Building a New Dungeons & Dragons (Redux)

Look, folks…

A couple/few days ago I got incensed by something I read and I got a bee in my bonnet and I said, hey, I can come up with Three Pillars that are a lot better things to consider “across areas of design” than the WotC design team’s Combat-Exploration-Roleplay model. But as I said (initially) I’m just a lone voice ranting from the darkest backwater depths of the internet.

WotC doesn’t care who I am or what I have to say: they’re already getting paid.

Folks who’ve canned everything post-1987 or post-1983 or post-whenever your personal favorite edition was issued probably don’t care (much) about what I have to say: they’re already playing their edition of choice (with or without) house rules.

Folks who are Shills for the Man, or Completists, or Fair Shakers, or Eternal Optimists, and who already plan on buying WHATEVER WotC puts out (they bought 4th edition, anyway), almost certainly don’t care what I say: they’ve already voted with their wallets.

SO…who does that leave? Anyone?

Well to those who ARE listening and don’t think I’m patently ridiculous…to you, Slim Few, I say unto thee:

I can build a “new” edition of D&D…and hell, you can, too.

You can. You really, really, REALLY can.

The more I look at it, the simpler it gets. In fact, the more I roll the idea over in my head, the more I like it.

Allow me to indulge myself for the nonce: a while back I wrote this-and-that about “fantasy heartbreakers,” and even came to the conclusion that I wanted to try my hand at writing one…a game that was a total knock-off of D&D, destined for no more than the trashcan ‘cause, you know, fantasy heartbreakers aren’t viable in any sort of commercial or economic way. It was purely a project of vanity.

Then I started getting some delusions of grandeur: “Wow,” thought I, “maybe I could sell this for some scratch! Maybe Barnes & Noble would carry it!”

Then I woke up from my folly. I considered not only that such thinking was the height of silliness, but also that I really didn’t want to “rewrite D&D.” The things that D&D had “missed on” the first time around were things I found, frankly, quite charming…like the lovable quirks and idiosyncrasies of your friends and family. Anything I really couldn’t live with I could f’ing well “house rule” if needed. That what I do already.

In other words I found I wanted to play D&D.

THEN I really started to fall in love with the idea of campaign settings (and something set me off, though I can’t remember what it was), so I decided to write a very specific one for B/X in the form of Land of Ice. I was thinking of snow and Vikings at the time. ANYway…it was while doing Land of Ice that several things happened at once:

• All the hubbub about 5E started
• The AD&D reprints were announced
• I started playing in Alexis’s AD&D game (and was subsequently canned)
• I started playing in Randy’s Labyrinth Lord game
• I re-read the OD&D Supplements I-III

And then there was this Three Pillars thing (in which I take a closer look at “what makes D&D tick”).

And ALL of that roiled and boiled together and spilled over into an idea...a minor epiphany...that, hey, you know what? Not only do I like Dungeons & Dragons…the kernel that is its core, the core material of most every edition…not only do I like D&D and have ZERO interest in writing my own “fantasy RPG” to replace it…not ONLY that, BUT this:

I, too, can write a “new” edition of D&D. It’s not all that hard. After all:

Gygax did it.
Holmes did it.
Moldvay did it.
Mentzer did it.
“Zeb” did it.
WotC did it (several times).

And I would say all these “retrocloners” (Proctor and Raggi and the S&W and OSRIC folks, etc.) have done it, too.

NONE of these games that we call “D&D” (or facsimiles thereof) are “exactly like” any other. I doubt that anyone playing D&D anywhere is playing strictly Rules As Written…I certainly don’t and I’ve long been a big (and loud) proponent of RAW.

The fact of the matter is this:

There is no one, true, complete, baseline edition of Dungeons & Dragons. There are the pillars that form the foundation of game play (Challenge, Reward, and Escape is how I label ‘em). There are the stylistic tropes we’ve come to recognize (XP, class, D20 combat, hit points, saves, etc.). And then there are the players at the table who have a loose agreement on “how to play” based on a common understanding and a (hopefully strong) social contract.

The players say:
“You will be our DM…you will interpret the rules. It is your responsibility to challenge us, to reward us, and to provide us with escape.”

The Dungeon Master says:
“I will accept this mantle of responsibility. I understand that my challenge is to challenge the players, my reward is in seeing my vision come to fruition, and my escape is in the creation of that vision. I will endeavor to share this vision as an impartial channel and arbiter.”

And play begins.

It’s too bad we don’t begin the game with some sort of ritual like this: ritual is a powerful thing, and a real bonding process. You can see it in the rites of a Mass or church service, the pledging of allegiance in classrooms, the swearing on a Bible or holy book…even the singing of the National Anthem, coin toss, and post-game handshake at a pro-football game. RITUAL to open and close a game session would be a cool thing in my opinion…but then again, I’m Catholic and dig on ritual.

But that's a post for another time.

Perhaps what every table needs is its own Game Bible, filled with one’s own interpretation of “the original adult fantasy role-playing game.” That is what I’m actually talking about when I say I can build my own “new” edition of D&D. I really don’t think it’s all that hard to do: pick an edition that you like as a BASE and then write out the differences for your game. How tough is that?

Do you really need to keep sucking at the corporate tit to get nutrition for your imagination?

It’s just as Alexis said (or implies anyway): you really don’t. Waiting for a 5th Edition or a 6th or a 7th or a reprint of earlier books is simply staying dependent on someone else…in this case, a soulless corporate entity whose main concern is baseline profitability due to the reality of being a publicly traded company with shareholders.

