"The Serious Game", Or: Hazel's 2cp in Support of Our Humor - A One-Year Retrospective

The Spawn of Endra presents a choice philosophical treatise from another player in Carter's Lands of Ara campaign, Hazel the Fighter/Magic-User, with some editorial material:

Roughly two months into our current campaign, Uncle Junkal's player came across this post on The Mule Abides about silly names, which sort of called us out for having Uncle Junkal and Barbarella Bootay, and NPCs called Porkins and Val Kilmer. I now guess Mr. Minton was really musing about something else that he couldn't define at the time. Anyway, we all got varying levels of excited for being linked to, but indignant for being called "silly" or "not serious" and perplexed that this should be upsetting to some folks.

Out of a few emails between us all, Hazel made this statement. Now, Hazel's player had never played any RPGs before starting the Lab Lord campaign. There was no nostalgia, no notion of different editions, no idea that story and narrative and character background could be OSR blogosphere Molotov cocktails (or 1d8-damage-for-2-rounds oil flasks, or whatever).  The idea of role-playing and hanging out with friends is what was attractive about joining this campaign, and unwittingly joining the OSR (i.e., Hazel's player is Cyclopeatron's 6th Generation D&D player).

So Hazel said: 
     
"Hmm.. a guy who doesn't condone PUNS or too-silly names writing on a site titled "The Mule Abides"... hmm... "
     
Whoa, hang on a sec, let's keep it cool!...

Then Hazel wrote:
My Two Copper Pieces in Support of Our Humor

Coming into this game without any prior experience or cultural knowledge of the gaming world, I simply assumed that some amount of humor was part of a good gaming session. Not the kind of humor that would prevent other players from enjoying the game or totally undermine the rules that undergird the foundation of the game, but rather the kind of humor that is the product of invention, creativity, wit, and cunning. What drew me to trying this experience was the ability to think outside the regular boundaries of the game--the idea that I could exercise my own powers of imagination to formulate a character background (which may be more significant for Hazel as the game progresses) and offer my own ideas to any given situation, rather than simply choosing between a set of game-sanctioned possibilities.

My favorite moments of game-play have been just these kinds of moments: realizing that we could use orc-skin as a covering without needing an invisibility cloak, watching Barbarella Bootay and Innominus figure out how to take an assortment of "idle" materials the game offered us to construct lethal plans of attack, or noticing how Uncle Junkal developed his own check-list of tests and maneuvers to account for lurking contingencies.

Other things Hazel has done that might initially seem like I am thumbing my nose at serious game play--wearing a bear skin*, picking up stuff like a goblin skull, considering an Eagle Eye for my kestrel--are actually, for me, the most crucial "fun" of game-play. Yes, I like the idea of becoming a bear, but it is how I can use this costume to deceive, frighten, or protect myself from harm that motivates when I put it on. Buying some perfume after wearing the bear-skin for an extended time may be funny, but it also indicates the whole-heartedness with which I am imagining all aspects of our game-world and its effects.

I pick up random stuff because I see potential in using it later on down the road. Who knows when I might need to convince a goblin king that I have spoken to the spirits of his ancestors and bring warnings that should be heeded or when I might need to persuade a goblin-king enemy that I also hunt and kill goblins. It is the flexibility inherent in the narrative that makes the game exciting. If I had thought that the game was to be taken totally seriously, I may not have wanted to play.

This is Carter's stroke of genius. He is able to be inclusive, inviting, and creative himself, in a way that keenly responds to our improvisations and encourages us to use our own imagination. And good imagination, folks, should include constructive humor (And beer. And chips. And those curly fries.) 
[Emphases in bold were added by Spawn. The title, "My 2cp.", is the subject line of Hazel's original email, btw.]

--
The Spawn reconvenes: I'd love to try to break that down and analyze the themes that bear (no pun intended) upon topics crucial to gaming, like:

• Is narrative lacking in old school D&D?
• Should we enforce immersive play?
• Should the players' desires be accommodated? 
• Does silliness undermine the serious efforts of DMs in their epic world-building?
• Is character background development antithetical to old school gaming?
• Is D&D 5 minutes of fun packed into 4 hours?
• Is the OSR all about nostalgia, and we're just fooling ourselves into thinking we're bringing new players to the table?

