This was a lot less painful than others have implied. The math was pretty simple, the rules straightforward. There were a couple of places that I messed up, but they were pretty obvious in retrospect, and easily corrected. I'm pretty sure the character is correctly done, and it is spot on with the background I originally conceived.
Damien Kinnear was a private investigator- he considered himself a good one, able to find things that others overlooked or missed, constructing narratives that led to results for his clients. So, when he received a call from a wealthy client asking him to find a sensitive package, he was not suspicious of the motives behind the ask. Unfortunately (or Fortunately depending on your outlook) his assignment was a smokescreen for a Firewall cell. The person he'd been asked to track down was had been co-opted by a nanovirus, and was actually a ticking timebomb. It was hoped that Kinnear's probing would draw the attention of the entity that had infected him, and indeed it did. But everything went sideways, and the cell had to bring Kinnear in for true. And once you're in, there's no way out.
The threat of the X-Risks, the nature of Firewall- it appealed to Kinnear's sensibilities. The chance to get off Earth? To explore and find things that are threats to the human race? That was tailor made for him. He wasn't an investigator for the money, but the challenge. And this was more of a challenge than anything he'd ever been presented with.
The presentation of character creation in Eclipse Phase 2nd Edition is quite clean compared to what I read of 1st Edition. I never made one in 1st Edition having come in on the 2nd Edition Kickstarter, but I've heard horror stories.
For Damien we'll go in order of the steps as they're laid out.
Step 1: Background
Looking at the available backgrounds, Freelancer seems to fit the best. This starts me with the following:
Interface 40 Kinesics 20 Know (Black Markets) 30 Know (Investigation) 60 Persuade 40 Program 30 Research 40
Step 2: Career
I see that they have an investigator as a career, so I take that one giving the following aggregate:
Interface 40 Kinesics 30+20 = 50 Know (Black Markets) 30 Know (Current Events) 30 Know (Ego Hunting) 60 Know (Investigation) 60 Perceive 40 Persuade 40 Program 30 Research 60+40 = 100. The cap is 80, so 20 to be spent elsewhere – Infiltrate & Athletics. Infiltrate 10 Athletics 10
Step 3: Interest
He needs some gun handling and such, so we go with Fighter giving the following aggregate:
He hasn't made it where he is by playing it safe, so he doesn't advocate that in any area- including markets and technology. I chose Extropian for his faction. There's also the fact that nothing else seems to fit other than Criminal or Anarchist.
Step 5: Aptitude Template
With the faction and background, I take Thrill Seeker. This gives the following Aptitudes:
COG 20 INT 10 REF 20 SAV 15 SOM 15 WIL 10
Step 6: Skills
I've been doing this all along- but during this step, I realize that the 80 is including aptitudes. I'm going to have some adjusting to do. Final totals:
I want him to know how to move around several different cultures, so spend 4CP on languages: English (Default), Russian, Cantonese, Spanish, Japanese
Step 8: Flex
2 Ego Points (2CP)
Step 9: Reputation
I figure he's had the most dealings with the underworld, and some dealings in the corporate and police worlds. I didn't want him to have a high rep in any of them, as I figure as an investigator he's 'tolerated'.
Underworld: 40 Corporate: 30 Police: 30
Step 10: Customization
I purchase some Ego traits- I figure that he's agile, quick to adapt to new morphs, can empathize with people, and is relatively well off.
After Altered Carbon, I figured I'd contrast it with Eclipse Phase, as I'm going to be hopefully running a transhumanist science fiction game of some sort soon.
This time I figure I'll go with an investigator that enjoys the mental challenge of chasing down X-risks.
Rolling a name, I come up with Damien Kinnear, and sketch out a background.
Damien Kinnear was a private investigator- he considered himself a good one, able to find things that others overlooked or missed, constructing narratives that led to results for his clients. So, when he received a call from a wealthy client asking him to find a sensitive package, he was not suspicious of the motives behind the ask. Unfortunately (or Fortunately depending on your outlook) his assignment was a smokescreen for a Firewall cell. The person he'd been asked to track down was had been co-opted by a nanovirus, and was actually a ticking timebomb. It was hoped that Kinnear's probing would draw the attention of the entity that had infected him, and indeed it did. But everything went sideways, and the cell had to bring Kinnear in for true. And once you're in, there's no way out.
The threat of the X-Risks, the nature of Firewall- it appealed to Kinnear's sensibilities. The chance to get off Earth? To explore and find things that are threats to the human race? That was tailor made for him. He wasn't an investigator for the money, but the challenge. And this was more of a challenge than anything he'd ever been presented with.
I know I want to make someone that has a lot of trouble, is good in a fight, and not afraid to get his hands dirty. Protectorate, I'm thinking, but more in an infiltration behind the lines type of way instead of CTAC. Not on good terms with his unit, though he doesn't know why. Old enough to have a bit of experience in different conflicts, but still pretty young comparatively.
Rolling up a name, one that catches my eye is London Tian.
Tian was born offworld on the frontier- a backworld planet Gui Xiu VI. He was recruited young, and trained into CTAC. He had an aptitude for getting into places he wasn't supposed to be, and more importantly getting out. In his relatively short life, he's inhabited many sleeves, casting anywhere they needed inside information. He was good at his job, and though he had no real long term aspirations, it was easy to see that his star was on the rise. On a pretty routine mission for the Protectorate, he was debriefed- then he doesn't know what happened. He woke up in a new sleeve on Earth in a re-sleeving facility. 50 years had passed since the last time he was spun up. He was cashiered out of the military, and he doesn't know why. For a re-sleeve, he was given a decent sleeve as his severance, so he was very suspicious of the circumstances. But with no contacts and no way of finding out what happened, he's done the best he could, taking odd jobs putting his skills to use as he tries to amass enough contacts and resources to find out what happened to his career, his life, and his own sleeve.
I had to make up the planet name, as the base rulebook only gives info about Earth. Disappointing, but I figure I can wing it.
Character creation in Altered Carbon took a bit to wrap my head around; there's way too many special cases for them not to have included an example. They did include their *'Expedited Character Creation'* rules, but creating a character is one of my favorite parts of roleplaying. The little icons that they use for everything and the fact that the explanations are all spread out in the book are not really useful either. And it shows something that I'm still not sure if my character is legal.
That said, the character turned out pretty much how I figured, other than still having the Praetorian network... there is probably a way to get around that and have a more appropriate network, but I figured it could also fit, as he was still in the military, so military might be more inclined to still talk to him.
Final Character
Name: London Tian
Description
Physically, London's sleeve is in good shape. He is tall with fair skin, blonde hair and green eyes. Though handsome, his face is cragged, and he looks older than his actual age. He has a tattooed sleeve up his right arm, going along his back- black roses, near death, intertwined with a lattice of thorns. Another on his left bicep depicts barbed wire wrapping up from the elbow to the armpit. Strangely there's nothing on his trunk, except a small cross above the place where the DHF is implanted.
His original sleeve was quite different, him being of mixed Asian-African heritage. His last memories of it was a wiry build with a dark cast to his skin, and blunt features. Not as perfect featured as his current sleeve, but still handsome in his own way.
Background
Tian was born offworld on the frontier- a backworld planet Gui Xiu VI. He was recruited young, and trained into CTAC. He had an aptitude for getting into places he wasn't supposed to be, and more importantly getting out. In his relatively short life, he's inhabited many sleeves, casting anywhere they needed inside information. He was good at his job, and though he had no real long term aspirations, it was easy to see that his star was on the rise. On a pretty routine mission for the Protectorate, he was debriefed- then he doesn't know what happened. He woke up in a new sleeve on Earth in a re-sleeving facility. 50 years had passed since the last time he was spun up. He was cashiered out of the military, and he doesn't know why. For a re-sleeve, he was given a decent sleeve as his severance, so he was very suspicious of the circumstances. But with no contacts and no way of finding out what happened, he's done the best he could, taking odd jobs putting his skills to use as he tries to amass enough contacts and resources to find out what happened to his career, his life, and his own sleeve.
- Synthetic, Mid Range - 39 years old - Baggage 4d6, 1 Roll - Mistaken Identity. As a result of cross-sleeving or by some happenstance, the sleeve a character occupies is someone with an extensive list of enemies. They will either be victims of the sleeve’s past corporate espionage, or they will be rival gang members or criminals. - Military Neurochem - Combat Neurochem - Carbon-Fiber Skeleton - ONI implant
I've already said that I wanted an ex-military, though all things considered, I could choose a criminal. I go with military. This gives me the following:
Sleeve: synthetic, mid-range sleeve Wealth lv 1 Requisition 1/4 Gain 1d10 Ego (+8) Protectorate Military as a Network Traits: Combat is common, Business and Society is Anomaly. All others Uncommon.
I choose a package, though I plan to play around with it- just a starting to see where I stand.
DHF Age - I'm choosing 67, which seems a good time for him to have time in the military- if he went in at 18, then that gives him 49 years in the military before he was put on ice.
This starts to get to the point that annoys me- they use a lot of icons to represent stats rather than just abbreviations. These icons are not necessarily the most readable in small form on the page. It's not as big a deal here, I realize, as all stat bonuses are based off of the tens digit in the stat- so all are +3.
At 67, I get
35 Stack Points + 3 = 38 30 Ego Points + 3 = 33 2 Influence + 3 = 5 4d6 on Baggage table with 1 roll - 15 = Mistaken Identity. As a result of cross-sleeving or by some happenstance, the sleeve a character occupies is someone with an extensive list of enemies. They will either be victims of the sleeve’s past corporate espionage, or they will be rival gang members or criminals.
That's pretty doable. I'm going to spend 8 stack points to increase Will (4d4) and Acuity (4d4)- Will is now 40, and Acuity is 41. I'm going to spend 2 Stack points on Strength, adding 6, bringing the final total to 41. My stack points are now 28, but increasing Acuity brings it back up to 29. That seems strange, but it does say it in the rules- I just can't use it again to increase stats.
As far as age of the sleeve, I'm going with 39.
The sleeve has the capability for 4 tech points. Usually you split them with the group, but as this is just an example character, I'll use them- Military Neurochem, Combat Neurochem, Carbon-Fiber Skeleton, and Oni Implant.
On to Traits. From the package, I get Energy Weapons, Martial Arts, and Concealment, but looking at Concealment, I don't see this guy having that. I'm going to change it to Urban - Streetwise. Also looking at the tech, I'm switching to Small Arms - Basic Training.
