As I mentioned last time, I won’t be able to host this year’s final Durban game day. However, one of our regular attendees has volunteered to run a session of Exalted and/or the WoW board game.

• Venue: Destiny Bookstore, Windermere Centre, Durban
• Date and Time: 5 December 2009 – 10:30am for 11:00am
• Cost: Free!

Like last time, there seems to be a space issue at the venue (only one table), so you’ll need to confirm attendance. For more information, head over to the Facebook event page here. I won’t be there at the beginning of the event, but I’ll be sure to pop around to say hi.

- jatori

Bei der White Wolf-Presentation plaudert Ryan Dancey, einst Brandmanager bei Dungeons and Dragons, frei von der Leber weg und gibt ein paar interessante Anekdoten und Zahlen preis (insbesondere in den ersten beiden Videos, danach geht es eher um die neúe WW-Strategie).

Wer sich für White Wolf-Systeme interessiert, sollte auch mal n Blick in die anderen Videos der White Wolf-Presentation ansehen (Shane DeFreest, Greg Fountain).

PNG Interview – Jess Hartley, Freelance Writer and Game Designer

Some of you may have read Jess Hartley’s works and may not know it.  Jess has contributed, been the lead on, and wrote quite a bit of material for White Wolf, a company responsible for the World of Darkness RPG.  I chat with her about how she got into the industry, how one gets into game design/writing, and what it’s like working on an RPG.  We also talk about her most recent work with the Supernatural RPG, Neoncon, and her One Geek to Another column on her website.

E esse título já deve ter feito algumas pessoas rangerem os dentes . Aparentemente, no último ICC (International Camarilla Conclave) foi divulgado pela White Wolf que a empresa irá mudar sua forma de distribuição de material e foco.

O investimento maior vai ser na publicação de pdfs como principal meio de distribuição de material. Para quem não sabe a empresa já possui uma boa quantidade de material distribuído dessa forma, sendo que andou fazendo algumas experiências na associação de livros publicados e pdfs. O Scion Companion, por exemplo, foi lançado inicialmente em pdf em partes e só depois recebeu uma versão encadernada.

Considerando o que eles tem feito, não seria surpresa se eles iniciassem um modelo de publicação onde somente os livros das linhas maiores e com material que eles sabem que vende bastante iriam receber uma versão encadernada e o todo o resto ficaria em pdf. Isso seria uma grande quantidade de material e faria com que a maior parte do publicado pela empresa por ano só estivesse disponível digitalmente. Como eu sugeri ontem .

Outra notícia é que a empresa se uniu a Lone Wolf Development para criar ferramentas virtuais que ajudem os grupos de jogo no processo de jogar, administrar e registrar as campanhas. Os programinhas do Insider só que para o WoD, pelo jeito.

Vamos ver se esse projeto das ferramentas virtuais chega a algum lugar e como vão ficar as publicações de material a partir de agora.

Engraçado que eu comentei sobre como seria melhor um aumento da publicação em pdf ontem e que outras empresas tentassem disponibilizar ferramentas eletrônicas similares ao que a Wizards tem disponibilizado algum tempo atrás. Pelo jeito, uma nova fase do RPG está pra começar. Vamos ver pra onde ela leva.

Local da notícia original.

Out of all the role-playing games out there, my favorite has to be World of Darkness. I am fully honored to play test for White Wolf games, and get to almost officially run and play WoD games while spreading the love of the game. You can imagine my anger at a comment made by CCP’s Chief Marketing Officer, Ryan S. Dancey in an interview about keeping EVE online fresh: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=25704

“Can you fill me in on the status of White Wolf, the physical game company CCP acquired in Atlanta?

It’s just an imprint… White Wolf used to have a fairly large staff. It doesn’t anymore. It’s focusing primarily on the World of Darkness RPG products. It’s not doing some of the things it used to do; board games and other card games and things. The focus of the company [CCP] is on making MMOs and our legacy table top business is a legacy business.”

A legacy business? It’s thoughts like this that make me extremely concerned at the nature of the hobby. CCP clearly doesn’t understand what demographic that White Wolf caters too.  In every game of WoD I have ever run, the player varies in age and lifestyle. I’ve ran games with rich British couples, hilarious slurring rednecks and over sixty grandparents, and they all loved the game.

I become concerned that CCP doesn’t think White Wolf is a money making company, and this shows from their recent announcements of focusing on .pdf publications opposed to physical book, and the deregulation of the Camarilla fan club.  Dancey clearly doesn’t respect role-playing games or game companies, it almost sees as if he doesn’t see the point in a game that doesn’t require a monthly fee to play. His comment alienated an entire community of gamers and customers, as well as a part of his own company. According to Icv2.com, World of Darkness is and has been the third most sold game of 2009. With a market like that, it’s insane to demoralize the business as legacy.

