If you've never heard of Don't Rest Your Head and wonder what kind of stories it plays, then watch this. This little clip is almost straight from its pages.
Just another reason why it's so brilliant a game.
Showing posts with label Don't Rest Your Head. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Don't Rest Your Head. Show all posts
Monday, 8 October 2012
Friday, 27 April 2012
Read This Book
Long time readers of this blog will know how much I adore Don't Rest Your Head. Running that game taught me to be a better GM. Running that game allowed me to explore a genre I don't watch or read. Running that game inspired me to write my own game. Imagine my delight when Don't Read This Book was announced. Imagine my extra delight this week to see that the pre-orders were open!
And then imagine my dismay when the $15 book became a $52 with postage fees to Perth.
After a brief twitter exchange with @fredhicks I slumped my shoulders and resigned myself to wait for the e-book editions to be made available. I didn't have to wait long.
And because I like books as artefacts, I'm going to get it in print too as soon as the postage drops. High praise to Fred for accelerating the availability of the e-books.
And then imagine my dismay when the $15 book became a $52 with postage fees to Perth.
After a brief twitter exchange with @fredhicks I slumped my shoulders and resigned myself to wait for the e-book editions to be made available. I didn't have to wait long.
@fredhicks: Given crazy high international shipping, I don't want to make folks abroad wait, so: Don't Read This Book, all digital: http://ow.ly/avBGqYes yes and yes! Now I have it through DriveThruRPG and am losing sleep reading it. Oh the irony!
And because I like books as artefacts, I'm going to get it in print too as soon as the postage drops. High praise to Fred for accelerating the availability of the e-books.
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Don't Rest Your GM Head
I'm working out which games to personally run at Auscon next month and am considering my beloved Don't Rest Your Head. While listening to Narrative Control episode 61, I realised that when I GM that game, I have an unarticulated goal to drive one of the characters to lose all Discipline.
To do that, I need to force them to use Madness as often as possible and this goes against some advice I'd used from Fred Hicks about running DRYH at a convention. He suggested that characters should start with a couple of points of Exhaustion. I've done this a few times but what I find is that it's then harder to convince players to bring the Madness, without a succession of high Pain challenges. It does, however, bring them to Crash much sooner and that takes the game in a different direction.
So, dear reader, I want some more advice from you about how you run DRYH. What's your GM tip for the game, especially for convention play?
To do that, I need to force them to use Madness as often as possible and this goes against some advice I'd used from Fred Hicks about running DRYH at a convention. He suggested that characters should start with a couple of points of Exhaustion. I've done this a few times but what I find is that it's then harder to convince players to bring the Madness, without a succession of high Pain challenges. It does, however, bring them to Crash much sooner and that takes the game in a different direction.
So, dear reader, I want some more advice from you about how you run DRYH. What's your GM tip for the game, especially for convention play?
Thursday, 4 November 2010
What I said on ZedGames
As it turns out, 4ZzZ was having troubles with their podcast and live streaming but didn't discover this until the show was almost over. This is some of what I said.
Print-on-demand makes it easier to publish in smaller volumes, even though the production cost is higher per unit. This facilitates more innovation and more product choice.
Printed self-publishing isn't new, but POD allows people to print small volumes in sizes other than Letter and A4. Games discussed here included Don't Rest Your Head and Braunstein.
Publishing through PDF is a zero-cost production method, once development costs are recovered. I wish I'd mentioned the Free RPG Blog here.
Pricing for PDFs is wide and varied, from the expensive to the free. Games discussed: Houses of the Blooded, Dresden Files.
Bundles of book-plus-PDF are a great marketing exercise. Games discussed: A Penny For My Thoughts, and a plug for the Bits & Mortar Alliance.
PDF technology offers more than just a non-printed document. Linked text throughout the document is just one example. Games discussed: Happy Birthday Robot
Digital publishing is not limited to PDF. D&D Insider is an example of a specific application for the digital distribution of game rules and character creation. WOTC's move away from PDF to DDI is a way to guide people to WOTC content, without actually blocking third-party materials from being used in D&D. Games discussed: D&D.
The future of digital publishing is anyone's guess, but the untapped area is probably the realm of the app, especially the app that integrates rules, character generation, note taking and dice rolling. I couldn't remember the name of the iPad app at the time, but it's Dicebook.
Despite the availability of digital publishing, digital dice-rollers and apps for your smart-device-of-choice (including my confession as an Apple Hipster), the gameplay experience at the table isn't significantly altered. Minor changes are seen in the books we carry to the table, and perhaps the realisation that some players might be on twitter rather than checking a rule or engaging with the game. It's vital that in any RPG, the point is to engage in the social activity of story-making with the others at the table. Games discussed: None, but a big shoutout to Vincent Baker and his model of dice & clouds.
There you have it. We covered a lot, and thankfully it was more than print-vs-PDF.
Print-on-demand makes it easier to publish in smaller volumes, even though the production cost is higher per unit. This facilitates more innovation and more product choice.
Printed self-publishing isn't new, but POD allows people to print small volumes in sizes other than Letter and A4. Games discussed here included Don't Rest Your Head and Braunstein.
Publishing through PDF is a zero-cost production method, once development costs are recovered. I wish I'd mentioned the Free RPG Blog here.
Pricing for PDFs is wide and varied, from the expensive to the free. Games discussed: Houses of the Blooded, Dresden Files.
Bundles of book-plus-PDF are a great marketing exercise. Games discussed: A Penny For My Thoughts, and a plug for the Bits & Mortar Alliance.
