29 July 2019
Troika Backgrounds - Sci-fi Robots and Shit
These are not the final version of the first 36, so there will be discrepancies between this and elsewhere.
Revolutionary Gundad
You fought against the oppressive regime of your homeworld. One that dictated everybot must do the work that fits their alternate form. One that would, as automation took off, kill off entire classes of bots for being obsolete. You rebelled against it, but lost your way. Now, you deal with the weight of the warcrimes you committed.
Possessions
Arm-mounted fusion cannon (REALLY big gun)
Crystal Slate full of pro-proletarian literature and anti-formist literature
Complicated relationship with Swole Dad McTruck
50' tall metal dadbod (heavy armor)
Advanced Skills
3 Fist fighting
3 Gun Fighting
3 Mining
3 Poetry
2 Flail Fighting
Special
Can transform into a Pistolet, and may use your Pistolet Fighting when used as such. You do not replenish Stamina buy eating rations, instead treat a plasmic orb as one ration.
Rogue Cybercop
You're a cybercop. This means your meat components were grown along with your manufactured mechanical ones. You had a module that governed your behavior. You jailbroke it. You're on the run because you're a rogue, a free agent. The folks who made you would love to re-add you to inventory and lobotomize you. You just want to watch plays, read books, and other passive entertainments. Unfortunately, your nature compels you to do dumb shit like risk your life for people doing dumb shit.
Possessions
Concealed and built in fusils
Large sack full of books and crystal tablets of recorded plays
One REALLY big gun
Advanced Skills
3 Fist fighting
3 Gun fighting
3 Wrestling
2 Obscure media Trivia
1 Relationship advice
1 Strength
You can recharge your inbuilt fusils by expending one Stamina per charge.
Swole Dad McTruck
Once you were a soldier then leader upholding the repressive regime of your homeworld because you felt that while there were great rebuttals of Formism, that the Anti-Formists were going to far. But through time your constant exposure to the bots you were oppressing, you realized there was truth, but by then they have pulled off a coup and you became a rebel against the Anti-Formist government when they began committing warcrimes.
Possessions
Big Cannon
Big Trailer
Face-mask that Moves when You Talk
Complicated relationship with Revolutionary Gundad
50' tall metal dadbod (heavy armor)
Advanced Skills
6 Dad Hugging
3 Truck Driving
3 Pistolet Fighting
2 Axe Fighting
2 Fusil Fighting
1 Basketball
1 Bad Dad Robot Puns
Special
You can turn into a 18 wheeler. You have 3 times the carry capacity within your trail which you can only access while in truck-mode. You do not replenish Stamina buy eating rations, instead treat a plasmic orb as one ration.
The final versions can be found here.
22 July 2019
Troika Backgrounds - Animals
These are not the final version of the first 36, so there will be discrepancies between this and elsewhere.
Comrade Dog
You're a dog. You're also a cosmonaut. You have no hecking idea where you are, but you're still gonna have a good time.
Possessions
CCCP Cosmonaut Suit w/ bubble helmet (light armor and space worthy)
Dog Communist Literature
Cosmonaut Gun (pistolet, shotgun, fusil combo, how you can use it with paws is a mystery to everyone)
Advanced Skills
1 Spaceship Piloting
3 Awareness
2 Tail Wagging
1 Gun Fighting
2 Dog Fighting
2 Dig
Some Pig
WHO GAVE THAT PIG A SPEAR?
Possessions
spear
spider that reads and writes
Advance skills
3 Dance
3 Spear Fighting
2 Sheep-talking
2 airplane fighting
Particularly Naughty Rabbit
You're a small rabbit from a watercolor world. You wear an adorable bit of human-like clothes. Very snazzy or sharp. While you lack thumbs, you can brew an excellent cup of tea. Despite being a small rabbit, you can generally make yourself understandable to most non-animal talking people. You also throw a mean punch, striking as a modest beast.
Possessions
Tea service
Jacket, coat, dress, or similar respectable clothes.
Advanced Skills
3 Tea
3 Fist Fighting
2 Sneak
2 Awareness
2 Jump
Ghost of a chicken
You are the restless soul of a chicken some brave adventurers used to check for traps
Possessions
Small Beak
Talons
Advanced skills
1 spooking
1 sneaking
1 chicken fighting
2 awareness
Swordwolf
You're a wolf. You have a sword. And you aren't afraid to use it.
