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tcpipIn 1981 I watched some young lads playing Runequest at the school library. The amazing combination of gaming, mythological narrative and improvised drama captured my imagination. Since then I played numerous campaigns using a huge variety of game systems. At university in W.A. I started the Murdoch Altertnative Reality Society, and wrote Rolemaster Companion VI, a product which sold over 10,000 copies and even today usually triples it's cover price in online auctions. In Melbourne, I helped set up Mimesis as a roleplaying publisher (ill-fated little organisation it was).
Recently I've tried running a play-by-email based on the Malay archipelago in the early sixteenth century. The play-by-email isn't going too well, due to the problems of asynchronous communication. Basically, it requires response from all participants, and if they're not responding, the game freezes, which is a shame because it's a damn good setting and I'm trying to work up an interesting narrative as well. What I'd give for just one more committed player who could put in an hour per week of online cooperative storytelling. That is a very broad hint, dear reader. Most recently, I've started editing the code for Roleplaying Tips
In any case, the crux of the matter is a decision. This year, I'm getting back seriously into gaming and I'm going to write a roleplaying system. It's going to be realistic, it's going to have clever game-tricks to aid simulation and narrative and it's going to be heavily based on "real-world" mythology. I intend it to become the best damn thing on the market, because that's what sort of damn perfectionist I am. It's about time the industry was given a swift kick up the arse and a new standard to aspire to - and I reckon I'm up to that task.
Here ends the announcement.
Gave my presentation on Providence and Common Wealth which was surprisingly well received. As of next Sunday, I'm learning the radio recording system as well, so I get to add another communications technology on my list of "how-to's". Easter is still earmarked for a visit to Christchurch (ch-ch?), NZ, as a deleage to the ANZUA international conference.
Somewhere in the past several days I had a birthday. True to my nature, I managed to book a visit to the art exhibition opening "Raw Attitude" 2004, with my friends Paula and Craig without even noticing what day it fell on. The exhibition was reasonable, consisting of works by Lily Mae Martin (digital prints, cartoon) and Asha Duggan (acrylics and mixed media, portraits). That evening![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
caseopaya and I went off on the Port Phillip Council sponsored Penguin walk, the highlight being a swimmin rakkali (indigenous water rat). On the morn of Invasion Day severina_242 and I went to see "A Series of Unfortunate Events". Quite a good narrative, decent overacting great costuming etc. The "children's gothic" is a deserving genre.
Beazley is apparently going to have a clear endorsement as Labor leader. This makes sense in terms of public popularity and his campaigning ability. Both Gillard and Rudd are competent and clearly have a future but not yet. Gillard also has to make ammends with her own factional colleagues on the left after her performance on the refugee issue at national conference. Speaking of which, I'm about to give the rest of the state Labor for Refugees groups a serious kick in the rear - Victoria seems to be the only functioning state branch these days!
Few are taking the Iraqi election seriously. Not surprising given that the interim leader, Allawi, seems to be happy with carrying out extra-judicial murder. In any case, keep on eye out on how well the Iraqi Communist Party goes - the organisation that opposes Saddam, the current puppet regime, the Islamicists and the US-led occupation. Apparently they are the largest registered political party in Iraq.
Brain-breakers this week are numerous, but only one that's amusing.shocko had me in fits over this set of LoTR animated gifs. greylock presents, "Senior US Officials Cozy up to Dictator Who Boils People Alive", whereas severina_242 showed me the power of the tsunami, whose death toll is now approaching three hundred thousand. Dawn of a new dark age? Russian MPs call for ban on Jewish groups.
Recently I've tried running a play-by-email based on the Malay archipelago in the early sixteenth century. The play-by-email isn't going too well, due to the problems of asynchronous communication. Basically, it requires response from all participants, and if they're not responding, the game freezes, which is a shame because it's a damn good setting and I'm trying to work up an interesting narrative as well. What I'd give for just one more committed player who could put in an hour per week of online cooperative storytelling. That is a very broad hint, dear reader. Most recently, I've started editing the code for Roleplaying Tips
In any case, the crux of the matter is a decision. This year, I'm getting back seriously into gaming and I'm going to write a roleplaying system. It's going to be realistic, it's going to have clever game-tricks to aid simulation and narrative and it's going to be heavily based on "real-world" mythology. I intend it to become the best damn thing on the market, because that's what sort of damn perfectionist I am. It's about time the industry was given a swift kick up the arse and a new standard to aspire to - and I reckon I'm up to that task.
Here ends the announcement.
Gave my presentation on Providence and Common Wealth which was surprisingly well received. As of next Sunday, I'm learning the radio recording system as well, so I get to add another communications technology on my list of "how-to's". Easter is still earmarked for a visit to Christchurch (ch-ch?), NZ, as a deleage to the ANZUA international conference.
