Great Shot Kid! That Was One In A Million!

 Happy Orthodox Star Wars Day Everybody!

While we love to celebrate Star Wars on 'May the Fourth' for the pun if nothing else, the true birthdate for Star Wars is May 25th. It was on this day in 1977 that the original film, now referred to as Episode IV: A New Hope, was released in movie theatres across the USA..

I saw the film opening day and loved it so much I watched it again! And again. And again. And yes, again. Five times on the day of its release thanks to a day off from school (the reason for which I do not recall) and my maternal grandfather being the manager of a theatre.

Raise a glass of Blue Milk with me won't you and join in wishing Star Wars a Very Happy Birthday!

AD

Barking Alien

Thoughts to De-Cypher

My Sunday group recently finished an original 'Mecha vs. Kaiju' campaign using the Cypher System by Monte Cook Games. It's OK, you don't need to apologize. You didn't do anything. I'm not blaming you, nor anyone really. It was my own decision. I could have said no.

In defense of the GM*, he did a good job with the campaign itself, in spite of the fact that he didn't have a really good source for running this particular genre with the Cypher system. Had he had a solid sourcebook/rule supplement specifically geared towards helping a GM to run a Mecha vs. Kaiju themed game, he would likely have been able to add a spoon full of sugar to help the system go down better. 

I'm just joshing of course but yeah, I don't like those mechanics OK, I basically despise them but that isn't really what this post is about. The point of this entry is something I observed during the game that related to something else I've been thinking about lately. In order to wash away my feelings about Cypher, I want to take a look at why it didn't work for me and why a very different outlook on game design is appealing to me more and more. 

In Cypher, the player rolls a D20 and attempts to beat a number determined by the opponent's or situation's Level (or Tier? PCs have Tiers which are just Levels so...) times 3. So, to hit a Level 3 monster, the PC needs to beat a 9. Yep. You get a number (Level - Difficulty), multiply it by a number (3), in order to get another number (in this case 9). Way easier than saying, 'OK, you need to beat a 9', right? Anyway...

During the actual campaign, it seemed like the overall average difficulty for enemies and tasks was 12 and 15. A PC can spend points from one of three pools (which pool dependent upon the nature of the action) to lower that difficulty. Based on another aspect of your character, it can cost between 1-3 pool points to drop the Difficulty one Level. I would guess each of the three Players/PCs spent points one out of every three actions. Why so often? Because we missed a lot. A LOT! Even after spending the points, we still missing fairly often. So much missing!

In a game with a binary Success/Fail outcome, missing sucks. Sure, sometimes you miss or fail, that's gaming and life. That said, if I go and miss and then the next player, two villains, and then the last player go before the GM gets back to me and then I $^%&ing miss AGAIN...it's more than frustrating. It isn't fun.

Bare in mind, nothing else is happening. I just miss. There is no cool side effect, no interesting 'you miss but this opportunity opens up...' or anything like that. You just sit and wait your turn until you miss again. You could also hit. It's possible. Through out this, you are likely spending points from the same finite pool that powers your special abilities and in the case of 'Might' serves as your Hit Points as well. 

Anyway, I don't want to dwell on the specifics of Cypher but rather the mindset that went into the design. It doesn't reward failure, regardless of the context of that failure. A good idea followed by a poor roll equals a failure result. Having a good idea doesn't really matter. Sure, the GM can award you a reduced Difficulty if they want want but I am not sure if the rules-as-written include that idea. My point is, Cypher appears to be built on much the same mentality as Dungeons & Dragons (not surprising - Monte Cook don't you know); Hit/Miss resolution, little Narrative influences or results, and your PC begins the game incompetent. 

Meanwhile...

I've seen some talk about the upcoming Final Fantasy XIV Tabletop Roleplaying Game from none other than the 'House of Final Fantasy' itself, Square Enix. One of the interesting ideas the game is supposed to feature is the way your 'To Hit' roll works. Based on the way it works in the MMO itself, you always hit. Take a moment, step back, breathe deeply and release it slowly, now read that over again. You always hit. 

The Starter Set and Core Rulebook

All coming soon...

From the FFXIV Reddit Community:

• Attack rolls are checked against physical or magic defense (AC). Attacks will always hit, but rolling (+ bonus) above defense is a Direct Hit and has additional effects (just more damage?).

• Nat 20s are Critical Hits, which double your damage or healing. There are no critical misses (Nat 1).

What a fascinating approach to the normally punitive to the players combat systems of classic Fantasy TRPGs. I'm not sure I love no Critical Misses as those offer opportunities for cool complications and narrative additions but I get it as those wouldn't appear in the MMORPG. Hmm. Wonder how hard it would be to mod that? Sorry, where was I...

