Zak is doing it again

Zak over at Playing DnD with Porn Stars is at it again. Barbarians!! This is another of the cool alternative classes for older DnD that are less rigid than original format. I really need to create an ODnD game to run with these alternate classes and my City-State of the Invincible Overlord or Bridgeport.

Custom RPG take 2

Im not quite dead... but with classes finally done for the summer my time shifts back to my games.

Having had some time to ponder my previous ideas, and more input from other sources has led me to firm up some ideas.

• Statistics are generated by 3d6 dice rolls, with any two stats swapped.
• Stats in order are; Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, Charisma.
• Rather than using 1st edition or later stat modifies I am going with 3=-3, 4-5 = -2, 6-8 = -1, 9-12 = 0, 13-15 = 1, 16-17=2, 18=3
• Strength modifiers affect melee combat for damage, Intelligence gives bonus languages and resistance to arcane magic, Wisdom affects resistance to clerical magic, Dexterity affect ranged to hit rolls, Constitution affects hit points and resisting poison, and Charisma affects reactions and social status.
• Once modifiers have been established 2d6 is rolled for Social status, modified by Charisma. 2 or less = slave status, 3-5 = lower class, 6-8 = middle class, 9-11 = upper class, 12+ = nobility
• Combat will use a matrix based system like Basic and 1e as this lets me maintain repeating results to set a specific feel, rather than the extended rise of newer editions.
• Weapon damage and weapon proficiency will be opened up while simplified.

Weapons	Small	Medium	Large	Two Handed
Warrior	1d6	1d8	1d10	1d12
Rogue	1d4	1d6	1d8	1d8
Warrior	1d4	1d6	1d8	1d10
Mage	1d3	1d4	1d6	1d8

Dual wielding roll for each weapon and pick one.

Gear Packages and Bases of Operation

The single slowest part of character creation, in my experience is picking equipment. There is rarely that much difference between the gear picked, unless an experienced or crafty player is involved, and yet picking the same stuff takes forever every time. Players are trying to pick enough items to have something for everything, and they try to carry it all.

But this begs the question, why bother?

No, seriously, why bother? What is gained by doing this? -- As far as I can tell, maybe an illusion of player control, but even that's debatable.

My idea for a solution is two fold, as there is both cause and effect to be addressed.

Cause - players feel they need to be prepared for all things at all times.
I blame Tolkien for this mentality, as he wrote the grand wandering story of the One Ring. Ive played too many games were the PCs travel all over the game world, and everything has to kept handy. This isn't completely terrible as its brought things like the Portable Hole and Robe of Many Things which are fun to play with. However since players are wandering and expecting to rely on themselves, you get a laundry list of items. So rather than changing the items available or something extreme, why not just give them a base of operations? Maybe a house, or a ship or some other place where stuff can be stored. You don't need to carry all your crap when you can just pop home and grab that ten foot pole or hydrospanner you need. But that's not the real reason to provide a base of operation, you do it to tie the players into a setting, to incorporate them into a story so they actually might care about at least a few npcs.
Solution - Provide a base of operation with a safe storage facility, and an opportunity to set down roots through roleplaying.

Effect - players want to have items to handle everything
Players should want to be prepared for problems, as thats half of what being an adventurer is about, but there is a difference between prepared and carrying everything and the kitchen sink. Anything can be taken too far, and poring over equipment lists can eat time like no ones business. Most genres have specific gear that's all but mandatory (and the DM had best know their material enough to pick these out) so total them up and write them down as packages, as they should show up. This has the added advantage of reminding the DM what sort of obstacles should be in adventures. If they players only have to pick one or two items and a package instead poring over lists it should go quicker. In fact you should be able to organize packages into specialized forms, such as one for the combat wombats, sneaky types and so on with the gear they need.
Solutions - Organize commonly used items into packages to cut down on what needs to be bought.

