tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50097405826017716682024-03-12T19:50:42.149-07:00Armchair DemiurgeThere is no character death. Only death of character. ~ K.CantrellAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-79562222578181338152018-04-20T10:35:00.002-07:002018-04-20T10:35:57.569-07:00Why I haven't been postingDear readers,<br />
<br />
On the off-chance that anybody is wondering why I haven't been updating this blog, here is the long-overdue explanation.<br />
<br />
I have a baby now. Her name is Percy and she is about as good a baby as anybody could ask for. <br />
<br />
I also got a job to support said baby and her mother. It was a long and difficult search for employment. The work is of a technical nature. It is demanding, but pays reasonably well.<br />
<br />
But as a result, I just don't have the time or imagination I used to have to spare for Satan's Game.<br />
I joke about how I will run my Grand Campaign in the retirement home. That is of course my being facetious. I will no doubt get to induct my child into the mysteries of DnD in the meantime.<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-1504376827581962372017-11-10T09:47:00.002-08:002017-11-10T09:47:42.824-08:00The Function of "Tricks"<br />
The "trick" or "special" encounter is an important element of D&D. But though trick encounters are mandated in the "chamber contents" table, they have gotten short shrift in the official rules. I have often floundered attempting to implement them in adventures. (Especially in my B/X experiments, in which 1 in 6 encounters are "Special.") <br />
In this post, I am trying to clarify my approach to them, and to create a process which can be easily and harmoniously implemented in adventure design. <br />
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This post is largely inspired by <a href="http://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/2017/10/starting-frame-for-monster-encounters.html" target="_blank">This entry in Tao of D&D</a>. In which Alexis proposes that Monsters can be categorized by their relationship to the environment, and by extension, how they function in encounters.<br />
Alexis puts forth 5 broad categories to define what kind of encounters a monster can provide, based on their ecological niche. In subsequent posts, Alexis shows how this provides a rationale which frees the DM from the arbitrary caprice of a random encounter table, and demonstrates how this Monster-Rational can be used to design an adventure to damn-near-completion in relatively little time.<br />
This line of thought is frankly the most useful DMing advice I have ever encountered in the blogosphere. It is simple and effective, and a little painfully obvious after it has been spelled out for you.<br />
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The essence of this advice, I think, is that a DM should not be distracted by the <i><b>Form</b></i> an encounter takes, but should make design choices based upon the <i><b>Function</b></i> of the encounter. So rather than arbitrarily inserting a random trick in room x, the DM will select tricks based upon what makes sense in context and what serves the flow of the adventure.<br />
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After a little brainstorming, here are my <b>Functional Categories for Tricks</b>:<br />
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<b>Art and Installation Pieces</b>: Meant to inform or entertain explorers, or waste their time. A corpse trapped in amber, a distinctive sculpture of an unknown creature. A friend of mine ran a dungeon where we found a painting of an NPC we had met before, with someone else we had not. Little did we know that the scene in the painting hinted at a deeper conspiracy.<br />
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<b>Debuff</b>: Meant to disable, or confound a character's usual capabilities. This includes anything which damages a character's numbers, and more subtle effects which confuse or interfere with them. For instance, evil plants which are basically harmless, but would still confuse an attempt to detect evil.<br />
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<b>Environment Changer</b>: Changes the layout or environmental effects of a location, perhaps opening or closing paths or creating new challenges. A switch which opens a floodgate and drains a pool, revealing a previously submerged passageway would be an example of this.<br />
<br />
<b>Environmental Effect</b>: Incidental to the environment, but with a tangible effect upon the PCs: Smoke, extreme heat or cold, gravity shifts, magical fields. Possibly subject to and Environment Changer.<br />
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<b>Evidence of Influence</b>: A mysterious effect which hints at the presence of a significant creature or NPC, perhaps intelligent or powerful. In a friend's campaign, we came upon a valley populated by basilisks and archerai. But oddly, they did not attack us. Suddenly, a mighty Roc appeared and snatched up one of these hapless monsters while we hid in a nearby ravine. We were later to learn that this odd ecology was the work of a powerful NPC we were soon to meet. But the sheer mystery of the moment and the sudden tension makes this scene my favorite moment from that campaign. Or it could be something less spectacular, like an alarm spell or arcane eye which give evidence of a nearby wizard.<br />
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<b>Lure</b>: Bait to tempt the PCs into danger. The danger may be hidden or obvious.<br />
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<b>Qualifiers</b>: An encounter which is meant to limit, but not entirely bar access to something. If an ancient wizard wanted to preserve his library for posterity, while ensuring that it would be properly appreciated and used, these are the kinds of encounters you might place in his tomb/laboratory <br />
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<b>Scarecrow</b>: A threat which seems credible from the PC's perspective and dissuades them from a certain course of action. Might be placed on purpose by an intelligent creature, or incidental to the environment: A giant, complete skeleton sits athwart a passageway. Think it will animate and attack, or did it just lay down and die there?<br />
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<b>Secret Doors, Hidden Objects</b>: Any case in which access to something is obfuscated, whether by design or merely incidentally. <br />
<br />
<b>Tool</b>: An object or effect which serves a useful purpose, even if that purpose is unknown or surprising to the players. This should be relevant to the setting: A Zone of Truth cast in a magistrates' chambers, or a statue which translates languages in a public plaza, or an apparatus which extends a bridge over a chasm.<br />
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<b>Transporters</b>: A trick which moves characters or objects, either for good or ill, by mundane or magical means. Collapsing floors, rotating walls, powerful torrents of wind or water, and being picked up and carried to Anor Londo by demons are examples of this. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not included in this list: The Time-Waster</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Of course these categories are broad, and not the specific forms of Tricks. I figure that when you want to include a trick, the broader context should inform the specifics.<br />
<br />
For help with specifics of Form, I suggest <a href="http://angband.oook.cz/steamband/Tricks.pdf" target="_blank">"Tricks, Empty Rooms & Basic Trap Design" By Courtney C. Campbell</a>. It is a very interesting and useful document for adventure design. I would describe it as the equivalent of the Monster Manual for Tricks and Empty rooms. It
provides a great list of examples and Forms of tricks. But like the MM,
it neglects Function and context.<br />
<br />
This Function First design is predicated on the idea that a D&D scenario should make sense. If there is an underlying rationale for the encounters, then I think that structure makes the game more fair. If the players can discover that rational, it offers another point of engagement to the game, and provides a tool for Agency.<br />
The opposite of Function First design would be Form First design. This is equivalent to building and running adventures from random tables. I have spent plenty of time trying to build adventures in this way, trying to discover and reproduce the "implied setting" of the tables in the official books.<br />
But the content produced in this way has almost always fallen flat. It fails to produce tension, and generates things which just don't make sense.<br />
The dice-roll says wild dogs appear, and that they are friendly. I convey this to the player, and I can feel the game implode.<br />
Using the Form-first, random generation approach to Tricks and Special encounters gives us stuff like a Book which Reduces/Enlarges a character, or a Pool which Grants a Wish. These two examples are fairly coherent as these things go. But now the burden is on me as a DM to actually run these encounters and make them interesting and relevant. Then suddenly, my adventure-building flow is staunched and I need a drink.<br />
So in order to protect my liver, I am embracing Function-First design.<br />
<br />
This work on Trick categories is tentative, and subject to later refinement. If you see any glaring omissions, or if you have good or bad results with this idea, let me know in the comments.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-35916005014333526262017-10-25T13:22:00.004-07:002017-10-25T13:34:39.325-07:00That game in Stranger Things<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Season 2 of Stranger Things is about to drop. And it's been a desperate year and a half of waiting. Steve and Eleven have been in TV commercials. Mike was in IT. This kind of nonsense goes to show how badly we are jonesing for another hit of our Netflix obsession.<br />
<br />
Stranger Things represents a new kind of sub-genre of TV and movies, which I will dub "80s kids vs. spooky stuff Nostalgia." This genre purposefully imitates movies like E.T, Monster Squad, The Goonies, or the Lost Boys.<br />
Another example of this would be the new IT movie, which for no accident was transplanted from its original setting the 50s to the 80s.<br />
<br />
In the base-genre of "kids vs spooky stuff", children or adolescents are confronted with threats and challenges beyond the pale of everyday life. This plays on a couple different levels: It is an exciting catharsis for children, who are continually challenged by their limitations as such. For adults, it is a reminder that childhood was not a carefree, idyllic state, but that it was frightening! The playground was a jungle, and <u>Lord of the Flies</u> is more ethnography than allegory.<br />
The 80s nostalgia element is appealing because it reminds us of how starkly life has changed since the advent of digital technology and the internet. 80s nostalgia shows us an era when "Free-Range" children were the rule and not the exception: Children swear gleefully whenever the parents are absent, which is often. Even the nerdy Indoor-Kids are feral by today's standards. <br />
When Will is being chased by the Demogorgon, he can't text his mom. The setting precludes this.
Instead, he runs for the shed and arms himself with a .22 rifle which he is clearly familiar with.<br />
<br />
But how does a small, shy, sensitive boy like Will develop these monster-slaying impulses?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">is how.</td></tr>
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<br />
Stranger Things is not a subtle work. The Duffer Bros. are gleefully obvious about their influences and homages. The first two scenes of ST clearly parallel those of E.T. In the first scene, we are shown something creepy which we don't understand yet. Then we cut to a group of suburban boys around a table playing what looks like a board game. Except it isn't a board game and it seems to involve a lot of arguing over magic spells. <br />
The title of the game is never explicitly mentioned - likely for reasons having to do with copyright and licensing - But to anyone in the know, it is clearly Dungeons & Dragons.<br />
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I love D&D, and I watched with glee as Stranger Things used it as a framing device to explain what was happening in the story. I was also pleased by how ST accurately portrayed D&D, which is something filmmakers have an odd difficulty with.<br />
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That the boys play D&D is as big a part of the 80s setting as the Cold War conspiracy or the landline phones. Dungeons and Dragons has been unspeakably influential in popular culture. But despite this, it is still thing which many people may have heard of, though they don't really know what it is.<br />
The purpose of this article is to clear the mist around D&D, in case it come up in the new season. <br />
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D&D is the original table top role-playing game. In this game, players cooperate to create a narrative in a shared imaginary space. But that is a lot to unpack. And explaining D&D is notoriously difficult to do well.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I hope/predict the science teacher will turn out to be a monster-slaying badass. Also, this is my face when I try to explain D&D.</td></tr>
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In the 50s and 60s, there were no videogames. Instead, there was War-gaming. War games were played with miniature plastic or pewter figurines, and there were rules for how the units could move and how to resolve attacks. Wargames evolved from exercises meant to teach tactics to military officers.<br />
<br />
Then, in the early 1970s, some guys developed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chainmail_(game)" target="_blank">rules for wargaming in a medieval setting</a>. In the back of the book, as an "afterthought," were additional rules for fantastic, Tolkien-esque battles. All the guys playing wargames then (as now) were really into science-fiction and fantasy. So Fantasy Wargaming caught on embarrassingly quickly. <br />
<br />
Almost immediately after, another guy in the same group of people had the Big Idea of changing the rules and the scale of the game so that instead of controlling a whole army of the field of battle, the players would control<b><i> individual characters as they stormed a castle dungeon</i></b>.<br />
<br />
This change lead to an entirely different sort of game. The scope of the action become much finer and more detailed. Players suddenly became interested in deciding what their character did, what they said, what they wanted to accomplish. The game became about playing out the adventures and careers of a small group of heroes, who were in a sense stand-ins for the players.<br />
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These rules were published as the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons. But this sort of game was so unlike anything else, that it would be several more years before the term "Role-Playing Game" was invented to describe it. In the years since, hosts of other RPGs have been developed, featuring all kinds of settings and rules-sets. But D&D is the most well known. Its medieval-fantasy setting is filled with ideas which new players can easily understand, and the rules are broad enough to be versatile. <br />
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When the ST kids are playing D&D, Mike is in charge of the game. He describes the scene, and the action, and the approach of the Demogorgon. Will, Lucas and Dustin have characters and discuss their plan of action. Mike has a cardboard screen hiding his side of the table where he keep his notes. <br />
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The action of a D&D game happens in the imaginations of the people playing. The figurines and maps on the table are not the point of the game, but merely a concrete reference so that the players can keep their shared imaginary space consistent.<br />
