Scratch Factory

So Many Games

2011-09-04T20:37:00.000-07:00

GenCon 2011 really showed for me what different games can do.

A variety of game systems produced amazingly fun stories in the world of DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND, as I and three of my favourite DMs in the world ran our ambitious little "con-paign" THE JADE THRONE.

Four days, seven games, across four different game systems. How'd it go? Fantastic, which surprised me. I honestly didn't think it was going to work out, which is one of the reasons I most wanted to try it. For me, GenCon is a chance to push RPGs to the limit. You're surrounded by thirty thousand of the most enthusiastic gamers in the world, imaginative people who have come to Indianapolis looking for chances to do what they can't do with their home games. The perfect place for DMs to try out things that demand a lot of their players.

Or their settings. I wasn't at all sure that the proposed games of our mini-event were going to work well in this setting, but they did.

Feng Shui and Mutants & Masterminds, perhaps not so surprising. Old School Hack has turned out to be a reliable generator of hilarious awesomeness. But Leverage? A game designed to very faithfully reproduce the idiosyncratic story-telling style of a TV show about con men and thieves?

Yup, it worked just great. The REFORM SCHOOL NINJA GIRLS set out to confront Jihanna the Demon, infamous pirate queen, and as you might guess, wrapped things up with explosions, screaming bad guys and catapult-launched hang gliders.

DINO-PIRATES is a broad, pulpy setting, in the full sense of "pulp" as a "shapeless mass". It's about adventure, thrills, and delight, but the stories that take place there can come in all sorts of flavours. Different game systems produce different kinds of stories. Some, like Feng Shui and Leverage, are meant to emulate specific story-telling modes. Others, like Old School Hack, encourage certain kinds of events or situations. All of which mesh perfectly with DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND, which was designed from the start to support all kinds of stories and story-telling.

I've taken to running some DPoNI games using what I now think of as the "classic" rules; the ones based on Green Ronin's True20 game, and some with Kirin's fabulous Old School Hack system. I loved how the Leverage game went, and so I'm working on a Leverage hack for the NINJA GIRLS. DPoNI is never going to be a game the way Dragon Age is a game, or even Dungeons and Dragons -- it's too messy and unselective about what it includes. I think of that as a strength rather than a weakness.

We'll be posting the full story of THE JADE THRONE in the next few weeks (I hope), and we have even more ambitious plans for next year's GenCon conpaign. Zombies! Maybe. Or possibly lizardmen.

GenCon 2011 -- Games, Posters, and more...

2011-08-01T13:25:00.000-07:00

So I'm off to GenCon 2011 on Wednesday, and this is probably the last chance I'll have to talk about what's going to come up there.

THE JADE THRONE, mentioned in my last post, is all put together and just needs players now to bring it all to life. We start thirty years ago, as the Empire is collapsing, with ESCAPE THE EMPIRE, a desperate wuxia adventure using Old School Hack, as six great heroes try to save the last heir of the Jade Throne.

Then it's FREE THE FLAME GOD, as a DIFFERENT band of heroes (in the present day) try to stop an Imperial sorcerer from taking control of a fierce volcano god. What is he up to and why does he need a volcano? Also, angry ninjas.

After that comes the Feng Shui goodness of THE UNEXPLODED MONKEY, run by my good friend Matt, in which the machinations of the Impsalan nation can only be stopped by... GIANT ROBOTS. How could this possibly go wrong?

But wait, there's more! Jody takes the helm next for a Leverage game adapted with the REFORM SCHOOL NINJA GIRLS, as they strive to solve the mystery of "The Crown Jewels Job" -- saving the Imperial heir (who's still hanging around, it seems) from the clutches of the terrible pirate queen Jihanna the Demon!

Matt comes back for a second round, the ominously-titled WHEN SOMEONE ASKS IF YOU'RE A GOD adventure, which like the next game, known simply as "ENDS, LOOSE", will be largely created on-the-spot, based on how the previous games have gone.

But it all wraps up, regardless of how things go, with the APOCALYPSE KEY, a massive battle between giant robots, fiery gods, massive beasts and other titanic creations, all battling it out in the midst of a great Impsalan temple complex. While a volcano erupts.

It's gonna be awesome.

But just as exciting as this great project is the release of the REFORM SCHOOL NINJA GIRLS Limited Edition GenCon 2011 poster. We will be selling this for $20 -- and each purchase comes with a second poster of one of the girls, all with original artwork by Claudio Pozas, who will be illustrating the comic book.

Because yes, there will be a comic book. Debuting in 2012, REFORM SCHOOL NINJA GIRLS will be an all-new, all-awesome graphic novel of amazing ninja action. We'll have more updates on that as things proceed.

The Jade Throne: A DINO-PIRATES Event!

2011-06-12T18:44:00.001-07:00

This year's GenCon in Indianapolis will be hosting an exciting event:

The Jade Throne

This is a first for me, and I think for most of us participating -- a GenCon-specific DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND mini-campaign, with four GMs participating, running four separate game systems (at least) across six or seven gaming sessions. We'll have Leverage, Mutants and Masterminds, Old School Hack, DPoNI: The Animated Series and Savage Worlds all in effect. Good friends (and awesome GMs) Matt, Jody, Kennon and James are all running sessions in this never-before-attempted (by us, anyway) feat: to run a multi-session story over the course of "The Best Four Days in Gaming".

We don't know if it's going to work out. We don't even know how exactly it's all going to end -- we're leaving lots of room in our plans for players to throw us curveballs and introduce all sorts of trouble. We'll be making things up as we go, for sure.

Fortunately, low-prep games like Old School Hack and Leverage make it easy to "roll with the punches" and we're anticipating this will turn out to be tons of fun. If you're coming to GenCon, check out the announcement and sign up for any of the games that look appealing to you.

Old School DINO-PIRATES!

2011-04-24T16:45:00.000-07:00

Wait, how can there be old school DINO-PIRATES? We haven't even really established the first school, much less the new school to come after so that there can even BE an old school.

Nevertheless, it's here. Our friend Kirin has produced the rather awesome game Old School Hack, and it's a whole ton of fun packed into a mere 26 pages (including five pages of cut-out displays, a cover and seven character sheets). This is truly a game you can pick up and just run, right off the cuff. It's a lovely bit of game design.

And Kirin has done us all the very great favour of releasing it under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license, so anyone who wants can create their very own works based on it.

You can see where this is going, can't you?

Yes, there is a DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND version of Old School Hack now available. Choose from the Swashbuckler, the Sea Dog, the Ninja Shadow, the Ninja Sword, the Shaman, the Hunter and the Sorcerer -- all with their own powers and abilities. Imperials, DINO-PIRATES, ninjas and natives all in the mix. We tweaked the armor rules a bit, since heroes in DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND are more swashbuckly, less clompy and stompy.

The DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND setting isn't tied to a particular mechanic, and the rules aren't meant to model physical laws. Rather, the rules (both the "classic" DINO-PIRATES and these Old School rules) are meant to provide a structure in which interesting stories are likely to happen. So why not supply multiple rulesets? If you like one more than the other, that doesn't make you a bad person. Try 'em both!

All you need to do is download the original Old School Hack rules from Kirin's site, then download the DPoNI substitution for the DINO-PIRATE-y classes and abilities. Then yaaaarrrrr! You're ready for adventure among the islands!

Slimmer, Faster

2011-04-09T12:40:00.001-07:00

One of the reasons there isn't a downloadable version of DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND is that I'm still wrestling with the final ruleset. It's been one of those projects where the idea expanded to take on a variety of cool ideas, but in a couple of years of playtesting, the most obvious need is to have fewer rules.

So a bunch of things are going away. Nothing very core, but a few key things that will, I hope, really help to cement the rules (and in doing so, the setting).

Reputation: I really liked the idea of reputation being an alternate form of wealth, but it just made for a complex set of rules that never, ever got used. It's gone.

Adjustable Powers Stats: You used to be able to drop the number of ranks you put into a power, so you could bump your Resilience Roll. Too complicated. Even just explaining it was complicated. So it's gone. Your Power stats are all static now, but there's a feat you can take, "Resilient", that gives you a bonus on your Resilience Roll. Simple.

A Bunch of Feats: There were a number of feats that just made things complicated without being very useful -- stuff like "All-out Attack" that just made for MORE math at the game table, and again, that nobody ever used. And "Leadership", because I've always found that one annoying.

Also a Bunch of Powers: Some powers likewise got the boot. For example, Harm, and Pain. Harm is wrapped up in a new power called Pressure Points to mimic the common wuxia ability of "blocking energy flows" or whatever whangdoodle they call it when somebody goes tap, tap, tap on someone else and they drop down dead or freeze in place. So you can use that to either injure or paralyze someone. Pain went away because I find the Mental Grapple ability of Mind Link accomplishes the same thing (screwing with someone's ability to act with YOUR BRAIN) just fine.

And Then Just Some Tables, Too: We threw out all the Role progression tables and just included the formulas required for each progression. The formulas are simple enough and the tables annoying enough that hopefully that won't slow anyone down.

We've also explored a completely different ruleset, and will have postings and things about that, too. Stay tuned!

Princess PUNCH!

2011-03-19T09:23:00.000-07:00

This is such a great example of what I love about the Internet, I just had to post it.

If you've seen the trailer for Zack Snyder's upcoming film Sucker Punch, this mash-up will blow your mind.

Breanne Brennan has been making her own trailers from her favourite films for years now, which explains how she was able to put this together. I wouldn't even know where to start, even if I was brilliant enough to have the idea in the first place. I don't know how she finds the lip-synched moments, but some in this mash-up are just uncanny.

But what I think this really proves is the profound depth and quality of classic Disney animation. These brief shots are all (or at least mostly) so full of character and story that they make this admittedly silly exercise work. Close-ups of Cinderella and Aurora carry actual emotion, and draw you in even without the context of the film they come from. It's really a testament to how amazing that studio was.

The loss of 2-D hand-drawn animation is a loss to cinema. While I love the work of studios like Pixar, I'm glad that Miyazaki at least is still carrying on with beautiful cel work, but it's too bad the Disney studio can't find a way to carry it on as well.

Snyder's film may turn out to be full of awesome, or it may be overblown exploitationist crap. He's a talented film-maker, but I haven't outright loved anything he's done so far. But Princess Punch? I'd totally go see that movie.

Fiasco: Adrilankha

2011-03-06T16:28:00.000-08:00

So this fascinating game Fiasco has been popping up all over the place on my radar recently.

Made by Bully Pulpit Games, it's a GM-less story-telling game that attempts to produce the sort of knotty caper flicks well-typified by the work of the Coen brothers: Blood Simpler, Miller's Crossing, The Big Leibowski -- stories of characters with, as the game tagline says, "powerful ambition and poor impulse control."

So the game is built up using what are called "playsets", which are basically sets of story elements -- relationships, needs, objects, locations -- that the players assemble at the start of the game in order to kick off the story. A given playset reflects a particular genre or setting. So there's playsets that enable stories in modern suburbia, or a luxury liner in the 1920's, or the Old West, or Ming Dynasty China. Very cool stuff.

What I find really cool about this is how easy it makes it for folks to create new material for the game. There's no need to reproduce any copyrighted material in order to create a playset -- no rules, no stat blocks, nothing. Just lists of story elements, organized into groups of six. So they publish a new playset every month, written by all sorts of different people.

Being me, I immediately wondered about a playset I could create, cause I don't really get excited about playing a game until I've sat down with a page layout program and built myself some forms or something. I thought about various caper stories I loved, and realised that a lot of them had been written by the wonderful Steven Brust, and were set in the imaginary capital of his imaginary Dragaeran Empire: Adrilankha.

So that's what I used. It's a very narrow-appeal sort of playset, since only die-hard Brust fans will have sufficient background on life in Adrilankha to be able to build a game there, but it pleases me. I was able to get Devera into it, of course, and it includes a number of deep in-jokes if you're a fan of the Vlad and Paarfi tales.

Download the playset and check it out!

Barsoom Tales

2011-02-17T05:04:00.000-08:00

While it's possibly a bit gauche to be so self-promotional, I'm going to do it anyway, since Corey hasn't.

The Barsoom in barsoomcore has made a return. A Lulu.com version of the wonderful ENWorld story hour, Barsoom Tales was recently released, in it's entirety (and now, with more grandma-unfriendly language!) You can pick it up here at this link from Lulu.com. I actually recently did so. Yesterday, I finished re-reading it. You probably need to follow the direct link; for some reason when I search Lulu, I can't find it (although a Google search brings it up. Lulu must have a crappy search engine.) I just reviewed it on my personal blog, but I'd like to spend a bit of time talking about it here too.

Barsoom Tales is not exactly a novel per se, (despite its appearance as one), it's a story hour, and even Corey himself has said that that "genre" (if you will) is a difficult one to work in for reasons that cause it to frequently fail as an interesting read. Barsoom Tales is an exception to this; it is primarily the story of relationships; relationships between Arrafin and Yuek Man Chong, Arrafin and her best friend Elena, Elena and her good friend slash surrogate brother Isaac, to say nothing of the entire group's occasionally strained relationship with Nevid, Zuleika, Étienne and others. Sure; it still reads like a game report in some ways (plot often meanders reflecting players finding new focii to harry off after, main characters seem to come and go in occasionally unexpected ways, main characters can die in completely unexpected ways due to blown saves or whatever, etc.) But I think it's a good read.

And... the setting. I know Corey's been all about DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND lately (and who could blame him?) but I've always found his version of Barsoom to be a brilliant bit of setting design. Plus, it coincides very neatly with my own tastes, and when I first started hearing about Barsoom, it was eerily similar in many respects to what I was working on at the time (the very earliest versions of DARK•HERITAGE, the setting I've been tinkering with and running off and on ever since then. Even when I'm not; it's ended up being a cannibal setting that gobbles up almost all of the other settings I've done before and since, incorporates many of their elements and then spits out the rest like little owl pellets to be discarded.)

While there are some very obvious nods to the original Barsoom (red guys who wear nothing but leather harnesses, banths, lots of desert terrain, etc.) there are some equally obvious nods to Glen Cook's The Black Company; especially in that everyone who knows anything at all about magic (with the exception of the player characters, who have to approach it as neophytes after believing that there was no such thing) is scary, paranoid, and plain disturbing. These guys would get along great at a mixer with The Limper, Soulcatcher, etc.

My own setting design efforts were influenced by Barsoom in ways both significant and not. As an example of the former, I actually hadn't read The Black Company until I read Barsoom Tales (in its serialized ENWorld format) but its characterization of insane übersorcerers turned me back to Glen Cook (after trying but failing to read it previously.) That has since become a favorite plot device of mine as well. As an example of the latter; despite the fact that I speak Spanish and lived in South America for a few years as a teenager, it never occured to me to intersect my love of fantasy and my love of Mediterranean culture until reading of all these Saijadani characters with their cities of Pavairelle, Cadençia and others. I was actually quite captivated by the Old World, almost Medieval-sounding Spanish/Italian/Provençal names of characters like Collete de Orofin, Isabella del Maraviez, Philip de Guzma, Isaac del Valençia, Elena de los Santos, etc. My own Terrasan Empire, the polity under which much of the developed section of the setting operates, was started on this path by Saijadan--later coming to more closely resemble the historical Crown of Aragon.

And last but not least, while I was struggling from almost the very beginning of the Third Edition rules era with the D&D magic rules, which I didn't like, it hadn't quite occurred to me to be as drastic as Corey had been and just remove them entirely. The original Barsoom campaign started play with, basically, just the fighter, rogue, and expert character classes available. I'd like to think I would have gotten there eventually (probably at some point after picking up the d20 Call of Cthulhu book and deciding that I like every aspect of the magic system there better than that in D&D) but Barsoom helped me arrive much faster.

So, Barsoom is pretty significant to my own gaming; if I were to make a list of a dozen major influences, it'd have to be on that list (along with the original Barsoom, curiously). I like it. I recommend it. I think gamers in particular would have a great time reading a story that reads almost like a novel, but which has its genesis in a game session not unlike those that they play. And I think they'd like seeing how the gaming medium can be used for a lot more than the usually rather shallow kinds of tales that are the end results of most campaigns--the randomish drive to explore "dungeons" and ruins for treasure, or whatever. Barsoom really set a new benchmark in campaign play that is rarely equalled in most people's games (I'd venture, based on my own experience) and even more rarely documented so nicely as it is here.

More Clans Than YOU'LL Ever Need

2011-01-02T21:05:00.000-08:00

I make no secret of my love for Wikipedia. It's a great resource, and a great demonstration of what's awesome about people.

Especially this page of "Organizations in Wuxia fiction".

That's YEARS of DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND campaign ideas, right there. See, the ninjas of NINJA ISLAND are organized into an endless array of clans. And these organization names are PERFECT ninja clan names. Just reading these names triggers off thousands of ideas for stories.

What's the secret of the Yan Family Fist? Who is the King of Herbs? Where do I find Sky-Touching Cliff, and while I'm at it, how do I join the Carefree Sect?

Kingdom of the Golden Bird. Thunderbolt Hall. Dead Warriors of Qingcheng. Seriously, this list goes on and on, and every one of these would make for a great ninja clan amongst the islands.

Also, there seems to be a large number of, um, escort agencies. I guess heroes got needs.

The Heaven-Forsaken Nunnery!

On the left here, is a picture of Obsidian Tiger, who belongs to the Gilded Fang Cult. So there's already some pretty crazy ninja clans running around in the islands. But those ladies at the Heaven-Forsaken Nunnery? I shudder to think what they're like.

Bye, Bye, Size

2010-11-20T20:13:00.000-08:00

Size has been removed from DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND.

The d20 ruleset introduced a quantified set of sizes, from Diminutive to Colossal (or is it Gargantuan? I can never remember), with a whole host of modifiers to go with them (of course). They work pretty well, and in a game like D&D, where you're fighting beasties of all sizes and types, and where you (and your compatriots) might be changing size with some regularity, it's a useful thing to have quantified.

But it kind of makes life difficult.

Especially so with DPoNI's use of two defensive values, Dodge and Parry. When I combined that with the Pathfinder notion of Maneuvers, I had a bit of a pickle in that there were now FOUR defensive numbers that attackers might need to hit:

Base Defense (used for when you're flat-footed)
Dodge (Base Defense + Dex (+ Size Mod))
Parry (Base Defense + Str (+ Size Mod))
Maneuver DC (Base Defense + Str (+ reverse Size Mod (like Grapple)))

Way too much to be worrying about.

So I thought, why not apply Maneuvers against PARRY, rather than Maneuver DC? They're the same thing... except for the size modifier...

Now I did think about just going with the reverse Size Mod for Parry (it kinda makes sense -- bigger creatures ought to be better at Parrying), but in virtually all DPoNI combats that I've run to date, the characters are fighting other humans, not big (or tiny) monsters. DPoNI games aren't about fighting monsters, they're about awesome swashbuckling awesomeness, which doesn't depend on monsters.

So it seemed like losing Size wouldn't be a big deal.

I'm running a PbP with this revised ruleset, so we'll see how it plays. I've also monkeyed with the Damage system -- removed the whole concept of Fatigue (so now Powers deal non-lethal damage on failed Resilience rolls), and made the Bruised/Hurt level more likely than later ones. My hope is that you get more carry-over conditions (where a more serious injury is due to using up all the lower slots rather than just rolling really bad once), and that the Warrior core ability to remove all Bruised and Hurt becomes a more commonly-used ability (to date, nobody has ever used it in any game I've run).

So some quick rule changes. One of the benefits of an online ruleset like DINO-PIRATES is that these sorts of changes can be made without having to release "a new version".

Weather and climate

2010-10-27T08:38:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted on this blog in quite some time, but since my own blog is hosting a few protracted "series" of posts right now, it seems that an unconnected thought about running games might be more appropriate here anyway.

Today I left work mid-morning to go to a routine doctor's appointment. Walking from my building to my car, I was struck by the thick mat of fallen leaves that covered the sidewalk and lawn near the parking lot. I was able to take Hines Park Drive, a wooded road that runs through a long park for several miles, and I observed the fall colors all the way there. This has been a weird season, with temperatures cool in September and a prolonged Indian summer through much of October, so our peak color season was short and early (and unusually warm.) Today we were past peak, of course. Few trees were still vibrantly yellow, orange and red (although isolated trees or stands still were) and many in fact were almost completely bereft of leaves; their branches were grim, gray claws pawing at the sky. A few still had a handful of exposed leaves high in their boughs, trembling as their time to die comes due.

Some trees were still green, although it was a dry, olive green. And many trees are various shades of brown; tan, rusty orange, deep russet. It was a windy day, so leaves filled the air, passing a hundred feet over my head like deformed birds, while many others raced and danced across the road, chittering and rattling as they went. To complete the picture, perhaps heavy clouds like a mat of steel wool should have covered the sky, but it was instead completely clear; the azure sky fading to nearly white at the horizons and harsh sunlight bathing the entire scene in bright light that caused me to squint most of the drive. I put on some suitably moody old music (Ultravox's Quartet) and enjoyed my drive to the doctor's.

Weather, climate and seasons are an integral part of our day to day lives. How often, however, is that true for our characters? How often do we even bother to describe conditions at all, and even if we do, how often do we make that something that matters? What's the impact of traveling during the rainy season? In a hot, tropical forest? Up on a subarctic island? High in the mountains?

Almost every time I'm outside, especially in areas of interesting or unusual scenery or weather, I think what an amazing scene this would make for a fiction writer. Or for a gamemaster looking to add a hint of verisimilitude to his otherwise sunny, pleasant campaigns. And yet, I don't always remember to bring that kind of climatic diversity to my games when I'm running them. It does, however, cause me to appreciate the day to day small things in a new and unusual way, so at least there's that.

This is an easy detail to overdo… it's meant to evoke imagery, and occasionally prompt a thought of preparing for the weather or dealing with the consequences of it, not over run your campaign with worrying about details… are my character's clothes warm enough? Am I prepared to deal with malaria, etc.? But a little goes a long way towards making your games much more interesting.

