Trying to Make use of A Long-Running Gripe

Something of a cri de Coeur today. I don't generally mention my own campaign on this blog (currently RMFRP, with a bunch of outright scoundrels working hard against the good and the true!), as it's primary influence comes in the generation of content. However, the campaign - sporadic sessions as we try to coordinate across five cities and two time zones - has been weighing heavily on the mind of late. There are several considerations: with sessions seemingly ever harder to organise (everyone has busy lives, and families - and I have been the chief offender in begging off sessions, due mainly to work issues), the campaign seems to stumble and lag. Storylines are hard to maintain, and come to seem somehow pointless when averaging a few hours every 3-6 weeks. Intensity is hard to generate.

Also, RMFRP is a great system, but clunky when play is so infrequent and playing time at a premium. Consulting charts becomes a grind that distracts from the genuine guts of the story, and if someone dies...the player better have a plausible backup character ready to go...

The problem is mostly that my players are keen Rolemaster players: experimentation in the general direction of other systems, like Labyrinth Lord, Pathfinder (1e) and even the old World of Darkness game Mage seem to strike very few sparks. They also don't want to take the time to learn new systems (which is fair enough: that brings its own time costs).

I've tried to think of various ways around this problem. I probably can't - and shouldn't - expect people to just pick up a new system because I'm bored and frustrated. Even though I'd really like to switch to something quick and clean and OSR-ish, I don't see it taking place. I'm still cobbling together my own ruleset - which probably won't be called Tales of the New Kingdoms, now that Kobold Press have rechristened their 5e-ish project "Tales of the Valiant" (one does wish they'd kept the "Black Flag" moniker). Maybe Heroes of the New Kingdoms ("HoNK" for short...)?

So, system issues notwithstanding, I'm thinking of being more sandboxy - with more use of hexcrawls and possibly a megadungeon, and relying more upon tables to save prep time. Fortunately, there's an absolute galaxy of material out there to do this. I'm just not sure what the best system might be to make things progress quickly. Perhaps Rolemaster Classic? the new RMU? Lightmaster? or maybe Blood & Treasure, the game I'd most like to run. (I keep seeing recommendations for games like Old School Essentials, but, for whatever reason, it just leaves me cold). The other possibility I'm a bit more enthused about is For Gold & Glory (I seem to have knack for liking - and wanting to write content for - systems not many people play, such as B&T, or are well-supported with lots of legacy content, like PF 1e, OSRIC or FG&G, which have the whole body of work made for older editions to draw upon).

The other thing here is that Railroads (big story arcs) are a lot of work - maintaining a railroad is hard, and you're constantly tweaking events to keep things "in-story", and the reward is disproportionate for the work you put in when sessions are so infrequent - revelations lose their impact, suspense drizzles away, and you rush things that ought reasonably require more attention.

Enough gripes! Looking at ideas for a megadungeon, I'm dusting off an old idea about three imprisoned Godlings, buried in the bowels of the earth, bound by the unfathomable power of the Ward Perpetual, a shield of living crystal, fed by divine energy focused through a great crystal 'tree' whose roots sustain the Ward.

The three Bound Ones can not affect the world above, but the sheer force of their horrific natures and their desire for freedom causes a form of eldritch 'seepage' up through the earth, three columns of tainted energy pushing up in search of servants, slaves and proxies. This moral poison has now reached the deepest strata of ancient delvings, beneath the high mountain where the Ward-Tree is found...causing both an expansion and corruption of the subterranean realms found there.

At the higher levels, very little of this is apparent, but in the deeps, it is another matter. Progress is slow, however, for the Ward endures, although slowly decaying due to lack of maintenance from above and the efforts of Bound Ones below.

I envisage this base storyline as a sort of meta-plot or species of background radiation: it is there, and very influential, but at several removes, for the most part. The players could take or leave as much of the base conflict as they wish. Much (most?) of what goes on in the upper levels is not directly related at all: it would be mostly factional strife, leavened with a bit of 'imperialism' from above (servants of the Tree) and below (servants of the Bound Ones).

