D&D Combat

Good morning! Sorry, it's been a while...last week was busy, as was the weekend, though we did have a chance to get back to our on-going exploration of Dragon Wrack. Unfortunately for the kids, the session didn't end well.

It started well enough: they found the hoard of great the red dragon, Usumgallu, and looted the hell out of it for about an hour (for the adventure module, I created a procedure for searching dragon hoards, given that players generally want to pick out the best bits of these piles; it's in the appendix). Time was of the essence as the approaching Red Wing of the dragon army was close to arriving...had they exited the temple-fortress via the tunnel to the dragon pits outside the city, they would have found themselves quickly barbecued. 

However, they instead decided to go back up to he temple proper and find a different exit, blundering into the Black Wing's color guard standing watch over their army's battle standard. While four elite orcs aren't a match for an eight-strong band of seasoned adventurers, the horns and sounds of combat brought another 40 orcs who completely surprised the party and quickly grappled them...all except the assassin, Salamander, whose 17 dexterity allowed him to react, and whose boots of speed allowed him to escape capture.

Total treasure found: 296,147 g.p. plus a huge assortment of unidentified magic items. However, more than half of that was in a bag of holding that was captured by the orcs. Salamander absconded with the party's other bag of holding (it is his, after all). Diego plans on attempting a rescue of the prisoners (that will be our next session). but he's not terribly thrilled at the prospect.

I wanted to write a bit about running D&D combat, especially AD&D combat. I get a lot of questions on the subject (usually via private email), and have thrown in my two cents on various blogs and forums elsewhere. Combat is not, in my opinion, a very difficult thing to do, but one needs to approach it from the right perspective; the correct mindset, I find, is incredibly helpful.

First off, remember D&D is a game. Hold that firmly in mind. I will elaborate on this in a second, but it's important enough to mention first. 

Second, one has to understand that D&D's roots are literary, not cinematic. It is to be expected (these days) that a lot of people coming to the game form many of their assumptions of fantasy adventure from films and television shows (both live-action and animated) that they have watched.  However, it is not useful to think of D&D combat in terms of what one sees on the screen. Cinematic combat, like all things in a cinematic story, is supposed to exist for one (or both) of two reasons: to develop a character or further the plot. 

[of course, some filmmakers will also do combat simply for entertainment (fan service/expectation, etc.) which is why some combat scenes might be called "gratuitous," but let's not digress too much]

Because cinema is a visual medium, combat needs to be visually interesting, and over the years elaborate choreography has been developed to appeal to an audience that (presumably) has watched countless "fight scenes" over the years and need different, more elaborate or intense, forms of stimulation to maintain the viewers' engagement. Scenes play out with fancy maneuvers, camera zooms on individual 'moves' and actions, each swing of the blade being emphasized, each punch or kick being given attention, slow motion being employed to show the specific tripping or headbutting or individual wound that causes a specific form of pain and suffering.  

It is akin to the comic book form of story telling, where each individual panel is a moment of frozen time, to be lingered over by the reader's eye.

Generally speaking, combat in literature is nothing like this. Whether you're talking Tolkien or Howard or any of the other fantasy/pulp influences on D&D, the literary medium is not a place you will find blow-by-blow combat scenes...certainly not on the scale one finds in TV and film.

"About turn!" [Gandalf] shouted. "Draw your sword Thorin!"

There was nothing else to be done, and the goblins did not like it. They came scurrying around the corner in full cry, and found Goblin-cleaver, and Foe-hammer shining cold and bright right in their astonished eyes. The ones in front dropped their torches and gave one yell before they were killed. The ones behind yelled still more, and leaped back knocking over those running after them. "Biter and Beater!" they shrieked, and soon they were all in confusion, and most of them were hurling back the way they had come.

The Hobbit, Chapter 4 (Tolkien)

He beat the creature off with his hands -- it was trying to poison him, as small spiders do to flies -- until he remembered his sword and drew it out. Then the spider jumped back, and he had time to cut his legs loose. After then it was his turn to attack. The spider was evidently not used to things that carried such stings at their sides, or it would have hurried away quicker. Bilbo came at it before it could disappear and stuck it with his sword right in the eyes. Then it went mad and leaped and danced and flung out its legs in horrible jerks, until he killed it with another stroke....

The Hobbit, Chapter 8 (Tolkien)

Jehungir did not try again. That was his last arrow. He drew his scimitar and advanced, confident in his spired helmet and close-meshed mail. Conan met him half-way in a blinding whirl of swords. The curved blades ground together, sprang apart, circled in glittering arcs that blurred the sight which tried to follow them. Octavia, watching, did not see the stroke, but she heard its chopping impact, and saw Jehungir fall, blood spurting from his side where the Cimmerian's steel had sundered his mail and bitten to his spine.

The Devil In Iron (Howard)

Shifting his reddened scimitar to his left hand, he drew the great half-blade of the Yuetshi. Khosatral Khel was towering above him, his arms lifted like mauls, but as the blade caught the sheen of the sun, the giant gave back suddenly. 

But Conan's blood was up. He rushed in, slashing with the crescent blade. And it did not splinter. Under its edge the dusky metal of Khosatral's body gave way like common flesh beneath a cleaver. From the deep gash flowed a strange ichor, and Khosatral cried out like the dirging of a great bell. His terrible arms flailed down, but Conan, quicker than the archers who had died beneath those awful flails, avoided their strokes and struck again and yet again. Khosatral reeled and tottered; his cries were awful to hear, as if metal were given a tongue of pain, as if iron shrieked and bellowed under torment.

Then wheeling away he staggered into the forest; he reeled in his gait, crashed through bushes and caromed off trees. Yet though Conan followed him with the speed of hot passion, the walls and towers of Dagon loomed through the trees before the man came within dagger-reach of the giant.

Then Khosatral turned again, flailing the air with desperate blows, but Conan, fired to berserk fury, was not to be denied. As a panther strikes down a bull moose at bay, so he plunged under the bludgeoning arms and drove the crescent blade to the hilt under the spot where a human's heart would be.

Khosatral reeled and fell.

The Devil Iron (Howard)

Five Picts were dancing about them with fantastic leaps and bounds, waving bloody axes; one of them brandished the woman's red-smeared gown. 

At the sight a red haze swam before Balthus. Lifting his bow he lined the prancing figure, black against the fire, and loosed. The slayer leaped convulsively and fell dead with the arrow through his heart. Then the two men and the dog were upon the startled survivors. Conan was animated merely by his fighting spirit and an old, old racial hate, but Balthus was afire with wrath. 

He met the first Pict to oppose him with a ferocious swipe that split the painted skull, and sprang over his falling body to grapple with the others. But Conan had already killed one of the two he had chosen, and the leap of the Aquilonian was a second late. The warrior was down with the long sword through him even as Balthus' ax was lifted. Turning toward the remaining Pict, Balthus saw Slasher rise from his victim, his great jaws dripping blood.

Balthus said nothing as he looked down at the pitiful forms in the road beside the burning wain. 

Beyond the Black River, Chapter 6 (Howard)

I could go on, of course, citing other examples. I'm currently reading E.C. Tubb's Dumarest saga, a series of science fiction books that seem to have been a major influence on Marc Miller's Traveller game (I am considering starting a classic Traveller campaign and want some inspiration). Reading these old SciFi pulps from the 60s and 70s, one finds plenty of action (Dumarest is a pretty beefy action hero) is less "dripping blood" than in Howard's Conan stuff, but it's still pretty good adventure fiction. It is also well devoid of blow-by-blow tactical exchanges. The specific details of fights are glossed over, unimportant: "they attacked." "he struggled." "the enemy fell, dead." Etc. And then the book goes back to the story, the adventure, at hand.

D&D comes from a literary tradition. It is not D&D's fault that people don't read like they used to; it's not D&D's fault that people discover fantasy through a movie or cartoon instead of a book. But it is OUR fault, if we make the mistake of wanting combat in D&D to be as elaborate and cinematic as we see in an episode of Game of Thrones, and feel disappointed by what the game offers.

Again, back to my first point: D&D is a game. It is NOT a game of combat...it is a game of fantasy adventure. Combat is an important aspect of fantasy adventure: you see this in the literary medium which spawned D&D. Thus, one needs specific rules for running combat. However, combat in and of itself is not the be-all, end-all of the genre. It is just one aspect, and requires only as much importance as what it gets.

Thus, we have D&D (or, for my purposes, AD&D) combat. We have attack rolls and damage rolls and hit points. We have initiative. We have surprise. We have lists of armor and weapons, and we have rules for minor tactical maneuvers: charging, attacking people that flee, auto-hits on characters that have been paralyzed by magic effects, etc. It is not an elaborate game of strike, parry, dodge, roll with punch, strike for weak spots, etc...it is an abstract system for resolving fights quickly and simply. Because that's what it emulates. You want that other stuff, go play Palladium (Kevin Siembieda was a comic book guy FIRST, and it shows in his system). You want realism with regard to death and dismemberment, go play 1st edition Stormbringer (which wonderfully emulates the non-heroic literature of Moorcock's fiction). That's not what D&D is. 

