Good Bones

In the past, I've watched a lot of "house flipping" and "remodeling" shows on television. My wife digs this kind of programming (she finds it relaxing) and I find it...well, interesting enough. I am rather the opposite of a "handyman" type. But I don't mind spending a lazy weekend afternoon, sitting on the couch and drinking coffee.

[we rarely have the time to "veg" that much these days, considering all the weekend kid events...but I did start this post with the phrase 'In the past...']

Anyhoo, I myself have done very little "remodeling" in my life...I've certainly never "flipped" a property. But as I said, I've watched these shows and there's this phrase that I sometimes here come up about a house...that it has "good bones." Which, I assume, means it has a good foundational structure on which to build or hang new drywall or, well, whatever. I don't know...I said I wasn't "handy" like that.

What I AM somewhat handy with is adventure writing/design (well, I think I am anyway...). The last couple-four days I've been working on my rewrite of I4: Oasis of the White Palm. Oh, man, it's really good. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm kind of in love with what I'm writing...this looks like it's going to be really fun to run. I'm digging it. 

But I want to give some credit to Philip Meyers and Tracy Hickman, the original writers. Because the thing has good bones...there IS a strong foundation here, mainly in the maps and some of the overall 'Big Concepts." Not the story, mind you...the story is terrible and I've discarded it completely. But many of the situations and factions are quite workable. Well, re-workable. Er...I mean, they're stuff that I can work with and pound something good and decent out of. If that makes sense. Which, maybe it doesn't. But I mean it as a compliment...if a back-handed one.

I'm currently working backwards through the thing because dungeons are more fun (and, in many ways, easier) to stock than other areas. Eh, what am I saying. It's all pretty easy to stock. But the dungeons are definitely more fun. Because they have more obvious threats (and bigger treasures...I like treasure). So I did the Crypt of Badr al-Mosak first (even though it's Part III of three) and then, today, I finished up the Temple of Set (Part II). Yes, these have all been renamed. No, there are no "EverFall Pits" with flying mummies, nor any kidnapped princess-brides...you want that, you can buy the original as a $5 PDF and run it. This is going to be clever, okay? Without the silly puns and with a modicum of sense and sensibility.

I mean...*sigh*  So, NOW, I was just about to sit down to start in on Part I (the Oasis itself), and...as is my wont...I started diving into my analysis of just what is here. What IS this town? I already know a lot of what MY town is going to be, but I want to look at the BONES of the place, the underlying structure. Because the structure is functional...I've run I4 before, back in the day, pretty much exactly as written and I don't remember any hiccups or problems. So let's see what we've got...first up, the Oasis random  encounters, lifeblood of a dynamic environment (or, at least, that which provides verisimilitude of a living-breathing town). What have we got?

Women carrying water. Women carrying clothing. A trader "with beads." Traders with palm dates. Traders with camels. Home Guard. A drunk. 1-4 Male Drow. A noble. A slave on an errand. A....

Wait, what? 1-4 male Drow?! In the desert? Who cares if it's at night...how the hell did they get there? What the heck are they doing? They're not even one of the "special" encounters...just a normal evening encounter around the village.

*sigh* This is why O Great & Glorious Hickmans...this is why I rewrite your adventures. Crap like this. There's a lot of whimsical stuff here that doesn't really fly in my view of an AD&D adventure, but I can stomach a certain amount of whimsy (even if...sorry...I'm writing the pegasus squadron OUT of the adventure). But there's "whimsy," and then there's nonsense. A thriving oasis town filled with fantasy-Islamic/Bedouins is not a place where Drow are just "walking around."

Many, many problems here.

Ah, well. The first two bits have turned out great; no reason to think the town part can't be spruced up. I've even added a couple new NPC personalities to the mix, which is also good fun. One nifty thing about my version: the writing's quite a bit tighter (which is to say, I don't pad it out as much as the original). Consequently, I've already trimmed about four pages from the text. That is GREAT; I really want to keep this thing to 32 pages (max), but I want to add more actionable, game-able content, not just:

D. Hills

Craggy, low hills of broken and baked stone jut upwards at weird andles and cast tortured shadows.

Play: Movement rate is half normal in such areas for all persons except dwarves. There is a 60% chance per hor spent searching of finding a cave shelter large enough for the party.

Or this:

E. Bleached Bones

The trail suddenly broadens amid the dunes. The clean, white bones of camels stand in a roughly 100-foot circle.

Play: There is a 30% chance that a party member will discover that the bones have only recently been picked clean. All worthwhile objects have been taken from the area. A set of three sled tracks leads east to location F.

Or this:

L1-L4. Ruins

Jutting jaggedly from the midst of the desert are ancient broken pieces of hand-hewn stone.

[no other info given, just the boxed text description]

This is what I like to call "tourist crap." It's not nonsensical, but it serves little or no purpose. Regardless of whether or not the players figure out that the bones "have only recently been picked clean," so what? It makes no difference to the adventure. Even if there ARE dwarves in the party, they still can't move any faster than the other, non-dwarf members. This is just extraneous detail for a "tour guide DM" to dole out, presumably to "break up the monotony." Hey, try to roll under 30% on percentile dice? Yeah, you made it? You can see these bones were only RECENTLY picked clean...dun-dun-DUN!

