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GM Theory: What is D&D supposed to be about?

What is D&D supposed to be about? It behooves every D&D DM to ask himself this all important question and give a thorough answer so as to provide a clear cut understanding of the premise of the game to the players. Now your typical good DM will say the most natural and simplest thing that rolls off the tongue of most good DM’s, its about story. Truer words have never been spoken, however this simple answer does not really lead one to a definitive statement of the premise behind D&D or ensures story is the outcome. Sure its about story, but how do you get that story to the table? How do worthwhile stories make an appearance in our games? How do you ensure the players participation and involvement in the story is ensured?

The answer is motivation. The motivation of players participation and the motivation of their alter egos, the characters are ultimately what drive the natural invention of story at the table. Before we get into this articles primary purpose, to discuss how stories sprout in our games and what methods DM’s can use to ensure that they do, lets discuss what does not.

Fake Storytelling

I have for many years been an advocate for the OSR (Old School Revival) and there is a primary and very good reason for that. I find modern DM’s really suck at bringing story to the game, they suck at creating motivations to care about stories in which our characters participate and they fail to give life to the worlds in which the stories are told. In essence they regulate the entire thing to cliche’s. While I can say that part of the blame goes to RPG culture, really it has been specifically the way gaming systems are designed that has caused the evolution of RPG culture to become so terribly derailed and unfocused.

This has happened because the practice of “storytelling” has evolved to become the domain of mechanics. Elements that were once the exclusively the work of our imaginations and constructs on which the premise of fantasy adventure was built have been washed away in exchange for tactical battle systems and rules oriented replacements.

Modern games no longer care who is at the helm of a player character as it is the character sheet and the mechanism that drive the systems that define the success and failure of a character and not the player driving him. Your choices in modern systems are reduced to die rolls rather then your imagination, your cleverness and your teamwork with your fellow players and note when I say “your” I mean the player, not his imaginary alter ego made up of attributes, skills, feats, special powers etc..

So what are we talking about here. Well to put it plainly with examples, we no longer define what our characters do, we activate mechanical actions to find out if we succeed or fail at our intention.

For example we don’t bargain for price of a sword with a merchant, we make a diplomacy check to see if our character manages to get a deal or not. We don’t decide if an NPC is lying to us, we roll an insight check to see if our character knows whether or not someone is lying to them. We don’t define how we search a room, where we look, how thorough we are, we make a search check to determine if our character finds something or not.

By the sheer act of mechanizing these many role-playing opportunities, we cease to tell a story about our characters and reduce the experience to a series of mechanized checks to see how our characters are doing.

In an environment like this it can be difficult, ney impossible for players to find their characters soul and purpose because the truth of role-playing is that it’s magic is hidden in the detailed and mundane activities of characterization. That interaction with a merchant is the opportunity to explore who our characters are and how they deal with people of the world in which they live. Believing whether or not someone is lying is a component of mystery to be debated among the players, is it truth or a lie, we must decide, not the dice. Whether or not we find treasure in a room should not be delegated to the randomness of a die roll, but rather our attention to the details of a room that must now be defined by the DM creating the atmosphere and imagery so desperately needed for the art of storytelling.

The point here is that in a fundamental way as you remove mechanics from the game, the central focus then instead becomes the story and the motivations of the characters and as such from that grows the responsibility and independence of the players to discover the concept of story. This is what the OSR and really old school games got right. They where simpler mechanics, vague mechanics and often existing in the absence of mechanics. These omissions aren’t an accident, they are a very intentional and purposeful decision to ensure the focus of the games is where it belongs, on the story, not the rules of the game. Oddly enough, the primary driver for DM’s everywhere, modern and past alike.

The morale of the story is that good storytelling and great stories are born in the absence of mechanics. I believe no truer statement can be made about role-playing

Creating Motivation Through Abstinence

It is here then that I make a case for slim, watered down systems that focus on the players and their intent instead of mechanics as is the case in versions of D&D like Basic/Expert, the full BECMI or various clones like Old School Essentials, Castles and Crusades etc..

These systems create a basic construction kit for story by alleviating the complexity of rules and defaulting to the premise of collaborative storytelling, imagination and core concepts. In the absence of rules, players have no choice but to use their imaginations to fill in the blanks, however that still does not provide players with the fundamental premise of the game. What are the things that actually motivate players to find and advance the story.

The Goals of the Game

You have to see D&D and role-playing as a construct in which their must be a primary driver with some secondary drivers that motivate the players, so that they can in turn invent fantasy oriented motivations for their characters. In a sense the players must know what the game is about, to know what sorts of characters to create. In the absence of this construct you end up with what I call “null motivation” characters.

A null motivation character is a result of a player creating a character without an understanding of the premise of the game.

For example. In Vampire The Masquerade, players are asked to create vampire characters in a world of darkness. Now a player who understands the premise of the game, that it is a game about political power in a gothic underground world of vampires, will understand that since this is the over arching concept of what the game is about, that in turn his character must fit into that world. He must answer questions like, how will this character pursue that power, what level of morality will he apply to his actions, will he pursue that power through intrigue, wealth, force or something else? If a player creates a character in pursuit of that premise, understanding that this is the meta goal of the game, he is likely to create a character that is ready for such a place narratively. This character will be attuned to the world around him, motivated to act in it in pursuit of the core premise.

However it is entirely possible to create a null motivation character if you fail to understand this fundamental premise of the game. If you create a character that is not going to engage in the loosely defined but fundamental meta objective of the game, he will likely enter it unprepared to participate in the gothic world of horror and be delegated to irrelevance as he does not pursue or engage in the world/setting built for that very purpose. A player like this might create a lone wolf, an outsider, who finds no logic in getting involved in the plots of vampires seeking higher positions/advancement, he will have no one he views as a competitor or a threat to his own power as he likely will have none. His world becomes one in which he exists as an empty placeholder with no real reason to actually be a member of the troupe.

The outcome however, when characters are built for the core premise is undeniably the story that will emerge from that interaction. When players are motivated to act, when they have their goals defined through a core premise in this way, they will both create and use their characters in that pursuit, ensuring that a story will most certainly emerge without any need for a GM to nudge anyone into action.

I used Vampire The Masquerade as an example here because unlike D&D, the premise of the game is very strictly defined as are the rules of this political game very explicitly defined in the kindred traditions. Your goal in this gothic world is to seek power and control, but you must abide by the rules of vampire society while doing it that very much force your hand into the world of intrigue and plots to achieve your goals.

Modern D&D’s premise, its core concept is not well defined at all, in fact, its really the absence of this fundamental definition that creates the most amount of problems as the players are asked to create “generic adventurers” in a game about “adventure” without any real definition of purpose. So vague is that premise that there really is not much on which to hang your hat. There is no core fundamentals on which to base a players motivations as such players create characters in the absence of any real direction about what the game is about other then the easy to say but hard to accomplish concept of “story”. Yes story, but what story? What is going to motivate the players into action?

Traditionally the answer is “whatever story the DM creates”, but this still lacks the true motivation because the story cannot be revealed to you in advance. You know it will be a fantasy adventure of some sort, but without a fundamental premise this becomes a rather vague catch all phrase and its very likely some players will create characters that simply don’t fit resulting in null motivation characters.

This is a very common problem for DM’s in modern D&D. A quick run through any D&D community forums you will discover just how common the DM complaint that his players “Waste Time”, are “unmotivated”, or are not “following along in the adventure” are. Its an epidemic in modern D&D culture so vast, I’ve personally gotten to the point where I don’t really like running or playing modern editions of D&D.

Old School Premise

Old School D&D, aka, 1st edition B/X, BECMI and 1st edition AD&D all actually had a core premise, just like most RPG’s of the time and really even today, just like Vampire The Masquerade.

The old school premise was fundamentally built on a simple mechanic that has been regulated to being an out dated concept, but was and continues to be in my opinion one of the most important and fundamental mechanics D&D needs to ensure it functions as a game that will ultimately create a story.

