march fo(u)rth to the carnival!

Masque courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Happy GM's Day Carnival!  

This year, GM's Day just happens to be Mardi Gras.  Yet there is far too much earnest pontification in my newsfeed. In response, I propose a simple blog carnival with the theme of... Carnival in RPGs!  Grab the mask logo if you're joining in! Hell, get a guest writer if you don't fancy the subject material. Nobody need ever know it was you. So if you're scratching your head about what kinds of post would work here's a few ideas.

• Carnival traditions adapted for your game. Will your game have a King Momo, bands of caretos prowling the streets or a funeral for Kostroma?
• How to run a carnival-crawl.  Fine with the wandering monster checks?  The whole thing is wandering monsters! Why are they singing and dancing?  Did that orc just ask you for beads?! Even staying in one place is an adventure.
• Odd carnival masks with abilities appropriate to your game.  Magical or mundane, just make them interesting and distinctive.
• Odder characters in the carnival.  Carnival lets out some freakish stuff.  Perfectly ordinary people react in extraordinary ways.  Your party always needs to meet more freaks, probably.
• Strange happenings in the carnival.  There might be chance encounters, or something a deal more considered.  There's all kinds of random tables could come out of this one too.
• Extended carousing tables.  Face it, you've probably rolled all the entries already.  Time for your cash-laden murderhobos to go even further into uncharted territory.

Pick your system and setting.   The masquerade beckons, won't you join the dance?  You've got till midnight on Wednesday to have fun.  Or longer if your location lets you party longer.  Have at it and leave a comment with link if you're joining in the fun.

28 days later - D&D's 40th bloghop (abridged version)

Marathon blog carnivals to commemorate D&D's 40th birthday is a thing it seems.  Like the blog carnival idea. Unsure on 28 days of grognard nostalgia.  Especially as the first question ends with 'Tell Me About Your Character'.  Dyson has a point, participation without zombie mode wins.

Please feel free to use the logo opposite if you want to dig in without going the full 28 days.  Especially if you have plans for Valentine's Day that don't involve posting how you dress up in wizard's robes for your significant other. Some stuff is best left unsaid.

.

1. Who introduced you to D&D?  Which edition?  Your first character?
Leslie Ash, I kid you not. Hanging around my gran's watching Pebble Mill (proto-formulaic daytime TV) while off with flu.  This was the 1980s. Wander back from kitchen to see Leslie playing a chaotic elf fighting a skeleton in a room filling with water. Got the Moldvay Red Box soon after Created a fighter called Ironhawk, gave him chainmail, a halberd and adventurer's pack and... ended up being the DM anyway.  So it goes.

2. Who you first introduced to D&D?  Which edition?. Their first character?
My cousin, Craig, a week after I got the Red Box.  His character was a fighter with a battleaxe and shield whose name is lost to antiquity.
He discovered girls the following week so the game folded shortly after. There's something oddly symmetrical about that.

3. First dungeon you explored as a player-character or ran as a DM?
Home brewed, took stuff from Keep On the Borderlands, added in bits of Earthsea (chunks of the Tombs of Atuan) and The Hobbit.  Kept the Pebble Mill water trap with skeleton.  You don't mess with good ideas when starting out.

4. First dragon your character slew.
A young black dragon who woke up surrounded by a very nervous party.  It's dying memory was a halberd in the eye.  And that was the upper limit of 3rd level for Ironhawk for over a year...

5. First character to go from 1st edition to the highest level possible in a given edition.
Ironhawk got to 3rd level and loitered there awhile because D&D Expert set didn't hit our FLGS for months.  Meanwhile, brief flirtations with Gamma World, Traveller, Runequest 2nd ed and something called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons were afoot.  We found most players were driven off by the maths and most DMs by coming up with challenges by about 14th level.  Giants/Drow/Lolth was popular for a time as were adaptations of D&D Companion modules for AD&D and DragonLance.  The real forays into 1st - 20th didn't happen until 3.5E and a dedicated campaign based on Morrowind lead to Raziel, a half-drow rogue/assassin/shadowdancer and his allies taking on that world's tarrasque and winning.

6. First character death?  How did you handle it?
Traveller.  Never bring cloth armour and SMG to a laser carbine firefight.  Phillip, the GM saw I was less than enthused at the result.  We were all precocious gamer kids. Rest of party regrouped after medical attention, I rolled up a new PC and we kicked ass with explosives.  Healthy respect for laser weaponry since. :)

7. First D&D product I ever bought.  Do I still have it?
A much-battered Red Box.  The only physical evidence I have of it is the battered blue d8.  Everything else was dismembered by over-use or went AWOL down the years and house moves.  I do have a pocket-sized Red Box book instead now.

