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 Pencils a Potential Plotline...

It's been a while since I've jumped in on the RPG Blog Carnival, but this month's entry gave me some special impetus:  it's being hosted by Lindevi, over at TripleCrit.com!

In light of NaNoWriMo and the concurrent-running NaGaDeMon, DigitalKat posits the following question:

So what about you, RPG Bloggers?  Why do you write about games?  In what form does your writing crop up in your campaigns?  What's your process, your stumbling blocks, your passion?  How has writing helped you or your table?  Or is writing more like a CR 8 Succubus whose torturous siren song hurts so good and dominates your very being?

Writing is part and parcel of my gaming 'process', as you probably could imagine.  Between my work on Cold Steel Wardens and the various convention games I've run over the years, it's been my continual effort to provide a series of adventures and materials to serve as my role-playing "legacy".  While doing so can sometimes be tedious--writing up stat blocks is a particular bugaboo of mine--there are quite a few tasks that I particularly relish.

One of my favorites is the "character vignette".  Usually stemming from an NPC's contact with given PC, these vignettes flesh out the world at large by speaking within a character's voice.

Case in point:  my "Tear of Ioun" campaign from a few years back.  Chris II's character, Martook, came in a veteran of Blackfall's most elite guard, tasked with the unenviable task of securing and destroying evil artifacts.  Chris depicted Martook as a grizzled veteran and family man, on his last mission before retirement from the force.

However, when the group's mission went afoul and the PCs were accused of a series of murders which touched off a small-scale war, Martook and his compatriots had to flee to another plane.  Upon their return to the Prime Material, Martook received the following from his wife:

Dearest Martook— 

I don’t really know how to say this.  I’m going to do my best to not cry as I’m writing this, but I can feel myself already welling up. 

When you told me that you were being recruited to work in The Vaults, I didn't want you to go.  We had just started to raise our family.  We were only married two years when you started there, and Maximilian was only six months old.  But, I let you go, knowing you’d come back to me.  

When you were promoted to Field Agent, and you were sent to find these…things…I didn't protest.  That was last year, and Maria was just a bulge in my belly.   I let you go again, and I knew that you would come back to me. 

When you left to look for this Tear of Ioun, I didn't object.  Maria had just been born, and I was getting back on my feet.  Little Max was only 5, but he was helping around the house as much as he could.  The neighbors helped out, too.  I let you go one more time, knowing you’d come back to me. 

And now?  I have Cathedral Agents at my door, telling me that you’re wanted for murder and treason.  I have Max asking me if Daddy is ever coming back, now that the King’s Men are waiting for him.  He asks me, “Mom, what did Daddy do wrong?  Why does the King hate him so much?”  I don’t have an answer for him.  Little Maria barely knows you.  She’s three now, and caught Gray Fever last winter.  She wheezes at night still, but the clerics of Erathis are confident she’ll recover sooner or later.  

I've been waiting for you most of my adult life.  We've been taken care of, thanks to the Cathedral, but that doesn't mean that we have everything we've ever wanted.  The kids want a father.  I can’t say I blame them.  I want a husband again. 

But now, with you being hunted…I just can’t wait anymore.  There’s been someone else, Martook.  You know him—Dengild Oathhammer, from across the street.  He helped fix our roof about a year ago, after a snowstorm and I asked him to stay for supper and then one thing led to the next and… 

I told myself I wouldn’t cry. 

I can’t even tell you what I want right now.  I've stopped things with Dengild, but my children—our children—need a father, and I need my husband.  I just can’t manage to let you go, the one time where it might matter. 

The kids and I are about to leave Blackfall for a while.  We’re going downriver, to a cottage my parents had east of Kasserine.  I gave this to the priestess Valandor, at the Cathedral, and she promised that she would get it to you.  I’m not sure how, because they say that Wellspring, the town you were at, is in ruins.  I hope it gets to you.  You deserve to know, at least. 

I’m sorry, Martook.  I really am.  Please forgive me. 

---Maleena

Obviously--just take a look at my picture up yonder!--I'm no scorned woman, much less one with two children to take care of and an illicit relationship with her next-door neighbor.  But, being able to write as such a character allows me three primary benefits.

