tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-356553882024-03-07T00:05:30.246-05:00I Waste The Buddha With My CrossbowThe Gamemaster Re-Rolls Himself. No, really, I DO post now and again.Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.comBlogger570125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-46319960804755052942023-01-29T15:38:00.004-05:002023-01-29T15:38:54.417-05:00GAME REVIEW: Four-Color Heroics<p> Before we get started, here are some disclaimers:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I am reviewing a comp copy provided by the author</li><li>The author and I are friends, and have been for many years</li><li>It is my hope that the author knows me well enough to trust me to be fair, impartial, and honest</li><li>I have read but not yet played this game</li></ul><p></p><p>Okay? We good? </p><p>Good.</p><p><br /></p><p>I really like it.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><h1 style="text-align: left;">OKAY SO WHAT IS IT?</h1><p><i>Four-Color Heroics </i>is a roleplaying game of superheroic action and shenanigans from Spectrum Games, designed and written by Cynthia Celeste Miller, and edited by Norbert Franz. It's meant to help model golden-age comics characters in action, though it can really pull a lot of duties, if you ask me.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghlacBxIEuiIwzI82C6UUA7kGGClPU_l9Goi8L3Eq2dxoNZS2qE9t03b097YolQ1su-S4QkY054ZENZcKAVnGqfOTGrayjaYdKZpczhir_AeoyFZpApJn2mX_ePLCNQE1mKZgW_rFQTFsqXP-9E799biw4mvictjgbCVL5Hst5bhfhy_Zz8OY/s1100/cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1100" data-original-width="850" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghlacBxIEuiIwzI82C6UUA7kGGClPU_l9Goi8L3Eq2dxoNZS2qE9t03b097YolQ1su-S4QkY054ZENZcKAVnGqfOTGrayjaYdKZpczhir_AeoyFZpApJn2mX_ePLCNQE1mKZgW_rFQTFsqXP-9E799biw4mvictjgbCVL5Hst5bhfhy_Zz8OY/s320/cover.png" width="247" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nazis can, and should be, punched the fuck out anytime, anywhere.</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p>It's...let's see, the PDF is 23 pages long; the rules take up about 8 pages of that, and the rest is support material. It uses a dice pool system (you'll roll a bunch of d10s, but sometimes some d8s and/or d12s), the implementation of which is uncomplicated and kind of clever. </p><h1 style="text-align: left;">HOW LONG'S IT GONNA TAKE ME TO MAKE A CHARACTER?</h1><p>Not very long, really - not in terms of putting stuff down on paper. The mechanical requirements of a character are light: you'll have 5 Attributes (Action, Combat, Alertness, Brainpower, Charisma) and some Qualities (which further break down into Skills, Flaws, and Powers). Each attribute features a pair of Facets, to give a bit of granularity (Action covers Athletics and Brawn, for instance); these modify your dice pool when you, you know, roll dice. Buy the whole lot with some points, calculate a Damage Limit, decide on some Keywords that apply to your character, come up with a name and a background, and go be all heroic and stuff.</p><h1 style="text-align: left;">IS IT REALLY THAT SIMPLE?</h1><p>Well, there's a bit more in there, but it's also pretty easy to get along with. The aforementioned Skills, Powers, and Flaws are pretty open-ended, and give you the opportunity to flavor your character without having to drill down a whole lot if you don't want to. The rules give you a framework for defining Skills, Powers, and Flaws, and trusts you not to abuse the freedoms it allows you.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2JtbJh6AXp2QKjTX9Vvw8Y0grfNf1Ff86jRkqlSvgOQTeCvN-SVi1YIDGX9HdBqyVU9D9NX68c2lZlUHnAfG_pU5Yqj3_BeRkJIzTLC6hC-TulZhhv5OkgK1QPjOQlKnFHExhMi9zTcvtEg19nNJgY3GiE2C7Z5CFviy5w2z5wYg8C6GZX3g/s756/anteaters.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="132" data-original-width="756" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2JtbJh6AXp2QKjTX9Vvw8Y0grfNf1Ff86jRkqlSvgOQTeCvN-SVi1YIDGX9HdBqyVU9D9NX68c2lZlUHnAfG_pU5Yqj3_BeRkJIzTLC6hC-TulZhhv5OkgK1QPjOQlKnFHExhMi9zTcvtEg19nNJgY3GiE2C7Z5CFviy5w2z5wYg8C6GZX3g/w640-h112/anteaters.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO but okay yeah that makes sense I guess.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>As I mentioned, your character is assigned some Keywords - common-sense descriptors that help define them. These are things like "Robotic", "Organic", "Hero", "Villain", "Alien", or the like. Powers also get these Keywords applied to them, so you can have an "Energy Bolt" power that is "Piercing" or maybe a "Gadget" or "Cold" or whatever. The idea seems to be to define minutiae up to a certain meaningful point, but not overly so. Other games already do that, and this one isn't here to be that precise, just fun.</p><h1 style="text-align: left;">WHAT ABOUT ROLLING DICE AND HAVING COMBATS AND LIKE THAT?</h1><p>Like I said, that's all done with a simple dice pool. You're rolling d10s equal to your Attribute, and looking for those that roll 6+ to count as successes; those count against either a static number or an opposing roll. Pretty straight-forward, but there are a couple of finer details: the pool can shrink or grow under certain circumstances, and some of the dice can bump up to d12s or slide down to d8s depending on applicable Facets and Skills and stuff. Also, there's a nice drama die/metacurrency mechanic folded in: one of your dice is a special "Impact Die", which can either hamper you on a 1 or give you a bonus success on a 10. Rolling a 10 also gives you a "Momentum" point that you can spend for, you know, cool stuff, not unlike Bennies in <i>Savage Worlds</i> or Momentum Points in <i>2d20</i> games. </p><p>The whole thing is very uncomplicated. There are certain rules that can create a bit of weirdness, though, and the rules counsel you on what to do when that happens. </p><p>Combat is likewise functional and uncluttered. It's mostly opposed checks, and loser takes damage determined by the margin (plus mods if a power allows them). The game specifies using tokens to track damage, which seemed a little weird to me - why not just, you know, write them down? So I asked Cynthia. She said:</p><p></p><blockquote><span style="color: #6fa8dc;">I feel it gives the system a looser feel with one less thing to require traditional in-game record-keeping. It's faster during combat scenes to slide over a few tokens than it is to erase the previous damage amount and write in the new amount</span>.</blockquote><p></p><p>This tracks with the rest of the feel of the game: it's obviously wanting you to have fast and uncluttered fun, and while I don't think you would lose much by erasing and re-writing damage, I don't disagree with her, either.</p><h1 style="text-align: left;">WHAT'S IN THOSE 15 PAGES OF SUPPORTING MATERIAL YOU MENTIONED?</h1><p>Oh, yeah. Well, aside from, you know, a cover and an index (very handy, those indices), you'll get a slew of pre-generated example characters of different flavors and types, as well as a 2-page blank character sheet. The real meat of the extras, though, is the Appendix - 2 pages of guidance on actually <i>using</i> all this loosey-goosey stuff without it being "just do whatever". It packs in some sample qualities, thoughts on how sample characters were created, and the philosophy of designing powers and stuff. </p><p>To me, those are two very powerful pages - they not only help to solidify the game's feel and intent, but it gives you the keys for doing it yourself. I love it when a game designer gives you a look behind the curtain and explains some of <i>why </i>they designed a game or a mechanic in such a way, how they approach it, and what it means to them. </p><h1 style="text-align: left;">IS IT A PRETTY BOOK?</h1><p>Yeah, yeah it is! It's laid out very clearly and legibly, but retains enough "old-timey comics" flavor to stay inspirational, with plenty of period art spread throughout. Here, look at this sample page:</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcOetkfhoinVo5HMytqcjnF1n4dvy2UqoHxpbQPGFFu24kcmpGZPD0M9j0XckRApBKwcjdP7JfFdy1L8prkCGwcPgwTHWXzoEqKkgn9MzuWGfQlLHZhC_xurRP_xIg5qHWaJblE49qFM-9YBSnm-93Vf2fnSyAnyd9P5FJJQCSj_r5nKb5u2U/s917/Sample%20Page.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="917" data-original-width="715" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcOetkfhoinVo5HMytqcjnF1n4dvy2UqoHxpbQPGFFu24kcmpGZPD0M9j0XckRApBKwcjdP7JfFdy1L8prkCGwcPgwTHWXzoEqKkgn9MzuWGfQlLHZhC_xurRP_xIg5qHWaJblE49qFM-9YBSnm-93Vf2fnSyAnyd9P5FJJQCSj_r5nKb5u2U/s320/Sample%20Page.png" width="250" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pulpy in many senses of the word.</td></tr></tbody></table><p>Miller and Franz have kept the text concise and easy to parse. In reading it, I only had to backtrack once or twice, but that was only to confirm my own understanding of a rule or passage. They also chose this particular panel, which tickles me somethin' fierce:</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmSf97lx0CiQ3xtXu7UAZ9BUBiC3Ak7r_KAZk5O97IIbNSwPJtvsvzUXwfdGrAjO2ZeeANIlnD1MWlFMhqfP0HLwQFYneF81HYu8IednyGilcLYhbxpdBtOvcy1zX0gqWBY6llI-h_ikykaRJXINjI5ccwFGr_Vc820zubBDnG1k1o2VB-7pI/s610/Uncle%20Satan.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="408" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmSf97lx0CiQ3xtXu7UAZ9BUBiC3Ak7r_KAZk5O97IIbNSwPJtvsvzUXwfdGrAjO2ZeeANIlnD1MWlFMhqfP0HLwQFYneF81HYu8IednyGilcLYhbxpdBtOvcy1zX0gqWBY6llI-h_ikykaRJXINjI5ccwFGr_Vc820zubBDnG1k1o2VB-7pI/w268-h400/Uncle%20Satan.png" width="268" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...uh...whut?</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> </p><h1 style="text-align: left;">OKAY, DOC, WRAP IT UP ALREADY</h1><div>Look, what can I tell you but that this game is pretty nice? It's not a major revolution or revelation in RPG design, but it's good at what it wants to do, and that's worth something. It very clearly wants to be about superheroes doing superhero things quickly and easily so you can focus on the story and the fun and not have to worry overmuch about the rules. There's a bit of granularity, but note that it's in favor of your <i>narrative</i>. And it looks to me like it works just fine at that. Solid.</div><div><br /></div><div>More than that, I think it'd be pretty damn good for other kinds of action/adventure gaming - all it really takes to re-flavor it for, say, modern mercenary action or space opera or fantasy is to change up Keywords and the scope of Powers. You might have to kit-bash a more robust magic system if you want to go to FRPG Town with it, but what's a blaster rifle but a Power with damage rating and a "Gadget" Keyword? </div><div><br /></div><h1 style="text-align: left;">SHOULD I BUY IT?</h1><p>I mean...that's up to you. <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/423237/FourColor-Heroics-Core-Rulebook?term=four-color+heroics" target="_blank">The PDF is currently $3.95 on DriveThru RPG</a>, and I have it on good authority that a print version is forthcoming real soon now. At a time when some games cost upwards of fifty bucks, only give you so much of what you expect them to be about, and ping you for special gimmick dice, Cindy's letting you get away with highway robbery. </p><p>As for support, well, there's a companion volume on the way, and there's a Facebook group dedicated to <i>Four-Color Heroics</i> and they've already produced some cool stuff. You can dip in and get some and share your own. It's a good time. </p><h1 style="text-align: left;">ARE YOU DONE?</h1><p>Yeah.</p><p></p>Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-17684933884635015252023-01-05T08:00:00.140-05:002023-01-05T08:00:00.145-05:00"Welcome to my new fantasy game! You do not get to know the rules."<p> You've heard of Eisen's Vow, yeah? </p><p>No?</p><p>Okay, that's not unusual. It's only been called that for a while, although it's an idea as old as D&D itself. Over in his book <i>The Elusive Shift</i> (and on his blog, Playing at the World), Jon Peterson defines Eisen's Vow as --</p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="color: #6fa8dc; font-family: Ubuntu;">the position that player enjoyment of the game is diminished by understanding how the referee resolves system events.</span></blockquote><p>There's history behind this idea; in the interest of not re-hashing the wheel, you can also go listen to <a href="https://shows.acast.com/roleplayrescue/episodes/622365e4891c9700142f6a20" target="_blank">this here episode of the <i>Roleplay Rescue</i> podcast</a>, where host Che Webster discusses it in detail and has a neat accent. </p><p>But anyway. The basic notion is that if the players don't know the rules, and you -the GM- handle all of that on your end, then the players are interacting with <i>the world</i> and not <i>the game mechanics</i>. This, as I mentioned previously, hopes to front-load immersion. </p><p>When I first read about it in the book, and again when I listened to Che's podcast episode, I was all, like, "Yyyyyyyeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh I dunno." Players -of which I am sometimes one- like knowing the rules to a certain point, so they know what risks they can and can't take. That's fair; that's just being smart.</p><p>But.</p><p>You can argue that players can still learn what risks they can and can't take even if they <i>don't</i> know the rules, and they learn those limitations the same way they learn anything in life: </p><p>Through experience.</p><p>Plus, I'd rather my players poke around at the world because they can, not because they are <i>told</i> they can. I'd rather the risks and rewards in, say, fighting a handful of kobolds be present and evident by the information that I can give them, and that their characters grow in ability through lived, rather than <i>tallied</i>, experience. </p><p>And that's what Rovainne wants to be: a play experience. It wants to come alive at the table, to be a thing that the players sink into and enjoy.</p><p>And! Plus! Also! There's another advantage to this play style: in the absence of to-hit modifiers, armor classes, target numbers, feats, skill levels and such, creativity and description become paramount. Can your party defeat these kobolds? Maybe. Probably. How? What are your tactics? No no no, not "what are you going to do to get +2 to hit them", I said <i>what are you going to do?</i> Do you just wade in? Do some of you flank them out? Are you dumber than a kobold? What about the one with the spear? </p><p>The argument can be made that you can have a game that focuses on those same tactical considerations even if you have modifiers codified for every abstraction, and you know what? You can.</p><p>But you don't <i>gotta</i>. You can have a rich play experience that hinges on <i>not</i> having tactical modifiers and instead pretending that you're a knight and a scoundrel and a wizard's apprentice and a witch who have to get across this clearing in the woods, and there are some lizard-dog-things that say "No way", so what do you do about it?