8. First set of polyhedral dice you owned. Do you still use them?
See question 7.  I have an eclectic collection of dice, as over the years, complete sets become incomplete. Sharing houses with cats and gamers does that to you.

9. First campaign setting (published or homebrewed) that you played in.
D&D's Known World (though it wasn't at the time) and World of Greyhawk tie on this one.  Two separate games - started at the same time.

You never forget your first...

10. First gaming magazine you ever bought.
Dragon #73.  Closely followed by White Dwarf #35.  Having recently sent a number of mistreated Dragons (no covers) to the fire, it amazed me how much of this stuff I've kept around over the years.

11. First splatbook I begged my DM to approve.
Hmmm.  When the whole splatbook thing started to become a thing for us was the Complete… books.  You could usually spot good ideas from the bad but didn't have an entire book you'd argue for.

12. First store where you bought your gaming supplies.  Does it still exist?
Games Centre in Broadmarsh.  Lasted about 3 years, then moved, then got bought by a then-growing company by the name of Games Workshop.  You may be aware of their work?

13. First miniature(s) you used for D&D
Apart from a brief flirtation with Grenadier figures back in the beginning, the figures thing didn't really take off until much later.  I have some figures, some painted, some less so.

14. Did you meet your significant other while playing D&D? Does he or she still play?
Yes and yes.  Opportunities are sparse but it still makes me smile we occasionally spend quality time by being other people.  The last D&D game we played in together, she was a half-elven spy sorceror/rogue. Parenthood has made getting time to game tricky but plans are afoot.

15. Which was the first edition of D&D you didn't enjoy? Why?
Would you believe 3rd edition?  Remove abstraction, add in attacks of opportunity AND reheat leftovers. Owning three different versions of the Axe of The Dwarven Lords, yeah, not so much.  That said, I like 3.5 and Pathfinder is my current poison.  The best thing about this was it encouraged me to go further afield.

16. Did you remember your first Edition War.  Did you win?
Yes I do.  A heated and at times, alcohol-fueled debate on the merits of 1E vs lovingly crafted homebrew system played by friends.  Nobody wins edition wars.  George Barnard Shaw's aphorism about wrestling pigs applies here.

17. First time you heard that D&D was somehow "evil".
Rona Jaffe's Mazes & Monsters lit the fuse for about a year of 'Satanic panic' which then fizzled in the face of other concerns like heavy drinking and 'the wrong crowd'.  Honestly, you just can't please some people…

18. First gaming convention you ever attended.
Beer & Pretzels was my first and that was fun.  That said, I understand organising events is tricky. Watching recent industry flailings at equality is painful.  Makes you want to do better.

19. First gamer who just annoyed the hell out of you.
Nobody's annoyed me on a molecular level at a D&D game.  Usually to annoy the hell out of me, you need to know me outside the game.  That said, I'm a believer in The Angry DM's view of cowardly characters.

It is INEXCUSABLE to bring a pacifist or a coward to a D&D game.
— The Angry DM (@TheAngryDM) November 22, 2013

My opinion of pacifist characters is uninformed, I've never seen one played longer than one session.

Or your second... 

20. First non-D&D RPG you played.
Traveller.  Minimalist, computer manualesque books in None So Black covers. First exposure to character death during generation.  Also first character death. White Dwarf made an art form of Traveller scenarios back in the day.

21. First time you sold some of your D&D books - for whatever reason.
About five years ago, I actually sold off some stuff on Ebay as we needed the space.  Prior to that, we gave our books to friends, figuring they'd get re-use and the book would get a good home.  I've found charity shops can be a little unpredictable about donations of this kind.

22. First D&D-based novel you ever read.
The first Dragonlance novel.  You could see the mechanics, the creaky characterisation.  For all it's flaws, influential among gamers.  I understand the form has moved on a bit.

23. First song that comes to mind that you associate with D&D.
Killer of Giants by Ozzy Osbourne from The Ultimate Sin.  The group I ran Giants/Drow/Lolth for used it to get into the zone and every time I hear anything from that album it brings back a wry smile.

Your tour guides to the
scenic Temple of Set

24. First movie that comes to mind that you associate with D&D? Why?
Conan The Barbarian.  Closely pursued by the Sinbad movies and Jason & The Argonauts.  There are also numerous '80s sword & sorcery flicks who have a lot to answer for.

25. Longest running campaign / group you've been in.
D&D - One group.  Membership rotates, 9-ish campaigns over 20 years with numerous one-shots/short bursts, the next generation is on it's way.

26. Do you still game with the group that introduced you to the hobby?  
Nope, people move on and move away.  It's part of life's rich tapestry.

