Other Games

Watched the first episode of the new Stranger Things last night (well, this morning...around 1am) and now I am annoyed. Like, really annoyed. Not because of the new characters or plot developments or story arc changes...no, all that stuff is neat, interesting and welcome. Well done, intriguing, makes me want to watch more.

No, what has annoyed me to no end is the new D&D player boasting about her 14th level rogue character...in 1986. Three years before 2nd edition would introduce "rogue" as general class specification of thieves and bards, and 14 years before 3rd edition would introduce "rogue" as a specific, playable class in lieu of the thief. 

Color me the brightest color of nerd on the planet...fine. For a series that prides itself in grounding its setting in a particular time period, this is an annoying, gross misstep that I simply cannot unsee. It has tainted my enjoyment of the show; it's broken my suspension of disbelief. It's lowered my opinion of the Duffer Brothers' "D&D cred;" born in 1984 did they ever actually play the brand of Dungeons & Dragons their protagonists do?

*sigh* The things that annoy us. Everyone has their pet peeves...this is just one of those things that really chaps my hide.

[the idea that ketamine...i.e. "Special K"...would have been available to a casual drug dealer in '86 in as small a town as Hawkins also seems a bit dicey, though that may simply be my naivete regarding 80s drug culture (it wasn't on my radar till the 90s). But THAT particular anachronism bothers me a lot less...go figure]

Moving on to other, non-"nerd rage" topics: I wrote...mm...last weekend (maybe?) that I wanted to introduce my kids to some new RPGs, particularly Gamma World and Top Secret. Top Secret it was (or, as my kids call it, "super spies"). My son's British MI6 agent, "Chad" caused me no small amount of amusement (mainly due to his name which, to him, sounded "very English") though his antics were a bit more Johnny English than James Bond. In the end, he was KIA while trying to rescue the U.S. president (Operation: Executive One, from the TS Administrator's screen)...having his foot shot off by a shotgun-tripwire trap.  

Fun, but not as much fun as D&D (that cleric magic can really mitigate missteps, you know?). And I'm afraid Gamma World wasn't even tried, and probably won't be any time soon. There's a LOT that I dig about the GW game...just reading the 1E rules or early adventures like Famine in Fargo and The Albuquerque Spaceport are a JOY. But I'm not a huge fan of the GW system...it's just so...

Mm. I don't know the word I'm looking for. It's kind of immune to planning or manipulation. It's too "swingy;" there's no mastery of design, really. Um...hm. Okay, how 'bout this:

Gamma World, unlike other RPGs, is poorly done when it comes to character generation. Not because it's poorly themed (I rather like the PSH, Humanoid, Animal selection), but because...outside the first choice of "character type"...you are a slave to the random die roll. It is possible to create an Uber-mutant...or a complete genetic dead end. And it's all based on a random throw of the bones. Vast discrepancies in effectiveness are possible between different players' characters...and the success of the PCs adventures largely comes down to how heavy a hand the GM is willing to take.

Such is not the case with D&D, for example: 1st level characters have their different skill sets, but they are largely comparable in power...and experience/leveling gives a good indication of what types of challenge/obstacle are appropriate for a party of a particular size. That's ain't GW, where a beginning mutant may (by dint of fortunate rolls) come out as a powerhouse while her amigos are all primitive weenies. I saw a lot of this, Back In The Day (when I used to run 2E)...more than GW setting nonsense, this is what eventually turned me off on the game. Somehow, I always seem to forget this aspect of Gamma World, right up till it's time for chargen.

[and I'll probably forget about it in the future as well. Dennis Laffey's GamMarvel World idea remains an intriguing one...something I'd love to run with pre-gens sometime...]

Other games:  I picked up the latest version of Twilight 2000 a few (three to five) weeks back. It continues to sit, unopened and shrink-wrapped, on my living room coffee table. I don't know why. I don't know what I'm waiting for. I'm going to open it. Soon. One of these days. 

Ugh. I'm scattered all over the place this morning. Truth be told, there's nothing burning terribly brightly on my mind this morning, other than the sunshine streaming through the window. I'd like to go for a bike ride today, I think...a little exercise, a little fresh air. That's what I need...not more games. 

I already have/own/run the BEST game. The session with the new kid went well yesterday. I won't bother to bore folks (more than I already have) with tales of the party's exploits, but great fun was had, and much success as well.  I don't know why I need to collect and hoard other RPGs.

All right, this post is going nowhere...maybe I'm just tired (still). Going back to sleep for a bit.

Random Wednesday World Building

The in-laws left last night...finally. Dropped 'em off at the airport along with the wife, who had to take a last minute biz trip (just a day shot to San Fran...no bigs). So to celebrate, I kicked up my feet (after putting the kids to bed) and settled in to watch something the Mrs. wouldn't normally dig on (as I am wont to do). In this particular case, I chose The Witcher.

This, by the way was partly due to curiosity, but mainly due to the recommendation of my old buddy Steve. I'd already got a bit of a taste of the show from Fr. Dave's blog (he did not recommend it), but Steve-O really sold me on it as "something you would like, Jon." He told me it's "just like D&D" far more than Game of Thrones with all that intricate political scheming and weepy plot/non-fun stuff...just badass monster kicking. While his read of what I like in a D&D game is pretty far off, I was intrigued enough by his enthusiasm to flip it on.

I fell asleep pretty fast. I tried to stay awake, and drifted in and out of consciousness through about three episodes, but my overall impression wasn't good enough to really maintain interest. Like, at all.

Maybe I'm being unfair to the show and I should give it another shake in the light of day, but the impression I got was indeed that the show was "just like D&D"...but bad D&D. The kind of D&D I'm not interested in playing. The kind where heroic (or anti-heroic) characters with little risk to survival, posture and weep through silly backstories of their own creation. Dungeons & Dragons by way of World of Darkness with a setting even more ridiculous that your usual high fantasy Tolkien riff.

Which, by the way, is not to say that a setting for a GAME needs to be a masterpiece of world building, because the game at its best is about the experience of playing, not the resolution of story. But for my FICTION, I want a little more robust world building, even if it does have insane demographic anomalies. And for both fiction AND role-playing, I'd like to see a little less trope when it comes to the main character. Damn, I am soooo tired of action heroes these days, especially outside of the superhero genre. Even the WB and Disney do better at assembling ensemble heroes.

[by the way, I won't say it's a terrible thing for a VIDEO GAME (such as the one on which The Witcher is based) to have an over-the-top badass of a protagonist who looks like a Targaryan-skinned Drizz't the Drow. One player CRPGs are generally exercises in mental masturbation anyway, with no serious challenge and just an interest in playing out some creator's particularly constructed story line in an awesome fashion...they are guilty pleasures and I've played my share over the years. But it's embarrassing for a TV show or film, and shameful in most tabletop games]

So it was around 2:30am or so that I finally dragged myself conscious enough that I could turn the damn thing off, mercifully cutting short some elf bitching and moaning about how humans gave their race a raw deal (gee, never heard that kind of thing before) and thus "we hates 'em forever" ...whereupon I discover the TV show behind the Netflix to be Alien Resurrection, a film I've never before seen, despite generally enjoying the franchise (at least enough to watch the first three films more than a couple times). Not only was it interesting enough that it brought me fully awake, but after 5 minutes of watching I enjoyed it enough that I restarted the movie (ahh...the magic of On Demand television), only forcing myself to turn it off an hour in so that I could get SOME sleep before starting the Wednesday routine (ahh...the curse of On Demand television).

Not that Alien Resurrection is a fantastic piece of cinema by ANY stretch. Spoiler Alert: it shares the same plot as pretty much every film in the franchise (humans underestimate xenomorphic entity and bloody massacre ensues within a claustrophobic labyrinth of a setting). Film doesn't even have the interesting bits found in the earlier franchise installments...loving attention to technophile detail, subverted genre tropes, brilliant character acting...instead being, well, a pastiche of the genre and about what you'd expect (it DOES have great character actors...including Ron Perlman, Dominique Pinon, and Dan Hedaya...but they're largely wasted in a mediocre script).

However, at least there's an ensemble cast of characters, each on about equal footing in terms of both competence and fragility, and that piques some interest...even if it's only of the death pool variety.

And seeing this, and comparing and contrasting the two (the film and the TV show) in terms of what they both build, and mulling it over last night and this morning, I find myself calcifying some thoughts I've been having a LOT the last couple weeks.

First is this: I am just about done with heroic fiction. I intend to watch the last Star Wars film (for the sake of completeness) but I am about ready to give the whole thing up. Finally. The same way I gave up Star Trek circa 1988...I'm just not interested in it anymore. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ruined the action genre for everyone. Yes, I realize this paragraph makes little sense...it requires a very long, detailed, and intricate rant. One of these days.

