Brenda Braithwaite had an excellent post at her blog a couple of days ago about incremental rewards in games. (If you’re interested in practical game design, you should be following Brenda’s blog.) The post is brilliant (you did go read it, right?), but one thing that particularly caught my attention was her assertion that in digital games, rewards should come at least once every two minutes.

Two minutes! Sometimes it takes 4-6 hours to achieve any kind of reward when playing a tabletop roleplaying game. Of course, sometimes you’ll have a session with multiple rewards, especially if it’s a heavy roleplaying or exploratory session. She makes allowances for non-digital games, of course, understanding that a reward for each player every two minutes isn’t feasible for the most part.

Interestingly, I think it is possible to achieve very frequent, regular +1’s in modern board games. On just about every turn in the best games, you’re able to achieve some sort of scoring or positional advantage, which acts as a reinforcing reward system to keep you interested in the game. Perhaps this is one reason I hate Settlers of Catan so much…the dice can ensure that you sit there with no rewards for what can seem like an endless amount of time. In the meantime, they’re giving your opponents everything they need to trade and build.

One of her examples talks about there being 400 quests in 50 hours of gameplay in one of the games she worked on. That’s eight quests per hour, which is obviously impossible in a TRPG. I imagine that if we could figure out a way to provide a +1 at least once per encounter (of any type) in a roleplaying game, it would be a tremendous breakthrough for the genre. Of course, figuring that out isn’t going to be easy, is it?

It would be an interesting challenge to try to write an adventure that provided this frequency of reward, or better yet to provide a near-constant flow of the entire “desire, discovery, reward, recognition” cycle. I think it could be especially effective in a zombie game or other scenario where time is not on your side and themes included rescue, death, chasing, and surprise.

How would you radically increase the number of +1’s in a roleplaying game you were running? Or, if you’re a player primarily, what would keep your “intent to clear agency” more juiced?

In yesterday’s post I talked a little bit about how difficult it’s been for people to pin down how 4e feels different from previous editions. There are obvious mechanical things, but it’s that gestalt that’s hard to pin down. In the Monster Manual 2, WotC has given those of us who care about such things a gift: the Sphinx.

Now let’s be clear, this isn’t an edition war regarding the sphinx. A quick scan shows that this is the first sphinx in any edition to even mention riddles. Previously they were extortionists and powerful physical combatants with an array of spell-like abilities. I think this is cool. Also, the mechanical implementation of a sphinx’s riddle is so unmistakably 4e that it provides us a great point of discussion.

A sphinx can as a minor action target a foe within 10 squares with a riddle. The effect is to daze the target until the end of the encounter or until he solves the riddle. Solving the riddle requires a DC 25 History check, but a buddy can yell the answer out to you to get you out of the jam as well. This is such a metagaming way to handle a sphinx’s riddling. Now, I’m not opposed to having a mechanical solution since not everyone will have fun answering riddles, but I do think it’s odd that they don’t at least provide a sidebar with suggestions on how to handle sphinx riddles in a non-metagame way. Whatever happened to the days when players were supposed to be clever instead of just relying on dice and character sheets to do everything for them?

Several 4e lovers have told me that powers are just suggestions, and that they should be customized and even ignored in favor of “page 42 stunts” whenever possible. However, the books in no way support that style of play. Instead, 4e seems to completely rely on reading what’s on the page and having that determine how the game is played. We see this in the forced interaction between powers, and now we see it in the sphinx’s riddle. It’s like on one side they’re telling us the game is designed to bring in new players, but on the other side they assume players are experienced enough to see past the rules and overlay their own interpretations onto the game.

It’s also weird that it’s a minor action for the sphinx to do this, so it can basically do it every round while moving and attacking. I get this image of a sphinx flying through the air clawing at fighters and yelling “why did the chicken cross the road?” over its shoulder at the ranger and warlock. That or it’s some weird psychic link it creates and just sorta imprints its riddle on the target’s brain. This might make sense (in a way) since if you don’t answer the riddle you take psychic damage.

In any case, how could a minor action provide enough time for a sphinx to speak a riddle to its target? I just don’t get how it’s supposed to work, except as a metagame overlay for an ability that lets the sphinx daze its foes constantly. Does a sphinx have many riddles, or does it ask the same one? If someone answers its riddle, can it continue to riddle them? If it only has one riddle, is that power now useless? As written it just keeps riddling you over and over every round with no way to stop it, but since the book provides no guidelines for how these riddles are supposed to work, or if they’re really riddles at all, this is just another psychic attack in the end.

In other words, it’s utterly metagame with no grounding in the imagining or creation of a fantastic backdrop. And that’s one of the big problems with 4e D&D.

