30 Days of GameMastering--Day 23!

If you don't know the drill by now....Lindevi, "30 Days of GameMastering", challenge, go!

What effects do system mechanics have on story?

When I started gaming, I was a big supporter of the d20 System.  One system that could do potentially everything?  A unified, easy-to-understand mechanic that just so happened to line up directly with the world's most popular roleplaying game?  Sounds great, right?

Unfortunately, in practice, results were always sort of mediocre.  While certain ports of the d20 System--notably Call of Cthulhu d20--managed to maintain atmosphere and tone, many other interpretations of the system (even by big publishers) were bloated, flavorless, and just 'meh'.  d20 Apocalypse was like that for me:  while the post-apocalyptic feel in gaming has always been ripe for great ideas, but the quintessential d20 post-apoc sourcebook left me unimpressed.

Over time, I came to realize a hard lesson:  just because you can make something in a generic system doesn't mean that you should.  Thanks to The Journeyman GM, I love Savage Worlds and its various settings, though truth be told, I can't see myself ever running a true horror game in SW.  Savage Worlds was built to emulate a pulpy, adventuresome feel, with Bennies and streamlined damage that allow for quick recovery.  In a horror game?  You don't want either of those things.  And, while Deadlands certainly contains aspects of horror, it's hard to truly be "scared" when you're playing a hard-bitten gunslinger, a mad scientist, or Gambit from the X-Men.

The right tool for the right job.

Game design is a unique animal:  it's a strange marriage of mathematician and creative writer that calls upon every spare neuron in your brain.  However, it takes both to make a great game.  A game tied too heavily to its mechanics feels generic and like math homework.  A game tied too heavily to its theme feels ephemeral and tacked on.

Think of game mechanics in terms of a tool box.  If you were going to hang a picture, you'd use a hammer and a nail.  You might instead use a drill and screws.  However, you probably wouldn't decide to use a wrench and spackle, even though they might possibly be able to hold the picture up.  The same thing goes for game mechanics.

This guy just lost some SAN points...

The best games use their mechanics to support their theme.  Call of Cthulhu encourages diverse skill use by tying advancement to using skills throughout the game.  CoC emphasizes the descent into madness through its ubiquitous "sanity spiral" wherein failing Sanity tests not only can drive you crazy now, but also makes you more likely to fail further Sanity tests.  Cold Steel Wardens emphasizes brutal combat and psychologically damaged heroes, spending an entire chapter (in a nominally superheroic game) detailing Injuries and Psychoses.  Dresden Files uses Aspects and very broad skills to emulate the flexibility of its arcanely-powered characters.

In the end, you've got to use the best tool for the job.  And, while something like d20 or GURPS or d% might be able to do the job, why not choose a more specialized tool that makes your job easier?  In this brave new world of digital publishing, there are games to emulate nearly every genre imaginable:  don't be afraid to give something new a try!

30 Days of GameMastering--Day 11!

We're on to Phase II of Lindevi's "30 Days of GameMastering" challenge, so we'll be spending the next ten days talking about the actual act of gaming.  With that, let's get into it!

House rules:  what are your favorite hacks, mods, and shortcuts?

It's pure impulse for any gamer to try to make even their favorite system better.  While fun is a subjective item in and of itself--and game designers do try to make things fun for as many people as possible--what's fun at your table might not be the same as mine.

Case in point:  ICONS.  I love the speed of the game and the fact that ICONS lets players be creative with their power usages through Stunts and the use of FATE-based elements, I really don't care for the idea that the GM never rolls dice.  Why?  Well, if the players know that Doctor Weird's psychic blast is always at a rating of 7, it takes the challenge out of fighting Doctor Weird.  So, for any 'named' villain or adversary, I throw the dice just like any PC.  It provides a much greater threat for the PCs, as that same psychic blast can now achieve the Moderate/Major/Massive successes that the PCs themselves can.  While I don't typically do this for "mook"-level NPCs, anything that ramps up the tension and conflict is fair game in my book!

The dice of a pirate who came up Snake Eyes!

Another rule I've cribbed shamelessly came from Skull and Bones--a d20 sourcebook focusing on pseudo-historical swashbuckling and piracy.  But, in among the various black powder firearms was tucked the "Roll the Bones" mechanic.  "Rolling the bones" is pretty simple--toss 2d6 and hope for as high as you can get.  Typically speaking, players are only permitted to Roll the Bones in a situation where they're hoping for extreme luck, as they're essentially stuck with the results of the Bones roll instead of any other (presumably failed) rolls.  I've used the Bones mechanic in other forms, as well.  WEGS' "cold rolls" and "frozen rolls" are frequent at our table, to say nothing of a straight up d20 roll to determine an NPC's attitude or reaction.

Honestly, though?  My favorite graft has always been the infamous Call of Cthulhu Sanity system.  Easy to port over and use in numerous settings, including Sanity as a score opens up whole new realms of tension at the table, as players now have to balance their tendencies to run in, guns-a-blazing, against the very real possibility that their character may be overwhelmed mentally...

The key thing, though?  Don't be afraid to play with a system's mechanics.  If something doesn't work after you've tried it, there's nothing stating that you have to stick with a broken house-rule.  Do what works best for your table and you'll be rewarded!

In Which The Warlock Happens Upon Horror...

It's been my distinct pleasure over the course of my gaming life to be exposed to dozens, if not hundreds, of game systems and genres.  It honestly astounds me at times that some gamers only play D&D or only play a particular version of a game system.   And yet, I recall that once upon a time, my own experiences were exactly that:  D&D and nothing more.

A bad moon rising...