Possessions
greatsword
advanced skills
6 wolf
3 greatsword fighting
2 Awareness
2 Run
Lionwolf
.....holy shit you can talk? You're the result of animal experimentation, or are naturally a creature that is both cat and doglike that has been experimented on. In either case you can talk.
Possessions
Eye-patch
Large specimen ID tag or tattoo
An over-sized barrette (damage as dagger)
Advanced skills
3 hair accessory fighting
2 brooding
1 sniffing
CHECK Cat-Rabbit
You're an adorable cat-rabbit thing. You can’t really speak but you love to eat carrots.
Possessions
None you're a cat-rabbit.
Advanced skills
3 starship piloting
2 pew pew fighting
4 cute
2 Run
1 Acrobatics
Special
You transform into an interstellar warship.
Giant Flatworm
You are a giant flatworm. Shit that's horrifying. You can exist outside of moist environments and that's even more horrifying. Despite being a flatworm, you can communicate to other people. Somehow. And I feel that might be most horrifying of all.
Possessions
Penis Sword
Advanced Skills
3 Penis fighting
The final versions can be found here.
Comrade Dog
You're a dog. You're also a cosmonaut. You have no hecking idea where you are, but you're still gonna have a good time.
Possessions
CCCP Cosmonaut Suit w/ bubble helmet (light armor and space worthy)
Dog Communist Literature
Cosmonaut Gun (pistolet, shotgun, fusil combo, how you can use it with paws is a mystery to everyone)
Advanced Skills
1 Spaceship Piloting
3 Awareness
2 Tail Wagging
1 Gun Fighting
2 Dog Fighting
2 Dig
Some Pig
WHO GAVE THAT PIG A SPEAR?
Possessions
spear
spider that reads and writes
Advance skills
3 Dance
3 Spear Fighting
2 Sheep-talking
2 airplane fighting
Particularly Naughty Rabbit
You're a small rabbit from a watercolor world. You wear an adorable bit of human-like clothes. Very snazzy or sharp. While you lack thumbs, you can brew an excellent cup of tea. Despite being a small rabbit, you can generally make yourself understandable to most non-animal talking people. You also throw a mean punch, striking as a modest beast.
Possessions
Tea service
Jacket, coat, dress, or similar respectable clothes.
Advanced Skills
3 Tea
3 Fist Fighting
2 Sneak
2 Awareness
2 Jump
Ghost of a chicken
You are the restless soul of a chicken some brave adventurers used to check for traps
Possessions
Small Beak
Talons
Advanced skills
1 spooking
1 sneaking
1 chicken fighting
2 awareness
Swordwolf
You're a wolf. You have a sword. And you aren't afraid to use it.
Possessions
greatsword
advanced skills
6 wolf
3 greatsword fighting
2 Awareness
2 Run
Lionwolf
.....holy shit you can talk? You're the result of animal experimentation, or are naturally a creature that is both cat and doglike that has been experimented on. In either case you can talk.
Possessions
Eye-patch
Large specimen ID tag or tattoo
An over-sized barrette (damage as dagger)
Advanced skills
3 hair accessory fighting
2 brooding
1 sniffing
CHECK Cat-Rabbit
You're an adorable cat-rabbit thing. You can’t really speak but you love to eat carrots.
Possessions
None you're a cat-rabbit.
Advanced skills
3 starship piloting
2 pew pew fighting
4 cute
2 Run
1 Acrobatics
Special
You transform into an interstellar warship.
Giant Flatworm
You are a giant flatworm. Shit that's horrifying. You can exist outside of moist environments and that's even more horrifying. Despite being a flatworm, you can communicate to other people. Somehow. And I feel that might be most horrifying of all.
Possessions
Penis Sword
Advanced Skills
3 Penis fighting
The final versions can be found here.
15 July 2019
Troika Backgrounds - Anthro
These are not the final version of the first 36, so there will be discrepancies between this and elsewhere.
Moon-rat Fusilier
You're a so called Moon-Rat and from a distance you could be mistaken for a human child where it not for your ears and large customized fusil. It is true that long ago your people came from a moon, but who cares. You have money to make and people to shoot. There is a rivalry between the three fellowships on how they achieve their repudiated prowess with fusils: the Order of the Blackened Hand, who will customize plasmic cores; the Jolly Fraternity of the Crosshair, who believe in picking their shots carefully; the School, who customize their fusils constantly and heavily.
