Planet Stories

The Evil DM is putting out the call to all fans of pulp adventure to check out Paizo's Planet Stories line of new books. These are reprints of classic sword-and-sorcery or sword-and-planet or just fun adventure stories. Among them, you'll find the heirs of Conan, like Elak of Atlantis, and the forebear of Han Solo, Northwest Smith. (And doesn't that name also remind you of another character Harrison Ford played, Indiana Jones?)

Sorry about not mentioning this earlier. I keep forgetting that most folks don't hang out with people who live, eat, and breath books like this. Bad Trollsmyth! No cookie!

Up a Tree Without a Machine Gun. Ho-ho-ho!

Mr. Colville has posted the next installment of his series on the Pillars of Game Story.

A common mistake among GMs, at least a mistake I made commonly as a GM, is to set the PCs free upon the world and let them come up with their own motivations. I thought this empowered them. I thought this was forward-thinking, liberal…democratic.

It’s crap. We need boundaries in order to understand our options. Players want the illusion of freedom, but before they can appreciate it, they need to be forced into action. It’s all very well and good to ask the players what they want to do, but the players need a framework to understand their options. When you chase them up a tree, when you force them to react to you, you can thereafter give them a variety of options and they now have a framework for understanding the meaning of their options.

I've argued repeatedly for "situation" over "story". However, when I do, I also mean that conflict should be flying all over the place when the PCs arrive, and some of it should land on the PCs if at all possible. That's part of the situation. Yes, there might be an equilibrium of forces for the PCs to upset. But that doesn't mean life is boring and static before they ride into town. Just like the village in Yojimbo, "balance" doesn't necessarily mean "tranquil", no matter what those stoner druids try to tell you.

Remembering White Dwarf

Over on his blog The Silver Key, Brian Murphy is reminiscing about the White Dwarf magazine of yesteryear:

Pre-issue 100, White Dwarf was a fantastic magazine. Whereas Dragon very quickly evolved into a house organ for TSR and later Wizards of the Coast, and eventually covered strictly D&D, White Dwarf was a rarity in that it covered all role-playing games. Within its pages you could find articles on Dungeons and Dragons sandwiched in between Runequest columns, Call of Cthulhu adventures, Champions role-playing advice, and Traveler comics.

I also have fond memories of Dragon before it became the marketing mouthpiece of TSR. Those magazines seem to be something lost to the past, though Kobold Quarterly seems to be trying to resurrect at least some of their appeal. Still, that was a different time, when Katherine Kerr could write an article on the care and upkeep of medieval European castles and nobody would question its inclusion in a magazine about pen-and-paper RPGs.

Yeah, I'm an old fart. Now get the hell off my lawn! ;D

The Pillars of SquareMans

There's a new blog on the block and it looks like a winner. SquareMans is a blog about politics and gaming, a combination I mostly avoid on this blog, but hey, both are fun, so why not?

Matthew Colville pays the bills with his game master skills. He's a writer and designer in the computer gaming hobby. On his new blog, he's begun discussing what he calls the Five Pillars of Game Story. He's posted on two so far.

The first, entitled The Plan (scroll down if you don't see anything, the formatting on his page seems to be a bit wonky just yet), refers to what he calls the False Backbone. This is the plan of the villain, or more basically, what will happen if the heroes don't get involved. Game happens when the players start mucking with the False Backbone. They try to foil the villain's plans or save the villagers from the erupting volcano or whatever. The important realization here is that play happens when the players begin to derail things. Stuff not happening according to plan is not what makes play stop, it's when play really gets going. I think Mr. Colville and I might disagree a bit on this. You can, after all, have the "True Backbone" be firmly plotted branches off the False Backbone. I find that sort of thing icky, but it's considered necessary in todays computer gaming market.

He then goes on to discuss the Central Conflict in Ptolus is Fucking Big. The Central Conflict isn't necessarily the ones the players are focusing on, though it has an impact on what they are doing. In "Gone With the Wind", the Central Conflict might be the Civil War, but Scarlett is much more focused on Rhett. Likewise, in "Return of the Jedi", the Central Conflict is the war between the Empire and the Rebellion. But Luke, while engaged in that struggle himself, is focused on the personal struggle to redeem his father.

Read them both. They're interesting and thought-provoking, and both look like fun things to play with in your game.

The OGL is NOT Dead

But it's also not being allowed to go up a level.

The new licensing agreement that goes with D&D 4.0 is now the Game System License, or GSL. What does this mean? Well, first, everyone who was confused into thinking that the 3.0 OGL applied to anything in 4th edition will finally be shut down. I hope.

Yeah, I know, people will still be confuzzled. Oh well...

Second, well, we don't know exactly what else this might mean, because everyone who's seen the GSL is still under NDA. But from what WotC has let out, the GSL will only allow you to reference the core rulebooks, but not reprint any material in them. What does that mean? That means, the GSL will allow you to make supplementary material for D&D 4.0. You can make splatbooks and adventures. However, you cannot make a brand new, stand-alone game. No Conan, True20, Mutants & Masterminds, or Traveller d20 based on the D&D 4.0 engine.

Does that mean those games go away? No. As each currently exists, they are based on D&D 3.x's OGL, which is still in force. It means the games cannot be rewritten with direct reference to bits in the 4.0 books, however. So now the world of d20 gaming bifurcates. On one path, we have D&D 4.0. On the other, we have products descended from D&D 3.x's OGL.

This poses all sorts of interesting questions. Can games like Conan, True20, M&M, and others survive without riding on D&D's coattails? That depends on the game. Honestly, I think all three of those can do just fine without D&D. They've got a good fanbase now, and all three can be grown with or without support from the companies that created them. After all, Star Frontiers seems to still have a strong and loyal fanbase even though the rulebooks have been out of print for twenty years or so now. There's no reason to think these other games couldn't fare just as well, if not better.

And D&D 4.0? Well, I dunno, honestly. It really depends on how much synergy was created between the various games. I think this isn't as big a fumble as limiting who can publish new material for 4.0 when it's first released. But I think that fumble will come back to bite them. How hard? I can't say. But right now, I'm expecting a very strong 3.x community to exist well into 2009.

A Less Positive Dragonlance Movie Review

Rygar of Gax (now does that sound like the name of a D&D fighter or what) sends us this review of the new Dragonlance Animated movie. Not only did he not like the art, he was annoyed with how they chose to retell the story.

For those of you who read the book this will make sense. Would it still be sneaking into Xak Tsaroth if they didn't have the fight in the cauldron elevators? Would it be the same if they just walked straight up to the dragon's horde and rifled through it for the Disks of Mishakal while the dragon was sleeping, without even sneaking at all to get there in the first place?

What about the companions assault on Pax Tharkas? Would it be the same without sneaking in through the tunnels and being attacked by a group of banshees? Would it be the same if they just walked straight into the prison cells and walked back out again?

All the really cool fights inthe book are completely missing in this movie. None of the major points in the movie have the slightest bit of anticipation or risk associated with them.

Not promising, and I'm not getting any sort of vibe on how it's selling, but so far, I'd be shocked if a sequel ever got made.

Hafta Beat it off with a Wooden Stick

Is it a heapin' helpin' of bad-wrong fun? Yep, it's that, too. But it's also another angle on the reasons why I probably won't be playing D&D 4.0.

Does WotC Need to Reroll Their (Digital) Initiative?

Faerie Dragon over at the Velvet Dicebag isn't happy about what's happened to Dungeon magazine since WotC took it back from Paizo.

I'm really getting concerned. If the magazines don't stop completely sucking really soon, I may have to abandon Dungeons & Dragons Insider completely. I don't want to be the crazy conspiracy theorist, but some of the anti-4e crazies are beginning to make me think twice about even buying into the new core books. The dismal failure of the online mags to shine only reinforces that. I hope Chris manages to turn these publications around soon.

I have to agree with Faerie Dragon. So far, WotC’s digital initiative has been an unmitigated disaster. They are not selling 4.0 very well. They’re selling D&D Insider with even less skill. Frankly, the entire situation has me scared spitless.

