Well, the tactical situation in that last post was starting to get pretty complex, so I decided to break out the miniatures and recreate the scene to be sure that we’re all on the same page. Click for the larger version, and let me know what details I’m missing.

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You are a low-level minion hired by the Evil Mastermind to perform some important task–kidnap somebody, steal an artifact and deliver it to the Mastermind, or something along those lines. You accomplish your task, return triumphant to the Evil Mastermind, and demand the payment that the Mastermind promised you.
The Evil Mastermind gives you a long, appraising look, smiles oddly, and says: “Why, of course. Don’t worry–I intend to see that you get exactly what is coming to you. Oh, yes, you’re going to get exactly what you deserve.” While the Evil Mastermind goes on chuckling to himself and exchanging Knowing Looks with all the other minions in the room, you:

a) Whoa, exactly what I deserve?!? Wow, what a deal!
b) Sneer at all of those other guys who told you that working for the Evil Mastermind was a poor career choice.
c) Now you have the Evil Mastermind exactly where you want him! You decide to get tricky and demand double payment for your action–that always works.
d) Run.

How do you answer? Solution follows:
(There is no correct answer. And you’re standing on the trapdoor to the Rancor pit.)

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Reading this sordid tale of violence and depravity (in an RPG) brought back more than a few memories. Specifically, of TSR’s old Top Secret roleplaying game. Top Secret was a spy/espionage game in which players created secret agents and sent them on missions of dubious morality.
I did not own this game, but my friend Bill did, and he often loaned it to me since I generally filled the role of gamemaster in our little gaming group. I pored over the TS rulebook, reading through it again and again while I planned out missions and scenarios. The individual tables, charts, and illustrations in that book are burned permanently into my memory.
After reading the above-linked post, I hauled out the ol’ copy of Top Secret and flipped through it. (Bill, somehow it’s ended up in my possession. Should you desire its return, let me know.) Wow… the memories. And wow, does this game scream “I come from the 1980s!” For one thing, the book is absolutely jam-packed with charts and tables covering all manner of situations. There is actually a Random Execution Table you can use to determine how your spy meets his fate in the unfortunate event that he’s captured by the Bad Guys. I credit TS‘s massive weapons charts for giving me my first basic education in firearms and ammunition types. I could’ve sworn there was a Torture Chart as well, but I didn’t spot it in my brief skim through the book.
For all the fun we had flipping through that magical book, I only remember playing it once. It was actually one of my earliest attempts at roleplaying. Let me regale you with the tale:
I was the gamemaster. My friend Jason created a secret agent. I designed a mission for his character to undertake–something that would evoke the adventure and excitement of James Bond and Indiana Jones. The mission: break into a house (just a normal house) and steal some top secret documents from it. That was the entirety of the mission. The house was the best-defended house you could ever possibly imagine encountering in the suburbs: all sorts of redundant alarm systems, codes needed for getting through the front door, etc. So I got out my meticulous maps of the house, set up the GM screen, and we got to playing.
The adventure went like this: Jason’s character arrived at the house and managed to break in after snooping around for a bit. While breaking in, he unknowingly tripped one of the approximately 15,000 different invisible alarm systems I had installed in the house. The police showed up almost immediately. Jason decided to escape by jumping through a large window onto the lawn outside. Dice were rolled, charts were consulted… and the next thing we knew, Jason’s character was lying unconscious on the lawn, rapidly bleeding to death from massive wounds incurred while jumping through the glass window.
That was it. After months of daydreaming about high-speed chases, beautiful female spies, and nail-baitingly suspenseful action scenes, our first adventure had ended with the protagonist bleeding to death on somebody’s front lawn after jumping through a window.
Not the stuff of legend, you might say. But we had fun. And the next thing we knew, we had upgraded to the vastly superior Top Secret S.I., a “second edition” of sorts that took TS and turned it into a game that could actually emulate the spy-genre antics it was trying to portray. We loved it. We never really went back to the original TS, but played Top Secret S.I. for many many years.
I still look at the original TS with a funny sort of admiration and respect. It wasn’t my first exposure to RPGs, but it was one of the first, and even though it didn’t play out the way I imagined… well, I had done an awful lot of imagining in the course of reading and re-reading it, and that was something to be thankful for.
Top Secret, you rock. Random Execution Table and all.