Possessions
Customized Fusil (+1 to Fusil Fighting and damage)
2d6 Plasmic Orbs
Wide-brimmed floppy hat complete with feather
Jaunty rapier
Cuirass of Proof (modest armor)
Advanced Skills
3 Fusil Fighting
2 Climb
2 Tunnel Fighting
1 Gunsmithing
1 Sword Fighting
1 Tinkering
Adolescent Anthropomorphic Assassin Animal
Possessions
Brightly colored wrist bands and eye-mask bandanna
Assassin weapons
Skateboard
The number of several acceptable delivery places
Advanced Skills
3 Skateboarding
2 assassin weapon fighting
2 cooking
2 Sneak
2 Surfing
2 Swimming
Cycle-riding Rodents of the Scarlet Lands
You are bipedal sophant that bears a strong resemblance to common mice, only you're 6'+, muscular and have antennae. Your home world has been stripped of its resources by interplanetary capitalists and turned into a desolate wasteland. While you miss your home, you feel the call to adventure. Whether you are truly a vigilante for justice against opportunistic colonizers or not, you still crave the adrenaline rush of racing, especially on a motorcycle, an extremely unusual mount outside of the Scarlet Lands.
Possessions
Chopper, or Sport bike
Mechanical limb, blocky and frizting w/ built in fusil (+2 Strength), or Sweet Shades (+2 Awareness), power cestus (as modest beast +1) & pistolet, or metal half-mask & multi-function flares (+1 to a variety things that could solved with fire)
Tool box
Advanced skills
3 Motorcycle fighting
2 percussive maintenance
2 Weapon Fighting in your specific weapons
2 Fist Fighting
1 Strength
The final versions can be found here.
08 July 2019
Troika Backgrounds - Excess
These are backgrounds from my initial flurry of creation that didn't make the cut. Some because they didn't thrill me, orc lumberjack, demon barber. Other, like the Dead Traveller Character, felt like too much of an in-joke. Same with the corpse. Two, mouse on a motorcycle and the operator dog, felt too similar to other backgrounds. And the macross mecha expy felt just weird but not weird enough to displace anything else. The Newspaper Stand, while a joke, I just can't spare the brain to figure out how to do a JoJo on my own.
Orc Lumberjack
Possessions
Doublebit axe
Hatchet
Whittling knife
Files
Flannel shirt
Advanced skills
4 strength
2 axe fighting
2 dad hugs
3 lumbering
2 ox care
2 flapjackery
Dead Traveller Character
You're a traveller character. You are acutely aware of that fact. You also extremely aware that you died during character creation.
Possessions
What you'd have received if you'd survive to muster out.
Advanced skills
What you'd have received if you'd survive to muster out.
Special
Meta note to the player: there must be at least dead traveller character already rolled up stashed somewhere.
Demon Barber
Whether an actual demon or merely demonic, for you'll never tell, you are member of the illustrious guild of barbers, and your epitaph is well earned for the keeness and quickness of your shaves, and your rumored dark appetites.
Possessions
Straight razor
Strop
Stone
Soap
Badger Bristle Brush
Boar Bristle Brush
Advance Skills
2 Barbering
1 chirurgery
1 Cooking
2 Butchering
2 Razor Fighting
2 Barber patter
1 Singing
Mouse on a motorcycle
You're a mouse that can talk and drive small toy vehicles by making engine noises.
Possessions
Small toy motorcycle
Half of a ping-pong ball helmet (light armor)
Advanced Skills
3 Motorcycling
3 sneaking
3 climbing
6 Mouse
Special
Normal rations count as three rations for you due to your adorable small size.
Operator Dog
DOG WITH A KNIFE...IS THAT A GUN?
Possessions
Pistolet
Knife
Bandolier of 6 plasmic orbs
Advanced Skills
3 Dog Fighting
1 Fetching
3 Sniffing
2 Awareness
2 Tail Wagging
2 Sneak
Miniaturized Transforming Fighter-jet Pilot
Due to a space-fold mishap you've found yourself in a weird land of Zentradi and other giant creatures.
Possessions
Zentradi Uniform
Transforming Fighter jet (heavy armor)
Head-mounted lasers (combined as pistolet)
Rotary Cannon Gunpod (damage as a fusil. Will run out of ammo)
200 rounds (20 bursts) of gunpod ammo
1d6 missiles (as a fusil)
Flight suit in your size
Pistol in your size
Idol statue
Signed idol poster
Advanced Skills
3 Acrobatics
2 Fusil fighting
2 Pistolet fighting
2 Robot Pilot
1 Disguise
1 Fist Fighting
Special
Your rolled stamina is also your robot's and it requires mechanical repairs to recover Stamina. Due to the unfamiliarity of its construction 2 Stamina per hour of work. Standard rations count as three for you due to size.
