This summer, I'm hoping to be able to join my friend Brian's Vampire the Masquerade game that he runs online. I was in it a while ago but didn't have the time when I was trying to keep up with schoolwork and life.
To do this over the summer, though, I will need to end the era of my involvement in Wow. Its oddly nostalgic, which is stupid, but there you have it. I'm currently figuring what to do with hundreds of gold pieces worth of imaginary items that my imaginary characters are currently wearing and carrying. It'll mostly be donated to friends or guilds that I've had fun with. I'm also going to do a few things before I retire permanently in the next week or so.
I hate to say it, but there is another reason for this decision. If the Vampire game doesn't work out for some reason, or maybe if it does, there's another way I'd like to spend some time. We'll see.
Thorium Brotherhood server, its been great. Goodbye.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
The Big Three Questions of Game Design: Epic
Here, my answers are much more provisional. I (we, then I) started the project without these in mind in any concrete sense, and I'm only now going back and applying questions like these to what's already in my head or written out.
1. What is your game about?
Epic is about high fantasy roleplaying in an imaginary Bronze Age setting. It is about the benefits and costs of a magical worldview contrasted with a reductionistic worldview. It is about characters growing in influence over the world. It is about the rise and fall of civilizations and how they interact with each other. It is about gods and spirits and immortals and how they interact with mortals and the material world. it is about being part of the myths and legends that will shape a future age.
2. What do the characters do?
The characters learn to harness various kinds of power stemming from their relationship to the spiritual world - summoning, channeling, using gifts that come from their ancestry, and learning to read and use the intrinsic power present to varying degrees in everything. The characters negotiate their position somewhere between the great powers that broadly influence their milieu and the ordinary people from whom they originally arise. The characters do big things with big effects in the world around them and then deal with what happens next.
3. What do the players do?
Through particular characters (a player may have more than one), the players influence the shared world directly. One player, the storyteller (GM, etc.) has the responsibility of maintaining coherence in the setting and guiding the narrative to provide the other players with surprise, wonder, fear and opportunity. The other players are responsible for coherence in their characters and for deciding how the storyline will ultimately play out - their decisions should drive the narrative forward.
I feel like these should all be more succinct, but this is the best I have right now.
1. What is your game about?
Epic is about high fantasy roleplaying in an imaginary Bronze Age setting. It is about the benefits and costs of a magical worldview contrasted with a reductionistic worldview. It is about characters growing in influence over the world. It is about the rise and fall of civilizations and how they interact with each other. It is about gods and spirits and immortals and how they interact with mortals and the material world. it is about being part of the myths and legends that will shape a future age.
2. What do the characters do?
The characters learn to harness various kinds of power stemming from their relationship to the spiritual world - summoning, channeling, using gifts that come from their ancestry, and learning to read and use the intrinsic power present to varying degrees in everything. The characters negotiate their position somewhere between the great powers that broadly influence their milieu and the ordinary people from whom they originally arise. The characters do big things with big effects in the world around them and then deal with what happens next.
3. What do the players do?
Through particular characters (a player may have more than one), the players influence the shared world directly. One player, the storyteller (GM, etc.) has the responsibility of maintaining coherence in the setting and guiding the narrative to provide the other players with surprise, wonder, fear and opportunity. The other players are responsible for coherence in their characters and for deciding how the storyline will ultimately play out - their decisions should drive the narrative forward.
I feel like these should all be more succinct, but this is the best I have right now.
The Big Three Questions of Game Design: Horror!
The people over at The Forge have developed a lot of ideas around game design that I'm only beginning to get into, but one of the foundational ideas they have is the "big three" questions of game design. Any designer should be able to offer compelling answers to these. So, I thought I'd post them and then give the answers that I would have for both Horror! and Epic.
The Big Three are:
1. What is your game about?
2. What do the characters do?
3. What do the players do?
Obviously, very simple, but an excellent way to concretise your thinking about your game. And, honestly, I didn't start either of these games with answers to these questions in mind. So, here we go.
First, regarding Horror!, because it is simpler in almost every way.
1. What is your game about?
Horror! is about the escalation of fear over the course of a storyline that is rooted in the basic elements of the horror genre - buildup of tension, progressive revelation, immediate threats, existential threats, survival, etc. It is about living out a situation where characters encounter the horrific and how they respond.
2. What do the characters do?
The characters encounter the horrific and respond in some way, whether it is panic, denial, violence, flight, attempting to comprehend, or becoming part of it themselves. The interact with the horror and their own experience of it through their Attributes and Traits and the way they are roleplayed, particularly the mounting effects of escalating fear and of violence.
3. What do the players do?
The players role-play their characters' fear and responses to the horrific. Through roleplaying they gain Tokens which they use to help decide the outcome of interactions with the horror, the game world and the other player-characters. As much as it is possible, they experience what their characters experience in the horror storyline, leading to an immersive experience of fear and, potentially, triumph or absolute loss.
The Big Three are:
1. What is your game about?
2. What do the characters do?
3. What do the players do?
Obviously, very simple, but an excellent way to concretise your thinking about your game. And, honestly, I didn't start either of these games with answers to these questions in mind. So, here we go.
First, regarding Horror!, because it is simpler in almost every way.
1. What is your game about?
Horror! is about the escalation of fear over the course of a storyline that is rooted in the basic elements of the horror genre - buildup of tension, progressive revelation, immediate threats, existential threats, survival, etc. It is about living out a situation where characters encounter the horrific and how they respond.
2. What do the characters do?
The characters encounter the horrific and respond in some way, whether it is panic, denial, violence, flight, attempting to comprehend, or becoming part of it themselves. The interact with the horror and their own experience of it through their Attributes and Traits and the way they are roleplayed, particularly the mounting effects of escalating fear and of violence.
3. What do the players do?
The players role-play their characters' fear and responses to the horrific. Through roleplaying they gain Tokens which they use to help decide the outcome of interactions with the horror, the game world and the other player-characters. As much as it is possible, they experience what their characters experience in the horror storyline, leading to an immersive experience of fear and, potentially, triumph or absolute loss.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Alternate Alignment System for D&D
I've never liked the Alignment system in D&D, but on the other hand, it is hard to extract because it is reflected in so much, like the ideas behind Fiends or Celestials, or spells like Detect Evil or Protection from Law. I'm also not convinced that it's unsalvageable.