On this same line of thinking there's the Japanese game I recently covered (and merged with Ghostbusters), Tokyo Ghost Research. TGR also has every roll (combat or otherwise) succeed unless the player decrees that they fail. If the roll meets or beats the  Target Number it results in a positive outcome. If its less than the Target Number you get a generally positive outcome plus a negative or problematic outcome to go with it. You either succeed or succeed with 'Trouble'. What's Trouble? Something interesting.

I know I use the word 'interesting' a lot here but really, after 47 years of gaming, games that go: roll, hit, damage, roll, miss, roll, hit, damage are immediately followed by yawning. A lot of RPGs, the majority I think its fair to say, focus on Combat or more accurately have Combat as a key component of the game. If that Combat is flat, untextured, and dry it means you're going to be experiencing that blandness regularly. I just can't take that. I don't have the attention or patience for un-engaging combat scenes that happen often. Ugh. 

The same is true, to a less extent perhaps, to non-combat activities amounting to nothing. Skills rolls for things that should just happen because of the in-setting context that a character is a specialist in the thing they're doing and/or the meta-context that if its just a failure the game comes to a halt. Either just allow the PC to succeed at the endeavor or make the roll have the possibility of an added positive or negative outcome. 

Have actions worth rolling for result in a useful, detrimental, or otherwise memorable outcome. Also, I personally prefer games where the PCs, the protagonists of your story, don't seem like they absolutely suck. They shouldn't always be successful; I want to be clear that's not what I'm saying. What I'm trying to convey is the idea that out of five actions, four of them being failures is lame - unless that failure comes with a 'and yet', 'but you notice', or some other narrative element that makes failure as fun, or at least nearly as fun, as success.

AD

Barking Alien

*The GM of our Cypher game, as well as the other players, enjoy the system very much. They have various reasons for this and they're all as valid and legitimate as my criticisms (for whatever that amounts to). The GM finds the system extremely easy to run, the rules requiring the least amount of prep of any game he's played. Understandable that this would be appealing, even more so given the differences in how he preps and executes a game compared to myself [who's generally loosey-goosey with rule mechanics in favor of rule of cool.]

Cypher isn't a bad-wrong, terrible system. It just really isn't for me. 

 

Live Long and Prosperity

Yesterday evening, my Friday night gaming group completed the second half of the first 'episode' of 'Season 8' of our Star Trek Adventures campaign, Star Trek: Prosperity.

Passed through the Universal Translator, this means we played the second session of the eighth year of our game, finishing a two-part adventure. Eight years marks the longest running campaign I've ever Gamemastered. It has gone on for nearly twice the length of any of my previous Star Trek campaigns across three different systems (FASA, Last Unicorn Games, and Star Trek Adventures itself).

 

The four Player Characters (first row) and cast of Major NPCs - Seasons 3 to 7

The game's sessions have been an average of four hours long and run roughly biweekly. We've missed or skipped a get together here and there due to personal or work related issues and holidays but I estimate we've had around 140 sessions. For the first few months of the campaign, we used the Last Unicorn Games ICON System version of the Star Trek RPG but, after a brief hiatus, we converted everything over to Star Trek Adventures. 

In the earliest sessions, which occurred 'in-person' prior to the Covid Global Pandemic, there were a few additional players who came in and out but the same four key players who have been there since the beginning are still here. 

It hasn't always been easy, as this group is made up of some strong and occasionally conflicting personalities. Add to that the fact that some of them have core viewpoints on adventure and campaign design that differ from my own. Still and all, we've all pursued the same goal of ensuring the game works to the best of each of our abilities. The entire group is committed to making the game fun for each of us and all of us. 

Character Progression occurs every even numbered 'Season', with the Players gaining bonuses ranging from increases to their Attributes and/or Disciplines, a new Focus, or a new Talent. Usually it's some combo of these as it happened only once a year.  

Every odd numbered year they get an upgrade to their starship, the USS Prosperity. In addition to the advantages of Rugged Design and a Rear Mounted Photon Torpedo Tube (a rarity in The Original Series era in which we play), the ship started with two flaws:

The Nacelle Warp Coils were stressed and/or damaged by maintaining high warp for an extended period - especially the Port Side Nacelle. 

each time the Prototype Rear Photon Torpedo was fired the launch tube was knocked out of alignment. This required additional Task Checks between each shot. Also, whereas firing Photon Torpedoes adds a point of Threat (an in-game Gamemaster currency), the Rear Mounted Photon Torpedo generated two. 