I pray that the era of White Wolf is nowhere near ending, as the absence of it’s fine products would hurt the gaming community indefinitely.  I just hope the preview for the new upcoming White Wolf product in the back of the Geist book, “All is born in Darkness.” is not a preview for White wolf’s eventual disbandment.

I originally intended to write this post in June, but sometimes things just don’t work out as planned. At that time, I had just recently bought Manual of Exalted Power: The Infernals, a great source of information on the Green Sun Princes and their immortal masters.

A week before coming up with the idea of this post I had also bought HeroQuest 2.0, the new edition of Robin Laws’ story-oriented roleplaying game, at the Tentacles Convention. But more about that soon.

So, what actually is wrong with Exalted?

Firstly, I think I have to make clear that I really, really like Exalted. The setting and the attitude, that is. The problem is, the system doesn’t properly enforce either of these two things. Yes yes, we have the Stunts. Big yahoo-friggin’-doodle deal. The system fucks that up, too, especially in the second edition.

Still, it’s not my intent to belittle the work those designers have done. It’s not that the system is objectively bad. Rather, it’s a good system for some other game. You don’t get fast-paced anime-action with a system that makes you count Ticks and micromanage your resources (mainly, Essence).

Yes, the Golden Rule is there. But that is just a smokescreen to go on with sloppy design. You see, if I started to change the aspects that I see as needing fixing, it would brake too many related things. It’s be an endless cycle. Might as well do it myself from the beginning.

For example, dropping Ticks altogether and switching to exchange-based conflicts, would lead to the need of dropping or changing the movement rules. These two changes would brake many Charms. So you’d have to fix those too. Et cetera ad nauseam. Why drop the Ticks? They are just venom to doing Stunts. Ticks force you to break your narration into tiny bits that, when separated, aren’t that impressive.

Like this:
First action: “I run towars the huge two-headed serpent.”
Second action: “I run up it’s back and left neck.”
Third action: “I take a good foothold, raise my Grimcleacer and chop into it’s cranium.”
And between every action, there are (likely) other people’s actions and almost-narrations of almost-cool things almost-happening.

It’s not like all that glorious Stunting-goodness is grinding the game to a halt, you don’t need to come up with specific mechanics to tone it down!

There are also other, smaller things on my list that seem counter-intuitive to the supposed “spirit of the game.” To make your character unique in the field of magic, you have two options. Your combos, and the option to come up with your own charms. And they they don’t support the latter. Why does that feel like there’s a “We’d prefer you playing with our pre-made charms instead of having you, like, being creative” -mentality behind that? The other option is that they’re just either lazy or stupid. And let’s be honest, none of these options is a desired conception.

There are many more small things that just annoy the hell outta me, but it’d take the whole night to go through all of them, so I’ll just stick with these that could be remedied quite painlessly (by changing the core design philosophy).

It might seem odd to state that despite all of this, I won’t abandon the game’s own system altogether. It is still sufficently good when I want to do some semi-heavy character-micromanaging, and of course for powergaming. That system positively welcomes anyone who wants to game the system or play the mechanics. It’s bulk just isn’t for every game.

But, it’s easy to complain about this and that, and do nothing about it.

This is where HeroQuest come in. With it’s flavor-driven character creation the second point above, the uniqueness of magic, is easily achieved. I have also been thinking about how the different magic systems in Exalted should be structured in HeroQuest. I have made some progress, and might put it up as a post of it’s own, some other time.

The first point is quite easily fixed with HQ, too, because it doesn’t have combat system that traces your actions, second by second. You’re free to “Stunt” your brains out.

So in conclusion, the people of White Wolf mean well. Their execution just doesn’t do justice to the game’s spirit.

I think I’ll leave it here for now. Let’s see if I want to poke on the pile of things-wrong-in-Exalted again some time.

-
Currently playing: Machinae Supremacy – Anthem Apocalyptica

The game won the Ernie award for Dorkiest Game Title.

As a few of you know, I am apart of White Wolf Games senior demo and play test team, The Wrecking Crew.  White Wolf graciously gives us a their working drafts of upcoming games and lets us tear them apart and check gameplay mechanics. I have been with this game from early on, and only now I feel that I’ve spent enough time on it to have an opinion.