PDF technology offers more than just a non-printed document. Linked text throughout the document is just one example. Games discussed: Happy Birthday Robot
Digital publishing is not limited to PDF. D&D Insider is an example of a specific application for the digital distribution of game rules and character creation. WOTC's move away from PDF to DDI is a way to guide people to WOTC content, without actually blocking third-party materials from being used in D&D. Games discussed: D&D.
The future of digital publishing is anyone's guess, but the untapped area is probably the realm of the app, especially the app that integrates rules, character generation, note taking and dice rolling. I couldn't remember the name of the iPad app at the time, but it's Dicebook.
Despite the availability of digital publishing, digital dice-rollers and apps for your smart-device-of-choice (including my confession as an Apple Hipster), the gameplay experience at the table isn't significantly altered. Minor changes are seen in the books we carry to the table, and perhaps the realisation that some players might be on twitter rather than checking a rule or engaging with the game. It's vital that in any RPG, the point is to engage in the social activity of story-making with the others at the table. Games discussed: None, but a big shoutout to Vincent Baker and his model of dice & clouds.
There you have it. We covered a lot, and thankfully it was more than print-vs-PDF.
Saturday, 2 October 2010
Sagefight as Madness Talent
This is my tongue-in-cheek mashup of Don't Rest Your Head and Sagefight. Enjoy, or even critique.
It began as a fun pasttime with friends. "Hai! Hai! Hai!" Each beat an opportunity to vanquish your opponent. Each pause the intersection of instinct and intent. And then, the strike! Touch their palm and they simply walk away.
But you played the game every day in your mind. As you walked down the street you could hear the beats of the movement all around you. The train. The joggers. The stock market. And now, even the universe itself has opened up its beat to you. That constant driving rhythm, like a drum in your mind, synchronising everything that exists like some great clockwork machine.
What can I do?
(1-2 dice) Synchronise yourself into the rhythm of machines and computers around you, able to see their patterns and predict their movement. Your chaos is one step ahead of their order. Not only do you know the machine, but you know the right place to tap and make the machine simply spin down to a quiet halt.
(3-4 dice) The ebb and flow of biological systems, as complex as they are, is as machine to you. From heartbeats to cell division, the interplay of these finely-tuned systems spins and loops according to fundamental chemical interactions, and you can dance to that beat. A double-step here and there and you can switch that bio-machine around. Stop a man's heartbeat or accelerate his cell division. Interrupt cancerous growths in their onslaught. Predict the flow of electrons throughout the neurons in her brain, and stay one step ahead.
(5-6 dice) Everything is part of the cosmic machine now. God wound up the spring and let all those untold trillions of wheels turn, and you can see them turning together. With the right tap you can bump the moon off its orbit, see the change in the stock market before it happens, or reach into a man's soul and tap so that he simply walks away from life itself. And no matter how far away you are when you do it, it's enough to disturb Officer Tock from his duties.
How does it break me?
Fight - Tap, tap, tap everything. Too many things are happening around you and the sounds of all those systems is like a thousand drummers playing a thousand different beats. You've got to make them stop, and you slide into a well-practised kata that makes anything near you stop and run.
Flight - A little error of judgment and the world has tapped you as adroitly as you normally tap it. The frenzy and flurry come to an abrupt stop, and quite calmly - perhaps mindlessly - you turn and walk away, far away.
How do I change?
Your sense of the spontaneous is slowly eroded by the relentless ticking. Everything is now a matter of watching for the pattern and then reaching into it to make it simply give up. The constant synchronisation of your body with the world around you has made your movements less and less fluid. Your movement becomes caught in the rhythm of Sagefight.
What am I becoming?
You erode the things around you by their capitulation, depriving them of their resolve and persistence. With no one around you to rage against the dying of the light, your own will to persevere collapses as well and as it falters, you can no longer tolerate determination or purpose in anything else. The feedback loop drains you of your self-discipline, and it is replaced by the instinctive drive to expose the fragility and futility of striving. You have become Damn Soulless.
It began as a fun pasttime with friends. "Hai! Hai! Hai!" Each beat an opportunity to vanquish your opponent. Each pause the intersection of instinct and intent. And then, the strike! Touch their palm and they simply walk away.
But you played the game every day in your mind. As you walked down the street you could hear the beats of the movement all around you. The train. The joggers. The stock market. And now, even the universe itself has opened up its beat to you. That constant driving rhythm, like a drum in your mind, synchronising everything that exists like some great clockwork machine.
What can I do?
(1-2 dice) Synchronise yourself into the rhythm of machines and computers around you, able to see their patterns and predict their movement. Your chaos is one step ahead of their order. Not only do you know the machine, but you know the right place to tap and make the machine simply spin down to a quiet halt.
(3-4 dice) The ebb and flow of biological systems, as complex as they are, is as machine to you. From heartbeats to cell division, the interplay of these finely-tuned systems spins and loops according to fundamental chemical interactions, and you can dance to that beat. A double-step here and there and you can switch that bio-machine around. Stop a man's heartbeat or accelerate his cell division. Interrupt cancerous growths in their onslaught. Predict the flow of electrons throughout the neurons in her brain, and stay one step ahead.
(5-6 dice) Everything is part of the cosmic machine now. God wound up the spring and let all those untold trillions of wheels turn, and you can see them turning together. With the right tap you can bump the moon off its orbit, see the change in the stock market before it happens, or reach into a man's soul and tap so that he simply walks away from life itself. And no matter how far away you are when you do it, it's enough to disturb Officer Tock from his duties.
How does it break me?
Fight - Tap, tap, tap everything. Too many things are happening around you and the sounds of all those systems is like a thousand drummers playing a thousand different beats. You've got to make them stop, and you slide into a well-practised kata that makes anything near you stop and run.
