Finding My Way

As mentioned in my last post I will continue blogging and I'll expand the scope to include other facets to my life and interests. So it is with great pleasure that I invite you to visit my new home on the inter webs: Finding My Way.

I'll continue to blog about RPG related topics and those posts will still be available at RPGBloggers.com. I'll also be sharing posts on movies, TV, music and other thoughts on my mind. As before, I'm doing this first for me as a way to process my thoughts and secondly as a way to dialogue with friends new and old. So if you find something of interest please share your thoughts as well.

Please join me in this in this blog's new home: CinderellaManJJ.blogspot.com


Follow your bliss,
JJ

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A time for change

As I sit here, in poor man's first class (no one sitting next to me in coach), on my flight home, I'm thinking about what I said in my last post. This blog is me, but it only shows one side of me (and like a d20, I got lots o' sides). I think I'd like to use this blog to explore more of me than just RPGs.

The problem is, how to do that? When I launched this blog I joined RPGBloggers.com. I'm sure there are lots of things about my life that are not of interest to players of RPGs, well, at least that's what I imagine. Still, I don't want to burden their feed with a bunch of personal stuff.

So consider this post a "heads up" that I will probably be doing some housekeeping around here, possibly involving an address change. I apologize in advance for any confusion.


Follow your bliss,
JJ

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Future so bright: 2011

I've been avoiding this blog post. I'm not good at setting goals. That's not true; I'm great at setting goals. Following through? Not so much. So I did what I always do to when I want to avoid something: I read. I could call it "research" since I was reading many posts by other bloggers about New Year's resolutions and goals, but let's call it for what it is: avoiding a troublesome task.

I did enjoy the blogs I read; they were many and varied. Some tackled the New Year with the ferocity of a pit bull, others were calm and serene in their approach. And none helped me figure out what I wanted to do. (However, I did find a more convenient way to keep up on blogs using Twitter and Instapaper for the iPad.)

See, I've been struggling with what to do with this blog. I haven't really been posting lately which really makes me wonder why I'm doing it at all. At first I thought I had something to say, but my voice and focus was never very clear. I'm not an authority on gaming, I can only speak from experience.

Then I thought it was to stay in touch with the friends I met through podcasting. Well, Twitter seems better suited to that. The blog did start some dialogue with others on the interwebs, but it wasn't quite what I was looking for.

I generally have more ideas then I have the time to follow up on and discipline is not my strong suit; OCD is which makes writing a post take twice as long as it should. Family, work and other commitments are all making their demands known.

And then it hits me while I'm typing that last paragraph: this blog is my thing. It is more personal than almost anything else it do. I loves me some RPGs and gaming. I love talking about them, playing them, designing them and reading them. I'm not writing this for anybody but me.

So, no resolutions, no goals - it just is. Chaotic, eclectic and all over the place: that's me.

Follow your bliss,
JJ

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Looking Back 2010

It's that time of year where we take a page from Janus' book and look back at the year that has passed and forward to the next. So I'll cut to the chase and start with my resolutions for this last year and see how I did.

First under New Things:

• Run at least three different games at conventions - a big goose egg there. I only made it to one convention this past year (Origins for 1 day) and I was able to sit in on one game, but not run anything.
• Put together a free RPG to run in libraries - another 0. I had started work on Demigods but was not able to get it to a playable version for testing.
• Development on an Old School campaign - 25%. I started work on Icosa and managed to hammer out the basics, but ran out of steam.
• Run introductory RPG sessions at library - 0. Other than the initial session in 2009 I was not able to get this moving. This failed primarily to my dependance on the second point above.
• Run RPG for children under 10 - fail.
• Illustrating my games/play - nada.

Score: .25 out of 6

On to Improvements:

• Posting an average of 8x/month - 0. I managed to hit that mark 1 out of the last 12 months. I started out strong with 11 posts in January and spiked again in April with 7.
• Posting adventure logs - 0. Didn't happen.
• Games in Libraries Podcast - epic fail. I couldn't get my act together to make it happen.
• Participation in RPG conversations - 25%. I started off strong and once again lost steam.
• Logging my reading with GoodReads - 75%. I did very well with logging, I just had a tough time finishing books.

Score: 1 out of 5

Finally Continuing Items:

• Continued regular play - Yes. I managed to have probably my best gaming year to date (even if I didn't always blog about it).
• Continue exploring my passion - I would have to say Yes on this as well.
• Strive for a balance in my endeavors - Ha! Ok, that was a bit sarcastic. I did strive (begged, pleaded and even groveled at times), but was not always successful. I'll give this one a 50%.

Score: 2.5 out of 3

So looking back this may seem like an awful year. Really, it wasn't. Maybe I was a bit unrealistic on what I was aiming for, but I gave it a shot. I'm not mad, a little disappointed, maybe, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it. So, taking what I've learned and looking ahead, I try to follow Casey Kasem's advice:

"Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars."

So now with this review of the year under my belt (slightly smaller thanks to plus5cha.com & MyFitnessPal.com), I can ponder my course for the next year. For that, check back on the other side of midnight.

