State of the Game

It's been a while since the last blog post. Lots of things going in life both real and not. I still owe the last part of the Synapse review and I'll be getting to it. One of the problems there besides the time pressure is that I've already ready covered the 'special' parts of the design- all that is left is the boring stuff and the wrap up.

In RPG news, we're closing in on the end of our Morrow Project Campaign after about two years. This one had an actual envisioned end when it first started. Getting there took longer than expected, but it's been a fun trip. The ending will (unless the players screw up in the home stretch) be more of a beginning, with the world waking up from darkness and the start of the rebuilding. There are years of adventure yet in that campaign, but we've covered what we set out to to do and those stories will have to await a different day.

Mechanically HERO System performed wonderful in general. Why only in general? A bit in I converted everything to 6th edition to see if I could get used to it. The final answer is no. The core rulebook no longer supports hex maps and the overhead of using what is in effect now point-to-point yardstick mini rules (like the old micro armor games) is too high. Plus it's just a ugly over-colored book. In return, it basically gives us nothing good as an offset except a nice version of Power Pool that I can easily retrofit to older versions. I'll be going back to 5th edition after this.

Just starting to look at what campaign to launch into after this. So many options, we have decades of great times ahead for my group.


In the wider (i.e. Industry and online) RPG world, life is boring from where I sit.

The industry has settled on what has to be the most depressing possible outcome. Hacked together modifications of old boring rules tossed into a setting that has one or two books and then nothing. Looking here at stuff like Dresden Files, the various 40K RPGs, and basically everything outside of D&D. D&D meanwhile has... fragmented into old school versions, new school 4th Edition versions, 3.5 versions, and really who can make sense of what they are calling Essentials? The brand is nearly worthless as far as knowing what you're getting.

HERO System meanwhile is in a major rut. They've released their rules in 6th edition, which has to be the most pointless edition ever. Now they're off redoing all their setting books, which was always pointless. I suppose someone uses them, I never did.


For the first time ever, I'm starting to think the RPG industry as such is done for. At least until it's rediscovered. Not convinced mind you, but starting to be. Groups like my own will continue of course as well the small time companies who do it just because. But I don't know who much longer WotC and the handful of other major names will continue to plug along- and not sure there's any value in their doing so.

The Upcoming Captain America Movie

I use a lot of inspiration for my rpg campaigns. Books, Movies, TV shows. I use them all, if I'm rather picky about just what ones I use. And I tend to approach them with a "I like these ideas, but I want to do them myself without the mistakes and railroading".

This is the background for my Year 1 Superhero campaign which is based on Marvel Comics- but isn't Marvel Comics. We get to start over and do the characters right without the bad stories, worst writers, and consistent characters. What a thought.

With that in mind, I'm awaiting the upcoming Captain America movie. It may give me cool ideas that I can play off of.

A lot of people seem to be slamming the movie sight unseen.

I think some of it is driven by expectation (i.e. anything from Hollywood must hate America) instead of  any real facts on the ground. Yet another part is driven by how Marvel itself has treated the character in the comics- in a real way, he (with rare exception) hasn't been what Captain America should be since the 70s (if then).

Indeed, the closest they've come to the original is perhaps the version in the Ultimate run of books. I think Marvel viewed it as a chance to show how much of a dinosaur the character was- but it was a huge hit with the fans. When they went to do Ultimate Avengers- they split the difference and produced what I thought was perhaps the best version of Capt ever done up to this day.

I think (at this point) that some of the slams against the movie are unjustified.

The costume is very similar to the Ultimate series I referenced above. More practical with muted colors and web gear. They are however using the modern shield in its full bright red, white and blue. I don't understand any of the whining on this point. Complaining about the costume strikes me as someone looking for problems and then making them up when none jump right out at them.

The director comments referenced by Big Hollywood in the link above are more troubling. But again, not something I have a problem with by itself. Capt doesn’t' have to go around making speeches about how good America is- he just has to go around doing good and heroic things while wearing the colors of his country. Deeds, not words work fine.

Now they can do a bunch to make the movie horrid. Marvel itself has ruined the character, and it wouldn't be hard to see them doing that in the Movie. Just look at the first Hulk movie for an example.

But I'm still in the wait and see mode. Hoping for the best.

Much of Fear is Found in the Unexpected

I was considering the nature of 'Horror' gaming, my own success with it (I've had players refuse to continue campaigns because they were in their words too frightening), the games of other successful GMs that I've played in, and the common advice given about them.

I've always found that common advice... stale and far less than useful. Why? Because that common advice is... well common. It's a known value and thus expected. As a 'horror' campaign progresses, it only becomes even more common and more expected. Thus they become more boring. And at least for me, fear is wrapped up in the unknown and not the known.

Let me give a example from my gaming experience.

I'm on record in many Internet exchanges as being a fan of tactical RPG gaming that include detailed battles. Indeed I've described my RPG campaigns as a individual war games linked by setting, story and role-play to provide meaning to the battles, and a method to explore their outcomes afterward.