The idea I have is to keep the system as it is but to add the idea that under the categories of Good, Evil, Law, Chaos and Neutrality there are a variety of traits that these things represent. There are a lot of ways to play Chaotic Neutral, for example, though I often disallow this Alignment because it is so often used as justification for a character doing anything with no justification whatsoever.
A character in question chooses at least one descriptor under each of their two Alignment categories. For every session where the player roleplays these descriptors well, they get extra experience points. This is also a way of explaining what is meant by each Alignment in question and for justifying Alignment changes where appropriate. Here are some descriptors I came up with off the top of my head that would make some sense based on what I think of Alignments:
Good: Generous, Chaste, Humble, Peaceful, Honest, Empathetic, Loyal, Kind, Merciful
Lawful: Righteous, Upright, Respectable, Orderly, Legalistic, Disciplined, Authoritarian, Honor-bound, Oath-bound, Traditionalist, Obsessive
Neutral: Balanced, Disinterested, Lazy, Agnostic, Skeptical, Egotistical, Conscientious, Harmonious
Chaotic: Rebellious, Inconsiderate, Individualistic, Iconoclastic, Criminal, Visionary, Innovative, Mad
Evil: Violent, Sadistic, Masochistic, Selfish, Hateful, Intolerant, Vengeful, Deceitful, Backstabbing, Greedy, Megalomaniacal, Machiavellian, Corrupted
Obviously, a given DM can add or subtract whatever they want, and players should be encouraged to come up with their own descriptors.
The idea I have is to keep the system as it is but to add the idea that under the categories of Good, Evil, Law, Chaos and Neutrality there are a variety of traits that these things represent. There are a lot of ways to play Chaotic Neutral, for example, though I often disallow this Alignment because it is so often used as justification for a character doing anything with no justification whatsoever.
A character in question chooses at least one descriptor under each of their two Alignment categories. For every session where the player roleplays these descriptors well, they get extra experience points. This is also a way of explaining what is meant by each Alignment in question and for justifying Alignment changes where appropriate. Here are some descriptors I came up with off the top of my head that would make some sense based on what I think of Alignments:
Good: Generous, Chaste, Humble, Peaceful, Honest, Empathetic, Loyal, Kind, Merciful
Lawful: Righteous, Upright, Respectable, Orderly, Legalistic, Disciplined, Authoritarian, Honor-bound, Oath-bound, Traditionalist, Obsessive
Neutral: Balanced, Disinterested, Lazy, Agnostic, Skeptical, Egotistical, Conscientious, Harmonious
Chaotic: Rebellious, Inconsiderate, Individualistic, Iconoclastic, Criminal, Visionary, Innovative, Mad
Evil: Violent, Sadistic, Masochistic, Selfish, Hateful, Intolerant, Vengeful, Deceitful, Backstabbing, Greedy, Megalomaniacal, Machiavellian, Corrupted
Obviously, a given DM can add or subtract whatever they want, and players should be encouraged to come up with their own descriptors.
Friday, April 20, 2007
The Horror! System
The Horror! system is intended to be rules-lite and diceless, fast-paced and yet still "crunchy" enough to allow for unique characters. All you need to run it is some paper, pens or pencils and some tokens, which we'll get into later.
The heart of the Horror system is the escalation of fear. Over the course of a horror game, fear should grow, scene by scene, until terror overwhelms the player-characters (or, perhaps, they triumph, but that isn't really what we have in mind for this system).
In the Horror system, pretty much everything is on a scale of 1-5. The mechanic is diceless, meaning that scores are simply compared, taking into account situational modifiers and special Traits (which we'll also get into later). Whoever's score is higher is the winner. In the case of ties, nothing happens unless one party spends a Token, which is the tie-breaking mechanic for Horror. In a situation where the test is against a set obstacle and there is a tie, then given enough time the obstacle can be overcome, but it will often be a slow process - and in a good horror game, there shouldn't be a lot of waiting around.
Whenever something frightening happens, there is a chance that the characters will escalate on the fear scale, which ranges from Calm to Hysterical, at which point the character has likely lost her mind and is screaming, raving, running frantically, or gibbering senselessly on the floor. The Fear scale is as follows:
Calm
Nervous -1
Shaken -2
Frightened -3
Terrified -4
Hysterical -6
Listed after each level is the number of points you lose from any given test. So, if you're Shaken and trying to hack a computer, you're at -2 because your hands are shaking and you can't concentrate. The one exception is tests involving Might, which suffer only half the penalty. You don't lose strength as quickly, but you do lose effectiveness, flailing around for example instead of remaining composed and effective.
Each character keeps track of their level of Fear, and they need to roleplay their character's state - not just because this is a roleplaying game, but because it is through roleplaying that you get more Tokens.
The only way to reduce your level of fear is to roleplay the fear well, then spend a Token and either take time to talk yourself down or have another player roleplay talking you down. Obviously, this takes time, and can't be done during a firefight or something.
A character has six Attributes. They are Might, Precision, Knowledge, Appeal, Occult and Luck.
Might: size, muscle, endurance, toughness
Precision: dexterity, agility, quickness of wit, perception, and many skills
Knowledge: education, training, etc.
Appeal: looks, dress, charisma, sex appeal, social status
Occult: weird knowledge, psychic powers, religious faith, resistance to unnatural powers
Luck: plain, dumb luck
As mentioned above, all Attributes are rated from 1 to 5 (for humans), with 1 being pretty poor, sad, or maybe handicapped, and 5 being the human maximum. 2 represents someone who is untrained but average, and 3 is the average for someone who is trained.
