Of Dragons And Elves

Moving right along...

Probably should have drawn some attention to Prince of Nothing's second installment of his No ArtPunk contest. My adventure was able to crack the Top 5 this year (though I believe a late entry knocked it down to #6), so...guess what?...it's going in the compilation book. Which is pretty cool but means that UNlike last year's offering (Hell's Own Temple) I will not be offering the thing for free on my blog: pick up the compilation when it arrives (hopefully before New Year) and Pay What You Will to the charity Prince designated.

One thing I like about the contest (besides an excuse to write adventures and a chance to test myself against other designers) is the opportunity it affords to discuss various aspects of "adventure design." In fact, one commenter suggested I blog my own thoughts and stipulations on how to write adventures...and someday, hopefully, I will (actually, I started writing such a post last month; still in draft form).

But TODAY, I want to come back to the "world building" thing. I've been thinking a lot about world building lately...mainly due, I think, to the shows I've been watching: Andor (Star Wars), House of the Dragon (GRRM), and Rings of Power (Tolkien). I could write (long) blog posts on every one of these series, but for today's purpose I just want to talk about how each one expresses a different fictional world/universe of its creator(s)...fictional worlds in which fans of these shows are, more or less, fully invested.

Hmm...quick aside: I have also been rereading The Silmarillion because I wanted to refresh my memory of Tolkien's Second Age as the RoP series seems "off" (and it is, and I'm not a fan of the liberties the show has taken with Tolkien's timeline. OTOH, modifications like racially diverse fairy creatures and warrior elf women bother me zero. The Silmarillion is, of course, a tour de force of world building, and might as well be an alternate reality compared to the TV series' version.

But let's leave Tolkien's book out of the mix for a moment, because it is DIFFERENT from these other examples of world building...and not just because "text" is a different medium from "television." 

The thing is: all of these TV examples of built worlds exist and are written/created for a very specific purpose: to tell stories. Multiple stories, actually, BUT, still: very specific stories. 

Andor is the story of one man's rise to being a top agent in a guerrilla war against a tyrannical Empire. Side stories include the formation of rebellion, the Empire's response to rebellion, and individual character arcs and side-stories.

House of the Dragon is the story of the Westeros civil war between competing branches of the ruling family. It's not very much different from any other "family drama" centered around the rich and powerful (The Sopranos, Succession, Monarch, Vikings, Blue Bloods, Big Love, etc., etc.). Side stories are generally limited to individual character arcs, all of which contribute to describing individual personalities that fuel the family's struggle against itself.

Rings of Power is the story of how Amazon attempted to recoup its $250 million investment in an established IP with a built-in fan base. Ha! Just kidding. No, it's the story of how a one-time on-line book dealer made a push to become a corporate media giant on par with the Disneys of the world, and attempting to maintain a step ahead of AppleTV.

Okay, no, let's be serious for a moment. Rings of Power is a bit of a mess...and not simply because it makes hackwork of Tolkien's rich and thoughtful world crafting. Mm. I really wasn't going to talk about this, but it's at least a little pertinent. Ostensibly, the RoP series is about...well, nothing really. Just Middle Earth before the Peter Jackson LotR films. Does everyone know what a premise is? Here's a good definition:

The premise of a text such as a book, film, or screenplay is the initial state of affairs that drives the plot. Most premises can be expressed very simply, and many films can identified simply from a short sentence describing the premise. Examples: a lonely boy is befriended by an alien; a small town is terrorized by a shark; a small boy sees dead people. 

That's from Ye Old Wikipedia. Here's what the Wik quotes for the premise of Rings of Power:

Set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the series is based on author J. R. R. Tolkien's history of Middle-earth. It begins during a time of relative peace and covers all the major events of Middle-earth's Second Age: the forging of the Rings of Power, the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the fall of the island kingdom of Númenor, and the last alliance between Elves and Men.^[1] These events take place over thousands of years in Tolkien's original stories but are condensed for the series.^[2]

See, that's not a premise. That's just a description of what you're going to get in the show: fan service for (film-)Tolkien-philes. Sweeping vistas of New Zealand. Funny/lovable hobbits. Badass elves slaying orcs because they're so fast and agile ('cause being big and strong is never an advantage, right?). Dwarves in amazing subterranean set-pieces. Fantasy languages being spoken fluently. Men of iron and honor and stout hearts and great facial hair. Call backs to the popular films and name drops for the true Tolkien nerds out there (like myself). Etc, etc.

But there's no single story here. We have multiple points of views, multiple "things going on," and the only thing tenuously tying it together is the fact that it's all set in Tolkein's universe. That's it! Elrond hanging with the dwarves. Galadriel on her personal quest. Elf dude and his forbidden love. Human mother-son tandem dealing with orcs. Numenorean family dealing with their own shit. Other Numenorean family dealing with other unrelated shit. Proto-hobbits struggling to survive. Dwarves dealing with THEIR issues. Evil elves looking for Sauron. Gil-Galad's elves are withering. I mean...*sigh*.

Look, let's talk about three fairly successful TV series that including multiple POV characters with multiple "story arcs:" Lost, Downton Abbey, and Game of Thrones. In all three cases there is a central premise that UNITES all the characters and stories together: a hub around which the spokes of the wheel rotates. For Lost, it's that all these different, distinct people with distinct agendas are trapped on a mysterious island. In Downton Abbey, for both the aristocrats upstairs and the servants downstairs, their lives revolve around the enormous manor house (Downton) in which they live and work. For Game of Thrones, you have three distinct families (the Starks, Lannisters, and Targaryans) all vying for rulership of Westeros.

