The Aim of Game Play

In my early days of playing roleplaying games I was still in the mindset of playing the game to ‘win’. This ‘winning’ took the form of two things, defeating foes and gathering treasure. In general, the entire incentive of playing the game was to garner as much gold and treasure as possible and therefore ‘win’ the game.

But as time goes on you have to ask what is the point of playing to this end. While the initial aim of the game is to win or earn gold there should be more to it than just that. Any in-game rewards do give you a sense of achievement but it’s ultimately hollow as there is nothing you can do with said gold. Playing a boardgame or wargame and winning is remarkably different as you are competing against opponents which, even though you are not physically taking anything from the experience, there is a sense of accomplishment in defeating others.

In a roleplaying game there are no true opponents other than the NPCs or events a GM throws at you, but a GM is representing both the friends and enemies of the players and so cannot be considered a true opponent. The other players in the group are usually working as a team so they are not opponents, either. So where does the satisfaction come from? Is it in the attainment of in-game wealth?

At first, I think the promise of in-game gold and riches and how much you get is a measure of achievement and this is true of both new and experienced gamers. I can easily say that this was what drove me as a new player but the habit has not been lost; when I joined a Pathfinder game last year my main intention was to make as much in-game money as possible and, indeed, there was some dishonesty in the group to get that wealth. This may have been the initial incentive but now we (or, at least, I) have other, more story-driven reasons to quest.

But the truth as I see it these days is this – the incentive to play a roleplaying game is the game itself. When I run games now the original conceit for the reason to be adventuring - that there is gold and glory to be had - has been sidelined unless the game specifically calls for that approach. To me, the reward in playing roleplaying games is the experience, and winning is an enjoyable evening of collaborative storytelling that makes an impression, or a game in which all attendees come away with a sense of satisfaction of a job well done.

It’s the game itself that should drive the experience, not the outcome. Having events making an emotional impression on a person lasts a lot longer than the imaginary gold that has been earned. When my roleplaying friends and I talk about games of old, we never talk about how much money we made.

The Flavour of a Fantasy Roleplaying Game

I've played all kinds of fantasy roleplaying games with all kinds of systems in a variety of settings. I've mostly enjoyed them all but I'm a hard man to please as I have a definitive idea in my head regarding how a fantasy world is suppossed to look. Being from England and having been surrounded by medieval imagery all my life I'm of the pseudo-historical slant, the kind of guy who loves to have magic elves sauntering about the place but wants them to dress realistically.

One of the reasons why I love 'Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay' (1st Edition) and the Magnus Opus Press (soon to be Serpent King Games) 'Dragon Warriors' games so much is the atmosphere they exude. Warhammer was gritty, dark, and felt like a heady mix of high fantasy and dirty, European reality, and Dragon Warriors was a fantasy version of the history I grew up with. On the other side of the coin (and just as enjoyable - don't think I'm belittling anything) is the high fantasy stylised worlds of Dungeons & Dragons and it's ilk, with bikini mail and unfeasible weapons and armour.

I'm sure it'd be easy to play a D&D game as gritty and realistic, even play Dragon Warriors as high fantasy, but the artwork and presentation of the books themselves help to tell me what kind of game I'll be playing. In some ways, you could say the artwork colours my view and even expectations of the game I'm going to play.

Take, for example, the artwork of a selection of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition books:

The artwork is stylised, with larger-than-life images, dynamic poses and in-your-face attitude. The setting is presented as high fantasy, indicating that realism doesn't really matter when you're playing in a game of huge heroes, high magic, insane monsters and talking trees. The covers are positively screaming for you to go apeshit and have fun with it. And indeed I have had fun with it - although I've now moved on to an excellent Pathfinder campaign, which does share some of the look and feel with the above, I still feel there's a huge 'in your FACE!' feel to the imagery and design. There's a great sense of disconnection from reality, that you are this larger-than-life hero. I think that's part of the appeal.

Now let's have a look at some covers for the Dragon Warriors game:

The image on the bottom right is the cover for the unprinted 'Player's Book'

I'd say that these covers were bleak, and much more grounded in reality than the D&D covers (of course, I use the word 'reality' loosely - we are talking about fantasy roleplaying games, here) which presents a totally different gaming atmosphere. I look at these and I think of a living, breathing medieval Europe with the trappings of a fantasy world, a world I can in some way relate to as I recognise the look and feel of the artwork. To be honest, that's my kind of game. I want that sense of pseudo-history.