The picture, by the way. I didn't take it. But I did drive right by that building, and that picture was taken a few years ago at about this same time of year. Maybe a few weeks later.

Trapped By Honour: 13 Assassins

2010-09-24T17:55:00.000-07:00

Japan has since at least the days of Akira Kurosawa's great run of motion pictures in the 50's and 60's specialized in gruesome, grueling combat, often performed by mud-covered, extremely weary-looking actors. From Inagaki's "Miyamoto Musashi pictures through Sword of Doom and on into more recent fare like Ryuhei Kitamura's Versus, Japanese action scenes have almost always been enacted by performers seemingly on the edge of panic and utter collapse.

Even Sonny Chiba looks pretty tired at the end of Karate Bearfighter, but (and I don't think this is too big a spoiler) he did just fight a BEAR.

Takashi Miike is hardly a typical anything, not even a typical Japanese film director (a notoriously iconoclastic breed). His films have ranged from completely insane to mostly insane, to pretty cool but with some completely insane parts. Sukiyaki Western Django was lots of fun but not very satisfying -- which is how I would characterize most of his work that I've seen. Fascinating stuff here and there, but at the end of the film I was kind of left feeling like it hadn't all come together as well as it could. Which, given that he makes four or five films A YEAR, is perhaps not very surprising. But still.

But when I first heard about 13 Assassins, his latest movie, something told me that this time, Miike was going to pull it all together.

I'm here to tell you: he did.

13 Assassins is magnificent. Bloody, gruesome, grueling, and wallowing in muck, the titular samurai take their declarations of honour with them into certain death and defeat. It's a hell of an achievement to have 13 main characters and keep them all distinct in your audience's mind, but Miike pulls it off. Each character serves a purpose in the story; each delivers a different beat, a different tenor to the impact of the film.

Maybe Miike needed to stop trying to be different -- this is as classically Japanese a film as can be imagined. In many ways, it's a remake of Seven Samurai (technically, it's a remake of an older film called 13 Assassins, but bear with me). There's the pulling together of the team, the preparation for the battle, and then the final overwhelming sequences of nightmarish brutality. But where Kurosawa's film takes great pains to situate the story and the characters in the larger world, Miike pushes all that aside. The villagers are represented in a mere cartoon of a headman, and have nothing to do with the story at all, and rather than outline for us very carefully the layout of the village where the final confrontation will take place, Miike hurls us headlong into a bewildering maze of narrow streets, collapsing buildings and transforming gates. The unfamiliar town traps all who enter it.

As Miike's characters are trapped by honour. Kurosawa's samurai agree to their adventure with eager hearts, and their mission is ultimately a positive one: to protect a peaceful village (well, relatively peaceful). Miike's samurai have their backs to the wall. Some desire revenge, others are motivated by a need to stamp out evil, but none of them are going on an adventure, and none of them have any way out. Koji Yakusho's Shinzaemon, the leader of the band, only perks up at the promise of death. It is that promise that excites him, bored as he is with a life of peace. A valiant death in a lost cause is exactly what he seeks.

Takashi Shimura's Kanbei accepts the likelihood of death, but his embrace of the villagers cause is an honest one: he believes all the way through that victory is possible. Shinzaemon doesn't care -- he only wants to stand in battle and test himself.

And at the end of each film, the lesson is different: the survivors of Seven Samurai accept that they have done what was needed, and they must move on. They can take pride in their accomplishment, but they expect no reward. They will not change and they do not complain at their situation. Whereas the final conversation in 13 Assassins is a loud repudiation of courage and honour -- the catastrophe that has just taken place has drained our characters of moral strength.

Miike's films have always walked an uneasy path through morality, always flirting with nihilism but never quite giving up. It's the same here -- despite the rant against the difficult and thankless path of honour, it's not clear that the sacrifices made in this film are to be viewed as pointless. But at the same time, it's not clear that they are selfless: as I mentioned, Shinzaemon is actively seeking his own death -- his motive for all this is purely selfish, only cloaked under a mantle of honour. He wants a great death; and while there are a vast number of deaths in this film, I'm not sure any of them can be called great.

But they are certainly gruesome and grueling, in that manner that so many great Japanese action films have been. It just has to be said: nobody can flail around in the mud like a Japanese actor.

See 13 Assassins. It is masterful, loads of fun, and subtle, despite the tremendous amount of bloodshed.

Cheap and Quick, Never Good

2010-09-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

There's a saying in a variety of industries when offering a client services:

"Cheap, Quick or Good: pick any two."

It seems unfair that in this world we can't have all three, and many have struggled against this eternal truth, but to no avail. If you want it cheap and good, it won't be quick, and if you want it quick and good, it won't be cheap.

But what if you just want it cheap and quick, and would be happy with BAD? What if in fact BAD was GOOD?

Well then, you'd have the DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND Villain Generator. With one click you can have your very own villain -- it doesn't come any cheaper or quicker than that.

The Villain Generator allows you to select from a half-dozen "types" of bad guys -- Artillery, Brutes, War Leaders or Lurkers -- that in themselves don't describe the bad guy, but rather give you a quick statblock designed to give your players a challenging encounter. You supply the description yourself, so a given type could apply to a wide range of potential bad guys.

Just decide the primary way your bad guy poses a challenge to the heroes. Does he deal damage while remaining safely out of range? Or does he have a passel of minions eager to die on his behalf? Or is he just straight-up scary to deal with face-to-face? Make your selection and the Villain Generator will produce a printable statblock chart you can use in game, with all the boxes for the damage and fatigue and whatnot. It takes seconds, and saves you ages.

Seriously, ages.

So here it is: The DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND VIllain Generator. Cheap. Quick. And very, very bad.

Not Really A Fan

2010-08-31T14:06:00.001-07:00

FanExpo is completely insane. It's full of, well, of fans, I guess. Fans of Star Trek. Fans of assorted anime titles I've never heard of. Fans of Freddy Kreuger, Call of Duty, Spiderman -- in short, fans of anything that might be represented in a ridiculous (or awesome) costume.

I'm not particularly a fan.

Oh, I like Spiderman well enough. I've been known to watch assorted anime titles you've never heard of. I don't really care for Star Trek, to tell you the truth, but on the other hand, I really dig Steven Erikson. But I wouldn't call myself a fan.

I wouldn't dress up as Steven Erikson, that's for sure.

So it's not so much my thing but I did in fact have a blast at FanExpo. I ran a couple of sessions of DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND, of course, that went splendidly (the PIRATE KING face-planted both times). Sara McMillen and the other great folks at TAG kept that whole arrangement smooth and pleasant, but I had an ulterior motive in attending this insane event.

I was looking for artists. And artists I found.

First up, I met Neil Chenier, He's a local guy working on a book called "Gangrene" he and his writer partner have sold to Markosia. He had pages on display that looked fantastic -- sort of gore-porn noir, if you can picture that. Severed limbs and trenchcoats a-plenty!

I walked around a bit and had my eye caught by this striking image by Eric Vedder, whohas an entertaining webcomic called Aardehn. I picked up a copy of a print of this image for S, and Eric and I got to chatting. Eric has, as you can see, a great classic comic-book line married to the sort of exaggerated form and high detail I expect from manga illustration. Very cool stuff, and his sketchbook was a prized acquisition.

Day Two I ran into the very charming Mark Rehkopf, and his astounding dinosaur illustrations. He builds full-scale dinosaur models! Holy Moses! And covers for the Prehistoric Times! Obviously I could only just restrain myself from slobbering all over him and his lovely work. I think I loved his pencil dinosaur illos the best. I would totally buy a book full of those. So evocative and enthralling.

A few rows over from Mark, I was yanked from my prehistoric reverie by the startling character pieces of Sanya Anwar. A lot of people try to do the Art Deco thing, but it was her expressive line work and knack for telling character details that really caught my attention. She described for me the new version of 1,001 Nights that she's doing, using folk tales from all over the world, and it sounds amazing. I couldn't resist, and ordered a commision from her which she turned around and made into a beautiful anniversary gift for S. Fantastic.

I was pretty much done by this point, but anyone would have been distracted by a comic book called Kill Shakespeare -- I spent some very pleasant minutes chatting with Conor, one of the writers. It's a fantastic idea and the first two issues are very well done. I strongly recommend looking this book up -- you don't have to be a Shakespeare fan to love it!

I don't know much about art, but heck, I know what I like. Which is mostly dinosaurs and chicks with swords. FanExpo honestly could have used more of both. And less Star Trek.

SLAVE QUEENS and PIRATE KINGS: DINO-PIRATES at FanExpo!

2010-08-22T08:09:00.001-07:00

FanExpo, next week here in Toronto, is a massive event with celebrity guests from all sorts of genres and forms. I'm not the sort of guy who goes for autographs or paraphernalia, so it's not for the most part my scene, but they are holding a RPG component this year, so of course:

DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND will be representing, with two games running: the classic SLAVE QUEEN OF THE RUINED CITY adventure (available on YourGamesNow for the low low price of $6.00), and the much newer (debuted at GenCon) PIRATE KING'S DAY OF RECKONING.

Both games promise plenty of swashbuckling adventure, terrifying opponents and the sort of rollicking good time that players of DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND have come to expect.

Wrecked on the forbidding shore of the SLAVE QUEEN'S island, heroes much penetrate deep into the underground labyrinths of the RUINED CITY to foil her nefarious plans, battling as they must mindless minions, terrible torturers and GIANT MONKEYS.

Meanwhile, the self-proclaimed PIRATE KING has made too many enemies on too many sides, and in his desperation has unleashed an ancient weapon of horrifying power. Can our heroes track down the misnamed monarch and force him to put down that cauldron?

Both adventures feature of course the five essentials of any DINO-PIRATES game:

Dinosaurs

Pirates

Ninjas

Monkeys

Robots

Come on out and enjoy some classic DINO-PIRATES action! And I guess you can meet famous people at the same time. Like me! Well, not so much famous, as, well, tall. Really quite tall.

Happy to sign autographs, too.

It's All About Philosophy

2010-05-04T18:31:00.000-07:00

DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND is about more than savage beasts, cruel enemies and wild adventure! It's also about PHILOSOPHY!

The parent system of DPoNI, True20, was designed to allow GMs to tailor their campaign's mechanics to their own tastes, so that nearly any genre or subject could be modelled. I've always loved these kinds of systems, going back to Fantasy Hero way back in the 1980's. I knew the style of story I wanted to be part of, and endlessly tweaked rules and especially magic systems to conjure forth exactly the feel I wanted.

So True20 provides the raw material, unformed, for us to build on. It also gives us organizing principles -- philosophies -- with which we can distinguish one type of magic from another. So we can have terrifying Imperial Sorcery, powered by secret incantations and sheer will, or we can have island shaman who speak to the spirits of nature to call fury down upon their enemies. A philosophy is pretty easy to define in True20: it has "canonical" powers, "barred" powers, some drawbacks and prerequisites. Here's a quick run-through of the philosophies provided in DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND.

Imperial Sorcery

As we say: "Imperial sorcery is the fearsome power used by the eunuch sorcerers, formerly at the behest of the Emperor but now for their own foul desires. Ordinarily, this sorcery is only taught within the Empire itself, and then only to trusted servants of the eunuch lords."

Imperial Sorcery is the only philosophy that provides much in the way of direct offensive power -- Elemental Blast, Pain and Drain Vitality all make these sorcerers effective in combat -- but it is riskier, with a higher Fatigue save and an obvious display associated with the power's use. Imperial Sorcerers are never subtle foes, but they need backup if they're going to survive. Most such sorcerers surround themselves with minions who will never hesitate to leap in front of onrushing heroes (remember that in DPoNI, minions can automatically interpose themselves. Handy, that).

Inspiration: This magic is based on a lot of the bad-guy sorcery seen in Hong Kong films like Dragon Inn and Swordsman II. Whenever Brigitte Lin starts waving her arms around and looking fierce, somebody's about to have a boatload of Imperial Sorcery dropped on them.

Heavenly Medicine

"Originating in the Empire, but now found throughout the islands, this set of powers revolves around restoring balances in essential energies, or taking advantage of imbalances. Exorcising ghosts, curing diseases and repelling evil spirits are just some of the heroic practices of this art."

More supportive and less offensive than Imperial Sorcery, Heavenly Medicine allows practitioners to restore health and even life, to keep evil at bay and to speak with spirits, but it requires a certain amount of paraphernalia and mumbo-jumbo to pull off properly. Practitioners are not at their best in rough-and-tumble action, but when they have time to assemble their materials and direct their energies. They can provide their allies with potent benefits.

Inspiration: Go rent Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind. Watch it several times. Also check out Mr. Vampire. This stuff is awesome.

Ninja Mentalism

"Amongst the ninja, many clans develop the mental powers of their adepts, allowing them to cloud the minds of others, or to focus their own concentration so sharply that they can achieve supernatural states of alertness or ability."

It's true; ninja can disappear at will, walk through walls, and lead their enemies into traps. They do this with the power of concentration -- their minds rigorously focused and their thoughts resolutely trained. These powers allow for the development of ninja characters who can perform feats of superhuman athleticism, or those who draw a veil across the minds of their enemies. Illusion, trickery and strength of will are the tools of the ninja.

Inspiration: Mostly Frank Miller's Elektra: Assassin, actually. Possibly the greatest comic book of all time, you know. Also a zillion ninja movies.

Shamanism

"Common on many of the islands, this form of magic depends on a close relationship with natural forces and spirits, as well as a fierce will to order external powers. Many tribes honour and revere their shamans, but it is also common for those with strange powers to be hounded from their communities and persecuted."

Control animals and the forces of nature (or "communing with" if you prefer the hippy version), shamans are capable of awesome feats. Especially in their preferred setting -- for the primary drawback of shamanism is the dependence on a particular location or type of terrain. Shaman characters must take the Power Focus feat, and limit their ability thereby. But with powers like Beast Link and Weather Shaping, they can definitely have an impact anywhere.

Inspiration: Storm from the X-Men, Beastmaster, heck, even Doctor Dolittle I guess. Those three would make a pretty fun dinner party, I think.

So there's a quick run-down of the philosophies available in DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND. Of course if a player has a concept that doesn't fit any of these, feel free to make up more -- or just let the player select powers and build a character without any philosophy at all.

Hot-Rodding the Hot-Rods

2010-04-13T20:36:00.000-07:00

So quite some time ago I talked about adapting my Hot Pursuit chase rules for DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND. Figured now was as good a time as any to talk about how that went, and the hot-rod approach I ultimately ended up with.

The original Hot Pursuit was reasonably thorough piece of work, including as it did a couple of dozen "maneuvers" chase participants could select from during the action. One of the problems I found with this approach was that my players were not conversant with those maneuvers, and so I had to do a great deal of hand-holding to get their actions sorted out.

Most times I would get them to describe to me what they WANTED to accomplish, and then I'd apply the appropriate maneuver to resolve the attempt.

Which is fine, and worked great. But it wasn't quite right for DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND. I needed something more stripped down. More hot-rodded.

DPoNI is already a pretty hot-rodded sort of game, with a lot of the fancy, comfort-ride-inducing features sawn off, and a number of scary-if-you-don't-know-what-you're-doing sort of attentuations and optimizations added on. It's not necessarily a "starter" game. A DM who doesn't know how to control a game could get kind of overwhelmed by things like the Stunt rules, or Conviction, if they aren't careful. Sort of like stomping on the gas on a customized Camaro -- SOMETHING's going to happen, but not everyone is going to enjoy the experience.

So how to build exciting chases into a game like this?

The first thing I did was strip things down. The big list of maneuvers that never got looked at except by the DM? That had to go. In its place, I included the already-tested Stunts concept. The original Hot Pursuit rules were designed so that a wide array of skills could be useful during a chase. With the Stunt rules in DPoNI, skills were already useful at any time, so that took care of that.

Unexpected obstacles are a big part of any chase, so I kept the Obstacle Check system, but instead of detailing each possible type of obstacle (which in Hot Pursuit determines the kinds of maneuvers that will be effective), DPoNI leaves the nature of the obstacle entirely up to the DM.

Finally, I threw out all the opposed checks that Hot Pursuit operated on. Opposed checks have had a tough ride of late, but at least in chases, I knew a static DC was a better choice. Making it an ability check (Strength, by default) made sure that even at high levels, chases remain exciting.

Overall, the DPoNI chase rules retain the fluid excitement of Hot Pursuit, but by stripping out the power steering and comfortable shock absorbers, they transmit the power of the narrative directly to the DM and the players.

"Hot-Rod" rules demand more from the people using them -- more imagination and more judgement. I guess that's why I like them.

Photo: Joe Zlomeck.

Settings: for fiction or gaming?

2010-04-05T10:53:00.000-07:00

It's been a truism of my experience that many of the settings that I love from fiction aren't particularly well-suited for roleplaying, and settings that are great for roleplaying aren't necessarily well suited for fiction.

I don't know if this is a true truism, or just an artifact of my experience, though. Certainly plenty of folks have loved roleplaying in settings such as Middle-earth, Star Wars and others, and both TSR and later Wizards of the Coast have popular and profitable novel lines set in their most popular roleplaying settings such as Dragonlance, the Forgotten Realms and Eberron.

I do think that there are some characteristics of a good roleplaying setting and a good fiction setting that set them at odds with each other, though… perhaps making a great setting for one venue poorly suited for the other, at least without a fair bit of work to shoehorn elements in that may not have been there originally.

The most obvious element is that a good roleplaying setting demands a certain level of stasis. It's difficult to find a great roleplaying game in the Star Wars setting in the midst of the Galactic Civil War, which is technically the setting of the original trilogy of movies. Why? Because the best, most crucial, most transformative stuff is being handled by a bunch of NPCs. Luke and Han and Leia and all those guys; they're the ones leading the fight to bring down the Empire and usher in an era of freedom. In the face of that, any game characters played by your group are stuck playing second fiddle.

There are workarounds, but none of them are easy. You can run an alternate history game. You can say that Luke and Han and Leia never happened, or never amounted to much. Leia was never rescued by Luke, because the droids were shot down out of their escape pod after all. Luke went on living a peaceful yet unsatisfying life as a moisture farmer. Han kept smuggling for Jabba until he either sorted out his differences, or bit off more than he could chew and ended up on the butt-end of some bounty-hunter's blaster. Meanwhile, the stolen Death Star schematics somehow came into the hands of the PCs… who now have to be the leaders of the Resistance themselves. Is Star Wars just as compelling a story if it has different characters; different actors?

Or, you could separate them from the movies in time or space. The Knights of the Old Republic roleplaying games for the Xbox and PC did this by going back in time some 3,000 odd years, and essentially rebuilding the Star Wars setting from scratch. This is a satisfying exercise if you enjoy tinkering with settings and putting your own stamp on them (I do) but it's a lot of work, and goes a long way towards defeating the purpose of using an established setting in the first place. To be better suited as a roleplaying setting, the setting needs to be more static; waiting for the PCs to put their stamp on it.

Oddly enough, I don't think a lot of people who use static RPG settings really take advantage of letting the PCs put their stamp on stuff. I think a good setting also needs to be vibrant. If there's an implied threat; one nation is wanting to invade another, it's kinda lame that that threat just sits there statically while the PCs are off doing something else entirely. All too often, the PC's actions are nothing more than maintaining the status quo in the face of bad guys who want to change it. I tend to rather like big plots in my games. Invasions, death and succession, game-changing events of various stripes; that's the stuff a lot of folks like in their fantasy novels, why not in their games too? Of course, this means published, static settings are going to be less useful, as you're going along making all kinds of changes to them.

Of course, I almost never use published static settings. For this very reason.

That said, I think there's also an undervaluation of the "small" campaign, both in fiction and in roleplaying games. Why do we have to always "save the world?" Why do we have to do anything big at all? Why is that a feature of the fantasy genre, both in gaming and in fiction?

I honestly am not 100% sure. Another genre I like to read is mainstream thriller stuff. Y'know, Robert Ludlum, John Le Carre, guys like that. Although sometimes they do huge, game-changing type of events, mostly they don't. The success or failure of their protagonists are just one more statistic in the tapestry of the real-world setting. Sometimes, yeah, there's resurgent Nazis, the threat of nuclear destruction, or other things like that, but mostly the changes that happen in this genre are small. That doesn't make the stories they tell any less exciting, dramatic or moving, though.

Anyway, I feel like I'm reaching the stage of my post where I'm starting to ramble, so I'll leave off and leave the question open-ended for the peanut gallery. What makes a setting good for roleplaying? What makes a setting good for fiction? Can the same setting serve both purposes equally well?

Creating "That Feel"

2010-04-03T16:14:00.001-07:00

In one of my earliest campaigns (Hi Glenn!) my co-DM and I decided to send our party to an "alternate universe".

Hey, it seemed like a pretty cool idea in 1985.

Anyway, we'd run a few sessions in this new world when Glenn came to me and said, "This isn't working."

"What?" I said, "It's going great. They're all after the paintings, and we've got this whole dungeon worked out..."

"No, no. That stuff's all fine. It's the universe. It's no good."

I was mystified.

"It's not DIFFERENT. They're in ANOTHER UNIVERSE, but it just feels like the same old same old. Same monsters. Same weapons. Same everything. We have to make it different."

We did a bunch of stuff: we changed the technology so that the primary weapon types were different, we drew a new map with new place names and we changed a bit of the window-dressing around magic. We threw out all the existing monsters -- and Glenn figured out we could use the same statistics for a critter but completely change its description, so the players would have no idea what they were fighting.

But the best thing we did was we changed the names.

It was not entirely successful, since we hadn't put much thought into the names of the "original" universe, so it was the usual fantasy mish-mash of Latin-sounding, Anglo-Saxon stuff with lots of vowels for the elves. And lots of "K"s for the dwarves.

