He's making a list and checking it twice. You know what list I am talking about. Congratz to Beedo of Dreams of the Lich House. Go look at it TODAY. ACT NOW. OPERATORS ARE STANDING BY.
- Ark
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
World Skeletons
For me, the core of a fantasy world has always been it's spiritual side. Players may never know or care anything about it, but in actually building the world it's vital. The spiritual side of a fantasy world is the skeleton you hang everything else from. In my quest to build a universe from D&D/Labyrinth Lord basics, I'll focus on alignment, plannar structure, and deities.
Alignment is an important feature in any Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Even it's absence from a DM's creation is very telling about that world. Entire planes of existence were even created along the nine point alignment system. But it sure has been a pain in the ass.
In thirty years of wrestling with the alignment system, I've come down to a simple thought. It doesn't mean a great deal to say your character is Lawful Good of Chaotic Neutral or whatever. It matters what you do.
People are what they do. Not the other way around. A frog can sit around and do geometry problems and recite lines from the movie Toxic Avenger, but it's not being a very good frog. In fact, we probably need an entirely new word for this frog-like entity. Characters are the same. They probably shouldn't even bother writing down an alignment. The DM should just assign one based on past behavior.
In breaking down alignment, good and evil are the simplest part. There is nothing particularly spiritual about the continuum in itself. It's really just how beneficial your actions are to the groups of which you are a part. That group can be an adventuring group, a village, a nation, a race, or all intelligent creatures. A person can't define themselves as good. Group members have to do that. Evil is pursuing self interests that conflict with the group's. Of course, the definitions are always subjective, depending on who is doing the labeling, and what group they belong to.
I think Law and Chaos are where it gets interesting. Chaos can be likened to entropy, the universe's inclination to break down into disorder and randomness. Law can be likened to life itself. Life is not only organized, it tends to create even more organization. The Life = Law idea is borne out in the fact that Lawful clerics have turn undead, while Chaotic clerics have create undead. The undead appear to be a subversion of Law. Skeletons, ghouls, and zombies rarely build cities or formulate tax codes. They kill the living without benefiting the living.
I've read bits of James Raggi's LotFP alignment system and love it. All magic users and elves are chaotic. It's great. It's not quite what I am striving for with this world, but man, do I want to use it. It fits in with my Law/Chaos theories as well. I'll probably sneak as much as I can in, though.
In D&D and Labyrinth Lord, Law and Chaos stretch off the edges of the page, so to speak, into other planes, indicating that they are Platonic ideals with their 'source perfection' somewhere beyond the realm of mortals. These places tend to be the planes of the Gods.
In thinking about the nature of the alignments, I am thinking of breaking away with tradition, well, at least D&D tradition. It only makes sense to me that Law, it it's purest form, would be purified into a singularity. There would be one, and only one, Lawful deity. I have surprised myself by becoming a fantasy monotheist.
The human culture that I envision eventual came to understand that all clerics received the same spells and abilities, whichever god or goddess they were worshipping. They could hop from one deity to another even, with little issue. It dawned on the spiritual leaders that there was only one God of Law. More 'primitive' cultures might have a whole slew of lawful deities, but they were only worshipping aspects, or avatars, of the one true source of Law.
Furthermore, they believed that this Lawful God could not be represented in any suitable visual form, and to attempt to do so was silly - to the point of being dangerous. The best you could do was to represent this god with geometric shapes or abstract symbols.
Chaos, on the other hand, has a thousand gibbering mouths and a million tiny little hands and feet, all busy disassembling the universe and eating it from the inside out. There is no one Chaos - it is infinite.
So, there are some of the bones I am using for this new campaign world I am working on. Not like the players will ever know - since they will only see the flesh. They won't even care - but you know, it's not about them. :)
- Ark
Alignment is an important feature in any Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Even it's absence from a DM's creation is very telling about that world. Entire planes of existence were even created along the nine point alignment system. But it sure has been a pain in the ass.
In thirty years of wrestling with the alignment system, I've come down to a simple thought. It doesn't mean a great deal to say your character is Lawful Good of Chaotic Neutral or whatever. It matters what you do.
People are what they do. Not the other way around. A frog can sit around and do geometry problems and recite lines from the movie Toxic Avenger, but it's not being a very good frog. In fact, we probably need an entirely new word for this frog-like entity. Characters are the same. They probably shouldn't even bother writing down an alignment. The DM should just assign one based on past behavior.
