30 Days of GameMastering--Day 21!

Today marks the start of the final leg of Lindevi's "30 Days of GameMastering" challenge; we're going to start talking about some of the "meta" details of gaming, starting with...

What are your favorite books about gamemastering?

Let's get one thing clear.  GMing means writing.  Even when you're running a game off-the-cuff, you're creating a narrative in which your players interact.  Even if you're using a pre-made setting or pre-made adventure, the details will always be different:  your Greyhawk is not my Greyhawk is not JimBob's Greyhawk.  And, even if you're not committing your campaign to text for posterity's sake, it's still being published each and every game night.

The best manual on GMing
that you could ever want.

Because of this, my favorite book about GMing is actually my favorite book about writing:  Stephen King's On Writing.   Say what you will about Stephen King--I find his writing poignant and tense, though I do enjoy his short stories more than his novels--but the man knows how to weave together interesting characters into a great narrative.  And, his magnum opus--the Dark Tower saga--is nothing short of masterful.

King intersperses his insights on the writing process with the story of his own development as a writer, taking a painful and self-deprecating look at not only his years of substance addiction, but also the recovery from his crippling car accident.  King's autobiographical moments permeate his advice, as he's able to contribute a full lifetime of writing and reading to his advice for other writers.

I can't really recommend On Writing highly enough; but, in the words of LeVar Burton, you don't have to take my word for it.  Take a good think about the following 6 rules--taken directly from a Guardian excerpt of On Writing itself--and then go pick it up:

1. The basics:  forget plot, but remember the importance of 'situation'.
2. Similes and metaphors:  the rights, the wrong.
3. Dialogue:  talk is sneaky.
4. Characters:  nobody is the 'bad guy'.
5. Pace: fast is not always best.
6. Do the research, but don't overdo it for the reader.

In Which The Warlock Achieves Pathos...

It's been a while since I've spent some time talking about my Deadlands game.  To be honest, it's been a while since we've actually been able to play in my Deadlands game!  Things seem to keep getting in the way, between WittCon, Wittenberg's spring break, and other interferences, it seemed like ages since we actually got to sling some dice!

Following the explosion of the San Juan Express, the PCs found themselves marooned, hungry and cold, on the banks of the Arkansas river along the Purgatoire River Gorge.  Their gear fouled, they began searching around...only to find that Pablo Morales, one of Reverend Jacobson's beloved flock, had gone missing.  Fearing treachery, the group sought to find him, but were stymied by the potential prescence of the infamous Wicheta Witches, now armed with Hellstrome Industries gatling-weapons.

Black Thirteen, in all its terrible glory...

But that's not where their troubles ended!  Found by a fallen priest named Donald Callahan (Wolves of the Calla, anyone?), they were alarmed to find that he was, in fact, from an entirely different world--one in which some fellow named Ronald Reagan was president, and the Union won the Civil War!  Further, Callahan was in possession of Black Thirteen--the corrupted black orb of Maerlyn's Rainbow, which had powers far beyond that of Maerlyn's Grapefruit, the orb Roxanne Butler stole from Jeremiah Riggins.

And, if that's not bad enough? Callahan bore even more bad news--Roxanne was possessed by the manitou spirit of Josiah Riggins, and would give birth to an often-feared demonic child, if the spirit were to stay within her.  The only place nearby to exorcise the demon?  The North Church Cemetery chapel, in Derry's Ford.

Oh, yes. A town called Derry. In a game based on a Stephen King book.

Naturally, this brought the inevitable confrontation with the vampire lord Kurt Barlow, who rallied the town's vampires against Pere Callahan once more.  A murder of crows burst through the church, followed by some of Barlow's thugs....then Barlow himself, leaping through the stained-glass window onto the altar where Roxanne lay. 

The melee that followed may well have been the most difficult that I've run in this campaign, on both sides.  Wound chips flew back and forth, as Barlow and Callahan grappled over Black Thirteen.  Xu Lei and Yukon Cornelius pulled out the old "Throw-then-shoot the dynamite" trick, before whipping out their swordcane and hellfire carbine, respectively.  Roxanne slipped her bonds and started casting with Maerlyn's Grapefruit...only to have her perennial nemesis, cousin Wilbur Whateley, arrive on scene.

RIP, Rev. Elijah Jacobson. October 1, 1879

All this was just too much for poor Elijah Jacobson.  His flock panicking, the sight of the hideous Barlow leaping through the stained-glass, fangs bared, overtaxed his heart.  A failed Guts roll, and an ill-timed Natural 20 on the fear chart....Rev. Jacobson was down for the count.  Nine grueling rounds later, both Barlow, his vampiric henchmen, and Whateley were dead...but so was the good reverend.

