Dungeon of Signs

What I am supposed to be doing is my taxes. But my day has been all shot-to-shit by running errands, something which irritates me to no end. Sometimes, I enjoy running errands...it can be relaxing to get out of the house and do a few things (usually on my own), allowing my mind to wander and yet end with that satisfied sense of accomplishment that comes with doing "the little things" necessary to maintain the home and keep the spouse happy. But a lot of times (especially when I'm in the middle of doing something...like trying to finish a chapter of writing or wading through W-2s), it's a real pain in the ass. Especially when it simply involves ferrying folks through traffic and wasting huge chunks of my time.

So F it...I'm going to blog a bit and decompress.

What I want to write about is dwarves. Their place in D&D, their place in my game, my feelings on the subject. I've been thinking about dwarves quite a bit the last couple-few months, partly because of sharing The Hobbit with my son. I read the book to him at night (we're nearly to The Battle of Five Armies, but our infrequent reading schedule means its been a slow plod), and we've watched the Rankin-Bass animated film at least half a dozen times, probably more. This morning I spent a bit of time reading over all my old posts on the subject of dwarves (not much really, but enough to jog some memories), and I can say with certainty that my thoughts on the little guys has evolved (i.e. changed) from my prior feelings.

But that's going to have to wait for another post.

Because FIRST I need to talk about some stuff that might be pertinent (later) to the dwarf post. See, a couple-four months back I ran across a great series of posts re-skinning the Big Three races of B/X (dwarves, elves, and halvers), that for the longest time I had saved on my Safari browser with the express purpose of linking and discussing. Sadly, I was very busy (this was during the holiday season...followed by football playoffs, etc.) and after many weeks of "not-getting-around-to-it," something happened and I lost the pages. As it wasn't a blogger I usually followed/read, I soon forgot where the hell I'd even seen them.

I've since found them; here they are:

• Everyone Hates Halflings
• Demons of the North
• Dwarves Are Horrible

As you might surmise from the titles, these re-skins are delightfully curmudgeonly and irreverent takes on the classic fantasy archetypes. I thought they were a lot of fun...and creative...which is why I wanted to share them. But like I said, I lost the page.

Then, shortly (like, a day) before our trip to Buenos Aires, I came across a link on a different blog that led me back to Dungeon of Signs, home of GusL (formerly "Gibbering Mouther," I believe). This particular link involved his critical analysis and re-tooling of the old B-series modules. All of the posts are good and food for thought and I had finished most of them by the time we finally landed in B.A. I spent much of my free minutes over the course of my four-day holiday reading the rest of GusL's blog offerings. I've caught up on most of it, as of today.

There's something a little depressing (even if inspiring) about truly creative people. Depressing to me, anyway. I don't really consider myself very creative...I analyze, I teardown, I refine, I reconstruct. Actual creation? Not so much. I'm a hack...and for the most part, my stuff is simply hacks of other people's creativity. My own stuff seldom lives up to what I would judge to be "creative."

[not really trying to be self-deprectaing. Just trying to express my feelings, here]

GusL is a very creative person. He's smart, too, and (from what I can tell) much kinder than myself when it comes to his critiques (that is to say, he tends to be a lot less inflammatory). But it's the creativity that makes his blog a great read. I can see why the guy was one of the top finalists in Tenkar's "OSR Superstar" contest. There's a lot of concepts and ideas on his blog that I'd like to discuss besides his re-skins, including the following: faction conflict in adventures, Torchbearer-style systems for resource management in D&D, the "skill system" he uses for characters in his Apollyon setting, exploration over combat, and even his take on the assassin class, which is one of the best I've seen.

I'll probably be referencing GusL's posts in the coming weeks, so if you haven't already been checking it out, you might as well do so now. I wouldn't call his ideas perfect or anything...hell, some of his stuff even qualifies as "miss" in my book. But nearly all of it is noteworthy and/or inspirational stuff, the kind that a hack (like myself) can riff off and refine or develop (to my own taste). I'll say this...I've been moving away from B/X (and LL) for the last couple years, and his work is dangerously close to drawing me back in. The guy is a purple haze of creativity.

All right...time to put the kid down for his nap. Yak later...at least now you've got some new stuff to read.

