NJW Games

Gaming Hoopla

Posted on 2013 April 7 by njwApril 10, 2013

Something I forgot to note in my slew of Con of the North posts: a couple weeks from now (April 19-21), there will be a pretty nifty gaming convention in Wisconsin called Gaming Hoopla. They now have their event listing up, and it looks like there are quite a few interesting games scheduled. Not a lot of RPGs, but a good number.

For me, the biggest draw is one of their guests: Tom Wham. He’ll be running a bunch of games there. I’ve never been one for pro-worship, but he’s definitely a game creator I’d like to meet. Search for the Emperor’s Treasure has always been one of my favorite pseudo-RPGs, and I like most of his slew of boardgames, with their funny, silly attitude that mask deep mechanics. I’d love to play games with him, and perhaps ask how negotiation is supposed to work in SftET.

Real life won’t permit me to attend, but if you go, I’d love to hear a report!

Poll: What next for B&C?

Posted on 2013 April 6 by njwMay 11, 2014

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Minicon and the Minneapolis Dungeon

Posted on 2013 April 3 by njwAugust 16, 2013

The “Minneapolis Ties to Gaming” panel that I mentioned before went pretty well. We went through local gaming history pretty much chronologically, starting with boardgames published in the area nearly 100 years ago and ending with the potential future of gaming, as it’s being created here.

We addressed the local genesis of RPGs, including in-world Diplomacy play reports, Braunsteins, Dave Arneson’s innovations and other threads that led to Chainmail and D&D. There were asides about what exactly a Braunstein is, references to Playing at the World and discussion of various influential and innovative RPGs and RPG products published in the Twin Cities (Tekumel, Ars Magica, Whimsy Cards, Dread, Chronica Feudalis, Heirs to the Lost World and more). We talked about Fantasy Flight Games, one of the biggest and most enduring game companies, and based in the Twin Cities. We talked about local authors who got their starts writing RPGs (Steve Brust, Pat Wrede and others), prompting me to remark that, when people say it’s impossible to do well by writing up your RPG campaigns, I’ve grown up thinking it’s impossible not to do well! I managed to work in references to Chirine’s upcoming Tekumel Braunstein game, and we gave Tekumel a few good minutes of general discussion. We finished with a discussion of Fantasy Flight’s innovations (integrating computers into games, in particular) and how the future of gaming might be created here. The panel ranged wide and far, probably a necessity when there’s so much history around here.

In particular, we talked about the Minneapolis Dungeon, a game I’d only heard a few hints about. It looks (from searching) like Playing at the World doesn’t mention the Minneapolis Dungeon, but the blog for the book does. (Edit: As pointed out by Mr. Peterson in the comments below, his book does mention the Minneapolis Dungeon, just not using that specific phrase.) In that post, Peterson describes the publishing history of Craig van Grasstek’s Rules to the Game of Dungeon. But he doesn’t talk much more about what happened outside of publishing, nor what those games were like. (To summarize his points and those that came up in the panel: the Minneapolis Dungeon was created when Blue Petal decided to run something similar to D&D, but without D&D rules or dice. Other people started GMing it, too, and it took on a life of its own. It eventually got mostly supplanted by other games in local popularity, but no game ever dies.)

We discussed this a bit more during the panel, and later that night, one of the original Minneapolis Dungeon GMs ran a session of it. It was certainly interesting from an anthropological/historical point of view to see how the game went. Everyone got to choose a special power for their character, and all resolution was (it appeared) via 2d6. It also looked very close to freeform, with a lot of GM interpretation required to decide how a given action worked. And it seemed that a good portion of the time, the GM was deciding what happened with little input from the players, and that the GM was consulting his own records without letting the PCs know what was going on. In other words, it seemed very freeform but also very railroady and subject to GM caveat. Freeform can be great, but GM caveat is not my playstyle. So, probably not something I’d enjoy very much.

Still, it’s good to have seen what the Minneapolis Dungeon is like. I feel like I’ve got that extra piece of the puzzle now.

Minicon, briefly

Posted on 2013 April 1 by njwApril 1, 2013

Minicon 48 was great, all told. I did quite a bit of gaming, though no RPGs. I will be writing up more in the next few days.

This weekend: Minicon

Posted on 2013 March 29 by njwApril 1, 2013

This weekend, I’ll be at Minicon, the Twin Cities’ longest-running SF convention. No scheduled games, but I could certainly run something if there’s interest! And I’ll be on a panel that promises to be really interesting: “Twin Cities Ties to Gaming”, about the history of RPGs and other games, and how the Twin Cities are in many ways the ancestral home of gaming culture. The panel is Sunday at 2:30pm — I’d love to see you there, or just at the con.

