L5R RPG Campaign

I've been running an L5R Campaign for the group (six of us total now), and while it's been moving slow, I think the player-based style is perfect for L5R. In fact, I intend a post soon about how L5R can be a STORY GAME.

In the mean time, the players are embroiled in a "murder mystery" and they've all come to take very different Points of View on what has exactly happened.

I'd rather wait to post what's going on, until the players reach a milestone in the story, since some of them read this blog.

Attention Game Designers

AEG is looking for innovative new designs for a line of board games releasing in 2010 and 2011. The games are set in a renaissance city, and the mechanics and theme of the individual designs can explore various aspects of life in the city, (mercantilism, politics, crime, war, etc.) From board, card, or other games we are not limiting the type of games we are looking at. As far as play style or experience it could include any style of play from resource management, economics, area control, and more. Euro-style and American nothing is off the table as long as it is fun. Innovation is a bonus!

If you will be attending Essen and think you have a game that fits please come visit the AEG booth 9-70 and ask for Todd Rowland or Mark Wootton.

If you will not be attending but would like to submit a prototype to AEG please e-mail customerservice@alderac.com and we will get you a game submission form right away.
AEG is also looking at other less specific games for our 2011 and 2012 schedule. Again the only limiting factor is that it is fun. We look forward to meeting you and playing your games.

Fear the Boot Interview

jim pinto appears courtesy of Capital Records.

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Update

Hey Everyone. I've been really sick since GENCON, so I'm behind on everything. Our board game division is making headway in the industry. And soon I'll be able to share some cool news about forthcoming projects.

RPG Earth will continue soon.

Thanks for your patience.

Labor Day Weekend : Gateway

I always alert people that I'll be at the local convention (LAX Radisson), but no one ever shows up to playtest and/or hang with us.

So.

Forget you, this time.

Jerks.

In all seriousness, I hope to have four games to show off. Finger's crossed.

Aug/Sept 2009

Gencon nearly killed me. I got sick coming back and now, two weeks later, I'm still not feeling well.

"Damn you working from home and not being exposed to germs often enough."

That said, I'm buried with work on Infinite City and Thunderstone. After that, I have to get a few new board game designs into playtest and then share them at Gateway 2009.

So... all really bad excuses for not posting, but I throw myself on your humble mercy. Both of you.

GenCon 2009

I'll be leaving at 7am on Wednesday to fly to Gencon. I'll be working the AEG booth the entire time, so feel free to visit. I'll be the guy who makes it look easy.

D&D : My Love-Hate Affair

I'm about to say something apocryphal. Something that gamers never live down. But I'm going to say it and deal with the consequences.

I resent all of my years of playing D&D.

Let that digest.

Okay... feeling better yet?

No?

I'll give you a moment.

Okay?

Now.

And now let me explain.

Being trapped somewhere between a liberal education and a jaded world view, my desire to game stems from a much different place than most. I have no interest in reliving the Lord of the Rings books, I hate The Princess Bride, Monty Python stopped being funny when everyone started quoting it, and Conan was just… okay.

All four of those statements would have me strung up at Gencon, if uttered aloud. And for the author of the WLD to publish them publically, that's a big dose of what the hell!?!?

Now. Let me copy something from the intro of the Ultimate Toolbox…

I can remember my fascination with charts and tables going back to high school gaming. Even before that I had a love affair with baseball statistics and numbers. Heck, I used to read encyclopedia entries for fun. When I saw the potential for a random name generator in my fantasy roleplaying (at the age of 12), I didn’t let my lack of understanding about dipthongs and bilabial tones stop me from making the world’s worst graph of syllables, consonants, and vowels.

My fascination with charts died when I got to college where I was writing stories, rather than building complex game worlds. Certainly they would always be my mistress, as some of my past designs and campaigns would suggest, but I never loved them with the same enthusiasm... only turning to them before a game, never during.

All of that changed when I started working on the 7th Sea and Legend of the Five Rings roleplaying games. All of a sudden, I found myself buying reference books again, pouring over foreign language dictionaries, and letting myself get inspired by something as simple as a song title or lyric. Inspiration was everywhere and once again I was a sponge, soaking up the data that would be used for great adventures.

This book is a culmination of years of not just gaming, but the inspiration for that gaming—both my side of the table as well as Jeff’s and Dawn’s. This book is packed with stuff. I wish there was more, to be honest.

Now. This is all a lot of disclaimer nonsense. Let me get to the point of my post.

D&D is not the game for me and never has been. It took me over 20 years to understand this. Instead of seeking out gamers that were like me (they don't exist anyway, but whatever… that's another post), I kept trying to fit other gamers into my play style. And in order to game with anyone in the realms of sorcery and magically hoopie-do, I needed to use the tool everyone else knew… D&D.

But D&D never felt right. I don't care about keeping track of arrows. Grell's don't make any sense. I don't really think watching someone roll a 1d20 is fun. Why are we going to another tavern? Keeping track of attack bonuses from 17 different +1 items is not a story to me. Being forced to wear armor when I'm not a knight is lame. I'm sorry.

The game mechanics of D&D always came before the logic of a fantasy setting or the interest of a good story. D&D placed limits on creativity by forcing me to always go on the adventure that was always mapped out for me. [Sandbox games weren't a term yet, but I was already running them.] I never could put a finger on it, but D&D didn't fill the void that needed filling.... hmmm.... there's a better way to write that.

And while Vampire was a great idea, everyone that played it near me was waaaay too into it. You know what that means.

It would be years before Luke Crane would write Burning Wheel or Dogs in the Vineyard would scorch a path across the gaming frontier. The 80s and 90s were unkind to creative-types, but heavily favored gamers who loved "crunchy numbers." GURPS, anything FASA, Rolemaster, Palladium, the list goes on.

I had the pleasure of gaming with my good friend Lenny (among others) from 1995 to 2005, telling some fantastic stories in that time. Looking back, we played a lot of D&D, when we should have been playing Barony, or Good Guys Finish Last, or Psychosis, or Lost Souls, or Whispering Vault or Kult or a bevy of other off-broadway games that always placed story and character at the apex of the game… not initiative, move-equivalent actions, and Health checks.

God. What a waste.

I really don't have a point here. I'm sorry. I just wish I could go back and time and get all those hours of D&D back and use them for good… instead of mediocrity.

If you're enjoying D&D. Great. But it's not for me. Never was. And I wish I'd known better… or someone had said something to me. Man. Now the Tomb of Horrors is even lamer.

ASIDE: While I was first writing this (months ago), Dave Arneson passed away. And I owe so much to the fact that he inspired the first nuggets of what it is that I'm talking about here. Let me be clear that I love what has been done for this hobby. But I spent a lot of my "hobby time" trying to make this square peg fit into my round hole… wait… that's not how I want to say that… damn it. Erase. Erase.

RPG Antigua and Barbuda

Antigua and Barbuda are a pair of islands in the Lesser Antilles Archipelago of the Caribbean.

Despite it's high levels of tourism, the islands is best known for its sugar windmills, due to the extensive sugar plantations on the islands. Historically, Antigua is another microcosm of the slave trade in the Caribbean and colonial expansion. Antigua fits best into game campaigns that aren't necessary "squeaky clean" fantasy that's been sanitized from issues of Hegemony, slavery, subjugation, and genocide (there were Indogenous people there until 1100 — the Arahawks, who were displaced by the Caribs).

This is another short post. I'm not sure there's much I can say about any island in this chain, but I will do my homework on each one. I promise.

How Do I Play D&D

If you don't mind a laymen mocking your hobby, he's an old article about D&D.

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