In GtSE, players play people who have died, and have been brought back to life by a type of ghost called a Geist. This does not come without a price though, as they must share their entire being with the Geist, and often spend as much time confronting the spirit world with their new companion.  Brought back into the living world, these characters, or Sin-Eaters, become mediums for spirits and have to deal with matters of paranormal activity.  Supposedly, Geists are the rarest of all World of Darkness supernaturals, and their communities, or Krewes could number from two to two hundred.

Character creation is one of the best in all of White Wolf’s games in my opinion.  In typical World of Darkness style, two main “classes” define your character. In Geist it’s how you died, and how your outlook on life has changed.  This is an interesting mechanic, as it’s very subjective to the character. One could classify their death as a car accident as a misfortune, or a murder depending on circumstance.  I also love that Geist creation is apart of the character creation as well, as one could have a famous ghost bound to them like Jack the Ripper, or something more symbolic like a swarm of insects with a painted mask of beauty.

I’m also a huge fan of how the powers of the game work, as it seems to be a mix of Werewolf: the Forsaken, and Mage: the Awakening. Core powers are called Manifestations, which cover abilities like death, the elements, or technology, characters access these core powers through Keys. Keys dictate how you use Manifestations as Keys give access in different ways, like controlling the different Manifestations, or cursing them.  If I had a character with the technology Manifestation and the Control and Silhouette Key, He could control machines around him, and also hide them. Each Manifestation-Key combination is a separate power that has varying levels of effectiveness.  Starting out, character creation gives you three dots in Manifestations and two dots in Keys, this has the possibility for six powers of varying power scales, Which is a bit overwhelming for new players, as they have a good amount of powers starting out.  When play testing, about half the time was spent going through the sheer number of powers that we had available to us. Characters also have ceremonies that they can inact, akin to Werewolf the Forsaken.

Here is an important face about Sin-Eater Characters: They can’t die. When maxed out on damage, Sin-Eaters fall unconscious and rise the next morning with a wax mask on their face of someone they know who died in their stead.  When I state this to people during demo games at conventions, I get some mixed reactions. Some people think it’s a cool touch, while others start to get upset that their Malcovian Elder that took over a Larp one time isn’t so bad ass in comparison, and start to blame White Wolf for power creep.  (True Story.)   There is a balancing factor, that every time a character comes is denied a final rest, their synergy stat is reduced by one and their maximum possible synergy is reduced by two. Synergy is how well you and your Geist buddy get along, the higher it is the less you two talk about your feelings over a carton of rocky road ice cream, and the more often you two fight internally.  In short, if a Sin-Eater dies repeatedly, they go crazy and become an unplayable monster.

The mechanics for the game are solid, but there is one flaw that makes me lose interest in the game; There isn’t enough struggle with the Geist. When a Sin-Eater is created, a deal is brokered between a human and a ghost of unearthly coolness.  Vary rarely in the game, do Geist motivations come up, and in a party it rests on the Storyteller to play all of the character’s Geists, which could get unruly at times.  Most players will not bother with creating motivations for their Geist, as it’s only a suggestion in the rulebook.  I think that if they put mechanics on the Geist, that would solve some of the issues, but as it stands it requires work for players to care about their ethereal buddy.  It also stands that their is very little reason for Sin-Eaters police the spirit world, other than shutting up the really annoying ghosts that bother them.  Archetype and The power stat play into this, but again it takes alot of work to get the characters to care.

Overall I am a fan of Geist: the Sin-Eaters, I think the game takes an interesting look at death, and the mechanics are very solid. The game fits right into the existing World of Darkness line perfectly and would make a fine addition to any existing  game as, Sin-Eaters make wonderful villains for other WoD game lines and would frustrate any party to learn that the big bad villain legitimately doesn’t  die.

By:  Stephen Carpenter

This was a commission I did in pencil. Hey Anthony, your stuff is famous .

Copyright CCP, North America

Shovel in hand, I’m resurrecting an old (and I thought obvious) argument about writing.

What is a writer’s first hurdle?

When people talk about ‘writing’ they usually mean writing novels, or poetry, or artistically stimulating mediums that afford the author some artistic gratification which should be obvious in the reading, viewing or listening. It is a bit less obvious when the medium is not immediately engaged in a conversation or emotional attachment to the characters or situation, though the basic framework which governs any form of writing is still true in many of these other forms of writing.

On the borderlands of writing there are hundreds of small yet vital writing opportunities that may not – at first glance – be the exact same thing as crafting the complex plots and intricate characters which epitomise writing as an art form and mode of expression. There are the wonderful RPG books to consider first of all, because I definitely class them as closest to epic storytelling in their set-up. The fact that the reader has some input into the narrative is irrelevant.

