Dungeons in new games

Zak wrote something interesting about dungeons the other day. He notes that newer RPG are often a bit more cinematic and also they usually don't feature dungeons. This made me think.

I have a few friends who have been playing role playing games since way back. They also have one thing in common in that they look and sound a lot less enthusiastic when you mention the word "dungeon".

For some people the fun part, and even the whole point of, playing a RPG is to interact with NPCs - to roleplay. What is interesting with dungeons though, is that like Zak writes anything, however mundane, is potentially interesting. Exploring the environment is what the game is about. Your role is not method acting, it's interacting with the other party members and acting out your role in the party. This doesn't necessarily mean you don't do roleplaying!

I still wonder how to make my friends more enthusiastic about this kind of roleplaying. We might like slightly different kinds of gaming, but you play with the gamers you've got and like to hang out with. Also, I like to think roleplaying can be a lot of different things, maybe even at the same time, for different people.

Maybe there is a way to make NPC interactions more common in a dungeon environment? Maybe there is a way to make the virtues of explorative play more common in the NPC crowded city based game? I'm not sure how, but I like to think it can be done.

If James Joyce does that in his exploration of Dublin, maybe I need to read it? I think that sometimes cityscapes have been less used as a canvas of the fantastic than they deserve. While going down a hole in the ground to dig out treasure have a certain resonance of the Hero's Journey, I guess the urban jungle can be just as wild and feel just as much like a game of exploration. How would it be to do a hexcrawl of a fantasy city?

It would be interesting if Zak Sabbath was the one who finally made me read James Joyce, because I wanted to read the dungeon crawl novel, Ulysses.

Modes of old school play

After talking to a few of my friends who are not that keen on the classic frp game setup, gaining gold and fame through spell and sword, I have been thinking of other ways to play.

Way back when I started to play rpgs, adventures were always sorted in three modes of play. Either you played dungeon adventures, wilderness adventures or city based adventures. I think that often we think of "old school" as adventuring in dungeons, even though that must not be the case. Frankly, I have no idea where that three fold model comes from, but it seem to linger on.

Those who claim not to like the old way have told me they prefer cities, and all the things you could do there. Personally being a big fan of Fritz Leiber's works of fantasy, I can see why that kind of setting would be enticing. But, what is it you do in a city you don't do in a dungeon?

Anyone who have been mugged in the dark alley ways of a medieval urban centre, or fought thugs in bars, knows that there are just as many excuses to swing a sword in a city and in a mine or abandoned temple complex. What distinguishes cities is of course the fact they are filled with people.

So, how do you play old school style among people?

I think the kind of game where you speak in funny voices, develop extravagant back stories and interpersonal relationships with NPCs are seen as quite foreign to many old schoolers. Considering we like to talk about games where the rules are more of a guideline than a crutch, older game without skills and "social combat" should be quite fitting, right? No damn skill that stop you from haggling with a merchant in downtown Waterdeep, right? Or is that so?

Having played a few of the "new school" storygames, where the mechanics is usually there to codify much of the interactions between players, and between player characters and non-player characters I wonder how that relates to games like Gamma World, T&T, OD&D and Traveller. Is something missing in those older games that makes them less useful for games in cities, where a lot of the game is about talking to people? Isn't talking to people all we do when we roleplay?

Using city maps in gaming

I just read this post over at A character for every game, and it got me thinking. I used to love fantasy cities, but after trying to use some of them in my games I started to wonder how I should use them. My main problem was the city maps. I've read so often how people have gushed over gorgeous maps and how they see their campaigns unfold just by looking at that map. I think I'm missing something.

Say you just purchased, or made your own, fantasy city. It will probably be a list of factions and powerful individuals to interact with, a list of shops, temples and other establishments of the city. The latter list might be so detailed that it contains hundreds of entries and their location, proprietor and kind of business they do. Also, you probably have a map.

I have a hard time using this map. If you have a big colourful map with a lot of houses on, neatly marked where different establishments are located, how do you use it in play? Do you lay it out on the table and the players point where they go, and you read of what they see from the listing of businesses I mentioned above? Do you keep the map and just give rough descriptions of the neighbourhoods based on the businesses listed there? Frankly, most of these ways of using a city map seem kind of cumbersome to me. I'd love to hear how people who have managed big city campaign does it!

The first time I wondered about things like this was when I managed to get hold of the first Lankhmar supplement to AD&D. The map was really good looking, and it also had these small city block pieces you were supposed to slot into the blank spaces in the city quarters. While I liked the idea of an ever changing labyrinth of a city, I never figured out how to use them. When would I show the players a map? When was it time to start describing alley by alley? As you maybe can tell, I've been playing mostly in different locales where I know how to run things. Running character based games is hard work, but I can do it. Running dungeon based games (in the broadest possibly sense), I can do that. But I feel I need to up my ante, and also dive into my love of city based fantasy like the one written by Fritz Leiber. So, please chime in and tell me how you use city maps in your games!