RPG's and RMS - Part the First

I have been playing RPG's on and off since I was about 10.  So 26 years. Uhg.  I've also been working for a company that makes RMS (record management software) for about 6 years now.  I've also been an observer, and occasional participant in the Edition Wars during that time.

Coincidentally, our company has released a major conversion/new edition of our software not too long after 4e came out, and I noticed that the reactions of clients to our upgrade were eerily similar to many of the edition wars complaints that I read online.  This caused me to do additional thinking about the parallels between what I do at work and what WotC does with DnD.

Since many people have opinions about this which I feel are not informed by reality, I thought it might be interesting to discuss my experiences in "new editions" using the software that I work with as an example.

Part 1 - Reasons for a new edition.

Something I hear a lot from some of my clients is "why create a new version - the old version worked just fine?"

It's a valid concern, too.  These clients have been doing the same things the same way for many years - they are happy how things work and they see no reason for things to change.  Ever.

But this person is the guy who drives the same road to work everyday and gets upset if the road gets changed around.  They are looking at a much bigger thing - a city road network, a piece of software, or an RPG line, only from the perspective of how they use/interact with it.  And as developers, or urban planners (last road analogy, I promise), or game companies, we cannot do that.  We have to look at the big picture - all of our current users and potential future users, and make decisions that we feel will benefit the largest number of them.  AND we have to consider the financial ramifications of the decisions as well - we have families to feed.

So here are some of the WHY's that we considered with our new software edition.  Similar ones, I'm willing to bet, to what WotC considers when thinking about a new version.

WHY ONE:  You want to implement new features that your existing infrastructure cannot support.

In our software, this was turning the program from a simple database into a client/server application - this would add a lot of flexibility for clients to use the software in different ways and locations, and also have a lot  of other beneficial effects.

In 4e, one example of this was trying to ease the burden on the DM in terms of prep-time and making the numbers of the game more consistent, logical and easy to design for.  Whatever merits 3e had as a system, that was not one of them.

Major changes like this are often a big part of the reason for a new version.  Sometimes they come with a new designer/programmer, but often they are the result of spending years supporting and designing new features for an existing product.  You see where the limitations and rough bits are very clearly, and want to get rid of them.

WHY TWO:  Cruft Cleanup.

I'm not a programmer, but Cruft is a programming term often used to describe useless code that accumulates over time within software.  This issue is fairly common if you are actively updating or changing your software, and especially if you have short intervals between updates or limited testing time.  Things usually still work, but the stuff builds up and often slows down the program or makes it harder to make new changes without breaking something else.

In DnD, cruft is usually called "splatbooks" or "supplements".  By adding new features, rules and options, you increase the critical mass of the game to the point where it's difficult and slow to find many of the rules - slowing down the game and making it more difficult to run.   The rationale for releasing the splatbooks to begin with is something I'll get into later.

New versions are a great way to clear away a lot of this mass.  Of course, there are always some clients who are using each part of it, so you often have to get right back on the treadmill and re-create them for the new version.  But hopefully you also made changes in WHY ONE that make this easier.

WHY THREE:  Interface Design

User interfaces are things that evolve over time.  Unless you are working with a very solid design document and have a clear vision of how you want your interface to work, you can end up with a kludgey mess as you add new features.  Also, interfaces that looked really good 10 years ago can end up looking awfully dated.

For our software, changing the UI also meant giving clients a lot of new tools that they could use to more easily find information, generate reports and keep their information organized.

For an RPG, the UI is things like artwork, book layout, index and general organization.  And this stuff can get dated-looking just like software UI.  Not as fast, luckily, but it can happen.  So for both software and RPG's, the new edition can be an opportunity to reorganize, facelift with new art and graphics, to clean up those areas that are inconsistent or have been bothering you.

Ultimately, these first three why's feed into WHY FOUR:  Sales.

In order to be in business, you need to have a product that you can sell.  For actual money.  This isn't as bad an issue for our company as it is for WotC, because we make a lot of income on service/support contracts.  Which is basically what they are trying with DnD Insider.  But our service contracts cost thousands of dollars annually - sales are basically profit for us.

Sales for WotC are much more critical.  They have to sell books, and they have to keep selling them, because they have to pay staff and keep the lights on and buy supplies to publish more books and soforth.  All the reasons for creating a new version or edition ultimately flow back into one overriding concern - we want to make something that more people will want to buy.

