Orcs and Dragons

All apologies for dropping off the face of the Earth (and not yet writing a single #RPGaDay post). Until a few days ago, I thought my August was going to continue much the same as my July. Instead, my wife's work plans changed and, as a result, my entire family got bundled off to Paraguay for three weeks, leaving me all on my lonesome. Just dropped 'em off at the airport yesterday.

So I spent the last few days spending quality time with the wife and kids prior to their departure. 

Yesterday would have been my first chance to write, but instead I spent most of my free time catching up on my reading or boozing...a lot of the latter actually. It takes me a little time to adjust to being single (it doesn't happen all that often) and I get a bit of separation anxiety. Plus, with no one to come home to (besides the beagles), I have a penchant for staying out waaay too late. And then even after I come home I stay up later. It's like I'm afraid to sleep or something.

Anyway, that's my baggage (and hangover) to bear. Today, I am all set to get back on track. A little breakfast at the Baranof, a bit of black coffee, and a lot of rehydration (via water), and I'll be fit as a fiddle. I still have a lot of things to do around the house, but I should also have plenty of time to blog the next few days. Heck, I may even get in some gaming. Hung out with my old college buddy Joel last night, and talked a lot of gaming stuff. Mostly, Star Wars (he's been running the Fantasy Flight edition lately), but also Spirit of 77, which I just picked up at Around the Table yesterday. Turns out his friend wants to run a short campaign of funky action thrills, and I might show up for that. I mean, my evenings are free for the next couple weeks, right?

In D&Dish news, I'd direct your attention once again to Jeff's blog where he's followed up last month's random class advancement tables with a killer version of the half-orc for B/X. Over the years, plenty of folks have tried their hand at writing up a half-orc class for the basic editions of the game (i.e. any edition that treats player species as a class). Vaults of Pandius (the old BECMI repository) had two or three versions, if I remember right. But Jeff's solution is both simple and elegant: it basically assumes you're human (i.e. pick a human class) but allows you to roll on a special "orky" advancement table (instead of your normal class table), provided your charisma score is low enough. In this case, 12 or less.

This is really great, for a number of reasons. It adds flavor to the game without wrecking the whole species as class dynamic (it's the human half that allows the character to become an adventurer). It provides a "perk" to a character that rolled a low stat (charisma in B/X is very helpful, both in negotiating encounters and in determining the number and morale of retainers). It feeds into the classic orc trope of creatures with low morale and untrustworthy followers (I'm not a fan of orcs with "honor" or "warrior traditions"). It adds choice for the player rather than "buffing" an existing class (for example, adding infravision, languages, and orcish bonuses to an existing class).

Anyway. really well done, definitely worth stealing (or deconstructing for my own design purposes). 

The other thing on my mind is Sunday's Game of Thrones episode. Again I was struck by how many "D&Disms" are part of the show's makeup...a lot of it really feels like an OD&D game (one that is drawing heavily from Chainmail for its combat system). I won't drop any "spoilers" here, but I will say that the handling of dragons in the series is the best I've seen since Dragonslayer, the film I hold in highest regard when it comes to portrayals of the legendary creature. Well done, folks!

It is a little sad (well, not really but whatever) that the intellectual property of Martin's work isn't "OGL;" it would be a lot of fun to adapt the series as a setting supplement for S&W, or even B/X. Yes, yes...I know I've written (more than once) that D&D isn't a great fit for the Game of Throne's setting; that's why I spent a bunch of word count writing up a version for Pendragon. But Martin's world isn't one that features characters venturing into supernatural underworlds, looking for ancient treasures...and folks who see a wight (or a giant or a dragon) are generally running for the hills, not blasting it with magic missiles. Still, while some rewriting of the basic rules would be necessary (changing the advancement system), it could be possible...

But that's not something I plan on working on right now.

; )

Let's Forget Xena For A Moment

Got distracted by a perfectly beautiful Seattle weekend and ended up spending a lot of time outside this weekend (despite being a fairly “indoor” type of guy); however, I have been thinking about my Xena post (and the multitude of reader responses) A LOT the last couple days. Ruminating may be the operative word, but I would prefer fermenting or brewing for what's been going on in my head.

