Thursday, December 9, 2021

Whatever Happened to the House of Worms?

The House of Worms is the Empire of the Petal Throne campaign I've been refereeing since March 2015. Until a few months ago, I wrote regular posts briefly detailing the actions of the player characters in it. Though the campaign is still ongoing, I stopped writing those posts because I began to question the utility of doing so. They are consistently among the least read and commented upon posts on this blog. Few of them cracked 200 unique views and most have no comments on them at all. Aside from a single player in the campaign, almost no one has asked me why I stopped writing them or encouraged me to start doing so again.

I write this with a little disappointment. I am very much aware of how few people have any knowledge of or interest in Tékumel. It is and always has been an exceedingly niche setting within the wider hobby. Likewise, it's been my experience that campaign play reports rank only slightly higher in people's affections than being cornered by a fellow at a con who wants to tell you about his character. 

On some level, this is understandable. Most campaigns, especially long running ones, take on the nature of a "you had to be there" joke. Even if my posts were immensely long and detailed, there's no way a reader could properly appreciate the context of what's happening. In our most recent sessions, for example, the characters embarked on the investigation of several mysteries whose seeds were planted years ago, before some of the campaign's seven current players had even joined it. Expecting readers to find much interest in these posts is thus probably too much to expect.

At the same time, I remain convinced that long-term campaign play represents the highest form of roleplaying and that the best way to demonstrate this conviction is by showing the unparalleled joys of such a campaign. March of next year will mark the seventh anniversary of the House of Worms campaign, making it the single longest RPG campaign I've ever continuously played with the same group of people. My players tell me that this is true of them as well. I suspect that, with a few exceptions, this is true of most readers of this blog. Heck, I'd wager that it's probably true of most roleplayers, period.

I had naively hoped, back when I started posting session reports, that they might at least encourage some discussion of the care and maintenance of long campaigns, because I think this is something of a lost art. The impression I increasingly get is that much of our hobby is devoted to idle consumerism – the never-satiated pursuit of the latest baubles – and not much play of any kind, never mind dedicated campaign play. I've sometimes darkly mused that the interest in so-called "actual play" videos and streams serves as a substitute for playing oneself. 

Perhaps I conclude too much from the lack of interest in the House of Worms session report posts. It may simply be, as I noted above, that Tékumel is such a niche interest that even those theoretically interested in campaign play are turned off by the setting itself. If so, that's fair enough; we like what we like and there's no point in trying to argue otherwise. If it's something else, though, I'd be curious to know, especially if it's something I could do differently. As it is, those posts take a long time to write, far longer than one might expect based on the word count. That's because I try to condense them down into something relatively brief and intelligible to people not deeply immersed in the setting. There are limits to what I can do and it may well be that, despite my wishes to the contrary, there is simply no way to make these posts more appealing. 

Regardless, I'd be grateful for any specific thoughts readers have on the matter. The House of Worms campaign is a huge part of my gaming these days and I'd like to use it as the springboard for more posts here. However, I have no interest in boring anyone, if it's not a subject that's of wide interest (which is what Blogger's stats tell me). 

49 comments:

  1. I've found session summaries incredibly hard to make interesting to those outside the session. The best ones I've read have been by Skerples of Coins and Scrolls and Dan of Throne of Salt. I think the trick is to try and make the summaries pseudo narratives, but that takes, well, writing stories. Which is hard.

    That plus the "you had to be there" nature means that most people just don't enjoy setting reports: they're microfiction, and theyre microfiction that was written by collaboration and thus doesn't necessarily have pacing set up etc.

    I do enjoy long form campaigns, but telling people about my campaigns ends up taking on a kind of dreamlike quality of "and then THIS happened" and I can see the eyes glazing over real time.

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  2. I have always read Dwimmermount sessions with interest and I would have done the same with House of Worms if only they had been written from the beginning. Reading these reports from this far into the campaign doesn't pay off, at least for me. I am sorry!
    But you could open a weekly column on the dynamics found in such long campaigns, and / or on the setting of Tékumel in general. I think it would be very interesting!
    PS: my last campaign lasted seven years but playing once a month

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    1. These are very good points and I like your suggestion. Thank you!

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    2. I'll second the idea of discussing the dynamics. I generally skimmed the summaries and while I could follow some of the "plot", I think I'd be more interesting in how you managed things as the GM?

