This Christmas I received a copy of Car Wars (the nice retro-looking box set). Now, the last time I played Car Wars was in the Spring of 1985 and the last time I saw a game was in the Summer of 1990, so I was pretty rusty. My third son and I did a quick 3 sessions of amateur night for great fun. Last night we ran the following:
The Setup
Killer Karts, the arena, no skills for the drivers as a 'get to know the rules' game.
The Players
Me
Son #1 (17 years old)
Son #3 (15)
Son #4 (12)
Play
We each entered from different walls (#3 North, me East, #4 South, #1 West) with everyone but me at 20 mph; I was at 10 mph.
Early-
Sons #1 and #3 make a run at each other at low speed (~30 mph) and chew up each other's front armor, using a lot of ammo. Son #4 is approaching their position. I am puttering along at 10 mph, drifting past obstacles.
Sons #3 and #4 make a few head-on shots at about 30 - 40 mph as they close near the center area of the map. Son #3's front armor and MG iare chewed off and his power plant takes a few hits (no fire). Son #4 has his front armor greatly reduced, but they are passing each other.
Then Son #3 pulls a 90 degree turn and T-bones son #4 into an observation tower. The impacts destroy Son #3's power plant and lightly injure him and he is stopped. Son #4's left armor is torn off but he is still armed, dangerous, and doing 30 mph. Son #1 is in the northwest corner, I am approaching from the east at 20 mph.
Son #3 decides to get out of his car and run for a tower.
Son #4 then pulls off a bootlegger's! Halfway through the maneuver Son #3 starts getting back into his car. Then Son #4 come to rest facing son #3 (who is dead stopped and unable to move or fire) at about 3.5". Son #4 fires but misses with a 3!
Unfortunately, Son #4 is now at a stop 4" dead ahead of me with no cover and his unarmored side facing me. I snap off a burst, roll lucky twice, and Son #4 is dead. Son #3 gets back out of his car and runs for a tower.
Middle-
Son #3 is cowering by the entrance to the central tower as I vector in on Son #1 , who is in the SW corner trying to pull off the 'build speed, maintain a good handling, and not hit something' trick. Son #1 realizes I am about to corner him and floors it. I am up to 40 mph but he is at 70 mph. I prepare to keep turning inside and control the center until he is forced to either come at me with his damaged front armor or I can get in behind him.
As I and Son #1 are heading to the SE part of the map Son #3 begins moving. Soon he is at Son #4's car where he jumps in and begins starting the (still armed, still functioning) killer kart! In the NE corner I almost get Son #1 trapped but he (once again) floors it and my 4 long range shots, all Hail Marys, all miss. About this time Son #3 realizes I am almost in position to rake him along the side with no armor he dives out of the far side of Son #4's car and runs for the tower again. I let him go so i can focus on Son #1.
Late-
Pretty soon we are in Turn 25 and Son #1 and I are still lapping the arena. While he has never been in a position to even fire at me with any hope of success, he has been keeping his speed and distance up so I really can't get him, either. Son #3 is still lurking by the tower but has no real hope of starting and using Son #4's kart. It is very late so Son #1 and I agree to call it a draw.
The Chatter
There was a lot of very happy buzz from the kids over this game (we had some very similar games, but one-on-one, over the previous few days). The best comment was from Son #1 after this game, though,
"Dad, I expected to play this game every now and then to share a game with you, but this turns out to be the most fun boardgame-type thing we own that wasn't made by Lew Pulsipher by hand."
Wow.
The sons all want more than karts so I informed them we will do vehicles up to $10k next time (total cost - Son #3 wants body armor and a personal weapon!). Son#3 (at least) will be designing a new vehicle.
The Questions
Where can I find a nice download of all the important charts?!
What other maps, etc., do people recommend?
And what other rules should I acquire, since this is a hit?
Monday, December 29, 2014
Sunday, December 28, 2014
The "We've Finally Had Time to Read the 5e books" Post
Not a real review, but just the comments of me and my sons as we have read through the books.
