This issue features Tribe 8, and it looks pretty good. You can get it here.
(Yes, I missed the deadline for this issue so nothing from me. I’m going to be checking with the editor to see if running my T8 adaptation to FATE 3.0 is something they might want to run in a later issue)
I’m done with Synthesis and most of Sundering. Next I’m going to tackle Technosmithing. Afterwards, I am going to revise everything, because it’s been done kind of by the seat of my pants - in particular I need to refine some effects, sort out bonuses, stress or consequences, and assign Stunt slots (some of the Stunts will require two or three, based on Landon’s wiki entry about Stunt creation. Next after that I’m going to look at Ritual, spiritual stress, and maybe a something related to the barter system.
One thing: Synthesis using FATE Aspects has a different feel to me - I think it will work out well. Sundering is just plain nasty and a bit scary, but it always has been. The Stunt slots for most Sundering Stunts is going to be pretty high because of this.
From MIT press, it’s called Second Person and contains a number of articles about not just tabletop RPGs but computer RPGs as well. $40 is a bit steep for me right now, so I’ll have to hold off…
This week I reviewed The Fifth World, which is a neo-tribal roleplaying game set after the collapse of our unsustainable civilization. The game is rife with neo-tribalist philosophy and writings and, from what I can gather, is really an attempt to familiarize and indoctrinate readers into eco-anarchist/neo-tribal ideology.
The setting itself is actually right up my alley - I love post-apocalyptic settings, and I’m fascinated by humankind’s prehistory (or, rather I’m fascinated by what we don’t know about it). However, the very overt and heavy emphasis on the eco-anarchist philosophy that inspired the game is very off-putting for me. It’s preachy and it overwhelms what could very cool stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind basing the game off of the scenarios that this movement predicts; it just shouldn’t be such an overt attempt at convincing the reader that they are correct in the real world.
Because of the potential stigma associated with RPGs (which is something I very rarely, if ever, invoke - I’m not big on the idea that gamers need “advocacy”, we’re not an oppressed minority), I think it’s a poor idea for any game designer to try to use the game as a vehicle to indoctrinate into an ideology. It winds up coming off as heavy handed and stifles the creative spirit of what a roleplaying game is supposed to be. It’s really just a step worse than designers that insist their game only be played one way - except in this case, the idea is the game and your life should be played that way. There has always been some amount of authorial prejudice creeping into games - Paul Jaquay’s views on good, evil and homosexuality being very evident in the Central Casting books spring to mind. But let’s leave the proselytizing out of the RPGs and let them just be fun.
Well, I intended on at least writing an entry every couple of days, but I guess that kind of flew out the window.
Recently I have gotten hold of Spirit of the Century (as well as FATE 2.0) and I have to say I really like it. I had seen FATE talked about on RPG.net for some time, but I’m generally not that curious about new game systems so I hadn’t gotten around to looking at it. Maybe my preferences have been sliding towards the Forgey or something but I’m not seeing that; I just kind of naturally starting reading some threads, then looked at the SRD, then got the book. Really I was looking for ideas to swipe for incorporating into other systems (like SilCore). What I found out what that SoTC is a good game period, no matter what angle it’s coming from, and something I definitely want to play. That says a lot, because while I can appreciate a lot of the elements in The Shadow of Yesterday it didn’t make me want to get out and play.
So what are the good parts? I have to say hands down it’s the aspects. I’ve likened it to object-oriented gaming, which I know is a very, very poor example. It’s the idea that things are defined by the things that are observable about them and that these things only impact the game when they matter. In a traditional role playing game, the ground outside of the warehouse might be specified as being comprised of gravel, with a list of defined properties (-3 to Stealth rolls for example). However, there’s nothing really there that indicates this might be useful or even matter in someway. In SoTC, that area might have the aspect of Gravelly. Because of the way the system works, it begs for someone to take advantage of it. A player might perform a maneuver in order to tag a guard with “Gravel in the face!” The GM might compel Gravelly to suggest that a player sneaking through the yard is heard. A player might tag Gravelly to get some extra traction in trying to keep a vehicle from rolling. Just that little change from a static environmental factor to one that makes it known it wants to be used makes all the difference in the world.
Now, some people (I think a friend of mine is one of them) might be scratching their heads and thinking, “Why should the player or GM have to do anything system wise to take advantage of this gravel? Isn’t it there no matter what? If no one tags Gravel as an aspect does it make the lot less…gravelly?” The simple answer, and hence the shift in thinking for me, is that if no one is making use of the Gravelly aspect it simply isn’t important. It doesn’t make the character’s boots crunch any less when they walk across it, it’s just that without someone using the aspect there’s no impact. It by no means limits the choices the players have, either - it just means they have to be a bit more proactive about it. I really can’t wait to see how it plays out.
The next great thing is the section on running games. This stuff is good for nearly anyone, regardless of what system they use. Things like this are pure gold. Sure it seems like common sense, but it’s nice to see it actually distilled down:
How do you know when it’s time to move on? Well, just about every scene you could envision has a purpose, a moment where you can definitively say that the point of the scene has happened. Usually, this happens after the resolution of some kind of conflict, but that isn’t always the case.
Now, I do like pulps - when I was kid when we went camping at night we’d listen to old radio shows my dad had recorded from NPR - but my pet project right now is adapting FATE 3.0 to Tribe 8. It’s moving along pretty well. As I get things hammered out I’ll be posting the tidbits here, eventually play testing and putting up the final product.
On RPG.net there was a discussion about stakes that invariably turned to conflict resolution, which is something I’ve been looking at myself. Some of the interesting things that came up is confusion over conflict resolution as it is apparently defined by rpg theorists (not game theorists, who are a different animal entirety) and resistance to the idea. So I’m going to try to break down what appears to be the building blocks of certain implementations of conflict resolution to gain a better understanding myself.
(more…)
Aurora is the Dream Pod 9 electronic magazine. Definitely worth a read.
First off, I finally finished my customized Tribe 8 character sheet. This is going to be the default sheet for a game I am planning on running.
Anyway, I was cruising looking at stuff and I came across Brand Robins’ blog, where he had commented on using The Shadow of Yesterday for Tribe 8. Now, TSoY has always looked pretty good but I’m also always looking for new widgets to work into SilCore. I’m just really familiar with the game and, ultimately, it’s never not worked for any games I want to run. Plus, I think my longest suffering best friend would kill me if I switched systems for Tribe 8.
(more…)
4chan now has a board for traditional games, known as /tg/. It’s suprisingly popular
I’m not quite sure what to think about this…4chan is both a blessing and a curse. There’s some cool stuff that I’ve found on their image boards but the majority of the users are either fuckwits, retards or some combination of both. It is a bastion of anonymous posting, as well as the subculture that goes along with the practice - someone on /tg/ in the first few days summed it up nicely when they asked who were really RPG.net posters that had come over so they could call people fags and not get banned.
Yet, for some reason I’m drawn there. It’s just some weird compulsion that regardless of all the completely useless crap there might be something useful there. It’s the same reason I frequent /m/, the mecha image board. Maybe I’ll be able to contribute something useful to a thread. Maybe I’ll find out about something I’ve never seen before. Maybe I’ll just have to shake my head at the stupidity.
I see this kind of sentiment a lot, along with the occasional bristling when someone is reminded that there is the qualifier game at the end of roleplaying.
Guess what?
They’re fucking games. They have rules, that makes them games. It doesn’t mean that they’re Axis & Allies or Chutes and Ladders. It does mean that RPGs, by virtue of having rules, are games.
Industrial by Jeriko One. Powered by Wordpress 2.3.1