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  3. I've read an occasional House of Worms post, but yea, they are a hard read. On the other hand, knowing that it's still going is awesome. I have finally entered the realm of long running campaign with my RuneQuest 1e Glorantha campaign (though I DID have a long running Traveller campaign). Most of my other campaigns ran a year or maybe two. Of course with bi-weekly 2 hour sessions, the RQ campaign hasn't necessarily had any more action than the 1 or 2 year campaigns with sometimes weekly sessions, and most sessions being 6-10 hours.

    I would love to see you pull your experiences together in two ways. One is some thoughts on long term play. The other is how to make Tekumel more workable. How do you make something work where the culture, flora, and fauna are all alien to the players?

    One option for keeping the campaign alive in your readers conscience is to post periodically, but not try and do a full session write up. Write up when something exciting happens or just post a short highlight from each session. That could keep the campaign alive in your readers with less investment than full session write ups.

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  4. I'm interested in EPT, and your House of Worms campaign, and your writing...but not play reports. I tried reading a couple and I admit my eyes glazed over. What I think would work better would be using sessions as grist for the mill of discussion *about* the campaign and long-term play. Maybe pulling out some NPCs or factions they encountered and worrying them up for other GMs to use, maybe discussion of things they did that surprised you or played into your long term plans. Maybe an analysis of character turnover or lack thereof and whether that's presented any difficulties in the latest session. Make the sessions an occasion to go off on the blog on interesting tangents without trying to recap?

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  5. To be honest, these posts are a major point of my engagement. I use an RSS reader so I am not sure how that impacts your numbers, but I also tend to comment on those posts. I am the DM who also does the write-ups, so I can empathize with the frustration, but...count me a fan.

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  6. I didn't stumble on your blog until relatively recently, but I've read and enjoyed every House of Worms post you've made since and occasionally go back and dig into the ones I missed. Then again, I'm very much a Tekumel fan while not having had much play experience with it and little interest in running it myself - so perhaps your posts are serving as a substitute for me actually playing, which is probably exactly what you don't want happening.

    I'll miss reading new installments, but if they're unrewarding to you to create then let them go. Plenty of other content here to make up for it.

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    1. Here, here; I have never had the chance to see it in play, just the novels & RPG books, so this is a real treat.

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  7. Hm, I did a readthrough of the archive and read the Dwimmermount ones, but I admit I haven't read much of the House of Worms ones. Part of it might be the length, at several hundred entries, and the play reports didn't start at the beginning, right? Part of it also might be, I'm not sure the blog format is the best way to present play reports, especially long ones like that. It works if you're reading along I think, but catching up can be more difficult.

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  8. First I'll begin by apologizing for not commenting on House of Worms, comments are not a regular part of my online delving, that's a failing on my part. Please Do Not Stop posting House of Worms, it is one of the highlights of my reading. Don't sell your writing short, you give us a concise report of thesebevents with enough detail that my imagination takes over and I am right there see the session unfold like a movie in my mind. I love Tekumel and professor Barker's writing, and I would include yours right there with his. Please don't stop particularly because of a perception of what others might think, I can tell you write this for you, the fact that others of us read and enjoy should be icing on an already great cake. Besides I can readily see you able to turn this into a full blown novel or series of fantastic fiction, again please keep going, if not for others, then certainly for yourself, thank you.

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  9. I’m interested in reflections about long-term campaigns, but not very interested in session reports. It’s nothing to do with EPT; I skip over session reports on every blog I follow.

    I’ve just passed the 1 1/2 year mark in a Halls of Arden Vul campaign I’m running. It’s the longest campaign I’ve been involved in, and it’s been great, so I’m on board with the thought that there’s something special about long-running games.

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  10. I'm one of those who read the blog religiously--except for the House of Worms posts. But it isn't that I don't value long campaigns, in fact I wish I were in a position to be part of one. Sadly, all of the groups I've been a part of that intended to follow a long-term campaign had some serious interruption--someone moves, someone else changes jobs or gets married and has their schedule upended, someone loses interest and just stops showing up. Most recently COVID killed three groups I was part of at the same time, including one I was GMing for which I'd planned a long arc. C'est la vie, I guess.

    To echo some previous commenters, part of my attitude toward HoW is "you had to be there." I'm interested in learning more about Tekumel, though, and I would love more posts about that world and how to GM it based on your experiences.