It wasn't until I'd reached Wittenberg that I started to branch out.  And, truth be told, it wasn't until one fateful  night that I received my first taste of the Call of Cthulhu RPG.  Thanks to some great players, BLof's extraordinary gamemastery, and a harrowing walk home at 1:00 am beneath a bloody red-orange moon, I was hooked.  My gaming life would never be the same.

My first real shock came in character generation.  Used to (and rather sick of) the min-maxing of D&D, I decided to go all out in characterization, breaking from anything even remotely familiar.  I settled upon writing up what I lovingly referred to as a "Wicca wench"--a heavily overweight woman who fancied herself something of an "occult expert", when her actual arcane knowledge came only from her part-time job in a New Age store.

BLof's scenario began with our characters investigating the disappearance of several campers in a nearby state park.  After a day of fruitless searching, evening led us to the campers' cabin.  And that?  That's when the real horror kicked in.

Run away!  Run away!!!

Marooned in the park, our cabin was overrun by ghoulish infant-like creatures which would latch onto the living and begin digging into their flesh with needle teeth.  The ghoul-children burrowed in through the walls of our cabin, driving us onto the roof.  While we were lightly armed, it quickly became apparent to me that Call of Cthulhu was not a game of combat.  We barely were able to beat a handful of the creatures back, but were forced to retreat into the depths of the darkened woods, the infant-dead wailing after us.

I'm not sure whether it was the setting, whether it was the stark contrast between this game and my prior forays in D&D, or maybe it was how BLof described the wails of these demon-children as we fled into the dark.  Regardless, I was hooked.   Call of Cthulhu had blown my mind, completely and utterly.  That evening, I slowly made my way back to Ferncliff Hall beneath the blood-orange moon.  With those hideous wails embedded in my ears, the horrified look of my characters' face emblazoned onto my imagination, I knew that I'd be back for more.

Our campaign lasted for the majority of that semester and, while many of our sessions were nowhere near as horrific as that first one--our highway-chase/gunfight in Harlem comes immediately to mind--that first session set me down quite the path.  The flirtations with horror gaming I'd had in the past through Ravenloft were just that--mere flirtations.  With Call of Cthulhu, I'd found real vehicle--and my options have only spread open since then.

By now, you're probably wondering what brought this entry on.  Obviously, the holiday spirit is my primary motivation, but not necessarily for the reason you think.

You see, friends and neighbors:  that fateful first session, which brought me full-bore into horror roleplaying...that session was played on Halloween, eleven years ago today.

Now, isn't that spooky!?

In Which The Warlock Peruses the Perfect Party...

For those of you that were hoping for more cross-blog shenanigans, never fear:  it's just The Journeyman GM's turn to host our info.  This time around, we take a look at one of his games--his Deadlands "Heart of Darkness" conversion!

In the meanwhile, I wanted to spend a little time talking about a recent game that really blew me away, which is only more fitting considering the time of year!

I'm talking, of course, about the PlatinumChick's Call of Cthulhu game, "Welcome to Zendik Farms", which I ran for the first time this past Friday for the WittKids.  I've spent quite a while running over-the-top steampunk action in Deadlands, and it had felt like ages since I'd actually run a true 'horror' session.  Upon arriving, the PlatinumChick and I found ourselves with no less than 11 players--more than enough for two full tables.

I've got to say, though:  I think I ended up the beneficiary of that division, though.  My table was nothing short of immaculate, with a series of spectacular role-players who bought into the nihilistic, cult-driven storyline like none other.

If you haven't played the PlatinumChick's "...Zendik Farms" scenario before, you're missing out.  Based on an actual real-life cult (from which people have actually escaped!), the scenario seems simple on the surface:  characters start on what seems like a relaxing excursion to an organic arts community.  But, the plot delves into deeper secrets and horrors, the longer that the investigators stay.  No session ever truly plays the same way twice, as the farm itself provides a mini-sandbox for the investigators to play through.

So, let's talk a little about my players.  I was excited to have Lindevi (also known as DigitalKat) on board, as she was aching to play in horror game as much as I had been aching to run one.  She's well known my capacity for Wicked GMing, having played in my Deadlands "Follow the Walkin' Man" campaign as well as a Ravenloft one-shot I'd run years ago:  "An Incident at Ravencroft Asylum".  Lindevi was coupled by a familiar face from our Friday night sessions, Chris I!

I knew these guys could role-play.  I see it on a regular basis, as they delve into deep character interactions and difficult moral choices.  What I didn't know was how much the other three would get into it--two WittKids and a community member totally new to the Guild, LatinJoseph.  The three of them played their parts to the hilt, with WittDrew even converting to the Zendik cult partway through the scenario!  The stark looks of horror on the others' faces as their comrade willingly started going along with the farm's plans was priceless--you can't script emotional responses like that!

The segment of the game that struck me most, though, was the willingness for players to put themselves in vulnerable positions.  Characters continually committed that "cardinal sin" of splitting the party again and again, even isolating themselves with members of the cult.  LatinJoseph astounded me, leaving his traumatized college activist alone with Zendik scion Fawn, all the while under the effects of various psychotropic drugs.

I've posited before that the social contracts inherent to role-playing games are fundamentally a variation on the same relationships and contracts held between dominant and submissive members of a BDSM-style relationship.  I've been doing quite a bit of research into this concept, actually, in the hopes to expand my theory into an essay suitable for my upcoming Pendulum Method compilation.  LatinJoseph showed his flexibility and versatility in storytelling by allowing his character to submit to the given plot element:  the psychopathic Fawn.  His metaphorical submission allowed for fantastic role-play opportunities in that his own character slowly came out of their psychotropic haze (which he portrayed spectacularly!) but also for Lindevi, whose then-insane investigative reporter did her best to save LatinJoseph's college student!  By relinquishing a degree of control in the scene, that narrative power was magnified and spread out through my own NPCs, Lindevi's character, and even through himself!

