Good morningafternoon, Internets! Did you miss me?
If anything cool, fun, or important has happened since Thursday night, please let me know in comments.
Behind the cut, below, I'm going to talk about what I did at Dreamation 2010 this past weekend. LJ usernames will not be used to protect the innocent because I'm too lazy to look them all up. (I apologize in advance for misspellings and flat-out wrong names; mea culpa.)
Onward!
Events
FLIDAY
Drove up to Rob Donoghue's house at ZOMG o'clock.
Got on the road around 5:30 am.
Much great gaming geekery discussion, ranging from design matters to personalities to industry ideas.
Got to the Hyatt in Morristown; half-hour parking lot hell.
Check-in, got ourselves situated; see many people, many handshakes and hugs; lunch with Ryan Macklin and Matt Gandy.
General hanging out, with a particular "gobsmack Chad" moment:
MACKLIN: "I bet you think you deserve a motherfucking medal for just being you, for just being Chad Underkoffler, don't you?"
YOUR HUMBLE: "Abso-friggin'-lutely."
MACKLIN: "Alright, then, bitch!" (fumbles in bag, produces a medal)
YOUR HUMBLE: (pole-axed; gapes like a goldfish; starts laughing hysterically)
MACKLIN: (to puzzled onlookers) "It's the Silver ENnie for S7S I accepted for him at GenCon."
[Well played, sir. Well played.]
Sushi for dinner with Gregory Phillips, Brennan Taylor, and the delightful Lilith Taylor (who we all bored to tears for awhile talking about -- God help me, that I did this -- the economy, CDOs, the Move Your Money concept, yadda yadda. (Sorry, Lilith. The three of us we being old farts.)
Played in a game of 3:16 -- Carnage Amongst the Stars (which I got from the "Haiti Bundle" on RPGNow/DTRPG), GM'd by Matt Weber. Much bug-huntin' and "officers are idiots/douchebags" fun. Think Aliens meets the Starship Troopers movie.
Through the kind introduction of Darren Watts, and the sufferance of Vinny, got into the late-night Texas Hold 'Em game ($20 buy-in). Only had to wait about a half-hour before a seat opened up. I was writing off that $20 as an "entertainment and education expense" -- you see, almost all of my poker playing has been computer/online, so I have very few table skills. I saw this as an opportunity to learn those, and was happy to pay for the privilege, and said as much going in. I made mistakes, I learned, I had fun, and in the end, I made money: when I cashed out at 3 am, I was up $29. (That money helped with some of the Purchases below. Thanks, guys!)
A little under 3.5 hrs sleeps, and then...
SABADAY
When taking my morning shower, one of my greatest fears happened:
I slipped and fell in the extremely slick hotel tub.
I fell completely out of the tub, ripping the shower curtains free.
I narrowly missed cracking my skull open on the toilet, avoiding a porcelain slam to the brainpan that would have resulted in leaking blood and brains onto the lineoleum.
As it was, I landed on my... pride. (And we all know my "pride" is very well-padded.)
Lesson learned? I don't care: I'll wear my fake Crocs into hotel showers from now on.
BONUS: It's also darkly funny, in a way: "WET NAKED FAT MAN FALLS DOWN IN BATHROOM; FILM AT 11."
Paid $20 for coffee and a small plate of scrambled eggs and bacon.
Played Ganakagok in the am, GM'd by Jeff Collyer. Think tribal mythopoetical "Inuit-esque" folks, before the first rising of the Sun. The first Ganakagok game I'm been in NOT run by the author/designer (Bill White), and the most soap-opera-y thus far -- much of the play was all about social ties, relationships, status, and the Village.
Pizza for lunch with Joanna and Connie and others.
Spent first part of the afternoon sitting at a table in the hallway between the hotel lobby and the conference center with Rob Donoghue:
Shootin' the shit with whoever passed by.
Gave an academic interview to Bill White on North American jeepform/freeform play.