Over time the flaws were repaired and Advanced Sensors, an Improved Warp Drive, and the ability to Rapid Fire their forward Torpedo Tube were added. Thanks to the Prosperity and her crew, the aging Ventura Class vessels still in operation were being upgraded (usually a couple of steps behind the Prosperity itself). Unfortunately, the class as a whole was originally scheduled to be mothballed, with no new such ship having been commissioned in years. A 'B plot' had the PC Chief Engineer, Commander Bhoth, work with the NPC Asst. Chief in order to prove to Starfleet Command that the Ventura Class was still viable. In the end they saved the design, with the first brand new Ventura due to be completed soon (in Season 8). 

In the two-part 'opener', the Prosperity's First Officer and Chief Science Officer Commander Solok returns to Vulcan along with the other PCs in order to marry his long term romantic interest, the ship's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Margaret 'Maggie' Hanover. Following the wedding, Solok's player essentially retired the character. After eight years of playing the Vulcan Science Officer, my friend Leo wanted to try something else. 

The rest of the team left Solok and the NPC Doctor to the next stage of their lives while they traveled back to the USS Prosperity. En route, the established command crew meet a young Helmsman, Lt. Charles 'Charlie' Wilder, Leo's new character. When the transport bringing them 'home' was attacked by religious zealots and a creepy space kaiju, the level-headed and action oriented Captain Ann Fletcher took command. Tapping each PCs unique set of skills, Fletcher organized and facilitated the transport's escape from the massive monster. The episode ended with the wounded ship pulling up alongside the USS Prosperity and Deep Space 5. 

Alien Friends and Foes

The next episode and Season 8 as a whole will see a considerable paradigm shift in the game and it's one the group and I are definitely down for. Our perfectionist, poor-work-to-life-balance Chief Engineer is going to become the First Officer. New PC Charlie Wilder, a more action oriented character, gives me an excuse to switch up the type of adventures I run, with fewer science mysteries and more fights against alien gladiators (and such). We'll have a new NPC Doctor. I've got sooo many things planned. 

After 8 years, over 70 different adventure ideas, and 200 sessions I am still inspired to run this game. Amazing. 

'Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning'...

AD

Barking Alien

Star Wars VISIONS - The Roleplaying Game

Bright Sun's and Happy Star Wars Weekend everyone!

In celebration of May the 4th and 5th, I wanted to share an idea I've been developing in my...um...I was going to say 'spare time' but we all know that isn't a real thing, now don't we?

I recently found out that the next Star Wars Celebration event in 2025 will be in Japan. How cool is that! It got me to thinking about my favorite pieces of Star Wars content from the last few years: Star Wars VISIONS. 

A key element making many of the installments of the Star Wars VISIONS anthology so amazing is the fact that they don't have to be connected to the greater Star Wars canon and in fact, aren't.

The 'Ninth Jedi' takes place in a distant (though undefined) future. 

'Journey to the Dark Head' seems to be set in the Old or High Republic. Again, seems.

'Aau's Song', 'Akakiri', and 'Screecher's Reach' take place in indeterminate times and places.

In my opinion, this is a major factor in why these entries are so awesome. 

Looking back on my many Star Wars campaigns, all the best ones were run in the real world era wherein we didn't have any 'canon' beyond the original film trilogy. Everything else - from the books, to the comics, and of course the West End Games RPG - were myths and legends describing someone's own take on a galaxy 'Long Ago and Far, Far Away'. 

For some time now I've been thinking, 'I wish I could go back to that time.' Essentially, I'd like to run a TRPG campaign in the Star Wars universe but not necessarily in the Star Wars canon. Would that work nowadays? Could it?

These thoughts led me to postulate how I could use a system other then my beloved Star Wars D6 to give such a campaign both a distinctly different feel and, simultaneously, imply a separate 'non-canon' version of the setting. 

Star Wars D6 is, for me at least, 'real Star Wars' as far as Star Wars tabletop RPGs go. It was the only widely shared and accepted source on information about the Star Wars universe for years. It informed Timothy Zahn's 'Heir to the Empire' trilogy, the Prequels, and even some content that was actually good (Ooh! Not he didn't!) like the Rebels episode 'Wings of the Master', based on the WEG adventure 'Strikeforce Shantipole'. (He did by the way. I read it again to make sure). 

So, the idea is that using another game for Star Wars automatically makes it a another kind of Star Wars for me. Does that make sense to anyone else? It makes sense to me but I know sometimes I think oddly. lol The question then becomes, 'What game and what sort of Star Wars am I considering?' Well...

I'd like to use the Japanese Doujinshi TRPG 'Space Ship Story' to run a Star Wars VISIONS: The Roleplaying Game. I'm thinking lots of Anime/Manga influence, kinetic combat, melodrama, and of course lots of cool art/visuals. 

Star Wars VISIONS 'Original Manga' 

Art by Tomohiro Shimoguchi

More on this as it develops but I really believe this idea will work. Fingers (and maybe Lightsabers) crossed.  

AD

Barking Alien