Let’s Chat About Games

For the most part, I try to use this blog for official announcements and the like. Occasionally I’ll chat a little about this game or that here, if it is specifically pertinent to one of my games. But on the whole, I try not to gum up the signal here with too much noise.

That, of course, is of no help to those of you who, in fact, yearn for all that delectable noise. For you proud few, I present this Quick Guide to Chatting with Eppy:

• Over on Google+ I shoot my mouth off about all sorts of random game stuff. If you do swing by there, be sure to let me know you’re interested in hearing about games, so I can put you in the proper circle. Otherwise you might just get an eyeful of lazy vegan cooking tips.
• While you’re over on Google+, check out the Design Matters community, which is not only frequented by myself, but a number of other great designers. It’s a great place to go if you a question about a specific game of mine.
• I’m not as active on Twitter as I used to be, but if you watch my feed there very closely, you’ll get the occasional pithy nugget or poop joke.
• Finally, if you ever find yourself in the Western Massachusetts area, drop me an email. Who knows, we might be able to meet up for some coffee and game talk.

 

More Endless Chatter From Epidiah

This time I’m on the Penny Red Podcast where I discuss more topics than I could possibly list. It’s a tad on the long side, so I recommend a cup of coffee before hand and a long car ride to enjoy it on.

 

The Shield & The Ring

If you look closely at the tiny, tiny rogue illustrations in “The City of Fire & Coin,” you may notice that both Manyara and Snorri carry shields. In fact, both have helmets, Manyara is almost fully armored, and Snorri seems to be well protected by a couple of fur-covered life-preservers, while Muaphet is all but naked. Clearly Muaphet’s the most badass, right? Running into battle next to these chumps who hide behind their shields?

The current pop culture image of Conan is a bare-chested man who depends solely on the strength of his sword arm to protect him. But this is not Robert E. Howard’s Conan. In the original fiction, Conan wasn’t a fool. If he knew he was heading for a fight, he’d gear up and get some appropriate armor on. Because that’s how you survive a fight, by being prepared.

Conan wore armor because it made no sense for him not to. This should be reason enough for your rogues to do the same. But there is another, deeper reason that Howard dressed Conan in his armor. A reason that holds true for your rogues as well. Conan’s armor exists to be dented, scratched, torn, cracked open, rended from his body by some of the most impossible foes in all of Hyboria. He wears armor to cede glory to his foes.

 

Prep & Lore

One of my design goals going into Swords Without Master was to make it prep-flexible. MonkeyDome is a game that requires only the slightest bit of preparation, all of which can be done by the group sitting at the table in the half hour leading up to the game. This is absolutely lovely, but I wanted to push that boundary out in both directions for two reasons:

• What’s “low-prep” to some, is prep-intensive to every other reasonable person in the world. You know how if you’re not really into cooking, your gaming group orders out for game night? That’s exactly how the non-gaming world sees even just 30 minutes of prep. Why plow through this if someone else is willing to do the work for you?
• You know how if you’re into cooking, you start to look forward to game night as chance to share a new recipe with all our friends? That’s exactly how I see prep work when I’ve got the leisure time to do it. Why plod along in someone else’s dreary creation when I’m perfectly willing to create for myself?

So Sw/oM had to have a prep dial, and it had to start close to zero as possible.

 

Hoops & Sorcery

Now that the free preview is finally out, I can start digging into the specifics of Swords Without Master in these posts. So let’s start by talking about this:

Our objective is to toil and struggle together to craft an enthralling sword and sorcery short story.

This is the most important sentence in all of “The City of Fire & Coin.” There’s a ton of things packed in there that may require some unpacking, and I’ll probably get to all of that in future posts, but right now I want to focus on the fact that it is an objective. Like a boardgame or a sport, Swords Without Master has a win condition.

The goal posts for that win condition are set by the participants in the game. I can give you some idea of what sword and sorcery is like. And I can give you some idea of what a short story should look like. And I can even give you some idea of what makes one enthralling. And you can bet your bonnet you won’t be able to shut me up about all these things and more. But ultimately, what qualifies for a win here will be up to you.

