Games Blog

And I’m late answering this one! Game Dream 8: I’m Late! Rewind! asks us:

How have the games you’ve been involved with dealt with the passage of time? Has it been primarily linear, skipped around a lot, or even reversed?

In face to face gaming, I don’t think I’ve seen anything other than strictly linear time, except for one game which was explicitly about time travel. Whenever the players have split up, I’ve handled the two groups by jumping back and forth between the two, not letting either group get too far ahead of the other. Just about every GM I’ve played under has done the same.

In asynchronous internet games (PBeM and PBmB), things have to be a bit more flexible to cope with different posting rates. Often players will respond to something another character said or did several posts ago, and as GM I often have entertaining hours of fun editing it all together to make coherent sense. Quite often we’ll go into what I call ‘timeslip mode’ (A term first used by my first online GM, Maughn Matsuoka), where I will start a new thread without closing the previous one. A rule I always enforce here is once I’ve started a new thread, nothing may happen in the previous thread that has an impact on the later one. A good example of this is when I had an extended conversation thread in the evening, and started a new thread with the party setting out the next morning. The ‘no change’ rule here would prevent a brawl breaking out which killed or injured anyone already mentioned in the later thread.

With multiple players in different threads, I try to keep them within sight of each other timewise, unless they’re widely separated geographically. In the worst case scenario this can lead to a player getting stuck in limbo for extended periods waiting for other threads to catch up; unfortunately this has happened to one PC in my Kalyr game. In contrast, I haven’t needed to keep the Calbeyn and Filgeth games in synch with each other; not only are the two games run on totally separate forums so that many of the players are probably not even aware of the other game, but they’re set in two cities more than a week’s travel apart. This limits the scope for anything in one game to have much impact on the other. At one time the Filgeth game was running about a week ahead of the Calbeyn one, but the Calbeyn-based party did a lot of travelling, and the two timelines are now more or less running in parallel again.

For a more extreme example of parallel timelines and the potential for continuity confusion, I’ll have to mention a game I neither GMed nor played in. It’s the semi-legendary Highlander: The Gathering run by David Edelstein. In the original game the dozen or so players were scattered throughout history, some as early as Roman times, others in the early twentieth century. Although most of the time each player had their own thread, immortal NPCs cropped up in different threads at different times, which gave mind-boggling continuity headaches. If so-and-so was alive in 1915, it means another PC can’t kill them in a duel in 1491! I’m not sure how David managed to keep the timeline consistant, although I remember a complete thread for a player who’d faded away getting removed from the continuity because events in other threads overwrote it. The present game is set in the present, but has “Flashback” scenes set in the past, which I think work in the same way as my timeslip threads: i.e. Nothing may happen in them to contradict the present-day storyline. (No duels in which the PC might die, for starters)

There’s no way I could run a game like that. Trying to keep the continuity consistent would make my head explode.

The August issue of Dreamscribe is now online. This one contains the fourth of Amadán’s Online GM Tips, and my own review of Summer Stabcon.

There is going to be a major revamp in the next month or so, giving Dreamscribe the improvement in appearance and navigation it urgently needs.

Game Dream 6 asks us:

Have you attended a game or media (i.e. comic book / SF) convention? If not, what’s kept you from doing so? If so, how was your experience, and what can you share with others to nudge their decision one way or the other?

As regular readers of this blog should know, yes. Since I moved up to Manchester three years ago, I haven’t joined up with a local gaming group, and have been relying on cons for my gaming fix. This has included big conventions like Gencon UK, one day events like Dragonmeet, and smaller residential cons like Stabcon and Conjuration. There’s also the private ‘mini cons’ at people’s houses, mostly by assorted members of Dreamlyrics, or it’s predecessor, the long-dead RPGAMES forum on CompuServe.

Each type of con has it’s own atmosphere. The larger conventions like Gencon UK are more gaming industry orientated, with game companies launching new products, lots of traders selling stuff, often a great place to get that obscure long out-of-print supplement you’ve been looking for for years. Many of the games are demos run by representatives from game companies; sometimes you get to be GMed by the people that wrote the games. They’re also places where you can meet some of the names from the gaming industry and get the opportunity to shamelessly namedrop; Yes, I did attend the dinner at Belgo’s in London with Ken Hite and Phil Masters during Gen Con UK 2002. I even spoke to E Gary Gygax once!

Smaller cons like Manchester’s Stabcon tend to be more friendly and informal compared to the sometimes impersonal larger events. Games run on a turn up and go basis rather than being organised two months in advance and printed up in a glossy programme. The emphasis is more on the actual gamers and less on the game companies.

The private ‘mini cons’ are something different again. In a way, these are a glorified version of a regular gaming group, only with a few more people meeting once a year rather than every week, although gaming-wise they’re still structured around one-shot convention style games rather than episodes of continuing campaigns.

