I is for Ignore and Inspiration

I is for Ignore and Inspiration

I was running a little short on ideas for a single subject post so I doubled up on this also.  Consider it a bonus  since there are two different subjects for this post.  If you must, then consider it as just covering up for a lack of ideas – take your pick!

I is for Ignore

What portions of the B/X rules system will I ignore for the Toldara campaign?  The B/X rules are not cumbersome to use at all.  In fact, they are adequate, complete, and very manageable.  That is the main attraction for using them.  There are, however, a few things that I am probably not going to use during play.

Alignment languages: I have just never been a fan of the alignment tongues; it seems silly to me.  I *think* they were included to simulate stuff like “the dark speech of Mordor” mentioned by Gandalf or maybe the true name magic from Earthsea.  It is an intriguing concept and is relevant to the fantasy genre of fiction but I do not like the super simple alignment language system in D&D.

Level titles: I have absolutely no objections to level titles for the classes.  I just do not want to come up with new titles for any new classes I design – plain and simple.  If a player wants to use level titles then that is perfectly fine with me.

I is for Inspiration

What is my inspiration for the Toldara campaign and where does it come from?  The easiest answer is that there is not just one source for my inspiration and I have used several ideas from several areas.  The more detailed answer is below.

Miscellaneous: I have drawn ideas from many different sources over the years.  If I run across something I like from a book, TV show, video game, or other source then I will try to include it.  For example, I like the concept of the Cauldron-Born monsters from The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander.  I would like to work up a conversion of them but it has been years since I read the books.  It does give me a reason to read them again.

Old Campaigns: There are a ton of old campaigns we played when I was growing up.  Admittedly, I do not remember all of the details but if I can remember something cool or useful then there is no reason that I cannot recycle it.

 

Original Toldara: The original Toldara was based on the 3E/PF rules but this campaign is firmly based in the B/X rules.  That does not mean that I am simply going to convert everything over.  I am using this opportunity to think about what I would do differently.  It is safe to consider it something like an ElseWorlds story from DC.  The B/X campaign will be familiar but different in its own right.

(Mobile Post) Why Not Narnia?

I get this thought in my head from time to time so I thought I would do a post about it.  There have been 3 professionally produced RPGs based on Lord of the Rings and many fan made homebrew games using some form of D&D or some homebrew system; there are also many forum games based on Lord of the Rings.  I would think a Narnia rpg would have been professionally produced by now, but there has not been one.  I have searched several times for a fan made Narnia system but all I have found are some D20 conversion notes.  I have found several forum based Narnia games available.

I was just curious if anybody had any thoughts about the absence of an rpg based on The Chronicles of Narnia?  Given the popularity of the books and the recent movies, I would think that at least a fan made game would be available.



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Sliders Is Better Than Doctor Who

I find myself browsing and viewing a lot of the movies and shows on Netflix lately.  I only have the streaming service so I do not know exactly what I am missing out with the mail delivery service but I do know that I am missing at least "some" stuff".  Regardless, one of the things I have really enjoyed is the opportunity to watch all sorts of TV shows including older shows and much more recent shows.  Some of the TV shows that I have at least watched a few minutes to gauge my interest include Dark Shadows (60s original), Burn Notice (seasons 1-4), Night Gallery, Masters of Horror, and many more.  The TV series that I am currently viewing is Sliders.  I saw many of the episodes as they originally aired but there has been enough time lapsed since then that it's all pretty much new to me.  The bad news is that the streaming version is only a partial list of episodes for season one and season two is completely absent; all said there are 72 streaming episodes available for viewing.   

I made it through the shortened season 1 and I am currently two episodes into season 3.  As I am watching this episode a thought crossed my mind - Sliders is better than Doctor Who as the basis of an RPG campaign.  I can hear the Doctor Who fans screaming in anguish right now at the blasphemy of that thought.  Make no mistake, Doctor Who is an awesome series and my favorite show of all time.  On the other hand, when it comes to a role-playing setting Sliders has it beat for several reasons.  Please, put the torches away and hear me out before this blog and I face your wrath.

Player Characters

One of the goals of a role-playing campaign based off of a TV show would be the ability to emulate the setup of the main protagonists from that series.  I believe Doctor Who presents a problem with that because the Time Lord character (Doctor Who or otherwise) will typically outshine all other characters.  The humans will be overshadowed by either one of the other players or by an NPC; unless, of course, all players are a Time Lord.  That changes the entire setup from the TV show.  In contrast, Sliders has four human characters in the party.  Sure, some are smarter, more athletic, look better, etc. but they are all human.  My point is that one character may get the spotlight in certain situations but will not maintain the spotlight in the same fashion as The Doctor would.

The Setting

At first glance it would seem that Doctor Who has the advantage when it comes to the setting.  I mean, the entirety of time and space would be your playground in a Doctor Who game.  That would also be one big hassle for the GM.  Every time the TARDIS landed somewhere else then a new planet, space station, alien race, alien animals, etc. would have to be detailed.  Again, Sliders has the advantage when it comes to role-playing.  The setting is Earth - actually parallel Earths - so the setting is basically constant all of the time.  Of course, there are details different on each Earth so only a little work has to be done to get a "new setting" for the next slide.

Adventure Ideas & Canon

Doctor Who has many years of show history - 30+ years of the original and nearing 10 on the new series - that serve to give many details for the players to absorb and use.  There have been numerous visits to Gallifrey, Skaro, etc. and the players need to be aware of much of that information if they want to remain canonically relevant without invalidating of that history.  Stepping on canon will bother some (many?) players and there is a lot of canon to Doctor Who. Sliders was on for less than 10 seasons; a decent run but not enough to develop so much canon to hinder adventure ideas for gaming.  In fact, many of the episodes end or start with the Sliders about to leave a world for the next one.  The viewer only gets to see a few moments of that world before the slide so there is an opportunity for adventure ideas right there.  Another source of adventure ideas is real world history - what if the Nazis won World War II, or what if the U.S. moon mission was a disaster and the space program shut down, or what if the cold war between the U.S. and Russia was still going on?  There are numerous ideas that can be generated by flipping through an encyclopedia, almanac, or even cruising Wikipedia.

Those are just 3 of the reasons why Sliders is better than Doctor Who for a role-playing campaign.  I would list more but I can hear the crowd approaching.  I see the flames of their torches through my window shades.  Maybe I can slide out of here before they make it through the door?

 

LEGO Heroica Dice

I have gotten my 5 year old son two of the LEGO Heroica sets recently.  Information about the rules and products can be found at the Heroica web site.  One of the coolest things about these sets is the included dice.  Of course, you have to assemble them before use and I believe that you can also buy other faces to put on the dice; that makes for complete customization. The dice are approximately twice as big as the standard dice found in most board games. 

Anyway, I just really dig these sets because it is a minimalistic version of fantasy adventure gaming rules that also encourage house ruling.  That got me to thinking about the dice.  I wonder what kind of tables or resolution systems could be designed around these special dice?  I may explore that in the future but I just wanted to point this out as food for thought.  If anyone has done this or knows of a site that has this information that I can mied for ideas, feel free to speak up!

Land of the Lost

I remember watching Land of the Lost when I was growing up.  It used to be part of my Saturday morning ritual when I was a child.  I realize now that it would make a good premise for a campaign.  None of us ever made the connection back in our youth but I would definitely dig playing in a LotL campaign even now.  My suggestion is to only consider the original series canon.  The update by Nickelodeon in the 1990's was not nearly as good and the recent movie was - let's just say there is a special spot in hell reserved for people that trample upon the childhood memories of others in such a fashion.