Our Lady of the Morning Star

Saint Benedict

So Why Do We Do This? Part 1

Thanks to Andy's ruminations about ruminations over on his  blog, I've been thinking about the same topic: why are table-top roleplaying games played? I've heard  a few theories so far. These theories are most popularly stated when we're trying to convince someone to play with us who have never played before. The following three are the most popular ones I've heard.

• It's like making up a story with all your friends! (Close... so close...)
• Y'know World of Warcraft or Skyrim? It's like that, but with dice (My least personal favorite. World of Warcraft and Skyrim have about as much to do with table-top RPGs as masturbation has to do with marriage.)
• It's like inviting your buddies over for football, but you make the game while you watch it! (Huh? A lot of the trappings are similar, but the content is so different that I stop to pause, and laugh. Maybe it's the elitist in me. It probably is)
• You get to make something new. (SO close!)

Point is, all of those reasons (with the exception of the second) are pretty close to why we play, but  I don't think any of those reasons truly hit why us nerds (and those who lovingly put up with us) sit down, roll dice, and talk for hours when we could be outside playing in the sunshine. I mean, a lot of my best RP moments have nothing to do with the story and, in fact, were detrimental to the story. And while, yes, a group was involved, we weren't necessarily rooting for our team, because if we were we'd be angry if we lost that night (but I just GMed a session where the players were thoroughly humiliated and they loved it), and getting to make something new is not even close enough to a good reason to adequately reply to. I mean, we make new stuf fall the time, doesn't mean we enjoy it!

No, there's something more to this.

What's that?

I have no idea. I'll get back to you on that.

The City's Lights: Akio's the Man of the Hour

I've said before that this is the most important speech in the entire anime, bar none. If I had to do away with all of the masterpiece that is Clannad and show someone one moment in an effort to sum up the show, I'd pick this one.  It carries the crux of why Nagisa and Ushio are the way they are, and defines what the 5-year old heroine will be like  so well that, when she comes along in about twenty or so episodes, she's totally accepted as if we expected her to be like this. I mean, considering how Nagisa was originally, why would be Ushio be any different?

Well, three main reasons, really.

The first is that I doubt Akio really had words for this before the speech. Part of it just might be a simple miscommunication on the part of Akio and Sanae to Nagisa: it was so fundamental to their existence they forgot to talk about it. But of course, that's not too helpful to a girl whose self-confidence has been destroyed by years of illness. Nagisa's reaction is pretty darned spot-on for someone in that position. So Nagisa grew up without the assurance that she so badly needed, but had no idea how to ask for. Once Nagisa finds this out she quickly becomes much more self-confident and a very strong woman in her own right. She stands up herself quite a bit after this incident, and even convinces Tomoya not to run away from the town, in the calmest and strongest scene that she has before Ushio's birth.

The second reason dovetails into the first: now that Akio and Sanae know they need to talk about their ideology, they never shut up about it. They constantly remind Tomoya and Nagisa of their love for them, and do everything two parents possibly can to reassure their dream. Why on earth would that change with Ushio? If anything, they would let Ushio know that she is their dream, and that everything is for her. A child raised in an enviroment like that would be very strong, wouldn't she? She'd know that her dreams are her parents' dreams, and that she should reach out for them with all her might. Huh..



Oh gosh, more on that sob-fest later.

The third reason why Ushio is different is because of, well, Tomoya. Tomoya was a rather active little kid, filled with his own ideas about the world. But, unlike Tomoya, Ushio was raised with the knowledge that the world was a very good place, even if it wasn't perfect. She does in 5 years what it took Tomoya to do in 18, essentially.

But none of that would have happened without this play. The entirety of the first season was for this powerful moment, where we realize that Ushio's going to be OK without even knowing who she is...

Really?

I'm commenting on the video game part, people, not the porn. Porn's got its own set of problems that most psychologists are loathe to admit, which is putting it nicely.

This is the sort of garbage that's so unhelpful to anyone who isn't hiding in his mom's basement to play it isn't funny. These were the same people who said that female actors were all immoral, and that it would die soon.