I mean, that’s the fact of the matter folks. The ugly truth. Unless you’re brand-spanking-new to the game, just pick an edition you like and rewrite it to taste. Anything less is…well, it’s kind of intellectual laziness, and possibly a bit childish.

And don’t think I’m not calling myself out here as well…I’m as lazy as they come when it comes to organization and getting my shit together. It’s a lot easier to criticize than to actually f’ing DO something. Just because I'm a hypocrite doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to tell it like it is and hold it up as an ideal.

It just means I’m not a very good role model.

So by all means, why don’t we just do it? Build our own “D&D Next?” What are we waiting for? What are we afraid of? Don’t we have word processors and printers at our homes, schools, work?

Have you folks not seen Planet Eris (just as an example)?

I’m doing it…I’m f’ing going to do it. There’s really no excuse not to. I’m going to do a small supplement book (like Greyhawk or Blackmoor or, yes, Planet Eris) and it’s going to collect all the rules I use that describe how the game is played at MY table. No thief skills, for example. No weapon restrictions. D6 damage. Allowable classes. All that good stuff. Heck, maybe I’ll do my own illustrations (I can draw a little bit, and I do have a scanner at home). I’ll save it as a .pdf and make it available for my players as a download for their tablets and smartphones. If rules need to be changed (due to breakage discovered at the game table), I’ll update the book. A small “House Rules Bible.”

Call it, “D&D Mine.”

When will I get to this? Who knows…soon, I hope. I really don’t think it will take that long, as I don’t need it to be a masterpiece of prose, just cut-n-dry rules (maybe a random table or two). I know how to play, I just need a reference document.

And I’ll tell you this: building my own D&D will be a damn sight better, more fun, and hella’ cheaper than waiting for WotC’s new version, and then figuring out which modular supplements I need to run a game. I mean, when you think about it, isn’t it kind of ridiculous?

Ballsy of ‘em? Sure. Done with super-good intentions? More than likely (at least on the part of the designers). Done with love and care for the game? Probably…as best they can given the constraints of their corporate overlords.

But I can project into the future and see myself being disappointed by the whole thing. Wanting to like it, saying O What Neat Artwork and Presentation…and still being frustrated by the whole experience of it. Eventually falling back on My Own Way of playing or an older edition or house-ruling the shit out of whatever-it-is, modular or not.

‘Cause that’s what happens with EVERY edition one plays.

So, yeah, I’m going to head ‘em off at the pass. Maybe I’ll work up a generic template for others to use (maybe…that might be a little too ambitious) so that I’m not the only one on this Quixotic journey.

Anyway…that’s just where my head’s at right now. I know some folks would say, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em." I've decided to go for the third option instead.
; )

Social Interaction Rules, Non-Theater Majors, and "Neoclassical" Gaming

Ugh. What even qualifies me to write about something like this? I don't know. Common interest? Having a blog? Being a pompous ass?

Maybe a little bit of all of that.

Let me first get some standard disclaimers out of the way. I DID major in theater; however I DM/GM a lot more often than I play as a player. I play old school B/X D&D (and will be speaking from that perspective), and for my money, the random Reaction table is perfect for what I want in a D&D game. On the other hand, I totally buy into a lot of more sophisticated game design theory, specifically of the "Forge-y" type, and my return to "old school" gaming was after a loooong hiatus...I like story-type games.

Okay...so where to begin...

To me, it really seems that there are two (or three) different discussions flying around the blogosphere, all touched off by Ryan Dancey's proposal to add some more serious social mechanics to the D&D game (or narrative/story mechanics in order to inject added meaning and story objectives into a D&D game). Trollsmyth's take on this (if I'm reading this correctly) is this:

D&D is a game about exploration, not social interaction. For players who want social interaction in their D&D, any "rules" tacked on should be those that facilitate D&D's premise of adventure/exploration, not elaborate mechanics required to determine the results of social interaction. Adding mechanics for social interaction to D&D to make it a more social/intrigue/political style game would turn it into something "not D&D," and certainly there are already "not D&D" games that one can play if they want. Changing an Old School game into a "new school" game kind of defeats the whole point of exploring the simplified glory of old school gaming.

Erin's point is that this approach (letting the sleeping dogs lie) unfairly hampers players who might want to play a "socially-minded version of D&D" (like Troll & Odd's solo adventures) but who don't know the way to go about it...'cause they don't get the idea of "forging alliances and relationships" (those things that might lead to exploration "bonuses" in Troll's game) and even if they did, they wouldn't feel comfortable with "role-playing" in the fashion of "acting in character" to somehow be suave and smooth enough to forge those alliances and get those bonuses.

Whew! Is that an adequate summary?

Okay, so here's how everyone's looking at this thing wrong.

I happened to recently read Moldvay's Basic set...again. Specifically the introduction and the DM section. And you know what? D&D, as originally conceived, is a lot damn simpler than any of us long-time gamers or "neo-classicists" might think. In fact, B/X D&D has a lot more in common with the combat-oriented "D&D Encounters" than it does with most any edition in between. At least, as written.

The difference of course is with the game's potential.

But if you don't know the game's potential, if all you have is the "rules as written," and if you don't read to deep into the game, it's pretty damn simplistic...make dungeon, make characters, explore dungeon, period. Trying to make it about anything else requires a bit of "drift" (to use the Forge term), at least thematically. Even without rules tweaks.

