Projects!

Things I'm working on that may (or may not) be posted...

Alternate Artha Rewards for Burning Wheel!

Penny Dreadful: A story game about spotlight hogs monsters destroying scenes.

Swords & Savages: Robert E. Howard inspired historical adventures! Hard men/women who lived hard lives.

Subjectivity in Reward Systems: Less is best!

Games I'd like to run...

My current game is going to die. *blam* I'm working nights. *blam blam* My shifts are 12 hours long. *kick* I work 7 or more nights in a row. *stab* My off nights aren't on game day. *stabity stab* Oh, this will be going on for two months. *bury*

My game is buried alive, I'll exhume the damn thing when I get the chance...but it is as good as dead. So now I can fantasize about what I will run next...


Dogs in the Vineyard: Recently, I found out I am strong Mormon roots on my Mother's side. This fact alone re-sparked my interest in DitV. I would love to run a western with no gonzo elements, also Town Creation would force me to really delve into prep, which is something I avoid doing. 


Poison'd: Its a D. Vincent Baker lovefest! Actually, I would love to see what happens with a full crew of dirty pirates, with players who are more than willing to go that far. Besides I get the chance to be Satan!


Sorcerer: I've ran Sorcerer once, it was a really interesting experience. I played with a bunch of lazy fuckers, who hate making decisions.* Forcing them to do so, really scared the fuck out of them. By far the most effective horror game I ever ran. However, I would love to run Sorcerer from a more interpersonal level (I've ordered Sex & Sorcerer) and really get some good bangs going. 
*I'm not refering to the Sword & Sorcerer game I ran. That was a fucking disaster. 


Summation: Interestingly, each of these games would force me to work on certain GM skills I lack. Yes, I can improvise like a mother fucker, but can I hit upon emotional situations. My issue is this. I see mechanics as the pure source of adversity, instead of creating tense story situations. Where a choice will lead to different outcomes, which will then lead to the use of mechanics. I see mechanics as the means to the end. Oh, you've made a choice! Bam! I'll make it SUPER HARD! Little to no color, players end up feeling like I'm out to screw them over. [This comes from my hardcore Hackmaster background, and my rejection of all things illusionist.]


Anyway, I will not have time to write anything for a long while. (Hell, I'm not editing this post. I don't got time too.) So game with savagery!

Good roleplay, a savage definition. [Ver 1]

Now Justin, you can't say what good roleplay is? Well it turns out I can! 

Good roleplay, a savage definition: You play to the games' premise from an emotionally honest, and consistent center. You abide by the agreed upon rules. You don't squash other people's engagement. This applies to player and GM, who are bound by the social contract of good roleplay. Disagreements with the rules, the premise, or other players should be discussed, and brought to an understanding before play begins/resumes. 

What does this mean...

• You shouldn't play every game the same. Each game wants you to behave differently at the table. You should embrace this, and exploit during play! You'll find that playing different games, in different ways, can be enticing and exciting.
  
• Abide by the agreed upon rules. See that? Agreed upon, that means you can change/ignore rules if you the group agrees too. Don't cheapen the game by violating what has been agreed upon. I will personally kick you in the nether regions.
  
• Everyone is responsible for everyone's enjoyment, and their own. It isn't the player's responsibility, it isn't the GM's responsibility. Basically, orgy rules! If the game isn't your cup of tea, talk about it, adjust your expectations or barring that come back when the game changes.
  
• If you have an issue, bring it up. We should all be civilized enough to discuss our differences. Don't DON'T shun a player because they bring it up during the game.

This is a high-standard, that I often fail to live up to.  Hopefully though, I'll be able to put it into practice more often (and have other people too). I encourage feedback, so we can even further nail down the definition. 

Gotta get out of here.

I have decided. By fall I will either be living in another city (Seattle-area or Portland-area) or I will be visiting a foreign country. I can't stand this town. The only good things are my friends, and they tend to move. There is nothing for me here but a career as a security guard (as I go to school) for the next few years.

I'll have a lot in savings by end of summer, and I'll have worked at my job for over a year. I will be able to swing a move, and if I find a job squeeze by for awhile.

So much for working on my creative projects tonights. Haha.

Voice

I own a lot of roleplaying games. I've read all of them, maybe not in depth, but at least more than a gander (and I've played roughly half of them). The games that are the best to read, and are stronger, in play, have a factor in common. The author(s) have a vision and communicate this through the language of the text, and not just in the fluff but through the book as a whole.

This isn't rocket science from a reader's point-of-view. Would you rather read a 400-page legal manual, that sounds like it was written by a committee? Or a book that has a personal touch to it. However, certain games adopt a voice as appointed by a committee to sell copies (trying to be edgy), or obfuscate the game itself (trying to disguise a body of fiction as a game), sometimes both...I digress. 

