Another Thursday, Another Cup o Coffee

Plenty of musings the last couple weeks (as well as one near-finished post about *mumble*mumble* paladins sitting on the draft board), leading me to my usual predicament: too much to say and little hope of putting together a coherent blog post.

But as I'm at the Baranof, fairly coffee'd up, and out of blogs and sports news to read (I mean, do I really care the Mariners have picked up a player for their godawful bullpen? They've only been above .500 once this season!), I might as well write something. Writing something is better than writing nothing. In fact, it's a LOT better: I almost always feel better after doing so.

Like I'm getting something accomplished or something.

Watching Ye Old Television the other day (late at night) I was struck again by the thought of how many gaming geeks must have fallen into the business of producing, scripting, and directing business.  Caught a bit of some Transformers sequel (don't ask me which. I watched the first one in the theater when it came out years ago and have since tapped out), and could not help but think THIS is what Siembieda is trying to convey with the whole S.D.C. versus M.D.C. thing. THIS is Rifts (or Robotech or whatever): giant alien un-killable monsters that snap their fingers and inflict huge amounts of property damage. Clearly the creators of this series used to play Palladium around the cafeteria table in high school, same as me and my old buddies.

Watching the new Game of Thrones season kick-off I was again struck by the thought of how much it looks like someone's old school D&D campaign, just bashed together with house rules and shoot-from-the-hip historic analogues thrown in. How does an assassin use their disguise ability? Like this: some magical latex mask that you can whip out of your pocket at the drop of a hat (I went back and reread my old PHB and DMG and could find nothing that would contradict the way a "faceless man's" ability is portrayed in the show). Who needs fake beards and padded clothes? Not these guys.

[there is quite a bit more in the books on the manufacture of poisons, but nothing that would preclude the kinds of mass assassination...with as little explanation...as what we see in GoT]

Same holds true for the undead (someone likes their wights!), or rangers, or...well, you get the point. Game of Thrones the show (I haven't read more than a couple of the novels) feels a lot like an OD&D campaign run by some curmudgeonly Old Schooler who said, "We're going to get rid of humanoids and just cannibal hill people," and "We're really going to dial back on the availability of magic in the game" while still retaining out-and-out gonzo elements.

[actually, reminds me a bit of Gus over at Dungeon of Signs]

You still have your plate-armor wearing dudes in a world without gunpowder. You still have your magic weapons ("Valerian steel"). You still have "raise dead" though on a much smaller (and darker) scale. Heck, you still have dragons...but these are much more of the Chainmail type (and used in the same way) than the latter-day McCaffery-color-based creatures.

Anyway...

What other bits of gaming geekery did I spot on the screen recently? Hmm...something, but it's escaping me at the moment. I know I see all sorts of moments in the superhero genre that seems to have been influenced by gaming...but then, as superhero games have been influenced by the comic book genre, it's possible that I'm just confusing the origin of the tropes.

One show that inspired gaming (rather than the other way around) was the old Robotech TV-series (translated and re-branded from an even older Japanese series. Well, three series, but whatever...). The kids and I finally finished watching the first season of that (the "Macross saga") on Netflix last week. It was still a lot of fun (I haven't seen it in decades), and even Minmei's music, while grating, was bearable. Of course, my children are now singing her songs all the time...

Still lurking in some bargain bins...

Of course, we had to go out and look for a copy of Palladium's old Robotech RPG so that we could play. And fortunately we were able to pick up a used copy for $10. Man, I haven't played or run that game for...well, for decades. I had a trio of gaming buddies in high school (Michael, Mike, and Ben) who LOVED anime and comics and we're huge Robotech players...they were my introduction to the game (as well as Heroes Unlimited), and I had a chance to borrow their books and play it with them on one or two occasions.

Funny enough, now owning my own copy, it's pretty much what I remember: a mess of a game which uses the Palladium system in a manner that makes it really, really difficult to capture the feel or themes of the show. Not even via the combat system (which is Palladium's emphasis). *sigh*

[I'll have to write more about my high school gaming sometime. Those guys introduced me to the extended Palladium catalogue...I'd only ever played TMNT prior...and I introduced them to Stormbringer, BattleTech, and Vampire the Masquerade. This was during the twilight years of TSR and we NEVER played "those games." At least not together...]

