Inevitable Retrospective

It's the last day of 2013. It's been a busy year. But 2014 looks promising too.

UbiquitousRPG with Friday Night Roleplay

Probably the biggest investment of time made this year has been in working with the Friday Night Roleplay group to run a fantasy-genre game. This started towards the end of 2012 and is still going. Just about.

Through the year, however, we have developed our own iteration of OSR-inspired fantasy roleplaying rules, which I rather egotistically dubbed UbiquitousRPG. There have been four major revisions of the rules, along with alterations in the way the fantasy-specific bits work, and the system now seems to play quite well.

As with all ongoing campaigns, however, there are always periods of inertia (like Christmas, which kills play for over 6 weeks). The challenge this week is to get back to running the game for the first session of 2014 on Friday 3rd. What's promising, however, is that we look set to have a full house of players.

Gaming at School

Alongside the home group, there is also a small gaming club that runs at the school where I work. Here is where the ongoing campaign is being run (albeit falteringly) by a newbie GM using the Imagine RPG. 

Gaming here is totally different. It's much more like the gaming that used to happen 30 years ago back at my own school: fantasy-dominated, broadly hack-n-slash adventuring with a group of charmingly precocious teenagers. It's a lot of fun... when they get going.

This year, trying to be hands-off and let them learn to play independently, there has been less consistent play... but what the guys are doing is their own. I've only run one game outside of their campaign, and you can read about what I learned from The Funnel in that post. 

The biggest thing has been a reminder of just how little support a group of teenagers really needs to get playing. Once they are exposed to roleplaying, you can get out of their way. They will create, play, and enjoy without adult intervention.

Serene Dawn Minimalism

One of the side-effects of writing for the home fantasy campaign, and the design of UbiRPG, has been an increased focus on what makes a good game. Working with +Scott Templeman on the Serene Dawn SF setting has also opened up some fresh ideas on how to create a really simple system. Putting those sets of influences together has given birth to the Affinity System. You can read about Affinity System in the introductory post, so I'll not talk details here.

What's been really interesting has been exploring the idea of minimalist gaming. At the start of the design process, some three weeks ago, we were simply rolling 2d6 and seeking to beat one of five difficulty numbers (3, 5, 7, 9, or 11). To be honest, that works pretty well for a highly narrative game. 

We're now at the stage where, in the interests of defining character more clearly, we've added concepts which seek to be flexible - namely Affinities and Knacks. What intrigues me is to realise how much many RPGs "lock-down" the stats and abilities of characters. The process of design, in which everything is fluid, has opened up thinking about how much we can maintain that fluidity and flexibility in the final game. 

Looking to 2014...

Yes, I want to keep playing on Friday nights. Certainly I want to keep the school club going. And, yes, I plan to develop Affinity System further.

I also want to play some other games. I have shelves and stacks of RPG books, many of which are untouched. Here's a run-down of 5 things I'd like to try in 2014:

• Get into Glorantha. Every time I come across this fantasy world I feel drawn to play there. I (mostly) don't care which game system gets used, I'd like to get into Glorantha.
• Try out Traveller5. After years (literally) of being involved in the playtest forum, I'd like to have a game... preferably as a player, to be honest, but GMing it is doable.
• Figure out Hero System. I own Hero 6th Edition. I'd like to get my head around why this is a good game and worth the effort. I've played it a couple of times... do I need to play it more?
• Play online. I've got an account with Roll20. I'd like to find a way to use it. Is online play going to open up new opportunities?
• Become a "better" GM. Reading Graham Walmsley's excellent "Play Unsafe", I want to play more freely and with less prep... and thus, become a better GM in the sense of being more true to my own style of play. 

That's it. Retrospective complete.

Game on!

Of Icke's World and Traveller-U

Icke's forthcoming book... a sourcebook?

Earlier this week I was in a really bad place with the hobby. It's amazing what a difference a few days, lots of effort, and a really successful playtest session can make to my mood.

Today, as I ponder what I want to focus on, I realise that there are two distractions in the way of my return to writing for the Tikhon fantasy game ready for Friday's game: Icke's World and Traveller-U.

