Where Worlds Collide

Your Ideal RPG Group?

Slykin has an gaming question:

What if you could assemble an ideal collection of folk past of present to participate in your next role-playing experience? Who would be there? Figures from history, celebs, literary geniuses your imagination sets the limits.

What about this lot?

• Sean Connery as the Real Man
• Robert De Niro as the Real Roleplayer
• Spike Milligan as the Loony
• George W Bush as the Munchkin

Who would want to GM that lot? It would have to be someone that can be trusted to hose the Munchkin!

For historical figures only, how about this lineup for a classic D&D party?

• Julius Caesar as the Fighter
• John Dee as the Mage
• Martin Luther as the Cleric
• Ronnie Biggs as the Thief

Story vs. Experience

In a post which is mostly about podcasts and gaming conventions, Carl Cravens says:

I'd talk about indie/"story" games tangentially, but I'm not heavily into them... I steal bits and pieces that are helpful to me, but I'm not looking for a "narrative" experience... I don't want to tell a story, I want to experience a story. Most story-games don't work for me because the mechanics are about who has narrative rights... who gets to tell the story, and the mechanics may not even be tied to what's going on in the story at all.

This reminds me of the post by Joshua BishopRoby that I bookmarked ages ago but never got round to blogging about. It looks at the more extreme narrativist approach to gaming, where little or nothing is defined at the start, and just about everything, including fundamental elements of the setting itself, is made up on the fly during play.

Characters are incorporated in the setting and situation quickly, powerfully, and often inextricably. Actions and stunts become grand to the point of excessive. Stunning reversals and byzantine plots are commonplace. Which isn't better, I want to state very emphatically and very up front. It's very, very easy for this kind of set up to create a torrent of too much, too fast that tears through stuff that may be better approached with a more measured, sedate, and nuanced approach. To dodge away from LotR for a moment, this approach does not create Star Trek and Stargate; it makes Battlestar Galactica and Dr. Who.

In extreme circumstances, it makes me wonder if you really are creating a story, or just the outline of one, as emphasised by Joshua's later anecdote.

Recently, Merten at story-games started a thread asking for clarification because he simply didn't understand why Tony Lower-Basch wants to distill a complete storyline down to one hour of high-impact play. "What's your hurry?" he asked, "Why can't you savor the experience?" In responding to him, I realized that, to a large extent, I didn't understand why he didn't want these powerful tools to rock the story over the cliff screaming the whole way down. In the course of discussion, I think I understood a little better that he wanted to be there and experience events directly, and I hope he came to the point where he could see how some people weren't so interested in being there as implying things about being there.

I've played and enjoyed Primetime Adventures a couple of times, which I think is a good example of the sort of game Carl is talking about. But I consider that sort of game is so far removed from a traditional style of RPG that it falls into a quite different genre of game entirely. They give such a different play experience that I don't believe either can be seen as a substitute for the other.

So where does this leave the games I'm running? Interestingly I'm using two different approaches on my online games with a lot of the same players Kalyr has a richly detailed setting, with a lot of fundamental elements nailed down. I've defined the political and social structures, what technology is available, what psionic powers can and can't do, etc. I've also got a whole load of NPCs with pre-defined agendas. The other game, Arrhan Empire Frontiers is much more freewheeling. This is partly because I've taken over the game from another GM, and don't have the same feel of ownership over the setting. So I'll quite happily make up major plot elements on the fly, or let the players introduce significant bits of setting.

RIP John M Ford

The world has lost SF author, game writer and railway enthusiast John M Ford.

I never met the man in the flesh, but was always aware of his online presence, as one of the most consistently witty posters on Pyramid Online and Making Light. His "Evil Geniuses For A Better Tomorrow" taglines on Pyramid were legendary. He will be missed.

Steve Jackson and Teresa Nielsen Hayden have appreciations of his life and work.

Some of his comments in the Dangling Engineer thread give a flavour of his humour.

RPG Progress

I haven't posted anything for a while about the Kalyr RPG, the Fudge-based vaguely Vancian science-fantasy game I've been working on. I have been making slow and steady progress, to the point where the first draft is now substantially written. At times I've found it quite difficult to boil down something that's been in my headspace for more that fifteen years into something coherent enough to be worth publishing, especially trying to seperate out the core elements of the setting from the specific detail of the games I've been running in it.