But for this world, we made up naming conventions for the different places. Inspired by a Dragon article, I came up with phoneme collections for the various locales, so that Osgipur names would be mostly generated from "ur"s, and "gip"s and whatnot, while Maeloch names had "och"s and so on. It sounds goofy, but at the time it really helped us deliver the idea that this place was all new to our heroes.

Creating a world is one of the things I find most exciting and rewarding about being a DM. You want to instill a sense of wonder in your players, but it's so easy to get caught up in grinding hit points, positioning and buffs and all that tactical stuff, that the "window-dressing" can get given pretty short shrift. Which in small doses isn't such a bad thing; you don't want to interrupt every action in combat with a discussion of how unusual the architecture is around here. But if too many sessions go by without that sort of ambience or flavour, your game starts to lose the unique spark that got your players excited in the first place.

I've always found names to be far and away the most useful way to establish the sort of atmosphere I want. Like Robert E. Howard, I make use of existing cultural associations to evoke particular ideas in my players. My scheming manipulators had Italian-sounding names while the imperialistic worshippers of a god-king sounded Egyptian. And I mix it up; my nomadic horse tribes used Aztec names. When running a campaign, one of my most trusted tools is a few pages of names for all my cultures, so that if I have to come up with an NPC on the fly, they'll have a name consistent with their origin.

You can go too far with this sort of thing, of course, and see your setting descend into mere cartoonishness, but I've always found that distinctive naming conventions the single best way to make my campaigns stand out. Probably why I still have this soft spot for Exalted, even after some very painful efforts to actually play it. Some cool-ass names in Exalted.

In the "Wish I'd Thought Of It" Category...

2010-03-21T14:42:00.000-07:00

It's just such a good idea. DMs are a persnickety lot, picking and choosing from the entire history of fantasy, sci-fi, and, uh, history. No DM just runs a campaign the way it's "supposed" to be run, and all the exceptions, additions, house-rules, hand-waves and addendum could never be anticipated or tracked by anyone.

But I never knew a DM who couldn't use a little help staying organized.

Which is where the very clever folks over at Obsidian Portal have staked their turf. Over at the "OP" (as those of us in the know like to call it (actually, I just made that up)), you can sign up, create your own campaign site, and BOOM -- you've got a site complete with adventure log, forums, a place to keep maps and all that good stuff. It's seriously really cool.

Looks like a great place to run a PbP campaign, but even for face-to-face games this is gonna be really useful. I mean, basically it's just a wiki with a few bells and whistles, but the bells are well-thought-out and the whistles carefully placed.

And, by the way, they also support DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND as a game system.

Too Slow! But I Don't Care

2010-03-11T21:16:00.001-08:00

The Mad Pulp Bastard beat me to it, but the second I saw these I thought, "I would so read every issue and wait in the bookstore for next month's to arrive."

I mean, damn. I can remember spending hours lying on my stomach with a pad of paper and some coloured pencils, drawing scene after scene of cool planes blowing stuff up. This is what is best in life. Damn.

What a great imaginative boost these images are. I gotta fire up that WWII d20 Modern game I was thinking about. You know, the one where they parachute into Italy, and have to make the rendezvous with the sexy Resistance agent who leads them to the bridge that they MUST secure or the entire Allied advance is going to come to a crashing halt? Yeah, that one...

In other news, I'm off to Gryphcon in a couple of weeks to run a new DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND game -- only a couple of slots left so if you're gonna be in Guelph, sign up! I'll also be running a few games at Anime North in May. Shaping up for a busy spring!

Everybody Loves Orcs (Except Me)

2010-03-04T17:43:00.000-08:00

They do.

Orcs are so handy. I mean, as a concept. One of the more offensive aspects of D&D-style fantasy is how races all get assigned particular personalities and natures. It really just sort of supports the whole notion of ethnic profiling, only this is even worse -- whole species getting branded with a single character.

But virtually every fantasy RPG has "orcs" of some fashion or other, mainly in order to provide bad guys that nobody needs to feel bad about killing a lot. D&D of course has a dozen or so variations on the "orc" theme, all twisted and evil in different ways, but all needing killing. A lot. Hobogblins, gnolls, mongrelmen, whatever you call them, they're just human beings who have no right to live, and so delivering them to death is what good guys do.

Personally, I find it boring. Why would any sentient race NOT develop the breadth of personalities and philosophies that human beings do? Most of these races are described in such a pathetically narrow way that it's really impossible to imagine. Hobgoblins like order and discipline. Goblins are impish and savage. And so on. There cannot be thoughtful gnolls, orcs are never swayed by appeals to compassion or long-term interest. These races are thin, amateurish cartoons of human beings -- which can work in some games, to be sure (Kobolds Ate My Baby, for one (by the way, Kobolds Ate My Baby is, like, the greatest game EVER, if you don't know)).

I like what Joshua has done with his last few campaigns -- the "monstrous" humanoids are just other races and everyone more or less kinda sorta gets along. Works best without elves, of course, but then so much does. Let's not discuss elves.

Anyway, the monstrous races are almost always used as this cheap way to have thrills without cost. Like the demons in Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- technically, right, they're demons, so Buffster can just murder them right left and center and never feel a twinge of guilt, but... A lot of the demons that start turning up seem awfully... not so terrible. Just kind of plain folks, really, who have a line or three and then get Buffercized. And then there seem to be some demons that don't ever get killed, and just hang out with everyone else. I don't get it, but more to the point, I don't LIKE it (I guess that's coming clear), since it sucks all the actual human drama out of the situation. All the killing ceases to matter, ceases to be exciting on anything other than the most trivial of levels.

Which, again, is fine in a cartoon where kobolds are running around stealing babies. But for a game I'm going to invest the time to run a campaign in, insufficient.

Which is why DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND doesn't have any races other than people. People are good. You have people, you have everything.

All that aside, Claudio did a pretty awesome job on this half-orc picture. That guy looks MEAN.

DINO-PIRATES at GryphCon!

2010-03-03T19:44:00.000-08:00

DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND games are popping up all over the place. In a few weeks, we'll be running yet another edition of MONKEY WARRIORS OF THE WALKING SWORD at this year's GryphCon event up in Guelph.

You can sign up for the event online. Our kick-off time is 7:00pm, Saturday, March 27.

We had a great session at last month's SpellStorm convention, and are really looking forward to hanging out with the good folks in Guelph for a weekend of gaming fun.

Hope to see you there! Tell your friends!

You Just Can't Explain Some Things

2010-02-27T16:23:00.000-08:00

This is via Electronic Cerebectomy:

I've discussed my love for the Muppets elsewhere. This is just such a great expression of the incredible miracle that happens whenever we let ourselves embrace a story. Allowing oneself to be moved by something one KNOWS to be a lie is at the core of what it means to be human.

I miss you, Jim. Thanks.

More silliness

2010-02-24T08:11:00.001-08:00

barsoomcore has blogged here in the past about the concept of silliness bringing people together. In that vein, here's some guy named Matt, dancing all over the world.

Keeping it Small

2010-02-16T16:36:00.000-08:00

So I only recently came across this concept, but it's just so awesome:

The One-Page Dungeon

So amazingly awesome. Apparently it originated with this character David Bowman ("Dave? What are you doing, Dave?"), and this year's version of the contest is being run by a gentleman name of Alex Schroeder.

It's such a fantastic idea. I love everything about this. Constraints are essential to creativity, but so often, the only constraint on a GM is time. You've got a game on Saturday, you gotta get things ready, so there's your constraint. But something more formal, even if it's as ad-hoc as "you have to fit everything on one page", really strikes a chord with me. I find it so much harder to be creative if I don't put some constraints on my thinking. Inspiration so often comes out of limitations.

Now, you can take the whole idea a little further than I would, but it's still a brilliantly useful tool.

So brilliant, that we're pleased to announce that Scratch Factory Productions will be donating a copy of SLAVE QUEEN OF THE RUINED CITY as a prize for the contest winners. So break out the pencils, or the Photoshop, or whatever, and put down a page. On the left I've done up one of my own -- Flintwater's Lair, a secret grotto where the dread pirate Flintwater keeps his sloop of war, his hearty crew, and his booty. Yar. I've added Flintwater's lair to the burgeoning DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND setting wiki, which hasn't been announced yet but is gonna be soon, 'cause it's awesome.

What other creative constraints strike you as useful for DMs looking for inspiration?

DINO-PIRATES in T.O.!

2010-02-12T15:28:00.000-08:00

DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND will be one of the games taking place at next weekend's SpellStorm convention here in Toronto. I'll be running MONKEY WARRIORS OF THE WALKING SWORD for up to seven fortunate souls on Saturday, Feb 20. This will be the first time running this adventure in Toronto, so this is a great chance to come see what DINO-PIRATES is all about.

You can sign up online: it's only $5 to register for the game.

About SpellStorm: SpellStorm is back for its second year! Once again at Oakham House, Ryerson University, Spellstorm is the only Toronto area convention that puts gaming first. Come join us February 19-20 for 5 slots of tabletop gaming fun.

Why Games Make Crappy Stories

2010-02-06T14:29:00.000-08:00

So I was reading a "Story Hour" (the accepted term for stories that are in some way or other the output or creation of a game), and it wasn't great.

I mean, the game was probably lots of fun, and the writer was reasonably talented, so it was acceptable as far as all that goes. But it was rock-solid dull. No amount of wit or adventure could save it from its own inherent dullness.

I struggled with why that might be, and realised that in the story, our hero had no interesting relationships with other characters. The story was really just a recounting of one person's accomplishments or failures, whatever those may be, but with no sense of who mattered to this person. There was no sense that and of this person's relationships had the potential to transform the character.

And great stories are exactly about that: about transformative relationships.

So then, why so many crappy stories?

Relationships are really really really hard to model in a game -- especially a game where the modelling focuses much more on either physics or narrative structure (narrative being the darling of the current crop of game invention). But relationships are first of all, much more complicated than either phsyics or narrative. People are complicated, and nowhere more so than in how they relate to other people. Our feelings for others are so often a tangled ball of emotions and experiences and expectations that even the simplest, most mundane relationships can explode unexpectedly.

Second, and perhaps more important, playing relationships at the game table can be pretty awkward. Especially if you want to get to the kinds of emotions that drive fantastic stories. Imagining trying to play out Hamlet vs Gertrude with your buddy. How could you possibly play all the conflicting and horrifying emotions that are rocking those two people in that scene? Just even describing such things is going to be hard and weird.

And yet, stories that don't push the characters' relationship to the edge are stories that don't much grasp hold of the reader.

At the same time, most games reward individual success more than group success -- whether through the acquisition of experience points or wealth, and the then game-significant impact of those rewards. In most games, the best policy is to play a heartless psychopath who unthinkingly betrays his colleagues. You're more likely to end up with a powerful character if you take that approach, at least, so having your character possess strong connections to other characters is disincentivized.

So, there's no hope? Games can only produce crappy stories?

Not entirely. I've been in some games that have included potent relationships -- mostly between characters who are friends, and then an opportunity for one to let the other down emerges, and tension ensues.

This is one of reasons I like character generation systems that encourage connection between characters prior to the game beginning. A group of characters who are all old friends, or at least part of a larger group of friends or relations, makes for more immediate drama right off the bat.

Take for example Joshua's latest Freeport game: the characters include Ricardo the suave womanizer and his long-time partner in crime, Lash the greedy hobgoblin. These two have stuck together through thick and thin, and just having that decision made ahead of the game helps to defuse the Heartless Psychopath type of characterization. Another pair of characters in the game likewise started out with a past, and unsurprisingly, the party is partly split into these two groups. So it's an interesting dynamic from the get-go, and there's opportunities for further interesting things to happen.

This was my favourite thing about Spirit of the Century -- the idea of having the characters all assembled via a series of pulp novel blurbs is sheer genius. So of course I stole it for DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND.

Are there other mechanics that can successfully model the sorts of intense relationships that characterize great stories?

Photo by Dimitri Castrique

RPG Theory: Episodic vs. serial format

2010-01-11T11:24:00.001-08:00

Here's three models of how to run a campaign. Terminology borrowed, again, from other media. This is based on some of the discussion that came out of the game-runner's chat, again (shout out to Kirin for organizing it… you demanding attention whore, you.) This isn't exactly rocket science, but it helps to have this stuff spelled out and written down, as a take-off point to deeper discussion, hopefully.

Episodic: This is like a classic TV show. Each episode is a self-contained story arc, and events in one episode have little to no impact on what comes in subsequent episodes. Like The A-Team or Knight Rider (to use some examples from my childhood) if you missed an episode or two (or more) it didn't really matter, as long as you knew who the characters were, what the basic premise of the show was, and a few other key things like that.

Using this model for roleplaying games is a nice one, especially if 1) you're using published modules that don't necessarily have any linkages between them, and/or 2) characters (and possibly players) have a tendency to come and go, and the same cast of characters can't be counted on to be integral to each episode. I.e., if you've got someone who's attendance is spotty because of a difficult work schedule, working his character in on the nights that he's available is easy if you follow this model, as is assuming that said character simply isn't available on nights when the player can't make it.

Serial: This model, on the other hand, assumes that the campaign is one, giant narrative arc. Much more "real life" in feel, it's not broken up into discrete episodes, and stuff from the very beginning, or anywhere else throughout the campaign can be relevent throughout. This model isn't really well represented by other media, although shows like Lost or Alias probably come closest, since the "episodes" are discrete broadcasting chunks, but not necessarily episodes in the classic sense, with a discrete beginning, middle and end. This campaign model is best suited for very regular play with very regular players who really enjoy the unfolding narrative over time. As with non-episodic TV shows, if you miss an episode, you could be in trouble and quickly fall behind, becoming confused by the narrative flow that's gone on without you.

These two models are really the endpoints on a spectrum, though. I'm going to suggest a hybrid model that leans somewhat towards episodic campaign play, as the ideal model for most groups to adopt. While I'm at it, I'll add a few tips on how to mix and match a few of the good points of each opposite end of the spectrum to improve the experience a bit. Feel free to chime in on what you like and why; i.e., what strong and weak points does each model have, and how they can be improved.

Hybrid (episodic): This type of campaign is characterized by a strongly episodic nature, yet it does have some elements that tie the episodes together more tightly than merely repeating the same characters over and over again. Some examples from recent fantasy literature include Harry Potter and the Dresden Files; each book is self-contained, and includes its own major conflict, climax and denoument, but at the same time there is a thread of "metaplot" that goes through each episode; it's not recommended that you miss one or pick them up out of order, for instance, although if you did you could stumble through it OK.

This is a good model for, again, the group that doesn't always have the best attendence. For most adult gamers these days, that probably means you; real life and outside obligations tend to make the regularity of gaming sometimes spotty for folks, especially as they pick up careers, families, etc. The secret to making this work well, I believe, is to allow the episodic nature to take the forefront, but make a few recurring villains or conspiracies pop up from time to time. Don't be subtle with these references, as time and occasional missed sessions by some players may not make subtle ties evident. Have an end-game in mind for some point down the line, although that doesn't mean you need to be in a hurry to get there. As you approach this endgame, you can have threads start to come together and wrap up; in the meantime, feel free to let them dangle until you figure out what to do with them. Despite that, the "main" action of each episode needs to be under better control; I prefer to give these episodes a kind of narrative structure, with defined acts that are characterized by their place within classic story structure; i.e., a beginning, a period of rising action/tension, a climatic resolution to the main conflict of that episode, and a small denoument that closes out the episode, ties up loose threads that aren't meant to carry forward, and points a bit towards whatever action might be next on the horizon.

Adventure Paths, as published by Paizo, could be a good example of this. Each adventure is an "episode" but you're not really expected to play them by themselves; they fit into a greater framework made up of the entire adventure path together.

In theory, you could also do a hybrid (serial) which leans more towards the serial model, and which might be more appropriate for a game in which attendance is not a problem, and you play often and frequently. However, I think you still do things basically the same way in that regard, with just a decreased emphasis on "closing out" episodes. In fact, I think most of the campaigns I've run probably approximate this model more closely than hybrid (episodic), but my group has frequently been dogged by attendence issues; we don't always have exactly the same crowd every time we play, and it's not infrequent that the time between sessions stretches beyond two weeks. I think this has made running that kind of game more difficult for me, so I'm leaning more towards "closing out" each session (or two together, tops) as a kind of episode that still feeds into a greater, bigger plot, but which has a greater degree of closure at more intervals than what I'm running now.

So any tips from the peanut gallery on how to maintain that great X-files esque conspiracy model with a greater story emerging from play over time, yet with more discrete episodes, I'm interested in hearing it.

RPG Theory: Techniques from other media

2010-01-08T07:33:00.000-08:00

Last night I participated in a chat/panel discussion on gamemastering with some other great DMs. One thing that I think happens frequently is that we understand something intuitively, but we don't really understand it intellectually. That kinda happened to me last night a little bit, and some concepts that I understood (and have even used) intuitively were spelled out for me intellectually in a way that I could better replicate them and understand how and why they work, I think.

One of those is the concept of the Fourth Wall in gaming. Part of the discussion turned to subtlety and transparency of things going on in the game. One very skilled and notable GM mentioned that he likes to keep things pretty opaque, because the "A-HA!" moments are a real thrill for all involved. However, a few people expressed that they'd had great success with making things more transparent and trusting that the players will maintain a Fourth Wall, i.e., keep their player knowledge separate from their character knowledge and play their characters "correctly" based on the knowledge that they would really know.

If you are going to do this, you miss out on some opportunities for surprise, tension, and whatnot, but at the same time, you gain different opportunities. One of the most notable techniques for any author of a book or screenplay who wants to develop tension is to create a gap between what the character knows and what the viewer (or reader) knows. Because the viewer or reader knows that something terrible is coming, when the character stumbles into it, blissfully ignorant, it creates a strong sense of tension. John Carpenter was famous for doing this in the first Halloween movie, for example... allowing the camera to pan over to where you could see Michael Myers standing there with a knife, while the unfortunate soon to be victim wanders about doing nothing to prevent it.

In spite of the fact that I hadn't really intellectually grasped that simple concept, I clearly had intuitively done so, because I'd done something similar in a crude way. Many TV shows with a horror vibe, like X-Files or Supernatural tend to start each episode off with a character who gets killed prior to the opening credits. I actually did this once in a campaign; the players had all made their characters, but rather than start playing with them right away, I gave them some temporary pregens. They I proceeded to kill them with a supernatural evil NPC that had very distinctive physical features. What the actual player characters later met this NPC, it worked wonders on the players themselves.

But those kinds of techniques only work with players who are willing to maintain the fiction of the Fourth Wall. As players, they're an interactive audience, but they certainly are not the characters themselves on the stage, and they need to keep their player and character knowledge discrete. Luckily, I've got players like that, both in my online games, and in my games at home when I run (we're starting another D&D campaign right now, where I'll be a player. That'll run at least for several months. Maybe I'll put a bid in to run again after that.)

Which brings me to my next thought. I meant this as a throwaway line, and I wasn't even sure how completely serious I was about it, but someone in the chat seemed to think that it sounded at least a little bit significant, and preserved it for posterity. I'm not necessarily interested in developing more breadth as a gamemaster; rather I'd like to continue to play with other folks who are already compatible with my preferred playstyle and develop more depth to that style. Make it the best iteration of that playstyle that I can. Do what I already do well even better, and not worry about what I'm not doing. Not only can one person not do it all, but there shouldn't be any reason why we feel the need to.

For the Modern Megalomaniac

2009-12-20T11:42:00.000-08:00

Note: If your maniacal bent-on-world-domination supervillain is NOT driving around in one of THESE, well...

Seriously, this is a piece of insanity that's either an utterly reprehensible use of resources and energy to provide a charming living space for ultra-wealthy wanna-hide-from-the-world-and-pretend-it's-not-my-problem types, or else it's totally awesome. I really can't decide.

It's beautiful, and imagine the state of mind of living in a place like this. Imagine paying full-time salaries for 20 people just to make your house operate. And I'm thinking whatever ocean you start in, you're going to stay in -- imagine taking this thing around the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn.

I mean, I don't know, maybe it weathers storms without a tremor, but it sure doesn't LOOK like something that will be at its best plunging through hurricanes or dodging stormy reefs.

But as the lair of a criminal mastermind and location for a final shoot-out? Yeah, baby. So many great possibilities in this space.

Welcome to my brain -- whenever I see a new place, I immediately evaluate its potential as a climactic location in a game. It's a gift.

I Screen, You Screen

2009-12-05T18:16:00.000-08:00

One of the things I love about RPGs is all the paraphernalia. Of course the polyhedral dice, rattling across tabletops, and on occasion miniatures (though I lack the patience/time to paint my own), but folders, charts, maps and especially screens.

DM screens are a staple of many game systems, and even though I rarely have papers or anything I want to hide from my players, I love those folding cardstock thingummies. One of my favourites of recent years is Green Ronin's Narrator's Screen for True20. It's attractive (without goofy illustrations on the front (although I'll admit, the illos on the old-school screen (at left) impressed twelve-year-old me)), and the design is well-laid-out and it's made from extra-sturdy cardboard so it doesn't get as flabby and useless as some other screens I've made use of over the years.

But as I pointed out a while ago, it lacks at least one basic necessary for smoothly running True20 (damage conditions). And as a screen for running the rambunctious sort of game DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND is meant to be, it's missing a whole pile of stuff.

So I've created a bodgery of a document that you can print off and use to update your True20 Narrator's Screen. It includes tables for the revised rules around Stunts, Reputation, Scenes, Minions and more! Just cut out the little boxes and tape them over the boxes indicated on your Narrator's Screen, and hey presto! You've got your own perfectly-arranged DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND Narrator's Screen.

Download now!

Attack of the Mad Scientists!

2009-11-20T14:56:00.001-08:00

Those of you who know me know that the bulk of my work is for those crazy Canucks at Fiery Dragon. For the past two months I've been doing work for their line of boardgames, the latest of which is the sure-to-become-a-classic "Attack of the Mad Scientists!

