Again and Again and Again

First I want to talk about some videogames.

ADOM does this cool thing where the overworld is (mostly) set in stone, but all of the dungeon levels below are randomly generated. So you're improvising a lot in the dungeon, but you learn the layout and secrets of the world above.

Teardown does this cool thing where you need to, say, break into a safe and then get away, but you get unlimited time to wander around the map preparing your run, including breaking down walls and stuff. The timer only starts when you set off the alarm, typically by grabbing the thing you're stealing. If you manage that you can try again with secondary objectives to chase after. Missions also revisit maps, so you get to know them pretty well.

Outer Wilds does this cool thing where you're living out the same 22 minute time loop over and over, each time exploring the solar system and learning a bit more about each planet. It's a great feeling heading over to a planet after you've learned a few of its secrets to see how far you can get this time before the sun explodes.

Hitman does this cool thing where it has a comparatively small number of densely packed levels, and it's pretty easy to complete the mission (typically kill a couple of targets) but you're incentivised to replay each map over and over, killing the targets in new ways and exploring every corner of the map. Sometimes I just follow people around to see what they're doing.

Shenzhen I/O (and most other Zachtronics games) does this cool thing where completing each puzzle is usually straightforward, but then you're rated on various factors like cost, speed, space efficiency, so the real game is in going back to tackle the problem over and over, chasing the cheapest, fastest, or most efficient solution (typically not all three).

These are all tapping into that feeling of doing something you've already done before, but doing it a bit differently.

I don't often get that feeling when I run and play TTRPGs.

I tend to prepare dungeons with the assumption that the players will stumble through them once and then move on. Even with larger (dare I say mega-)dungeons I probably nudge players into new areas for each delve.

In my current Traveller campaign we've been playing for 9 months, jetting around The Beyond sector, a vast hexmap of space, and we haven't returned to a planet even once after leaving (though some of that may be down to the mess my players tend to leave behind them).

I feel like I'm missing out on the joy of doing something again, but doing it a bit differently.

I have an idea how I might explore that. Let's see how it pans out.

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Is Imbalance a Problem?

This is even more of a stream of consciousness than normal, sparked by a recent playtest of MAC Attack.

With some handy unit cards

When we finished the game my friend asked:

"Why would I ever take a Short ranged weapon? I'd just make every weapon in my force Long ranged if I was building a new force"

Of course, we need to test this out, but for the time being it's given me food for thought.

Some context: In MAC Attack you have Short weapons (Max range: 9") and Long weapons (MIN range: 6"). There are also Arc weapons but ignore them for now.

Both weapon types cost the same, there are no other restrictions on their use, and they function identically beyond simply having a minimum or maximum range.

As you might imagine, if we're fighting on a big flat desert then Long weapons are the order of the day. Likewise, if the battlefield doesn't have any open stretches wider than 6" then Short weapons are going to dominate. For this discussion, let's imagine we're on a more balanced battlefield.

In fact, let's pretend my friend is right. Let's work on the assumption that Long is broadly a better choice than Short for most scenarios.

Is that a problem?

I've discussed before that the purpose of balance, for me, is to preserve interesting choices, not to make everything equal.

Now, at the very least, we can say that the choice between a minimum range and a maximum range still feels like a choice. The advantage of not having a minimum range is that you can collide and brawl with your target as well as shooting at them.

Better yet, if my friend wants to create a force of exclusively Long weapons then I'm absolutely going to double down on Short weapons and rush inside his minimum range to dirty box him with impunity.

Easier said than done, I suppose, as the quirks of the initiative deck mean you can't always put every MAC where you want them to be.

Engaging at Shorter range also means there's less chance of an annoying obstacle blocking the line of sight to your target.

So maybe the answer is to include a mix of short and long weapons on each MAC. I deliberately left a "sweet spot" between 6-9" where both Short and Long weapons can attack for this very reason. Could equally lead to some inefficient turns when you don't have the right target at the right range, though.