Making playing a human appealing to play

In pre-2000 D&D and its close relatives playing a non human (demi-human or humanoid) conferred specific ability or stat bonuses that exceeded anything a human could achieve. On the other hand humans were the only race to have access to all classes and no limits on how far they can advance in those classes. So a dwarven wizard or halfling paladin is out, and a human thief will always be capable of higher levels than an elf, even with the elfs longer lifespan.

This is not a horrible solution, but it can restrict the potential roleplaying opportunities though admittedly there are almost as many or more ways to munchkin out a character. A dwarf with arcane powers is a fascinating concept for example but as they are written up in 1e/2e AD&D they have some rather brutal resistance to magic as they progress in levels.

This leads to question of direction, do you give humans a bonus or restrict demihumans? One of the key concepts of pre 2000 D&D is the fact that the world is human dominated. If demihumans can be anything what is to stop them from overshadowing the humans? An incredibly durable dwarven paladin or the unearthly dextrous elf thief will achieve things over their longer lives that a mere human could, on a purely mechanical level. A wonderful example of this and the various mechanical tweaks tried to fix it is the halfling. As written by Tolkien a halfling does not belong in an adventuring party, because they simply arent suited for it. And culturally, going out adventuring would be treated like a sign of madness. So as the editions increase, they begin to gain additional abilities like luck bonuses until we have halflings that are more like Belkar from Order of the Stick. And the Baggins were never "shoeless gods of battle".

If we give humans bonuses to offset the fact that their mechanical stats are inherently going to be lower, you either give them equal stat bonuses and thereby cheapening the stat bumps that the other races have or an alternative bonus. Perhaps the reason the humans are the most populous and powerful race (besides breeding like rabbits) is the short term view that humans have that motivate them to push themselves hard.

If instead we restrict demihumans then we are limiting roleplaying opportunities, but the ones left are simpler to handle mechanically. The different races then become focused on the racial niches they've carved out. Such as an elf being a mage rather than a barbarian or a dwarf who fights rather than slinging arcane magic.

Custom RPG notes, part 3

As I ponder my little experiment, and listen to all the Thacoshammer, Save or Die and Roll for Initiative podcasts, Ive noticed that what I want to run is almost a lite version of 2nd edition D&D with hacks to the combat system - the circle is now complete as I return to my first rpg ever.

One of the more disappointing mechanical conceits of older D&D is the overly complex weapon system, where weapon access is limited by class or proficiency. Now admittedly some of these do have something remotely approaching logic (i.e. classic wizards spending all their time learning spells rather than swordplay) but even those break down when you look at them too hard or change part of the setting, like clerics being restricted to blunt weapons when the major religion is say a Norse pantheon. Secondly having damage variation by specific weapon is a detail that I don't feel actually helps the game, even when it doesn't inspire munchkins (ahem 2e katanas..) as your just as dead if the sword blade thrust through your chest is 2.5 feet long as you are when its 3 feet long. So to simply damage and allow cooler roleplaying characters and choices Ive knocked up a little table.

Weapons	Small	Medium	Large	Two Handed
Warrior	1d6	1d8	1d10	1d12
Rogue	1d4	1d6	1d8	1d8
Warrior	1d4	1d6	1d8	1d10
Mage	1d3	1d4	1d6	1d8

Dual wielding roll for each weapon and pick one.

This hopefully will allow the sword wielding mage or the cleric with an axe, as weapons are only mechanically important for how big the they are and leave the specific weapon up to the player to roleplay.

And anyone know how to fix the big gap ahead of my table?

Custom/Experimental RPG notes, part 2

Here are some additional ideas for my custom brew of D&D.

