New Spaces

I’ve recently signed up with two new places to talk about games. These are new, not because of their chronological age (though they are both new in that way as well), but because they are places that are constructed for talking about things about games that other places (the Forge, Story Games, RPG.net, publisher websites) are not*. Stuff I tend to think about as “real stuff” sometimes.

I would knife fight a man is for talking about God, sex, and rpgs. And a bunch of other stuff.

The IRIS Network is a female-oriented community for gamers, with a decidedly feminist bent.

I’m still in read-and-don’t-talk mode, but I’m glad that these exist for me to read right now.

*Footnote: Now that tabletop games are growing and changing and evolving into something new, I’m glad that people are starting to consider them in a way that positions them against the rest of life. I can’t help thinking about how we look back at the first films (even the first talkies) and go “wow, how hackneyed and blind and full of unexamined cultural assumptions, even though there’s really good stuff.” And as the medium evolved and changed, directors and screenwriters starting bringing more and more “real stuff” into them.  It’s a process of maturation, and I’m glad I get to see and participate in it.

On My Plate

(cuz if I don’t do this, I’ll forget everything)

(so not in order of importance)

Write up a Mountain Witch AP thread at the Forge.

Write up an outline for Kevin & I’s Push 2 article DONE!

Send in corrections for carry so it can be back in print. DONE!

Read and review all of the BibliOdyssey entries. DONE!

Update website with links to carry AP threads.

A couple of IPR-related tasks.

A followup blog entry about the culture of Awesome.

AND THEN I CAN WRITE GAMES AGAIN!

Is It Too Soon?

Here’s a thought about a really cathartic game for a lot of us, I think. This idea was originally discussed with Mr. Allen Jr at Gen Con, by the by.

…

So I have a number of 90s game tomes on a bookshelf that I don’t really want to get rid of, because I played many of them and they were a big part of my coming of age experience and I have a hard time parting with that kind of stuff. Of course, they’re at my parents house, because I don’t play them anymore….but here’s something interesting I was thinking of.

…

So when you purchase this theoretical game, it’s an 8.5×11 hardcover with whatever cool grabby cover. And you open it, and the pages inside are a mess of dotted outlines with bibliographic references in them. Like, there’s a rectangle that says ” (WW) Hunter: The Reckoning; Page 128, paragraph 4″ and below it is a a trapezoid that says “(TSR) Encyclopedia Magica Volume 1, Page 37, paragraph 4, sentences 2 - 10″. It also comes with a pair of scissors and a gluestick.

I imagine that it would either come with a CD, or have a website addy where you can download all the clippings, so you have access to the ones that you don’t already own.

…

Impossible for legal reasons, I’m sure. But how interesting would it be if you got a game that required you to physically destroy the old games that you don’t play any more, in order to create something new?

…

Physical destruction, as you will see this summer, is a big theme for me (and Kevin) right now.

…

I think I would call this game “From The Ashes”

Tired Of Awesome

So…I dunno. I’m starting to get tired of awesome.

I’m sure there’s a liguistic term for it, but it’s the thing where the constant (over)use of a term makes it meaningless. It seems that everything I see on teh intarwebz is described as awesome. Or bringing the awesome. Or stepping up with the awesome. Or whatever.

Is this merely a linguistic rant? Perhaps. But I think it’s a sign of something a little more important, and this links into some of the post-Gen Con kerfluffle (remember that, kids?) regarding criticism and feedback. In internet discourse, at least, there’s a lot of pressure to only post with things that are awesome. Games that are great, things you think are really good, game experiences that kicked ass, and all of that stuff.

Like most things, this is both good and bad. It’s good because we are a small community, and there’s a lot of negativity out there, and we need to have the energy of awesome in order to have a comfortable sphere within which to interact. And that’s all good.

But it’s bad in terms of creating a culture of feedback and constructive criticism. Not everything is awesome! There’s a lot of stuff out there that happens that isn’t awesome. A lot of it is still quite good. And, more importantly, much of is has potential to be really good. But it is never going to get to the next level if there isn’t critique and criticism!

