Clan of the IF

I write this on the night that I forego a visit to my gaming room (in that I mean a video gaming room) and simply sit and wait for posts to come into my play by post games. 

Fascinating how I forego a lush, nearly real world, for the world of the word- simply the word. In many ways play by post gaming is like dating- waiting for your life to be saved by the announcement of a text.

(Now I am not sure how many of you have dated in those times outside text, or the times that you had to hit a button four a five times before reaching your letter, but I can tell you it was a chore, and a chore not meant for the arthritic or the easily confused.)

But yes, I am drawn to my PbP (play by post) games a bit (far more) than the craving I feel for the first person Fallout or a bit of the Sword Coast Legends.

Why is that? Are we not built for the more civilized stimulus of a reality utterly steeped in completion- where all is provided for our senses? Or is it rude to theorize that a RP gamer’s mind (so contrary to neo-social darwinism) may well be attuned more to the artistic imagination of the cave painters of Chauvet.

Is that it? Is that what we are trying to recreate at the tabletop, at the online message board- waiting for the next word, the next description, the next horse-head?

Maybe we are not gamers, maybe we are storytellers in desperate need of a far stranger and (contemporarily) defined medium. Are gamers the lost story-tellers in the cave? The Norse-man of the mead hall? The post-ers in need of a non-existing medium.

For we, as role-players, are nothing but the teller of stories that we WISHED had happened. That is the key.

As a serious gamer and a veteran role-player, I can say that modern ‘video’ gaming (I place the quotes there because I believe that modern ‘video’ gaming has far exceeded the bounds of that title) is the genie that gives us all our wishes, while role-playing, collaborative story-telling, in all its mediums; are what we would do IF we had a lamp.

No judgements aside, in summary, I say when you play how much IF is given to you.

I can say this, there must have been a tremendous amount of IF in those paintings, in those mead-hall stories. Must have been a lot when you stare into that flame, into those dice.

Go ahead try me, the next time you play, the next time you shut off this damned reality and turn on a world that is not yours nor should be, how much IF is yours?

The Writer's GM

The following is an expansion of G+ comment I made to Nick Carter, a fellow writer/soloist.

In this blog I am looking to fuse writing with RPG mechanics. The dice, the rules, the mechanics are a rocket booster to the writing. They extend the thrill of RPG (what is behind that corner?, is that door a trap?, what is in the inviting chest?, how does our hero defeat that monstrosity?) to the sometimes empty chamber of writing. 

The empty page, both like and unlike tabletop's graph paper, can be a very inviting

Sometimes in the written word, we are prisoners of our freedom. Our universe of thoughts just needs a game master. I would dare to say there is comfort in having a Game master in my writing. After all, don't we always need someone to blame?

Like teaching, when I started out I wanted to use everything. Cover every rule, roll every die, set up an entire party of characters that went carousing into an ever-expanding dungeon (homage to +John Yorio and his solo-ing). But the writing got bogged down in the mechanics. The rules and systems felt like sludge where I wanted it to be near-frictionless fiction. Now I use simple fudge ranks and link them to Mythic's Likely rankings. Being that my journey is called 'Rogue of Changes' I allow any and all sudden divination or divination-like practices to flow into the soup. This includes I Ching, tarot, runes, playing cards, story dice, a scene out the window, something on the tele, or poop on my car. It all gets thrown in, very much like the strange casserole one makes from a randomly stocked pantry. 

Fortunately I very much enjoy eating mistakes!

rpgsolo.com is just it, frankly

I have to mention this, I must say it though I have tried to either deny it or find other ways of playing. I say with complete certainty that rpgsolo.com is the easiest, most fluid, and least in your face approach to solo roleplaying/ dungeon storytelling that I could find. I have tried Virtual table tops in a solo setting, but they just wind up getting in the way. RPtools, iTabletop, Rolz- they all wind up bogging the solo-player down in rolling and mechanics and just not allow me to WRITE. That is what I there for. rpgsolo.com just takes of it and lets me write. That could very well be the bottom line.

Beholders with Offices

I had planned on doing it. Planned on diving into the solo-dungeon and finding out where Murk goes from here. Rather than this being a plea to forgive me for not continuing the saga, I think my readers (those that still click and fall under these words' spell) would appreciate a rant that we can all relate to...