Follow your bliss,
JJ

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Journey of a thousand miles

Dammit, Daniel, what the hell did you start? I've already talked about how Daniel's love letter to Vampire: The Masquerade inspired me to write about one of my early paradigm-breaking games: Ars Magica. Now Mike Laff has taken up the torch to tackle his take on Werewolf. THEN come to find out that none other than Ryan Macklin has a sweet spot for Mage: The Ascension, a game that is also near and dear to my heart and my favorite of the original World of Darkness games. Here's Daniel calling from his box seats encouraging Ryan to join in the fray, to which Ryan replies, "I have no time!" quickly followed by, "I will require some egging on, so you know."

Ryan, I just went to the store and got a dozen or so right here.

When Mage: The Ascension first came out, early publicity made it look like a modern take on Ars Magica where magic was stored on hard drives and spells could be sent through a telephone or fax. That in and of itself was quite cool. The game that came out was nothing close to that. Well, that's not exactly true, but the author himself stated that the game took a radical turn in an unplanned direction.

In the Bibliography of the first edition of the game, Stewart Wieck speaks of how reading Robert M. Prisig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance had an "unmistakeable effect on the design of this game." The game was no longer a game of modern magic, but became a search for Truth.

Mages awaken to the truth that reality is not static. If one has the proper vision and mindset and a little bit of know-how, reality can bend to the mage's will. At it's heart, this is no different than what Aleistar Crowley's definition of magick presented in Magick in Theory and Practice:

MAGICK is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.

But there is more to it than just that. There was a deeper Truth that each mage was seeking. Once awakened the soul, or Avatar as it was called in the game, would seek Enlightenment. Enlightenment was actually an achievable goal in the game. It was the title given to the highest ranking of Arete, the measure of a mage's skill in magic (I would say that Arete was the measure of the soul's belief in the Truth it was seeking).

How do I know that Mage is about seeking Truth. Stewart tells me so on pg. 21 of the first edition of the game (emphasis mine):

Mage characters are not the purveyors of parlor tricks and fireballs depicted by most traditional sources. Of course, in the course of day-to-day life, mages will most certainly evoke such magicakal manifestations - and would hardly be enjoyable roleplaying subjects if they did not. Even so, mages of the Storyteller System, and their magical powers, represent much greater philosophical truths.

Now here in the next sentence of the same paragraph is where I believe Mage: The Ascension drops the ball:

Such truths may never arise in a direct way within the game, but they permeate the setting nonetheless.

May never arise in a direct way? Why not? And what about Enlightenment and Ascension? It gets about a page worth of treatment that boils down to a process that a mage must go through to increase their Arete rating. I get the feeling in many games this was handled with a little hand-waving and a nod from the Storyteller (GM).

Please don't get me wrong. I LOVE Mage: The Ascension. I loved it enough to buy all the source material I could get my hands on. I do love the gothic punk setting with a little cyber-twist thrown in. But what happened to Mage seems to be the same thing that happened to Vampire (and possibly Werewolf): it became a game of super-powered lunatics battling across the universe. There were plenty of bad guys to fry with bolts of lightning and balls of fire.

To me, Mage was about a personal journey of discovery, possibly an inward journey reflected by the world around the mage. I can sum it up in a movie: The Matrix. When this movie first came out, I said to myself, "This is what Mage could have been." Neo's journey of self-discovered showed him the Truth. Yeah, I know, there were a lotta kick-ass fights and shit blowing up too. My point is, Mage could have been something more.

I think this urge to dig deeper into the Truth that Mages were seeking has been with me all the while. I never found a group to play the game in the style I was thinking. I think it all bubbled up during Game Chef 2008. In that year's event - the first and only such event I've participated in - I was inspired by Elizabeth Shoemaker's photographs to produce Stigmata: A Question of Faith. It is the only RPG design project that I have ever seen through to the end. It was a valuable learning experience in a number of ways, but I digress. I think Stigmata was what I wanted Mage to be: a search for Truth. In my game, Truth could only be found by helping others heal their pain which hopefully made your character's cross a little easier to bear. 

I kid Daniel that it's all his fault, but really, I started on this path a while ago. A recent post from Shaun, the host of This Modern Death, regarding doing some productive project during the 40 days of Lent has me taking a turn down a path I've not visited in a while.

I like to think I'm a spiritual person, while maybe not being overly religious (a distinction that I have only recently begun to understand). But faith is something I've always struggled with. As a result of Shaun's post I've decided to dust off Stigmata and work on it again, this time with some help. I've approached a friend of mine, a mentor actually and the priest that performed my marriage ceremony, to help get some of the religious elements of the game straightened out.

After talking to him about this last week I was firmly settled that Stigmata was a game about a spiritual journey. He asked me who the game was for. I answered, "For me...right now." Then he asked me a surprising question: can a game BE a spiritual journey? That is my homework until we meet again to discuss my Lenten project.