Let’s back up for a moment. I never meant to imply that there are NOT lady gamers that don’t approach RPGs with the same gonzo gung-ho gamist style of males of the ass-kicker-cherishing variety. I never meant to imply that women-folk don’t have various changes in mood that might allow for both an ass-kicking character one day of the week and something completely different on another (just as male gamers will go through different phases/moods of what kind of character they want to play).

Here’s an anecdote I did not relate the other day:

- In my third year of college I was approached by my buddy Joel to run a Werewolf game, specifically to introduce our mutual friend Sarah to RPGs; she was interested in trying ‘em out. I told him that I didn’t think Werewolf was a particularly good game to use as an introduction to RPGs (this at a time when I was a HUGE White Wolf fan and bought everything they published), specifically because there wasn’t much role-playing to it…I felt it was too combat-oriented, and more akin to playing “a video game” than an RPG. His reply? “Well, I think that’s all she’s looking for.” Just something escapist to take her mind off finals and what-not and to check out this role-playing-thang her drinking buddies were so interested in.

For some reason I can’t recall now, I did NOT end up running the WW game (the reason I didn’t bring up the anecdote in my earlier “girl gamer experience list” is that I never had any direct role-playing experience with Sara)…and frankly I was put off by the idea that anyone would want to play a role-playing game for nothing BUT combat/action.

Certainly there are people of both genders who are attracted to hard core ass-kicking to a greater degree than me. There ARE people that purchase and play Pathfinder and 4^th Edition D&D, games that seem to offer little more than the inherent “badass-ery” of one’s character…at least, that appears to be the main possible attraction I can find in these games.

OKAY, SO…admitting that there are some (or PLENTY) of female folks out there that love and take great inspiration from characters like Lux the Barbarian (D&D: Wrath of the Dragon God) or Perfidia (Knights of Blood Steel) or Mila Jovavich in Ultraviolet or that vampire chick (Kate Beckinsale?) in Underworld…my POINT was that there may be other girls/women that might be interested in what fantasy role-playing games have to offer IF the games were offering something other than ass-kicking badass-ery.

And yes, there are probably certain males who fit the same mold (my friend Rob comes to mind) but it would seem that most boys can at least identify a little bit with the “bad-ass” approach…at least enough to try a game out and then (if necessary) tinker it to their particular taste.

[to be fair, I am not trying to stereotype or pigen-hole ANYONE…male or female…with these assertions. For example, I am almost nothing like my old buddy Mac, who LOVED every B film produced with VanDamme or Seagal and thought Tango & Cash was the height of good cinema, even at the age of 20. He was a NON-gamer, though I was able to entice him to play Rifts at least once or twice (his character was a Headhunter). I don’t know whatever happened to Mac, but I know he cherished an aspiration to become a Navy SEAL]

Let me go back for a moment to my old buddy Jocelyn. Man, I wish I was still in contact with her so I could get her input on this, but she lives way the hell out in B.F.Eastern Washington these days and isn’t on facebook as far as I can ascertain. Jocelyn WAS a badass: she was about 5’9” or 5’10”, lifted weights, earned ribbons riding equestrian (her horse was named "Bill"), was plenty handy with a compound bow, drove a pickup truck, and listened to Heavy Metal music. She got into more fist fights than I ever did (once breaking her wrist on some poor girl), and as far as I remember she was always on the winning end.

She was also a talented artist and writer, and possibly even more than RPGs she and I shared a great love of books…we’d read ‘em and swap ‘em in a variety of different genres, though generally of the fantasy, sci-fi, or horror variety. She enjoyed using her imagination to tell stories, and they were definitely of the “softer” fantasy variety, not blood & guts...she liked faeries & elves a helluva’ lot more than swords & axes.

Her cinematic role-model was the Sigourney Weaver character of the Aliens franchise (at least in the first two films). This is a female character that is strong and capable without being a “badass” from the get go. Oh, she can be a badass…when she has to be, as a matter of necessity. But she’s not some super-strong, Stallone-like action hero. She’s human. She has her own weaknesses. She has fear…both for herself and those she loves. However, she is also resourceful and self-sufficient.

