bit of an experiment-in-waiting.
The other reasons
Aside from my change in how I’m approaching 4E, there are other reasons for shifting the game from OSRIC to 4th edition. Some are practical, some are a matter of personal taste.
First off, I want to teach my core RPG players to play the game, as a group, and our ToEE campaign is the perfect opportunity: We have all seven players involved and with eight weeks left in the school year I have just enough time to get them all familiar with the system. I’m doing this for a semi-selfish reason. I’ve come up with a story and setting idea that incorporates a bunch of influences. While much of them are very old-school (including the fact that my setting only has humans, dwarves, elves, halflings, and half-elves), I very much want to run the game using 4th edition. Thus, I need to start teaching my players the game.
Second, is that we will need to split the group in to two play groups and I need to train a new GM to run the second group. I’m anticipating 10-12 full-time RPG players next year and that’s far too many for one group; it’s ideal for two though. Unfortunately we have no one who is willing, or ever has even attempted, to GM. As has been my experience over the past few decades, everyone wants to play and no one wants to run a game. In the past five years we’ve only had two students who have run RPG campaigns and neither lasted more than a couple of sessions. However, given the growth of the club over the past couple years, this has become an untenable situation: We simply can’t provide enough games without someone else stepping up. Therefore one of my goals next year is to actively start fostering GM development.
Towards this goal I’ve found myself a semi-willing volunteer (he’s 16) but it’s much easier for him to start the process by reading the 4E core books and running the adventures we have access to via DDI, than it is to get him to print out OSRIC and then searching for suitable old-school adventures for him to run. While I collect AD&D stuff, I’m not really keen on having a teenager use my copy of Village of Hommlet or handing over my 1st printing of the AD&D PHB; they’ve seen enough use in the past few decades. 4E is something that’s readily accessible (we even have a set of books purchased with club funds) and something that my GM(s)-in-training can easily invest in themselves if they want to. It’s also a game that’s available in several different languages, something that is important considering 75% of the club’s members’ first language is something other than English.
Most importantly though is the fact that the students, in general, like 4E better than “old school.” They’ve grown up on cinematic, action-adventure with large special FX budgets. That’s 4E in spades. I also have found that the lack of clear options in AD&D stymies some younger players, especially those trying to play spellcasters. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had a very good time with OSRIC and ToEE but most of the kids who’ve played both 4E and AD&D with me are telling me that they liked 4E a lot more because it’s “more exciting.”
Some of them have also picked up on the fact that with 4E, low-level spellcasters are much more interesting and playable than the default AD&D style which essentially is that a low-level magic user is just a really poor fighter who can cast a spell or two before hiding in the back. All of the spellcasters in our OSRIC game have noticed/grumbled/complained about how ineffectual they are as actual spellcasters. I’m fairly sure that was one of the reasons that the student playing Xander decided to stop playing – once he burned through Xander’s two spells for the day (which was bumped up from the default one by me), he felt like a nobody. The idea that “someday you’ll be really powerful” doesn’t really appeal to many players, especially when someday may be 6 to 12 months off.
The Keep on the Chaos Scar
Mike Mearls obviously has a thing for old-school D&D, which anyone who’s read his blog knows. When I first saw the initial description and adventures in the Chaos Scar and the map that accompanied them, I thought “Wow, that’s very reminiscent of the Caves of Chaos in Keep on the Borderlands.” So, when I saw this month’s list of Dungeon magazine articles, I wasn’t terribly surprised to see this one amongst the list:
The Keep on the Chaos Scar By Mike MearlsThe Keep on the Borderlands is a classic adventure site from both 1st and 2nd Edition. Updated for the first time in over ten years, this iteration of the keep is intended to be placed near the Chaos Scar as a new base of operations for heroes seeking their fortunes in the valley. Complete with a map based on the original keep, you’ll find plenty of material to mine for your campaign whether or not you’re playing a Chaos Scar campaign!
Man Travels Under Sink To Meet Future Self
I kinda like how this is told as a beautiful little story. It’s a bit Bradburian.
Ten Favorite Game Mechanics #8 – Demon Creation from Sorcerer
And now, on with the show!
#8 - Demon Creation from Sorcerer
"Is your game balanced?" is a question you hear a lot. The question can mean a lot of things, but a decade ago it was often a nice way of saying, "Does your game give the players enough power to feel cool, without letting them screw up the GM's story?" Sorcerer throws that all out the window.
You want a demon that can help you in a fight? Fine. You want one that can help you impress the ladies? Not a problem. You want one that can teleport you halfway around the world and walk through walls and spy on anyone you've ever met? No sweat. You want one demon to do all of that and more? Now we're cookin' with gas!
By simply saying that there is no upper limit to the number of special abilities a demon can have--and therefore no upper limit on its Power score--Sorcerer murders the sacrosanct notion of "game balance" and uses its corpse to perform game design magic. The player is faced with the same dilemma their character faces: They can write a demon that can do anything they want. The game won't cripple their creation with nickel-and-dime disadvantages. The game won't hold them back because they are just a starting character. The game won't safely corrall them away from affecting the GM's story.
The only thing standing between you and power are the consequences that power brings with it. And your fear of those consequences.
How does Sorcerer pull this off so elegantly? Three main parts: 1) The aforementioned "no upper limit" coupled with the fact that the demon's Power is at minimum one higher than its number of special abilities. Simply, elegantly, this means that more powerful demons are MORE POWERFUL DEMONS! And the interplay of Power with the other scores during the sorcerous rituals means "more powerful" = "more likely to have the upper hand." Consequences are hard-wired into the system.
