31 Questions For Barking Alien - Phase II - Question 11

It's Lights, Camera, Action time with my friend Nick's box office blockbuster of a question...or is an award winning documentary?

Question #11...

What are your thoughts on cinematic gameplay and design vs. simulationist gameplay and design?

I'm going to preface my full answer with a bit of a teaser trailer...all my games are Cinematic games. They all feature Cinematic Gameplay. 

I can't help it. It's baked into the reason I got interested in TRPGs in the first place. At the age of 8 it wasn't my vast knowledge of Sword & Sorcery literature that got me to excited to play as a hero going on adventures and fighting terrible monsters. It was Movies, Television, Animation, and Comic Books. I was raised on The Muppet Show, The Marx Brothers, Mel Brooks, Looney Tunes, Disney films, Star Trek, Star Wars, Superman, The Legion of Superheroes, and a host of other entertainment media that taught me the essentials of Gamemastering; no not rules knowledge silly, the important stuff!

Comedic and dramatic timing, building a scene, cool locations and backdrops, camera angles, sound effects, voice acting, improvisation, and everything that makes a given moment or series of moments in a game exciting and memorable. 

With that out of the way...

My thoughts on the subject kind of go the way of trying to be an 'Emulationist'.

My goal when creating a campaign is to emulate the genre, setting, atmosphere, and particulars of whatever it is I and those I'm gaming with are focused on portraying. 

For example, let's take the American West circa the mid-to-late 19th century. If I were trying to emulate the West as it truly was, if I were doing a realistic portrayal of the era, I would want a Simulationist game. I'd need to track resources, count bullets, have deadly combat, disease rules, etc.

I thin it would require that in order to lean into the brutal and desperate nature of survival in the American wilderness, the cutthroat politics and business of an expanding nation, and the

 tensions between the settlers and the indigenous peoples, etc. 

On the other hand, if I were trying to emulate Wild West movies and TV shows, I would go with a Cinematic system. Something that keeps the feel of the 'Old West' but allows for more dramatic battles and crazy stunts. 

If I were making a 'Bonanza RPG', I would go Cinematic but search for one the specifically modeled the tropes and cliché story beats we saw in that series.

Near future, realistic Science Fiction like the upcoming Pioneer RPG isn't a rollicking Space Opera like Stars Without Number. Nor is Stars Without Number the same sort of rollicking Space Opera the same as Star Trek Adventures. Each of these is its own animal and I am looking for the RPG whose gameplay matches the substance and style of that distinctive and unique animal.

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I feel the need to acknowledge the deaths of Rob Reiner and his wife Michele.

I grew up watching Rob Reiner as Michael 'Meathead' Stivic on All in the Family. Later, the accomplished comedic actor and director would direct some of my all time favorite films. In addition to his Entertainment Industry accomplishments, Reiner was a good and decent man who warmed the hearts and inspired the minds of those who knew him and appreciated his work.

I didn't expect this particular passing to effect me so but it has.

Rest in Peace.

31 Questions for Barking Alien - Question 9

Question #9 is another inquiry from my friend Andrew F. Rodriguez who asks...

Are there game settings that have yet to be explored?

Huh. Are there? Can there be? Honestly I'm not entirely sure, nor am I certain how one would know. Also, setting or genre? There will always be new settings so the answer there would automatically be yes. Genre is tougher.

I'm sure I haven't personally explored every possible setting that has ever been published, professionally or otherwise. A part of me, the part that originally powered my desire to try any and all new games as mentioned in my answer to Question 5, truly hopes so. 

For some reason I'm reminded of an observation I and others have made about Japanese Manga and Anime - none are unique but many are original.

Take Neon Genesis Evangelion for example. Basically when you boil it down its an 'Alien Invasion Mecha Show'. Aliens attack the Earth and we, the Humans, attempt to fight them off with giant robots built from confiscated/salvaged Alien technology. We've seen that a hundred times before and after Evangelion. Ideon, Macross, some of the Getta Robo series, and many more feature this premise. So why is NGE lauded as such an incredible series?

A) Because of the way the story is told.

B) because that's not what Evangelion is really about at all.

NGE is a study of character, consequences, and what lengths the Human mind will go to in order to deal with trauma. It is (as noted) not unique in its subject matter but original in the way it portrays it. It is a Mecha Anime setting but one very distinct from Mobile Suit Gundam, Five Star Stories, or Aura Battler Dunbine.

That right there is what I hope for when I check out a game setting I've never played before. I don't want yet another Fantasy Game setting that doesn't do anything interesting. I want a new or different take on a Fantasy RPG setting or one with a really distinct character.

All that said, here are some unusual RPG settings from Japan that aren't necessarily new (some are) but which you don't really see explored in the West. At the very least not all that often or that well.

Double Charger 44 is a futuristic racing game (America needs more cool racing games) akin to a roleplaying game set in the worlds of the F-Zero or WipeOut video game franchises. While not quite as expansive as my beloved Ōban Star-Racers, I could see putting a Space Opera Racing Game together without too much effort. 

Hallelujah Inferno is a game in which you play Demons in Hell trying to make the place a little more fun. Ignore that terrible reputation of eternal torture for your sins. It's great here! Go ahead and sin, we'll save you a seat at the casino's best blackjack table! Free all you can eat and drinks on the house! Very Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel. 

Kill Death Business (which I've mentioned before) has the PCs as contestants on Hell TV's most popular game show. Chase down truly wicked souls and renegade demons to win a spot in Heaven or even reincarnation back to the world of the living. 

