Adventure Concept - The Ultimate Puzzle

I was putting together a puzzle/investigative adventure, and it occurred to me that there is one concept that I am pretty sure simply would not work.  Does anyone out there think you could convert Da Vinci Code/National Treasure into a workable adventure/campaign?

Back on solid ground

Hullo all!  I have returned from my long vacation.  I want to thank everyone who checked out my auto-posts, and especially those who commented on them.  I got more traffic than I was expecting, considering that I was not around to promote them myself.

I'm going to give a brief recap of my awesome vacation here, but with a twist.  I'm going to offer up a few notes on some of the different places we went and things we did that could be inspirations for RPGs.

Attack of the Mushroom People

OK, this post has nothing at all to do with RPGs. But, it is too precious to me not to post here. It also seems a fitting cap to my reign of reposting.

This is my theory of why traffic gets so bad in the rain.

Two words: Mushroom People.

The Problem with Magic

Magic.

The name, almost literally, conjures up certain images for us. Certain assumptions, certain expectations, and certain dreams. Gandalf and Merlin. Ged and Elric. The enemies of Conan and allies of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. From Harry Potter to Harry Dresden. Even Old Ben Kenobi plays the part well.

And, yet, RPGs seem to consistently fail to capture the mystique and majesty of magic. It is a list of powers, a bit of extra book-keeping, and a pain in the ass to balance. Why is this? Well, it's very easy to lay the blame at the feet of D&D. (And, admittedly, I tend to more often than I care to admit.) After all, they took one specific archetype that is quite deliberately unusual ("Vancian" magic), and then very deliberately devolved it into a system of rules suitable for miniatures combat. It was then re-evolved, if you will, into a system suitable for a true RPG. Mostly.

How Fudging Could Have Saved the Day

In the way of these things, the topic of fudging die rolls has come up on a number of the podcasts and blogs I follow lately. I'm not going to expound on my personal opinion here. Instead, I want to tell about two of my greatest GM failures. It's relevant because both of them came about specifically because I refused to fudge the dice.

The End of the World As We Know It

I want to write/run a multi-genre post-apoc rpg. One of the first things that needs to be decided, obviously, is the "apoc" part. The nature of the end of the world shapes a lot of the future. So, what to do? I have three possibilities I'm considering.

Can you handle the dreaded Licensed Setting!?!

I just listened to Fear The Boot #210 last night. (Ed. note: Obviously, this was written a while ago.) One of the two big topics was using established settings for your RPG, a la Star Wars or Dresden Files. I feel the spontaneous need to respond to this podcast.

The Disease is the Cure (version 2)

(Ed. note: Yes, this is pretty much a repeat post. I did not even notice that in my original blog, as the posts were several months apart. They are slightly different, though, and this one is a bit closer to the post-apoc setting I'm going for.)

So, I've been thinking about my post-apoc fantasy setting. Incidentally, for now, I am calling it Aurelian.

One of the bits is the presence of psionically-gifted humans. Another is the presence of "monsters." After much thinking, I think I can tie many of these elements together fairly neatly.

It all starts with a virus....

The Disease is the Cure (version 1)

I am working on a post-apocalyptic kitchen sink setting (a la Rifts), and I want to justify a lot of the setting elements, but preferably in ways that have not been done before. I was thinking about vampires, and how to make them work. I like the whole concept of "vampirism as a disease" (seen in numerous works, but I first found it Barbara Hambly's excellent "Those Who Hunt the Night"). Then, I happened to read a couple articles (I don't recall why, it was one of those "click on one too many links in Wikipedia" things). The mythology of vampires may have arisen from a particularly virulent outbreak of rabies in Eastern Europe. A lot of the symptoms line up, including aversion to sunlight and strong smells (like, say, garlic). The peasants saw one of their own suddenly exhibit a terrifying and violent alter ego, which later reports would embellish with some nice poetic elements. Then the Church would add a nice layer of demonic presence to, in addition to the idea that the Church is capable of protecting you from such evils.

Interestingly enough, only a few minutes later, I followed a link to a justification of rabies as the source of werewolf myths. Normal guy gets bitten by a strange-acting wolf, then starts lashing out in a bestial rage. But, hey, I'm already thinking about making vampirism a disease, they shouldn't both be diseases. That just looks cheesy.

This starts percolating, and I go see Zombieland this weekend. (Ed. note: This pretty well dates the original post.) Zombies as a disease. Sure, been done to death. But something upstairs clicks, and the mind gnomes present their collage.

Campaign Concept - The Natives Are WHAT?!?

Recently, I have had another setting concept pop into my head. See, I am in a regular monthly D&D group. But, I would never GM 7K, DFRPG, or most any of the other games that excite me for them. First, the group is too big, at around 7 players. Most story-heavy games simply can't handle that kind of spotlight division. Second, the group is very much into casual gaming. They don't want to think too hard, they have trouble staying on task, and they rarely do much actual roleplay. They are just about chucking dice and having moments of awesome. Also, they are pretty solidly welded to playing 3.5 D&D, for now at least. I may try to run a one-shot of Gamma World for them at some point, just to see if they'd go for it.

So, I want to run a game, and running for these guys seems like the most likely outlet in the near future. But, with the restrictions above, most of the games/campaigns I'd want are right out. So, I was digging through my old box of ideas one time while walking the dog, and two ideas popped out, merged, and suggested some potential awesome.

Are you now, or have you ever been, Chaotic Evil?

So, here we are. A gaming blog, tackling that toughest of all topics, alignment. Will I add anything useful to the discussion? I certainly hope so.

What *IS* an RPG, anyway?

So, I have been toying with a few different systems and settings for RPGs. I was thinking about whether or not I could actually devise a new and improved RPG. I'm sure that there is ground yet to be trod. But, how to find it?

An awful lot of the indie games seem to delight in spewing forth wacky mechanics. I think that, as a community, they are attempting to derive the perfect RPG through some sort of Darwinian process. They create games like you create creatures in Spore, then have the games compete for "survival" (measured in mentions on Forge and RPG.net, as many of them don't actually have sales figures). Key features are then re-incorporated in newer games (though generally with the key terms changed, so that the writer can convince people his work is "original").

I thought that I would rise above this mish-mash, powered by nothing but my own hubris. I will devise the perfect RPG, not through some messy evolutionary process, but with SCIENCE!!! (Please don your protective goggles at this time.) (Ze gogglez! Zey do nothink!!!)

In some seriousness (since I seem to be incapable of all seriousness), what I am looking for initially is some idea of what RPG rules actually do. I know what an RPG is. And I know a couple dozen rules sets. But, if I want to make a contribution that is an actual revolution, and not just a gimmicky new mechanic, I need to have some idea what my goals are. So, what needs do the rules of an RPG need to fill?

How fragile we are

IMO, any post title that has me singing Sting lyrics is a good one.