[yes, I realize GusL has slowed down mightily in his posts of late...it happens. Doesn't mean there isn't good material to peruse. Seriously. Just check out stuff like this. And this, too]

Mutilation

I can recall watching the 1970 film Cromwell (Richard Harris, Alec Guinness) on television at my grandfather's house in Port Angeles, Washington. I don't remember how old I was...I would guess somewhere between age six and nine. I remember that I watched the entire movie and enjoyed it (lots of battle scenes contributed to this) even if I didn't understand what the hell was going on (for the most part). I wouldn't mind watching it again sometime, but that'll probably have to wait till I get back to the USA. Even then, it's not the kind of thing you can find in RedBox, is it?

The reason I bring up Cromwell is that it's been so long ago since I watched it that there are only a couple scenes/images that remain in my memory with any clarity. The second image is the sad, yet dignified Guinness (as King Charles) with his children right before his execution by beheading: even though he is the "bad guy" in the film, I remember this as depressing and wishing he wouldn't get the axe. But the FIRST scene I remember is one earlier in the film when Cromwell is confronted with some dude who's had his ears cut off, presumably as some sort of royal "justice" of the kind that Cromwell & Co. rebel against.

[look, I know I'm doing neither the film...nor history!...any justice here. Oliver Cromwell is not a subject I've made much of a study of. It seems that I've read before that Cromwell's roundheads were fairly brutal themselves when it came to the English civil war...but as usual, I'm digressing]

The dude with the ears removed is something that (to this day) springs immediately to mind whenever I consider certain aspects of role-playing...specifically mutilation as a form of deprotagonism. The common thought around deprotagonizing player characters (PCs being the protagonists of an RPG "story") is: don't do it. Player characters have enough to worry about in a game without an All Powerful GM doing terrible things to their characters to "suckify" them. A GM should not, for example, capture the PCs by throwing them against an undefeatable number or orcs and then have the orcs cut off their ears...or noses, or hands...and then drive them out into the wilderness, naked and maimed for fun. Because even should the PCs survive, no player wants to be forced to play a character that has been made into a parody of the heroic persona it once was.

"Your ears you keep and I'll tell you why: so that every shriek of every child at seeing your hideousness will be yours to cherish..."

[there are other forms of deprotagonization, of course, but here I'm only talking about the wrecking of the character's imaginary physique, such that the player is unwilling (or feels the character is unable) to continue as a protagonist of the game at hand]

Of course, it's not unrealistic to think that adventurers in a fantasy RPG will become maimed and mutilated in the course of play; this IS a game that deals with sharp weapons and monstrous opponents, after all. But while those GMs (and players) who like this sort of "realism" have created a variety of neutral (i.e. disinterested, random, and "non-malicious") workarounds...critical hit tables and damage by specific location (see OD&D's Supplement II: Blackmoor)...what about the non-combat carving of individual player characters? Is it right for some sort of "plot immunity" to exist for PCs? Even in a setting where the IP protagonists have no such plot immunity?

I am, of course, referring once again to Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire setting. Putting aside (for the moment) the rather gruesome portrayal (in television) of major character Theon Greyjoy's torture, degradation, and castration at the hands of his sadistic captor, and also let's ignore the crippling of the child Bran (since he's really too young to be a player character in the sort of game I imagine, even if he is a Point of View character in Martin's books). Let's take for example the major character of Jaime Lannister, one of Westeros's premier knights and warriors who, while being transported as a prisoner, has his sword hand removed with a cleaver.

[gruesome video clip from the television show, for interested folks]

Consider, for the moment the situation from a fantasy RPG perspective. Lannister is the equivalent of a high level fighter in (what amounts to) a magic-light fantasy world...something akin, perhaps to Pendragon, the system I'm using for Crowns of Blood. There's no clerical magic to speak of, nothing like regeneration of lost limbs or magical healing, no blue crystal staffs to provide this miracle. Characters that get limbs sawed off are SOL...and taking away a fighter's sword arm is a pretty stiff penalty for a guy who only really knows how to fight. NOW consider the "in-game" circumstances: here is a character that has been captured, is unarmed, chained and helpless. He is at the mercy of his presumably NPC (thus, GM-controlled) captors...and NOW you're cutting off his arm?