27. If you had to do it all over again, would you do anything different when you first started gaming?
Obviously yes, hindsight is wonderful.  Finding a more organised game scene earlier would have cleared up some early confusion.  Folks these days have it much easier.

28. What's the single most important lesson you've learned from playing D&D?
Lateral thinking gets you far but not all the way.

welcome to public domain day 2014

Welcome to Public Domain Day 2014 - also, Happy New Year.

This year some of us get to use the stories of Beatrix Potter, Elinor Glyn, Radclyffe Hall and W.W. Jacobs (The Monkey's Paw). Also the songs of Lorenz Hart and Fats Waller, the music of Rachmaninoff and the science of Nikolai Tesla and George Washington Carver.  Those of you living in Canada get a field day with access to Aldous Huxley, C.S.Lewis, Sylvia Plath and Robert Frost.  Can't do anything with those?  Take a break.

This is also the first year some won't be celebrating due to changes in legislation which limit access to some works until 2019.  In the meantime, here's a PDF of the Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind by James Boyle and an in-depth paper on what Public Domain Day may achieve by Jennifer Jenkins of Duke University.

01100010 01101100 01100001 01100011 01101011 01101111 01110101 01110100

Today sections of the Internet are going dark to protest the proposed enactment of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) in US law.  This blog supports their protest but has no illusion about going dark for a day being more than adding a lone voice to the chorus of protest.

In addition, consider economic sanction against organisations endorsing both acts.  Refuse to purchase from these organisations.  Explain why you are protesting against these acts and their proponents.  Write to your local representatives and media.  Remember the customer has a voice and a choice.

"And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!"
-- Mario Savio

four hundred... and mostly harmless!

Four hundred posts?  Already??  That was a bit quicker than expected.  Things have picked up a bit lately as there's been interesting discussions in the blogosphere of late.

Have to laugh - did not anticipate a G-rating for this blog at all! Clearly widespread alcohol consumption, tales of man's inhumanity and eldritch horrors don't bother the censors much.  Still if it's good enough for Roald Dahl, it's good enough for anyone.

There's been two PDFs of inns & taverns compilations (the zaros road crawl and drinking the depths) since the last century of posts.  Other PDFs are coming.  Please do send reinforcements. 

Finally, this week is Speak Out With Your Geek Out.   Admirable stuff on accentuating the positive in our geek community.

witch alternatives: elementalist

Part of the OneBookShelf bundle for New Zealand is Advanced Feats: The Witches' Brew.  I remember that I'd mentioned an elementalist witch would be a good build and seeing this reminded me that perhaps I'd better show what I meant rather than just shoot the breeze.  The New Zealand bundle contains some excellent stuff and helps Red Cross work in Christchurch after the earthquake.


The Elementalist
This witch combines strong offensive magic with versatile hexes.  The character can heal, blast, craft potions, tattoos and wondrous items as well as summon increasingly powerful elementals and enchanting enemies.  Defensively they aren't much to write home about but this build leaves combat to those willing to get hurt.  At higher levels, the elementalist has hexes that compensate for a wizard's ability at higher levels.  While lacking in spell versatility, the elementalist does what they do well.

Race: Any.  Gnomes in particular enjoy the versatility to cajole elementals as well as crafting magical items.  Humans and half-humans (elves and orcs) enjoy the raw power that the elementalist wields and their ability to heal and wield offensive spells make witches considerabl.
Skills: Craft (Int), Intimidate (Cha), Fly (Dex), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (planes) (Int), Spellcraft (Int), Use Magic Device (Cha)
Favored Class: +1 hit point
Patron Spells: Elements
Leveling Guide:
1. Magical Aptitude feat, Slumber hex
2. Flight hex
3. Improved Initiative feat
4. Cauldron hex, Cha +1
5. Master Alchemist feat
6. Healing hex
7. Discriminating Spell1 feat
8. Tongues hex, Int +1
9. Craft Magic Tattoo feat
10. Weather Control major hex
11. Create Wondrous Item feat
12. Waxen Image major hex, Cha +1
13. Linked Resistance feat
14. Major Healing major hex
15. Empower Spell feat
16. Vision major hex, Int +1
17. Heighten Spell feat
18. Natural Disaster grand hex
19. Delay Spell feat
20. Eternal Slumber grand hex, Int +1

Spells:
1st - beguiling gift, burning hands, mage armour, obscuring mist
2nd - burning gaze, glide, levitate, summon monster II
3rd - dispel magic, lightning bolt, pain strike, water walk
4th - charm monster, ice storm, solid fog, summon monster IV
5th - hold monster, mass pain strike, suffocation, summon monster V
6th - cone of cold, eyebite, flesh to stone, summon monster VI
7th - chain lightning, control weather, plane shift, summon monster VII
8th - horrid wilting, mass charm monster, stormbolts, summon monster VIII
9th - dominate monster, elemental swarm, mass hold monster, mass suffocation

three hundred...

