A few years ago, I helped out a family friend, Craig Besinque, in designing and playtesting a block-based wargames, which ended up being called Hellenes: Campaigns of the Ancient World.
Craig is pretty well-know in a certain element of the wargaming community - which is like being well-known in the RPG community, except that wargamers tend to be a bit more community-oriented than most RPGer's. He's designed games like WestFront and EastFront for Columbia Games, so it was really interesting to learn about board game/wargame design from him.
In brief, here are the things I learned working with Craig.
1) Designing wargames is unlikely to make you rich. You are working in a niche market, with a fairly small customer base (as customer bases go). They are a reliable base, though - willing to spend money on quality product. This is presumably also true for RPG's - something anyone wanting to design RPG's should heed.
2) You had best be good at math. Craig has a Masters Degree in Mathematics from (I believe) UCLA. He can do fairly complex probability in his head. I suspect that it's a good thing he's not into gambling, or he would be cleaning up on Pokerstars.net.
3) Game balance is all-important. Moreso in this context than some others, since Hellenes was designed to be a fairly short 1v1 wargame. Balance in this context is very similar to what balance means in chess - there should be no sure, or even preferred, route to victory. If there is, the game is "broken" and considered by most people to be unworthy of being played. Which will kill your sales (or even your chances of being published) - see point 1.
4) You can design whatever you want, but if you stick to certain material constraints, there is a much better chance that your game will be published. In this case, Columbia games had certain pre-packaged numbers of blocks and decks of cards. If you used a different number of blocks in your game, it meant the game cost more, which would be a factor in the publisher deciding to release it. Likewise, if you use cards, try to stick with the same number of cards as a standard deck of cards, for the same reasons.
To further explain this point, we should examine a different game - Railroad Tycoon. This game has a ton of different blocks, tiles, markers, plastic trains and whatnot with it. It's a pretty good game, but now out of print. I think that's probably because all the bells and whistles (hehe) cost more that it's worth to produce the thing.
5) You must playtest. Then, playtest more. Then put it out there and get others to playtest it. That is the only way to get good game balance - see point 3.
6) If you want to design a historical boardgame, you must start with the historical part.
It's nice if the game can reflect historical realities, but you should pick what realities you reflect - they should be ones that create interesting possibilities and trade-offs. Guns or butter decisions are what make wargames interesting.
Ideally, players should be making decisions that reflect those that the actual historical sides would have made - in the case of Hellenes, the Athenians need to decide how much of their fleet to take out of the city, whether to focus on attacking Spartan coastal provinces, how much effort to spend putting down revolts, and how many resources to apply to land armies vs the fleet.
7) Limiting resources is a good thing. When you can't do everything, you have to make decisions about where to allocate a very limited pool of resources. This makes each decision a difficult one, requiring much deliberation. Combined with point 6 - it means you can never do everything you want, and you're always making interesting decisions about what you can do.
Many RPG's use one or more of these design principles. Interestingly, older versions of games like D&D tend to use less of them, despite the fact that they are closer, genetically-speaking to those old wargames. Specifically issues like game balance, playtesting and limiting resources don't seem to have been foremost in the minds of the designers of say, 1e Dungeons and Dragons. It's a hybrid game system, and the designers seem to be focused more on the overall experience than applying the lessons of wargame design to the new system.
In more recent years, things have swung back around. 4e, for all it's flaws, pays much more attention to 2, 3 and 7. It would have been nice if they spent more time on 5, though. Curiously, it's frequently panned by fans of the older editions - which is kinda weird, since it owes much more to the initial inspiration for D&D than many of those old editions did.
Ultimately, helping to design a boardgame was a great experience - it's really changed how I look at both RPG's and computer games. I feel like I have a much better view of the decisions that were probably made in the design phase that resulted in the game I'm playing, which makes it easier to mod games, and strangely, easier to like each system for it's own merits/flaws. To understand something is to lose the fear of it, after all.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
OD&D, Session 6
It's never a good idea to leave the person who plays the thief alone with the DM. I'm just throwing that out there as a general RPG rule. Never leave the thief alone. With the GM. Things will occur that most of the rest of the party probably don't want to occur.
As de-facto party leader, I suppose Fingolfin should have been surprised when we loaded up the cart for "Operation Get the Lazy Bitch Elves Their Magical Thingy Back" and found 2 large, unplanned barrels of wine in the back.
"I bought them", proudly announced Hanz, the resident thief (and ex-Black Eagle staffer). "Why?" I responded. Then decided that I didn't really want to know, but figured we could work with it, and rolled.
Now, I'm not going to say that the decision for Alexi to pretend to be a prisoner was totally motivated by desire for revenge for his getting us involved in this merry cluster-frack, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a consideration. So with a certain degree of relish, we had him strip down, inflicted a few cosmetic bruises, tied him up in the bottom of the cart, and headed south from Luln for Black Eagle Barony and sunny, friendly Fort Doom!
A travel video about Fort Doom would go something like this:
"Set like a festering sore in the reeking western marshes of Karameikos, the main industries of Fort Doom are fishing, slavery and incompetent plotting. Tourist attractions include slums, hovels, and wretched masses cowering from their master's boot. The friendly local inhabitants are mostly fisherfolk, who are kept roughly in line by hostages, held by the jackbooted thugs who make up the rest of the population. If you're lucky, you'll see some of the exotic orcs, goblins or other horrendous monsters that the friendly and hospitable Baron uses to terrorize his subjects. Truly, the holiday destination of the Duchy!"
So yeah - nice place. We got into the city with no problems (guards at gate drunk, also apparently developmentally disabled), and approached the eponymous fort. True to form, the sergeant of the guard proved to be fat and obnoxious, challenging us upon approaching the gates. Some judicious display of the captured Iron Ring badge (a ring, made of... wait for it... iron.) and a properly arrogant attitude saw us through the gates.
