Different Worlds: Issue #17

Issue #18 of Different Worlds (December 1981) begins with an interesting editorial by Tadashi Ehara. He discusses the need for "careful consideration" in choosing a roleplaying game system if one intends for it to become "a lifetime hobby." Ehara seems to be suggesting that a person might – or even must – choose a single system and then devote oneself fully to it. For that reason, he advocates choosing a system that is "lasting and worthwhile," providing "learning experiences that we can use constructively in our daily lives." I don't disagree in general, though I do find it odd that he doesn't consider the possibility of long-term devotion to multiple systems rather than a single "ultimate set of rules." 

The first article is a RuneQuest solo scenario by Sandy Petersen entitled "Ware Hall." Set in Glorantha, it's presented as a series of short boxed texts found at the bottom of most pages of the issue. The scenario itself is nothing special but I was impressed with its presentation, which is quite clever. Ronald Mark Pehr's "Speed in Melee" is a set of variant rules for Dungeons & Dragons focused on an alternative approach to initiative. I find it difficult to judge articles like this, as I've never cared much about these matters, preferring simpler, if "unrealistic," systems rather than more complex ones.

Paul Montgomery Crabaugh's "For Sale" provides three new fighter craft designs for use with GDW's Traveller. Greg Wilson's "Enuk Manamee" is a gateway cult for RuneQuest describing "the fire god of the tundra nomads." Ronald Mark Pehr appears again, this time offering "The Horseclans Player" for use with The Fantasy Trip. It's a short overview of how to set TFT in the universe of Robert Adams's Horseclans novels. As a fan of the source material, I was glad to see this article, even if it's much too brief. "The Log of the Lively Lady" by Gerald Seypura is an adventure for FGU's Skull & Crossbones – a RPG for which I've rarely ever seen articles published anywhere. 

"Questworld" is a lengthy article by Lynn Willis, Sandy Petersen, and Greg Stafford discussing the creation of a non-Gloranthan setting for use with RuneQuest. Ultimately, this setting would be published in the boxed set of the same name. I've long been intrigued by Questworld, which has long seemed to me to have been a path not taken for RQ. Most interesting to me is the article's mentioning of the fact that continents on Questworld had been set aside for Games Workshop and Judges Guild to use in producing their own adventures and support material. So far as I know, neither publisher ever did anything with Questworld, but then neither did Chaosium beyond the initial boxed set.

Robin Wood's "Conversions in Lead" is another lengthy article, this time discussing how to create non-standard miniatures by modifying existing ones. Like most topics pertaining to miniatures figures, I have a great interest in this one but absolutely no experience with it. Also notable is the article's inclusion of an Ahoggyá figure from the world of Tékumel, which is something you don't see very often. "Devious Magic" by Robert Plamondon is another D&D variant. Plamondon offers a number of new ways to use old spells and magic items in order to breathe new life in them. While I can't say I was blown away by any of his suggestions, I certainly approve of his intentions. 

John T. Sapienza also presents a D&D variant, entitled "Non-human Level Limits," which seeks an alternative approach to slowing the level advancement of demihuman characters. Sapienza's approach isn't what suggests – which is fine – but that he repeatedly notes that "the D&D rules are designed for human characters" and "humanity dominates among the intelligent races." It's a perspective that isn't much held nowadays, but I'm always pleased when I find further evidence that it was commonplace in the hobby prior to the 21st century. Issue #13 also reviews Champions, Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords, In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords, and Cults of Terror. 

Gigi D'Arn's column begins by noting that the sales of many RPG companies were poor in 1981 and that many would likely not survive long into 1982. There's no specific support for these claims, however, so I can't speak to their truth. Then there's this story:

Lou Zocchi's ventriloquist dummy, Woody Knotts, was once quite well known in the hobby, so I found this tidbit fascinating. Gigi likewise mentions rumors of a gaming magazine from FGU, Rona Jaffe's upcoming novel, Steve Jackson writing a supplement for Dragonquest, and the first two volumes of the Armies of Tékumel series. 

My exploration of Different Worlds continues. It's an odd magazine, as I've said: when it's good, it's very, very good, but much of the time it's fairly mediocre, or at least of much less interest to me than any random issue of Dragon or White Dwarf. That might say more about me and my tastes than it does about Different Worlds, of course, but there it is.