</p><p>Obviously, this requires a lot of trust between the players and the GM. That's why I intend to play this with an established group who I trust will trust me. </p><p><br /></p><p>So the rules I'm using will be invisible to the players. But what rules <i>am</i> I using? </p><p>...that would be telling. But I'll tell you what they're <i>not</i>, and I can tell you that they're not those rules because I considered all of the below but ultimately decided that they didn't fit what Rovainne wants to be:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>AD&D 2nd Edition or Rules Cyclopedia</b> - despite being my favorite iterations of Brand Name D&D, as I've already stated, <i>Rovainne doesn't want to be D&D.</i></li><li><b>Castles & Crusades, 13th Age, Labyrinth Lord, OD&D and its clones</b> - despite being other great ways to play D&D, well...they're...still D&D. With all the D&D expectations that I'd just end up chucking out anyway.</li><li><b>GURPS, D6 Fantasy, HERO FREd, Savage Worlds</b> - despite being some generic systems that I liked, Rovainne resisted being those games because they just wouldn't easily bend to what Rovainne wants to be. They could, eventually, but...it seemed like a lot of work, and the temptation was there to go down pathways that could lead away from the pure experience of what the setting wants to be, and risks me turning it into something else just because it seems like a good idea at the time.</li><li><b>Dungeon World</b> - too much to cut out, again. Though I did consider a basic PbtA 6-/7-9/10+ target spread and interpretation, but I had the feeling that it wouldn't give me the right feel that I wanted. I co-opted some of the ideas, though...</li><li><b>Fate Core/Condensed/Accelerated</b> - despite being one of my favorite ways to tell stories and such, some of my players balked at the odds of rolling 4dF, and I just really don't want to argue about that. </li><li><b>Cortex Prime</b> - yeah, no, I ain't doin' that much work. Screw that. Nice game, but <i>noooooo</i>.</li></ul><p></p><p>So the rules are none of those, and they're not a lot of other systems, either. They'll be my secret. Don't ask. </p><p><br /></p><p>Now...you've probably noticed that I keep talking about "what Rovainne wants to be". That's a whole topic unto itself, and I'm looking forward to discussing it with you and telling you what it means and how it intersects with my jacked-up creative process, which is one of the original themes of this blog...</p><p>...but not right now. You've already had enough to read. Come back later. </p><p></p>Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-78383183180677239032023-01-04T21:08:00.005-05:002023-01-21T19:27:42.169-05:00FKR WTF FYI OK: Rovainne Edition<p>Yeah, okay, so. Yesterday I mentioned my new game setting. Today I'm gonna tell you about it. It's becoming kind of an important thing for me, for reasons that I-</p><p>What's that? You don't care? Okay! That's fine. This post will just be about <i>what</i>, not <i>why.</i> Later I'll talk about <i>why</i>.</p><p>Anyway...</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-large;">OKAY SO <i>BAAAAAAAS</i>ICALLY...</span></b></div><p><span style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: Berkshire Swash; font-size: large;">Rovainne.</span></p><p>It's your Renfaire Europe, but with wizards and dragons and stuff. Queen Yldruun sits on the Rovainnian Throne, overseeing a decade of peace so far. Petty nobles squabble here and there, but it has yet to get too heated. There is no shortage of wilderness in and around the kingdom. Discovery beckons, great deeds must, adventure awaits.</p><p>...<i>but</i>.</p><p>This isn't stock D&D. It's a lot more like <i>Excalibur</i> and <i>Legend</i> had a baby, and it had Madmartigan from <i>Willow</i> as a nanny. A lot of what makes D&D into D&D does not immediately or easily fit into Rovainne, so it can't be a D&D game without doing so much changing about that it's really not D&D anymore. Ergo, it wants to go back to what D&D was <i>before</i> it was D&D, and in a sense, start over.</p><p>The setting is humanocentric, for one; wizards are scarce, and there are no clerics. There are humanoids, but you're not gonna play any of them, because they're strange and rare.</p><p>That's a whole lot of D&D chucked out, right there.</p><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: x-large;">AXIOMS</span></b></div><p>Many many years ago, I read the old Last Unicorn Games <i>Star Trek: The Original Series</i> RPG, and in it, friend of the blog S John Ross set down a trio of axioms about what makes <i>Star Trek TOS Star Trek TOS</i>. I will never hesitate to rip off S John, so after a lot of thought, I've come up with the three main things that make this setting what I want it to be.</p><p>Rovainne, as a game and as a setting, is always...</p><div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">...Idealized, and Idealistic</span></b></div><p>This is a <i>fantasy</i> setting, and that means that it doesn't mirror reality. It's the sanitized, Victorian storybook <i>ideal</i> of the middle ages: ladies-in-waiting with pointy hats, colorful pennants flapping at the ends of shining lances, suits of armor glittering in the sunlight...that kind of thing. Yes, it's based on feudal Europe, but it's <i>not</i> Europe, and it's the <i>opposite</i> of historical. Yes, there are nobles and peasants, but the former is not oppressing the latter. Most importantly, </p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #ffd966;">THERE IS NO REAL CYNICISM TO BE FOUND IN THIS GAME.</span></b></p><p>That doesn't mean that it's a Pollyanna world. It just means that even when things are scary or they get heavy, it's not grimdark and grungy and shit. <i>It's a fantasy</i>. It can still deal with serious stakes, but it never stops being idealized and idealistic.</p><p><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;"><b>...Mysterious</b></span></p><p>There's tons of wilderness, and that means dark forests and lost ruins. Magic abounds, but it's not commonplace - there are no magical schools or supermarkets, and wizardry is so tricky and powerful and rare that <i>there are only six wizards in the entire realm</i>. It's not hard to find a creepy tower or an ancient dungeon - just go to where the people aren't. Faeries lurk in the woods, and their magic is weird and mercurial - sometimes helpful, sometimes harmful, never predictable. As a result, there's plenty of peril to go around. Which is a segue into the third axiom about Rovainne: that it's...</p><p><b><span style="color: #38761d; font-size: large;">...Vibrant and Exciting</span></b></p><p>One of the goals of FKR play is to highlight and front-load immersion. Thus, it suits Rovainne well. This is a land of green valleys and colorful pennants, flashing swords and scintillating magics. Swamps brood, castles gleam, rivers dash, gemstones sparkle, and the dark recesses of the dungeon swallow up the light into an echoing, rumbling void. <span class="notion-enable-hover" data-reactroot="" data-token-index="1" style="font-style: italic;">Even the most mundane of things must feel alive and visceral. </span><span class="notion-enable-hover" data-reactroot="" data-token-index="1">Sometimes (in fact, pretty often) that viscerality is expressed as danger: monsters thrash at you, blades cut whistling arcs through the air, cliffsides crumble, swords clang against armor. The idea is to create and play in a mood, more than declare a set of rules and play at stats and numbers.</span></p><p><span class="notion-enable-hover" data-reactroot="" data-token-index="1"><br /></span></p><p><span class="notion-enable-hover" data-reactroot="" data-token-index="1">There's still a system, though. However, I'll discuss that in a separate post. But for now, let me just say two words to wet your whistle:</span></p><p><span class="notion-enable-hover" data-reactroot="" data-token-index="1">Eisen's Vow.</span></p>Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-3329570419046442372023-01-04T12:20:00.002-05:002023-01-04T12:20:23.495-05:00Man, I gotta fix some stuff in here.<p> Just so's ya knows, I am seeing some Blogger issues on my end. Like, I can't see any comments (even old ones!), tags aren't showing on my posts, and who knows what the heck else isn't working right. I may need to spend some time under the hood on this thing to get it back up and running the way I want it to/remember it. </p><p>This is frustrating.</p>Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-14492682544246257362023-01-03T16:01:00.005-05:002023-01-04T21:28:51.862-05:00I'm Back, FKRs!<p> ...ha ha ha ha, that is a joke. I will explain it, in case it's not funny.</p><p>But first...</p><p>...yeah, it's been a long time since I updated this damned thing. You wanna know why? It's because I really haven't had much to say about gaming that I hadn't already said, or that I wasn't saying on Reddit, or that merited a full blog post and stuff. Oh, sure, I coulda written blog posts about <i>other</i> stuff -- but you don't wanna know any of that stuff, because frankly it's mostly personal drama stuff and not gaming stuff. </p><p>You dig? Yeah, you dig. </p><p>Having thus dug, I'll get back to why I'm all of a sudden posting again. As you may have surmised, it is because I now have stuff to say about gaming again. You clever, clever person, you.</p><p>So long story short, in this new year of 2023, I'm fixin' to get ready to run me one of them fancy FKR games that the kids are talking about.</p><p>What's that? You don't know what I'm talking about? And you wonder if <i>I</i> do, to start with? Well...okay, let's go slow. HIT THE, THE, JUMP THE BREAK, DO THE, UM, CLICK!</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><h1 style="text-align: left;">WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN, "FKR"? WASN'T HE A PRESIDENT?</h1><p>Ha ha haaaaa, yeah, no. "FKR" stands for Free Kriegspiel Revolution. Unless it's me saying it, in which case it means "Free Kriegspiel Ruckus", because that one worked for Jeff Rients and I still remember it. </p><p>So that's what it <i>stands</i> for, but whuzzit <i>mean</i>? Well, I direct you to this here blog post by Jim Parkin over on <a href="https://d66kobolds.blogspot.com/2020/09/free-kriegsspiel-worlds-not-rules-etc.html">d66 Classless Kobolds</a>, but here's kind of a gloss of what it's all about:</p><p style="background-color: #333333; color: #cccccc; font-family: Lora; font-size: 13.2px;">- <b>Numbers don't add up to a game</b>. Many FKR games are based entirely in description and realistic intuition, and have little commerce with numbers, "stats," and the like. A character might be "strong" but they don't have "STR+3." A keyword description suggests a relatable and diegetic meaning, while a number with a plus sign does not.</p><p style="background-color: #333333; color: #cccccc; font-family: Lora; font-size: 13.2px;">- <b>If the fiction fits, try it</b>. The game and its world are responsible and internally consistent, not because they are constrained by regulation, but because they are enjoyed by earnest and thoughtful people. It requires buy-in and willlingness. Players trust the referee to make rulings. Referees trust players to be bold and clever.</p><p style="background-color: #333333; color: #cccccc; font-family: Lora; font-size: 13.2px;">- <b>You play worlds, not rules. </b>Have you read <i>Brideshead Revisited</i>? <i>The Wizard of Earthsea</i>? <i>Foundation and Empire</i>? Any captivating novel, regardless of timeframe, setting, or genre? Well now you can run a full FKR game based on that book. You don't need an RPG sourcebook because <i>all </i>books are now sourcebooks. All television shows are sourcebooks. All movies and songs and comics and memes and medical brochures are now sourcebooks.</p><p style="text-align: left;">I could elaborate, but to do so would really just be to repeat what Jim has already said, and he already said it, so if I were to do it, it'd just be repeating it.</p><p style="text-align: left;">So anyway, FKR games -from what I can tell- tend to be really rules-light, and that's a thing that kind of appeals to me right now. Oh, no, I'm not gonna drop my other games, no no no. I just want to explore something I've barely attempted before, and to see if I can make it sing. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Plus, I've got this setting I wanna try out.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">For a few years now, I've had a fantasy realm/campaign/vibe bumping around in my head. I call it </p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Berkshire Swash; font-size: x-large;">Rovainne</span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">because it's meant to sound kind of, I dunno, medieval fantasy jive somethin' somethin' Lyonesse somethin'. Rovainne is what happens when I throw D&D into a bucket with <i>Excalibur</i>, sanitized Medieval Times crap, early 80s fantasy, fairy tales, and those rad Schleich toys, then dump the whole thing on the floor and pick up only the parts that I like. Making this world come alive at the table is kind of important to me, not only because it's a world that I want to bring to life but also for personal, mental health reasons.</p><p style="text-align: left;">...yeah, I'm on that bullshit again. Hey, at least I'm dealing with it constructively and creatively and not with, like, murder and drugs and shitty music, right?</p><p style="text-align: left;">Aaaaaaaanyway, while there are plenty of game systems that I can twiddle and tweak and moofle and hack to make 'em do what I want Rovainne to be about, I eventually decided that, no, Rovainne wants to be an FKR experience. </p><p style="text-align: left;">So. An FKR experience it will be.</p><p style="text-align: left;">There's lots more I could say about all of this: how I started thinking about running it this way while reading Jon Peterson's <i>The Elusive Shift</i>, how Rovainne has changed and mutated over the years, why it's all mental health jive, how important Enya is in all of this...and I will, I will. But not right now. Not right now, because it's a lot to go over, and it's an expansive enough...<i>thing</i> that it merits a series of blog posts, and also because I'm at work and I have stuff that needs to get done. </p><p style="text-align: left;">But anyway. That's the joke. </p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">...you remember the joke I made, right...? At the, in the, the, the title...?</p><p style="text-align: left;">...yeah, I forgot, too.</p>Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-30212189370499339082019-12-17T15:54:00.000-05:002019-12-17T15:54:54.627-05:00SERBIAN WOMEN ARE WAITING TO PLAY D&D WITH YOU!The following story is 100% true. It'll sound dubious at first, but no -- it's legit. I've changed names to protect privacy blah blah, and I'm paraphrasing some of it, but...troof.<br />
<br />