Then operations really started. We generously "donated" one of the wine barrels to the gate guards, which went over about how you'd expect - no drinking on duty issues here. I informed the sergeant that we had magic items to put in the tower, and was told I needed a pass. Apparently those are given out by a lieutenant Garand or somewhat. So off we went, prisoner in tow, to see the Lt.
We'd also acquired a neat magic item, a Horn of Plenty - which makes... food. Awesome. But it looks magical, so into a sack it went. Informing the Lt that we had a magical horn which "blows holes in walls" - which is what I wish we'd gotten, I expedited the pass process by offering to test it in his office. Pass acquired, we headed to the tower. Once inside the tower, we put the main evil cleric-guy (who lounges around in his boxers while on guard duty) to sleep, looted his stuff, then headed upstairs, where we encountered a complaining old man.
It quickly became apparent that the old fellow was an alchemist, and no fan of team Black Eagle, so we promised Nicholai that we'd help him escape, if he helped us find the magic whoosis. He agreed fairly quickly and said that Lt. Demetrios (or something roman anyway, I wasn't taking notes) might have it in his office. We burst into the Lt's office on the second floor, and discovered a bit of a scene. The Lt and a fellow in tight black leather were sitting very close to each other - "discussing" something or other. Whoops.
So we cast sleep on them. Heheh. I don't know how anyone makes any headway against the elves - that spell is pure murder in OD&D - 2d8 hd, area effect, no save. Love it. So they went to sleep, and we killed them, and discovered that the gem was already being moved - the mage Aurelius was planning on taking it out to the Baron, who is enroute here from someplace, and he's just waiting for an escort from the main keep. This is just the gatehouse to the main keep - apparently. Which explains that negligence, drunkeness and general slothful attitude.
There are 2 places this Aurelius might be - either the dungeon or the inner barbican, the entrance into the keep proper. I figure it's easier to do a quick check of the barbican before we go to the dungeon, so we head off in that direction. The barbican is closed, but there are guards up top on the wall, so I ask them if Aurelius is still waiting there for his escort. They say "Yes, but it's a secret, so keep it quiet." Smooth boys, smooth. So I tell them to open up, as I have Aurelius' things.
They do - whoohoo! Then we see that there are a lot of guards in here. So we cast sleep on them. Whoohoo! Snoozing. One of the other things that we found in the tower was an elven cloak, which Hanz the thief is now wearing. This is an OD&D magic item, so none of this sissy, +5 to sneak rolls 3e crap. This makes you totally invisible unless you roll a 1 on a d6. So Hanz uses it to sneak into the barbican and finds Aurelius, some thief, the watch-commander and a bunch more mooks. At this point, we're out of sleep spells, so we do it the old-fashioned way.
By backstabbing the wizard. Who dies. And then we burst into the room. Didn't quite manage surprise, although I'd be pretty fucking surprised if the person I was having an argument with sprouted a spear point in mid-shout. We carve down the guards, and after a few rounds of pretty rough rolling, get into the spirit of the thing and take out the watch-captain and the thief-guy. We also find the gem, some magic rings and a few other nice things.
Then, downstairs and out the front. At this point, we discover that an orc patrol has come in from the city, and is milling around the front gate. We turn it into a party with the other barrel of wine, and I discover one of the reasons for the thief/dm rule. Hanz poisoned the wine. Not "keel over after drinking" poison. No, giant ant venom apparently blisters the interior of the stomach/bowels, incapacitating the victims in a few hours.
Leaving everyone to their "party", we hurry out the gate. But Hanz stays behind. Once again, we log off and leave the thief alone with the DM...
I find out the next day that Hanz snuck into the dungeon, backstabbed the jailor, stole the keys, released and armed the prisoners, met a friendly ogre and gathered a handful of "followers", who all meet us just outside the city walls.
So, for our next session, I'll be figuring out how to get out the Black Eagle Barony with an ogre in tow. Oh, and the magical geegaw lets us cast charm person, ESP and some other spells a few times a DAY. That shouldn't be a game-breaker.
As de-facto party leader, I suppose Fingolfin should have been surprised when we loaded up the cart for "Operation Get the Lazy Bitch Elves Their Magical Thingy Back" and found 2 large, unplanned barrels of wine in the back.
"I bought them", proudly announced Hanz, the resident thief (and ex-Black Eagle staffer). "Why?" I responded. Then decided that I didn't really want to know, but figured we could work with it, and rolled.
Now, I'm not going to say that the decision for Alexi to pretend to be a prisoner was totally motivated by desire for revenge for his getting us involved in this merry cluster-frack, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a consideration. So with a certain degree of relish, we had him strip down, inflicted a few cosmetic bruises, tied him up in the bottom of the cart, and headed south from Luln for Black Eagle Barony and sunny, friendly Fort Doom!
A travel video about Fort Doom would go something like this:
"Set like a festering sore in the reeking western marshes of Karameikos, the main industries of Fort Doom are fishing, slavery and incompetent plotting. Tourist attractions include slums, hovels, and wretched masses cowering from their master's boot. The friendly local inhabitants are mostly fisherfolk, who are kept roughly in line by hostages, held by the jackbooted thugs who make up the rest of the population. If you're lucky, you'll see some of the exotic orcs, goblins or other horrendous monsters that the friendly and hospitable Baron uses to terrorize his subjects. Truly, the holiday destination of the Duchy!"
So yeah - nice place. We got into the city with no problems (guards at gate drunk, also apparently developmentally disabled), and approached the eponymous fort. True to form, the sergeant of the guard proved to be fat and obnoxious, challenging us upon approaching the gates. Some judicious display of the captured Iron Ring badge (a ring, made of... wait for it... iron.) and a properly arrogant attitude saw us through the gates.
Then operations really started. We generously "donated" one of the wine barrels to the gate guards, which went over about how you'd expect - no drinking on duty issues here. I informed the sergeant that we had magic items to put in the tower, and was told I needed a pass. Apparently those are given out by a lieutenant Garand or somewhat. So off we went, prisoner in tow, to see the Lt.