Diego REALLY wanted to play Robotech (of course), but just running the chargen is So Damn Boring And Slow (all those useless skills...) that we quickly gave up and decided to write our own, streamlined game. I've got a couple-three pages of notes for the thing so far, and if I can get my kid to draw some robot pictures maybe I'll publish it as an e-book or something. I'm pretty happy with what I've got so far, but I'd still like to work in various Robotech-isms to make the game something other than a map-less war-game. We'll see, we'll see...fortunately, it's a pretty lightweight project so I might be able to bang it out in a week or so (Ha! I've said that before!) if I can find some time between the playdates and summertime chores (yard sale this Saturday...).

Let's see what else have I been up to...? A lot of game-related, post-apocalyptic stuff (infer what you will). But that's a subject for another post (waaaaaay too long). Oh, I met someone who's known and worked with Mike Mearls and we had an interesting conversation about him (nothing bad). Picked up a new RPG that has perhaps the coolest presentation ever...hoping to run that one in August (when my family is out-o-town). What else, what else...

Eh. That's enough for now. I need to finish this coffee and make a run to the post-office. For those who bothered to read my ramblings, thank you! It feels good to get some of this clutter out of my noggin (perhaps my next post will meander less).

Oh, By The Way: print copies of my B/X Companion are about 60-70% sold. If you've been wanting to order a copy, I wouldn't wait too long...not sure when I'll get around to doing another print run.

Z is for Zen Dungeon Mastery

[over the course of the month of April, I have been posting a topic for each letter of the alphabet, sequentially, for every day of the week except Sunday. Our topic this month? Things necessary to take your D&D campaign from “eh, fantasy” to “kick ass.” This will be the last entry...thank goodness!]

Z is for Zen Dungeon Mastery. Yeah, there’s such a thing.

The practice of Zen is just “meditation in action.” I say “just” which, of course, is ridiculous…in our world of information overload and extreme over-thinking, shutting off the old noggin and “going with the flow” is anything but easy.

While Zen can be practiced in all aspects of daily life (yes, ALL), there are some activities where it becomes easier…heck, IMPERATIVE…to find a Zen state. High level sport activity is one such experience (though not one readily available to everyone). Blindfolded archery is another, though one I’ve never tried. Some types of performance art have moments of Zen-like trance state. For me, I find that I can only hit bank shots in pool consistently by “going Zen” (though I usually refer to this as “using my Jedi mind tricks”).

And, yes, you can do a little Zen meditation when DMing a game.

Now, maybe it’s not pure a pure zazen, but one can definitely achieve moments of still mind and clarity, even while communicating to a table of eight people. I call it Zen DM’ing. Others call it “being on their game.”

First off, you have to know the rules, back and forward…like in your sleep. And by knowing the rules I’m not just talking about the rules as written by the designers but the rules as used and utilized by YOU. If you have your own regular house rules (along with, I hope, thoughtful reasons for implementing them), that is absolutely fine…so long as you KNOW what it is that you’re playing with.

To be a Zen DM requires being able to speak with a firm (if calm, cool, and collected) voice of authority, something you can only really do if you have a firm grasp of the rules, both collectively and conceptually…if you can’t do that, you lose the zazen state pretty quick.

Knowing the rules…and knowing them intimately, not just how they function, but how they work together and why…is just the first leg. After that, you must know the scenario.

Again, “in your sleep.”

No, you don’t need to know how many goblins are in room #4 or what the hit points of the owl bear is, nor what treasure is heaped in the ogre cave. But you have to understand the setting. You have to know what it’s all about. You have to know how the various factions (if any) interact with each other…and why. You need to be able to picture the place in your mind’s eye…both the interior and exterior…and it sure helps if you can imagine the sounds and smells, too.

This “imaginary sensing” is hugely important. It is analogous to knowing one’s lines if you’re acting in a play. If performing in a play, you can’t actually ACT until you know what your lines are. That’s a damn fact…you try “acting” without knowing your lines and all you are is some dude on a stage pretending to act. As a DM, you cannot embody the adventure unless you can get the sensing down in your imagination. Call it a “developed knack.”

