One of them was unboxing my roleplaying books. They’d been boxed up as part of some home improvement and I never got around to unboxing them. This weekend, I did. It’s hard to describe how I felt. It was bittersweet, in that I felt nostalgic but also some sense that I might be done with roleplaying for good.

And then just now, I saw that White Wolf had put up their publishing schedule for 2011 – 2012. Huh.

I’ll admit I’m less than thrilled by the whole V20 thing. (I guess we’re all curmudgeons now?) (Uh, “now”?) There wasn’t much thrill in a game I wasn’t all that interested in, although on some level I have to feel happy for the people for whom this is a big deal. The guy who runs my FLGS certainly seems pleased. My visits aren’t often these days, and he brings it up each time. I don’t have the heart to tell him I thought Requiem was a superior game by nearly every measure.

On top of that, I presumed that the nWoD was all but dead. Perhaps that says more about me than anything else: from glancing at DriveThruRpg.com, it seems there’s been a trickle of releases. It’s difficult to see at what rate with DriveThruRPG’s interface, but it doesn’t seem like that many. Maybe that’s consistent with the rate before the move to digital publishing in any case.

I’m rambling.

So then I see the new publishing schedule, and it’s an interesting mix. Releases are one per month, as far as I can tell, and the list goes out to 2012. Remarkably, it seems they’re releasing new material for the old games (including finishing up some of the old Technocracy Convention books, ha!). But the majority is either nWoD or Exalted.

Another notable piece is that there’ll be another nWoD expansion game, a remake of Mummy.

Finally, it looks like some of the print on demand stuff came through. On top of the oWoD stuff, a bunch of nWoD stuff will be on here. So there’s that.

My own hiatus

My thoughts on roleplaying these days are few and far between, as I’m sure I’ve reiterated the few times I’ve posted lately. That’s persisted. I’ve spent more time reading, coding, working, or goofing off. A big chunk of it is that my core gaming group is heavily ensconced in their own game, for which I have little interest. Hearing about their game evokes the opposite of what I’d imagined; the more I hear about it, the less I’m interested in roleplaying overall.

I’d say it’s a phase, as these things do move in cycles. Two year cycles, though? That’s the last time I posted any really coherent thoughts on roleplaying. Oh, I’m sure I’ve played some one-shot D&D since then. But I never ran Changeling, nor Dark Sun, nor Geist, nor anything else.

What’s funny is that when I was shelving my books the other day, I was reminded about how I kept acquiring books even after I’d ostensibly lost interest. I’ve got a fair number of D&D books I haven’t read. In my defense, some (but not all) were gifts. Some of the later Vampire: the Requiem books are mostly unread. I probably finished The Mage Chronicler’s Guide.

There’s something alluring about the books, though, as always. The Requiem clanbooks in particular were among the most enjoyable role-playing books I’ve ever seen or read.

This is all just a long way of saying that I’m sure I could get interested again if I tried. But do I want to? I’m not sure! This I will say: as of this evening, and it sure is tempting to crack open a role-playing book or two in the meantime. I might have achieved the point (seven years?!) at which there’s enough nostalgia to get me reading, if nothing else.

The video itself doesn’t offer any information— it’s a cinematic, in other words, and well done— but there was one tidbit. It will be based on “the older Masquerade system.” Based on what little I’ve been able to glean myself, it seems accurate. If nothing else, there’s plenty of corroborating chatter on Twitter.

I can’t say I’m excited. Vampire was my least favorite out of the old World of Darkness games. Mage occupied that spot, although my fervor for it has lessened. I’m not sure it has aged well, and I’d rather preserve nostalgia as it is than tamper with it.

Of course since I haven’t seen or heard anything about the gameplay beyond “it’ll focus on player politics and social interaction.” I can’t form an opinion based on that. The closest analogy is of course EVE Online, which has some fascinating politics and whatnot. I also have too much respect for the World of Darkness folks to dismiss the game out of hand. Purely on the point of adapting tabletop to MMO, the Masquerade setting is a better choice, given that it operated on a global scale. Still, to the extent to which it’s possible to formulate an opinion about this, I’m disappointed.

No matter how I feel, I still wish the White Wolf folks all the best of luck. It sounds like there’s a large portion of lapsed Vampire: the Masquerade fans, or folks who have no strong preference for original vs. newer Vampire. I just don’t fall into either of those categories.

I’ve had some thoughts about this of and on, especially as far as the iPad is concerned. I wouldn’t be surprised if I had much the same thoughts: what potential such a device has for tabletop RPGs! Even if you assume only the DM has one, there are many possibilities.