Different Worlds: Issue #6

Different Worlds #6 is the December 1979/January 1980 issue and features cover artwork by Rick Becker. It begins with a brief editorial by Tadashi Ehara lamenting how hard it is to get writers to turn things in on time – or at all! – which leads him to extend an invitation to readers to submit their own articles. Speaking as both the producer of a fanzine, for which I've struggled to find submissions, and as a writer, for whom punctuality is not my great strength, I have sympathy for Ehara's frustrations. It will be interesting to see if future issues of Different Worlds feature a broader range of writers than the first six.

Leonard H. Kanterman, author of Starships & Spacemen, reviews Gangster!, a "cops and mobsters" RPG from FGU. Being a Gangbusters devotee myself, I actually know very little about other games of the genre, so this was a useful article to me. Brian Wagner's "Super Rules for SUPERHERO: 44" is a collection of rules expansions for Superhero: 2044, the first superhero roleplaying game ever published. "Finding Level in RuneQuest" by Rudy Kraft presents a system for converting characters between Dungeons & Dragons and RuneQuest. The purpose of this is to facilitate the adoption for the RQ rules by referees running D&D campaigns, allowing beloved player characters to continue to adventure under the new rules. I can't speak to their actual utility, but it's an intriguing article nonetheless (and an early example of a genre of article that continues to this day).

"How to Make Monsters Interesting" by Lee Gold is a good but short article on the matter of restoring "newness" and "surprise" to monster encounters, a perennial topic in RPG circles. Gold counsels, among other things, variability in monster abilities so that not every troll or ghost possesses the exact same powers, thereby throwing players' expectations into question. Meanwhile, John T. Sapienza offers a lengthy 10-page D&D variant called "Vardy Combat System, Part I." The system Sapienza presents here looks very similar to the combat system in RuneQuest and other Basic Role-Playing games, right down to being percentile rather than D20-based (though Part II, to be presented next issue, apparently includes a more traditional D20 approach). On first glance, the system looks decent enough and, even while including more detail about things like shields and weapons expertise, it retains most of the contours of D&D combat (like armor class). I'll have to look at it more carefully to decide my final feelings on the matter.

"The World of Crane" by George V. Schubel is an overview of the play-by-mail game The Tribes of Crane, whose advertisements I used to see in the pages of Dragon. I can't say the article told me a great deal more about the game or its setting, but I enjoyed reading it, if only for the peak it offered me of an aspect of the hobby of which I have limited experience. Lewis Pulsiphr's "Insanity Table" is a percentile table intended for use with D&D, on those occasions when a curse or other effect results in a character's going insane. Greg Costikyan's "The Cult of Gestetner" is a tongue-in-cheek cult for use with RuneQuest that should get a chuckle out of anyone who's ever been involved in old school printing or publishing. 

Gigi D'Arn's column contains a number of fascinating tidbits and then-current rumors. For example, she mentions that Chaosium will be producing a H.P. Lovecraft RPG entitled Dark Worlds, to be designed by Kurt Lortz. Then there's this section about Gary Gygax and TSR:

Lots to talk about there! Mention is also made of SPI's upcoming fantasy RPG, Dragonflayer, which is presumably an early title for DragonQuest, and Lou Zocchi's attempts to purchase TSR's remaining stock of Empire of the Petal Throne. It should come as little surprise that Gigi's columns are favorites of mine. Leaving aside their frequent wit and sarcasm, they provide useful historical information about early games, companies, and designers that might otherwise be forgotten. Anyone interested in the history of the hobby should appreciate their value. 

Sgt. Zocchi

In the annals of gaming (broadly defined) periodicals, there are few that can compare to Avalon Hill's The General, whose first issue appeared in May 1964. That first issue was a staple-bound newsletter only twelve pages in length. No one involved in it would likely have had any inkling that it would still be published nearly a quarter of a century later and become one of the most influential and celebrated magazines of its kind. 

There's a lot that could be said about The General, but that's mostly for others to do, since my direct experience of it, despite growing up not far from Avalon Hill's headquarters, was minimal. However, given the regular intersection between wargaming and the nascent hobby of roleplaying, there are plenty of things in its pages worth commenting upon here, particularly as it pertains to the history of RPGs. 

A good example is this brief article from issue #1, announcing the appointment of a 29 year-old US Air Force sergeant to the position of the magazine's Southwest Editor.