The mechanic I’m talking about is the Treasure is XP mechanic (1gp recovered = 1 XP earned). In classic D&D, the core (main) way that characters gained XP was through recovering treasure. This defined a core premise of the game. At the center of the D&D, all players knew that in the end, they where treasure hunters and this was the premise on which the motivation of the player rested. Their job as players, was to lead their alter egos to wealth. This wealth could take many shapes, just like in Vampire The Masquerade, the road to political power could vary dramatically. The important thing was that a premise for the game was established.

The Unfolding Story

From an absence of direction, to a clear cut goal, the very definition of what D&D is about is made crystal clear in the classic 1st edition D&D. However there will be skeptics and its important to remember that rules like this don’t exist in a vacuum. Just like in Vampire The Masquerade there are things that govern how you go about doing it, for example the Kindred Traditions is one such barrier to success. So it is too in classic D&D, there are other, widely misunderstood pieces of logic built into classic D&D that are important to understand and must be used for the premise to work.

First is that the game was deadly, this reputation is well deserved, but part of the core premise was that when you created a D&D character, he was a mundane nobody that was setting out on an adventure, now with a clear cut goal to write their story. They were vulnerable, they could easily perish and that was a barrier to success you had to overcome.

This is connected to the concept of “who is your character”, which gives directions to the players. Who are you? You are a nobody, the game is about finding out if you, the player, can turn this nobody, vulnerable weakling into somebody. That is the story, that is what you are writing when you are playing classic Dungeons and Dragons.

The fact that the game is deadly is to remind you further and really define to the player that the goal here is not to go out and seek your death by trying to fight monsters but to find wealth while avoiding danger. You must figure out how you are going to do that. Will you venture forth into the wilderness and seek your fortune in some ancient ruins of a long forgotten city or will you stay in the safety of town to scheme a way to rob the local nobles? Will you join the ranks of the local militia in hopes of making a name for yourself or start a local adventuring guild to get other adventures to do the dirty work for you as you claim a percentage. How you achieved your goals, was entirely up to you, the game is the story of how you do that.

This was further enforced by the fact that all other methods of earning XP, namely fighting monsters was the absolute worse way to do it. To prove that point consider that a 21 HD monster, the single most powerful in the world of D&D that would require a party of max level characters earned you a measily 2,500 XP, while a 1 HD monster that you would be an even match for at 1st level earned you 10 XP. The chances of you successfully fighting your way into success without dying was virtually ZERO.

Which puts the cliche that D&D is a game about fighting monsters and taking their stuff in a much different light. It is a cliche that is regulated to the OSR, that this is how “D&D used to be”, but the truth of the matter is that this is what D&D is today, in 5e, this is the core and fundamental motivation for players today, to fight monsters and take their stuff. In classic D&D this was the absolute worst thing that you could do and the entire system from low HP of characters, a complete absence of encounter balancing, to tiny XP rewards for fighting monsters and everything in between. The system did everything in its power to discourage fighting monsters. Which is true, as a player of the old school games I can assure you that we always avoided fights like it was the worst possible thing that could happen.

So how does the story evolve from this atmosphere. The answer should be obvious. The players have a clear directive, they know the premise of the game. When they sit down to create their characters, they do so with purpose. They understand their meta motivation and when the game starts, their purpose is also crystal clear. We are here to become rich, famous and powerful, now we need a plan. That plan, that adventure, those pursuits drive the story and players will seek out whatever opportunities you put in front of them with eager anticipation. You will never have unmotivated players again.

The Conclusion

It may not be as romantic, but having a clear cut goal for your players, something on which they can put their elbows is vital to the game. Players who create characters without a full understanding of exactly what the goal of the game is, will always struggle to create meaningful characters with meaningful motivations on their own, or worse, they will have misaligned motivations that will pull them in different directions.

The best thing you can do is to establish a core premise for your game, now you don’t necessarily have to adopt the classic Gold = XP premise of old school D&D, though I would argue this is an excellent logic to have in the game as a starting point. However in the absence of a premise, you will find that null motivation characters and mismatch is inevitable.

In my next article I will focus on creating other motivations (other premises) for D&D, Gold = XP is just one in a sea of possibilities and may indeed be better left to the past, though I encourage you to try it.

Game On People

Gaming Articles

GM Theory: Creating the Perfect Game

If there is one universal truth about being a GM is that with each new campaign, with each new writing effort we are always looking for ways to improve, trying to create that truly great RPG experience that encapsulates all of our hopes and dreams for a game.

We watch shows like Critical Role and wonder, how the hell do they pull it off? Well the short answer is that they are professional actors and do create a professionally produced show for a living, which of course gives them a major advantage that most of us simply don’t have, but there is more to it than that. Even a professional show like Critical Role could fail, there are plenty of great methods for creating that perfect game and while there is plenty of advice on the subject from wonderful storytellers like Colville, Mercer and the like, since I’m currently on a high of success, I thought I would write my own article on the subject of how I finally achieved that truly great RPG experience.

First a bit of history on my RPG experiences in recent years. Now I have been running games for nearly 30 years and though I would like to claim that my success as a GM is attributed to all of the experience I gained of what to and not to do to create a great game that ultimately yielded the great results I have today, I don’t think that would be the complete truth.

Of course experience is a contributing factor to success but I don’t think you need to have 30 years under you belt to pull off an amazing game. In fact, in many ways, my long experience often works against me as you become kind of stubborn and set in your ways from running games a certain way for a long time. You begin to think that you have it all figured out and can become rather defensive about taking advice, about listening to player complaints and adapting to the many great evolution’s that take place in the RPG hobby. In essence you can become an old Gronard who thinks they have it all figured out and stop developing as a GM which is something that not only does happen, but happens far more frequently then it doesn’t. In fact it has happened to me many times and entire decades of potential progress as a GM was lost and many games ruined because I refused to change and accept certain fundamental truths.

Point here is that experience (being a veteran) is often presumed to be the key to being a good GM, and while this has some truth to it, their is a whole lot more to it then that and today we are going to crack open the knowledge basket and see what falls out as we explore some of the methods you can use that go beyond experience to create that perfect game.

The Group Dynamic is Key

All the writing, effort and experience in the world will not help you create that great RPG experience without a good group, a lesson I have learned the hard-way more times then I can count.

Now when I say good group, I don’t mean good people, good role-players or good anything else. A good group is a placeholder for a type of group that fits into the mold (your version) of what a perfect RPG experience is. They fit into your style of running and create a dynamic with each other that works at the table.

You might be tempted for example to bring together “the best role-players you know” and think that, this is the route to creating the perfect game. The reality is however that sometimes two amazing role-players when put into the same game can result in a disastrously bad game.

A good group, aka, a good group dynamic that works is something that just happens and there is no sure fire way to artificially create it, it takes experimentation. You put people in games together and it either happens or it doesn’t. When it does work its magic, when it doesn’t it may not become immediately apparent, but eventually it will slowly sink the game and derail the experience. The game might still be ok, fun even, but you will never achieve that high level of play you wish to have, that magic that comes only from great group dynamics.

So the advice here is to understand that when you form up a new group this is a testing period of the group, not an opportunity to run a campaign. If you want to achieve a great game sometime in the future you have to be ready to do some intermediate stuff to find out how the group dynamic works and be ready to make changes. Don’t create your masterpiece campaign for a new group and expect amazing results because you think your campaign is that good. A poor group dynamic can destroy any game, no matter how much work you put into it.

The goal anytime new players get together is to find out what the dynamic of that group is, what kind of fit they are for each other and for you. What are the complaints, is the focus of the game where you want it to be, do people get along, is there jealously or hostility in the group, is everyone in agreement about what is and isn’t important and good in the game or in RPG’s in general.

All of these things need to be tested and its best to run short campaigns, trying out different games, different approaches and testing the groups reaction to find out what works and more importantly who fits and doesn’t fit into the dynamics of that group.

Eventually you may realize that most of the group except for one or two people function and this is a hard realization to make. At some point you will know who in the group has to get politely asked to leave and that can be difficult, ney impossible in some cases because they might be friends, co-workers or family.