The Reviewers
Me: 47 year old man
Ja.: 17 year old man
A: 15 year old half-man
S.: 14 year old boy
N.: 12 year old boy
The Good
Me: "The artwork is really good. The binding is very nice."
Ja.: "The books certainly are gorgeous."
A.: "I love the artwork."
S.: "Very pretty to look at, at least."
N.: "The art is nice and the last picture in the PHB is a badger, so bonus points."
The Interesting/Positive
Me: "You don't need multi-classing anymore since you can take various options to various classes to emulate a multi-class, which is interesting."
Ja.: "Looks like they have cleaned up a number of monsters."
A.: "Turns out that being almost-dead might actually have longer term effects than just the next long rest."
S.: "Random dungeon creation charts are back, which is great."
N.: "The various tables to help with motivations and background might lead to directions you'd never consider without help."
The Weird/Negative
Me: "...and yet you can multi-class, at least as an option, so let the min/maxing and 14 levels ahead character optimization begin anew!"
Ja.: "Monks can get an hadouken? What the?"
A.: "I've already figured out a way to get multiple spells off in a round and I've only had the books 15 minutes."
S.: "I should be third level after the 3rd or 4th session? So we'd have retired 2, maybe 3, 20th level character parties in just the Blackstone campaign?"
N.: "They nerfed golems? Who nerfs golems?"
The Harsh
Me: " Where do the credits acknowledge Runequest, Rolemaster, HackMaster, and Castles & Crusades 'for their contributions to the "new" content of this book'?"
Ja.: "If you want something for nothing and think character death is a horrible event that should never happen this is the game for you."
A.: "I don't want to play this, even to playtest."
S.: ""The DMG reads as 'we're sorry that 4e destroyed your creativity - here's some charts!'"
N.: "They nerfed badgers? THEY NERFED GIANT BADGERS?! This game is dead to me."
Full review in a few weeks.
The Reviewers
Me: 47 year old man
Ja.: 17 year old man
A: 15 year old half-man
S.: 14 year old boy
N.: 12 year old boy
The Good
Me: "The artwork is really good. The binding is very nice."
Ja.: "The books certainly are gorgeous."
A.: "I love the artwork."
S.: "Very pretty to look at, at least."
N.: "The art is nice and the last picture in the PHB is a badger, so bonus points."
The Interesting/Positive
Me: "You don't need multi-classing anymore since you can take various options to various classes to emulate a multi-class, which is interesting."
Ja.: "Looks like they have cleaned up a number of monsters."
A.: "Turns out that being almost-dead might actually have longer term effects than just the next long rest."
S.: "Random dungeon creation charts are back, which is great."
N.: "The various tables to help with motivations and background might lead to directions you'd never consider without help."
The Weird/Negative
Me: "...and yet you can multi-class, at least as an option, so let the min/maxing and 14 levels ahead character optimization begin anew!"
Ja.: "Monks can get an hadouken? What the?"
A.: "I've already figured out a way to get multiple spells off in a round and I've only had the books 15 minutes."
S.: "I should be third level after the 3rd or 4th session? So we'd have retired 2, maybe 3, 20th level character parties in just the Blackstone campaign?"
N.: "They nerfed golems? Who nerfs golems?"
The Harsh
Me: " Where do the credits acknowledge Runequest, Rolemaster, HackMaster, and Castles & Crusades 'for their contributions to the "new" content of this book'?"
Ja.: "If you want something for nothing and think character death is a horrible event that should never happen this is the game for you."
A.: "I don't want to play this, even to playtest."
S.: ""The DMG reads as 'we're sorry that 4e destroyed your creativity - here's some charts!'"
N.: "They nerfed badgers? THEY NERFED GIANT BADGERS?! This game is dead to me."
Full review in a few weeks.
Saturday, December 27, 2014
Play Report and Important Points on Designing Low-Level Encounters
I met my lovely wife in August of 1990 just before I left for the Gulf War. The very first thing we did for fun was play the old WEG Star Wars RPG. I thought she was a long-time veteran of RPGs. it was actually her first RPG session, she had just memorized everything about the Star Wars universe.