Articles like this delight me on multiple levels. Most obviously, seeing notable individuals in earlier phases of their lives – "before fame," if you will – is a terrific reminder that they are real people and not marble statues. Plus, looking on a young Lou Zocchi, whom I've only ever known as a middle-aged or older man, is simply remarkable. Further, that The General had regional editors is a reminder of how widespread a hobby wargaming used to be. Such perspective is vital when considering the history of any hobby.

Beyond that, though, there's the article itself, which reads more like a monologue at a celebrity roast than a formal announcement of someone taking up a new position. My favorite bit is toward the end, where it reads

Lou's father was the man who engraved the Lord's Prayer on the head of a pin. Whenever people talk about pinheads, Zocchi's name naturally comes up.

It's all affectionate mockery, of course, which is what makes it so charming. This article could only be the product of a close-knit and amiable community of people engaged in a shared passion. I'm more than a little envious of never having been part of it.

Feelings Occasioned by Dice

I got the last of the Zocchi dice I ordered so that I'd be set to play in my first game of Dungeon Crawl Classics tomorrow night (you can be sure I'll post about the experience later). I couldn't find a complete set that included everything I needed, so I had to get a few of them separately. Likewise, I'd been told that the "standard" D7 doesn't roll very well, so I got a D14 numbered 1-7 twice instead. And, to be honest, I didn't like the looks of the D7s I saw anyway, though the modified D14 I got is no prize, being large than I expected.

I know, for a lot of people, the use of all these additional dice types is a big turn-off. When I first heard about it, I thought it was a bit gimmicky too. Plus, the cost of assembling these dice was not insignificant, especially when compared to how cheaply one can acquire a full set of "ordinary" polyhedrals these days.

Having said that, I want to be honest: it was a lot of fun assembling this new collection of dice. In fact, hunting down all these weird dice reminded me a lot of what it was like in early 1980 finding my first set of polyhedrals. As you may recall, I started with the Holmes set. My copy included chits, not dice. I knew what the dice were supposed to look like, since I'd seen pictures of them and my friend's older brother had some, but I wanted my own. Finding them in suburban Baltimore at that time was no easy task, at least not for a kid who was as yet unaware of the existence of hobby stores that stocked RPGs.

The process of finding that first set of dice is something I'll never forget. It's not only one of my early RPG-related memories, but it reminds me of an aspect of the hobby that's very important to me -- initiation. Finding those dice was like a quest for the Holy Grail. Bringing them back to my friends and showing them off was proof that I'd ascended Mt. Olympus and returned. It was a rite of passage that showed I was now a full member of the fraternity of gamers. I suspect that this was a big part of the initial attraction of the hobby to me -- I felt like I was joining something "mysterious" and "elite."

I'm sure that sounds silly to a lot of people reading this, especially those who either didn't have a mentor who brought them into the hobby or who entered it by way of miniatures wargaming long before annoying kids like me appeared on the scene. For me, though, it's a fond memory and one that Goodman Games has not only conjured up but helped me to relive, if only a little. To my mind, that's what more contemporary RPG publishers ought to be trying to do.

The Ads of Dragon: 20 Plus

As every gamer knows (or ought to know), the D10 is a late addition to the menagerie of dice. Until its appearance, we made do with D20 numbered 0-9 twice. I'm pretty sure I didn't lay eyes on a D10 until I got a copy of the Moldvay-edited Basic Rules, though it's possible I saw one before then. At any rate, by the time this ad appeared in issue #63 of Dragon (July 1982), D10s were well established in the hobby.

So it's fascinating that Gamescience was not only still selling "percentile D20s" in 1982 but was in fact touting its ability to serve as a D10, D20, and D100 (and D2, which is even weirder). Mind you, I owned several games, like FASA's Star Trek, that included Gamescience 20 Plus dice in their boxes, but those were pretty much the only occasions where I saw them being used instead of D10s. Though I nowadays prefer percentile D20s, I didn't back in the day and I'll be the first to admit that my current love of them almost entirely an affectation.

The Complete History and Evolution of Superhero 2044

Yesterday, I wrote about the first superhero RPG, Superhero 2044. Not too long after publishing the post, the game's designer, Donald Saxman, contacted me and provided me with a short essay in which he discusses its history and evolution. He has kindly given me permission to repost it here, since I think it will be of interest to regular readers, as well as anyone else interested in the early history of the hobby. The essay was written last year to be included in a corrected version of Superhero 2044 that Lou Zocchi was planning to sell at conventions. When I have information on how copies of this version can be obtained through other means, I'll make mention of it here.

