Hmmm. According to my stats, I've lost three followers in the past few days. Guys, what did you think this site was about? What have I not been doing that you wanted me to do? Don't come crying to me when you miss out on all the perks of my quest for global domination. But I guess I should get back to practical game design...
I'm reading the Steve Jobs biography lately. It's the giant white book with the big picture of Steve Jobs on the cover, so you can't miss it. One of the things that obsessed Jobs was simplicity. It was one of the three guiding principles in the original foundational document for Apple. Simple is better. Jobs didn't like software that required too many clicks. He didn't like on-off switches; that's why iPhones have only one button to power up, and the slider bar at the bottom of the screen to unlock the phone. The whole process of using the device had to be intuitive and simple to understand.
Remember that. Simple is better.
But simplicity isn't easy to design. In fact, Apple made hundreds of foam models of the iPhone. Simplicity takes a lot of work. It's a process of stripping away all the non-essential elements from the design. We should do the same thing.
Back in the day, there was a game called Middle Earth Role Playing (MERP). This game had a super-detailed combat system. There was a massive chart for fumbles. And one for critical hits. And hit location. I tried this game exactly once, when I was in high school. A simple fight with four orcs took all night. There was no roleplaying. We never played the game again.
I've never played Aftermath, but I hear that the combat system was a nightmare as well. Trajectory. Hit location. Ammo types.
There are all kinds of places to put complexity. Character creation. Combat. Skill systems. And there are some people who like their games super-complex and "realistic." Hey, that's cool. But I think that a game is better served by simplicity.
The reader should be able to understand the game quickly. The concept should be easy to understand (who do you play, what do you do?). The mechanics should be both consistent and quickly understood. How do I hit a monster in D&D? You roll 1d20, add any bonuses, subtract any penalties, and beat a target number. Simple. Elegant.
Back in the day, the game took speed factor into account. This was supposed to measure the relative speed of the weapon based on it's size and mass. No one I know ever used this rule. Similarly, in 1st edition AD&D, no one used psionics because the system was unwieldy and worked completely different from the rest of the rules. Designers chucked these rules for simplicity's sake.
John Wick (Hi, John!) recently complained about the exisence of falling damage rules in RPGs, and he's exactly right (up to a point). If you have to pull out a Texas Instruments graphic calculator to figure something out, you've bogged down play, and likely confused the gamer. You've pulled them out of the experience, whether that's the roleplaying experience or the game playing experience (those things aren't the same). I don't agree with him, however, that those rules aren't necessary at all. The wizard's fireball blasts me off the top of the ruins, but the spell wasn't enough to kill me; how much damage do I take? The rules are necessary. But they should be simple and elegant.
If you're going to include complexity (called "crunchiness" among gamers), then make sure you understand why you're including it. And still try to avoid making the rules too complex. Even if your market really, really wants to drill down to the nitty gritty of hacking, as a certain point you're only going to be catering to five guys. Even they don't want to be pulled out of the experience of playing the game.
One example from my own experience comes from the Coda System. We had a debate in the office about whether or not to include a saving throw mechanic. This, for those of you not in the know, is a general "save yourself from danger" roll, for jumping out of the way of falling boulders or surviving the bite of a poisonous snake. These things don't come up often in a game, and they could easily be handled as some kind of attribute test. In fact, that's the approach some argued for. It was simple.
I argued the opposite, that it needed just a bit of complexity. Saving throws are a "second tier" attribute. They give you something else to modify through the rules. "Gain +2 to your saving throw, in X situation." Or you could improve saving throws separately through leveling. In other words, if you tied the saving throw directly to an attribute, that statistic would only change if you changed the attribute somehow. Even better if your saving throw were somehow tied to your attributes, so a person with low constitution would have a lower saving throw. I ended up winning the debate. Yes, I added a touch of crunchiness to the rules, but they remained simple and elegant.
As I said, this can take a lot of work. You have to do a lot of design work. Maybe because you have to write a rule several times in order find it's best expression, or strip it down to its salient feature. Maybe because one rule doesn't fit with the rest of the rules. It's a matter of taste and intuition.
Remember, however, that simple is best.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Cat Pee Stores
Why do we, the designer, care about the retail experience? Well, where do you think the gamer is going to buy your game? Moreover, the retail store is your point of contact with the consumer, your audience. Do they like crunchy games? Story games? Do they prefer the falling damage rules in Terminus V vs. Vampire? Hanging out in game stores is a good idea, to learn about your audience. But, to me, the most important aspect of the game store is as retail establishment.
Right now, you're thinking "hunh?!"
Let's wind back a bit with a bit of background. If you talk to any game manufacturer, the subject turns pretty quickly to retailers. Despite my glowing praise of Zombie Planet, I'm sorry to say the majority of game stores are the exact opposite. Peter Adkinson (Hi, Peter!) calls these "cat pee stores." This is because the store smells like cat pee from the store cat. These retail establishments are run like gamer clubhouses, typically for the owner and his friends. They just want the discount they get from Alliance. So, they're not operated like real businesses. Some of the experiences I had:
The game store owner who opened up his shipment from the distributor and then left it on a floor by the door. If you were looking for a new release, you picked through the box. "Hi, I'm looking for the new GURPS supplement." "It's in the box..."
The owner who wouldn't walk away from his computer to ring up a sale, because he was playing an MMO.
