Dunroamins & Decline - GW, the OGL and its OSR

First, Itras By has finally been published in English. There's a fine review of the original at Harald's and the sample pdf is here. Thanks to Nørwegian Style for posting the news.

Second, in a discussion at BoLS on GW licensing its IP Vossl claimed "the OGL died a horrible fiery death 4 years ago". The OGL is the Open Game License. Part of my reply:

The OGL is alive and kicking. Pathfinder, which was built through the OGL, has at least for some time outperformed the official fourth edition and an Old School Renaissance is thriving because of it too, via what may well be hundreds of smaller publishers. The fact we know about fifth so early, not to mention the general direction it's headed in, may be in part down to the power the OGL has given the player base.

Vossl is clued up and a crisp thinker, so how many other people have never heard of the OGL, a licence that lets gamers create materials compatible with a much-loved system or IP and sell them. It's essentially D&D, but other companies, like GW, might catch on.

One of the beneficiaries and drivers of the development is this Old School Renaissance, or whatever we choose to call it, specifically the D&D OSR. But where are the pioneers vanishing to? How will we stumble across their worlds, or talk to and learn from them?

Skyrim and the horizon

On Saturday Dylan at Digital Orc wrote that he hasn't been playing video games much lately, and compared movies, roleplaying and novels as media, while Stuart Lloyd wrote about an old ST game called Mystic Well, a simple example of a digital dungeon crawl.

Coincidentally, on the same day I also watched some videos of a player running through stretches of Skyrim with a good knowledge of the earlier Elder Scrolls games. He had a thoughtful approach to the morality of the sides in what's still a very modern insurrection, and took the time to edit and polish the series in line with the general tone of the game.

Skyrim seems to encourage this kind of thinking. In Mystic Well historical terms, it feels like a Lure of the Temptress meets a Frontier: Elite 2 for depth and scope, with few easy answers. Although Jim joins the Empire out of pragmatism - and an odd lack of dialogue options - he's not entirely happy, and hopes there could one day be a return of religious tolerance, but presumably doesn't expect so subtle an approach will be accommodated.

But when he's there as the leader of the uprising is executed, an incautious comment by another character suggests there is hope, as if the designers did think it all through. The game seems happy for a player to take no side, and an armistice can be negotiated too.

This and the overall complexity, from politics through terrain, weather and encounters to picking flowers and even tasting bees, makes me think any options missing in the game might be not so much limits of thought or technology, just space for a future instalment.

Where am I going with this? As in Skyrim, it may be near incidental, but there is a point.

The noble art of the rip-off?

Tied loosely to the subject of the last post is this suggestion - link found here - that Electronic Arts has been heavily inspired by old GW tanks. The usual debate follows.

One commenter even writes: "Nothing’s been truly original for the past 50 years or so, however the given combination of unoriginal can produce something original." It's not so original a claim, but coming up with a specific number of years shows creative potential.

Another links to this exchange on replicating miniatures. Could the commenter who says "The onus is on the rest of us to get these stupid laws changed" have a point?

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Back-to-back reality, or Ouroboral gaming

Cygnus of Servitor Ludi reminded me of this at the dis-Atlantean post. It's a sequence from an old episode of Red Dwarf, a sci-fi sitcom about a group of humanoid misfits lost in space three million years in our future. Just before the clip begins they're blown up...

After watching it again I really want to set up a marathon session with a mix of settings and systems, with each game flowing on into the next and the players running through scenes based on this one, or using the kinds of framing at the Conan le Barbare post.

It could be another approach for S. P.'s guerilla gaming concept, and there might even be a universal supplement in it, just inspiration and possible methods for transformation.

Maybe it could be integrated into the Pluristem campaign when it gets up and running?

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Deeper dice (2) - Dice+ and networking

If you haven't heard of Dice+, there's some info here at BGG.

It's a powered die, for use with tablets and so on. The version shown seems to have a battery, accelerometers, LEDs and a wireless transmitter. You roll as normal, the LEDs show the roll was recognised and the result is sent to the main device.

With all that tech inside we might wonder how balanced it can be, and how big the market is. After all, how many of us would want to carry it with a mobile device, especially for a possible US$30? I'd guess the firm want the niche to support long-term development with an eye on larger electronic gaming surfaces.

Whatever, it has me pondering how else a die like this could be used. There's clearly potential for peer-to-peer with setups like Pluristem and Flailsnails, and for any dispersed group. But what about in face-to-face games too? If all the dice were hooked up as a network, some of the ideas on relationships in the last post could be automated, and explored much further.

Assuming we're even willing to accept the idea - and I'm not convinced it's a good move - what else could a network do?

Think how cybernetic our kind of gaming already is. The basic language we use can seem quite limited, and tabletop games very mechanistic - we're all but chess computers at times. So what if the dice had voice recognition? If they realised one roll was a hit roll, they might guess the next die picked up was for damage, and even identify the rules needed. They could follow the game. With a speaker they could even tell us the number we need, or the chances, or correct us, and maybe advise us.