[that IS what GoT is about in the end: the Targaryan queen's conquest of the eastern continent is just a step in her grand strategy to take back the Iron Throne. The Lannister's protection of their house and fight with the Starks is just their desire to maintain their hold on the Throne. And the Stark's war of revenge with the Lannisters? What do you figure is their endgame if they win? Of course, they'd take the throne! What else would they do? Even the whole "white walker" storyline is secondary to this (Jon Snow's quest to unite the realm against the undead is just another form of conquest through diplomacy). There's a constant thread throughout the show of individuals seeking to climb higher and higher, hoping (eventually) to end up on the Throne, at the pinnacle of power]

Rings of Power has...nothing. It's just sightseeing in Middle Earth (with occasional...and brief...side-treks to Numenor and Valinor). Storylines are ramped up for drama value...and then connected only by the barest of coincidence, often feeling forced or contrived (both adjectives aptly applied). Please understand: I'm not decrying the acting or direction or editing or dialogue or fight choreography or anything. Just the overall story/writing/plotting of the show. You can praise the reimagining (or bitch about the mangling) of Tolkien's mythology, but as a television series, the show lacks a solid, unifying theme, except maybe "life is inexplicably hard in Middle Earth despite the conspicuous lack of a Dark Lord threatening everyone."

Seriously! This is the time between Morgoth's dominion and Sauron's ascendancy and the various peoples of ME are worse off and more stressed than Jackson's free peoples? Whaaaat? Are you just trying to drum up drama here, showrunners?

[probably, because...again...there's no central premise/story here]

Contrast that with The Silmarillion (just to come back to that): the point of Tolkien's opus was to create a rich mythology of England that could...in some other reality...stand as an alternate, prehistoric history, explaining both the existence of fairytale creatures and the evolution of the English language (and nicely paralleling Tolkien's Catholic belief system). But it is mythology...it is a creation story, a fiction along the lines of the Judaic Genesis, albeit with elves and dragons. It is not literature...it is not a novel. It is an imagined story of the world, not for the world (i.e. the reader). When Tolkien does spin a yard (as in his Lord of the Rings trilogy) it is around a unified premise and plot, even when the text is split between multiple point of view narratives: the book may jump from Gondor to Rohan to Mordor, but everyone is still talking about The Ring and the war against Sauron, right?

All right, JB: so what's the point here? What does any of THIS have to do with world building for Dungeons & Dragons?

So, all right...I'm assuming here that you're already on the same page as me as far as the absolute importance of world building, at least so far as it comes to running a rich and satisfying, long-term campaign that both the DM and players can invest in and engage with (if you're not there yet, um, none of this will probably matter to you...). When most of us sit down to "build a world" we're constructing it from an eclectic variety of sources: real world history and geography, mythology, and (of course) fiction, fantastical or otherwise. For folks who are initially drawn to D&D through fantasy serials...like Tolkien or Martin, for instance, or the "space fantasy" of George Lucas...inspiration is likely to come from these sources.

And yet the world building that goes into MOST literature (and its television adaptations) is there in order to serve the needs of the story. Hobbits are present because the author wants to show the triumph of the humble everyman over The Wise or The Impossibly Powerful Evil. Luke Skywalker grows up on a humble backwater planet in a run-down galaxy (rather than some sort of Philip K. Dick urban sprawl) to draw parallels with similar hero stories of the Kid-From-The-Sticks being pulled into the Wider World. Martin has White Walkers and dragons because he's a big D&D nerd and wants to do this Fire/Ice contrast thing against a pseudo-War of the Roses fantasy retelling. The setting (i.e. the world the author has built) only needs to be as  solidly constructed as it is useful to the storytelling.

But D&D is not about telling stories (stop me if you've heard this before). It is a game of fantasy adventure. The rules of the system are there to facilitate play of that game...and the act of game play is an experiential one (okay, I know I've written that before). And because of that, because players are experiencing the world through their surrogates (i.e. their characters), it must have enough verisimilitude to facilitate that experience. Which is probably DEEPER world construction than what an author (or show runner) requires for the telling of a story.

Let's say you're playing an adventure scenario that features a small village (call it a hundred or so souls) with a small. three-level dungeon nearby. The party wants to hire some meat...er, "extra swordsmen"...to bolster their numbers. The party is circa 5th level with a well-stocked war chest, and can offer each man 10 or 20 or 25 gold pieces per day (in addition to arming them)...more money than a farmer might expect to earn in a month or more (depending on your fantasy economy). 

[FYI: 1 day of grain for a horse in AD&D is one silver piece. An active, 1000 pound horse eats about 9 pounds of grain (in addition to grazing)...so let's call it 10 pounds of grain per silver or 200 pounds of grain per gold piece. A medieval farm was about 30 acres on average and would produce 7-15 bushels of grain per acre (60 pounds per bushel). SO: 1 average farm produces an annual yield of (11 x 30) = 330 bushels = 19,800 pounds = 99 g.p. worth of grain annually or 8.25 g.p. per month. However, in a poor year that yield might drop to less than 4 bushels per acre...which would produce (on average) less than 7,200 pounds of grain. That's an annual return of under 36 gold pieces (3 gold pieces per month!)]

So all these strapping lads...and adult farmers suffering from a poor harvest (or who have been a victim of raids from the humanoids in the nearby dungeon) jump at the chance to earn hard coin carrying a sword, regardless of the danger. After all, everyone has a price...when the price gets high enough, you'll get your red shirts to line up. And the party does. And they go into the dungeon and all the hired swords get butchered. Then the party returns to the village, rich with treasure, and offer MORE money for swords...and get them. And then those 0-level "warriors" get gutted in the next foray. And then they return again. And again. And again.

At what point does the village run out of strong backs? At what point have enough able-bodied farmers get slaughtered that there's no one left to bring in the harvest...forcing the abandonment of the village and/or the starvation of the populace?

Without world building, new cardboard cutouts sprog from the countryside as often as needed. With world building, the resource of hirelings becomes another challenge to be solved. Especially if the DM is on the ball and giving the people actual personalities. Families wondering what ditch Dad or Brother Bill or Sister Sue ended up dying in, and whether or not this band of rich adventurers actually deserve praise for their actions or...rather...scorn and eventual lynching.