Heroic. Fantasy. Adventure. Game. 

Characters fight until they're dead, they flee, they surrender, or they're victorious. That's it. And then...back to the adventure. Back to what's going on. In a game of "resource management," hit points are the characters' most important resource...because when they're done, you're done.

Mm. Of course my players had plenty of hit points remaining when they were captured. I suppose hit points and brains are the players' most important resources, followed closely by luck. Guess I should have said "hit points are the characters' most important measurable resource." Yeah, that makes more sense.

All right...that's enough for now.

"Travelling"

Apologies, folks. I'm a total jackass.

By which I mean to say, I had originally planned on writing a rather long and insightful (or, at least, entertaining) post, but I simply don't have the time. I am winging off to Mexico tomorrow to spend the Christmas holiday with the in-laws, and I thought my travel time was to begin in the afternoon/evening. Turns out: no. My plane leaves at 9am, which means I have precious little time to get everything packed (and the house in order), before catching a little sleep and getting the kids up, a couple hours earlier than they're used to. I'm doing this on my own, of course, as my wife is currently in Paraguay; we're meeting in the middle.

[my children, while under the age of seven, are veteran travelers and real troopers when it comes to this kind of thing. Unfortunately, they are fuck-all worthless when it comes to packing and organizing or even (with regard to my youngest) dressing themselves or cleaning their own nether regions]

SO...as I am pressed for time, I will simply give you the skinny in bullet point form:

• I will be out of the country till New Year's so anyone ordering books are S.O.L. until January, when I will fulfill any and all orders in my inbox.

• Likewise, I will be (mostly) unavailable to answer the various emails and comments I sometimes receives.

• I am very hopeful that you ALL have a HAPPY and SAFE holiday season. I know that's not always possible, through no fault of your own (observe Monday's tragic Amtrak derailment in my own neck of the woods), but I'll send up a prayer that everyone makes it through to 2018.

• I've been doing a lot of reading and research on the old Traveller game this last week. And not just ANY edition of Traveller but, specifically, the original 1977, first edition of the game...which happens to be (oddly enough) different in many respects from all the later editions, even the 1981 "re-print" (the only one available in PDF at the moment, as far as I've found). I found an incredibly interesting resource over at the Tales to Astound blog, and have spent at least a dozen hours or so reading through his entire string of "classic Traveller" posts. Very enlightening stuff, especially the relationship of the game (both its themes and gameplay) to the original version of Dungeons & Dragons. Fascinating, and definitely recommended reading for the Traveller enthusiast. Hopefully I'll have a chance to revisit the topic in a future post.

Aaaaand...that's about all I have time for. I'll try to get out a post or two while I'm in Mexico, but if I don't, know that I'm wishing you all a "merry, merry" one...whatever it is that makes you merry this time of year.

: )

Playing With Traveller

Or rather, "Playing Around With Traveller."

The last couple-three days I've been ditzing around with Classic Traveller (i.e. the original Little Black Books), a game I haven't played since...hmm, high school? Probably. This is one of those games I played with my buddy, Rob, who really wasn't into AD&D.

[ugh...Blogger's acting wonky today...hopefully, this post will stick]

I picked up the original three books (as PDFs) off Drive-Thru RPG as well as Book 4 Mercenary because A) I wanted to own these classic books, B) I wanted to take a look at how they were put together (their design and format and whatnot), C) I wanted to "explore the nostalgia," and D) I wanted to see if I could make them work for me...either on their own or as the basis for another project of mine. The "ditzing" (which I'll come back to in a moment) has actually been in lieu of working on the design for the new game...I just had to take a break and a breather.

[yes, it's a "space" game; no, I'm not ready to talk about it yet; yes, I like how it's developing and will hopefully get down to some serious work on it starting next week. Except that I might be doing this United Nations presentation thang (in English) for the Paraguayan government...we'll see if that happens and how much time THAT ends up taking]

SO...as sometimes happens when I need a breather, my mind starts wandering to the Space Wolves.

For those who aren't familiar with the game WH40K, the Space Wolves are one of the traditional space marine chapters that have been a part of the game "fluff" since its inception. They're kind of "space vikings" in power armor (you can see how that kind of thing would appeal to Yours Truly). While my own 40K armies have, for the most part, been on the side of Chaos (usually Khorne, sometimes Nurgle), in recent years my stance on the Wolves has softened. They're a lot less prone to cheesiness (army-wise) than they were back in the 2nd edition days.

Anyway, even though I stopped playing 40K back around 4th (3rd?) edition, I still have a couple codices for the Space Wolves lying around, both of which I took to Paraguay in the thought that there may be a fun little game to make out of a squad of "battle brethren." But I've been busy, and while my mind has often turned to the idea, it was only the last couple days I started considering possible systems as a starting point for a scratch side-project. And Classic Traveller was one of them.

[this really would be a lark, folks. I've written before that it would be difficult to do this kind of thing as a long-term RPG. More on the subject later]

I personally love the LBB format.

Hence the reason for picking up Mercenary (which includes systems for large-scale ground battles and such).

Welp, I spent a couple days reading the rules in Book 1 and Book 3 (not yet terribly interested in the starship thing) and was really liking what I saw. Seemed pretty clear, pretty well thought-out, pretty easy to use. Sometimes, first edition games are designed better and work better than later editions (I say this as someone who own Mongoose Traveller and thinks its pretty well done). So today, I started ditzing around with the random tables creating characters and systems/planets.

What an exercise in frustration!

Wow. I don't know how I managed to get such a competent character with Mongoose when the systems are so similar. That guy didn't exactly match my "concept" expectations, but he didn't suck rocks either. The dudes I've been creating using CT...even the ones with the expanded chargen system of Book 4...just aren't even in the same realm. It's not even like they're dying (well, my scout died...but that's the scout service for you)...they're just getting kicked from service long before they've developed into anything resembling competence.

I don't actually have a copy of Mongoose with me (back in Seattle), but if memory serves, the wild discrepancy between the chargen systems comes down to two main points:

#1 if you fail to reenlist in Mongoose you have the option of going into a different career (and possibly reinventing yourself. Kind of like real life (at least in the 21st century). Fifty years ago (perhaps), people might have changed jobs during their lives, but perhaps not careers (at least, not as frequently). To be fair, CT career paths are limited to "adventuring" types: armed forces, scouts, space merchants, and "other" (which seems to be the catch-all for criminal elements). I would hardly expect the marines to accept my enlistment at the ripe young age of 41 either! But in a universe of anti-aging drugs and technological enhancements, shouldn't there be a little less age discrimination?

[on the other hand, in a universe with trillions of inhabitants, perhaps Classic Traveller envisions a more disposable society where warm bodies are exceptionally easy to replace]

#2 in Mongoose, your character receives a number of bonus skills from a variety of sources. PCs receive skills from both their home world and from the GM depending on the style of campaign they intend to play. Also, random "life events" hep develop characters in a number of different ways (I believe both good and bad, but my memory is a bit hazy).

The half dozen characters I rolled up this morning could have benefitted greatly from either of these Mongoose additions. My "criminal" character (from the Other category) ended up with two terms of service, most of UPP under 7, and a single skill (Bribery 1) to show for his career. Blah! That was the point I decided to stop, after half a dozen likewise disappointing PCs.

The planets (I created a random "home world" for each of my PC attempts) were equally disappointing. For whatever reason, I ended up with a lot of low tech water worlds sporting small populations and a conspicuous lack of star ports, and where a population of hundreds ends up with "rival competing governments" (the neighborhood watch groups are drawing up sides!). I don't know...there's some sort of weird, cascading effect when creating planets where a particular number rolled for one planetary stat skews the roll for the next...and yet the modifiers for tech levels are strangely affected.

[my criminal's planet? It was yet another water world with a dense, tainted atmosphere. Its population was smaller than Asuncion, had a law level of 0 ("no prohibitions"), a government level of 0 ("no government structures; family bonds predominate") and a tech level of 13. Grav craft, powered battle armor, maxed out computers, etc. -- all on a tiny barbarian planet of floating "tribes." Not sure which hut-raft they're using to manufacture the star drives]

If you can't tell from the tenor of the post, I'm disappointed. The system...which seems perfectly set-up to help players/GMs and even facilitate "solo play" (something you really don't see much of anymore)...leaves more than a bit to be desired. It's own randomness, while intriguing, seems to beg for "fudging," both to help develop characters for play and to develop a setting worth playing in.

Yes, yes...some folks will say I'm terribly unimaginative regarding the setting stuff, and others will point out that Miller points out Referees are free to use these tables as an aid, retaining the freedom to  invent one's own worlds as desired. Got it. That still doesn't help with the lousy character creation. I can understand that it may certainly fit with the setting that my 22 year old marine was kicked to the curb with nothing but skill level 1 in gun combat and "recruiting." Fine. Let's start our adventuring career now...my character is young, ambitious, and full of fire. Unfortunately, there are no rules in CT for my 22 year old to acquire any more skills or abilities. I maxed out my career at 22? Okay...but I maxed out my LIFE, too? Give me a break!