• Rather than sticking with death at 0 hps or -10, I think a more characterful idea is death at hp = -(max on hit die). Therefore a wizard would shuffle off at -4 while a fighter would last to -10.
• Im considering digging out a master list of the kits available in 2nd edition AD&D to blend into a list of archetypes. This would allow for the changes needed in some kits *cough* Bladesinger *cough* to make them all playable, roleplaying features to add to the game. This should dovetail nicely into my revamp of nonweapon proficiencies.
• Im thinking of at least writing up a version of the minion concept from 4e, as it simplifies large scale combat alot, even if it weights things in the favor of the players more than I like.
• Quite possibly one of my favorite concepts in rpgs, I want to draw on the concept of degrees of success, like is found in Alternity. If specialties work much like 2e's proficiencies, roll under the stat+1, then using the same algorithm from Alternity for degrees of success. A straight roll under is an ordinary success, meaning you completed the action successfully. A roll thats half or less of the target number is an excellent success, granting extra damage, bonus profits or benefits or simply a heroic success. A roll thats under under the a quarter of the target number is an amazing success, one that gives significant damage increase or a success that the player can narrate (within reason).

We're all one big cult here

 I have to give full credit to Steve at Postcards from the Dungeon for the bullet points in this write up.

Cults are a wonderful possible villain for campaigns, but most are portrayed in very cartoonish, one dimensional ways (I'm looking at you Cthulhu cults). This is a complete shame as many, many more stories can be spun out of these groups. If they arent monolithic cartoonish cults, suddenly there can be interplay between factions and with the party, roleplaying of negotiations or turning a faction, and resources for fighting the cult. 

1. Three main categories of people
   1. The ignorant outsider (hasn’t been inducted into the mystery, yet)
   2. The loyal insider (is a member of the cult)
   3. The apostate outsider (is an ex-member of the cult)
2. Three subcategories within the cult
   1. The nominal member (in name more than deed, does the minimum)
   2. The active member (whole heartely believes; volunteers; above & beyond)
   3. The inner group (the leader & those immediately around them; same rules do not apply, may violate the very premises that are imposed on the other members)
3. Three rings of information
   1. Outward facing truth (intended for the ignorant outsider)
   2. Inward facing truth (intended for the loyal insider)
   3. Core (secret) truth (what’s known by the leader & inner core)
   
   Rather than use this just for cults, I think almost any group based villain could be explored this way. In fact I think blending the opponent creation section from Misspent Youth with this list to create a quick build enemy creation process.

Campaign questionnairre

While I haven't sat down to clean up, revamp and compose my A2Z blog posts into a single, coherent pdf I have still been pondering a batch of general RPG posts, as I'm getting itchy to run a new campaign. As a result, here's a rough draft of the questionnaire Id want to hand out before planning a campaign.

Campaign Questionnaire

1. What genre of game do you most want to play? What is the least appealing?
2. What sort of stories do you want to tell? What sort of motifs would you like included?
3. What motifs, stories or imagery is off limits or unacceptable?
4. Whats weird or unique about the setting?
5. What level of grit/realism do you want? Should combat be Cinematic or Realistic?
6. If magic (or superpowers or psionics, etc) is available, how rare is it? How powerful?
7. How powerful should a character be? Are they above average humans, superhero-esque, or something in the middle?
8. What level of character death is acceptable? Can a mook or minion kill a character on a lucky roll?
9. How much is the GM allowed to use emotional pushbuttons?

I think I need to reorganize this slightly, but thats why its a rough draft

Another quick ponderings post

Interesting read over at Playing DnD with Porn Stars (NSFW in general) about setting books and how little most people read them, which I totally agree with with the exception of Battletech in my case. So Im figuring that each player probably has one setting they will read any and all setting books for, while the rest just get skimmed at best. So if I want to craft my Ideas for Bridgeport (using LoFP) or Bryn Mawr (generic OSR) I need to balance my urge for detail with enough interesting material, predominately gaming material and brief vignettes, to get people to want the material I produce.

So by this logic I need to write down what is almost my GM prep style, minimal info and some game stats - just enough to get the GMs imagination going in new directions.

I think I can do that.

[SFD] Random thoughts and notes

Just a miscellaneous post with the hope to organize my thoughts some.