Realize that this isn't terribly unusual (i.e. uncommon or unheard of) in the fiction of Martin's world. Orys Baratheon (ancestor of King Robert and right Hand man of Aegon the Conqueror) was captured in battle, during the first Dornish War along with most of his knights and banner men when the Dornishmen (mainly of House Wyl) laid a clever ambush for his force. Aegon eventually agreed to the stupendous ransom demanded by Lord Wyl - each man's weight in gold - for the return of his loyal men, but Wyl had all of the prisoners sword arms chopped off (not part of the original ransom negotiation, mind you) so that they "might never raise swords against Dorne again."

Thirty years later Lord Wyl's son, Walter Wyl, fell into Orys's hands (er...hand) during the Vulture King's Uprising (a bandit-lord who managed to gather a huge force of Dornish nobles while Dorne proper ignored his brigandage). Before sending him back to his father, Orys chopped off the captive Walter's sword hand in retaliation...plus cut off his other hand and both feet, calling it his usury.

Note that these mutilations all happen outside of normal combat: they are atrocities committed against prisoners. In a game context, they might be considered the depredations of a sadistic GM...but then consider the thief who is arrested (captured) for practicing his craft in the city where the penalty for theft is the removal of a hand? And consider if the thief's fellow adventurers are unwilling (or unable) to enact a jailbreak? What about the town where the punishment for the crime involves other mutilation...perhaps facial branding of some sort. What if the crime is failure to pay the local tax man (something D&D PCs have been known to avoid)?

Certainly, such things can be hand-waived or ignored/neglected by GMs...often are, in fact, to avoid PC deprotagonization. In a world of men (like Westeros) where it is a common practice to surrender/give oneself up for ransom rather than fighting to the death, is it unreasonable for players to expect maltreatment should they fall into the hands of a family known for flaying its enemies?

Stats same as a hairless bugbear.

Maybe it is. I know for myself that...regarding the hand-chopping thang...I've always been a fan of the guy with a hook (or other sharpened weapon) at the end of his arm. Maybe it's a childhood fascination with the dastardly main villain of Peter Pan. I don't know...for all the ridiculousness of the latest Hobbit movies, the idea of a giant albino orc with a hook arm is fairly cool (I'd peg him as a three HD monster in B/X terms). I've been using the name Berek the Half-Handed for years (as a character in D&D, Ars Magica, DragonQuest, etc.) just because I like the name and the concept of a one-handed sorcerer. The name is, of course, taken from the Stephen Donaldson books, but the concept is taken from an MZB Lythande story (specifically, a sorcerous opponent of the title character). These characters of mine, though, have been maimed before their careers start (they start out "one-handed" and, as wizard-types, don't have as much need of both hands), so there's no deprotagonizing that takes place at the hands of the GM.

Anyone who's played a lot of Chaosium's ElfQuest (especially of the Goback-Troll conflict style of play) will have seen a lot of PCs lose limbs in play because of the combat system which features strike rank-based initiative (elves, as shorties, often attack last in combat) plus damage location with individual limb HP (elves' skinny arms and legs tend to get butchered). I've talked before about games featuring one-armed PCs walking on two (literal) club feet. As long as they could still shoot a crossbow, my players didn't seem to care all that much...but then, at the point it becomes ridiculous, the game loses a lot of its luster, too.

And yet...there's a lot of talk about inclusiveness these days, and writing inclusiveness into RPGs in a way that people of all sorts can see themselves in the heroic personas at the table, and yet it's fairly hard to model folks with physical impairment that don't get mechanically short-changed. In Ars Magica, my one-handed wizard (a flaw that gave him a couple extra points in chargen) spent points on a merit ("subtle magic") that allowed him to be unaffected by the disability...in fact, he was better off than most magi who needed to use gesture in their spell-casting. In D&D, of course, there's no real issue since nothing explicitly states you must have the use of both hands to cast spells (the limitation resting on being bound and restrained).