Firstly, it allows me, as a GM, to immerse myself in my own world.  Did I know about Kasserine or any of the other characters in this letter, prior to writing it?  Absolutely not!  But, by including them, I can help flesh out my own world, building in people, places, and ideas that normally would never make an appearance.

Secondly, this provides me an opportunity to directly address a PC's background.  When our group was galavanting through the Shadowfell, it became hard to justify any expansion on Martook's relationship.  But, by including this vignette upon their return, I've not only shown that time has passed (in the fact that Martook's wife has moved on) and hooks him with a personalized side-quest:  make it back to Kasserine to make things right with his wife.

Finally, this allows my player, Chris II, the opportunity to expose the other players to Martook's own personality.  While we can see Martook's personality in the context of the group, there are aspects to his personality which would only emerge when in the presence of his personal friends and family.  Our identity, many philosophers have claimed, is mutable over time--who we are varies based on the course of our lives, the experiences we've had, and the memories we retain.  As such, our group experienced a side of Martook that they might never see otherwise...

While I don't use the character vignette often--maybe once or twice a campaign per character--it provides ample opportunities for both myself as a GM and as a player.  Plus, since it usually takes up less than a page, it's quick!  Try it!  You'll like it!

In Which The Warlock Makes a Major Alteration...

So, let's talk about something that I haven't brought up in quite a while:  Dungeon Slam!

I've occasionally broken out DS! now and again in the last year or so, but I haven't exactly been doing a whole lot of substantial revision on it.  The biggest issue keeping DS! from being a "real game" is the run-time:  I can't seem to get it under two hours without making major changes to the game mechanics and the way that chance is involved with the game itself.

Risk--has anyone finished that game?

That's a major problem, because few games run longer than two hours while maintaining an element of fun.  Ask yourself, when was the last time that you played a game of Risk for more than two hours, before the novelty of Risk wore off and a clear winner was evident, and everyone else worked to stave off that winner for an extra hour or so.  Don't get me wrong:  Risk can be fun, but it often takes so long to play that few manage to ever complete that game.



A session of Dungeon Slam!
from Origins 2008.

Similarly, Dungeon Slam! also suffered from a pretty major issue that many rpgs also suffer from:  Contested Roll Syndrome.  Contested rolls--also called opposed rolls or contests--have a propensity to slow games down immensely, as they make every chanced encounter (which are fairly common, natch!) into a minimum of two dice rolls, rather than one.

Imagine, if you will, a "static" system like Savage Worlds or even d20.  Each dice roll is compared against a number, which varies based on the difficulty of a task.  Modifiers are then made based on the circumstances facing the situation and the person acting within it.  However, in a system based on contested rolls--such as Dungeon Slam! as well as Marvel Heroic Roleplaying and several other games--that static modifier is replaced by another roll, on the act-ee's part.

While you'd figure that this wouldn't slow down the game too much, once you start adding in modifiers, re-rolls, and other chance-altering mechanics common to most games, the game slows down to a crawl, which brings us back to the core problems with Dungeon Slam!.  It simply takes too freaking long.

But, with its numerous problems and several competitors on the market--Super Dungeon Explore, Munchkin Quest, and Dungeon Run come immediately to mind--I've decided to put Dungeon Slam! on the shelf indefinitely.

That said, writing Dungeon Slam! hasn't been a waste in any sense of the word.  In fact, I learned a lot from the act of writing it--particularly in how to structure a game and how to format a prototype for Publisher and Adobe.  And, there's a lot I can take from the best elements of Dungeon Slam!...

• The PvP race structure.
• The item upgrades mechanic.
• The open-board motion.
• The ability to actively screw your neighbor without specifically engaging them.
• The fundamental stats and mechanics (minus the opposed rolls).

And, friends and neighbors, that's just what I've been doing for the past two weeks.  I've been reformatting the best bits and piecees of Dungeon Slam! into a new game with a new genre and idiom...

...but to see the fruits of my labors, you'll have to tune in for the next entry!

