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Thursday, March 15, 2012

How I Run Games-

I don't claim to understand the Old School v. New School war's central division, and when I read posts about The Forge v. DIY OSR v. Indie, or Prog Rock v. Improv Jazz v. Garage Rock, I just wonder where my games fall along the spectrum.

If any of you have played an orthodox game of The Morrow Project, I think that will go a long way to describe where Urutsk is coming from. It is about military, scientific, and back-woodsy folk joining together to work towards pulling society back from the post-apocalyptic world that Ed Marrow foresaw as an inescapable inevitability of the future. These folks weren't paid oodles and gobs of money; why would they be? The cash would be worthless. Instead, they all followed the dream that putting together what good was fallen and broken was more important than fame or fortune. That's not the picaresque ideal of Adventurers. It may not even be Old School. Furthermore, these folks have no mechanical skill set as part of the game system. No list of d% chances to fix a bicycle or build an engine. All of that comes from the Player. That is Old School. The rest of the time one is standing around in their combat overalls not shooting giant wolverines, deadly flies, or radiant blue undead, one is expected to be chatting-up the locals -- descendants of the PCs and the era from whence they came. That sounds kinda New School to me.

If you've played a game of Skyrealms of Jorune, you feel where I'm coming from. You're not from here, but your people have been here for so long that the place you came from is just a myth, and if you were to make the trip there, it'd be a lifeless ball of slag. So, you live among the genetically engineered animals of that other place, among the world-altered fellow humans who now see and can weave the Chi of the planet Jorune due to their ability to conduct it masterfully, or others who can dull its effects through their sheer grounding ability. Aliens, too, have long been stranded on this crazy world, and haven't had as fine a time of it because they don't savvy teamwork and diplomacy; instead, they have slaver empires, are murderers who hide their blood madness with dyed forehead nodes, or are capitulators working only to save their twin-eye-stalked heads. The place will kill you dead in no time flat. Tech is super scarce. The few remaining indigenous Humanoids rightly fear your kind and sequester themselves away in mountaintop monasteries or deep jungle temples, gazing at the many colourful moons that dictate which Chi powers are in ascendancy. Going forward means making a go of it here, using native means, with non-Humans as allies and the occasional Human as a political enemy. OId School? New School?

If you've played Metamorphosis Alpha or Gamma World, you feel the burn of the past in your bones and blood. The changes that have been wrought are irrevocable, but not incapable of being overcome. New civilisations have arisen. Ruins may be abandoned and scavenged through, but new trade towns are growing in population behind walls. Merchants ply the trackless wastes to make contact with distant population centres, and dumb-ass adventurers are hired by barons to scout out distant dangers and bring back Ancient loot. Alignment Factions live their crazy creeds and kill to protect their secret languages and codes, either despising the former world or the new civilisations; the blight come upon humanity and the animals/plants, or embracing the chaotic radiance; hearing the voice of mad computer gods, or recognising the superiority of the android, the cyborg, the robot. Scavenging like cockroaches, or building something new; demolishing or wandering. New School or Old School?

I am a Simulationist GM with Narrativist sensibilities. Folks talk about their dreams and regrets, and then get their leg blown off. Everything is too real and surreal. The long term goals versus the immediate goals of survival. The diplomatic bungles and the limited ammo count. The utterly depraved, and the commonalities of intelligent aliens. Life and death.

This is how I define my games, and Urutsk in particular.

11 comments:

  1. Nothing about any of that particularly says New School vs. Old School to me, except perhaps that places that will kill you dead in no time flat with no chance to finish out your story tend to be Old School.

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    1. Yeah, I think that is true.

      The Morrow Project gave PCs, on average, 250 Body/Blood points, and most attacks did tens of damage, but several did hundreds, and a few did thousands.

      Gamma World gave an average character 35 Hit Points, but their melee and slug thrower attacks did a handful of HP damage, but then the Blasters did a handful of d6 of damage, and radiation and poison could kill instantly.

      Jorune was pretty deadly overall, less forgiving than either of the other two, IMO/IME.

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  2. "Folks talk about their dreams and regrets, and then get their leg blown off."

    Best. Quote. Ever.

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    1. Thanks. :)

      It is sad when well-liked NPC Squad members die, especially after living through so much crazy stuff and having great lines. Reminds me of the less heavy-handed war films.

      There are a few maimed NPCs and the PCs have gone through the wringer; we've had one PC death so far, but most of his injures that contributed to his death were optional activity related, then an explosive strapped to an arrow did him in.

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  3. Does old/new school really make much sense outside of the D&D context? I always admit to starting to feel that the definitions get too loose and ideological when you expand them to incorporate other games and worlds? Tekumel always had a set of different motivations (some appearing very new school narrativist) even when it was mechanically very much OD&D.

    At any rate, I like how you are thinking your way around the contours of your games and worlds. It's interesting to see and hear thoughtful people discuss that.

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    1. Chris, thanks. I enjoy thoughtful discussion, too, and the Old School group certain generate a fair amount of it, signal to noise ratio.

      As far as OS/NS, etc. Yeah, dunno. I really try and think of the entire hobby as a whole, but it does seem to break down at times.

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  4. Yeah, I don't know where I fall in these debates, either. As the 3.5 vs 4e war rages locally, my Moldvay Basic isn't even on the table unless I happen to be running it. As old schoolers wage their war against the recent editions... GURPS and/or the old microgames rarely merit any attention.

    I do love Gamma World, though. (3e is my fav... another heresy.) The only thing I know about Jorune is from the ads in Dragon Magazine that I ogled for years. That game looked so awesome. At any rate... I'm really looking forward to finally getting Urutsk. Sometimes I wonder how long you'll string me along, though.... ;)

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    1. I enjoy 3e GW, too, but my Players always get this glazed look in their eyes. Too bad it was hobbled out the gate with missing errata and so forth.

      The GURPS hate, too, is a mystery to me. I don't feel compelled to use every supplement or setting book's rules, but at the same time, I liked Man to Man the best out of all GURPS iterations. We used to integrate it almost seamlessly with 5th Edition Tunnels & Trolls, buying Skills and Advantages for our PCs.

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  5. Sounds great to me.

    I think my own game is more limited by prep time and my own experience as DM than ideology. I would love to have more npc interactions/intrigues but I'm sort of making the world under my players as we go. Still, they're having fun.

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    1. Their, and your, fun is all that ultimately matters. :)

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  6. No foolin', this is one of the most interesting posts I have read in a long time. Very insightful.

    And your comments about post apoc settings really reminds me a lot of experiences and encounters in Fallout 3 believe it or not, which I put several hours into this last weekend. Nice.

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