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.

Curiouser and Curiouser-

WHAT IS URUTSK?

On one level, Urutsk is a setting, both for gaming, as well as fiction. It is an Alternate Reality with all that implies, and has been cultivated for nearly thirty years; one in which the land masses are often discernible, but in which the Peoples have diverged enough so as to be unrecognisable. It is currently (the Autumn Era) a wetlands planet slightly smaller than our earth, slightly further away from Av the system star, and a significantly wetter, stormier world. Evidence suggests that Av has not always been the primary gravitational point in the 'system' and indigenous folk claim that the 'Worlds Wander.'

Not so much a Dungeons & Dragons draped game in sci-fi trappings as a game of Skyrealms of Jorune hybrid with Metamorphosis Alpha and Gamma World, Urutsk is primarily the story of the Vrun people who have returned to the periphery-system after their galactic empire literally exploded. Stranded on a world their experts maintain is one of their points of origin, these Vrun are the relatives of all the Human ethnicities of the planet, having been culled from the 'very best' of these diverse folk long ago and set amid the then-extant stars.

Urutsk owes much of its scattered inspiration from '60's and '70's Sci-Fi Film, Print, and TV sources, mixed together in a strange slurry and allowed to ferment. Shows like ARK 2, SPACE: 1999, STAR TREK, Buck Rodgers, Mission Impossible, AVENGERS, The Prisoner, The Starlost, SWAT, and EMERGENCY! are admixed with DC Comics John Carter Warlord of Mars, Marvel's Killraven, and Banshee-era X-MEN as well as a lot of indie-mags my older sister turned me onto.

Urutsk' first real session was a Sci-Fi one, and has progressed from a contemporary/near-future setting through at least seven thousand years of history. More than the perusal of simple reference work has gone into the philological basis of the setting's languages (Vrun being but one of a few to have received my care over the decades), and outstanding linguists have noted Vrun's facility as an actual, usable language not-derived from any contemporary or known ancient source. This stems in part from my multi-lingual upbringing and the love of language my parents possess(ed), as well as my own interests in the effects of symbols upon human psychology (including subliminals).

I do not advocate 'shake-and-bake' bottom-up, quick-fix solutions in game-world design as anything more than a stop-gap measure to be re-examined and altered so as to suit the Big Picture (preferably one's own Big Picture rather than simple variants of pulp and weird fantasy) of the setting. The confusing mass of ideas and inspirations must, IMO, culminate in a work that helps describe the creator as much as the intent of the work. M. A. R. Barker's Tekumel setting, although pored over by ideoarcheologists of the neo-old school bent, is poorly understood as anything else but a proto-D&D archetype, replete with Underworlds, Barbarians ignorant of the setting's details, and a place filled with 'oddball and gonzo' critters and items. True admirers of the Professor's work (Jeff Berry and the Aethervox crew, and among the various mailing lists devoted to the setting: Sally Abravanel, Brett Slocum, Peter Houston, Alva Hardison, etc.) have long seen past the superficial (and sad) comparisons to more staid mock-Western gaming settings, and can appreciate variance in society, culture, mores, and language.

It has been my recent pleasure and honour to game with others who can parse these differences and appreciate the Urutsk setting for its own sake. That isn't to say that a dungeon crawl can't be fun for these recently-met players, but rather, that they seem interested in something more and recognise the soul that has been poured into Urutsk.

Perhaps, you too, are looking for something other than elves, dwarves, and hobb--halflings, and always expected more from a setting? Then, Urutsk may be a destination you would like to explore. I am running a regular game schedule on Google+: Wed/Fri, and Thursday beginning around 8:30-9:30 PM depending upon the players' schedules. The two games are separate but contemporary 'streams'. All times are -5 GMT/Eastern USA

We look forward to seeing you there.

*{Ramble}*[RPG] Hard Limits, Starting Characters & Background in Context--

I realise the following contains references you folks don't yet have available, but I occasionally write these, 'for the record', as it were. I hope it is at least moderately interesting.

After 'refreshing' the Spectral Index to make it more intuitive, I rolled up a 'long-form' character and spotted a tweak or two in the order of tables, or a formatting glitch that needed correcting.
--I then decided to see if the background skills (Environmental Activities, and Training points) could be abused RaW, and when I saw that it could, I then placed a hard limit on the letter code (skill level in common parlance) that could be purchased. Now (although 'levelled' figures can increase Training through Adventure Points), starting folk (such as NPCs and the Base PC), cannot be more than an average of 75% proficient in any given Activity. When I upload the Spectral Index this will all make good sense.

