18 July 2009
Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net
ROGUE FEED
Who’s Afraid of Percentile Dice?
JUL 18, 2009 12:01A.M.
I rather expected my recent post on morale to raise some eyebrows
because it’s percentile-based rather than based on, say, 1D20 or 2D6. I
have in the past expressed some unhappiness with percentiles in OD&D
and many of my most recent house rules and other designs have
purposefully avoided using them. I did this in an attempt to keep things
“simple,” on the assumption that using not just two dice but two new-
fangled dice would somehow ruin my experiment in playing OD&D as
the Ancients played it. I’ve discovered, though, that, much as I
discovered through my use of only D6 and D20 — another part of my
experiment — I miss the use of all the polyhedrals.
Again, I expect this may raise some eyebrows, but it shouldn’t. The
Dwimmermount campaign has from the start been partly an exercise in
“ludographic archeology,” which is to say, an attempt to understand
early gaming by sticking as closely to its conventions as I could, right
down to the types of dice I used. It’s been absolutely wonderful in that
regard, helping me to understand quite a number of things that I would
not have if I’d just approached OD&D purely on a theoretical level. That’s
why I’ve always advocated that more people actually sit down and play
these games we’re all talking about. It’s only through play that certain
things truly become clear and clear in ways that are utterly impossible to
predict.
A case in point is dice. Rolling dice is fun and rolling lots of different
kinds of dice is even more fun. In the case of weapon damage, for
example, I discovered that weapon choice seems more meaningful when
different dice types are attached to different weapons. This is a small
thing and, mechanically, it is. The difference between rolling 1D4 for a
dart and rolling 2D6 take the lowest (as I had been doing for small
1
and/or improvised weapons) isn’t all that great, but it feels different and
in ways that contribute greatly to player enjoyment of the game, at least
at my table. The same goes for a myriad of little rules, sub-systems, and
practices, changing any one of which, if I were to present it outside the
context of play, might seem insignificant but that, in play, had an impact.
A good example of this is the saving throw mechanic, something that I
think feels better in its original form than in any of its revised versions.
That’s the biggest insight that my months-long Dwimmermount
campaign has given me thus far: what rules “work” and which ones don’t
often have very little to do with how “simple” or “efficient” or “intuitive”
they are and everything to do with what they inspire and encourage in
the players who use them. My Dwimmermount campaign’s rules have
evolved over the course of the fourteen sessions we’ve got under our
belts. It’s no longer a “pure” version of any rules set, but its “impurities”
are the result of actual play, not out-of-game theorizing about what rules
are “clearly better,” to borrow a phrase. Many of the supposed flaws in
OD&D — or indeed most old school games — are only flaws if you’re
looking at them in an overly intellectualized fashion divorced from actual
and regular play.
That’s why many things I’d originally thought just didn’t “work” or were
“impurities” have slowly crept back into my campaign and other things I
saw as improvements are being jettisoned. I think I now have a better
sense of how and why many things changed in OD&D from the initial
release in 1974 until the publication of its last supplement two years
later. I’m seeing many of the same changes in my own game and, rather
than resist them, I’m embracing them. That’s another thing I’ve learned:
sometimes the game takes on a life of its own — and that’s a good thing.
Indeed, that’s what we all ought to be striving for.
And when that happens, when a campaign takes off to such an extent
that it pulls you along with it, that’s no time to be thinking in the abstract
about whether something works or not. That’s when you just pick up the
dice — even percentile ones — and roll.
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net
ROGUE FEED
A blast from the past
JUL 17, 2009 11:01A.M.
Those who know me, know that there are very few games that I truly
love. I love playing games and gaming, but very few games hold my
attention for very long. I can count on one hand the number of games
that have stayed with me through the years. One game in particular
holds a special place for me, Little Fears. The reason for this is that the
game really surprised me in how it dealt with a very difficult topic. In
addition, it is the game’s creator who through the years has become a
friend. So this week I decided to reread the game (I have lost count how
many times I have done this, as well as play the game), and surprisingly
the review of the game I wrote years ago still stands. So instead of
rewriting it, I am going to run this review again. The review originally
appeared in A&E.
