Dorkland! Roundtable Doubleshot: George E. Williams and Jason Morningstar

Another double shot of my baby's love, or in this case Dorkland! Roundtables.

I spoke with George E. Williams (also known as Loki). You may know him from the Planewalker gaming site, or with his work as a freelancer on some cool Pathfinder material. We talked about his gamer origins and some of our favorite ways to prepare and/or eat alligator. This is the point at which I would say "it was a fun talk," but that is starting to become a bit of a cliche in my writeups of these Roundtables. I am enjoying the reveal of the things that make us similar as gamers, but I am finding those bits and pieces that make us unique from each other to be even more interesting to discover.

I think most of you know who Jason Morningstar is, after all Tabletop did do an actual play of his game Fiasco, and there are many, many more people who watch them than me. Up at that link some people play a game of Fiasco (although according to Jason in our interview they do get a few things wrong, but that's OK too), which is interesting to watch. I admit that I've seen Fiasco at some stores around town, but I haven't played it myself. It does look like it could be fun. He also talked about the origins and development of his latest (at the time of this interview and post) game Durance as well.

This was an interesting interview. We talked about a lot of Jason's games, but we also spent time talking about his interest in LARPs (Live Action Roleplaying, just in case there's someone who reads this blog and doesn't know what that means). LARPing is another one of those things that I have never done, but find interesting, so the conversation was of interest to me. I should look into finding some people involved with LARPing for future Roundtables.

So, at the beginning of this post I talk about discovering the differences that we have as gamers. I think that those differences is where the interesting stuff all goes on. Some would have you believe that there is this monoculture of geekiness, or even of gaming, but I think that these interviews start to show something different. Yes, there are points of similarity in us all...many of us entered into gaming through some of the same games, or we have some similar interests, but as time passes those similarities start to drift and become less and less important as we find our own voices. Nothing is as important as finding your own voice, even if others don't like it.

Dorkland! Roundtable Doubleshot: Steve Russell and Ben Gerber

I have fallen terribly behind on posting my Dorkland! Roundtables to my blog. To catch up I am doing a two-fer of Steve Russell and Ben Gerber. 

I spoke with Steve Russell of Rite Publishing. Steve's company is a 3PP (third party publisher for those not hip to the lingo) for Paizo's Parthfinder RPG, as well as having an upcoming game using the system from Erick Wujcik's trendsetting Amber Diceless, produced under license from the current rights holders of the game. Steve gave some interesting insights into being a small press games publisher during our talk.

and Ben Gerber, creator of the Troll In The Corner website and the delightful role-playing game for children of all ages, Argyle & Crew. We talked about returning to gaming, and taking that interest in gaming from blogging to design to publishing. Ben also talked about the board game that he is working on, that he hopes to find a larger press board game publisher to pick up from him.

Both were great interviews and gave some interesting perspectives on being a small press publisher.

The Magic World Cover

Magic World from Chaosium games is coming. Built from their historic and influential line of fantasy role-playing games comes a new edition of Magic World. This is a "generic" fantasy RPG that isn't tied to any one world or setting and is built from the foundation of Chaosium's Basic Role-Playing system that haw powered such games as Call of Cthulhu, Runequest, SuperWorld and Larry Niven's Ringworld. Here is a first look at the cover to come:

There is also further support for Magic World past this core book planned, so stay tuned for more to come.

MAGIC WORLD
Item # CHA2028
220 Pages (estimated)
SRP $26.95 (estimated)
ISBN10: 1568823657
by Lynn Willis, Ben Monroe & Friends

You can find out more about the upcoming Magic World at: http://www.chaosium.com/article.php?story_id=508 and http://basicroleplaying.com/magic-world/

Between this book and the new edition of OpenQuest coming, I am very excited for percentile-based gaming.

Fun With YouTube Analytics

As many of you know, I use Google+ Hangouts and YouTube to record interviews with various people in gaming, designers and publishers mostly. I also use them to run a couple of games and record them as well. I was looking at some of the anayltics that YouTube provides and found them interesting. I'm not sure what they mean to me, or what they should mean to you, but I thought that I would share them anyway. This particular table is over the last 30 days.