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Gencon last month saw, among many other things, the release of a hardcover roleplaying game book that I had the privilege of editing. The book is Legends of the Samurai, and it’s the biggest single project that I’ve edited to date.
Editors and proofreaders generally only get mentioned in reviews of RPG books when they’ve screwed up. So it was with some nervousness that I read the first review of the book. I cannot describe the sense of relief that washed over me as I read these six blessed words: “I saw no major editorial gaffes.” Mr. Reviewer, you are an angel from heaven.
I’m actually afraid to look through the book myself; I know, I know with cold, absolute certainty that I’ll spot an overlooked typo on the very first page to which I turn. No–far better to leave the book closed and unread. And if you read the book and find a typo… please leave me in blessed ignorance.

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This afternoon, I finished running a Warhammer RPG scenario for Michele. (This is the game mentioned in the previous post.) We played the “introductory adventure” from the back of the main rulebook, and both had a great deal of fun with it. Here are some quick impressions of the adventure and the game itself:

• The setting is gritty and depressing–an interesting twist on the “heroic swords-and-sorcery” genre. The game picks up in the aftermath of a massive, Empire-shaking war that has left much of the world in a shambles. From the characters’ perspective at least, the world is falling apart around them, and there’s no good news on the horizon.
  This added a fun sense of desperation and urgency to the whole affair, I thought.

• The characters seem really “grounded” in the game world. They have believable jobs and roles in the setting. Michele made three characters–a Dwarf mercenary, an Elf apprentice wizard, and (most entertaining of all) a human peasant charcoal-burner (yes, a person who burns charcoal for a living). All had definite careers and motivations in the Warhammer world, instead of just belonging to that rather nebulous “wandering adventurer” career.
• Combat is deadly; no matter how tough you are, you’re only one or two blows away from getting maimed or killed. All it takes is one solid hit. This makes combat feel a lot riskier, as well as more tense and exciting. In a lot of games, you have ample warning (i.e. dropping hit points) that a fight is not going your way; in Warhammer, you could pretty easily go from perfect health to death in a single round. Also, the game has some impressively gruesome critical hit tables (reminiscent of, but not as detailed as, the ones in Rolemaster).
  The first thing Michele did after her first combat encounter was buy all the armor her characters could afford. Two of her three characters were severely wounded, and this from a rather “routine” encounter with some mutants.

• There’s a definite undercurrent of gloom and horror in Warhammer. The game features “insanity points” which characters gain when they view horrifying or sanity-shattering sights; this gives it a fun Call of Cthulhu vibe (although Warhammer’s insanity points aren’t as central to the game as they are in CoC).
• The adventure we played (“Through the Drakwald,” included in the main rulebook) was quite good. It was unexpectedly heavy on mood and roleplaying opportunities. Michele’s characters ran into one big combat encounter, and spent the rest of the time trying to figure out the adventure’s central mystery as it unfolded around them.
  The adventure also involved several meaningful but difficult moral choices.

• At two separate points in the adventure, the events taking place made me feel really sad. As in, emotionally sad. Fantasy RPGs do not usually trigger emotional responses in me, but this one did. Maybe it’s the humidity.

Those are my immediate reactions. In summary: Warhammer is an excellent game. I’m hoping to continue playing it with Michele (and anyone else who wants to join). If you’re looking for a game that takes traditional fantasy tropes and gives them a grim and unusual spin, it’s definitely worth checking out.

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OK, time for a little geeky RPG humor. Earlier this week I came across a humorous little essay written by a gamer who blames his favorite character’s descent into madness and addiction on the cruelty of the adventure’s author (some profanity, you’ve been warned). It’s a bit long, but worth getting to the final page, where we are treated to this cautionary tale:

And finally, just to put the icing on the cake, we encountered a drug dealer in a pub, and in a mad moment I sampled the goods. Which were good. Which were *very* good. When I took some I felt like I was on top of the world, that I could do anything, that no-one could stop me. These drugs worked, and I said yes!
One dose gave you +10%/+1 to EVERY single attribute bar attacks. My weapons skill was up by 10% (i.e. 58% instead of 48%). My ballistic skill was up by 10%. My toughness was up by 1. My initiative was up by 10%. My intelligence was up by 10%. My leadership, my cool, my everything, etc. etc….
It was great. Time after time I’d roll the dice and say: “I made it… because of the drugs!” Time and time again they saved my skin, and I wasn’t going to let the 50 gold crowns a week cost get me down. And who cared if every time I took a dose, General Tangent (the GM) rolled some dice behind his screen.

