Wow, my semi-regular blog posting got totally hosed by my recent lack of Internet access. My thanks for that go to AT&T, who seem incapable of sticking to a connection date. Bleh.
Anyway, on to the meat of this post.
I’ve wanted to be a role-playing game designer since I was eight years old. My dream was to grow up and go to work for TSR so that I could write D&D books for the rest of my life. Until recently, I’d pretty much given up on designing my own game .
Fortunately, people like Clyde Roher, Ryan Macklin, Sam Chupp, Mick Bradley, and a whole slew of other folks have re-inspired me to try designing my own game. With that in mind, I figured that I’d start a design diary here on Raptus Regaliter, so that I can get some feedback on where the game is at.
I’m going to keep this particular post somewhat brief, since I’m still working on specific details. I’m just going to outline some of the specific design decisions that I’ve made so far.
This will be a short-form story game. I was directly inspired to write this kind of game after having played John Wick’s Wilderness of Mirrors. I really find this style of game to be both fun and useful. They tend to be either somewhat lighthearted or very intense, and they’re great for just killing time, or for when a player doesn’t show up for your regular game.
All the prep work will be done at the table. I want to design something that can be just pulled out and played. So, everything from character creation to creating the main conflict to playing out the scenario will be handled right then and there. Therefore, all the character creation rules need to be simple. Hell, all of the rules will need to be simple. If it’s made to be played at the drop of a hat, it should be able to be taught to new players easily.
I’d like heavy player authorship. I see the role of the GM in this game as something of a moderator, more than a storyteller. Perhaps his primary role will be to start things off and nothing more.
Finally, there is the actual concept of the game, the answer to the question “What is your game about?”. So the concept is this: all the players have just died, and are waiting to pass on to the afterlife, but first, they have to come to terms with their deaths. So, who’s fault was it that you died, and can you forgive them?.
So far, that’s what I’ve got. Beyond that, everything is simply a nebulous collection of ideas. But, at least I have a starting point now, and can finally move on to some of the more important aspects of designing.
Regardless of how you may feel about the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, it is undeniable that it has had an impact on your life if you are a table-top gamer. By extension, therefore, so has one of its creators, Gary Gygax, who passed away today. According to this announcement, Mr. Gygax passed away in his home this morning.
I won’t pretend that I ever knew Gary Gygax personally, though I do know many who did. To them, and to Mr. Gygax’s friends and family, I offer my condolences.
For any body who’s interested, Sam Chupp will be releasing a memorial show on the Bear’s Grove podcast feed sometime after this Sunday.
Goodbye, Gary. The world of gaming will not be the same without you.
Normally, I wouldn’t post something not RPG related here, but there’s something to be said for the pure, unadulterated awesomeness of an independent musician gaining enough of a following to be included on a game like Rock Band.
So, last night was my usual Shadowrun game night. One of my players called me up early, asked for a ride, and said that he wanted to talk to Kristin and I before the game started, and before everyone else got there. We BSed for a while, and then, before we got ready to play, he explained to us that we had hurt him during Episode 8 of our podcast.
He was absolutely right to do so.
See, we didn’t really think about what it was we were doing when we brought up the situation in question during the show. It was relevant to the topic that we were covering, and we just thought of it as an illustration of the topic. We failed, however to consider how it would make him look, especially considering that he’s active on a number of forums - at least one of which has listeners of our show on it.
While it wasn’t our intention to cast anyone in a negative light, looking back on it, and re-listening to the audio, I realize that that is precisely what we did. And I completely blame myself for it. Fortunately, the player in question is a big enough guy to differentiate between intent and deed, and that is something to be appreciated in any friend. I’m glad that our fuck up didn’t ruin a good gaming group, much less a great friendship.
I could go forth with a sappy apology here, but I’ve done that in person. The real lesson here is for other podcasters, bloggers, and forum posters. Remember, you’re players aren’t just case-studies. They’re your friends, too. Consider their position before you talk about them. Get their side of the story. Most of all, think about how you’d feel if someone talked about you the way I talked about my friend, especially when you have the entirety of the Internet as a potential consumer of your content.
