The Dream-maker/Love-taker Dichotomy.

So I scared myself by trying too hard- if you had been wondering as to why it so quiet over here.

After all the initial madness, I have elected to trudge along and just post content and hyperlink to points of interest. Maybe an image, but ultimately trying to post content and edit and hyperlink whilst posting causes, what I feel to be a very horrifying end product. I see my initial posts as somewhat manic and kind of scared myself that I posted things so overwhelming. Rest assured, I do intend to drown out the rabble with casual discussion of roleplaying, magic, magic in roleplaying, and likely other absurd things.

And but to get away from talking about myself.... I wanted to let you know I was building a game.

Yes- I know- just what the market needed, another ham-handed heartbreaker trying to make it in the world. Me, working in the nights and weekends to try to develop a perfect vision of 'Big F' Fantasy so that way you can purchase it and tuck it away in a closet or box to be disregarded though the ages. [Author's note: ⸮]

There are in fact a billion reasons I can think of not to try to develop a game. Zak S has a pretty great argument about why one should sublimate a desire to develop a whole system and instead re-channel those desires into the creation of setting content, adventure fuel, items, enemies, artifacts and dungeon fuel, which shall be defined here as 'Game Food' [I'll go into my dislike of the term "fluff" another time]. I link to it not as an aside: I command you to read it so that way you have that concept framing your worldview. It is just a great way to "get at" this. 

But just as we need food, we need means to cook it and that is all systems are: They allow us to take ingredients and turn at table into something that nourishes us. Not all ingredients are good to cook by certain means. I have not yet tried to toast watermelon (though I now want to try to) but just as well you take frozen raw stake and just expect chuck that down your gullet (and I don't mean blue rare neither).

Now all the absurd permutations of my cooking analogy aside, that gets us two a few basic facts:
1. You only become a better chef by cooking
2. People's taste will always vary.
3. It is very different to try a different way to cook something and try and invent a new way to cook something.

But let me be clear- every new idea doesn't require a brand new game. You get an idea, you try to run it in your default/group's favorite/group familiar system; if that fails, you try and hack said system to work for your ideas; if that fails, you try and find a system you can run it in or see if someone has played that idea before. Building your own system, other then for learning about game design for it's own sake, can only ever be a marriage of necessity where every means and tool in your GM toolbench has failed you and now you gotta go into the garage and actually build something. And unless you are struck by the lighting of divine providence/Robert Johnson an RPG out of a devil (cause Shax be tabletop as FUCK), you have elected to take on a exercise I have found to be akin to trying to move from point A to point B by finding a bearing and then building a labyrinth in your path to get there.

Cobb Family Corn Mazes- for when you need to go DEEPER *BWAAAAAAAAAAAAA*

So I think it is more than alright to make your own game- everyone should try it, I think. But always remember- millions before you have tried. Many have not published- those were the lucky ones. Others published and allowed the community to generate the term "Heartbreaker" off of them. Be mindful of them- take them to heart (no pun intended) , understand why that happens, and if you like your game enough to keep going, and you EDIT AND PLAYTEST YOUR GAME. But just as one should not exactly go into the RPG world looking for plunder and glory [See: Unrealistic Expectations], nobody gets anywhere or does anything by thinking they are going to fail.

So for now, It is just good to see you again, and hopefully we can talk about some fun things around here.

Unicorn Porn

Once a month? Yeah, once a month makes sense. Not gonna see the craft of a once-a-month blog, like some monthly traveling treasure-keeper whom bestows gifts upon you like it were a festival.

Though that might be a functional working model for me moving forward.

There is an interesting thread going on on /tg/ right now (not when you read this, that thread is long-since oblivion) where everyone is posting PDFs that they want within the roleplaying game community and it is share and share alike. Not that I am complaining mind you- though the prevalence of PDF theft in the RPG community is surprising. Though EA Games does show in the electronic world that security measures within the gaming community can be used to quite a negative effect. (as Yahtzee points out)

I'll admit, I know very little about blogging, and that fear has translated into a lack of posting. I write essays and short-stories, and my essay writing (particularly in the legal realm of the open forum for public consumption) is coupled with a rather poor sense of properly citing my sources.

Anyway- the thread on /tg/ is about roleplaying game books, and the larger subject of the reciprocity that the expense of most roleplaying game books is what stops most gamers from buying them and thus fueling the 'secret underground black market roleplaying game community', THE MORE INTERESTING SUBJECT is all the one-shot free-to-play single page roleplaying games. I made one even (though admittedly whether or not it fits in a single page is a matter of proper formatting).

I like the single-page game community. You have to be interesting to stand out in this world. This would normally be the point where I go on about Motherfuckin' Crab Truckers or Simple 6 or one of the many rules-light versions of 2nd Edition D&D out there.

But in truth, I use EVEN THIS SUBJECT as a segway to another TWO SUBJECTS.

Odd Thought 1: The Even More Secret Fahrenheit 451 style MEMORY Market

"That's Tommy- he's Rogue Trader; Seth is Apocalypse World, and Steve is BESM"

 -a sentence that has never been spoken

So my readership is small at the moment (*cough* Ryan) but certainly anyone whom has ever have had the privilege of being a FOREVERDM, but after a while, most GMs can run games in their sleep (and often do (so I am told)). It is an odd thought if you think about it- RPGs oven may be oversimplified into a series of rules (for both negotiating impasses and stimulating creative gameplay) and a setting- and book and sheets and what-have-you aside, eventually, you stop looking down at your paper sheet and you close your eyes and dream.