Flight - A little error of judgment and the world has tapped you as adroitly as you normally tap it. The frenzy and flurry come to an abrupt stop, and quite calmly - perhaps mindlessly - you turn and walk away, far away.
How do I change?
Your sense of the spontaneous is slowly eroded by the relentless ticking. Everything is now a matter of watching for the pattern and then reaching into it to make it simply give up. The constant synchronisation of your body with the world around you has made your movements less and less fluid. Your movement becomes caught in the rhythm of Sagefight.
What am I becoming?
You erode the things around you by their capitulation, depriving them of their resolve and persistence. With no one around you to rage against the dying of the light, your own will to persevere collapses as well and as it falters, you can no longer tolerate determination or purpose in anything else. The feedback loop drains you of your self-discipline, and it is replaced by the instinctive drive to expose the fragility and futility of striving. You have become Damn Soulless.
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Uprising
It really was the best three days of gaming in 2010. I know that sounds like a big call, but it's true. If I consider the quality of the gaming, the social aspects of the three days, and the depth of content from seminars and workshops, it tops the charts across the board. And if I throw in the amount of fun we all had? The charts just won't be good enough to handle the score.
I ran games of Siege and Don't Rest Your Head, and even managed to play in a game of Smallville, run by Steve D. With Nathan Russell, I finished the first Stockade project and launched new games into the wild. With the assembled game designer crowd, we started four more game design projects in the Game Design Roundtable. And I was even witness to the first ever Iron Chef Board Game Challenge, in which four board games were designed from nothing in just two hours - with the privilege of being one of the judges alongside guys from Monty Haul.
And best of all, I met new gamers and we made stories together.
Yep. It really was the best three days of gaming in 2010.
I ran games of Siege and Don't Rest Your Head, and even managed to play in a game of Smallville, run by Steve D. With Nathan Russell, I finished the first Stockade project and launched new games into the wild. With the assembled game designer crowd, we started four more game design projects in the Game Design Roundtable. And I was even witness to the first ever Iron Chef Board Game Challenge, in which four board games were designed from nothing in just two hours - with the privilege of being one of the judges alongside guys from Monty Haul.
And best of all, I met new gamers and we made stories together.
Yep. It really was the best three days of gaming in 2010.
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
Confessions of an Evil Hat Fanboy
On the weekend I bought a copy of Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies. It had been sitting on the shelf of my FLGS for a month, ever since they got in an order of some other indie games - including my copy of A Penny for My Thoughts. So I put it on my gaming shelf, in the indie section, and then paused at what was blatantly obvious from the spines.
I'm an Evil Hat Fanboy.
I don't know if someone has come up with a nickname for it (I shudder at the thought. Fan-group nicknames make me cringe: I'm looking at you, Duranees!) but it's increasingly true, with one very important and perhaps stunning exception.
I don't have the Dresden Files RPG, and I probably won't buy it.
It's not that the game is bad. It's a FATE game, and I really enjoy Spirit of the Century. In fact, Spirit is my most-requested game for Games On Demand. Based entirely on that, I expect Dresden to be a great game, with good design, good play, and good writing.
It's not that the game is expensive, especially with shipping to Australia. Like many gamers, I've bought game books that I've not used very much. The replacement dollar value of my library is embarrassing. Dresden would look great on the shelf and great inside, from what I hear about it in reviews.
It's just that I've never read any Dresden Files books. I bought a comic mini-series once and thought it was OK, but it didn't grab me enough to buy the novels and then the game. So I confess my sin against Evil Hat!
I, Andrew Smith, Evil Hat Fanboy, do not have the Dresden Files RPG and have no plans to buy it. Give me Penny, give me Swashbucklers, give me Spirit, and best of all give me Don't Rest Your Head, and I will play them as penance. May it rescue my gamer soul from purgatory.
I'm an Evil Hat Fanboy.
I don't know if someone has come up with a nickname for it (I shudder at the thought. Fan-group nicknames make me cringe: I'm looking at you, Duranees!) but it's increasingly true, with one very important and perhaps stunning exception.
I don't have the Dresden Files RPG, and I probably won't buy it.
It's not that the game is bad. It's a FATE game, and I really enjoy Spirit of the Century. In fact, Spirit is my most-requested game for Games On Demand. Based entirely on that, I expect Dresden to be a great game, with good design, good play, and good writing.
It's not that the game is expensive, especially with shipping to Australia. Like many gamers, I've bought game books that I've not used very much. The replacement dollar value of my library is embarrassing. Dresden would look great on the shelf and great inside, from what I hear about it in reviews.
It's just that I've never read any Dresden Files books. I bought a comic mini-series once and thought it was OK, but it didn't grab me enough to buy the novels and then the game. So I confess my sin against Evil Hat!
I, Andrew Smith, Evil Hat Fanboy, do not have the Dresden Files RPG and have no plans to buy it. Give me Penny, give me Swashbucklers, give me Spirit, and best of all give me Don't Rest Your Head, and I will play them as penance. May it rescue my gamer soul from purgatory.
Monday, 26 July 2010
Kuang Hong Illustrations
My go-to game is Don't Rest Your Head. I'll run it anytime. It's satisfying to me in every way. So when I saw these illustrations from Kuang Hong, my heart skipped a mad beat. It's part of a toy series that he's working on. Can't wait to see what's next.
A dream about jealousy by *noah-kh on deviantART
His own caption is, "I'm a little toy in a big world,i love my mistress so much,and i just can't bear other toys share the love with me.One day i have a sweet dream,OMG, my dearest mistress killed all the other toys in the room,haha'."