Icke's World

Icke's World is a concept that I have for that conspiracy-horror-weirdshit setting I keep mentioning.

David Icke is one of my favourite "conspiracy theorists", to use the commonly bandied around phrase. As far as I am concerned he's either completely right or a very mistaken, if sincere, fool.

The premise of Icke's World is simple: what if David Icke is right? That makes for a fabulous conspiracy game. It also allows you to explore his writings as source material, testing out the practical upshot of his claims. For me, at least, that sounds like a lot of fun.

Think about this: Icke claims that the real world is an illusion (think: The Matrix) and that we have all, in fact, forgotten who we really are. We are Consciousness taking a trip through one viewpoint in our mind-body constructs. There is a conspiracy of power to delude us into believing that "we", as individuals, exist in a limited time-space holographic world.

Imagine the characters: you can take an Average-Joe type hero and allow them to have a series of Realisations. Each of those Realisations opens up new abilities to first "see through the illusion" and then, later, to learn to do cool things with "reality". Sort of Psi-powers mixed with Hindu-mysticism.

As for the stories, WOW! Icke has blended every conspiracy into one uber-Conspiracy. There is a whole world of possibility for investigations and counter-conspiracy action. For me, it's the characters as counter-insurgency "freedom fighters" that really appeals as a schtick.

Let me know what you think.

Traveller-U

Traveller is my favourite SF setting for gaming. It's rich and very expansive. Having recently obtained (after years playtesting) Traveller5, I have been dismayed to feel like that game is too clunky for me. Going back to Mongoose Traveller is an option... but another option is to run My Traveller Universe using UbiRPG.

It occurs to me that only a few things are needed to make a game conversion to UbiquitousRPG:

• Create some Role templates
• Create some Race/Species templates
• Create the equipment, such as weapons and armour

Other than that, most of the system is generic and you can easily make tweaks to support the specifics of your setting. 

That last point is an important realisation: you can tweak the rules to fit the setting. UbiRPG isn't a "generic" system, and it's not designed to be. What it is instead can be described as a homebrew baseline rules set; from this baseline all manner of specific tweaks can be implemented to emulate your chosen setting.

I can just imagine finally getting that adventure on the Solomani Rim because my regular players are already becoming familiar with the rules. It's just a step in setting. 

There... now I've said it, maybe I can get back to the Tikhon prep.

Game on!

Musings From Pembrokeshire

The past week has seen my wife and I visiting Pembrokeshire, viewing awesome landscapes and visiting inspiring ruins and such.

I've also been absorbing Arduin II (aka "Compleat Arduin") and mulling over many additions and changes to the UbiquitousRPG fantasy rules.

All in all, it's been a busy week.

Deepening Tikhon

One of the main features of the week has been my focus upon "deepening" the world of Tikhon, the campaign world we're currently engaged in exploring. 

If there is one thing that reading David Hargrave's work will do, it's getting you to think a little more about the nature of things in your own world. This is a pleasant effect... and it has got me to make small changes, such as making the core currency a bit different. 

As I was writing new sections for the Tikhon rulebook, which is the next evolution of the game system blended with world details from our campaign, I found myself itching to speak a little more about Goblins, Orcs and Hobbytts. 

It's a curious thing, but the more we play and the more I muse upon writing up the campaign world's description, the more I feel that the whole thing comes to life with increasing vibrancy. I guess that, until now, I've just not had the time nor the desire to really record what was floating around in my head.

That's about all for now... but I'm sure I'll get around to updating you some more later in the week.

Game on!

Developments...

Having taken the decision to develop our house rules and write them up as UbiquitousFantasy, we've gone one step further and set up a development blog: ubiquitousrpg.blogspot.co.uk

The idea is that, with both Scott and I working on Serene Dawn and the guys enjoying the Mortenburg Chronicles campaign, we bring together the rules adaptations and home brew ideas in one place.

By giving the game an identity we also overcome the "do I really have to write this up?" psychological barrier that has killed past good ideas. I also feel that it'll help me separate my hobby musings from my games development ramblings.

