Star Wars Rogue One...

...is an excellent film. It may be my new favorite Star Wars film to date. 

My brother (who watched the film with me and the boy) is lying on my couch as I type this, muttering to himself "huh, I wasn't expecting that," and other non-sequitur nothings as he tries to wrap his head around what he just experienced. Whereas Episode 7 was a new take on an old plot (a remake of the original) this was a much more mature look at the universe created within the genre. It was more a "war film" than (what is traditionally considered) a "Star Wars film." And, as I've written before, I love me some military sci-fi. 

The movie also borrows many of the concepts found in Lucas's original treatment for the first films...ideas that were readily discarded as the script morphed into a space version of Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress.

[see Michael Kaminski's wonderful "The Secret History of Star Wars" for details]

Anyway, I'd write more, but it would include spoilers. Plus, I have a lot of other things to write about besides Star Wars, including other cinema offerings (for example, Moana may be the best Disney film I've seen since Beauty and the Beast. It doesn't have the single, show-stopping "power song" Frozen gave us with Let it Go, but the overall excellence is far more consistent and the story and animation are tremendous. Dwayne Johnson is but one of Moana's many pleasant surprises).

So that's all I'll say for now. My kid called it "a great film," and there wasn't much of anything in the show that pandered to kids. But as far as a magical, kid-like fantasy universe? Yeah. In that regard, this may be the best Star Wars film yet made.

Stocking Per Moldvay (Part 2)

[continued from here]

Sorry...got a little distracted with other posts this week. Plus, perhaps, I'm a little hesitant to "pull back the curtain"on how I do stuff. It's like a magician revealing the secret of his tricks, or a coach revealing his game plan...or, more accurately, a nerd revealing his spreadsheet.

Ah, well. Here goes:

The pertinent section for me is found in Moldvay on page B52, section E: Stock The Dungeon. Obvious, no? Maybe, maybe not. Here's the text:

To "stock" a dungeon means to fill in the general details, such as encounters, treasure, and traps. Special monsters should be first placed in the appropriate rooms along with special treasures. The remaining rooms can be stocked as the DM wishes. If there is no preference as to how certain rooms are stocked, the following system may be used. Roll 1d6 for CONTENTS, and then roll on the second table for TREASURE according to the result of the first roll. A "Yes" result means tat Treasure is there along with whatever is indicated by the first roll.

This method of stocking a dungeon is Moldvay's adaptation of the system given in OD&D Volume 3: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures (see pages 6 and 7 of that book). It's cleaned up and codified from the original book, and is followed by an easy-to-use table that cross-references the CONTENTS roll with the TREASURE? roll. Here's what you get:

Contents: 1-2 Monster, 3 Trap, 5 Special, 5-6 Empty

Monsters have treasure on 1-3 dice roll (50% of the time), Traps have treasure on a 1-2 dice roll (33%), and Empty rooms have treasure on dice roll of 1 (16% of the time). A Special is "anything not exactly a trap, but placed for special reasons." It could include the equivalent of a monster (the examples have both things with which to interact and things with which to fight) or a trap, but in general it just means an unusual feature of the dungeon...the equivalent of a fancy "empty" result.

Now, personally, I don't want to roll dice for every encounter area on the map; I've always been of the "stock as the DM wishes" mindset. At the same time, I do want a decent spread when it comes to the distribution of dungeon attributes for my adventure site, and I need some model with which to work. And I find the percentages in Moldvay's "random chance" method to be quite fair...lazily, I can use it as my model simply by running with it and the law of averages.

FOR EXAMPLE, in a map with 36 encounter areas we'll find:

12 encounters with monsters (6 of which have treasure).
6 encounters with traps (2 of which have treasure).
6 encounters with special features (1 of which has treasure, assuming they are non-dangerous).
12 encounters that are empty (2 of which still have treasure).

I then adjust this proportionately based on the actual number of encounter areas my map uses; for example, if there are only 18 encounter areas, then there will only be six monsters (three with treasure) and only three traps (one with treasure).

I thus tend to work in factors of six when it comes to setting encounter areas for an adventure site (6, 12, 18, 24, 36, etc.) as that's the easiest way to keep the proportions right. The exact contents of an encounter area (please note, an "encounter area" is not always "a room" on a map...it could be a corridor, an intersection, an exit, stairway, etc.), the exact contents are determined in "the usual way," i.e. monsters and traps appropriate for both the site setting and the level of character for which the site is intended. If the encounters are divided up over a number of layers, then the tougher encounters are farther removed from surface exit (up or down, depending) and the greater rewards likewise more distant.