A character has a given number of Traits that are like Attributes but are more specific. These can be anything, including skills, natural talents, or specific aspects of an attribute. Your rating in an Attribute is the number of Traits you start with from that category (except Occult, which gives you Attribute -2 in Traits to start). Each Trait that applies to a given situation gives you a +1 on a test, up to +2 at the maximum. Here are some example Traits for each Attribute to give you an idea of what we're getting at:
Might: Tough as Nails, Hulking, Brutal, Fit, Weapon Training (specific weapon), Martial Artist (specify style), Body Armor, Tireless
Precision: Driver, Elusive, Quick, Acrobatic, Cautious, Sharpshooter, Juggler, Puzzle Solver, Archer, Calligrapher, Painter, Woodworker
Knowledge: Literature, Music, Trivia, Engineering, History, Biology, Chemistry, Demolitions, Extra Languages, Local Knowledge, Auto Repair, Tactics
Appeal: Wealthy, Sexy, Commanding, Scary, Innocent, Trustworthy, Deceptive, Famous
Occult: (each actual use of an Occult power costs one Token - otherwise it helps you resist supernatural powers and influences) Iron Will, Divine Protection, Healing Hands, Psychometry, Clairvoyance, Telepathy, Telekinesis, Pyrokinesis, Exorcism, Warding, Arcane Sight
Luck: (Luck also determines how many Tokens you start the game with - otherwise, these are things you are lucky enough to have with you when the Horror begins) Reliable Vehicle, Pistol, Quality Knife, Sword, Body Armor, Automatic Weapon, Wad of Cash, Laptop, Art Supplies, Megaphone, Power Tools
For each of these Attributes, there are also negative traits, or Flaws, that a player can take. Each Flaw is more severe than the average Trait, but for each Flaw taken the character gains another Trait in any category. For each applicable Flaw, a character is at a -1 (no limit) to a given test. Here are some examples:
Might: Asthmatic, Fat, Sensitive, Scrawny, Hemophiliac, Pacifist, Squeamish
Precision: Clumsy, Shaky, Bad Vision, Unbalanced, All Thumbs, Absent-Minded, Oblivious
Knowledge: Uneducated, Slow, Dense, Common Sensical
Appeal: Ugly, Stinky, Clearly Foreign, Filthy, Easy to Read, Shy, Poor, Laughable, Obnoxious
Occult: EnThralled, Skeptical, Addicted, Weak Willed, Faithless, Reductionist
Luck: Cursed, Jinxed
In all cases, the GM must approve all Traits, and is encouraged to keep the Traits specific and the Flaws general.
A final modifier of a given Test is the Situation. This is always up to the GM, and is sometimes determined by things like fear or injury. Again, the max bonus is +2 and the maximum penalty is -2.
In Combat, it is usually a test of Might or Precision. Might covers things like hand combat, fighting with weapons, wrestling and the like. Precision covers things like shooting, throwing objects or leaping behind cover. Combat situations assume one-on-one combat. For mass combat, resolve each test individually, remembering that a character can only have one Quick action (attack, defend, run, jump, shout, etc.) in a combat round.
If one is attacking and one is defending, a tie means no damage is dealt. If both are attacking, then the winner deals damage, and in a tie both deal damage.
Weapons deal three types of damage: Bruise, Injury, Wound. The third Bruise turns into an Injury, the third Injury turns into a Wound, the third Wound is Crippling, and beyond that things become Deadly. Each player keeps track of their character's health, checking each level off as the damage they take accumulates. Again, each level has a penalty listed after it that results from pain, blood loss, trauma, shock, etc.
Healthy
Bruised (-1 to Appeal tests - it shows you've been in a fight)
Injured -1
Wounded -2
Crippled -4
Dying
It should be clear that if you are both frightened and injured, you're pretty screwed. In Horror, it gets really bad really quickly.
The heart of the Horror system is the escalation of fear. Over the course of a horror game, fear should grow, scene by scene, until terror overwhelms the player-characters (or, perhaps, they triumph, but that isn't really what we have in mind for this system).
In the Horror system, pretty much everything is on a scale of 1-5. The mechanic is diceless, meaning that scores are simply compared, taking into account situational modifiers and special Traits (which we'll also get into later). Whoever's score is higher is the winner. In the case of ties, nothing happens unless one party spends a Token, which is the tie-breaking mechanic for Horror. In a situation where the test is against a set obstacle and there is a tie, then given enough time the obstacle can be overcome, but it will often be a slow process - and in a good horror game, there shouldn't be a lot of waiting around.
Whenever something frightening happens, there is a chance that the characters will escalate on the fear scale, which ranges from Calm to Hysterical, at which point the character has likely lost her mind and is screaming, raving, running frantically, or gibbering senselessly on the floor. The Fear scale is as follows:
Calm
Nervous -1
Shaken -2
Frightened -3
Terrified -4
Hysterical -6
Listed after each level is the number of points you lose from any given test. So, if you're Shaken and trying to hack a computer, you're at -2 because your hands are shaking and you can't concentrate. The one exception is tests involving Might, which suffer only half the penalty. You don't lose strength as quickly, but you do lose effectiveness, flailing around for example instead of remaining composed and effective.
Each character keeps track of their level of Fear, and they need to roleplay their character's state - not just because this is a roleplaying game, but because it is through roleplaying that you get more Tokens.
The only way to reduce your level of fear is to roleplay the fear well, then spend a Token and either take time to talk yourself down or have another player roleplay talking you down. Obviously, this takes time, and can't be done during a firefight or something.
A character has six Attributes. They are Might, Precision, Knowledge, Appeal, Occult and Luck.
Might: size, muscle, endurance, toughness
Precision: dexterity, agility, quickness of wit, perception, and many skills
Knowledge: education, training, etc.
Appeal: looks, dress, charisma, sex appeal, social status
Occult: weird knowledge, psychic powers, religious faith, resistance to unnatural powers
Luck: plain, dumb luck
As mentioned above, all Attributes are rated from 1 to 5 (for humans), with 1 being pretty poor, sad, or maybe handicapped, and 5 being the human maximum. 2 represents someone who is untrained but average, and 3 is the average for someone who is trained.
