RPG A Day: Days 1 through 5

For those of you who may be unaware of +Dave Chapman's call to the #RPGaDay challenge, check out this post on his blog: Autocratik.

Me? I'm a bit late, so I gotta get caught up.

1st Day: First RPG Played

The first RPG that I ever played, believe it or not, wasn't D&D. This is because, growing up as a kid in the Philippines, I was usually trying to get people to play the game -- meaning that I'd be trying to run it, but with a very tenuous grasp of the rules.

Therefore, my first RPG game as a player was another well-known TSR property: Star Frontiers! It was run by a classmate of mine who picked up that boxed set and ran it for us at a class retreat in a beautiful seminary overlooking some of the lovely Baguio scenery.

2nd Day: First RPG Gamemastered

This, without a doubt, would be D&D Basic. This is the Moldvay edition with the Erol Otus cover. I've recounted elsewhere on this blog that I actually first purchased an AD&D module, then was given the basic rules as a gift, and tried to run the game. I remember trying at least twice -- once with my classmates and once with my cousins -- but never managing to really make it stick.

I never stopped cracking it open, despite the fact that I eventually realized that AD&D held the majority of the rules for the modules I'd been collecting from the bookstore, and therefore shifted away from the Basic and Expert Sets to devour the trinity of rules (PHB, DMG, and MM) for 1st edition AD&D back in the misty pasts of my youth.

3rd Day: First RPG Purchased

With my own allowance money? This would be Top Secret. Yeah, TSR was the only real RPG brand we could get in the Philippines (that I knew of). Reconnecting with others when I got back here, I found out that some determined souls had gotten ahold of Champions.

But I digress. Where was I? Top Secret! I remember stumbling through these rules, but having an easier time figuring out what might happen. I had a steadier diet of espionage flicks on TV and in the movie theaters, and my cousins were into them too. We all created characters and tried out a couple of games, but I -- ultimately -- couldn't quite figure out Sprechenhaltestelle.

We did eventually return to the espionage genre with Top Secret/S.I. But that's another story.

4th Day: Most Recent RPG Purchase

All my RPG collecting is in the electronic world these days, as space is costly at home. So my latest purchase comes from RPGnow / DriveThruRPG: a supplement for Sine Nomine's spectacular Stars Without Number -- Relics of the Lost.

Kevin Crawford is a lean, mean RPG writing machine. And he does some interesting work in creating tools for sandbox-style games in the Science Fiction genre. Actually, for multiple genres -- there are supplements for the cyberpunk, post-holocaust, and post-human subgenres as well.

Of course, Mr. Crawford does the same for Fantasy RPGs, and you should just give Sine Nomine a look online to see the full breadth of his work. Then check out how long he's been doing it; you'll be amazed.

5th Day: Most Old School RPG owned

I thought it would be a toss-up between two RPGs: the Moldvay Basic D&D set, and the 1st edition of Champions. I never actually played Champions 1st Edition, as I began playing it with the 3rd Edition. However, I've since traded for a copy of the original rules set, out of a collector's mentality.

However, looking at the release years it turns out that my Oldest Old School RPG owned turns out to be: Traveller. Yes, the classic Traveller rules in those black books by Marc Miller.

It was also the first RPG that I got to play when I was in the U.S. I was a beginning character, playing alongside ridiculously powerful characters, but I was finally playing an RPG with seasoned roleplayers, and I couldn't have been happier (at the time) gaming-wise.

Freetrader Beowulf, what was that about -- tentacles?

Just a quickie post here. Traveller + Cthulhu. Yeah! Stars Without Number conversion is probably really easy too -- maybe that's what caused the Scream in the SWN setting, eh? Check this out:

2159 AD. It is a good time to be alive. The nations of the world still exist, but they have become more civilized, and we have expanded into the rest of our solar system. But, alas, it is not to be our time. Something approaches, a thing on an orbit from far away. Seemingly a large shard of dark matter, this object is known in obscure prophecy as the Chthonian Star. It is awakening things long thought lost or dead, things that have slumbered awaiting its return. The Unified World Council sends out special teams of sanctioned Wardens, whose job it is to ascertain the new threats to human life, to learn everything they can about them, and fight them wherever they are found.