We'd also acquired a neat magic item, a Horn of Plenty - which makes... food. Awesome. But it looks magical, so into a sack it went. Informing the Lt that we had a magical horn which "blows holes in walls" - which is what I wish we'd gotten, I expedited the pass process by offering to test it in his office. Pass acquired, we headed to the tower. Once inside the tower, we put the main evil cleric-guy (who lounges around in his boxers while on guard duty) to sleep, looted his stuff, then headed upstairs, where we encountered a complaining old man.
It quickly became apparent that the old fellow was an alchemist, and no fan of team Black Eagle, so we promised Nicholai that we'd help him escape, if he helped us find the magic whoosis. He agreed fairly quickly and said that Lt. Demetrios (or something roman anyway, I wasn't taking notes) might have it in his office. We burst into the Lt's office on the second floor, and discovered a bit of a scene. The Lt and a fellow in tight black leather were sitting very close to each other - "discussing" something or other. Whoops.
So we cast sleep on them. Heheh. I don't know how anyone makes any headway against the elves - that spell is pure murder in OD&D - 2d8 hd, area effect, no save. Love it. So they went to sleep, and we killed them, and discovered that the gem was already being moved - the mage Aurelius was planning on taking it out to the Baron, who is enroute here from someplace, and he's just waiting for an escort from the main keep. This is just the gatehouse to the main keep - apparently. Which explains that negligence, drunkeness and general slothful attitude.
There are 2 places this Aurelius might be - either the dungeon or the inner barbican, the entrance into the keep proper. I figure it's easier to do a quick check of the barbican before we go to the dungeon, so we head off in that direction. The barbican is closed, but there are guards up top on the wall, so I ask them if Aurelius is still waiting there for his escort. They say "Yes, but it's a secret, so keep it quiet." Smooth boys, smooth. So I tell them to open up, as I have Aurelius' things.
They do - whoohoo! Then we see that there are a lot of guards in here. So we cast sleep on them. Whoohoo! Snoozing. One of the other things that we found in the tower was an elven cloak, which Hanz the thief is now wearing. This is an OD&D magic item, so none of this sissy, +5 to sneak rolls 3e crap. This makes you totally invisible unless you roll a 1 on a d6. So Hanz uses it to sneak into the barbican and finds Aurelius, some thief, the watch-commander and a bunch more mooks. At this point, we're out of sleep spells, so we do it the old-fashioned way.
By backstabbing the wizard. Who dies. And then we burst into the room. Didn't quite manage surprise, although I'd be pretty fucking surprised if the person I was having an argument with sprouted a spear point in mid-shout. We carve down the guards, and after a few rounds of pretty rough rolling, get into the spirit of the thing and take out the watch-captain and the thief-guy. We also find the gem, some magic rings and a few other nice things.
Then, downstairs and out the front. At this point, we discover that an orc patrol has come in from the city, and is milling around the front gate. We turn it into a party with the other barrel of wine, and I discover one of the reasons for the thief/dm rule. Hanz poisoned the wine. Not "keel over after drinking" poison. No, giant ant venom apparently blisters the interior of the stomach/bowels, incapacitating the victims in a few hours.
Leaving everyone to their "party", we hurry out the gate. But Hanz stays behind. Once again, we log off and leave the thief alone with the DM...
I find out the next day that Hanz snuck into the dungeon, backstabbed the jailor, stole the keys, released and armed the prisoners, met a friendly ogre and gathered a handful of "followers", who all meet us just outside the city walls.
So, for our next session, I'll be figuring out how to get out the Black Eagle Barony with an ogre in tow. Oh, and the magical geegaw lets us cast charm person, ESP and some other spells a few times a DAY. That shouldn't be a game-breaker.
Friday, December 10, 2010
OD&D, Session 5
When a session starts off with a map of your campsite, and the DM casually mentions, "so you're sitting around the fire..." NO GOOD CAN COME OF IT. Things will be coming out of the bushes. Horrible things. With swords and teeth and biting and aaaayyyy.
And that is how our last session started. Fortunately (I suppose) what came out of the darkness was a guy on horseback. Shouting. Shouting about "They're right behind me, they'll kill us all, AARRGH". Upon reflection, it would have been smarter to just conk him over the head and give him to his pursuers, but instead we stupidly asked, "Who's after you?", like a bunch of dumbasses.
'Cause, it's obvious that whoever is after him is a Bad Person. And will attack us. So it was no surprise when he told us that he was pursued by agents of the Iron Ring, a bunch of slaver-assholes who would no doubt attempt to kill/enslave us just for being here at the same time he was. He's pretty fucking lucky it was our camp he rode up to, and not, say, a travelling minstrel-show. He'd have been screwed.
Immediately, aforementioned Bad Person and thugs showed up - surrounding our camp, conveniently. The leader loudly instructing his men to "Kill them all". Talk about lack of due diligence on his part. Rule 1 for slaver/bandit: Identify potential threat level of target.
I won't say I didn't warn them though - my character, Fingolfin the elf, shouted loudly (at the darkness) "if you attack our camp, we'll put you all to sleep, and then I'll personally nail you to a tree." It seemed like a reasonable threat.
So they did. And we did. I had a wooden mallet, and the thief had some iron spikes. The slaver leader seemed... distressed when we woke him up by driving in the first spike. He was also markedly uncooperative. More so that I would expect someone to be when one is crucified, one's men have been hung, and a pair of wolves are sniffing hungrily around one's feet. I'd be positively fucking loquacious at that point. But he just cursed and spat and generally made an ass of himself.
Then somebody shot a crossbow at us from the bushes. But the wolves ran him down pretty fast. These guys aren't learning. They're also not telling us WTF is happening, so we asked our "guest" Alexis why he was interrupting our evening with the shouting and the blood.
Apparently, the forces of the Black Eagle Barony, upon whose metaphorical doorstep we now trod, had stolen a magical gem doohickey from the elves in eastern Karameikos (presumably because the elves were busy snorting pixie-faerie dust off each other's naked backsides and having unprotected elf-sex - because really, what else is there to do when you're immortal). The gem is REALLY important because you can do mind control with it - notwithstanding that Charm Person is basically mind control and a level 1 spell.
