I Am Such A Chump

Just paid full price for a D20 game. I am so ashamed. More on this later...

Ugh.

: (

Happy Valentine's Day Star Frontiers!

I was flipping through my Star Frontiers books the other day, and decided it was time to give the game a little love. I know that I have denounced it in the past, but damn if there isn't some impressive parts to it.

Today, I spent a good hour or two re-reading both the basic and advanced game rules of Star Frontiers Alpha Dawn. This is easy enough to do when the basic rules are 16 short pages and the the advanced game 64, less charts, tables, and artwork. Ahh...the benefits of the 64-page game.

[just by the way, most of St. Valentine's Day has been spent hanging with the sweetie...I'm not a total punk after all!]

'Course, after reading through the rules I was feeling a lot less charitable. Again.

Basically, the thing fails the Achilles Test:

Squeemish, the runtiest neophyte out of the PGC training corps, has just touched down on the feral world of Myrmidia, little knowing the xenophobic nature of its savage inhabitants. Heck, he knows little of anything at all (Tech PSA:Computers 1, Beam 1) in addition to being scrawny (Str/Sta 30/30...he rolled a "01") and being slow on the uptake (Dex/RS/IM 60/35/4...he rolled a "50" but adjusted his Dexterity upwards as much as possible ).

By contrast, brave Achilles, hero-king of Myrmidia is no such slouch...years of battle experience has hardened him to the max in just about every category (Str/Sta 100/100, Dex/RS/IM 100/100/10, and the equivalent of level 6 in melee and archaic weapons). As Squeemish steps down from the orbital lander, trespassing on the land Achilles has sworn to defend against all foreign "invaders," the warrior charges the PGC operator with his mighty spear.

Rolling initiative, Achilles gets a "10" and Squeemish rolls an average "5;" mighty Achilles will get his attack off long before Squeemish clears laser from holster. His chance to hit is 125% but he will still miss on a 96 or higher...he rolls an "01" (the best possible hit!) and maximum possible damage, plunging his spear deep into the PGC rookie. A full 25 points of damage (including adjustment for his Strength of 100). Squeemish's Stamina is reduced to 5.

Now it's Squeem's turn. He turns the dial of his laser pistol to 10 SEU and fires: plink! His chance to hit is 30 (Dex) + 10 (skill) -10 (wounds) = 30. He rolls a 30 and the "pencil-thin beam" strikes Achilles for average damage: 55 points of damage. He notes his weapon has a rate of fire of 2 so he takes a second shot (at the same chance to hit), rolls a 26 and again hits for average damage. Plink! Mighty Achilles has taken 110 points of damage and is toast. Squeemish, despite taking the most terrible wound possible, is little the worse for wear. If his rookie team medic administers a shot of biocort, his Stamina will increase to 15 and after a single day's rest he'll be able to move and fight with 0 penalty. Squeemish whistles a happy tune as he changes the power clip and prepares to meet more of this world's "savages."

The wikipedia entry for Star Frontiers says "Characters are quite durable in combat" and that's a bit of an understatement. A character with an average Stamina (45 by random generation), an take a full burst from an auto-rifle and, on average, be just fine (27 points of damage). The problem for me, I suppose is that combat in Star Frontiers isn't realistic OR cinematic...it's just silly.

Hit Points in Dungeons & Dragons aren't "unrealistic" because they are abstract...they are a simple measure of character sustainability. In SF, there are no hit points, only Stamina, which is NOT an abstract ability but rather it "measures a character's physical fitness and general health."

Oh, I suppose it's slightly abstract in that "Stamina also measures how badly a character can be wounded before he passes out and dies." This means a SF character with a Stamina of 30 is a pansy that collapses bleeding and shrieking from wounds that mean little to a Stamina 60 he-man. But I don't like the way they've modeled damage in SF...mighty Achilles had rookie Squeemish dead to rights and should have skewered his ass to the side of the drop ship.

But hey, I've said before "realism in combat" is one giant Quixotic quest, pretty much unobtainable, at least in a table-top RPG (sorry TROS). And anyway, this post was supposed to show a little love for Star Frontiers, not beat on it. Obviously the game was not meant to run The Chronicles of Riddick as the last thing anyone wants to do in SF is bring a knife to a gun fight!

Here's the thing: Star Frontiers is NOT an open-setting RPG. It is a very setting specific RPG. One can run it by its canon (including the map of the Frontier provided!) to have adventures in the setting provided...or one can suffer the consequences of going off book (said consequences being the thing doesn't work as well).

For example, SF is NOT appropriate for a Rogue Trader type game...it assumes all humans come from the same world and have evolved to the same level. Spears have been replaced by blasters, and the only reason one would use a sword is because they don't have access to something better, not because "it's all they've ever known."

