ROLEGAMING MAGAZINE ISSUE 36 SUMMER 2000

ISSN 0267-5595
Editor: Paul Mason
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Post
Imazine/Paul Mason
101 Green Heights, Shimpo-cho

4-50,
Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-0072 JAPAN
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ELL, ITS TAKEN a long time, but Ive finally reached
issue 36. In the Year of the Dragon, my year, the zine
finally reaches my age. Sorry about the long wait, but
too many things have got in the way. To be honest, they
continue to get in the wayI have a huge pile of editing to
do over the next couple of weeks, not to mention exam
marking. But these are no more than excuses, the stock-
in-trade of the fanzine editor, and Im supposed to be
introducing an all-singing, all-dancing new issue. When it
comes right down to it, though, this magazine costs you
(virtually) nothing, and it costs me a lot, so I think I can
be cut a little slack for these occasional periods of inaction.
W
2 Reviews
2 Puppetland & Powerkill
More New Style Hogshead games
3 Dragon Fist
High value D&D Chinese roleplaying
5 Bloode Island
1-page pirate RPG by Deep 7
6 Orbit
Small-press SF gaming
7 Raining Hammers
Gamebooks meet RPGs in the Old West
8 Two-Fisted Tales
Small-press pulp play
9 Players & Pints
Imazine used to have articles like this. Id
almost forgotten; now you can find out why.
In case youre worrying, New Style is indeed
a Hogshead Publishing trademark. But they
say fair use allows for parody...
13 New Outlaws, New Layout
The publication of Outlaws of the Water Margin
is like the journey to Usennuan
interminable and apparently pointless process.
Paul Mason outlines his unrealistic demands
for the next stage.
15 Colloquy
More letters, from the sane to the serial killer,
the demure to the drunk. Some are short and
some are long. Some are heavily edited. What
more could you want?
For abstruse technical reasons, I decided I had to keep
this issue down to 20 pages. This means that several things
that should have gone in did not, and among these was a
plug for Tim Harfords excellent Annwn fanzine on the web.
Take it as read, and Ill make up for this next issue. If
youre lucky.
I would also like to remind you that you, personally have
promised me an article and/or letter of comment, even if
you currently dont seem to remember making any such
promise. Ill forgive you the non-appearance of said
contribution on condition you get one to me in time for the
next issue (by which I mean September). I
?
Click for
instructions
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ABSURDITY IS PAYING for a hard cover with the full knowledge it will cost you
twice that in source book before you play.
Suspect is a package costing a third the hard cover that claims to be two
complete games. Following the success of their first New Style release, The
Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Hogshead Publishing has
released John Tynes Puppetland and Power Kill. Available free on the net for
some time now, both present very strange value for money.
After a decade of angst-driven role playing, the thought of a storytelling
game that claims to be steeped in grim whimsy is less then inspiring. Its a
case of everyone has been there and probably done that. What makes
Puppetland different though, is its originality, complete commitment to its
themes and 20 heavily illustrated pages in which it accomplishes the
seemingly impossible: a complete role playing game that will never see a
further source book.
Of course, thats all well and good but how does it read? John Tynes has
created a world of storybook gone bad, where Punch has murdered the Maker
and now rules the population of Puppetland with a stuffing-stained mallet.
There is no daylight or blue skies in Puppetland, only a perpetual night where
Punchs vile minions scurry to enforce Punchs insane rule. There is hope
though (isnt there always?), a small band of brave puppets dedicated to the
destruction of Punchs evil and the resurrection of the Maker. As you can
probably guess, these are the players fighting an evil against which there is
seemingly little hope.
Puppetland is a strange blend between Call of Cthulhu and an episode of
the Smurfs. It works. The world established invokes a grim atmosphere more
unsettling than the stylish gothic angst of contemporary horror, and more
intriguing.
Puppetlands diceless system is simple and elegant, revolving around a list
of things the character can or cannot do. Damage is equally as simple; each
player has sixteen puzzle pieces (hit points) that represents their life. Each
time the character takes major damage (leg being bitten off, burnt alive and
all manner of nasty things) a puzzle piece is filled in and the puppet wakes
up the next morning, fully healed of the damage but missing a puzzle piece.
Once all pieces are filled in, the character never wakes up again. These
pieces can never be taken away and this inexorable encroachment of death
only helps make Puppetland that much more scary game. Puppetlands
system has been designed to drive the game, a rarity in this industry where
setting is often considered secondary to system.
Whereas most diceless systems are recommended for advanced gamers,
Puppetland & Power Kill
Reviewed by Daniel Flood
F
Puppetland would probably best
succeed in the hands of an
experienced GM and new players.
Unlike most role playing games,
Puppetland has an ending, the
destruction of Punch and in this way it
is a disposable rolegame. And then
there is the way it is played,
everything being narrated in the third
person, story book style. The old my
character picks up the rock and throws
it at the baddy is replaced by
Sammie the marionette does thrust
the mighty orb of granite at the foul
nut crackers skull as the narration
aims to entertain as it unfolds: a
wonderful idea that new gamers will
adapt to quickly while experienced
gamers may take a while getting used
to. Of course you could adapt the
game and play it however youd like,
but I think youd lose something in the
process, probably the joy of the story
books Puppetland so eloquently
corrupts.
OR REVIEWS TO BE really valuable, of course, they
should be recent, and here Im afraid the erratic
schedule of imazine works against me. But I do what I
can. One thing I can promise, which doesnt seem to be
observed very much nowadays, if it ever was, is that
imazine reviews products without fear or favour. A game
supplied by a publisher, complete with PR bumf, will obtain
no more generous treatment than something bought. If you
doubt this, check out last issues Imagine review.
If you would like to review games with the freedom to
criticise, then feel free to get in touch. I would also be
grateful if readers would note that I do not write all the
reviews presented here!
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On the flip side (flip the book upside
down and there it is), Power Kill is an
oddity, a Meta-game you run
alongside an existing campaign. It is
quite simple: the player is a psychotic
delusional who creates fantasies to
excuse their crimes. So while you
might be running a standard loot and
pillage dungeon bash, the Power Kill
character is slaughtering the residents
of a low income tenement. The
Councillor (GM) questions the
characters at the beginning and end of
a session, in hope of over time curing
the persons antisocial behaviour.
So much for healthy fantasy.
Power Kill attempts to address
violence in gaming. Its a battle that
has been waged for over a decade,
across innumerable issues of magazines and public forums.
Now it has its own game. Youll either love the idea or hate
it. I find rationalisation to be the opposite of fantasy, so I
probably wont use Power Kill in my campaign.
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Dragon Fist
Reviewed by Paul Mason
CHINESE ROLEGAMES HAVE come a long way since I was
underwhelmed by Mystic China and GURPS China in imazine
23. Yet even those games represented a considerable
advance on Oriental Adventures, the D&D mishmashery that
exhibited all the worst aspects of TSRs disregard for
culture.
So what to make of Dragon Fist, the new D&D Chinese
rolegame? Firstly, though D&D it is clear we can now forget
TSR, as this name is disappearing. Can it be long before
Wizards of the Coast, too, disappears from Hasbros hobby
games portfolio? But does the removal of the name of the
company Gygax founded also mean the eradication of his
legacy? The answer, of course, is no.
Before I describe how the Ghost of Gary G still hovers
over this game, a few details are in order. Dragon Fist was
a project by Chris Pramas from before the Hasbro takeover.
In the wake of the inevitable rationalisation, it was facing
cancellation, but Pramas cleverly suggested an alternative
publish it free in Acrobat format!
Thus interested parties can obtain this game free from
the Wizards of the Coast web site, and for this, if nothing
else, Pramas and the rump Wizards are to be commended.
The game comes in a set of 9 PDF files, clearly designed
from print rather than screen use. There has been no
attempt made to make use of any of Acrobats features,
but given the circumstances surrounding the games
publication this is hardly a surprise. Personally I like paper,
so it was no problem for me.
Layout is clean and admirably pedestrian (it actually
Its a personal preference thing.
Interior illustrations are excellent.
They set the mood for Puppetland,
managing to capture the whimsy
inherent in the background. The covers
do not and its a shame. The Power Kill
cover is pedestrian and uninspiring
while for Puppetland Hogshead made
second use of a piece originally used
in arcane magazine. It looks good but
lets the package, as a whole, down.
Alone, Puppetland is worth the
asking price while Power Kill is a
mixed bag that will appeal to some
and not others. If Hogshead can keep
up the standard which they have set
by this product, then maybe there is a
future in the New Style line; high
quality, disposable roleplaying at a
bargain price. I
Puppetland & Powerkill are published by Hogshead
Publishing. www.hogshead.demon.co.uk
resembles the originalunpublisheddesign for Outlaws).
As you might expect from a professional outfit, it is free
from the typographical eyesores that blight the likes of
Imagine (reviewed last issue).
I said at the start of the review that Dragon Fist is
Chinese D&D, and here I must confess to misleading you.
Dragon Fist is actually set in Tianguo, a sort of fantasy
empire based on China (just like the Wulin of Swords of the
Middle Kingdom). Once again, as with Swords, Legend of
the Five Rings, and 7th Sea, I have to ask what is the
point? Why go to such lengths to fabricate an artificial
China? Why write Jianmin rather than Qianlong, Zuyang
rather than Luoyang, Zu rather than Yao?
John Wick, who wrote 7th Sea, has provided some
reasons in his column at the interesting web site Gaming
Outpost ( .gamingoutpost.com/), and I must confess to
finding them rather limp. Uncharitable soul that I am, I will
nevertheless propose some possibilities, not all of which
John mentioned. One is to lock in purchasers to the game
world, and encourage them to buy your product rather than
simply visiting a librarya purely commercial motive.
Another is to save the author from being castigated for
botched researcha purely cowardly motive. Yet another is
to provide the freedom to improvise in the settinga
meaningless motive, for it is perfectly possible to improvise
freely in a real setting.