A character has a given number of Traits that are like Attributes but are more specific. These can be anything, including skills, natural talents, or specific aspects of an attribute. Your rating in an Attribute is the number of Traits you start with from that category (except Occult, which gives you Attribute -2 in Traits to start). Each Trait that applies to a given situation gives you a +1 on a test, up to +2 at the maximum. Here are some example Traits for each Attribute to give you an idea of what we're getting at:
Might: Tough as Nails, Hulking, Brutal, Fit, Weapon Training (specific weapon), Martial Artist (specify style), Body Armor, Tireless
Precision: Driver, Elusive, Quick, Acrobatic, Cautious, Sharpshooter, Juggler, Puzzle Solver, Archer, Calligrapher, Painter, Woodworker
Knowledge: Literature, Music, Trivia, Engineering, History, Biology, Chemistry, Demolitions, Extra Languages, Local Knowledge, Auto Repair, Tactics
Appeal: Wealthy, Sexy, Commanding, Scary, Innocent, Trustworthy, Deceptive, Famous
Occult: (each actual use of an Occult power costs one Token - otherwise it helps you resist supernatural powers and influences) Iron Will, Divine Protection, Healing Hands, Psychometry, Clairvoyance, Telepathy, Telekinesis, Pyrokinesis, Exorcism, Warding, Arcane Sight
Luck: (Luck also determines how many Tokens you start the game with - otherwise, these are things you are lucky enough to have with you when the Horror begins) Reliable Vehicle, Pistol, Quality Knife, Sword, Body Armor, Automatic Weapon, Wad of Cash, Laptop, Art Supplies, Megaphone, Power Tools
For each of these Attributes, there are also negative traits, or Flaws, that a player can take. Each Flaw is more severe than the average Trait, but for each Flaw taken the character gains another Trait in any category. For each applicable Flaw, a character is at a -1 (no limit) to a given test. Here are some examples:
Might: Asthmatic, Fat, Sensitive, Scrawny, Hemophiliac, Pacifist, Squeamish
Precision: Clumsy, Shaky, Bad Vision, Unbalanced, All Thumbs, Absent-Minded, Oblivious
Knowledge: Uneducated, Slow, Dense, Common Sensical
Appeal: Ugly, Stinky, Clearly Foreign, Filthy, Easy to Read, Shy, Poor, Laughable, Obnoxious
Occult: EnThralled, Skeptical, Addicted, Weak Willed, Faithless, Reductionist
Luck: Cursed, Jinxed
In all cases, the GM must approve all Traits, and is encouraged to keep the Traits specific and the Flaws general.
A final modifier of a given Test is the Situation. This is always up to the GM, and is sometimes determined by things like fear or injury. Again, the max bonus is +2 and the maximum penalty is -2.
In Combat, it is usually a test of Might or Precision. Might covers things like hand combat, fighting with weapons, wrestling and the like. Precision covers things like shooting, throwing objects or leaping behind cover. Combat situations assume one-on-one combat. For mass combat, resolve each test individually, remembering that a character can only have one Quick action (attack, defend, run, jump, shout, etc.) in a combat round.
If one is attacking and one is defending, a tie means no damage is dealt. If both are attacking, then the winner deals damage, and in a tie both deal damage.
Weapons deal three types of damage: Bruise, Injury, Wound. The third Bruise turns into an Injury, the third Injury turns into a Wound, the third Wound is Crippling, and beyond that things become Deadly. Each player keeps track of their character's health, checking each level off as the damage they take accumulates. Again, each level has a penalty listed after it that results from pain, blood loss, trauma, shock, etc.
Healthy
Bruised (-1 to Appeal tests - it shows you've been in a fight)
Injured -1
Wounded -2
Crippled -4
Dying
It should be clear that if you are both frightened and injured, you're pretty screwed. In Horror, it gets really bad really quickly.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
GRPA Ideas
Running my recent Call of Cthulhu one-shot at the local gaming store made me excited and motivated about running future one-shot games there. I really enjoy learning new systems and learning about new settings, and there are a lot of good games out there. Some of them are weighing down my bookshelves currently, and its almost impossible to get a regular group to try them all. Much as I prefer long, ongoing campaigns, I'm getting a better idea of how to run a good one-shot.
I'd still like to demo Laughing Pan's Deleria, as mentioned previously.
I'd also like to demo Decipher's Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game. Though they've since gone backrupt, I think this is probably the best iteration in the history of making RPG systems out of the Lord of the Rings (including ICE's many books using the Rolemaster/MERP system and homebrews like the Song of Arda). I'm not saying its great - actually one thing I have in mind as I design and work on Epic is a system that could be adapted to Middle Earth.
I'm interested in trying out the CORE system, a.k.a. Chupa, developed by the guys at the Dragon's Landing Inn. It looks like a rules-light system that could easily be adapted to a modern setting.
I keep being encouraged to run Ptolus. I think this is primarily because I won a drawing for the Ptolus book (which costs a pretty penny, though it is an excellent resource in every way) at a previous event at the game store where I ran an intro adventure for the new Ravenloft incarnation. I'm not really that interested in running d20 as a one-shot - too much time tends to be spent staring at a battle-map, and people who sign up for a d20 game tend to really enjoy battle-maps, whereas I find them a bit tedious. Sometimes its interesting to have lots of detailed tactical combat, but that isn't generally the focus I want to have in a game. I might run Ptolus using some rules variants like Wounds and Vitality rather than Hit Points, or I could run the setting using GURPS rules, though that would be extremely work-intensive for relatively little result (at best, five hours of fun).
I'd love to run Vampire: The Masquerade (or, if I must, Vampire: The Requiem), but that's another game that really lends itself to ongoing chronicles rather than one-shot games. Vampire is driven by character development and intrigue and story rather than action, which tends to be quick and brutal when it does come up. A one-shot Vampire game would almost feel like a story composed almost entirely of punctuation. I do really miss it though.
I did put all that work into a GURPS adaptation of the Eberron setting, so it would be fun to put it to use. Maybe it would even generate interest in others in GURPS, which is an awesome system, and Eberron, which is an awesome setting.
Though I am currently running a Mage: The Ascension game, I love the system and never tire of it. I could run a Sorcerer's Crusade game that is a one-shot, as long as I put care into explaining and defining rotes for the PCs so those without a lot of knowledge of the Arete/Sphere system can participate and use magick.