Moving on to equipment, I take what is offered, adding only a blade (concealed, monomolecular), and changing out Directed Energy Weapon (2 tech) for the same in Small arms, picking up a Steyr M9-A1.
I found out about this Character a Day challenge- it was to make a character a day in the month of January. Of course, I didn't find out about it until January had already started, and I'm also not sure I could even do a character a day. But then I got the idea to just make characters for some of the games I haven't been able to play, or am thinking about using for campaigns, and it struck a fire under me.
So, you'll be seeing a lot of characters posted here for various games. The format I'll try to stick to is to (a) visualize the character and background, (b) walk through the character creation steps to give a feel for how you make the character, and then (c) show the final result, and evaluate if it embodies the concept I visualized.
"I inherited Marvel and the Russo Brothers’ casting choice of T’Challa. It is something that I will forever be grateful for. The first time I saw Chad’s performance as T’Challa, it was in an unfinished cut of CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR. I was deciding whether or not directing BLACK PANTHER was the right choice for me. I’ll never forget, sitting in an editorial suite on the Disney Lot and watching his scenes. His first with Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, then, with the South African cinema titan, John Kani as T’Challa’s father, King T’Chaka. It was at that moment I knew I wanted to make this movie. After Scarlett’s character leaves them, Chad and John began conversing in a language I had never heard before. It sounded familiar, full of the same clicks and smacks that young black children would make in the States. The same clicks that we would often be chided for being disrespectful or improper. But, it had a musicality to it that felt ancient, powerful, and African. In my meeting after watching the film, I asked Nate Moore, one of the producers of the film, about the language. “Did you guys make it up?” Nate replied, “that’s Xhosa, John Kani’s native language. He and Chad decided to do the scene like that on set, and we rolled with it.” I thought to myself. “He just learned lines in another language, that day?” I couldn’t conceive how difficult that must have been, and even though I hadn’t met Chad, I was already in awe of his capacity as actor. I learned later that there was much conversation over how T’Challa would sound in the film. The decision to have Xhosa be the official language of Wakanda was solidified by Chad, a native of South Carolina, because he was able to learn his lines in Xhosa, there on the spot. He also advocated for his character to speak with an African accent, so that he could present T’Challa to audiences as an African king, whose dialect had not been conquered by the West. I finally met Chad in person in early 2016, once I signed onto the film. He snuck past journalists that were congregated for a press junket I was doing for CREED, and met with me in the green room. We talked about our lives, my time playing football in college, and his time at Howard studying to be a director, about our collective vision for T’Challa and Wakanda. We spoke about the irony of how his former Howard classmate Ta-Nehisi Coates was writing T’Challa’s current arc with Marvel Comics. And how Chad knew Howard student Prince Jones, who’s murder by a police officer inspired Coates’ memoir Between The World and Me. I noticed then that Chad was an anomaly. He was calm. Assured. Constantly studying. But also kind, comforting, had the warmest laugh in the world, and eyes that seen much beyond his years, but could still sparkle like a child seeing something for the first time. That was the first of many conversations. He was a special person. We would often speak about heritage and what it means to be African. When preparing for the film, he would ponder every decision, every choice, not just for how it would reflect on himself, but how those choices could reverberate. “They not ready for this, what we are doing…” “This is Star Wars, this is Lord of the Rings, but for us… and bigger!” He would say this to me while we were struggling to finish a dramatic scene, stretching into double overtime. Or while he was covered in body paint, doing his own stunts. Or crashing into frigid water, and foam landing pads. I would nod and smile, but I didn’t believe him. I had no idea if the film would work. I wasn’t sure I knew what I was doing. But I look back and realize that Chad knew something we all didn’t. He was playing the long game. All while putting in the work. And work he did. He would come to auditions for supporting roles, which is not common for lead actors in big budget movies. He was there for several M’Baku auditions. In Winston Duke’s, he turned a chemistry read into a wrestling match. Winston broke his bracelet. In Letitia Wright’s audition for Shuri, she pierced his royal poise with her signature humor, and would bring about a smile to T’Challa’s face that was 100% Chad. While filming the movie, we would meet at the office or at my rental home in Atlanta, to discuss lines and different ways to add depth to each scene. We talked costumes, military practices. He said to me “Wakandans have to dance during the coronations. If they just stand there with spears, what separates them from Romans?” In early drafts of the script. Eric Killmonger’s character would ask T’Challa to be buried in Wakanda. Chad challenged that and asked, what if Killmonger asked to be buried somewhere else? Chad deeply valued his privacy, and I wasn’t privy to the details of his illness. After his family released their statement, I realized that he was living with his illness the entire time I knew him. Because he was a caretaker, a leader, and a man of faith, dignity and pride, he shielded his collaborators from his suffering. He lived a beautiful life. And he made great art. Day after day, year after year. That was who he was. He was an epic firework display. I will tell stories about being there for some of the brilliant sparks till the end of my days. What an incredible mark he’s left for us. I haven’t grieved a loss this acute before. I spent the last year preparing, imagining and writing words for him to say, that we weren’t destined to see. It leaves me broken knowing that I won’t be able to watch another close-up of him in the monitor again or walk up to him and ask for another take. It hurts more to know that we can’t have another conversation, or facetime, or text message exchange. He would send vegetarian recipes and eating regimens for my family and me to follow during the pandemic. He would check in on me and my loved ones, even as he dealt with the scourge of cancer. In African cultures we often refer to loved ones that have passed on as ancestors. Sometimes you are genetically related. Sometimes you are not. I had the privilege of directing scenes of Chad’s character, T’Challa, communicating with the ancestors of Wakanda. We were in Atlanta, in an abandoned warehouse, with bluescreens, and massive movie lights, but Chad’s performance made it feel real. I think it was because from the time that I met him, the ancestors spoke through him. It’s no secret to me now how he was able to skillfully portray some of our most notable ones. I had no doubt that he would live on and continue to bless us with more. But it is with a heavy heart and a sense of deep gratitude to have ever been in his presence, that I have to reckon with the fact that Chad is an ancestor now. And I know that he will watch over us, until we meet again." -- Ryan Coogler, director, "Black Panther".
View from the Pelgrane’s Nest – June 2006 The following article about the state of the roleplaying industry in the mid-2000s originally appeared on DyingEarth.com in June 2006.
Is the RPG Industry Screwed?
When you depend on live game designers for sustenance, the health of the ecosystem which allows them to thrive is of paramount importance. Whilst everyone has an opinion on this subject, I asked people who make their living from the roleplaying games – publishers, distributors and retailers – how they think the RPG industry is doing. A polite-worded request is often misunderstood (many of them are brain-addled from an excess comics and food additives) so I screamed “Is the RPG Industry Screwed?” in their ear and suspended them over my squawking progeny as usual. The responses were interesting, varied, and inconclusive.
I’ll start with a successful company, running a business on a fairly traditional model, Mongoose Publishing. Without the irritating self-effacement and modesty typical of the British, co-owner Matthew Sprange said:
At Mongoose, we believe that a good RPG book still has the potential to blow through entire print runs and that sales of 10,000+ units are still achievable with the right product. Because of this, we are still expanding in terms of both sales and staff (we now employ over 20 people worldwide), and plan to support RPGs for at least the next five years. Many companies are being squeezed out of the market at the moment but we take this as an indication of a customer base that has become more refined in its choice of product, rather than one who will buy anything that has a D20 on the cover. At the end of the day, if you produce the right kind of book, people will come to you.
Hard figures, I said. Hard figures. He told me as an example that Starship Troopers blew through 6000 copies in 3 months. That’s a large number – greater than the total sales units for each of the majority of RPG companies in a year.
Aldo Ghiozzi, who represents a number of RPG publishers as a consolidator and marketing agent has been selling through distribution for a number of years. He has a lofty perch – I respect any creature with a lofty perch – above the three-tier distributor model. He said:
Technology has come around to make book publishing easier for the common writer. Between PDF purchasing and Print-On-Demand (POD), the barrier of entry has dropped considerably. One would think this would create a new Golden Age of RPGs; it has done the opposite. With the barrier of entry being so low, there are more options for consumers to spend their dollars on. The flood of the D20 market was just the beginning; now, RPGs are for every genre, system and an endless number of people creating their own systems. Imagine a consumer that spends $10 a month on RPG books. Five years ago their choices were between the 100 products on the store shelves, thus, a publisher would have a 1 in a 100 chance for that $10. Now, there are so many choices for the shelves that retailers cannot carry them all so it spills into online stores and PDF download stores. The 100 choices turn into 1000 — now that publisher has a 1 in 1000 chance for that $10. The dollars are being spread thinner; that is the reality.
Personally, I believe the best chance for publishers to survive or come into this market with a chance is with proven brands and even licenses. Licenses, like Serenity or Starship Troopers instantly breathe recognition with the consumer and influences the dollars to that product. Proven brands, like a new edition of Paranoia or the mimicking of Keep on the Borderlands through the Dungeon Crawl Classics series are great examples.
It’s all about being heard over everyone else and the only way to do that is to scream louder.
His views are supported by the Starship Troopers sales figures, although we don’t know the terms of their license (for reference, the Babylon 5 license was $65,000). I asked Mr Ghiozzi if he thought the size of the market was the same. He was sceptical.
…we are not seeing 50K unit sales as before, but there are a ton more choices now so for all we know, the same amount of dollars are being spent (proportional to the economy) but just spread thinner. I truly doubt that though.
Green Ronin have been publishing RPGs since 2000, and use a combination of traditional print and PDF publishing. Chris Pramas, the CEO said:
You have to put RPGs in their historic perspective. Really, they have been in decline since the creation of collectible games in the early 90s. It’s hard to remember now, but in the late 70s and early 80s RPGs were a good business to be in. They eclipsed wargames and dominated the market for many years. Since then we’ve seen significant events in our own industry, the two most important being ‘Magic: the Gathering’ creating a whole new category of game, and Games Workshop hitting upon a business model that redefined miniatures games. In the same period we’ve also seen computer/console games become increasingly sophisticated and immersive, and the development of MMOs. In light of these events the old RPG business model has a tough time competing. Once players have a core rulebook, they don’t need to buy anything else to enjoy the game. Contrast that with the collectible games, where not only can you sell people the same product over and over again, but also they have to keep up with each new expansion to stay competitive. Or MMOs, where players pay each month for the privilege of continuing to play.
The d20 boom made some folks think the glory days of RPGs were back. While that was indeed a good time for RPG publishers, it could never last and now the gale has blown itself out. One might even argue that it did more harm than good, since most game stores now have hundreds of d20 books that will never move and this makes selling them new RPG product even harder.