[now thinking about it, Carrie Fisher was plenty resourceful and self-sufficient in the original Star Wars trilogy as well...although often stuck in the "durance vile" scenario, she often came out swinging, could shoot more accurately than Luke, could pilot the Falcon, provided military briefings, walk into Jabba's palace with a flimsy disguise and no back-up, not to mention killing the slug with little more than her bare hands...and could shrug off a wound easier than her brother who gets reduced to a fetal position more than once...and yet, was not decked out as some bad-ass warrior; however, I don't recall Jocelyn being a big Star Wars fan]

Now maybe folks will think I’m comparing apples to oranges here: one-dimensional cardboard characters compared to ones that are simply better written. That’s missing the point…I am NOT just trying to “shoot fish in a barrel,” here. It’s just difficult for me to actually come to my point without the excessive preamble (sorry).

Let me try to enumerate:

1. I think RPGs (table top) are valuable and worth playing (not to mention fun) for most anyone.

2. I think there’s value to having the RPG market grow.

3. I think games as designed and as presented have an impact on HOW and IF people come to the hobby.

(3a. I think cinema-literature-comics of the escapist-fantasy variety also has an impact; though that is the subject of a different and longer post)

4. I think that there are some folks, specifically many women, who might find fantasy role-playing much more enticing as a pastime if the design and presentation were not skewed in a way that appears to appeal more to those that enjoy “badass-ery.”

[and just by the way, when I say “fantasy” I don’t mean “only pseudo-medieval/historical plus magic.” I mean science fiction, I mean horror, I mean western and spy genres. All of these are “fantasy.” When I play Boot Hill, I am living out the “fantasy” of being in the Old West. It’s still fantasy role-playing even without wizards and goblins, etc.]

THAT was the point of my original post. Game designers sometimes seem (TO ME) to be saying, “Well, we should be growing the hobby getting more people stoked to play and it seems like there is an un-tapped market of potential female gamers. What we need to do is more artwork showing how badass women adventurers can be…then more women will want to play our badass games!”

[perhaps TV and film producer folks say similar things]

Sure, maybe that will win a handful of converts to the cause…though I prefer to think that people in general (men and women) are smarter than designers (and producers) believe them to be, and that the women most interested in playing badass fantasy characters were already super-imposing their own female images into the game. But that may just be me being all Pollyanna and rosy and shit.

Okay, enough for now…please feel free to chew this over (or chew it up and spit it out). I think I’m going to “quit while I’m behind” and leave off on any more half-assed design theories for awhile. I've got other writing projects to work on.

; )

A Bunch of Random Stuff

Wow...I've got so many thoughts blazing through my head right now I'm a little overwhelmed with where to begin. For having "a day off," I sure have expended a lot of mental energy this morning!

No writing yet, though. Ugh...I am NOT putting stuff off, I'm just getting all my other ducks in a row, answering emails and such, while eating a big, traditional English Breakfast at the Four Spoons. I am a great believer in Lincoln's philosophy, "if you only have eight hours to chop down the tree, spend the first seven sharpening your axe!"

[of course, this is sometimes at odds with my loved ones. My wife would say, "if you start chopping now you'll probably get finished in six hours!" while my brother would spend NINE hours sharpening the axe, bargaining for more time by saying he'll do the cut job for free]

Point is, I'm not actively TRYING to procrastinate, folks. Though I did get a little side-tracked by Jim Mora's firing as the Seahawks head coach. Ugh...the play-offs start this weekend! I've got work to do!

The box place turned out to be a dud (they had nothing in the dimensions I want)...at this point it appears I will be making my own. Heading out to a supply shop today, and will be deriving a template from my old TSR boxes (yes, I still have some for whatever reason...God knows I'm a packrat and these poor things are crushed to death at the bottom of a large box of papers and whatnot...no B/X boxes, though, unfortunately). Something to do while watching football.

First art submissions received...o boy o boy o boy. So far so awesome. Will be working on lay-out today as well, and will also be turning my "reading .pdf" into a printable mock-up.