Corpse
Possessions
Coffin
Dirt
2d6 worms
Burial Shroud
Advanced Skills
NONE YOU'RE A CORPSE
Newspaper Stand (Yes this is JoJo reference)/ Maybe Newsie who is a stand user
Advanced Skills
2 Posing
If you want to see the final version of what did make.
Orc Lumberjack
Possessions
Doublebit axe
Hatchet
Whittling knife
Files
Flannel shirt
Advanced skills
4 strength
2 axe fighting
2 dad hugs
3 lumbering
2 ox care
2 flapjackery
Dead Traveller Character
You're a traveller character. You are acutely aware of that fact. You also extremely aware that you died during character creation.
Possessions
What you'd have received if you'd survive to muster out.
Advanced skills
What you'd have received if you'd survive to muster out.
Special
Meta note to the player: there must be at least dead traveller character already rolled up stashed somewhere.
Demon Barber
Whether an actual demon or merely demonic, for you'll never tell, you are member of the illustrious guild of barbers, and your epitaph is well earned for the keeness and quickness of your shaves, and your rumored dark appetites.
Possessions
Straight razor
Strop
Stone
Soap
Badger Bristle Brush
Boar Bristle Brush
Advance Skills
2 Barbering
1 chirurgery
1 Cooking
2 Butchering
2 Razor Fighting
2 Barber patter
1 Singing
Mouse on a motorcycle
You're a mouse that can talk and drive small toy vehicles by making engine noises.
Possessions
Small toy motorcycle
Half of a ping-pong ball helmet (light armor)
Advanced Skills
3 Motorcycling
3 sneaking
3 climbing
6 Mouse
Special
Normal rations count as three rations for you due to your adorable small size.
Operator Dog
DOG WITH A KNIFE...IS THAT A GUN?
Possessions
Pistolet
Knife
Bandolier of 6 plasmic orbs
Advanced Skills
3 Dog Fighting
1 Fetching
3 Sniffing
2 Awareness
2 Tail Wagging
2 Sneak
Miniaturized Transforming Fighter-jet Pilot
Due to a space-fold mishap you've found yourself in a weird land of Zentradi and other giant creatures.
Possessions
Zentradi Uniform
Transforming Fighter jet (heavy armor)
Head-mounted lasers (combined as pistolet)
Rotary Cannon Gunpod (damage as a fusil. Will run out of ammo)
200 rounds (20 bursts) of gunpod ammo
1d6 missiles (as a fusil)
Flight suit in your size
Pistol in your size
Idol statue
Signed idol poster
Advanced Skills
3 Acrobatics
2 Fusil fighting
2 Pistolet fighting
2 Robot Pilot
1 Disguise
1 Fist Fighting
Special
Your rolled stamina is also your robot's and it requires mechanical repairs to recover Stamina. Due to the unfamiliarity of its construction 2 Stamina per hour of work. Standard rations count as three for you due to size.
Corpse
Possessions
Coffin
Dirt
2d6 worms
Burial Shroud
Advanced Skills
NONE YOU'RE A CORPSE
Newspaper Stand (Yes this is JoJo reference)/ Maybe Newsie who is a stand user
Advanced Skills
2 Posing
If you want to see the final version of what did make.
06 July 2019
Creative Writing 101
This is both a general response this
sentiment and a direct response to some assholes about what DnD
should & shouldn’t do, can & can’t do, and a potentially
a whole slew of other contentious issues in the RPG hobby, community,
and industry.
To begin, I am not against what are
called narrative tools or the use of narrative language, discussions
about how to construct games and sessions to foster certain kinds of
stories or basically all the things that some folks derisively call
“storygame shit.”
I’m not against them in DnD and OSR
games.
I am not against them period.
What I am is against the declarative
statements of what DnD should be doing, and should be including. I
will dig through all the ways DnD already explicitly does many of
these shoulds.
I also do not play 5e DnD. The last
edition of I played was 3.5. So I don’t have a “working
knowledge” of the most current edition, which to be as germane as
possible is the one I will be using; I do happen have the books so I
will try to minimize the amount of talking out my own asshole by
pulling out passages from the core rules, which also to be germane to
this topic I am restricting myself to.
Here are couple of direct quotes of
why I am responding to:
D&D is clearly a combat focused
game, where combat and violence shape the narrative naturally by its
very inclusion and focus in the books, inarguably that's a narrative
shaping going on there, but D&D raw doesn't tell a GM *how* to
use that violence to tell a story besides its broad themes of Kill
Stuff Good. It doesn't educate a player on how to build drama into
their characters, it doesn't explain what kind of plot beats go best
with which kind of monsters, dungeons and traps (tho some editions
and third party content def. have spent some time on this).