After all, if the big score was in the first room encountered, chances are someone would have already claimed it, yeah?

Now as to the treasure...recall from my last post that my intention was to provide enough treasure for a party equal to the number of PCs at my table to level up within three to four sessions. With regard to B/X, I've found that an party can expect to get through roughly nine encounter areas in per session...maybe one encounter per 20 minutes of play on average with minimal distractions. Even rooms that are empty are likely to be searched, or at least discussed and approached with caution, whereas combat is often "short and sweet" compared to games of the 3rd and later editions.

Nine encounters. Savvy players that don't mess around (or that get lucky with their dice rolls) might get through more, especially if breaks (for drinks or whatnot) are kept short. Extraordinarily cautious players might get through less. My average game session is probably three to three-and-a-half hours of play, and I don't expect players to search out every nook-and-cranny of an adventure site. A 12 encounter dungeon is good for about a single night's play. 18 and you're talking a couple sessions with time for "upkeep" issues (going to town, stocking expended resources, looking for new adventure leads). 24 to 36 (about as most as I ever go...I don't really do "mega-dungeons") are enough to last three to four game sessions, as the site is going to be big enough that occasional retreat for rest and replenishment will probably be needed. So how do I divide up the treasure?

Welp, some folks will have already noted that that this scheme of dungeon stocking results in a treasure score in nearly one-third of all encounter areas (11 out of 36). Personally, I usually just go with a 1-to-3 ratio (upping the number of dangerous "special" encounters to justify the extra loot)...and that seems enough to keep the players' interest. Even if the initial scores found are small, it's enough to drive the PCs further in, looking for the next bit of bling.

The amount of treasure used depends on the number of encounters...anything in the 24+ range generally gets the full "level up" amount, and anything less generally uses 50% of the total I'd expect. I don't expect players to find every last scrap of treasure squirreled away, but monster encounters also yield XP, and most players use characters whose prime requisites provide XP bonuses. Thus knowing the total treasure yield (based on intended party level and total number of encounters) and total number of "treasure areas" (one-third of all encounters), I can go about my distribution. Most often I use that old 50-of-50-of-50 rule.

[that's not the name. It has a name. I can never remember it, so that's what I call it in my head]

50% of the treasure yield goes into a single encounter area. This could be a secret treasure room, the hoard of the dungeon's largest monster, or some massive (and nigh unmovable) monument of gold and crusted gems. 50% of the remaining yield into the next biggest treasure area, 50% of the remaining into the 3rd treasure areas, etc. The last two encounter areas with treasure will yield the same value.

FOR EXAMPLE:

My player group consists of six players with an average character level of 3rd. The total value of treasure to earn 4th level is around 44,400 gold pieces worth (6 PCs X 7,400xp...the amount being the average between the thief (low) and the magic-user (high) for the party). In an adventure site ("dungeon") with 30 encounter areas, we'd expect the treasure yield to be in 10 (one-third) of those areas. A single area would yield a massive haul of 22,200gp worth of treasure. The remaining nine treasure areas together would total a like amount, divided as follows:

#2 total 11,100gp
#3 total 5,550gp
#4 total 2,775gp
#5 total 1,388gp
#6 total 694gp
#7 total 347gp
#8 total 174 gp
#9 total 86 gp
#10 total 86 gp

These are my rough figures that I use as my guide. Perhaps area #10 has a single 100gp gem (tied in a leather thong around the orc chief's neck), while area #9 is a strong box of 720 silver pieces (reduced in value because of the upped value of #10). Perhaps, I don't want area #2 to yield over 10k in gold, so I add #2 and #3 together and split 'em down the middle (a twinned pair of jade idols worth 8,325 gp each, lost in different parts of the overgrown temple).

As I said, the exact yield of the treasure at an encounter location determines how difficult it is to procure...how far it is from the dungeon entrance, whether or not it's concealed, whether it has a guardian or trap protecting it. Those types of questions are best answered with experience, of course...how best to challenge the players, how much risk goes with how much reward. Figuring out those answers are part of the "art" of being a DM. But establishing a baseline distribution method like this goes a long way towards making my job easier.

All thanks to Moldvay.
: )

Yeah, my secrets are all out now.

