Too Many Ideas Syndrome

Too Many Ideas Syndrome. Apparently this is really a thing. It's sometimes called 'idea-ism'. Yeah, I've definitely got it bad right now. 

My lack of posting is not because I have nothing to talk about or show you all but rather the opposite; I have so many RPG concepts runninlg through my head I don't know where to begin. Adding to the problem is that many of them are only half finished and poorly organized. 

Let's start with a 'State of Gaming' update, shall we?

Currently as of this post...

I am playing Hogwarts: A Mystery

Now in its 6th or 7th year, the campaign follows students - currently 5th Years - in House Ravenclaw. It is full of teen angst and drama, setting based angst and drama, action, suspense, and other kinds of angst and drama. The GM is very into making children suffer. No, no...in a good way!

The game runs bi-weekly with my friend Alex as Gamemaster and four players including myself. My character, Francis 'Frank' Pellgrove, goes on the short list of all time favorite PCs I've ever had. The system is a homebrew extremely loosely based on Apocalypse World but really nothing like it at this point. 

I have been running SMURFS

Over the past month I've run a three session scenario and a one-shot scenario using the Quickstart Guide rules for the upcoming Smurfs officially licensed RPG by Maestro Media. I'm pretty much obsessed and I love the game. Getting people to play it may be the biggest challenge one faces with the game but based on my own experience most truly mature gamers will give it a try. After all, those are the people most comfortable with not taking the hobby too seriously. 

Upcoming posts will discuss the Player Characters from both games and later I'll talk about the adventures themselves. 

I am still running Star Trek: Prosperity

Our Original Series era Star Trek Adventures campaign is still going strong, with all the sessions so far this 'season' (Season 8 that is! Eight years of Star Trek: Prosperity! Woohoo!) being good and a few being great! We've had a couple of real bangers! Very much looking forward to the next three missions, the last ending in a 'Season Finale Cliffhanger'!  

This game is [usually] played bi-weekly. I am the Gamemaster and we have four players. It ranks as my longest running single campaign ever. 

Coming up...

I will be running Champions: UNITY again

My weekend group is returning to our Champions campaign after experimenting with a host of other concepts with mixed results. Our campaign is set in yet another version of my friend William Corpening's 'Age of Champions' setting, this time on Champions Earth-Alpha Delta-1A. The campaign is already three years old and the players are eager to get back to their characters and this universe. Actually, one player will be using a new character.

I have mixed feelings on this personally. I am not really feeling 'Superheroes' at the moment and I'm having trouble coming up with a new or interesting angle. Don't get me wrong, I have some ideas for villains and scenarions but I'm lacking...I don't know...that certain something, ya'know? 

I will largely be playing Star Trek: Copernicus

After the Smurfs my Midweek Group is going back to our Star Trek Adventures campaign, Star Trek: Copernicus. This game is...good...sometimes great...sometimes just OK. It's been a tad inconsistent and that's not surprising. We've been doing a 'Revolving GM' situation, with the four players each taking turns as the Narrator when they had a solid adventure idea. Going forward it seems that one of us will be the 'lead' Narrator, having quite a lot of ideas and enthusiasm for the game.

I like my character a lot and that goes a long way towards making the game fun. 

In the near future...

I would like to run Space:1999

A fan of the series and intrigued by the rules, I would love to run a short campaign of this, partially to see if it has legs. That is to say, I'd likely run a three session 'pilot' adventure and gage interest in doing more.

Halloween is coming and I have Spooky Games in mind

Obviously I would love to revisit Ghostbusters. My hope is I'll get to run at least a one-shot scenario with my A&D/'The Home Office' group sometime in October. With any luck I might also be able to set up a Ghostbusters: Tokyo Ghost Research adventure with my friends in Japan. 

On that note, I want to finish my recap of the 'I'm So Embarrassed! My Uncle is a Bullet Train!' game. I'll also post some general ideas for more Ghostbusters RPG paranormal activities (see what I did there?). 

Another one-shot [or maybe two-to-three-shot] I'd love to run is Peekaboo (aka Peekaboo Horror), The Neighborhood Ghost Story TRPG from Japan that I adore but rarely get to the table. I also have a recounting of my first time playing it coming up next month so be on the look out for that. 

Finally...

What should really be an entire post all on its own (and might be soon) is this nagging desire to run...hold on to socks...Fantasy. 

Specifically I am wanting to run Fantasy with an Anime twist. Like...imagine if what I did with Superhero gaming to create The Winghorn Guard and my world of Aerth was done with Anime/Manga tropes in mind. Although Aerth does have considerable Anime/Manga influences already. Hmm. 

I really want to do this but I keep running into two major snags: I just don't love Fantasy gaming for a variety of reasons and I can find a system I really like that does what I want. 

Arrgh! 

*Sigh* Oh well. I'm glad I got that off my chest. Let's finish up with the Smurfs RPG for now so I can move on to other discussions.

Thanks for letting me prattle on.

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Barking Alien 

I've been so busy with Real LifeTM that I've missed some very important acknowledgements.

 

On September 9th of this year the world lost an entertainment icon in the person of James Earl Jones. A multiple award winning pioneer of theatre and film, Jones was a fascinating man before and after his long career of acting and voice overs. While best known to fandom as the voice of Darth Vader and Conan's nemesis Thulsa Doom, I highly recommend looking into this fellow's life outside these roles if you haven't already. Epic. 

Rest in Peace Mister Jones. 