Let’s be honest here: where goes D&D, there goes pen-and-paper RPGs. It’s the 500 lbs gorilla that dominates this market. It’s also the public face of the hobby. D&D has far more name recognition than any other game out there, or even the term “roleplaying”. And yet, turning that command into steady income seems to be beyond most people. TSR even managed to drive themselves deep into the red while owning this most powerful brand in the hobby.

WotC’s digital initiative is an attempt to break free of the publish-or-perish trap the entire industry is mired in. Trying to squeeze a few more pennies out of your market every month, after they’ve bought everything they need to enjoy playing for the rest of their lives in your core rule books, is a losing game. A D&D Insider with a $10 US monthly fee would allow WotC to break free of that trap. They could transform themselves from a publishing company into a service company, which would not only free them from the compulsion to bury their game in an endless stream of new rules and settings, but would also realign their interests with the interests of their customers. Right now, WotC wants to sell books. Their audience wants to play games. With D&D Insider, the WotC focus moves from selling books to getting more people playing the game more often.

It’s clear that Dragon and Dungeon are not getting the resources they need at this critical time when they should be migrating the dead-tree audience over to the digital media. They’re not getting the word out about how the new edition of the game is going to knock everyone’s socks off. And nobody is being convinced that D&D Insider is going to be a vital part of their games in the future. So far, we’ve been promised a fancy version of OpenRPG, and we’ve seen an anemic Dragon and a shadow of Dungeon. If things don’t turn around soon, GenCon ’09 might open with the announcement that D&D is up on the auction block.

And look! *More* 4e!

Here's a brief GamerZero interview with Sara Girard, Associate Brand Manager for D&D. Mostly, they discuss a philanthropic digital initiative to get kids into libraries. However, they also discuss exposing some folks to 4th edition at the D&D Experience convention in February. There's also a shot of the digital tabletop at about 1:17 that's just gorgeous. They're clearly putting a lot of work into making it an exceptional gaming tool, and not just your usual quick-and-dirty line-map thing.

Why You Might Want to Play D&D 4.0

So the other day I pointed out why I probably won't be playing D&D 4.0. However, that doesn't mean I feel the game will be utterly without merit. It just isn't likely to float my boat. You, however, are not me, and we're all about serving the reader here at Trollsmyth.

John Rogers, a professional writer for comics and screen, is a play-tester for D&D's 4th edition, due to be released in June. He's recently posted his thoughts on the game at ENWorld. Among other things, he notes:

I think the reason there's so much buzz around 4E combat is because that's where the most massive fun-change has come in, and so it naturally dominates discussion and perception. By the time my NDA playtest group got through our first session, we'd (unintentionally) fought three massive combats in one four hour session, many multiple opponents each time. When we finished we all kind of sat back, glassy-eyed, and went "wow." Except for the rogue. He was punching the air and cackling "More stabby! MORE STABBY!"

Because 3E combat had gotten so ... er .. gunky, combat's the first thing you notice when playing 4E. It's hard not to talk about it. A bit like if you bought a new car and got it up to 250 mph. The fact that it has a great interior, amazing safety features and a kick-butt stereo never really comes up in your first conversations about the car.

This is probably among the most informative things we've heard about the game. While others have made similar comments in the past, I believe Mr. Rogers is the first who does not stand to make any money from D&D.

Mr. Rogers has touched on a vital point for the success of D&D 4.0, I think. 3.x is slow, which is bad enough if you're a teenager with lots of time on your hands. It's a game-killer if you're middle-aged, with a job and spouse and kids and home. A quicker, sleeker game is vital for the aging RPG market. And it works great with their online gaming tools. In 3.x, if you can't devote a three or four-hour chunk of time to gaming, you might as well not bother. But with the virtual table-top and a "clean" (to use John Rogers' word) game system, it might make sense for my friends and I to log on for two or so hours on Tuesday and Thursday nights, after the kids are tucked in, for a bit of quick gaming. No fuss about driving across town, no need to find a four to six-hour block of time in our busy lives. We can log in, have some fun, and log off, which for me is about the only benefit MMOGs have over pen-and-paper gaming.

And I imagine I'm not the only one who feels that way.

Combine this with products like Paizo's adventure paths, which give us a textured, complex, more story-like experience without the DM needing to quit his day job, and you've got a winning combination for lots of fans of gaming who have been forced to abandon the hobby because they simply can't make the time for it.

Dragonlance Movie Review

I haven't had a chance to see it yet, but some reviews are starting to roll in. Here's one from "That Guy's Blog" that sums up my expectations:

The voice acting was superb, as was the score. The animation however I felt fell a little flat. The dragons were all computer generated and imposed on the traditional cell animation for the rest of the characters. The cell animation is where I found fault, as it didn’t seem sharp at all. At times it was blurry and even appeared to suffer from ghost images.

I'll link to more reviews as I see them, and hopefully I'll have a review of my own before too much longer.

Iconic Wallpapers

I'm loving the iconic characters Paizo has created for their Pathfinder and Dungeon Mastery series. The latest, Lem, can be found at the Paizo blog if you scroll down to January 22nd. Yeah, some of the write-ups have been horribly cliched, but Lem's among the best of 'em. Wayne "he's everywhere" Reynolds art really brings these folks to life. His attention to detail is amazing. I love how Lem's flute is not just a stick of wood with some holes in it, how his garments are layered, the jangle of jewelry around his neck, and that lovely, slightly snarky, slightly sweet expression on his face. This is one bad-boy halfling, who'll have you thinking his heart belongs only to you, but won't be calling back for months at a time. He reminds me very much of, for some reason, of Carla Speed McNeil's Finder.

It's interesting to see the different styles that Mr. Reynolds paints in. Typically, when you're presented with an artists work, you have a fairly good idea what you're going to get. Mr. Reynolds, however, seems to be fairly wide-ranging in his styles. His "wall-of-action" pieces for Eberron had a very strong comic-book-action vibe to them. His Paizo work has less of that, and more of a "you are there" air that reminds me of Elmore, Parkinson, and Jim Holloway.

If skimming through the Paizo blog doesn't give you enough good Pathfinder art to drool over, check out the fan-made desktops in this thread on the Paizo boards.

Why I Won't be Playing D&D 4.0

This isn’t a blanket condemnation of D&D’s 4^th edition. Just further realization on my part that D&D just isn’t where I’m going these days with my gaming. This latest revelation was instigated by this description of magic item slots in 4^th edition. Apparently, in 4^th edition you can’t use magic rings until your character reaches 11^th level.

This really rubs me the wrong way. And I know I’m being silly, and I understand why they’re doing this. This is the natural outgrowth of the CR system. In order to accurately judge what sort of challenges the PCs can tackle, the designers need a relatively accurate idea of what the PCs are capable of. Saying things like, “just hand out fewer magical items” doesn’t cut it. If your PCs don’t get the right magical items at the proper levels, they’ll fall out of sync with the CR system. The CR system is a triangle of relationships, PCs to monsters to treasure, that work in tight partnership to ensure proper challenge and proper reward at every stage of the game.

And this is what makes me cranky, especially as a DM. In order for this very cool “aid” to building adventures to work, I have to essentially let the folks in Seattle tell me what monsters I can use, and what treasures those monsters can be guarding. Yes, I can ignore that and do whatever I want, since it’s my game. But if I do, first, I’m utterly tossing out the CR system, which is one of the big selling points of the modern incarnations of D&D. Second, if my players have played a lot of D&D 3.x, they come to my table with certain expectations. One of those is that the CR system will be in place. Even if I tell them it won’t be, they won’t really listen. They’ll make decisions based on all the assumptions about challenges and resource management that go along with CRs.