While the players of an RPG are generally responsible for a single character, one player is responsible for "Running" the game. He or she is the one who invents the scenarios, describes the scenes to the other players, adjudicates the rules, and describes the results of the players actions.<br />
In D&D, this player is called the Dungeon Master. The Dungeon Master (DM) places monsters, traps, mysteries and challenges before the players. But the DM is not the adversary of the other players. The DM's job is to manage a game which will challenge the players and keep them interested.<br />
A Dungeon Master wins when the other players are more interested in the game than in their phones. It's not an easy thing to do well, and this blog is basically a chronicle of my attempt to be good at DMing.<br />
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Traditional RPGs provided the foundations for electronic gaming. Most any game with fantasy themes, or in which characters have "classes" or "level up" has roots in D&D. Any videogame in which a character's capabilities are numerically quantified is said to have "RPG elements."<br />
Yet computer-based games lack much of the freedom, flexibility and spontaneity of table-top RPGs in which you and your friends are the program and system. Videogame titles are often praised for the variety of actions which they permit a player to take. But traditional RPGs are by their nature, games in which anything can be attempted, and there is no divide between the players and the creators of the game.<br />
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So if D&D and traditional RPGs have been so widely influential, why are they such an esoteric, occult sort of thing? Simply, because they've been Occulted.<br />
In the late 80s and early 90s, there was a bizarre moral panic in America, now referred to as the Satanic Panic. It was an odd resurgence in public fear of witchcraft and Satanism. If an unsolved crime was a little weird, local police would suspect that it was the work of Satanist. People would go to hypnotherapists and suddenly recover memories of "Satanic Ritual Abuse" in the same way they might suddenly remember being abducted by aliens.<br />
D&D was steamrolled by the Satanic Panic. The D&D rulebooks detail how to run magic and devilish creatures in the game. A certain demographic of people thought that these were <i><b>literal instruction-manuals</b></i> of sorcery and devil-worship, and decided that D&D players were The Enemy in the spiritual war for all of creation. A famous example of this ideology is the <a href="https://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.asp" target="_blank">infamous tract by Jack Chick</a>.<br />
In 1985, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yShqF1YSfDs" target="_blank">60 Minutes did a segment on the issue</a>, thus legitimizing the panic for the average TV watcher. <br />
This negative press and Satanic Panic spookified the hobby and drove it into obscurity. But this witchy vibe made it a fine accoutrement for a show like Stranger Things.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another victim of the Satanic Roleplaying scourge? </td></tr>
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There are plenty of fan theories and other articles which detail how the reference to the Demogorgon (a two-headed demon) is a metaphor for the link between Eleven and the monster. Or how the Upside-Down parallels the cosmology of certain D&D settings. So I won't go into that.<br />
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The first Season of ST had three parallel storylines going on; one with the adults, another for the teenagers, and another for the kids. Of these three groups, the kids are the most mentally well-equipped to confront the dangers which confront them, and they generally have the best idea of what is going on. By making Will, Mike, Lucas and Dustin into such strong protagonists, the Duffer Brothers are tacitly endorsing Dungeons and Dragons and saying that the game benefits its players.<br />
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I love D&D and RPGs. They are a game which the players can truly own, and which can be about anything and everything. Stranger Things is a fun show which endorses my enthusiasm. I hope that ST can help to introduce intelligent, interesting people to the hobby.<br />
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And frankly I hope to see even more of D&D fan-service in Season 2.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-53062414051506162722017-10-17T15:55:00.002-07:002017-10-17T15:55:42.270-07:00Marginal Magic ItemsHere is some stuff that I came up with when I was futzing around with the recent B/X adventure.<br />
The game was struggling and I wanted to drop some magical weapons and buffs in the players laps so that they would have a little more agency, be a little less fragile and generally feel encouraged.<br />
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Of course, pretty much every resource ever for D&D exhorts DMs to keep magical items on the top shelf, and to dole them out sparingly. But when I was first reading about B/X, I did not fail to notice the extreme fragility of the PCs. I realized that any decent equipment was very likely to outlast its owner, and I had a vision of a B/X as being about zany Vancian magical items and their succession of owners, rather than the other way around.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This kind of thing conveyed a sort of implied setting.</td></tr>
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With this in mind, I decided to split the difference by dreaming up some magical armaments and buffing items which would offer advantages which are significant at low level, without conferring as great a benefit as standard, listed items. And I wanted to design them in such a way as to make their use a tactical choice, thus giving players a shade more agency.<br />
For instance, a weapon which can can be +4 a limited number of times per day seems more fun than a weapon which is simply +1 all the time.<br />
<br />
<b>Keep in mind that these ideas and mechanics have hardly been play-tested</b>. Turns out my players lost interest in the adventure before they could get around to finding and experimenting with these toys, which were practically waiting for them in the next room. Next time I guess.<br />
Also, I'm holding back a few things because my core players read this blog.<br />
<br />
<b>Flame Projector aka the Dagger of Microtransaction</b><br />
This object looks like a flashlight, or a lightsaber. But good luck trying to describe it to your players without them imagining it as a sex toy. When the button in the handle (marked with the rune for fire) is pressed, it emits a cone of white-hot fire about a foot long. In combat, it works as a dagger which does fire damage rather than piercing damage. The hot flame easily and reliably ignites wood or rope, and can even heat steel to welding temperature.<br />
But this does not come for free. The pommel of the projector (marked with the arcane symbol for gold) screws off to reveal a cavity large enough for a single gold piece. 1gp provides 10 rounds of flame. <br />
<br />
The player who found this item was not too excited about it. I didn't tell him all about the item, and had him play out experimenting with it. He was expecting some kind Rod of FWACKOOMing, so the flame-dagger was a little disappointing. He was the one who first called it a micro-transaction dagger, because it costs a little money to use.<br />
<br />
Does this make me an asshole DM? maybe. But I felt it was important to include limiting factors in the marginal magical items. It seemed gamey, and like it would provide something useful to low-level characters without upsetting the power balance.<br />
<br />
I can admit that hitting them in the pocketbook is a niggly kind of way to impose a limit, and not the easiest to track in game. Fortunately a few others came to mind: capacity, recharge time, per time,
situational, user specific, requires exotic ingredient, or a to hit/damage handicap.<br />
<br />
<b>Theophanus' Aspergillium</b> is a weapon which has a limited capacity.<br />
More commonly known as a holy water sprinkler, an aspergillium is a baby-rattle like thing with a perforated head to hold a few shakes worth of holy water and sling it over a distance.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Theophanus's Aspergillium is a mace which can be "charged" with holy water. On a successful hit, it deals d8 of holy damage (to enemies with a vulnerability to holy water) in addition to bludgeoning damage. It can only do so 5 times, and then it functions as a normal mace. It can be charged again by using up a flask of holy water, which are generally available in D&D settings.<br />
<br />
<b>Firearms </b>also have a limited capacity. They way I run firearms, they ignore any armor bonus from conventional medieval armor, giving them a significant advantage. In a suitable, post-apocalyptic setting where ammo cannot be easily replenished, a handgun with a few shots could make a fine marginal magic item.<br />
<br />
<br />
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<b>3x3 Broadsword</b> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is a weapon limited on a per-timespan basis. 3 times a day it, can add +3 to hit. Of course, the base weapon type, bonus and times per day are all variable. I'd just keep the numbers small for easy counting. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Dagger of Spiders</b>: </div>
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It is also a per-timespan weapon. Can summon 1 hd of spiders / day, summons last a turn. They fall out of a portal on the hilt and quickly grow to full
size. You can see how this concept can also be scaled to dial in the overall power of the item, all the way up to the Kalashnikov of Slaad summoning.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I might also include weapons which are decidedly non-magical, but have some significant tweak to them, such as <b>Brittle weapon</b>: Does 1 extra point of damage, but breaks on
a natural 1 or 2. or <b>Lightly built weapons</b>, which have a bonus to hit, but do less damage.
</div>
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<br /></div>
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Of course, many of the above items can't be described as magical weapons. But what exactly makes an item "magical" is probably dependent upon the hidden logic of the game setting, and a topic for another post.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<b>Temporary buff items</b><br />
Besides armaments, I came up with a few other consumable items to help characters to survive.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
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</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Golden Stud of Saving</b>: A golden piercing which protects the
wearer from a failed save. Works once, then breaks.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Red Ribbon</b>: Offers 8 bonus HP. Then is destroyed, as
if it took the last hit for the wearer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Fiendish Barrister</b>: a calling card with arcane and demonic
script: “Legal Advocate. Any Place, Plane or Time. Call <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>upon Nerus.” Summons a charming, professional devil who will faithfully serve as negotiator or legal counsel.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Eyedrops of Unknown Providence</b>: user gains darkvision for a
24 hour period. (I have totally unbalanced games by including items like the Visor of Darkvision. Don't be like me. Let darkvision be a temporary buff rather than a permanent one)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Awakening Salts</b>: imbiber cannot be surprised for 48 hours.
Cannot sleep either. Bonus to any check involving perception. Penalty to any check involving not coming off like a crackhead.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<b>
</b><div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Surgeon’s gas</b>: one-time bonus to thief skills of 40% (if doing it AD&D) or 2 on
d6 rolls (in B/X) or +5 in later editions. A volatile liquid which usually comes in tiny glass ampules, in a wallet of 3 ampules. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or in a bottle with dozens of doses. Also
works for other feats of manual dexterity.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Parenthetical ending though</b>t: </div>
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This whole train of thought was a reaction to the sheer brutality and inutility I experienced with B/X.</div>
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The realization that a certain amount of statistical bonus actually facilitates gameplay has lead me to realize that from a game design perspective in D20 based systems, DMs need not be so miserly with numerical bonuses. Whether a PC has a +2 or a +7 bonus, they will still have bad rolls and streaks of inordinate bad luck to boot. The key thing is agency, and numerical advantage does not equate to agency. For instance, a cloak of spiderclimb does more to unhinge an adventure that a +5 sword. There is also a the element of equality among players. If PCs have a +5 attack, that is fine. The DM can easily adjust. But an issue arises when one PC has the +5 when the others don't, and has so much more agency that it begins to show in awkward ways.</div>
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</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-9305581000497570832017-10-11T13:11:00.002-07:002017-10-11T13:11:28.059-07:00The Samurai<br />
This post is a follow-up to my previous post. I vented my frustration with WotC and their anemic attempt to design a character class (the samurai) in a way that captures the appeal of the archetype.<br />
<br />
In this post, I will present my version of the samurai, and try to explain my rationale for the design choices.<br />
<br />
This careless treatment of the Samurai is nothing new.<br />
In the 3E version of Oriental Adventures, the samurai was technically identical to the standard fighter, but granted an "ancestral daisho," a +1 set of katana and wakizashi. While I appreciate that this approach gives the player and the DM freedom to interpret the samurai, it's pretty damn lazy, and practically pointless.<br />
Also, WotC should perhaps have known better than to still be using the term "Oriental" in 2001.<br />
The original Oriental Adventures from 1985 can get away with it.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/97/Oriental_Adventures_1st_Edition.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Oriental Adventures 1st Edition.jpeg" border="0" class="mw-mmv-final-image jpeg mw-mmv-dialog-is-open" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/97/Oriental_Adventures_1st_Edition.jpeg" /></a></div>
<br />
The AD&D version lavishes detail on its conception. In addition to a Samurai class, it has 2 additional classes which covers other aspects of the Samurai mystique.<br />
The Bushi class represents an impoverished samurai or ronin, who dabbles in banditry and relies on brute force. The Kensai focuses on sword-mastery. The Samurai-proper adheres to the code of bushido and has features which account for the social situation and cultural refinement expected of a respectable samurai.<br />
<br />
This level of grittiness seems to be intended to serve a campaign in which multiple players want to play "samurai," but want to distinguish their characters. In fact, the Oriental Adventures are probably best played as a separate, entirely Asian-themed campaign, rather than as an add-on to the typical Western motif. <br />
