This is nothing more than five lines on a piece of paper and some ideas in my head, but the logo just sort of happened organically.
The fact that I’m sharing it means I’m very drunk, because I rarely talk about things that aren’t done. And never before they are started.
I’ve commented before about Bardic Knowledge and Gather Information. If these are powers and I have to roll for success, then the success must garner my character an in-game, mathematical bonus. “Your bardic knowledge indicates that the Orcs of Bone Hill are sensitive to light. Knowing this, you can prepare yourself with enough torches and lamps to get a +1 to hit against them.”
The entire design fulcrum of the game rests on the notion that every aspect of the game somehow leads to:
a. a character getting to something easier, faster, or without blood-shed.
b. a character fighting better.
The reasoning may not be obvious at first, but it always come back to the min-max mentality of what my POINTS represent. And this is a very important aspect of RPG design. Someone who foolish squirrels away points into Charisma and utility spells only to find out the game is a grind inside the World’s Largest Dungeon is already behind the curve of the game.
Unless….
… the game has mechanic benefits inherent in those spells (and Charisma?). Meh.
Why can’t tensor’s floating disk be used to get a flank bonus? Why can’t jump be used to get a bonus to initiative? Why can’t Charisma be used to manipulating party members into standing where you need them to stand? Etc.
But this isn’t about those missing parts of the RPG that we are already working around.
It’s about an interesting and trusty friend who we rely on too easily… too readily… too lazily.
Perception Checks.
If you’re playing in a skill-based RPG (and I know you are), then you know that skills are not equally weighted. In order for them to be equally weighted, you’d need to roll on each an equal number of times. And that’s just not likely. Perception checks are among the most common skill checks in RPGs, and as such, probably should be a skills, but derived secondary stats (like saving throws).
All that aside, outside of a “surprise” round of combat, the function they serve is kind of silly. And here’s the Gordian Knot.
Perception is not about who spotted the thief shadowing the party through the streets. It’s about whether or not they spotted the thief. It is important that they notice? Is it important that the thief remain hidden? It is a function of Game? Story? Character? Plot? These are all very different ingredients and these ingredients lead to a different measure of how Perception should be handled.
To use an allegory, if you were baking a cake and you replaced semi-sweet chocolate with bitter or dark chocolate, and baking soda with baking powder you would have also have to adjust how much water you used (maybe) and/or how long you cooked at what temperature. And if it would even be a good cake at that point.
What perception means determines how it is used. For dealing with surprise, don’t change a thing. That’s a function of game, not story. Characters and their adversaries both need an equal chance of being caught off guard.
But what about when it’s an element of story. If it’s an element of story, then the players have to notice it, right? They can’t just walk passed the cave opening to the Tomb of Horrors? Or not see the book in the chest with the secret code to get to the next part of the adventure. These things have to be found. Perception checks here make no sense. They only measure WHO found it, not what was found.
What about special treasure, like a +1 ring of monkeys? That’s an element of character. Certainly a roll should be made to notice it. And this is tricky. Perhaps a roll should be made to notice it’s value (appraisal is a lame skill, ignore it). In a pile of gold and gems, who would notice if a ring was important or not (ignoring magical dweomer, stupid).
But there’s also elements of plot (not the same as elements of story, btw). The PCs have been tasked with killing the orcs who stole some cows. This plot has many outcomes, and the PCs are not guaranteed to learn anything of [VALUE] before they leave. Maybe they learn about a trap door and gain a +4 to disarm it because they can plan for it. Maybe they find out about a local group of goblins who hate the orcs and they can hire them to help, getting bonuses in combat. Maybe they stumble upon a veteran in town who has fought the orcs before and tells them about a shield move they can’t defend against. +2 AC!
And maybe they learn nothing.
In any case, the list goes on. Elements of plot have value and as such, players should be allowed a limited number of Bardic/Gather/Perception checks before heading off to kill the orcs.
What truly fails here, though is the books themselves not being explicit about when and what a skill check is for. In a board game, you don’t roll dice to see if you can set up your armies. You set up your armies. Skill rolls are used to deter the value of a success. But the value of success is relative to the value the success has to the overall game.
Knowing where the next plot point is not VALUE. It’s part of the structure. There’s no game without it. Knowing a safer route to that plot point has VALUE. Just because a character wants a +1 sword does not mean he finds one. But, finding a +1 sword and understanding its value are not the same thing.
To quote the Fates: “Know what to measure. Know how long to measure it. And know when to cut.”
I don’t know how to describe tonight’s session. So, rather than describe the events as they transpired, let me explain what the party has learned. Sorry if this doesn’t sound exciting, but there were a couple of great dramatic moments.