...as of now.  That proved the old adage the first hundred are easy what follows makes it interesting.  Now a question - what do you want?  

What I'm working on right now:

1. Putting together a PDF of selected inns & taverns and some extras with it.  Sort of a combination pub/dungeon crawl in the tradition of Griffin Mountain.  This ensures I meet the Chatty Challenge since 4E's transmogrification into Essentials derailed my sekrit project.  Barrowman! (shakes fist).
2. Exploring Gameful.  There is cool stuff and some familiar faces though the tabletop RPG enclave is a small part of a seriously cook picture.  Everything has that new paint smell and for those thinking games can change the world, it's serious gravy.  It will be interesting to see what happens next...  

Seriously, what do you want to play?

growing the hobby: kill comic book guy

Another post for this month's RPG Blog Carnival by Mad Brew Labs.  The icon of the stereotypical gamer is a Comic Book Guy splendid in his neotenic isolation.  Yet this same image is dwelled upon and the words spilled before that icon lend it unearned power.  In the absence of relevant demographic data that isn't (a) US-centric, (b) after 2004, (c) available on the Internet for others to use, then stereotyping happens. Some are funny, those living the caricature may find Jess Hartley's One Geek To Another helpful while some bad examples may appreciate Geeky Clean for Christmas in July but there is a warning even in this simple approach. 

The mind is everything.  What we think about, we become.
                                                                                       -- Buddha.

When the only mirrors you have are funhouse ones, makeovers are trying - small wonder the community has an image problem!  Be it a 'hurt & rescue' sales strategy, face-saving exercise over past failures to connect or only satire, emphasising your own flaws erodes confidence and shows insecurity. For the silent majority blessed with normal hygeine such diatribes get old.  These iconoclasts have careers ranging from soldier to movie star, disposable income and some even have families and children.

So, let's accentuate the positive for a change.  The tabletop gamer is a social animal, task-oriented with a mile-wide creative streak and imagination to burn.  They are passionate fans, willing to travel far for a game and naturally congregate in small groups.  They are conversant with Internet technologies, some are avid collectors.  They are discerning innovators, vocal if they see something out of line and willing to brainstorm solutions.  Like any other customer group, treat them with respect to return intense brand loyalty.  If these sound like nightmarish clients, maybe it's time to rethink your business plan.  Be assured, someone wants them as they've helped seed enterprises and franchises worth millions.  Some of which you will have heard of.

Appendix A: Typical Gamers (roll 1d20, re-roll if you get a duplicated result).

1. Biker
2. Trainer in IT/social media
3. Volunteer group CEO
4. Lawyer
5. Porn star
6. Dating expert
7. Firefighter
8. Librarian
9. College student
10. Banker
11. Mum
12. Metalhead
13. IT + A/V Technician
14. Software Developer
15. Jazz/Blues guitarist
16. Research Assistant
17. Copywriter
18. Computer game designer 
19. Teacher
20. Marketer

Each and all of these people are more interesting to deal with than the CBG who, for us at least, is the worst. stereotype. ever.   So please, let's move on shall we?

growing the hobby: play me

This month's RPG Carnival (courtesy of Mad Brew Labs) is about growing the hobby.  One thing Wizards of the Coast have got mostly right is D&D Encounters - where game shops host games to give a taste of what kind of fun 4th edition is.  Some FLGS understand running games help foster a community of customers - if they've got the floorspace - and in some cases they have gone even further and organised events.  Wizards have understood making the play experience easy to get into, it's unusual more companies haven't picked up on this.  Even more curious is that for conventions events can run up to 4+ hours.  This is good for a stable group, bad for encouraging the casual gamer. 

Compare this with D&D Encounters which has a two-hour duration and publicity from it's business sponsor (always a smart move).  That's roughly equivalent to a football (or soccer, depending on geography) match.  The characters are pre-generated, everything is kept simple and encounters are designed to play to character strengths.  While Wizards have used Wednesdays for D&D Encounters, there are fans of 4E who can't make it then.  With at least four other days in the week, there are options for other sessions - heck, even other companies - to get a word in.  Those FLGS working seven day weeks have even more options - and if you've published, then why not support your product?

The second Read An RPG Book In Public is coming soon.  Is there mileage in a Play An RPG in Public beyond YouTube hijinks?  While I'll be participating in the Read, I'll also consider taking it further... So to wind things up, here's a couple of questions for you to comment on - as comment is free!