Marshmellow Blood - A Cute & Violent RPG has to be one of the weirdest RPG concepts I've seen in a while. PCs are cartoon mascots similar to Japanese Moe characters or the practice of having Yuru-chara. They have 'The Jam', a little bit of evil in their hearts that enables them to pull pranks and make mischief in their otherwise peaceful, cutesy world. Unfortunately, some give in to their naughty aspects and start consuming more Jam to do bigger and badder things, eventually becoming monstrous Beasts. The PCs, who have just a little bit of bad in them, are the only ones who can stop the Beasts. The setting itself sounds a bit like a Studio Ghibli produced Adventure Time.

Meteor City - Star Rainy Days is a game where the players play 'Observers', people who know the truth about their laid-back little city - it's actually a port for Alien travelers. A cozy, slice of life Science Fiction RPG. The setting has a very distinctive atmosphere, even though the GM and players are encouraged to build 'the city' as the campaign goes on. 

I'm postive there are a lot more settings to explore. I hope to discover as many as I can!

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31 Questions For Barking Alien - Question 4

Here's one from my pal Andy, who actually sent me a few quite interesting inquiries. You all might know Andrew from his 31 Days/31 Characters entry, The Hyborian. 

Question #4 from Andrew F. Rodriguez

Where does the content provided from an official TTRPG (setting, story, game mechanics) begin and where does it end at the gaming table?

I am going to interpret this question as follows: 'At what point do you start to add to or divert from the official 'canon' and rules-as-written of a game that has its own established setting [and of course mechanics]. 

A funny thing about [tabletop roleplaying] games...I've often said that most are terribly overwritten. In an attempt to cover any and all actions a Player Character might take or situations they might find themelves in, a ton of extra rules and subsystems are added in, often turning a relatively workable system into a bloated mess. 

At the same time - and this is key - TRPGs, regardless of how choked with mechanics a game is, they NEVER cover everything that can and will happen in your campaign. It is literally impossible, since a virtually infinite number of possible actions and reactions is the very nature of roleplaying games. 

To me, the best RPGs have a base mechanic and everything you want to do is essentially figured out the same way. Want to rewire a hostile robot to be your ally? Roll a pool of D6s and beat a Difficulty. Want to convince the Maitre d' you were invited to the fancy shindig? Roll a pool of D6s and beat a Difficulty. Trying to slash a monster with your sword? You get the picture.

Once a default Judgement system is established, all the game needs to do is say, 'If you come up against something and you don't know how to adjudicate it...use the base mechanic in a way that makes sense.' Game Designers of the world, I just saved you a hundred plus pages and a crap ton of money in printing costs. You're welcome.

So, back to the question and how what I'm talking about relates...

Depending on the game, you're either going to get everything that could possibly happen in the setting or a general idea of how to run a game in 'this type of genre'. Some TRPGs are Shadowrun and some are Mechanics for running a Cyberpunk game with Magical Elements. These two things are not the same. Battletech/Mechwarrior is a very different beast from Mekton. 

As a general rule, the 'official game' ends when and where you reach a point where the players or the GM want to do something with the story, setting, or mechanics not covered by the established parameters given by the game. For some games that can take a while since the corebook and supplements have crossed all the t's and dotted at the i's for you. For others, that can kick in right from the start since that's the whole point. The latter type of game is basically telling you, 'Add to this. Modify it. Please! That's what its for.'.

Speaking for myself, I usually prefer that latter kind of game. Unless you're creating a franchise/IP TRPG - I'd have to discuss that subject a bit differently - I'd rather you give me a straight forward, all encompassing rule mechanic, and the base components that make the game an RPG about X. Let me begin making my own stuff right off the bat. 

Incidentally, one of the things that always bothered me about D&D in my early days in the hobby was how the game gave you Classes, Monsters, Spells, etc., but not rules/mechanics for creating those things yourself.

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For Different Folks

JB over at B/X BLACKRAZOR made a post entitled Different Strokes that discusses...well...it actually talks about a number of things but the part that really caught my attention was when he noted that different RPG groups have different Priorities of Play; similar to the idea of 'Creative Agendas' coined by Ron Edwards of The Forge way back when. 

He then goes on to note the Priorities of Play that Dungeons and Dragons incorporates and which are an integral part of it's design and play philosophy. I would say he sums them up rather well (though I will paraphrase slightly):

Shared Joint Objective (Everyone wants treasure)

Players/PCs are Being Challenged - Deadly Challenges force engagement (Pay attention or die)

Asymmetry of Classes - PCs Must Cooperate to Succeed (Different classes bring different skills)

Simple Mechanics Increase Accessibility (Roll dice, look at chart, etc.)

Kitchen Sink Setting Provides Many Possibilities for Exploration

Personally I don't feel D&D actually succeeds at achieving all of these goals but I understand people do and that's great. 

The more interesting bit to me is that JB also points out a particular Priority that is very important to my own style of gaming, 'Exploration of a particular genre and/or setting'. Obviously this is a priority element for the games I run and like to play. He seems to say this specific agenda replaces Being Challenged. I don't quite understand that, seeing the two things as compatible and capable of co-existing in a single campaign. 

Reading his post and this section in particular got me to thinking about my own Priorities of Play, both in general and for the specific games I enjoy most such as Star Trek, Star Wars, Superheroes, and Ghostbusters just to name a few. While each of the these likely has it's own list of game specific Priorities, there are some ideas that I like to see regardless of the campaign in question. In fact, I likely gravitate towards the game settings mentioned above partly because they are well suited towards my preferences. 

What I am looking for is:

Shared Thematic Objective (The setting informs what everyone wants)

All Starfleet Officers want to seek out new life and new civilizations. All Rebels want to overthrow the Empire. All Superheroes want to protect the innocent from criminals and other evil-doers. All Ghostbusters want to bust ghosts and pay their bills. 

Individual Compatible Objectives (PCs each want something that doesn't conflict with theme)

The Starfleet Medical Officer wants to find a cure for a specific disease. The Chief Engineer is trying to design a new class of Shuttlecraft. The Chief Navigator wants to find a famous lost Starship from the Four Years War. The Chief Scientist is in love with the Chief of Security but doesn't know how to express their feelings. 