But if you're willing to do that thematic drift...which I suppose happens when there are other advantages to playing D&D that prevents people from seeking a different type/style of RPG...you still have all the tools you need to play a game that is a social or political or intrigue or romance -oriented game. As opposed to the standard "make dungeon, make character, explore dungeon, period."

The character is your vehicle for this. Your character tells you everything you need to know about your characters raw abilities. Your character's raw abilities are equal to his or her ability scores...that's what abilities are. The character is the avatar for the player in the imaginary game world, and what your abilities are tell you what you are.

However, some might not get what these things measure.

A character may have a 17 Intelligence and thus have a lot of knowledge...they know a number of additional languages, have the ability to read and write, and can comprehend the workings of magic more quickly (i.e. wizards gain a bonus on earned XP to rise in level). Having a 17 intelligence does NOT mean your character doesn't do stupid things. Hell, your character might do stupid things A LOT. I know guys (and gals) that are plenty bright and have lots of education and they still do bone-head things...hell, some of 'em aren't even good at simple games like Scrabble, or Charades. I've known very bright players who were not great at riddles and solving in-game challenges...doesn't mean they weren't good attorneys or lawyers or software programmers. And I've known guys without much education that were pretty darn ingenious.

Having a low or high intelligence score just influences your literacy, languages, and spell comprehension...that's all it means.

A character with an 18 Charisma has a magnetic personality...they get bonuses to reactions (including negotiations...for example, with hirelings) and they inspire trust and loyalty. Characters with a low charisma are the exact opposite...that's the mechanics of the ability.

It doesn't mean your character isn't good looking or an eloquent speaker. You can be a gifted speaker or a great looking person and still have something that "turns people off." Likewise, you can be a homely simpleton, that is surrounded by friends who hang on his every word and who can easily find people to go to bat for 'em. I've known unattractive guys who had no problem dating attractive ladies...and it had nothing to do with money or physique or smooth talking. Just natural confidence and charisma.

Your character's charisma score measures something specific: in-game effectiveness. How you use it is up to you (and the rules are nice enough to point out a PC can get bonuses or penalties to Reaction rolls depending on how the character "sweetens the deal").

Need I say Wisdom is the same? I've known old codgers, wise in the ways of the world who were taken in by sham artists or who made unwise (one might say "undisciplined") personal decisions. In D&D, wisdom measures only one's resistance to magic (through an increased willpower I suppose) and one's ability to advance as a cleric. But I've known several willful guys, well versed in the Holy Writings of the Bible who've made very "unwise" decisions...like a guy wo hasn't spoken with his brother in 30 years over some long forgotten argument, even though they live in the same town...and this is a guy who goes to Church and reads the Bible every day! He must have missed that part about forgiveness...

D&D characters provide a vehicle for players to explore the game world. Ability scores measure certain types of in-game effectiveness pertinent to that exploration. Can there be other types of "adventure" of a non-combat, non-treasure-seeking variety? Sure...though it may not cause you to advance in level ("experience points" and "levels" measure your character's accomplishments with regard to combat and treasure seeking and increase effectiveness in these arenas). The "role" you play is that of a heroic adventurer in a fantasy world. The game provides rules for your interaction with the imaginary environment and your ability scores tell you how well you do...any additional color or description you provide is up to you. And this will get easier for players to add with time and practice.

Anyway, I'll have more to say on the matter when I post about last Thursday's game and some of the stuff that went down...hopefully some examples will serve to illustrate that I'm not just talking out of my ass. Regarding the original posts on the matter? Well:

a) I think Ryan's a bit silly in his premise. But that's me. Not sure why he's playing D&D if he wants to play a different game, mechanics-wise.

b) I think Trollsmyth's a bit naive or deluded to think 1) folks can play in his style without rules/training/guidance, 2) that his type of game is un-Drifted itself (at least thematically), and 3) that a game should not have mechanics that address what the game is about. Again, though, this is just me.

c) I think Erin's not giving her players enough credit...or is giving theater majors too much. I believe D&D can be played just fine (even thematically drifted) as written...but that's just been my experience.

All right...that's about it folks.

War is Hell, Gaming is Fun

People who have been following this blog for awhile probably have at least some idea of my feelings on the subject of war: namely, that there is no such thing as a “good” or “just” war, and no excuse or justification for invading another’s country with the intent of doing violence. Ever. People that do this are assholes, pure and simple.

There isn’t a valid reason for taking someone’s life in the name of war. No person’s life is more valuable than another. An American soldier does not have more “right to life” than a person from Afghanistan or Iraq. We (my fellow Americans and I) are no more “valuable” than other humans on this planet. There is no such thing as “acceptable” casualties or losses of life. And the acts of few psychotic criminals (e.g. “terrorists”) is never a reason to hold entire nations accountable. That’s as insane as shelling Lockport, NY with artillery because it gave birth to Timothy McVeigh.

It’s the 21st century. Kids are raised not to hit each other. Corporal punishment is no longer administered in schools, and rarely in homes. Most 1st-world nations have banned capital punishment. All countries have laws against perpetrating violence acts against each other. While many religious texts (including the Bible) have passages that say when it is “right” to attack others, most contemporary religious leaders are preaching peace and Brotherly Love to their congregations. Humanity has the means to be united in spirit…war is a leftover relic from our barbaric past, one that should be removed like an enflamed appendix.