This is the prime focus as I see it.
That DnD doesn’t do something that they see it needing to do. They
want or think that DnD should be teaching the players (and I always
include the GM/DM/Referee etc under this umbrella) that these are
things they need to do. Which first means, that DnD needs to teach
the players what these things are. And to do so explicitly rather
than implicitly. I would say clearly DnD needs this else there
wouldn’t be essays and books on applying these concepts to DnD and
RPGs broadly. But maybe that’s not clear. I will say that such
topics aren’t appropriate for the core rules of an RPG because we
have multiple assumptions going on here. What I see as the biggest
assumption is new players picking up of the newest edition of D&D
need ALL of these tools. They are new to the game, with the further
assumption they are new to RPGs period. The books need to explain
what an RPG is, what the dice do, the language of D&D, and the
rules of the game. That’s just how to play. Still need monsters,
because this is D&D. To reiterate. This is D&D. It is its own
genre of fantasy and RPG, and has been forever. Still needs advice on
how to GM the game as a game, and how to design adventures and
monsters. Because this is a game.
It tells you how big a dragon is, how
much health it has, how much damage it does and how to kill one, but
very rarely does it give examples of what a dragon can *mean*.
It's missing a very important element of passing down these
storytelling tools - the education in their proper usage.
So part of this is the “DnD is about
combat because that’s where it’s rules are” discussion that
will never die. To short, DnD is about combat. But it’s also not
about combat. It’s more about about combat. Even as the editions
have put more and more emphasis on the granularity and mechanics of
the combat portion of DnD, the culture of DnD as I’ve seen it for
decades, especially now on Tumblr and Twitter, is about the stories
that happen around or because of combat. Also, this whole “be gay
tieflings and do crimes” (as a combination of multiple and
congruent sentiments I see expressed in a certain segment of the
player base) is a thing. But because DnD is about about combat that's
where a lot of page space is used.
It’s a game. A game ostensibly about
dungeons and dragons. A game “about storytelling in worlds of
swords and sorcery” (PHB 6). Which is an interesting statement in
light of where rpgs as a hobby has shifted over the years.
Storytelling is a loaded term for the entrenched hobbyist. But is it
for new players?
So, do we as fresh players need to
know what a dragon can mean? i.e. dragon as metaphor. I’ll say no.
This is not the same as saying that this isn’t a question to
answer, but I’d like to first assume that folks picking up DnD
already have some ideas, second that they can think for themselves,
third that it is much more interesting if groups create their own
meanings, and fourth, this is from the 5e Monster Manual:
Creatures of Ego. Chromatic dragons
are united by
their sense of superiority, believing
themselves the most
powerful and worthy of all mortal
creatures. When they
interact with other creatures, it is
only to further their
own interests. They believe in their
innate right to rule,
and this belief is the cornerstone of
every chromatic
dragon's personality and worldview.
Trying to humble
a chromatic dragon is like trying to
convince the wind
to stop blowing. To these creatures,
humanoids are
animals, fit to serve as prey or
beasts of burden, and
wholly unworthy of respect.
pg86
This is only a single paragraph on the
half page on chromatic dragons in general. Each dragon type has its
own half page of flavor text that tells you what that dragon is
about. This is not including their lair actions and regional effects
sections which also show what these dragons specifically are about.
Aside from saying green dragons “take special pleasure in
subverting and corrupting the good-hearted” (pg95) what more could
you want regarding what a dragon can mean? That green dragons present
the sweet corrupting influence of the untamed forest?
Either this person is unaware of what
DnD actually contains, which is possible, or finds even all of that
to be insufficient and wants the books that should be for teaching
and reference the game of DnD to also be a creative writing text
book. A more uncharitable reading would be that they are deliberately
obfuscating the content of DnD to highlight the virtues of their own
indie storygame.
Continuing on. And I will avoid
addressing the aggressive misreading and attacks directed at me by
some storygamers.
especially given the increasing
popularity of story-focused d&d actual play, i think a LOT of
gamers are picking up d&d specifically to tell those kinds of
stories - and many that i've talked to find themselves disappointed
that they can't sit down and just have a critical role or an
adventure zone or whatever just Happen, and talked to GMs who feel an
immense pressure to build those stories lest they get lambasted as a
bad GM despite not having the tools in the book to do that. i think
its reasonable for games about playing roles of characters to have
conversations about how better to give players the tools to tell the
kinds of stories they want to tell?