“It” could be a game design, playing a game, reviewing games, whatever. Doesn’t matter.

I personally am a little frustrated because I’ve gotten private feedback about one of my games, and when I said “hey, could you/are you going to do an AP post?” I got the response “well, it wasn’t a great session, so I don’t think it’s worth it.”

I mean, post, don’t post, whatever. But I think making the deciding factor whether a given session was awesome or not?

Well…it’s hard to critique awesome.

[EDIT: Definitly read the comments on this one, folks]

Lx is…

….an awesome dudexor forevar!!!11!!eleven!

And I’m gonna make Dev run me some Fastlane one of these Wednesdays.

Vesna Thaw & Children of the Sun, Children of the Moon

So I participated in the Reversed Engineer challenge, wherein you first create a character sheet, and you then receive somebody else’s sheet and reverse engineer a game from it. I submitted this sheet, and I received Martin O’Leary’s. Russell Collins received my sheet.

When I made my sheet, I was thinking about a lot of stuff stemming from Gen Con conversations, especially about how the artifacts you use at the table are the interface between you and the game space. So I wanted something interactive, something that you had to participate in creating, which was the germ of the folding portion of the sheet (I was by no means unique with this - folding elements of character sheets showed up all over the contest). I also wanted something with poker chips, because I got an awesome poker chip set at Gen Con. I also wanted something with a mythic/epic tone, with a lot of room for metaphor and interpretation.

I think that Russell did some admirable work by running with those elements of intention, which either means I did a good job designing the sheet, or he did a good job reading my mind. I look forward to putting the game through some play, if I have half the chance. Russell, come Dreamation, we’ll play!

So, my game. The sheet I got was awesome, to me, in two ways - the big box for drawing your robot, and the soviet theme. So, obviously I would be writing a game about giant fighting soviet robots. Now, the sheet has a strong humorous element, but it also has some interesting labels (the box’s in the top right), and I decided that I wanted to write a game that would have giant fighting soviet robots, but would also have some seriousness to it. I’m not big on pure “humor” games, I need some meat underneath for me to enjoy it.

So, somewhere in my brainstorming, I decided that there were robots because there was no other way to get about, because of radiation. And so, my basic idea was born - post-soviet post-nuclear robots. It’s after the cold war turned hot, all of the survivors have been living in isolated underground bunkers for 10 years, and only now, and only in kitbashed robots made from left-over parts and powered by faulty radioactive powerplants, can people take to the surface and try to rebuild.

Fear not, there is still giant robot fighting! But, the game at it’s heart is about seeking and finding, and trying to rebuild a larger community while preserving your local one. I did a lot of design things that I’m not used to, which I think was good. There’s elements of a lot of games and conversations in this design. Burning Empires and Grey Ranks for scenes-as-currency, Grey Ranks for Scenes-as-Pacing, a lot of Jonathon Walton’s work about reward not needed to be mechanical, some post-”stakes conversation” thoughts about how conflicts work, Meatbot Massacre and Mechaton for robot fighting, Polaris for GMful and protagonist-centered play. And more, I’m sure.

In the end, it’s a progressive game (stuff starts out difficult to acheive, and becomes easier as the game progresses, until you’re probably succeeding at everything just as you go out in your radiation-induced Blaze of Glory). Resolution is kind of conflict resolution, but not necessarily. I’m not sure what lingo to use to describe it. Rewards are encoded more for opposition than for success. There’s no GM, and each scene is explicity centered on your character. Oh, and you all get to help draw each other’s robots, which is cool!

So it’s a funky, wierd game that I think I like, and I have no idea if it works or not. Time will tell.

I have two games to review, Christian Griffin’s Celestial Soap and Adam Dray’s Architects of Aztlan, which are very different from each other, which is cool. I’m looking forward to it, and to seeing what Roger Carbol and Dave Cleaver have to say about Vesna Thaw.

Mad props to Kevin Allen Jr for running this whole shebang. It = teh rock.

Much Gnashing Of Teeth

or When Politics Attack: The Return of Darth Vader

or When a Fairly Reasoned Post Turns Rantastic

So, there’s a lot of misunderstanding of GNS out on the internet.