Speaking of the .pdf...have received feedback from the Doctor, and he thinks it's great, though he seems to have missed the point as he tells me, "dude, I think you should publish this!" Dude, what the hell do you think I'm doing? He does not read my blog, so he seems to have missed this little detail.

Interesting side benefit...the Doc appears to be an excellent target sample for feedback. As his only reference to B/X is through Labyrinth Lord, he is able to address the game in how it works with LL. He asks why I bothered to duplicate many of the spell lists from LL, for example (because the early level spell lists of both are based on B/X...I don't bother describing the effects of these low level spells, but I include the entire B/X list). He likes the monsters and magic items included. I am hoping for more feedback on some of the system stuff as he gets deeper in his perusal. He likes the lay-out...yay!

Talked to Joel, last night...he's going to send me some artwork. He's doing the World of Warcraft thing these days, god help him. Oh, well. We'll see if he's up to some painting.

Oh...and a new interested party wants to submit art, and may have been wrangled into doing stuff for my module. Better get that done.

Figured out how to configure my scanner/printer and download the necessary software onto my computer last night...made my first run at scanning and it worked great! I am so excited! My wife will be so proud that I did something technical all by myself!

: )

Yesterday, I posted some thoughts on adventure design, which in analysis seems to be an overall negative critique of the length of the design. Sorry for the negativity; doesn't mean I don't love and continue to use these adventure modules...just think maybe they need to be used in a slightly different way. I want to address this more at length later, and in addition want to post about something from this awesome article on Prokopius. The awesomeness is NOT the lambasting of the thief class...it is the adventure design implications that are worth the read. Check it out.

Picked up Wormwood a couple days ago. Damn you Palladium! As with Rifts Russia, in re-reading this gem, I see so much squandered potential. I don't think I will ever play another Rifts game again, but damn if I'm not going to riff on their ideas for my own private games (due to Palladium's policies, I will probably NOT be posting anything to this blog in the near future). However, let me just say that Wormwood makes an EXCELLENT setting for B/X or OD&D and I fully intend to use it as such. So there!

All right, I got quite a bit to do today (including cleaning the yard of my dogs' leavings...man, this is the one time when Seattle rain makes life suck!). I'll be checking in later!

Have a great Friday everyone!

One Boring Summer of Rifts

I associate many RPGs with various music albums…I listen to a particular song or album, and it reminds me of the RPG I was playing at the time. For example, Def Lepard’s Hysteria always makes me think an awful lot about 1^st edition AD&D and Faith No More’s Epic always conjures to mind Vampire the Masquerade.

And Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy and Physical Graffiti always remind me of Rifts.

I played Rifts throughout high school, but pretty much stopped once I got to college (other friends played Rifts in college, but I was into Vampire my early years and then…well, into my major and things other than role-playing in my later years). This, and lack of funds, probably accounts for why I stopped buying every single world book and supplement Palladium published for the line.

However, one lonely summer during college Rifts was my sole form of entertainment for a couple weeks as I ran a solo “mini-campaign” for myself.

I don’t remember exactly what the circumstances were that summer. I was working a lot, and (if I remember correctly) I was working off-campus that summer…probably fast food. Between girl friends at the time (they only ever seemed to last from March to June back in those days) and my gaming friends were out of town…I think that was the year Michael was in Prague, Ben and Mike were in Missouri, and probably BEFORE I met Joel, Andrea, etc.

In fact, I think it must have been the summer AFTER my Freshmen year in college, ‘cause I met all my college gamer friends around Sophomore year…and I spent a lot of summers partying with them after that…I also usually had better summer jobs.

Anyway, I ran a whole war campaign against the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in Rifts World Book 4: Africa. Ha! A lot of people say that’s one of the worst of the Rifts World Books, but I sure got MY money’s worth out of it.

I created a whole plethora of characters using the Rifts books I had at the time (and there were many). An Apok and a Worm Speaker from Wormwood, a Knight and a Druid from England, a Tattoo Master from Atlantis, a minor Godling from Rifts Pantheons, an Elementalist from the Conversion Book 1. There must have been at least 15 or more characters in the party, armored up and loaded for bear, driving around in a Coalition APC (or its equivalent).