Second is this: While I've long been in the "loathe" category for RPGs that seek to emulate the heroic action play style typified of popular computer RPGs (i.e. stuff like late edition D&D), I have now come around to being done with "story type" RPGs of the indie school. I'm just not interested in group storytelling at all except, maybe, as the occasional one-off at a convention or something. Probably not even then: if I want to tell stories, I'll tell stories, thank you very much. While I'm not saying I'm capable of creating my own decent fiction without help, I have zero interest in collaboration when it comes to story-telling: you tell your story and I'll tell mine, thank you very much. And let's keep BOTH our stories off the gaming table, because that type of action is NOT what I want to be playing at. My escapism requires a little more direction.

Third is this: in making a list of RPGs that I would still want to play, I'm finding the list shrinking rapidly to a handful of games all of which are of the EARLIEST variety. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Classic Traveller. First edition Gamma World. First edition Top Secret. Etc. It's not that later games (or editions) don't do good things when they come along, clarifying and streamlining rules, fixing systems that are broken and such. It's just that:

• Much of the time, the kernel of the game (or the thing that made it great) gets lost in an update. See the transition from 1E to 2E Gamma World or 1E to 2E Heroes Unlimited or 1E to 2E AD&D for blatant examples. 
• Many of the changes are ones that don't NEED to be fixed; this is especially true with much of AD&D (I would argue that 2E's reworking of the default XP system is the main rule change that "broke" D&D). Many designers, kowtowing to the whining of the masses ("why didn't you include a skill system?") inadvertently ruin their own, mostly solid, games. 
• Most of the updates are things I could do myself and/or could probably do better. And even in cases where a game's writers are more elegant in their design than myself, I'd still prefer to make these changes myself because they're for MY game and MY needs...the needs of MY table. Plus, I'm more likely to remember and use design changes that I implement myself.

But really, it's just that it's hard to the originator of a subject or game, even when the original game suffers in execution. Would you really try to "out-Tolkien" Tolkien? I probably wouldn't, but even if I did, I hope I wouldn't try to make a buck off it (looking at you, uber-popular genre writers who shall remain unnamed). Yes, 1E Gamma World is ridiculous, but it is coherent and sensible and theme-oriented within itself, and I can adjust its level of ridiculousness to suit my tastes, which may not be to the taste of others; I don't need every new edition that comes out doubling down on the sheer absurdity of the game just to provide "more of the same."

[I've been thinking about GW a lot lately...probably another post needed]

Fourth (and final) thing is this: In any tabletop RPG, the world building is immensely important. It may, in fact, be the most essential element that a GM needs to handle and something to be approached with care and a serious mind (regardless of the seriousness of the game/genre). Knowing the rules, running the game...these things are, of course, super-duper important things to a GM, but you always have the rulebook (and possibly knowledgeable players) to help with that aspect of GMing. World building rests squarely on the GM's shoulders; even GMs incorporating input from players needs to act as final editor of what is included in a world and how it interacts with the rest of the setting. And without a viable world, you lose the ability to have satisfying, long-term game. World building is absolutely essential.

I'm just sorry I haven't prioritized it higher in the past; I'll try not to make that mistake moving forward.

All right, that's enough for now.

Mutants Rule

Earlier this week (Monday? maybe) my son and I finished watching the last episode of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes animated series. Ye Old Netflix suggested another show we might like to watch: Wolverine and the X-Men animated series. As it is (like Avengers) rated TV7 and (also like The Avengers) lacks the "FV" ("fantasy violence" tag) I figured we could give it a shot. My son understands superheroes and cartoons are just fiction, after all.

Welp, we haven't been disappointed. The boy digs it (he now says the X-Men have been added to his favorite superhero teams which previously only included the Avengers and "the Superfriends"). He does continue to refer to it as "The Mutants" ('Papa, can we watch The Mutants while we eat lunch?') which would probably have been a more apt title, if (perhaps) not one with the same cache.

[though "cache" is a relative term...I see the name "Wolverine" in a title these days and I'm pretty immediately disinterested. I reached my saturation point with little, furry guy some years back]

Anyway, the show's not bad, if a bit disjointed and grabass, story-wise (compared to tight story arcs of The Avengers). At least the characters and plots are recognizable to Yours Truly. And in addition to be a good model for teamwork, there's a nice message of tolerating others and their differences which allows me to justify my child's exposure of the program.

And from a gaming perspective, it's starting to percolate some inspiration in my brain.

The "gamers ADD" thing is a tired subject for blog posting, but it's no revelation to long-time readers of this blog that "game designer ADD" is a much more serious topic...in that flitting from project to project is a sure recipe for not getting shit done. Now, if I was a big company with a staff of writers and designers, this wouldn't be an issue: I'd hand off ideas and concepts to staffers and just oversee the development of "products" [anyone see my recent post about "entering a new phase" as a publisher? This is a taste of the direction I'm ruminating on]. But at this point I'm not a "company;" and multiple inspirations are dangerous de-railings when it comes to completing projects.

It is what it is.

The part that's got me thinking is the whole post-apoc, (anti-)mutant war, sentinel-filled future those X-Men folks always seem bent on preventing. The idea of such a future was a good and interesting one when it first came out in the comics...taking the mutant analogy for the Civil Rights movement (and general history of prejudice and intolerance in this country) and ramping it up in combination with the themes one finds in the 1984 film The Terminator (dudes from the future traveling back in time to prevent a war with "the machines"). Actually, the Days of Future Past storyline predates Terminator (1981), but the later storyline involving Nimrod and Rachel Summers physically traveling back in time was in 1985 and feels a bit derivative (to me). ANYway...

That's a lot go giant robots.

In 1987, TSR published MX1: Nightmares of Futures Past for the Advanced Marvel Superheroes RPG. MX1 isn't really an adventure module; instead, it's an entire campaign setting placing PCs in the dystopian future where the machines (the sentinels) have taken over. Most of its 36 pages contains information on the world, the sentinels, equipment, antagonists, procedures for searches, and a sample internment camp, as well as special (new) rules regarding popularity and karma use in the setting. Only the last 4 or 5 pages contain adventure ideas and possible scenarios. It's really a toolbox to run your own guerrilla war against giant robots in a dystopian future setting. Later TSR offerings MX2 and MX3 were straight "adventure modules," but ones set in the same campaign setting.

MX1 is interesting and has lots of good, useful information but, in my opinion, doesn't do enough to tweak the original MSH rules for compatibility with the rather dark and gritty setting. For example, there's no changes in character creation to insure appropriateness (i.e. a tightly themed setting could easily devolve into an ordinary cosmic weirdness/kitchen sink game MSH is prone to do). Normally, "appropriateness" isn't an issue as MSH does a great job of modeling the exact same weirdness found in the Marvel universe circa the early to mid-80s...but MX1 would probably work best in a "standard" MSH campaign wherein a PC hero group makes a (temporary) foray into the future to save a blighted alternate timeline.

A more manageable take on the "mutant hunted apocalypse" was suggested by Dennis Laffey in his recent Gamma World/Marvel mash-up campaign that uses Mutant Future as its base system. Dennis has been busy of late with a new baby and his ongoing Chanbara project, so I'm not sure if the campaign is still up and running, but the idea of using the Gamma World system (or, rather, the BX version of the GW system) is a much better starting point for grim-dark future than superheroic, narrative re-writing, nobody-can-die system that is MSH. Still not a perfect fit for the original concept of the setting (the war machines of GW far outclass the mutations)...but then, Dennis isn't trying to do the original concept. His campaign's apocalypse is inspired by the concept, but the campaign world is a far more primitive one (I use the term in a good way), more akin to the easy savagery and general weirdness found in Thundarr the Barbarian.

B/X is a good choice for gritty...I wish Dennis would publish his house rules for the campaign. But it's not quite what I want. A civilization that's already fallen (the default setting for GW) is one that's more about heroic survival in the wilderness and building a new community/civilization. I want a heroic quest to SAVE the civilization BEFORE it falls. But I still want gritty. Hence the need for a new game.

See? This is why I'm a fan of multiple game systems rather than the proponent of the "one-size-fits-all" universal RPG. If I actually pursue this inspiration (and start writing up notes), it will be the THIRD superhero RPG I've started since May. Well, third for which I've done substantial work...one was already a "work in progress." But all have different themes, settings, and styles of play. My street level game (heavily inspired by the Daredevil net series and my favorite Marvel small-timers) utilizes some narrative mechanics, explores a "closed system" (with a definitive endgame), and also attempts to run GM-less. My "hero team" game draws its inspiration from the Avengers, Justice League, etc., makes use of my updated DMI system (previously demo'd as Legendary Might), and focuses on cinematic supers action, as opposed to the comic book style and tropes.