2) Giving all the supernatural power to an independent entity outside the PC--an entity that has its own needs and desires--forces the player to interact with the GM every time he wants something done. The demon's Need must be fed, and the GM is encouraged to demand it frequently. The things that the demons wants and demands are not pretty, and the player must deal with the impact this thing he has summoned makes upon the world. Consequences are hard-wired into the situation.
3) Changing the job of the GM from "telling the story" to "throwing Bangs" allows the events of the game to traverse where ever they need to in order to showcase the consequences of player action. Add to this the ability that the GM has to rewrite parts of a demon during a failed Contacting role, and you have a recipe for twists and surprises along the path to answering that central question: "How far will you go to get what you want?"
Up next: There may be no "I" in team, but there are strikers!
On Mighty Thews
First, you're saying something about the subject matter or genre of your game: something you think about adventure fiction, or swords & sorcery, or transhumanist sf, or whatever. Second, you're saying something about roleplaying as a practice, taking a position on how real people should collaborate under these circumstances. Third, you're sying something about real live human nature.Here's the insights of my game "On Mighty Thews", which will be published this year.
1) Pulp fantasy like Conan, Tarzan, and all the derivative stuff like Jongor and Throngor and so on is basically about "Man's" position between civilisation and nature. Leiber, and then later Moorcock, were more about the tension between predestination and free will. What these things have in common is that the philosophical contradictions exist within the protagonist (Tarzan is a white man raised in the jungle, Conan is a savage mastering the ways of civilisation) but are never resolved within the protagonist. Tarzan never chooses the jungle or civilisation. Conan remains unchanged by his adventures in the civilised world. Elric never meets his fate. Instead, the protagonists inflict their contradictions on the world around them. The adventures are a lens for examining the contradiction at the core of the protagonist.
2) Creativity is kind of a product of the friction between freedom and constraint. Everyone contributing a small, obvious step can create a big, unexpected whole. The tension between protagonists trying to get what they want, and the world standing in their way creates a canvas for players to create a story.
3) I think people are the sum of their actions. We don't have an "inherant nature", and there isn't a "true" self. We exist as competing narratives and the expressions of such. We are what other people think of us.
Until recently, I think I struggled to realise these three insights well in the context of the game. Especially the first. The game was functioning well at producing interesting characters, and good plot. It flows well, with the creative burden passing around the table. But the story of most games never really exceeded pastiche. It was an imitation of a sword-and-sorcery story, rather than an original composition.
But a small change in the rules has, I think, changed all that.
In "On Mighty Thews" you start play by making a map of the world in which the game will take place. Everyone draws a couple of things on the map, and you end up with an exciting world of adventure and mystery. But it always felt a little flat. Sometimes there'd be original and compelling additions, but often they were kind of uninteresting. What was missing was the symbolic import of the locations on the map - their meaning in the world.
I've always been fascinated by old maps of the world - the way the geography was organised into a culturally-specific structure. Roads radiating from Rome. The Vatican as the center of the know world. Christian nations surrounded by the infidel. I wanted some of that symbolic meaning for my maps in "On Mighty Thews".
Characters in On Mighty Thews have a "d20 trait" which is the theme their character exposits. A character with the trait "Violent" will get a small advantage for every scene in which they are violent, and a large bonus for individual actions in which they are non-violent. Through play we see a picture of a person halfway between violence and non-violence. They are neither one nor the other.
My new rule for On Mighty Thews is that before you start drawing your map of the world, you mark "poles" on the map, and write your characters' d20 traits next to those poles. Things on the map near the poles take on the nature of that trait. People who live near the pole of Violence have a culture steeped in violence, while people grow more peaceful as you travel away from it. In this way, the themes of the characters are writ large in the world around them. Their tension becomes not just an internal tension , but a literal struggle between forces in the world. The characters are outsiders, not fitting into any part of the world with ease. They live on borders, they travel, they are wanderers and adventurers, bearing with them the inevitable contradictions of the world around them.
The Outsider: Stranger in a Strange Land
Originally published at Memento Mori Theatricks. Please leave any comments there.
Writers often place a character in an unfamiliar environment (a.k.a. “fish out of water”), which allows the writer to describe the story’s setting as if it were being witnessed for the first time. In essence, the wide-eyed character acts as a surrogate for the reader. The outsider is a variant of this literary trick: introduce a being from another time or place into our society in order to judge its merits and flaws. While presented as an objective analysis, the outsider’s own biases color his perception of humanity. As a vehicle of social commentary, the outsider either becomes a champion or a critic of civilization. In the most extreme cases, they are messiahs or destroyers.
Outsiders first appear in myths and legends as gods walking among us (~2700 BCE: Gilgamesh, ~1200 BCE: Herakles), and sometimes in disguise (~700: Odin). Mark Twain used a mysterious stranger (1910: No. 44) to expose the immorality of organized religion. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ noble savage (1912: Tarzan) finds little of value in the civilized world and returns to Africa. In the Golden Age, an alien orphan (1938: Superman) embraces the ideals of his adopted planet even after learning more about his true heritage. An impulsive Atlantean (1939: Sub-Mariner) rejects the surface world, only entering a temporary alliance to defeat the threat of Nazi Germany. A warrior princess (1941: Wonder Woman) leaves paradise to explore the world of men, but unlike Tarzan, decides to remain as a champion.
The outsider turns up in the Silver Age as minor variations. A telepathic, phasing shape-shifter (1955: Martian Manhunter) disguises himself as a police detective to gain insight on the human condition. Sent to Earth for rehabilitation, a Norse god (1962: Thor) learns the meaning of honor and humility as he experiences life as a disabled doctor. Given the chance to save his home world from destruction, an astronomer becomes a harbinger of death (1966: Silver Surfer) and then an exile. Initially amoral, the Silver Surfer reclaims his own humanity by rekindling deeply-buried emotions.