Secret Histories

My toast was terrible this morning. All the more so because I’m the one responsible for making it.

I’ve raved before about England’s toast; as far as I’m concerned the people of Great Britain seem to have perfected the art of toasting bread. I found most of England’s cuisine to be scrumptious actually…some people might think that odd but I’m from Seattle where we seem to have a passion for breakfast food, pub food, and beer, three things England does better than most. Every culture has its specialties after all.

On the other hand, the consistently worst country for breakfast (in my opinion) was Italy. I’m not sure Italians actually eat “breakfast;” it may just be something they whip together for the tourists. I will never forget staying at an (otherwise) very nice “bed & breakfast” in Venice and being served “toast” that was packaged in a stamped cellophane pouch, similar to freeze-dried astronaut food. I kid thee not.

My toast this morning was very much like that Venician toast…in both consistency and flavor. And mine, I know, started out as bread. That is a verifiable fact. Truly terrible.

But fortunately (and this is the reason I bring it up), I was serving said toast ONLY to myself. Terrible as it was, I was the only person experiencing it…I wasn’t serving it up to anyone or forcing it down someone’s throat. It was MY bad breakfast, and I chose to eat it (‘cause I was pressed for time and it was what I had and I’m really trying not to waste food these days) and that was my “little piece o suffering.” But I wasn’t buttering it up for the masses and trying to call it gourmet or something.

Yesterday, I did something I almost never ever do: I paid money for a book at Barnes & Noble that wasn’t actually in stock; a book that will actually have to be mailed to me because it’s print-on-demand. And I did that because after being off work since last Wednesday, I spent the first half of my work day reading the book’s first hundred pages on-line (for free) instead of getting to my backlog…and if I’d had the entire book available, I probably wouldn’t have gotten ANYthing done yesterday. The book in question?

The Secret History of Star Wars by Michael Kaminski.

Just fascinating, fascinating reading. It’s something I’ve been interested in reading since I heard about it a year or two ago (it was on last year’s Christmas list but I didn’t get it), and I finally had a chance to read some excerpts from Kaminski’s web site. Love it…I’m into histories/biographies, especially those of struggling artists/writers (as Lucas once was), I love “behind-the-scenes” insights and info (“the dirt”) on subjects that already have known or accepted histories. I enjoy seeing the human side of larger-than-life icons. And, of course, I am a pretty big Star Wars fanatic.

I was reading back through my Star Wars posts on this blog, and I was surprised to find ‘em some of my better posts. Now I may well be biased, but I did think they were a bit different and surprisingly insightful (or at least “interesting”)…at least, compared to what my memory remembered them being. But what I really liked was the (mostly) consistent thread running through them: an appreciation for the films as entertainment, for Lucas as a filmmaker, and for the EU (“expanded universe”) as a creative effort…and a dissatisfaction with pandering and pastiche, even in Lucas’s own work.  My feelings on these things haven’t changed, and may have even been emphasized by what I’ve read so far in Kaminski’s book. But, man…I’m kind of fed up with “ret-conned” history. I’m kind of bugged by disingenuousness (wow, spell-check is saying that’s a word!).

Now I get it…really, I get it. The whole thing is complicated. The push-and-pull of fame and fortune and legacy and insecurity and people telling you you’re a genius and finding you ARE a genius and allowing a little creative embellishment here and there get out of hand, plus giving your fans what they want, plus being a filmmaker and needing to ply the filmmaker’s trade (including edits of one’s baby) and then trying to find a cohesive filmmaker’s way of putting those cutting room scraps back into theaters in a different fashion…I GET IT. Really. The fact is: the truth is (often) complicated. Or rather, the truth isn’t complicated but the WHOLE truth, understanding it all, is a lot more complicated than the meat, or rather the KERNEL of the truth.

Which is part of why I find Kaminski’s book such a must-read…I personally am fascinated with the “complication” AND I want to know what the kernel of the “truth” is. For those not interested in reading it themselves, I’ll provide the Cliff Notes version:

The Truth: George Lucas wanted to make a Flash Gordon movie the same way, say, that I want to write a Star Wars RPG. It’s not what he dreamed about doing as a child (when he wanted, perhaps, to be a race car driver), but a bunch of stuff combined to lead him to setting that goal.