It's okay to give up control
once in a while!  Cut loose!

Throughout the course of the game, the role of 'dominant' was passed back and forth between players and Keeper almost seamlessly.  Lindevi herself took the reins when a horrific event caused her reporter to lose a significant amount of Sanity, leading her to take WittSean's character hostage!  WittSean rolled perfectly with the scene, mentally handing over control of the scene to Lindevi.  Later on, Chris I's housewife stole the show, overturning tables in a desperate, last-gasp stand against the Zendik faithful.  However, the narrative power swiftly changed hands to WittSean's crisis of conscience:  does he betray his 'innocent' friends or does he believe the idyllic truth put forward by Wulf Zendik?

It's that sort of continued, extensive power exchange that takes an average table and makes it a good one or, in the case of this group, takes a good group of players and pushes them into an evening of phenomenal gaming.  This group's ability to build opportunities for one another through narrative power exchange allowed them to achieve some of the best table-based role-play I've ever seen.  When we staggered out of our room in Shouvlin at nearly 12:30 that morning, the group was worn, beaten down, and thoroughly smiling.  And, after a long session of dominance and submission, that's about all you ever want...

In Which The Warlock Illumines the Shadows--The Journeyman GM's Perspective!

As mentioned last entry, this is part of my October cross-blog shenanigans with Will Herrmann, better known as the Journeyman GM.  Here's his perspective on our "Shadows of the Cold War" game!  Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

Shadows of the Cold War was my second campaign ever. I was in the middle of a Dungeons & Dragons 4e campaign and, as a new and eager roleplaying gamer, was interested in trying out a new roleplaying game system. Heroes Unlimited was definitely an interesting one to have chosen (like all games from Palladium, it's riddled with typos, very messy character creation, and internally inconsistent mechanics), but fortunately, Andy had houseruled the egregious problems and we spent far more more of our time talking things out than we did worrying about the game mechanics.

"Aren't the stars and stripes a little...
...old-fashioned?"

Having always been a Captain America fan, I decided to create a super soldier. In his backstory, I decided that him and his twin brother were experimented upon (experimentation on twins was pretty common in Nazi Germany and I figured the Soviet Union might have done something similar with a super soldier program). Using the random character generation in Heroes Unlimited, Ulrich Hartmann wound up with speed, strength, endurance, and fighting prowess that far exceeded that of a normal human. He knew a variety of fighting styles and could pilot just about any vehicle with ease. And at night, he became even more deadly, perhaps out of a realization that the darkness would hide his brutality. Despite this, Ulrich definitely had the Captain America attitude of using his power to protect those who were weaker than him. Ulrich's full character sheet can be found here.

The thing that meant the most to me was Ulrich's hindrances. In Dungeons & Dragons, characters are generally flawless. Sure, they may not be proficient in certain skills or they many be deficient in some attribute, but they don't really have any character flaws. Ulrich on the other hand received constant headaches and had a metabolism four times that of a normal human (this led to a lot of fun situations and his nightly ritual of going to the Happy Panda all you can eat Chinese buffet). In addition, he had escaped from the Soviet Union and was being hunted down by his twin brother, Jakob Hartmann, who had the same powers, but a much more brutal and self-serving outlook on how they should be used. And perhaps the most defining thing for the campaign was that he literally started by walking off of a bus. With no money, no job, no place to stay, and a poor understanding of the English language, the early sessions were largely focused on Ulrich trying to find a place to live and a job to support himself. These hindrances to Ulrich's character wound up defining him just as much as his superhuman abilities and I think because of that, I wound up gravitating toward systems with hindrances later in my gaming career.

Ulrich followed the meaning,
not necessarily the movement.

Being on the run from the Soviets, Ulrich naturally needed a superhero identity. Having always admired the words of Karl Marx (but not how the Soviets had "corrupted" them), Ulrich decided to take on the name "Manifesto" and made it his goal to right the injustices he saw. And what better place to do it than in America? Hub City itself had recently constructed skyscrapers for the rich to work in, but had the poor living on the streets next to it.

Eventually, Manifesto teamed up with several other superheroes and started tracking down an individual who had kidnapped a young girl…and it was clear that he was too powerful for the police to take down. Admittedly, this nature of this villain made me a bit uncomfortable (see Andy's description) but it definitely made our final fight of retribution against him ore meaningful.

Unfortunately, Ulrich met his match not from some violent super-powered killer, but from a car crash. How that happened is a fun story in and of itself, but ultimately it meant that Manifesto's crime-fighting streak came to a premature end. I'm told that future plots would have had him meet his evil twin brother again and have his past catch up to him again!

This was my first exposure to Andy's GMing style. He's big on creating overwhelming challenges and creating very personal stories. Although I'm not as crazy about Watchmen-style superheroes as Andy, I found the game overall to be really enjoyable and the first real exposure to having characters that seemed "real".

All in all, Shadows of the Cold War is one of the most memorable games I've played in. It was the first that really let me play a character that was human and had his share of flaws and, much to my surprise, it was fun having to deal with the challenges of daily life. Manifesto is one of my favorite characters and a Savage Worlds version of him will be included as a pregen for Wild Card Creator.

In Which The Warlock Illumines the Shadows...

Continuing our cross-blog extravaganza, the Journeyman GM and I decided to stop and reminisce about one of our first real campaigns together--my Heroes Unlimited/Call of Cthulhu mash-up, "Shadows of the Cold War".  While the campaign was somewhat short-lived, it provided some great moments of role-play around the table and really showed off some of the things I love about gaming at Wittenberg, to say nothing of Will's skill and creativity as a player.