This should come as a surprise to no one.

It’s really starting to get to me, though. Now, I’m not a big GNS-head. I don’t talk about it much, and I don’t use the terms in my games, but I accept it on it’s merits and agree with many of its underlying principles and it’s framework for conceptualizing the elements of game play. But, when I see comments that demonstrate either a misunderstanding or a perversion of the theory, I feel like I’m being misrepresented. Like, GNS is heavily identified with the Forge, and I identify with the Forge, and just want to correct the errors when I see them.

But, I DON’T want to be a GNS evangelist, especially outside of the bailiwick of the Forge. Once you start spouting GNS talk, it’s easy for those who don’t buy in to it or who have some axe to grind with the Forge to dismiss you out of hand. This, I don’t want.

So I feel frustrated. I’ve written many a post, only to delete it and move on, as I don’t want to waste my time with the flames that I always see in my minds eye.

I dunno if anyone else feels the same way. How can we gently, but firmly, try to correct people when they say things that are just wrong without offending them or going down in flames? Is it possible? Is it worth the effort?

Addendum

Here’s the two things I see most often (I’m sure someone reading this wants to see some examples, I know I would):

- GNS is crap because it doesn’t like D&D/GNS doesn’t account for the popularity of D&D:

The first is obviously dumb, but it’s the dumb way of saying the second. GNS has fuckall to do with how many people buy and play a game. The RPG market has been subject to a number of bizarre forces in its short history. The popularity of a given system has had almost nothing to do with its design focus until recently. Look to things like the distribution system and, like, media focus and the surrounded pop culture and crap to see why games that are popular (re: sell a lot of copies) are that way.

- Bob is a gamist/GNS divides people into only three categories of gamer:

The first is just blatent ignorance of the essays. People are not gamist, simulationist or narrativist. People can have those as Creative Agendas, but they are not identities. The second is a misreading of the theory as being far more restrictive than it actually is. GNS is all about preferance - you, or your group, can have a gamist agenda for an instance of play, and the game you’re playing can support that or not, but that doesn’t mean that you, as a person, play with only that agenda ever and never break out of it OMG.

So there’s my big two. Unless you’re Ron or Vincent or Mike, I’m not interested in debating these or defending these, FYI.

I think that satisfies my annual GNS-related post quota. I hope to get back to the RPG Design Handbook stuff soon, actually. And, like, write some games.

Mind The Gap

The gap between my happiness when I’m actually playing games and my sadness when I’m reading game-related stuff on the internet is very large right now.

Very very large.

Gen Con 06

I was going to try to write stuff during the con and then post it sequentially…that didn’t really work out. But here is what I did get down on paper, as it were.

8/9/06

11.01 AM

I am sitting in the Baltimore Airport, waiting for my plane to Indianapolis to board. I am surrounded by gamers. The three guys behind me are hoping that they can get into the exhibitor hall to look around tonite; I can see one fellow leafing through a players handbook; a teenager is hauling a backpack and a Games Workshop emblazoned army case. There are more subtle tells as well - the guy to my right is reading an R. A. Salvatore novel. Two other guys with beards are totally engrossed in PSP and Gameboy Advance play, respectively. Laptops abound, even for an airport. We also have a number of wrestling and ultimate fighting shirts - I’m willing to bet good money that they are among us.

The guys behind me say that someone should stand up in the front of the plane and get a show of hands for who’s going to Gen Con. That would be pretty funny.

Me? I slept like crap, but the burrito and airport coffee is giving me hope for the rest of the day. I bought a new book (The Dante Club) to read on the plane, but I have no idea if that’s going to happen.

A guy wearing a shirt with the Nintendo controller buttons across the chest just sat down. Rocking.

It’s simultaneously frightening and awesome that I am so obviously among my own, and that we’re all going to the same place for the same reason.

Say what you will about subculture mentality, but it’s awful comforting to feel like you’re part of something, y’know? I’m quietly reveling in that comfort, as it’s helping me not be so damn nervous about the days to come.