1. Orcs attacked the Carmen mine. People went dead or missing. Two survived and are recuperating in the temple. If the orcs are taking the dead, this could be bad news about Skye.
2. Darius Carmen seems slow and dim-witted, but he’s actually thoughtful and not reactive. Sort of a asperger’s sufferer, but not that extreme.
3. After a verbal showdown in the center of town between Vromme (the town Reeve) and Roth (the town constable), which felt like it was a long time coming, Stauff once again stole the show with this condemnation of people who put ego before results. Roth was told off by a total of four people before the night was over.
4. And still led the party into the mine.
5. Collapsing the tunnels may be the best way to keep the orcs out of the Carmen mine. Someone named “Old Grizzler” might help.
6. Darius, unable to get a read on the value of Stauff, merely gave him a sack of coin to help him out, in the gamble that he is a future ally.7. Ingram may be the smartest, calmest person in the valley. He and Viviene are not shy. Let’s leave it at that.
8. Wallace is still missing and no one cares.
9. Skye’s room was finally searched and a strange liquid was found hidden in a box, there. It smells of the “red tide” and dead fish from before. Too many other thing happened and this way not examined to it’s conclusion. Yet.
10. Vasya and Nadia have been approached about helping. Their price to clear out the orcs is 100gp, based on what they have heard so far. This is more money than the players have ever seen. But first they have to finish investigating the Mire. So far, they have killed 22 goblins.
11. Duncan, Vromme, Brandy, and some other minor characters really appreciate the PCs, even if Roth is a jerk.
12. Strom has given two dogs to Stauff, telling him to “pay when you can.”
13. Ian isn’t drinking or smoking anything anymore.
14. Everyone has had it with Crandel.
15. Crandel was visited by another vision from the river. No one believes him.
16. I’m not sure if Verner sees this slipping out of his control, but the GM sees it on Aaron’s face.
Looking forward to Part 8.
I just finished it. It’s part tiles and part dice. Came together in about two hours.
The graphics took the longest to do.
The conceit is that you are delving into a dungeon to get treasure and get back out. (re: GW’s Dungeontiles). In this, you can use your dice to help yourself, or hurt your opponent.
I’m going to laminate the tiles and take it to the local con, along with my RPG (cycles), and my time travel game. Whew. Gotta get all that done by Pres Weekend, huh?
Just like you always thought he might.
and a slightly dreary version:
I had the pleasure of doing the graphics and some of the editing for Jeff Siadek’s game about world domination. I received two free copies today and decided to do the old, “look what we have here” box-opening trick.
I hope you enjoy it:
If you’re interested in rules or more information on Jeff’s game:
http://www.gorillaboardgames.com/index.php/category/worldconq/
Allow me a moment of self-indulgence while I talk about my character.
I am presently in an all WoD LARP, which allows people to play anything from a vampire to a Promethean to a ghoul to a floating mask. It has it’s issues and being someone who doesn’t like mash-ups (without a good reason), it can pull on my belief suspenders. I can buy-in to some degree, and accept that I’m playing a mage and you’re playing a vampire, but when someone offers me a trip to the goblin market (deep inside the hedge) with their ogrin cousin, I have to stop for a moment and ask…. “But what is that?”
So. Because of my lack of appreciation for mash-ups, I effectively keep to my corner of the multi-verse, solving problems that I can visualize being part of my own character’s story arc. It has ostracized me, but it’s self-imposed.
So. Here’s my character concept with a short rant at the end, and I promise it’s quite original.
Heimdall is the Swedish son of 9 mothers (just like the myth, yes) , an experiment to make a mage from scratch, from a perfect environment. Educated on the role of a mage in society, raised to believe to put others before himself, and taught to ensure the survival of Atlantis. Heimdall was made to be the perfect Guardian of the Veil (mages who keep the secrets magic out of the hands of the mundane and stop paradox).
Because of his background, he believes in the whole, not the individual. He has spent his life forsaking a personal life in order to serve the greater good. He is aware of his value as a tool of this magnitude and has on more than one occasion hinted at his worth. He obeys orders from the guardians without fail (a trait absolutely lost in rpg characters if you ask me).
Recently, Heimdall got involved in a number of storylines. He’s married now, with a child on the way. A very complicated matter. He also had some dealing with high-ranking people in Washington and then a storyline emerged where he accidentally killed a mage from another order. The situation was complex to say the least and we all overlooked that the person I killed was a “replicant” anyway and not real.
This would be learned later.