I’ve noticed two interesting things on the usual message boards lately:

• Many people who loved 4e at first are cooling on it
• Dedicated D&D/d20 gamers are switching to non-D&D games

Now, the first one isn’t to make some sweeping claim about the success or not of 4e D&D. What it does, however, is provide an interesting data point about the claim that 4e deviates from previous editions of D&D in significant ways. The pattern of behavior shown here is more like how the d20 crowd picked up and discarded interesting new games like d20 Modern, Spycraft, and Mutants & Masterminds. Many games over the past nine years have seen a swell of interest at their release and then a dramatic drop in actual play. 4e seems to be following that trend for the dedicated core of d20 enthusiasts.

The second point is interesting because you might expect these players to go back to the 3.x games they were playing before 4e came out, and for which in many cases they had shelf after shelf of supplemental material. However, they are not doing so. Instead, they’re checking out games like HEX, Mutants and Masterminds, Star Wars Saga Edition, and Savage Worlds. What this says to me is that my theory about 4e’s marketing is at least partially correct.

To market 4e against what was still a successful and popular game line–3.x–WotC made the conscious choice to badmouth the previous edition, point out all of its flaws, and construct false dilemmas presented by its design. Of course, the biggest part of this push was the coordinated effort to state that 3.x wasn’t fun, and you weren’t having that much fun if you were playing it. I think a lot of people were fooled by this into thinking it was true. 3.x does have some issues, and it can be played in such a way as it becomes formulaic and boring…the so-called SBT (scry-buff-teleport) syndrome. (I’ll have more to say about SBT in the future, but suffice it to say I see it as a weakness with the focus of 3.x on player dominance rather than an inherent weakness in the game system.) However, instead of focusing on those problems and patching them in 4e, Wizards threw up its hands and abandoned the system, and the game as it had been known, altogether. Ironically, they didn’t really fix many of the problems they set out to fix, and promised features were never delivered and have also been abandoned (see DDI). I believe the exodus from D&D can be traced to this problematic way WotC chose to approach the game’s new edition.

One other consequence is that a lot of people are skipping back beyond 3.x to the older editions of the game. It’s no surprise that a significant portion of the blogger community has come together to embrace this “Old School Revolution” or whatever people are labeling it these days (I’m not a fan of labels, since they just lead to semantic fights). I’ve also been surprised lately at the attention Old School is getting on message boards outside the old school community, with many people who were die-hard 3e/4e fanatics saying they’ve been playing games like Labyrinth Lord, OSRIC, or Swords & Wizardry.

My conclusion is that those of us who have been saying 4e doesn’t feel like D&D or play like D&D, but another game altogether, are speaking the truth. However, it’s quite possible that the exact reasons have yet to be articulated in a clear manner. Perhaps we don’t even know why we feel the way we do, but clearly a significant amount of D&D players do feel that, and are abandoning the game they’ve played for decades because it’s been changed so fundamentally. Our job is to keep talking until we figure out why. Then we’ll have contributed something worthwhile to the discussion of what a roleplaying game, and what D&D, is.

As many of you know, I enjoy building terrain for my games. In fact, this weekend I’ll be setting up our new terrain workshop in the basement. We scavenged two big lights like they use to do construction work at night from a friend who was moving, so the basement is going to have excellent lighting for both miniatures painting as well as terrain building. It’ll be cooler over the summer than the garage as well, though we’ll still do our insulation cutting out in the garage so the fumes don’t kill us.

I was cruising RPG Now picking up an OSRIC supplement, OSRIC Unearthed (about which I’ve heard great things…I love Charles Rice’s work on the Blood series for d20 gaming) and I saw this beauty floating around:

Roman World: The Complete Set

Now, it’s $100 bucks, but that’s for 17 models, which is a heckuva deal, especially with as good as they look. It’ll be nice to have some models that aren’t so typically fantasy-looking to make for a change.

We’ve been waiting and debating for years over who should play whom in the filmed adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire. Well wait no longer. According to the Hollywood Reporter, HBO has tapped Tom McCarthy, director of THE VISITOR and THE STATION AGENT to film the pilot.

Peter Dinklage will be playing Tyrion Lannister, which is damn good news in my opinion.

More info and a picture of Tyrion over at GRRM’s Not A Blog.

Since comments to his blog are restricted, could someone please pass along a request to kiltedyaksman over at Lord of the Green Dragons regarding this post on academic writing about roleplaying games?

It would be nice to know exactly what and who he was quoting in the post, and to add some Works Cited information so academic-minded folks can follow up?

Thanks!

According to folks on the Midnight-D20 mailing list, Fantasy Flight Games has pulled all of its product links and info from its website. Attempts to access the Midnight RPG site from an external link on the Midnight page at the RPG.net Wiki resolve to a 404 error page, so it seems that the rumors are true.

