Rogue Games Tabbloid -- June 16, 2009 Edition

16 June, 2009

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Colonial Gothic Revised — Sources JUN 15, 2009 05:36P.M.

A lot of research has gone into Colonial Gothic Revised. In the new Rulebook the following PDF is found, and lists all the sources that were consulted during the writing. Use this as a springboard for your own reading, as well as a good place to start when running your games. You do not need to read them, and Colonial Gothic is designed to give you what you need, but if you want deeper understanding or further discussion, these sources are a good place to begin. I am hoping to have a unified list put up in a week or so, which combines the sources used in all of the Colonial Gothic releases.

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In the late 70s and early 80s, the success of D&D enabled TSR to expand rapidly, in the process acquiring a large number of new employees, many of whom left their marks on the company. One such person was Paul Reiche III, who worked as a developer, designer, and editor at the company on several products published in 1980 and 1981.

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Interview: Paul Reiche III JUN 15, 2009 01:30P.M.

He left TSR for a successful career in the then-new computer games industry, eventually founding his own company, Toys for Bob, in 1989, where he works with his highschool classmate Erol Otus. Mr Reiche was kind enough to answer several questions I put to him, promising that “less than half of them are pure lies.” 1. How did you become involved the roleplaying games hobby? In 1976 I was in the 10th grade at Berkeley High School. During the first couple of weeks of school in AP Chemistry, I noticed this tall skinny dude who studied these strange pamphlets every day before class. Looking at the crudely illustrated covers, I though he was either a Hare Krishna (it was Berkeley, after all) or was up to some form of “no good,” which has always had a great appeal for me. When I asked him, “What are those?”

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he invited me over to his place to play “in his dungeon” and it was there I met Erol Otus, famed D&D artist (he was great, even at 16) and Mat Genser. That game was very ruthless and Erol proceeded to kill all my characters, once with some kind of skeleton pistol that shot phalanges bones. Of course, I was hooked and we played almost every day until graduation.

crazy), but bits and pieces did come out in the Master and Companion rules sets. 4. Perhaps your most lasting contribution to D&D was the thrikreen race, which first appeared in the AD&D Monster Cards. Is there any truth to the long-held suspicion that they were inspired by the phraints from Dave Hargrave’s Arduin Grimoires?

2. One of the earliest RPG products to which I recall seeing your name attached was Booty and the Beasts, to which Erol Otus contributed both text and illustrations. Can you tell us a little about the origins of this product?

At the time, I thought TSR needed a good insectoid enemy which was intelligent and weapon-using. I was aware of phraints and I certainly can’t say I came up with the idea of bug-men entirely on my own — I was mostly driven by images of mantis creatures and the warlike cultures of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “Barsoom” series. The spinning crystal disc weapon hearkened to Star Trek‘s kligat thrown blade (“as dangerous as a hand phaser at close range”). So I guess instead of being a simple “phraint thief,” I am a super “steals-good-ideas-from-all-over-the-place” kind of thief.

Our D&D group was heavy into creating new monsters, new magic spells and new character classes. Several of our players were also excellent artists, some were pretty good writers and we all wanted to earn our own money! Erol had illustrated David Hargrave’s ground-breaking Arduin Grimoire and Erol, Mat and I were certain that we could publish our D&D ideas in some form. A friend of ours, Cliff Perotti, had been collecting all the magic spells he could find into an informal “Spellcaster’s Bible.” Erol, Mat and I decided that we would create our own spell book, stripping out any system-specific rules so that it could be used in Dungeons & Dragons, Tunnels & Trolls, The Fantasy Trip or any other RPG. The book was called The Necromican (whose name was indeed a simplified riff off of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred’s evil book of magical secrets) and had some pretty dang cool stuff in there (there are still some copies on Ebay, I think.) Erol, Mat and I wrote the text, Erol penned all the illustrations and my mom Georgiann (the world’s first Star Control II fan), typed the whole thing on her Selectric II. We had 500 copies made at the local Kinko’s and sold out most of the run at the local D&D convention, Dundracon. We then negotiated (and I use the term loosely) a “jobbing deal” with Lou Zocchi (about whom an entire book could/should be written) and sold several thousand copies around the world.

