Happy New Year to everyone. May your 2013 be better than your 2012, in whatever way it might.
Monday, 31 December 2012
I've got a pretty full plate when it comes to gaming stuff in 2013...
- I'll be attending the Dreamation convention (Morristown, NJ) in February
- My adventure module "The Village of Welthorp" is due out NLT March (this is the stretch goal for the Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore kickstarter that ties in with both that book and James M.'s Dwimmermount kickstarter, which should be shipping then)
- The Black Blade Publishing edition of Castle of the Mad Archmage is due out NLT May
- The Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual is due out NLT June
- I'll be attending the DexCon convention (Morristown, NJ) in July
I'll be attending GenCon (Indianapolis, IN) in August (yes, you read right!)- The Adventures Dark and Deep Game Masters Toolkit is planned for release NLT August
- The Adventures Dark and Deep Bestiary is planned for release by the end of the year
- I'm planning at least one more adventure module by the end of the year ("The Temple of the Old Ones", which I ran at DexCon last July)
All that in addition to running my weekly ADD Greyhawk campaign and occasional wargame/boardgame days, plus being the organizer of the Garden State Gaming Society meetup and the OSR Google+ group (everybody's welcome!). Still, that'll clear the decks of all my major project obligations, and allow me to move on to smaller, but hopefully more frequent, offerings. See you all in 2013!
Update: Looks like GenCon is no longer on the table. Pity-- I was really looking forward to it. Ah, well. there's always 2014.
Update: Looks like GenCon is no longer on the table. Pity-- I was really looking forward to it. Ah, well. there's always 2014.
Wednesday, 26 December 2012
We've all heard the stories about That Guy. He's the killer DM who revels in TPKs and devising entire dungeons whose sole purpose is to obliterate the player characters with no real hope of either escape or-- perish the thought-- success.
He's the player who tells the other player characters that he's an elf fighter-thief, when he's really an assassin, and will slay the other party members when they're at their weakest to take all the treasure (and, incidentally, end the campaign in the process).
He's the person who will have forgotten his wallet when the pizza arrives, but brings a 6 oz. bag of popcorn when it's his turn to pony up to bring food for the game. Oh, and can you give him a ride to the game?
He's the guy who, if a woman player shows up, immediately starts either a) being completely obsequious in a transparent attempt to win a fleeting smile from her, or b) being completely rude and obnoxious, making it very clear that he thinks that RPGs are a "man's game" and that any female who deigns to participate is fair game for being hit on in the way most certain to make everyone else at the table uncomfortable.
He's the guy who has done a statistical analysis of all the weapons in the rulebook, and has figured out that if one is using a glaive guisarme, that has the best damage-to-g.p. cost ratio of any weapon in the book, as long as the DM is using weapon vs. armor class. And if the DM isn't, he'll insist that that rule be used, because otherwise "it wouldn't be fair, because I chose this weapon specifically because the rules say it should be better against splinted mail."
He plays a female character, and acts in completely slutty ways and engages in outrageous behavior that no actual female would ever even consider, even if she was a crack whore in desperate need of her next fix.
He insists on arcane and incredibly complex treasure allocation rules, based not on the use that any individual character can put a given magic item to, but rather who has X number of items, and who is now "due" to have an item, and woe betide the person who trades an item of unequal x.p. value!
Any time the DM says "well, because you're attacking the ogre, nobody else can, because you're blocking the doorway", he argues for a full 30 minutes that what he really meant to say was that he draws the ogre into the room, so that all the other party members can also attack in the same round. Because, it wouldn't be fair if his character was the only one that could get hit.
He insists on playing a ninja, even though it's a game set in an analogue of Medieval Europe. Every time. Every... frigging... time.
He insists on playing a drow ranger wielding two weapons, even through the campaign has nothing to do with the Underdark and drow would be completely out of place in the setting. Every... frigging... time.
But you know... I never played with That Guy. Not once, in 35 years. Everybody else seemed to keep playing with That Guy, so it came to be a given that That Guy was playing everywhere, and was infecting every game, but I managed to escape unscathed.
And then people started to write games whose rules were designed to thwart That Guy. We started having formulae with "challenge levels" and so forth, so that every dungeon and every encounter therein was perfectly mathematically balanced according to the rules. We had rules that required that the exact location of each character in every encounter was tracked within five feet, lest someone think they were somewhere and the DM think they were 10' away, and "DM fiat" be required to resolve the issue.
I must be blessed. Because I never played in a game with That Guy, and I never felt the need to have rules to counteract his diabolical effects. But in all seriousness, am I really that unique? Have I just managed to wander the paths and byways of RPGs for years and years without encountering the legendary RPG Troll? I'm beginning to think That Guy is a myth.
Well, perhaps there's our third. Gerry Anderson, creator of the "Supermarionation" film-making technique using marionettes and other puppeteering skills, died today at the age of 89. Many might remember such shows as the Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Supercar, and Firebird XL5. But he was also known for his live action work with shows such as Space: 1999, UFO, and films such as Journey to the Far Side of the Sun. While I wouldn't go so far as to say he revolutionized science fiction, but his shows were a staple of my television watching while I was growing up. He certainly left his mark with memorable contributions, and one could always tell a Gerry Anderson production by the style and look that marked his work. He will definitely be missed.
Monday, 24 December 2012
I knew him best growing up from The Odd Couple, but I personally think his greatest performance wasn't a comedy, but in The Twilight Zone episode, "A Game of Pool." Also, IMHO, the best performance by the legendary Jonathan Winters. Deadpan drama.
Here is the entire episode, in three parts. RIP, Mr. Klugman.
Here is the entire episode, in three parts. RIP, Mr. Klugman.
Friday, 21 December 2012
Step 2: ???
Step 3: PROFIT!!!
Now that the Adventures Dark and Deep™ Players Manual has been successfully funded (thanks again to all who backed it!), I thought it would be a good idea to give a little insight into where I think things are going, business-wise, and what I'm looking at for a business model and so forth.