Gosh, I'm starting to wish to play Legend of Zelda again. Time to finish Skyward Sword, assuming I have the time...

Review: Burning Empires

I just got done reading this book, and reading a few play-throughs, and... wow. Damn.

Burning Empires is a game based upon the graphic novel series Iron Empires. The story of said graphic novels is that humanity, once an intergalactic empire, is being destroyed from within by the terrifying species the Vaylen, which is a combination of a human and a parasitic worm life-form that gains sentience from being joined  to the human, called a Naiven. Once the Naiven is joined to the human it takes over the human's brain and can never be removed, otherwise the human will die. Using the Burning Wheel mechanics, Burning Empires revolves around the invasion of the Vaylen to your planet.

To say that this book is revolutionary is a bit of an understatement.

From the very beginning, the game makes it clear that this is not your typical "do whatever you want" RPG. Quite the opposite, this is a competitive RPG between the players and the GM, who plays whatever side the players don't want to play. Unlike most RPGs there is a very clear winner and loser, and the game is meant to be played as a "we'll only cooperate as much as it helps make the game run", type affair.

Players begin by designing the world and society their game will happen in. They must negotiate everything, from the basic geography to the level of quarantine the planet has on its goods. Each point must be negotiated because it has a mechanical effect upon the advantages and disadvantages upon the GM and players. After designing the world, the players base their characters off this world, and they help the GM come up with several Figures of Note, the people who will be central to this conflict. It is recommended that at least one player be a Figure of Note. The players are required to have relationships with people on "the other side".

This brings to light the central question of the game: what will you do to save yourself? Will you sacrifice your family, friends, loves, sorrows, everything, to save them? At least one of them's with the enemy already, and your character may not even know it!

The game is then played out in three phases: Infiltration, where the Vaylen try to get a toehold; Usurpation, where the Vaylen try to take over quietly; and finally Invasion, where the Vaylen are out of options or where all that's left to do is take out the trash. The game should take anywhere from 18-36 sessions to play, depending on how much you do in a single session,which brings me to maneuvers.

The game is played out on the ground level with a series of maneuvers, which represent the actions of the GM and the players. Maneuvers are decided upon at the beginning of a session and played til they are done. There's usually 1-2 maneuvers played a session, depending on the amount of time spent hashing things out. The maneuvers break down into scenes, where the players RP their way into the final ending conflict that decides the maneuver. This happens over and over again, until its over, and everyone attempts to pick up the pieces.

There's a whole heck of a lot more than that going on, but that isn't what's important. What's important is this: if you want a good, intense story this game'll give it to you. Yes, you'll have to put up with some  (at times) very complex mechanics. But trust me when I say that it's all to the point of making a good story in all its glory.

If you can find anyone who wants to play a truly intense game, balls-to-the-walls paced, get this. I'm glad I did.

Book Review: Stardust

Stardust is a book by Neil Gaiman that was written a few years back, and was popular enough to spawn a movie. Having watched the movie (and heartily enjoyed it), I decided I'd eventually give the book a go-through. Well, I finally got to do that, and I must say, I was impressed. Here's my basic run-down:

The Good

• The way everything came together at the end. While the story doesn't appear to have much of a plot at the beginning the end had a nice way of drawing it all together and making it make sense. I appreciate stories that do that.
• Neil Gaiman's sense of humor. He's a Brit, nuff said.
• The ending itself. It felt like a real fairy-tale, bitter and sweet all at the same time. I don't think I'll be getting the image of the Star standing on top of the tower out of my head anytime soon. Its very haunting. 

The Bad

• The sex scenes were... unnecessary. 

Ultimately, the book was extremely good, and quite worth the time spent reading it. I'd recommend it to anyone of an older audience because, even without the sex scenes, the book is a bit more mature and would need someone with a little bit of real-world experience to understand it. Now I'm not saying that I have the prerequisite experience, but I know for a fact that I wouldn't have liked the book nearly as much, say, at the time it came out. Something about the ending is truly haunting in a way I don't think I'd have understood before 22.