Category: Commentary

BadWrongFun

Great Definition

badwrongfun: Playing “the wrong way”, but having fun anyway. You might be playing the wrong way by going against the expectations of the game (“You can’t run a hack-and-slash game using Vampire; you’re missing the entire point!”) or the expectations of gamers who have decided they are more evolved beings (“It’s not possible to properly role-play in Dungeons & Dragons.”). Primarily used humorously to show that the speaker doesn’t care that it’s “wrong” since it’s fun, or that the speaker feels a slight bit of guilt for enjoying something they feel they shouldn’t.

[Please tell me that everyone knows the D&D sucks rant is satire…trollbait…linkfodder that Aidan wrote for a laugh – I know it seems serious but JESUS it’s just a game. And it’s a game that we’ve enjoyed playing over the years. We’re fucking with you!]

I bought a book today…

…entirely because it was illustrated and designed exactly the way I want Q to be paid out.

I spent a few minutes leafing through it and in my minds eye transposed the text and art to that which I envision for Q. Looking over my Q notes the other day reminded me of the parts I still needed to write though, to be honest, most of it is down somewhere or other.

Some of the notes I look over were definitely penned by someone else. Sure, it’s my handwriting but it doesn’t read like my writing. I guess some of the text there must be 10 years old or so and I was a different person then – and my understanding of some things has matured and so it needs re-written.

I’m always wary of games systems which report on the cover that they took 10 years to develop. Systems take minutes to develop, maybe hours to refine. Not years. It takes years maybe to write prose of the quality you might want. When I hear of a game that took 10 years to create, I always think that it’s going to be 10 years out of date. I mean, a decade ago we were playing Ars Magica, SLA Industries and Mage. I would hope to some degree the world had moved on a little.

Likewise when someone claims to have developed their game system from watching real fights or, (even less impressive, from years of studying fighting in the SCA,) then I have to work hard to keep the bile down. Does anyone really want to see “realistic” fight sequences? Is there any evidence to suggest that SCA fighting is any more realistic? I’m not convinced – but then there are very few people in Western Europe who have witnessed a real fight using swords and armour. When you’re fighting for your life you’re bound to respond differently to when you’re fighting to try to demonstrate a point about fighting. So – 10 years development and based on “real world data” – load of bollocks.

I did read an article in a RPG magazine which took data from shootouts at the Texas border between immigrant, smugglers and the border guard. It made for interesting reading – seems shooting someone is as effective as throwing a handful of stones at them though if one stone hits, there’s a massive chance of instant death. Anyone know the article? I think it might have been in Pyramid?

Back to the book…

So I bought it (and some word flashcards for my daughter). I’ll no doubt get time to read it tonight and then maybe break out my design apps later this week.

Heroics, Risk and immersion.

James “JimJamJom Jimbo” Wallis writes about Heroics:

Of course, a lot depends on how the player views their avatar, whether they regard the game-character they’re controlling as ‘me’, as a companion who they care about, or as a disposable camera and weapon-wielding tool.
…
But basically players don’t like risk. They like the appearance of risk, the semblance of heroism, but they really hate it when you make them feel like failures or take stuff away from them. Try telling a player that because they screwed up they broke their magic sword, or they’re going to have to sell their plasma-armour to pay for their half-body med-regen. They want to progress on all fronts, not just story and accomplishment but stats, equipment and fortune. It goes back as far as traditional tabletop RPGs: D&D lets you heal away injury and even death with cheap spells and potions; while also-rans like Runequest, T&T and Traveller were far more stingy with their cures.

Apart from making a clear and present declaration on the shitness of D&D, it’s a point well made.

When playing computer games, I get a lot of immersion. My heart pumps loudly in my ears whether I’m delivering the team flag back to my base or trying to make the shot to kill the Commandant of the camp while shells are pinging round me. The Flood parts of Halo gave me the heebie-jeebies, Doom 3 made me jump out of my skin. I love that feeling. I seldom get it with movies where I am a passive observer (notable exception being Dark Water and Audition).

To keep my attention, games have to give me a chill or make my heart burst through my chest.

Rowling casts Evil Eye on Hindi festival

A Hindi community is being targetted by Warner Bros and the Rowling estate for infringement because they’re building a huge model of the Hogwarts school.

The finishing touches are being applied to thousands of similar structures, known as pandals, across Calcutta and elsewhere in India. Many of them touch on popular themes and the BBC’s Chris Morris in Delhi says copyright has never been an issue before.

