Reasonable Dedication To A Hobby

Ever bring your RPG along materials on a first date?

The reasons I did so weren't as bad as that question makes it sound. To get from where I am to where I needed to be is a bus or train ride that takes a half hour. And you never do know if the person is actually going to show up (my experience is notification of cancellation happens right at the time you're supposed to meet someplace, if it ever comes at all), and the last thing I want to do is sit in a bus going home being all grumbly. So yeah, my backpack is full of campaign materials pretty much any time I go out to do anything beyond "Go to the corner store for groceries and come back."

Reasonable, I think.

So we get to the part when we are discussing hobbies and such. Some gamers are very careful never to reveal their hobby to strangers, lest they be looked down upon. Me, I'm tired of getting to know someone and only then finding out they think less of me because of one of my passions... and I want to make sure it's clear that Sundays are off limits because I've got the game. (Actually, I tend to hit all the "never talk about this stuff in polite company" subjects as soon as possible so if I am going to lose someone over something like this, it happens immediately without wasting my time... a bit of politics, religion, music fanaticism, RPGs, pro wrestling, comic books, girls... I'm trying to communicate about myself, not some facade of who I think some girl might like me to be...)

She's not horrified, but she's not all that clear on the role-playing thing... so... (this is the part where I deserve to get my ass kicked, as it is a definite "first date no no") I break the books out of the bag and start showing her things instead of just explaining. The whole "shared imagined space" thing makes a lot more sense when you can pull out a dungeon map and the key, and a couple of character sheets. And I'm sure the binder full of maps of the campaign world I've been using since 1990 was a big hit. And pulling out my copy of the Creature Generator and saying "I did this!" never gets old.

(All gamers should publish something in print form... Any decent print shop, Kinkos included, can make the booklets, so write something, print out 50, mark them up a bit and set yourself up a Paypal button, and spam away on the boards! We're creators and participants, not passive entertainment receivers...)

... and it looks like there will be a second date, so no harm done, I think...

(and if you read this, no, I'm not going to blog about every date we have... unless they involve RPGs... :P)

Hmmm. HMMMM.

I spent most of my free time this past week combing through Jason Vey's Spellcraft and Swordplay.

A D&D offshoot, the game has a lot of marvelous ideas, but there is one little thing that especially stood out to me: A character's chance to hit is not determined by class and level, but rather by what weapon is being used against which armor. Class and level just give more attacks, not a greater chance to hit. "Armor Class" isn't a measure of an armor stat or anything like it is in every familiar D&D version... it's just a stand-in for armor type. It might as well be "Armor Class Plate," "Armor Class Chain," etc, instead of numbers. All of the monsters' attacks are assigned a weapon type as well, and their armor classes map to the same ACs the PCs use. This fixes the major goof of AD&D 1E - the weapon versus AC type charts are utterly useless when dealing with monsters instead of NPCs.

In addition to passing along errors I'd spotted, I also had a lot of game design questions (or "differences," or "suggestions," heh), and I started thinking of a way to use this with my other ideas I've had lately. I've never been entirely happy with D&D's combat mechanic, as I believe the abstraction of the system makes it impossible to say exactly what real actions are taking place until the final swing (really, you can roll a 20 to hit, roll maximum damage, and never actually touch the guy; it's just that his luck is running out)... and not only is it never considered this way during play, but the fact that missile fire is run the same way but isn't abstracted (one roll to-hit is one arrow fired)... ay ay ay. Vey's system doesn't solve "the missile weapon problem" but I do believe aids in making the abstracted combat system feel abstract.

But my mind began to work and twist, as it often does. Combine this with Wednesday's post, I scratched up some notes for a D&D-ish variant.

Standard six ability scores, using the BECMI penalty/bonus scheme. I can't figure out how to prevent Intelligence and Wisdom from being dump stats though (I have a ton of ideas about what to do about Charisma... been reading too much Dying Earth to leave it to die).

Four alignments:

Pious (character has been baptised), Heathen (character believes in a pantheon of anthropomorphic gods), Fae (believes "magic" is just part of nature), Infernal (character's soul is, justly or not, damned). Every character must pick an alignment, although animals have no alignment.

Each alignment will give it certain powers against supernatural elements of other alignments. A 0-level pious commoner could "turn" Odin, for example.

Three PC races: Human (the only things on Earth unable to sense the Fae), Elf (can not touch iron or steel, invisible to men), and Dwarf (unable to stand sunlight).

Three classes: Fighter, Spell-Caster, Outlaw. Magic is basic D&D-style, but spell-casters have completely different spell lists depending on their alignment, with absolutely no overlap ( Read and Detect Magic become class powers rather than spells)... and most of the damage-dealing combat spells go under the Infernal spell list...