Overland travel in Savage Fallout: Detroit

• Walking - 4.5 mph or around 24 miles for an average days travel
• Horses - 25 miles roughly, can be pushed to around 50 miles
• Motorcycle - 40-60 miles per hour
• Cars - as fast as the engine and your nerves will handle
• Sail ships - 120 miles in a day

Scavenging permits - I think it would make sense for some of the more organized (or ruthless) power groups in the area to issue scavenging permits to various wandering scavengers. In return for a portion of all scrap or relics found the scavenger is legally allowed to hunt through ruins in the power groups area. Punishment for scavenging without a permit will be branding on first attempt and probably death on a repeat offense. Variation in the cost of the permit or what is expected to be recovered makes perfect sense, as someone digging through a pile of beams and bricks is one thing, cracking into a military storage depot is much different.

Speaking of scavenging Ive decided on a location for the Vault that starts up the campaign will be in Grosse Point and the exit to the outside world faces South.

Pirates of the Big Lakes - this idea needs expansion, wonder if there is a Gammaworld module for this...

What is the starting date of Savage Fallout: Detroit - I think I need a random day generator and work from there. 

RPGs and whining

I found a wonderful little comment on James Raggi's little rant that I need to try and focus on for gaming (it ties into Zak at Playing D&D with Porn Stars Vegan Wrap commentary).

DRANCE said...

One bad thing about the Internet is that every douche can now put forth his opinion as fact an inflict the whole world with his blather. Here is what I have to say: What makes you an ideal candidate to pass such judgement? This is your opinion. So keep it to yourself. If you have such a problem with rpgs then do something creative and bring something new to the table, instead of sitting back and passing judgement. Stop whining. Stop assuming that your opinion is fact. I’m pretty sure that there are lots of gamers having lots of fun and have no inkling of this creativity “crisis” you see in the industry. Just go game and let everyone have fun in their own way. Stop being a navel-gazer. The point is to have fun. If you are not, maybe RPGs are no longer for you.

February 5, 2011 5:50 PM 

 

I need to print this and post it next to my computer for reference every time I start to get dragged into a "discussion" of the various merits of RPGs I like

[SFD] Player goals, or "what to show up with?"

As we move into the final weekend before character generation and kicking off Savage Fallout: Detroit people have been talking more about their characters goals.

I dont need, or even want, players showing up with detailed plans for their characters. Thanks to the disaster of both my abortive D&D 4E campaign and the Changeling: the Lost misadventure have shown me that allowing character motivations to become too widely divergent is a recipe for disaster. So here's a general list to keep in mind

• Keep it simple and basic - we WILL flesh it out later
• try to keep it suiting Fallout, and if you dont know Fallout think generic or "Book of Eli" for motivation
• dont get totally attached to a motivation or goal - you might hear something that inspire you to something you never thought of
• be open to other comments or ideas, you might get a twist on your idea thats even cooler

==========
Heres some additional old advice I found on Greyhawk Grognards blog

Advice for Players from... the Players Handbook

There's a whole section in the back of the Players Handbook called "Successful Adventures." I liked to think I was being pretty slick, since I read it over and over, and none of the other people I played with at the time seemed to even realize it existed in the "flyover country" between the spell descriptions and psionics.

• set an objective
• survival at lower levels is usually dependent upon group action and team spirit
• Avoid unnecessary encounters
• Do not be sidetracked.
• If the party becomes lost, the objective must immediately be changed to discovery of a way out.
• Co-operation assumes mutual trust and confidence

Yes, it is OLD advice but still true

Social Strata in an rpg

How important should social strata really be in a game? Ive been reading an older book on medieval technology and its effects on social change, and one of the recurring themes is how there was a clear line between the peasants and just about everyone else. Which leads to the question - does that kind of line really belong in an rpg? Should it be a mechanic or is it just enough to roleplay it?