Alexis is part of a rescue mission sent to retrieve it before all manner of horror can befall the faire realme, but all his friends have been killed by the Iron Ring, and now he's on his own and wants OUR help. There are apparently more slavers about, so we're "encouraged" to hurry along to Luln. So we packed up the campsite and headed off down the road - we're all out of sleep spells, so no reason to push our luck.
Arriving in Luln in the morning, we hurry to a cobblers shop where Alexis has allies. Walking in, we are immediately ambushed. If I didn't know better, I'd say this nitwit was trying to get us killed. 2 ambushes in a row starts to stretch the bounds of credulity. Fortunately, we'd had enough time to rest up, so most of the ambushers got unaccountably drowsy, and we didn't have much difficulty taking out the rest of them hand-to-hand.
There was a rough moment when a wizard popped out of a side room and cast magic missile, mainly because nobody in the party can survive a full-damage magic missile. Luckily, he shot it at the NPC, who has a few more HP's, so everyone survived. After some mourning over his friends, Alexis took us to yet another location, an inn. There we meet another of his buddies, who explains more about the missing mcguffin, and gives a potential plan for retrieving it.
And boy, is the plan a doozy. Amigo wants us to hide in a turnip cart, sneak into Fort Doom (great name - love that subtle, understated villainy), go through the dungeon, which they stock with monsters specifically to devour prisoners, and finally, break into a vault-tower where they store magical items. Oh, and do it all in the middle of a garrison of soldiers and orcs.
A quick poll of the party reveals absolutely no interest in: a) the plan or b) retrieving the gem at all. So we decide to go with our own plan. Next time - breaking into Fort Doom.
And that is how our last session started. Fortunately (I suppose) what came out of the darkness was a guy on horseback. Shouting. Shouting about "They're right behind me, they'll kill us all, AARRGH". Upon reflection, it would have been smarter to just conk him over the head and give him to his pursuers, but instead we stupidly asked, "Who's after you?", like a bunch of dumbasses.
'Cause, it's obvious that whoever is after him is a Bad Person. And will attack us. So it was no surprise when he told us that he was pursued by agents of the Iron Ring, a bunch of slaver-assholes who would no doubt attempt to kill/enslave us just for being here at the same time he was. He's pretty fucking lucky it was our camp he rode up to, and not, say, a travelling minstrel-show. He'd have been screwed.
Immediately, aforementioned Bad Person and thugs showed up - surrounding our camp, conveniently. The leader loudly instructing his men to "Kill them all". Talk about lack of due diligence on his part. Rule 1 for slaver/bandit: Identify potential threat level of target.
I won't say I didn't warn them though - my character, Fingolfin the elf, shouted loudly (at the darkness) "if you attack our camp, we'll put you all to sleep, and then I'll personally nail you to a tree." It seemed like a reasonable threat.
So they did. And we did. I had a wooden mallet, and the thief had some iron spikes. The slaver leader seemed... distressed when we woke him up by driving in the first spike. He was also markedly uncooperative. More so that I would expect someone to be when one is crucified, one's men have been hung, and a pair of wolves are sniffing hungrily around one's feet. I'd be positively fucking loquacious at that point. But he just cursed and spat and generally made an ass of himself.
Then somebody shot a crossbow at us from the bushes. But the wolves ran him down pretty fast. These guys aren't learning. They're also not telling us WTF is happening, so we asked our "guest" Alexis why he was interrupting our evening with the shouting and the blood.
Apparently, the forces of the Black Eagle Barony, upon whose metaphorical doorstep we now trod, had stolen a magical gem doohickey from the elves in eastern Karameikos (presumably because the elves were busy snorting pixie-faerie dust off each other's naked backsides and having unprotected elf-sex - because really, what else is there to do when you're immortal). The gem is REALLY important because you can do mind control with it - notwithstanding that Charm Person is basically mind control and a level 1 spell.
Alexis is part of a rescue mission sent to retrieve it before all manner of horror can befall the faire realme, but all his friends have been killed by the Iron Ring, and now he's on his own and wants OUR help. There are apparently more slavers about, so we're "encouraged" to hurry along to Luln. So we packed up the campsite and headed off down the road - we're all out of sleep spells, so no reason to push our luck.
Arriving in Luln in the morning, we hurry to a cobblers shop where Alexis has allies. Walking in, we are immediately ambushed. If I didn't know better, I'd say this nitwit was trying to get us killed. 2 ambushes in a row starts to stretch the bounds of credulity. Fortunately, we'd had enough time to rest up, so most of the ambushers got unaccountably drowsy, and we didn't have much difficulty taking out the rest of them hand-to-hand.
There was a rough moment when a wizard popped out of a side room and cast magic missile, mainly because nobody in the party can survive a full-damage magic missile. Luckily, he shot it at the NPC, who has a few more HP's, so everyone survived. After some mourning over his friends, Alexis took us to yet another location, an inn. There we meet another of his buddies, who explains more about the missing mcguffin, and gives a potential plan for retrieving it.
And boy, is the plan a doozy. Amigo wants us to hide in a turnip cart, sneak into Fort Doom (great name - love that subtle, understated villainy), go through the dungeon, which they stock with monsters specifically to devour prisoners, and finally, break into a vault-tower where they store magical items. Oh, and do it all in the middle of a garrison of soldiers and orcs.
A quick poll of the party reveals absolutely no interest in: a) the plan or b) retrieving the gem at all. So we decide to go with our own plan. Next time - breaking into Fort Doom.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Half-Made World: A Book Review
Wow. This book came out of nowhere and blew me away. It's without question the best new author pickup I've had since I randomly picked up Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville. Half-Made World has a lot of Mieville-esque elements to it, in fact. The novel is 1-part western, 1-part steampunk and 1-part horror, with a solid dash of fantasist, stirred just the right amount.
