Reality Makes all the Difference in your Worlds

 All gamers like to suspend reality to some extent while playing games.  This suspension of   disbelief brings the entertainment value to the players.  That's why we say 'do you want to PLAY a game?'  It's a type of play to be sure, but you don't need me to tell you that.  However, as we get older, we need to move away from the complete suspension of belief for our entertainment.  Wile E Coyote is still funny for many of us, but reality (typically gravity in his case) kicks in at just the right time.  Like any good movie, you can't completely suspend reality otherwise it becomes a bit absurd and boring.  This applies to any entertainment, especially games.

Back when I was a kid...I couldn't have been more than 10 years old... I remember playing a board game with some friends.  I don't recall the name of the game, but I do know they were teaching me the rules as we went on.  I became so frustrated with the game that I never played again because the devices in the game had nothing to do with the game itself.  The devices I speak of were:  elbows on the table caused you to be penalized, rolling dice with your left hand rather than your right caused you to be penalized, scooting your chair during the game caused you to lose your turn.  There was literally a booklet of ridiculous and unrelated rules that frustrate me to this day.  (Yes, I am still receiving therapy from that game).  The reason I bring this up (besides being therapeutic) is that games need to be tie relevant things together in order for it to make enough sense to be fun while keeping the entertainment value going.  Said another way, don't have irrelevant things impact the playing of the game.  It becomes 'noise', and noise is often annoying.

If noise is annoying, then what is music?  Ahhhh...now we are getting to the heart of it!  Making music is choreographed noise.  I mean really, who enjoys the sound of symbols all by themselves?  But, bring them into a larger orchestra, and they sound great if played at the right times.  The same is true with orchestrating reality and the suspension of reality in a game.  The cartoonist can suspend gravity for a certain amount of time, but if it was suspended all of the time, then Wile E Coyote would never make his perfect dirt plumes when hit hits the canyon floor.  A good game...any type of game...has a balance of reality and suspension of reality.

Let me give you what I think is a good example..in fact, now that I'm thinking of it, I might apply it to a future game!  (I call dibs!!).   Imagine a miniature or RPG scenario where a group of terrorists sneak into another country, set up their secret base, secretly detonate a nuclear bomb and design chemical weapons, in order to end the world to set up their own on their own rules.  OK, it's a little far fetched, I know.  Some people might play a scenario or two but they really need to put the reality check far back in their brain.  However, let's bring some reality to it and it would not only allow that reality check to come a bit more forward.  Let's place a real name to this terrorist group and call them the hmmm...how about the "Aum Shinrikyo"?  Let's timebox this for reality sake into a period we've all lived.  Let's say the mid-1990's or even today.  OK...next, let's pick a location.  Certainly can't be any place well populated or so extreme...having it as a moon base would be suspending reality too far.  How about the unpopulated areas of Australia...the deep outback.  Put a specific name to the place...something Australian sounding like "Banjawarn Station" in the Great Victoria Desert.  There.   Now you've just given enough reality to add spice to the scenario(s).   What would make it really, REALLY interesting?  Well, basing it on true events would certainly make it fun, but we'd need to change this story line a bit....or would we?  What if the players were given newspaper articles or a story synopsis of real, true to life, events and they then had to disengage reality only for their role on the event.  Would knowing that the above events really happened make the scenario more fun and interesting?  I can say first hand that it makes all the difference in the world.  Do some research on the Aum Shinrikyo...you wil quickly remember who they are.  You will also find some incredibly interesting, and little known facts about this Japanese terrorist group activities such as them having a 1/2 million acres of property in the Great Victoria Desert of Australia, them mining their own uranium, their partnership with former Soviet scientists, their detonation of the worlds first privately developed atomic bomb, and so much more.  Reality is the spice of life, and reality makes all the difference in your gaming worlds as well.

