Nerd Pride and Pop Culture going Full Circle

Every now and then I get the urge to write something, well, critical. No worries, I won't get political. There is enough of that going around unfiltered as it is. No. What I aim to write here is about our hobby and others like it. How it was a stigma once, how that somehow changed and how I suddenly stopped being a nerd because I'm not socially awkward enough. I've been pondering about this one for a long time now and think I should give it a shot and be done with it. This is also a very personal and very long post (sorry).

Remember, remember ...

The early days of our hobby are, incidentally, also the early days of pop culture as we know it today. People tend to think about this as progress, but it really isn't that easy. Because the funny thing about popular culture is that it's always about what's popular at a certain point in time. Things that had been popular back then in the 70s made life pretty hard for those liking stuff that's now quite popular and accepted. Something changed and it had a somewhat positive effect on those who got stigmatized before. But ask yourself, is it really progress or is it "just" change? Because if it changes again, it might as well change back, you know ...

So lets say it's a struggle, like with languages, for example. People trying to conserve the "old ways", people trying to change THE WORLD completely and those that really don't care what happens outside their preferences (just like the classic Alignment system, isn't it?), all constantly finding compromises that also result in minor changes of what is perceived as popular culture.

Okay, so things are in motion and will always be. That's not a groundbreaking discovery, right? We should just lean back and enjoy our 15 minutes of fame. Right? Yeah.

But first remember those early days of being a role playing gamer. Being laughed at in school, people saying (either in the open or behind your back) that you are strange and socially unacceptable because you like talking about the fictional exploits of your Barbarian and not about sports. The days of the Satanic Panic, that most certainly didn't effect all of us, but most definitely had an effect on many.

People had been very serious about this one ... [source]

Most people aren't even reflected enough to really know what irks them and are just randomly mean because of a subconscious feeling that something is wrong with you. You know the kind, they just make bad jokes in public about you being ugly and are happy that enough others are laughing. Sad fucks.

I experienced some of that in the 90s, like my parents thinking I was in cult or a potential player getting told by his parents that playing those games is evil and forbidden by god. And I got the strange looks at school, got put into the role of the outsider. I was just lucky enough that punk was already popular (!) enough among pupils and I got a crowd to hang out with soon enough. Solidarity among subcultures, late to the party and all that. Others had it worse and I knew some of those getting bullied, heard about more.

At some point I had to take a position and I embraced my interests instead of conformity. I also had a brown belt in Judo, so that helped a lot (those few occasions I got bullied, well, lets say it didn't happen often). In many ways I was lucky like that and I am aware of it. But still, getting stigmatized is a very individual experience. It hurts and there is damage done to you.

People will keep telling you that those problems are minor compared to [insert other stigmatized groups for comparison], so get a grip, grow up, have some balls ... you know the shit people say when they are not able to relate or sympathize.

Now, why am I going there, you might ask yourself at this point. Well, it is part off the healing process to accept that you were hurt. That damage done for being stigmatized and excluded is real and it is personal. Talking it away as "bullshit" just buries it deep and will have a huge impact on a subconscious level, with colorful varieties of pain and compensation for your friends and neighbors to behold and enjoy. Knowing that means changing it.

Another huge effect of this is what one might call a herd instinct. Others like you are out there and, damaged and awkward as they might be, they become the most beautiful people of the world to you. Those first weekends on rpg conventions had been like wonderful holidays among friends for me and I'm very fond of those memories.

Of course you'd encounter the same tendencies completely normal for every social group. You got the snobs, the cool kids, the popular ones and that could get tiresome fast. But somehow I'd never be alone. Even when excluded or looked down upon, others would have my back. And not only friends, but total strangers, too. That's very important.

Would I have called myself a nerd back then? Maybe as a weak attempt to appear like I'm embracing the social position others would have me take as something great. You know the feeling, I'm sure of it. What it really is, though, is something others made you feel, something others did to you to have someone below them. Someone to feel superior over. The very words "nerd" and "geek" had been invented as labels to make it so much easier to exclude and insult.

... and now look around.

The nerds and geeks arrived in popular culture now. If you tell nowadays that you are playing role playing games, people will take an interest because they saw those funny guys in Big Bang ... whatsitsnameagain? ... play that. Right? And people always liked board games, so that's not that different. Right? All of a sudden you are the expert, not the pariah. At least among the "uninitiated".

Yet another related phenomenon is people mimicking nerds are all over the place now. It's chic to act as if you are strange because you have been excluded from what is socially acceptable for far too long or with far too much force. In other words, what had been a stigma with all the brutal consequences that tend to come with that, is now a badge of honor. You don't even have to experience the one to be the other. 

Let me be clear here: I'm not saying that you have to eat shit before you could "claim to be a nerd", because that would be utter bullshit on all accounts. You can not claim to be a nerd, for one, because it's something others did to you and awkward behavior was the result of that treatment not something you chose (or because of something you chose). Now it's a party gimmick and that comes with a very different set of problems, but I'm getting ahead of myself here ...

Because the original problem being gone doesn't mean it had never been there to begin with. On the contrary, actually. It makes the damage done by it so much harder to grasp and healing far more difficult. In a worst case scenario it even adds insult to injury, as they say. Because all of a sudden I'm not a nerd anymore. It's funny, the "popular kids" are the nu nerds now and there is an elitism coming along with it I've seen labeled as Nerd Pride.

It's debatable, now, if such a thing really exists or if it's really a new phenomenon. But if I tell among (what I used to think of as) like-minded folks that I'm gaming for 20 years now, even blog about it, I get more often than not attacked for it as if I threatened someone else's territory. So something did change.

Or stayed the same, really, as we are back in the social circle again. Because the things I like and know about are popular now. That, of course, makes it relevant for mating, so it stands to reason that we (the former excluded), too, have to punch our chests and throw shit at each other now to make our mark and impress potential mates ... Just like the primates we all are. It's so cute, I could puke.

