The Mongoliad, Book One, is the first in a series of books written by a collection of authors (Bear, Bear, Brassey, deBirmingham, Moo, Stephenson, Teppo). It is an alternate history starting in 1241 AD with brief moments of the fantastical / spiritual. They make no jokes about the devastation wrought by the Mongols, and paint a convincing portrait of medieval Europe (everything is dirty and most people are poor). It’s a quality story, with the promise of more good tales to come.
Plans and Celebrations
Hello readers!
This post is under my name, but really, it comes from all of us here at Fistful of Wits! How can I say that? Because Henry and Jason are in town! We’re here to help some old college friends celebrate the completion of their theses and their imminent graduation, but while we’re here, it’s time for a little bit of collaboration! So here’s a sneak preview of what you can expect to see next week!
Next week, we’re going to be focusing a lot on the idea of games as cinematography, through discussions of narrative tools such as ‘cameras’, ‘focus’, schticks, and more. I also hope to put out my first short story! There also might be a first recorded RPG going up; if not, maybe just snippets of one. And finally, select clips from our first few planning sessions (over Skype)!
But expect next week to be spotty as we recover from our revelry.
Servant of the Dragon, by David Drake
Servant of the Dragon is the third book in the epic fantasy series Lord of the Isles, written by David Drake. Published in 1999, it is a excellent sequel and addresses the few issues that I previously had with the series while continuing the better traditions of the first two books. I recommended the series before, I recommend it even more strongly now. If you want to dive into a fantasy setting built on the sunken ruins of an Atlantean past, constructed from the stones of Sumerian mythology and mortared with Greek and Roman poetry, this is the series for you.
Game Analysis: Great Gatsby for NES
It has been a good long while since I’ve read The Great Gatsby, but I’m fairly sure that The Great Gatsby for NES does not truly reflect the novel in any way outside of its cutscenes and aesthetic. It’s built just like any old platformer where it tells you the controls, but doesn’t tell you anything about the game world (though the controls are not displayed in-game). It’s really short, so there isn’t all that much to actually comment on, but I found it enjoyable and worth a playthrough. The lack of a pause button means it’s sort of an all-in adventure, but due to its short length that’s actually not that awful.
The one thing I will comment on is how I think it did a poor job of educating the player on how to fight the first boss. Your attack (throwing a hat) operates as a sort of player-seeking boomerang. The first boss is most easily defeated through the use of this mechanic by throwing the hat and then jumping up near the boss, but there is a problem: the game doesn’t really present this to you as something important to practice until the boss fight. Just about every enemy you encounter can be dealt with by just throwing the hat straight at them, which then also makes it bounce straight back to you. The range on the default hat (there is a yellow hat power-up) is also extremely short, so there isn’t much opportunity to alter its trajectory. On top of that the screen is actually rather thin, and since it tracks the player avatar (keeps it in the center) the short attack range of the default hat ends up being almost equal to your field of vision. This makes it so you can’t really prepare for enemies by throwing out long shots, which also means that there isn’t much time to play with hat trajectory. The issues of range/sight combined with how just throwing straight is all you need means the player likely won’t discover and develop the technique(s) required to manipulate the hat projectile in the first boss fight until that very boss fight. Developing the skill required to defeat the boss is also rather unsatisfying as it never comes up again and the rest of the game can pretty much be played as before (throwing straight shots).
But I’m willing to look past this flaw because of just how classy the game is. Or maybe it’s because I drank a martini every time I grabbed up a martini power-up…
Horror and Predetermined Outcomes
In my article on how I run a game, I mentioned that there are specific genres in which I’ll sometimes accept predetermined outcomes. I’ve most often experienced this in horror games, where both the players and the PCs know that there will be certain terrible things that happen, regardless of the actions taken by the PCs. But why does this work? How could any player enjoy knowing that their terrible doom approaches?
Training Exercise
Ultimately, roleplaying is a game of imagination and improvisation. Some people find that they have trouble with these faculties. I feel forced to credit my own proficiency in these areas to a number of games I played as a kid, and still occasionally play, as well as a few hobbies of mine. I think it should come to no surprise that most roleplayers are also writers or actors; in fact, I noted the similarity between the three media in previous articles, and many actors are famously in support of D&D/credit it with stimulating their mind.
