Probability Can Suck It!

I am the Warden!!

Seeing as this is a roleplaying blog, I don't have to get into explaining probability and how much it factors in game design, right? (I have talked about it before.) This time, I'm talking about the perception of probability in real life with an emphasis on the word "perception."

During my numerous therapy sessions last year - brought about from the trauma caused by the accident - I heard a lot about probability and traffic accidents. "Do you know what I mean when I say 'probability?'" my therapist asked me. I chuckled and gave a quick explanation on how it's gospel when it comes to RPG design.

From there, she attempted to break down the odds of the average person being involved in a serious accident based on frequency on the road, speed, time spent on highways, and a few others I can't remember. When she came to her conclusion, she proclaimed there was only a 0.0001% chance of the average person being in a car accident and the odds of the same person getting into another astronomically increased to 1 in a million.

I chuckled again. This wasn't the first time I'd heard this argument and the funny - nigh, hilarious - aspect about it was I had just been knee deep in reading forums and engaging in personal discussions with the mathematically inclined on probability in roleplaying games. The answer I gave was an off-shoot of my reply to those points.

Director's Submissions: Blaze of Glory, Part 2

I am the Warden!!

I'd like to start this next installment of Director's Submissions with an apology and correction. In my last post, I mentioned the name of the mark written for Blaze of Glory was "Richard Chevalier," but I forgot one crucial detail. One of they key details of the Kickstarter reward level was the mark would be named after the Director (or the Director would be allowed to choose the mark's name). Therefore, the name of Blaze's mark is actually Michael Brightbill and my apologies to the real, unmurdered Mr. Brightbill for that oversight.

Now let's get back to the task of killing the fake Mr. Brightbill.

Yesterday ended up being a rather late day juggling many tasks, but the first draft of Blaze of Glory is done and awaiting my own review. I have to say this is probably the first all-out action job yet written (and if you think Final Justice was steeped in action, you ain't seen nothing yet). It's a job where there's very little detective work for the assassins to do, yet still a major benefit should they try. If anything, the rest of it plays out like a military game with the level of violence and the size of the guns involved.

As I was writing this job, I reflected back to my earlier comments on keeping Killshot a game of grey rather than solid black-and-whites. Was I going back on that promise with this job? If it's just a big shoot-em-up, all the assassins have to worry about is point and shoot and that's about as black-and-white as it gets. Was there a way I could play up on the hidden emotional plight of the situation in the midst of all this violence?

Director's Submission: Blaze of Glory, Part 1

I am the Warden!!

Lo those many months ago when yonder Kickstarter bid put out the call for funds to help make the game known as Killshot a reality, I offered a special perk for anyone who pitched in at least $100 for the Director reward level: a chance to contribute a rough concept for a mark or a job. While not all of those backers have sent in their submissions, the time has come to start working on those that have for use in the early issues of the Killshot Files e-zine.

The first one is entitled Blaze of Glory and was chosen for the sheer reason that it was that first one sent in by Michael Brightbill.

"Here's my rough idea. Figure I'll swing it by you before going to the trouble of getting everything together. Character is ludicrously wealthy. And bored. Has ins in the government, finance, etc. Nothing can touch him and he fears nothing. So he hires the group to try and off him. But he also hires another group to protect him/off the PCs."

Michael's submission was a major inspiration for the third job provided in Killshot: Direction so far as pitting assassins against each other, but it wasn't anywhere close to what's given above. Now it's time for me to put in the work and make this concept a reality.

Geeking Out on Marvel RPG

I am the Warden!!

Part of my work with Roleplayer's Chronicle involves writing reviews on various RPG markets, old and new, a task I've been skeptically honoring. There's a large part of me viewing the idea of a game designer working on his own RPG publicly judging other games as a bit hypocritical, though a couple others have convinced me that's exactly why I'm qualified to do so. Regardless, I am engaging in the practice and find a fun perk: forcing myself to pick up games with a "valid excuse."

Yesterday, I finally got my hands on the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying game from Margaret Weis Productions and started reading through the opening pages. First thing I'm in love with is the price. Cost me $26 and some change for a full-colour softcover print - and that's Canadian dollars. It's a gorgeous book and as a former printer, I'm in love with the smell of the pages as they crack open for the first time. Like I said, it's a printer thing.

After tearing through the first 20 pages or so before falling asleep, I'm very eager to learn the ins and outs of the game for one solid reason: it's remarkably different from many other major RPGs on the market right now. Pieces of it strike similar to some independent games - much like ones that Fraser Ronald has been playtesting with us - and the essential components of the game are far outside the norm from most games I've played and reviewed, including the Cortex System's Supernatural RPG. This isn't a review and I still have a lot more reading to complete before I can build a final opinion on the game, but things are looking positive so far. Positive enough that I'm keen to run a couple of games with some of Renfrew's newest gamers.