Thus Dragon Fist is wasteful because it deprives players
of the convenience of using real world source material as
is. The game could just as easily be set in Zhongguo, with
a fantasy plot based on the Qing Emperor Qianlong (or,
indeed, a host of other emperors). The China Lite
approach that has been taken in the game could just as
easily have been based on the real China. Tianguo and its
inhabitants are no more intrinsically easy to remember or
deal with than any historical Chinese, and are less
www
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amenable to reinforcement from source
material or entertainmentincluding
the Hong Kong movies so frequently
referenced throughout the game.
Digging deeper into the background
makes it clear, furthermore, that the
second excuse for fantasising the
country is not justified herePramas
demonstrates ample research and gut
feel for the background, far exceeding
that of Erick Diceless Wujcik, the
irritable author of Mystic China. I
might quibble introductory fiction,
which seems to suggest a Western
take on hell and demonology, but later
sections make it clear that this is not, after all, a
misinterpretation, but a deliberate upsetting of the cosmic
balance to create an established conflict in the game
background.
The pronunciation guides provided for Chinese names in
the game are execrable, and here Pramas has fallen victim
to that most dreaded of writers foesthe inept editor.
Sadly, the editor cannot be blamed for the games greatest
linguistic blunder: the claim that wuxia (martial chivalry)
means flying people. Sadly this booboo is partly integrated
into the rules (in the name of a manuvre), so it is even
more prominent than it might be.
Operating Systems
So far Ive said little about the systems, and Im sure you
can imagine why.
To me, D&D has a lot in common with CP/M. I dont
deny its place in history, but the thought of using it in this
day and age gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies
(notwithstanding the fact that Jonathan Tweet is designing
D&D 3rd edition). It is evident that Chris Pramas has made
a tremendous effort to overcome this problem, and in some
areas he has been remarkably successful. Nevertheless,
D&D weights this game down even more than MS-DOS
shackles Windows.
My heart sank first at the Gygaxisms. I grant you, I
have been blissfully underexposed to D&D products for
many years, but I had somehow imagined that at least
some of his crimes against the English language, and good
sense in general, might have been rectified after he left
TSR. But no: we still have save vs paralyzation, alignment,
and sundry others. Its what Microsoft call a legacy.
As Ive written elsewhere, in some ways Chinese society
was rather Gygaxian. Its thinkers often took the same sort
of taxonomic approach to humanity. While in some ways
this might justify the use of character classes, the use of
the classic fourFighter, Magic User (here translated from
Gygaxian into Wizardhooray!), Shaman (a more
problematic translation) and Thiefreflects no reality of
Chinese society and culture, and is thus just the same
arbitrary nonsense it always was. Pramas even manages to
pointedly demonstrate this with his reference to A Chinese
Ghost Storys Swordsman Yen, whom he refers to as a
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good example of a Chinese-style
Wizard (how is that different to a
Chinese Wizard, I wonder?). Maybe
the film has been cut differently in the
US, but to me They are not skilled in
hand-to-hand combat but can use the
following simple weapons: light or
repeating crossbow, dagger, staff,
three-section staff, and war fan bears
no relation to Swordsman (or was that
War Fan Man?) Yen.
Shaman I mentioned earlier as a
problematic term for Cleric. One can
argue that Tianguo is not Zhongguo,
and thus it is acceptable, but following
this argument suggests a world designed to fit the game
rules, not really something for anyone to be proud of.
Perhaps to try to alleviate the silliness of the D&D
character class system, Dragon Fist attempts to plug
characters into the background with kits, corresponding to
a set of secret societies. The problem is that this taxonomy
gone mad just emphasises the feeling that a background
has been shoehorned into a rule-shaped mould, while
simultaneously echoing the approach pioneered by White
Wolf. Both Feng Shui and L5R, which recognise the
commercial potential of exploiting this particular anal
retentive tendency of rolegamers, do so in a freer, more
natural manner than this.
Sichuan Duck
If D&D stands for one thing in roleplaying it is for arbitrary
limitation, and Dragon Fist is thus no exception.
All of the foregoing, though it has to be said, is in a way
inevitable. One doesnt expect lean, efficient, intuitive
software from Microsoft, so it is perhaps foolish to expect
its equivalent from the heirs of TSR.
So having established the foundations upon which
Dragon Fist rests, Ill turn my attention to the details that
militate against the legacy of Oriental Adventures.
As I mentioned earlier, theres no doubt that Chris
Pramas has a good feel for his material. He obviously loves
Hong Kong movies, and has bust a gut to represent their
fluid action within the laced-up lamellar that is the D&D
combat system. So we still have the one minute melee
round and the roll d20 to hit AC mechanic, but on top of
that we have (more taxonomy!) manuvres, stunts and
feats. I dont know if this is a standard D&D redefinition,
but AC has been sensibly changed to become the number
you need to roll to hit a person. At a stroke we eliminate
swathes of stripy tables!
The key to Hong Kong combat is speed, and Dragon Fist
features a stunt-derived initiative score that must be
determined for each melee round. After that, combat works
in the old wayroll to hit and if successful roll for damage.
The stunts system lifts Dragon Fist out of D&D
mediocrity, however. Each round players describe what their
characters are doing, and say what sort of stunt they are
using. There are six stunt types, one for each attribute, and
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characters bonuses in each stunt are determined by the
appropriate stunt, and increase with level. The neat thing is
that stunt bonuses can be used for different tactics, and
the choice of six offers a small but interesting range of
tactical options, which also provide story interest. For
example, a Fortitude (based on constitution) stunt bonus
can be used to temporarily increase hit points, for that
round only, while Savvy (intelligence) can be applied to any
one roll, so long as it can be justified.
This system is, I feel, the most significant contribution of
the game, and is well worth a look. It has the advantage
that it can fold back into very simple form for speedy
resolution, while it also supports and encourages highly
descriptive combats.
Rice Meal
Dragon Fist is a victim of piecemeal systems, which
manifests in such areas as non-lethal damage. This has
always been a weakness of D&D combat and is particularly
noticeable in a game featuring unarmed combat. Dragon
Fist has to fudge with an arbitrary rule, and it undermines
fidelity to the sources.
Much more successfully, the contests mechanic extends
combat to a variety of realmsdrinking contests,
humiliation etc. It also encourages description and uses the
stunt roll mechanic as an accumulated bonus to a single
resolution roll. Again, this is a classic D&D piecemeal
solution, but it is worth a look for the way it extends
combat beyond the narrow boundaries of swordplay and
fisticuffs.
Magic is basically D&D magic, but with interesting spells:
you know, fancy names like Scales of the Lizard, Five
Elements, Yin-Yang, that sort of stuff. The resemblance
confirmed what had been irking me for a while: the rigidity
and inadequacy of the Outlaws magic system.
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We then get experience points and monsters, which are
adequately done, especially if you like that sort of thing
(though I blanched at the old one about bonus eeps for
contributing to the story). Much more interesting is the
chapter on the campaign, in which we find advice about
how to build a Villain Tree a feature that closely matches
what you see in the films that provide the source material.
Unfortunately, the section that details the rest of the
background: any information about the society and the
culture, was inexplicably missing from my copy, and didnt
appear in the Table of Contents either. Odd, that. On the
other hand, Chapter 7 does refer readers to a wonderful
book called Outlaws of the Water Margin
On a personal level, my litmus test for any oriental
roleplaying game is how often it makes me think about
changing my own rules. Sengoku, favourably reviewed last
issue, made me think about presentation and organisation,
but I didnt once feel that it had anything to contribute to
my mechanics. Dragon Fist on the other hand, despite the
enormous disadvantage of D&D, has enough flair and
inventiveness to set me thinking at various points. In
particular, I was interested by the resemblance between the
stunt and contest mechanics and the fractal/critical incident
systems I noted that I was after last issue.
Given the price (free once youre connected to the
Internet) I can recommend the game unreservedly to
anyone interested in Chinese roleplaying and in search of
inspiration. And if you are unfortunate/fortunate enough to
like D&D, you may even want to play the game! I
Dragon Fist is nominally published by TSR/Wizards of the
Coast, and may be downloaded for free. Go to
www.wizards.com/dnd/DF_Downloads.asp.
Also available for the game from the same address is a
short adventure called Dragon & Phoenix, in which you are a
hero of the martial world, improbably allying with other
martial arts organisations to rescue the Empress.
Bloode Island
Reviewed by Paul Mason
AROUND THE TIME my Outlaws game
was winding down, I started thinking
that a pirate game might be
interesting. Some of my players
agreed, but unfortunately they were
the ones who were leaving Japan, and
they didnt include the new referee, so
nothing came of it. Around that time,
7th Sea had been released, with more
of the ersatz approach of Legend of
the 5 Rings, and which therefore didnt
tempt me. So how about Bloode
Island?
First of all, its a game which is
very much closer to the James Wallis
way of making a game than to the
John Wick. Deep 7 specialise in one-
page role-playing games, and although
Bloode Island has ten, most of that is
scenarios. The actual rules are on a
single page.
I suspect that your reaction to the
game is likely to depend, more than
anything, on what you feel about this
whole idea. Many people, I know, are
dismissive of games this slender.
Knocking up a mechanic is the easy
part, they say. Anyone can do that. If
Im buying a game I want
development.
Bloode Island is billed as a beer
and pretzels game, so development is
the last thing you can look for. The
background is quickly described in
terms of pirate movies. Anyone who
gets a 1-page pirate RPG can
reasonably be expected to be familiar
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with this background! But this means that to succeed, it
has to compete based on its mechanic, and on the
efficiency with which useful scenario possibilities are
crammed in.
The mechanic is not spectacular (roll one die under a
target number to succeed, with 1 always a success and 6
always a failure). It is explained with gusto, and there are
blood and guts involved (blood is hit points, guts is what
keeps your presence intact). It is all explained on a page
which also functions as the character sheet.
The next page is the refs page, which contains short
and sweet advice on running the game, stressing that it is
designed to be disposable. There follow five scenarios,
demonstrating clearly that the game is designed to be
played in single, relatively short sessions, each exploring
one of the tropes of the genre.