Driving home afterwards, the PlatinumChick turned to me and said, "Y'know, I feel really bad about him dying."  In character, Roxanne and the Reverend often butted heads, primarily due to her "sinful profession", but in the end, he died while attempting to save her...

"Call no man happy who is not dead!"

The Greeks define Pathos as the "feeling of pity" one feels, typically accompanying the suffering and fall of a tragic hero.  Truly, the late Reverend Jacobson was exactly that.  Leading his flock across the Weird West, hoping desperately to find his dearest Annabelle, Jacobson faced horrors beyond reckoning.  While his quest led him across the western states and brought great good to many, his ultimate goal of destroying the fiend Grimme was never met.  Annabelle remains lost.  And, in the end, the Dark Tower eludes him...

A few entries ago, we spoke about the depth of death within the scope of roleplaying.  Truthfully, Jacobson's death makes for a fine example of this. 
Ever want to evoke true emotion?  Don't be afraid to let the chips fall where they may...

In Which The Warlock Tries to "Make it New"...

Bear with me here. Back in the day (the early 1900s, that is), when the Modernists roamed the Earth, poet Ezra Pound wrote "Make it New!". In the book, he set forth the concepts of a revolution of language and literature, in which even the smallest concepts are revisited, resulting in drastic changes to fundamental ideas. Pound himself was a devotee of Dante Alighieri, and produced his own Cantos centered around The Divine Comedy, but with massive alterations in structure and in metaplot.

Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot

Therein lies the rub and, for that matter, our subject for today's blog: newness! If you've been following along, I've been working diligently on my Deadlands game, trying to blend it with Stephen King's Dark Tower mythos and his larger, gestalt world. You'd think that'd be an easy task--toss in an Overlook hotel here, a creepy sewer-dwelling clown there, and the task is complete, right?

Wrong. In the postmodern era, King himself has assembled a pastiche of thematic concepts that started with Robert Browning's Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, to the spaghetti westerns of yesteryear, to the venerable (and immensely gamed-out) Lord of the Rings, to Pound's Modernist buddy T.S. Eliot. Ask any "sane" reader, and an assembly of this magnitude seems schizophrenic on a good day.

The Dark Tower

So, of course, on top of all of this, I'm trying to fit the themes of alternate history (a la Harry Turtledove) as well as elements from Deadlands' own canon. Difficult? Monumental! To say that one cannot serve two masters is something of a misnomer here, but it becomes a massive challenge to provide more than lip service to the combination of canon, inspiring works, and ones' own ideas.

But, it's gaming "work" that needs doing. I was originally drawn to Deadlands for its uniqueness in gaming--in a medium slavishly attached to fantasy cliche, it was a breath of clean winter air in my lungs. Similarly, while still in classic D&D, the Eberron setting inverted so many generic fantasy tropes that it could hardly be recognized as D&D until you broke out the d20s! World War II-era Berlin, dropped into a fantasy world? Zombie "Soviet" soldiers, marching to war against dinosaur-riding tribal halflings? Sentient robots fighting psychic spies aboard lightning-driven trains? Sign me up!

It's this concept of 'newness' and originality, even when (as a GM) you're pulling from other sources, that keeps people pulling up a chair to your gaming table every week. Games that center around only one central pillar, be it mechanical or thematic, are destined to fail, simply due to disinterest. Players want more, and it's our job as a GM to give it to them!

The same can be said for games that are linked too closely to the idea of 'canon'--which, in some ways, tips my hand in terms of my relationship with the RPGA. In a medium that supposedly values and rewards creativity, the "Living" campaigns reward mediocrity and repetition. Similarly, I have been openly lambasting Wizards of the Coast's D&D Essentials line for being overly slavish to nostaligic ideas, many of which were clung to without rhyme or reason. Instead of embracing the mechanical creativity of 4e--which, even within its own mechanics, had been evolving!--the design team took a deliberate step backwards, which will leave the game worse for the taking.

John, over at World vs. Hero expounds on this idea, as he was providing contest advice for some of the entrants on his website. There, John breaks it down in terms of a combination of "Originality" and "Allure". The neat thing is, though: originality does not necessarily mean 'without inspirations'. Rather, he elaborates that:

...originality is a rather fluid state, and we should not be paralyzed into inaction for fear of being unoriginal. When honesty precedes the presentation of creativity, the quality of “being original” becomes “being true to a fresh vision of old and new ideas,” and, under this definition, our art may be judged fairly for what it is...

John, brother--Ezra and Thomas would be proud!

The core of gaming, if it is to ever be taken somewhat seriously as an artistic medium (or to continue on into the "Twitter" era), is to blend new ideas with the fundamental archetypes that serve as the foundation of our collective hobby. Slavish devotion to canon, for whatever reason, leads only to stagnation and, eventually, dismissal. In the end, we're a jaded group. We've been there, and done that. We've killed the orc, taken his pie, and moved on.