In Which The Warlock Prepares an Answer on Preparation...

Just after returning from Origins, DigitalKat posed a question to me.  She's been up to her eyeballs with "real life" obligations recently--a full-time job, an internship on her days off, plus family and friend obligations.  Prepping game for one group, let alone two or more, has been a huge challenge for her.  She's written up some of her trials and tribulations here, where she describes how she manages to fit in her game-prep in the midst of her busy schedule. 

Just don't look up!
Then again, don't look down!

She asked me, "How do you manage to do it?"  Naturally, this is a question that I get asked quite a bit, considering all that I have on my plate.  Between freelance writing, working on my own projects and writings, and the struggles of grading and teaching, it almost appears like I'm working miracles!  Truth be told, I often make the analogy of a juggler:  as long as I don't look up, I can stay in rhythm and keep juggling indefinitely.  But, it's when I sit back and "look up" at the massive amount of projects I have on deck that I get overwhelmed!

While the summer affords me quite a bit of time to get caught up--I average about 4,000-5,000 words a day, if I spend a fully day writing--the school year often "interferes" with my ability to write.  But, during the school year, this time is curtailed significantly, due to my obligations in the classroom!  That said, I do manage to find times during the day where I can actually get some game-based work done!

Journaling and Silent Reading

As part of my daily teaching procedures, I begin almost every day with either a 7 minute journaling time or a 15 minute session of silent reading.  While the benefits of reading and writing each day are well-documented, this has a multi-faceted benefit for the teacher.  First, it establishes a gravitas and attitude in the classroom, allowing students to calm down and focus on something literary or philosophical, rather than their own items.  Secondly, it gives me a time in which I can take attendance and take care of any outstanding issues, like make-up work or conferencing with individual students.  However, while I keep my attendence software on one tab in my browser, I arrange it so that it only takes up half the screen, leaving the other half free for Word, Excel, or Publisher.

Writing during this period--under a massive deadline and in short spurts--usually doesn't net me much at each session, though tallied over a full day of 5 class periods, that's about an hour's worth of writing, usually totalling around 500 words by itself.

Hall Supervision and Prep

What the Warlock's schedule
is usually like...

This past year, I was afforded a boon:  my supervision period (hall duty for half the year and study hall for the second half) and my personal prep period were back to back.  My duties during these times were particularly small:  sign passes, keep track of attendance, and ensure that no one's really messing around. 

Mondays, most days, I spend formalizing and submitting my lesson plans, then sending them on to my department head.  Tuesday through Thursday, under normal circumstances, I spend my time either organizing my thoughts, taking care of e-mail correspondence, or actually writing.  Fridays, though, is where the real "prep" takes place, as that's game night.

This time span affords me almost two full hours--with a glorious little break right in between, wherein I can get coffee--to focus on writing and the like.

Prepping for Game

Oftentimes, the amount of prep that I do directly relates to the type of system that I'm running.  For a game like Savage Worlds or ICONS, I find that my prep is almost negligible.  I'll come up with a few plot elements or ideas that I'd like to introduce, or spend my time focusing on elements actively sought after by my PCs.  Oftentimes, if I have information that's privy to only one or two, I'll drop them a private e-mail during this time, providing them whatever info they've happened to stumble across.  Unless it's something I'm likely to forget or if I'm juggling a whole pile of plot hooks, I often don't even have to write these down.

For a game like 4e D&D, however, I need a little more time and effort put in.  Most times, this occurs through the (offline, of course!) Monster Builder.  I start by filtering monsters by level and type, then see what kind of monsters might fit for the adventure hook I'd been planning.  If there are some pre-built, or at least close in terms of level, I'll simply adjust the monster level, print and go from there.  If not, I often take a pre-existing monster, re-flavor it (by changing names, adding or subtracting an attack or two, and adding in thematic items) and then print away.

Behind the Curtain

Instant Gunslinger!  Just add dice!

