AD&D Reprints

Recently WotC revealed that they will be republishing the three core rule books for AD&D. This probably serves as a way to keep D&D books on shelves during the period between editions, and possibly to gauge interest in re-releases. This will no doubt result in some players encountering the classic game for the first time, a whole new generation of people experiencing it. It will be interesting to see what those players may come up with based on their experience. They will be coming at the game from a totally different direction. It is impossible to say how many younger players will pick it up. Will they play it in large numbers, or will it be almost totally older players buying it?

I plan on picking up copies, but mostly just for collector purposes. At this point I hardly ever use the original rule books anyway. OSRIC works so much better at the tale, due to its better organization. At this point only a a rerelease that had substantial reorganization would replace OSRIC at my table. I even suggest OSRIC for people trying to start the game for the first time over the originals. While the DMG is great to read through, it is fairly difficult to figure the game out from the original books, especially combat initiative.

Tropes in RPGs

One of the most valuable sites on the internet for adventure writing, actually almost any writing, is tvtropes.org . While tropes are often something to be avoided, or at least subverted, in fiction writing, they can be very valuable in adventure writing. The value of tropes is even higher in a convention setting. They are a shared vocabulary and shorthand that you can leverage to get your players on board with the setting. 

Getting players on board with the setting can be one of the most challenging parts of preparing and running an adventure, especially at a convention. Setting presents problems for gamemasters that writers do not have. A writer has the luxury of exploring his setting, revealing the rules of his universe as he goes. A writer knows what parts of the setting his characters, and thus the readers, are going to interact with and can provide the reader with the necessary rules and background. Furthermore, readers never do anything unexpected, they either keep reading or put your book down. Players can, and do, almost anything at any time. A gamemaster has to establish the basic feel and rules (other than mechanical game rules) of his world quickly and clearly or risk confusion. Many RPGs are set in a fantasy or science fiction world, this means that players cannot rely on their knowledge of the real world to tell them what is possible. This can be an even bigger problem if you have a player that is "genre deaf".

We have all had the genre deaf player at one point. He is the guy who does not have a very broad knowledge of the style of world you are running. He may not realize that just because there was a Genesis Device in Star Trek II, such a device may not make sense in your Traveller game. He may want a lightsaber in every science fiction setting, or he may want to play a blond, elf archer in every fantasy game. You need to be sure that you send him clear signals about what is, and is not, possible in your world. A good knowledge of the genre tropes can help you with this.

If you spend a bit of time researching the tropes that are common in your genre on tvtropes, you can develop an appreciation of what expectations they set for your audience. The site usually has a list of what tropes are commonly found in connection with each other. There is a good chance that if you put lightsabers in your game, your players will be expecting some kind of Force-like power to go along with it. This connection is obvious, but many are not. A little bit of research will help you determine what kinds of signals about your setting you are sending your players without even realizing it. This gives you a chance to clearly rule out certain tropes that you will not be using, but your players may be expecting. You can also work backwards. 

The site also has a list of places that each trope is found. Spend some time with this list and, especially for a convention game, figure out where your players are likely to have been exposed. Exposure from a film is probably more likely than from literature. If a trope you are using is present in a popular movie, check and see what other tropes were present in that movie, and decide if you need to head any of them off at the pass. You can also select a movie or book with a feel you want to emulate and see what tropes were used in that story.

Obviously you do not want to become a slave to the tropes. But, especially with a new group, you should probably limit your deviations from them. You have a limited amount of time to explain your setting before you have to let your players act (for me 5 minutes is too long). You want to be able to communicate to them what kinds of actions will be appropriate, and give them the tools necessary to fill in your descriptive blanks. Are short, mining, dwarves horribly cliched? Yes, but if you sit down for a D&D game, it is something you do not need to explain to your players. You should have unexpected things in your games, and you should subvert tropes in ways that are interesting and memorable, but you need to have enough grounding in the expected that players feel confident in acting.

Test 2

Looks like none of the blogs I tried to post have actually been posting after the first one. Let's try this again. 

Rich Baker and Steve Winter

Really WotC?

Title 1

Test of new blog software

Think Like a Mind Flayer

What goes on in the mind of a Mind Flayer? How can we ever really understand these strange, alien intelligences in our games?

Well, if they are anything like octopuses, they may have more than one brain. Each of their tentacles might have its own lower level brain. What might this mean from an in-game point of view?

From a mechanical standpoint you may want to use the multiple brains as a kind of buffer against mind effecting attacks. Perhaps the multiple brains offer a bonus to saving throws in those instances. If you want to get a bit more complicated, you could allow separate saving throws for the tentacles and the main brain; it is probably best to use one save for all the tentacles together though to keep the amount of rolls down.

Maybe the extra brains allow it to split its attention in battle without a penalty. If it is knocked unconscious there could be a chance that one of the tentacles could administer a healing potion. It is possible that the mind flayer can farm out some processes to the smaller brains, this could make its thinking very non-linear, creating strange conversations. The mind flayer might also be able to use all the brains I parallel to solve a problem quickly.

What happens if an old mind flayer gets senile? Might its tentacles operate in ways the main brain is not expecting?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Skyrim

I am about a week into Skyrim now, and I am enjoying the game quite a bit. I am a big fan of open world games in general, and Bethesda's work specifically. I spent a ridiculous amount of time playing Morrowind and it's various mods and expansion packs. But while I enjoyed Oblivion, I just played through the main story quickly; the enemy leveling system in that game was a real deal breaker for me.

This has been a great console generation for open world games. Oblivion, Fable II, Crackdown, GTA IV, Fallout, New Vegas, and my personal favorite, Red Dead Redemption have all been excellent. I have been really glad to see this kind of gaming come in to it's own on the consoles, mostly because trying to game on a PC has become so irritating and expensive over the last few years. I have pretty much switched to console gaming, and I am glad that my favorite genre has come over with me.

While Bethesda has had many good games before, this one is looking like it will be the most popular. Skyrim is doing more than just selling well, it is much more polished than Bethesda games tend to be at launch. It is also better looking and has better, although still not great, writing. It has not really sacrificed on the freedom, while making it much easier to build your character and follow the main quest if you want to. This could be the big game for Bethesda, the game that is the real breakthrough for them and their style. I think this game has the ability to bring man new players into this style of gaming, the same way that Final Fantasy VII brought so many new players into the JRPG genre on the '90s.

Skyrim is easy to play in short chunks or in long extended sittings. You can advance the main quest and not feel like you are blocking yourself off from coming back to the side missions later. I have always loved the dungeons in Elder Scrolls games, the have a nice mix between finished areas, mines, and natural caves. While the dungeons do get a bit repetitive, the all are a mixture of cave-like and finished areas, and they all have an improbable one way secret door that lets you get back to the start, they are well designed and beautiful.

My first time through, I am playing a stealth archer. I almost never play stealth characters in RPGs; I almost always play a sword and board fighter. I am already planning out my next play through as a dark elf mage.

I will be getting my money's worth out of this one.