Personal goals that do not prevent them from collectively going 'Where No One Has Gone Before'. 

Players/PCs are Being Challenged - Interesting Challenges keep Players Interested

Death is not the only way to engage players in a game. Engage them with what interests them and then add in obstacles that make the players think in order to overcome them. Situations may be deadly and failure has consequences but PCs can also suffer personal loss, emotional pain, and other 'fates worse than death'. 

Everyone Can Do What Needs Doing - All are good. Some are better. 

If the game takes place in the Star Wars universe, every character in it unless there is a character or story driven reason should be competent at everyday things in that universe. Most everybody can fire a blaster. Most everyone can drive a Landspeeder. Most people can fly some kind of Starship. Some people are better at a specific thing than others. Some people have a skill in a less common area that their companions don't have or lack a skill because they grew up on a backwater world with a lower tech civilization. That said, the majority of PCs can do what needs doing in the game. 

Droids are a good example. They are everywhere in the Star Wars universe and they do a wide variety of things. Everybody or nearly everybody should know how to operate a Droid. A lot of people should be able to program one and/or enact general repairs. Some people are really good at fixing them and can even modify one. A smaller group can build one from scratch. 

Mini-rant/Opinion Piece: This is something that really annoys me about most Fantasy games. D&D for example is about killing monsters and stealing their stuff. That's what its about. So in my opinion every character, All PCs, should have killing monsters and stealing things skills. Everyone should start out as a combo Fighter/Thief (or Rogue if you prefer) with some being more Fighter-y and others more Thief-y if they wish. Baseline though, everybody is a mix of these two Classes. We'll call it 'Adventurer'. Every D&D PC starts out as an Adventurer.

Then you add Wizard, Cleric, More Fighter, More Thief, or whathaveyou to make your character stand out. In Ars Magica everyone plays a Mage as well as one or more companions who may be of any number of non-Magical professions. Why? Sometimes you need to be a Mage. Sometimes you need to be a skilled denizen of Mythic Europe. That's what the game is about. Whoah! Mind blown!

This is very clearly seen in Star Trek RPGs. Everyone can technically fill any given position on the bridge but each excels in their area of expertise. None of the Ghostbusters are unable to fire a Neutrona Wand or use a PKE Meter. 

Simple Mechanics That Fit On A Character Sheet

If at all possible, you should be able to roll the dice, look at the result, and immediately know if you are looking at a Success, Failure, Partial, or whether it has special meaning. If you need to reference a chart, the game has one strike against it immediately IMHO. Roll a thing to check a thing to find a thing is two things too many. 

The exception is if the chart being referenced results in something interesting; it must be more engaging then 'You hit and do +1 Damage'. You wasted my valuable time on that? Chart, you're fired. At the very least, the bare minimum, give me some color to explain it and make it worth my while. Charts like the Stress/Panic Chart or Serious Wound Chart from Free League's ALIEN RPG are great. Colorful, interesting effects, and they can change the conditions of the PCs and/or their environment. 

Specific Settings with Internal Consistency - It all makes sense within its own context. 

I always say, "It doesn't have to make Real World sense but it must make sense in the game you're playing". This is probably the greatest element of my older games that is lost in my games over the last ten to fifteen years, all the way up to the present. Players are so proud of being 'clever' and 'realistic' that they suck all the excitement and atmosphere out of a game. Instead of forcing the genre to adhere to real life, immerse yourself in the genre. Tropes are not just cliches of a storytelling approach, they are the laws of physics in the setting you are playing in. 

I don't care how it works in reality. If we are doing a game based on a TV show, things work the way they work on the show. Four Color Superheroes have Secret Identities and no one figures it out easily because that's how Four Color Superhero Comic Books work. All the Aliens and all the Starfleet Officers understand each other because that's how it is on Star Trek - unless the plot requires the Universal Translators to have difficulty with a given language. Embrace this. Run with it.

As I've said before, I don't really like Kitchen Sink settings where anything and everything can and does happen unless there is some unifying theme or reason behind why it's like that. I have always found that if you mix every flavor you can find together in one pot, the end result has no taste at all or it's really bad.

Well, that should be enough for now. Let me know what your Priorities of Play are in the comments! 

Happy Holiday!

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A Day To Remember

I woke up this morning to a link shared by one of my close friends and fellow gamers to this youtube video by The OG GM's Adventures discussing his latest entry into the RPGaDay 2021.

In it he tackles the prompt 'Translate' by mentioning the Goblin Slayer RPG translation and the fact that he not only feels he doesn't need one but also, paraphrasing 'Do we need any IP made into a full game or can they just make a system-agnostic sourcebook/sourcebook for an existing generic system?'

This seems like the perfect subject to address today for my 44th Anniversary in the TRPG Gaming Hobby! That's right guys, gals, non-binary pals, and all entities across the multiverse - I have been gaming since August 25th, 1977! Woohoo! What a long, strange trip it's been as the Grateful Dead might say.

Barkley celebrates his own way. 

On to the subject at hand...

The OG GM says that we don't really need a whole, $75 dollar RPG to run most IPs. They don't need their own game but rather Sourcebooks, not unlike those that go along with GURPS.

For those less familiar, GURPS is a generic rules system with numerous Sourcebooks that can be 'plugged in' to support using the basic system with a variety of different genres, settings, and IPs. There is a GURPS Japan for running in the Feudal/Medieval periods of Japan and a GURPS Lensman for running games in the universe of E.E. 'Doc' Smith's Space Opera hero. 