I help moderate a FB group for local gamers.<br />
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NO WAIT THAT'S NOT THE INCREDIBLE PART<br />
<br />
KEEP READING<br />
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So I'm derping around on the Feeb one Friday afternoon, and I get a membership request from (the following is a pseudonym)<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #ffd966;"><b>Ludmila Savićević Čarapić</b></span></div>
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which is <i>obviously</i> an Eastern-European name, as anyone can see from all the pointy things sticking out of it.<br />
<br />
I immediately suspect it of being a scammer, looking to spam the group with links to see "her" private photos, or whatever. And that's what I'm there for, right? To keep this kind of thing from happening? And it <b><i>does </i></b>happen, doesn't it? Someone adopts a thin persona of exotic beauty, and tries to get money out of a bunch of lonely, horny dudes.<br />
<br />
Good skeptic that I am, I look at the person's FB profile. Sure enough: not a lot of posts (not that I can read 'em, anyway, 'cause they're in Cyrillic characters), photos of an attractive woman, not much else. The woman's not posing, though -- just a few candids.<br />
<br />
<i>Nice try, scammer</i>, I think to myself. Well, actually, to the suspected scammer on the other end of this. <i>But you don't fool me.</i><br />
<br />
Now...at this point, I <i>could</i> just deleted the request and be done with it, but my fighting spirit is up. I issue a challenge via PM: "Did you just request membership in <Local Gamer Group>?" and then forget about it for the weekend.<br />
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* * * </div>
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Monday rolls around and I remember to check that conversation. No answer. I nuke the request and carry on and all back to 0...</div>
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<br /></div>
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...until the answer <i>does</i> come back. "Hi, sorry for the delayed response. Yes, I'd like to join; I moved here from Serbia a year ago, and I used to play <i>Warhammer Fantasy</i> with my friends back home. I miss it, so I want to find people to play with here."</div>
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<br /></div>
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...</div>
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<br /></div>
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...and I go, </div>
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<br /></div>
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"...oh."</div>
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<i><b>BUT I'M STILL SKEPTICAL</b></i>. </div>
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<br /></div>
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So I engage Ludmila Pointynames in conversation, and...um...she starts to sound legit. She asks appropriate questions, gives appropriate answers. She's polite and succinct, curious, friendly.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
So I invite her to a new game club in town, of which I am a member. There's an open 5e game. I figure -- hey, here's the bowl for the pudding with the proof in it; if she's real, she'll show up.</div>
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<br /></div>
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"I can't make it this week," she says, "maybe next week?" And again, I go, <i>Ha! Thought so.</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The week rolls over, and I send her a message: "Hey, invite is still open for the game club on Tuesday!" She answers, "I will be there!" and I think, <i>We shall see!</i></div>
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Tuesday arrives, and I go to the venue for the game club.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>And so does Ludmila.</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Seriously, folks -- turns out she's a real person, totally legit, and not a scammer at all. <i>Moreover</i>, she sat down, said her hellos, and dug right into learning D&D and making character choices and balancing options and filling out a character sheet, just like --</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
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-- just like someone joining a game and meeting new friends. </div>
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<br /></div>
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That night, after the game, she even offered to drive me home -- I live about 20 minutes out of town. She'd just got her license, and was itching to drive around town. We chatted on the way; she and her husband are here on some kind of visas, letting him teach and study, but she can't work or anything, so...she wants to game. She's in her mid-30s, and had long wanted to get into RPGs back home, but didn't have the chance until a few years ago. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Ludmila has been a member of the group for months, now. She's smart, funny, creative, and fun to be around. It didn't take long for the club members to warm up to her, and we're all glad she came. Turns out she has some issues with social anxiety, and coming to join the club was a big leap for her. We're all glad she took it. Not just because she made muffins one time, either. </div>
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<br /></div>
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So...what the hell was <i>my</i> problem? Why was I so distrustful, and so ready to be deceived? Well...that's a whole other topic, and I may post about it, but it has nothing to do with gaming so you can skip it if you want. </div>
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Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-61294159405358584212019-12-16T17:28:00.000-05:002019-12-16T17:29:15.858-05:00In the far, far future of mankind...they apparently remember Flans.I'm developing a space opera setting for SF RPG shenanigans, and this is the 'map' of the known, inhabited star systems. It's a map that I created, so it looks like, and has names on it, like this:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkCaZC9KBtMTghSwfpUHCfNhWf5_fl55p-fO2UXtSAwN_8zuZmiZ_23AqTa5h0YKXwCdgGwr5PXFGO85jYPA6c_gpJNywdZ1z7QI-9qimG6tgl-XZZdu-W8pjQNvZT5C-soT76Zw/s1600/Star+Map.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1237" data-original-width="1600" height="492" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkCaZC9KBtMTghSwfpUHCfNhWf5_fl55p-fO2UXtSAwN_8zuZmiZ_23AqTa5h0YKXwCdgGwr5PXFGO85jYPA6c_gpJNywdZ1z7QI-9qimG6tgl-XZZdu-W8pjQNvZT5C-soT76Zw/s640/Star+Map.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Most of it is inhabited by humans. I'm limiting non-human PC choices (for reasons); there is a species of 4-armed and very theatrical humanoids called the Garrana (whose worlds are in the center-top, haloed in purple) and a sub-species of Replicants (as in "the ones from Blade Runner, but emancipated and no longer limited by a 4-year lifespan"). You can tell that the Replicant 'homeworld' is the one with the white halo, because it's called Memory. BECAUSE <i>BLADE RUNNER</i>. GET IT?!<br />
<br />
But what you probably <i><b>can't</b></i> tell is the reason <i><b>why</b></i> its only connection to the other stars is with Wilde, in the Benatar Sphere. [If you haven't figured it out, or aren't an 80s music nerd like me, note that the worlds of the Benatar Sphere are named after female singers popular in the 1980s.] As it turns out, Kim Wilde, she of "Kids In America", wrote a song called "Bladerunner", and released it on her "Teases And Dares" album in 1984. The song was inspired by the film of the same name, and featured sound effects from same. Hence the connection.<br />
<br />
The Movida Unity, in the upper left, is composed of star systems named after Spanish and Mexican singers (and, in one case, a band) likewise from the 1980s. "Movida" means "movement", and refers to the cultural Madrid Movement (or Movida Madrileña) of that decade; "Olvido" is the first name of the Mexican/Spanish singer better known as Alaska, while Irma, Ilse, and Ivonne are the members of Mexican girl group Flans. (Irma ususally went by Mimi, but that didn't look or sound right.)<br />
<br />
Most everything else explains itself, except for the orange systems in the bottom left. One of my players is Serbian, so I snuck in those worlds to amuse her; the names are "Fuck Off", "Don't Bother Me", and "Girl-Boobies". "Grozan" means "grouchy", since my player looked at those system names and commented, "It looks a very unwelcoming place to be".<br />
<br />
As for why these names are still relevant in whatever future century we're playing in...there's no explanation other than "I like it that way and I think it's funny".<br />
<br />
Hi, have we met? I'm Doc Rotwang!. I do this kind of thing.Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-69110285595532850682019-12-12T13:05:00.000-05:002019-12-12T13:05:33.536-05:00Rotwang! vs Cyberpunk Gaming, 2019What's this? An <i>I Waste The Buddha with my Crossbow</i> post?! MADNESS!<br />
<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja9qLdMGy1rdg7SViz1o0cphDBxZN109vD037HoIGTqddoGyOT7lIZpVFE4XBLDDG7Qe1cASrGH7dj5x5ZABuWj18gOeOXXcA4dHben83grT_peWywHIcrPoJWU7uGm_EIbKPG5Q/s1600/112412509013-madness-our-house_music_video_ov.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja9qLdMGy1rdg7SViz1o0cphDBxZN109vD037HoIGTqddoGyOT7lIZpVFE4XBLDDG7Qe1cASrGH7dj5x5ZABuWj18gOeOXXcA4dHben83grT_peWywHIcrPoJWU7uGm_EIbKPG5Q/s1600/112412509013-madness-our-house_music_video_ov.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Yes?"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So a thing happened, and it is this: that over on Reddit, there is <a href="https://old.reddit.com/r/bladesinthedark/comments/e9q2av/kickstarter_of_retropunk_cyberpunk_forged_in_the/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a post about a Kickstarter for a new cyberpunk game called <i>Retropunk</i></a>. And the post title asks, "What do you think?" So I thought. And I began to reply, but as I did so, I realized that what I was saying belongs less in that Reddit thread and more on, oh, maybe a public platform where I can spew forth thoughts and stupid jokes and obtuse referncIT BELONGS HERE ON MY BLOG.<br />
<br />
So here I am, and here's my response.<br />
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<br />
<a name='more'></a>What do I think? Well...lemme tell ya.<br /><br />Cyberpunk games are an extremely hard sell for me. It's not that I dislike the genre -- on the contrary, I <b>love it</b>. I love it <b>so <i>hard</i></b>, so <i><b>thoroughly</b></i>, that it's practically a core component of how I express myself to the world. Ergo...<br /><br />...I'm not going to be satisfied until I see a game that represents the genre the way <i><b>I</b></i> want it to, and I know that I never, never will. <br /><br />I have a lot of things to say with cyberpunk as a genre. I have effectively internalized an ideal of it, with emphasis on certain themes, certain concepts, and (boy, is this a big one) a certain aesthetic. That doesn't mean I think everyone else is doing it "wrong" (well, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowrun" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">some</a> interpretations of cyberpunk make no goddamn sense to me), it just means that every time I see a new take on the genre, or a new game, the genre as a whole, and <i>the perception thereof</i>, drifts a leeeeeeeetle bit farther away from the cyberpunk ideal that gives me the warm fuzzies.<br />
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<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAvBVF8F1lpnnE9fXpUzdYA3Mu-APhvx0Tx8TWw0AtxsxZ3TqEIqm-i3gK6VNNSMJuMMrLnQ1Q6z1wLczWWZGjJkrFYsSG2eI2_8ZFSI87N2F20k5q9vtihn4jPkddLChGLVU4yg/s1600/intro-1521575189.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="780" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAvBVF8F1lpnnE9fXpUzdYA3Mu-APhvx0Tx8TWw0AtxsxZ3TqEIqm-i3gK6VNNSMJuMMrLnQ1Q6z1wLczWWZGjJkrFYsSG2eI2_8ZFSI87N2F20k5q9vtihn4jPkddLChGLVU4yg/s320/intro-1521575189.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">...or sometimes, a <i>lotta</i> bit.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
And people like those games and interpretations and yaaaay, happy nerds. And that's okay...to a point.<br />
<br />
It's okay up to the point that I start to get grumpy because my vision isn't out there. Everyone is seeing and celebrating a different vision of cyberpunk from mine, and in a sense, I feel alienated from and marginalized by the genre I love so much.<br />
<br />
"So quit, whining, Rotwang!!", you say, properly punctuating my name, and I thank you for that. "Why don't you just write your <i>own</i> game? We live in the age of Kickstarters! And artists have been sharing their visions of things for millenia! Why not just DIY, since that's so punk and all, too?"<br />
<br />
...well...<br />
<br />
The <i>real</i>, or at any rate the real<i>est</i> reason I get itchy about new cyberpunk games is that it reminds me of the fact that I <i>could</i> write my own, and my own fiction even,<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #ffd966;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><span style="color: #f1c232;">IF I HAD THE FOCUS AND SELF-DISCIPLINE TO DO IT.</span> </b></span></span></div>
<br />
Long-time readers of this b-<br />
<br />
wait<br />
<br />
People who used to read everything on this bl<br />
<br />
no hang on<br />
<br />
Folks who click on <a href="https://xbowvsbuddha.blogspot.com/2013/05/better-living-through-chemistry-or-what.html" target="_blank">this link</a> will know that this has been a struggle for me for years. Worse, anyone who manages to wade through <a href="https://xbowvsbuddha.blogspot.com/2013/05/better-living-through-chemistry-part.html" target="_blank">this mess</a> will learn of the fact that<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: magenta;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I ACTUALLY HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO WRITE <span style="color: cyan;">MY CYBERPUNK GAME</span>, MY WAY, AND TO HAVE IT <span style="color: cyan;">PUBLISHED</span> BY A <span style="color: cyan;">NOW-QUITE-SUCCESSFUL GAME COMPANY OF NOTE</span>.</span></span></b></div>
<br />
And through inertia, self-doubt, and who knows what else I had going on...<br />
<br />
...I threw it away.<br />
<br />
Okay, people here at work are expecting results because lunch is over, so. That's it for now.<br />