Where does that leave this week's hobby? Surprisingly, it leaves me time to focus on my next personal bugbear: taming prep. Watch out for a post soon on my continuing struggle with prep, despite having raved over, "Never Unprepared" some months ago.

Game on!

More UbiquitousFantasy

+10% XP for wearing costume...

About a month ago I wrote about the decision I took to draft my own house rules modifications, which I entitled "UbiquitousFantasy". These were a mash-up of ideas derived largely from taking the existing Castles & Crusades rules we were playing and colliding them with some ideas in Monsters & Magic. The result had me feeling nervous... you can read why in the original article.

Friday night's game arrived with me feeling nervous. Although I had "published" my ideas to the group, and received some generally upbeat feedback, the group's attendance had stalled due to good British weather and holidays. With a month having elapsed since we last played, I was worried that the proposal of change would scare off my players.

I was, of course, wrong to worry.

What happened next?

The guys arrived, spent some time chatting and, eventually, settled down to convert their characters from C&C to UbiFantasy. The process involved altering Attribute bonuses, choosing some Traits from their new Role (aka Class), rolling up some Fatigue, and slotting into the new card-based Initiative. Within 30 minutes we were ready to play.

There was some annoyance from one player who, looking at things on paper, felt he wasn't as good as he was... and that my vision of his Role was contrary to his own. Things improved when I allowed a simple switch of two Attribute values. Giving clear reasons for the setting decisions he was uncertain of also seemed to help. Once we were playing, however, it was clear that his misgivings were unfounded: the heroes are all slightly more capable than before.

What surprised me was that many potentially far-reaching changes were just happily accepted - such as the need for the Cleric to roll when summoning Miracles (aka casting Clerical spells)... and things went fine when, first time out, he failed his roll. I was amazed that they didn't end up unhappy.

At the end of the session the feedback was generally positive. We had generated a raft of ideas and suggestions too... which I decided to accept on one condition: each suggestion needs to be typed up and sent in to me for consideration; this is to free me from the need to interrupt play with writing down random suggestions - I want those suggestions but I want them when they really matter to the players.

What did I learn?

Well... I learned a lot about the way UbiquitousFantasy will play and what I need to tweak from the GM's point of view. I need to adjust creature and GMC* Armour Class values (adding their Level) in the same way the heroes have been altered, for example. 

I also learned that there is real, powerful and genuine value in the stuff I wrote about last week. The level of player involvement generated on Friday was higher than anything I have ever experienced. Period.

My players suggested and talked about some ten to fifteen new Traits for their characters. How many of these ideas will make it to the game is not important: the point is that, playing in a game that suddenly places no outer limits to their imagination, the guys were inspired to make suggestions. 

Examples include the anti-magickal Witchhunter who wants to explore the idea of "sucking powers out of Mages" and "using their power against them"; we also talked about a kind of "Improved Initiative type Trait which opens up stepped-upgrades at higher Levels". Marvellous!

Right there, in game, when the Priest of the Lightbringer asked, "What is my Holy Weapon then?" and I answered, "Erm... you're the Priest of the Lightbringer... you tell me"... THAT was marvellous! When he said, "Right. It's a Lucerne Hammer then" we created a new detail for the setting. 

That's when I learned what player engagement means. Big grins all round!

What's next?

More details need writing up. I need to get my teeth into how Mages work, for example. We don't have one in the party but they are set-up to hunt and kill magickal GMCs*, so I need to sort that out for next session.

There are new rules to propose introducing. One example is Hargrave's take on Hit Points designed to stop the heroes having more HP than a Dragon. I like these rules... but then I need to tweak a few other things to make levelling up even more interesting.

Finally, there are tweaks to make to what I've already written. Little stuff, like a limit on how many Traits they can invoke in one test. Minor tweaks but important.

Oh... and I need to ride the wave of enthusiasm that their play and encouragement gave to me. Getting a full draft of UbiquitousFantasy written over the summer would feel really cool. 

Let me know if you want to join the party and take a look at what we're doing. It's all house rule stuff... but if peering under the hood will help your game, please feel free to ask.

