Book Review: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games

Greetings!

I've just finished reading Michael Tresca's new book, The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, and I wanted to share my thoughts. It's a grand history of both role-playing in its many forms and Tresca's own games and explorations over the last several decades. His love of games and imagination rings clearly throughout his perceptive analyses and clear, cogent descriptions of games, ideas, and behavior. He brings a thoughtful, theoretical background, based in his own wide experience in gaming and his graduate work examining the behavior of online gamers.

Tresca and I are about the same age, so it was a fond parallel reminiscence to follow his stories of white box D&D, early computer games, and the possibilities and frustrations of various forms of role-playing, but I was most fascinated by the academic frameworks that he discusses in his Introduction and then applies throughout the rest of the book. He presents ideas about Media Richness (p. 5), Anonymity (p. 7), Frames of Reference (p. 8), Time (p. 11), and Culture (p. 12) and then goes on to employ these ideas succinctly for at least eight, depending on how you categorize and count them, different forms of role-playing.

Tresca spends the first chapter exploring the narrative elements of The Lord of the Rings and fantasy literature in general as a foundation for Dungeons and Dragons and the other early tabletop role-playing games that drew inspiration from it. There is brilliant literary analysis here. Some of this chapter, especially the sections on classes and such, reads at first as if Tresca is applying structures not natural to Tolkien, but in doing this, he nicely elucidates the elements within the master's work that flowed directly into modern role-playing games.

The next chapter incongruously discusses miniature wargaming and collectible card games in almost the same breath. While I found the chronology a little hard to follow, it did illuminate me to the similarities, co-evolution, and convergences of these two seemingly different types of games. The interactions of the various branches and types of games is a theme Tresca returns to again and again in later chapters. Some might argue that these two kinds of games are not really role-playing, but another focus in Tresca's work is to view games on various spectra of media and engagement.

The third chapter examines tabletop role-playing, my favorite form, in the greatest detail, focusing primarily on the ongoing development of Dungeons & Dragons. Again, he casts links back to Tolkien and miniatures and forward to the evolution of computer, online, card, and live-action games. He also demonstrates the ways in which this game has expanded from its wargaming, victory-based roots to be a platform for many kinds of games and game settings. In the twenty-first century, with its fourth edition, Dungeons & Dragons has returned to some of the elements that founded it. Tresca cites Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson many times, allowing for their massive influence on the game's origin and development but also acknowledging the many other hands that have affected role-playing. Dungeons & Dragons is the big game, but while a few other games like Tunnels & Trolls and Chivalry & Sorcery receive mention, I would have enjoyed a careful exploration of the various developments in the wider field of tabletop role-playing games. Perhaps that is for another book.

Subsequent chapters explore play-by-post and browser-based games, gamebooks and computer-based interactive fiction (IF), multi-user dungeons (MUDs), computer role-playing games, massive muliplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), and live-action role-playing games (LARPs). My own background does not include some of these areas in any meaningful way. Sure, I've lived in the hobby world during the last forty years, but I have found plenty enough entertainment and intellectual challenge in traditional, tabletop role-playing. I do write academic LARPs for my own classroom and others, and my work with GAMA in the past has exposed me to many wonderful ideas in everything from dice games to console scenarios, from miniatures to massive online games, but Tresca is able to bring his deep experience to bear on this wide range of game types, illuminating their interrelated and distinct qualities and showing how role-playing continues to evolve.

An aspect of role-playing that Tresca explores only briefly in his introduction (p. 12) is the way in which one's native culture affects the development of role-playing. He cites Britain's Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and elements within Japanese computer role-playing games, but this would be a fascinating topic to discuss further. It would probably take collaborators from many countries, looking at their own and each other's games for insight. Again, another book.

I highly recommend The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games for both its historiographical content and its exploration of the theoretical boundaries of various forms of role-playing and our sprawling hobby overall.

Tresca has a wonderful and frequent blog, where you can read more of his diverse ideas on a daily basis. You can reach McFarland Publishing on the net or by phone at 800-253-2187.

Have fun!

David

GAMA Brochures

I haven't posted much of late, busy with this and that, but I have come across the digital versions of the four Games and Education brochures that I produced under the auspices of the Games Manufacturers Association back in the 90s with the aid of Mark Simmons and Richard Martin-Leep.

