Visiting my FLGS because I needed to be depressed

The gaming stores in my area have fallen on hard times. Most have gone out of business. Unless you count the Game Workshop stores, only one remains open.That one was the crown jewel of the metroplex for over a decade. Large selection of in print and out of print items including some of the small press stuff now and then.

At one time I could walk in the door and pick up the full line of Deadlands, Shadowrun, or HERO offerings to say nothing of the tons of D&D stuff they had.

Now, many shelves are bare. The stock is looking old and worn. Much of the inventory looks to be in a "sell and don't replace state'. Except it doesn't seem to be selling. As to my favorite game, HERO? Some worn copies of 5th edition stuff (nothing core) is on the shelves. Nothing new.

They did have some of the latest Shadowrun stuff, and I picked up a hardback supplement of that with some minis to do my part in supporting them. They also had a good amount of WoD and D&D and of course what is now basically out print collector or treasure hunting items that is threatening to exceed the currently in print stocking.

It's easy to try and extend the local conditions to the whole world, and I'll avoid that. Also the reasons for things being what they are may be completely unrelated to the hobby itself (like the transfer of sales to online sources instead of hobby stores). I'd have to quiz the owner for details, and he's a rather nice upbeat guy. Asking why he's looking on the thin edge of going out of business wasn't something I wanted to beat him down with.

But whatever the cause, it's still a bummer.

Picking a New Campaign: Part V- Picking the System

As far as I'm concerned, selecting a system is easy because there are not many good ones. After wasting far too much time on various offerings, I've settle on just two: HERO System and my homegrown rules labeled Age of Heroes. HERO works for superheroes, sci-fi and basically everything using guns. Age of Heroes works best in pure fantasy settings where swords and spells settle things.

Normally picking between these two is easy. No so given the Claymore inspired setting for this new campaign.

On one hand, the abilities of the title characters reach superhero like levels as the series progresses (I'd describe one of the characters- Teresa as Captain America using a sword with the speed of Quicksilver). This plays to the strengths of HERO System.

On the other hand, the title of the show is Claymore. Sword fights are big deal in it. And Age of Heroes does sword fights much better.

One could focus on either, and by doing so push the other aspects into the background. A different choice indeed.

In the end we decided that the sword battles should have the focus. This will make the campaign less over the top and even more gritty. The special abilities will be on the order of human enhancement rather than superhero capabilities. This one choice means that it won't be the same as the anime, but that was in the one of the starting goals.

Currently I'm cleaning up the core rules (Age of Heroes as always been more a collection of notes than a finished work) and then will do the campaign supplement containing setting specific rules. We should be ready to start playing in a month or so.

Someone Nailed the Limits of Inclusion

I seldom do 'me too' posts, but an article by the Angry DM caught my eye.

He's basically saying He doesn't  give a flip about inclusion with respect to his gaming group. He picks his friends and you don't have a right to be among them.

I couldn't agree more. I can however take it perhaps further.

I think most victim groups are (if not originally self created) self maintained in today's world. Inclusion is a problem only because such people refuse to be individuals and insist on being a group instead. And without fail, those groups are ugly and selfish artificial creations. They are in effect not asking me to treat them as they deserve- they are demanding that I treat them according to the idealized state that they claim is owed to their group.

I will treat any individual acting as an individual with the amount of respect they earn. Self identified social victims need not apply. If you define yourself as something less than human, I (for reasons completely different than yours) will agree.

Picking a New Campaign: Part IV- The Borrowed Bits

I've spent some time covering the approach to how we select and start a new campaign. The last article explained how and why I borrow entire concepts from other works. So, that brings us to what I've borrowed for the next campaign.

In general, I don't care that much for anime. One would think I'd like it as it tends towards sci-fi and fantasy and I love good sci-fi and fantasy. But common elements of anime style and story-telling cause me no end of problems. The focus on the child hero, the interruption of a serious storyline with over the top cartoon 'reaction shots', silly power ups, and the worst- illogical and stupid story lines. I used to think that the story lines only seemed dumb to me due to cultural differences (not that this would make me like them any better), but I have since given that idea up for what is almost certainly the truth. They are simply bad stories, like much of the stuff we produce here in the states.