The Futility of Meetings- how absolutely nothing constructive. except spending time, can be done at a meeting. There is no reason to have a meeting, not with chat rooms and skype and email. Tell me all this crap in an email, for I read all of my junk mail.

Let me explain. I had a wondrous thing planned. I had my moleskin with character and monster stats, I had a graph paper clipboard with a map of our dungeon scrawled on it. My iphone was plugged into rpgsolo.com, I was ready. My only weapon was a staff of awakening +3 armed with coffee.

Then they started talking...

They started talking of the end of the year, of grades, of being sure to do this and that. They talked of graduation and where we had to be and what we had to do. It was the mindless stuff that turns the brain into mush and zaps not only the will to work, even to teach, but the will to live. I winded up asking only one question of Murk in my journals, Is Murk wounded? I had plans of asking if this mage he encountered is a NPC or a PC (a mage would do well in this adventure, an occupational necessity). Oh such great plans, but they all mired, they all went to mush as the administrators, those beholders with offices, began to talk. I found myself in an imaginative void.

And just when things were going utterly bad, they went worse utterly worse- we were condemned to meet individually in departments. Do you know what that is like? Half a dozen people talking about what they hope to do, what they plan to do, but never really do.  Yes, my bold adventure was reduced to a list of things I need to get for the newborn!

Conclusion? That is how our creativity is killed by this damned 9 to 5 society, one that I will be glad to exit after 22 days of teaching!

Rogue of Changes V: Solo App Tryout

For the next installment of Rogue of Changes, I decided to both play and review a curious google doc add- on called Solo Roleplay Tools by James Regan which turns the Mythic Solo Engine into a sidebar with various choices representing everything from probability questions to scene setup and the best one (since I use Fudge stats for opposed rolls) Opposed Question which allows you to plug in the appropriate scale for combat. 

I tried it out with good ol' Murk and it was pretty seamless. The only real thing I miss is the Yes, and or No, but that rpgsolo.com rolls up. Also in the Random Generators tab I would fill it up with everything from dungeon layout to random wandering monster or something of the sort. 

Other than that, it really pushes solo-ing toward writing, which is one of my goals in this blog. I plan on using this when I write, when I want to produce a story. So James Regan, great job. 

Now on to part V of our dungeon crawl:

Rogue of Changes V:
Murkstav is at the entrance to the tomb, a great maw of a cave stands to the north. He is poisoned, he cannot go back, he must go forward.

Into the Dungeon : (7) Scene Unaltered*

Nothing has changed for our hero, he is well rested but is still rather poisoned. He must find a cure.

He moves into the entrance, it looks like the entrance to a cave, giant thirty feet by twenty at the apex. The entrance is dark and Murkstav’s hand begins to tremble causing him to switch his sword to the other hand.

“Does he encounter anything as he moves in?” (Unlikely vs 5: 35%) Roll 16: Yes

What does he encounter? Efficiently Glorious .

Murkstav walks into the cave, something shines in the dim dim light. There is a pedestal just ahead of heam, gleaming a dull green. The dungeoneer perceives that it is jade, but found it odd that it was intact. He looks groggily at the floor, looking for skeletons or things that would tell him this whole set-up is a trap.

“Is there anything on the floor? ?” (Somewhat Likely vs 5: 65%) Roll 81: No

Looking to the floor our hero finds nothing of note, this only makes him more suspicious. He looks back to where he came from, the morning star lights looking very inviting right now.

No doubt about it, there is something on this pedestal something that is too glorious, too timely to be believed. It looks to be a potion of healing, a salve in a red bag tied by a brown string. The mercenary has seen it a dozen times in the stores about Rivermoon, but here it is something entirely different, something to be feared.

“Is the potion viable?” (Unlikely vs 5: 35%) Roll 19: Yes

“And is it booby trapped?” (Very Likely vs 5: 85%) Roll 83: Yes

“How likely is it for Murk to perceive the trap?” (Likely vs 5: 75%) Roll 62: Yes

Nothing in the dungeon, in the underground can be too good, there was something, a gleam that Murkstav noticed in that cavern. His skills, his instincts called for hesitation there.

What does the trap consist of? Peacefully Festive

Pardon? Gratify Dreams

Looking like a healing potion, the elixir would induce dreaming, slumber, a sleep potion. As if something wanted to make intruders sleep.