I’m thinking mostly of what this could do for the DM, to be honest— I don’t imagine that enough people own such devices that you assume everyone in the group has a smartphone. There’s more you could do in that realm but I think we’re some ways away before something like that is feasible. In any case, that would have to be a web app, I think; the web is the only development platform smartphones have in common these days.

For D&D, the obvious advantage is data tracking augmented by automation. With a larger screen, an app to track various states and automate certain mechanics becomes much easier. You could have an application that allowed you to run combat much more easily by tracking status effects, marks, and so on. The possibilities are so obvious that it’s weird that Wizards is still absent from this space.

A new project?

In any case, I was excited enough about these possibilities to finally start learning Cocoa Touch. I’ve no idea if this will result in an actual product. For the time being, it’s a way to kill some time, to learn something new and write some code.

Seeing those apps I linked above cemented my desire to write something unrelated to D&D. The audience for D&D is broad enough that other people have tackled this, so my inclination is to focus more on narrative-driven games instead. While I’ll admit I haven’t sought it out much, it does seem to me that this area is somewhat under-represented in terms of their online presence. There’re some obvious reasons why that might be. Either way, it seems like an opportunity to me.

For instance, I’m often carrying a laptop to the table or a pile of index cards. I have notes for scenes, stats for NPCs, and so on. Tracking status effects, encounter powers, loot, and the like is far less of a concern and requires less math for games like the new World of Darkness. In concrete terms, there’s less of a need for automation and more need for an efficient system for data storage and retrieval.

Is this a worthwhile idea? I’m not sure. Maybe it’s enough that I think I would use such an app. The sticking point is that my games require a fair amount of improvisation. An app could be too heavyweight for that— why not just open a web browser to a website like Obsidian Portal, Wikia, or simply use a notepad app like Simplenote?

Another question is how much effort the development itself will be. I wouldn’t require someone to enter their game notes on their iDevice, which implies some manner of web-based data entry app. Does that mean I need to get cracking on something like AppEngine?

I also don’t know how difficult it is to get something up and running on the iP* (as my friends and I often refer to the iPhone OS devices). So, in the coming weeks I’ll continue playing around with Cocoa Touch, sketch out some ideas, and we’ll see what I come up with. If it turns out to be a stupid idea, I’ll still have learned something and broadened my coding horizons.

It goes like this: not only is the World of Darkness MMO based on the old World of Darkness, but it will also be accompanied by a re-launch of the old World of Darkness.

Yikes.

Now, it’d be difficult to write up any sort of impassioned response to this. It’s just a goddamn rumor! I hate it when people on the Internet get seriously bent out of shape based on conjecture and hearsay.

Still, you know where this is going— obviously I’m saying something about it. You’re reading it right now! That’s because I can’t resist tossing out an opinion. Hell, if a blog’s not for this kind of speculation and bloviating, what’s it for? We might as well shut down the entire Internet, too.

So, yes, here it is: if that rumor’s true, I’ll be deeply, sorely disappointed.

It’s not partisanship that motivates my preference for the nWoD over the oWoD. While there are are pluses and minuses to each, I genuinely prefer the new World of Darkness for a plethora of reasons, and it’s tempting to rehash all of the reasons why. That way lies madness— it’ll be 2004 – 2006 all over again. I’ve had enough of those arguments to last me for a lifetime. So, without delving into too many specifics, I’ll speak to the oWoD game that was far and away my most favorite game for many years: Mage: the Ascension.

I most assuredly wasn’t the most avid fan of oMage. For one thing, I liked Revised better than 2nd Edition. Maybe that alone disqualifies me. But as my friends at the time can tell you, I was pretty deeply into the game for kind of a long time.

Now, though, years later, M:tAsc holds little appeal for me. The problem with staking out edgy political territory is that, when that era passes you by, it hardly seems relevant anymore. Maybe someday Ascension will feel retro. The ’90s sort of feel that way, although it’s hard for me to really nail it down.

My feelings have changed on other parts of it, too. I used to be ambivalent about many of the Traditions. The ones that I find interesting now are the exception. The wacky setting elements never thrilled me before, and now they actively bother me. The notion of paradigm feels more self-congratulatory than transcendental. The Technocracy might’ve been more relevant in the ’90s, but now that whole conflict feels like a straw-man. I’m not sure whether to attribute this to my tastes evolving, changing times, or simply growing up. Perhaps all three are inextricable.

This is to say nothing of the other of the Big Three. In their modern incarnation, I enjoy them. Their previous incarnations hold even less interest for me than the old Mage.

I feel obligated to give whatever they come up with a fair shake. I don’t want to be ridiculous Internet bombastic. So whatever it is, I’m willing to hear them out— if nothing else, they’re smart, creative people whose material I enjoy more reliably than any other’s in the business. That’s perhaps one reason why this rumor sticks in my craw, that it seems like a huge step back.