I must make certain that even casual readers of the Players' Manual will not be able to confuse the 'long form' character generation routine with the 'roll-and-go' (ostensibly 'old school') method which allows for importation of many/most other 3d6-based characters.
--That EPT thread on Dragonsfoot sent shivers down my spine. I don't want to deal with anything of the sort.

My decision to switch over to a Gamma World scale for a figure's 'HPs' and weapons damage makes me very happy, and opens up a lot of great official and fan-based GW material for cross-pollination, so to speak.
--Since I've always favoured GW over D&D, this is a sort of 'homecoming' for me in a similar way to many OS bloggers'/gamers' re-discovery of 'the old ways.' That Mutant Future is enjoying the fan-success that it is only bolsters my confidence in my decision.

Now, parallel to that change, the implementation of many of the ideas/principles found in Ward's MA articles in The Dragon, and a general memory of Jorune chargen, 'long form' PCs are very playable without one drop of Point Design prior to game-start, which was one of my goals that hadn't been made clear in the beta .pdf, to my chagrin.

Since UWoM is another creature altogether, and I am not in the Orthodox Old School church, ;) I strongly believe in games that have official settings:

* Tekumel
* Greyhawk (don't kid yourselves, you know 1e was keyed to reflect Greyhawk)
* The Vilani Imperium
* Glorantha
* The Warden
* Gamma Earth/Terra via its series of adventures literally expanding the known world's map
* The Morrow Project's earth
* The world of Palladium
* Car Wars' earth
* Jorune, among others.

--Having a strong setting in no way diminishes one's ability to 'sandbox', and some of the above required one to do so if only due to the grandeur of the setting.

With a strong setting comes the knowledge of the world's baseline and the origins from whence a character arose. The parents/guardians, the local environs, pastimes and home-education in familial trades/crafts and culture-ways, as well as years of hearing of the daily goings-on 'at work', if not actually apprenticing in that field. Then the local society and its concerns, diversions, interests, mores and standards of conduct, pastimes, philosophies, religious thoughts and ideals (if any), sexual congress rites, and burial practises, etc.
--In game terms, even if a young (teens) character is rolled, these things are already resident within the person, and figure into their ability to navigate the considerable dangers upon Urutsk, while the player is still the one in charge, and the one challenged. The details of a character's background are a goldmine for gaming possibilities.

So, for gamers who enjoy Urutsk as a backdrop, but want to roll 3d6 six times in order and optionally pick a class, it'll work fine, as will it for folks who'll find rolling up a native in their full glory to be rather nifty.

[Gaming] Qadardalikoi & Pre-TSR EPT !

My friend, Jeff Berry, (co-)author of the Qadardalikoi Tekumel wargame rules set, sent me a copy of those rules, and a printed scan of mimeographed, pre-TSR Empire.

Jeff also painted a paler version of my N'luss character; her 'sister' appears in his game.
--I hope to have scans and photos to post next day or three.

[Beyond beaming,] all I can say to folks who suggest that Old School was 'simple' or 'rules-light', clearly were kept in very small (and strange) circles.
--Details on true settings make the play more tangible, and the game-reality more concrete and 'alive.' Tekumel, Glorantha, and (the Silver-, or Bronze-age) Jorune, being those that leap readily to mind.

...more cowbell!

[General][Gaming] "But You're Wrong, Steve. You See, It's Only Solitare"-

It is confirmed that Wojo/Vysh' s player is moving upstate for better employment. :)
--I hope to have his last session, this Friday, be memorable for him.

Part of my Classic-Play years were spent listening to a LOT of Jethro Tull, and as I type this, Chequred Flag, off of the Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll, Too Young to Die album, is just ending, and Warchild is beginning.
--Not only do certain albums/songs remind me of certain times and games, but they seem to re-activate centres in my brain with the same sort of creative energies present then.

My mother, of all people, reminded me that I ran a lot of Call of Cthulhu (two or more years of 36-hour sessions each weekend), far removed from the 'right way' of dealing with the Mythos, but a method that kept even the more jaded GMs and picky players coming back.
--What was I doing then that worked so well, and had I lost it in the meanwhile?
---Happily, no, I still have the mental film projector playing in my mind, and am able to articulate it in 'real-time' keeping the PCs on their toes as much as Indy was forced to be back in Raiders, while keeping them totally off-kilter as regards what's around the next turn.