<br />Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-69019124196804509542017-07-15T20:39:00.002-04:002017-07-15T20:47:28.586-04:00Agents of D.O.F.I.E.Now and then, I make notes for some game-thing-or-other, then forget about it. Then I'll find it again, and laugh at my own jokes, then forget about it again. Then, I'll find it again.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu1Q1NublpoQv_YQMXFkD7jnuCpH2Pa7hCid8I3jPAjtdXmVzbR9U7_V-UssAuXUq1IqynN9G8moeNOnnmatlNux6R_NX6HdVgCxnjEp3vR1kPf0GPnpEJ34GR4bHygE7JjJ4C3A/s1600/DOFIE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="561" data-original-width="960" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu1Q1NublpoQv_YQMXFkD7jnuCpH2Pa7hCid8I3jPAjtdXmVzbR9U7_V-UssAuXUq1IqynN9G8moeNOnnmatlNux6R_NX6HdVgCxnjEp3vR1kPf0GPnpEJ34GR4bHygE7JjJ4C3A/s640/DOFIE.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
I started writing a scenario called "Smell the Breath of Dracula", in which the players are some of the above agents of the thing and stuff. They're on a mission to Dracula's house to --<br />
<br />
Oh, hell. <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzQyFNfxXEWVVjhyTnprUTkybDA/view?usp=sharing">Here's as far as I got.</a> Read it if you wannoo.Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-88531859013775345422017-07-14T13:39:00.000-04:002017-07-14T13:39:01.140-04:00I Made A Custom Cover for "Far Trek"It's inspired by the one on <a href="http://fartrekrpg.blogspot.com/2016/07/on-main-view-screen.html">C. R. Brandon's blog</a>, but I tweakified the layoutification and assembulated some images from 'round the computernets.<br />
<br />
Came out OK?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbXHTQY4hpV-KgmiUDrXIeR332C70LIAMLkWgQlx-eWY-pgJcKbTJRYR9VnH8Fe0DLEWEhuCmyQAkU200VWjqr4z4z1c2GM-WZ6X-XkEorurf-KJSkPLTmeTga5QITaw0vSv3vJw/s1600/OpenOffice+FT+cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1056" data-original-width="816" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbXHTQY4hpV-KgmiUDrXIeR332C70LIAMLkWgQlx-eWY-pgJcKbTJRYR9VnH8Fe0DLEWEhuCmyQAkU200VWjqr4z4z1c2GM-WZ6X-XkEorurf-KJSkPLTmeTga5QITaw0vSv3vJw/s640/OpenOffice+FT+cover.png" width="492" /></a></div>
Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-3231667400443330552017-07-13T12:43:00.000-04:002017-07-13T12:43:04.327-04:00Results of Attacking The Darkness in Various Role-Playing Games<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSPgOJAaTqgCJ2CscnhxkglnwOB1DE_cjneQGDSwWPJnTCKOMmqDGZwZVPGt6EYgdkbFGQt_a5JbegPoo1fEPdXE0oEBMRaHfnDIAFYVJTxXjG18UCXKqkAH1Kc9RDBnL8QEC1AA/s1600/AttackTheDarkness.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="462" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSPgOJAaTqgCJ2CscnhxkglnwOB1DE_cjneQGDSwWPJnTCKOMmqDGZwZVPGt6EYgdkbFGQt_a5JbegPoo1fEPdXE0oEBMRaHfnDIAFYVJTxXjG18UCXKqkAH1Kc9RDBnL8QEC1AA/s1600/AttackTheDarkness.png" /></a></div>
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Just kidding about <i>Traveller</i>. I loves me some <i>Trav</i>.</div>
<br />Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-74071473256740436852017-01-04T16:32:00.002-05:002017-01-04T16:32:52.362-05:00Mind Maps!Part of my creative process looks like this:<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhngnWYlh2tBR9LyB1vXG1Yu4dszKwLRngaXH9GuA7HM7w9-FPUPOOVndkmxI9ujpsaKg9wgOrymwG2YJRDoIa5qmNUviLEjkBFmD7vgV4ggoCUPZjlRmjfvOCmEFys8p4VfyIvig/s1600/g5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhngnWYlh2tBR9LyB1vXG1Yu4dszKwLRngaXH9GuA7HM7w9-FPUPOOVndkmxI9ujpsaKg9wgOrymwG2YJRDoIa5qmNUviLEjkBFmD7vgV4ggoCUPZjlRmjfvOCmEFys8p4VfyIvig/s640/g5.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMuu3FXEIoe6_EArTG2fy30KkPCe5WKwwsPZ2I-ifpnkRe5MB-eNwpz2erxmA_J3JtfyD2y9RRZRg40cNCB0DpvmETNyxgDyuir81_LkuYu6bX7kPlJMv30QuDGLO1uH9Blk2v7A/s1600/PCs.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMuu3FXEIoe6_EArTG2fy30KkPCe5WKwwsPZ2I-ifpnkRe5MB-eNwpz2erxmA_J3JtfyD2y9RRZRg40cNCB0DpvmETNyxgDyuir81_LkuYu6bX7kPlJMv30QuDGLO1uH9Blk2v7A/s640/PCs.png" width="640" /></a></div>
You saw what I did there. I know you did.Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-79555784350895046512017-01-03T12:38:00.000-05:002017-01-03T12:43:32.380-05:00WYC 2017:Stars On Fire!Hey! It's 2017 (surely you noticed). <a href="http://whosyergamers.org/wyc.php">Who's Yer Con</a>, my local gaming convention hoedown, is coming up at the beginning of April. It's currently January.<br />
<br />
That means it's time for me to start pondering what events to run this year.<br />
<br />
My current short list includes<br />
<ul>
<li>Spirit of '77</li>
<li>Fear Itself</li>
<li>Risus (probably a goofy space opera)</li>
</ul>
<br />
...but one of the above is gonna hafta move, probably, because I had a bit of inspiration today. Dig it:<br />
<br />
<h3 style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
From the original <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxxpiVo_PKo"><i>Streets Of Fire</i></a>
trailer:</h3>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
“You are about to enter a world
unlike any you have seen before, where rock and roll is king, the
only law is a loaded gun, where the beautiful, the brutal, and the
brave all meet in streets of fire...”</div>
</blockquote>
<h3 style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
My variation on the above, pitching a game for
Who's Yer Con:</h3>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
“You are about to enter a universe where <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyIFQr1wryPLDI3oXXv9asvhjvcOEIvWp">retrowave</a> is king, the only law is a charged blaster, where the
alluring, the alien, and the adventurous all meet -- in <i><b>Stars Of
Fire!</b></i>”</div>
</blockquote>
What does any of this even <i>mean</i>? Well, figure it's retrofuturistic space adventure shenanigans with an 80's vibe. 'Cause, you know, it's me.<br />
<br />
That's all I know for now. I'm gonna go monkey with it some more. In the meantime, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZZ-3p3DDV8&index=19&list=PLyIFQr1wryPLDI3oXXv9asvhjvcOEIvWp">enjoy this here Lazerhawk jam</a>. Oh! And this!<br />
<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRrHraqlwT1nTJwujiHeYGoxEsKJa683aR01D4kzKFIcleWM48CA6Pm9zXVSuC_ggK5_rbn7hPQDEsccDnARrY9FZYvV-Uu2HCPxuOQwSPXYTkgBZJCM7X2s14xEbh4C4vvLn6zA/s1600/Diane+Laser.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRrHraqlwT1nTJwujiHeYGoxEsKJa683aR01D4kzKFIcleWM48CA6Pm9zXVSuC_ggK5_rbn7hPQDEsccDnARrY9FZYvV-Uu2HCPxuOQwSPXYTkgBZJCM7X2s14xEbh4C4vvLn6zA/s400/Diane+Laser.jpg" width="288" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Huh huh huh. Ellen <i>AIM</i>. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-27472259775474079602016-12-27T13:34:00.000-05:002016-12-27T13:34:46.356-05:00"They're For My Girlfriend in Hollywood."I was probably 4 or 5 years old, and in the front yard of my Granny's house, when my cousin asked me why I was stuffing some flowers into an envelope. I told her why.<br />
<br />
"What girlfriend?" Still poking little flowers into the envelope, I answered as if it were the most obvious fact in the world.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6SDoqAWzmKAe8dRmGB1PWT1uK0SLexRLYLInW1BlGhrncH32FpCIDjaLzpz8mEZP5C7nZkRlaVRykrWQJEXtEFnnRCT0mvVESLAa9OPRU3CevZ0UkIVAOntRlKq88CjpL-XdE8Q/s1600/star-wars-princess-leia-1070x804.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6SDoqAWzmKAe8dRmGB1PWT1uK0SLexRLYLInW1BlGhrncH32FpCIDjaLzpz8mEZP5C7nZkRlaVRykrWQJEXtEFnnRCT0mvVESLAa9OPRU3CevZ0UkIVAOntRlKq88CjpL-XdE8Q/s640/star-wars-princess-leia-1070x804.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Goodbye, first crush.Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-82024684382350749422016-12-27T02:15:00.001-05:002016-12-27T02:15:01.877-05:00I'm Not Here To Talk About 2016.You already know it was total, unfiltered suck for the world at large. I'm not gonna go into how sucky it was for me on a personal level, because who cares. I <i>could</i> talk about how kick-awesome <i>Stranger Things</i> is, but you already know that; it's not inconceivable that I could mention the ongoing game of <i>The Strange</i> that I'm in, which is being run by Scott Kellogg of <a href="http://tekumelpodcast.com/">Hall of Blue Illumination</a> fame (you know, the Tékumel podcast, where they talk to Jeff Dee and James Maliszewski!). That's worth talking about, as is the fact that <a href="http://mewordgood.blogspot.com/2016/11/its-about-time-i-wrote-damn-book.html">I'm trying to get off my ass and write a book already</a>. And I'm <i>certainly</i> not here to talk about how this blog is ten years old, but I haven't posted to it in over a year, and the posting frequency has dropped off since --<br />
<br />
-- aw, crap. I talked about it.<br />
<br /> BUT no no nonononononononono. Noooooooooooooooo. Those things, no, no, I'm not gonna -- nooooooooooo.<br />
<br />
I'm gonna talk about how, in the new year, I'm gonna run a <i>Star Wars</i> campaign.<br />
<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtWyPwVT4u6vYLizEKnWPuOyYbBMm_Rlv7jBFRNJW3AFS1Cb_hkTJCKI58-S7kWc9DCnA1503XsjkAXwRaY6Ekm7eNLG3lCNRLeDK65lASSg653MJbmGbCAsD4GB0k-XIK6ITvWQ/s1600/Star_Wars_RPG_2nd_Ed_Expanded.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtWyPwVT4u6vYLizEKnWPuOyYbBMm_Rlv7jBFRNJW3AFS1Cb_hkTJCKI58-S7kWc9DCnA1503XsjkAXwRaY6Ekm7eNLG3lCNRLeDK65lASSg653MJbmGbCAsD4GB0k-XIK6ITvWQ/s320/Star_Wars_RPG_2nd_Ed_Expanded.jpg" width="246" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This one.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Is it because I saw <i>Rogue One</i>? Maybe. Maybe it's because I saw <i>Rogue One</i> and I enjoyed it but I didn't exactly <i>like</i> it, and I'm compelled to do better. Maybe it's because I just kinda felt like it. Maybe it's because <i>Star Wars</i> turns 40 next year, but no, it's not because of that, actually.<br />
<br />
[HINT: IT'S BECAUSE I FELT LIKE IT]<br />
<br />
Tell ya th' trooth, I vacillated between using WEG's venerable game (pictured above) and <i>Fate Core</i>, which has nestled itself riiiight next to D6 as one of my favorite games ever. As (hypotherical) long-time readers may (hypothetically) know, <i>Star Wars</i> gaming is MY THANG<i>; </i>virtually every time I look at a game system, I'm judging it in terms of its suitability for Lucasian shenanigans. I've no doubt that <i>Fate Core</i> is more than equal to the task -- in fact, it's one of only two other systems that I've seriously considered using.<br />
<br />
In the end, I just felt the D6ness a touch moreso than the Fatetitude, and so here we are.<br />
<br />
"Here", of course, means "opening up a new <a href="http://strlen.com/treesheets/">TreeSheets</a> document, making a cell labeled "Names", and inserting a sub-grid full of, you know, names. For, for, for people and places in my <i>Star Wars</i> universe. (It also involves yanking my collection of <i>Star Wars Adventure Journals</i> from the shelf, and ripping names and NPCs and everything else out of 'em for inclusion in said TS doc, but I digress.) And, yeah, you read that correctly: MY <i>Star Wars</i> universe.<br />
<br />
My <i>Star Wars</i> universe is one where the words "midichlorians" and "gungans" have no meaning whatsoever, because <b>I WILL NOT RECOGNIZE THE PREQUEL TRILOGY IN ANY WAY.</b> The Clone Wars will be A Thing That Happened, but it won't have spit to do with, you know, the cartoon and stuff. (The cartoon is OK, but it's connected to the prequels, so out it goes.)<br />
<br />
My <i>Star Wars</i> universe recognizes the events of <i>Rogue One</i>, but they really won't matter that much -- see, 'cause my game will take place in the classic RPG era known as "After the Battle of Yavin, before the Battle of Hoth". And considering how <i>Rogue One</i> went down, well, it's a foregone conclusion that...<br />
<br />
...anyway. No spoilers, but if you're reading this...c'mon, man.<br />
<br />
My <i>Star Wars</i> universe will include selected bits of what we're now calling the Legends, i.e. the EU stuff that Disney/Lucasfilm jettisoned from canon. If it's in a WEG book, it's probably OK to go; the exception being the Zahn stuff because<br />
<ol>
<li>It hasn't happened yet; and </li>
<li>Noghri and hot chocolate? Ehhhhhhh...</li>
</ol>
<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYqv6E8bdF_DfQGZihLAKF08QtPm4B_DQFS6WsgfK31FJpGkI7I9cz2fDbgeZWCSEJ0WnekVKkLgDgAQPUIGrgsTJIJ1INVY_9tOiIQIEaQPCC38wL4lQohNPDRx72fgpQg5h3qg/s1600/noyv.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYqv6E8bdF_DfQGZihLAKF08QtPm4B_DQFS6WsgfK31FJpGkI7I9cz2fDbgeZWCSEJ0WnekVKkLgDgAQPUIGrgsTJIJ1INVY_9tOiIQIEaQPCC38wL4lQohNPDRx72fgpQg5h3qg/s640/noyv.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I trust my point is made.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
So anyway, it's 2:13 am EST as I write this, and I'm listening to the <i>Stranger Things</i> soundtrack, and getting kind of tired, but not so tired that I can't start leafing through my <i>Adventure Journals</i> and get busy cribbing stuff for, you know, later.<br />
<br />
For the game.<br />
<br />
When I'm running it.<br />
<br />
<i>Star Wars</i>.<br />
<br />
Hi! How are you?<br />
Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-65396240175261271052015-09-28T22:07:00.002-04:002015-09-28T22:11:01.448-04:00So I Picked Up Cypher SystemYou know, I really do ♥ <i>The Strange</i>. I mentioned that, right? <a href="http://xbowvsbuddha.blogspot.com/2015/01/i-strange-and-lazerhawk.html">Yeah, I think I did</a>. So now there's a toolkit version of the rules, and it's called <i>Cypher System</i>, and I'm not telling you anything you didn't already know because COME <i>ON</i>, DOC, THAT WAS LIKE <b><i>GENCON AGO</i></b>.<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKG4OFnXWP2PZBf_WKD_4VqsYM1wbMiiMcKBv7RLawM3Rt7_FHJTm4os0VNpk8nWRfdzKEmWg-YpTEhdyqlqthgiUNZMA5PZfktuRJ8xudzap7VpYsgUSB05ZLh0IF-cbZidDhWA/s1600/Cover-Mockup-2015-04-08-Opt2c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKG4OFnXWP2PZBf_WKD_4VqsYM1wbMiiMcKBv7RLawM3Rt7_FHJTm4os0VNpk8nWRfdzKEmWg-YpTEhdyqlqthgiUNZMA5PZfktuRJ8xudzap7VpYsgUSB05ZLh0IF-cbZidDhWA/s320/Cover-Mockup-2015-04-08-Opt2c.jpg" width="249" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yeah, this...this one.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Anyway. I immediately wanted to use the system to run an adventure or two in my <i>Radical Space</i> setting, the one best described as "What if <i>Star Wars</i> and <i>Indiana Jones</i> had a baby, and its fairy godmothers were <i>Fading Suns</i>, a humanist rant, and 'Grand Theft Auto: Vice City'?" And I think it'd be fun to do this, but I just got the book yesterday and only today finished skimming enough of it to create an NPC for it.<br />
<br />
And here he is: <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzQyFNfxXEWVYlBmU3pCZjNpQUk/view?usp=sharing">Kobayashi Flynn</a> (that's a PDF you can download). Part Belloq, part Doyle Blackwell from <i>The Secret Saturdays</i> (look it up), and a bit Boba Fett, back before the prequels ruined him up.<br />
<br />
Okay, so I'll monkey with it a bit more, and maybe I'll remember to tell you what happens. HEY LOOK SOME MUSIC!<br />