... but I can't. I think Hazel's words speak to all those 'issues' (straw men though some may be). Here's a total newbie to RPGs who stayed active over the last year even when we only had 3 players and Hazel and Carter moved east and we began Skype sessions. And this is a player that isn't at all crunch-oriented, but when the enemy wizard disappears (and I, the grognard, assume the wizard has teleported away from the fight and stopped thinking about him), Hazel says "I want to fire my longbow at the position where I last saw the wizard." And rolls a natural 20, rolls d30 damage and puts an arrow through the bad-ass wizard's throat before he can incinerate us. Smart play. Relying on the strength of the imagination rather than the strength of the build, irrespective of system, here's a player that can change the game. And creates a lot of FUN doing it.

If that's not Old School then get me out of the Old School, quick.
     

*The Bear Skin: We killed a bear at one point, and Hazel kept the skin and had it preserved. Now whenever some shit is about to go down, Hazel puts on the Bear Skin. Even if a Cloak of Invisibility is going over it, Hazel wears the Bear Skin. Old School as all hell. For me, hearing "Hazel puts on the Bear Skin" is like hearing "Alright some hardcore D&D is about to happen, so get your shit together."

A Few Words About What Kind of DM I Am

I just read a really terrific post on player vs. DM expectations over at B/X Blackrazor.  Given that I am swiftly approaching the beginning of a collaboration with a new set of players, JB's thoughts about the role of the DM really struck home; I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments he expresses in that post. 

Here is a key excerpt about the role of the DM:

The DM's role, sometimes forgotten, is one of facilitator. What the DM does is facilitate this world/story/reality creation. Adventures are designed, settings are written, NPCs and obstacles placed...and then there is acting as adjudicator and referee for the players as they explore the game world. This exploration, in collaboration with everyone at the table, is what CREATES the shared environment. NOT the DM alone.

When a DM "puts on airs" and thinks he or she is wholly responsible for world creation they are deluding themselves. Pure and simple. If you want to author a world, write a book, don't play an RPG. If your players abandon your game, all the background and backstory in the world means nothing.

AND (this is the important part) if you DO allow players free reign in your carefully designed game (in other words, if you're a good and competent DM that doesn't force your players down your own linear story arcs, etc.), they are going to muck it all up. They will go "off book." They will want to push the game and exploration into areas you haven't detailed or thought of. They will not "do what you want them to."

 

I hope that my blogging for the past four months about the Lands of Ara campaign setting (which will continue into the future) has not misled anyone into thinking I am one of those "deluded," hyper-narrativist DMs.  I am definitely NOT "authoring a world" on my own here; all the information I have posted on this blog about the Lands of Ara is completely open to change once Arandish Campaign 2010 game play starts in a week and a half.  Hell, even most of the stuff I know about Ara to this point was contributed by past players, was discovered over years of game play, and was NOT invented whole-cloth by any single person, myself or otherwise.  The Lands of Ara is a collective, collaborative, ongoing creation, and I cannot wait to see what these new players will bring to the table and the game world.  Via our collective efforts and, above all, shared fun, Ara is about to experience another growth spurt.

Thanks to JB for a provocative post.

My Email Invite to New Players

A few days ago, I sent my first introductory email message to a group of eight potential players for the Arandish Labyrinth Lord Campaign 2010!  A few of these folks are veteran gamers, or people who have played RPGs in the distant past and are interested in playing again.  But I do have at least two invitees who have never played an RPG before, so I sent an email with a fair amount of explanatory language that helped reassure folks that rules-memorization and a hefty time commitment would NOT be required.  Here is the text of the email:


Hi select friends and colleagues—

I email to officially invite you to participate in a thrilling tabletop (pencil and paper) role-playing game (RPG) experience starting this coming January 2010! I will be staging an original, ongoing adventure campaign using the LABYRINTH LORD rules set, which I will briefly explain before moving into the particulars about times, dates, etc.

Without boring you with lots of background about the RPG’ing hobby, suffice to say that there is an “old-school revolution” taking place within it right now, and I am part of this renaissance. Those of us who favor the old-school approach to RPG’ing prefer the way the relatively simple role-playing games of the 1970’s and 1980’s – such as the first two published editions of DUNGEONS & DRAGONS – functioned and played, and as a result we have no truck with the newer, rules-heavy systems that have been published since the 1990s. Many of us particularly have it out for the latest (Fourth) edition of D&D, which in many ways has been designed to cater to the “World of Warcraft” and online gaming crowd: its combat rules in particular simulate the WOW online gaming experience.

Thus, many of us who prefer our RPG-ing to feel more like it did in the 1980s have turned to various “retro-clone” systems, newly published games that intentionally emulate earlier (and long out-of-print) editions of D&D. At the recommendation of my good friend Carl Nash, I have chosen LABYRINTH LORD by Goblinoid Games as the particular old-school rules emulator we will use for our upcoming game campaign.