• What would you need to run a demo game at a local FLGS?
• What incentive do publishers need to produce demo material to compete with D&D Encounters?

changing the world one game at a time

Though this video focuses on WOW, it's relevant because if you think of the amount of time spent on RPGs, we should be ready for just about anything.

prese prese!

This weekend is your last chance!

...to donate through the OneBookShelf Gamers Help Haiti program.
For your donation, you receive a huge amount of stuff including 3:16, Classic Spycraft, The Desire, No Dignity In Death: The Three Brides, Pathfinder Condition Cards, Serenity RPG, The Kerberos Club, Kobold Quarterly 11 (reviewed here) and lots of counters, terrains and tokens for any system you can think of. Obsidian Portal are also offering a $100 certificate prize if you re-tweet it.

...to go to the Helping Haiti Heal page. If you're a Harry Potter fan, you probably want to go here; lots of stuff (Potter and otherwise). Even if you aren't, the chance to get signed books by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett and movie memorabilia is available.

In the words of the Governator "Go! Now!!"

snark attack

"Just the place for a Snark! I have said thrice: What I tell you three times is true."
         -- The Bellman, The Hunting of The Snark (C.S. Lewis).

Snark is a portmanteau of snide remark and widely prevalent in certain circles.  It's origins in classic literature, subversive humour, puns and wordplay has seen it mistaken for wit and incubated exponentially by Internet semi-anonymity.  It intends to ridicule the envied or mock those perceived with too high esteem by re-hashing 'received wisdom' laced with attribution errors and anodynes for cognitive dissonance.  Methods used include low-brow humour, sly sarcasm and indirect derision rather than evidence or facts, relying on in-jokes and cliques built on taboo behaviour towards enviable success.  It caricatures indiscriminately, believing only the worst and attacks traditional values without offering viable alternatives.

Snark is a method of control, a normative process that like Procrustes, maims those failing to fit the hospitality of it's exponents.  Snark feeds the Dog In The Manger inside us on dirt, schadenfreude and vitriol.  Aristotle (in Politics) and Livy (in The History of Rome) tell how those in charge advise to weed out the pre-eminent to stay in control.  Livy's story inspired the observation of tall poppy syndrome.  Another expression of snark sentiment is Janteloven (Jante Law) or in Swedish, Jantelagen.  This is based on Scandanavian small town mentality and explained marvellously in this video.  .


Individual motives behind snark indicate a need to level social capital and equally to deny the pleasure found in others.  Snark attempts to express a perception of standards or need for appreciation at the expense of others.  It implies a competitive zero-sum mentality similar to that found in a bucket of crabs; this competitive streak is prevalent in those used to insider jokes and indirect humour. 

What is said reveals as much about the speaker as the subject.   In forming social contracts, is the need to normalise or identify needs worth offending or alienating people who you're spending time with?  Wanting to get things done or to be liked is reasonable. Being a jerk to communicate or meet those needs is less so.  Are you good company or is it guilt by association?

toolkit: zero sum

Zero sum is where loss or gain is exactly balanced between all participants. If one person gains, then one or more others lose out. This posits a finite resource e.g. a magical sword that must be wielded by a king confers kingship on it's wielder (even if it's no basis for stable government) or a hierarchy (beauty contests or asking a magic mirror to find who's the fairest of them all).

Competition or conflict occurs if there is a need for the resource or to be top of the hierarchy - how the competition or conflict takes place and who wins depends on factors like location, timing, individual or social attributes and opportunity. Inclusion and providing frontiers provides explosive growth as exclusion and barriers lead to loss and recession.

Where there is a finite resource but enough for others to achieve their objective, zero sum may lead to a social trap as multiple parties exploit an available resource for short term gain but then loses out in the long run as that resource vanishes; this can be simulated with a bowl of snacks. When they're gone, they're gone unless they can be renewed. Then the game starts over again.

Making zero-sum situations enjoyable depends on a social contract - perhaps the prototypical social contract. Participation may provide benefits and more often the cliche of 'it's the taking part that counts' and experience through failing to gain those benefits. A zero-sum game where everyone wins assumes limited benefit for all participants leading to the prisoner's dilemma.

Where there are a multitude of new frontiers and niches for self-expression and advantage, there is a shift in values and a sudden wealth of opportunities to gain social capital. Evaluation of such gains challenges previous perceptions of social capital and the lines have to be re-drawn; one example of this is Elizabethan England where new frontiers changed how things were seen.

I've touched on discovering new frontiers before though some would argue that exploitation of those new frontiers means it's just a bigger zero-sum proposition. While it could be argued that if you're going to win, win big there is a cost in doing so. By expanding the winner's circle there is greater gain for others though it means you have to redefine success along the way.