In the Modern Age, writers have explored the outsider from unique angles. A freak accident costs a nuclear physicist his humanity (1986: Doctor Manhattan) in a reversal of the outsider’s typical character development. An opportunistic time traveler (1986: Booster Gold) uses future technology and knowledge to artificially create a new persona while the “Main Man,” a maniacal space biker called Lobo, commits planetary genocide and in doing so becomes the last of his race (1990: Lobo – retcon of the original 1983 character).
The first comic book outsider (Superman) is also re-imagined in various guises: a stressed savior from the future (1995: Samaritan) faces the consuming realities of always having to save the world. Reared by the government to be weapon, an extraterrestrial (2003: Hyperion – retcon of original 1969 character) rebels after realizing what was concealed from him.
Love in the Time of Seið
Me and Matthijs Holter wrote a game! It’s called Love in the Time of Seið and it is pretty neat – sort of a quick-play hack of Matthijs’ game Archipelago II, which I well and truly adore. This is a super-focused version that provides characters, situation, and fun kickers, as well as semi-scripted events. You can play through it in a fun evening of sex, deception, and saga-style tragedy. If you’d like to playtest, drop Matthijs a note at matthijs1000 (at) hotmail (dot) com – we’d like your input.
Also: Seið, in case you aren’t up to speed on Old Norse. My favorite character is the Seiðkona, who has a lot to answer for.
10 Favorite Game Mechanics – #9 – Initiative
#9 - Initiative from FVLMINATA
If you've never played in one of my FVLMINATA convention games, you must simply imagine the devilish grin plastered on my face when the group first gets into a combat situation. My eyes twinkle as I say "Let me explain the initiative system of this game: Senators go first!" Players react in one of two ways: Stunned incomprehension, or immediate laughter.
In 2000-2001, it was almost a truism to say that game mechanics were the physics of the game world and the more "realistic" a game was, the better. Not that everyone believed that to be the case, but it was the common, accepted wisdom for a big chunk of the hobby. And more than the funny dice, or the Latin humors on the character sheet, or even the social interaction mechanics, the initiative system set FVLMINATA apart.
More than just being different than the norm, the initiative system focused on what the game was about: Rome as a living, breathing society. You may be fast, you may be strong, but if you're merely a slave, how important can you be? FVLMINATA was anything but dungeon crawls in togas. How your character fit into the social fabric was more important than anything else. It was a game about who you were, more than what you could do.
And who knows? It might be that game again...
Up next: You want something that can crush a car and make you rich and famous? Not a problem.
Paizo’s new adventure path Kingmaker looks pretty damn cool
I’m considering picking up at least the first adventure in the series, despite the fact that I hate 3.5/PF, simply to see the rules for exploring a region. Here’s a bit of the description of the adventure path from the email I received from Paizo.
We’re very proud of Kingmaker, as it marks a new kind of Adventure Path for us. As always, there’s an underlying story—this one involving a secret villain and a bandit lord and trolls and barbarians and missing villages and superstitious kobolds and drunk thugs and so much more—but how that story unfolds is going to be left in large part up to the players. In each of the six Kingmaker volumes, you’ll find several quests for the PCs to complete. And don’t be surprised if players make up their own quests as they explore the land!
Not only are we tackling a more nonlinear “sandbox” approach to adventure construction (which means that it’s very likely your PCs will work through this adventure in a completely unique order), but as the Kingmaker Adventure Path unfolds, your PCs will settle towns, gather followers, raise nations, and fight wars. By the end of Kingmaker, chances are good that one of your PCs will, indeed, be king or queen of his or her own nation!
That sounds really interesting, in a very old-school, sandbox & stronghold building way. You can check out the full set of planned products for the new adventure path here.
This Is the End of Publishing
Very clever.
Now, what I’d really like to see is a total, anarchic proliferation of publishing. Who’s with me?
2010-03-18: First game theory, second game theory
At this point you've been playing games for years or decades, and you want to design a game but you never have. You have insights, and lots and lots of experiences, good and bad, to base them upon. So encountering first-game theory is liberating. It shows you that you can design a game to do exactly what you want it to, to express these insights you've been developing unexpressed.
What's called for next, after you've designed your first game and as you're beginning to design your second, is NOT a further tearing down, NOR a fixed attention upon the bedrock. Those are liberating, and now you're at liberty. No, it wasn't the theory that designed your first game, it was your insights that did. What's called for next is a building up of insights, your own and others', into a working body.
So when I say I've been doing second-game theory, that's what I mean. "'System is the process by which the group decides what happens' is the foundation from which you begin to design, not the sum-all of design," I've been saying. Yes, all rpg rules are social, all rpg rules are about what should I contribute and how should I treat others' contributions, yes, yes. So, we've been doing that for years, time to bring it on. What should you contribute? How should you treat others' contributions?
By Vincent Baker in anyway. Filed under rpgdesign rpglink. 2010-03-18
Gaming with Kids: Temple of Elemental Evil (Session #8)
Session #8 marks the end of the Village of Hommlet section of the adventure. Although there are still some loose ends to tie up next session, some of the still unresolved issues likely will stay that way until the group gathers more evidence and visits Nulb for the first time.
Zort goes to Prison
The first stop for the group upon returning to Hommlet was to see the village elder, where Enzio filled in the startled man about what the group had uncovered at the moathouse. The elder agreed that their prisoner (Zort) could be locked inside his shed until the following morning.