Modern news is one thing, but the applicability of this approach to gaming really adds credibility and more entertainment value to the games themselves.  Sure it takes a little more research for the game designer, but you will have a better end-result.  Good luck and I'd love to hear more about how you've used reality in your games and the responses of the players to it.  


-Maze

Three Cigars that Changed the World

I love historical games.  There is something about imagining to put on a king's crown, general's feathery hat, a commander's cluster, or a sergeant's tin pot.  That 'something' is to see if you can have a different outcome than what really happened.  A different decision of troop placement, an additional disruption of supply lines of the enemy, or a feint attack could have turned the tide of not just a battle, but a war, and quite possibly the world itself.  The Weather Channel has had some really interesting episodes on how weather could have changed the world...D-Day is a perfect example, but there are hundreds more.  It's amazing how many trivial things can change the outcome of the world.  McClellan's receiving of the enemy's Special Order 191 that was found at Antietam Creek in 1862 wrapped around 3 cigars altered the battle and possibly the war itself.  World War III was possibly avoided when the fuel gauge of Soviet jets mistakenly showed low fuel causing them to turn back when they were on an attack run on US planes.  Even Napoleon's hemorrhoids possibly changed the world when he couldn't mount his horse to survey the battlefield of Waterloo.  It's pretty amazing how things could have turned out.  So, pull up a chair, keep your cigars in your breast pocket, double check your fuel, and bring along some Preparation H, and see if you could have made the world different if you were in command!

-Maze

An Unique Challenge: A realistic Dungeon Crawl.

Bill Perman
(also posted in North Coast Gamers.)

We've all been there a hundred times. An elaborite maze, with dozens of traps ranging from pits to magical fireballs. Secret passages, random teleportations, and a host of creatures that seem to live there, yet never wander their home. They seem content to just live in a room till a random party opens the door.

This beg's the question; who builds such elaborate dungeons to the point where it seems almost impracticle that anyone could make use of it. Who sets and resets all those traps? How do the Orcs eat? Where is the bathrooms?


 Spring this on your players. A realistic Dungeon. Here's how you prep it.

1. Backstory: "Legend tells of a (insert quest item of moderate to high temptation) That lies at the center of a Labyrinth. None who have entered have ever come out alive. They say a great (add a single encounter creature, yet keep it vague) lives there guarding the (quest item).

2. Warning: Upon entering the labyrinth for the first time, there needs to be a warning, perhaps etched in stone above the entrance. "Be warned, once you enter, you cannot leave until you reach the center of the maze/labyrinth/dungeon, etc."

3. Inventory; Once the party enters, the entrance seals behind them. It becomes indistinquishable from any other hallway/dead end. In the center, they can trigger a magic stone or simple lever to re-open it. At this moment, call for a comprehensive list of EVERTHING the party is carrying with them. Pay careful attention to food/water supplies. If they don't mention it, they don't have it, and here in lies the danger. Also, how many torches do they carry? How long do they burn for?

4. Encounters: Not a damn thing. No orcs, beholders, trolls, zombies or lizard people. No pit traps,magic missles, fireballs, poison darts or collapsing ceilings. Nothing, save the single encounter monster near the center of the labyrinth.

5. Setting; It's dark, very dark. Even with torches, one can barely see no more than 20 feet ahead. a dense layer of fog covers the ground up to the knees.

I guarantee you this will be the most dangerous maze they've encountered. Why? because of realism. First, you might get that player who wants you to draw the map out as they go along. Don't. Just descibe the scene, and any forks or intersections they come across.

Another player may take the inititive to map it out. He'll pull out a sheet of graph paper and insist his character will map it out. If a player does this, refer to the inventory sheet. Are they carrying parchement and writing tools? If not, too bad. Yet, a player may still insist it's part of his "rogues kit" or something. Fine. Ask him how he intends to map it out. Perhaps a tried and true method. He walks the length of a cooridor, walking heel to toe to measure it out, then returns to his parchment to draw it out. That's fine, as it will only serve to slow the party down.

