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Wednesday, 25 November 2009

Just Go, Already.

You know, its very hard for me to say this, but I feel like David Tennant is starting to overstay his "long goodbye". Maybe even moreso than David Tennant, its really Russel T. Davies. I'm getting to the point where I just want to see them both gone, already.

First there was the Sarah Jane appearance, which was great, but then we were starved for the Doctor since April, so almost anything would have looked good by then.

Then the Waters of Mars, which was good, but not "great". The resolution, with the Doctor experiencing a massive metanoia in the form of realizing he now "pwned" Time itself, was something worthy of stretching out longer than the whole 3 minutes it took for the mars commander to put a blaster bolt into her head and die; instead, the Doctor apparently shifts right back, and the whole thing ended up feeling like it was nothing.

And now, we have Dreamtime.
First, there should be an Act of Parliament forbidding any further Dr. Who animated stories until the BBC LEARNS TO FUCKING DRAW. I will quote Federico ("Sun Boy" on theRPGsite) who had the misfortune of watching it with me "It looks like an amateur video of The Sims". Which was true. And he followed it up with "actually, I think these days The Sims would look better".
WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THEIR ANIMATORS?!!

Second, the story is pretty poor; not as poor as that earlier Dr. Who animated story, which was just balls, but still pretty fucking poor.

And finally, the fucking feather on the cap, is the news that Billie Piper is returning as Rose, to "say goodbye" to the Doctor.
News flash, Mr. Davies: Rose ALREADY SAID "goodbye". TWICE; in fact.
And this, more than anything, is the prime example of the problem with Russel T. Davies. Rose was never my favorite companion, not even in the new series, and definitely not the old one (if anyone wants to know, those would probably be Captain Jack, and Ace, respectively... shit, imagine if those two ended up in a story together!). But you know, Rose wasn't bad. She had moments where she was great. And she had a spectacular final appearance, way back in the "Canary Wharf Incident". If we'd never seen Rose again, it would have been perfect.

But no, Davies had to bring her back, create the stupid Doctor-Clone, and retell the whole fucking ending, again. And now, apparently, he feels the need to do it a THIRD time, because there's not enough melodrama and stupidity already. So by virtue of being the Companion That Wouldn't Leave, Rose ends up becoming one of my least liked companions ever, right up there with Adric and Mel.

Of course, I feel enormous gratitude for both Tennant and Davies. Without those two, Doctor Who might not have had a future. They're both geniuses in their own way, and Doctor Who fans owe them a debt that could never be paid. And shit, I will be very, very happy if a few years down the line the 10th doctor shows up again to visit due to Wibbley-Wobbly Timey-Wimey stuff.

But right now, I'm just about ready for their song to come to an end, and for us to give Moffat and Smith a try. And hopefully, their tenure will bring great stories, a slightly different Doctor, and no more Davis-style over-the-top-schlock.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti Oversize Freehand + H&H's Beverwyck

Tuesday, 24 November 2009

Americans Know Next to Nothing about Latin America

Today I was relaxing in a beautiful little cafe in Buenos Aires, reading the Clarin newspaper while I had my croissants and coffee for breakfast (did I mention B.Aires is an incredible city, that deserves every inch of the "paris of south america" title?).

Anyways, the Clarin had a very interesting article. It said that according to a recent survey less than 20% of Americans correctly guessed that Felipe Calderon was President of Mexico, and less than 10% could identify Luis Ignacio "Lula" Da Silva as president of Brazil. Many of them apparently guessed that Lula was president of Mexico too, so it leads you to wonder exactly how many of them weren't just guessing when they got Calderon right. It gives me this hilarious image of a surveyed American just guesing that ANY latin-sounding name was "president of Mexico".

