Chatty's Reviews: Wolfgang Baur on Playtesting
This post is part of a multi-blog review of Open Designs’ Kobold Guide to Game Design: Volume II, see the Hub page of the reviews here.
A few days ago, my good friend Ben McFarland approached me and a few more bloggers to help him get the word out about Wolfgang Baur’s (you know, that guy) newest digest of posts called The Kobold guide to Game Design, Volume 2: How to platest and publish.
Ben’s proposal was to have each chapter of the book be reviewed by different bloggers. I happily agreed.
After having taken a look at the available chapters, I asked Ben to send me the one about playtesting. This is a subject that’s close to my heart since I’ve started doing it for my Kobold Love project. I’ll also start doing some for the Goodman Games adventure I just finished.
All right, this is a 4 page chapter so I need to stay concise and not actually re-write it all. So here goes:
Caspule Review:
Wolfgang Baur covers , in a concise and clearly the crucial points one must keep in mind when doing playtesting for your adventures (and especially when doing it for another publisher). Extremely useful.
Somewhat more detailed review:
The chapter boils down to Wolfgang’s golden rule of playtesting: “Note it and move on”.
He extols the virtues of spending as much time possible actually testing everything in the adventure and not spend more time than necessary doing paperwork or discussing possible alternatives.
He covers various sub-topics such as character creation, the ressource books to use for D&D playtesting, notekeeping, combat, death, the dreaded TPK. He then outlines what to do when problems pop up in an adventure’s crunch (mechanics & balance) and its fluff (story, setting, logic) and addressed how to deal with them.
He concludes the section with a few paragraph on how to succesfully write a playtest report and he has a bonus boxed text on how playtesting in a Convention should go.
In just 4 short pages, Wolfgang Baur manages to touch all the bases of playtesying without getting lost in details and examples. I found the chapter to be enlightning as I learned a few things I had never thought of doing in my previous playtesting.
I do have one small qualm. The chapter specifically addresses playtesting of a D&D (or SRD 3,5) adventure as it was done in late 2008 (i.e. he names very specific books). While you can use most of the chapter for other types of games, the text was written with Baur’s current playtesting experiences. That limits the chapter’s utility somewhat.
Play for fun, keep things moving, note things that don’t work and reset the game when needed to test later scenes, that’s what it all boils down too. Wise words from the West Coast master of Fluff and all things D&D.
So all in all, an excellent part of the book.
Want to read more about The Kobold Guide to Game Design, Volume II? Read on…
Review: The Hero of Ages
(Note: Some Spoilers for both Mistborn and Well of Ascension included)
Background: The third and final book of Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn Trilogy explores the aftermath of the protagonist’s unintentional freeing of the being of pure destruction, Ruin. The world they now live in seems headedtowards the apocalypse. The heroes are virtually unable to fight against Ruin as every word they say aloud or write on paper is vulnerable to manipulation is subject to being heard or tampered with. Sanderson’s finale manages to both showcases the favorites in the series, shine light on characters that had previous escaped the limelight, and end the series with a enormous finale that both surprises but stays completely within the rules that Sanderson has set for himself in his wonderful world.
Setting: The world had once been governed by the immortal Lord Ruler, but no longer. He sought to use the power of the Well of Ascension to contain the entity Ruin and fix some of the damage he had done in his first attempt to bind Ruin. With his overthrow, the protagonist have denied themselves their most knowledgeable and powerful ally against the dark force of Ruin. They continue to rely on the magic of Allomancy which holds up an impressive and versatile creation. Sanderson explores some other logical extensions of the magic system and use it effectively as a great source of action and suspense. He also aptly considers its ramifications on a society in upheaval and reveals a sensible and satisfying explanation behind the power of the feared Inquisitors. Finally, his examination of a budding religion and a world bereft of its millennia old stabilizing force manages to ring true despite its fantastic premise.
Story: Vin and her companions must use all their powers and cunning to both face off against Ruin and its minions and remnants of the Lord Rule’s former regime. Vin plays a major role and stays true to her excellent origin tale. Her husband, the Emperor Elend trials as a leader and learning curve as a Mistborn are well done and competently handled. However, I felt like book truly excels when it explores the once-quiet Spook, Sazed’s crisis of faith, and Marsh’s attempt to regain his humanity despite being forced into being an Inquisitor. Perhaps even more satisfying is that the plot twists truly and honestly blew me away. As a seasoned troper, it’s often easy to spot plot developments coming, but Sanderson both surprises and explains things so adeptly that he manages to balance the nearly impossible task of adequate foreshadowing and true delightful surprise. My hats off to him for managing to tie up the loose ends and end a trilogy so strongly!