I wonder if this is something to do with the fact that I'm British? I live in the historical Cathedral City of Lichfield and since childhood I've been bombarded with images, stories and lessons about the medieval period. I know what things are supposed to look like, how things worked, how people dressed. To a certain extent I understand the attitudes. This has no doubt influenced the kind of games I like to run and play in, but doesn't diminish my enjoyment of high-fantasy games. Given the choice, though, I'll take gritty pseudo-history games over bombastic high-fantasy games anytime.

Spotlight - Jon Hodgson, artist

I can't believe that I once turned down an offer from Jon Hodgson, via rpg.net, to post him my newly-acquired copy of the Dragon Warriors core rulebook for him to sign. Incredibly I politely declined. Why? I had already lost two copies of some sought-after books and one I had sent out in the Royal Mail and I was loathe to lose my copy of the book, as it had taken me a while to get hold of it. You may all line yourselves up and kick me up the arse.

This guy is one of my favourite artists. The atmosphere he invokes in his images is remarkable and his work for Dragon Warriors, and now Cubicle 7's new Middle-Earth RPG 'The One Ring' is stunning.

From his website at www.jonhodgson.com -

'At the time of writing Jon Hodgson is in his late 30s and lives in Scotland, UK though he happens to have been born south of the border in England.

His career has spanned art direction, set building, props making, graphic design, story boarding, historical illustration, card game art, board game art, computer games cut scene art, educational illustration and roleplaying game art.

So far in his short career (Ten or so years full time at the last count) Jon has made over 200 pieces of card art for collectable card games, solo illustrated 15 books with 30 plus illustrations each for Warhammer Historical, has provided cover art for some 30 gaming books as well as numerous pieces of packaging art, made illustrations for the biggest roleplaying game in the world - Dungeons and Dragons, as well as for some of the smallest. At one point he was a story boarder for the children's animated show Bob the Builder.

For the last 18 months Jon has been hard at work creating art for the forthcoming “The One Ring” rpg from Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd - a new Lord of the Rings roleplaying game, featuring the art of John Howe, Tomasz Jedrusek and Jon Hodgson.

Jon is also currently art director for Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd.

In 2009 David and Charles/Impact Books published Fantasy Art for Beginners written by Jon, which is available in all good bookshops.

Jon trained as a "fine artist", specialising in abstract painting. Apparently.

Jon uses an Apple iMac, Artrage, Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter X, a Wacom Intuos 3, and a lot of coffee. As well as pencils and paper, and very occasionally actual real paint.

Selected Clients: The BBC, Accenture, David & Charles, Wizards of The Coast, Games Workshop's various subsidiaries - Black Library, Sabertooth Games, Black Industries, Warhammer Historical, Upper Deck, Paizo, Cubicle 7, Ulisses Spiele, Uhrwerk Verlag, Euromoney Magazine, Digital Artist Magazine, Drumond Park, Red Redemption, Project Quest John Adams Trading, Magnum Opus Press, Mongoose Publishing, Green Ronin, Alderac Entertainment Group, Hot Animation'

Hopefully, Jon will continue to illustrate Dragon Warriors now that he is part of Serpent King Games who are re-releasing the game with new material.

In fact, the guy has a talent I'm horrendously jealous of, so just forget you read this blog entry, yeah? And don't even think of going over to his Deviant Art page.

DRAGON WARRIORS – Gameplay report

As I’m running a short Dragon Warriors campaign while my mate Jason takes a break from his ongoing Pathfinder game I thought I’d keep something of a record of what’s going on in the game and how it’s progressing. In this short possibly short-lived series of blogs I'll do a (much shorter than this one) update after the game every Thursday. I’ll cover the story, how the game is going and how the rules dealt with certain situations.

I’ve started the game with all six players creating Knights, Barbarians or Assassins. I’ve excluded magic users for now and will allow access to the magical careers once the game is in progress. The group consists of two of each career. I’m not that fussed about game balance as long as the players are happy with their choices. Character creation was easy and quick – three players had already created their PCs and the other three took about half an hour to create theirs, and even give them basic character backgrounds. The Dragon Warriors character creation system is quick, easy and starts the player of with the very basics, including equipment and money. Unless the group agrees there’s no drawn out shopping for starting equipment. Some groups may find that a little annoying and restrictive but for a quick, simple game like Dragon Warriors it’s perfect. I did toy with the idea of allowing the players to exchange the starting items with a cash equivalent and then let them shop, but decided in the end to give them the basics and then let them shop in-game.