Here's a summary of the chapters I've written; it more or less follows the outline I posted a few month's back.

• Introduction - This is very short (just three pages) consisting of a brief summary of the setting plus a glossary of RPG terms.
• Character Generation - The first rules-heavy chapter, which I've knocked into reasonable first draft shape, although the rules themselves do need playtesting. Because I'm using a template-based system there's actually quite a bit of world background buried in the text.
• Game Mechanics - This has proved to be the most troublesome chapter. It's already undergone one complete rewrite and several further revisions. It's now essentially complete, but still quite rough. It really needs some FtF playtesting.
• Psionics - The third rules-heavy chapter, but I'm much happier with the overall shape of the first draft. Still needs playtesting, of course.
• Equipment and Technology - Most of the text is there, but some things (such as weapons) need some game stats.
• Culture - This is the first of three chapters covering the world background. This one details culture, religions, and the political and legal systems. It's mostly complete, but there are a couple of pure colour sections (stuff like food) that could do with expanding.
• Organisations - The second world background chapter covers the major organisations and guilds of Kalyr to which player characters are likely to belong. I've largely created this by pulling together and re-editing a lot of pre-existing notes. The section on The Legions needs expanding to the same level of detail as the two major guilds, and the whole thing needs a final edit.
• Nations - The first draft is more or less complete; like the previous chapter this one's largely pulled together from existing notes, but I've written quite a bit of additional text covering things like adventure possibilities.
• Beastiary - Covers both minor races and animals. This one still needs a lot more work. Many of the entries (especially the animals) need fleshing out, and the whole thing lacks any game statistics.
• Campaigns - A lot of semi-random GM musings. Still needs quite a bit of editing.

There's still quite a bit to do; most important is to give the thing a snappy name. "The World of Kalyr" is not going to cut it.

Conflict Resolution: Actual Play

This is an 'actual play' example of Conflict Resolution.

The context is that Kolath, an officer of the 5th Legion, with his assistant Hollis, is paying a visit to the Karazthan, the secretive technology guild, to find out precisely why they've been firing artillery weapons within city limits. He's managed to arrange a meeting with Guruinath, the Karazthan chief of Security.

All this is unedited transcript from the forum on Dreamlyrics. I'm the GM, playing the part of Guruinath. Exeter is playing Kolath, and Nicki Jett is Hollis. Even if you're not into RPG theory, or even into RPGS, give this a read, and see if this makes any dramatic sense:

[GM]

Guriunath's office is high up on the western side of the dome, with windows on the outside looking out over the lights of the city, and windows on the opposite wall looking over the bustling activity of the workshop floors in the dome interior.

The side walls are quite spartan, except for a shelf of bottles on one wall, and a rack of weapons on the other. The weapons are an exotic mixture; even to Kolath's expert eye most are of unrecognised types.

Guruinath himself is a handsome middle-aged kandar of aristocratic look, with piercing mauve eyes. He remains seated as Kolath and Hollis are shown into the room.

"You've from the legion, I gather", he says in well-measured tones, "What is your business here?".

[Hollis]

**That,** Hollis thought, **is exactly the wrong tone of voice to take with Kolath. Admittedly, unctuous would make him suspicious, but haughty just makes him mad.**

An attitude of professional cooperation: that was the key. Fortunately for the good guys, the bad guys never seemed to figure that out.

She clasped her hands demurely before her, and looked down to avoid rolling her eyes at the somewhat rude kandar.

[Kolath]

The Kandar legionaire's eyebrows quirked upward, evidencing the only change in his expression, but his posture stiffened and he seemed suddenly taller, more formal, and he cocked his head to one side slightly as if to obtain a new perspective of the Karazthani.

"I am indeed a Legionaire and am conducting a legal investigation on behest of the Legion. We would appreciate your cooperation."

[GM]

"Let us begin again", he says, "You desire my cooperation; precisely what form or cooperation do you desire?".

[Kolath]

"What form of cooperation?" The Kandar rolled his eyes briefly, glanced down at Hollis and then back to the Karazthani.

"The kind where... for the safety of the polis... I ask you questions and you answer them to the best of your ability. Where we..." he made a vague, all-inclusive gesture, "the Karazthani and the Legion, share information for our mutual advantage."