So is the RPG market screwed? Well, certainly it is harder to harder to make a living doing traditional RPG publishing. The market decline that was paused by the d20 boom came back with a vengeance in 2003. Since then the successes have been fewer and farther between and more and more RPG publishing activity has moved online. I suspect that the future has already taken shape. There will be maybe 10 RPG companies that will do well enough with traditional RPG publishing to keep forging ahead. The rest of the market will be PDFs and Print on Demand, largely sold direct to consumers. Until someone comes up with a way to radically redefine RPGs anyway. That may be a long wait though.
Chad Underkoffler of Atomic Sock Monkey – creator of the award-winning Dead Inside, slipped through the “makes a living filter” – he has a separate day job – but he is representative of large part of the RPG publisher market.
I wouldn’t say that the RPG Industry is “screwed” so much as “challenged.” For many small press publishers — and I mean “small” in relation to other RPG companies, because nearly all of them could be considered “small press” compared to mainstream publishers – there are difficult issues to surmount in acquiring an audience of customers. Even access to the distribution system is little help, since the number of retail outlets seems to be shrinking. So you have more companies (some with fantastic games to compete with) trying to reach fewer shelves, and therefore customers.
The costs of production are up, the discounts on MSRP for distributors and retailers are substantial, and the customers are reluctant to spend money on unknown or new products. And while PDF-published, Print on Demand (PoD), and direct sale methods help put more money in the publisher’s pocket, the overall amount of profit is low. Truth & Justice is my best selling game, at roughly 525 copies (mostly PDF, but some PoD and distro) sold in under a year. I’ve made around $4,000 profit from it, which is definitely not enough to live on in my major metropolitan area. However, it is enough money to handle a car payment, take care of the phone bill, and roll into a new product for sale.
I doubt that the game industry can support many publishers as their sole employment under the current state of the market, and the outlook isn’t much brighter for distributors and retailers unless they diversify heavily into other product lines and related-but-different types of products (books, comics, toys, etc.). However, as a second job (or a hobby that pays for itself then a little extra, or even a method of artistic expression), the game industry is an admirable fit. If you adjust your expectations of what the industry will do for you, it will not seem totally screwed, but simply a challenge.
The ubiquitous Gareth-Michael Skarka of Adamant Entertainment, and Phil Reed of Ronin Arts, both big players in the PDF market, produce ePublishing 101 e-zine for their fellow publishers. In the latest issue, they bemoan the status of traditional retail.
From approximately 2000 game stores in January 2004 to somewhere around 1200 stores in December 2005 represents an overall loss of at least 40%. Not a good outlook for retailers in this industry.
They also estimate that the total size of the RPG market is about $25 million, with PDF publishing representing between 8-14% of the market – but that proportion is growing. With the relatively low barriers to entry mentioned by Aldo Ghiozzi, and the legs that such products have, pdf publishing is a good way for publishers to connect directly with their customers without pawning the family silver.
In contrast to Aldo’s lofty view, Ben Lehman , creator of the Polaris RPG, comes at the question from down on the ground. He is a new model publish with roots in the Forge – a forum dedicated to creator-owned publishing, with lots of useful RPG game theory. Some of the best games of recent years have come out of the Forge. With typical Forgeite thoroughness, he unasks the question, one which was begging to be knocked down:
I think it’s really strange how people talk about the RPG Industry as if it, and its screwedness or unscrewedness, were somehow the most central or most important thing about role-playing. To me, that’s turning the entire world upside down. It’s such a bizarre way of thinking about it that I can’t even twist my mind into a position where I can see that as the world at all. So instead of talking about what’s actually important to role-playing – the activity itself. Let’s talk about a bunch of people getting together to imagine things together, because that’s what interests me. From my immediate perspective – which is to say my personal play-groups – role-playing has never been better. I and the people I play with are having absolutely thrilling times with basically every single game we play.
Looking out further, I can look into the play-groups that I see from the Actual Play forums on the Forge, RPGNet, ENWorld, and other community sites. Again, I think that over the last 5 years (and I think this trend extends back almost a decade, but I can only talk from my own perspective, and I started hanging out on online forums five years ago) we’re seeing an across the board increase in actual, enjoyable play. I’m seeing a lot less of “fix my broken group” and a lot more of “man, our play rocked.” Further — and more importantly I’m seeing a glacially slow but nonetheless constant movement away from the periodical/collector/fandom model of enjoyment, and more towards creative focus and real play. In this respect, and that’s what matters, I think that role-playing is at its healthiest state since the 70s.
So where does role-playing text and materials production (the ndustry) fit into this? The role-playing business – like any other hobby business – should exist as long as it can boost and support the hobby around it, and no further. Fortunately, and I think not coincidentally, given the upsurge in enjoyable play, we’re seeing a decrease in the periodical “must buy the next sourcebook” model and an increase in texts and materials focused on supporting real people and their real play. To be clear – I don’t think that this is a Forge only or Independent only phenomenon. I think it is spread wide across games like: Breaking the Ice, Nobilis, Eldritch Ass-Kicking, Dungeons and Dragons 3.0 and up, Ganakagok, Hollywood Lives! and so on. Literally, there are too many game texts to list.
Now, traditionally, RPG text publishing has used what’s been called the “three tier model” although I actually think its six-tier: Designer -> Line Editor, Publisher -> Distribution Company -> Retailer -> Game Player, where each arrow is representing “sells to.” In the 70s and 80s and even into the early 90s this was the most financially sound model of game sales, and so it prospered. But these days it isn’t doing so hot, for several reasons. The one that I have the strongest grasp on is the growth of internet forums, internet commerce (and the PDF), and digital printing technology (AKA print on demand). In the six-tier system, there is economic and creative compromises at every level. The end results is that both the game player and the designer get screwed — the designer has to make artistic compromises and gets paid no money and the game player gets a watered down product and has to pay a lot of money, because each level in between needs to take their cut. By using modern technology I as a designer (to use an example — there are dozens of other folks like me) can sell directly to the game player. The chain becomes Designer -> Game Player. This is not only massively more profitable on both ends (I make more money, the game player saves more money) but also it brings the two creative ends of the spectrum closer together, allowing for game texts and game play which contains astounding creative content.
The role-playing industry, if we evaluate its success based on how well it facilitates awesome play, is healthier than it has ever been, period. The role-playing industry, when we evaluate its success based on facilitating awesome play, is as healthy as its ever been, period. The only possible view I have of role-playing being in trouble is that certain aspects of the role-playing distribution chain are being eclipsed by an economic model that is more effective in both creative and monetary terms, and as a player and designer I just can’t see that as a bad thing.
Eric Gibson of West End Games says that the RPG-only publisher as a mainstream company is effectively dead, and that publishers must diversify.
Absolutely. Without a doubt. But, before you think I’m being a pessimist and over-dramatic, I must expound.
The RPG industry is “screwed” because the question demands it’s so. You ask in the “RPG Industry” is headed for disaster. As long as we force ourselves into the narrow classification of “RPG Industry” then we the publishers are screwed as well. The successful publisher or manufacturer will see the ever evolving tastes and desires of our customers and change with them to bring new types of products to market. We are not a part of the “RPG Industry” we are apart of the “Game Industry”, or, if you will, the “Entertainment Industry”. As long as there are firms that continue to look at the broader market, we’ll survive. If others continue fly the flag of “RPG Publisher” solely, they have a choice, embrace it as merely a cottage industry, keeping costs as low as humanly possible, but never expecting to be financially successful OR continue to pump massive-a relative term, I know-amounts of money into a behemoth that doesn’t want to come back, and die!
This certainly does not mean RPGs will cease to exist as a viable product. Not for some time anyway. What it does mean is that you must acknowledge the scale that the RPG business has taken and embrace it.
Basic economics tells us that as long as long as a product’s revenues equals ALL its costs (don’t forget all your opportunity costs, of course) then the product is making “normal profits” and should be produced. The bite is, that is growing nigh impossible in RPGs from the perspective of a normal industry.
As I tend to do, I’m going to ramble on far longer than I should to try to make my point. Let’s first start by not using the term cottage industry. We have nearly always been, by and large, a cottage industry, and with the advent of the Internet, a cottage industry does not have to equate to small, struggling, or profit-less. Instead, RPGs is becoming a purely hobby industry-pun not intended. A hobby industry is an industry where the primary source of compensation, for the proprietor, is something other than money-love of the game, I guess you’d say.
In order to make “normal profits” within any business model your revenues must equal the costs associated with the business. Again, ALL COSTS. Not simply the break even point on printing. Not just the overhead. By you must also factor in salaries for executive positions and-this is very important-you must cover the opportunity costs for the owner(s), such as the cost of not working a second, paying job, not having more time with family, and not being able to invest the money you’ve put into the business on other gainful investments. All these costs, and many, many more, must be recognized and paid for by the business’s revenues. In a normal industry, a business that fails to meet these costs must logically cease business (given the time to exit fixed cost responsibilities). The current and foreseeable state of RPG publishing means that it is almost impossible to meet these fairly valued opportunity costs and thus make “normal profits”. So, instead we have proprietors who choose to ignore these opportunity costs and often forego monetary compensation and do it instead for the “love” of the industry. I’m not suggesting this is an invalid reason to do it, but that certainly makes the RPG industry a hobby industry and not a “normal” industry.
So, the question asked, “By this, I mean the market for table-top RPGs. I’m not asking if a small cottage industry will continue to exist – just whether it’s in decline and will continue to decline.”
Sadly, the answer is, “almost certainly.” But again, that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. To know it up front, it’s actually very good. If you want to simply make RPGs and sell them as a hobby, by all means you should do so.
Likewise, if you want to run a game company as a normal industry would, you should also be aware that you’re not likely to be able to do so as a dedicated RPG publisher. Diversify. Realize that the business and the market have changed drastically since the late 90’s.
The market wants something else. Provide that “else” and you can stay in business and do just fine and may even have a good chance of making normal profits (or even super-profits).
Is the industry screwed? Only if we fail to see the writing on the wall.
Now we here from a different tier of the industry, a major retailer – Marcus King of Titan Games. He’s having to adapt, and like Eric Gibson, suggest that diversifying into entertainment is the way to go.
As a retailer in a very small town (60K population in the city, with 100K TOTAL in the county) I face some unique problems. First, Michigan has a working class slump like nowhere else – the economy is depressed, young people FLEE this town in search of jobs elsewhere. Second, I have a competitor across town who sells everything for 20% off MSRP. Third, I derive 100% of my income from this company. No outside job, no retirement supporting me, my wife works IN the store with me. I can NOT discount, and support my family. So, we have two ebay sellers working pretty much full time, two websites (titangames.com and 3FREEgames.com), and we have a retail store, do conventions, and some “liquidation” sales.