Its here where the first real pain to perfection comes in as its critical to ensure that you have a very strong, positive group dynamic that works for everyone without doubt or conflict. This is key to creating that awesome RPG experience and it actually is physically impossible to have even a marginally passable game that you will be satisfied with if the group dynamics just don’t work.

Its painful and uncomfortable to ask a player to leave a group, but often the first necessary step to take when trying to create a great troupe that will be able to achieve the heights of a truly great role-playing experience.

Don’t Skim over Character Creation

I can’t stress enough how important character creation is to the process of creating a great RPG experience. This isn’t just about vanity as a GM, aka, its not about saying “hey if you want to play in my game you need a deep robust backstory”. It’s not about control, or trying to be some sort of artist. This is a practical matter.

The reality of RPG’s is that it’s a game that focuses on the players, on their roles in the game and as such, its less important for you to know who the characters are and more important for the players to know what character they are running. Creating backstories, writing backgrounds and personalities is not something players do for you as the GM, but rather something they must do for themselves.

This is largely for their benefit and of course to a degree, for the benefit of the game as a whole. They need to understand who their characters are, how do they behave, how will they react to different circumstances, how does their world view ties into the setting. This cannot be understated, great games come from great characters and great characters are born from in depth understanding of them which needs to happen before the game starts.

Its important to understand however that in depth understanding and fleshing out of characters is not necessarily the product of great writing. In fact, some players can produce very real, very believable characters and never put a word down on paper. Its enough that they spend time thinking and planning in their head exactly who this alter ego they are creating is. So don’t be hung up on the printed word in this regard, most people are not great writers, in fact, its far more common that people don’t write at all.

The important thing here is that players do more than produce a character sheet and personality quirks. You always know your in trouble when as a GM you ask a player to tell us who their character is and they use 3rd person generalities to describe them “He’s a savage Half-Orc Barbarian that doesn’t take shit from anyone” is not a character, its a caricature.

Push for depth, push for background, make sure your players really know their characters and have done the diligence required during the character development process. In most cases this means you have to give the players time, don’t let the excitement of playing an RPG push you to the table before the characters are really ready.

Great games are not about great story writing

One of the hardest lessons and most difficult thing to do for GM’s is to realize the very humbling fact that great games don’t come from great writing, but from great storytelling. Its not what the story is, but how you portray it.

What this simply means is that the plot doesn’t need to be a complicated, multi-layer onion for the players to peel involving lots of characters and in depth mysteries. In fact, an approach like that will most likely derail your game rather then make it great.

Great RPG experiences come from the moment and the moment doesn’t have to be part of a complex plot, but rather a simple situation made to feel real and authentic. As a GM you play the cast of characters with whom the players interact and these characters are what make the story and the world feel real, authentic and believable. How you define the scenes and portray the characters is far more important then the complexity and depth of the plot and it is the secret to great GMing and a great RPG experience for your players.

Its important to note however I’m not talking about wacky voices or the use of adjectives. Imagery can be simple, while remaining authentic, choosing your words carefully knowing when to define something or when to let the players imaginations take over is a subtle but important skill to learn, though notably its much easier then trying to become a master writer.

The game lives in your players minds and its your job to paint the first strokes and let them fill in the rest. If you make the world a believable place, that picture in their head will be clearer. You can mess that up by making things too complex and too involved as easily as you can by being too vague. So find that middle ground and understand that as a GM its your job to give players space to exist, its their story not yours.

Session Pacing is Vital

Most people when they watch a movie don’t realize how critical pacing of the story is as its such a very subtle art form, however the editing of a movie, the pace at which the story progresses and the time each character in a story is given is without a doubt one of the most technical and difficult things to get right and it is no different in an RPG session with one exception. The editors of a movie can do trial and error, they can edit a movie over and over again until they get it just right where as a GM you only get one shot at it in a live session where all decisions about pacing have to be made in the moment.

This vital and often difficult skill is unfortunately one of the things that really comes from experience of running games. However so many GM’s never truly learn how to do this correctly, not because they are incapable or because its so difficult, but because they aren’t consiously aware of it.

The pressure of running a session, managing the rules, thinking about the plots, portraying the characters, defining the world… there is already so much going on that it can feel like an impossibly daunting task to also be self aware of the pacing of the game and so it is largely something GMs tend to ignore. The result is a game where pacing can bounce around in a session from going way too fast where important details and emotion are lost, or too slow where the game bogs down and comes to a crawl.

It becomes even more complicated when you realize that different settings and worlds require an adjustment, require a different pace. There is a big difference between running a horror game and running a fantasy adventure and each requires its pace.

Fortunately if you are aware of pacing in your game and make a conscious effort to control and manage it, you will very quickly find the right pacing and become proficient in maintaing and controlling it.

Its very subtle but very important component of creating a great RPG experience for your players.

Find the Right Players, or Adapt to The Players You Have

If there is one hard lesson I have learned from years of GMing that probably didn’t need to be as painful as it was, its understanding that you cannot change what you players like and don’t like. While this goes to group dynamic to a degree, this is really more about choosing the right game for the group you have and there are two approaches to this.

The first approach is adapting to your players. What this means is that when you are choosing your game, when you are deciding on the style of the game and the method in which you will present it, you must understand the preferences of the players. Its vital, that the game you are running for your group is something everyone is overwhelmingly excited to play. If for example you are running a science-fiction game because you love science-fiction, but your players want to play a fantasy adventure, that mismatch (though it should be obvious) will never work.

Preference of settings, or style or game type are irreconcilable, meaning you will not be able to convince players to like something that they have already decided they don’t and there is no sense in trying. Run the game they want to play.

Now alternatively you can find another group that matches your preferences and while it may seem mean spirited or selfish the opposite is also true here. A GM running a game that they are not into, that they aren’t excited and overwhelming eager to run will be just as big a failure as running a game the players don’t want to play. You will never successfully achieve a great RPG experience running a game you don’t like.

It has to be a perfect match and your options in this matter should be clear, run the game your players want to play and make sure you love it as well, ensure that game is like its your first born child.

Conclusion

The truth is that running RPG’s is a challenging labor of love and while it’s by no stretch of the imagination an easy thing to create a truly great RPG experience, I do believe that if you are really aware of some of the subtleties that go into creating such a game you are far more likely to achieve that far earlier in your GMing career then if you ignore them.

It’s important I believe to not get hung up on the technicalities of the game, sure knowing the rules is important, being prepared is important, but these things are the standard stuff of running a game. The more subtle things like group dynamic, focus on character creation, understanding the important distinction between story writing and storytelling, the strategy of pacing and the sort of equilibrium of picking the right game are far more subtle yet far more critical components of creating a great RPG experience.

Often these things aren’t talked about and addressed by GM’s who are eager to simply play a game and while this can be fine for some GM’s who are a little less eager to perfect, those of us who are striving for that Critical Role level experience, these subtle things become paramount. Knowing and understanding them is the key to success.

My advice is of course just one point of view, but I do attribute all of my success as a GM to the subtle changes I have made in my style and approach to running games, as they say, the devil is in the details and its clear to me that really is the case when it comes to chasing that perfect role-playing experience.

Good Luck Out There!

Best of List, Gaming Articles

Top 10 War Games

While I recognize the concept of a war game can be a great many things and such a list can probably vary dramatically, when I say war game I mean soldiers on a map, fighting over territory in the classic sense. So while games like Through The Ages have abstracted war concepts and something like Cosmic Encounter may technically be seen as a galactic war, to me this sort of game would not really qualify as the focus game is something other then war. For example Through The Ages is an empire building game and while war is an inevitable part of that, at the core of its game-play is the concept of building up your empire. I also excluded miniature games because I feel though certainly these games would qualify as war games, its kind of its own category deserving of its own list. Finally I excluded short (filler) games, again, not that I dislike or don’t play such games, but filler gamers are really their own category and though many can be about war even in the more serious sense, I believe most people who would look up “war games” are looking for something a bit more robust.

Ok lets get into this.

10. IKUSA, formally Shogun, Formally Samurai Swords

While many gamers consider dice chuckers like RISK to be beneath them, to me Ikusa has sufficient “extra’s” to make it a quality strategic game and would simultaneously please RISK players. The fact that it looks amazing on the table is just a cherry on top.

