Feng Shui – Not just about rearranging your furniture...

It was nearly twenty years ago that something new took the world by storm, just when the western world was really starting to appreciate the nature of Hong Kong Action Theatre, a game called Feng Shui made it’s debut.  The premise wasn’t a million miles away from any other combination of games that had been done before, skills and abilities far beyond those of mortal men, the ability to play characters that weren’t human and in some cases were about as far from human as you were likely to get.

What made it most interesting was the background, evil was everywhere and there was very little that could stand against it.  In fact...

There was only you...

The system was simple, D6 base plus modifiers, but unlike other game systems where everything had a reasonable level of balance, Feng Shui understood that it was fine to have things completely unbalanced, as long as everything was unbalanced.  It was the first game to make popular the ideas of powers that could fundamentally change things in the game, a trend that would be continued with Exalted to reach it’s zenith with games like Scion.  You couldn’t go into this game as a regular person (Well you could, but, well, Dead before the end of scene one), but you could choose a variety of ways to enhance your character, from mystical and technological boosts, to skills beyond the range of mortal men, to fighting techniques long forgotten by the world that most would see as some sort of sorcery.

To give you some idea on this, one such technique was Vengeance of the Turtle, a technique by which striking a vehicle with bare foot or fist instantly destroyed that vehicle. 

Didn’t matter what the vehicle was, car, or main battle tank, the vehicle was destroyed...

And then there was the background, a secret war fought between sorcerers, demons, technologists, martial artists, and cops.  A war that was fought across a number of different time zones, from the 1800’s to the 2000’s and beyond, with each Juncture (What they called time zones) having a different part to play in the war.  The whole war centered around the control of sites of power (the aforementioned Feng Shui), both in the past, present, and in the future.  Those who controlled the sites, controlled the power, and those who controlled the power, controlled the world. 

As a premise, it was massively complex and overpowered, it took a long time to progress the characters to anything beyond what they started at, but they already started at a level that a lot of characters would have retired before.  The characters in this game weren’t beginners and that proved to be a great attraction for many as well, there was no danger that a lucky hit would wipe you out at level one, and the game brought forwards the case for Mooks, being henchmen that served only as cannon fodder for the players and villains.  These were not a threat to the players, but in great enough numbers, they could complicate things. 

Feng Shui was very popular in the time that it was out, and the reason for writing this review today over any other day is that Atlas Games have finally (it’s been nearly twenty years) announced that they’re going to be doing a second edition of the game.

Some of the best news I’ve had all year that...

So, we’re backing, because there’s been twenty years of fan input on this, and while they couldn’t possibly add in all the things that the fans want, it’s clear that they intend the new edition to be everything that we remember the old game to be (even if it wasn’t those things at the time).

The kickstarter can be found at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/atlasgames/feng-shui-2-action-movie-roleplaying-game-by-robin and it’s already 500% funded, by the time it’s done if it’s not more than 5000% funded, I’ll be surprised.

Story September Day 17 - Through anothers eyes... Adult themes throughout, please use discretion

I close my eyes as I wash my hands.

Still can’t look in a mirror after seven years doing this, never can handle the reflection...

“Reckon they’ll give this one to us,” I hear Marsden call from the observation lounge as the lights go on around the chair.

“Yeah?” I lean out of the bathroom and look up at the gantry, “How so?”

“He’s coming around the 406 southbound, figure he’s going to come off at the Redbridge roundabout and try and make a break for it down the 12.” Marsden flicks the lights off upstairs and walks down the metal staircase, “Best you get set up and I’ll get the recordings going.”

“So we’re near the east end this time?”

“Got me,” He shrugs, “You know they never tell us where we are, saves on us getting nervous if they get too close.”

“So how do you figure?”

“Just got a burst transmission from Bosco telling me they’re headed to us, Bosco never works anything except North London.”

“Who’d he have to shag to get the permanent posting?” I grin, “And are they still open to offers?”

I walk back into the observation lounge and walk around the chair, running my hand along the side. It always reminds me of a dental chair, that ergonomic design and the clean plastic all the way up and down the construction, the only difference is the pad where the dental tools would rest, now taken up by the hand scanner and monitor controls.  I sit in the seat and lean back, strapping my hand in place as the display in front of me comes up.  I feel Marsden behind me and I lean back, resting my head in the transmission device.

It’s like laying on a recently dead squid...

The jelly cables on the device wrap up and around my head and I close my eyes as one of the bands goes around my eyes, one around my forehead, then two plugs of jelly in my ears and I pause to breath as the rest of it locks my head in place.

Like being strangled by a recently dead squid...

I tilt my head to look up at where I imagine Marsden is and nod my head.  There’s a jolt of electricity and I shudder slightly as the connection is made, the lights on the inside of my eyes change, there’s a burst of static and I’m driving a car on the A406.  I fight for a second to gain control till my mind remembers that it’s not my body I’m sitting in and I go still.  It’s cold where I am, there’s a breeze coming in through the sun roof of the car and I look around the periphery vision of the person I’m inside.

“Katja 14 online and placed,” I hear my own voice say, “They’re in a Blue Honda on the A406 heading south, two miles from Redbridge junction and doing more than ninety.”

“Any Passengers?” I hear Marsden

I focus my attention on the driver and place the thought of something behind you as hard as I can.

The driver glances into the rearview mirror and I catch a glimpse of her eyes, then two people in the drivers seat and the silhouette of one in the passenger seat, something bulky and long in their hands.