One of the biggest secrets I can pass on, though?  Cheat!  Once you have a degree of system mastery in the game you're running, it becomes easy to fudge NPCs for a session or two, then fully flesh them out when you have a little bit of extra time.  Let's say, for example, an bounty hunter is pursuing your PCs in a Deadlands game.  You know he wields a shotgun, and he makes a living pursuing criminals (or, in this case, your players!).  If you know Savage Worlds reasonably well, you could assume that he has a d10 in Shooting, a d10 in Tracking, and probably a reasonably high (d8) Notice.  He'd probably be pretty quick (maybe a d8 or d10 in Agility) and fairly tough (d8 in Vigor).  Anything else?  Call it a d6, unless it really fits into his "bounty hunter" schtick!  Want to give him some more personality?  Give him access to a skill that he wouldn't normally have--maybe this guy has a d10 in Taunt, and he always opens combat by taunting the group.  As for Edges, go thematic--Woodsman would make sense, as would Quick Draw or Marksman. 

You can do the same thing for nearly any system, once you have a handle on the math.  For 4e D&D, it all starts with the base of 1/2 Level + Ability mod.  If you had to build an archmage on the fly, start with his Intelligence score, perhaps something around a 22.  Ability mod for a 22 is +6, to which you add half of his level.  Is he trained in a given skill?  Probably, if it's academic--give him that +5 bonus pretty indiscriminately.  Now, how about some personality--let's make him a dwarf!  He'll have slightly higher hit points and a slightly lower movement speed, as well as the rest of the dwarven traits--don't worry about those unless they come up.  As for spells, pick a theme!  Maybe this mage is all about manipulating fire or earth.  You could give him a bog-standard "Flaming Sphere" and just reflavor it as a half-sentient earth elemental rampaging through the battlefield.

Obviously, these stats aren't concrete.  They're meant to be "just enough" to get you through a single session or two.  If you need more, that's when you can devote the time to putting forward a full NPC writeup.  If this character is meant to be recurring, it's time to give him the full business.

A Major Mistake

I didn't always take the minimal prep route, truth be told.  In fact, I used to obsess over game prep, particularly when I was in college.  While working in an amusement park gift shop over the summer, I'd craft epic campaigns filling whole notebooks....only to have most of that material go either unused or underused.  Plus, when I'd plot out the entire plot of the adventure, I'd end up denying my players the opportunity to go "off book" and improvise on their own. 

It wasn't until I had almost graduated from Wittenberg did I finally realize this phenomenon.  Actually, it was in one of my infamous "Blackfall" games--the epic Blackfall II, which spanned over 48 hours--that I finally divorced myself from my over-preparatory tendencies.  With over 15 players and a co-GM at my back, we had to be ready to improvise at a moment's notice!  Combat had to be fast and furious, to allow everyone an opportunity to shine--getting bogged down in minutia simply wasn't an option! 

Everyone, however, has their own balance of preparation against improvisation.  For me, I fall much further on the side of improv than I did even a few years ago, and my choices in games indicate that shift in philosophy as well.  It's all a matter of what works best for you or for your table, as always.

In Which The Warlock Muses on Rewards...

In amongst all of the other numerous projects that I've been working on--and, y'know, my actual "real" job of teaching--I've been contemplating what exactly I need to do, when I start the Kickstarter for Cold Steel Wardens.  Obviously, I'll need to officially incorporate as well as establish my copyright and trademark registries, all of which I hope to have finished by August of this year. 

But, rather, I mean the actual Kickstarter itself.  I've been reading numerous blogs dealing with the issue, as KS can be a massive boon when done correctly...and an utter disaster when not.

Analysis shows that Kickstarter projects tend to do significantly better when accompanied with some kind of audio-visual element (not necessarily a video, though video does tend to help) as well as preview material and character sheets to show what the game itself will look like and how it will play.

Rewards, though, are really what drive Kickstarter projects.  After all, as a patron system, it's hard to get people to patronize you without good reason!  One of the neatest things about Kickstarter is the fact that rewards aren't necessarily always tangible.  A high-level patronage might provide some experience or opportunity that not necessarily be "worth" anything, but ramps up the level of awesome instead.