When you think about it, do we need an entire Goblin Slayer RPG, a Dragon Prince RPG, or a Delicious in Dungeon (Dungeon Meshi) RPG - which I am working on in my spare time - Muwahahaha! Spare time! That's hilarious. - when they (game designers and publishers) could just put out less expensive Sourcebooks so you could play these IP settings using Dungeons and Dragons, Savage Worlds, or some generic game system or other?

A good question and one that relies largely on preference and taste. Certainly if a publisher put out a Goblin Slayer Sourcebook for D&D I'd buy it but it wouldn't be what I want. I don't like D&D...or Savage Worlds or GURPS or most other generic games for that matter. It would only be useful to me in the source material it provides. I would still have to find or make a system with which to run the game. 

What I would much rather have - and I feel this is the point that OG GM misses - is a game tailor made to emulate the IP in question. I don't like the idea of forcing a square peg of Star Trek or Star Wars into a round shaped Savage World hole. It almost never works out well. I would go out on a limb as to say it can never work as well as a set of mechanics built around the IP for the end goal of creating a game that truly feels like it fits the particulars of the setting.

I am currently in love with the ALIEN RPG system from Free League Publishing and think it would be awesome to adapt it or at least parts of it to Ghostbusters. On the other hand I haven't thought about adapting it to Superheroes or Cowboys. What makes the game special IMHO isn't the same as what makes those other genres special.

Finally, I totally understand not wanting to shell out $75 dollars for a new RPG when you already have a bunch of RPGs in your library. Of course, I hope you don't have just one or two in your library. You would need to have at least a dozen or so to be thinking/feeling this way I'd imagine. Otherwise, you are greatly limiting yourself. That is just my opinion of course. I am into variety and the idea that there is yet another new RPG coming out always interests me. It interests me even more when it's based on something I like. 

If WotC announces a new supplement for D&D I barely pay it any mind (that's being gracious actually). If its announced that there is a Anime-themed supplement for Cortex, I will likely give the page a read. If Dicebreaker says, 'River Horse Publishing, makers of the Labyrinth Adventure Game is doing a Dark Crystal Tabletop RPG' I am immediately putting money aside. That bad boy is mine. 

Basically, I want more game options not less. Sure it would be nice if games were less expensive these days but that's why I don't buy everything. I buy what interests me. Funny enough, there are many IP based games that do.

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The Same But Different

The unassailable Tim Knight of HeroPress posed an interesting question in the comments of my previous post:

"Are there any genres/topics that the Japanese TTRPG market covers that we don't?"

It just so happens that on the day I put up that post, on the day he commented, I was thinking about that very subject and considered making it the focus of an upcoming entry. This is not so much that entry but it is a preview of sorts...

It is difficult for me to say that the Japanese cover genres we simply do not. While the argument for that can certainly be made (MAID The RPG, Golden Sky Stories, and Uncle Gap come to mind), it is more the execution that differs, not the base conceits. 

MAID may be a game about normal and/or superhuman female domestic help trying to protect and win the favor of their employer but at its heart it is a Romantic Comedy RPG and we certainly have those. Golden Sky Stories (Yuuyake Koyake in Japan) is a heart-warming, decidedly non-violent RPG featuring various spirit folk and set in modern times. Do we not have Modern Fantasy games in the States? Sure we do. Do we have one like this? No, not really. 

Just looking back at the Horror genre TRPGs I mentioned in my post on that topic you can see a few that are definitely unusual in premise - especially Nechronica, Kill Death Business, and The Castle in Gray - but they are really just riff on the basic concept of Horror. Could The Kill Death Business take place somewhere beyond the mortal realm in the World of Darkness? Possibly. Could you use All Flesh Must Be Eaten to run a Nechronica type game. Well, with some effort, sure. The Castle in Gray could be a setting for practically any traditional Paranormal Investigation or Supernatural Conspiracy game. The thing is though...no one in the US has. 

The culture of Japan, its peoples' beliefs, history, folklore, and traditions over the course of many hundreds of years has resulted in a particular way of looking at things. That outlook consciously or unconsciously forms the way they write stories and design games. There are definitely games in Japanese unlike any I've see in the US but not because they are wholly original; rather it is because they are innovative, taking an established concept and moving it in a new direction. 

This may be what attracts me to Japanese TRPGs in the first place. Japan's Game Designers and TRPG Creatives and I have a similar view of what makes a cool game. Look at a familiar idea in a new way. Put a twist on some popular genre without fundamentally changing what makes it what it is. Do this and you can open up a world of heretofore unknown possibilities. 

Expect a follow up post on this subject later this month. For now, get ready for Superheroes! 

SHUWATCH!!!

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Worlds Beyond System

My current pet project of modifying the rules of F.A.R.M. Champions into something I am currently calling 'The Dungeon Experiment' is going to take some time.

It's not that the modifications I'm making are particularly complex or difficult to put together but rather that I just haven't had the time to sit down and do more than a little at a time. Hopefully I'll have something to show you guys before too long.

Today I want to talk about something a little different...

The ever-thoughtful JB over at the always intriguing B/X BLACKRAZOR has made some recent posts and comments that definitely have the gray matter working over time. 

In one of his latest posts (as of this writing), JB discusses returning to West End Games' 1st Edition Star Wars D6, which as some of you may know is one of my all time favorite RPGs and perhaps my favorite game system-wise. However, and you may want to be seated for this Barking Alien fans, he wants to redo the mechanics to use multiple, polyhedral dice. 

After getting over my initial shock and disgust, I experienced further shock and disgust. Why not paint over the Mona Lisa? Make an anchovy cream pie why dotcha? Replace those classic blue jeans with polka-dots on plaid while you're at it!

At the same time, aren't I doing the exact same thing with The Dungeon Experiment? 

I am putting together a 2D6 based, level-less, Medieval Fantasy RPG with Species and Classes, very different Magic, very different combat, and basically being just as sacrilegious to Dungeon and Dragons as JB is being to Star Wars D6.

