A depressing read

Since Traveller is a game I have a very complicated relationship to, I don't know if I dare to get ideas about starting a game of Traveller. But, you can always read your gamebooks, right?

I've been reading 1248 Sourcebook 1: Out of the Darkness lately. It's number one in a series of books expanding the time line and concepts of the Traveller edition knows as TNE, or The New Era. TNE have caught a lot of flak from the fans, and for good reasons.

The guys at GDW lasting impression in the rpg hobby is How To Ruin Your Game Setting. A sad one.
This book have a long section where all the threads from older sources are tied up into a long history from 1116 to 1248 Imperial time. Many times I find time lines be of little use, but in this case its kind of needed, since older source have included information about what would happen, and tying it all together takes some time.

It's an impressive effort, and author Martin J. Dougherty have managed to include a lot of back history, and reasonably often making sense of them. Still, the lasting impression is one of failure.

Mind you, it's not a failure by the author in his task of assembling the data and presenting a gameable setting. In that I think it probably does as well as could be hoped for. No, the impression of failure is rather the theme of 132 years of pure misery in the game setting. Step by step civilization is rebuilt after the madness that was the civil war of the Rebellion, and the senseless slaughter that came after with the unleashing of Virus. But, as soon as someone forms some stellar state that can rebuild, another hammer comes along and beats them into dust again. Frankly, it's unbelievably depressing.

More problematic is the idea of 130 years of warfare. Considering that multiple times the wars degenerate into orbital bombardment with spinal guns and nuclear warheads (case in point - Vland) it's hard to believe that anything would be left. And you know what, smoking ruins makes for a boring game setting.

So, while something emerges that looks like a setting that could actually be fun to game in, the way there is depressing. To say the least.

Why some games are hard

I just read the following by Justin Alexander about why the Transhuman Space game is known to be hard to get into.

To make things worse, Transhuman Space was primarily designed to be an interesting setting for the sake of having an interesting setting, without any real consideration or focus given to the types of stories/games that can be told in that setting.

This struck me as quite insightful on the specific setting at hand, but also a key to why I find some settings and games to be hard to get. I have never managed to get enthusiastic about Harn and sometimes I think this is also the problem with the original Mage game. It's especially true for the latter, where clearly even the designers didn't know what to do with it, but it became boring in later editions when they got a clue. I'm quite sure there's a lesson in there, for both scenario and world creation.

Talislanta - wonderful and weird

Through a veil of blue mist did I first behold Talislanta: dreamlike and surreal, as if suffused in amberglow

That is how Tamerlin begins his travelogue and journal across the fabled lands of Talislanta. I first encountered Tamerlin and the strange lands he travelled, in a booklet, published by Bard Games, called Chronicles of Talislanta. Reading it was a totally new experience for me. It was styled as a collection of manuscripts by someone who had travelled to other worlds and then putting it on thickly while telling of his exploits. Surreal it was, and dreamlike as well.

When I look back in the electronic archives, I realize that since the earliest message I have saved is from 1998, I have been a subscriber to the Talislanta e-mailing list for eleven years. This is a long love story. No wonder I have seen the ups and downs of the line.

After Bard Games it was actually WotC that published the game. Since then it has been through so much it's a wonder it's not dead and buried. But, Stephan Michael Sechi, the creator of Talislanta is correct in that this is the Rasputin of rpgs. Through all the events where publishers dropped it and different other projects never materialized, the fourth edition managed to get published. Not only was it the biggest rpg ever, it was also the first time I saw my name in print. I love that edition.

The love the game and the setting invoke in me is something special. The fact that SMS (as Steve Sechi is known) keeps watch over the game and always communicates with the fans, makes it feel like a very close knit tribe. Talislanta is home to me. Even though I'm not as active any longer, I still keep in touch.

What's so special about this fantasy setting then? I guess some of you have seen the old ads saying "No elves!", right? Even though some people think that the amount of fey creatures with pointy ears kind of invalidates that claim, it's still a signpost saying "this is not your daddy's fantasy rpg". Using the evocative illustrations of P.D Breeding-Black, and the chatty and conversational style of "Tamerlin", the game come across as different more than anything. No cows, no horses and no knights. On the other hand there are avian humanoids, a genetically engineered warrior race, faeries with gossamer wings and other outre things. It's a hallucinogenic feast and marvel, which is both funny and sometimes satirical. It makes fantasy feel fantastic again.

