And what a frontpage it is.

One of the new games I’ve been looking forward to, 44 – A Game of Automatic Fear, has been relased as a free PDF by its author Matt Snyder.

44 is a no-prep dystopian game with a built-in countdown mechanic that adds to the overall paranoia. Its default setting is 50s cold war with clunky technology and trenchcoats, but Snyder suggests that other settings work just as well.

The premise of 44 is that humanity is being taken over by machines/robots/androids in a government(?) conspiracy run by the mysterious “Section 44″. And as the game progresses that’s what actually happens. The player characters are slowly but steadily being replaced by Section 44’s robotic agents, or whatever flavour you decide your machines are in your game. It could just as easy be Invasion of the Body Snatchers plant people as it could be cyborgs or androids or clones.

Matt Snyder is of course the man behind the story game classic Dust Devils, and the less accessible but very interesting Nine Worlds. 44 is in many ways simpler, but still has that Snyder touch, which is hard to explain. It’s very structured freeform with plenty of space to think tactically. Impossible? Nah.

In a recent very interesting interview, Luke Crane got to comment a bit on the term story games. Luke finds the term divisive in as much as roleplaying games and story games are essentially the same thing, and story games is mostly a marketing term. Why divisive? Because, says Luke, “it allows traditional roleplaying gamers to say ‘we’re not story gamers’ and story gamers to say ‘we’re not roleplaying gamers’. On either end of that spectrum it’s true, but in the middle most of us play both. Most of us play D&D and Dogs in the Vineyard.”
I think that’s very true, and I myself used to belong in that middle, but not anymore. I’m now firmly rooted at the story games end of that spectrum, but I don’t mind anyone not being that. The term story game makes sense to me.

Let’s face it, roleplaying games is a bad term. It means a thousand different things, and only if you are deeply rooted within gamer culture since red box D&D will you understand what I, Per, mean by it. So, I’m saying that using the term roleplaying game within the gamer community can make sense, sometimes with only little extra explanation, but not even that is certain. But outside, among normal people, you’re are immediately entering a minefield of misunderstandings that basically hinders you communicating what you mean by it. Making use of another term, like story game or even social storytelling, bypasses that initial wall of misunderstanding, and that has to be a good thing.

Why communicate with people outside the “gaming community”? Because if I can have fun and be creatively challenged and entertained by story games, so can they.

But, as Luke describes in the interview, the term story game is problematic as well. Luke says: “The idea of story in a roleplaying game is problematic as well, in that we are not sitting dow and telling a predetermined story, there’s not some set path that we’re following. [...] This is something where story is the result of play.”

I agree completely, but I don’t agree that the story isn’t there until after the game. It’s being created, moment by moment, while playing, as a result of real people’s interaction with the game mechanics and each other.

I finally got around to get a Sorcerer game together, which is something I promised to two of the players, Gregor and Steve, back in March. That’s how slow I am. The third player will be Cat, a friend of Gregor and Steve’s, who I haven’t had the pleasure of gaming with before.

We decided to play in a London 1880-inspired setting that was originally thought up by Peter Dyring-Olsen for a game that never happened. But I thought the idea was very interesing, and so did my players, so I have written a one-sheet for it.

I’m not doing any prep at this point, not even deciding on a rough relationship-map. That’ll happen when we’ve met for the first time and created some player characters.

Sorcerer 1880 One-sheet

Whoops, you take a break and then six months have passed. I took time off from gaming after Conpulsion 09, and haven’t really done anything since, except lurking on SG and the Forge. Gregor contacted me from GenCon that the revised version of Trollbabe was out and if I wanted a copy. Well, hell yes. It turned out that Ron’s new pulp fantasy game, the horribly HORRIBLY titled S/Lay w/Me, was out as well, and Gregor thankfully brought home one of those as well.

Not finished Trollbabe 2 yet, but S/Lay can be read in less than 30 minutes, and it rocks big time. I can’t wait to try it out. The game is a ‘twosie’, ie. for two players, a GM-kinda role and a player-kinda role, which are switched between adventures, something Edwards calls “phantasmagoric face to face roleplaying”. Never mind the title, the unreadable title font and the artwork. As always, there are golden roleplaying advice in this little book. It’s a ‘return’ to 70s fantasy before the genre became popular and indeed part of popular culture, something that Ron never forgave popular culture. But at the same time it’s an ultra-modern story now game.

We’ll be running a Games On Demand offer through this year’s Conpulsion as well, offering all those strange weirdo hippie games that laugh in the face of what we think RPGs should be.

Last year was a blast – one of the best cons I’ve been to, and I played in every day slot. I’m going to offer different games this year, and not Burning Empires because I’ve played that demo scenario four times now. But Mouse Guard of course. Could easily see myself playing nothing but MG all weekend.

I also dug Greg Stolze’s Executive Decision up – haven’t had a chance to play it yet.

