Let Me Make You Smile

I apologize for the delay in posting. We are experiencing operating difficulties. Please stand by.

Rather, I am experiencing operating difficulties. I am having difficulty operating. By operating I mean 'doing my thing'.

The previous post was, in my eyes, a dreadful misfire.

I had hoped to get a discussion going, hoped to receive opinions from my peers, and fellow GMs who may have experienced the same sort of feelings. I received very little response, and one that I receive misunderstood the nature of my inquiry, and put me in a bit of a funk with their comment.

A game I ran last Friday night didn't help matters.

My creative juices sucked dry by the fruit bat of frustration* (there's an image), I didn't have much in the way of a desire to post. I've got a few unfinished drafts in the pipe, but all for this merry month of humor, and I wasn't feeling particularly mirthful.

To add insult to injury, I am almost completely unpacked from my move to my new apartment, and I can't find one of my favorite RPG books. I was looking to do a post on it for this month.

Yeah, not feeling especially full of glee this weekend.

Thankfully, there is always a bright side...

I'll start with the fact that it's Autumn...

More precisely it will be on September 23rd, of this year. I love Autumn. I love the changing color of the leaves, Halloween (or at least the idea of it), the Thanksgiving Holiday (my favorite holiday), and especially the weather. I'll take a million rainy days to the sweltering heat, and disgusting humidity of a New York Summer.

Another great thing about the Fall is that it's Pumpkin flavored everything season, and that always puts a smile on my face. This year's special find, Pumpkin Spice Frosted Mini-Wheats from Kellogg. You might as well have put, 'For Adam' right on the box. So good. Apparently Peanut Butter & Co. makes a Pumpkin Spice Peanut Butter. Come Barkley! We seek the Holy Grail!

I got to see two friends of mine on Saturday, teach at the tutoring center today, and mere moments ago I found the RPG book I was looking for.

Things are looking up.

I'm still a little irked by some of my recent game-related experiences, but I can already feel that fading. I'll get over it, and hopefully figure out a way to do something about the less than optimum conditions I am currently faced with RPG-wise.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program, already in progress...

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Barking Alien


*Thank goodness this isn't a D&D/OSR blog, right? Fruit Bat of Frustration? You know some maniac would be stating that thing up, but good faster than you can say 'Fiend Folio'.

Let Me Entertain You

This post is not directly related to the theme this month. Consider it a commercial break, or a 'word from our sponsor'.

I would like to point out, before I go any further, that this post is not referencing one of my current groups, or the other. It is about both.

Actually, what it's really about, is me.

It is not meant as a criticism to any party, but rather an 'inconvenient truth', to coin a phrase. Things are as they as are because I made the decision to have them be that way. I blame it on no one, but myself. Still, and all, I am questioning whether or not I made the right decision in how I went about presenting my game ideas. Might another approach be better?

***

One of the biggest differences between the way I game now, and the way I used to game (say, 10-15 years ago, and prior) is that I am now much more acutely aware of the particular interests, likes, and dislikes of my players, and I try to cater to those so that everyone has a much better experience overall.

And that sucks.

Hmmm. Perhaps some clarification is in order.

This is how I set up to run a new campaign, or even a one-shot nowadays:

I begin with a concept, genre, or specific game I want to run. It could be teens who are going to school to be superheroes, Anime Action/Romance Sitcom, or my particular Blast City Blues setting for Teenagers from Outer Space. How specific the idea is varies.

I pitch my idea to the group I want to run it with. I have to decide beforehand if the group would even be interested at all so that I don't waste anyone's time, including my own. Sometimes, I don't really know if it will go over until I ask. I usually do this few weeks, or even months before I intend to GM the first session. This way, if no one likes the idea I have time to come up with something else.

Depending on the group, I need a unanimous vote. I don't want to leave anyone out, especially the regulars. If I get a positive majority vote, with one, or two naysayers, I will do the following: If those who vote against are regulars, I'll drop the idea, and go for something else. If those who vote against the idea are not regulars, I'll either try to convince them to give it a shot, or hold the idea off until I can assemble those who liked the idea on their own.

This process right here eliminates the vast majority of my coolest game ideas from reaching the table. Getting four to six people to agree on a single concept is tough these days.