The Complicated Truth (Cliff Notes): While one can argue the success or failure of his goal (i.e. “The Truth”), his work (or should I say his Work) morphed into something that transcended anything even Lucas could have imagined, and he has both “rolled with it,” profited by it, and attempted to manage and direct it (with varying degrees of success) ever since. And I’m not just talking about the “post-first-trilogy” or even “post-first-film” expansion of the Star Wars universe/franchise/mythology/legacy. I’m talking about even before PRE-production of the first film, the thing (his original goal) started morphing…and has snowballed (my, has it snowballed!) ever since.

Crazy.

Anyway, the really interesting thing (well, actually, I find it all “really interesting” but the really, REALLY interesting thing) for me is the earliest drafts of his space film treatments, which I find at least as compelling as the story he eventually told, if not more compelling. Oh, I’m not talking about the “space version” of Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress, I’m talking about “The Journal of the Whills” (actually sounds like a pretty good book) and the second and/or third treatments of “The Star Wars.”

I should probably explain (at this point, finally) my whole reason for once again having Star Wars on the brain. My son, my 20-month-old toddler has discovered Star Wars…and loves it. Now, it would be truly disingenuous of me to declare I’m a “terrible” father; I know I’m pretty loving and attentive, with a fair amount of sternness that leads my child to be both A) happy most of the time, and B) well behaved (in public and private) most of the time. And by most of the time, I mean around 98%...he really is a jewel of a kid. But recently, it seems like more than half of his vocabulary seems to consist of “Seahawks,” “touchdown,” and “boom” or else Star Wars references…with the SW words definitely having the upper hand the last couple weeks. And this leads me to think I may be doing bad, bad things to my boy’s childhood development process.

The fact that he can perfectly mimic Darth Vader’s breathing on command, despite lacking the ability to pronounce the character’s name (he calls him “DuVo”) is both entertaining and somewhat disturbing.

So there’s been a lot of Star Wars in my house lately. A lot of books and comics, a lot of scene watching, a lot of jawa requests. And being inundated with even more Star Wars than usual (which really is saying something), is making me revisit my earlier introspections on the subject, not to mention confront (once again) the shortfalls and mental hurdles of my own “little space thing” (to use Lucas’s phrase)…i.e. my space opera RPG.

Last Thursday I was really excited to get out to my Thursday night game session and try another play-test session with my space opera RPG. Unfortunately, I got sick Thursday morning and was worse by the evening and wasn’t able to get out. THIS week, the dilemma’s a little different: I’m in perfect health, but the Seattle Seahawks are playing the San Francisco 49ers for control of the division and 5:20pm (PST). I mean…what the hell am I supposed to do with THAT? Despite being an underdog, Seattle has a real opportunity to punch the 49ers in the mouth the same as the Giants did on Sunday…and I’d hate to miss that.

[for whatever reason, I’ve really grown to loathe Frisco over the last few years. They seem to now occupy that special bile duct that used to be reserved for the Denver Broncos and John Elway back when the Seahawks were in the AFC West. It’s not just that I want to see the ‘Hawks at the top of the heap every year; I want to see them stomp the Niners on the way there. Last season’s double-loss to San Fran really hurt the ol’ pride]

ANYway, let me get back to those “rough drafts” of the Star Wars script. From Kaminski’s book (excerpt available for free for perusal):

…an entire year after he finished his first treatment, Lucas emerged with a rough draft screenplay. It was called “The Star Wars” and was dated May 1974…Jan Helander summarized the rough draft:

Kane Starkiller, a Jedi-Bendu master, is in hiding on the Fourth Moon of Utapau with his two sons Annikin and Deak, when a Sith warrior finds them and Deak is killed. The surviving Starkillers head to the Aquilae system, where they are met by Kane’s old Jedi friend, General Luke Skywalker. Kane, whose war-battered body is a concoction of artificial limbs, knows that he is dying, and persuades Luke to become Annikin’s Jedi teacher. He then travels to the city of Gordon, leaving his son with Skywalker and the King of Aquilae. Clieg Whitsun, a rebel spy on the emperor’s planet of Alderaan, has learned that an Imperial fleet, led by General Darth Vader and Governor Crispin Hoedaack, is about to conquer Aquilae with a “death star” space fortress. Rebel fighters are sent out to stop the attack, but the Aquilaen king is killed, and instead of Princess Leia (the rightful heir), a corrupt senator takes over, surrendering the planet to the Empire.