Realistically, it still isn't that easy. When he draws it out, have him make skill checks against an undisclosed DC#. if he fails, he fails. Tell him the cooridor is 6 squares long when it's only 5, or something. Eventually, his map will start leading to dead ends and not make any sense.

How's the food and water holding up? What? They forgot to pack rations? Perhaps CON checks are needed and penalties applied as malnutrition and dehydration sets in.

What about sleep? Perhaps, as a means to set a mood, occasionally the great beast's cries can be heard echoing off of the walls. Even those on watch will wake the others for fear it may be close. Again more penalties and CON checks as fear, paranoia, restlessness and fatigue set in.

I think you see where I'm going with this. The real challenge is the maze itself. Why treat dungeons as cash cows of XP and magic items, when the real challenge lies in just surviving the encounter? I'tll be a long time before they willingly trapes off into another crawl without proper planning and supplies.

NEXT: A Realistic Dragon Encounter

Games Workshop moves up a level

Games Workshop has been a mainstay of my personal gaming.  I've been a huge fan going all the way back to 1977 with the first publication of White Dwarf.   Many thousands of dollars later (I'm afraid to check how much I really spent on their products over the decades, continue to have a love/hate relationship as so many gamers have with GW:  price increases, new versions of the game, the fluctuation of new products, etc.  I'm sure there is more.   I have a business background, and expected the worse when GW went public in 1994.  Typically, when companies go public, their products lose a bit of the 'personal flavor' they once had in exchange for meeting the needs of its shareholders who are interested more in the short-term gains.

It would be interesting to see the demographics of the players since the 1980s compared to today's players.  I can surmise, from my personal experiences of managing game shops and the players in the area that the players have shifted in their interests, age, and income.


I saw a number of posts on this on various groups and thought I would post this on our blog.   The following article was published on January 5th and thought I would lend some commentary to it.   I'd love to hear other thoughts from other folks.

Games Workshop moves up a levelBy John Harrington
Thu 05 Jan 2012
[Games Workshop moves up a level] LONDON
(SHARECAST) - Fantasy and science fiction tabletop war gaming firm Games
Workshop saw growth in sales, profit and return on capital from its core
business in the first half of its financial year.

The Warhammer 40k miniatures gaming firm saw revenue rise to £62.7m
in the six months to November 27th, 2011, from £60m at the interim
stage the year before, although the sales total was boosted by £0.7m
of gains from favourable exchange rate movements.

Profit before tax surged to £9.1m from £6.8m the year before,
while earnings per share climbed to 22.1p from 15.6p.

This is a heck of a profit for a game company, particularly in an industry that has a direct correlation on the health of the economy.  Gaming itself typically increases when the economy drops, however new sales of games typically decreases (just as other hobby purchases).  This is similar to more people wtching TV rather than going out to dinner, but fewer people typically buy new TVs to do so.  With the collapse of the Euro and the poor health of the US Economy, one would think that the exchange rates would also have an even heavier weight against the British company.  It will be interesting to see how this would play out if the economies were healthy.

The company has only recently resumed dividend payments, but has done so
with a vengeance; the interim dividend of 29p is not fully covered by
earnings per share, but with net funds of £15.9m, up from £11.5m a
year earlier, the company feels able to return cash to shareholders.
Unfortunately, this is the crux of it.  Although dividends are increasing, so are the price points for their products.  A recent purchase of a pricey Dread Fleet of $115 is a large pill to swallow.  The other thing I find interesting is the increase in Warhammer 40K figures.  Certainly there have been new releases, but 40K has not been a big seller for us.  In fact, checking with GMT, their 40K sales were down significantly for the past 2 years.  It might be just a US slump in the intrest of 40K.

The UK, North America, Asia, Emerging Markets and Capital Cities plus
its two specialist businesses, Forge World and Black Library, all
delivered constant currency sales growth. Continental Europe was down
slightly in constant currency with strong performances from Italy and
the Netherlands unable to offset declines elsewhere.