And I didn’t just stick to my own characters…I used NPCs from the various books as well. I know for sure Erin Tarn and her cyber-knight boyfriend were along for the ride (though Sir Eaglefeather or whatever his name was didn’t make it back alive), and probably a few of Reed’s Rangers from the Vampire Kingdoms. All-in-all, a pretty beefy bunch.

So in between late night shifts at the fast food place (Burger King, I believe), even later night-early morning card play with co-workers at the 24 hour greasy spoon Beth’s Café, and the sleeping in till early afternoon, I would hang out in my room fiddling with dozens of papers, notes, dice, and Rifts books, all the while listening to Led Zeppelin...over and over again.

Pretty sad really.

But what can I say…then as now I had a longing to play games and no one around to game with. This was before the internet, and there were no gaming shops in my neighborhood (and I was saving my money for school anyway)…hell, I didn’t even have a car back in those days! I was one broke joke. But I had music and I had RPGs and they provided me with many hours of entertainment.

Playing solo, one creates all sorts of rules to best meet one’s own “needs in play.” Over-hauling the XP system is the main thing I remember, but I know I had to tweak and house-rule things that came up “in play.” With no competing visions (i.e. other players) I was able to shape the action to my own liking…in essence I was using Rifts in a “drifted” fashion to facilitate a narrative creative agenda. I was writing/telling a story in play…one that I didn’t actually know the ending of until the dice fell from my hands to the desktop.

Actually, I believe it was the last game of Rifts I ever played. Later in college, I had friends that played Rifts to death, and I even loaned them some of my books for their games, but I had no interest in playing. I don’t know if that lonely summer “cured me” of Palladium, if it had been a high point that I felt (subconsciously) could never be equaled, or if I’d simply moved past it to other entertainments. Honestly, I don’t know. Hell, maybe it was just that I was super-focused on my acting and romantic relationship(s) of the time. Certainly the gamers were many of the same people with whom I continued to drink and party.

With regard to my African war campaign, I’m pretty sure that I finished it, soundly defeating (i.e. slaying) all four Horsemen. I seem to recall the Big Baddies got weaker with each death and so the final battles may have been anti-climactic compared to the earlier ones. In the end, many of the gathered “host of heroes” fell in battle against the Horsemen, and the Apok was the main hero (of course!) of the expeditionary force, killing the last one with a blow of Sir Featherhead’s flaming “rune flail” (Sir CyberKnight having been killed earlier by one of the Horsemen).

Ha! Yes, Supernatural Intelligences CAN be killed with enough firepower and twink magic. I will say this: the nice thing about having played it through, I have absolutely no urge to re-purchase/re-visit Rifts Africa…though I wonder if I still have my notes from that game? Maybe somewhere….

; )

[one quick note: my copy of Rifts Africa had the original cover, not the revised one pictured in this post. I couldn't find a good clipping of the original, and besides I have to admit I prefer the revised version]

Happy Halloween!

Well, I got me a Halloween costume...$40 from Display & Costume but at least I've got something to wear to the party tonight. In the past, my wife and I have always made our own costumes, but she's been extremely busy and I'm still recovering from my Thing costume from Halloween 2007...it was cool, but I spent way too many hours carving and gluing foam "rocks" and breathing entirely too much orange spray paint.

So this year? Well, according to the tag, I am dressed as a "warrior-king." With the dragon rampant on the front, I'm guessing it's supposed to be based on some king of Arthur Pendragon design (there are even little Celtic crosses), but who knows. My wife picked it out (I don't usually dress in anything vaguely Renaissance Fair or D&D-esque), and it's kind of cool, though exceptionally warm (wish I was outside trick-or-treating!).

Here's an image (though this ain't me...I've got a beard right now):

The funny thing is it puts me in the mood to get back to my B/X Companion. I have been incredible slack the last couple months, letting things slide all through September and October, when I should've had it finished up in August. Well, yesterday I just learned that an actual publishing company just finished their beta version of their own "Companion Expansion" to certain Basic and Expert set rules. Ugh.