So, in thinking about all this, I've begun brainstorming a reward system with tiers based on the three levels of adversaries in CSW:  Mooks, Made Men, and Masterminds.  Take a look!  And, as always, if you have any feedback, it'd be greatly appreciated!

Mooks ($1-$100)

• $10--A PDF copy of Cold Steel Wardens.
• $30--Both a PDF copy of Cold Steel Wardens and a softcover copy of the same, upon publication.
• $50--A signed softcover copy of Cold Steel Wardens, the PDF copy, and an exclusive adventure set in Greensburg (pdf).
• $75--Two signed softcover copies, the PDF copy, the exclusive adventure, and a pre-order for the next books:  Cold Steel Wardens:  Rogues' Gallery.
• $100--all at $75 level, plus a lifetime 10% discount on any of my products.

Made Men ($100-$500)  (All "Made Men" rewards levels automatically include all rewards given for the $100 "Mook" level)

• $150--An 8 1/2" by 11" art print of a piece of your choosing from the Cold Steel Wardens core rulebook, signed by the artist.
• $200--Either an original 8 1/2" by 11" art print of a character of your choosing from Cold Steel Wardens OR inclusion of a character of your creation in the upcoming book, Cold Steel Wardens: Rogues' Gallery.
• $300--Both rewards from the $200 level!
• $500--Both rewards from the $200 level AND I will run an exclusive, off-the-books Cold Steel Wardens session for you and up to 5 of your friends at either GenCon Indy or the Origins Game Fair, at a day and time of your choosing. 

Masterminds ($1000+) (All "Mastermind" rewards levels automatically include all rewards given for the $100 "Mook" level and the $500 "Made Men" level)

• $1,000--At my expense and on a weekend of our combined choosing, I will travel to your house and prepare a dinner for you and up to 5 of your friends.  I will then run an exclusive, never-before-seen Cold Steel Wardens investigation for you and said friends, using all new characters made specifically for the evening.  All materials, including the adventure and the characters, are exclusively yours following the session.  (Limited to the Continental United States only).
• $2,000--All rewards listed at the $1,000 level, plus a two free copies of every Cold Steel Wardens product produced...ever!
• $5,000--True partnership.  You'll be brought on board as a consultant for further products, design ideas, and more.   Obviously, there'll be negotiation at this level, which will be hashed out upon such a pledge.

So...what do you think?  Viable?  Is this a scale that seems reasonable?  Am I missing an opportunity?  Feedback would be great!

In Which The Warlock Summons a Supplemental Elemental...

People often wonder how I come up with such weird things for my games.  I'm known for something of a twisted imagination--just take a look my contributions on "Flying Polyps" in my work on The Mythos Dossiers for "The Laundry".  When I pitched the idea of "sentient f***ing cancer!" to my fellow writers, I could almost hear the jaws hitting the floor. 

But, I readily admit:  like any other writer or GM, I look for inspirational material all of the time.  So, you want to see where my ideas come from?  Here's a sample!

Serene Knowledge

• This site's fantastic, and full of creepy ideas suitable for any modern and even most fantasy style of games.  When I was running "Shadows of the Cold War" at Wittenberg, I pulled a good deal of the Cthulhian themes from this site.  The series at the end, "The Holders of X" can make for a fantastic campaign on its own.

The SCP Foundation

• Another great site for horror links, this one is essentially Warehouse 23 cranked up to 11!  While the information in these links ranges from the absurdly humorous to the outright terrifying, this site makes for great fodder for any modern game.  Running "The Laundry", "Delta Green", or "Dark Matter"?  You need to visit this site NOW.

Unused Lovecraft Story Hooks

• Want to really build up the fear?  Why not work with the ideas of the master himself?  These ideas come from a recently (as of 2011) discovered chapbook of Lovecraft's.  While some of the ideas he's obviously used, the vast majority are fresh and ripe for the picking.  The "one line" elements like "For has not Nature, too, her grotesques—the rent rock, the distorting lights of evening on lonely roads, the unveiled structure of man in the embryo, or the skeleton?" provide for great bits of inspiration on their own, even for a non-Lovecraftian game!