This will make the chaos factor go up in turn

What lurks herein that placed the bait? Cooly Pale

It was then that Murkstav realized that the chamber had become colder. Pulling his cloak closer to his shoulders he ignored the potion on the pedestal and kept moving into the hallway.

Let us see how this works in creating a dungeon, what is the next section? Dangerously Historical

Here I had to go to rpgsolo.com to get the layout of the dungeon, other than that I stayed with the google add-on.

RoC V: From the Mythic trial, using this to make a dungeon...according to the other thing this is dangerously historical, means nothing to me at this time:

Door on right side corridor continues.

5 = 5[d6]

(No encounter)  

At the end of what seemed like a hallway that ran 80 feet ahead are two large historically ornate doors. The one on the right is open and it is likely that there is something on the other side. Yeah its a sure thing that there is something behind that door, grabbing the door.

“Is there something behind that left door?” (Sure Thing vs 5: 90%) Roll 1: Exceptional Yes

There is something cold behind that door, a giant ice golem that feeds on unsuspecting visitors, was that the reason why the other bandits had been hesitating? The door is grabbed by the immense hand and it swings open with a lurch.

This is where the app is the strongest, where the player can input the ranking of each combatant or opposing object: 

“Murk versus ice golem. ?” (My school  vs Ice Golem : 10%) Roll 73: No

“Golem Round 2?” (High vs Superhuman: 10%) Roll 13: No

“3?” (High vs Superhuman: 10%) Roll 42: No

“Last chance?” (High vs Superhuman: 10%) Roll 12: No

“one more for the road?” (High vs Superhuman: 10%) Roll 36: No

There is no way that he is going to go blow to blow with this guy, there has to be another way that he gets out of this situation, He is the hero and there has to bed something. There is an odd luck, no doubt a chaos factor, no doubt somthing else that will change the situation.

So let us up the chaos factor to 9

Considering there is nothing he can do we move onto another question.

“Is there an X Factor that Murk takes advantage of which allows him to defeat/ overcome this enemy?” (Very Likely vs 5: 85%) Roll 33: Yes

Random Event Occurs: NPC action: Disrupt The intellectual

“Away yonder heathen!” the voice boomed from behind the monster, Murk trying desperately to gain a footing, thinking he could best the giant in combat. “Take that for your smite!” it again screamed in a loud deep voice, crashing the monster’s shouders with what seemed like a fireball.

Rogue of Changes IV

I had time for perhaps one scene here early in the morning while I wait for school to start. This time has become my dungeon time, away from the hype that is the regular life

Thus I would say that Murkstav is a good fighter right now, up against a fair willow wisp. I will assume that he has gone through all the mental tribulations of a dungeon campaign and it is going to be a serious fight so we will move him up to a fair fighter after going through two other dungeoneers. What are the results of the fight with the willow wisp?

(Somewhat Likely | 5_[d10]) Yes, but...

The perfect answer, a yes but.. there is no doubt that he is further damaged...

(1 = 6_[d20]+-5) Negligible: Nick/Scratch/Bruise.

I felt like he was protected or on his toes so the damage is but a scratch negligible. But he does drop with exhaustion so it is sure thing that he stops to rest perhaps even camp...

(Sure Thing | 10_[d10]) Yes, and...

Not only does he make a rudimentary camp but he passes out, right at the entrance. Next up wandering checks- for he has fallen asleep at the entrance to a dark and sinister place.

For his slumber, bare minimums on the floor of the entrance to whatever waits beneath there in the under dark. We will have two checks. And I say it is unlikely for anything to be there since there were already two bandits about to enter the tomb, this unlikely...two checks...

(Unlikely | 2_[d10]) No.

(Unlikely | 1_[d10]) No, and...

on the contrary

Murk slept, a deep slumber. Not only were there no wandering monsters but Murkstav completely rested allowing for a recovery of fighting fatigue if not his entire frame. Is the poison still lurking in his system?

(Very Likely | 8_[d10]) Yes.

Yes, thus is it likely that he has an antidote within his pack.

(Unlikely | 3_[d10]) No.

No, Murk coughs and finds himself dizzy at the foot of the entrance...

Too old for this Sh**?

 These days every time I boot up a new game, I feel like Murtaugh in the ol’ Lethal Weapon movies. I hear him whisper his catch phrase weeks away from his retirement. “I’m getting too old for this shit.."