[maybe this is the reason for the prevalence of psionics in CT's human population?]

I was quite at ease with Mongoose Traveller's lack of progression/advancement for characters (it has a couple spot rules about studying or something with a bunch of time and money), mainly because the ease of staying in the chargen process made it easy to develop a competent character. The real restriction was age limits (how old and decrepit do you want to allow yourself to get before striking off in your Free Trader?). But Classic Traveller is a hard one. It really is. Playing it "as written" would be at least on par with some of those Old School games that are classically considered to be "tough" on new players: like 1st edition Stormbringer and Holmes Basic D&D or (Revised) Heroes Unlimited with random power type determination. It's interesting, and challenging (which is good) but has the potential to be really frustrating, too.

I was frustrated just playing around with it.

Missing Science Fiction

Folks who think Paraguay must be "something like Mexico," really have no idea. Forget the fact that there's no tortillas here and that people have an aversion to spicy food (truly...the slightest amount of spice throws folks over the edge). They don't even eat beans! There's a saying in Mexico: 'a house without beans is like a house without a roof.' Most homes down here would be open to the sky.

What they do have...in addition to a love of red meat and starch...is an incredible, incurable sweet tooth. Dulce de leche oozes out of just about everything and boy-o-boy do people love candy. It's not even about tasty pastries (they're fairly good bakers)...it's just about making it sweet.

Ice cold without ice is best.

I recently ordered a gin martini (unlike Mexico, Paraguay has and uses gin) and nearly choked on the damn thing. Haven't ordered one since, but had the chance to talk to a bartender yestereve to figure out if this was a one-time anomaly or not. Turns out: not. In the United States, a dry martini is usually four parts gin (five parts when I'm pouring 'em) to one part vermouth (a sweetish, white wine used mainly for cocktails). Pure deliciousness, especially with Bombay Saphire gin (save the Tanqueray for your gin and tonics).

Welp, in Paraguay, the ratio is a little different: two parts gin to three parts vermouth. That is, frankly, obscene. But the bartender (who works at the Sheraton in Asuncion and is aware Americans have a different take on this) explained that it just fits what Paraguayans prefer: something to match their sweet tooth. I suppose it's the price you pay for ordering a cocktail in the first place: "real men" in Paraguay seem to thrive on straight whiskey (Johnny Walker only) if they have money and beer (various) if they don't.

[everyone drinks wine of course but that's just, you know, "water;" it's not a DRINK drink]

[on the other hand, they never serve wine to the people during the Catholic Mass which is...well, whatever]

Cultural differences are interesting: sometimes intriguing, sometimes frustrating. Experiencing them is one of the highlights of travel outside my native culture. Not because I'm especially adventurous in temperament (I'd probably say I'm the opposite), but because I have a curiosity about how humans can live so differently from each other. And when visiting a new culture (as opposed to living there and occasionally wanting non-gag-worthy beverage) it can be fun to steep yourself in the differences.

In a way, it's one of the things I miss about science fiction.

I used to like science fiction quite a bit, and not just of the Star Wars variety. Truth is, I might still like it...I'm just not a huge fan of what I see in the SciFi realm these days. In film, it's so spectacle-driven these days, and probably with good reason (it drives patrons into theaters to see the latest-greatest FX and puts money in the pockets of the film industry). But...ugh, how to articulate this?

[I've been having a real problem finding words these days...partly because I'm constantly trying to communicate in Spanish, and partly because most of my human interaction in English is with my now-four year old...sigh]

Cool weapons and explosions and spaceship battles and strange aliens aren't the things that make science fiction "good" for me. Instead, it's a sense of wonderment...something so subjective, I realize it's impossible (or ridiculous) to try to define. I suppose it's one of those things that "I know it when I see it."

And sci-fi literature is even less appealing for me, as authors seem driven to stick with "hard science" and the realm of what is "conceivably possible," rather than risk becoming a laughingstock within their own genre. My buddy Steve-O is a sic-fi aficionado, and he's constantly giving me novels that postulate terraforming or space travel or whatnot based on real applied science and telling me I need to write an RPG that incorporates things like plasma rockets and hollowed asteroids and whatnot. But I just can't bring myself to do it. It's not that I want Burroughs-type "sword & planet" romances or more Flash Gordon-style "rebels against the evil space empire" stories. I don't. But I guess I don't want my fiction to be smarter (or much smarter) than me...and perhaps I'm not terribly smart to begin with,

In some ways, it seems like sci-fi is afraid to become "dated." It either passes into the realm of speculative, "this-is-a-logical-thing-that-could-happen-based-on-our-current-state-and-trends-of-development" or else it's just a bizarre, over-the-top free-for-all of laser blasting, world wrecking, giant robot, blah-blah-blah. The stories might be good, the writing/film-making excellent, but it might as well be set in a different genre than "sci-fi" for all the wonderment it provides. File off the sci-fi trappings and it's just "a story."

Maybe I'm just jaded. Or old. Or both.

As a kid, I played the original Traveller game (the "little black books") with my buddy Rob as the GM and I remember having an immensely good time doing it. It had a similar feeling to the "Rogue Trader" aspect of 1st edition Warhammer 40,000 (before the story lines were codified and inter-woven with the whole Chaos fantasy thang). It lacked so much of what, say, Star Frontiers had in a codified setting...and yet that mystery of "how things/the Universe fit together" contributed to a sense of "wonderment." You never knew what you might find when you stepped off your scout ship to explore some random alien planet.

[I realize there are many ways to play Traveller and that not everyone was simply "blasting off into the unknown," so experiences in that regard might be very different]

Anyway, today I find myself missing the space-faring science fiction of my youth...both in gaming and entertainment. I'm not sure where this longing will lead me (if anywhere), but I just feel like hanging onto it for a while and turning it over in my mind. Probably has something to do with my own current status of being something of "a stranger in a strange land."

Travel Hell

I'm back in Paraguay.

It took 59 hours door-to-door due to various snafus and a reroute through Buenos Aires (that's Argentina, folks). I know there are people who probably thing I'm a whiny bitch and wish they could be so fortunate as to have such a travel adventure, but this weren't no picnic. It wasn't just that I was traveling with a toddler and an infant (the two, especially my almost-four-year-old, are quite used to these journeys and extremely sedate/well-behaved)...no it was the quarter-ton of baggage that we had to deal with. When your family is gearing up to live in the Third World for seven months, you pack a lot of shit. The snafus and reroutes ended up meaning a lot of shlepping of giant, heavy suitcases by Yours Truly through multiple airport check-ins, customs, whatnot. We got into town Monday night and my back is still killing me. I should probably chew some ibuprofen.

So here we are. About two-and-a-half days of travel, and I killed my first cockroach (in home) less than 24 hours later (and my second one a couple hours after that...God, I hate cockroaches). We actually got in Monday night (it's Wednesday now, right?), but we're all still adjusting back to the five hour time difference. The fact that the coffee maker broke sometime while we were gone hasn't helped.

Ah, well.

I hope to write (or at least start writing) another blog post of more immediate (i.e. gaming) interest later today. Or maybe right now. Everyone besides me is still asleep (I've been up since 4am or so), and the morning's been quiet. Well, you're still going to have to wait for it, okay.

BTW: One positive thing to come out of our mishaps? I found that I've been grossly misled about the character and personality of Argentine folks. Certainly it was a small sample size (we were in town a bit less than 24 hours), but every person with whom we met and interacted (I count 17 off the top of my head) was kind, helpful, friendly, and positive/cheerful (a little no-nonsense at times...but always professional). Our brief stint in B.A. was a highlight of the journey...though I would've happily skipped the experience to arrive Sunday morning, as planned.

5 Questions (Analysis & Design)

Wow…it looks like I’m finally, finally going to be getting the last few pieces of artwork for my new B/X supplement by this weekend…which means (hopefully) I’ll be able to get a print run going in the next couple-six weeks. Which is GREAT NEWS since I’ve got to knock one book out before I can get to the next…and it seems like I’m always working on the next.

The last couple weeks I’ve been rolling some ideas around in my head (I mean, other than the whole combat/initiative thing) and wondering how to approach it. The concept is still a little nebulous at the moment: in my head it’s kind of a combo of Rifts-Twilight 2000-Appleseed with perhaps a bit of the Mutant Chronicles thrown in. A real “war game” set in a blasted, devastated future Earth…think of the old John Byrne OMAC mini-series. This is NOT a Thundarr the Barbarian kind of game (that’s already been done anyway), but more the horror of war mixed with the resignation of “wow, even if this ends, there’s not much left to celebrate.”

Kind of a depressing concept, I suppose, but it’s a way to work with certain tropes and stylings that interest me at the moment.

But nothing’s been committed to paper at this point. I’m still trying to crystallize the idea and ruminating on whether or not it would make a good RPG. Since I do RPGs, not (miniature) war games.

I know I’ve talked about game design more than a little on this blog. Lots have been written and posted to the web about different approaches to game design, many of which consist of answering a series of design/concept specific questions. For the most part these are all good things to think about (I don’t think there’s ANY “bad questions” for generating thought…), but I don’t usually follow any particular paradigm of design brainstorm. For example, I don’t usually do a Power 19 list, though I know that was popular for awhile.

