Building Big and Daring

Green Float is an idea that cries out for inclusion in my Shadowrun campaign. 3000 foot tower, floating on the ocean. A great view and an exotic place for raging gun battles and spell slingin'.

What's not to like?

Other than the fact that it's a death trap just waiting to drown everyone on it. But small details shouldn't get in the way.

The Ego of Gamers

Stuff like this is just so common. It isn't enough to have a nice hobby with a great return on entertainment time vs. investment. Some people just are not happy unless they are creating unfounded MEANING in it as well.

We have the RPG as Art type, and even worse we have the RPG as the hope of mankind type.

What BS.

Oh, I'll grant that the ability to spin reality is a powerful influence. Sadly that is core of politics and PR although calling it 'story' is nothing more than making the term 'story' meaningless as a useful word. But to leap from there and decide that just because one plays RPGs that world is yours for the remaking... is just stupid.

Let's pass over the small matter that real public influencing skills are not what is being used at the gaming table. Let's pass over the fact that no matter the spin, in the end reality will catch up with you (although if you're like Stalin or Mao, you get to pass that off to the poor bastards who are alive after your gone).

Let's just take a passing look at any collection of gamers out there. They hate each other guts. One says one thing, ten others will leap and and say the reverse. The only thing they'd do in the real world even given all of Rob's foolish assumptions is add to the noise. And they'd add a LOT to the noise.

Just what we don't need. Gamers wouldn't save the world, they'd doom it.

Iron Man 2

Went and saw the latest Iron Man movie last night. It was a good time, and once again I was able to walk out thinking that I didn't need to update any of the character sheets for my HERO System based re-imagined Marvel campaign. I suppose Widow's sheet could use a couple of new toys (electro-mines and some flash bangs) to make it a total match.

Even the climatic end battle with its 'new and unexpected and never to be repeated use of repulsers) is covered by the Teamwork and Pushing rules + special effects.

I"m a little different than most I think in that I like the first movie in a series better than the following ones (Spiderman I better than Spiderman II. This is even more the case with movies I was mixed on (Fantastic Four) or disliked (X-Men).

Talking with one of my friends, he suggests that it's more interesting to see a comic book hero come to life on the big screen. Once that's happen you're left with only two options.

1. Just another adventure. These can be quite fun, just like this last move. But they're aren't 'magical' anymore.
2. A major change in the character's course that ruins what the character was about in the first place. These are awful (Spiderman III went in this direction, we'll see if they recover from it).

Comics themselves have the same choice, with one difference. Comics depend a bit more on the imagination of the reader instead of special effects. And that imagination allows it to carry on longer without appearing stale.

That first option isn't as bad as one might think, as most highly successful TV shows follow it to the letter. Really, once you've seen one Law & Order or House- you've seen them all. Only the details are different.

Option 2 however is the beginning of the end. List hope that we don't see that soon with this latest run of comic movies, for they have been quite good.

Deconstructionism Equals The Boring Approach

Deconstructionism has been an increasing fad for western culture since I was born at the beginning of the space age.

The method is simple, find a traditional thought (any thought, it doesn't matter) and wreck it. Make it into something completely different. When someone creates something new and presents it as new, it may have its place in the world. But when they insist on it replacing the original (i.e. keeping the same name while calling the original invalid for whatever reason), it's basically nothing more than an act of hatred driven by personal ego.

Case in point, this post here at Motor City Gamewerks.

Now nothing is stopping Jason from creating a new fantasy race, called Hippie Runts (to coin a name) that are short polish speaking, forest dwelling, wood crafting folks without breads and a taste for malts for his fantasy campaign.

But creating something new wasn't the point. Instead Jason had to rage against the traditional view of dwarves because he lacks the imagination to do something new. Instead he is driven to undermine the work of others to feed his own needs.

And that is so common, and yes- now days it's also boring.

My Primary Requirement for Game Mechanics

I have a rather consistent approach to deciding if a given game system may or may not be interesting. I skip the entire character generation and setting sections if possible stopping only long enough to determine the type of numbers I'll need to actually play the game (average stat, average skill rating, whatever).

Then I go over the whatever are the core rules (typically combat) that would be most important in play. I then plug in those 'average' values and see if the game is interesting to play.

No Setting. No real characters. No role-playing. Just the game mechanics themselves. The question is, is the underlying game fun just by itself. In short, is this a rpg that is built upon an interesting game system. Or is it a rpg that is built upon a boring game system.

That one test tells me if the game has any legs. Or if my attraction is based upon the marketing and fluff packaged around the design- things sure to fade the longer I use it.