[and just for the record, there HAVE been times when I have “phoned it in” with regard to my sensing…cut me some slack, though, it took me a few years to figure out how to act on stage, too!]

Oh, yeah…just to relate the “theater analogy” back to the other part: knowing the rules of the game is knowing the mechanics of being on stage (how to endow objects, set stakes, where the 4th wall is, blocking, voice and diction, etc.).

SO…you know the rules (the mechanics of the game), you’ve got a sense of the adventure/scenario (that’s the script). What’s next in our pursuit of Zen (Dungeon) Mastery?

Well, that’s really the bulk of it (see, told you it was simple)…though once you’ve got those two legs under you, the next thing to do is: let go of your attachment to how you want the game to unfold, trust in your players, and act as a vessel for the transference of creative energy.

Really? Yes, really. Let’s go through those a bit.

NON-ATTACHMENT: one of the harder ones for myself and for most self-oriented, self-interested individuals. It is all too easy to attach hopes and fears to the outcome of dice rolls. “I hope the thief doesn’t bite it…they need him for the next encounter!” “I hope I roll maximum damage and rip that stupid fighter limb from limb!”

It’s not about being a “fair” or “unfair” DM; it’s about being human. No matter how impartial one attempts to be, it’s human nature to attach some hopes or anxieties to the roll of the dice. However, the dice will fall where they may…and for the most part, even if you’re not packing Game Science Dice, what goes around will (eventually) come around. The hot hand turns cold and vice versa and it’s all as the universe wills.

I said “for the most part;” the trick is to make sure to always leave your players an “out.” This is what I call true “game balance,” a balance struck between player creativity and DM fiendishness. If the players are creative in a way you didn’t anticipate, don’t stomp ‘em…let ‘em have their break. Don’t wait for them to find “The One True Solution” to a challenge that you crafted in your infinite wisdom. If you do that, then you are stacking the dice against the players.

Non-attachment. Always.

TRUST THE PLAYERS: What I just said about game balance goes for the players as well. Assuming you are playing an Old School version of D&D, you shouldn’t have problems with min-maxers. What is there to “max?” This being the case, you need to open yourself up to TRUSTING your players: trust that THEY want to have fun, too. They are there to play, NOT to wreck your day.

[and if they ARE trying to wreck your day, there’s something wrong with your boundaries/social contract; re-draw the lines, 86 some folks and THEN get back to your Zen practice]

Be open to your players. Listen to what they’re saying (listen mainly through the Caller if you have a large table, but keep your ears open to pertinent chatter as well). Practice active listening…when someone speaks, shut the hell up, look him (or her) in the eye and LISTEN. Ask questions for clarification if necessary, but in general, trust what they say.

Trust also that your players are JUST TRYING TO HAVE A GOOD TIME (did I already say that? Too bad; needs emphasis). If you make an assumption about what a character is doing and jump him and the player says, “Wait I wasn’t doing that! I was doing this other thing!” you might as well go with the player rather than YOUR assumption (see non-attachment above). Nine times out of ten, I find my players are happy to take the knife in the back/belly when they screwed up and know they screwed up…give ‘em the benefit of the doubt when they claim they didn’t and YOU made a mistake.

It's not that they're trying to take advantage...it's just that we are dealing with an inefficient medium of communication (having to describe orally what is happening in one's imagination, rather than sharing thoughts telepathically or something).

ACTING AS A VESSEL: This part is actually pretty easy if you're doing everything else...and understand the concept. Here's the thing to grasp: all creative juice/energy comes from outside of you. Or, rather, you have the power inside of you, but you are little more than a conduit to the universal source of creative energy. The mistake some folks make is thinking that they originate their creativity themselves...that they owe nothing to no one. And that's both true and untrue at the same time. However, if you do make the mistake of thinking that creativity only comes from yourself (as opposed to being a conduit) the tendency is to rely solely on yourself, thus shutting down the flow of creative energy, and limiting the amount of "juice" you can "pull."

Oh, it doesn't mean you can't rely on wit alone for awhile, but in transferring energy/information to the players at your table (acting as a "channel" for the game), there is making it an intellectual exercise and there is investing the game with feeling. And of the two I prefer the latter, something that only comes from allowing oneself to act as a vessel of creative energy transference.