In working on my new PA setting, I came to a startling conclusion. Our information-based infrastructure is like a gigantic balloon. Press it at any point, and it will give. Remove the pressure, and it will rebound. But pop it, and it cannot be repaired. It can only be rebuilt from scratch.

Engaging Autopilot

I will be going offline for a couple of weeks here.  But, I am way too proud of the string of posts I have going here to just go dark for that time.  So, instead, I am going to be re-posting some choice bits from the wayback machine.  Since I know that very few readers ever go through the archives, I figure it won't bore most of you.

As a note, I haven't worked out how to do automatic posting to Twitter and G+ when a post goes live.  So, if you don't follow the blog, subscribe via RSS, or come in from RPGBA, you might want to do one of those.  I'd also really appreciate it if you guys would take a second to share each of the posts when you read it, if you find it interesting.  Without my vast social network to call on, I'm afraid these posts may not get the love they deserve!

Genre Mashup - Wizards + Wireless

Fantasy is an extremely broad genre, that is actually applied to anything with magic.  Even if that thing has none of the standard themes of fantasy.  Like, say, cyberpunk.

The Problem with Death

There was a spate of posts on the RPGBA blogroll a couple weeks back regarding PC death.  Given the number of OSR-oriented blogs on the site, they were heavily in favor of the constant threat of death.  I am going to give an opposing point of view.

Long-time readers may note that many of my points were previously discussed when I talked about why "old school" games suck.  The comments, especially, dealt with the subject of random death quite a bit.

System Wank - Magic

Oh, this is a tough one.  There are a lot of great magic systems out there.  And by "magic" I'm going to include any special effects system such as psionics or The Force.  Because, ultimately, they are essentially the same thing.

Given the breadth and variety, I'm going to go with one winner and two honorable mentions.

The Problem with Elves, Redux

I experienced a runaway success with my post on The Problem with Elves, thanks to a repost by Greg Christopher over on Google+ and Alias at his blog (in French!).  There were a lot of great responses, so I feel that I need to make a follow-up post.

7K - Class warfare

I am a bit conflicted on how exactly to handle races, classes, skills, and other character elements in the rebooted Seven Kingdoms game.  On the one hand, given that characters will already be sorted into broad categories based on the type of super power they have, I also want to be able to sort them based on the type of swashbuckler they are.  On the other, I want the game system to steer light, so that my natural tendencies will keep it rules-medium.

Should I have classes?  And, if so, what kind of structure should they have?

Who Is This Guy, Anyway?

Now that I have been writing here for a while, I have built up an audience of, what, 10 people?  Well, it is worth it so far.  But, it occurs to me that few if any of you have any idea what my "credentials" are.  I have a history in the hobby, that makes me thoroughly qualified to fake my way through these posts.

Why LARP Is Not For Me

I have tried LARP.  It is not for me.  It is a great medium for other people, and I have several dear friends who love it.  But, I just cannot get into it.

There is a trend among tabletop gamers to really look down on LARPers as "weird" and "socially deviant."  I find this baffling, given that we are all gamers.  Not only do we pretty much look the same to outsiders, most LARPers are also tabletop players.  So, this post is not one of those.  Instead, it is a look at some of the things that make LARP different from tabletop, and how those things are a turn-off for me.

Genre Mashup - War of the Worlds + War of the Ring

I have gotten very tired in recent years of typical fantasy, most especially epic fantasy.  (That is the main reason I avoided Game of Thrones.)  And, yet, I cannot shake the awesome appeal of so many fantasy elements.  I've been scratching the itch by mashing up fantasy with other genres.  Seven Kingdoms is a mashup of fantasy and supers.

Today, I'll talk about mashing up fantasy with an alien invasion.  Yes, this was in part inspired by going to see Cowboys vs. Aliens this weekend.  But, it also was a setting concept I toyed with many years ago.

7K - Setting Primer for the Seven Kingdoms

I noticed that I do not actually have a good overview of the Seven Kingdoms setting. The one that does exist at the beginning of the blog is outdated and incorrect. I do think that I need a single post that I can point people to for a quick introductory lesson. Here it is:

The Problem with Elves

(Which is not the same as The Problem with Elvis, just so you know.)

Most fantasy settings have elves.  Or, if they don't, they have some other race that is very long-lived and intellectual.  For me, such beings have always been a real stumbling block when developing a setting.  How can the fallen Empire be a time of misty legends when you have people walking around who were there?  Also, how weird is it when you meet up with your new companions at the tavern at first level, only to realize that the elf in the party knew your grandfather when he was a boy?  And why is it that someone who spent five times as long on their apprenticeship as you knows pretty much exactly the same things?

7K - Wealth of Nations

Character gear has been something of a bug for me lately.  Back when pretty much every system just gave your character a load of cash and a big price list, I was okay with that being the way things were done.  But I have seen some systems lately that approach it very differently.  For my Seven Kingdoms game, I want to try something fairly radical.

7K - Another reboot?

Yeah, I've walked down this road before.  I'm becoming less and less happy with sticking to d20 as a system for this campaign.  I'm just feeling like the real strengths of the system aren't things I'm looking to leverage, and the drawbacks of the system are definitely cropping up as stumbling blocks.

So, the question of the moment is, should I scrap what I've done and start over with a new system?

Feedback requested

Well, it seems that I need to learn to read the instructions on this thing better.  I screwed up the scheduling on a couple posts last week.  So, they may or may not be coming later.

I say may not, because I need some feedback here from you loyal readers.  I've noticed that I've gotten pretty much zero feedback on my Seven Kingdoms stuff.  More importantly, I noticed while trying to get caught up on the RPGBA feed that I tend to skip everyone else's posts regarding "here's my new system/setting!"

I'm thinking that live-blogging the development of an RPG is a lot like Greg Stolze's patron model.  If you already have people who are interested in what you have to say, it can really work.  If you're still making your bones, people aren't likely to be interested in watching you flail about.  That's especially true when, like me, you can't drop a new post on the subject every day.  People just aren't likely to remember what else you're doing to see how all the pieces fit together.

So, the feedback I'm looking for is whether or not I should even continue posting Seven Kingdoms stuff.  Please don't worry about hurting my feelings.  I recognize there's a difference between "I'm not interested in reading about you trying to pull this game together" and "Your game sucks."

I'm still planning on working out the game.  When I get it all together, I may be releasing it as a PDF.  Of course, part of this is also spawned from the fact that one of the missing posts from last week is that I'm no longer convinced that d20 is the right system, even with the tweaks I'm making.  I'm actually considering creating a franken-system out of all the bits I highlight in my "System Wank" series.  If I'm going to re-boot the whole system (again), I don't want to drag it out on the blog.  Unless you guys want to see me drag it out.

I'll just wrap this up with a blatant begging for comments.  Even if you're just saying, "meh, whatever," I'd still like to hear it.  Given the number of readers I have, trust me, every vote counts.