Hell yes.
The call by *noah-kh on deviantART
The dinner by *noah-kh on deviantART
Don't. Rest. Your. Head.
A dream about jealousy by *noah-kh on deviantART
His own caption is, "I'm a little toy in a big world,i love my mistress so much,and i just can't bear other toys share the love with me.One day i have a sweet dream,OMG, my dearest mistress killed all the other toys in the room,haha'."
Hell yes.
The call by *noah-kh on deviantART
The dinner by *noah-kh on deviantART
Don't. Rest. Your. Head.
Monday, 27 April 2009
All quiet on the eastern front
Go Play Brisbane was held over the weekend. You can see the remnants of it at the site. Overall I'm pleased with how it worked out.
As a GM, I stretched myself in two areas. First, I ran Space Rat for the first time. This is a simple and clever system (as I've written about before) and was fun to run. Everyone laughed - a lot. In fact, it didn't take much to keep the laughs flowing for 3 solid hours of gaming. In fact, I laughed more at this game of Space Rat than I've ever laughed at a sitcom. It's official: you get more laughs-per-dollar with Space Rat than with sitcoms.
The second stretch area was the Don't Rest Your Head game. I don't watch horror movies or read horror novels, as a general rule, so I'm not completely familiar with the tropes of horror. Typically, I run DRYH as an exhaustion game with very little horror content. This time I changed my tactic and brought the horror to the foreground. When things were getting a little light-hearted, dismemberment entered the conversation. When the players began to forget the sorrow and drive of their characters (beneath the surface... keeping you awake...) I put their related NPCs (the missing child or wife) in a torturous situation. It was my attempt at visceral horror, and I think it worked. The players stopped smiling and reconnected with their characters. Don't get me wrong; I wanted them to enjoy the game, but it's a horror game and from time to time I pushed the horror up to eleven.
And then, after the high of running games, I rediscovered the post-game crash. Those adrenaline cycles can be a real bummer.
As a GM, I stretched myself in two areas. First, I ran Space Rat for the first time. This is a simple and clever system (as I've written about before) and was fun to run. Everyone laughed - a lot. In fact, it didn't take much to keep the laughs flowing for 3 solid hours of gaming. In fact, I laughed more at this game of Space Rat than I've ever laughed at a sitcom. It's official: you get more laughs-per-dollar with Space Rat than with sitcoms.
The second stretch area was the Don't Rest Your Head game. I don't watch horror movies or read horror novels, as a general rule, so I'm not completely familiar with the tropes of horror. Typically, I run DRYH as an exhaustion game with very little horror content. This time I changed my tactic and brought the horror to the foreground. When things were getting a little light-hearted, dismemberment entered the conversation. When the players began to forget the sorrow and drive of their characters (beneath the surface... keeping you awake...) I put their related NPCs (the missing child or wife) in a torturous situation. It was my attempt at visceral horror, and I think it worked. The players stopped smiling and reconnected with their characters. Don't get me wrong; I wanted them to enjoy the game, but it's a horror game and from time to time I pushed the horror up to eleven.
And then, after the high of running games, I rediscovered the post-game crash. Those adrenaline cycles can be a real bummer.
Sunday, 22 February 2009
10 Most-played Analog Games
I've seen this in a gaming blog or two, and have succumbed to the peer pressure.
1. Rifts
I played this game for years, from late in high school through to my mid-20's. It was the inevitable follow-on from Robotech. With more toys in each and every supplement, it's little surprise that this appealed to the style of play I had at the time. I was a munchkin in a munchkin game.
2. Car Wars
A friend introduced this one to me in 1989 and I still have the rulebooks he eventually sold to me. This was a great little strategy game, with crunchy design and - on a good day - a mountain of dice to roll. Somehow it managed to capture the whole process from designing and building a car, through to the huge explosion that destroyed it.
3. Robotech
It was the precursor to #1, Rifts. We played it a lot through high school.
4. Marvel Super Heroes
I can't remember how it happened, but we managed to get our hands on this little gem. I've not seen it since, but I think it gets the awe it deserves.
5. Advanced D&D
My first RPG system. My magic-user died horribly in the first game I ever played, and even though I was distraught, I was also hooked. Since then I've spent countless hours at gaming shops and at home, just leafing through game books. And no, I haven't yet tried D&D 4e.
6. Dungeon
This was a board game by TSR, although I think we had the Jedko print of it. Nevertheless, it was a great little game that we played for hours, over and over again. It was also the game of gloating and being a sore winner or loser. Sigh! Happily, we now have Munchkin to make fun of the whole experience.
7. Poleconomy
More fun that Monopoly, this was another way for my older brother to trounce me. Still, eventually I figured it out and made it tough for him. We had the John Sands red box (to steal that phrase), complete with little kangaroos. It's interesting to see how much the world has changed since this game was printed. Most of the companies on the board don't exist any more.
8. Spirit of the Century
It's slowly catching up with the others, and although it's a contemporary favourite, it hasn't had the hours it deserves.
9. Don't Rest Your Head
Ditto.
10. Pictionary
I hate this game, but it's a favourite in certain family circles.
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Don't Feel Your Fear - redux
I'm disappointed with my earlier effort at a Star Wars setting hack for Don't Rest Your Head, and this is my revision.
To start with, I want to use the DRYH system to represent the temptation for a Jedi to turn to the dark side of the force. Vader and Sidious often said that it was more powerful, and Yoda said that it's the easy path. Sounds like a temptation to me, and one which has a balance that creates tension for the story and the characters.