(To be honest, it is more natural-sounding to say Oriental than "Asian-themed.")<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/7e9c1b01-c655-42ff-aa1c-e8f7baae9658_2.3411175008179f4e721f06247b55feff.jpeg" class="shrinkToFit" height="233" src="https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/7e9c1b01-c655-42ff-aa1c-e8f7baae9658_2.3411175008179f4e721f06247b55feff.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Asian-Themed flavor?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
For the purposes of this post however, I will be treating the Samurai as a single class, and attempt to roll the various aspects of samurai-ness into a single class, suitable for interjection as a foreign element into an otherwise Western campaign, alongside the paladins and the Vancian magic-users.<br />
<br />
I agree with one of Mike Mearls' statements. To paraphrase; a samurai is a member of the warrior class from feudal japan. But how can you have a Japanese warrior if we are in D&D and there is no Japan? So we do have to take the samurai out of proper context to put it in D&D. The trick is to define the samurai outside of that context.<br />
<br />
The European Knight in Shining Armor has a fantasy surrounding it. The mystique of the Knight has a lot to do with moral values such as loyalty and chivalry and faith. In reality though, medieval knights were probably more like gangsters. Chivalry was an invention to curb their less admirable qualities. In my BS opinion as an armchair anthropologist, the warrior class of a feudal society is the warrior class of a feudal society. So historical samurai were a mixed bag like any other cross-section of society. So what is the fantasy of the samurai?<br />
It should go without saying that here I am discussing the fantasy and not the reality.<br />
<br />
Let's face it. As Westerners, our ideas about Samurai are informed by popular culture. Kurosawa movies like the Seven Samurai depict a certain pathos and hard-fatedness in the life of a samurai.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q_OdmzO8POY/WdwAOQqk9wI/AAAAAAAAAjw/pjJGVGOubPA1RBpNntoswsGlNIrNQSqiACLcBGAs/s1600/A%2Bfistful%2Bof%2Bdollars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="700" height="244" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q_OdmzO8POY/WdwAOQqk9wI/AAAAAAAAAjw/pjJGVGOubPA1RBpNntoswsGlNIrNQSqiACLcBGAs/s320/A%2Bfistful%2Bof%2Bdollars.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">While we're on the topic, y'all know this Classic Western is a scene-for-scene ripoff of Yojimbo, right?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Another big influence is the Book of Five Rings by Musashi. Musashi was a famous duelist who is said to have fought over 60 duels in his life, yet managed to die at a respectable age of cancer. His gimmick was that he used both wakizashi and katana when everyone else was just using the katana with both hands.<br />
The Bo5R is an eclectic work containing advice about life as a samurai, descriptions of how to fight in Musashi's signature style, zen-like musings, and general advice on how to keep your shit together. I once heard something about how corporate executives fetishized it along with the Art of War as a treatise on winning, and thus Bo5R entered Western pop culture.<br />
<br />
One thing clear from both Samurai movies and Bo5R is that being a Samurai is a mental game. The battle is won first in the mind. I think this has a lot to do with the religious background of the samurai. Zen and Buddhist thought emphasizes introspection and self awareness. "Mindfulness" is a virtue in Buddhism. By contrast, if you ever read any medieval romances, it becomes clear
that neither the characters or the author are very deep thinkers. <br />
The mystique of the knight has to do with external relationships; to Liege, to Christ, to Lady-fair, the mystique of the Samurai (and the monk) has to do with the relationship to self. The martial skill of the samurai is rooted in discipline and self control. <br />
<br />
So here it is. Starting with the standard fighter as a template, but without specific adjustments for a particular edition:<br />
<br />
<b>Alignment</b>: Samurai may not have a chaotic alignment. Most samurai observe a code of honor. And as a result of their social position, they will tend to favor the status quo. Also, their combat abilities depend on a disciplined and well-ordered mentality which cannot be supported by a chaotic perspective.<br />
<br />
<b>Weapon specialization</b>; Samurai are professional hereditary warriors, and favor martial weapons while disdaining "peasant" weapons. They will not be proficient in clubs, staves, maces, axes, slings, flails or any weapons which are adapted from a farm implement or tool such as sai or bill-hooks. They also disdain the use of sheilds, or "civilian" weaponry such as rapiers or blackjacks.<br />
As a result, they focus their training on weapons appropriate to a professional warrior: swords, daggers, spears, glaives, bows, crossbows, firearms and unarmed combat. They gain a bonus to attack with these weapons equal to their level in Samurai, divided by 4 and rounded up.<br />
<br />
<b>Danger sense</b>: Samurai discipline themselves to be in-the-moment and are difficult to surprise. frightening to peasants. They gain a bonus on any perception rolls that might prevent them from being surprised or ambushed. This bonus is equal to half their level in Samurai, rounded up. This does not apply to finding or spotting traps. <br />
<br />
<b>XP bonus</b>: When one samurai kills or defeats another in a duel or stand-up fight, the winner gains twice the XP for that combat. Samurai constantly compare themselves to eachother, and their reputations proceed them.<br />
<br />
<b>Honesty</b>: Because of their earnest mentality, samurai has a penalty of -2 to all bluff or disguise rolls. On the other hand, they are also more difficult to put one over on, and gain a bonus of +2 to sense motive.<br />
<br />
<b>Frightening to peasants</b>: A samurai is set apart from the lower classes, and will never be able to shed the mein of a samurai, which is frightening and impressive to peasants and serfs. Samurai will gain +2 to attempts to coerce or intimidate peasants.<br />
<br />
So there you go. We have some features which are meant to portray the refined combat style of a samurai, and a few more to help depict their social situaton and relation to the rest of the world. It may stand out that I didn't include anything about having a lord or a daimyo. But I wanted that part to be optional, not mandated. <br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-88940239607625576582017-10-05T17:44:00.002-07:002017-10-05T18:03:57.546-07:00Hasbro ruins D&D. Listen to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6VVT7THzIE" target="_blank">this shit</a>.<br />
(In a nutshell, Mike Mearls describes his grand conception of The Samurai in D&D. And it's nothing but lukewarm diarrhea. He is very excited and pleased about this attempt to re-package the samurai as a fighter variant. They have dismantled everything remotely interesting about playing a samurai or what that might mean, and reduced it to a mere temporary buff. Because apparently this is what the fanboys want)<br />
<br />
This is the public, official version of Satan's Game. And people are paying money for it because they don't know any better.<br />
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Now I don't mean to make too much personal slight here; at least no more than a person deserves for having bad ideas about how to play D&D. I'm sure Mike Mearls is a nice guy who loves his family and who pays his taxes. He's clearly very intelligent. You can tell because he has a solid perspective on what The Seven Samurai is about, and he can hardly compress his train of thought into words.<br />
<br />
But holy crap, did he say this is what the Forums wanted?? So WotC is now designing D&D by focus group. And an internet forum is like a focus group, except you don't have to pay them.<br />
<br />
He says that people want to <i>use the word</i> samurai to describe their character. What an odd way to put it. It is clear to him that people don't actually mean they want to play a noble born warrior from feudal Japan. So what the shit is a samurai if not that? I also wonder why this is clear to him. Was it made clear by people in the forums? Or is it so clear that he just assumes it?<br />
<br />
So at WotC, the approach to designing a Thing begins with taking the Thing out of the context which defines the Thing, and imitating the comic book or movie version of the Thing. Whatever that means.<br />
<br />
As an aside, he makes clear that they use the same approach with the Knight. According to Mearls and WotC, the knight is another thing that people say they want to play, but they don't mean it.<br />
<br />
Mearls clearly knows about knights and samurai: That they swear fealty to lords, and that they are elite because horses and armor and weaponry are expensive. But he throws these aspects out the window when designing the class according to the insights from the unpaid forum members.<br />
<br />
(Never mind that having a fealty relationship or economic concerns make great motivations for adventures and are generally solid plot devices.)<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l_qmssWh0uk/WdbOn1EMKoI/AAAAAAAAAjM/RUB850DiPQ0zkJ9tCbszecp8xwvxVF-jQCLcBGAs/s1600/Botw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l_qmssWh0uk/WdbOn1EMKoI/AAAAAAAAAjM/RUB850DiPQ0zkJ9tCbszecp8xwvxVF-jQCLcBGAs/s320/Botw.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At least better plot devices than frickin' Amnesia. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Mearls knows that there is something interesting about the samurai persona. But this whole nebulous thing somehow gets reduced to a temporary buff to attack and HP. I guess this is what they got out of the forums.<br />
<br />
"Hey guys. What makes an interesting adventure to you? What makes a game of D&D better?"<br />
"We like it when our characters hit stuff and don't die."<br />
"So you mean an honest-to-goodness tactical challenge?"<br />
"No. Just higher numbers to add to a dice roll."<br />
<br />
Mearls finishes by getting really excited: Something about how the use of a temporary bonus will cause the player to cathartically identify with the fighting spirit of the samurai.<br />
Does he really believe this? Are there people who play D&D who are that simple?<br />
<br />
"Ok guys. So how big do you think the temporary bonus should be?"<br />
"Oh, really big. The numbers stand for my immersion in the game. The more bonuses, the better the game is."<br />
"We knew it all along! This is going to be the best version of D&D ever. Let's make some youtube videos!" <br />
<br />
Jesus. As best I can figure, the reason for this kind of crap is that D&D is not owned by people who care about D&D. Wizards of the Coast is a subsidiary of HASBRO. The same company that owns My Little Pony and keeps licensing Transformers movies. We have to call it a Spirit Board now because the Ouija board is trademarked. Shepherding the refinement of the table top RPG is not their priority.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See?</td></tr>
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It grinds my gears.<br />
In my next post, I'm going to present a samurai class of my own design. I don't even care about samurai or plan to include them in any adventures in the future. I just want to show that it can be done better. <br />
<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-9090647060268034452017-10-02T17:43:00.002-07:002017-10-02T17:43:28.205-07:00I tried 5E too.Admittedly, I took a long break from this blog. I had a lot of life-changes over the last couple years and didn't have the benefit of being around my accustomed people. But I still got a little gaming in.<br />
<br />
In this interim, I got a chance to try Fifth Edition. it was only one session with a group that I dropped into. But it was a good chance to look at the rules and make a character and try the rules.<br />
<br />
In short, here are my impressions. Let me restate that 3rd Edition is my main basis for comparison.<br />
<br />
1. Mechanics: The system is essentially the D20 system. But the mechanics are significantly unified and streamlined. Good.<br />
<br />
2. Power levels: Characters are both more powerful and harder to kill. I think the power-creep has gone to far. But certain aspects make sense.<br />
<br />
3. Forced roleplaying: There are actual mechanics meant to inspire "roleplaying." They suck. Maybe they are a necessary crutch for some. I don't know.<br />
<br />
4. Me hating other people's fun in a petty sort of way: Exotic character races and bizarre prestige classes are normalized and made mundane and thus irrelevant. This contributes to power-creep and to a blandification-of-the-weird. It legitimates the sort of self-indulgence which I find to be in poor tastes.<br />
<br />
Mechanics<br />
Like 3rd, 5E has us rolling a d20 and adding a modifier to beat a Difficulty most any time we need to ask a question of the universe (aside from damage rolls.) The difference is that the classifications of different sorts of rolls has been pared down, lending to more simplicity.<br />
For instance, saving throws and skill checks are both simply "checks." I like the elimination of Saving throws as a separate category. In 3E, all saves had to be classified as either Fortitude, Reflex or Will, modified by Constitution, Dexterity or Wisdom respectively. This gives an odd extra value to those ability scores. It may have balanced out these states, but it was hardly elegant.<br />
<br />
Skills remain. But their sheer number has been pared down.<br />
(Skills are a sticky wicket when you are designing a system. ie. shouldn't someone with Profession:Sailor also be able to Use Rope? Or if you are trained in Medicine does that mean you know about medicinal herbs, or how to operate an fMRI scanner? Medical tricorder? And can you perform dentistry in a pinch? Should the system count those as separate skills? Wouldn't that be a little too gritty? Personally, I think a strong system should account for widely different technology levels and their interaction, which necessitates a more complicated system that one where Pre-Industrial Iron Age is the default)<br />
Anyways, 3E had like 30, 40 different skills, not counting the unlisted ones which count under Profession or Craft. It errs on the side of being too finely parsed. 5th takes this down to about a dozen and is better for that.<br />
Also, rather than having an allotment of skill points, and a to-hit bonus, characters are either Proficient in an action, or they are not. Proficiency in a field grants a proficiency bonus, the magnitude of which goes off a character's level. Whether the proficiency applies to a craft or a weapon, the bonus is the same. It's simple. But it makes sense. My gripe is that a character's skills are more or less locked-in at character creation, and there's little room for customization or shoring up weak skills along the way.<br />
Also the proficiency increases in chunks every 4 levels or so, rather than incrementally with each level. Why? Not sure I like that.<br />
<br />
5E adds the feature of rolling with Advantage or Disadvantage. Basically this provides the DM a way to adjust for the situation and say "Ok, that thing you want to do will probably work because of such and such." or "Ok, you have some serious stuff working against you (like trying to sneak in heavy armor), but you can still attempt it if you want."<br />
The subject rolls twice, and takes the higher result if there is an advantage, and the lower result if there is a disadvantage. This saves the DM from having to arbitrary modifiers on the fly. Arbitrariness is built in, but is less debatable. I think I like this mechanic.<br />
<br />
Power Level and creep:<br />
3E might be a little kooshy, but there's still plenty of room for players to feel threatened and vulnerable at low levels. 5E makes this even worse.<br />
I played a fighter with an archery specialization. The fighter has an ability called Second Wind which recovers HP once, and recharges with a rest. It basically doubles a fighter's HP, creating what might feel like tension, until you remember to use the ability which heals you for free.<br />