Little Fears
By Jason L. Blair
Key 20 Publishing
138 Pages ($20.00)
It is not often that a roleplaying game makes you think.
It is also a rare occurrence when a roleplaying game tackles a
controversial subject, with grace and understanding. Upon reading Little
Fears I was happy to have my first impressions of the game shattered. At
first glance Little Fears is a game simply about childhood fears, which it
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18 July 2009
is, but it is also about much more.
Little Fears is a game dealing with the monster in the closet, the giant
spider under the cellar stairs, and all the other fears children have when
they are between the ages of 6 and 12. Little Fears has the players take
on the role of children and confront the monsters that lurk in the world.
These monsters are very powerful and the players are hard pressed to
defeat them. The only way to defeat them is by confronting their fears,
and from that experience gaining the strength to defeat the monster.
Character creation is done by answering a series of questions. These
questions help define who the character is. More importantly they help
you to figure out what you are afraid of. Once the questions are answered
you move on to determine the potential of your child. There are five stats
in Little Fears: Smarts, Muscles, Hands, Feet, and Spirit. Each character
has three Virtues which represent the aspects of the character. Soul
shows how immortal the soul of the character is. Innocence reflects how
pure and innocent the character is. The younger the character is, the
more Innocence they have. Fear represents how much the forces of
Closetland (more on this later) have gotten to the character. Each
character gets 6 Playground Points which are used to raise Stats. All
Stats begin at 2, and a player can raise or lower a Stat from 1 to 5.
Playground Points can also be used to buy Qualities, which define the
character even more. There are positive Qualities and negative Qualities,
and they represent the things you like or dislike about your character.
When attempting anything in the game you need to roll either a Test or a
Quiz. A Quiz is used when you are doing something unopposed, like
riding a bike down a steep hill, or looking for something in a dresser
drawer. A Test is used when your character is opposing someone, such as
running away from a stranger. For a Quiz to be successful you need to
roll under your Stat. For a Test to be successful, you need to roll over
your opponent’s Stat. When your character sees something scary they
need to make a Fear check. Fear checks are an important part of Little
Fears, they are Spirit Quizzes, and if you fail it, you might stand and
gibber, or wet yourself.
The three Virtues of Soul, Innocence, and Fear are each scaled between 1
to 10. They are important to the game, and have the most important
effects on the Character. As your Soul creeps down towards 0 bad things
begin to happen, and once reaching 0 the character goes through “The
Darkening” (which I will not give away). Innocence depends on your age,
and as you grow older you lose your Innocence and become blind to the
forces of Closetland. You can also lose Innocence through trauma, abuse,
or doing bad things to yourself and others. Fear begins at 0, and is
gained every time a Fear check is failed. Once you start to building up
Fear your child begins changing.
My favorite section, “The Power of Belief” deals with how a child’s belief
helps and hinders them in the fight against Closetland. A child’s belief
might imbue a stuffed animal with magical powers so that it can protect
the child from harm. A child’s belief can also fuel the creation of the
child-eating garden gnome that stands next to the tool shed. Belief is a
powerful thing, but as a child loses their Innocence their belief begins to
falter. Eventually the night light that always kept the monsters away no
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net
longer works, or that magic stuffed animal is just a simple loved worn
toy.
The bulk of the book deals with Closetland and its ruler the Demagogue.
Closetland is the home of all fear, and is the main protagonist of Little
Fears. Working for the Demagogue are the seven kings who are the
physical embodiment of the seven vices. The Demagogue and his kings
hate all things innocent, and for them pleasure can only be found in
destroying innocence. It is the forces of Closetland that abuse children,
and who kidnap them from their rooms. Closetland is a place without
hope, and a manifestation of fear. It is a place adults have forgotten
about, and a place that keeps children up at night. Only purity can defeat
the forces of Closetland, and only by overcoming their fears, can a child
win the battle. Closetland is the personification of all things evil and all
the fears that children have.