Overall: A. Critical Hit! Truly one of the best trilogies I have read in a long time. What Sanderson lacks in the size of cast (only a few characters get true three dimensional treatment) he makes up for in depth of each focus character and a truly well realized world and plot.
Raiding the Library : Neal Stephenson's worlds, Part 1
Man, I haven’t felt like that in months! I feel like spending the whole damn day at the keyboard and churn out thousands upon thousands of words just for the sake of it. That’s always a good sign.
I’m one avid reader. I read novels by the buckets when I have the time to do it. When my urge to write waned these past months, I made up for it by reading and watching TV more.
Having been around long enough to resist falling into the trap of trying to make a RPG campaign out of everything cool I read or saw on a screen, I had an idea.
Why not try a new series where I share plot elements of books I read with you guys to set the ideas engine off for our collective RPG campaigns. Not quite reviews nor campaign plans, I just plan to ramble about cool stuff I’ve read and maybe try to churn new ideas for RPGs.
I start the series with my favorite author.
I’ve long been a fan of Neal Stephenson’s work. To this date, his Snow Crash and Age of Diamonds novels are, by far, my favorite Sci-Fi stories . I’ve read Snow Crash every two years since it’s first printing as a paperback and I’ve read the Diamond Age 3 times already and I’m starting to feel the pull to read it again.
Do note that Stephenson, much like the early work of William Gibson, assumes his readers are expert in the field he writes about… or are goddamn geniuses! This made me throw a few of his books away in disgust!
FYI: Feel free to skip any long Data Dump you can’t fathom, chances are its not necessary for the story. I ended up doing it for his 3 book Baroque cycle!
So here’s a quick summary of each story and sample of the key tropes I got from each book:
Summary:
A jerkish ecological militant, bordering on eco-terrorism, is the chemical equivalent of a film noir Detective. He gets caught in a conspiracy-level ploy that leads to the discovery of massive amounts of toxic wastes being released in his city’s Boston’s water.
Selected Tropes:
The well meaning jerk: The main character is one monumental asshole and he knows it.
The evil corporation: There’s always one, willing to pitiful things like client safety and future growth for some thing more important like this semeter’s bottomline
The cool boat: Zodiac boats! Weee! Not as cool now, but still the Eco-Guerrila vehicle of choice!
RPG nuggets:
I think that the well meaning Jerk NPC is a great way of modeling a modern day Magnificent Bastard. As usual, be careful not to piss your PCs too much (unless you want them to). This NPC model lives to annoy PC and motivate them through negative reinforcement.
Eco-terrorism is going to be a subject whose popularity will likely rise in the current global polarizing of opinions and stances. This makes it an interesting approach to explore, especially if you go at it cross genre.
- Fantasy: What if the rising use of Magitek had noticeable, yet still debatable ecological impact on the world? Final Fantasy VII’s initial plot hook IIRC.
- Horror: What if rising global pollution was a condition for summoning the Great Old Ones as they can’t survive if the Ocean is not polluted enough? Maybe those crazy cultists that blew up 5 stolen nukes under Bikini Atol are on to something.
Snow CrashSummary: TV Tropes writes it up better than I ever could.
The tale of a Mafia-backed badass pizza delivery guy who teams up with a badass courier in a Post Cyber Punk disincorporated USA to fight “Snow Crash” – a computer virus for the brain. Oh, and there’s a badass biker with glass knives and a nuclear bomb strapped to his motorbike, too.
This book is pure applied Rule of Cool.
Selected Tropes
Bad Ass characters and villains: This book is bursting at the seems with characters who are scary strong.
Cool Car and Boat (see a theme here?): The Deliverator is a high tech military grade car for… delivering pizzas. And part of the action of the book takes place on an Aircraft Carrier turned into a floating refugee city.
Big Fraking Gun: “Portable”-nuclear-powered-depleted-uranium-needle-shooting Gatling Gun… ’nuff said! It’s called “Reason” and you should listen to it.
The Plucky girl: A “I don’t take crap from nobody” 15 year old sketboard courrier girl. She somehow managed to also show up in a William Gibson novel… fancy that!
Serious Business: Your pizza in 30 minutes, or the delivery boy murdered free!