Murder by Numbers

Poison is an ancient tool of the subtler forms of warfare.  It is also a key device in literature, from Romeo and Juliet to the Count of Monte Cristo.  And yet, it is rarely handled well in RPGs.  I talked about it a bit on RPG Circus last night week, and just wanted to expand on it a bit here.

System Wank - Ads and Disads

Lots of systems out there feature various ways to make your character better, along with various ways to represent flaws.  Most of them function essentially the same way.  I want to call out the system that completely changed the way I thought about them, and in some ways how I thought about RPGs in general.

FATE, first seen by most of us in Spirit of the Century, approaches the whole issue from a decidedly different angle.  Advantages and disadvantages both serve one single purpose: grabbing the spotlight.  One way lets you shine by winning, the other by failing.  Unifying the mechanics as Aspects is undeniably brilliant.

About that time again

Regular readers may have noticed that I've missed posting the last couple of days.  A combination of busy days at work and a series of posts that are stuck in fragment form right now have created a bit of a logjam.  Mea culpa, mea culpa.  Consider this the obligatory "I swear I'll get back on track and have fewer excuses" post.

7K - Heraldry of the Seven Kingdoms

Most home brew settings ignore the element of heraldry.  The reason for this is simple: Most of us don't have the artistic chops to draw it out.  However, the symbology of a nation can be very important, and allow for rapid identification.  Having the players suddenly surrounded by "a sea of blue tabards" can let them know that they are either safe, or in very deep trouble, depending on their relationship with the King's Men.

Here are the colors and a few important symbols of the Seven Kingdoms.

Fluff vs Crunch

It is very common these days to divide RPG material into fluff, text that focuses on the description and story, and crunch, text that focuses on the mechanics and action. When developing the game, it is important to separate the two as cleanly as possible. When actually playing the game, though, the two need to be brought together.

Ennies Awards

So, on the last episode of RPG Circus, we made a slate of Ennies predictions.  Given the results this weekend, I thought I'd do a wrap-up and see how accurate I was.  Also, sincere congratulations to all the winners.  It was definitely a tough field out there this year.

Out of the 42 awards given, I called 24 correctly.  Though, as a note, I gave myself half credit if I picked the right product, but the wrong medal (e.g., I picked it for Gold, but it took Silver).  I did not totally wash out of any category, and was perfect on 5 of the 21 categories.  All in all, not too shabby.

System Wank - Initiative

Last week, Rob Donoghue posted a summary of a few different types of initiative systems as part of his musings on his new system.  Which reminded me of the next mechanic for my System Wank series: the best initiative system I ever used.

(In retrospect, I totally should have ripped off that Best Thing I Ever Ate show from Food Network.)

The 7th Sea game introduced me to a number of really interesting mechanics.  An argument can certainly be made that Wick, Wilson, et al., did more to bring indie ideas into a mainstream game than actually creating novel mechanics.  (Of course, the same can be said about Da Vinci's exhaustive encyclopedia of inventions, and look where that got him.)  But, so far as I know, their initiative system is unique.

You say you want a resolution.... part 5

When taking an action in an RPG, there are five stages: intent, declaration, resolution, effect, and description.  We've already covered intent, declaration, resolution, and effect.  The action ends when someone, most often the GM, describes what just happened.

Harkening back to the discussion on declaration (and foreshadowing the discussion on fluff vs. crunch), there is a difference between the effect and the description of that effect.  Boiling it down, the effect works on the mechanical level, and the description works on the character level.  The description is also important to tie the whole action together, much like the summary section at the end of a paper.

New and Improved Goblins

I was listening to a podcast last week (I can't recall which one) and the subject of flying mounts for small creatures came up.  I had a sudden flash of inspiration, that I want to capture here.  Conveniently enough, it ties in with this month's RPG Blog Carnival topic, which is animals in RPGs.

As a result of Tolkien's influence, we often see goblins riding worgs, or some other kind of large wolf.  What if we extended that connection to other types of animals?  Goblins riding giant bats or even wyverns?  Goblins using trained rats or spiders?  There is a lot of potential here, I think.

You say you want a resolution.... part 4

When taking an action in an RPG, there are five stages: intent, declaration, resolution, effect, and description.  We've already covered intent, declaration, and resolution.  Now we get to the effect.

The effect is usually pretty simple, and predetermined by the system.  If you hit with an attack, you deal damage.  If you succeed with a perception check, you find something.  However, there are some nuances here that both separate one style of gaming from another, and are areas where a good GM can introduce extra layers of awesome.

System Wank - Attributes

The next in my "System Wank" series, in which I highlight mechanics in various games that I've really liked.  Today, I want to point out one of the better collections of character attributes I've played with.  I point you to: The New World of Darkness!

You say you want a resolution.... part 3

When taking an action in an RPG, there are five stages: intent, declaration, resolution, effect, and description.  We've already covered intent and declaration, so today is resolution.

There are a dozen ways to slice and dice types of actions and types of resolutions.  If the action is either obviously going to succeed, or failure is not interesting, the resolution should simply be the GM saying, "OK, it works."  If there is no way the action can succeed (e.g., the character attempts to leap across a forty foot gap with normal human abilities), the GM is well within his rights to give the player a dirty look and say, "Come on, play seriously."  But most of the tasks in an RPG fall in the big grey area between, in which both success and failure can lead to interesting stories, and it is not clear which path our hero will go down.

You say you want a resolution.... part 2

Continued from part 1...

Yesterday we discussed intent.  Today, we'll discuss declaration.  For those joining us halfway through the woods, this is a series of posts of task resolution, breaking it down into five separate stages: intent, declaration, resolution, effect, and description.

You say you want a resolution.... part 1

Yesterday I talked about dice.  Today, I'm going to unpack task resolution in some detail.  Specifically, I'm going to look into the nooks and crannies between intent, declaration, resolution, effect, and description.  We make a lot of assumptions about how those all fit together, and I think the differences in those assumptions are largely responsible for the differences in our gaming styles.

[Ed. note - The words just kept pouring out of me.  I'm breaking this post up into several sections of its own.  This first one will deal with intent.]

The dice tell me ... nothing!

So, I have been chatting over in The Rhetorical Gamer's blog the last couple of weeks about dice and task resolution.  It became quickly obvious that we view gaming pretty radically differently.  So, he asked me to unpack some of my thoughts on this, with some concrete examples.  This is probably going to take me a couple of posts.

Today, why the heck do we even have dice in these games, anyway?

A bit of introspection

Wow.  I am a wordy bastard, aren't I?  I really want to try and do 500-word posts, but I just find it so hard.  Especially when I'm doing setting posts, where I want to have a paragraph on each of the Seven Kingdoms.  Would you believe that some of these posts have actually been trimmed down?  That's how thoroughly sick I am.

I think I'm getting the hang of blogging more frequently now.  Blogger is definitely better for me in this regard.  I don't think I can really articulate the reasons, but the UI just feels better to me.  I'm also actually finishing more blog posts, instead of ending up with a graveyard of a dozen partials.