[and, yes, pacifist though I am, I understand there are sticky situations that may require the use of force…if wholesale genocide is being committed against a culture or community that is unable to defend itself, is military intervention warranted? Possibly…it’s just as evil to stand back and allow the slaughter of innocents as it is to preemptively attack someone you think MIGHT attack you in the future. I also do NOT think a nation should disarm itself to the point that it cannot protect its own soil from outside invaders. As I said, invaders are assholes]

So that’s what I believe. I acknowledge that not everyone sees things my way.

Now while I hate and loathe war and violence in “real life,” it still holds a place for me in my imagination and at the gaming table. I enjoy war games and “playing war,” as long as no one is actually dying because of it. I have one pacifist friend who would turn up his nose at this…he abhors anything that glorifies violence and killing, and would probably see role-playing as doing just that. My take is a little different.

Acknowledging the evils of REAL war, one can still learn from it; we can learn from its history, and how it has impacted our present lives, as well as (hopefully) learning from past mistakes. Also, it provides an entertaining outlet for some of the darker parts of our human nature…we do have adrenal glands after all, and playing a game at the table is better than shooting real people.

In addition, the conflict and drama in violent role-playing games isn’t JUST about the violence (or shouldn’t be, anyway…but that’s another post). RPGs give us the opportunity to “struggle mightily,” just like the heroes of myth and legend. We are allowed the opportunity to live as those types of struggling heroes when we sit at the gaming table…we are forced to use our wits and our virtual strength, just as Heracles did against the Nemean Lion. However, unlike Heracles, we face no threat of ACTUALLY dying in a game. We are allowed to join in the struggle, creating our own myths and stories through our vicarious “adventures.”

And if we want to tell myths and stories about the hell of war…well that’s a good struggle, too.

So having got the whole anti-war preamble out of the way, let’s dive right into Revised Recon from Palladium, a game I managed to pick up used for $4 the other day. This may just be the best $4 I’ve ever spent at the game shop.

Recon (I’ll drop the “revised” – just be aware that I’m talking about the 2nd edition of the game) is…well, frankly it’s fascinating. It is also a damn good game…perhaps the best single game book I’ve ever published from Palladium. And, no, there are no cyborgs in it.

Let’s talk about the fascinating first: wow. This is a game that could ONLY have been published in 1986. I mean, I can’t see how they would get away with some of this stuff today. But in the mid-1980s…with the Rambo movies and Chuck Norris’s Missing in Action series, not to mention Reagan’s New Cold War…this game really seems to be a “sign of the times” in which it was written.

And yet it’s not some cheesy, Hollywood-cinematic RPG.

Recon is a game of modern warfare, specifically set in the Vietnam War. That’s that war in the 60s-70s that you see so many movies about with American G.I.s slogging through jungles. If RPGs have wargaming roots, this game is both a return to those roots (I mean it is a WAR game) and is an UPDATING of those roots: this ain’t no Napoleonic/Medieval warfare. And it sure ain’t Civil.

What’s fascinating is that it is written close enough to the war that the author could well have had older friends/siblings actually in the ‘Nam…Siembieda is of an age that he probably grew up watching the war on television, not just seeing Oliver Stone movies.

And the book appears meticulously researched. More than any other Palladium book I’ve seen (and I’ve blogged a bit about how much effort goes into those Rifts world books) there’s a ton of information on the history of the fighting men in Vietnam, the equipment they used (more historical weapons and vehicles are present than perhaps even Godlike…certainly more than I’ve seen in any other Palladium game), their procedures, their training. Heck, it’s the first game book of Palladium I have that has both a real bibliography AND a suggested reading list for information and inspiration.

Now back to the 1986 part: the game is definitely American-centric. The introductory paragraph says it all:

“To put it simply, this is a game where the good guys are the US troops and their allies. All the game players are good guys. The bad guys are Viet Cong (VC) and North Vietnamese Army Troopers (NVA). The Mission Director ‘plays’ the bad guys.”

There’s no “grey area” in this game regarding who’s the black hats. If you want to know what this game is about, check out that front cover where the grunt is coldcocking Charlie with the butt of his rifle while the guy in the tree is WEARING A RICE PADDY HAT. ‘Cause, you know…those hats were as much a part of the VC uniform as the army’s green socks…wouldn’t want to be caught up a tree without it!

I’m not of Asian descent but I wonder what people who are would think about this.

Or some of these other interesting bits of ugliness: like randomly rolling for height and weight with Westerners (i.e. Americans) having a range of 5’ to 6’6” while “indigenous people” (whether from Vietnam, South America, or “other Third World Hotspots”) only run from 4’11” to 5’8”. It’s a class war between the tall and the short apparently.

ANYWAY…let’s disregard this stuff and get to the game itself. I mean, I knew that any game about Vietnam was going to be at least slightly irritating (to me, see above) but I wanted to see how Palladium handled modern warfare.

Pretty darn good, as it turns out.

First off, the Recon system is quite a bit different from the normal Palladium engine. Oh, there are conversion notes for making Recon soldiers into Heroes Unlimited type characters…but for my money the Recon game system is superior. I’d prefer to convert HU to Recon and no, that’s not a given option.

Character creation is fast and easy…as one would hope in a game where players can expect characters to die regularly. Each character has three characteristics (Strength, Alertness, and Agility) and a handful of skills chosen based on a character’s military occupation. Some military occupations have minimum requirements…like a high strength if you want to be the heavy weapons specialist.