Talked with Vinny regarding some of the stuff I'll touch on in the Sunday Indie Roundtable discussion below.
Farted around with Rob and a deck of cards, trying to see if there was a good card-based resolution system for the sort of "give-and-take" in conflicts one sees in fiction and movies.
Played in Dan Solis' Happy Birthday, Robot. It's a fantastic all-ages game, and can RAWK as a "generic" party game with non-gamer geeks. (Any game that can credibly survive the input of an over-caffinated/over-sugared 7 yr old has serious chops.) This one's a winner, folks. (muskrat_john, this is an Out of the Box game just waiting to happen. SRSLY.)
Dinner, with much discussion of semiotics. ROCK ON!
While waiting for the stars to align, Jared Sorensen (that magnificent bastard) tricked a bunch of us into playing several rounds of JUNGLE ADVENTURE, a Parsely game. . . and thus assured I'd buy ACTION CASTLE the next day (see below, Purchases). (Parsely games are PERFECT party games, BUT I do have to note it may be only perfect for those of us at a certain age. I don't really know if the whippersnappers would get into infocom-style text adventures. I welcome insights.)
My attempt to Make Macklin Cry (by running Mythender) more or less fails. Mac's on top of his game, and handles it with aplomb and fun. CURSES!
Awesome lobby socialization.
Sleep the sleep of the Dead.
SUMDAY
$20 bacon and eggs, again.
Looking at the sched, I figured there was a decent chance of getting into a Fiasco game: many tables, early Sunday, rock on.
Have ridiculous amount of fun with Fiasco. (Jason, was it "Besting" or "Breaking" or "Busting" when talking about one's "Jonx"?)
Fantastic, if short, chat with Remi Treuer.
Many hugging goodbyes.
The Indie Roundtable, where:
Vinny laid out some ideas for a separate, Indie publisher/designer-focused mini-con. More deets will be forthcoming -- but I find the idea of a robust practical game design seminar track, a publishable academic "Proceedings" document, the idea that demos could be video'd and YouTube'd, and a central online forum/resource site VERY HOT. (Think of this mini-con idea as "Indie Roundtable, all the time!")
I offered my arrogant opinion on many topics.
Kudos to the Robs (Bohl and Donoghue) for emcee-ing.
Saddlin' up with Rob D. for the drive south.
Much great discussion, ranging from gaming stuff to fiction stuff to genealogical/family history stuff to philosophical explorations.
Get my car from Donoghue land; drive home; magically find an appropriate parking spot. Unpack/do required chores. Crash.
So, it’s Friday, and I don’t have a food post for you. Once I do, it’ll be about The Banana Bread I Grew Up On. Promise.
Today, I’ve taken some painkillers, so I have very little to say that doesn’t dissolve into a suffusion of yellow.
I’ve got some interesting things to say about how a distributor totally backed me up earlier this week — without me being a client (at least not yet). That, maybe Monday.
But it’s Friday, so I’ll just leave you with this:
Yesterday was Fat Tuesday, so naturally we dove into a pancake dinner. Good times. We aren’t much for plain pancakes around here — I’m all about the chocolate chip, my wife’s into the banana and/or chocolate chip variety.
Naturally we are right-thinking people and build this around Alton Brown’s Buttermilk Pancake recipe, found over yonder at the Food TV site. I grew up on the Bisquick variety, so the conversion to this one is extra-welcome, and definitely worth the very minor extra steps (composing your own mix, acquiring buttermilk, separating the eggs).
Following up from my previous post. Go read that and this comment first: http://lcdarkwood.livejournal.com/3824.html?thread=15600#t15600 - I'm doing my reply as a new post because it got long, and because I think it'll be helpful to further discussion.
I don't think there's functionally that much difference between what SotC says and what I'm saying. Let's break it down by passage, and I'll show you where the letters fall:
"If a character is given a situation (X) where he would normally have a number of choices (Y), and limiting those choices to act in accordance with his aspect is going to make more trouble for the character (Z)..."