There are no psionics. There are no mutations. There are no cybernetics or eugenics. Hell, there are no nukes! The technology present imagines a DIFFERENT human race that evolved in a very different manner than ol' Earth humans. Coupled with their alien allies, humans are just one species of the galaxy, neither the most prevalent, nor the most ingenious, nor even the most war-like.

This isn't Dune or Foundation or a planetary romance of any particular stripe (though the Voluntas series is a bit of a disconnect...almost as if SF was trying to "do Traveller"). It's certainly not Star Trek or Star Wars...there are no military starships and no "Force." It is it's own animal.

In many ways, I think it might actually be the ideal game to run a BG Caprica-style setting. One would probably want to remove the alien races (since re-booted Battlestar Galactica doesn't appear to have any...even the Cylons were human-created), and substitute the Soldiers of the One or other terrorist group in place of the Sathar. But otherwise, it's very suitable to this idea of a human race of non-Earth origin with the same old human problems (racism, classism, greed, religious intolerance) popping up under a different set of history and cultural tradition.

Heck, even if one runs a straight Star Frontiers setting (including all the aliens) it should probably feel A LOT like the Caprica series...especially if you play up the differences, rivalries, and possible bigotry between species.

So Star Frontiers has THAT going for it. And if you run it like that, there's little need for the Knight Hawk ship rules or even a different combat system from the one present, two things that I have missed since the day I opened the box.

The other thing I think is great about Star Frontiers (aside from certain pieces of equipment) is the How to Referee chapter starting on page 53. Coupled with an understanding of what the SF setting IS (see the inside cover of the Basic Game Rules), it really does tell the GM most everything you need to know on how to run a game...something I've found missing from a LOT of RPGs these days.

Perhaps this has been my real hang-up from the beginning: I wanted a science fiction RPG that could be used to run MY ideal game...and Star Frontiers is best used to run a Star Frontiers game. Not Dune, not Star Wars, and certainly not Warhammer 40K.

Maybe I WILL pull it out and play it again one day; this time, on its own terms.

; )

Creative Agendas - What's the Point?

And here I had been planning a post about/with some much needed love for Star Frontiers. Ah, well...duty calls and all that jazz.

I know I throw a lot of off-the-cuff shit into these blog posts of mine, and part of THAT is that it's a blog and I write whatever falls out of my brain, and part is that the blog is for my own reading and enjoyment, and part is because I like to pique the curiosity of folks by being semi-cryptic at time (that's as close to "mischievous" as I get). But sometimes there are things I really should take the time to explain, "just-in-case."

Maybe "should" is the wrong word...this is just a blog after all!

But it might serve my readers better if I would bother to explain some of the ideas and concepts I so blithely and haphazardly strew throughout these pages. It might be helpful for people to grok what I'm talking about when I start laying down some crazy-ass design theory.

Today, the subject is CREATIVE AGENDAS, something I've mentioned more than once before in passing and have never bothered to explain. I think it might be helpful to some folks if I did.

"Creative agendas" are a concept from the Forge forums (what I like to call the "Forge think-tank"), and an important component in RPG design theory. Here's the gist:

- People come to the RPG table with a reason or intention of play.

- That AGENDA both informs their in-play decisions AND determines whether or not they are achieving maximum enjoyment (i.e., if their agenda ain't being met, they may not be having as swell a time as they could).

- RPGs, as designed, can better facilitate some creative agendas

The original model of gaming theory named and defined three identifiable creative agendas:

The Gamist: a player interested in gamesmanship, winning & losing, wanting to overcome challenge both in-game and at-the-table (achieving varying degrees of prestige with one's fellow participants).

The Simulationist: concerned mainly with immersion and exploration of the shared imaginary world

The Narratavist: concerned primarily with meaningful story emerging from play

These three creative agendas (or CAs) are NOT intended to pigeon-hole folks into one particular category or not. A person may have a particular bias towards one or another type of game play but that doesn't mean they're on it all the time. The CA is simply the agenda one brings to the game table. Here are a couple-few reasons why they are helpful:

As a point of discussion they provide a vocabulary for conversation to avoid conflict at the game table. People bringing different CAs to a game (especially between GM & Players or between Established Group & New Guy) can lead to real disconnects and dissatisfaction within RPG play.

As a point of reference CAs provide a tool for understanding one's own preferences in game play, providing the ideas one needs to better express "what I'm looking for in an RPG."

As a point of theory they provide considerations for game design...do I want my game to facilitate one type of CA over another? Have I provided rule mechanics that are actually going to facilitate the CA for which the game is intended? Have I f'd the whole thing by throwing in extraneous stuff that leads one to assume or drift towards a different style of play?