Strength measures one’s carrying capacity and health (i.e. hit points). Alertness measure’s one’s ability to observe and detect stuff (like ambushes and booby-traps). Agility is your ability to fight in hand-to-hand, throw grenades, climb, disarm booby-traps, etc. All are based on the roll of percentage dice, and this represents the character’s percentage chance (for Alertness and Agility) of accomplishing things covered by those characteristics.

Skills are a much smaller list than standard Palladium and all are pertinent to the game…there’s nothing extraneous, nor are there any “ability boosting” skills. All skills are determined by random dice roll. This is awesome. I liked it with HackMaster Basic and I like it even better here. Everyone goes to boot camp and learns how to shoot and service the M-16, but not everyone is equally good. Roll D% and that’s your skill (though most skills have a base minimum…for example, no one has an effectiveness with assault rifle lower than 30%. If you want more skill, you can use more skill selection to increase the effectiveness. There’s nothing for the player or Mission Director (GM) to “look up” in the book later…you make a note of the % on your character sheet and that’s it. Simple. And again, most pertinent “skills” that might be found in other games’ skill lists are simply subsumed into Alertness and Agility. Only skills specifically trained/learned in Basic are available as picks.

Experience points are gained similar to the XP gained in normal Palladium, however, there are no levels. Points gained may be saved or spent to improve characteristics and skills. Again, I find this superior to standard Palladium, especially given the limited selection of options for expenditure.

Alignment: again, wow. Recon uses a completely different alignment base than other Palladium games, very much reflecting personality types found in professional soldiers in our modern world. This is, hands down, the best alignment system I’ve seen in ANY role-playing game…as far as “encapsulating the character’s personality in a nutshell for easy identification.” There are no mechanical effects of alignment, but all are appropriate to this specific game (another example of system does matter…in a big way!). The alignments are: Idealistic, Idealistic-Pacifist, Opportunist, Opportunist-Righteous, Opportunist-Karmic, Malignant, and Malignant-Psychotic. Wow. Just reading them makes me excited to use them in the game. How many alignment systems get YOU jazzed?!

Combat is made to be fast (it’s a lot more stream-lined compared to other Palladium games), realistic (there are hefty penalties for any kind of shooting combat unless you ambush your opponents), and deadly (no one’s walking away if you get hit by multiple bullets). It’s also abstract, not using detailed maps or even keeping track of ammunition. Basically, it plays the way I want to play firefights in the jungle…and for me, that’s a good thing.

[a note about deadliness…in Recon you roll up TWO characters in the beginning of the game…this is similar to my previous favorite War RPG, Albedo…but Recon chargen is a LOT faster than Albedo]

Not only that, Recon provides rules for artillery strikes, helicopter gunships, and calling down the napalm. Some people might be put off by the idea of playing the radio operator in the squad, but Siembieda points out these guys are the equivalent of the party wizard, able to call in huge amounts of firepower if they’re kept protected.

And that’s part of the coolness of Recon. Some people have compared D&D to “fantasy Vietnam” play, where a party has its specific squad members, each playing a vital role. Recon is ACTUAL Vietnam fantasy and it’s done well, with your small unit having the right skills and abilities to scout the jungle.

And it doesn’t just have to be played in Vietnam. As the game points out, it can be used for any kind of jungle or 3rd world conflict, and there are rules for converting your players into mercenaries (um…”security contractors”) to fight around the world. The game states you can fight guerillas in Central America or help the Freedom Fighters of Afghanistan against the Russians (hey, maybe YOUR guys are the ones that trained Bin Laden!).

Okay, okay…back to the point. I said this is the best game Palladium’s ever published and I meant it. It is STAND ALONE. It tells you HOW TO PLAY. It has random MISSION GENERATORS in a style that echoes the best Old School games. It has several ADVENTURES and optional scenarios. It has RULES FOR TANKS and PATROL BOATS as well as DESERT SKILLS FOR MERCENARIES, in case you want to play a private contractor in some Mid East conflict, or other.

To me, Recon is a great, no-holds-barred WAR role-playing game. If you want to explore the stresses and struggles of war with a traditional RPG (instead of a mainly psychological indie game like Carry or Grey Ranks), this is the one to get. When I wrote about Albedo before, I said I wished it could be adapted to something OTHER than anthropomorphic animals in space (not because I have a problem with Anthro-Animals, but because I WANTED a human war game). I don’t wish that anymore.

I DO wish it provided rules for converting other Palladium games to the Recon system. I’d love to run a scenario similar to the movie Predator, and Recon is just the system to do it.

O Shame! - D20 Star Wars (Part 2)

Welp, the D20 Star Wars RPG has officially provided me with hours of “entertainment.” I’ll say this for Wizards of the Coast…making characters can be pretty darn fun.

Of course the time consuming nature of statting characters is one of my biggest gripes about D20 (especially as this has a direct impact on the play of the game, specifically with regard to character mortality). For a player, this amount of customization IS fun. For a GM needing to stat up NPCs? It’s a goddamn headache.

And of course, an RPG is much more than character creation…we still don’t know how the damn thing PLAYS.

But that’s for a later post…today I’m making characters, and in about eight hours, I’ve finally managed to completely stat Anakin Skywalker, AKA Darth Vader, AKA His Royal Badness.

What --?! I can already hear the words coming out of your mouths. DV is already statted up in the back of the game…one of few/several film characters that are. Well, folks, hate to break it to ya’ but their version blows chunks. Not just that but it’s wrong in several fundamental ways, the least of which are a couple stat miscalculations.