Another big difference is that magic users can use cantrips (0th level spells) without limit. This wouldn't be a big deal in 3E, where cantrips are spells like Read Magic or the one that deals d3 damage to undead. But 5E includes cantrips which deal d8 damage, at a distance without limit. This makes for a big increase in the damage-dealing for low level spell casters.<br />
This buff for spellcasters seemed extreme to me. But in terms of damage capability, it's comparable to what a character with a bow might deal. And it makes more sense than in 3E where spellcasters are forced to double as crossbowmen if they want to remain effective without burning spells.<br />
In a game which is essentially about fighting monsters, it makes sense if you want magic users to actually have something to do in combat. So I can't object too much.<br />
I'm sure there are other instances of how non-combat classes have been turned into combat classes. but I haven't discovered them yet. <br />
<br />
Forced "roleplaying:"<br />
As part of character creation, 5E asks you to choose a "bond," "flaw" and "ideal" for your character. There are about six of each for each class and you are supposed to chose a trifecta to guide how you play the character.<br />
The problem is, once you make these sort of details part of the game system, they become subject to a form of min-maxing; choosing what will hinder your character least and off the most benefit.<br />
By mandating these elements of character background, 5E might discourage players from creating characters according to their own inspiration.<br />
Also these books are by Hasbro, and have to be politically correct. So the options the basic rules give you are pretty boring. For instance, I had to invent a flaw for my character: "Dislikes women." I'll spare you the gory details of his his background story. <br />
I can see how some players might need this sort of structure to introduce them to roleplaying. But I think there is more hindrance than help.<br />
<br />
I'm a hater who hates fun.<br />
I just think there's a sort of breakdown in the game when a player can say their character is a half-dragon with a horny lizard-head and a breath weapon, and there is an expectation that the character can walk into a town and an inn with the humans and the halflings and everyone will act like this is totally normal. At that point, the game has seriously damaged its potential for weirdness and wonderment.<br />
And "dragonborn" are default playable race in 5E. Thus informing the "default" D&D setting.<br />
<br />
Also, the character-customization which would have been handled through feats and prestige classes are rolled into class progression. (We never got into prestige classes anyways. Why bother when you can multiclass?)<br />
This forced branching of character archetype only creates and illusion of an individualized characters, when in fact, the available paths have only been more strictly delineated,<br />
.<br />
All in all, I appreciate the mechanical simplification in 5E. But at the same time, it offers even more of the shallow, indulgent fluff that made me run to basic. With one hand, 5E caters to the player's desire for an "cool" character. but with the other, it creates limitations that hobble creativity.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-31375629506626549162017-09-25T15:43:00.003-07:002017-09-25T15:43:56.023-07:00Trys Basic/Expert: Fails<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
I found the set of Basic/Expert Dungeons and Dragons books on Amazon. This edition is also referred to as Moldvay/Holmes. It antedates Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, but isn't the same as the Original Dungeons and Dragons.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">B/X D&D</td></tr>
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<br />
I wanted to try it because I had been reading a lot of OSR blogs. The odd gestalt appealed to me. It seemed darker and closer to the Appendix N roots of D&D than 3rd Edition, upon which I and most of the people I had played with cut our teeth.<br />
<br />
3E was functional for us. But a few things bothered me. There was too much power creep. There seemed to be an assumption that each PC was "special;" worth writing a long backstory for and making a little sketch of, before the character had even begun play or survived a single adventure.<br />
For a while, I believed that these character building exercises were well and good. But as I saw it in practice, I grew to feel that it tended to be awkward, and detracted from the basic challenge of raiding a dungeon and getting away with it.<br />
At the same time as immersion and depth of character were emphasized in character creation, it seemed to leave the actual play of the game: The rules of AD&D reminded players that their characters were part of a demanding world; with Druidic orders and Thieves' Guild, and that characters were expected to hire henchmen and build strongholds. But these immersive elements were absent in 3rd Edition. The joke of describing PCs as Murder-Hobos exemplifies this shift. <br />
Especially as new materials (official and otherwise) came out. The power creep and opportunities for mindless self indulgence grew. I thought it was in bad tastes, and I liked it better when we kept to basics.<br />
<br />
Yes, 3E cried for improvement. But it turns out this is true of any edition of D&D.<br />
<br />
The most obvious difference between Basic and newer editions is that player characters are much more fragile, and much less powerful. It is also much simpler to generate a character; a matter of minutes. These fellows are obviously meant to be expendable.<br />
<br />
This seemed the obvious antidote to the issues I had with later editions. My mistake was thinking hat everyone else would also enjoy this level of brutality. <br />
<br />
Not only are characters weaker, but they are also less effective; even at things they should be good at. Players are actually hindered from interacting with the environment. Which means they are hindered from playing in the game I painstakingly crafted for them.<br />
Thieves have pitifully low percentages to perform thiefly action, and the poor player can expect to fail rather than succeed. The restrictions on spell-casting prevent magic users from casually reading arcane inscriptions or detecting magic. Clerics at least have the comfort of being competent fighters, since they can't cast spells until second level.<br />
So imagine me, hoping players will feel the thrill of being relatively vulnerable. But instead they are merely frustrated.<br />
<br />
B/X awards experience for treasure recovered from dungeons. 1 gp = 1 xp. I was excited about this change. I figured it would create a very different, pragmatic playstyle.<br />
Also, monsters are tough and will appear in quantities well beyond the capabilities of a 4-member party. I figured this was alright. since the idea is to grab treasure rather than grpple with monsters. Except the characters were so incapable of interacting with the environment and the players were so discouraged that they missed most of the treasure!<br />
<br />
One thing to be said about B/X is that combat moves quickly. Since there aren't a lot of feats or special maneuvers to calculate, players don't have to wait long between turns, and the round can go so fast that it kind of sneaks up on you if you're used to waiting half an hour for your turn to come around. Characters however, are low on hp. And a single round worth of damage can easily destroy a low level character. Also, there are no rules for unconsciousness or saves vs. death or incapacitation, so zero HP is dead.<br />
With one game I ran, the party went from full to a sole survivor in two rounds. The survivor wisely chose the moment to escape. This dead-before-you-know-it thing might be "realistic." but it makes for a lack of agency which ruins the player experience.<br />
What's worse, my instinct as a DM is to feel slight remorse, and fumble around awkwardly, thinking of a way to save the character. Especially if that character's player is one of the more active or talkative of the group and their death hinders the narrative.<br />
<br />
One attraction of B/X was that it was "simpler," ie. the rules were less extensive. But I found that we did not act more simply as a result. We still wanted to consider things like attacks of opportunity, or cover, or holding actions. We could not un-train ourselves from the things that later editions had conditioned us to consider. <br />
<br />
When I asked for input at the end of the game, I was told that the game suffered exactly because I had eschewed the narrative fluff that I thought was hindering the game.<br />
<br />
I had the players roll their stats In Order, and build characters on this because I felt that this was the "Old School" way to do it. Supposedly, players will get the challenge of trying some thing new, or the thrill of playing against type. But in reality, most players have a type they enjoy. And they will simply play better if they can fulfill the role suitable to their temperament and playstyle.<br />
<br />
I also omitted the awkward part wher the players meet and find common goals and get plot-hooked together. I said "You already know eachother, and like and trust eachother reasonably well. Now get to it."<br />
I figured that a good character name would serve as the spark of life. But I made the mistake of printing off a random name generator, and my players used it to create meaningless names that they didn't have reason to care about.. <br />
I thought I was cutting fat, but it was more like kneecapping.<br />
A player commented that the characters lacked motivation because we didn't go into backstory or have a segment where we meet and introduce the characters.<br />
So it seems that the backstories and prologues actually served play more than I gave credit for.<br />
<br />
But I can't blame B/X as written for that last mistake. I was copying a way that I had seen it played. Nowhere in an any official DMG has it ever said, "allow a segment where we can get a grasp of the characters and their goals. Wrangle them together, and unify their purpose. But once you've got that investment going, make sure that they don't just fucking die right off."<br />
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I don't think I'll be running B/X again. It seems to stand as an intermediate step between war-gaming and the character-centric RPGs my generation is used to. Certainly, it was an improvement on whatever came before. But the brutal quirks of B/X D&D are easier to appreciate in theory than in practice.<br />
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Now I have to wait for the bad taste to leave my player's mouths. <br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-32687264317559489822016-11-16T10:43:00.001-08:002016-11-16T10:43:16.996-08:008 Days After<br />Rather than posting a bunch on fb, I've collected my thoughts on the recent election here.<br />
<br />
1. People were hoping for the election to get over with so that we could get back to normal. The election happened, but social media is probably more toxic than ever.<br />
<br />
2. Wow. That result was surprising. I was pulling for third party candidates the whole time, but I really thought Hillary would win. I didn't believe Trump could. I thought that his supporters were merely a highly-vocal fringe of the right wing; Fascists who are too dumb to know they are Fascists. (google Umberto Eco's description of Ur-Fascism to see what I mean.)<br />
<br />
3. But a lot of people voted for him, probably not because they liked him, but because they Hated Clinton. And what's not to hate?<br />
<br />
4. Goes to show; you rank and file Dems should have supported Bernie in the primaries. I'm going to take a moment to rub the noses of the all-along Clinton supporters in it. That's what you get for supporting the establishment, you gutless sheep.<br />
<br />
5. Still, Clinton won the popular vote. People are talking about the failure of the electoral college. I have doubts about the institution. I was always told that its purpose was to prevent the "tyranny of the majority." It seems to have done its job and somehow left us with a tyranny of the minority. They said "every vote counts." But apparently not.<br />
<br />
6. The fact that Trump is facing prosecution for rape next month will probably come to nothing. Money and power have a way of undermining justice and decency.<br />
<br />
7. All my queer and colored friends are carrying on like they are about to be led to the box-cars any minute. It's a little dramatic. I'd like to think that any serious roll-back of civil rights couldn't happen at this point in history.<br />
<br />
8. But I've been wrong. Perhaps they should do like Jesus said and
sell their cloaks and buy a sword. FYI. You can embrace your 2A rights
without registering as Republican. <br />
<br />
9. You remember the bunker-building, ammo-hoarding hysteria that some right wingers were going through because they were sure Obama was going to impose martial law and send all the True Patriots to FEMA run Death Camps? Some liberal elements are starting to feel what that is like. <br />
<br />
10. Even a minimally critical review will reveal the tremendous hypocrisy of
both Conservative and Liberal elements. Whatever indignity or smugness
is going on now, the shoe was on the other foot 4/8 years ago. <br />
<br />
11. Trump is going to go back on many of his campaign promises and disappoint his supporters. This is because he is an oligarch. He was never one of the "regular, hard-working folks." who he appealed to.<br />
<br />
12. Trump and his people are going to atleast undermine Civil rights, and continue the assault on the middle class and the environment. So his detractors will not be disappointed.<br />
<br />
13. This is what happens when you let a reality-TV villain become president. <br />
<br />
14. I think Putin could actually hornswaggle Trump into complying with a coherent strategy in the middle East. I joked before that we should be so lucky as to have a leader like Putin. Looks like I may get my wish.<br />
<br />
15. You all need to get off the internet and go outside. Please look around, and notice that she sun is still rising and the grass is still growing. <br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-69138390779886443772016-05-11T09:45:00.000-07:002016-05-11T09:45:28.381-07:00Flame Princess/BX SkillsLooking at Basic has caused me to reevaluate my opinion of Lamentations of the Flame Princess.<br />
<br />
Previously, I had difficulty running LotFP. partially because I hadn't taken the sheer lethality of Basic and clones into account.<br />
I also felt that the skills were limiting and that characters were so unskilled that they could do very little. But I now think that I was missing something which cause it to seem that way.<br />
<br />
Flame Princess offers only a handful of skills, as opposed to dozens, and I didn't see how they were supposed to apply to the variety of situatiosn I was accustomed to using skills for.<br />
<br />
But it turns out that the selection of skills is simply a way to unify racial abilities, theif-skills and common dungeoneering actions into a single mechanic.<br />
<br />
This helps to make the character sheet shorter. I get it now. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-51104744599291360102016-03-08T09:11:00.000-08:002016-03-08T09:11:18.520-08:00Doors in B/XWe finally managed to get together for a few hours of Basic D&D! It was my first time running or playing Basic. So let me relay my impressions:<br />
<br />
Basic moves quickly. In a few hours of play, we had created characters, cooked a meal (IRL) and explored a good ways into a dungeon comprised of fairly <a href="http://www.velvet-edge.com/RisusMonkeyMap.html" target="_blank">complicated geomorphs</a>.(we got through two of these squares and into a third before our luck ran out)<br />
Perhaps this is because Basic stresses careful tracking of in game time and provides instructions for running the game on a turn by turn basis.<br />