Meanwhile, they did no better on foreign relations. According to this survey, the average american believes that the United States' closest allies in the region are Mexico and Brazil, even though the latter in fact has fairly rocky relations with the Bush regime.
Meanwhile, the average American DID correctly analyze Cuba and Venezuela as being among the countries in the region with the worst relationship with the U.S. (but really, if they didn't get that, they should just be dragged out back and shot), but hilariously they also inlcuded Columbia on this list, when Columbia is in fact probably the U.S.'s closest ally in all of the Americas. Its got tighter relations with the U.S. than Mexico does, and its less uppity than either Chile or Canada, even, and more willing to do whatever its told (even bomb all of its own arable land with defoliant that will guarantee the crippling of the local agro industry for decades; I mean, shit, that's a close ally if ever there was one).

You'll note also that Chile, probably the second-closest ally to the US in south america, didn't make it on the list either way.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Dunhill Classic Series Rhodesian + Germain's Latakia Special Blend

(Originally posted August 22, 2007)

Monday, 23 November 2009

Legion of Super-Peanuts Mondays

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Davidoff 400-series Apple + Esoterica's Penzance

Sunday, 22 November 2009

LSH Campaign Update 2990

I've decided to provide a "where are they now" update to supplement the "Campaign Character Profiles" for my Legion game. As you know, my game is following the script, in theory, of the original LSH comic series; however you will notice that by now, at the end of the year 2990 in the game, after 16 years of play in the campaign, things have gone more than a little bit different for many of the characters. If you are a Legion reader, you'll be able to quickly notice the differences. In any case, I hope you appreciate this little update to the Campaign I've most written about in the history of my GMing, or at least will forgive me this bit of vanity writing.

What follows is the status of all legion members, past and present, with their current membership status and whereabouts:

1. Cosmic Boy: Resigned. Past Legion Leader. Is currently living with his long-time girlfriend Lydda Jath ("Night Girl" of the now-defunct Legion of Substitute Heroes) on his home planet, Braal. Recently had a secret meeting with Braal's Prime Minister, where he agreed that he would assist the Braalian military's cause if Braal enters into war with Imsk.

2. Saturn Girl: Resigned. Past Legion Leader. She has left the Legion this year, following the events of the Validus Plague, and has moved with her family to her husband's ranch on Winath, to take care of him during his difficult and long recovery, and to care for her family in the wake of the family tragedy of her son Garridan's status as carrier of the deadly plague.

3. Lightning Lad: Resigned. Past Legion Leader. He left the legion several years ago to care for his twin sons (Graym and Garridan). Recently was infected by the Validus Plague, and, although he survived, it has left him partially crippled. He and his family have returned to his family ranch on Winath for his recovery.

4. Duo Damsel: Resigned. Has lost both of her additional Cargggite bodies (the first in combat with Computo years ago, the second a few years ago in the battle with the Time Trapper). For many years was, along with her husband Bouncing Boy, a chief instructor at the Legion Academy. When this institution was shut down due to the Economic Crisis, she has since moved on to accept a military commision in the U.P. Militia to train new Special Forces operatives in the war against the Khunds.

5. Phantom Girl: Active Member. Past Legion Leader. She has recently accepted her long-time boyfriend Ultra Boy's proposal of marriage, and the wedding will take place in 2991.

6. Collosal Boy: Resigned. Past Legion Leader. Quit the Legion after admitting to responsibility for the death of a terrorist-criminal operative. After receiving medical licensing, he was instrumental in the efforts to find a vaccine for the Validus Plague. After this, he has accepted an offer to work in the Xanthu University Hospital on Xanthu, where he has moved with his durlan wife, Yera.

7. Chameleon Boy: Resigned. Left the Legion several years ago to work alongside his father, R.J. Brande, in Brande Industries. He subsequently became CEO of Brande Industries after his father retired. He is currently dedicated to saving Brande Industries from bankruptcy after the economic collapse of 2989.

8. Invisible Kid I: Resigned. Lyle Norg left the legion after apparently having found true love in an extra-dimensional paradise. It was discovered years later that in fact this was a trap by a demonic being, but all subsequent efforts to find a way to rescue him have failed. He is still lost.

