Holiday Break!

Christmas Eve in Minnesota last year

Taking a break today from posting anything.  I hope you are having a wonderful holiday, no matter your religion or belief, and more gaming is just around the corner.  Merry Yule!

You CAN Make This Stuff Up...

UFO recovery seems to be a new part of Kurama's mission

I wrote a few days ago about the mysterious package received at the University of Chicago.  It seems that the entire matter has now been cleared up - albeit in a mostly mundane fashion, and very disappointing to those of us whose subscriptions to the Weekly World News have lapsed.

Coming to the rescue of the conspiracy-theory-challenged is the InOtherNewz.com website, with a story usually reserved for the prologue of a new Godzilla movie:

“I can report with complete accuracy that Navy divers from the destroyer JS Kurama have brought up a substantial piece of the wrecked UFO,” he said. “Both civilian and military engineers took part in recovering the piece. It is now safely aboard the JS Kurama, which is the ship being used by the Japanese Navy for its salvage efforts.”

Man, I cannot wait to see what they've come up with - this should be really good!

The Grind

One of the interesting results to come out of my recent discussion with Ron Edwards was a keener appreciation for the games industry, and how it affects creativity.  I think I am with James Maliszewski when he says on Grognardia that "[i]f anything, I found my enjoyment lessened and a big part of my abandoning it was based on my knowing too much about [the games industry]."

I don't think of this as a major breakthrough, but I do think that the very aesthetic of the Old School Renaissance of "just make stuff up" is essentially subversive insofar as the games industry is concerned - as Dave Arneson once noted.  While it is true that the "indie" game movement has blazed something of a trail towards alternative commercial models for game publishing, the emphasis in the OSR on setting hobbyist creativity above commercialization simply for its own sake is no bad thing.

The telling element of this came about as I was looking for weblinks for James Wallis, who I have enjoyed gaming with ever-so-briefly in the past.  In an interview from a few years ago, he noted that the demand of acting in a business mode often conflicts with attempts to be artistically creative.  I don't think that this is true dichotomy, but the tension does exist.  All of this is to say that the value of what you make up for your own game shouldn't be measured against some abstract or artificial notion of "could that be commercially viable?" The real question ought to be:

"Are you having fun?"

Why long-term campaigns matter

Long-term campaigns matter.  That may seem like a self-evident truth to those who are playing Pathfinder or have been involved in a Forgotten Realms campaign for any length of time, but from an OSR perspective, it might not be so clear.  One of the problems of today is that there are so many different choices when it comes to fun games to play.  It was an easier time when D&D was the only choice available - but that soon vanished when new games appeared.

Why do long-term campaigns matter?  Simple - for the story of the campaign and the players in it to develop and unfold.  If "the story" emerges from the play of the game, it's not unreasonable to want to see the "domain game" emerge from character development.  (Not too surprisingly, games like Adventurer, Conqueror, King are aimed at making that possible.)

Recently, I had this realization presented to me by one of my players.  After I told him about my new campaign setting, Aldwyr, Dave looked at me and said, "Well, I like the sound of that, but I hope there's room for some real character development" ...by which he meant opportunities for play in the higher levels of the game - really anything over 7th level, as we hadn't gotten there in about 18 months of play in the campaign I had been running.  Combined with some thinking about pacing, and I decided to go back and do some background reading.  I ran across this quote from Gary in the last issue of The Strategic Review, April 1976:

It is reasonable to calculate that if a fair player takes part in 50 to 75 games in the course of a year he should acquire sufficient experience points to make him about 9th to 11th level, assuming that he manages to survive all that play. The acquisition of successively higher levels will be proportionate to enhanced power and the number of experience points necessary to attain them, so another year of play will by no means mean a doubling of levels but rather the addition of perhaps two or three levels. Using this gauge, it should take four or five years to see 20th level. ("D&D is Only as Good as the DM")

...which reveals a few interesting points about how Gary saw higher level play:

• Game play should happen regularly and consistently.  Consider: "...50 to 75 games in the course of the year...." 
• Advancement to "name level" is never guaranteed: "...assuming that he manages to survive all that play."
• The rate of progress to higher levels slows considerably.
• A long-term campaign is one that lasts easily more than a year, or even two.