I went into a store one time looking for a GURPS supplement (Black Ops, if you must know), because I was out of town and needed a copy. No GURPS to be found. "Where do you keep the GURPS?" I asked. Oh, we hate that game, so we don't carry it. Uh, what?!
There was a store in Scranton that claimed to be a game store, but it only really carried Games Workshop and some Magic. But they made sure to have three couches, two warboards, and a soda machine. It was really a clubhouse where they could wargame, and the Magic sales paid the bills.
This one is my favorite story. I went into a retailer, looking for my own stuff. I needed to buy a present for someone on the run, and wanted to give them some of my own work. Again, no Star Trek RPG on the shelves, so I asked. Stupid me. "Oh, LUG is out of business." Uh, what?! "LUG went out of business, so we can't get their stuff anymore." Dude, I work for LUG. I assure you we're not out of business. "Well, they haven't come out with supplement X (I forget what it was), and we heard they were out of business." Buddy, I work for LUG. Here's my card. "Well, then where's supplement X?!" What do you care, you don't even stock the goddamned game...?!
I haven't even gotten into what collectibility has done to the business. See, game stores are actually book stores selling very specialized books. For decades, they were run on the book store sales model; you buy some books and put them on the shelves. If a book sells in a week, great. If it sells in a month, great. If it sells in a year, great. You still make your profit. And you never know when someone will walk in looking for a particular book. Obviously, if the book sells faster, it's easier to make rent. But if you have enough books, the chances are you'll sell something on any given day. Magic: the Gathering destroyed this model.
Now, game stores work on a collectibles model. You buy ten cases of Magic, you sell ten cases of Magic (often in two days), instant profit. Then, you can go back to playing the Knights of the Old Republic MMO. Minimum input, maximum output. You don't have to do anything that smacks of work. The kids come in looking for the latest Magic expansion, and your money isn't tied up in inventory.
But since he can't credibly call himself a "game store" with just a computer, cat, and piles of Magic cards in his store, he orders some RPGs. Typically, this is a huge amount of D&D (though nowadays, it more likely Pathfinder), some White Wolf books, and a bunch of "little games" he's heard about. Of those "little games," the average order is the core book, and the three most recent supplements. That's it. Want something older? You're S.O.L. And once those sell, there's a good chance you'll never see the game again in your local cat piss store ("Uh, it's out of print, and I heard the company was out of business."). Unless you're Pathfinder, D&D, and Vampire. That is, if they bother using their Magic profits to support RPGs....
Thus, manufacturers have had to move to .pdfs and print-on-demand (POD) and make their games available direct to gamers. This has not only pissed off the retailers (then do your jobs, guys), it has affected quality of product. This is what we're concerned about as designers. This is why games are poorly laid out, have crappy art, and have no editing. You have to pay these people. I know, it's a cruel world. But if you're only charging $5 for a .pdf, you don't have the money to pay a graphic designer, artists, and editors. Your game suffers. Not only because you can't get the game into the customer's hands through retail, but because it affects your bottom line.
Right now, you're thinking "hunh?!"
Let's wind back a bit with a bit of background. If you talk to any game manufacturer, the subject turns pretty quickly to retailers. Despite my glowing praise of Zombie Planet, I'm sorry to say the majority of game stores are the exact opposite. Peter Adkinson (Hi, Peter!) calls these "cat pee stores." This is because the store smells like cat pee from the store cat. These retail establishments are run like gamer clubhouses, typically for the owner and his friends. They just want the discount they get from Alliance. So, they're not operated like real businesses. Some of the experiences I had:
The game store owner who opened up his shipment from the distributor and then left it on a floor by the door. If you were looking for a new release, you picked through the box. "Hi, I'm looking for the new GURPS supplement." "It's in the box..."
The owner who wouldn't walk away from his computer to ring up a sale, because he was playing an MMO.
I went into a store one time looking for a GURPS supplement (Black Ops, if you must know), because I was out of town and needed a copy. No GURPS to be found. "Where do you keep the GURPS?" I asked. Oh, we hate that game, so we don't carry it. Uh, what?!
There was a store in Scranton that claimed to be a game store, but it only really carried Games Workshop and some Magic. But they made sure to have three couches, two warboards, and a soda machine. It was really a clubhouse where they could wargame, and the Magic sales paid the bills.
This one is my favorite story. I went into a retailer, looking for my own stuff. I needed to buy a present for someone on the run, and wanted to give them some of my own work. Again, no Star Trek RPG on the shelves, so I asked. Stupid me. "Oh, LUG is out of business." Uh, what?! "LUG went out of business, so we can't get their stuff anymore." Dude, I work for LUG. I assure you we're not out of business. "Well, they haven't come out with supplement X (I forget what it was), and we heard they were out of business." Buddy, I work for LUG. Here's my card. "Well, then where's supplement X?!" What do you care, you don't even stock the goddamned game...?!
I haven't even gotten into what collectibility has done to the business. See, game stores are actually book stores selling very specialized books. For decades, they were run on the book store sales model; you buy some books and put them on the shelves. If a book sells in a week, great. If it sells in a month, great. If it sells in a year, great. You still make your profit. And you never know when someone will walk in looking for a particular book. Obviously, if the book sells faster, it's easier to make rent. But if you have enough books, the chances are you'll sell something on any given day. Magic: the Gathering destroyed this model.
Now, game stores work on a collectibles model. You buy ten cases of Magic, you sell ten cases of Magic (often in two days), instant profit. Then, you can go back to playing the Knights of the Old Republic MMO. Minimum input, maximum output. You don't have to do anything that smacks of work. The kids come in looking for the latest Magic expansion, and your money isn't tied up in inventory.