For another angle, what could we do it we wanted to make them feel more equal?

How does Battletech, an obvious inspiration for MAC Attack, handle this? It actually uses range quite differently. As well as defining a weapon's minimum and maximum range, weapons break down their range into subcategories of short/medium/long range, with medium and long providing penalties to hit. With a 2d6 system like Battletech these penalties can be hugely significant, so having a longer range generally has the side effect of making the weapon more accurate at common engagement ranges. Totally different to what we're dealing with here.

Previously in MAC Attack, Short weapons provided a bonus to hit, but that had some undesirable side effects. Piercing Type weapons (more effective when you have an easy shot) felt like a little too much of an obvious synergy with Short weapons (make your shot more likely to hit), and I wanted every combination of range, type, and subtype to feel viable. It was also one more modifier [shudder] to remember when calculating your target number to hit.

I could give Short a longer maximum range, but that risks making the distinction feel irrelevant.

I could Long an even more restrictive minimum range, but I don't want things to end up feeling too restrictive.

Or maybe it's fine as it is.

Back to the playtesting table I suppose.

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Unknightly Rulers

Mythic Bastionland suggests that Holdings are commonly ruled by a Knight. Last time I spoke about this I had one of the four Holdings in a Realm ruled by a non-knight, in that case a religious leader, but what other sort of person could be ruling a Holding?

Well, Seers obviously, but I personally think of that being a pretty rare situation. I imagine most Seers would rather be interfering from a slight distance.

Squires? First instinct is no, but that makes me want to try it out some time. Perhaps some twist of inheritance means that the group are charged with protecting such an important, but fragile, ward.

More commonly I expect Holdings wind up in the hands of Vassals, owing at least some loyalty to the ruler of the Seat of Power.

Let's roll up 3 potential leaders. I'll assume they all owe fealty to a Knight who holds the Seat of Power of the Realm as a whole.

We'll use the "Person" prompts found on the bottom of the Knight pages, and then the People Spark Tables to flesh them out. You could just use one of these methods instead of both, but we'll work around any contradictions that come out of the combination.

I'll dump the raw prompts and sparks for each and then work it into something useful.

Ruler 1 - Wodwale
Person Prompt: Hardened Scavenger
Appearance: Haggard Physique, Decorated Dress
Voice: Weak Tone, Intense Manner
Personality: Melancholic Demeanour, Art Interest
Relationship (with Ruler 2): Estranged Guardian
Desire: Mastery for Recognition
Task: Conceal Ruin
Background: Nomadic Upbringing, Memory of Injury
Ailment: Growing Shaking
Heraldry: Light Tree (White Tree on Gold Field)

We don't need to take "Scavenger" literally here. Perhaps they're seen as having Scavenged the Holding itself. Let's say they cosied up to the previous ruler, a generous Knight without an heir, and was able to claim rulership after the Knight died.

He's hardened and haggard, but dressed in the finery of a ruler. Weak tone combined with intense manner and melancholic demeanour paints a sort of dourly threatening character, driven by wanting to prove himself as a rightful ruler.

Conceal ruin, memory of an injury, and growing shaking, could be combined to something more sinister. An old injury that never healed, leading to a weakening heart. Let's say he suspects he doesn't have a long life ahead of him, but wants to conceal it from everybody, driven to achieve the recognition he craves before he dies. He was once a guardian to the next ruler, but "estranged" suggests he may not consider her to be an heir.

Ruler 2 - Tresera
Person Prompt: Zealous Student
Appearance: Short Physique, Gaudy Dress
Voice: Flat Tone, Relaxed Manner
Personality: Ambitious Demeanour, Animal Interest
Relationship (with Ruler 3): Adoring Friend
Desire: Travel motivated by Guilt
Task: Transport Animals
Background: Drudgery, Memory of War
Ailment: Intermittent Lethargy
Heraldry: Jewelled Star (Emerald Star on Silver Field)

She studied under Wodwale, who treated her like a daughter, even helping her gain a Holding of her own, but that relationship has since broken down.