Game on!

*GMC = Game Master Character

Inspired by Hargrave

Don't judge a book by the cover... gems within!

"Well you can't please everyone, nor do I try to do so any longer." - David A. Hargrave, Arduin Trilogy (p12), on the topic of his new Hit Point system.

I really like this quotation. I discovered it just the other day while perusing the Arduin Trilogy from Emperor's Choice Games. It's one of many little gems that sit within the chaotic collection of suggestions that David A. Hargrave offered back in the 70's and 80's. 

The thing that I really like about that quotation is that it sums up the general attitude of this legendary GM towards the attitudes of others. He happily ran a very successful series of campaign set within his own created multiverse (note: not a single world, but a whole multiverse) which is now known as Arduin. His fans loved him... and he published his ideas in the spirit of sharing and recommendation. I am sure that, if he lived today, he'd have a cult following for any blog he wrote. Yet... he had detractors.

Hargrave doesn't seem to have allowed negative comments to phase him. He was running his own game, derived from D&D but very much customised to his own tastes... and those of his gaming group. He was supremely confident (at least in print) that his ideas were good. And, looking at them 30 years later, I am inclined to agree with him.

"Take a Troll To Lunch"

"As far as my multiverse is concerned..." - David A. Hargrave, Arduin Trilogy (p13), on the topic of languages.

I've long been aware that, as a GM, you are encouraged to customise your game. This is a given in roleplaying circles. Except that it's actually rather rare.

"In my Traveller universe..." has long been something that I have understood and dreamed of implementing fully. Hargrave's approach to fantasy gaming goes further - he utterly customised the game to suit his own style, evolving a new game to fit his own new setting.

A couple of weeks ago I also took the first step in this direction. When I drafted up UbiquitousFantasy, a derived but modified blend of OSR rules, I was initially trying to widen the scope of my own homebrew game. Yesterday, however, I read this:

"Don't be lonely, take a Troll to lunch. The world is a smaller place, but it is smaller still in relationship to the myriad worlds of the entire Alternity (alternative eternities). Do not be a small player from a small world. Embrace the whole Almanity, and give the different types [of character options] a chance. I think you will find that the world your game is in will become a lot more fun if you do." - David A. Hargrave, Arduin Trilogy (p10), on the topic of his new player character types (or classes).

Having spent time customising our campaign world in include, among other things, a Witchfinder based on the specific setting details that my players had suggested in-game... well, you can imagine how liberating that encouragement to try new things would feel.

It's your game. It's your rules. Even if it's not your world, it's still your version of that world.
Go play.
Take a Troll to lunch.

Heading Out Deeper

Have you ever considered how much your players would enjoy finding themselves playing in a truly unique and personalised game? Certainly we tend to like to use a recognisable set of rules when we first play... but, once a group forms, isn't there an argument that whatever happens at your table is really your business?

Think about it: once a group forms, you are under house rules from the get-go. Once a game is running, we tend to make small tweaks to even the slickest system. Why not be brave and go further, incrementally moulding not only the setting but also your rules to fit your own, unique group? I wonder if that might not be a more rewarding outcome for everyone.

Here's a thought:

"Please try some of the rules that you have doubts about in game situations and game play. Only through actual play testing can a rule or situation be fully explored. We have been doing that for years now. Anyone can pontificate on rules and worlds that they have never tried, and can never be proved wrong because the proof is only in the play." - David A. Hargrave, Arduin Trilogy (p35), on the topic of rules questions.

Can we be brave? Who's up for taking that Troll to lunch?

Game on!

UbiquitousFantasy

This week two elements have collided and produced a whole new adaptation of an OSR-style game. 

On the one hand, inspired by my desire to blend the best elements of Castles & Crusades with Monsters & Magic, I found the time to draft the basis of something new: UbiquitousFantasy. 

On the other hand, inspired by the emails of one of my keen players, I've been seeking to further develop the fantasy world that we're currently playing in. Taken together, with a big dose of effort on my part, I've managed to put together something that excites... and which I hope will excite my players.