Feedback: Lances, elves and supplements

Posted on 2013 March 28 by njwFebruary 9, 2016

Carl Walter is converting a pre-existing campaign over to Blade & Crown, and wrote me to ask several questions about how to do so. Rather than just replying to him, I asked if it’d be okay if I quoted his email and answered here, so that more people could see my responses. He happily agreed.

Carl’s first question:

I have a character in the game who is an artist with a lance and not only can I find no Lance skill, I cannot find any real way for him to specialize with the weapon in some way. I have considered using the Spear/Polearm skill, or creating a separate Lance skill at 3 or 4 to compensate, but there are no stats for the Lance to begin with so I would be using the polearm anyway. Do you have any suggestions that might help me in this?

I certainly do! First, though, I should explain a bit about my assumptions for Blade & Crown. The game presumes a technology level roughly similar to that of Anglo-Saxon or Norman England, so the armored cavalry charge is (in the presumptive B&C campaign world) still a novelty. For that reason, I didn’t include lances as a specific, predetermined type of weapon in Blade & Crown.

However, I did include spears, which would have nearly the same effects, and I allowed for bonuses when attacking from horseback (p. 96). You might allow a player to make a Riding skill roll and give an even higher bonus (probably +2) on a critical success.

What about specializing in Lance skill? Rather than creating it as a new skill, I’d recommend creating it as a specialization of the already extant Spear/Polearm skill. Perhaps “Charge from Horseback” or “Mounted Lance” would work as the two restrictions. That way, the character is still knowledgeable with other polearms, but gets the advantage of specializing in lance-like effects.

Carl’s second question:

Also, any thoughts on converting elves or dwarves of the Hârn or Tolkien variety?

Like lances, I designed B&C without playable elves or dwarves. This is partially because it’s hard to do an original take on them, but also because I wanted to keep them thoroughly mysterious when they do appear. So, in my B&C campaigns, many tales are told of elves and dwarves, but they have never yet been seen.

Yet that can be unsatisfying if you want your players to interact in the game with elves or dwarves. So how to handle them?

I suggest making heavy use of Traits. For example, you might say all elves have the Trait of Immortal. What positive and negative effects could this have? Positive effects are easy to imagine: advanced age & experience, first-hand knowledge of things most humans consider ancient history, being immune to poison and disease, etc. What about negative effects? Many things are possible here, too: coming across as uncaring, having flattened affect, being unable to see the trees for the forest (as it were).

Elves, at least by the standard depictions, could also be considered Proud, Fated, Attractive and World-Weary, among other things. Give the elves Traits at high enough ratings (3 or 4 or even higher) and those Traits suddenly become magically powerful tendencies.

What about dwarves? Many Traits describe the standard formula for them: Proud, Driven, Refined, Loyal, Irrepressible, Loud. Perhaps Stigmatized, and it’s easy to imagine a Short or Stocky Trait as appropriate, too. Again, giving them high ratings will evoke a sense of power and strength beyond human ken.

Should elves and dwarves have characteristics in the normal human range? Should they get the usual number of characteristic points and skill points? I suppose that depends on whether they’re going to be powerful but rarely-seen NPCs, full fledged members of the party or something else. Someone like Galadriel or Elrond, certainly, should be quite a bit beyond the level of a starting character. “Whatever’s dramatically appropriate” is the rule here. But if you’ve got a PC who resembles Legolas, for example, it seems fair to put them on the same playing field as the other PCs. You might give them slightly increased characteristic and skill points in exchange for requiring certain Traits. (After all, that is a strong theme about elves and dwarves in Tolkien’s writing: that their worldly power is balanced by not being masters of their own fates.)

And Carl’s last question:

Are there any supplements or additional works pending? I would love to see some additional works.

So would I! I’ve got a few B&C adventures written, but getting them into a form ready for publishing will take a while longer. And there’s the campaign world I developed for use with Blade & Crown, Calteir, but it’s even further from being ready for prime time. And there are other things on my to-do list: pre-filled in disposable NPC sheets and NPC cards; more characters; player handouts; and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought of doing a Kickstarter to publish an edition with better art. I know better than to guarantee any of this on a particular timeline yet — other RPG publishers have taught me that lesson — but I am curious what you’d like to see first. What would help you the most in play? What Blade & Crown possibilities interest you most?