Games on offer so far this year are: Poison’d, Classroom Deathmatch, Storming The Wizard’s Tower, Sign In Stranger, Mouse Guard, Serial Homicide Unit, Dirty Secrets, Executive Decision, Primetime Adventures, InSpectres, Hot War, Dead of Night, Contenders, Piledrivers & Powerbombs, Labyrinths & Lycanthropes, and perhaps 3:16 and Baron Munchausen. What a buffet!

If you read this and is going to Conpulsion, and is willing to run games under GOD, let me know asap.

I have been waiting for this game since I heard an interview with the creators a good while ago. Back then the game was only called Serial, and wasn’t entirely finished. Last week it was released in electronic format only, which totally makes sense because the game text, the instructions how to play, are audio files. Serial Homicide Unit is an even less prep no-prep game than usual, because you don’t even have to read the rules before you play – you can literally sit down and play along following the instructions in the audio clips. And that’s one hell of a selling point. You still need to buy the rules, of course.

For a mere $15 you get 14 audio files in mp3-format, 5 PDF files with rules references and help sheets, and a readme file.

SHU is a game about catching a serial killer – no one knows who the killer is beforehand, everything is disclosed via player-created clues from the crime scenes of the killer’s victims. And there is no guarantee the killer will be caught, that’s up to the police work of the SHU. Kat Miller, who wrote the game, is a big fan of CSI – I’m absolutely not, but I’m still very interested in playing this game, and it’s from CSI the inspiration for the details, the clues and the slow build-up of a case against the perpetrator.

Compared to Annalise, which I wrote about yesterday, there are quite a few similarities but SHU is much much simpler. SHU is broadly split into two sections: one section is where the players portray civilians that only have one thing in common: a profile. All these civilians will randomly fall prey to the killer as the game progresses. Every time a round of civilian scenes have been played out, one of their names will be drawn and will be the killer’s latest victim, and this cycle of murder will continue until the killer has been caught or all the civilians are dead. Nasty. I like it.

The game’s other section is the solving of the murders. In this section the players portray elite criminal investigators. There’s only one kind of scene in this section, which is a meeting between the investigators and in which players make up clues from the latest crime scene. So, a player  could simply state, “There’s a smear of blood mixed with Heinz Baked Beans along the corridor all the way to the victim’s feet.” Or simply, “The victime has been shot three times at close range with a small caliber.” Or whatever you fancy. Your inspiration is every cop show or movie or comic or book you have ever come across. All the clues are listed together into chains of evidence that may or may not in the end catch the killer. The more clues in a chain of evidence, the more likely it is to succeed against a suspect when your police force decides to indict someone.

This sounds(!) like it could be a very compelling, emotional and tense game experience, and I can’t wait to try this either. The structure of SHU makes it very easy to adapt to a play-by-post format if anyone out there is interested.

While waiting for the print version of Mouse Guard, and doing some more development on my police adaptation of it, I bought a couple of new games over the holiday period. The first one was Annalise and then I bought Serial Homicide Unit. Let’s take Annalise first.

Now, it’s no secret that I left a certain flavour of roleplaying behind around 2002. The kind of game where the plot and in-game events are predetermined and where one of the players has the role of being “GM” who in the end decides both in-game events and conflict outcomes and has the final say rules-wise, where the GM is a stand-in for “the System”. In short I consider this a deadly, dysfunctional combo able to kill off any joy and pleasure regarding roleplaying. I might add that I used to think this was the only possible way to roleplay, and I played like that for probably 15 years. What has this to do with these two new games? Quite a lot, because both Annalise and Serial operate without any predetermnation of plot, events, characters, and yet they are both game genres where the player group is solving a mystery.

Annalise is written by Nathan D. Paoletta, who also wrote a game called Timestream and the much talked about Carry – A Game About War. Personally I missed completely when Annalise was released, for two specific reasons: it’s written as a vampire-themed game, and I don’t like vampire-themed games. Plus, I think the title of the game is 100% awful, almost enough for me not to want to buy, read or play it. Maybe Annalise sounds slightly more intriguing of you are American, but to me it’s just a bit daft. I’m also not sure why the game is called Annalise at all, I’ll have to assume that it’s the name of a character that propped up during playtest ot whatever. If that’s the case, I wouldn’t recommend naming your game like that. I want the name to give me a clue about the game. Like Carry – A Game About War or Timestream.

But then I came across this rather cool AP report on The Forge. The PDF is only $12, so what the heck.