For our company, we also need to do a lot of working making sure it's something that people want to continue to use, and that's important to WotC too - DDi is a solid idea, but it's a tougher sell for a primarily DIY hobby like RPGs.

So that's WHY.  Next I'll get onto the fun stuff - Part 2: How your clients react to new versions.

GM Questionnaire

From Zac at Playing D&D with Porn Stars.  Best D&D blog for several years running.


1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?

The abandoned underground parkade, filled with old departments store mannequins from when the store that used to be above it went out of business.  A modern-day terracotta army and a very creepy place. 

2. When was the last time you GMed?

A couple of months ago.

3. When was the last time you played?

A couple of months ago.

4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.

Characters stuck in a hostile country in the middle of a war with very little in the way of supplies or equipment.  Must escape to a safer location while pursued by powerful enemies. 

5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?

Ask them "What are you going to do? Check my notes."

6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?

We used to break for dinner, but now we play on Skype, so I don't eat much.

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?

Absolutely.

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?

Talked my way into a guarded fortress to steal a magical gem doohickey instead of sneaking in through the sewers like the adventure called for.

9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?

Of course - it's the nature of smart people.

10. What do you do with goblins?

Tribal equivalent of hyaenas - dangerous in groups or if you are sick or injured.  Lots of mutations and horrible magic.  Closer to Warhammer.

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?

A map of the american southwest.

12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?

The group making a decision and saying "That's the plan."  and one character wailing "That isn't a plan.  There is NO PLAN. The plan is that there is NO PLAN".

13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?

The Victoriana rule book.  I've been reading a lot of Steampunk lately, and a lot of Victorian-era fiction, so I wanted to check it out.

14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?

John Buscema.  Frank Frazetta.

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?

Concerned for the physical safety of their character, yes, genuinely scared, no.

16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)

Ravenloft in elementary school.  We went way off-script of the game and had a ton of fun.

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?

The big table that we use for board games at my buddies house.  Looks out over an amazing lake and glacier.  If I need inspiration, I just look out the window.

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?

Munchkin and the Black Dog line for Vampire the Masquerade.

19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?

Viking Mythology and Star Trek

20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?

One who has read the rules, is interested in their character and the game world, and who follows Wil Wheaton's rule.

21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?

Hiking/climbing on glaciers, camping in the wilderness, living near wild animals.

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?

TMNT rpg done by somebody who is actually capable of organizing and designing a playable RPG.  So, not Kevin Siembieda.

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?

Occasionally I talk about games with my wife.  She doesn't play, but she used to host gaming sessions a lot, so she knows what it's about.  Mostly it's just funny stories about the people playing the game, though, not stories about the game itself.

Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold

Yes, many people are writing about this trailer.  I'm going to do it too - this clip goes almost directly to the reasons that I role-play and that I write this blog.  Heck, it's the reason for the name of the blog.  Well, that and the fact that I live in the interior of British Columbia, which has more misty mountains than Tolkien ever saw in his life.



I should say first off that I've been looking forward to this film, del Toro or no del Toro, I loves me the Hobbit.  In many ways it's a classic gaming story - inexperienced fellow leaves home with a pack of disreputable ruffians.  Group runs across a number of hazards which they are able, often through blind luck or quick thinking, to overcome.  Group finds some treasure, some of which is appropriate for inexperienced fellow, who quickly becomes more experienced.

Allies are gained, confidence grows and eventually the group degenerates into infighting and bickering over treasure, only to temporarily join forces once again when more serious threats appear.  After a certain point, group play gives way to armies, lordships and the death of characters, and the inexperienced fellow goes home older, wiser and saddled with a cursed magic item that he got on a random roll in some dungeon corridor that's too useful for him to get rid of.

So basically, D&D Type 1 as the OSR would have you play it.  For all the chattering about old-school being based on pulp literature, the Hobbit sure reads like role-playing to me.

Better yet, they sing Over the Misty Mountains!  I have ALWAYS loved that song, it captures both the heart of the Tolkien experience, and the essence of the themes I like in fantasy role-playing.  And they totally nail the song, with the dwarves chanting it sonorously and slowly rising to their feet as they sing it.