Chthonian Stars is an original Lovecraftian horror setting for Traveller.

This Core Setting Book:

• Provides a detailed exploration of our fully colonized solar system, only a few hundred years in the future.
• Introduces exciting new optional character design rules, including advantages and disadvantages, as well as career half-terms.
• Introduces new rules for fear and madness, as well as optional rules for character survivability.
• Brings to life many familiar Lovecraftian horrors for Traveller, as well as a host of new and original ones.
• Details more than a dozen new spaceships.
• Includes three ready-to-run adventures, to get groups running quickly.
• From the award-winning team that brought you CthulhuTech.

On Character Generation and Character Creation

Some game systems have character generation mechanisms -- random elements are used over choice for certain aspects of the process of putting together a character. For the classic D&D systems, this includes random die rolls for stats (which, if done with a 3d6, in-sequence approach, ends up narrowing your choices for your character class as well). For classic Traveller, it determined whether or not you survived that extra tour of duty that would have given you another rank in a skill you were after.

Some game systems have character creation mechanisms -- usually point-buying attributes, skills, and special abilities. GURPS and HERO are the most well-known ones in this arena, given their 'universal' approach to different settings and genres. Less well known are other point-buy systems like EABA, and the incredibly fast choose a template and add 6 dice to skills approach of the West End Games D6 Star Wars RPG.

I like both of these, but now I'm also looking at systems like HeroQuest which I seem to approach character creation as a sort of 'broadstrokes' character definition approach, and then performing some character refinement during play. It is a more narrative-oriented approach, but it does allow for quick character creation in addition to being able to having some wiggle room to give a character something he should already have (but we forgot to buy it) and to allow a character to break the stereotypes and molds that they sometimes fall into.

The main reason I'm doing this: curiosity.

While character generation forced players to sort of adapt to whatever good or bad luck they experienced and character creation forced players to really think about all the capabilities of their character (and possibly be disappointed when they either run of points, or discover that the system doesn't quite reflect their character as effectively as it should) -- what will a character definition / character refinement approach do?

How old is old school?

Well, it's a relative matter of course. Watching my 2+ year old son struggle with a TV that won't react the same way to his touch the way his mom's iPhone does drives home that point every day.

So what does that mean in terms of my sense of "old school"? It means it's relative -- my old school will be older than those who started gaming later than I did, and will be newer than those who started back when dinosaurs ruled the earth.

What's my old school then?

Does the period when I wanted to game -- but couldn't because my grade school years were spent in the Philippines -- count? There were many reasons why (only saw a game run once, couldn't find all the books, 700 Club said it was evil, couldn't find enough players, etc.)

I only bought RPGs and had bad attempts at running these games back then. But I did pick up not only T1: The Village of Hommlet, but the AD&D rulebooks and the Basic & Expert Set and a variety of early modules and things like Geomorphs available in different places known to Philippine gamers for this rare hobby (National Bookstore, Lil's Hobbies, Squadron Shoppe, Nova Fontana).

I rolled up characters that I'd never play, and I randomly generated dungeons that no one would ever see. And because of the strength of the TSR brand, I picked up Top Secret (not S.I.) and Star Frontiers as well.

And picked up those damn minigames (which I actually played when I strongarmed some friends and relatives into trying them out)!

Or is my real old school my exposure to the U.S. gaming scene in high school? AD&D in Bill Homeyer's "World of the Wheel" campaign, Traveller, Call of Cthulhu, and -- as a San Mateo gamer -- classics of the Hero System: Champions, Danger International, Justice Inc. and Robot Warriors?

What about Car Wars and Autoduel -- are they old school?

Does being able to put together the classic Champions stat block from memory give me old school cred, as much as knowing who Black Dougal and Morgan Ironwolf were?

Or am I considered a newer breed because I collected TSR's attempt at the "Choose Your Own Adventure" market -- the Endless Quest series of books? Is there an issue with filling in some idle gaming time with the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and the Lone Wolf series of adventures?

And is there any value if I am considered old school?