This 1980’s Milton Bradly big box classic has been on my shelf since I was a teenager and with only brief interruption I have always played with pretty much every gaming group I have had. Certainly at this stage in gaming history its a bit of a dated game, but I do believe it has aged a lot better then all of the other Milton Bradly classics and still holds up in particular as an alternative to the traditional dice chuckers like RISK.

Its a nostalgia thing to some degree for sure, though I do believe out of all the old 80’s classics which includes Axis and Allies, Fortress America, Stratego, RISK and Supremacy, this is the only one I still long to play today.

Its a classic take on the dice chucker, but it takes it up a notch or two by having unique armies that can be permanently removed from the game, strategic resource management to give the game a measure of planning beyond just where you attack and unique individual units for interesting ways to affect battle outcomes.

Of course the fact that its medieval japan (one of my favorite time periods and historical cultures) as well as looking absolutely amazing on the table helps it a great deal not to mention the childhood memories I have of the long summer days playing it with my friends. I love this game and this list would be incomplete without it, warts and all.

Recommendations: If you love medieval Japan in using western presumptions about the era (think samurai’s and ninja’s), in particular if your a fan of RISK, this game is for you.

9. Tide of Iron

It looks and feels like a heavy world war II tactical game, without that uncomfortable elitness required from most games in the genre or that silly need for ultra realism.

I love war games and I love tactical miniature games, but when it comes to tactical board games I find I don’t have the same affinity for them. In fact, Tide of Iron is, out of my considerable collection of games, the only tactical board game I actually own. I don’t know why that is exactly, but I suspect it has to do with the fact that so many tactical board games are based on World War II and since I have Tide of Iron and adore it, I find it difficult to seek out other games that cover the same subject on the same scale. I mean there are a metric ton of them out their from Conflict of Heroes to Advanced Squad Leader which all seem interesting, but I always fall back to the question, why do I need another one when I already have one I love?

My love for Tide of Iron comes from a childhood memory of playing war with little green men, which is essentially what Tides of Iron is. Scenario driven, Tide of Iron zooms in on the battlefield to the squad level where players control squads of soldiers, tanks, various artillery in a wide range of situations in a green vs. grey army men World War II battle.

It abstracts many high level concepts like bombing runs, long range artillery and various “tactics” on the battlefield with cards that give the game a sort of zoomed in and zoomed out level of play which makes the battles feel more authentic, while also having a very clever system for managing terrain that is easy to understand and teach, a common complexity in other games of this type that often focus too much on realism in my opinion.

Its an engaging game that I love to pull out and I have even on occasion made it my choice of solo plays. I can’t recall a time I introduced the game to someone who didn’t love it, in fact, its been a birthday present to a couple of friends over the years which says a lot, especially since they were not “gamer” buddies.

Great tactical experience, bit of a pain to setup but tons of scenarios available and can be scaled for different lengths, ranging from everything between a short 1 hour mini battle to a 4 hour major engagement. Great fun, simple mechanics, perfect for inducting new players into war gaming.

Recommendations: If you like World War II tactical games, but find many of them overcooked, Tide of Iron gets it just right here with a perfect balance between realism and ease of play.

8. Empire of the Sun

Empire of the Sun is a very complex game and is not recommended for the uninitiated.

Easily one of the most complex games I have ever played and certainly the most complex one on this list by a wide margin, Empire of the Sun approaches the war in the Pacific in such detail, such focus and such an unusual scale that it is truly a unique gem in the genre, in fact I would say the game is a genre onto itself. I actually don’t recommend this game to all but the most dedicated war game fan, but in terms of scale and subject matter, it is the unquestionable king of high level strategic war games.

Card driven similar to Paths of Glory and as likely to have a-historical outcomes as Paths of Glory, Empire of the sun simultaneously zooms out and plays on the high level strategic map, while zooming in to cover the history of the Pacific War in great detail.

Its a fantastic game, one I have Reviewed, worth a look but be sure you are ready, it can be quite overwhelming.

Recommendation: This is for the ambitious war gamer looking for the ultimate challenge. It takes time and dedication to learn to play it and ten times that to learn to play it well. Its a life style game, make sure you have a dedicated partner.

7. Paths of Glory

Paths of Glory is a classic in the historical war gaming communities and is the foundation game for card driven mechanics.

World War I is probably one of the less known or sought after topics, and though this is a relatively new addition to my collection I’m warming up to it very quickly thanks to its strategic depth. Paths of Glory falls into the card driven point to point high level strategy games which is almost a genre in on to itself but this classic is a classic for good reason as I have discovered.

Really intricate and detailed it does what I love most about historical war games of this type, it infuses the game with rich thematic history, but does not become scripted walking you through the war as it actually happened. In Paths of Glory you are going to change history in some of the most unpredictable and interesting ways and because its a card driven game with literally billions of possible outcomes its physically impossible for you to play enough games to have even a similar outcomes from game to game. Every game of Paths of Glory is going to be wildly different. Some history buffs might find the a-historical outcomes to be distracting but for me personally there is nothing I hate more then playing a war game where I’m just going through the motions to ensure my war turns out exactly as it did in history. I find games like that incredibly boring and they never make my shelf.

Paths of Glory is more than just a war game however because while you are certainly focused on winning the war on the battlefield, you must carefully manage your resources and supply lines and like in real history, wars are rarely won or lost becomes of the outcome of battles, but rather everything that happens before and after. The influx of key historical moments represented on cards can also create some incredibly complex puzzles to solve increasing the challenge on a wide range of scales. What happens if Italy fails to enter the war in a timely fashion, or the Russian Czars never fall or the US never enters the war? All of these things are possible and more in a wide range of combinations and timings, all driving you to play the game again and again.

Absolutely love this game and though the complexity level ranges somewhere between the mid to high range, I find that the rules are very well laid out and it really doesn’t take more than one play to really get it. People say the game takes about 8 hours to play and I would agree that is the case until you play with an opponent that already knows the rules. Then the game goes from an 8 hour game to a 3 hour game fairly easily as the flow of the game is very quick once you get the hang of things.

Recommendations: This is definitely a game for someone looking for a higher level of complexity and meeting to the game, if you like games like Twilight Struggle or Washington’s War, this game uses many of the same concepts. If you are a world war I history buff, this one should not be missed.

6. Washington’s Wars

Washington’s War looks a lot more complicated than it is, I would put this is the light rules category.

A Mark Herman card driven game, however unlike Empire of the Sun, Washington’s War is a relatively light game that is closer to the likes of Twilight Struggle in weight and scope. This is a game about card management, strategic positioning and timing but unlike Twilight Struggle there is no requirement of card memorization which makes it a lot more newbie friendly.

In fact it’s almost questionable whether this is an actual war game, just like Twilight Struggle it is technically a game about war and you have armies and battles, but really this is a strategy game that covers the revolutionary war from a very high level overview.

I put it on this list mainly because I believe very strongly that if you are going to play games like Twilight Struggle, Paths of Glory, or even Empire of the Sun, this is your starting point. Learn this game and the rest will be a lot easier for you to absorb and understand as its incredibly rules light for such a deep strategic experience yet it uses many of the same concepts and mechanics as the various more complex cousins.

One thing I love about Washington’s War is that the game is relatively quick, yet gives you that full, heavy war game feel. Its a rare treat to find an opponent as the Revolutionary war, much like World War I in Paths of Glory is something not everyone is really going to know, though unlike Paths of Glory, knowing the history of the Revolutionary War is really not going to be much help here, its a lot more abstracted and general in terms of card play.

In any case I adore Washington’s War, while many would claim that Empire of the Sun is Mark Hermans masterpiece (and it very well may be) I think of all his games, this is the most likely to make the table if for no other reason than that it takes all of 10 minutes to explain how to play and even a first timer will pick up the game and put up some serious competition which is really what puts this one over the top for me.

Recommendation: Great entry level war game and introduction to card driven war games. If you have interest in playing games like Twilight Struggle, Paths of Glory and Empire of the Sun (universally accepted classics in the historical war gaming genre), this is where you start.

