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Going ... going ...
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2 Apocalypse World announcements
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2007-12-13
: Mechaton rules questions?
Hey, if you're stopping by looking for answers about Mechaton's rules, welcome, and I'm at your service.
2007-08-24
: Poison'd errata and Q&A
1. The cruel fortune accursing is all wrong. All wrong!
2. Ask the player if her pirate is enduring duress.
Click in for the rest.
2008-01-11
: In a Wicked Age: Four Oracles
In a Wicked Age: Four Oracles.
Also check out the Oracles page at Abulafia. Dave's got the Four Oracles and the original AG&G Oracle, plus space for new "unofficial" oracles. I believe I'll be submitting some new unofficial oracles myself, come a day.
In a Wicked Age
sword & sorcery roleplaying
2010-07-30
: Going ... going ...
Today and tomorrow are the last days to preorder Apocalypse World! If you want the maestro d' character playbook, now's your last chance.
In the golden age of legend, there was this guy named Maestro. He was known for dressing up real dap and whever he went, the people had much luxe tune. There was this other guy named Maitre d'. He was known for dressing up real dap and whever he went, the people had all the food they could eat and the fanciest of it.Joe McDonald says, "the Maestro D' is the most amazing character in the game. Sexier than the hardholder, with more teeth than the skinner." I might quibble with most amazing, but the rest is true.
Here in Apocalypse World, those two guys are dead. They died and the fat sizzled off them, they died same as much-luxe-tune and all-you-can-eat. The maestro d' now, he can't give you what those guys used to could, but fuck it, maybe he can find you a little somethin somethin to take off the edge.
Anyhow! If you want it, it's going ... going ...
2010-07-26
: The Walking Eye: Abandoning Games
A few nights ago, Joshua, Rob and I talked to Kevin of the Walking Eye about abandoning games. The roundtable is here: The Walking Eye Discussion Episode 21: Abandoning Games Round-table.
It was a fun conversation.
2010-07-21
: Life After the Apocalypse
Here's some total gorgeousness: Life After the Apocalypse.
2010-07-19
: 2 Apocalypse World announcements
For people who've preordered Apocalypse World:
The final PDFs are up. If you haven't, go back to the Forge Bookshelf and redownload.
(I've already announced this on the barf forum; this is the same announcement again, not a new one.)
For people who still might preorder Apocalypse World, but haven't yet:
Presuming reasonable-to-modest sales at GenCon, I've totally sold through the first run of books. I'm going to order a second print run when I pick up the first, but what this means is: if you order the game between now and August 1, it counts as a preorder (so you get the limited edition Maestro D' character playbook), but I won't be able to ship your book until around August 15.
Preorders end August 1, and normal orders commence August 2.
2010-07-09
: Hooray Blowback!
Around here I'm playing three regular, ongoing games. Apocalypse World, Shock: Human Contact, and Blowback. It's a grueling schedule -- so grueling that none of them are weekly, and Meg and I even have to alternate playing sometimes -- but how much fun do you want me to give up, just for the sake of gruel?
Anyhow, Elizabeth's opened Blowback for preorder, and it's a fun game and it's going to be a gorgeous, gorgeous book. Check it: Blowback: Preorder + PDF.
(In the book, Sean Donohue is my guy. I'm famous! Elizabeth is kinder to him than he deserves: in real life he's a conscienceless, vicious little coward.)
2010-06-28
: Itchy pants
Know my problem? I got itchy pants.
The Apocalypse World PDF isn't even final-final yet, and already I'm (a) designing a new board game, and (b) getting excited about working on Storming the Wizard's Tower again. Excited like looking at the old files and planning out my approach, starting to clear space in my mental schedule, wondering which of my friends will be willing to playtest with me, reminding myself that I really ought not dig into it until Apocalypse World is at the printer, at least.
The fundamental differences between MCing Apocalypse World and GMing Storming the Wizard's Tower are exciting to me. I can't wait to bring the lessons I've learned from designing for the former to bear on designing for the latter. Can't wait!
2010-06-20
: Welcome to the Preapocalypse!
I'm taking Apocalypse World preorders and pre-print PDF orders, starting now.
For announcements, logistics, questions, etc., please visit barf forth apocalyptica, the Apocalypse World webforums.
You can find free downloads, some not yet quite current, at apocalypse-world.com.
2010-06-14
: A Bit of Hardcore
A few days ago, a thoughtful reader sent me this:
What is wrong with the classic gamemaster / player division? Why the drive to give players control of game elements outside of their own characters?