For those of you that don't frequent my blog, I billed "Shadows of the Cold War" as something of an "alternate-universe Watchmen", in which the events of that seminal graphic novel never actually happened:  Ozymandias never detonated his squid, Silk Spectre never determined the identity of her father, and Dr. Manhattan simply up and left.  Our heroes took up residence in the DC Comics underworld of Hub City, which was all but polluted with crime and vigilante activity.

Rorschach's vengeance:
an inspiration for Manifesto's
first investigation.

While our three other heroes--played by the PlatinumChick, DigitalKat, and L-Train--played "average" citizens of Hub City, Will had decided to take a slightly less orthodox route.  His hero, Manifesto, was the semi-successful result of an East German/Soviet super-soldier project who had gained most of his combat experience fighting in Afghanistan.  After falling out with his handlers over ideological issues, Manifesto escaped Soviet control and stole into the United States, hoping to spread the word of Marx to the impoverished masses of the Hub.

While it might not seem exciting to many, the two introductory sessions of "Shadows..." may be among my all time favorites.  Manifesto was literally a "stranger in a strange land"--bereft of basic 'givens' like citizenship, a drivers' license, or even the ability to speak proper English, Will/Manifesto stared down a greater threat than a supervillain or a back-alley ganger:  the plight of poverty, viewed through the eyes of an illegal immigrant.  Manifesto was lucky in many regards--he managed to procure work as an unskilled laborer at a construction site, was able to find his way to a housing and human services branch through which he procured a small apartment, and received some significant donations from the Salvation Army.

Throughout these sessions, nary a die was rolled--after all, what good is combat prowess or technical expertise, when your character is living on the streets?  But the buy-in on Will's part was spectacular, and the table was riveted throughout.  When Manifesto finally managed to get his feet under him and meet some of his fellow vigilantes, it was like he had finally 'made it'.

This isn't to say that our game was a matter of The Sims-lite.  Rather, our game focused heavily on investigation and several ongoing attempts to thwart an arms-trafficking ring run by The White Russian, an enigmatic criminal mastermind.  Leads into a Benson and Hedges Holdings warehouse led our heroes to what may be the most foul villain I've ever created:  Mr. Kisses.

Meant to be a riff on "Mr. Fantastic gone mad", Mr. Kisses was a serial rapist and murderer, with a penchant for targeting under-aged girls.  His deranged psyche had fetishized the "American Ladies" young adult novels of the time, leading him to kidnap school-aged girls, abuse them, and then kill them.  However, with an in-born elastic ability, Mr. Kisses' victims died messy, horrific deaths.  With each clue they found, with each step closer the group took, Mr. Kisses provoked a powerful sense of righteous vengeance, which I've rarely seen around the game table.  When Kisses died--and they most assuredly did not let such a madman live--there was a collective sigh of relief around the table.  One less girl would be made a victim in this world.  One less mother would spend sleepless nights in tears.

While Mr. Kisses certainly hit home with a Rated-R, Iron Age sensibility, this isn't to say that our campaign didn't have moments of comic relief.  As a side-effect of his super-soldier experimentation, Manifesto's metabolism worked at four times the normal rate:  he had to eat a full meal every few hours or be stricken with crippling migraines.  It became a running joke at our table that Manifesto would hit the Happy Panda Chinese Buffet on his way home from work, eating the place clean!  Set in 1986, our game was rife with references to The A-Team, MacGuyver, and the worst of 80s music.  Lockshanks, L-Train's character, even made a point to go see Return of the Jedi on its opening day!

The treacherous roads of Centralia, PA

As I mentioned earlier, our heroes met an untimely end, mainly due to a poor choice of driver and some phenomenally bad die rolls.  Our campaign ended just as it hit its nascence.  I had planned for our heroes to visit Centralia, Pennsylvania in the upcoming session, uncovering Cthulhian horrors amongst the smoking ruins.

Despite our tragic (and more than a little ironic) end, "Shadows of the Cold War" left a sizable influence.  The wonky mechanics of Heroes Unlimited left an ashen taste in my mouth and the Iron Age of Comics remained a relatively untapped realm of inspiration for a would-be game designer.  In designing Cold Steel Wardens, I dropped elements directly from "Shadows..." into the game--The White Russian, Mr. Kisses, and even Manifesto himself have made it into my first draft copy as NPCs and, in Manifesto's case, a fully playable pre-generated character.

And Will?  Well, despite my tendency to kill off his characters, he's still coming back for more...and next week, we'll take a look at what it's like as a player in one of his games!

In Which The Warlock Slings Some Lingo...

As a former English major--and a current English/Language Arts teacher--I find it kind of amazing how different sub-groups in a society build their own vocabulary.  Case in point:  gamers.  Ask any gamer worth his dice what a "crit" is, and you'll get the same answer--a fantastic die roll (usually a Natural 20) that reduces his foe to a greasy smear.  Ask that same gamer what a "toon" is, and they'll most likely be able to tell you that it refers to a character, particularly in an MMORPG.

But, some gamer terms aren't necessarily universal terms.  In fact, our group has a penchant for making up our own table-talk or filching terms for occurrences around our table.  Take a look at just some of our own home-made vocabulary!

RIP, Trololo Guy.  You're definitely missed
around our game table!

Trololo:  As I mentioned earlier, we have an ongoing tradition of going out to eat before game night.  Unfortunately, this sometimes has...repercussions.  Going "trololo" came out of ChaoticFrederick's tendency to play The Trololo Song outside the door of anyone whose bodily functions are holding up the game...

Numberwang:  Stolen shamelessly from "That Mitchell and Webb Look", numberwang refers to a bizarre game show sketch where guests guess random numbers eventually hoping to be told "That's Numberwang!"  In our games, numberwang refers to an excellently well-timed roll, or any roll that is satisfactorily high.

