Jeff Rients has announced the Worldwide Adventure Writing Month a chance for all us budding adventure writers to drag out some ideas from the back of our minds and stretch our legs a little.
For myself, despite my attempts to write my own games system I am considering just running it under an already established system, in part because I hope that if I write it people might actually play the bloody thing. To this end I have a problem, which system to write for? The shortlist is:
Original Dungeons & Dragons- OD&D has been appealing to me recently. The system may be brutal by comparison to the more 'heroic' later editions but I am enamoured with the simplicity of it and the freedom that the DM has to interpret the attributes of characters and the adventure components in a way that is unique to the DM.
Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition- A decent system and the 4th ed Dungeon Master's Guide is very helpful to DMs trying to make their own adventures. The problem is that 4th edition is very much system based, having a resolution system with skills for completing roleplaying encounters; which I'm not entirely sure I like. However 4th Edition is what my players are rolling with now and I am intimately familiar with its intricacies.
FUDGE- A good, simple and free to own system, I like FUDGE but I'm not entirely sure I want to run it.
So what's the answer? Well; 4th edition it seems. It would fit seamlessly onto my groups current adventures; sliding onto the end of the Keep on the Shadowfell by returning the characters to a city in which they can sell their ill gotten loot and become embroiled with some intrigue and a city based adventure. And so...
... It begins with a dead man in a tavern. Slumped face down over the side of his bed, a vial in his hand and a women swears through quaking lips his name is Pacobel the clown, jester and retainer to the late king...
Can you run a murder-mystery in 4th ed? I'm about to find out
Friday 27 June 2008
Friday 13 June 2008
Keep. It. Simple. Stupid.
I've been reading the rebuttal to FATAL, that old chestnut of the RPGnet community, and whilst I don't want to get into the minutiae of internet disagreements I did start to think about the way in which an amateur of RPG design can go wrong. There are several obvious rules that I think we all know, but it can be very easy to lose sight of those simple rules. Here I think are the obvious one and I write this not so much to educate (there are plenty of better resources and designers to listen to than me) but to remind myself of the things that I want to use to make my game:
Keep It Fun- Obvious really, the problem with this is that what people think is fun is dependant upon your source of origin. Plundering tombs of an ancient necromancer is fun for some people but for others role-playing a paranormal investigation with interesting NPCs is fun. Ultimately you’ve got to go with your gut, choose to make something that you yourself would like to play, and hope that the system that evolves from this appeals to those people who share your interest. I prefer fantasy style games so it’s unlikely I could sway the Vampire of Call of Cthulu guys, and I think trying to make an all singing all dancing universal system would ultimately weaken what I’m trying to do with the game. I guess this leads on to:
Stick to your Goals- It’s important to know where you’re going, to have a clear vision of what you want your game to achieve, but it can be easy to get sidetracked. I’ve been writing EasyType for a while now and I’ve dabbled with lots of other ideas in setting and tone before I actually got a group together to play the damned thing, but I remained true to what I wanted; an easy to play beer and pretzels (or tea and crumpets, I’m English don’t-you-know?) kind of game, and I’d like to think I’m achieving that.
Be humble- Most of us, and by most I mean 99% of us, are not going to change the role-playing landscape with our homebrewed system, and that’s fine. However the one thing we should never do is announce ourselves as the second coming with a system that will cast all others and their followers into the sea for daring to defy the one true game. As far as I’m concerned it’s enough to make a competent system that is enjoyable to play, anything more than that is a bonus. Finally:
Keep. It. Simple. STUPID!- This is more a personal rule. Some people like complicated games with random hit locations and long critical hit charts, perhaps more complex rulings to make for realistic combat and the like. However for me this is a game and I want to play, and I wanted to make it for my friends who are pretty new to the whole gaming experience. I don’t mind adding some interesting flavour on top, but I must remember that for them simple is better than more crunchy, in-depth systems.
It’s easy to stray from these rules without thinking, you keep dreaming up cool stuff, crazy powers and weird monsters but every once in a while I want to look at these rules and ask myself ‘Did you get the basics right? Is it fun? Is it easy? Is it what you want to do?’ and if it ever isn’t I’ll have to pull it all down and start again, perhaps a little wiser than I was before.