My traffic numbers aren't great.  Much better than my old blog though, and that's entirely due to RPGBA.  Probably two-thirds of my traffic comes from there.  I'm trying to decide if I want to be "that guy" who spams every post to every social media site he can reach.  On the one hand, that seems rude.  On the other, it's not like an audience is just going to magically find me.

The numbers that I really want to get up, though, are the number of comments.  My most-visited post, the one on Women in Gaming, has zero comments.  (Admittedly, my second most visited post is also the one with the most comments, so there is some correlation.)  I'm curious as to why I get no comments.  Are my topics just not interesting?  Is my presentation too closed, in that it doesn't invite discussion?  Is my vocabulary off-putting?  Do people just get tired of reading before they make it all the way to the comment box?

Of course, I have noticed that many other blogs end up with zero comments.  So, it's more a problem with blogs and blog readers than with me.  To help combat that, I have been trying to employ the "Mark Meredith Method" of commenting on at least three blog posts every day.  It's not that hard, and I've actually gotten some good discussions going.  (I've also had another blogger challenge me to a post, or series of posts, on a particular topic, which you'll hopefully see next week.)

Brevity is the soul of wit.  My wit is clearly a soulless abomination.

7K - Sexuality in the Seven Kingdoms

A very interesting, yet typically underdeveloped, aspect of any society is it's attitude towards sex.  This attitude flavors so many other situations, and can be the fodder for a wide range of story hooks.

Each of the Seven Kingdoms has a different attitude towards sex and sexuality.  This ranges from extremely permissive but debauched to extremely repressive.

System Wank - Core Mechanic of Edge of Midnight

"System Wank" is going to be a new feature/series here.  In a couple of discussions this week, I've found myself discussing particularly elegant or interesting mechanics from various games.  So, I'm going to starting calling them out fairly specifically.  Maybe one day I can collate all of these posts and make the perfect game.

As a logical place to start, I'm going with "core mechanic."  This is a particularly nifty way to roll the dice and get results, taken from Edge of Midnight.

7K - Magical Arms and Armor

My project of commenting on Shared Fantasy has pulled me away from the Seven Kingdoms project.  But, a post by WolfSamurai on Google+ has inspired me to do another 7K post.

In the Seven Kingdoms, there are three types of magic items.  The most common are essentially "spells in a bottle."  These are single-use items that just have a pre-cast spell stored in them.  You may recognize these better as the D&D items potions, scrolls, and, on a more powerful level, wands.  The least common are items of true power, akin to "artifacts" and "relics" in D&D.  In between are items of rare craftsmanship and exotic materials, the work of extremely gifted smiths.

This post is regarding that third category.

7K - So, who are these Seven Kingdoms anyway?

Oh, look, a Seven Kingdoms post!  I haven't abandoned this project.  I've just set aside the posts while I was working on the Shared Fantasy series.  I have a few in the backlog that I'll share over the next several days.

One thing I noticed while going over some of the older posts is that I've actually presented surprisingly little setting information.  I should catch everyone up on that.  We're going to start with the titular Seven Kingdoms themselves:

Shared Fantasy - Conclusion

So, we have finally come to the end of this journey.  This is Chapter 8, where Dr. Fine reiterates all of his points, and presents his conclusions.  I was originally assuming that this wouldn't even require a post of its own, but his summary actually produced a number of really good quotes.

Shared Fantasy - Chapter 7

Chapter 7 of Dr. Fine's book is all about the relationship between the player and the character.  In other words, oddly enough, it's about playing your roles.  Most of the chapter is pretty straightforward, but there are a few rather lengthy passages that are worthy of comment and thought.

As a note, I discussed my reading of Shared Fantasy on RPG Circus last night.  You can catch the episode here.

Shared Fantasy - Chapter 6

This is the chapter where Dr. Fine pulls out his sociology chops.  It really is the meat of the book, and he does a strong job of making his points.

The essence of this chapter is about how gamers deal with shifting between "in character" and "out of character" perspectives.  As Goffman, a sociologist whose work on frame analysis strongly informed this chapter, says: "Fanciful words can speak about make-believe places, but these words can only be spoken in the real world."

Shared Fantasy - Chapter 5

I'm up to Chapter 5 in Shared Fantasy.  Just to give you an idea, there are eight chapters all told.  This chapter starts to leave behind the "what is this 'gaming' thing?" territory and head into actual sociological issues.  So, I have less to say about it, having no background in sociology.

The topic of this chapter is Game Structure.  Mostly, it's all about status, leadership, cooperation, and how gamers can be real dicks to each other.

My First Time

"Dear Penthouse, I never thought it would happen to me..."

No, wait, wrong first time.  I'm talking about my first time in the GM chair.  That was the topic of last night's #RPGchat on Twitter.  (It was my first time making #RPGChat, and it was pretty awesome.  An hour of highly concentrated discussion.)  I told one of the participants that I could one-up him for the melodrama and disaster involved.

So, be duly warned.

Concept for a Convention Game

In reading chapter 5 of Shared Fantasy, he has an interesting anecdote about a con game.  The point of the anecdote is demonstrating what happens when intraparty cooperation breaks down.  But, I think it could also just be a neat idea.

Short description: The young baroness has been kidnapped by bandits. You have been hired to rescue her. But, are your companions what they appear to be?

Shared Fantasy - Chapter 4

So, we're up to chapter four of Shared Fantasy.  This is ostensibly about gaming culture.  However, it ends up being two very different topics oddly welded together.  First is a discussion of M.A.R. Barker and his famous Empire of the Petal Throne.  Second is a discussion of the shared culture that evolves from gaming together for weeks on end.  It ends up pairing the two subjects at the end in a vaguely creepy discussion of the intense group that games with Prof. Barker himself.

Shared Fantasy - Cheating in RPGs

As I noted yesterday, there is a significant section in Shared Fantasy regarding the nature of cheating in RPGs.  Fine is very quick to point out that cheating in an RPG is not the same thing as cheating in, say, Monopoly or poker.  That is because it is a collaborative effort, not a competitive one.  It is much more analogous to cheating at a solitaire game.  The line between "cheating" and "rules exception" is a fine one (largely dependent on permission from the GM).  Also, ultimately, cheating in an RPG is more about "doing it wrong" than it is actually harmful to the game.

Shared Fantasy, Chapter 3

After a bit of a hiatus, I'm back to Shared Fantasy.  Chapter 3 is about how gamers come together to create a collective fantasy.  As anyone who's ever tried to explain an RPG to a mundane knows, it's a lot easier to demonstrate than discuss.  Fine does a pretty good job of breaking down the various issues involved and explaining them.

As a note, Chapter 3 also includes an interesting aside on "cheating" in RPGs.  As it includes some really interesting quotes, and is a fairly involved topic, I'm going to break it out into a separate post.