Some of the games discussed or reviewed within these pages are now out of print, but there's still plenty of good nuggets to be found. I'd enjoy hearing updates or ideas from anyone!

Games & Education 1 - Introduction

Games & Education 2 - Language Arts & Literature

The remaining two (Games & Education 3 - History & Social Studies, Games & Education 4 - Math & Science) are being pesky about uploading. I'll work on this, but in the meantime, if you'd like copies, send me a message, and I'll be happy to send them off to the email address of your choice.

Have fun!

David

The Escapist - 15th Anniversary

Here's a fun announcement.

I should have more of my own material to share soon!

David

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Roleplaying advocacy website celebrates fifteen years of operation.

November 15, 2010, Felton Delaware

The Escapist, a roleplaying advocacy website based in Felton, Delaware, celebrates fifteen years of operation in December of 2010.

For fifteen years, the site has worked to improve the public image of the roleplaying hobby, and outline the social and cognitive benefits it can provide.

"Tabletop roleplaying games like Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and others are the modern equivalent of the ancient tradition of storytelling," said William J. Walton, author of The Escapist. "Likewise, live action roleplaying games are an entertaining form of improvisational theatre. Both forms of roleplaying encourage creativity, problem solving, spatial reasoning, teamwork, and social interaction. Not only that, but roleplaying games can help develop math and language skills and foster interest in history, science, art, world cultures, and more."

The roleplaying hobby has not always received positive coverage in the media. During the early 1980s, two isolated events led many to connect D&D with suicide. The same happened in the 1990s when a handful of events, including the Columbine school shooting, were believed to be connected to the Vampire: The Masquerade roleplaying game.

"The Escapist began as an online resource to combat the myths and misconceptions about the hobby," said Walton. "Many negative and false claims were made that didn't stand up to scrutiny - claims that the game could lead players to suicide, crime, insanity, demonic possession, and devil worship."

Over time, more people became aware of the roleplaying hobby and what really happens during a game, and the myths began to fade, Walton said. More help came from celebrities who professed their interest in roleplaying games, including Stephen Colbert, Vin Diesel, James Franco, Matthew Lillard, Wil Wheaton, and the members of Weezer and My Chemical Romance, to name a few.

As the negative press began to decline, the site expanded to cover other facets of roleplaying advocacy - bringing new players to the hobby, encouraging gamers and game companies to get involved in philanthropy, and promoting roleplaying with kids, and in library programs and schools.

In early 2010, the site announced a new project, "Read an RPG Book in Public Week," a thrice-yearly event that encourages roleplaying enthusiasts to take their rulebooks with them when they leave the house and "get caught" reading them in public. The goal of the event is to make the hobby more visible, inspire questions and conversation, and possibly even attract new players or bring back lapsed ones.

Over the years, Walton and the site have been featured in numerous news stories and interviews, two documentaries on roleplaying, and in two books - Steve Racer's "God Loves the Freaks" and Ethan Gilsdorf's "Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks."

For the fifteenth anniversary, Walton plans to feature a retrospective of the site's many changes over the years.

For more information, visit www.theescapist.com, and contact WJ Walton at rpgadvocate@gmail.com

Review of HeroQuest

I’ve already written at The Escapist about how much I like HeroQuest, but I’ve decided to write a more detailed review of the game itself as information for the Gentle Reader.

Robin Laws wrote HeroQuest, and it incorporates many of his ideas about roleplaying and includes numerous, helpful discussions of good game-mastering principles without interrupting the flow of the rule explanations. The book itself is only one hundred-thirty pages long, including an appendix introducing Glorantha as a roleplaying setting, tables and charts, and extensive index.

HeroQuest’s basic mechanic is the Challenge. Players roll a twenty-sided die and match it against a character’s trait rating, be it Sword, Government Connections, or Fly X-Wing. If the roll is equal to or less than the rating of the trait, success; if above, failure. The lower the number, the better. A roll of 1 is a critical, indicating particular success, and a roll of 20 is a fumble, leading to an especially bad outcome.