A match made in heaven.
In the 24+ years since she was played all sorts of games, cutting her teeth and learning how to play from some of the best GMs on the planet. Over the years she's made some truly memorable characters, like:
- The Mysterious Amazon, a barbarian mistress of the spear who was one of the deadliest fighters in Lew Pulsipher's campaign world.
- Lady the Abbess Gabrielle, a paladin who dual-classed into cleric and went on to name-level.
- Stardust, the very best thief in my Blackstone campaign.
She has a strong preference for fantasy RPGs with AD&D 2e S&P being her flat-out, must have a campaign running, favorite. She prefers to play front-line fighters with cleric/paladin a close second and loathes playing mages.
And she has never, ever, not once, ever dungeon mastered a single game.
Until yesterday!
After a few weeks of prep (it is the Christmas season, so she's busy) she ran a simple encounter to get her feet set.
To prep the Wife used the 1st level dungeon random encounter tables and followed the random rolls to arm, equip, etc. the villains. She stated very clearly that this was a 'practice round' [i.e., no permanent death, no treasure, no experience].
She asked that we play only the Big Four (fighter, cleric, magic-user, thief) with no specialization, custom classes, multiclasses, etc.
The Players and characters:
Me: Thrain Ironhand, 1st level dwarven fighter with an 18/91 strength and 13 hit points. Bardiche, heavy crossbow, splint mail for protection.
Ja., the oldest son: Justinian the Great, 1st level human magic-user with Charm Person. A dagger and happy thoughts for protection.
A., the second oldest son: Legas, 1st level half-elven thief with really good pick pockets. Short sword and a bajillion daggers with leather armor.
S., the third son: Otto, a 1st level halfling thief who is as silent and stealthy as a shadow. Dagger, club, and leather armor.
N., the fourth son: Bill, 1st level human cleric with a fiery faith. Heavy mace, warhammer, chain and shield.
The setup was simple; we are old friends on our way to visit a remote abbey when we learn that a small hamlet had been raided and all the chickens had been stolen. We followed a trail of heavy bootprints and feathers to a small, remote cabin. The thieves crept up to see what was going on as all else hid nearby. The cabin had a single door in front, two heavily shuttered windows in back and two open windows in front. The thieves heard indistinct noises and smelled fried chicken. Otto decided to check the back windows, where he heard Ominous Chanting. Legas decided to look in one of the open windows in front-
and looked right into the eyes of one of the three hobgoblins eating friend chicken around a table.
No one was surprised so Legas dove into the room through the window, trying to keep the hobgoblins from blocking the door. Thrain, seeing, this, charged up and smashed open the door.
Battle began.
In the first round the hobgoblins (with broad sword, spear, and long sword) all missed Legas and Thrain missed. Justinian held his fire, watching the door to to back of the cabin. Otto tried to stealthily open a back window and failed. Bill stood by to step into melee as soon as Thrain could press in.
In the second round Thrain slew the broad sword wielder in a single blow and stepped up to engage the spearman. Legas missed and was cut down by the long sword wielder, alive but bleeding out with -1 H.P. Bill rushed in and engaged the long sword user. Otto failed to stealthily open the other shutter.
In third round Otto smashed open a shutter and saw a human cleric sacrificing a chicken at an altar to Maglubiyet as a hobgoblin with a spear rushed him. Otto threw his club at the cleric, hitting for minimum damage but disrupting the ritual. Otto promptly fled for the front.
Thrain wounded the spearman, the longsword user wounded Bill, and Bill missed. Justinian threw his dagger at the long sword user and missed.
Fourth round! Thrain missed. The spearman grazed Thrain. Bill missed. Otto arrived. The longsword wielder hit Bill.
Bill goes down, slumping over the body of Legas.
At this point Legas is at -3 H.P. and Bill is at -2 H.P., also bleeding out.
Otto steps up to fight the long sword user as Justinian scrambles to retrieve his only dagger from the corner.
Fifth round. The long sword wielder cuts down Otto, who falls next to Bill and Legas at -2 H.P.