Back to Tolkien...real Tolkien, not "Amazon Tolkien"...for a second. It's often been said that Middle Earth, despite its richness is not a great setting for an adventure campaign specifically because so much of the world's "story" and history has already been told by Tolkien himself. That there is no room for "new heroes" in a world that already contains Frodo and Bilbo, Aragorn and Gandalf, Beren and Luthien, etc.

I do not disagree with the sentiment, only with its reasoning. The fact is: Tolkien's world is not ROBUST enough to facilitate D&D. Even going back and using the earlier Ages found in The Silmarillion. Look at how few people enter into the stories: a tiny handful of families. Three branches of the Edain. A half dozen elvish clans. A couple-three instances of human-elf mating. Maybe a dozen dwarf families and twice that in Hobbiton.

Our world...our REAL world...has hundreds and thousands and millions of stories that could be told of individuals and families, even if you confine your setting to limited regions and periods of history. That's because there are far more people in our world than in Tolkien's. Prior to 1500 CE, the population of Europe (a geographic region about on par with Middle Earth) accounted for 10% of the world population and hovered right around the 25 million mark from the 1st-10th centuries. Tolkien's population has been estimated as never getting much beyond 20-30% of that range (here's a true Tolkien nerd who's done his best to calculate pop. figures from the professor's text). JRR's world, for all its rich history and thoughtful crafting, is a very small world and far less densely populated than our own.

Which, by the way, is FINE because it is a setting that he uses to tell his stories. But D&D is not a system for telling stories.

[and just as one more aside: the fact that Middle Earth is SMALL is not a knock on Tolkien's world building. If you want to look at poorly designed worlds, you need look no farther than Martin's Westeros]

And THAT, more or less, is the point: any fictional setting one creates is FINE if the whole point is to facilitate the telling of stories. A descendant of the last King of Gondor claiming a 3000-year empty throne after a tremendous victory over Satan's lieutenant? Good theater, absolutely...the fridge logic only becomes apparent when one starts contemplating the ramifications of such a political ascent. And that "good theater" thing isn't good enough for Dungeons & Dragons.

Because D&D isn't a book you close. Or a film with credits that run. 

Ideally, your D&D campaign is something you continually come back to. It is a fictional world in which you "live" (through your various characters) experiencing all the wonders and perils the setting has to offer.

All right, that should be enough scribbling/meandering for now. The only other thing I'd add is that ALL of these shows I've mentioned (yes, including Rings of Power) have given me enjoyment in the watching (some to a greater degree than others) and many hours of fantasy entertainment. And all have likewise been useful to some degree: things that I'd like to borrow/use in my own game, and/or pitfalls I'd like to avoid. 

Lucas Sells Star Wars...to Disney!

I don't post a lot of news on my blog, but as I was considering yet another Star Wars-type post today anyway (actually, I was going to discuss Bezio's X-Plorers), I might as preempt my normal musings with this bit of topical whatnot.

George Lucas has sold Lucasfilm Ltd. (including, presumably, all rights to the Star Wars franchise) to Disney, for more than $4 billion dollars in cash and stock. Wow.

Not only that, they've announced they're doing a seventh movie. Double-wow-holy-shit.

You folks have to consider that for most of the weekend I spent every free moment reading Kaminski's Secret History of Star Wars to get an idea of the loop-de-loop my brain is doing at the moment. But I'll get into that more later (hopefully).

Right now, I need to get back to work. And mental decompression.

And Speaking of Secret Histories...

...had the chance to watch Anonymous the other night. Wow. Quite an interesting tale for folks who are into Shakespeare and Elizabethan England, etc. But I'm not going to write about that. It IS a good film for folks who like, um, good film.

Instead, just wanted to say I"m still waiting for my book (damn mail order), AND to bide my time I've been reading all the articles on Mr. Kasmink's web site. And I am just more and more intrigued about the "stuff" that has gone into the making of the Star Wars franchise, especially the input (credited or not) of strong female creative types, specifically Marcia Lucas (GL's first wife) and Leigh Brackett.

Unfortunately (or not) I am not someone who is particularly well-versed in science fiction literature. Oh, I've read a bit more than perhaps the average person (I've probably read a few more books than the average American anyway), but I am by no means a "SciFi buff" unlike, say, my buddy Steve. And especially unlike ol Steve-O, I could care less about most of the semblance of "hard science" (whether well done/researched or not)...I care far less for the "real possibilities" of "what could be." As with nearly all my fiction reading, I am drawn far more to "fantasy adventure" (whether in space or not). Stirling's recent retreads of Burrough's planetary romances are much more my speed than anything involving nanoware or AI or plasma rocket powered space travel.

And, man, doesn't it sometimes feel like women authors/artists are the ones creating the best fantasy adventure stories?

I know I spoke about this before (if briefly)...at least my attachment to female authors of the fantasy genre, not specifically the SciFi genre. Although, last year about this time I was mulling over the role of family in science fiction (with regard to game design), and it seems like I'm once again contemplating it...especially in light of Marcia Lucas's admonishment for George to pay more attention to the human element in his films (from THX on...). Maybe that's what's missing from the Star Wars prequels...maybe that's what's missing from my own space opera game. The "human interest" element of the speace opera genre.

Because unlike, say, the indie RPG Shock I'm not really interested in the "what if" of science fiction...I don't really care much about the affects of future technology on our recalcitrant human race's inability to deal with change and on-going evolution (I have a hard enough time trying to figure out my damn "smart" phone in real life...why do I want to deal with these issues in an RPG?). What I AM interested in is (duh) fantasy adventure and laser swords and blasters and androids and space ship dog fights...and maybe all that means I need to have something very intimate and human as part of the mix, so as not to be a coldly mechanical (think GURPS) role-playing game.