So it's a bit of a surprise that the core borrowed item for the new campaign is from an anime show. It's called Claymore and was something I happened across on a boring day spent browsing Netflix. The show is not without its very anime faults. The swords are too big (too thick actually, the length is fine), the sidekick is HORRID, it includes some torture scenes that are rather hard to watch, and sometimes the bridge between superhero like abilities and the gritty storyline itself threatens to fall apart.

But the background is interesting, nearly all the characters are well developed and appealing. And the underlying themes are eternal and very western in culture for anime. I really like those themes. I nearly fell in love with the show, and am able to overlook its faults.

This review is a good even-handed one although I think the Dragon-Ball Z comment was a undeserved cheap shot (the meaning and result of the two seemingly similar animated bits are vastly different), and I thought the ending was a perfect highlight of the core themes for all that came before. (and mostly because the manga the show is based on still hasn't ended itself ).

Now I had to fit this into my Middle Earth inspired time line somehow, and that means deciding where. The early ages of Middle Earth didn't seem right, the tone of the series didn't match. It certainly wouldn't be set in the future- those are very space opera settings and this is very much fantasy world tech.

So it needs to be set after the Third Age Middle, but not the future. A world that is at best falling into the trap that "the ends justify any means" (as an aside, people leave out the word 'any' in that phrase- and it loses any real meaning when that's done).

It took me a bit, but then the idea of using the Book of Genesis and setting this pre-flood just might be idea. That period is nearly undefined and what is stated offers interesting launching points for extending and expanding the setting. So the first chapters of Genesis is the second borrowed item.

The last piece comes from Shadowrun and by extension Earth Dawn. These had a interesting thing in common with Middle Earth- the idea that there was a previous forgotten age of magic. Switching that age to that of Middle Earth provided the background I needed to include my Shadowrun campaign in the meta-time line some years back. Now that concept would expand this new setting.

According to Shadowrun, the previous magical age was brought down by an outside force (this concept also exists in Tolkien's works btw), and that people only survived it by hiding in concealed sanctuaries. After the primary danger passed (i.e. the greater powers of the invaders left as the magic level decreased), they opened the sanctuaries and reclaimed the world that eventually became today's.

In time line terms, lost of the original magical ages of Middle Earth would have occurred at the end of the Fourth Age. The opening of the hidden sanctuaries would have been the beginning of the Fifth Age, and the flood of Genesis would washed away nearly any memory of the previous ages.

Thus this new campaign would be after the opening of the sanctuaries, and the rebuilding of what be city states thereafter. The most powerful of the invaders who destroyed the world would be gone, but lesser creatures still presenting great dangers would remain to be dealt with. One of these new city states turn to the Claymore concept to deal with those very dangers.

This mirrors the Claymore setting of very different cities with wilderness and wasteland between them. And allows for the 'war' between Claymore and Yoma (as the monsters are called) explaining where both came from.

It also allows the addition of city states that took a different path from the Claymore one. Perhaps one that put it faith in an order of Paladins, or another preserved wizards. The result of such different approaches meeting and interacting would interesting.

So the core idea is set. The next thing is selecting a rule set for it.

Picking a New Campaign: Part III- Borrowing the Good Stuff

I am something of a setting thief. Most people are, if they admit it or not.

Running a traditional fantasy world but with your own names for the people and places? You stole that from the masters of such, basically Tolkien but you could toss Howard in there if you want. Or some of the more modern authors- you know, those guys who pick pocketed it from Tolkien before you did.

Running a non-traditional fantasy world, in order to avoid anything that hints of Tolkien? You stole that. From Tolkien. After all, what you're doing is reversing or avoiding what he did- not very original if you think about it. Oh, and a bunch of people beat you to that too.

The truth of the matter is that there isn't really anything original, i.e. a concept that hasn't been done yet. And if there is, it is all but certain (I'll leave in a non-zero lightning bolt chance in there) that it wouldn't be worth doing. For our culture, there are certain concepts that speak to us, and we are well spoken to indeed.

Perhaps if we undergo a massive cultural change, it will bring with it new stuff. Unlikely IMO, because such change is likely to do nothing be return us to previous cultures and their non-original concepts. But it new stuff has happened before, perhaps it will again.

Now the bells and whistles will change. And the old ideas can be done *better* and more suited to certain people or groups just as they can done worse. Forbidden Planet is sci-fi, even if it's also a redo of Shakespeare's Tempest. I like the former and am rather uncaring about the latter, because sci-fi offers me personally a better view on the same underlying concepts.