Its looking like a TPK at this point.
Justinian flees out the front door as Thrain cuts down the spearman.
Sixth round. Thrain misses. The long sword wielder hits, bringing Thrain down to 5 H.P.
Legas is bleeding out at -5 H.P., Bill is bleeding out at -4 H.P., Otto is bleeding out at -3 H.P. The magic-user is ready to sprint away, the long sword wielder is fresh as a daisy, and there are reserves behind the door.
Seventh round. Thrain hits and kills the long sword wielder. The jerk. Justinian prepares his spell.
Eighth round. Thrain smashes open the door to the back room where the cleric has just finished strapping on his plate mail. Justinian hits the cleric with Charm Person and the foe blows his save. The last hobgoblin, seeing the devastation and that his master has gone all wobbly-headed, dives out a back window and flees.
The Wife rules that the charmed cleric saves the lives of the downed members of the party and we wrap up.
All in all it was a great first session. Varied enemies with different H.P., different weapons, etc. We all loved playing the session even when it was grimmest.
Notes from the DM on her first session
1) The storytelling was easy and fun for her, but the mechanics was more involved than she expected.
2) She realized how important reacting to the actions of the players is and that too much prep might result in trying to force the players down the "right" path.
3) It is shockingly easy to wipe out a party.
Notes on Making Low-Level Encounters
In the post-game discussion I went over my own insights and the things I have been taught by other GMs about low-level encounters:
1) The thing most likely to kill a low level party is the armor class of the enemy. Hobgoblins are A.C. 5 so the mage needed a 17 to hit them - that's one hit out of 5 attempts. Even Thrain, a dwarf with a total of +3 to hit (strength and racial bonus) needed a 12, hitting only 45% of the time. Even though 2 of the hobgoblins in the main combat only had 2 H.P. and the 'tough' one only had 6 they were so tough for 1st level n00bs to hit they almost wiped out the party.
2) The thing second most likely to kill a low level party is the number of attacks facing the party each round. Low level parties have the terrible combination of poor armor classes and low hit points. Each extra attack per round increases the odds that a character goes down that round.
3) Low Hit Die Monsters are, one-on-one, tougher than low-level characters. A hobgoblin has 1+1 HD for an average of 5.5 H.P. Only as tough as a first level fighter, right?
Wrong. His to hit roll is the same as a 3rd level fighter. A hobgoblin is, in effect, a 2nd level fighter.
4) The number of characters in the party != the number of combatants in the party. Yes, we all like to have something to do in battle. But this little skirmish was a perfect illustration of my oft-repeated maxims
A- Fighters are physical offense.
B- Magic-users are magical offense.
C- Clerics are magical and physical defense.
D- Thieves are scouting and intelligence.
These are all very, very true at low levels where players haven't had a chance to 'buffer' their roles with magic to add some flexibility. When the thieves got into front-line battle they died. While the cleric did his best to hold the line, he died. When preparing an encounter for low-level parties calculate 1 melee foe per fighter +1 melee foe per cleric +1 melee foe for everyone else.
For a tough challenge add a spell foe for each mage and a spell defender for each cleric.
Have fun!
A match made in heaven.
In the 24+ years since she was played all sorts of games, cutting her teeth and learning how to play from some of the best GMs on the planet. Over the years she's made some truly memorable characters, like:
- The Mysterious Amazon, a barbarian mistress of the spear who was one of the deadliest fighters in Lew Pulsipher's campaign world.
- Lady the Abbess Gabrielle, a paladin who dual-classed into cleric and went on to name-level.
- Stardust, the very best thief in my Blackstone campaign.
She has a strong preference for fantasy RPGs with AD&D 2e S&P being her flat-out, must have a campaign running, favorite. She prefers to play front-line fighters with cleric/paladin a close second and loathes playing mages.
And she has never, ever, not once, ever dungeon mastered a single game.
Until yesterday!
After a few weeks of prep (it is the Christmas season, so she's busy) she ran a simple encounter to get her feet set.