September 24th was the birthday of Muppets creator Jim Henson. I don't even know where to begin talking about my feelings regarding Jim, one of my all time heroes. I've discussed him many times in the past and if you're interested you can look back to previous posts on the man. Henson is another fellow I suggest reading up on for the incredible life he lead and the impact he had on generations of fans and creatives. A documentary about him entitled 'Jim Henson Idea Man' is currently available on Disney+ and while it was tough for me to watch I definitely suggest checking it out. 

September 25th, yesterday, was the birthday of the amazing Mark Hamill. Actor, voice actor, and vigilant, outspoken, opponent of stupidity, Mark is a gawd dang national treasure. Happy Birthday Mark!

Another World. Another Time, In An Age of Wonder

I've held off talking about this for as long as I could. I didn't want to spoil anything, giving ample time for everyone who might read this post to see the series, but I can wait no longer. The Three Sisters and Three Brothers have all aligned and the time of the Great Conjunction is at hand.

Mother Aughra listens to the Song of Thra, its Breath, the pulsing of its Heart...The Crystal of Truth. It is time. Time to discuss...

I want to talk a little about what the original Dark Crystal film meant to me, have a brief discussion about the Netflix series itself, and then how to use it all to create a RPG since, um, I am Adam Dickstein and this is what I do.

I'm terribly sorry, are you new here? If you are, just know if I like something a lot and it inspires in me a bunch of cool and interesting ideas, then I going to want to game it. It's pretty much as simple as that. If you're not new to the Barking Alien blog, this should come as no shock. 

I have a lot to say on this subject so this may be the first of few posts. Three maybe?

Let's begin...

The world of The Dark Crystal was first introduced to our own world in 1982 as a theatrical film written and directed by Jim Henson, the multi-talented creative genius behind the Muppets. The movie was co-directed by accomplished and brilliant actor, director, producer, and puppeteer Frank Oz, with a screenplay by Emmy Award winning screenwriter and film director David Odell, both of whom were also veterans of the Muppet Show. 

I was 13 years old when The Dark Crystal came out. It was a very difficult time in my personal life and although I was very excited for the movie and I loved the film, I now realize there was so much going on when it came out it didn't resonate with me quite the way it should have.

I mean, here was a movie about a world both fantastic and alien, created by my hero, with art and designs by one of my all time favorite illustrators, Brian Froud, and I loved it only until the next spectacle of 80s movie magic came along. 

Let's face it, it wasn't the greatest movie of all time. It was an incredible world, full of very interesting beings and ideas, but as a film its narrative was slow and choppy, its plot simple and at the same time somewhat vague. It conveyed its mood and atmosphere well but it left us wishing we'd gotten to know its characters and their universe much better than we had.

All that said...it stayed with me. 

I found myself sketching pictures of the evil Skeksis and the urRu Mystics on my notebook at school. I introduced a version of the Garthim into our D&D games. All the while there was one thing in particular I couldn't stop thinking about. Something I heard Jim Henson himself say on an HBO special about the making of The Dark Crystal (which I now think I enjoyed more than the movie). 

Henson, in what seemed a casual, almost throwaway line said, "I imagined a three-dimensional, three sided object...".

He was talking about the world of Thra, the planet on which the Dark Crystal took place. Come again? A three-dimensional, three sided object? 'That's impossible', I thought, and as with every other time in my life that I have thought that, I now had to figure out how it could be. 

I watched the movie a few more times on VHS tape. I bought and practically devoured the book, The World of the Dark Crystal, and did whatever I could to get more information on the universe in which the film took place. There was sadly little beyond the aforementioned book but WOW, what a book.

Time passed...

In 2007, American manga distributor and publisher TokyoPop put out Legends of the Dark Crystal, a prequel to the original film set several hundreds of years beforehand. While much of it would be retconned in the new canon that would come later, it was the first new Dark Crystal material of the 21st century and in its own way may have gotten the ball rolling for the works to follow. 

Those works include the amazing, The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths, a three volume series of graphic novels by various creatives including new material by Brian Froud himself. The series introduces a few new characters including the intriguing Raunip, the 'Son of Aughra'*. Set much earlier in the history of Thra, both before and during the coming of the UrSkeks, the series is quite impressive and definitely informs elements of the next wave of stories. 

A sequel to the original film was once planned but eventually abandoned as a theatrical feature. The tale lived on as a comic book series entitled, The Power of the Dark Crystal. I will be honest, while it had some neat concepts, I generally didn't love the direction they took the story in. I don't keep this one in my head canon when thinking about The Dark Crystal. 

It was around this time that...or was it slightly before? Somewhat after?...I do know that it was in 2011 that Archaia Entertainment, publisher of Creation Myths and The Power of the Dark Crystal, announced plans for an officially licensed role-playing game. The Dark Crystal RPG was mentioned by press release at the August 2011 Gen Con gaming convention, intending to publish it later the following year. Like its Origins Award-winning Mouse Guard game, The Dark Crystal would be designed by Luke Crane and utilize mechanics similar to that of Mouse Guard and its precursor, The Burning Wheel.

Some of you may have heard about this or even seen my mention of it here on this blog. What you might not know as I've never mentioned it in an open forum is that I almost worked on it. A mutual friend of Burning Wheel creator Luke Crane and myself was a key supporter of the old RECESS gaming events and as legend has it, either Luke as him if he knew the guy who ran the Muppets based games at the event or my buddy mentioned me to Crane as a possible good source of Dark Crystal knowledge. 

Whatever the case, I eagerly awaited what might come of such a promising lineage and interesting collaboration. Unfortunately, nothing is what it amounted to, at least in regards to my involvement. Why I was never connected further on the subject and what became of the project I couldn't say. Only Mother Aughra's eye can see that far across time and space. 