She wears her ambition openly in gaudy dress, appearing most relaxed when holding court or leading hunting parties. She has the look of somebody born to rule.

Still, boredom stirs inside her, sometimes feeling that she's achieved everything she can here, or perhaps that she didn't really achieve it for herself at all, owing too much to her former mentor. Sometimes she dreams of riding off into a new Realm to start anew, earning a position she can be truly proud of, taking just her prized hunting dogs with her.

Ruler 3 - Dorza
Person Prompt: Sneaky Cobbler
Appearance: Sickly Physique, Tattered Dress
Voice: Mumbled Tone, Relaxed Manner
Personality: Rash Demeanour, Fishing Interest
Relationship (with Ruler 1): Sworn Supporter
Desire: Security motivated by Defiance
Task: Break Gold
Background: Pious, memory of Riding
Ailment: Mild Coughing
Heraldry: Rich Tool (Golden Axe on Purple Field)

Clearly from a humble background, she was anointed by a Seer after serving as their acolyte, placed in rule of a modest holding, but told that she was doomed to eventually lose it to a siege. She defiantly prepares to face this threat, courting the service of any Knights that travel through the Realm, and hiring mercenaries that her coffers cannot afford.

She adores Tresera, in awe of her seemingly effortless nobility, and swore her support to Wodwale in part as a way to emulate her.

Her task of "Breaking Gold" could represent her spiralling debts, and her need to find some way to be rid of them. Maybe she really needs a mercenary company taking out of the picture entirely.

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This post was originally sent as a reward to all Patreon supporters, and is released freely on this site the week after its original publication.

If you want to support my blog, podcasts, and video content then head over to my Patreon.

Landscapes of the Arthurian Tarot

If I'm not careful I can see a future where I own far too many Tarot decks.

Not so much for oracular life guidance, but I'm increasingly drawn to these decks of highly evocative artwork as a means to spark ideas when running or prepping a game.

In the throes of writing Mythic Bastionland I picked up The Complete Arthurian Tarot deck, which is a joy to flick through.

A significant feature of this deck is that (as far as I can tell) the non-Court Minor Arcana are all landscapes, completely devoid of people. This is in stark contrast to the Hanson Roberts Tarot which I have a personal soft spot for. Where the Hanson Roberts deck vividly humanises the elements of the non-Court minors, the Complete Arthurian deck puts the light firmly on the surrounding world.

Take the Grail Three (commonly 3 of Cups).

Usually this card means party time, with three women toasting and celebrating. Here a vacant table is laid out, allowing more focus on the surroundings. It's a feast of apples in a lush, shady orchard.

The Four normally depicts a man with three cups, either too distracted or jaded to notice the fourth cup being offered to him from a disembodied arm.

Here that's represented by a stagnant pond. Discarded cup and overcast clouds further setting the mood.

8 of Swords is normally a blindfolded, bound woman surrounded in a ring of swords.

Here we're trapped by a treacherous bog instead, requiring careful action to escape. Even beyond that a grey mountain looms over us.

Of course we have to look at everyone's favourite, the 9 of Swords aka "I'm sad because I have too many swords".

This is about as close as we get to human representation. A row of impaled heads painting an ill vision for the future of this shadowy night.

Each suit also corresponds to a season, and that comes through in the artwork to various degrees. Stones (commonly Pentacles) are tied to winter.

In place of the juggler, the concept of divided priorities is shown through a river splitting in two, weaving tantalisingly close to each other through a snow cloaked valley but never managing to converge.

The accompanying book does a good job of tying each of these cards to a particular Arthurian myth, but I enjoy the landscapes even when I don't remember the full mythic context.

So what's the point to all this?

Whether in prep or at the table, for me so much of running Mythic Bastionland is about describing a patch of wilderness as the Knights either ride through it, look over it for landmarks, or come face to face with Omens of a Myth. Sure, it's not the main part of the game, but it's a constant layer of flavour that I try to maintain.