9. Kid Quantum: DECEASED. Although no body was recovered, James Cullen is still presumed deceased, the first Legion hero to have died in action, many years ago.

10. Braniac 5: Resigned. Past Legion Leader. After the battle with the Time Trapper, Braniac 5 resigned from Legion membership to once again take on the mantle of Science Tyrant of Colu. He is now dedicated to governing that world and dedicating resources to developing the technology that he glimpsed at during the Time-Trapper incident. He was involved in the search for a vaccine against the Validus Plague.

11. Supergirl: Resigned. Past Legion Leader. Along with her partner Rond Vidar, Supergirl has dedicated herself to using her powers to assist the war effort against the Khunds. She and Rond are using Colu as their base of operations, and have living quarters there along with their daughter Lauren.

12. Star Boy: Resigned. Is once again the Planetary Champion of Xanthu. He has recently become romantically involved with the heiress and Batball League owner Yvya Vall.

13. Ultra Boy: Active Member. Has recently asked Phantom Girl to marry him.

14. Sun Boy: Active Member. Past Legion Leader. He continues to operate in the legion and to dedicate spare time to Earth reconstruction efforts, and to his daughter Jenny Morgna-Allen (who lives with her mother, Dawn Allen, daughter of Barry Allen the 20th century's Flash, and along with her brother Don one of the duo of Quebec-Quadrant part-time superheros known as the Tornado Twins).

15. Shrinking Violet: Active member. Has recently experienced tensions and controversy due to the escalating imminent conflict between her homeworld Imsk, and Cosmic Boy and Magnetic Kid's homeworld of Braal. She is romantically linked to Lightning Lass.

16. Bouncing Boy: Resigned. Along with his wife Duo Damsel, he has now become a military officer and head of the training program for U.P. Militia Special Forces.

17. Matter-Eater Lad: Resigned. Was forced to leave the Legion after being drafted to run for election in the Bismollian Senate, which he readily won. He has been a senator on his homeworld ever since. He continues to engage part time in a variety of questionable and outlandish media stunts to draw attention to himself, having recently participated in the ill-thought-out "Take a Bite Out of Venereal Disease" public service announcement campaign, and the reality show "The Galaxy's Sexiest Senatorial Intern".

18. Valor: Inactive. Past Legion Leader. Valor almost died in the battle with the Time Trapper, and has been comatose for the most part ever since. His condition took a turn for the worst when the Magic Wars temporarily shut down the machines that were maintaining him, and he has now been reduced to a vegetative state. He is currently on Colu, where he is being kept alive by sophisticated machinery and being cared for by his wife, Shadow Lass.

19. Element Lad: Active Member. Past Legion Leader. Has been in a long term relationship with Earth Science Police Lieutenant Shvaugn Erin, but this relationship has grown more strained since both Earthgov and the Science Police have become less favorable in their relations with the Legion.

20. Lightning Lass: Active Member. She is currently in a relationship with Shrinking Violet.

21. Timber Wolf: Active Member. Legion Leader in 2990. Timber Wolf has struggled to maintain the Legion's strength in this difficult time after the economic "Great Collapse". He has managed to add some new members to the team to replace its losses, and has managed also to maintain a friendly relationship with Earthgov President Talya Wellington. It is generally felt that were it not for this, the Legion would be in a far worse state than it currently is.

22. Karate Kid: DECEASED. Died in battle with the Legion of Super Villains.

23. Princess Projectra: Resigned. She has taken up rulership as Queen of her homeworld Orando, and has closed her world to the outside galaxy. The recent threat of Khundian expansion, however, has recently prompted her to re-open communications with the United Planets.

24. Ferro Lad: DECEASED. Died saving the solar system from the threat of the Sun-eater.

25. Dream Girl: Active Member.

26. Shadow Lass: Resigned. Quit the legion to care for Valor, whom she subsequently married. Currently residing with him on Colu.