Increase sales in Italy does not surprise me.  Italy has been slow on the up-take of GW products and over the past couple of years Italy has had some really significant increase in the number of game clubs and conventions.  On the downside, Italy's economy is about as good as Greece's economy and dare I say a similar attitude on entitlements from the government.

Gross margin was maintained despite increased costs. Other than the rise
in raw materials, however, the management sounded sanguine about the
impact of the "real world" on the fantasy milieu in which the group
operates.

Bla bla bla....  this is corporate-speak. 

"As a niche business, we, in general terms, neither benefit nor suffer
from macro economic factors as our current results show. The Hobby is
healthy and the challenge is to stay focused on what needs to be done to
service it efficiently and cost effectively," the company statement
said.

Well, it seems healthier than I thought it would be.  I just don't get it myself.  Let's just hope that GW doesn't experience a 'Jordache moment'...those of you from the 80's know what I'm talking about!  Go look in the discount stores and see if you can still find any Jordache jeans.

Shares in Games Workshop shot up 40p to 490p following the release of
the results.
http://www.sharecast.com/cgi-bin/sharecast/story.cgi?story_id=17507700&p\
rint=1
As of this post, Games Workshop stock is up over 5% since yesterday's article selling at 515.00 GBp. 




What are your thoughts?




-Maze

THE GREAT DEBATE: Party Engineering.
What is party engineering? That's when the players sit around and "fill in the gaps" so the adventuring party will be well balanced. You know - a little stealth, a little healing, a little magic/tech, a little brawn.

When a group uses this technique you end up with a well-balanced party that's able to tackle any challenge thrown at them. If you let everyone c...hoose their own class independently you may end up two people from the same class. Unless it's possible for you to distinguish your character with game mechanics within the class, one party member will ultimately eclipse the other party member. "We've got to make a lore roll? I have the highest lore so I'll roll it!"

The down side to party engineering, however, is that the party becomes predictable. Experienced gamers know their roles well. The cleric is the walking band-aid while the fighter is the meat shield. The wizard lobs magic missile and then detects magic after the fight. Why not spice things up a bit by having an intentional hole or two? It takes a creative party to overcome the lack of a rogue or a cleric. It also lends the DM an excellent opportunity to introduce NPC characters that adventure with the party. No magic user? Hire one!

Another downside to party engineering is that somebody inevitably gets stuck with a role that they don't want. If you're launching a long-term campaign, nobody wants to be stuck as the healing potion with legs for twenty levels. Inevitably, there's a rush to declare what class you're going to be leaving the last person with whatever nobody else wants.

So ultimately, in this debate, I fall on the side of individual expression. So what if you end up with a party of all magic users? What a unique challenge! How can you make YOUR magic user unique even though you're in the same class and race as the rest of the party? That's a challenge an old-school gamer should relish.

Where do you fall? Do you prefer a well balanced party from the get-go? Or do you prefer a more realistic, but unbalanced party that will have greater strengths, but greater weaknesses.

  Bill Perman

Hi Everyone!

We wanted to thank all of the members of the North Coast Gamers who came out to the Holiday Game Bash! It was good to see everyone again to such a friendly event.  I also wanted to thank the members of other groups that came out, particularly the gang from NOWS who hosted some great games.  

We also wanted to extend special thanks to Alex Ford, Lisa Ford, Dan Radakovich, Ken Podolski, Becky Roberts, Lydia Roberts, Kaylee Mazur, Sean McClain, and Emanuel Felouzis who helped out a huge amount with the scheduling, setting up, check-ins, raffles, and/or tearing down of the event.  I’d also like to thank all the GMs that prescheduled their events before the deadline.  We had some great games going on all day!