To prep the Wife used the 1st level dungeon random encounter tables and followed the random rolls to arm, equip, etc. the villains. She stated very clearly that this was a 'practice round' [i.e., no permanent death, no treasure, no experience].
She asked that we play only the Big Four (fighter, cleric, magic-user, thief) with no specialization, custom classes, multiclasses, etc.
The Players and characters:
Me: Thrain Ironhand, 1st level dwarven fighter with an 18/91 strength and 13 hit points. Bardiche, heavy crossbow, splint mail for protection.
Ja., the oldest son: Justinian the Great, 1st level human magic-user with Charm Person. A dagger and happy thoughts for protection.
A., the second oldest son: Legas, 1st level half-elven thief with really good pick pockets. Short sword and a bajillion daggers with leather armor.
S., the third son: Otto, a 1st level halfling thief who is as silent and stealthy as a shadow. Dagger, club, and leather armor.
N., the fourth son: Bill, 1st level human cleric with a fiery faith. Heavy mace, warhammer, chain and shield.
The setup was simple; we are old friends on our way to visit a remote abbey when we learn that a small hamlet had been raided and all the chickens had been stolen. We followed a trail of heavy bootprints and feathers to a small, remote cabin. The thieves crept up to see what was going on as all else hid nearby. The cabin had a single door in front, two heavily shuttered windows in back and two open windows in front. The thieves heard indistinct noises and smelled fried chicken. Otto decided to check the back windows, where he heard Ominous Chanting. Legas decided to look in one of the open windows in front-
and looked right into the eyes of one of the three hobgoblins eating friend chicken around a table.
No one was surprised so Legas dove into the room through the window, trying to keep the hobgoblins from blocking the door. Thrain, seeing, this, charged up and smashed open the door.
Battle began.
In the first round the hobgoblins (with broad sword, spear, and long sword) all missed Legas and Thrain missed. Justinian held his fire, watching the door to to back of the cabin. Otto tried to stealthily open a back window and failed. Bill stood by to step into melee as soon as Thrain could press in.
In the second round Thrain slew the broad sword wielder in a single blow and stepped up to engage the spearman. Legas missed and was cut down by the long sword wielder, alive but bleeding out with -1 H.P. Bill rushed in and engaged the long sword user. Otto failed to stealthily open the other shutter.
In third round Otto smashed open a shutter and saw a human cleric sacrificing a chicken at an altar to Maglubiyet as a hobgoblin with a spear rushed him. Otto threw his club at the cleric, hitting for minimum damage but disrupting the ritual. Otto promptly fled for the front.
Thrain wounded the spearman, the longsword user wounded Bill, and Bill missed. Justinian threw his dagger at the long sword user and missed.
Fourth round! Thrain missed. The spearman grazed Thrain. Bill missed. Otto arrived. The longsword wielder hit Bill.
Bill goes down, slumping over the body of Legas.
At this point Legas is at -3 H.P. and Bill is at -2 H.P., also bleeding out.
Otto steps up to fight the long sword user as Justinian scrambles to retrieve his only dagger from the corner.
Fifth round. The long sword wielder cuts down Otto, who falls next to Bill and Legas at -2 H.P.
Its looking like a TPK at this point.
Justinian flees out the front door as Thrain cuts down the spearman.
Sixth round. Thrain misses. The long sword wielder hits, bringing Thrain down to 5 H.P.
Legas is bleeding out at -5 H.P., Bill is bleeding out at -4 H.P., Otto is bleeding out at -3 H.P. The magic-user is ready to sprint away, the long sword wielder is fresh as a daisy, and there are reserves behind the door.
Seventh round. Thrain hits and kills the long sword wielder. The jerk. Justinian prepares his spell.
Eighth round. Thrain smashes open the door to the back room where the cleric has just finished strapping on his plate mail. Justinian hits the cleric with Charm Person and the foe blows his save. The last hobgoblin, seeing the devastation and that his master has gone all wobbly-headed, dives out a back window and flees.
The Wife rules that the charmed cleric saves the lives of the downed members of the party and we wrap up.