5. Battle of Rokugan

Its a game that feels like a knife fight in a phone booth from round 1, one of the hidden gems in the Fantasy Flight Games library.

Easily one of the most underrated strategy war games to come out of fantasy flight in the last decade, Battle of Rokugan is a gem that fills that “I want a war game, but I don’t have 4 hours to play one” feel to it. This is my go to game whenever I have people over who see all my board games on the shelf and want to play one because “they love risk”.

I have never introduced this game to anyone who didn’t instantly love it and I have on a number of occassions pulled it out at partys with non-gamers who not only end up playing it and loving it, but wanting to instantly play it a second time.

Its fast and furious yet deeply strategic, somewhat asymmetrical and though very abstract, still fairly thematic war game straight to the point war game. Its just a great mechanism for presenting that full fledged war game feel with a very light touch.

I think what I like about it the most is how close the games always are, its rare that a winner can be determined before the final move of the final round and often the game ends with several people within 2-3 points of each other.

Great, deeply strategic game, yet simple to teach and learn. Perfect for that spur of the moment game night.

Recommendation: While it may not scratch that deep historical war game bug floating around in your system, this is a game that will hit the table with just about anyone with even a passing interesting in war games. Its a perfect replacement for RISK.

4. War of The Ring

There is nothing like the feeling of a epic scale game that captures a story, War of the Ring is the best of its kind.

My favorite game I never play, this dust collector however still deserves notice for two core reasons. First, it is the single most thematic game I have ever played, it is without reservation The Lord of the Rings in a box. Secondly, its a game that tells an alternative version of history, written through gameplay of what I believe to be one of the greatest fantasy stories in existence unless you count Star Wars.

Why don’t I play it. Its hard to say, its not a lack of desire, but more circumstance. Its a two player game that takes a good 4-5 hours to play for starters which is not that easy of a thing to pull of for a guy like me who has a dozen gaming friends who always want in on board game night. Though this isn’t really the only problem. The second kind of difficult thing with War of the Rings is that its a terrible game to teach. It requires intricate knowledge of the cards/events, board and an understanding of some of the strategy which can be quite high level and though the game is not really complex per say, it does have an element of randomness that doesn’t really mesh well with the length of the game. Its something that I find is a problem in a lot of games, randomness and long games are a really bad combo. Still when played by experienced players, War of the Rings luck can and is completely circumvented. Beneath its ulterior is a very deep strategy game.

I love this game, it tells a great story, it makes for a fun evening and with the right opponent it will make for a great game two man game night.

Recommendation: If you have a dedicated gaming partner, this is one worth learning and playing repeatedly as it gets better with time. Its a must have for Lord of the Rings fans.

3. Shogun (Dirk Henn version)

Most of Dirk Henns games are in the “not my thing” category, but Shogun is about as me as you can get.

Shogun has been on my top 10 best games of all time list as long as I have kept one. There is so much to love about this game. It combines deep strategic thinking and planning with the wacky and chaotic gameplay reminiscent of Galaxy Trucker. I will submit that this combination will not be for everyone, but to me, board gaming is about having fun and this game brings it in a way no other game I have ever played does.

Ok so its not a serious war game, that cube tower is just down right silly but I have never played this game at any table where when cubes go into the tower people aren’t shouting, cheering and standing up. Its a game that goes from silent contemplation to people laughing out-loud in a single round of play. Some games I love because they are deep and strategic, others I love because they have interesting and thoughtful mechanics, others still I love because they are silly or funny, but Shogun I love just because it combines all of it into a single game.

Its a game that is very easy to grasp, it will capture that casual “RISK” crowd, it has plenty to offer for more seasoned war gamers, yet its play time is relatively quick so it never overstays its welcome.

I would never dare to make a best of list without Shogun on it, it checks so many boxes it can be justified on just about any list but certainly on one with my favorite war games list. Love, love it.

Recommendations: Really and honestly I believe this game has universal appeal if you have an open mind, but my experience has been that some people love it, some people hate it.

2. Game of Thrones The Board Game

This is a game that is played in the minds of the players, the board and pieces are mostly distraction.

While I have much love for the 2nd edition card game as well, to me the board game is a representation of everything I love about war gaming. It is not only a high level strategic war game with asymmetrical factions in an awesome fantasy setting, but throws into it that classic “diplomacy” style betrayal of move and counter move politics. There are so many ways to screw opponents and get screwed by opponents that every turn of the game is a nail biting assessment of what if scenarios and I have rarely ever played this game with anyone where all the passion and raw human emotion a gaming group can muster doesn’t spill onto the table.

This is a very controversial game that may not work with some groups if for no other reason then its a requirement to lie and betray to win, which can create a lot of hostility at the table and create a huge disadvantage for the more casual gamer. Its a cruel game where the only way to win is to completely screw people over and much like the classic Diplomacy it can rub people the wrong way.

My gaming group loves it and every year we do a big game of Game of Thrones at our big board gaming weekend, its always the main event, but be weary, its a long, painful and very hostile game that will end less mature friendships. Adult Advisory on this one.

Recommendations: I would say if you can handle games like Diplomacy, you are going to love this one, but I always put a friendship advisory on this one, its a rough ride and a fairly complex game to boot.

1. Twilight Imperium

There is no doubt in my mind that this is the ultimate gaming experience available in the board game market period.

Easily one of my favorite science-fiction war games, while Twilight Imperium is a fairly complex game and in depth game, I’ve never had much trouble inducting new players. There is a lot of “common sense” rules in the game and even a casual observer can pick up the core concept of the game with ease. There are a lot of moving parts and a fairly multi plateau of strategy that can stump new players, so experience certainly makes a difference but I find a reasonably seasoned gamer doesn’t require more then a couple of turns for the light to come on and understand how to win.

In either case, while the focus of the game is a grand scale intergalactic war the game also features trading, politics, diplomacy and various types of resource management and careful strategic positioning. There is a lot more to it then simply fighting, yet most games are ultimately resolved through direct conflict and the winner is typically the person who created the best setup for himself going into that war.

Amazing game, but it is one of those 6 to 8 hour games that is always at its best with 6 players which can be a fairly difficult game to put together. Though I only play it roughly once a year or so, It’s always one of my favorite gaming get together’s. Its been on my shelf since 3rd edition, over a decade and now with the new streamlined 4th edition there is even more justification to get into this one.

I put it as number one on this list because to me, there is gaming, there is war gaming and then there is Twilight Imperium. It stands out as a unique experience that I have never seen any other game come even close to. Anything can and will happen in this game, no two games will ever resemble each other and you really can spend countless hours contemplating the endless possibilities in the depths of its strategy. This is without question in my mind THE best war game ever made.

Gaming Articles, Role-Player Game Reviews

D&D Theory: The Old School Complaint

I’ve spoken on a number of occasions about old school vs. new school D&D, the old school movement, the designs and theories behind classic and AD&D, but today I’m going to try to illustrate not so much why those movements exist, but what those movements complain about when it comes to modern versions of D&D. What their main beefs are with modern systems and why they continue to use the old systems despite considerable advancement in modern design of mechanics.

I think the conversation is appropriate because only a month ago we got yet another variation on modern version of D&D in Pathfinder 2.0. As I write this I’m only 1 day away from playing in my first session and I’m very excited to try out the new system. Unfortunately I also know what I’m walking into. Like most old school D&D players, while I can certainly enjoy modern versions of D&D (and I do very much so), I know that the experience will be lacking in certain areas and all of my complaints that I have about modern D&D will still be present in some capacity in this latest version of the game even from a courtesy reading.

What are the complaints of this old school gamer when it comes to modern versions of D&D? That’s what today’s article is all about.

Combat is dreadfully slow

Dungeons and Dragons has always been a game of heroic combat to a great degree. We make great fighters, powerful magic-users, stealthy back stabbing thieves and divine clerics and much more and all of these adventuring characters are built from the ground up to kick-ass and take monster names. D&D as a premise is about heroically taking our characters into danger, fighting monsters, finding treasure, exploring unique locations and living in the theatre of the mind through the eyes of our characters.