One way is to celebrate the accomplishments of other participants. Another is to positively recognise what is done well and compassionately suggest successful strategies. Yet another is to increase the intrinsic value of participation so those who take part gain something more from it than just the taking part.

hiroshima and hibakusha

Hiroshima was the first city subjected to nuclear warfare on 6th August 1945 at 08:15am when the atomic bomb Little Boy was dropped by the US aircraft Enola Gay and detonated about 600m over the city with the force of 110 kilotons of TNT in a 1 mile blast radius and a firestorm that spread over 4.4 miles caused by heat, light and radiation.

The estimated population of Hiroshima was 250,000. Of that, 80,000 died instantly from the blast and another 70,000 injured. Burns, radiation and related diseases led to a death toll exceeding 90,000 by the end of 1945. Last year the toll was over 258,000 deaths. 69% of buildings were destroyed with 6.6% more severely damaged by the explosion.

Sixty-four years later, the city continues to campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons.

The hibakusha ('explosion-affected people') were those survivors of the nuclear incidents at both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They face discrimination due to ignorance about radiation sickness and it's related conditions, often being declined employment due to their status and some hibakusha prefer not to declare their status to receive benefits for fear of discovery of their status since there are erroneous beliefs about contamination through the blood.

The average age of the hibakusha is about 73. Their descendents are also considered hibakusha and their legacy of radiation-related conditions continue so the number of dead now exceeds the original population of Hiroshima. The recollections of Miyoko Matsubara, a hibakusha who refused to go to the States for surgery is a chilling account of the explosion. Others can be found on the web but all are not easy to take in.

Not all hibakusha were Japanese either. A surprising number of Korean and Chinese were also affected by the explosion - about one in seven of those killed as a result of the Hiroshima explosion were Korean. They faced difficulties in getting recognition for their suffering until recent lawsuits began to address this. Unlike people, the bomb didn't discriminate.

The Hiroshima Maidens were twenty-five young women among the hibakusha whose bodies were affected by the blast. The dark patterns on their clothes were burned into their skins, their faces twisted by keloid scarring and hands crooked into claws. Ten years later they travelled to the United States for extensive reconstructive surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York which helped to rebuild their bodies.

During this time their public appearances raised awareness of the impact of nuclear weaponry; one of the most shocking was the NBC show 'This Is Your Life' where two hibakusha were hidden behind screens 'to prevent embarrassment' and compere Ralph Edwards brought out Lt. Robert Lewis, co-pilot of the Enola Gay to give a brief speech. He later committed suicide after being institutionalised due to guilt and depression.

toolkit: maslow's hierarchy of needs

Abraham Maslow described a model of behaviour based on a humanist point of view and was innovative in that it was one of the first models for positive mental health rather than for ill or aberrant personalities. This hierarchy of needs is prioritised by five levels of need.

1. Physiological (breathing, food/drink, environmental comfort, sex)
   
2. Safety (body, family, health, morality, property, resources)
   
3. Belonging/Love (family, friendship, intimacy)
   
4. Esteem (achievement, confidence, respect, self-esteem)
   
5. Self-Actualisation (acceptance, creativity, morality, problem solving, spontaneity)
   

People put things at the top of the hierarchy at a greater priority to the ones below. Also note the presence of morality in both self-actualisation and safety. The former shows a proactive approach, the latter more reactive and in context dealing with a situation where that morality comes under threat. his model can be applied into two obvious areas:

• Character Motive - These needs feature significantly in human behaviour and can be applied to your character (writing from an alien or non-humanist perspective can skew these priorities) and why they do what they do. It takes some significant threats for enemies to work together; any/all of the physiological needs will do so.
  
• Plot Hooks - Attracting the interest of your audience (who are usually human) means giving them something they can relate to. These hooks can prioritise perspective and even colour participation. The safety of family can cause someone to turn against a lover, especially if they're the ones threatening them.
  

The interface between plot and character can lead to that sweet spot of engagement with both character and plot. The hierarchy of needs provides a handy point of reference if you wonder if something is going to matter. Obviously like all tools, there are things it's good at and things where other methodologies apply. That said, most people work from a humanist perspective.

(Inspired by this blog post.)

tyranny, self-entitlement & getting over it all

I want all of you boys to be able to look me straight in the eye one more time and say: "ARE WE HAVING FUN OR WHAT?" -- Top Dollar, The Crow.

Ever get into one of those dialogues where you don't want to say anything but know that you'll have to? There's been recent themes in my blogosphere of late. First - a so-called tyranny people submit to when they experience a game or story - an interesting point-of-view. Tyranny implies an arbitrary or brutal exercise of power, abuse of authority, severity and oppression.