UbiquitousFantasy

We've been playing Castles & Crusades for a few months now. It's great: easy to play, easy to learn, lots of good and solid material. We like. Except that, having upgraded to Level 2 and being well on the way to Level 3, my players commented that there are really very few benefits from levelling up: in other words, it's a bit bland. That got me nervous about the longevity of playing this system.

Plus there's that pesky d20. Regular readers will probably realise that I don't like the randomness of rolling one die for action tests. For a long, long time I've fancied trying out 2d10 instead of 1d20... so yesterday, in a fit of creative energy, I wrote that into our house rules. That was how it started.

While I was in the process of writing house rules, I thought, why not introduce some of the other things that I've been mulling over for a while... and solve that blandness problem to boot? Inspired by Sarah Newton's ideas about Traits, I've modified the way adding the Level bonus works: in short, you get it when you invoke a Trait from your Race, Class or Personal Background. 

Taking things further, and inspired by the conversations with players, I also decided to re-write the classes to fit this change... and to introduce some Specialised Classes (or, to use another term, some Sub-Classes) which are customised to our fantasy setting. It was easy to do... and a lot of fun! Now we have options for a Lightbringer Paladin, a Ranger of the Wild, a Brotherhood Assassin and a Lightbringer Witchhunter. Each blends elements from both the C&C and M&M classes into something... different.

Finally, at least for now, I decided to adopt the idea of an Invocation Test for the Clerical Miracles (my new words for, "making a magic test to cast a clerical spell"). This forms the basis for a cool rule on organising Rituals with many participants and miracles which are upgraded by particularly high Invocation rolls.

Tikhon

Tikhon is a popular saintly name in the Russian Orthodox Church, meaning "hitting the mark". As the setting we're playing in has been doing just that with the group, it seemed a cool name for the world. Welcome, therefore, to Tikhon. 

On top of this, working with the players on their character backgrounds, I've been gathering more and more detailed material for the world. As the players work with me on creating the setting, it is long overdue to codify what we have so far. Thus, this weekend, I'm beginning just that process - typing up the notes.

What's cool is that their ideas, as players, are fuelling my creative process... in truly collaborative style we are producing something far more interesting than might have been expected. Combining this creativity with a desire to customise the game to fit the setting, rather than forcing the setting into a generic rule set, is not necessarily innovative... but it is something that I've never managed to do before. I've even gone as far as to commission a map for the area we've been playing in.

Being Bold

There's a massive risk involved in all of this: it might not work as well as we hope. The challenge, at least for me, is to be brave and bold. If past gaming failures have taught me anything it's that you can't keep doing the same things over and over, hoping that something will click. 

What has made the one-off Hunt for Gerulf adventure turn into the birth of the World of Tikhon has been boldness: a decision to wing a game off of a one sentence premise gave us Mortenburg and Gerulf's Raiders; another decision to introduce clues to the Moon Gate led to the birth of a conspiracy tale. The courage to listen to the players is leading me into a brand new and exciting setting, played with some customised house rules.

What's next? Well, next week's session is looming... will this all pay off? Fingers crossed... but you can't go through life wondering what might have been, can you? I reckon it's much more fun to risk failure on the opportunity of creating something really cool.

Game on!

Dawning Serene

Last night I hopped online for a very productive video chat with +Scott Templeman, a long time friend and fellow gamer.

We've been chewing around some ideas for a cool SF setting, dubbed "Serene Dawn", for some months now. Our chat was all about how we are going to make it a reality.

Serene Dawn

To be honest, the name comes from a starship that was created for playing in a Traveller game set along the Solomani Rim, sometime around two years ago. The campaign I wanted to play never got launched so the name was shelved. Still, it kept nagging at me.

Last year, as I was fiddling around with the idea of creating my own RPG system, I began to chat online with two old friends - one of whom was Scott - and we concocted a plan to create an SF setting that was interesting. 

Things were ticking over fine, given the heavy schedules of everyone involved, until around 8 weeks ago when we came to an abrupt all-stop. In short, people simply weren't around.