Combat... taking the idea from S&S, but reconstructing the weapon-versus-AC table to greatly expand the weapons, include monster attack and armor types as unique entries (rather than calling a monster's bite a dagger or sword for purposes of the chart), re-doing all the actual chart numbers of course, and using a d20 (rather than 2d6 as S&S does). All damage and hit dice are d6s, as per OD&D. The first of a character's attacks that hits in a round does d6 damage, every additional attack that hits just increases the damage by one point. "Light" weapons roll 2d6 and take the lower number for damage, "heavy" weapons do the same but take the higher number (that from here).

This would mean that the entire monster roster would have to be re-written from scratch, and the weapons and armor on the equipment list need to be chosen carefully, and that's where the bulk of the detail and time would need to go. Otherwise though, the rest of the rules would be standard. The easy thing to do would be to just copy-and-paste large swaths of BFRPG or Labyrinth Lord, but even though they've declared pretty much all their text "Open Content," I bet I'd catch some shit for it. :D

So then there's the question of what to do with such a thing. The writer in me wants to design a setting as part of this idea to really hammer home what I intend the alignment system to mean as far as gameplay, but in all honesty it's a quick pastiche I came up with after reading a couple of books. The smart thing to do would be to just put the rules out there and let the referee make his own setting assumptions. This is a key point, as modern game design will point to the setting and the meaning of the rules as being the definition of the game itself, whereas traditional game design realizes that's too intrusive and the meaning is given through individual interpretation and game play by the local group, not the hoity-toity game designer. It's a pretty big divide, I think.

Thinking of what could have been...

"I think Orm the Strong would have given all his wealth for such a son as you - not that Ketil and Asmund were weaklings. And failing that, he must be glad indeed to see you joined with his daughter."

I think D&D's greatest fault is its taking influence in such a hodgepodge manner from all sorts of sources... but then focusing game play in a manner influenced by very specific sources.

For all the Tolkien trappings and the Lovecraftian vibe in places and the easily recognizable bits taken from dozens of authors, it's difficult to "get" D&D without having read Leiber or Vance or Howard. That's the core. Loot the place and be a magnificent bastard.

But of the people who have ever played D&D, who ever read Leiber or Vance? Or real Howard? Hell, as my post a couple months back showed, I'm still catching up and I've been playing this game for almost 25 years. Invariably though, whenever people read these guys... the light comes on. "Ohhh... THAT'S what it's all about." More Vance and Leiber, as Conan is pretty much in the public consciousness as a concept.

But what if some of those other influences had become "D&D Prime"?

Imagine elves that can't handle iron or steel. Or that the gods can be turned by any commoner invoking the name of Christ. A magical world that can't be seen by humans unless the magic creatures give them sight... but the humans are able to learn the ways of that magic just as well as the natives. Unbreakable oaths and an understanding that victory means death for the heroes and villains alike. Situations like those set up by the quote at the top of this post.

Or better yet, what if all of these influences had been factored in and made canon choices, by design, from the start?

The slaughter will continue until play improves.

That's DMing Philosophy 101 from Stuart Marshall.

One Fine Day in Helsinki... Part Two

Ahhh... pure girl bait.

My copy of BFRPG is cooler than yours.

You'd think she would have been stopped for autographs. But no...

Someone stat up this creature...

Pulped Justice

A couple sessions back I ran the Ruined Monastery adventure (James Maliszewski's contribution to Fight On! #1). In my version, Melchert was a half-goblin cleric, and the purpose of the Monastery and this level was to seal off and guard the lower crypts, which were of ancient and evil origin.

Anyway, they capture Melchert alive. They charm him and question him. And when they have their information... they pass judgement. One of the clerics, armed with a maul, takes a full swing at their bound prisoner to finish him off, execution style. It did so much damage I ruled that it completely crushed his head, sending skull bits, brains, and teeth all over the room.

And considering what he was and what he worshipped, this was considered a righteous act by most, if not all, of the people in the room.

This past session, the PCs were deep in the crypts and cut off from escape by THOUSANDS of undead that awoke behind them. To find a way out, they searched several VIP crypts... and found a vampire. (Mind you, the party was all 1st level save for one 2nd level character). The vampire made them a simple deal: He'll tell them how to get out but they have to transport his coffin to an agreed-on location two days' journey north. Or, he can just kill them.

The fun part is one of the other party members was in another room... and found the way out on his own.

So the vampire's deal changed. "Transport me or die."

So now two party members, including a cleric (not the same one that executed Melchert), are oathbound to transport this vampire's coffin, and protect him from harm.