It's not in the holy writ of mouldering and soft-drink stained folio sized booklets, kids. Rather, it is in your noggin and in your heart. Loving the scenes you are describing. It seems to me, that unless you love the game you are running, you cannot expect your players to give much of a good golly about it, either.
--Formulae, charts, and reconstituting a 'lost art' through philosophising the perceived intent of other, now departed, game-players turned 'pros' is a deathtrap, in my worthless opinion.

So, what do I have planned for Friday? I can't tell you that, because now a few of my play group have the URL to this blog, but I can tell you that I am already thinking of the to-be-published Adventure Locations and how they are going to be set up, and even what they'll look like, whether I digi-paint the covers myself, or I continue to utilise Peter Mullen's excellent artistic tallents, or grab the talents of other great artists available in the Classic-Play community and elseswhere.
--To that end, I have made a contact of a local printer and wargamer, and need to discuss the technomantic page layout-look I am seeking for in Autumn Garden Vol. I. I'll need to get my Wacom digital tablet to communicate with my PC again, and then give this guy my roughs rendered in the various art programmes I've fiddled with for over a decade.

Furthermore, I have found a means of securing an actual boxed game release venue ready for brick and mortar stores, as well as selling them out of my home. This prospect, filling a boxed set with custom dice and up to date catalogue and other bit-inserts, thrills me with the same sort of giddiness that I felt when a really cool game caught my eye on The Compleat Strategist, Davie, Florida store when I was a wee cur in my tender teens.
--Likewise, cardboard figures have now progressed to the point where custom artwork can result in game-specific runs, Print on Demand, so that's pretty toe-curling (except my freshly broken one, that is).

Time for chocolate! :D

[RPG] Discussion of the Nature of the Game & What to Expect-

Today, I hope to write-up a few of my Life Lab random creatures for Friday's game. I know the simultaneous and interlaced 8 die set of tables has worked well enough, but by cranking out a few critters I hope to put a first polish on the thing. The decision to allow the Referee to create their own creatures wasn't solely based on the fact that I don't anticipate writing up two and one-half score monsters to make the book 'complete' any more than I plan on writing my own versions of spells -- you folks have plenty of critters and spells available to run this in your own ways. However, I think that the Life Lab will prove more useful in the long run to the Referee than simply including an initial large list of critters. I try and help others 'empower' their games.
That isn't to say that I won't be producing setting-specific spells and creatures, but rather, that it isn't as high a priority to meet the same standard 50+ monsters and 5+ levels of spells for two caster classes as have the recent Retro Clones and Simulacra.
It is perhaps best to think of UWoM as an Arduinian sort of bolt-on accessory to your existing rules set, although, like Arduin, it will contain my own rules-set as a sort of variants offering to the community -- just like it used to be in the olden days when I was but a youff'.

Likewise, since my vehicle rules use a slight variation on my creature format, it means that I have less work to do when the time comes to write-up the Morrenhom Stryders and what few war wagons exist in the early Autumn era.

Also, unlike the recent bout of games in the Classic/Old/Disco/Punk-era vein, and much more like beloved Empire of the Petal Throne, and Skyrealms of Jorune, it has a very distinct setting to it. While I can understand and appreciate the mentality that setting-less-ness is a hallmark of the Punk-era games (again, Tekumel a conspicuous exception), by the time I really was in full omnivorous RPG swing, there was an increased tendency to include more details of a setting with/within games. I would argue that the Starship Warden and even Gamma Terra were settings, and these are almost as old as the hills, as they say.

Is there a story to the setting? Yes and No. In my fiction, it is all pointing to a specific 'big picture', but I have intentionally not pinned the play of the game in any specific direction, as the setting is literally galactic and multi-dimensional in nature, all there for play-groups to explore and define and create as they please. In essence, I've opened a scrying pool into another reality and left it up to you, the reader, to do with as seems best to your sensibilities.
While I hope to continue to expand the material into the latter Autumn era and into Winter, Spring, and Summer, I very well may never complete that work, and it still wouldn't hamper the game. Although new rules/guidelines for dealing with the changing technology and other assorted things that mark the setting's progression would appear, it will all be modular and capable of being used independently in your established games, regardless of which rules-set(s) you employ.