Keep It Fun- Obvious really, the problem with this is that what people think is fun is dependant upon your source of origin. Plundering tombs of an ancient necromancer is fun for some people but for others role-playing a paranormal investigation with interesting NPCs is fun. Ultimately you’ve got to go with your gut, choose to make something that you yourself would like to play, and hope that the system that evolves from this appeals to those people who share your interest. I prefer fantasy style games so it’s unlikely I could sway the Vampire of Call of Cthulu guys, and I think trying to make an all singing all dancing universal system would ultimately weaken what I’m trying to do with the game. I guess this leads on to:
Stick to your Goals- It’s important to know where you’re going, to have a clear vision of what you want your game to achieve, but it can be easy to get sidetracked. I’ve been writing EasyType for a while now and I’ve dabbled with lots of other ideas in setting and tone before I actually got a group together to play the damned thing, but I remained true to what I wanted; an easy to play beer and pretzels (or tea and crumpets, I’m English don’t-you-know?) kind of game, and I’d like to think I’m achieving that.
Be humble- Most of us, and by most I mean 99% of us, are not going to change the role-playing landscape with our homebrewed system, and that’s fine. However the one thing we should never do is announce ourselves as the second coming with a system that will cast all others and their followers into the sea for daring to defy the one true game. As far as I’m concerned it’s enough to make a competent system that is enjoyable to play, anything more than that is a bonus. Finally:
Keep. It. Simple. STUPID!- This is more a personal rule. Some people like complicated games with random hit locations and long critical hit charts, perhaps more complex rulings to make for realistic combat and the like. However for me this is a game and I want to play, and I wanted to make it for my friends who are pretty new to the whole gaming experience. I don’t mind adding some interesting flavour on top, but I must remember that for them simple is better than more crunchy, in-depth systems.
It’s easy to stray from these rules without thinking, you keep dreaming up cool stuff, crazy powers and weird monsters but every once in a while I want to look at these rules and ask myself ‘Did you get the basics right? Is it fun? Is it easy? Is it what you want to do?’ and if it ever isn’t I’ll have to pull it all down and start again, perhaps a little wiser than I was before.
Playing Easytype Chapter 1- The Ostensian Bazaar Incident
Long time no see.
Recently I started a new system and a new test group consisting of my girlfriend playing her cross dressing thief boy (Hitori) and his priestly guardian (Faud). We'd run a single session which found the dynamic duo in possession of a magical dwarven sword before we ended the session, the next time we added my girlfriend's buddy to the mix with her tiefling and had a long roleplaying encounter within the city of Ostensis where Hitori and Faud had gone to get the sword identified by Old Man Kilik.
This session was pretty low on actual mechanics, which was unfortunate since this group is in effect testing the rules in a controlled manner. However it was home to some of the best roleplaying I've ever gotten out of the group, with interesting characters popping up at every turn and possibly the best botched roll I have ever seen.
Let me set the scene, Kilik tells the party that they need to do something for him, taking from them the sword for analysis and asking a favour as repayment, to quiet the undead beneath Ostensis in the Nekumeth Cyst, however to gain entry they needed the find Brother Belubute, a local priest of Apeostis (A lawful deity and a group of Chaotic characters did not mix well) and he told them they would need to complete a ritual to teleport to the Cyst involving 7 fallow candles, 8 coins, a bar of silver and some drops of infernal blood.
The party hit the bazaar and they had the gold for what they needed, but being a chaotic lot they decided to follow the path of greed and steal the candles from a merchant. In broad daylight. In the middle of a busy bazaar. It's not as insane as it sounds.
Allow me to explain. Easytpe, the name of the new system I've been dabbling with works on a very simple system. You have a skill and a number in it from -1 to +3, Hitori being trained as a thief had a +0 and had snuck around using his stealth skill to blend into the crowd, so I gave him a +1 to his thievery attempt. Unfortunatly the dice were not with my girlfriend who proceeded to roll a 2 and was caught by not just the shop keeper but also the local guard. Running time had come.
With my usual party I could have expected this to devolve into a fight, a blokey lot we are and not adverse to rumbling with the guards, however these girls were little more crafty. Our friend decided she would start screaming "thief!", leading the guard to her and away from the actual thief, soon Faud did the same and Hitori slunk back into the crowd and blended in, sidled up to the merchant she'd just tried to steal from and slipped the candle off the counter. This time the roll was good and the party waltzed away with their prize.