But this would be something different. You're not harnessing your rage (a big theme in my low powered game) to "clean up the streets." You're not blowing up buildings in an attempt to save the Earth from alien empires and high-tech terrorist organizations bent on world domination. Instead, you're battling a World Gone Bad, in which humans have turned on each other (and continue to turn on each other) under the sight of their gigantic robot overlords. I kind of like the idea of different character classes (limited to, say, mutants, cyborgs, normals, and genetic experiments) with separate power suites and leveling to represent how experienced your resistance fighter is.

"I eat mutants like you for lunch."

On the other hand, how much mileage can you get out of fighting giant robots again and again and again? Would anyone be interested in playing a Terminator-style RPG fighting against the machines and "Skynet?" It feels more like a board game...or perhaps a video game...in which there'd be an actual objective, "get-to-the-end" target to obtain. Wipe out the bad mecha, return to normalcy (or, at least, the possibility of rebuilding the world that was lost). Is that enough for an ongoing RPG?

Maybe not.

[see the game Bliss Stage for ideas of running an RPG that focuses on the relationships and mental stability of survivors fighting a war of resistance against hopeless odds in a post apoc future; similar mechanics could probably be adapted if you wanted a more character exploration-style version of this concept]

Anyway, I don't really have time to start another project, so the question is probably moot (though one I'll continue to mull over). Too many other things to work on, including the post-apoc revamp of Cry Dark Future (which will NOT be turned into a supers game, thank you very much). Then again, if I had the right collaborator....

More on this later. I've got to put the kid down for his nap.

Rifts - Duh, Duh, DUH

Let's hate on something different for just a minute.

It's 2am, and I'm having a 2nd glass of wine (after many beers today). O World Cup, you really haven't disappointed this year, what with the 7-1 smack down of Brazil (whom I dislike) by Germany (which is the team I always root for after the U.S. and Mexico are inevitably kicked from the tournament). The wife is out o town (with the baby) and D is asleep and I've just been surfing the blogs and whatnot for the last 90 minutes or so (Bikini Armor Battle Damage on tumblr is pretty funny...and depressing as well).

Rifts...you old son of a bitch.

I was thinking about it this evening, and I have probably spent more of my hard-earned money on Rifts than any other game system in my entire life, including Dungeons & Dragons. One thing about D&D, many of my TSR books were acquired as gifts when I was a youngster (from friends and family for birthdays and Christmas and whatnot), and while I did acquire the 3rd edition core and several of the "splat" (class) books, I really never invested heavily into its other stuff, and a lot of older edition stuff I've picked up was purchased used, or been indefinitely lent by folks.

Rifts on the other hand...well, that's stuff I tend to buy new. And then sell of in disgust. And then re-buy new. Because I have some sort of problem with Palladium games. Really...Palladium is like crack: a cheap high that doesn't last long and is O-So-Bad for you, with nothing really to redeem it. Hell, it ain't even all hard cover and glossy like White Wolf's stuff (I spent a ton of money on Vampire back in the 90's, but things were cheaper than and I never did the sell/re-buy thing)...there's no glamor in a softcover with B&W interior that curls up at the edges.

Palladium system is the ghetto RPG.

It's also the kind of shady drug you don't like to tell people about. I mean, you run into players often enough (Palladium's sold well enough to stay in business this long) but Palladium people always seem a little embarrassed to admit their enjoyment of the game. Fact of the matter is, I've found it hard to even PLAY Palladium games...all the Rifts "campaigns" I've started have invariably  ended after a single session, and I've never known ANY gamers who could really "stick with it"...at least not since high school (and I'm talking freshman/sophomore year high school).

[man...I sure did write a lot of Palladium-related posts back in 2009]

ANYway...

[*pause*]

Sorry...fell asleep. AND woke up late. What was I saying?

Here's the thing...this is what I was trying to get to last night/this morning...here's The Thing: I almost wish (almost!) that Palladium would fold and the game fall from the realms of print so that folks could start "cloning" the hell out of it. Cloning it without the threat of lawsuits.

Of course I do NOT wish the failure of a business on anyone, especially not Mr. Siembieda who has produced so much creative, inspirational work over the decades. This isn't really about hating on Palladium or its policies or its Head Honcho. But, man o man: if Rifts was available for cloning? To take the setting and run it with a system that's a bit more coherent? It would be so damn easy!

I mean, it already has a class/level structure (because Palladium was originally a D&D knock-off/heartbreaker...you're not going to convince me otherwise). It already has D20 combat (if overly complex combat) and hit points and whatnot. The ability scores and adjustments not terribly dissimilar from what you'd find in D&D (duh); tightening the game would be a piece of easy.

Of course, I'm sure a lot of independent publishers were licking their chops at this very prospect during the heyday of D20 and the OGL.

The obvious workaround is the usual one, I suppose...file the "serial numbers" off everything and publish it without using the trademarked IP or copyrighted material. Yeah, easy enough: that's pretty much what I did with Cry Dark Future after all (a cyberpunk-B/X mash-up heavily "reminiscent" of Shadowrun). It's what Bezio's X-Plorers appears to be (with its heavy resemblance of Star Frontiers...though minus the vrusk and dralasites).

But you know, one of the reasons why CDF hasn't actually found its way to publication yet is the sheer degree by which it resembles Shadowrun...and I want it to be a little more different. I mean, it IS different (*sheesh* I have some original ideas...). Yes, I was able to simply and elegantly (I feel) 'port the chargen system (circa 3rd edition SR) into a B/X chassis, but that carries with it the major flaw of the SR chargen system, i.e. the time taken to kit out characters with a high priority in resources (money)...not to mention the all-too-often accounting errors.

And besides: shouldn't a B/X style system really include halflings? Halflings with machine guns (or rocket launchers or bionic limbs) just sound awesome. And much as I like the orc and troll options, aren't those guys supposed to be "monsters?"

Maybe, maybe not. I just haven't had time (or rather taken the time) to work out an original setting for the game...it is nearly entirely derivative from its inspiration. I'm not certain I'm entirely on board with all that 5th World jazz.

And I don't want to make the same mistake again. There is a lot of dumb-dumb stuff in Rifts (or a Rifts-like game). Even adapting Mutant Future (itself almost derivative of its Gamma World source material) doesn't seem right, with its species-specific classes. Not that I object to race-as-class, mind you (and Rifts, too, has RCCs, i.e. "racial character classes")...but the fact that it divides adventurers into Men of Arms (various types), Men of Magic (various types), Scholars & Adventurers (various types), makes the thing just scream for a more traditional D&D type treatment.

Really like the air-powered spear guns.

A long, loooong while ago I was considering the idea of a post-apocalyptic world setting of the type found in the psychedelic PA art of the 60s and 70s. Things like Bakshi's Wizards and Heavy Metal Magazine. Something weird without being gonzo...where "mutant" is an epithet, not a source of X-Man-style superpowers. Dyson Logos did a great series on the (first) animated film, Heavy Metal, and how its disparate stories could be shuffled together to create a coherent and exciting setting for a Mutant Future/Gamma World campaign, and it provided a big push of inspiration...but at the time, I was more concerned with getting my B/X Companion book completed. The idea got dropped along with a lot of other "neat" ones.

[it doesn't help that I get side-tracked by cyborgs...and creating cool game mechanics for cyborgs...every time I get within spitting distance of their possible inclusion. Is my "borg love" a subconscious thing caused by my childhood fandom of the Six Million Dollar Man? No clue]

Now, the idea is back...but Palladium is still there, looming with its massive pile of Rifts "stuff" (ideas, concepts). Ready to pounce with a pack of lawyers at the very whiff of treading on their trademarked toes. Hogging all the post-apoc, mutant-magic mash-up potential.

Except, of course, the concept of such a setting isn't original to Siembieda and Rifts. Post-apocalyptic settings that include both can be found in sword & sorcery fiction. It even found a home on Saturday morning television with Thundarr the Barbarian, my absolute favorite cartoon of all-time (yes, yes, I was a big fan of the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon back in the day). I know that Thundarr was adapted to at least one game system ("Under a Broken Moon," using the mechanics from Over the Edge), and maybe Savage Worlds, too. I suppose that a big difference between something like Thundarr and Rifts (besides the obvious) is that Thundarr and its ilk offers no explanation for the emergence of magic in its post-apocalyptic world, while Rifts goes out of its way to create an elaborate justification for the presence of the supernatural...even though the latter proceeds to go all wonky and inconsistent with its various different styles of magic (to make no mention of psychics).