However, there are some very specific things I look at when I analyze the PLAYABILITY of an existing RPG, and they may be good things to review in any potential game design…as the answers to these questions speak to the actual playability of a game, coming up with poor answers in the design process may be a sign that a particular concept needs to be junked. For my own amusement (and for the interest of my readers) I’ll list ‘em here:

1) What objective brings the player characters together?

2) Aside from personality, what is it that distinguishes one player character from another with regard to GAME PLAY?

3) What common game systems are accessible by all characters?

4) What rewards are given/earned in play?

5) How are rewards earned?

Question #1 is a matter of practicality: if a game can’t answer this in a satisfactory fashion, it may well be too broad a concept for real playability…at least for my purposes. Some people might like the “open-endedness” of GURPS, for example, but I see it as a pain the ass with a lot of potential pitfalls: there’s a lot of potential for players and GMs to be totally disconnected from the play expectations of each other. This is why I hate tool kits, and why many IP-specific-driven concepts are difficult to work.

Question #2 is a bone for players’ self-esteem, pure and simple. Not everyone is comfortable playing a game without defined “roles” unless the concept is exceptionally simple. Few players indeed are satisfied with just being defined by their in-game choices and behavior and like an actual set of rules describing what makes their character "special."

Question #3 is the bone for the GM…it defines what characters can actually DO and can tell me if the scope of the rules are too broad (or too narrow). If my skills as a GM are going to be taken up searching out obscure systems in the rule book or if I’m going to be able to focus on running the game…and if the systems provided are specific enough (and on board) with the concept of the game.

Question #4 explains what, besides the joy of play, is the “bennie” of play. What are players working towards? I prefer long-term, serial play (for the development and identification of characters and subsequent stronger role-playing). In order to sustain this type of play, one must provide incentives.

Question #5 examines whether or not the behavior associated with the incentive actually directs game play in the proper direction. Well-designed games match concept-driven behavior with specific incentives to channel game-play in a particular direction; poorly designed games do not.

I can apply all five of these questions to games I like to play on a more than “one-off” basis. Many Story Now games don’t bother with answering these questions because they just want to create short stories through role-playing: addressing premise within a specific scenario or event to have a nice little bit of emotional or intellectual catharsis. Which is cool and all…I enjoy this type of play on occasion myself. But I prefer long-term play, pretending to be “a character” in a fantasy environment. I prefer the development of a (character/world) concept over time…because I want to live the fantasy for awhile. I enjoy long films and novels, too. I’m weird that way.

Let me give a couple examples of using these Five Questions:

Old School D&D (regardless of the silliness of the premise) is a pretty well-designed game from the perspective of my questions:

1) Common Objective: Characters are a party of adventurers; they share the goal of plumbing a dungeon for treasure.
2) PC Distinction: Characters are distinguished by class (in some editions by the sub-class “race”).
3) Common Abilities: Characters share the in-game systems of combat, saving throws, and searching (for traps and secret doors). Other actions PCs wish to take may require DM rulings. Class specific systems (multiple attacks, thief skills, cleric turning, spell-casting and magic item creation) are limited in scope and thus easy to manage.
4) Rewards: Characters gain levels increasing class effectiveness and survivability.
5) Rewarded Behavior: Characters gain XP for acquiring treasure and defeating opponents.

Compare this with the equally tight old school game Top Secret:

1) Common Objective: Characters are secret agents of a particular agency: they share a common mission.
2) PC Distinction: Characters are distinguished by Bureau (classification) and Areas of Knowledge known.
3) Common Abilities: Characters share all systems: combat, interacting with contacts, defeating security, chases. Other types of action may require rulings by the GM (what other actions do you need?).
4) Rewards: Characters increase effectiveness by spending earned XP on ability scores; characters earn fame points with levels.
5) Rewarded Behavior: Characters earn XP and money for completing mission objectives, earning bonuses for accomplishing objectives within their own Bureau’s sphere (for example, killing someone for a member of the Assassination Bureau).

Now let’s look at Vampire the Masquerade, an RPG I deem problematic in a number of ways, despite appreciating the aesthetics and general premise of the game:

1) Common Objective: None. It is suggested characters are a “coterie” of individuals and provides some possible reasons for banding together (they’re all anarchists for example). However, if one player wants to be a member of the establishment and another an anarchist, well…
2) PC Distinction: Characters are distinguished by Clan which provides specific disciplines (vampire powers), weaknesses, and political leanings. However, as being members of the same clan is an easy method to bring players together, well...
3) Common Abilities: There is an EXTENSIVE list of systems to which all characters have access; most come down to an ability+skill roll versus a specific target number that varies depending on the system. There are nine abilities and a ton of skills.
4) Rewards: Characters increase effectiveness by spending earned XP to boost abilities, skills, and disciplines but it requires a LOT of XP to do so, especially in the 2nd (and later) editions, making progress exceptionally slow.
5) Rewarded Behavior: Characters receive XP for showing up to play, “good role-playing” (undefined), “danger,” and “learning something.” Each of these things is worth 1 XP. None of them reinforce the concept or provide influence on in-game behavior.

You’ll note these questions do not address specific systems only the concepts that underly those systems. The Vampire system, for example, works fairly well and quickly, compared to, say, Top Secret’s horribly clunky hand-to-hand combat lists…but the latter is more coherent from a design standpoint because it reinforces what the game is all about. An assassin gets bonus rewards for killing (class distinction) and all characters get bonuses for “clean killings” (knifing someone in a dark alley rather than blazing away with automatic weapons in broad daylight, for example)…and smart players in TS are going to avoid combat anyway if it’s not pertinent to the (shared) mission objective. Vampire has a neat combat system…that has nothing to do with anything. Why bother?

[for those unfamiliar with VTM, allow me to elaborate for a moment. Your characters are vampires in the modern day. You’re supposed to be concerned with vampire politics, the loss of humanity associated with becoming a monster, the mysteries of the vampiric origin and possible methods of overcoming one’s curse…I mean, those are the “themes” and major plots of the game. But then you have a large section on combat and the use of firearms and “soaking damage” and the effects of spending “blood points” and all these other fancy, slick systems. I mean, combat isn’t even necessary to drink blood (mortals simply succumb to the vampiric “kiss” automatically without rolls) but it’s important to know the difference between a large automatic handgun and a small automatic handgun? Is it any wonder that many (most) Vampire games turn into gun battles with cops?]

Let’s look at another game designed for serial play that is problematic for me, despite slick mechanics: Traveller. I currently own the nicely done Mongoose version and it frustrates me to no end:

1) Common Objective: None. It appears to assume that all PCs are a member of the same ship’s crew, off in search of adventure. Of course, it’s possible that none of the PCs will have acquired a ship during character creation. And then there’s the difference in expectations (what if some players wants a Star Trek “exploratory mission” while another player wants to be a band of roving mercenaries or pirates?...total disconnect!).
2) PC Distinction: None. I mean, characters will PROBABLY have different skills (or different degrees of skills) based on careers chosen in their pre-adventuring life…but many skills are shared between careers and besides money and gear, past career really provides zero in-game distinction.
3) Common Abilities: All characters use the same slick skill system. The only uncommon abilities would be if a character has psi powers unavailable to others.
4) Rewards: None except money earned for missions, allowing the financing of additional missions, I guess.
5) Rewarded Behavior: Trading or accepting missions that pay money will get you money.

There is no common objective in Traveller and no real incentive for play other than “wanting to play Traveller.” As opposed to (I suppose) a different “space game.”

Now, of course, lots of folks play Traveller and manage this through the time honored tradition of putting the whole goddam burden of the game on the GM’s shoulders. Great, fantastic. Some folks want that burden…you’re welcome to it. I don’t want it. I don’t want to be responsible for “finding a way to make it work” (let alone, “make it fun”). Throw THAT in my face and I’ll probably shrug it off in favor of a different RPG (at least Star Frontiers has the Pan Galactic Corporation versus the Sathar).

Anyhoo, these are more-or-less the first five questions I ask when reading a new RPG. To be sure, there are other sub-categories to the questions that I haven’t bothered to list here as many pertain to my own personal prejudices (example: under Question 3 would fall the sub-question – “Does the designer lazily rely on a damn ‘skill system’ for resolving in-game action?”). But I think they’re helpful “conceptual” things to think about when designing one’s own game…whether it’s your own version of D&D or some new twist on the Zombie Apocalypse idea.

At least, they’re helpful to ME. If I can’t answer these questions to my own satisfaction with regard to my own game design, I can junk the whole project without needing to worry about the specific systems of the game. Why? ‘Cause it’s probably not going to be a game I want to play!
; )

Space Race (Part 2)

[this is a post I left on the draft board a couple weeks back; I'm updating it and adding to it for the current conversation]

Writing is challenging, game design is challenging, and creating a space opera game can be DAMN challenging...especially when one gets to the whole "adventure creation" section of the thing...nothing is lamer than an RPG that doesn't provide you with the tools to run a game, instead assuming that "one knows how to craft an adventure." Ugh. However I can see why so many games punt this part...it's damn hard to do well for a sim-heavy game.