"Look, a dagron!":  Another of ChaoticFrederick's inventions, this came out of his failed attempt to distract a barbarian leader during our "Tear of Ioun" game.  Since then, it's come to represent any flimsy attempt at a distraction.

Going to Denny's:  Simply put, as this South Park episode shows, Denny's is not a nice place to be... (NSFW, by the by)

Ghetto-Crit:  Not quite a full-bore crit, ghetto-crits are another word for "max damage". 

Richard:  Named after a former player's character, Richard was infamous for using area of effect powers with his party members in the line of fire.  I used to joke that Richard was my greatest ally as a GM.  In one instance, he critted on two party members, hit a third, and left my monsters unscathed!  Being Richard instantly became synonymous with screwing over the party for convenience's sake.  Don't be Richard, children!

"...and I smoke as I do so...":  Another one coming out of our "Tear of Ioun" sessions, this became syonymous with not just succeeding, but looking cool as one succeeds.  Who knew that the Church of Bane encouraged smoking?

Beware of waffles-related injury!

Waffles:  Stemming out of our trek through "The Flood," in which the players attempted to give the Confederate admiral at Shannonsburg a waffle iron, waffles refer to any unwanted or undesired gift...particularly if that gift has the opposite of the intended effect.  Note that the admiral's former fiancee was killed in a tragic waffle iron accident.

"That'll do, Jimmy...":  A generally satisfactory result.

"There's no reason you can't play the character you want to play...":  A riff off of a particularly frustrating passage in the 4e Dark Sun Campaign Setting manual, this usually precedes the introduction of some element that utterly does not fit the setting, such as a Ghostbuster joining in a fantasy game or a Jedi joining a group of Call of Cthulhu investigators.

This is just a small sampling of the various terms that get thrown around our table.  Stay tuned for more!

Oh!  And some updates for you!

Journeyman Games' "Wild Card Creator" is now 3/4 of the way to its funding goal!  If you haven't supported them yet, you still have almost 4 weeks left to do so!

And, I've tossed another treat into the Bag of Holding--this time, it's our Call of Cthulhu adventure, "Chrysalis".  Mind you, this one is a bit rough, so be aware of what you're getting your party into!

Enjoy!

In Which The Warlock Walks The Golden Mean...

The Oracle at Delphi

The so-called “Golden Mean”—as a philosophical concept, mind you—dates back literally thousands of years to the days of Aristotle and Plato.  Supposedly, as one entered the revered Oracle of Delphi, two sayings were inscribed on the doorway:  on the way in, “Know thyself”; on the way out, “All Things in Moderation”.  And, sure as anything, gaming tends to take a page from greater themes in life and in philosophy in general.

On its most basic level, balance must be achieved in terms of theme—even in the most dire of horror games like Call of Cthulhu or Kult, moments of success, lightness, and even humor must break up the oppressive atmosphere.  Even in a light-hearted or humorous game like Paranoia or ICONS has to come with degree of threat, else the players have no reason to actually play.  Role-players role-play to have fun, but also to tell a unique, collaborative story.  If there’s no story, the game loses focus and falls apart.  If there’s no fun, well…what’s the point?

I’m going to avoid going on another “Wizards of the Coast has it wrong” rant, but I will cite another of Rodney Thompson's editorials, this time as a grand step in maintaining balance in design.  Here, Thompson expounds upon the ratio that the 5e/D&D Next team intends to hold up in their coming rules-set.  Essentially, they’re shooting for a 1:1:1 split between exploration, role-playing, and combat.  While I think that that ratio can work well for D&D, it’s obviously not a sure-fire ratio for every game—just try having that much combat in a Call of Cthulhu campaign and see how long your investigators survive!

General Treister:
The inspiration for our Admiral Birmingham

Our weekly Deadlands game, in many ways, has walked both venues of this treacherous balance for the duration of the game.  Interestingly enough, I think that’s one of the reasons I’ve become such a fan of the setting:  while nominally a horror setting, it’s one where the players can achieve real victory against the forces of darkness; while full of ‘wacky’ mad scientists and hexslinging hucksters, Western genre tropes are played straight to the hilt.  In our sessions, we regularly drift directly from the high action of steam-wagon chase scenes and gunfights, to creeping investigative horror, to outright comedy—just ask ChaoticFrederick and Chris II about Confederate Admiral Birmingham’s waffle iron! 

Without that variety, without those alternated scenes, our game just wouldn’t be the same.  And, fittingly enough, Deadlands (and the Savage Worlds rules behind it) provides ample opportunity for flexibility in this regard.  Players are able to pick the skills, the edges, and the powers that provide them the most “awesome” for their XP.  And, that’s really the way it should be.

As I’ve mentioned in some of my prior design previews for Cold Steel Wardens, I’ve spent a good deal of my original design work establishing a degree of parallelism in my first draft.  Physical and Mental Strain run on parallel tracks—literally on opposite edges of the character sheet—and contribute equally to a burgeoning Hero’s well-being.  Skills are broken up into five categories of five Skills each, making them easy to manipulate and remember.  Those Skills have a nearly even distribution of linked Vitals, ensuring that no “dump stat” arises and that every choice—every XP spent and every choice made—matters.

But what about theme?  Surely, Cold Steel Wardens would suffer in this regard, as the game itself revolves around the rain-spattered dystopia of Iron Age comics?  Well, yes and no.  While maintaining mood is going to be of great import for any would-be Warden, the comfort and enjoyment of the table must always remain paramount. 

As for maintaining that Golden Mean?  Well, it seems I’ve already come across an answer for that…

Pendulum Theory!

While Pendulum Theory isn’t going to be part and parcel with Cold Steel Wardens, it’s a near and dear thing to carry over the innovations of The Pendulum Method into running a solid session of Cold Steel Wardens.