[yes, I realize that is a ridiculous mouthful of words. let's try a different tact here...]

Okay, forget the whole bit about "being the vessel for energy transference;" let's talk about WHY we would even want to "invest more feeling" in our Dungeon Mastering instead of just being clever and intellectually proficient. I mean it's just a game right? Like presenting a cool puzzle/challenge for players to unravel? Isn't that the whole reason why we're sitting at the table instead of playing on-line poker?

Sure. But this series of A-Z posts was about "taking your game up a notch," and for me that means engaging your players at a level deeper than just the intellectual. I want your players to feel the game...to feel their characters...to feel like they're there. This not just Settlers of Catan, this is Dungeons & Dragons. It is not just about making the optimal stat build (at least not for old schoolers)...the rules should be simple enough to Get The Hell Out Of The Way of the actual game play, so that you can FEEL (in your imagination) that you are down in one of these dark and dingy dungeons, looking for treasure hoards, and fighting (or running) for your lives against creatures terrible and dire. If you can share that experience, I think you'll be more likely to end up with "repeat customers."

That's why.

So...Zen Dungeon Mastery. DMing as meditation in action. For the purpose of communicating a richer role-playing experience to your players. That's what I'm talking about.

Yes, I understand that Zen is in many ways "its own reward," but I'm not a Buddhist and I tend to bend things to my own pragmatic causes more often than not. Playing Zen can lead to a better game at the your table...that's what I want anyway. And, yeah, it's pretty damn hard to do...pretty damn tough to be "on your game" all the time and on a level that allows you to connect with your players in a way that is more than just "clever."

But that's the goal, folks.

: )

A Personal Japan Update...

...has been posted by Noisms over at Monsters & Manuals. In case you missed it.

Jeez...Japan

My heart (and prayers) goes out to the people of Japan...I have friends in Tokyo and Kofu and those areas seem less devastated than the north, but sheesh. Hopefully the help and recovery period will be quicker than Haiti (who's STILL suffering!)!

I hope Noisms is okay.

Bad Ass Space Opera -Nihongo-style

Last night's game went pretty good...I'll post something about it later. However, check THIS shit out: Japan's doing a live-action film of Star Blazers (aka Space Battleship Yamato), one of my favorite, favorite imports from Japan as a kid (maybe even cooler than Shogun Warrior toys...I sure did watch it a lot of week day mornings during breakfast before school).

Sword and Shield posted an abbreviated trailer for the film here. I found a full-length version (about 10 seconds longer) of the trailer here. Yes, it appears to have the "wave motion gun;" totally badass and very, very space opera in scope.

It also seems to have an Aerosmith soundtrack. I don't know what's up with that...wasn't Wolfmother available? Personally, I would have been perfectly happy with the original cartoon theme (it sounds the same in English and Japanese)...also very badass.

Here's the full length trailer:

Forget Post-Apoc...Let's Talk Ninjas!

Seriously, I don't know if it's because I've been sick this week or what, but I've been feeling...well, kind of low-brow. Like the shit I'm writing is all just drivel compared to the high-falutin' concepts I'm reading around the blog-o-sphere. I try to be intellectual and suave but I can only take the theory-stuff so far...and even though I like to consider myself an elitist pig, it feels like I may not have the goods to back it up.

Case in point: ninjas.

For some odd reason, I've been all about the ninjas this week. Seriously. I'm certain that everyone who reads this blog already knows a thousand-and-one things about these stealthy practitioners of martial arts...the ninja is fairly ubiquitous in gaming these days. Hell, the word "ninja" doesn't even trigger my spellcheck. EVERYONE knows what a ninja is.

But do any of you remember a time BEFORE ninjas?

I do. That is to say, I remember a time before I knew what the F a ninja was.

All those poor shmuck 3rd generation gamers (the ones that came after me) probably can't remember a time before ninjas. TMNT helped flood the world with pizza-eating masters-o-stealth. But TMNT was 1985, and by the time they came around ninjas were already a pretty familiar archetype.