I've heard people comparing older editions of D&D to a boardgame, or saying that it is more like a boardgame. This is actually pretty apt. Turns are fairly structured and in this way are similar to the phases and turns that most boardgames are run by. I think this particular structure makes for sessions where a lot gets managed fairly quickly.<br />
It reminds me of sessions of 3E, where even outside of combat, I went around the table on a round by round basis and things moved fluently. <br />
<br />
And speaking of combat, it was <b>as deadly as expected and advertised</b>.<br />
The session ended with two players very suddenly slain by gnomes. The lone surviving halfling frantically retraced his steps out of the dungeon and added "the vengeful" to his name.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This came up on an image search for "Total Party Kill." This image makes me think that the party maybe had it coming. Another part realizes that this is basically what my friends look like. </span><br />
<br />
Combat moves and the tides turn very quickly. The extremely simplified approach to initiative, and the fragility of characters lends to this. There is no need to mess with criticals or fumbles when a decent damage roll means rolling a new character.<br />
I think it also has a lot to do with the simplicity of the characters themselves. Without a mess of spells, feats and skills to confuse the player, characters take very simple, punchy actions and their rounds are quickly resolve. And yet the application of teamwork and tactics did not suffer for this.<br />
<br />
I used to say that if you have 5 encounters prepared to run, then you have enough for a night of gaming. But in Basic, you should probably prepare way more since things move pretty fast.<br />
<br />
One thing that did bog down gameplay though was the doors.<br />
<br />
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<img alt="http://www.paperspencils.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/dungeon_door.jpg" height="320" src="http://www.paperspencils.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/dungeon_door.jpg" width="243" /> </div>
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Roll 1-2 on a d6 or fuck you. </div>
<br />
On Basic p. 21, it says that doors in a dungeon are usually locked or stuck. Stuck doors must be forced open by rolling on a d6.<br />
What is the purpose of this rule? <br />
Presumably, forcing a door would make a noise, alerting nearby monsters. So as soon as a door is forced open, any creatures in the next room will be alerted. But they might still be surprised if the party immediately attacks? <br />
But suppose the party fails to force the door. Even if they pile up to force it (not sure how to handle this) they might fail to open the door.<br />
Well fuck. I kind of need them to be able to get through this door so they can explore the rest of the damn dungeon. So I said they could just wreck the door, but it would make a lot of noise.<br />
And that's what I settled on. Forcing the door is less noisy and allows for surprise. Wrecking the door will ring the dinner bell.<br />
If anybody has any ideas on managing door in B/X, please comment.<br />
<br />
Even stranger, it goes on to say that these stuck doors open automatically for monsters. What?<br />
I guess this must be one of those rules written for the sake of gameplay rather than consistency or realism. There seems to be a lot of that in Basic.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-85741293061075678962016-03-06T15:49:00.000-08:002016-03-13T11:51:10.008-07:00religions in my campaignsArmchair is employed again. Not sure this mean I will be posting any more frequently. But here we are.<br />
<br />
I am working as a teller at a bank. One of my first realizations about this work was how extremely religion-esque it all is.<br />
A bank is like a temple of ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia. There are rites which must be observed for the glory of our god. There are public rites like those performed at the drive-thru teller window, where supplicants come to make offerings and petitions to their god. And there are private, inner rites where we balance the cash in the vault. I and my fellow employees are the priesthood of this temple.<br />
And it goes without saying, but money is our god.<br />
In other city-states, they worship Yuan or Euro or Rupee. But we call our god Dollar.<br />
<br />
In a common manner of speaking, religion is a matter of faith. Anybody with a basic understanding of economics knows that money is not intrinsically valuable. It is only of value because people agree to believe that it is. It is a matter of faith.<br />
When a person questions their faith, it weakens their religion. When a teenager actually questions whether they really believe in the god their parents take them to church to worship, it weakens the religion as a mass belief system.<br />
So an ideal religion is one in which the believer never thinks to question their belief and never compromises their faith. And if they do, they should have no option but to carry on practicing their faith as if they believed it wholeheartedly. When I consider our relationship to money, It seems that money is just such a faith.<br />
<br />
As to D&D;<br />
I've mostly played 3rd edition. It annoys me immensely that the 3E books have a listing of gods which it strongly suggests the character worship. The gods are all from the Forgotten Realms setting: the vanilla D&D setting. This annoys me to no ends. It conflates system and setting, as if deity were as fundamental to a character as their class or ability scores.<br />
So I discourage the use of the gods in the book. In my games, I present a pantheon which I consider to be vastly more interesting.<br />
<br />
<b>Old Boy</b><br />
The Old Boy was a sage of ancient times who, according to legend, was born with a long, white beard and uncanny wisdom. His philosophy hinges on the idea that a person is either in harmony with the way of the universe, or not. To be in harmony is to enjoy ease and joy, and if you are not, it means you are making trouble for yourself and others without good reason.<br />
<img alt="http://www.spiritfountain.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/lao-tzu.jpg" src="http://www.spiritfountain.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/lao-tzu.jpg" height="240" width="320" /><br />
The writing of Old Boy maintain simplicity as a virtue, value self control, compassion and understanding. The spiritual legacy of Old Boy is broad indeed. His reverants range from simple farmers, to bureaucrats, to monasteries of cloistered monks, mountaintop ascetics, or wandering guardians of justice. <br />
<br />
<b>Morgi</b><br />
The cults of Morgi are secretive and reclusive. She is not a goddess for the masses. Morgi is the name given to the utter glistening blackness of being which lies before the beginning, and after the end. She represents both nothingness and utmost potential.<br />
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<img alt="http://whispersfromthesoul.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/mother-earth-21.jpg" src="http://whispersfromthesoul.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/mother-earth-21.jpg" height="320" width="245" /><br />
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When personified as an idol, Morgi is depicted as a dark-haired woman with a dark, star-studded cape. Her worshippers congregate in private, exclusive cults. The revel in the Morgi, believing her to be the ultimate aspect of reality. While they are not exactly a charitable organization, they believe in maintaining the spectrum of potential which arises from their mistress, and may help endangered entities, ideologies or species. </div>
<br />
<b>Cthona</b><br />
Is a personification of the planet and natural world. Followers of Cthona believe that the natural world has an intelligence of its own, and they believe that it is possible to commune with it. Cthona is usually referred to in the feminine. Followers of the Cthonic religion treat their religion as a practical matter rather than an abstract or intellectual pursuit. Their morality extends beyond human relations, and takes the concerns of other species or ecological inter-dependencies into account. Because of this, they can seem amoral or irreligious to followers of other faiths. Some Cthonics are very cynical of other religions, saying "We worship nature, for there is no doubt that she is real." <br />
<br />
<b>Hyponica</b><br />
A psychopomp Goddess, who guards the souls of mortals in this world and the next. Her priesthood is well versed in what passes for psychological science or spiritual alchemy. They practice divination, dream interpretation and offer counseling to supplicants. They are seriously concerned with the sanctity of funereal rites, and the safe transmission of the soul from this life into the next. Their priesthood has a particular hatred of the undead. The followers of Hyponica believe that their Goddess was once a mortal woman, whose spiritual power enabled her to become a deity upon her own death. Hyponica is depicted as a woman pouring liquid from one cup into another.<br />
<br />
<b>The Pet Rock Faith</b><br />
Originally practiced among dwarves and gnomes, The Pet Rock faith has a broad scattering of adherents of many walks of life. Adherents pray to a small stone or jewel which they keep with them at all times, usually in a pouch around the neck or tied around the waist. Followers of more formal religions scoff at the Pet Rock faith as being simplistic and superstitious. But nonetheless, Rockers have been known to perform acts of miraculous healing and magical protection with no other explanation than the power of their faith. <br />
<br />
<b>Protective Avatar</b><br />
A good deity believed to take mortal form in order to defend the weak and defeat evil. Protective Avatar is believed to have many incarnations in many times. Sometimes, these avatars are said to be unaware of their divine nature. Other manifestations are more plainly miraculous. Protective Avatar is worshipped by good warriors who wish to emulate legendary heroism, or prayed to by common people in times of need. The religion of Protective Avatar is very simple in terms of its teachings, so its few clerics tend to be men of action. The religion of PA is often criticized for claiming as Avatars heroes who were either champions of other religions or entirely secular. <br />
<br />
<b>Heavenly Patriarch</b><br />
The followers of Heavenly Patriarch claim that their god is the Ultimate God of everything, and creator of the whole universe. They have the habit of capitalizing the word "god" when referring to Heavenly Patriarch, but refusing to capitalize it when referring to the gods of other religions. Heavenly Patriarch is said to be omnipotent, to define the ultimate standard of morality, and is often depicted as a human. Clerics of HP are often at a loss to explain the existence of other deities, demons, or the provenance of evil and usually offer faith-based arguments in explanation. Critics of HP are quick to point out that he may not be the creator of everything, but is probably a more conventional sort of deity. This quickly earns the ire of HP and his clerics.<br />
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<br />
This list is hardly exhaustive. In the gonzo D&D settings I like, it's fair to assume that every race, city-state or competing ideology has its own religion. In a game where wizards can gain god-like power, reality is frequently invaded by demon-lords, and the nature of the multiverse is only hazily defined, Divinity and what it means are really up for grabs. <br />
<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-89912468433558136792016-02-11T09:41:00.001-08:002016-02-11T09:41:21.178-08:00Armchair Demiurge is (kinda) dead.It had a decent run. But it is time to admit that Armchair Demiurge is on indefinite hiatus.<br />
<br />
There were a number of factors leading to this dissipation:<br />
I bought a house, moved. I've started writing a novel that really interests me. Lots of stuff. But generally, I've been thinking of D&D way less. I'm finding its really difficult to get a bunch of twenty-somethings together for a game on any sort of regular basis.<br />
<br />
But the major factor in the fading of ACD was my quitting a job where I had a good deal of time to sit around writing blog posts.<br />
<br />
Now I am practicing self-employment, and considering getting a part time job to slow the bleeding off of my savings.<br />
Here is the website of my new enterprise. <a href="http://effigyscales.com/">http://effigyscales.com/</a> I sell bulk scales for use in custom body-armor creations. My next step is to get some actual inventory.<br />
<br />
Thanks Everybody.<br />
Preston SelbyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-10094813875277123852015-11-15T13:00:00.000-08:002015-11-15T13:02:57.089-08:00Review: How to Run"Fun cannot be planned. It can only be allowed."<br />
Alexis Smolensk, How To Run.<br />
<br />
<br />
Readers of this blog will probably notice that I make frequent reference to someone named Alexis, whose blog; <a href="http://tao-dnd.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Tao of D&D</a> has certainly inspired and influenced my sensibilities as a DM.<br />
<br />
Alexis Smolensk is an earnest proponent of the notion that D&D (and by extension, traditional RPGs) can actually be <b><i>good</i></b> if only the participants are willing to put care, effort and energy into the pursuit.<br />
<br />
To this end, he wrote a book called <u>How to Run: an Advanced Guide to Managing Role-playing Games</u><br />
<br />
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<br />
This work is available at<a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/http://www.lulu.com/shop/alexis-d-smolensk/how-to-run-an-advanced-guide-to-managing-role-playing-games/paperback/product-22322100.html" target="_blank"> lulu</a>. I recently got around to buying and reading it for myself.<br />
<br />
This work <b><i>can not</i></b> be judged by its minimal cover. The extremely uncomfortable-looking chair and the table notably devoid of players seem barren and forbidding. Yet perhaps this image is an intentional distillation of the book's main message: Dungeon Mastering done properly requires rigorous effort, most of which is done when the players are not around. The back cover seems to extend this metaphor.<br />
<br />
I have to rank this book highly because there is simply no comparable work out there.<br />
While there is plenty of good advice on Alexis' Blog, he has definitely held back some pearls of wisdom for this book. So don't think one is a substitute for the other.<br />
<br />
Official rulebooks tend to have very scant advice on how to actually Run Game. Knowing the rules is not the same as knowing how to apply them. Rarely is there practical advice for designing or preparing a game. Advice for dealing with players is shallow at best.<br />
How to Run fills this void.<br />
<br />
While the advice could be applied to any traditional RPG, or even game design in general, Alexis frames his arguments in terms of D&D, and he proudly uses the term Dungeon Master as opposed to any softer or more generic terms for the same thing.<br />
<br />
How to Run is divided into four parts:<br />
The first offers general advice which seems to be intended as a sort of First Aid to correct faltering DMs, and give readers an idea of the player-DM dynamic Alexis is going for: one which emphasizes impartiality and player agency.<br />
The second part focuses on managing one's self as a DM; with a focus on self control, dealing with stress and learning how to not give too much away,<br />
The third part is concerned with handling players, working from the philosophy that the DM is providing a sort of service to the players, and not the other way around.<br />
The fourth part deals with design and planning of the game and world.<br />