Serene Dawn began as a near-future SF setting with a couple of interesting hooks. Firstly, the expansion of humanity was just about to be made possible by the invention of a slightly different style of Jump Gate; secondly, we decided that we wanted to increase the balkanisation of Earth through the continuation of current political trends towards micro-nations. Nothing overly exciting, but a start.

Interestingly, when we began to plot a first game, we ended up setting things off-world on Phobos. In my previous article, Phobian Nights, I mentioned some of the details we came up with. By now, however, the setting had evolved towards science-fantasy and was becoming... odd.

We also involved my home gaming group in a failed attempt to create a campaign in the setting using T5, getting as far as rolling up heroes. To be honest, in retrospect, I'm glad that tanked in favour of the current fantasy campaign we're playing.

But...

New Directions

Last night we had a frank chat about what we wanted to play. The consensus fell upon creating the first of a series of "modules" in the setting, initially focused on what interests both Scott and I: the exploration game.

Oddly, having spent the evening tossing around thoughts and ideas, I came away with the sense that not only did I want to develop the setting but that I wanted to custom-build the game engine to run it. As regular readers will be aware, I have been abortively developing the Beta RPG over the past couple of months... but that project had stalled because something wasn't quite right.

Over night, however, I dreamt the solution. Arising early this morning I typed up the beginnings of a new RPG system which blends elements from several places all into one reasonably light set of rules. With that thrumming in my head, I have found myself suddenly unblocked and imagining things in the Serene Dawn setting too.

It seems odd, perhaps... but, at least for me, the system is important to get out of the way before I create. I need to feel that the game I am writing is doable with the tools I have to hand. 

Scott's Requests

With the new game engine (dubbed the "UbiquitousRPG") in draft format, I have been able to turn my mind to the requests that co-creator +Scott Templeman has asked me for: Bruxx and Conveyors.

Bruxx are a genetically-engineered collection of rat-derived sentients that we postulated late last year. The idea seems to have really bitten Scott as he raised it as the No 1 thing he wanted me to develop. His argument is that, whether the whole setting works or not, this species is the kind of element that you can develop and slot into almost any other SF setting. And he reckons they are interesting too.

Conveyors came out of the discussions about the Jump Gates in the setting. In short, we have some very large starships which can leap to other star systems via the assistance of a Jump Gate. These large craft are called Conveyors because they tote either cargo or smaller, non-FTL capable ships from system to system. Imagine a kind of regular transport liner which jumps from system to system, picking up cargo and dropping off deliveries at each waypoint, and you've kind of got the idea. What makes them cool, though, is that they are controlled by one faction and used at the forefront of exploration too.

The suggestion is that we develop these elements of the setting, alongside some details on exploratory proving teams, to provide an introductory "module" ready to play. Ever ready to run an interesting new campaign, I'm up for that!

Why tell you this?

Well, partially because I'm excited about developing something new... but mostly because we also realised that this project is about something more than "just a cool new game idea". 

Scott and I really want to put our heads together and create something that "gives back" to the hobby we have played and loved for many years. Feeling like a kind of movie critic for RPGs, we both feel that we'd like to experience the joy and pain of trying to create something to share with other gamers.

It was a dear friend in 2004, while we were at Origins in Columbus, Ohio, who suggested that I ought to develop my own RPG system. He was right... but I've not been able to do it yet, despite at least six attempts. Along the way I have been told by several players and gaming friends that they have been surprised that I have not published a thing for the hobby, despite my foaming addiction for roleplaying. I guess, talking to Scott last night, that I realised just how much I really want to have a crack at this thing.

So... why tell you? Because I need support and encouragement. I need editors, illustrators, map-makers, layout artists, critics and supporters... but most of all, I need to know that someone might think it's not such a stupid idea either. And I need some players.

Gaming Online?

This is the project to try something else that's new for me too: online tabletop roleplaying. I've got an account with Roll20 but I've never used it. Now's the time.

Are you an avid roleplayer who fancies coming to play in the SF setting we're putting together? Fancy coming along with us to discover how the first exploration mission might pan out? If so, drop me a note or a comment and let me know. I'll be happy to try to include you in our first games.

Serene Dawn is born. Game on!