Schedule for the rest of the day: get into Indy, get to the hotel somehow (shuttle? I cross my fingers), try to hook up with Brennan, head over to the dealers hall to set up Forge-y things, and then at 6 we have our demo madness at the Embassy spearheaded by Clinton.

Boarding begins in 10 minutes. Until next time.

8/13/06

3.56 pm

Well, I meant to actually do a log over the course of the Con. But it just didn’t happen.

Every day I woke up, got breakfast, went over to the dealers hall at about 9 or 9.30, and then was solid busy all day until I went to bed (between 1.45 and 3.30 am). I just had no time - well, that’s a lie. I had no time that I decided I would rather type up stuff than play, talk about or recover from games.

So I’m in the middle of my layover on my way to Albuquerque (I’m taking a week of vacation there. Whoo-hoo!). There is no possible way to construct any kind of narrative about the last four days, so I’m just going to set down isolated chunks as they occur to me. And I’m definitely not going to be touching on even a sizable portion of the awesome that was my first Gen Con.

So, in no particular order: Gen Con 06!

Kevin Allen JUNIOR. That guys an award-winning game designer.

There is going to be awesomeness at next years DexCon. I’m very excited about the next 10 months. Y’all just wait….

The Yu-Gi-Oh Master. This guy had a throne, and he took on all comers all day long. They would play on a pedestal behind a pane of glass, and it was awesome. Apparently he gets custom cards from the company, and so all of the challengers are forced to enter their names into the annals of the defeated.

I realized on Saturday that I hadn’t seen anything on one side of the convention hall yet. There’s so much stuff there that you need to schedule time to actually go and look, and you have to keep track of all the places that you haven’t been yet, because it’s going to take multiple trips.

Thor stepping on Sen(k)owski’s head to make him let go of the totem.

Oh man! I was so going to get Thor or Dro or Tony and go to the Asmodee Editions booth and take on the dude who was running Jungle Speed demos. That would have been awesome.

Meeting cool people. Oh man. I feel awesome because I met so many great people at the booth, and I feel lame that there’s literally too many people to spend quality time with all of them. There were some people at the Forge booth that I literally didn’t talk to, not because I didn’t want too, but because I was too freaking busy. That is lame, and will be rectified next year. To anyone who thought I was being a dick - many apologies. It wasn’t you, it was me!

People who come into the booth want to know about our games. Once you realize this, selling becomes fun. I had an awesome time just talking about games to people - pitching them, yes, and trying to get them to buy it, yes, but these are AWESOME games that I like, and I love talking about how cool they are!

Buying jewel-y dice for Meg for Thousand and One Nights. Oh yah. I love that game.

Bad stakes-setting gets people arguing about stakes. Good stakes-setting gets people reaching for the dice. You’ll be seeing more about this later.

Oh! My buy list. With commentary:

- 500-count 5-color poker chip set, with two decks of cards and 5 dice in an aluminum, locking case: 25 freaking bucks, man. Now I have no excuse not to play Mortal Coil and Mountain Witch.

- Speaking of which. Mountain Witch! And Kwaidon, the japanese ghost story companion to it. I ended up playing in a really fun game of MW over two night at the Embassy Suites (run by Tim, which was neat), and it totally sold me on the game. I’m really looking forward to absorbing Kwaidon and getting a rocking game of TMW together.

- Thousand and One Nights. I couldn’t buy Mortal Coil again because I already own it, so this one takes my “favorite game of the con” spot. I just love the game. And now I own it. Reading the text makes me smile.

- Mechaton! I have my own Mechs (more pics to come), but now I have the rules as well. Victory.

- Primitive. Kevin Allen Jr’s awesome DIY game of cavemen. The really cool thing about it is that you can’t talk in-character, cuz the characters are pre-verbal. So over the course of play, you create your own language of grunts and gestures, and thats powerful. Though, we played this at Embassy as well (me, Jason Morningstar, Danielle Czege, Kevin….Gregor? I know there was at least one more person, but my brain is dumb), and we ended up turning on each other with clubs in the first ten minutes. After my character was beaten down for disrespecting the totem, Kevin just said: ‘And that’s how Primitive never goes.’ We rock. And the book is freakin’ hand stitched. That’s awesome.