A Visit to the Church
Afterward, the group headed to the church, seeking healing and advice from the Canon. They caught him in the middle of dinner, their haggard appearance and flood of information overwhelming the paunchy cleric. The Canon summoned several acolytes to lend a hand in helping the wounded, while he spoke in private with Irma and Tor. During this conversation it became obvious to both adventurers that Canon Terjon was little more than a political appointee who was interested in a life of comfort and filling the church’s coffers, particularly when he opened the conversation by asking if they had recovered any wealth that could “aid” the church’s efforts. The two opted to not reveal what the group found, instead insisting that they would deliver it to the capital upon their return and let the Bishop decide how to spend the spoils. The Bishop did identify the sigil/symbol seen by the group on the dark champion’s (Lareth) armor and the tattoos as some sort of symbol associated with the cult of the Temple of Elemental Evil but couldn’t say anything more.
After receiving the healing and first aid from the church’s acolytes, the group returned to the Inn of the Welcome Wench, where they had a celebratory dinner. Enzio bragged to the tavern’s attendees about the group’s accomplishments, something that annoyed both Balder and Olaya. After dinner, they all retired to their rooms with plans to interrogate Zort the next day. Ada took time to investigate the small figurine she had found, discovering it was only coated in gold leaf and that underneath was an onyx figurine covered in Fey runes.
He’s dead!
The following morning, most of the group headed to the village elder’s to question Zort while Ada and Kira went to consult with Burne about the figure. At the village elder’s the group discovered Zort, still locked in the shed, had been murdered during the night, his throat slit. Taking a closer look, Enzio noticed that Zort’s face was coated in a fine, white powder. Olaya identified the powder as some sort of poison, the effects of which he demonstrated on Enzio by tricking him into sniffing a cloth covered in some of it: It caused the half-elf bard to pass out for a few moments, which explained why Zort had been killed so easily. A trip to the village’s druid, Jaroo. The elderly druid easily identified the powder as ground Moondrake root which apparently is very rare and very, very expensive. He also told the group more about the nature of the cult of the Temple and the history of the region’s struggle against in decades earlier. He counseled them on their options, suggesting that they needed to gather more evidence that the temple’s cult was indeed active again if they were to have any chance of obtaining help from the capitol.
A Visit to Burne
Ada & Kira visited Burne, negotiating with him to examine the figurine. The odd mage (who wears a “Gandalf” hat despite it being very out of fashion at the time) got Ada to agree to arrange a dinner between himself and Irma as part of his fee. He revealed that the figurine was actually a Fey “puzzle box” which likely contained some sort of heirloom or minor charm. The trick was figuring out how to open it, which is something he didn’t know how to do. Ada, now very intrigued by her item, took it with her and headed back to meet the group back at the inn.
DM Commentary
Lots of roleplaying and a few “skill” tests (which just use ability checks and my 3D method) is what filled this session. It’s now apparent that the cult of the Temple are active once again and that they have one or more agents at work in the town. It’s also clear that Enzio’s bragging and the group’s overt entrance in to the village the day before likely lead directly to Zort’s murder. I have also continued to reinforce the notion that Canon Terjon is not a particularly powerful nor zealous member of the church. At this point, the group counts Jaroo as an ally and advisor, and are also seeking the aid of Burne & Rufus.
Next session marks two major events in the campaign:
- It’s the final game for the 12th grade students who begin their IB exams in May. That means Irma, Howell, and Salladhor will be leaving the group. Howell will be taken over by a new player, the other two will say farewell from the group next week. At this point the plan is for them to head off to inform their respective leaders about the situation in Hommlet.
- It will be our last OSRIC/AD&D session. After spring break we’re switching to 4th edition. The reasons behind the switch I’ll save for a future post since it’s too much to go in to detail here.
Amen To That
Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory in Agile Testing:
"Successful projects are the result of good people allowed to do good work."
Ten Favorite Game Mechanics #10 – Endgames and Epilogues
Let's start at the end--endgame, that is:
#10 - Endgame & Epilogues from My Life with Master
In 2003, the idea that a role-playing game could have an ending--that the rules of the game and the numbers on your sheet could tell you when and how to stop playing--was revolutionary. It flew in the face of conventional wisdom. Lots of people considered the lack of a definite endpoint to be a defining feature of RPGs. They were different than all other types of games because they didn't end.
And yet, My Life with Master came along and said that when Love minus Weariness was greater than Fear plus Self-Loathing, and a minion successfully resisted one of the Master's orders, the gameplay shifted to a new phase--the last phase of the game. There was no doubt it was a role-playing game. No board game could have such rich, tragic characters. And yet it ended!
We can look back now and wonder why this innovation was not more obvious. In application, all RPGs have ended. I may have never run the ultimate campaign-ending scenario I had planned for the D&D game I was running in 11th grade, but there's no question that the game is over. MLwM's endgame took this real world constraint and made it a feature, rather than a bug.
Not only that, but the game itself shaped how your story would end. The decisions you made, and the outcome of those decisions, limit the possible endings for your character's story. The minion who never succeeded at making their ham-handed overtures of affection understood by the townsfolk, who reveled in the violence and villiany that the Master demanded, is going to have a huge Self-Loathing by the endgame, and likely not going to qualify for a peaceful "integrates into the village" epilogue.
This showed other designers how they could use the game's rules to reach into the fiction the players were making and shape it into a statement on the game's subject.
And role-playing games have never been the same.
Up next: Who goes first? Not who you think!
Human Contact:Alone Pre-Order
The front cover of Human Contact: Alone. That's the starship coming back to pick up the envoys, but after nine years, I bet those people reeeeally want to get off that ship.
