I posted these thoughts from two imperfect but wise men just over a year ago. I was posting more regularly prior to that. It seems that while I really love some of the creative work done by the indie game community, so much of what comes out on their social media feeds is trite, tiresome, and discouraging. I am not part of the echo chamber that informs the worldview of so many of the designers who make games I really like. And I have found that civil discourse respecting the person but questioning or, heaven forbid disputing their worldviews and politics is tantamount to sin. If gaming is such a hotbed of oppression and privilege as claimed by so many in the community, then it is largely because they create dispute and dissension with many who just want to play games.
* * *
“ Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate
cannot drive out hate, only love can do that. Man must evolve for all
human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and
retaliation. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary because it invites
defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but followed by a sense of
futility.”
Martin Luther King Jr.
It is unfortunate that
so many who are otherwise thoughtful and creative can be so blatantly
closed-minded, intolerant, and malicious toward anyone who does not
agree with them, and feed them the warm hate they want. Ironic, when so
many of these are the ones who claim righteousness against the very
things they practice, but somehow find themselves excused of...
Some timeless thoughts from G.K. Chesterton:
"What embitters the world is not an excess of criticism, but an absence of self-criticism."
"Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions."
"Men
do not differ much about what things they will call evils; they differ
enormously about what evils they will call excusable."
"To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it."
16 December, 2017
07 December, 2017
Story Before vs. Story Now
HERE is a (now long in the tooth) essay by Ron Edwards that came from much discussion from active days of The Forge.
Alas... those years of my life were days when I really didn't have time for gaming, and so missed the exciting ferment that led to the indie renaissance. *sigh*. It is not fun being behind the curve as a wanna-be designer.
Short version: "Story Before" is plot first and then roll in characters that fit the plot. "Story Now" is the characters acting as protagonists create the plot.
Alas... those years of my life were days when I really didn't have time for gaming, and so missed the exciting ferment that led to the indie renaissance. *sigh*. It is not fun being behind the curve as a wanna-be designer.
Short version: "Story Before" is plot first and then roll in characters that fit the plot. "Story Now" is the characters acting as protagonists create the plot.
10 November, 2017
Demons in Games
HERE is a discussion about demons in games that I thought was interesting, but lacking.
So here is the thing: demons (I believe) are first and foremost, rebels against the Creator of the universe.
They are fallen angels. As such, they are:
1) Primordial sentient beings of super human power.
2) Former servants of the Almighty.
3) Beings who had the inordinate temerity to rebel against the Almighty...
4) ...and lost.
I infer from this that they are all at least:
1) Extremely capable.
2) Have the experience of extreme timespans.
3) Live with inhuman arrogance, inhuman denial, or both.
4) They have no hope, and live in a perpetual state of fear, anger, and malice.
5) Are essentially insane, and irrational no matter how smart they are.
None of this is really an amazing revelation. Furthermore, while derived from the Bible directly, the medieval invention of the Seven Deadly Sins is not contrary to the character of the Bible either, so it is a useful model. As noted though in the link, I like the earlier model of the Eight Evil Thoughts, and will work from those. I don't think it is as interesting to link demons to elemental spheres, as their issues are moral and thus their "elements" are moral in character. They may manifest incidentally in the world in an element, but this is incidental and personal to the individual.
So how would I go about designing a demon for a game? I'm roughly thinking of Fate style mechanics, so assuming a d6-d6 or 4df die roll.
1) Rate the Demon in each of the eight sins, with one at 6, one at 4, two at 3, two at 2, and two at 1.
- Gluttony
- Lust
- Greed
- Pride
- Despair
- Wrath
- Vanity
- Sloth
These are essentially the "skills" and "abilities" that the demon has. Whenever they seek to take an action that requires a roll in game, they choose which one they will use, so long as it can be justified. It can obviously use any one of them in an effort to tempt a character, but it can also use them for itself. It wishes to destroy the wagon-load of bread being sent as a charitable donation to a starving village? It may use Gluttony to devour it all, or perhaps Wrath to strike the wagon with hellfire, or Despair, to blight it with mold.
2) Choose two different species of animals. These together give primary form to the demon.
3) Choose an ordinary object that can be held, carried, or worn. This is the primary tool for the demon, and through which it tempts, seduces, blasphemes, destroys, or fights. It may or may not be integral to the body of the demon.
4) Choose another object or place, without the limitation of size. This is another focus through which the demon manifests both it's obsessions as well as it's power.
5) Choose an abstract concept, role, function, or office. This is one more focus for the demon to manifest it's obsessions and power.