In addition, Midnight RPG pdf files have been pulled off all the major pdf distributors such as One Book Shelf. Unlike the recent WotC debacle, however, loyal users remain able to download copies they have previously purchased. Kudos to Fantasy Flight Games for not trying to make their retailers look like complete asses.

Speculation is rampant about the reasons for this move, but I find it likely that Fantasy Flight Games has sold the rights to the film/television trailer of Midnight Chronicles, and along with it all the IP rights. I think this is likely because the Midnight Chronicles website is still active, and in fact has a kickass new trailer I haven’t seen before.

In any case, you can still buy the books (at steep discounts) at some Amazon Stores and RPG Overstock, and will likely be able to get them through liquidation channels for some time to come.

AHA!

And, as I dug a little deeper, it seems like my theory is right on target, based on this blog entry from today (the blog is updated only a couple of times a year).

So Midnight fans, don’t go over the deep end just yet, it might just be that good news is on the way, not bad!

The AP distributed a fantastic obituary for Dave Arneson and it’s been picked up by the New York Times and the L.A. Times among others. The L.A. Times version has five great pictures to accompany it, check it out.

L.A. Times Dave Arneson Obit

My own Dave Arneson story goes something like this:

At Gencon 2006 I bought the entire run of Blackmoor d20 products, and was lucky enough to have Dave sign them. We chatted momentarily, although he wasn’t in great health at the time, and then he signed each of my books. It was charming, though, because he didn’t just write his name: he inscribed each book “To Propagandroid the Brave” or “To Propagandroid the Wise” so every one of my books has a unique inscription with a name and title reminiscent of some of the early days of Blackmoor characters.

Rest In Peace, Dave.

Speaking of an old school rennaissance! Berserk, Jungle Hunt, Adventure!, there are three pages of cartridges to load games to play, and they’re pretty darn good representations.

http://www.2600online.com/

I don’t play many video games, but I sure did back in the day. I have a feeling if I let myself click this link I’m not going to get much done for the next few days. I wonder if the easter egg in Adventure! is coded into this version?

D&D In Your Face pilot program

Wizards of the Coast today announced an innovative initiative to breathe life into its flagship roleplaying game, Dungeons & Dragons. The new strategy, dubbed DDIYF, or “D&D In Your Face,” coincides with the cessation of all print products and sales to retail outlets.

“Fantasy gaming has its roots in fantasy literature, which has a strong oral tradition. We feel the game is better off transmitted in the old ways,” said Mike Mearls, Lead Designer of the world’s most popular roleplaying game. “Once the magic of direct internet communication with our fans wore off, we decided the only way to really connect with players…err, purchasers of our games was to meet them where they play.”

“The players-purchasers distinction is key to understanding the strategy,” added Bill Slaviscek, Head of Everything at the Renton office. “After we effectively put an end to the pirating of our electronic products in April, we got curious about the physical products. I sent a team to PAX and what they saw was chilling.”

“Yeah, man, we’d see full tables of players and only one PHB, maybe a PHB 2 here and there,” added Stephen Radney-McFarland, the newly appointed Director of D&D In Your Face. “Why do you think we expanded the base party size to five PCs? Instant 20% increase in sales, baby!”

Or so they thought. After witnessing up to five players using a single handbook, it became clear that piracy was rampant in meatspace as well. The only way to stop it was to cease selling books into the market and hope that players got the message.

“In addition, we are revoking all rights to use physical books in game sessions as of midnight tonight,” added Mearls. “Yes, we can do that, read the fine print right below the Gygax dedication.”

Given the success of their recent online crackdown (“There are zero Wizards of the Coast products being pirated on the internet as we speak,” asserts Slaviscek.), the business team put their heads together and decided to press forward with DDIYF.

All R&D staff will commence a national speaking tour, canvassing major college towns and large cities across the country. They will be speaking at pizza buffets and ice cream shoppes, rather than traditional game stores.

This has some game store owners like Pete le Strange of Beloit, WI hopping mad.

“I’ve been a premiere store for almost a decade now, and WotC couldn’t see fit to include me? Why the *&#$ have I been pumping all that cash into Maplestory if I can’t get a g*@@$## D&D game run by Shelly Mazzanoble every once in a while?”

Slaviscek says he understands the frustration. “We have nothing but deep respect for traditional hobby shops and fully support the industry’s three-tier distribution model,” he said as Brand Manager Scott Rouse covered his mouth to stifle a sneeze. “We’re just not including them this time around.”

“Everyone here is 100% on board. There’s absolutely, positively no way this policy is going to change,” adds Rouse. “Ever.”