There are 15 chapters in all. Each ends with a bulleted summary which ties the information up neatly.<br />
<br />
I do have one gripe with this work: At times, the advice given is very general and abstract, and I find it difficult to concretely apply. There is certainly a good deal of easily applicable advice. But in some cases, a few more examples or anecdotes would not have gone amiss.<br />
One reason for this occasional generality might lay in the Bibliography, which makes no reference to any D&D sourcebook or even works on game-design. It isn't Appendix N by a long shot. Rather, it includes titles such as:<br />
<br />
<b>Conceptual Models: Core to Good Designs</b><br />
<b>Consumer Behavior and Algorithm Design</b><br />
<b>Situational Awareness for Emergency Response</b><br />
<b>The toxic triangle: Destructive leaders, susceptible followers, and conducive environments</b><br />
<br />
Alexis has taken his own advice and read broadly; applying outside knowledge to the development of a <b><i>Good</i></b> game. This synthesis from wider, real-world sources probably accounts for the confusing abstractions which pop up in How to Run.<br />
This does little to reduce the value of Alexis' unprecedented and insightful work.<br />
<br />
Personally, I got a lot out of How to Run.<br />
But should you buy a copy? I don't know. How much do you care about your quality as a Dungeon Master?<br />
Are you willing to pay 20-some dollars and read 300-odd pages of text without pictures or charts? Is it worth the effort to improve your game? If you think not, this may explain a few things about the games you run.<br />
<br />
****/***** <br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-86807712541748905962015-10-27T13:51:00.000-07:002016-02-19T17:07:13.243-08:00Random DungeonsI left my last post on a note about randomly-generated dungeons.<br />
Now, random dungeons have a tendency to be incoherent; dungeons for their own sake without much internal logic. But the upside is that they (theoretically) don't require a lot of investment of time or creative energy.<br />
As much as I would like to be running a serious campaign and developing <a href="http://armchair-demiurge.blogspot.com/2015/04/my-babies.html" target="_blank">my own setting</a>, the truth is that it is difficult to get a handful of busy 20-somethings to meet on a regular basis.<br />
So suddenly, running one-shots and short adventures with B/X rules and random dungeons has a certain appeal.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
My previous experience with random mapping involved using the random tables in the AD&D DMG. Except the book doesn't make explicitly clear how the tables work, and it takes a fair bit of designer discretion to make them work.</div>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L8OxmKxgIb8/Vh-8MI7WD6I/AAAAAAAAAek/asCY3OL6SM0/s1600/AD%2526D%2BDMG%2Bcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="392" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L8OxmKxgIb8/Vh-8MI7WD6I/AAAAAAAAAek/asCY3OL6SM0/s640/AD%2526D%2BDMG%2Bcover.jpg" width="640" /></a><i><br /></i><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Incidentally, the AD&D DMG is my favorite D&D book. Loaded with evocative details and rather little clear direction on how to use them.</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">So I went looking online for tools to produce random dungeons. </span>Shout out to <a href="http://thedungeoneeringdad.blogspot.com/2011/04/handful-of-sweet-arse-dungeon.html" target="_blank">Dungeoneering Dad</a> for doing a lot of the legwork. <br />
<br />
These tools draw a dungeon map and populate them with monsters, treasure and traps:<br />
<a href="http://donjon.bin.sh/d20/dungeon/">http://donjon.bin.sh/d20/dungeon/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.myth-weavers.com/generate_dungeon.php" target="_blank"> http://www.myth-weavers.com/generate_dungeon.php</a><br />
<br />
I ran a game for myself to test these dungeons out. Also, to teach myself how to run B/X smoothly.<br />
I admit that even I felt a little weird sitting down to play D&D with myself. And yet, it helped to smooth out the kinks in how I run Basic before inflicting it on my players.<br />
<br />
What I found was that even randomly generated dungeons take some tuning and preparation to run well. <br />
Donjon produces dungeons for the later editions, and also for AD&D, which is closest in overall balance to Basic. I like what Donjon does. But:<br />
<br />
A lot of the traps are sure to kill low level adventurers. In playtest, they killed much more often than monsters. They'll have you going through thieves like potato chips and Mountain Dew. I could tolerate an occasional trap of certain doom, but I think Donjon overdoes it.<br />
If I were to play it as generated, I would atleast devise a means to grant XP for traps. Like if a party inentionally avoids or succesfully disarms a trap, they get XP as if the trap were a monster of the HD that the trap would kill with an average damage roll.<br />
For example a falling block that does 6d6 damage does an average 21 damage, which would equate to the average HP of a 4 HD monster. So noticing and circumventing the trap grants XP as a defeating a 4HD monster. I will try it this way in further playtest.<br />
<br />
Donjon also gives a lot of details- from dungeon dressing to a wandering monster table. But it behooves the DM to look through these details and determine <i>what they actually mean <b>before </b>you have to describe them to the players!</i><br />
For instance; if one of the wandering monsters is a six dwarves wandering senselessly, the DM suddenly has to invent a backstory for this dwarf. Or if a room has an X marked on the west wall, the DM will have to note why somebody made the mark in anticipation of when the players choose to obsess over what is actually a random bit of dungeon dressing. Some traps are listed without describing what exactly the trigger is or where the danger-zone is. Some bits of dressing like large Idols with ruby eyes will certainly be construed as treasure, so it's better to determine what they are worth and how hard it will be to pry them out before the players ask about it.<br />
<br />
Also, the monsters listed in B/X are pretty basic. Most generators will pull out monsters which aren't listed and will need either adaptation or replacement.<br />
<br />
Moving on to mythweavers. Mythweavers makes dungeons for 3rd edition and will require conversion. You'll need the 3rd ed. DMG and MM for this. This one is kinder with the traps. It also pays out much larger sums of gold and even magic items. So characters in a mythweaver dungeon will go up much faster.<br />
Mythweaver lacks a few of the nice feature which donjon has; like a wandering monster table or showing the dungeon entrance or offering various file formats to save the dungeon in. It just createsa a little more work <br />
Mythweaver is also very weird about its dungeon dressing, offering a list of unrelated items if any. It seems to me that it would generally be more useful just to know the function of a room and some reference to its state of repair, along with any natural or geomorphic features.<br />
All in all, donjon is to be preferred for Basic D&D adventures.<br />
<br />
There are also a lot of map generators, which draw dungeons, but do not stock them. All in all it seems like preparing and tuning a stocked random dungeon isn't much less work than stocking it yourself, If you stock you own dungeon,I think you are more likely to be fluent in int when it comes time to run.<br />
Here is a map generator- it also does nice looking caves <br />
<a href="http://www.gozzys.com/dungeon-maps">http://www.gozzys.com/dungeon-maps</a><br />
<br />
But these are particularly cool. I used this and randomly populated it using the guidelines in the Basic book, with some help from <a href="http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2011/02/on-tricks-empty-rooms-and-basic-trap.html" target="_blank">Tricks, Empty Rooms, & Basic Trap Design by Courtney Campbel</a>l<br />
It took a while because the geomorphs are so complex. I am a little concerned that it will be difficult to describe the cogent information about the shape and layout of some of the spaces- difficulties which you would not have in the series-of-disjointed-rectangular-room style of dungeon. <br />
<a href="http://www.velvet-edge.com/RisusMonkeyMap.html">http://www.velvet-edge.com/RisusMonkeyMap.html</a><br />
based on: <a href="https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/maps/geomorph-mapping-project/">https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/maps/geomorph-mapping-project/</a><br />
<br />
I hope it works out. Now If only I can manage to get some people together.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-78284241605084073092015-10-13T10:57:00.001-07:002015-10-13T11:00:03.237-07:00exploring Basic D&DA lot of my sensibilities as a D&D player are influenced by the OSR. Most of my favorite writers and thinkers about rpgs are somehow connected to the old school rennaisance.<br />
<br />
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<br />
The games I have played however, have mostly been 3rd edition, with a healthy smattering of the White Wolf World of Darkness system. My only real experience playing an "Old school" style game was a brief flirtation with Lamentations of the Flame Princess.<br />
<br />
I had some problems with LotFP though. Characters seemed to die too easily. Players didn't have time to get used to their characters. Those who had invented detailed backstories for these ill-fated characters found themselves shortchanged on their efforts. As a DM, I had been hoping for a certain threat of lethality, and the tension that comes from it. But the lethality lent more of a slasher-flick absurdity than actual drama. And whats worse, I found that the constant character deaths were holding up the campaign. Characters were simply not living long enough to witness the wonders I had invented.<br />
<br />
Part of the the problem was that I had designed the adventure with 3E sensibilities, with the power creep of 3E in mind. Flame Princess appears to run on a d20-like system as far as combat is concerned, so it seemed like an easy transfer. But rather than adjusting my style to the new system, I just changed the campaign back to 3rd. The increases survivability allowed us to play in the manner to which we had become accustomed.<br />
<br />
I had basically given up on Basic D&D. But I still read OSR blogs. Including <a href="http://monstersandmanuals.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Monster&Manuals</a>, which is where I found this:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?676099-B-X-Misadventures-in-randomly-generated-dungeons">http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?676099-B-X-Misadventures-in-randomly-generated-dungeons</a><br />
<br />
These are play reports and commentary of a few trial B/X games, and then an extended campaign where some of the characters get as high as <i>Second Level.</i><br />
The odd thing is how genuinely interesting these reports are. They are exciting to read, and that's about the last thing you would expect.<br />
<i> </i><br />
I had been made to understand throughout my roleplaying career that Old School D&D didn't really allow for roleplaying. Supposedly, back in the day, D&D was basically played like a board game, and only later more nuanced systems really had the potential for drama and characterization.<br />
<br />
Yet in these play logs, there are well-defined characters, ethical conundrums, drama, and lots of tension. It shows the value and potential of Old School play, and it is pretty inspiring.<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
The rules used were the Basic/Expert rules with very minimal houseruling. These rules were edited by Tom Moldvay and David Cook, and published in 1981. There are two books in the set, Basic and Expert. Basic has rules and tables for characters up through the third lever. Higher levels are described in the blue-covered Expert book. These are the rules usually taken as the basis of the OSR and the various "retro-clones" such as Lamentations. </div>
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<img alt="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QDLXzKvyL._SX379_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51QDLXzKvyL._SX379_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" height="400" width="305" /></div>
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<br />
Some of the key factors I noticed that are different from most D&D games I've played:<br />
<br />
>Play began at the threshold of the dungeon. It is understood that the party members already know eachother and are going to cooperate. This saves a lot of bullshit. Shopping and resting are not played out, but simply announced.<br />
<br />
>Overland travel was simply announced as a given. But B/X does have rules for it: It amounts to a possibility of a random encounter while moving from one hex to another. This basically extends the length of the gauntlet the party must run.<br />
<br />
>Play moves very quickly. The group seems to get through a lot of encounters in a short amount of play time.<br />
<br />
>XP is based on treasure acquired: counted when it leaves the dungeon. Monsters are also worth XP, but the risk of combat is not necessarily worth the meager reward.<br />
<br />
>A single good hit from an enemy or a trap can mean certain death - especially at low levels. Teamwork and caution are a necessity. This DM gave experience not only for defeating enemies, but also for causing the enemy to flee or talking their way out of a fight.<br />
<br />
> Morale and reaction checks are absent in recent editions. But they are key to encounters in basic.<br />
<br />
>Resources are very limited. HP and spells evaporate quickly, and there's no telling what's in the next room. The party has to decide just how far to push their luck.<br />
<br />
>Dungeons are not cleared; they are raided. The idea is to grab treasure and get out without anybody dying.<br />
<br />
>This DM used dungeons made by an online random generators. One called Wizardawn, which seems to be defunct, and another called <a href="http://donjon.bin.sh/d20/dungeon/" target="_blank">donjon</a>. There are several tool like this online. While I am usually of the mind that a dungeon should have an underlying logic to it, the upshot of using randomly generated dungeons is that the DM doesn't have to worry about his creativity or ego being on the line and can simply focus on running game.<br />
<br />
>There's no (intended) continuity or narrative at stake, so the campaign can be as log or as short as is convenient.<br />
<br />
Consider my interest in Old School D&D rekindled. It comes at the right time, and the exploration offers plenty of fodder for armchair demiurge. more to come.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-32749809327644114782015-10-07T19:28:00.001-07:002015-10-07T19:28:33.055-07:00Wuts an Ar Pee Gee?Long due salutations. I am keenly aware that Armchair Demiurge has not been nearly as active as it one was.<br />
But recently, I've been in the middle of buying a home, moving, quitting my job and searching for new employment. It doesn't take many words to say all that, but it has been an ordeal. As a result, I haven't had much time to spare for gaming. Hopefully, this entry will signal a return to form.<br />
<br />
Game books seem to be obliged to have some blurb at at the beginning which explain what a roleplaying game is. This is strange. Monopoly doesn't bother to explain what a board game is. Yet as fundamental as roleplaying is, we feel some need to explain ourselves.<br />
<br />
Anyways, If I were to create my own system (which is the ultimate purpose of this blog) and write a book for it, this is how I would explain roleplaying games and how they are different:<br />
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most people who pick up this book will already be familiar
with traditional "pen and paper" roleplaying games and how they work.
