It's been quite a month since I decided to get serious about this blog. Really, I had no idea where what I was doing, and where I was heading.
I stumbled into the OSR blogosphere when, back in March or so of 2010, WotC posted about about a D&D show over at The Escapist called I Hit It With My Axe. I loved the show and the fun group of players. Especially Frankie. Luckily the guy who ran the show also had a blog.
Zak's writing on Playing D&D With Porn Stars was never boring and quite insightful. The titalation factor of the show and blog was just a veneer hiding actual substance. Imagine that. And over at the margins, he linked to other gaming blogs.
Jeff's Gameblog was always great, and Alexis's mapping work over at The Tao of D&D spurred me to print out some hex paper and start drawing maps again in that time honored fashion. There were others. Inspired, I started up this blog.
The big problem was that they were all doing something that I was not - playing some form of earlier D&D. I was plugging away with 4e. I had a good group and a good campaign going - but I've never been in love with the system. Fourth Edition Dungeons and Dragons is good for what it does - creating exciting and dynamic battles. But in 30 years of gaming, it's never been the battles I remember. It is the character interactions. It is the role-playing. It is the descriptive voices and the furrowed brows at having to make tough decisions.
A complicated game of chess didn't inspire me to write a blog at all. I kept on reading the OSR blogs though. It never made sense to me why I kept on reading about a game that I didn't play and had no interest in playing.
Early January saw me taking out the old musty AD&D books. I didn't like handling them. Something about the dust on them made my fingers itch. But I just wanted to take a peek. I started reading about alignment languages in the Player's Handbook. It got me thinking and having no one to talk to about it, I just kind of wrote myself a note and published it on the blog.
Strangely enough, a guy named Jayson answered, and we had a little exchange.
My brain exploded.
I WANTED TO PLAY REAL D&D AGAIN.
I've thought about D&D every day since - and have written about it too. Over the years, I've had countless web sites and blogs. No subject I'd write about would hold my interest for very long. And certainly, no one bothered to read them at all.
Now I find myself with the inability to keep quite about a subject - and I'm attached to a community of people who actually will take the time to listen to what I say. It's a bit overwhelming. I was in West Texas in my AD&D years. Only a handful of us knew anything about D&D - and we had to be quiet about it. Satan was in those dice, you know.
People's responses have been very encouraging. I even got an award from Tim at Gothridge Manor. Talk about an ego boost.
Now it feels like I've been blogging about OSR forever - in a good way. I'm excited. I get to introduce my son the the game I enjoyed so much as a kid - and not just a modern glossy version with no soul. People seem to enjoy hearing about his ride, too.
My mind reals with possibilities. There is a tiny anime and comic convention coming to our public library next weekend - with some kind of big names there. I'm thinking of crashing the gates with Labyrinth Lord. All conventions need RPGs, right? And there is that Islet Project that Paul at Quickly, Quietly, Carefully made me get interested in. Forced me. At gun point. I need more hex paper. Not to mention my own campaign that I'm working on. I'm getting quite busy.
So you of the OSR blogging community, and you readers too, thanks for helping my find my roots again. I really feel like I have come back home.
- Ark
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Resurrection as a Commodity
I've been digging through Labyrinth Lord with the idea of creating a world - not based on real historical societies - but on the mechanics of D&D. Fighters are billy bad-asses, and high level magic-users are just frighteningly powerful with that wish spell of theirs. It's probably even hard to imagine our world if you were from a fantasy universe. But the clerics have some world-shaking skills of their own.
From first to eighth level, clerics gain the ability to cure disease, neutralize poison, and heal massive tissue damage. Starting at ninth level, they begin to gain the ability to erase any affliction known, including death. Sure, a magic-user can reincarnate you into a baboon or a unicorn, but the humble priestess can resurrect you exactly like you were, even if all that remains is a toenail clipping. In fact, it's easier to bring someone back from the dead than to regrow a toe.
Death is only a speed-bump. What does that do to a society? Being not-dead has got to be a hugely desired product - more popular that even smart phones. We have a problem here on Earth with not enough health care providers or the infrastructure to support it.
Loved ones will rush to the temple with their freshly decapitated loved ones - only to stand in line that would probably reach around the block multiple times. Vendors would hawk their wares, selling roasted turkey legs and ale to bereaved - if hopeful - relatives of the deceased. But there would come a point when some people would just have to be turned away. There wouldn't be enough clerics to handle the load of bringing to life everyone that someone didn't want to die. Resurrection refusal would lead to riots - and more dead people to resurrect.
Of course, the priest would have to charge for their services in order to meet costs and to find an economic balance. Even the best of intentioned clerics would be tempted to charge exorbitant amounts of money for resurrections - since they could only do a very small amount per month compared to the actual amount of people who die. Royalty, merchants, and successful adventurers would have much better access to the priests, of course.
Perhaps some temples would institute a raffle for some of the resurrections they would do to try to be fair. Others might only resurrect those they deemed worthy - but eventually they might have to determine worthiness by forms filled in triplicate and authorized by local bureaucrats.