Pop Culture going Full Circle

I've seen a meme a few months ago that really brought that idea home for me. Add the Star Trek, Twin Peaks, Ghostbusters, Ninja Turtles and Tremors reboots and you are good to go (but there wouldn't be much of Williams left to look at ...):

[source]

See what I mean? A year ago I had the pleasure of seeing the complete x-files again, seasons 1 to 9, plus all the movies. That's 20 years old tv now and other than a few technological gimmicks, nothing has changed. Gene manipulation, factory farming, artificial intelligence, government corruption and conspiracy, it's all right there in the first season. Fashion didn't change, music didn't change, opinions didn't change. It's all still the same. Or more of the same, even.

You might think now that I lost track of the topic and went into a completely different direction right now, but trust me, we'll get there again. With all the stuff we like being mainstream now, we are targeted for our money with "geeky" and "nerdy" articles. Like, all the time. Star Wars had been popular, but now MORE people will like it, so here is some NEW Star Wars. Have the newest edition of D&D, because D&D is now cool again. Or here, the newest anime, come on now, you love this!, it's only 30 bucks! Or need I write the word "kickstarter"? Would I dare to? It just goes on and on.

Sometimes I think we went from being shunned to being milked for liking what we like. Not sure that's a big step forward, to be honest. People will fight for the right to take your money, though, and they will get quite creative to manipulate you into thinking that the next new shit is superior to what has been. Let me tell you, it is not.

There are other, weirder effects to this whole affair. I know people that would argue about Harry Potter up to a point were arguments change to insults, especially when I tell them it's one of the great stories about unjustified geek empowerment. The whole story of Rowling being a poor unemployed teacher, writing the first book in a cafe because it had been warmer than her apartment and coming from a village that just looked like something described in the books? Facilitated by her publisher to sell more books. The idea about an imprisoned boy, mistreated for being different, fleeing into a magical world? That's Rudyard Kipling's early biography right there*. And the boy with the owl learning to be a wizard? Well, that's The Books of Magic by Neil Gaiman, glasses included.

Harry really is just the British school-boy variant ... [source]

But other than not being very original, it's also quite questionable, as far as content goes. H. P. inherited his powers, for instance. Him being special has nothing to do with anything he learned or did. He's just a special snow flake for no particular reason. But it entitles him to be right ALL THE TIME. There is also some inherent racism in the notion that [wizards] are a superior race [Übermensch?] to normal humans. This being set up as muggles (or whatever) being mostly stupid and ignorant works well with the myth that those labeled as nerds had been on the right track all along. There is just so much wrong with it ...

Or take the Big Bang Theory. Highly questionable, in my opinion. Those guys are not really nerds, for instance, they are vehicles for commerce. Comics, t-shirts, tv-shows, nobody seems to mind the shameless product placement in that show. They are also successful and while it was funny to see Steve Urkel try and fail in all things (and with women), those guys are a little awkward about this stuff, but not more than others might be (or not much more, at least). They are presentable. They are the assimilated nerd, as popular culture and the market would like to have it. Something that is funny, but with merit. Harmless, no need to bully anyone.

Steve Urkle now and then ...

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Haters gonna hate and all that, but google "criticism about TBBT" and you'll find some interesting perspectives (how sexist it is, how there are no black people in the first five seasons, how it really is not about nerds ... take your pick). That and Harry Potter are just two examples. There sure is more where that came from.

Ever asked yourself why people are so eager to re-do all those shows and movies and ideas ad absurdum, most of the time not even getting better at it, too? There had been reasons for this stuff being popular to begin with and mostly it had NOTHING to do with mainstream or popular culture. It's like now that they can use this stuff to reach more people, they also use it to lull all into shopping frenzies and make us forget that we do this all the time, all over again. An infinite loop of bread and games with a good dash of Gleichschaltung to make the transition into idiocracy smooth and painless ...

It was acceptable to bully those strange folks among us, but it's far more profitable now to have them all within the big social circle, making money and spending it. Them being all the same is also easier to control than having subcultures all over the place. Right? People could get strange ideas if left to their own devices. Next they are going to tell us there is no gender difference. You know, because there is a whole market waiting for men starting to wear make up. Oh, wait ...

Everything changes, nothing changes.

Society constantly changes towards compromise, I think that much is established. The main questions are to what end those changes happen, what the consequences are and where we position ourselves towards those changes.

Liking what I like and playing the games I play is no more connected with a feeling of solidarity among like-minded people, it more often than not becomes a fight for popularity. The shit they make fun of in High School comedies. And that shit gets old fast. Actually, if I never had started blogging, meeting this great community online, I might have dropped gaming entirely by now.

As it is I'm (mostly) suspicious and cynic towards the commercialization of my interests. Nowadays it reached a  point where only spending the coin will make you important in the eyes of others. That's not true for all people or all the times, but true often enough. We are reduced to monkeys for a buck and a thrill and I get the feeling that some like it that way. Or at least don't like questioning it.

And asked what I am, if not a nerd, I'd say I'm non-conform, as in I am as an individual opposed to conformity. Put outside the main social circle to begin with, I decide to stay there. I go into a German RPG Shop and they don't know the OSR. I see TV Shows in English, often before there are any German synchronizations and I only know a handful of people I could talk face to face about it. I write about games (write one myself, even) in a language that's not my own. That's nothing special, it's just the consequence of my preferences and it leads where I am comfortable right now: outside the mainstream. And let me tell you, there's still a lot to discover and love in the fringes.

One might say the view is better on the outside, too. But I think I don't do it for the view.  No, it's only healthy to keep the mind busy like that on a regular basis, to see that although things did change, people will always try to make themselves superior to others, so someone always has to be at the shitty end of the stick. But it only affects you if you are part of the game, if you participate. And that stupid game might as well change in another direction yet again (I already see some of that happening) and ... well, you get my drift.