And not just THAT, but I myself am a WEG veteran, and as such I like to see different stats for different eras of play…remember those? Because gamers may decide they want to play in different eras (like the Republic Era or the Clone Wars Era or the Rebellion Era). WEG source books always published different stats for different films, and it would be nice if WotC did the same instead of simply giving us “Episode IV” Vader.

But ya’ know what? I shouldn’t even complain, ‘cause I wasn’t satisfied with their version anyway and would most likely have changed it all regardless.

In fact, this little exercise has had a couple-several major benefits for yours truly:

- I now have stats for all six film versions of Vader

- I now have stats that I actually like and approve

- I got a much better idea of how character creation works in the game

- I figured out that I absolutely do NOT have to buy a single other source book for this game!

The last is a fantastic benefit. You can’t believe how sorely tempted I was to purchase at least one or two of the beautiful (literally, these books are wonderful pieces of art) sourcebooks for the game. Especially as two of my favorite characters, Darth Maul and Count Dooku, are not present in the core rulebook (what can I say? I like badass Sith geezers). If they had both been included in the same sourcebook, the chance I would have purchased it would be about 85%...however, since WotC split them up (hmmmm…now why would they do that?) I put it off.

And good thing because now I know I have everything I need in the core book (YES, it is a complete rulebook!) to create their characters in a way satisfactory to me. Which is totally fine as I DID glimpse at their (humongous!) stat blocks and found I did not like WotC take on ‘em.

But, hey…those guys are for another day (perhaps tomorrow; hopefully they’ll prove quicker to do since they only appear in one or two movies). Let’s get on to the main event!

SO…Anakin, Anakin. What have they done to you? Should we start with the good or the bad? Let’s do GOOD first: I cannot help but say THANK YOU to WotC for including the characters they DID include in the core book. My initial impression (“huh, that’s kind of random”) has been turned around as I realize they did a NICE thing: they took all the characters with weird/special toys and threw ‘em in, thereby providing an OFFICIAL “how-would-you-model-that?”

Because, let’s face facts: when playing Star Wars the game is all about modeling the movies. That’s why people play (at least, it’s usually the initial draw). The game may say O Don’t Fight Vader or the Emperor, That’s For Luke To Do but c’mon now! I’m just going to let THEM have all the fun? For folks playing the original WEG Star Wars did you ALWAYS go along with the “well, the only real Jedi are Luke, Ben, and Yoda and the rest of y’all are up the crick.” No way, man…I want MY shot at Boba Fett, too, dammit!

(or a pastiche clone of the character anyway)

So look at who’s included in the core rules and you see some nice little bonuses that ya’ WON’T have to model:

Darth Vader (his special armor/outfit)

Luke “the TRUE Chosen One” (totally normal character)

Boba Fett (HIS special armor; can be used for Jango, of course)

General Grievous (four-armed cyborg)

Yoda (shrunken Jedi master)

Chewbacca (200+ year old wookie; by the way, he needs an overhaul, too)

All the main droids from the films

BTW: I haven’t even bothered to read the Droids chapter yet, as the whole thing looked like its own bit o crazy. “Constructing” characters, indeed! Glad I have some templates!

Okay, so that’s the good: we got Anakin and we know how to deal with his funky armor and cyborg parts. Yay. Now to the bad.

People change classes in the Star Wars RPG more often than some people change shirts. With Anakin (a character that goes through several career and allegiance changes over his six film history) there ain’t no exception. Here’s how WotC state him, as of Episode IV:

Jedi 7/Jedi Knight 5/Ace Pilot 2/Sith Apprentice 2/Sith Lord 3

For a final character level of 19.

All classes (other than “Jedi”) are prestige classes and I agree with the ones they’ve given ol’ DV. It’s pretty much everything else I disagree with starting off with his 1^st level class choice: Jedi.

I’ve seen Episode I and that kid weren’t no Jedi. No way, no how.

And don’t tell me he wasn’t a PC yet: that kid was the main character through the whole damn thing, speeding around in his pod racer and blowing up space stations.

Now, in general, I don’t give a rat’s ass about “min-maxing” in these games (though I do like cool combinations); I’m more interested in sticking to canon, and in the case of Star Wars that means modeling the films. As far as George Lucas is concerned (and thus, as far as I’M concerned), his movies are the Holy Bible and everything else can go to hell. Timothy Zahn said the clone wars were about crazy Jedi clones? GL said nope, sorry, just Fett-Xeroxed stormtroopers. All those books and comics and video games? They’re fan fic as far as Lucas is concerned, and so I’m going to err on the side of Lucas myself.

Just easier that way.

So I don’t care what “adventures” a 5 year old Anakin had prior to Episode I; I’m starting with the Phantom Menace and starting him 1^st level with exactly the correct class: a frigging slave!

Unfortunately, there is no “slave class” in the Star Wars RPG (more’s the pity). In fact, there are only five basic classes in the game: Jedi, Noble, Scout, Scoundrel, and Soldier. We know he wasn’t a Jedi and he definitely wasn’t a Noble or Soldier. Scout doesn’t fit either…as a slave he may have had some nascent curiosity, but he wasn’t out exploring the wilderness, let alone the Galaxy. And the kid never held a blaster or a deck of cards in his hand (and not much of a Lady’s Man either, am I right gals?)…hardly a “scoundrel.”