So, ultimately, I'm neither concerned with UWoM being 'OS' (or whatever), nor it possibly being labelled 'too exotic' as has been the case with both EPT and Jorune.

Friday Pre-Game Monologue-

Hi,

* Ken has said that my questions actually forced him to think, so that is causing the delay. Let us take that as a positive sign.

* I have been expanding the role of the Ancients in shaping the PCs through four d% rolls to determine actual heritage, and the possibility of Imperial Legacy. Through this, I hope the little hints help form the image of the evolution of the setting, and how unique aberrations can develop into systematised mental routines or defining physical traits.
This is one reason why I think the subsequent book on Aberrations is necessary, as the full extent of the genetics-theme in the setting could easily drown the fantastical/adventurous, if included in the core rules -- and, may not even appeal to some play groups. By packaging it separately, it can play whatever role a given group assigns it in their game.

* It looks as if it was propitious timing for me to have started the APG secondary-characters, as Tybalt's player will not be present, again.
The new Apothecary 2ndary was happily fortunate to have rolled as an ancestor a Medical Officer, and along with the odd dreams and deja-vu, she gains a degree of competence at related Tests.
Ashta's ancestor was a Ship's Superstructure Technician, which immediately suggests a link to the Yirinn/Dryvv, and makes her Western Isles Vrun ancestry even more interesting.

* I need to think of which creatures will make the final cut of the book. Recent grog-hive-mind consciousness has informed me of the importance of a select and defining group of regular miscreants and inimicals upon whose weapons the PCs may fling themselves.

* Thinking of where I ought to look among my stuff, to find my copy of Jorune.

* When this work is complete, I think I'd like to run a Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes - Villains & Vigilantes crossover game. Likely just a mini-series (5-session?) affair, with pre-generated characters, likely on based on my most loved Bill Willingham Elementals setting.

[RPG] & [MISC.] UWoM and Old School-

(c) Copyright 2009 Kyrinn S. Eis All Rights Reserved

In today's post on the Worshop thread, I describe last night's thrilling adventure.

One item of character creation that had completely slipped my mind whilst working on the Point-Design system was a method employed in Basic Fantasy RPG's 2008 Almanack for variant classes, such as the Barbarian's 'double Str mod to hit and damage' and 'double Dex mod to AC while unburdened with armor'.
Fortunately, in UWoM, this is easily rectified through the use of dedicated Focus points, purchased at a 25% discount, to accomplish the same effect. Likewise the Ranger's 'double Dex mod to hit with a Longbow.', etc.

Ironically, I find myself using an unorthodox method of determining an encounter's severity: rolling 1d12. Why a d12? I imagine it is a clock-based meme, and I also use it to determine more precise direction, as was used in last night's adventure when Tybalt made a leaping attack onto a giant flightless bird.
I told his player that on an 11-1, he would be facing it head on, and that it would get an 'attack of opportunity' > shudder at the TETSNBN reference <. The player, Mike, looked at me in puzzlement, "On an 11 through 1? That means only on a 12 I'll get by without an attack?" I laughed and clarified, and all was laughs until he rolled a 12 on the die. Fortunately, the thing rolled a 1 on its d20, and Tybalt rolled a critical on his 3x Stealth Attack. Snap!
So, for all of my standardisation in getting rid of the quirky n in d6 mechanics, I use clock-memed d12s to determine both intensiy and direction. Along similar lines, I think a limited d6 mechanic may show-up in the system. One keyed to the Blood/Nature of the character, as is present in its sister (non-OS) system.
I realise folks like James Maliszewski of Grognardia may not feel that UWoM is mechanically Old School, if only for the Point-Design system, but I think that is perhaps misplaced pre-judgment not talking everything else into account -- and for good reason, given how little has been unveiled. I do wonder, though, if he extends Old School appelation to Skyrealms of Jorune. My guess is, 'no.' If that is the case, I can certainly understand 'grogs' not feeling that UWoM is OS.

I am saddened to think that World of Thool, with its marsupial gnomes, may be on an extended, or dare I write, permanent hiatus. That is one blog I would really lament the death of.
Please come back! The linguo-spores need a voice!

In other, semi-Old School news, I purchased Dennis 'Chariot of the' Sustare's SWORDBEARER for the third-time (the other two having been lost to time), but only got the two books (better them than nothing, although the box art was pretty cool, too).
There is just something about that game that I am mystified by and attracted to...