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It's been a while since I did a blog post here, perhaps so long that folks have forgotten I was here. Life has been getting in the way of gaming lately... my Sunday group is hanging on by a thread this summer, and is down to just the 5 of us (4 players and a GM, depending on whoose turn it is in the GM chair). I tried to organize a Saturday Night game at the local store... and ran into something I have rarely had to deal with. I needed to cancel it because I couldn't get a minimum of 4 players for it. People aren't travelling much for gaming these days thanks to gas prices and fare hikes on transit. Those who do are going to the movies of summer and don't want to commit for 4 weekly sessions or more. It looks like we'll try again in September, but I'm not putting a lot of effort in until then.
Tags: Site Blogging Life Gaming
So, I'm writing this as a blog entry because the forums have been so quiet that tumbleweeds are blowing through them lately here. I'm working on the preparations to start running a Hollow Earth RPG game at our local game store. It's a great game but it's been well pointed out there is one major problem - Character Generation really needs the book, and with only one book in a group of 4-6 players could take a long time just because of the need to look through the equipment lists etc (as resources and their management in regards to equipment can be very important in a game). I'm not supposed to make copies of that chapter in the book, I can't afford to buy multiple copies for all the players, nor can I expect players who are trying it for the first time to see if they like it to shell out money for their own copies on day 1. I can ue 'GM pre-prepared equipment lists and pre-generated characters' but then the players have a lot less freedom on their starting point. Showing off the Character Generation system is somethig most game demos fail to do and often mean that play is a "fixed demonstration" rather than a solid experimental experience. Additionally the character generation rules are one of the better parts of the system. I do not have overhead projection equipment, and I have found no 'cheat sheet' sets on the net for the game to make getting players into things (evidently some do exist, but were a Gen Con handout in 2007 for folks running events, but otherwise can't be found). Any good creative constructive Answers?
So, I've asked this elsewhere, but am looking for a variety of folks to answer. I just got a new Macbook Pro which is going to replace my dying Dell PC laptop. I'm looking for suggestions on gaming related software for organizing, creating and manipulating my gaming info. This will be for my homebrews, GURPS, HERO and other comercial systems. So, for those of you with Macs, what are the programs you suggest? I have the basic Leopard stuff, plus I-Work and Open Office installed.
Tags: Software Computing Game Tools
Although recently I've been using some commercial game systems (GURPS, Hero) I have a tendency to prefer to create my own game systems. This can be considered a bit weird or odd by some folks, and even put others off, since it means having to learn a new system to game with me.
The thing is, I've played a lot of systems, GMed and read a lot more. Generally I find that most game systems have in recent years been heavily design by committee, or are the work of one person and have a very very narrow focus (most indie games do this).
My problem is that some systems don't do well when you sit down and try to adapt them to specific settings, or fail to fill certain styles. GURPS is good for gritty historical, but falls on it's face for heroic/superheroic gaming. It can work for intrigue on some levels, but only if you keep the violence level low, as the survival rate of characters shrinks rapidly in combat. GURPS can be trimmed, without collapsing it, to a more streamlined approach, but you need to know what to trim to make it fit your style, setting etc.
Hero is great for superheroic, and anime in most cases. It does reality poorly though, and does 'normal humans' ridiculously badly. Additionally it does not deal well with a game where economics is supposed to be an incentive - it's money/resources system is broken for the most part. It is also very hard to modify without damaging it... everything is so carefully knife-edged balance, you need to include every power and nearly all the rules (there are a few small ones you can trim but not many)or the character's quickly become so out of whack with each other that it's not funny. And you as GM really do need to understand how each power and each option works before you let a player play the character they have designed... otherwise you'll end up with planet destroyers...
When I design a system it gives me an advantage I often need. I can make sure that the mechanics fit the setting/style and concept that we are aiming for in the game. I can also make sure that I will understand how every part works without constantly referencing a manual And finally I can be sure that the rules will not be filled with lots of extras that get in the way of a story, prevent too wide a range of character differential or introduce concepts that don't fit the setting and desired style for what I am trying to present/emulate/create.
When I use an off the shelf system and modify it, players often balk. Even if my reasons perfectly fit the setting I'll have the "Why can't I have a flying spell? Why Can't I have an automatic weapon in Napoleon's Era?" and the inevitable "But the rules say I can take Submarine pilot/Super Hypnotism/Trained By A Master Ninja, why can't I?" or the downright silly "Autofire Cumulative X8 Quadruple Knockback Armor Piercing Hand Attack via My Gauntlet Of Pain, which if it hits then sets off my 3d6 NND Knockout Poison Energy Blast which can only be stopped by a forcefield".
I design for a certain level of simplicity on many levels. And if I leave ambiguity someplace (such as a magic system) I leave in the GM Veto power in the design (which when clearly spelled out in black and white tends to be accepted a lot more in a system I designed than one I bought off the shelf with many players... like the book must be the authority and anything not specifically listed as unavailable must be possible in their minds).