6) Items 2, 3, 4, and 5 are each defining personality traits for the demon. Any time in which the demon may find one of them appropriate to a situation or action in the game, they may add a bonus +2 to the sin they are acting with.
So to spitball out a quick demon adversary for a game (and referring back to the original post for reference), I might come up with:
BLUE TOM
Gluttony: +2 Lust: +3 Greed: +1 Pride: +3 Despair: +6 Wrath: +2 Vanity: +1 Sloth: +4
Demonic Form: (Toad and Chicken) Blue Tom appears in demonic form as a bloated, warty, slime covered beast with the feet of a chicken on the legs of a bull frog, with the body of a frog. A rooster tail with scruffy feathers sprouts from the hind end, while the front legs are actually chicken wings. It has a chicken head with enormous frog eyes. When wearing a human shape, it is a skinny but pot bellied, haggard, slovenly man with stubble, and large watery eyes.
Object: (Guitar) Blue Tom lives as a blues musician with a heroine addiction. In demonic form, unfolding one wing reveals a distorted guitar with exposed tendons for strings, and frets and keys out of bone. In human shape, the guitar is a nauseous pearlescent crimson and venom green thing with unearthly haunting music coming from each string. Each note sounds as if it is plucked from multiple instruments and resonates physically as palpably as it sounds upon the ear.
Object: (Weeping Willows on River Banks) Blue Tom's hunting grounds are bars, clubs, midnight diners, street corners and bus stops. However, the place that he finishes his business is at willows on river banks. Those he finds to destroy he induces to meet him at his places of power, and there is always water deep enough to drown in, and he has more than enough spare guitar string for a noose.
Role: (Accuser of the Guilty) Blue Tom's favorite prey is the person who seeks to drown their indiscretion in drink, be they the adulterer discovered, the embezzler caught, the contractor who cut corners revealed by a fatal accident. This is the person that Blue Tom promises to give relief to, if they are willing to meet him 'neath the Willow Tree.
That is my take.
So here is the thing: demons (I believe) are first and foremost, rebels against the Creator of the universe.
They are fallen angels. As such, they are:
1) Primordial sentient beings of super human power.
2) Former servants of the Almighty.
3) Beings who had the inordinate temerity to rebel against the Almighty...
4) ...and lost.
I infer from this that they are all at least:
1) Extremely capable.
2) Have the experience of extreme timespans.
3) Live with inhuman arrogance, inhuman denial, or both.
4) They have no hope, and live in a perpetual state of fear, anger, and malice.
5) Are essentially insane, and irrational no matter how smart they are.
None of this is really an amazing revelation. Furthermore, while derived from the Bible directly, the medieval invention of the Seven Deadly Sins is not contrary to the character of the Bible either, so it is a useful model. As noted though in the link, I like the earlier model of the Eight Evil Thoughts, and will work from those. I don't think it is as interesting to link demons to elemental spheres, as their issues are moral and thus their "elements" are moral in character. They may manifest incidentally in the world in an element, but this is incidental and personal to the individual.
So how would I go about designing a demon for a game? I'm roughly thinking of Fate style mechanics, so assuming a d6-d6 or 4df die roll.
1) Rate the Demon in each of the eight sins, with one at 6, one at 4, two at 3, two at 2, and two at 1.
- Gluttony
- Lust
- Greed
- Pride
- Despair
- Wrath
- Vanity
- Sloth
These are essentially the "skills" and "abilities" that the demon has. Whenever they seek to take an action that requires a roll in game, they choose which one they will use, so long as it can be justified. It can obviously use any one of them in an effort to tempt a character, but it can also use them for itself. It wishes to destroy the wagon-load of bread being sent as a charitable donation to a starving village? It may use Gluttony to devour it all, or perhaps Wrath to strike the wagon with hellfire, or Despair, to blight it with mold.
2) Choose two different species of animals. These together give primary form to the demon.
3) Choose an ordinary object that can be held, carried, or worn. This is the primary tool for the demon, and through which it tempts, seduces, blasphemes, destroys, or fights. It may or may not be integral to the body of the demon.
4) Choose another object or place, without the limitation of size. This is another focus through which the demon manifests both it's obsessions as well as it's power.
5) Choose an abstract concept, role, function, or office. This is one more focus for the demon to manifest it's obsessions and power.
6) Items 2, 3, 4, and 5 are each defining personality traits for the demon. Any time in which the demon may find one of them appropriate to a situation or action in the game, they may add a bonus +2 to the sin they are acting with.