Now [our stock depth], was designed to make us a destination store. But, that just does not work. Destination stores no longer compete with everyone within driving range, they compete with everyone within clicking range. Every single thing we sell is available on eBay and/or Amazon, for less. So, though we do well online, our main in store categories are used DVDs, CDs with games come in a distant 4th or 5th
We are going to start stocking fewer RPGs in the store – moving from 1400 or so books today, to perhaps 50 titles, and perhaps 200 books total. I am going to stop buying one or two of everything, and start selecting what we carry in the retail store more based on the idea that 80% of our sales come from 20% of our stock, so stock that 20%, and eliminate about 75% of the rest of it.
What will that leave? D&D, True20, Conan, Traveller, Serenity, Star Wars (if it is ever available), Babylon 5, most supplements by Troll Lord Games, and Goodman Games, some stuff by Mongoose and Green Ronin, and everything White Wolf makes. L5R and Spycraft, and a few others. My store is literally morphing OUT of being a game store, and becoming more and more an entertainment store – with books, movies, music, comics, games and some collectible stuff.
However, I could likely fire my retail staff, shrink my store by 70% floor space, eliminate 90% of my games inventory, just carry the DVDs, CDs, Video Games, and keep one rack of Graphic Novels, one rack of Comics, and one rack of games, and run the retail counter with one person, and never miss a beat as far as sales go.
As a business person first, and gamer ninth or tenth, I look at ALL the options for my business – and it may indeed come to the point where I completely redefine my store around a smaller selection, smaller square footage, and smaller staff on the retail floor – and just carry games as a sideline. Then what do we call the store? Titan Games sure won’t fit.
Jeff Tidball, a long-time award-winning RPG freelancer gives a straightforward answer:
Yes, the RPG industry is more-or-less screwed. You can divide roleplayers into two general camps based on style of play, with smash-and-grab-and-level-uppers on one side, and everyone else (storytellers, world-builders, wanna-be novelists, etc.) on the other. The first, much larger, group is now — with current network and console technology — much better served by computer RPGs than tabletop RPGs. The computers are just plain better and faster at the game experience they want. As those customers stop buying tabletop RPGs, it stops being economically viable to produce them professionally for the second group. Tabletop RPGs won’t go away, but yes, the “industry” that produces them is screwed.
So the D&D crowd will moving over to MMORPGs and the rest will be indulging in a little bit of narrativist theatre? Perhaps.
Mark Simmons, founder of National Games week and publisher of Games Quarterly Catalog & Games Quarterly Magazine thinks that the industry is still suffering from the d20 glut:
RPGs got seriously glutted. Worse than the glut of ’79-81. Worse than the small glut of early ’90s. The d20 boom ran it course with so much product that gamers got enough resource materials to last years. It eclipsed nearly every non-d20 title, killing many good games. It will take time for these circumstances to be overcome. It will take getting RPGs back into stores. R Talsorian is doing decently with Cyberpunk’s new edition, FanPro is doing well with Shadowrun and BattleTech. It’s going to be grim for a while though. The specialty game stores won’t be stocking and selling enough, so book stores and other types of stores must be courted.
Table-top role playing is a niche hobby, and like many other niche hobbies (wargaming, pulps, r/c planes, model railroading) over the long haul it is only sustainable as a cottage industry. Die-hards may pass along the bug to their kids–a friend’s 7 and 9 year olds are really enjoying their Star Wars game, and the very best player I had at my Zeppelin Age games at Gen Con last year was in high school–but that isn’t enough to sustain the hobby in the mass market.
So, is there anything coherent to be gathered from these disparate views?
The game store is facing hard times, and none can rely on RPGs alone. An online mail order presence which is able to compete on price is pretty much essential. Leisure Games in the UK is an example of this model. The three-tier system is on shaky ground when it comes to RPGs. Some publishers with well established brands and main stream licenses can still shift sufficient books to make the margins needed to keep going. I think this will continue, but such publishers are not solely producing RPGs – Mongoose Publishing for example relies on RPGs for only 40% of its sales. So what stops new publishers from getting to market? I call it the litho barrier. Unless you have the up-front costs for litho (standard) printing, and the certainty of selling through the print run, you can’t do a litho print run, and your per-unit cost for low-run printing means you will make low or even zero margins through the usual channels. The typical volume of sales of an individual title has declined below the litho barrier following the recent glut of d20 titles an explosion in the number of publishers, and a reduction in the number of players due to improvements in the computer moderated online roleplaying experience.
Hybrid publishing, offering PDF and print-on-demand roleplaying games offer a scaleable model for getting RPGs to their customers without the high risks of attempting the litho barrier. They can sell directly, at conventions, and through specialist online mail order retailers. Forge publishers typically follow this model, and make a very big internet footprint, interacting directly with their customers. Such publishers are actively seeking out players to “tell them about their characters” through Actual Play postings. The idea of signing an NDA when doing a play test is an anathema – they are more likely to publish the beta version of their rules online for anyone to try. PDF-only publishers are on the increase, with rpgnow.com, drivethrurpg.com, enworld.org, e23 and paizo.com all channels to market. Their products have low overheads, can be small, and have decent legs. Still, few people other the etailers are making a living out of this so far.
Paradoxically, it’s never been easier to get an RPG published, but never harder for a new RPG company to support full-time endeavour. The scalability of the new publishing model means that although it is very hard to make money, you are much, much less likely to lose it through an expensive litho print run. If you read that someone you haven’t heard of is about to print 3000 copies of a new RPG, by all that’s holy, stop them.
Which view held out? (And pretty strange to see Skarka listed as an industry icon given what has happened in the interim)
I've tried to do these before, but have never kept up with them past the first few days. With the exception of the last couple of days of the month, this time I did it!
1. What does that show me? It is possible for me to keep up with a blog for an extended period of time. 2. What was different this time? I've been trying this new method of planning out my day- keeping a [Zettelkasten](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zettelkasten), and having daily notes. I put this, [another prompt that I was working on personally](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeeyonshim/wait-for-me-0), and my agile board for completing my campaign on it. I also tried to put everything for the day, and as I did things, I moved them to the completed area of the board. I also indicated what I was going to carry over. It's been helpful to me as I have pursued purchasing a house also, as there are a lot of little things that you have to do when going through that process. But for the other two areas it was helpful also- and pretty much in every area, including work. The tags and maps help me to get back to everything later. 3. Why did I miss the last couple of days? Moving, which I think is a pretty acceptable excuse. But it also lets me know that I can have things interrupt, and because it is my deadline, as long as I'm disciplined enough to come back to it, that's OK too. 4. What about #RPGaDay2020 in particular? It was a fun exercise. Some of the days were a bit challenging and forced me to think outside of the box. Some were a bit light because of that fact, but I think I made some interesting entries. It might be a bit harder to come up with topics for a blog outside of this, but this experience has caused me to seriously think about continuing, even if just for my sake.
Thanks to all that followed and/or commented! And thanks to the organizers!
A strange one. This one first sparked in me a memory of Portal. And from there... well you'll just have to go with me on this one. Portal is a game from Valve. It is a pretty unique game- or at least it was- that had a few things going on. First of all, you didn't know the whole story, or pretty much any of the story starting out. You were a blank slate. It was a first person game, where your only weapon was a portal gun that you learned how to use while solving puzzles. You could point it in one place, and make a portal, then another place, and make another. Then you could travel through them. Or push things through them. There was more to it, but that's not relevant to where this stream of consciousness took me...
... how many times have their been unique mechanics implemented in RPGs that invoke the feel just from playing? I love aspects in Fate, because they can be anything - especially with the Bronze Rule (Fate Fractals). But I'm not really familiar with any other games that even come close to the idea.
Borrowing from the idea of the Pluspora #CheckIn in order to get some tabletop conversation going. If you have any questions that you want to get on the list to be asked, let me know. Also, if you'd like to be added or taken off the list of participants, let me know.
Do you generally play rules-as-written (RAW) or have house rules to better tailor your game to your group?
For #RPGs, I generally find that because of the open nature of the type of game, some forms of rulings are necessary as GM. In order to make those consistent, I usually codify them. In some cases, even before the game starts, I find some things that I feel need tweaking.
For #BoardGames, it really depends on whether it is a classic game or not. I find that in many cases if you read the rules of games that you've played for a long period of time, there are rules that you've never implemented, or are not quite like you remember. An example is Monopoly and rolling to get out of Jail. We just recently found out that after the third roll you have to pay. For newer games we pick up, we play by the rules.
#Boardgames I very much play the rules. Although have added new pieces to an existing game with swapable pieces (I am planning on building some new monsters for Horrified for example)
For #RPGs I play pretty close to the rules - since my goal is to allow the players to have expectations. If I am playing a rules light game, it's usually pretty easy to build small rules on the fly if they rules don't cover it, but generally there's little to stick close to. For more rules heavy RPGs we're playing for all the PCs to have access to the same tools. I definitely don't change the core rules - but again, addons definitely exist to allow cool stuff.
Depends on the game... there are a few games out there in tabletop cards etc where I've had to at times houserule bits as they just didn't think things thru (card games where in some cases we needed to add an option to discard the starting hand you were dealt, for example, as there was no possible starting play to make with some card combos and no rule as to what to do if no one at the table could actually start play; or what to do if no one could make winning condition and all the cards in the draw deck were used up... so adding a 'shuffle the discard pile and turn it into the draw pile). Usually because there was a one in a few hundred or thousand game play thrus of the situation happening and so it never came up in their playtests before publication.
For RPGs I've been modding since the days of OD&D (the 1970s version of D&D) because they would not have a rule to do X. In later gaming, when I was mostly using tool box or setting specific systems there would be holes or combos that were too powerful (old 2nd Ed GURPS had some of these; where it was possible for a mage to create a platoon of constructed cannon fodder soldiers if they had the right attributes, advantages and spell college combos without exhausting themselves etc.). AD&D 1st Edition also had some wonderful loopholes.... that needed to be adjusted (like how invisibility worked and was permanent if the invisible person/thing never attacked someone; or how magic mouth could be used as a cheap detection system by its contingency rules on what set off the mouth.
Depends both on the game and how familiar we are with it. If we're new to a game, it's 100% RAW. Later on, we may throw in a few house rules to fix perceived problems.