In the DRYH system, the function of Exhaustion and Madness is to tempt the players. More dice gives more power. Too many dice makes the character fall. The function of Discipline is to rein in the effects of Exhaustion and Madness and the function of Pain is to provide opposition to the character's actions. To convert this to a Jedi story, we need to understand what tempts a Jedi. We get our clues from The Jedi Code and from some advice that Yoda gave to Anakin.
The Jedi Code
There is no emotion; there is peace.
There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no passion; there is serenity.
There is no chaos; there is harmony.
There is no death; there is the force.
Yoda's Advice
"Careful you must be when sensing the future, Anakin. The fear of loss is the path to the Dark Side."
From these, I would nominate that the two temptations for the Jedi are Darkness and Passion. They fit into DRYH like this.
Change Exhaustion to Darkness and change a Crash to a Taint.
Remember that, "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering." Max out on Fear and you get a taint of the Dark Side (a point of permanent Madness)
Change Madness to Passion and leave a Snap just the way it is.
Anakin's slaughter of the Raiders as vengeance for the torture of his mother is a great example here. An option with which I'm toying is to eliminate the Flight response altogether, and require only Fight responses.
Don't change Pain.
Pain is still pain.
The last thing to do is work backwards to character creation. Standard DRYH questions can be inappropriate to creating the kind of Jedi Temptation stories I have in mind. They develop as follows:
Character Questions
"What's been keeping you awake?" becomes "What did you give up to become a Jedi?"
"What just happened to you?" remains the same.
"What's on the surface?" should be "How do you fit into the Jedi Order?"
"What's beneath the surface?" remains the same.
"What's your path?" relates to progression in the Jedi order or knowledge of the Force, the only two destinations for a Jedi.
There you have it. I hope to run this setting hack sometime this year, either at Go Play Brisbane, or at Gencon Oz. Your comments are welcome, especially if you think I've misread something about DRYH or the Jedi.
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
2009 Wish List
It's a new year, hooray! I immersed myself in the arbitrariness of dates and years, only for as long as it took to reflect on my 2008 gaming life and generate a wish list for 2009. I couldn't really call these resolutions because I'm more opportunistic than planned with my gaming.
1. Run games for others, without necessarily organising them.
It'd be great to just say, "Hey, I want to run a game of X if you can organise the players, the time and the place" and have it happen. I think there's a prevailing perception that it's the GMs responsibility to organise everything, but it doesn't have to be that way. To that end, if you live in Brisbane and want someone else (that is, me) to run any of the following games for your group as a one-shot, let me know.
Don't Rest Your Head
Agon
Spirit of the Century
Space Rat
2. Organise another Go Play Brisbane - or two!
I had loads of fun with this and want to do it again, with more people. 'nuff said.
3. Run indie games at Gencon Oz
I had even more fun with this than with GPB. This is high on the list, and is scheduled around the time that my thesis is due. Go read Divine Trauma to follow that particular adventure. A lesser wish, tho far from a substitute, is to get to more local cons. If all goes well, I might even try to get to a Sydney, Melbourne or Newcastle con (to repay the huge favour).
4. Burning Wheel Campaign
All my gaming is convention style. It's one-shots all the way. If I was going to get into a campaign, I'd really enjoy Burning Wheel. Not sure if I'm keen to run it, preferring to play in it. Of course, I'm not sure how I'd go with timeslots (refer to previous comment about a thesis).
5. Try at least 2 new games
And by "new" I'd like to think that I'd find some gold from 2009. A worthy substitute would include good ones from years past, such as Primetime Adventures.
So that's my wishlist for 2009. Note that there's no mention of Nobles in there. As I've said before, I don't think I want to publish it; I just want to design it so that my own game skills get better. It's my DIY peek under the hood of game systems. Anyway, I hope to see you along the way as the genie grants me my wishes.
1. Run games for others, without necessarily organising them.
It'd be great to just say, "Hey, I want to run a game of X if you can organise the players, the time and the place" and have it happen. I think there's a prevailing perception that it's the GMs responsibility to organise everything, but it doesn't have to be that way. To that end, if you live in Brisbane and want someone else (that is, me) to run any of the following games for your group as a one-shot, let me know.
Don't Rest Your Head
Agon
Spirit of the Century
Space Rat
2. Organise another Go Play Brisbane - or two!
I had loads of fun with this and want to do it again, with more people. 'nuff said.
3. Run indie games at Gencon Oz
I had even more fun with this than with GPB. This is high on the list, and is scheduled around the time that my thesis is due. Go read Divine Trauma to follow that particular adventure. A lesser wish, tho far from a substitute, is to get to more local cons. If all goes well, I might even try to get to a Sydney, Melbourne or Newcastle con (to repay the huge favour).
4. Burning Wheel Campaign
All my gaming is convention style. It's one-shots all the way. If I was going to get into a campaign, I'd really enjoy Burning Wheel. Not sure if I'm keen to run it, preferring to play in it. Of course, I'm not sure how I'd go with timeslots (refer to previous comment about a thesis).
5. Try at least 2 new games
And by "new" I'd like to think that I'd find some gold from 2009. A worthy substitute would include good ones from years past, such as Primetime Adventures.
So that's my wishlist for 2009. Note that there's no mention of Nobles in there. As I've said before, I don't think I want to publish it; I just want to design it so that my own game skills get better. It's my DIY peek under the hood of game systems. Anyway, I hope to see you along the way as the genie grants me my wishes.
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
First Blood - DRYH
So my first game of 2009 was Don't Rest Your Head. That should be of no surprise to regular readers, or anyone who speaks with me about gaming. For one reason or another, it was a game with only one player and I, and I was pleasantly surprised just how well it survived the intense focus.