Give me something new!

Six-Gun Alien Banner

In Which The Warlock Rebuilds The Weird West...

As I've been raving about in my last few posts, I've been really jazzed about my new Deadlands game, which I'm now two sessions into over at Wittenberg. The players that I have are genuinely engaged in both their characters and the burgeoning plot.

One of the biggest reasons that I was drawn to Deadlands in the first place is the creeping element of horror built into the metaplot. The Weird West, in addition to being untamed of its natural obstacles, is the province of horrific creatures that exist only to prey upon man's fear.

But, the one thing that Deadlands didn't have was the one influence I really wanted to build in: Stephen King's Dark Tower saga. Similarly filled with creeping horror, King's masterwork has mysticism and dreamscape elements that just aren't found in standard Deadlands. Plus, I wanted to avoid certain canon elements in Deadlands that seemed a little much...after all, it's a bit much to think that all of the major NPCs have evil, supernatural powers!

As such, I find myself using a tool that I've experimented with earlier--when I was running "Pirates of the Underdark"--an Obsidian Portal wiki.

Obsidian Portal Logo

I had made the mistake of attempting to start the "PotU" wiki mid-campaign, which made it difficult to keep up with all of the backlogged information. With a fresh start in this campaign, I was able to easily upload images, files, and information on the setting of the campaign, as well as on major NPCs. Plus, I can also include various setting changes, like going "todash" and information on The Beams and the like. Woot!

What might be lurking in the Jaegretty Gulch mine?

For now, my players are just outside of Amarillo, in the dying boomtown of Jaegretty Gulch. They're trying to lay low, after getting into a barfight with Josiah "Josey" Riggins--the son of mining mogul and Circuit Judge George Riggins. But, as they explore an "abandoned" mine rumored to be the home of Mexican banditos, the PCs find that other 'things' may be present in the mine...

All of this world-building (or, re-building, as it may be), reminds me! I'm judging a contest!

World vs. Hero!

John Fiore, over at World vs. Hero, asked me to judge a world-building contest along with several other game designers/editors/cartographers/artists. The challenge? Using the guidelines in his one-on-one roleplaying brainchild World vs. Hero, design a campaign setting in less than 200 words. Get cracking, though, kiddies! The deadline is September 24th!

Up for the challenge? Get all the details on John's contest here: World-Building Contest at World vs. Hero

In Which The Warlock Shoots for a Straight, but Flops a Full House...

So, remember a few entries ago, when I was wondering about which game to run? I really ended up in a dead heat with the two ideas, tossed between the conspiracy-horror of Delta Green and the gritty, street-level superheroes of DC Adventures. I honestly was having a hard time deciding between the two. Friends and fellow gamers recommended both in almost equal measure, eager to roll up their FBI agent, their power-suited vigilante, or something in between.

Deadlands: Hucksters and Hexes

And so, I debated. I wrote promos for each game. I blogged, obviously. And, in the end, it came down to...none of them.

You see, in amongst the rest of the game ideas I've had, I've had a new love. It's gritty, it's pulpy, and it's got so many plot ideas built in. It has all the elements I love in a game: horror, alternate history, characterization, and deep moral intregue.

As such, I find myself with a full table, ready to run Deadlands Reloaded.

I've been slowly developing an affection for Savage Worlds for a year or two now, with its free-form character development and its speedy, creative combat. But, for whatever reason, Deadlands had always eluded me. Back when I was at Wittenberg, BLoff and his brother had tried to get us to play it, but it lost out in favor of Call of Cthulhu and D&D.

I suppose it's been building in me for a while. I adore Stephen King's Dark Tower saga, and love the creeping horror found in the Weird West. After one read-through of Will the ManMan's Deadlands: Player's Guide, I was hooked. Plot ideas were flowing through my brain like wine, and they had to get out somehow! And so, a new campaign was born.

As such, I have a full table waiting for me on Sunday afternoons: "Follow the Walkin' Man, a King-inspired tale of the Weird West, where the players will start off in Amarillo, and head out on a dark adventure to find out the secrets behind Maerlyn's Rainbow and the Man in Black known only as "The Walkin' Dude".

Stay tuned here to find out more!

One last thing before I let you go for the evening: I'll be running WEGS: Old Skool Redux demos all day at Springfield's Champion City Comic-Con. Swing by between 10am and 6pm for a run through one of two classic WEGS demos: "Dungeons OR Dragons" and "Dwarf Walks Into a Bar". Alternatively, stick around after 6pm for a run through the exclusive debut of my module "WEGS+Cthulhu=WEGSthulhu!" Catch it before it hits this year's WittCon and next year's Origins Game Fair!

Hope to see you there!