It should come as no surprise that BRW Games, LLC, the company I started to publish my gaming stuff, is not my primary source of income, nor do I expect it to be in the near future. It's a hobby, something that I do in my spare time (in and around my everyday job, my family, my religion, and other things). I confess I like the creative aspects like planning and writing considerably more than I do the tedious business aspects like promotion, accounting, etc., but that doesn't mean it can't be approached in a somewhat organized manner.
The "big picture" is that I want to get the ADD rules published and out of the way so I can get to work on new and more creative stuff. I've got a mess of adventure modules I'd like to publish, and a setting (Erseta) that I think has a lot of potential.
First, I want to finish up ADD. If I know the Players Manual is on schedule to go out the door by March of 2013, that lets me have the Kickstarter for the Game Masters Toolkit in March. Assuming that is also on the same schedule, I can have it out the door by June and do the Bestiary Kickstarter in June. And that means that I can have the Bestiary out in Q3 of 2013, which is something I'd very much like to do.
I've been working on these rules for more than two years now. I'm ready for the project to be complete, because I can't do the adventures and other fun stuff until the rules are done. And that will also mean the Kickstartering will be done for a good long while. (Yay!) Frankly, I only want to do Kickstarters for big huge things that I can't fund myself, and the Bestiary will be the last one of those for quite some time.
Once the rules are done and out, I can focus on writing adventures and setting type material. Some of it will be free stuff that I put out here (like the Gazetteers for the Lands Beyond the Flanaess that I still want to get to, plus one or two Greyhawk-specific projects that I've been wanting to do for years), and others will be sold on RPGNow.com and its sister sites.
That brings up a point about the business model. Everything is done on a shoestring, and everything is as self-sustaining as possible. By using print on demand, I'm able to significantly lower my up-front costs, which in turn makes everything possible. It is true that RPGNow takes a cut of my sales, but for my situation the cost is worth not having to deal with the hassles and costs of shipping, warehousing, and up-front printing. I figure my time not spent going to the post office (figuring my hourly rate from my day job), plus the money not spent on storage space for stock, is worth the minor chunk that RPGNow takes from each sale. Plus it's pretty much profit from day one; I don't need to worry about selling X books to recoup the cost of a print run.
What sort of other stuff do I have in mind? Well, there are a lot of little adventure ideas that I'd like to commit to paper. Some of the stuff will be spinoffs from Castle of the Mad Archmage (publishing in the first half of 2013 by Black Blade Publishing), some will be completely stand-alone adventures that can be plugged in just about any campaign, some might be specific to Erseta. They'll need a few pieces of art, but nothing near like the art the rulebooks need, and I can fund that with the profits from the books and such. The whole thing then becomes self-perpetuating, and all is right with the world. No more Kickstarters unless something huge rears its head.
I do have at least two other games on the drawing board, in various states of completion; Adventures Great and Glorious (a combination of "domain management", mass combat, and political intrigue that can be played separately or in connection with ADD) has not been forgotten, and Sail the Solar Winds (a space opera RPG) is still knocking at the back of my mind. But new games are way down on the list. Like 2015 or later. I just want to relax and write some fun stuff that shows off the rules I've already got.
As promised, I thought I'd go through some of the details of how the Kickstater campaign for the Adventures Dark and Deep™ Players Manual went. This can be compared to the campaign for the first book, A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore, for which I did a similar analysis after it's Kickstarter campaign concluded.
I decided to do some things very deliberately differently for the Players Manual. First and foremost, I decided that I'd let the project stand or fall on its own. There were not going to be any stretch goals, no synergies with other projects, etc. I wanted this to be about the book itself, because this was going to be my first real opportunity to gauge interest in the game system from a commercial standpoint.
Too, there were differences in the way the funding was handled. For Forgotten Lore, the reward levels for the books were higher ($30 for the softcover and $60 for the hardcover) and the overall goal was lower ($2,500). The goal could be lower because there was to be less art in that book. So, in essence, I needed a relatively few hard-core supporters to meet the goal. And, sure enough, the goal was met and surpassed, coming in at $7,459 with a total of 244 backers.
For the Players Manual, the situation was different. Because there was going to be a lot more art in this book (mainly because it's much longer, page-wise), the goal had to be that much higher; in this case $6,500. However, because I now had a much better idea of the process and the costs involved (thanks to the experience from the first book), I knew I could offer the books themselves for less; still $30 for the softcover, but the hardcover could be had for only $40. That's much more in line with the cost of other, similar game books, and I think it showed. Almost five times as many people selected the hardcover option over the softcover, whereas for Forgotten Lore, twice as many people chose the softcover.
And that showed, too. Despite the fact that there were fewer overall backers, since so many more people opted for the hardcover over the softcover, the second Kickstarter actually made more money (236 backers, $8,601 raised).
Also, because there were no gimmicks involved, the fundraising showed a much more steady rate of increase:
As expected, there's a big jump at the beginning, a relatively long period of minimum growth, and then another boost at the end as the campaign comes to a finish. This is helped by the fact that Kickstarter itself sends out reminders to people, plus I had a number of wonderful folks pumping the book on their blogs and elsewhere.
I should also point out that as of this writing, only $180 in pledges remain to be collected (because the credit card that was used when the pledge was made was refused at the end of the Kickstarter). From what I understand, that's a pretty good number; there are tales of other campaigns that suffer enormous shrinkage when it comes time to collect. Kickstarter keeps sending out reminders for two weeks, so hopefully that number will get even better.
All in all, this Kickstarter didn't have nearly the frantic feel that the first one did. I had much longer to go before it made goal, but it did so without my having to resort to loads of stretch goals. I feel good about the fact that the book was able to stand up on its own, and look forward to the next campaign for the Game Masters Toolkit.
Now, the Bestiary, I probably will feel frantic about, because it's so huge, but I'll worry about that bridge when I come to it.
I decided to do some things very deliberately differently for the Players Manual. First and foremost, I decided that I'd let the project stand or fall on its own. There were not going to be any stretch goals, no synergies with other projects, etc. I wanted this to be about the book itself, because this was going to be my first real opportunity to gauge interest in the game system from a commercial standpoint.