Perhaps scenarios is the wrong word: scenario seeds
would be better. Each takes up only one page. All the
same, the presence of phrases like At this point, the party
should be thinking... sets off off warning bells. In scenario
seeds, especially, I believe it is a mistake to railroad. A
common defence of the practice rests on the alleged
affinities between cinema and roleplaying, affinities which
are obviously being exploited here. Nevertheless, playing up
those affinities too much simply draws attention to how
weak the visuals of roleplaying games are, a deficiency
which is usually compensated for by the unpredicatability
and freedom to affect the outcome...
On the other hand, the scenarios are unequivocally set in
our world, and although they dont go to town on historical
accuracy (how can you in a game this size) this makes it
much easier to expand and improvise.
Finally, a warning about the layout. The text is crammed
in a fairly small point size on to letter size paper, in single
wide columns, and with minimal margins. One can
understand that this was done to save space, but it doesnt
add to the pleasure of reading the games, and perhaps
more importantly the necessity of shrinking the pages to fit
the width on the paper size used in the modern world (A4)
will make it even less readable.
On the plus side, the game is downloadable in PDF
format, and will only set you back $4.95. The company
offers quite a range of other games, too, not only one-page
games, but longer efforts. There are few free downloads
available to tempt you, and the site is quite well appointed.
Worth a visit.
Bloode Island is published by Deep 7, who can be found at
http://www.deep7.com
Orbit
Reviewed by Paul Mason
WHOOAR! LOOK AT the jugs on that
cat!
While I doubt that anyone will
actually say this, and Im loth to throw
my cap into the ring as a US-style
Censorious Voice, I did feel a little
sad that even the producer of a self-
published game feels it necessary to
put cleavage on the cover. Amongst
other things, it gives a very strong
impression of old-fashionedness about
this game, an impression which is
confirmed by the contents.
Orbit is produced without
unnecessary farting around, to what I regard as a pretty
clean standard. The version I have came with one of those
plastic spiral bindings and transparent plastic over the
paper cover, which works well enough, though Jeff Diamond
did mention something to me about a three-ring binder
version: which would have been bugger-all use to me as I
live in the modern world.
You can often tell a lot about the author of a self-
published game by the way they put together their title
page. Im sure youre familiar with the sort of game on
which is emblazoned in large letters the name of the
designer: Hiram P Gaymdesainer Jr. A further glance down
the credits makes it immediately obvious that little Hiram
(twenty-something though he may be)
is being indulged by a wealthy parent.
Theres no evidence of any of that
here. Indeed, Jeffs name does not
appear on the title page, and is only
put in small letters of the base of the
next page in a copyright notice.
Refreshing modesty.
Ive already mentioned the cover.
Inside, Jeff is lucky that Ive recently
got on a Swiss typography kick, and
am therefore inclined to be well-
disposed towards relatively spartan
sans serif type. The artwork is a little
more problematic. I have the
immediate problem that I dont like
manga-style artwork. Moreover, Im
not a fan of guns or
anthopomorphosized animals, so that
also alienates me to a lot of whats on
offer here. Much of the art is well executed, but there is
also some very poor material indeed.
But I mentioned old-fashionedness a little earlier and still
havent offered much in the way of evidence. So let me
note that although character generation is based on a
points-build system, this feeds a set of tables of modifiers,
% to resist poison and so on not a million miles away from
the horrors of D&D (soon to be put to rest, we assume, in
the third edition). We also find ourselves choosing from a
set of character races including the felines of the cover,
Predator-inspired super-warriors, reptiles, dwarfs (spelled
the Gygaxian way) and so on. To me, this is the sci-fi game
equivalent of elves, dwarves, half-elves etc.
imazine
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I skipped past a few pages of tables and rules to give
the game more of a chance, alighting on The Orbit
Universe. So you see, theres a feder.. er... Alliance of
starfaring civilizations, all of whom apparently accept a gold
standard as the basis of their economies. The Alliance has a
pretty large mixed-race military force of warships etc, to
defend the Alliance from... er... not quite sure what: pirates
and smugglers, it would appear, as well as some pests like
Ratmen and Slig and Vax. Theres a little bit more general
stuff about the universe, but then the game gets back into
its stride with lots of hardware followed by psionic powers.
Before launching into the intricacies of combat and
starships, there is some general role-playing pep-talking
and background for the referee. Here, with such
recommended adventure sites as Labyrinth Worlds, it
becomes evident that Orbit really is little more than an
excuse for a rubber monster combat fest (I was going to
write thinly disguised, but that would be unfair as it hasnt
been disguised at all).
Orbit compares favourably with Imagine, reviewed last
issue. It doesnt have the pretentions, for one thing. It is
the product of enthusiasm, and despite a load of sentence
fragments and the curious idea that ideaology is a word, it
is better written and perhaps even presented than the
professional effort. On the other hand it does share with
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Imagine a philosophy about the purpose and practice of
roleplaying with which I find myself entirely at odds. This is
confirmed by the separate scenario Souls of Heroes, which
shows some development in presentation (still no quotation
marks or apostrophes, sadly), and some invention, but a
Warhammer 40K-like concentration on violence which I
confess to finding dull.
Jeff was also kind enough to send along a CD by Dan
Sant & Palpatine called Songs of Heroes, which was
recorded to accompany the abovementioned Souls of
Heroes. Its basically thrash metal (though a pedant in the
area would no doubt correct me, and point out that it is
actually left-hand skull, flesh-shrivelling death metal). Im
getting a bit old, I think, as this sounds too conservative
for my tastes (Id rather pogo to Atari Teenage Riot, The
Prodigy or Boom Boom Satellites). But it does appear to be
an entirely appropriate accompaniment for the game.
Athough I am broadly in favour of home-produced
games, especially those fed by enthusiasm rather than a
desire to get rich, I cant bring myself to endorse
something quite this retro.
Orbit is written by Jeff Diamond and published by his 6-0
Games. Web site www.geocities.com/~allianceprime/
Raining Hammers
Reviewed by Paul Mason
IN THE BEGINNING was the gamebook.
The gamebook was a more
important phenomenon in those
countries that use metric
measurements than it was in ye goode
olde United States. This was mainly
thanks to those two lovable rogues,
Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, one
of whom went on to become one of
the UKs richest men, thanks to a
reptilian amorality and a computer
game animation with improbable
breasts.
But Fighting Fantasy died some
while ago, much to my UK bank managers regret. Along
with it went pretty well all the other UK gamebooks,
including the Virtual Reality series, which I hoped to write
for, and which I am in the process of doing a bit of a Victor
Kiam on.
The history of gamebooks hangs around the neck of any
UK revival, but the US is different. And so we have Raining
Hammers, a gamebook published in Lightning Prints odd
Letter size with a " sliced off the long edge size.
Its set in a genre little-mined by gamebooks that Ive seen
in the pastthe Westernand it is designed to work as a
roleplaying scenario as well.
I found this last highly stimulating. Although I would be
the first to argue that there is a gulf
separating roleplaying from
gamebooks, if it is possible to make a
roleplaying scenario from a book or
film, it should also be possible to make
one from a gamebook, and the
multiple possibilities of the latter
should work well. Indeed, when the
Virtual Reality series ended abruptly,
and I realised my Red Dragon Pass
wasnt going to be published, I
considered finishing it as a hybrid
gamebook/Outlaws scenario. I still
could, I suppose.
The question is, therefore, how well
does Raining Hammers stack up at
what it attempts to do? One for the
postmodernists among you, it has
several unusual features that set it
apart from the dominant UK
gamebook style. The use of third person is perhaps the
most immediate. Its actually quite a sound idea: theres no
less feeling of identification, and less frustration at the
imperfections of the choice mechanism. Another novelty,
though, and the one that really deserves the postmodernist
label, is the way the narrative breaks off every now and
again for a little factual commentary. It identifies locations
and parts of the story that are historical or still extant. At
one point, it even undermines itself by commenting that a
particular plot twist is ahistorical, simply a Hollywood-ism.
Other peculiarities which no doubt reveal more about
contemporary American society than anything else is the
way that although the book is realistically gritty in its
imazine
8
r e v i e w s
depiction of the Old West, including sanitary conditions and
the methods of torture preferred by the Apache, graphic
violence and sexual allusion, all cuss words are censored.
I found this distracting, as for a while I couldnt figure out
why there were two hyphens after stupid-a--.
I found several technical errors, including misrouted
paragraphs and a missing North-arrow on the map.
Moreover the handling of location seems rather fluid, and it
is often difficult to keep track of where you are. There are
also several timing problems; I was told that I was looking
for Mitchell before Id ever heard of Mitchell. There was a
curious instruction to go in the hole which I couldnt make
sense of (though no doubt someone will write in to tell me
how obvious this is). There were also some downright
confusing narrative twists which would have been less
confusing had it not been for the routing errors.
Overall, however, Raining Hammers is an interesting
product. While a gamebook, it is also designed in such a
way that it can be used as a role-playing scenario
(something I had considered doing with my Red Dragon
Pass). The structural flaws are more forgivable because the
narrative style doesnt make the pretensions towards
immersion of the average Fighting Fantasy. For a lot of
people the sticking point will be the priceat $17.95, over
double the price of a gamebook, yet with the same number
of paragraphs. Sadly, as Ive discovered myself, such a
price is a harsh economic reality, a consequence of not
being able to take advantage of large print runs, having to
pay high Lightning Print prices and offer huge Amazon
trade discounts.
Raining Hammers is written by Forrest Harris and published
by Knuckleduster. More details at: www.knuckleduster.com
M
Two Fisted Tales
Reviewed by Paul Mason
ANOTHER HOMEGROWN, HOME-published
effort, this time available in the more
accessible ebook formats (namely
HTML and PDF). Im going by the PDF
version, but I have also seen the HTML
version which not only contains a little
more than the PDF but is, of course,
more configurable if you dont happen
to like the layout. Talking of which, its
clean and simple. It has some
illustrations which, to me, dont really
evoke the atmosphere of the pulps
that well, but apart from them its fine.