Gaming tools: Lebek

Posted on 2013 March 27 by njwSeptember 21, 2013

I don’t remember how I first came on this book, but I’m glad I did. Lebek: A City of Northern Europe Through the Ages is a wonderful reference for gaming purposes.

Lebek is not a real city, but it evolves like many cities of northern Europe have: from early Viking settlement, to small walled medieval town, to fortified renaissance port, to sprawling modern metropolis. Depending on what era your game is set in, the different eras could work as maps of your PCs’ home town, or an exotic location for them to visit.

Although (or perhaps because) it’s a kids’ book, the illustrations through the ages are simply wonderful. It seems heavily reminiscent to me of David Macaulay‘s books like Castle and City: short in page length, but full of incredibly intricate, clearly drawn pen illustrations that convey a wealth of information. Lebek particularly resembles Castle in that it has huge two-page spreads every few pages that show the same location — the center of Lebek — through the ages. Castle only shows the construction of one castle, though; Lebek shows the evolution of the city through thousands of years of history. Additional explanations and detailed rendering of particular items of note — a house here, a shipyard there, a factory there — breathe even more life into the various eras.

It’s easy to imagine a medieval-style campaign being based in one of Lebek’s eras. The bird’s-eye views can function both as evocative maps and intriguing guides to adventure; looking at any of the two-page spreads sets the eye wandering, and the mind wondering.

And an illustration of a medieval house has come in very handy for me in games; rather than having to describe what a medieval house looks like (vaulted cellar with exterior access below ground; shuttered shop front on the first/ground floor; steep stairs up to living quarters above; attic under thatched roof above), I’ve been able — several times now — to just show my players the book’s wonderful illustration and say “There. Like that.” The book has proven immensely valuable in play, multiple times.

I think I first found Lebek when I was looking for Macaulay books in a Half-Price bookstore. Lebek’s typography and format lend further credence to the impression that it is a Macaulay book; it’s easy to mistake the presentation for that of Castle, Pyramid or City. And yet Lebek isn’t a Macaulay book; the authors are Spanish, I believe, and the treatment of the subject matter isn’t the same as Macaulay’s. Lebek has a less whimsical, more expansive, more detailed feel.

There are three other books in the series: Barmi (a Mediterranean city), San Rafael (a Meso-American city) and Umm El Madayan (a North African city). I finally completed my collection earlier this week, finding Umm El Madayan at a Half-Price; that’s why it’s fresh in my mind now. That, and the fact that I used the house illustration again this past Sunday. I plan to write about the other three books eventually. For my purposes, though, Lebek has been the most useful of the group. I highly recommend getting it — or any of the series — if you have a chance.

Clouds for mapping, part II

Posted on 2013 March 24 by njwDecember 15, 2013

I’ve already introduced the idea of using clouds to make maps. So, how do you actually do it?

Step one is to get some photos of clouds, preferably the castellanus variety. They’re nice and puffy, without having flat bottoms. Longer, striated clouds can work, too, but might require some squishing in your image editor to make them resemble natural landforms.
Now, import your photo into an image editing program. I’m going to assume GIMP here, because it’s free, powerful and what I actually use. Other programs will naturally have different steps, but the concepts should apply.
Crop the image to a likely-looking section of sky. You want a cloud that has lots of interesting texture, projections, etc.
Select the blue areas of the sky using the Select by Color tool. Adjust the threshold to grab more or less sky; the precise amount you’ll need will vary with your image. Also, using different thresholds will give you different coastlines. Imagine your selected area as the ocean — does it look good? Adjust to taste. Play around and try different settings. You may want to feather or expand the selection to grab nearby areas without grabbing all the similar colors, since the clouds themselves may have some areas that are nearly the same color.
Keeping the same selection, create another layer called “oceans” or something. Fill your selection with a nice deep blue suitable for oceans. You may need to use a combination of paint bucket and brush tools here, as the selection will be fuzzy. Just remember to keep the ocean fills on the ocean layer.
Go back to the cloud layer and, again using the color select tool, select some portion of the cloud itself — the darker, not-quite-white bits. You’ll want to use a lower threshold on the color select tool here to give more precision to your selections. Again create another layer, then fill the selection with your main terrain color. Here, I’m using a medium green for forest.
Again go back to your original cloud layer, and select the brighter white areas. (Notice a pattern here?) You’ll again want to use a lower threshold on the color select tool. Create another layer and call it something like “hills”. Choose a nice deep brown, and fill your selection on this layer. Then, once you’re done filling in the hills, lower the opacity of this layer a bit so that some of the forest layer shows through. This’ll make the edges less perfect and more organic.
And again, go to the cloud layer and select just the brightest bits. These will form your snow- and ice-covered areas. This time, though, instead of creating a new layer, copy the cloud layer and drag it above the hill layer. Create a layer mask equal to your selection. You should now have a nice, small section of snow-covered peaks that already have slightly dappled texture — the texture of your real-world clouds.
Finally, to add a bit more color variation, create a layer above the forest layer and a layer above the hill layer. Use the spray tool with a big brush that has a random stippled pattern, like (in GIMP 2.8) Chalk 02 or something similar. On the two layers, spray a little bit of black or other dark color. Set the layer opacity low so that the stippling only affects the layers below a little, just enough to break up the color.