There is one final thing I'd like to share about getting bullied: getting victimized by others is never to be trifled with, but the blame-game also never helped anyone really and has the contrary effect of keeping you in the position others chose for you: that of a victim. The first important step to overcome that shit is not looking at what has been done to you, but finding out how it changed you. The second would be to learn to confront people about it in the open as soon as it happens. Right then and there. In the face. Step in for others, too, if you can. It'll mean the world.

I also don't have all the answers. Just more questions.

But I'd like to close on a more friendly note. The friends I made and the DIY-spirit in this community helped a lot in keeping me sane. Honestly, thanks for that, guys. There is a level of enthusiasm beyond wearing an idea like someone else's skin and that's contributing to the things you love for the things themselves. I see that daily in my stream and it's inspiring. One could say that I think the way I do now because I am into role playing games and DIY. I hope I'll never be done with this and I know I've still a long way ahead to get somewhere with it. But that's okay. It's the change I chose.

* I remember an English tutor telling us Kipling's foster parents went as far as putting him in a small room below the stairs as punishment, but have yet to find a source to confirm it.

Review: Hulks & Horrors

It was just the other day that I wrote a post about forgotten OSR games and here I am writing a full blown review about one of them. I'm not really sorry either, because what started as a casual look through my hard drive started developing into a complete campaign over the course of the week. Just like that. And that's something worth talking about, I think (well, I couldn't talk about anything else right now, since I'm totally in world-creation-mode ...).

What am I talking about?

In short: Hulks & Horrors is a free 156 pages long Sci-Fi D&D retro-clone of the B/X variety from 2013. That means 3d6 in a row, race-as-class, heavy on exploration and relying on player skill. It's also highly compatible with other games like it and very much in the spirit of the OSR.

The Game

Roll 3d6 in order (for the classic 6 ability scores), choose class (and maybe some special abilities), get hit points, get 3d6 credits to buy equipment, done. With games as easy as that, it's the little details that make them work or not. A game needs to inspire and the less rules I get to work with, the more I need to get inspired.

Let's start with the setting. So humanity manages to advance to a level where they start to explore the final frontier only to find out that all the great ancient alien civilizations that came before them fell to ruins because of a mysterious plague. Bottom line is: Space is vast and full of ruins and plague horrors, ready for the taking and the shooting at. That's all for now and it's plenty.

After a while humanity managed to find 3 other races who just recently developed spacefaring technology: some Hovering Squids (what the name says), the Omega Reticulans (basically amoeba in power suits) and the Bearmen (again, what the name says).

One of two official art-pieces for the game [source]

There are 7 classes now: the Pilot, the Scientist, the Soldier, the Psyker, the Hovering Squid (flying, multitasking), the Omega Reticulans (a bit pilot, a bit scientist) and the Bearmen (close combat specialist and a bit psyker).

I think it is difficult to keep the balance between new content and quoting the classics. H&H succeeds here, in my opinion. If you know your Sci-Fi, you will find quotes all over the place. The level 6 title for the Soldier class is "Master Chief", for instance (and having level titles is always nice, btw), Bearmen are a bit like Wookies, Psykers can force-strangle victims, stuff like that.

Science is basically hand-waved and works like magic, as each Scientist has a self-built hand tool that's capable of a number of tricks the player chose in the beginning and are limited to charges (just like Vancian Magic). They advance with higher levels, of course. Scientists just need to wave their tool over an area to achieve the effects (and that's a bit of Doctor Who and/or Start Trek right there). Some might have a problem with handling advanced technology like MAGIC, but for me it works.

It's also a constant reminder that most tasks regarding technology, as per the rules, are quite common for all characters and that's a very important bit of information, because tasks are mainly rolls on ability scores (the rest is combat). Those guys know their way around computers and spacefaring equipment, a roll on DEX is enough to find out if a character is able to repair a piece of equipment. No skills, just the assumption of knowledge, with the Scientist being able to achieve exceptional feats. It's all I need to make it work, really.

Equipment is also worth a sentence or two. There are Light Sabers and Power Suits and you'll most likely find the weaponry and equipment you are looking for, with the option to build some yourself. Really, it's all there, but again it's the clever little hints towards classic ideas of the genre that make the generic resonate and results in inspiration. So there is a "Scavenger's Guide to the Universe" characters can buy for a few credits and that works just like the famous "Hitchhiker's Guide" as it provides information about what the characters might encounter.

Again it's the assumption of knowledge (or the easy access of it) that'll work great in the game and leaves plenty of room for player skill ...

Alright, I'll stop. It's simplicity and the right amount of detail and hints that make for a very inspiring mix because it gives a reader plenty of room to project his or her own ideas of what Science Fiction is supposed to be into the game. You'll read it and think "Oh, that Babylon 5 right there!" or Star Wars or Star Trek or Mass Effect or Halo or Red Dwarf ... you get the idea.

DM tools, so many tools!

This is, now, where the game really begins to shine. Exploration got privatized, Space being vast and all that. The idea here is that characters own a ship as base of operations and get a claim for a sector to explore, survey and loot. A sandbox, if you will.

There are several ways to get a ship and a claim, for a wide variety of tastes (one could even skip it) and building a ship is fun for players and DM alike. But that's secondary to the number of random tables you get for building the sector itself! The game is worth getting for that alone.

A short overview: a sector has a number of systems (d12+6), each system has at least one sun and a number of planets and planets might also have moons. As a DM you get a huge variety of results and contents-wise one system might already produce enough material for a complete campaign.