So, Malcolm, Courtny, Rob, and Soren all got me to thinkin’. What happens when a starship can’t land? The answer is, they do a careful insertion of a small team of emissaries to make it so they can land when they loop back around in seven years.
The groundwork they have to lay is social, but it can take many forms. They might have to win a war, start a religion, or change the colony’s socioeconomic system. In seven years. Because when those Academics finally get into orbit after their now nine year journey, there’s no force in the universe that could keep them off the surface.
To help pay for the print run, I’m taking pre-orders! Paypal $10 +$4 s&h in the US or $6 elsewhere to orders@glyphpress.com and put “Human Contact:Alone” in the subject line.
Gamma is Coming
Hey. Haven’t posted here since school started, really. Things have been completely overwhelming and I’ve been playing a bunch of stuff — Mouse Guard hack, Apocalypse World, some random one-shots of stuff — without having much time to reflect on it in writing. Hopefully I’ll have some time to talk about new shifts in my thinking since Spring Break is coming up.
I was recently needling John Harper for not releasing the partially-updated rules for Danger Patrol. He was waiting until they were fully polished, so he could make a full “beta” release and I basically said that was silly because one of the great things about the incremental publishing model is that you can make an update, large or small, whenever you like. And this week he called my bluff and released updates for both Danger Patrol and Lady Blackbird, destroying whatever excuses I have for not releasing a prototype of Geiger Counter “gamma.”
I still have a couple exams to finish, but after that I’m going to focus on cleaning my house and getting my gamma notes in a playable form instead of a bunch of shorthand that only makes sense to me. So yeah, gamma should be coming soon, at least a playable draft of it, anyway.
JUNGLE ADVENTURE/DEATH WORLD
Originally published at Memento Mori Theatricks. Please leave any comments there.
Humorous Tales of OrcCon, Part 2
It was Friday evening. After running around gathering my materials to demo Penny, getting caught in a minor traffic back-up on the 405, and discovering that the hotel parking was full and that I instead needed to park several blocks away, I finally made it to OrcCon. The first people I ran into were playing The Shotgun Diaries, John Wick's game of zombie survivors. They were led, unsurprisingly, by John Wick. I was immediately roped into the game, and, as all of existing Archetypes were taken, John made me the Crazy Survivor. He then says to me, "I don't know what that means yet. Fake it."
The game was set in LA, and at some point we got ourselves to the Griffith Observatory where the Smart Survivor was going to do something involving the telescope to save us. The plan ran out of steam, however, when we couldn't come up with a reasonable use for the telescope. "Hold on," I said, as I grabbed a flashlight, a piece of paper, and a pair of scissors. "What are you doing?" someone asked. I turned on the flashlight and shone it past my paper cutout, down the shaft of the telescope where it reflect off the mirror to project my design into the sky. "I'm summoning Batman," I said. "What?" they asked incredulously. "Come on," I said, "Adam West has got to be out there somewhere."
I took John's inability to breathe as a sign I was doing ok.
2010-03-16: Dreamation 2010 Games
Tam Lin
Julia and I brought our new jeep/larp hybrid game What to do about Tam Lin?. (Have to update the preview sometime soon.)Tam Lin and Janet, characters from traditional ballads, come to the Court of the Faery Queen, where charcters from other ballads have taken eachother to court over their misdeeds, to plead for Tam Lin's freedom. It is a monster of a game: 100 pages plus. More on the theatre larp side right now. We'd like to write a true jeep version. But it has lots of murder, betrayal and unsavory love, so it is true to the ballads we based it on. Play went well. We were missing several characters due to our player count, so we dropped one of the cases. The timing however was just right that way, so we will likely keep it that way in the final version. We had a lot of fun! Especially due to an amazing Great Selkie portrayal. "In the world of the Selkie, everything is...different!"
Flower for Mara
I ran Seth Ben Ezra's Flower for Mara for the first time. I played at GenCon two years ago, and loved the game. Very difficult topic: Mara has died, and the game deals with the grieving of the family members left behind. The story deals with scenes at family dinners over the seasons of a year (the funeral dinner, Easter dinner, Mara's birthday in the summer, Christmas), and in between we have focus scenes on each of the characters to see how they are dealing. However, in these scenes Mara can appear, as a ghost or memory. A tangible reminder. Julia played Mara, and was a "nice Mara". (I was a "mean Mara"). Major issues revolved around the alcoholism of Mara's husband, played by Frederik, and the attempts by her parents (Jason Morningstar and Marev) to protect Zoe, Mara's daughter (played by Anna) from him. The players jumped in with further flashback sequences, such as when Jason's father character had Frederik's character in the emergency room early in his relationship with Mara, lecturing him on how he was heading down a self-destructive path. Unfortunately, I missed some rules: we didn't do flower monologues, where each character says goodbye to Mara. And the personal griefs of the players that were attached to the eponymous flowers were present, but not everyone knew that you were supposed to share them. But overall, a good, powerful time.
Pinkwater!
One of two tabletop freeform playtests I was in. Remi is working on a game based on some young adult novels of Daniel Pinkwater. Stories in which a young nebbish of a character gets involved with some mysterious adventure, then learns to rely more on his/her own self with the help of some friends. A very promising playtest, which went about half-way through the game. The first part was structured well, and flowed even for people for whom the whole style of play was new and unusual.
