A Considerable Threat

It's been a strange month.

What with it being October, Halloween and all, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

In my real life, business has gone from 'Crappy Summer' to 'Awesomely Busy Fall' and that's good news for me. I may be tired but at least I don't have to worry as much about bills, food, etc.

Posts were light this month, views were up, comments down and the focus a bit unfocused as far as I'm concerned. I did get the chance to talk about my two mainstay campaigns, Traveller and Pendragon, but not enough. A host of other ideas I've shared have gone unfinished, while others were not shared at all.

'Scuse me whilst I reflect upon this.

Hmmm.

Onward...

Next month is November and with that comes Thanksgiving, the National Game Design Month event (NaGaDeMon), a continually busy work schedule, and very possibly the end of one or both of my campaigns.

What?!?

My player Marcus, in addition to being a consummate pain in the tail region, has managed to get himself and several of the other players into serious trouble. IN BOTH GAMES! Now that's some mad Player Skillz at work, don't you think?

In Traveller, he and a few others who have decided to go with him, are heading to an uncharted star system in order to claim it and the right to own it. There are numerous obstacles and problems with his plan, not the least of which is time and competition. And the fact that he really has no plan.

And that's just the problems he knows about.

In Pendragon, he pissed off a Knight who had come to the court of the dukedom the PCs are in to ask if the Duke knew of a young girl who had been taken from a village under said Knight's country's care. The NPCs sought to stall the Knight and make him lose his cool. That way, they and the PCs would be in the right to do something about him. If he didn't lose his cool, they would feign ignorance of the matter and he would simply leave. The young woman in question is one of the PCs actually and she left voluntarily when King Arthur himself sent her a letter and asked to meet with her.

During the exchanges between the Knight, the good Duke, his Chancellor (all NPCs) and one or two of the PCs, the Knight made an inquiry of Ray's character Sir Henry. Marcus indicated that he would like to say something to defend Sir Henry or divert the conversation. Ray said sure, and Marcus proceeded to accuse and embarrass the Knight in front of everyone, taking on an antagonistic approach that may now plunge us into war.

Ray managed to interject just after Marcus finished talking at court and did so with flying colors. As the Knight readied a retaliatory volley of words, Ray took complete control of the conversation and told the Knight in no uncertain terms that this audience was over. You lose. Good day to you sir. I said Good Day!

Wait now, Marcus wasn't done...

Marcus decided to accompany the group of soldiers, mostly Irish mercenaries, who were told to escort the Knight and his entourage out of the kingdom. The escort also included Hans' character and an NPC mercenary he (She. Shhhh.) had befriended. Just as they reached the gates of the city, Marcus pulled the Knight aside and apologized to him in a whispered exchange. In that exchange he also set in motion a situation which could easily destroy the entire troupe of PCs and the goal of why they were in the region in the first place.

***

Yes. In the span of an hour or two of the second session of Pendragon we have had, Marcus managed to create an almost no win scenario.

Why? How? Screw how, WHY?

Because Marcus isn't having fun unless it's about Marcus. He has to be the one with the clever plan, be the smooth talker, the guy who gets the right people on his side while he pulls the wool over the eyes of the people who he doesn't like or who are against him.

The problems with this?

1. He doesn't take the motivations and personalities of his enemies into account.
2. He doesn't consult or consider any other member of the team when pulling these stunts.
3. He wants to be the consummate con man but his words and actions make everyone distrust him.
4. He doesn't consider that there could be factors at work he doesn't know about yet.

In the Traveller campaign, if death is in the team's future, it will only be for those who go with Marcus and Marcus himself. I know Will's and Ray's characters will not be joining his mission. This campaign can easily live on with other characters.

In Pendragon, only one player has any idea of the real threat potential. The threat Marcus has created could, very likely, result in a TPK. My first ever I believe. If that occurs, I think I will lay off fantasy again for a good long while.

I am at the edge of my seat.

AD
Barking Alien

Insufficient Data

 

After rereading what I wrote here on my RPG Person Profile I realize that this information is woefully insufficient.

 

Maybe I was tired, maybe I just wasn't into it, but the end result is basically that, as I stated at the bottom of the last post, the profile doesn't really say anything about who I am and how I game. Isn't that supposed to be the point of a profile?

 

The questions seem rather generic and so I feel like I answered them generically. In hopes of improving your understanding of me I thought I'd elaborate on a few of the entries.

 

I'm currently running (at a public place): Classic Traveller (with MegaTraveller and T5elements) and Pendragon (4th Edition). Occasionally Champions (4th Edition).

I would especially like to play/run: Star Trek (FASA or Last Unicorn Games Versions).

But really, I want to run it, not play it.

I would also really like to run an InSpectres/Ghostbusters game again. That was sweet.