5. A lot of your TSR work was for the Gamma World game. How did you become involved with it? Was the game a particular favorite of yours? I love Gamma World because it didn’t take itself too seriously, which has always been important to me. In fact, in many ways Gamma World was more like our D&D campaigns that the official rules, because we were always mixing robots, laser guns, and mutants into the traditional fantasy ingredients. Also, as the most junior designer at TSR, I jumped at the opportunity to edit and “fill out” a Gamma World module written by Gary Gygax and his son Luke. As a reader and day dreamer, I probably spend equal time in science-fiction, fantasy and post-holocaust, so Metamorphosis Alpha and Gamma World were right up my alley. Blackmoor too, I guess.

Based on the success of The Necromican, we started on a similar work of monsters and treasure called Booty and the Beasts. This time we actually used a word processor at my mom’s law office in downtown San Francisco! Booty and the Beasts was our last big project, because Erol moved off to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin to work for TSR Hobbies, though we did put out two little products, a nicely illustrated magical artifact generation system and a set of geomorphic mini-dungeon modules.

6. The willingness to mix fantasy and science fiction ideas seems to have been much greater in the early days of the hobby. Is that willingness something you’ve brought to your own work, both in tabletop RPGs and in computer games? I love imagining fantastic adventures in all kinds of settings and time periods, but my brain is not divided into neat genres. Perhaps I integrated Arthur C. Clarke’s comparison between magic and science at such a deep level that I have a hard time with such categorizations. Think about the magic in Jack Vance’s D&D-inspiring The Dying Earth stories: were they powered by supernatural forces, ancient super-science, or aliens from other dimensions? And aren’t his stories more interesting because he never entirely answers that question?

3. How did you come to be hired by TSR? Did your independent design work catch the eye of someone in Lake Geneva? Erol had been hired as an artist a year earlier and I when I went out to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin for a visit, I looked at the work being done by TSR’s designers and thought “I can do that!” I wrote a quick module, The Temple of Poseidon, and sent it back to TSR along with my CV and copies of Booty and the Beasts and The Necromican. I was initially hired as a “game developer,” editing and fleshing out the work of other designers. About 4 months later, I became a game designer and was assigned defining rules for high-level D&D games whose characters were 15-30th level. My work was never published intact (in truth, it was a little

Many of the books I have enjoyed in the 60’s and 70’s would be called “cross-overs” today, including stories like Zelazney’s Nine Princes in Amber, Saberhagen’s Empire of the East trilogy, and even Heinlein’s Glory Road. While genres are convenient for business purposes, I think they sever the corpus calosum of imaginative literature. I think I have always struggled to bridge these artificially created divisions, both in theme and in structure, as with the strategy/action hybrid video games,

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Archon and Star Control.

9. Do you still play tabletop RPGs nowadays and, if so, which ones do you play?

7. I very fondly remember the game Archon from the mid-80s. I’m a bit embarrassed to mention that, until recently, I had no idea that you’d worked on it. What inspired that game and do you have any particular memories of its development?

Yes, recently Erol, Fred Ford, and a few of our friends have been trying out 4.0 in a fun island adventure of Erol’s creation. Jeez! — first level characters are like gods compared to the last time I played, which was 1st Edition. A magic missle every round — forever? Give me a month and my Mujongie War Wizard will turn a castle to dust!

Wow, that is opening up a whole other can of memory worms! For today, let’s just say that Archon was a perfect transition from the world of Dungeons & Dragons into the then-emerging field of computer games and that I was extremely fortunate to work on it with Jon Freeman, Anne Westfall, and Robert Leyland — three of the best and most experienced computer game developers of that time.