Stay tuned, friends and neighbors!  Grand things are in store!

In Which The Warlock Mulls Analysis Paralysis...

We have something of a running joke in amongst my gaming/social circle:  the "Karl-o-meter".  You see, my good friend ChaoticKarl tends to take his sweet time when we're playing board games.  Karl's a very mathematical fellow, and (despite my monniker for him) likes to use logic in his moves...which doesn't always work, once the highly unpredictable human element is factored in.  It reached a point once where we literally forced Karl to use an egg timer on his turns, automatically moving on if he hadn't moved before the timer ran out.

The thing that held Karl up so often usually was the sheer number of choices in a game.  Do I move move my piece here or there?  Do I build up this skill/tech-tree or another?  Do I hold my resources?  Do I trade?  Do I purchase now?  Do I use the power-up or save it for later? 

Opportunity cost is a funny thing.  It's so fundamentally critical to game theory and the formation of a good game, but the inclusion of additional opportunities seem to increase the complexity in an almost exponential manner.

Look at all the fiddly-bits! 
So many options!  So many choices!
So much...reading.  :(

It makes me wonder, similarly, about the amount of opportunities in role-playing games today.  The so-called "Old-School Renaissance" has been advocating a return to simpler rules-sets--no power cards, no fiddly-bits, no gimmicks or the like--as a return to "real" role-playing.  Simultaneously, though, we've seen the rise of high-complexity, high fiddly-bit games like 4e D&D and Warhammer Fantasy. 

In some ways, I can equate it to this:

When 4e just came out and your 2nd level Fighter, "The Mighty Jim-Bob," leveled up, he had approximately four options for his 3rd level encounter power.  After a few months, Martial Power came out, doubling those options.  After another month, a Dragon article raised your options to 10.  After four years of sourcebooks, articles, and fan-creations...well, you can imagine the choices!

More options can be good, but each decision--meaningful or not!--slows down gameplay and character creation on a massive scale.  The more options one has in front of them, the more likely that they'll consider each of those options, grinding the game to a halt.

Now, here's the weird thing.  The answer seems to be...less options!

You see, when you take away the power options, the feat choices, the skill points and the rest...you're left with pure imagination.  Now, that's a double-edged sword, since it relies on both player and GM to fill in the details each and every time which, needless to say, is an onerous task!

Minimalist, indeed!

Call of Cthulhu may, in fact, be a perfect example of this minimalist economy.  There are no rules for how many actions a character gets in a round, no power choices, no feats....simply a player saying "I do X" and a GM adjucating that action, occasionally using a handful of abstract stats or skills.  But, for all its wonderful storytelling capacity, a good Call of Cthulhu game hinges on its players buying into the mood and atmosphere created by the GM's narration.  Without a willingness to experiment in a "box-less environment," the game quickly becomes a matter of going through the motions or, more likely, simply falls apart.

As with all things, balance seems to be key.  As a designer, how does one find the balance between over-designing a system, making it overly complex, and under-designing that same system, resulting in vagueness and lack of structure?! 

How does one avoid the dreaded Kotov Syndrome?!

In Which The Warlock Muses on the Future...

Last night was Wittenberg's first game night, which is always exciting for us.  It's spectacular to be able to meet a whole legion of incoming gamers and share with them all of the exciting events that the Guild puts forward, all of the events and systems that we run, and the cameraderie of slinging dice with your fellow man.

There's really nothing like the first time that you sit down to experience a game.  The 'first impression' that one gets just can't be replicated.  The first time I slung out the d10s and d6s in WEGS, for example, was a game unto itself.  The first time we broke out Arkham Horror, while frustratingly long, got us immediately hooked.  The first time we watched someone's dice 'ace' two and three times at a clip in Savage Worlds...it caught the eye like none other. 

What to write, what to write?!

But keeping that newness?  It's hard!  The longer one plays a game, the more apparent the flaws are in the system and the more 'rote' things become.  The Journeyman GM and I discussed this tendency on our way home from GenCon this year.  By this point, he had run his Blackbeard-based Doctor Who game nearly 12 separate times for various groups across the Miami Valley.  I'd been pinging my "WEGSthulhu" adventure and "Westbound on the San Juan Express" just as often.

As such, with the close of the convention season, it comes time for us gamers to think about what comes next:  what one-shots are on deck for the coming 2012 season, for the Friday Night One-Shot series at Witt, and what we're excited about.  But, that leaves me with a major question:  with so many options, what do I write?!

Obviously, my first and biggest option (and my biggest priority!) is my campaign of Cold Steel Wardens.  I'm running my alpha test--a campaign that I'm calling "Hard Rain"--at Witt this year, with my tentative players' Heroes making their way into the (ideally forthcoming) book as sample characters.  But, one-shots?  I have no issue running them at Wittenberg, but I'm not sure if the rules-set is ready for the convention circuit yet.

Last year, I built a series of Deadlands characters specifically for the purpose of using them on the convention circuit.  As such, I'm very tempted to bring back those characters for another go.  However, I'm at somewhat of a loss of what I'd like that adventure to look like.  I'm loathe to put forward another "train-based" adventure, and would like to lean towards something a little more investigative.  However, that's the furthest I've managed to think this one out.

The Laundry, similarly, is an appealing option.  While I'm more than proficient in the BRP Call of Cthulhu game, The Laundry has its own unique style that makes for a strange balance between absurdist comedy and deadly serious spy-drama.  But, that same balance makes it particularly difficult to GM appropriately.  Even for a skilled GM, it becomes difficult to shift gears so quickly between tones.  I'd been also thinking up a basic Call of Cthulhu adventure based around Shakespeare's "Scottish Play", but that's still in development.