Google Plus First Thoughts

So, I managed to squeak in through one of the tiny holes Google has opened up and got my Google Plus account set up this morning.  I haven't done much with it due to that whole "being at work" thing.  But, here's a few initial observations:

Why "Old School" Games Suck

"Old School" games suck, and are a blight upon our hobby.  They are outdated, wrong-headed, and unfun.  And I will prove it.

Shared Fantasy - Women in Gaming

I expect this topic to be a bit controversial, and possibly to involve some serious discussion.

I have been reading Shared Fantasy by Gary Fine.  You can check out my previous posts here and here.  In the latter half of Chapter 2, he devotes quite a bit of space to the curious lack of women gamers.  He offers three explanations as to why that is: characteristics of women; the process of recruitment into the gaming world; and reactions of men to the presence of women players and female characters.

Shared Fantasy, Chapter 2

On Friday, I started a discussion about the book Shared Fantasy.  Today, I'm going to talk about Chapter 2, which discusses what gamers are like and where they come from.  The final part of Chapter 2 is about women in gaming, which I'm actually going to split off into its own post.


In summary, the average gamer (as of 1979) is a young white male, unmarried, but well educated.  He likely has related fandom interests.  He probably either has a good job, or is working on building towards a career.  He has strong feelings about war, though they may be either pro or con.  Finally, he is likely to be non-conformist and possibly judged as deviant.

Shared Fantasy, Chapter 1

So, I have started reading Shared Fantasy by Gary Alan Fine.  This is a sociological paper on the culture of gamers.  That, in itself, is not really all that interesting.  So far, his conclusions and insights have largely matched up to my own experiences in the hobby.

What is fascinating is that this book was published in 1983, and most of the research was done in 1977-1979.  As such, it provides a window into the early days of the hobby.  If you are a grognard, or just an OSR enthusiast, I strongly recommend giving it a look.

7K - Class Debate

So, classes are once again proving to be a stumbling block for me. I think that's a very good indication that I still don't have a firm handle on how I want this system to work.

What Does the Class Do?

In game mechanics terms, a class is intended to be a collection of related system elements that enable rapid character creation and reinforce genre through strong archetypes. In Seven Kingdoms in particular, I want classes to bring the swashbuckling elements while origins bring the superhero elements.

However, given the radical changes I've made to the combat system, I'm not entirely sure what the class does any more. By making combat based on a skill, I've removed two key system elements that distinguish one class from another. First, there's no Base Attack Bonus. Second, every class now needs to have the same number of skill points, though with a different list of class skills. In addition, I'm not sure that I'm going to be keeping the vitality and stress mechanics, so there's another point of differentiation gone.

What we are left with are bonuses to saves, the list of class skills, and the class abilities. It wouldn't be hard to turn the class abilities into feat trees, and turn the saves into skill or ability checks. And, voila, the class is dismissed.

So What If I Have No Class?

Good question. Do I need classes? Am I just holding onto an artifact of outmoded play?

Well, with no classes, no saving throws, and such a radically different combat system, I can pretty definitively say that I am no longer using the d20 system. On the one hand, I lose the framework of rules I'd been counting on for both ease of design and familiarity. On the other, I am freed up to use whatever mechanics suit my whims.

We also come back to one of the purposes of classes. Without a class, players lose that easy template to both build and define their characters. Of course, they also lose the straitjacket that a class can be. They become free to build their characters to suit whatever concept is in their heads.

That, though, sums up the reason I want to keep classes. Without them, the character is mostly defined by her origin. There's a big difference in connotation between "I'm a Blaster with a lot of Knowledge skills and related feats" and "I'm a Blaster Scholar". The former starts with what kind of superhero you are and builds from there. I would have to trust to the feat selection and player intent to bring the swashbuckling. The latter statement, though, gives equal weight to both genres. In a mash-up, I think that's pretty important.

How Do I Make the Class Stick?

If I want to keep the class system, I need to give it some significant weight. First of all, let's definitely keep save bonuses and class abilities intact. We also will be adding a gear mechanic, so let's give class-based bonuses to that.

One significant way to restore some differentiation to the classes is to set the combat to use BAB again. As I was looking at "skill as attack bonus" I noticed that it wasn't really adding much. A Soldier is likely to max it out, and a Courtier is likely to ignore it. The one real advantage it had was supporting fencing schools and techniques as skill focuses. I think that will be pretty easy to replicate with class abilities and feats.

Of course, having BAB in the system calls out combat as being more important than other sorts of conflict. I really don't want that. To counter-balance it, and call out repartee as being important, I think I should add a class-based bonus for social combat. It would work the same way as BAB, but would also remove the awkward question of the differences between some of the social skills.

Conclusion

Yeah, I think I like that. It makes the classes unique, but doesn't overburden the system. It brings us back closer to the d20 paradigm, which I like. And, it should be relatively easy to give each class the right feel.

Always with the delays

This is something of the typical "sorry I'm not posting more" post.  I've been busy.  I've been producing output that isn't blog material.  And, you know, I'm a slacker.


There are a couple other reasons, too.  Mark Meredith, better known as the Dice Monkey, threw out a challenge on Twitter a while back to comment on at least three blog posts a day.  It is an excellent suggestion.  I've been trying hard to keep up with that.  Of course, that means that I need to keep up with a lot of blog posts.  The new RPG Blog Alliance has been helping considerably with that.  It especially helps me target blog posts that don't get a lot of traffic.  I mean, I love Rob Donoghue's stuff, but he really doesn't need my comment just to let him know he's not howling into the wilderness. 

And, I have to say, it's really important for me to get that kind of feedback.  I know that I often have lulls in my posting precisely because I don't feel like anyone is reading them anyway.  A comment, any comment, helps to alleviate that, and spur me to more posting.  The ever-amazing Will Hindmarch made the same point on Twitter just yesterday.  So, as the saying sort of goes, be the change you want to see.  If I want traffic coming in here, I ought to give other blogs the love.

On another note, I've also been profligately wasting my word count.  The aforementioned Mark is currently on something of a hiatus due to a beautiful new baby girl.  I penned a couple of blog posts for him, one on An Unusual Source of GM Tips and one on Reward Types.  So, go check those out.

And, remember people.  Comments are love.  (/pity party)

My worst GMing mistakes

In the way of these things, the topic of fudging die rolls has come up on a number of the podcasts and blogs I follow lately. I'm not going to expound on my personal opinion here. Instead, I want to tell about two of my greatest GM failures. It's relevant because both of them came about specifically because I refused to fudge the dice.

And a new(ish) blog is born!

Wait, what? I'm coming up fast on 50 posts, and now I do an introductory post?

7K - Check yourself before you wreck yourself

So, my last post was about how you gain skills in the system. You may also want to reference this post, where I gave a preliminary list of what the skills in the system would be.