Even if it's not a literal deck of cards, don't neglect the power of a heap of visual prompts to draw from for your game. Sometimes they can be as simple as a landscape.

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This post was originally sent as a reward to all Patreon supporters, and is released freely on this site the week after its original publication.

If you want to support my blog, podcasts, and video content then head over to my Patreon.

Where are We?

Chatting with people at GenCon, we occasionally drifted onto talking about Google+, the rosy past where we rejoiced in social media paradise [citation needed].

It's getting on for six years since I wrote about its upcoming closure, and where are we now?

No, I mean where are we?

I've bounced around a few places since then.

Blog: The staple. I'll keep it going as long as I have the urge to write stuff. I post weekly and check my comments daily. I mostly stay up to date with what other people are doing through blogs. If you aren't blogging, I'm likely to be unaware of your new thing.

Newsletter: Substack may not be the perfect platform, but I'm enjoying this as a parallel version of the blog. I know others write bespoke newsletters, separate to their blog, but really I just treat this as an alternative way to get the same stuff. In essence the archive acts like a blog of sorts, but I prefer reading on a proper blog page. Something about having that tantalising blogroll right there beside the post.

Patreon: This really sits on top of the two previous places. If you're creating anything, even if you don't want to offer anything extra, I'd recommend giving this a try. You might be surprised how many people just want to offer support for what you do.

Discord: My preferred way to just talk with people. I guess I like the old IRC-vibe, but I appreciate it's not for everyone. For reasons explained further down this is now my primary place for DMs.

Broadcasts and Podcasts: I have a lot of fun doing these but they're an occasional side-line for me.

Reddit: I really enjoyed doing an AMA on there a while back, but I'm more lurker than a poster. It's a great place to browse now and then to find cool stuff, but I don't feel like I get any real personal connections from there.

Twitter: Oof. I'll try to keep this succinct. This place was designed to reward the sort of behaviour I didn't want to engage with and has steadily gotten worse. I saw how it changed the way people interacted with each other. I saw the way it stoked unwelcome fires. I kept active there mostly as a point of contact to invite people onto the podcast or to collaborate on a project. Essentially, I went there because I liked some of the people there, even if it made them act differently.

I decided the feed was too much. I unfollowed everybody and just stuck around to respond to mentions and DMs, only posting to link to my other places.

Then they changed things so that I'd be fed recommended content instead. I could block these on my browser but it was trickier on my phone.

All the while the content of those posts got worse and worse, to say nothing of the company ownership.

Right now I'm ashamed to even have a presence there. I don't want to be associated with it. It's embarrassing that I was there at all.

I've complained for a long time, but never really walked the walk.

As of now I've left my account open mainly to keep the name, but I'm not going to go there anymore and I've removed the link from my other sites.

If you're able to do the same then let's just do it. We're better off elsewhere.

Bsky: Yeah this is a nicer twitter, so I don't feel as dirty for maintaining a presence there, but it's still probably something I'm better off without. I'm likely soft-quitting this too, but might dip into my incredibly restricted feed now and then.

What if I'm wrong?

A few potential problems come to mind.

What if I need to contact somebody I don't already have contact details for?
Twitter was normally a good place to do this, but I figure I can probably get hold of anybody I need to by asking around on other platforms.

Is this terrible advice if you don't already have a well-established network and platform for your own content?
Yeah, I guess I can only talk from my own perspective, so if you're hustling to make contacts and build your audience from scratch then maybe this is all a bit isolationist. 

In short:

Quit Twitter.
Newsletter Up.
Hit the Blog. 

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This post was originally sent as a reward to all Patreon supporters, and is released freely on this site the week after its original publication.

If you want to support my blog, podcasts, and video content then head over to my Patreon.

Shards of GenCon

This post is fuelled by jetlag and hazy memory, but I wanted to quickly talk about my experiences at GenCon.