In breaking down alignment, good and evil are the simplest part. There is nothing particularly spiritual about the continuum in itself. It's really just how beneficial your actions are to the groups of which you are a part. That group can be an adventuring group, a village, a nation, a race, or all intelligent creatures. A person can't define themselves as good. Group members have to do that. Evil is pursuing self interests that conflict with the group's. Of course, the definitions are always subjective, depending on who is doing the labeling, and what group they belong to.
I think Law and Chaos are where it gets interesting. Chaos can be likened to entropy, the universe's inclination to break down into disorder and randomness. Law can be likened to life itself. Life is not only organized, it tends to create even more organization. The Life = Law idea is borne out in the fact that Lawful clerics have turn undead, while Chaotic clerics have create undead. The undead appear to be a subversion of Law. Skeletons, ghouls, and zombies rarely build cities or formulate tax codes. They kill the living without benefiting the living.
I've read bits of James Raggi's LotFP alignment system and love it. All magic users and elves are chaotic. It's great. It's not quite what I am striving for with this world, but man, do I want to use it. It fits in with my Law/Chaos theories as well. I'll probably sneak as much as I can in, though.
In D&D and Labyrinth Lord, Law and Chaos stretch off the edges of the page, so to speak, into other planes, indicating that they are Platonic ideals with their 'source perfection' somewhere beyond the realm of mortals. These places tend to be the planes of the Gods.
In thinking about the nature of the alignments, I am thinking of breaking away with tradition, well, at least D&D tradition. It only makes sense to me that Law, it it's purest form, would be purified into a singularity. There would be one, and only one, Lawful deity. I have surprised myself by becoming a fantasy monotheist.
The human culture that I envision eventual came to understand that all clerics received the same spells and abilities, whichever god or goddess they were worshipping. They could hop from one deity to another even, with little issue. It dawned on the spiritual leaders that there was only one God of Law. More 'primitive' cultures might have a whole slew of lawful deities, but they were only worshipping aspects, or avatars, of the one true source of Law.
Furthermore, they believed that this Lawful God could not be represented in any suitable visual form, and to attempt to do so was silly - to the point of being dangerous. The best you could do was to represent this god with geometric shapes or abstract symbols.
Chaos, on the other hand, has a thousand gibbering mouths and a million tiny little hands and feet, all busy disassembling the universe and eating it from the inside out. There is no one Chaos - it is infinite.
So, there are some of the bones I am using for this new campaign world I am working on. Not like the players will ever know - since they will only see the flesh. They won't even care - but you know, it's not about them. :)
- Ark
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Bullied
I've written this post countless times over the last few days and deleted it an equal amount. I've posted some information, then removed it, which has probably confused some who have caught snatches of it. To sum up,
My son has been bullied at school for a while now, and it has taken a very heavy emotional toll on him. He has a large amount of people surrounding him to help him through this, ranging from family to professionals. Steps are being taken to make things right.
My son is different in many of the same ways that I am, and many of the ways that I think anyone who sits down and writes a blog abut role playing is different. Differences get pointed out in painful ways. It hurts down deep to see my boy have to go through this.
Things are now getting better, but it has been very rough.
I'd like to thank Johnathan Bingham, ze bulette, Telecanter, Mike, Spawn of Endra and Chris Hogan for your support, and I am sorry that your posts were deleted when I deleted the blog entry. I have them in email and I am keeping them, having reread them many times already. They mean a lot.
I'd also like to thank Harald over at The Book of Worlds for a very succinct reality check . The flat of your Viking battle axe upside my temple has cleared my head. Seriously. Thanks.
- Ark
My son has been bullied at school for a while now, and it has taken a very heavy emotional toll on him. He has a large amount of people surrounding him to help him through this, ranging from family to professionals. Steps are being taken to make things right.
My son is different in many of the same ways that I am, and many of the ways that I think anyone who sits down and writes a blog abut role playing is different. Differences get pointed out in painful ways. It hurts down deep to see my boy have to go through this.
Things are now getting better, but it has been very rough.
I'd like to thank Johnathan Bingham, ze bulette, Telecanter, Mike, Spawn of Endra and Chris Hogan for your support, and I am sorry that your posts were deleted when I deleted the blog entry. I have them in email and I am keeping them, having reread them many times already. They mean a lot.
I'd also like to thank Harald over at The Book of Worlds for a very succinct reality check . The flat of your Viking battle axe upside my temple has cleared my head. Seriously. Thanks.
