Reason Left to Love
In film/tv review, review, top picks
As another year draws to a close, I again ponder the future of human civilization and how best to go on living in it.
In my thirties, I resolved to no longer make New Year's resolutions. It was perhaps the inevitable result of my nihilistic epiphany eleven years ago, to accept life's small joys rather than torture myself aspiring to lofty ideals I seemed unable to attain.
The fallout of the pandemic altered us all—even if human civilization as a whole appears stubbornly determined to continue its self-destructive course. But it wasn't until December of '21 that I decided to make a New Year's resolution.
To (white) family & friends:
In blog, news
We must support, listen to, and learn from our fellow black and brown human beings during this state of emergency. We know racism is deeply rooted in this country. We must publicly acknowledge institutionalized violence against people of color and support positive change.
I'm not writing to explain why "all lives matter" is an offensive response to black lives matter. Look it up. Figure it out.
I'm not writing to explain why "staying neutral" during these protests essentially endorses police violence and the execution of black people.
We can't look away. We can't stay silent. This is why people are demonstrating and protesting: We must acknowledge that cops are executing people based on the color of their skin, and we must find ways to end this injustice.
Contributing to the Rookwood Curse
In news, RPG development, RPG review
The year 2020 has already been full of both strife and success. (Would I have it any other way?) Stresses aside, I've had two excellent reasons for spending less time with my blog site. In addition to launching my first Kult: Divinity Lost campaign (more about that soon), I've also been writing and editing my first official paid-to-be-published writing gig for friend and fellow game designer, Michael Addison of Nerdy Pup Games.
Thanks to a successful Kickstarter for the new tabletop RPG, The Curse of the House of Rookwood is already available to backers as a pdf and scheduled for print late spring. In addition to the core rule book, Nerdy Pup Games is also publishing scenarios (written by a number of contributors, myself included) that explore alternate takes on Rookwood's otherwise British Gothic setting.
I'm excited for the release of Rookwood—and to contribute to its publication! I remember when Addison first came up with the concept many years ago, and our group of friends created a dysfunctional family, struggling to overcome their worst impulses and bad blood to face a common enemy. In true Addison fashion (given his love for Lovecraftian horror), I remember feeling both terror and dread as an unfamiliar supernatural creature, disguised as a human, revealed itself upon a Victorian ballroom full of unsuspecting guests, during a waltz no less.
For the Love of Modiphius!
In blog, news, RPG review
Time and again, I debate whether or not to dedicate time to writing regularly on my blog site. I often feel—like today, while I'm sitting at Coffeehouse Northwest with a dirty chai and chocolate croissant—I should be writing or developing my current RPG campaign instead (more on that soon).
But you have to write regularly to write well. I keep coming back to the idea of blogging because I know I need to write more quickly and freely without over-editing. I can save polish for finished works and need to retrain my brain and fingers to let words flow. It's so important as a writer, and a lesson that I've taken too long to (re-)learn (over and over again, yes, I know).
As discussed in my earlier blog post, I want to blog (primarily) about tabletop role-playing games. Why? Because I feel like we're in the middle of an exciting RPG Renaissance, and I want to draw attention to the games I love; I want to contribute to ongoing conversations about why and how role-playing games work, and why and how they sometimes fall short.
Why I'm (not) a writer
One of my most memorable experiences, while working at Longfellow Books in downtown Portland, Maine, echoes in my mind 14 years later, as I contemplate how I invest my creative energy and what future I may still have as a writer. It's difficult, after you reach the age of 40, to look at all the years that have passed, all the time you've spent doing so many things other than writing, and you realize you're not only not closer, but perhaps further from the dream you once had of becoming a published author.
Living and working in downtown Portland, Maine in 2005 was perhaps one of the best years of my life. I'd just finished my Masters degree in Ohio, had packed up everything I owned in my little Chevy S-10, and moved my temperamental cat Copernicus and I to the New England, to make a new home and live out my dream of becoming a writer. Two years in a graduate program had killed my desire of pursuing a university career, and I'd started writing my first full-length novel, Mirror Breaker. I knew no one in Maine. But with a sense of adventure and some determination, everything seemed to fall into place within a month after arriving. I spent one week in a motel and two weeks canvasing for a non-profit before I found a studio apartment downtown and secured what was and still is (if I could afford it) my dream job: working as one of four employees in a small independent bookshop.
Writing in the Dark
It's a challenge—for those of us with both a creative and an analytic mind—to learn what to keep simple, so that complexities can speak for themselves.
So here I am, after a long silence: I'm still gaming. I'm still writing. I'm updating my website, as I consider how to best make use of it.
Also, I've recently become infatuated with a new-ish roleplaying game called Symbaroum. Like Mutant Year Zero, it's the product of a Swedish game studio (Järnringen), distributed by Modiphius Entertainment, but dark fantasy rather than post-apocalyptic. The aesthetic is grim, the mechanics brutal. Last night, I introduced my Sunday game group to "The Promised Land", the adventure in the Core Rulebook, and so far, I think everyone's loving it—with our own personal touches, of course.