I have no way of funnelling this into a coherent narrative, so it's just a list of things.

JFK is a terrible airport to transfer through. I have a new respect for the unremarkableness of Atlanta.

The opening of the trade hall felt like the end of civilisation. So many people in such density that I was concerned we might create a black hole. Luckily, I managed to pick up a couple of things I feared would sell out and then go hide for a while.

Later I would discover neither of these things sold out as instantly as I'd feared, and I could have grabbed them in a more relaxed manner if I'd kept my cool. There's a lesson here I guess.

Despite the arduous journey and crushing crowds, there's no denying that if you want to meet as many amazing RPG people as possible then GenCon is the place to be. Even just aimlessly wandering the Trade Hall I got to chat with Tony Vasinda, Spencer Campbell, Jay Dragon, Trevor Devall, others I'll have to apologise for forgetting right now.

The following day I met with Yochai, Brad, and Sam to stand in queues for longer than we would like, doing our best to transform it into some enlightening fable. I think we mostly succeeded. Later I selflessly offered up my hotel room as a space to record a podcast, allowing myself a ringside (more accurately: bedside) view of the performance.

Then came the Ennies. Favouritism runs rampant as I shamelessly throw my support behind people I like, who just happen to also create fantastic RPGs:
Kyle Latino won for Monstrous, perhaps the biggest cheer of the night.
Shadowdark and Eat the Reich obviously won everything they were up for.
Reynaldo and Greywiz were in attendance, bizarrely meeting in flesh for the first time, as Break!! won a much deserved gold. If you'd told me when Break!! started development, a mere fifty years ago, that I'd be sat at the Ennies when it won I wouldn't have believed you.

(I mean... technically I wasn't there, as I left in the interval, but you get my point)

Among my Ennies-buddies were JP Coovert and the mythical being behind Prismatic Wastelands who I'm fearful to out as human, rather than some sort of blog elemental. Actually, his name is Warren, and we shared some good snarky gossiping while the winners were offering heartfelt speeches.

We moved on to one of the hotel bars, where Luke of the Pirate Borg crew was celebrating his birthday. I'm told that Ed Greenwood was there, but he must have astrally transited before I arrived. The Pirate Borg guys are all jacked, semi-uniformed in black, but super friendly and passionate about RPGs. I'd describe their vibe as ethical mercenaries. They look like they could mess you up but they really just protect penguin sanctuaries or something.

Last year I signed up for a few different games, and while they were fun they paled a touch in comparison to the pickup games I stumbled into. This year I didn't sign up for anything, but I got to play even more.

Wednesday is the trade day, which means the convention centre is mostly empty. I got to enjoy a pick up game of Shadowdark (kinda) with my adoptive GenCon parents from last year, Kelsey and Baron. We explored an ice cave, burned the yeti, but died trying to escape from the flaming mayhem we'd created.

This was the last time I was able to enjoy sitting in a mostly empty space in the convention centre, so it's a real highlight in my mind.

We snuck into the quasi-abandoned mall that connects to the convention centre for the evening game, finding an eerily empty seating area. I got to play X-Crawl Classics run by Brendon LaSalle himself. My hobbit was called Slamwise. The neighbouring table were playing Macdeath, a twist on that play, run by Professor/Dan. Amongst others, Ben and Bob were there, and yes I'm putting them together because it's fun to say their names that way.

Brad ran a bunch of us through his Dream Shrine and... this module is something special. Definitely check it out if you want a good compact adventure packed with dreamy weirdness.

Later I got to run a brief game of Paranoia for Sam, JP, and Brad,. It felt like a good density of laughs for such a short session.

For most of the con I was wearing a t-shirt with one of my games on it. This made me feel like a gigantic tool, but the purpose was to transform myself into a walking business card, preventing the need for me to awkwardly tell people what I do. Steve from Epic Levels spotted this and said hi, after watching a D&D 3e seminar (look... I have nostalgia for it even if I don't like it). He warmly encouraged me to go and speak to Monte Cook, who had been on the panel and, based on shaky intel, I believe has played one of my games at some point. I did so before quickly fleeing, but appreciated the nudge.