I missed a session due to being very very sick and I recommended to the ST in charge of the mages that I be abducted and have parts of my memory wiped. This was a month ago. And due to some strange timing issues and so on, we only got to start resolving this storyline last night.
However, this is where things get really interesting.
Heimdall is not vengeful, but he is stoic and kind of a dick. Someone messing with his memories is beyond the pale. A campaign of screwing with the Seers of the Throne began (those most obviously responsible), which led to a very long private session in which I learned about the person I killed, the Seers’ need for me to stay alive, and a possible thread where I wiped my own memory on purpose.
The best part of the evening came when I was chatting with a Timothy Leary-inspired mage turned minister of Unitarianism who was giving me advice about freedom of the mind and being who you are and finding happiness. Heimdall turned to him and said, “You drank from Rousseau’s cup. I did not.”
I told the ST I deserved 100 XP for that. I’m not sure he’ll give them to me.
Heimdall left the minister and finished the evening with a conversation with his boss, basically realizing that his quest for revenge might be futile. With all his angst pointed at no one and nothing, he took a very long break from the mage circle, only coming up for air to help another mage with a problem the might affect the city.
The story isn’t over, but playing a character from another culture, with a completely different value system, that isn’t based on the philosophies of the American value of “freedom” is highly liberating in many ways and challenging in others. As a result, the morality system in the WoD game line comes into question. Clearly morality is different for everyone. I’m not a bio-ethicist, but I have to imagine there’s a lot of mid-Western American values written into the rules for what is Moral and Immoral for WoD. And for someone who isn’t from here, he’s not likely to care too much about things that are important to an American.
Something to think about.
For the first half of my gaming enjoyment, I didn’t have terms to describe aspects of game design. Dials, valves, nodes, and comparative form were all foreign to me and it would be years into my career in gaming before I even started to hear them used by other game designers.
This industry is notorious for not having a shared-language of design terminology. In fact, a few game design books have been written about this, even going so far as to express the amount of resistance the people in the industry put up against the creation of a formative lexicon. That notwithstanding, some gamers and designers are doing just that, making a lexicon (for this ephemeral pen and paper side anyway).
In my attempt to be part of the process I’ve created two of my own, that sadly only express social phenomenon in the gaming industry, not actual design. But, it’s a start.
Reliant Focus Play. Games that are designed to be gamemaster dependent also breed conditioning that leads to players becoming reliant upon that play focus. Reliant Focus Play describes the style of game where the players expect the gamemaster to interpret every action, die roll, and interaction in the game. Essentially, the voiced authority of play rests with the gamemaster AND the players do not or cannot play any other way.
Reverse Optimization Engineering. While this term was inspired by the MMO crowd, its definition extends beyond the virtual game world. ROE describes the gameplay perspective that the game is about breaking down and optimizing every mathematical aspect of play to the extent that without this focus, there is no fun. This subset of player draws their enjoyment of play from actually not playing at all, but the reverse mapping of the game math architecture. It is, for lack of a better word, puzzle-solving and not gaming (in their truest definitions).
If the last session was a stinker, this one made up for it every direction possible. Everyone got to shine. Everyone got to see just how bad things could become in the Haranshire valley.
The game opened seconds after the last one ended, with the PCs arguing with the dwarven miner foreman (Grim) about exploring the mines (owned by Darius Carmen, who you may remember from Part 4). Using the Dogs in the Vineyard conflict resolution mechanic, it was clear that Grim wasn’t going to risk his job for these four guys and their two dogs, as I dropped a ton of dice on the table. Three people argued with Grim, but he wasn’t budging.
Then Crandel produced a bar of silver he’d been saving for a rainy day and Grim sent all the men on break and proceeded to inspect a tunnel beam.
The party proceeded with the dogs down the mine shaft (6% grade). The dogs retrieved Skye’s scent and led the party down a series of tunnels, eventually reaching a walled-off section of tunnel. They could feel a breeze coming up from the tunnel, so they knew something was down there, but they debated for a while about squeezing through the gaps in the planks.
Stauf was reticent, but decided against arguing the point with the other three. He would grow to resent this decision.
The dogs followed the scent into a section of the mine that was no longer in use and had been picked clean. It was clear this part of the mine was unsafe, but they continued on to a plank of wood that was being used to cover a collapsed section of earth. Below was darkness.
Bear in mind at this point, these characters are aged 14 to 20. They have no mining experience. No spelunking experience. No nothing, really.
Anyway.
They gathered up some lanterns and oil, climbed down into the whole, which lead to a N-S tunnel obviously cut by cruder tools. The dogs took them south and after a while lost the scent when they encountered a red tide odor that was extremely out of place. The party meandered in the tunnels for hours, trying to make sense of where they were. They only had a small pot of oil, so they had to be careful or they would lose all orientation.