Next, the group asks me a few, OK a lot, of questions. Some are basic things about the story, setting, or what have you to make sure they are on the same page. They will largely ignore these answers come character generation time, but it's nice of them to ask. The rest of the questions will be in depth info that I either haven't developed yet, or things that would give away the major secrets of the campaign. I am usually able to dodge, or redirect these.

Without any further information, they immediately start making up characters. These characters often don't quite fit, and a process of adjusting them to the game, and the game to them, begins. Several incarnations of the characters follow, as well as scrapping the characters, and making completely new ones. This occurs an average of three, or four times prior to my running the first session per player.

Here's how it used to work:

I began with a concept, genre, or specific game I wanted to run. It could be teens who are going to school to be superheroes, Anime Action/Romance Sitcom, or my particular Blast City Blues setting for Teenagers from Outer Space.

I met up with my group, having told them only that I want to start a new campaign. I then pitched them the idea. Everyone would say, "Cool!", or "Great!", maybe even an "Awesome!"

We would immediately begin creating characters. Everyone would create a character that fit in perfectly with the basic idea.

Alternatively, I would announce the type of game I wanted to run a few days to a week before I'm going to see them, they would tell me the type of characters they wanted to play, and I would generate their characters for them. Then I would show up on our scheduled meeting day, hand out the characters, and we took about 15 minutes, or so modifying, and customizing them to exactly what everyone wanted.

Then we'd play (yep, that same day), for 6 hours or so, and see if everyone wanted to continue with the game as a campaign.

Comparing the results:

My modern approach has resulted in our Traveller - Operation: PALADIN campaign, which has been extremely successful.

It also created Pendragon: The Lion and The Sea, Bushido: Dark Cloud's at Land's End, Champions: REBIRTH, and Champions: ALL ACCESS, all of which were dismal failures.

The old method resulted in my Galaxy Quest RPG, Ghostbusters NJ, Star Wars: Tales from the Rim, Star Wars: Ever The Brave, Teenagers from Outer Space: Blast City Blues, Mekton: Distant Soldier Herakles, Mekton: Neo-Tokyo Crimebuster - Furiransu Keikan, Mekton: World Guard Tri-Gikura, Champions: Crusaders Vanguard, Traveller: The Corridor Chronicles, Traveller: Trojan Horses, and all my D&D-But-Not / World of Aerth campaigns.

Based solely on this track record, it would seem my new approach is not the best way to go about this process, wouldn't you say?

Ah, but if it were only that simple.

Perhaps it is, and I'm over-thinking it, even over-feeling it, but there are several factors that have lead me to arrive at developing a game the way I currently do these days.

Perhaps the most significant, at least in my mind, is (or rather was) the fact that I did not really know my current players before I started gaming with them.

In nearly all my old groups, we were friends before we gamed together. We either discovered gaming at the same time, introduced a given game to one another, or asked after a time, "So, do you game?"

Another key point is that I have two groups, both of whom I met, and started gaming with only 1-3 years ago. I have one friend in one of my groups who'd known me a bit before we started gaming together, but other than him these guys didn't know anything about me.

In my older groups, if I hadn't grown up right along side of my players, than I came recommended to the group by a mutual friend. My New Jersey group is a good example of this. My friend Nelson, who I'd first met when I was in Junior High, and he was in High School, gamed with me for years before introducing me to friends of his in NJ. The Jersey crew had heard from him, and others that I was a good GM, so they game me a shot.

Finally, my new groups are, hmmm, interesting in their familiarities, exposures, and preferences.

One of them had never seen Star Wars (or any of the Star Wars films for that matter). At least two in one group, and one in another group had not seriously ever read American comics. One of my groups is full of Anime/Manga fans, while the other seems to only have a smattering of Anime/Manga knowledge.

In my previous groups, we all read comics. We all read largely the same comics, or within two, or three degrees of separation from each other. We all watched Star Trek. We'd all seen all the Star Wars movies. We all loved Anime, and some had read Manga (I myself have watched a lot more Anime, than I have read Manga). We all loved Ghostbusters, Monty Python, The Marx Brothers, etc.

We had different favorites, but we liked A LOT of different things, and we were familiar with a comparatively broad spectrum of fandom from what I see among today's geek community.

So, I played it safe.