Oh, sorry, didnt I tell you? This is a
game based on the pulps. It has been a much-revisited
genre, but its interesting to note that there have been no
great successes in the field, with the possible exception of
Call of Cthulhu, which does not attempt to be a general
pulp game. Moreover there have been some notable
disasters (the old TSR Indiana Jones game, for example),
so how does Two-Fisted Tales stack up?
Ive often suggested that a good idea of a game
designers priorities can be gained by observing the order
in which a game is presented. TFT gets to page 71 (out of
127) before it explains the basic game mechanic. Its a
brave move, but it does seem to reflect the philosophy of
the game, in which mechanical resolution is of less interest
than description.
This is perhaps because mechanical resolution itself is
highly deterministic. In many cases, you simply compare a
characters ability to a target value, and if its higher, they
succeed. What could be easier?
To add a bit of suspense (though you are warned not to
overuse it) you can introduce resolution for chancy actions
by drawing a card from a specially-prepared deck of cards
(hmm). An alternative, dice-based
mechanic is offered, but not
recommended.
Despite the hesitation I expressed
above, a card-based system could
easily fit with the atmosphere of the
pulps, though to be honest a standard
card deck would seem to me a better
choice. You can even imagine this
fitting the pulp style: I tried to get the
jump on Lefty, but I guess I drew a
deuce: he was ready for me.
Overall I think the deterministic
system, with Hero Points and an
occasional element of chance, is
appropriate to the simulation of the
pulp genre, and your attitude to it will
really depend on your general attitude
to genre games (games that
concentrate more on trying to simulate
a set of genre conventions, rather than a background).
Two-Fisted Tales is better thought out (and explained) in
this regard than some others. Where Indiana Jones allowed
Indy to stick a piece of dynamite in his mouth, ignite it,
and survive, in TFT combat can be quite deadly. This is
because, as Matt Stevens notes, in the pulps the heroes
were not actual superheroes. The threat of death was real.
Rather, they found ways to cheat death. This is what the
rules encourage, instead of sledgehammer tactics.
Talking of sledgehammers, though, one amusing touch is
that you acquire 3 Hero Points from getting your end
away
As I mentioned before, the book is quite long, and most
of the remainder is made up of templates, examples, and
explanations of how to deal with various pulp situations.
Overall, its well worth a look if you have any interest in
the pulps.
Two-Fisted Tales is written by Matt Stevens. More details at
www.columbia.edu/~mfs10/twofistedtales.html
imazine
9
Pl ayers & Pi nts
A role-playing game in the New Style

Pl ayers & Pi nts

Introduction
This is a game so simple, it doesnt have any rules at all.
Thus its diceless and ruleless. Even better, it dispenses
with all that nonsense about settings. Its the most
wonderful postmodern game in the world.
Starting the Game
In this game, the two most important things are players
and pints. There can be any number of players, so long as
they can all fit in a pub. You can even play it solo, though
you should beware of being thrown out of the pub or
beaten up for being a nutter.
Once the players are all assembled in the pub, one of
the playerssay, the one who bought this gamestarts
everyone off with the opening play. He (or she, as this
game isnt sexist at all, oh no) stands up and says:
Right, whats everyone drinking then?
The other players can then, in any order, specify their
pints. The player making the opening play may use paper
to write down the pints if necessary.
Note: although they are called pints, players are allowed
to order halves, shorts or even glasses of wine if necessary.
This isnt one of those old role-playing games that limits
your options.
Once the player making the opening play knows what
everybodys pint is, he (or she, as were sure that this
games simple rules will appeal to females) should go to the
bar, order, and pay for all the pints. The method used to
buy the pints will be to give money to the barman (or
woman, as lots of pubs have pretty ladies behind the bar
nowadays).
When the opening player has paid for all the pints, he
(or she, though ladies may need a little help with this bit)
should distribute each ordered pint to the person who
ordered it.
Once all the players have pints, they may start to talk.
Some examples are provided in the appendix of things to
talk about, but this isnt one of those games which limits
your actions, so in fact you can talk about anything!
The Next Round
As players talk and drink, their pints will start to empty.
Soon most people will have finished or nearly finished their
pint. At this point, someone should volunteer to buy the
next round.
Anyone can volunteer, but in general, a player should not
have to buy a second round until everyone else has bought
one. Sometimes, players may need to be encouraged to
buy a round. In such cases you should say:
Come on, its your round, you stingy bugger!
The next round is conducted just like the first round. You
can continue talking about the same things, or you can
switch to a new subject.
Ending the Game
The game ends when everyone has had enough or the pub
closes (though look out for our upcoming sequel The pubs
closing, so lets go for a curry!). The winner (or winness,
unlikely though it seems that any female could be any good
at all at this) is the one who ends the game most popular.
Ha! Ha! Im only kidding, of course, as actually this isnt
one of those fascistic games with a winner or a loser. In
fact everyones a winner, and it is traditional to slur this
phrase to each other as you stagger on home to whatever
fleapits you reside in.
Appendix
Here are some sample quotations which will give you an
idea of things you can talk about in the pub:
Arent traditional role-playing games pass?
Except for Warhammer of course.
Why do people bother, nowadays, honestly?
Oh no, of course I dont actually play games!
I just cant bear all the geeks.
Etc, etc. I
Note: the words New Style are a jealously guarded
trademark of Hogshead Publishing, and their use here for
purposes of parody should in no way be construed as any
threat to the companys God-given right to own them.
imazine
10
N E W
outlaws
N E W
l ayout
More thoughts on how a
rolegame should be done, this
time concentrating on what
information should be
included, and how it should be
presented.
F
OR QUITE SOME WHILE IVE HAD WHAT AMOUNTS TO a
writers block on Outlaws. But this block hasnt been an
inability to write the game. It has been a dissatisfaction
with the method of presenting the material.
I suppose Ive just seen too many rolegames organised
in a way I just cant get to grips with. As James Wallis
pointed out a while ago, games follow a pattern based on
rules, starting with character generation, and proceeding on
through skills, combat etc. This was what I had
unthinkingly done with Outlaws and as I faced the prospect
of writing the background, it has slowly dawned on me how
unsatisfactory it is.
Two games, both reviewed last issue, have also helped
me in this. One was IMAGINE, which in its awful, slavish
adherence to the pattern made it all too clear how dead it
is. The other was Sengoku. As I pointed out, Sengoku
made a radical attempt to break the pattern by presenting
a huge quantity of background information before giving
the rules.
Unfortunately, I find this, too, to be inadequate. I am
now playing in a Sengoku game, and I have to say that
using the rules for a while reveals that the organisation of
the book leaves a lot to be desired. Its just not an easy
book to find things in. Moreover, even though the
reordering of information does a lot to counteract the
traditional Wallis paradigm, there is still a fairly clear
division between rules paragraphs and background
paragraphs.
The problem with this is, if you are going to separate the
rules and the background how do you do it? Thats what
Ive been considering.
The New Typography
In the last few months Ive had a wonderful, liberating
experience. You see, after 16 years of producing
magazines, Ive finally begun to learn about design and
typography. I have that freedom and exhilaration that
comes from knowing myself to be a beginner. One of the
things about being a beginner is that you tend to grasp at
principles and hold to them as if they were life belts, the
only things keeping you from drowning in an icy sea.
Thats what Im doing. But at the same time Ive been
freed by the realisation, albeit late in the day, that no one
(apart from designers) cares about design. Did you ever
ponder that books are designed? Probably not. The whole
point of book design seems to be to create a transparent
receptable, what Beatrice Warde famously referred to as a
crystal goblet. Those who are egotistical, or lacking in
confidence, or both, produce designs that draw attention to
themselvesand thus, almost by definition, away from the
content.
You can see this most clearly on the World Wide Web.
The sites that have no content to speak of are most likely
to have the fanciest (and I dont mean the most attractive)
design, the shockwave effects, and animated dancing
wombats and so on. But it is also clear in rolegame design.
Lets face it, rolegames are books. In the imazine letters
page they have been likened to training manuals. So why
are they tarted up like adverts in glossy magazines,
smothered with overlays even when theyre in black and
white?
The nadir of this particular approach came with first
edition Feng Shui. What a beautiful game that was, eh?
imazine
11
Every page full colour (never mind the increased difficulty
of reading text on coloured, patterned pages). Nearly 300
pages of full colour. Is it any wonder that Daedalus, the
publisher, suffered the fate of Icarus?
When Andrew Rilstone told me several years that my
graphic design for Outlaws was pedestrian, I didnt realise
that I was mistaken to take it the way he intended. I
should have taken his comment as a compliment. After all,
Hogsheads Baron Munchausen is an (attractive) game with
extremely pedestrian design, and Andrew is no longer with
Hogshead.
The message has been rubbed home to me by the set of
rules Andy McBrien produced for his game (referred to in
the last issue: now available on the Web if you drop me a
line), and Robert Reess first book for Tetsubo, the
Warhammer Japanese supplement that went the way of so
many GW good ideas. Both are simple, clean and efficient;
they look like books, not like magazines. They inspired me
to try to do the same with Outlaws, eventually. In the
meanwhile, Ive been practising a little with design
specifications for supplements for the game Sorcerer,
reviewed in imazine 33.
Being freed from the necessity to tart the game up
provides an opportunity to concentrate instead on how the
layout can be used to present the information most
effectively. And here we return to the problem mentioned
earlier, about rules and background.
The Two Cultures
Looking back on past rolegames, I now see this problem
very clearly: how do you deal with the provision of both
rules and background?
Dungeons & Dragons got the ball rolling in an interesting
way by ignoring background. Not the way I want to go
myself...
Chivalry & Sorcery opened the debate, in a way, by
providing a game that was clearly rooted in a particular
background. The tack taken by C&S set the style for most
subsequent games. The background was presented in
chunks of text, intermixed with the rules. There was no
clear logic separating the presentation of the two. This had
the advantage of demonstrating that the background was
clearly integrated with the rules. More or less the same
approach was taken with Pendragon (Greg Stafford openly
acknowledges the debt he owes C&S).