If terrain and miniatures were tagged, or the map scanned, the dice could triangulate the positions. The network could act as an opponent. Maybe one day we'll be pieces in their games..?

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Lure of pixel skies

Troll and Flame has a link for a deal on D&D-themed video games, and Lasgunpacker mentioned the site has some free games too. It does, including Lure of the Temptress from '92 and Beneath a Steel Sky from '94, two classic adventures with a great mood.

Remembering the impression particular games made graphically, I started thinking how useful screenshots could be in roleplaying, and the variety there is. The trick would be getting to the screens, unless there's a way to technically and legally unpack them.

With enough screens you could even use a tabletop system to play the video game, or explore alternative paths through it, or the wider game world, and bring in extra screens from other games too. It might better reach those inner spaces out among the pixels.

For a sense of the potential then, and the inspiration, and the pleasure of the journey, here are playthroughs for those two, Lure of the Temptress and Beneath a Steel Sky.

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Dragon's Lair - alive and kicking the bucket

I see a lot of inspiration in old video games, likely for the excitement there was in playing them and the influence they had, even unconsciously in the brief images. Dragon's Lair also has the Don Bluth story attached, a big near-run thing. This is the full laserdisc.

It feels fresher than I'd expect nearly 30 years on, and it's good to see scenes I'd likely never have reached, but the video may need a steel like that for the gameplay given all the repetition. The way Daphne is drawn could also be a surprise. More lower down.

The Grisly Grotto

For last week's post at HoP Von recorded a video on what roleplaying is, and it's worth a look. When I clicked through I found it linked to a vid on Quake, a seminal first-person shooter from back in 1996, and watching more reminded me how good the design was.

This is a walkthrough of the fourth map, the Grisly Grotto, built around a flooded cavern, one of my favourites for the character of the spaces and the clever setups. Quake never seemed especially complex in how it populated levels or reacted to events, but the bad guys and locations were arranged well to draw players on and keep them off balance.

This is the PC version and as far as I can tell it's not using the DarkPlaces mod or any texture packs. Watch out if you don't know Quake - it's pretty gory, and could be scary.

If you're wondering why all that infrastructure might be there, Callin at Big Ball of No Fun has a lot of options, and for more cavern inspiration check out the links at this post.

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Peake and British gaming

A couple of interesting articles on Mervyn Peake, probably best known as the author of the influential Gormenghast series. One has reflections from four writers, among them Michael Moorcock and China Miéville, the other an interview with Peake's children.

Tied in with this are two posts on British gaming and its major influences. The first is by Chris at Vaults of Nagoh and focuses on the dungeon concept; some Gormenghast too. The second, by Coopdevil at Fighting Fantasist, has more emphasis on WD and GW, 

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Cohabitation

Could the Dark Eldar also be popular because of the balance between male and female miniatures? A pleasant thought to offset the less pleasant nature of what those minis represent. Re my ponder under the last post, perhaps a sleek female form - in skimpy clothing in the case of Lilith Hesperax - sells better too than a short, portly abhuman?

Three recent posts then on a hot subject of late - men, women and games.

It might be best to read this first, an image-heavy post on what we mean by 'sex sells', with thanks to TalkToYoUniverse for the referral.

If that seems overly simplistic, you could well enjoy this fuller essay.

If you haven't been following the discussion between Greg and Zak on the representation of women in games here at Errant, it's challenging and I recommend reading as much as you can. Here's the post I think best puts the context, also an excellent contribution.

Finally, Atrotos has a new post up at Victory Candescence on the subject of computer games especially. It's irreverant to say the least, but arrives at an interesting conclusion.

Fate and fortune

Almost invisibly over the past couple of days an intense discussion has been taking place at the D1 post on the nature of choice in games, and possibly even beyond them. I think we've now reached the point of needing fresh thoughts.

Involved so far have been Von, The Drune, The Angry Lurker, Papa JJ, C'not (Outermost_Toe) and Dave G_Nplusplus, and I'm very grateful they've run with what seems an outlandish idea. All of the comments have been useful and given ideas or incentive, and Dave's especially.

In fact it's really Dave's show now. The Drune tossed the D0 into the mix and Dave dove right in. His clear thinking and determination to get to the heart of the matter have been central to shaping something that's turned out quite special.

Is it really so special? Well, it's a simple tool that should be of value in thinking about game design, and I'd say wider fiction too. It's all about fate and what forms it. The core idea seems solid. We're having some difficulty with one aspect in particular, the rather odd concept of the -Dx, or negative die. Feel free to dive in if you think you can help.

All mines?

Here's a brief list of fictional mines and other mining-related resources, hopefully useful to someone at some point for settings, scenarios or terrain, in whatever kind of game or fiction. I'll update as I find or remember more, with your suggestions too if you have any.

Have a look at the original post for a few thoughts on how these or similar places might fit into games. With the length of the list as it is, they do seem relatively underused.