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TKImuHvtxAE/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TKImuHvtxAE?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-71833543045570433282015-03-23T00:37:00.003-04:002015-03-23T00:37:33.878-04:00What Does Rotwang!'s Cyberpunk Game Sound Like?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvCrzsFeoT_sEFYhJN5gBa1PtXJMXy702YnIjUdD10luYAl6m9hYcjDhtt5Kx8miun5AQjp63n2vNDFo_1f3yJjqbXAFOJQVGwvLdwDGPGvvjcvU9rOQlM73ayQ4KOLEsZYmM7Mw/s1600/Lightstrip+Playlist+20150322.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvCrzsFeoT_sEFYhJN5gBa1PtXJMXy702YnIjUdD10luYAl6m9hYcjDhtt5Kx8miun5AQjp63n2vNDFo_1f3yJjqbXAFOJQVGwvLdwDGPGvvjcvU9rOQlM73ayQ4KOLEsZYmM7Mw/s1600/Lightstrip+Playlist+20150322.png" /></a></div>
<br />
...as of right now, anyway. There are some gaps.Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-48049127928853872282015-02-09T21:59:00.001-05:002015-02-09T22:09:06.151-05:00You Have Waited Far Too Long For This Moment To ArriveHey, guys and gals! Guess what I'm doin'?<br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGNWNAuSC0fN889FmsAgNFeq5xSUxPNr4xbVonvmwtGQByxpE_F-Ug_d3WkENkP0SCaQcPDS3C10B6BSjHwH8OOCKzmwK2iyvvjvXgBSCj27tjn1c0d6bFCIImFXHze34-sKpGrg/s1600/unbuttoned.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGNWNAuSC0fN889FmsAgNFeq5xSUxPNr4xbVonvmwtGQByxpE_F-Ug_d3WkENkP0SCaQcPDS3C10B6BSjHwH8OOCKzmwK2iyvvjvXgBSCj27tjn1c0d6bFCIImFXHze34-sKpGrg/s1600/unbuttoned.jpg" height="165" width="320"></a></div>
<br>
...well, yeah. I mean, that's all the time. But, uh, no, no no no..guess again.<br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQylfGhM0ALDkuF7RLi_Y96j0BQxNPO1SagazVLNZ9AYuchfiXNJcBZtsjyW_ERqD8xko2mTjx1E7q8EeV7wsWYefrp21BlwuOzzbwyX2e0ylbcM5LaHtVV60ln0FBzuLWgGFw-A/s1600/wall+dancing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQylfGhM0ALDkuF7RLi_Y96j0BQxNPO1SagazVLNZ9AYuchfiXNJcBZtsjyW_ERqD8xko2mTjx1E7q8EeV7wsWYefrp21BlwuOzzbwyX2e0ylbcM5LaHtVV60ln0FBzuLWgGFw-A/s1600/wall+dancing.jpg" height="167" width="320"></a></div>
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Close! I'm not doin' that <i>exactly</i>, buuuut...you're on the right track. Hey, why don't you have another go at--<br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVdMnX5FzT2dqWPQ9YCuc099ZLmktPyM2CdNTtII8fTvMAeToN-WKOibbjJqW41TZduZNh2xUGs87dlghL9yokatum0XO3gYqkVlPKeGNib7fn_KMH164MGspNjrhPXI6meAqzhA/s1600/BREAKIN_2-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVdMnX5FzT2dqWPQ9YCuc099ZLmktPyM2CdNTtII8fTvMAeToN-WKOibbjJqW41TZduZNh2xUGs87dlghL9yokatum0XO3gYqkVlPKeGNib7fn_KMH164MGspNjrhPXI6meAqzhA/s1600/BREAKIN_2-4.jpg" height="237" width="320"></a></div>
<br>
-- yeah, I'd be tired of guessing too. So maybe I just will tellya that I'm (very, very slowly) working on a Recursion (you know, for <i>The Strange</i>?) based on--<br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgGIUAYVaW3dM_-F_89NzwwnUiaBqlaa8f5r_BLgfhO9OhPvJjCFfvlnzsamfvwNie41OZzCGkDfneYhFkAT-V9bjaBU47mivYyOpR4ldaQ4-ZGWVTEmyKJQ0hMNx7cLYlY93wog/s1600/bandb2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgGIUAYVaW3dM_-F_89NzwwnUiaBqlaa8f5r_BLgfhO9OhPvJjCFfvlnzsamfvwNie41OZzCGkDfneYhFkAT-V9bjaBU47mivYyOpR4ldaQ4-ZGWVTEmyKJQ0hMNx7cLYlY93wog/s1600/bandb2.png" height="252" width="400"></a></div>
<br>
No one is surprised. Okay, so dig this:<br>
<br>
The Breakin'verse (quit lookin' at me like that) is a world of graffiti-scrawled underpasses, scrappy community centers, sharply-pitched neighborhoods and occasionally a fancy mansion, where all major conflicts are resolved via acrobatic dance battles with vaguely-defined victory conditions -- a utopian wonderland where hospital staff can do the worm, and a single man and his nameless Mexican girlfriend can, with nothing less than some pizza boxes and a couple of dance steps, not only stop a fleet of bulldozers cold in its tracks, but then immediately HEAL HIS BROKEN LEG and PUT ON A SHOW.<br>
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<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3OTV1DXP1hVmDt6LVQVnxOk6tCvNyp4gHRbHfM1bppvHGNYC0p4J49HTqV_8vacjSE66RO3JbZS8dtj4-npUFZXC_xAlFxN0OX2BollGWbmNBWFZyE8m9Qo03ZxLyGgPEHvV0lA/s1600/sabrina+and+shrimp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3OTV1DXP1hVmDt6LVQVnxOk6tCvNyp4gHRbHfM1bppvHGNYC0p4J49HTqV_8vacjSE66RO3JbZS8dtj4-npUFZXC_xAlFxN0OX2BollGWbmNBWFZyE8m9Qo03ZxLyGgPEHvV0lA/s1600/sabrina+and+shrimp.jpg" height="209" width="320"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Until a few seconds ago, I was driving a backhoe.<br></td></tr>
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Now...when I had the idea, I had no illusions* that it'll be good for anything other than a one-shot novelty scenario. Maybe your PCs track down a bad guy who hides out in the Breakin'verse because he or she is aware that physical altercations <i>cannot occur there</i> -- the moment you get froggy with someone, a bunch of people grab you and hold you both back. Ergo, no harm can come to him or her; it's reality-armor.<br>
<br>
But the PCs translate in, dressed in parachute pants and weird-ass hair and mismatching earrings and bright, bold colors...and discover that they can suddenly Pop And Lock (a draggable focus, of course)...the Vectors in the group are suddenly trained in Dancing, and the Paradoxes can walk up walls and the Spinners can totally oh my god look at them go...<br>
<br>
...yeah, not a lot of replay value. But it'll be fun, I think, and it's my game and I DO WHAT I WANT.<br>
<br>
There's no stoppin' us.<br>
<br>
Um.<br>
<br>
Me.<br>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">*...<i>That I'd ever find a glimpse of Summer's heatwaves in your eyes.</i> THIS IS HOW MY BRAIN WORKS</span><br>
<br>Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-32437742333915708352015-01-18T19:06:00.000-05:002015-01-18T19:06:22.589-05:00Versus That One Game<div dir="ltr">
Don't talk to me about that one game, man. I don't wanna hear it. Makes me mad, so don't even.</div>
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And it's not like I <i>hate</i><i> </i>it, or somethin'; it's a thing with me that I don't <i>hate</i> anything. Hating's not my style.<i> I</i> don't wanna play it, and it's the <i>opposite</i> of what I want out of a game. Anybody else likes it, that's fine. I like <i>Xanadu</i>, after all -- I'm not gonna dog on anyone just 'cause of how they wanna get down. </div>
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But that's the problem -- it's like <i>everyone</i> seems to like that game, and <i>only</i> that game. It's <i>that</i> game, or <b><i>nothing</i></b>.</div>
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"Hey, ev'rybody!" I will often say, "I'm running a demo of this other game, here! All kinds of different games, in fact! Come on over to the games store, let's have some fun, it's free! Supposedly I don't even suck at it!" </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXozMJcZDMmdiStT4vuavN4iM2HxYsdBsKy-LpnoIjWucg7eEDsAFkbIfoFsimKK_lJSouKpL6veBXaYTEbKLza7_KmIjDGEcoEx6uQ5K-BkLmQWay9kmh5HyvuCq-zOsoVOZDmQ/s1600/1-25_empty_table.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXozMJcZDMmdiStT4vuavN4iM2HxYsdBsKy-LpnoIjWucg7eEDsAFkbIfoFsimKK_lJSouKpL6veBXaYTEbKLza7_KmIjDGEcoEx6uQ5K-BkLmQWay9kmh5HyvuCq-zOsoVOZDmQ/s1600/1-25_empty_table.jpg" height="125" width="320" /></a></div>
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Yet no one shows up, because it's not <i>that</i> game. </div>
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"Okay, I dig that you like that game. I have lots of favorites, too. There are lots of games! This is a crazy bigass hobby! Here's more of it to enjoy!"</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBfdG4WhDWj_4jh9HXvD6doe338UDAfD-8kGAHrvxn5nJSaewuXDmL-bEPQNYENW1RiWxnhvYvwUzowzoDxec9UfE5XfNBKgFSSPJ2pdgRWMVjw7fPJ0SRujJlih_irvtgFAzthA/s1600/crickets20chirpingjpg1.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBfdG4WhDWj_4jh9HXvD6doe338UDAfD-8kGAHrvxn5nJSaewuXDmL-bEPQNYENW1RiWxnhvYvwUzowzoDxec9UfE5XfNBKgFSSPJ2pdgRWMVjw7fPJ0SRujJlih_irvtgFAzthA/s1600/crickets20chirpingjpg1.gif" height="200" width="181" /></a></div>
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Deaf ears, brick walls. </div>
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"What am I doin' wrong, fellas? What's -- am I stinky? I shower before these things, I swear...what can I do to get you guys to try out this game?"</div>
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<br /></div>
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Now I get answers: <i>I'm</i><i> </i><i>too</i><i> </i><i>invested</i><i> </i><i>in</i><i> </i><i>my</i><i> </i><i>game</i><i>. </i><i>I</i><i> </i><i>can't</i><i> </i><i>afford</i><i> </i><i>a</i><i> </i><i>new</i><i> </i><i>one</i><i>. </i><i>I</i><i> </i><i>only</i><i> </i><i>have</i><i> </i><i>so</i><i> </i><i>much</i><i> </i><i>time</i><i>. </i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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"Um...the demos are free. No one's trying to take your game away, just share a new one with you. And the demos are all one-shots, just so you can see if you li-"</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><b>My</b></i><i> </i><i>game</i><i> </i><i>is</i><i> </i><i>what</i><i> </i><i>I</i><i> <b>want!</b></i> They get defensive, here; close ranks, put signs on the clubhouse door.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipAmedoQqWoJ-ql8xNJ2cMPRBlBNTOckQmGKN1QazGp5aqkg97ocAFOe-dqq4K5_GsMVb2hSIBxJEvRTo5Hrwit9VfhlE191JLT9Kxr745kuN8B6nUG8WlJBlOeeDBcrrWFNvk7Q/s1600/wagon+circle.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipAmedoQqWoJ-ql8xNJ2cMPRBlBNTOckQmGKN1QazGp5aqkg97ocAFOe-dqq4K5_GsMVb2hSIBxJEvRTo5Hrwit9VfhlE191JLT9Kxr745kuN8B6nUG8WlJBlOeeDBcrrWFNvk7Q/s1600/wagon+circle.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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"..."</div>
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<br /></div>
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So, yeah. I suppose it's not really the game's fault for being popular, no matter how much I think it's an overcomplicated, pandering exercise in excess. Other folks dig it and that's aces. </div>
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<br /></div>
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I suppose, then, that it's the <i>players</i> who treat it like it's a cult, who perceive (or seem to perceive) offers of other games as an attack against them, or...some...thing, I dunno. The net result is that what should be a game I can simply ignore has become a foe to me. Beyond an annoyance, it's a symbol of my frustration.</div>
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"Well, okay. Thanks for your time," I say, and go back to the drawing board...</div>
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...and all the locals go back to finding a path, or whatever.</div>
Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-86465389207958253022015-01-15T13:02:00.002-05:002015-01-15T13:04:07.745-05:00I ♥ "The Strange" (and Lazerhawk)And in fact, it was ♥ at first sight. BAM. Like <i>that</i>.<br />
<br />
As you know<i> (</i>because you're not a lazy mofo who never updates his or her blog and is thus always late to the party), <a href="http://www.thestrangerpg.com/#!/what-is-the-strange/"><i>The Strange</i></a> is Monte Cook Games' newest entry in the Cypher System line, and it's by Bruce Cordell and Monte Cook, edited by Shanna Germain and illustrated by Matt Stawicki. It can be described (neither unfairly nor unkindly) as "<i>Planescape Modern</i>". The book looks like this --<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE4cYxXjAiqDW7B9MU45O5se_cWJR-eKAgVvnmGunBORUC_PjzWIV5rDEMZS3J3IneQlnJEx_2WX2nFO-CUdKmx4v1uZY2BN3QzWrhyphenhyphenlsVlYcnbnX8tvoMHCVDiEbOTYueB488IA/s1600/PSIMCG028_500.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE4cYxXjAiqDW7B9MU45O5se_cWJR-eKAgVvnmGunBORUC_PjzWIV5rDEMZS3J3IneQlnJEx_2WX2nFO-CUdKmx4v1uZY2BN3QzWrhyphenhyphenlsVlYcnbnX8tvoMHCVDiEbOTYueB488IA/s1600/PSIMCG028_500.jpeg" height="320" width="247" /></a></div>
--on the outside, like this--<br />
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<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNAt3ubnSt2VWSs4LTD0iRjdOShio8xMK2Ycw2n9K4XI6-9-cNubgABG3Zl4cTz6UgrHIvrh32ClfQF5Im5DEqNxQ8oIQuN9VjnS5HvC3vGOlg-oHAI5oJOhhuWxjcBjjS1d7GnA/s1600/the-strange-page-2a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNAt3ubnSt2VWSs4LTD0iRjdOShio8xMK2Ycw2n9K4XI6-9-cNubgABG3Zl4cTz6UgrHIvrh32ClfQF5Im5DEqNxQ8oIQuN9VjnS5HvC3vGOlg-oHAI5oJOhhuWxjcBjjS1d7GnA/s1600/the-strange-page-2a.jpg" height="210" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image totally pinched from <a href="http://automatonera.com/2014/08/04/capsule-review-the-strange-rpg/">Automatonera.com</a>. </td></tr>
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-- on the inside, and has illustrations like this one--<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo1hMB2OPzQcOJWtwLPsGYguwcjS-o0ck3CxtR-u1CWlI4pApcAwuki5W_DJEiAf4567OFoLqh3OH1XbY302PUhC4piRS9-Fp07AZe20fvnfBaNBWjglfxZjnOQwFGc-nh1UuXBg/s1600/6535c5382dafd1fa10b936ea36863940.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo1hMB2OPzQcOJWtwLPsGYguwcjS-o0ck3CxtR-u1CWlI4pApcAwuki5W_DJEiAf4567OFoLqh3OH1XbY302PUhC4piRS9-Fp07AZe20fvnfBaNBWjglfxZjnOQwFGc-nh1UuXBg/s1600/6535c5382dafd1fa10b936ea36863940.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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-- and this one--</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjls799iJd8JAPJdX8qMT6U-l4cbRtcj0s5e8ivxN6hlo7EjQWQWnsB4J1bJ8RaW6kdelAqPdLXvTMTXFZarLIYNx7yKq9JtKC7gOdkHbfL_UfSlxidCb80ZhjjwW-ejO8S9vHQ_A/s1600/lookatthisguy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjls799iJd8JAPJdX8qMT6U-l4cbRtcj0s5e8ivxN6hlo7EjQWQWnsB4J1bJ8RaW6kdelAqPdLXvTMTXFZarLIYNx7yKq9JtKC7gOdkHbfL_UfSlxidCb80ZhjjwW-ejO8S9vHQ_A/s1600/lookatthisguy.jpg" height="209" width="320" /></a></div>
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--right? I mean, those are things you knew already. Because of the not-a-lazy-mofo etc. etc. etc. thing.</div>
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Okay, good. </div>
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So I saw it at my FLGS and heard a few mentions of it and stuff and then a buddy of mine picked up a copy and he said it was kind of cool so I looked through the book a little and it did indeed look really cool and --</div>
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Let me slow down here, a minute, and tell you <i>why</i> it looked cool.</div>
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The notion of moving back and forth between realities made out of fiction? That hit something deeeeeeeeeeep inside Doc Rotwang!. It's probably the same for you -- that the worlds and places you create, in your head, are so, so real to you...just not real <i>enough</i>. They're just beyond tactile, just this side of material, such that your senses can but brush against them, that tingle on your skin when something hovers close but does not touch it.</div>