That brings us to 2013, and The Dark Crystal Author's Quest. The Jim Henson Company, in association with Grosset and Dunlap (a divison of Penguin Group USA), held a contest to write a new Dark Crystal novel. Yes, I submitted something. No it wasn't chosen. Instead, the extremely talented J.M. Lee won the contest and his submissions manifested as not one but four books, a series of Young Adult novels that I absolutely adore. These film prequel novels define the new and current canon of Thra, the Gelflings, the Skeksis and UrRu, and much more. 

You see, these novels were the template and resource material for the Netflix series, Age of Resistance. 

Finally, the real meat of the Peachberry! The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Netflix Series! In my opinion it was absolutely Dzenpo! That's Podling for Awesome! What? You all don't speak Podling?** Tsk tsk. 

This post is already getting long so I will address the new streaming series in greater detail in a follow-up post. What I will say is that in a post on January 9th of 2012 in which I discuss the Creation Myth series, I mention how I would love to run a game in The Dark Crystal universe but that it seems like it would be very difficult. My main issue with it simply being we didn't know enough and at the end of the film - SPOILERS - there are no Skeksis, no UrRu, no Garthim, and but two Gelflings on all of Thra! 

Talk about your closed settings! The remaining Gelflings lived happily ever after, alone essentially, the end. No ifs, ands, or buts as far as we can tell. 

Now having read the novels, having seen this show...WOW! Not only is gaming in Thra's 'past' more viable than ever, I am beginning to see a host of possibilities for Thra's future! I could easily run a campaign in the post-film era of The Crystal of Truth!

OK, I need to organize my thoughts for the next posts. I hope you all take a look at The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and when you do, please share your thoughts on it with me and all of us here at Barking Alien.

For now, I am going to sit by the hearth fire, roast me some Merkeep, a little glow moss on the side, and grab a glass of warm Nebrie milk to wash it all down. 

See you soon,

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*Raunip's name is dropped as an Easter Egg in Age of Resistance. Two characters are going to have a duel at 'Raunip's Pass'. I didn't notice it the first time I watched the series but caught it on second viewing. 

**There are a number of videos on Youtube and Twitter wherein Hup, the Podling character from Age of Resistance teaches the viewer how to say words or phrases in Podling. Adorable!

RPGaDay Challenge 2016 - Day 16 and Day 17

Huh. These two are a little tricky, kinda related, and I'm behind so I'm going to answer them together.

Historical? Damned if I know. Can't think of a single person. Seriously. If we're talking 20th-21st Century famous people that's easier.

I've always wanted to game with the late, great Robin Williams, who I happen to know was a gamer. Those who've followed this site know I have so brief, but awesome history with the departed actor, and comedian and it would have been awesome to have had him at my table. 

What game? Would it matter? We're talking Robin Freakin' Williams! At the same time...something Sci-Fi. Probably Star Wars, Star Trek, or Traveller.

My other thought is Jim Henson. Man oh man. Wouldn't it be just the be all, end all to have Jim Henson run a game of Ars Magica? That would be so sweet.

My current groups? Not sure. Maybe...I got nothing.

My older groups?

The Great Gonzo for Toon, Teenagers from Outer Space, Paranoia, Tales from the Floating Vagabond, Hunter Planet, or Gamma World (which he would enjoy for the 'realism' O_o ). 

Robin from Young Justice Season One in any of our Superhero games.

Finn from Star Wars: The Force Awakens for Star Wars, Star Trek, and Traveller. Different games, with different approaches to Space Adventure. I think I am imagining gaming with John Boyega more than the character, but I'd love to see how he addresses each setting.

That's all I've got.

Moving on...

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Barking Alien

Ups and Downs

I've been experiencing a far number of rises, and falls in mood lately.

While not directly connected to the things I am going to talk about in this post, various outside influences can certainly effect how one feels, and I am no exception. In fact, I may well be the post child.

On the Up, and Up

Captain America: CIVIL WAR was AWE-Some! Or, as I like to call it, Black Panther and The Avengers. Black Panther was so fantastic, it has tripled my desire to see the solo Black Panther movie.

Did a mention Black Panther? 'Cause, ya'know, GODDAMN BLACK FREAKIN' PANTHER!

Supergirl has not been picked up by CBS for a second season.

It's been picked up by THE CW! That's right, Season 2 of the little, big superhero show that could will air on the same channel as Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, and their much cooler brother The FLASH! Woot!

More crossovers? Oh I think so biznatches!

***

And now the bad news...

Down, Dooby Doo, Down, Down

Margaret 'Peggy' Carter, former Agent of the SSR, one of the originators of S.H.I.E.L.D., has had her program cancelled by the evil organization known as ABC, which is clearly a front for HYDRA. Not only has this diabolical group ended the career of Peggy Carter (played by the 'Is-There-Any-Way-In-The-Infinite-Possibilities-Of-Time-And-Space-That-You'd-Marry-Me' Hayley Atwell), but this despicable hive of dastardly despots has also cancelled...

The Muppets

I'm crying real tears here people. I can't say I'm entirely surprised the show wasn't renewed but I am very disappointed. It really started to get good, really good, in the last four or five episodes. I think it just wasn't what the majority of Muppets fans expected or wanted. A shame it won't get a chance to be something else. Something new that they might also enjoy.

I hope Disney/ABC gives the Muppets another shot. A different approach perhaps. We'll see.

On that note...