This was a good session as I had done no planning for it, just come up with the setting and a couple of characters and some vague plot outline, the players really filled in the blanks and the system was unobtrusive and flexible, when dice were rolled there was no pause in the action and the flow was maintained. Furthermore my decision to not include social skills (relying instead upon players acting out their parts to a degree) was entirely justified when my girlfriend (playing androgenous crossdresser Hitori) attempted to seduce a merchant into giving them a deal on buying a silver candlestick, the roleplay was good (if a little creepy) and has laid down some good threads for future sessions.
Next session will be in the Nekumeth Cyst itself, an interesting localé that with enough time I'm sure the party will be able to get through and should set up the central thrust of our future story arcs, I will post more when we get around to it:
What we liked:
*Kilik, the old bastard
*The bazaar incident was awesome
*Scenario largely sandboxed
What we disliked:
*An absence of combat
*A bit short
What we learned:
*Sandboxing a game is entirely doable and Easytype is simple enough to allow it.
Recently I started a new system and a new test group consisting of my girlfriend playing her cross dressing thief boy (Hitori) and his priestly guardian (Faud). We'd run a single session which found the dynamic duo in possession of a magical dwarven sword before we ended the session, the next time we added my girlfriend's buddy to the mix with her tiefling and had a long roleplaying encounter within the city of Ostensis where Hitori and Faud had gone to get the sword identified by Old Man Kilik.
This session was pretty low on actual mechanics, which was unfortunate since this group is in effect testing the rules in a controlled manner. However it was home to some of the best roleplaying I've ever gotten out of the group, with interesting characters popping up at every turn and possibly the best botched roll I have ever seen.
Let me set the scene, Kilik tells the party that they need to do something for him, taking from them the sword for analysis and asking a favour as repayment, to quiet the undead beneath Ostensis in the Nekumeth Cyst, however to gain entry they needed the find Brother Belubute, a local priest of Apeostis (A lawful deity and a group of Chaotic characters did not mix well) and he told them they would need to complete a ritual to teleport to the Cyst involving 7 fallow candles, 8 coins, a bar of silver and some drops of infernal blood.
The party hit the bazaar and they had the gold for what they needed, but being a chaotic lot they decided to follow the path of greed and steal the candles from a merchant. In broad daylight. In the middle of a busy bazaar. It's not as insane as it sounds.
Allow me to explain. Easytpe, the name of the new system I've been dabbling with works on a very simple system. You have a skill and a number in it from -1 to +3, Hitori being trained as a thief had a +0 and had snuck around using his stealth skill to blend into the crowd, so I gave him a +1 to his thievery attempt. Unfortunatly the dice were not with my girlfriend who proceeded to roll a 2 and was caught by not just the shop keeper but also the local guard. Running time had come.
With my usual party I could have expected this to devolve into a fight, a blokey lot we are and not adverse to rumbling with the guards, however these girls were little more crafty. Our friend decided she would start screaming "thief!", leading the guard to her and away from the actual thief, soon Faud did the same and Hitori slunk back into the crowd and blended in, sidled up to the merchant she'd just tried to steal from and slipped the candle off the counter. This time the roll was good and the party waltzed away with their prize.
This was a good session as I had done no planning for it, just come up with the setting and a couple of characters and some vague plot outline, the players really filled in the blanks and the system was unobtrusive and flexible, when dice were rolled there was no pause in the action and the flow was maintained. Furthermore my decision to not include social skills (relying instead upon players acting out their parts to a degree) was entirely justified when my girlfriend (playing androgenous crossdresser Hitori) attempted to seduce a merchant into giving them a deal on buying a silver candlestick, the roleplay was good (if a little creepy) and has laid down some good threads for future sessions.
Next session will be in the Nekumeth Cyst itself, an interesting localé that with enough time I'm sure the party will be able to get through and should set up the central thrust of our future story arcs, I will post more when we get around to it:
What we liked:
*Kilik, the old bastard
*The bazaar incident was awesome
*Scenario largely sandboxed
What we disliked:
*An absence of combat
*A bit short
What we learned:
*Sandboxing a game is entirely doable and Easytype is simple enough to allow it.
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