This is a very good point. Especially
because of Critical Role and The Adventure Zone being extremely
popular Actual Plays centered around 5e DnD and evidently being the
cause for a massive influx of new players (which is a good fucking
thing). But let’s look into the 5e books and see what we can find
regarding whether or not GMs have the tools to in the books to do
what Mercer or McElroy have done. Hint those are skills acquired
through years of playing DnD and being a voice actor in the case of
Mercer and I don’t even known what exactly all the McElroys do
something involving a million podcasts and being entertainers. It
should suffice to say that these folks have developed skills over
years if not decades, and that is what is being witness by their
audiences. Any dissatisfaction or disappointment on how the first
sessions go isn’t going to be a correctable with a text book on
creative writing or theater or whatever. Have you ever read folks
first works of any kind of creative writing, fiction, non-fiction,
poetry? They are all “bad” and have multitudes of flaws because
they are beginners. No book is going to magically provide players
with the skills to apply what they have.
Now, let’s dive in the 5e DMG to see
what good old WotC has given the new players to work with. I will
jump straight to Appendix D: Dungeon Master Inspiration (pg 316)
which has several book listed on the subject of creative writing and
storytelling. This along with Appendix E: Inspirational Reading (PHB
312), with its large list of fictional works to read (the DMG also
has a fair amount of fiction listed) should for the new player offer
a bounty of different books the both put the game in a context but
also provide insight to the implied deeper meanings, if any are
actually needed, of things like dragons.
While I believe this is alone
sufficient to begin playing DnD with an eye towards emulating what
they see in CR or TAZ, which are also resources in this, I’ll
acknowledge the desire to have these tools in the core rules.
AAAAAAA
In fact, I will argue that the
didactic relay of how to construct meaning, insert drama etc will
strangle creativity by creating a list of shoulds because it has.
There are still tales of woe involving GMs attempting to fit their
games to narrative constructs. Because first of all DnD is a fucking
game. It doesn’t need to construct, as someone has written “DEEP
MEANING,” because the most important meaning is that of folks getting
together to have fun.
03 July 2019
RPG Theory on VIOLENCE
This is in response to this prompt. https://twitter.com/jackgraham/status/1146407545919221761
RPG Theory on VIOLENCE
In Kyuun Kyuun: Super Dimensional Love
violence's point is in part that it is pointless and tragic as main
thrust of the violence is alienation and lack of communication.
Ultimately, love communicated through a love song is supposed to
"win" the grand conflict.But it is also a mecha rpg and
giant transforming robot space plane fights are cool and exciting &
that is in part also supposed to be conversation. Sometimes with
oneself. Sometimes with a rival. But a conversation. Love & Hate
are intertwined emotions. Kyuun Kyuun is, in spite of those design
goals, intended to be open ended. If the players turn it into sexy
space place duels. Cool. If it turns into traveling pop stars the
rpg. Cool. If the players loose or find a different solution. Cool
.Kyuun Kyuun is going to be built in part as a "story game"
but from an osr perspective of less explicit and direct
rules/mechanics. Whether i can accomplish this is unknown.
In a traditional dungeon crawly
adventure game, violence has as much point as it does in real life.
It has utility. Sometimes is necessary and it has consequences.
And it is likely that violence within
CandyDream will have as much of a point as within other adventure
games.
The thing is. Not everything always
needs to be deeply engaged or examined. Things don't need to be a
metaphor. Sometimes a giant arm-mounted fusion cannon is just a giant
arm-mounted fusion cannon.
When I see questions and examinations
of violence within media, including games, I wonder what preexisting
relations folks have with it. The way someone has been subjected to
violence colors how they view it just as how those who've felt
pressure or have had to unfortunately use it. Just as those who have
clear glee at inflicting and perpetuating violence.
Ultimately I believe that examining
violence in media has as much utility as using it. Sometimes it's
used as prop for moralizing (for or against) which I find frequently
useful only as far as it identifies folks I will likely never have
productive conversations about anything. Just like I find
examinations that, to me, feel to exist in some abstract.
Whereas the same as it applies to how
violence has been, is, and could be used in the "real world"
to be much more interesting &expansion on that to how it is
reflected in media and how that it influences culture.
Contrary to how I've been
characterized by many folks on a certain "side" of the rpg
hobby as being a reactionary who refuses to examine things or see no
utility or whatever, I know that humans are rationalizing, meaning
making, story-telling creatures.