GURPS, of course, in principle adopted a different
approach. The rules were independent of background, and
appeared in the core set. Books were then theoretically free
to concentrate on the background. The problem with this
was that it made all too clear what a nonsense the idea of
separating large chunks of the rules from the background
was. Dollars, in a magnificent feat of US Imperialism,
became the currency of every universe, throughout the
whole of time! And I had the cheek to moan about Over
The Edge! But no, of course, because the background
books in fact contained rules, and it became evident that
the whole project of a background-independent set of rules
was just as much a fudge and compromise as every other
set of rules (at least FUDGE, as its name demonstrated,
was honest). Fans of Basic Role-playing could feel superior,
and point out that their preferred game did the same as
GURPS, without making such a hypocritical song and dance
about being universal and generic.
More modern games like Feng Shui and Over The Edge
have made several advances in presenting background, but
they have still, as a rule, followed the same arbitrary
approach introduced by C&S; they also follow the Wallis
Paradigm in terms of structure. Moreover, both of these
games follow a trend of shying away from difficult
background, mainly by focusing instead on genre
convention. Perfect for gamers who prefer to get all their
information from the movie or TV screen, but not much use
to those of us who still relish the capacity of rolegames for
providing estrangement, and insight into other cultures.
So we have a number of problems to solve. How do we
order the material we wish to present? And how do we deal
with the issue of background vs rules? How, if at all, should
these two elements of a game be integrated?
The first question is one to which Ive had an answer for
quite a while. The current order is based, it would seem, on
a sequential order observed by those who acquire a
rolegame. Whats the first thing you do when you get a
rolegame? Roll up a character! Thus the character
generation section comes at the front. Exceptions to this
are quite conspicuoussuch was the case with Sengoku,
reviewed last issue, in which character creation is spread
higgledy piggledy through the rules (a mistake I also make
to some extent with the current Outlaws PDF files).
The problem is that in order to understand character
generation you generally need to understand the basic
rules. Many games try to deal with this by having a token
section at the start of the book explaining the rules, and
then more detail in the later skills/action chapter.
While there is something to be said for adopting the
ordering that readers will expect, I decided to start from
first principles in planning a game, and this leads to a
different approach.
Why do we generate a character when we first start
reading a game? I think its because we want some contact
with the game as quickly as possible. We want to get stuck
in, and generating a character is pretty well the only way to
do that, to see how things fit together (the second thing is
of course to fight a combat).
Rather than simply aping the result here, I want to try
to better satisfy the underlying urge. In doing so, I also
want to tackle one of the more annoying features of
published rolegames: why does it have to take so damn
long between buying the game and getting started? Why
cant you get started straight away?
Thats exactly what I think rolegames should do in their
first chapter. Rather than a lot of waffly background, rather
than a load of character creation rules, and most especially
rather than several pages of fiction to demonstrate that the
games designer is a writer and you arent, the beginning of
a game should set you up straight away with a short
scenario that can be played out. Simply defined
pregenerated characters for the players, and a situation
that is easily graspable by the referee. In the course of
this, key rules points will be explained, but not detailed at
great length. The goal is to get people started.
This is an approach that has been around for a long
time, and was championed by Jonathan Tweet and Ars
Magica in particular, but it still doesnt seem to have
o u t l a w s
imazine
12
registered deeply in the consciousness of the great game-
publishing public. Im not quite sure why this should be so:
any ideas?
Library of Babel
The second important element is the rules, and here it
occurs to me that the primary function of rules is that of
reference. If the basic rules are reasonably simple (as
they must be in order that the get people started
approach above can be followed) then they dont need to
be taught. They simply have to be presented clearly, and
in such a way that someone looking up how to deal with a
certain situation can do so quickly. Once again, my
experience with Sengoku has been of use. In the game, we
occasionally look things up. Frequently we dont find them,
and so give up and make a spot adjudication. Our game
ends up using very little of the Sengoku rules. A good
thing, you say? Not really. Why did we bother buying the
thing if we cant find what were looking for? Whats the
point of all the scholarship and thought that the authors
have put into the game if it isnt made available to us?
When Ive proposed these ideas in other forums, Ive
been interested by the response they attract. By far the
most common response, even from people who elsewhere
comment about the importance of attracting new people to
the hobby, is that we should stick with the current way of
organising games, because its what everyone is used to.
Its an interesting argument, and it has some validity if
applied to, say, books. Most of the conventions of book
design are followed because people are used to them.
However books are artefacts which are already widely
accepted in society; role-playing games are not widely
accepted, and I believe that one reason they are not as
widely accepted as they might be is that published games
reinforce most of the negative stereotypes people have.
By negative stereotypes I dont just mean the whole
geek argument, which exercises so many of my
correspondents. What Im talking about is something that
comes up repeatedly among my acquaintances who are
interested in the idea of gaming. Role-playing games look
imposing because they fling a load of rules and jargon at
you. I believe one factor in the success of White Wolf
games (other than the identification of a clear market
segment that already perceived itself as outsiders, and
which could be relatively easily targeted with a few goth
trappings) is that they produced games which stress the act
of playing, and the imaginative possibilities thereof, more
than the rules. The whole pretentious storyteller branding
is a part of this. Its a more accessible way of labelling
games than role-playing.
Ive had a fair amount of experience here in Japan with
players new to role-playing. My experience has been that
those without prior exposure to role-playing (specifically
D&D and its tropes) nevertheless adapt with remarkable
rapidity to the whole business. The idea of playing a
character is very easy to grasp. We simply give a player a
character, and let them watch a little of the game to get
the idea, before easing their character in. Moreover, we use
very few distracting rules or tables, so that the player
appreciates the core activity of gaming. This has always
worked in one session. There have been cases where a
player has not come again, but those have always been
matters of taste rather than inability to understand what is
meant by roleplaying.
Now, it may be that the raw material were working with
heremostly language teachers in Japanare more likely
to be able to pick up the important concepts. Nevertheless,
I still think that we confirm the old idea that roleplaying
can be easily taught in practice.
However, word-of-mouth is not sufficient, so we need to
turn our attention to how this method can be transferred to
paper. The obvious characteristics of it are: rapid
generation of character, rapid exposure to a setting and
roleplaying choices, minimal exposure to rules. It occurs to
me that there may be room here for combining two
problematic aspects of role-playing into one: the
introduction to role-playing and character generation.
For the latter, rather than the historical birth metaphor
that tends to drive most character generation, perhaps a
literary discovery metaphor might be more appropriate,
and make it easier to get people into games very rapidly.
Setting Sons
Even if we solve the problem of providing a good
introduction to gaming, we still face the difficulty of
including background details. Traditionally, this has been a
little haphazard, but Im coming to the conclusion that
rather than quantity, the most important characteristic of
this part of a game is organisation. Better to have four
sentences on a topic, which can be found very rapidly, than
two pages which take time to find.
This may seem to be a very superficial approachone
more suited to the disposable games Im always berating
than highly detailed culture games. But level of detail is not
the most important feature of a culture game. That is only
true of a pure simulationist game. What a culture game
requires is as much detail as is necessary for whats
happening, and no more. Sure it can be nice to have a little
extra, if that suggests additional atmospheres, but if it
starts turning the game into an act of memory, distracting
players from immersion and referee from the portrayal of a
living imaginative world, then it is counterproductive and
should be resisted.
A certain aesthetic part of me resists this, but I am
coming to the conclusion that a tightly organised, heavily
indexed set of brief notes on background is preferable the
sort of sprawling, essay-like material that has appeared in
many games (including the current version of Outlaws).
The ideas explored in this article are very far from being
set, and Id be happy for a few of you to stir the concrete
a little. Next issue I hope to present some more specific
details on how to go about presenting the introduction to a
game/character generation system. I
M
o u t l a w s
imazine
13
c
o
l
l
o
q
u
y
O
NCE AGAIN ANOTHER bunch of comments exploring the
full spectrum from outrage to irascibility. Bear in mind
that, thanks to my outrageous delay in getting this
issue published, many of these comments are very old,
and contributors may now have opinions diametrically
opposed to the ones expressed here. Or not.
Moaning minnies
Ian Marsh
This is the trouble about reading imazine as an Acrobat file.
Hard enough, indeed, to navigate three columns on one
page, but to take it all in at one go, well... And no I dont
print it out its not as if I want to take it to the lavatory
with me (to read, that is).
Despite the excellence of my colour printer, Im not
actually going to wait for it to churn out imazine, and I
cant appreciate the colour if I use my laser printer. So I
choose to read it on screen.
Rob Alexander
Actually I thought your review of Imagine to be rather
tedious; I toyed with using the same approach for Dark
Realms, but discarded it. I enjoy reviews of rolegames
(particularly yours) for the content that is interesting of
itself. Im not usually that bothered about the alleged
subject of the review.
G
I wonder whether imazine has the most demanding
readers of any roleplaying fanzine?
Jose Ramos
I was so shocked of how bad my English is (when edited by
an inmoral butcher, I must say) that I could not say
nothing about issue 34. And that is criticism enough, I
suppose. So restricting myself to ten word sentences, max,
here I go.
Robert Irwin
The rest of the issue bored me to tears.
Robert Rees
Bitchin unclefucker? Luck uph myah arse Mayhson. Uh
whell respec mah authoritah!
Matthew Pook
One has to wonder, given their comments in issue #35,
why it is, that Roberts Irwin and Rees actually read
Imazine? Any suggestions?
G I can think of plenty, and Im reluctant to turn this into
another Imagine-like competition. What could I offer as a
prize? A specially printed issue of imazine with all
comments by the Roberts removed?
Fancy that
Tim Harford
I think Imagine is probably Kewl because the swords go to
up to +11.
Why not just make +10 more powerful?
[pause]
This sword is +11.
G
Which might have won, had it not been such a popular
answer...