Annikin, Luke, and Whitsum, joined by Artwo Detwo and See Threepio (two bickering robots who have escaped from the space fortress), bring Leia and her two younger brothers to the spaceport at Gordon, from where they can reach safety. After a fight at a cantina, where Skywalker uses his “lasersword” to kill his antagonists, the group meet up with Kane and his alien friend Han Solo who have arranged transport to a friendly planet. They need a power unit for suspended animation in order to get past Imperial scanners, and Kane heroically rips one from his body, causing his death. After avoiding a trap set by Vader and Prince Valorum (the black Knight of the Sith), the rebels are pursued into space, where the arguing Leia and Annikin realize that they love each other. Their craft is damaged in an asteroid field and Whitsum dies as it explodes, but the others abandon ship in time and land on the jungle planet of Yavin, where Leia is captured by alien trappers. Annikin tries to rescue her, but only succeeds in freeing five “Wookees” (huge, grey and furry beasts), and Leia eventually ends up in the hands of the Empire.

After a tip from two anthropologists, the rebels and the Wookee tribe (including Prince Chewbacca) attack an Imperial outpost, and a forest chase ensues. When he learns that Leia is held captive aboard the space fortress, General Skywalker starts traiing Wookees to fly fighter ships in order to conquer the death star. Annikin is skeptical of the plan and gets onto the fortress (together with Artwo) on a mission of his own, dressed as an Imperial “skyraider,” but he is soon captured and tortured by General Vader. Valorum sees this and realizes that the Imperials are completely without honor and codes, and that he has more in common with the young Jedi than with the emperor. Turning his back on the Empire, he frees both Annikin and Leia, and they escape down a garbage chute. After almost being crushed in the garbage receptacle, Valorum, Leia, Annikin, and Artwo manage to abandon the station just before the Wookee destroy it, killing both Vader and Governor Hoedaack. Back in her throne room, Queen Leia honours the heroes (including Valorum), and Annikin is appointed new Lord Protector of Aquilae.

 

Now as Kaminski points out A) this is the script Lucas refers to in his later interviews as being too big for a single movie requiring a paring down until he could later afford to make sequels containing “the whole story,” yet B) the story included in this draft is little more than a larger, “extended version” of the original (first) Star Wars movie. Certain characters are combined, names are changed around, and certain scenes/sequences are recycled into later movies (like the “asteroid belt/love scene” in Empire or the “forest world capture/buddying up with native creatures” in RotJ). Lucas’s later declaration that his ability to make the “rest of the movie” meant an ability to continue a saga that included all that “stuff” he left on the cutting room floor in his need to create a FILM…"films" being stories told with pictures that have to follow certain parameters due to the restrictions imposed by the medium.

What Lucas had PRIOR to his (most consider) masterful final draft is a rambling, rollicking Sci-Fi adventure film, almost like a conglomeration of a serial matinee (c.f. Flash Gordon). Film gave Lucas the big budget to do the kind of F/X epic he wanted, but not the SCOPE he wanted. And while the clamor for “more” gave him the latitude to glom onto the scope (through a serial, sequel format…see The Lord of the Rings films), the medium STILL constrained him to a degree. There is SOME “cliffhanger” to the end of The Empire Strikes Back, but there is some denouement as well. It still has a beginning, middle, an end, it still has most of its plot points wrapped-up, it is still “self-contained.”

HOWEVER, I am not a film maker. I am (marginally) a “game designer” interested in long-term game play that includes character development over time and game play, and for me the “rambling serial format” is what I want. I don’t want or need “self-contained stories” because I’m not working in a film medium and (in my experience) that’s not how RPG sessions generally unfold…at least, not without very specific ("Story Now") rules sets, or a lot of heavy-handed GM force. Neither of which I like to use (because self-contained stories aren’t all that important to me when role-playing).

Consequently, I find these kinds of rambling, “schlock-inspired” treatments to be incredibly inspiring for my purposes. The quote above leaves out a lot of other “intriguing differences” in Lucas’s original story from the final film (said differences being described in Kaminski's book) including the competing Jedi and Sith groups (basically, two orders of rival warriors, more honor-driven a la samurai than driven by the mystic morality of Light and Dark side). Which is why, of course, I ordered the book…I want MORE of this stuff. To me, the mind of George Lucas is a fertile gold mine of Sci-Fi fantasy; if he falls down at all, it’s in trying to put it into some sort of rational, thoughtful format instead of just going with the gonzo wa-hoo.