"If everything would be going along normally (X and Y), and the aspect makes things more difficult or introduces an unexpected twist (Z), that’s also grounds for a compel."
The only thing I'm adding is clarity, mainly for the purpose of providing a rubric for judgment, for those folks who still wonder if their compels are doing what they actually should. Because, look, you have to evaluate a game mechanic by asking yourself what it actually does to play, what its purpose is.
So, let's look at a bad example:
***
You're Dane Black, private eye. You have the aspect, "Damsels in Distress Do It To Me Every Time". I narrate that a beautiful dame comes into your office, distressed, and flops into the chair at the desk and says, "Mr. Black, you have to help me, I have no one else to turn to!"
You decide to take her case. The GM hands you a fate point.
***
What actually happened there? What did giving you a fate point do for the story we're making, what did it show me about your character, what drama did it create? Absolutely nothing, and absolutely none. I basically just gave you a bennie for playing your character, something you should be doing by default, or else you have bigger problems than figuring out this game.
So, let's go again, and this time add the all-important Z (apologies for potential lack of class here):
***
You're Dane Black, private eye. You have the aspect, "Damsels in Distress Do It To Me Every Time". I narrate that a beautiful dame comes into your office, distressed, and flops into the chair at the desk and says, "Mr. Black, you have to help me, I have no one else to turn to!"
You decide to take her case. I go "Hm," and decide a compel might be fun here.
So I narrate that you're heading out the office with her when your phone rings. You say you ask her to hold on a second and answer it. I say it's your girlfriend, and she's, oh my god, stranded on the freeway with smoke coming out of the engine and needs your help right now!
You try and reason with the dame, and she tells you that she came to you instead of going to the cops ('cause she thinks they're dirty), so it looks really bad for her right now. She needs you to get there and investigate the scene before the cops do, otherwise, she's (gasp!) a suspect.
You say, "Don't worry, babe, we'll have plenty of time." I hold up a fate point and say, "No. No, you won't."
So now we have all three elements - a situation that is complicated by an aspect, a potential choice that needs to be made, and a good idea of what consequences could result from doing so. If I want to be explicit, I might say, "Look, it's either one or the other. If you go to your girlfriend, there are probably going to be cops all over the scene, mucking with evidence and whatnot, and then the dame will be a suspect. If you go with her, your girlfriend is going to be upset, to say the least... and you will feel the fury of a woman scorned later."
You think about it and say, "Man. I guess the job comes first." I give you a fate point and smile the smile of the wicked, and we roleplay the rest of the scene.
***
Now: what did *that* exchange do for the story? A whole ton. First of all, it told us something more about the situation at hand, which maybe sets me up for a new scene. Second of all, it told us something essential about your character *beyond* just the aspect on the sheet - your decisions do that more than any selection of pithy phrases can. And notice, I didn't tell you what to do or what not to do at any point; control of your character remained wholly yours.
Next, it ramped up the drama a bit - now we have a tension of both time and relationship in play, which we can mess with to good effect later. Paying off that kind of buildup will give the session more emotional resonance and punch.
Lots of bang for buck there. Imagine if you had one of those every scene.
***
Final note: So, you may be looking at this and saying, "Well, what if I refuse the compel?" Hey, fine by me - but what are you really saying "no" to? Are you really rejecting your aspect? No, because it's clear that whatever decision you make, it's relevant to your usual pattern of falling for damsels in distress. (Even if you say no to taking the case, because you're having a strong-willed moment.) Are you saying no to one particular choice or another? Not really, or not anymore so than you would in normal play.
So there's only one thing left to reject, really, which is the potential for complication. The Z.
So, there it is. If you do compels in your group, and you don't say a lot of this stuff explicitly, but you still have fun and dynamic results, I'm willing to bet that all of X, Y, and Z are happening in some fashion. If you're having issues, going back to this rubric and evaluating what you do by it will, I hope, help you out a bit.