But since he can't credibly call himself a "game store" with just a computer, cat, and piles of Magic cards in his store, he orders some RPGs. Typically, this is a huge amount of D&D (though nowadays, it more likely Pathfinder), some White Wolf books, and a bunch of "little games" he's heard about. Of those "little games," the average order is the core book, and the three most recent supplements. That's it. Want something older? You're S.O.L. And once those sell, there's a good chance you'll never see the game again in your local cat piss store ("Uh, it's out of print, and I heard the company was out of business."). Unless you're Pathfinder, D&D, and Vampire. That is, if they bother using their Magic profits to support RPGs....
Thus, manufacturers have had to move to .pdfs and print-on-demand (POD) and make their games available direct to gamers. This has not only pissed off the retailers (then do your jobs, guys), it has affected quality of product. This is what we're concerned about as designers. This is why games are poorly laid out, have crappy art, and have no editing. You have to pay these people. I know, it's a cruel world. But if you're only charging $5 for a .pdf, you don't have the money to pay a graphic designer, artists, and editors. Your game suffers. Not only because you can't get the game into the customer's hands through retail, but because it affects your bottom line.
Zombie Planet
Some of you may be wondering what Zombie Planet is like. It's only the best game store I've ever been in. One of the reasons I'm so stoked to be here is that I have a plethora of games at my fingertips. So expect a lot of game design advice over the next two days....
I was here at the beginning, when George opened Zombie Planet. George wanted to open the store in order to have contact with the end user. Eden Studios, for whom I used to edit, would be run out of the back of the store. In fact, I named the store. George wondered what he should call the place, and I said "too bad you can't call it Android's Dungeon, like from The Simpsons." But, I realized, we could do a name like that; so I came up with a table listing all the fantasy nouns in one column, and all the sci-fi nouns in another column (You could roll on it.) Dragon's Battlestar. Alien Dungeon. You get the idea. George picked Zombie Planet.
All day long, I could hear gamers commenting on games. You can't buy this kind of feedback. Someone didn't like this game because it was too crunchy. Someone loved the same game for the same reason. Games either rocked or were "ass", for all kinds of interesting, and sometimes stupid, reasons. Many times, I would stop work, get up, and ring up a customer's sale. So I worked for Zombie Planet and Eden. It was an education.
I come up here as often as I can, for the experience (and the employee's discount). I usually take over a table in the front of the store, and make it my desk. (In fact, George is unpacking the comics shipment next to me right now). Everyone knows that when I'm in town, this is my area. I hold court here, chatting with friends and laughing entirely too much. I pile up my intended purchases, but I also comb through the shelves and pile up RPGs for research. Zombie Planet is very much like my own, personal game library. George knows I'll restock the shelves. I'll also help customers when they come in, because I like having that personal contact with the end user. I also hit on the cute gamer girls.
I cannot adequately describe to you the impact of walking into this store. But I'll try. I wish I could take pictures and upload them, but I'm having trouble uploading pics right now... The first thing you notice when you walk into ZP is the profusion of stuff. It's overwhelming. Behind the cash register is the wall of TCGs. In front of the cash register is the display case of card games. This just goes on and on and on.... For a good ten feet. To your right as you enter is an island covered in the latest board games and graphic novels. In the front of the store is an alcove of miniatures (paints from three different companies, hobby tools, cases). The miniatures then wrap around the rest of the right hand side of the store. I count four different miniature companies on the racks... It's just stunning. It's like you've been smacked in the face with a dead fish, the riot of color.
No matter where you look, there's something. The board game section, which is the size of my living room, is in the back of the store, is stacked with board games from floor-to-ceiling. Need an RPG? The RPG section has everything. I walk around the store, just picking up stuff up until my arms are full. Do I really need the Battleship Galaxies game? No. But damn, it looks so cool, I've got to have it. Most of my shopping experience is piling things up on a table, then going through everything to make a final decision. (Do I want this or that? Do I want that more than the other?) I haven't even gotten to the nick-nacks scatttered all about; the mugs and novels and t-shirts and action figures. And there's a second floor for comics and organized game play. And this is where we come to the salient point of this article.
George's store is so successful because he stocks everything. He stocks things you don't even know you want until you see it. George realizes that this is a book store. He tries to have at least one of everything on hand. When he sells something, he reorders it, often that same day. If you like Flames of War, you know that George will have that obscure tank miniature that no one else stocks. That's why you come here. If it doesn't sell for six months, he doesn't care. Some day, he will sell it. If he needs shelf space, he'll phase things out (by selling it on eBay, or putting it on sale in the store).
Even though the store is filled to bursting, everything is organized. There's a section for every category. Moreover, he spotlights things, like new releases. Right now, I'm looking at the Zombie Outbreak game, Ghosts of Albion, a new Palladium book, Battletech, Shadowrun and Dark Heresy new releases. They're in the center of the floor, where you can see them as you walk in. Certain books are placed face out; this is important because even thought it takes up more shelf space, it easier for the consumer to see. So Savage Worlds is faced out. Pathfinders and DC Adventures -- faced out.