“Three passengers,” I say, “I think the one in the front is armed.”

Marsden taps my shoulder to let me know the information has been relayed.

“Heading into Redbridge roundabout,” I say, “Coming down into the second exit, heading up towards Gant Hill, speed now seventy plus.”

The driver glances sideways and the car squeals as she pulls the wheel hard, the car screeching as it turns violently into the exit route, she glances upwards into the rear view mirror and I see something spin and crash.

“Paramedics needed at Redbridge roundabout,” I say, “They just caused a crash, not sure how many injured, progressing east and not slowing.”

Marsden taps my shoulder to acknowledge.

“They’re tracking the car,” the man in the back yells, “They’ve been on us since the top of London.”

“Not this car,” the Driver says through gritted teeth as she threads the car through two lanes with the skill of someone born to drive, “Not this Driver...”

I feel the smile on my own face as she spins the car on the Ley street turn off, barrelling up towards the centre of Ilford, the streets at this time thankfully deserted.   I feel dizzy for a second and there’s a break in the transmission as the car bounces off the kerb for a second.

Not surprised at the speed she’s going...

“Turning up Ley Street, speed still above fifty,”  I say, “They’ll be at the bridge in twenty.”

Marsden taps my shoulder to acknowledge.

“Why are we going this way?” I hear the passenger yell as the car accelerates again, “We need to get out of here.”

I feel the drivers left hand do something out of my eyesight and her head shakes slightly. There’s a tap on her left thigh from her left hand and the car drifts around the roundabout, coming up over the top and drifting back around to the right as it accelerates again.

“Down past the Cinema, speeding up again, think they might be heading back towards the 406 on the Ilford entrance.” I say.

Marsden taps my shoulder to acknowledge.

“We’re just stopping off for a second...” The Driver nods to the side of the road.

“They’re stopping,” I can hear the urgency in my own voice, “Tell Ilford PD, fast responders to the Ilford Hospital Chapel, four targets, two armed with shotguns, two with pistols, the doors are open, best let anyone in the area know to keep clear.”

Marsden taps my shoulder to acknowledge.

The drivers field of vision goes dark for a second as she passes into the open doorway, there’s a moment of confusion as she turns around and I hear the boom of a shotgun, the sound unbearably loud in the enclosed area.  There’s a thud of a body falling.

“Shots fired,” I say, “Possible medical intervention required.”

No Tap

I feel her move in the darkness and then she turns, the sudden light blinding and I feel my own hand try to jerk skywards in response as she looks up into the blinding lights above.  She looks down at the body bleeding on the floor, wearing jeans and a T shirt, what looks to be a pair of headphones attached to a device on his belt, but there’s no head left for him to wear them upon.  I feel sick to my stomach as she continues on, coming into the main part of the church where bright lights are shining down from above.

“Man down, medical assistance not required,” I say, my voice sounding loud. 

No Tap

“It’s her then...” I hear one of the other criminals say.

The Driver turns, there’s a person laid on a long chair, wearing what look to be surgical scrubs, the gaze goes up the body to the face and I see the Jelly like helmet around the head of the person laid there. 

Oh God No...

“Yeah...” The Driver says, “That’s got to be her.”

I can’t break the connection without Marsden.

I see the driver reach down as my body twitches in the seat, futile impulses being sent by a consciousness that isn’t wholly there at the moment.  The Driver reaches down and taps the forehead of the person with her finger.

I feel the tap on my head.

“You’re...In here, aren’t you...?” She asks as she taps her own head, her voice echoing in my ears at the same time as I hear it down the connection. “Tell me...what happens if your body dies while you’re out of it...”

I see the body on the seat jerk violently as I try and get out of her and back to myself.  The Driver looks up at the others and nods for them to leave.

“I think me and her have some talking to do...” She draws her knife from her belt and places it above my heart, the cold of the blade causing a shudder to run through the body. “Only you can’t talk, can you...?”

The driver presses down with the knife and the body goes into spasm, the drivers hand releasing the knife as the blade goes deep, staggering back as her head throbs with pain as the link is severed between the two of them.  She staggers back to the body on the table as the spasms become weaker, tearing the jelly away from the face to look in the eyes of the dying person.

“It feels like that...” She whispers to the body as the eyes grow still, taking up her shotgun and walking outside to where the others have got back into the car.  She pauses for a second and then closes the door to the outside, reloading the shotgun and locking the door with the heavy bolt over the back.  The sound of sirens get closer and there’s the sound of frantic hammering on the door.

“Come on, COME ON,” the yelling gets louder as they pound on the door, then the screech of tyres outside and she hears the shouting of twenty armed police over the sirens and then the silence as the sirens cease and she hears the police dragging them away.  She puts the Shotgun on the table beside the bed and removes the bar from the back of the door, going back to sit in the chair where Marsden has sat and not looking down at the body on the other chair.

Five black clad policemen burst into the room and she puts her hands on her head, twisting the palms to give the appearance that she’s mimicking rabbit ears on her head. 

“Do you think you can make it here faster next time?” The Driver looks at them with open scorn.

The police look at each other in surprise as the woman stands up, still leaving her hands on her head. 

“Think I’m joking...” The Driver looks around them in turn, “What sort of a bloody response is this, is this what you call fast around here?”

The policemen fan out and their lieutenant steps into the room.  He looks at her and nods for her to take her hands down.

“Lieutenant Amsel, fourth Precinct, forgive me the formality, but you are...?”

“Katja 14,” I look down at the body and shake my head, “No, thanks to your incompetence, Katja 15, didn’t you get the emergency response code?”