This annoys me, because we didn’t use to play this way. Please indulge me while I put on my Grumpy Old Man hat. Way back when I got my copy of Moldvay Basic, our models were the myths and legends we read in school. And in those myths and legends, the heroes were almost always horribly outmatched. The cyclops was way outside Odysseus’ safe range of foes. When Sinbad was attacked by a roc, he had no chance of killing the giant bird. The first two billy goats were no match for the troll. Robin Hood was incapable of beating Little John with staves or fists.

So when I challenged third level characters with dragons or a medusa or a handful of minotaurs, nobody batted an eyelash. The players knew they might be faced with foes who could not be outfought, and that not every solution to every problem would be found on their single-page character sheets.

And weeeee liked it!

Yeah, the arbitrariness is nothing new. 4.0's wizard can’t wear rings until tenth level, and my Basic D&D magic-user was incapable of learning how to properly swing a sword. That’s annoying, but that’s not what really turns me off the game. Putting my game on the sorts of rails the CR system requires turns D&D into something I’m just not interested in playing. Does it make it an easier game to DM? Certainly. Does it make it a better “gateway drug” to the RPG hobby? Undoubtedly. But it also becomes a game that’s just not fun for me.

UPDATE: Faerie Dragon over at The Velvet Dicebag thinks that the folks at WotC may have failed to hit their stated goals as well.

The Truth about Elves...

REVEALED!

More Planetary Romance Than You Can Shake a Stick At

Lots of neat little bits of exciting news out there for you fans of Planetary Romance. First of all, Edgar Rice Burroughs is seeing something of a resurgence, almost certainly due to his work entering the public domain. You can get the scoops over at the aptly named Rebels of Mars. Not only has the long-languishing-in-development-hell Barsoom movie been picked up by Pixar, of all people, but there's also a team promising a Pirates of Venus movie for 2010.

In addition, the Evil DM has also pointed us the blog of upcoming Perils on Planet X comic book. Looks like a lot of fun!

More Book Lust: The Tales of Beedle the Bard

Yes, that Tales of Beedle the Bard. Rowling wrote these by hand, and the decorations are gorgeous. This is what the the third edition core books of D&D wanted to look like. Be sure to scroll down of the yummy, yummy pics.

A Kobold Gnawing on the Dragon's Corpse

Wolfgang Baur, the man who sent me my first professional rejection letter, has started his own D&D magazine, Kobold Quarterly. Mr. Johnson of Cinerati has many nice things to say about it.

I have to confess, I love the free-wheeling feel of this. Conversations with Wayne Reynolds on his technique and articles by Ed Greenwood feel like the Dragon I used to know and enjoy, way back when.

4e: For Those Keeping Score at Home...

Here's where the various third-party publishers have come down on taking part in the $5k, early-adopter grace period WotC is offering:

Necromancer Games is in like Flynn!

Goodman Games also is eager for a piece of the action.

Paizo, in spite of some level of partnership with Necromancer Games, is moving a bit more cautiously. However, I'll be shocked if they don't jump in early.

Green Ronin seems intrigued, but they probably have better things to do with their time.

Mongoose is cautiously optimistic.

D&D 4th Edition: Traps and Their Hidden Meanings

Ok, maybe not that hidden. If anyone is still under the impression that 4th edition is just 3.75th edition, this description of how traps will work in 4th edition should pretty much put the last nail in that coffin. Those saying that this game is shaping up to be a major departure from previous incarnations of the game are absolutely right.

From the beginning, the basic gameplay of D&D involved a series of mildly challenging encounters that would slowly wear away at the resources of the party, punctuated by serious challenges that posed a real threat to life and limb. Resource management was a core component of the game. Do we have enough spells/hit points/supplies to tackle one more room? Or, less often but far more thrilling, “Oh shit! That room was a hell of a lot tougher than we were expecting. Do we still have enough resources to get back to safety alive?”

In that game, traps were the niggling little things that plinked you every now and then. Most were not deadly, but they forced you to cast spells, drink potions, or just suck it up and deal with the loss of hit points or stat drain. They were not particularly thrilling, could even be annoying, but they also were markers that told players they were headed in the right direction.

In 4th edition, traps now seem to fall into two categories: tactical terrain features and set-piece center pieces in their own right. The tactical terrain features are the stuff of table-top wargaming. They’re used to add a fun wrinkle to the usual slug-fest of combat. They’ll be the surprise extra complication that make our heroes appear to be in over their heads, sure, but they’ll also secure flanks or offer extra protection to less reliable troops. The set-piece center pieces will be like the glorious contraptions that you find in the Indiana Jones and National Treasure movies. Chances are, you’ll know there’s a trap there. The fun will be in figuring out how it works without getting mauled by it, and getting around it, or finding a way to turn it on your foes, so you can get at the goodies that the trap guards.

(Interestingly enough, I’d say that most traps in MMOGs are far more like the traps in older versions of D&D. Those sorts of traps are easy to code: step in the wrong spot, and get whacked for a few hit points. The new traps will require a lot of specialized coding, AI design, and art to reproduce in a MMOG. In this aspect, at least, the upcoming D&D is far more unlike current MMOGs than the older versions.)

I expect to see the thief beefed up as a combatant, and the reviews we’ve seen of Races and Classes do seem to back this up. No longer a tool to minimize the resource drain of traps, the thief needs a new role to play. Making them sharp-shooting assassin types would seem to fit very well with their style. Thieves are going to be more fun to play. The DM is going to have to work harder to include traps in the dungeon, because the typical pit-with-spikes by itself will hardly be worth including. Now, a pit with spikes that must be traversed while the party is trying to hold off the advancing hordes of army ants, on the other hand…

All in all, I have to say I like a lot of these ideas, and I may very well buy a copy of the 4th edition DMG to plunder it for such notions, which is saying something. While I did buy a copy of 3rd edition's PHB, I never felt the need to get the DMG.

Book Fetish: Warhammer 40k RPG

Can you be into RPGs and not have even a mild case of book fetishism? I know I've got it bad. This would have been tempting if I'd seen it before they were sold out. Still, I can't help but think that a battered leather cover with large buckles, bronze-capped corners, and a few purity seals might have been more appropriate, and infinitely cooler.

A Deep Look Into the Unmentionable Comparison

Yep, it's time for another round of "You got your MMOG in my D&D 4th edition!" Only this time, it's from the point of view of someone who is primarily a MMOGer. Aggro Me actually does a very nice job of piecing together the clues and extrapolating the potential outcomes. It's a bit of a longer read, but definitely worth your time if you're interested in either the next iteration of D&D or MMOGs.

What? No Trollsmyth?!?

Yax over at Dungeon Mastering has listed his "completely arbitrary" top 50 RPG web sites. Even though his list is woefully inadequate, especially considering the lack of RPG artist sites or any mention of trolls what-so-ever, there's more than enough linky goodness to burn an entire holiday season of lazy, cold afternoons.

Google Ad to Art

I keep my eye on the ads that get pasted at the top of the page. Mostly, I'm just curious about the sorts of products will be returned by the algorithms' perusing of my writings. I also like to know what sort of things are being promoted on my blog. A few times I've been inspired to remove the ads altogether, but it's always been more trouble than I've had time for, and so they remain.

Just lately, there was a link to this gallery of fantasy art. It's a fun perusal, though there's not much that's new there. I was surprised to find what appears to be a (NSFW) Frazetta cover for one of the Flashman novels.

Anyway, I suggest spending a bit of time checking it out. In spite of the odd organization (like lumping Frazetta's work with Boris Valejo and Julie Bell's which, yeah, I can kinda see why, but...) it's a neat collection.

- Brian

Tieflings = Melniboneans?

Well, not exactly. Melniboneans had their pacts with the gods of Chaos. D&D 4th edition tieflings, apparently, had their pacts with devils which, in older versions of D&D, were lawful evil. This comes from ENWorld's news of December 9th:

Tieflings are not human and demonic offspring, but are the true-breeding descendants of an ancient empire that made dark and terrible pacts with the Nine Hells. Their fiendish visage is actually a manifestation of a curse, due to their progenitors' crimes. They're more closely tried to devils than demons.