They exist for the sole purpose of character building, storytelling, and the realization of worlds which don’t exist. Some rulebooks (the Dungeons & Dragons ones especially) are so complex that they must be viewed as a higher level of storytelling than mere novel-writing… How many novelists, if they had the ability in the first place, could cope with the balancing, levelling and complex threads of storytelling that run through the books? Not me…

I’ll admit from the out that I could never cope with writing one of those fuckers. I’ve read through enough rulebooks (and seen the covers of White Wolf #4 and #5 reprinted enough times in other contexts) to know that the creators of such tomes require a special kind of patience. RPG books are close enough to aspects of computer game writing that I would also include the creation of those games as great writing as well. I’m not going to trawl through which games have great writing, ’cause you should know them when you see them

Sometimes games can take on a life outside the initial release, and this is down to the writing. It might seem as if there are complex equations to be made in assessing which parts of the game are most important to which gamers, but good writing can save a game with poor graphics, or filled with glitches, or has an awful camera. Tomb Raider’s success was as much down to the prevailing atmosphere of alt-history in the mid-nineties as it was due to Lara’s ridiculously large breasts.

The number of ways available to a writer to engage with an audience has become even more complex with the internet, and that is something which hasn’t been examined as seriously as other forms of writing. Is the format as good as paper-and-ink? Maybe or maybe not. The readership is slightly different, and – if I’m going to be completely honest here – there are an awful lot of spammish pages on the net. I’m not sure is Wikipedia counts as anything other than gifted insanity, but as a home of writing…

Minor diversion from the topic: People seem to think that making shit up about famous people is a reasonable way to pass the time. It ain’t. Neither is altering pages on history due to political or religious motives, both of which have been evident. There are a lot of people who take the idea of disseminating information to the masses seriously, and the scribblings of a few simple-minded morons has made the task nigh on impossible.

But I’m getting back to the point: Does the site engage a readership? The simple answer is yes. It is high on the list of most-viewed websites, surpassed by a handful of search engines and other essential sites. It is an amazing achievement, creating a popular and highly-regarded – in its’ theory if not its’ actual undertaking – website. The readership is there, therefore it is serious writing, if only because of the number of readers. It gets a passing grade.

####

This subject resurfaced from a comment I made about Salmand Rushdie’s writings. I like the ideas he throws around, but he has become one of the laziest writers around in the years since he turned in such memorable and engaging ad copy as “quote here” for company. He seems to have forgotten that the reader has, perhaps, better things to read than confused text which rambles rather than rattles, and that is where most people fall – the first hurdle. The first hurdle of a writer…

A writer’s first hurdle is to engage people.

Ad copy, which I haven’t touched on in a fair while, is as important in social media as any novel, and it reaches a far greater number of people than any novel. The words from a successful ad campaign can far outlast a bestselling novel in the collective memory of a generation, and influence artistic trends that most novels could never hope to. There are still references made, on television and in print, to the adverts of the sixties, when creative types threw away the rulebook and started to use tricks that nobody had ever seen before.

The introduction of a color supplement in newspapers might have been the focal point through which the lens of creativity was focused, but it was the accompanying words and ideas which fueled the boom in advertising. It was also the point at which newspapers began the slow slide into mediocrity and facile celebrity-watching which now dominates the industry, but for one shining moment, for one brief second of true artistry, the magazines and newspapers which had been in a rut suddenly came alive.

People bought newspapers for the ads as much as the non-news, eager to discover the latest campaigns. This is engaging with an audience on a level that strikes an immediate and lasting relationship, because they could then go out and purchase the products and feel part of a like-minded group. When readers of books try to do the same thing… Not so much luck, unless the book in question is a ultra-hyped product, replete with tie-in toys, games, films and other kipple.

If an audience isn’t engaged by a performance they tend to walk out.
If a reader isn’t engaged by a book they might not finish the text.
If a television series does not engage with viewers it is cancelled.
If a game does not engage with players it will be ridiculed by geeks.

If a comic does not engage with readers you get the situation Hawkman found himself in, bouncing between creators and mired in horrendous continuity issues that effectively killed off the character for the better part of a decade. Somehow, through luck and bloody good timing, the character was salvaged. Why? Because readers are engaged with the struggles that the character faces. They like the winged misery-guts, whose soap-opera history adds to the fun of his adventures.

Engaging readers in the narrative is hard.