See, to the dwarves, the song is both a lament and a promise - a lament for the glories of the Kingdom under the Mountain, which glories passed away in fire and horror upon the coming of Smaug, and a promise that they will one day return, to reclaim what is rightfully theirs and rebuild their fallen birthright.  It's as close to religion as the dwarves have, and they capture it pitch-perfectly.  I could watch that trailer 20 times in a row.

Complain about the singing if you want to, but to my mind, it just confirms that you either haven't read the Hobbit, or didn't understand it when you did read it.  The singing is perfect - it makes me shiver the same shiver of joy as I get when Aragorn tells the hobbits, speaking of Amon Sul, "It is told that Elendil stood there watching for the coming of Gil-galad out of the West, in the days of the Last Alliance." It's a certain kind of music that catches me just right.  Perfect.

I'm sure the movie will have a few warts and blemishes - but this trailer does more to reassure me about what we can expect from this movie than anything else I've seen or read.  Now if we just didn't have to wait a WHOLE YEAR...

Constantcon Game - Celtic-Style 2e D&D

What:  2nd Edition Dungeons and Dragons - heavily modified AD&D 2nd Edition with a generally Iron Age Celtic theme.

Where:  On the intertubules!  But also in a campaign world of my own creation.

When:  August 29th, 8:30 PM PST to 12:00ish.

How: Google + and (optionally - if everyone agrees) Maptools

Who: Jeremy Murphy - kootenaymurph at gmail dot com - email me and I'll add you to my G+ circle.  Looking at a maximum of 5 players with 1st-level characters.

Why:  Because all my campaign notes are for 2E.  Shut up - I played the heck out of 2E, and it occupies a fond space in my heart.  Also because I like the idea of Constantcon and I want to see if it can work.

Other Stuff:  This game is Flail Snail Approved... sorta.  Since it's heavily homebrewed, some modification to character equipment may be necessary.  Check with me, and I can probably roll with it.

Primary technology will be G+ Hangout.  Optionally, we can use Maptools for shared maps and dice-rolling.  I have a lot of experience with Maptools, and will assist people getting it set up, but we'll only use it if everyone wants to.

But:  Jeremy, I got rid of my 2e stuff a forever ago!  No fear!  I have all resources and materials that you shall require on Google Docs.  And it's all stuff I bought back in the day, so I don't feel bad at all about having downloaded it!  Let me know if you need reference materials and I'll hook you up.

Update: Download the Quickstart Guide here.

Arigato Gozaimas, Shihan

I'd like to take a minute to talk about Shihan Hitoshi Shiozaki.

When I was in university on Victoria in 1998, I met Chantal, and through her, her husband Junichi.  "Jun" asked if I would be interested in coming to the karate class that he attended.  At that time, I was an out-of-shape ex-athlete, and thought that martial arts might be a fun way to get back into shape.

I was not prepared.

At our first class of Yoshukai Karate (I would have found out that basically means "real fighting karate" if I had thought to look it up), I met his instructor, Shihan (Master) Hitoshi Shiozaki.

Now, Shihan was not much to look at.  Probably about 5'2", he wore thick coke-bottle glasses, slacks and plaid shirts buttoned to his neck.  He was probably in his 50's at the time, and his only transport was an old blue bicycle.  He smiled and laughed a lot while we changed and did our pre-class warmup, and seemed like a harmless little fellow.  Then training started.  No laughter now - just focus, and sweat, and pain.

I have never worked harder than that in my life.  Stretching, pushups, kicking drills, kata, "toughness training", more stretching.  So much stretching.  And the toughness training.  For Shihan, the way to make your body tougher was to work it.  We kicked, punched, kneed each other.  We had little cloth gloves to keep from splitting our knuckles, but that was it.  3/4 power, most of the time - no pads.

I left the first class and staggered to my friend's house, where we were setting up for our Sunday D&D game. Collapsed on the couch and moaned.. "Water.. water".  I was hooked.  I went 2-3 times a week for almost 2 years.  That fall my mom got me a 20 lb bag of epsom salts for my birthday.  I learned that I can take a relentless beating and my body does not break.  My skin doesn't split when I punch, and even now I can throw a hammer of a straight left.