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  11. Reflect: Why are you back blogging at all? If it is to share the joy of roleplay things you love, why not keep on with the House reports? Maybe they should be associated with companion pieces about aspects of long-term play that might have been illustrated, or indeed pieces "in my Tekumel dimension..."

    But then I read all posts (via a newsreader) anyway.

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    1. Perhaps I am odd but I derive great pleasure out of knowing that things I write are being enjoyed by others. I'm not much of an "art for art's sake" kind of guy, at least when it comes to stuff like blogging. If it seems like people aren't enjoying something I'm doing, I'm not going to keep inflicting it on them.

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    2. I think most creators (regardless of what they create) enjoy knowing someone out there is enjoying their work. Nothing odd about that. My own blog has nothing like the level of engagement (or amount of posts) this one does, but I do appreciate the odd comment that crops up.

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  12. I wonder if the unique view count is accurate? I know that I read your blog (and all the other blogs I keep up with) via an RSS reader (Feedly). The only time I come to the actual blog webpage is to comment. Does that mean when I read those posts (which I did) that it didn't count as a 'view'?
    Regardless, I did enjoy those posts as much as I enjoy *all* your posts. Maybe as others have suggested an occasional summary post (once/month?) instead of each session would be the way to go.

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  13. I read and enjoy everything you post, James. I would comment more regularly if I had success in doing so, but 9 out of 10 comments disappear after I hit the publish button. I'm sure it's a user error, but it's unbelievably frustrating. This is the only site/system that gives me a problem. Not sure why.

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    1. I wanted to tag on to this, as it is a huge point for me.

      I read blogs via Feedly. For Grognardia, and only Grognardia, I then follow the link from Feedly to the actual post on your site so I can read the comments.

      Every single time I try to comment, it just disappears. Every time. I stopped trying after the first couple months. I'm sure it's user error, but it's frustrating. I specifically came here via my PC to comment, after having read the post and comments on my tablet via my usual method.

      Also, yes, I am regularly 20 days behind on reading blogs.

      Keep posting! I'm always reading, and sometimes commenting (in my head, since I can't via my reader).

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  14. While long-term play is commendable and its practice should be defended, idk if I'd call it the "highest" form of roleplaying. If anything's the "highest form of roleplaying", it'd probably look something like Avery Adler's Brave Sparrow, a continuous experience that transcends gaming tables and dungeon masters and transforms the player's ontology. Tradgames are good and fun, and deeply culturally significant to the hobby as a whole, but it'd be regressive and reactionary to think the form couldn't be elevated further.

    also yeah, eyes kinda glazed over whenever I tried to read these. hella interested in the tekumel setting but play reports just don't do it for me at all.

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    1. ...I mean, this blog *is* called "Grognardia," not "Latest Developments in Roleplaying Games-ia"....

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  15. Our group has been gaming together for over 18 years and I am still running the original campaign I started at the beginning (although it shifted from live table-top sessions to online posting about five years ago because I wanted to switch my live campaign to Oriental Adventures). In truth, everybody at our table takes turns DMing at various times and we all tend to agree that our campaigns exist in the same milieu. This didn't seem exceptional to me but perhaps it is more rare than I realized?

    I generally don't read campaign play reports because they just don't interest me (unless it's a campaign I am playing in myself). I am interested in discussions about how to execute quality campaign play though.

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  16. I liked(d) the reports, but knowing nothing of the setting before I started reading your blog, I had no comment to add.

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  17. I always read them. I don't know enough about Tekumel to follow them completely, let alone comment intelligently, but I do enjoy them.

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  18. I totally agree with you that the long term campaign is the most rewarding form of roleplaying game. Watching things develop in ways unimagined when you begin again is something that seems impossible to do in any other way. I find actual play reports hard to put together - even what feels like the most uneventful session can still contains so many actions and decisions by the group that even a brief summary can be really lengthy. I still find it a useful thing to do when I can - I commend you for doing it.

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  19. I like gaming reports, though they are not the main reasons I read blogs, and this blog in particular, and, yes, I rarely comment on actual play.
    Why? I probably don't think it's very useful. I never saw RPGs as a "commentator's sport" and each table has its own culture and procedures.
    I vastly prefer actually playing than reading or watching Actual Play (except when I try to get informations on games I'm curious about, maybe).
    I probably liked more the Dwimmermount reports, though I'm not turned off at all by Tekumel content, can't say exactly why.