Somewhere in the past several days I had a birthday. True to my nature, I managed to book a visit to the art exhibition opening "Raw Attitude" 2004, with my friends Paula and Craig without even noticing what day it fell on. The exhibition was reasonable, consisting of works by Lily Mae Martin (digital prints, cartoon) and Asha Duggan (acrylics and mixed media, portraits). That evening
caseopaya and I went off on the Port Phillip Council sponsored Penguin walk, the highlight being a swimmin rakkali (indigenous water rat). On the morn of Invasion Day severina_242 and I went to see "A Series of Unfortunate Events". Quite a good narrative, decent overacting great costuming etc. The "children's gothic" is a deserving genre.Beazley is apparently going to have a clear endorsement as Labor leader. This makes sense in terms of public popularity and his campaigning ability. Both Gillard and Rudd are competent and clearly have a future but not yet. Gillard also has to make ammends with her own factional colleagues on the left after her performance on the refugee issue at national conference. Speaking of which, I'm about to give the rest of the state Labor for Refugees groups a serious kick in the rear - Victoria seems to be the only functioning state branch these days!
Few are taking the Iraqi election seriously. Not surprising given that the interim leader, Allawi, seems to be happy with carrying out extra-judicial murder. In any case, keep on eye out on how well the Iraqi Communist Party goes - the organisation that opposes Saddam, the current puppet regime, the Islamicists and the US-led occupation. Apparently they are the largest registered political party in Iraq.
Brain-breakers this week are numerous, but only one that's amusing.
shocko had me in fits over this set of LoTR animated gifs. greylock presents, "Senior US Officials Cozy up to Dictator Who Boils People Alive", whereas severina_242 showed me the power of the tsunami, whose death toll is now approaching three hundred thousand. Dawn of a new dark age? Russian MPs call for ban on Jewish groups.![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-01-26 03:22 pm (UTC)i remember arcanacon I !
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Date: 2005-01-26 05:13 pm (UTC)Join us... You know you want to ;-)
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Date: 2005-01-26 09:43 pm (UTC)whats link again?
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Date: 2005-01-27 01:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-26 07:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-26 09:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-29 01:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-03 05:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-26 03:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-26 05:11 pm (UTC)OK! Now for someone who's right in the thick of it all, you'll know what I'm talking about!
I'm trying to get one player in particular to mention whether he's interested in continuing or whether he is too busy - I don't mind if they're too busy, I understand that, but I bit of notification would help.
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Date: 2005-01-26 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-06 08:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-02-07 04:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-26 04:53 pm (UTC)I'd be interested in "listening in" on your play-by-email to see whether it's something I could commit some time to.
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Date: 2005-01-26 05:12 pm (UTC)OK, I'll add you to the list. It's not too onerous, just a couple of posts a week is usually sufficient.
I don't want to do 'round-by-round' combat in play by email!
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Date: 2005-01-26 05:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-26 05:14 pm (UTC)Indeed, for a first-timer you're doing very well indeed.... In fact, you could be even a little bolder in your approach.
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Date: 2005-01-26 06:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-26 05:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-26 05:09 pm (UTC)Capricorn-Aquiarian apparently.
I used to know this rather sweet hippy girl who would say I was a Capricorn by day and an Aquarian by night. Quite flattering, I must say!
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Date: 2005-01-26 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-26 05:21 pm (UTC)14th of Feb? Heh. Good choice! You should be getting a lot of chocolates and flowers...
People tend to incorporate their astrological sign into their own personality, so when people behave as they're supposed to, it is cited as evidence that astrology "works".
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Date: 2005-01-26 05:29 pm (UTC)Ah, yes, I think they do.
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Date: 2005-01-26 05:45 pm (UTC)BTW, have you encountered this site: http://www.rpol.net/
It's very popular.
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Date: 2005-01-26 08:53 pm (UTC)Thanks!
Hmmmm nearly 900 fantasy and 15 historical... So where does historical fantasy fit in?
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Date: 2005-01-26 08:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-28 09:18 pm (UTC)"My answer would be "Historical" would be based on past events and playing out varients thereof; like King Authur... whereas HF is King Authur with Merlin throwing massive fireballs."
" ... less based on historical facts and more on pixies and elves."
He suggested posting questions on the site, as it's kinda one big forum.
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Date: 2005-01-29 01:17 am (UTC)Well, that's accurate but not a very subtle version of the answer... I'm not sure if Merlin ever lobbed a fireball about, however iirc, he was half-demon... and then there was all that sword in the stone stuff..
I reckon I'll go have a looksy at the forum.
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Date: 2005-01-26 07:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-26 08:54 pm (UTC)Yeah, play by mail is best done on a strategic level, no doubt about that. En Garde! for individuals (one move = one week) or Empires of the Middle Ages (one move = five years).
Standard single person roleplaying by email is tricky. Still, this is further playtesting...
Roleplaying Systems
Date: 2005-01-26 07:57 pm (UTC)I think before you type a single word of your new roleplaying system, that you ring up or e-mail Dave Cake and have a LONG chat with him about the gaming theory stuff he has been researching. He opened my eyes and improved my gaming. He knows STUFF™
1) Gaming is now a spectrum. No single system could ever cover all of us.