Which brings me back to Mage and Ryan. I feel that Mage at its core is about a spiritual journey. Much of the language of the first edition was steeped in religious trappings: the path to Ascension was filled with Epiphanies and Avatar is just another word for soul not to mention the Celestial Chorus. So this all has deep meaning for me.

And Ryan, I'm not sure if this is egging you on or not. I don't even know if what I'm thinking of when I look at Mage is even close to what makes you love the game. I know you're a busy man and the last thing I want to do is add more stress to your life. But if you are passionate about exploring the core of Mage, then I'm offering to take the journey with you. No pressure, no deadline. Whenever, whatever.

Follow Your Bliss,

JJ

How I learned to stop worrying and love Ars Magica

Once again I'm inspired by Daniel Perez. His recent love letter to Vampire: The Masquerade has got me thinking of paradigm-shifting games I've played. And since this blog is about exploring my passion for RPGs I should probably talk about other games I've played besides D&D.

I was introduced to Ars Magica in 1987, soon after it's release. I was home after my horrible first year at Bowling Green State University. I was supposed to be working on my saxophone playing so I could re-apply to BGSU's School of Music. Instead I was floundering in indecision about my future.

I was spending much of the time I was not working one of my three jobs thinking about or playing AD&D with my friends. It was a time full of role-playing goodness. I had a subscription to Dragon magazine and devoured it's contents to learn new ways to expand play. It was in those pages that I first found Ars Magica.

I don't remember the issue and I have long since sold my back issues (and for that mater it could have been White Wolf magazine - if anybody knows, please let me know), but there was a short piece of fiction about a flame-wielding Magi. I like to believe that it was written by one of the games authors: Jonathan Tweet & Mark Rein•Hagen.

Anyway, the wizard in the story was unlike anything I'd read to that point. I found the use of magic in the story unlike anything in AD&D. After the artcle were two write-ups for the Magi. The first was a typical AD&D stat block. The other was for Ars Magica (AM).

I found the AM character sheet facinating, especially how the magic was portrayed as skills in various magical disciplines. Also, the AM Magi had mechanical elements on the character sheet to represent various disadvantages and story points. This is pretty commonplace now, but it was earth-shaking to me then.

I found an ad with information for ordering the game from an unknown company called Lions Rampant. I soon did the unthinkable: I ordered the book sight unseen on the merits of that story and the character sheet alone.

I received the book shortly before heading back to school at BGSU. I was living on campus while technically a Junior (uncool) and was working in a dorm as a Resident Advisor (even more uncool). I read the book cover to cover several times.

Even after reading it as I did i had a lot of questions. I found the address for the company and hand wrote a letter asking them all of my questions (this was before the Internet was the sprawling monstrosity it is today.

To my utter amazement I received a hand-written reply several pages in length (as I type this post I'm 25,000 ft in the air over Nebraska so I can't check to see which of the designers wrote the reply, I'll have to check when I get home - yes, I kept the letter inside the well-worn cover of the game book). He answered my questions point for point.

Let me point out here that Dragon magazine gave me the opportunity to write in letters and ask questions if I wanted. But that was D&D. I was very intimidated by the stature and history of that game and looked with hero-worship to Gary & crew. With AM I felt comfortable building a dialog - a relationship. I now know that this sort of relationship building is a staple of independent press games. I've heard Fred, Chad, Luke and others speak of it on several occasions. But back then...again, monumental.

Some of the things that made AM so cool in my mind: stats that were modifiers in and of themselves, impovisational magic, troupe style play, control of multiple characters in play and building the story colaborotively.

Sadly I only had one opportunity to run a game of it. My college AD&D group obliged me and let me start. We never got past character creation. Maybe I built it up too much. Maybe it requires a bigger buy-in from players. Whatever the case, it is one game that i regret never pursuing further.

But I think there is still time. I think I'll dust it off and see if the magic still exists between the covers. In it's day it was avant guard. Today is it passé? We'll see.

Next time, more Exploring Elric: Twilight Civilizations!

Follow Your Bliss,
JJ

Update: Find Ars Magica 4th Edition PDF free here at the Atlas Games site. Also includes free adventures, campaign and character sheets. No excuse now, time to Creo Ignem.

Tweeting...for what it's worth

I don't make it a habit of posting non-gaming related items in this blog, but I have to make a shout-out to Daniel who has been telling me for a while I should be on Twitter. I could never see the point - it was just one more way to social network and I needed another one of those like I need a one-sided die.

But after some prodding on his part I made the leap last week. I have to say it is quite fun. It was made even more enjoyable now that I tied it all together so that I'm covering facebook, tweets and notices of blog posts into one interface (for the technically minded see below).

So, for what it's worth, if you enjoy this blog and want to keep the conversation flowing, then feel free to look me up on Twitter: @CinderellaManJJ.

Technical note - I have my Twitter account set to send my status updates to facebook as well, which kills two birds with one stone. I follow tweets using TweetDeck on my PCs and iPhone. I also created a bit.ly account to manage and track all my shortened URLs. Finally, again with a recommendation from Daniel, I've set up TwitterFeed so I can automatically tweet and update facebook when I publish a blog post. I'm still learning all the syntax, but I'm having a good time of it.