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  20. Count me among those who hung on every word of the Dwimmermount game reports, but bounced off the House of Worms. Definitely up for some discussions on long-form campaigns though; they are definitely my ideal but life or my own energy often sounds the death knell for my campaigns.

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  21. heh, 27 comments at this point. LOL

    just want to add, I hope you are writing for your own enjoyment, as the internet will always let you down. I used to do something similar just to keep things straight in my head, keep the emotion flowing clear.

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  22. I've always enjoyed reading about the Worms, as it is a window onto the world of Tekumel. I am also a fan of long games, and it is a pleasure to read about yours. I hope you will continue to share.

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  23. I'm reminded of a quote about porn. “It feels better than it looks.”

    I agree with you about the value of long term campaigns, but reading about someone else having fun...see quote above.

    I think the mechanics of how to create a long term campaign would be interesting to read as Joshua suggests)... unless it came down to "This idea popped into my head and I threw it out there and a player ran with it!"

    That wouldn’t be informative or interesting to read.

    And while I would gladly read about the mechanics and logistics of setting up an on-line campaign, I have no real interest in playing one myself.

    I just recently realized that the campaign I’m in has been going two years - probably the longest one since college - but as we only play once a month, it doesn’t have the advantages or pleasures of a long-term campaign. It’s really just a bunch of "one-shots".

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  24. For those who wonder about their stats making it in if they read via a feed reader (like Feedly), it should show up just the same. The feed reader still has to access the web server and download the page, so it's a visit that would show up, unless James uses some very exotic tool for stats.

    I'm one of those few hundred who not only read all session report reports from the EPT campaign, but also commented upon some of them. But, for me it's actually not very common that I do. Session reports are hard to write engagingly. In this case I do have a small tie to the campaign, even though it is from the first few sessions, so maybe that's why I've a personal interest in the developments.

    Unless you make every post about something very dramatic and make an arc of it in the post, you almost has to be in from the start to enjoy session reports. Like I said, they are hard to write.

    Tekumel often get a reputation for being niche, and I'm wondering if that's not self inflicted. Posts showing how play in Tekumel is just like play in any other settings should be the antidote for that.

    Maybe more focused posts on how a theme was developed, or a story arc was played out based on things specific to the world might be a thing? Also, maybe some behind the scenes views of how you develop material for your campaign, and how it works similarly to other worlds and how it differs?

    Well. I always enjoy Tekumel posts, regardless of their form.

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    1. I generally agree that session write ups can be hard for me to click with, but...maybe it is like someone said up thread that I haven't gotten to see Tekumel in play, & maybe it is a testament to the write ups, but yeah, this is...well, like, the one place I see living Tekumel updates.

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  25. About long-term play: I'm 100% down with the idea that rpgs truly shine only in long-term play.
    However, as a DM, I utterly lack the stamina and preparation to make a campaign last more than one year (more or less 40 sessions of play is my best effort to this day)

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    1. Really depends on the RPG/style of game. Humorous games (eg Paranoia, Toon, Ghostbusters) work well as one shots or irregular time fillers when someone can't make it to a session of a longer game. Don't think I'd care to play a campaign of any of them, though. Some horror and mystery games also work as single stories (multisession or not), the most common example probably being Call of Cthulhu - although some Gumshoe stuff also plays out best in short form roleplaying.

      Much liek fiction, I think there's room for good roleplaying in everything from one night "short-short stories" to single module "novellas" to epics told over a sprawling series of "novels." The experiences are different but I don't see any one as being objectively superior myself.

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  26. I don’t think your post is meant that way but it comes off as a bit illogical.

    Why would you assume that people not liking your campaign diaries means that they are “consumerist”, don’t like tekimel , etc?

    Why not look at the overall interest in tekumel posts for things like that.

    You’ve noted that campaign diaries and other actual play genre media act as substitutes for playing — if those are notably unpopular relative to other material — doesn’t that encourage the thought that maybe people are…
    Laying.

    Personally there are 1-2 actual play groups I enjoy. Most of it I find intolerable or uninteresting. I’d rather be playing or prepping for my next game.

    Speaking of that,,,, I have something I need to prep!

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  27. I enjoyed your campaign posts. I've been playing and (mostly) refereeing EPT / Tekumel since 1975. It's my favorite setting, besides my own of course :D , and I enjoyed a look into another game besides mine. I'm not running EPT right now (D&D at the moment) and it was my Tekumel fix along with the Blue Room podcasts and The Excellent Travelling Eye.