Aha, but they didn’t reckon on Rowling. She who blocked the Wizards d20 Harry Potter RPG because “she would be the only one telling Harry Potter stories” and vociferously defends her copyright even though:

Many people have noticed similarities between Timothy Hunter — a bespectacled English teenager with family troubles, a scar on his forehead and who has a magical owl as a pet — and the later and more famous Harry Potter. Neil Gaiman has been quoted as saying that while there are similarities between the two they are largely superficial and most likely reflect the fact that both draw on common archetypes.Wikipedia Link

…which is Gaiman saying “She’s got shitloads more money than me”.

post-apocalyptic rainstorms

The atmosphere is becoming more humid in a pattern consistent with man-made climate change, researchers have found.

“This confirmation that humidity and temperature are increasing as expected has important implications for future human health and comfort,” observed the Hadley Centre’s Peter Thorne, one of the research team.

– BBC News

Looks like BladeRunner had it right. It’ll never stop raining.

Your rights … under Section 44 of the UK Anti-Terrorism Act

This kind of thing gives me the shivers.

Two disabled blokes were detained by UK police for suspiciously opening a white envelope and looking at police men in public view

It’s been asked about 20 times now when I’m going to London with the job and I’ve been wanting to put it off. Anything to avoid the steely stare of Airport Security.

YOUR RIGHTS UNDER SECTION 44 (Courtesy Liberty ):

  • The police can only give you a pat down, remove outer clothes (eg jacket, hat), search your bags and have you empty your pockets
  • You do not have to give your name and address
  • You do not have to explain why you are there
  • You are not allowed to flee the search, but you are not required to be actively compliant. You are allowed to ‘go limp’ as passive resistance during the search if you wish not to comply
  • There is no permission to collect DNA data during the search
  • You do not have to comply with any attempt to photograph or record you
  • Women cannot be touched by male police during these searches
  • Make notes about the officers searching you – name, number and police force
  • Note the time and the events preceding the search
  • Note the specific wording used by the police to explain their authority to search you
  • Ask the police for the reason that they are searching you. Specifically, are they searching for terrorists or are they simply trying to deter, delay or inconvenience you?

God forbid you should be having a game in the pub and passing round a copy of the Compendium of Modern Firearms or something.

Even more on Sexism

Okay….

From the Wonderland blog:
While we’re debating the use of English pronouns in RPG books, we find that Ubisoft have just created a range of games for the Nintendo:DS which consist of shopping, fashion, animals and babies.

The world is imbalanced, side-loaded, lurching: we need more female policemen, actually – aren’t Ubisoft watching Life on Mars? – and female referees, and female politicians, and female military people, and female marketing strategists, and female farmers … and, of course, as evidenced by this latest offering, more female video game personnel.

Their next releases will concentrate on Ponies, Make-Up…..

Jame’s Herbert’s ’48. A review.

I recently read James Herbert’s ’48 which is a post-World War II version of a few post-apocalyptic stories. It was essentially “28 Days Later” or “Night of the Comet” but with Nazis. It read like a muh shorter ‘lite’ version of Stephen King’s “The Stand”. It’s Dawn of the Dead with a swastika.

Sure – there’s some good plot points, some not so good and some decent characterisation. It leaves the ending a little flat but it’s an easy read and not a long book so most people should be able to find their way through it easily enough. Two sex scenes, both where the author gingerly describes genitalia without using real words. Some interesting characters were killed off and the hero – well – I found it very hard to identify with him and his constant internal monologue.

So is this a mashup like we find in so many online apps and also in roleplaying games? Who knows. I liked the book, enough to finish it which hasn’t happened with every book I’ve bought in the last few years.

Along the lines of rehashing plots, new movie The Invasion seems to be just a rendition of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Everything old is new again…

Natural Wonders

The Giant’s Causeway is one of the most astounding natural formations in Northern Ireland. This got me thinking about the representations of natural wonders in gaming.

In the Aurore Sourcebook for 2300AD, they described a tidal flood plain which was so flat that the tides, sped by the influence of the large lunar satellite on that planet to be a rushing wall of water that destroyed anything in it’s path and whose sonic booms could be heard for miles around. I, of course, delighted at the idea of the players racing along the tidal flat trying to get to high ground before they were destroyed… (and I’d still give my right nut to play some 2300AD with a good group).

When playing MERP we didn’t spend much time talking about the grandeur of the mountain ranges or the dread of Mordor but we were young and we made more of an effort when playing the Decipher LotR game.

Without having trodden the steps (so to speak) or seeing the photos, does the sound of the Giant’s Causeway not sound like fiction?

A Guide to Britain, for Americans.

It’s funny

🙂

You will find British people very polite. Here are some of our quaint phrases; if you learn them before visiting Britain, you will be able to understand us much better, and soon will be talking “like a native”!