RAW almost never cover enough edge cases. Sometimes it is enough to go with the apparent intent, and other times a re-write is needed. But then Rules As Remembered can drift from RAW ... so what actually gets played can vary from the RAW. When we spot this divergence, sometimes we correct the RAR and sometimes we go with it.
I tend to play RAW as much as possible. If i use a house-rule, I introduce it to the players before using it, and make sure everyone is on board. The exception is when a situation is not covered by the rules, in that case I usually re-read the rules to make sure I'm not missing something, and if the rules really don't cover the edge case, we try to come up with a solution together that's both fun and holds true to the game
Borrowing from the idea of the Pluspora #CheckIn in order to get some tabletop conversation going. If you have any questions that you want to get on the list to be asked, let me know. Also, if you'd like to be added or taken off the list of participants, let me know.
What's your gaming life like these days?
Sorry for the long silence- I've been pretty much keeping up with my #RPGaDay2020 posts, but realized I'd not posted anything here recently!
I know that people are getting used to a new normal, and wondered what everyone's gaming life looked like these days?
For #RPGs, my gaming has picked up, with people becoming much more amenable to meeting digitally. For someon that doesn't really like to go out that much, pushing myself to find a group with strangers, and then go to it is asking a bit much. But virtual, there's more of an appeal, and I'm currently playing campaigns of Pathfinder, Exalted, Silent Legions, and Lords of Olympus. I'm also finishing up a Fate World that I was working on, and will be starting a playtest of that, and hopefully getting my Swords of the Serpentine group back together now that I have the final text.
#BoardGames, on the other hand, have fallen by the wayside. Those were, for the most part, just pickup games, with the family, or when friends came by. My daughter is more interested in making preparations to start her new life, and no one else is coming over, so there's not much in the way of boardgames going on.
Our monthly in-person RPG session has been replaced with a weekly Roll20 session. Sessions got shorter but more frequent, so that's good. Boardgaming is down, though. Even with the family, it hasn't gotten easier to get everybody around the table, to my surprise.
My weekly RPG session has been replaced with two (different) weekly RPG sessions with the same people as before but on Roll20 however I'm not really enjoying them as much. My FTF board gaming is no longer happening and I have reduced my number of games on Yucata. A general malaise of satisfaction there.
All I have done in regards to group play is some World of Warcraft computer gaming with some remote friends. All attempts to do remote play have failed to work out (schedules, technology, interest etc) and I basically have seen no one face to face since the second week of march except my wife and two 1 minute (masked) encounters with our neighbors in our condo building, and with another neighbor who lives on one of my exercise routes thru an open 2nd floor window talking loudly while I was a ground level, I have not been in contact with anyone except my wife who's working from home and will do so thru Jan at least.
Keeping ourselves as safe as we can means no FTF until after the pandemic has better safety measures all around since the transit system (MBTA) here is a death trap (103 staff currently out sick with the virus, another 100 on long term leave for slow recovery from post virus effects, several deaths, and cases on the rise as students come back into the Boston area). It's impossible to keep the oldest subway system in the country clean enough and socially distanced enough or even ventilated enough to reduce risk in a constant series of 90+ F Heat waves.
To do FTF I'd need 2 computers running side by side (one for communications if people insist on video; and one for my records and notes while GMing).
There was a potential for online play (if I gave in and bought D&D) but that fell apart on the FLGS that was running such as the cost to them to do so was prohibitive. They are just hanging on financially thru the help of a lot of folks buying store credit that they might never get to spend (we threw money at them for this). local city loan program for stores in the retail district, and having sold out stock with curbside pickup from the shelves that has now run out and they can't get restocked as the supply chains are all mucked up.
So between my previous mobility issues, surgery, and now the pandemic its been 3 years since I have GMed anything and 2 years since I did any board or card gaming.
I have a weekly game, and two biweekly games. I dropped a monthly game that I felt too stressed to run, and there's a whenever we can meet D&D game Most of that moved online from offline, but the weekly game was already
I count myself lucky, but I also feel online gaming is harder to do well, so it sucks a little
I am playing in two weekly campaigns right now. It has been years since I've been in a regular campaign playing mostly one offs. So my son is running a family game in 5e. Me and Viv and grandkids playing. I am also in a Chronicles Of Ember campaign/podcast. Chronicles Of Ember was written by the DM and it's cold, furry, and dangerous.
A ton of playing board games on Board Game Arena many with @Eric Franklin
Playing two-player board games with my wife about once a week.
Playing more than two-player games with my wife and kids less often.
Meeting up with my wife's Sister and Mother who are part of our 10 person bubble and playing games. Maybe once a month at best.
Last weekend I actually fan my first RPG online using Discord and Roll 20 and it went pretty well.
Attending more game conventions than I ever have before due to them all being online. I haven't been actually playing games at them though, mostly watching interviews and panels and the occasional non-interactive demo.
In all honestly, it's not so bad. I do really miss gaming in public, meeting up with friends, meeting new gamers and introducing games to new players.
@Moe Tousignant - I hope that the cons remember this when/if things go back to normal- that there's a wide variety of untapped attendance that they usually miss because you have to be there in order to experience it. It wouldn't take away from the people that did attend if they streamed the sessions in addition to having them in person.
I have a feeling most of the big cons will completely drop digital when the time comes when we can meet up again and that's a shame. The thing is that it's still work to run a digital con and I can see there being staffing issues. If you run a physical con and a virtual one at once you need two sets of staff.
What I expect will happen is we will see a mix in the future. There will still be Origins and GenCon and Pax, but then things like Camp Capstone and Renegade Con Virtual will happen year after year.
That's the one thing with Virtual, a single company can put on a really solid virtual con, not something most could do in meatspace.
@Moe Tousignant - not really two sets of staff, just additional support staff to man the streaming equipment and funnel questions. Which most of the digital events had in any case. They had the moderator, the panel, and someone managing the streaming, where in the normal, they have the moderator and panel. Actually, in some cases, it's no more- as some of the larger cons recorded their sessions for posterity.
I'm going off what I heard from the con organizers. For Renegade Con Virtual they had more staff than they would normally use at a physical con. Multiple things were running concurrently.
Every stream needed a tech person and/or video producer, a chat moderator, the chat host(s). There was dedicated staff for the discord. 5 different demo rooms, each needed the person running the game and a moderator. There was 2 support staff just for handling media questions. There were 2 dedicated people that were just there for Q&A, support, and directing people around. They had one central table set up for all of the video demos where that person set up the games and moved all the pieces.
Running a virtual con well requires a lot more people than you would think.
Now combine that with having a physical con at the same time. You still need people to do physical demos, you need someone to answer questions, you need someone to man the checkout, you have the upper staff there meeting with media and game designers, etc.
I was mostly just talking about for the panels. I wouldn't expect that they would have demos and such, though it would be cool and beneficial to increase reach.
I was thinking they would do both, there would be in person panels and digital ones, in person demos and digital ones.
It seems like having a tabletopia version of your game is the new norm. As a reviewer, most of what I get offered to review now are tabletopia versions of games (which I turn down)
It would be nice if they could do both, but you're right about the increase in headcount for things other than panels. I know that there are problems even now trying to find reliable people to work cons.
I remember when I was younger, the hardest thing (next to finding people who wanted to play) was finding transportation to get to a gaming session. I spent about two hours on the bus to make it across town to a friend's house in large part because the bus didn't go directly to his house. And I remember more than once having to run after the last bus because I'd cut it too close, though I never actually missed the bus to come home. I also had to ride the bus to the store in order to even buy them as the city only had a few places to find them.
As I grew older, there were more people to play, and more places to buy the books, but even though the number of players is not decreasing, the number of stores where you can buy the books is rapidly doing so. Though I can buy from Amazon and other places on line, nothing compares to browsing in a store. The only places close that I can do that (or could before the pandemic) was Barnes & Noble. I wonder if I should gain more of a tolerance for a long ride to support those that are an hour away- after all, I did it when I couldn't drive...
If there's one thing consistent about Tabletop Gaming stores - it's that they close.
I can rattle off a few names: Oxford Games and Comics, The War Room, Sword of the Phoenix- there are many more. Making a living off of a niche industry is hard, and you learn to adapt or die. I worked for years for a game shop, and the owner stopped adapting. For a while he did, branching out into Poker Chips (as big a seller as Magic cards, believe it or not), Chilmark (another big seller), How to Host a Murder, Osprey Books - whatever he needed to do in order to turn a profit and allow the game store to remain in business. He became a distributor, supporting shops in smaller towns that the larger distributors wouldn't supply with favorable terms, and moved from prestigious places to others that were less so when the years became leaner. We'd even set up an online store for the shop, hoping that would bring more business in (and it helped me get some web work under my belt while I was in college), but nothing worked. I remember talking to him before the decision came down, and he said that he'd put away a lot from the best years, but it had been a few years since he actually turned a profit. With Diamond/Alliance swallowing up all of the smaller distributors, it was rare that he was able to actually get favorable terms by going direct. He could keep the place open for a few more years on the liquidity that he had in the business, or call it a day, and chose to do the latter, though he really didn't want to do so.
Now with the pandemic and quarantines, I'm not sure how many more that were just hanging on like he was will be forced to close. I can personally get games from Amazon pretty easily, but I'd rather support someone- but what do you do when there's no one to support. The closest store to me is almost an hour away. And given the shrinking number of stores, how long until there will truly be no one to support? It's a sad thought, but I don't really know of any real solutions.
What are some thoughts on how game stores can survive and even thrive in these troubling times?
Though many adventures start with doing someone a favor, this particular spelling of the word directed my mind to another definition of the word- favour given by a patron or organization. When running a game, I like for my cities to be alive, and not revolve around the PCs. But I also want the PCs to be embroiled in the operations and invested in the outcome. It's hard to have a good balance between a patron railroading the PCs actions and being entangled with them of their own volition. I was able to get partway there with the city creation rules in Fate- first in The Dresden Files RPG, and then with Fate Core as it had it baked in. The organizations had their own Aspects that the PCs could find out about and tag for effect, helping to build the narrative around them. But this still gave little mechanical benefit when the organizations were not directly involved. I recently did a playtest for Swords of the Serpentine by Pelgrane Press, and the final piece of the puzzle slotted itself into places- the PCs have ratings with the different organizations- both positive and negative- to indicate their involvement. These ratings are fluid- as the PCs have positive or negative interactions with the groups, their ratings increase and decrease, and with an increased rating comes an increased presence, increased support, and increased obligation. This allowed for the PCs interactions to have an impact on how they maneuvered in the city, and made the city seem more alive in play. I just need to find out some way to represent the dealings that the organizations have with each other in a more dynamic manner without having to manually work these angles or randomly generate them.