ROGUE FEED 8. You’re probably one of the first pen and paper RPG designers I recall having “jumped ship” to the computer games industry. What sparked that decision and how would you characterize the differences between the two industries?

Growing Skepticism JUN 15, 2009 12:31P.M. Back at the end of April, I made a post where I took pleasure in the Erol Otus cover to Kenzer & Company’s upcoming HackMaster Basic. Nearly two months later, I still think the cover is awesome, but I’m cooling on my interest in the game itself. Kenzer has released several PDFs intended to give potential customers a sneak peek at what’s in store, one of which is a full table of contents of the 192-page book. Left unanswered is the question of how any book that calls itself “basic” can be almost 200 pages long, especially when one considers that the AD&D Players Handbook was 128 pages long and the Rules Cyclopedia just a little over 300 and it covers levels 1-36.

I met Jon Freeman in 1980 at D&D convention where he was showing off one of the very first fantasy computer games, The Datestones of Ryn. Having learned to program in BASIC at Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science, I could see how it was put together and I was pretty sure I could make it better. Jon’s initial interest in me was learning how to publish his own FRP system in the paper world, but eventually we settled on working together on a computer game. I must admit, when TSR shortly thereafter offered me a job, I bailed on Jon and flew off to Wisconsin. He continued on to create other seminal fantasy and science-fiction games at his company, Automated Simulations. TSR was an amazing, wonderful and fun-filled experience for me, but I was 18 and fairly new to the whole being an adult thing, so when I bought some company stock (5 $100 shares), I thought it gave me a right to speak up when I saw something funky happening at the company. I protested about the crazy expense of buying a Porsche as a company car for one of the executives and got myself unemployed pretty dang fast, along with Evan Robinson and Kevin Hendryx.

Also found on the Kenzer website is a “walkthrough preview” of the game. It was reading this, though, that really made me reconsider my initially hopeful feelings about the game. Leaving aside its smug tone, which I found grating but realize is as much a part of the charm of the game to some people as AD&D‘s High Gygaxian is to me, HackMaster Basic simply looks much to rules-heavy for my tastes these days. In addition to ability scores, races, and classes, there are priors and particulars, quirks and flaws, skills, talents, and proficiencies, not to mention the honor system I found faintly ridiculous in the previous edition. Combat has been expanded to include knock-back rules, in addition to special moves, trauma, and other similar complications. I found myself once again wondering what Kenzer thinks “basic” means, only to realize that, compared to the “advanced” release later this year, this book may very well qualify as basic.

By that time, less than a year after buying the stock, it had risen to over $1000 per share, so Evan and I cashed in and headed back to California via Canada and a minor disagreement with their government about the definition of “assault weapon.” Long story. When I got back to California I studied field geology at UC Berkeley and rekindled my friendship with Jon Freeman and his new partner, Anne Westfall. Together with Robert Leyland, we formed Free Fall Associates and created two of Electronic Arts’ first seven games, Archon and Murder on the Zinderneuf.

None of this is to say HackMaster Basic will be a bad game or that it doesn’t scratch a particular old school itch that some people have. But it’s definitely not my itch and hasn’t been for many, many years. I certainly wish Kenzer & Company all the best with this game and hope it proves very successful for them. I wish I could come along for the ride, but, honestly, I can’t see abandoning any of my current games for HackMaster. If I can snag myself a review copy somehow or other, I’ll definitely give it a fair shake. I’d love to be convinced that the impression I got from the preview material is mistaken, even though I don’t imagine I will be.

The difference between the two industries back then? Well, there was about 10 times as much money in computer games and 1/10th the number of people, plus my hybrid of skills was pretty rare so it was a natural fit for me. In terms of people, there were lots of engineers and other super-smartypants (who make the best friends, because they are witty and interesting and make me look handsome and manly by comparison.)