Follow Your Bliss,
JJ

Out with the old and in with the new

Well, it is time to get started again: new year, new resolutions. Inspired by the latest Canon Puncture Podcast, I'm hoping by posting my gaming & blogging related resolutions here I will have more accountability to sticking to what I say. Even though this is a time for new beginnings, a friend reminded me that everyday is a fresh chance to start over or continue working on your goals.

To make this a little easier I'm breaking down my resolutions into New Things, Improvements and Continuing Items. Without further ado...

New Things

• I want to run at least three different games at conventions over the course of this year. I may run the same game at more than one convention, but I'd like to try to vary what it is that I'm running. Current candidates are Swords & Wizardry Whitebox, InSpectres, Faery's Tale and Demigods (see below).
• I want to put together a free RPG for use in libraries based on the Percy Jackson series of books as a way to tie RPGs into reading. This will be a re-skinning of John Harper's Ghost/Echo which provides a simple and easy-to-teach framework for a storytelling game.
• I will begin developing, playing and documenting an original Old School setting suitable for play with Swords & Wizardry Whitebox. All this exploring into my gaming roots has caused me to be bitten by the Old School Renaissance bug.
• I want to run at least 4 introductory RPG sessions in a library. I felt I had great success with my last one and hope to continue the trend.
• I want to run RPGs for children under the age of 10. I may do this as part of my convention play, playing in libraries or playing with children of my friends.
• I want to start illustrating my RPG play. This means art for any setting/game material as well for any campaigns I'm running/playing. This is my personal challenge for Creative Every Day 2010. I found this through my friend Mick Bradley and thought this was a worthwhile pursuit. While most of what I do in this blog is creative, I, inspired by Mick, wanted to push myself further. I'll be posting my results for all to see.

Improvements

• I was posting on average about 4 times a month on this blog. I would like to up that to averaging 8 posts a month. Posting has helped me in working out a better understanding about what I like in RPGs.
• I want to post adventure logs more regularly for my current campaigns. I started off fine at Obsidian Portal and then dropped off. I would like to post from both the GM and Player perspective for all my campaigns. I'll cross-link here for anyone interested in following my actual play.
• At the close of last year I had started contributing to the Games in Libraries Podcast. This year I have stepped up as host and audio editor for the podcast. This will most likely be an annual rotating position, but I wanted to make sure this great podcast continued to reach listeners so I stepped up my participation.
• I want to step up my participation in conversations related to my RPG passion, whether it be posting comments on blogs or forums. I will continue participate at The Escapist, Kids-RPG and look for a good forum for some Old School discussions.
• I hope to be more disciplined in logging what I'm reading that is RPG related. I started off using an app in Facebook, but now, thanks to Daniel Perez's suggestion, I'm using GoodReads which has had the added benefit of putting me in touch with what my friends are reading.

Continuing Items

• I want to continue regular play as both GM and player in campaigns with my children and friends.
• I will continue to learn and explore my RPG passion though gaming, blogging and podcasting.
• I will continue to strive for a good balance in all my endeavors. While I have only listed my RPG related resolutions I will be working on resolutions for other areas of my life as well.

Follow Your Bliss,

JJ

Giving Thanks

I am thankful for many things in my life. I won't bore you with all of them, but I thought the ones dealing with RPGs were most appropriate for this blog.

• I'm thankful for my wife and her understanding that playing RPGs is part of who I am. I appreciate her patience when I wax geeky about some minutia of a game session I just played. And I love that she encourages me to persue my passion of sharing RPGs with a new generation of gamers.
• I'm thankful for my boys and their love of the hobby. I love that it has transcended me always initiating play and that they have found new ways to play together. It is wonderful to have this bond that we can share as they grow older and I hope it is something that keeps us close.
• I'm thankful for all the players I had the opportunity to share a game with, I am the richer for that time.
• I'm thankful that the Wood County District Public Library took a chance on letting me run a game for their teen patrons. I hope to be able to introduce more players to this hobby I love so much.
• I'm thankful for BG Teen Central's warm reception to my presentation on RPGs. I look forward to sharing more with this program in the future.
• I'm thankful for my Friendly Local Gaming Stores for persevering in this trying economic times to continue to provide a place to gather and play.
• I'm thankful for the RPG podcasters who tirelessly put out new content with little or no compensation for their time other than a job well done.
• I'm thankful for all the RPG publishers who create countless wondrous worlds for adventure and exploration.
• And finally, I'm thankful that Dave & Gary decided to throw caution to the wind and publish their little brown books.

Happy Thanksgiving,

JJ

Update

I made myself a promise to post at least once a week on what was going on in my life and in my head gaming-wise. I'm a little over a week on this one. And while there is no one holding a gun to my head saying, "Write, darn it!" I still feel a bit of a let down. Yes, real life gets in the way sometimes. It has been over a week since I last gamed, but not for want of trying.