Welp, no one to blame but myself. I've done far too much work on my own set to not finish it. Plus I promised TimeShadows a free copy of my version once it's completed. I intend to keep that promise, and I intend to get this damn thing published to my own satisfaction. That's it.

Later in the evening (after the revelation that I'd once again been beaten to the punch), I had a chance to Skype with my old buddy Joel. He's an old gaming buddy from college that I've mentioned before (if briefly). What I didn't mention before is that he is a bona fide artist and graphic designer (that's what he studied at university) and a fairly good painter. I've been wracking my brain as to how I'm going to do the art for my game (since the Doctor has been so reticent about getting back into drawing and my own skills are so meager). Talking to Joel, I believe I've got him on-board which solves a BIG problem I was anticipating. He also has layout experience as well.

Now it's time to get back into it; to put up or shut up, as it were. I still think there's quite a bit of good things I have to say in such a supplement (hell, at least I have plenty of good monsters, spells, and magic items, not to mention some cool class related stuff, dominion and mass combat rules). And who knows what the other guys' expansion is all about? Mine is about exploring high level play, specifically with regard to being a dominion ruler (all hail the warrior-king, baby!). That might still appeal to some folks out there. I know it does to me.

: )

Keep the faith, folks!

Frayed Ends

It’s often been said that high school is the best time of your life, to which of course I say, “bullshit.” Oh certainly there were some ups, but mostly it was a lot of downs (perhaps it would have been different had I been involved in team sports).

Now college…THAT was a great four years.

Besides all the usual wonderfulness that goes with a university (studying what you want, intelligent discourse and conversation, being able to (finally!) hold your liquor, and eating Big Macs for lunch and dinner while staying thin as a rail…and, of course, very nice members of the opposite gender), college was the re-birth (the Renaissance, if you will) of my role-playing experience. Well, for awhile at least…it also trailed off as I became more involved with the theater program (my major) and some fairly intense romance. But college was where I started meeting a lot of new people from wildly different backgrounds (including Canadians and Republicans!) that all gamed, just like me.

‘Course, none of us were playing D&D. There was some serious Call of Cthulhu happening in the basements of one dormitory. I sampled A LOT of White Wolf games (multiple Vampire sagas, some Mage, Ars Magica 3rd edition, a still-born Werewolf game). Plus I met folks whose “base” game (their particular “gateway drug”) was something other than D&D…Champions being the most notable (a game I still have never owned, nor played).

Anyhoo, that was a decade and a half ago. Now that I am experiencing yet another personal re-birth of role-playing, I find myself considering looking up old buddies from college and seeing if they want to throw down. ‘Course, being an adult, out-of-school, with years of Real World experience has a few drawbacks.

Like baggage. Case in point: two of my gamer companions from college were a couple. A fairly neat pair, they eventually got married…perhaps a year after I graduated (though I believe at least one of them was doing some Masters work). I was even the best man at their wedding!

Welp, they did not last (unfortunately or not…it’s certainly not fair for me to judge such things). The female of the pair is re-married (I think to husband #3). The male is/was still fairly bitter/resentful the last time I saw him (perhaps a year or two ago). And they are BOTH friends with me on my Facebook page!

[yes, my wife and brother forced me to get a Facebook about 8 months ago; I am not very good with remembering to update it…or even with using the built-in applications. Mainly it simply gathers internet dust…]

Anyhoo, should I tap either of these resources to potentially build a new group? I’m almost sure the ex-wife still games (she was always very heavy into gaming). I know the ex-husband MIGHT be willing to game (he still had a ton of gaming material stock-piled last time I saw him). Both have been contacting me lately via Facebook (the former has been messaging me, the latter has been “poking” me) which is the reason they spring to mind in the first place.

Of course, I doubt I could ever be in the same room with both of them at the same time…theirs was not what one would call an "amicable split."

I was responding to both of them while updating my Facebook this morning around 5:30am (the first time I’ve checked it in over a month). Generally, I just ignore people’s requests for info on how/what I’m doing. But am I passing up a good opportunity for game play here? Should I be having a more open mind regarding past relationships/friendships? Or should I simply move on, leave the past behind, and broaden my circle of friends and gaming experience?

These are the things I contemplate, as I drink my morning coffee….