27. Chemical King: DECEASED. Died stopping a Dark Circle plot to start a world war on Earth.

28. Wildfire: Active Member. Past Legion Leader. Temporarily obtained a solid form while Quislet was an active member, thanks to his help; but after Quislet was lost his body fell apart and is now required to use a containment suit again.

29. Tyroc: Active Member. Past Legion Leader. Tyroc currently divides his time between Earth and Mars, where his wife Gigi Cusimano is Science Police Chief. He has been vocally outspoken in his criticism of Talya Wellington's government on Earth.

30. Dawnstar: Active Member. Continues to have an on-off stormy relationship with Wildfire.

31. Blok: Active Member.

32. Invisible Kid II: Active Member. Past Legion Leader. Has been romantically involved with ex-legion member Lamprey, but this relationship has diminished in intensity since she left the Legion.

33. White Witch: Resigned. Left with the survivors of the Sorcerer's World to create a new magic-user's world on Tharn. She's recently become romantically involved with Mordru, who's been stripped of most of his magical power and has reformed.

34. Polar Boy: Active Member. Current Deputy Legion Leader. Has continued to participate actively and enthusiastically with the legion, and has continued to campaign for the Legion's leadership. Despite having failed to be elected to this position for several years running.

35. Magnetic Kid: Active Member. Has recently been greatly concerned with events on his homeworld, after Braal left the United Planets and the increase in tensions between that world and Imsk.

36. Tellus: Active Member. Tellus continues to question the usefulness of his membership in the Legion.

37. Quislet: Resigned. After the Emerald Empress destroyed his vessel, Quislet was forced to return to his home dimension, where he is a wanted criminal. His ultimate fate is unknown.

38. Lamprey: Resigned. After the death of her best friend Comet Queen, and repeated doubts about her usefulness in the Legion, Lamprey resigned to work and protect the underwater farming city of Pacifica. She ended her relationship with Magnetic Kid, and was romantically involved with Invisible Kid II, although neither her nor Invisible Kid have been very active in maintaining this relationship after her departure from the Legion.

39. Comet Queen: DECEASED. Comet Queen died during the events of the Magic Wars.

40. Sensor Girl/Supergirl: Resigned. Lauren El-Gand, the 31st century's supergirl, has returned to her own time.

41. Nightwind: Active Member. Nightwind was recruited into the Legion this past year, after being rejected from her strict Yezidi community because of how her experience in the outside world had changed her. She is now dedicated to attempt to make her Legion experience work.

42. Superboy: Active Member. Richard Kent Shakespeare, descendant of the original Superman, is the newest Legionnaire. His Kryptonian powers manifested after an accident involving yellow solar radiation. A talented medical student, he was essential in the recent effort to find a vaccine for the dreaded Validus Plague.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Mastro de Paja media apple + Burlington's Lapis

Saturday, 21 November 2009

On Comparisons of SoTC and SA!

Several people have, of late, taken the tactic of questioning how I could possibly be fair when I claim that Spirit of the Century is a game that mostly sucks, and Starblazer Adventures is, on the other hand, an excellent game. After all, they argue, they are practically the same game! Some of the material is taken almost cut-and-paste from SA! to SoTC.

That's not really saying much. The real question is not what their similarities are, but what their differences are, isn't it? I mean, Deadlands D20 and Call of Cthulhu D20 are both D20 games, but one (Deadlands) is reviled as one of the worst D20 games around, and Call of Cthulhu is hailed as one of the best D20 books of all time. Likewise, I'm sure that there's a lot of material cut-and-paste from Deadlands to Deadlands D20, but it doesn't make the latter book have any of the good things about the former.