My boys and I sat down last Friday evening to play in my oldest son's Eberron campaign. My younger son had already leveled up his characters so I needed to bring my artificer and monk up to second level before play. The monk didn't have a lot of paperwork to deal with, but the artificer was another story. Now that Theo the Red had coin in pouch he wanted to create some scrolls and potions for the party. That took a while as we stepped through the rules to figure out what rolls he needed to make.

It took so long, in fact, that we ran out of time to play. We're planning on doing so this Friday when one of the boys' cousins is coming up for a visit. We're planning on inviting him to join us for the start of the next adventure.

But just because I haven't been playing doesn't mean I haven't been thinking or reading about games. I just finished reading for the first time Don't Rest Your Head by Fred Hicks of Evil Hat Productions. It has been on my stack of games to read for a while now and since my friend & podcaster Mick Bradley is adapting the DRYH mechanics as the engine for his Vegas After Midnight game I thought it was high time to check it out.

I've also been reading Polaris by Ben Lehman. This is a wonderful game about a playing the last days of a forgotten race of the far north as north can go. It is a GM-less game which is a favorite topic of mine and one that I seek to explore though games like Universalis and Shock:.

In addition to reading I've been getting back into listening to podcasts. I have not done so for a long time as I burned out on the medium. I'm rediscovering it and really enjoying what I'm listening to, so I thought I'd share.

What got me started was This Just In...From GenCon! by Ryan Macklin. We listened to this leading up to and while at the convention. This got me excited about podcasts again. So next I hopped over to Ryan's regular podcast Master Plan. This podcast is devoted to game theory and design. Ryan is a game designer and uses examples from his experience to talk about the various concepts. He also has great interviews from industry professionals.

Another design show I've been listening to is Clyde Rohr's Theory From the Closet. Clyde is the punk rocker of RPG podcasts. His show is not work safe and he makes no attempt to edit his recordings, but if you like game theory and game design it is really worth listening too. Clyde also does many interviews with industry luminaries. I really like Ryan and Clyde's podcasts because, like me, they are trying to come to terms with these ideas as they build their games.

Atomic Array and Open Design Podcast are two that I've also gotten into. The first is more focused on RPGs and settings and the second more game design and game tips. Both do interviews, are fun to listen to and offer contests so their listeners can win prizes. If you like these two check out War Pig Radio for more.

Last, but definitely not least, is the Canon Puncture podcast. They too do interviews, talk game theory and practical play tips as well as review geeky websites from around the interweb. Rich, Mick and Chris (and Chris) are long time gamers and have a lot of great insight to share on gaming in an indie-hippy-story-focused-kinda-way. I'm currently working through a back log of this past year's podcasts and enjoying every second of it (and wishing I'd had a chance to play in their Prime Time Adventure Star Wars: Sojourn 66 sessions at GenCon).

As I expand the number of shows I listen to I'll be sure to post here as well. I hope to have a 'meatier' post up soon.

Follow Your Bliss,

JJ

Know the Rules

Everything I really need to know I learned from D&D - #1

The first game of D&DB I ever played (which goes without saying, my first game of D&D ever) was as Dungeon Master (DM). I had read the rules cover-to-cover (the booklet wasn't that big back then) and was going to run a short adventure into an abandoned keep. I found a few of my junior high school friends and gathered around the table to play on a warm summer afternoon. With weapons in hand, the characters set off in search of Adventure.

Things were sailing along smoothly (for less than 5 minutes) until the party encountered its first obstacle: skeletons. Skeletons were labeled as first level monsters and the party was full of first level characters; a perfect match. The problems didn't start until the characters started rolling dice to hit the skeleton. They rolled and missed. The skeletons would roll and miss. The party would roll and miss and then the skeletons would roll and miss. This went on for several minutes before one of my friends asked how this was supposed to be fun. Something was amiss.

I checked back through the rules on combat and re-read them. I soon discovered my fatal mistake. When determining the number needed to hit the skeletons I took it as literally the number needed to hit; the party had to roll that number and nothing else would do. Well, red faced, I quickly discovered my misinterpretation: the phrase "...or higher..." seemed to slip my memory when it was time to play. Combat went much smoother after that.

This small detail goes to show how drastically a misunderstanding of a rule can impact the play of a game. Some games are complex and require an intimate knowledge of the rules in order to run smoothly. Some games are simple but open to interpretation. Both present challenges.

When handling a game with a very large rule set it is often best to take it in chunks. Focus on the rules that will be used first. In the introductory chapter of Mouse Guard, Luke Crane outlines the four chapters of the book that should be read first in the section entitled 'Getting Started'. Character creation is not one of the chapters listed. In fact, character creation is one of the last chapters in the book. IMO, Luke is saying, "Wait! Before you even think about creating your character, play the sample missions with the sample characters to see how the spokes fit in the wheel!"

In D&D I look at rules on an encounter-by-encounter basis. Whether reading a prepared encounter or designing one from scratch, I ask myself this question: "What do I need to know in order to run this encounter." I open the rule book to the index and start boning up on rules that will be utilized. Next I look at the characters in the party and see what they could possibly use to resolve this encounter: racial and class traits, feats, type of combat favored, spells.