Well...no. At least not to me. In my view there is a big difference.

I am not trying to make a 2D6 Dungeons and Dragons. I am not taking the game of D&D and changing things so it only runs on D6s. What I am trying to do is put together a Medieval Fantasy game reminiscent of D&D that is heavily influenced by Western Fantasy Anime and Manga from Japan. Also, I found F.A.R.M. Champions, a game whose creators seem to have had a very similar goal in mind, so really I am making modifications to that game to get it even closer to my vision.

Trying to deconstruct Dungeons and Dragons and then rebuild it as a D6 based game sounds like a lot of work and it's work that I don't think would guarantee the results I want at the end. It might use my preferred die type but if it's still just D&D when the dust clears then I will have failed in my mission. 

Altering the simple and super functional D6 System used for Star Wars to (What is in my opinion) the much more cumbersome use of everything from the limited D4 to the very swingy D20 seems extraordinarily strange to me. Counter-intuitive even. I just don't see the point in it but to each their own. 

When I brought this up, one of the things JB noted was - and this is the bit that prompted this post - and I quote, 'there's no particular dice type that is inherent to Star Wars or space opera.'

Right...huh? Oh course there isn't. There isn't any die type or rule system that is inherent to any genre and vice versa. Genre itself has nothing to do with mechanics at all. Why even bring this up?

Then I noticed it wasn't the first time JB had mentioned this or something like it. In a response to a comment I made regarding how my buddy used to run our old Champions campaign JD stated, 'Sounds like the players had a lot of narrative authority in play. Is that standard in a HERO system game?'

Again, the question strikes me as very peculiar. What does the system have to do with Player Agency? Sure, some rule sets encourage or discourage Player Agency and creativity to some degree but whether or not a GM gives players narrative authority in their game is dependent on the GM and their style of play. Barring modern Indie RPGs where a particular style of play and the way you interact with it is intrinsic to the game's design, most RPGs are systems of mechanics, a genre and/or setting, but how you use it is on you. No?

Maybe not.

This connection between Rules and How the Game is Played is something that has always fascinated me. I am a firm believer in the fact that the uses and abuses of D&D that put me off to the game aren't necessarily the fault of bad Gamemasters but rather components built into the very fabric of the game. Things that plague D&D games such as Min-maxing, Munchinkin-ism, Rules Lawyers, Railroading, and the quintessential Murderhobo pop up much less often in other RPGs in my experience. 

Likewise, the reason I play so many different systems is that each - if done right IMHO - gives a different feel and it is that feel you want for that game. Case in point, my favorite of all gaming subjects, Star Trek. Each incarnation of the game feels slightly different, though all cover an aspect of the atmosphere of Star Trek the franchise. 

FASA Star Trek was, like many of its fans, very interested in the fine details and minutiae of the Star Trek universe. The game was designed to let you create and run a crew and ship of Starfleet, Klingon, or other peoples who explored space and encountered new life forms and ancient mysteries. This wasn't a game about a TV show. This was an RPG about a living, breathing universe that made it's own internal sense. One the various television shows and movies allowed us to view. 

Last Unicorn Games' Star Trek game was similar, though often a bit more tongue-in-cheek. A little mind you; not overly so. It was definitely a universe and your character was definitely a being living in it but *Wink* - Shhh (beckons you over while checking to see if anyone else is listening) - it's all based on a TV franchise. *Wink. Wink* Pretend you don't know that. 

Star Trek Adventures by Modiphius Entertainment has a very different feel and vibe from the other two. Here, you are creating characters for a Star Trek TV series. In my head canon each group's campaign has its own Facebook, Twitter, and webpage put out by Paramount/CBS. Things work the way that would on a show far more than how they would work in a Science Fiction universe, let alone in reality. 

However, this all reflects setting or type of game and game mechanics. Not genre. Nothing about this is connected to genre per se. 

Going back to the questions and ideas that started me thinking about this, does a Fantasy RPG NEED Races and Classes? No, Ars Magica doesn't really have that. Do Superhero games require a certain type of mechanic? No. They need to have rules for things you'd see in the Superhero genre, though Champions does this and so does Kapow! and they couldn't be more different mechanically. 

Is any genre or setting directly tied to any sort of mechanic? I would generally say no. Certain specific settings obviously benefit from certain mechanics designed to reinforce the way the reality of that setting works.

If you want a game that resembles a TV Soap Opera, I would imagine that rules for creating or determining your connection to the other PCs would be important. In Fantasy games the rules you have regarding Magic will greatly influence how Magic is used and perceived. ALIEN has a wonderful Stress and Panic system, perfect for a game set in space, where no one can hear you scream and you and your companions freak out over the unknown. As I've mentioned, a close look at this led me to use the ALIEN system for the Sci-Fi Comedy Red Dwarf, which oddly works in a very similar way. 

Anyway, this ended up somewhere between a thought exercise and a tangent and I'm not sure I came to any great epiphanies or conclusions. I suppose my final word on the subject for now is let the fluff match the crunch and vice versa and achieve that by any means you see fit. The only rules that are wrong for a given genre are the ones you can't make work. 

I hope that both JB and the view public out there understand I am not picking on him. Quite the contrary! He made me think about this and for that I am thankful. I am very eager to see where he goes with his Star Wars DEverything system. I want to know not only how it will work but why it works better for him (and perhaps others) than the classic version. Go check out his blog and wish him luck!

Now back to slaying goblins and eating meals made from monsters...

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The Kitchen Sink and Dirty Dishes

I'm doing a pretty lousy job of posting more, no? Go on, be honest. I can take it.

That bad, huh? Sheesh.