Don’t be an asshole like I was. Friends can only take so much before they decide it’s better to leave both your game and your life.
I think that the problem is that, with a few exceptions, RPG sessions tend to be boring for those of us who aren’t directly involved. The Game Master Show has a slight advantage in this area - after their games, they actually go through and critique the sessions. This is extremely valuable to me as a gamer. But most other AP podcasts simply go through their sessions, without taking the time for post-game editorial.
Coupled with this is the length of the average game session. I’d say most range between 4 and 8 hours. To conserve bandwidth and storage, most AP casts get broken down into bite sized chunks - 2 hours or so. That, however, seems to be the end of the editing process. We still get the long pauses while someone looks up a rule, the side conversations that get inadvertently picked up by the microphones, and all of the bumps, pops, and clicks from impacts on the table. That makes things very hard to listen to.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to edit those shows, either. 8 hours of audio to listen to? It’s not like an advice or talk podcast that you can slim down to carefully planned points of discussion. I really don’t blame anyone for not wanting to sit through a gaming session twice just to cut out the sound of someone’s dice-tower falling over when another gamer bumps the table en route to the fridge.
I suppose my real problem with AP casts is that, for the most part, I don’t get anything from them. The production is to distracting to really catch the great techniques that the GM’s are employing. The mic is too far away when a player cracks a joke, but plenty close enough for the subsequent peal of laughter to blow out my eardrums. I can’t hear what roll was called for, but I can damn sure hear the handful of dice clatter to the table.
I don’t bring these things up to discourage AP podcasters. And, as I said before, there are exceptions. But it would be both awesome and valuable to see if there are ways around these problems.
Hell, if there are, I’ll probably start recording my own sessions.
I listened to the latest episode of Sam Chupp’s The Bear’s Grove Podcast today, and I felt I had to comment on the topic. Bear in mind, of course, that I’m not all that used to blogging, so this may or may not be coherent. Also, I have a great deal of respect and admiration for Sam, and this isn’t intended to be any kind of rant.
I think the thing that really bugged me is the idea that, somehow, portrayals of races and cultures in fantasy RPGs constitute actual racism. The most common example - taken from the Gamers of Color LiveJournal community - is LARPers or con-goers dressing like drow (dark elves from the Dungeons & Dragons RPG) being compared to performers wearing blackface. This is really an example of seeing racism where there is none.
I understand that people from certain groups are discriminated against. That doesn’t, however, give any given minority (of which I am one) the right to assume that the creators of shallow fantasy cultures are necessarily being racially insensitive. Sometimes, there just needs to be some bad guys. I mean, nobody accuses George Lucas of being anti-British just because every Imperial officer in Star Wars had a high-class British accent; everyone just realizes that it sounds cool.
To be honest, I think that an orc is just an orc. They get slaughtered in droves because that’s what they’re there for. Yeah, sometimes it may make it more interesting in a given story to humanize them in some way, but more often than not, it’s unnecessary. I’m pretty sure that it’s usually us who project our own flaws onto these nonexistent fantasy cultures and races. On the other hand, I don’t go around complaining that atheists aren’t well represented in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. It’s better to accept the fact that people write things like evil, subterranean, black-skinned elves into RPGs because they’re cool. Not because they’re supposed to represent any real-life culture or human phenotype.
Then again, what the fuck do I know? I am, after all, only some poor, privileged honky.
My taste in gaming has matured over the years. When I got back into the hobby about two years ago, I found myself looking at my old standby RPG, Shadowrun, in its shiny new edition. It’s satisfied my for about two years now.
However, after listening to a lot of podcasts, and being exposed to new games, I’ve gotten it into my head to run a Burning Wheel campaign. Unfortunately, for some odd reason, my former glut of available players has all but dried up, and I’m having trouble finding a group to play with.
This is one of those things that will have to be updated as things progress. I have a feeling that when I finally get players for it, a BW campaign will be awesome. I’ll keep posting as updates come
