Dorkland! Roundtable with Tracy Barnett

Last week I talked with up and coming designer Tracy Barnett about his games and his development as a designer. We also talked about the things that motivate and excite him and get him making games.

Why I Hate Stealth Kickstarters

Again this comes up, so again I find myself thinking about it and this time I think that I have to work out my thoughts in a post. I know that people are going to argue about this, fair enough. Everyone is entitled to their opinions on these matters, even when they disagree with me.

You're probably wondering what this "stealth Kickstarter" that I'm so upset about actually is. As a matter of fact I've already had my wording "attacked" by having someone say that these things aren't being hidden, so they can't be stealth. I use the term stealth in this regard to describe introducing a secondary project (whether as a stretch goal or as a pledge level) into a primary project (the project that is being Kickstarted). The first time this happened (and caused me to not back a project) was with Frog God Games and their Kickstarter for a new edition of their Swords & Wizardry Complete rules. They had a pledge level that allowed backers to purchase a monster book unrelated to actual project. The second time that I noticed this was with Robin Laws' Kickstarter for Hillfolk added a stretch goal that when reached would release the Gumshoe system under and open license of some sort. Just as a note, Hillfolk isn't a Gumshoe game.

I get that this is a marketing ploy to pull another demographic into paying for a project. Is it legal, by the standards of Kickstarter's guidelines? I'm not entirely sure, but I'm not a lawyer or a legal expert. I just know what I know from reading the guidelines on the Kickstarter site. I have decided to send a request for clarification on this point to Kickstarter, so hopefully I will hear something back. If that happens, I will update this post accordingly.

Some would say that I am using this as a justification as a reason to not back projects that I wasn't planning on backing already. That's not the case. I get that a lot of people aren't interested in the principals of how they spend their money. I'm not one of those people.

This quote comes directly from Kickstarter's guidelines page. After the quote I am going to use, what may seem to some to be tortured logic to get to a point.

A project has a clear goal, like making an album, a book, or a work of art. A project will eventually be completed, and something will be produced by it. A project is not open-ended. Starting a business, for example, does not qualify as a project.

One of the problems that I have with stretch goals (and I have more than one problem, but that is likely for another blog post) is that I think they turn a discrete project into something open ended. I know, tortuous logic, but it is part of the problem that I have with the process. Also, stretch goals tend to turn more into swag than what I think they should be...making the project stronger/faster/better. If a project makes more money than what the project manager needs then that additional money should go into making the project better, whether that is via more/better art, high page count, additional material from other creators. I do not think that it should go to doing things that are unrelated (like releasing other systems under an open license). Yes, I know that people are going to disagree with me, but I don't care.

Jeff Lemire Covers Harbinger

I'm posting this mostly because I think this is a sweet cover. You probably know Jeff Lemire from his creator-owned comic Sweet Tooth, or his recent work in DC Comic's New 52 on books like Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE, Animal Man or  Justice League Dark. He's going to be doing a variant cover for Valiant's Harbinger comic. I love the "high school notebook doodle" quality of it.

If you want more information, here's stuff from the publisher:

Valiant is proud to reveal a variant cover unlike any other for Harbinger #8 by superstar creator Jeff Lemire (Animal Man, Sweet Tooth). Rendered in ballpoint pen on ruled notebook paper, Lemire's cover is Valiant's line-wide variant offering for January 2013, covering the latest issue of the all-new "Renegades" arc by New York Times best-selling author Joshua Dysart and rising star Phil Briones. 

 

"Josh Dysart is one of my favorite people and favorite writers in comics. We've wanted to work together for a long time now, but things never seem to line up with both of our busy schedules. When I heard Josh would be a part of the incredible Valiant relaunch with Harbinger, I immediately asked editor Jody LeHeup if I could do a variant. It may not be a full comic, but at least Josh and I have finally done something together," said Lemire. 