My understanding of the use of the term Old School Revival / Revolution / Renaissance is that it is a reclaiming of a much maligned style of game design and gameplay. It is an assertion that there is value in these old games beyond mere nostalgia, that there is -- beneath the in-jokes and the deathtrap dungeons -- something of value that more modern games have lost or turned their backs on in search of newer horizons, subtler story techniques, and novel RPG goals.

But it need not be centered on the fantasy genre, though much of it was (and still is) dominated by it.

Is there something for old school superhero gamers? The popularity of games like BASH and G-Core suggest there is. Can new school power mechanics and old school superheroic flavor intermingle and create new offspring? ICONS seems to be something very much like it.

If so, can we expect similar developments in the horror genre? Or the science fiction genre? Or perhaps an explosion in the western and romance genres?

I hope so. And I hope it comes from someone like you -- because whatever future this hobby has rests in the minds and hard work of gamers trying to make something better for that next generation. Perhaps -- if my son feels so inclined -- he'll be part of that future generation.

We'll just have to see.

SF Gaming: Blue Planet and Traveller

Blue Planet Lives

RedBrick Limited, the company behind the revitalization of both the Fading Suns and Earthdawn game lines, has recently announced that they've acquired the rights to develop a third long-languishing game line: Blue Planet!

Blue Planet, an incredibly detailed and well-researched Hard SF game set on the world of Poseidon, was nominated for Origin's 1997 Award for Best Role-Playing Game of the Year.

Check out the following links for more details:
http://www.blueplanet-rpg.com/
http://www.ardanyan.de/redbrick/
http://www.biohazardgames.com/

Traveller - A New Edition

Mongoose Publishing is slated to release the newest incarnation of Traveller this month! Based on the Classic Traveller game system, but streamlined and updated, this new edition is apparently being position as a ruleset that "will provide everything you need to explore the universes of science fiction settings." They go on to list future settings that will be defined using this ruleset: "Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Starship Troopers and many more."

Mongoose Publishing handles many game lines - Runequest, Babylon 5, Elric of Melnibone, Hawkmoon, Paranoia, Conan, Lone Wolf - so it's assumed that they're quite serious about their goals.

Check out the following links for more details:
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/

Traveller - Out of the Long Night

Of course, the announcements of Mongoose Publishing took the Companies of ComStar Games and Avenger Enterprises by surprise last year - because they were busy churning out a bunch of new Traveller material under license as well! Their material - dealing with The New Era - focuses on the Traveller universe struggling to recover from the disintegration of the Imperium. It disregards the GURPS Traveller alternative timeline (which itself disregarded the events of Dulinor).

Check out the following link for more details:
http://www.comstar-games.com/csg-store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1

Hard Science Fiction Gaming

One of the most difficult things in constructing a Hard Science Fiction campaign is dealing with the implications of scientific developments. This is why I tend to defer to novels and to established SciFi settings when running games.

In the RPG Traveller, communciation could only travel as fast as the fastest mail ship. Message transmission goes only as fast as the speed of light, while ships can travel at FTL speeds. This lack of "faster than travel" communication resulted in a semi-feudalistic structure of the Empire. Local Governors / Warlords are responsible for the sections of space that they can control, and are allied to the Emperor. This results in an even greater variance in the laws and trade agreements than would be present in an already homogeneous, monolithic empire and makes it difficult to figure out how to navigate the web of trade.

How does the galaxy keep from falling into chaos? Trust, politics, detente and diplomacy, plus the occasional "police action" or "black op".

Traveller Hero

And yes, I know the spelling of Traveler is -

Anyway.

Science Fiction games seem to be a rarity in the Philippines. The only Science Fiction games that I've seen run here are the Space Opera type, which tend to have a few fantasy elements mixed in (Star Wars, Fading Suns).

Some friends were able to run some campaigns for the local Star Trek fan group Via Astris, but I've really not seen stable, ongoing Science Fiction campaigns with hardish SciFi, set in the stars, with military or mercantile elements thrown into it.

I mention this because I just discovered that the new Traveller Hero rulebooks by Comstar Games are out! For old gamers like me, Traveller was really one of the seminal Science Fiction RPGs - it came out before Star Frontiers, I believe, even though I played it long after my bout with the Star Frontiers RPG.

Check it out!