At its core it is a staple of D&D to fight, but it is not the point of the game as a whole. This rather odd discrepancy between “what the game is about” and “what you do often in the game” is a delicate formula that Dungeons and Dragons got right way back in AD&D and has been struggling with in every edition of the game ever since.

The simple fact is that a D&D combat should take about 10-20 minutes tops, maybe 30-45 if you are doing a big climatic boss battle. It should be fast, furious, dangerous, violent and over quickly. A 5 hour session of D&D could (not necessarily should) have 4-5 combats and the session should still be mostly role-playing. In other words, you do a lot of fighting and still the game is not focused on fighting.

This is a fundamental and important element of a game that is about exploration and that comes with 300+ page book of monsters.

My biggest complaint about modern D&D is that combat has been getting slower and more dissociated from the narrative (more on dissociation later) with each new edition up until about 5th edition (so between 2nd-4th edition including Pathfinder 1.0 it grew more and more sluggish).

4th edition Dungeons and Dragons was certainly the worst of the modern D&D games when it came to combat speed, an average fight being 2-4 hours, but Pathfinder, 5th edition D&D and certainly the new Pathfinder 2.0 are still fairly slow by comparison to classic versions of D&D like AD&D.

In our session 0 Pathfinder 2.0 game our GM ran a simulation combat. 5 players versus 6 goblins. It took the better part of of an hour and change, the average wait time for me between actions was 5-10 minutes. It suffices to say that comparatively this was certainly a huge improvement over say 3rd or 4th edition, or even Pathfinder 1.0, but still considerably slower then AD&D which would have wrapped up the entire fight in 10-15 minutes.

Now I will say this upfront. All of the modern D&D editions including 4th edition have very interesting, involved and well thought out mechanics. These aren’t bad games, or bad mechanics they are just slow and this lack of expediency is just one peg in the leg that holds the chair (game session) together.

It’s also important to note that as an old school gamer and I feel quite comfortable speaking on behalf of the OS movement that there is no opposition to making combat tactically interesting. In fact, most AD&D and Basic D&D players use either house rules or published material to enhance, improve and expand on the simplicity of the tactical elements of the core rules for their game. The balance between speed and interesting combat is a fragile one and will differ from group to group and DM to DM, but among old school gamers both simplicity and speed are typically more important to creating a deeper, more complex tactical game. Its a preference and a peg to the leg, but its certainly not the deal breaker.

The real issue most old school gamers have is that most of the rules weight added to make the tactical combat more interesting in modern games, comes in the form of dissociated mechanics and it’s here where modern and old school gamers really differ in what they want to see in the way of enhance tactical combat mechanics.

Dissociated Mechanics

To understand what Dissociated Mechanics are and really the RPG design theory behind it, you really have to do some research. This is a long, involved and complex subject which I won’t cover here beyond the sort of paraphrased version.

The short version is that in modern D&D (and many modern RPG’s), many mechanics (in some cases most mechanics) are there not as part of a role-playing mechanism, but as a game mechanic. In other words, the mechanic is not associated with the abstracted reality, from the perspective of the character. These mechanics are not associated with the decisions the character makes. They are dissociated, meaning, disconnected from the characters reality, in the hands of the player making decisions in a tactical mini game added for the purpose of creating tactical and character building options.

Disassociation of mechanics in RPG’s began about the same time PC versions of RPG’s and in particular MMORPG’s were born. The concept of balance, the concept of character progression and builds all triggered the shift in pencil and paper RPG’s. In a sense, modern RPG’s were designed for modern gamers which came to the table with PC and video game experiences. Their expectations were to have the same levers available in their pencil and paper RPG’s as they had in their PC and Video game equivalents. It may seem odd, since PC and Video game RPG’s were born from Pencil and Paper versions, but the digital versions of RPG’s evolved differently and then began to influence their ancestry, pushing their pencil and paper equivalents to adapt to them.

An example of a Dissociated Mechanic is the Combat Maneuvers mechanic for a 5th edition fighter. With this mechanic, the fighter gets “combat maneuver points” that can be spent on special combat actions. These points represent an abstraction of fatigue, concentration, knowledge and Will I suppose. You can do things like trip your enemy (causing them to go prone), rally an ally (giving them extra HP), or command another player (giving them an extra attack).

This mechanic is really not associated with the characters reality, aka, a dissociated mechanic. When the character rallies another character and gives them extra HP, it’s really such a heavy abstraction in on its own as it is, but on top of that, he can only do it 3 times before taking rest, or he can rally someone twice, but then only trip an enemy one time So to the character because he rallied someone, he can’t trip someone later.

If you start to see the picture here, you should realize that the combat maneuver points, the way they are applied, the abstracted mechanics they trigger are all disassociated from reality. It makes it more disassociated and really paints the picture when you start asking questions.

Why can’t a thief learn a combat maneuver? Is tripping someone that complicated? Is it not possible for a Paladin to rally his troops, or command fellow character to get an extra attack? Why does me rallying my team and commanding them, exhaust me and prevent me from tripping someone or getting a bonus attack. How are these things related to each other.

Now there is a term for this called suspension of disbelief that is often applied, I would argue incorrectly. Suspension of disbelief is to accept something as fact that is clearly invented fantasy. For example characters in a fantasy world know that orcs and dragons exist, that magic is real and gods actually come down from the heavens and influence mortal beings. These are facts for the fantasy world and require the players to have a suspension of disbelief to accept. It is not suspension of disbelief when we ask a player to accept that he is fatigued from commanding people, so he can’t make a riposte or a trip attack as a result. We are not asking their character to believe in magic or dragons, we are asking them to accept a mechanical construct applied to a game for the purposes of balance as real.

Modern D&D is full of dissociated mechanics and this is so because these mechanics were not created to represent character choices and decisions within the realm of a abstracted fantasy reality, they were added for classes to have interesting activatable abilities, for the purposes of balance and entertainment as part of a miniatures combat game. They are not only dissociated from the make believe reality of a fantasy world, but from the very premise of a role-playing game (aka, taking on a role of a character).

These disassociated mechanics are very disruptive to role-playing though modern players are not entirely aware of it because again, they are so accustomed to these mechanics existing in other games (namely PC and Video games) that it feels natural and normal to have them. Modern pencil and paper RPG players are more likely to discuss class builds, class balance and “what options are good picks or not”. To the modern gamer, this is part of the role-playing experience and though these mechanics are disassociated, modern gamers are not bothered by the disruption, though disrupt them it does.

To a modern player, choosing your race and class, your feats and skills and your spells are mechanical choices they expect to make. They expect progression, they expect balance, they expect lots and lots of options. In fact, the size of core rulebooks have grown substantially for many of these games. Pathfinder 2.0 for example weighs in at over 600+ pages, easily the largest RPG rulebook that has ever existed. This book is overflowing with character building options. One must ask the question why? Why do we need this many options for a game that is about playing a role in a game of collaborative storytelling?

Dissociated mechanics are partially the cause, or at least they compounded the issues that lead to increased length of combat. As more and more of a session is taken up by making tactical choices, with a plethora of activatable abilities, the slower the game is in combat and the more often the players are pulled out of their role in the role-playing game and pushed towards player centric top down decisions about which abilities to use, which resources to spend, what tactical choices they should make. None of which has anything to do with role-playing their character, thinking through their character or seeing the world through their character. These are, for all intents and purposes, mechanics designed for a game.

4th edition D&D for example was often accused in reviews of being too much like a board game or an MMORPG. This assessment while facetious, is not really that far from the truth as in many ways, because the game is built on so many dissociated mechanics (just like board games and PC games are), that its perfectly reasonable to get that sense from the game. In 4th edition D&D you spent most of your session using mechanics that would have no in game, in character logic to them.

Is it all bad?

The answer is no. While certainly things have changed a great deal since the AD&D days when associated mechanics were king, the RPG revolution has begun to revert from its PC game evolved roots back to the golden age thinking. This is happening very subtly, but slowly with each new iteration of D&D. We have seen the PC and Video game world have less and less influence and the old school world of RPG’s have more and more. Modern players have begun to evolve the pencil and paper RPG’s away from the digital rpg’s. and into their own thing. Now its not exactly an old school movement, but many ideas from old school games have found their way back into modern designs.