“We did,” He nods, looking down , “I’m sorry, I don’t know what to say.”

“How about you tell the two people who died here today...” I look down at my old body and then over at Marsden.

“But...” He looks between the two bodies, “Only one of you...”

“Two,” I slap him across the face and leave my hand on the body below me, “You think I’m sharing this body with anyone else?  Where else would she have gone...?”

“Oh...” He holds his cheek as the police around him lower their weapons, “I’m...”

“Sorry...yeah, I got that...” I stride past him into the cold night air, the other members of the gang looking at me in disbelief as I stand free in the doorway to the chapel. There’s a twitching in my fingers and I realise that the body I’m in has addiction problems.  I look back at the lieutenant as he comes back through, still in shock.

“And you’re paying my rehab bill...” I spit at him as the department car arrives, “Expect something in the post from department P.”

I walk over to the car and get in the back, winding the window down so I don’t see the face in front of me.

“Rough night, Katja.” Mac’s rough Yorkshire accent from the front of the car, “I’ll get you home.”

“Thanks Mac,” I say, not used to the voice in my ears.

I hate this job...

Things that you want to find in RPGs... Book Review - The Book of S – JJ Abrams

I like Noodle incidents (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoodleIncident), I like that they allude to something that went on that a whole bunch of people know nothing about.  I like books, and I like it when you have something that gets your interest because it’s got layers.

I very much like things like the Grail diary of Henry Jones Junior because it suggests that someone has put time into it, and rather than wanting to put all the details in different books and risk losing parts of them, they put them all in a single book and put notes and clippings and things they find along the way in the book so that they won’t lose them. 

With this in mind, when I first learned of the book of S, I was intrigued by the concept that had been put forwards.  Here was a book that was first and foremost a novel by V.M.Straka, but more than that, it is also a set of key notes that have been handwritten into the book by two students studying it, together with postcards and notes from what they’ve found of it and how they’re looking at the different things in it.

The first point to note is that this book is beautiful, and not from an illustration point of view, the writing that’s been chosen to represent the people writing in the margins of the book is neat, but it’s been done in such a way that it looks to have been handwritten (and indeed, the proof for the book may well have been), and it has the spacing that suggests the mind behind it was organised as well.

Then there’s the colourings of the inks in the margins, each of them done to denote a different time at which the writings were made.  It gives the book and the conspiracy it represents a weight not apparent in most books, you get the feeling from looking through it that this book has travelled between people and that conversations were had at various points in the book despite the idea that to have so many conversations between so many different people would have had the book in circulation for years and would be almost impossible when there would be so many easier ways of communicating rather than writing down the details of things in a book that would then have to be passed on to someone else and then back and so on.

The thing is that when you have the finished thing in your  hand, you become a part of the conspiracy that the book represents, and from my own experience of having props like this in games and events that I’ve played in, I know the fascination for finding out what has happened with these things and how this astonishing piece of work came to be in your hands.

The Book itself is sealed, the slip case is secured by a bound seal that can be cut along the perforations, but I was so excited to get into the book that I got the knife and went straight down the side of it, such was the interest I found in this.

Within...

Well...

What can I say...

Clippings, charts, letters, postcards...

Back in the late nineties, someone came up with an idea that they would set a puzzle so fiendish that none could solve it and called it the Merlin Mystery.  The problem was that all the puzzles were visual and if you’re no good at them, you might as well count yourself out of the running straight away.  With this, you’ve got to spend the time reading, you’ve got to put the page time in to get everything out of it and while I’m sure that the final solution to the book is known only to JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst, it’s not the actual solution that matters with things like this, it’s what you get out of them while you’re looking through the book.  Those who need a story that hangs together and reads well in all the different parts of it may be disappointed.  The novel isn’t so strong a read as to make for a good book by itself, but when you tie in all the other parts of it and start to look at the other things that are presented and the possibilities therein, it comes into it’s own.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you have to put the time in on this one, if you’re just going to pick it up and read it like any other book, you’ll be disappointed, save yourself the time, leave it.  If you’re willing to put in the time and see what the whole package is about, rather than just the book or just the side story, you’ll find a lot of interesting things in there. There’s a number of conclusions written regarding the book itself, and if you’re planning on getting the book.

Don’t read them...

Because the point of this book isn’t that it’s a novel or a story to be told, the point of this book is that like any story, it’s a journey that’s being taken, at various points in time with various places and people involved.

It’s also formed the basis for how adventures are going to be done in my new game Quest, but more on that later in the week.

For now, a very interesting book, I’ll post more when I’ve had chance to go over it again and cross confirm all I had thought, but it’s worth it just for the ideas that are given within the physicality of the book itself.

Small Furry Therapy...

Because sometimes the small creature decides you need fussing...

Or alternatively wanted a closer look at the Star Trek Blooper reels on screen...

On Scotland and Independence, or FFRRREEEDDDOOOMMM as it’s currently being pronounced...

I haven’t got much of an opinion on Scottish Independence, but I have a very strong opinion on the people who are leading the charge towards it. 

It’s a heady thing, to be at the start of something, to be able to tell your children, “I was there, the day all this began”, and it’s an even more heady thing to be able to say to people that you were the one leading it.

And that’s where I think the problem for me has occurred...

In the matter of the independence itself, I have no problem with that, if you no longer want to be a part of the United Kingdom, then I understand, and go with my blessing.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the world, it’s that forcing a people to do something that they don’t want to will invariably result in hostilities. 