What I probably need to do, instead of filing the serial numbers off Rifts or producing a different spin on Mutant Future, is create my own class/level game set in to post-apoc world. But, dammit, hasn't that already been done before? That's the whole reason why I wrote MDR (not yet available) using the DMI system...because I wanted a post-apoc system that had some heart and something different from the same old, same old fantasy adventurer tropes.

But, man do I love my fantasy adventure tropes.

Ugh. Round and round and round it goes. Maybe what I REALLY need to do, is make a list of all the things I HATE in existing post-apocalyptic games, and then write something that doesn't include those. Hmmm...

Yeah...that's the ticket. Sorry to all my readers that had to wade through the dross of my stream-o-consciousness rambling. I now have a mission.
: )

[congrats to Argentina, BTW...see you in the final]

Wiped Out...

...and it's not even tomorrow yet.

That is to say, I generally feel wiped out by Friday, especially after a Thursday night of gaming and carousing (and I'm sure tomorrow will be no exception). Today, however, I'm already feeling a bit crushed, due to a rather late Wednesday night.

Oh, well...it ain't going to stop me from going out tonight. I've got a super-kick-ass RPG to play-test and I'm pretty darn excited at the prospect. I mean, it looks "kick-ass" on paper, and I'm "excited" to see how it rolls. However, I think I've got it tweaked just about where I want it. I shall be writing more on the results (and possibly making the thing available for public consumption/download) in the next couple days.

I will say this: for a post-apocalyptic game, I think I may like it better than (any edition) Gamma World. And that's saying something, as I really like the 1st and 2nd editions of the latter game (specifically, the combat system and how it works in conjunction with the "theme" of the game). I mean, we'll see, okay...my system is kind of an orange to GW's apple anyway, being a non-gonzo version of the PA setting. And that's not necessarily a good thing (as mutant survivors of a nuke war is kind of a "gonzo setting" begging for gonzo rules). But, whatever...my goal is to do some of the things I've talked about in the past, specifically with regard to both post-apocalypse stories and game objectives. I'm hopeful for some good stuff.

Anyway, I really only get one shot to make a "go" of it as it appears I shall be playing in (not running) a B/X campaign starting in the very, very near future. My character(s) are already rolled for that one, and may even get some playtime later tonight (if not, then next Thursday for sure). That, too, is exciting...but I'm still salivating mostly over the thought of blowing away spear-chucking mutants with a shotgun from the back of a three-eyed horse.

Yeah, we'll see how it goes.
; )

What Goes Around Comes Around

Ugh! My poor neglected blog readers! How I wish I could eat, breathe, and sleep RPGs for a living…then I could keep up with my blog as much as my other RPG projects.

Unfortunately, I have “real” job and family considerations that split my time. I suppose I could quit my real job and devote myself full-time to writing/role-playing…unfortunately, there’s this certain “lifestyle” to which I’ve “become accustomed” and right now, I can’t see being able to keep it up with a publishing (printed and electronic) only type gig.

So you all have to suffer. Because once again it’s fall and football is in the air and I’m feeling creative and that means little writing projects keep popping up that I put my (very small amount of) free time into. This week it’s a new Tiny RPG…not a micro-game, because it’s already longer than 1 page and I ain’t planning on condensing it. However, there’s no plan to stretch it into a full-length 64 page RPG (that’s “full length” for me)…hell, it might not even hit 5 pages.

Play-testing will commence Thursday.

Several Years Ago I started getting into this whole “design thang” and made the first half-hearted stabs at writing my own RPG. The particular game I was writing was a little something-something with the working title “GW7” and it was supposed to be MY version of Gamma World.

[actually, my FIRST attempts at game writing occurred long before that, but they aren’t anything I would consider RPGs…nor exceptionally playable]

Why “GW7?” Because back when I was writing it (long before the 1st retroclone hit the market), I was thinking of it as the “heir” to the historical legacy of Gamma World, and by my count (at the time) there were six editions of GW:

- 1st edition Gamma World
- 2nd edition Gamma World
- 3rd edition (Marvel SH) Gamma World
- 4th edition Gamma World
- Alternity Gamma World
- D20 Gamma World

SO, yeah…#7 was going to be MY number. Except then I got distracted by a one thing and then another and then this whole OSR deal and my blog and B/X Companion, etc.

Skip ahead a couple-few years and we have several post-apocalyptic games floating around, including Octane and Barbarians of Lemuria and Mutant Future and the latest version of GW from Wizards of the Coast (not to mention several high profile video games)…all of which leads me to feel like, meh, why bother with returning to the subject? If I wanted to, I could pull out any of these other games (or my old copy of 2nd ed. GW or Twilight 2000) and run a post-apoc game. Hell, I could still run an edited version of Rifts (and still might…some day). There’s no need for me to create a PA RPG. Like, at all.

At ALL…did I mention that? Yeah. No…there are plenty of nuke-mutant games on the market, past and present.

But then I started watching Steel Dawn on the Netflix, and I picked up a copy of the totally overworked/overwrought Airship Pirates RPG and I started revisiting some of my earlier PA posts on this blog…and then I started thinking about how such a game might work with a slightly updated version of the system I was using for my micro-game Out of Time. And I got a little inspired at the thought.

I haven’t brought up post-apocalyptic (GW-style) role-playing since October 2010…I guess what goes around will eventually comes around (until I finally get a game written and "out-of-my-system").

So, yeah, I’ve been working on that (and one or two other things as well) which means I haven’t been posting to the blog as regular as I would like. But hopefully, I’ll find some time to get to it over the next few days. At least I’ve got Friday internet access again!

: )

Toxic Landscape

Looking back over my recent posts, I can see they haven’t been entirely negative…the only real “negative posts” this month were this and this…maybe this one, too. But it sure feels like I’ve been more negative a late.

Even my pistol post seemed to be a big fat complain (namely: why are there no guns in D&D?). And certainly some of my recent play reports have a bit of a ranty tone at times.

I don’t want to rant.

I mean, for goodness sakes, my Seattle Seahawks are still somehow perched atop their division despite being .500, and the much touted 49ers team (picked by pundits to win our division the last three seasons) is in the basement at 0 and 5.

[and to the San Francisco fans out there, there are sportscasters that still believe the Niners can win their next six in a row and end up on top of the division. I DO like Mike Singletary and appreciate him sticking with Smith rather than buckling to the crowd like some wuss; whatever his faults Smith gave the 49ers their best chance to win Sunday]

Anyway, that's all okay-to-good, PLUS I had a good time in Spain, PLUS I still have a job in this crummy economy, PLUS my family is healthy and happy, PLUS, I’ve got a decent game group going, PLUS my book’s still selling like hotcakes and I’ve gotten more offers for on-line distribution (Black Blade press most recently)…despite the 2nd print run not yet being completed (sorry, folks).

So I have a lot to be thankful and happy about and no real cause for griping/complaints. It is autumn in Seattle, my favorite time of year as oysters and Dungeness crab are back in season and I prefer my weather overcast and rainy (that means more indoor time and I’m an indoor kind of kid). Autumn does, unfortunately, suck for my beagles, who hate-hate-hate being outdoors in the rain…but they have a pretty cushy life other than that, so they can just suck it up.

So what’s the deal, JB? Why all the ranty-ness in the blog lately?

I don’t know. Stress? Anxiety that the “other shoe” might drop at any time? Or perhaps just a silly notion that things could be better than they are, especially in the areas I care about (like film and RPGs and politics). I mean, my life is pretty darn good, and I wish it could be this good for everyone. And yet people continue to vote Republican and support WotC’s “RPG” industry, even though both these things are against their own best interests.

(*sigh*)

Ah, well…frankly, I’d be willing to bet that a lot of my “toxicity” of late is due to my own irritation with myself over my lack of writing. Last year, I was working on the B/X Companion project and (if I remember correctly) I ended up losing a lot of time in the fall months, being distracted with trips and in-laws, and holidays, and…well, and ridiculous distractions. And this year is actually starting to look a bit similar. Crapola.

For example, do you folks know how damn difficult it is to avoid being completely derailed and side-tracked by the Star Wars discussions being thrown in my face by both Maliszewki and Rients? Holy God! I was looking at all this same stuff last year when I was considering writing B/X Star Wars (ripping off the best parts of Saga SW, WEG SW, and B/X)…and these guys are just giving me more fodder for my imagination! But I have managed to temper my Quixotic-ness and will be avoiding writing any space games until I’ve completed the three books I’m working on…sheesh guys!

Then, there is the whole 4E Gamma World thing…you know, people may think I’m a curmudgeonly bastard but I CAN look on the bright side of shit like this. And the bright side is, I find this particular offering to be fantastically inspirational. That is it inspires me to write my own version of Gamma World…except better.