- Ark
Friday, February 25, 2011
NTRPGCon - 2011
It's official. The boy and I are going to the North Texas RPG Convention in June. Here's a little blurb about it from the website:"The NTRPG Con focuses on old-school Dungeons & Dragons gaming (OD&D, 1E, 2E, or Basic/Expert) as well as any pre-1999 type of RPG produced by the classic gaming companies of the 70s and 80s (TSR, Chaosium, FGU, FASA, GDW, etc). We also support retro-clone or simulacrum type gaming that copies the old style of RPGs (Swords & Wizardry, Castles & Crusades, and others)."
Guests attending are:
"Erol Otus, Rob Kuntz, Jason Braun, Tim Kask, Dennis Sustare, Steve Winter, Frank Mentzer, Paul Jaquays, Steve Marsh, Jim Ward"
I am quite pumped. Anyone else round here going?
- Ark
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Robot Holocaust and Hackmaster
I mentioned the Robot Holocaust in an earlier post, so I suppose I should introduce them. Robot Holocaust - readers, readers - Robot Holocaust.
My son bought a bunch of little animal shaped erasers in those toy machines you find at the front of grocery stores. I was more interested in the little clear bubbles that held the erasers, than the erasers themselves. Coming in at an inch wide, they were perfect for my nefarious plan. A touch of paint later - and I had a myself an army bent on taking over the world.
Regretfully, the campaign that I had intended to use them in fell through and they never got used. But they are lurking on my craft table - waiting for their chance.
In other news, I picked up the HackMaster GameMaster's Guide at Halfprice Books yesterday. Why was I not informed of this product? If D&D is rock and roll, HackMaster is HEAVY METAL. I did not realize that Gygax's lily could be gilded, but indeed it has. Quite awesome!
But why, on every page that I turn, and I reminded of Zak of Playing D&D with Porn Stars? Must be Vornheim or something.
- Ark
My son bought a bunch of little animal shaped erasers in those toy machines you find at the front of grocery stores. I was more interested in the little clear bubbles that held the erasers, than the erasers themselves. Coming in at an inch wide, they were perfect for my nefarious plan. A touch of paint later - and I had a myself an army bent on taking over the world.
Regretfully, the campaign that I had intended to use them in fell through and they never got used. But they are lurking on my craft table - waiting for their chance.
In other news, I picked up the HackMaster GameMaster's Guide at Halfprice Books yesterday. Why was I not informed of this product? If D&D is rock and roll, HackMaster is HEAVY METAL. I did not realize that Gygax's lily could be gilded, but indeed it has. Quite awesome!
But why, on every page that I turn, and I reminded of Zak of Playing D&D with Porn Stars? Must be Vornheim or something.
- Ark
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
DMs Say the Darndest Things
"Sit down here." I patted the chair across from mine, a clipboard and pencil in my lap.
My son eyed me suspiciously and sat down. I began writing on the clipboard with it tilted away from him. I had come up with some awesome Middle English based names for my Labyrinth Lord campaign. I just wanted to run them by my son to make sure they sounded okay.
"Why are you hiding that piece of paper?"
The boy is always to the point. "I want to see what you think of a some words. They are names for places that I've made up, and I want to see what you think. I'll read them out loud."
"Oh. Okay."
"Great. The first one is Aloftgres."
He tilted his head and made a 'thinking' face. "Interesting," he said as he taped his lip.
Great. He's posing and I don't even have a camera out.
"The second one is Duskenfaunt."
"Sound like something you do while on the toilet."
That one took me aback. Duskenfaunt was a fine name. A really good name. What did that even mean - something you do on the toilet? How dare he insult my word.
"What are you writing on the paper?" he asked.
"I'm writing what you said."
"Why?"
"Because I care what you think," chuckling at myself and my word vanity.
"Oh," he smiled.
"Dweryen Doun."
He thought for a moment. "Cool."
"Ernslak,"
"Sounds like an insult for lazy people."
I'm not sure how long I kept my mouth open. "Um, okay. Yeah, I guess so. Interesting. The next is Nyrvylrem"
He laughed. "Nervilrim . . . it's funny."
"Hethwalle."
"Cool."
"Senginbergh"
"That's weird"
"Senginerd"
"Next"
I raised an eyebrow, just like Spock. Well, just like Spock in my mind. My eyebrows don't do that willingly. He wasn't smiling. It was a complete and utter diss of the word. Wow.
"Vathloof"
"Bless you,"
Okay, so he's a smart-ass, just like me.
"Lefdikuss." The minute the word left my mouth, I realized I had made a horrible, horrible mistake.