Well, and also in trying to ret-con his own history, a victim of his own success. That’s just trying to serve us “toast” in a vacuum-sealed bag. That’s not toast, man.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics (Part 1)

I hate to say it, folks, but I am on a completely tangential project right at the moment. It's kind of "super secret," very ambitious, and does not involve dice rolls of any type, though it is strongly aimed at the D&D-playing population.

I'm going to try to get it finished and posted (yes, there's a download), either tonight or tomorrow, and I'll explain the whole damn thing then.

Later, Gators.
; )

Friday Update

Wow, JB...you dropped off the face of the Earth for the week. I’m sure that’s what SOME folks are thinking.

Well, kind of sort of not really...I mean I’ve been here after all, just doing things other than planting seeds in the old blog...or anything gaming related actually. But here I am, and hi and hello to everyone!

[by the way, I am currently writing this at the Wild Mountain Cafe, which does NOT have internet access...however, I shall be posting it later as I move to the Wayward Coffee Shop and it’s WiFi network...sorry, folks, this ain’t even in real time]

But who cares, right? What’s the skinny?

Well other than my own job-type work (which was incredibly back-logged and which I’ve finally FINALLY caught the hell up on, not that any gamers/readers would or SHOULD care), I’ve started writing again. As in really writing, not just scratching out notes and outlines. Just spent a couple hours yesterday doing it, and I fully intend to spend several hours today doing the same.

Thank God.

It’s been awhile...like WEEKS, I’m afraid. I wouldn’t call the problem “writer’s block,” per se...once I actually started typing the words kind of avalanched out of my brain (as per usual). All the stuff is up in the ol’ brain pan where it’s been ruminating/fermenting but I just haven’t been putting fingers to keyboard.

I prefer to call my syndrome “inertial block.” Historically, I have been a slave to inertia. When I am in motion I tend to stay in motion, and when I’m not...well, my wife will tell you it can be hard to get me moving once I’m “planted,” even with a ton of coffee pumping through my veins.

This week, I was using my inertial energy to bulldoze through the stuff on my desk/computer at work. By Thursday noon, I had nothing left to do, and after lunch a few phone calls and a nap, I had nothing TO DO but actually get back to work on the module....and knocked out a couple more solid pages, including a bunch of the boring stuff.

I’m back, baby.

So today should be more of the same...the last couple Fridays I’ve had tons of shit to do, including catching up on blog reading-writing and A TON of household chores in anticipation of Super Bowl / NFL play-off parties. Today, there’s nothing till 4:30 or so, which should give 5-6 straight hours of writing. I’m sure I don’t need to explain myself here, but it’s cathartic for me to express just how liberating this is...even with my tweaked back/shoulder twinging at my neck.

Anyhoo...there’s a lot of stuff I could blog about: my new super secret project, and a second only-slightly-less-secret project I like to refer to as Operation: Gypsy Road. I spent a lot of time reading about Oddysey’s Traveller campaign and it made me salivate to have one of my own...hell, I might even run some solitaire “trading missions” in my spare time to see how the system plays (I haven’t yet run a Trav campaign with the new Mongoose rules, though I’ve owned the book for a year or so).

I’ve been reading Dies the Fire...slowly...and I’m really digging it. It’s not nearly as depressing as the real life stories coming out of the Congo these days (folks, that place is in the shit and no lie...write your congressman to get involved!). It is also exactly the kind of story I was talking about including both the “struggle for survival” and the “re-building of community.” If I DO write my own post-apocalyptic RPG I think that Stirling’s book (along with The Canticle for Leibowitz) is going to be incredibly influential on how game-play is shaped...it ain’t just about looking for treasures buried under ancient rubble, it’s about finding a way to feed your clan/family in a world gone mad.

But PA is definitely on the back-burner today. For one thing, it’s cold and very wet today without a trace of Springtime Re-Birth in the air. For another, I want to bang out at least half-a-dozen pages on GQ1.

Happy Friday, folks!

Top Secret Project & Companion Update

So what the heck have I been doing the last couple weeks, since I haven't been blogging/writing? Well, while I have been a little busy with "normal" life, the truth is that I've been a little lazy.

I mean, that's how I see it. Certainly, I've had the time to do things (if I'd taken the time to do it), but I haven't been organizing my life as well as I feel I should, letting things slide here and there, watching too much TV, listing to too much sports talk radio, napping in my truly free time, and just living a bon vivant lifestyle rather than being productive.