Far easier to simply:

• Calculate the distance between point A and B
• Calculate the time needed to travel there.
• Roll for random encounters based on the time traveled

...and just get to the play at the important bit (wherever that final destination is). 

It's not that we need to 'get to a place where we roll dice,' but it IS about getting to a decision point where the players can make a meaningful decision. Looking at the wilderness map of I4 (which I will be redrawing to match my southern Idaho desert), I can see there's no reason the players would ever have to go to area #D ("Hills")...no road leads there, no plot requirements mandate them passing through the area, nothing. It is just USELESS FILLER.

My adventure doesn't have useless filler.

Anyway, I'm enjoying myself and my little project. Ugly as the original house is, I think my "remodel" will look quite swell. Despite my complaints the thing does have "good bones;" that makes a difference.

Later, gators.

[also, just for fun: this came to mind when I wrote "tour guide DM;" it's kind of catchy!]

What's Up

Normally, I wouldn't be blogging on a Tuesday, but I've got a few minutes and I'm putting off "real" writing for the moment. Plus, I didn't put out anything yesterday (I've got something half-written but it's pretty half-hearted and I'm not inclined to finish it), so I feel like I owe Ye Old Readers.

Here's the thing: I've got a LOT on my mind lately, and I'm not just talking about my daily life stuff (that's all crazy-nutty, too). No, I mean a lot when it comes to game design and game publishing. This happens when I've had too much time to stew/think about "stuff." Each of these is probably worthy of its own post, but I'm going to do a few bullet-points right now, just so I can empty my brain a bit:

• Numero Uno: I'm probably not doing as much as I could to make an actual damn business out of this self-publishing thing. Yeah, yeah, I'm not talking about getting rich and famous; I'm talking about making more than beer money. Part of this is a lack of business acumen, part of it is a lack of organization, part of it is a fear of really putting myself out there, and part of it is sheer laziness/inertia. I really need to do something about ALL this.
• Numero Dos (related to Numero Uno): If I really want to do anything with this, I'm about 85% certain I need to step-up and start collaborating with folks, something I'm loathe to do. For a variety of reasons (most of which boil down to 1) being disappointed in the past, and 2) personal insecurity), I've historically preferred to "go it alone" rather than work in a team. But that attitude is extremely limiting; you can always accomplish more working with others. I know that, I just don't like it. At least if I rely on myself for EVERYTHING I feel I have 100% control...and I'm pretty control freakish. Problem is, I can't do everything (decent artwork for example). It's shooting myself in the foot (or the head) to operate the way I do.
• Number Three (related to Numero Dos): I don't think I'm ever going to "not pay" for art again. Clip art is mostly shitty. Finding public domain print art that is good worked one time (with Five Ancient Kingdoms) but that's it. And I think my writing is good enough that it deserves some better illustration. And I just can't accept any more "freebies" from volunteer illustrators...being a for-profit biz means paying one's contractors. So there.
• Knock-Off, Innovative, or Subversive: For me, these are the three levels of game design. "Knock-Off" doesn't just mean retroclones. There's nothing very original about systems based on the D6, or D20, or D%, or dice pools, and there have been plenty of RPGs with both class/level chargen and "defined-by-selection" or some combo of the two. Even so, just getting a game written (knock-off or not) is hard enough for the average person. Being "innovative" means injecting something new into the existing RPG paradigm, but it's hard (if not impossible) to do this wholesale. Do you want characters? Do you want systems that resolve processes? We are talking about a game here, not freeform play. Finally, there's level three ("subversive") design, aimed at having real world impact (educating or changing persons thinking or perception)...hopefully for the good...based on the play at the table. Level 1 design is a grind. Level 2 design is a challenge. Level 3 design is...well, it's something else entirely.
• Numero Cinco: I'd like to do more subversive designs. I've got a couple-three on the shelf, but they're so tough to do...and do well (I'd say "do right," but I'm not sure that can be 100% accurate. Subversion is in the mind of the beholder, you know?). And by "well" I mean accomplishing one's (design) objective while not upsetting the participants, except as is required to meet the needs of the objective. It's so daunting at times that...well, the proof is in the fact that those games haven't been completed, nor even play-tested at this point. When you try to do something that's "socially interesting" or "relevant," you're really super-conscious of the possibility of totally flubbing things. Well, I am, at least. But then, see point Numero Dos...if I was a little more willing to collaborate (i.e. "work with others") I might be able to assuage some of those self-doubts.

One big circle of thoughts, spinning back into each other.

And perhaps none of these thoughts are especially constructive to what I actually need to do (i.e. "write," "finish writing," etc.). But the more I put words on paper, the more I can't help but think of the Bigger Picture...the What Exactly Are You Up To question. What AM I up to? Not just from a writing sense but an overall How Do I Fit In This Niche Market Industry sense.

More on all this later (maybe). Oh, and I really, really plan on giving people the whole run-down on my new B/X project (I know there's some curiosity)...maybe tomorrow. Right now, I've got to go buy groceries.