In this way, Sw/oM* is a bit like a triathalon. There are people who enter triathalons to be the first across the finish line. There are those who are just trying to beat their previous time. There are those who just want to finish or to prove to themselves they can overcome some personal difficulty. Each person is in that race for their own individual reason. And their reasons must be a compelling reasons, because each and every one of them is going to piss themselves while competing. That’s World of Warcraft levels of commitment right there.

 

The City of Fire & Coin

The City of Fire and Coin Preview Version 1

“The City of Fire & Coin” is an introductory adventure for the Swords Without Master tabletop roleplaying game. It contains all the rules you need to play and will appear as the second chapter in the forthcoming Swords Without Master rulebook.

A goal of this preview is to enlist you, my ravening wolves, and your keen vigilance to help mold this adventure into the lean, powerful introduction it will become. As you play the game, if you and your fellow adventurers have any questions or concerns, please share them with me.In particular I’m looking for feedback from people who have played the adventure as it is written and have comments on how the text conveys the rules. The game itself is well out of the playtest stage. I’m merely looking for feedback on the text.In the final book, the formatting will inevitable be different and it will be only one of three chapters that each take a different approach to teaching the same rules.

Enjoy and good gaming!

P.S. Here are our three rogues–Snorri, Manyara, and Muaphet Raum–all on a separate sheet. This will become part of the next version of “The City of Fire & Coin” PDF.

 

MonkeyDome Accused of Being Classy

Teacher Pete Figtree talks about using games and gaming tools in the classroom on his freshly minted podcast Ruthless Diastema. And on episode 01 he gives MonkeyDome some loving. If you’re curious about the game, but not ready to commit to the zero-dollar price tag, I highly recommend giving this a listen to. It includes a thorough rundown of the game, how it works and how it can be used as a teaching tool. So thorough, in fact, that he actually manages to solve an issue I’ve been having trying to communicate one of the MonkeyDome rules that has survived the process of becoming Swords Without Master.

 

Of Adventurers, Conquerors, and Kings

Here’s a conversation that sort of starts over on The Mule Abides. Tavis, an erudite thinker on the topic of games and a man who certainly knows what it means to play, and I share a great many interests and something of a common ancestry in the world of roleplaying. Late last year, at AnonyCon, we enjoyed a game of Swords Without Master together. It was actually kind of an amazing game–with our heroes being flung around an ancient treasure room by giant animated statues and then later picking gems and other bits of treasure from each others’ flesh as they fled down the jungle river leading from the temple and that was all before they were beset by the ghost tribe, hand-sharpened teeth glowing in the fog . . .

I could go on and on. And we did, that night, and afterwards at the con.

The game was a personal victory of mine, because of the type of player Tavis is. He’s an open-minded gamer, willing to try all sorts of new forms of game and play, but his heart belongs to his true love, the primogenitor of the hobby: D&D. There’s a little Tavis in me, hell probably in all of us, and I wanted to see if Swords could seduce him.

 

For the Time Traveling Foodie

Dear Time & Temp GMs,

If you’re mucking about in British history, you’re going to want check out the History Cookbook for all your dining needs. It’s a lovely collection of dishes categorized by the eras in which they were commonly eaten.

Regrettably, the recipes seem to be confined to British history, but if that’s good enough for Doctor Who, it should do quite nicely for the occasional temp adventure. And I have no idea how accurate any of this is, but then again, accuracy is not a temp’s strong suit. In any case, it should make a lovely resource for creating a reasonably realistic meals whether they’re for your temps or for your players.

Yours truly,

Eppy

P.S. One’s favorite meal would make an excellent eidolon or simulacrum for a Swords Without Master rogue.

P.P.S. If anyone has other resources on the history and anthropology of food and cuisine, hit me up with a link in the comments. I know they’re out there.

P.P.S. Do check out the comments.

 

For My Ravening Wolves, Part III

Where’s My Preview?

I’ve got about 85% of it written, roughly. I have no idea what that comes out to in terms of pages, because I’m a little adrift in the graphic design department. But it does mean progress is being made and this 85% includes the Great Pronoun Shift of 2011, a necessary and laborious task.

How Do You Suggest I Spend My Time Waiting For This?

Adventuring! Get thee to the Unstore and check out Simon Carryer’s sword & sorcery game: On Mighty Thews. And then check out the Pulpy Primer he put up for free over here. Actually, it doesn’t matter the order, just buy the game and play it.