I'd love to give you a direct link, but I'm not seeing how to do that just now. :p If you can find it, there's lots of neat stuff from the "Races and Classes" preview book for 4th edition D&D.

Paizo's Harrow Deck

Ok, I'll admit it: I'm a sucker for cards and tarot-based knock-offs. Paizo's working on one that is wonderfully tied into the mythology of D&D:

The Harrow deck is our fortune-telling tool for this Adventure Path. The deck itself is a 54-card deck broken down into six suits of nine cards each. While, in-game, these six suits and the card images themselves are "in character," it draws a lot of its inspiration from the mechanics of the game as well. The deck's six suits each symbolize one of the six basic attributes all characters are built around: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. And in each of those six suits, we have nine different cards for each of the nine alignments. Therefore, we have a chaotic evil Wisdom card, a neutral good Strength card, a lawful neutral Dexterity card, and so on.

Now if they can build a rules mechanic around it, I'd be in heaven. Granted, I doubt I'd ever get to play the game, just as I doubt I'll ever get to play my tarot-based mechanic for Fading Suns that languishes in rough-note form, but it'd still warm my heart to know such a thing existed.

Savage Solomon

S.S. Pequod has a nice little overview of the Savage Worlds RPG system. It was inspired by recent playing of the new Solomon Kane game.

Yep, it's REH all the time over here.

"Rush in and Die, Dogs!" or, the Eternal Beauty of the Poet

Cinerati recently waxed eloquent about Conan, and the perceived resurgence of the grim Cimmerian in popular culture:

Howard's typical Cimmerian is similar to that of the classical scholars, and presents a figure most unlikely to advance the literary arts. But this is where Conan differs from his kin. In The Phoenix on the Sword, Conan is an older man who has conquered on of the greatest nations of the Hyborean Age expressly to free them from tyrannical rule. He conquered to rule, and to liberate an oppressed nation. A far cry from the typical barbarian. By separating Conan from his kin, Howard simultaneously increases the audience's sympathy for the barbarian king while enabling the character to advance a theory of the value of literature.

Neat stuff, but I fear Cinerati is too well read for his own good. ;)

Getting Under the Hood of Mongoose's Traveller

Mongoose Publishing is holding an open playtest of their version of the Traveller RPG. The bits leaked so far have been getting lots of good response over at RPG.net. Click here to check it out and post your feedback.

Frankly, I think this is an excellent idea, and I hope it results in an exceptionally fine-tuned game for Mongoose.

(Via RPG.net.)

Complaints Dept.

People who complain about scantily clad warriors in their fantasy art, saying that they are unrealistic, and that no "real" warrior would ever enter battle barefoot, or so naked without being armoured completely from head to toe, need to
study
more
history!

;)


Edited to fix a broken link on 02/11/11.

Sexiest RPG Art at RPG.net

If you're not getting enough sexy RPG art, there's a new thread just for you over at RPG.net. They quickly brought up and derided the cover to Savant and Sorcerer and the ubiquitous Avalanche Press covers. Now they're digging into the good stuff: Diterlizzi's "Cat Lord", Lim's work for Exalted, and similar goodness.

There's new art over at Ackergard's and Andersson's pages. I'll have a post up about that, and a new artist who has one foot firmly set in the styles of the "old school" of RPG illustration, this weekend, assuming I can get out from under this damned flu long enough to finish it up.

Dragonlance Movie Release Date and Cover Art

Oops! A bit late with this. The Dragonlance straight-to-DVD movie will be released on January 15th of 2008. I have no idea what the market is like for DVDs. Is this too late for the Christmas rush? Or just right for the post-Christmas returns? Anyone know more about how this market operates?

You can find the announcement and a pic of the cover here. Hey, that dragon doesn't look half bad. Maybe I've been unnecessarily pessimistic. Here's hoping...

William Gibson: Too Lazy to be a Survivalist

Via Instapundit, a short, interesting interview with William Gibson. Spoiler: he's still thinking the worst is yet to come. But don't expect him to do anything about it: "It could all go to gray goo. But it just isn't in my nature to buy a lot of canned food and move to Alaska and try to escape the gray goo."

Merric on 4e

Merric has a nice overview of what we've seen of D&D's 4th edition so far, and his thoughts on same:

There's one thing that has been very nice throughout the 3e era: I've felt like I was Wizards' target audience. Not always, but for most of it. Of course, they occasionally got my tastes dead wrong - there'd be a lot more adventures from Wizards if they were aiming directly at me, and a lot of Greyhawk ones at that! - but ruleswise? Nice going.

The biggest thing about 4e for me is the potential it has to fix the problems I've had with 3e. The biggest disappointment? The way its publicity has been handled.

If there's one thing that really makes me cringe, it's that "teaser" video displaying the "problems" with the previous editions of D&D. Now, I - and most people familiar with 3e - can relate to the problems with Grappling in 3e. (Incidentally, I don't have a problem running Grappling, I just have a problem with how powerful it is with large creatures). However, the problem with AD&D is... you don't know what mini stands for which monster? Huh? How on earth is that a 1st edition problem?

4e got off to a bad start, and things haven't gone smoothly since then.

Myself, I feel oddly disconnected. When 2nd and 3rd editions were rolling out, I was deeply, passionately involved in what was happening, and following every scrap of information with the intensity of a starving wolf tracking a lame caribou. But I've lived without the latest version of D&D for a while now. 4th edition looks interesting, but not nearly as much fun as True20 is right now. My dreams of being a professional pen-and-paper game designer have deflated under the reality of hobbiest wages. I'm just having fun, now. With the net and online play, there's no reason to feel saddled to what the corporations are doing.

On the one hand, I feel liberated. On the other, I recognize that attitudes such as mine are the death-knell of an industry. What will happen when all our games are put out by Forgites and Wayne Reynolds is forced to illustrate get-well and birthday cards to keep a roof over his head? Yeah, there will still be free or cheap content, but you really do get what you pay for.

But all of that isn't really related to Merric's post, just thoughts inspired by it. Merric gives a nice overview of the basic themes we've been able to see about 4th edition so far. If you haven't been keeping up with it, he's written a good primer as to where things stand now.

I'm Gonna Live Forever...

Paizo is holding a OGL 3.5 design contest!

"With the end of the print editions of Dragon and Dungeon magazines, Paizo has lost a conduit to find new talent," said Lisa Stevens, CEO of Paizo Publishing, "so we decided to launch an RPG design contest similar to American Idol, giving unknown talent a chance to get noticed!"

Starting October 31, 2007, any eligible person will be able to submit an entry into the contest. For the open call, that entry will be a wondrous item using the 3.5 SRD. Each entry needs to be 200 words or less, and must include all of the proper mechanics and flavor. Judges will announce the top 32 entries on November 28; those contestants will advance to the first round of public voting, where they will be assigned a new design task, and their entries will be posted on paizo.com for the public to read, critique, and vote on. The designers garnering the most votes will continue to subsequent rounds, and the ultimate winner will earn a paid commission to write one of Paizo's upcoming GameMastery Modules!

Looks like it could be a lot of fun. Frankly, I'm tempted, just for the chance to possibly get paid to play in Paizo's playgrounds. If any Trollsmyth readers enter, let us know so we can wish you luck!

Some Pottage is Too Hot, Some Pottage is Too Cold...

But according to Jocelyn Robitaille, the pdf called "Harn Pottage" is pretty close to just about right:

Overall, I’ve found this product to be mostly helpful if you’re looking for non-epic, low-fantasy seeds. Therefore, I’m awarding it a 4. My feeling is that it’d earn a 5 if I was at all familiar with Hârn, and reviewing it as a straight-forward Hârn supplement.

In the end, it’s free, so you can’t really afford not to check it out!

It sounds like it might be a nice mix with Mr. Bezio's Phoenix Barony setting.

Whither Paizo?