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Of <i>course</i> you'd want to see them made real. Of <i>course</i> you want to pass through that membrane. That's what you daydream of. One of your greatest regrets, and one that you'll take to your grave, is knowing that you'll never really be able to do that, to go there, to the places in your mind.</div>
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PCs in <i>The Strange</i>, though -- that's <i>what they DO.</i></div>
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Maybe they don't go to the places that <i>they've</i> dreamed up (though that can happen), but -- man, it's something, right?</div>
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I was intrigued. I had to know more about this game. </div>
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And then my FLGS scheduled a demo of it run by Ryan Chaddock who is a licensed third-party publisher for Cypher System stuff and I went to the demo and I was sold on the thing in like the first five minutes because not only is the concept totally aces but the system is all easy and unobtrusive and holy crap ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥oifoiqowi oweoqwioersafdsafdjsfd</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeNb3Ma7FVM4f6E9DSyMThSLq4B36CPJjLLF8YzFIhyphenhyphenHENRS-LrHul7PJZYU8ORrEw5-xvMFz8IgpyOrKQ04gxTcByzxe-iqtg47vhKwTR-22fZstzINSYjO9-0wSbuJb6i0Utew/s1600/2ecbb59671524922890f657c4e6def09_large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeNb3Ma7FVM4f6E9DSyMThSLq4B36CPJjLLF8YzFIhyphenhyphenHENRS-LrHul7PJZYU8ORrEw5-xvMFz8IgpyOrKQ04gxTcByzxe-iqtg47vhKwTR-22fZstzINSYjO9-0wSbuJb6i0Utew/s1600/2ecbb59671524922890f657c4e6def09_large.jpg" height="209" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">DUDE LOOK AT THAT PLACE <b>JUST <i>LOOK AT IT</i></b></td></tr>
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The game is crazy bananas, and I think you can tell by now that I kinda dig it.</div>
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...so my buddy who'd bought the game decided that, although he liked it, he didn't like it as much as I obviously do, so he gave me his copy. He's a swell, that Chris.</div>
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So let's call this my official endorsement of the game, and Bob's your uncle.</div>
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Speaking of Bob, Ryan Chaddock is not named Bob but he is the author of <a href="http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/140376/The-Translation-Codex"><i>The Translation Codex</i></a>, which is not only the first third-party supp for this thing but also, in my estimation, muhfuggin' <i>essential</i>. It presents some character options which, and I am not kidding, really ought to have been in the core book. That's not a slam on its authors -- that's a high-five for Ryan, and my official endorsement of <i>it</i>. Got <i>The Strange</i>? Getting <i>The Strange</i>? Getchoo <i>The Translation Codex</i>. Easy. I just said so. </div>
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Also, I ♥ Lazerhawk. Play me out, Lazerhawk!</div>
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...thanks, Lazerhawk.</div>
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<span id="goog_649053176"></span><span id="goog_649053177"></span><br />Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-86082633543118330072015-01-14T21:12:00.000-05:002015-01-14T21:12:16.747-05:00WHAT'S NEW? - With Doc R! and...ummm......<br />
<br />
...huh. Dusty, in here.<br />
<br />
Let's pretend I never left. OK? OK! Great.<br />
<br />
So here's what I'm into these days:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiN2E8B1yfWPN031P-VprZ745E_eut_SeUv1mfEj3lc9LAMQnZ3dyKzPWl578WZLfSg5h-p5qOFB6hg0fI-nD85dxft6PQD-kFLJB2yooD1x7_uy-t1GTr454I72kJIfY6zwuYaQ/s1600/NBA+cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiN2E8B1yfWPN031P-VprZ745E_eut_SeUv1mfEj3lc9LAMQnZ3dyKzPWl578WZLfSg5h-p5qOFB6hg0fI-nD85dxft6PQD-kFLJB2yooD1x7_uy-t1GTr454I72kJIfY6zwuYaQ/s1600/NBA+cover.png" height="200" width="151" /></a></div>
I scored (i.e. 'purchased with legal tender) a copy of <i><a href="http://www.pelgranepress.com/?cat=153">Night's Black Agents</a> </i>a while back, and boy howdy, I gotta tellya: this is some good stuff.<br />
<br />
I read <a href="http://io9.com/5974636/mix-vampires-and-espionage-with-tabletop-rpg-nights-black-agents">a review of it on io9.com</a>, and was sold pretty much instantly--here was a game about being a badass and slapping the gunk outta vampires, and so what's a better thing to do with them than that? NOTHING IS, THAT'S WHAT. I'm glad you agree with me, because it'd be pretty awkward having to explain it to you. I love that we're friends!<br />
<br />
Aaaaaaaany-old-way, as you likely know by now because the game ain't 'xactly new, <i>Night's Black Agents</i> uses the GUMSHOE system, designed by Robin Laws. GUMSHOE is tuned for investigative-type scenarios, and thus operates on the crazy-ass notion that rolling to see if you notice important clues, and potentially boinking that roll, is no fun; you should just <i>get</i> that clue, GUMSHOE says, as long as your character has the necessary skill and is in the same location as the clue. There's more to it, but that's the main thing. Right?<br />
<br />
I like that.<br />
<br />
I dug the game, I dug it right away. And before you know it, I'm all, like, <i>Dude. I wonder if I'd dig </i>Trail of Cthulhu<i> as well?</i> So I checked it out, and picked up a copy, and -- what do ya know? I DID! I DID dug it! Um! Dig it!<br />
<br />
And of course, <i>Ashen Stars</i> came next. Because SPACE OPERA.<br />
<br />
Okay, I'm gonna bail before this starts to feel forced. While we wait for me to come back, here:<br />
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<object width="320" height="266" class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="https://ytimg.googleusercontent.com/vi/G_BZ0UP9Qt0/0.jpg"><param name="movie" value="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/G_BZ0UP9Qt0&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/G_BZ0UP9Qt0&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
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<br />
...your turn to dig somethin'.<br />
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<br />Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-52562319926060910532014-03-10T20:17:00.001-04:002014-03-10T20:31:04.445-04:00On March 14th, Everybody Draw RoboCop!Hey! You! You think that, come March 14th, you won't know how to #DrawRoboCop?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjj1nsBgoedC1egHSDih7Gxy64oyAzlW2_C-nYeNB31QoEjfK26L4Ws84uFhz2Fx25dt6bI2GV3d3NLjS5W0NH2RujmEHelD-vWJS1p6wd-ka2qR54cSH197wV1kbZazHPkYmAvA/s1600/drawrobocop.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjj1nsBgoedC1egHSDih7Gxy64oyAzlW2_C-nYeNB31QoEjfK26L4Ws84uFhz2Fx25dt6bI2GV3d3NLjS5W0NH2RujmEHelD-vWJS1p6wd-ka2qR54cSH197wV1kbZazHPkYmAvA/s1600/drawrobocop.png" height="494" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
WELL YOU'RE WRONG!</h3>
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Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-86600779563949002302014-03-04T01:27:00.000-05:002014-03-04T01:27:02.766-05:00Put The Moves On Me; or, Dungeon World And Why I Think I Like ItHey, kids. Long time, huh?<br />
<br />
Okay, so...<i>Dungeon World</i>. Hipster D&D. Amirite? Eh? Eh? Amirite?<br />
<br />
...<br />
<br />
...yeah, probably. I guess. I mean that's the rep it's got. Maybe. Does it? Have that rep? I don't know. But I know that <i>I don't care. </i>I don't care <i>hard</i>. Matter of fact I'm so far <i>past</i> caring, I can barely see caring in the rear-view mirror of my speeding Nofucksmobile.<br />
<br />
No, 'cause, you see, I'd barely heard of the game when I rolled into <a href="http://www.commonroomgames.com/">Common Room Games</a> last Saturday night. I knew only what I'd read about it over on <a href="http://station53.blogspot.com/2013/11/actual-play-report-review-dungeon-world.html">Mike Lindsey's Station 53</a>, and I knew that it had both the words "World" and "Dungeon" in its title, only probably not in that order. And in fact they were in the <i>opposite</i> order, as my wife, my daughter and I could plainly see, because the book was right there on the shelf and we could all read its cover. So I picked it up to look at it, and Frau Codename and I kinda skimmed it, and then I whipped out my datapad and scrolled through a review over on <a href="http://agameofwhits.blogspot.com/search/label/Dungeon%20World">A Game Of Whit's</a> and we were like "New take on old school? OK, sold why not." So she got some Fate dice and Kid Cheesepants (long story) got a <i>Magic</i> booster and I've been reading the book off and on in the two days since.<br />
<br />
And what I've read...I've liked.<br />
<br />
"That's great, Rotwang!," say those of you who haven't closed this tab. "Truly, honest. But WHY do you like it?" To you I say, "Dude, you've read this far? You're braver than I thought!" and then I say "Oh, yeah, um -- I like it because <i>I recognize almost everything in it.</i>"<br />
<br />
No, I'm not saying it's derivative, or that it's a ripoff or whatever. I'm saying that the way it does things makes <i><b>all kinds of sense</b></i> to me, in crazy, twisty, almost stupid ways.<br />
<br />
"A-HA!" you say now, "<i>this</i> is why I came to this stupid blog in the first place: disjointed ramblings!" Your dedication and strange predilections are to be rewarded, sucka, for here are the reasons why <i>Dungeon World</i> makes sense to me:<br />
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<h3>
IT'S TOTALLY GOT SOME <i>TRAVELLER</i> IN IT</h3>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don't tell me it's not so, <i>you dirty liar.</i></td></tr>
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I'm not kidding. No, I -- STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT. I say this for two reasons: because of the task resolution algorithm, and because it's explicitly about making shit up like your life depends on it.</div>
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<div>
Right away I noticed that the success thresholds for <i>Dungeon World</i> task rolls map straight to <a href="http://xbowvsbuddha.blogspot.com/2007/12/traveller-rule-68a.html">Rule 68A</a>. That is to say, <i>Dungeon World's </i>success rolls are on 2d6, and that the significant thresholds are at 6 and below (for failing), 7-9 (for, you know, a partial success) and 10 or above (for being badass). Over in <i>Trav</i>, an easy success is on a 6+, an average success is on an 8+ and hard stuff is 10+. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Granted -- this is a function of the bell curve you get on 2d6, and math has more to do with that than does, you know, Marc Miller. But the point is that <i>I recognized it immediately</i>, and I went, "This is Six-Eight-Ay!" and that was all it took. It's clean and it's simple and I got it right quick.</div>
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As I read further, I found that the game is almost fanatically devoted to the idea that nothing in the game is set in stone until you're ready for it to be, and that, furthermore, nothing even really <i>exists</i> in the game world until you, the GM and players, put it there. Character creation, in fact, is an exercise in generating game content; it's all questions and answers and wiiiiide open spaces that you, the GM and players, fill in as you go. This may only sound a little like <i>Traveller</i>, but -again- it clicked for me right away: behold a big empty canvas, and spontaneity is your brush. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
This dovetails strrrrraight into one of the next thing I grokked, and which suits me just fine:</div>
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<h3>
IT CARES NOT FOR YOUR PREP</h3>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Not settin' up the game next time!"</td></tr>
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<div>
Preparation for this game consists, I kid you not, of printing some stuff out and daydreaming. </div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>Think about fantastic worlds, strange magic, and foul beasts, </i>says page 175. <i>What you bring to the first session, ideas-wise,</i> <i>is up to you. At the very least bring your head full of ideas.</i></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
This is awesome for me to read, because, frankly, I enjoy prep too much. I enjoy it to the point of overdoing it, and then it becomes less play and creativity and more struggle and frustration. OK; I can be lackadaisical when it comes to any game, as long as I can slack off enough...but for me, man, that's actually kind of hard. So being told, up front, to <i>relax</i>? Whew. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And -- okay. Here's a big thing about how I approach gamemastering and creative projects as a whole: with a mess of impressions and sensations, of colors and motion, an idea of <i>how it should feel</i> more than <i>what it's about</i>. In fact, the process of transforming that nimbus of abstractions into something structured is what frustrates me and gets me in trouble. It's one of the reasons that my cyberpunk stuff started taking form almost twenty years ago, but only recently has begun to condense into something that can actually be a roleplaying game that someone other than me can play and run, and I can barely do that. So the explicit reassurance that, dude, you must chill, is major.</div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
But later in that same page, <i>Dungeon World</i> drops the big one: </div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
<div>
<i>The one thing you absolutely can't bring to the table is a planned storyline or plot. You don't know the heroes or the world before you sit down to play so planning anything concrete is just going to frustrate you.</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Yes, I am the author of The Adventure Funnel, the most awesome adventure creation tool ever in the history of things, apparently. But I pounded it out blindly out of that very same frustration -- out of the need to have something to focus all that swirling whatever up in my noggin. And in fact, as of late, I've been relying less on my own brilliant creation and more on wild improvisation, on picking up cues from the players, of making it all up as I go along.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Which is <i>exactly</i> what <i>Dungeon World</i> assumes you're gonna do, first time out.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