Phrase – Meaning
Efforf – Would you like to join me?
Bleadenyanx – I’m so glad you’ve come to visit our country!
Shaddi – Please repeat that
Getstaft – Won’t you sit here a minute?

More on Sexism

This time it seems to center around the use of the English language (which does not have a gender neutral pronoun).

Is it possible to write gender-neutral (as opposed to say balanced) text and still entertain?

Yes. But if the audience is spending more time counting the number of times you used he and she rather than actually reading the book, then you haven’t a chance.

I write based on personal experience. There are no women in my gaming group and most of the guys do not choose to play female characters. When writing I do mix the pronouns but that’s more for readability rather than anything else. Referring to two male characters as “he” gets confusing, as would referring to two female characters as “she”. Which one do we mean? Bish, bosh, change one of them and the readability increases.

It still won’t be good enough for the people counting pronouns.

What other cultures can we suppress?

A disturbing development:

The fashion chain Zara has withdrawn a handbag from its stores after a customer pointed out that the design featured swastikas.

..

As well as being the Nazi symbol, the swastika is also a religious symbol for Hindus and Buddhists.

What disturbs me about this is that if the Nazis had adopted, say, the Crucifix or, perhaps, the Great Seal, would there be such a hubbub.

Yes, they were scumbags but does this mean we have to throw out Hindu and Buddhist culture? What does this mean for the Black Leather Trenchcoat? Does Lightning McQueen sport the lightning symbol on his bodywork because he is paying homage to the SS (Schutzstaffel)?

There’s one thing in refusing to glorify or edify the wrongdoers of the past. That’s not what the handbag makers were doing. But this insistence on removing everything that might possibly offend anyone is only going to lead us to Equilibrium.

Yes. That’s a bad thing. (it wasn’t all about cool guys fighting with guns and swords….no really….)

He said, do you speaka my language? (Foreign RPGs)

I’ve bought a few foreign language games in the past – a few French games (Humanydyne, Vermine, In Nomine Satanis, Te Deum Pour Un Massacre, Apocrypha) , a couple of German games (Das Schwarze Auge, Space Gothic) and my friend Paul gifted me with a copy of Ars Magica in Russian a few years ago.

Some of the games you get from other countries are very much foreign language versions of games we already have. They have their own direct translations as well as native versions of hackneyed fantasy and other tropes. But they have some gems, like some of the games listed above. Even before you start translating the games, they stand out (worthy of note is that someone is working on an English translation of HumanyDyne.)

I hear good things from Spain (but haven’t bought any because I don’t know any Spanish, while I can read French and German).

Anyone else ventured to other cultures for good RPGs?

I haven’t eaten anything since later this afternoon.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Time Killers game – mostly about whether or not there is room for ANOTHER time travel game out there.

One of the best time travel games I’ve ever read was Continuum (1999) which really went to town on background and gave special focus to making sure you fulfill your own future. Some of the things in the game (spanners, frag) have silly names and I dislike the “secret” as well. But, nonetheless, it has a lot of things going for it.

So, here’s the framework for Time Killers.

Every player has a character, pregens are provided but there’ll also be rules for making your own.

Each player must have a Timepiece, a pen and paper representation of  an electronic diary, which records their past and future. Everything “temporal” that happens in a game session should be recorded in their timepiece.

When doing something that is in your Future, you should skip a random number of pages ahead in the Timepiece and write in a reminder. As you start to fill your diary with events from your Present (this making up your Past), you will eventually come across events you have placed into your Future. Now is the time to resolve them.

Paradoxes are bad but that’s where the time killers come in. In the example of the famous grandfather paradox, the Time Killers are there to restore normal working to the timeline. If a time traveller goes back in time to kill his grandfather, noting that if he succeeds, he will never be born and will never have been able to go back in time because he never existed, the correct flow of time will be that he does go back and he does attempt the murder, but for whatever reason he will fail (either by being prevented in committing the murder or by the Time Killer organisation planting whatever is necessary to keep the timeline straight, up to and including replacing the dead grandfather with a simulacrum or technological fertilisation of the time travellers grandmother. Time Killers are not exempt from these paradoxes but at least are more knowledgeable than most.
The Time Killers are one of many “timeline guardian” organisations. There are others. And no-one is really sure of what is the “proper” timeline. However, what distinguishes the the legitimacy of some from others is the ability of the organisation to detect changes in Causality. These manifest as “vibrations” in spacetime and indicate that a paradox has occurred. As paradox happens instantly and would cause spacetime to unravel, it is important to get the Time Killers out into the field  before the unravelling occurs. This means there’s very little time to prepare and every single time it happens, the fate of the universe is on their shoulders.

That’s enough stream-of-consciousness for one morning.
[The title of this post comes from the 2004 film, Primer.]