[while I realize he was a villain in the book, the minor character Steel-Toe from the Dragon Lance novel War of the Twins was one of my all-time favorites, not only because he was a half-ogre but because of the way he weaponized his disability]

Your Hand = Tasty Chew Toy

But, again, I'm digressing...this post isn't about "inclusivity" it's about mutilation...specifically, GM-directed mutilation of helpless player characters. Is there ever such a time when this type of deprotagonization is good? How about "acceptable?" There are some GMs who feel their duty, their responsibility, is wholly to be of service to their players, and perhaps such mutilation is completely unacceptable outside the realm of "if you commit THIS crime in THIS environment and are captured you WILL be subject to THIS corporal punishment." There are other GMs who might create "random degradation" tables to inflict on players who are taken prisoner by orcs and other brutal creatures. And maybe there are some GMs who like giving PCs hard choices to make: "Are you willing to sacrifice your hand to bind the Fenris wolf?"

I'm just curious to hear folks weigh in on this subject. It's something I've found myself thinking about a lot lately. Losing extremities is something I've written about (briefly) in the past... I guess I just want to hear from some other perspectives (player and GM alike) on the idea, possibly as a different type of "character loss" scenario, as opposed to character death.

[and, no, I don't want to hear anything with regard to Star Wars or games where bionic replacement is an option]

Thanks!

Musings Over Chilled Wine

I'm back in Asuncion. Damn it's hot.

The family's all crashed at the moment, so I'm not sure how much time I'll have to write. This morning, we were in Buenos Aires and the travel (through Montevideo) was fairly rough stuff, despite being air travel, and thus far more convenient than anything currently known to humans.  I'm tired, too, but someone had to run errands and (after white-knuckling my way through rush hour...driving in Asuncion is its own special type of hell, one that I could write several pages on) at this point I'm a little too wound-up to sleep. I'll crash tonight, I'm sure.

I hope everyone had a pleasant Easter holiday (for those who celebrate it). It's funny...last year I spent Easter in Seattle, anxiously awaiting the birth of my second child. I mean this literally...my wife's contractions started shortly before Mass, and continued on through the day. Having gone through the birthing process once before, we were able to finish brunch and social festivities before finally heading to the hospital in the evening. Our daughter was born the next day.

This Easter, I attended Mass at the Basilica del Santisimo Sacramento in Buenos Aires...a very beautiful church in a very beautiful city. Aside from the lack of fresh fruits and vegetables, and the fairly sky-high prices for food (and other goods), there's an awful lot to recommend B.A. to folks. I'm really not sure why the Argentines are so loathed by the general South American population. I mean, other than in Paraguay (where folks still remember the war of the Triple Alliance). But loathed they are...and I've heard it said from more than a couple sources that there's a lot of self-loathing that goes on in Argentina as well. Ah, well...something I need to research I guess.

What I do know is that, nice as it is to come home to fresh fruits and reasonable prices (and ants, of course...ants never-fucking-ending), I would have liked to have stayed a few more days in Argentina. There's a lot of history there, a lot of culture, a lot of stuff to see. We hit a few good sights in our four days, but our short explorations only served to open our curiosity...there are depths there to be plumbed, and I'm not talking about learning to tango.

Funny enough, a lot of it was inspirational in a D&D-kind of way, and I found myself drawn more and more to an idea of doing something (or several somethings) based on the sites I saw. I mean, how could you sit in a church sculpted and worked with such tremendous amounts of gold and not wonder how much it would be worth to a party of adventurers? The temples one finds to pillage in your average D&D module don't usually offer more than a couple candlestick holders and some sacramental instruments. A party of 8-10 could probably level up by sacking the Basilica. I'm just saying!

That's just the altar. You really have to see the place in person.

ANYway...I have a lot of different topics I want to post about at the moment (not all Argentina-related) and I'm going to try to get them all listed somewhere so I remember 'em. Right now, the wine's starting to kick in and I think I'll take a quick lie-down. Later, Gators!
: )

Mecha War III

That's the new title for my updated version of the game formerly known as War of the Mecha. It's my third pass at the concept, that's why it has the number. Get it?

Anyway, play testing was substantial today and I seem to have gotten all the bugs out. For those who enjoyed the previous version, this is (in my not so humble opinion) very much improved. You can download it here:

Mecha War III

For ease of use with my four year old, I mocked up some data profiles of mecha using the configuration rules; the designs are inspired by "classic" battle mechs (as will be apparent to longtime BattleTech players). You can download my "sample sheet" here. Just cut 'em apart and you're ready to play (assuming you have some dice and Legos). Whether I'll bother to redo the Clan Invasion and War Campaign rules...well, I don't know (you folks can probably figure those out yourself).