They found a tunnel that lead to a cave that obviously led out, but not to where Skye was. So, they double-backed and found a section of tunnel where someone dug too close to the bedrock and water was seeping through the ceiling. Slowly.
Eventually the party found a set of stairs going back up. Crude, crude stairs just dug into the earth. The stairs led to a large chamber where three orcs were. The party had not been quiet and their lantern light was noticeable about 1/2 mile away in these tunnels.
A deadly fight ensued very quickly. Crandel was ambushed by some kind of magic that was choking the life from him, while the others looked on in horror. Noise echoed from the chamber and flaming arrows emerged striking the cavern walls. Verner and Stauf were nearly hit, but the fear of death took it out of them and they weren’t much good in the fight against two orcs and their witch.
Crandel continued to choke and sputter as the orcs started down the stairs. This is where the fight turned even uglier. The two orc fighters came at the party with rocks and shillelagh/war club thing, fighting in a very primative way. But the group was unprepared for a fight. Crandel passed out from whatever was choking him, Verner and Stauf struggled for a bit, but didn’t last and collapsed with the orcs. Finally Ian grabbed his staff and stood toe-to-toe with the last remaining orc witch. It came down to just a few die rolls as Ian knocked the witch back, grabbed his injured colleagues, and ran for it; back the way they came.
If you’ve not played Dogs, the fallout mechanic is inspired, and this is where everyone rolled to see just how injured they were. It turns out Ian was the worst of them and Crandel didn’t suffer any wounds at all. The party got about 15 minutes away when exhaustion caught up with them, however. Fearing they were being followed, Stauf and Crandel offered to stand and fight while Ian and Verner tended to their wounds (Ian had many contusions and Verner suffered a concussion).
After a while, Ian made a poultice (he’s an herbalist) for himself and fed some stimulants to Verner to stop him from sleeping. The tension was really high here because the party was separated now and no one knew if the orcs were launching an assault (none of the orcs died in the fight and the party knew this).
After a short wait, Crandel and Stauf returned to the stairs and peaked into the chamber to see that they were indeed getting ready for a fight. This was all the incentive they needed to run. They caught up with Ian and Verner, grabbed the dogs, and ran down the tunnel that lead to the cave that lead outside.
The group climbed up some rocks, found a place to rest, and contemplated just how much danger they were in. They had to hope beyond hope that the orcs didn’t track them down this tunnel and/or find the collapsed ceiling where they came through.
Exploring the cave, they found it lead out into the Great Rock Dale where they found the second of the two obelisks in Part 5. Knowing this one had positive energy, Ian placed his hand against the stone. His body tightened up, his eyes rolled back, and he had visions of a archetypal paladin fighting a horde of enemies to the last. Verner followed suit, but instead had a vision of a young couple having sex in the valley.
The party debated at this point returning to the village of Milbourne or warning the miners of the tunnel (and getting their horses). So they split the party and went in two directions.
Fast Forward to the Mine. Grim and his miner buddies are taking a smoke break, the horses are gone, and the miners are shocked to hear about the orcs. “Board up Tunnel A, boys.”
Fast Forward to the town of Milbourne. Crandel and Stauf steal the game session here, pretty much at the same time, Crandel goes to the pub and Stauf goes to see his friend Strom, who runs the kennel and loaned the dogs. Crandel has a conversation with Roth in the pub about everything they’ve seen, but his credibility is shot and none of his story makes any sense. Roth quickly tunes him out and leaves.
All the while, Stauf breaks down (remember he’s 14) and tells Strom about everything that happened. He speaks from a place of hopelessness about everything that has happened to them. About how every warning was there not to go underground. About how the others just continue to do everything they can to make things worse. He cried about never getting to go home. “I was supposed to be a farmer. I was supposed to settle down. I should have joined the gypsies.” Absolutely stole the evening. He went on for a good 5 to 10 minutes. And all Strom could say is, “We’ll get you out of this.” All the while, Stauf was saying, “I can’t go home. I’m going to die here.”
Cutting back to Crandel, he goes to see a priest named Oleg (not the local town priest) and confesses all his sins. Another moving scene, but just not even in league with Stauf’s.
Brilliant finish.
I previously posted about how I feel 5th edition won’t serve the consumer and that the game hasn’t been a GAME since 1st. It is now a product. As such, I don’t expect it to do anything it promises. At the end of the day, the people making it need to work and whatever Hasbro tells them to make, they will make.