Simon Rogers
I think Imagine is probably kewl because skills go above
100%thats like the volume going all the way up to 11.
Robert Rees
I think Imagine is probably kewl because that bitch Mason
wouldnt know a kick-ass game if it bit him on his ass. And
anyway its like AD&D but its, like, better and only dicks
play AD&D now. We, like, switched to something kewler
months ago. And besides you get to play Saurians who are
like lizard-type dudes and AD&D doesnt have that does it;
so Imagine must be the kewlest. 3leet3 man.
G
Robert claimed he was only entering the competition
because no one else will. How wrong you were, Robert.
Jose Ramos
I think Imagine is probably kewl because you need the
mind of a twelve year old to warm to it.
Richard Irvine
I think Imagine is probably kewl because I was brought up
in the collective hive mind of the great mother-company
Games Workshop, so if a company says their game is kewl,
then they must be correct, and we are powerless to resist
the urge to plague our family to buy the overpriced game
and all its related supplements, official magazine, fiction
and merchandise, then deny all knowledge of the product
ever having existed when they decide to drop the line after
only 7 months.
imazine
14
c o l l o q u y
M
Rob Alexander
I think Imagine is probably kewl because it is
simultaneously both retro and postmodern.
NB I also offer a small bag of acorns as a bribe.
G
While I would normally have responded to this by
pointing out that a very large proportion of post-
modernism is retro because thats the whole idea, the
bag of acorns tipped it, and I have to declare Rob the
winner. If only so that I can dump on him a book that,
given his moaning, he clearly so richly deserves.
Imagine
Tim Harford
Wake up Mason! You dont expect us to believe that
Imagine actually exists, do you? A great spoof review of
AD&D, I grant youbut shouldnt you be devoting time to
all thats best in gaming, too? Imazine is at risk of
becoming the Watchdog of fanzines: This boxed set of
RuneQuest looks innocent enough, but with these funny
little dice it could be a potential death trap...
Surely the label fanzine carries with it the notion of
enthusiasm about something? Had I not been crying with
disbelieving laughter at your review, Id have felt very
sorry for Imagines publishers. I am beginning to suspect
that game companies are buying weak examples of their
rivals product lines and sending them to you for a
savaging...
Rob Alexander
Looking at the cover picture, format and the excerpts you
gave Imagine reminds me of nothing more than Gygaxs
AD&D stuff. Presumably this was their intention?
Adrian Bolt
Your review of Imagine brought back the gosh! wow! sense
of wonder of the early days.
G Sense of wonder as in I wonder how they can get away
with selling this?
Simon Rogers
Ive just taken a look at Imagines web site
(http://www.role-playing.com). Interesting. I still cant
believe that their world is called Thyrgwlaine. Matthew
[Pook] has just shown me a copy of the rules. Its
heartbreaking to see how much work and expense has
gone into this.
Rob Alexander
I suspect inherited wealth.
Tom Zunder
Oh goodness me, I read your review of Imagine with bated
breath. Would this new tome bring new and radical
approaches to gaming or would it be even better?
Actually that's bollocks. I read with bated breath so as to
stop myself creasing up with laughter. How could? Dont
they know? Oh deary deary me. I even checked the zine
date in case it was an April Fool. Your review was the best
you could have done and I am sure the publishers will
realise how perceptive and accurate you were. (Morons.)
G Since they were kind enough to send it to me, I felt a
little guilty giving it the drubbing it deserved, but then
when it comes to obligations I feel the readers, and my
own conscience, such as it is, rate higher.
Other Reviews
Matt Goodman
Im the President of Heliograph, Inc. and the Publisher of
Transactions of the Royal Martian Geographical Society,
reviewed in imazine 35.
David, the reviewer, assumes that when TRMGS 3 is
published, well remove the online articles that weve been
posting weekly to the web site (http://www.heliograph.com/
trmgs). This is not the case. The material will remain
available online after print publication.
All of Heliographs books will be 6" 9", partially due to
the way its printed (by Lightning Print), and partially
because I like the size better. Ive never understood why
game books are printed in magazine size... but I dont
think its particularly handy for something with a stiff cover.
TRMGS 1 is 90,000 words in length (a little longer than a
typical GURPS book), so I think the pricing is fair. I can
understand the confusion over the format... as more people
use it, that should change.
The cover picture was chosen because it was conceptual
art for the Space: 1889 movie. Ditto for the TRMGS 2
cover. The Robert Prior floor plans were an experiment that
didnt work out, and I heartily agree with David that they
didnt come out very well. They are available as color files
on our website, and the color versions are much more
useful.
David suggests that reprinting TRMGS wasnt the best
first product for Heliograph to produce. We reprinted the
books 1) because I really liked the material and 2) we
needed practice books to work out the kinks of publishing
with Lightning Print.
Davids dread that well carry a slew of material for one
of the most popular faux-Victorian backgrounds on the web
is unfounded... weve only received one Falkenstein article,
and I still havent gotten clearance from Talsorian to print
it. However, well cheerfully print good stuff that we can
shoehorn under Historical Science Fiction Roleplaying.
Finally, the name of our company is not Heliograph
Publications. Its just Heliograph Incorporated. Id be happy
imazine
15
Robert Irwin
To be fair, the Impro bit showed some promise. My gripe
with it, and the second But is it art? article, lies is in that
they rather clumsily strap pseudo-academia onto roleplaying
in a rather ham-fisted manner. At least the play to win
article I slated so much a few issues back tried to do
something new, rather than disappear up roleplayings arse
in the protective condom of academic repectability. At least
that is where I like the New Outlaws articles: they show a
glimmer of creating a new gaming paradigm.
I think if people are going to plunge into their local
librarys humanities section for material, they would be
better to get down to something a bit more useful. For
example, I have found Adam Phillips Neo-Freudian writings
to be much more inspiring for gaming than any of the art
article in imazine recently. Freudian psychology applied to
the family interactions of the Roman emperors and gods
has given me the basis for my second main theme in the
game.
G
Sadly my invitation to Robert to turn this investigation
into an article has not yet borne fruit. Perhaps the
condom wont fit?
Phil Nicholls
Thank you for the Impro review; it made fascinating
reading. Will there be a second piece on Masks and Trance?
G I hope so. But not in this issue, obviously.
Phil Nicholls
I am now determined to read a copy, which must be the
goal of any book review.
G Not at all. Many book reviews have a goal of pointing
out that youre better off without the book (certainly that
was my goal with the review of Impro for Storytellers,
and another that Im sure you can imagine).
Tom Zunder
Actually I have seen many master-servant PC relations in
games and yes, they are incredibly funny and make for
great counterpoint to any grand tales ongoing. The classic
in Glorantha is to play both a troll and anther players
trollkin. Since all are both master and servant to each other
the opportunities for fun are cruelly endless. Well not
endless, more myriad. But thats the author in me speaking
I guess.
Phil Nicholls
This was also a fine article about the nature of refereeing,
or at least some of the possible methods of doing so. I only
wish I was more able to create sections of a scenario in the
type of impromptu manner required for the sort of free-
c o l l o q u y
M
to respond to any further questions from anyone about
Heliograph, TRMGS, or the print publication of Forgotten
Futures.
G
Matt made a number of other points, but Im afraid Ive
edited for space.
Phil Nicholls
I have to agree with you regarding the artwork on the
TRMGS supplement; it was not so bad. Admittedly it was
not the most inspiring piece of cover art that I have seen,
but there have been far worse things. At least it did not
subscribe to the chainmail bikini school of RPG covers. I
had thought that this genre had died a death, but it seems
that the latest volume of Immortal still believes in the
ability of cleavage to sell books. Then we had the Imagine
Players Guide so perhaps this is just a Seventies retro
trend within the hobby. Next stop Vampire: Burn Baby
Burn, The Disco Years?
Matthew Pook
The reviews in issue #35 were something of a revelation
and a time trip for me. Having read the Imagine Players
Guide and the Transactions of the Royal Martian
Geographical Society, they both provoked feelings of
nostalgia in me. The Imagine Players Guide for its strong
similarities to AD&Din todays gaming market, it is a rare
thing for someone to publish what is essentially their take
upon that game!
I agree with David Platts assertion that the Transactions
of the Royal Martian Geographical Society is something of
an oddity, but I rather welcome it for all that. I certainly
enjoyed reading it, as I liked Space 1889 as a setting if not
as set of rules. Indeed, I am planning to run the setting for
one of my gaming groups. I shall further dismay you by
telling you that I shall be using GURPS for the rules! And
whilst I did not find the cover to the Transactions of the
Royal Martian Geographical Society to be stunning, I did
not think it that bad and would suggest that it has a certain
charm.
The revelation comes in your own review of Sengoku.
You were almost positive! Does this mean that the game is
worth taking a look at, since it is not by any means a
glowing review? Quite possibly. Time to get out the
Christmas lists I think.
G Yes: well worth taking a look at if you have any interest
in Japanese rolegames. I have to say thatIm playing
in a regular Sengoku game at the moment .
Robert Rees
Good reviews in 35, nice spread of coverage too. Daves
review of Impro was something of a masterpiece of writing
technique. Im not sure how much I know of the book now
but it was a very good read. Writer as protagonist,
fictionalised conversationbrilliant!
imazine
16
form scenario that Dave advocates. Perhaps reading this
book may help.
Tom Zunder
I fully support immersive playing (all praise the imazine
creed), although I am heretical in having authorial
tendencies both as player and ref. I think that makes me
an imazist of the LittleStory heresy. Now I think that Dave
Morris is of the imazist of the Improv wing, altho he may
tell me to fuck off. What concerns me about this is that it
runs counter to the One Truth of Mazon, that immersion is
good.
G The one truth of Mazon is that there is no One Truth...
Tom Zunder
No, no, hear me out. Improv is inherently subversive (all
hail the Holy Strictures of Subversion) and takes structures
and routines and breaks them down to rebuild an
interactive world. As Daves article made clear, it is the very
ability to act differently, to subvert the structure, that
appeals to him and his wing of the Church of Imaz. Is this
not the root of his error? If we are to immerse ourselves in
a culture then should we not be as most people are?