When you hear this phrase being applied to concepts like fun, the role of an author/game master or participant then you consider what boundaries of trust or consensual play have been violated. The concept of social contract (discussed here) means participants need to be honest with each other - an honesty oft set aside in the name of compromise or social fallicies.

Your time is important. It's non-renewable. Getting an invitation to 'Titanic' to discover you've arrived in 'Mega-Shark vs. Giant Octopus' will annoy. Communication and effective feedback is essential. Keep with what you like and acknowledge when it doesn't inspire. Speak up - you're with friends (or people with a common hobby) so why suffer in silence?

That said, who wants to be an ass? Consider how you'd respond if your statements were made to you. Think about the words you're using before going as a friend of mine puts it 'all bardic vomit'. Give respect and you'll get it back. It's really that simple. Tactful suggestions on how it might go better can help steer people towards greatness.

Secondly is the opinion tabletop RPGs are doomed. This particular saw has been played since the 1990s by people who fear their hobby will fold in the face of large-scale collector games or computer-based gaming. The latest view is customers are so cheap that when they can find free alternatives, they do so, rather than spend money on merchandise that can be hard to find.

This pessimism is taking the industry further away from it's audience. It implies a basic lack of respect about the product and it's seller. So is complaining about how hard it is to make it in the hobby today, about which version is best, or how it doesn't fit your vision of the ideal game even though they make blog content. You might have to move on. You might have to get smart.

Choose carefully - remember your time is important. And if you think your audience or peers are petty, self-entitled whiners you may be in the wrong business or peer group. I'd rather be with a bunch of discerning, creative enthusiasts. I know they're out there. So do they - and I don't have to insult or litigate against them to get them to listen. Does that count for something?

You might even want to look at how people who are making it in the environment are going on. In closing - a video of a presentation by Mike Masnick of Techdirt.com on a case study featuring Trent Reznor, Jonathan Coulton and others who have realised that it's now about the patronage of the customer. It's a bit lengthy - start from 02:30 if your time is short - but worth it.

P.S. By the way...
Have you?

steel, steam and spit

This month's RPG Carnival is hosted by Mad Brew Labs and deals with steampunk and klokwerks. Some have noted steampunk seems to comprise two divergent streams - the utopian steam-based science and dystopic punk social dynamics; you can mention Gibson & Sterling's The Difference Engine, Moore & O'Neill's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. You may even mention the movie Wild Wild West (or it's TV inspiration) without too many outraged looks - alright, maybe that last is a bit... colonial. You get the idea.

While there is plenty of the steam, there is not so much about the punk elements - a shame because there is an awful lot to rage against for any subversive. The historic eras that steampunk draw on were times of massive social upheaval and reform.

How do you consider poverty caused by massive industrialisation leading to slum living? Or the rocketing abuse of gin and opium? Maybe prostitution and the hypocrisy of the public towards the 'unfortunates' who were committed to asylums to reform or being subjected to humiliating inspections by public officials if suspected of having an STI?

Or child labour and exploitation? How about the conflict between creationism and evolution? And the rise of feminism and the suffragette movement? All at the same time? The enforced social mores and repressed conservative attitudes yield much for punk ideologies and ethos to illustrate and attack - whether it be Fabian ideals, patriotic socialism or an alternate morality.

A sense of manifest destiny grants divine right to conquer and exploit in the name of your nation, God, Reason or Progress. Ugly? Industrialisation isn't always pretty. Finding the focus on technological marvels lets us embrace a sense of wonder inspired by Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Yet there is a darker edge to steampunk, dealing with social ills that still hang over us.

on genre death, means & ends and industry

Let’s start to look at ourselves and let’s stop characterising ourselves as a besieged minority: we are connected by an umbilical cord which is unbreakable to every huge movement in the workings of theology and philosophy – the labours of the imagination as far back as we know how to look.

-- Clive Barker, speech at Fantasycon 2006, Nottingham

Think on that a moment then consider the following...

There is a glossary of terms to be found at Amagi Games that helps capture the means and ends we aspire to by experiencing drama, playing games, gambling and performance - yet we can aspire to greater things than even these. Games with social consequence beyond the footprint it takes up to prep and run and experience, be it via giving a share of profits to a good cause or getting people to brainstorm on real-world issues while having fun at the same time.

Delta's D&D Hotspot posts that it's not all about fun. He posits that fun is not the only fruit (to borrow from Jeanette Winterson) and that catharsis is perhaps a better aim, preferring to follow an Aristotlean approach. I'm more pluralist. Why not let yourself have all the flavours at your table - including fun - and choose what you want according to your mood?