I also worked up some adaptations of GURPS rules to Fantasy Flight's Midnight setting, and it would be nice to put this to use. It is also something some of the guys at the shop are asking for now and then, which means I'd at least have some players.
Though I have my problems with the new World of Darkness system and setting, I would like to demo it and try it out. I've only used it for a short-run hunters game, and I could run something similar, with PCs made with the basic 'mortal' rules who have a monster of some sort to deal with. That makes a good one-shot - easily defined goal and whatnot, and players can decide whether they like the system at least, and get a little intro into the setting. The basic World of Darkness is much the same, but the backstories and origins of the various creatures therein (Vampires, Werewolves, Mages, etc.) have been made much less interesting. They also added awful things like Promethians - the nWoD's Mummies. I have to give them credit, though, that they made Werewolf a playable game. That's the one setting and system that was actually improved in its 4th edition incarnation, with a system that doesn't demand min-maxing and exploitation or punish certain reasonable character creation decisions.
Finally, in a fit of nostalgia, I might want to run a game using the first system I ever used, Gary Gygax's Mythus (aka Dangerous Journeys). It was the first "tri-stat" system that I'm aware of, and it also had a basic rules system and an advanced one in the same basic book, which is something modern games are doing as if they invented it. It has all of the usual Gygax obsession with charts and tables and complexity and randomness, but it is probably the most internally coherent setting and rule system he ever created. Much more so than D&D or AD&D, which are hodgepodges of a wide array of myths and legends and settings, such that their identity comes from their peculiar rules. In fact, it was written to address many of the perceived weaknesses of D&D, but ultimately met an untimely end. So it goes.
I'd still like to demo Laughing Pan's Deleria, as mentioned previously.
I'd also like to demo Decipher's Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game. Though they've since gone backrupt, I think this is probably the best iteration in the history of making RPG systems out of the Lord of the Rings (including ICE's many books using the Rolemaster/MERP system and homebrews like the Song of Arda). I'm not saying its great - actually one thing I have in mind as I design and work on Epic is a system that could be adapted to Middle Earth.
I'm interested in trying out the CORE system, a.k.a. Chupa, developed by the guys at the Dragon's Landing Inn. It looks like a rules-light system that could easily be adapted to a modern setting.
I keep being encouraged to run Ptolus. I think this is primarily because I won a drawing for the Ptolus book (which costs a pretty penny, though it is an excellent resource in every way) at a previous event at the game store where I ran an intro adventure for the new Ravenloft incarnation. I'm not really that interested in running d20 as a one-shot - too much time tends to be spent staring at a battle-map, and people who sign up for a d20 game tend to really enjoy battle-maps, whereas I find them a bit tedious. Sometimes its interesting to have lots of detailed tactical combat, but that isn't generally the focus I want to have in a game. I might run Ptolus using some rules variants like Wounds and Vitality rather than Hit Points, or I could run the setting using GURPS rules, though that would be extremely work-intensive for relatively little result (at best, five hours of fun).
I'd love to run Vampire: The Masquerade (or, if I must, Vampire: The Requiem), but that's another game that really lends itself to ongoing chronicles rather than one-shot games. Vampire is driven by character development and intrigue and story rather than action, which tends to be quick and brutal when it does come up. A one-shot Vampire game would almost feel like a story composed almost entirely of punctuation. I do really miss it though.
I did put all that work into a GURPS adaptation of the Eberron setting, so it would be fun to put it to use. Maybe it would even generate interest in others in GURPS, which is an awesome system, and Eberron, which is an awesome setting.
Though I am currently running a Mage: The Ascension game, I love the system and never tire of it. I could run a Sorcerer's Crusade game that is a one-shot, as long as I put care into explaining and defining rotes for the PCs so those without a lot of knowledge of the Arete/Sphere system can participate and use magick.
I also worked up some adaptations of GURPS rules to Fantasy Flight's Midnight setting, and it would be nice to put this to use. It is also something some of the guys at the shop are asking for now and then, which means I'd at least have some players.
Though I have my problems with the new World of Darkness system and setting, I would like to demo it and try it out. I've only used it for a short-run hunters game, and I could run something similar, with PCs made with the basic 'mortal' rules who have a monster of some sort to deal with. That makes a good one-shot - easily defined goal and whatnot, and players can decide whether they like the system at least, and get a little intro into the setting. The basic World of Darkness is much the same, but the backstories and origins of the various creatures therein (Vampires, Werewolves, Mages, etc.) have been made much less interesting. They also added awful things like Promethians - the nWoD's Mummies. I have to give them credit, though, that they made Werewolf a playable game. That's the one setting and system that was actually improved in its 4th edition incarnation, with a system that doesn't demand min-maxing and exploitation or punish certain reasonable character creation decisions.
Finally, in a fit of nostalgia, I might want to run a game using the first system I ever used, Gary Gygax's Mythus (aka Dangerous Journeys). It was the first "tri-stat" system that I'm aware of, and it also had a basic rules system and an advanced one in the same basic book, which is something modern games are doing as if they invented it. It has all of the usual Gygax obsession with charts and tables and complexity and randomness, but it is probably the most internally coherent setting and rule system he ever created. Much more so than D&D or AD&D, which are hodgepodges of a wide array of myths and legends and settings, such that their identity comes from their peculiar rules. In fact, it was written to address many of the perceived weaknesses of D&D, but ultimately met an untimely end. So it goes.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Epic Dawn: Magic - "Subtle/Intrinsic Magic"
Any well-developed fantasy setting involves much more than particular magical systems. Magic is part of the setting itself, part of the land and the peoples, part of history and part of what drives the narrative forward. Not all magic should be explained in a setting - some magic is simply going to make folkloric sense or mythological sense rather than conform to an external, formal logic.
This the magic that makes certain flowers grow over the graves of heroes or that poisons a well where someone drowns. It is the magic that sends storms to foreshadow an invasion or blights the land at the site of a terrible battle. It is the magic of resonance between physical reality and narrative reality, between legend and fact.
In the Epic setting, this magic comes from the interaction of the spirit and material worlds. Actions in one reflect upon the other, and there is always resonance between them. In this setting, every action has consequence and its own weight.