Too, there were differences in the way the funding was handled. For Forgotten Lore, the reward levels for the books were higher ($30 for the softcover and $60 for the hardcover) and the overall goal was lower ($2,500). The goal could be lower because there was to be less art in that book. So, in essence, I needed a relatively few hard-core supporters to meet the goal. And, sure enough, the goal was met and surpassed, coming in at $7,459 with a total of 244 backers.
For the Players Manual, the situation was different. Because there was going to be a lot more art in this book (mainly because it's much longer, page-wise), the goal had to be that much higher; in this case $6,500. However, because I now had a much better idea of the process and the costs involved (thanks to the experience from the first book), I knew I could offer the books themselves for less; still $30 for the softcover, but the hardcover could be had for only $40. That's much more in line with the cost of other, similar game books, and I think it showed. Almost five times as many people selected the hardcover option over the softcover, whereas for Forgotten Lore, twice as many people chose the softcover.
And that showed, too. Despite the fact that there were fewer overall backers, since so many more people opted for the hardcover over the softcover, the second Kickstarter actually made more money (236 backers, $8,601 raised).
Also, because there were no gimmicks involved, the fundraising showed a much more steady rate of increase:
As expected, there's a big jump at the beginning, a relatively long period of minimum growth, and then another boost at the end as the campaign comes to a finish. This is helped by the fact that Kickstarter itself sends out reminders to people, plus I had a number of wonderful folks pumping the book on their blogs and elsewhere.
I should also point out that as of this writing, only $180 in pledges remain to be collected (because the credit card that was used when the pledge was made was refused at the end of the Kickstarter). From what I understand, that's a pretty good number; there are tales of other campaigns that suffer enormous shrinkage when it comes time to collect. Kickstarter keeps sending out reminders for two weeks, so hopefully that number will get even better.
All in all, this Kickstarter didn't have nearly the frantic feel that the first one did. I had much longer to go before it made goal, but it did so without my having to resort to loads of stretch goals. I feel good about the fact that the book was able to stand up on its own, and look forward to the next campaign for the Game Masters Toolkit.
Now, the Bestiary, I probably will feel frantic about, because it's so huge, but I'll worry about that bridge when I come to it.
Thursday, 20 December 2012
Hey, I guess that it's pretty much obligatory to do a Mayan Apocalypse post, right?
For me, growing up as a child of the 70's, the end of the world was ubiquitous. Especially as a gamer and a sci-fi fan.
First, there were the games. As I've spoken of before, SPI had a whole line of "future history games" that essentially played out aspects of World War III, mostly featuring a Warsaw Pact invasion of Europe. I had World War III, Invasion: America, NATO, The Next War, Revolt in the East, China War, Fifth Corps, Fulda Gap, Hof Gap, Red Star/White Star, and many more besides. We played through the Soviet invasion of western Europe countless times, from when I was 10 or so onwards. It certainly made an impression.
My favorite rule came in the Designer's Notes for one game, on the subject of strategic nuclear weapons. I'm paraphrasing, but the upshot of it was, "If you wish to include the effects of strategic nuclear weapons in your game, just soak the map in lighter fluid and apply a match."
Remember, this was the 1970's. Before Reagan and Gorbachev, right in the midst of the ignominious defeat in Viet Nam and the Iran Hostage Crisis. The Cold War wasn't so cold, and a Soviet Invasion seemed like a real possibility, despite détente. America was weak and overt Communist aggression seemed a very real possibility, and we didn't need The Day After or Red Dawn to tell us that would be The End of the World as We Know It.
Then there were the movies. Nuclear war wasn't the only subject, but to see it portrayed by Hollywood, the World as We Know It didn't have much longer. There was biological warfare in The Omega Man and The Andromeda Strain; ecological collapse, famine and corporate corruption in Soylent Green; ecological collapse in Silent Running; out-of-control corporations ruling the world in Rollerball; nuclear war in Damnation Alley; economic collapse and nuclear war in Mad Max; economic collapse and biological warfare in The Ultimate Warrior; authoritarianism, slavery, nuclear war and retro-evolution in the Planet of the Apes movies (all but the first came out in the 70's, so I'm counting 'em as valid for this post); societal collapse and descent into savagery in Zardoz; the threat of nuclear annihilation at the hands of a superintelligent computer in Colossus: The Forbin Project; a generally dystopian authoritarian world in TXH-1138; societal collapse, authoritarian governments with mind-control therapies, and widespread ultraviolence in A Clockwork Orange; and ecological collapse, nuclear war, and age discrimination (although that wasn't a term back then) gone wild in Logan's Run. And of course authoritarian governments promoting blood sports in both Rollerball and Death Race 2000.
Thank goodness Star Wars came along with it story about a genocidal tyrannical government that rules the galaxy, run by a sociopathic cyborg who crushes people's throats with his bare hands, just to lighten the mood. It almost makes one wistful for the gun-totin', human-killin' robots of Westworld.
Still, we made it out of the 70's, and though the specifics of the doom and gloom differ, it's still with us, and probably will be forever. It's the End of the World as We Know it, and I feel fine.
The next step is to get the artists set to working. The emails to them will go out today or tomorrow, giving them their individual assignments. Their work should be back to me by February, or possibly sooner.
And one piece of even better news; the editor has already gotten back to me with her notes and revisions for the manuscript! Seems that some people had a lot of faith that the Kickstarter campaign would meet its goal. So that potentially lengthy phase of the project is already done. I just need to incorporate her notes into the "live" version of the document.
So we're in an even better place than I expected to be today. Artists will get their marching orders by the weekend, and the markup is done and just needs to be incorporated into the manuscript. Once the art comes back, final layout and production can commence. I'll keep you all posted as there's news to report.
Either today or in a day or three, I'll be posting a more comprehensive self-analysis of this Kickstarter campaign, similar to the one I did for A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore. There were some interesting differences based on deliberate decisions, and I think it's worth going into in more detail.
Wednesday, 19 December 2012
Looking ahead to my 2013 convention schedule, it looks like I might-- just might-- be able to hit a non-local convention this year, in addition to Dreamation, NJcon, Dexcon, and Metatopia (and possibly NEPACon, too). The question is, which one?
