Storygames (White Wolf et al)

I think Ive finally sussed out what I hate White Wolf and their storyteller game system. Its not because of the overly detailed and unnecessary background or the false tempting of you becoming a goth monster. Oh no, its something much more fundamental than that.

When I run a role-playing game, it is just that, a game in which we assume roles and we have fun with the way the dice roll. With WW, its more about the story. So in essence, DND is a collective game in which the GM decides to the plot and the encounters and impartially alters the game according to the actions of the players and hence the players are telling their own story and making their own legends happen. With say Werewolf or any of the other games in the WW stable, its more about the GM (or quite rightfully Storyteller) telling the rest of the players stories about their character, with little or NO real valid input from the player.

Its almost childish in its simplicity. The player creates a monster/character that they want to play, give it to the Storyteller to come up with a fun and exciting and dangerous and epic adventure about their character.

Well I have news for you. As the GM I'm too fucking busy running the game interpreting the rules to be babysitting for a bunch of werewolves.

animalball (64.234.17.78)

18th Mar, 2008 17:43 (local)

I think that's a pretty simple division that I think I agree with. Granted, different systems can be played different ways. But generally I think you're correct in the differentiating game play styles of 3.5 and WW.

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evilref (86.41.97.203)

18th Mar, 2008 21:46 (local)

The question of how much the "storyteller" tells a story is not really about White Wolf. It's just down to personal style. I prefer to tell a story myself -- but not about immature teenage vampires, thanks.

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lawbag (83.104.27.178)

19th Mar, 2008 14:54 (local)

the observation came out of running a pure fantasy game (Rolemaster/Freeport campaign) on the back of running Werewolf The Apocalypse and the comparison in the amount of in and out of game work required.

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Conventions? Whats the Point? (Old Blog)

This is likely to be a rant I will come back to, but I have to ask the question, "Whats the point of RPG Conventions, or indeed conventions in general?". Don't confuse this with trade shows which are entirely different beasts, but having read some reviews, experiences and issues with conventions I must ask Whats The Point?

The only attractions I can see is
(a) meeting gamers from other parts of the country (or world) "oh cool, you have 8-sided dice too!"
(b) finding out about games you might not have seen before from publishers you never heard before, and if you are reasonable getting your own signed copy too.

The Main Reasons for Not going
(a) meeting people you would never normally want to be seen dead with
(b) playing a demo game run by the creator of the game, buying the entire line (rules and 2 supplements) to find the game sucks, and the only person who could run the game was the creator.
(c) signing up for games which dont actually exist due to the GM signing up "ghost" games to ensure he gets in free and gets reduced accommodation.
(d) having a well thought out convention game ruined by ignoble/ignorant cock heads. What is the attraction of running a con game?
(e) staying in accommodation that is poor at best with people you dont really know. As has been mentioned, gamers arent the most hygenic of folk.

Usually these conventions are a 2 or 3 day affair. I can think of many good games to play with my group that why do I feel the need to meet strangers and play with them. The worst kind have to be the group that goes to a convention to play their game there? Erm, why.

Sorry not a very clever or even well thought out rant, but in the few conventions I have been to over the years I found no good reason to go, other than being with friends.

Originally posted 1st February 2006

Round Up of Events

I ran, what was supposed to be the final episode of Freeport (Rolemaster rules) and we missed the ending by an hour. So last session will happen this week and will have to dovetail with Deadlands. We did have a seat reserved for GG had he been watching in on the session to view the action and adventure. The session, whilst playing too long (i.e. the players got sidetracked and spent a lot of time doing heroic stuff not related to the adventure, but still important to them) did generate some fantastic solutions to difficult problems.

For instance, the docks of Freeport were locked down by Black Orcs who had occupied the town ensuring no boats entered the port or left. This left the players with a massive problem as they had an injured member of the party who they couldnt move (due to some serious criticals - thanks Rolemaster :-) ). But they injured party member could only be reached by boat as they had recently explored a rocky dungeon just off the coast of Freeport. What made matters worse was that the identity of the injured party member (a cleric no less) was well known to the black orcs and they had themselves offered a large reward for the cleric's capture.

One player, our resident rogue, went up to a pair of black orcs and offered the cleric up as a bounty as long as they shared the reward with him. The other players complained as they thought the rogue had sold the cleric up the river. This was made all the more tense as the rogue and cleric had had a long standing disagreement and had discussed this very situation before, i.e. selling the cleric out to the bad guys.