Great. Now I’m going to have to resist the urge to shout “I made it… because of the drugs!” every time I roll dice during a game.
Oh, and the cruel author of said adventure published a response. All very amusing stuff.

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I read an interesting roleplaying book a while back, and for some time I’ve been meaning to talk about it here.
The book is Gehenna, the final sourcebook published for the Vampire: The Masquerade game line. Gehenna is the end of the road for Vampire and its elaborate setting; after many years of publishing Vampire books, White Wolf (the publisher) decided to end the game line and setting by publishing an end-of-the-world sourcebook which would detail ways to roleplay the End Times in a manner fitting Vampire‘s themes.
Gehenna is that book; it includes four different scenarios for ending the world (as well as some general advice on tailoring Vampire‘s End Times to fit your game). One of those four scenarios, titled “Wormwood,” struck me as particularly interesting, so I’ll discuss it briefly.
[Warning: major spoilers follow.]
First, a quick primer for those not familiar with Vampire: in it, you create and take on the role of a modern-day vampire. As a vampire, you are an inheritor of God’s curse on the Biblical character Cain. You are part of a hidden (from mortals) society of undead who are constantly scheming and trying to acquire power over both their fellow vampires and the mortal world. Most games involve backbiting politics as the characters try to survive and thrive in this predatory world of vampire politics. There is a strong apocalyptic tone to the game; in the Vampire world, the signs of the End are everywhere, and when it finally comes, legend holds that a handful of ancient vampire gods will rise from their slumber and destroy everything. That’s the abbreviated version, at least.
“Wormwood” proceeds something like this: one day, God sends a killing cloud that envelops the world and simply kills off every vampire on the planet in a matter of hours or days. The only survivors are a handful of vampires (including, of course, the players’ characters), who are specifically spared by God in a “Noah’s Ark” sort of situation. These vampires are placed in a church that they cannot leave (because of the killing cloud outside), and have a short period of time in which to prove themselves worthy of being spared from God’s wrath. For several days, the vampires are subjected to a series of difficult moral tests and choices; at the end of their allotted time, the surviving vampires are judged by God and either destroyed (if they succumb to their bestial nature) or spared and restored to mortality (if they demonstrate that they can overcome their predatory nature).
That’s the story in a nutshell. This scenario really appeals to be on a narrative basis for several different reasons.
For one, I think it’s the perfect horrific ending to inflict on a society of arrogant, uber-powerful undead predators: in the end, vampires just… die, and are forgotten. The vampires have spent dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of years seeking power and pulling the strings of their human puppets from the shadows, secure in their supernatural superiority to mortal man; and in the end, they’re just wiped away almost nonchalantly, in a matter of days. For all their raging against God and all their arrogance, for all the supernatural power they have accrued over the centuries, they don’t even get to go out in a blaze of glory; nobody even knows they ever existed. What a thematically fitting end—tossed aside by God, reduced to utter insignificance. That’s a good horror story, in my opinion, and Vampire purports to be a game of horror.
The second reason this tale interests me is the way it depicts God. In “Wormwood,” the true nature of God is finally revealed, and it stands in stark contrast to what we’ve been led to believe about Him. Vampires, descendants of the Biblical character Cain, have long attributed cruelty and arbitrary vindictiveness to God, seeing Him as the source of their vampiric curse and portraying Cain’s sin as a praiseworthy act, rather than a vile one. In “Wormwood,” however, God turns out to be loving, kind, and patient—nothing at all like the vicious and uncaring deity so hated by the vampire community. God is shown to be a merciful God who has waited for millenia for vampires to repent and accept grace and forgiveness. It is the vampires’ own pride, not God’s malice, which has kept them from divine grace; all this time, all they needed to do was humble themselves and repent. In “Wormwood,” time has finally run out, but even then, God gives a chosen few the chance to be spared the richly-deserved judgment that lays waste to the vampire world.
Why is this so interesting to me? Well, for one, it’s practically bursting with substantive Christian themes and ideas. It’s not quite a truly Christian message—in the end, the chosen vampires are saved because of their own good deeds—but it’s far, far closer to a genuine Christian roleplaying scenario then most other games I’ve read (including, I’m afraid, most specifically Christian roleplaying games). I’m not saying that one needs to completely “Christianize” the scenario in order to fully appreciate it, but for those looking for such things, it features a lot of opportunities to explore, in the roleplaying medium, topics like sin and grace.
Unlike just about every other religious-minded roleplaying game ever written, “Wormwood” portrays an actual, no-strings-attached, loving God. When a Judeo-Christian-esque God is portrayed in roleplaying games, He is almost always portrayed as having what you could call a “lawful jerk” personality: He’s usually good and righteous, but in a callous might-makes-right fashion. He smites evil in a scorched-earth manner, with no room for genuine grace or mercy. This is true even in games that attempt to portray God in a somewhat positive light; even most “Christian RPGs” seem to think that “onward Christian soldier” is the only Biblical model for behavior.
And so, I find it fascinating that (of all things) a Vampire scenario hits so much closer to the target than do decades’ worth of other religion-focused games. It’s not perfect, and I’m not saying it’s a “Christian game,” whatever that is. But the God of “Wormwood” bears more than a passing resemblance to the Christian God of the Bible, and I, for one, am happy to see it.