Video	Average view duration	Average view percentage
Dorkland! Roundtable with Rafael Chandler	9.64	16.95
Dorkland! Roundtable with Zak Smith	7.58	11.1
Masks of Nyarlathotep: Episode 1	10.45	11.43
Dorkland! Roundtable with Wolfgang Baur	8.27	16.06
Dorkland! Roundtable with James Maliszewski	14.73	23.37
Dorkland! Roundtable with Jason Durall and Ben Monroe	6.37	12.05
Dorkland! Roundtable: CONcurrent Q&A With Keith Baker	6.08	11.72
Dorkland! Roundtable with Steve Russell	6.34	10.58
Dorkland! Roundtable with Tracy Barnett	5.85	12.46
Dorkland! Roundtable With Kyrinn Eis	12.86	23.29

I think that it is interesting to see how long people are actually watching these interviews (and the one actual play video that made this list). It might not mean anything, but still it is interesting to see.

The gender breakdown over the last 30 days is Male 84.6% and Female 15.4%. I'm assuming that information is taken from accounts, but I don't know.

Terran Trade Authority Kickstarter

The Kickstarter for the new edition of the seminal British Science Fiction classic The Terran Trade Authority has started. If you don't know about this incredibly cool space opera setting from the 1970s, check out the Wikipedia page for a bit more information. This edition will featuring role-playing rules, in addition to the setting material, for the Savage Worlds game.

Click below to go to the Kickstarter page for this project.

Dorkland! Roundtable with Rafael Chandler

I spoke with Rafael Chandler, an indie RPG designer and computer game designer on my Dorkland! Roundtable. We talked about his game Dread: The First Book of Pandemonium (with a new edition coming out this Fall), his work in computer games, his first novel and his love of heavy metal music.

It is becoming a bit of a cliche, I think, for me to talk about how fun these interviews are, but there are so many different perspectives and playstyles at work in gaming and it is good to see beyond what you normally do and you normally expect from a game, so that you can see the perspectives of others, what others are doing out there.

Let's Talk About The BareBones Fantasy RPG

There's a new RPG on the scene, BareBones Fantasy Role-playing Game. Brought to you by the same minds that brought The Star Frontiersman fanzine and the reimagining of a classic science fiction RPG. Now, I am going to say right off the bat that this game might not be for everyone. BareBones Fantasy is planted firmly in the rules-light end of the game design spectrum, weighing in at just 84 pages. Now, for me this alone isn't a big deal because I definitely prefer games that are lighter and more streamlined in their presentation.

Starting off with the art, the art in this book is very good. From the color cover, to the black & white interior art, this book sports some very strong art, stronger than you often see in a first time product from a publisher. The cover is evocative and pulls you into the action, as if you are the next adventurer who is throwing themselves against the dragon that is being fought.

The layout of the book is simple and uncluttered, making the book (or the PDF in my case) easy to read.

Once you get into the game you will see that this is definitely a first game by the designers. Some of the concepts could have stood to have better explanations, the use of "levels" in the skills is an example of this. Some skills need levels, while others don't. While there are tables on each of the skill descriptions that tell you the skills level, and what the "rank" of those levels are (much in the same way as classes are often ranked in older editions of games like D&D), since all of the skill scores are converted into percentile ranks it seems a bit puzzling as to why skills need levels (outside of giving a hook to those who are used to more class and level-based games). There is also a couple of steps that go into generating the percentage scores for skills, and it does seem that process could be a bit further streamlined.

That, I think, goes to the core of things with this game. BareBones Fantasy is intended to be a rules-light sort of game, but it is definitely on the more complicated end of rules-light. It is certainly not as light as a game like Risius, or even a game like Over The Edge. This is not a negative thing, it is just that I think that some of the processes could have been further streamlined to make BareBones Fantasy closer to what some think of traditionally as a rules-light game. I like the idea of using the classic classes of most class-based fantasy role-playing games as skills, This is a great idea, and something that I have toyed around with myself. I think that taking this approach cuts out a lot of the complexity of traditional class-based fantasy role-playing games.