Well, actually, there is ONE non-prestige class that fits the kid at the beginning of his life (no, not droid…his cyborg days are much later): the “Nonheroic class.” Oh, yes indeedy…it doesn’t get much less “non-heroic” than being a slave at the bottom of the food chain, and that’s where Anakin starts his career:

Episode I:

Anakin Skywalker (Human Nonheroic 1)

Oh, you think I jest? Not on your life. Don’t worry, he’ll go straight into Jedi at level 2 after receiving some training from Obi-Wan, but that happens in between episodes.

Now normally, if someone wanted (or was willing!) to take “Nonheroic” as a character class, I might be inclined to give them some extra bonus or feat or something. Eh. I dislike fiddling with “rules as written” (I’m a rules stickler and lawyer from waaaay back) so I’ll use the Nonheroic class as written; trust me, His Royal Badness is STILL a badass by the end of the exercise, and it’s all the cooler that an ex-slave managed to hunt down and exterminate 99% of the galaxy’s Jedi. Talk about a bit of a chip on the shoulder!

Since I bothered to do the exercise, I might as well post it for others. However, I’m going to do it in separate posts (as this one is already getting a bit long). A few notes before I start:

1) While I did a level by level “stat up” I’m only going to be posting how Anakin/Vader appears at the beginning of each film (this will give folks 6 versions of HRB).

2) This is not an exercise in “min-maxing;” it is instead an attempt to model the dude as he appears in the films. So if you see things like “why that?!” it’s either because he demonstrated the ability or he needs it as a pre-requisite for a later level.

3) The Star Wars RPG distinguishes between “Heroic character classes” and “nonheroic character classes” with regard to some class abilities and prestige classes. This has been accounted for (suck it D20…the slave made good is still cool; haven’t you seen Spartacus?).

4) Anakin/Vader’s maximum level is still 19. The only characters of the film I consider to be 20^th level are Yoda and the Emperor (and the latter may not even be 20^th till his appearance in Episode VI; I haven’t decided yet). Vader DOES have an increase in power between Episodes IV, V, and VI and this is reflected in his stats.

5) I can’t believe they failed to give their version of Darth Vader the “throw lightsaber” talent! Haven’t they even seen the movie? Where do they think the idea for this ability came from? Jeez!

6) Because Vader’s suit is a unique item, I am simply using the stats from the Core rules. There are no other special rules that apply to the character.

7) For ability scores I have chosen to use the “point distribution method” of assigning ability scores. There’s nothing randomly rolled about this character. Hit points are purely average. Age adjustments ARE factored in at all levels.

8) I did take some artistic license and included two Destinies over the life of the character. In my opinion, Anakin had a Destiny to “rescue his mother,” foreshadowed in Episode I when he told her he’d return to her. This destiny was completed after recovering her body from the sand people providing Anakin with two bonus ability points. His new Destiny was then to be “corrupted by the Dark Side” (foreshadowed in Episode II by his exacting vengeance); this was brought to fruition in Episode III upon the slaying of Mace Windu, again granting Anakin/Vader two bonus ability points.

The Eras of the Apocalypse

There’s nothing quite cut-n-dry about apocalyptic fiction in any media. It probably stems from the fact that most people use the term “Apocalypse” incorrectly (including myself). The Apocalypse is the last book of the Bible…i.e. the Book of Revelation. “Apocalypse” is the English translation of the Greek word that means “revelation” (in other words saying the Book of Apocalypse is the same as saying the Book of Revelation); however, because of the general belief that the Book of Revelation provides a prophecy of the “End Times” for humanity, we have allowed the term “Apocalypse” to become synonymous with the End of the World.

Or as I would call it, “the end of civilization as we know it.”

[by the way, in case anyone cares I don’t believe that what St. John describes is a Doomsday scenario but rather a symbolic blueprint of the path to enlightenment based on tearing down one’s selfish separate self / “ego” and re-building the psyche in terms of being a tool for following the divine will, the Seven Seals being the seven chakras that need to be activated through meditation and right-mindedness. Not that humans don’t run the risk of destroying themselves or anything, but I don’t think John’s revelation was anything about some extra-dimensional divine being saving us from THAT…accepting and following the teachings of the enlightened masters, like Jesus, WILL save your soul from the cycle of death and rebirth, but taking Communion isn’t going to give you a chair in some Astral Plane. Read your Edgar Cayce, folks!]

ANYWAY…so when I write “post-apocalypse” (or “PA”) keep in mind that I’m using the common, slangish parlance of “After the Doom of Mankind” not “post-revelation.” The latter phrase would be mean a state of enlightenment (I guess), while the former means a miserable pile of rubble that used to be society as we know it.

SO there are many shades to PA fiction; it ain’t all Gamma World and Mutant Future, that much is for sure. And part of writing a PA game is considering which SUB-GENRE of PA we’re deciding on. ‘Cause, after all, we can’t use every sub-genre at once, can we?

[that’s semi-rhetorical: my original idea DID try to include all sub-genres in one book, hopelessly overwhelming me and being a decided FAIL]

To my mind there are four or five PA sub-genres based on proximity to The End (proximity time-wise, that is):

#1 PRE-APOCALYPSE: Society hasn’t quite broken down, but it’s at the breaking point. Things are pretty frigging bad all over, the end is nigh, and there’s little to nothing anyone can do about it. Possible examples of this in fiction/RPGs include: Blade Runner, Mad Max, Cyberpunk, Car Wars.