Whereas some situation might call for a simple die roll, players often make rolls as opposed challenges, where the Narrator or another players rolls against her own trait rating. Rolls during a simulated game of Tri-Dimensional Chess might result in one player having a Success of 12, the other a Success of 17. In this case, the first player’s character wins the game but barely. On the other hand, a Fumble versus a Critical would reflect a devastating victory for the second player, perhaps altering the characters’ social standings or reputations.

Beyond this, if a character increases a trait above a rating of 20, then it gains a master level. Foe example, a rating of 23 is noted as a 3W. The player tries to roll a 3 or less on the die, and each mastery level (W) of the trait raises the result level by one. Thus, a fumble is only a failure, a failure is actually a success, a success becomes a critical, and a roll of 1 reduces an opponent’s success by one. If two characters both have a mastery level, then they cancel out. Clearly, characters with the advantage of one or more mastery levels have a dominating advantage.

The basic rules also handle group contests and extended contests, when the storyline becomes most dramatic. Individuals or groups accumulate Resolution Points until someone has suffered five or more, when the contest ends. The Narrator determines results based on the Resolutions Points, reflecting the uncertainty and back-and-forth of a pivotal challenge, be it a martial arts battle in an exploding refinery or negotiations with alien ambassadors.

The beauty of HeroQuest is its flexibility. Traits can reflect anything. A Narrator could require players to draw from a certain set or from background material to reflect the chosen setting. Games can scale for any level of power. If everyone is playing a Norse deity, then it is fine to have their characters’ basic traits measured without mastery levels, saving higher mastery levels for Fenrir or Jörmungandr.

HeroQuest has a short chapter on relationships and followers. Relationships allow a character to gain advantages from connections like Friends in High Places, Son of King of Gondor, or Knows Good Fixers. Relationships work both ways, however, and can obligate a character to do something to aid their patron or friend. Followers act as extensions, some more autonomous than others, of the character itself. In some situations, they will operate with their traits, as if they were those of the character herself. In others, they will merely augment their master.

HeroQuest also has a system of hero points, which allow a player to influence the die rolls by gaining an one-time mastery level or something else judged appropriate by the Narrator. I allow my players to add important story elements with hero points. Without skewing the game, hero points give players a heroic edge and a greater sense of control in the game.

At the end of the book are sample genre packs like Bitter Winds Shaman and High Elves of Ammelon, plus several pages covering Glorantha using HeroQuest. These exemplify the system’s flexible nature. With HeroQuest, gamers can play the roles of anything, ranging from single heroes to nation states, from ecologies to ideas. I’ve used HeroQuest as the basis for science lessons and debates, as well as for more traditional tabletop play.

As I mentioned earlier, Robin Laws includes numerous insights into creating and running games. He discusses three methods for character creation in detail, all committed to defining character traits and identity. He also extensively applies his ideas about story beats to game play, providing examples from literature, like Beowulf, but also narrowing down to actual play situations. In this system, the traits of villains and other obstacles are based not on any absolute rating, like “town guards have an ability of Spear Fighting 15,” but instead are based on the results of the previous scene. This creates an undulating story of highs and lows, heavy challenges and relief scenes.

HeroQuest is a narrative game that pushes Narrators and players to verbalize their stories in ways they don’t have to in roleplaying games based in scores of die rolls and charts. This and its flexibility allow me to run all sorts of games with people from nine year olds through adults. It’s a natural system for our raconteur species.

Friday Afternoons

I'm running a Friday afterschool game this autumn for fifth through eighth graders at Paideia School, where I teach. I've been offering this activity for about ten years. I began it to give some of my fifth and sixth graders a place to socialize outside of classes but available to me for observation and guidance. Those kids are now out of college, but the games have remained popular. In the past, many kids have played through the whole year, year after year. In fact, this session I have three eighth grade boys that I've known as players since they were about eight years old. Most of my players, though, are fifth and sixth graders, about three-quarters male.