Recently, there’s been a lot of talk about whether or not Paizo will adopt D&D 4.0 for their future products. This isn’t the idle chatter you might think. Sure, the marketing juggernaut that is WotC will make it appear like everyone and their grandmother is flocking to the new version of the game, but I recently learned that an astonishing number of AD&D 1^st edition players never migrated to 2^nd. I can’t remember the exact number, but I asked Mr. Dancey about it directly over at the Fear the Boot forums. I want to say something like 50% of 1^st edition players never converted to 2^nd. The whole point of the OGL was to create so much new content for 3.0 that there would be something for everyone, and nobody would be able to ignore it.

The problem now, of course, is that a lot of different companies have a lot of work invested in 3.5. A lot of players also have a lot of money and shelf space devoted to the current incarnation of D&D. Will they convert to 4.0? Why should they? A certain amount will, due to momentum. And 4.0 might bring in new players. But what if the new edition causes the market to fracture further? What if D&D players decide that 3.5 is a better game? What would happen to the market? What would happen to WotC and D&D?

As for Paizo, I think they should just bite the bullet and go True20. ;)

A Review of Epic Proportions

This just looks like a great idea to me:

As I’ve just started reading the rules I thought it might be fun to do an entire thread documenting not only a review of the game, but the opinions, deductions, and problems of a typical gamer (that’s me) as he reads and attempts to gronk a new game for the first time.

I plan to contribute a step by step review of what I read and absorb day by day (and I’m going to take it slow, since I’m very busy). Then I plan to go into any opinions I might have of that, and ask any questions I may have of the fine people reading. Following that I hope to see any other discussion on the topic at hand (usually a chapter of the rules).

I hope to end the whole shebang with a playtest of the game and an actual play report (my group willing). Not sure if I will use the sample adventure (haven’t read it yet) or write one of my own.

Frankly, I can't think of a better way to review a game for others to learn from. It may not be quick and concise, but RPGs are a product with a long tail, and require a significant investment in time to play. So a longer, more in-depth review makes perfect sense to me.

- Brian

Blumboman Reviews Mythic Role Playing

"Unofficially," whatever that means.

And he likes it:

Still, I’m more than satisfied, considering the nine bucks sacrificed for this amazing product. It’s a great, fast-moving and rules-light system on it’s own, and an awesome adventure aid accessory (Yay! Alliteration!). You can literally, and smoothly, start in a blank game world, and have an adventure constructed around you as you play, whether it be alone, with some friends but no GM, or with friends and a GM, who acts more as a referee with a knack for controlling the game than a GM. I highly recommend you get this book, no matter what system you play.

I'm very curious about this system. When I'm flush with disposable income again, I'm highly tempted to check it out.

Get Some Pants on, Lady!

More lovely art from Wayne Reynolds, for Pathfinder.

Via the Paizo blog, of course.

He-Man. No, seriously...

I'd pay to see this flick.

Mongoose Reveals Combat System for Traveller

Well, it's actually just the initiative system. And yet, it's so elegant, and so wrapped up in everything else, it's not fair to say that.

And the folks at RPG.net seem all a-drool over it.

There are some details I'm unsure about, like how often you reroll your initiative, or what happens if everyone gets it up past ten, things like that. But it looks like a very slick design.

Dragonlance Trailer

Well, a rough version of the trailer is out, and there's not much good to say about it. The motion is smooth, but it's disguised by the stiffness of all the characters involved, hand-drawn or cgi. The cgi is especially egregious, with little done to disguise its mechanical nature. The mob of draconians all clanging their swords on their shields is probably the worst offender, but the motions of the dragons, who seem to be flipping around in zero-g and not soaring through the air, or the motions of the heroes, who exhibit no sort of follow-through when they swing their weapons, or that bird at the very end, who flaps his wings without bending them... stiff, stiff, stiff.

The really bizarre thing is that the animation screams low budget and cheap, but the music and voice talent want to be high-budget. Frankly, I think the blame for this resides solely with the animation team. They don't appear at all to have worked up to the standards of the rest of the crew. But I could be completely wrong, and blame might more fully reside with the producers who failed to arrange the proper funding for this film.

I have no idea of their respective budgets, but the animation I've seen so far fails to measure up to the "Record of Lodoss War" OVA from 1990, which made extensive, sometimes painful, use of recycled animation, but didn't have the benefit of computer animation. And computer animation can be a powerful tool when combined expertly with traditional cell animation, as was seen in "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas". The creature designs are especially noteworthy in that film, and the soaring snow roc was beautiful to watch, especially after it snatched up the heroine and carried her to the top of it's mountain lair, snow drifting from its wings. By comparison, the dragons of Dragonlance, which still resemble ugly crossbreeds of snake and duck, move like spastic puppets, without any sense of weight or flight.

I'll probably rent this one when it makes its way to our local video store, but I really don't see adding it to our collection. And I'm not going to encourage the Trollwife to see the trailer, because I'm fairly certain if we do, she'll refuse to watch the movie. :(

There are a Thousand Stories in the City...

...and Craig over at Treasure Tables thinks you can't tell just one.

There's a been a bit of happy thread necromancy at the GMing Forums at Treasure Tables, and this one is golden:

To quote Inigo Motoya from The Princess Bride', "Let me explain, no, that would take too long, let me sum up"

A typical Side Events table I use now has the following columns:
Characters' actions
Characters' orders (magic and masterwork items on order)
Antagonists' actions/plans
The Weather
The Moons
Civic events
City news
City rumours

Most column entries have only half a dozen words in at most, but these can blossom into a wealth of detail and opportunities for the players.

This sort of thing doesn't just work for urban campaigns. The entire world ought to be busy about its own ends while the PCs are shaking its foundations. You don't need something as ornate as Craig's tables. Just having a few yearly festivals at the turnings of the seasons will make your campaign world feel more real for your players.

How Dr. Rotwang Learned to Relax and Love the Random Encounter Tables

You know...the old me never would've done what I did on Thursday. But the new me totally did, and it felt goooooooood.

Starting this blog, and talking about the gaming-related change of mind-set as I do, has really had a positive effect on me. My gamemastering style really is changing, and it's for the better. I feel...

...I feel like a new GM.

Continued here.

Did he Ever Visit the Stonewall?

Some stories continue to grow, even after the last book is closed:

Rowling said Dumbledore fell in love with the charming wizard Gellert Grindelwald but when Grindelwald turned out to be more interested in the dark arts than good, Dumbledore was "terribly let down" and went on to destroy his rival.

That love, she said, was Dumbledore's "great tragedy."

"Falling in love can blind us to an extent," she said.

The audience reportedly fell silent after the admission -- then erupted into applause.

Rowling, 42, said if she had known that would be the response, she would have revealed her thoughts on Dumbledore earlier.

I'm surprised, but not shocked. Say what else you will about Rowling, but she's always been true to her characters, no matter what. Bully for her!

Frankly, though, I'm interested in seeing more characters like Dr. Who's Captain Jack. I can't shake the feeling that our infatuation with sexual identity as a defining personality trait is a bit myopic. A character like Jack, whose sexuality is "Yes, thank you!" feels like a breath of fresh air.

WoW Players to Camp Wal-Mart?

The title says it all:

The World of Warcraft TCG: Now With Tedium!

Quests for Breasts!

And the Google-bait just keeps a-comin'!

Like to play RPGs? Hate breast cancer? Willing to roll dice and eat cheetos for a cure? Check it out!

Confessions of a Part-time Game Pusher

At first, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, about how sexist it was, how it was infantile and insulting.

But now that folks are actually reading it, Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress is getting some surprising praise:

For what its worth, I bought this book for my fiance, and she whipped through it in two days. It's now on loan to several other friends of ours. It was extremely helpful to her and she loves to rp now. Another friend of ours is designing a dungeon to run for her and her boyfriend. So say what you will about the book, but it was the best money I've ever spent on gaming.

This brings to mind other observations I've linked to about gaming and the female of our species. Let's hope this book gets passed around more.

You can find a pdf excerpt from the book here.

Linkity-link Strikes Back

Once again, a gaggle of neat links at Treasure Tables.

Or should that be a herd of links?