Coming to a game convention
near you in 2012?

I'd also been thinking about potentially revisiting one of my all-time favorite heroes:  the Masters of the Universe in the role-playing arena.  However, I'm really not sure what system I'd use.  While I'd be tempted towards picking up Cartoon Action Hour, I actually think that ICONS would work really well for emulating the over-the-top action.  But, again, I haven't really thought out what the adventure would entail, or any plot ideas beyond the simple "He-Man and crew have to team up with Skeletor to take out a greater threat". 

And then...there are other options.  While I'm swearing off D&D for a while, my gaming stack's still full-up.  I'm planning on picking up All For One: Regime Diabolique in the near future, and I just found a copy of Wild Talents at Half Price Books for $5.  Also, The Journeyman GM still has my copies of Hell on Earth, while my regular Friday night group is chomping at the bit for some post-apocalyptic action.  Oh, and there's always WEGS, particularly with the Ultimate Dungeon Party out now, and the official printing of Dingbitt's Dunge-O'-Doom on the horizon. 

So many options, so little time, fellow gamers!  What should I run?  What would you like to see at WittCon, FOPCon, and all the rest in the next year?!

In Which The Warlock Posits a Deathmatch...

Friends and neighbors, I have another weird confession to make. 

I love watching Deadliest Warrior.  Not familiar?  It's a show that's been on SpikeTV to cater to everyone's geekiest impulses.  Ever wonder what would happen if an Apache warrior fought a Roman gladiator?  Or if a black-powder era pirate fought a plate-clad medieval knight?  Deadliest Warrior attempts to answer those, in an hour long demo filled with splattered ballistics-gel torsos and pig carcasses.

Which?  Is?  Deadliest?!

In amongst the gore-coated carnage, the hosts make judgements about the various techniques, technologies and strategies, then run a series of computer simulations to determine a winner.  Really, the pseudo-science that Deadliest Warrior is just that--so much fakery.  And, for most of the battles, success generally comes down to which warrior has access to the most modern weaponry.  However, there's something intensely satisfying to watch a burly stuntman or ex-Marine bludgeon the ever-loving hell out of a pig carcass with an entrenching tool, a medieval flail, or a Zande throwing iron. 



The aftermath of a
Deadlist Warrior episode...

In its third full season, Deadlist Warrior has somewhat run out of archetypes to play with, so their focus has switched to actual historical figures.  Sun Tzu fighting Vlad Tepes, Joan of Arc against William the Conquerer, and tonight's mind-blowingly awesome episode:  Teddy Roosevelt against Lawrence of Arabia!

However, it brought up an interesting question in my mind:  what if gaming had a Deadliest Warrior-style competition?  Not for the actual gamers, mind you, but rather for the classic NPCs of gaming!

I know this has been done, once upon a time, in the waning days of Dragon magazine.  Fantasy heavyweights Margaret Weis and Ed Greenwood faced off with their immortal mages, Raistlin and Elminster.  But why stop there?

What would happen if the quintessential barbarian, Conan, faced off against Kratos, the psychopathic anti-hero from the God of War series?  Or, better, if Deadlands' Dr. Darius Hellstrome pitted his infernal devices against the steampunk science of Space 1889's Cronus on the war-torn fields of British Mars?  Oooh, or better:  the immortal gunslinger Stone against the eternal champion, Elric of Melnibone?  Or even a war of the monsters:  the sleeping god Cthulhu against Demogorgon, the two-headed Prince of Demons! 

The Eternal Champion vs. the Undead Gunslinger!
Stormbringer vs. the Guns of the South!
Who is deadliest?!

While, the likelihood of ever seeing these on a fair battlefield is nigh impossible--man, what system would we even use for this?--it's just a touch of wish-fulfillment to see the biggest heavies of gaming face off against one another.  If only, fellow gamers...if only...

In Which the Warlock Contemplates Game Against Story...

Okay, fellow gamers.   Bear with me for a tick, once more, as I do some rambling.

The games that I tend to enjoy stem from a fairly diverse number of systems and fundamental game theories.  But, the systems that I tend to favor most recently all have one major thing in common:  the ability to manipulate and even to defeat luck.



The Copper Pot collects some fate...

In WEGS, every Ark comes ready-equipped with a number of Spoints, which can be used on nearly any percentage roll in the game, and even on some non-percentage rolls.  It's entirely possible--and sometimes more than desirable!--to use Spoints to achieve a percentage-chance of success that exceeds 100%.  While this all but guarantees success--barring a really horrible Bad Shot or a Wicked Failure--luck has effectively been removed from the equation.  The spell goes off, the sword strikes true.

In Savage Worlds and its numerous settings, every hero comes equipped with Bennies (or, Fate Chips, if you're playing Deadlands), which can turn a seemingly lethal blow into a near miss, or allow for complete and total re-rolls on skills.  In ICONS, heroes get Determination, which allows them to create power stunts, achieve massive levels of success (regardless of dice roll), and even "retcon" details in a scene, changing the narrative.

Not all games include such a system.  Aside from a brief flirtation with them in Eberron, D&D has never used such a mechanics.  Action points in 4e rarely grant anything but an extra action.  Call of Cthulhu and other "atmospheric" games don't use such a mechanic.

So, as I continue working on Cold Steel Wardens, a major question arises.  Do I put such a mechanic into the game, or do I "let the dice fall where they may"?

Representation of GNS Theory

I believe that the rub lies in what's referred to within game design circles as GNS Theory or, later, The Big Model.  Ron Edwards--creator of the Sorcerer RPG--created this theory as an ongoing set of theory regarding social interactions through role-playing games.  It's been one of the longest running controversies within game design circles since Edwards came up with the idea, but for me at least, Edwards' ideas run true.  Edwards claimed that players (and the games that they prefer) typically would fall within a given category--Gamist, Narrativist, or Simulationist.