Mechanically this game is pretty simple, and things boil down to a percentile, roll low system.  There are various situational modifiers that can be applied to various situations, but the previous sentence sums up how you do things in this game. Whether it is a skill check, or an ability check, everything uses the same mechanic.

The section of the game dealing with the bestiary has all of the monsters that you would expect from a fantasy RPG, if you were coming from other, already established, games. I think that from precedence some of the creatures could have been broken down into greater specificity. The dragon entry, for example, could have been further broken down into various types. I like a lot of monster, and I like unique and interesting monsters that help give players an insight into a games world. The monsters in BareBones, while serviceable, are a bit more generic than what I personally like. The simplicity of creature writeups in the game, however, make it easy enough for a game master to personalize creatures to better fit their world. My main issue, I guess, with generic monsters, is that they do not have a sense of awe that allows players to turn creatures into adversaries rather than just a set of statistics that have to be fought against. This could very easily be something tackled too by the game master in an individual game, but it is something that I would have like to have seen.

I do like random tables in my fantasy games, and of the two offered up in the rules (Adventure Idea Generator and Random Dungeon Generation), the Random Dungeon Generation tables are the stronger of the two. Probably not as good as others that I have I seen, but they are good starting points for the game master to use in creating adventures for the character, while they are getting used to the game and the rules.

There is the starts of a setting in the Keranak Kingdoms. This is fairly traditional fantasy and could easily be further fleshed out by most fantasy game supplements. I don't know that it is enough to really start play entirely on its own, but I think that it can be used as a starting point. Expecting a fully fleshed out setting in a game this brief is probably asking a bit more than what is intended, so this is not something that I would consider to be a fault of BareBones Fantasy. Since most people are probably likely to plug in their own, existing, home-brewed setting, I doubt that the brevity of this section would be an issue for most of those interested in picking up this game.

So, is this a good game? I would definitely say that it is. Yes, there are flaws, but they aren't serious ones, and many of the things that I would probably have issues with would probably be easily handled with a house rule or two, something that a lot of gamers do with their games anyway. Coming in at just under $10 for the PDF this game is probably priced a little too high to be considered an impulse buy (I know it is for me at least), but it definitely would be worth the price. The commercial version sold at the link of the beginning of this post also has a low ink, printer friendly version with the fact that people will have to print this out in mind. While I would not call BareBones Fantasy an innovative game, it is rooted in simple and solid mechanics that will allow players and game masters to get to the game that they want to play quickly and easily. I definitely recommend checking this game out.

Necronomicon 2012 Interviews with Lakisha Spletzer and K.L. Nappier

This past weekend was Necronomicon 2012 here in St. Petersburg, FL. I've been a guest on their gaming track for the last few years, and I always enjoy getting the chance to speak about gaming and many other topics that I end up on panels for. This year, I decided to do a couple of short interviews with local writers that I have had the pleasure of meeting at the convention over the years. You can listen to these interviews here on the blog, or click through and listen to them on the SoundCloud site (where you can also download MP3s of the interviews). Both Spletzer and Nappier are self-publishing indie authors (although Nappier did start out "traditionally" with a larger publishing house.

Both talk briefly about their journeys as authors and share advice for other indie/small press/self-publishing authors, from the experience that they have picked up over the years of being writers and self-publishers.

Lakisha Spletzer

Lakisha Spletzer at Necronomicon 2012 by dorkland

K.L. Nappier
K.L. Nappier At Necronomicon 2012 by dorkland

I think that cross-pollination of ideas, even from sources that may not seem like they would have commonality (like the worlds of fiction and gaming publishing), can lead to learning new and interesting things about what we do ourselves.

Read Outside Your Comfort Zone: Paranormal Romance

This is the cover from the original hardcover edition.