Flock?

Murder?

Say What???

Ok, I’m about to do something that anyone who wants to build a successful gaming blog should probably never, ever do.

I’m going to admit that I’m not down with the cool kids.

It’s been creeping up on me slowly, especially since the publication of D&D 3.5. It’s gotten to the point where I can read a post on a message board about D&D and have no freakin’ idea what they’re talking about.

For instance, there’s this post over at RPG.net:

When I started the campaign I'm running, the party was a rogue, a spellthief, a paladin, and a favored soul. After a few sessions, I wrote in a ranger and a multiclasser intent upon cerebromancer. Long story short, it seemed like a balanced party: 2 skillfuls, 2 bruisers, 1 healer, and 1 blaster.

Then I kicked out the cerebromancer because he didn't show up to four sessions in a row, the spellthief is now playing a soulbow (long story), and the ranger is bowing out due to other commitments.

Now the party has no crowd control, and I don't know how to fix it. I really don't want to add another player because it is already hard enough to organize games with the five schedules I'm currently juggling.

Wha? I don’t even know what a favored soul is, but I assume it, like the soulbow, is a new character class or prestige class from a non-core book. That’s not such a big deal.

But when did players start building characters around themes like “crowd control” and “blaster”? When did such considerations become so vital that a DM would think the game was broken if the party didn’t have someone who could handle them?

You can see a bit of befuddlement in the responses:

You're the GM. You control what the players come up against, and the party won't need a character to do crowd control unless you choose to make it necessary. So don't.

To which the OP says:

That doesn't really help me much because you're telling me not to use:

summon monster spells
swarms
minions
more than 4 enemies in any one encounter

Uh, no. Not really.

Listen, I don’t want to sound snotty, and this ain’t another take on edition wars, but this is a fault-line in a rather serious culture clash built around D&D, the core of our hobby. There have always been different flavors of the game, different ways to play it, but we’ve always started with the same basic assumptions. Whether you were playing a traditional dungeon-delving game, or something with a lot of politics and urban intrigue, the old balance of stealth, healing, muscle and firepower was understood. It was simple, vague, and flexible, and most of them could be replaced by hirelings or magical aids in a pinch.

Now, however, some players are seeing mechanical realities that others are oblivious to. Yeah, you can blame MMOGs, I think. Tank, blaster, healer, buffer, mob control. For a successful high-level raid, you need all these areas covered, and with multiple PCs. Otherwise, you get clobbered at your weakness, and your team falls apart.

Thing is, pen-and-paper games ain’t MMOGs. In addition to the above mentioned power of the DM to adjust the opposition, the players have a lot more options than just what’s listed on their character sheets. I have always, and still do, throw my players up against opposition they simply can’t slug it out with, toe-to-toe. I just make sure I always give them a chance to run or overcome, if they are clever.

Most of my players have always been able to do it. I’ve never, ever, had a TPK (though I have had a few Total Party Captures, but that’s a feature, not a bug). I’ve thrown low-level characters up against liches and dragons, mid-level characters against demon princes, and high-level characters against gods.

The key to making such encounters work is flexibility. Let the players be clever. Let them negotiate, let them use the environment to their advantage, give them a chance to escape and then find their foe’s weakness. Players should feel that running away to return, better prepared, to fight and win another day is a viable strategy. This, after all, was the way the game was designed to be played.

Ok, that’s a pretty bold statement, isn’t it? Where do I get off making it?

Simply look at the adventures given to us by the creators of the game. Mr. Gygax’s “Vault of the Drow” was not intended to be “fair”. There’s no way a party of the appropriate levels could fight their way through the drow city that is the centerpiece of the adventure. But methods were given to allow the players to get into the city, to walk the safer streets and learn what they needed to accomplish their goals. Stealth, guile, and deception were encouraged. And this wasn’t a low-level adventure where Mr. Gygax was forced to throw the heroes against something far beyond their abilities just to have something interesting. This was an adventure for levels 10-14.

But the designers back then didn’t pull any punches on low-level parties, either. Take a gander at this map of the Caves of Chaos, the dungeon for the classic “Keep on the Borderlands”. What you’re looking at is a horseshoe valley peppered with cave entrances. Each warren is home to a different set of challenges. There’s nothing to prevent the ill-prepared party from entering any of them. A party that doesn’t do its research is as likely to face the powerful evil cult of warriors and clerics as they are the tiny band of kobolds.

Research is a vital part of this sort of play. The players are expected to ask about the dungeon before they go charging in. The old modules all included lists of rumors, some true and some false, that the party might pick up. Inside the dungeon, it was expected that the PCs would attempt to capture members of the enemy, and question them for details of what other dangers they might face. If you were lucky, rescued captives or dissident members of the local population might even be able to draw you map of part of the dungeon.

Do players still do things like this? Or do they quickly jump into the maze, go toe-to-toe with everything they face, kill it, and then move on until they need to rest, heal, and restore their capabilities? Just how much is D&D played like a MMOG?

And it’s not just the players that have left me bumfuzzled. The designers are doing it, too:

I'm working on magic items right now. A previous version of the rules had magic items that were just too complex and too numerous, so we're stripping off a couple layers of complexity. You won't be a magic item Christmas tree any more, but you might be a Christmas shrub or a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

What does this mean? Doesn’t the DM still decide what magical goodies the PCs get? Did they somehow make low-magic campaigns against the rules? Making the magic items less complex, sure, if that’s what you want, go for it. But how are they going to make them less common? Isn’t that up to the DM?

Yes, I know the Challenge Rating system assumed a certain level of magical equipment to be on hand. But again, that only applies if the party is going to go toe-to-toe with the monsters. Is that the only sort of encounter people play today? And how do these assumptions affect character creation? Do players feel they need to maximize the utility of their character, always creating the same build because that gives the most benefits, just to measure up to the Challenge Ratings?

Do folks feel trapped, needing to create an “effective” character rather than a fun one, or the one they’d like to make?

If this is the state of D&D among even a tenth of its players today, then 4^th edition, assuming it honestly addresses these issues, can’t come soon enough.

Tucker's Kobolds Invade teh Intrawebs

Via Jeff's Gameblog, a link to an online version of the old Dragon article "Tucker's Kobolds". It was, if I recall correctly, an editorial. I remain skeptical (I'd think a cloud kill coupled with a dust devil should have wiped those rotten buggers out), but it's still inspirational.

Dementor Porn!

Um, ok, not expecting a ton of Google hits on that one. (Though you never know. Believe it or not, I actually got a hit from "Walrus Porn".)

I've been lax in keeping you up-to-date on Håkan Ackegård's updates to his online galleries. There's good stuff in all of them.

Starting with his safe-for-work gallery, there's a sketch of Douglas the Dragon, some heroes, and a lot of cute, fluffy bunnies. Over at his NSFW Playelf gallery, he has an arm-wrestling "Tough Elf Gal" with ears out of World of Warcraft, and some anthropomorphic vixen girl pics. But be sure to catch " Evil Plot Foiled at the Masquerade Ball", an older commission that's amazing in its detail. I think it's a bit too busy, too much action happening all at once, but it's the climactic moment of the battle, and I'm certain it's exactly what the folks who commissioned the piece wanted. It's a wonderful showcase of Mr. Ackegård's command of anatomy, his flexibility as an artist, and his exacting attention to detail. I think the composition is a bit rough, too busy at the top, like I said, but it still stands head-and-shoulders above much of what you'll see even in books by WotC and White Wolf.

Finally, a ton of new stuff can be found at his extremely NSFW Grigbertz gallery. Have I mentioned before now "Dungeon Encounter"? Interesting, but it left me wanting. It feels too simple, asks too few questions. I think my major beef with it is the lack of anything interesting about the lizard fellow. Without any ornamentation, equipment, or decoration, I'm not inspired to indulge my interest in para-anthropology. Still, it's a technically exceptional piece.