I also haven’t played since 3.0 (minus a brief session of 3.75, which I barely even asked for rolls), so I really don’t care what they do with it.
But.
That doesn’t stop me from writing up the top 10 things I would do to fix the game. Everyone knows what they would change, usually without reading a single design document or note on why AC works they way it does. But what I’ve written here are fundamental issues with the structure of a game that really should have been made by 2nd edition (all the even-numbered editions are bad).
So, here’s my laundry list of changes. I can guarantee not a single one of these changes will happen. They are just two sweeping. But. These are my notes and let me remind you they are just notes. I’m not interested in writing up a scholarly paper on each bullet point (numbers actually), albeit I could fill a couple of books on the first item…
1. Charisma is out. Gone. Dead. Banished. It is a worthless part of the game. I’m not interested in any conversations with people ever again about how it’s still useful for some classes. It is not. It is “artificially” useful for some classes because the designers can’t figure out how to make it useful for all classes. It is everyone’s dump stat. And if it’s not your dump stat, you are bad at math. I mean, trouble with long division kind of bad at math, not confused by factorials.
Wisdom takes over for any skills that might seem “interactive.”
2. Skill list of 12 skills. That’s it. I’ve written ad nauseum on the ridiculousness of a class-based game have 50 skills. It’s like someone doesn’t even understand the medium they are publishing books in. A fighter can pick up any weapon and kill you with it, even if he’s never seen it before, but he has a different skill for Listen, Spot, and Search. Inane.
Athletics (replaces Balance, Climb, Escape Artist, Jump, Swim, Tumble)
Craft (replaces Craft, Profession)
Disable Device (replaces Disable Device, Open Locks)
Knowledge (replaces all knowledge)
Notice (replaces Listen, Spot, Search — allows for Scent)
Religion (includes understanding and performing rites and rituals)
Ride (replaces Ride and Handle Animal)
Social (replaces Appraise, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Intimidate, Perform, Sense Motive)
Stealth (replaces Hide, Move Silently, Sleight of Hand)
Subterfuge (replaces Bluff, Decipher Script, Disguise, Forgery)
Survival (replaces Heal, Survival, Use Rope)
Theory (includes all non-ephemeral Knowledge; replaces Concentration, Spellcraft, Use Magic Device)
3. Resources instead of money. You can still roleplay “4 gold here, 8 gold here” but the lack of game balance with equipment lists and weapons vs. their gold cost makes keeping track of how much people spend annoying. Which brings me to…
4. Thematic equipment and weapons. Weapons gain traits like small, big, fast, deadly, etc. Each weapon has one trait. Characters can now fight with a dagger (because it looks cool) and still be useful in a fight. Equipment is the same with anything that helps in a fight.
5. Actual socialization rules. Appeal, Blackmail, Bribery, Charm, Coercion, Extortion, Intimidation, Solicitation, Subterfuge, Supplication. Each of these has it’s own rules OR it all obeys the same rules. Either way, there are steps. You can’t kill a dragon in one roll, why are you bribing a senator with one roll? Look to Torg for amazing rules on Dramatic Conflict Resolution.
6. Macro-gaming. There have never been good rules in d&d for running nations, guilds, and so on. At a certain level people want to run a castle, which should feel very different from killing orcs. Vampire does this extremely well, so we know it can be done here.
7. Rewards for things other than combat. Why is this still not in the game?
8. Actual tool for writing a story. Not just adventures with a plot you must “win.” But tools for building your epic. No. D&D had never done this. Along with those tools, we’ll have some juicy juicy charts. Like mother used to make in 1st edition. Find those guys who made all that great Judges’ Guild stuff and offer them knighthoods. Just photocopy the last 30 pages of the DMG.
9. Alignment. Gone. No one uses it. It means nothing to anyone except to Clerics. It’s archaic, cumbersome, and usually just reflects the ideology of the GM, anyway. Morality and ethics change from society to society. An alignment wheel is good for a small country and changes as soon as you enter another country. Does anyone study sociology anymore? Which brings me to my #1 complaint about d&d….
10. Why is a Cleric of the Death God using the same character class as a Priest of the Tree of Life? This is lazy, lazy, lazy design. It start in 2nd edition with cleric spheres and in 2000 someone phoned it in with spell focuses. Oh good. Evil priests can INFLICT light wounds. Good ones can HEAL. Well. That about sums up the difference betwen Luke and Vader. A different cleric class for each major THEME of religion: Animals, Chaos, Death, Earth, Life, Sea, Sun, Underworld, War. Make them in groups of five and now you can tie them to each of the stats. Wow. Marrying your game design ideas. Who would have thought?
Game on.
post world games 