He closed his eyes for a moment and composed himself.

"We could start with the flying ship hovering over your compound and the blasts fired from it last night."

[Hollis]

**This is a man,** thought Hollis, **who is not used to paying obeisance to anyone.**

She wondered just how far he would be able to suspend his arrogance, and whether he might even decide it was prudent to eliminate this annoyance Kolath represented. To defend against such an over-reaction, she remained particularly alert, following the interrogation but maintaining her senses and her powers, on high alert.

[GM]

"Ah", he says, feigning surprise, "I thought it might be something to do with that. Our security were engaged in a covert operation against a force hostile to our guild and the city Because they encountered forces more powerful than that which we were expecting, they requested backup".

Kolath is fully aware that the guilds do have the legal power to act and even use deadly force in response to immediate threats. But he's also aware that it's accepted practice to at least inform the legion when using military-type weapons. There isn't really a precedent for using artillery pieces inside city limits.

[Kolath]

"Aha," he said slowly, one eyebrow quirked upward and his expression cold as he listened to the Karazthani.

"And your reason for not informing the legion? So we could help with the... defense?"

[Hollis]

Hollis had all she could do to keep a straight face. So she was a threat to the Karazthan and the city? Unless there was something else out there and she just happened to be in the line of fire. Thank the gods for darkness and distance and surprise; it was unlikely anyone could have recognized her.

[GM]

"Look, Legionnaire", he says, his voice angrier in tone, "Since when has it been the accepted procedure to inform your Legion of every single small scale operation? I had to make a snap decision on escalation to save the lives of my own men. Sometimes we have to do what we have to do; the niceties and diplomacy can wait. I sure you understand that. Does a Tavinoleyr refer every small decision up the chain of command? Surely the Legion could not function in battle if it worked like that!".

Something seems to have rattled him.

[Kolath]

His expression grew even more stern, but there was an element of surprise on his features. He looked a question at Hollis and then turned back to face Guruinath.

"Neither I, nor the Legion, expects immediate notification of every security procedure on your part, Guruinath, but, for the safety... the joint defense... of the city, it would seem a logical move on your part to share information with those, like the Legion, who are not inimical. Especially when such a procedure includes the use of such... heavy weaponry." Kolath suddenly felt himself being... over appeasing to the Karazthani security chief and took a deep breath to control his growing temper, glancing off to one side and looking over the displayed weapons for a few seconds before turning back to the Karazthani.

"It seems, however, that you are becoming upset... to an extent out of balance with any offense my questions might logically have elicited and I wonder why that is so."

He wanted to ask Guruinath what the Kandar was hiding, but he had no leverage to enforce an answer.

[Hollis]

Hollis had seen that look on Kolath before. The fat was about to hit the fire. So she blurted out, "He's asking you tell him just what kind of 'threat' would make you sweat so hard under questioning, be dangerous enough to justify breaking out the monster weapon, and yet be so insignificant you forgot to notify the Legion."

She looked quickly at Kolath, made a wry face and mouthed **Sorry**. She backed up a little and tried to look invisible once more, making a little tick-a-lock gesture over her lips. Hopefully he would take the hint and stay calm. He had the Karazthani sweating bullets, if he just kept up the pressure.

[GM]

"I don't know who in Vandrak's name you are, but I'm not going to take advice from a mere human on how to do my job", Guruinath replies with the sort of contemptuous sneer that Hollis has witnessed many times before from Kandar chauvinists.

He turns to Kolath.

"Who is that human?", Guruinath demands, "And what is she doing here? I refuse to discuss this matter further in her presence".

[Kolath]

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before turning slowly to look at Hollis, a warning evident in his expression. He shook his head slowly, but said nothing to her for the moment. He took a deep breath and turned back to the Karazthani.

"She is an assistant of mine, helping with certain aspects of my investigation, Guruinath."

He darted another glance at the human.

"She need not concern you."

[Hollis with the big mouth]

Hollis wanted to apologize and then put both hands over her mouth. but she wasn't sure that the Karazthani wouldn't take it as another insult. Actually, maybe she should make the closed fist up-and-down motion that indicated she thought the weasel was jerking them off. Maybe *that* would be appropriate.