Each player has a role that may encompass different characters that they will play (except for the player of the hero), and as you shift characters amongst you, the flavor you bring to play of that character reflects the type of role you take. For example, Michele and I took the "Friend" role. So over the course of things, we played fellow students, teachers, parents, etc. But our take was to have these characters help the Hero. Another player played the establishment, and so when she played the parents, their role was to block the Hero and to give him hurdles to jump. Our game had a young boy new to an urban school try to be cool and fit in. He found a friend in a young city girl who ventured with him to a mysterious tea shop, where they indulged in teas that expanded their consciousness.
This game ended up having a confrontation between the kids and the Hero's parents about the nature of the relationship between him and his friend, but it seems like we veered a bit from the desired path for the game, which is to go into another dimension or mysterious world. Remi got lots of good experience and feedback, which I am sure will help him finish out this excellent game.
Prehistoric Ties
The other tabletop freeform playtest. Dave Cleaver is working on a game he wrote during a Game Chef Contest that uses illustrations drawn by Vincent Baker. They are cute little drawings of cave people! The game is about a cave family, trying to take care of their cave baby who takes off on crazy chases into danger. It's very silly and fun, but also has intercut scenes where the family deals with their issues with one another. In our game, Jason, Rachel and I were the mother, older sister and father respectively. Jason's character had an issue like "My mate is not too bright" and that framed the family conflicts. Mother gained sister's admiration from me (which I'd had at the start) by doing amazing rescues using her noggin, and I eventually grew to respect her smarts. One issue that came up was that during the family scenes it was hard to focus on the child, so I think Dave may begin the game with a chase scene. This will put more emphasis on the madcap nature of the game too, which seems like a good thing. I look forward to seeing this finished too! It seems quite close.
Previous Occupants Another terrifying jeep game from Frederik Berg Ostergard and Tobias Wrigstad. But in this one all you have to do is play out murder and mayhem, rather than risk your heart, so it's quite accessible. ;) A ghost story, dealing with two couples who happen to stay overnight at the same hotel room, at two different points in time: one in the 80s, one in the 50s or 60s. The earlier couple's stay ends in murder, and then these two characters "come forward" in time and possess the later couple. This is accomplished by a simple technique where the player of the older couple can "tap in" and take the role of one of the other characters. When they do so, they bring in paranoia and anger into the sweet new love of the others. Terry and Julia took the roles of the older couple, and brought new horror to the realms of marriage. Courtny and Will played the younger couple, a pair of to be engaged born again Christians who fall prey to temptation and have sex out of wedlock. It was gripping. We even had an audience, who came in a bit late, but who made it there before the end of act 1 and who got to enjoy the ride. They shared that their terror was enhanced (perhaps) by the fear of being asked to jump in and take part in playing! Hmm.. have to keep that in mind.
All in all a great con. Though sign ups were a bit odd at first though--all three of the games I ran had too few players signed up at the start. And it's only by the divine intervention of Robert Bohl that I ended up getting players after all for the first one. After that there was momentum and we got enough folks to play. Though we unfortunately had to merge two jeep crews, and Frederik only got to run Previous Occupants once. I heard about other games that had similar issues. I guess everyone wanted to try to play Fiasco and Swords with out Master. :) Thankfully it all worked out.
By Emily. Filed under play. 2010-03-16
More map making fun with Photoshop
I churned this map out for a sandbox campaign I’m planning on running next fall with the kids at the school gaming club. Of course, not wanting to waste a lot of time dreaming up new names, I did what any good GM should learn to do: I borrowed names from existing products. In this case, my old 1st edition Forgotten Realms box set, Krynn, the 4E DMG, and even some real life locations (e.g., Mirror Lake is in upstate NY). The Scar by the way is where I’m locating some of the locations of the current Dungeon Magazine Chaos Scar adventures, although in my case there’s a very different history behind the creation of the region.
Click for larger version
Fuck you and your box text
Originally published at Memento Mori Theatricks. Please leave any comments there.
Your box text might be incredibly well written and interesting to read on the page but it’s not at all important when you’re playing a game and it’s time to relay that information to the players.
It doesn’t matter.
Investigation is not about taking in every detail and trying to make sense of it. It’s about finding answers to your questions.
There’s a thread on story-cunts and predictably, the host of usual suspects just doesn’t get it. Jesse sees the problem, because he’s an astute guy. From him, re: Gumshoe (which I dislike immensely, so full disclosure there):
“You come into the library, ornate tapestries hang from the wall depicting scenes from the life of Henry the V. Each row of books is headed by an ornately carved statue. The floor itself appears to be made of marble and is inscribed with odd occult runes. The large domed ceiling sports an incredibly detailed map of the stars.”
In most of these kinds of games and in this example, the GM waits for one of the players to pick the right thing to inquire about, then gives him the relevant information. This is ass-backwards.
What should happen is that the players investigate the scene not by finding an answer but by asking a question:
“What are we doing here?”
Look at a police procedural. It’s not a clue by clue scavenger hunt, with bloody footprints leading the way to the next mini-scenario like a trail of breadcrumbs. It’s people searching for the answer to a question and then using that to determine their course of action. The players decide where the story goes based on the evidence. The best part of this is that they won’t ever be wrong. Even if they don’t go to the next obvious place to find the next piece of the puzzle, wherever they go/whatever they do will give them something related to their first inquiry.
Standard investigation game: the players are searching a room for *a* clue. Any clue. The GM gives them a description and the players try and figure out the obvious breadcrumb trail. Sometimes it’s with a search roll or something relevant to the item/location/person being examined (like botany or archeology or library science). If successful, the GM elaborates on the item/person in question, giving them more information that wasn’t originally included in the description. The roll is either binary (yes they find it, no they don’t) or it’s scaled (varying amounts of information tied to the character’s proficiency or die roll or both).