Now, what gets Justin all hot-and-bothered, and what leave me cold-and-apathetic [Plinket: Like my dead wife, hah]. I'll give you a nice numbered list of things if no order. 

1. The Writer Gives a Damn!
   I love it when a writer voices his opinion on the game. Please, let me know how you intend for the system to work! I'll give it a shot, I may disagree with you after some play. In the end, all I have really learned is how I like to play and ways to play differently. Play gets dull, if you approach every game the same way. So, show me something I haven't done before. I'll give it an honest shot, I promise.
   
   Note: I'm serious, if you have no passion and show no opinion on play. I'll play it like Burning Wheel, I'm warning you. I will do it!
   
2. Brevity is the Soul of Big Settings
   Every roleplaying game has a setting, you can't play without one. For big settings, which are worlds with details, color, and a history. The best way to write these is be brief enough to plant a seed in my mind, but don't bury the seed into my fucking colon. Provide enough details for a hook, and but don't give all the specifics. Just inform play, and set the boundaries. Don't give me a meta-plot. There is a fine-line between a setting (which SETS up play) and a meta-plot (which drives/shoehorns play along one avenue), learn it and don't cross it.
   
3. Conversational and Active
   My favorite game books are written in a conversational and active voice. Instead a passive, detached which reads like a legal document. I want the author to engage me. I find the games easier to digest, and the book itself holds my interest longer. If its written passively, my eyes tend to glaze over, and I forget important rules.
   
4. Ooooh, we are so edgy. *mini-rant*
   I can tell when a book is trying to be edgy, and when a game itself provocative. There is a distinct difference. For example, Apocalypse World is provocative game. AW has trans/ambiguous as gender options (note: not sex, but gender) and doesn't make a big deal out of it. AW also has sex moves. The game says it, and moves on. It doesn't go "Oh ya, we got fucking! Did you know people fuck! Fuckity fuck fuck!" Apocalypse World handles it maturely, and doesn't make fucking a spectacle.
   
   Note: RPG texts tend to go to extremes when it comes to sex. It is either "Sex! Look! PEOPLE FUCKING! YA!" or "Sex should not be discussed". Fucking nerds.

This sums up some major points, I could go on-and-on for sometime, haha, and I probably will (working nights in 12 hour shifts soon), anyway catch ya'll later.

The Speed of Play

Disclaimer: Wine, no editing, harsh language, and passion ahead.

Speed of Play, how fast does shit take to go down. Whether I am running a game, or playing a game. The fiction must be moving foward, on multiple fronts, with no useless downtime. I want the players to actively driving the story. I don't want silly "lets go shopping", "lets just talk in a bar", "GM scenery/exposition wank", and...wait, let me talk about what I like and how its done.

One game, Burning Empires, makes the kind of scenes I'm refering to a resource. The game also outlines the four types of scenes there are. You have color, interstitial, building, and conflict. Each of these scenes has an explicit purpose in the fiction, and in the mechanics!

Color scenes are sequences that enrich the world, and the characters while providing context for future events in the plot. There are no dice rolling, no conflicts, just beats in the story that color the fiction in.

Interstitial scenes are intimate moments between two (or more characters), by intimate I mean personal. Whether its a simple rely of information, or a conversation outline someones philosophy. Either way, they establish facts known between characters. No rolling, no nothing, just important talk.

Building scenes move the action forward! They build the story in a direct manner. In Burning Empires, this is represented in a die roll of some sort. You of course, use color/interstitial scenes to setup building scenes which in turn are the direct story beats. By direct, I'm talking about players going "No, this is going to happen *roll dice*, these scenes usually flow out of color/building scenes, and are extremely useful in knowing what the players (not characters) feel is important to their story.

Conflict scenes are the climatic moments of fighting, arguing, or what-have-you. I live for these moments! However, they are hollow without the aforementioned scenes. Without color, interstitial, or building, it is just an arbitrary conflict with no investment. Yes, these scenes are important but no more than the others, in fact conflict scenes are dependent upon them. These scenes tell you what the players REALLY care about, what they really want to fight for!

*ahem*

As a player, these are useful tools to keep in mind. Knowing how to focus on what you want out of a scene, and whence you have it. Moving play to the next. As a GM, these are indispensable implicit communication between what the PLAYERS (not characters, they don't exist) want and how to keep them biting, while at the same time being able to challenge them creatively.

Fuck it, perhaps its the wine to heal my horse throat after today's intense session of Apocalypse World. But god damn, I love thinking of scene framing, structures, and goals! I feel the call of Butcher Bay now....