Onto a wonderful counterpoint by JoeTheLawyer (with props to taichara for the pointer) on why the Old School Renaissance is about emotion. Emotion is one of the key drivers behind the RPG blogosphere (along with creativity and it's talkative friend, rumour). The appearance of 4E and other books on bestseller lists indicates a beseiged minority label may no longer fit us; it's time to get a new coat that fits us better.

And if your coat is fine, then your attitude may be next...

torture - not fluffy bunnies

This post is a counter-rant to this one, posted in response to this one. And because I see flames in the future, I'm putting up a picture of Johnny Cash special. It has been argued that the presence of torture in games and stories is disturbing and done for tittilation.

To which I say: No.

The presence of torture in story can be traced long way back - by TV Tropes terms it's older than dirt. Before Hans Christian Andersson and the Brothers Grimm, before Scherezade's 1001 Arabian Nights. Yesterday was St. George's Day (patron saint of England etc. and dragonslayer) who was tortured before being executed for his beliefs, along with so many other martyrs.

There are inevitably real-world parallels and inspirations. Spanish and European inquisitions, the witch hunt and ordeals outlined in the Malleus Malificarium, the courts of the Yellow Emperor and Genghis Khan, trials by ordeal in Saxon and medieval European courts and just about anywhere that humanity has demonstrated it can be inhuman.

In literature you've got Poe's The Pit & The Pendulum, Orwell's 1984, Dumas' The Man in The Iron Mask, C.S. Lewis' The Horse and His Boy and numerous others including A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin where the character of the Tickler is particularly reviled.

In cinema, you've got examples in Braveheart, Casino Royale, Conan the Barbarian, Flash Gordon, Pan's Labyrinth, Rambo II and III, Reservoir Dogs, Spartacus, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, The Matrix (Morpheus' interrogation by Smith)The Passion of the Christ, The Princess Bride, V for Vendetta, adaptations of the previous novels and yes, the Saw films.

In television, torture is also used. 24 has Jack Bauer commiting atrocities on people (is it me or has Dick Cheney got 24 confused with real life?). Alias has numerous examples involving Jack Bristow, the new Battlestar Galactica uses it on both humans and Cylons. Jean-Luc Picard suffers ordeals yet holds out against the Cardassians in Star Trek: Next Generation. Firefly sees Malcolm Reynolds tortured to death and back again by Adelai Nishka, Lost sees Sawyer get tortured by the islanders and Xena, Warrior Princess was crucified by order of Julius Caesar.

Do any of these glorify or glamourise torture? No. Even in the Saw films, Jigsaw's fiendishness is the lashing out of a terminally sick craftsman with a broken moral compass; his apprenticeships are by ordeal, not initiations into justice as he attempts self-justification of his actions.

Are these compelling stories? Probably. You've heard of them, haven't you?

Finally, I have to include a link to Amnesty - because this story isn't over yet...

game design, ARGs, social capital and social footprints

The concept of social footprint (as defined in Story Games) is the amount of time and effort you put into something to achieve enjoyment. While the discussion goes into the time spent around set up times, the appeal of games and whether what you get out of them is worth what you put in, whether that's fun, emotional validation and catharsis or gaining a greater insight into the people you play with.

There is of course an alternative definition, that of how much input is needed to make a sustainable or socially-responsible action take place. Social capital lets individuals and groups take effective action via social networks and shared knowledge. They can be contributions to other programs or institutions that provide resources and services available to individuals or groups. So if you click on a link it contributes to a charity.

Another example would be a shared wiki, where people who have access can add their own knowledge which may benefit participants in turn.

"All well and good but what has this to do with stories, games or even alternate reality games?"

A fair question - look at how alternate reality games discuss issues like conflicts around oil (like Exeo Inc for THQ's Frontlines: Fuel of War) and future designs like Superstruct, where ideas are sought from participants on the design of the future. Are the ideas generated being acted on in some manner or being examined outside of the context of the games in question? It may sound fantastic, inspiration can come from some very strange sources and player demographics reveal a surprisingly varied range of disciplines and professions.

Would it be cool to combine the game definition with the social responsibility and benefits definition? Apart from giving a percentage of profits to charity, also providing a shared pool of knowledge and benefits as well as the social capital of positive experiences and additional 'insider' benefits. Over time, these benefits may feed out to the public domain so that the game or story attracts audience by virtue of the information that's held within the public domain or even within the shared area.

Building this kind of thing into design precepts may not be the easiest experience though it would certainly be rewarding. And if you're going to offer an in-game experience, it is good to make the experience a positive one. Questions of legality, intellectual property rights, morality and ethics may raise their head depending on what kind of game or story you're trying to tell as participants may seek to leverage things to their advantage.

This is a big challenge. Who's up for it?