- Push, the progressive roleplaying journal that Jon Walton edited. I just read it on my first leg, and it’s very, very interesting. I need to digest it before I say more than that, but the format is awesome, and it has some neat, neat stuff in there. I will be talking more about this one in the days to come as well.

- Agon, John Harper’s game of heroic greek combat. I know it’s fighty and greek and has cool tactile mechanics, and it looks like a lot of fun, and I want to play it. And the book is gorgeous.

- Best Friends. Gregor Hutton’s Ronnie’s entry, it’s basically Mean Girls the RPG. Character creation is so streamlined and elegant and powerful that it blows me away. I’m stealing it for something. And I think it would be a blast for one-shots.

- Don’t Rest Your Head. Fred’s game was on the rack, and I was all “who am I kidding, I want this game” One of my players will be really into it, and I’m sure I’ll be able to get some play in. I’m excited.

And that’s it! I actually wanted to pick up Faery’s Tale (not at the Forge booth, and I forget the publisher, but it looks mad neat) as well, but I was just crunched for time this morning. Maybe later.

My demo for carry is blistering. I had so much fun running it, and it sold games, and that was good. And Jeff and Judd recorded a demo that they’re going to put on Sons of Kryos! And that is so awesome. I’ll def have a link when that goes up. Oh, speaking of, they did interviews with the different strata of Forge boothers - I was in the “newbie” interview, which was all the designers who were there for the first time. You’ll hear it when they get it up, but the interview was awesome!

I also interviewed with Mike Sugarbaker of the Ogre Cave podcast, and that was really fun. I was knee-deep in a gin-and-tonic at the time, so I hope I don’t sound like an idiot on it, but it was cool meeting him and talking shop about the future of the indie community.

Also met Paul Tevis, and yelled at him for calling me Thomas. Anyway, he’s a cool guy, and I’m sure he’ll have awesome Gen Con material for his podcast as well.

Podcasting is capital-I Important for our community. I just want to make sure you all understand this.

I was unable to attend any seminars, which was kind of lame, but there was after-hours design talk in various ways, and I honestly was just having a blast running demos and selling games at the booth. So no harm, no foul.

Honestly? I don’t think there was any higher proportion of fat, unpleasant, smelly or otherwise undesirable people at Gen Con than at any other public social event I’ve been too. I mean, there’s the costumes, but that’s different. I was pleasantly surprised, is all I’m saying. Of course, I was primarily in the dealers room, so maybe other parts had other stuff, but yeh. I was happy.

None of you can stand to the Mouth Of Ronom!

I’m officially Jungle Speed-ed out for a little while. I’m going to need the break for a little while for the spark to come back. But I put in a lot of Jungle Speed hours in. A lot.

Grey Ranks. That’s Jason Morningstar’s new game that he’s working on, and it is going to be capital-A Awesome, once it works. I played in a playtest session, and the diamond is there, shining in the rough. I really look forward to its development. Not to be pretentious, but I really think that games like carry and Grey Ranks are pioneering a specific way to approach very powerful and painful real-world history in a way that both respects it and allows you to address it, and is an enjoyable experience. I really hope that there will be more of these kinds of games happening, because it’s important for the maturation of our hobby to have that. We need to become adults.

Anyway. I was planning to take a “design break” after Gen Con, but I have so many fucking ideas spinning in my head just from osmosis and from talking to people and from this bet with Kevin (Dex Con, man. it’s gonna be awesome!), that I don’t know if I’ll be able to. We will see.

Whoo. Anyway, if anyone has any questions about Gen Con, ask them! Maybe you’ll be there next year, or I mentioned something interesting, or you have a question that you think I can answer - but this post doesn’t just need to be me spewing my excitement. Or if you want to mention something cool that I forgot, fellow attendees, that would be cool too. Dialogue = awesome.

Battle Stations

All signals are green.

Time to rock.

Seeya’ll after Gen Con!