A rather rare style these days, and given how different it is from dungeon crawls and such- likely it was always a rare style. As a result of this style, I use board and minis. Few things are normally hidden from my players.Unless I've switched to a Horror style event.

Then the maps and minis may disappear, leaving the players only with their impressions of my words. Or they may remain, but with highly constrained views, expanding only foot by foot and perception check by perception check. My rule of dice rolls always be in the open is suspended, and many of them now become hidden. While I normally never require rolls for typical actions (jump the fence on run, sure- spend 3" of your move please), suddenly I'm calling for agility checks for the same action.

For the players the world as they have known it, has in actual fact changed. Things they could count on, are now fuzzy and unknown. And there is something out there hunting them in the darkness.

It's a small thing. And added to other small things (different way of describing things, perhaps playing by candle light, etc) the result can be as intense as watching the best horror movie. I've had the most gung ho power gamer crawling away from any chance of battle hoping to reach that patch of light under the street lamp. Praying that someone, anyone, would arrive to help him.

For my style of gaming, at the end things switch back. Information is learned, understanding of the threat dawns. A course of action decided. Like the movie Predator, what begins as Horror typically ends up as Action. The map returns, things are resolved and the Hero is left standing (or not as the case may be).

I think it's the unexpected in this that impacts the players. Both during the 'Horror' part of the game, and then when that becomes expected- the switch back to the tactical 'heroic' style. Both styles are enhanced because they are at such contrast. If I normally used a simple non-tactical, map-less and fuzzy rule set, all that impact would be lost.


I don't run these types of games often. Indeed doing so would undermine their effectiveness. It's best to have an adventure go off like a sky rocket, then play a series of snap caps. At least for me.

It's enough to make me cynical

I was on a reading binge, and finished five books in the last week or so. Of these four were fiction. For any interested those four are: Origin, Breach, Beneath the Dark Ice, and Defiance. All were bad. I would have bet money that they weren't good upfront, but was hoping to steal an idea or two for gaming. In the end, I had almost nothing except for one concept from Defiance. I've lost a few hours from my life that I won't get back. Sigh.

To be honest, the Potboiler has been with us forever. But things seem a bit worse now. Self-Publishing has come to normal fiction as much as RPGs, and you can get stuff on the Kindle that no publisher would touch. I've now learned to watch out for these, although to be honest they aren't that much worse than the published stuff. But they are worse.

Here's my hints to any writers out there. It applies to GM's too as they are often in the same business. Making something rather common interesting to those reading or playing in it.

1. Interesting characters that hook the reader, that are believable, and that we can root for are key to anything. They can make the most redundant and unimpressive plots sparkle. Their absence will sink anything no matter how creative or otherwise well done.
2. Have those characters actually matter to the outcome unless your work is the darkest of horror. And really, this days the darkest of horror is so freakin' common that it should be avoided as the pointless exercise it is.

In one way, GMs should have a much easier time than writers. The players should take care of most of the first requirement although it helps to have a good NPC here and there. And really the second point is up to the players as well.

However the very control given to players is why GMs can run into trouble. Because they have to allow the players to achieve both items. Note- allow and is not the same as give. That balance is the most difficult thing in gaming. Here's hoping you find it.

Don't look now, but reality has changed...

…at least for some people who weren't all that strongly connected to it in the first place.

Oddly enough, I'm unchanged due to how the dates break- much like I was born and have remained emotionally 40 my entire life. The freakin' universe must alter itself to match me, not the other way around. If I ever get bored and decide to die, I imagine the resulting destruction of existence may cause you (the readers) problems. I suppose some would say that I should offer some sort of apology in advance, but really… it will be for the better.

In the meantime this means  I don't have to ditch the Pisces dust collector I have on my book shelf (the wife and I got a matched set of birth sign… statues I guess you could call them… back in the day. Sort like birthstones. Yes, it was a new couple thing). However it is now clear why hers was shortly destroyed by an act of the cosmos (i.e. knocked off the shelf by a cat, broke into a million pieces) while my remains intact to this day. She's now a Virgo and not a Libra and the error was being corrected before it could gather decades of dust and unbalance the world.

How does any of this relate to RPGs? Well, given that  Astrology is bunk- it doesn't. But it does parallel it in a way. For believers it's a world shift every bit as important as say the arrival of D&D 4th edition. I leave the proof to others, but I can't help but think the Astrology blogs and boards must look a lot like the RPGs one not that long ago with huge flame wars over the change and large groups of people holding fast to the old versions. I wonder what their OSR movement would look like...

Heck, I had the same issues when 6th Edition of HERO System comes out. Those with home grown systems experience the same thing when they make updates to the rules.

It seems fantasy systems, no matter their source and purpose are all similar in a way. Subject to being undone by the mere passage of time.