So let's take a look at the important differences:

1. Spirit of the Century claims to be about playing Pulp adventures, making at least some argument for being a general genre-emulation game for the Pulp concept. It fails miserably at this.
On the other hand, Starblazer Adventures nominally claims to be a licensed book of the specific Starblazer Adventures magazine, but somehow manages to be a truly excellent genre-emulation game for the Space Opera concept.

2. In elaboration of the above: Spirit of the Century fails because it utterly misunderstands what Pulp is supposed to be all about. As I stated back when I reviewed this product, the SoTC book itself claims that pulp is all about ""action, science and optimism" and the most important of these is optimism. In fact, Pulp would better be described as being about "action, adventure, and progress", and by far the most important of these would be Action. Throughout their product, the SoTC authors were too caught up with the idea of being clever and trying to turn their book into an intellectual treatise, rather than an effective and accurate representation of the genre.
Starblazer Adventures, on the other hand, gets right away that the point is about having Space Opera adventures, and not to over-think it. They're not trying to be pretentious or clever to satisfy some gang of pseudo-intellectuals, they're just trying to emulate the fucking genre!

3. Spirit of the Century is not a game about Pulp, its a game about the "Themes" of Pulp, and the subsequent analysis of those themes is utterly flawed. By failing to actually focus on the Pulp itself, and want to make it about something that they'd consider worthy of "storytelling" about, they fail as a Pulp game compared to much better presentations of other pulp games, most notably the excellent Two-Fisted Tales RPG.

4. Both SoTC and SA are FUDGE-based games. There's nothing inherently bad about that, FUDGE is a toolkit engine that can be used in a variety of ways. However, one major difference between these two games is that SOTC by default makes use of the single biggest roadblock/flaw that FUDGE has, the stupid gimmicky dice. SA does not.
This seems a bit of a nitpicky point, but it is not. If you don't own FUDGE dice (and I do not) it already creates an additional barrier to the enjoyment of play. A needless one. SA wisely avoids this by adapting the FUDGE system to a D6-D6 mechanic of play.

5. SOTC is all about locking you into a certain type of play, whereas SA is all about options and alternatives; this is reflected in the system, where SA is all about the "toolkit", giving you lots of different ways to do things to your liking. You COULD play SA! in the "narrative-focused" way that SOTC does things, but you're not FORCED to.
SOTC tells you how you should play, in other words, while SA shows you the different ways you could play. There's a major difference in design philosophy.

And finally:

6. I have no interest whatsoever in the "Century Club" setting that Spirit of the Century spends far too much time hoisting on the reader; all of its material related to that is therefore useless to me, and to anyone else who wants to do their own thing with the Pulp genre.
Starblazer Adventures could very easily have gone the same route, but they chose not to. They were a licensed product, it would have been understandable if they'd essentially assumed that people who purchased the book would be playing in the Setting of the SA universe (universes, really). But instead of doing that, they made the default utterly GM-designed; they assumed that each GM will want to make his OWN Space Opera world. They provide a ton of material that's taken out of the SA magazine, lots of which can be super-useful to be "borrowed" for one's own campaign, but you can also choose to use none of it whatsoever, and the bulk of the material and the focus is on how to design your own worlds, systems, settings, organizations, etc.

So yes, sorry haters, but your arguments don't fly. These two products are NOT the same, they're vastly different.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti Volcano + H&H's Beverwyck

Friday, 20 November 2009

Famous Pipe Smokers: Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein is today chiefly remembered for having been a lifetime member of the Montreal Pipe Club, and for having proven the hypothesis that "Pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgment of human affairs".

His invention of this theory was so significant that it apparently earned his pipe a place in the Smithsonian, here it is:

Yup, that's Einstein's actual pipe. One of many no doubt, but perhaps the very one he was smoking when he designed his famous "theory of Pipe Objectivity".

For the record, Einstein's tobacco of choice was House of Windsor's "Revelation". Its a Relatively uninspiring blend not known for being very constant.