For the most part, this is a narrative tool for the storyteller to use. As player-character progress in power and prestige and influence, they will begin to have an effect on the world through the same subtle magic. What they do will leave a sort of residue that will persist, even after they have moved on. In this way, what happens is given even greater weight and importance. It is also an excellent tool for foreshadowing, mentioned above, and for setting a mood or for fixing the identity of a place in the mind.
Here are a few principles to guide the use of subtle or intrinsic magic:
1. The rightness, or wrongness, of things is expressed through subtle or intrinsic magic. In Epic, there is the assumption that good is also Good, and that the world has a moral structure. This is to reflect the moral structure of legends and myths and folklore, whether or not it is a historical reality.
2. Subtle and intrinsic magic is mirrored, for the most part, in nature. Weather, plants and animals, natural formations, bodies of water and the like are far more reactive when they are untouched by human hands, uncultivated and wild. Civilization imposes particular things on nature, bending and shaping it my human will, and it is therefore less spiritually reactive.
3. Subtle and intrinsic magic has concrete influence on persons and events, but this influence is oblique rather than overt. There isn't a storm before every battle and there aren't flowers on every hero's grave. It isn't consistent in that way, but rather flows with the narrative.
It is relatively difficult to master use of this kind of magic precisely because it is imprecise. There is no concrete system, no table - it is simply a very important aspect of Epic to keep in mind as your story progresses and your characters develop. The world responds to your actions and influences the in turn.
This the magic that makes certain flowers grow over the graves of heroes or that poisons a well where someone drowns. It is the magic that sends storms to foreshadow an invasion or blights the land at the site of a terrible battle. It is the magic of resonance between physical reality and narrative reality, between legend and fact.
In the Epic setting, this magic comes from the interaction of the spirit and material worlds. Actions in one reflect upon the other, and there is always resonance between them. In this setting, every action has consequence and its own weight.
For the most part, this is a narrative tool for the storyteller to use. As player-character progress in power and prestige and influence, they will begin to have an effect on the world through the same subtle magic. What they do will leave a sort of residue that will persist, even after they have moved on. In this way, what happens is given even greater weight and importance. It is also an excellent tool for foreshadowing, mentioned above, and for setting a mood or for fixing the identity of a place in the mind.
Here are a few principles to guide the use of subtle or intrinsic magic:
1. The rightness, or wrongness, of things is expressed through subtle or intrinsic magic. In Epic, there is the assumption that good is also Good, and that the world has a moral structure. This is to reflect the moral structure of legends and myths and folklore, whether or not it is a historical reality.
2. Subtle and intrinsic magic is mirrored, for the most part, in nature. Weather, plants and animals, natural formations, bodies of water and the like are far more reactive when they are untouched by human hands, uncultivated and wild. Civilization imposes particular things on nature, bending and shaping it my human will, and it is therefore less spiritually reactive.
3. Subtle and intrinsic magic has concrete influence on persons and events, but this influence is oblique rather than overt. There isn't a storm before every battle and there aren't flowers on every hero's grave. It isn't consistent in that way, but rather flows with the narrative.
It is relatively difficult to master use of this kind of magic precisely because it is imprecise. There is no concrete system, no table - it is simply a very important aspect of Epic to keep in mind as your story progresses and your characters develop. The world responds to your actions and influences the in turn.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Call of Cthulhu
I just ran my first Call of Cthulhu game and one of my only one-shot games ever (the out-of-print 5th Ed version). I think that it had a weak ending, some good parts in the middle, and an excellent ending (fratricide and self-immolation were involved). I just wanted to jot down some reflections on it before I go to bed and try to sleep.
Ushina was right and I need to have much more lead-in. Maybe next time just assume all of the players will be good and into it and then deal with any deviants. I wrote this game hurriedly (boring story) and assuming that I might have any kind of problem players imaginable. Given the excellent group I actually did have, I could have done a lot more with it. There should have been significantly more time for the PCs to just interact and learn about each other and develop their roles before fur started flying. I think this would have led to better RP (though I have no complaints there) and maybe a little less inter-party conflict, though in what was essentially a survival horror game, that was fine too.
Combat is something I could have balanced better. It didn't function quite the way I wanted, but again I've never run CoC before, so that's understandable.
Running initiative without any rolls worked pretty well for a one-shot. Basically, I ran initiative starting with whoever declared they were doing something first, or with whoever was closer and move involved in what was going on. This led to a lot combats where some PCs weren't even involved, and I liked that. Not everyone will have a "combat action" because most people, when they hear gunfire, freeze and maybe throw themselves on the ground. They don't start maneuvering on a mental grid-map for cover. It also made combat a lot faster, and made it easier to keep the pace quick and have things happen without having to let up on the ferocity at times or the sense of impending doom.
I think for future games I'll just institute a rule that everyone rolls dice out in the open. It is the right and privilege for the GM to fudge rolls, not the players...but again mostly this wasn't a problem.
I'd also like to run a game where I roll all the dice and you don't see your character sheet at all. You know what you're good at, what you're practiced in, what you have degrees in and whatnot, but you don't know when things fail necessarily. Again, I'd need good players who are into that kind of game. When I demo Deleria at another GRPA (Gamescape Role-Players Anonymous at our local game store) event, since its a card-based system, I'll have the only deck at the table and I'll deal cards when players initiate challenges. That'll work well and, I hope, lend a cool feel to the game. Also, no "lucky" rolls.
Ushina was right and I need to have much more lead-in. Maybe next time just assume all of the players will be good and into it and then deal with any deviants. I wrote this game hurriedly (boring story) and assuming that I might have any kind of problem players imaginable. Given the excellent group I actually did have, I could have done a lot more with it. There should have been significantly more time for the PCs to just interact and learn about each other and develop their roles before fur started flying. I think this would have led to better RP (though I have no complaints there) and maybe a little less inter-party conflict, though in what was essentially a survival horror game, that was fine too.
Combat is something I could have balanced better. It didn't function quite the way I wanted, but again I've never run CoC before, so that's understandable.