George devotes much of his second floor to organized game play. This takes up significant floor space. However, when he holds events (tonight is the Hulk Heroclix release), he also sees significant sales. Because the gamer just got ass kicked in the Magic tournament, and he wants more cards. Or the D&D guys see that there's a new release. Or the Warhammer kid decides that he's finally going to get into 40K... George supports the community, and the community ends up supporting him. He's ready for the impulse buy.
Right now, for example, George has stopped unpacking comics and gone to his computer. So he can check the gaming boards and see what's hot. Are people suddenly talking about the new Savage Worlds release? George thinks "Do I need to stock more?" His staff is well-informed. Not just about the games they like to play, but about many games. In fact, his staff plays many different kinds of games. George might bust out a copy of the Game of Thrones board game, because he wants to play it, and they'll spend a night giving it a try. This way, when a customer asks about it, the staff can provide informed opinions.
George also insists on the little things. All his employees say "Hello, can I help you find anything today?" when someone comes in the store. When you check out, you get asked if you're a preferred member. And, you get directed to the on-line store to print out the latest store coupon for your next visit. George spends money on promotional bags, because his customers appreciate having big shopping bags for their large purchases.... He takes the customer's needs and desires into account.
So, what makes Zombie Planet so great? Inventory. Organization. Diversification. Sales techniques. Customer service.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I see a gamer girl that needs my help...
I was here at the beginning, when George opened Zombie Planet. George wanted to open the store in order to have contact with the end user. Eden Studios, for whom I used to edit, would be run out of the back of the store. In fact, I named the store. George wondered what he should call the place, and I said "too bad you can't call it Android's Dungeon, like from The Simpsons." But, I realized, we could do a name like that; so I came up with a table listing all the fantasy nouns in one column, and all the sci-fi nouns in another column (You could roll on it.) Dragon's Battlestar. Alien Dungeon. You get the idea. George picked Zombie Planet.
All day long, I could hear gamers commenting on games. You can't buy this kind of feedback. Someone didn't like this game because it was too crunchy. Someone loved the same game for the same reason. Games either rocked or were "ass", for all kinds of interesting, and sometimes stupid, reasons. Many times, I would stop work, get up, and ring up a customer's sale. So I worked for Zombie Planet and Eden. It was an education.
I come up here as often as I can, for the experience (and the employee's discount). I usually take over a table in the front of the store, and make it my desk. (In fact, George is unpacking the comics shipment next to me right now). Everyone knows that when I'm in town, this is my area. I hold court here, chatting with friends and laughing entirely too much. I pile up my intended purchases, but I also comb through the shelves and pile up RPGs for research. Zombie Planet is very much like my own, personal game library. George knows I'll restock the shelves. I'll also help customers when they come in, because I like having that personal contact with the end user. I also hit on the cute gamer girls.
I cannot adequately describe to you the impact of walking into this store. But I'll try. I wish I could take pictures and upload them, but I'm having trouble uploading pics right now... The first thing you notice when you walk into ZP is the profusion of stuff. It's overwhelming. Behind the cash register is the wall of TCGs. In front of the cash register is the display case of card games. This just goes on and on and on.... For a good ten feet. To your right as you enter is an island covered in the latest board games and graphic novels. In the front of the store is an alcove of miniatures (paints from three different companies, hobby tools, cases). The miniatures then wrap around the rest of the right hand side of the store. I count four different miniature companies on the racks... It's just stunning. It's like you've been smacked in the face with a dead fish, the riot of color.
No matter where you look, there's something. The board game section, which is the size of my living room, is in the back of the store, is stacked with board games from floor-to-ceiling. Need an RPG? The RPG section has everything. I walk around the store, just picking up stuff up until my arms are full. Do I really need the Battleship Galaxies game? No. But damn, it looks so cool, I've got to have it. Most of my shopping experience is piling things up on a table, then going through everything to make a final decision. (Do I want this or that? Do I want that more than the other?) I haven't even gotten to the nick-nacks scatttered all about; the mugs and novels and t-shirts and action figures. And there's a second floor for comics and organized game play. And this is where we come to the salient point of this article.
George's store is so successful because he stocks everything. He stocks things you don't even know you want until you see it. George realizes that this is a book store. He tries to have at least one of everything on hand. When he sells something, he reorders it, often that same day. If you like Flames of War, you know that George will have that obscure tank miniature that no one else stocks. That's why you come here. If it doesn't sell for six months, he doesn't care. Some day, he will sell it. If he needs shelf space, he'll phase things out (by selling it on eBay, or putting it on sale in the store).
Even though the store is filled to bursting, everything is organized. There's a section for every category. Moreover, he spotlights things, like new releases. Right now, I'm looking at the Zombie Outbreak game, Ghosts of Albion, a new Palladium book, Battletech, Shadowrun and Dark Heresy new releases. They're in the center of the floor, where you can see them as you walk in. Certain books are placed face out; this is important because even thought it takes up more shelf space, it easier for the consumer to see. So Savage Worlds is faced out. Pathfinders and DC Adventures -- faced out.
George devotes much of his second floor to organized game play. This takes up significant floor space. However, when he holds events (tonight is the Hulk Heroclix release), he also sees significant sales. Because the gamer just got ass kicked in the Magic tournament, and he wants more cards. Or the D&D guys see that there's a new release. Or the Warhammer kid decides that he's finally going to get into 40K... George supports the community, and the community ends up supporting him. He's ready for the impulse buy.