And that's pretty much it. Even if a person has a heavy bias towards one particular creative agenda, it doesn't mean they're locked into it like some M-B personality test result. RPG gamers bring varying degrees of these CAs to the table and may switch back and forth between games (they may do so IN GAME as well, but this can sometimes be problematic...part of the reason CAs are useful as a point of discussion). There's more to our personalities than a single CA, otherwise we'd probably find purer ways to express ourselves than through table-top gaming.

A pure gamist might seek sport or competition without the need for "story" or "simulation."

A pure simulationist might seek acting or reenactment without the need for "game play" or "story."

A pure narratavist might simply read or write stories without the need for "game play" or "simulation."

And believing that people role-play because they like the collaboration/working with others is an illusion...ALL the "pure" creative agendas can be done in collaboration with others without the need for using a role-playing game; RPGs aren't the only social exercise available to folks.

So anyway, that's the point of Creative Agendas. They're a useful, descriptive tool, but aren't meant to categorize more than game play and intention. Hope that's helpful (it's still a bit early in the morning here...I'm heading back to bed now).

Rifts Atlantis

Yeah, back to Rifts for the moment.

Picked up Atlantis, Rifts World Book 2 the other day, something I'd been promising myself since before Christmas. I'd owned it previously, but sold it a few years back.

Well, it's mine again. Ugh! Palladium!

Actually, I'm half-ashamed to admit I'm pretty pleased.

I should probably say up front that I'm a bit of an Atlantis aficionado anyway...I'll buy most things that have anything to do with Atlantis, RPG or otherwise. Everyone has their Achilles Heel, right?

And, yeah, there are no accounting for tastes (I'm a little weird, folks). Recent back-n-forth banter in the comments of this blog has been knocking on my brain lately. Different strokes for different folks and all that.

So...much as I've lamented Palladium here (and elsewhere), re-reading Rifts Atlantis wasn't nearly as disappointing (or frustrating) as Wormwood. I'm not 100% sure why...Wormwood felt like squandered potential, but Atlantis feels like a true and (dare I say?) fantastic source book.

Maybe because there's just so damn many ideas in it. The Atlantean history...both ancient and recent...is pretty damn inspired without feeling as cheesy as some Palladium tropes. The tattoo magic is cool (I'm saying as an idea...I'm not debating game balance), and the bio-wizardry is well and truly horrific shit. Parasites? Microbes? Vats of magical transmorgifying fluids that grant super powers while mutating the hell out of people? Pretty friggin cool stuff.

Alien intelligences and inter-dimensional slave trading, not to mention the dimensional Market of Splynn (I don't need the separate source book; the stuff in World Book 2 is plenty to fire the imagination)...species betrayal and genocide and gladiators and monstrous creatures that truly look like some bizarre imagining of H.P. Lovecraft crossed with bionics and high-tech weaponry...rune weapons and mind slugs and the wyrm-worshipping religion of Dragonwright...there's just a ton of stuff packed into the book's pages, even with plenty of fantastic and original artwork (all black and white, but all excellent and some full two-page spreads!).

For $20 that's more "source material" than anyone has a right to expect. I'm drawn to Siembieda's introductory words:

Some books take extra time because they are so elaborate or demanding in some way, but not this one. Once I was able to make the time to write, it just flew off my fingertips. Suddenly Atlantis came to life and I just wrote and wrote and wrote. I could barely keep up with myself as the ideas poured out.

I totally understand this feeling: when the writing thing has been going well (like the module or chapters of the B/X Companion) the words just seem to flow right from the brain to the laptop. But this craziness in the Atlantis book? Truly inspired (and inspiring) stuff.

As with all of Palladium's stuff, the book suffers from its own base system, but that's a given. I didn't buy the source book for any wonderful rule mechanics. If anything, I bought it for nostalgia (and Atlantis, of course)...and I found myself pleasantly surprised by the sheer amount of excellent, original, and yes, thoughtful, content. There's very little, if any, of the exponential "power creep" present in later books. Instead, there's a monstrous playground filled with a truly evil and inhuman society that can act as both an extremely dangerous place for the average human adventurer and a lasting source of antagonism and conflict in a Rifts campaign.

That's awesome.

Good Stuff

10 pages written (unformatted)...now that's a productive day.

'Course, I'm down to 11% power in Ye Olde Laptop. Time to hit the shower.

; )

Well, THAT's a "First"

Was over at the local game shop perusing (as per my usual Friday ritual), and found a book in the "used" section that I hadn't seen before:

The 4th Edition Players Handbook.

Apparently someone has decided to move on from 4E. Whether or not this is because of a new 5th edition coming out (that I haven't heard about) or simply an acquisition of common sense is hard to tell, but it did bring a wry smile to my face.

I did not buy it.

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!