After all, it's not like the PCs are looking to find gold coins in outer space. I need SOMEthing to encourage the players to take action in the game.

[by the way, I have much more to say about player character motivation based on recent play-tests and conversations with other gamers; I just don't have the time for it at the moment. Soon, I hope]

Secret Histories

My toast was terrible this morning. All the more so because I’m the one responsible for making it.

I’ve raved before about England’s toast; as far as I’m concerned the people of Great Britain seem to have perfected the art of toasting bread. I found most of England’s cuisine to be scrumptious actually…some people might think that odd but I’m from Seattle where we seem to have a passion for breakfast food, pub food, and beer, three things England does better than most. Every culture has its specialties after all.

On the other hand, the consistently worst country for breakfast (in my opinion) was Italy. I’m not sure Italians actually eat “breakfast;” it may just be something they whip together for the tourists. I will never forget staying at an (otherwise) very nice “bed & breakfast” in Venice and being served “toast” that was packaged in a stamped cellophane pouch, similar to freeze-dried astronaut food. I kid thee not.

My toast this morning was very much like that Venician toast…in both consistency and flavor. And mine, I know, started out as bread. That is a verifiable fact. Truly terrible.

But fortunately (and this is the reason I bring it up), I was serving said toast ONLY to myself. Terrible as it was, I was the only person experiencing it…I wasn’t serving it up to anyone or forcing it down someone’s throat. It was MY bad breakfast, and I chose to eat it (‘cause I was pressed for time and it was what I had and I’m really trying not to waste food these days) and that was my “little piece o suffering.” But I wasn’t buttering it up for the masses and trying to call it gourmet or something.

Yesterday, I did something I almost never ever do: I paid money for a book at Barnes & Noble that wasn’t actually in stock; a book that will actually have to be mailed to me because it’s print-on-demand. And I did that because after being off work since last Wednesday, I spent the first half of my work day reading the book’s first hundred pages on-line (for free) instead of getting to my backlog…and if I’d had the entire book available, I probably wouldn’t have gotten ANYthing done yesterday. The book in question?

The Secret History of Star Wars by Michael Kaminski.

Just fascinating, fascinating reading. It’s something I’ve been interested in reading since I heard about it a year or two ago (it was on last year’s Christmas list but I didn’t get it), and I finally had a chance to read some excerpts from Kaminski’s web site. Love it…I’m into histories/biographies, especially those of struggling artists/writers (as Lucas once was), I love “behind-the-scenes” insights and info (“the dirt”) on subjects that already have known or accepted histories. I enjoy seeing the human side of larger-than-life icons. And, of course, I am a pretty big Star Wars fanatic.

I was reading back through my Star Wars posts on this blog, and I was surprised to find ‘em some of my better posts. Now I may well be biased, but I did think they were a bit different and surprisingly insightful (or at least “interesting”)…at least, compared to what my memory remembered them being. But what I really liked was the (mostly) consistent thread running through them: an appreciation for the films as entertainment, for Lucas as a filmmaker, and for the EU (“expanded universe”) as a creative effort…and a dissatisfaction with pandering and pastiche, even in Lucas’s own work.  My feelings on these things haven’t changed, and may have even been emphasized by what I’ve read so far in Kaminski’s book. But, man…I’m kind of fed up with “ret-conned” history. I’m kind of bugged by disingenuousness (wow, spell-check is saying that’s a word!).

Now I get it…really, I get it. The whole thing is complicated. The push-and-pull of fame and fortune and legacy and insecurity and people telling you you’re a genius and finding you ARE a genius and allowing a little creative embellishment here and there get out of hand, plus giving your fans what they want, plus being a filmmaker and needing to ply the filmmaker’s trade (including edits of one’s baby) and then trying to find a cohesive filmmaker’s way of putting those cutting room scraps back into theaters in a different fashion…I GET IT. Really. The fact is: the truth is (often) complicated. Or rather, the truth isn’t complicated but the WHOLE truth, understanding it all, is a lot more complicated than the meat, or rather the KERNEL of the truth.

Which is part of why I find Kaminski’s book such a must-read…I personally am fascinated with the “complication” AND I want to know what the kernel of the “truth” is. For those not interested in reading it themselves, I’ll provide the Cliff Notes version:

The Truth: George Lucas wanted to make a Flash Gordon movie the same way, say, that I want to write a Star Wars RPG. It’s not what he dreamed about doing as a child (when he wanted, perhaps, to be a race car driver), but a bunch of stuff combined to lead him to setting that goal.

The Complicated Truth (Cliff Notes): While one can argue the success or failure of his goal (i.e. “The Truth”), his work (or should I say his Work) morphed into something that transcended anything even Lucas could have imagined, and he has both “rolled with it,” profited by it, and attempted to manage and direct it (with varying degrees of success) ever since. And I’m not just talking about the “post-first-trilogy” or even “post-first-film” expansion of the Star Wars universe/franchise/mythology/legacy. I’m talking about even before PRE-production of the first film, the thing (his original goal) started morphing…and has snowballed (my, has it snowballed!) ever since.

Crazy.

Anyway, the really interesting thing (well, actually, I find it all “really interesting” but the really, REALLY interesting thing) for me is the earliest drafts of his space film treatments, which I find at least as compelling as the story he eventually told, if not more compelling. Oh, I’m not talking about the “space version” of Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress, I’m talking about “The Journal of the Whills” (actually sounds like a pretty good book) and the second and/or third treatments of “The Star Wars.”

