So after a long break it looks like we're all ready to get back into some dice rolling. It's been over a month since we've gotten together. With all the time that has passed I have to refresh my memory and go over my campaign notes before we get back to the table. So here's the links for all the campaign journals to help us all get back up to speed.
Campaign Journal on Obsidian Portal
I'll be getting back to posting more game related material after we start playing.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Evolution of the Old School Revival
There was an interesting post over at the Swords & Wizardry Forums talking about the past, current and future trends of the OSR. I've actually been thinking about this for a while. I think it's a good discussion to have. I mean, we (by we I mean the community as a whole) can't be putting out revisions of the same game over and over again.
The way I see it is that the past few years have been a process of defining what we all enjoyed about the 'classic' style of gaming that has been missing or has been 'forgotten knowledge' for decades now. Things like sandbox, megadungeons and free-form play have sort of fallen into the forgotten corners of gaming. That's not to say that it wasn't out there, it just was forgotten.
So during these past couple of years we got the 'OSR' and all the retro-clones and all the products and blogs and things out there that support these rediscoveries so to speak. It seems to me that we've recreated the atmosphere of the origins of the game, the excitement and explosion of creativity of those times. The trend that I feel it can move into now is evolution. Evolution to what the game (in our vision (and by our I mean the community as a whole)) should/could have evolved into. Moving it into different realms without falling into the traps of complicated and over structured rules yet expanding the original intentions, the freedom and pulp aspects, of the game. I think we are starting to see that with the new 'supplements' that have come out, Carcosa and Majestic Wilderlands as well as Planet Algol and Savage Swords of Athanor and many others. Enhancing the (other) worlds in which the game is played without complicating the (rules of) the game as a whole and keeping the rediscovered elements. I think that's the underlying trend.
There's really no 'bottom-line' or 'investors' that will define the direction. It will be defined by an 'open-source' community whose love and care for the game will direct it's evolution.
We all know where one path leads but I think now is an opportunity to forge a new path. One that could have been taken 30 years ago.
The way I see it is that the past few years have been a process of defining what we all enjoyed about the 'classic' style of gaming that has been missing or has been 'forgotten knowledge' for decades now. Things like sandbox, megadungeons and free-form play have sort of fallen into the forgotten corners of gaming. That's not to say that it wasn't out there, it just was forgotten.
So during these past couple of years we got the 'OSR' and all the retro-clones and all the products and blogs and things out there that support these rediscoveries so to speak. It seems to me that we've recreated the atmosphere of the origins of the game, the excitement and explosion of creativity of those times. The trend that I feel it can move into now is evolution. Evolution to what the game (in our vision (and by our I mean the community as a whole)) should/could have evolved into. Moving it into different realms without falling into the traps of complicated and over structured rules yet expanding the original intentions, the freedom and pulp aspects, of the game. I think we are starting to see that with the new 'supplements' that have come out, Carcosa and Majestic Wilderlands as well as Planet Algol and Savage Swords of Athanor and many others. Enhancing the (other) worlds in which the game is played without complicating the (rules of) the game as a whole and keeping the rediscovered elements. I think that's the underlying trend.
There's really no 'bottom-line' or 'investors' that will define the direction. It will be defined by an 'open-source' community whose love and care for the game will direct it's evolution.
We all know where one path leads but I think now is an opportunity to forge a new path. One that could have been taken 30 years ago.
Fantasy Friday
Today's Fantasy Friday brings us one of animation's fantasy masters, Ralph Bakshi with his film Wizards. Pure Gamma World, D&D, Mutant Future mash-up which no one has topped since. Classic cell animation, beautiful organic background paintings and trippy effects enhance the other-worldly atmosphere that modern CGI animation has yet to even tap.
Bakshi called this his "family film" and yes, there are elves and faeries and funny looking wizards but there is also mutant goons and Hitler and dark animated demons. It's got some pretty dark and heavy themes but Bakshi believed that kids can handle that. He felt that you didn't have to 'dumb' things down for kids (something that I tend to agree with).
I watched this again over the holidays and it's still inspiring. You don't see this type of animated feature anymore which I miss greatly.
This film would lead Bakshi down the road to his next feature "The Lord of the Rings" a year later.
Bakshi called this his "family film" and yes, there are elves and faeries and funny looking wizards but there is also mutant goons and Hitler and dark animated demons. It's got some pretty dark and heavy themes but Bakshi believed that kids can handle that. He felt that you didn't have to 'dumb' things down for kids (something that I tend to agree with).
I watched this again over the holidays and it's still inspiring. You don't see this type of animated feature anymore which I miss greatly.
This film would lead Bakshi down the road to his next feature "The Lord of the Rings" a year later.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Can D&D Ever Be Played Wrong? - Answered!
Role playing games have become so common place these days that it may be hard to imagine or even remember that there was a time before funny looking dice and charts and rules defined any type of fantasy world. But it was just that way once long ago and when the abstract concepts of Dungeons & Dragons trickled into our consciousness it was something a bit bewildering.....especially to a ten year old boy!