And that's what Space Opera is. I mean, sure...you can do the indie-version, story-based game (say, Dogs in the Vinyard with Jedi in place of the Dogs), but that's not the audience MY game is geared toward. And based on my experience with players who dig on SciFi games, that's not generally the thing that attracts them to the category of "speculative fiction in space."

Do I need to mention that space opera isn't much for facilitating the gamist creative agenda either? D&D (in its earliest incarnations) is a near perfect example of design that facilitates a gamist design, so much so that I begin to question whether or not it can actually work at all (let alone, "work well") for other agendas. More on that if/when I ever get around to posting an analysis of events from our last few D&D sessions at the Baranof.

Why do people want to play SciFi games? For me (and most everyone I've met who enjoy these types of RPG), it's all about "the right to dream," baby..."simulationism," to use the out-of-favor term. Most of us are never going to be astronauts...and those of us that are will probably never visit any planets besides Our Little Earth. Not for a damn, long time anyway (unless there's some extraterrestrial intervention...like the plot of an 80's SciFi film).

And even if/when we DO reach another planet, what do we have to look forward to? Mining for mineral resources in space suits? Uncovering "life" in the form of fossilized bacteria? Folks, the idea of an advanced, interstellar community (whether solely human or mixed with sentient beings) is as far fetched and fantastic as the premise of Shadowrun. I'm not saying it's not possible...I'm saying it's damn unlikely.

Playing a sci-fi RPG...whether it's Star Frontiers or Star Wars or Traveller or whatever...is the closest any of us are going to get to traveling between the stars, having "grand adventures in space." People who enjoy these games are drawn to them (for the most part, I believe) because of wanting to explore that idea...they want to pretend to BE those travelers between the worlds. It doesn't matter so much if they are some badass Jedi or knife-wielding Furyan. They want to explore strange new vistas and visit alien landscapes and interact with exotic cultures.

It's still "fantasy" role-playing...playing the role of an imaginary character in an imaginary situation in an imaginary world. But for "space" games, it's the exploration of a particular "genre" (spaceships and aliens and high technology and distant stars) that's important. The MOST important part.

Not having grand battles and fighting monsters and winning treasure.

Not exploring the foibles and flaws and moral quandaries of our human condition.

Those things CAN occur in a SciFi RPG...but they can occur in most ANY type of RPG (my last Boot Hill session featured the players killing "monsters" (banditos) and gaining "treasure" (bounty-reward money). The important part for a space opera game is the EXPLORATION of the "fantasy space universe." Those other considerations are secondary.

And so the question arises, "how does one create adventures for a SciFi RPG?" How does one motivate players to do anything? Do you just design a system as best you can and assume that players will "just know" how to create an "adventure" that will engage them? Should the designers simply punt the issue?

The thing about adventure creation is that it really does go hand-in-hand with any reward mechanics present in the game. If a reward system IS present, than the adventure design must take that reward into consideration (I think...I'm not ready to put forward a new Axiom on the issue).

Which is why, for me, those three games I mentioned earlier fall a little short of the mark.

Being based on a D&D chassis, they presume a gamist agenda (or perhaps it would be fairer to say they put forward a system that facilitates a gamist agenda). Which is probably why Terminal Space works the best (for me) of the three and why Stars Without Number, despite its high production values and obvious time and loving attention to detail feels like it falls short of playability (at least, long term playability).

[oh, and by the way...I heartily DISAGREE with the Barking Alien about class/level systems not being appropriate for a SciFi game...at least of the space opera genre, I think it fits right well]

For me, the best space opera games ever published are Star Frontiers and Classic Traveller (and all apologies to WEG Star Wars, who were wonderful in describing exactly what space opera is). The former has a specific, small scale setting, the latter an almost totally open one. In seeing why they work for me I should point out a couple things:

a) I really, REALLY dislike the Star Frontiers system.

b) I find Classic Traveller to be too incomplete for my purposes (it's playable "out-of-the-box" but it's a little sparse that way...and I have fairly specific needs when it comes to playing a SciFi genre RPG, hence the need for my own system).

But despite my personal dislike for the games, I acknowledge them to be great. Why? Because they allow for that exploration of the imaginary space opera setting without the reward system getting in the way.

Because there's really not much of a reward system. The reward of play is experiencing and exploring the game setting.

Yes, players in Star Frontiers gain some minute amount of "experience points," but real improvement of character effectiveness is glacially slow (one of the things I dislike about the game...I find beginning characters too limited and the rate of improvement to tedious). CT has almost no "advancement" or increase in character ability once play begins...players start with veteran characters (assuming they survive the chargen process), and it does NOT behoove you to start your adventuring days at a young age.

Keeping the emphasis off advancement puts the emphasis on exploration.

Meanwhile, looking at the new "old school" SciFi RPGs we see that most of the effort went in to creating rules for play without creating a how and why of play.

However, I'll have to come back to this subject...I'm out of time at the moment.

Space Elves? Christ Almighty!

Not to distract too much from my recent posts on leprechauns and the usefulness of the undead (both of which are well worth reading, if I do say so myself), but I keep forgetting to mention this:

Really, I'm at a loss. Isn't Traveller supposed to be the "smart" sci-fi RPG?

This kind of thing is why I have never bothered to buy a single sourcebook for the new Mongoose Traveller...if I can't dream it up myself (and make it work with the rules), chances are I'm not really interested. Sheesh!

Back in the U.S. of A.

Well, Texas, actually, which many folks both in AND outside of the state will tell you is NOT exactly the same thing.

However, it IS (officially) U.S. soil which means that I have beat the scare-monger's odds and NOT got blown-up in some sort of international travel incident...though I almost had some pewter olive picks (in the shape of Toledo swords) confiscated in Madrid. ALMOST...they must have decided I looked "mostly harmless" and allowed me to re-pack 'em back in my carry on (little did the pilots know I was deadly with the throwing toothpick!). Once we got to Dallas, I checked them (along with my Toledo sword) so that I wouldn't have to worry about it with American security...they have a notoriously low threshold for humor on such matters.

Yes, I AM bringing my blade back with me, rather than mailing it. It made it to Dallas without damage, we'll see if it gets all the way to SeaTac. I am hopeful...but then I am NOT traveling Continental this trip (which has had a history of losing luggage).

[*sigh*]

Anyhoo, though it may not look like it, I DID do some blogging on the flight over from Spain. Unfortunately, I didn't have access to the internet, so these various thoughts will get posted up over the next few hours. People may begin resuming orders of the B/X Companion without fear...while my "secondary mail service" (AKA my house-sitting brother) was able to mail out half-a-dozen packages for me this week, I will be resuming mail operations manana (I ain't going into work till Wednesday).

Yay!
: )

***EDIT: Oh, yeah...and apparently while I was in the air, Mr. Maliszewski gave a fairly positive review of my B/X Companion over at Grognardia. That's pretty cool; check it out when you have a chance!****

3 Days, 3 Games, 3 Different Styles (Part 1)

The following three-part series will be a description of three very different games I played over the the course of Dragonflight XXXI this past weekend. Both my attempts at running games completely fell through (no one signed up for my table) but I was able to get into other folks’ games as a player. I would change the names to “protect the innocent,” but folks can look up the game schedule at the Dragonflight web site anyway so why bother? I will only be using first names however.

I will try not to run these too long, but we’ll see how THAT goes. ; )

A note or two about me before I begin: I’m an average looking white dude in his mid-30s. My hair is dishwater blonde and cut short, and the hair’s been getting a might thin in front the last year or two. I’m “medium-build” mainly ‘cause I’m out-of-shape and carrying an extra 20 pounds; I’m about 5’9”. I have literally decades of gaming experience, mainly as a GM in 15-20 different systems, and I have a working knowledge of a couple dozen more. I have a background in performing arts and I generally don’t have too much trouble “slipping into character.”

On the other hand, I also have an ego the size of a freight train, and a fairly aggressive/impulsive style and don’t really like to “hang around the back of the party.” I try to curb what I call my “asshole impulse” and usually attempt to not usurp leadership roles in a group…both with varying degrees of success.

Keep all these things in mind as I walk you through my gaming con experience…
: )

When I was first looking though the roster of RPGs being offered, one of the few that really caught my eye was “All in a Day’s Thievery,” a Traveller game set in the Firefly/Serenity universe. Since I have wanted to run this kind of game myself, pretty much ever since I picked up Mongoose Traveller, I was totally stoked to try it out. Unfortunately, I realized later that I had signed up to run my own con game in the same time slot.

“Thankfully,” no one showed up to my game.

I actually waited till close to 3:30 to give up on running my own game (the time slot started at 2pm). It was around this time another GM propositioned me to join his group, since he was having a tough time getting a full boat. Turns out he was the same GM running the Traveller game I’d wanted to play (this as much as anything convinced me to give up my own game).