All in all it was a great first session. Varied enemies with different H.P., different weapons, etc. We all loved playing the session even when it was grimmest.
Notes from the DM on her first session
1) The storytelling was easy and fun for her, but the mechanics was more involved than she expected.
2) She realized how important reacting to the actions of the players is and that too much prep might result in trying to force the players down the "right" path.
3) It is shockingly easy to wipe out a party.
Notes on Making Low-Level Encounters
In the post-game discussion I went over my own insights and the things I have been taught by other GMs about low-level encounters:
1) The thing most likely to kill a low level party is the armor class of the enemy. Hobgoblins are A.C. 5 so the mage needed a 17 to hit them - that's one hit out of 5 attempts. Even Thrain, a dwarf with a total of +3 to hit (strength and racial bonus) needed a 12, hitting only 45% of the time. Even though 2 of the hobgoblins in the main combat only had 2 H.P. and the 'tough' one only had 6 they were so tough for 1st level n00bs to hit they almost wiped out the party.
2) The thing second most likely to kill a low level party is the number of attacks facing the party each round. Low level parties have the terrible combination of poor armor classes and low hit points. Each extra attack per round increases the odds that a character goes down that round.
3) Low Hit Die Monsters are, one-on-one, tougher than low-level characters. A hobgoblin has 1+1 HD for an average of 5.5 H.P. Only as tough as a first level fighter, right?
Wrong. His to hit roll is the same as a 3rd level fighter. A hobgoblin is, in effect, a 2nd level fighter.
4) The number of characters in the party != the number of combatants in the party. Yes, we all like to have something to do in battle. But this little skirmish was a perfect illustration of my oft-repeated maxims
A- Fighters are physical offense.
B- Magic-users are magical offense.
C- Clerics are magical and physical defense.
D- Thieves are scouting and intelligence.
These are all very, very true at low levels where players haven't had a chance to 'buffer' their roles with magic to add some flexibility. When the thieves got into front-line battle they died. While the cleric did his best to hold the line, he died. When preparing an encounter for low-level parties calculate 1 melee foe per fighter +1 melee foe per cleric +1 melee foe for everyone else.
Example: With the party above I would have calculated 1 hobgoblin for Thrain, one for Bill, and Justinian, Otto, and Legas would be just a single additional foe, for a total of 3 hobgoblins.Trust me, this will be enough.
For a tough challenge add a spell foe for each mage and a spell defender for each cleric.
Same Example: Tossing in a witchdoctor adds spell offense and spell defense.These are really rough guidelines and YMMV.
Have fun!
Thursday, December 18, 2014
New Product - Five Henchmen
I added a new PWYW supplement today, it is called Five Henchmen
And, yes, it is about 5 NPCs.
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Building a World: More Maps and Such
Earlier entries in this series are here, here, here, and here.
We recently saw the regional map, or map of the primary play area. But I wanted to place it in a larger world, so I sketched out a 'mercator-style' world map that looks like this:
You can juuuust see where the Patchwork Lands are on the map. Again, I want a BIG world, so each square is (at the equator, etc.) 1,250 miles wide/high. The equator is marked with a dashed line placing the Patchwork Lands in roughly the same latitudes as France, so I have a weather/crops/etc. comparison.
Here is a bit of a zoom in on the world near to the Patchwork lands.
To discuss scale - the Sea of Grass, a vast grassland (obviously) penciled in there that covers the majority of the continent of the Patchwork Lands, covers about, oh, 18 to 19 million square miles. That is larger than all of Asia, or three times larger than Russia, or 5-6 times larger than the US, or 200 times larger than the UK. That means the lake in the Sea of Grass is larger than the Caspian Sea. That also means that the largest lake on the big map is larger than India.
Big world? Mission accomplished!
So my focus when I get to conveying the world to the players is to allow them to discover that while the Patchwork Lands are going to have a 'look and feel' very much like Medieval Europe plus magic the larger world, and it is very large, is vast and full of mystery. I will need to have fantastic things far away, legends of distant lands, and merchants, etc., discussing just how far away things are.
If done well, it will want them want to travel. If done poorly they will feel like underpowered yokels.