Though a large part of the book is devoted to Closetland, a GM can
ignore it and run adventures of a different nature. A GM can run
adventures similar to a bedtime story, that has all the trappings of
fantasy. The adventures can deal with such subjects as courage, strength
and bravery. Adventures like this would be perfect for GMs wanting to
run something similar to C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. Little Fears
can also be used to tell Fairy Tales, and adventures can be based on any
number of The Brother’s Grimm tales. You could also run adventures
similar to Scooby Doo, and have the protagonist be nothing more than
Old Man Withers the groundskeeper. Little Fears‘ rules can easily be
molded to any genre and is perfect for adventures that are more role
playing, than roll playing, in nature.
Little Fears is a masterpiece. It deals with themes that most gamers
would not want covered. It talks about abuse, but it is only one small
paragraph, and it treats the subject with tact and delicacy. For me, Little
Fears is a game about hope, strength, friendship and purity. As children
you must face down your fears, and by overcoming them you gain
strength. The PCs are children, not muscle bound heroes dripping with
weapons and skills. The children are armed with only two things: belief
and bravery. It is bravery that makes you confront that which scares you
the most. It is bravery that makes you rush to your friend’s side when the
closet monster has him by the throat. It is the belief in yourself, or in the
locket you mother gave you, that helps you confront that which scares
you.
Little Fears is a rarity in today’s market. Though it deals with darkness,
it provides light. It is a brave game. After all there are not many games
that would deal with this subject matter, and deal with it in a non-
sensational way. This is truly a great game, and it is one that I can not
recommend highly enough.
Posted in Games, thoughts Tagged: thoughts
3
18 July 2009
ROGUE FEED
The industry needs an enema.
Or, I am tired of this PDF
nonsense.
JUL 17, 2009 09:56A.M.
So if you have not been paying attention lately, the “industry” is in a tizzy
about PDFs and the pricing of PDFs. I’ve ignored this, as has James,
and we just kept doing what we like to do, design games. Then this blog
post was posted, and it ticked me off:
http://jamesmishler.blogspot.com/200…-rambling.html
That entire post really rubbed me the wrong way. Not just as a gamer but
as a publisher. This attitude, which I am seeing more and more lately in
this industry, has me annoyed. Really annoyed. That is why I am writing
this, becasue as Howard Beal screamed in Network (a movie that
despite the age is even more correct now then it was in 1976):
I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.
When forming Rogue Games, one of the big things James and I wanted
to do was keep our games as affordable as possible. That is why we price
them (both print and eBooks/PDFs) as low as we do. That is why we do
the things we do to help keep the cost low. Like what? Use POD and stay
away from color. For me, as a publisher, I would much rather price titles
lower, create smaller games, and build a customer base on making
affordable games.
As for PDF pricing, hell, we give ours away when you buy a print copy
either online or in a physical store. We give them away as if on a whim —
as one irate publisher told me in a recent email. The reason? For us,
PDFs/eBooks are as much a marketing device as they are a information
tool. For us, if you bought the game, you should be allowed to use it
anyway you want. Period. That is why we bundle the PDF with the book.
That is why we strip any DRM we can from the PDF. That is why we do
not get in the way of how you choose to use the PDF.
This is why we made our PDF guarantee public. We state right up
front that the upper limit of a PDF from us is $9.99. We have PDFs at
lower price points as well. Why the limits? Personally, I cannot sell a
PDF at or near the same price as a print book. I just cannot do it. Why? I
could not live with myself as a person, let alone a publisher.
I am happy as hell Paizo is charging $9.99 for Pathfinder. To call
them out on this is silly. To call them a threat is just damn ignorant. Hell,
Pathfinder is a game that is not my style, however, I am buying a copy
of the game because I support them in their decision. Period.
Sadly the reaction other publishers have when another publisher does
something they do not like, no longer surprises me. I am always getting
emails from some accusing what Rogue Games does as harming their
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net 18 July 2009

business. Why? Our pricing and views on PDFs.

In the end, James and I are going to continue to do what is best for
Rogue Games, the gamers who like our games, and the consumer who
does not want to go broke just to try something new.