See, 'cause I'm a perfectionist and stuff. So I hold myself to this standard, see, where if I have to do something for a game, I have to do it <i>right</i>, and in my twisty-turny think-pipes, that gets perverted into 'I have to make an effort to create something badass that my players will enjoy AND which will satisfy my need for being all awesome and stuff'. But <i>Dungeon World,</i> again, assumes that I don't have to bust my ass on that. Hell, it assumes that I can show up at the table with no more of an idea than "OH SHIT GOBLINS" and that I, and my players, can roll with that. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
To drive the point home, <i>Dungeon World</i> gives the GM an agenda to follow (more on that a little bit later), and one of the items on that agenda is "Play to see what happens".</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Can I do that in any other game? Yeah. I've kind of been doing that since <i>Theatrix</i> back in the 90s. So it's not like <i>Dungeon World</i> is some kind of magical game that does what nothing else can. Rather, it's <i>how</i> it does what it does, and how it encourages me to do it, that trips my trigger; it comes right out and says, "Whaaat...? Pssssh, man, just siddown and see what happens. Relax, dude."</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
One might say it's less "Hipster D&D" and more "Slacker D&D". </div>
<div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga7mnwJ6jLBN2OjlfF5KmErGqgQipDyknTWjX3k0FGBz3QuzXhzgo_i7QKDEVeLN8lu24HGqjMl8lhoU6344nfbuf1dJsHaSCjuyqZM2jdQvStNRjNSnUrbq8_O_vN_TxFnfaXlA/s1600/LowPrep.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga7mnwJ6jLBN2OjlfF5KmErGqgQipDyknTWjX3k0FGBz3QuzXhzgo_i7QKDEVeLN8lu24HGqjMl8lhoU6344nfbuf1dJsHaSCjuyqZM2jdQvStNRjNSnUrbq8_O_vN_TxFnfaXlA/s1600/LowPrep.png" height="355" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Low pre-ep! Low pre-ep!"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
But -- ! Once the fire's on and the pots are boiling, what do you do? Well, as it turns out --</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
IT BREAKS STORY CRAFTING DOWN TO ITS BASICS (EVEN THOUGH IT CAN ALSO BE DAMNED CONFUSING TO READ AT TIMES)</h3>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I take pride in my ability to improvise. While it's easy to riff off of each other and inject whatever goofular idea you may have, it's another thing altogether to make it into a coherent story that makes some kind of sense. I'm good at that. I can feel my way through a story with the best of them; I've got a knack for pacing and for dramatic timing, and the ebb and flow of a story is second nature to me. Lest you think me a boast, know you this: many are the times when I know that a story should move in a certain direction, but damned if I know <i>how to make that move</i>. Then, I go DURRRRRRRR and pee my pants.*</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Enter <i>Dungeon World's </i> GM Moves and Fronts.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Now...a quick aside, here. There are actually a couple of things that bug me about this game, and one is relevant at the moment. <i>Dungeon World</i> seems, at times, to be enamored of its own jargon. Look, man, every game has its jargon -- you got your THAC0s and your Rounds and Phases and Hit Dice and yadda-yadda-blah going back to when avocado and gold were legit interior decoration choices, all the way up to your Spends and your Aspects and your Assets and whaaa-bluhh-bleeee-blopp. Thing is, though, that in <i>Dungeon World</i>, some of that jargon comes across as nebulous at best, and silly and self-indulgent at worst. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Until you figure out why a Move is called a Move despite having nothing to do with actual movement, for instance.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Central to the game is this concept of Moves. Each character class has Moves, but they're not, like, dance moves or ground speed or whatever -- they're more like abilities, only sometimes they're actions and sometimes they're powers and sometimes they're your spellbook. The GM also has Moves, and those can be hard or soft, like you're at Taco Bell or something. (More on menus later.) Oh, and then when characters go into town, they have Moves <i>then</i>, too.Plus also, there are <i>basic</i> Moves that anyone can do, and those, too, are actions -- except when they're <i>not</i>, only they are, but it's hard to -- </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
WHAT THE FUCK ARE "MOVES", EUGENE?!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Here's how I figured it out, just today: Imagine yourself in a purely real-world situation, and something needs to be done to effect a result. Maybe you and your boss are discussing a particular sales account, one which you might lose because, I dunno, the client wants a cheaper, imported dog polisher or whatever it is you sell, and you're wondering what...thing you should take to keep the sale. It could be that you are young and in love, and the object of your affection shows interest in you -- but it's up to you to make the next...thing. Or perhaps you are RoboCop, responding to a 415 in progress at 3rd Street and Nash Avenue, and having just shot a woman's would-be assailant in the crotch, you advise his fellow creep that it's his --</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
DAMN IT JUST SAY A "MOVE" IS A THING YOU DO TO GET A RESULT DAMN IT</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEsMQug1VK7ediFhPs4RYSxtRWdTQ5IPY97zQ7RaZ_yJ27RNPbaSwmsHjDad0qJQEVbjW4k8AMGhrzuOVnqanmkuDxjpY_yjvMFaaC57IRNXpXgXGpKGHH-vHlQQsm_DI1pi2DPA/s1600/126-Dead+or+alive,+you're+coming+with+me.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEsMQug1VK7ediFhPs4RYSxtRWdTQ5IPY97zQ7RaZ_yJ27RNPbaSwmsHjDad0qJQEVbjW4k8AMGhrzuOVnqanmkuDxjpY_yjvMFaaC57IRNXpXgXGpKGHH-vHlQQsm_DI1pi2DPA/s1600/126-Dead+or+alive,+you're+coming+with+me.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Taken Out or at =>1 HP, you're coming with me!"<br />\</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
...so anyway, GM "Moves" are things you do to move the plot along. They're codified into the game, and they have their own names, even -- almost like they're specific subroutines in a greater dynamic whole, discernible one from the other, each with a specific result or effect.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Now...that's not to say that <i>Dungeon World</i> thinks you're stupid, and that you need to be shown what to do next. No, no, no. Rather -and this is purely speculative on my part, but it's one of the ways that the game plugged into my thought process so well- it shows you these "moves" as a way of <i>mapping out for you how stories are built</i>. In other words, no matter how bad you think you are at improv or how much you panic and freeze up or how many bullets you've just taken in the nuts, you always have a handy prompt so you can keep building a good, satisfying story.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So that's GM Moves, so now let's talk about Fronts. At first. "Front" seems like pretentious-ass hippie-talk for "adventure", but it's kind of justified by the term's meaning in context: they're "fronts" as in "fighting on multiple _____". I woulda just called 'em what they are, which is Big Stacks Of Trouble. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
[Another aside: changing jargon in indie games is getting to be a habit of mine. You know how in Fate, when you beat the difficulty by 3 or more, you are said to 'Succeed with Style'? Nuh-uh. In <i>my </i>game, if you beat the difficulty by 3 or more, you Are Badass. "I'm gonna jump off the bridge and land on the speeder bike!" "Roll Athletics, Great difficulty!" "My result is -- Legendary! I AM BADASS!" That's more my style.]</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So Fronts, aka Big Stacks of Trouble, are no more or less than a structure for defining, managing and implementing the events and forces that oppose your players and would mess things up if not for, you know, the heroes of your game/story. Not only do Fr-- uh, Big Stacks of Trouble guide you in creating sensible threats by querying you for all the broad details you need to make things go boink, they also --</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
-- and this is what really, REALLY caught my eye --</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
-- give you suggestions on <i>what kinds of goals are common for the opposing forces to have, and things that said forces might do to achieve these goals</i>. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Look, man, I get stymied a lot, doing this kind of thing. I might know that I want my <i>Night's Black Agents</i> scenario to include, say, a reality TV star who is secretly a vampire with an honest-to-goodness murder castle in the suburbs of Madrid, but when it's time to look past the excitement of such a notion and decide on said bad guy's motivations and place in a story and whether or not any of it makes story-sense, I frrrrrrreeze right up, thinking I'm in over my head because I don't really know what I'm doing. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>Dungeon World</i>'s "Fronts" system helps me, or you, or someone else who thinks waaaay too hard about stuff, to get over it and just pick something from the menu already. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Oh, yeah...I mentioned menus. Well...</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
...Man, I'm getting sleepy. I've got more to say, though. Come back tomorrow.</div>
Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-41303358486649373712013-10-16T13:00:00.002-04:002013-10-16T13:01:19.586-04:00SARGENT SAUSAGE'S SUICIDE SOWS!<h1 dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 10pt;">
<span style="color: #134f5c; font-family: Play; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.15; text-decoration: underline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SGT. SAUSAGE’S SUICIDE SOWS</span></h1>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A Squad for </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fate Core</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> mass combat!</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></div>
<h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 10pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 17px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ASPECTS</span></h2>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sgt. Sausage’s Suicide Sows</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Everybody Wants A Piece</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“That’ll Do, Pigs.”</span></div>
<h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 10pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 17px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SKILLS</span></h2>
<div dir="ltr">
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none;"><colgroup><col width="94"></col><col width="69"></col><col width="70"></col><col width="57"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Good (+3)</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fight</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fair (+2)</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Provoke</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Athletics</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Average (+1)</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shoot</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Will</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Notice</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<span style="color: white;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-10a2dba1-c234-a56a-0539-558f6c115b3f" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
</span><br />
<h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 10pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 17px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">CONSEQUENCES</span></h2>
<div dir="ltr">
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none;"><colgroup><col width="96"></col><col width="528"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border: 1px solid #b7b7b7; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mild (2)</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #b7b7b7; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border: 1px solid #b7b7b7; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Moderate (4)</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #b7b7b7; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<h1 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 10pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #134f5c; font-family: Play; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SGT. SAUSAGE</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Play; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></h1>
<h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 10pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 17px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ASPECTS</span></h2>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Grizzled Old Bastard</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“After So Much Action, I’m Nearly Fried”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Never Gonna Give You Up</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Well-Funded Via Pork Barrel Projects</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: line-through; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Two Degrees of Kevin Bacon</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cybernetic Hamhock</span></div>
<h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 10pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 17px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SKILLS</span></h2>
<div dir="ltr">
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none;"><colgroup><col width="94"></col><col width="69"></col><col width="70"></col><col width="74"></col><col width="55"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Great (+4)</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Will</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Good (+3)</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fight</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shoot</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fair (+2)</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Provoke</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Athletics</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Physique</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></td></tr>
<tr style="height: 0px;"><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Average (+1)</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rapport</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Deceive</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Notice</span></div>