I should probably explain (at this point, finally) my whole reason for once again having Star Wars on the brain. My son, my 20-month-old toddler has discovered Star Wars…and loves it. Now, it would be truly disingenuous of me to declare I’m a “terrible” father; I know I’m pretty loving and attentive, with a fair amount of sternness that leads my child to be both A) happy most of the time, and B) well behaved (in public and private) most of the time. And by most of the time, I mean around 98%...he really is a jewel of a kid. But recently, it seems like more than half of his vocabulary seems to consist of “Seahawks,” “touchdown,” and “boom” or else Star Wars references…with the SW words definitely having the upper hand the last couple weeks. And this leads me to think I may be doing bad, bad things to my boy’s childhood development process.

The fact that he can perfectly mimic Darth Vader’s breathing on command, despite lacking the ability to pronounce the character’s name (he calls him “DuVo”) is both entertaining and somewhat disturbing.

So there’s been a lot of Star Wars in my house lately. A lot of books and comics, a lot of scene watching, a lot of jawa requests. And being inundated with even more Star Wars than usual (which really is saying something), is making me revisit my earlier introspections on the subject, not to mention confront (once again) the shortfalls and mental hurdles of my own “little space thing” (to use Lucas’s phrase)…i.e. my space opera RPG.

Last Thursday I was really excited to get out to my Thursday night game session and try another play-test session with my space opera RPG. Unfortunately, I got sick Thursday morning and was worse by the evening and wasn’t able to get out. THIS week, the dilemma’s a little different: I’m in perfect health, but the Seattle Seahawks are playing the San Francisco 49ers for control of the division and 5:20pm (PST). I mean…what the hell am I supposed to do with THAT? Despite being an underdog, Seattle has a real opportunity to punch the 49ers in the mouth the same as the Giants did on Sunday…and I’d hate to miss that.

[for whatever reason, I’ve really grown to loathe Frisco over the last few years. They seem to now occupy that special bile duct that used to be reserved for the Denver Broncos and John Elway back when the Seahawks were in the AFC West. It’s not just that I want to see the ‘Hawks at the top of the heap every year; I want to see them stomp the Niners on the way there. Last season’s double-loss to San Fran really hurt the ol’ pride]

ANYway, let me get back to those “rough drafts” of the Star Wars script. From Kaminski’s book (excerpt available for free for perusal):

…an entire year after he finished his first treatment, Lucas emerged with a rough draft screenplay. It was called “The Star Wars” and was dated May 1974…Jan Helander summarized the rough draft:

Kane Starkiller, a Jedi-Bendu master, is in hiding on the Fourth Moon of Utapau with his two sons Annikin and Deak, when a Sith warrior finds them and Deak is killed. The surviving Starkillers head to the Aquilae system, where they are met by Kane’s old Jedi friend, General Luke Skywalker. Kane, whose war-battered body is a concoction of artificial limbs, knows that he is dying, and persuades Luke to become Annikin’s Jedi teacher. He then travels to the city of Gordon, leaving his son with Skywalker and the King of Aquilae. Clieg Whitsun, a rebel spy on the emperor’s planet of Alderaan, has learned that an Imperial fleet, led by General Darth Vader and Governor Crispin Hoedaack, is about to conquer Aquilae with a “death star” space fortress. Rebel fighters are sent out to stop the attack, but the Aquilaen king is killed, and instead of Princess Leia (the rightful heir), a corrupt senator takes over, surrendering the planet to the Empire.

Annikin, Luke, and Whitsum, joined by Artwo Detwo and See Threepio (two bickering robots who have escaped from the space fortress), bring Leia and her two younger brothers to the spaceport at Gordon, from where they can reach safety. After a fight at a cantina, where Skywalker uses his “lasersword” to kill his antagonists, the group meet up with Kane and his alien friend Han Solo who have arranged transport to a friendly planet. They need a power unit for suspended animation in order to get past Imperial scanners, and Kane heroically rips one from his body, causing his death. After avoiding a trap set by Vader and Prince Valorum (the black Knight of the Sith), the rebels are pursued into space, where the arguing Leia and Annikin realize that they love each other. Their craft is damaged in an asteroid field and Whitsum dies as it explodes, but the others abandon ship in time and land on the jungle planet of Yavin, where Leia is captured by alien trappers. Annikin tries to rescue her, but only succeeds in freeing five “Wookees” (huge, grey and furry beasts), and Leia eventually ends up in the hands of the Empire.

After a tip from two anthropologists, the rebels and the Wookee tribe (including Prince Chewbacca) attack an Imperial outpost, and a forest chase ensues. When he learns that Leia is held captive aboard the space fortress, General Skywalker starts traiing Wookees to fly fighter ships in order to conquer the death star. Annikin is skeptical of the plan and gets onto the fortress (together with Artwo) on a mission of his own, dressed as an Imperial “skyraider,” but he is soon captured and tortured by General Vader. Valorum sees this and realizes that the Imperials are completely without honor and codes, and that he has more in common with the young Jedi than with the emperor. Turning his back on the Empire, he frees both Annikin and Leia, and they escape down a garbage chute. After almost being crushed in the garbage receptacle, Valorum, Leia, Annikin, and Artwo manage to abandon the station just before the Wookee destroy it, killing both Vader and Governor Hoedaack. Back in her throne room, Queen Leia honours the heroes (including Valorum), and Annikin is appointed new Lord Protector of Aquilae.

 

Now as Kaminski points out A) this is the script Lucas refers to in his later interviews as being too big for a single movie requiring a paring down until he could later afford to make sequels containing “the whole story,” yet B) the story included in this draft is little more than a larger, “extended version” of the original (first) Star Wars movie. Certain characters are combined, names are changed around, and certain scenes/sequences are recycled into later movies (like the “asteroid belt/love scene” in Empire or the “forest world capture/buddying up with native creatures” in RotJ). Lucas’s later declaration that his ability to make the “rest of the movie” meant an ability to continue a saga that included all that “stuff” he left on the cutting room floor in his need to create a FILM…"films" being stories told with pictures that have to follow certain parameters due to the restrictions imposed by the medium.