New Page: Under The Hood

I am the Warden!!

I've added a new page to this here blog, linking all my posts for the Under The Hood column written for Roleplayer's Chronicle. Seems only fitting since many of the topics I discuss over there are ones I would otherwise discuss here. You'll find the new page listed on the Pages sidebar to the left.

You can find new posts made every Sunday on http://roleplayerschronicle.com

10 Years Ago: Mazes

I am the Warden!!

I can't recall today how this memory came to me, but it did nonetheless. It wasn't through an email or any visual reminder (seeing the old cover again), it just slipped into the conscious part of my brain and gave me cause to stand back and literally say "Whoa" out loud. I know, total Keanu moment.

Ten years ago at this time, I started work on my first RPG supplement. Originally called Mazes, the name was changed to d20 Options: Mazes and finally resulted in Campaign Options: Mazes after being told there would be legal complications in using "d20" in the name of the product.

Whoa.

Today, I dug through old CDs and "flipped" through the pages of this PDF, reflecting back on the work poured into this first book with fond memories and deep regrets. I can remember pacing in the parking lot next to my rental house with my dog, Rusty, running around sniffing the grass for signs of pee and squirrel droppings while I pondered the next step in the design process. Any day I had off work was dedicated to the book with a fervor I couldn't understand at the time and all my thoughts were on mazes. Why should people use them? How do I make them more exciting? What are quick tips to building one? I had never been the type to race a pencil through 2D mazes in the paper or in one of those supermarket activity books, yet I became consumed by the concept of incorporating mazes into D&D. Hell, I even wrote new rules for using the minotaur's path memory ability when using a minotaur PC.

Sex, Fantasy, and Game of Thrones

I am the Warden!!

I'm a big fan of Game of Thrones on HBO. As I've never read the books (I tried, but loaned the first one out to a friend when he went into the hospital and haven't seen my copy since), I'm experiencing the show with fresh eyes. Like everyone else out there, I find it incredibly refreshing to see fantasy taken as a serious medium for storytelling, character development, and mature yet SFX-laden cinema. So everything I'm about to say is given with love and appreciation, spoken as a male member of a burgeoning household which includes a non-fantasy loving female fan.

Why the rampant sex, dudes?

Around my house, Game of Thrones is known as "that porn show." As much as I'd like to argue against it, the sex is really pornographic at many parts. I'm not a prude and appreciate a good hip-to-hip bump in the buff as much as the next straight guy, but there are still ways in which it gets viewed around here (by waiting until it's late at night and the missus is fast asleep upstairs). When I first started watching the show, I thought George Martin must be a real perv until friends told me the books did not have all that sex (at least as frequent and as bumpy as the show) and the sex scenes are used by the show to reveal intimacy between the characters. On some fronts, I would totally agree (everything involving Daenerys and Drogo, for example) while there are others which make it very difficult to convince others the show isn't just an excuse for porn. You know, like my mom.

Last night's 2nd season premier almost made it to the end without gratuitous sex, up until the last five minutes when we see two escorts learning their trade in school. Was it necessary? Not really, if at all. It was literally the regulatory tit shot HBO's become famous for and it's the one thing Game of Thrones has not done to improve the view on fantasy.

When I was growing up, it was impossible to find a fantasy film without T&A, thereby making it impossible for me to watch them as a kid because my parents would screen it with me. Violence was allowed, not boobies. "The violence isn't real," I was told. "Those boobs are." Dragonslayer and Krull were the only fantasy films I can remember as a kid because they weren't stopped halfway through by my mom. Having tits pop up on the screen was the standard in fantasy films and it's one of the ways, IMO, fantasy has never been taken seriously. For everything certain films, like Lord of the Rings, have done to sway opinion on the matter, fantasy remains an excuse for naked tits and sex for the sole purpose of having tits and sex.

As hypocritical as it feels to advocate against it, the sex hurts the genre. In many ways, it feels like a ploy by HBO more than a necessity to the story. If the show could go even one episode without it, I'd feel more confident in its ability to lure and maintain viewers through everything which makes it such a powerful show: story, acting, scope, all of that award-winning stuff. But as soon as an aspiring actress whose dreams of finally being taken seriously as a skilled thespian are sidetracked by the fact that she's licking her way up and down another chick enters the frame, it's an overplayed distraction when used constantly. It feels like a cheap trick, the meddlesome hand of a worried producer concerned the ratings will plummet if a woman with naturally voluptuousity doesn't jiggle her gagas in front of them camera.

(I really do feel bad for some of the actresses who have to play those scenes, especially when there is dialogue. Those are people who probably went to professional acting schools and dreamed to act in a costume/period piece written by Emmy-winning writers, only to find out she's going porn in the background and needs to show the director how big her tits are before she can get the part. Progress?)