The secret (I assume?) Rowan Rook and Decard bar is always a pleasure, and Grant is still one of the most generous hype men on the planet. Introducing myself to people is the worst, and I was glad to find the solace of a similar soul in Chase of Rascal.

Of course, as a cultured individual, I wanted to experience the real taste of America, so a special thank you goes to the connoisseurs who guided me to through the culinary complexities of the White Castle Drive-thru (on foot, mainly with Shadowdark crew) and the Waffle House (open 24 hours, but... not today, so the car park became our banquet hall). Too many people to list, but here's a selection:

Zeb, who I believe started the whole Waffle House thing.

Sillion who's working on some awesome looking deep-south cyberpunk thing.

Hunter is also working on that and has a bunch of other cool stuff.

Tomas makes this wizard thing, Gabe has this slice of space horror, oh and Kieron was there. I think he invented MODOK or something.

Is that everything? I'm not even sure.

GenCon continues to confound me. So much of it is inconvenient and consumerist, but then that magic is still there, lurking just beneath the surface.

Next time I hope to dig even deeper.

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This post was originally sent as a reward to all Patreon supporters, and is released freely on this site the week after its original publication.

If you want to support my blog, podcasts, and video content then head over to my Patreon.

A Second Bite of the Spore Mine

Did you read this?

Well, what could be more exciting to a 10-year old than their first White Dwarf magazine?

Could their second ever live up to that?

Let's go back to 1995 and enter White Dwarf 188.

As much as the Dark Elf cover of 187 was neat, this Tyranid piece is acid etched into my memory. This issue pushes them hard as the cool new 40k faction. They'd been around a while in various forms, but this really felt like they were being lifted up to another level. 

Their design has gone back and forth over the years, but I always liked the less bug-like versions like we see here.

I've never collected Tyranids, but I suspect this issue is part of the reason I have such a soft spot for them. 

Naturally, we turn to the back cover piece before actually reading this thing. That Rough Rider charge into the Tyranids nicely sums up so much of 40k's vibe.

Always good to see those classic alien cacti too. 

Okay, it's time for me to embarrass myself. 

Despite them becoming my first army, there were no Skaven miniatures at all in the previous issue, so until now I had no idea they existed.

With this piece being my first exposure... can you see why I thought they were called "Ska Ven" as two separate words? 

And no, I suspect at this age I wasn't familiar with Ska yet. 

Pre-internet I'm not sure when I got corrected, but the shame still lives within me. 

That kerning has a lot to answer for, but the image clearly resonated with me enough to join team-rat. 

I won't be going through every article, but I remember this one fondly.

Early on I realised that Space Marines were the poster-boys of the world, so I quickly developed a natural hatred toward them. This would only grow as I found myself having to play against them so often and grew envious of their luxurious amount of plastic multi-pose options. 

Still, I see the Blood Angels as one of the lesser evils, perhaps because the Death Company were one of the first examples I saw of marines actually being awesome and interesting. 

I've talked before about the power of these battle reports, but I just love how much space is given over for each player to talk about how they chose their force, and how they're going to tackle the scenario at hand. 

Gavin... Thorpe? Must have been some kid on work experience I guess. 

I could still look at these things all day. 

In the debrief our players get to reflect on their mistakes or successes. Although I love the stories that emerge from wargames, there's something special about seeing each general pour over their decisions, just as they would if they were on the field.

Well, maybe the Ork Warboss doesn't do that. 

Also, check out that Imperator Titan with an axe blade and titanic claw. Was that ever a real thing?

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This post was originally sent as a reward to all Patreon supporters, and is released freely on this site the week after its original publication.

If you want to support my blog, podcasts, and video content then head over to my Patreon.