So. Why do I bother to proclaim my love for this setting? Well, apart from just wanting to share some knowledge of an under appreciated and fun setting for adventure, there are things happening with Talislanta. SMS have promised that while he is planning new and interesting stuff, all of the old books are going to be available for free, online! The idea of all that weird and wonderful stuff being shown to the world outside our tribe is exciting. While it might take a while to happen, you can go and bookmark the Talislanta web home so you know where to find it. I don't know about you, but for me it is a setting that always made me want to play a game there right now! We can dream together with Tamerlin.

Tamerlin, evidently anticipating the scepticism of future generations of scholars, had only this to say in defense of his work:

"As to the authenticity or value of my writings, I leave it to the reader to decide. Know only this: Talislanta exists, for I have been there, if only in dreams."

Wolds of Fantasy Part II - Kingdoms of Kalamar

I have already written about Greyhawk, and concluded that it didn't do much for me. When I first heard of Kingdoms of Kalamar, it was a review on rpg.net. Interestingly enough that review felt it was a good effort, but that it was kind of bland. Sound familiar? I, on the other hand, thought it sounded like my kind of world.

What is Kingdoms of Kalamar (KoK) then? Well, it is a world which stand out as being intended to "make sense". The geography is thought out, with waterways and caravan routes by the big cities, water currents and trade routes and tectonics which looks real. It kind of reminds me of Harn. But, where Harn never worked for me, KoK did.

KoK feels a lot like a less higher powered world than, say, Forgotten Realms. There's NPCs that rule nations and city states, and there are guild masters and court magicians. But, it's not that common for them to be much higher than early "name level". I find that just to my taste. I also really like the political history, which will give you a lot of ideas for conflicts and drama. What made me a convert, though, was the idea of a big set of gods who are described in a general way and also described with different names for different cultures. No more "gods of the dwarves". I liked that. Also, they have no stats.

Now, it is kind of ironic that I feel Greyhawk is kind of bland, for KoK is actually very vanilla itself. It's plain solid medieval fantasy with all the trappings. The one "oddity" it has is that hobgoblins are civilized and have a sophisticated culture. Otherwise it strikes me as just what I think Greyhawk is. It's just a lot more real to me! I'm not a sucker for realism, but it feels more like a believable world than e.g. Greyhawk does. The strange thing is of course that it's not uncommon for people to encounter KoK and thing it looks to dull and non fantastic enough. I wonder what would have happened had KoK been the thing that defined D&D, and not Greyhawk? For those gamers who claims to like the Folio and the bare bones quality, maybe the Judge Guild Wilderlands is a better match, but for the vanilla fantasy mould I know no better than Kingdoms of Kalamar.

Worlds of Fantasy Part I - Greyhawk

I never understood why some people have such a high regard for Greyhawk. Did I just come to it from the wrong angle, or is it not for me?

I no longer remember when I first heard of Greyhawk, but I know I've heard it was "that world Gygax invented in the dawn of the hobby". I knew nothing of Blackmoor or Braunstein then. The first memory I have of it is of an blurb in a catalog from a mail order game store. That product was From the Ashes, and I also remember seeing The City of Skulls. As you can tell, I came to Grehawk fairly late. It didn't seem all that interesting, though. There was a crowd of settings published for 2nd ed AD&D at this time, and they all seemed more interesting than the, to me, bland looking Greyhawk.

A few years down the line, when I first encountered the nebulous subject of "old school", I bought a bunch of the old adventures from eBay and Noble Knight to run an old school campaign with the then new 3rd ed D&D. Now I read some of the short snippets of background in these modules, and it seemed less interesting than ever. I still don't see how it could make anyone care much for Greyhawk. I actually borrowed a couple of later books from a friend, after having heard of the folio and realized it was out of print. Both of these products gave me the impression that you probably had to have been there from the beginning. They referred to wars, rulers and countries, but nothing hooked me. It still seemed, bland.

I have now later been exposed to more of Greyhawk, and still feel it is very bland. It has absolutely nothing that sets it apart, except that it was Gary's campaign world. Sure, not all fantasy campaigns needs three suns and purple elves, but still. I'm beginning to think that the reason so many fans of D&D have a soft spot for Greyhawk is that when they were exposed to it, it was about the only thing out there. Also, the fact that the AD&D tournament modules were a common experience for many players made Greyhawk a common ground of the D&D experience. Greyhawk was D&D, basically.

Maybe someone will now comment and say that Greyhawk is wonderful and the Folio is the best thing that ever happened to gaming. For me it was always just "a fantasy world" and even when I tried it wouldn't come alive. Considering I already from a earlier age knew of Dragonlance from the excellent computer games from SSI, I think Greyhawk is a good example of marketing failure. Considering what happened to TSR as Gygax left I guess it was inevitable.