Mechanically this can get really messy really quickly. In all honesty the higher up the social ladder someone is dramatically affects vast numbers of things, from what they are allowed to own, to who they can marry and what they are allowed to do. But Im very conflicted as to how much that should be involved in a game. While Im sure there are "vegan wrap eaters" out there in the blogosphere that think playing a realistic peasant would give you a wonderful story, I for one play rpgs to have fun, and playing someone who is all but legally tied to the land, probably married before they are 18 and legally not allowed to own "real" weapons doesnt sound too terribly fun to me. You see, I want to play a character who can, or run a game where characters can, sally forth to save the day or wrest booty from the clawed hands of the enemy. While combat can be enjoyable, I use it more as an ends to a means (much like most of history has used it). Im somewhat interested in what the PCs do during a combat but Im much more fascinated with what they do after it. Prisoners, booty, wounds and the dearly departed tend to involve a much more intricate story then any sort of sword thrust or parry.

But I entered the hobby with AD&D 2e, I remember the issues some of the kits had (kits for you youngin players were a fascinating concept where picking a kit let you narrow down a class to a more specific archetype), where mechanical advantages where NOT balanced by mechanical advantages. Instead they were "balanced", by and large, with roleplaying disadvantages, and they are not the same thing.

In an ideal world every gamer would be fine being restricted by roleplaying disadvantages, chosen to fit a specific concept they created, with a wonderful and compelling backstory that explains motivations and provides story hooks to interact with the campaign world. And also in an ideal world I wouldnt have to work and could spend my time expanding and perfecting my abilities in anything I wish. Since that isnt reality I have to pare back to a more realistic view, perhaps something as simple as players willing to buy into a world I craft, willing to name their character, and try and explore a few of the plot hooks I toss out.

So what does this mean for social strata? First of all there needs to be some sort of mechanical representation of the differing statuses, and in mechanics simplicity is a virtue. Second, there needs to be some sort of advantage to pick a lower class or some sort of random mechanic, unless the game is intended to be began with the party all being roughly one status. Third there needs to be some sort of system for increasing or decreasing status. One key idea I thought of to help with this is a list or chart showing the where races and classes stand relative to each other.

==Example==
While bored at work I started plotting out some of the strata Id use in the Lamentations of the Flame Princess game I'm prepping for call "Bridgeport Blues". As the game is fairly heavily based on Lankhmar stories and Garrett P.I. stories, there are some similarities to Late Medieval and Early Renaissance social groups.

Racial Strata
1. Humans - humans are top dogs in the city. Rumors of decadent parties and orgies among the noble families are constantly circulating
2. Dwarves - dwarves are less powerful than human nobles, but the difference becomes much less the lower down the social ladder you go. Rumors have every dwarf rich by human standards but their unpleasant habit of slowly and painfully executing thieves has kept most from discovering if there is any truth to the rumors.
3. Lizardfolk are accepted but actively disliked by many humans in power, and dwarves view them with distrust due to their arcane powers. Rumors are spoken of dark rituals on moonless nights, and lizardfolk are often blamed when people go missing.
4. Golems do exist in Bridgeport, though most people never see them. Most are not mystical protectors of treasure but rather unsleeping, unceasing manual labor around and mostly under the city. The major reason more are not found is the hideously high cost and impressive skill needed to produce them.
5. Ratmen are usually treated just better than animals, trusted with dull, menial, but necessary tasks in a city of Bridgeports size, like waste management. Regardless of their actual intelligence the average Ratman is treated like a dim witted child by most, when they are noticed.

Class strata
1. Nobles
2. Rich Merchants
3. Warriors (noble scions serving as officers)
4. Working merchants and Master Craftsmen
5. Soldiers and Yeomanry
6. Craftsmen
7. Workmen
8. Peasants
9. Slaves (yes Im going to deal with them)

Sandbox games, and why I love them

Of all the campaign types Ive ever played in or run my favorite have always been Sandbox games. The concept is best known in popular conversation due to the (in)famous Grand Theft Auto games. Rather than having a chain of "must do" quests that limit or prevent you from advancing the plot like in games like Dragonlance or Okami, where the player does have a choice to make (however limited), a sandbox game doesn't have a plot line to follow. And that's because the plot is the tale of the adventurer's exploits. And there in lies the single thing I like most about this style of game - I'm not telling a story that the players dance to like well dressed monkey'. In all honesty if I wanted that why wouldn't I just write a story? Rather than trying to out guess or predict peoples actions I can focus on crafting a rich world for them to interact with. I am far more interested in who my players decide to latch onto and interact with than any amount of slaying the big baddy of the week, because if I want tactical combat I run Classic Battletech; Total Warfare most Saturdays for a few hours. And no matter how much tactical play is in an RPG, a wargame with over 25 years pedigree does that better (and with giant robots and massive explosions..)