So to spitball out a quick demon adversary for a game (and referring back to the original post for reference), I might come up with:
BLUE TOM
Gluttony: +2 Lust: +3 Greed: +1 Pride: +3 Despair: +6 Wrath: +2 Vanity: +1 Sloth: +4
Demonic Form: (Toad and Chicken) Blue Tom appears in demonic form as a bloated, warty, slime covered beast with the feet of a chicken on the legs of a bull frog, with the body of a frog. A rooster tail with scruffy feathers sprouts from the hind end, while the front legs are actually chicken wings. It has a chicken head with enormous frog eyes. When wearing a human shape, it is a skinny but pot bellied, haggard, slovenly man with stubble, and large watery eyes.
Object: (Guitar) Blue Tom lives as a blues musician with a heroine addiction. In demonic form, unfolding one wing reveals a distorted guitar with exposed tendons for strings, and frets and keys out of bone. In human shape, the guitar is a nauseous pearlescent crimson and venom green thing with unearthly haunting music coming from each string. Each note sounds as if it is plucked from multiple instruments and resonates physically as palpably as it sounds upon the ear.
Object: (Weeping Willows on River Banks) Blue Tom's hunting grounds are bars, clubs, midnight diners, street corners and bus stops. However, the place that he finishes his business is at willows on river banks. Those he finds to destroy he induces to meet him at his places of power, and there is always water deep enough to drown in, and he has more than enough spare guitar string for a noose.
Role: (Accuser of the Guilty) Blue Tom's favorite prey is the person who seeks to drown their indiscretion in drink, be they the adulterer discovered, the embezzler caught, the contractor who cut corners revealed by a fatal accident. This is the person that Blue Tom promises to give relief to, if they are willing to meet him 'neath the Willow Tree.
That is my take.
01 August, 2017
Game Chef 2017
HERE is my submission (with the indispensable help of my creative partner) for Game Chef 2017. The theme was Borders, with Yarn, Smoke, Cut, and Echo as the ingredients.
We thought through several ideas, and we tried to think through making an area control game about shifting borders between countries or factions with yarn for the borders, but it proved to be too wonky for the time we had in development. We also spit-balled another game that I hope we can get written and posted before it goes cold, called Wake. Like many of the 70 odd games submitted, it also included death as the border, and used stories for the element of yarn. The idea was that we would be telling stories about the same character with ritual spoken responses (echo) to commemorate various events in the life of a character who'd died. Each story would be shaped by an emotion, possibly by a randomly drawn length of yarn corresponding to that emotion. After the story, and after the spoken ritual, the yarn would be burned. We liked the idea as a way of building characters in reverse.
I liked that the judges sent each contestant four other games for peer review, and from those one nomination for the winning entry. One of my reviews was for a LARP about friendship growing distant, that, while impeccably written was not a game that I would want to play. The one I nominated was a game about characters resolving issues through the lens of hallucinations that has a Walter Mitty sort of vibe. The other two games included two more awkward games. The first, a competitive one that is meant to be a competitive one that would work better as a story telling game with other players adding constraining elements. The second game was very slim, and more awkward still with mechanics and information that drove exactly nothing in the game, while thematically being about a breakup. All in all, not a fun game.
It was good to compete and complete a challenging creative project. This is my second competition submission (the last being last years 200 rpg challenge). Gotta push through and get busy!
We thought through several ideas, and we tried to think through making an area control game about shifting borders between countries or factions with yarn for the borders, but it proved to be too wonky for the time we had in development. We also spit-balled another game that I hope we can get written and posted before it goes cold, called Wake. Like many of the 70 odd games submitted, it also included death as the border, and used stories for the element of yarn. The idea was that we would be telling stories about the same character with ritual spoken responses (echo) to commemorate various events in the life of a character who'd died. Each story would be shaped by an emotion, possibly by a randomly drawn length of yarn corresponding to that emotion. After the story, and after the spoken ritual, the yarn would be burned. We liked the idea as a way of building characters in reverse.
I liked that the judges sent each contestant four other games for peer review, and from those one nomination for the winning entry. One of my reviews was for a LARP about friendship growing distant, that, while impeccably written was not a game that I would want to play. The one I nominated was a game about characters resolving issues through the lens of hallucinations that has a Walter Mitty sort of vibe. The other two games included two more awkward games. The first, a competitive one that is meant to be a competitive one that would work better as a story telling game with other players adding constraining elements. The second game was very slim, and more awkward still with mechanics and information that drove exactly nothing in the game, while thematically being about a breakup. All in all, not a fun game.
It was good to compete and complete a challenging creative project. This is my second competition submission (the last being last years 200 rpg challenge). Gotta push through and get busy!