As I've mentioned before, Holmes' Blue Book was my gateway drug, so to speak. Now the only games that I or for that matter my family ever played up to that point were your typical boardgames; a six-sided die or two, a playing board, some game pieces and maybe some cards or fake money. So when I opened the rule book for the first time, that is where I was coming from. I didn't have a big brother that had played the game before, the hobby shop had only just begun carrying the basic game for a couple of months testing the waters (I don't think they even knew what it was but that soon drastically changed), no internet to guide the way, and my parents couldn't believe there was a "game" with a 48 page rule book. I had Holmes' rules and that's it.
It might be argued that the Holmes rule book may have been a bit unclear and contradictory at times, and that is a valid argument, but I have to admit, being only ten years of age, I did pretty good with the rules. I understood rolling up characters and even combat was fairly easy to figure out. Even the descriptive exploration of the dungeons I was able to understand. But what threw me was the concept of Turns and Miniatures.
Games had pieces, right? Miniatures are pieces, correct? Therefore you need minis to play. So my brother and I went out and picked up some minis; some skeletons, a couple of fighters and a five headed hydra (also at our local hobby shop). Those were our game pieces for our game and that's what we played with. My brother's 1st level fighter would always run into the same skeletons and, if he survived that, a five headed hydra! Needless to say, his characters died all the time. It may sound like it wouldn't have been that much fun but it actually was. Oh, did I mention that we also played it on a chess-board? Each square was 10 feet!
So, with characters dying so very often, I read the rules attached to the B1 module "In Search of the Unknown" concerning Henchmen and Hirelings. Ahhh, no more failed battles with that dreaded Hydra! Time to hire an army of men to be paid upon any recovery of treasure, after the fact of course. That eventually began the cycle of Henchmen death. So it was off to the hobby store to buy some more minis and the next thing you know, we had an army of grunts battling skeletons and hydras. Now it was getting interesting!
Now to branch out with some more players.
The only concept of turns I had were with other board games. No one worked together, you competed to win the game and took turns doing so. So when we got the other neighborhood kids together to play this crazy game, game turns played a huge part.
Each player would roll up a character.
Okay, not bad.
That character would hire a virtual army of henchmen.
Hmmm, getting a bit strange now.
And each player would take his character and army of henchmen and explore the dungeon for his turn of 10 minutes. Then, he would stop playing and the next player would take his character and army of henchmen and explore the dungeon for his turn of 10 minutes! This would go on and on for hours. Of course we needed minis for all of this. So we all went out and bought tons of these little lead minis. And if there was a monster in the dungeon that we didn't have a mini for it would be replaced by one that we did have. All of this would eventually lead to one player killing some monsters and finding an over abundance of treasure (don't even get me started on trying to figure out the treasure charts!). This inevitably would bring the players and armies together for one complete classic pulp blow-out battle with the surviving player and henchmen gaining all the loot. Of course, the player would then proceed to kill all his henchmen to take the loot for himself.
It was absurd, yes, but crazy fun for a bunch of little kids.
It wasn't until later that summer that some of us joined a introductory game at the hobby shop (by this point they went from a typical hobby shop with models, etc. to a full fledged gaming store circa 1978) where we experienced the correctly played game for the first time. Oh boy, did things click! All the little odds and ends suddenly fell into place. We were all even more excited than we were before.
So, can D&D ever be played wrong? Looking back on it now, I don't think so. We just took what we understood and made up our own game. In other words, we "imagined the hell out of it". And that is part of the spirit of the game!
As I've mentioned before, Holmes' Blue Book was my gateway drug, so to speak. Now the only games that I or for that matter my family ever played up to that point were your typical boardgames; a six-sided die or two, a playing board, some game pieces and maybe some cards or fake money. So when I opened the rule book for the first time, that is where I was coming from. I didn't have a big brother that had played the game before, the hobby shop had only just begun carrying the basic game for a couple of months testing the waters (I don't think they even knew what it was but that soon drastically changed), no internet to guide the way, and my parents couldn't believe there was a "game" with a 48 page rule book. I had Holmes' rules and that's it.
It might be argued that the Holmes rule book may have been a bit unclear and contradictory at times, and that is a valid argument, but I have to admit, being only ten years of age, I did pretty good with the rules. I understood rolling up characters and even combat was fairly easy to figure out. Even the descriptive exploration of the dungeons I was able to understand. But what threw me was the concept of Turns and Miniatures.
Games had pieces, right? Miniatures are pieces, correct? Therefore you need minis to play. So my brother and I went out and picked up some minis; some skeletons, a couple of fighters and a five headed hydra (also at our local hobby shop). Those were our game pieces for our game and that's what we played with. My brother's 1st level fighter would always run into the same skeletons and, if he survived that, a five headed hydra! Needless to say, his characters died all the time. It may sound like it wouldn't have been that much fun but it actually was. Oh, did I mention that we also played it on a chess-board? Each square was 10 feet!
So, with characters dying so very often, I read the rules attached to the B1 module "In Search of the Unknown" concerning Henchmen and Hirelings. Ahhh, no more failed battles with that dreaded Hydra! Time to hire an army of men to be paid upon any recovery of treasure, after the fact of course. That eventually began the cycle of Henchmen death. So it was off to the hobby store to buy some more minis and the next thing you know, we had an army of grunts battling skeletons and hydras. Now it was getting interesting!