Seventh Sanctum

• One of the things that trip me up constantly is the search for the right name.  It's something I've always struggled with, whether writing or GMing.  However, Seventh Sanctum provides tons of names at the mere click of a mouse.  Not happy with the selections so far?  Click again...and again...and again.  Then, a few hours later, you might get back to writing! 

Creative Writing Prompts

• Working on writing daily or journal-style writing?  I use this site with my students for 2-3 times weekly writing assignments.  With 340-odd prompts, ranging throughout fiction and non-fiction, this'll keep you busy for a while.  For an added challenge, try writing all of them from a single perspective--maybe a character you've been working with or arounds a single, central theme.

In Which The Warlock Postulates Verbage and Bondage...

In my recent games, it's become more and more apparent that games have begun to fall into a continuum of sorts, when talking about set pieces.

As most English teachers can tell you, verbs come in two sorts: active and passive. Active verbs imply some sort of action: run, jump, climb, eat, eviscerate, disembowel, etc. Passive verbs come from the declension of the infinitive "to be"--is, are, was, were...all of these are passive voice verbs.  Writers typically try to avoid passive voice verbs, by and large, but there are several times where passive voice may be more appropriate to a situation or character.   

As GMs, we all like to think our games run in the active voice, but rarely is that truly the case. Rather, we're often most content to be on the receiving end of our entertainment. The start of "The Flood" provides a great example of this phenomenon. It seems like a very active-voice introduction--steam wagon battles and ghost-rock bombs drive the plot forward at breakneck speed. But, in actuality, the PCs are merely witnesses, and not participants in the majority of the action. While the Great Rail Wars reach their culmination, the PCs get to watch their NPC counterparts hog the spotlight. This isn't meant to be a knock against the campaign--my players have loved it and I've really enjoyed running it for them--but for all the high stakes, the PCs are skating around under the radar rather than rolling with the movers and shakers.

Much has been made of so-called "sandbox" gaming, where the plot is entirely driven by PC actions and motivations. And, truly, in ideal terms, that would provide a more active gaming experience. However, this requires significant buy-in from all players at the table, with prep work spread across numerous people.

Anthony Bourdain clearly has
the Two-Weapon Fighting edge...

My favorite foodie, Anthony Bourdain, describes the act of eating as a fundamentally submissive, passive experience. Done correctly, Bourdain claims, a diner should feel comfortable enough to hand their minds and palates over to the chef and simply savor. The chef, in essence, dominates the show, determining each flavor, each texture, and each experience as they intend it to be.

Perhaps in this vein, good game mastery, like the act of cookery, should fundamentally be a dominant, active act? But then, what of the active player, eager to break off in new directions? They're in a different position than the eater, whose role has intrinsically less input. Should a gamer be penalized for positive actions that add to a game? Of course not!

Fun...and good for theorizing on
proper Game-Mastery?

As strange as it is to say, the best analogy I can provide would actually come from BDSM, of all places. If a game master is a dominant, then the ideal player would be a submissive that struggles and resists, providing input and suggestions that provide intrigue and nuance to the established norms of the game. And, as one might imagine, the best Dungeon Master (in both senses of the term) is the one that knows when to back off, and let the players play.

As with all things, balance and variety serve as the keystone. While a player might be dominant in one game, they may come off as submissive or passive in another. Similarly, a quality GM should be able to alternate control of the game, passing dominance back and forth amongst players, all the while loosely holding the reins of the ongoing story.

In Which The Warlock Reveals the Fruits of His (and other's) Labor!

So, as I mentioned a few months ago, I'd been picked up by Cubicle 7 to work on an upcoming book for The Laundry--C7's rpg based on the novels and short stories of Charles Stross, which is something of a mash-up of traditional Call of Cthulhu, James Bond-style espionage, with just a touch of The Office for good measure.  I've been holding off on talking about my work there, because I wasn't sure when (or if!) the product would actually hit shelves. 

But then, one of my co-conspirators on the project revealed this:  newly installed at the Cubicle 7 store for pre-order!

The Laundry RPG--The Mythos Dossiers
the PlatinumWarlock's first-ever real RPG writing gig!