What I really want to share with everyone, however, is that I submitted a short Symbaroum adventure for the Ballads of Blackhawk writing contest co-sponsored by fan sites, ordomagica.com and theironpact.com. You can read my submission, "Lovesick Caravan," as well as more than 20 others on Ordo Magica. I'm moderately happy with what I wrote, though it suffered from procrastination and trying to squeeze too much into a 1500 word limit (I did it, but had to make sacrifices). Of course, I'd love for you to vote for my submission, but there are a few other gems, no doubt written by those who have more experience than I do with world and mechanics. Some of my favorites include "A Heart in Darkness," "Blight Spoor in Blackmoor," "Born of Graves," "Oroke's Eye," and "The Feast of the Willow." You can vote for a first, second, and third choice, and you have until May 31st, so check them out!
(Oh, and if you're part of my Sunday night game group, please don't read my submission unless you feel morally obligated to do so before voting; there's a strong likelihood that I'll use it in our campaign.)
Tempeste: Introductions
In news, RPG development
While I haven't kept up with blogging—it's been, what, four months since my last post about RPG development?—I have been writing, and within the past two weeks, almost every day. Progress still feels slow, but as my friend Addison keeps telling me, "One inch punch."
I've bounced around a lot with game development. It felt like a priority to determine basic mechanics, what dice to use, how to handle difficulty variance, basic attributes, etc.; I don't have much written out longhand (very little in fact), but the notes and basic structure are in place. From there, I moved onto character creation, creating professions (the equivalent of traditional "classes"), skill lists, and I began considering special abilities for each profession. This led to thinking about experience and character enhancement—and then I jumped backwards to determine what steps happen before a player chooses their character's profession. I realized how important I want it to be to conceptualize one's character and personality prior to choosing a profession. Rather than just choosing 'race' and 'class', I want players to consider in what city their character was born, what were their circumstances before becoming a mercenary—why have they become a mercenary? Of course, players are going to choose what they want to choose first. But nonetheless, I want a character's background to play an important role.
I think part of what led to my change in focus was visiting my friend Jeff Hawley in L.A. several weeks ago. I was in town for a business trip but arrived a few days earlier to hang out with him because we hadn't seen one another since, when? I think since I first moved to Portland eight years ago! He was the only person I knew in Portland at the time, but unfortunately, he lost his job in Portland and shortly after my arrival, returned to Los Angeles for work. But with common interests in games and game development, I was eager to bounce ideas off him—and he asked me to play through a few rounds of combat using Legend of the Five Rings, 4th edition. He was planning to run a short campaign for a few friends but had never used the system before, so he wanted to get a feel for it. Of course, I had to create a character (we both did) to see what sorts of effects our choices during character creation would have on our respective combat abilities. Much to my surprise, I built a quick and adept swordsman and gained the upper hand in combat!
But what interested me most about the game design was not the intricate combat system (I tend to prefer simple combat systems anyway), but rather, the importance of choosing one's family and education, and how these shaped one's character just as much as choosing to be a courtier or a samurai, for example. All the details about the clans also helped immerse me in the world, if only briefly.
I think one of my biggest challenges with Tempeste will be immersing players in a new world and convincing them it's worth the time and effort. Of course, the other side of the coin is that—although players love to discover new worlds, they're unlikely to stay there if the mechanics are clunky, too basic, or too complex. The trick is to wed content and structure together. Well, I guess I decided to put down mechanics for now and to focus on world building a bit.
I again found myself bouncing around, thinking about how to structure the book, how familiar a player should be with x or y by this or that point in reading the book, and I decided, what I need to do is start writing the introduction. I need to lay the groundwork for the Tempeste world, to give a common point of reference.
So that's what I've been up to, writing the first few pages that introduce both the natural and civilized world of Tempeste, and that essentially explain what's different about Tempeste. It's a lot of work, trying to perfect an introduction, to be succinct yet descriptive, to give detail without bogging down the reader with too much too soon. If it takes too long, I may need to skip ahead. Haha! I'm anxious to start detailing cities, because I think making the cities come alive again—for me—will help reshape the world and breathe new life into it.
I know, I'm not giving you a lot of details. But hopefully, you're a little curious.
Alright, back to work with me. I'll try to write again soon!
"Be my Angel, cuz you need me…"
In RPG development
I haven't always been a fan of character classes in RPGs (e.g. fighter, thief, wizard), but ultimately, my issue has been with needlessly complex leveling mechanics and the over-compartmentalization of character abilities. Yes, I prefer skill-based RPGs. But even in skill-based RPGs, it's helpful to have a guideline for character advancement and to identify a character's strengths, what sets them apart from other characters. For this, character classes—or roles, archetypes, playbooks, whatever you'd like to call them—can prove helpful. Character roles in RPGs can also help players by providing characters with background, motivation, even personality. In this regard, the playbooks of PbtA games work really well. Playbooks not only provide characters with unique abilities, they create the structure of a character's purpose upon which to build a character-driven (rather than action-driven) story. Even D&D—who set the standard for character classes and leveling mechanics—flexed its storytelling muscle in 5th Edition by making backgrounds an integral part of character creation.
In Tempeste, I've decided to call roles 'professions', at least for now. (I may need to use a different word later, as the initial 'professions' will be subsets of a broader mercenary role, and I envision future non-mercenary roles. I may, in fact, use 'classes' for the broader categories, e.g. mercenary, aristocrat, civilian, etc., as social classes play a significant role in the Tempeste world. But I digress…) Although I appreciate the way that playbooks encapsulate character creation, I envision Tempeste character creation requiring a few separate questions, each carrying its own weight: What's your character's profession? To what mercenary company do you belong? And in what city were you born and raised?