Of course, all this might be simplified by the god or goddess of the religion directly authorizing healing or resurrection or particular people - direct divine administrative guidance. I can see a god getting pretty bored with that job, however, and parceling it out to avatars or angels instead - who would probably give it right back to the priests. The entire system may eventually devolve into a series of bingo games.
If a PC cleric reaches ninth level, it's in their own best interest to not let anyone know - ever. Our mighty adventuring priestess is supposed to be building a stronghold - a keep - at this point - not be working the night shift at Our Lady of Perpetual Life Hospital downtown on Washington and 10th Street as an intern. A ninth level priest is supposed to have on average, 150 soldiers suddenly appear - and I think I know why now.
It's the health care plan.
What this all boils down to in lower level game terms is that when the PCs come out of the the dungeon carrying their dead companion, there probably won't be some hermit priest on the side of the road ready to resurrect them. If that ninth level hermit priest was loitering in the ditch - a city would suddenly spring up around him overnight.
- Ark
From first to eighth level, clerics gain the ability to cure disease, neutralize poison, and heal massive tissue damage. Starting at ninth level, they begin to gain the ability to erase any affliction known, including death. Sure, a magic-user can reincarnate you into a baboon or a unicorn, but the humble priestess can resurrect you exactly like you were, even if all that remains is a toenail clipping. In fact, it's easier to bring someone back from the dead than to regrow a toe.
Death is only a speed-bump. What does that do to a society? Being not-dead has got to be a hugely desired product - more popular that even smart phones. We have a problem here on Earth with not enough health care providers or the infrastructure to support it.
Loved ones will rush to the temple with their freshly decapitated loved ones - only to stand in line that would probably reach around the block multiple times. Vendors would hawk their wares, selling roasted turkey legs and ale to bereaved - if hopeful - relatives of the deceased. But there would come a point when some people would just have to be turned away. There wouldn't be enough clerics to handle the load of bringing to life everyone that someone didn't want to die. Resurrection refusal would lead to riots - and more dead people to resurrect.
Of course, the priest would have to charge for their services in order to meet costs and to find an economic balance. Even the best of intentioned clerics would be tempted to charge exorbitant amounts of money for resurrections - since they could only do a very small amount per month compared to the actual amount of people who die. Royalty, merchants, and successful adventurers would have much better access to the priests, of course.
Perhaps some temples would institute a raffle for some of the resurrections they would do to try to be fair. Others might only resurrect those they deemed worthy - but eventually they might have to determine worthiness by forms filled in triplicate and authorized by local bureaucrats.
Of course, all this might be simplified by the god or goddess of the religion directly authorizing healing or resurrection or particular people - direct divine administrative guidance. I can see a god getting pretty bored with that job, however, and parceling it out to avatars or angels instead - who would probably give it right back to the priests. The entire system may eventually devolve into a series of bingo games.
If a PC cleric reaches ninth level, it's in their own best interest to not let anyone know - ever. Our mighty adventuring priestess is supposed to be building a stronghold - a keep - at this point - not be working the night shift at Our Lady of Perpetual Life Hospital downtown on Washington and 10th Street as an intern. A ninth level priest is supposed to have on average, 150 soldiers suddenly appear - and I think I know why now.
It's the health care plan.
What this all boils down to in lower level game terms is that when the PCs come out of the the dungeon carrying their dead companion, there probably won't be some hermit priest on the side of the road ready to resurrect them. If that ninth level hermit priest was loitering in the ditch - a city would suddenly spring up around him overnight.
- Ark
Darmok and Jalad
When I'm creating a campaign world, there are many random, haphazard ways I begin. The world that I am working on now popped into my head while reading Labyrinth Lord. Half-baked bits and pieces swirled together until I could see clearly enough to identify a theme. To hell with a world based in any sort of reality. Toss my decades of study on ancient civilizations out the window. Base a world on D&D. Not on any particular D&D world form TSR or WotC, but take the props, take the mechanics, and craft a world that makes sense. So, the world has lots of places for the PCs to go and get experience points, instead of lots of places to go buy mead and torches and doorknobs and palantirs. I think this is a completely new paradigm I am dealing with here. For me, at least. I think some other people may have worked this way for a while.
Enjoy the map. I'm slowly zooming into what I intend to be the main campaign area. I've discovered that some guys from my old 4e group are interested in flying in the wayback machine, so I may need to zoom faster. But what is displayed is a closer view of the Gulf of Labrys Basin.
Click to em . . . make bigger. You'll notice that I was watching Star Trek while drawing the map - a very dangerous prospect indeed.
Oh, the boy was drawing his own map as I was drawing mine. We'll get it up on his blog tomorrow probably. It completely rocks.
- Ark
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Of My Heart Now Baby
First off, I'd like to apologize. I am deeply sorry for getting a Carly Simon song stuck in everybody's head. I'd like to rectify the situation by installing some Janice into your ear. Go on. Take a listen. I'll be here when you get back.
Don't you feel better now? Good.