The problem being that the hostilities have already begun, there’s widespread reports of threats and violence all around and while I’m not one to believe anything thrown in by the BBC, whose Bias has been long documented and oft lamented, but more the local papers and stations where there has been reports that the ‘yes’ campaign has been overbearing towards anyone straying towards the ‘no’ end of the stick.  The interesting thing here is that the No campaign has been accused of much the same things, just on a less nationally endorsed scale because they don’t have BBC backing.

And at the top of it all, the biggest problem, the man who would be king...

If they had people watching these commentaries who were able to read body language and speak honestly about what each person was saying to what they were actually thinking at the time, I do believe most politicians would be instantly removed from the potential to win elections because what they say and what they do are completely removed from each other. 

So is the case with Alex Salmond...

A long time ago, an old friend told me to look beyond the rhetoric of any campaign being waged to win anything.  “Look at the Man, not the Mandate,” was his comment, because when all the dust settles, it will be the man who leads the mandate, not the other way around.  Words can be changed, people very rarely are, and this is the problem I have with Alex Salmond in general.  He doesn’t give straight answers and that’s to be expected of politicians in general, but when you brush comments of with “Well, that’s not a problem because it’s never going to happen...”, that starts ringing alarm bells.  It’s not the electorate of twenty years ago when you could put that down to just being confident, people want to hear his answers, they want to see that he has the plan in place to deal with this, not that he’s the second coming of Blair...

What most of them are seeing is that he’s convinced that England will back down after he wins independence and turns up at Hadrians wall with a hod full of bricks and the blue army at his back...

Speaking as a man who does vote and believes that the vote is an important thing, a man who turned up and said “Vote for me, you’ll see, when I win, everything will be okay...” would be about as likely to get my tick as the drunk on the corner ranting about the good old days...

But it’s not my vote, hell, even for a number of Scottish people living south of the border now, who should by virtue of birth be given a vote, it’s not their vote.  And for those who live north of the border, English, American, German, any nationality other than Scottish, but living in Scotland, who find themselves with a voting card suddenly...

How did that happen...?

If you were to make a vote based on the wants and desires of those who were born Scottish, I suspect the vote would end very differently to the way it will end tomorrow, but you know something...?

it’s not something I can affect no matter how I feel about it, so I’m going to watch tomorrow, and realistically the only difference for me is that I may have to take my passport with me when I go north of the border (and indeed everyone in Scotland will have to take theirs when they want to come south...), and as far as that goes, I can live with that.

Good luck tomorrow Scotland, I hope you get what’s best for you, which is not necessarily what you’ll vote for...

Time and nothing else will tell...

Gaming Evangelists Part two – The Roleplaying. Make: Believe...

Gaming Evangelists Part two – The Roleplaying.   Make: Believe...

Yesterday I had a bit of a stream of consciousness about getting people into playing games, board games to be precise, and I said that it’s usually easy to get people into playing those sorts of things because most of them have played a board game at some point in their lives and so have some idea of the premise...

Now the turn of roleplaying...

And I know what everyone’s saying, everyone’s done this at some point in their lives, whether they were soldiers when they were kids, running around with potato guns (No Nerf when I was a kid), or as they’ve grown older, as they’ve been told to roleplay through things when they’re going for an interview or to consider what they would do in some fictional scenario.

Everyone’s done this before.

So why would that make it so hard to get people into the game?

Because most people have only had to do it at (figurative) gunpoint, and then with something they really didn’t want to play as, so some idiot trainer could assess how they’d react in some manner.  So the only memory they’ve got, just like the boardgames, is of something that they did because they had to that was dull and irritating.

How to get around this...?

Ask the question, when you describe roleplaying games, how do you do it?  Do you tell them that it’s a game where you get to be someone else, a brave hero or a bold adventurer, do you tell them that it’s a chance to behave how you really want to behave and a way to let the cares of the world go by?

I don’t...

I ask them if they’ve ever seen a film when the main character did something stupid...

They have...

I ask them if they’d have done something different...

They would...

Got them...

And from there it’s just a matter of getting them into the idea that they’re not themselves for now, and it’s easier for those who’ve been given the film line, because they’re already looking at it from the point of view that they’re that character, rather than themselves. It’s a lot easier for people to jump into characters that they already have some familiarity with than asking them to go for something completely new and then telling them to make it up as they go along.  Kids do well with making it up as they go along, most adults have to be eased back into the idea of letting go of this world, if only for a short while.

The problem is that for a lot of conventions, you don’t get real newbies into the scene, you get people who are curious, but haven’t taken all the steps to get there, so again you’re already starting from a good position because they took the first step and came to you.  With people like this, you do the ground work, you find out what they’re interested in, you start them on a game that’s not four hours long, because they’re going to have problems being in character for more than half an hour at a time, and you don’t include anything that needs heavy thought in the game.  A lot of systems are now learning that the one hour taster sessions are amongst the best ways to get people interested in things without costing them time and money to do so.  A lot of conventions (particularly those who have very few newbies) have yet to cotton on to this, but it is this that will be the future for getting people into games.

How can I be so sure?

The analogy that most people have tried before is that you’d give up four hours to go see a film, half an hour travel there and back, ten minutes parking, ten minutes queuing, twenty minutes trailers, two hours film.  So theoretically that’s no different than the normal four hour thing that you’re asking them to sit down to now is it?

It is actually...