Comments by readers on this blog are rather infrequent, but any input people would care to give (with regard to systems or the megadungeon idea), would be appreciated.

Manifesto 2.0 & Why Are These Games Not More Popular?

It’s no doubt becoming increasingly clear that this blog can no longer be called a Rolemaster blog, and probably won’t be unless or until RM is released under some sort of OGL or Creative Commons License: there’s just no point stepping gingerly around IP issues. I lack both the know-how to do so and, frankly, the cojones to just ignore such things (I also find it ethically questionable to do so). Aside from possibly reviewing the new edition of Rolemaster when it appears, and the occasional HARP product, I shan’t be covering RM or HARP henceforward.

So for the foreseeable future, my focus is going to be on several d20-type systems for which I can write without angst – and these are great games in their own right. I’ll keep doing my work with OSR-type Skills and Petty-classes: it’s fun to do and throws up some interesting ideas from time to time that might feed through to the other writing I want to pursue, but it is, in a way, a species of low-hanging fruit, tasty, easy to get at, but ultimately lacking in nutrition. This’ll serve to keep the blog ticking over between ‘New Kingdoms’ posts, which, I’ve found, require considerably more thought and preparation.

I’ve recently got myself into a position whereby I can buy print copies of games I’ve owned digitally for quite some time. I’m sufficiently old-fashioned to prefer reading books to PDFs, and I garner more information when I’m doing so, so I’ve been able to get a much better handle on several systems than I have done previously. I’m sort of in mid-contemplation of these systems, but liking more and more what I find there. The systems, in no particular order, are For Gold & Glory, Fantastic Heroes & Witchery, Blood & Treasure and B/X Essentials.

Not the prettiest or most symmetrical display, but boy oh boy am I glad to have got these in print!

Two of these games are, more or less, re-visonings and re-organisations of old editions. FG&G is a reworking of 2e for the OGL, and B/X Essentials is an excellent, streamlined version of Basic/Expert. I’m not going to say much more about them but to point out that FG&G is, as far as I’m able to tell, not very heavily supported so far, so writing a module or two, or a rules expansion, might be a cool thing to do (also, 2e was my favourite version when younger, especially once I got kits and such to get my teeth into!). B/X Essentials on the other hand, is well-supported by Necrotic Gnome Press (Their work totally gets my brain ticking), but, as a base for expansion, its pretty outstanding. I’ve been looking at converting my RM races to a B/X format, and the results are quite interesting (at least to me!). I may post them here.

The systems I’m most interested in, however, are Fantastic Heroes & Witchery, and Blood & Treasure, two games that might be best typified as “OSR+”, in that they draw their aesthetic, basic engine and ambience primarily from older editions but incorporate ideas and mechanics from 3e-style games. For someone like me, who missed the OGL and edition wars (and the OSR!) and came to post-OGL gaming via Pathfinder, they’re rather a treat, and full of creativity – and creativity-inspiring material. I’m not going to outline these games (there are some good and informative reviews here and here), although I am going to heartily recommend them, and ask the question: why the devil are they not more popular? (Although FH&W seems to have been more or less forgotten since its 2.0 release some years ago, which will no doubt partially account for its current neglect).

I’m not schooled enough in the history, economics, politics (or the hagiography?) of TTRPGs to answer that, but I do find myself wondering if the very thing that appeals to me might, at least in part, account for it. Where I see versatility and options, others might see games that fall between two stools, so to speak...I don’t know, but those systems, in particular, (with guest appearances from Swords & Wizardry, OSRIC and Labyrinth Lord) are going to be the mains on the menu at Tales of the New Kingdoms, now that I’ve finally settled on the systems and approach I want to take. The work I’ve done so far on the Chelmsey series and Kambyra Island will be continued using those systems, and I’ll post new character information for the various NPCs and critters I’ve introduced previously (usually with Pathfinder statblocks) to reflect that change. I’m hopeful that, in my meagre way, I can do something to promote these excellent systems.

I’m looking forward to it.

The systems mentioned above are all available at DriveThruRPG as follows:

For Gold & Glory

B/X Essentials

Fantastic Heroes & Witchery

Blood & Treasure