I also need to think about how these huge distances will affect trade, travel, and politics. Hmmmm.
We recently saw the regional map, or map of the primary play area. But I wanted to place it in a larger world, so I sketched out a 'mercator-style' world map that looks like this:
You can juuuust see where the Patchwork Lands are on the map. Again, I want a BIG world, so each square is (at the equator, etc.) 1,250 miles wide/high. The equator is marked with a dashed line placing the Patchwork Lands in roughly the same latitudes as France, so I have a weather/crops/etc. comparison.
Here is a bit of a zoom in on the world near to the Patchwork lands.
To discuss scale - the Sea of Grass, a vast grassland (obviously) penciled in there that covers the majority of the continent of the Patchwork Lands, covers about, oh, 18 to 19 million square miles. That is larger than all of Asia, or three times larger than Russia, or 5-6 times larger than the US, or 200 times larger than the UK. That means the lake in the Sea of Grass is larger than the Caspian Sea. That also means that the largest lake on the big map is larger than India.
Big world? Mission accomplished!
So my focus when I get to conveying the world to the players is to allow them to discover that while the Patchwork Lands are going to have a 'look and feel' very much like Medieval Europe plus magic the larger world, and it is very large, is vast and full of mystery. I will need to have fantastic things far away, legends of distant lands, and merchants, etc., discussing just how far away things are.
If done well, it will want them want to travel. If done poorly they will feel like underpowered yokels.
I also need to think about how these huge distances will affect trade, travel, and politics. Hmmmm.
Monday, December 15, 2014
Product Sale: The "After Black Friday but Before Christmas" Sale
Hi, everyone. Sales of Far Realms over the Thanksgiving weekend were better than I expected.
Of course, I didn't expect many people to buy it. I mean, it is good but there are a lot of good books out there!
Anyway, to continue the sale I now have a 10% discount on the print version of Far Realms and when you buy it you get a link for the PDF at 50% off.
Once again - thanks!
Of course, I didn't expect many people to buy it. I mean, it is good but there are a lot of good books out there!
Anyway, to continue the sale I now have a 10% discount on the print version of Far Realms and when you buy it you get a link for the PDF at 50% off.
Once again - thanks!
Off Topic: Comic Books
I used to read a lot of comics.
A. Lot.
As I recall between 1974 and 1988 I had somewhere between 12 and 22 subscriptions at a time and would purchase more, as well. I really dropped off in sheer volume in 1988 and virtually stopped by 1992. I do still read them, but selectively and often collections of classics.
Why the change? Two main reasons.
There was a tone of moralizing in comics from the time I started, a sense that the writers were interested in telling you what you should think rather than telling you a fun story. Green Lantern/Green Arrow was a (very, very) obvious example of this. For me the last straw was the death of the character Doug Ramsey - killing a character that drove good stories to send the message 'guns're bad" was terribly annoying.
Bu the bigger reason was how slavish adherence to continuity was (IMO) draining the fun out of comics. The letter pages at Marvel seems to all consist of variations of 'in issue 223 of The Stupendous Spiderman [written by a staff writer under the supervision of the editor in charge of Spiderman] Spidey said he had never done X. But in issue 45 of Obscure Cross-over Anthology [written by a contractor on a tight deadline to cover for a writer hit by a bus and supervised by an assistant editor already running 9 other properties] Spidey did x. Why did Spidey lie, fix it NOW, and I want a noprize." And DC had rwbooted their entire line of products to clean up their continuity,
Don't get me wrong, I understand that DC had some issues with their lines. I personally can recall owning various comics that told completely conflicting stories of what happened to Superman's parents after they launched his rocketship, for example. Add in that the list of 'last survivors of Krypton' was up to a few million and, well, sure.
But a strict continuity means that you are forced to jettison fun stories because they don't fit. Here is an example of a story arc that I owned and loved.
It is the iconic 'Death of Superman' arc, right?
Nope. This was all done in two issues of World's Finest in 1977, a full 15 years prior to that famous arc.