Not that I haven't done SOME stuff. I am currently working on an O-So-Very-Secret-Writing-Project that I am not quite ready to reveal the details of...in fact, unlike the B/X Companion I don't intend to say anything AT ALL about it until it's completely written...well, other than the following:

- it's a 60-64 page RPG

- it will probably NOT be a boxed game

- it is NOT "post-apocalyptic" (at this point)

- I am going to be much less ambitious with the artwork than the Companion

- I am working on it in collaboration with my buddy Kris

The good doctor is pretty excited about it, which is cool, and even though I'm guessing I'll be doing most/all of the writing it is still great to have a PIC (Partner In Crime) to bounce ideas off. Writing the B/X Companion in a Void was (and to a degree still is!) greatly frustrating at times.

Now onto news about the Companion...I have been holding off on writing anything for a couple reasons recently, the main reason being that I've been on a bit of hiatus from the project. For which I got a little chewed out by the good Doctor (Kris) just last night. "You've done too much work on the damn thing to let it slide!" He's right, of course.

And like I've said, I feel like I've been lazy on the matter. One of the biggest pitfalls of this kind of thing (other than "analysis paralysis" and "waiting for things to line up perfect") is "resting on one's laurels." I wrote a book...yay. But writing it ain't the same as publishing it for others; time to do the rest of the work.

I was just down at Gary's Games today, talking about local designers, conventions, and networking. Unfortunately, while Seattle apparently has a thriving design community (too many smarties, I guess) there seems to be nada in place as far as organization. Hell, I hear the Big Name Publishers don't even bother showing up to the big local convention (Dragonflight) as the thing is generally put on around the same time as GenCon and they are too busy preparing/recovering from THAT to worry about the local yokels. Guess I'm on my own (still).

So today I'm cutting breakfast short and getting back to what I need to do: first, some chores around the house (!!), and second getting some REAL writing done. Yes, I will also get the Hackmaster Basic review posted, too (talked about THAT at the game shop, too...mm-mm), and hopefully AT LEAST ONE MORE MAP for the damn module. Ugh, I wish I was as talented in that regard as some of you bloggers (you know who you are!).

And oh yeah: artists? I need your artwork to keep coming in. February is a short month, but this is going to be the Big Push, as far as I'm concerned. I haven't been getting on anyone's ass because A) I'm not paying you, and B) I can criticize folks for not working when I haven't been doing what I need to do myself. But I need those pieces, folks. Everyone who asked for ideas/assignments got different ones from me...if you don't think you'll be able to do something, let me know so I can give the piece to someone else.

That being said, I think I may need to offer an "incentive program." How about this...anyone who contributes more than four pieces of art will get a free .pdf copy of the Companion when it's finished. Hell, I might be willing to give it away for THREE pieces of art (and large pieces, like the cover leaf, will be considered two or more pieces)...as I said earlier, I'm less concerned with making money on this thing than with getting a quality project into the hands of the public.

People who are interested in contributing art (that haven't contacted me yet) can email me at bxblackrazor AT gmail DOT com.

All right...now, back to work.

: )

Ancient Chinese Secrets

AKA “D&D’s Secret Endgame”

Wow, I’m not sure where I gave the impression that my B/X Companion was going to reveal some great secret (or even that there were secrets to be revealed about D&D after all these years). But I suppose to some folks this kind of information is new; when you start researching Lost Atlantis you dig up all sorts of things that past researchers (Ignatius Donnelly, Graham Hancock) may already consider elementary. But to the newbie, the info seems fresh and exciting.

How could there be so many newbies among so many…um, “oldbies?”

Welp, I don’t think there IS a “secret endgame.” (ooo…maybe I should create one! We’ll be our own little endgame secret society!) Let me draw your attention to this old post on Grognardia. The comments by folks are fairly interesting, if you don’t mind reading ALL 94 OF THEM (and counting!).

Check this quote from Rob Kuntz:

Building and experiencing new varieties of campaign/world settings is consistent
with the game in its norm; and indeed experiencing many types and varieties of
experiences within these enriches the playing and DMing experience overall and
at different, and often, more exalted levels of comprehension and expanded
creativity for both. This is consistent with the "Front-Game," which I believe
is being exhorted by a few here, which in sum is a large part of this "end game,
that of immersing oneself in as many of the game's open-ended attributes as
possible. This expands creative dimensions exponentially and moves experiences
to different levels of creative immersion for both players and DMs. I personally
have found this more refreshing than not attempting same, at least, and prefer
it for said reasons, though YMMV.--RJK

(in another comment, RJK makes a reference to “the Original Campaign” which I think is funny, since that’s exactly how I used to refer to MY original game world)

The “secret” (if you want to call it that) is that extended play in a continuous “campaign world” with regular players can, over time, evolve into something greater than its original humble beginnings.