As the game was about to begin I used the optional rules for ‘Fate Points’, which will allow the PCs to change a single roll or cheat death, and the use of the below zero health points critical chart. I’m also trialling a variant of the damage system; in the core rulebook, damage is set at a static score depending on weapon used and there is an optional system that allows for a random damage roll to be made. I’m giving the players the choice; they can either take the set damage score or they can roll per hit. This means if they do choose to roll then they might do more damage, but then they also might do a lot less!

I’m setting my campaign in the Lands of Legend, just a little south of the Pagan Mountains in Ellesland, and I’ve decided to drop the entire ‘party origin’ story. There was no ‘you meet in a tavern’ or ‘you’re all brought before the Lord’ etc. They were simple travellers who had all met up on the road and decided to stick together for mutual protection. The rumours are that there are plenty of barrows, run-down castles, Selentine Empire ruins and caves to be explored and plundered. Sadly, they’ve been beaten to it and they’ve all been emptied. Cold, wet and miserable, they trudge north looking for a town called Dungully. The landscape is blasted and bleak, but as they approach the mountains the land becomes rich and bountiful, like they’ve suddenly stepped into spring.

Along the road they see a cart with a broken wheel, half in the trees, and an injured horse – obviously something is afoot. It’s at this point, after introducing the world, the landscape and the rainy weather, that I ask the players what they want to do.

This first encounter starts some confusion. As I’ve set the scene some of the group have been talking amongst themselves, sometimes loudly. This can be annoying but I’ve learned that waiting for players to be quiet or asking them to listen doesn’t really solve anything. I continue talking to the players that are listening with the intention of letting them benefit from what they learn. Once the players not listening realise they’re missing out they’re a bit more attentive.

A trail leads to a bandit camp, who have obviously just raided the cart and taken two men on it captive, and a fight ensues. I’m not using minis so I quickly sketch out a combat map – in a small clearing with a fire at the centre – so the players have to use their imaginations. The bandits are somewhat weak, being a first encounter for a system shakedown, and easily dispatched. There’s little to no confusion regarding the combat rules, even for those new to the system, and the encounter runs smooth and fast. By the end of it a couple of the PCs are injured but eleven bandits lie dead and the rest flee into the woods. The cash-starved PCs promptly loot the bodies and then free the captives.

As quick and as easy as the fight was, I had three main problems with the combat:

One, the players who were used to minis and a battle mat were a bit lost at the beginning as the entire encounter was played out quickly and easily with nothing but small sketches. They got into the swing of it but their initial instinct was to plan their tactics and move their pieces.

Two, Lots of people shouting over each other to get attention. This is a problem in any game but with the additional job of handling the players new to this game system it got a little loud and frustrating. The trick is not to take that frustration out on anybody, in or out of the game, and handle each situation calmly and quickly. Most of the time the players will accept a quick judgement call from the GM, especially if you keep the action flowing and move away from the problem as fast as you can.

Three, there was immediate party conflict. One of the players spent time picking up dropped coins, as he was low on funds, and when the combat started another player knocked all the money out of his hands and into the river. This resulted in the offended player sauntering to the fight and getting involved in the dying moments, then realising that he had not earned any experience as the others had done the work. It was obviously frustrating for him so I moved the action on quickly and made a mental note to give the player something to do to earn extra points later on.

The freed captives are traveling to Dungully to take part in a huge festival and are so grateful for their lives, and agree to travel with the PCs. Upon arriving at the town after dark they find the place packed, the streets full with drinking and eating, dancing, games and general merrymaking.

This town, and the introduction of the obligatory inn, gives the players a focus, a central area they can use as a marker and a possible place for rest and recuperation. The town is bright and packed with happy, friendly NPCs and the players get into the swing of things by taking part in archery contests, a melee, and a race to climb to the top of a flower-covered wooden pedestal in the town square. Dealing with these different minigames was difficult but fun. All I needed to do was concentrate on one thing at a time and make sure that those not directly involved were also excited about the outcome of the dice rolls, in which I asked for basic attribute rolls, and in extreme circumstances it was a simple case of who rolled closest to ‘1’. I even allowed florins to change hands as bets were made on the outcome, and a couple of the players came away with healthy wins. It all made for a few exciting moments.