The point behind the cinema trip is that it’s not one thing done for four hours, it’s five different things, each one of which can be done while you’re talking to someone else or driving or doing something other than having to have your concentration fixed on one thing and one thing alone.  When you’re in a game, you’re in a game, and you can’t break from that to do other things or you’ll miss something about the game, and that in itself will lessen your enjoyment of the game. 

So the solution?

Shorter games...

Hold the cries of Heresy for a second, there is always time and space for those long games, when you can put the whole weekend in to play the game and have a good time with all those people who’ve been playing for years alongside you.  But a beginner won’t give you that commitment, they need convincing, in the same way that the board gamers do, that this is a good investment of the time that they could have spent doing something more important, like making tea or checking facebook or something else...

One hour I say, give me one hour, if you don’t like it, come back to me, I’ll buy you a drink and a snack to make up for the disappointment...

And I mean that...

Because in all the time that I’ve been doing demo’s for people, I’ve yet to have to pay up on that, and a part of it is because I know enough to know when the system isn’t required and when I need to play fast and loose, I can see when they’re getting involved and I know then which way to go to keep them interested.

But that’s a skill I took years to learn and I still practise it most weeks in one way or another, there’s quite a few of us out there who’ve been there from the beginning, but most of us don’t want to play with newbies anymore, we want to get out there with our old war buddies and fight the good fight, we’ve done our time in the trenches and we want the rewards that we were promised when we started this.

But the fight’s not done yet, the war never ended, it’s us against boredom and apathy, and the enemy keeps on getting more recruits, more things that don’t take your brains to do them, more games where pretty colours and simple puzzles will keep you engaged doing nothing more than using up the time you have left.  So the call is still out there, and while a lot of us have given up and gone home, we lay down those tools years ago, we let the others get on with it...

To be fair, I went to a session with some much younger players a short while ago, and I found that I was having problems with the way that they were playing things, it wasn’t any different to what I’d done all those years ago, but I have to stress...

All those years ago...

And I believe that just as I had older gamers to show me where all the real fun was.  They showed me that the best times where those when you really got into your characters and you were involved and not just looking for the next critical hit. So the gamers of today that are still just getting in to it and still looking at how to minmax their characters to be the best there is and damn the rest of the game, still need that involvement from the rest of us, to see that there’s another level to the game and that it’s not all about the number of kills your character has to their name.

And that brings me back to why do I do this?

In the board games, it’s because it makes the world a little easier once in a while, in the roleplaying games, it’s more of a calling.  I’m confident, in a way that most people aren’t, ask anyone who knows me, I spent a long time getting this way from what I was, and a lot of it I did through roleplaying, through understanding that I could be more than I thought I might be.  Roleplaying is now accepted as a good method of training, so you can show people how to react to different situations, you can work through it with them and have them be at least slightly ready for it when it happens in real life, so it is for me and roleplaying in games.  Most people bring something of themselves to any game they play, the usual joke is that your character is you, but turned up to 11...

I used to be like that, now my characters are me with the volume turned down, I’d be hard pressed to tell you which is the better of the two options...

But I got a lot from roleplaying through the years and just as anyone who’s been given something that was useful...

I just want to give something back...

Showing others how to play is my way of doing that...

Discuss...?

Gaming Evangelists part one, the Boards... Do you try and get other people into gaming?

Do you try and get other people into gaming?

And don’t worry, this isn’t one of those “And if not, why not?” posts, but as someone who does try and get people into gaming, I’m curious as to how many people go out of their way to get other people to play games, and more importantly, the reasons why they do, either way.

So I’ll start with me, I do try to get people into gaming, but I draw the line at those who are either too serious (either in their outlook on life or those who take themselves too seriously), those who have already made comments along the lines of “Sitting around a table rolling dice is stupid”, even when those people freely admit to spending hours on line playing call of duty, and those who take any sort of pleasure in upsetting others.

There are good reasons for the exclusion of those three from my self-imposed quest.  Those who take themselves seriously, who believe that they need to be serious and that those around them need to be serious as well, I’ll try once, but if I get the usual “You’re being a child aren’t you...?” glance, I’ll give it up.  It’s not for me to tell them how to live their life and if they want to be serious, that’s their privilege.  Those who’ve invested themselves in video games are very passionate indeed about gaming, but most of them live for the thrill of being out there in real time and testing themselves against other humans in contests of death and glory.  The prospect of sitting down around a table for a few hours without a single achievement scored is almost anathema to them, and many comments from the role and board gamers that I’ve spoken to on the same subjects are that they don’t like the relentless pace of the games on line, they’re not bothered about being the fastest or sharpest in the room (particularly when a seven year old on coke has the edge both times), they just want to play games amongst people around their own ability.  Then finally there’s those that take pleasure in upsetting others, and that’s a personal choice, when I see that a person likes seeing others upset and takes time to get a dig in here or there, when they seem to take some form of joy in getting a prod in and having the other person react, I don’t approach them because I believe that the world has enough of them in it anyway, and I really don’t want them anywhere near my corner of the world.

So that leaves everyone else...

I work front desk at a number of Cons, including the biggest games convention in England, and I do a lot of work behind the scenes in trying to promote games and get more people playing.  A lot of people presume that it’s because if I get loads of people into games, they’ll all come to the shows I run and as a result, I’ll get rich...

Not even close...

Someone once said that to make a small fortune in games, you start with a large one, and while that’s no longer true for a number of the big players in our industries, certainly a steady paycheck isn’t the primary reason for getting into games.  I have a day job and it pays more in a year that I’ve made in games in the last ten, so that’s not it.