I took an easy, soft sell approach. I catered to my audience, or so I thought, instead of telling them to sit down, hold onto their seats, and just let me entertain them.

Am I sorry? Do I regret it? Well...

No, not 'regret'. That isn't the right word. We've had fun, created some great stories, and it seems like both groups are getting more experimental as time goes on.

Do I miss the old approach, and the gaming groups it worked with? Yes. I can't deny this. They were amazing gamers, and great friends. They helped me create stories so epic I continue to tell them to newcomers, as well as here on my blog.

Do I wish my new groups were more like my old groups? Sure, sometimes.

Who knows what the future will hold though, eh? New games, new players, new possibilities. I know I've not seen the last of my more avant garde ideas, nor the last of people who will try them.

It's all in the pitch.

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Barking Alien

Thorough Thursdays: The PEANUTS

WBARK would like to apologize for the delay in posting this entry, which was actually completed last Thursday, September 3rd, 2015.

The program was pre-empted by the Interdimensional Grav-Ball Championship.

We are pleased to now broadcast this in its entirety.

*** 

 

Welcome back to the show everybody.

Our first guests this month need little introduction, but as both the show's host, and a fan personally since I was very young, I would feel negligent in my duties if I didn't say something.

Awarding winning stars of television, film, comic strips, and merchandise galore, the genius of their work, and the warmth, and sincerity in which it is delivered, is not to be denied.

On November 6th, 2015 a new generation will get the chance to laugh, love, and be charmed by these talented characters, as a CGI animated film with a very distinctive look, strikingly similar to their newspaper strip, and traditional animation origins, arrives in theatres nationwide.

Ladies, and gentlemen, please welcome to the program...

Charles Schultz's PEANUTS!

The PEANUTS Gang

Left to Right:

Back Row: Pig Pen, Schroder, Franklin, Sally Brown, Marcie

Front Row: Peppermint Pattie, Linus Van Pelt, Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy Van Pelt

and Woodstock

Hello kids! Welcome to Barking Alien!

Charlie Brown: What did he say?

Lucy: I don't know. I can never understand anything any adult says. It's just this wah-wah noise.

{LAUGHTER - APPLAUSE}

Linus: Just kidding Mr. Dickstein. We're very happy to be here.

Well I'm happy too. I couldn't be more delighted. I've been a big fan since I was a kid myself. So, tell the viewers a little about yourselves, your history, and what you've been up to lately.

Charlie Brown: Talk? About myself? In front of all these people?

Lucy: Good grief Charlie Brown.

Pattie: Come on Chuck, man up. Give the people what they want Chuck!

Charlie Brown: *Sigh* OK, Charlie Brown. You can do this.

***

 

Prior to this post, I have only tagged the Peanuts, the family favorite comic strip, and animated characters created by Charles M. Schultz, one time on this blog.

I may have mentioned them briefly perhaps once, and I have depicted characters in Schultz's art style.

That's just wrong.

***

Peanuts really began in a weekly, panel comic strip called 'Li'l Folks, which Charles Schultz did for his hometown newspaper in St. Paul, Minnesota. The strip ran from 1947, to 1950.

The name Charlie Brown was first used for a series of characters in that strip, all of whom were the butt of some joke or other. A dog, looking very much like the early renditions of Snoopy, would also appear in that comic periodically. 

After his local paper dropped Li'l Folks in 1950, Schultz took what he believed to be his best work from the strip, and tried to sell the idea to United Feature Syndicate. UFS said yes, and decided to pick up his comic. However, some changes were made, and UFS, and Schultz decided to run what was essentially a new comic strip by the time is was ready to go to print.

The new strip was largely the same as his previous one, but instead of one-shot characters, and gags, Schultz decided to create a distinct cast with particular traits, personalities, and reoccurring, or running jokes.

To avoid confusion with Al Capp's Li'l Abner, and another strip titled Little Folks, the syndicate settled on the name Peanuts, named after the Peanut Gallery featured in the Howdy Doody TV show.

Peanuts was a title Schulz always disliked, as he would reveal in interviews much later on. He felt is was an arbitrary choice, with little meaning, or bearing on the comic strip, or its characters. It is for this reason that the various collections of his work, and most of the animated specials, do not use, or refer to the name 'Peanuts' in their titles. Rather, it's 'A Charlie Brown Christmas', and the strips in paperback form typically had either "Charlie Brown" or "Snoopy" in the title.