All of this was a misdirection of sorts; as they played the minigames, laughed and joked, a young lady, the Queen of the Festival was paraded through the cheering crowds throwing flowers. The players made remarks and joined in. As a result of me trying to give him something to do, the player who had had his money knocked out of his hands became involved with a minigame but was having a bad night with some bad dice rolls. When he yet again lost a competition he elected to punch the NPC who had just beaten him, obviously frustrated by the evening’s play he was having. When he even failed to thump the NPC who staggered back shocked and was about to call the guards, he finally passed a roll and convinced the man he was only joking and then staggered into the crowd. There’s not a lot you can do with frustrated players, especially if they’ve lost out to the other gamers at the table as he had done with experience points, and the best way to deal with them is to let them vent. If he had gotten into a fistfight I may have inserted the idea that the men he was fighting thoroughly deserved a good beating.

During all this one of the Assassin players decided to pick a pocket while the attention of the crowd was on one of the barbarians (with a score of 17 in Looks!) as he regaled them with tales of his deeds. Sadly he failed his roll and the portly merchant caught him and cried out for guards. Flustered, and a bit frustrated that he had been caught, the player opted to stab the innocent NPC he had tried to rob. The other players bawled him out, shocked at the decision, and so the player elected to punch him instead. I’m not entirely sure why he decided to suddenly turn nasty, it was as if he suddenly realised that he was in the middle of a huge pressing crowd and dozens of eyes were watching him – he acted impulsively, maybe even panicked a little, and there were going to be consequences to his actions.

This was the perfect opportunity to introduce an NPC blacksmith who I had intended to bring in later. Seeing that there was going to be trouble and not wanting the game to go too far off track, I threw in the blacksmith – who was desperate for the help of strangers but wouldn’t speak to them in the crowd – and he staggered in and proclaimed the failed pickpocket a drunken bet that the PC had lost, paid the merchant some money and staggered away pretending to be drunk with the PC. ‘If you want to live until morning, do what I do. Do not drink or eat their food. Meet me at my smithy in the morning.’ Adventure hook in place, the blacksmith staggers away. Even though the player’s decision to pickpocket and then assault the NPC was highly questionable it was a good way to bring the NPC in and set the scene that not all was at it seemed. It also enforces the idea that there was something to trust about him, or at least listen to what he has to say. He had not only imparted this information but had also risked exposure to what he knew by helping the PC, stopping a nasty fate befalling the pilferer. That was plenty of situations solved right there – important NPC introduction, the idea that the festival was dangerous, the PC saved from a nasty (and potentially game-stalling) fate, and an adventure hook was delivered. That was something of a lucky break for me.

As the minigames progress a great shout has gone up and people are rhythmically beating drums, blowing whistles and cheering the Festival Queen who has climbed to the top of the pedestal and is raining flowers and money down onto the crowd. The PCs even join in; shouting, banging, calling out lewd remarks that other townsfolk join in with, shouting jokes. The noise reaches a crescendo. It’s now midnight.

Then a huge, bellowing scream is heard from the darkness. A winged shape blots out the stars and talons grab the ecstatic Festival Queen by the shoulders and carry the white-clad maiden into the darkness. There’s a huge rush of air and the crowd fall silent. A moment later a huge cheer goes up and the party continues.

That’s where I ended the session.

I’m not sure if the players saw this coming, getting involved with festivities as they were, and there were a few moments of surprise and then a short discussion about what had happened. Being a large gaming group it’s pointless trying to get a single group reaction to a sudden event and a good thing, too - there were different opinions as to how people felt about it all. A couple were shocked, one was actively indifferent because as far as he was concerned it was their town and they could do what they liked, one now felt obligated to obliterate the entire town. It was a good mix, and with that the game ended.

All in all it was a successful night. In the two hours we fully played we got a lot done and the easy rules helped tremendously with that. The combat with six players and almost twenty mook bandits took probably about fifteen to twenty minutes and everyone seemed to have a good time. I know a couple of the players got frustrated for different reasons, but for the most part they had good reason to be with some of the bad rolls being made.

The Dragon Warriors rules system handled the game really well. I like a good skills system and this game is lacking one, but the general rule of thumb is choose one of the five main attributes and roll against it. It worked for the most part, although I did have to make a couple of spot rulings to keep the game moving, but the simple rules really helped as I didn’t get bogged down in detail and was able to concentrate on the adventure. The players coming from more complicated, tactical-based systems may have missed the lack of detail on the character sheet and may have been a tad confused by the initial mini-and-battle-mat-less combat, but once they got into the flow of the game it worked out fine. For the most part I’m sure they had a good time and, hopefully, they’re looking forward to the next game.

Dragon Warriors - COMPLETED!

Today I recieved a special package from Patriot Games, speedily posted out to me. It was the Dragon Warriors book 'In From The Cold', and why was it a special delivery? Because this book completes my collection of the printed works of the Dragon Warriors RPG.