Today marks 26 years after the passing of Jim Henson. It's always such a heavy-hearted day for me.

Here is an excellent tribute from Jarrod Fairclough over on The Muppet Mindset.

Me? I'm going to try really hard to get happy.


Wish me luck.

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Direct Hits

Yes folks, I know this one is late. OK, really late. My plans for the close of my September theme had to take a backseat to my Real LifeTM, which just got a lot more interesting. I am soon to be the owner of my own business. Details coming soon.

The next few posts are not all I have to say on the subject of comedic RPGs by a long shot, but they are all you're going to see of the theme month gimmick for September. As we are now into October already, I want to switch to my next theme, Horror, and Fantasy.

Just like September, I am going to play fast, and loose with the overarching motif, so some remaining material from September may yet find its way into the new month of posts.

***

My next guests first hit the scene in 1987, where they found a niche with fans looking for a different kind of sound. Not truly indie, they were also not emulating the bands that were topping the pop charts at the time. In many ways, they were very much a part of the new wave movement of the late 80s.

Here promoting their self-titled album, sentients and sophonts across the cosmos, please give it up for our musical guest...

Teenagers From Outer Space!

 

'Ride On Shooting Star'
From the Anime FLCL, or Furi Kuri
By The Pillows

I've said it before and I have no problem repeating it here:

Star Trek is my favorite setting to game in.

Star Wars D6 by West End Games is my favorite system.

Superheroes is probably the genre I've run the most at this point.

 

Teenagers From Outer Space however, that's the game that has my heart; green, eleven-valved, and methane producing as it might be.

Over the last twenty-eight years that the game has been in existence, I have easily run Teenagers From Outer Space, or TFOS, dozens upon dozens of times. Sometimes, I've even used it to run Teenagers From Outer Space!

Yeah, I'll explain...

I've told this story before, but about a day after reading the rules for TFOS, I modified them by changing the D6 standard to a D10 standard.

In addition to giving the game a bit more range, it made the system more compatible with R. Talsorian Games' other 'Interlock System' games, such as Cyberpunk 2013/2020 and Mekton. Other advantages to this alteration included facilitating some additional house rules, and homebrewed sub-systems, as well as making TFOS adaptable to outside systems, most notably Ars Magica (more about that below).

At a Japanese Pop Culture convention in 1995 or 96, I met with the editor of R. Talsorian's V-Max Magazine, a house periodical dedicated to Anime, Manga, and gaming with a lean toward their Anime related titles. I described to him my modified Teenagers From Outer Space game, which I had come to call 'Advanced TFOS'. He loved the idea, and had me work it up as a full article for V-Max. Unfortunately, RTG folded up the magazine before the article could see print.

While I'm not a huge fan of universal systems (believing a game's mechanics should be tailored to the game it's supporting), I do have a scant few games that I believe can be used for a wide variety of genres, subgenres, and settings. My Advanced TFOS, and even standard TFOS, are among the most versatile, and effective in my opinion.

The main reason is their simplicity. TFOS is a Stat + Ability/Skill + Roll system, with very little else going on to get in the way. Perhaps my favorite idea in the game though, is that if you roll too low, you fail, if you roll the difficulty number or higher you succeed, but if you roll too well...it can end up backfiring on you royally. Exceed the required difficulty number by more than double, and things can get out of control. It is recommended that the GM embellish the success to the point of extreme, over-the-top, you'll-wish-you-failed-the-roll, comedic annoyance.

 

As I mentioned, I've used the 'Advanced TFOS' rules to run a plethora of games, including several set in my homebrewed campaign setting of Blast City Blues. The Blast City Blues universe is similar to the default idea for TFOS but my variant allows for more character and story options. Magical Girls in stylized sailor suits, Giant Robot Pilots, adolescent Cyborgs, and Psychic School Kids can all be found somewhere in the milieu of Blast City.

 

However, the default premise of the game isn't what I want to address with this post so much as what else can be done with the system. As the focus of September's entries are comedy games, I would like to tell you all about some other humorous trips I've taken using this very versatile map as a guide.

 

Some of my most successful alternate uses of TFOS include:
  

Galaxy Quest

 

My first Galaxy Quest game, a one shot that turned into a campaign (that became a phenomena! Um...yeah), was originally based on my Advanced TFOS rules. I added the Jobs, and Character Types, and the rest is history. It was a hell of a thing.

Near Miss

A Science Fiction Comedy campaign very much in the vein of Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy meets This Is Spinal Tap.

The PCs were members of a musical group of misfit aliens travelling around the universe getting into one crazy mess after another. The name of the band, Near Miss, was also the name of a garage band I was in with some buddies from high school (who were incidentally the players in the group plus one, or two others).

Neo-Tokyo Crimebuster - Furiransu Keikan

Using a hybrid of the Advanced TFOS rules, and the rules of Mekton II (foolishly trying to make the R. Talsorian 'Interlock' systems actually interlock), Furiransu Keikan (roughly, Freelance Police) was an Action/Comedy set in a cyberpunk future where various corporations police various regions. Citizens are welcome to chose, and pay for whichever 'Law Enforcement Provider' they wish.

The PCs represented a small-ish, independent police precinct trying to make a name for themselves in the crime ridden, high tech city of Neo-Tokyo. Inspirations for the game included (but were not limited to) Dominion Tank Police, Blade Runner, Mobile Police Patlabor, Barney Miller, and Starsky and Hutch.
 

Once Upon The End of Time

A Science Fiction Time Travel/Action-Adventure/Murder Mystery campaign inspired by my friend Avram Grumer in which the entire plot is revealed in reverse order, starting from the end of the story in the first session.