Oh, yeah, he also apparently invented modern science, or something... relativity, blah blah blah, transformed our understanding, blah blah blah... the important thing is, he was a genius, and he smoked a pipe.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Blatter Diplomat + Germain's Special Latakia Flake

Thursday, 19 November 2009

RPGPundit Reviews: Death Frost Doom

Death Frost Doom is an "OSR"-style (old school renaissance, in case you aren't up with the lingo the kids are using these days) adventure for D&D; its been written up in such a way that it could pretty well be played with any version of D&D/AD&D, and certainly could be easily adapted to be played with any other fantasy game (Forward... to Adventure!, for example).

This adventure was written by James Raggi, and it comes in the form of a small booklet, with a few black and white illustrations. The inside cover is the dungeon map, and its quite a nice graph-paper dungeon indeed.

I recently reviewed Mr. Raggi's "Green Devil Face" booklets, and found them to be almost entirely useless. I'm glad to say that Death Frost Doom allows me to somewhat reform Mr.Raggi's reputation. Its a very clever adventure "module" for D&D (or again, just about any fantasy game), and I think it would make an excellent horror/fantasy adventure for a low to mid-level party.

I want to be careful not to give away too many of the details here, as that would somewhat spoil the experience. However, I'll say that the basic premise is this: Death Frost Doom is a potentially killer dungeon, and once more we see Mr.Raggi's obsession with near-gygaxian traps; however in this case the dangers (both in terms of traps and monsters) are far more dependent on how careful and clever the PC party is. With a few exceptions, the danger is such that if the PCs think things through and are cautious, they can survive; if they are not careful, they're royally fucked.

The premise for presenting the adventure can be just as a dungeon to go to that the PCs might have heard about, if you're running that kind of "Sandbox campaign", or if you want, it can involve some kind of a quest to obtain an item. The dungeon itself is the catacombs of an ancient cult to a death/blood God. The whole area is cursed. The catacombs are found up the side of a mountain, relatively far from civilization, meaning the PC party will need to be well-prepared to handle the situation. Resource management would certainly be important. Additionally, the nature of the accursed place is such that the longer you spend in the area, the more likely that the party will start to get seriously messed up, discouraging the PC party from going too slowly and trying to excessively rest to recover their abilities.

The adventure is also somewhat deceptive, in a good way, in that it is highly likely that the party can go a long way while encountering creepy things but without having any major combat or peril; and then, if they're not careful, all hell can break loose. With one noteworthy exception, the opponents are almost entirely undead of different kinds, so having a Cleric in the party can certainly affect the odds of survival. Having a druid can also change the tone of the game in a significant way.

Again, I'd rather not go into excessive detail as to the nature of the dungeon itself, though I'll say that there's a good deal of traps, many of which are magical, and pretty well all of which are topical to the theme of the adventure. The tone of the dungeon and the adventure is suitably creepy and ominous. The author correctly describes the adventure as a "Weird Tale", and credits the influences of the likes of Lovecraft, Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, and others in that light.

There are some very interesting items, including curses, and a magnificent item in particular (the Purple Lotus Powder) that has one of those truly awesome random tables; reckless PCs will end up being either very happy or very sorry getting hold of this item.

The adventure is only about 20 pages long, but has more than enough to cover all that is needed for this adventure, and to provide your gaming group for a session or two of great play. At the end of the book, a second mini-adventure is provided ("The Tower", reprinted and revised from an adventure that originally appeared in "Fight On!" magazine). This adventure is a nice bonus, but is not nearly as interesting as the main course, and the theme of the adventure is a bit of a mindfuck; essentially, its meant to be be a trick for "greedy adventurers"; since most D&D adventurers are after loot, this might be seen as somewhat needlessly punitive.