To finish rounding out the topic, I want to talk about how to make skill checks. It's pretty straightforward, especially if you know d20. But, I do want to add in a couple more advanced types of skill checks.

7K - Slick skills

I really want the skill system to be the core driver of the system. As such, it needs to be flexible, extensible, quick, and easy. I've looked at a number of skill systems, and I at least have some pretty good ideas of what kind of model I want to go with.

7K - Strengthen the core

The first thing you need when developing an RPG, after a grand concept, is a core mechanic. That informs so many other parts of the system. It also is largely responsible for dictating how the RPG will feel in play.

7K - Derailed again

So, I know that it's been a while since I posted any 7 Kingdoms work. I haven't abandoned the project. But, I must admit that the live-blogging has taken something of a back seat. The biggest reason is simply that, as I've worked on the classes, I keep running into things that I don't like. I don't feel like I'm building a game that is in any way elegant, and that bugs me.

Well, part of the point to live-blogging was to get feedback, and give some insight into how this creative process works. It wasn't just a way to publish a free game cheaply. By retreating into my own head to work these problems out, I'm pretty much violating that point. So, I'm going to lay out some thoughts here.

7K - A touch of class

Every superhero has an origin, but he also has training. To represent what kind of training, we are going to use the class system from d20. It's pretty straightforward. When you gain a level, you can take that level in any base class. If you meet the prerequisites for an expert class (nee prestige class), you can take a level in that, too. You will gain stats, skills, and a special ability at every level. (Yes, you gain an ability at every level. There are no "dead" levels.) There are no penalties for multiclassing.

7K - Every hero has an Origin

When we discussed races, I mentioned that race has no mechanical effect on the character. It's all cosmetic. However, the race/class dynamic is pretty core to d20, and it is a good idea to preserve it. In our case, though, we have Origin instead of Race.

Superheroes have origins. That's one of the tropes of the genre. They have some X factor (in some cases, literally) that sets them apart from the rest of the population. In the Seven Kingdoms setting, there are relatively few possible origins, because I want to keep the stories fairly well focused. So, you cannot be a space alien. Also, your list of "powers" is fairly restricted. This is much closer to the use of archetypes seen in systems like Brave New World rather than the build-to-suit of Champions or Mutants & Masterminds.

Every character chooses an Origin at character creation. That Origin will give certain bonuses. Many of these bonuses will revolve around the Power skill, which is always considered a class skill. Some of these abilities require extra effort from the hero, and have a stress cost associated with them. Paying a stress cost reduces your current stress total by that amount, just as if you had suffered stress damage. However, it is not damage, and cannot be reduced or negated in any way. Also, you cannot reduce your stress below 0 with your Power, nor can you spend sanity instead of stress.

Below are thumbnail sketches of each of the Origins. In the future, I will write a full post on each one.

7K - Suddenly, derailed!

*sigh*

So, I've been thinking about combat, and how to make it more swashy. I want to encourage some of the standard tropes, such as witty repartee, engaging terrain, and the sudden reversal of fortunes. Standard d20 combat is not really conducive to these tropes. The hit point system is kind of a grind. The movement rules tend to encourage standing your ground, rather than ranging all over. Engaging in simultaneous physical and social combat really puts a stress on the timing system. And, of course, the emphasis on squares and positioning can turn combat into a board game, making it harder to inject flavorful role-playing.

I had an idea. I think it's a good idea. But, it's a total overhaul of the combat system, which rejiggers a huge chunk of the overall system.

Is it cool enough? Let me sketch it out, and see what you think. Comments are greatly appreciated.

7K - We haz mad skillz!

This isn't the full description of the skill system. Instead, this is a brief overview, for reference while we are discussing other elements of the system.

7K - "Respect the man of noble races other than your own."

Race, of course, is one of the first places we see a significant intersection between system and setting. So, permit me to introduce you to just a bit of the setting.

7K - Pain: The Definitive Work

I am going to use the vitality/wound system seen in the original Star Wars d20 and in Spycraft. I am going to add a parallel system for mental/emotional damage, called stress/sanity.

7K - We need stats. Stat.

So, for the three of you reading this not familiar with d20, we are starting with stats. The stats are rated from 3 to 18+, with 10 being human average and 14 being the average among heroes. There are six, and they are:

A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step

In an effort to both increase my blogging and give myself incentive to actually finish a project, I am going to proceed to live blog my progress in developing a new game. Assuming that I can finish it, I will then put it together as a PDF and try and distribute it. Maybe even sell it, but I doubt it. In the process of doing this, I am very interested to get feedback as we go. Comments are love, people.

OK, some starting points. First, this is going to be d20 variant. Think of it as my own entry into the market already dominated by True20, FantasyCraft, and Pathfinder. Why am I challenging such a saturated market? The simplest reason is that d20 is the system I know best. I have done development and playtesting for it for about ten years now, plus spent quite a bit of time playing it. It is also a system that I happen to really like. Done well, it is excellent for supporting all sorts of conflicts. It has lots of moving parts that allow different characters to really engage with the system in different ways. I can balance it relatively easily. It has a relatively simple core set of mechanics that can be extended in nearly an infinite number of ways.

Second, it is going to use my Seven Kingdoms setting, that I have blogged about before. Check the list of tags on the left there if you don't believe me. However, I'm going to be tweaking what I've done just a bit. I am going to very intentionally shoot for "swashbuckling supers" as the genre mash-up here. The time period is roughly equivalent to 17th Century Europe. Rapiers and crossbows are typical weapons (there are no guns smaller than a cannon). Full plate has fallen out of style. There is a significant middle class that is coming to power. Oh, and there are a lot of pirates. I'll get into more details in a later post.

My favorite d20 implementation happens to be Classic Spycraft. If you are familiar with that, you are going to see a lot of elements in common. However, there are going to be some major departures, as well. For one thing, I really want to import Aspects from FATE. I need an overhauled system for gear (I like it to be more abstract than cash, but really dislike d20 Modern's Wealth checks, and Spycraft's system presumes you work for an organization).

What else do you need to know? What else, specifically, would you like to see?

PA - Watching the World End

(Ed. note: This is an old post, from 2008. But, given my continuing work on a post-apoc setting, I wanted to copy it over.)

So, I want to write/run a multi-genre post-apoc rpg. One of the first things that needs to be decided, obviously, is the "apoc" part. The nature of the end of the world shapes a lot of the future. So, what to do? I have three possibilities I'm considering.

Review - Gamma World

WotC recently released a brand new version of the venerable Gamma World game. If you played and loved the original, or the prior reboot, it totally doesn't matter. There are some call-outs in the game text for older fans, but there is no real connection.

Here is my ultra-short review: This is probably the best beer-and-pretzels RPG you will ever own. It is super easy, super quick, and yet still gives a robust play experience. It also is easy to just have gut-busting fun with it.

A Life in the Balance

Jack took his familiar's advice, and ran like hell.

