18FEB12 OGL Rant

So, while the D20 OGL SRD (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/srdarchive) this led to:

"When it was published in 2000 along with the 3rd edition of the rules, the OGL sparked unprecedented growth in the RPG industry. The OGL made it so easy to use the rules conventions of D&D like hit points, spells and monsters that hundreds of products - the official signifier of D&D-compatible materials created using the OGL - emblazoned on them made their way to game store shelves."
-Escapist (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9292-The-Ghosts-of-D-D-Past.2)

Why did WotC not do the same with D20 4.0?  After all, they are suffering right now, and I am believing its a result of ending the continued use of an OGL SRD with the newest editions!

The OSR is on the rise, along with other digital media creating a paradigm shift in the world of traditional gaming:

"Changes in how people buy RPGs and the freedom of the OGL combined to make the Old School Renaissance grow across the internet. The rise of digital distribution of PDFs through marketplaces like DriveThruRPG.com have allowed designers to make money selling their work with less overhead. The costs of printing books has also decreased, especially print-on-demand services that allow smaller print runs, so it's easier than ever for amateur designers to publish something gamers can bring to the table and use with any of D&D's older editions or retro-clones."
-Escapist (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/9293-The-State-of-D-D-Present.3)

Right now the world of games is going through a paradigm shift.  Board games are still going strong in many respects, but also deal with similar limitations.  What we all enjoy though is an increase in development budget, but we pay for it.  Fantasy Flight Games makes beautiful board games with high quality laminated cardboard components and beautifully sculpted plastic pieces that used to only be the realm of pewter.  However, its around $70 to $150 for these games as opposed to the $20 to $50 the same game concept years ago used to cost (part of that is indeed inflation).  RPGs however, are contracting sharply.

Steve Jackson Games publishes most GURPS supplements electronically, and spends the majority of the printing budget on the biggest cash cow of the company, Munchkin (I enjoy Munchkin myself...).  Other game companies are starting to publish more and more through DriveThru RPG and RPG Now.  Holdouts like WotC are suffering (that 4th Ed. wasn't so well received...).

As a result, we've seen the OSR take the OGL and thrive online.  Be it free rules, or low cost .pdf and print on demand, indie development seems to be rising.  Sales wise its harder to track...  Number of downloads would be an interesting figure to find out between the biggest names I've seen from OSRIC, Swords and Wizardry, and Basic Fantasy; along with sales of Labyrinth Lords and others.

Frankly, I think we need to embrace the OSR.  Where D&D 3.0, 3.5, 3.75, and 4.0 to varying degrees seemed to have failed is competing with computers.  Where the OSR takes 3.5 and strips the SRD down to the basics, and gives the GM a lot of story telling and rules adjudication power, it seems to thrive.  Volumes of rules, be it the many GURPS books I've enjoyed over the years, or some of the 3.5 books a friend gave me, only serve to slow down games.  Most of the gruntwork is best done by a computer, and then you wonder why you want to sit at the dinner table with a group of friends (unless you have a good GM who will throw the rules out some of the time anyway, which frankly is how the rules recommend being played anyway...).

That, and I'm a sucker for anything of quality to come out of Open Source.  I have little money to spend and waste on games anymore.  If the rules are free, I'll take em and use them when I feel like dungeon delving.  I'll use my "Descent: Journeys into the Darkness" game board and figures with BFRPG or Microlite 20...  Why the hell not?  To top it off, I like to draw pictures and get my art out there.

So, anyone in the OSR development world working a real job and designing games on the weekend is more than welcome to bug me about drawing up some creature sometime.  So long as the deadline is flexible...  I'll embrace OSR and OGL and use my FOSS image editing software (www.gimp.org and www.inkscape.org) and have some fun with you, for free.

Legion of Myth Game Reviews...

The Guild Legion of Myth has a fairly new format for reviewing tabletop, board, and pen and paper RPG's...

So far I've written several reviews, beginning with my favorite board game, Ogre/GEV.

I'm fortunate that it doesn't matter when the game was published, and in fact most of what we all seem to enjoy is currently out of print at the present time!  Its a wonderful community over there as they embrace all forms of games with a focus on PC MMORPG's with Star Wars: The Old Republic being the current active guild.  At the moment due to computer limitations, I'm now focusing all my efforts in the realm of either older computer games or table top gaming.  Can't say its a bad thing.

Other game games that I've reviewed to date are:

Don Quixote (board)

Stars Without Number (RPG)

GURPS Traveller: Interstellar Wars (GURPS 4E RPG Sourcebook)

I have several other RPG rules sets and sourcebooks I'll knock out this year as well.  I have the Mongoose Traveller RPG rules which I think I wrote about once before, and the "Hammers Slammers" Sourcebook!  I've also had the opportunity to get a couple play sessions of the WotC D20 Star Wars RPG (Revised Core Rules) with a friend recently.  That one might lead to some interesting cartoons...

Boardgame wise, I'm hoping to get a good meaningful play session of Conan in sometime.  We'll see if that happens...  I certainly don't want it to collect any more dust!

20JUL10 The RPG Tank...