GenCon: The big, obvious choice. But I'm not sure how much there would be for someone like me who doesn't play 4E or Pathfinder. I know there's the OSR Booth in the dealers' room (anyone know how to get hold of those guys), but is there anything else for me?
North Texas RPG Con: Lots of OSR goodness to be found here, but I wonder if it's a little too small to warrant schlepping halfway across the country for?
GaryCon: Another obvious choice, but also another small one. It's also coming up quickly, so I'd need to commit soon.
Any advice on choosing from folks who've been at one or more of these cons recently, or other conventions I've missed? I didn't include Origins purposefully; I'm a little more focused on RPGs at the moment than wargames (for obvious reasons). Thanks in advance!
Of course, I could just go to Shore Leave this year. Haven't been there in years, and it would do my old Trekker's heart good to see it again, and that's something the family would want to come for, too.
GenCon: The big, obvious choice. But I'm not sure how much there would be for someone like me who doesn't play 4E or Pathfinder. I know there's the OSR Booth in the dealers' room (anyone know how to get hold of those guys), but is there anything else for me?
North Texas RPG Con: Lots of OSR goodness to be found here, but I wonder if it's a little too small to warrant schlepping halfway across the country for?
GaryCon: Another obvious choice, but also another small one. It's also coming up quickly, so I'd need to commit soon.
Any advice on choosing from folks who've been at one or more of these cons recently, or other conventions I've missed? I didn't include Origins purposefully; I'm a little more focused on RPGs at the moment than wargames (for obvious reasons). Thanks in advance!
Of course, I could just go to Shore Leave this year. Haven't been there in years, and it would do my old Trekker's heart good to see it again, and that's something the family would want to come for, too.
Over at ICV2 there's a nice little article about old-time game company Flying Buffalo, along with a brief interview with founder/owner Rick Loomis, wherein the mystery of where the name of the company came from. Fascinating trip down memory lane; I was deeply into play-by-mail games in the 1980's, and naturally played a lot of FB games. Nuclear War/Nuclear Escallation remains a favorite of mine as well, and Tunnels & Trolls is, of course, one of the longest-lived games around. Enjoy!
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What would Dungeons & Dragons have looked like if Gary Gygax had been allowed to keep developing it? Please, if you haven't done so already, consider supporting my Kickstarter for the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual, going on now through December 19th. I need your help to make it a reality!
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What would Dungeons & Dragons have looked like if Gary Gygax had been allowed to keep developing it? Please, if you haven't done so already, consider supporting my Kickstarter for the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual, going on now through December 19th. I need your help to make it a reality!
Tuesday, 18 December 2012
Thanks to everyone who has already pledged to the project, and to everyone else, remember this is your last chance to get your name immortalized in the book as one of the two-hundred-plus people who made the project possible!
If you'd like to see what AD&D might have looked like if Gary Gygax had been allowed to continue developing it, rather than leaving TSR in 1985, be sure to check out Adventures Dark and Deep. It's the result of years of research, an 18 month open playtest, and soon to be an attractive illustrated book for your gaming table!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/623939691/adventures-dark-and-deep-players-manual/
Monday, 17 December 2012
This one takes us through level 20, and includes a new adventure and monsters to support higher level play.
Download --> HERE <--
Enjoy!
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What would Dungeons & Dragons have looked like if Gary Gygax had been allowed to keep developing it? Please, if you haven't done so already, consider supporting my Kickstarter for the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual, going on now through December 19th. I need your help to make it a reality!
Download --> HERE <--
Enjoy!
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What would Dungeons & Dragons have looked like if Gary Gygax had been allowed to keep developing it? Please, if you haven't done so already, consider supporting my Kickstarter for the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual, going on now through December 19th. I need your help to make it a reality!
Posted with permission:
Thank you for signing up for updates about Gygax Magazine. It's just a few weeks before our first issue is out, and we wanted to give you a sneak peek of what's in store. Here's the contents of issue number one — we hope you're looking forward to reading it as much as we're looking forward to getting it out!
The Cosmology of Role Playing Games by James Carpio
Still Playing After All These Years by Tim Kask
Leomund's Secure Shelter by Len Lakofka
The Ecology of the Banshee by Ronald Corn
Bridging Generations by Luke Gygax
The Gygax Family Storyteller by Ernie Gygax
Keeping Magic Magical by Dennis Sustare
Gaming With a Virtual Tabletop by Nevin P. Jones
DMing for Your Toddler by Cory Doctorow
Great Power for ICONS by Steve Kenson
Gaming Through the Generations by Ethan Gilsdorf
Between the Dungeons by Ernie Gygax
Talents Off the Front Line by Dennis Detwiller
Adaption Decay by Michael Tresca
Gnatdamp: A Sanctuary in the Swamp adventure by Michael Curtis
The Kobold's Cavern - a special section edited by Wofgang Baur of Kobold Press:
---A Magical Miscellany for AGE by Randall Hurlburt
---Scaling Pathfinder Combat Feats by Marc Radle
---An AGE of Great Inventions by Rodrigo GarcÃa Carmona
Comic - Marvin the Mage by Jim Wampler
Comic - What's New with Phil & Dixie by Phil Foglio
Comic - The Order of the Stick by Rich Burlew
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What would Dungeons & Dragons have looked like if Gary Gygax had been allowed to keep developing it? Please, if you haven't done so already, consider supporting my Kickstarter for the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual, going on now through December 19th. I need your help to make it a reality!
Saturday, 15 December 2012
I have to say I went into this having read a number of bad reviews and was expecting to be disappointed. I came out having really enjoyed it. It's not a perfect movie, but few are, and I thought it compared very favorably with the Lord of the Rings films, all of which I love. I'm also a fan of Tolkien's written works, and have read both The Hobbit and LotR many, many times, so I'm aware of the variances between the books and the films. (For what it's worth, I'm a fan of the Rankin-Bass animated films, but not the Ralph Bakshi film; I'm not a fan of rotoscope.)