I’m going to try to talk food three times this week. It’s going to be light on words, unless there’s a recipe for me to offer in-post, but hey, you’ve got some eating to do.
First up is my new favorite dinner. It is not healthy, but it is good: Chicken Lazone.
Hack Type: Advice System:Spirit of the Century, The Dresden Files RPG, any Fate v3 variant
Just because it came to my mind and I wanted to archive it somewhere, this is as simple as the definition can get:
1. Something relevant to aspect X happens. 2. The player chooses to respond with Y. 3. Z happens as a result.*
* = Z is something complicated and/or horrible, and is not bound by the application of other game rules (like skill rolls, etc.)
Accepting or rejecting the compel is almost always (and by this, I mean if it's not, reexamine the compel) about accepting or rejecting Z, not X or Y.
When in doubt, applying this as a litmus test is a pretty good way to go, I think.
EDIT: I've been asked to provide examples. Didn't any of you folks ever take algebra? :)
Aspect is Greedy.
1.) A crime boss offers you money to sell out your friends. 2.) You sell out your friends for the money. 3.) As a result of this, your home base gets destroyed. (And probably, your friends are pissed at you, but they're PCs too, so that's for them to decide.)
or
1.) A crime boss offers you money to sell out your friends. 2.) You want the money, so you give him false information. 3.) As a result of this, he discovers the deception and puts a price on your head so large every bounty hunter within 1,000 miles wants to kill you.
New example. Aspect is Senior Assassin for the Black Mambo Society
1.) The Society asks you to do a job of questionable ethical value. 2.) You refuse. 3.) They kill your grandma.
or
1.) The Society asks you to do a job of questionable ethical value. 2.) You agree. 3.) Your grandma finds out and disowns you.
***
Why does it not become a compel until the third part? Two reasons.
The first is, because this could always happen instead:
1.) Crime boss offers you money to sell out your friends. 2.) You lie to get the cash. 3.) I ask you to roll Deceit against the crime boss' Empathy, to see if you successfully get the cash or not, and you invoke your Greedy aspect to help you on the roll.
See the difference? With a compel, you *automatically* decide the outcome is going to be dramatically or "plot" complicated, as opposed to using any other means of resolution. With compels, plot happens because of who you are and what you choose.
The second reason is, you cannot ever, ever, EVER take away a player's choice regarding his character's actions. Period. Even when we didn't know how to articulate these things as precisely as we do now, we knew enough to tell you on SotC page 44 that you can limit the available range of choices but not dictate precise actions. Aspects are not, and never should be used as, a railroading tool.
I'll be the first to admit the text in SotC could have been clearer on this point. It's clearer in Dresden.
What it all comes down to is what Russell Crowe as John Nash was on about in A Beautiful Mind. Watch this clip — it’ll only take a few minutes — then come back:
The good news here is that I’m not suggesting that you, the community “organizer”, are obligated to make a personal and direct connection with each and every member of your community. In fact, if your community is active and thriving, you can’t. (Not strictly true — in some circumstances, you could, but it would be a full-time activity and that’s all you’d be doing. So for our discussion’s purposes, we’ll call that close enough to “can’t” for the assertion to stand.)
The trick, inasmuch as there’s a trick, is to engage in behaviors that makes it seem like you’re making that personal connection anyway.
I’ve seen a few people ask me how I build communities. Most of what I do relative to communities that I’ve been in a nominal leadership role with just seems to proceed from natural instinct. I’ve tried to deconstruct this in the more distant past, but it’s a topic worth revisiting, even if I’m not completely convinced that I’m actually doing that much in the way of direct building. A big part of this has been good timing combined with grabbing onto something big and powerful and hanging on (ala Jim Butcher’s career in its earlier stages, or the preexisting Fudge community when we started running our yaps about Fate).
But that doesn’t mean I can’t dig into it at least a little. Today, I’m going to talk about managing your critical mass and using it to power your community.
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muskrat_john, this is an Out of the Box game just waiting to happen. SRSLY.)
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