</td><td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 1px 1px 1px 1px; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stealth</span></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<span style="color: white;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
</span><br />
<h2 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 10pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: white; font-family: Play; font-size: 17px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">STUNTS</span></h2>
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SAVING EVERYBODY’S BACON:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> When in the same zone as an ally, spend a fate point to create a defensive advantage that all allies can invoke immediately.</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">STIHL P.I.G. 900X: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Your cybernetic hamhock has a retractable chainsaw which counts as Weapon:1.</span></span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">WATCH THE STYS: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gain a +2 bonus when using Notice to create an advantage related to terrain on the field of battle.</span></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<span style="color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: Play; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span>
...I like Fate Core.</span>Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35655388.post-72269640011937246172013-06-09T20:09:00.003-04:002013-06-10T07:36:07.947-04:00"D&D Is Terrible For Anything But Combat": The Myth Asploded<h3>
THESIS:</h3>
A lot of people will argue until they're blue in the face that the <i>D&D</i>
rules, as written, offer so much emphasis on combat and so little on
any other activity that the game is ineffective at
incentivizing or even <i>facilitating</i> any activity other than combat. This position is totally and demonstrably horsefeathers, and I can prove it using no more than a copy of the <i>Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia </i>(published by TSR in 1991), basic reading comprehension skills and some words in English, because that's a good language to use given the circumstances. In addition, I will employ an overused internet meme as my abstract, because it'll be funny.<br />
<br />
<h3>
ABSTRACT:</h3>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbZ97zaph0xuGs1uMaP3AovDprYws13bxBXLsKqOMrn1T1RgOCIm_5dQvlXOl2mfTWwqpQcB1nnraG2vlyOspgHjmeb8xt3DG-Pv2j7oqXVQk57agaE05Bghqvia3IyWGPXdNzYA/s1600/RCbatslap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbZ97zaph0xuGs1uMaP3AovDprYws13bxBXLsKqOMrn1T1RgOCIm_5dQvlXOl2mfTWwqpQcB1nnraG2vlyOspgHjmeb8xt3DG-Pv2j7oqXVQk57agaE05Bghqvia3IyWGPXdNzYA/s320/RCbatslap.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<h3>
METHOD: </h3>
I used GIMP. I mean, for the picture. But for the <i>real</i> bitchslap in the face of my enemies I used mostly my eyes (to read) and my fingers (to type). I kept the latter out of the former because I ain't that stupid.<br />
<br />
<h3>
FINDINGS: </h3>
Oh, I found stuff, all right...<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>Okay, so no. If you think that <i>Dungeons & Dragons </i>offers no incentive for anything but killing monsters and taking their stuff, you have a head full of poo gas. Why? Because here's this from Chapter 10 of the <i>Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia</i>, on p.127:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In the game, there are five normal ways for player characters to acquire experience: <br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>By Role-Playing Well </li>
<li>By Achieving Party Goals </li>
<li>By Defeating Monsters and Opponents </li>
<li>By Acquiring Treasure </li>
<li>By Performing Exceptional Actions.</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<br />
Note
that gaining XP "By Defeating Monsters and Opponents" is given THIRD
PRIORITY here, while awards for "Role-Playing Well", that activity at
which D&D is supposedly a "terrible"...um...thing, is first on the list. At the top. Of the list. Of ways to get XP.<br />
<br />
XP-worthy role-playing is defined as playing one's alignment well, heroic actions and sacrifices, and other stuff such as --<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...an emotional encounter with an NPC, reacting to the loss of a loved one, spontaneously composing a speech that motivates the army of NPCs and improves their morale, and so forth. If the demonstration of role-playing enlivens the game, impresses the DM, or makes for a very memorable scene, the DM may decide to give the player a bonus. </blockquote>
XP
gain by role-playing is at a suggested rate of 1/20 the amount needed by
the character to advance by one level. The DM is advised to only award
XP for this activity once per game session. This means that, to increase
in level, the other <strike>80%</strike> 95% of the character's XP must come from the other 4
methods. So how easy is that? And of the remaining <strike>80%</strike> 95% of XP needed,
what percentages come from these other methods? Let's look at methods
#2, #3 and #4 together, because they are related.<br />
<br />
"When the
characters achieve a major goal," says the <i>RC</i>,"award them experience
equal to the XP Value of monsters defeated in reaching that goal."
That's method #2 on the list above. Method #3 goes on to say, "Add XP
Value of all monsters defeated; divide by number of characters who
participated in their defeat; award the result in XP to each character
who participated." As to XP gain via the collection of treasure, "Each 1
gp value of treasure won by a character = 1 XP earned by the
character."<br />
<br />
So it looks like defeating monsters, as an activity
in D&D, ends up awarding XP twice...PLUS you get XP for grabbing all the candy that falls out. This suggests then that <i>D&D</i>
is, after all, all about killing things and taking their stuff...<br />
<br />
...until
one reads the definition of 'defeat' in the context of the game rules (emphasis mine):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Characters
earn experience points by defeating monsters and other opponents.
<b>Defeating a monster doesn't necessarily mean killing it</b>; defeating an
opponent can mean killing it, capturing it, tricking it into destroying
itself, trapping it forever so that it can't menace the rest of the
world, and so forth.</blockquote>
Thus we see that the <i>D&D</i>'s supposed
'focus on combat' is misidentified, at least from the point of
view of its designers. It's to be
rewarded, yes, because the game is ultimately one of sword & sorcery
adventure. But as we all know, such tales are not solely about blood
and gold -- they're also about derring-do of one sort or another. Hence
method #5 of gaining XP in the <i>D&D Rules Cyclopedia</i>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
When a
player performs an exceptional action, the DM can award his character an
experience bonus equal to one-twentieth (1/20) the base points he needs
to get to the next level.</blockquote>
Looks familiar, doesn't it? But let's read on -- and do so carefully, because there are some fine points to consider here:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The DM has to decide what constitutes an exceptional action in your campaign.</blockquote>
Here
we see that the DM is given great leeway in deciding what's
'exceptional' in his or her opinion -- and more to the point, what's
worth another <strike>20%</strike> 5% of a character's next level. So what criteria are
advised to the DM in choosing what's an "exceptional action"?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
As
a rule of thumb, an exceptional action is a success that the character
achieves when the DM didn't think he could, or didn't anticipate the
clever means by which he achieved it.</blockquote>
Further, two common examples are
given: saving allies from harm and exceptional use of skills. Dig the part about saving allies:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This type of exceptional action takes place when the PCs encounter a situation where the Dungeon Master fully expects them to be seriously hurt, and yet a character manages to save them from that fate in an unexpected and unlikely way.<br />
<br />
For example, the PCs wander into a nest of vampires. A nasty fight is expected, and as the PCs walk in, the vampires rise out of their coffins. Suddenly, before any combat starts, one PC steps forward and announces that the PCs are representatives of a famous evil lord who wants to forge an alliance with the vampires, and if the vampires attack they're sure to miss out on a great opportunity for mutual gain. While the vampires listen in interest, he spins a clever story about a way by which the imaginary lord's minions and the vampires can take over this entire region of the country. The DM rolls for the vampires' reactions and finds them very positively disposed to the PC's offer. The PC arranges for another meeting in another place, and the PCs leave.<br />
<br />
Now, the player character who wove this lovely tale of lies has done something very good. He kept his friends from being hurt in this surprise encounter, and he's set things up so that they can fight the vampires at a time and place of their own choosing. This is an exceptional action, and he should most certainly be rewarded for it. </blockquote>
<br />
<br />
I could be wrong -I mean, English is only my first language, an also I've just had a root beer and so my comprehension may be unaffected- but I think that the rulebook just advocated giving XP for being all clever <i>and</i> demonstrated how the existing rules, with no modifications whatsoever, facilitated a mechanical resolution to the players' action. Hang on, let me have some more root beer and look at that again:<br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[B]efore any combat starts, one PC steps forward and announces that the PCs are representatives of a famous evil lord ... The DM rolls for the vampires' reactions [presumably per the rules outlined on p.93 under the heading "Monster Reactions" and which account for the character's Charisma score] ... the player character who wove this lovely tale of lies has done
something very good .... and he should most certainly be rewarded for it. </blockquote>
...huh. I'll be damned. Okay, but what about the skills thing?<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Characters can earn experience bonuses for exceptional use of their special character-class skills and abilities. Normal, everyday use of these skills should not earn bonuses, but deliberate use of those skills in exceptionally difficult situations could.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
For example, a thief could discover that a room has a very intricate trap on it; he knows he'll make his Remove Traps skill check at a dangerous minus and could be seriously wounded or even killed if he fails it. In such a case, the DM could award him a bonus if he deliberately takes on the task he knows is dangerous and successfully disarms the trap.</blockquote>
So now the DM is being advised to hand out XP based on
luck as well as the players' ability to be clever, willingness to take mechanical risks to simulate dramatic tension and willingness to be ballsy enough to mess with the plot and get things done <i>their way</i>.<br />
<br />
...<i>huh</i>.<br />
<br />
Well,
that's another <strike>20%</strike> 5% worth of a character's next level, right? So
ultimately, after all this rigamarole, getting XPs for attempting and pulling off "exceptional actions" is no different from getting an XP award for role-playing...except
for one difference that is stated and one detail that is omitted:<br />
<br />
Unlike
the in the guidelines for good role-playing, those for exceptional
actions state quite explicitly:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
There is no limit to the number of
types of exceptional action in a campaign.</blockquote>
Also unlike the
aforementioned "XP for RP" guidelines, <i>XP awards for exceptional actions <b>are not limited to one such XP award per session.</b></i><br />
<br />
Hang on, now, waitwaitwaitwaitwait. Go back. Look at that again, does it really imply that --<br />
<br />
<i>XP awards for exceptional actions <b>are not limited to one such XP award per session.</b></i><br />
<br />
Did...did that really say that --<br />
<i><b> </b></i><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b><i>XP awards for exceptional actions <b>are not limited to one such XP award per session.</b></i></b></i></span><br />
<br />
<i><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><i><b><i><b><i>XP awards for exceptional actions <b>are not limited to one such XP award per session.</b></i> </b></i> </b></i></span></b></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Soooo....</span>unless I'm totally-motally stoned on crack, which I'm not because I'm a teetotaller and stick to hookers and blow*, the XP awards in the <i>Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia</i> can be said to state that your players can spend an entire adventure without making a single to-hit roll and, if they are clever and ballsy, can go up one whole damn level if that's what the players and the DM want. You <i>can</i> get XP from killing monsters and taking their stuff, but you can also get it for <i>not</i> killing things (<i>twice</i>, in fact, since you get the monster's XP value once for defeating it without killing it and AGAIN for reaching the goals of the adventure), getting all into thespy and into character and for being heroic, clever and taking risks.<br />
<br />
According to the rules.<br />
<br />
Of <i>Dungeons & Dragons</i>.<br />
<br />
That game that is supposedly all about combat and really poor at encouraging role-playing.<br />
<br />
Only apparently it isn't bad at encouraging role-playing.<br />
<br />
If you bother to read it.<br />
<br />
<h3>
CONCLUSION: </h3>
So! It's all combat, huh? No good rules for anything else, eh? No motivation for doing anything but killing and stealing, right? No. Shudduppa you face and read the damn book. You can play a hack and slash game if you want and the rules will support it; you can play a straight-up adventure/drama and the rules will support it; you can mix 'em up (which appears to be the ideal tone that the game wants to help you set) and the rules will support it. The rules <i>encourage </i>it. There, damn it, <i>you're welcome</i>.<br />
<br />
NOW TAKE THIS NEW WISDOM AND GO PLAY! <br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">*First part's true, second's not. C'mon, <i>duh</i>. </span><br />
<br />Dr Rotwanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16750632906878388570noreply@blogger.com