 
Each session afterwards was set a few days to several months before the previous one. The last adventure had the players joining the Time Patrol, and being confronted on their first mission by their older more experienced selves who were out to stop the campaign villain's creation.

Wizard of Oz - End of the Rainbow

 

I ran a campaign set in L. Frank Baum's Oz and its surrounding magical lands using my Advanced TFOS system crossed with (get this) Ars Magica. A significantly simplified Ars Magica to be sure, the combination of the two worked incredibly well. I was very happy with the outcome and would love to try running it again.

 

***

 

I haven't played, or used the game in quite some time, and that is a shame. Not just because I love it so much, but because I feel it's the kind of game my Barking Alien Gaming Group could really get behind. So why haven't I brought it to bear with my regular gang? Well, it goes with something I am hoping to bring up in a future post, but in all honesty, I may just say to hell with it, and do it. We've been experimenting with the occasional one-shot comedy game here, and there recently, so there is no reason we couldn't give it a go.

We're going to pause one last time for a commercial break, but we'll be right back after this...

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Barking Alien

 

Belated Happy Birthdays to Groucho Marx (Oct. 2), Jim Henson, and Steve Whitmire (Both born on September 24th!). 

May Monday Muppet Madness

This past week, and weekend, were quite hectic. I have three, or four posts in draft form waiting to be finished, and posted. While working on these posts, preparing for future games, and attending to my Real Life TM, I came to notice that the 16th of May had passed without a proper Barking Alien mention.

I can't let that be the case, so although belated, I want to commemorate the passing of perhaps my biggest inspiration, my greatest hero - Jim Henson.

I usually prefer to honor his birthday on this site each year in September rather than note his day of passing in May. I should make it clear that this year is no different. However, it's been a long time since he left us, 25 years now, and it seemed appropriate somehow to remind us all of his outstanding contribution to our collective culture, and our imaginations.

Jim Henson, as much, or more  than anyone else in the history of entertainment, and learning (through Sesame Street), has bestowed upon the world an unending supply of the gift that will never tarnish, never fade, and never go out of style.

Laughter. The third greatest gift you can give someone.



Rest in peace Jim.

Oh, silly me, I had some other good news to deliver as well...

THERE IS A NEW, PRIMETIME MUPPETS TV SERIES

COMING THIS FALL!

*Pant-pant-pant-weeze*

 

 

OMG! OMG! OMG!

 

I'm a touch excited.

 

Coming this fall season on ABC, the new series, simply titled 'the muppets.', will take my already viewing heavy Tuesday, and truly put it over the edge. I hardly watch television, but for some reason the three or four shows I do watch are all on Tuesday. What the heck is that about?

 

The series will be done in a mockumentary style, with cuts to one-on-one interviews, and other elements that will give you a behind the scenes look into the character personal lives. It is a more adult take on the Muppets, but not in a risqué way. Instead, it seems like it's more set for primetime, as opposed to being aimed at kids.

 

Personally, I think this is a great idea, although they'll have to watch that fine line between mature, and too mature for those hoping to see an all ages Muppet show. In my opinion, this will work if they periodically do movies that are more accessible to everyone (like The Muppets, and Muppets Most Wanted).



I am really looking forward to this, and hope it'll give me some new insight, and material for my Muppets RPG, which I am also eager to get back to working on.

Jim, you done good. Your legacy continues as strong as ever.

Have a Muppet Monday everybody!

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Challenging Influences

According to Dyvers, the legend goes that waaay back in 2008 (one year before I began this blog) James Raggi*, of Lamentations of the Flame Princess fame (or infamy, depending upon your perspective), suggested RPG bloggers ". . . name the primary influences in your personal game, so we get a flavor not of what set of rules you decide to use, but what kind of game people can expect to play with you! Minimum five. No maximum. Plus include what people might assume influences you that you actually reject . . ." (Media Influences). 

Honestly this sounds fun but it also gives me this strong feeling of deja vu. Since Raggi posted the original challenge prior to the existence of Barking Alien, I couldn't have completed this challenge already. Could I?

Cue Twilight Zone music...

Before I get started, I want to make one unclear thing perfectly clear...

Raggi calls the post 'Media Influences' and than goes on to say in his post:

"So much has been said about the literary influences of D&D.

Now that's all great for the theorists, historians, pundits, and commentators.

But what about the influences of the individual campaign?"

OK...do these individual campaign influences not include literary ones? 'Cause among those listed by Mr. Raggi are Edgar Allen Poe, HP Lovecraft, Jules Verne, and HG Wells. I believe those gentlemen, and correct me if I am wrong, are writers.

 

Perhaps what he means to say is, "What are the influences on your individual campaigns, and not the game systems used to run them, literary or otherwise."

 

Perhaps.

 

Since the whole 'Media Influences' phrase just weirds me the hell out I'm going to go with those individuals who influence my gaming style and aren't novelists. Influences from non-written media if you will, even if some of these gentlemen were writers to some degree or other.

Hmmm...something of note:

I was an avid reader, even at the age of 8, when I first began playing RPGs. I was extremely advanced in my reading level and by 6th grade could easily read books meant for high school students. I read The Hobbit at 8 or 9, Lord of the Rings by 10 or 11 and Dune, Ringworld, and Foundation all before I was 14.

That said, I think one of the reasons I differ so much in my thinking from most of my gaming hobby brethren is that none of the written works I have processed and enjoyed have as much to do with the way I game as what I learned from the people I am about to mention.

OK, whew...On to my list!