That’s it, really (I think). And it may be something difficult to experience without a dedicated group of gamers.

In the past, there wasn’t much BESIDES dedicated gamer groups…I am NOT just talking about insular groups that happen to be friends (or not), coming to rely on a “particular style of play” or particular house rules. THAT’s been going on for a long time, and still continues.

But for this whole “high level” thing to succeed, for my B/X Companion to mean anything, a group must be dedicated to ‘world building,’ not ‘character building.’

This is kind of the antithesis of the current editions of D&D (I’m talking Paizo as well as 4E). In these games, players are still “building a world” but one centered squarely from the ego-centric perception of their character’s eyes. Should their characters perish (an unlikely event in today’s gaming world), the campaign world may well cease to exist. Hell, the play group may cease to exist (mean old DM!).

Old D&D campaigns built up a world that was living and breathing independent of the current batch of PCs. Greyhawk is a valid example, I believe: Robilar, Mordenkainen, the Circle of Eight…these are all old retired PCs. Now they are legendary (NPC) pillars of the game world. Robilar lets out a bunch of minor demigods, and they become new patron deities of the campaign. Iuz or the Horned Society go to war with some PC kingdom, and the history of the game world is enriched by the outcome…win or lose.

But of course, to do this you must have the players (and as usual I include “DM” as a player) that are willing to commit to this vision long-term. And that’s pretty tricky in this day and age. Difficult, though not impossible.

I mean, in my own ancient campaign, the majority of the regulars were friends that went to the same elementary school as myself. I went to Catholic school (of course) that had grades for 1st through 8th. We saw each other, in class and out, weekdays and weekends for years…we played D&D beginning in 2nd or 3rd grade up past graduation. Certainly the last couple years were not ONLY D&D (as I’ve written elsewhere, we had a smorgasbord of games to choose from), but whenever we played D&D we were in our little game world. “D&D Land,” I guess you could call it.

(my friend and co-DM Jocelyn did NOT go to the same school as most of us, but because she was my best friend, and our parents were best friends we found time to get together a ton also…even when one of us were out of town we kept a pretty serious written correspondence…this is back before email and cell phones, kiddies!)

Gygax’s original campaign consisted of friends, relatives (children), friends of relatives…that’s a pretty tight connection for on-going campaign gaming. And the guy played for DECADES. Blows my friggin’ mind. But you see, you can’t get rid of your relatives…note that even when my game group broke up (when we all went to different high schools), I still had my brother and HIS friends to game with.

But today’s gamers…especially you nouveau-grognards like myself…don’t get this opportunity to game like this anymore. At least not unless we’re lucky enough to have older children, or spouses, or neighbors, that are gamers. Unless your co-worker is also your best friend…and gaming is your main hobby!...chances are you won’t have the core group to run a long-term, consistent campaign world. We’re stuck playing one-off pick-up games on-line with fellow grogs.

And that’s too bad, because it's in the long-term play that the abstractness of old edition D&D really begins to shine.

Sometimes I wonder if games like Pendragon and Ars Magica were specifically designed to communicate this “long-term campaign game” feeling. If so, it hasn’t worked out for ME in the past except maybe as a solo exercise. The “secret” of playing in and through the D&D “endgame” is that there is a natural evolution process that occurs when people start building an imaginary world. But don’t just look at Greyhawk or Blackmoore, or Greenwood’s Forgotten Realms. Check out the series of Wild Card novels based on the Chaosium Super World game. That’s world building folks.

I will say that although folks “don’t (generally) game like this anymore” there may be room for the use of technology to facilitate it. If I was a kid again, at the same school, with the same friends, but living in 2009 we would probably have a facebook page dedicated to our campaign world, we’d probably be “twittering” what one set of PCs was doing at any given time, and when our parents took us on vacation to Montana or Kansas, we’d probably be emailing every day of the summer. I might even run a (private) blog chronicling the latest exploits “heard ‘round the game world;” kind of like a town crier.

Perhaps some of these suggestions should be Chapter 9 of my B/X Companion?
: )