As I said, if you are a geek, like cyberpunk and haven’t read Snow Crash, go get it now!
RPG Nugget
I really like the concept of brain hacking. There’s something sinister and powerful behind that idea. You can easily build a whole campaign, regardless of genres, around an Evil Overlord (corporate or classic) going around and making zombies of the average population without having to invoke complicated rituals that PCs can interrupt by dropping a d20 on it.
Also, having tried it, making your characters Bad Asses in the eyes of ‘the average’ NPC makes for an Epic feeling in your game. Yes the bad guy waiting for you outside the bar can rip cars in half. However, while you are in that bar, the waitress is impressed with YOU.
I also really like the concept of the frail looking, Waif-fu mastering, teenaged NPC. So much so that my players now automatically assume that any underaged NPC I introduce in my games are automatically some sort of Avatar for a god of Battle or a guidance system for an Orbital laser cannon.
Then, there’s something to be said to let PCs handle an experimental, exceedingly deadly weapon and then throw something equally stupid cool at them for the weapon to be used. I mean, if you are going to be giving them a Wand of Nuking with four charges left, I suggest that you send them a squadron of flying Titanium Elemental Bombers!
Finally, that ‘serious business’ part, makes for such a great tyrannical, Lawful Evil, setting spark.
Anyone else got ideas from these two books?
When Horror Meets Awesome: CthulhuTech
We’ve always been big fans of Horror roleplaying, which began for me with Call of Cthulhu years ago and moved on more recently into some great homebrew settings that our friend Josh ran for us. I personally love to get inside the character’s head moreso than in other RPGs, and really try to experience and feel the fear that comes along with what’s happening to them, while Dave is more a fan of doing absolutely mean things to his players in Horror RPGs. One thing that I never really expected to see released as an official product is the melding of the Cthulhu mythos with a futuristic-anime style setting, which is exactly what CthulhuTech presents.
The first thing I notice with any product is the artwork, and I have to say that the graphic design and art in CthulhuTech really hits home for the setting. Much of the artwork is rather simple, but extremely evocative of the moods and feelings this kind of game wants the players to experience. I’m already scared out of my wits at the thought of giant alien robots scouring through ruined cities, seeking out the flesh of my would-be hero everyman. These two genres speak to me in similar ways, as my favorite giant-mecha anime is Neon Genesis Evangelion which features normal people thrust into bizarre and otherworld circumstances and that seems to mesh pretty damn well with the concepts underlying the Cthulhu mythos as well. It just has a little more badass sprinkled in, is all!
The second thing I noticed after spending some time with the material is that it’s not just two genres slapped together, a lot of work has gone into developing a rich history and backstory for the horrifying world of the future. If there’s one thing I love in a new RPG resource, it’s lots of history and backstory that can be used or at least inspires ideas for game masters and players alike. [Read the rest of this article]
The Rule of Cool takes flak
Its interesting to note that several bloggers, especially of the old School variety (here and here) are taking a stance against the Rule of Cool as applied to Role Playing Games.
Being one of the proponents of it, having written about it and made part of my success as a blogger around it, I feel a bit compelled to step in and address this.
However, this being the Internet, any arguments I will invoke will likely be ignored by opponents and be taken as fact by proponents. This is the kind of subject that should probably be debated by a bunch of GMs across genres and styles around a few beers.
I’ll still take my own stab at it, if only because I feel like writing today and must get this out of my system!
As I always do when I see posts about things I strongly oppose, I try to understand where the proponents of the contrarian view (vs mine) come from.
Starting an inter blog flame war about it is not going to move anything forward.
Noisms and James Edwards are from the old school. They play older editions of D&D and are passionate and articulate about it. They are vibrant and ranty bloggers whose prose is always entertaining to read even if I happen to disagree with many of their points of views. It doesn’t invalidate anything they say, I just happen to to disagree with how they see the hobby.
In fact, I’ve reached a “let’s agree to disagree” point on the Rule of Cool with Noisms and I’ll stick to that.
While I am nostalgic about older editions of D&D, I know I could not stand playing it for long. There’s something in the implied playing style that I do not want in my games anymore. My perception of the Rule of Cool is part of the reasons why.
The way they present it (and any misinterpretation is a fault of mine), the Rule of Cool involves making everything cool all the time and stroking the players ego as often as necessary. The rule is seemed to be portrayed as a cheap shortcut for quality writing at best or an abdication to the grand altar of the ‘lets just press this I win button instead”.