It’s because I enjoy games, from the games that test the patience of saints (Hello Diplomacy) to the games that you can play in ten minutes and then play again straight away and have just as much fun (Hello Smash Up). It’s easier on the whole to get people into Board games than it is to RPG’s, because with most board games, the rules are clear, they’re present, and it’s easy to see where you can go and what you can do.  Clearly this isn’t the same as mastering the aforementioned game, but for starting off and getting people on the go, it’s an excellent way forwards.  The other thing is that most people have, at some point in their lives, played a game of some sort. To be fair, it’s probably monopoly, ludo, Uno, yahtzee, or something else by MB, but they will be familiar with the idea of games and how to play them. 

They’re also intimately familiar with the idea that most games that are mass produced aren’t actually very good, and that the last time they played, the game didn’t get finished because everyone got bored...

And that’s a perfectly good way to start the pitch...

“What if I could show you a game in two minutes, play it in five, and you wouldn’t be bored at the end of it...?”

Normally I’ll start with something simple, one of the games I carry around with me, Mijnlieff, Lords of War, even Perudo if I get a group of them all at once, and ask them for five minutes of their time.  Usually (in the manner of a dealer hooking a new prospect), I do this away from the rest of the world, because most people have a great degree of curiosity, but don’t want everyone else to know that...

Get them on one game, let them play it, let them win, and make it convincing...

First hit’s free...

And when you’ve got them interested, back off, let them make the next move.  No pushing, no teasing, no hints, no follow up.  If they want to play again, you’ve already given them the impetus, you’ve already shown that you’re willing to play against them, let them come to you for the next game.  Of course, always have it ready, but still, let them come to you. 

For some, the truth is that the game was a minor distraction, they may have enjoyed it while they were playing it, and now they’re back to their lives and that’s that.  For others, there’s a momentary glance into another world, where they don’t have to be the grown up, they don’t have to be all responsible for just those few minutes, and they don’t have to be concerned that they were having fun with another grown up (and if they do have to be concerned, don’t ever tell me what you were playing...).

At conventions it’s easier, because I’m an absolute introvert masquerading as a monstrous extrovert and I’ve spent a long time cultivating that personality to bring out at conventions.  I’ve spent a lifetime working beside and opposite people, you get to learn what they’re after, you see the slight tells when you’re talking to them and you can work on that, it’s easier to convince people that playing games is a good thing when you’re at a games convention because they’ve already done the hardest thing they could have done.

They already came to you...

And so it’s outside the conventions when the work really has to be done, to convince people that there’s something else out there, that not all life has to be serious, and that if it is, then what is there to live for?  If all life is just a series of challenges that are there to test us, and test us again, then again and again, till we wonder why it’s just us that’s holding the world up, where’s the reward for all that hard work?

When we get old?  When there’s no life left in us because we spent it all being serious and only now, at the end, do we realise that it wasn’t so serious and that we should have lived just a little more for now than tomorrow rather than living for tomorrow, because tomorrow is built of all the todays that you laid getting to it.  If all bricks you laid for your tomorrow were grey and corporate, you get to the house that you built and it is grey...

I can think of no worse fate...

So I do this because I like to think that when I come to tomorrow, my house will be built of colourful bricks and filled with people who’ve played along with me as I’ve been building.  I like to think that in some way, their tomorrows will be built of things that aren’t so serious, that aren’t mortgage or illness or pain and misery, because those bricks are cheap, everyone can get those.  Sometimes it takes someone else to give you a new brick before you can lay it, and that’s all I’m doing.

I’m carrying bricks...

Anyone else...?

Tomorrow, RPG's...

Story September Day 16 - A Blade of My own

In the old days, a man could prove his worth with the skill of his hands and the sharpness of the sword he wielded.  In such times, ruffians and thieves were not tolerated because men of honour did not allow them.

I look out at the bodies in the street, all of them riddled with automatic weapons fire.

I wish it were the old days

Hiding below the level of the window, there’s silence out on the street, the thunderous sounds of the gun cut off almost as soon as they’d begun, just another gang war starting and finishing.  I crawl over to the counter and sneak around the back, the body of the guy behind the counter is still bleeding.  He’d had time to look up when the firing started, two stray shots had caught him and he was down while the rest of us had been dropping to the floor. 

Just another day in Chiba...

The register was pulled to the floor when he went down, the cash strewn all around, and bills mixing in with blood.  There’s a noise from the front of the store as the door opens with a soft creak.  The sound of a footstep, heavy on the ground, sounds like they’re dragging the other foot behind them.  I glance around the side as the person comes into view.  Dressed in a Black Hakama and wearing a Kimono over the top, both of the garments have no gang colours attached, no symbols of rank or affiliation.  There’s a thin line of blood running down one of their legs and I look up to see them hobbling slightly, their right leg stiff and rigid.  I lean back behind the counter and hear them stop.

“I can hear you,” A man’s voice, gruff, the manner strained as if he was trying to conceal something.

“I can hear you.” I don’t lean back out.

“You have nothing to fear from me unless you intend me harm.” He shuffles closer to the bar and I hear him lean on it. He leans backwards over the edge and down at me, “And you appear not to mean me harm, there’s no sense in sitting down there in the blood.”

I stand and he looks me up and down as I come around the bar.

“No weapon, no colours,” He nods, “Just having breakfast?”

Just begging for it...

“Yeah...” I nod, “You?”

“Got caught in a fight outside,” He nods towards the window, “Caught a stray round at the end of it, getting slow in my old age.”