The last one deserves added attention. It is prudent to read over the spells that both the players and NPCs have access to. I did this not very long ago where I was operating from what I thought the spell did as opposed to what it actually did (just goes to show, it doesn't matter how old you are, there is always room for improvement). Bottom line - read over the spells often to be sure you are on track. Don't worry about the spells that the characters can't cast yet, focus on the ones they have access to.

For games with less structure a healthy dose of interpretation is required to make things move along smoothly. To help prevent misunderstandings I recommend creating a social contract to outline the expected behavior and guidelines for handling disputes. This can be a simple as "if we get stuck we'll wing it" or "we'll roll for the outcome and discuss it after the session". Play of a wide variety of games helps to provide players with a resource of numerous options - "we did it this way in Shadowrun, so let's do the same thing here." For groups that have played together for a long time the social contract is more implied than explicit, but it never hurts to discuss the contract to keep it fresh in your mind.

It should be noted that while the preceeding paragraphs were from a DM point of view, the same holds equally true for players. Know the rules that apply to your character. If you play a cleric, know and understand the rules for turning undead. If you play a spell caster, know your spells and all the rules that apply to spell casting (range, spell components, recovery, saving throws). Don't put everything on the DM's shoulders, step up and help lighten the load.

It wasn't long before I realized that knowing the rules applied to pretty much anything you came across in life. We spend a good portion of the first 18 years of our lives 'learning the ropes' before we are considered an adult. Heck, I'm still trying to keep it all straight. Rules give structure and order and should (hopefully) be equitable to all parties involved. Whether it is office culture or computer programming, take the time to learn the rules. If there is a lot of ground to cover, learn what you need to get the job done. If the rules are a little nebulous, fall back on your past experiences and do your best. We're still gonna make mistakes, but hopefully they are mistakes we can learn from.

Follow Your Bliss,

JJ

The Next Generation of Gamers

One of the perks of having children is passing down some of your favorite things (like the love of music from the Canadian rock band Rush). One of those things I enjoy most is my love of RPGs, especially D&D. I began playing with my boys about 5 years ago (well, it began longer than that, when my oldest was still an infant in my arms as I played DC Heroes at the dinner table, but for the purpose of this post, let's just say it all started 5 years ago.)

I can distinctly remember the first time I played with them, laying out the tiles from the AD&D basic set for the 3.5 version of the game. This set came with miniatures for four of the iconic characters of that edition - Eberk the dwarven cleric, Regdar the human fighter, Lydda the halfling rogue, and Aramil the elven wizard. The boxed set was a gift to my oldest son, then 8 years old. We were playing it in our apartment which was temporary housing during the period after selling one house and waiting for our next (and current) house to complete construction.

We sat around the little dinner table under the glare of 60 watt bulbs as I explained the differences between the classes and what all the different colored dice were used for. My younger son (then 5) was also trying to figure out what all this was about. We played through the provided adventure and had a great time slaying all manner of monsters and undead. Both boys have been playing ever since.

Fast forward to this past weekend and my oldest son's (now 13) first visit to GenCon. Due to poor planning and budgetary concerns we were only able to attend on Sunday, the Family Fun day. My son brought along his best friend (age 14) to join in the fun. We had a wonderful time and managed to pack as much fun into one day as we could. There were Battletech battles, boffer fights, miniatures painting, sitting in on a recording of 'This Just In...From GenCon', and, of course, the dealer's room.

It really struck me what a wonderful community exists to help support gaming as a family activity. Everyone we met did their utmost to make my son's first visit to the con a memorable one. And so, I have a list of people I would like to thank (in chronological order of appearance):

• Call sign 'Gamer' - for taking the time to share his experiences and lessons learned in the Battletech pods
• Jeff Himmelman and Storn Cook - for showing what's involved in being a freelance artist
• Ryan Macklin and Derek Rex - for giving the boys a warm welcome during the recording of This Just In...From GenCon
• Luke Crane - for sharing his insight about game design and autographing the first gaming book (Mouse Guard) my son ever purchased at a convention
• Brennan Taylor - for having a generous spirit towards new gamers
• Paul Tevis - for embodying the enthusiasm and joie de vivre that is GenCon

Since my first GenCon four years ago I have come to believe this event is more about the people than the games. It is great fun to play all those games, but it is the connections we make that sustain us throughout the long year until next August.

Follow Your Bliss,

JJ

Recommended Reading - Tales of the Dying Earth

One of the most beneficial outgrowths of my passion for RPGs has been my love of reading. Prior to my introduction to D&D I read comic books almost exclusively. Do not get me wrong; I LOVE comics. I also feel that reading comics is reading. Many of the superhero comic book stories I read growing up are still near and dear to my heart. I could not imagine anything better. That is until I started reading background material for playing D&D.