AotMS's author, David Cuatt, posted on the Nerdabout New York blog some looks at the different stages of the game's production, from sketch to cover. And what a cool game to work on!

The map has an old parchment texture, while the cover was made to resemble some of those old horror movies (with a name like "Attack of the Mad Scientists", how could it be anything else?).

So head over to Nerdabout New York and enjoy!

RPG Theory: Memorable villains

2009-11-18T10:14:00.000-08:00

Someone recently asked; what makes a great villain? While the context around the question was in a roleplaying game mileu, I think it makes some sense to talk first about what makes several fictional villains great from movies and books, and examine a few of the most iconic ones and what their appeal is. Partly because that's my own personal favorite mileu, and partly because it's one that's ideally suited to roleplaying games, I'm going to focus on villains that would fit in a pulp, serial, or comic book mileu in particular. Then, after I talk a bit about why some of these really memorable villains were memorable, let's talk about how to adapt those ideas into a gaming context.

Here's a few examples of what I consider really iconic villains; the kind that I'd love to emulate in my campaigns.

1. Often credited as the first "supervillain", Professor Moriarty is a great place to start. The first thing that made Moriarty compelling is that the superhuman Sherlock Holmes himself has met is match in the man. He's a prodigious intellect, and is a criminal mastermind, with his manipulative paws on all kinds of things that Holmes has to thwart. But that doesn't mean that he's a patsy to Holmes; what Holmes thwarts are some of his minor minions, not the greater schemes. Only in "The Final Problem" in which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle meant to kill Holmes off and finish writing about him, does Moriarty himself put in a personal appearance. Despite that, Moriarty recurs at least as a shadowy name in the background. Keep this in mind. It's going to be my advice, actually, to not have your villains make a last minute first appearance just in time to be defeated. But certainly there needs to be their mark, their sign, evidence of their handiwork in all kinds of problems that the PCs thwart.

2. Comic books are in many ways the successors to the pulp aesthetic, and they've given us some of the most iconic villains of all time. Doctor Doom is a good one to start with. Doctor Doom's appeal is in large part due to his charisma. He's got a very iconic and unusual visual image; instantly recognizable, sinister, and melodramatically villainous. Perhaps most importantly, Doctor Doom gets seen. A lot. A big part of the reason folks love to hate Dr. Doom is because they feel like they know him. He's not a mysterious shadowy figure who only gets seen occasionally; he's always showing up.

3. Along those same lines, I give you Magneto of X-men fame. Magneto's got everything Doctor Doom's got and more... he's also sympathetic. Especially since the early 90s, Magneto has been presented as a very reasonable, charismatic and personable villain, and sometimes you don't wonder if maybe he's on the right track and Professor Xavier is just a hopelessly naive hippy with his dreams of humans and mutants living together harmoniously.

4. Also building off of Doctor Doom but going a different direction, I give you Darth Vader. Just to be clear, I mean Darth Vader before the badly concieved prequel trilogy. Darth Vader only had about six minutes of screentime in the original Star Wars movie, but he made every second count. He was one of the first characters to be introduced, and he appeared throughout the movie. His notable traits include a very sinister, iconic and unique get-up, very casual evil (further built upon when he kills officer after officer in Empire Strikes Back for minor tactical failures). And as the series progressed, we can see the evolution of an iconic villain for the ages. We saw more of him. He became sympathetic. His fall from grace into villainy was shown as a mistake that in many ways he regretted, even though he could hardly undo it. Of course, Darth Vader is rehabilitated and repents (fatally) at the end, but that's not what made him so iconic. He was already iconic before he did that. Part of what makes him so appealing as a villain is that he represents temptation. When he springs the horrible surprise on Luke that he is his father, he makes him the offer to join him, overthrow the emperor themselves, "end this ruinous conflict" and rule the galaxy side by side as father and son.

So what can we learn from looking at a snapshot of a few iconic villains? First of all, the best ones are not one-dimensional. Even Professor Moriarty and Doctor Doom are given tragic, sympathetic traits along with their evil. Secondly, very few memorable villains only appear in the background. By that same token, Sauron himself isn't memorable; it's his war machine and his Ring specifically that represent Sauron's evil. Rather; get your villains up on center stage. Make sure the PCs have to interact with them in ways other than simply a big fight in which only they (or the PCs themselves) are left standing. Take a page from the X-men/Magneto relationship---sometimes, as much as it pains them both, they even have to join forces temporarily or find themselves on the same side of some other conflict.

Like Moriarty, make sure that they're at the center of lots of shadowy things going on. Sometimes random evilness is good, but more often than not, you should be able to tie a string back from that random evil to the villain at the center of the web like a fat spider, pulling strings.

Maybe we can get barsoomcore to chime in on his success with his Barsoom campaign's villains; all folks I think are very memorable.

A Silly, Silly Galaxy, Far, Far Away

2009-11-15T14:31:00.000-08:00

Did anyone think, when this whole "Internet" thing started, that what it would REALLY do is allow geeky science-fiction fans to share their fetishes so quickly and so broadly that they would start creating whole new media of their own?

Who foresaw fanfic? Or slash? I mean, in hindsight it seems so obvious, that if you design a set of interlocking protocols so that computers can pass data around in discrete packets, people will use that to share home-made pornographic stories about television characters. Duh. What was that Vinton Cerf guy thinking?

But it has to be said, the feverish energy of fandom, when harnessed properly, is capable of truly amazing things. It's a little bit old news, but still, this trailer for "Star Wars: Uncut" is pretty awesome. Hundreds of total strangers collaborating to produce a feature-length film (granted, they already had a script and a built-in audience, but still.

Star Wars: Uncut Trailer from Casey Pugh on Vimeo.

I've talked before about the essential silliness of the future, and this is more evidence that I am, as always, correct. Technology that enables silliness is technology that has a future. Note that "technology enabling silly" is different from "silly technology". Put Microsoft Bob back on the shelf, Bill.

The best part has to be the final high-speed montage, when you really get a sense of how wild people are being with the concept and how many creative solutions people are coming up with solve the problem of "how do we film our OWN version of Star Wars?" I remember plotting with my friends on how WE would film our own version of Star Wars, but the project was just too daunting, too long. Chopping it into 15-second clips is genius -- and generous. People WANT to do this sort of thing. They're DYING for opportunities like this.

Because it's silly.

Bad science fiction

2009-11-13T05:32:00.000-08:00

While barsoomcore has just told us about what makes good science fiction, I have to admit to a fondness for bad science fiction. For fun, I've read a few books on science fiction authorship and writing over the years, and most "real" science fiction writers are somewhat disparaging of the concept of a space opera; a science fiction story in which the science is nothing more than the trappings. If the same story could rather easily be transplanted into the Western genre with a few superficial amendments, in other words, it's not "true" science fiction. True science fiction has, at its heart, the science, and the plot resolution, and in fact the main conflict and thrust of the story should be dependent on it. In their words.

Of course, a lot of these books were written in the 60s and 70s. Post Star Wars people are not nearly so disparaging of space opera anymore for obvious reasons. Even writers of books about authorship are not immune to the siren call of financial success over integrity to a tightly defined artistic ideal.

And yet, even so, in the most apparently transient and vacuous adventure story, the fact that the work has characters means that at some level, there's an exploration of what it means to be human. In fact, in some of the worst of these novels, there's something salvageable along the lines of "what exactly is going on between the lines here where these completely wooden and bizarre characters are put forward as supposedly reasonable people?"

Some of the better pulp adventure stories "back in the day" were fairly obvious metaphor's for situations in our world... Leigh Brackett and C. L. Moore's native Martians and Venusians were much like the inhabitants of colonial Africa, Asia, or the indigenous Americans as the nation pushed westward.

Really, I think any science fiction (even the bad stuff) succeeds on some level, because by divorcing concepts from the reality to which they're so intimately tied in our perception, we can stop and have a look at these concepts in a more abstract way, a more objective way, and see where that gets us. I recently read Gardner F. Fox's Warrior of Llarn and Thief of Llarn, a somewhat lackluster Barsoom rip-offs (although the first book had a Frazetta cover and frontspiece, so it's worth it for that at least. I've attached the frontspiece for fun here). Llarn is superficially Barsoom-like as a setting, but one key difference is that it got that way after a devastating nuclear war. The heroic Barsoom-like state is actually a post-apocalyptic Dark Age for Fox. His hero, Alan Morgan, is a callous, dumb jock (written a little tongue-in-cheek, I presume, although the parody is subtle) which calls into question what kind of person succeeds at these types of ventures, really. And although he's certainly a very capable fighter, his greatest trait is his unbelieveably good luck. The nuclear war metaphor was a bit thick at times, but hey... it was the mid-60s. Hardly any science fiction from those times didn't touch on it in some fashion or another.

I can't exactly recommend the Llarn books... they barrel along without much in the way of character development, deus ex machina is a perfectly acceptable tool to keep the plot moving when a good explanation and exploration of character motives would take too long, and it occasionally pauses and does a tour-guide like monolog of some setting element or other that Fox wants to showcase or highlight. On the other hand, it's a very subtle dig at the Burroughs tropes and, like I said, there's a potentially interesting discussion to be had about why the book might have been written the way it was.

Sun, Not Rising

2009-10-21T19:48:00.000-07:00

Great science fiction asks us to think about the very concept of being human, of the human experience. Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Heinlein all took their readers on investigations of what being human really meant, by asking unsettling questions of the type "What if (insert basic assumption about life here) were no longer true?" Asimov's Robot stories ask us to consider if our biology is central to our humanity. Clarke's amazing Childhood's End challenges us to imagine a humanity no longer limited by our need to live on this planet.

Karl Schroeder's remarkable "Virga" novels are asking some very unsettling questions, and providing very few settly-type answers.

His latest book, The Sunless Countries, his fourth set in the bizarre landscape of Virga, pretty much asks the question, "What if animals could use physics simulators? What if a dog or a wildebeest could provide itself with artificial augmentations? What the heck would THAT look like?"

Which is just a pretty nutty question to even ASK in the first place. I mean, what?

So there's characters appearing in this story who can talk, who can make use of completely over-the-top technology, but who aren't sentient. It's a bizarre conceit, made possible only by Schroeder's vision of where technology is leading us: towards the capacity to perfectly model natural processes. When this capacity is trivial to provide, argues Schroeder, we no longer need reasoning to provide us with advancements -- we can simply model natural selection, accelerate it even, and the improvements we desire will be made apparent to us. Once this technology becomes all-pervasive, then any entity capable of desire becomes capable of transforming itself, of developing whole new forms of technological marvels. Entities do not need to realise this is what they're doing. They don't need to possess awareness, just desire. Just hunger. Science itself becomes obsolete when the model's predictive power is faster, more reliable and more available to all.

(that'll really piss off Glenn -- I hope he reads this)

Except of course that reasoning, coupled with imagination (and perhaps given structure via constraints) can always envision solutions BEYOND what the model is capable of predicting, of making leaps the model cannot make. And it's becoming clear that the story of Virga is the story of the last enclave of life that is directed by scientific reasoning and human imagination. Everywhere else, we are learning, has been overtaken by this "artificial nature" that provides everything to everyone according to their desires. Only in Virga do people still puzzle out solutions to their problems. And because of this, Virga is both desired and suspected. How this will all play out is yet to be learned, but Schroeder is telling a fast, compelling story that only reveals its secrets in small doses. Just enough to keep you dying for more.

Perhaps Schroeder is preparing an elegy for science, or a last desperate plea for a beleaguered mode of thought. It's been forty years since the Moon missions. Creationism gets argued for in international media. And science fiction has been struggling without a great visionary voice for decades.

Now it seems we have writers like Charles Stross and Cory Doctorow championing a new, positive vision of the world ahead, something at last tearing down the cyberpunk dystopia that overtook everything in the 80's and erecting in its place a bizarre new world, crazier than the craziest Amazing Stories cover from the days of Hugo Gernsback. Karl Schroeder is staking out bold new territory in this space with giant bubbles of wine, flying icebergs and balloons orbiting distant stars.

And a creepy yet compelling discussion of what "human" means -- even more, what does "sentience" mean and why should we worry about it?

The DINO-PIRATES Manifesto!

2009-10-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

Stuff is slowly but surely coming together. And by "stuff" I mean "awesome stuff".

People are coming on board. The RIGHT people. You know who you are. You, for example. Yes, you.

And so I'm thinking about what this thing is all about. I mean, of course there's dinosaurs, pirates, ninjas, monkeys and robots, and those pretty much speak for themselves, but really, what's in it for me?

Or perhaps even more importantly, what's in it for EVERYONE? Why bother?

So I'm working on a sort of MANIFESTO. A "What's the point of all this?" kind of document. Because as silly as the name is, and as ridiculous as the concept is, I really believe in DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND. I think this is a new sort of thing, a sort of thing the world could use. It's still a work in progress, but here's what I think I'm trying to do:

Create a fully-realised setting -- a fantastic imaginary world filled with fascinating characters and evocative places for storytellers to build from -- shared through a Creative Commons model that allows anyone to contribute to and use DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND in their own work.

So what does this do? Why would anyone want this? Well, it gives you:

Open and free access to a fun and reasonably consistent stable of characters and places.

A chance to show off one's creative chops in a variety of formats.

The chance to provide an example of an entirely new model for content development and collaboration.

But I can't possibly do it alone. I can do some writing here and there, design some game mechanics and maybe throw in an idea or two, but other people have to get involved for this to get anywhere. We'll need folks to pitch in on character development (art and writing), setting development (landscapes, cities, organizations, all that good stuff), editing, illustration, even programming and technology as we adapt tools like wikis and whatnot to our needs...

I'm reading Jono Bacon's "The Art of Community" which is helping concretize my ideas around what needs doing, and it's just getting me all the more excited.

Mad, am I?

I'll show them! I'll show them all!

[madlaughter]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[/madlaughter]

Atolls

2009-09-28T08:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a cool (and weird) image, of part of the Maldives from space. The Maldives are a chain of islands in the Indian Ocean, a little to the southwest of the tip of the subcontinent. On the other side of India, past the Sunda shelf (which incorporates the Malay peninsula and the large islands just off the coast; there is a gigantic flooded landbridge that connects southeast Asia and Australia) in the South Pacific, there are a lot of these kinds of islands too, called atolls. Atolls are formerly much larger volcanic islands, not unlike the Hawaiian islands, which have coral reefs build up around them, while the volcanic peaks, over millions of years, erode down and eventually disappear under the water. The coral reefs are a self-renewing resource, since corals continue to grow on top of other corals; after a while, the circumerence of the island is all that is left as a kind of hollow ring of low beaches and reefs, with a shallow lagoon in the center, which can often encompass many, many square miles.

Many of these kinds of atolls also feature dense vegetation, and some of the larger ones are inhabited in Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and elsewhere. Many of them, of course, are not inhabitated, as they are too small to support a population. In fact, the Tom Hanks movie Cast Away (not sure why that's two words, but it is) was filmed on an uninhabited island not unlike this (although it did still have a bit of a volcanic peak) from the Mamanuca island group in Fiji. The Mamanuca islands are about twenty islands, seven of which disappear completely under the surface during high tide.

A number of bizarre adventure ideas and sites for DINO-PIRATES suggest themselves by the idea of atolls. The Bikini atoll lagoon, for instance, was a ship graveyard prior to World War II, and now that the radiation levels from the old Bikini Island nuclear testing has faded enough, it's a kinda sorta popular diver attraction now.

Creatures lurking in the shallow lagoons, atavistic cultures isolated and marooned on shrinking islands over time... these are all great elements that could have a prominent place in a DINO-PIRATES adventure, if you wanted them to.

Just A Little Taste

2009-09-24T20:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, I don't want to say too much about this just now, and I CAN tell you that certain details here are already due to change, but look, there's a piece of the puzzle, okay?

DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND is going places. Some of the most amazing people I know are involved in this, and they're outdoing themselves. And it's going to be shared. I think I know how to handle the licensing so that this crazy setting can belong to everyone, and still provide sustainable revenue.

I've discovered something in my life: the more you share, the more you have to give. Generosity rewards with abundance. When you hoard and snarl and struggle to hold onto every little scrap, little scraps are all you get. But when you share your ideas and your time with others, they respond with THEIR ideas and THEIR time.

It can be nerve-wracking at times -- other people's ideas are often intimidating to me. What if they're not as good as mine? What if they're BETTER? What if they take over and everyone forgets about me? Forgets that it was my idea in the first place? What if somebody takes my idea and makes all the money, and I have never have another good idea ever again?

But what if I do? What if I'm a FACTORY of ideas? What if everytime I share an idea with someone, they share back half-a-dozen ideas? Great ideas?

What if I operate from a basis of confidence and trust? If I have trust in myself and the others around me, faith in our ability to generate great stuff, then sharing my ideas freely becomes the only reasonable choice.

I'm not talking about abandoning copyright or giving away money or business opportunities. But SHARING isn't about giving away. It doesn't mean I don't value my own labour -- it's the opposite. I value my ability to create, and so I have faith that what I create is worth something to others. I don't have to operate from a basis of fear and suspicion.

DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND is an imaginary world full of imaginary people. But it's worth something. I don't know exactly what, but I have faith. Wait and see.

A Moment Of...

2009-09-20T16:55:00.001-07:00

This one's been sitting on the burner for quite a while but I think it's done. I was overwhelmed by the preacher's speech in Lars von Trier's Breaking The Waves, and when casting around for something to contrast it with, came up with the soothing yet seductive tones of Monica Bellucci's discussion of ecstasy and pain. Once that pattern was in place, coming up with a simple piano riff and some string chords was pretty straightforward. I kept trying to dress it up a little but that never really worked. It feels delicate, like it needs room to breathe.

The simplest composition I think I've created so far. Steph says it sounds the most like me. You'll have to decide if that's a good thing.

A Moment Of...

Photo by somebody. License: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Oh, Ed.

2009-09-18T18:30:00.000-07:00

Dear lord, how I wish I'd thought of this. What a perfect opportunity, sitting there all these decades until some genius realised what could be accomplished.

Will it suck? Well, the odds aren't great, I guess. But will they make their money back? Oh how they will. My hat is off to these folks. Well done.

Plan 9 Teaser Trailer from Darkstone Entertainment on Vimeo.

Via The Mad Pulp Bastard, of course.

Conspiracy Mashups!

2009-09-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

I can't quite recall WHY I read Illuminatus! (or more properly, The Illuminatus! Trilogy).

Steven King may have referenced it in Danse Macabre (still my favourite of his books). It may have gotten mention in Dragon magazine way back in the day.

In any event, my 1984 Dell printing was pretty much brand-new when I got it, so it was a good healthy number of years ago. It was like reading a nuclear explosion. I was sixteen years old, and the most challenging stuff I'd read up to that point was probably A Tale of Two Cities. I didn't know anything about drugs, about hippie culture -- I barely knew anything about politics and certainly didn't get more than the barest number of the thousands of references scattered through this bewildering -- but hilarious -- novel. Shea and Wilson basically invent the conspiracy theory tale in these 800-some pages (and apparently that's with 500 or so pages cut out) and none of their imitators in the decades since has even approached the invention and audacity that makes this book so overwhelming.

Geez, was that all one sentence? Whoa.

"It was the year when they finally immanentized the Eschaton." What kind of opening sentence is that? The constant switching of narrator voice -- at points it's actually impossible to tell anymore who's speaking, and what point of view we're supposed to think they're presenting. Which is of course half the point. The book itself is a mammoth conspiracy tale, and like any good conspiracy, includes plenty of truths and half-truths in amongst the outrageous lies. And on page 722, the greatest joke of it all, the fourth wall gets blown away (is there a fourth wall in books?), and I the reader get pulled right in on the whole joke and it still works.

Like most genre-defining works, I think Illuminatus! actually reaches and even exceeds all the boundaries it creates. This book goes as far as any conspiracy book can possibly go, and then goes farther. There's really nothing left to write here - the spawning point is also the graveyard.

But there's something else that this mad tale has left us: the mashup. Because a conspiracy theory always has to be a mashup. The whole point of a conspiracy theory is to assert the connection between elements that otherwise do not appear to share anything. When George Dorn gets told that Abdul Alhazared, George Washington and the assassination of John F. Kennedy are all related to the ancient rulers of Atlantis, THAT'S mashup happening. The more elements you can tie together, the less probable your whole edifice becomes, the BETTER. And sometimes it seems like the mashup has become the default genre. From Kill Bill to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to, um DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND, everywhere the mashing together of genres and massive "referentiality" are making up wholly new paradigms. Nowadays everyone knows what "steampunk" is, but fifteen years ago? Not so much. But it hasn't taken very long. Only five years back, the suggestion to "Define some genres" resulted in creative hilarity, and all of the genres defined therein count as mashups -- from "Trucker: The Cavalcade" to "Lovecraftian Ringwaldpunk".

I think all this fun stuff really does owe a big debt to Shea and Wilson's mad, psychedelic vision of the late 60's. Reading those dense paragraphs of lurid sex, violence, drugs and utter insanity (I'm making it sound pretty awesome, aren't I?) was and remains an absolute trip. This book is amazingly smart, amazingly well-informed and structured so beautifully it's almost impossible to see it -- the whole thing just flows from start to finish in a single uninterruptible stream. Crazy.

And the book remains one of those books that EVERYONE has heard of (or at least is familiar with the concepts it invented), but surprisingly few people have actually read. I don't think it quite qualifies as A One Nobody Knows, but sometimes it seems that way. But regardless, the idea of mashing together random references from history, pop culture and science has become an entire field of genres. Practically every comic book published nowadays owes a debt to this book, and plenty of Hollywood's output, too. It's definitely, in the words of Nuclear Platypus, "a real slobberknocker".

And if you don't get that, you haven't followed enough of the links I've so thoughtfully provided for you in this post. C'mon, start connecting some references here! Everyone's doing it!

Speaking of maps...