But don’t get me started on THAT again. I’ve blogged before that I put several pages of writing into a new edition of GW (called GW7, though this was long before I got on my 64-page-or-less kick). “Doing Gamma World Right” has long been a romantic idea I’ve cherished in my heart, and one that is probably ridiculously unobtainable for a great many reasons.

Still GW4E makes me want to give it a shot. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if “inspiration motivated by anger” is a good enough motivation (it hasn’t been helping my Land of Ash writing lately). Certainly, I find nothing particularly inspiring about the artwork I’ve seen for GW4 (and some of the pieces…like the ‘roided chicken advertising the Famine in Fargo “expansion;” just makes me more irritable).

Now, the ad for the new Fallout video game I DO find inspiring (artistically) for post-apocalyptic, mutational horror…and I’d be willing to bet that FO does GW4E better than GW4E, anyway (seeing as how both are based on video game-type systems).

But, as I said, I do NOT want to get started down that particular apocalyptic road. You know, Chgowz’s recent post is a good one, and good food for thought: the end result of all this “retro-cloning” might just be to return us to our gaming origins. After all, what is Labyrinth Lord but “house ruled” Moldvay/Cook? What is OSRIC but house-ruled AD&D? I am currently playing house-ruled B/X myself and find it perfect for my purposes. What kind of benefit could there possibly be for doing a re-tread of “old school” Gamma World?

All such a thing would be (were I to write it) would be a house-ruled version of the 1st and 2nd edition game. And people interested in GW might well decide they preferred the original GW…or, at least, original GW plus their own house rules.

Anyway, the REAL stink of the thing is that GW was never really “my game,” to begin with. I love the idea of a post-apocalyptic game. I love some of the systems in the game (including prestige and the combat matrices based on weapon type). But I have never had a huge love of “humorous” RPGs, and GW is soooo cheesy, it’s hard to take it seriously at times. It is so random, that it’s hard to actually DO “serious” with it. It’s still D&D…but with mutations instead of magic and ancient tech instead of magic. A hodge-podge in serious need of editing.

Mmm-mm-mmm…okay, time to leave the conversation before this, too, devolves into toxic negativity. Next post: something upbeat and jazzy…like firearm rules!

F You, WotC

They say there's no such thing as "bad" publicity. So this post should be a batch of goodness for Wizards of the Coast.

I was down at Gary's today, shooting the breeze and browsing for copies of SpellJammer or the 2nd Edition PHB (for info on arquebuses and smoke powder, dont'cha know?), when Tim said, "hey...here's something for you to blog about!" And handed me a big steaming pile of Gamma World "Roleplaying Game."

[quotation marks added by Yours Truly]

Ugh.

Folks that love-love-love 4th edition are probably really going to get their rocks off on this stinker, but for me it once again filled me with a mixture of loathing and sheer "what the f...?" $40 (plus tax, of course) buys you a 160 page rule, the requisite board game parts (maps and tokens, 'cause that's what an "RPG" is, right?), a couple decks of cards, as well as a "booster" pack.

"Booster pack?" Yeah...you know like Collectible Card Games? Because GW4 (as I'm going to call this shit-pile) is ALSO a CCG. In addition to the Box, you have to buy booster packs...little 8 card packs of random mutations and technological wonders. "Collect all 120!" says the booster pack box. I suppose making players collect random cards is better than making folks buy "splat books"...since knuckle-draggers that play this game can't read.

But, hey, anyone notice what's NOT in the $40 box (I mean, BESIDES a complete rule set or something)...DICE. Dice needed, but not included...says so right on the back of the box! But don't worry. "Do you need dice?" the box asks. Check out the WotC web site to see how you can get a set!

Fuck you, Wizards of the Coast.

Also advertised on the back of the box are the upcoming "expansion packs:" Famine in Fargo and Legions of Gold. No more adventure modules, just "expansion packs." Just recycled from adventure modules. But that's okay, since adventures don't really seem to be part of the equation. This is a game about fighting monsters...mutants or robots or whatever...not about exploration or re-building a civilization on the ashes of the old. And assuming it has the same kind of 4E "healing surges," probably not much of a grim struggle for survival, either.

But GW4 doesn't seem to be a post-apocalyptic game anyway. Instead, it's a cool-action, genre-colored, ass-kicking board came with a CCG gimmick. And just in time for Christmas, kiddies!

Who the hell is this supposed to REALLY appeal to, anyway?

I mean, the Moldvay Basic set was for adults ages 10+. Mentzer's Basic set was for kids ages 10+. I don't remember the age bracket for the original Gamma World, but I know my little brother was playing it (and loving it) around age 10-11. But it was slim enough, and simple enough, that he could pick it up and figure out how to play it (of course, it DID come with dice).

What 10 year old is going to want to pick up and play this monstrosity? Why not just spend $40 on some post-apocalyptic video game like Fall Out 3? That would probably appeal to more kids, ages teen to twenty-five. Probably quicker to pick-up and learn to play, right?

Hey, but what do I know? I'm just a dude with a blog and a chip on my shoulder that the world has changed, I guess. Maybe I'm just hungry...I'm going to go get something to eat.

My Type of Post-Apocalypse (Part 2)

So Friday (or Saturday...my four day weekend is starting to blur together) I finally watched The Book of Eli. This was one of two post-apocalyptic films that came out last year that I never had the chance to catch in the theater, the second one being The Road. Back in January, while musing about PA and how dissatisfied I was with much of post-apocalypse gaming material I thought these films would...well, actually, I'm not sure what I thought they would do, but I expected them to be pretty good movies. Now, having watched both (I saw The Road a couple weeks back), I can safe with confidence that, well, I'm disappointed with both.

I would have to say I was MORE disappointed with The Book of Eli, probably because I was expecting more from it...I had read more positive reviews of the film after all (though possibly it just had more reviews period than The Road, a fairly bleak movie for something out of Holywood). But as far as an entry into the PA genre I found it fairly lacking. Despite a rather creative premise (no, I'm not talking about the Blind Fury rip-off...THAT's not creative...I'm talking about the whole Bible lust instilled in the primary characters). Here's the thing: the film didn't really meet the two standards I'm looking for in the PA genre (or at least, wasn't up to snuff in addressing them), namely the "Grim Struggle for Survival" and "Community Building."

Oh, yes, there was some struggle, but it was fairly paltry. Once the film-makers establish, pretty early on, that Eli is a consummate bad-ass that has little to fear even from multiple numbers of armed malcontents, the threat loses a bit of its sting. Plus, Denzel Washington is a little too goody-good to believe...I don't know, it felt more like I was watching a Frank Miller comic than a post-apocalyptic film.

I suppose it's difficult when comparing it to The Road, which is nearly too grim to watch. Yeah, I mean that. It's one thing to watch a guy with absolutely nothing going on starve to death by inches...it's another entirely to watch him do it with his child (while at the same time trying to protect said child from cannibal marauders). Hoo boy!

Anyway, compare and contrast how both films have a scene in which the protagonists find a "cannibal farm house" towards the end of the second act (i.e. about two-thirds the way through). Rather than posting spoilers here, I'd invite people to watch how the films with an eye towards how the film makers, including the actors, treat the scenario and the subject matter. Of the two, I find Eli to be considerably (and almost unforgivingly) lighter on the subject.

I guess that's what makes Eli more irksome in general...I find the whole subject of "Life After Boom" to be treated with a lighter and somewhat cliched hand. However, both films fail to scratch my PA itch by missing out on the 2nd, and more important to my mind, component...the process of Community Building.

I mean, if you don't have Community Building in a post-apocalyptic story, then there's only one of three things you've got, all of which run the possibility of lacking a social value:

a) a cautionary tale (see The Day After Tomorrow...this is kind of a "story-ized" version of Al Gore's global warming documentary).

b) a fantasy action film (see Six-String Samurai, perhaps The Book of Eli).

c) a depressing, fictional snuff film (The Road).

Actually, it occurs to me that perhaps I am being (as usual) a bit too harsh. It may be that I've actually left out a particular SUB-sub-genre of post-apocalyptic fiction. You see, the whole idea of "community building" assumes the protagonist of the story (in the case of an RPG, the player characters) is engaging in some of said community building. For example:

- in The Road Warrior, Max aids the village in its defense and helps them to move to greener pastures.

- in The Postman, Costner's character helps to network the bastions of civilization by resurrecting the mail system.

- in The Omega Man, Chuck Heston helps organize and provide leadership to the surviving, non-infected population while working for a cure.

- in Reign of Fire, Bale has organized and been leading survivors for years.