I didn't see the pacing problems that many reviewers complained of, especially in the first half to two-thirds of the movie. I thought it moved along well, didn't find the dwarves' feast at Bag End to be overly long, and it didn't feel at all bloated to me. The music was good, recalling many of the themes from LotR as appropriate, but it never seemed to get in the way. And there were several songs sung in-character which really helped establish a more "fun" tone. I did not find the addition of the Necromancer of Dol Guldur to be overly intrusive (but see below) and actually fits in well with the rest of the film, especially if it's seen in the context of setting up the LotR films.
The trolls were great (nice to see them finally not portrayed as utterly mindless), and I thoroughly enjoyed Goblintown, and thought the visual juxtaposition between it and both Moria and Eriador (the lost kingdom of the dwarves which Thorin and company are attempting to reclaim from the dragon Smaug) was excellent. Where the dwarvish cities feature stone arches, staircases, and flying buttresses that seem that they have and will last for ages, Goblintown has rickety wooden scaffolding.
The scenes with the Great Goblin were very good, too, I thought. Humorous, but not overly so. The Gollum scenes were a highlight; if anything Peter Jackson's team has gotten better at their motion-capture CGI technology, and the scene was written perfectly and quite suspensefully. I noted that Gollum's eyes in certain light reflected as large pale orbs without any pupils, and that was both really creepy and effective. I half expected to hear Brother Theodore's voice when he first spoke.As I say, it's not a perfect movie, and purists are sure to howl at some of the changes. There's a new sub-plot where an orc chieftain, Azog the Defiler, has a grudge against Thorin and his family (Azog was a very minor character in the larger Tolkien corpus, but never appears in the book version of The Hobbit), and we see a string of fight scenes between Azog's forces and the dwarves. After a while, they became somewhat predictable. And maybe I'm just not getting the chronology, but looping in the attempt to reconquer Moria just didn't make sense to me. Plus it doesn't seem to have any real purpose other than to give an excuse to include a couple more fight scenes. The sweepy-flying camera angles were a bit distracting and annoying, as were the very-fast-choppy cuts in the fight scenes.
And Radigast the Brown, with bird crap trailing in his hair and down his face, I could have done without completely. I am naturally predisposed towards Sylvester McCoy as a Dr. Who fan, but honestly he was goofy for the sake of being goofy and the character didn't really add anything to the story. Any stray woodsman could have conveyed the story of the Necromancer (or, hell, for that matter Bjorn, whom we will presumably see in the next film).
On the whole, I thoroughly enjoyed this film and don't think it dragged at all. I didn't find most of the additions annoying (with the exception of Radigast), but some were obviously for the sake of adding more action (Azog). I would definitely see it again, and am looking forward to taking my daughter (age 11). I reserve judgement as to how it ranks compared to the LotR films until I see the other two in the series, as context is vital. But this is a great fun film. See it and judge it on its own merits, and you'll probably be pleased.
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What would Dungeons & Dragons have looked like if Gary Gygax had been allowed to keep developing it? Please, if you haven't done so already, consider supporting my Kickstarter for the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual, going on now through December 19th. I need your help to make it a reality!
One of the players in my home campaign, who is also doing some editing/proofreading work on the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual, came up with a conceptual question regarding alignment which I thought might be of interest.
Given a system where evil is defined as the belief that the powerful should be in charge, and good is defined as the belief that the strong and wealthy should help the weak and the poor, what happens in a situation where a powerful person is in charge, and wants to help the weak and the poor? Isn't that a contradiction?
It's certainly a fair question, and a distinction that many people have trouble with. In the example given, the question is not whether or not the considerate man is strong. It is whether he is put in charge because he is powerful.
In an evil society, the powerful are in charge because they are powerful, and for no other reason. They achieve their position of authority on the basis of their power. In a lawful evil society, that power is defined and mechanisms are in place so that everyone knows his place in the hierarchy. In that sense "power" can also encompass the power to "game the system" (Hell is full of lawyers after all...). In a chaotic evil society, the power of any given individual is more directly expressed and measured, so that one is dominated by another on the sheer basis of brute force (and this can apply to groups as well as individuals).
In the good society, on the other hand, power is not necessarily eschewed, but can still be pursued. The object of that power, however, is quite different. In a good society, power is the means to the end of helping the weak; the more powerful one is, the better one is able to protect those who need protecting. The richer one is, the more one is able to aid the poor. And so forth. The lawful good society will do so collectively, and have institutions dedicated to the defense of the weak and the aid of the poor. A chaotic good society will no less value the welfare of the weaker and poorer, but will leave it to the conscious and means of the individual to decide how best to express those desires.
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Given a system where evil is defined as the belief that the powerful should be in charge, and good is defined as the belief that the strong and wealthy should help the weak and the poor, what happens in a situation where a powerful person is in charge, and wants to help the weak and the poor? Isn't that a contradiction?
It's certainly a fair question, and a distinction that many people have trouble with. In the example given, the question is not whether or not the considerate man is strong. It is whether he is put in charge because he is powerful.
In an evil society, the powerful are in charge because they are powerful, and for no other reason. They achieve their position of authority on the basis of their power. In a lawful evil society, that power is defined and mechanisms are in place so that everyone knows his place in the hierarchy. In that sense "power" can also encompass the power to "game the system" (Hell is full of lawyers after all...). In a chaotic evil society, the power of any given individual is more directly expressed and measured, so that one is dominated by another on the sheer basis of brute force (and this can apply to groups as well as individuals).
In the good society, on the other hand, power is not necessarily eschewed, but can still be pursued. The object of that power, however, is quite different. In a good society, power is the means to the end of helping the weak; the more powerful one is, the better one is able to protect those who need protecting. The richer one is, the more one is able to aid the poor. And so forth. The lawful good society will do so collectively, and have institutions dedicated to the defense of the weak and the aid of the poor. A chaotic good society will no less value the welfare of the weaker and poorer, but will leave it to the conscious and means of the individual to decide how best to express those desires.