Trying to remember that far back is tough, but I think I've narrowed it down to circa 1982 or '83. By the time Revenge of the Ninja hits the theater, I have a good idea what a ninja is. But in 1981 when I got my first copy of Daredevil (issue #175...no I don't still have it, it took a lot of internet searching to find the familiar illustrations), I made no connection between The Hand, Elektra, shuriken, and ninja. Hell, they might have used the term "ninja" in the comic, and I skimmed right over it (in my defense I was a month shy of my 8th birthday when the comic was published, so the pictures and ass-kicking was much more important than the story).

Also in 1981 I watched much of the television mini-series Shogun (though I may have fallen asleep at some points), and it wasn't until years later that, re-watching it, I said, "shit! there are ninjas in this thing?!"

As an average American kid, I collected action figures, specifically Star Wars, Micronauts, and GI Joe (well, and Strawberry Shortcake, but dammit that's it!)...and my brother had the Snake-Eyes figure long before the character ever was revealed to be a "ninja." Snake-Eyes was first issued in 1982, and at the time was issued as an all black figure to save on paint costs! By 1984 and the Storm Shadow ninja GI Joe (incidentally, probably the last action figure I ever owned), I already knew all about ninja.

I remember the trailers for the 1981 Enter the Ninja only vaguely; I remember the previews for the 1983 Revenge of the Ninja much more (that little kid kicking ass). Being Rated R, I was never allowed to see these films as a youngster...and having watched both, plus American Ninja (1985) all this week, I can fearlessly say I didn't miss much.

[as I said, I've had ninjas on the brain]

If I had to guess, I would say it was probably the trailers for Revenge of the Ninja, later re-readings of that old Daredevil comic, and the 1984 TV series The Master (with Lee Van Cleef!) that provided the bulk of my ninja education. In 1985 I was introduced to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles through the Palladium RPG, and I may well have had my own 1st copy of the game that year, too. I'm pretty sure my buddy Scott was the one who picked up AD&D Oriental Adventures (also 1985), a book I never bothered to purchase and one we never used in any our D&D games. Ever.

And so, we come to my confession: I was never a ninja fan.

Never went out for ninja toys or action figures (the Storm Shadow was a birthday gift from someone), never wanted to play one in an RPG, never created "ninja-like" characters. I only got into martial arts in high school after being cut from the soccer team, and I never studied any oriental weapons...hell, when I went to Japan with a bunch of other 17 year olds, I was one of the few that didn't come back with some katana or nunchuck souvenir.

Not that I didn't have the potential to get my ninja-freak-on. But really, the TMNT game was nigh un-playable (the comics were much more fun to read than the game)...and the ninja-class in Oriental Adventures was just so damn lame. Besides AD&D already has a ninja class...it's called the assassin, right?

Secret society? Stealthy masters of infiltration, spying, disguise, and assassination? Proficient with the manufacture and use of poisons?

The assassin class is the ninja of AD&D...just as the fighter was the samurai and the monk was the...well, the monk. Who needed Oriental Adventures?

Okay, that's enough for tonight. I'm only still up 'cause it's like 90 degrees. But I do have things to do tomorrow.

Slick as S**t through a Goose

SO…my apologies to, well, everyone. The last week and more has been spent obsessing over World Cup action. Many of my American and Canadian readers aren’t going to understand this, I realize…heck, ten years ago I didn’t get it either. But like sushi or steak tartar…or really ANY spectator sport…soccer is an acquired taste, and a frigging addictive one once you do “get” it.

Funny thing is, the U.S. used to be big into soccer back before the sport went professional. Hell, we went to the semi-finals in the first World Cup (1930) and were retroactively awarded 3rd place in the event by FIFA (at the time, there was no 3rd place award). That places the U.S. ahead of Mexico (whom we have a good history of beating in the tournament) for World Cup achievement, despite the latter country’s long history of passion for the sport.

In fact, it appears the only reason soccer died off in the U.S. is the rise of professional “American” football during the 30s and 40s (see the film Leatherheads for a fairly decent look at the early years of the NFL) at a time when FIFA was on hiatus due to World War II. If not for pro-football (that’s American football, Brits) and Nazi Germany, the U.S. might have become the same kind of powerhouse that Brazil is today. Don’t laugh…we won quite a few Olympic medals in the sport prior to the founding of FIFA. And the U.S. loves to throw money at their world domination of, well, everything.