 

"I'm really excited about the high quality books Valiant has been putting out and it's great to be a part of it in even this small way. I was so thrilled that Jody and the Valiant guys let me go nuts with my lo-fi ballpoint pen idea," he added. "I had a blast!"

 

"Jeff routinely conjures some of the most engaging images and stories in comics and I'm thrilled to have had the opportunity to work with him again," said Associate Editor Jody LeHeup. "This incredible cover is a testament to that fact and to his love for the outstanding work that Joshua Dysart, Khari Evans, Phil Briones and the rest of the Harbinger crew are doing right now."

 

Out of the ashes of the Harbinger Foundation, the rise of the Valiant Universe’s first super-team continues this January! After fighting their way out of Toyo Harada's secret academy for superhumans, Peter Stanchek and Faith "Zephyr" Herbert are out to recruit the next generation of psionics and strike the Harbinger empire wherever it may stand. Peter Stanchek. Zephyr. Kris. Flamingo. Torque. Meet the latest member of the resistance on January 23rd in Harbinger #8 – the next awesome installment of the series Comic Book Resources calls “a must-read."

 

Valiant's Harbinger #8 Lemire Linewide Variant is available to retailers who cumulatively order 125 copies or more of Valiant's January titles in any combination. Visit ValiantUniverse.com for more information!

Horror Saves in Old School Games

Welcome to my obligatory Halloween post. It is funny but I've never seen the fascination with running horror scenarios or games, just because it is October. Maybe it is because I have always played a lot of horror games that I don't see the need. Horror and superheroes (I know, a strange mix but it makes sense to me) are my preferred genres over fantasy any day. I was reading my PDF of The Book of Unremitting Horror (which is a scary ass bestiary written for d20 Modern but that could easily be adapted to other d20 or old school games) the other day when a reference to Mongoose's OGL Horror book sparked an idea: genre specific saving throws for a horror-themed old school game.

It seems easy enough to me to add a few new categories of saving throws to things. I'm not going to quote everything directly, so you might want to check out the OGL Horror book on its own. I'm not really one to get behind OGL [Blank] line from Mongoose, because I think that most of them suffer from the company's typical need for more speed than editing. There are interesting ideas that can be mined from some of the books, but on their own many of them are shambles.

My Dorkland! Roundtable with Wolfgang Baur

I talked with Wolfgang Baur on a Dorkland! Roundtable. We talked about the upcoming release of the Midgard Campaign setting, as well as some of the influences that have gone into its development over the years and the processes of how Open Design/Kobold Press does things.

We also talked about games that he has worked on during his career, and games that he would like to work on.

Sword of Sorcery #0: Amethyst and Beowulf

My biggest complaint of this comic is the awkwardness of the title. Sword of Sorcery just doesn't sound right to me, for some reason. I know that it was a title of a DC Comic in the past, but it really just doesn't sing to me. Maybe because of there being two leads? I'm not sure. Regardless, it is a fairly minor complaint, as comic complaints go.

I will get this right out of the way at the beginning. I was a huge fan of Jem and the Holograms as a kid. There, I said it. I even think that some of the writing on the cartoon has held up surprisingly well over the years. Yes, there is some terribly bad stuff in those shows, but it has held up better to the adult me better than many of its contemporaries. And, while I did like the Amethyst comic in the 80s, it was the connection of Christy Marx's writing that drew me to the book.

Homicidal Transients: A Funny Little Role-Playing Game

One of the best things to come out of Google+, besides all of the great ongoing discussion about gaming, is a funny little role-playing game from A. Miles Davis called Homicidal Transients. I use "funny" because it is applicable in a couple of uses of the word: humorous and peculiar. I mean both of these in a good way.

There is a lot of good stuff to be found in this little game (weighing in at a whopping 41 digest-sized pages). This is a game that works at the digest size, instead of inflating page counts for games that most likely should have been done at a traditional page size.