In any case, we’ll see. It’s all rumor and speculation and hearsay and all that kind of bullshit. Until we hear more, I will maintain a cautiously optimistic outlook, and wish the folks over at White Wolf the best of luck in shipping their upcoming work.

My girlfriend likes comics and I like RPGs. As usual I’d hoped for a new World of Darkness book. I wasn’t disappointed. Still, when we left, I couldn’t help but observe that, when it comes to White Wolf’s World of Darkness, I feel we’ve approached the end of an era.

At a guess, the last time the proprietor had new WoD material in was February. Today, once again, there was only one book, Night Horrors: the Unbidden. I’m pleased there was something, but this is a far cry even from a year or so ago. Rather than two books a month, it’s more like a book every two months. It’s hard not to look at the slow, haphazard release schedule and conclude that the end must be near.

White Wolf has said up front that part of the reason why they don’t announce release dates anymore is because of flaky publishing and distribution. Fair enough. It’s also no secret that the tabletop roleplaying industry is struggling to some extent or another. Now, I never got the impression that White Wolf was doing very poorly, but it’s not like I know anything and data is quite sparse. Furthermore, I can’t imagine that the recession has helped them any, or that the ridiculous cost of oil a couple of years back didn’t make things more difficult.

The most convincing speculation I’ve heard is this: the folks who would’ve been writing or developing have are devoting most of their time to the World of Darkness MMO. If that’s the case, it would be an eminently reasonable business and creative decision. Who better to write for the game than the folks who do this sort of thing for a living? As they near launch, it should be obvious that they’d need to spend more and more time on polish and bug fixing.

Still, I wouldn’t bet on a return to the typical monthly-ish publishing model. Modern MMOs need to stay fresh. That means, among other things, content updates. Content updates require writers and designers, the same folks who’re devoting their time to shipping the initial release.

Of course it’s not all-or-nothing, and it’s possible things will continue on as they have for the last however many months. It’s also possible or even probable that they’ve got something up their sleeve— they’ve got smart folks there, and it’s tough for me to imagine tabletop folks abandoning the medium altogether.

If I had to write up some kind of guess about what’s in store, it’d be some manner of tie-in between physical products and the MMO. I don’t know what form that would take, or whether that’s even feasible. White Wolf’s people have had a lot of time to think about this. It’s more than likely they’ve moved on several iterations past whatever half-assed ideas I can come up with now.

The best I can imagine is some kind of tie-in between events or mechanics introduced in the MMO and a physical product. That could mean a return to a metaplot-like state of affairs, where each book allows your group to play through the events introduced in the MMO, or introduces new mechanics that mirror mechanics from the MMO. Perhaps there might be a subscription-based model, an add-on the game subscription that provides you with material for offline games. It may be that they decide to go all-in with digital content.

Regardless, if they are poised to enter a new era, that does imply an exit from the previous era. I suppose many eras are ending these days, in any case. Many forms of old media find their business models in danger— newspapers, movies, television, and book publishing. Unlike the movie or music industry, however, the RPG industry cannot afford lobbyists who can provide legislation in lieu of innovation. (Zing?)

There’s another rumor I’ve heard somewhat recently. I started writing up a reaction to that one, too. It ran long, so I’ve got another piece coming up momentarily. Stay tuned.

Specifically, I spent some of the time trying to come up with ideas for a Geist game. It’s a little tough.

Obviously the first problem is that coming up with “ideas for a $game_name game” is a tricky proposition without any PCs to speak of. Surely it can be done — that’s precisely what modules are, right? — and I think for games like D&D it’s a bit easier.

What’s that on the horizon? Why, I think it’s a tangent!

Party vs. {throng, cabal, coterie, etc}

For White Wolf games, well. This reminds me of a discussion I had with a friend of mine about Promethean. He said something about each Promethean throng or game being a special case. Most prometheans are probably looking for humanity, but their individual quests are unique. So each throng is kind of a special case, in the sense that you have to design how everyone encountered one another in a way that’s not generic.

Aha! But that’s how I think all groups in strongly character-driven games should be designed, for my preferred style of game. There’s more work involved but I find the kind of interaction that results more satisfying in general.

This isn’t to say you can’t do the same setup with D&D. I tried something similar with Er-Eret. D&D’s default story is, however, a bit different (“default story” isn’t really the term I’m looking for and I can’t remember the actual term). I think someone phrased it as something like “adventurers explore dungeons, kill monsters, and take their stuff.” That’s a bit reductive, of course, but it gets the point across.