How do you inject a feeling of strangeness into your game? Not outright horror, though it can descend to that. But the subtle feeling that something is not quite right, to get the players' attention without crossing over that line to the obvious? I find the use of the other four senses a good way of calling attention to something that gives a creeping suspicion that the players are walking into something on the wierd side. The faint sound of flapping in the wind like the wings of a wounded bird. The sudden rise of goosebumps as the wind chills a few degrees. The cloying smell of decaying flowers. The heat parching the throat, making the player swallow. The slimy feel of the bannister, leaving a bitter, tingling residue on the hand. Even better, use the senses in strange ways, twisting expectations. The taste of copper on the tongue, heavy in the air. There is also the negative use of senses. The most obvious used ones are the wildlife going silent, but an example could also be the sudden stillness of the air.
The use of metaphors or onomatopoeia (as long as they don't fall into overuse) can also signal that things are a bit off. The delivery of these concepts is as important as what is actually said- if you're trying to jar your players, then even how you say it should invoke that dissonance. "As you make your way through the forest- SNAP!" This communicates viscerally that the player's stealth was compromised. "As your movements disturb the night, the natural sounds die down, and you hear swift movement in the forest off of your left shoulder."
How do you communicate foreboding strangeness to your players?
I cannot overemphasize how effective a good piece of music with some sound effects can be. I'm a bit of an audiophile, so I really enjoy grabbing sounds and fiddling with them to produce various 'soundscapes' to evoke different moods for my players. The BBC has released a HUGE archive of sound effects that are free for non-commercial use here, and I've found literally hundreds of great sounds to use.
Many times, I like to tweak the sounds to sound slightly different or even completely alien (great for otherworldly or demonic creatures). My favorite free tool to do this is Audacity. After that, simply add some music - Tabletop Audio is explicitly suited for this, but there are many sources of free, public domain or otherwise open source music on the web, as well.
Interesting ideas ... I guess I'd just interject random observations such as "The door is rectangular. It has four sides."
In a video game or visual media, this wouldn't even register as strange. It's just normal. But if you're narrating to players that they notice "the door is rectangular" it's a red flag. It's like ... Okay ... umm ... that's normal. Why mention it?
@CitizenZero - Good point! I actually support Tabletop Audio because it's cool and I like to support cool stuff, but I haven't been able to integrate it into my games easily- mostly because they're virtual.
@Isaac Kuo - that's really sneaky! I have to remember that one- state the obvious in order to throw them off their game.
I've never been the type to crack a joke or think of something witty at a moment's notice. I've always been more logical and reasoned. Even when I have a rare moment of insight into the mind of jokester, it has always been rooted in something of a more logical origin. I like a good comedian, and a good comedy- I've just never had the mindset of creating that comedic moment. I preface this particular entry with that disclaimer so that it can be more clearly understood when I say that I just don't like comedic games. I've tried them, and they've definitely been something that has taken me out of my comfort zone, and unlike some other pursuits that do the same, I've not come out of them with any clearer understanding of the purpose nor how to participate. Toon, Paranoia, and a host of others. When humor is naturally injected as a result of the narrative, that's a different thing. We had a situation in our last Pathfinder game where the druid had trailed the party because he had some other gathering to do, and decided to wild shape into a dinosaur- I forget the type, but it was akin to a velociraptor- and pursue the party. He happened to come up on the necromancer from behind, and she turned, ready to take possession of a soon to be undead dinosaur for her entourage. That whole situation and the glee that the player described in her eyes, and the abject fear in the eyes of the dino as they rolled for initiative- her glee turning to sadness when he got initiative and was able to shapechange back to the druid, was hilarious! But that wasn't planned, and wasn't the point of the whole thing. The closest I've come to enjoying something in this vein was Tales of the Floating Vagabond, but that wasn't purely an exercise in humor, even though it was very much absurd. I know that some get great enjoyment from it, and recount their Toon or Paranoia sessions with mirth, but it just runs cold to me.
When we played Rolemaster the companions were a bit overwhelming with all of the options, so we had to pare them down. Same with GURPS. This was my first introduction to Levers in designing a campaign. There are some systems that are ready built, and anything you do to them are outside those parameters are homebrew rules, and not necessarily well received or expected by the players. I like those well enough. But the toolkit RPGs GURPS, Fate (and FUDGE), Rolemaster- those were my bread and butter, being able to tweak little things by using optional rules that were included. Those made me prepared for using engines to design hacks- Powered by the Apocalypse, Forged in the Dark, GUMSHOE, Rooted in Trophy- those systems that are released to be able to adapted.
Edgerunner- a person striving to survive and prosper in a 'punk type universe, derived from the fact that they're always on the edge between success and disaster. I was introduced to cyberpunk through William Gibson, as many were, and it immediately captured my imagination. Not too far into the future as to be unobtainable, but far enough to seem 'cool' and 'futuristic'. Though I played science fiction games, my first cyberpunk game was Cyberpunk in the black box with Friday Night Firefight as the combat system. I actually still have a shrinkwrapped copy, as I wanted to have a copy just in case something happened to my primary copy in the old beat up box. We moved from there to Cyberpunk 2020, and branched out into Shadowrun, Cyberspace, and GURPS Cyberpunk. Just on the other side of Cyberpunk lay Transhumanism, and delving into that in several books made me love the idea, but want it to be grittier than most transhumanist stories were- my sweet spot lay in the world Altered Carbon, Transmetropolitan, and Ray Winninger's Underground. I'm really not sure of the allure of the media- it's ugly, violent, and shows the worst, most cynical part of humanity. I suppose what I like about it is the fact that even in the darkest of places, if the hero is willing, he can be the brighter side. The Cases and Kovacs of the world. Sting put it best, I think, "At night, a candle is brighter than the sun." And though many of my heroes died in pursuit of that dream, they made for some damned good stories.
I collect games to be complete and because I want to read and play them. I know I have a few rare pieces in my collection, but they are valuable to me for the content rather than the monetary value. Below, I'll detail a few that I know are valuable monetarily, but of value to me more for the content.
I love the Black Company by Glen Cook, so when this was released, I had to have it. What I love about the Black Company is that at its root it is a character based story, set in a terrible war where the main characters have little power, and just struggle to survive. It later migrates a bit from those roots, but you can always trace it back to those beginning stories. Others that I have or wish that they'd make that are in the same vein are The Powder Mage series (already available for Savage Worlds) and Malazan Book of the Fallen (not adapted)
I love the Authority by Warren Ellis, for the characters and the themes of Superheroes on a level that we rarely see them, facing foes that are unlike those that I'd seen in comics before this. For all of that, the story was more rooted in the character study of the various heroes and how they dealt with the threats and others perceptions of them. Others in this same vein that I'd love to see adapted include Stormwatch and Planetary.
At times, I think I prefer Dune to Star Wars, though it is a close fight. Where Star Wars leans on the melodramatic, Dune veers towards a more esoteric version of the future, based on things in the past that flow through its DNA. Though many don't like the Brian Herbert prequels, I love them- they are less dry than the Silmarillion and other prequels for Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, and serve much the same purpose- to set the stage for the stories that we know and love. To be able to play in that world is quite intoxicating, even if I only use the book for reference rather than the rules.
I started watching Supernatural when it was first released, but after the first few seasons laid it down, and didn't pick it back up until my daughter became interested in it. I love the mythology of the world, as messy as it is, and started to try to find the game after watching it with her, thinking that perhaps I could get her to try it. I found out that it was quite sought after, but found a reasonable copy on ebay at almost cover price. Before we could play it, our move came up, and I'm not sure where it is now. I hope it just got packed away somewhere, but I fear the worst. This one really hurt because of the interest sparked in her eyes when she saw the book.
Every time that I've discovered a new group, it's been because I pushed myself to engage with someone outside of my comfort zone. I'm not a gregarious or outgoing person. Interactions tire me. I like gaming with others though, and miss it when I'm not. So after a group breaks up, in general, I've found myself going outside of my comfort zone to talk to others. I've me several of my lifelong friends in that way. When I moved, I fell in with some people at work, and we engaged with others to pull together a group. But they were all a lot younger than I, and going through life with children entering the picture in one way or another, and we gamed less and less, and as they left the company, it became really sporadic, until there were no more sessions. I found out a bit after that some them had gotten back together and were gaming. And I wasn't contacted. By that time, I'd really gotten back into online gaming- play by e-mail, roll20, play by document- and found solo gaming. I now find that I don't really crave that level of interaction in person, though I wonder if I'd see that need if I gamed in person again at a convention or some other function, and if I'm forgetting some aspect because I don't want to try again.
I've tried to run investigation games before- they've always turned out poorly. At first, I could blame the root cause on one thing- me as a GM. In preparing the adventure, I didn't follow the rule of 3s- have three sources of information, so that the players wouldn't get stuck by not seeing the clues or a faulty dice roll. But even after having that, in some cases, players just didn't see things in the same way that I did when making the adventure.
Then I found Gumshoe. For those who haven't heard of it, Gumshoe is a roleplaying system designed in 2007 by Robin Laws. It's designed to solve the flaws of players finding the clues by changing the focus of clues in a game to deciphering their meaning. It does this by having two different sorts of abilities - Investigative Abilities and General Abilities. Investigative Abilities center for the most part around professional skills, and as a professional, you are assumed to have more than a basic level of competency. Investigative abilities always work; there are no dice rolls involved. If a scene contains a core clue and a player character uses an investigative ability that relates to the clue, the character will find the clue.
A spend for an investigative ability costs points from the Investigative Ability pool, in exchange for additional clues. These clues are not necessary to solve the scenario, though they should give additional information or other benefits. Spent pool points from investigative abilities are refreshed between scenarios.
This method of telling a mystery keeps the onus of continuing the trail off of the players and off of me when writing the scenario, so that we can just narrate the story of what happens. It's one of my favorite systems now!
As a result of the DramaSystem Kickstarter, the SRD has been released, and can give a good overview of what the system is like before you dive in. The SRD can be found on The Pelgrane Press Site.
I'm increasingly of the opinion that investigation scenarios should contain an optional railroad. If they find and decipher the clues on their own, then great, but if they somehow don't, then there should still be an obvious continuation of the story that's eventually going to lead to solving the mystery.
Either that, or failure needs to be an acceptable result.
@Martijn Vos - I think that's the purpose of the investigation skills. You don't have to hope that they find the clues or worry about the rule of 3. It also allows the gm to pull their coat tails to do just as you say.
