Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Players Pondering Alignment

Tim, one of the players in my Labyrinth Lord campaign wrote me today about alignment.  He came of age in the 2e time frame, so his understanding of alignment can be sometimes different than mine.  He wrote:

I was thinking about the game world, with the razing lands and everything, and how things seem to be divided among chaos and law, rather than good and evil, and it got me thinking.  What would a lawful society with no regard for good vs evil look like?  I mean, I think that Imbroglio (Tim's character) is pretty obviously straight Chaos - or Chaotic Neutral in 2E parlance.  He commits acts of kindness with the same lack of regard as he does acts of . . . questionable morals.  So what would the lawful version of Imbroglio be, writ large to a society?  This got me thinking, and it reminded me of a game that I'm playing on my X-Box, Dragon Age 2 .  In it, there is a race of beings called the Qunari that are as close to an amoral Lawful society that I can think of.  It's actually kind of interesting.  They have a philosophy called the Qun, which basically amounts to institutionalized slavery, but slavery to themselves - the goal of their every action being the betterment of their society.  Over the course of the game, some Qunari come to the human lands and are disgusted by the rampant chaos endemic to human society.  Eventually, their need for order overcomes them and they try and take over the city, which I thought was fascinating - their need for order was so intense that they had to capture the world around it and bend it to their will. 

Tim continues on with interesting quotes and links about the Qunari, which you can go dive into with Google's help if you want. I don't know much about Dragon Age,but the Qunari do seem like an interesting spin on Lawful Neutral.

My idea of Lawful Neutral, on an organizational level, is a mindless machine - like the US Post Office, or the British Civil Service.  It's a soulless machine bent on doing what it was designed to do and following the rules, with no attention paid to whether the results are good or evil, beneficial or destructive.

So are the Qunari Lawful Neutral, or is Tim high on drugs?  What does Lawful Neutral look like in your games?  Are your games more involved with the struggle between good and evil, or law and chaos?

- Ark

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The World As They Know It

To the players in my Saturday Labyrinth Lord campaign, the map to the right represents the entire universe.  It's just about every place they've ever been or heard about.  I have an overwhelming desire to flesh out more - but I stop myself and let dice rolls and the player's wanderlust shape The Wild Lands.

My intention was to start the players in Audrain Keep (actually the Keep on the Borderlands,) flesh out the main east-west road, and have the players move north towards the Razing Zone - an area of many monsters and a place for high adventure.  I even named the campaign 'The Razing Zone,' as I figured the players would be all over that place.

As you can probably tell from the map, the players have made a almost direct bee-line south, in the opposite direction. 

I think this might have something to do with my new DMing style.  When running a 4e campaign with the same group of people, the mere mention of a monster set them charging off to go fight it.  They knew I would play 'fair' by 4e rules and give them reasonable challenges.  But they know the kid gloves are off in Labyrinth Lord, and it's not uncommon for me to throw monsters 5 to 10 levels higher than they are - all at the whim of my evil red twenty-sider.  "Old School Runs" just doesn't refer to the dungeon, but the entire world - apparently.

In fact, last game when the party found out that the dragon Abaraxis and a cadre of orcs had taken over Audrain Keep, there was heated debate on exactly how far away should run away.  One party member did press the group to go vanquish the dragon, but in the end they party agreed to "explore a potential economic partnership" with a distiller who lived even farther south than they had already traveled. 

When fleeing (I mean strolling in a calm, economic sort of way,) south they came to a bridge, and of course that bridge was guarded by orcs in the employ of the dragon, but that is the kind of asshole - I mean DM - that I am.  :)

- Ark

PS - I'd like to mention how proud I am of the players.  They are now fighting and conquering monsters far above their level by using their smarts.  They almost never stand toe to toe against an enemy without some trick or trap ready to spring.  They are getting quite brilliant and it's starting to get difficult to out-think them.  I love it.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

A Quote From Tonight's Game

"If we steal the bones, we loose the opportunity to surprise the door . . . you know, only in a D&D game would you ever say something like that."

- Ark

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Dungeonspiration: The Dragon Palace

I've decided to do a regular feature - on Thursdays, no less.  The idea is to highlight a piece of art that can help inspire new ideas at the gaming table.  It could be visual art, a poem, or something else - but whatever it is, it should inspire.  Thus the name, Dungeonspiration.  No, that's not an underground tomb with sweaty walls.  Well, that's not such a bad idea, either.

First up on Dungeonspiration is The Dragon Palace:


The Dragon Palace is in the Japanese genre of ukiyo-e, a type of woodblock print focusing on a somewhat stylized or unreal subject matter, much like a modern day comic book.  This particular piece was done by Okumura Masanobu in the 1740s.

The woodcut is probably a scene out of a story or myth.  While my book on ukiyo-e calls the picture The Dragon Palace, an online gallery calls it Perspective Print of the Diving Woman Retrieving the Jewel from the Dragon Palace, which probably hearkens back to the story that inspired the artist.  Whatever the original story is, I don't really care for this exercise.  What do I make of the image?