2009-09-16T10:16:00.000-07:00

... the mapping project I mentioned last time is open for business. It's a bit light on content, but it's useable now.

I still need to make a better map, though.

The Modular Fantasy Campaign Elements wiki was conceived, by me, when I realized that I was often running D&D-like games, but that I was re-using elements of them over and over again. Same languages, same pantheon of gods, a hobgoblin empire, etc. I decided to throw them up on a wiki as modular elements so I could reference them whenever I needed to. They're light in detail; my hobgoblin empire isn't really sufficient to, for example, have a campaign set there without some significant work done by a potential GM, but as an area on the side, away from the main action but influencing it, it's pretty nice as is.

Anyway, I'm "officially" opening for business with this announcement, and I'll be adding more modular elements over time. In fact, the next project is the vampire kingdom I mentioned previously.

Maps

2009-09-09T07:33:00.000-07:00

Ever since I first cracked open a copy of The Hobbit and The Book of Three (probably my two first real forays into fantasy fiction) I've been impressed with the power of a good map to deliver an important part of the experience. I used to spend hours looking over the large, fold-out map that came with my first copy (now lost, sadly) of Unfinished Tales, and wondering what those other, obscure places that Tolkien never really mentions in the narrative were like. Sea of Rhûn? Huh? Khand? What kind of place is that? Minhiriath? Tharbad? Cardolan?

When I started drawing my own maps in junior high, I followed a somewhat isometric, stylized version of map-making, inherited and inspired by Christopher Tolkien's masterful map, I'm sure. Most fantasy novels that include maps do, it seems. And I used to draw them all the time. I drew dozens, if not hundreds, of maps. That's how I doodled during class. I didn't do anything with most of them; simply making the map itself was the fun part of the exercise. I started roleplaying games in a time when most everyone was playing D&D (I didn't really start until the Basic box in 1983 or so, but I think my very first session may have been a lingering OD&D game. It didn't click for me at the time) and playing D&D back then quite often meant "homebrewing." This was before any significant or serious attempt had ever been made to present a coherent setting for anyone to use, so it was expected that GM's would do most of that work themselves.

I've since had second thoughts about the advisability of starting the job of GMing by drawing a map. I'm a fan of the Ray Winninger methodology, the gist of which is: don't create more than you have to, or you'll risk burning out. He advises only mapping a very small local area to start with. I've even run games with no map whatsoever before, and that's certainly doable. The methodology makes some sense; if you're going to be playing in the geographical equivalent of the British Isles, do you need to be mapping the geographical equivalent of the Ottoman Empire?

However, I think that---to a certain point---maps are a useful and fun artifact in their own right. I've found that making maps really helps to stimulate adventure ideas, and even campaign ideas. There's nothing quite like the implicit mystery of mapmaking: what does that name over there mean? What are people like over there; what kinds of interesting things are happening over there, etc.?

Game designers will tell you that the desire to explore is a compelling motivator for many gamers, and I believe it. I personally love that aspect of gaming myself, and nothing motivates me to explore more than a good map.

That said; I'm in the middle of a couple of mapping projects right now, for my "modular fantasy campaign setting elements" wiki. I've got a very sketchy one for my hobgoblin empire already posted (but I'll want to do a "prettier" and possibly slightly more detailed one in the future), and I'm turning my attention soon to the concept of a "vampire kingdom"... one of the first things I'll need to do for that is, of course, draw the map.

Okay, So I'm Not Crazy

2009-09-07T13:21:00.000-07:00

This writer for Xark is contemplating opening up the setting of his unpublished novel. (thanks to @profpope for the link)

He's largely talking about doing what I'm planning with DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND, only around a novel rather than a game. The idea of setting up a foundation to support the open setting is interesting, though, along with the proposed requirement that folks who make money off the setting be required to contribute some portion of that money to support it.

It's an idea.

Copyright is getting munged in all sorts of ways. As maybe some of you know, I'm in favour of lighter, leaner definitions of copyright and what it protects or doesn't protect. I got into a discussion with Ed the Sock a couple of months back about use of one's intellectual property. Ed's point was that if folks get to re-use your work, they can make it look like you said something you didn't. I argued that this isn't a copyright issue, it's a slander/libel issue. I remember when Raincoast Press used copyright to silence people who had received the new Harry Potter book early (because of Raincoast's error) -- as though the right to control the copying and distribution of a work granted the right to muzzle people who have received it legally!

Of course, I've probably mis-represented Ed's views here and will get a copyright lawsuit slapped on me. Great.

Anyway, my point with Ed (and I failed to convince him, and he's pretty smart, so keep that in mind) was that copyright is best handled as a purely economic law -- controlling the right to profit from distribution of an artistic work. Not a generalized control over the work and its presentation.

Well, so anyway, the idea with DINO-PIRATES is that the creation of the setting is open to all, and anyone who cares to can profit from the setting if they can come up with a marketable product based on it. It would please me immensely if somebody got rich off this. I ain't greedy that way.

In other news, some really dedicated fellow (Christopher was his name) sent me a whole list of dead links on the DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND site but email server hijinks deleted his emails. Christopher, if you're reading this, can you send those again? Or at least know I really appreciated your efforts...

We Begin With

2009-08-29T12:52:00.001-07:00

Bill Cunningham, Agent of Pulp, comes through with one of the most amazing things I've ever seen:

If I'd been there, my brain would have exploded with sheer delight. People are just so awesome. I mean, these folks went to a LOT of trouble to do something that serves no purpose other than to amuse and delight their fellow humans. That is the Angel of Joy, at work right there.

Now it was Justin who turned me on to 2D Goggles: The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, which you MUST read and slaver over. As I'm basically a drooling fanboy for all things Ada Lovelace, this actually DID cause my brain to explode. Thanks, Justin.

But look: Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage invent the computer and FIGHT CRIME. Ada's the smart, sassy one who crawls around in the depths of the ginormous Analytical Engine, fixing bugs (with a wrench), while Babbage is completely insane. It's brilliant, it's hilarious, and you should go read it right now.

The world is getting positively crowded with folks who do great things and don't try to squeeze every possible cent out of their audiences. Not that dancers and comic-book artists shouldn't get paid -- Cunningham has all sorts of links, thoughts and advice to creative types on how to GET PAID. But at the same time, if you're not having fun with it, if you aren't able to sometimes just do something because you LOVE IT, what the hell? Go get a job, kid.

Look there on the right. That's Yumi. Yumi's crazy, and she talks to ghosts. You're going to meet Yumi and her friends in the near future, but Claudio did that picture of Yumi because he likes her. DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND is meant to create opportunities to get paid, but it's also meant to be fun, and if all it ever does is provide delight to others, I'll be well-satisfied, I can tell you that.

Although I'll still wish I'd seen that dance number in the train station. That was brilliant.

Sharing the DINO-PIRATE Love

2009-08-27T16:04:00.000-07:00

I got involved in a bit of a conversation with the clever and oh-so-talented Philip J Reed (best known to me as Ronin Arts, but also a reviewer of toys. Not such a bad gig, I reckon).

It started when folks on Twitter started talking about the Creative Commons license for an upcoming game (not by Philip, as far as I know) called Eclipse Phase. Philip asked:

I can accept the idea that opening a game to fans will generate more sales but does that really work with small fan bases?

I responded with

on the other hand, when the amounts of money are so friggin' low to begin with, why not?

Philip said

If I was looking at building an IP, and not just a game, I would not go with CC.

I suggested

I think there's a model around CC-based development

Philip asked

But how do you then sell the IP to a studio or large publisher?

To which I responded:

well, clearly, you don't. THAT model doesn't fly. But you CAN sell material based on the IP.

Philip disagreed

I feel that creating any IP should keep in mind the possibility that someone may come along and want to make an offer.

My final statement on the issue:

that's fair. I'm more interested in how do I create as many fans as possible. Heard of "1,000 True Fans"?

(if you don't know, THIS is "1,000 True Fans")

So I quote all this not to send you trawling through the detrius of Twitter, but to throw up the fact that DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND is in fact going to be an open setting. I'm still sorting out how that's exactly going to happen, but this is the plan.

And we'll do it with TECHNOLOGY.

No, I'm serious. The whole world is going to be able to help create this setting, and anyone who cares to will be able to profit from it (or at least try to). I didn't want to turn a private conversation into an ad, but it did get me thinking about the model here. It's a model of generosity.

The idea is that the more creativity I GIVE, the more opportunities I GET. Giving isn't the same as surrendering. It isn't about being ripped off, or not caring about money. But I do my best work in partnership with others, in community. And it's not always straightforward to build a community around the idea that DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND is worth building (I know, I don't understand it either). But the broader the scope, the lower the barrier to entry, the more likely I think I am to find collaborators who will help build a mutually profitable enterprise. The more opportunities I am able to provide for other people's creativity, the more likely I am to find opportunities to generate value -- for myself and for my community.

Exactly how this is going to roll out is not 100% fleshed out but the teams are in place and things are moving along. I think I've figured out how to maintain consistency and yet allow free contributions. To let everyone who engages with the setting to make it their own. And it's happening. It feels real to me in a way it never has before. I've been working on this concept for some five years now, and it's very exciting to see it lumbering towards completion.

I should probably call it "The Rough Beast", huh?

DPoNI: The Playing Cards!

2009-08-23T16:15:00.001-07:00

Okay, feast your eyes on these babies. Hypersmurf, better known as That Insanely Awesome Guy From New Zealand, put together a deck of DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND playing cards! And you can buy them RIGHT NOW!

For the low low price of $10, you can buy a deck of Official DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND playing cards, and bring the likes of Victoria, Nobuhiro and Imperial Sorcerer Pak Siu Ming along on your games of Texas Hold 'Em, or Bridge, or Go Fish, depending on your preferred play style (I like Hearts, actually).

The cards use the soon-to-be-discussed "Factions" in DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND (well, four of them): Imperials, Ninjas, Pirates and Natives. These replace the old suits of Diamonds, Spades, Clubs and Hearts. This of course makes sweet little Narasaki into the feared Queen of Spades, but that's amusing.

You also get two Jokers in the deck -- the terrifying Tyrannosaurus Rex and the fetching but even more terrifying SLAVE QUEEN OF THE RUINED CITY.

This is such a deal you should really be buying eight or twelve decks. Seriously. All monies raised will be going to help needy artists in Brazil. We're not even kidding about that.

But beyond the relentless salesmanship here, it's pretty cool to see that DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND is beginning to spread. The idea was always that this setting would take on a life of its own, and inspire creativity in different venues, through different media. It started life as a setting for a fantasy role-playing game, but over the next year or so you'll be seeing these characters and their world getting developed on multiple fronts.

This deck of cards wasn't commissioned or even designed by me -- it was an enthusiastic fan of the setting who put this together. And there's more where that came from. There's other expressions of this enthusiasm coming down the pipe. My job is going to be trying to create a structure or an environment where this sort of creative energy can be directed, and build upon what's already been done.

DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND is an experiment, one that I hope enables creative engagement on many levels. Playing cards is just one expression of that.

So BUY THEM!

YAAMV: Yet Another Amazing Music Video

2009-08-19T17:55:00.001-07:00

Look at this. I mean, seriously, look at this.

Flaming Coward Challenge

2009-08-18T13:05:00.000-07:00

Once again, Art Order's Jon Schindehette gets the illustration community to play in one of his Concept Tuesday challenges. This time it's to create a creature named "Flaming Coward". Click here to read the Flaming Coward's description, and see my entry below (with commentaries!). If you like it, swing by the contest's post and vote for me! And enjoy the many cool entries there, as well!

It is a subterranean creature that hunts in the dark. As such, it doesn't really *need* camouflage, so I gave it a pale, almost albino look. It is hairless, with lots of folds in its skin, like a bald rat or cat.

The eyes are enormous, allowing the Coward to see even the tiniest light (and hide from it). So much so that it is almost blind by bright light (hence the tiny pupils in the picture). Of course, with those ears it has no problem navigating by sound.

The Coward's claws are small in relation to its size, serving mostly to hold a victim while it bites (preferably from behind). With such big fangs, a bite is often all it takes.

Of course the Coward prefers to attack lone prey (like the hapless drow in the picture). But if it is found as it feasts, the bulging glands on its back pour a red-hot substance into the Coward's circulatory system. So hot, in fact, that the Coward's veins begin to glow in the dark! When the time comes to cool down, excessive body heat is radiated out through the bony spurs on the Coward's back and through the giant ears (like a desert fox).

Story Hours

2009-08-11T09:50:00.000-07:00

Re-edited, revised and re-posted from another blog, where I originally made this post before.

"Story Hours" are an interesting phenomena, particular to ENWorld, the premiere website and discussion forum for Dungeons & Dragons. It's an interesting concept; the whole "let me tell you about my campaign" writ large. Because the web as a forum is only semi-sensitive to audience reaction, it's possible for people to say an awful lot about stuff that you wouldn't be able to in regular conversation. Huge info-dumps, even.

This is how the "story hour" idea started; people wrote and posted logs of their games; what happened, in blow by blow detail. This later "multifurcated", if that's a word, into a number of styles. Some people use story hours as fairly sparse shorthand for what happened. Some people elaborate with recitations of dialogue, NPC vignettes, and other things that make the form more closely resemble "regular" literature. Some people are very strict about only including exactly what happened in game. Others are writing long after the fact, and are recreating from vague memories the details of the game in broad strokes.

In any case, a "market" for "story hours" developed at ENWorld to the point where a subforum was created specifically to cater to them, and some story hours have become big draws for the site.

One that I've always enjoyed is drnuncheon's Freeport Story Hour, a recitation of a playthrough of the original third edition Freeport Trilogy, and an interesting exploration of the setting, and urban fantasy gaming in general. In fact, when I've been asked (and it's come up a few times) how to do a successful urban fantasy campaign, one of the first things I do is point them to this story hour. It's a great example of a successful campaign set in a fantasy urban environment, where the adventures take place (often) within the city itself, instead of out in a "dungeon" somewhere. Since I strongly dislike the dungeon environment, this story hour piqued my interest more than most; urban intrigue is my personal bread and butter.

The story hour is also very breezily written; it settles into a more of a "semi-novel" style after a short stint as more of a "players log", with dialogue and good descriptions of action, and relatively few intrusive "gameisms" in the narrative. The author then does go on in other "out of narration" posts to give some interesting game info too. I could recommend a number of story hours---I've always been partial to barsoomcore's various efforts (of local fame, here on this very blog) for instance, and I've yet to meet anyone who didn't like jonrog1's or PirateCat's story hours---but for today, drnuncheon gets the honors of being recommended. I strongly suggest you check out the Dr.'s efforts.

In any case, I find the concept and phenomena of Story Hours fascinating; it's a new kind of writing that probably doesn't appeal to everyone, but to its target audience, it offers a genuinely unique experience. It also converges with some fantasy writing. A number of fantasy writers over the years have hinted that their novels and stories have evolved out of a gaming milieu (Raymond Feist, Steven Erikson, etc. I'm sure there's more that I can't think of off the top of my head) and this more direct tie to the hobby is, as I said, a very interesting phenomena.

Galaxy sky 2: Electric Bugaloo

2009-07-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

I found the artist's homepage, who did the galaxy in the sky painting. Turns out he's updated the concept. This is a smallish thumbnail, but it's the best he's got. On the edge of a sea shortly after sunset.

Nice, huh?

Homebrew: galaxy sky and skull moon?

2009-07-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

I've always been a guy who's imagination is sparked by vivid images. There's an image that's been in my head for over twenty years now, after first seeing it in a children's book about astronomy... when I was a child, appropriately enough. After looking for years for this book, the artist, or an online version of this picture, I stumbled across a good condition copy of the book in a used bookstore a coupla years ago, completely by accident. I scanned the one image in question, and I'll be posting it shortly, but my question is: if you were to integrate this image into your fantasy setting, what would you do with it?

Clearly, the image is a view from a planet outside of a large spiral galaxy more or less like the Milky Way. Perhaps the planet belongs to a solar system in a satellite minor galaxy, like one of the Magellanic Clouds, or perhaps it's merely a rogue star traveling through space completely on its own, yet close enough to a large spiral that on some evenings, when the moon is below the horizon or new, allowing for little light pollution in the sky, the spiral arms of a giant whirlpool galaxy fills the night sky.

Contrary to what you sometimes see in the movies, it's absurd to suggest you could actually see this rotating; the Milky Way, for example, has a radius of approximately 50,000 light years. The speed at which the outer arms would have to be moving in order to show visible rotation to someone outside is absolutely staggering... not to mention physically impossible. That doesn't mean that this would necessarily be a welcome sight in the sky. I imagine that folks would see this like the whirlpool that it resembles; they would fear the galaxy in the sky, and see it as evidence of the inevitable destruction of their world, it's final days to be sucked into the Void.

Anyway, I'm asking directly; any other ideas? Please post 'em!

Meanwhile, I've got another idea for a sign in the sky. Our own moon, at least on the side that's visible to Earth (the moon is tidally locked, so we only ever see one side of the moon... but you already knew that, I'm sure) is covered with the remnants of vast, prehistoric lava flows. These lava flows stand out as darker gray "seas", or maria against the silvery color of the rest of the moon. If you look at the full moon long enough, and have a little imagination, you might be able to think that you see images in the pattern of the maria. This is the so-called man in the moon.

But what if it wasn't a question of being imaginative? What if the pattern of the moon's "seas" made a very obvious design that anyone could see and interpret? And what if this pattern were a symbol of death?

This picture was posted on the Paizo blog (or somewhere on Paizo anyway; I did a google image search to find it) is what I mean; a fantasy moon that looks like a gigantic silvery skull. What would happen in such a world when the moon is full?

Another direct question: any ideas? I kinda imagine what the ancient druids and later medieval peasants thought Halloween was; a night when spirits ran unfettered through the night, could be not just a yearly event, but a monthly one. The full moon is the night of the undead. But, that's a bit obvious. Any better notions? Post 'em!

I should offer some kind of prize to the person with the best ideas here or something, because otherwise I probably won't get any comments, but y'know what? I'm really cheap. So I'm not gonna. But seriously; please post your ideas here.

DPoNI Characters: Victoria

2009-07-25T12:06:00.000-07:00

Last week we met Shugo the disappearing ninja. This week we at last we meet a full-on DINO-PIRATE: Victoria!

Victoria has been part of the crew of the “Black Lady” for several years now, but feels it’s time to strike out on her own, explore the world, and maybe one day find a crew and a ship of her own.

Or just have a really good time. Either way.

Victoria is a DINO-PIRATE -- in particular, she's part of the Raptor clan of DINO-PIRATES. See, the DINO-PIRATES all take their names from various dinosaurs. There's not much actual organization to these groups; not like the ninja clans, which have all their ninja rules and ninja traditions and what not. The DINO-PIRATES aren't that interested in tradition and rules anyway. So Victoria is a Raptor DINO-PIRATE, so if she meets other Raptors (possibly there's a secret handshake), she'll probably help them out if they, say, get into a fight (pirates: fighting a lot).

Anyway, as a character build, Victoria is another Warrior like Chen, but unlike that worthy fellow, Victoria is more of a swashbuckler than a tank. She's nimble, with her +4 Dexterity, and charming, with her +2 Charisma, and not all that bright, with her -1 Intelligence. We'll see why the investment in Charisma pays off for Victoria below.

Dexterity of course is important because it powers both her attack bonus and her Dodge, meaning she's going to connect a lot more often than she's going to get connected with. It also combines with her Improved Initiative feat to give her a +8 on Initiative, meaning she's almost always going to get the drop on others. She's fast, is Victoria.

She'll need to be, since the absence of a Toughness bonus means any blows that do connect can hurt her seriously. Victoria doesn't want to stand toe-to-toe with big bruisers and dish out -- she needs to jump and bounce around the battlefield.

Which her skills will definitely help her out with. She gets Acrobatics and Bluff as bonus skills for being a Raptor DINO-PIRATE, and to that she adds another four plus her Intelligence -- which adds up to three. She takes Diplomacy since it builds off her Charisma (and we want her to be very charming), Jump for obvious reasons, and Knowledge (sea lore) since after all, she IS a pirate (plus her low Intelligence makes her especially bad at it, and we like the idea of Victoria confidently getting her shipmates lost time and again). Acrobatics, Jump and Bluff are all great candidates for combat stunts, and shipboard fights will probably allow a Knowledge (sea lore) stunt here and there, too. Despite so few skills, we're certain Victoria will get a lot of use out of them.

Her feats are pretty straightforward, too. As a Raptor DINO-PIRATE she gets Improved Acrobatic Charge and Lucky, both of which go great with her build (high Acrobatics and Charisma), and as a Warrior she gets Martial Weapon Training. That leaves her with three choices -- she picks Improved Initiative and Reckless Abandon (which allows her to add that high Charisma to her Dodge), and finally Reknown, which gives her a bonus to Reputation.

Reputation is a special quality of DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND characters that provides them with a bonus on their interaction skills -- but can also render them vulnerable to people who know them a little TOO well. In any encounter, Victoria can make a Reputation check. If successful, she adds her Reputation score to her Bluff and Diplomacy checks (because everyone's so impressed with this famous pirate lady in their midst). Of course, if she fails her check she takes a penalty on those checks since everyone's all "we've never heard of you, self-important pirate lady." As characters adventure, they can gain Reputation awards just like Wealth awards, and so a character's Reputation fluctuates just like Wealth does. For a first-level character, Victoria is reasonably well-known -- most first-level characters have a Reputation of 0.

Victoria's future (assuming she has one), is most likely going to stay with straight Warrior levels. If something wacky happens there might be some Generalist or Adept, but with that limited Intelligence she won't get all that much use out of Expert levels. She'll probably want to take some Attack Focus/Specialization feats to amp up her skill with one or the other of her weapons (and she'll probably want to get a masterwork weapon as well). Maneuver Finesse would get more use out of that Dexterity, and Improved Critical is always a good choice for anyone with a rapier. Move-By Action would also be handy for staying out of trouble. With lots of choices for feinting, stunting and generally leaping about, along with a potent combat ability, Victoria's got an exciting future ahead of her. If not a long one.