ANYway…let’s talk about games other than soccer for a minute. I have in front of me, four glossy, soft-covers. They are:

- Deathwatch: Final Sanction
- Under the Rose for Exalted (2nd edition)
- Legacy of Disaster for Legend of Five Rings (4th edition)
- Athlon Sports Pro-Football Magazine

The first three are all things I picked up at Gary’s on Free RPG Day last Saturday. The last is a magazine devoted to scouting the NFL (mostly for the purpose of playing “fantasy football”). I’ve been playing fantasy football for about three years now…I’ve been buying Athlon Sports for more than ten. I find it gives me a nice overview of the teams for the upcoming season, plus compared to other “pre-season” magazines, it’s made with quality paper, has good photography, and excellent lay-out.

Of course, the predictions aren’t always the greatest. For example, this year they’re picking the 49ers to win the NFC West…something they’ve been picking three years in a row. I have to think the publishers are either from San Francisco or just downright retarded; I mean come on! Likewise, they’re picking Seattle to come in #2 which means the defending NFC champ (Arizona) isn’t even going to the play-offs? Bizarre.

But actually, this isn’t really a new trend for Athalon Sports. I can trace the beginning of their wonkiness back to the season following the Seattle's Super Bowl XL loss in which, despite ranking all of the ‘Hawks stats as better than the rest, they predicted we would miss the play-offs due to the “Super Bowl Loser Curse.” Ridiculous. Instead, the Seahawks ended up one game out of the Super Bowl, only losing to the eventual NFC representative Bears in Chicago in over-time.

[meanwhile, it was the “defending Champ” Steelers that completely missed the play-offs in the 2006 season…go figure]

So accuracy of predictions is NOT Athlon Sports’ strong suit. And yet, of the four documents in front of me, I find their publication to be the most accurate, most interesting, and most practically useful.

Let’s start with the one I WANTED to like: Deathwatch.

Of all the various game settings that have been created over the years…for ANY game…the Warhammer 40,000 universe is one of my favorites. Especially back in the days prior to 3rd edition 40K (with the introduction of the Tau and Necrons…jeez, undead in space?), it was sci-fi as dark, grim, and gritty as the Warhammer FRP world. O sure…you can use "magic" (psionics), but you might well be possessed by a bloodthirsty demon! And legions of psychotically loyal killer space marines will hunt you down for being an abomination in the Emperor’s sight…

Deathwatch is the 3rd “40K RPG” Games Workshop appears to be releasing, and this one is the somewhat-long-awaited “space marine RPG” (the first two were for Inquisitors and Rogue Traders, special character types dating all the way back to the original 1st edition of the wargame rules). Of course, space marines were never “special characters” like Rogue Traders and Inquisitors in the original wargame…they were grunts. So now we have an RPG where you play a badass grunt.

Hmm.

Okay, aside from the glaring discrepancies in the rules (I’ll give an example or two in a moment), let’s talk about theme/premise. Um…what? The party is a group of hand-picked marines from a variety of space marine chapters put into a special squad and now gunning for the Emperor’s enemies on “special missions?”

Just because you elaborate on the stat-line of your average 40K marine profile does NOT mean you have an RPG. Just because you add a handful of skills doesn’t make it an RPG. The fact that space marines are default “trouble-shooters” (in the literal sense…they are trained to resolve situations with combat), ultimately sets the game up to be all about blasting people…and there’s no elaborate stat-line needed for such a game.

Check out 3:16: Carnage Amongst the Stars…you can run a Deathwatch game simpler and with more role-playing and pathos using ITS rules than the stuff in this 30 page booklet. Really, honestly.

Of course, 3:16 doesn’t have nifty weapons with “special abilities” (well, abilities other than rolling bunches of dice and blowing xenomorphs all to hell). Take the power fist, for example. It has two abilities that are unique to it (i.e. no other listed weapon has either of these attributes):

- Power field: a field of power wreaths weapons with this quality, increasing their damage and penetration. Such modifiers are already included in the weapon’s profile. When the wielder successfully uses this weapon to parry an attack made with a weapon that lacks this quality, he has a 75% chance of destroying his attacker’s weapon.
- Unwieldy: huge and often top-heavy, Unwieldy weapons are too awkward to be used defensively. Unwieldy weapons cannot be used to parry.