As I'd mentioned earlier, I was alerted to an open call for writers by C7 through Dread Pirate Tim, who dropped me a link on Facebook.  The 'audition' material was to write an in-character document, describing one of the "Great Race of Yith"--the conical beings from H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow out of Time.  A few days after submitting, I received word from Gareth--the project lead and staffer from C7--that I was on board.

The Mythos Dossiers is a really unique sort of book.  While one could call it the "Monster Manual" of the Laundry-verse, it's...not quite that simple.  Rather, all of the material in TMD is written up as a series of files sent to the head of the Laundry organization, compiled by various field agents.  As such, instead of just a series of stats or a generic description, the files include first-person sightings, autopsy reports, interviews, scientific reports and more.

Each of the authors--there were about 8 of us, all told!--were in charge of a specific monster (called Primaries), and would submit secondary documents for others' primaries.  Yours truly was made Primary for a classic Lovecraftian monster--the burrowing Cthonian!  I also submitted secondaries on serpent-people, ghouls, and shoggoths.  But, I managed to finish out my personal work early, and was even afforded the chance to work in an additional Primary:  Flying Polyps!

While I can't divulge too much about the book itself, outside of what I already have, it'll definitely be exciting to see it hit print!  Some of the ideas that made it in really take some of the Lovecraftian classics and turn them on their head.  I'm especially proud of the Flying Polyps...the mad scientist Dr. Juurian Groeningen will make for a fantastic NPC adversary for an entire campaign of his own!

Have a nice weekend, cats and kittens!  :D

In Which The Warlock Ponders Parallelism...

It's no secret that I'm a writer.  I'm up to nearly 300 entries on this blog, to say nothing of my writing and editing within the gaming world.  But, even beyond that...I'm an English teacher full-time, with a full Bachelors' degree in English Literature.  What you may not know is that I got my start at revision while in undergraduate at Wittenberg.  As a member of the Wittenberg Writing Center, I worked part-time assisting other undergrads with their academic papers and the like.

As such, I had to be on top of my game.  One of the biggest offenses in most of their writing was something referred to as parallelism. 

Parallelism in math...
Parallelism in writing...

Any kid who's taken algebra or geometry should know what parallel lines are--two lines that continue on indefinitely through a two-dimensional plane, in such a way that they will never cross.  Parallelism in writing is similar, yet not quite so finite.

Under usual circumstances, parallelism comes on the individual sentence level.  To use the example from the Purdue Online Writing Lab,--one of the more pre-eminent writing centers in academia: 

Incorrect:
My degree, my work experience, and ability to complete complicated projects qualify me for the job.
Correct:
My degree, my work experience, and my ability to complete complicated projects qualify me for the job.

The 'correct' example uses the same structure throughout the sentence, which is more correct from a grammatical standpoint and is more appealing when read aloud.

Now, what does this have to do with gaming, you may ask?  Well, you see, while most RPG manuals are fairly well-edited, parallelism doesn't just stop at the sentence level.  Rather, it can (and should!) be continued on a paragraph and even on a piece-length scale.

But what about parallelism within actual game structure? 

4e D&D was unique for its verisimilitude between classes.  While each individual class received its own class abilities at level 1--Fighters got a Weapon Talent and Combat Challenge, Warlocks got Shadow Walk and Warlock's Curse--every class worked in the same manner:  2 At-Wills, Encounters on levels that ended with 3 and 7, Dailies on levels that ended on 5 or 9. 

Many gamers critized for 4e for this maneuver, saying that classes were "too similar", but from a written standpoint, the design was flawless.  But, it made me wonder whether parallelism in design could provide a driving force behind a game mechanic....which explains some of the reasoning behind my work on Cold Steel Wardens. 

Part of the "MAFIANAP" mechanic--the fundamental system that I'm writing to drive CSW is built on parallelism--players have 8 Vitals, four of which govern Mental faculties and four of which govern Physical ability.  The 25 skills are arranged into five groups of five--Physical, Investigative, Social, Knowledge, and Technical. 