And both The Road and The Book of Eli seem to miss out on this crucial part of the genre by having protagonists that are active and deliberate loners avoiding civilization and other people altogether, whenever and however possible.

But, at least with The Road, the protagonist has some idea that he WILL be attempting to settle and make a life for himself, sometime in the future...he just needs to get to the end of the road to do so. Similarly Eli has some destination in mind (to get "out West") though with a less specific focus in mind (he's on a quest of sorts, following a vision that he only vaguely understands).

Perhaps the sub-sub-genre, falling somewhere within category #2 of my prior post, is the specific story of finding a place to begin community building. Certainly, a whole story can be told regarding nothing but the journey itself (as The Road and Eli both demonstrate), but this wouldn't seem to make for any particular episodic RPG.

Maybe one of the "story-now" variety, and/or a one-off adventure to "find the coast" or "head south" or whatever. But that's generally not Gamma World...at least not the way it appears intended to be played.

I wrote before that one of the reasons GW works so well as an RPG is that it has similar exploration themes to recommend it, just as does D&D. Sure, one may have heard monsters live off in the dungeon (or strange mutants in the Forbidden Zone/ancient complex) but you won't actually know until you check it out...and who knows what fantastic artifacts (and hideous dangers) you're going to find until you get there.

But as Famine in Far-Go demonstrates (aptly, I think), you CAN do a story - heck, a whole long-term campaign - around a community, your characters' place in it, and the fight for survival of that community. I think that's a powerful way of role-playing.

Post-apocalyptic role-playing in an era when folks remember the Old World...well, there's no great mystery about what they're going to find "down the road:" cannibals, marauders, helpless people, destroyed bits of civilization. To run an RPG that is more than a one-off adventure...or that has any redeeming meat to its bones...you need to have the community building aspect to it. At least, that's what I think.

I was checking out Atomic Highway at the ol' game store the other day, and there was a lot about it that made me put it back on the shelf. I was thinking that I might get more of a hankering to buy it (or another PA game like the Barbarians of Lemuria extension Barbarians of the Aftermath), after watching some PA cinema. But as with these PA films, I'm afraid these PA RPGs might miss the point.

We fear the apocalypse. If the apocalypse goes down, we want to know there's some sort of hope that, hard or not, it will not be The End. If it IS the end...well, why the hell do I need to watch that? Because I want to depress myself? If there's some sort of hope, let me see it through the re-creation of some semblance of human cooperation...not some badass ass-kicker just wandering the roads looking for a way to charge his f'ing I-Pod. That's pathetic.

My Type of Post-Apocalypse (Part 1)

So yesterday, I made quite a haul from the game shop including two AD&D modules (L1:The Secret of Bone Hill and L2:The Assassin's Knot), the Administrator's screen for my preferred (1st) edition of Top Secret (including Operation: Executive One, Code Name: Uncle Sam) and two oldies but goodies for Gamma World: the original GM screen (with Albuquerque Star Port) and GW2:Famine in Fargo.

I probably haven't blogged enough about Gamma World here. Oh, sure I've written quite a bit about post-apocalyptic gaming in general, my thoughts on Mutant Future, and even posted a new cryptic alliance for 2nd edition GW. But I haven't written too much about my own Gamma World history.

The first time I ever saw GW advertised was in a TSR game catalogue/brochure that was probably included in my original Dungeon! board game box. The first time I saw it played was three or four older kids in middle school sitting in a circle and playing what I believe (in hindsight) was maybe 3rd edition. The first copy of GW I ever owned myself was 2nd edition, and was picked up in my favorite used book store in Missoula, Montana, circa late 1980s.

A few years back (maybe seven or eight), I gave my entire collection of GW stuff (including GW1 and GW2, the GM Screen and the completed 2nd edition) to my buddy Kris, as he loved Gamma World and I hadn't played it in years. Unfortunately, he moved to Oregon and somewhere along the line sold my stuff (doh!). Since then, I have procured .pdf copies of both 1st and 2nd edition GW, but have been unable to recover my old accessories, much to my chagrin. Yesterday's scouring of the game shop helped put a dent in my remorse.

Re-reading Famine in Fargo, I remembered once again how much I love this module.

But before I get to that specifically, let me explain how I let it go the first time around. You see, even though I owned GW for YEARS, I've only played the game a couple times over the stretch...I doubt more than half a dozen game sessions all told, though I could well be forgetting some instances from my youth. As a young GM (let me be perfectly clear, I have never played GW as a player), I found the game fairly frustrating...whereas my players always had a blast with the game.

Why did I find it frustrating? Was it too gung-ho? Not "realistic" or "grim" enough for my tastes? Surprisingly this was NOT a factor (when you're in that 12 to 15 year old range, you like gung ho and in general you're less discriminating anyway). As a youngster, I was a lot less worried about elegance of game design or attention to reality and more interested in playing "a cool game" (ha!).

Instead, GW didn't fulfill my adolescent expectations of role-playing games. Mainly there was no guidance in how to SCALE the game to the players.

Without "hit dice," without "levels," without anything resembling challenge ratings or monetary (point) values for gold and ancient artifacts there was no way to gauge risks and rewards. The random power level of mutations made some individuals over-powered and others fairly worthless...on the other hand, some "monsters" (like death machines and warbots) seemed so crazily over-powered as to be unusable in the game.

At the same time, the "puzzle piece" nature of artifacts (often having to find both the desired piece of equipment AND the correct power source to make it function) made actual "gammarauder" type campaigns unlikely. No one wanted to play a Pure Strain Human when it meant you were usually going to be bringing a sword to a pyrokinetic/life leach/mind blast fight.

At the same time, other little "power combos" would raise their ugly head in game play. In one memorable instance, my brother's "mutant tree frog" with an 18 Constitution (gained from some physical mutation) found a fusion rifle, a weapon that delivers "two Level 18 blasts of radiation" to its target. A mutant with an 18 constitution that gets hit with level 18 radiation suffers no damage, instead gaining a NEW mutation. My brother, predictably, began blasting himself with the fusion rifle over and over again, each time rolling up two new mutations for his character. The only thing that stopped this madness was his eventual roll of the mutation "Immune to Mutations." But at the time, it was still pretty ridiculous the dozen or so powers with which he ended up.

My final issue with the game was the actual adventures available for it. GW2, while a great adventure was essentially another "Rite of Passage" adventure...and the players had already performed their adulthood ritual with the game's introductory adventure. How many damn rites of passage can you do?

Again that's the expectations of a 13 year old kid that was brought up on D&D where the campaign goes on for years with the same players and general cast of characters...we weren't stopping and starting with "all new 1st level characters" every couple months, nor were we introducing new people to our game on a regular basis.

I love this illustration.

Still, it's a shame that I didn't have a little more tolerance/imagination back in those days, because I loved Famine in Far-Go and never ran it. The Gallus Gallus 5/13 are such great villains for the Gamma World setting...certainly both weirder and more mortal than the Legion of Gold (the antagonists of GW1). Their agenda, their cunning, their fallibility even makes them far more interesting, and I totally dig their penchant for human accessories and their bad-ass infrared rifles (a weapon so neat, I included it in my own GW7 rules despite it being non-standard to the original Gamma World).

But reading the module again, as an adult with adult sensibilities, I appreciate the module even more, as it really sets up a real living, breathing campaign setting...you could play a whole summer's worth of Gamma World using the GW2 module and the information on the community of Far-Go and its surrounding territory. Yes, it has a couple of major issues as an adventure (for example, its linear nature, the automatic capture of the party by badders, and an unavoidable early encounter with a group of mounted Knights of Genetic Purity, loaded for bear, when the party is limited to a couple spears and a bow). But as a module, it makes a great jump-off point for the start of a new GW saga...gung ho or not.

The Eras of the Apocalypse

There’s nothing quite cut-n-dry about apocalyptic fiction in any media. It probably stems from the fact that most people use the term “Apocalypse” incorrectly (including myself). The Apocalypse is the last book of the Bible…i.e. the Book of Revelation. “Apocalypse” is the English translation of the Greek word that means “revelation” (in other words saying the Book of Apocalypse is the same as saying the Book of Revelation); however, because of the general belief that the Book of Revelation provides a prophecy of the “End Times” for humanity, we have allowed the term “Apocalypse” to become synonymous with the End of the World.

Or as I would call it, “the end of civilization as we know it.”