My current game is set in Glorantha, as they often are, and involves a small hero band that troubleshoots for the Lunar Emperor. They're off by moon boat to investigate two issues, raids on tax caravans and illegal religious activities. They created a range of characters, ranging from a holy servant of the imperial dog cult to a large centipede magician. Without leaving them the leeway of TOON, I wanted them to create characters that interested them. Interesting for me, as they created characters, many of them referenced parts of World of Warcraft, a game that fascinates them but about which I know very little. The generic fantasy elements were familiar enough, but I had to break them of some of their assumptions in order them to have coherent characters for my game. Their early fantasy experience in the online game had taught them that dwarves were this and shamans were that, and I pushed them to think more flexibly. They were willing, but it was not without effort. Ten and eleven year olds like to know the rules and to have things clearly labeled and categorized. At the same time, they are just reaching the age when abstract though and relative definitions begin to come more readily. It's been fascinating to watch them explore this in their preparations for the game and during the first scenes.

I have a larger group, fourteen kids, than has been the norm for the past few years. The age range requires some planning, but the eighth graders have been playing these games with me for a long time, and they are happy to craft some of their own story and operate more independently. They also seem to be enjoying watching their younger selves find their way in the activity, and they've asked me more than once if they used to play "like that."

The younger students are staying together and working together, though this requires frequent argumentation, something they enjoy. They love succeeding and are generally supportive of one another's efforts. There is quite a range in personalities, which keeps things interesting.

I'm sure I'll have more comments about this bunch in the future!

King Tut moves into my classroom.

This past Friday, October 1, we began a year-long LARP, known as Tut. Every other year, the theme in my classroom at Paideia School is Ancient Egypt. We tie in as many areas of the curriculum as we can, and the Tut LARP is one of the core elements that integrates and inspires much of our study.

I wrote this LARP years ago but continue to update it based on current research and from observations of students' interests during previous years' sessions. Kids come into my class knowing that a game is coming, and this year's bunch have been excited since August. As I mentioned in a previous post, I cast the characters, which is quite a commitment for the school year, so I always wait at least a few weeks in order better to know them and their relationships with one another. I had a good feeling about this bunch.

On the last Friday in September, we spent the afternoon introducing the game and handing out their character folders. Each character itself is about ten pages long, including basic information like titles, age, and personality; historical background; relationships with and opinions of all of the other characters; traits and card list; initial goals; events and tasks during the seasons and festivals of the Ancient Egyptian year; pertinent religious hymns; and their game cards. Each folder also has a copy of the basic game rules, overview of the year, royal family tree, government hierarchy, maps, and any other items that accompany an individual character.

In designing the game, I wanted to give each participant more than enough material to occupy them for a school year, roughly fifty hours of play. They soon generate plenty of their own goals and obstacles as well. The cards allow them to affect the game and one another or to block someone trying to do so. Cards are a limited resource, though there are ways, for example, being appointed as a high priest, for a character to gain new ones. Most importantly, the cards leave most of the game resolutions to them, while I can observe or sort out the most complicated or dramatic situations.

After about an hour, during which I set the stage for the game and expectations about play and then handed out the folders with some ceremonial bows, we crowned young King Tutankhaten and his queen Ankhsenpaaten and got down to some of the students' important questions. After that, they were off for the weekend, admonished to read at least some of the twenty and more pages in their packet.

I was not disappointed! The conspiracies and palace intrigue clearly multiplied through IM and Facebook over Saturday and Sunday, and the plots that were laid struggled not to burst out into the open over lunches and on the playground. Costumes and accessories began to appear in cubbies, and the eye makeup came out by the end of the week. This past Friday we began the first season of the Ancient Egyptian year, the Season of the Inundation, a time of many festivals since little work could be done on the flooded fields.

Most of the students spent the afternoon meeting their fellow nobles in the flesh; bargaining over if not actually trading cards representing gold, lapis lazuli, beer, and so forth; and getting a sense of the game's operation. A few, however, got down to business. Spies uncovered a few secrets, at least one murder investigation is underway, and plans emerged for the rebuilding of at least some of the temples of Egypt.

I could see the scenery come up in their eyes as they began. They bowed, intoned hymns and formal greetings, and generally began exploring their possibilities. The elder statesman Ay was consolidating his supporters, including his ambitious brother Anen. The queen veered between asking her young king for aid and bullying him in the directions she desired. The nomarchs began organizing the festivals that would carry them through the year to harvest season, when their lucrative lands will bear many valuable goods. More sinister discussions took place in corners and among the bookshelves of the class library.