I’m still digesting the game text, and after one read I don’t feel confident enough to try and get a game going. But basically it’s a game without a GM in a traditional sense. You can play two to four players, and your player characters are protagonists in what Nathan calls “a Vampire story”. Meaning that soemwhere out there, in the life of the protagonists, there’s a vampire who preys on their vulnerabilities. I’m pretty sure that you can use this vampire metaphor for many other things, and that’s what I’m interested in. The players create characters from scratch and narrate setting and othe elements into the fiction, some of which can be “Claimed” by the players and used later. Each scene focuses on one of the player characters while another player is the “scene guide”, managing GM duties for that scene, as in describing surroundings, other characters etc. Who or what the vampire is is not determind from the beginning, but this shady character will slowly emerge as play progresses and the fiction is created.

Annalise runs on a fairly intricate system where the players can influence the fiction and define “Moments” in the game. Right now I haven’t got a clue how it actually works, it’s not that obvious by simply reading the game text, but at the moment I’m curious and interested.

I just finished reading Mouse Guard and watching the second season of The Wire. I guess you know where this is going, right? I couldn’t fall asleep last night and lay awake for three hours thinking about how perfect the Mouse Guard mechanics would be for a The Wire style game. This is what I’ve got so far, and if you haven’t read Mouse Guard or Burning Empires you may well be struggling already at what the heck I’m babbllng about.

One of the main things about The Wire is that a case investigation lasts a whole season, where the detectives gather evidence bit by bit over a long period of time. The Burning (whatever) system of eating away at a disposition suits this incredibly well, so I guess Burning Empires would be just as good a fit for this, but MG is more refined, more honed, simply: better. What I would like to nick from BE is the phase disposition – in this game that will tell us how well the case has been solved,  but more on that later

So, the big kahuna, the case, the investigation that overarches the whole thing and lasts for many sessions is the seasons. Every time the GM uses a twist based on the case, you move one space forward in the big picture, and when you reach the end the case is closed, whether it’s solved or not. Sometimes the bad guys get away, and that’s fine. In this the police version you have to start from the beginning, of course, whereas in MG you can start in any season. The player group may determine from the outset how many sessions the want the case to last.

That leaves the winter season. I’m not sure whether I need to bring that over, but just have Beginning, Middle and End as the “seasons” in the police game. The middle would then be extra long and hard, like so for example:

Beginning (3) – two sessions
Middle (5) – four sessions
End – (4) – two sessions

Every game session will be a GM-set mission turn and a player turn, just like normal MG, which is also perfect for this. And after each full session each side gets to try and eat away at the “case disposition” – the players for the police side and the GM for the criminals’ side.

Mission problems: case, location, authorities, people.

Tears In Rain (PDF)

My old blog has been shut down, and the files there are no longer available. This is the current version of my Blade Runner hack for Trollbabe.

Peter, Søren and I are playing Sorcerer via Skype again, this time in a London anno 1880 setting primarily dreamt up by Peter, who also agreed to GM this time. This looks very promising indeed, and this is my player character.

The Most Reverend William Charles Temple, bishop at Westminster Abbey.
STA 3 Reliance on medicines
WILL 3 Upper class
LORE 4 Solitary Adept
COVER 3 Anglican Bishop
HUM 3
Price: Pompous (-1 to social rolls among commoners)
Telltale: Neck cloth coloured in blood.

Back of character sheet:
Dean Starkey and Lady Starkey (COVER), Ivy McNeil (sister) and Fergus McNeil (financier), Herbert M Temple MP (brother), Archibald Dickens, London House, (PRICE), Stone Tablet from British Museum, Hazel Miller (LORE), Mr X, Letter from Mr X (Kicker).

Kicker
William, dressed in civil clothes, is on his way home from a late visit at Ms Miller’s. Temple’s knees are shaking because they have had carnal pleasure for the first time, and Hazel – Ms Miller – showed him how not to make her with child. A well-dressed gentleman approaches him and hands him a sealed letter with the words: “I believe this is for you, Sir,” whereafter said gentleman disappears in the London night. The seal bears a mark unlike anything William has ever seen.
As soon as William is safely home in his London home, and has changed into his night gown, he carefully opens the letter without damaging the wax seal. It is written in blue ink on very thick paper.
“Sir,
And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.
And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also.

A package containing a description of Your recent – We are at a loss as to how to classify them, even describe them – shall We say ‘activities’, has been deposited with the London Times newspaper, only to be opened on two occasions, namely in case of anything unfortunate happening to the bearer of this letter or by direct instructions from Us.

Fortunately, We have arranged for a comfortable modus vivendi to avoid said contents ever to see the frontpage of the London Times. You will commence by donating your entire salary to Us.

As a lamb, you have been separated from the fold, blamed the shepherd from not keeping you safe and now among wolves, hiding, afraid, praying never to have left.

Most sincerely,”

Demon: Signet Ring (no name). Object.
Thick gold ring with pre-Christian symbol.
LORE 3
STA 3
WILL 4
POW 4
Abilities: Hint, Cloak, Special Dmg (acid holy water) – William the user in all three.
Telltale: Symbol on ring disappears.
Desire: Knowledge Need: Touch female skin.