I was also pleasantly surprised by certain in-law reactions to where I'd been all afternoon. Kudos to them.
I was also pleasantly surprised by certain in-law reactions to where I'd been all afternoon. Kudos to them.
Sunday, 16 November 2008
Hankering for Exhaustion
It's been too long since I played anything, and I'm hankering for a game of DRYH. I've said it before, but I still think that DRYH is the key challenge for this year. If I can get that right, I'll be a better GM at everything else.
Sunday, 2 November 2008
Don't Feel Your Anger
This is another DRYH setting hack. It's the application of DRYH to Star Wars, but very specifically to the story you'd tell about the temptation to go to the dark side of the Force.
Exhaustion becomes... The Force
I chose this one because using the force is exhausting! It requires concentration and focus, and the more you use, the more powerful you are. But use too much and you'll collapse from the effort.
Madness becomes... Anger
This is the danger cycle for the nascent Jedi. To really unleash the power, it takes more than Discipline, it takes passion. Anakin was most powerful when he unleashed his anger, and the Emperor encouraged it.
Now, to add to this, the Fight and Flight responses need to change their flavour. The Fight response can remain the same, resulting in an unbridled massacre of men, women and children (for example). The Sandpeople don't stand a chance. Flight, however, is going to be characterised by terror. The darkness of the dark side is like staring into the abyss. It can be overwhelming to a Jedi not used to it, and will probably terrorise them.
Similarly to Don't Lose Your Head, you could choose to limit the number of Force boxes for a padawan and let them increase as the character gains more competence with the Force. It makes for interesting character progression, and also reflects the stronger temptation of the young Jedi to use their Anger to get more dice!
Monday, 27 October 2008
Don't Lose Your Head
Some various ideas occurred to me recently about setting hacks for Don't Rest Your Head. It might be more accurate to say that some of these are just different contexts for the DRYH rules, but that's just semantics. The interesting part is play.
Don't Lose Your Head
Yes, this is the Highlander setting. Although the setting is quite old (at least 22 years old, by my reckoning) it is still quite evocative and has potential for some great roleplaying.
Exhaustion becomes... Bloodthirst
For those who remember the first movie (we don't talk about the other thing that was allegedly a sequel) there is a remark made about the Kurgen that “all the killing has driven him mad.” This is a real phenomenon for soldiers, or anyone else who has to wield a firearm for money, and I think that there is plenty of scope for this to be part of the struggle for the Immortal. This is a human variant that is driven to kill in order to become all that it can be. The urge to seek each other out and battle to the last is instinct, and I think that this would be an interesting characteristic to keep in check throughout the story.
Madness becomes... Quickening
This stuff can do anything, and takes the place of a good plot wildcard. Does the Immortal need to run like the stag? Can do. Perform some crazy acrobatics while dodging a sword cut? Can do. Meditate to find another Immortal? Can do. Use it too much and the Immortal will gain permanent Quickening, meaning that a little of their humanity (Discipline) is lost and they are one more step removed from mortality. Lose enough discipline and the Immortal is a dangerous NPC with no humanity left, but with plenty of Quickening.
The only system hack that I would suggest is the starting number of Quickening boxes and the acquisition of more. Start the new Immortal with only two or three boxes, representing the limited control that they have over it. There are two ways in which this could increase: mentorship and taking the head of another Immortal. A mentor can increase it by only one box, no matter how long is spent under instruction. Taking the head of another Immortal, however, would add another box of temporary madness that the Immortal can use. As an example, Willam Mcleod starts out with two boxes when he meets his cousin/uncle Connor. After some training, William goes up to three temporary boxes that he can bring to any conflict. After taking the heads of two other Immortals, this goes up to five. So, for each conflict, he can bring up to five temporary dice of Quickening.
Don't Lose Your Head
Yes, this is the Highlander setting. Although the setting is quite old (at least 22 years old, by my reckoning) it is still quite evocative and has potential for some great roleplaying.
Exhaustion becomes... Bloodthirst
For those who remember the first movie (we don't talk about the other thing that was allegedly a sequel) there is a remark made about the Kurgen that “all the killing has driven him mad.” This is a real phenomenon for soldiers, or anyone else who has to wield a firearm for money, and I think that there is plenty of scope for this to be part of the struggle for the Immortal. This is a human variant that is driven to kill in order to become all that it can be. The urge to seek each other out and battle to the last is instinct, and I think that this would be an interesting characteristic to keep in check throughout the story.
Madness becomes... Quickening
This stuff can do anything, and takes the place of a good plot wildcard. Does the Immortal need to run like the stag? Can do. Perform some crazy acrobatics while dodging a sword cut? Can do. Meditate to find another Immortal? Can do. Use it too much and the Immortal will gain permanent Quickening, meaning that a little of their humanity (Discipline) is lost and they are one more step removed from mortality. Lose enough discipline and the Immortal is a dangerous NPC with no humanity left, but with plenty of Quickening.
The only system hack that I would suggest is the starting number of Quickening boxes and the acquisition of more. Start the new Immortal with only two or three boxes, representing the limited control that they have over it. There are two ways in which this could increase: mentorship and taking the head of another Immortal. A mentor can increase it by only one box, no matter how long is spent under instruction. Taking the head of another Immortal, however, would add another box of temporary madness that the Immortal can use. As an example, Willam Mcleod starts out with two boxes when he meets his cousin/uncle Connor. After some training, William goes up to three temporary boxes that he can bring to any conflict. After taking the heads of two other Immortals, this goes up to five. So, for each conflict, he can bring up to five temporary dice of Quickening.