The first duty of a writer is to engage is some manner, and the point of any writing – with the format, genre, medium, length and style being largely irrelevant – is this magical connection. Once you have people by the short and curlies you have them forever. You just have to get over that first hurdle…

Mwahaha! I got a new watch to today The battery in the other had ran dry and.. well, I didn’t like that much no more. So I bought one of those Stainless Steel watches where the strap is made out of many pieces put together. Normally it costs 275,98 USD (1400 DKK), but it was sat down 50%. I’ll be sure to put a picture up in my next post. It’s really sweet..

Anyhow, yesterday the most wicked thing happened.. It was like, taken out from a Comedy Film. I mean, really.. It felt like god was mocking me. So, I’m sitting in my couch with a huge glass of milk waiting for the time to be time where I’m off to Roleplay/Vampire session. So, I rest the huge glass in between my laps so it doesn’t tip.. Then I recieve a message from Thomas, I turn around for my cellphone and wooops.. Milk all over me.. Fuck.. Reading the sms saying that we can just come earlier I rush out to the bath, takes my cloth off, goes underneath the shower, turns on the hot water and.. It’s cold.. IT’S COLD!!? WTF’s with that, I don’t remember any notes saying they’d turn it off.. So I’m kind of getting this feeling that god is mocking me or something, laughing his ass half off up in heaven. Anyhow, desperate for hot water to shower in, an idea hits me. Some 15 minutes earlier I boiled some water for tea that I didn’t use. I took that water, mixed it with boiled water for that morning breakfast and poured it over me while turning a bit on for the cold one.. Brrr.. Wicked..

Today I aslo saw this new film called “My Suicide”.. I’m not gonna talk about it, but damn it was wicked.. A mu.. well.. see it!

You know, when you’ve gotten a new CD album, you put it in the stereo and listen to the tracks and you just skip some of them automaticly because they sounds wierd? But then later on, you’re doing a bit of exploring and finds out that you actually like lots of the numbers.. That wasn’t really the case here, but.. ; San Jacinto – Peter Gabriel. Found it the day before yesterday while my MP3 was connected to the speakers. It’s pretty good. You have this keyboard playing with this, sort of tropical sound to it, instrument bank sound, and it just continues thru the whole song. The verse is pretty constant, and then right before the Chorus it sort of breaks off and other sounds comes on. Then when you think it’s done, it starts again, but as if it was another number.. Other sounds, other pace and rhythm. Sorta like a D Verse?;

Through the Fire by Beth Trissel

Through the Fire
Beth Trissel
The Wild Rose Press
Pub Date: 2009
ISBN: 1601544715
Genre: Historical (American Rose)
Length: 332 pages
Buy this Book

Review:

At the height of the French and Indian War, a young English widow ventures into the colonial frontier in search of a fresh start. She never expects to find it in the arms of the half-Shawnee, half-French warrior who makes her his prisoner in the raging battle to possess a continent––or to be aided by a mysterious white wolf and a holy man.

Wow! What another great read from Beth Trissel. The story was captivating and beautiful. The author brings you into the story creating a storyline that is mystical and timeless. The characters stand in a league all their own, it’s easy for the readers to fall in love with these characters. And believe me you won’t soon forget them either. The plot is thrilling and enchanting. If you love historicals you are going to love this story and you are going to love this author. Ms. Trissel truly has a magical way with words. I really cannot wait to read her next one!

Rating: 5 Smacks
Heat: Spicy
Reviewer: Bella Wolfe
For more on my work please visit: www.bethtrissel.com

Glenn Hefley is writing up backgrounds and stories for the Scion series from White Wolf. Glenn is the author of Forever Jack:Thief of Heaven, and there is a rumor that the next novel in the Forever Jack seriese will be Scion of the Saint. It sounds like he is going to be bringing in the storyline of the Scion RPG series into his Forever Jack novel, which should prove to be interesting.

Forever Jack, the Thief of Heaven is a story of a thief, who is more or less the Scion of the Saint Dismas, a Shadow of the Saint who lives in the veil, and is called to earth to steal back someones soul from the devil. In Scion of the Saint, Glenn Hefley is going to join ithe Catholic traditional religious views with the Scion storyline, which is basically that all of the pantheons of all the gods are real, and the gods have been having children with normal humans. These children of the gods are called Scions, and some of them receive blessing from their parents, while others are ignored. The story line of the RPG is that the Titans have broken free from their bonds and are threatening to destroy the world of the living. The Scions are the only defense that the humans have, as the gods are too busy fighting off the siege from their own celestial temples. Since Glenn Hefley seems to know mythology very well, if his current work on Scarn is any judge, I’m sure that he will find a way to bring these story lines into play… I’m just wondering if he planned to do this from the start or if this is a new interest he has decided to try working with. Either way it should be interesting