Its not that I consider the new generation of games to be childish, on the contrary. I find them more challenging than my ACTUAL LIFE. I just know that when the company logos are all done its going to be either a thick-ass plot line to go through; or a learning curve not seen since my days at graduate school.

Whatever happened to the simplicity? Has our society gotten so complex that we just can’t turn on a game and start akilling? No, you have to part of a global conspiracy, or indoctrinated into a story, or educated in the ways of a secret cult. Gone are the days of hit the reset and you are blasting within moments. Given those were in the days of dot versus dot. But still I don’t have time for all the meringue, I want CAKE!

Further, once the game is happening and I’m psyched. I’m hit with so many ERRANDS. Get this, bring me that, take this for this purpose. I think that is the reason why I so adore ‘open world’ games, the ones where you just float in a reality without any agendas. 

Sure, when I was younger the prizes are more than worth it. Satisfying. But now, on the darker side of a mid-life crisis, they just don’t seem to matter. If I want that sniper rifle, if I want that thing, damn it I just hit the cheat code without hesitation. 

It reminds me of the constant battle that I had years ago with Chuk Barber; my mentor of video (carnage) games. He was the one that introduced me to Quake, Halo, Rune, and the entire FPS genre. Chuk was twenty years my senior and the minute he got a game he immediately searched for the cheat codes.

“But Chuk,” I protested. “What about the challenge, the game wasn’t made for you to cheat, complete it first man!"

“Bro,” he shot back. “I have a stressful job, and Im way too old to do things over and over to a checkpoint, I need to get to some blood and gore now!” 

TILDE ACTIVATED, CARNAGE ACHIEVED!

I no longer bicker or whine about the loss of plot line or gameplay. We no longer live at a time like Zork where we had one game and it had to last us for centuries. Gone are the days of milk a game for all its worth. I am shamed to say I have over 100 games on my Steam account and I've only burned through 10 of them lately. 

There is a mid-life impatience that i feel. I feel nothing but rebuke (like Burl Ives did when he said "Mendacity" in cat on a hit roof) when I find myself carrying rabbit food or a part for a machine or the ingredient for a potion to get the experience or a better weapon. Sorry, I’m just too old for that shit!

I think that today's games are made to replace rather than supplement our reality. Reality replacement is exactly what young players want. But older players seem to only have time/energy/memory or patience for a supplementary reality. 

After all, its all we got its all we can. 

So load up another game Riggs. I'm just going to sit here and wait until we get mobbed. Then I'll crack my neck and start blasting with this Smith & Wesson. Until then let me just close my eyes and...

What? No I dont want to save those people for a better gun. Just hit control tilde and type KILLALL! 

There we go...

Dungeonance

Looking over these blogs, these posts, my account on steam- it seems we are going through a dungeonance, a renaissance, a rebirth of the good ol’ dungeon crawl. I wonder many times if it is because the dungeon masters and players of the 80’s and 90’s are now having children and they want to relive those thrilling crawls of yesteryear. Even pixels, PIXELS, have been thrown back to their 80’s equivalents. This is astonishing in a world that has such reality games as Skyrim or Metro and Borderlands. 

Why are we going back to those underground memories of old? What lies there? Memory?

My dungeon crawls usually happened on Saturday mornings, starting at 9 am and ending about twelve hours later. Or in the school cafeteria, or the back of Lab class (the dissected frog was our dragon). Even to this day graph paper is a comfort, a dungeon map is a way of organizing my universe- am I am OSR-OCD? 

I am happy for this. Our children are descending into our dungeons, fighting our monsters, reliving our legends into a new age. Our monster manuals are no longer dusty, babies are teething on oversized D20’s and Nethack has a whole new generation of divers and warriors to plunder. 

It is a great thing to hear about these blogs, forums and posts about the next generation growing bright eyed and bushy tailed in the stank, soot and bile of an old-fashioned dungeon crawl. Like fathers like sons I guess, and no character sheet shall ever go dusty. 