Emphasis added to point out the retarded-ness.

Exalted barely deserves mention…at least, mention bereft of derision. I’ve never played/owned/read ANY edition of Exalted, despite owning half-a-dozen-plus other White Wolf games. I was interested to see what the game was all about.

Apparently it is about elaborate fiction masquerading as an RPG. What the F?

If I wanted to play a game that looked something like Avatar the Last Air Bender, I would probably go with Big Eyes, Small Mouth. This game is just…so…much…dross…ugh! I can’t even wade through all of it just to get to the super-elaborate stat block pre-gens at the end. Apparently, this isn’t an actual Quick-Start offering from White Wolf, but an adventure module for Exalted; you have to own the game to play the adventure (there are no rules printed un Under the Rose). After browsing the adventure, I have no desire to own the game. The over-the-top super-enriched fantasy world is…well, it’s a setting. One that probably deserves an elaborate series of novels or short stories. But NOT one I want to have to study (like taking courses in ancient Mesopotamia) in order to understand how the game is to be played.

There is a huge disconnect going on here, in my opinion. RPGs either provide rules for “adventure creation” (for example: D&D) or provide rules for playing a particular established IP (for example: Star Wars, Firefly). White Wolf is trying to give you the game AND the IP and it’s super-elaborate-as-hell…ugh.

No. No. No. I don’t want it. You can’t make me learn about it. Crap on that.

Finally we have Legend of Five Rings, 4th edition. Like Exalted, L5R is a game I’ve never owned, read, or played. Like Exalted I have heard of it…though I had no idea it was in its 4th edition (they still haven’t gotten all the bugs out yet?! Sheesh!). I know there is a substantial portion of the RPG community that LOVES the whole “samurai-thang.” Personally, I find samurai to have the same level of “interesting role-play potential” as space marines (i.e. not much). Yes, it would be cool to ride around and duel folks with your katana over honor…however, it would seem (to me) to get OLD after awhile. Like that Highlander TV show…how many times do they repeat the formula that ends with someone’s eventual decapitation before you stop watching?

And UN-like Ron Edwards (surprise! My game design hero!) I am NOT interested in exploring the human drama that comes with conflicts of honor mixed with soap opera family conflicts. Sorry, just not all that interested in what RPGs can teach us about the human condition (at least, not when it comes to blade-slinging ronin).

Actually, I found the L5R booklet better than expected. It had good art in a Magic: the Gathering kind of way. The rules provided appeared short and succinct, variations of a couple different games that are escaping my memory right now (perhaps shades of Deadlands). The pre-gen characters had fairly short “stat blocks” than what I anticipated (certainly in comparison to Exalted!). All in all, I was intrigued enough to do a little further research on-line regarding Legend of the Five Rings.

Having said all THAT, I have to say that in the end, I find the game to be kind of dumb. Why not just call it Samurai & Shugenja? After all, that’s all it seems to consist of. Do you want to play a Warrior or a Wizard? A space marine or a psyker? And most any dude between the age of 17 and 30 is going to be laughed out of the table if he belongs to “Clan Unicorn.”

Or perhaps I’m being unnecessarily hard on this game…or all these games for that matter. I admit I’ve been feeling a bit crusty lately, as I’d rather be watching World Cup games than working (and being forced to nip out to the bar across the street to catch scores on the sly).

But really, is THIS what RPGs are coming down to? I mean is this WHERE THE MONEY IS in the RPG industry?

I mean, just look at the common thread. Your "party" is basically a group of ass-kickers (samurai, space marines, “exalted” heroes) with various tweaks to distinguish you from one another (clan, chapter, caste) brought together at the behest of some higher power (daimyo, Emperor, whatever-the-hell-Exalted-has) to perform missions that require ass-kicking.

Lame. I mean really, just…lame.

One commentator either here or on another blog I was reading wrote something about how “if it’s an RPG it should include combat.” Huh? Because playing an RPG is all about playing an ass-kicker of some sort? That’s as stupid as exercising in the gym for the sake of “getting big muscles.” What exactly is it all in aid of?