Anyways, in my list of games to run at GASP I listed my top five ideas, so to give examples of characteristics of Sandbox games I really like, I'll flesh some out for some of the ideas. And to give credit where credits due this whole blog post was spawned by the wonderful gamemaster chapter in Stars Without Number, an OSR sci-fi rpg I picked up on RPGnow.com.

1. Lamentations of the Flame Princess "Bridgeport Blues" - The nasty seedy city of Bridgeport (named rather unimaginatively due to the massive and ancient "bridges" around and over the sheltered bay the port grew up around) is a paradise for a sandbox. I want this to be a blend of Ankh-Morpork (Terry Pratchet), TunFaire (Glen Cook), and Lankhmar (Fritz Leiber). What that means, for those who dont know these literary towns, they are a hive of scum and villainy, filled with individuals of most of the major sentient races in the game world, though many of the less powerful are shoved into ghettos, there are corrupt or ineffectual civic leadership and a thriving criminal underworld at least on part with Prohibition era major cities. What all this means to players is there are plot hooks everywhere you look, go, eat at or fall down. In a sandbox game the players are the driving force in the plot, they have to at least make some effort to head out and look for something to do, or have a goal they are working towards. And a city where everyone has an angle, a sob story or something the players can help with there should be NO reason for a lull or dead space, but that all relies on the players being active.
2. Dark Heresy "Hiveward Bound" - Dark Heresy is a wonderful example of another facet of sandboxes, you have to find out what youre up against before you charge through that door. The "disturbance" that brought your characters out might be some griping old workers trying to set up a strike or a cell of genestealer cultist who will slice an unprepared party to shreds under thier horrifically warped claws. Unlike more modern games with tight storylines, where the encounters a party finds are carefully scaled and balanced, sandbox games (especially those with any sort of OSR roots, like Dark Heresy's pedigree from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay) dont have artificial limits like that, because the encounters are usually location based. So when the commoner tells the players about the "weird beast that lives out in the ruins" it does NOT mean go fight it. It means find out more about whats there. Just like in real life, in sandbox games "there's a time to hold'em and a time to fold'em". Its completely acceptable to run AWAY from something. This places an emphasis on investigation and interaction over combat that I prefer, like I said I get all the tactical combat I want from Battletech.
3. Alternity "Changes" - The Changes campaign show cases the final major thing with sandbox games I enjoy, consequences. Unlike infamous "wagon train" stories like Star Trek: The Original Series where the characters can come down, topple a working system of government, bed the attractive whats-her-name, and then fly off, the whole living world idea means the player character actions will have results that ripple through the world and over time. No longer will the villager say nothing but "Sigh, times are tough" ,no matter anything you do in the world. This is actually the hardest to manage for me, mostly for a matter of keeping things straight as the ripples fly out.

Thats enough for now, I still have both Savage worlds games that I can touch on as things come up

GASP games day rpg ideas ver 2

With a little feedback from some of the guys of GASP Im starting to narrow down the options for the RPG I'll run at GASP.