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Wednesday, 12 December 2012
That said, when I do play, my favorite class is the mountebank. Even going back to Gary Gygax's original article in Dragon #65, this immediately stood out to me as sounding like something I wanted to play:
This sub-class of thief specializes in deception, sleight of hand, persuasion, and a bit of illusion. These factors, together with speed, are what the mountebank relies upon. However, disguise and theatrics also provide valuable tools of the trade to this class, so that one might never know one has been had by this class.In Adventures Dark and Deep, the mountebank is the quintessential con-man. He can use disguises (like the assassin), but many of his powers take the form of "performance and prestidigitation" and "verbal patter". The former gives him sleight-of-hand abilities, juggling, and so forth. The latter lets him attempt to distract intelligent creatures, confuse them, get them to trust him, etc. At higher levels, mountebanks also get some spell-casting ability as well.
I also included the ability to attempt to create potions. This came from Gygax's short story "The House in the Tree", where Hop, owner of the Inn of the Brothers One and Score and a mountebank by inference (although he calls himself "Hop the Savant" as something of an honorific to attest to his honest wares), takes Gord into the forest in search of mushrooms to use in the brewing of potions and patent medicines, some of which actually work! Of course, nothing is certain, and in the game such attempts could end up producing snake oil, poison, or even a potion of delusion (which may explain where they come from...).
The advantages of such a character in an urban environment are obvious. In a dungeon-type game, the mountebank can be no less effective, but in a way that is different from a fighter or a mage. The mountebank would be the one to parley with the orc guards, to attempt to persuade them that the PCs are invited guests of the chieftain. He would attempt to distract the troll with a tall tale about having met its cousin under a bridge several years ago, or try to undermine the pit fiend's trust in his malebranche minions. If weapons are being thrown at the party, the mountebank can try to use his ability as a juggler to try to intercept the missiles, and can himself hurl more weapons at an enemy faster than most other classes are allowed.
All in all, this is a great class, and in my experience a well balanced one. It's not a combat powerhouse by any stretch, but it's a class that rewards sharp, on-the-spot improvisational thinking, and that's exactly the sort of game I love to play, and GM.
The mountebank is just one of the new character classes in my Adventures Dark and Deep game, currently with one week to go for the Players Manual Kickstarter. We're almost at the funding goal, and need just a little bit of a boost to make it over the goal. If this sounds like something that you'd like to play, consider becoming a backer while there's still time!
Monday, 10 December 2012
Bear in mind that the identity of the villain was slipped inadvertently some months ago; Gary Mitchell. Karl Urban (who plays McCoy in the new films) stated (speaking of Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays the villain) “he’s a great addition, and I think his Gary Mitchell is going to be exemplary.” The Internet then exploded with speculation that Urban's remark was a deliberate misdirection, planted by the ever-secretive J.J. Abrams to throw fans off the trail.
For those who aren't familiar with classic Trek canon, Gary Mitchell was the navigator of the Enterprise in the episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before". An old friend of Kirk's from their Starfleet Academy days, he gains psionic powers of telekinesis and telepathy that appear to grow in strength at a geometric rate. Eventually Kirk is forced to kill his old friend to save himself and the ship.
Now, compare that with the official synopsis of Star Trek Into Darkness:
After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.That certainly sounds like a good description of a Gary Mitchell with godlike psionic powers to me.
My thought is thus; Gary Mitchell, rather than having gotten his powers accidentally by contact with some deep-space phenomenon, is the result of some sort of experiment conducted by Starfleet (perhaps even Section 31). As his powers grow, they lose control over him, to the point where he destroys most of the fleet, ravages cities, and Kirk et al must deal with him once and for all.
All just speculation, of course, but it does fit, I think. We'll know in May!
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Please, if you haven't done so already, consider supporting my Kickstarter for the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual, going on now through December 19th. I need your help to make it a reality!
Back on May 15, 2008, I launched this blog with no real plan or aspirations. Now, four and a half years and exactly one thousand posts later, it's really grown beyond anything I had a right to expect.
Over the years, and over the course of a thousand posts, this blog has not only birthed an entire megadungeon (the Castle of the Mad Archmage) but an offhand post about a couple of old Dragon Magazine articles spawned an entire game system as well (Adventures Dark and Deep). It's presented insights into adventures that only came about as a result of dissecting them here; insights that would probably never have occurred to me otherwise. It's given me the opportunity to map the entirety of the western Flanaess. It's seen the end of 3rd Edition and now the coming of 5th Edition. And, of course, it's allowed me to make many, many friends, both online and face-to-face.
So thanks to everyone for your help and support these past four and a half years!
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Please, if you haven't done so already, consider supporting my Kickstarter for the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual, going on now through December 19th. I need your help to make it a reality!
Over the years, and over the course of a thousand posts, this blog has not only birthed an entire megadungeon (the Castle of the Mad Archmage) but an offhand post about a couple of old Dragon Magazine articles spawned an entire game system as well (Adventures Dark and Deep). It's presented insights into adventures that only came about as a result of dissecting them here; insights that would probably never have occurred to me otherwise. It's given me the opportunity to map the entirety of the western Flanaess. It's seen the end of 3rd Edition and now the coming of 5th Edition. And, of course, it's allowed me to make many, many friends, both online and face-to-face.
So thanks to everyone for your help and support these past four and a half years!
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Please, if you haven't done so already, consider supporting my Kickstarter for the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual, going on now through December 19th. I need your help to make it a reality!
Sunday, 9 December 2012
It's something that every DM has dreamed of at one point or another; getting paid to run role-playing games. There were even a few schemes back in the 80's and 90's to set up such things; "Professional Game Master Guilds" and so forth, where one would presumably have a level of assurance that the game master would be well enough above average to justify the expense. Needless to say, such things never got off the ground.
So imagine my surprise when I was contacted by a game store, which was looking to pay someone to run an old-school game for a client of theirs. It turns out that a local businessman wanted to play in an old-school game similar to the ones he played growing up, but had no idea where to find someone to run it. So he contacted the store, which in turn contacted me. Last Friday, I ran the game for the gentleman and some of the people who work in his office, which ended up being about an hour and a half away.