I look him up and down, he’s in his late twenties, clean shaven using a long blade, but his hair has a wild edge to it, held up with natural oils and the shredded remains of a silken sash.  His Kimono is open slightly and there’s the hint of strong muscles under the cloth.

“You’re my age,” I shrug, “That’s not old.”

“It’s old when you’ve been fighting as long as I have,” He groans as his leg spasms, “Would you know how to tie a tourniquet?”

“Yeah...” I look down at his leg, “Where’d you get hit?”

He reaches down, his mouth tightens as the movement puts pressure on the muscle, there’s a red line down the outside of his thigh.

Couple more inches and it would have been the main artery...

I go behind the counter and take one of the tea towels, taking the first aid kit off the wall as I come back around.  There’s a few bandages in the kit, none of them in date, all the chemicals are more than three years past expiry and I take out the bandage, folding the towel twice and then winding the bandage around till the wound is completely covered.  He flexes experimentally on the knee twice and then nods, letting his Hakama drop down over it.

“You have my thanks,” He reaches into his belt for his money and I see the two sword handles protruding from the sash.

“Not necessary,” I shake my head.

“Then I would be in your debt,” He looks down, “What can I do to repay the debt.”

“Any chance of an escort?” I pick up the bag containing all the money I’d managed to gather than morning and point up the hill to the shanties on the top. He looks up the hill and sighs.

“No chance you live at the bottom of that hill is there?” He stands and tests his leg again. “No?”

He sighs again and points to the door, “Alright, let’s get going.”

It’s cold outside, and even though I have more layers of clothes on than he does, I’m shivering.

“How far to your house?” He looks up the hill with an air of resignation

“It’s not my house.”

“Alright,” He nods, “How far to where I’m taking you...”

“Less than a mile,” I say, “But it’s all uphill, sorry.”

“Not a concern,” He flexes on his feet and sets off at a brisk pace, “Let’s get going then.”

He’s taller than me by a foot and even with his injured foot, I have to double time to keep up with him.  He walks as if there’s nothing wrong with him, only sometimes does the wound show, and even then only in the turn of his lips.

“So where are you from?” I look sideways at him as he moves forwards, the motion too smooth to be called walking, his shoulders are always level, like he’s gliding along.

“Grew up just around the corner from here,” He says without looking at me, “Came back to settle a debt with an old friend.”

“And got caught in the middle of a firefight for your trouble?” I point at the bodies on the other side of the road.

“No,” He nods, “That was the debt.”

I look at the bodies, none of them punctured in the way that bullets would do, all of them bearing deep cuts to the arms or neck in varying degrees.  I look at him as he glides forwards, not paying them any attention.

“What...” I snap out of my reverie and run after him, “All of them?”

“Not all of them, no, just the ones that were trying to kill him.”

“What did you owe him?” I get a little ahead of him and try to see his expression.

“It was mine to owe;” He nods, “Now the debt is paid and I can move on with my life.”

“Who’s your friend?”

“Heihachi Mitsuro.” He says, pointing to the junction ahead, “Which way?”

I point to the left and stand still for a second before running after him again.

“The Heihachi Mitsuro?” I say as the road slopes upwards, “Crime Boss of Chiba Low?”

“I don’t know what he does for his work these days,” His expression doesn’t change, “I know that I owed him for the debt and now I am clear of that debt.”

“And that’s it?” I ask, “Are you going to see him later to talk to him?”

“I haven’t seen him in ten years, not since I left here; he asked for this in payment of my debt, he knows enough that it will be done.”

“How could he know that?”

“Because he knew I chose the path of the Samurai, and my honour is intact, no matter the state of his, he knew that I would come and that this would be done.” He nodded and turned his head to me a fraction, “As you can be assured that I will see you to your place, even though it is up a hill.”

“Sorry,” I glance down for a second, “You don’t have to, I can make it myself.”

“That is not the point,” He nods, “You asked for this to pay my debt to you, I will see it done.”

“What’s your name?”

He remains silent and I wonder if I’ve overstepped the mark, then he nods and looks at me.

“I am Kojiro, so named by my master.”

“I’m Jenny,” I half hold my hand out to him before putting it back down again, I think I catch the edge of a smile on his lips as he continues upwards, putting more effort into making his leg keep up.

“So what are you doing here Jenny?”

“Just gathering things for the morning meal.” I hold the bag a little closer

“There is no shame in having to steal,” He looks down at me, “The shame comes in doing something you feel to be wrong whilst continuing to do it.”

“I didn’t steal any of it.” I look down

“Take possession of without the owners consent,” His lips quirk up again, “Borrow without intention to return, it all adds up to the same thing.”

“Suppose you never stole anything.”

“I never said that,” He glances down at me, “But I made every effort to ensure that I took back what was owed and more besides, to settle my debt.”

“Must be better where you live.” I sigh, “Around here we just try and make it through the day.”

“You do,” He pauses in the street so abrupt that I think he’s bumped into something, “Kherin Clan, am I correct?”

“That’s who I work for.”

“Would you work for them if you had the choice to do something else?”

“Like what?”

“Like what I do, go from place to place and make things better?”

“I couldn’t do that,” I look up at him.

“Why not?” There’s no hint of irony in his voice

“I...” I look for a good reason, “haven’t got a sword.”

“The sword is only a symbol of my commitment,” He opened his kimono to reveal a holster across his shoulders, “We understand that things have moved on since the days of honour.”