Back in 2001, Kelley Armstrong did something revolutionary...she wrote a fantasy novel set in the modern day with a female protagonist, who happened to be a werewolf. Yeah, in less than ten years that manage to become a cliche, but this is where (for me at least) it all started. I found this book (I think it is up to it's third edition these days because I bought it in hardcover and I know there have been two paperback releases too) tucked away on a shelf in my then-local Half Priced Books (I miss them down here in Florida), and was blown away.

I've never been a big fan of fantasy literature, despite the best intentions of fellow gamers over the years, outside of a couple of authors that I enjoy (like Moorcock or Howard or Zelazny), so it is rare for a book with fantasy tropes to engage me. Maybe it was the female lead. Maybe it was the modern day setting. I don't know. It hooked me in and I've read every book that she has read since (which isn't a small number). Then I started casting around for other authors, and I found people like Patricia Briggs and Devon Monk. And I rediscovered old favorites like Nancy Collins (I consider her Sonja Blue stories from the 80s and 90s to be the prototype for a lot of the tropes of paranormal romance fiction).


Give Bitten a read, I think it will appeal. Armstrong is also not a stranger to gaming, being a fan of the Unisystem rules. Honestly, I think that a couple of the books after Drug Store Magic read like they were written from someone's game reports. I don't mean that in a bad way either. The byzantine background reminds me also, in a few ways, of the setting of GURPS Cabal. I like that the supernatural protagonists are not treated like monster, in the cliched way that many horror writers and games treat these sorts of things. In a lot of cases, these characters are treated like they are in a novel of the everyday but that everyday just happens to have werewolves, magic-users and vampires in it. Unfortunately, a lot of "geeks" wrinkle their nose at the thought that a book might have romance in it. I find that silly.


The reason why I wrote this blog post is to issue a bit a challenge to gamers and geeks: read something outside of your comfort zone, outside of what you might normally read. You never know where your next favorite writer, or genre, may come from. My suggestion is to start with Bitten and see if the urban fantasy/paranormal romance genre bites you.

The Eternal Warrior Appears From Valiant Comics

First came Ninjak… Now prepare for the debut of Valiant's next superstar hero — the  undying Eternal Warrior! Valiant is proud to present an advance preview of Archer & Armstrong #5 by New York Times best-selling author Fred Van Lente (Amazing Spider-Man) and artist Emanuela Lupacchino (X-Factor) — the FIRST ISSUE of "Wrath of the Eternal Warrior" and an all-new jumping on point for the series Comic Book Resources calls "refreshingly unpredictable"!

 

No one in the Valiant Universe is more dangerous or more experienced in the art of war than the Eternal Warrior. After thousands of years on the battlefield, he’s a master of strategy and weaponry, an unrelenting force of nature capable of dismantling entire armies with little effort and less conscience. His brother Armstrong, on the other hand, likes to read poetry and drink beer. Maybe that’s why they had such a bad falling out? But now — after years apart — the Eternal Warrior has a new mission: destroy young Obadiah Archer, Armstrong’s best-est new buddy and teammate in the war against The Sect. And, like it or not, Valiant’s history-smashing adventure duo will soon feel the brunt of the Eternal Warrior’s fist and steel.

 

The manhunt begins on December 12th as two immortal brothers go to war for the life of Obadiah Archer, only in Archer & Armstrong #5 - featuring a cover by superstar artist Patrick Zircher and interlocking incentive variants by Emanuela Lupacchino! And, comic shop subscribers, don't forget to reserve your Archer & Armstrong #5 Pullbox Exclusive Variant today — featuring a limited edition cover by Doug Braithwaite! Valiant will be maintaining a strict no overprint policy on all upcoming Pullbox Exclusive Variants, so pre-order now!

 

ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #5 - ON SALE DECEMBER 12th!

Written by FRED VAN LENTE

Art by EMANUELA LUPACCHINO

Cover by PATRICK ZIRCHER (OCT121228)

Pullbox Exclusive Variant by DOUG BRAITHWAITE (OCT121229)

Interlocking Variants by EMANUELA LUPACCHINO (OCT121230/OCT121231)

$3.99/Rated T+/32 pgs.