The game itself was pretty standard fare for me; I brought along Castle of the Mad Archmage and a bunch of pre-gen characters, and set to. The organizer and one other person had played before (in the distant past), but the other four people had never played a game in their lives; apparently the office regularly has extra-curricular activities like this (they even play paintball at a field about 10 minutes from my house!). One person from the store came along to make sure everything went okay, and he ended up rounding out the party, as one of the attendees ended up calling out sick.
One thing I found was that this was one of the most focused games I had played in a long while. There was very little cross-table chit-chat, and they got a remarkable amount of exploring and fighting done in that time. It only took a short while for everyone to really get in the swing of things; even the people who had never played before were as engaged as anyone I've seen, offering good and practical suggestions to get through puzzles and traps, and holding their own in combat. It was really neat to see how people react to the game from completely fresh perspectives.
On the whole, it was a great time. The players seemed to really enjoy themselves, and it was an extraordinary honor to be called to do something like this as a paying gig. I don't expect it to happen too often (or perhaps even ever again), but it was especially neat to have as an experience. Oh, and apparently I have "issues". Something to do with certain particularly twisted parts of the Castle... I took it as a compliment. ;-)
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Please, if you haven't done so already, consider supporting my Kickstarter for the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual, going on now through December 19th. I need your help to make it a reality!
So imagine my surprise when I was contacted by a game store, which was looking to pay someone to run an old-school game for a client of theirs. It turns out that a local businessman wanted to play in an old-school game similar to the ones he played growing up, but had no idea where to find someone to run it. So he contacted the store, which in turn contacted me. Last Friday, I ran the game for the gentleman and some of the people who work in his office, which ended up being about an hour and a half away.
The game itself was pretty standard fare for me; I brought along Castle of the Mad Archmage and a bunch of pre-gen characters, and set to. The organizer and one other person had played before (in the distant past), but the other four people had never played a game in their lives; apparently the office regularly has extra-curricular activities like this (they even play paintball at a field about 10 minutes from my house!). One person from the store came along to make sure everything went okay, and he ended up rounding out the party, as one of the attendees ended up calling out sick.
One thing I found was that this was one of the most focused games I had played in a long while. There was very little cross-table chit-chat, and they got a remarkable amount of exploring and fighting done in that time. It only took a short while for everyone to really get in the swing of things; even the people who had never played before were as engaged as anyone I've seen, offering good and practical suggestions to get through puzzles and traps, and holding their own in combat. It was really neat to see how people react to the game from completely fresh perspectives.
On the whole, it was a great time. The players seemed to really enjoy themselves, and it was an extraordinary honor to be called to do something like this as a paying gig. I don't expect it to happen too often (or perhaps even ever again), but it was especially neat to have as an experience. Oh, and apparently I have "issues". Something to do with certain particularly twisted parts of the Castle... I took it as a compliment. ;-)
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Please, if you haven't done so already, consider supporting my Kickstarter for the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual, going on now through December 19th. I need your help to make it a reality!
Saturday, 8 December 2012
It is rare that I have a topic that is completely appropriate to post not only to my gaming blog, Greyhawk Grognard, but also to my blog that deals with issues relating to my Heathen faith, GOPagan. However, my attention has been drawn to just such a thing by an article in the Boston Globe (h/t to The Wild Hunt blog).Let me preface this by saying I abhor Political Correctness. It's nothing but an excuse for professional offense-junkies to try to silence the free speech rights of those with whom they disagree by invoking a non-existent "right not to be offended". This is not that. This jackass has a right to make this game. Just as I have a right to weigh in on that question of whether or not, when one has a right, one necessarily should exercise that right, and whether there exists a line on such things that should or should not be crossed.
The game in question is Salem. It was successfully Kickstarted on November 1, with 553 insensitive assholes pledging $33,812 towards it. The premise?
See who can kill the most witches in Salem.
Modern-day witches and Pagans don't think it's at all funny that people were killed in all sorts of horrible ways just for being accused of being what they are today. It's not cute, it's not an historical footnote, and it's not something that begs to be made into a fucking game."You're insulting my faith by mocking it" is one thing, and utter nonsense. All beliefs should be open to critique, questioning, and even ridicule. "You're making a game out of slaughtering people who are like me" is quite another thing entirely.
Or another. This one's a resource allocation game. You have a limited number of negro slaves on your antebellum plantation. You need to allocate them between the cotton fields, the house, and in the slave huts making babies to increase your "labor supply". The player who earns the most money, either by selling cotton, selling slaves to others, or (in an exciting side-game) having your slaves run cockfights, wins. "Uppity nigger" cards can be negated by "If it's a whippin' you're a-wantin'..." cards. Hilarity ensues.
One more. A racing game. You're in Texas, and each player has a gay man chained to the back of your pickup truck. The one who can make it around the track first, without his faggot falling off the end of the chain, wins. Careful-- take a curve too fast and you'll lose 'em before they die. Game over.
Am I overstating the case? I don't think I am. It's a concept that's offensive on its face, the same way that nobody would think to make a game about the Holocaust, black slavery, or the murder of James Byrd, Jr.
For centuries, Christians engaged in witch-hunts, in which tens of thousands of accused witches were burned, hanged, stoned, and otherwise put to death. This is no "burning times" fantasy. It really happened. And for those who, in the modern day, identify themselves as witches, Pagans, and Heathens, it remains an open wound, even if most of those who were accused were guilty of nothing more than being widows and spinsters with property that was coveted by their accusers and judges. The fact that most of those murdered were killed not because they actually were witches, but because they were merely accused of being so, does not lessen the horror of their deaths, or their relevance in the modern day. People today are being slaughtered-- literally-- because they're accused of being witches.It gets even better-- as a Kickstarter exclusive, you get little plastic nooses to use as player tokens, and a cardstock 3D gallows to adorn your game board. (I'm not making this up.) How jolly! The Zyklon-B replica canisters, real cowhide bull-whips, and 6' length of chain will make dandy props for your game as well.