My investigation game: the players ask a specific question and the GM gives them the thing that answers that question. Proficiency determines how much the answer helps to build their case. Example: the players enter a murder scene. What’s the question? Well, in general it’s “Who dunnit?” but that’s too broad. They can begin with a theory or start totally cold. What they need to do is to build a case to support their theory. “How the victim die?” Well that’s known… someone else did the legwork and they just talk to the guy (an easy task because the medical examiner is on their side. “Blunt trauma to the head.” he says, perusing the victim’s crushed skull). The players decide they’re going to go to scene of the crime and ask the next logical question: “What is the murder weapon?” The GM doesn’t give them any more than minimal details about the location until they ask this question and make the appropriate die roll. The players roll well and the GM gives them the murder weapon (a heavy stone paperweight) and a clue about that clue (it has spots of dried blood on it).
Everything is a clue until it’s determined to be irrelevant, nothing is a clue until it’s put into context.
The players can know that yes, this is the murder weapon. The paperweight fits the profile (heavy, hand-held, bludgeoning trauma, available to the victim’s killer). The dried blood is another link in the evidence chain. If they rolled even better you could have more solid evidence (hair fibers stuck to the stone, and/or the paperweight is not on the desk where it should be but is underneath the desk). “Knowing” it was the paperweight doesn’t matter until the case is built. The more facts are known, the more solid the evidence, the more solid the case.
Less is more: too much information is not helpful. Investigation is about discerning what’s important in a sea of noise. Don’t contribute to the noise.
So what if they roll poorly? You can still give them the clue but it’s shaky evidence (“Well, it MIGHT have been this stone paperweight…”) and then the players need to continue exploring that angle (lab tests? fingerprint dusting? smashing gelatin heads and comparing the result to the wound on the victim?). Or you use the lack of evidence as ANOTHER CLUE.
There is an empty space on the desk that catches your eye. Everything is a little dusty but for one roundish spot. The breeze blows in through a window, scattering papers piled on the desk.
This of course leads to a follow up question: “Where is the murder weapon?” Answering this clue will give them the murder weapon but also lead to more questions they can ask, all leading up to the most interesting mysteries:”Who?” and “Why?”
So that’s how I’d do it.
Laban Movement Types
Brand and I do a lot of description in our RPG’s - not surprising as we both are writers and we play emotion centric games in which we often want to have things illustrated, but not verbalized in play. We use description cues in an NPC’s movement to give them characterization and depth. This is especially true of the two games we’ve been playing recently. One is a pseudo historical swashbuckling bodice-ripper done in a quasi-novella style and the other is our home brew So You Think You Can Dance game, in which- as you can imagine - character movement is particularly important thing to describe.
One of the tools we use to get at characterization through movement is a methodology of analysis I learned back in my theatre days so long, long ago. A dance dude by the name of Rudolf von Laban provided a system of language to describe and understand movement by breaking it down into a set of Basic Effort Actions made up of component binaries based on weight, space and time. According to him, movement was some degree of heavy or light, direct or flexible, sudden or sustained. In all combinations, this produces eight basic effort actions descriptively called Float, Thrust, Glide, Slash, Dab, Wring, Flick, and Press.
These terms are used to describe individual actions in Laban Movement Analysis, but they have been adopted by acting methodology to shorthand emotion through movement in theatre. Brand and I use them in RPG’s to shorthand the emotional state of a character, but we also use the ideas in them to shorthand their personalities as well. I thought one or two of you might find the model useful in your own games, so here’s a list:
Press (direct, sustained, heavy) is my favorite effort action, and I always start here when describing them. It’s heavy, so the movement has weight and bearing. It’s direct so it goes at a goal, and it’s sustained, so it is not as much quick or sharp as grinding ever forward. Press is a presence-y commanding push, a slow, relentless dominance of action, a grinding down under forward progress. Press is a bulldozer, press is a marching army, press is a dominant seduction. In our games, press people are great people - An emperor, a general, a calm, intense, ambitious person who is unafraid of grinding anything in his path to dust to get at what he wants.
Thrust (direct, sudden, heavy) is an easy one to describe. It has at it’s goal with speed, efficiency, control and deadly intent. It’s the final blow of a driving blade. A bullet to the brain. A knockout punch. In our games. Thrust characters are intense people. When they are good guys they’re often proud and capable and exceedingly restrained.
Slash (flexible, sudden, heavy) is a neighbour of Thrust. It’s heavy and fast, but where Thrust is controlled, Slash is wild. Slash is a back alley knife fight. Slash is a swashbuckling, bottle smashing, drunken brawl. In our games, Slashers are arrogant, audacious, sexy rakes with big reputations.
Wring (flexible, sustained, heavy) is the last of the heavy actions. It’s sustained like press, but it’s not direct. It’s flexible and twisting, like wringing a wet towel out. Wring is an inward churning individual. Wring could be a twisted malcontent. Wring is an strategic herder. In our games, wrings are often scheming villains, twisted and evil.
Glide (direct, sustained, light) is light, graceful, and directed. Gliding is a ballroom dancer. Gliding is an ice skater. Gliding is a courtesan on a gondola. Gliders in our games are socially adept, dangerous people who get you to do things you didn’t intend to do and yet somehow have you respecting them for it.
Float (flexible, sustained, light) is like Gliding without direction, Wring without Weight. Float is lazy cumulus clouds. Float is puppy love. Float is collateral damage waiting to happen. Floaters in our games are benevolent friends, hapless tarot fools skipping off cliffs, and sometimes the maddening few that can not be encumbered by you.