To an RPG gamer, especially one raised on the tradition of D&D, this book brings an interesting twist to the concepts of Law and Chaos. The fantastic, "half-made" west of the novel is a place where many of the traditional ideas of the western are taken from the realm of the psychological and made real. The world literally gets less real, less "formed" as one moves further west, and the western ocean is a sea of raw chaos from which gods, spirits and creatures form spontaneously.
Contesting for this potential country are the opposing forces of the Gun and the Line. The Gun is represented by the Agents - criminals and anarchists with supernatural powers who rely on subversion, sabotage and stealth. They prefer to avoid direct confrontation, and instead work through cats-paws and unknowing dupes. The chaos and lawlessness of the old west is a clear influence on the Gun, and the fact that their powers are granted directly by the spirit-infused weapons they bear makes the metaphor even stronger.
The Line, on the other hand, is represented by the Engines - massive locomotives possessed of malign intelligence that plot and scheme to spread their railway tendrils and industrial-hell stations across the land. Thousands of Men of the Line serve them - hammered into faceless cogs by the infernal sound of the engines. Black-clad, gas-mask wearing and using steampunk weapons like motor-guns and heavier-than-air helicopters, the Line are methodical, unstoppable and terrifying forces of "progress".
The two forces clash in the "unfinished" west as they both try to capture an old man, once general of the fallen and near mythical Red River Republic - the Camelot of the west, that once defied and fought off both the Gun and the Line, until it was torn down by both Powers. The main characters, a female doctor from the settled north and a rebellious Agent of the Gun, flee from the Line into the far west, where they encounter the last remnants of a fallen history, and things far worse cast up out of the chaos of the western oceans.
The book has great characters, a setting that manages to be both fresh and familiar, and a great mythic-horror-western feel. Lots to recommend here - I haven't heard of Felix Gilman before this, but he's on my must-read list now.
To an RPG gamer, especially one raised on the tradition of D&D, this book brings an interesting twist to the concepts of Law and Chaos. The fantastic, "half-made" west of the novel is a place where many of the traditional ideas of the western are taken from the realm of the psychological and made real. The world literally gets less real, less "formed" as one moves further west, and the western ocean is a sea of raw chaos from which gods, spirits and creatures form spontaneously.
Contesting for this potential country are the opposing forces of the Gun and the Line. The Gun is represented by the Agents - criminals and anarchists with supernatural powers who rely on subversion, sabotage and stealth. They prefer to avoid direct confrontation, and instead work through cats-paws and unknowing dupes. The chaos and lawlessness of the old west is a clear influence on the Gun, and the fact that their powers are granted directly by the spirit-infused weapons they bear makes the metaphor even stronger.
The Line, on the other hand, is represented by the Engines - massive locomotives possessed of malign intelligence that plot and scheme to spread their railway tendrils and industrial-hell stations across the land. Thousands of Men of the Line serve them - hammered into faceless cogs by the infernal sound of the engines. Black-clad, gas-mask wearing and using steampunk weapons like motor-guns and heavier-than-air helicopters, the Line are methodical, unstoppable and terrifying forces of "progress".
The two forces clash in the "unfinished" west as they both try to capture an old man, once general of the fallen and near mythical Red River Republic - the Camelot of the west, that once defied and fought off both the Gun and the Line, until it was torn down by both Powers. The main characters, a female doctor from the settled north and a rebellious Agent of the Gun, flee from the Line into the far west, where they encounter the last remnants of a fallen history, and things far worse cast up out of the chaos of the western oceans.
The book has great characters, a setting that manages to be both fresh and familiar, and a great mythic-horror-western feel. Lots to recommend here - I haven't heard of Felix Gilman before this, but he's on my must-read list now.
Friday, November 26, 2010
OD&D, Session 4
With Castle Caldwell behind us, the merry band of adventurers now proceeds back to Guido's fort to receive our comparatively meager 100 gp each. Regrettably, I forgot to charge the 100 gp fee for Zhanna, our lost cleric. Have to remember that in the future.
Zhanna has since been replaced by another elf, we've brought on Earnest's mage, and the thief has returned from wherever he disappeared to last session. We've also picked up Ceeay, who has "heard about another really cool god, called Alphaks the Roarer" that she's going to worship since we told her Orcus was "kind of a dick". This is going to be an ongoing thing, I feel.
We also still have Fritz driving/guarding the cart. Which is handy because it contains many thousands of pieces of silver and a not-inconsiderable amount of gems and jewelry. Pretty good start to our careers, actually.
After paying us off, Clifton tells us that he's had a message from a friend of his, who is himself possessed of an ancestral castle. It has apparently been "lost" for a while, although how one loses a castle I have no idea. Now that it's found (perhaps it was between the couch cushions, that happens to me with my castles a lot), he'd like somebody to clear it out. Since we now have "credentials" on the castle-clearing front, we're offered the job.
And he's willing to pay 500 gp each, with half up front. We get the money, and the thief immediately asks, "so what should we go do instead?" Which isn't a bad questions, since we just got a bag with 1000 gp in it. After some discussion, we come to the conclusion that we "don't have fuck-all else to do, and look how well the last castle job turned out." Well, except for Zhanna... But whatever.
Of course, the downside is that the new-old castle is way over on the other side of Karameikos, close the to inventively-named "Black Eagle Barony". Karameikos isn't really that big - it's about 200 miles across and maybe 100 miles north-south, and we're pretty much smack in the middle, so we only have about 150 miles or so to travel - first south to good 'ole Speculum-City, then across to Luln.
In planning the trip, we discovered some interesting things about overland travel in the Rules Cyclopedia world.
1) Horses are stupid-fast. Apparently a riding horse on a standard trail can go 72 miles in a day. That seems... excessive to me. Some basic internet research shows that 100 miles in a day is about the most possible, and can generally only highly trained or exceptional riders can maintain that - the equivalent of modern marathoners. I'd say 50 would be more reasonable, but I might be wrong, so I'll just deal with it.