DINO-PIRATES Characters: Shugo

2009-07-18T17:03:00.000-07:00

At last, the ninja make an appearance. The DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND setting includes four major character groups: Pirates (such as Chen), Natives (like Kana and Mbungo), Imperials (our friend Ming-Wa), and Ninjas, who have so far been unrepresented.

No longer: meet Shugo.

Raised within the fog-shrouded enclave of Ninja Island itself as part of the Gathering Cloud Clan, Shugo works to cloud men’s minds and conquer the enemies of all the clans through stealth and deception.

He is quiet, serious, and extraordinarily pessismistic for somebody who’s a ninja.

Shugo is the classic ninja: stealthy, skilled and deadly. Well, one day, maybe, he'll be deadly. Right now he's going to have to settle for two out of three. As our first example of the Generalist role, Shugo shows the wide range of this role with a broad array of skills, supernatural powers and the promise of real combat expertise.

His ability scores line him up with his powers more than anything, but a +4 Wisdom comes in handy in a number of skills, too. The +1 Dexterity gives him some advantage in combat, and a +2 Intelligence gives him an extensive Skills list. The -1 on Charisma just means Shugo is kind of shy.

His Will save is exceptionally high (as a Generalist he gets to choose his best save, which in this case is Wisdom), so Shugo's hard to enchant or confuzzle by magical means. A Toughness save of +0, though, is good incentive to stay out of combat, although that high Dodge (15, to be explained below), does mean he'll be hard to hit.

Now as a ninja, he gets the Escape Artist and Stealth skills for free, and as a first-level Generalist with a +2 Intelligence, he gets an additional 8 skills. He focuses on a few Wisdom-related ones (Concentration, Medicine and Notice), a few Intelligence ones (Disable Device, Knowledge and Search), and then Climb -- because ninjas need to be able to climb up walls. All these skills will give him plenty of opportunities to stunt and gain bonuses, so he's got more potential than it might at first seem.

Of course a ninja ought to be able to disappear practically at will, even a low-ranking one like Shugo, so he's used the Generalist's Ultimate Trait ability to that end. Where Warriors get the ability to shake off wounds, Experts the ability to suddenly understand skills they didn't before, and Adepts the ability to use sudden powers they hadn't considered before, Generalists get to pick ONE THING they can do really, really well. Whenever the character spends a Conviction point, they automatically receive a roll of 20 for that one thing. Shugo chooses Stealth for that -- which means that at any moment Shugo can guarantee a 26 Stealth check, which is pretty fantastic at first level.

Shugo can do even better than that with his supernatural powers, as we'll see. But first, we see he has the bonus feats for a ninja, Improved Strike and Ninja Weapon Training, and the additional feat Canny Dodge, which lets him apply either his Wisdom or his Intelligence to his Dodge. This is why Shugo is so hard to hit -- because he's always WATCHING.

Only three feats? Indeed, because as a Generalist, Shugo can choose from a limited number of powers. He takes Cloud Minds, Light Shaping and Phase. The first one allows him to just disappear from anyone of weak mind (those who fail a Will save, that is). Minions, watch out. The second allows him to, among other things, create a sudden darkness wherever he likes, or visual illusions or blurring. All very useful stuff. The last one allows him to literally walk through walls, so no prison can hold Shugo of the Gathering Cloud!

As a Generalist, Shugo won't advance in these powers all that quickly, and his available list is very restricted, but as his combat ability ramps up, with all those useful skills, there's no doubt Shugo is a capable character who as he rises in level, may become the most deadly member of the party.

His options for growth are limitless -- staying as a Generalist gives him access to Expert feats, like Sneak Attack, which seems like an obvious one to pick. Attack Focus on the ninja-to wouldn't go amiss, of course, nor would Defensive Roll to boost his Toughness save. He could take a level of Adept and choose the Supernatural Focus feat to really oomph up that Cloud Minds ability. There's a lot of ninja gear that could help amplify his natural skills — in particular a natty ninja suit to give him a bonus on that Stealth skill would come in handy. The many uses of his ninja-to won't go unused, either, one imagines.

D&D Shoe Competition!

2009-07-17T08:25:00.000-07:00

Wizards of the Coast and RYZ are holding a D&D-themed shoe design contest. There are lots of amazing entires, and this is where I try and pimp my designs (such as "Red Dragon", which you can see to the left). You can see them all in my contest portfolio page: http://ryzwear.com/portfolio/ClaudioPozas .

In order to vote, you have to register at RYZ (which is free!). You can then assign your notes to each shoe design (marked by the number of "ticks" you assign, from 1 ("No Way") to 5 ("Love") or Pass ("No Opinion").

So run, don't walk, to the RYZ website and cast your vote! Help me, Obi-Wan, you're my only hope!

DINO-PIRATES Characters: Ming-Wa

2009-07-12T07:28:00.000-07:00

We looked at one type of adept two weeks ago: Kana, She Who Talks To Dinosaurs. This week we're taking a look at someone a little more direct in their application of magic to problem: Imperial Sorceress Ming-Wa.

Ming-Wa's an escapee from one of the fearsome eunuch sorcerers now ruling the great Empire to the north. The magic she learned from her terrible master is unsubtle and potent. Her build is an interesting one, pointing out some of the big differences between this game and other games you might be more familiar with.

Ming-Wa learned the art of Imperial Sorcery as the protegee of one of the East Chamber’s feared eunuch sorcerers. When her master turned on her, Ming-Wa had to flee into the lawless depths of the Dino-Pirate Islands. Her contempt for the rogues who now surround her wars with her desire to find a home.

Her ability choices are not what you'd expect in an Intelligence-based adept — while she has the requisite high Intelligence, she's also put into Charisma, Constitution and Dexterity, at the cost of a point of Strength. We built up her Dexterity because her primary power is going to rely on her attack roll, so some help here is going to be necessary. Her Charisma is really due to her concept (she's an imperious and contemptuous aristocrat), but it's helped to make this character a fun one to play with lots of options even at first level.

With only one level in Adept, Ming-Wa is not very formidable in combat. She's pretty easy to hit and isn't likely to land many blows herself. Even if she does, she's not likely to do much damage. However, her Constitution gives her an above-average Toughness save, so she needn't run for cover at the first sign of a punch-up. And as we'll see, she can actually be quite useful in such affairs.

Her skill choice is wide due to her high Intelligence. In addition to the bonus skills of Intimidate and Concentration she gets for being Imperial, she selects Bluff and Gather Information in order to play off her high Charisma (which Intimidate does likewise), and then she picks up an array of Intelligence-based skills: Disable Device (surprising but helpful — maybe this is how she escaped her Imperial master), Knowledge (history), Knowledge (supernatural) (necessary for anyone pursuing Imperial Sorcery), and Search. A few ranks in Notice never went astray, just to finish the whole thing off.

Such a broad array of skills gives Ming-Wa ample opportunities for stunting, making her more formidable than she appears. Coming up with stunts around Bluff and Intimidate is easy, and with a little creative thought things like Concentration, Disable Device and Knowledge can all get in on the fun. I'd like to see somebody come up with a way to stunt off Gather Information, I have to say.

In addition, both Bluff and Intimidate can be used to feint in combat, which makes Ming-Wa an effective support combatant. She can set up bad guys, leave them vulnerable, and then let her more combat-oriented friends polish them off.

Ming-Wa's weapon helps her out with this tactic — it has the masterwork property "Flashy". In DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND, masterwork weapons can have benefits other than bonuses to attack. A masterwork weapon can have the Flashy property, which means it is tasseled or has noisy rings or whatnot on it, so that when used for feinting, it supplies a +2 bonus to the skill check involved. This gives Ming-Wa a whopping +11 on a feint attempt with her Intimidate -- not many 1st-level enemies will be able to avoid being flat-footed for a round. If she's got a friend with Sneak Attack it's going to be a bad day for the bad guys.

It really speaks to Ming-Wa's personality, too — she just dazzles them, and then lets others handle the tedious business of actually killing them to death.

As an Imperial, Ming-Wa gets the Great Fortitude and Tireless feats for free. She adds Skill Focus (Intimidate) for obvious reasons, and then takes Supernatural Focus on her core power, Wind Shaping. This is why her Power ranks and other numbers have two values -- the higher number applies to Wind Shaping only, because of the bonus granted by Supernatural Focus. To that power she adds Elemental Blast, so she can knock out bad guys with blasts of air, in addition to just creating hurricanes. Wind Shaping promises to be helpful in all sorts of situations, especially in a pirate-themed game where sailing might just feature strongly.

She needs to make a ranged attack to use the Elemental Blast, which will continue to be her weak point. Two ways for her to compensate for that are to either start taking some Warrior levels to boost her combat bonus, or to take the Widen Power feat and dispense with the attack roll altogether. She'll probably want to continue to max out her Intimidate, Bluff and Knowledge skills, but depending on how the game goes that Disable Device skill might become a focus -- she might pick up the Manipulate Object power so she can use it at a distance (even though it's not a canonical Imperial Sorcery power).

She uses her Knowledge (history) skill as her Professional skill, meaning each level she gains she makes a check with that skill to see if her Wealth increases. We imagine Ming-Wa assessing artifacts or researching useful bits of information -- sort of a mercenary librarian, if you will. Regardless, this is a character with a lot of potential directions to go in, and with her Virtue and Vice of "Fearless" and "Arrogant", she's sure to get into no end of trouble, no matter where she goes.

A possible outline for SHIPWRECKED ON THE ISLAND OF DEATH

2009-07-09T11:45:00.000-07:00

For my own home games, I don't "write" adventures per se, but I do often have at least a rough outline of what I think is likely to happen. Here's a very rough outline of what I see this potential SHIPWRECKED ON THE ISLAND OF DEATH adventure looking like.

To be honest with you, I'm not quite sure how to fit all of the DINO-PIRATES elements in. A true DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND adventure should always have:

1. Dinosaurs

2. Pirates

3. Ninjas

4. Robots

5. Monkeys

So, I'm going to assume, as grafted on as it may feel, that the PCs have a monkey with them. A little, cute, monkey, albeit one with long teeth and a pirate hat. They also have a robot with them. They don't know what it is, or how it works, but they brought it with them in the hold of their ship. When they get washed up on the ISLAND OF DEATH, this robot gets struck by lightning, falls into the saltwater bay, and comes to life. At the start of the adventure, it's missing. The PCs don't know what happened to it, but assume it's lying a good 50 yards or more underwater just offshore.

Anyways, here's the outline. The outline function on blogger isn't the best, so forgive the formatting:

We start en media res after the ship has already crashed on the offshore reef, the PCs have loaded a lifeboat, and made their way to the sandy beach. It's stormy, windy and rainy, and the PCs are the only survivors (that they know of) of an entire small fleet of ships that made up the Yamamiya (no relationship to the ABBA song "Mamma Mia" except that it rhymes) ninja clan. PCs don't necessarily have to be ninjas, of course. A ninja clan has a number of hangers-on and other "civilian" accessories too. Allow the PCs some time to assess the situation, and figure out what to do. Potential ideas are:

Explore the jungle a bit (could result in an encounter with wild dinosaurs, saber-tooths, or other big nasty predatory animals.)

Head back to the ship for anything you can salvage.

Start building a fire or a shelter or something.

Climb a coconut tree. They may be hungry, after all.

Get drunk.

Let them figure out what to do, though, and adjudicate something interesting accordingly.

At night, a party of natives who watched their arrival sneak into their makeshift camp and attack. Fight a bunch of natives off. Try not to get kidnapped.

It's possible (but hopefully not likely) that your PCs will not follow up on this and attempt to assess the threat of the island as a whole. If they just sit on the beach, now would be a good time for a pirate ship to show up, possibly also blown off course in the same storm that wrecked them, but looking for a place to stash some loot. They can either fight pirates (if they're spotted) or watch them and see where they bury their treasure otherwise. The pirate ship is not seaworthy after traveling through the storm, so taking their ship and getting back to civilization isn't really an option. Yet. Otherwise, you've got a journey through the jungle to find the native village. It shouldn't be hard to find. There's drums beating and bonfires blazing, and all that jazz. Jungle journeys include 1) crossing crocodile infested rivers, 2) giant snakes, bugs, and carnivorous plants, 3) dinosaurs. This is a smallish island. You may want to dispense with the T. rexes and go for smaller dinosaurs. A sneaky flock of Comsognathus, or some other dinosaur that you wouldn't think would be dangerous except that there's a lot of them and they're, well, very sneaky, would be good.

Assuming at some point the PCs go in search of the native village that launched the attack, well, it's not just a village. This is a ritual site, a heiau temple built of black volcanic rock, hibiscus bark woven together, and banyan wood. The islanders don't really live on this island per se, they just come here for religious observances. Which include, most prominantly human sacrifice. They're in the middle of sacrificing folks as the PCs approach, as a matter of fact.

It's most likely that the PCs and the natives become aware of each other. Handle accordingly. There could be a big battle, a negotiation, a big party as they're all welcomed together, etc. Give the PCs their head and see what they do. Regardless, things start to happen that cause their efforts to spiral out of control. Notably:

The robot. Remember that guy? He's turned into a murder machine, and he shows up and starts killing. Yes, we rely on unlikely coincidences in timing to make this thing happen. What of it?

An eruption. The natives believe that this is a sign of displeasure because their rituals were interrupted. Be that as it may, you now have to deal with earthquakes and lava flows. Oops. Don't fall in the lava. You'll die, no save.

Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes cause all kinds of problems. You've already got the killer robot, probably hostile natives, and how you've got dinosaur stampedes running through the camp. The pirate ship, off-shore (which should have shown up by now regardless of whether or not the PCs waited on the beach to see it) is swamped by turbulent seas caused by the earthquake. So now you've got pirates.

How does this all come to a head? Ideally, the PC's are able to survive the islanders, the dinosaurs, the killer robot, the lava and the pirates. They may be able to take the pirates treasure. They should be able to find a navigator either amongst the pirate survivors or the natives that can help them find their way home. They can steal a pirate ship or native outrigger canoe and make their way off the island. I dunno. I'm not thinking too far ahead here.

Anyway, I whipped up that outline in about ten minutes. It's pretty rough, and could use a great deal of polish, but it's at heart a workable outline. Any ideas for improving it? Post 'em!

Islands

2009-07-08T06:28:00.000-07:00

I just got back from an extended second honeymoon in Hawaii, and since then I've been absolutely fascinated with Polynesia. The geology of it, the original settling, the various Polynesian cultures and their recent expansion... I'm mesmerized by all of it right now. I like the idea of having an element of that history and geology in the DINO-PIRATES setting. If DINO-PIRATES geographically resembles, at least vaguely, the East Indies, then why wouldn't you have a more extended eastern area, out in the ocean, where volcanic activity caused by oceanic crust traveling over magma hotspots, has created isolated chains of islands farther afield? And if you had it, what would be out there?

This is where you can introduce another classic adventure story element into the setting; the "Robinson Crusoe" story. What if a fleeing ninja clan was blown off course? Starving and dying of thirst, a tiny remnant of them crashed on a reef just offshore from a seemingly paradisical island with a smoldering volcano in the background, and lush tropical rainforest around it. Rebuilding in this apparent paradise, they find that maybe it's not so paradisical after all... unique dinosaur-like monsters that developed in isolation prowl the jungle, tattooed natives in outrigger canoes ply the waters looking for human sacrifices, and occasionally, you find that a far-flung pirate ship makes contact because they've got a stash hidden somewhere on the island that they want to protect.

It's not much of a stretch from DINO-PIRATES as it already stands, just a slightly different take that relies on relative isolation from the rest of the setting. So, that gives us the premise for SHIPWRECKED ON THE ISLAND OF DEATH, an adventure that we should be writing right now.

DINO-PIRATES Characters: Mbungo

2009-07-04T10:06:00.000-07:00

The mighty hunter Mbungo comes from the deep jungle, but unlike Kana he is not superstitious or possessed of strange powers. Such abilities as Mbungo has he has learned through his own skill and hard work. As his description notes:

Mbungo knows the ways of the jungle, and can track and follow the beasts that dwell within. He isn’t the strongest, but he is nimble. He loves to show off his skills, but doesn’t always recognize when he’s outmatched.

Mbungo is a pretty simple example of an Expert character in DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND. The odd thing about his build is his relatively low Intelligence. Normally an Expert will want a high Intelligence to take full advantage of the large number of skill ranks they get, but Mbungo's concept is a more physical one. He's got high modifiers in Acrobatics and Stealth, but is likewise killer in such varied skills as Medicine, Notice, Sense Motive and Survival. Mbungo comes in handy all over the place.

His highest ability score is his Dexterity, giving him the nimbleness to survive in combat even if he can't dish out large amounts of damage. A boost to his Constitution will help him stay alive, too. And a high Wisdom gives some of those key skills a boost, even if it comes at the penalty of a Charisma of -1. Mbungo is ill at ease in social situations, obviously.

As an Expert he gets to choose his "good" saving throw, and again working against apparent advantage, Mbungo chooses Fortitude. His Dexterity and Wisdom give him high numbers on Reflex and Will already, and Mbungo is more about withstanding pain than avoiding it. Kinda fits with his "Over-Confident" Vice.

Speaking of which, we haven't talked about these before. Every DINO-PIRATES character has a Virtue and Vice. These come into play as a means of regaining spent Conviction points. Any time a character does something that puts them at a disadvantage in order to live up to either their Vice or their Virtue, they can receive a Conviction point. Over-Confident is a great vice, especially for a character like Mbungo whose ability to get in over his head is un-matched. His Generous Virtue likewise can afford much hilarity if played up well.

Mbungo's skills reflect a life lived outdoors and alone. Obviously his big strengths are the Dex-based skills like Acrobatics and Stealth, but Wisdom skills are also potent. Medicine will come in handy and a high Notice can help a party out of trouble. Sense Motive may seem out of place, but Mbungo's ability to size up strangers has probably helped him out many times in the past. The Combat Evaluate use of that skill in particular can come in handy, especially for someone as adept at hiding from enemies as Mbungo. Acrobatics can be used to feint, and all of these skills give Mbungo tons of options for Stunting his rolls.

Mbungo's feat selection is eclectic, providing a variety of potential paths forward as he gains levels. Dodge Focus and Track are practically no-brainers, and he gets Exotic Weapon Training and Trailblazer for free as a Native. He chooses the Wrist Knife as his Exotic Weapon -- a nutty sort of choice, perhaps, but handy if unexpectedly grappled. Favored Opponent (Animals) makes him especially potent in the wilderness, and you're never sorry you took Evasion.

What's the future look like for Mbungo? A number of possibilities. Strictly advancing in Expert would allow him to expand and build up his skills array, making for a potent Stunting character who can find ways to do just about anything. Some Sneak Attack, Hide in Plain Sight and Skill Focus (Stealth) can come in handy. That Wrist Knife would prove effective if he were to take Improved Strike, since its damage can be combined with that feat. Taking a few levels in Warrior's not crazy talk, either -- with Mbungo's killer Dexterity he could become a real combat monster. A better melee weapon would be a good move there along with Attack Specialization to improve his damage.

So there's a look at a unique take on the Expert role in DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND. Mbungo is an adaptable character, at his best in the wilderness, perhaps, but certain to prove useful no matter what the challenge.

DINO-PIRATES Characters: Kana

2009-06-27T13:11:00.000-07:00

Our next character for review is the native shamaness, Kana. A more complex character mechanically than our previously featured tank, Chen, Kana has a couple of supernatural powers, makes use of what we call a "philosophy", and has some interesting directions to go in.

Kana is an adept, with her focus on managing animals, in particular the big showcase animals of DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND, the dinosaurs. While she can work effectively with any sorts of animals, she's taken a couple of feats to zero in on the big beasts. The concept is a young woman from the jungle with the uncanny ability to befriend and command dangerous beasts. She's got serious presence and is hard to flummox.

Let's review how she's put together. Ahem.

To start with, she's a Native. That gives her the bonus skills of Notice and Survival, which will play nice with the Wisdom we want to give her, and for bonus feats she gets Exotic Weapon Training and Trailblazer.

When choosing her attributes, we're going to give her a big honking +4 on Charisma, and +1 on Wisdom and a +1 on Constitution. She's unlikely to get into much combat but the Constitution gives her a bit of survivability, and the Wisdom will help out with Notice and Survival, her bonus skills (and skills that play well into her concept). Since we see her as someone who can get to the truth easily, we're going to give her Sense Motive as well, so the Wisdom plays well.

Combat-wise she's not very effective, with no bonuses whatsoever at first level. Anyone who takes a swing at her has a pretty good chance of connecting, so she's going to want to stay out of combat as much as possible.

Her skills play off her feat of Animal Empathy -- that feat lets her use Handle Animal as Diplomacy, AND lets her use Bluff and Gather Information with animals. So obviously she takes those three, and as mentioned above she's also going to take Sense Motive to get more use out of that Wisdom point.

She's going to be reasonably effective with that Animal Empathy; her +8 on Handle Animal means she'll almost always be able to, for example, convince a deinonychus to do what she wants (4th level animal, +1 Wisdom = Difficulty 15). A T-Rex is going to be tougher -- 18th level and +2 Wisdom makes for a Difficulty of 30. Might want to wait on walking into a T-Rex nest for a few levels, there, Kana.

Of course, if her skills fail her, she's got her supernatural powers. With the philosophy of Shamanism she gets a bonus rank on both Beast Link and Dominate, and a T-Rex only gets a +8 Will save, so with a Power save Difficulty of 17, that's not looking quite so crazy. Because she doesn't have Mind Touch, only Beast Link, her Dominate power can only be used against animals, which is exactly what we want. That Wisdom comes in handy here again, helping Kana with those pesky Resilience checks.