Now I'd like to welcome The Boy, my son, to the world of Blogging. He has crafted a blog entitled Most Impressive and it is impressive . . . most impressive. He even mentioned D&D so he's pretty much an OSR Blogger now. So go on over and say "Hi" if you so desire. He is currently doing the 'happy dance' upon learning that school will be closed again tomorrow. The fourth day in a row. Somebody please save me.
And the picture? That's an actual photo of him. Okay, not really. I drew an avatar for him when Fairly Odd Parents was all the rage. Looks just like him though. Still.
Oh, and I am so pumped about this Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Episode of Community coming up tonight (whatever the heck Community is.) Yeah! Chevy Chase! And a drow! Less yeah!
- Ark
Don't you feel better now? Good.
Now I'd like to welcome The Boy, my son, to the world of Blogging. He has crafted a blog entitled Most Impressive and it is impressive . . . most impressive. He even mentioned D&D so he's pretty much an OSR Blogger now. So go on over and say "Hi" if you so desire. He is currently doing the 'happy dance' upon learning that school will be closed again tomorrow. The fourth day in a row. Somebody please save me.
And the picture? That's an actual photo of him. Okay, not really. I drew an avatar for him when Fairly Odd Parents was all the rage. Looks just like him though. Still.
Oh, and I am so pumped about this Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Episode of Community coming up tonight (whatever the heck Community is.) Yeah! Chevy Chase! And a drow! Less yeah!
- Ark
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
I Bet You Think This Song Is About You
Vanity publishing! Yes, I have just done it! I've been slinging around a pile of short stories at poor, unsuspecting publishers for years. Regretfully, they were on to me and I've never had anything published. Well, not anymore!I stitched together the best ones (and a couple of odd poems) and come up with 90 whole pages of content. If you act now, you can get all of this in a pdf for free. Okay, if you act in a hundred years, you still can get it all for free in a pdf. This is really just an excuse to bundle up all my old work so I can start fresh in this new decade. I really enjoy them, but it's time to go send them to human lands where they can meet a wife and have children.
The cover has absolutely nothing to do with the stories. You may recognize the little red dude. Yeah. He's up there growling too. Hey - I bought the picture - I'm going to use the picture.
I also made a hard copy version available. That's really just so I can print out some copies for the family. If you really want to buy it - go ahead - but I warn you - I haven't even seen a copy and have no idea if it looks horrific or not. I did edit and proof the actual contents over the last few years - so that should be halfway decent. But how the printed bit looks - no idea.
What you get inside:
Table of Contents
The Value of a Second - (sci fi vignette)
Where to Play - (post apocalyptic Beatles story)
Dawn at Olympus - (the gods must be drunk)
Tech Support Mantra - (outsourcing poem)
Don't Cleanse Your Scent Glands for Me - (smelly sci-fi)
Robert E. Howard’s Last Manuscript - (what evil lurks in Cross Plains?)
Drops of Jupiter - (mopey sci-fi)
Bacon Ranch Salad y Happy Meal - (um, not really sci-fi, more geek)
Reflections - (hard sci fi)
Customer Service - (throbbing sci-fi)
The Squirrels - (RUN!)
Beacons of Light - (power suits galore)
Lyman Alpha Blobs - (astrophysics poem)
Sidebar - (what hath man wrought?)
The Transformation of Harvey in the Valley of the Butterfly Spores - (thump thump)
Ode to a Tachikoma - (Ghost in the Shell poetry)
Here is the Link - > The Value of a Second and Other Flights of Fancy
Enjoy! Or, well, don't enjoy. Your choice. :)
- Ark
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Fish in the Sea
Today my son asked me when I was going to sign us up for the Living Forgotten Realms games happening this weekend. I came clean with him. I told him that with the RPGAs inclusion of Fortune Cards in the LFR campaign, we would no longer be playing. I could no longer support an organization that ran a role playing game where you could get additional character benefits the more cash you shelled out.
He went to his room and cried.
I hate Hasbro and WotC and the RPGA for forcing that decision on me. But it is my decision, and I stand by it.
My son eventually calmed down and we had a deeper discussion about rightness and wrongness and fairness and treating people with respect. There are many more gamers outside the RPGA than inside. We will find more people to play with. And there is a nearly endless variety of games to play.
I do realize game designers' families gotta eat. I do not think this is the right way to go about it. But it's not my company - and I can walk away.
We are now deciding what do on the weekend. The Superbowl is here, so there is no point in even trying to drive on that roads Saturday or Sunday, so it's a good time to stay in. He's thinking about it and will get back with me later. :)
Stay warm.
- Ark
He went to his room and cried.
I hate Hasbro and WotC and the RPGA for forcing that decision on me. But it is my decision, and I stand by it.
My son eventually calmed down and we had a deeper discussion about rightness and wrongness and fairness and treating people with respect. There are many more gamers outside the RPGA than inside. We will find more people to play with. And there is a nearly endless variety of games to play.
I do realize game designers' families gotta eat. I do not think this is the right way to go about it. But it's not my company - and I can walk away.
We are now deciding what do on the weekend. The Superbowl is here, so there is no point in even trying to drive on that roads Saturday or Sunday, so it's a good time to stay in. He's thinking about it and will get back with me later. :)
Stay warm.
- Ark
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