[by the way, in case anyone cares I don’t believe that what St. John describes is a Doomsday scenario but rather a symbolic blueprint of the path to enlightenment based on tearing down one’s selfish separate self / “ego” and re-building the psyche in terms of being a tool for following the divine will, the Seven Seals being the seven chakras that need to be activated through meditation and right-mindedness. Not that humans don’t run the risk of destroying themselves or anything, but I don’t think John’s revelation was anything about some extra-dimensional divine being saving us from THAT…accepting and following the teachings of the enlightened masters, like Jesus, WILL save your soul from the cycle of death and rebirth, but taking Communion isn’t going to give you a chair in some Astral Plane. Read your Edgar Cayce, folks!]

ANYWAY…so when I write “post-apocalypse” (or “PA”) keep in mind that I’m using the common, slangish parlance of “After the Doom of Mankind” not “post-revelation.” The latter phrase would be mean a state of enlightenment (I guess), while the former means a miserable pile of rubble that used to be society as we know it.

SO there are many shades to PA fiction; it ain’t all Gamma World and Mutant Future, that much is for sure. And part of writing a PA game is considering which SUB-GENRE of PA we’re deciding on. ‘Cause, after all, we can’t use every sub-genre at once, can we?

[that’s semi-rhetorical: my original idea DID try to include all sub-genres in one book, hopelessly overwhelming me and being a decided FAIL]

To my mind there are four or five PA sub-genres based on proximity to The End (proximity time-wise, that is):

#1 PRE-APOCALYPSE: Society hasn’t quite broken down, but it’s at the breaking point. Things are pretty frigging bad all over, the end is nigh, and there’s little to nothing anyone can do about it. Possible examples of this in fiction/RPGs include: Blade Runner, Mad Max, Cyberpunk, Car Wars.

#2 IMMEDIATE POST-APOCALYPSE: The end has come and gone and we are left to pick up the pieces. Society has been shattered and will probably never be what it once was, but it’s still within memory of those who lived through the apocalypse. Those who live weep for what they lost and try to maintain normalcy, even as they make do and attempt to survive. After effects of the Cataclysm (nuclear winter, radiation, disease) are as dangerous as the break-down in law and order and starvation (as a society not used to rustic life gets used to a lack of electricity, plumbing, and supermarkets). Examples of this genre are many: The Stand, The Day After, Dies the Fire (and Ariel), Reign of Fire, Damnation Alley, The Postman, Deathlands, The Road Warrior/Beyond Thunderdome. RPG examples are actually few but include the Rifts supplement Chaos Earth and Twilight 2000. Shadow Run could be a fairly wimpy entry into this category.

#3 MULTI-GENERATION POST-APOCALYPSE: The End occurred generations before living memory. People have learned to survive in the wilderness that is the new world, and have rebuilt some semblances of civilization. The wonders of the pre-apocalypse world are rarely understood entirely correctly but here and there people remember and pass things down. Working artifacts from the pre-cataclysm days are scarce except for well-preserved fortifications that have gone un-looted or ruins long abandoned due to multiple dangers. In some of the farther fetched genres helpful/beneficial mutations have become common, as have giant mutant monsters. Examples include Planet of the Apes, A Boy and His Dog, Water World, Logan’s Run, A Canticle for Leibowitz, Battlefield Earth. RPGs in this category are numerous: Gamma World, Mutant Future, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs, Paranoia, and Rifts to name a few.

#4 ANCIENT APOCALYPSE: The Cataclysm occurred so far in the past that is understood only as a legend, like we might think of Noah’s Ark and the Antediluvian Age. Humans know almost nothing of the pre-apocalypse Earth, having long histories of their own new societies and civilizations and any ancient technology that has survived is more akin to “magic” than anything properly understood or even legendary. Mutant people and monsters are simply part of the local fauna and peoples of this new land. Examples in fiction include Thundarr the Barbarian (yes!) and the Storm Lands, the Dying Earth, maybe Bakshi's Wizards, and possibly some of the darker sword & sorcery pulp like Karl Vagner’s Kane series. Besides RPGs based on the mentioned fiction (Thundarr and DE both having games), Ron Edwards's “Sorcerer and Sword” supplement works, as does most any fantasy RPG you choose to adapt to this…Arneson’s Blackmoore campaign setting falls into this category which means OD&D works just fine.

#5 SPACE EXODUS: The Apocalypse destroyed the Earth and the only survivors of human society have been forced to make a new home…off world! The state of civilization may be any of the types #2 through #4, and may even be close to #1 (the Mutant Chronicles is an example). An example of #2 in space would include Battlestar Galactica or Titan A.E. An example of #3 in space would be Firefly/Serenity or Metamorphosis Alpha. An example of #4 might be McCaffrey’s Pern series, MZB’s Darkover series, or M.A.R. Barker’s Tekumel: Empire of the Petal Throne.

Now in one of my original PA posts I talked about what I found LACKING in the PA RPGs out there, namely the grim struggle for survival and the re-building of community/society. However, after writing up my list of PA sub-genres, I can see that these two “integral” parts of PA fiction don’t always apply…or don’t always apply the same.

#1: In this sub-genre, there is a grim struggle to HOLD IT TOGETHER. Society hasn’t collapsed yet, and things may be dangerous, but the main thing is holding on to what one has and knows and trying to keep from bottoming out.

#2: Both integrals apply, but SURVIVAL is emphasized.

#3: Both integrals apply, but COMMUNITY BUILDING is emphasized (for example, in Gamma World it is assumed your village has learned how to acquire food and shelter, etc. already).

#4: Neither "integral" is integral; at this point you’re simply playing a standard fantasy game.

#5: The integrals emphasized depend on which sub-genre of the sub-genre applies.

Now scoping all that out, the next question is: which game do I particularly want to design? Granted, one of the harder game concepts I’ll need to work out are rules to integrate the grim struggle for survival and community re-building into the game system, but before I get to THAT I need to figure out the setting for the game. I’m kind of thinking the #2 category (Immediate PA) is the less saturated category of RPG, but besides being awfully depressing (rape, looting, cannibalism, radiation sickness) it’s…well, too much firearms and not enough homemade spears. Unless, of course, I go the “Change” route (aka the Steve Boyett/S.M. Stirling “all-technology-just-stopped-working-for-no-good-reason” plot)

Nah, if I do #2, I’m most likely to set it in space (the #5 qualifier), kind of based on Titan A.E.: humanity has got to learn to come together in a hostile universe if they’re going to survive and rebuild themselves. Earth’s been wiped out to make way for a new hyperspace bypass; hopefully the survivors remembered their towels. ; )

I think #3 holds a lot of potential (probably so many of the RPG entries already out there fall into this category). I’d prefer something less whimsical than Gamma World, much more like A Canticle for Leibowitz (I love that book…it’s similar to a PA version of Asimov’s Foundation series). However, I’m not above adding some psionic mutations to the mix…the mutants Beneath the Planet of the Apes and those found in DC’s Kamandi comics being bizarre enough without throwing in talking animals.

'Course in the words of one PA film: nothing is certain, the future is NOT set.

More later...

Post-Apocalyptic Fantasies

The sun was shining today…I mean REALLY shining after weeks of grey, wet misery (that January-February kind of Seattle weather that will eventually beat down even diehard rain lovers like myself…too much mud and sickness) and even though we haven’t even got to Groundhog’s Day it feels a tiny bit like the beginning of Spring…I mean you can feel we are on the upside of days getting longer and such.

And so I find myself thinking of the Apocalypse.

I don’t know why…the last couple-four plus years that’s just what Spring and Summer start doing to me. Thinking about The End of the World is hard to do when in the midst of the happy holiday season…or is perhaps too depressing to take out and look at period during the grey, wet winter days. But Spring time…the Easter season, a time of renewal, etc…makes me think about the death of our world and the rebirth of the next.

Not to be morbid or anything…I don’t clean out the bomb shelter or re-stock the canned goods and ammo or anything. Me…I start getting in the mood for post-apocalyptic fiction and role-playing.

Post-apocalyptic fiction/lore (I’ll just call it PA for short from now on, or this post will get waaay too long) is something that’s held great interest for me for a looong time…so long I’m not sure when it started. It’s like my interest in astrology or fencing…from the moment I discovered such a concept existed it has held a great and terrible fascination for me (not that astrology or fencing are “terrible,” but they would draw my interest to the point of distraction even years..decades!...before I started practicing either).