Her feat choices are pretty obvious: Shamanism requires a Power Focus choice -- the rules say it has to be a natural location, but the relatively narrow choice of "Dinos" is a reasonable substitute here (she'll take a penalty on Resilience saves whenever she's not using her powers against dinosaurs). We can imagine Kana comes from a nation that worships dinosaur spirits, perhaps, and elaborate totem poles with snarling raptors and triceratops heads rising up in front of the tribal houses. Since she gets Exotic Weapon Training for free, we choose "chakram", since it can end up being pretty effective as a ranged weapon. It's possible Kana will take the Chakram Tricks feat down the road and turn into a Xena-esque figure, commanding dinosaurs and sending out whirling, ricocheting disks of death in all directions.

Or perhaps not. Depending on how the campaign goes, Kana might remain a straight-up Adept, building her array of powers, or she might take a few levels in either Expert or Generalist, expanding her skill and feat selection. If the chakram works out, a Sneak Attack or some such feat might be appropriate. She could also work on getting more out of her "face" skills, using feats like Fascinate or Suggestion against dinosaurs. That sounds like fun. But of course the Adept list includes Familiar, and it seems very in character for Kana to end up with a faithful tiny dino companion.

Anyway, that's Kana, the dino-commanding jungle girl with the really cool hat. Stay tuned for more DINO-PIRATES sample characters over the coming weeks.

Environment - Airspur

2009-06-18T07:29:00.000-07:00

The ArtOrder blog by Jon Schindehette has a new Concept Tuesday challenge up. This time it was a panoramic view of the Forgotten Realms city of Airspur. Here's the description provided to contestants:

This illo shows the city of Airspur in the Forgotten Realms. This is an opener for the article. Here’s a description of the city from the text:

None who have seen it can think of Airspur without envisioning its heights. Its sun-baked streets wind switchback paths down the bright cliffs, steep stairs cut nearly vertical ascents between buildings, suspension bridges arc between earthmotes high overhead, titanic pillars of stone rise from the sea to the level of the land above, and gleaming elemental spires hang with crystalline clarity all throughout. Those fortunate enough to have visited also remember Airspur as a city of colors and lights. The yellow cliffs tower above an astonishingly blue part of the Sea of Fallen Stars. Cobalt and golden roofs set off pale sandstone structures with gaily painted doors and shutters. Genasi of different hues tattooed with glowing lines promenade in vivid fashions and glittering jewelry. Monolithic crystals, the elemental spires that drift in the air, refract the sun's light during the hot and lazy days and shed colored glows over vibrant nights of wine and dance.

Here's my entry for this challenge (click for a larger view):

My picture was inspired by real-world locations Santorini (Greece), Positano (Italy) and Paraty (Brazil).

If you like my entry, please swing by the Environment Challenge post and write a comment voting for me (please add your name/handle so the vote is counted).

DINO-PIRATES Characters: Chen

2009-06-13T08:29:00.001-07:00

I've decided to begin an introduction to the rules and ideas behind the DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND game, so folks can see some of the design decisions getting made and have a notion of how it all works. To start with, I'm going to present some of the sample PC's available on the website, and talk about the choices that went into building them.

We start with stalwart Chen, former Imperial Marine gone pirate. As his description states:

Chen came to the islands as part of a punitive fleet expedition, but when he saw how the Empire oppressed the courageous islanders, his heart was forever turned against the vast nation that had spawned him. Now he saves his special hatred for the agents of the Empire that always seek to overrun the free islands.

All very stirring stuff, to be sure. Chen is a very basic sort of character, what passes for a front-line tank in DPoNI. That said, he's notably different from the sort of tank characters you might see in other games.

His Dexterity is pretty high, for example. In DPoNI Dexterity determines your attack bonus, so it's critical for front-line fighters. His Strength is higher, which gives him a brutal damage bonus (+6 for the battleaxe), meaning he'll very likely seriously injure his foes anytime he connects. The one point of Constitution is a little low for a tank, so Chen wears leather armour to help protect himself. But Chen has popped one point into Charisma, even dropping his Wisdom to do so. We'll look at the reasoning here below.

Chen's skill list is never going to be very broad. He opted for most of the fundamental Strength/Dexterity skills like Climb, Jump, Stealth and Swim. Missing is Acrobatics -- this is mostly just a concept thing. Chen as an Imperial Marine just isn't the sort of nimble swashbuckler that a character like Victoria needs to be. But he does get Concentration and Intimidate for free as an Imperial. Concentration, with his low Wisdom, is a bit of write-off (and not so useful for a fighter), but Intimidate is a great choice, and here's where Chen's point of Charisma helps out. A +5 on Intimidate means Chen can readily use this skill in combat, either using the feint action to startle his opponents with his menacing manner, or by using the provoke feature in Intimidate to protect his less combat-proof friends.

His feat selection is likewise unsurprising. Picking up Armor Training basically means getting a free Toughness bonus, and perhaps if he gets some wealth down the line he can get more effective armor than he currently has. It's a tradeoff though, with his physical skills since the Armor Check Penalty in DPoNI is so much more crippling -- and that effects not only the use of the skills but the ability to Stunt off them. He'd have a +2 Stunt Bonus from Climb, Jump and Stealth without the armor, so that Toughness bonus comes at a cost. Which ends up making the focus on Intimidation even more important.

Down the line Chen would want to look at putting some more focus into that battleaxe -- Attack Specialization to increase the damage, Intimidating Prowess would get him more use out of the Intimidate skill, and Parry Focus would build on his already-formidable Parry. Cleave is another good bet, and he'll want to take a Tough feat every few levels as the opponents get nastier. He'll continue to max out Intimidate, and then depending on the turn the campaign takes keep putting skill ranks into Climb, Jump or Stealth (or Swim if that seems appropriate).

So that's a quick look at a very simple DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND character, but hopefully it illustrates a few of the things that make this game unique. The revised skill rules and the Stunt bonus make a wide array of skill choices feasible even for such a basic character type.

Battleships, Communists and Demons

2009-06-04T18:01:00.000-07:00

We went to see the classic Eisenstein film Battleship Potemkin last week at the Cinematheque.

We'd seen it a couple of times on video, as much out of a sense of duty as anything. I mean, you HAVE to watch Potemkin. You HAVE to. What are you going to do when you're talking to REAL cinema fans and they start talking about it? Fake it? Come on. You HAVE to watch Potemkin.

Anyway, seeing it on video is woefully inadequate preparation for seeing it on the big screen. It was a SHATTERING experience. One of the most exciting films ever made, still. Ranks up there with King Kong. Bad-ass.

I defy anyone to watch that film in the theatre and NOT come away going, "I wish I could join the Communist Revolution and take back power from the capitalist overlords!" It's such an emotional argument -- it's impossible to debate Eisenstein's overwhelming enthusiasm for the revolution and all it means to the downtrodden and hopeless. But at the same time, it was interesting to note for the first time how the enemy of the revolution gets steadily less and less "faceful" as the story moves onwards and outwards.

When it's just the sailors on the battleship mutinying, the bad guys are clearly outlined for us: the arrogant captain, the sneering ship's doctor. We see them clearly and their downfall is a triumphant moment. The next round of villains (aside from the sneering facist whose calls for racial cleansing are spurned by the fair-minded brothers and sisters of the revolution) are the Cossack soldiers, marching in line down the steps, their uniforms identical, their steps perfectly cadenced, their faces never shown. They are the mass -- the undifferentiated human product of capitalist society, put to mechanical work serving their masters at the expense of the proletariat. Who are NOT undifferentiated but made up of one individual after another, Eisenstein is very clear about that.

The Cossacks are much less individual than the ship's officers were. And the final villains of the piece are even more so -- they're never even shown at all. The crews of the oncoming squadron are never on screen. All we see are the ships pumping smoke and churning up the sea, until at last the triumphant conclusion overwhelms all else and the proletariat revolution takes over the globe.

Which is I think the problem -- Battleship Potemkin is an illustration of the Communist religion dealing with the question of evil. If the revolution is inevitable everywhere, and if everyone will eventually see the truth and light of the socialist way, then nobody's really AGAINST us, are they? I mean, IF we're right, then ultimately EVERYBODY is on OUR side, so who are we supposed to fight? As the scope of Eisenstein's revolution expands, his villains MUST get more and more indistinct, less and less human. Because it's very difficult to justify running around killing other humans if they're really going to be on your side in the end.

Which now brings us to demons and the problem they present.

Basically, demons are a convenient tool for telling stories, because you can have your heroes slaughter them remorselessly for hours on end if necessary. Nobody has to feel bad, cause they're demons. They're inherently EVIL. They DESERVE to die.

Ah. Deserve.

But in the end, what does "inherently evil" even mean? Does it mean they just do cruel things all the time, like torture puppies or talk in movie theatres? Are EVIL creatures just big meanies?

Well, it has to be more than that. Cause it's not okay to run around killing people just because they're mean. So maybe "inherently evil" means "incapable of good". Okay, so whenever given a choice, a demon does the evil thing. Which gets retarded almost immediately -- whenever somebody's talking to the demon, the demon punches them in the face. Or stabs them. This must make demon-to-demon communication kinda hard. But if the demon sits and listens politely, even if he's planning to do something really horrible later on, he's still doing something NOT evil right now. If he happened to fall off a cliff before his evil plan came together, the person he was talking to would think, "Gosh, that demon sure was a nice fellow. I'm going to be nice to kittens from now on." and suddenly the world is a better place because that demon was in it. Which means that running around killing demons "just because" actually might be a bad thing, because the demon might inadvertently be just about to do something good just when you kill him, and thus your killing him is an evil act.

Whoops!

Eisenstein gets around the Demon Problem in the time-honoured fashion of dehumanizing his revolution's enemies. Many fantasy authors and game settings take a half-baked philosophical approach and pretend you can coherently imagine creatures of pure moral constancy. I prefer my demons to just be people. People who maybe aren't very nice, maybe aren't very concerned with other people, but who are people acting for people-like reasons. It may be less exciting, but well, it may not be.

Thoughts on Communism, revolutions, demons, and cinema? When designing a setting either for a game or a story, what sorts of choices this way do you lean towards?

Variations on a Theme

2009-06-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

This week I'm once again participating in a Concept Tuesday challenge at the ArtOrder blog by Jon Schindehette.

This week it's "Variations on a Theme": pick a D&D race and draw a figure in three different suits of armor. I chose the eladrin because I didn't have any painted eladrin in my portfolio. I chose to do a female because, hey, I like 'em! And being the D&D geek that I am, I even assigned classes to my three variations: swordmage devoted to Corellon (god of magic and swordplay), cleric devoted to Sehanine (goddess of the moon) and fighter (with the favored eladrin weapons, sword and spear). Apparel changes to suit the class (note that all have the same ornate longsword, which any eladrin can use).

If you like the picture I did, please swing by the ArtOrder entry for the challenge and post a comment voting for my entry! But don't vote as "Anonymous", as those votes won't count.

The Jukebox Heroes

2009-06-01T16:20:00.000-07:00

A while back DC Comics had the Milestone imprint, which featured characters like Static (of Static Shock fame), Icon and Hardware (they were all recently incorporated into the main DC universe). So I recently learned that one of the Milestone characters is a girl in a winged iron armor who calls herself Iron Butterfly (if you didn't catch that, hang your head in shame and check out Wikipedia).

So that obviously got me thinking (as these things are wont to do). And since nothing good ever comes out of thinking...

The Jukebox Heroes:

Robert, a sentient plant.

War Pig, an iron-clad wereboar.

Deaf Leopard, sharp-clawed, keen-sighted berserker. Not really deaf, just stubborn.

White Snake, beautiful female shaman.

Poison Sticks, silent wielder of the twin viper rods.

Concrete Blonde, a hot woman who could turn into living rock.

Wayward, a drifter marked by celestial powers.

JoAnne Jet, superfast girl who loves a battlefield.

Holy Diver, a time-displaced barbarian warrior.

The Foreigner, the alien that brought the Jukebox Heroes together.

In their helicarrier, the Lead Zeppellin, they fight whatever menace threatens the freedom of the world's youth. They fight menaces like Zig, Master of the Stardust, and his Spiders from Mars; Thriller and his Undead Horde; Burning Heart, the Unquenchable.

And the mega-plot is the fight for the icon of ultimate cosmic power known only as the Eye of the Tiger.

Picture by HopePhoto

Ninja Girls of the Reform School

2009-05-31T13:26:00.000-07:00

So I've finished up a draft of what I hope will become a comic book someday:

REFORM SCHOOL NINJA GIRLS

It's of course set in the world of DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND, and much like that setting itself, started out as a sort of joke that I, in my pedantic fashion, took perfectly seriously and tried to elaborate on.

This is much how my brain works: somebody says something completely insane, and I think, "Hm. What would that be, if you assumed it was actually as advertised?"

So if there were in fact DINO-PIRATES, what would they be? And what on earth is a NINJA ISLAND? (aside, obviously from an island full of ninjas, but don't we already call that "Japan"?)

These are the sorts of questions that keep me up late at night. Unlikely to cure cancer, I know, but there it is.

So when it was proposed that a story about ninja girls in reform school would be a worthwhile notion, I considered it long and consideringly. Well, for about a half-second, then I said, "But what do we call it? NINJA REFORM GIRLS' SCHOOL? REFORM GIRLS NINJA SCHOOL?" This stuff is harder than it looks.

I was stumped. And to tell you the truth, I'm not sure who actually came up with the proper arrangment of words though I suspect it was either Matt or Jody. But there it was: REFORM SCHOOL NINJA GIRLS. And once the formulation was in place, my brain took over, doing the things it does, and asking questions like, "Who would send ninja girls to reform school? What would need reforming and why? And should they wear ninja outfits or schoolgirl outfits?"

The first incarnation of RSNG was a game I ran twice at GenCon 2008. I needed seven characters, so I based them all on women I had known in Japan: Masayo, plucky and cheerful and nobody's fool; Ayako, sweet and good-natured and always hungry; RItsuko, hilarious, always laughing and building robots; Kaori, the singer in a Judas Priest cover band; Eri, one of the greatest swordspersons I've ever known; and Yumi -- who was very sweet and completely insane. To these six I added Millicent, because the idea of a stuck-up English girl amongst these ninjas made me laugh.

The whole thing has to be played totally straight. Everything about DINO-PIRATES is meant to hold together without too much suspension of disbelief required.

Yes, I actually wrote that.

And I MEANT it, darn it all. These girls are REAL (sort of), and their story has to be real if it's going to be worth telling. Things are going to be hard for them and they're going to struggle to get through this. I'm writing six issues which will culminate in the battle royale that the GenCon 2008 adventure described, with pirates, robots, hopping vampires, sinister agents and possibly even fire-breathing monsters. The games at GenCon were fantastic illustrations of what can happen when everything goes right at the table, and inspiration builds on inspiration, but a one-shot game just can't have the history and weight that a lengthy story can acquire, and as much as I love running games, there are story-telling itches it just can't scratch.

I wrote my Barsoom Tales story hours as a way to scratch that itch in the fall-out of that game, and to bring to the surface some order around the story that had most captivated me in its first two seasons. REFORM SCHOOL NINJA GIRLS is sort of the same thing -- but this time wanting to go back in time and watch how we got to the wild craziness of that final conflict.

The first issue features flying through the air, giant tentacles, benches, decapitations, and plenty of wild ninja action. Currently our very own Claudio Pozas is having a look to see if he thinks he can find the time in his busy schedule to pencil this baby, which obviously would be ideal, as Claudio has been the artistic vision of DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND from day one.

Stay tuned! REFORM SCHOOL NINJA GIRLS is coming your way!

The Self, Extended

2009-05-30T20:53:00.000-07:00

Being a DM is a pretty strange activity most of the time, but there are times when the strangeness intensifies even beyond what seems "normal" for an activity that largely involves making up imaginary stuff so that imaginary people can pretend to interact with it. And doing a fair amount of probabilistic math.

Sometimes the imaginary stuff you (or at any rate, I, and if I'm going to go through this, why shouldn't you?) come up with seems to be generated less by a process of making stuff up and more by a process of discovery, as though the stuff had existed all along, and it only took you opening up the right door or turning on the right light switch to find it. Artists of all sorts have talked about this experience -- Alexandre Dumas famously wept as he wrote one of his beloved character's death scenes (no, I won't tell you which one. Read his damn books!), and Robert E. Howard wrote repeatedly of how Conan simply appeared, fully-formed, and in a sense dictated his adventures to Howard for the Texan to write.

The characters we create are inventions; they don't exist in the meaningful way that I (the guy typing these words) or you (the person reading them) do. Obviously. And yet, that doesn't mean they don't exist AT ALL. That doesn't mean they aren't REAL in some sense.

Anyone who cried at the end of Old Yeller proves that characters have a real existence and influence on the world. Even if that's only in our imagination.

Our imagination is what gives fictional characters their power of us. It's also where they come from. And while we may like to think that we actively "make up" things, the truth is far more complicated than that. Our imagination, after all, makes US up, too. Our whole identity is constructed by our imagination out of the endless stream of sensory input our brains manage. So if our imagination invents us, who invents our imaginations?

My Barsoom campaign was a sprawling unwieldy tale (as are most lengthy campaigns) that lasted over five years and went through more twists and turns than I can readily relate (or recall, to tell the truth). Many and varied were the characters that emerged from that lovely mess, and many of the folks I invented over the course of the tale stick with me still, easily remembered even though many of the details of who did what to whom have fallen by the wayside.

Exasperated Kimiko Torokan, trying to do the right thing but feeling more and more trapped between equally evil alternatives. Arrogant and cruel Matai Shang (see? Barsoom!). Affable Phelan. Angry and suffering Zuleika.

It's a strange business, as I say, this DMing gig, and it never gets more strange than in the delicate balancing act required to create (or discover) compelling characters and yet keep the story's focus squarely on the PCs. As a DM, your characters have to be supporting roles, and yet, for them to be compelling and engaging for your players, they have to be complete, with stories of their own that you need to be invested in.

But not too invested. The trouble comes in that of course, the characters you discover (or create) come out of youself, and so reflect truths about you. There's no avoiding that, and it can get downright uncomfortable to realise it, especially when you look back over some of the characters you've created. Or discovered.

You can read too much into that, of course, but the truth is this question of creating or discovering is kind of at the heart not only of the DMing process, not only of the artistic process, but of the process of self-discovery.

Or self-creation.

We're all story-tellers, no matter how inarticulate we may be. Human beings are story-telling creatures and we understand the world and ourselves primarily through the stories we tell. We know ourselves as the stories we tell about ourselves, and those stories are both discovered and created as we go through our lives. We recognize a trend in our behaviour, or we invent one; it's all the same. It all becomes part of the story of who we are.

Artistic creation, and for a DM, the creation of characters, is part of this circular process, both creating newness and discovering what was already there. My characters, the great ones that is, the ones who seemed to have ALWAYS been there, and who even now must be carrying on with their imaginary lives, those characters both revealed truths about me to myself, and allowed me to create truths about myself. The legendary beauty Yuek Man Chong, born of a margin note scribbled without thought, nearly took over my campaign, had to be destroyed, and yet filled up pages of notes and thoughts and speculation. I don't recall ever inventing anything about her -- it was always as though I was learning more and more about who she was, who she had been and who she might yet become. She was bigger than me, as strange as that seems to say. But the process of discovering her was really a process of discovering me, and realising that I, too, am bigger than myself, because I always hold the ability to go beyond what I am now, what I understand myself to be.

When I make up imaginary people, I'm really creating new possibilities for myself, or discovering new terrain within the familiar landscape of myself. Which is a pretty cool thing to do while pretending to kill orcs.

Picture by James Ryman

Green Lantern Trailer

2009-05-26T13:07:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is insanely awesome. I'D totally go see this movie. Too bad it doesn't exist.

Building On A Framework

2009-05-24T15:27:00.001-07:00

So I had the very great pleasure of attending the first-ever GIANT SPACE TELESCOPE CON up at the Algonquin Radio Observatory last weekend. It was tremendous fun, even if the weather wasn't entirely favourable. But as you can see, there was definitely a GIANT SPACE TELESCOPE present.

Anyway, for this event, Stuart and I decided to try combining our respective GM brains and run a game together. The plan was to run a multiple-session one-shot over the weekend based on Stuart's theories around Battlestar Galactica and its Mormon theological basis. Stuart and I have discussed our GMing styles and approaches many times over the years, and I've been playing in a game of his for over a year now, so I have a good idea of how he puts together a game, but it was still fascinating to watch it happen "behind the scenes", as it were.

While we have many similarities in our aesthetics when it comes to games, our approach is fundamentally different. I come up with some ideas about genre, and a few interesting personalities, and then add the PCs and see what happens. Stuart, on the other hand, comes up with a framework -- a sort of ideological construct that will hold up the game, and provide a decision-making tool for the GM so that the events in the game come together in a thematically coherent fashion. It works as a set of metaphors, and as the game proceeds, the GM makes decisions using the metaphorical understanding of the game.

It's hard to explain. Here's how it operated in our game:

We knew we were doing a Battlestar Galactica game. This implies certain things -- the world is about to end, humanity has ascended to godhood and thus is about to be destroyed by its creations, "all this has happened before yada yada yada". In addition to that, we decided to apply a metaphor of Greek gods. Now this didn't get applied too rigorously, but we had the game start on Saturn's moon of Titan, the original creators of the gods (who were then the creators of humanity, who are the creators of the Cylons). On Titan they discovered evidence of a vanished extra-planetary civilization that had been overthrown and destroyed. There was reference to Phaeton, the charioteer of the gods, and a nod to the Phaeton Hypothesis that the asteroids were the remnants of a planet. In our framework, it meant that the asteroids had been destroyed in the cataclysm that had exterminated the Olympians and left the solar system in the hands of the humans.

In theory, had the players figured out the framework, they could have made predictions about the game based on their understanding of that framework.