Be very careful what you tell players, in fact, you might want to clarify depending on genre... After all, with a game system like GURPS (Generic Universal Role Playing System by Steve Jackson Games, www.sjgames.com) you certainly have to. After all, you never know what sourcebook a player might have picked up and what kind of character they slipped into your game world! Yes, I'm such a Munchkin...

Most references to various games are Copyright Steve Jackson Games. "Bolo" is reference to the giant cyber tanks which are the brain child of Keith Laumer (and an inspiration to S.J. and crew) along with "Gottlos" being the cyborg tank idea of Colin Kapp (Analog Collected works Number 8, picked up at a library book sale years ago!). Fans of "Ogre/GEV" will instantly recognize the references to the orignal ideas that inspired Ogre.

What can I say, I find the idea of giant self aware tanks that pack enough firepower to match an armored company pretty fun as a science fiction game concept. My roleplaying game experience is pretty limited, so when I first heard 'tank' in reference to Fantasy RPG's you can imagine the devious thoughts that went through my head. As I've been a GURPS book reader and Ogre player since the age of 12... The fact that I have some friends who might play a GURPS Fantasy module and I have GURPS Ogre on my shelf...

Big GEV Scenario, still in experimental stages...

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to pull out all my Steve Jackson Games OGRE/GEV stuff. I've got just about every expansion that was printed and re-released for the 1977 classic Ogre... I've got the second edition Ogre Book, Reinforcements, Shockwave, and Battlefields along with re-release that combines Ogre and GEV into one box. Lots of pieces and maps. So having lots of pieces, being very intimately familiar with the game mechanics, and having my boys napping to get time enough to be bored, I designed a Scenario. Its pretty hefty too, but needs some play testing to ensure balance as of yet, so I'm working on that. Its similar to a game my Dad and I played back in 2006 when they visited.

Here it goes:

For months the ceasefire between the Combine and Paneurope deteriorated and as tensions and border incidents along the DMZ increased, so did the forces stationed along the DMZ. In once province in central Europe, the provincial capital was right along the DMZ, and therefore its only defense was the local Politzi. Paneuropean Forces however set up in the area set to defend, or re-take the capital, when the Combine Forces came north after them. Paneuropean forces along the DMZ in accordance with the treaty were two reinforced battalions of just infantry. In response to increased tensions (no surprise here, it is the Last War after all...) Paneuropean commanders stationed two field artillery batteries, on heavy armor company, on light scout squadron, and two mechanized infantry companies. The Politzi were told just to hold the line, and if need be, get out of the way if it looked like the cities and towns would fall to the Combine, the Capital Politzi Chief just shook his head in disgust knowing his men would never abandon they're homes without a fight.

Setup:
Uses three maps in the following order west to east: S-3, GEV, S-2

Paneuropean Forces:
All militia counters in the Ogre Battlefields expansion will be used. Militia will not become 'un-ready' and will not be able to move... The politzi refuse to budge and will fight to the death! Capitol (GEV Map 2114 area, with main bridge along river) must have at least 15 strength points of Militia counters setup on it. Suburb of the Capitol on Map S-3 0715 must have 5 strength points of militia set up on it, all other towns can only have a max of 3 strength points, and no less than 1. This should force the attackers to move with caution in the event of over-run attacks... After all, militia defense is tripled in town hexes, and in over run, they get the same bonus as infantry...

DMZ authorized force of two re-enforced infantry battalions:
72 Strength Points of Infantry set up along or north of the line drawn from S-3 hex 0112- S-2 2312 (should be a map fold to be a good guide...). All other forces set up north of this line also
Quick Reaction Force, two Mechanized Infantry Companies
2 forces of 3 GEV-PCs with 3 Strength Points of Infantry on board each GEV-PC (each GEV-PC carries a platoon of infantry, or three squads)
Artillery Batteries (batteries are somewhere between three or four tubes in the real world...)
1 battery of three Howitzers
1 battery of three Mobile Howitzers
Heavy Armor Company
6 Heavy Tanks (one platoon, three vehicles, kinda following the Israeli concept of tank platoon here)
3 Missile Tanks
Light Armor Company
6 GEV
6 Lt. Tanks

Combine Force:
Starts off board, may bring in elements as he sees fit... At least with this draft!
36 Armor Units for the main force with
one Mechanized Infantry Battalion
9 GEV-PCs with 3 SP of Infantry on each GEV-PC

So thats the setup thus far. Needs play tested with other human players to determine the balance and deal with those issues.

So far, I just started about three turns of solo play with the following force:
6 Super Heavy Tanks (about two companies)
12 Heavy Tanks (about one Tank Battalion)
12 GEVs (Battalion)
6 LGEVs along with 6 Lt. Tanks to make a Light Scout Squadron along with the Mechanized Infantry Battalion above.

I kept the attacks against the militia forces at range, and still had trouble with wiping them out if I didn't combine attacks. Towns are great defensive positions! Still, I didn't get very far, and still haven't determined what the final objective should be. Should the Combine player just seek to penetrate the Paneuropean line? Should the Combine player first take the capital and hold out against a Paneuropean counter attack? These and more to be decided later! Especially after some human play tests!