However, authors are nonetheless obligated to explain roleplaying games, on the
off chance that a reader is unfamilar with the concept, or perhaps learning
about traditional roleplaying for the first time.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Traditional roleplaying games have an ancestor in
miniatures-wargaming. Their most prominent descendents are certain genres of
videogames which emphasize adventures, tactical combat or narrative. These
electronic derivatives are also called RPGs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet traditional RPGs have a potential and an
appeal which war-gaming and videogames cannot really duplicate. The appeal of
traditional RPGs can perhaps be explained by telling how they developed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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Before electronic gaming, people played tactical war games
with tin soldiers and rules for how to move the miniature troops and resolve
combat between opposing forces. In the late 1960s in Wisconsin, a few men created rules for
medieval-fantasy wargames so that they could play out battles in the style of
the fantasy authors who they admired. A few years later, in the early 1970s,
the same group of men had the idea that instead of controlling whole armies and
large groups of soldiers, they would control only one or two or three
combatants. </div>
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<br /></div>
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When they made this switch, the war-game took a strange
turn. They played a scenario where their combatants were to storm a fictional
castle which had been invented and mapped out soley for the game. The players
found they could be very specific and creative about what they wanted their
characters to "do" in the scenario. The tin soldiers took on aspects
of character. The players named them. The players described what the characters
would say, and they spoke as their characters. They used funny voices and it
was loads of fun. The lives of these fictional characters were short and
violent. Allies and enemies appeared and reappeared. There was a sense of drama
and narrative about these small-scale wargames which had not previously been a
factor. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The game had become about
playing the role of a character and spontaneously creating a narrative with the
cooperation of the other players.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They had invented a new kind of game and published the rules
for it. But oddly, the term "roleplaying game" would not be invented
for another few years yet to come. The concept proliferated. The game which the
gentlemen in Wisconsin
published emphasized roleplaying in medieval fantasy settings. But people
quickly developed games which featured all sorts of milieus; from futuristic
science fiction to gritty pulp and horror and contemporary settings. The medium
of roleplaying begged to be tweaked to suit the fancies of the players. The
open-endedness of the medium was the main source of its appeal.</div>
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As home computers became more powerful in the late 1970s and
1980s and the video-game was invented, game makers set to imitating
pen-and-paper RPGs in a digital format. The numerically-based rules of the
standard RPG were easily translated into digital programs. These games still
bear the marks of their ancestry. Any electronic game which utilizes notions of
hit-points, character class, character level, or uses numerical values to
describe the power of a character or object is showing its roots. The electronic
RPGs allowed the users to play roles within a fictional scenario and to explore
and interact with a game-world. They were very successful at this. Yet
electronic games are limited by their programming: They lacked the true open-ended
freedom of analog RPGs. Videogames are limited by their programming. A player
in an electronic RPG can only interact with the game world in the ways which
the game designer has anticipated and allowed for: Certain characters are
unkillable because they will be important later. Some objects are visible, but
are merely part of the background and cannot be interacted with. Mountains are
visible in the distance, but cannot be visited. There are dialog options, but
only a limited selection. Videogames are largely judged by the extent to which
they offer broad or interesting new options in their gameplay. But ultimately they
can offer only so much freedom and room for creativity. Certainly in the
future, as programming and atifical intelligence become more advanced and video
games will be able to offer truly open-ended scenarios. Until then, only traditional
RPGs have a mechanism which makes them truly open-ended.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Traditional roleplaying games are played by groups of
people, usually sitting at a table or possibly chatting over an internet
connection. Typically, most of the players in the group control a character in
the scenario. But one player will be responsible for describing the world and
all the people and things in the scenario. This player is usually called a Game
Master, referee, or story teller. This special player serves as the eyes and
ears for the characters which the other players control. The other players ask
questions and tell the Game Master what they wish their characters to do. The
Game Master then describes the consequences of the players actions. This
process continues and the game progresses. If a player wants their character to
do something unexpected, like put an innocuous object to some ingenious use,
turn against an important quest-giver, or write and deliver an impromptu speech
in hope of rallying the local populous, then it is the Game Master's
responsibility to invent some reasonable means of determining whether the
character succeeded, and what the results of their actions will be.</div>
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<br /></div>
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At first glance it may seem that the Game Master has too
much control over the game. But it is important to note that the Game Master is
not the opponent of the other players. The Game Master's responsibility is to
present interesting, reasonable challenges and to serve as a sort of referee;
ensuring that the rules of the game are practiced consistently and fairly. A good
Game Master knows that there is no game at all if the rest of the players
cannot trust the Game Master.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
the mechanism by which traditional RPGs allow for novelty and creativity within
the game.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
...</div>
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btw, when I find myself having to explain traditional rpgs to people in person, I use a much shorter and more informal version of this speech. Usually, I gauge whether the other person is more likely to know about tin-soldier wargames or be familiar with videogames, and I use a similar explanation-from-historical-context from whichever side the subject is more familiar with. I am generally satisfied with the results as it doesn't take more than a few sentences to describe and heads off any social awkwardness. But I haven't had any enthusiastic questioning and interest either.</div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-67712435864132945062015-09-24T06:29:00.000-07:002015-09-24T06:29:09.585-07:00The Erol Otus Coloring bookErol Otus was an artist who did a lot of the art for Old School D&D materials. <br />
I'd guess that his gnarly, creepy style was probably half the reason people thought D&D was satanic.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hZrcoA-D2TI/VgP2_BlyVkI/AAAAAAAAAb0/1Zl1AxYBsmY/s1600/otus%2Bcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="217" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hZrcoA-D2TI/VgP2_BlyVkI/AAAAAAAAAb0/1Zl1AxYBsmY/s400/otus%2Bcover.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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His cover-art tended to have surreal, glaring colors. But most of the drawings are black and white, begging for coloring. Except who would dare to sully a vintage game supplement? (seriously, half of the old D&D books I've gotten from used book stores have atleast some of the illustrations colored in)<br />
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So here are some uncolored scans , straight from the internet.<br />
I present the Erol Otus Coloring book!<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Br-uStiBRqk/VgP3iy63buI/AAAAAAAAAcQ/lPNo-fVXnQ8/s1600/troll_FF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="356" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Br-uStiBRqk/VgP3iy63buI/AAAAAAAAAcQ/lPNo-fVXnQ8/s400/troll_FF.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q4NxpkA9IbM/VgP3iN6fpLI/AAAAAAAAAcc/99W5MlF9fu8/s1600/9d8ed111a0fab6aa6a9f8a3a0acc3e02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="472" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-q4NxpkA9IbM/VgP3iN6fpLI/AAAAAAAAAcc/99W5MlF9fu8/s640/9d8ed111a0fab6aa6a9f8a3a0acc3e02.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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NaNoWriMo</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kfnQ9xC7BCo/VgP3iNpZijI/AAAAAAAAAcM/5yavCqPHyT4/s1600/DCCRPG-EO-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="377" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kfnQ9xC7BCo/VgP3iNpZijI/AAAAAAAAAcM/5yavCqPHyT4/s640/DCCRPG-EO-2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Does anybody know what monster this is? It looks like a pumped-up carrion crawler.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-haC-sD_YMwA/VgP3iw2yRnI/AAAAAAAAAcY/GypNgfn_SVM/s1600/hermit-erol-otus.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-haC-sD_YMwA/VgP3iw2yRnI/AAAAAAAAAcY/GypNgfn_SVM/s640/hermit-erol-otus.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--NIueekEv_Q/VgP3igiHJkI/AAAAAAAAAcU/C0F6MMv_lko/s1600/erol-otus-shub-niggurath-ddg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="418" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--NIueekEv_Q/VgP3igiHJkI/AAAAAAAAAcU/C0F6MMv_lko/s640/erol-otus-shub-niggurath-ddg.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kcs77EVvims/VgP4ALZ70DI/AAAAAAAAAcs/uZ_BtuprVJo/s1600/otus%2Balchemist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="258" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kcs77EVvims/VgP4ALZ70DI/AAAAAAAAAcs/uZ_BtuprVJo/s400/otus%2Balchemist.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Kf5hGBdBY5M/VgP4ANqbDVI/AAAAAAAAAcw/lESUvc-u-9U/s1600/otus%2Bconfront.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="324" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Kf5hGBdBY5M/VgP4ANqbDVI/AAAAAAAAAcw/lESUvc-u-9U/s640/otus%2Bconfront.jpg" width="640" /></a> Pow! Bam! Biff! Ker-Sploosh!</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v5_inzsxIaA/VgP4AVzmzHI/AAAAAAAAAc4/aEU2oerq9t4/s1600/otus%2Bwizards.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-v5_inzsxIaA/VgP4AVzmzHI/AAAAAAAAAc4/aEU2oerq9t4/s640/otus%2Bwizards.gif" width="640" /></a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-73919203336420084362015-08-11T07:05:00.001-07:002015-08-11T07:05:33.912-07:00Recent LessonsThe Dungeon Purgatory campaign may soon be ending. I am moving to another city, so I won't be around to insist that we stick with it. We are also getting to miss the narrative consistency of a more traditional campaign. So Dungeon Purgatory is prolly not long for this world.<br />
<br />
anyways, here are some lessons I've learned from running my last few sessions<br />
<br />
1. Randomness on the DMing/encounter generation side of the screen does not necessarily equate to randomness on the player/experience side of the screen. Rather, the players can be given a sense of disorder or mystery from events which are actually carefully planned on the DM side. But if the DM expects off-the-cuff randomness to perform well and hopes to surprise himself, he is likely to be disappointed, and what the players experience will probably be meaningless and boring.<br />
<br />
2. If you want a monster to stick around and cause trouble for a while, don't make it easy for the PCs to push it off a cliff or into a pool of lava or something. At least not until that is exactly what they are supposed to do.<br />
<br />
3. Dungeons <strong><em>are</em></strong> like fun-houses. The aptness of <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/alexis-d-smolensk/the-dungeons-front-door-other-things-in-the-deep-dark/paperback/product-22069825.html" target="_blank">Alexis-senpai's comparison</a> is more apparent to me now. Except I would say it's more like an amusement park haunted-house ride. \<br />
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mA5I9Cd_Wq4/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mA5I9Cd_Wq4?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
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Things need to be obvious. The monsters are supposed to pop out on their creaky hydraulics. If there's a mystery or a secret, it needs to be apparent that there is a problem to be solved. It's ok to hand-hold in dungeons.<br />
Yeah, I am usually for lots of freedom and player-driven action. But dungeons really aren't the place for that. Open ended adventure requires an open environment. Once we are in a dungeon the game is not about getting into character or storytelling. It is about killing stuff and getting treasure until the course is cleared.<br />
<br />
4.That said, whether an area is visually mapped or merely described to players has a huge effect on how they are prompted to explore and interact with the environment. <br />
I had a certain area mapped very neatly, but lost it before game. I felt this loss very keenly as I had to describe verbally what I had expected to present visually.<br />
<br />
A map encourages players to be more proactive in their exploration. What they already see is clearly marked and the "blank" areas of the map show where there is more exploration to be done.<br />
<br />
But when players are dependent on a description farted out of my hazy and disorganized imagination, they really lack prompting. If something is not specifically mentioned in plain language, it may as well not exist. On the other hand, something mentioned as mere window-dressing may utterly fascinate or boggle the players. The tale of the Gazebo comes to mind.<br />
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<a data-ved="0CAcQjRxqFQoTCNqCmMOVoccCFYx3PgodxEwA4Q" href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAcQjRxqFQoTCNqCmMOVoccCFYx3PgodxEwA4Q&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shawneestructures.com%2Fgazebos-home.html&ei=-vzJVdqdIYzv-QHEmYGIDg&bvm=bv.99804247,d.cWw&psig=AFQjCNGCVm19NTBSukajxhq-ZXyh_UHcQw&ust=1439387249129886" id="irc_mil" jsaction="mousedown:irc.rl;keydown:irc.rlk;irc.il;" style="border: 0px currentColor;"><img height="320" id="irc_mi" src="http://www.shawneestructures.com/2009-old-images/gazebo-10x14b.jpg" style="margin-top: 6px;" width="400" /></a></div>
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<strong><em>Does it see us?</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em></em></strong> </div>
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This distinction between visual representation and descriptive representation may seem obvious. But I am still learning it. In the future, I will make a conscious decision about how I intend to present an environment. This distinction also pretty much dictates what sort of preparation will be necessary.</div>
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5. Mixing monsters is cool. Encounters with multiple distinct monster types are a good way to make a combat more interesting. Having more than two factions involved simultaneously in one encounter can be very unpredictable for players. Especially when one faction is an unknown quantity. It gives players the opportunity to make quick decisions and feel particularly clever when things work out well for them. </div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-34405419858909771062015-07-29T08:34:00.000-07:002015-09-28T14:27:16.119-07:00Killing GentlyThough my rate of posting has slowed significantly, the Dungeon Purgatory campaign is still going, and the party has come once again to one of my areas. I am playing my cards close to my chest at the moment, but I will share reflections on this level later.<br />
<br />
Until then, I've been immersing myself in the Dune universe lately. Even going so far as to listen to the prequels co-authored by Brian Herbert and Kevin J Anderson. They are not nearly as esoteric or perceptive as the writings of Frank Herbert, but are sufficiently interesting for describing the underpinnings of the universe.<br />
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Dune is one of those science-fantasy settings where it is the future, in space, but people are still fighting with swords for some reason, which is cool. <br />
Dune's justification for swords-in-the-future is the Holtzmann-Effect shield. The Holtzmann shield is a energy barrier which deflects any object which enters the field at a certain velocity. A person with a shield equipped is invulnerable to any projectile or explosive force. A shield can be personal, or large enough to cover a city.<br />
The only way to penetrate a shield is by moving into it at a sufficiently slow speed. This necessitates a particularly disciplined form of melee combat. And as shields are ubiquitous, military tactics are based around the necessity of close combat.<br />
<a data-ved="0CAcQjRxqFQoTCPfki6bCgMcCFQYVHgodSn0OAg" href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAcQjRxqFQoTCPfki6bCgMcCFQYVHgodSn0OAg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tombsofkobol.com%2Fclassic%2Fdune-hardware-02.html&ei=vd64VbeSLoaqeMr6uRA&bvm=bv.98717601,d.dmo&psig=AFQjCNHVAP5uuqfUBK7Xy8TPppGmtGbWKA&ust=1438265333150255" id="irc_mil" jsaction="mousedown:irc.rl;keydown:irc.rlk;irc.il;" style="border: 0px currentColor;"><img src="http://www.tombsofkobol.com/images/classic/dune80shield.JPG" height="280" id="irc_mi" style="margin-top: 36px;" width="400" /></a><br />
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Shields- as depicted in the 1984 movie. When CG was new. <br />
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Holtzmann shields do have some serious limitations however: For one, they attract and enrage the giant worms of Arrakis. So using one in the open desert is practically suicide. <br />
For another, if one is shot with a laser, the interaction creates a detonation equivalent to a nuclear blast. So beware of suicide troops with lasguns. Depending on who you are fighting, that could be a thing.<br />