She glanced at Kolath.

Maybe not.

She settled for another mouthed *sorry* and then thereafter remained very quiet and perfectly still, not even rolling her eyes.

[GM]

"In that case, I've told you all you need to know", Guruinath replies, "Now if you will excuse me, I have many other things I need to attend to. My men will see you and that creature of yours out of the building".

There are visible beads of sweat on his forehead. It's now patently obvious to Kolath that Guruinath knows an awful lot more than he's letting on.

[Kolath]

"Just a moment, if you do not mind, Guruinath."

He turned to look at Hollis, his expression impassive, but his eyes hard. "Wait for me outside." He turned back to face the Karazthani without waiting to see if Hollis had left. In fact, it would never have occurred to him that she would not leave when he told her to do so.

Kolath was much more liberal in his outlook than most Kandar, but he was still Kandar.

"Now, Guruinath of the Karazthani, perhaps we can be of benefit to each other. I had no intention of insulting your... sensibilities."

[GM]

"I hope that you won't be telling Dalarath Blerynthar about my little outburst", he says, "It won't help the harmonious operation of our organisation. All I can say is our mission went somewhat awry, I had one of my own men seriously wounded, an innocent bystander killed, and we still have some very dangerous individuals at large in the city. Now, if you will excuse me, I really do have a lot of things that require my immediate attention. My men will show you and your human companion out".

Kolath is reminded of a case on barracks a couple of years ago when he helped expose some large-scale pilfering from legion stores. The evasive behaviour of the ringleader, the assistant quartermaster, was remarkably similar to that of Guruinath. Not lying as such, but not telling the whole truth either.

[Kolath has met the head of Administration, Dalarath Blerynthar, on a number of occasions, usually on issues of procurement of equipment]

[Kolath]

His expression hardened even further and he made no move yet to leave the room.

"If your efforts met with such... notable lack of success, that is all the more reason how we could benefit from cooperation."

He scowled slightly and glanced down at the nails of his left hand.

"Perhaps I should speak to Dalarath Blerynthar."

[Hollis]

Normally even Kolath wouldn't be able to get Hollis to move without an argument. Butshe could read the writing on the wall. The Karazthani was covering something up. She knew it, and Kolath knew it. Or she hoped he did, since it was nearly tattooed on the man's forehead.

But he wasn't going to give it up with her standing there, so she obediently wheeled about and left to wait outside.

[GM]

"We have human rebels threatening us", he says, "And I believe they have made a tactical alliance with Karmorki agents. I do not know who is using who, but both groups have an interest in destabilising things in this city. As you may well know, there have been incidents of sabotage within this guild. We are still attempting to hunt down those saboteurs and their confederates. We will inform the legion if we require any logistical or intelligence assistance for this. Likewise we will keep the Legion informed of anything we discover that concerns the physical security of the city".

[Kolath]

"Threatening you..." he mused, the digits of one slim-fingered hand stroking his chin. "Threatening individual Karazthani or threatening the Karazthani as a whole?"

He grimaced, thinking over what the other Kandar had said.

"Threatening you physically or threatening your business affairs? And what makes you think the Kamorki are involved?"

[GM]

"I do not like the tone of that accusation, soldier", he replies, "You are making very serious accusations against a senior Master of this guild. Very serious accusations which you have no evidence to back up".

[Kolath]

His eyebrows lifted in surprise.

"What accusation did you infer from my questions? I have accused you of nothing and have not threatened you."

As you should probably be able to figure out, Kolath has won the conflict. He's realised Guriunath is lying, and is now twisting the knife.

Conflicts!

I'm doing evil experiments on the players of my PBeM and PBmB games.

Up to now I've largely be using the technique known as 'Illusionism', which is Forgeite moon-language for arbitrary GM fiat deciding the results, especially with social conflicts with NPCs. I've slowly become dissatisfied with this approach, wanting something a bit more structured mechanically. In particular, I've been getting bogged down trying to solve social conflicts by 'just roleplaying it out', and want some actual system support.

I've decided to use a form of Conflict Resolution. This takes an different approach from the traditional RPG of rolling success or failure against skills for a task. Instead, you determine what the PCs and opposing NPCs want to achieve, then roll for that. The winner of the contest gets what they want, within limits. Determining those limits is what setting stakes is all about.