I'd love to see someone run a game of Supers that is classic Silver Age. That I would play.

 ...but would also try: I'll try just about anything.

This is true but if it's D&D, Pathfinder or something similar, gah, I really would rather not. Maybe Next just to say I did.

2 or 3 well-known RPG products other people made that I like: Well known? Hmmm. Star Trek (FASA or Last Unicorn Games), Champions (4th Edition) and Star Wars (West End Games)

Now here are some games I love, that rock, that are not so well known:

Golden Sky Stories, InSpectres, Faery's Tale Deluxe and Monsterhearts. Want to try Monsterhearts real bad.

2 or 3 novels I like: Anything by Terry Pratchett, Ringworld by Larry Niven, Star Trek: Vanguard

I love, and I mean LOVE, to read. I read all the time. This doesn't even scratch the surface of what I've read or like to read.

2 or 3 movies I like: The Muppet Movie, Galaxy Quest, Ghostbusters

As above. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Blade Runner, Princess Bride, Labyrinth, Pacific Rim, anything with The Marx Brothers, Blazing Saddles, Wizard of Oz, Return to Oz, etc.

Best place to find me on-line: Facebook or on gaming blogs.

Google+ and some game forums as well.

I will read almost anything on tabletop RPGs if it's: Science Fiction or Superheroes

Or Folklore, especially Faerie Folklore. Or Comedy/Humorous games. Or UFOs. Or Ghosts. Or something, anything, significantly different from what we've seen already.

I really do not want to hear about: Dungeons & Dragons

Boring. Same stuff again and again and again. Bleh.

Games I'm in are like (link to something):

Games I run are impossible to completely explain in a single sentence. They are usually very different from each other but all very much Adam games. This entry is kind of tricky to settle on an answer for.

Fun. They are like Fun.

If you know anything about Hunter Planet it'd help me with a project I'm working on

Or Ghosts. Or Arthurian Legend. Or Science. Or obscure Golden Age Superheroes. Or...just comment or send me a message already!

I talk about RPGs on Facebook (social media site and/or RPG forum name) under the name Adam Dickstein.

I also talk about them in person in game and comic book stores, on the phone with friends, at conventions, to my dog who is a great sounding board for ideas, to...

I often go by the name of Ralph Waldo Pickle Chips at these times.

Or not.

There. That feels better.

AD
Barking Alien



 

My RPG Person Profile

So this is a thing. Guess I'm doing it too.

RPG Person Profile. That seems grammatically odd. Oh well...

 

***

 

I'm currently running (at a public place): Classic Traveller (with MegaTraveller and T5 elements) and Pendragon (4th Edition). Occasionally Champions (4th Edition).

I would especially like to play/run: Star Trek (FASA or Last Unicorn Games Versions).

...but would also try: I'll try just about anything.

I live in: New York City, NY - Capital of the planet Earth.

2 or 3 well-known RPG products other people made that I like: Well known? Hmmm. Star Trek (FASA or Last Unicorn Games), Champions (4th Edition) and Star Wars (West End Games)

2 or 3 novels I like: Anything by Terry Pratchett, Ringworld by Larry Niven, Star Trek: Vanguard

2 or 3 movies I like: The Muppet Movie, Galaxy Quest, Ghostbusters

Best place to find me on-line: Facebook or on gaming blogs.

I will read almost anything on tabletop RPGs if it's: Science Fiction or Superheroes

I really do not want to hear about: Dungeons & Dragons

Games I'm in are like (link to something): They are all quite different. Traveller. Superheroes. Pendragon.

If you know anything about Hunter Planet it'd help me with a project I'm working on

I talk about RPGs on Facebook (social media site and/or RPG forum name) under the name Adam Dickstein

 

This is nice but I am not one hundred percent certain of its purpose. Nothing listed is something you wouldn't know about me from reading this blog, three or four comments I've made on blogs or posts on Facebook or just, ya'know, asking me.

 

Next,

 

AD

Barking Alien

 

Abject Horror

As Halloween approaches, I feel obligated to discuss a genre that has never really endeared itself to me.

Horror.

I have never liked the Horror genre.

I have read the likes of Poe, Shelley and Lovecraft, and while I was indeed fascinated by their works, nothing in them made me feel the desire to read more beyond what I had.

Oh I've read King and Koontz, Barker and Rice, but with the exception of a few books from each, I just don't care for the type of story they tell. Except Koontz. I've really never read a great Koontz book..

I've seen numerous classic horror films, from the cinema's golden age to the Exorcist, The Omen, Rosemary's Baby, and The Shining, up to the more modern fare such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Blair Witch Project. I know, those aren't all that modern. There is a reason. I grew tired of watching those kinds of movies by that point.