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There have been several attempts to make a Dune rpg. The ones I've perused don't seem too promising. But the schools and disciplines of the Dune universe seem well suited to the Class and Level model.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AWv3HTyf6xk/Vgmwh_ohZ3I/AAAAAAAAAdY/gdn-KueYUbQ/s1600/anime%2Bdune.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AWv3HTyf6xk/Vgmwh_ohZ3I/AAAAAAAAAdY/gdn-KueYUbQ/s640/anime%2Bdune.jpg" width="452" /></a></div>
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Thank you, internet.</div>
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I got to wonder about Dune Larping. The action in a Dune novel is mostly talking, or intense chemical-aided introspection, punctuated by spying and the occasional assassination attempt or duel. It seems like it would lend itself well to live-action gaming, so I did a quick search to see if anybody else has wondered about this.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oXsJ6g3hgZs/VbjxMJILVII/AAAAAAAAAbM/fNMsH3cxhAc/s1600/3921284-dune%252Bknife.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oXsJ6g3hgZs/VbjxMJILVII/AAAAAAAAAbM/fNMsH3cxhAc/s400/3921284-dune%252Bknife.jpg" width="297" /></a> </div>
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<a href="http://sebastiangiacobino.blogspot.com/2012/01/weekmeup-part-4-parte-4.html" target="_blank">who to credit on this one.</a></div>
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A few have, and fewer still have attempted it. One of these bold souls wondered aloud how the particular character of holtzmann-shield fighting could be simulated.<br />
I've done some fencing and boffer and SCA combat here and there, so I thought about it.<br />
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In shield-fighting, only an attack which enters slowly can penetrate the shield. This is the trick, because in conventional melee combat, the faster hand has the advantage. It seems that this sort of combat would emphasize subtlety, deception and precise control. And that is what we would need to simulate to get the "feel" of shield-fighting.<br />
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I noticed that impact or mass-weapons don't play into shield combat. It's all rapiers, bodkins, crysknives, poison needles and hidden blades. These weapons can be manipulated with special finesse, and don't need to be moving fast to deal their damage. Hacking and smashing weapons such as maces, axes and broadswords pretty much need to be moving fast for their mass to play into the damage, as such they don't get used in shield fighting. I don't know much interest Frank Herbert had in martial arts, but he seemed to have realized this distinction when he was building his world.<br />
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What occurred to me was a form of boffer-fighitng or fencing where the object is to touch the opponent so that they feel it, but in such a way that it doesn't hurt or even sting a little bit. Every other aspect of the sword-play would be full speed. But being required to pull one's blows would, I think, simulate the challenge of slow-blade shield fighting.<br />
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I am actually pretty tickled by this notion. It's a bizarre form of counting coup. Some time when it's not blazing hot out, I will have to get some people together so we can figure out how this works in practice. Things like what kind of weapons to use, what protective gear, if any. Is grappling allowed or not? how to properly gauge a "hit" and so on.<br />
I think there could be a lot of appeal in a martial game where the object is to <strong><em>not</em></strong> hurt your opponent, just show that you could have if you'd wanted to.<br />
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anyone seen this episode? it seems relevant.</div>
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Hopefully I will have some results to report on this experiment sooner rather than later. I am pretty excited about it.</div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-20066322047872178112015-07-07T16:41:00.001-07:002015-07-07T16:41:31.323-07:00Something for EverybodyA friend in the Dungeon Purgatory campaign ran in one of his levels last friday.<br />
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I would call the session a success, and it had a very basic lesson to teach.<br />
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<b>In the little scenario, there was something for everybody to do. </b><br />
Or nearly so. The character-players had plenty of action. The rogue had a heist to perform in the background. Only the fighter, who suspected a trap was really left out in the cold.<br />
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This is a basic idea. Its so obvious, it is in certain editions of the DMG. I guess I am just getting back to basic lessons after taking such a long break from game.<br />
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I mean, I wouldn't make Something for Everybody the primary principle of my process. But for set-piece encounters or important areas, I will try to keep it in mind.<br />
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One thing I noticed about the recent session, was that we split the party without fretting about it. Keeping the party together is like the first rule of dungeon survival.<br />
But somehow, in this scenario, we sensed that we had license to do so. I think it was when the party had found an are which was not technically a "dungeon," And he took a moment to describe several objects, people and simultaneous events at the same time, which was likely to pique and divide our interests at the same time.<br />
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Simple stuff.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-73087260196408195272015-07-06T14:03:00.001-07:002015-07-06T14:03:28.851-07:00The Underloft-grid-map lessons learnedAfter a hiatus out of respect for Med-faire season, we resumed the Dungeon Purgatory campaign.<br />
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Over the last two sessions, we returned to and completed one of my levels. <br />
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<b>The Underloft.</b><br />
The Underloft may be thought of as the flooded-basement of the castle complex. A vast, subterranean space, wet, cold, dark and dripping.<br />
Something like this image of Dwarrowdelf from LotR, except flooded.<br />
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I liked the idea of the Underloft. it was very archetypal. I thought the atmosphere would translate easily, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to use the <a href="http://armchair-demiurge.blogspot.com/2015/03/zelda-grid-open-world-mapping.html" target="_blank">Zelda-Grid style map</a>.<br />
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The players recently made their second expedition to the Underloft, in search of a key which would grant access to new areas.<br />
And I swear, it was the most boring couple of sessions I have run in recent memory.<br />
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One of the problems was <strong>misuse of a random encounter table</strong>. As the party progressed from gridsquare to gridsquare, I would roll away on a d20 encounter table to see what appeared in adjacent grids.<br />
This gave me a lot of nonsense and things that Either I didn't feel like running, or else some nonsense encounter.<br />
Fortunately, the table producd a merchant with a boat for sale. So the PCs could traverse the waters without suffering hypothermia.<br />
Then it so happened to yield the Boss with the McGuffin they were looking for.<br />
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I went in thinking that adherence to a random table would produce an organic experience that would surprise everybody. What I got was either nonsense, or unappealing. Really, it would have been better if I had simply plotted to a certain extent.<br />
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We are using a spell failure table for this campaign. Spells require a spellcraft check with a difficulty based on the spell level. This makes it possible to fumble spells. Fumbled spells call for a roll on a d100 table listing various effect, some benign, some terrible.<br />
Somebody failed a spell, and as a result evaporated all water in a 1 mile radius. <br />
This Dried up the whole level. The party was able to walk to the exit.<br />
Near the exit, they stumbled upon the same merchant. How the merchant got there before them was not explored. But the only reason for it was my use of the random encounter table.<br />
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I think it would have been better to track the significant objects over time according to the reasonable natures of the object, rather than relying on the random encounter table. It would have created a greater sense of depth to the level. Even if this would have been imperceptible to the players, I would have felt better about it. Adherence to a random table for generating encounters off-the cuff was a bad idea. I use random tables when populating areas beforehand, but I don't obey them if I don't feel like the result is appropriate. Why did I have this temporary lapse? Must have been too long since I last DMed.<br />
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Next time will be better.<br />
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<a class="irc_mutl" data-noload="" data-ved="0CAcQjRw" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&ved=0CAcQjRw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FFile%3ADwarrodelf.jpg&ei=xWSRVe2yCoHxUqLhgPAO&bvm=bv.96783405,d.d24&psig=AFQjCNGyDxgRJCLq52Lc4wJoSK8g8wvslw&ust=1435678227985388" jsaction="mousedown:irc.rl;keydown:irc.rlk"><img class="irc_mut" height="154" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTJXeZtEkZMeAHRHVeDajgfGJtBe44_7ZBrfnIVNE3tgLF5yZF-vA" style="margin-top: 130px;" width="366" /></a></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-17165678974512180482015-06-16T12:00:00.002-07:002015-06-16T12:00:35.830-07:00They're finally remaking FFVII<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-72793495410843527422015-06-02T12:14:00.004-07:002015-09-23T08:10:21.535-07:00myth building- apocalypses.<em>And I pray, oh my god do I pray</em><br />
<em>I pray every single day</em><br />
<em>For a revolution</em><br />
<em> - 4 non blondes</em><br />
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This post is an observation about mythologies, which I expect to be useful for contriving mythologies for a gameworld.<br />
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I've already written some about apocalypses, especially concerning millenarianism in American culture.<br />
But millenarianism isn't restricted to one time or place, or even one form of ideology. Belief in the "end times" is generally associated with religious outlooks. But it seems that even political or ethnic ideologies have some notion of this. That would account for pretty much all ideologies.<br />
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Ideologies form their own views on history, that is, they customize a mythology. This mythological history would naturally interpret past events. And it would also develop conjectures about the future and the direction history is going in.<br />
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Basically, no matter what your outlook, whether you are Jew, Gentile, Hopi, Sioux, Republican, Anarchist, Burner, Evangelist, Progressive, Positivist, Luddite or Flower-Child, <strong>you probably have some notion that <em>something</em> is going to happen. And probably soon.</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
People imagine this thing differently. They have different words for it: apocalypse, rapture, the technological singularity, when the Shit Hits the Fan, The Transcendental Object at the End of Time, The Age of Aquarius, The Revolution. Ragnarok.<br />
And then there's the one where the internet stops working and we all don football pads and grab our ARs and kill eachother for the last bottle of coke. Plot twist: the last coke will be warm and taste awful.<br />
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It seems to me that all these various apocalypses hold Anxiety as their common origin. <br />
It is uncertainty or a perceived threat which causes people to make these guesses that something serious is going to happen.<br />
The nature of the anxiety reflects on the principle concerns of the rest of the mythology.<br />
For instance: <br />
Who will be saved, who will be damned.<br />
Environmental concerns or concerns over limited resources.<br />
Concerns about group-identity or social position.<br />
Civil liberties or political power.<br />
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The term "Apocalypse" has come to mean the end of the world as we know it. But in the original sense, it meant a revelation. Apocalyptic literature was a genre of religious writing in which people wrote about the bizarre visions they had while fasting or in trance. In this state, they believed that God was revealing things to them. So in a more basic sense, an apocalypse is how-things-are-going-to-turn-out.<br />
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In this view, when the apocalypse happens, questions are answered, things turn out, and the anxiety is resolved. That is why people are fascinated by the idea. It is appealing in a sense.<br />
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People take for granted that a mythology will have a creation story. But don't forget that they almost always have some future which they expect as well.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5009740582601771668.post-63073850134149416272015-06-02T07:37:00.002-07:002015-06-02T07:37:48.326-07:00Priest-CraftThere's hardly anything actually useful in this post. Just musing on worldbuilding for general purposes.<br />
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I left the last post on a bit of a question mark.<br />
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In short, I made distinction between the domains of craft, science and technology on one hand, and ineffable magic on the other. In game terms, One field is more or less understood and under the control of the character. The powers of the other field are unpredictable, and they strike like the inspiration of a muse.<br />
<img height="132" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Nine_Muses_-_Samuel_Griswold_Goodrich_(1832).jpg" width="640" /><br />
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This left me in a bit of a muddle as a Game Master, since it is difficult to create a system to regulate divine inspiration or a character's affinity for the eternal <em>tao</em>.<br />
The other field is easy to regulate: a character knows this much science and has such and such resources. A character has the mental endurance to memorize and cast so many spells a day. It's straightforward and rational.<br />
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The first thing that occurred was simple DM fiat. But nobody wants the unbridled whim of the DM as their character's main source of power.<br />
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Also, I was writing like I was imagining the source of magic-magic as the one ultimate reality of the universe. God in short. The sort of polytheistic set up common in science-fantasy settings were not really being considered.<br />
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In standard D&D, clerical magic is channeled to Clerics from their deity as sheer spells per day.<br />
I figured his could be interpreted either as technology- where the deities are super-powerful wizards who distribute their extra-planar energies to their acolytes. Or it could function as magic-magic, where the deities embody more abstract principles which a devotee "tunes in" to. So I left it undefined. <br />
One of these models could suit your campaign world better than the other, depending on the statement you are trying to make. <br />
Heck, you could have both; creating a distinction between "true" and "false" gods of which the players may not even be aware.<br />
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Then my buddy came over, the same one who go me thinking about the proper distinction between technology-magic and magic-magic.<br />
Somehow, we got to talking about ritual magic, basically that practiced by priests and magicians in our own history. Imagine a pagan priest attempting to invoke the power of Athena or Mars or somebody like that. They invent a ritual which involves the trappings associated with the given deity in an attempt to attract their power. This is something like sympathetic magic, which operates on the theory that like is affected by like.<br />
Thing is, even with such a ritual, the practitioners are never really sure whether it worked or not.<br />
If the desired result appears, then maybe it is due to the god's intervention or maybe not. It is with this uncertainty, that priest-craft becomes a mystical , mysterious, ineffable process; the success of which possibly attributable to the skill of the priest or the whim of the god or both.<br />
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At this point, I noticed that Priestcraft is like hunting or fishing in this regard; you could be doing everything right, but still not get what you want. Possibly simply because of forces beyond your understanding or control.<br />
It doesn't necessarily have to be understood by the players, so long as the DM understand the whys and wherefores.<br />
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I argued that the theory of the existence of gods and the ritual associations used to influence them were a sort of cultural technology- a sort of rational formula based on a given understanding of the cosmos. But I also agreed that because the "science" of it was so vague, that this was kind of a moot point and the whole pursuit is in the realm of the mystical.<br />
If there is am unproven hypothesis with only limited evidence to support it, acting on that hypothesis would be rather like relying on magic, wouldn't it?<br />
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I realize, I already proposed a <a href="http://armchair-demiurge.blogspot.com/2015/03/reining-in-spell-granting.html" target="_blank">reasonably good system</a> for distribution of clerical magic where anybody can do cleric stuff regardless of class. Mechanically, it's built on the framework of standard D&D. Needs Playtesting.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00302117270345645812noreply@blogger.com0