Tags: Game Design Homebrew Vs Commercial
I think of tabletop roleplaying gaming with many hats. These include player, game manager, scenario design, worldsmith and game designer. All of these hats overlap and stack on top of each other precariously, but since each supports the other they are far more secure than they appear. Anyway, I have a tendency to create terms in my head to define things in a game that don't quite fall into the rather lofty language that some designers use. I'm not 'pure theorist' and I don't design games purely because of a challenge or some specific narrow criteria. I aim at games to be fun. I game with players who are often not optimum for the more common styles of play, and personally my style is more a combination of Simulation and Storyteller rather than competitive conflict referee, challenge builder or extreme narrativist. My players and fellow GMs, in recent years, are the sorts of folks who you would hand the D&D Planescape game setting to and they adapt it to use the Hero v5 Mechanics and then spend two months arguing with each other on how to fix the setting because the economics and government system as presented is horribly broken and they can't deal with the hand waving of where the food comes from in the city or why Faction XYZ hasn't become dominant since they control all the weapons traffic flow. Really. When you deal with folks who think differently, who tend to have very specific 'suspension of disbelief' triggers that have to be handled and who have decades of gaming in their past you learn to adapt differently yourself and to develop ideas that don't quite fit 'the norm'. Two terms that I've developed along the way that I use are Composite and Collage, and these pretty much are derrived from Arts and Crafts concepts of the words applying them to design. Collage : In gaming this is when you take large pieces of diverse existing products (Setting pieces, politics, mechanics, etc.) and glue them together in a slightly different pattern to play a game in. You don't go out of your way to neatly trime away ragged edges or problems where they mesh, you just do it (sometimes in a rush) and hope for the best outcome and that everyone involved will have the interests, ideas and concepts of fun of everyone else in mind. An example would be my current game. Take GURPS 4th Edition basic rules, A setting based on the Historical Napoleonic Era Paris France (with a healthy portion of historical figures, and a few stretches of the imagination in regards to a few historical figures that some folks thought might have been dead by the chosen setting year of 1802 but might not have been), add in the historical and fictional versions of the Illuminati (Bavarian, Free Masons, etc.), Stir gently with a Ritualized and toned-down version of GURPS Magic (basically using the version done on the mygurps.com website, using paths instead of colleges, spells become techniques of each path and some of the casting rules from the 3rd edition GURPS spirits or Hellboy standalone GURPS book) and you have a collage. The players build characters appropriate to the material with little leeway from what the mechanics can definie, the scenario becomes an attempt to change the path of history (stop Napoleon from becoming Emperor and/or from leading to all the deaths of the Napoleonic Wars after the peace of 1802 without restarting the Terrors of the Revolution and destroying France). The system, setting elements etc. are all pretty much left intact, with the GM adding some NPCs that are influencing Napoleon as advesaries to the players. Investigative, Diplomatic, Propaganda, Political Intrigue, Magical Intrigue and possibly some violence ensues in the hands and choices of the players. It's not gaming 'fresh from the box' but it's not the same as designing from the ground up. It can produce a wide range of variety and possibilities, still needs a creative GM who is willing to do some research and effort, and can produce a challenge without necessarily falling into the classic pattern of many games of 'Loot, Pillage, Revenge, Celebrate, Get More Powerful, do it all again'. Composite : A composite game is one where you take diverse elements and carefully trim, overlap, compare and intertwine them, like a 'Mixed Media' visual art creation. The initial parts don't necessarily look like they fit together, but you work them, find ways that they can be connected, and slowly find a way to refine it all. My current design project is a composite. It takes and makes a new set of mechanics by taking what I hope is the best elements of several existing mechanics that have flaws that can be removed to make them better fit the genre, style and points of interest to the players. In this case I want Action that isn't a lot of one-hit kills, but which also doesn't create combats that take hours to resolve. An initiative system that has the 'fog of war' elements to it, so that pacing is unpredictable and more story-like rather than a chess match. I want a skill system that allows characters to be versatile over a range of possibilities, but where specialization can be valuable to have (It's great that you have 3 characters that know First Aid when you need it, but it's also really good to have an expert in treating people with extreme trauma when they've had their leg bitten off by a shark as the first aid isn't going to really produce the same result if you want to reattach the leg). I want magic that fits a particular theme which really hasn't been done in another system except in a very generic way (detail, rather than handwaving, storytelling elements, atmosphere and religious overtones rather than 'I roll, I succeed, he takes 5d6 Killing damage'). I want a series of traits to reflect setting and social concepts of the importance of bloodlines, family history, and honor. I want nobles who by their blood and their position and by their linkags to the land are mechanically expected to practice noblese oblige as well as honor. I am using a roughly Victorian technology level, and that means research, picking and choosing elements of the period. I want a less dark less stifling Victorian setting, so I took it off Earth, but influenced by Earth of the period, and yet not some totally disconnected place. So we have an alternative world with the same tech levels and a group of individuals known as the 'Fabulists' who write fiction novels about this fictional world called Earth and centered around a City called London, center of that world's Great Empire. The stories are a combination of our London of Fiction and Fact, and the Fabulists are writing down tales that come to them in their dreams about this "imaginary" place, usuing them to influence their own society, technology and morals. This gives us Earth influenced, but not Earth, so that players can use real Victorian references in game in their fictional world. A composite drawn from history, but not historical, mechanics from several game systems (Battlestar Galactica, Savage Worlds, Cosmic Synchronicity, GURPS, Trail of Cthuhlu and a tiny bit of Hero), a health dose of Jess Nevin's "Fantastic Victoriana" and a number of original bits just for the project. I've been working on this for quite some time now (4-5 months) but feel it's a lot more 'alive' than my Collage Game or if I had simply taken one of the existing 'off the shelf' games (which inevitably have style, mechanics or setting problems that my players will pick apart even worse than my own). Anyway, that's my first original blog post for rpgbomb. I hope that my need to define myself and describe a few things didn't bore you too much. Namaste.
Tags: Composite Collage Terms Definitions Themes Styles Design Tabletop T
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