What Lucas had PRIOR to his (most consider) masterful final draft is a rambling, rollicking Sci-Fi adventure film, almost like a conglomeration of a serial matinee (c.f. Flash Gordon). Film gave Lucas the big budget to do the kind of F/X epic he wanted, but not the SCOPE he wanted. And while the clamor for “more” gave him the latitude to glom onto the scope (through a serial, sequel format…see The Lord of the Rings films), the medium STILL constrained him to a degree. There is SOME “cliffhanger” to the end of The Empire Strikes Back, but there is some denouement as well. It still has a beginning, middle, an end, it still has most of its plot points wrapped-up, it is still “self-contained.”

HOWEVER, I am not a film maker. I am (marginally) a “game designer” interested in long-term game play that includes character development over time and game play, and for me the “rambling serial format” is what I want. I don’t want or need “self-contained stories” because I’m not working in a film medium and (in my experience) that’s not how RPG sessions generally unfold…at least, not without very specific ("Story Now") rules sets, or a lot of heavy-handed GM force. Neither of which I like to use (because self-contained stories aren’t all that important to me when role-playing).

Consequently, I find these kinds of rambling, “schlock-inspired” treatments to be incredibly inspiring for my purposes. The quote above leaves out a lot of other “intriguing differences” in Lucas’s original story from the final film (said differences being described in Kaminski's book) including the competing Jedi and Sith groups (basically, two orders of rival warriors, more honor-driven a la samurai than driven by the mystic morality of Light and Dark side). Which is why, of course, I ordered the book…I want MORE of this stuff. To me, the mind of George Lucas is a fertile gold mine of Sci-Fi fantasy; if he falls down at all, it’s in trying to put it into some sort of rational, thoughtful format instead of just going with the gonzo wa-hoo.

Well, and also in trying to ret-con his own history, a victim of his own success. That’s just trying to serve us “toast” in a vacuum-sealed bag. That’s not toast, man.

Star Wars Canon

I’ll admit it: this is probably a retarded (as in “silly” post), but this is what I’m thinking about today. It was a looooong weekend (especially for Seattle sports fans), I am still physically and mentally exhausted. My brain is operating a little tangentially right now.

I was reading up on SW “canon” today…that is, what is considered “official” material that feeds into the Star Wars universe versus what isn’t…and I’ve got a couple new (or newish) thoughts on the matter.

#1: Wow, most EU folks really missed the boat on this licensing thing, and

#2: F it…that is, the non-film material can all go to hell for all I care.

I shall, of course, endeavor to explain myself a bit.

First, understand that I am a purchaser and enjoyer of plenty of non-film, EU material…I’ve read several of the novels, I own more than a few comics (or compilations) and I have owned (and continue to own) much of the RPG material put out by both West End Games and WotC. In other words, I have put my money down in support of the creative effort (as well as given an investment of my time in reading and rereading this stuff). So while my statements may seem dismissive please understand this isn’t coming from any place of disgruntlement…there IS an entertainment and artistic value in these works, in and of themselves. I’m not a total cretin.

So, then, let’s get to the point.

As far as George Lucas is concerned, the only “true canon” of Star Wars are the films he’s created and the story they tell. Everything else is…well, he doesn’t say it outright, but basically it’s “fan fiction” as far as he’s concerned. He’ll mine it for ideas, but the “Bible” he uses in making his films consists of A) his own mind, and B) his own films.

Now, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t appreciate the creative effort. It just means that, in his mind, those people creating additional Star Wars stories are doing so in a “parallel universe.” Or a parallel continuity, if you will. To GL, the Star Wars universe is a big playground, he doesn’t mind others playing in it (so long as he receives his cut), and he’s not so concerned with how it interacts with itself or with his films, so long as everyone groks that his feature films are THE end-all-be-all.

Lucas has also stated that the way other writers have written the further adventures/histories of his own characters are NOT how he would have done them. But again, this doesn’t bother him as it’s all happening in a separate, parallel continuity…in his own, the Emperor is never clones/returned to life, Luke never gets married, Coruscant is happy and celebratory, not blown-up and destroyed, etc. But what the “enthusiasts” do with his mythology is fine and dandy…again, so long as he gets his cut.

Personally, I think GL has come to a place in relationship to his IP where he realizes he can’t stop the enthusiasts from doing their own fanfic, so he licenses his IP to them and outsources the management of the material to others (like those Holocron folks) to keep it all running. Isn’t that better (and in the long run, more fun) than trying to sue people? Plus, he retains authority to say, “only *I* can make feature films, and only I say what is true to MY fantasy’s reality.”

Which is as it should be, by the way: it IS his baby, his creation. People who have made money off the franchise with their own “contributions” (from Timothy Zahn to Dark Horse to whomever) are simply riding the coattails of George Lucas rather than create their own sci-fi opuses. And why not? It’s great business strategy to hop into an already existing ginormous (and seemingly indefatigable) fan base. That is money in the bank.

All right, so now to my two thoughts listed above:

#1: Missed opportunities. Why the hell do these authors continue to use and recycle the same characters over and over again? Luke, Han, Leia, Anakin, Mace, Obi-Wan, etc. etc…if Lucas is going to allow you to play in his “universe,” why not turn out stories that have ZERO to do with the stuff in the films. After all, it doesn’t matter anyway, right?

Instead, most authors add something from the films to their material: Boba Fett or the original heroes or the various bit-part Jedi “Masters” (it’s hard to give the title to characters like Aayla Secura and Ki-Adi Mundi after watching them get so easily punked by, basically, stormtroopers), or Jabba or whatever. It’s like they’re namedropping rather than doing anything else. Hell, even using the “Skywalker genealogy” (the great-great-grandchildren, etc.) is silly. Sure, there is a theme of parent-to-child inheritance in the films (Jango to Boba, Anakin to Luke, Yoda to Dooku to Qui-Gonn to Obi-Wan)…but then make those themes with your own characters, not recycled lineages.