(Hyperbole noticed and kept to overstate the tone I deciphered from their posts).
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I learned and adopted the Rule of Cool at a time where I was wasting WAY too much time on prepping for details and torturing myself on striving for watertight and internally consistent adventures that my players FAILED TO NOTICE because they were not that interested in those details to start with.
As I write this, I’ve got a Twitter buddy (mdhughes), also of the Gygaxian Naturalism camp, making a case against it. As I read his arguments, I’m starting to see that what truly bothers people (aside from a rising dislike for the TVtropes.org site) is this part of the definition of the Rule:
…all but the most pedantic of viewers will forgive liberties with reality so long as the result is wicked sweet and/or awesome.
The “forgive liberties as long as its awesome enough” part is probably what annoys people. Unless I’m mistaken, and I haven’t read the forum posts on the subject, I’m willing to bet that some proponents of the Rule make it sound like its okay to make a RPG adventure as enthusiastic and internally inconsistent as a Saturday morning cartoon or a Michael Bay movie as long as shit explodes and all PCs are titanium-boned Bad Asses.
I then assume that the backlash of it all is that others, especially those coming from the ‘you will get killed by a kobold if you are not careful enough’ school, is that this is not what they want in a RPG adventure and are being enthusiastically vocal about it to drive their point home.
Here’s the thing, I’m a proponent of the Rule of Cool because, with the limited amount of time my friends are willing to trade away from their busy lives, I will make every effort possible to make the vistas, scenes, and story elements stand out from the ordinary so the evening stands out in my players minds. I feel I owe the extra effort to them.
The Rule of Cool is not, to me, about making it easy, or to stroke my players’ egos. Its about making things fun (as we have defined it), and emotionally charged in the smallest amount of time I can.
That’s why, if I stage a fight, I’ll make sure there’s enough bad guys to give the players a run for their money (while trying not to make it into an automatic TPK), I’ll add enough interactive scene elements so they can shove braziers up monsters butt and get their skulls caved in by falling masonry pushed by hidden kobolds. I’ll then sprinkle a few moral dilemmas and conflicting objectives just to make things more complicated.
Given the choice to make my players feel like the turds under the orcs boots and like hard Asses that take a beating but stand a fair chance of winning, I’ll take the second anytime.
This is what I mean by Cool. Different, complicated, varied, achievable. Its about choices and stretching what Fantasy means to those gathered around my play table.
You don’t like that? Fine! Don’t do it.
Rule of Cool + Tyranny of Fun? That’s what I talk about here, that’s what I believe in.
Peace out guys!
Chatty's Goals for 2009
Happy new year everyone!
I’m sitting at home on the evening of the 31st, getting ready to churn out another multi-hundred words post.
Last year I did a list of objectives of the things I wanted from my blog, my personal life and my DMing.
Like I said back then, I don’t believe in resolutions, they imply that we ‘have’ to do something and does not mean that we ‘want’ to do it. I believe in setting goals and working at them continually.
Last year I gave myself quite a list. Surprisingly, I met (and surpassed) several. Others, like writing NANOWRIMO and getting an ENnies nomination didn’t pan out, but I’m proud of what I have achieved.
Oh well, at least I tried!
So here’s what I have planned for this year.
Online Presence:
- Re-capture and Maintain what this blog is about: Chatting about DMing, RPGs and geek stuff in general in an enthusiastic and welcoming atmosphere.
- Reduce number of weekly posts to an easier to manage number
- Encourage new writing talent to flourish and get decent exposure to give them a little push toward the addictive bliss that is being read and appreciated.
- Attend Gen Con 2009 and spend almost all my time playing and networking!
- Publish at least 1 E-Book.
Personal life:
- Achieve balance in my life so that the “meh” stuff abates and serenity returns. This will likely necessitate a reorientation of a few things.
- (Speaking of which) Accept once and for all that I’m a writer and start steering my life toward making writing a more significant part of my life.
- Lose that damn 10 pounds I’ve been lugging since last year!
DMing and RPGs:
- Continue the short campaign model for D&D 4e and master the intricacies of the rules. Hit at least one story high-note per player to mark the experience in their minds.
- Finish Kobold Love and get it out there in conventions and on the net.
- Write at least 2 published products with credit, including a RPG product for children!
There you go. Lots on my plate (as always), yet I feel confident I can achieve them. Plus I have a ton of friends I’m sure are going to be willing to help me out.
What are your own goals for 2009?
Have the greatest of year!