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The Origin of the Thief JUN 15, 2009 11:43A.M. Gaming historian extraordinaire, Allan Grohe, has once again done us a great service by obtaining a copy of issue 9 “The Great Plains Game Newsletter” from 1974, in which Gary Gygax first presents the Thief class for inclusion in OD&D. Allan’s transcription is invaluable for having not only preserved a pre-Supplement I version of the class (which differs slightly in certain of its abilities), but also in having attached a name — Gary Schweitzer — to the original inspiration for the class. Schweitzer apparently told Gygax about the class in a phone conversation, resulting in the class Allan has now made available to us through his transcription. I may have more detailed comments about this remarkable find later. For now, I’m just amazed that we’ve got hold such an important piece of gaming history. My hats off to Allan. Bravo! And once again I stretch the term “pulp fantasy” to the breaking point. I am nothing if not painfully consistent in my eccentricities. Perhaps I should simply rename this feature “Appendix N” or something similar and be done with it, since it’s (generally) about the books and other media that influenced the creation of Dungeons & Dragons.

ROGUE FEED

Pulp Fantasy Library: Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty

That’s why I bring up the 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty. I recall Gary Gygax’s having said that he watched and enjoyed Walt Disney’s fairytale films, particularly Snow White. Indeed, I have a recollection that he credited several Disney films with having exercised a powerful effect on his imagination. One of Gary’s oft-repeated contentions was that many of D&D‘s iconic elements derived from so many sources, often going back to his childhood, that it was difficult to disentangle them and claim that this or that was its “true” inspiration. I find that contention very plausible, as I know very well from my own experiences.

JUN 15, 2009 08:25A.M.

Consequently, it’s hard for me to watch Sleeping Beauty and not see in it images and ideas that may well have made their way into D&D, if only sub-consciously. Sleeping Beauty was and is my favorite of Disney’s fairytale films. There are many reasons for this, including Eyvind Earle’s sumptuous art direction, which makes the movie look like a medieval illuminated manuscript come to life. When I am not in a deep swordsand-sorcery mode, my vision of the “D&D world” shares a lot with this film. It’s a rare example of my having a model that’s rooted not in the written word but in a visual medium, which speaks to just how much I like Sleeping Beauty and its look.

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So what does Chapter 6 cover? Magic. The changes to magic is not great, but are important. The big change is that Alchemy is in the book. From day one Alchemy was always suppose to be in the Rulebook, but was cut during the later stages of editing/layout. This never sat right with me, and though I put the rules in Secrets, for me, the Rulebook is where they should have been. They are now there. Other than bringing the rules into compliance to the game, there is little changes made to them. The area that sees the most changes is Spells, or as they were once known, Rituals. Rituals are no longer associated with magic, in their place is Spells. This change will make sense when you see a future product, but the magic in the Rulebook was always intended to be known as Spells. Hence, Common Rituals are now Common Spells, and Arcane Rituals are now Arcane Spells. Here is an excerpt from the Rulebook:

The character of the evil fairy Maleficent is certainly the most explicitly diabolical of all Disney’s villains — she calls upon “all the powers of Hell” in the film — with all the trappings one now associates with the Dark Lord archetype, including hordes of bestial, orc-like minions. She wields remarkably D&D-like magic, being able to teleport, throw lightning bolts, and polymorph herself. It’s this last ability where another possible D&D connection appears. The black dragon into which Maleficent transforms herself spits a fiery liquid that I feel might have been the inspiration for the acid breath of the game’s black dragon. Maleficent also sports two horns on her draconic head, just as does D&D‘s black dragon, the only evil dragon species to have such an arrangement.

Spells Spells are the magical feats that some Heroes, Villains, and even Supporting Characters are able to perform. Spells are divided into two groups, and though they have the same rules covering their use, these groups differ in the power they call upon.The first group is Common spells. These are the spells that most spellcasters learn.Though powerful, Common spells’ effects are not long lasting and do not have the potential to cause much harm.

