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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Loonook" data-source="post: 3975057" data-attributes="member: 1861">Good Gaming, The Humble BeginningsA little note:  I’ve been playing this game for a long time.  I remember when you had to get all complex and rococo with class selection just to be a measly bard.  I remember THAC0 being a number and a state of mind.  I wanted Vecna to Die, Blackrazor to live, and the Keep to be just a bit closer than the Borderlands.  I played in Ravenloft before those pesky Mists decided to rear their ugly heads.  I’ve run plenty of games, for kids as young as 7 to a group of ‘29+’ year olds.  This is my favorite hobby, and I’ve finally gotten tired of the level of gaming I keep seeing.  I’m tired of the mediocrity that passes for ‘good gaming’ out there, and so I figured I should actually do something about it besides sitting behind the screen or sit at the table waiting to use all those nice battleworn d6s to slay the next Big Bad Evil Guy.  And the first universal truth is; your game is not top-notch.  Heck, your game may truly suck.  But, let us hope, with this little experiment in community we’ll help to make that bad game into a good (or even great) one in a few months.Now, I know you think you’ve got the game down.  Perhaps it is true; you’ve developed your setting, you have finely honed your gamecraft, you’re ready for a good long sitdown with all sorts of paperwork.  Players have shown up, the DM is quietly muttering about all the various things he will be doing to you forthwith behind his screens, and all seems to be ready.  But let’s be honest, we can all do better.  Most gamers play in games which have a lot of issues, and a lot of things to work out.  If you’re serious about the hobby, you should be serious about how you deal with your game.  If it’s going to be humorous, it better be chock full of good stuff to make your players laugh.  If it’s going to be a beer-and-pretzel sort of game, you better be ready for the issues that come from a steady consumption of starches and alcohol.  If you’re playing a heavy roleplaying game, you better have yourself together.  If you’re playing mostly for the roll of the dice and the maxing out of all of those abilities, this will not be the writeup for you.  I’m going to try to deal with roleplaying and its aspects; while character optimization has its own merits, there will be little maximizing shown here.  In some spots the actual merits of dealing with rolls will be questioned, nay, shunned . . . and if that’s not your bag, it’s fine.I was really tempted to call this initial post ‘Your Game Sucks: Ask Us How It Can Be 200% Better [or your money back!]’.  Now, there are various reasons not to go with this premise; right now the house of Loon is running low on capital, and perhaps your game doesn’t suck as badly as the myriad of games I’ve been running across.  Hell, your game may be one of the best-run games I will ever hear about; epic heroes, dashing villains, the sort of game which really puts the role back into roleplaying, the Ds back into D&D.  Perhaps you’ve transcended the need for such simple memes, and for that I am thankful you’re still reading.  However, let’s be honest; we’ve all fallen into the pit of thinking our game is going to be the best thing since sliced bread.  All that careful planning, flawless execution, and it comes out flat. If the thirty or so writeups I have sitting in the dustbins of My Documents have anything to say about it, it’s not uncommon to pitch your ideas almost as fast as you make them up.  All that work, all that struggle, and we figure out we just created an extension of some horrid Sci-Fi or Fantasy novel we read twenty years ago… but damn, it was still a great idea.Now, we’re going to work on all of this.  We really are.  You, me, and the community-at-large, working for a common goal.  We’re going to use history, a little science, some thought experimentation, and some gusto to get through this.  If at all possible, we’re going to try to keep ourselves civil in the discussion of the length and breadth of topics which can be pretty dicey.  We’re going to look at religion, mythology, popular culture, music, all of it and try to pull from the dregs of so much cultural flotsam some ideas that will help with my game, your game, and the game of anybody silly enough to still be reading this series when we’re done.  Now, Good Reader, we’re going to establish the basics of our quest.<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"> We want to make/retrofit a palatable, strong, and hearty campaign setting. To this end we are going to develop some themes which don’t get developed in a lot of games.  We’re going to be so into the sandbox that you’re waking up with grit in your hair.  Hopefully, the work put forth here will be helpful not just in a D&D campaign, but that World of Darkness pickup game you keep meaning to organize.  Primarily, we will be working with Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Edition and D20 Modern, the two preferred systems of Yours Truly at the current point.  Therefore, most of the information mentioned in this series will come from sources associated with Modern and 3.X sources.  Some of these will be third-party sources; however, due to the complete inability of the Author to source out using OGL and OGC sources, the sources will be mentioned, then discussed in vagaries.  I will hope that you will have the resources to find the information we are discussing or (even better in some later cases) be able to draw your own ways to produce the same outcomes. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"> We want to establish a way of thinking about gaming. Gaming is not a one-dimensional system; just as art cannot be created in a total vacuum, gaming is influenced by sources both known and unknown to most gamers.  As far as we can we’ll explore these ideas, looking into the structures and ideologies which surround your average setting, concept, etc. and bring them to light. Therefore . . . </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"> We will develop a wide gaming knowledge base.  A great player (and any DM worth their salt) will know about the hobby.  This is both a hobby and an art; you are creating a narrative both as DMs and players, and that narrative can only be detailed fully if there is a suitable knowledge base behind our thoughts and actions.  A great writer researches; a great athlete trains constantly.  The least we can do, for the benefit of our players or our DM is to know a little about the things we’re dealing with, and from there build and build until we have developed our gaming to a point where it bypasses verisimilitude.  Therefore . . . </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"> We will establish a gaming syllabus of sorts. Being an academic, a tutor, and a teacher, I like the idea of the syllabus.  If there is a common workspace, a common ground on which we can all grow, everyone can deal with the same issues.  Not all of this information will be gaming related; some of it is going to be history, or theology, or popular literature.  Do I expect you to read it all?  Did any of your teachers or professors expect such in high school or college?  No . . . but try to keep up with what we’re working on.  Articles will be posted with free sources whenever possible, and various materials will be mentioned throughout the series. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol"> We’re going to make a game worth playing.  A game with details that will be there when you need them, as a player or a DM.  You’ll understand and think about how things work, the inner guts of a society, a religion, a monster, a worldview.  And maybe, just maybe, that’ll be just as helpful as I think it will be.</li> </ol>This series of articles is for the young and the old; I know I’ll learn from it just as much as you guys do.  The first real article will be coming up in the next couple of days, but just to make sure I’m not making too big of a mistake, I’d like some feedback.  If you think this will be a useful tool, post.  A man cannot live on view-count alone, after all.Slainte,-Loonook.</blockquote>

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