1. Lamentations of the Flame Princess - "Bridgeport Blues" - a city centered game that will heavily draw on Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar. So forget Gandalf and think of adventures through slums and noble houses, political manipulation through force, and traditional wine and wenches. This would be the perfect game to use my thought experiment for, I already have new names for the stats written up. Thanks to the wonderful blogger at Beyond the Black Gate I have some awesome random tables to mine for ideas.
2. Dark Heresy - "Hiveward Bound" - I had success running a game of this in 2008 so maybe its time to bring the system back out. This time around I think the location will be a little more nailed down and limited so I can spend more effort detailing the setting and npcs, so think 2000 A.D. more than Star Trek, with most of the characters never having seen the real sky. The monstrous hive cities of the Imperium are literally big enough for me to run just about any remotely enclosed environment I can think of. Re-watching Metropolis, Escape from New York, The Fifth Element, and any other dystopian movies I can think of would be in order to get the right feel. Actually Metropolis would be just about perfect for a noble born hero...
3. Savage Worlds - "Fallout" - because what gamer doesnt like playing in the post-apocalyptic land that Black Isle gave us years and years ago?
4. Savage Worlds - "Ashes of London" - Victorian Sci-Fi in the vein of The Peshawar Lancers by S.M. Stirling, H.G. Wells The War of the Worlds, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Wild Wild West all mashed up against the back drop of an alien invasion. Steam power, cannons and weird science vs amazing tech as subjugated peoples use the chaos caused by the aliens to try and forge their own course in the world.
5. Alternity - "Changes" - Alternity is the poor redheaded sci-fi stepchild of TSR's products. One of the final lines to come out of TSR before the WOTC purchase, Alternity is a skill based game that as written works best for Victorian to far future settings. Using a die mechanic I think is one of the more interesting roll under mechanics Ive encountered. Changes is a game where a group of people who have all encountered something "weird" being gathered together. Everyone has either encountered something that "should not be", knows something that should not be known or can do things that shouldnt be possible. Im intentionally being vague because the characters are intended to be much like Will Smith's character at the beginning of Men in Black, he's good and skilled, but he finds himself so in over his head its kinda funny.

Still gotta narrow some stuff down and start scribbling down seeds and name lists for all the ideas, but January 11th is coming soon...

Thoughts on a thought experiment

I was catching up on Jeff Reints blog when I found this post. The difference in the character images that pop to my mind when I just change the names of stats is pretty profound, at least to a geek like me. This begs a whole other question - how much can you change a game by changing the names of things in it. Its a long time DM trick to rename or re-describe a monster to throw off a player and try to snatch back a little of that "newbie wonder" in your games. What about doing that with a mechanic or a game trope? Would players be so quick to get in a fight where they are losing "blood" instead of just HPs?

While admittedly the stats would shift a the style of play a bit, as something like having a fighter with a high "Brutishness" score conjures a different image than a fighter with a high Strength score. Ones Mr. Universe and one is a tough customer with a crooked nose and scars. Or maybe its just me...

how serious should we be?

After a recent string of posts on a forum thread I have to ask myself how serious should an rpg game world be taken?

Since the thread was about Gamma World ill use that as my first example. First of all GW can be run as a very campy humorous game, since you have monsters as whacked as the Yexil who feed on fabric and really love an all synthetic outfit like a 70s leisure suit. Keep in mind that physically the critter looks like a sphinx in a lot of ways. So we have a creature whose composed of bat wings on a lion body with a human head, who can be bribed with a leisure suit right out of Saturday Night Fever. But is that any more ridiculous than a peryton, a creature of actual mythology that has a deer's head with antlers, on a bird body, that casts the shadow of a human being and eats just hearts? With GW you can at least use the excuse of genetic engineering or nanites from before the Fall.

But it still begs the question that when you get down to it, how can you really take any non real world element in any game of any genre seriously? Isn't the Force just as ridiculous as a flumph or a screamer? What makes a +5 sword of blending any more believable than a laser rifle or a lazy hyena headed humanoid?

If we even just accept things like other sentient races and magic, how many times do real world elements like slavery and discrimination rear their head in a game? Human beings have slaughtered untold millions because of differences in belief and skin color, and somehow we are supposed to believe that they open their arms to genuinely alien looking and acting races like dwarves and elves. I find it far more believable that the mutated humanoid badger was to beat the crap out of the party, take their stuff and sell them into slavery far far more than I can believe that halflings are a peaceful, pastoral and free people that just kinda while their lives away farming. The only real record of different cultures interact that we have to work with paints a much grimmer story of war, subjugation or extinction.