In any case, I'm glad to say that I certainly could recommend this product to anyone who enjoys old-school fantasy play, particularly with that horror/weird-tale twist. Its certainly a whole world away from the previous product I'd reviewed from this author.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Stanwell Shell Deluxe + Stockebbye's Proper English

Wednesday, 18 November 2009

REALLY Intelligent Gaming

Over on theRPGsite, I'd been arguing lately about what geeks consider "intelligent"; and what you can consider "Intelligent" gaming.

To me, its not "intelligence" to be able to fiddle with numbers like some kind of Rain Man, anymore than it makes you "educated" to have read every "Forgotten Realms" and "Star Trek" novel ever published. These are just different kinds of quasi-autistic obsessive-compulsive activity, that for some reason far too many nerds misinterpret as "intelligent".

When I want an RPG to be intelligent, I don't mean that I want it to be one where you are rewarded for diddling with the rules, anymore than when I say that I want people to be kind to animals I don't mean that I want someone to get a prize for fondling a goat.

There's nothing intelligent about a situation where intentionally ignoring all considerations to setting, character, or emulation of genre actually PAYS off, so that the sucker is the guy who plays the archetype. One thing I hate about 3.x as it stands is that if you have a guy who plays a straight Fighter, a regular Joe Orc-killer, he's going to be penalized for it.

Its a given fact that regular joe orc-killer (and his player) will be utterly eclipsed by the fucktard who made a halfling warrior/rogue/bard/orcslayer combo, took the special "orc slaying" feat-combo and maxed out his knowledge:cooking skill to take advantage of Obscure Synergy Bonus #3897 that effectively ends up giving him a +39 to Orc Slaying.

So suddenly, the guy who trusted that having a trusty fighter was pretty much the definition of the guy who was going to be killing orcs in the party is faced with an assmunch who's playing a halfling whatever-the-fuck-class-it-is master-chef that's making Joe look useless, and Joes' player's fun is ruined.

There's nothing intelligent about that.

So what IS an intelligent game? Obviously its not diddling with the rules, and you can bet that I'm not going to say its "sophisticated story" or "narrative theme" or any of that bullshit. No, an Intelligent Game is one that rewards not mechanical cleverness and trying to "break" the system, but one that rewards clever ideas in play.

I've tried to embody this concept of intelligent play in my own Forward... to Adventure!

FtA! is certainly not a pretentious game in the sense of being about some kind of arrogant psuedo-intellectual or "artsy" subject, but in practice it almost always leads to some really clever game play. The reason for this is simple: I took away from the D&D format almost everything that allows you to try to "break" the rules (no multiclassing, no secret bonuses, no feats, no prestige classes) and in its place I put mechanics that reward careful tactics and clever risky ideas into the actual system.

This is done with the combat system, where each class (archetypal classes as they are) have their own particular role to fill. Everyone has their thing to do, and you have to think as a team. The collective nature of combat means that any single PC can't end up outshining the others, and that numbers of combatants becomes very important. Positioning becomes very important too, you can't get into a fight with 8 orcs and have your 4 pcs just pile all together on one of them at a time, confident that the others won't be able to do enough damage to matter.
If you're in an 8 vs. 4 combat situation, unless you're massively higher level than your opponents, your first priority in FtA! will be to try to position yourself in a way that you get as close to 4 vs. 4 as possible (ie. so that 4 of the 8 orcs won't be able to actually hit you, and thus won't participate in the combat). Taking down any of those 8 orcs before they can participate in melee could make the whole difference in the game, so a wizard or an archer becomes very important. If one of those orcs is a "leader" of some kind, you'll want your rogue to try to stunt him (more on that later) to keep him from participating. And so on; the point won't be what funky feats you've bought, it'll be how you actually structure your team in combat against the other guys.

The other part of the intelligence behind FtA! is in the stunts. Instead of having Feats that you buy to give you ways to cheat the system, you have a built in mechanic to let you try to make some kind of special maneuver, any kind of maneuver, in order to give your side a temporary bonus, give their side a temporary penalty, or even disable one of the opposing side without directly fighting him. So FtA! becomes an intelligent game in that it encourages your PCs to be clever in the moment of the actual play, rather than in how good they are at making a maxed-out "character build".