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
The Morality of Games
The other week, when Nathan Russell dropped in to Brisbane for Go Play Brisbane, we had some extended chats about the nature of gaming and of games themselves. In amongst all this was a hefty discussion of my Game In Design (the game with the working title of Nobles) and I made a comment that I want to make again here.
Roleplaying games make moral and philosophical assertions through their mechanics.
Now, initially one might think that the word "mechanics" should be "story" but upon closer examination it is apparent that it's the mechanic that does this. A good game (according to various versions of game design theory) includes mechanics which reward players for a particular kind of behaviour. The story will always arise from the mechanics; if it didn't then we could - and would - tell the same variety of stories with only one ruleset. Dogs in the Vineyard stories told in GURPS, for example. I'll concede that it's possible, but it's not likely. DitV creates a particular kind of story because of its game mechanics, and the same is true of other game mechanics.
If a game system creates a particular kind of story, then the abstract concept of that kind of story is connected to the morality implied by that system. Here are some examples.
Dungeons and Dragons (and others of this kind) imply a moral statement something like this: defeat monsters and you will gain items that make you more powerful, better enabling you to fight monsters and gain more items; ergo, the central path to self-improvement is through the violent defeat of monsters. It's not simply that the PCs use violence to defend against The Darkness, but that through violence the PCs actually improve.
Don't Rest Your Head is particularly Nietzschean in that the characters are asked to dig deep within and become what they already are. Characters are driven to exhaustion in order to add more dice to the pool. Characters use their Madness talents to add more dice, and these talents are taken from the basic elements of the characters themselves. Through magnifying the character as it is, the character becomes a larger version of what they already are. And also note the flipside to this, becoming what they already are (that is, pushing exhaustion and madness beyond mortal limits) is a horror itself. To be quite technical, the horror of the DRYH overman is the self qua exaggerated-self, the horror is the same God that Nietzsche pronounced as dead.
To return to my point. Games imply a moral or philosophical truth, deep within the mechanics of that game. Most designers may not realise it at the time of design, and in that regard we have something of an insight into the designers themselves. The game is the absent-minded drawing, the unintentional revelation of the mind of the designer.
Roleplaying games make moral and philosophical assertions through their mechanics.
Now, initially one might think that the word "mechanics" should be "story" but upon closer examination it is apparent that it's the mechanic that does this. A good game (according to various versions of game design theory) includes mechanics which reward players for a particular kind of behaviour. The story will always arise from the mechanics; if it didn't then we could - and would - tell the same variety of stories with only one ruleset. Dogs in the Vineyard stories told in GURPS, for example. I'll concede that it's possible, but it's not likely. DitV creates a particular kind of story because of its game mechanics, and the same is true of other game mechanics.
If a game system creates a particular kind of story, then the abstract concept of that kind of story is connected to the morality implied by that system. Here are some examples.
Dungeons and Dragons (and others of this kind) imply a moral statement something like this: defeat monsters and you will gain items that make you more powerful, better enabling you to fight monsters and gain more items; ergo, the central path to self-improvement is through the violent defeat of monsters. It's not simply that the PCs use violence to defend against The Darkness, but that through violence the PCs actually improve.
Don't Rest Your Head is particularly Nietzschean in that the characters are asked to dig deep within and become what they already are. Characters are driven to exhaustion in order to add more dice to the pool. Characters use their Madness talents to add more dice, and these talents are taken from the basic elements of the characters themselves. Through magnifying the character as it is, the character becomes a larger version of what they already are. And also note the flipside to this, becoming what they already are (that is, pushing exhaustion and madness beyond mortal limits) is a horror itself. To be quite technical, the horror of the DRYH overman is the self qua exaggerated-self, the horror is the same God that Nietzsche pronounced as dead.
To return to my point. Games imply a moral or philosophical truth, deep within the mechanics of that game. Most designers may not realise it at the time of design, and in that regard we have something of an insight into the designers themselves. The game is the absent-minded drawing, the unintentional revelation of the mind of the designer.
Thursday, 31 July 2008
Don't Lose Your Mind
Last week I bought my pre-order of Don't Lose Your Mind. Having read the PDFs now, I'm genuinely excited by this. The book adds good content to the game as well as great gaming tips for playing characters and for running DRYH.
The other thing I liked about reading the PDF is that it prompted creativity for me as well. Text in the book spawned more ideas in my head. That's a good thing - a very good thing. I like it when a text stimulates my cerebral processes.
The other thing I liked about reading the PDF is that it prompted creativity for me as well. Text in the book spawned more ideas in my head. That's a good thing - a very good thing. I like it when a text stimulates my cerebral processes.
Monday, 21 July 2008
Hitting the Heavy Bag
I picked up an expression from listening to the Sons of Kryos episode 59: hitting the heavy bag. It's the concept that game masters need to engage in some training to ensure that they are honing their skills. A GM should be offering good games and good entertainment for the players, and the SoK guys launched a thread on this. Read the thread sometime to get lots of opinions on it.
Since the thread was launched (and now fizzled, as do all forum threads), I've encountered another element of good GM training that I want to add. For me, hitting the heavy bag in the next couple of months will include mastering Don't Rest Your Head or Grey Ranks. After playing them at Gencon, I've come to the conclusion that these two games are the right challenge for me to improve my skills as a GM. I see that either of them gives me the opportunity to understand and practice collaborative scene framing which is centred around the goals of specific characters while still facilitating a story about that group of characters.