2) There has been a HELL of a lot of quite hardcore research into roleplaying games done recently. Most importantly it covers and expands on what familys of gaming styles exist. Note I don't say Systems, I say Styles. It's fascinating stuff!
3) Although you were a good GM last time I gamed with you, I don't think I could do it again. Your style and mine had been drifting down fairly different paths last time we tried gaiming. If that trend continued (And it did for me) we are probably almost polar in our gaming.
I use a system called Risus now. http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/risus.htm
It fits on 7 pages. Many of those are amusingly illustrated. That includes 2 pages of optional rules. It rocks! It is also phenomenally light. Just right for MY gaming style (four colour, story driven with a fair amount of story changes being made by the players, not the GM). Most people don't go THAT light. Last I saw you were gaming pretty "real world" with increasingly "hard core" rule systems. That is cool too. I know a lot of people who like that stuff.
Gaming has matured, diversified and changed. This is good for all.
It does, however mean it is impossible to make the "best damn thing on the market" because that market no longer exists. Instead a multitude or spectrum of markets exist.
I'm not saying don't write the system. Do so. But Mr Cake will give you some great "food for thought" and hopefully help you channel your energies via the "new" concepts coming through.
Re: Roleplaying Systems
Date: 2005-01-26 08:50 pm (UTC)OK, this is sound advice.
I've been reading up on a lot of the more recent systems and styles, and you're right there is a great deal of divergence. From TWERPS to GURPS, one could even suggest (and both of those are pretty old).
I recall the old Chaosium products (especially CoC, to a lesser extent Pendragon) managed to encourage narrative and atmosphere through some clever tweaking of the game system - that's the sort of thing I'd like to emulate.
I guess by "best damn thing on the market", I meant (a) something that doesn't mean having to suspend one's senses for the purposes of enjoying the game (one still has to do this for DnD, although not as much as in the past and (b) something that doesn't end up being yet another quasi-feudal-Tolkien-Conan soup.
I don't mind those games like Risus which are "especially valuable to GMs assembling a quick convention game, or any late-night beer-and-pretzels outing", because their not pretending to be anything else. That's cool. I can enjoy a silly offbeat game with the best of them (caveat: probably noone can beat Greg Costygin - he is the monster raving looney of gaming, and we love him for it).
I read a recent article (linked from slashdot) which shows that people learn more through gaming rather than reading (well du'uh, like we didn't know that). Yet I am yet to quite see this the practical implication of this in games that are currently about. Indeed, I'm still looking quite fondly at my battered old RuneQuest box... Heck, why do those products still sell for such huge amounts online?
Because they were good, damn good. Problem is, RuneQuest III was produced in 1984. That's a long time between drinks :/
Re: Roleplaying Systems
Date: 2005-01-26 10:12 pm (UTC)We have had White Wolf climb up the market, the D20 system get "Open Sourced" GURPS cement a big chunk of market share and the rise of Online games.
Dave can talk about this more than me, but some interesting things he has told me about include
"Unknown Armies" which I am looking at buying. A wierd sort of "Hellblazer" kind of universe based on a modern day setting in a kind of "illuminated" underground. Looks cool.
http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_1260.html
"Wuthering Heights" The only RPG I know of where your character sheet features a field where you need to describe which feature about you "Floats in the wind". Delightful!
http://philippe.tromeur.free.fr/whrpg.htm
The net is the perfect medium for Free (as in beer OR as in speech) roleplaying games. There are an awfully large number of rather dandy ones out there.
Play the field! It's fun!
Re: Roleplaying Systems
Date: 2005-01-27 01:03 am (UTC)"Unknown Armies" looks pretty good. The idea of linking a skill to a stat is an idea I've played around with as an alternative to the stat + skill bonus system. I'm pretty impressed with the idea of linking magic use to sanity as well, but that is an idea that's been around since CoC, or even Mage: The Ascension at a pinch.
Mind you, Atlas games have done some great work over the years including Ars Magica and Over The Edge. Credit where credit's due and all that...
Anyway, I will play the field. I mean, I've been gaming and designing for the more than twenty years. Heck, I even remember in my mid-teens combining Rolemaster and Runequest into a system (I called it "Runemaster", of course). I may as well put all those ideas in some sort of decent format.
no subject
Date: 2005-02-03 02:26 pm (UTC)as a person who has lived in both dunedin and wellignton i woudl have to say wellington is better by far, it has a great atmosphere, no mater how weird u are ther eis someone worse!
dunedin however is full of students, if u are wanting to not really remember much of your time and be in a state of drunkenness the whole time then dunedin, for culture (walking down cuba st bare foot wiull give u all sorts of different cultures but im sure a doc can clear that up) then wellington is the place. also dunedin tends to be a bit more on the critical side, they are mostly student but give the goths a hard time
no subject
Date: 2005-02-11 12:28 am (UTC)I've spent a few days in Wellington and a couple in Dunedin. Loved both of 'em. Vastly different lifestyles of course.
In Wellington I'd want to do something, in Dunedin I'd want to research/write something...