Right now, for example, George has stopped unpacking comics and gone to his computer. So he can check the gaming boards and see what's hot. Are people suddenly talking about the new Savage Worlds release? George thinks "Do I need to stock more?" His staff is well-informed. Not just about the games they like to play, but about many games. In fact, his staff plays many different kinds of games. George might bust out a copy of the Game of Thrones board game, because he wants to play it, and they'll spend a night giving it a try. This way, when a customer asks about it, the staff can provide informed opinions.
George also insists on the little things. All his employees say "Hello, can I help you find anything today?" when someone comes in the store. When you check out, you get asked if you're a preferred member. And, you get directed to the on-line store to print out the latest store coupon for your next visit. George spends money on promotional bags, because his customers appreciate having big shopping bags for their large purchases.... He takes the customer's needs and desires into account.
So, what makes Zombie Planet so great? Inventory. Organization. Diversification. Sales techniques. Customer service.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I see a gamer girl that needs my help...
Conversations in the Car
Here it is, the first day of my vacation. I haven't taken a vacation in about a year-and-a-half, and what do I do? I come up to hang out in a game store. In Albany. In the middle of December. I have the money to afford a trip to Cabo, even Aruba, but I wanted to spend time with George and my buddies up here in Albany. In a game store. In December. Oddly, my last vacation was in a July... in Albany... hanging out in a game store. I may not be right in the head...
Yesterday, I spent a good four hours driving up here with George Vasilakos. Now, the thing you may not know about game designers and industry professionals is that when you put two of us together, we end up talking about the hobby games industry. (When you put three of us together, you get a game! No, actually, you get three game designers bitching about the business, but there's a 43% chance of more alcohol.) People like to talk about what interests them, so I imagine it's the same for professional football players and podiatrists; they talk about football and feet.
The topics were far-ranging: Kickstarter (we talked a lot about Kickstarter), POD, printing, .pdfs, falling damage, sales and fulfillment, deck-building games (really?! A game about building your deck?), and catching up on the business gossip. Because almost as much as gaming professionals like their booze and strippers, we like to gossip. See, there's a secret history to the hobby games industry, one that we don't let you civilians know about. Trust me, that's a good thing. We talked over recent events, much of which I was unaware. Who moved to where, and why; who left where, and why; who should have gone bankrupt, but didn't, and why. So I have a lot of stuff swirling around in my head.
If you're hoping for juicy gossip, however, it ain't gonna happen. One of the things that game designers never do, or at least should know better than to do, is say unkind things about other games (or other people). At least in public. Because one day, the shoe will be on the other foot, and the tables turned, and other metaphors...
Okay, okay. One quick story. George was telling me about a new game called Zombie Outbreak. Now, you may not know it, but George publishes a little game called All Flesh Must Be Eaten. Apparently, when he went to their booth at a convention, and asked "why should I buy your game instead of AFMBE?" the answer was "because they're out of business." To which George replied: "Gee, that's strange, because their booth is only three aisles over..." Okay, so they were asshats. George doesn't hold a grudge, and he's a gracious man, and he stocks the game in his store. Face out. In the new games section right in the front of the store.
But then things move on-line, at, of all places, RPG.net. Big surprise. So the gamers are debating zombie games on the discussion boards, and the question comes up again: Why should we play this new zombie game rather than AFMBE? Someone posts "because there are rules for playing yourself..."
Uh, what?! Can't you do that with any RPG?
"No," says George. "Apparently, there are RULES for playing yourself."
Now, we don't know what that means. Will someone come to your house and beat the shit out of you if you give yourself more strength and charisma? Do you really want to play some pasty-faced fat guy with poor social skills during a zombie outbreak? Didn't you watch Zombieland?
So, for the rest of the trip, whenever we started talking about a game, my first question was "but are there RULES for playing yourself?!" When I got to Zombie Planet, I picked up some random RPG, and George would say "Dude, you don't want to play that. It doesn't have RULES for playing yourself..."
Because we're idiots, and that kind of humor appeals to us.
Yesterday, I spent a good four hours driving up here with George Vasilakos. Now, the thing you may not know about game designers and industry professionals is that when you put two of us together, we end up talking about the hobby games industry. (When you put three of us together, you get a game! No, actually, you get three game designers bitching about the business, but there's a 43% chance of more alcohol.) People like to talk about what interests them, so I imagine it's the same for professional football players and podiatrists; they talk about football and feet.
The topics were far-ranging: Kickstarter (we talked a lot about Kickstarter), POD, printing, .pdfs, falling damage, sales and fulfillment, deck-building games (really?! A game about building your deck?), and catching up on the business gossip. Because almost as much as gaming professionals like their booze and strippers, we like to gossip. See, there's a secret history to the hobby games industry, one that we don't let you civilians know about. Trust me, that's a good thing. We talked over recent events, much of which I was unaware. Who moved to where, and why; who left where, and why; who should have gone bankrupt, but didn't, and why. So I have a lot of stuff swirling around in my head.
If you're hoping for juicy gossip, however, it ain't gonna happen. One of the things that game designers never do, or at least should know better than to do, is say unkind things about other games (or other people). At least in public. Because one day, the shoe will be on the other foot, and the tables turned, and other metaphors...
Okay, okay. One quick story. George was telling me about a new game called Zombie Outbreak. Now, you may not know it, but George publishes a little game called All Flesh Must Be Eaten. Apparently, when he went to their booth at a convention, and asked "why should I buy your game instead of AFMBE?" the answer was "because they're out of business." To which George replied: "Gee, that's strange, because their booth is only three aisles over..." Okay, so they were asshats. George doesn't hold a grudge, and he's a gracious man, and he stocks the game in his store. Face out. In the new games section right in the front of the store.