 

Mel Brooks and P. T. Barum

I pride myself on my timing and ability to not just weave a tale, but to entertain. I like to keep the players guessing, their minds (and mine) moving and the whole thing flowing like the best movies, plays and TV shows.

Aside from being a comedic genius, Mel Brooks in a great director in a technical sense, in my opinion. He paces his movies well, and he gives each of the characters moments to shine, even if they're inept, or rather minor to the story. The audience (that's us), are never distracted by this. It is simply woven into the whole of the film. We enjoy taking a breather for a moment here, and there. We have some laughs, and then get back to the meat of things a few beats later. I've not just watched Mel Brooks' films, I've studied them. Comedy or serious business, you can learn a lot about timing and atmosphere watching Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein and the Producers.

P.T. Barnum was a master in the arts of business, entertainment and distraction. I look to him as a major influence on how to use preconceptions, confusion and general mayhem to my advantage. It is from Barnum that I developed my practice of giving players a lot of information, though certainly not everything they need, and not all of it true. Fascinating fellow, and far more talented than most people realize. He was a writer, a politician, a salesman, an actor, a teacher and an architect. Did you know he designed the graveyard where he was finally buried at the age of 81?

Gene Roddenberry and George Lucas

I started gaming with D&D at the age of 8 in 1977. While I instantly fell in love with the game, as I have mentioned many times in the past, traditional Medieval Fantasy and Sword & Sorcery were far from my favorite genres.

By the Summer of '77 I was already a both a Trekkie and a Star Wars fanatic. I loved both and my naturally nerdy noodle absorbed as much information on the ships, aliens, planets, items and what-have-you as I could. It was through this that I learned about world-building. The kind of world building I do is directly related to the type of world building these two men did. Key element; don't try to build a world, let one happen, but don't let it happen by mistake.

Fans of all sorts will tell you that Lucas had written parts of the episodes 1-3 and perhaps even 7-9 a long while before he filmed Star Wars: A New Hope. Poppycock and rubbish. He may have jotted down some notes and he may have had some ideas, but he did not map out his universe the way we like to think he did (or the way we the fans and those professionals who work on the expanded universe have). No, he added as he went, tried to be true to what he said already, unless he thought his new idea was better, and if he felt it was, came up with a reason the previous info was incorrect.

"Did I say killed your father? I did? I meant 'is'. 'Is' your father. I mean, he did metaphorically 'die' and a new persona took over who wasn't like his old self so I guess 'killed' does make sense. So, yeah, if you look at it that way I told you the truth from the very beginning."

-Obi Wan Kenobi, paraphrased by your truly.

A certain point of view indeed.

Roddenberry's universe worked much the same way, but he had to deal with different writers adding their own material in and a network that wanted to see certain things in order to justify the budget. Still and all, Roddenberry did an amazing job of keeping it all together. As time marched forward and the Next Generation was built on top of the foundation that the Original Series laid down, Gene tried very hard to maintain the continuity as best they could. He understood that there were fans already out there and that they cared about that sort of thing.

So do I. So do my players. The end result is that I try to follow a combination of the approaches above. Have a basic idea of what you're doing and what you want to do,  always add new material, a little at a time preferably, and always leave enough room for error. Should error occur, don't hide it and don't apologize for it. Come up with a reason for it to be a misconception, not an error.

Jim Henson

What do I even say about Jim Henson's influence? How do I put it into words? So many of the things I do, from the voices of NPCs to the way I see scenes unfold can be attributed back to this man and his incredible mind, heart and vision. For me he is the source of my 'controlled chaos' skills. Split the party? No problem. Crazy scheme to escape? No problem. Player character dogs, pigs, chickens and liquid life forms from the planet Koozbane? No problem. It's all good, thanks to Jim.

Other major influences I should mention but don't really have time to fully go into detail on include:

Comic Book Artists John Byrne, Adam Hughes, George Perez, Alex Ross, Adam Warren and the late Mike Wieringo.

Comic Book Writers Paul Dini, Paul Levitz, Dennis O'Neil, Roy Thomas and Marv Wolfman.

Directors Francis Ford Coppola, Blake Edwards, Terry Gilliam, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.

Actors and Comedians Dan Aykroyd, William 'Bud' Abbott and Lou Costello, Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Steve Martin, The Marx Brothers, Steve McQueen, Bill Murray, Leonard Nimoy, Christopher Reeve, Burt Reynolds, Peter Sellers, Lily Tomlin, Gene Wilder and Robin Williams.

Musicians and Singers America, The Beatles, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Janice Joplin, Jethro Tull, Billy Joel, Elton John, Freddie Mercury and Queen, The Monkees, Procol Harum, Three Dog Night and many others.

 
I could go on and on, but suffice to say, these are the major ones and those less prominent ones that popped into my head without having to think on them.

And not a one specifically a writer of genre fiction in book form.

Challenge Completed.

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Barking Alien

 

*James Raggi is not a name you'll see a lot on this blog. I do not know him personally and have only crossed his path once or twice while commenting on some other blog. His products are well done and he certainly knows his stuff. That 'stuff' being a certain style and subject of story and gaming that I don't care for all that much. To each their own of course.

The only product of his I read through in its entirety was the module 'Death Frost Doom'. I found it to be largely unmemorable. Just could not get into it.

Better For Having Been Here

Taking a moment out of my buggered life to remember a life that made me feel good about life.

Happy 77th Birthday to Jim Henson.

He left us so much joy. I leave you with this.

 

 

 

 

Score Jim.