My main impetus in creating Cold Steel Wardens echoes a fundamentally Simulationist.  As a representation of the Iron Age of Comics, CSW is built to emulate a certain era of comics, including all of the conceits and hallmarks of that era.  As I told ChaoticFrederick--whose commentary and revisions have been invaluable as I've moved forward!--I expect there to be ninjas, I expect there to be lots of guns, and I expect there to be mafia bosses.  Those are all stereotypes that are hallmarks of the Iron Age of Comics, for better or worse, and they tend to appear quite often.

However, I have a strong desire towards specific Narrativist goals.  The system for Aspects, Motivations, and Stances--which I'm about 2/3 of the way through!--encourages players to test their Hero's assumptions about ethics and morality.  While this stems from such storylines like Miller's Daredevil: Born Again and O'Neil's run on The Question, it's a fundamentally Narrativist idea.  Further, the investigative nature of the material itself lends itself towards storytelling, on the player level, the GM level, and the table-wide level.

However, the mechanics of CSW also provide for a degree of system mastery and "optimal build", which are hallmarks of the Gamist idea.  There's a strong desire for me, as a designer and as a gamer, to try to build "The World's Greatest Detective" or "The Martial Arts Master" in this system.  And, as with nearly every system out there, I've spent more than my share of time dealing with combat at this point--the "throne room" of the Gamist player.  Plus, the ideas that I've been kicking about, regarding a system for in-depth investigation, are solidly gamist--it's a matter of how well the Heroes can access the clues, and how well the Players can put them together.

So, where does this leave us?  Well, with the Hero Pool.  This is to say, the fate-defying mechanic I'm debating building into Cold Steel Wardens.  It's a simple mechanic--a pool of d8s equal to twice the number of players, which can be used to add to any test.  They're one use only--once they're gone, they're gone, unless the GM refreshes them (usually by challenging the PCs in underhanded ways). 

One might say that it's a fundamentally Gamist mechanic--it's something built in to defeat luck, and can be exploited.  It doesn't add much to the story, says the Gamist, but it lets us hit once in a while.  The Narrativist would probably disagree, adding that it adds more creative control to the minds of the players, and allows the Heroes to add in that "last-ditch effort" on a test that really requires a success.  A Simultationist might decry such a mechanic, due to lack of "realism", but simultaneously uphold it as a fitting representation of the genre. 

So, again, where does this leave us?  I'm not really sure.  I wouldn't be so arrogant thusfar as to say that CSW is going to be the mystical Zen-center of the GNS spectrum, but it's raised quite a few questions in my mind, as to where CSW is going.  Let's see how playtest rolls out, and we'll go from there...

A few links for you, in case you're curious:

• The Forge--Articles (Some quality viewpoints on GNS/Big Model Theory)
• "System Does Matter"--Ron Edwards' view on system choice.
• More on "The Threefold Model"--GNS Theory FAQs, included.

The PlatinumWarlock's Origins 2011 Live Blog--Sunday!

Exhaustion really does catch up with you, after a while.  After day after day of hot gaming action, and night after night of no sleep, I was set to drive ChaoticKarl to the airport at 4:30 this morning for his 6am flight.  Unfortunately, I passed out and he forgot to set his alarm, which meant that at 5:20, we were desperately rushing towards Dayton International, trying to get him on to the flight on time!  We made it, luckily, but it just goes to show what happens when you're running on empty!

The PlatinumChick and Rogue Rod
conspire in "Severed Seas"

Sunday was the one true day of Origins where I had no real responsibilities.  The PlatinumChick and I had one game--a Rogue Cthulhu game called "Severed Seas".  The big plus on this one was that we got to play with two of our favorite Rogues, Justine and Rod; we've never managed to get all four of us into one game before, so this was a real treat!  Playing high-society Brits (or, in my case, a Russian engineer), we were set to investigate the mysterious crash of the Russian ship Antonov.  And, as is the case with all good Cthulhu adventures, horrible things ensue...

While I loved the role-play between characters--though, admittedly, there were probably 2 more seats at the table than really necessary or comfortable--this was maybe the first Rogue game I wasn't particularly enamored of.  For the first half of the adventure, tension was high as we began exploring the Antonov and the atoll it had crashed on.  Something big had created a huge hole in the hull, and not a single crewmember was to be found.  However, as we made our way through the adventure, the GM unwittingly took the horror right out of his own adventure.  When a hideous beastie made an appearance, the initial reaction was fear...until he let it slip that they were simple Deep Ones.  At that point, the guns came out and bullets flew...and the horror went down the drain.  And, for the record, why did everyone have a gun?  Surely the physicist and the archaelogist shouldn't randomly be carrying a revolver and a double-barreled shotgun, respectively!

BoardGameKaren and L-Train in
front of the dealer hall...

After the game, the PlatinumChick and I made our way through the dealer hall one last time, to make some final purchases and to day goodbye to the mighty WEGSHogz.  On the plus side, I actually got to introduce the PlatinumChick to Angus Abranson, one of the head honchos at Cubicle 7.  We had spent quite a bit of time talking earlier about the plans for The Laundry RPG and the demo games at GenCon 2011, but I figured that if I'm going to be writing/running games for them for any extended amount of time, it's a great time to meet and greet! 

As I mentioned earlier, I'll post a little more about what I picked up from C7 and the other booths during my Wednesday entry: my swag report and post-con wrap-up.  Till then, I'm going to just relax!  It's sleepy-time, fellow gamers!

In the meantime, enjoy my pictures from Saturday and Sunday at my my Origins Facebook album!