But then things move on-line, at, of all places, RPG.net. Big surprise. So the gamers are debating zombie games on the discussion boards, and the question comes up again: Why should we play this new zombie game rather than AFMBE? Someone posts "because there are rules for playing yourself..."
Uh, what?! Can't you do that with any RPG?
"No," says George. "Apparently, there are RULES for playing yourself."
Now, we don't know what that means. Will someone come to your house and beat the shit out of you if you give yourself more strength and charisma? Do you really want to play some pasty-faced fat guy with poor social skills during a zombie outbreak? Didn't you watch Zombieland?
So, for the rest of the trip, whenever we started talking about a game, my first question was "but are there RULES for playing yourself?!" When I got to Zombie Planet, I picked up some random RPG, and George would say "Dude, you don't want to play that. It doesn't have RULES for playing yourself..."
Because we're idiots, and that kind of humor appeals to us.
Monday, December 12, 2011
Personal Log
Here I am, visiting Albany, NY, where my long-time friend, George Vasilakos lives. George is the Zombie Khan of Eden Studios, publishers of some game you may have heard of, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and All Flesh Must Be Eaten. I'm up here to do some shopping, since he also owns arguably the best game store on the East Coast -- Zombie Planet (I actually helped him name it long ago....). There may be some gaming going on, and some brain-picking, and some strippers. Because George knows how I like to roll.
I was originally going to write about my impressions about Zombie Planet (the best game store on the East Coast), because I think it has a value to game designers. But then, George handed me a book entitled "Designers & Dragons", which is a history of the roleplaying game industry. It took me 2.5 seconds to flip to the Last Unicorn Games chapter.
I must say, the author got her information right. It's odd reading about the history of the company for which I was a principle player. I was there. I remember what went on. I had largely tried to put it out of my mind, mostly because of the daily beatings. What's odd about this experience is that I was in it up to my neck. I lived it. For me, it isn't "history" so much as my memories of daily life. I knew what was going on in the office, but to see it in a book, described dispassionately, is a bit... odd.
For example: "Cashflow issues were made worse by the fact that the Dune RPG was sitting around unprinted due to legal wrangling over the Herbert Licence." This is true. Brian Herbert wasn't sure he wanted to approve the game, while we were pointing out that we had a legal right to publish it. He was, at the time, just starting his series of collaborative Dune novels and was a bit pre-occupied, too. That tidbit of information isn't in the book. So it's strange to read about something that occupied my days (I could hear the conversations on the phone between LUG and Herbert, and had many conversations about it with Owen Seyler), settled in a single sentence.
What I really found unusual was this sentence: "... new employee Ross Isaacs -- who had done a scattering of freelance work for AEG and Chaosium before doing more extensive work for Holistic Designs -- did the initial work on the 'Icon' system."
Wow. Where do I begin? First, I hadn't done a "scattering" of freelance work. I'd done a lot. Bronze Grimoire. Serpent Moon. Honor's Veil. I provided material advice for L5R's magic rules (so much so that they named a card in the TCG after me). I did do extensive work for Holistic, because they gave me the work. So I'm not pleased by the implication that I was some second-string banana who just fell out of the tree. I'd made a name for myself in this industry before going to LUG.
Second, I was there the first day we started to design Icon. It was me, Christian, and Owen sitting in Christian's dining room and hashing out what the system should look like. But it's a more complex process than the text of the book would have you understand. Kenneth Hite and Steve Long contributed tons of input. So did Matt Colville. So did Andrew Greenberg and Bill Bridges. I find it odd that so much of one's life, and complicated goings-on, could be summed up in so short and simple a sentence.
So while I like the book and my entry in it, there's sort of this weird disconnect between things I remember and the way they're recounted. I feel like Han Solo must have, while listening to C3PO tell the Ewoks their story.
I was originally going to write about my impressions about Zombie Planet (the best game store on the East Coast), because I think it has a value to game designers. But then, George handed me a book entitled "Designers & Dragons", which is a history of the roleplaying game industry. It took me 2.5 seconds to flip to the Last Unicorn Games chapter.
I must say, the author got her information right. It's odd reading about the history of the company for which I was a principle player. I was there. I remember what went on. I had largely tried to put it out of my mind, mostly because of the daily beatings. What's odd about this experience is that I was in it up to my neck. I lived it. For me, it isn't "history" so much as my memories of daily life. I knew what was going on in the office, but to see it in a book, described dispassionately, is a bit... odd.
For example: "Cashflow issues were made worse by the fact that the Dune RPG was sitting around unprinted due to legal wrangling over the Herbert Licence." This is true. Brian Herbert wasn't sure he wanted to approve the game, while we were pointing out that we had a legal right to publish it. He was, at the time, just starting his series of collaborative Dune novels and was a bit pre-occupied, too. That tidbit of information isn't in the book. So it's strange to read about something that occupied my days (I could hear the conversations on the phone between LUG and Herbert, and had many conversations about it with Owen Seyler), settled in a single sentence.
What I really found unusual was this sentence: "... new employee Ross Isaacs -- who had done a scattering of freelance work for AEG and Chaosium before doing more extensive work for Holistic Designs -- did the initial work on the 'Icon' system."