The day had started out so simply, too. A bit of studying his vaisseau forms, a presentation before the Magi of the University of Feaux, and then a night of celebrating with friends. What went wrong? Ah, yes, Alexandre. Crystal blue eyes, lovely slim hips, and an uncanny knack for getting himself into the worst kinds of trouble. And Jack never could quite say no to him.

He heard the ringing of steel behind him. The bravos Alexandre's money had provided were valiantly attempting to stem the tide of undead sweeping down the corridor. Valiant, and stupid. Sinew and steel, no matter how well paid, are pointless against Acnev's abominations. As Jimen had said, running was the best course.

Shit.

Desperation, Inspiration, Perspiration

I vomited all over his shoes.

Rules, rules everywhere, and not a chance to think...

I had an interesting experience a couple of weeks ago, in which I participated in a FantasyCraft one-shot at a local mini-con. It was a lot of fun, and I want to keep an eye out for similar events coming in the future.

One of the things I found interesting, though, was my experience with the rules. Lately, as most of you know, I have been tinkering with the Gamma World and Dresden Files RPGs. The total shift in mind-set from these games to FantasyCraft, most particularly when it comes to character creation, has been idling in the back of my head.

25 Ways to Reward Player Characters

In pretty much any campaign, it is easy to reward characters. Give them money, toys, or metagame currency (e.g., XP). The problem with these rewards is that they do nothing to draw the character further into the campaign. A rich fighter with a +4 Sword of Badassery has pretty much exactly the same story hooks as a poor fighter using a stick with a nail in it. Well, except for the "I don't want to be poor anymore" hook, but that can only take you so far. There are a huge number of rewards that you can give characters that have little or no actual mechanical advantage, but which change the shape of their interactions with the other NPCs. Those interactions hold the seeds to more and more interesting stories.

Campaign Concept - The Natives are WHAT?!?!

So, I'm still working away on the Seven Kingdoms stuff. Posting has taken something of a break as I'm working on classes and discovered that it's actually damned hard to just finish one class and then move on to the next. Once they're done, expect a flurry of posts.

In the meantime, I've had another concept pop into my head. See, I'm in a regular monthly D&D group. But, I would never GM 7K, DFRPG, or most any of the other games I'm excited about for them. First, the group is too big, at around 7 players. Most story-heavy games simply can't handle that kind of spotlight division. Second, the group is very much into casual gaming. They don't want to think too hard, they have trouble staying on task, and they rarely do much actual roleplay. They are just about chucking dice and having moments of awesome. Also, they are pretty solidly welded to playing 3.5 D&D, for now at least. I may try to run a one-shot of Gamma World for them at some point, just to see if they'd go for it.

So, I want to run a game, and running for these guys seems like the most likely outlet in the near future. But, with the restrictions above, most of the games/campaigns I'd want are right out. So, I was digging through my old box of ideas one time while walking the dog, and two ideas popped out, merged, and suggested some potential awesome.

Evil Is As Evil Does

This is a bit of fiction from my 7 Kingdoms world. It gives a bit of the background of the goblin races.

The dreaded licensed setting

So, I'm getting caught up on podcasts. Again. It's a constant treadmill, for a variety of reasons. Anyway, I just listened to Fear The Boot #210 last night. One of the two big topics was using established settings for your RPG, a la Star Wars or Dresden Files. I feel the spontaneous need to respond to this podcast.

Are you now, or have you ever been, Chaotic Evil?

So, here we are. A gaming blog, tackling that toughest of all topics, alignment. Will I add anything useful to the discussion? I certainly hope so.

Spirit of the 7th Sea

Today's post is about how to use DFRPG to do 7th Sea. And I'm rambling and spitballing, so don't expect a lot of organization. I already did some of this work using SotC as a model. DFRPG opened up a couple new options, though.

Mushroom People

OK, this post has nothing at all to do with RPGs. But, it is too precious to me not to post here. This is my theory of why traffic gets so bad in the rain.

Two words: Mushroom People.

Can you RP on Twitter?

So, that's the question. It's kind of intriguing. I have no idea if it's going to work. But I'm giving it a shot.

I ran across a post on Dice Monkey (http://dicemonkey.net/2010/08/11/twittrp/) about this TwitRPG game. It sounded intriguing. I left a comment. I'm in the game.

(Ed. note: The game lasted about a week. Turns out Twitter has a lot of noise that interferes with the flow of the game. Also, Twitter has an odd pattern of asynchronicity, in that you often post a lot of things during the couple hours you are active, then go inactive for several hours. That makes it hard to do one or two tweets, then wait for the other people to log on and respond.)

PA - Both poxes on your house

(Ed. note: Yes, this is pretty much a repeat post. I didn't even notice that in my original blog, as the posts were several months apart. They are slightly different, though, and this one is a bit closer to the post-apoc setting I'm going for.)

So, I've been thinking about my post-apoc fantasy setting. Incidentally, for now, I am calling it Aurelian.

One of the bits is the presence of psionically-gifted humans. Another is the presence of "monsters." After much thinking, I think I can tie many of these elements together fairly neatly.

It all starts with a virus....

What *IS* an RPG?

So, as I've mentioned here, I've been toying with a few different systems and settings for RPGs. I was thinking about whether or not I could actually devise a new and improved RPG. I'm sure that there is ground yet to be trod. But, how to find it?

An awful lot of the indie games seem to delight in spewing forth wacky mechanics. I think that, as a community, they are attempting to derive the perfect RPG through some sort of Darwinian process. They create games like you create creatures in Spore, then have the games compete for "survival" (measured in mentions on Forge and RPG.net, as many of them don't actually have sales). Key features are then re-incorporated in newer games (though generally with the key terms changed, so that the writer can convince people his work is "original").

I thought that I would rise above this mish-mash, powered by nothing but my own hubris. I will devise the perfect RPG, not through some messy evolutionary process, but with SCIENCE!!! (Please don your protective goggles at this time.) (Ze gogglez! Zey do nothink!!!)

In some seriousness (since I seem to be incapable of all seriousness), what I am looking for initially is some idea of what RPG rules actually do. I know what an RPG is. And I know a couple dozen rules sets. But, if I want to make a contribution that is an actual revolution, and not just a gimmicky new mechanic, I need to have some idea what my goals are. So, what needs do the rules of an RPG need to fill?

PA - Gear Conditions

So, one of my biggest stumbling blocks in designing my post-apoc RPG setting is gear. All the rest of it is actually relatively simple in concept, just somewhat lengthy in execution.

Here's the basic block: Gear needs to matter. Post-apoc is one of the few settings where hand-waving gear actually detracts from the feel. Scavenging for parts, babying your car because you can't find another, and fighting off desperate bandits who want your stuff are all key features of the setting. And yet, most of the solutions I've seen either fail to provide mechanical support for these features, or have a system that is over-detailed and heavy on the bookkeeping. Indeed, the solution I've been working with to date falls into the "heavy on the bookkeeping" side. I was looking at it a few weeks ago, and realized that, much like your average encumbrance system, no one would actually use it.