I don't find it fun to be scared or grossed out without purpose. That, in a nutshell, is the key to my issue with the genre. Horror, not to put to fine a point on it, seems purposeless to me. What it is and what it does just doesn't grab me as there seems to be no reason for it. There is no arc for most of the characters, as they are just there to die. There are no highlights to the story, as it's all just a grind to reach the end, where there may be one survivor or there may not be.

I prefer a story with an obstacle to overcome, characters who may or may not over come it, but ones that grow and accomplish something, even if it is just a minor understanding of who they are and what their universe is all about.

Lovecraft approaches this, than the character dies or goes mad and well, who cares.

As an element added to other genres...Horror is awesome.

Alien. Ghostbusters. The original versions of Grimm's Fairy Tales.

I also love ghost stories and tales of the strange and unexplained. Not horror per se but creepy and mysterious thrillers. Ah, that's the stuff.

One of the reasons for this feeling I have about the genre stems from its use in RPGs. For an RPG to emulate the genre with any real authenticity, nearly every PC must die before the story's end. Depending on how you set it up, there is not a lot of long term play value there.

Furthermore, there is often no hope of survival. Call of Cthulhu, the penultimate example of a successful, and popular horror RPG, is essentially about the world being inevitably consumed, and your PCs dying or going mad. There is not going to be a real end game victory. The 'heroes' are not going to 'win'. They have no chance of doing so.

While some may love this and from a literary and philosophical point of view I can see the appeal, I don't really get it for a role playing game. To me it's a GM railroad of the worst kind. It doesn't matter what you do, I am the GM, I am running Call of Cthulhu, so ipso facto, you lose.

When I have run horror...what? Yes, I've run horror campaigns or at least campaigns with a major horror genre slant to them. How can I run horror if I don't like it? Have a little faith...

Where was I? Oh yes, when I've run horror, I've run it more from the angle of 'There are frightening and unnerving things in this world that may very well be from the next one. If left unchecked they can cause a lot of pain and misery. The PCs are here to prevent that.'

In the words of Prof. Trevor Bruttenholm from the first Hellboy film, "There are things that go bump in the night, Agent Myers. Make no mistake about that. And we are the ones who bump back."

I've run Chill, Stalking The Night Fantastic, and a rather creepy Ghostbusters campaign (a little more horror and a little less comedy than the default version of that particular Horror Comedy). In each instance, I was able to allow the players time to like, even love their characters, as well as some of the NPCs around them. Threatening them with harm or death at the hands, fangs, or tentacles of various unnatural opponents generated plenty of terror.

In addition, since I adhere to the idea that ghosts are trapped in the in-between place that is neither life nor death for a reason, getting rid of a ghost doesn't always require zapping it with proton streams or banishing it with the proper incantation. Sometimes you need to get to know why it's still here and doing what it's doing. To that end, I actually made one of my players in our Ghostbusters game cry (The player. Real tears!) because the ghost's story and it's affect on her living relatives was so sad.

I am actually really looking forward to running my kind of horror again.

It is not the horror of more blood coming out of the Human body than we even have. It is not the obvious, in-your-face monster that better fits a D&D game. It's not the unstoppable hockey masked killer who seems more at home in a Superhero game as it is able to survive anything short of a nuclear warhead.

I like chilling, hair-raising, edge-of-your-seat strangeness that is disquieting because you don't know what is going on. I like the idea that you can fight back with knowledge and ingenuity. The shades of night are coming for you, but if you're careful and crafty, you can take back the night and perhaps shed a little light on them at the same time.

I like smart horror.

Happy Halloween everyone.

AD
Barking Alien

Other Peoples Thoughts On My Mind

Points of Interest:

A Night At The Improv
Noisms does it again with a great post about Improvisation. I not only like what he has to say here and how straight forward he says it, but it also gives me an excuse to refer to this post of my own on the subject.

Hive Mind
When not going on about Ponies or Pistols, Erin Palette of Lurking Rhythmically actually writes some seriously well thought out Traveller material. Read her take on the Hivers here. While not identical to the way I see them and use them in my current campaign, this has definitely given me food for thought and is an excellent possible insight into this little understood major race of Charted Space.

Don't Switch Off Your Targeting Computer
Do you listen to RPG podcasts? I started to about a year or so ago. For the most part, many of them are pretty good but aren't talking to me, if you know what I mean. One that constantly impresses me is Play on Target, hosted by Sam Dillon, Lowell Francis (of Age of Ravens), Brian Cooksey and Andrew Goerner. I learned about it through the Age of Ravens blog and I have to say I really like it. It doesn't have fancy effects, amazing music or any special features - it just talks about games, game theory, experience running different types of games and analyzes various genres and styles. I like it for the fact that the group discusses so many different games (including D&D) and makes references to things that work and don't across a wide range of systems. Highly recommended.

AD
Barking Alien