But do we really want that in our games?

Wither Weirdness

While pondering things at work to keep from going nuts I realized something, I like my rpgs to have a major element of weirdness, something that twists tropes.

     Dark Heresy is a wonderful example. The setting just drips weird, with the mix of science fiction and the dark Gothic nature of Edgar Allan Poe and other authors. Gone is all the shiny joy and hope for the future that franchises like Star Trek have in spades. Instead a witchfinder or inquisitor right out of the middle ages is leading a party made up of a WW2 esque soldier, a Wild West style card shark con man, and 1980s movie or A Clockwork Orange style gangbanger. This mismatch of archetypes appeals to me more than the traditional D&D party. Since the game focuses, predominately, on investigative adventures over combat this mix gives a pool of skills to draw on. Remember, this is Dark Heresy, your character is only a step above the masses of common people, so having a variety of skills to chose from gives you that little extra chance to survive a universe that really just doesnt care about you.

On the fantasy side my current favorite James Raggi's Lamentations of the Flame Princess. This is obviously an Old School Renaissance game (it is me after all) but with a twist. More than a few changes have been made to Classic D&D to change the feel of the game. Rather than the more high fantasy, almost anime feel of modern 4th Edition D&D, LoFP has a darker, low fantasy feel of the original Stories of Conan and other Robert Howard stories. The game is not intended for happy stories of dragon riding knights saving the maiden in distress, but rather the motley gang of loons that are looking for their next big score, slinking through some tomb or ruins. So its Fritz Leiber rather than Traci Hickman or Mercedes Lackey. Another way to view it is Dungeons and Dragons written so you could play in the Cthulhu mythos. Rather than being able to wade into combat against anything you encounter, each battle is a potential total party kill, because your facing creatures rather than monsters. I call them creatures because there are not traditional monsters like you'd find in a Monster Manual, each one is intended to be tinkered with in play.

Ill be adding to this as I think of things

The Status of Bryn Mawr and sundries

     Ive done the bulk of my posts on the blog about the world containing the land of Bryn Mawr. However having finally gotten to run Lamentations of the Flame Princess I've discovered the system I want to use for my world, as it definitely lets me play up story elements that tie into the Great Cataclysm. So until James Raggi gets the non limited edition of LoFP out, or I just create a pdf so the Players Guide, Referee's Guide, and Magic book are all ready to print out and hopefully have bound, Bryn Mawr is on hold.

     Which leaves me at a quandary of what do I run at GASP? Top options are

1) Call of Cthulu - I have several time periods I can run, and I got the rule book at the prize table at the con.
2) Savage Worlds - still need to re read the damage section, but the rules are cheap and flexible and Ive got a batch of campaign ideas
3) Gamma Worlds 2e - I have it, I love it, why not run it?
4) Dark Heresy - people enjoyed it, I enjoyed it, though this time people are making thier own characters
5) Alternity - good skills game but it might have limited appeal.

Before I go and toss the list on the GASP forums I have to see about how much space we will have for rpgs next year - I may end up finishing my Ambush Alley minis and run some 15mm counter insurgency play

Ponderings on Bryn Mawr pt 3

Wow... I really need to start writing on the previous ponderings before I keep adding more to the list...

Anyways, here's some more thoughts;

• Cattleraiding in BM
• The gods as a family unit in BM
• Symbols found on coins - perhaps marking purity and weight of coins
• statuary of the past in the land
• Carved items as treasure
• what is drinking like
• what are the clothes of different groups like?
• what is the basis of the economy of the the land? Barter, coin or a mix
• tendays instead of weeks
• ceremonial weapons in the land
• roads
• offerings and sacrifices to the gods
• How does magic directly affect the economy?
• How does magic affect agriculture?
• How does magic affect food sources?

One of the reasons I keep trying to pound out these short posts is to get in the habit of posting, and consequently writing, a little bit each day during the week. Let's see how that works