Using Wikipedia to see the release dates of the earliest pieces of PA fiction I remember might give me a clue to when I first started dwelling on the subject. The Day After (1983) was a horrific made-for-TV movie that I remember watching as a 9 or 10 year old…though I also recall falling asleep before the end and having to ask my folks what happened (spoiler: everybody dies). Thundarr the Barbarian I watched religiously on Saturday Mornings and it aired from 1980-81 (age 7 to 8). Sometime around the same period I recall watching George Peppard in Damnation Alley on television and wow, did that one haunt my nightmares as a kid…but it was released in the theaters in 1977 so it was probably not broadcast on television for at least 5 years (’82 or so). Definitely I saw Planet of the Apes early-early in life, and found that pretty horrific…though I’m sure I didn’t see that until the 5-7 year old range (again on TV). My aunt and her friend almost took me to see the Road Warrior in the theater (US Release circa 1982), but at the last minute ended up taking my brother and I to see The Secret of NIMH instead…and I can recall vividly having a long conversation about the Apes movies on that summer day in Montana, so I must have already seen a couple of the films (possibly more than once).

But the earliest PA fiction I can recall is watching the Logan’s Run television series on TV (broadcast 9/77-1/78…’round about the age of 3-4!!). While not dealing with the horror of nuclear holocaust (or did it? Was that the one where there were these crazy scarred mutants wearing gold masks and black cowls to hide their disfigurement?), it certainly involved dystopian societies and bubble cities.

Hmm…I wonder if I can get that one on Netflix. I might need to re-watch it.

Anyway, I’m sure growing up in the Reagan "2^nd Cold War" 1980s helped fuel the paranoia/fascination with the coming apocalypse and “what happens thereafter.”

[Hmmm…just remembered that I also saw the 1978 version of the Time Machine on television when I was 5 years old, and the whole Morlocks/Eloi-cannibalism depiction of THAT film had more impact on my young psyche than any other version of the Time Machine I’ve seen since…this might even have something to do with my whole squeamishness regarding cannibalism]

Yes, long before I ever picked up a copy of Gamma World (2^nd edition, found used in the usual Montana bookstore) I was watching and reading tales that would depict (either in plot or background) the End of Civilization as We Know It. Hell, what 13 year old spends his own money to pick up a paperback of After the Bomb? Probably the same kind of kid that grows up watching Buck Rogers (with the nuked Earth surrounding “New Los Angeles”) and videotaping Chuck Heston in The Omega Man to watch multiple times. Yes…I am weird.

So it might strike some as odd that I’m kind of indifferent about most PA RPGs on the market.

But allow me to clarify: I love-love-LOVE the IDEA of the PA RPG. When I first started designing RPGs myself (as a hobby…my B/X Companion is going to be the first thing I actually publish, folks), I had a half-dozen fairly different RPGs all of the PA variety. I even figured I would call my “company” (whoa! Delusions of grandeur!) something like “Post-Apocalyptic Games.” I just felt there was such a dearth of material out there…and I wanted MORE.

Here’s the short-list of published PA RPGswith which I’m familiar:

Gamma World (1^st through 3^rd editions)

Rifts (and After the Bomb, etc.)

Twilight 2000 (and Cadillacs & Dinosaurs)

Deadlands: Hell on Earth

Car Wars (post-peak oil)

Mutant Chronicles (more Cyberpunk than PA)

Shadow Run (more Cyberpunk than PA)

Cyberpunk (see above)

Paranoia

And of course other assorted weirdness that can be categorized as PA: Obsidian, HOL, World of Synnibarr, some versions of Terra Primate (of course) and AFMBE (zombie apocalypse!), etc. And of course there’s Mutant Future, the OSR’s current darling of whimsical PA mutation & exploration.

The problem for me is: none of these games really satisfy my itch for PA role-playing.

I suppose I should look for a copy of Aftermath! (which I’ve never owned, nor read). But the reputation for being especially fiddly is off-putting to me, even as I like the idea of a grim survival based game.

'Cause that’s 50% of the problem…”grim survival” is the thing that is really missing from all the RPGs I listed above. Gamma World has the potential to be an excellent metaphor for man and his relationship with technology (especially the 1^st edition with some minor 2^nd edition tweaks), but usually gets bogged down in silliness like fish that turn people to stone and rabbits that turn guns to rubber (not to mention all the rest of the well-known gonzo mutants). Rifts and DL:HOE are waaaay too over-the-top to ever be considered grim in a semi-realistic way...and most of the other games don’t even come close.

I’ve never owned Twilight 2000. My friend Jocelyn DID, but we never played it…and her descriptions of the game to me did nothing to entice me to play (she made it appear to be a WWIII simulation fought with conventional weapons only, rather than a broken military in a PA world which might have been intriguing). I DO own Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, a true PA meets Lost World type pulp game that uses the same system as Twilight 2000. Unfortunately, I find the system to be incredibly BORING. I’m not sure exactly why (I’d have to pull it out and read it again), but after picking it up (recently…within the last 12-18 months), I was left feeling like I REALLY wanted to read the Xenozoic Tales comics instead of playing the RPG.

Grim survival ain’t present in these games, system-wise…and that’s something I’d want to see (yes, yes, a GM or referee can certainly tailor events to be “grim” but I want it INHERENT, dammit!) for a real PA game no matter WHAT the nature of the apocalypse. I mean, look at Reign of Fire (the film). Here’s a world that’s been burned to a near-cinder by DRAGONS but (as with all the best PA stories) still there is the over-reaching story of the GRIM STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL. Not, oh dragons exist maybe we should study magic. Not whimsical stories of captured maidens or bad guys allying themselves with the beasts. This is HIDE OR BE EATEN. Which is a common theme in many types of PA fiction (even without dragons).

But as I said “grim survival” (or lack thereof) is only 50% of my dissatisfaction with PA RPGs. The other 50% of my dissatisfaction comes from the other missing integral part of the genre: COMMUNITY BUILDING. The PA story is NOT simply concerned with 'O woe is us we don’t have electricity/plumbing anymore.' Most PA stories involve some sort of rebuilding/rebirth…a rise from the ashes and possibly a redefining of what community and “civilization” means to those left behind.

Now maybe this is just the Plutonic/Scorpio part of me (Pluto, ruler of Scorpio, is greatly concerned with volcanic upheaval that leads to karmic transformation within our lives) but that shit fascinates me. Surviving the apocalypse? That’s tough enough. But re-building the world from the rubble up? Now THAT’s a heroic task.

And again, while this can be simply “injected” by the GM of the game, I’d prefer it to be a real and integral part of the rules, hopefully directly linked to the “reward/advancement” system in the RPG. Reward systems based on behavior encourage that behavior that engenders rewards. Call that Axiom #3 of RPG design. If characters are only rewarded for killing monsters and getting treasure, guess what: that’s what they’re going to do (unless they wander off on a tangential Creative Agenda like, say, Story Now…hello Trollsmyth and Oddysey!). If characters are rewarded for “good role-playing” (whatever the F THAT means) then you’re going to get some hammy play-acting from your players (or you’re going to get players leaving the group disgruntled ‘cause they’re not into being judged on their improv abilities).

Now again, Gamma World (2^nd edition) comes O So Close to establishing this in its Status/Rank reward system…after all, what is being measured in GW appears to be characters value TO their particular community (or Cryptic Alliance, should they join one). Defeating mutants raises their “standing” in the eyes of their people, as does turning in valuable (and working) artifacts with the instruction book attached.

However, while community is INVOLVED in the advancement process, it is not being directly BUILT (perhaps INdirectly, depending on how many mutant monsters get killed and how many tribesmen the PCs arm with Tech III weapons). And community building is the main component of the PA genre…after the grim struggle for survival of course.

[as for the non-Gamma World games, they don’t even come frigging close to addressing this]

Community building or defining: you see it in the Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome. You see it in A Canticle for Leibowitz and The Postman. You see it in The Stand, The White Plague, and even Battlefield Earth and the Matrix films. In all these stories, the grim survivors of the Apocalypse (no matter what form the Apocalypse takes) must come together and redefine what their community is, what it stands for, what they’re all about and how they are going to relate to each other in this changed world. Heck…even those little rag dolls in 9 do this!

Yep, there is the ever-so-faint smell of Spring in the air and I’m itching for some Post-Apocalyptic action. I’ve yet to see The Road or The Book of Eli but I fully intend to see both if possible at my earliest opportunity (watched It’s Complicated on Friday which was very good but certainly not “apocalyptic” in subject matter). I’ve also been meaning to check out S.M. Stirling’s Dies the Fire, which seems to be a rip-off of Steven Boyett’s 1983 book Ariel (though without the unicorns). I just discovered Stirling in the last year with his throwback planetary romances (Mars and Venus) and Marching Through Georgia, but his PA series has gotten some of his ravest reviews and I’ve yet to peruse any of ‘em. As I finish up work on the B/X Companion and its companion adventure module, I find myself more and more enticed with doing a new 64 page RPG…and I wonder if I have enough junk material (and new ideas) to distill some sort of Post Apocalyptic goulash that will meet MY particular needs of gaming in a world gone mad.

; )