Wow. Where do I begin? First, I hadn't done a "scattering" of freelance work. I'd done a lot. Bronze Grimoire. Serpent Moon. Honor's Veil. I provided material advice for L5R's magic rules (so much so that they named a card in the TCG after me). I did do extensive work for Holistic, because they gave me the work. So I'm not pleased by the implication that I was some second-string banana who just fell out of the tree. I'd made a name for myself in this industry before going to LUG.
Second, I was there the first day we started to design Icon. It was me, Christian, and Owen sitting in Christian's dining room and hashing out what the system should look like. But it's a more complex process than the text of the book would have you understand. Kenneth Hite and Steve Long contributed tons of input. So did Matt Colville. So did Andrew Greenberg and Bill Bridges. I find it odd that so much of one's life, and complicated goings-on, could be summed up in so short and simple a sentence.
So while I like the book and my entry in it, there's sort of this weird disconnect between things I remember and the way they're recounted. I feel like Han Solo must have, while listening to C3PO tell the Ewoks their story.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Story Based Vs. Tools Based
Many of you are likely annoyed that I post four or five times a day, two days a week. There's a simple explanation for that: I'm off from work. I'm going to attempt to use Blogger's scheduling system to post this one tomorrow. Let's see if the chimpanzee can make the internetz thing work...
For a brief period, I worked for Wizards of the Coast. It was a very cool place to work, but also deeply frustrating. Cool, because there was "game Thursday" and all kinds of free swag; and the Aeron chair. Frustrating, because it was a corporation, with reports and corporate-speak. "We have to maximize cross-promotional opportunities across the matrix..." Ugh. But one of the things that made my time with WotC valuable is what I learned about game design there.
One of the things was the difference between story-based games and tools-based games. The latter is better than the former. I think the best examples of both come from my own work, Star Trek.
The first Star Trek game I designed, the Icon System, was more story-based. That is to say, many of the mechanics affected the story. For example, ranks were simply the privilege of calling yourself "captain" or "admiral". Many of the advantages were loosely defined. Like Bold. You gained a bonus when you acted boldly. What they hell did that mean? We left it largely up to the GM and players. In other words, many of the mechanics didn't have a concrete, rules-based effect.
The second Star Trek game, Coda, was tools-based. Everything had an effect on the die-rolling mechanic. In fact, Don Mappin, one of our designers, complained that we'd "drilled down too much." Every element had a measurable effect. Bold now gave you a +2 to your roll. Buying a rank gave you a precise effect (which I don't remember because I haven't looked at that game in years).
I say that the second approach is better because: 1) It provides a concrete benefit. With the story-based approach, your benefit may never come into play; you might forget about it, or your gamemaster might be averse to using it. It leaves less in the hands of the player, by which I mean less up to the whims of players as to how the rule is used. 2) It gives the players tools, things they can use. You take the Bold advantage not because your character is bold (well, you do), but because you want that +2 bonus (and it fits your character concept). You might have taken Curious instead, but that provided a different +2 bonus...
I must admit, as if you couldn't tell, I prefer tools-based mechanics. That's a new design principle, by the way, because we're going to start getting into designing mechanics. We know what our game is going to be about, and what players will do, so now we've got to design rules.
For a brief period, I worked for Wizards of the Coast. It was a very cool place to work, but also deeply frustrating. Cool, because there was "game Thursday" and all kinds of free swag; and the Aeron chair. Frustrating, because it was a corporation, with reports and corporate-speak. "We have to maximize cross-promotional opportunities across the matrix..." Ugh. But one of the things that made my time with WotC valuable is what I learned about game design there.
One of the things was the difference between story-based games and tools-based games. The latter is better than the former. I think the best examples of both come from my own work, Star Trek.
The first Star Trek game I designed, the Icon System, was more story-based. That is to say, many of the mechanics affected the story. For example, ranks were simply the privilege of calling yourself "captain" or "admiral". Many of the advantages were loosely defined. Like Bold. You gained a bonus when you acted boldly. What they hell did that mean? We left it largely up to the GM and players. In other words, many of the mechanics didn't have a concrete, rules-based effect.
The second Star Trek game, Coda, was tools-based. Everything had an effect on the die-rolling mechanic. In fact, Don Mappin, one of our designers, complained that we'd "drilled down too much." Every element had a measurable effect. Bold now gave you a +2 to your roll. Buying a rank gave you a precise effect (which I don't remember because I haven't looked at that game in years).
I say that the second approach is better because: 1) It provides a concrete benefit. With the story-based approach, your benefit may never come into play; you might forget about it, or your gamemaster might be averse to using it. It leaves less in the hands of the player, by which I mean less up to the whims of players as to how the rule is used. 2) It gives the players tools, things they can use. You take the Bold advantage not because your character is bold (well, you do), but because you want that +2 bonus (and it fits your character concept). You might have taken Curious instead, but that provided a different +2 bonus...
I must admit, as if you couldn't tell, I prefer tools-based mechanics. That's a new design principle, by the way, because we're going to start getting into designing mechanics. We know what our game is going to be about, and what players will do, so now we've got to design rules.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Sample Idea
I have to say, I'm really proud of myself for that OWS RPG idea. I think I may make that the central example for my blog. Let's start designing. First, a little bit of background.
A lot of my friends on Facebook have been railing against the bill, attached to a military spending authorization, that allows the U.S. military to arrest and detail, for unlimited time, anyone in America suspected of terrorist activity. I hate this bill like I hate Twilight - deeply; it offends my sensibilities. It also violates all kinds of laws and traditions that make us the United States of America. It's also great fodder for a game.