#2 IMMEDIATE POST-APOCALYPSE: The end has come and gone and we are left to pick up the pieces. Society has been shattered and will probably never be what it once was, but it’s still within memory of those who lived through the apocalypse. Those who live weep for what they lost and try to maintain normalcy, even as they make do and attempt to survive. After effects of the Cataclysm (nuclear winter, radiation, disease) are as dangerous as the break-down in law and order and starvation (as a society not used to rustic life gets used to a lack of electricity, plumbing, and supermarkets). Examples of this genre are many: The Stand, The Day After, Dies the Fire (and Ariel), Reign of Fire, Damnation Alley, The Postman, Deathlands, The Road Warrior/Beyond Thunderdome. RPG examples are actually few but include the Rifts supplement Chaos Earth and Twilight 2000. Shadow Run could be a fairly wimpy entry into this category.

#3 MULTI-GENERATION POST-APOCALYPSE: The End occurred generations before living memory. People have learned to survive in the wilderness that is the new world, and have rebuilt some semblances of civilization. The wonders of the pre-apocalypse world are rarely understood entirely correctly but here and there people remember and pass things down. Working artifacts from the pre-cataclysm days are scarce except for well-preserved fortifications that have gone un-looted or ruins long abandoned due to multiple dangers. In some of the farther fetched genres helpful/beneficial mutations have become common, as have giant mutant monsters. Examples include Planet of the Apes, A Boy and His Dog, Water World, Logan’s Run, A Canticle for Leibowitz, Battlefield Earth. RPGs in this category are numerous: Gamma World, Mutant Future, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs, Paranoia, and Rifts to name a few.

#4 ANCIENT APOCALYPSE: The Cataclysm occurred so far in the past that is understood only as a legend, like we might think of Noah’s Ark and the Antediluvian Age. Humans know almost nothing of the pre-apocalypse Earth, having long histories of their own new societies and civilizations and any ancient technology that has survived is more akin to “magic” than anything properly understood or even legendary. Mutant people and monsters are simply part of the local fauna and peoples of this new land. Examples in fiction include Thundarr the Barbarian (yes!) and the Storm Lands, the Dying Earth, maybe Bakshi's Wizards, and possibly some of the darker sword & sorcery pulp like Karl Vagner’s Kane series. Besides RPGs based on the mentioned fiction (Thundarr and DE both having games), Ron Edwards's “Sorcerer and Sword” supplement works, as does most any fantasy RPG you choose to adapt to this…Arneson’s Blackmoore campaign setting falls into this category which means OD&D works just fine.

#5 SPACE EXODUS: The Apocalypse destroyed the Earth and the only survivors of human society have been forced to make a new home…off world! The state of civilization may be any of the types #2 through #4, and may even be close to #1 (the Mutant Chronicles is an example). An example of #2 in space would include Battlestar Galactica or Titan A.E. An example of #3 in space would be Firefly/Serenity or Metamorphosis Alpha. An example of #4 might be McCaffrey’s Pern series, MZB’s Darkover series, or M.A.R. Barker’s Tekumel: Empire of the Petal Throne.

Now in one of my original PA posts I talked about what I found LACKING in the PA RPGs out there, namely the grim struggle for survival and the re-building of community/society. However, after writing up my list of PA sub-genres, I can see that these two “integral” parts of PA fiction don’t always apply…or don’t always apply the same.

#1: In this sub-genre, there is a grim struggle to HOLD IT TOGETHER. Society hasn’t collapsed yet, and things may be dangerous, but the main thing is holding on to what one has and knows and trying to keep from bottoming out.

#2: Both integrals apply, but SURVIVAL is emphasized.

#3: Both integrals apply, but COMMUNITY BUILDING is emphasized (for example, in Gamma World it is assumed your village has learned how to acquire food and shelter, etc. already).

#4: Neither "integral" is integral; at this point you’re simply playing a standard fantasy game.

#5: The integrals emphasized depend on which sub-genre of the sub-genre applies.

Now scoping all that out, the next question is: which game do I particularly want to design? Granted, one of the harder game concepts I’ll need to work out are rules to integrate the grim struggle for survival and community re-building into the game system, but before I get to THAT I need to figure out the setting for the game. I’m kind of thinking the #2 category (Immediate PA) is the less saturated category of RPG, but besides being awfully depressing (rape, looting, cannibalism, radiation sickness) it’s…well, too much firearms and not enough homemade spears. Unless, of course, I go the “Change” route (aka the Steve Boyett/S.M. Stirling “all-technology-just-stopped-working-for-no-good-reason” plot)

Nah, if I do #2, I’m most likely to set it in space (the #5 qualifier), kind of based on Titan A.E.: humanity has got to learn to come together in a hostile universe if they’re going to survive and rebuild themselves. Earth’s been wiped out to make way for a new hyperspace bypass; hopefully the survivors remembered their towels. ; )

I think #3 holds a lot of potential (probably so many of the RPG entries already out there fall into this category). I’d prefer something less whimsical than Gamma World, much more like A Canticle for Leibowitz (I love that book…it’s similar to a PA version of Asimov’s Foundation series). However, I’m not above adding some psionic mutations to the mix…the mutants Beneath the Planet of the Apes and those found in DC’s Kamandi comics being bizarre enough without throwing in talking animals.

'Course in the words of one PA film: nothing is certain, the future is NOT set.

More later...