In return for helping the orcs and sharing the reward, they would need a boat to get there. And the rogue pretended to be "weak" meaning the orcs not only stole a boat to aid the party, but also rowed to the cave.

Suffice to say that the party ambushed the poor orcs and the cleric was saved, but not before choice words were spoken between the two protagonists.

Freeport Trilogy Coming to an End

Ill post links to the full review of the trilogy, but generally my feeling to the adventure trilogy is I feel let down. I was hoping for some piratey naval high fantasy adventure, but what I got was down and dirty low fantasy more akin to Warhammer FRP

E Gary Gygax

I deliberately not posted anything regarding his death on this blog as I dont feel there is anything else to add to the combined heart-felt loss at his death.

I think it is fair to say that without Dungeons and Dragons, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, (2 games I didn't really play much as I cut my teeth on Tunnels and Trolls and RuneQuest and neither of which would exist without the 2 aforementioned games) there would be no role-playing games, pencil and paper or computer/console games.

These games have shaped my life more than I could possibly imagine. I genuinely could not envisage my life without role-playing. Thanks to GG I really did conquer new worlds, meet new people and kill them!

Goodbye to Romance (Old Blog)

Like any good thing, it must come to an end. Thats assuming that RPG.net was ever a good thing. Reading the comments on the sponsored links thread it is very clear they are staying, despite mixed feelings. Anything which modifies my postings or comments has to be evil, which is funny considering the only reason for doing it, according to the Moderator Shannon is for money! I've heard all the arguments and decided to leave.

Saying that there might be "something you like" or "you never know if they are advertising a product or service you want" just stinks. Well, I shall be doing whatever I can to close my account.

What I find odd is that in the UK I could set up an identical server situation, with the required level of bandwidth, domain name and storage capacity for roughly £120.00 a month. The costs they quote are either extortionate (i.e. they are being robbed) or they are creaming healthy profits off the top because of the amount of traffic they are generating.

Best wishes for the future.

EDIT - I cant find a way to delete my account, logging onto it to find out more will only encourage them more to point out my last log-in attempt. Im sure they wont miss me, but then I dont give a fuck.

EDIT - Lets see how long I can go without actually looking at the site.

Originally posted 01/02/2006

Freeport then Deadlands

The Freeport/Rolemaster ship is finishing its final leg of its journey, as the Deadlands cruiser warms up in the dock.

Everything is ready for Deadlands, chips, dice, books, laminated reference sheets, maps, even sweets! But can I find a shop that sells playing cards? Can I fuck.

w00hoo (193.60.52.11)

5th Feb, 2008 13:49 (local)

If this is still the case, are you looking for something special?

Only I bought quite a few for the 1st ed Deadlands game I run at Cons.

Corner shops tend to sell dirt cheap packs of 'plain' playing cards if you just want cards.
Board Games shops (and so I guess some toy shops) sell funkier cards if you're after something a bit nicer. Compendium in Greenwich where I work has a load, for instance.

If you look around on line you can buy 'proper' 19th C style poker cards with no indices, just the shapes (i.e. 8 hearts on a 'blank' card). The only thing to be careful of is that those sort don't always have Jokers. With one of the packs I have I've had to 'create' jokers by amending the 'history' cards that came with them. Generally an internet site will tell you the number of cards in the pack and provided there are 54 you'll be able to do something.

For more flavour, there are decks out there with the Confederate and Yankie generals pictured on the playing surfaces. I've a particularly nice set with stills from Wild West films on them.

I've only come across one deck actually made by Hoyles but it was a jumbo print one. I still look around, but haven't become obsessed enough to actually seriously search them out. I have to admit to owning a copy of Hoyles card games though... :-)

Hope some of that helped.

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lawbag (90.206.245.211)

5th Feb, 2008 20:09 (local)

thanks for the info. havent seen your entries on livejournal of late, mustbe on holiday or summfink.

I did manage to get a couple of decks from a cornershop as you suggest. I felt like a dodgy desperate gambler desperate for a new deck of cards to help my next fix.

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lawbag (90.206.245.211)

5th Feb, 2008 22:47 (local)

just found your shop on the internet.

does it not drive you mad that they dont sell or stock RPGs?

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