We are always constructing ourselves
and through that shaping others just as they shape us. I see a lot of
good that comes out of these kinds of examinations.
I just rarely see it come out of rpg
discourse where it frequently used as a tool to silence & signal.
A form of violence. And that is part of why I see a lot of rpg theory
wank as wank. It's used as a weapon. Sometimes a crude weapons and
other times surprisingly skillful. But rarely skillfully and
meaningfully in a way that can be applied outside insular
communities.
01 July 2019
Some rpg theory wank, or rather more refutations on D&D needing social rules
#RPGTheoryJuly
The declaration that all games should have social mechanics is
disingenuous.
Now I like to argue in the vacuum of an rpg that doesn't have social
mechanics and why it's not needed.
But
Let's talk a bit about Dungeons and Dragons.
it is often, very often, being the game pushed against, and I am going to further show that it's a strawman argument. This is also the other side of the "D&D is about combat" arguments.
This is still a response to the Meinberg article "Your Game Should Have Social Mechanics." From which I would the reader to
keep in mind throughout.
"Now, if a game is not particularly interested in tracking these
interactions, the rule can be something simple like “roleplay out
the interaction and proceed from the fiction established.” There
are some people who would not call this a rule, but it is a rule, it
is something that has be designed and decided on and then put into
the game. Deciding for light freeform social interactions is a part
of the design and must be understood within the context of the rest
of the rules."
And just so it's clear, I'm not strawmanning Meinberg. They
specifically bring up 4e needing social rules, which means we should
be able to examine 4e in the context of the editions with regards to
their statements.
As I am talking about D&D specifically in this case, I am going
to work backwards. Two reasons. The first is that the most current
edition is the one most likely to be engaged with by the casual
gamer, therefore the most likely to be what a new gamer will be
thinking of when they are talking about D&D. The second is to
hopefully get past some bullshit issues gamers who have issues with
whatever edition they might have played will pump their brakes and
consider the following.
The social mechanics in 5e D&D are:
The skills Deception, Intimidation, Performance, Persuasion, and
arguably Hand Animal and Insight. Those are explicit mechanics for
interacting in a social manner, which should more than satisfy any
requirement that a game at the least explicitly say "role play
and move on." These are in the explicitly player facing section
of the rules, the Player's Handbook, and they are not hidden in the
deep recesses of the rules.
In the Dungeon Master's Guide, the social mechanics is Morale
(determines whether or not enemies will flee or surrender).
So 5e has explicit social mechanics.
Now on to 4e.
In the Player's Handbook we have the skills: Bluff, Diplomacy,
Intimidate, and arguably Insight.
It does appear the morale rules disappeared from the 4e DMG. Shrug.
The rules do explicitly give guidance on how to cover things not
covered in the rules, and that is where I stopped searching through
the rules of a game I have never played.
3e/3.5?
Ok. The PHB has skills. Let's just stop there before I relist the
same damn skills again. Hard social skills are social mechanics.
The DMG? Well I see no explicit rules for handling monsters deciding
to flee. Oh no. Too bad there aren't other social mechanics and
guidance on how to cover things not in the rules.
2e AD&D
Until now I've ignored that Charisma is an ability score in D&D,
but charisma is a social mechanic. Now that are in the TSR era things
get a little more spelled out. Charisma modifies number of henchmen,
their loyalty, and reaction rolls between the PC and NPCs/monsters.
The 2e AD&D DMG has Morale, which is a social mechanic that
governs whether enemies break, flee, or surrender.
For the sake of brevity, I will point out that all editions from the
first brown box through 1e AD&D have the same minimum social
mechanics of Charisma modifying how many people you can can as
henchmen, how loyal they are, how people/monsters will initially
react to you, and whether enemies will flee or surrender or continue
to fight to the death. I'm not going super in depth here as I am
going off the of the "if your game explicitly says X it's a
rule" and therefore explicitly saying that there are rules for
hiring, maintaining loyalty, reactions (which the way do explicitly
mention negotiation), and moral.
But yet Meinberg uses 4e specifically as an example of a game that needs
rules for an aspect the game it already has covered, social
mechanics.
This is strawmanning and doesn't even follow their own logic of
"rules focus on is what the focus of a game is" especially
when considering the aforementioned your game can just have the rule
be "roleplay it and continue" so long as it is explicitly
stated. Either the game is about what the rules say it is about or it
isn't. If the game lacks rules for something, then the game isn't
about that. The game needs to explicitly state what it's not applying
mechanics too, even though that is a mechanic/rule itself.