Al the “Gamer Dude” is a hefty, extroverted guy with probably 15-20 years on me…definitely old enough to qualify as a “grognard.” Except he’s running Mongoose Traveller, and appears to be some sort of licensed demo guy. While I didn’t quiz him on his history or anything, I gleaned that he’s originally from the east coast and is ex-military and appears to have picked up gaming “on-base” sometime in the past (when stationed in Tennessee? Maybe). He has played a number of different games in the past (though I don’t know how long his history goes back), but he ran ONLY Traveller at this particular con (and ran it pretty much every time slot of every day).

When I sat down at the table, there were already three players, each of whom had two pre-gen character sheets in front of him. All seemed nice enough, though all looked like what might be called the stereotype of my wife’s worst fears of geek/gaming culture. The guy next to me handed me one of his character sheets to play, and I figured, hey cool, I can play whatever they throw at me. At the time, I didn’t think it was odd that is was more than an hour into the timeslot, everyone had characters, and they hadn’t even started playing. I guess, he REALLY wanted six players (hence the reason everyone had two of the pre-gens).

Al went over the game with us. He discussed how Traveller works (roll 2D6, add skill, add ability score modifier, add any GM adjustments, and get an eight or better to succeed). He explained how his Firefly universe was a little different (core systems instead of core worlds). He explained how he had taken the Serenity RPG and adapted it to the Traveller system making a bit of a hybrid. He explained how we weren’t the specific characters from the series, but similar pastiches on-board a Firefly ship with a similar raison d’etre.

All good…we were all on-board (no pun intended) with everything he was throwing at us, and weren’t about to rock the boat with fanboy-nerdisms (we readily accepted it was a pastiche game). But his spiel went on for probably a good hour. Maybe more.

And we all sat, polite and listening, nodding our heads appropriately. Chuckling appreciatively. Patiently waiting to play.

And the spiel went on.

I mean we were ready! One of the first things Al asked was, “now are you guys familiar with the Firefly show?” John, the quiet guy next to me who had given me one of his pre-gens said “I have the whole series on DVD plus the deluxe movie box set.” I chimed in, “me too…on Blue Ray.” Oh were we geeks ready to get down! We were just waiting for the guy to say GO…and waiting...and waiting....

Al's spiel was probably slowed by the multitude of anecdotes…personal ones, gaming ones, Traveller ones, and Firefly/Joss Whedon ones. Blah, blah, blah.

His last words before starting (I’m para-phrasing):

“You guys can do whatever you want in the game. Just tell me what you want to do and I’ll tell you what happens. Or rather, I’ll tell you what you CAN’T DO, but if you want to still attempt it you can, that’s fine it’s not forbidden to try but you should know I only say things you can’t do because they’re futile. Like jumping off a cliff and flapping your arms to fly like this guy did in this one game [insert anecdote or two]…I mean you CAN try it, but you’re going to splatter on the ground and roll like 100D6 for damage…but otherwise anything REASONABLE yes, you can do it.”

Okay, got it.

Each pre-gen had a description of the character (physical) and a bit of background. We were a fairly mixed bunch, character-wise:

John #1 (call him “hat John” or just “John”) was sitting at the GM’s right hand. Later I figured out he has a history with Al and has run in several of his Trav/FF games before. He played the Captain as his main character (an ex-Brown Coat, basically Malcom Reynolds, but with a penchant for Civil War South memorabilia. For example, he wore a Grey coat instead of a brown one, the ship was called the “General Lee” and had a Dixie horn like the Dukes of Hazard car). His secondary character was the engineer, an ex-racer type from the “AVSCAR circuit” who wore an AVSCAR cap and reminisced about his prior days as a celebrity driver.

John #2 (call him “beard John” or “John the Little” which is what Al called him) was a quieter member of the table. The character he had kept for himself was the cook-slash-mercenary/muscle of the group in the form of an older (50s) woman who’d lost both her sons in the galactic civil war, one on either side. Grandma in combat boots was her description; we just called her “Ma.”

Chris (sitting to my right, the GM’s left) also appeared to have some past history with Al, though maybe not a pleasant one. Al was pretty quick to cut him off at times as though he’d had experience arguing points with Chris in the past. His main character was the pilot, a woman of Africa-Asian ancestry that changed the color of her jumpsuits depending on her mood, and the doctor, a severe Nordic-type woman who changed her hair color and style depending on her mood.

So what about my character? Well, I was the First Officer. My character was male, his description being “an average standard Caucasian male.” I had brown hair and eyes, average height and weight, “nondescript looks.” I seemed to "blend into the background,” and was “quiet and observant, not seeking the limelight.” Of all the characters I had been both an Intelligence Officer AND had been on the side of the Alliance during the war. Besides, not seeking the limelight the only “character note” I had was that I liked jazz music (!) and when I was in port I’d seek out a jazz bar, or listen to jazz music on my headset if I couldn’t find one. Oh, yeah…and his name was Jonathan, “never Jon or Johnny.”

Basically, I was the most boring character possible.

Al told us it was up to us to figure how long we’d been on the ship and why we’d signed on. So it was up to me to figure out why my boring jazz aficionado/ex-Alliance officer had somehow joined an illicit ship piloted by ex-rebel scum…hmmm…

[I learned later that all these pre-gen characters…and Al’s particular Firefly campaign…had been used before and developed over time. For all I know, my character was created by an actual person, perhaps the classic “turtle-type” gamer…but, well, that's not exactly MY style]

So we settled down to gaming. Our characters were at a bar on Persephone, having just completed a job [any tie-ins from the last job to what’s going on now? asks JB. Nope says Al…cue anecdote about in media res…cue anecdote about James Bond and Indiana Jones…cue JB politely wishing he hadn’t asked]. You guys want to check the “HoloNet” and see what’s going on anywhere?

Um (taking the hint)…ok.

Turns out there was a planet that had been pretty nuked during the war, that the Alliance was now starting to re-patriate with new colonists.

"Hmm...interesting," says John #1.

Interesting? says JB (getting into character now that the game is up-and-running). Sounds like the Alliance is up to its old tricks, making a buck off impoverished refugees by dropping 'em on a radiation-saturated planet. Probably "undesirables." The bastards.

[I decided that the only reason I was with the General Lee was because being an intelligence officer, I'd seen through the lies and deceit of the Alliance and decided I'd had a belly-full and quit...the embittered ex-pat. Also, I decided the reason my character stayed on...and the reason he'd been accepted was that "unassuming" as he was, he was the real "brains" behind the outfit, helping to control from the shadows, and the rebs had just found me too useful not to hire]

"Um, yeah," says Al. "Anyone with Streetwise make a roll. "

My character the intelligence officer has a lot of useful skills like this and I easily blow the top of my check, as does the pilot (Chris) who has a high Intelligence score. Al slips us a note that says "there may be good salvage in the ruins of the city." Okay, as I said, I can take a hint.

Come to think of it, says JB, the Alliance scrubbers have probably knocked out most of the rads...its been a couple years. Might be there's some easy pickings in one of the cities that was.

Al is writing another furious note, this time for John #1. Turns out the AVSCAR guy grew up on the planet and has relatives there. They're already there? Or they need passage to the planet? 'Cause we need legit business to get there anyway, "just in case."

After some confusion, we figure out the cousins are already there and may be able to point us to a good site for looting swag. But this gives JB an idea:

I see I have contacts listed here: do we know anyone who can put us in touch with VIPs that WANT to go to the new planet but wouldn’t be allowed past quarantine? Not felonious murderers, just them that’s on the Alliance watch list and can pay extra to make a fresh start on a new world? After all, there’s no telling whether the salvage job will pan out, and we might as well try for a twofer, pay-wise to hedge our bets.

Al says “sure” but glosses over the details just saying that this bit of cleverness will earn us 25,000 instead of the 15,000 we were going to get for only hauling legit passengers. Everyone’s happy, Al asks if there’s anything else we want to do on Persephone.

John #2 asks: I’d kinda’ like to find some fresh fruits and vegetables for the larder.

Al: “The kitchen’s already full-up, top to bottom.” Sha-Bam! Shut DOWN. So much for being able to do anything we can think of. And John #2 goes back to being quiet.

After the pilot and 1st officer trading off some piloting and astrogation rolls (we were the ones with the skills you see), and setting appropriate watches over our cargo-hold passengers, we approach our destination planet. Al describes our in-bound flight. Describes how all the people are being herded through some sort of check point, like a herd of sheep through a narrow gate. This is just color, but we assume he’s telling us because it’s some sort of obstacle. We start strategizing, is there something we need do to get the refugees through? Do we need to forge docs for the VIPs?

Deciding to try to get John #2 into the action (and having glanced over to see what useful skills Ma has besides fighting), I suggest we let Ma, the doc, and I take one of the orbital crafts to the lootable city, while the Cap and AVSCAR gets the refugees through the checkpoint with the intelligent (and streetwise!) pilot providing the forged docs. Ma can act as the pilot/muscle of the orbital craft, I’ll be along as back-up craft pilot (useful, nondescript skills), and the doc can monitor our vitals so we don’t take too many rads in ruined city. All the players seemed to think this was a fine plan.