I’ve played in some great games at conventions; the one-shot format gives the opportunity to play a lot of different systems and styles of play. My convention attendance has significantly reduced the number of games I own but have never played. I think the last eight games I’ve played have been seven different settings and six different systems. Some memorable ones over the years include the demonic In Nomine game run by Jo Hart at GenCon 2000 ending in the firefight with Tony Blair’s angelic bodyguards at a village fete in Devon, the very emotional Angelic In Nomine game run by Mark “L’Ange” Baker at summer Stabcon 2002 set in Naples, and the completely twisted Unknown Armies game run by Maria Whittaker at Sashcon in a hotel in Leicester.

There’s only one problem with cons. Since I guess I’m one of the few people in Britain who’s into both RPGs and model railways, convention organisers and model railway clubs make no attempt to avoid conflicts of dates!
I see Warley MRC Show clashes with Dragonmeet again this year. At least the coming Winter Stabcon doesn’t clash with the Marlow and Maidenhead show, unlike the past two years!

DreamLyrics has an all-new look!

DreamLyrics is a friendly online message gaming community dedicated to role-playing gamers, where new members are made welcome. The site is mainly focused on role-playing via message games, though we do have a live chat room and our own RPG ezine, DreamScribe in addition to other tabletop games.

Check out the two games I run, Arrhan Empire Frontiers and Kalyr. The latter is the other half of the game I run on The Phoenyx.

This independent site is active and well organized, run by gamers for gamers. In fact we have several published authors, including those who have written role-playing books for GURPS and In Nomine. The bulletin board has been running since May 2000. A small charge is made for annual membership to cover running costs and to ensure continuity.

If you’re into message board or PBeM style gaming, you should take a look at this site. Most of the message boards are viewable by all, but read-only for non-members.

Doc’s Game Dream is the successor to Game WISH. I’ve got some catching up to do on this one, it’s already got up to Game Dream 5, which asks:

To what level (if any) do the groups you usually play with encourage communal creation of the game world? Are the players spectators, or do they actually have a say in the plot (moreso that just guiding it by the actions of their characters)?

The two online games I run (with many of same players) are very different in this regard. Kalyr is very much a labour of love, something I’ve spent fifteen years developing, with reams of backstory, politics, culture and religion. It’s also a world with a lot of deep mysteries, and one of the themes of the game is about the players finding out the truth behind the various cults and guilds. Because so much of the world is predefined, there’s not much space for the players themselves to add much more than local colour; I compensate for this by giving the players a lot of plot freedom.

The second game, Ahrran Empire Frontiers is a very different beast. It’s a space opera game I inherited from another GM, with a big universe for which very little is predefined. Since I’m more or less making up the whole thing as I go along, there’s no good reason why I can’t let the players do some of the work. Some of the planets, such as “Esturia” and “The Scouse Cluster” came from one of the players in an online chat. The whole concept of “exchange” comes from an in-character post from another very creative player. I see my job as GM as trying to keep the whole thing coherent and providing some overall direction.

Actually been up a couple of weeks now. There’s a bit more meat in the July issue, most notably Amadán‘s article on Online GM Tips. There’s also Pit Fiend’s overview of Paranoia, one of those games I’ve always wanted to play but never got round to. And there are some thoughts of mine in the member survey.

I still don’t like the layout and navigation; some of my comments do appear in letters to the editor.

Your essential reading for today is the RPG Cliche List. Some randomly quoted examples:

Amber Law. Gamemasters and players can be fully expected to try and screw each other over, even during character creation. (So named for a game that actively and legendarily encourages this. For similar reasons, this also could have been called the Synnibarr Law, but there is no reliable evidence that anyone actually plays that game.) See also Mode: Zero Sum Game.

I’ve only played Amber once, but everything I’ve heard from Amber fanatics suggests there’s more than a little truth in this one.

“I’m Different, Too!” Law. In a typically feeble effort to establish their own style, most games (especially modern-day occult ones) will invent alternate terms for “gamemaster” and “campaign”. The worst of these games will also find alternate terms for “player” and “game session”. This law is also known as Ackels’ Law, after the creator of Immortal: the Invisible War, a game that redefined almost every single gaming term (yes, even “character action” and “levels you have in something”).

Who remember Aria’s “Mythguides” (i.e. GMs) and “Dramatic Personae” (otherwise known as Player Characters)?

PBEM Law. Play-By-Email RPGs invariably fail. Those that don’t are instantly relegated to the realm of mythology.

Hey, that means Kalyr (7 years and counting!) is now mythological!

Tavern Rule #1. In fantasy games, player characters usually not only start the campaign in a tavern or inn, but immediately become best friends. As with the Tolkien Law, this is one of the oldest cliches in existence…pretty much every fantasy gamemaster has used it.

What, you mean like in the Phoenyx Fantasy Game?

Weird Pete Myth. Many gamer groups actually do know a grizzled, thickly-bearded, overweight, irascible old veteran gamer. And this individual usually does (or did) run or own a game store.

I’m not even going to comment on that one…

Link from a post on the Fudge Mailing List.

All good things must come to an end. The 100th and final Game WISH asks us:

Tell me your favorite war story. Why is it your favorite? What does it show about your character or the game/campaign you were playing? What does it exemplify about why you like gaming?