Write Up- Rogue of Changes

The floor rushed up, but pain meant life. Murk landed on his feet but a metallic taste hit is palate with equal force. He knew he was poisoned. Sweating, he watched the hall moving off to the north. Illuminated a sharp orange, morning stars hung at ten paces apart, shedding the light on the cobblestone walls. The shadows stretched outward, moving unlike the fire. Murkstav quickly took a hold of his sword, eyeing the two bandits at the end of the hall; where the passage opened to a entrance at the top of wide steps. Once again the taste of metal, seemingly green even, flooded his palate. 

“We always have damned company, Silio” the one on the left in dark robes mentioned turning as Murkstav moved north to confront them. 

“Oh and this one seems quite intent,” the other said, dressed in leather and cape. 

Murkstav did not respond. Never respond to an enemy, he thought simply meeting the sword of the caped one, taking the deep breath away from him, but giving him just enough time to pull out his obsidian dagger. 

But something was wrong, really wrong, the caped one began to infer, wave, evoke and use the prefixes of a conjuring. Blast, a conjurer, by the time one enemy was dead, there came another two. The dungeoneer knew he had to make this fast. That metallic taste drove him, and things were beginning to get fuzzy.

The conjuring continued. Murkstav felt and heard a wind at the corner of his vision. Something was definitely coming. The bandit sliced downward, Murkstav blocked and slashed his wrist with the obsidian. The man reeled, an amateur, and the dungeoneer shoved his sword in a space in the leather armor. His torso slid off the blade as Murk kicked. 

Turning, the whisp slashed at him. Murk slid and pushed his way to the conjuror, knowing well it was the source of the summoning. Not expecting the attack, the summoner fell forward. Murk kicked with his heels and struck upward with the hilt of his sword and cut the man’s thigh. Going down, Murk impaled his dagger in his neck. Exhaling the metal taste, he knew he had to do something about that taste. 

“At least this one’s dead so…” he whispered to himself. 

Yet the whisp still churned in the air, still mixed with the lights and screeched for his blood. 

Who indeed was conjuring who?

Session Three: Rogue of Changes

I was watching 'The Man in the High Castle' on Amazon Prime, a pity it was but one episode. Looking for more information, I was both comforted and stunned that Philip K. Dick used to the oracle to help him write his novel. In some cases he let the oracle decide his  novel. The author even commented that he did not like the direction the oracle took the story.

Thanks to all this, I discovered an old friend.

Since the age of 15 (going on three decades) I have been an avid reader of the Yi Jing oracle. The book is my deserted island book. That being the only book I would take to a deserted island. I have at least a dozen translation of The Book of Changes, and fantasize about writing my own (perhaps another blog?) With this in mind, I thought I would follow in Dick's footsteps and hand over my Scrawl to one of my oldest friends- the Zhouyi- the Book of Changes.

For those not into this oracle, or any oracles, I will not bore with the changing lines or anything of the sort. I will simply catalog the basics and how they appear on rpgsolo.com. That online oracle did have a few things to say and I add a bit of commentary:

Asking about Murk's adventure. Hexagram 6 Conflicts, disputes the courts, there is no doubt that Murkstav will be encountering many many swords on his journey through this dungeoness. Nor will this change. What will happen next, I draw 48-46, he descends into the well for drink, the water is clean the way is clear and he will ascend because of this. What does he seek? He seeks to retreat, 33, 3 to chaos the dreaded 12. He retreats his wound is poisoned and there are bandits waiting at the entrance... Inferior men, common thieves. How does Murk get out of it? 49.6 to 13. A Shedding revolution, sheds his skin like a leopard on the inside, there is a deep change on the inside. Murkstav realizes full well that he is no better than the bandits before him. How many bandits does he face? 2 = 2_[d2]

Are there two bandits? Yes, and...

>Will-o-wisp.

Murk is poisoned and he fighting at a good only, he is up against two guys and that is a great in my book, does he make it? Yes.

Yes he makes it out of it, solidly, there is something else in the room. A whil-o-wisp, fast little sucker. Note: How does Murk change inside,

Create.

Conclusions:

• This will be a crawl of constant obstacles. To take from the Tarot "Full of Swords".
• Murkstav retreats into the bowels, into the well of the crypt.
• He is poisoned, rather severely.
• He faces two bandits and a will'o'wisp.
• In order to defeat these he must change, have a creative revolution from within.
• Is he just a bandit?

I plan to write up this little instance very soon but I wanted to illustrate how perhaps K. Dick had written 'The Man in the Castle'.