Sure, it's some work, but as far as I could gather (already got a sector map with all the distances and names and one of the 11 systems completed) it's also immensely productive. Ancient ruins all over the place, unique flavor for every ancient alien race you put in it, Urban Planets, Space Hulks, Generations Ships (yeah, Metamorphosis Alpha is like a footnote in my first system ... and that's already a whole campaign right there), strange life forms and even stranger vegetation, alien monuments ... You end up with a very, very big and deep sandbox for the characters to explore and exploit. It's beautiful.

And that's just what the players know ...

Usability is also a big plus for me. So it's relatively easy to tinker with the pdf, like getting a .svg file of a specific page and work it in inkscape. The example above is the result of that. To be fair, though, that might to a good degree because of how ubuntu works with pdfs ... Anyway, it's been quite easy to fill all the blanks and prepare the game. Lots of little details, sure, but fun all the same. It makes the DM sort of a surveyor himself as the sector manifests bit by bit before him.

System, monsters and stuff like that

The system is as easy as possible with two important factors in mind. The first is compatibility (or rule zero, to some extent) and it really allows to use this game anywhere else or convert to it with ease. I really like that the game doesn't try to stand in the way here. I have shitloads of other material and I can just take it and drop it, since the game is rules-light up to a point where it is almost system agnostic.

The second reason is with an eye towards online play. It's something I saw here for the first time (and I'm sure other games do this, too), but it is very welcome, as that's exactly what I'm using it for.

With monsters it's exactly the same. There are some and many quote classic SF creatures. So yes, there are the classic Aliens and Sleestaks and whatnot. But since you could drop almost every monster from a D&D compatible source into the game, you'll never be short of cannon fodder.

And still, H&H features some advanced rules, some rules about building your own monsters and some alternative rules. In the end it leaves an experienced DM free to play the game he wants in almost every aspect, from the specific details in the setting to the extent of rules he wants in his game and the sort of Sci-Fi he favors, while giving him the tools to build a sandbox for several groups of adventurers to roam free for years. And that's really something for a game that's free.

Second official piece of art I could find [source]

What's not to like?

It's not all good and I got some minor quibbles with it. This game is complete and free, yes, but sometimes I thought it could have needed some more editing. Clarity is the biggest issue here. And that's saying something, considering the minimalist amount of rules. Pieces of information are all over the place or completely missing. Sometimes more is better. So there is one tiny table about level progression in the first part of the book that is explained at the end of the book and not referenced. There is an index of tables, but no general index. Some of the rules about creating sectors is a bit too vague and you have to find solutions yourself. Stuff like that.

That's not to say the game is completely bugged. No, it's definitely not. But it's something you will encounter here and there ...

And there is the "issue" that there is no art in the book. I've honestly read that several times. People wouldn't read a set of rules because of that (even if it's free). So if that's a problem, the game won't be for you. I thought it was a plus, since artwork tends to manipulate a reader's expectations. As it is, it really allows for making this your own. It's also far more easy to get on the same page with the players, much for the same reasons.

I love good artwork, and who doesn't, but it shouldn't be an issue if it isn't there.

Conclusions

I honestly don't understand why this game isn't more popular than it is right now. It's rules-light, easy to tinker with, easy to use with other D&D variants and has some great tools for sandbox creation. The level range is 6, which makes it (in my opinion, perfect for a small campaign. Build a sector, give the players a ship and off they go. Or use it to emulate your favorite SF movie/tv show/computer game. All the same, it'll do the job. And for free.

And that's exactly what I'll be doing with this. The sector is in development and I already got a couple of characters and enough players to start this as early as next week. Looking forward to it, too. It's been fun to build that sandbox, with all the little treasures, traps and sights along the way. It'll be even more fun to let the players loose in it. I already got some schemes ...

Even if I'll get just that one campaign out of the game, it'll be a campaign worth playing. If you are in the mood for some light SF or seek some inspiration for a nice and random SF sandbox, you can't go wrong with Hulks & Horrors.

OSR Freebies from the Library Part 1

A while ago I started seeing the phenomenon that people search for good OSR products and get pointed to titles they need to pay for to check them out. There is certainly nothing wrong with earning a buck for role playing material, but the idea to keep those free OSR gems in circulation is today (as far as I'm aware) mostly reduced to either those games that had a huge part in the beginning of the movement or are simply quoted by word of mouth. If at all. And that's where this little series of posts sets in. I'll try and create a hub for those "old", hidden or lost games and materials, see if they are still around and where to get them. I might be in over my head here ...

What you'll find here (and in future posts)

I'll start with my own hard drive and those games I already took a look at so I'm able to share a few thoughts. I'm not trying to explain what the OSR is here and in general this will be about old(-er) games that still produce free material or new games inspired by the origins of the hobby. Main criteria are that they fit the descriptions above, that there is a pdf of them online available and that they are for free. If I have an opinion on the item, I'll share it.

For now I'll go with what I know, for obvious reasons. There is a new page linked in the header of this blog called "OSR Freebies" where I collect them all and if you guys read this and got a link or two to a product worth mentioning, please go ahead and comment here or on the new page. I imagine this will remain incomplete and a work in progress, but that's the nature of the beast. It's also arbitrary and not in chronological order.

It's furthermore important to mention that there are other blogs and sites around that share similar collections. Some are still active, but others are quite old right now or just not up to date. If I find them or know about them, I'll post them. So here it goes ...

Retro Phaze (RPG by John Higgins)

So this is patient zero for me, really. A game from 2010 (first edition) and somehow I came across this again years later, checked it out and started asking myself why this didn't get more love as it did. It's mixing (old) D&D with ideas and aesthetics of 8-bit gaming.

Where to get stuff & Opinions from Others: The pdf is free to download over at lulu, here are some character sheets and additional races (all fan-made) and here is a review of the game.

My thoughts: With 35 pages quite short, but complete. Fourth edition right now, so the author kept working on it (which is good). Some interesting d6 mechanics for the game mixed with what you know from early editions of D&D. Very well worth checking out.