    I don't generally post because my job is a time sink (I teach) and I'm usually reading between grading papers and prep work. Still, it has been a source of entertainment and inspiration.

    So, thank you!

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  28. I had a mid-length EPT campaign at one point, so I know some bits about the setting. I found the HoW posts initially interesting, but then for whatever reason they started to become like word salad to me. Speaking only for myself, I would probably save the "wall of text" style reports for when truly pivotal things are happening, and maybe mix it up with some flow charts or other alternative methods of presenting the information to dress events up with a little bit of context. Otherwise I have trouble remembering who or what an X, Y and Z are when X Ys a Z on the fabled W of R and then the P shows up to Q the A before B finds out and alerts the C. Like, I know where Jakalla is and can tell a Shen from a Ssu but when I read a post, and then 6 weeks later there's another one... maybe it's just me but I can't keep it all straight without doing more work than I actually feel like doing. And again, I Refereed it for like a year and a half.

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  29. I am another one who regularly read the HoW posts, and certainly looked forward to them. I generally don't interact directly with any blog, and I feel it would be churlish of me to even think to question your motives or priorities in posting, let alone post something suggesting that you do things differently. This is YOUR blog after all, and I am a non-paying consumer!

    Consuming long-campaign play reports is an investment on my part, which somewhat parallels that of yourself and the players. That investment is rewarded by fuller understanding of the campaign (world, characters and DM/players to a degree).

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  30. I personally dislike campaign reports, especially oral ones. That's why I myself don't usually talk about my campaigns or the "cool adventures we had" to others. I'd rather have people join and see for themselves. A Quick AAR on the other hand is more interesting. A few data points at a glance, some major happenings as bullet points, that I can enjoy.

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  31. I think my comment got eaten...

    Anyway, I have never played in Tékumel and I'm not likely to (a lack of opportunity rather than a lack of interest) so I've found the House of Worms posts interesting and have enjoyed reading them.

    The thing I've found most interesting is the non-adventuring, social and political bits, like the wedding preparations, and the umpteen parties the characters seem to attend. I don't know if that is something that happens more often in a Tékumel game, or if it's a Maliszewski stylistic twist, but you don't see that a lot in online game reports, which tend to focus more on dungeons and combat.

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  32. I love the long campaign (10 years next summer!) but understand why it's difficult to appreciate at the minutia level.

    I suggest that you make your session report very brief. Gloss over most the details but summarize the over-arching movement of the campaign world. Drop hints about wonderful details, but do not elaborate---tease the reader.

    Instead, emphasize the universal elements that are relevant to good sustainable game-play. Less of a diary, and more of an insight into the art of DM-ing a campaign. Talk about situations that came up during play and how you handled them. That's what I believe most blog-readers are hungry for---pro-tips.

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  33. "Thursdays in Thracia" was great because the DM shared their thought processes throughout, as many here recommend.

    Otherwise, I can't stand to read game session summations. It's like listening to someone tell you about a dream they had. :)

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    1. That's a really good point about Thursdays, and i think a lot of people would like to see more DM thoughts and observations in playthrough reports. Ben from the Questing Beast youtube channel just posted an OSR playthrough where he went to the effort of editing in subtitles with his after-the-fact thoughts about what he was thinking during play. First time I've seen that in a vid, and going by the viewer comments it was a very welcome feature.

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  34. I think this is about the third comment I've made here, but I loved the House of Worms recaps, and would be delighted if you brought them back!

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  35. I've enjoyed reading the HoW posts, but don't comment as I feel I don't have anything material to add to the conversation. I enjoy reading your thoughts and experiences, even if (especially if) they don't perfectly mirror mine. So long as you are enjoying writing them, I'm enjoying reading them... Ok, now back to my corner....

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  36. FWIW, the From the Sorcerer's Skull blog has been running a campaign journal for their Azurth game that I read regularly. I asked if they'd seen a similar lack of engagement and was told those posts tend to have fewer comments but (as far as he'd noticed) similar view counts. So people there are reading about the same as normal, but not talking about it. His Azurth posts are generally shorter than HoW is/was though, and (weird as the setting is) is probably less strange than Tekumel to folks not already familiar with Barker.

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  37. Chiming in to say I'll certainly miss the House of Worms posts. I've always looked curiously towards Tekumel, but never dived in. The campaign reports were a nice "drip feed" of what that setting might look like in play that I could gradually absorb.

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