For simple conflicts a single oppose dice roll will settle things. But for dramatic extended conflicts I'm using the Fudge Wound Track to record progress. When one party in the conflict reaches Incapacitated it means the conflict is over and they've lost. If it tips over into Near Death, then there's going to be some longer-term fallout.

So far I've got the following three scenes running that I'm treating as extended conflicts:

• An actual combat scene, with Legionnaire Kanon and his men taking on an angry mob, supported by the former Legionnaire Rotemdol. The immediate objective (and thus one side of the stakes of the conflict) is to arrest two individuals who have been identified as the ringleaders of the mob. The result of the conflict going badly will be the miscreants getting away, with the possibility of Kanon getting wounded in the resulting battle


• An example of social conflict, starring another Legionnaire, Kolath, trying to persuade the security chief of the Academy of Knowledge to explain exactly why his men have been firing artillery weapons within city limits. The precise stakes are not available at your level of clearance, because that will be a spoiler. (This isn't a 'full disclosure metagame' where the players have GM-omnisicent knowledge of the situation)


• Finally, a more abstract conflict where Zul is trying to lead a prison breakout, with the jail itself as the opponent. If Zul wins, she'll escape. The precise stakes if she loses will be determined as the conflict develops.

We'll have to see how this plays out. One thing I've found already; trying out a conflict resolution system has certainly renewed my enthusiasm for a game which had been flagging a bit.

Resolution Lag

Great post in RPG Blog about Resolution Lag

As many of us get older, we often find that we no longer have time to game as much as we did before we grew up and had to deal with all this responsibility business, and that a wasted gaming session is a lot more of a nuisance than it was when it seemed like we had all the time in the world. To this I say, find the lag, and control it.

He identifies possible causes of resolution lag. It might be over-cumbersome game mechanics. It might be lack of player understanding of the game mechanics, leading to constant pauses while people look up obscure rules. Or it might even be scenarios that waste time on pointless activities rather than just cutting to the chase.

I find I've fallen out of love with long-winded combat systems that take forever to resolve a fight. I much prefer simpler and faster systems like Fudge, which resolve conflicts quickly and let you get on with the story. Of course, if you really like crunchy combat, that's not for you, but there are probably other things you can cut. The point of reducing resolution lag is cut back on the bits of gaming you don't like in order to concentrate on the bits you like.

Read the whole thing.

Hite on Indie Games

Ken Hite discusses indie games in his Ouf of the Box column.

Occasionally I'm taken to task by various peers and colleagues for "buying into the indie mystique," but I will say this. Leaving aside the issue that the "indie movement" has produced at least half of the true RPG masterpieces in the last five years, the various self-identifying "indie" game designers I meet at these shows are almost always folks whose first instinct is to talk about game design. That might have a lot of explanations -- I do most of my drinking with old-school designers, and so we have to decide where we're drinking before we can talk about anything else, for example. But the indie folks care, obsessively, about game design -- they have a lot in common with the War College types who, no doubt, will talk about pincer movements at Marengo at the drop of a hat. And this might help explain why the young Turks sell a whole lot of games at even the oldest-school of conventions like Origins.

I think indie games deserve to be judged on the basis of the actual games, not by the way some designers' bad attitude towards established games resembles everything that was bad about the late 70s punk movement in British music.

For the record, I still think "Tales from Topographic Oceans" is a better record than "London Calling". Unfortunately I don't think many people will agree with me.

Pretentious, Moi?

Vincent Baker comments on Ron Edwards' new game, Spione

Spione is, however, a game that'll inherently seem both very difficult and totally unrewarding to, well, to most gamers. It requires that its players have already developed - or be in the process of developing - certain skills, incompatible with certain other skills that most gamers rely on.

I gather the game is about cold war spies, focussing on the conflict between double agents personal lives and their roles as spooks. But apparently us traditional gamers are too brain-damaged ever to be able to play it.

Or alternatively, all he means is that the structure is radically different to a traditional RPG, and the stuff about 'incompatible skills' is either clever hype or pretentious nonsense, depending on your point of view.

The Stars... They Must Be Mine

Yes, it's true. Igor is the first Dork in space.