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Savinelli Autograph + Hearth & Home's Mt.Marcy

(August 20th 2007)

Tuesday, 17 November 2009

The Dismantling of White Wolf

So, in all the hubbub of the FFG story, I didn't have time to report on another issue that sprung up in the gaming world. Ryan Dancey, in a recent interview made what was no doubt for him just an offhand comment, a statement of the truth that he didn't even really pause to consider, about the situation regarding White Wolf.

The question and answer were as follows:

Q: Can you fill me in on the status of White Wolf, the physical game company CCP acquired in Atlanta?

A: It's just an imprint... White Wolf used to have a fairly large staff. It doesn't anymore. It's focusing primarily on the World of Darkness RPG products. It's not doing some of the things it used to do; board games and other card games and things. The focus of the company [CCP] is on making MMOs and our legacy table top business is a legacy business.

So, first thing: Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

And second thing: I told you so. I'd been commenting for years on here that it was blatantly obvious that White Wolf's claim to being the "number 2 gaming company" was just a shell game, that there was nothing left behind it, and that it was plain to see that they were in a death spiral (ironically!).

Now its become obvious just how marginalized and near the end WW really is. nWoD wasn't a gamble, it was a last gasp, a desperate attempt to recapture control of the gaming industry and save themselves from the freefall they were suffering from after the rise of D20. It failed.

WW sold the whole gaming world on an idea: the idea of "story-based" gaming, of games where the story mattered more than the system or the characters or anything at all really, of games full of "splatbooks" and "metaplot" where the game designers and the game masters collaborated to weave a tale of amateur novelist grade melodrama, and the players sat there and fucking listened and didn't get in the way. Their grotesque misunderstanding of RPGs led to the even more grotesque counter-movement in the form of the Forge and GNS.

WW would never have pulled off their pretentious coup-d'etat if it hadn't been for two factors: releasing Vampire just at the right moment, catching the wave of the pathetic dark-makeup-and-lace goth-lestat vampire fad (and thereby getting a huge boost of players who didn't really give a fuck about RPGs but loved the idea of pretending to be vampires), and the horrible horrible intellectual weakness of Lorraine-Williams-led TSR, where they were desperate for someone else to take intellectual charge of the hobby and give them an idea to follow. Unfortunately, the guys who definitely had an "idea" about what to do with the hobby were the White Wolf guys, and Mark Rein·Hagen's pretentious pseudo-artiste concept of roleplaying ended up dominating the hobby for almost ten years, and damn near managed to destroy it.

So no one but the Swine will miss White Wolf. By the end of the 90s, most decent gamers had given up on the RPG "innovations", and had either quit the hobby altogether or bunkered down with their pre-Swine games in their little groups. The hobby was devastated, when Peter Adkison, Ryan Dancey, Tweet and Cook came along and gave us D20, beginning a total renewal, and really signalling the end of White Wolf's claims to dominance, almost overnight.
Not that it would have been different had D20 not shown up. People had already, by then, abandoned White Wolf, it just wasn't as obvious yet. The regular gamers had long since decided "story-based gaming" was a failure. The Vampire-fad was ending, and with it any interest whatsoever that most goths had with rpgs. And even the Pretentious Twats were leaving WW, feeling that it had become too "mainstream", they started forming their own countermovements with claims of even higher pretentiousness, under Ron Edwards' leadership, ending with the cult of the Forge, which replaced White Wolf in most Swines' hearts as their drug of choice for feeling superior to the "unwashed masses".

I don't know if we'll ever be completely rid of White Wolf. It may keep going, as a "legacy", for indefinite periods of time. But WW's significance or influence in the roleplaying world, much less its claim to being "number 2", has pretty much concretely died. To quote the Simpsons:
"Is he dead?"
"No, but his career is."

RPGPundit

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