Continue reading
Classification Necessary: Problems with Horror
A week ago I was going to write an article to bounce off of Mattias’ horror game article about SCP Containment Breach. A week ago I was going to use Hostel by Eli Roth as a sort of whipping boy/strawman example of what makes a bad horror movie. But in my haze of sickness, working nights, and sleeping for multiple days straight I realized that my perspective on what “horror” is was flawed. I searched for definitions to support my claim that Hostel was not a horror movie because it offered no scares and no suspense, but I was met with definitions that incorporated discomfort and sickened responses. Being horrified is not just being scared, but also being disgusted. In this way Hostel can still be called a horror film (but still not a good one). But this broadness of definition offers up a problem, one that I ran into a lot when I used to work in a video rental store (yes, those still exist), and the problem is: When someone asks you to recommend a horror movie, how do you respond?
As most people would do I always end up recommending my favorites, but I’ve noticed that my favorites never really include movies from the genre of horror that Hostel was aiming for. I’m a big fan of suspenseful films like The Shining where the focus of the film is to make the characters feel uncomfortable as opposed to films like The Girl Next Door (Jack Ketchum’s version) where the goal is to make the audience feel uncomfortable. Now, you may argue that the goal of The Shining was to make the audience feel uncomfortable, and you would be correct, but it does so by making the characters feel paranoid and unsafe, and the audience then empathizes with them also feels paranoid for the characters. The Girl Next Door on the other hand makes the audience uncomfortable via the brutal treatment of the characters. The audience isn’t paranoid about whether or not they will be safe, but is instead disgusted by just how unsafe they are, and rather than paranoia of the future the audience is more hopeful that the present situation will end.
Putting Power in Players’ Paws
Ok, so your players probably have hands, not paws, but I liked the alliteration.
The traditional roleplaying game, D&D, is very much structured in a specific way: the GM has a specific game/plot/monster that the players have to beat. In this way, D&D is structured much like a computer RPG, it just happens to be played with multiple players (and so can Baldur’s Gate 2, not to mention World of Warcraft).
There is value to this model; if you have one GM who is particularly good at plotting stories and taking care of all of the details of the world, and a lot of players without a knack for world-building, well, why not run a game like this? Labor gets divided up appropriately, and everybody gets to do what they’re good at.
Typically, however, everybody has something to offer to the story if given the chance, and 4 minds can probably come up with better ideas overall than just 1. This is why, typically (especially if I really trust the players), I prefer to run games that are much more player-driven. For me, good player-driven systems are those which have narrative elements built into them. The most obvious examples would be any game with a Fate point system. Such systems tend to give fate points to the player, and they can narrate something about the world that is unlikely but still possible by expending a Fate point. However, for me, the pinnacle of player-driven games is Apocalypse World. I understand that there are MORE player-driven games, but I find that the lack of a solid authority in completely player-driven games tends to leave most people feeling unsatisfied. Apocalypse World is the perfect balance: it lets the players help create the world and orient the plot, but doesn’t give them too much power to determine results.
Short Story: Jerome Goes North
A second story in my fantastical alternate history world; this one follows Jerome at a younger age, as he travels to trade with the Northmen.
* * *
It was one of those late summer days when the weather somehow thought it was late fall, and Jerome huddled into his wool cloak as the wind forced rain into his eyes. A truly miserable day to be riding north into the hills on a narrow and winding dirt trail. He had to manage the wagon as his team of oxen laboriously pulled it over every rut and stone they could find. The rain had soaked through to his skin several hours back, shortly after he had broken camp with his retainers, and not one of them looked comfortable. His uncle had neglected to mention anything like this.
Player Action, Player Inaction
I have often focused too narrowly on what will happen when the players follow the trails that I have laid out for them. But what do you do when the players don’t want to play with any of the plot you’ve got prepared for them? And what happens with the problems that they’re ignoring?
Fistful of Wits 