Granted, some EU creators HAVE done things without recycling characters from the films: the Knights of the Old Republic video game and its spin-offs (in comic and novel) is probably the best example. But there’s not enough of that, in my opinion. I mean check out what Star Wars has:

- Jedi (and everything that goes with it; lightsabers, Force, etc.)
- Sith (Ditto)
- Hyperdrive, droids, and blasters
- Smugglers, gamblers, and bounty hunters
- System-spanning intrigue, drama, and conflict

What more do you need to write a tale of space operatic adventure? You don’t need Skywalkers and Solos; you don’t need to keep making backwater Tattooine somehow a central hub of the galaxy. You don’t need to deal with the Empire and the Rebellion and their conflict. Hell, you only need to worry about the Republic because it’s “a thousand years old” (a pretty long timespan), but Lucas’s films make it pretty clear there are sectors outside of Republic authority (Hoth, Bespin, Dagobah, Tattooine…hmm, most of the film locations in the original trilogy, I guess).

Which brings me to my thought #2: Screw it…all of it. And I do mean ALL of it, including the otherwise interesting/brilliant KotOR stuff. If Lucas is content to ignore that which doesn’t pertain to his story, why shouldn’t I (or anyone else) do the same…all of that stuff is simply fan fic in the Star Wars universe. There is no need for “continuity” except as so far as keeping hardcore completionists (and Lucas Licensing) happy. Why not just junk it?

For that matter, why not simply junk Lucas’s own story (and its characters/plot/drama) as well? Or rather, take it as it is: a single 40-or-so year span of time in a many-thousand year galactic history…and one that occurred “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” The blink of an eye really…and only a single story of a single family (the Skywalkers) in what is surely a galaxy made of trillions of inhabitant families, each with their own stories.

Yeah, just like those ones in the Ewok movie.

In writing a space opera RPG based in large part on Star Wars (and its Expanded Universe) I find that I’ve been going about it the hard way: trying to create a simple space fantasy game that provides rules allowing for the incorporation of a metric ton of “Star Wars stuff.” Totally ridiculous, really. All I need is a game that includes the earlier components listed (with the trademarked serial numbers filed off) and then give folks the tools they need to create their own SW-like adventures…which, by the way, is NOT the same as giving people a book of rules, and saying “go do it,” with-or-without “helpful inspirational fiction” included in the text (*barf*).

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been thinking about today. It takes my mind off the really terrible football games of the weekend.

The Problem with Star Wars...

...is that it's a schizophrenic mess.

Regardless of your feelings on the original trilogy or the prequels or the "expanded universe" and all its minutia...regardless, one has to acknowledge that there is simply a metric ton of Star Wars "stuff" floating around our small, terrestrial sphere. So much that it's just about impossible to reconcile all of the data into one coherent whole.

From a certain point of view, it's very similar to the hodge-podge that is Dungeons & Dragons.

I mean, there's no way in which D&D "makes sense" as a collective whole...not if you include everything it has to offer. It's simply it's "own thing," allowing players to explore a bizarre fantasy mishmash of tropes. Just as Star Wars allows the reader (or viewer) to lose him or herself for a few hours (or more) in the fantastic imagination of Lucas and those creative folks who have built on his premise.

Anyway, I suppose it's not really a problem unless you're trying to put together a reference book that makes sense of the whole thing (I'm not), or if you're a super-stickler for including EVERYthing in your canon (um...I'm really not), or if you're trying to write a space opera RPG that includes the material of the films/books (much of which is neat) and yet in a way that is cheesy and doesn't suck when taken as a whole (okay, that's me a little).

As I pursue my Star Wars research I find myself feeling similar to the way I felt when I was first rediscovering the Moldvay and Cook/Marsh books and this thing I call B/X D&D. At that time I became enamored of the promise of the original B/X books...and it was this promise that led me to writing the B/X Companion, seeking to fulfill that promise.

With Star Wars it is much harder to get past the periphery of extraneous source material because, A) there is so much of it, and B) most of it (especially the films) have been watched so many times that they've become engrained into our understanding of what Star Wars is.

I mean, just look at the original trilogy...the 2nd movie (The Empire Strikes Back) is excellent and the 3rd movie (Return of the Jedi) had many, many crowd-pleasing parts...as a child I would have been quick to tell you that RTJ was my favorite of the bunch; though as an adult I have probably watched it far fewer times than even the prequel movies. And for many people who absolutely loathe the "expanded universe" and prequel films, the Holy First Trilogy is the only canonical source material they need...we know that Vader is Luke's father, Leia is Luke's sister, Yoda is the master Jedi, the Emperor is the master bad guy, and our heroes are destined to do certain things: Luke to become a Jedi Knight, Han and Leia to get hitched, etc.

And maybe this (or most of it) was ALWAYS the case in Lucas's mind. It's hard to tell when Lucas has ret-conned his own thoughts on the subject over the years. But in reading the BOOK Star Wars ("A Novel by George Lucas"), I find myself wondering how much of this was originally the case.

Much of the material found in the (admittedly clunky writing) of the novel is not found in the movies, was cut-out, or is in direct contradiction to what would later become canon material. Which is not a new phenomenon when reading Star Wars books anyway (Timothy Zahn's trilogy sequel which explained "the Clone Wars" was completely and wholly different and rendered inconsequential with Lucas's own prequel films, for example); I am used to that, as most readers/enthusiasts of Star Wars are. However, what I find in that material is a brilliant imagination and (similar to Moldvay/Cook/Marsh) the promise of something that never really materialized. I find myself interested in the Journal of the Whills as originally imagined by Lucas, and wish there had been...well, more of what his original ideas were.

Because there is some brilliant stuff in there, I think, and much of it feels much harder edged to me than the later stuff. Like the Lensmen novels but more mature and darker and on a much more personal scale. I wish there was a way to get hold of Lucas's original notes or original treatment of the script, before it was cut down to the movie with which we ended up.