Note: For those who know or care about gaming history, LABYRINTH LORD specifically emulates the D&D Basic and Expert Rules sets (B/X) written by Moldvay & Cook and published in 1981 – see the full TSR D&D product chronology at this link:
http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2009/09/d-product-chronology.html

In LABYRINTH LORD, there are very few rules governing what happens in play, except for certain basic dungeoneering actions (such as finding secret doors, detecting traps, etc.), combat (fighting monsters), and magic use (casting spells). Almost everything else that happens in the game is invented by the players and referee and adjudicated by the referee and the roll of the dice. For example, if your character wants to sneak up on a guard and knock him out cold with a wine bottle, there are no concrete rules nor character skills for that – the referee (me) will simply assign a probability for success based upon how you as a player describe your actions to me, then have you roll a die to determine the success (or failure) of your proposed action. Rules adjudications are made on the fly by the referee and dice rolling, which means all that you players have to do is be inventive! Any action you can dream up for your character to perform can be attempted, and there is no need to consult long lists of rules or skills because THEY DO NOT EXIST.

In fact, you do not need to know the LABYRINTH LORD rules at all in order to be a player in this game; knowing the rules is actually my job as the referee. As a player you can simply show up, allow me to assist you in the (VERY SIMPLE) task of generating a character, and then START PLAYING literally ten or fifteen minutes later. There are about six die rolls and three other decisions to make in order to generate a character, AND THAT’S IT. There is NO DISADVANTAGE in this game to NOT knowing the rules, because the rules actually cover very little of what can happen / actually does happen in game play. It is much more about role-playing and imagination than rules familiarity.

So in concrete terms, here is what I propose: that our gaming group meet once per week, on a weeknight, for approximately four hours per session. I was thinking Monday nights from 7-11pm. Players are free to jump in or out of the campaign as you please; if you cannot make (or do not wish to attend) a given session during a given week, no big deal – I am highly adept at slipping characters in and out of adventures. We should have enough players -- I am inviting nine of you in all, knowing that some of you will be sporadic participants or may say “no” outright – to maintain fairly consistent attendance within my ideal group size parameters: 3-7 players in addition to myself.

No RSVP is necessary unless (A) you know right now that you absolutely do NOT wish to participate in the game at all, or (B) you want to play but know that Monday evenings will absolutely not work for you next term. But if the scheme I have proposed more or less works for you, and if you think there is even a remote chance that you will drop in for a session and try this out, then no response to this email is needed. I will get back in touch with all of you in early January to set the exact date for the first session. (Note: you gung-ho types are welcome to start devising, rolling, and creating characters. But I will include a brief [20-minute] character creation period into the beginning of our first session in January as well.)

I concluded the email by providing links to the downloadable Labyrinth Lord core rules pdf as well as my own blog.

I think the tone of my email worked because one of my good friends and academic colleagues who has never RPG'd before told me last night that she is IN!  This is a major triumph because she is one of those folks who really gets into the spirit of whatever game she plays -- I have introduced her to Games Workshop's TALISMAN board game before -- and uses her acting skills (she is a former theater actor) to her advantage.  Just the kind of player I like, and my senses tell me she will get a really big kick out of playing Labyrinth Lord -- I know I am thrilled to have her onboard.

At this point, then, I have five confirmed players: the role-playing newbie I just mentioned, two friends who do not roleplay currently but have in the distant past, plus two folks from Carl's Mutant Future group -- Carl himself plus one other.

My biggest problem now (and what a sweet problem to have!) is limiting how many players I end up with in this thing.  For while I admire Mutant Lord Carl's ability to referee really large (10+) groups of players, I am not so sure about my own abilities / proclivities in that area.  I am actually envisioning the ideal party size for this campaign as being anywhere between 3 and 8 players -- for my own sanity I do not really want to hit double-digits.  But this means being a wee bit selective about who I ask to play, since so far even some of my "long shots" have been saying yes!  There is one other player in the Mutant Future group who leaps out as a particularly good player and who I have been wanting to ask, but I do not yet have email contact info for him and I have felt leery about verbally asking him to play in front of the whole MF group.  It may be that my strategy will continue to entail NOT plugging the LL campaign amongst the Mutant Future-ites generally, but simply letting interested parties know that if some of my other players flake out / drop out of the campaign down the line, I would certainly ask them in as replacement players.  This is tough because I hate to exclude anybody, especially given the MF group members' proven enthusiasm and creativity, but I think that's the safest route for now given that I really don't wish to exceed eight players.  Am I being too greedy?

Whatever else happens, I guess this email makes the whole thing REAL.  No backing out now!  Lands of Ara, here we come in 2010!