In this game you play homicidal transients, pretty much like it says on the tin. This isn't a game mocking the homeless or making homeless people into some sort of reprehensible figure. This is not Bumfight The RPG. And, having been homeless in the past, I can say "thank God for that." Playing a transient has absolutely nothing to do with being a homeless person, although it could if you wanted it to. I know, that's a bit of a weird double standard. I have nothing against playing or portraying a homeless person in a role-playing game, as long as it isn't done in an exploitative or insensitive manner. I don't think that Homicidal Transients does either of those things.

There's not a lot to this game, so if you need a game that has a lot of rule, or that has a lot of rules to enforce a certain mode or style of play...this game is not for you. If you like a rules light framework that will allow you a lot of freedom within those rules to do cool and interesting stuff...this just might be the game for you.

Characters are defined by a handful of skills (five of them in all), two traits (homicidal and transient), and a level. Level works pretty much as a bonus to your attempts to have your character do something. Homicidal and Transient give your character special talents and abilities. The skills work much like the skills in any other RPG that you may have seen or played. There are no attributes.

The game uses a single for combat, skills, tests and everything else. The cool thing is that it uses a pool of whatever dice you have the most of sitting around. Everyone uses the same dice, but the game isn't linked to the use of one particular die type. I think that is one of the qualities that would make Homicidal Transients a good game for pick up play. Skills do not seem to have levels, as much as they have modifiers due to the talents that your character has (not to mention situational bonuses). This part of the rules is a little bit confusing, as you aren't really told if there is a bonus from skills (or I somehow managed to miss it), or if you just use bonuses given from talents. That could stand to be better explained in the rules.

While I don't mind it (maybe because I am mostly a GM), someone out there will be upset by the rules for experience: "Go up a level whenever the GM says so." I wouldn't play in a group where there isn't trust between the players and the GM (and I cannot fathom why someone would play in a group like that), so I don't have a problem with a rule like this.

The rest of the game is rounded out by "magic" powers, monsters, equipment and vehicles, and all of those other things that are expected in a role-playing game. There is no setting, implied or otherwise, in the game, which allows you to tack on your own setting to the system. I can see using this for cyberpunk-styled games, or games in the style of something like Battle Royale. Or pretty much any game that consists of beating things until they are dead. I'm sure that there is (or will be) a D&D hack of Homicidal Transients out there someplace.

This is a good game. A very good game for someone's first time at professionally designing a role-playing game. As with any rules light game, there will be speed bumps as a play group realizes that much of what happens at the table will need to be figured out as you go, by on the spot rulings rather than explicit rules. I think that is a good thing for a game because it allows a GM flexibility for those unorthodox situations that players are so good at creating for their characters (and the GM's world). This is a game that you should have on your shelf (virtual or otherwise) if you want something light and flexible that you can use to get a game going fast, and that gets out of the way and allows the group to get to its fun. I'm glad that I have a copy of Homicidal Transients and you should want one too. The link at the very top of this post points to where you can buy the game in print or PDF (it is an affiliate link but that also helps to track down games that I can talk about with you here at the blog).

Tasting A Maca Chocolate Bar

Because I don't just talk about games and music but also other things that cross my mind, I'm going to talk about a chocolate bar that I ate today, the Maca Chocolate from Vega (a Canadian nutritional company).

Totally not shilling on this, I was given a sample bar after my mother was at a health foods show in D.C. this past weekend.

According to Wikipedia maca is:

In Peru, maca is prepared and consumed in several ways, although traditionally it is always cooked. The freshly harvested hypocotyl can be roasted in a pit (called huatia), and this is considered a delicacy. Fresh roots are usually available only in the vicinity of the growers. The root can also be mashed and boiled to produce a sweet, thick liquid, dried and mixed with milk to form a porridge or with other vegetables or grains to produce a flour that can be used in baking. If fermented, a weak beer called chicha de maca can be produced. In 2010 a US based brewery called Andean Brewing Company, became the first company to produce and commercialize beer made from Maca under the brand KUKA Beer. The leaves can also be prepared raw in salads or cooked much like Lepidium sativum and Lepidium campestre, to which it is genetically closely related.