2) You get a lot of encounters. Even in clear/settled terrain. Standard is d6 during the day, and d12 at night, with encounters occurring on 1's (or more in rougher areas). Also, in almost every environment, 1 chance in 8 is a "Dragon" type encounter. That basically means that on average, every 48 days of travel, one encounters a Dragon. Which explains why the roads seem so quiet. How the fuck does Specularum feed itself? I guess maybe farmers travel at night, very cautiously, and dragons don't eat turnips?
Anywhoo, we had several encounters on our trip south. We ran into some orcs. They attacked us so we cast Sleep on them (why have an AK-47 and not use it?). Luckily, they all went to sleep, so we killed them, and discovered that they had $5000 gp in a sack by the road. Aren't random treasure tables wonderful? I'm starting to see the attraction of treasure parcels. But I'm also not complaining!
Then we encountered a couple of bodies with some trained war-wolves standing over them protectively. Through some inspired animal-training, the thief of the party now has 2 loyal trained war-wolves. Which should come in handy!
Once we reached Specularum, we had some work done on the cart - added sidewalls for better defense, and hired 2 light footmen to assist in guarding it - Frizt's son and his wife - so it's a family affair now. Plus, light footmen cost 2 gp/month, so we have enough just from the orcs to pay them for... 104 1/8 years. Good job security, I say!
Further down the road we ran into some giant ants. They gave us a nasty turn when 1 sleep spell only put 2 of them to sleep! Luckily, we have 3 casters, and the second spell did the trick. Ant-shell helmets for everyone! And then I had to go to bed, so we called it a night.
I'm not sure I'm loving this game, but playing it as written is sure informative. I see reasons why many changes were made to it over the years...
Zhanna has since been replaced by another elf, we've brought on Earnest's mage, and the thief has returned from wherever he disappeared to last session. We've also picked up Ceeay, who has "heard about another really cool god, called Alphaks the Roarer" that she's going to worship since we told her Orcus was "kind of a dick". This is going to be an ongoing thing, I feel.
We also still have Fritz driving/guarding the cart. Which is handy because it contains many thousands of pieces of silver and a not-inconsiderable amount of gems and jewelry. Pretty good start to our careers, actually.
After paying us off, Clifton tells us that he's had a message from a friend of his, who is himself possessed of an ancestral castle. It has apparently been "lost" for a while, although how one loses a castle I have no idea. Now that it's found (perhaps it was between the couch cushions, that happens to me with my castles a lot), he'd like somebody to clear it out. Since we now have "credentials" on the castle-clearing front, we're offered the job.
And he's willing to pay 500 gp each, with half up front. We get the money, and the thief immediately asks, "so what should we go do instead?" Which isn't a bad questions, since we just got a bag with 1000 gp in it. After some discussion, we come to the conclusion that we "don't have fuck-all else to do, and look how well the last castle job turned out." Well, except for Zhanna... But whatever.
Of course, the downside is that the new-old castle is way over on the other side of Karameikos, close the to inventively-named "Black Eagle Barony". Karameikos isn't really that big - it's about 200 miles across and maybe 100 miles north-south, and we're pretty much smack in the middle, so we only have about 150 miles or so to travel - first south to good 'ole Speculum-City, then across to Luln.
In planning the trip, we discovered some interesting things about overland travel in the Rules Cyclopedia world.
1) Horses are stupid-fast. Apparently a riding horse on a standard trail can go 72 miles in a day. That seems... excessive to me. Some basic internet research shows that 100 miles in a day is about the most possible, and can generally only highly trained or exceptional riders can maintain that - the equivalent of modern marathoners. I'd say 50 would be more reasonable, but I might be wrong, so I'll just deal with it.
2) You get a lot of encounters. Even in clear/settled terrain. Standard is d6 during the day, and d12 at night, with encounters occurring on 1's (or more in rougher areas). Also, in almost every environment, 1 chance in 8 is a "Dragon" type encounter. That basically means that on average, every 48 days of travel, one encounters a Dragon. Which explains why the roads seem so quiet. How the fuck does Specularum feed itself? I guess maybe farmers travel at night, very cautiously, and dragons don't eat turnips?
Anywhoo, we had several encounters on our trip south. We ran into some orcs. They attacked us so we cast Sleep on them (why have an AK-47 and not use it?). Luckily, they all went to sleep, so we killed them, and discovered that they had $5000 gp in a sack by the road. Aren't random treasure tables wonderful? I'm starting to see the attraction of treasure parcels. But I'm also not complaining!
Then we encountered a couple of bodies with some trained war-wolves standing over them protectively. Through some inspired animal-training, the thief of the party now has 2 loyal trained war-wolves. Which should come in handy!
Once we reached Specularum, we had some work done on the cart - added sidewalls for better defense, and hired 2 light footmen to assist in guarding it - Frizt's son and his wife - so it's a family affair now. Plus, light footmen cost 2 gp/month, so we have enough just from the orcs to pay them for... 104 1/8 years. Good job security, I say!
Further down the road we ran into some giant ants. They gave us a nasty turn when 1 sleep spell only put 2 of them to sleep! Luckily, we have 3 casters, and the second spell did the trick. Ant-shell helmets for everyone! And then I had to go to bed, so we called it a night.
I'm not sure I'm loving this game, but playing it as written is sure informative. I see reasons why many changes were made to it over the years...
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
OD&D, Session 3
Onward, into the depths (the horizontal, well-lit depths) of Castle Caldwell!
We used a Sleep spell on the Pearl Necklace Gang in the last session, so the party took the cart back to Guido's Fort for a well-earned sleep and feed. Love those 20 minute adventuring days!
My character has done maybe 40 minutes of real work in this place, and we've looted about 100 years worth of earnings for a hard-working carter. Put down the tools! Pick up the sword and adventure! It's like the lottery but with poisonings and eviscerations!
The next day - sleep spells reloaded, we head back to Castle Caldwell. A few people can't make it, so we bring in Jenny's husband Earnest as a ringer, and Jenny rolls up a new character. A second elf! Yaay! And Earnest is a mage. Now we have 3 sleep spells. Monsters, beware!