Should we not be conservative and act as a true member
of that culture would? In other words it is appropriate to
improv and subvert if you are playing a roleplaying game
set in a hippy commune or Greenwich Village, but not in a
society more akin to the traditional hierarchies that make
such gaming fun. A samurai doesnt improv, that's the
whole point of his culture. Did I miss the point?
G
Of course a samurai does improv, if he happens (like
many of his type) to follow Zen. Musashi famously won
one of his duels with a stick.
Matthew Pook
I must take issue with Allister Huggins comments about
Ray Gillhams review of Alternity. Since Ray is a friend, and
I was the one who sent him what he was reviewing, I
should put the record straight, should Ray not do so
himself. What was being reviewed was the Alternity Fast-
Play rules that TSR put out to drum up interest in the
game. Since almost every Science Fiction game released by
TSR (and I discount the Amazing Engine source books) has
been in some way a variation upon D&D, one cannot
escape making comparisons between that game and
Alternity. From the Fast-Play rules, Alternity does come
over as a D&D clone with its class and levels, and the
included adventure is a dungeon-bash, albeit a dungeon-
bash in space. Not having examined the game in any
depth, if only due to apathy (not even the imminent release
of a Gamma World supplement will negate that and Im
quite fond of Gamma World), but certainly the way in which
the rulebooks have been published follows the AD&D model.
As to anyone on rec.games.frp.misc laughing at anyone
who asked if Alternity were an AD&D clone, no. No, that is
not true. In a recent discussion raised by the exact same
question, the comments were generally supportive of both
yes and no answers, and of a good nature. You wouldnt be
showing your pro-Alternity/anti-Ray Gillham bias, would
you, Allister Huggins? If so, then I think I will stick to my
pro-Gillham bias.
G
And Ill stick to my anti-rec.games.frp.misc bias.
Ray Gillham
I dont know how to respond to that [Huggins suggestion
that Alternity is not D&D in space] exactly, except to say
that it is (cue pantomime toing and froing). If I were
charitable Id say it was written by two guys who had been
out of the hobby for a long timeor remained in a
Gygaxian campaign for 15 years somewhere in Oakland
who were then comissioned to write an RPG. So they went
straight to source (ie the only one they knew) and got
stuck in. Alternity was the last TSR project before WotC
stepped in, which shows (a) it is a TSR game through and
through, and (b) TSRs legendary business acumen.
Oh, I guess I did reply after all.
Incanus
One question: Is the system by Andy McBrien, mentioned
on page 20 of issue 35, available somewhere on the Net? It
seems interesting and Id like to check it out.
G
In those immortal words: It is now.... Andy has very
kindly given me permission to put it up on my site, so
check out http://www.tcp-ip.or.jp/~panurge/AdMidAg.pdf
Robert Rees
Ive always like Jonathan Tweets game designs and felt he
has a good grasp of writing games that are to be played
rather than ones that spend years trying to fulfill a design
brief [cough]. I was therefore enjoying his rebuttal of your
criticism up of Over The Edge until the last couple of
paragraphs when he said the games background is
intentionally shallow. It struck me as a very weak thing to
say my game is intentionally shittherefore you cannot
criticise it. I would respect him more for saying this game
is about glamourous, wealthy, English-speaking white
people living on a fabulous island paradise hidden away
from the rest of the worldso what?
Praguematics
Matthew Pook
Art. No, I do believe that it can be consumed. Nor did I say
otherwise in issue #35. What I did say was that I had
difficulty equating role-playing as art, because it did not
produce anything that could easily be consumed by anyone
c o l l o q u y
M
imazine
17
other than the participants, that is, an audience. Which is
why I brought up the subject of the Dreampark books. I
was a little put off by your comment, as it seemed to say
that you had not read what I had written. Now I found that
unlikely or hoped that this is not the case.
G Youre so used to me making snide comments here that
it didnt occur to you that I might have been asking the
question out of curiosity?
Bill Hoad
Several people have made the point that art requires an
audience. It is true that art needs audience and/or critics. I
disagree with those that say gaming can never have an
audience. I can think of games that have attracted
audiences. In particular I think of a game of Paranoia at a
games convention which attracted spectators because of its
whackiness. Then there was a game of Star Trek which
somehow became a live role-play event and attracted
bystanders to this impromptu play. So it can happen. But
once again, I say that is not what roleplaying is about.
G Isnt it obvious that participants in a role-playing game
are constantly varying in the extent to which they are in
creator mode, and audience mode?
Bill Hoad
I will admit, until very recentlyup until reading Roberts
articleI was keen on seeing gaming as a potential art
form. The actual point when I rejected this view was while
reading a trilogy of books that I have been thinking of
turning into a campaign. Towards the end, the heros wife is
suffering all sorts of agony. First of all the hero can do
nothing but see his wife suffer, it hardly gets better when
he discovers he can save his wife but at the cost of giving
up all he believes in, betray his friends and sacrificing his
best friends son. Most of my potential players are married.
If I made them think about what it would be like to be
responsible for their spouses suffering it would make the
game very dramatic and powerful. Initially I thought this
could be a great climax to the game. If I could provoke a
strong emotional response, that would be art. The emotion,
the reality, the verity.... the god-awfulness of the situation.
Then I realised how inappropriate this would be. I have
no right to bring so much raw emotion to the players.
Thats fine for books, theatre, cinema, etc. But not for
gaming. Firstly because gaming is so personal. Art forms
are at least one step removed.
G
Not true, by any means. There are art forms which
strive to be as raw and personal as they can, and there
are games which, deliberately or otherwise, induce
distance (indeed, it has been quite fashionable at times).
Moreover, I dispute the assertion that art is necessarily
about raw emotion. Are you saying that the Mona Lisa is
not art? Most artists would consider that the
appropriateness of form to the effect they desire is an
important artistic consideration. To attempt to inflict the
deepest human agony on a bunch of players would be
akin to concealing razor blades in the pages of a book
one might consider the latter art, a statement about the
dangers of knowledge or something, but we would
certainly consider it a pretty naff use of that form.
Bill Hoad
The audience views or reads the media, they dont attempt
to become the characters.
G Most narrative art works on the principle that the
audience or reader does associate to a greater or lesser
extent with the protagonist.
Bill Hoad
So is equating gaming with art a waste of time? Not
necessarily, but it should be looked at from the other way
around. What is it from art that we wish to adopt into our
games? Emotion, intellectual concepts, dedication to high
standards, completeness of the experience? Is it in fact
craftsmanship rather than artistry that we want?
Jose Ramos
Like many articles in Imazine, this left me a feeling of Yes,
I agree, but why does he write two pages for that simple
concept? The idea that aesthetics will be enhanced at the
game level when we renovate and evolve our repertory is
something that all long-lasting groups know, if only
instinctively.
G
Its nice to see that someone understood what the article
was about: not just another Is roleplaying Art? piece,
but a discussion of how we can learn from art to
improve our games.
Bill Hoad
Robert Meier evidently knows nothing about roleplaying.
Does he really think that it has much to do with finding
new ways to show his characters dislike of mystics? It is
this sort of two dimensional characterisation that makes
poor players easy meat for a ref and drive them to
thatching to put some depth into a game. In short his
whole article is navel gazing.
G I felt that he deliberately chose extremely simple
examples of behaviour to make his point clear. However
complex the actions you take in a game, the
structuralists suggest, those actions derive their meaning
from the structure in which the communication takes
place, a structure governed by linguistic convention and,
most importantly for the article, previous interactions.
Not reducing things to the simplest level would have
muddied the point, which was a basic point about
narrative, and which you may have noticed was echoed
c o l l o q u y
M
imazine
18
in the review of Impro. In that book, Keith Johnstone
demonstrates that one of the most basic narrative
techniques is to establish a routine, and then interrupt it.
Robert came upon the same principle, but from a
theoretical, rather than practical direction. I wish I could
coordinate more of the zines articles like that!
Bill Hoad
At this point I cant resist a few quotes.
We must remember that art is art and water is water.
On the other hand North is North, West is West and if you
boil up cranberries they taste more like prunes than plums
do. Groucho Marx, Animal Crackers
When you come to a town they think you are going to
do something like the Ringling Brothers... and you find
people becoming disillusioned because it turns out to be
just the same old thingArt. Oldenberg in a radio
interview about his shows and happenings
All art is quite useless. Oscar Wilde
G
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books
of quotations. Winston Churchill
Bill Hoad
Anyway Paul, my hats off to you. You are prepared to
admit you run an evenings game where nothing happens
and some players go home. Thats a game badly in need of
a strong ref.
G I never wrote anything of the kind. Thats a reader badly
in need of some spectacles. But yes, my players do tend
to go home after games. I dont have the floorspace I
used to...
Bill Hoad
Sorry if I Zundered in my response to Imazine, ie flailing
around with criticisms.
G Simply for coining that term you are forgiven... though
possibly not by Tom.
Robert Rees
As a final attempt to offer something new into this very
tired debate I have had a few thoughts on using existing
art theory to prove RPGs are art.
If I stick the three core AD&D rulebooks on a gallery
wall and title the resulting triptych Monolith, then the
result is art. Ever since Mondrian called a urinal Fountain
any object in a gallery that obeys the conventions of an
exhibition (titled, labelled, attributed, present in the
catalogue) is art. The fact that the title has a relationship
to the object that is not merely descriptive but has an
attributive, ironic, juxtaposing relation to it means my
artwork follows Mondrians convention and thus must be
art.
Great, so the physical objects of roleplay are art. But
only become high art if they are used in a way that obeys
the conventions of high art.
Now consider those three rulebooks again. If I add a
scenario and a small typed note that the owner of this art
installation should read the three rulebooks and use them
with the scenario to create the actual artwork.
This is again actually art because it obeys the
conventions of existing artwork. It is affirmative in the
context of Praguematics. Not only this but because I have
said that the result of following the instructions will be my
artwork then the roleplaying session is art. Again this is
simple the result of following existing art conventions.