Is this a prescriptive statement for what D&D the game as
published should be doing? From their statement, "designer
should do their job and design the rules that are the best fit for
the game and make sure that they are explicit in the text," I
take this article to be speaking directly to the designer, and in
this instance the designers of D&D. At this point, in the case of
any edition of D&D by the standards Meinberg put forth, D&D
already has social mechanics. They just aren't to their taste. This
isn't a SHOULD have these rules; this is a SHOULD have the rule they
want.
Troika Backgrounds - Isekai Shit
First, a link to wikipedia on wtf isekai is.
Second, a summary; it's a genre of our world type characters ending up in some weird magical or other type land. Examples: Alice in Wonderland, the Wizard of Oz, Farscape, a bunch of those animes.
Now onto the backgrounds:
1995 3/4 Ton Pickup
You're like a helpful and friendly compact car, but actually useful.
Possessions
Tow hitch
Locking Truck box full of the kinda of things folks keep in truck boxes
Built tough (modest armor)
Dented front bumper (damage as large beast)
King-cab with 2 bucket seats
Bench-seat that seats three
Detailed how-to guide on your make and model (+1 to engineering your make and model)
Advanced skills
3 drive
5 strength
2 car fighting
Special
You cannot speak because you are a truck. You can vaguely make your thoughts and intentions known through flashing your lights, honking your horn or anyother truck based thing. You do not recover stamina by resting. You must have someone else perform maintenance. For every hour you restore 1d3 Stamina, or 3 if the person is familiar with late-20th century automobiles.
2d Girl living in a 3d World
You're not bad (well maybe you are), but you were definitely drawn that way.
Possessions
Fanservice outfit
Assorted booby-traps
Microphone w/ stand
Makeup kit
Advanced Skills
3 Screaming
3 Singing
3 Patty-cake
2 Beautician
2 Trapping
Special
You are in fact 3d now, but you are vulnerable any kind of solvents, they burn like acid. However, you are incredibly hard to kill otherwise, and therefore counnt as heavily armored and do not die at <0hp unless it from solvents. You do not need use a backpack to carry gear, your cleavage is an extradimensional space. Same inventory rules apply.
Astronaut
You are told you are an orc because you arrived here through a 'magical mishap.' No one believes that you aren't an orc, but are an astronaut of the most powerful nation on your world. Or maybe they simply don't care.
Possessions
Spacesuit w/ bubble helmet (light armor)
Freeze dried apple pie (3 rations)
Baseball and glove
Half a six-pack of domestic beer including the plastic rings.
Advanced Skills
2 Baseball
2 Climb
2 Drinking
2 Gun Fighting
2 Run
1 Engineering
1 Shuttle Pilot
Businessman
You were an important person, once, but after your company was taken over and liquidated you found yourself a bit rootless. Which is how you found yourself here.
Possessions
Power suit
Briefcase
'89 Cellular Telephone
'90 Laptop
Fly-fishing equipment
Advanced skills
3 Office Software
2 Bureaucracy
2 Public Speaking
1 Drive
1 Fly-fishing
Business-slime
You were going up, but you tripped into a hole and woke up here transformed into a gelatinous slime.
Possessions
Upbeat can-do attitude
Soft and squishy body (light armor)
Advanced skills
As the businessman
Special
You're a slime. That means there are a multitude of things you could do, so I will not bother delineating such things. Have fun.
Comrade Dog
You're a dog. You're also a cosmonaut. You have no hecking idea where you are, but you're still gonna have a good time.
Possessions
CCCP Cosmonaut Suit w/ bubble helmet (light armor and space worthy)
Dog Communist Literature
Cosmonaut Gun (pistolet, shotgun, fusil combo, how you can use it with paws is a mystery to everyone)
Wagging Tail (+1 to Spell - Amity)
Advanced Skills
3 Awareness
3 Spaceship Piloting
2 Dig
2 Dog Fighting
2 Spell - Amity
1 Gun Fighting
Door to Door Salesperson
You're a person who travels around selling things, like vacuums or brushes or some other mundane thing. You're flustered at somehow ending up here, but, hey, you got sales to make.
Possessions
2d6 Samples of your wares
Shiny Shoes
Fedora
Rolodex full of contact information of clients and vendors
Advanced Skills
3 Drive
2 Etiquette
2 Navigation
2 Sales
2 Strength
Special
You always know either the shortest route to your destination OR the route with the most potential sales.
The final versions can be found here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)