“Besides, you need training to do what you do.” I look into his eyes, “Don’t you?”

“There is time for that,” He nods, “Make your choice before you reach the door that I am bound to deliver you to, if you choose to do something better, tell me, and I will see to it that you get a sword.”

A hundred yards from the door and I see that the rest of the Kherin are massing around us.  Most of them are standing far closer than would be appropriate for greetings a guest.  It’s easy to see that they’re considering whether or not they could take him down without him doing for them.  At the end of the road, the double doors swing open and Hanjo stands there, framed by the light behind him.  Kojiro stops at the same time as I do and waits with his thumbs tucked into his sash.

“So you brought us more than the morning money,” Hanjo steps forwards, his shoulders rolling under the weight of the implanted muscle on his frame, “Where did you find this?”

“He’s just walking me home,” I stand in front of Kojiro, “I...bandaged his leg and he walked me home to settle his debt.”

“You bandaged his leg...” Hanjo’s tone mocks mine and he looks around me at Kojiro’s swords. “Now those will fetch a good price with the Yak around here...”

“My debt was to bring the lady home,” Kojiro looks up, seeming fragile against Hanjo’s mass, “You do not have the honour to ask a second debt.”

“Then maybe we’ll just take them,” Hanjo looks down and beckons from both sides as the other members of the Clan close in.”

Kojiro looks at me and nods, “It is not too late for you to choose the sword.”

Hanjo looks at me and I shrink away from his gaze, he turns back and snaps his fingers, the clan all drawing their weapons and starting to aim.

Kojiro glides to the side without pause, the movement unhurried but faster than everyone else around him. A Head flies up into the air and then an arm falls to the ground as he glides again, the bullets from the guns on the other side of the field pepper the bodies of those already dead as he moves around the edge of the clan, cutting and gliding, never slashing, every movement controlled, every strike where he directs it. Many of the clan turn and run as the black clad spectre glides around the buildings, still cutting, never stopping. 

Hanjo reaches down to his belt and takes out his machine pistol, opening up on the last member of the clan as Kojiro reaches him, the body jerking backwards as Kojiro hides behind it.  There’s a sharp cry of pain and I see Kojiro’s leg twist under him as one of the rounds catches him.  He falls to the floor, his sword still in his hand as Hanjo remains stood, switching the clips out.  Kojiro looks up at me and we both know he’s not going to make it.  I look around, seeing only a wire brace from the construction yards up the road.  I grab it and swing, the movement causing Hanjo to flinch as he finishes changing the clip.  Hanjo and I both stare at the stump of his arm from where the wire has gone straight through muscle and bone.

That shouldn’t have done that...

He looks up at me, cradling the stump and trying to stem the bleeding.  Within a half minute he goes pale and collapses to the floor crying like a child.  Kojiro stands and looks at me, bracing himself against the pillar as his leg fails to support him.

“So you have chosen your sword.” He looks at me and nods.

“This isn’t a sword,” I look at the long wire rod, “It’s a support.”

“It is not the sword that cuts,” Kojiro nods, “It is the person who wields it.”

I look down at the wire and nod as Kojiro hops to keep balance.

“And now I know that you have honour,” He bows his head and looks at me, “I am in your debt for my life and I must ask you a further debt in binding my leg again.”

“And in return?” I look up at him

“In return,” he nods.

“I will teach you how to use your own sword.” 

Dragons and Dice...

I’ve always been fond of Dice , there’s something particularly satisfying about the rolling of random things and coming up with win, then deluding yourself into thinking you had a hand in it somewhere...

So in the mid nineties, when all manner of new games were being tried out, one such game was called Dragon Dice, and all it involved were the rolling of dice to see who won. The troops that made up your army with were dice, the monsters you fought were dice, and the more sides to the die, the more dangerous the creature in question.  Such a game would combine all the aspects of what we enjoyed to make the best game ever, Surely...

Except it didn’t.

There were a few issues with the game, most of which started here...

A game involving nothing but dice rolling and there were more than a hundred pages of rules to work on to play the game in its entirety.  The game itself was not that difficult, take your troops (that’d be the D6) and try to get three of the four terrains (That’d be the D8) up to the 8^th face, and in doing so, control the battlefield.

Simple enough concept and simple enough to play, but when you were playing the basic game, there was very little to recommend it, it was whoever got the high results first and went on from there, you might as well have been playing Yahtzee...

When it came to the full game, there were monsters and dragons to contend with, loads of spells, and a variety of special effects which could be summoned and used, and with the system being nothing more than reading the symbols off the dice, it should have been a huge hit, and yet within a few years it was minority interest and within a few more, it had been sold on to another company to produce and support (which they are doing to this day...).

The problem wasn’t the idea behind the game, battle games are still popular even now, but when you’re using most battle games, there’s models or counters to represent the troops you lose, when your die is the troop you’re using, it causes a lack of empathy with the troops you’re fighting with.

For example...

These are both Dragons...

One of them lacks a certain something, it’s like fighting against a stat block, which is amusing, you can see clearly what you’re up against, but it doesn’t present the same feeling as actually engaging with the creature in question, and having something as obvious as a D12 and a bunch of D6 does detract from having the idea that footsoldiers are up against a dragon.

Still, it was a good game, liked by many and played a lot, if only for a short while.  It’s still available, but there’s little in the way of support for it, and if you have some of the rarer dice from when it first came out, the game becomes very easy for you and very quickly.

But, for games that involve nothing but the joy of rolling dice.

There’s not many to beat it.