We also used the Biblical plagues as a sign the world was coming to an end. This worked a little more straightforwardly, and we simply translated the plagues into a futuristic setting. The plague of insects was an attack by a super-intelligent hive of termites, the rain of fire was a swarm of cybernetic cruise missiles that looked like dragons, and so on. This framework DID provide the players with predictability -- they were able to look for and predict incoming plagues and try to take steps to survive them.

It was a great deal of fun, and from a GM's point of view enormously satisfying. Stuart and I are definitely planning to repeat the experiment -- we didn't get to use half the stuff we came up with for this game!

Arcane West

2009-05-21T16:36:00.000-07:00

Hi, y’all!

For those who don’t know me, I’m Claudio Pozas, the “contributor that rarely contributes to the blog”. Corey invited me over to ramble, and by God, I’ll ramble!

A couple of posts ago Joshua spoke of the mix-n-match of ideas that makes up a large part of pulp (like, say, DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND, or the less inspired Vampirates [really?]). This reminded me of some stuff I got churning in my ol’ (34-year-old) noggin’: the juxtaposition of fantasy and cowboys (and no, I never read Dark Tower). The first image I assembled in my head was a female mage-marshall with a silver pentagram as her badge and riding a unicorn

So what came out of that?

ARCANE WEST

Location: The West. This is an arid land, divided in counties. Each county is ruled by a Count (usually a spellslinger), under the autority of the Emperor. The counties have very unoriginal names, like Dry County, Dragon County (deserted after the great dragon flight a couple of decades back), Red County, etc.

Folk: The lands were colonized by man-folk (humans) after the discovery of magic crystals that serve very well to make magical weapons (a mix of gold and gunpowder). To the East rises a Rockies-like forested mountain range, home to a Paul Bunyan-type race of giant-folk (known to D&D gamers as goliaths). Prospector-like dwarf-folk plye the ground for its crystals, and also for gold, silver and water. Dwarf-folk established at least one large village atop a mesa, called unimaginatively “High Town”. The original dwellers of the West, the elemental genasi (also known as fire-folk, earth-folk, storm-folk, water-folk and wind-folk), distrust, despise and often try to destroy the interlopers.

Law: Peace and quiet don't last long in the West. When folk can't stand up for themselves, they pray (or pay) a mage-marshall to enforce the law. But mage-marshalls are few and far between, and usually might makes right in the West.

I envisioned Arcane West as a “plug-n-play” setting that you could place in any campaign. All it needed would be an unexplored region to the West and a desire to have players yell “YEE-HAW!!!” during game.

Note: Arcane West is totally unrelated to my other mini-setting idea, called “Dungeontown”. More on that later.

And while I’m here, please vote for my Devolved Gnome concept art by posting a comment with your vote in the ArtOrder blog by John Schindehette.

Malcolm's Magic

2009-05-19T19:42:00.000-07:00

In 1990 I think it was, my friend Malcolm and I hitch-hiked from Calgary to Lake Louise to see our favourite band, Same Difference. They'd told us at a show in Calgary that if we came up that weekend to see them, they'd put us up in their hotel room. Which given that the band was four very talented and charming young women (and Dave), was more than sufficient to shift us into high gear.

That was nearly twenty years ago now. My friend Malcolm, damn him, looks pretty much exactly the way he did then, and has only gotten more talented and charming himself. Here's some video of my dear friend being charming, talented, and amazing:

Nice job, Malcolm.

Sci-fi vs. Science Fiction

2009-05-11T13:41:00.001-07:00

As a fan of the "pulp aesthetic", I find that I disagree with the entire premise of this conversation. But I think it's interesting nonetheless, and a good discussion point on exactly how serious this stuff should be taken and should take itself.

Japanese Horror: The Transmission of Suffering

2009-05-10T06:58:00.000-07:00

The great explosion in a genre that can only be called "Japanese Horror" began back in 1998 with the little film called The Ring, by Hideo Nakata. And a little girl crawling up out of a well, and occasionally out of other things little girls have no business crawling out of.

Recently I watched one of the more unlikely follow-ups to Nakata's enormously successful film, Hair Extensions. Yes, this film is in fact about murderous fashion accessories. It's creepier than you might think, and a great performance from Chiaki Kuriyama gives it a weight it wouldn't otherwise earn. But it got me thinking about the phenomenon of Japanese Horror, and in particular how these films differ from, say, western horror films.

Now, in any successful horror film, it is clear to the audience that by the end of the film, judgement has been handed out. Those who died horribly may not have "deserved to die" in any realistic fashion, but the audience understands that they broke the rules and they must pay the price. This is a basic truth of all horror films -- they are reactionary, extremely conservative stories in which even the slightest mis-step is punished with torture and horrible death.

But in the western mode, the punishment comes typically at the hands of one who was wronged, with no mediation. Jason, the killer of the Friday the 13th films, was drowned in a lake as a child. The endless cycle of murders he perpetuates are his rightful claim to justice. But the killing is done by he himself.

In the Japanese tale, punishment is mediated by others. The Ring videotape is passed on from one viewer to the next. Evil extensions are placed in the hair of unsuspecting salon customers. The suffering of one is distributed throughout society. In a film like Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Pulse, the suffering virtually destroys civilization entirely.

In Friday the 13th, those who commit wrongs are punished, but society itself is not implicated. In films like The Ring, all of society is made guilty for the suffering of one. The dreadful suffering of one little girl is EVERYONE'S responsibility. She has the right, says this film, to take her vengeance on any of us. We allowed this to happen; we must bear the punishment.

You can see it as a continuation of the theme of a film as old and tired as Godzilla -- all acts are social acts, and so we cannot dodge our responsibility for being part of the society that allows terrible things to happen.

A film like Hair Extensions is probably a sign that the "Japanese Horror" genre is overworked. None of the follow-ups to The Ring have lived up to that film's searing moments of terror. It will be interesting to see where the next great wave comes from.

Rules of Gaming

2009-05-07T11:16:00.001-07:00

Well, I feel like I'm on a roll, and although I'm probably overdoing it here, it's best to strike while the iron's hot, I believe. So here I am, posting again, and this time I'm veering a little bit more overtly away from pulp and into gaming. Gaming that has a pulp aesthetic. Maybe we can all convince Corey to start talking about DINO PIRATES this way, but in the meantime, you've got me.

I'm a fan of the Ray Winninger methodology of running a game. To be perfectly honest, I was already kinda doing things that way naturally, because it suits my personality so well. But, he kinda codified and made me think about things that I was just doing "by feel" rather than with premeditation, and so I give him some credit with helping me focus my efforts on running better games. If you're not already familiar with Ray's methodology, detailed during his run of the "Dungeoncraft" column in Dragon Magazine during the last year or two of Second Edition, and overlapping the switch to Third, you should be. It's good stuff. The articles all used to be online on the old Dragon Magazine website, archived, but they're obviously not anymore. However, the good folks at darkshire.net have archived them as simple text files. You should check them out.

Anyway, I won't really discuss them, but Ray's four main rules of Dungeoncraft are, cut and pasted from the source:

1) Never force yourself to create more than you must

2) Whenever you design a major piece of the campaign world, always devise at least one secret related to that piece.

3) Whenever you have no idea what the probability of success should be for a particular situation, consider it 50%. Note: The Third Rule of Dungeoncraft is a useful tool for keeping the game moving, not a replacement for your own good judgment and knowledge of the rules. Use it wisely!

4) Always challenge both the players and their characters

I've got a few rules of my own about setting development. Now these, I will talk about briefly.

• When you have an idea for the campaign, write it up now---strike while the iron's hot!

• Don't be afraid to swipe good ideas from another source---but don't let your source be obvious

The first was kinda a caveat to Ray's own Rule #1: Never force yourself to create more than you must. Well, yeah, don't force yourself, but my experience with setting development is that when you're really excited about it, ideas flow easily. However, this excitement waxes and wanes, and sometimes you can get a lot of stuff done, while other times, the well seems dry. It's best to take advantage of the former times rather than putting your nose to the grindstone during the latter. You'll have to use some discipline and actually do enough hard work as it is; no reason to make that any worse than it's going to be.

The second idea; that you shouldn't be afraid to swipe from another source, is the secret of my success, such as it is. Really, how many times have you read a book, or seen a movie, and thought, "holy cow, I've never seen anything like that at all?" I'd wager... not often. Even Glen Cook, who barsoomcore rightly calls a voice for innovation in the fantasy genre wasn't really doing anything new with the Black Company books; he was swiping the voice and feel of war stories, blue collar soldiers, and applying that to fantasy. The combination was new, but none of the individual elements really were. As a GM, you've got to come up with an awful lot of stuff, and much of it you'll need to come up with without much warning. Don't be afraid to steal plots, characters, or setting elements from anywhere that you think is cool.

However... there is a caveat. If you do that, you should modify it so that it's not obviously recognizable. If you want a character who's basically Darth Vader in your fantasy game, he's so well known that your players will roll their eyes, groan and start making jokes about him as soon as that becomes apparent. Take a little bit of time to "camouflage" your stolen elements. Change some details of the plots. Customize your characters.

There's nothing intellectually dishonest about using someone else's good idea, and few writers would tell you otherwise; they'd in fact be among the first to say that they are more than happy to pilfer elements from their collegues as long as they can "make it their own" in some way. If writers can do it, then certainly GMs can and should.

Genre-bending

2009-05-06T11:22:00.000-07:00

Well, since it's come up, the idea of crossing a pulp aesthetic with something else brought to mind a theory of mine of game design. Or rather, of game design on the GM level, not the writer or developer level. Setting design, if you will. And oddly enough, it's a half-remembered something or other that Corey once said in a posting on rpg.net years ago that stuck with me and sparked the thought in the first place.

It occured to me a long time ago that I had reached a point where I found traditional high fantasy rather boring as a gaming mileu. For that matter, I wasn't reading much high fantasy anymore either. For someone who cut his teeth as a junior high kid on J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Lloyd Alexander, Raymond Feist and whatnot, I found that a strange, unexpected, and possibly even a little bit frightening development. So I decided to take it down out of my subconscious and analyze it.

Two things occured to me. One of them was merely the idea that doing the same thing over and over again does tend to get boring. That was easy. The other, though, was that High Fantasy, despite its prevalence in the gaming community, in many ways is not well suited to gaming.

The "tropes" and conventions of High Fantasy usually posit a humble beginning, pre-destined heroes, and eventually climatic encounters with the root of all evil to save the entire world. Dungeons & Dragons does attempt to address this with its leveling mechanic, the "zero to hero" mentality, but saving the world is not really a repeatable campaign goal; you do it once, and you have to start all over and tell the story again. The root of all evil becomes a boring campaign force after a while, and it does little to engender a sense of identification with the setting; how do you "make it your own?" The heroes of destiny trope is strained as characters die, get replaced, etc. Gary Gygax himself clearly envisioned D&D as a game in a sword & sorcery paradigm that had a few superficial trappings borrowed from High Fantasy (specifically Tolkien) but not really integral to how the game was played.

Not that what Gary Gygax intended is something I particularly care about, but there it is.

In casting around my net to see what I could do to revive my flagging interest in fantasy gaming in particular, I discovered that layering in elements, tropes and conventions from other genres made it more interesting. This was all before my discovery of ideas like slipstream, or New Weird (both of which I'm skeptical of, but that's a whole 'nother post for another time), but this quest of mine for something different also wasn't really something I was aware of consciously.

That's when I stumbled across Corey's rpg.net posting. I didn't really know him yet, or at best I had just started entering into online discussion with him, but here, while describing his Barsoom campaign setting, he mentioned that at the beginning he just threw stuff together without giving any thought to how it would later correllate and make sense with all the other elements. Setting jambalaya, I guess. If it was cool, in it went and figuring out what it was doing there could be handled later.

This is, if you think about it, a pretty "pulp" idea, yet if done intelligently, could be something really interesting. So, I kinda independently stumbled onto the core conceits of slipstream, New Weird and particularly steampunk as setting aesthetics, and starting using them more, rather than shying away from them in a misguided attempt to keep my fantasy "pure." I started thinking about other things---non-fantasy things---that I'd read, yet which I thought would make really cool game elements. And when I'd percolated that for a little while, I came up with my Dark•Heritage Mk. I campaign setting.

I'd gone back to some of the older pulp I'd read (but dismissed as incompatible with my D&D habit) like Edgar Rice Burroughs and said, "what if a world were more like Barsoom and less like a pseudo-Medieval Europe?" I went with a more modern interpretation of Mars than Burroughs': a cold, rusted desert, with water buried under the surface in giant aquifers. I gave some thought to technology (if nothing else to power massive steam pumps that brought water up to the surface): "pirates with guns are cool; why not have some black powder, flintlock stuff? Why not Da Vinci esque clockwork engineering?" I ended up adding wind-up bugs, like that pictured here, as a kind of replacement for messenger-boys running through urban streets. I layered in some more overtly Horror-like elements. I added in frontier areas threatened by bandits and worse that were not unlike Sergio Leone's vision of the Old West. I ditched alignment entirely, and decided that people weren't good and evil, they were just people. And therefore mostly evil. I know, I can by cynical sometimes. The urban areas (which I greatly expanded, and which often became the focus of any game I ran in the setting) started to resemble the blighted landscapes of the Industrial Revolution, and Charles Dickens became a significant influence, except without plucky heroes who clung to admirable virtues in spite of the seedy, gritty setting all around them.

And the kinds of stories I ended up telling were no longer thrilling tales of romantic adventure; they took on a darker, noir tinge, and my players started developing well-deserved paranoia. Before I knew it, I could look backwards at my game and notice a strong resemblance to the plots of Robert Ludlum books I'd read, and other mainstream spy-thriller type authors, or possibly a fantasy version of The X-files.

Of course, I had to modify mechanics to make this all work, and before I knew it, I wasn't even playing D&D at all anymore, but something else entirely, with only a few recognizable standard D&Disms, and an almost completely different paradigm about what the game would be like, what the characters would be like and do, and what kinds of challenges they would face.

And I really haven't looked back very often; this new paradigm is still where I firmly hang my hat, and although I'm not currently running this setting anymore, I'm still constantly tinkering with it, and I consider it "my" setting. One of these days if I ever develop enough self-discipline to stick with it, my partially completed novel notes and partial drafts will turn into an actual, fully-written and realized novel, set in this setting. And, with any luck, I'll start running it again, and keep doing so for as long as I can.

But all of this was made possible by the somewhat lunk-headedly late realization that genre purity was a pipe dream, and not even something that was necessarily desireable. Today, I find that I really enjoy the old Weird Tales paradigm, straight from the pulps (specifically, the pulp magazine Weird Tales. Duh.) Fantasy as a literary genre hadn't really even been invented yet, science fiction and horror were nascent, and what would later become strictly segregated conventions, ideas and paradigms for each of those were freely mixed and mingled. This was the way they did it back in the pulps, and the more I thought about it, the more I thought that the evolution from that stage to where we are today wasn't actually progress.

Apparently, I'm not the only person who's thought that, of course. While I didn't find anything particularly notable in the slipstream, New Wierd or steampunk genres that inspired me on this road (because I hadn't even heard of them until I was already, independently, kinda in the same place) the fact that they exist today shows that I must have been unknowingly caught up in some kind zeitgeist or something. Of course, that only makes it that much easier for me. I don't have to think of everything on my own anymore; I can look around, read books, google art, and find all kinds of cool ideas right there waiting for me to steal.

More Pulp History: Neo-Pulp!

2009-05-05T17:38:00.001-07:00

So Joshua's given a great introduction to the early days of pulp, and how that word has shifted in meaning from a particular medium to a broad-ranging style popular in all sorts of media.

But these days, the pulp aesthetic holds more artistic weight than it did in its origin days. It's not a pure pejorative anymore as it once was. And the real difference is Indiana Jones.

At the dawn of the 80's Spielberg and Lucas put together their love of low-brow narrative with a sophisticated bit of story-telling, and the tremendous performance of Harrison Ford and came up with the model for "neo-pulp" -- new pulp.

The pulp aesthetic married to sophisticated story-telling. Raiders of the Lost Ark, even more than Star Wars, was the movie that proved you could make, if not "serious art", at least "grown-up art" that was full of slam-bang action and over-the-top gee-whiz sequences. The idea embodied in Raiders spread, and in the very early 80's comics creators like Frank Miller and Alan Moore began turning THAT medium upside-down with savage, intelligent tales about ridiculous characters. While at the same time, writers like Glen Cook and Steven Brust were doing the same to fantasy fiction. It was a pretty thrilling time to be a genre fan -- this stuff was still very much marginalized, even with the immense success Lucas and Spielberg were having, so it was pretty much impossible to explain to anyone who wasn't in on the secret what was going on.

But even as a teenager I knew what I was seeing. I knew Frank Miller had changed the game forever with The Dark Knight Returns, just as I knew what Cook was doing was something genuinely new and exciting. The 80's were the time when punk grew up and got smart with bands like Nine Inch Nails, when rap hit the mainstream with gangsters and revolution and in general just a massive confluence of ideas and craziness. Anne Rice's lurid vampire tales, beginning with Interview With The Vampire, launched a huge wave of horror enthusiasm we're STILL watching roll past.

It took a while for all this to be recognized, and the label neo-pulp is not a twenty-year-old one. But it seems that in many ways pulp has been growing up all this time, across every imaginable channel, and it's really hit the mainstream now.

That probably means it's no longer interesting, but I don't care. I'm still gonna write comic books about REFORM SCHOOL NINJA GIRLS!

Gorilla pirate

2009-05-05T14:34:00.000-07:00

What does "pulp" mean? It's getting bandied about a lot lately, yet it seems that any official definition that coincides with what I mean when I say pulp doesn't exist. Rather, the word has grown a kind of gestalt definition over time, and that's what most people mean when they say "pulp." If you'll forgive me a paragraph or two of level-setting, let me throw out some background. "The pulps" were, of course, the magazines printed between the late 1890s and the 1950s on cheap, pulp paper. That doesn't say a whole lot though; spiritually, they were the successors of the penny dreadfuls and the dime novels; cheap writers, publishing stories on cheap paper in a cheap format. Low brow entertainment at it's least pretentious. Don't get me wrong; the pulps churned out some good material. A lot of really famous writers got started in the pulps before they graduated to more prestigious venues, and entire genres made their first appearances in the pulps.

The pulps faded significantly during the paper shortages during World War II (I'm not sure why there were paper shortages during the war, except that presumably folks were otherwise occupied and therefore couldn't churn out paper) and by the mid-50s had pretty much faded altogether. The "sweats" replaced them, to some extent, they had cheap thrill stories a la the pulps, and pin-ups. Since the sweats were themselves replaced by honest to goodness girlie mags like early Playboy, you can see that the successors to the pulp format never did really acquire a whole lot of respectability. For the stories themselves, cheap mass market paperbacks replaced the pulps as the format of choice, and remains so to this day. Due to the demise of the pulps, there isn't really a market for short stories anymore, and novels are written as novels, not as serials that are later converted into novels.

But that still doesn't answer the question: what do you mean when you say pulp? It's not a genre, because the pulp magazines covered stories in nearly every genre under the sun during their heyday. Perhaps it's more of an aesthetic. Because the pulps themselves were materially cheap products, and the writers were also cheap, the pulp stories had a tendency to focus on cheap, often even gratuitous or lurid thrills. These were not deep, introspective stories about the human condition, they were fast-paced, high octane stories with characters that were often over-the-top melodramatic, and plots that were almost farcical in their outrageousness. Yet, they were treated straight (mostly) and taken seriously by the authors. Pulp to me, then, means fast and furious action, gratuitous and cheap exotica and probably even gratuitous, cheap erotica too. Being cool and making a reader say, "Wow, that's swell!" were more important than being relevent or realistic.

So pulp as an adjective isn't limited to the pulps, or even the written word. The old Republic serials can be retroactively called "pulpy" because they had a lot of that same aesthetic. Comics can be pulpy (how much difference really was there between the original Flash Gordon material and John Carter of Mars anyway? Thematically, they were on the exact same page). Movies like Star Wars or Raiders of the Lost Ark very purposefully cultivated a pulp feel. And gaming can entertain a pulp aesthetic, and in fact the default condition for the original roleplaying game and the mode in which it was played is, arguably, very pulpy.

Anyway, I'm not 100% sure what that has to do with gorilla pirates, except that my exploration of pulpy things over the last year as led me to that idea. It's rife with pulpiness; it's silly, yet I've used it relatively straight, it's outrageous, it's exotic---and notably, people who are not fans of the pulp aesthetic don't get it.

So, last night I was stuck working on a project (a turtle shell made out of a cardboard box that needs to be a costume for my 5 year old) and with my craft acrylics out, and time to kill while waiting for paint to dry, I decided that I was frustrated enough with my inability to find a decent picture of a gorilla pirate online anywhere, and that it was high time I made my own. I've never used craft acrylics for art before, and they're obviously not all that highly suited to the task. Also, I have crappy brushes, crappy regular old typing paper, and I just whipped this up in (relatively speaking) a few minutes while waiting for paint to dry on a more pressing project. But, here it is. The gorilla pirate. A pulp archetype in the making.

Welcome!

2009-05-04T13:27:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the new blog of Scratch Factory!

For now you won't see much difference between this blog and the previous one, but we'll have some new contributors now, and we are hoping for a higher rate of pulperiffic goodness coming out of here. Along with all the same sorts of assorted comments on swordfighting, management, dinosaurs, and so on.

There'll be more DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND goodness as well.

But let's meet our bloggers!

I'm Corey, better known round these parts as barsoomcore, sometimes writer, sometimes manager, sometimes teacher of swordfighting. I'm really tall. And I wear cowboy boots. That's probably enough for now.

On my left is Joshua, dinosaur expert (ish), deep reader of not very good books, and The Man Who Live In the Most Dangerous City In America!

And on the right say hi to Claudio, posting from the Southern Hemisphere, with an emphasis on the visual arts and appreciations thereof.