It was wonderful. They left eager for more time to play and are no doubt plotting new dramas even now!

P.S. I listened to All Things Considered podcast today. Lots of great ideas!

Inspired by Robin Laws

I finished two books this week, and they have inspired several ideas for my games and for my classroom. The first book was Hamlet's Hit Points by Robin Laws, published by Gameplaywright, a slim volume that lays out his ideas for analyzing three classic stories - Hamlet, Dr. No, and Casablanca - and the insights this analysis can give us for our games. I found his examination fascinating and rich with possibilities. Robin uses a system of beats, derived from theater, to explore the emotional ups and downs of a story. I was familiar with his his work from playing Heroquest, but this extended analysis opened my eyes.

I certainly want to track the beats in my own games and my players' reactions, and look forward to my next session! More than this, though, I can see myself thinking in terms of beats when I run games with kids and then discussing it with them as another way for them to view a story. I also want to use this beat appraisal in my non-game classes, such as literature groups, to help students make deeper connections within what they are reading and studying. This may be old hat to many of you, but it's novel for me, and since I like to intermix games, storytelling, and writing, it looks like fertile ground.

Robin is also a gifted writer and humorous writer. He's been in gaming for a long time and can refer back to the days of the blue book version of D&D. I'm still chuckling over the peryton reference.

Also, this last week I received my copy of Nameless Streets, published by Cubicle 7. It's a guide for running games of Urban Noir Fantasy using the Heroquest System. I enjoyed Charles Green's interpretation of the general rule system for the purposes of evoking and interpreting his creation. He creates templates, structures, obstacles, MacGuffins, and rules modifications to encourage the genre. I was most fascinated by his seventh chapter, "The Anatomy of a Mystery," which breaks down the elements of a mystery-based game and how to plan and organize them for scenarios and extended games. Again, this may not be a new idea for some, but I found the explanations particularly accessible and applicable.

It's been a treat to have so much fun gamer-reading to digest. Has anyone else read these? What did you think? How might you use them?

Latest Projects

I am having fun with several projects this week.

Rob Grassi and I are working with his Levity roleplaying system, which is intended to be a basic system for educational role plays. He works in Italy, and I spent last week editing the English-language version of the rules for clarity. It is a wonderful game with lots of possibilities. There are several great ideas for gaming with groups of students, ranging from collectively running a single character to mixing separate stories back and forth. Rob has already written a scenario, "Pharsalus - Night Mission," in which the players perform a mission for Caesar. Rob's plan and mine is to develop a series of single-sheet educational scenarios. If you'd like to be part of this, let us know!

Secondly, this past week I wrote an educator's review of Adventures in Oz by F. Douglas Wall. If all goes well, the review should soon be up at the Escapist's Reading, Writing, and Roleplaying web site. The game also has a fine blog, interesting both for the game itself and for following the development of such a game. Kids have really enjoyed playing the game, and I look forward to incorporating it as an activity to help students develop writing ideas.

Finally, the big game in my own life this coming week is Tut, a historical LARP I run with my class every time that we study ancient Egypt. It runs all year on Friday afternoons, and my students portray the thirty most powerful people in and around the court of Tutankamun, the Boy King. It's a costume soap opera with lots of plotting and drama, and it pulls them into all of the other activities we do. School has been in session for several weeks now, and we spent much of the last week camping as a class in the Carolina mountains. I know them well enough as individuals and as a group to cast them in their parts, and that was my task during the trip. While they hiked, climbed, and rode the zip lines, I sorted them by interests, abilities, and personalities into various roles as priests, nobles, generals, and bureaucrats. I run a game like this every school year, so kids arrive in my class knowing that it's coming, and they are excited. Many are counting down the hours until they get their character packets, each loaded with details, goals, and secrets.

We start up the game this coming Friday, so I'm sure I'll have more to write after that!

Have fun!

Dragon Con 2010 Report – September 3-6, 2010

Dragon Con was a real pleasure this year, for I was able to roleplay almost continuously the entire weekend. As a result, my time in other parts of this vast and diverse sci-fi and fantasy pop culture convention, held every Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia, my home town, is somewhat more limited, but I have heard from numerous friend and my own daughter, so here is what we saw and experienced.