Musings Occasioned by Funny Dice

In yesterday's post, I spoke positively of the fact that Goodman Games's upcoming Dungeon Crawl Classic Roleplaying Game uses all the Zocchi dice, including those weird ones like D5, D7, and D24. Allow me to explain why.

Unless Joseph Goodman or someone else associated with the DCC RPG has explained the rationale behind the inclusion of these dice, I'd be willing to bet that the primary reason for including them in the game is because he likes them -- which is the exact same reason that funny dice were used with OD&D. It is, after all, quite possible to play a RPG without the use of anything but the standard six-sider, as Traveller and other games have shown us. Heck, it's possible to play LBB-only OD&D (more or less) with only D6 and percentile dice (numbered 0-9 twice, of course). I tried doing just that in the early days of my Dwimmermount campaign, before switching back to the full range of Platonic solids (and that interloper, the D10).

Now, you can argue that there are good reasons to use a wide variety of dice types from a statistical or simulation standpoint and there's merit to that approach. But, for me, being able to whip out the D8 whenever someone uses a sword or the D4 when determining kobold hit points has nothing to do with math and everything to do with the fact that I like them. Polyhedral dice are fun little artifacts. I enjoy looking at them, holding them, and, most of all, rolling them. My use of them in D&D isn't because of the wider range of probabilities they offer or how they better simulate this or that in the game. Rather, it has to do with the experience of using them.

When I say "experience," I'm not talking about anything as highfalutin as "emulation." My point is not that using a D12 for a doppelganger's attack is somehow more "realistic" or better conveys the death-dealing capability of an imaginary shapeshifter. No, all I'm saying is that I like the physicality of the dice. I like their presence on my table and the way that they convey, to me and my friends, that we're playing a game but not a boardgame. Even my eight year-old son, who doesn't do tabletop roleplaying and who doesn't have 30+ years of inculcated association between polyhedral dice and RPGs, thinks of them as "Daddy's special game dice." And he's right: roleplaying games are special games and so they can have special dice if their creators want them to have them.

That brings me to my other point. The mere fact that Joseph Goodman likes the D7 is more than enough reason to include it in his game. If I had to point to a single thing that most displeases me about a lot of contemporary game design is that it places too high a premium on rationality. I may have imagined it, but I recall reading an article or an interview somewhere in which one of the designers of D&D III (maybe Monte Cook or Jonathan Tweet?) noted that, in designing the game, nothing was off-limits and they considered changing any aspect of D&D they felt didn't make sense. That strikes me as a terrible design principle when revising a game whose lasting appeal is, to a great extent, founded on the fact that it doesn't make sense.

From the first, Dungeons & Dragons was a great big, gloriously incoherent mess -- which is why it took the world by storm. A lot of the game's incoherence comes from the fact that its creators, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, just threw together a lot stuff they happened to like. They didn't sit down and try to make sense of it all. They didn't worry about rationalizing the way magic worked or the social ramifications of dungeons or why they should use weird polyhedrals when six-sided dice were much more readily available. No, they just went ahead and made a game they liked, based on stuff they liked, and let the chips fall where they may. The result was the only RPG ever to become a mass market fad, so they must have done something right.

I'm not opposed to game design based on solid first principles by any means. I do think, however, that post-old school game designers (and gamers) tend to overemphasize it to their detriment. I contend that D&D's incoherent messiness is a big part of its lasting success and that messiness exists because it was created but not "designed." Again, let me state clearly that I think there's value in designing a game with forethought. Let me also state clearly that I think that this latter method of producing games is no more likely to produce a fun, enjoyable game than the haphazard, rambling "Hey, I like this" method that produced Dungeons & Dragons.

And that's why I see it as a good sign that Joseph Goodman is using all the Zocchi dice. Their inclusion is not necessarily a stroke of genius, but neither is it a sign that the DCC RPG is a bad game. If it's a sign of anything, it's that Goodman recognizes that fun is often irrational and operates according to "just because" principles. That gladdens me.

Lou Zocchi Explains It All

The man not only knows his dice, he also knows that the singular of "dice" (meaning random number generators) is "dice." It's a pet peeve of mine, I'll grant, but it's still good to see that I'm not the only English-speaker left in the world who keeps alive the Old Morphological Ways.