When I started playing D&DB, and later AD&D1, I really had no idea what it was all about. There were humans (ok, I can relate), elves (Santa's little helpers?), Dwarves (Grumpy? Sleepy?), and Halflings (huh?). All the primary classes were understandable enough except for the Cleric (which, ironically, was the first AD&D1 PC I played). I could relate to all the swords and sorcery in only the most general sense. I still enjoyed the game, but it still did not have a lot of depth.

I eventually came to learn that Halflings were modeled after Hobbits. Unlike most of my fellow freshmen, my English class did not read The Hobbit. It was not until my sophomore year that I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and even then, only as an extra credit assignment. I do have to thank Bro. Joseph (I went to a high school run by the Brothers of the Holy Cross) for pushing me to read those books; it plunged me into the sea of fantasy (and science fiction) literature that I so love to swim in.

Later (probably when I was a junior or senior in high school), as I explored the Deities & Demigods rule book, I chose to look into Elric as well as Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. I have the Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Club to thank for most of the compiled editions of these books and others. And later still I discovered the Inspirational and Educational Reading list in the back of the AD&D1 Dungeon Masters Guide (DMG Appendix N: pg. 224, if anyone is interested). From here I read about the Paladin in Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions. My list continued to grow from there.

In an effort to embrace the concept of Back to Basics that this blog is about, I decided to go back to this reading list and start working on items I have not yet read and revisit the ones I have to plunge beneath the service of this rich and creative sea of source material. I'll be sharing my experiences as I read these classic works of fiction. To start things off I have selected Jack Vance's Tales of the Dying Earth. This tome is actually a compilation of four novels in the series.

This series of books is most significant because it provides the source for early D&D's approach to magic. Spell casters must memorize or imprint the spells they wish to cast into their mind. Once the spell is cast it is gone from memory and must be memorized again if the Wizard or Cleric wishes to cast that particular spell again. This process has become dubbed 'fire and forget'. In addition, each caster may only retain a certain number of spells in their mind; this number increases with the level of the spell caster, equating level with real-world experience and practice. It is also known that Venca (of lichdom fame) is an anagram for Vance.

I picked up the book yesterday from the library and started reading it immediately. I was hooked before I finished the first paragraph. I'm only two chapters into it at this point, but I am thoroughly enjoying this read. I'll be sure to post more as I delve deeper into it's copious pages. Look for updates and more recommended reading suggestions in future posts.

Follow Your Bliss,

JJ

In The Beginning... (Part 2)

So, I had just discovered the most interesting game (D&D) I had ever heard of and had no way acquiring it. What was a fledgling gamer to do? The only recourse I had was to create a version of the game myself.

So I spent many long hours in my unfinished basement, a dark and solitary place (probably to help foster that dungeon atmosphere), working on my version of D&D. I created maps and made cut-out miniatures. I tried to imagine how to define the abilities of ghosts and other monsters. I had a lot of fun doing all this, but, ultimately, my efforts went nowhere (good thing the hobby wasn't depending on me to help get it off the ground). I eventually turned my attention elsewhere and forgot about D&D, but D&D didn't forget about me.

A short time later (exactly when I'll discuss shortly), as I remember it, I received a present from a neighborhood friend for my birthday. Low and behold it was a magenta (I always thought it more of a pink) box emblazoned with the title Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set (D&DB). This box featured the wonderful Erol Otus painting featuring two adventurers about to encounter a green dragon (I love even more the fact that this painting appeared within the cloud of a clairvoyance spell cast by a wizard which was used for the cover of the D&DX box set of the same edition). I was thrilled. It was more of a surprise because I don't remember telling anybody about this game or my desire to play it.

It's important for me to know when this happened. This was one of those pivotal points in my life; I want to understand it to its fullest. This transpired during the time that I moved from junior high school into high school. So many other things were changing then as well - my friends and my father's health just to name a few. I sometimes feel that I stepped onto a path at that juncture in my life, a path that is leading somewhere I can't yet see. I'm trying to better remember and understand my past to chart a solid course for the future.

I always thought this event took place in the late 70's, but according to acaeum.com this edition of D&DB (the 8th) was not released until 1981. This would put me in the second half of my 8th grade year of junior high school (I just realized the synchronicity of this occurrence - 8th edition in my 8th year of school, in my house we would call that a 'magic number'). I remember playing it over the summer with friends that did not attend the same high school to which I was enrolled. If I had received it for my birthday that year I would have already been in high school and therefore would not have played it with my junior high friends. I must have received it as a late gift or some such event that I'm blocking out of memory. For now I'll go with the year being 1981 when my passion for role-playing games was born.

Some might call it an obsession. It was not long after I received D&DB that I purchased (from the Sears toy department) the D&DX (with the cool, aforementioned Erol Otus cover) released the same year (as a side note, the first edition of D&DB was released in 1977 and D&DX was not released until 1981; imagine waiting 4 years before you could rise above 3rd level!). During my freshman year of high school I was introduced to AD&D1 (which was in full swing by then) and never looked back. By the end of high school I had all the core AD&D1 books, many modules, and my library was growing still. In college I began exploring games outside of the TSR line, but that is a story for another time.