"Are there two? Is there a right one? Left? Dick? Left? Dick? Huh? Huh?" he guffawed.
Oh dear god. I can't believe it. I even put this up on the blog. I blame you people. I had no idea. You should have warned me. You saw it. You knew. You set me up. On purpose!
I suddenly realized I was in a Monty Python skit. After he calmed down, we moved on.
"Fultum."
"Cool."
"Rotenslade."
He chuckled. "That's funny. Rotten."
"Failham"
"Sounds like an epically failing ham."
"Flumrys Brig."
He smiled, "Sounds like the name of a ship."
"Gobelyntur."
"Sounds like a goblin giving a tour. Or! Or a tour inside of a filthy goblin!"
I tried to wipe the image of goblin intestines from my mind. "Kyndrecchen"
"Interesting," he nodded.
There was one last name. All I can say is, never say this word in front of my son. Ever.
"Pricketholt."
I mean it. I have witnesses who will concur.
You have been warned.
- Ark
My son eyed me suspiciously and sat down. I began writing on the clipboard with it tilted away from him. I had come up with some awesome Middle English based names for my Labyrinth Lord campaign. I just wanted to run them by my son to make sure they sounded okay.
"Why are you hiding that piece of paper?"
The boy is always to the point. "I want to see what you think of a some words. They are names for places that I've made up, and I want to see what you think. I'll read them out loud."
"Oh. Okay."
"Great. The first one is Aloftgres."
He tilted his head and made a 'thinking' face. "Interesting," he said as he taped his lip.
Great. He's posing and I don't even have a camera out.
"The second one is Duskenfaunt."
"Sound like something you do while on the toilet."
That one took me aback. Duskenfaunt was a fine name. A really good name. What did that even mean - something you do on the toilet? How dare he insult my word.
"What are you writing on the paper?" he asked.
"I'm writing what you said."
"Why?"
"Because I care what you think," chuckling at myself and my word vanity.
"Oh," he smiled.
"Dweryen Doun."
He thought for a moment. "Cool."
"Ernslak,"
"Sounds like an insult for lazy people."
I'm not sure how long I kept my mouth open. "Um, okay. Yeah, I guess so. Interesting. The next is Nyrvylrem"
He laughed. "Nervilrim . . . it's funny."
"Hethwalle."
"Cool."
"Senginbergh"
"That's weird"
"Senginerd"
"Next"
I raised an eyebrow, just like Spock. Well, just like Spock in my mind. My eyebrows don't do that willingly. He wasn't smiling. It was a complete and utter diss of the word. Wow.
"Vathloof"
"Bless you,"
Okay, so he's a smart-ass, just like me.
"Lefdikuss." The minute the word left my mouth, I realized I had made a horrible, horrible mistake.
"Are there two? Is there a right one? Left? Dick? Left? Dick? Huh? Huh?" he guffawed.
Oh dear god. I can't believe it. I even put this up on the blog. I blame you people. I had no idea. You should have warned me. You saw it. You knew. You set me up. On purpose!
I suddenly realized I was in a Monty Python skit. After he calmed down, we moved on.
"Fultum."
"Cool."
"Rotenslade."
He chuckled. "That's funny. Rotten."
"Failham"
"Sounds like an epically failing ham."
"Flumrys Brig."
He smiled, "Sounds like the name of a ship."
"Gobelyntur."
"Sounds like a goblin giving a tour. Or! Or a tour inside of a filthy goblin!"
I tried to wipe the image of goblin intestines from my mind. "Kyndrecchen"
"Interesting," he nodded.
There was one last name. All I can say is, never say this word in front of my son. Ever.
"Pricketholt."
I mean it. I have witnesses who will concur.
You have been warned.
- Ark
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
I'm Literate!
After years and years of trying, I'm finally published. I had to publish it myself, but dang it, you gotta do what you gotta do.
Now there is at least one hard-copy of my stories in existence that I can leave to posterity. I should go bury it in the backyard in a Ziploc bag for when the Robot Holocaust comes rolling into town.
I'd like to thank my family, the academy, Lulu, and the hundreds of editors who have xeroxed millions of rejection letters just for me. You can get a free copy here.
- Ark
Now there is at least one hard-copy of my stories in existence that I can leave to posterity. I should go bury it in the backyard in a Ziploc bag for when the Robot Holocaust comes rolling into town.
I'd like to thank my family, the academy, Lulu, and the hundreds of editors who have xeroxed millions of rejection letters just for me. You can get a free copy here.
- Ark
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