Let me repeat and expand; in two issues of a comic Superman dies, a fake Superman creates a world-wide dictatorship, Superman returns to life and overthrows the ruler of the entire world, and not a single other comic from DC mentioned it, then or ever.
And why not? After all, it was just a comic book, right?
But with strict continuity this would be impossible, even in a 'side franchise' comic like World's Finest whose bread and butter was super cavemen and weekly alien invasions.
The original goal of continuity was to create opportunities for more and even better stories. Now the goal of continuity is continuity and it now drives out more and better stories.
That is why I like Squirrel Girl. Don't know who she is? Look her up. Better, look up the list of villains she has beaten. And she's beaten them in canon so that it is part of continuity. I love the character because it takes the starch out of the strict continuity types.
So [to throw out a bone to the TRPG nature of the blog] Just like you can't let the status quo prevent your campaign from advancing, don't be a slave to continuity, either, as long as the changes aren't to harm or railroad (too much) the party. Focus on fun - after all, we are playing games.
A. Lot.
As I recall between 1974 and 1988 I had somewhere between 12 and 22 subscriptions at a time and would purchase more, as well. I really dropped off in sheer volume in 1988 and virtually stopped by 1992. I do still read them, but selectively and often collections of classics.
Why the change? Two main reasons.
There was a tone of moralizing in comics from the time I started, a sense that the writers were interested in telling you what you should think rather than telling you a fun story. Green Lantern/Green Arrow was a (very, very) obvious example of this. For me the last straw was the death of the character Doug Ramsey - killing a character that drove good stories to send the message 'guns're bad" was terribly annoying.
Bu the bigger reason was how slavish adherence to continuity was (IMO) draining the fun out of comics. The letter pages at Marvel seems to all consist of variations of 'in issue 223 of The Stupendous Spiderman [written by a staff writer under the supervision of the editor in charge of Spiderman] Spidey said he had never done X. But in issue 45 of Obscure Cross-over Anthology [written by a contractor on a tight deadline to cover for a writer hit by a bus and supervised by an assistant editor already running 9 other properties] Spidey did x. Why did Spidey lie, fix it NOW, and I want a noprize." And DC had rwbooted their entire line of products to clean up their continuity,
Don't get me wrong, I understand that DC had some issues with their lines. I personally can recall owning various comics that told completely conflicting stories of what happened to Superman's parents after they launched his rocketship, for example. Add in that the list of 'last survivors of Krypton' was up to a few million and, well, sure.
But a strict continuity means that you are forced to jettison fun stories because they don't fit. Here is an example of a story arc that I owned and loved.
A powerful foe appears from space. Superman uses all of his strength but, in the end, Superman dies. After the death of Superman the earth is in chaos but a 'replacement' Superman uses his powers to take over through threat of force. But the real Superman was only mostly dead; an aient revives him with yellow sun radiation and, reinvigorated, the real Superman deals with the replacement and reveals him to be a fake.
It is the iconic 'Death of Superman' arc, right?
Nope. This was all done in two issues of World's Finest in 1977, a full 15 years prior to that famous arc.
Let me repeat and expand; in two issues of a comic Superman dies, a fake Superman creates a world-wide dictatorship, Superman returns to life and overthrows the ruler of the entire world, and not a single other comic from DC mentioned it, then or ever.
And why not? After all, it was just a comic book, right?
But with strict continuity this would be impossible, even in a 'side franchise' comic like World's Finest whose bread and butter was super cavemen and weekly alien invasions.
The original goal of continuity was to create opportunities for more and even better stories. Now the goal of continuity is continuity and it now drives out more and better stories.
That is why I like Squirrel Girl. Don't know who she is? Look her up. Better, look up the list of villains she has beaten. And she's beaten them in canon so that it is part of continuity. I love the character because it takes the starch out of the strict continuity types.
So [to throw out a bone to the TRPG nature of the blog] Just like you can't let the status quo prevent your campaign from advancing, don't be a slave to continuity, either, as long as the changes aren't to harm or railroad (too much) the party. Focus on fun - after all, we are playing games.
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