12 July, 2017
Hacks to The Quiet Year
After playing The Quiet Year a little more, I have a couple observations that the table made for those games.
1) The contempt tokens, as written, were mechanically irrelevant. They only slightly mattered to the fiction.
2) Scarce and abundant resources are likewise mechanically irrelevant. They too only slightly mattered to the fiction.
These are the house rules to The Quiet Year that my table now uses.
1) Contempt Tokens
These are an interesting idea, and as written, they are meant to introduce interpersonal / political conflict into the narrative of the community. I think this is a good idea, but the problem, is that in every case, used as written, my table has found them lacking in punch. You drop contempt on a project on the map? Good for you. Have a cookie and we will just go on with what we were doing.
Our Hack
We decided that when a Contempt token is placed on any project on the map, that project pauses and cannot continue to completion until the Contempt is resolved in the fiction. What we found this does, is escalate the conflict and demand stronger factional commitment. A resolution must be made, and the factions fight harder for what they want. This can be by violence, or by bargaining with another project, but it does accelerate the story.
2) Resources
This is also a game about scarcity in the wake of a war. The problem, is that after initially stating the scarcity or abundance of these things, they cease to matter. Clean drinking water has been declared scarce? The first round of play may introduce a distilling project, but after that, it might well be forgotten, or even if it somehow does not get completed, or gets destroyed, there seems to be no real impact on the subsequent events if it is not addressed again later in the game.
Our Hack
At the beginning of each player's turn, a cost or complication must be addressed related to one scarce resource. A cost might add one to the count down dice for a project as it is slowed down, or a complication might be the loss of a character or thing in the fiction due to the scarcity of the resource. If, for instance, drinking water is scarce, if a well is not dug to get it, building a new wall around the village will take longer as everyone struggles with thirst. By making this a rule at the start of each player's turn, it forces the community to have to confront it more aggressively, and put those scarcity problems more fully into play from the outset.
1) The contempt tokens, as written, were mechanically irrelevant. They only slightly mattered to the fiction.
2) Scarce and abundant resources are likewise mechanically irrelevant. They too only slightly mattered to the fiction.
These are the house rules to The Quiet Year that my table now uses.
1) Contempt Tokens
These are an interesting idea, and as written, they are meant to introduce interpersonal / political conflict into the narrative of the community. I think this is a good idea, but the problem, is that in every case, used as written, my table has found them lacking in punch. You drop contempt on a project on the map? Good for you. Have a cookie and we will just go on with what we were doing.
Our Hack
We decided that when a Contempt token is placed on any project on the map, that project pauses and cannot continue to completion until the Contempt is resolved in the fiction. What we found this does, is escalate the conflict and demand stronger factional commitment. A resolution must be made, and the factions fight harder for what they want. This can be by violence, or by bargaining with another project, but it does accelerate the story.
2) Resources
This is also a game about scarcity in the wake of a war. The problem, is that after initially stating the scarcity or abundance of these things, they cease to matter. Clean drinking water has been declared scarce? The first round of play may introduce a distilling project, but after that, it might well be forgotten, or even if it somehow does not get completed, or gets destroyed, there seems to be no real impact on the subsequent events if it is not addressed again later in the game.
Our Hack
At the beginning of each player's turn, a cost or complication must be addressed related to one scarce resource. A cost might add one to the count down dice for a project as it is slowed down, or a complication might be the loss of a character or thing in the fiction due to the scarcity of the resource. If, for instance, drinking water is scarce, if a well is not dug to get it, building a new wall around the village will take longer as everyone struggles with thirst. By making this a rule at the start of each player's turn, it forces the community to have to confront it more aggressively, and put those scarcity problems more fully into play from the outset.
15 January, 2017
Playing The Quiet Year with kids
Playing games with kids is a different sort of thing than playing with adults... neither better or worse, but definitely different. I played The Quiet Year for the first time since reading it, and it was a fun game for two or three hours.
The game is described thus:
The Quiet Year is a map game. You define the struggles of a post-apocalyptic community, and attempt to build something good within their quiet year. Every decision and every action is set against a backdrop of dwindling time and rising concern.
The game is played using a deck of cards – each of the 52 cards corresponds to a week during the quiet year. Each card triggers certain events – bringing bad news, good omens, project delays and sudden changes in luck. At the end of the quiet year, the Frost Shepherds will come, ending the game.