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Have you hugged your GM today? That’s “GM” as in “gamemaster,” not “car manufacturer.” Today, March 4, is GM Day, a day when we all set aside our differences and celebrate the GMs among us.
I note that several online gaming stores have “GM Day discounts” going on. Will the crass capitalist merchandizing of precious holidays never end? I mean, the local department stores had all their GM Day decorations and sales up months before the holiday even arrived.
update: My wife informs me that March 4th is also the only day that’s also a command. (I had to think about that one for a second.)

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On Saturday, Michele had to journey to the University of Chicago, there to spend the afternoon doing research in the stygian depths of the Regenstein stacks. Walking through those stacks sure brought back the memories, so I quickly decided to abandon Michele to her research and strike out on the ultimate gamer’s pilgrimage: a trip to Games Plus, the biggest game store in Chicagoland.
Games Plus (hereafter GP) is a really cool store, and if you’ve got even a passing interest in RPGs or board games, you really ought to make a trip out there at least once in your life. They stock just about every in-print game in existence, and plenty of out-of-print games as well. The clerks are friendly and know about the games they sell. It is pretty much impossible for me to visit GP and not find something I want to spend money on, which is why it’s probably a good thing that I live in Michigan and only make it out there about once a year.
The most fun part of any GP pilgrimage, aside from tracking down and purchasing expensive game books that you don’t need, is watching the other customers. There are always several other gamers drifting through the aisles with you, scouring the shelves for bargains, and I enjoy taking note of the games over which they pore. Look–over there’s a guy scouring methodically through all the old GURPS books, perhaps hoping to fill the holes in his 3rd edition collection before the new 4th edition takes over; there’s a middle-aged gamer (perhaps escaping, for a few precious hours, the responsibilities and hectic-ness of work, family, children?) trying to decide whether to spend his hard-earned cash on Sengoku or that Tribe 8 sourcebook he’s been thinking about getting. And here’s me, standing quietly in the aisle next to them both, mentally weighing my budget and deciding whether to go for The Riddle of Steel, which feels like it should belong in any gamer’s library, or Ex Machina, which is the cyberpunk sourcebook I’ve been wanting. What are we all doing here?
And then, of course, in the middle of the store, a group of middle-aged guys is gathered, all painting miniatures and loudly discussing the State of the World. The conversation is always loud enough to be easily overheard from any point in the store, so even if you don’t want to eavesdrop, you don’t really have a choice. Among the conversational points discussed at much length and at great volume:

• Can you believe that kids these days don’t even care about World War II? I mean, I once talked to this kid who couldn’t recognize the silhouette of a Tiger tank–I mean, is there any more recognizable tank in the history of the world? Kids these days.
• At Gencon last year, I got really mad at this group of gamer punks, and I wanted to kick their scrawny little butts. But I didn’t. I used to be more aggressive than I am now.
• The world sure would be a lot better without those nasty Republicans! Remember how they worked over Jimmy Carter? The world was a vibrant green paradise under Jimmy Carter’s benevolent and watchful eye, until the Republicans ruined it all.
• Mechs in the Battletech universe are way too weak compared to other battlefield units. Battletech would’ve been way cooler if they had listened to all the advice I gave few decades ago when I was a playtester for the game.