The first Peanuts comic strip appeared in October of 1950 in nine different newspapers. The Peanuts would go on to become one of the most popular newspaper strips in history, appearing in newspapers all over the world, and translated in over fifty different languages.

Following their approved use in a series of commercials for The Ford Motor Company, the Peanuts appeared in their first animated television special in 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas. The special won both an Emmy, and a Peabody Award, and would pave the way for a number of additional specials (Twenty all together!), two films, and an ongoing animated series that ran from 1983 to 1986. A theatrical play, You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, created in 1967 as a musical comedy, is but one of the stage versions of Schultz's work. Amateur theatre companies has also done versions of A Charlie Brown Christmas, and A Boy Named Charlie Brown.

The popularity of the Peanuts doesn't end there...

A new CGI animated film is slated for this November, with a really great visual style in my opinion. I am very impressed with what I've seen of it so far, a fun and faithful adaption of the Peanuts' 2D cartoon look to a 3D-ish computer animated feature.

Now on to the question on everybody's mind...OK, on my mind, and the mind of perhaps a few others:

What about a Peanuts RPG?

No official Peanuts Role Playing Game has ever been produced, in any format (tabletop, video, or computer game) as far as I am aware. Now, have I ever considered creating one? Yes, of course.

It would be an interesting project I think. Although the characters originate in a comic strip, and animated vehicle, they are not characters who follow cartoon physics the way ones in Toon, or even Teenagers from Outer Space would.

The strong, and distinct personalities, interpersonal relationships, and middle-American suburban setting do lend themselves to some great storytelling opportunities though.

At the same time there is Snoopy, who seems to sometimes live in an imaginary reality of his own mind, such as when he believes he is a World War I flying ace casing down the Red Baron. We've also seen him defy normal physics, and rational logic when in the presence of Charlie Brown, and other characters when he disappears into his doghouse, and retrieves items that should be too large to fit inside it.

Snoopy's Doghouse is regularly depicted as bigger on the inside than the outside, and as stated clearly by one character in an old strip, "The house itself isn't that big, but you should see the recreation room".

So how do you handle that, and moreover, what would the focus of the adventures be?

I thought about creating a game with the premise that the worse you are at things, the more flaws you have, the better you are at achieving the adventure/session goal, or your own personal goal.

By example, let's look a Linus, and Charlie Brown.

Linus is, as Peanuts characters go, a fairly competent character. He is bright, imaginative, spiritually attuned, and often wields his security blanket in such a way as make Indiana Jones envious. Linus suffers from unwanted female attention. His older sister Lucy bullies him a little from time to time, and Charlie Brown's younger sister Sally is infatuated with him.

Linus would therefore be effective during the adventure, but he doesn't really have enough going against him to build up the points necessary to make a major impact on the goal of an adventure, except in a supporting role. This is evidenced in the fact that he can tell Charlie Brown the meaning of Christmas in A Charlie Brown Christmas, but at the end of It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, there really is no Great Pumpkin.

Meanwhile Charlie Brown, who is a veritable pile of neurosis, is often the hero of the Peanuts stories. He has low self-esteem, lives with numerous fears, and anxieties, he's clumsy, and his own dog is often depicted as way cooler than he is. This means that by the end of a session, he is more likely to have everyone pitch together to fix his Christmas Tree, or his grandmother suggests he bring all his friends over to her house for Thanksgiving.

This is really all very rudimentary I know, but it's all I've managed to put together so far.

***

Some additional, personal notes:

I went as Snoopy the first time I went trick or treating. Yes, the very first Halloween costume I ever wore, was Snoopy.

My first dog was a Beagle.

I had a good friend named Charles when I was in grade school, and his next door neighbor had a Beagle named Snoopy. Weird, right?

I once had a Snoopy vinyl figure, about 4 1/2, or 5 inches tall, with poseable arms, and a turnable head. I loved it, and took it everywhere. I eventually lost it somewhere. I was about 5 years old. Still devastated.

My father, for reasons I don't know, thought Woodstock was hilarious .

In addition, my Dad, who was Jewish and celebrated Chanukah, really liked A Charlie Brown Christmas. He never missed it when it was on.