Running initiative without any rolls worked pretty well for a one-shot. Basically, I ran initiative starting with whoever declared they were doing something first, or with whoever was closer and move involved in what was going on. This led to a lot combats where some PCs weren't even involved, and I liked that. Not everyone will have a "combat action" because most people, when they hear gunfire, freeze and maybe throw themselves on the ground. They don't start maneuvering on a mental grid-map for cover. It also made combat a lot faster, and made it easier to keep the pace quick and have things happen without having to let up on the ferocity at times or the sense of impending doom.
I think for future games I'll just institute a rule that everyone rolls dice out in the open. It is the right and privilege for the GM to fudge rolls, not the players...but again mostly this wasn't a problem.
I'd also like to run a game where I roll all the dice and you don't see your character sheet at all. You know what you're good at, what you're practiced in, what you have degrees in and whatnot, but you don't know when things fail necessarily. Again, I'd need good players who are into that kind of game. When I demo Deleria at another GRPA (Gamescape Role-Players Anonymous at our local game store) event, since its a card-based system, I'll have the only deck at the table and I'll deal cards when players initiate challenges. That'll work well and, I hope, lend a cool feel to the game. Also, no "lucky" rolls.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
What I'm Listening To
I'm spending a lot of time listening to podcasts lately, particularly during commutes or other drives or while I'm doing things like working on my Mage game or other writing. Some of them are better than others, but here is a brief breakdown of what I'm into and some of why. All of these are easy to find on iTunes or through another podcatcher, or through the magic of Google, and they are all also linked on this page. All of these are also connected to interesting forums where conversations begun on a podcast in question can continue and over which arguments can ensue!
Voice of the Revolution: this is the official podcast of the Indie Press Revolution, an outfit that sells indie roleplaying games such as Burning Wheel, Agon, Dogs in the Vineyard and Legends of Alyria to name only a few. An excellent source of information on all things indie in the world of gaming.
All Games Considered: more focused on banter and on general gaming topics with game reviews and special segments like "Gaming for Cheap Bastards" which introduces you to...games suited for cheap bastards.
The Bear's Grove: by one of the designers of Changeling for White Wolf back when they were revolutionary rather than cliche. Basically covers whatever is on his mind, including GM advice, advice in getting children interested in games, and really whatever else comes up. Involves a series on game design and world design.
Does My Geek Look Big In This?: two funny and incredibly likable Brits talk about Beer, Games, and Movies. Listen as they become more inebriated during their podcast! Hilarity ensues, and it is otherwise pretty interesting to listen to. Almost makes me want to drink beer.
The Dragon's Landing: something of a granddaddy gaming podcast. Involves, obviously, rpg discussion and tips for Frugal Gamers. They also have their own game system, Project CHUPRA, with its own Core Rules up for discussion on their Forum.
Fear the Boot: hilarious and intelligent discussion of all things gaming. I love almost every episode. A large portion of it is devoted to game and setting design with their own game and setting, Skies of Glass, as the example for each section. Another really helpful podcast for players, GMs and game-designers alike.
The Harping Monkey: a round-table style conversation on the topic of the Jung, Campbell and the Monomyth and how these topics relate to gaming. Very intelligent discussions overall mixing myth and games.
Voice of the Revolution: this is the official podcast of the Indie Press Revolution, an outfit that sells indie roleplaying games such as Burning Wheel, Agon, Dogs in the Vineyard and Legends of Alyria to name only a few. An excellent source of information on all things indie in the world of gaming.
All Games Considered: more focused on banter and on general gaming topics with game reviews and special segments like "Gaming for Cheap Bastards" which introduces you to...games suited for cheap bastards.
The Bear's Grove: by one of the designers of Changeling for White Wolf back when they were revolutionary rather than cliche. Basically covers whatever is on his mind, including GM advice, advice in getting children interested in games, and really whatever else comes up. Involves a series on game design and world design.
Does My Geek Look Big In This?: two funny and incredibly likable Brits talk about Beer, Games, and Movies. Listen as they become more inebriated during their podcast! Hilarity ensues, and it is otherwise pretty interesting to listen to. Almost makes me want to drink beer.
The Dragon's Landing: something of a granddaddy gaming podcast. Involves, obviously, rpg discussion and tips for Frugal Gamers. They also have their own game system, Project CHUPRA, with its own Core Rules up for discussion on their Forum.
Fear the Boot: hilarious and intelligent discussion of all things gaming. I love almost every episode. A large portion of it is devoted to game and setting design with their own game and setting, Skies of Glass, as the example for each section. Another really helpful podcast for players, GMs and game-designers alike.
The Harping Monkey: a round-table style conversation on the topic of the Jung, Campbell and the Monomyth and how these topics relate to gaming. Very intelligent discussions overall mixing myth and games.
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Experiment
April Fools! This is going to be a Google bomb. I'm going to see if this kind of thing actually works.
What I'm trying to do is to pimp my games and to raise their occurrence on Google. So this is how I'll do it, and if it doesn't work, or doesn't work the way I want, I can just delete this baby.
The first thing I do is talk about Parsec. Parsec is a science-fiction rpg that I'm designing for Jolly Roger Games. I've been working on Parsec for about a year now, and it is more than half done. Parsec has definitely taken more time that I'd wanted, but I've also had to work on Parsec while also going to school and working multiple jobs. That's made the whole Parsec project harder, no doubt.
Parsec is a cool system IMO. Parsec uses a simple dice system to resolve actions, lets players define how their characters will advance over time. One of my instructions for Parsec was to make sure that Parsec has a system for suppressing fire in a gunfight, so I made sure that Parsec has just such a rule.
Playtesting Parsec has gone well so far. Players get a kick out of creating Parsec characters and using Parsec's rules to determine what happens in the game. Parsec has a cool zero-g combat system that can be used for individuals or spaceships with only small changes. In brief - I like Parsec and in my few better moments I'm even proud of parts of it.
Horror! is another project that a couple friends of mine are working on. Horror! is a diceless rpg designed to scare the shit out of players and to represent fast-paced, merciless and relentless Horror!. Horror! uses an engine that is driven by Adrenaline and Virtue. Horror! characters use Adrenaline to survive the Horror! through violence and physical power, whereas a Horror! character will survive the Horror! using Virtue by being a worthwile person and by bolstering their allies, removing Pain and Fear. In the Horror! system, Pain and Fear are what take you out of the game.