The complications to throw at them are rather obvious, wouldn't you say?

And the taint of the evil cult's temple and crypts below the Monastery, previously guarded by Saint Gagyx the Grey, has seeped into the world.

Reader Participation

For players:

1. What would you have done when the righteous cleric, a member of your party for purposes of this question, declares she's going to execute the helpless worshipper of evil?
   
2. What would you do realizing two members of your party, undoubtedly good people, are transporting an evil creature, basically to freedom, and are oathbound to do so and make sure no harm comes to it?

For referees:

1. How would you handle the execution as a referee? (We're using BFRPG, so there are no official alignments, although I still keep track of basic Good/Evil stuff "unofficially." But your game may use alignments, and this cleric had acted roughly NG through previous play... and my players pretty much thought of the execution as a Lawful act, if not a Good one.)
2. What difficulties would you throw at the characters transporting the vampire?

One Fine Day in Helsinki... Part the First

Artist and Art.

"... this is relevant to my interests..."

"Look! A winkle!"

... part two when the pictures with me get sent.

Format Test... Your Opinion, Please.

Which of these layouts would you prefer to see on a printed page?

Help, Please.

Time for you guys to tell me stuff.

I'd appreciate any and all links you can find discussing writing adventures. It doesn't matter what game or edition it's for, and honestly the less game rules and "crunchy" bits in it the better.

Help me out. :D

Veteran of the Psychic Wars

The 60 minutes piece on D&D has surfaced on YouTube.





This brings back some hard memories.

From Kellri's post on the matter at Knights and Knaves:

I nearly cried watching that 60 minutes piece - it brought back a lot of really hard feelings I haven't thought about in a long time.

I was born in '68 into a fundamentalist Baptist family and attended a private Christian school from K-12. I've seen actual fucking book burnings that involved my own books. I've been suspended from school for D&D three times, grounded for weeks for D&D, slapped around by parents and teachers for D&D, and undergone one really hostile psych exam. Suffice to say, nearly ALL of those witch-hunt stories were MY stories.

I imagine it's hard for newer gamers to realize the battle that it truly was for some of us to play D&D in the time when it was most popular. Combine the geek hate with the religious hysteria with the belief that the game was truly a cause of mental illness and suicide...

There was a frightening group of people who think I was diseased and evil for liking this game. I was harassed on the street by complete strangers for the heinous crime of carrying around D&D books out in the open.

This has had several effects on my life. I have a complete distrust for the media and authority figures (including teachers, police, and clergy), an absolute disgust for common public opinion, and the unwillingness to accept the "badness" of things commonly avoided by polite society. It led directly to my interest in the occult (long since dropped, mainly because I found that actual occult practices had nothing to do with the game, and because the descriptive trappings I want to use for occult elements from the game come more from fiction and horror movies than any real occult practices... oh yeah, and because it's all BS just as any other religious practice is) and my intensely skeptical and critical and contrarian nature. It directed me into heavy metal (which attacks the hypocrisy of these sorts of things and shares a lot of imagery with role-playing games and it revels in all the things that are supposed to be "bad") and long hair and separation from mainstream culture in general. It warped my idea of what "normal" is (strictly conformist and quick to attack anything outside the accepted lifestyle) and made sure I never wanted to be associated with that suffocating thing.

Really, these people inspired me to become the very thing they were decrying. "Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one," and all that. I wish I had a save or die attack.

As a probably disturbing side effect, I also have a tendency to not care about children seeing things they are not "supposed" to see. The idea that there are "children's things" and "adult's things" and that there should be clear division of the two is so damaging to society. I got that notion from D&D as well. When I was a kid, I was told kids shouldn't be messing with things that promote violence and magic, and when I became an adult, I was told I shouldn't be wasting my time with such childish things as D&D. So I don't act differently around children than I do adults. I find that I horrify children at about the same rate as I horrify adults, and as an added bonus some people keep their children away from me.

I didn't have it as bad as some. I can only count myself lucky that my family wasn't a part of this, although Mom did make me watch Mazes and Monsters soon after I started playing. But family members of friends... watching people have to lie to their parents and sneak around to play the dread D&D... some saw that as a reason why D&D is bad in itself, but I saw it (and still see it) as a liberating influence. Imagine having to lie to your parents to exercise imagination, deal with difficult vocabulary, and do math drills. Reading, writing, and creativity: Surely it's all the devil's work. Fucking hell.

But this isn't all in the past. The past two years, I went to a religious school. Now, things apparently weren't so bad in Finland as they were in the States with all of this, but my school had a lot of foreigners in its language program...

Please visit The Escapist.