The gaming at the Holiday Game Bash this year was great!!  This year, the adding of the second floor rooms made a huge difference!  We had nearly 50 more people attend than last year, but the added space made it feel very comfortable.  For those of you who never made it upstairs, we had 6 additional rooms, 3 dedicated to miniatures and 3 dedicated to RPGs.  Additionally, the Artemis Bridge Simulation Event had its own dedicated room and was a huge success.  People loved the experience.  I thought I would attach their site for the people that asked where to get the game:  http://artemis.eochu.com/   There were many, many more games played this year from classic board games to new strategy and Euro games.  I saw several brand new games being played that are not yet published yet!  More announcements on the brand new games when they are officially released!

We kicked off the day with the annual Board of Directors meeting.  We had a good turnout for that, but we would have loved to see more folks.  The PDF of the Annual Board Report is LOCATED HERE.  There is a great amount of information about the Sponsoring Organization and very interesting statistics for the North Coast Gamers.  There are announcements for new leadership, so don't forget to take a look!

We had a couple of great fundraisers that included the Fight Cancer Benefit for Chris Ziga.  We rose over $750 at the Bash along with over $500 at the Roleplayathon!  Huge thanks for all those that donated games, bought tickets, and donated cash for Chris in his fight against cancer.   Everyone said it was great to see Chris in 'gaming spirits' ;-)

The Holiday Game Bash was successful from a financial standpoint as well!  After renting the hall, purchasing the games for the prize giveaways, etc., the organization cleared nearly $600!  (More details are included in the Annual Board Report)

As I mentioned, we had a great fund raiser for Chris Ziga.  Two tables of games were donated by members to help raise the money and STEPHANIE BAKER walked away with over $1,000 in games that covered 2 full tables!!!  Congratulations to Stephanie!  

It has been a great year once again and we’ve had a lot of fun!  We are looking for your active involvement in all of the activities in 2012.  We are still in need of event organizers across North Coast Gamers, Writer’s Bloc, and the Natural Adventures programs.  We also need help with newsletters writers, research writers, blog writers, etc. too!  If you’d like to volunteer in any way, let us know!

Take care and the best Holiday Wishes to you and your family!

Origins 2011 Recap

Overall:

I always look forward to Origins and end up prepping months ahead of time.  The North Coast Gamers had over 100 hours of events and 5 GMs in the Miniatures room 2 GMs in the Board Game room and 2 GMs in the RPG area.  As usual, everyone had a great time.  The volunteers of both the staff and other GMs were great and it is fun to see the same people from across the country year after year.  Although we don't have a formal get together, we are able to get into a game together, shake hands and otherwise ask how things are going with each other.  There is certainly a camaraderie that is built over the years and friendships across the tables are common.

Attendance:

I admit that this year seemed lighter than previous years on Wednesday and Thursday, but by Thursday evening the place was hopping!  You can feel a vibe in the air that reflected the building excitement of the attendees as the vendors were setting up their booths behind closed doors and the tables in the miniatures hall started to come to life as with landscapes and cityscapes that promised great fun.  Board Gamers carried stacks of their favorite games heading towards the tabletop areas.  Everyone had a smile on their face.  On Friday, the con was in full swing with crowds of people filling the halls.  Both Friday and Saturday seemed to have more people than in prior years.  I noticed many more children and women in the crowd this year which reflected the success of the efforts of making this a family-focused event.  I saw many new and many old (but still friendly) faces carrying GM badges this year and that reflects a level of experience of GMs and their dedication to the hobby and this convention.  Why not 5 starts out of 5 you ask?  Well, to begin with, I would have loved to see more people on the earlier days.  Additionally, there was still plenty of room on all the days for more players!  So, the attendance was ranked just a smidgen lower because we always like to see new people coming and there is still plenty of room for that.