Nobody is really sure where these other characters are coming from, but whatever - there are doors to open. Cause that's pretty much all there is to do in 'ole C.C. Lots of doors with stuff behind them. Verrrry retro.
The next door we open - after checking the inevitably empty corner tower, contains a very attractive female in plate armor with a mace. She is kneeling in front of a small altar. As we enter, she turns and says "Greetings, are you here for service?" "What god are we servicing to?" I inquire. Politeness counts, people!
"Orcus" she says (we may retcon this to be Aphaks the Roarer). So I cast a sleep spell on her.
Then we strip off the armor, tie her up and loot the room. Man, this post devolved into fanfic pretty fast.
Once we've looted and oogled, we wake her up and ask some questions. Turns out, her name is Ceeay (stands for C.A., which stands for Chaotic Acolyte). She's been here about a week, just wandered in and set up a shrine. She doesn't know very much about Orcus (or whoever) but she's keen to be an acolyte of something. She proves sane and reasonable, albeit totally naive and inexperienced, so we get her to promise to help us out in exchange for 1/5th of the treasure, untie her and now we have a henchwoman/back-up character.
Then we check more empty rooms, find some stirges and a talking statue of a Herdsman which answers 3 questions - we can only think of 2, "what is the most dangerous monster in the castle?" and "how do we get into the magically locked room?"
Answers are: "Giant crab-spider that hangs from the ceiling" and "with the key that the owner of the castle has", accordingly. So that's handy.
Then we find some sleeping merchants - well, ex-merchants - they left their mule, loaded with silver and pearl necklaces, outside, but it was stolen. They agree that they are crappy merchants, and leave when we suggest it - citing the impending arrival of the owner of the castle, and the fact that we took away their weapons while they were asleep, as reasons why they should go.
More rooms - we find an internal grassy courtyard with some wolves in it. Apparently the wolves were trapped here when the merchants shut the door. Why they were in here instead of the FOREST remains a mystery that we will never solve. We kill the wolves and find some kobolds - upon which time we cast sleep and initiate operation "Chunky Kobold Salsa". Apparently the new elf doesn't like kobolds. Fingolfin speaks Kobold, which suggests at least some affinity for the scaly little assholes. But that doesn't stop him from finishing them off.
Finally, we encounter the spider-crab thing. Sleep spell. Splat. During the fighting, the new wizard proves to be preternaturally accurate with his sling. He hits 5 times in a row in a battle against the stirges, and Ceeay proves to be a loyal and a biddable meat shield. So that's good.
Eventually, we get to the big payoff - a massive chest in the magically locked room. It contains a scrap of paper which reads "thanks for the treasure - Bargle". Like we needed more reason to hate that asshat. I never did get to nail Aleena. Maybe I'll have better luck with the current attractive female cleric (are henchman allowed to say "No"? - Discuss)?
We left the Castle and returned to the owner, blissfully unaware that we missed the incredibly sucky "Beneath Castle Caldwell" - the entrance was under the giant chest. Presumably the new owner will find it, but we're off to do something better. Like modules produced after 1981.
Also, I think we answered the question "why would you use a pseudonym when writing a module"? The answer of course, is that you're shit at it, and don't want your name attached to it, or people will be coming up to you at Cons and kicking you right in the sack.
We used a Sleep spell on the Pearl Necklace Gang in the last session, so the party took the cart back to Guido's Fort for a well-earned sleep and feed. Love those 20 minute adventuring days!
My character has done maybe 40 minutes of real work in this place, and we've looted about 100 years worth of earnings for a hard-working carter. Put down the tools! Pick up the sword and adventure! It's like the lottery but with poisonings and eviscerations!
The next day - sleep spells reloaded, we head back to Castle Caldwell. A few people can't make it, so we bring in Jenny's husband Earnest as a ringer, and Jenny rolls up a new character. A second elf! Yaay! And Earnest is a mage. Now we have 3 sleep spells. Monsters, beware!
Nobody is really sure where these other characters are coming from, but whatever - there are doors to open. Cause that's pretty much all there is to do in 'ole C.C. Lots of doors with stuff behind them. Verrrry retro.
The next door we open - after checking the inevitably empty corner tower, contains a very attractive female in plate armor with a mace. She is kneeling in front of a small altar. As we enter, she turns and says "Greetings, are you here for service?" "What god are we servicing to?" I inquire. Politeness counts, people!
"Orcus" she says (we may retcon this to be Aphaks the Roarer). So I cast a sleep spell on her.
Then we strip off the armor, tie her up and loot the room. Man, this post devolved into fanfic pretty fast.
Once we've looted and oogled, we wake her up and ask some questions. Turns out, her name is Ceeay (stands for C.A., which stands for Chaotic Acolyte). She's been here about a week, just wandered in and set up a shrine. She doesn't know very much about Orcus (or whoever) but she's keen to be an acolyte of something. She proves sane and reasonable, albeit totally naive and inexperienced, so we get her to promise to help us out in exchange for 1/5th of the treasure, untie her and now we have a henchwoman/back-up character.
Then we check more empty rooms, find some stirges and a talking statue of a Herdsman which answers 3 questions - we can only think of 2, "what is the most dangerous monster in the castle?" and "how do we get into the magically locked room?"
Answers are: "Giant crab-spider that hangs from the ceiling" and "with the key that the owner of the castle has", accordingly. So that's handy.
Then we find some sleeping merchants - well, ex-merchants - they left their mule, loaded with silver and pearl necklaces, outside, but it was stolen. They agree that they are crappy merchants, and leave when we suggest it - citing the impending arrival of the owner of the castle, and the fact that we took away their weapons while they were asleep, as reasons why they should go.
More rooms - we find an internal grassy courtyard with some wolves in it. Apparently the wolves were trapped here when the merchants shut the door. Why they were in here instead of the FOREST remains a mystery that we will never solve. We kill the wolves and find some kobolds - upon which time we cast sleep and initiate operation "Chunky Kobold Salsa". Apparently the new elf doesn't like kobolds. Fingolfin speaks Kobold, which suggests at least some affinity for the scaly little assholes. But that doesn't stop him from finishing them off.