A good example in Pathfinder 2.0 is the skill system. Any AD&D player should find this system very familiar, it is almost an exact replica of Non-Weapon proficiencies.

Why has Pathfinder 2.0 brought back Non-Weapon Proficiencies? The answer is quite simple. The purpose of a skill system is to describe what your character can do, not necessary to define how the rules work. Its sort of like saying, here is a gauge, rather then, here is an applicable rule. Its to ensure that while a player runs his character, he understands what his abilities are from the perspective of his character.

For example if you are trained at swimming, you know you can swim. That is an in character understanding (an associated mechanic). Certainly there can be rules for swimming (Difficulties set for different conditions for example) but the important thing for the player and his character is to understand, hey I know how to do that and here is how good at it I am. Trained, expert etc..

The movement to more associated mechanics however isn’t just about reverting to old school mechanics, there are very modern versions of associated mechanics we have never seen in old school games, but still fit neatly into the ideology. This supports the idea that associated mechanics aren’t just an old school thing, modern gamers and designers are becoming very aware of it as well even if they don’t fully verbalize it.

For example the 2D20 Momentum and Threat mechanic is a great example. Here we have a very associated mechanic that is inspired by concepts of inspiration and stress, a gauge of a very relatable concept we have in our real lives. When a person is inspired, he becomes motivated and is more likely to succeed and ever exceed in tasks he is performing. Who hasn’t had that day at work when everything is falling into place, motivating you to push it further, that moment when we are on a roll.

Vice versus with threat, its a little like stress. We can feel our stress levels and they impact us negatively. The more stressed we are the less productive we are, the more mistakes we make, we lose sleep, we are less attentive when we drive. There is all sorts of impact on our lives from stress (aka threat).

This sort of mechanic is brilliant in representing something very relatable, yet it is very modern, an invention of an associated mechanic for the new age of role-playing games.

The move away from dissociated mechanics might not ever reach the same levels as AD&D which on a design level had a real aversion to it going so far as suggesting that even the use of dissociated house rules in your game is heresy. Still modern gamers are becoming more evolved role-players. More and more, players are becoming concerned with their stories, with their backgrounds, with the invention of character and the designers of these systems are responding by giving them the mechanical structure on which to base those inventions, which come in the form of associated mechanics.

In Pathfinder 2.0, I found it refreshing and far more natural to build a character, a really great sign that the system is moving in the right direction. The dissociations of choosing hyper abstract mechanical options have been minimized, replaced with mechanics designed to help match functionality to written backgrounds and give players narrative fuel. We already saw this greatly improved in 5th edition D&D and Pathfinder 2.0 has taken yet another step in that right direction. An almost full 180 from systems like 4th edition D&D which lived in the world of dissociated mechanics almost exclusively.

Conclusion

The conclusion is that while we still call the old school movement and game systems like AD&D old school, modern games are becoming more and more familiar to us old gonards. The distinction between new school and old school is becoming blurred, there are more and more commonalities between the two concepts and rules. I find some of us Gonards have a hard time making peace with that, as old school has other more mythical connotations, but I consider this sort of thing very judgy for the sake of being judgy. It’s just some hipster shit, that out of date “it was better in the olden days” mantra. The reality is that the bridge is being built and the question is if old school players can get their head out of their asses long enough to make the crossing. I have my doubts about that.

Role-playing has changed a great deal in the last 30 years, but in a way, its less a progression forward and more an evolution and refinement on the original material. Sure, there was a brief moment in time (about 10 years worth) when the influence of digital games on the pencil and paper games was disturbing, I will be the first to admit that I thought it was shit in, shit out at the time, but even from those periods of design some good came out of it. Perhaps it was a lesson on what not to do, but I like to think of it more along the lines of designers coming to grips about what was great about role-playing games at the table and how it differs from the digital experiences. It was an affirmation that us old Gonards were right all along, we fucking told you, you wouldn’t listen and so you spent 10 years getting your asses kicked. While I feel high and mighty, I welcome you back.

Mind you I love MMORPG’s and CRPG’s, Baldur’s Gate was one of my favorite games of all time and it was a very close approximation of the rules of AD&D. It just doesn’t work to run pencil and paper RPG’s in this manner and we shouldn’t try to make mechanics that allow you to so, its pointless and It just doesn’t work well.

Pencil and Paper RPG’s are also more than just one thing and the old school gonards like me have to really come to grips with that as well. There are a wider range of perfectly acceptable ways to play D&D and those players aren’t doing it wrong, they are doing it their way and doing it your own way IS always the right way. Designers are going to continue as they always have to cater to all walks of RPG life, which will include these ever widening styles of play.

I do however agree with the old school movement that D&D is its own thing, it is not to be fucked with. If you want to make a Forbidden Lands that has some unique spin on the RPG genre, go for it, but if you are going to put the D&D label on something, you will follow the rules, or we will make someone who does the king of RPG’s (like Paizo). There are sacred cows like associated mechanics that simply cannot be trifled with, else you will end up with commercial failures like 4th edition D&D. Note I said commercial failure, not design failure. 4e had its merits, it just wasn’t D&D because it failed to heed important lessons about what D&D should be, which includes a game about fast combat, associated mechanics and countless key tropes that are ingrained into the fan bases psyche If you want to include D&D players from all generations of the game, there are simply some design constructs that must be followed. Call them sacred cows if you will, but those are the terms, abide by them or suffer the consequences.

In my opinion the future looks bright for the old school movement and the modern gamers as well. Systems like Pathfinder 2.0 are clearly designed for a more seasoned group of players, but there is no mistaking its intention to include old school veteran’s of D&D and the old school movement within its walls. I look forward to this next edition of the game.

Exciting times ahead!

Gaming Articles, PC Game Reviews

Playing to Win: League of Legends: Part I

While I don’t often talk about my PC gaming experiences on this blog, it is and always has been my intention for this to be an all exclusive gaming blog. Today we are going to talk about League of Legends, a 10 year old MOBA that is without question the king of kings when it comes to the genre. Currently according to statistics released by RIOT games, there are over 100 million active players each month and on average 7.5 million players online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week , 365 days a year. It is among the largest MOBA game communities in E-sports today and that means that if you are are game reading this article, statistically speaking, you either have, do or will at some point be a player.

Over the next couple of articles we are going to dive into League of Legends. I have been a player since League of Legends launched nearly 10 years ago and I have had a lot of personal success with the game and buckets of experience. I have really enjoyed my time despite the often harsh community that forms around the game and in this article series I have constructed countless tips, tricks and lots of tid-bits of information less commonly known by league players. Consider this your guide to League of Legends from an old dog, whether you’re new to the game or an old veteran trying to climb the ladder of success.

The Basics Don’t Change

First and perhaps the most important thing most League of Legends players overlook and ignore are the fundamentals (the basics) of the game. I think it serves every League of Legends player, new and old alike to familiarize (or re-familiarize) themselves and remember the core fundamentals of League of Legends road to successful play, so I will list them here first before we get any deeper into this guide.

You cannot win alone
No matter how good you are, no matter how well you play and no matter what you do in a match, its physically impossible for even the best player in the world, to beat, even the worst team in the world alone. Don’t let anyone ever fool you into thinking you can carry a game without your team or that somehow your fate is not intertwined with the rest of your team. This IS a team E-Sport from the core of its design and alone you will ALWAYS lose, period. You need your team, which means that they are on your side, they are your friends for the 30-45 minutes you are in a match together.

Note that there are 4 other players on your team, for the next 45 minutes, they are your only hope of winning this match.

You can play well and still lose
No matter how good you think you are (or actually are), no matter how well you play, there will always be people who play and are better than you. Make peace with it. This is a game of skill and your skill is your skill and everyone else’s skill is everyone else’s. You can’t expect players who are below your skill level to perform as good as you, nor can you expect to beat players who have higher skill then you. During matches you must accept your “real situation” as opposed to your “frustration situation” (more on those terms later).