Ignore the fact that we already have the apparatus for arresting domestic terrorists (it's called the FBI). Let's say the bill is signed into law. How do you define "terrorists?" Obviously, we know about the Taliban. But what if someone were to define the Sierra Club as terrorists? What if someone decided the Tea Party were a hot-bed of terrorism? It's a slippery slope. Because it's in the nature of organizations to redefine things to suit their purposes.
Marry this idea to the central complaint of the OWS movement. The government is bought and paid for by the corporations. As is the media. In fact, our representative democracy is really an insider's game of oligarch practicing crony capitalism. The cops are beating and pepper-spraying anyone who protests the current system, at the behest of their corporate masters. Right now, in the real world, this is a shady, invisible influence; we assume it's going on, but it's not like we have proof the CEO of GE is calling up the chief of police in Detroit and telling him to crack some heads. But imagine if he had access to the army....
So we've got a dystopic world run by corporations. I don't mean like in your typical cyberpunk novel. I mean up front and in your face. Congressmen have corporate sponsors. The President is bought and paid for. The little guy, us, we don't really matter any more. We're allowed to vote, to keep up appearances, but everyone knows it's a sham; your political choice is either Coke or Pepsi. You don't get to vote for Canada Dry. It's America, Inc. It's a corporate empire.
Except for a brave band of freedom fighters (that'd be the player characters). They remember a time, fondly, when people had freedom of speech and association. When they had a say in things. When they weren't treated as serfs. And they're determined to fight...
I think to further muddy the waters, I'm going to make this an island nation, like the one from the NBC series Kings. It was loosely based on the story of King David, but what I liked about it was the modern militaristic feel of the setting. I'm also going to shamelessly rip off the video game Mirror's Edge, the parkour video game. So it's an ultra-modern island nation ruled by an oppressive military-industrial complex, and everybody knows it. Kind of like Singapore. Only with chewing gum.
What do you play? A freedom fighter opposing the Powers That Be. What do you do?
* Break into corporate headquarters to steal vital information.
* Sabotage the Network TV broadcast tower.
* Smuggle political prisoners out of the country.
* Assassinate corporate officials.
* Blow up important locations.
Basically, you do anything you can to upset the established order. You're part of the insurgency.
Right now, however, I'm not entirely happy with this. There's more that can be done. It still needs that aura of paranoia (safe houses, double agents, midnight police raids). It also needs more to do -- what if you don't want to play a freedom fighter? Can you play criminals smuggling guns? Can you play the government? What else can you do with this game?
A lot of my friends on Facebook have been railing against the bill, attached to a military spending authorization, that allows the U.S. military to arrest and detail, for unlimited time, anyone in America suspected of terrorist activity. I hate this bill like I hate Twilight - deeply; it offends my sensibilities. It also violates all kinds of laws and traditions that make us the United States of America. It's also great fodder for a game.
Ignore the fact that we already have the apparatus for arresting domestic terrorists (it's called the FBI). Let's say the bill is signed into law. How do you define "terrorists?" Obviously, we know about the Taliban. But what if someone were to define the Sierra Club as terrorists? What if someone decided the Tea Party were a hot-bed of terrorism? It's a slippery slope. Because it's in the nature of organizations to redefine things to suit their purposes.
Marry this idea to the central complaint of the OWS movement. The government is bought and paid for by the corporations. As is the media. In fact, our representative democracy is really an insider's game of oligarch practicing crony capitalism. The cops are beating and pepper-spraying anyone who protests the current system, at the behest of their corporate masters. Right now, in the real world, this is a shady, invisible influence; we assume it's going on, but it's not like we have proof the CEO of GE is calling up the chief of police in Detroit and telling him to crack some heads. But imagine if he had access to the army....
So we've got a dystopic world run by corporations. I don't mean like in your typical cyberpunk novel. I mean up front and in your face. Congressmen have corporate sponsors. The President is bought and paid for. The little guy, us, we don't really matter any more. We're allowed to vote, to keep up appearances, but everyone knows it's a sham; your political choice is either Coke or Pepsi. You don't get to vote for Canada Dry. It's America, Inc. It's a corporate empire.
Except for a brave band of freedom fighters (that'd be the player characters). They remember a time, fondly, when people had freedom of speech and association. When they had a say in things. When they weren't treated as serfs. And they're determined to fight...
I think to further muddy the waters, I'm going to make this an island nation, like the one from the NBC series Kings. It was loosely based on the story of King David, but what I liked about it was the modern militaristic feel of the setting. I'm also going to shamelessly rip off the video game Mirror's Edge, the parkour video game. So it's an ultra-modern island nation ruled by an oppressive military-industrial complex, and everybody knows it. Kind of like Singapore. Only with chewing gum.
What do you play? A freedom fighter opposing the Powers That Be. What do you do?
* Break into corporate headquarters to steal vital information.
* Sabotage the Network TV broadcast tower.
* Smuggle political prisoners out of the country.
* Assassinate corporate officials.
* Blow up important locations.
Basically, you do anything you can to upset the established order. You're part of the insurgency.
Right now, however, I'm not entirely happy with this. There's more that can be done. It still needs that aura of paranoia (safe houses, double agents, midnight police raids). It also needs more to do -- what if you don't want to play a freedom fighter? Can you play criminals smuggling guns? Can you play the government? What else can you do with this game?
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