I can't seem to help it. I want to post, really I do. I'm just exhausted lately. Business hasn't been especially good (though it's improving thank goodness), and yet I'm completely wiped out by the time I get home.

There is also the matter of this feeling I'm experiencing that, well, I don't know what to call it. A gaming black hole? A creative singularity if you will. I'm involved with a number of good, even great games, but I still have this spot in the core of my being that remains unfulfilled.

More on that another time...

***

JB over at B/X BLACKRAZOR made a post a few days back that inspired me to think about 'Gonzo Gaming'.

What is 'Gonzo Gaming'?

Strangely the definition of what Gonzo means is a bit vague. Unlike so many other elements of modern geek slang, I found it very difficult to find an exacting explanation of Gonzo. Perhaps that's because the very nature of Gonzo is so crazy it's hard to describe.

As I understand it, Gonzo refers to a style of gaming where over-the-top, everything and the kitchen sink, bat-s#*^ crazy is the order of the day.

I've always found that kind of strange.

Now don't get me wrong, in my early days I had my fair share of Gonzo elements in my games. I've played and run Gamma World, threw magical mecha into my homebrew D&D world, and while I never went full on RIFTS, extra-dimensional travel to and from our campaign's home plane wasn't unheard of.

As I moved forward through my time in the hobby, I partook in Gonzo style campaigns less and less. I've now reached the point where I really don't care for Gonzo in the traditional sense.

If Gonzo is 'The Kitchen Sink', what I perceive is a thing I'm calling 'Dirty Dishes'.

The Kitchen Sink approach means anything that can be conceived of is put into the game if so desired. What you end up with [IMHO] is Dirty Dishes - basically a big mess where little bits of everything get stuck on everything else, but none of it's as appetizing as it was in its original presentation.

I've made a few curious observations over the last few years in regards to Gonzo gaming.

First, people like Gonzo. That is, most people I've met and gamed with seem to really enjoy it.

Second, and I'm sure this is directly related to the first observation, many newer, and/or younger players don't really comprehend the tropes of various genres.

See, if every game you play allows for, contains, and promotes ANYTHING and EVERYTHING, it is extremely difficult to then introduce you to a game where some stuff just doesn't fit.

Player: Why can't I play a Japanese Samurai in a game of Pendragon?

Me: Well, it's complicated. Essentially it comes down to THIS IS FREAKIN' PENDRAGON! Name the goddamn Samurai in the Arthurian myths. Go ahead, I'll wait. Ain't none? Why? ENGLAND. FIFTH CENTURY. Did I mention we are playing PENDRAGON!

There is certainly a time and place for magic in your Cyberpunk (Shadowrun) or a guy in powered armor standing next to a Russian secret agent, standing next to an Asgardian God  BUT those are awesome ideas made special by being unique genre situations on to themselves.

Shadowrun is cool but so is Cyberpunk just being Cyberpunk.

You can play Deadlands, but a slightly spooky, subtly supernatural Western is also cool.

Comic Book Superheroes is a genre. Everything shouldn't be Comic Book Superheroes.

All out Gonzo can bury any sense of the atmosphere and feel of a setting under a mountain of Woohoo-Wacky. If there even is an atmosphere. Usually it seems to me that Gonzo has no feel at all with the exception of a feeling of chaos. Things are nutty and out of control and that is the prevailing way the players and GM think of the game.

Meh.

I have absolutely no interest in that type of game anymore.

I want parameters that identify the game as a Science Fiction RPG, a Medieval Fantasy, a Silver Age Superhero game, or whathaveyou.

I love tropes. I do. I love' em. I want to see them when I play in a given type of game. I want them to fit and I want them to matter.

I want the rules of the universe to make sense within the confines of the game and vice versa. Few things are as important to me as a setting's internal consistency. It is the unified field that holds all the elements of the game together and simultaneously gives it the vibe of being a living, breathing place unique onto itself.

I've rarely been in a D&D, Gamma World, or RIFTS game where I felt that vibe. I hardly ever feel like these places are truly functioning milieu. 

This is an important consideration for me, especially now...

...as I am running such a Kitchen Sink game.

AD
Barking Alien

Side Note: Of course I want the rule mechanics to make sense as well but only in the most general sense. Seriously. Like the systems in most old games actually made any kind of 'sense'. Har Har.

Tell That To Kanjiklub

I need more time.

Tell that to Kanjiklub.

Look, I'm going as fast as I can.

I have been working my lekku off trying to complete as much of this project as possible before game day. Unfortunately, game day was supposed to be yesterday.

Originally we had planned on holding the first session, a 'Pilot Episode' that I hope will have my Barking Alien Gaming Group eager to make this our next long term campaign, this past Saturday! A serious blizzard, the likes of which New York City hasn't seen in some time, forced me to cancel.

A blessing in disguise? Perhaps.

I am hoping to have this all complete by month's end, so a lot of the confusion my players are experiencing (more on that in a bit) will be cleared up by having them look at a finished product (so to speak).

A bit of a rant coming...

The confusion they're experiencing isn't all the rules, and it isn't all me. This is my Barking Alien Gaming Group, so I get the usual Barking Alien Gaming Group issues.

Say you're running Star Wars, and you get:

No one wanting to be a Smuggler - You know, like Han Solo, the coolest guy in the Original Trilogy, with one of the most memorable spaceships in Space Adventure history. Finally convinced one guy, who came up with his own take. Fine.

One guy who wanted to be a tech savy Ewok. 'Cause, ya'know, that's the best part of Star Wars, right? Not even an Ewok-y Ewok. No, no. Too mundane I guess.

Practically no other interest in Aliens. Of course. Why would there be Alien heroes in Star Wars? T_T

No Droids. I mean, if no one is going to be an Alien then rest assured no one is going to be a Droid.