Today's final battle: a four-on-four between myself and Diego that lasted four turns. The sides:

D: Zeus, "Dino-Rex," Phoenix Hawk, and Wasp (about 235 tons)

JB: Atlas, Rifleman, Shadow Hawk, and Commando (about 240 tons)

Things started out fairly even as the mecha closed to striking distance. The Rifleman was able to draw the Dino off to the flank into a set of ruins, while the Wasp and Phoenix Hawk took the direct approach through the large lake that dominated the center of the battlefield and the Zeus took the circuitous route around the side. The Zeus and Atlas traded shots with the Atlas losing an arm in the bargain.

Hard to hit.

Feeling a bit desperate, JB deployed a jump-jetting Shadow-Hawk from the swamp on the opposite flank, hoping to draw the attention of the Zeus. The plan worked better than he could have hoped as the Zeus's concentrated fire failed do more than scratch the 'Hawk (despite dropping any kind of shooting penalty for "cover" from the rules), and the assault mecha was caught in a wicked cross-fire, being brought down by several missile salvos from the Atlas. Coming to a mutual decision to end the game after the fourth turn, the Rifleman and Dino-Rex opened fire at close range with every weapon in their arsenal, but neither was dealt a killing blow and both survived their massive heat build-up thanks to good dice rolls. The Wasp and Commando show-down was likewise inconclusive (both remained standing and functional) though the Wasp was relieved of all weapon systems thanks to a massive critical hit, leaving nothing but strong language to throw at his foe.

Diego said afterward, "I think I won this one."

I love BattleTech; have loved it ever since my buddy introduced it to me circa 1985. The concept is really no sillier than Car Wars and offers the same type of nutty fun without the fuss and muss of phase tracking and maneuver/turn cards. This new "micro-version" is a real joy to play, even with a four-year old (who sometimes gets distracted by the plastic sea life we use in our terrain features), and I'm glad I took the time to put it together. I really wish I could get some cheap plastic miniatures or models in the 100mm range...I'd love to do some painting, and I think D would, too. He really had a good time coloring the mecha portraits that we cut out and taped to our Lego stacks for figures.

*sigh* Any gaming is better than no gaming.

A Tasty Little Evening

The bartender was absent from the local joint last night, so I was able to instruct and supervise Melisa in the proper construction of a delicious dry gin martini. "Ooo...it's so blanco!" she said. By which she meant "clear" (instead of yellow or pink or brownish which has been their last few attempts). Very, very nice...I'm going to have to get her to make me a couple-four more of those over the next week so that she can solidify the instructions in her brain (Melisa's our regular waitress at the place).

By the time we got home, I was pleasantly (i.e. mildly) shnockered, and it was time to get my game on. Turns out, teaching a four-year old to play streamlined BattleTech (which is what War of the Mecha is) isn't all that tough, and the kid loved it. He would have played all night, but my loose sense of parental responsibility required me to get him to bed by eleven. Besides he had gotten to play a good long time in the afternoon prior to his siesta ("I'm too excited to sleep, papi!").

An archer is caught in the kill zone between two mountains while seeking to avoid a "swamp" of baby toys.

This was actually my child's first toe-dip into wargaming...we don't have hex maps here, so we were using actual measuring sticks, turning squares, and "terrain." It worked well, and I was pleased with the restructuring of the rules for D6-only play. Some folks might be a little confused as to why I would bother...isn't BattleTech already a D6-based game? Yes it is, but one that requires entirely too many random tables and chart consultation (I have a little more patience than a four-year old, but not much...for a war-game, I want my rules constrained to a single page). Anyway, it worked well and Diego was surprisingly good at managing his heat accumulation while coordinating two mechs simultaneously.

My Warhammer lost an arm to a critical hit. D's favorite mech was the Yu Huang, but he decided to rename it "Dino-Nex."