Disney films have a much-deserved reputation for being light and airy, but Sleeping Beauty, though far from being “dark,” nevertheless includes moments of surprising gravity. Prince Philip’s battle with the dragon is rather intense for a children’s film and most of the scenes in which Maleficent appears are cast in ominous shadows. Her defeat is inevitable according to the demands of the fairytale format, but I feel the movie somehow manages to make one believe, if only for an instant, that evil might well prevail — quite an achievement in my opinion and one I think many referees would do well to emulate.

The second group is Arcane spells, which are more powerful, and when successfully cast, have the potential to cause a lot of harm. In addition, to cast an Arcane spell, a price must be paid; casting Arcane spells slowly eats away at the sanity of the caster. Every time an arcane spell is cast, the caster sacrifices a little bit of their Sanity. Notice something about Arcane spells? That’s right, it costs you Sanity to cast those type of spells. Arcane spells are taxing to the caster’s sanity which is why all arcane spells have a Sanity Cost associated with them. When casting the spell, regardless if the Test succeeds or fails, the spell’s Sanity cost must be deducted from the caster’s Sanity total. This change was done for two reason. The first was to make Sanity more important (a topic I have talked about before). The second reason the change has taken place is so Arcane spells have a cost to them. These are powerful spells, because of this a risk must be present for the casting of them.

ROGUE FEED

13 Chapters in 13 Weeks — Chapter 6 JUN 15, 2009 06:22A.M.

At first my group hated the change, but once they thought about the tone of the game, the change made sense. Reading through the playtest notes, the change was liked by the groups as well.

Six weeks in, and I am still plugging away at telling you what is new in Colonial Gothic Revised. This week we turn our attention to one of the big chapters of the game, and one of the examples of how I weaved background and rules together.

So how do the spells look? Take a look: Awake

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Action: 1 Range: Touch Duration: Days equal to caster’s Resolution Performed On: Self, Others Sanity Cost: 0 This spell was first reported in 1564 by French agents on a member of the Queen’s Privy Council in hopes that they would drive him mad. Discovery of this spell by an English mage led to the knowledge of it being published in the small folio titled Wakeful Mind, written by Wallis Scott in 1578. Rumors persist that dark practitioners have found a way to use a variant of Awake on multiple enemies at a time, clouding their judgment and making them easy prey. By performing this clever spell, the intended person is unable to fall asleep for a number of days equal to the caster’s Resolution. A person who cannot fall asleep is unable to replenish their Vitality without the use of magic; in addition, they lose 2 Sanity every day they are unable to sleep. For each additional Rank in this spell the number of targets a caster is able to affect increases by 1. Thus, having 4 Ranks in this spell, the caster is able to affect 3 people. Dramatic Success in casting this spell doubles the duration of the spell. Failing to cast the spell has the intended target unaffected by the spell. A Dramatic Failure, on the other hand, has repercussions on the caster. Instead of causing the target to be unable to sleep, the caster suffers the effect of the spell. So a few changes to how spells are presented have taken place as well. So why these changes? I have gotten a lot of email from players and GMs wanting to know how long it would take a Hero to cast Align in combat, and what I wanted to do was address this. That is why I added Time. In the spell above, it takes 1 Action to cast the spell. However, if you must have ingredients and perform certain tasks, these still must be done. The Time only comes into play with actual casting of the spell. Another change is one that I really like, and that is giving the history behind the spell in the description. This is one of the things many loved about Poor Wizard’s Grimoire, and this is something I really wanted to add to the Rulebook. The reason is that it adds to the flavor and color of the game, and helps set the game into context. Also, all of these little bits of history are hooks ready for you to use for adventures and plot ideas. So there you go, another chapter done. This is the last “rules” chapter for awhile. The next few (Chapter 7 to 11) are background heavy. These chapters are filled with things to help you run and play the game. Anyway, more to come. As always questions, comments and the like, please speak up, I want to hear them!

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