The group so far is completely devoid of non-Humans. This is something I have never had in a Star Wars RPG game ever, and I've been running Star Wars RPGs for over 35 years.

My players in this group definitely fall into that Special Little Snowflake Syndrome. They want to create unique, and special characters unlike any you've see before! That's cool, I can get behind that. Yet I often find this translates to 'nothing like the things that are part of what makes the setting both unique, and familiar'.

It's a bit like I've mentioned before regarding Star Trek. People has asked me if I could run a campaign set in the Star Trek universe that focuses on merchants, mercenaries, and the galactic equivalent of murder-hobos. Sure. I could. But why the $@^& would I want to?

You want that go play classic Traveller, or D&D. Can you be Starfleet in Traveller, or D&D, complete with Starfleet Vessels, Phasers, Transporters, and the Prime Directive? No. So that is what I am playing Star Trek for - the Star Trek elements.

I was hoping for Smugglers, Bounty Hunters, an Alien Resistance Commando/Soldier, an Astromech Droid with the Career of Technician, a Senator with the career of Administrator or Noble (or both), a Scoundrel, maybe a Space Pirate, and/or (the one thing I did get) a straight up Star Pilot. I also got a Doctor who fits because the player said, "Remember that character you see in The Force Awakens doing that thing? Well I'm just like her."

Once the Hyperdrive engages, once boots hit the ground on some distant planet in a galaxy far, far away, your character will differentiate itself. Trust me. I've seen it a thousand times in a thousand scenarios in as many RPGs as they've published, and then some.

Believe it or not, if you create a character who fits the setting as it's presented, it can be just as fun as the one that fits the version of the setting you've conjured up in your mind.

I'm about to turn to The Dark Side.

*Adam sits, and meditates. Feels The Force. Centers himself*

Sigh. OK, that's out of my system. I'm sure it will all work out in the end, and be awesome.

Screw you Kanjiklub.

AD
Barking Alien

Too Much, Too Little, Too Late

Lowell Francis, star of stage, screen, and five time winner of the...

Wait...sorry...Barkley was holding up the wrong cue cards. That should read:

Lowell Francis, blogger extraordinaire, and proprietor of Age of Ravens, made this interesting statement in his response to the RPGaDay Challenge question #17, 'Favorite Fantasy RPG':

"I’m always struck by the number of rpgers I’ve met who don’t like fantasy"

I am struck as well, but by the assertion that a considerable number of our fellow gamers dislike the genre of Fantasy, or at least Fantasy gaming.

I've met far too many who love fantasy, and a solid bunch who have trouble wrapping their heads around anything but.  Far too often I come across people who lament that they can't get a game going with their group of anything other than fantasy. That [although they, the GMs are up for it] their players just won't give other games, and genres the time of day.

I only know a very small number of gamers who don't like Fantasy, myself included among those people. However, I should be clear in saying that I don't like Dungeons & Dragons style fantasy. I totally go in for folkloric, and 'fairy tale' fantasy.

Back to Lowell's statement though, he continues on to note:

"I’m never sure where that comes from: oversaturation, bad experiences, personal taste. Fantasy’s been such an important default for me as a gamer. I enjoy the room it offers and still dig trying to figure out new things with it."

Where it comes from? Fair enough. I will try to explain...

For me, and me alone as I can not speak for anyone else (although if anyone would like to speak up on the subject please do - comments are always welcome, and appreciated), there are a number of factors that have contributed to my disinterest, and even dislike to some extent, of traditional Fantasy RPGs.

What do I mean by traditional? Well for now let's say I am referring to classic games like Dungeons & Dragons' various editions, Palladium Fantasy, Rolemaster, Tunnels & Trolls, Warhammer Fantasy Role Play, and modern ones such as Burning Wheel, Metal, Magic, and Lore, and Pathfinder, just to name a few.

Basically these are games in that particular sub-genre of Fantasy that D&D occupies, and indeed typifies. It isn't quite Medieval Fantasy, but it is, while also being Sword and Sorcery, which it's not exactly. I see it as a Fantasy mish-mash, a Frankenstein hodge-podge of Tolkien, Vance, Leiber, Moorcock, Howard, and others.

More about that later.

For now...

Oversaturation

Yes. This is definitely a factor for me. It comes across in several forms.

Note how many games I listed above, and that's not nearly all of them by half. Dungeons and Dragons was popular, so people made more games like it, or their version of it. In the earliest days of the hobby, as new RPGs started to spawn here, and there, it surely felt like every third one was a Fantasy game, and often, one not all that different from Dungeons and Dragons.

Even nowadays, as my friend Luke noted over the weekend, "Look at your computer games, your video games, and your MMOs. Most of the big ones are Fantasy based. World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy Online/14, Dragon Age, Witcher, Elder Scrolls, and on, and on. Sure there are Sci-Fi ones, but not as many, and certainly not as many with as much backing in the field of MMOs. Superheroes? There was City of Heroes, and City of Villains, but the rest are all also rans. None have the kind of popularity WoW, Everquest, and their ilk."

I perceive Fantasy genre oversaturation in the form of tabletop games to be far greater than any other genre by leaps and bounds. There are just too damn many Fantasy games, making the whole of them blur, and intermingle. None of them really stand out, none seem special, or all that different from each other with a few exceptions. To me, it's one massive sea of the Dungeons & Dragons.

Now, let's look at it from a personal viewpoint.

I began playing RPGs in 1977, at the age of 8. By the time Villains & Vigilantes 2nd Edition, and Star Trek (FASA version) came out in 1982 (the first two games I personally owned other than D&D), I'd already been playing D&D for 5 years. I'd been gamemastering for 4 of those years. I was charged up with excitement seeing a Superhero game, and a game based on my favorite Sci-Fi TV program. By 1987, I was 18 years old, and had been gaming for 10 years. I was long since tired of D&D, and other Fantasy games. That was 28 years ago.