Gaming Diversity:

I’ve been to many conventions and have to say that Origins has been consistent on offering the most gaming diversity.  There were nearly 4,500 events over the few days with top-notch GMs.  I spent most of my time in the Miniature Hall, primarily because I was constantly running events, but I did manage to make it to the other halls and RPG areas.  I was able to get in on some great games.  I’m not a role-player, but clearly the folks were having an awesome time.  The schedule really accommodated everyone’s calendar since there were so many events; it was easy to find an fun game to play.  The board game area had everything… and I mean everything!  They had family games, euro games, war games, old games and games not even released yet.  In the miniatures hall, I noticed an increased number of ‘home brew’ games (the North Coast Gamers ran several of these).  Beyond that, the miniatures hall had everything from historical, fantasy, kid-centric, you name it.  By far, this was the best year I’ve seen for the miniature’s hall.  The Steampunk theme was well carried into this hall with many steampunk games.  I know the Steampunk Beatdown game that the NCG ran was sold out time and time again.  I did notice that there was less interest in some of the ‘branded’ miniature games.  Warhammer Fantasy had a lighter presence than normal even though there were a couple of tourney’s for it and 40K.  I didn’t see any Lord of the Rings being played which usually has a large following, but I simply may have missed it.  The Star Wars game was back and it was a big hit as usual.  Many more historicals than usual and there were several American Civil War games and Flames of War games with fantastic scenery and looked great.  Many sci-fi games filled the hall and there were some 1950’s classics as well as some alternative WWII as well as many of the widely played games of Battletech, Mechwarrior,Star Fleet Battles, etc.  Zombies abounded and I would be wrong to overlook the Smurf Wars game which was one of the favorites.  The RPGs were in a much more comfortable area than in previous years and there seemed to be a huge variety of games being played.  My hope is that someone who is into the roleplaying really provides some solid feedback on their experience.

Vendors

The vendor room was bigger this year with many more booths than normal.  The eating area was removed at the rear of the hall allowing for more vendors.   Therewere many major manufacturers there this year and also there were some solid, smaller shops as well.  A good number of clothiers to fit with the Victorian theme were present with some awesome steampunk designs.  My favorite was a booth that sold boxes of old vacuum tubes and gears from clocks.  It was capitalism at its best.  I rated this section a 4 out of 5 because I had hope to see a broader variety of independent games that struck my fancy.  There certainly were other independent game manufacturers there, but nothing that fit my personal flavor.  There were a couple of games and a steampunk decoration that I picked up so I contributed to their success.

Venue: 

The Greater Columbus Convention Center is a perfect place for a convention.  Plenty of hotel space on site or within a short drive, tons of restaurants, both formal and informal.  Great entertainment at night…not that anyone left the convention at night because of the great games  mind you.  I have no negatives to say about the venue.  In the past, there were problems with waiting for the elevators at the Hyatt, but I experienced only 1 time that I was getting a little perturbed at how long it took.  Otherwise, it was a great hotel to stay in.

A couple of suggestions for next year:

1. Have large signs in the halls (like a parking lot) to help people find where the tables are...Section A, Section B, etc.
2. The volunteers were great, but there was confusion when we and our players asked how many seats were available and were told that an event was sold out when in fact there were plenty of seats open.  I learned after the second day that it was better to look up our events online.
3. We need to do something about the costs for the food court.  $3.00 for a cup of coffee is pretty tough on me, considering I drink 3-4 cups a day!  Maybe I just need to bring my thermos or cut down...that would take care of it ;-)
4. Information seemed to be shared very late this year for the GMs.  A couple of weeks earlier would have made all the difference in the world.
5. I'm always an advocate of clubs supporting the events at any con and we do our best to provide that support. It was appreciated that we were allowed to have a club table by our games, but it would be nice to have people have club tables near registration to encourage people to join local clubs.
6. Many have voiced this already, but I too am fearful of the date move for next year.  I understand the reasons given for the change, but I think it will hurt attendance.  Although we will certainly attend next year, it will be tough arriving before Friday evening because school is still in session.  It isn’t that I’m a teacher anymore, but it does impact the schedule with school events and extra-curricular activities that the kids need to be shuttled to. 

 -Maze