Sure, we learned kata, but more often, we did kumite.  It was great.  Challenging and painful, but really great. I learned more about Hitoshi, too.  Hitoshi Shiozaki was a student of the founder of Yoshukai Karate, and a 6th-Dan black belt.  He practiced Karate most days of his life for 30 years, and won the All Japan Full-Contact Karate Open Tournament 4 times in the mid-80's.  Think about that.  All Japan, Full-Contact, open tournament.  Won it 4 times in a row.  Truly unbelievable.

I eventually moved away from Victoria, after achieving a green belt in Yoshukai.  I practiced Tae Kwon Do and Kickboxing later, and the skills Hitoshi taught me always came in handy.  Primarily because he taught me to respect my master and fellow students, to listen carefully, and to come ready to fight, but never to pick a fight.

Hitoshi Shizaki died of complications from an asthma attack in 2006 in Japan.  I said goodbye to him 6 years earlier, when I left Victoria to travel, but somehow, I thought he would always be there, in that little dojo in the industrial park, riding his bike, laughing with his students after class.

I have only ever met 2 people in my life who deserve the title of "Shihan".  Hitoshi Shiozaki and Jon-Lee Kootnekoff.  It saddens me to learn of Shihan Hitoshi's passing.  "OSU!" Shihan.  Thank you.

A Great Tool for the Busy DM

StumbleUpon.  You kill me - I should be doing other STUFF.  I have Domain Game turns to work on, prep for my online After The Bomb game, work stuff that I really shouldn't be doing at home.  But yet I click, and click and click.

But.  But, but, but - the clicking finally pays off!  I found this little gem, by Wizards of the Coast, no less.  I haven't really looked at the adventure portion yet, but the little maps it creates are GREAT.  For small post-apocalyptic complexes and buildings, these maps look ideal.

In addition, I can save them right off the website and import them into Maptools with a few mouse clicks.  Super work, WotC, really super.

Discussing The Steel Remains

Over at The Silver Key and Dweomera Lagomorpha about some of the recent trends in fantasy literature.  This started as a post on Brian's website, but it outgrew that, so I moved it over here.

The thing that's really clarified this discussion to me is the comment by Richard Morgan that Brian quoted -  something along the lines of this not being fantasy for 13-year-olds.

I think that fundamentally what we see as "high fantasy": the Lord of the Rings, the Ranger's Apprentice, Harry Potter - this is a very 13-year-old view of the world.  The clear good/evil dichotomy, a heroes always win assumption, sexless "romance".  It's a very "immature" perspective. Of course, many of these books explore other things - the Lord of the Rings deals extensively with friendship, loyalty, leadership and honor - but the context, the world and it's assumptions - they're simplistic.

Lots of fantasy book reminds me of a terrible Arthurian movie from the early '90's called "First Knight".  It's medieval england, but everyone is clean, the good guys wear shiny armor and crisp blue uniforms, and the bad guys wear black furs.  It's flat - it leaves no lasting impression.  It's the middle ages as seen by the SCA.  Excalibur, on the other hand, is not clean, the heroes are not clear, good things don't always happen to the good guys.  It's more "adult" and a better movie for it.

As we get older, we realize things about the world: we realize that being a good person does not mean necessarily that good things happen to us, we learn that there are many perspectives on things, we hopefully learn about sex, and hopefully we don't learn too much about violence, but we know that there are lots of things in life that a 13-year-old has no awareness of.

So when Morgan talks about The Steel Remains as "adult" - he's right.  It depicts a world much more like the one we know as adults.  Sure - the violence is a bit much, and the sex scenes are maybe a bit gratuitous. In terms of the world that it presents - complete with grit, sex, religious extremism, selfishness and violence - it's a grown-up world.  It's not automatically better because of that, but it feels more tangible to me - the taste of it is clearer.  Yes, the Lord of the Rings is also very deep and powerful, with a clear and detailed world.  But The Steel Remains didn't take 12 years to write (or require 30 years of world-building).

The Burning Land IS a better example of how to create an adult fantasy (although you could easily argue that it's Historical Fiction, which is a bit of a different genre).   It's a bit less gratuitous, a bit more focussed, and with characters that I empathize with a bit more.  It uses the same ingredients, though - Morgan just likes more of the sex and violence and less of the finely-researched historical detail.  He's a better futurist, anyways, while Cornwell is a better historian.  They both write books that are more "adult" than a lot of fantasy, which is why I read and enjoy their work.