And you’re pretty much done. You’ll probably want to use a higher resolution than I’ve used here (which means high-res cloud photos are probably for the best), and you’ll probably want to add in lots of other details like rivers, towns, roads, and boundaries, but that is (as they say) beyond the scope of this article.

Anyway, I hope this gives you access to natural-looking landforms without having to resort to computer generated fractals and adds a few more tools to your gamers’ toolbox.

Celestial Empire

Posted on 2013 March 23 by njwJanuary 24, 2016

The second post about clouds and mapping is going to take a little longer to write up, so here’s something else in the meantime:

If you’re looking for an RPG based in semi-historical China, there are a lot of choices out there. The best one that I know of, however, is Celestial Empire. When I saw it in a store, I took it off the shelf, expecting but dreading the usual mess of stereotypes, half-truths, misunderstandings and misrepresentations so common to RPG treatments of China. As I paged through the book, though, I found no immediate inaccuracies to object to. In fact, the longer I looked at it, the more interested I was. The author clearly put a lot of work into it, getting the facts pretty much as good as could be in an RPG. (I have a degree in Chinese studies, and nothing I’ve seen in the book contradicts what I know, at least.) The author even got the romanization almost completely perfect! All far better than I’ve seen in RPG treatments of China before. I eventually convinced myself that I needed to buy it, and did so.

This has had two effects:

I have a long-term hankering to run a game set in China. I’m thinking of the Tuoba Wei era, which seems like an adventurous time, perhaps set on the edge of Chinese civilization.
When people on RPGnet and elsewhere seek recommendations for good China sourcebooks for RPGs, I direct them immediately and confidently towards Celestial Empire.

As it happens, the author, Gianni Vacca, saw my most recent recommendation of the book and thanked me for it. A nice person, and a great book full of scholarship and interest — the RPG world needs more of that.

Clouds for mapping, part I

Posted on 2013 March 20 by njwDecember 15, 2013

Seems like gamers are often looking for sources of good, natural-looking landforms for maps. Personally, I tend to just draw maps by hand; I’m pretty good at scribbling, and I’ve spent a lot of time poring over various maps over the years, so coming up with natural-seeming coastlines isn’t too hard. But still, over years I’ve seen a lot of folks express the view that doing it by hand is difficult, for whatever reasons.

Many people turn to fractals. Most high-end raster image editors, like GIMP and Photoshop, include fractal cloud generators and creating a map from that kind of plugin can be very easy. There is a website that will generate whole planet maps via fractals (seed 1111111 gives something that looks remarkably like Almea). And of course most specialized RPG mapping programs, like Campaign Cartographer, Fractal Mapper and others, include some sort of fractal mapping system.

The thing is, though, fractal maps tend to look very… fractal. In my experience, they tend to generate landforms that don’t look like real landforms. Elevations tend to be distributed evenly, meaning that instead of mountain ranges, the whole world is just one big mountain. And coastlines tend to clump and stretch in ways that real coastlines don’t.

So for a long time, I’ve thought there should be a better source of realistic maps for gamers who don’t want to either a) scribble or b) use fractals. Luckily, there’s a source of very realistic fractal-like shapes that we encounter, usually, several times a week: clouds. Not computer-generated fractal clouds, but actual puffy wisps of water vapor in the sky.

Using a camera, an image-editing program and a few minutes of time, I was able to turn this cloud:

into this map:

Not perfect by any means, but a pretty good result for only a few minutes’ work. Next post, I’ll discuss how to do it.