[Diego had wanted to play with a four-mech squad, but I put my foot down...plus we were running out of Legos since he insisted on building the mechs so big. To be fair, he was using an assault-class mech, so it was supposed to be big. I guess my old age makes me inclined to be pragmatic (save some blocks for the other robots!) about such things. *sigh*]

I will try to get the Crowns of Blood thing posted before I leave town, but it's going to be tough. Diego really prefers playing with papa (today it's Star Wars), which leaves me little time for writing, what with the other stuff I've got to do to prepare. Later, gators.
: )

Holy Week

Yesterday was the 29th of the month which, as everyone knows, is Gnocchi Day here in Paraguay. I'm certain I've mentioned the Paraguayans love of holidays and fireworks (and any excuse for either). The 29th of every month is Gnocchi Day, and since the dish is so ubiquitous in Paraguayan restaurants (a pasta made from a root vegetable? That is smack-dab in the center of their wheelhouse, baby!) most places offer a special gnocchi dish to celebrate.

Of course, I wasn't celebrating Gnocchi Day...I was kind of "gnocchi'd out" round about our 2nd month of living here (interesting factoid on Yours Truly: the ability to cook Gnocchi used to be one of my culinary "claims to fame" in a repertoire of not-very-many dishes I know how to make; never thought I'd end up in the land of gnocchi). Instead I was celebrating Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week (i.e. the week leading up to Easter Sunday).

Another interesting note: when you're living in a Catholic country (albeit one of lapsed, non-practicing, and generally non-devout Catholics) that has an abundant surplus of palm trees and a large group of impoverished people who work in folk art, you end up with an exceptionally elaborate version of Palm Sunday. Up in Seattle, you get handed a single palm leaf as you walk into your church...here, you get an elaborate handicraft-woven rod-o-palms, or shield-and-cross, or...well take your pick. 'Course, you're paying 5000 guaranii (the local money) a pop, but still it's very cool.

If (like me) you're into such things.

ANYway...school's out this week, and most people are taking vacations, including my family (though later this week). My time for writing will be fairly constrained, seeing as how I will be planning and packing when I'm not entertaining the kids. SO...I hope to still finish the chargen posts for Crowns of Blood (only one left, though I want to write another one about starting and running a campaign), but that may not get done till tomorrow or Wednesday. At the moment, I'm in the process of retooling my old micro-adventure War of the Mecha to work with D6s and the metric system so that Diego and I can play it with the Duplos (can you tell I'm jonesin' for a tabletop game?).

Okay...time to eat some breakfast and do some coloring (BattleTech mecha pix). Later.

Interlude: Squire Roll?!

So...someone familiar with 3rd Edition Pendragon, please tell me where I will find the section on "how to make a Squire Roll."

The index has two entries for squires: page 25 (what a squire is), and page 45 (adding the squire to your character sheet). On page 45 it states:

Usually a squire's success at performing his duty is determined by attempting a Squire Roll (see the Game Mechanics" chapter).

In the Game Mechanics chapter, we find the following under the section Actions Permitted in Melee:

• Make a squire roll to get help or a new weapon. If more than one squire is available, multiple rolls may be made as one action. See below for the Squire Roll definition.

Um...okay. Where? There is no further information on "squire rolls" in the Game Mechanics chapter (at least, none that I found).

The next reference to "Squire Rolls" (other than one or two examples that seem to presume one already knows what a Squire Roll is and how to make one) is in The Battle System section in Chivalric Duties (page 163). Here we find:

Squires perform a wide variety of duties in battle, all for the simple trouble of a Squire Roll. They may:

• bring a new horse or weapon.
• escort prisoners away.
• drag an unconscious knight off the field.

Once a squire is used in battle he is gone for the duration, unless he is sought after and found during a disengaged session. Thus the usefulness of multiple squires is apparent.

Indeed...squires sound very useful, and this Squire Roll mechanic sounds like a nice, simple way to deal with knightly minutia in a streamlined manner. Now, where exactly do I find the mechanic of how to make one?

I'm appealing to Pendragon players here...and specifically 3rd Edition players. Give a brother some insight, huh?

[yes, there is more info on squires in the Knights Adventurous supplement, though it is not specifically listed as "errata." I want to know if I'm missing (what is obviously) an important, standard mechanic from the default game or was it truly left out as a gross oversight/editing error. In statting up my own rules/setting, I prefer to start from the "default" system (rather than the more elaborate KA material) whenever possible]

Thanks, folks.

"Um...squire roll? What's that?"