Again, let me reiterate that, cool and interesting as it might be, I do NOT generally play RPGs for catharsis or therapy or to address the drama of the human condition. But I DO play them and enjoy them for something else…stretching the imagination. And there’s nothing fantastically imaginative about ass-kicking with dice. Go play a fucking video game, chumps.

I mean, really. Have you seen what’s available on the console these days? Plenty of cool games that allow you to adventure through a linear environment, ass-kicking in many graphically enhanced ways, with guns and without, acting in concert with other players or alone. What the hell do you need an RPG for if that’s all you want to do?

All right, I’ve wandered a bit off topic. Just to bring it back for the moment, understand that I hold table-top RPGs in hella’ high esteem, and if the three games I picked up at Free RPG Day are an indication of the general mold of commercial games being issued these days…well, that’s a bloody shame, that's what it is. But, whatever…this blog post is not any kind of attempt at resolving the issue, it’s just me venting my opinions about the nicely printed free booklets I picked up on Saturday.

Well, that and me taking a break from all this soccer watching.
; )

Drawing is NOT Sketching

So a little confession...I'm much more of a sketch artist than anything else.

Having not taken any real visual art classes since high school (circa 1990), I sometimes forget this fact...my glorified doodles are SKETCHES, what are defined by wikipedia as "rapidly executed freehand drawings not intended as finished work."

Well, shoot...I just didn't have a reason to FINISH them before.

: )

I remember the first time I was pointed out as a fraud. This would have been sophomore year in high school and the particular "pointer-outer" was a girl in my Japanese (language) class named Sharlyn (as with all the other students in the class, neither of us were Japanese, and there was often some goofing and certainly daydreaming that went on). Sharlyn WAS an artist and could draw just fine. I, on the other hand, did nothing but sketch. "See?" I said, "here's a good one of the Little Mermaid hanging from a fish hook!" (years later I would mature and decry the abuse heaped on a Little Mermaid pinata, but life is different when you're fifteen).

"That's not a drawing," she said, "that's just a sketch."

She was cute and I had a bit of a crush (or maybe that happened in our third year? I don't remember), so I paid attention. Yet to this day I've never been much for real drawing, only pencil sketches.

Still...doesn't mean I can't try.

Tomorrow, the "to do" list includes getting a new sketch pad...scratch that, "drawing pad" in order to transcribe some of my sketches into a more permanent, finished form. The problem with the current sketch pad (in addition to it being full of sketches and not drawings) is that it's too small...I need something the maximum size my scanner can use so that I can get full-size images and shrink 'em down.

Anyhoo, gotta' get to work, especially with regard to the maps. The good Doctor is getting anxious, and it's tough writing numbered encounters without numbers.

; )

Seiji Yamaguchi

Who the hell is he? A Japanese actor that died in 1985 from lung cancer (quit smoking folks! I did, and I’ve been breathing better ever since!).

Yamaguchi is probably best known to Western audiences for his role as Kyuzo in Akira Kruosawa’s Seven Samurai. Kyuzo is the total badass swordsman who gets gunned down at the end o the film despite single-handedly dispatching half the bandits. He is, of course, also my favorite character in the film (I’m a big fan of classy bad-asses, and he is very classy).

Interesting note about the actor: in all his films Miyaguchi always plays a character with a physical deformity or imperfection. In the Seven Samurai his character has only a small scar over one eye, but generally his character were always crippled, hobbled, or disfigured in some way. From what my film professor told me, this was by the actor’s choice…whether or not it helped him with his sense of character or if he was trying to make some kind of social statement about the infirm…who knows?

Anyway, it’s something I appreciate. In role-playing, I always enjoy playing characters with some sort of (physical) imperfection as well. I’ve played one-handed mages in Ars Magica and scarred bards in AD&D and (most recently) a grossly obese thief in B/X D&D. I’m not sure what my reason for doing this except that A) I know I get tired of everyone making heroic images of perfection with their characters and try to “switch it up,” and B) it helps keep me grounded (sometimes).

Generally, I have not given my characters speech impediments as I prefer to use my own, unaccented voice when playing a character. That’s just me.