At least, those are a few of the conversational pieces that I happened to overhear while browsing around. Strangely, the noisy conversants aren’t really annoying at all; they sort of add to the general ambience.
But after a while, it was time to head back to the U of C to pick up my beloved wife; my time at the game store was over. I made my purchasing decision (Ex Machina), exchanged witty banter with the friendly cashier, and headed out. The distinctive Gamer Conversation(TM) taking place at the miniatures-painting table faded into the background; last I heard of it, the discussion had now moved on to mocking derision of somebody’s failure to properly employ some German 88‘s in a bitterly-fought clash of arms the night before.
All in all, a very good trip. Games Plus, you rock–see you again next year.

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Well, well, well–maybe the Lord of the Rings RPG isn’t dead after all. Decipher plans to release some new supporting material for the game over the course of this year.
Now, I have a sneaking suspicion that Decipher is going to release the books that were already near completion when they put the game line “on hold” last year, and then let the game line sit again. But I’m not complaining–any new material for what I think is an excellent Middle-Earth RPG is welcome.
Which brings to mind a few rambling thoughts on the related topic of gaming in Middle-Earth:
Whenever the subject of Middle-Earth roleplaying comes up in online discussion, somebody invariably comes along and insists that the only supporting materials you need to run a game in Middle-Earth (aside from the main game rulebook) are Tolkien’s novels.
I agree in principle; there’s nothing to keep you from running a satisfying and faithful-to-Tolkien game using only Tolkien’s books and notes as a reference. However, I have always felt that Middle-Earth gaming, despite the thoroughness of the novels upon which it is based, actually benefits greatly from having published support game material and books available.
The main reason for this opinion of mine is that a Middle-Earth RPG, to truly capture the “feel” of Middle-Earth, requires the cities, settings, and populations of game areas to be much more fleshed out than do more generic fantasy settings. One of the biggest things that strikes me while reading through The Lord of the Rings is the sense that Middle-Earth itself is real and alive–I always get the sense that the people and places of Middle-Earth continue to go about their business even after the protagonists of the book have come and gone. In other words, the places of Middle-Earth aren’t shallow backdrops against which the heroes (of the books or the RPG) play out their dramas; they’re deep, realistic communities driven by the loves, fears, hates, and hopes of deep, realistic people.
In terms of an RPG, a supplemental game book that compiles the vital information about a particular area–geography, economy, regional philosophies and lifestyles and conflicts–and puts them into readily-accessible game terms (“stats them out”) is a huge time-saver for the GM. It presents the GM with a deep and well-thought-out environment with which the heroes will interact. In a typical Forgotten Realms-style “save the village from the orcs” adventure, depth of background and locale isn’t necessary; but a game set in Middle-Earth that ignores such things is missing out on one of the great qualities of Middle-Earth. “Typical” fantasy RPG scenarios focus almost exclusively on the heroes and their actions; most adventure locations and characters exist as little more than “props” to tell an enjoyable story about the protagonists. In a Middle-Earth RPG, however, each area of the game world should exist realistically, consistently, and believably before the heroes even arrive. Once the heroes do arrive, if the environment is sufficiently detailed, the resulting stories and encounters will create themselves. Middle-Earth itself is a character in the game, with its own motivations and characteristics indepedent of the heroes’.
So I say: Bring on the Middle-Earth supplements. Explore areas of Middle-Earth that aren’t detailed thoroughly in the novels, and describe them exhaustively in such a way that they fit seamlessly into the themes and styles of the better-known parts of Arda.
And Decipher: next time around, consider timing the release of licensed RPG materials so as to capitalize on the overwhelming success of major, universally-loved movie trilogies.

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