On the other hand, Al was a little exasperated. “You don’t need to worry about the refugees. They’re FINE [apparently they made the mistake of paying us in advance thus giving us no reason not to jettison them to the whims of fate].” What we REALLY needed to do was make a piloting roll to set the craft down without crashing (‘cause dice rolls are the important part?), THEN we needed to go find the cousins who would take us to the ruined city.

Okay…it’s a dungeon crawl. I finally get it. We were sitting around the tavern (Persephone bar) checking notices (the HoloNet), took a journey through the wilderness (rolling astrogation not to get lost), and ending up looking for a ruined city to loot (the dungeon crawl itself).

In all seriousness, I am only just now making this connection…I guess he WAS an old grognard after all! At the time I was just thinking, okay, the dude just wants to get us to his adventure his way and is trying not to let us get side-tracked with all this “other stuff.” Unfortunately, the “other stuff” we were doing was the kind of stuff one might find in, you know…a Firefly-esque universe?

That’s pretty much what we’d all signed up to play…certainly John #2 and I. Not just Dungeon Crawls in space using Traveller instead of D&D with the background color of the Firefly ‘verse. Even when I used to play the original Classic Traveller as a kid, we never just did dungeon crawls. I know you CAN run it that way…like you can use Stormbringer to do the same. But (as with Stormbringer) it’s really not designed for that kind of adventure.

Anyhoo, I never got to the actual dungeon…er, “ruined city.” Because another one of Al’s buddies showed up (who he took a couple cell phone calls from during the game…nice), and after some more time outs and anecdotes and exchanges of gifts (Traveller 5 on CD Rom) I could see I needed to get back to Seattle to pick up my very sick wife from work.

I handed off my character to John #2 (Al’s buddy having already been handed the AVSCAR engineer), shook hands all around and apologized for leaving early while explaining I had had a great time with them, thanking them all for the game.

And you know what? I was telling the absolute truth. I DID have a blast and it was fun despite the complaints I’ve listed here in this post. Despite my critical diatribe let me just enumerate the good things, so you understand where I’m coming from:

1) I got to PLAY Traveller without having to prep a damn thing. And the Mongoose version runs pretty smooth and Old School, let me tell ya.

2) I got to play a Firefly/Serenity-themed game with dudes who were on the same page, who weren’t jackass superfans shouting down the GM, and who weren’t afraid to play the theme. Just wish we’d had some Chinese cheat sheets to swear off of (one thing the Serenity RPG was smart about).

3) I got to role-play in a large group…for me anyway, it’s been a loooong time since I was part of a four-man pack. It was also my first all adult game that wasn’t over the internet in a long time. Great.

4) The game provided me with challenges…trying to make my character both interesting and useful - as well as finding him a role in the group other than “quiet jazz dude” - was tricky, but I was satisfied with the job I did. Finding ways to scheme AND get the other guys involved in the plans was another challenge that I found fun. I don’t think I stepped on any toes…except maybe the GM’s!

5) The game provided me with a learning experience. How to do (interesting if not good) pastiche with Traveller. How NOT to blow two hours of gaming time with extended spiels. How to NOT shut down your players. How to NOT worry about fiddly rolls when they’re not the point of the adventure (for example, what if we had failed the astrogation roll? Al didn’t want us to be sidetracked by our own “side quests” but if you’re not playing sandbox you don’t want the ship to be lost in space! Is this just a way to make the people who blew points in astrogation feel useful?).

Yeah, that’s a lot of “what not to do.” But it was fun to watch it unfold. Even when I was shut down I had no attachment to the outcome of a one-off game so it didn’t bug me…I was just happy with #1-#4. But in a long term Traveller series? One would have to watch out for this kind of shit to prevent alienating players, I think.

My First Gaming Convention!

This week has been a rough one. I was out sick three days. The printer has been having problems getting my order done (latest SNAFU: the broken part won't be in till Monday and the print run won't be finished till Thursday...assuming no other problems). And I have frigging raccoons dancing on my roof at night. Seriously. Peering in through the f'ing skylight. Running around like friggin' Santa and his reindeer.

Really, just a headache.

On top of which, today was the first day of Dragonflight XXXI, the Northwest gaming convention I've never been to, but which I was determined to attend.

And I did. And I'll be back tomorrow.

Sorry for the late night post, but I've spent the last several hours comforting my beloved, beleaguered wife who has, unfortunately, succumbed to the same sickness I've had all week. Sorry, babe.

Anyway, there is so much I could write about in just this one day. I mean, literally, I have stuff for nearly half a dozen blog posts. Most of it (I am literally chuckling as I type this) actually pretty negative. But lovingly so! I loved it...oh, it was so...refreshing! Despite all the negative critical things I can (and probably will) say, I still had a good time!

Wild.

Let's see if I can sum up the day real quick...the elaborations will come (oh, trust me, the elaborations will come).

I had a lot of shit to get through this morning just to make it to the thing in time for the game I had committed to run at 2pm. And I didn't even make that. Even in the middle of the day, traffic to and from Bellevue is a bitch. Honestly, how folks can stand to live/work on the Eastside...I just don't understand. Plus they're the only part of King County that's majority Republican. Maybe the traffic is some sort of Divine smiting...

ANYway...got to the Bellevue Hilton no problem...thank God the Con folks chose a place with such no nonsense directions from the highway! The concierge didn't even look at me funny when I asked for the Dragonflight convention. Nice!

Found that it was cash or check only, so I was even later getting in as I had to find an ATM (and take it up the ass with the damn fee). However, even standing in line wasn't so boring as I could hear they were playing a movie (!) in the room next door with a familiar soundtrack...a track I at first mis-identified as Dune, when in fact it was Big Trouble in Little China.

My kind of people.

The pres (I think) actually registered me and showed me where to go to find my table and sign-in sheet. Low and behold NO ONE SIGNED UP FOR MY GAME. Again. Noob that I am, the pres informed me (apologetically) that the 2pm Friday time-slot is generally one of the slowest of the con...something I probably should have guessed.

So I changed the time to 3pm and gleefully set about wandering to check out the rest of the sights.

Wow. Again...much to discuss. Most people were playing board games or war games and not a few were playing pick-up card games of various types (MtG, Gloom). There were also plenty of dealer tables (and shelves! 8' tall and stacked with stuff!) set up in the ballrooms, most selling shit I would never, ever purchase.

Except for American Eagle Games and their blessed-basement-inventory-of-shit-they've-never-sold. These are the same guys from whom I bought a mint copy of The Compleat Adventurer, and they once again came through by bringing a crap-load of stuff I'd never seen on their shelves, almost everything circa 1980s. I bought a single non-game item that I am immensely happy with and deserves its own blog post.

So having something to read, I happily went back to my empty table which remained empty.

In fact the table became emptier because a guy who was also in need of players invited me to join his game (he had three of his hoped for six). And I did.

I've written before that I think the new Mongoose Traveller is the perfect platform to run a Firefly/Serenity game. Apparently, I'm not the only person to think so. Freaking fantastic. That in itself is worth three posts.

Tomorrow I run Death Frost Doom. We'll see how that goes...I am excited to go back (hmmm...should probably print out the pdf huh? Yeah, better go do that). More on this later. I just want to end this post on one last note:

Every person I encountered and talked to? Every single one? Very nice. Very happy. Even the guys playing Gloom. Not a single Grumpy Gus or arrogant jackass in the house.

Wow.

: )

Dungeons in Space

Ha! Y'all probably think this is going to be some kind of review of Terminal Space, the truly cool OD&D add-on from Albert Rakowski.

Nah.

Though I did write a big long essay/review/piece-o-blog-fodder on the subject the other day. For those worried that I might be in some kind of "missed deadline funk," rest assured that NO I have just been busy with other projects and deal-i-o's.

[side note: thank you to everyone that gave me words of encouragement. My "downed-ness" on myself only lasted 4-6 hours. The Doc snapped me out of it with these words: "um...I thought deadlines were MEANT to be broken. Nobody makes deadlines." Well, Kris, there are two types of people in this world: those that show up to the movie early, and those that walk in during the previews. For most of my life I've prided myself on being one of the former...guess I need to lighten up a bit!]

Anyhoo, I decided to SKIP the big essay 'cause it was even more rambly and meandering than usual, and because I can sum up what I want to say in a handful of bullet-point impressions:

• Great work, as an OD&D supplement, does the thing proud
• Reminds me quite a bit of Old School Traveller with the random design systems and monsters and with the ship construction
• The game is a TRUE "D&D in space" unlike, say, SpellJammer (which is basically a nautical game...with crossbows and magic helms substituting for lasers and fusion engines).
• The game is a TRUE "D&D in space" rather than just "a space game using the OD&D system." You still have magic-users, clerics, and magic...which makes the whole thing GODDAMN AWESOME. Really. It's about as pulpy sci-fi/fantasy as you could ask for. I suppose I will need a blog post to elaborate a bit...oh, well.
• I love, love, LOVE the "7th stat;" the new Technology ability score. If the game didn't have magic-users (see last bullet-point) I would simply drop Intelligence from the game and substitute Tech in its place. Tying it to starting ca$h is also cool...isn't the 3D6 roll for starting gold a bit like making Gold a 7th stat?
• The new character classes are OK. I don't know that you really need a pilot class...I'm glad everyone CAN pilot a ship. Scientist and Technician are decent enough archetypes...but are they really adventuring classes?
• I am glad A.R. didn't go over-board on skills. OD&D didn't need to give people "sailing skill" to do naval combat, after all.
• A great, great little game that I highly recommend. The artwork is super-cool.