Towers are a staple in RPG- the high spires in the villain's castle. Or the towers where a final defense is mounted in a siege. Even in sci-fi, you have the skyscrapers and, to take it to an extreme, the orbital elevators that tie a planet to the stars. Usually, there is some reason that you have to fight your way to the top. Some incredible hard-fought (or over the top depending on genre) prelude to the final battle with the Big Bad high above the ground below, or to rescue someone important. Think Trinity and Neo in the Matrix, or Bruce Lee in Game of Death. It's a trope because it works- it's a way to communicate to players that this is climactic and should be treated as such, and this will get harder as you rise in levels- akin to levels in video games. How can we take this trope and turn it on its head?
1. The Big Bad is out for a meeting. Or something that takes him away from the location. Of course, you have to give the players something for the battle that they just waged to get there, but it doesn't have to be that final battle. This is especially true in more modern day scenarios where executives don't always stay put. 2. A fight from top to bottom. The only way to enter the sanctum is from the top- it is the least heavily guarded location in the big boss's domain. 3. Use of technology or magic to get around the trope. In our long-running Middle Earth campaign, after we goofed and Sauron got the ring, we were able to get a magic item that boosted the mage's power enough to teleport us directly into Sauron's tower. Of course, that didn't end well, but it was a different take. 4. The boss at the top isn't actually the boss, but a fall guy. This fall guy has some seemingly insignificant clue to the bad guy's location. (Make sure you have at least 3 ways to get this information in case your player characters aren't as fast on the uptake as you'd like)
What are some other ways that we can subvert the Tower trope?
Deep Blue Sea had a good twist to it. The sharks seem to be simply murderously going after the crew, who try to escape by fleeing progressively upward from the bottom of the floating sea station.
However, the real goal was that forcing the crew to flee would result in them opening doors to flood much of the station. This would lower the station enough to let them escape the cage.
Drawing inspiration from this, we could modify the trope such that the party is being manipulated to climb the tower. Whether or not there is a true "big bad" or treasure at the top is not relevant to the manipulator's plans. The true goal is something seemingly unrelated.
For example, maybe the manipulator just needs some chimera blood, and there just happens to be a chimera guarding the third floor latrine. The "big bad" at the top of the tower is just some random eccentric wizard whose research has nothing to do with whatever story the manipulator spun. By the time the party and the wizard figure what in the world just happened, the manipulator has gotten the chimera blood and is long gone.
It's funny that this topic should come up today- just yesterday, the Question of the Day on RPGGeek was related- what unlikely friendships have you formed because of gaming.
My Answer – Most of my friendships are from gaming, so I don't consider them unlikely. I'm not one to make friends in other manners- I'm a solitary person by nature. I've always gone to the movies alone, gone traveling alone, and just been alone. The only thing I don't necessarily like to do alone is game. I do game alone- I like solo role-playing as an activity. It helps me a lot with my writing. But this shared interest in gaming is what binds me together with others socially; in environments where gaming isn't a focus, I have a hard time with trivial things like 'small talk'. And of course, you can't conversate on heavier things, so I tend to fade into the background as a means of defense.https://write.as/chuckdee/rpgaday2020-prompt-18-meet
My first thought at the prompt of 'Comfort' brought to mind the tendency of some in the hobby to find a system and stick with it, no matter the relative merits of the system. It might even be the first system tried- for some, there is that tendency not to stray from the system. I know that when I first started, I dabbled in several areas- from a start in AD&D 2nd Edition, I moved on to Marvel FASERIP and GURPS, adding Rolemaster once I went to college. I think that's one of the qualities I like about role-playing- the ability to get a different feel just by switching to a different system. Though I still buy and read a lot of systems, thinking about it I've seen a pattern. I'll have one primary system, and adapt everything to that system in order to run it more comfortably. I suppose that's no different than the gamers who stick with a particular system- my loyalties just switch from time to time as my sensibilities change. But, even for that, I still think that I'm more willing to try new things than most.
Since I'm in the midst of creating this campaign world, Dramatic immediately leads me to one of the steps in my process that I've just started- creating Drama in the world. Drama- meaning to me, meaningful excitement. Not a plot. I've made that mistake before, plotting out too much, and wasting a lot of time on things that the players are not interested in. But dramatic hooks that I can play as the players decide that they want to follow them and find out what they entail with the players.
In my Drama document, I answered these questions in order to detail the dramatic hooks.
1. What are the major current affairs in the world (good and bad) Detailing the city-state, I created a general outline of the relations with their neighbors- allies, frenemies, and outright hostilities. Also I gave a general overview of a couple of threads- an unexplored landmass that was recently discovered, a natural disaster that ravaged the southern farms, and forces stretched thin because the government is more concerned with the new area, rather than the plight of the outlying villages, as the food stores in the capital are not affected. Internally, a dissident group has been making waves, and rumors in the streets are that it is a group that was suppressed last year. The government denies this through the news sheets. There are developments of some new and exciting diversion for the rich, and there is supposed to be a large launch party with a celebrity chef serving up new culinary delights. 2. What are the threats the inhabitants of your world face For threats, I went a bit more into the specifics of what a war means, and the general paranoia brought on by the cold war. There are natural threats everywhere other than the capital, and the safety of your home is based on what city you live in, and what sort of protections you can afford. But living in larger cities brings the threat of the government itself and its more draconian measures. 3. What are the everyday struggles of the people in your world The struggles vary by where a person lives. In the Capital, the struggle is to survive against the draconian and sometimes mercurial rule of law. The lower castes have it worse, as they also struggle for sustenance and basic necessities. The larger hamlets have the same problem, but it varies depending on the ruler of the Satrapy. Villages don't have as much of a problem with the draconian law other than by the intermittent roving patrols that are supposed to protect them, but practically bleed them for the protection. That freedom is tempered by the constant dangers of the wildlife and the storms that wreak havoc to anyone unprotected out in them.
I'll have to go back and edit later, but I think that by focusing on the possibilities rather than the specifics of the plot, I can more ably react to what the players want to do once their characters are in the world.
I play a lot of Play-by-Email, and have played quite a bit of Play-by-Post. One of the advantages of the medium is the ability to divorce the player from the character, since you aren't looking at them while you're playing, but instead focused on the prose. To make it even more immersive (and to keep an idea of the public facing stats) we use custom made banners in our posts. This idea was born from playing a lot of Amber in PbEMs- one of the ideas in Amber are Trumps- cards that depict people that can be used to contact them, and for travel. We always made Trumps to depict the characters, and that evolved into the banners. I find that it adds an element to the game- a couple of examples are below.
That is strange. They're showing up for me... but looking at it from my Pluspora account, I see what you mean. My other images in my other posts on snap.as are showing up fine. I don't know the difference in these.
For all else different in the 1984 Dune movie, I loved the introduction from Princess Irulan. Specifically, I loved the quote, "A beginning is a very delicate time." That quote states a truism, as the beginning is the time when a think is not set, and is most prone to go in a different manner than you intended. It is the same with an RPG campaign, especially when you're the GM. How do you frame the entry into your world for your players, to get the correct feel across to them? It doesn't matter if you're making things up as you go along, or if you've spent a lot of time building your world, as a GM, you have a certain intention when starting a campaign, and it is for that reason that I think you have to set up your intentions in your players' minds even before they take their first actions in your world.
I think about this because I'm currently working on a world for Fate Core, and thinking back on my other experiences as a GM, and how I might have made the transition easier. I'm working through the world building process, and wondering how best to present it not just to my players, but in the material in case I use it elsewhere. Many products produce a quick start or a primer to the world- and I'm thinking that's the way that I will approach it, answering burning questions that will set the stage for the players.
1. What is unique about this world? 2. Why is the world the way it is? 3. What does it feel like to experience this world? 4. What are the recurring themes of the world?
Once I answer these questions, I will go into the specifics of the world, but I think if I answer those questions correctly, it should set the stage, and I can add some more specific factoids to the primer document to give the players some idea of what to expect as they start playing their characters.
There are two types of games- ones that descend from the D&D trope that rest heals all wounds. You go to sleep, wake up, and gain your spells, or a certain number of hit points, or even less believably skill levels and class levels. It just magically happens when you rest for a specified period of time. Others try to model the real world, where you keep up with the time that has passed since you received a wound, and healing takes place as time passes. Or you get experience for succeeding (or failing) a skill and when you get enough of whatever measure you're keeping track of, the skill increases. My initial gaming was in D&D, GURPS, Rolemaster, and Champions, which skewed towards the idea that rest was a needed thing for adventurers to recover any modicum of effectiveness. I remember when we were playing the tomb of desolation modules and barely escaped into the desert. That trek was made worse by the fact that we'd just used all of our spells getting out of the place, and couldn't regain what we needed to survive because we couldn't really 'rest'. It felt arbitrarily punishing. I now play games that are more narratively driven, and the mechanism to recover from wounds and use of resources is more organic. It's ironic that in the simulationist vs story-game, most story games handle immersion a lot better than the games that have a rule for every little thing.
A trope in gaming is for adventures to be delivered via message. A mysterious courier arrives, looking for the party. The phone rings in the middle of the night. It's so used because it gives an easy way to involve the characters without having to create a lot of background. It's also used as a way out of being written in a corner, i.e. if the PCs can't find the clue you're looking for, finding a more obvious message that leads them to that thread is a lot easier than watching them flail. As with all tropes, unless it's couched in a way that is a bit more original than the device would suggest, it can bring on groans, and sometimes even a resistance to take the lifeline. The trope can be subverted, as in an expected message being counterfeit, which is a good way to use the trope in an unexpected manner. But how can you use the standard trope without it being so easily identified as such? That's a good exercise to dwell upon.
I find myself without inspiration- this prompt fails to arouse any sort of muse in me, even after a day of contemplation. The closest I come to a coherent thought is the stacks fo tokens in one of my first forays into RPGs. I loved the little games that came in the zip lock bags and plastic boxes. Car Wars, Ogre, and many others. But my first one was Starfire. It was what would be termed a 4X game today, filled with cardboard sheets of counters that you moved on a galactic map. My favorite parts of the 4X formula are the Explore and Expand phases. Yes, the Exploit and Exterminate are enjoyable, but building is more fun than destroying to me, and in those types of games, I go on long after I've won, expanding a building as much as I can. This game was no different, but I wanted something more than the game gave me, especially since I was playing alone. I started then, with the stacks of cardboard chits and the paper board expanding the game to the imaginary worlds and what happened when the dice were rolled. Who were those nameless troops dying on the planets, and what happened during the battles. I suppose that was my first foray into RPGs, and my first foray into hacking games.