Because of this reality, I'm rather open in my borrowing. I don't hide it. If I chose to run a Captain America clone in Superhero campaign, I'll run Captain America thank you. I'll just run him *right*, i.e. how I think the character should be- and the comic companies and their every changing writers and takes on the character be damned.

My first and central RPG campaign was based in Middle Earth, and I use same setting as a base for ever other campaign I run. Why? Because it matched my values, offered the type of adventures I desired, and sparked my imagination.

But my campaigns are not copies of the "Lord of the Rings". Never done that period actually. After all, Tolkien detailed that place and time quite well. Rather I've done games set in other periods. What was things like in the middle of the Third Age instead of its end? What about the First? What about the Sixth? Yes, the Sixth- it was part of his overall history you know.

So I borrow, and then extend and expand.

If Middle Earth was lost history, if Eru created the world and the Third Age is lost to time- what changes would that make in a future Age borrowed in part from- oh Shadowrun? It would change everything. Creating that is original enough for me.

Or to pick something I haven't done (yet), what would a Warhammer 40K setting be if everything they believed about history was wrong, but the history of Middle was correct? How do you get from one to the other, and what does options does it open up or close off compared to traditional 40k?

For me, this is in part of a way of saving really cool ideas, ruined by where the original writers took them. The stupid wimpy ending the Shadow War in B5? I can do that better. The fatalism of 40K? I can replace that with a tale of light surviving even the greatest darkness and human failings. Those horrid Star Wars sequels? Anyone could better.

In a nutshell, I borrow concepts, names, background- whatever I want. Then I change it how I want and come up with something mine. Something that for me is better than the original. Much like the old wargaming hobby often sought to develop better ways of fighting historical battles.

In a very real way, this is the core of how I play and part of the why as well.

Picking a New Campaign: Part II- What's Important

As covered in my last blog, we were picking from a number of possible campaign settings:

1. Ages of Middle Earth
2. Nephilim (pre-flood earth)
3. Hidden World (19th century up to the modern era)
4. Shadowrun
5. Year 1 (our re-imagination of silver age Marvel)
6. Morrow Project (cross off list as we just did)
7. Outreach (early sci-fi interstellar expansion)
8. Federation (original show star trek like setting)
9. Tri-Galaxy (wild sci-fi)

To end things before it begin we attempt to find out if we had any real consensus on what it should be. No such luck of course. After spinning our wheels a bit, we took a slightly different tack- define what was important to see in the next campaign and narrow things down to match.

It turned out to be a somewhat interesting list, both in what it was and in if actually influenced what we chose.

An overarching storyline like we had in the Morrow Project campaign, i.e. a planned end.

This was rather easy in any of the settings truth be told. It's really little more than defining a goal and the basic idea of what would be in the way. So, really no impact.

More niche for the characters.

This one took me a little by surprise. One of the players wanted a change from Morrow Project which featured an all military group using national weapons to a group of PCs with radically different backgrounds and 'weapons'. Now the Morrow Project campaign did have solid niches and roles for the characters (I doubt I could enjoy a game without them), so this call for even more niche, more to have those niches be more front and center.

This removed a number of possibilities. Outreach, Federation, and Tri-Galaxy were all intended to focus primarily on what were in effect military characters, armed with military arms. Something we just did.

Sure we could focus on a different aspect of the setting, but at this time there was little appeal to that. Do these were removed.

The more we consider this, it seem that in general it was the concept of production firearms and their like that was really the core of the objection. Colonel Colt made all men equal it seems :)

This dropped us back to the two fantasy periods where sword and sorcery were the rule of the day. Ages of Middle Earth or Nephilim.

A player's background will have influence

One of players has a degree in theology. The concept of linking pre-flood Biblical accounts to Middle Earth was something of draw. Roughly on par with my interesting in modern military history and weapons causing me to often be drawn to more modern settings.

This perhaps was the turning point that removed the Ages of Middle Earth from the running.

In the end, campaign choices are made by a small subset of the players

In over thirty years of gaming, I don't think I've ever seen a group where a majority of the players felt strongly about what they're playing. I don't mean they're uninterested, just that they are open to a wide range of options.

That was the case here. Everyone was involved in making the decision, and everyone pointed out advantages and disadvantages. But nearly everyone would have been happy with any of the choices before us. So the final selection came down mostly to the just one of the players.

Next, I'll spend some time detailing the new setting.