Renegade & Renegade - Corruption (RPGs by David Morrison)

Old version of the Cover...

400+ pages PWYW D&D retro-clones from 2011 with a great wealth of tools to loot for D&D (and friends). Renegade seems to be the "family friendly" and Renegade - Corruption is the darker variant of the same. Both are complete games.

Where to get stuff & Opinions from Others: The pdfs are free to download over at drivethrurpg (Renegade & Renegade Corruption). Opinions can be found here and here.

My thoughts: Both games are huge, professionally edited, they got nice artwork, are more than complete as they contain far more material than most other RPGs care to get out there in one product and claim to be complete, both are compatible with all things D&D, full of options for customized campaigns and PWYW. Those are very high standards and make both games worth mentioning in one row among other OSR titles like Swords & Wizardry, OSRIC and Labyrinth Lord.

Hulks & Horrors (RPG by John S. Berry III)

"This is a game of those daring and foolhardy beings that seek fortune in the ancient places of the galaxy. May you find wealth before death!" and that's what you get. 3d6 in order, race as class and tons of random table to create content for this 156 pages heavy SF D&D retro-clone from 2013.

Where to get stuff & Opinions from Others: The pdf is free over at drivethru and can be found here. Reviews can be read here and here.

My thoughts: This scratches a particular itch for me: dungeon crawling in space. H&H is focused on that premise and delivers in spades. I'd play it as is and go from there, but it's highly compatible with all the other D&D games out there, so it's free to loot and change and drop anywhere you want, to any extent you want. There is really no reason at all to not have it in a RPG collection.

Westward (RPG by Roderic Waibel)

This is a failed/canceled kickstarter from 2013 that still delivered and is free now. A 102 pages Western D&D retro-clone with as much fantasy as you'd like to have in it. I stumbled across this by accident and remembered it just recently after reading a comment about if it's a good or a bad idea to mix fantasy tropes with western, wondered why that's even a problem and where I had seen something like that before ...

Where to get stuff & Opinions from Others: Again, drivethru/rpgnow is the way to free pdf. I didn't look very hard, but as far as I know did no one even care to write a proper review. Anyway, here's some buzz I could find.

My thoughts: Scratch "Fantasy" and write "Weird" instead and suddenly this sells (same difference, right?). I've also read a lot that having no art is a big no-no for some people and I honestly don't get it. This is a complete game, again highly compatible with other games like it out there and it is for free. Mix it with Hulks & Horrors and you get Firefly, mix it with Flying Swordsmen and you get Shang-High Noon, adapt Better Than Any Men to it and you get a fantastic Western Sandbox during the Civil War. All of it for free. I could go on ...

Under Xylarthen's Tower (Module by Jeff Rients)

I'll end todays line-up with an old-fashioned 21 pages DIY D&D funhouse dungeoncrawl from 2008, the (very) early days of the OSR. It comes with six fully populated levels on hand drawn maps and should allow a group of level 1 characters to advance to levels 4 to 6. It also comes with house rules for random character-level generation.

Where to get stuff & Opinions from Others: The pdf can be found here and it's best to let the man himself talk about it, so here's a short session report for your reading pleasure.

My thoughts: I used this on several occasions over the years and have a printed version of it somewhere around. It's a great dungeon for one shots or to explore over the course of a campaign. Even if you never get to play it, UXT is a great read (same goes for Jeff's blog, for that matter) and it's free, so there you go.

Enough for today

So that should keep you guys busy for a while. I'll have another one like this up soon, but this should be enough for now. If this made you remember some gems on your hard drive, please feel free to share them in the comments. I sure got way to many on mine. There is so much great free stuff out there and the more I look into it, the more I start to believe that way too much of it gets lost far to fast. This stuff shouldn't get old and forgotten. It should be shared and used ...

Keeping it hot (addendum to Codex Ludi - preview and conversion rules)

Nothing is older than yesterday's post, so I thought I fire one more and add to it some information people may find useful when testing this on their own or trying to wrap their head around it, maybe even get some more people interested into it. It's also for the D&D fans among my readers ...

So I published the first part of the rules for Lost Songs of the Nibelungs yesterday: the Codex Ludi. First of all I want to thank readers for their interest. This is a small blog and I'm trucking along fine enough, but to see interest beyond checking the blog every now and then for updates is great and helps getting more of it out there. Thank you all! Let's have preview of what's in store.

3d6 in order?

It's a minor detail and will be part of the second booklet for the game (Codex Historia), but I believe the D&D crowd might appreciate the nod in that direction, so here it is. Those who have checked it out might have seen that there is some D&D in the game, but only at it's very core.

Six ability scores, but they are more of a resource and not fixed numbers, there are Saves, but strongly connected to the ability scores and work somewhat different. And combat, well, combat developed a bit away from the initial assumptions of D&D combat, but there are similarities. Namely I took the d20 that is used normally and divided it into a couple of d6 for a more detailed approach of the same (conversion rules will be below).

And yet, despite all those changes, it is possible to use the average Labyrinth Lord Character (or what ever you have, really) for a game of Lost Songs, as long as he follows the same basic assumptions. I won't go into detail about a complete conversion (yet), but will point out that if you were to create a higher level character for Lost Songs, you begin with rolling 3d6 in order for every ability score to mirror that the character already got some scars from adventuring. So every D&D character you might have (especially the from the lighter sets of rules out there) is easily enough ported.

You then just need to distribute the saves according to the rules in the Codex Ludi and reassign the skill (if you have them) and you are almost done. How to convert classes and special abilities is a bit too much to get into right now, but a short cut would be to give fighter classes another Combat Die, thief classes more skills (translate as seems appropriate) and change nothing for magic users (or clerics, if you have them). Keep HP and add Endurance or just roll it all again. The modular nature of all those games should make a transition easy.