I don't know how this vile game concept ever got approved by the Kickstarter staff, I don't know how it ever found 553 people to commit money to it, and I don't know how such a game could ever be published, when it essentially makes light of the concept of murdering a group of people who are roughly equal in size to the number of Sunni Muslims in the United States.
Joshua Balvin, head of Rock Paper Scissors Games, should be ashamed of himself. He is an insensitive jerk who obviously doesn't give a crap about making light of the murder of people because of their beliefs, and anyone who buys this game should also be entirely ashamed of themselves.
WARNING: The comments on this post will be monitored very closely, and not only will offensive comments be deleted, but the author of said comments will be banned. Caveat scriptor.
Basically, a G+ Community is a place where folks can post things for all the different members to see and comment on. Naturally, in the land rush that followed, I wanted to do my part, and I present to you: the Google+ OSR Community.
As of right now, we have 220 members, but everyone is invited, and while I'm still sorting out all the ins and outs of the features, we already have a number of interesting conversations. Feel free to join and spread the word.
And for those not yet on G+, I highly recommend it. It has a number of advantages over a certain other social networking site, not the least of which is a certain lack of commerciality which I find enjoyable.
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Please, if you haven't done so already, consider supporting my Kickstarter for the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual, going on now through December 19th. I need your help to make it a reality!
Thursday, 6 December 2012
Today seems to be a busy day in the gaming industry.
Slitherine has finally put up a pre-order page for the hard copy version of their Field of Glory miniatures rules version 2.0. FoG was very successful when it launched, owing in no small part to the outstanding design of the books themselves. When it was announced that the 2nd version of the rules would be available in electronic format only, it put off a lot of fans of the game, including myself. Fortunately, though, they reversed themselves, and now we Luddites can see the goodness for ourselves.
FASA has decided to fold their ludicrously overpriced Kickstarter for their 1879 game. After a week and a half, they had only raised $2,354 of their $325,000 (!) goal. I'm convinced that much of the problem stems from the sheer sprawl of it all. Not only was it going to be a new RPG in a new setting (a sort of Victorian-era steampunk on an alien world thing), but also a set of miniatures combat rules with full lines of figures and army books, plus a mobile app for the iPad to play an electronic version of the minis game. I think they'll do slightly better if they break it up into digestible chunks.
Mongoose Publishing has released their State of the Mongoose 2012 report. I love how they're so open about the inner workings of the company. Highlights include; fewer, but better, products; switching from full-time writers to freelancers; markets are "miserable" for RPGs and miniatures; apparently selling "a couple of hundred" copies of a new release is doing well, and even WotC (albeit not specifically named-- it could have been Paizo) couldn't make that modest goal with their latest offering; plus mentions of all the lines they produce. Very interesting stuff, and highly recommended.
Goblinworks has updated their Pathfinder Online Kickstarter to include a bunch of what they're calling "reward enhancements". Offerings include miniatures, battlemat books, and a hard copy of a "superdungeon". I'm a bit confused as to why such tabletop gaming items would be offered as part of the MMO Kickstarter (and even weirder, with the Pathfinder Online logo, rather than the regular Pathfinder logo), but stranger things have happened. Some are quite displeased with this approach.
Well, there 'tis. Enjoy!
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Please, if you haven't done so already, consider supporting my Kickstarter for the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual, going on now through December 19th. I need your help to make it a reality!
Well, there 'tis. Enjoy!
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Please, if you haven't done so already, consider supporting my Kickstarter for the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual, going on now through December 19th. I need your help to make it a reality!
Now, there are certainly exceptions to this rule. Skyrealms of Jorune famously (one might even say infamously) presented a fantasy world that was almost completely alien. Tekumel, too, veered consciously away from the "classic" milieu mold. Runequest has its ducks. There are many other such examples (and when done to consciously differentiate themselves from the standard, fall into the "our monsters are different" trope).
Indeed, Tolkien's elves and dwarves do more than make an impression by their presence; their very nature harkens back to his work directly, which itself takes its inspiration from Norse and Anglo-Saxon mythology. The elves of Victorian myth were diminutive fairies only half in our material world. Dwarves were good for little more than hording gold and perhaps clever craft-work. Tolkien hearkened back to pre-Christian mythology and envisioned multiple, physical, races living alongside humans. And that basic model, more than the specifics of the races themselves, are the long shadow that is cast across most RPGs today.
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Please, if you haven't done so already, consider supporting my Kickstarter for the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual, going on now through December 19th. I need your help to make it a reality!
Monday, 3 December 2012
Some of it's my own fault, of course. My daughter sees me going off to play D&D every week, and off to conventions a couple of times a year. I did bring her to a mini-con run by a college friend of mine every year on Memorial Day weekend, and she had a blast playing real games like Carcasonne and Ticket to Ride. So I think her aversion to gaming with her parents is the fact that it involves her parents. She being 11 and all.
Still, I'm going to make the effort and see if I can't coax her and perhaps my wife into a game or two this week. Not necessarily an RPG, although that'd be the pot of gold at the end of the proverbial rainbow, but at least some board games more advanced than Gobblet (which is not a slight on Gobblet at all; it's a terrific take on tic tac toe).
I'm thinking maybe Dungeon!, or Robo Rally, or Red Dragon Inn. Will report on the success or failure of Teach the Grognard's Kid to Game Day!
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Please, if you haven't done so already, consider supporting my Kickstarter for the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual, going on now through December 19th. I need your help to make it a reality!
I still haven't read any of the books, but I absolutely love the television show. Here's a sneak peak into the production of Season 3, which premiers on march 31 (and hey-- that's only a few months away!):
The locations they find for this show are really amazing. I love the fact that the actors have an appreciation for that aspect of the production, which I think goes a long way to making the show feel real, rather than the endless parade of shows in the 1980's that all looked like they took place in southern California because, well, they all were shot in southern California. Can't wait!
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Please, if you haven't done so already, consider supporting my Kickstarter for the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual, going on now through December 19th. I need your help to make it a reality!
Please, if you haven't done so already, consider supporting my Kickstarter for the Adventures Dark and Deep Players Manual, going on now through December 19th. I need your help to make it a reality!
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