We're currently working on an alpha playtest document for Horror!, and once we complete that, we'll start playtesting Horror! and refining it. More to come on that process.
I've gotta take this moment to pimp my friend's game Real20, even though I think Real20 has a good reason to come out on top of the Google searches. Real20 is the game with balls! You roll big loads of Real20s - d20s to the rest of you - and hope for matches that let your dice explode. Want to put a dragon in a headlock? Real20 is your game. There are other games that use the Real20 die, but they are games for bitches.
Lastly I want to talk about Epic Dawn. I started work on Epic Dawn five years ago with the help of two friends who later left the Epic Dawn project and Epic Dawn has floundered since then. Recently, I've started new research for Epic Dawn and am contemplating short stories to write in the Epic Dawn setting using some of the Epic Dawn iconic characters. Epic Dawn is fantasy set in a post-apocalyptic bronze age. And also, Epic Dawn is other stuff. Epic Dawn is my cry of rage against the magic systems in most rpgs, and Epic Dawn will probably always be some level of ongoing project. Epic Dawn is my quintessential eternal fantasy setting and system. I hope I get to publish Epic Dawn someday - but we'll see.
The Lingering Gygax Fallacy
There's a major thing that's always bothered me about pretty much all Fantasy stories and especially game settings and even more especially roleplaying games published since Dungeons and Dragons came out. For some reason, Gary Gygax separated Wizards and Clerics, which later became a separation of arcane and divine magic, and this assumption has been played out blindly ever since.
The huge problem is that if you go back into actual human beliefs about magic and religion, they are intrinsically connected. This is very important because it prevents either from becoming arbitrary with reference to the other. The big example of this arbitrariness is found in D&D - any edition you prefer. Arcane magic is completely illogical and absurd. You chant nonsense words and wave your hands (or whatever) and for no apparent reason things happen as a result.
Divine magic in D&D is equally absurd. You do the same as a wizard, but you get slightly different arbitrary results. You've got a slightly better justification - it comes from a deity - but even then, the deity doesn't really impact your life beyond that aside from telling you what weapon it prefers.
This is stupid.
If you look at pretty much every culture, there are generalizations you can make about their view of the supernatural. First of all, none of it is arbitrary. It is embedded in the culture's mythology and structure and history and values. What D&D calls divine magic is better described as official magic; that is, the magic that people perform who belong to an official state or mainstream cultural religion. Arcane magic, better referred to perhaps as the occult, is simply magic performed by those outside the norm. Put simply, a medieval priest calls on God or Jesus, a medieval peasant might call on local spirits or ancestors or pagan deities, etc.
This has always bothered me about fantasy roleplaying games, and it isn't even always reflected in fantasy fiction. In the Lord of the Rings, magic is intrinsic to the world. It is a fundamental part of some races or beings, but there is clearly a power present that is drawn upon. Of course, Tolkien was writing before D&D, so he didn't codify or systematize the way magic works. Post-D&D, almost every author has to do so because that kind of systematization is just in the genre now. Inescapable.
Another example might be Robert Jordan. He's written that he intentionally left religion in the usual sense out of the setting because there is his own idea of the intrinsic power of Aes Sedai - much like Star Wars, you're born with a certain sensitivity to it, and it can be trained - its basically a slightly more complicated Force.
Way back, one of the main motivations behind creating Epic was to have a magic system that actually makes sense in reference to the religions and occult practices in the world. Central to this was to come up with a system that covered "arcane" and "divine" magic, and other forms of magic, in a more interesting way.
One of the biggest disappointments of D&D 3.0 and 3.5 was that they basically didn't touch the magic system, except to make magic items profoundly less interesting. Its just such a stupid system - not only is it absurd compared with 'real world' beliefs and practices, but it isn't even very interesting as a stand-alone system.
The huge problem is that if you go back into actual human beliefs about magic and religion, they are intrinsically connected. This is very important because it prevents either from becoming arbitrary with reference to the other. The big example of this arbitrariness is found in D&D - any edition you prefer. Arcane magic is completely illogical and absurd. You chant nonsense words and wave your hands (or whatever) and for no apparent reason things happen as a result.
Divine magic in D&D is equally absurd. You do the same as a wizard, but you get slightly different arbitrary results. You've got a slightly better justification - it comes from a deity - but even then, the deity doesn't really impact your life beyond that aside from telling you what weapon it prefers.
This is stupid.
If you look at pretty much every culture, there are generalizations you can make about their view of the supernatural. First of all, none of it is arbitrary. It is embedded in the culture's mythology and structure and history and values. What D&D calls divine magic is better described as official magic; that is, the magic that people perform who belong to an official state or mainstream cultural religion. Arcane magic, better referred to perhaps as the occult, is simply magic performed by those outside the norm. Put simply, a medieval priest calls on God or Jesus, a medieval peasant might call on local spirits or ancestors or pagan deities, etc.
This has always bothered me about fantasy roleplaying games, and it isn't even always reflected in fantasy fiction. In the Lord of the Rings, magic is intrinsic to the world. It is a fundamental part of some races or beings, but there is clearly a power present that is drawn upon. Of course, Tolkien was writing before D&D, so he didn't codify or systematize the way magic works. Post-D&D, almost every author has to do so because that kind of systematization is just in the genre now. Inescapable.
Another example might be Robert Jordan. He's written that he intentionally left religion in the usual sense out of the setting because there is his own idea of the intrinsic power of Aes Sedai - much like Star Wars, you're born with a certain sensitivity to it, and it can be trained - its basically a slightly more complicated Force.
Way back, one of the main motivations behind creating Epic was to have a magic system that actually makes sense in reference to the religions and occult practices in the world. Central to this was to come up with a system that covered "arcane" and "divine" magic, and other forms of magic, in a more interesting way.
One of the biggest disappointments of D&D 3.0 and 3.5 was that they basically didn't touch the magic system, except to make magic items profoundly less interesting. Its just such a stupid system - not only is it absurd compared with 'real world' beliefs and practices, but it isn't even very interesting as a stand-alone system.
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