All right, so if this post is NOT about Terminal Space, than what the hell IS it about?

Well, dungeon adventures in space, of course.

I was walking the beags with my brother the other day and discussing the challenges and frustrations of A) finding a good superhero RPG, and B) creating one's own superhero RPG (especially in a 64-page format natch). But one thing I realized in talking with ol' AB is that the comic book superhero genre is one of only ones the even comes CLOSE to working in the same vein as the archetypal RPG Adventure Game (i.e. D&D).

The basic premise of D&D is that a bunch of DISPARATE INDIVIDUALS band together and EXPLORE AN ISOLATED SITE, generally with SOME GOAL (like acquiring wealth) and often resorting to COMBAT AND FORCE, at least in some degree.

Except for the "isolated site" (the proverbial "dungeon") a super team (a la the Avengers, the X-Men, the Defenders, the Justice League, the Teen Titans, etc.) all fit the bill.

Other genres just don't always work so well. Western and Spy genre certainly not, and neither do many "sci-fi" genres except in the most gonzo fashion (Gamma World has a couple of site based adventures, but it can get old/cheesy when every session is "oh ANOTHER hidden installation, huh?"). It should go without saying that "group Vampire" is pretty silly, at least in the style of an "adventuring party."

Notice how HPL's stories are always about a single protagonist? And yet half-a-dozen editions of Call of Cthulhu espouse this idea of a "team" of investigators.

There's a metric ton of RPGs that try to ape the D&D archetype. After all, RPGs are a SOCIAL GAME. They're meant to be played ("game") with a group ("social"). And many designers create games using those same archetypal assumptions:

- there are multiple players

- they want to work cooperatively

- they want a variety of different "character types" to distinguish themselves from each other

- they want to go on "adventures" and fight things (combat!)

Even AB believes, 'hey any RPG should have a good combat system...that's why people play RPGs according to old ABles...Of course, AB doesn't play RPGs and calls WoW his home-away-from-home (when he has access to a computer) so take his philosophy with a grain of salt.

Indie gamers and those with what was once called the "Narratavist Creative Agenda" would of course take issue with this...as would I on most days. But that does NOT mean that dungeon exploration ain't desirable, creative, or downright fun...note this blog is called B/X Blackrazor.

HOWEVER, I don't think it's desirable in every friggin' game.

Terminal Space gives you the means to take your Dungeons & Dragons adventure into space. And if I hadn't run out of time right now, I'd tell you about one more RPG that did something similar...the whole reason for this post, in fact.

However, you'll have to wait for Part 2...I need to go pick up dinner.

; )

"They Should Pay Me For This..."

So recently, the Doc and I have been in discussion to start an on-line Traveller campaign…in fact, he’s already made a character and named his ship. But I’m having a difficult time getting jazzed for the project.

Especially considering I just re-read MechWarrior and can’t help making an un-favorable comparison with the Traveller universe. For the record, I believe I prefer Traveller’s over-all system to MW, but for whatever reason, I find MW’s background to be much more compelling. I’m not sure why…perhaps it’s the lack of aliens.

Outside of serious space opera like Flash Gordon or Star Wars (in which all the main characters are human anyway), I find intelligent alien life to be the corniest, hokiest (and most boring) part of any Science Fiction RPG. Doc, on the other hand, LOVES aliens…he prefers Farscape and Star Trek to Firefly and Star Wars and was telling me how much fun he had in his last Traveller game playing a “cat-person.”

When I told him I wanted to run a “human-only” Traveller universe, he was NOT pleased (though his character is human). I HAVE relented (it IS Traveller, after all…the encounter of strange new life is expected), but it doesn’t instill in me a burning desire to play, I’m afraid.

Which reminds me of something I wanted to write about last week. Over at Grognardia, J.M. talked about the referee as being a player, too…something I totally agree with. There are capital P “Players” that sit opposite the GM(s), but everyone at the table, including the GM is a “player” of the game. And as a player it is important that the GM have fun, too.

So...Why the hell would anyone want to be a GM?

Assuming you capitulate to the demands of your players (as I am doing with the alien thing), and assuming you are not breaking one of the Big GM Commandments:

Thou shall not railroad your players into your plot.
Thou shall not raise thy NPCs to a place of prominence above the PCs.
Thou shall not allow external strife to influence in-game events.


…assuming, in other words, that you are not a person who GMs for the sake of getting your jollies playing Master with the Players as Slaves…well, if all you’re doing is playing “Santa Claus,” facilitating everyone else’s fun, why the hell would you want to do it?

Because “someone has to?”

Because “it’s your turn?”

Because you’re the guy (or gal) that “knows the rules the best?”

Ridiculous…all of these reasons.

Now for Mr. Maliszewski, he enjoys the surprise of seeing “what happens next,” partly due to player innovation, partly due to random dice roll…I guess you’d call this the Wide-Eyed-Curiosity motivation. When I was a DM, I enjoyed challenging (aka “beating on”) the players: putting them in situations/scenarios to see how they react…call this the Saw IV or Sadistic-Overlord motivation. Of course ,nowadays I’m also interested in teaching the game to newbies…call that the Mentor-to-Grow-the-Hobby motivation. But is that fun? Or rather, is it ENOUGH fun?

Maybe not, as I struggle to find motivation to start up a new campaign. Oh, I’ve often thought about posting a “gamers wanted” sign down at the local hobby shop, and I’ve thought of a couple-few games I’d love to try out. But I still haven’t done so. It’s a LOW PRIORITY. Which means it’s not all that important to me. Which perhaps means it takes a special kind of masochist to be a game master, and I’m just not cut out for it anymore.

I look at JM’s Dwimmermount campaign and I see a couple things going on that fire him to continue:

- A serious study of the hobby’s roots (an in-depth analysis)
- A teaching of the game to his own children

I am far less interested in empirical observation than James (note my half-assed theories spewed all throughout this blog), and I have no children of my own (yet!). I search through the blog-o-sphere for other long-term RPG campaigns and I see the connecting thread is that the players are long-term friends, and gaming is just ONE of the things they do together. Otherwise, both on-line and face-to-face “pick-up” games tend to dissolve just as quickly as they start.

Could it be that the lack of glue to hold a group’s cohesion comes from a lack of interest/motivation on the part of the GM?

Maybe. Certainly, when I have been a capital-P PLAYER in these on-line games, the ONLY reason I ever walked away from a game was because the GM was a douche that didn’t know the rules. Otherwise, I always had fun as a player, rockin’ and a-rollin’ with my character. It was the DM/GM that would eventually walk away.

Is being a good GM/referee a truly thankless task? Is being a good Dungeon Master supposed to be “its own reward?”

I have acted as referee for my nephews playing Warhammer 40,000 on multiple occasions, and I can tell you that while being a ref greatly facilitates the fun of the players (providing that “impartial-voice-of-reason-and-rulings”), I would much prefer to be “in the game” and kicking ass than sitting on the sideline with a whistle.

Is it an age thing? I mean umpires and field referees for sports are often ex-players that just don’t have the stuff to play at their prior level (they "got old"), and so referee as a way of staying in the game, in addition to finding a practical application for their experience and knowledge of a sport and its rules. But RPGs (and war games) are NOT age restrictive in the same way as athletic sports…a player can be 85 years old and still roll dice and write down how many arrows he’s expended at a group of orcs. The only issue age might have is calling it an early night…and that “negative impact of age” will only be amplified if the octogenarian is relegated to the role of GM/referee.

It’s a quandary. RPGs need a referee to be effective (games like Polaris not withstanding). Referees, to be good at their job, need to set aside their personal expectations and attachments in favor of the players’ fun. So what’s to keep the ref at the table, besides some sense of duty or obligation.

I really don’t know. Money maybe? Once upon a time, I considered a scheme to become a “professional game master,” but quickly discarded the idea. Setting aside the issue of how the hell you’d get anyone to pay you in the first place (and would they pay up front? Would there be a “money-back guarantee” if their characters died?”), I could see no way to charge enough for the time, energy, and preparation one would need to expend to be a pro-GM. That is, no way one could charge enough AND get people to accept the bill.

And anyway if you started charging people for the service/act of being a GM would that suddenly turn gaming from a fun hobby into work?

But is it fun NOW to be a GM? Or is it already work (just without the cash)?

Ah, well, I’m not really looking for answers to these questions, I’m just musing. Running games IS fun, after all…that’s why people do it. And some folks (myself included) are “control freaks” anyway, better suited to being on the GM-side of the screen than the player (where we’ll question and second-guess and “rules lawyer” to our detriment).

Of course, even knowing THAT doesn’t get me super-fired-up to run Traveller. At least not with aliens.

; )