Now to branch out with some more players.
The only concept of turns I had were with other board games. No one worked together, you competed to win the game and took turns doing so. So when we got the other neighborhood kids together to play this crazy game, game turns played a huge part.
Each player would roll up a character.
Okay, not bad.
That character would hire a virtual army of henchmen.
Hmmm, getting a bit strange now.
And each player would take his character and army of henchmen and explore the dungeon for his turn of 10 minutes. Then, he would stop playing and the next player would take his character and army of henchmen and explore the dungeon for his turn of 10 minutes! This would go on and on for hours. Of course we needed minis for all of this. So we all went out and bought tons of these little lead minis. And if there was a monster in the dungeon that we didn't have a mini for it would be replaced by one that we did have. All of this would eventually lead to one player killing some monsters and finding an over abundance of treasure (don't even get me started on trying to figure out the treasure charts!). This inevitably would bring the players and armies together for one complete classic pulp blow-out battle with the surviving player and henchmen gaining all the loot. Of course, the player would then proceed to kill all his henchmen to take the loot for himself.
It was absurd, yes, but crazy fun for a bunch of little kids.
It wasn't until later that summer that some of us joined a introductory game at the hobby shop (by this point they went from a typical hobby shop with models, etc. to a full fledged gaming store circa 1978) where we experienced the correctly played game for the first time. Oh boy, did things click! All the little odds and ends suddenly fell into place. We were all even more excited than we were before.
So, can D&D ever be played wrong? Looking back on it now, I don't think so. We just took what we understood and made up our own game. In other words, we "imagined the hell out of it". And that is part of the spirit of the game!
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks
Yes, that's us apparently. This is not a review but just a shout-out to those of you who may enjoy this topic. Author Ethan Gilsdorf has written a book about gaming and fantasy culture called "Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks". I ran into it at the book store a couple of weeks ago and decided to pick it up the other day. It's a pretty easy read and I've only just started but I'm enjoying his experience and take on this sub-culture.
Many people, myself included, have returned to gaming after many years of real-life adventures. It is interesting how the fantasy game that we grew up with has never really left our consciousness and many of us are revisiting this game once again. Gilsdorf explores that as well as the fantasy loving/living culture as a whole.
If you get a chance, check it out. It's not a bad read.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Whet The Appetite With Deathstalker!
It looks like our campaign is going to be starting up again. I'm looking forward to it as well as my players. It's been a long break and to get us back into the right mood, tonight we have a special gathering. It's a gamers night out at our local movie-house here in Tucson called The Loft. Tonight's Mondo Monday feature just so happens to be Deathstalker! What better way to get the group back into the campaign!
(edit: BEWARE THE DEATHSTALKER! I was expecting bad (it's a Roger Corman film after all) but this movie turned out to be pretty awful. Not much in even the kitch/fun factor. It's just horrible. Unless you're a fan of Barbie Benton, avoid like a rust monster)
(edit: BEWARE THE DEATHSTALKER! I was expecting bad (it's a Roger Corman film after all) but this movie turned out to be pretty awful. Not much in even the kitch/fun factor. It's just horrible. Unless you're a fan of Barbie Benton, avoid like a rust monster)
Friday, January 1, 2010
Fantasy Friday
First I want to wish everyone a healthy and happy new year. May your dice roll well in your favor!
I wrapped up the year with Edgar Rice Burroughs' first Mars book; "The Princess of Mars". For the first Fantasy Friday of the new year, I thought I'd dish up Gil Kane's 'John Carter Warlord of Mars' put out by Marvel Comics Group in the early 70's.
Gil Kane was known for his classy silver-age illustrations for DC comics which helped revived the the super-hero genre in the early 60's. It was when he moved to Marvel that his characters exploded with a dynamic power that rivaled even the great Jack Kirby. He became one of Marvel's preeminent cover artists of the early 70's defining the tone for the era. Beyond super-heroes, Kane was best know for his fantasy work which included Conan and John Carter for Marvel as well as one of the first graphic novels, Blackmark.
Some of Gil Kane's Conan Covers
Gil Kane left us on January 31, 2000 at age 73. Though he is gone, his lifetime of work will live on for years to come.
I wrapped up the year with Edgar Rice Burroughs' first Mars book; "The Princess of Mars". For the first Fantasy Friday of the new year, I thought I'd dish up Gil Kane's 'John Carter Warlord of Mars' put out by Marvel Comics Group in the early 70's.
Gil Kane was known for his classy silver-age illustrations for DC comics which helped revived the the super-hero genre in the early 60's. It was when he moved to Marvel that his characters exploded with a dynamic power that rivaled even the great Jack Kirby. He became one of Marvel's preeminent cover artists of the early 70's defining the tone for the era. Beyond super-heroes, Kane was best know for his fantasy work which included Conan and John Carter for Marvel as well as one of the first graphic novels, Blackmark.
Some of Gil Kane's Conan Covers
Gil Kane left us on January 31, 2000 at age 73. Though he is gone, his lifetime of work will live on for years to come.
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