Those who've read some of my earlier posts on the subject may know me as a bit of an apologist for George Lucas as a film maker and fantasist. This has nothing to do with that. I mean, I am still high on GL as a film maker and SciFi guru. BUT in writing a space opera RPG that takes the Star Wars universe as its central inspiration (which I've been doing off-and-on for several years now), I find the necessary editing is forcing me to take hard looks at just what's included in any such game. Do I want Jedi Knights in all their Episode I through III glory? (and yes, they are glorious in those films) Or do I want the PROMISE of the original Grand Idea and allow individual players to decide how far they want to take it? Right now, I find myself being drawn to the latter, despite my love of lightsaber duels.

Hmm...I know I've had similar thoughts over the years, but I can't seem to find where I've noted it in my blog. Well, now it's been noted. More later...those familial obligations are calling again!

George Lucas = Freaking Genius

A few days ago, I started an entry with the above title that...after several driveling pages...wandered far astray from my original topic (or rather, from the idea I had set out to blog about). As I was at the car dealership at the time and my car was ready to go, I set aside the damn thing "for later" and have let it stew on the design board without alteration.

Rather than take the time to clean THAT one up (it's got a lot of Forgey-stuff about creative agendas as relates to SciFi RPGs), I'll try to get back to my original idea: George Lucas is an f'ing genius.

Now, of course, this seems like a no brainer statement, right? I mean, even the folks who hate-hate-HATE the prequel films (or even Episodes V and/or VI) generally admit they would rather have a world WITH Lucas creations than without. In other words, bad Star Wars is better than no Star Wars.

If you like Star Wars, that is.

So then what's the point JB? Why the "duh" topic?

'Cause Lucas doesn't get ENOUGH credit...that's why.

Currently, I'm "grounded" from re-watching Star Wars films for a couple weeks (this is my punishment for the aforementioned speeding ticket from Spain), but just PRIOR to that I was re-watching the prequel films with the audio commentary running so I could get some insights into what the hell Lucas was thinking.

Turns out (if one believes what Lucas and co-commentators say) that Lucas WAS thinking throughout the whole process...and thinking a lot. "Visual jazz" is the way he describes the filmmaking process...and make no mistake, Lucas is a filmmaker first and foremost. Storyteller? Eh...only with regard to film being a "story told with pictures." Lucas was NOT setting out to create a mythology, nor a franchise (though the franchise model, firmly established by earlier films, was probably taken for granted as part of the over-all revenue stream). What fans (like myself to a certain degree) have read into the films, or wished for the films, is nothing more than wishful thinking and Our Own Problem. George Lucas had his own agenda when making the prequel films, and it had little to do with making a trilogy that was faithful to the backstory implied by the first trilogy.

Really. Truly.

[and just by the way, Lucas isn't the first storyteller to write prequels that don't quite jibe with the earlier written stories. I need look no further than Marion Zimmer Bradley's own Darkover series, specifically the excellent "prequel" novel Heritage of Hastur. In the foreword, MZB writes that if the story seems to be different from that recounted in the later (chronologically) Sharra's Exile, it was due to faulty memory and/or wishful thinking on the part of the characters doing the recounting...a sentiment I think Lucas would be happy to ascribe to his own "lapses" of continuity!]

And here's the funny part...as I watched The Phantom Menace listening only to the DVD commentary, I began to see the film through Lucas & Co.'s own eyes, and I found myself absolutely falling in love with the visual spectacular that is Episode I. This is a great film...and that's something I never thought I'd ever write.

Granted it probably helped that, without the normal sound, I was not subjected to the clunky dialogue (and often clunky delivery) rife throughout the film. But you know what? There's plenty of clunky/dumb dialogue in the original films. Lines like "Not this ship, sister." and "...made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs..." and that whole scene where Luke tells Leia that she's his sister are just as wince-worthy as "Good call my young padawan!" and "This party's over."

George Lucas is not a writer of literature...hell, he's not even a (decent) writer of screenplays. Only the 1st film ever received an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay, and I'd guess that was more to do with what was DONE with said screenplay, rather than what was written...the translation of the script into sheer visual magic and spectacle.

And ALL of Lucas's Star Wars films do that.

Even f'ing Jar-Jar Binks who I hated as much as anyone the first time I saw the film...even HE was palatable as I went through the movie with an eye to just what exactly the character was. There WAS a real person in a costume for much of the film, seamlessly interchanged with the CGI character. A movie magic masterpiece that gets completely over-shadowed by the character's ridiculousness and pseudo-Caribbean dialect.

All six of these films are space opera fantasy of the highest order, and they DO have both rhyme and reason to them, trying to walk a line somewhere between gonzo SciFi serial and more serious morality play. There is really good stuff in there to see, once folks lose their attachment to what they feel the movies SHOULD look like and simply enjoy them for what they are: the best space opera films of all time. Better written than Avatar. More serious than Starship Troopers. Possessing more depth and heart than Riddick. Grander in scope than Serenity. More heroic and fun than the Alien films. And, yes...far more imaginative than ANY of the Star Trek films, even the slick new J.J. Abrams one.

These are the best SciFi films of all time. George Lucas is the master of this particular type of filmmaking. Maybe someday, he'll give us another trilogy dealing with the children of Luke and Leia and Han...I'll tell you I would pay to see such a film in the theater, regardless of what the reviews said. And if they happened to completely ignore the "Expanded Universe" stories that have come out over the years...so much the better. F continuity anyway...I want spaceship dogfights, planet-killing super-weapons, and laser sword duels. Give me those plus aliens that smoke hookahs and get liquored up before flying their starships ("one more for the road, bartender...my droid does the flying")...I'll buy into it all.

I only wish we saw more of it on the screen.