 

 

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Barking Alien

 

A Story Short

As you may have noticed, this month I have been trying desperately to find a system with which to run a Fantasy role playing game of a very different sort from that embodied by the approach used in Dungeons and Dragons, it's simulacrum, clones and the seemingly innumerable games inspired by it.

I am not in the mood or mindset to run D&D. but boy, am I ready for some medieval fantasy.

At some point while contemplating this rather vexing conundrum and discussing it here, on a few forums and most notably in a private RPG discussion group I am a member of on Facebook, I remembered a pet project I had put by the wayside which could very well solve my problem.

Ever since I finished my Muppets RPG (finished is relative as I am forever tweaking it), I have wanted to create a variant that could handle some of the more serious and less overtly Muppety Jim Henson productions such as The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth and one of my all time favorites, The StoryTeller

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"When people told themselves their past with stories, explained their present with stories, foretold the future with stories, the best place by the fire was kept for...The Storyteller."

For those unfamiliar with Jim Henson's The StoryTeller, shame on you. Shame! Leave! Go on, shoo! Never darken my doorstep again. You are not welcome here.

Oh, alright fine. Perhaps it's not your fault. You can stay but be on your best behavior and try to learn something. Neanderthals.

The StoryTeller was a combination live action/actors and puppet/animatronics series of television episodes that originally aired in 1988. It was an American/British co-production, originally conceived by Lisa Henson, Jim Henson's daughter.

Jim and Lisa brainstormed the concept of the series, basing all of the episodes on authentic folktales from a variety of countries and sources. Although all the folktales were Western European, many where considered quite obscure by modern recollections.

To me, there has never been anything else quite like The Storyteller. It is an amazing series and every time I think of running a Fantasy RPG, this show is what I am thinking of and hoping for.

As I have mentioned many times before, I did not read very much 'modern' Fantasy or 'Sword and Sorcery' growing up outside of Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and a little Robert E. Howard. Much later I would read Moorcock, Lieber, Vance, and others but not until I was already 13 or 14.

Prior to that and even prior to playing D&D for the first time at the age of 8, I had read the Oz books by L. Frank Baum, the book Faeries by Alan Lee and Brian Froud, and a number of other tomes of fairytales and folklore.

While I came to appreciate both types of Fantasy for their own individual merits, there is a game for one type and not the other.

So, what I am endeavoring to do (fingers, toes and eyes crossed) is create a StoryTeller RPG based on the sensibilities of the show and the tales that it told and using a slightly more 'grown up' version of my Muppets RPG rules.

Will it work? Will my current group understand it?

Only time will tell...

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Barking Alien

I'm On To Something...

Gaming epiphany coming on...how about...

Oh yeah...

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Barking Alien

Into Trekness...Samaritan Snare

My lack of posts lately is abysmal.

It's my own fault. A self inflicted failing related to other things occupying my time while allow a bit of ego to creep in where it is unwarranted and unwanted.

I had hoped to receive a bunch of questions in regards to Star Trek gaming so I would have additional inspiration for posts this month but I've sadly received only these so far.

That's not actually the sad part in and of itself. The problem, which is totally my bag, is that I began to feel a lack of motivation to post, dwelling on the absence of questions instead of focusing on answering the ones I had gotten. A Samaritan Snare I brought upon myself, if you will. Bummed that I couldn't be more helpful to more people I have ended up not being helpful to anyone, most especially the one person who did answered my request.

I will try to make up for this with the time I have remaining in May.

As for the questions, these come from a commenter by the name of Valerius.

- How well do players from, say, D&D, adjust from a "loot and get better equipment" to the "standard issue is all you need" (and "there is no money") paradigm?

The short (and slightly snarky) answer is, I wouldn't know. ;)

To elaborate, I haven't played a lot of Star Trek with people who have primarily played a lot of D&D. As D&D is not a favorite game of mine or many of the people I've gamed with over the years, the ideas of 'loot to improve' and 'kill to get better stuff' have never been major motivators.

Our D&D-like games are inspired by Superhero comic books and Star Trek (not the other way around) and both of those settings are one's where you have the powers you have and you've got the gear you've got until you either invent something new on your own or you are supplied with a new gadget or gimmick by your allied support organization (say SHIELD or Starfleet Command respectively).

If all your character is about is getting cooler stuff and being more 'powerful', Star Trek probably isn't the game for you (not YOU you, the proverbial you).

- On a related note, do you use a "gentleman's code" with phasers to avoid disintegrating characters (PCs and villains) out of existence?

A Starfleet Officer firing a phaser set to Kill or Disintegrate without provocation or prior authorization by a superior officer would be reviewed like a cop who gunned down a suspected criminal. A Starfleet Tribunal would have to determine if the threat warranted that course of action.

That said, it also just isn't the way it's normally done on the shows. Usually stun is the default setting and it's proven to be sufficient for the most part.

I went into greater detail on phasers and combat in the Star Trek RPG before. I really like the way those posts came out and highly recommend taking a look at them if you are interested in the subject.

- Can you talk a bit more about the different Star Trek games? I only know well the Decipher CODA, but have never played it (sadly).

There have been a good number of Star Trek RPGs, official, unofficial and Star Trek-with-the-numbers-filed-off. I will address the most prominent/well known official games here but I may address some of the others in a later post.

I could easily go on for pages and pages about each of the these games. I may, sometime in the future, give a more detailed analysis of each but for now I want to focus on answering the question as presented.