One of my favorite articles of clothing, which finally gave up the ghost a few years ago after nearly 25 years of wear, was a vastly oversized, red t-shirt with quarter lengths sleeves, and a picture of Snoopy on it. He was wearing sunglasses, and a red t-shirt of his own. The word's Joe Cool appeared on his chest. The shirt itself had writing that I think said some like, 'Cool is Hot' or some such silliness. It was sooo comfortable, plus it had Snoopy. How can you beat that?

In conclusion, I am looking forward to the new film, and hope to some day put together a Peanuts RPG one-shot. The simple, yet nuanced art, and the slice of life humor of Charles Schultz has been a big creative influence on me during my lifetime.

I hope those of you who are also fans of the Peanuts enjoyed this post, and for those of you less familiar with the franchise, do yourself a favor, and watch the old holiday specials, notably the ones mentioned above. If you have a kid, or you're a kid at heart, consider checking out the upcoming movie.

***

 

 

Great job Charlie Brown! Can you, and the Peanuts gang stick around for a while?

Charlie Brown: Gee, I guess so.

Great! There's a lot more to come this month. We have to pause for a break, but we'll be right back after these message...

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Barking Alien

Funny Business

While Adam attends to our guests in the Green Room, I would like to take this time to introduce a very special surprise for the studio audience, and the viewers at home. Coming to you all the way from the Trailing Extensions of the Whirlpool Galaxy comes the great seer, soothsayer, and sage, Carnac the Magnificent!

Thank you Mr. Barkley, thank you. May the filthy soap scum of a thousand bathtub rinses avoid your private parts.

Thank you Carnac, you are too kind.

Now then, I hold in my hand a set of envelopes. As a child of four Earth cycles can plainly see, these envelopes have been hermetically sealed. They've been kept in a #2 mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnalls' back porch on Earth West-38 since noon today. No one knows the contents of these envelopes, but you, in your borderline divine and mystical way, will ascertain the answers having never before seen the questions.

THAT...is correct.

Very good. Here is the first envelope.

The answer is..."Expedition to the Barrier Peaks."

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.

The question..."What is the term for attempting to look at your wife, or girlfriend's bosom, while her parents are in the room."

The next envelope.

The answer is..."Fire, Fusion, and Steel."

Fire, Fusion, and Steel.

I just said that. The question is..."Name three things easier to swallow than Donald Trump running for President."

I hold in my hand...er...paw, the last envelope. Here you go.

The answer is..."Nasty, Brutish, and Short."

Nasty, Brutish, and Short.

The question is..."Describe the history, as you understand it, of comedic RPGs."

A [Very] Brief History of Humorous Tabletop Role Playing Games,

By Adam Dickstein

 

I haven't had time to do a lot of research, and as such, I am unlikely to be as thorough as Lowell Francis is when he does his 'History of...' posts (which are oddly not tagged in such a way that you can just pull them up. A tag of History would make them much easier to search for IMHO).

The very first commercial RPG with a purposely humorous focus, as far as I can tell, was called Alma Mater. It was produced in 1982 by a company known as Oracle Games. Supposedly, the art for the game, by Dungeons & Dragons legend Erol Otus, so deemed so offensive, the game was banned from the GenCon.

I don't think the game was overly popular, as I've never heard much talk about it, hadn't seen a copy until much, much later, and it's definitely not one any player I've played with regularly has ever mentioned.

And I've played with a pretty diverse bunch.

One could certainly argue that Alma Mater was preceded by another game with a distinctly humorous tone. That game was Ken St. Andre's Tunnels and Trolls. While not specifically a comedy game, Tunnels and Trolls, first published in 1975 by Flying Buffalo, Inc., had a rather tongue-in-cheek attitude to many of its elements, including spells with names like 'Take That, You Fiend', and 'Hidey Hole'.

Furthermore, Flying Buffalo put out another game called Monsters! Monsters!, in which PCs turn the tables on the traditional Fantasy character dynamic by playing the creatures that live in the dungeons being invaded by adventurers.

Over the next few years, no significant entry into the field of humorous RPGs is even made. Role Playing Games, into the early-to-mid 80s, are serious business.

Thankfully, that all changed with the arrival of Toon in 1984.