No one ever wants to see this screen, but seeing it doesn’t mean you played badly. Globally players win/lose ratios are about 60/40, meaning the average players loses 40% of his games.

Statistics Don’t Matter, Focus Does
Your KD ratio, your win/loss record, your league rank or division, your farm.. forget about all of it, it’s totally and utterly irrelevant. The only thing that matters is your last game. Did you improve, did you discover something new about the champion that you just played, did you discover a new combo, did you make mistakes and were you able to identify them. If you are focused on your performance and strive to improve your actual play, your statistics will improve automatically. Don’t let the numbers get under your skin, focus on the matches, on your actions, on your real performance and strive to improve your play, your stats will improve as you do.

Play to your strengths, develop your weaknesses
There is a tradition among League of Legends players, which is to speak about what your good at. I’m a good ADC with Ashe, or I’m great top with Tremele. All great and good, every player should play to their strengths, but League of Legends is a game with well over 100 champions, not the 5 you play. Knowing what champions can do, is a key element to understanding how to deal with them in game or benefit from them if they are on your team. As such, one of the key fundamental approaches to the game is to always be developing the weakest part of your game. Do you suck at support? Well then that is where your focus should be. Why? Because it will make you even better when you play to your strengths and give you a far broader understanding of the game.

You will lose with your mouth before you lose with your hands
This is a big one. League of Legends is infamous for trash talk in game, in fact, to such a degree that RIOT themselves have done studies on player statistics and discovered what we all already know inherently. If you trash talk you will lose more games than if you don’t, in fact, 30% more. What that means is that when it comes to finding ways to improve your game, the most sure fire and direct way you can do that is to simply shut the fuck up. It’s that simple. Stop trash talking and you will win more games. It’s worth pointing out that if you statistically lose 30% more often, it is physically impossible for most players to win more games then they lose as the average win/loss record for a really great players is winning 70% of their games. So if you lose another 30% on top of that, you are flipped upside.

On top of increasing your chances of losing, trash talking will get you banned fairly quickly forcing you out of ranked play and back to starting with a 1st level account.

The Big Picture Strategy

Now that we have some of the basics outlined, it should be clear that most of the fundamentals have very little to do with strategy/tactics in game and more to do with mentality and approach to the game. Why is that? Simply put, when it comes to any sort of sport and League of Legends is a sport, E-Sport, but a sport non the less you must approach it like an athlete approaches his sport. Which is to say, you must focus on yourself. You cannot control what other people do, but you can control how you react to it and you can control your own approach to the game and this is the big picture and the point of the fundamentals listed above. More importantly however, is that the focus should be on practicing your craft, in this case, playing matches. Theory has its place but practice is everything which means that the Big Picture Strategy for League of Legends is Focus on yourself and practice.

That only leaves the question about how you should practice, after all, practice is a practical word, but to improve, you must have a strategy on how you practice. Simply playing a lot of games without direction will not improve your skills by much, in fact, what it will most likely do is result in you stalling your improvement as you develop habits. My advice to anyone, newbie and pro alike is to ensure, if you are going to apply strategy, it should be to the method and approach you use in how you practice, as opposed to what you practice, which brings me to the following list of 5 tips on how to practice.

Practice Tip 1: Focus on a personal goal
When it comes to practicing something, it’s about repetition and ensuring that what you are learning becomes less a thought and more a reflex, but it can be very easy to get bogged down by the complexity of the many things one must think about in a match to be successful. As such, its best to enter a match with a definitive goal in mind in what you want to accomplish/practice in a match and do that thing over and over until you have it down. For example, if you want to improve you warding skills, or you want to test some warding locations, then focus on that. Make the match about you putting down good wards for your team. Analyze the benefits and drawbacks of what worked, what didn’t and establish working routines, but don’t be afraid to challenge them.

Practice is all about improving on specific skills that make up the whole of the sport, warding for example is something every good player should be skilled out regardless of position. Practice makes perfect!

This is just an example, but the idea here is that you want to zero in on one thing and get it to a point that its automatic. So that in all future matches from that point forward, you don’t have to think about it, you just know what to do. When you get to that point, move on to the next thing you want to practice. Eventually you will see a lot of improvement in your play as you expand your expertise and you will find that many skills, enhance, other skills you will focus on later. You will find that as your skills stack, you win more matches, that’s a promise!

Practice Tip 2: Play Ranked ASAP
Pressure and competitiveness are an athletes best friend and so it is true for E-Sports, get into Ranked games ASAP and stay there. Many players will tell you the exact opposite, I disagree.

If you want to be a rockstar, you need to get on stage, its as simple as that. In ranked matches, when it comes to League of Legends, the pool of players, the effort people put in and the demands they place on themselves are much higher/bigger which leads to considerably better games. This is true for any stage in the divisions.

Playing ranked will put extra pressure on you to perform and pressure is a good thing. Regardless of what division you fall in, your goal is to move up to the next one.

I truly believe that simply by joining Ranked play, your game will improve much faster as a natural adjustment to a competitive environment and being surrounded by players that are a bit more serious about competing.

Practice Tip 3: Prepare your champions in advance
As a rule, any hero that you would potentially play you should have your core gear plan setup in the items section, runes setup for that specific champion and a core plan for your leveling progression. You don’t want to be inventing this stuff on the fly. This may be obvious, but you would be shocked how frequently people don’t do this and more importantly what a huge advantage it is to go into matches with a clear plan that clears your mind and allows you to focus on the game rather than on decisions and analysis of champion builds.

You should have alternatives as well, situational builds to counter certain types of situations. Its usually good to think about it in basic/general terms than in champion specific terms. In other words, instead of having an Anti-Malphite build, have a vs. melee or vs. magic build. As you get better you may improve upon this by getting more specific, but having a general plan is always preferable to no plan.

Practice Tip 4: Be a good sportsmen
It may seem strange to “practice” being a good sportsmen but given the statistical nature (30%) of losing games as a result of trash talking, it can be surmised that doing the opposite will shift the statistic the other way. In Other words, instead of trash talking, practice encouraging opponents and being a good sportsmen.

I truly believe that building up a teams confidence has many benefits and will more often result in teams playing better as it does the opposite when you tear your team down with trash talk. When a player does well, pat him on the back, if he makes a mistake, be quick with an encouraging comment. If you feel negative energy building up, focus on the positive. It may sound silly, but the mental state of a team constructed out of 5 strangers in an online game can shift wildly and I’m convinced it has massive impact on player performance, including your own. So be a good guy on the team, encourage your team and make it a habit by practicing it every match, every time.

Practice Tip 5: Know your place and own it
This is less a practice tip and more a general tip, but I’m putting it here because it really does require a paradigm shift for most people. This is one of the hardest hurdles that I find the overwhelming majority of League of Legend players can’t make peace with. Knowing their place in a match. I’m not talking about position, I’m talking about your skill level.

The most typical response you will get from players is that they belong in a higher rank then they currently are in nd the people they are playing with and against people who belong in a lower rank then they are. It’s an assumption that the matchmaking is terrible, the ranking system is broken and the entire infrastructure of determining which players your matched up with and against is giant mistake by Riot.

Embrace the fact that you are wrong on that. If you are in Iron II, Silver III, or Diamond I, it’s because that is where you belong. When you are Iron II and you are matched with a Bronze II, accept that this player has a higher skill set then you do. It might not reflect it in the current match, it might not reflect it on that matches K/D ratio, but it’s 100% true.

It’s vital to the success of your climb to accept where you are in the league and that you belong their. Your focus should be on improving and climbing, but you must do it with the clear mind and acceptance that based on your performance to this very moment, you are exactly where you belong.

Embrace that and your mental state will change, your approach and understanding of the game will shift and you will find yourself free of the frustrating burden of trying to prove yourself to everyone. The number one cause for tilting and players throwing games with bone head moves and the blame game that follows is the result of people resisting this premise. It’s physically not possible for you to improve as a player without taking this step. Wherever you are now, you will stay there until you deal with this mental block, that is a guarantee from a 10 year League of Legends veteran.

Ok that it’s for Part I, in Part II of the series we are going to get into more specifics.