So pleasant, no?

But then one day the game ends, and where as you, the Player, have gone off and lived your adventure, someone (aforementioned FOREVERDM) has a roleplaying game in their head now [arguably, so does the player, but who asked you anyway].

They have that pretty much forever, so long as memory serves. Now they did this for fun, and could have been playing a game for years. But what are they supposed to do with a game in their head? One would hope place other games in there head and then have it coalesce and fuse into what you would hope was some gestalt ubergame (though in practice, the more forceful mechanics live out, forming to a loud and annoying waste of space [Google image search: "Penis Hat" and do not filter explicit results for visual reference] ).

But the idea of a textbook installed into your head is a pretty interesting image (oh how I love the Locke and Key, one day I shall run a one shot of thee using the Locke and Key card game and the Official Layout Map of Keyhouse (and likely Unknown Armies, GUMSHOE or even Over The Edge (or maybe even WaRP- like the devilish independent game developer I am. ))).

Sorry, one moment, I lost track of my parenthesis. And my Thesis.

Overall, not that is a bad thing. I don't think. I'll have to get back to you on that one.

Odd Thought 2: Novel Mechanics in Game Development for Tabletop Games

"A bonsai is not a mystery-- it is a challenge....to turn a tree into a bonsai, you must heavily prune its branches and roots, and pot it in a container that fits the overall design. The size of the bonsai is maintained by seasonal trimming of new growth and periodic root pruning and [re-potting]"

 -The Pennsylvania Society of Bonsai, Bonsifact Page, http://pabonsai.org/bonsaifacts.html

If there is a history of the odd world of Game Mechanics, I like to believe it began of...

The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen

This is what unicorns jerk off to.
(IN THIS CAPTION: worst things I have written)

[see]

It truth, this is a delusion- the game was made in 1998 for HEAVEN'S SAKE. Still- it is 24 pages (which is a fair size a book to stick in your head) and all in all deals in having a kind of trumps game of bullshit at a fanciful dinner party. It should be noted it is best played at fanciful dinner parties, which are really a thing you should be having.

Still, that does say something a sight more then GURPS or even D&D.

In a tangentially-related-further-anecdote, I believe it was Greg Stotlz (for the love of God, correct me if I am wrong), who related a story about trying to make a roleplaying game with Johnathan Tweet (or maybe it was Robin D. Laws) for Wizards of The Cost. Or something like that. POINT BEING: at some point, the realized what made the amazing game wasn't the system- the only way to commercialize the game would be to place a little amazing tabletop game developer in each box and have them DM the game for you. Which sure as shit ain't gonna happen.

So what does this all have to do with anything? I'm glad you asked.

Our dear little friends, the One-Page roleplaying games I mentioned earlier have to, in one page, create a roleplaying game that is capable of being enjoyable. Now I'll not hear any of you silly deconstructionist ruining my groove by saying that arguably any game can be simplified into basic rules, cut out all the fluff, and pasted on a page in tiny font. As a matter of fact, most major RPGs do contain such a page, calling it a 'quick reference', or a 'player reference'.

I'll even be charitable enough to argue a fair sight of MOST of what these one-page games turn out to be is an over simplified D&D or Simplified GURPS [lol, I'm just fucking with you], but I would say not.... All of these games are, or what they should try to be.... perhaps I should show you.

And I'm tired. Ok. enough blog for one day.

What Kind of Sick, Twisted Freak ARE YOU?! (part I)

  Salutations Reader!

  I know this the first time we have met. My name is Mr. Nick, and you and I will be going on a little journey together today, hopefully to learn more about games, magic, and magic in games. We'll likely talk about Roleplaying Games, Video Games, Board Games, Movies, Films, Novels, Novellas, Short Stories, and little doodles you made on the margins of your paper of fanciful hats.

 But when talking about Magic, we are of course talking about.... those people that do magic.

  Never to sure what to call them to be honest. Magic-User is fine. It is what D&D started with in '74 after all (its fighter was also 'Fighting Man', which shows you that they wanted you to know exactly what type of game-play you were getting into). But I have always found it a bit... vague.

  Sure, it says exactly what you mean to do- but it doesn't have any flair or flavor to it- Magic User carries no weight or history, it is a clinical term, and like most clinical terms, it is not trying to have any flavor because it is afraid of slanting your judgement with its history and pretense. Life however, is a flavorful thing, and explains why even D&D switched to the term 'Mage' for there 2nd Edition Rulebook (Though they did also have 'Illusionist' already, an important distinction, I feel).

Ah, Elminster. Truely you sir were a Mage- 

Beard. Pipe. Hat. Sick-ass braids. He don't GIVE A FUCK.

  Of course, Mage has some connotations, to be sure. After all, White Wolf (whom, to us desert-dwelling folk, reside in the majestic jewel of the east, Georgia) kinda has that name on lock. And rightly so I feel- its progressive feel from its progenator, Ars Magica is ever present, and Ars Magica, for those not in the know,  in terms of just organization of a Magic System, has one of the best layouts and methods of doing pretty much whatever you like (I'll talk about it more in the future). Dat Sweet Catagorical Magical Taxonomy. MMMMM!