Again, there will be more detailed conversion rules in a future post, but while testing it I took the approach described above and it worked. Bottom line is, there is still some "3d6 in order" in Lost Songs.

Converting D&D Monsters to Lost Songs (updated)

I use the D&D Rules Cyclopedia to bridge Lost Songs as soon as I have no fixed rules to work with. That's what you do as DM, you take what you need and make it work. A result of this is that I have a good idea how to make Lost Songs work right now in all aspects at the table without delay. And here is how I do it.

I'm going with monster entries for the English edition of the D&D RC here:

• Add 10 to hp.
• Base Attack is HD + 10.
• Base Defense is according to size and AC:  24 - AC (small); 22 - AC (medium) and 20 - AC (big)
• Special Attacks are Drop Die Actions (and may be countered).
• Number of attacks + 1 is the number of Combat Dice a monster has.
• [when using groups] A tenth of a monsters Movement Rate is used as Initiative Value (further explanation see below).

That's it. The only other thing you need to consider when DMing groups of enemies is to use the Initiative Value (I.V.) instead of rolling initiative for every monster (or it'll slow combat down quite a bit). Just use the characters initiative and if they are below the I.V., they are slower, if they are higher, they are faster. Declare and resolve actions accordingly after that.

The Combat Wheel and using the Environment (also updated)

In a fight it's usually a good idea for a DM to know exactly what happens. Lost Songs of the Nibelungs doesn't uses maps and miniatures but has (more abstract) board game elements nonetheless. Every character sheet has an area where players can put the dice in a fight to illustrate their actions. Since there are a lot of d6 involved and actions might get quite detailed, it's important for the DM to have something similar to work with. That's why I devised a Combat Wheel for Lost Songs. Behold:

With this a DM is able to keep an overview of what's happening in the fight and has an easy way to illustrate it for the players. It's especially useful when handling groups of monsters against characters. There is one more twist to simplify things for a DM: the Environment.

It's something that I always forget, but it really helps creating a vivid and complex fight: combatants use their environment. So at the beginning of a combat encounter in Lost Songs a DM may create a Random Environment for the combatants to use by rolling a d4 first for the number of d6 available in the situation and then that number of d6 to see how effective it might be used. In the terms of the game he creates corresponding statics.

Every 1 that comes up with the environment roll is discarded and produces another d6 as a static for the characters to use. Every 6 adds another d6 for the NPCs/monsters to use. This way the same environment might turn out more or less useful to all. The DM may use those statics now as soon as his Combat Dice come up with corresponding numbers. Environmental dice are just used for their value, not for doubles or triples. Environmental dice produced because of a 1 are used to the characters' advantage, but also with their value only.

When used it might look something like this (older version, but the basics still apply):

I admit, this was a mean roll. But that's not the point right now. You see here that the players 2, 3 and 6 are under attack. The monsters (goblins, if I remember correctly) used the dense undergrowth as best as possible (using corresponding static dice, it was an almost perfect ambush scenario) and cooperated a lot. Still died fast, though ...

There is more to come

Using the book itself and the advice here should help to give you all a good impression of how the game works and the directions it's going to take in the future. Next up will be a post about level advancement that's long overdue.

Feedback is, as always, very welcome. Writing rules is quite difficult, I found, and people talking to me about it is, right after testing it, a great way to find out what needs changing or further explanation.

Lost Songs of the Nibelungs - Codex Ludi (early beta)

I've been approaching this like a drunk sailor so far, going back and forth, bubbling ominous words here and there and generally meandering around. There is a point where one needs to stop worrying and just jump into the cold water ...

So without further ado I present thee the first step of my evil plan to publish my very own role playing game:

The Codex Ludi

Clicking on the picture will also lead to the pdf ...

This is a no art, no fluff, no layout version of the basic rules (including combat) and character generation. That's why I'd still say it is a beta. There are updated character sheets in the back and the rules presented here are all tested and work. It's mainly to give all interested an idea how that game is going to be and should help getting players up to speed for the play-tests I'm going to offer on a regular basis from now on.

Combat might come off as a bit vague, but it is definitely enough for the games I'm DMing and for those giving it a spin using the rules presented here, just follow the main procedures and you will see how it is supposed to work. If not, ask me. I will try and answer all questions as fast as possible.

There will be 3 more booklets like this before the game is complete: the Codex Historia (with level advancement, description of the game's terms and the seasonal aspects of the game), the Codex Maleficium (about using magic and wonders, with spell lists et cetera) and the Codex Creare (about DM procedures).

Further notes on using this as it is right now

Again, this is a beta version. You will be able to get some level zero game out of this. There will be a post about level advancement here on the blog soon (the rules are already written and tested), that should allow playing beyond level zero (and I will provide a pdf additionally to the post). But there is plenty of game right there as it is.

Combat is quite different than in other games, so if what this document describes leaves you scratching your head in wonder, you might wanna check here for further descriptions of it. There might be some slight changes towards the version in the pdf (Rage Die, for instance, replaces all rules for using the Endurance in the game), but in its broad strokes it's very much what is described in the book and comes with examples, conversion rules and the combat wheel! Or you take a look at this newer (but shorter) post for more of the same.

But please, start with the pdf and go from there down the rabbit hole. Feedback will be very welcome, of course.

Shit, now I'm nervous ...

Musings about Longevity of Sentient Beings in the D&D RC (and other Fantasy Games)

I had been in the mood for a post like this: taking a topic and just writing to see where it ends up. It's partly a follow up on one of my very first posts: "Elves are no Mammals, Goddarnit!" (from 2011!). If you haven't read that one, check it out first, if you want to. It has a new class for the D&D RC (easy to hack into variants, of course) and gives examples how I handle level restrictions in the game. Let's get into that, shall we (turned out to be a long one again) ...