Geist’s default story is considerably different. I prefer to phrase it as a question: “You died, but now you have a second chance. What do you do?” (I suppose one could do something similar for D&D: “You’re extraordinarily skilled in a dangerous world. What will you become? Hero or villain?”)

How the players answer that question, explicitly or implicitly, is really the jumping off point for the sort of game I prefer. If I can’t design personal plots, and designing regular plots can be problematic, that leaves me with setting.

Fluency

I took a copy of Mekhet: Shadows in the Dark with me on vacation with my family. Incidentally, although the clanbooks are months old by this point, they still consistently impress me. I went on to finish reading the other clanbooks, specifically Daeva and Nosferatu.

Reading these books has driven home how solid a game Vampire: the Requiem is and how, in a way, it’s by far the most flexible of the big three. If it’s not obvious why, maybe I’ll write a bit more on that some other time.

By this point, I feel like I grok Vampire pretty well and at this stage in the game’s lifetime, there is so much to draw on. I mean, shit, there’s a 400 page monster of a book on how to build a setting.

This is actually one of those dilemmas of White Wolf games: you can play without the supplements, but I pretty much can’t. Granted, this is one of those problems that, for me, is a nice one to have: too many enjoyable things to read! Oh no! Still, when it comes to a game that’s likely to see fewer releases than previous ones, if the release schedule so far is any indication, it’s a bit frustrating.

This is all just a long-winded way of saying I don’t really feel fluent with Geist yet. Oh, sure, I’m just bellyaching. I think it’ll be fine. The vision for the game is remarkably clear. The Book of the Dead will fill in many gaps re: the underworld. And there’s plenty of other ghost-related stuff either from other games, or places where Geist logically intersects with other games. For instance, the first chapter of Immortals describes a group of people remarkably similar to abmortals.

Planning. Always planning.

So where does this leave me?

Yesterday, I spent a bunch of time jotting down ideas, exploring possibilities for plots, different threats or antagonists. That worked reasonably well, and I think I might be able to borrow ideas from other games to get a sense of conflicts another step up, in a non-Geist specific way that I can still use.

Next is coming up with some krewes that I will ultimately use in a setting. Most likely I’ll pick a few themes, maybe start pretty basic by looking at how a krewe centered fairly closely around a couple of archetypes might look.

Wish me luck!

Still, I think Changeling would be a good challenge for me; I’ve learned a few things, and Changeling is one of those games that’s kind of amazingly open-ended. I mean, there’s a lot you can focus on in any given game. Off the top of my head, there’s changeling politics; changelings’ relationship with mortals, family (incl. fetches) or otherwise; various changeling-specific supernatural stuff; and of course conflicts between privateers, True Fae, and changelings. It’s intimidating, which I’m guessing is why good GMing advice tells you to consider seriously what your players want.

Divine Power comes out soon, as well, if it’s not out already. I’ll have it by next week, I think. Previously, I voiced interest in running a divine-themed game and I’ll confess my interest in D&D in general has waned somewhat. 4th Edition’s system is less invasive in many ways, but I’m concerned about unintentionally performing a bait-and-switch. That is, I feel I might be cheating people if I ran a D&D game with a little combat as I typically include.

A little bit of my hestitation with regard to running new games is this tension between wanting to run a long-ish game and the improbability of actually pulling it off. This is a pretty common complaint among adult gamers, as far as I can tell; it comes with the territory of being an adult. I saw how my first long-ish D&D game nearly died until I forcibly rescusitated for one last session. I’m glad I did it but it sucks that I had to.

Anyway, all that aside, I’m also really excited about Geist. Here’s a brief roundup of interesting things I’ve read about it.

First off, you can see some examples of character creation from some of the White Wolf freelancers, incl. Stew Wilson and Matt McFarland. Also, I’ve been remiss in not keeping up with Matt’s actual play thread, as many entries have become unlocked since I last checked.

Finally, if you have any substantial interest in the game, you owe it to yourself to read Martin Ralya of Gnome Stew’s preview of Geist. He got his hands on a review copy of Geist, and takes a nice, long look at the game.

That’s all for now!

Excerpted for posterity, from Christopher Simmons, the author of the quickstart:

According to my notes, it was supposed to be a vulture’s skull on a leather thong that gives him a +3 to his Grave Dirt effects (Grave-Dirt Caul and Grave-Dirt Rage) and allows him to spend 1 Plasm to increase his Survival by 1 point, up to a maximum of 5.

The long of it is here. The short of it is that every Monday, Matt’s going to unlock each of the eight entries devoted to the Geist playtest. The first one’s here.

Give it a read. It’s well worth a moment of your time.