The story goes that the idea for the game originated with artist, and Villains and Vigilantes co-creator Jeff Dee. Dee was with Greg Costikyan, as well as other game designers, trying to figure out what genres where not yet covered in the field of RPGs. Dee suggested a RPG based on Cartoons. The rest of the assembled talented said, although a great idea, created a system for such a game would be impossible. A few years afterward, with the help of Warren Spector, Costikyan created Toon.

Greg Costikyan is, in some ways, the unofficial father of the humorous RPG. In addition to Toon, Costikyan was also a key designer on Paranoia from West End Game, which came out in the same year, 1984.

While the ball was now rolling, the next two entries were licensed games, and so their popularity may have been more closely tied to their IPs, at least initially. Palladium's Teenager Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness, and West End Games' Ghostbusters were hits, and while no where near as big as the big boys like D&D, Call of Cthulhu, or even Traveller, the gaming consumer had spoken, and been heard loud, and clear. Comedy games were a hit.

Proof positive was the fact that it didn't end there. Not by a long shot. Teenagers from Outer Space, Macho Women with Guns, Tales from the Floating Vagabond, HoL and many, many more followed. A not really complete, though decent list can be found here.

The independent publishing movement of the last 10 years, or so really helped in this area as well. Some of my personal comical RPG favorites such as The Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men, Doom and Cookies, and the recently released Spirit of 77 were all made possible by the indie game boom.

Interestingly, since this is something I am going to discuss in a later post, not all this humorous games are billed as comedy RPGs. Spirit of 77 is very funny, but it isn't sold as a humorous game. Likewise, HoL, and Doom and Cookies can be quite dark, though this is a definite comedic tone to them.

Well, that's about all I want to say on the subject for now. I highly recommend looking into the history of comedic RPGs, and Role Playing Games in general, as it is some fascinating stuff.

I highly recommend:

The Designers and Dragons series and Heroic Worlds by Lawrence Schick. Also Age of Ravens of course, as Lowell does a bang up job in this regard.

Thanks for watching! Now, back to our show...

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Barking Alien

Opening Monologue

From the broadcasting studio on Level Zeta of our trans-dimensional headquarters,

in association with The Pan-Phasic Communications Network,

comes...

 

The Barking Alien Blog!

 

I'm Barkley, and with me as always is an unnamed, sentient saxophone riff from the Andromeda Galaxy, and The Barking Alien Band.

Now, without further adieu, your host and the master of ceremonies for the blog,

Heeeere's Adam!

Hiyooo!

 

Hello everyone! How are we all doing tonight?

 

I've got to tell you, while I was backstage getting ready, our make-up robot suggested I do a time machine treatment.

 

A Time Machine treatment?

 

Yeah. It was great. It took years off.

 

*RIMSHOT*

 

So, what's this in the news about a 5th Edition of D&D?

 

Yes.

 

A 5th Edition! Maybe they'll get it right this time.

 

The thing is, do you need five editions? Did the 2nd one break? Can't they just get some tape, or glue or something and fix it?

 

Ha-ha!

Anyway, this month Barking Alien is going to be largely focused on humor in RPGs, specifically comedic RPGs, humorous ideas for otherwise serious games, and why you would be doing either of those things

I've mentioned several times in the past that lessons learned from the entertainment industry's great comedians have had a huge impact on the way I Gamemaster.

From timing events, and scenes, to creating the appropriate atmosphere, to getting dialog just right, I harken back to the masters of the craft of comedy. I can honestly say that Gygax, Arneson, and Moldvay had much less of an influence on my time in the hobby than Mel Brooks, the Marx Brothers, and Monty Python did.

Hopefully, before months end, I'll be able to show you all how important comedy, and humor are to gaming, and how enjoyable, and even vital it is to our hobby.

So stay with us, as it looks like we're going to have a great show this month.

Our guests include Jim Henson's Muppets! {APPLAUSE} That's right, they'll be here. Hunter Planet! {APPLAUSE} Looking forward to that. Musical guest Teenagers from Outer Space! {APPLAUSE - Some whooping and hollering} Thought you'd enjoy that. And we've got much more in store for you so stick around!

We'll be back after a few words from our sponsors, and to pause for station identification.


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Barking Alien