Bad Experiences

I have never had a bad experience playing Champions, Ghostbusters, Mekton, Star Trek, Star Wars, Teenagers from Outer Space, Toon, or Villains and Vigilantes.

I have only ever bad experiences playing D&D. That is to say, D&D is the only game I've played where I as a player have personally had a bad experience. This doesn't mean I've never been in sessions of other games that didn't go so great, but I don't consider those less than perfect outings to be bad experiences. That has only happened with D&D.

These experiences range from being made fun of by older, more experienced players, to being on the receiving end of Player vs. Player combat that made no sense in the adventure, to just being bored to tears. Scratch that, I also experienced that last one in Pathfinder. Ah yes, and failing to be effective in the game because my character wasn't 'optimized'. That was another Pathfinder experience that only occurred in that game.

Largely, Fantasy for me equals boring games, with hostile players, unnecessary crunch, and down right silly rules, in a setting I've seen a hundred times too many.

Personal Taste

I grew up on Science Fiction, and Comedy television. My fondest film memories are Star Wars, The Muppet Movie, Blazing Saddles, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Superman I and II. I lived for comic books, and read them religiously, from the Legion of Superheroes, Teen Titans, and Iron Man, to lesser knowns like E-Man, Nexus, the heroes of Charlton Comics. I even read Captain Canuck. I had a high reading level at an early age, and read Ringworld, Dune, The Forever War, Voyage of the Space Beagle, The Stars My Destination, 1984 and many others all before I was in 8th Grade.

See any Fantasy in there? No. Neither did I. I had no real access to Fantasy, at least not the type of High Fantasy D&D portrays.

When I did read Fantasy it was folklore, Greek, Norse, and Egyptian myths. I devoured the books Faeries, Gnomes, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Through The Looking Glass, and of course the various Oz books.

I did inherit some Fantasy novels from my Dad's cousin-in-law. From his collection I read the Elric series, Hawkmoon, and several Lankhmar novels. I also received, and read several of R. E. Howard's books, and found I did not like them.

D&D Fantasy just isn't to my tastes at all. It drums up little to no interest in me. It feels like a mess of ideas, tropes, and styles with nothing significantly tying it together. It has no atmosphere, no feel. You can give it one, but I just don't often feel inspired to make the effort to do so.

With most Fantasy RPGs, the magic doesn't feel magical, the combat (the heart and soul of most Fantasy RPGs) doesn't feel any more exciting then button mashing on a home video game, and the environments are, wait, is it yet another vaguely European town near a forest? Really? What are the odds?!

Wake me when it's over.

In conclusion

Yeah, for me, and again I can only really speak for myself, Fantasy is an endless array of the same old thing; a thing I don't have enough interest in to make the effort to make something different out of it..

I mean I could, and I have, but why bother when I could make something out of any game one of a hundred other games, in genres I like so much better?

If Fantasy was going to impress me in any way, it probably needed to do it 20+ years ago. It didn't, and now I'm on to other things.

AD
Barking Alien

Precious Metals

It occurred to me the other day while re-reading my last two posts...

"Crap, I love running Superhero RPGs, and I'd LOVE to run one in a DC Universe".

Damn. Grife! Sprock it all!

Excuse my language*, but Great Krypton folks, what am I to do?

 

Left - Superman in the Golden Age - 1942

Center - Superman in the Silver Age - 1962

Right - Superman in the Bronze Age - 1982

I've mentioned that my group is a bit, er, unfamiliar with the type of Superhero comic books I love most. Through a discussion with my players this past Memorial Day, I discovered that one in particular really doesn't comprehend the distinctions between Silver Age, Bronze Age, and how either of them differ Modern.

I tried very hard to understand where he was coming from, and attempted, perhaps unsuccessfully at the time, to explain the distinctions. I believe I focused on the variations between Silver and Golden, and by comparison, Modern.

I don't feel I did a respectable job of explaining the differences though. Possibly because I was internally, mentally, losing my s#^t, and had to focus all the power of my indomitable will to prevent myself from flipping out.

More over, I think it was because I'd never had to explain it from scratch before.

You see, to me, the eras of comic book history are clearly defined, if not by exact dates, then by tonal changes in the fan base, in society in general, in the comic book industry, and in aesthetics.

You don't wonder why the Bronze Age of Man was called the Bronze Age of Man in Human history. The name comes from the growing use of copper, and tin ore smelting to create bronze. It followed the Neolithic, or 'Stone', Age, and was in turn followed by the Iron Age.

Most (although perhaps not all) individuals living in our modern day, advanced civilizations, with a high school level of education, should be generally aware of this chronology of 'ages'.

Now, I am not so foolish as to assume that the average person on the street is as knowledgeable about the history of comic books as they are the history of our species.

I do expect that anyone even remotely familiar with comic book fandom, and the Superhero genre, be generally aware of the various ages of comic books. I can comprehend not knowing exactly when each era starts and stops, what age a given character is identified with, or even why some like a given era over another. Not knowing what it means to say Silver Age, or Bronze Age however, is very hard for me to fathom.

 I will never comprehend what people see in the Iron Age, but I know what it is. As a matter of fact, knowing what it is, or was, allows to realize why I don't enjoy comics from that period of time.

I think my best bet is going to be doing a few posts that define these eras, at least as I see them. I can, hopefully, make it clearer as to the feel, and atmosphere I'm going for by pointing out the specifics of the periods I'm most interested in. By identifying the tropes of each age, the comics that are so precious to me, won't seem such a mystery to others.

It's worth a shot.

AD
Barking Alien


*Grife, and Sprock are expletives used in the 31st Century of DC's Legion of Superheroes comic. I assume they are untranslatable from the common interstellar language of the United Planets of that era, known as Interlac.