For our play-through, there were two adults, and two children, ages eight and ten. Our community was in an oxbow bend in a river, with a marsh to the south, and a volcano to the north with a jungle at it's foot. Our resources were farmland, fresh water, gold, and trainable animals. Trainable animals were a kid addition which I think was interesting. We played an abbreviated game, removing about half the number of cards for each season. Nonetheless, we still had a full game with a full story, and as it played out, we discovered a village of outsiders some distance to the southwest who kept a mine with a giant monster imprisoned in it, and had built a ziggurat to worship in, a giant wheel at the edge of the marsh fallen in the mud, and flowers with miraculous healing properties on the slopes of the volcano. The jungle had a legend of a monster in it as well, and we built a farm, a dam, a school, a ferry across the marsh, and a place to train more animals. by autumn, we had our woodcutter murdered by the "mingo kids" who were suspected to be from the outsider's village, giant strange tracks in the woods from the southwest, and a fence break that let our animals out. Our dam broke, our farm flooded, and we were preparing for war with the outsiders suspecting them to be sacrificing humans to the monster. One of our own betrayed us to goblins in caves northeast of us, and a flood destroyed our village at the beginning of winter. As the outsiders, and their monster approached us from the southwest, the goblins marched on them from the northeast, and the girl who betrayed us to the goblins betrayed them, and let us in to take their caves. Just as the combined forces came near, the game ended with the frost shepherds freezing them all, leaving us warm underground in the goblins home.
The game was an interesting mix of creative gonzo from the kids who added such elements as the monster in the mine, the trained dogs and cats, the murderous "mingo kids" (who we never really understood), and the goblins. We adults kept trying to bring logic back to the story by connecting hooks that had already been introduced, like the outsiders worshiping the monster in the mine with sacrifices, the dogs being trained to hunt and for war, and the traitor being a double agent that saved us in the end from the ravages of winter just in the nick of time. I think the best thing about playing with kids, is that you allow yourself as an adult, permission to be more open than you would otherwise with sheer logic.
The story was not stellar, but it was fun. It definitely was full of ideas that could be something more, and that is why I love games as the creative spark for storytelling.
The game is described thus:
The Quiet Year is a map game. You define the struggles of a post-apocalyptic community, and attempt to build something good within their quiet year. Every decision and every action is set against a backdrop of dwindling time and rising concern.
The game is played using a deck of cards – each of the 52 cards corresponds to a week during the quiet year. Each card triggers certain events – bringing bad news, good omens, project delays and sudden changes in luck. At the end of the quiet year, the Frost Shepherds will come, ending the game.
For our play-through, there were two adults, and two children, ages eight and ten. Our community was in an oxbow bend in a river, with a marsh to the south, and a volcano to the north with a jungle at it's foot. Our resources were farmland, fresh water, gold, and trainable animals. Trainable animals were a kid addition which I think was interesting. We played an abbreviated game, removing about half the number of cards for each season. Nonetheless, we still had a full game with a full story, and as it played out, we discovered a village of outsiders some distance to the southwest who kept a mine with a giant monster imprisoned in it, and had built a ziggurat to worship in, a giant wheel at the edge of the marsh fallen in the mud, and flowers with miraculous healing properties on the slopes of the volcano. The jungle had a legend of a monster in it as well, and we built a farm, a dam, a school, a ferry across the marsh, and a place to train more animals. by autumn, we had our woodcutter murdered by the "mingo kids" who were suspected to be from the outsider's village, giant strange tracks in the woods from the southwest, and a fence break that let our animals out. Our dam broke, our farm flooded, and we were preparing for war with the outsiders suspecting them to be sacrificing humans to the monster. One of our own betrayed us to goblins in caves northeast of us, and a flood destroyed our village at the beginning of winter. As the outsiders, and their monster approached us from the southwest, the goblins marched on them from the northeast, and the girl who betrayed us to the goblins betrayed them, and let us in to take their caves. Just as the combined forces came near, the game ended with the frost shepherds freezing them all, leaving us warm underground in the goblins home.
The game was an interesting mix of creative gonzo from the kids who added such elements as the monster in the mine, the trained dogs and cats, the murderous "mingo kids" (who we never really understood), and the goblins. We adults kept trying to bring logic back to the story by connecting hooks that had already been introduced, like the outsiders worshiping the monster in the mine with sacrifices, the dogs being trained to hunt and for war, and the traitor being a double agent that saved us in the end from the ravages of winter just in the nick of time. I think the best thing about playing with kids, is that you allow yourself as an adult, permission to be more open than you would otherwise with sheer logic.
The story was not stellar, but it was fun. It definitely was full of ideas that could be something more, and that is why I love games as the creative spark for storytelling.
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