This year, Dragon Con took place across five conference hotels, covering much of a dozen or more city blocks and featuring a magnificent parade of costume wonder down the city’s main street. Gaming occupies much of the Hilton hotel. In the basement exhibition area were hundreds of tables divided into sections for board games, card games, and miniatures, and six full-sized, battle-scarred pods for Mechwarrior video game battles. Role-playing took place on the third floor, a quiet area of the con, where we could play without any distractions except one another’s games. Mark Lieberman and John Richardson once again did an admirable job keeping things running smoothly and getting us all into play.

I offered six three-to-four hour games over three days, all set in Greg Stafford’s venerable Glorantha using the Heroquest 2 rule system. I advertised them all as introductory, both to the rules (easy) and the world (admittedly challenging). Other than my first two slots on Saturday, every game had players, usually a full contingent. In fact, for my last game on Monday afternoon, I had nine players in a six-player scenario, though it was simple to add a few more heroes, and they roleplayed among themselves as much as they did through me.

I had the pleasure of hosting Ted Skirvin in one of my games. His curious Jrusteli scholar remains memorable. We hadn’t seen each another in years, so it was great to connect again, chat, and hear about his games and activities. I also promised to write an article for the CAR-PGa Newsletter. Here it is, Ted! Let’s play again soon.

I had a chance to be a player in another GM’s Glorantha game, though in a very different setting and using Mongoose Games Second Edition Runequest rules. I also enjoyed the time before each session was organized, during which GMs and players discussed games, tournaments, and the fun of gaming at a con. The Dresden Files RPG was enjoying great popularity among both GMs and players. There was almost no Dungeons and Dragons, and half of the game that ran were not fantasy settings. On the other hand, Shadowrun had its own room! Spirits remained high, and I was honored to be working alongside the many talented GMs that hosted games throughout the weekend.

Gaming twenty-eight hours out of sixty or so, I only made it out into the rest of the convention for a few hours. Between this and my many friends wandering the con and reporting back, however, I have some sense of Dragon Con 2010. Costuming, for which Dragon Con is famous, seemed slightly less common and somewhat subdued compared to previous years, though Harry Potter and steampunk were as popular as ever. I had my most diverse games ever in terms of gender, race, and public sexual orientation, and the convention overall reflected this.

Atlas Games, “home of the original exact change dance,” had a substantial presence in one of the dealer halls and seemed to be moving plenty of gaming merchandise in all forms. Chessex had a large booth and was crowded with eager patrons whenever I passed it. A few other, smaller booths sold games, sometimes in addition to comics or bric-a-brac. Gaming was definitely dwarfed by t-shirts, fantasy or Asian clothing, and leather goods, but it was present in good strength if not variety.

I didn’t make it to any of the arts show (which I love), auctions, celebrity gathering, concerts, contests, film festivals, fan tracks (ranging from “Star Trek” and “Whedon Universe” to “Writer’s Track” and “Paranormal Activity”), Walk of Fame, or Guinness record attempts, but a friend that helps count heads said numbers were good. There was certainly plenty of hustle and bustle in the main areas of the con at all hours of the day and night.

I am looking forward to Dragon Con 2011, which will be the con’s twenty-fifth gathering. Come on down south next Labor Day weekend!

Dragon*Con is around the corner!

The summer is ending, school has started, and Dragon*Con is coming up quickly, so this is a good time to get this blog rolling. I haven't been able to attend much in the way of game conventions the last few summers, but I'm getting back into the swing. I'll be running several beginner Glorantha scenarios at Dragon*Con next weekend. The last couple of years, they haven't taken any of my offers to run educational workshops, but the light, flexible nature of Heroquest 2 allows me to run many kinds of games, and the context of introductory game convention tournaments lets me experiment with what works with newcomers, who are useful guinea pigs for my work in the classroom.

If you're at the con, feel free to look for me in the RPG section of the Hilton. I'd love to talk games, education, and any number of projects!

I hope to make it to at least big game convention, Origins or Gen Con, outside of Georgia next summer, but let's get the conversation going.

Have fun!

David