A lot of that makes no sense to me as a layman, but it is still interesting. Allegedly a energizer and revitalizer, it was used by Incan warriors before going into battle. It also was purported to have "male enhancement" properties, but anyone who watches any of the food travel shows on television will see similar claims for many foods around the world. This is, however, and interesting historical tidbit that can be used in a number of ways by the resourceful and geeky.

I wasn't that impressed by the consistency of the bar. I found it a bit too hard, and I like more suppleness in my chocolate. It was also a bit more bitter than I like in a dark chocolate. The taste was comparable to the Vosges Creole Bar, which I felt was made entirely too bitter by the inclusion of the chicory. I didn't really notice any energizing effects of the bar. Would I track this down and buy one on my own? Probably not. I feel that I can get better chocolates with a comparable cocoa percentages that have a better taste and feel. However, if you're looking for some interesting verisimilitude for warriors in a historic setting you now have some starting research points.

Dorkland! Roundtable with Trey Causey

If you don't already own a copy of Trey Causey's excellent Weird Adventures, why don't you? I consider it an equivalent to the old WEG (now published by Precis Intermedia) book Bloodshadows. It has a mix of pulp fiction, traditional gaming fantasy and comic book fun all in one affordable package. The book is almost all system agnostic setting material, with what little writeups there are done in the style of Swords & Wizardry) and details a world where the paradigms of the heroic pulps and traditional high fantasy smash into each other like a J.G. Ballard car crash of gaming inspiration. Seriously, if you don't own a copy go here to RPGNow and pick up the PDF at least (although I really recommend getting a print copy).

Now that you've clicked the link (and yes that is an affiliate link, my future reviews thank you), you can watch Trey and I talking around the Dorkland! Roundtable.

There needs to be a licensed Warlord RPG. Someone with a real amount of money needs to get onto it, and then hire Trey to work on it.

Judge Dredd: The Judge Child Quest

Judge Dredd is always a bit weird, particularly to those used to American comic books. Judge Dredd is sarcastic, sardonic, satirical and many other things that start with an S. Yes, the comic lampoons American culture on a regular basis, but that is a good thing. Sometimes it is good to have that outsider's view on what out culture looks like.

The Judge Child Quest begins with a dying PSI Judge and a prophecy: the child who bears the eagle mark will save Mega-City 1. In the future world of Judge Dredd civilization is in the hands of the Justice Department, and the Judges who stop crime and judge the offenders. A Judge is a combination police officer, judge and executioner. Their word is final. Their word is Law.

Part of the reason why I like the Judge Child Quest is because it goes across space and shows a much wider view of the setting than what we normally get in a Judge Dredd story. The story starts in Mega City, where the dying PSI Judge issues his prophecy and starts Dredd on a journey that goes to the Cursed Earth (the part of American still in ruins from the nuclear war that nearly decimated the world in the past) to Texas City to weird planets beyond the solar system.

Dredd sees a great variety of people at their best, and at their worse. Even more, the Judge Child Quest causes a great deal of growth in the character of Dredd. I do not think that the person Dredd was at the beginning of the story would have done what the Dredd at the end of the story did. Dredd always puts the well-being of Mega-City 1 before his own, but in this case Dredd puts a lot on the line, knowing that he has to do what is right for Mega-City 1.

I really suggest checking out the Judge Child Quest, if you haven't already read it. It is one of the best of the Judge Dredd arcs that I have been able to read. If you haven't read Judge Dredd, or your only exposure to the character is from the terrible Sylvester Stallone movie, I really recommend checking it out. DriveThruComics has a good selection of 2000AD magazines and other select Judge Dredd collections available in PDF form (currently on sale at the time of this writing). Yes, there is an affiliate code. It helps feed what I can write about on this blog.