Flick (flexible, sudden, light) is like Float, but without the ease of sustained action, or Slash without the threat. Flick is lick of fire. Flick is toss of hair. Flick is an always distraction. Flickers in our games are most often maddening, mercurial creatures who must be cajoled, convinced or connived into commitment, or loyal, but somewhat inconsequential allies.
Dab (direct, sudden, light) is like Thrust without deadly intent. Dab is a bon mot. Dab is cutting remark. Dab is a Lady Macbeth. Dabbers in our games are devastating social creatures. They’re political powerhouses, and deft manipulators.
Let me know if you find this useful, or if you’re using anything like this in your own play or discussion around play. If you’re one of the folks (Jim, Emily, Jason, I’m looking at you) that has a late interest in theatre or improv that grew out of RPG’s I’d recommend you spend some time physically playing with the eight Basic Effort Actions. It’s a great movement exercise, and an enlightening emotional technique.
For Rob: The Checklist Manifesto
My friend Rob suggested that I read The Checklist Manifesto. I did so. He then asked me questions about it, which I answer here:
What field were you looking to apply TCM to? Any examples of problems you hoped it would apply to?
I went into it with no real idea what it was about. All I had was your strong recommendation, based some of our conversations about (I believe) Made To Stick.
Do you think there's a meaningful difference between cockpit checklists and construction checklists? Do you think this needed more exploration?
I'm undecided. Certainly what he found useful about them was different. In the case of construction checklists, he emphasized the communication component (the submittal schedule) rather than the "this is what you do" component (which is probably some variant on a Gantt chart). In the case of cockpit checklists, he emphasized the latter, which makes sense given the number of people involved.
One complaint I've heard is that it gives too little guidance on how to actually make a list. Once that was called out I realized I was filling in gaps with my GTD knowledge, so I am not sure about this one way or another. Your thoughts?
It certainly lives up to its "manifesto" claim in that regard: It presents a clear call for action, without really giving specific guidelines about how to it. That's not entirely true, as there's a few choice paragraphs in the "The Checklist Factory" chapter about what makes good and bad checklists. But there are too few concrete examples. Did you notice how the whole book is about the development of the WHO Safe Surgical Checklist, but the checklist itself is never included in the book? (If you're interested, it's here.) I certainly would have like to see examples of each of the types of checklists that he talks about it. He also talks about the need to test and refine new checklists; I would like to have seen before and after versions.
Do you think this idea has any real chance of penetrating the geek mindset?
I do think there are real challenges to adoption, as he identifies in "The Hero In The Age Of Checklists." As to whether those are overcome, your guess is as good as mine on that.
Now that you're done, how do you see yourself applying this?
Any book like this is like the cave in The Empire Strikes Back for me: What's in there is what I take with me. What I took with me was a lot of stuff about Scrum, since that's what I'm living in right now. There's a lot of resonance there: pushing authority out the people on the ground, insisting on regular communication to resolve problems, and following a checklist-like process to take care of the dumb stuff so that you can be smart. Plus, the inspect-and-adapt cycle of Scrum lends itself to the development of checklists. We'd already started to create checklists for the different types of stories we implement; I'm working on one now for estimation.
Beyond that, I see some potential for application in RPG design. As you pointed out, the end-of-session and end-of-year processes in Mouse Guard are basically checklists of this. They get you to stop and think about the right things, which ultimately is what the manifesto want you to do.
Does that answer your questions?
The Ghost: Reliving the Past
Originally published at Memento Mori Theatricks. Please leave any comments there.
The ghost represents our fear of death, but more accurately our anxiety over unfinished business. Because ghosts refuse to accept death, they are able to pursue revenge or work toward a final task. The tragedy of ghosts is that they often repeat the same mistakes, failing to learn why they died in the first place.
Most cultures believe in ghosts and the concepts of haunting, resurrection and possession. However, when apparitions appear in myth or literature, their primary role has been to give guidance to the living since death brings a different perspective on mortality. The shade of Achilles in The Odyssey, Hamlet’s father and Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol provide crucial information to the protagonists.
In the Pulp Era and Golden Age, several crime fighters adopt ghostly imagery to add mystery to their personas (1933: Phantom Detective; 1936: Phantom; 1949: Ghost Rider), but two “resurrected” characters dispense justice from beyond a presumed grave: a Texas lawman (1933: Lone Ranger) and a big city detective (1940: The Spirit), both cut down in the line of duty.
The first true-ghost protagonist was an avenging angel dedicated to eliminating evil from the world (1940: Spectre). The reanimated corpse of a businessman (1944: Solomon Grundy) with no memory turns to crime to regain his perceived loss of wealth. An infamous highwayman (1947: Gentleman Ghost) doomed to remain on earth until his immortal foes are vanquished. Due to the Comics Code Authority ban on supernatural themes, ghosts appear through the lens of science fiction. Superman faces criminals (1961: Jax-Ur and General Zod) from the Kryptonian past imprisoned in the aptly named Phantom Zone.
The late Silver Age debut of the ghost of a murdered trapeze artist (1967: Deadman) who faces drug smugglers and his own killer directly challenged the Comics Code Authority. With the relaxation of the code in the Bronze Age, supernatural ghosts returned: a demon who possesses a motorcycle stuntman (1972: Ghost Rider), a mummified Egyptian prince (1973: N’Kantu) and a mindless revenant controlled by a mystic amulet (1973: Zombie). The Ghost Rider character remains very popular and serves as the template for the anti-heroes of the Modern Age: an indestructible force (1989: The Crow) suffering from guilt and melancholy and a servant of hell (1992: Spawn) with extensive magical powers. As undead creatures, they question the morality of their actions as they cling to the last vestiges of their humanity.