It's excellent. I've spent the last few weeks searching for this sucker and I think I nabbed the last one from Patriot Games (which is a pretty good online store, I might add, the book was quickly dispatched and well packaged).

It arrived on the very day my new Dragon Warriors campaign started. After playing in a Pathfinder game for the better part of a year I'm back in the GM's seat and I'm having fun with it. I've got six players in the game and the combat was fluid and the game system easy to manage. I think I'll make this my group fantasy RPG game of choice, now, and use the more complicated systems for smaller groups. It's old, it does show some cracks in the rules, but it's great fun.

Dragon Warriors movie

Not quite, but it's a good start. I'm starting a new Dragon Warriors campaign on Thursday and I was looking for some visual inspiration. I found this little gem on DVD - Black Death.

It's a pretty good film and has lots of period flavour. I know I'll be playing my Robin of Sherwood DVDs to death as I design the game but this film gives me another, more visceral angle to work from. I can also recommend it as a really good movie.

RPGs are NOT doomed!

Thank heavens! After seeing countless threads on message boards about how the RPG hobby has taken yet another nosedive, or the industry is DOOMED!! and therefore the hobby is DOOMED!! also, Bottg started a thread on www.rpg.net asking about how gaming is thriving.

It makes a hell of a change to hear positivity regarding the hobby. More of this please.

Dragon Warriors... again

I'm a massive fan of Dragon Warriors, especially the new version released through Magnum Opus Press that I pushed with a passion. Now a new company called Serpent King Games have picked up the torch and are re-releasing the game.

And good luck to them - Dragon Warriors is a great, simple and atmospheric game and they deserve all the good fortune they can get. They're dead lucky and they have a stable platform to work from - if I was to release my own version of Dragon Warriors there wouldn't be a single thing I'd change.

Well... maybe one or two things.

1 - Introduce a skill system. I'm a sucker for skill-based games and a skill system to reflect general skills and career-based skills would be cool.

2 - Random damage rolls. As much as I like the Armour Bypass system I'd like to see a random damage roll. I know there is an optional version in the rulebook but a more solid version would be nice.

3 - Lots more careers. You could get another dozen careers in the book easy by paying atention to number 4 below.

4 - Don't give the Assassin career half the book. Because that was just plain stupid. Yes, we've all seen Robin of Sherwood. Yes, we all wanted to be Nasir.

Dragon Warriors is a great game. If I could convince my gaming group I'd love to run a long campaign in the Lands of Legend with a whole slew of new PCs. If you can get hold of a rulebook, and I know there are plenty floating around still, then do so. If nothing else it'll give you a whole new campaign world as Legend is definitely one of the best out there.

On The Table

I was a tad shocked today to find a TV show called 'On The Table', that featured all manner of tabletop gaming thingies, from miniatures to rules to all kinds of things. It's run by the guys over at www.beastsofwar.com, supported by Wayland Games, and it's a pretty good short show letting everyone know what's going on in the market. I'd like to see a little more roleplaying in there, but it was good enough to hold my attention for the time it was on even though I don't have much interest in the wargaming hobby. It was slick, well made and really very good.

For UK Sky viewers it's on Showcase TV, every other Thursday.

Nice one, lads.

Using game trailers as RPG campaign teasers

So I was wondering how to entice players to play my games, or how I could get them excited about what they could do, or give them a taster of atmosphere... you know, there is nothing you can write that will get them all on the same page because everyone will imagine something different from what is written and in many respects expectations will be either too high or too low. Either way there's a good chance my game won't work, might not even take off.

One way to get them on the same page is to show them visuals, and recently I've been perusing some computer game trailers.

Let's say I wanted to run a gritty, dangerous fantasy game. Well, of course, I'd show them the live action Skyrim trailer - not that they'll be playing in the Elder Scrolls setting, just to invoke some atmosphere.



Then I thought about a World War Three post-apocalyptic military game. MW3, anyone?



Science Fiction horror? Dead Space is pretty perfect.



Like I said, it's not the game setting I want to use, just the atmosphere that the trailer is trying to invoke. Game trailers really try to push the envelope with imagery whereas movie trailers can sometimes feel stilted and forced. Game trailers also tap into the part of you that just wants to play and have fun, makes you want to experience what they're advertising instead of being a passive observer, like in a movie.

Roleplaying games want exactly that - involvement. Yeah, I think game trailers are pretty cool for advertising the kind of game you want to run.