Next come some playful "Bride of the Beast" sketches. "Julie in Trouble" is especially imaginative, and feels a bit more like a brainstorming session for a few pages in a comic book. Mr. Ackegård's ability to suggest so much with a few simple lines and some shading continues to impress me. The more finished "Pillory at Nighttime" is, of course, the bit of dementor porn I mentioned. Ok, it's not really a dementor, but it could pass for a close cousin, right? Er, ok, mebbe not...

"Playtime in the Garden" is classic Ackegård. A pretty girl, indecently clothed (but with her ankles disguised), is encountered in a lovely setting. The setting is a bit more ephemeral this time, indistinct, but still peppered with those little details we've come to expect.

"Leash" is a return to the Nethack illustrations. Have we seen this Valkyrie before? I want to say yes, but a cursory search didn't turn her up. A bit of bestiality in this one, so you've been warned.

If wolves are not your thing, how about nuns? "Worship" is another depiction of bondage nuns being naughty in the world of "Pontifex Maximus". It's much softer than his usual stuff, and I'm guessing it's chalk and pencil. Scarlett's anatomy is a lot softer than normal, and the girl almost looks rubbery rather than flesh and bone. Still, if you like your erotica with a soft focus, you'll find something to appreciate in this one.

And then something a little different. Our "Pontifex Maximus" heroines are transported to a technologically sophisticated world, something feeling a tad cyber-sorcerer-punkish. The feeling is very much "Shadowrun" or "Torg". I love "The Techno Town Bazaar" for its little details: the rat-girl's pistol hidden beneath her makeshift counter, the way the wolf-guy has an inflatable tome hovering over his book store, the guy checking Scarlett out as he walks by. I'm not a huge fan of latex, so "Plastic Scarlett" isn't nearly as interesting for me. The next work, however, is a wonderful bit of Ackegård whimsy: "Bondage Witch vs. the Hoverboard Gang". You almost feel sorry for the poor gangers. Who is their captive? What are Scarlett's plans for her? You can make up your own story, of course, or follow the link to a podcasted story by Nobilis. I haven't listened to it yet myself, so I can't tell you what it's like.

"Bondage Witch Appreciation" is another quick sketch in the same series. We finally catch up to Sofia in "Mole's Tavern". It's not quite as rich as "Bazaar", but is still fun. "Outside Looking In" offers us another sketchy Ackegård cityscape to frame the lovely Scarlett. Finally, "Chibi Scarlett" (in black-and-white and later in color) is exactly what you'd expect.

Turning to something different, we finally get a bit of story from the Savage Tide world. I must confess to being a bit confused by that name. Most of the pics have been in a forest, and completely lacking in tides. Maybe there's an allusion I'm missing?

Anyway, we have a series of pictures featuring the druidess Jenn we've seen a few times before, as she is forced to endure a druidic hazing ritual. There's some amazing work done with perspective on a few of these, and the angles shown are something I can't remember ever having seen before, though the idea is obvious and delightful, once you see how Mr. Ackegård tackles it. The stoneshaped restraints and wicked pixie are the sorts of creative turns that Mr. Ackegård excels at. I'm very much looking forward to more work from him based on this world.

Gleemax Leaking Out All Over the Place

There's not much new in this article over at "Rock, Paper, Shotgun" about the online gaming tools being developed in parallel with D&D's 4th edition. More of note is that people outside the circle of pen-and-paper gamers are beginning to hear about it and discuss the possibilities.

Everything Old is Kinda New Again. Kinda.

Mr. Dancey seems to be a good touchstone for sparking ideas just lately. He’s most recently given us a peek into his Ryan Dancey’s Storyteller’s Guide to D20 Games. The core appears to be opening up the game to improvisational input from both the players and the DM. I’m curious how he’ll tackle the issues of trust. The Trollwife and I have been playing games in this style for just over a decade now, I think. It grew out of our trust for each other. She’s long known I DM by the seat of my pants, weaving ideas out of random bits of inspiration that float too close to escape, right there in the middle of the game. And I know she’s more interested in a fun game than simply “winning”. She also understands that adversity, wonder, and depth, both in character personalities and their interactions, make for a better game. If she wants to throw in a kindly old uncle, an ancient legend about a trickster-god otter, or a hallucinogenic plant, just off the spur of the moment, I’m more than happy to take her idea and run with it. Our games are like jazz jam sessions, riffing off one another to create something far cooler, deeper, and powerful than either of us could create alone. I’m curious to see how Mr. Dancey tackles the trust issues that are at the heart of this sort of play.

(We’ve had less success with me as a player. I tend to be far too passive as a player, mostly because I’m horribly out of practice and I worry about stepping on her toes too much. We have the same problem when we go dancing. I’m thinking maybe salsa lessons are in our future.)

I’m also intrigued by similarities in theme that I’m seeing in this thread over at RPG.net. These older versions of D&D had a lot of blank spaces on the map. The idea was that the DM and players would fill in a lot of the holes. Nobody knew what your D&D game would be like. In the early days, campaign settings were few, and it was assumed your DM would make up his own.

Today, things are very different. We’ve got entire books devoted to a single monster. We have giant, choke-a-mule tomes like Ptolus, complete with hand-out menus for in-game restaurants, discussions of local customs and fashions, and enough adventure between two covers to take your characters from the earliest days of their adventuring careers all the way to post-world-saving retirement.

Paizo’s “Pathfinder” books are an excellent example. The adventures are complete in every detail. The world is fleshed out, every NPC has a name, personality, relationships. The settings are described not only as they currently exist, but also with histories. The setting of each adventure is complete and hangs together like a work of art. The adventures are lined up in order, with a narrative flow and rising and falling action that give you the sense of taking part in an epic saga.

Things were different that Christmas, lo these many years ago, when I got the Basic D&D boxed set that included the Moldvay red book. The rulebook was only 64 pages long, complete with character creation, combat rules, spell and monster catalogs, DM advice, and sample maps. Also in that box was the classic adventure “Keep on the Borderlands”. KotB was about as unlike a “Pathfinder” adventure as you can possibly get. First, nobody had names. Even the Castellan and his neighbors had no names. No discussion was made of their relationships to one another. Was the blacksmith his bastard brother? Or just a simple hireling? The module gave you no clue. This lack of detail extended to the “dungeon” as well. The monsters in the Caves of Chaos also lacked personal names. Even the deity worshiped by the evil cult was unnamed. We did get a bit of description about how the different monster groups related to one another, which were allies and which were enemies, but little more.

Today, this would be seen as a half-assed adventure, incomplete, and barely playable. But back then, it was exactly what we needed to get our games started. The key to getting the most out of KotB is understanding that it is not an adventure. It is, instead, a setting.

Some folks have laughed, for instance, that the NPCs in the Keep itself have no names, but they do have stats and treasure. The implication is that players are expected to slaughter the inhabitants of the Keep and take their stuff, like the stereotypical psychopaths that many assume we played back then. The truth is, you were not supposed to do any particular thing. You could do anything! KotB doesn’t assume the players are going to be allies or friends of the Castellan or the other inhabitants of the Keep. The players could join the evil cult in the Caves instead. Or they could play the two sides off each other, “Yojimbo” style. No assumption is made, and so all possibilities are left open.

This applies to the names as well. Yes, Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” books were an inspiration for D&D, but also listed in the back of the Moldvay basic rulebook as potential sources for ideas are Karl Edward Wagner’s Dark Crusade, H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, Baum’s Oz books, and Burrough’s Barsoom novels. Other than a basic Iron Age level of technology and the existence of magic, little was assumed about your setting, and simply naming the inhabitants would color your world in broad strokes. What do the blacksmith and his finished works look like? You get a very different mental picture with each possible name: Snorri Torvaldson, Rajik bin Jabal, Titus Asinius, Vor of Helium, Jack Pumpkinhead. It’s amazing what something as simple as a name can give you. The blacksmith’s home and workshop may simply be a rectangle on a map, but Snorri’s is built of heavy timbers with daub-and-wattle walls and a thatched roof, while Titus’ home is built of bricks, with a tiled roof and arched windows. Rajik’s wife is covered from head to toe and veiled, so that only her eyes can be seen, while Vor’s wife wears nothing but jewelry, each piece lovingly crafted by her husband when he was wooing her. The sword (normal) for sale in Jack’s shop is probably a cavalry saber with brass basket hilt and red tassel, while the same sword hanging on Snorri’s wall is a broad, two-edged blade with a lobed pommel.