A word on immortals in the D&D Rules Cyclopedia

Vampires do it, gods do it and dragons do it, too, they live very, very long lives. Mostly will have done so when Adventurers encounter them and I always thought this should have consequences for a gaming world. Huge consequences, actually. Gods (or immortals, as they are called in the RC) are easy, one might think. And from a general point of true, that's right. They don't frequent the realms of mortals on a regular basis and do most their meddling using avatars or clerics.

But, and that's a huge "but", for a DM playing the D&D Rules Cyclopedia RAW they pose a serious problem. It's mostly ignored (in the games I know of) that Immortals had been mortal beings once and actually earned millions of xp before gaining immortality. They shaped the world, so to say. Even more so, the tasks they had to achieve should, according to the rules, last for a very long time (check The Four Paths on page 223 in the RC).

So one path, for instance, is the quest to travel to three different periods of time and "help three different descendants to retain their kingdoms and perpetuate the dynasty". This is a very particular can of worms worth a post on its own, I guess. How, for instance, did a not-yet-immortal hero do this? How many have tried and failed? Or how do the gods perceive time? I smell several time paradoxes coming along. And adventures connected to it ... But either way you play it, the impact on THE VERY FABRIC OF TIME AND SPACE is immense.

[source]

Other paths request the manufacturing of Legendary Weapons or solving impossible tasks, like "driving all dragons from the land or building a castle in the sky". It's all over the place, one is even about reincarnating three times and going the distance with three different classes (again, millions of xp). It's mind-boggling how consequent and ambitious the D&D RC actually is in this regard. I doubt there is more than a handful of DMs in the existence of this game who actually led a group of players from level 1 to immortality (for the off chance that one of them is reading this, please comment and tell me about it!).

Anyway, it's inconsequential if characters actually play all that and get there themselves. The thing is that the rules give explicit guidelines what needs to happen to get there. Consider the number of high level characters that tried and failed, consider those trying right now and those that already made it! Consider the impact this should have on a setting. Even if plane hopping takes some of it somewhere else, all of those paths actually demand of a hero to be active in his home realm. Consider there is a fifths path for the "sphere of entropy" that is on that page by name only, but rings of destruction and mayhem.

And that's before actual immortals start pestering the rest ...

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that although our little heroes are having epic adventures all over the place, leveling up, looting and killing kings, there is a gigantic subtext of other events, powerful events, going on. Needs to be. Because there are already thousands of others more powerful and further ahead in the same game, changing it all by being successful.

People might notice things like this, you know ... [source]

That's what you actually get with such a high power curve as the RC has it: 36 levels for all the humans and then some for becoming an immortal and some more for being an immortal.

How to live for millennia without getting bored (or killed)

So maybe you are thinking right now that it's just impossible to make all of this count in a game. It just can't be done, not even official products do it. It's just too much. And you might be right, but I'm not done yet. There is more, because there are several more Monsters in a game of D&D that are, if not immortal, around for thousands of years. Take your regular undead, like a Vampire. Give those guys a few thousand years to clean up their act and it's really hard to say where they might end up.

Or dragons. They grow up and grow old. They are powerful beasts if they manage to get that old. And if they did, they have a history. Their name should be legend, their influence and power beyond approach. the more I think about the implications of all of this, the more I think Game of Thrones is a kindergarten in comparison to the power plays those guys must have going ...

Which brings us to the concept of longevity in games such as the D&D Rules Cyclopedia. It is, of course, a philosophical concept. And hard to grasp, at that. The question a DM making his own setting should ask himself, is how all those npcs managed to stay alive for as long as they must have been to be the creatures they are.

I think being that obvious about it
isn't the best survival strategy ... [source]

A giant red dragon, attitude or not, just doesn't pop into existence and starts harassing folks for the heroes to get their 15 minutes of fame. No. She must have been around and there must have been a major change in her regular habits to risk getting killed by upstarts like mid- to high-level adventurers. Nothing is that easy. It's actually a bit naive to think it might be even close to being that easy. Living that long and with a superior intellect just doesn't allow for an easy kill.

So that's another thing. Most of those monsters are not only powerful, they are very intelligent, too. Would they even act in the open? Or do they have agents to do their bidding? How big (and influential) should such an apparatus be? How does it compare to, say, human kingdoms?

That's another thing. Humans breed, for those creatures anyway, fast as hell and spread all over the place, leaving their marks. How does a creature like an Elf or a dragon interact with something like this? Is it like us looking at an ant hill? Like, would you care to know the name of even one ant, knowing it won't be around for any serious amount of time? Does it matter? And if it matters, at what point is it becoming a threat and what would powerful creatures do about it? Not because they are evil, but because of necessity.

Powerful Wizards do stuff like this
ALL THE TIME [source]

And this is where we could go full circle. Some humans peak and get as powerful as those monsters are. Immortals might protect humans. The thing is, it won't be about getting powerful enough to confront each other, but more about getting powerful enough to keep the status quo, to keep the balance. Which, in turn, should keep all those involved pretty busy indeed.

What does it look like and who cares?

There is actually one series of fantasy books (I know of) that illustrates the machinations necessary for such a world and some of you might already know them: the Malazan Books of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson. Erikson worked 6 years together with a friend (Ian Cameron Esslemont, who also wrote some good books in the same universe) to build up their world.

First in a great series [source]

They have archaeological and anthropological backgrounds, so maybe those things came somewhat natural for them and the world they build is impressive, to say the least. I always thought it's the perfect example of how powerful creatures, powerful magic and powerful gods would/should shape a world. For that alone it comes highly recommended, so check it out (if you haven't already).

Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is another great example for such a setting. Small human settlements, ruins all over the place, one gets a feeling that humans are merely guests here and it needs powerful characters to challenge some of the residents livings alongside the small castles here (the game being close to be a perfect sandbox setting might have something to do with it). For me at least, Vvardenfell always felt as if powerful entities formed it and it's definitely not just a standard vanilla fantasy affair. It got lots of depth.