How about you? What do you do to hit the heavy bag? What books do you read, films do you watch, techniques that you test? Or, do you even try to become a better player/GM - maybe you're happy with the way you play now. Drop me a comment.
Since the thread was launched (and now fizzled, as do all forum threads), I've encountered another element of good GM training that I want to add. For me, hitting the heavy bag in the next couple of months will include mastering Don't Rest Your Head or Grey Ranks. After playing them at Gencon, I've come to the conclusion that these two games are the right challenge for me to improve my skills as a GM. I see that either of them gives me the opportunity to understand and practice collaborative scene framing which is centred around the goals of specific characters while still facilitating a story about that group of characters.
How about you? What do you do to hit the heavy bag? What books do you read, films do you watch, techniques that you test? Or, do you even try to become a better player/GM - maybe you're happy with the way you play now. Drop me a comment.
Saturday, 5 July 2008
Halftime at Gencon
So it's halfway through Gencon and I have to say that the con is exceeding my expectations in almost every way. The gaming has been great, but the best thing has been the response to the Indie Games Explosion. When internet pre-registrations closed (the Monday morning before the con) we had 47 places left from our 90 places available. At that point I thought we would have a lot of flexibility, and perhaps half-full sessions that we could use to run games that were more focused on a smaller number of characters. The reality, after just one day, is that we have had every table of every session full. Even overflowing at least once. I couldn't have expected it. Over and above this, I heard yesterday that all our sessions for today (Saturday) are full already, and that we might be offering one final session on Sunday. It's not in the programme right now, but at this stage anything seems possible.
This is largely due to the great work by Peter Ball. He looks tired, but he is still happy and works hard to make it all happen. I'm glad he's involved in this because he's supportive, helpful and friendly. Great work, Peter.
To close, I'm going to give a very quick summary of what I've been up to so far.
Thursday
- Met Nathan Russell in person for the first time. And from that point, I met a bunch of people from the Newcastle gaming scene, and frequenters of Imbercorvus.
- Bought some Campaign Coins. Wow. These things are great. They have good heft and are already in use for my Don't Rest Your Head games.
- Played a demo of Heroclix, and was soundly beaten by my friend Mat. 3-0. Ack! He's a great tactical player who didn't even use one of his minis.
- Played a game (or part of a game) of Cleopatra. This looks like an interesting strategy game and it has some great supporting plasticware for game pieces.
- Hosted (was MC of...) the Steal This Trick seminar, with Robin Laws, Nathan Russell and Michael Wenman. This was a great seminar, with about 30-40 people.
- Had dinner with Robin Laws. He's a great guy with interesting things to say on a wide range of topics. My only regret was the "Vietnamese" restaurant we chose wasn't all that Vietnamese. Ah well.
Friday
- First session of the IGE: I played Spirit of the Century with a great group. That adds 6 to my count of new people to game with. Some of these guys had played SOTC before, and most were from Brisbane. If I can find my notes from the game, I'll add their names.
- Second session of the IGE: 80% of the group demanded Don't Rest Your Head. So that's what we played. I don't feel that it was my best game, but the last hour of game play was pretty good, and I especially like the epilogues that the players created to close off the session. Fantastic.
- Played Grey Ranks with Peter Adkison, Robin Laws and Luke (no surname, just like Prince and Madonna). This was shakey at first, but after the first round of learning, the second and third rounds were fantastic. I hadn't played it before, but now I want to play it again. I also have to say that Robin is a great gamer, showing great rhythm between silence and speaking, between plot development and plot resolution. I learnt a lot. Thanks Robin!
And now... time to embrace Saturday at Gencon. See you there.
This is largely due to the great work by Peter Ball. He looks tired, but he is still happy and works hard to make it all happen. I'm glad he's involved in this because he's supportive, helpful and friendly. Great work, Peter.
To close, I'm going to give a very quick summary of what I've been up to so far.
Thursday
- Met Nathan Russell in person for the first time. And from that point, I met a bunch of people from the Newcastle gaming scene, and frequenters of Imbercorvus.
- Bought some Campaign Coins. Wow. These things are great. They have good heft and are already in use for my Don't Rest Your Head games.
- Played a demo of Heroclix, and was soundly beaten by my friend Mat. 3-0. Ack! He's a great tactical player who didn't even use one of his minis.
- Played a game (or part of a game) of Cleopatra. This looks like an interesting strategy game and it has some great supporting plasticware for game pieces.
- Hosted (was MC of...) the Steal This Trick seminar, with Robin Laws, Nathan Russell and Michael Wenman. This was a great seminar, with about 30-40 people.
- Had dinner with Robin Laws. He's a great guy with interesting things to say on a wide range of topics. My only regret was the "Vietnamese" restaurant we chose wasn't all that Vietnamese. Ah well.
Friday
- First session of the IGE: I played Spirit of the Century with a great group. That adds 6 to my count of new people to game with. Some of these guys had played SOTC before, and most were from Brisbane. If I can find my notes from the game, I'll add their names.
- Second session of the IGE: 80% of the group demanded Don't Rest Your Head. So that's what we played. I don't feel that it was my best game, but the last hour of game play was pretty good, and I especially like the epilogues that the players created to close off the session. Fantastic.
- Played Grey Ranks with Peter Adkison, Robin Laws and Luke (no surname, just like Prince and Madonna). This was shakey at first, but after the first round of learning, the second and third rounds were fantastic. I hadn't played it before, but now I want to play it again. I also have to say that Robin is a great gamer, showing great rhythm between silence and speaking, between plot development and plot resolution. I learnt a lot. Thanks Robin!
And now... time to embrace Saturday at Gencon. See you there.
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