This was the genius of D&D in those days. The game was a thin skeleton, a bare frame upon which you and your players hung the themes and styles you were interested in. Were the players noble and proud knights, seeking to stamp out injustice and raise the banner of civilization in the wilderness? Cut-throat mercenaries, eager to spill blood for the highest bidder? Foppish rakes looking for distraction in a world slowly slouching towards collapse and dissolution? Basic D&D and KotB could do it all. Yes, some assembly was required, but back then, that was half the fun. Just as with the ubiquitous use of house rules and homemade monsters, setting, themes, and styles were all up for debate.

Now Ryan Dancey seems to be beating on the same door. As D&D approaches it’s newest incarnation and we hear about “power sources” and various setting assumptions, Mr. Dancey is suggesting a style of play in which the players learn to be open about what the games they play will feel and look like. I’m not suggesting here that Mr. Dancey is attempting a throw-back to the way we played D&D back in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Rather, instead, I’m suggesting that there are common themes of trust and invitation, a greater openness to tinkering, twisting, and putting your own stamp on the game. I’m also not suggesting that there is an absolute dichotomy here. D&D 3.5 still requires a lot of imagination and is still very open to a wide array of settings. But as the game has adopted a more rigorous set of rules, it’s begun to fence in a lot of what used to be open pasture. D&D 4.0 seems to be moving further in that direction. It’s going to be fascinating to see how ideas like Mr. Dancey’s are embraced, and how the interaction of the various play styles influences the development of D&D, and RPGs in general.

Every Link in this Post is NSFW!

But they shouldn’t be.

I was over at Lectric Lich’s corner of GayGamer.net, and saw there was much ado about a picture of a sword:

There's only one problem... The picture of Blackrazor... well... it kind of looked like a... um... well, the kids online are calling it a vajayjay (whatever that is). Ahem… in two different ways.

You can see the pic in question here.

Um, no. No it doesn’t. And if any part of your girlfriend’s anatomy is metallic, spikey, and sports a bizarre, orange catlike eye, dude, you’ve got problems.

Seriously, if you’re the sort of person who gets bent out of shape about pictures like this, let me tell you, this is *exactly* why you don’t get invited to the cool parties. This stuff really gets into my craw. It’s juvenile, it’s stupid, and it gets people tiptoeing around each other on eggshells. Grow up!

It’s this sort of thinking that makes pictures like this NSFW. This may be the most thematically beautiful piece I’ve ever seen by Fredrik K.T. Andersson. It’s sweet, it’s expressive, and it celebrates some of the most important things in life: the wonders of childhood, the joys of motherhood, the bonds of family, the importance of taking time to simply enjoy being alive, and the power of simple exploration and curiosity. That some people will undoubtedly find it offensive explains a lot about why the world is as screwed up as it is.

And it wouldn't at all surprise me to find that many of those same folks would be offended by the mere existence of a site called GayGamer.net, or, at the very least, find it "problematic".

Eventually, everyone must undergo their own Copernican Revolution, and realize that the world does not revolve around them. Everything is not about you. Everything does not reflect back on you. Nor does it reflect upon everyone else. We are all responsible for our own works, and little else, either for credit or condemnation.

And seriously, go kiss a girl. It won't be the end, or the beginning, of your life.

/rant

Smoochin' Buddha in the Funnel of Love

Or maybe "All Roads Lead to Culture Club". I don't mean to be a Dr. Rotwang fanboy, but while perusing Jeff's Gameblog, I found a link to the good doctor's Adventure Funnel. This is a very cool little tool to help you get your ideas organized into an adventure for your players. Combined with the previously mentioned "Three-tiered Conflict Webs" and "Backdrop Plots", the Adventure Funnel looks set to help you create wonderfully complex and textured adventures.

Dragonlance Movie Rated at PG-13

Which is promising news. Even more promising are the snippets of music we've heard, including this Qualinesti Hymn. Seriously, if all I knew about the movie was the music by Karl Preusser, cast list, and rating, I'm not sure I'd be able to contain my excitement about it.

However, we still have those awful dragons to contend with, and the fact that it's straight to DVD. I'm hopeful, but not much more than that at this stage.

Storn From Start to Finish

This is old news, but somehow I missed it. Storn has an example on his blog of how he works, starting with the commission and working through the different stages, complete with sketches. Neat stuff, and he's got some good news about his career on a more recent blog entry. Here's wishing him more good fortune!

Linkity-link!

Lots of great links over at Treasure Tables yesterday. I especially recommend "Backdrop Plots" and "Three-tiered Conflict Webs".

The Year of the Wasted Buddha

Here's a belated happy birthday wish to "I Waste the Buddha With My Crossbow", which turned 1 year old back on Sunday. Here's hoping for many, many more.

And if you need proof that Dr. Rotwang is an exceptional blogger, you need only look here for an example of his excellent taste.

New RPGs A-comin'

I'm not the only one who's been bit by the game-making bug. Ryan Dancey has finally decided to put his money where his mouth is and create the game he's been thinking about over the past few months. His goal is nothing less than the transformation of the RPG hobby. You can read about his vague, early-stage plans here.

If you want to see an actual game in the process of being made, the ever-interesting Levi is blogging the creation of Hoard - Dragons at War. Unfortunately, it's not about dragons at war with other dragons, which would be hella cool. It is about dragons at war with humans who are weakening the barriers between their world and the realm of diabolic forces in order to maintain their civilization. Looks like a global warming/pollution metaphor to me, but don't let that turn you off. Levi's one of the deep thinkers in our hobby who questions everything. I'm expecting cool stuff from this project.

Keeping D&D Real: E6

Over at RPG.net, rycanada has posted information about his D&D hack called E6.

Like d20, E6 is a game of enigmatic wizards, canny rogues, and mighty warriors who rise against terrible dangers and overcome powerful foes. But instead of using d20’s 20 levels to translate characters into the rules, E6 uses only the first 6. E6 is about changing one of d20’s essential assumptions, but it doesn't need a lot of rules to make that change.

To understand E6, imagine the perspective of the average medieval peasant in a d20 game. This person has the stats of a 1st-level commoner, and while they might not know their stats explicitly, they know their relation to the rest of the world. Our peasant knows that he can be killed quite easily by maurauding raiders, enemy soldiers, or even wild animals. He’s not mighty, he’s not organized, and he doesn’t have any special skills to bring to bear when danger strikes. He worries about drought and flood, and the welfare of his livestock. His extended family likely all lives within a mile of his birthplace. To him, a trip to a town ten miles off is an expedition into the unknown.

Imagine you are this peasant, and you meet a trio of 6th-level adventurers. When you address the wizard, you are speaking to someone who could incinerate your home and slay all your livestock with a few words. The fighter has prevailed against a dozen orcish skirmishers and slain them all – and he could do the same again. The cleric is a man so holy that the gods themselves have granted him the power to cure the sick and heal the wounded. These are epic heroes.

Now consider the powers of a CR 5 manticore. To the peasant, the appearance of this manticore near the village isn’t a nuisance: the beast can, and likely will slay you in seconds if you draw its attention. You, your livestock, and your entire family are in immediate danger of violent death. Even if you were well armed and gathered a large peasant militia, your village faces heavy losses and no guarantee of success. Against such a creature, adventurers may be your only hope. E6 recognizes that 6th level characters are mortal, while reframing the game’s perspective to create a context where those same 6th level characters are epic heroes.

There are a lot of intriguing ideas here, including thoughts on bringing D&D closer to the experiences described in most fantasy novels and movies. Be sure to check it out and give rycanada your feedback.