The game was a one-shot convention game played at a Sashcon, a private convention at a hotel in Leicester about five years ago. The system was Unknown Armies, with the PCs as ‘normals’, volunteers at a centre treating sleep disorders. My character was a hacker with no social skills, but with a high skill in rollerblading (which she never got to use). Another player remarked early on out of character that “because the players know it’s a horror game we’re all acting paranoid, when the characters have no reason to”.

Still, it wasn’t long before weird things started happening; it became more and more apparent that the ‘sleep disorder treatment’ was a front for something much more sinister. Not only that, half the PCs had Dark Secrets.

What makes the game memorable is the ending. My PC plus one other ended up hanging upside down above a pit full of grey dust. One other surviving PC tried to rescue us, made two critical failures and fell into the grey dust. Then he just dissolved. Then the final surviving PC battled his way into the chamber. “He’s come to rescue us!”, we thought. But no! He was from the New Inquisition, and shot us both, “to save our souls”.

I can’t restrict this to just one. I have to mention the grand finale of the In Nomine game at GenCon UK 2000, in Manchester, GMed by Jo Hart. I was playing a servitor of Vapula, Demon Prince of Technology. “I’ll take a raygun”, I said. “Bright green, looks like a child’s toy”. Entirely up the GM what, if anything, it actually did.

The climax of the adventure took place at a village fete in Devon, attended by Tony Blair. It ended up with a firefight against Tony Blair’s bodyguards, who turned out to be Malakim (think DnD Paladins in a modern-day setting and you get the idea). My raygun turned out to make a loud “RRRRRR” sound, and paralysed the target. I remember that, having been paralysed, one of the Malakim then died at the hands of a the Lilim in a portable toilet. A horrible way to go? Of course, after two uses, the gun overloaded and melted, leaving my character with a molten green mess stuck to his hand.

The Kalyr PBeM has just about reached the end of the quest! 7 years into the game, and five years into this story arc, the survivors of the original party have finally made it back to the city. All that’s left is a debriefing scene, and I’ll have to start thinking of the next storyline.

At the climax of the adventure, I introduced two new players, playing characters warped in from present-day Earth. I’ve been running the current thread detailing the return journey as a travelogue. I’d be interested in what people make of my descriptions of the world.

Game WISH 99 asks:

Pick three to five genres and name the best RPG for that genre. Why do you think it’s the best? What makes it better than others? What are its downsides?

I find that things like power level, realism vs. Hollywood, and where you stand of the Gamist/Simulationist/Dramatist spectrum matters more in choice of system than whether your game is fantasy, SF or horror. Not only that, my favourite game systems are probably GURPS and Fudge, both of which are advertised as universal systems. The former is my preference for detailed, moderately realistic games, the latter for more freewheeling cinematic stuff. However…

Low Fantasy
I define low fantasy as something semi-realistic, where combat is dangerous, magic is subtle and low-key, there’s a lot of attention to detail, and campaigns revolve around the fate of the characters rather than the fate of the whole world. This is one that a detailed system like GURPS handles very well. The other good system for low fantasy is of course that old warhorse RuneQuest, now long out of print, but a game that still stands the test of time.

Hard SF
GURPS, with it’s emphasis on realism, was made for this genre. It’s not surprising that one of the most successful incarnations of Traveller is the GURPS version. Saying that, classic Traveller, although dated, is still a good game. I haven’t looked at the d20 version (“Where’s the Zhodani Lair? I need the eps to get my Marine up to 6th level!”)

High Fantasy
My definition of high fantasy is where the heroes and villains are much more powerful that ordinary folks, magic or it’s equivalent is overt and flashy, and plots are epic in scope. One system I’d recommend if you have a Dramatist bias is Hero Quest, a very free-flowing system explicitly designed for epic narratives. I wonder if anyone’s tried using HQ for space opera games (which I consider to be closer to high fantasy with different props than it is to hard SF).

Horror
I know it’s an old game, and some aspects of it are looking dated, but Call of Cthulhu is still the definitive horror game. Meet Things Man Was Not Meant To Know! Go horribly insane! Wibble! I’ve played some other genuinely scary horror games, most notably Unknown Armies, which has a very neat and simple system. I found the concept of Whispering Vault was a little too weird to get my head round, and I didn’t like their dice pool mechanic.

Time Travel and Dimension Hopping
Two closely-related genres, both of which are ideal for multi-genre systems such as GURPS or Fudge. The choice between the two should depend on the level of detail or realism you want. Fudge works well for a freewheeling cinematic game where the player characters include an intelligent 2″ long insect and a telepathic horse, and technological items are plot devices. GURPS works better for a semi-realistic game where the player characters are all close to human, and adventures focus on preventing bad guys from meddling with history, or on exploring strange and dangerous alternate timelines. I’ve heard people rave about the highly cinematic TORG for these sorts of games, but I’ve only played that system for high fantasy, and wasn’t terribly impressed.