What does your character want? It's a question that many times is left out, even when an in depth background is created, and even when we give objectives for our characters- sometimes we forget that root question that lies beyond the objective. I'm currently playing four characters in four different campaigns - Kenetsu Phar, 4th level brawler, 1st level rogue in a Pathfinder campaign, Nelson Crowe, 3rd Level Scholar in a Silent Legions campaign, Grayson Kitsch, God of Asymmetrical Warfare and Son of Ares in a Lords of Olympus Campaign, and Valentinian Decimus Merula, former Actor, now Exalt of Pasiap in a Lords of Gossamer and Shadow/Exalted game. Thinking about this question, I realized that I don't know what any of them really want. I have objectives- Crowe wants to master the cursed sword he is the caretaker of, Valentinian wants to secure the world that he is responsible for from outside influence and harm. But those are just goals. For all of the care that I put into each of their backgrounds, I've never looked deeper than that to see what they want at a basic level, and I think that's one of the reasons that I sometimes lose the 'voice' of the character- because I don't truly 'know' them, nor what truly drives them. It's a sobering thought.
Many people look at role-playing games as just a form of entertainment, and dismiss it as a waste of time. I know that they are more than that to me. They enable a dream of becoming known in the industry for my writing. Aspirations of releasing my own work. Practice for honing skills that I use on my job. To interact with a community that is of a like mind and I can talk about subjects that others might think are strange. And they're entertainment. Entertainment that in many cases is my outlet for stress and release of frustrations- to make the problems that I carry easier to bear. Not a waste of time, but something integral to my psyche and mental health. The patience and understanding that I give of things that go wrong in everyday life is made possible by this small measure of escape.
In our Rolemaster campaign, we played through Moria, down into the depths of the Misty Mountains. We were a somewhat largish party- a ranger, two magicians, a sorceror, two warrior monks, a rogue, and my barbarian archer. Down into Khazad-dûm we travelled, a raggedy company if there ever was one. It was a rather monotonous trek through the dark and lonely tunnels- we heard hints of noise at times, but never encountered anything other than long dead corpses, and dust covered remnants of the dwarves that once lived there. At times, we caught signs that someone might have been here more recently- ashes burnt out but not old, scraps that were putrid but too fresh, darkened stains that were the signs of blood from battles more recent than the halls were supposed to have seen. Further down into the tunnels we went, arriving at what seemed to be former living spaces. The ranger held up a hand to be silent as he crouched, looking at some sign that only he picked up. He motioned for us to go ahead, silently, as he listened, moving slower, bidding us to close the shutters on the lamps, reducing the light we bled into the darkness. This made the space creepier, but as we moved forward, we finally heard what made him give the order- the sounds of beings speaking. "Orcs," he said simply as he unlimbered his bow. We all readied our own weapons as we followed his lead- and were set upon from behind. Other orcs had been tracking our presence, and we'd not sensed them. One of the mages took an arrow to the arm even as other arrows whizzed by like angry insects. Light flared, burning our eyes- but less so than our attackers, illuminating the orcs that crouched in a side corridor. We would have made to close the distance, if that same light hadn't also revealed the orcs in front of us, hands over their eyes- the light had interrupted their charge. After a bloody battle, we stopped to lick our wounds. In addition to the arrow taken by the mage, the rogue had taken a hard hit in the side, breaking ribs, and I'd taken a nasty hit to the head that had left my brain a bit addled. We should have kept moving. But the day had been long, and the battle fierce, so we just made our way to the closest room that we could find away from the bodies.
So tired we were, that we didn't even notice the shadow slipping away from the wall. The wraith hit the mage that was not hurt, chilling him, and the crit unfortunately silenced him. Despite that, my character noticed something strange moving beside the mage, and that something was off, moving to see what it was. The wraith attacked the mage again, killing him before he had a chance to come out of stun, but I was able to see the beast. I drew and shot, but hit only the wall. Moving to where the wraith was, there was no sign that anything was there- other than the dead mage. Someone else screamed out, hit by the undead shade, but after that hit, it retreated into darkness. We tried to fight it, but the GM used the shadows cast by our bare light and the darkness all around to great advantage. It was one of the first times that I'd seen someone use light and shadow so effectively to make us powerless, and instill fear- beyond that what the table was expecting. We did survive, but took horrendous damage, that would set the tone of the entire delve into the mines. In the end, we lost 3 out of the eight members of the party, and didn't even make it through Moria to the other side of the mountains that we were trying to reach.
It was a very good example of playing to an adversary's advantages to make them scarier than just numbers on a piece of paper, and was an encounter that we've never forgotten.
Borrowing from the idea of the Pluspora Check-in get some tabletop conversation going. If you have any questions that you want to get on the list to be asked, let me know. Also, if you'd like to be added or taken off the list of participants, let me know.
Are you going to participate in this year's #RPGaDAY event
@Keith Davies - I never lack for things to write, I just don't have the consistency down. I try these to try to instill that in myself. If it's not for my livelihood, I tend to be less consistent than I would like.
I regularly take a run at the A-Z Blog Challenge (succeeding more often than not), and I do try to get something done for NaGaDeMon (National Game Design Month)... haven't succeeded yet.
This kind of writing challenge doesn't do much for me, though.
If I remember to fit two in today I will have caught up.
Note I'm only doing it on social media. This kind of thing makes it hard to create actual useful evergreen content for a blog, plus so many people talking about the same thing at once is actually really bad for SEO.
Borrowing from the idea of the Pluspora #CheckIn in order to get some tabletop conversation going. If you have any questions that you want to get on the list to be asked, let me know. Also, if you'd like to be added or taken off the list of participants, let me know.
What is your Ralya Index?
On G+, Martin Ralya once made a post about the Ralya index (Coined by Jonas on RPG Geek), referring to a gaming h-index, i.e. X games have been played at least X times (in bibliometric citation, the h-index is x papers by writer y were cited at least x times).
For #RPGs, my index is 14 as I can recall, i.e. 14 games played 14 times or more (Rolemaster, Amber, All D&D editions, Lords of Gossamer and Shadow, Exalted, Aberrant, Fate, GURPS, Silent Legions, Stars without Number, Lords of Olympus, Cyberpunk 2020, Champions, Marvel Super Heroes)
For #BoardGames, the number comes in at 12 if I exclude standard store games, including Shogun, Risk, Axis and Allies, Ticket to Ride, Carcassone, Roads and Boats, In the Shadow of the Emperor, Ur, Samurai, Wallenstein, Indonesia, Talisman.
For RPGs, there's only a handful that have been played compared to the number I have. GURPS and Dragon Age have been played. I'm hoping to change that soon.
For Board Games I'd have to really think about it, but the number is much higher.
Ummmm - probably 5-6, due to not replaying the same game a lot. Definitely played: Fate Core Fate Accelerated Dresden Files Dungeons and Dragons New World of Darkness Exalted Wushu Monster Hearts Shadowrun
Enough to make that list - but I am worried Monster Hearts falls off. The different Gumshoe games probably don't make it except *maybe* Night's Black Agents and Gumshoe One2One, but hard to say.
Thats really tough for me.... there are some games I have played HUNDREDS of Times.
The ones I have played the most of (more times I can count) would be easiest:
RPGs: Tunnels & Trolls, AD&D 1st Ed, Champions 2nd Ed, Champions 3rd Ed, Hero 5th Ed, AD&D 2md Ed, Psi-World, GURPS 3rd Ed, GURPS 4th Ed., Runquest (Avalon Hill Ed.), Call of Cthulhu (Various editions), Marvel Super Heroes, Timemaster, a whole bunch of unpublished Homebrews, Cosmic Synchronicity, World of T'Phon, IronClaw/Jadeclaw.
Board/Card Games: Fluxx, Chrononauts, Settlers Of Catan, Dominion, On The Edge, Cosmic Encounters, Highlander The Card Game, Wizards (Avalon Hill Game), Munchkin, Guillotine, Illuminati, Lost Worlds, Star Fleet Battles.
I have a lot of others I've played, mostly 20 or less times on each, and an even greater number I own and have never played.
Once upon a time, in a previous life, I managed and was house GM for a game store (back in the 80s) and later had friends in a similar position, so I played a lot of games... did a lot of game design experiments and playtested a LOT of stuff. 40+ years of gaming it gets easy to have things accumulate. Back in my store days I was working 6 days a week and either demoing, running or sitting in on games every day. It becomes a blur over the years... but with 24 hours spent gaming on the average week it gets easy to not remember every mechanic or setting I used to deal with back then.
It's impossible to be sure how often I've played specific games, but let me try to count my most often olayed games.
For RPGs: WFRP, GURPS, EarthDawn, Shadowrun, Pathfinder, Traveller, D&D, I all played dozens of times. We're only at 7, so I'm pretty sure I played Het Oog Des Meesters and Call Of Cthulhu more than that. Quite possibly also Just Gug (a highschool homebrew), CORPS, Dream Park and Dogs in the Vineyard, but I doubt I actually played those 14 times, so it's somewhere between 9 and 14.
Board/card games is probably going to be more, because there's so many and they're easier to play: Chess, Go, Catan, Dominion, Kraken, Magic the Gathering, Kwartet (go fish), Pesten, Talisman, Mein Erste Obsgarten, Halma, Mens Erger Je Niet, Backgammon, Carcassonne, Hearts, Agricola, Thurn & Taxis, Bloodbowl, Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Rifugio. I'm just reasonably confident I played all of those at least 20 times. I'm probably forgetting a couple. If Terraforming Mars hasn't been played 21 times yet, it soon will.
Boardgame-X is small here, mostly because we don't get to play often and I'm trying to work through my Shelf of Shame. Even when we were meeting more or less weekly, I would generally try to get one game we've played many times (i.e. comfortable), one that's brand new to us, and one that's been played a few times.
This resulted in a small number of games we played a lot, and a many games with a small number (if only because we haven't gotten back around to them).
I know that many people game with their significant others, but I've only played World of Warcraft with one girlfriend- never #RPGs. I currently play #BoardGames with the family, but never have played just with my wife. When I did play WoW with my girlfriend, it was nice and also I could see myself falling into a malaise where our life was completely consumed with it when we weren't at work. I've seen some other friends experience the same as the hobby bled the sides of their lives together into one indistinguishable whole. I suppose that, and the fact that most of my significant others have been pretty dissimilar in interests has made me not want it.