All of which suggests a tension in the modern era between developing a campaign with that kind of timespan, and all the games we'd like to play, and the limited amount of time anyone has.  But if you want to maintain player interest, you need to think about they might develop their character - as long as those characters survive.

I don't think of this as a bug, more of a design feature.  But it is something that can come back to challenge a referee as they go from "town, nearby dungeon, and low-level player-characters" to something much larger and more developed over time. I'm rather curious to see where this will lead. 

Winter Solstice!

Winter Solstice 2011 at Stonehenge

Does the calendar in your game year mean anything?  It should.  In pre-industrial societies, the cycle of the seasons and the turn of the year were important in the lives of everyone.  In our "disenchanted" modern world, we pay little attention to the seasons for their own sake, but more as markers of other events and matters of concern.  So there's an opportunity in fantasy roleplaying to re-enchant our world - just a little - not for the sake of superstition, but to reconnect with the world around us.  So add some awareness of time into your game - make that calendar matter for holidays, for the waxing and waning of magical, mysterious and divine forces.  At the same time, go outside and see the daylight begin to lengthen once again, and marvel at the amazing thing that is our world.

Happy Solstice!

With apologies to Jon Peterson

Read more about this on Jon's blog

I want to be clear: this is an amazing book.  In some ways, it's the book I've wanted to write - but Jon does a better job at much of the subject material by having access to a vast wealth of documentation (and I thought I had an extensive collection!).

I managed to misremember both Jon's name and the title of his book in my recent appearance on Kevin Weiser's podcast, The Walking Eye.  I figured the least I could do would be to put in a plug for Jon's book, especially since it so richly deserves a wider audience. In short, Playing at the World is a history of how wargaming eventually led to D&D, and what other factors contributed to its success when it appeared.  Having lived through the early days of the role-playing hobby myself, I've found it a very worthwhile and interesting read. You can find out how to order it from Jon's blog.  Give yourself - or someone else - a tome of mighty magic for the holidays.

Starting a game club: why do it?

I just read over on a Google+ community about a fellow whose gaming group - like so many - was beginning to scatter. Whether it was due to college graduation or job and career issues doesn't really matter. My own brother-in-law has been meeting with his college gaming group on Yahoo Chat and infrequent get-togethers for years, so there's nothing really new here.  Once a group begins to fragment, gamers often feel a sense of loss and don't know what to do.  Hence, ConstantCon and Google+ hangouts and the like.

But while I enjoy getting together online to do some gaming, it has never really matched the satisfaction I get from meeting around an actual table in real time. Combined with fond memories of gaming clubs in my past, I've always preferred regular get-togethers for roleplaying. So why start a club?

There are a bunch of decent reasons for starting a gaming club:

• Finding other like-minded gamers. The frequent complaint of "I can't find other gamers!" is a strong motivation to start a club. I would argue that starting a club and putting a little work into maintaining it is well worth the effort, especially if it results in connecting with gamers who share your interests.
• Introducing new gamers to the games you like.  This is particularly important for the Old School Renaissance, as many of the games we enjoy are not always available at your FLGS.  Having a club builds visibility for "our" kind of games, which does not happen as readily with online gaming.
• Getting introduced to new games and campaigns.  There is something worthwhile in seeing how it's all done by somebody else, and better yet, having a chance to play in something different.  It is easier face-to-face, which regular club meetings makes much easier.
• Building a sense of community.  Unlike online forums which can sometimes descend into endless bickering, a local game club can actually help build friendships and strengthen a sense of community among members.  Don't get me wrong - I've seen clubs go through their own brand of drama from time to time - but if you remember Wheaton's Law and the Golden Rule, a lot of it will dissipate.

Ultimately, you need to be open to experiencing new things to be effective in starting a gaming club.  It might come as a surprise, but gamers are even more varied than the general public, so starting a club can be its own adventure.

Next Wednesday: timing and frequency of meetings.