Reading from upper right to left, in Japanese style, we see flotilla of boats.  The people in these boats appear to be well dressed - upper class perhaps - all focusing on the man holding something in the water.  Perhaps a rope?  The rope leads to a wall in the direction of the palace in the water.  Is that an anchor, or a diving line?

A naked woman swims in the water, sword in one hand, something pulled to her breast in the other hand.  An angry dragon stares her down.  She looks like she is heading towards a hole in the sea wall.  What is the hole?  Is it a aquatic dragon doggie door?  A cadre of ugly warriors is making their way down the ramp, headed towards the woman.  They appear upset.  They have weapons. 

I think we are looking at a classic D&D scene here.  A thief is hauling ass from the scene of the crime after a heist.  The thief is naked and alone with the goods while the rest of the party hauls up anchor and makes their escape.  I sure hope she can swim fast. 

Of course, there are lots of other ways to interpret the scene, but that is how it spark my imagination.  And just look at those fellows with fish on their heads.  I'm sure that hearkens back to some bit of mythology about Japanese fish spirits, but I'm in way over my head regarding Japanese culture to know.  My favorite is Mister Octopus over there.  Isn't he great?

So click on the image to make it bigger and dive in.  There are a lot of wonderful details all over the place.  Where do you think the Jewel was stored? How do you think the thief snuck in?  Are there two dragons, or is that one, and how are the two bits connected?  And why does the woman have to do all the work? :)

Enjoy.

- Ark

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Geek Pride Day

I had no idea that I had a whole day

Rights:
  1. The right to be even geekier.
  2. The right to not leave your house.
  3. The right to not like football or any other sport.
  4. The right to associate with other nerds.
  5. The right to have few friends (or none at all).
  6. The right to have as many geeky friends as you want.
  7. The right to be out of style.
  8. The right to show off your geekiness.
  9. The right to take over the world.

 - Ark

Saturday, May 21, 2011

The Awful Green Things From Outer Space

There were a lot of strange games advertised in the first decade of Dragon Magazine.  I think I wanted every single one of them at that point.  Steve Jackson must know this, of course, because when I walked into FLGS on Friday, The Awful Green Things From Outer Space was staring at me, straight in the face.

I remember thinking about the game a lot as a kid.  I imagined what it would be like, and even fashioned a Star Frontiers adventure after my impressions.  It wasn't like I ever hoped to own it - or even play it.  West Texas just really wasn't awash in 'gaming product,' even though I knew Steve Jackson was sitting in Austin being raided daily by the FBI for committing bizarre Illuminati hacking conspiracies.  Or whatever the hell that was about.  So, it was just a pipe dream.

Then I was holding it in my hands. 

Crap.

Steve Jackson got more of my money yesterday.  He's never let me down - but - well - I know he does produce lemons and was worried.  I still have no idea.  The boy didn't look too impressed, so I haven't got to take it out for a spin yet.  But I'm ready.  Look at the photo!  I'm ready, dammit! :)

(Pewter raptors and skeleton army not included - I was just getting ready for THE RAPTURE.)

- Ark

Friday, May 20, 2011

Savage Overland Travel

The Jovial Priest, and a host of other smart people, have been hashing out an Overland Travel System.  The gist is that a character would take hp damage over time while stumbling around in the outback, getting coated in leeches, suffering malaria, and stubbing all ten of their toes. He's got seven options on his table. I'll offer and eighth.

Hit Points have always been abstract and non-affecting. A character with 100 hp is just as able as a character with 1 hp. It's just that a player with a character with 1 hp is a lot more frightened to put the character in harm’s way. The RPG Savage Worlds has a mechanism that I have found very useful called the Fatigue Track.

The Fatigue Track has five states: Normal, Fatigued, Exhausted, Incapacitated, and Death. This track is separate from a D&D style hit point system. Each point on the track has an effect on the character.


Normal - Character is peachy keen.
Fatigued - Character is at -1 to all actions (would equate to around a -5 for all actions based on a d20.)
Exhausted - Character is at -1 to all actions (would equate to around a -10 for all actions based on a d20.)
Incapacitated - May be conscious, but is pretty well useless and can't move.
Death - Self-explanatory.

Various 'Hazards' kick a character down the track, including Bumps & Bruises, Cold, Disease & Poison, Drowning, Fire, Heat, Hunger, Radiation, Sleep, and Thirst. Each type of Hazard has it's own specifics and usually requires a Vigor (Constitution) check to avoid. Rest and other types of healing kick a character back up to the top. Grab Savage Worlds for specifics (just $10 bucks.)

I think something like the Fatigue Track and Hazard system would be far more effective at replicating the pains of overland travel that hp reduction. Of course, I haven't worked out the specifics or play-tested, so it's just vague conjecture for now. :)

- Ark