I had a brain-wave last night. I think I now have a tweak to the system that radically reduces the bookkeeping, while still maintaining most of the effects I want.

PA - How fragile we are

IMO, any post title that has me singing Sting lyrics is a good one.

In working on my new PA setting, I came to a startling conclusion. Our information-based infrastructure is like a gigantic balloon. Press it at any point, and it will give. Remove the pressure, and it will rebound. But pop it, and it cannot be repaired. It can only be rebuilt from scratch.

PA - New Concept

I've made a few posts on my post-apoc setting now, but haven't really pulled the ideas together into one post. This isn't really that post, either, but it's a thumbnail sketch.

PA - Skills

With Stats must go Skills.

I'm a little torn on Skills. On the one hand, I'd kind of like to do "define your own" skills, like Unknown Armies. On the other, since I am introducing Aspects, that would severely blur the line between Aspects and Skills. Probably not a good thing.

So, here's some rough thoughts on how to do Skills.

7K - Magic of the Seven Kingdoms, Option 2

So, I did mention before that my prior post on magic was version 1. Rather typical fantasy. The second version is a bit different. The biggest difference is that it combines two genres: fantasy and superheroes. One of the big tasks to pulling off that combination is drawing a sharp distinction between magic and super powers. It should be constantly obvious to both players and characters that there is a fundamental difference, not just in execution, but in feel.

In order to really maximize that distinction, there are a few other changes that would need to be made to the setting as well. Look for those towards the end of the post.

PA - Stats

If the basic resolution is Stat and Skill based, I suppose we really need Stats, huh?

(I'm tired today, so this is going to be more streamy and less organized.)

A Maverick is Born (Part 2)

This picks up just where pt. 1 left off...

Martinique found herself back in her tiny apartment. The smell of blood was still all over her, and she vomited.

A Maverick is Born (Part 1)

Hello. My name is Racquel. I have a secret. Two secrets, actually. One belongs to my master, and one to my mistress, and I am sworn to keep them, even each from the other. It is not what you might think, though. They are not unfaithful to each other, but to the Empire. You see, they are Shardlings...

PA - How to make checks

We'll start with the basic resolution system.

PA - System Concept

Watch this space. It's likely to change. I'm free-thinking this right now.

I had a brainstorm walking the dog this morning. I really like the Edge of Midnight resolution system. I was talking to Kevin about it and his new idea for a game while I was in Seattle. I think I might want to use it for my post-apoc setting.

Except, of course, I also want to use MasterCraft. But that's a different post.

Thinking happens in 3..2..1..

Cat-hattan

This is a concept that was birthed from the "Life after People" show on The History Channel. Essentially, as our metropolises decayed, skyscrapers would become vibrant micro-ecologies. As windows shattered and fell out, dirt and seeds would find their way in, creating gardens 15 stories up. Birds would be the obvious inhabitants, but insects and rats would also dominate, living off plastics, woods, and insulation. As the joists and beams deteriorated , the whole structure would become too unsound for any large animal, and would require significant climbing ability to negotiate. The apex predator of this new ecological niche? Cats.

In my post-apoc setting, Manhattan Island was abandoned, and all the bridges blown. As water levels rose, the edges of the island became submerged under up to 6 feet of water, with skyscrapers towering above these channels. Skyscrapers ruled by cats. And, over the years, the cats had...changed.

PA - The Disease is the Cure

So, I'm working on a post-apocalyptic kitchen sink setting (a la Rifts), and I want to justify a lot of the setting elements, but preferably in ways that haven't been done before. I was thinking about vampires, and how to make them work. I like the whole concept of "vampirism as a disease" (seen in numerous works, but I first found it Barbara Hambly's excellent "Those Who Hunt the Night"). Then, I happened to read a couple articles (I don't recall why, it was one of those "click on one too many links in Wikipedia" things). The mythology of vampires may have arisen from a particularly virulent outbreak of rabies in Eastern Europe. A lot of the symptoms line up, including aversion to sunlight and strong smells (like, say, garlic). The peasants saw one of their own suddenly exhibit a terrifying and violent alter ego, which later reports would embellish with some nice poetic elements. Then the Church would add a nice layer of demonic presence to, in addition to the idea that the Church is capable of protecting you from such evils.

Interestingly enough, only a few minutes later, I followed a link to a justification of rabies as the source of werewolf myths. Normal guy gets bit by a strange-acting wolf, then starts lashing out in a bestial rage. But, hey, I'm already thinking about making vampirism a disease, they shouldn't both be diseases. That just looks cheesy.

This starts percolating, and I go see Zombieland this weekend. Zombies as a disease. Sure, been done to death. But something upstairs clicks, and the mind gnomes present their collage.

The Coming Twilight

Jack sensed his faux pas even before Don Garibaldi did himself. He rose slowly to his feet while the boss worked through what had just been said. It was only two steps towards the door, but, for Jack, that was enough. By the time Garibaldi was shouting an order to his goons to grab the grifter, Jack's long legs had already taken him past them and into the storefront of the tannery. Jack thanked the ancient merlanes once again for making orks just bright enough to follow orders, but not bright enough to anticipate them.

7K - Religions

And one last post, from here.

Here we outline the major religions of the Seven Kingdoms.

7K - Miscellaneous Details

Another post, from here. We pick up some of the random bits of information about the world, namely Language, Money, and the Elements.

Magic in the Seven Kingdoms - Version One

I have been toying with a couple different options for implementing in the Seven Kingdoms campaign setting I've been working on. This is version one. It is closer to a standard load-out for fantasy magic, being reminiscent of both 3e D&D and Rolemaster. However, there are some, well, tweaks, to help it feel closer to a good cinematic magic system.

The Seven Kingdoms, a rough cut

This was originally posted in my LJ a while ago. It is not the original version of the Seven Kingdoms setting, but it is certainly an early cut. You will see it change quite a bit by the time I'm done. That is the nature of development.

Why magic in RPGs is unsatisfactory...

Magic.

The name, almost literally, conjures up certain images for us. Certain assumptions, certain expectations, and certain dreams. Gandalf and Merlin. Ged and Elric. The enemies of Conan and allies of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. From Harry Potter to Harry Dresden. Even Old Ben Kenobi plays the part well.

And, yet, RPGs seem to consistently fail to capture the mystique and majesty of magic. It is a list of powers, a bit of extra book-keeping, and a pain in the ass to balance. Why is this? Well, it's very easy to lay the blame at the feet of D&D. (And, admittedly, I tend to more often than I care to admit.) After all, they took one specific archetype that is quite deliberately unusual ("Vancian" magic), and then very deliberately devolved it into a system of rules suitable for miniatures combat. It was then re-evolved, if you will, into a system suitable for a true RPG. Mostly.