But, what I'd like to consider the most crucial bit of parallelism to CSW is the "Strain" system.  Every hero can take a specific abount of Strain, before bad things begin happening to them.  This occurs in both the Physical realm (through fights, wounds, and physical exertioin), but also in the Mental realm (through stress, fear, and mental trauma). 

Don't reach your Breaking Point,
or you'll be taking a MAFIANAP!

In either case, every CSW Hero has a "Breaking Point" on each Strain track.  The Breaking Point represents a threshold, at which the Hero's resilience has finally broken down.  At the Physical Breaking Point, the Strain no longer represents"bumps and bruises", but rather broken bones, shattered ribs, and grievous bodily harm.  At the Mental Breaking Point, the Strain no longer represents everyday stress that can be wiped away with a good night's sleep, but rather damage to the Hero's psyche, resulting in psychoses or other mental disorders.

If CSW comes out as planned, the game should be streamlined and easy for newbies to understand, with mechanics that fade into the background during investigation and social encounters.  We'll see, though!  Next up:  Powers!

In Which The Warlock Goes Up to 11...

...and we're not just talking about Actorios, who's finally hit Paragon tier and become an Avernian Knight.

Rather, it's my writing.

The Warlock's keyboard, for the past 6 nights...

With WittCon VIII coming up fast on the horizon, I really had to kick it into gear this week, in order to get finished.  While having everything done will make things much easier on me during the actual convention season, it doesn't make life much easier while putting it all together!

Let's run down a brief list of what I've written since last Saturday:

"Westbound..."

• 6 Character Backgrounds, formatted into table-tents  (1,300 words)
• 7 Statted NPCs (850 words, but very time-consuming)
• Westbound... Adventure Outline (6,500 words)

"Splitting Heirs"

• 8 Character Backgrounds, formatted into table-tents (1,500 words)
• Splitting Heirs Adventure Outline (3,600 words)

"Lawfully Blonde"

• 6 Character Backgrounds, formatted into table-tents (1,000 words)
• Lawfully Blonde Adventure Outline (1,800 words)

"Chrysalis"

• 6 Character Backgrounds, formatted into table-tents (1,600 words)
• 6 PCs statted up (no word count available--done via HeroForge)
• Chrysalis Adventure Outline (4,900 words)

That's...*checks calculator* SWEET ZOMBIE GHANDI!  23,050 WORDS!

Let it be known, I have never, not in my most creative, most productive, and most-sleep deprived days, done this much writing at once.  What's more (and this is me putting aside my usual arrogance), they're good.  Seriously.  Westbound... has a spectacular parallel plotline structure that'll make it a blast to run.  Chrysalis and Splitting Heirs are both Pendulum-style adventures, which adds to the difficulty in writing/running them, but the adventures themselves are creative and inspired.  Lawfully Blonde...well, it'll just be hilarious to play.

Now, two provisions have to be added to this. 

1) I'm not done.  My responsibilities for The Laundry have me pumping out an additional series of documents on the various beasties of the Laundry-verse, which I'm about halfway through, on top of everything I've written for WittCon/FOPCon/DenCon/Origins.  I've written something in the neighborhood of an additional 4,000 words just in rough drafting, with plenty more to go!

50k words?  Feh...

2) There's a little contest that you might have heard of, called NaNoWriMo.  Each November, budding writers from all over the world do their best to assemble a novel in 30 days.  I've never done NaNo, though I've been tempted in the past, and both DigitalKat and PhillyLaura have given it a go.  The goal for NaNoWriMo is 50,000 words--about 175 pages, all told.

I've done over half of that challenge...in 6 days.

Madness!  Insanity!  Obsession-compulsion on the level of Howard Hughes or Rain Man! 

Yeah, probably.  But I'm riding a high right now that's unfathomable.  I'm going to surf this wave till I come into shore, and even then...I'm going to be up on the beach, wondering where the wave went!

As a last bit, there'll be no entry this Saturday.  Why, devoted readers?  Because it's WittCon VIII!  Get your skinny keisters to Springfield, and throw down with us!  See you there!

WittCon VIII!  Be there!