The first and arguably most well known official Star Trek RPG was created by the game company FASA. It was created and developed by Guy McLimore, Greg Poehlein, David Tepool and others and first came out in 1982 (with a Second Edition in 1983). The game was published from 1982 to 1989 and during that time released a large number of supplements, adventures and sourcebooks. Most of the game covered the Original Series and Original Series Movie Era (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Although there were only actual sourcebooks for III: Search for Spock and IV: The Voyage Home).

FASA's Star Trek did go so far as to produce two sourcebooks for Star Trek: The Next Generation, however the first of these was produced before there was very much information available on the setting and its characters and is filled with inconsistencies and errors.

The story goes that relations between FASA and Paramount were strained in the later years of the games publication. Paramount, which had to approve all of FASA's material, became increasingly unhappy with what they saw as the violent and militaristic nature of the Star Trek universe as FASA depicted it.

The game itself is a fairly basic percentile system and I really loved it. I houseruled it a bit over the years to improve how action points worked and how use of your Communicator, Tricoder and other devices effected your skill rolls but it's a solid system that really doesn't need a lot of tweaking.

I like the system for that old school feel as well as being easy for most people to understand. I find that the abstract nature of many RPGs confuses those who are familiar with an IP/setting and are assuming they can get right into it when they hear, "Don't forget to include the modifier from the drama die." Gamer goes, "OK" and non-gamer Star Trek fan goes "Whadda-what?".

Percentile has always, in my experience, been easier to, ahem, assimilate to. You have a 45% chance of hitting that Klingon. You have a 62% chance of fixing the engines? Better make it 55% since the whole ship is shaking apart from the enemy's gravity weapon. This explanation of skills is something people can wrap their heads around. I've said it before, games might catch on with a wider audience if they didn't game talk at you so much.

On a scale from Ensign to Admiral, I rank it Commander.

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Last Unicorn Games' Star Trek Role-Playing Game, which utilizes their ICON System and on which I was a playtester, is my preferred system.
 

The ICON System is a 6-sided die based system that works a little different from most die pool systems but it certainly qualifies as one. You roll a number of dice equal to your Attribute with a bonus die (or dice), called an Edge(s), added in as appropriate. When you roll you take the highest number rolled (and only the highest) as your result. Skill Ratings are than added to that result.

So for example: Lt. Sorpik, a Vulcan Science Officer, is trying to determine what seemingly common chemicals were combined that accidently poisoned the crew of a research station. Sorpik has an Intellect Attribute of 3 so he rolls 3 dice. His Physical Science (Chemistry) Skill is 2 (3), meaning he adds a +2 to his highest roll in all Physical Science tests except ones involving his specialty of chemistry, where he adds +3.

So he rolls and gets 2, 5 and 6. The 6 is highest so he adds +3 to it for a total of 9.

The system uses a Drama Die, which allows for a critical success or failure with a roll of 6 or 1 respectively. A roll of 6 allows you to add the next highest die you rolled to your total.

Going back to the example above, if the 6 Sorpik's Player had rolled had been on the Drama Die, he could add the next highest die to his result. The next highest is the 5 so the final total is 6+5+3 for 14.

It's a simple and fairly straightforward system that allows for dramatic play and just enough crunch with minimal to no headaches in trying to make everything work. To date, it's my favorite system for running Star Trek and I have used it many, many times. As I've noted elsewhere, it has just enough crunch to satisfy the technical nature of Star Trek and it's easy enough to support my love of theatrics and story.

I rank it Captain, possibly Commodore.

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Lastly, and sadly least in my opinion, we have the Star Trek Role Playing Game featuring the CODA System by Decipher.
 

Decipher's version of the game came about a bit to soon after Last Unicorn Games lost the license. Rather, after Wizards of The Coast lost the license for them as WotC had purchased LUG, laid off a good number of very talented people in an attempt to gain the license for both Star Trek and Star Wars simultaneously. The greedy, no-talent...I mean...the entrepreneurs over at WotC apparently didn't realize their was some stipulation in the Star Trek license preventing that and boom, no Star Trek game.

When Decipher than hired a lot of the creative people behind the ICON system to create the CODA system and a new Star Trek game they, well, rushed it a bit I guess. To me, CODA feels like a cheap copy of ICON, changed just enough in just the wrong places to get rid of the charm, easy, flexibility and awesomeness of ICON.

CODA is far too close to Dungeons & Dragons 3E, taking ICON's Template + Overlay + Packages character creation system and making it feel like a Race/Class system, complete with Feat-like abilities. Just doesn't work for me.

In all honesty it's not a horrible system or game but it just doesn't feel right for yours truly.

I give it the rank of Lt. JG. If there had never been an ICON system I would promote it to full Lieutenant.

***

Thank you for your questions Valerius. I hope I was able to help or a least provide of a bit of insight from a veteran Star Trek GM.

More questions please! Keep them coming!

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Barking Alien

A few bits of business before I go...

I know I'm late but I want to say good bye to the master of stop motion, the king of cool effects, the one and only Ray Harryhausen.

Today commemorates the passing of Jim Henson, my hero above heroes, who died May 16th, 1990. It's hard to believe it was so long ago. Will always miss you man.

Lastly, DC Comics, in their continuing efforts to completely destroy themselves and any interest in their universe, have cancelled the Legion of Superheroes comic. There is rumor of a new comic to replace it called, 'Justice Legion'. Granted, Legion wasn't very good these last two years but I really have no idea why they couldn't fix the problems it had.

Honestly, I'll concede that it might be difficult to continuously put out a top notch Legion of Superheroes comic book issue after issue after issue, but I would personally find it far harder to make a bad Legion comic. That takes some skill.