Finally, we encounter the spider-crab thing. Sleep spell. Splat. During the fighting, the new wizard proves to be preternaturally accurate with his sling. He hits 5 times in a row in a battle against the stirges, and Ceeay proves to be a loyal and a biddable meat shield. So that's good.
Eventually, we get to the big payoff - a massive chest in the magically locked room. It contains a scrap of paper which reads "thanks for the treasure - Bargle". Like we needed more reason to hate that asshat. I never did get to nail Aleena. Maybe I'll have better luck with the current attractive female cleric (are henchman allowed to say "No"? - Discuss)?
We left the Castle and returned to the owner, blissfully unaware that we missed the incredibly sucky "Beneath Castle Caldwell" - the entrance was under the giant chest. Presumably the new owner will find it, but we're off to do something better. Like modules produced after 1981.
Also, I think we answered the question "why would you use a pseudonym when writing a module"? The answer of course, is that you're shit at it, and don't want your name attached to it, or people will be coming up to you at Cons and kicking you right in the sack.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Fantasy Webcomic Lessons
There are some great webcomics out there on the underwebs. In addition to being entertaining and cool to read, they can be a great source for DM inspiration. Here are some of my favorite gaming webcomics, along with a cool gaming lesson I got from reading the comic:
Order of the Stick: The classic gaming webcomic. OotS teaches us, above all, the value of the villain. Xykon the Lich is exactly the kind of bad guy that the whole party can really love to hate. Better yet, he presents a real threat. Xykon is a capable adversary and comes back to (un)life, so you can use him over and over!
Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic: The name says it all. This is a long-running fantasy comic that has run a number of plotlines over the years. Starting off as a Dungeon-Keeper-esque monster comic, it's since evolved into an interesting collection of fantasy stories.
There are a ton of different ideas you can get from this comic, but the one that really jumped out at me is the way that the adventures have large-scale impact on the world. Kingdoms rise and fall, village and cities are destroyed and the world changes. Making sure that the actions of the players have an impact on the world is a great way to keep them engaged in the game.
There are a ton of different ideas you can get from this comic, but the one that really jumped out at me is the way that the adventures have large-scale impact on the world. Kingdoms rise and fall, village and cities are destroyed and the world changes. Making sure that the actions of the players have an impact on the world is a great way to keep them engaged in the game.
Erfworld: What if you lived in a turn-based strategy game? Erfworld is funny, violent and all-around great. The funny aspect of Erfworld really caught my attention. My best memories of gaming are the funny moments, intentional or, more often, unintentional. The best lesson I got from Erfworld is that you can tell an awesome story AND keep your party snickering at the same time.
Goblins: Goblin PC's, lots of violence, and a character called Minmax. What's not to like? A couple of things from the Goblins comic really stand out for me. The first is that a little metagaming is not a bad thing. The characters in this comic (and OotS for that matter) discuss game rules the way we discuss things like gravity or oxygen - they represent the natural laws of the world, and therefore, must be talked about. So let the players chat about rules and metagame - no need to even assume it's out of character...
The other really cool thing about Goblins, is the reminder that random tables are AWESOME. Complains the goblin has a magical shield that causes a random effect when it is struck by a weapon. It creates the most excellent fight scene in the comic so far, and random effects can have equally awesome impacts on your game, if you can let them (but then, I played a Wild Mage when Tome of Magic came out).
Challenges of Zona: This is a bit of a weird one. It's got sex, violence and classic rock and roll, though! The best lesson I learned from Zona is that heroes should be heroic. There needs to be something that sets the characters apart from the common ruck of humanity - something that makes focusing on their adventures exciting and worthwhile. Zona, Mentl, Tula and even Yatta-Ta (of Ir Anis) are capital-H heroes, which is what I think that characters in RPG's should be.
Girl Genius: Setting, setting, setting. The three rules of fantasy real-estate! The great characters, cool art and generally excellent steampunk/mad science story notwithstanding, it's the setting that really sets (hehe) Girl Genius apart from other webcomics.
Alternative history/fantasy Europe, ruled by a powerful, ruthless Baron? Check.
Crawling with monsters and worse, mad scientists? Check.
Huge castle built by generations of the most insane and villainous of all the mad scientists? Check.
Castle AI fragmented, homicidal and insane, with thousands of death traps at it's command? Check.
Awesome? Check and double check.
Anything I missed? What are your favorite fantasy webcomics, and what gaming lessons did they teach you?
The other really cool thing about Goblins, is the reminder that random tables are AWESOME. Complains the goblin has a magical shield that causes a random effect when it is struck by a weapon. It creates the most excellent fight scene in the comic so far, and random effects can have equally awesome impacts on your game, if you can let them (but then, I played a Wild Mage when Tome of Magic came out).
Challenges of Zona: This is a bit of a weird one. It's got sex, violence and classic rock and roll, though! The best lesson I learned from Zona is that heroes should be heroic. There needs to be something that sets the characters apart from the common ruck of humanity - something that makes focusing on their adventures exciting and worthwhile. Zona, Mentl, Tula and even Yatta-Ta (of Ir Anis) are capital-H heroes, which is what I think that characters in RPG's should be.
Girl Genius: Setting, setting, setting. The three rules of fantasy real-estate! The great characters, cool art and generally excellent steampunk/mad science story notwithstanding, it's the setting that really sets (hehe) Girl Genius apart from other webcomics.
Alternative history/fantasy Europe, ruled by a powerful, ruthless Baron? Check.
Crawling with monsters and worse, mad scientists? Check.
Huge castle built by generations of the most insane and villainous of all the mad scientists? Check.
Castle AI fragmented, homicidal and insane, with thousands of death traps at it's command? Check.
Awesome? Check and double check.
Anything I missed? What are your favorite fantasy webcomics, and what gaming lessons did they teach you?
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