With boxed set under my arm I set off on a journey that continues today, seeking high adventure in its many forms. And all is right in the realm.

Follow Your Bliss,

JJ

PS. I did eventually find a hobby store that carried role-playing games products. It was a store out in the suburbs of Cleveland, not far from my high school, that carried all the usual hobby supplies - models trains, planes and automobiles. It also had two book cases devoted to RPGs, right next to the war games. It was a small slice of Nirvana.

In The Beginning... (Part 1)

...Gygax & Arneson created Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). And all was right in the realm. Like many gamers of my generation, D&D is where it all started. Although I was not there at the groundbreaking I did arrive soon afterward.

D&D was well established as a cultural phenomenon by the late 1970's, which is when it first showed up on my radar. I have a clear memory of watching a local television program during the mid morning (probably during summer vactation). Featured on the program was a segment about a new game called Dungeons & Dragons. With a state-of-the-art flip-board drawing of a sample dungeon, the presenter discussed the basics of characters, monsters and dungeons.

Amazing, I thought, a game where the 'board' is different everytime you play! In fact, the board is only revealed as you play and each player has a unique character with which to explore this dungeon. Mind blowing. I had to have this game.

Even as a kid I loved games, all kinds of games. I loved games with lots of pieces, or as some have called them, fiddly-bits. The more fiddly-bits, the better the game. Games like Monopoly were ok, but I liked unusual games: Eacape from the Death Star, Happy Days, and the ever chic Welcome Back Kotter - Up Your Nose With A Rubber Hose game (if you don't believe me on the last two, check out the links to boardgamegeek.com and see for yourself). Only a couple of things stood between me and possessing this game: access to a hobby store and money.

As a pre-teen in the late 70's I had two ways of getting arround: my bicycle and the city buses. Growing up in Cleveland there were not many places to safely ride your bike outside of the Metroparks, which were nowhere near me. Not that that stopped me from riding unsafely (like on the I-90 freeway, for example - a story for another time). Though not as economical as my bike, the city buses were by far the safer and farther reaching option. That is, if you knew where you wanted to go.

This may be obvious to most, but there was no Google back then, let alone the Internet. You had to let your fingers do the walking if you were looking for a store you hadnever been to, and the Yellow Pages were not the most well-indexed tomes. That's really beside the point; had I truely wanted to find such a store I would have. The more problematic hurddle was money.

My father was a cobbler (the kind that worked with shoes, not desserts) and my mother a seamstress. They had worked out of a storefront a few miles from our home for a number of years before my father's health started failing. By this time, we were living on the disability checks, my dad's pension from Italy and whatever money my mom could make doing dress and clothing alterations from our home. We lived in a working class neighborhood and it is a testament to my mom's budgeting skills that we were as comforable as we were (somehow that budgeting gene missed me). Needless to say, I couldn't really afford such "frivaless things like games", as my mom would say (translated from Italian). Without money, what is a kid to do?

End Of Part 1

[Note: I will be typing a lot about my various experiences with all the editions of Dungeons & Dragons. To make thinks a little easier on my fingers and hopefully clarify which of the various editions I'm writing about, I plan to use the following abreviations within a post (for the Topic lables I'll replace the '&' with an 'n' since the ampersand won't work in a link):

• D&D - The Dungeons & Dragons RPG phenomenon as a whole
• D&DB - The Dungeons & Dragons Basic Rules Set
• D&DX - The Dungeons & Dragons Expert Rules Set
• D&DC - The Dungeons & Dragons Companion Rules Set
• D&DM - The Dungeons & Dragons Master Rules Set
• D&DI - The Dungeons & Dragons Immortals Rules Set
• D&DRC - The Dungeons & Dragons Rules Compendium
• AD&D - The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons line as a whole
• AD&D1 - The first edition of Advenced Dungeons & Dragons; subsequent editions will be labeled with the appropriate number; i.e., AD&D2 for second edition, AD&D3, etc.
• OD&D - The original Dungeons & Dragons game release and all of its supplements (Greyhawk, Blackmoor, etc.)

I hope this will help clarify things without making the situation too overly complex. Feedback is always welcome.]

Follow Your Bliss,

JJ

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About Me

I'm a 40-something, father of two, happily married gamer. I enjoy most things in the realm of geekdom from sci-fi/fantasy literature to film and animation. A long-time comic book collector, I have fondness in my heart for all heroes in tights, especially those that have worn the lightning bolt of the Flash. During my short stint as a podcaster I have had the pleasure to meet and converse with many luminaries from the fields of both RPGs and comic books.

I have played many of the myriad RPGs that have been published over the years and read through many more than I care to count. I look forward to sharing this world of imagination with my boys as they mature and strive to make the time to play many of the games I said I would get to "one day".

Throughout the course of this blog you will learn much more about me as I (hopefully) learn more about myself. Comments and discourse are always welcome from Followers of this blog.

Follow Your Bliss,
JJ

Posted with LifeCast