There are many good reasons for Morrowind being a classic ... [source]

On a smaller scale, Lord of the Rings is another great example for a well thought out world, with The Silmarillion being a prime candidate of what I'm talking about here (as far as "powerful beings shaping the world" are concerned ...). But Middle Earth is decidedly what I'd call "low fantasy", as powerful characters are rather rare in the Third Age Tolkien is describing in the books.

World Building 101 [source]

What's left is to discuss how all of that actually plays out in our games. I know the Rules Encyclopedia is an extreme example for it, but it gets lots of points (in my book) for trying. Most other games shy away from that kind of scope. Even other editions of D&D, for that matter. But I believe our games would be better for it, if we actually put some effort into making the presence felt of those in our campaign that already lived for a very long time and shaped the world around them.

So how do you all handle those things? If you got an ideas, tips or campaign settings you know of, came up with or used, feel free to share them in the comments. I'd love to hear about it!

Review: Expanded Petty Gods

This is due, folks. And I really haven't seen many people praise this book beyond "It's out! Get it!". So let me talk a bit about the Expanded Petty Gods Tome of Awesome (EPG) and why it's something every fantasy DM should at least check out. If you think this is going to be a positive review, you won't be surprised that much ...

Disclaimer: I did three pieces for EPG. Two of them without any hope to see them published other than on the blog and the third one happening because there was some more room for the Shroom and the Ranger obliged ... Of course I'm happy to see my name in this thing, but I would have to be very desperate to make this about my small contribution to this HUGE book. Anyway, read it with a grain of salt, as they say, and I'll try to write it with the proper distance.

Honestly, I love that cover.

Hard Birth of the Mighty Expanded Petty Gods

I won't bore you with the details, but this book has seen several hands before it manifested the way it did there in the end. Let's say someone started this idea of a collection of Petty Gods and many others liked it, but the sheer scope of the project (and other factors, I'm sure) hindered it from happening until it just didn't happen. Lots of gods already written and drawn, lots of enthusiasm for naught.

Or so it seemed. But then someone else revived it and it got even more attention than it did the first time. Now there were even more gods with more art and great ideas, Michael Moorcock was to write a piece and ... maybe it was just too much? I mean, this got huge, with lots of interest and even more work done up front. But when all was said and done, it remained to be a hobby effort. By lots of creative and capable people, of course, but done in their free time nonetheless. And there are limits to such a thing. Anyway, it wasn't to be. Again.

Imagine, this idea started around November 2010 and it took until November 2014 before the project got its final push and ended up being published a few months later. It took over four years! Well, the cynics among you might mumble something right now about certain kickstarters taking that much time (or more) and still end up nowhere ... But I digress.

What I was aiming for here was that the idea alone managed to gain enough traction over 4 years to not only result in a gigantic community effort worth "327 petty gods, 116 minions, knights and servants, 12 cults and dozens of divine items and spells", it also managed to get published! The work all those people put into this at every stage of the project is just breathtakingly a-ma-zing. Seriously.

What it is and what you get

One of the reasons to write this review (or rather, what made me wanna do now what I intended to do anyway ...), was a (how I see it) unfair comment about this book and a mediocre rating for it on rpg.net. It honestly caught me by surprise. I know we live in a culture of "Meh, I don't like it, so it's bad!" (I just wanted to write "... and it must be bad!", but stopped myself, since there's too much reflected introspective even in that), so I really shouldn't be surprised. But then I checked how many reviews are already out there and got ... not that much. Not in the open wild, anyway.

So this is for those out there stumbling across this post because they had been looking for something like this about the book: Expanded Petty Gods is a collection not only of petty (fantasy) gods, a concept one might be familiar with from such works as the late Terry Pratchett's Small Gods, the often overlooked early D&D supplement Unknown Gods by the Judges Guild or from your Latin lessons about the Roman empire, well, it's also brim full with essays like Create a Religion in your Spare Time for Fun and Profit by M.A.R. Barker and many other great advice about handling religion in (fantasy) campaigns. It also got monsters and spells and items and organisations ...

I'm starting to repeat myself here, but imagine hundreds of people, each putting their creative best to the idea of a book about petty gods and what comes with it and this is what you get: almost 400 A4 pages of inspiration, completely illustrated. The pdf of this huge book is also FREE, for those wondering what such a thing might cost and the Lulu prints are at cost, so the hardcover version of this really, really big book comes down to ca. 22 US $.

One might think that this book is all over the place, given the history it has and the multitude of different writers and artists and what-not, so you might be surprised to see what an excellent editing job can do for a project like this. It's tight, the transitions are smooth, it's perfectly indexed and while reading in it, I always got the feeling that it all connects very well. Richard L. LeBlanc, Jr. (of Save vs. Dragon fame, check out his stuff!) took the helm in the final stages of the genesis of this book and he (with all the others that helped him) did an excellent job to make this look very professional. Expanded Petty Gods is a showcase for why you have professionals for work like this (did I mention that it is free?).

Just a random page ...

Enough praise for now

If you weren't convinced by now, more words wouldn't change it, so I'll leave it at that. This is a huge community effort, with lots of great writers and artists involved (famous and/or not) and professional editing to boot. It's also free and the (at cost!) print versions of it are impressive enough to intimidate most other books of any respective rpg collection (my D&D RC was unimpressed, but that almost goes without saying).

It was written for early editions of D&D and variants, but that shouldn't hinder anyone interested. Most of it is system agnostic or translated to other systems easy enough. So if anything I just wrote resonated with you, dear reader, and you check this out to find new writers and/or artists, use it in your games for the gods (like I do, the players love it ...), as a monster compendium for medium to high level campaigns, as inspiration or just to look at pretty pictures, you won't be disappointed with what the Expanded Petty Gods Compendium brings to the table. Enjoy!