As a player, I have never felt especially disempowered, at least not with a good GM. In discussing conflict vs task resolution, you used the example of trying to crack a safe to search for incriminating documents to point out that the safe-cracking die rolls of a traditional RPG are irrelevant: if the GM doesn't want you to find the documents, there won't be any in the safe, and if he does, you'll find them outside the safe if necessary. That's true, but I see that as a strength of RPGs rather than a weakness: unlike in a computer game, I can rely on the GM to ensure that the story progresses in a satisfying way*. I don't *want* the dice to have any actual power -- they're just a psychological prop that build excitement by allowing me to pretend that an outcome is in doubt.
Moreover, it feels as though players having more power to influence the world would actually *reduce* the emotional impact of the game. This impact (in all storytelling media, not just RPGs) depends on our ability to believe that the story told is in some sense true. The rigid distinction that fans of "shared universe" fictions like superhero comics, Star Wars, etc. make between canon and non-canon material illustrates the point: Even if all fans agree that the new Star Wars trilogy is terrible, and even if someone were to remake Episodes I - III in a way that everyone agreed was far superior, the fans would know in their hearts that the remakes weren't "real" and therefore not quite satisfying. In an RPG as experienced by the people I know, this sense of reality depends on the sense of being a person in a world. Assuming an authorial role -- declaring, for example, that there will be papers in the safe -- turns canon into unsatisfying fan fiction.
Thank you for your thoughts,
Rafael
*I'm not saying that the GM should have the One True Story planned in advance. I believe that player decisions should have an impact, but I don't see the advantage in expressing that impact in terms of game mechanics.
I love to answer questions, and Rafael was generous enough to agree to have the conversation here instead of in private email. Thanks, Rafael!
What is wrong with the classic gamemaster / player division? Why the drive to give players control of game elements outside of their own characters?
The simple answer won't be satisfying. The simple answer is: nothing's wrong with it. Sometime's it's well-executed, other times poorly-executed, same as anything, but there's nothing wrong with it of itself. So why the drive? Just because the classic GM/player division doesn't fill the breadth of possible good design. Co-GMed games (in their many, many forms) can be fun to play and rewarding to design. Why not design them?
Now, in your examples and argument I see two separate topics. They are:
1. Should the players be able to establish facts about things in the game world outside of their own characters' control?
2. Should the players' decisions have a mechanical impact on the story?
For 1, my answer is that they can, but SHOULD they? It depends on the game. Some games, yes, of course they should. Other games, no, of course they shouldn't.
Your answer is that they shouldn't in general, I surmise. Would you say that they shouldn't, no matter what the game? Or would you say that maybe for some games they should, but you wouldn't enjoy playing those games? Or would you say that maybe for some games they should, but those games shouldn't exist?
For 2, I don't think there's enough in your letter for me to quite get your position. "I don't *want* the dice to have any actual power -- they're just a psychological prop that build excitement by allowing me to pretend that an outcome is in doubt" versus "I'm not saying that the GM should have the One True Story planned in advance. I believe that player decisions should have an impact..." I can't figure out the boundary between those. So let me ask.
I see a to-hit roll + damage roll as the player's decision having a mechanical impact on the story. I kill the monster, that's one way for the story to go; the monster wounds me and I retreat, that's another way it can go. Do you see it that way too?
Like, I'm GMing a game right now. A couple of sessions ago, one of the PCs decided to poison his own mother, a powerful and kind of dreadful figure in the game world, but not, like, a villain. I don't really know why the PC decided to do it, although I could see the developing animosity between them. I hadn't planned for it in any way, though; it wasn't something I'd set up as GM. To my mind it was just as likely that they'd reconcile somehow.
Anyway, the character has an ability that lets him poison people, and it calls for circumstantial prerequisites -- does the poisoner have access to something the victim will eat? -- and then a roll. The character brings his mom food, so yes, and makes the roll. It's middling successful, so the poison does enough damage to kill her, but not enough to kill her outright. The character leaves, and later, off-screen, I decide that she's died.
That's an example of a player's decision having mechanical effect on the story, of the dice deciding which direction the story goes, but not where the player had any power to influence the world outside of her character's reach.
Do you see it the same way?
When you say that you don't want the dice to have any power, do you mean this kind of power too?
2010-06-13
: Done
Ha. Done.
It looks like I'm going to be publishing Apocalypse World after all. (That's a joke there, son.)
All that's left is a final printout, a final proofread, and an index. Preorders and PDF sales opening the week of the 21st, could be. In print at the end of July.
But first, a couple of days off, and to catch up on some other biz I've been letting slide.
Damn. Done.
2010-06-11
: The Forge is back
The Forge archives live where the Forge used to live. Otherwise, I would have orphaned every link to the Forge in the whole world.
The live forum now lives at indie-rpgs.com/forge/.
And, hooray! Hooray!