So roleplaying is definitely art. But to revisit the example
it is not necessary for the books to be in a gallery. They
may be in private ownership. They need not be unique or
even sold via a gallery.
In short then if you buy the AD&D rulebooks and a
scenario then your roleplaying will be art. Simply because I
declare it to be so.
Im glad I was finally able to resolve that debate for all
of you. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to prove that
in fact all RPGs result in the creation of art.
Outlaws
Robert Rees
The design brief in 35 was interesting and I would agree
with most of it. I definitely agree that the mechanism has
to be central and simple. Players should definitely only be
thinking in terms of what do I need to roll and how can I
make this action more likely. Introducing modifiers for
preparation, speed of execution and simplicity should also
be easily memorable and consistent.
Jose Ramos
I usually take a very light approach to rules, except for
combat rules. As the part of the game were people get hurt
and die, players should know the odds, to alleviate the guilt
in case of a fatality. So a few general rolls with impromptu
modifiers affect general play, guided mostly by the flow and
ebb of PC and NPC interaction. And in the few moments
when things get violent, dice rule. It helps minimize
gratuitous violence, as they know where they are getting
into.
I suppose this means I agree with Andy McBriens list.
Robert Rees
Fractal rules? Jesus Christ! Whos been adding more useless
games designer jargon while I was looking elsewhere? I
think fractal rules is an extension of the central mechanic.
The mechanic should apply everywhere and be consistent
everywhere. Critical Incidents are a good idea and very
natural when you think of when the average GM (who is
not wedded to his rule book) rolls dice. I think this implies
c o l l o q u y
M
imazine
19
that the central mechanic should be proportional rather
than absolute. Perhaps this is not what you are thinking of
but in the combat examples you are saying what is the
proportional chance of Guan defeating Hua and what is the
proportional chance that Guan will see off the bandits
without getting injured?
G Fractal rules can be viewed purely in statistical terms, I
suppose. It has long been a problem in many systems
that the overall chance in a contest decided by a single
roll differed from that of an extended contest decided by
a series of rolls. This needs to be addressed, but I was
thinking more of avoiding time-wasting dice rolling by
making sure the mechanical detail suits the event being
resolved.
Robert Irwin
The rules should be fractal Im in the final stages of
develping my own system for a dice-based game and have
encountered this problem. As someone who normally
wouldnt touch rules with Gygaxs 10 foot pole, Im in the
odd situation of having to run a game for a bunch of
hardened must-have-dice nuts. Anyway, my solution is this.
Characters have a simple stats and skills based character
sheet. Reolution is based on me asking what the characters
most relevant skill is and any stat that might be relevant.
They then chuck two dice and have to get lower than a
number I arbitrarily decide based on this and what they are
tryng to do.
Nick Bogan
While reading New Outlaws in imazine 35, I was struck by
the irony that desperately bad Gardasiyal is the only
system I know of (although my knowledge is quite limited,
I admit) that tries to implement fractal rules. It has a three
level combat system, if you count the one-roll method from
the Adventures on Tekumel solo rulebooks. Gardasiyal's
combat rules have too many tables to be elegant, and they
account for the same modifiers in too many places, but
they seem to be following the path you advocate.
G It is, indeed, a marvellous irony. I think where
Gardasiyal departs from the path is that it does not
employ the same mechanic in the three systems, and is,
as you note, rather smothered in modifiers. Moreover, it
also suffers from the statistical problem that Robert Rees
alluded to above.
Robert Rees
Interesting results is a useful addition to terminology,
unlike fractal rules. Put simply I take it to mean that if we
are reaching for the dice then we are uncertain as to what
is going to happen next and there should be the potential
for the game to take a very different direction as a result
of the resolution: one that neither players or GM might
have forseen.
c o l l o q u y
M
Robert Irwin
The rules should provide interesting results. This one I
disagree with. It harks back to the MERP critical hit table
days, which I hated. I suspect that the answer is that the
results of dice rolls are never, ever looked up on a table. I
can only say that if the rules are required to produce
interesting results, you are letting the players be lazy. I
think if people describe what they are doing properly there
should be plenty of detail to interpret into interesting
results. If the activity is so mundane it doesnt need
described, it snt really worth bothering about the detail of
the outcome either.
G When I said the rules produce interesting results I was a
long way from wanting critical hit tables. What I was
saying was, theres little point in having a finer detail of
resolution if that finer detail of resolution adds no more
interest than a single roll. In other words, a blow-by-
blow combat should feel exciting (and this can come
from peoples description, as you point out above, but
some mechanics lend themselves to this better than
others). My experience with Outlaws so far is that when
it is working well, it actually helps players interpret
results in interesting ways. A bald roll to hit, roll for
damage system is less likely to do that.
Robert Rees
I do think that youre right to point out that players dont
think in hexes and so on. I often find it difficult to
understand American Imperial measurements being used to
Metric myself. How big is a 10' pole really? Unless youre
using some kind of tabletop skirmish wargame then the
only relevant units in the game should be ones that players
use themselves to measure the real world.
There might be an argument for an in-character
measurement for an immersive style of game but in all
honesty I think its asking too much of the players. They
after all work in some set of measures they are
comfortable with as do their characters. For convenience its
better to translate to the players terms of reference rather
than risking the disassociation of the player and characters
experience.
G
I compromise on this. I use feet and yards in Outlaws
because they are close to the Chinese measures, and
they have mechanical advantages. I also provide details
of the Chinese measures so that players can slip them
into character conversation, if they want to, for
atmosphere.
There are some rather obvious dangers involved in
unthinkingly translating into the players terms of
referenceat least if you have any ambitions to produce
a game with the level of estrangement that I aim at. Too
much of this sort of thing is, for me, what has happened
to the genre of fantasy fiction, which is now almost
entirely unfantastical. Oddly enough, I believe rolegames
are to blame for this state of affairs.
imazine
20
GURPS and Others
Matthew Pook
What is it about GURPS? It seems as if every contributor to
issue #35 is biased against it. Do you have a problem with
the game/rules or with your players and the way they play
it? I play a fair number of games using these rules and do
not have these problems. Certainly I am far more
interested in creating an interesting character for the game,
than I am for min/maxing it into an bermensch.
Nor do I have this problem when playing GURPS, that
whatever setting or genre the game may be, you are still
playing GURPS. Cannot anyone else divorce the rules from
the setting, and just play the game?
The comments made in issue #35 against GURPS, raises
the question of whether rules should be specific to a
particular game, rather than derived from some generic set.
Is this what you are advocating?
G Yes. GURPS has its place, and Ive played in GURPS
games and enjoyed them. But it was always despite the
rules rather than because of them.
GURPS suits a certain, highly mechanical style of
gaming. But it is not universal or generic. Cannot
anyone else divorce the rules from the setting, and just
play the game? Frequently not when playing GURPS,
because if you actually use the rules it doesnt let you.
The game imposes a hidden agenda through its whole
character generation system, and with its approach to
combat. There is no such thing as a setting-independent
system, any more than there is such a thing as
presentation-independent content.
Robert Rees
There were a few suggestions that Imazine was not the
place to discuss the mechanics of roleplaying. This seems a
crazy idea to me, if not in Imazine then where? All
commercial magazines are linked openly or subtlely to the
big games companies. How can you be expected to have a
serious debate about systems of roleplaying when the
companies have too much at stake to admit that perhaps
AD&D or Vampire actually sucks. The only places where a
vaguely rational and independent debate can be held is in a
fanzine.
Not only that but if you want a debate with people who
are normally intelligent, insightful and unwedded to any
particular gaming ideology then really Imazine is the only
place to do it. You only have to look at the Usenet groups
to realise that.
There are few avenues for intelligent (if often bruising)
debate about RPG and Imazine is definitely the most well-
known and most accessible.
G Hate to disagree when youre being so free with the
compliments, but Alarums & Excursions (http://
theStarport.com/xeno/aande.html for details) is certainly
c o l l o q u y
M
more well-known, and while it isnt available on the Web,
it is delivered to your door regular as clockwork every
month.
The Last Geeks
Matthew Pook
I role-play. I like science fiction. So in the eyes of some
this makes me a geek, but to be honest, I dont give a
damn. It is just a label. The people that matter to me, my
partner and my family accept that I game and dont label
me a geek. Were I to throw myself into the so-called
acceptable pursuits of football, cars and drinking, they
would probably refer me to a doctor.
Reading through Robert Irwins moans, I am at a loss as
to what it is he wants. If he has been gaming for as long
as is apparent from his letter, then he should know that he
should game and deal with the geek label as much as he
sees fit, or just become acceptable and give up the game.
More common I think, is the time constraints upon older
players as they acquire a family of their own. Methinks
Robert is self-flagellating to no good effect!
Robert Rees
I feel privileged to finally be a member of the hobby elite.
Im looking forward to the initiation kit with anticipation. I
think the hobby elite are probably those mostly needy
people who tend to contribute excessively to various RPG
forums and end up with their names plastered over
everything leading people to think there is some conspiracy
going on. I think in-jokes such as adequate makes this
paranoia even worse. But hell its funny at the end of the
day! I think if you are writing a letter to Imazine or
whatever and you start thinking Shit, this is going to sound
really cliquey and then change things around then the
whole thing ends up being a stilted attempt to not
reference anything. A sort of hobby anti-elite. Ill volunteer
to hold the membership on that group.
G You may find you have some stiff competition there.
People always seem to feel that its cooler to have
themselves perceived as being anti-clique and anti-elitist,
and will therefore go to great lengths to invent cliques
and elites they can oppose...
Final Word
The extreme lateness of this issue may have caused some
of you to wonder whether imazine had folded again (it
certainly had me wondering). Well, obviously not. Though
this issue has made it plain to me that I will have to stop
delaying the zine because theres stuff I dont really want
to do. In future I just wont do it. Because of the delay
theres stuff I probably promised to put in the zine which
got left out. Sorry about that.