Magic in games

I personally don’t care much for RPGs where you can buy magic things (weapons, armor, etc.) in a store.  Like when you can trot on down to uncle spiffys’ magic emporium and pick up a sword from the +1 rack .  How many fantasy stories do you read where the heroes simple go in and buy some magical armor?  I am sure these exist, but I never read them.  Why should you bother pulling the sword from the stone when you could just buy one and declare yourself king of all Britain?

Over all when it comes right down to it I like a more Sword and Sorcery approach to magic.  I am also more partial to a more low fantasy setting.  Dark and grimy, fantasypunk if you will.  Trenchcoats and longswords perhaps?  Basically I think magic should be dangerous to wield, deadly to your foes, and rare.  If you have a magic weapon (of any sort) it makes you stand out, if you are a wizard you should be feared and respected.  As player characters you should be competent (not always successful but not a feeb.)

Part of a fantasy characters identity is with his weapon of choice, often symbolic of something.  Not something they picked up at Jiffysword.

Pathfinder

Last night we played our second game of Pathfinder.  I am enjoying being just a player for a change and our GM is doing a great job of running it.  The only thing is last night a single combat took forever, battles up to this point took longer then I am accustomed to due to the use of Miniatures (something I never really used previously). But last night it was becoming mind numbing( I didn’t even care about the loot that was gotten by the end).

I have several thoughts as to why.  A couple of reasons were strategic mistakes on our part, such as fighting in a bottleneck (stairs) while holding the low ground which allowed the enemy to have the high ground advantage.  They clustered at the top of the stairs preventing all of us from entering the fray for awhile.

Another reason was that our barbarian (who had the best initiative) should have used his rage ability to push the enemy back.  When my character finally got into the room he was put down just short of death after a few glorious rounds of battle.  He was saved by the groups Druid and we did win the day. I didn’t really care whether my character lived or died at this point as I was getting a little annoyed with another player being more worried about what others were doing and not focusing on what his character could do.

It left me with a less than heroic feeling however.  I don’t find the use of minis to be abhorrent but it seemed like a game of Mordheim with more rules.  Additionally in the group dynamic I love it when a group of characters develop a sense of comradery or at least a sense of belonging together, but I doubt this will happen in this game.

I do like Pathfinder, it seems like a good successor to AD&D, and I hope it smooths out as we get used to how it plays.  I wonder how I could run it without minis….. hmmm.

Nostalgia and melancholia.

I was watching Television last night and something occurred to me.  When we were kids toys became more than just a diversion they became a promise.  Stuffed toys, dolls, action figures, they all held your deepest fears secret and comforted you in a way no living thing could.  They were ever ready playmates and best friends.  With your favorite toy you were invincible, there was nothing you couldn’t accomplish or survive.  The daily world was tolerable knowing you had that waiting at the end of an emotionally taxing day.

The promise was eternal love and friendship.  The promise was a lie.

As an adult I sit and watch advertisements for St. Judes’,  feeling genuine empathy for those poor kids, knowing many of them will have their young lives tragically cut short in a way no toy could ever stop.  Those security blankets we held as children are replaced by jadedness, ennui, drugs, alcohol and other mental illnesses.  This is encouraged by our society.  Think about how much money is spent repairing psychological damage that is actually promoted by “growing up”.  At some point most of us are shamed into giving up those “childish things” by our peers, adults, and the media in general.

I want that back.  I want to feel as though I will not die again.  I want to wake on Christmas morning full of wonder at what I might get from Santa, instead of worrying if I will wake on Christmas morning.  I am sick of alarm clocks and cars.  Tired of paying bills and worrying about which crooked politician is the least dishonest.  I want to be surprised again, to have everything I know disproved by new experiences.  I can never have a great day because something or someone always comes and throws pee in my face.  At least once a day I worry about having cancer or a heart attack. What a waste of time that is.

Am I being foolish?  I don’t care.

So when I read or hear someone bashing escapism I get a little annoyed.  This life is brutal and short, we all know this.  If I want to spend a few hours pretending I am someone else then what of it?  If there is nothing else awesome going on around you that you can enjoy, why not dream it?

I had a good childhood as most people reckon.  I spent my youth wandering the woods hunting for Gnomes and fairies of the Brothers Grimm variety.  I wished I could live in the Hundred Acre Wood.  I wanted to awake in Middle Earth and go see Smog.  Would you have rather had me sipping coffee and pretending to be a hipster at eight years old?  Well I am an adult now with two kids of my own and you know what?  I still want to explore Middle Earth, I still keep one eye open when I am near woods in hopes of glimpsing one of the wee folk.  Hoping that something can shatter this wall around me.

Imagination is one of the greatest things we have as thinking beings.  Opposable thumbs?  A fluke.  Useless without the ability to think, to dream.  Imagination must be valuable, because everyone wants to take it away.

When I look at my children sometimes I worry that I am raising little adults (said in the most sneering way you can imagine).  I am constantly guarding that most precious core of enthusiasm, the very wellspring of human invention and dreams.  I will let my daughter and son enjoy what they enjoy as long as I can.  One of the greatest legacies of my mother was the lengths she went to get me to continue believing in Santa Clause.   I used to think it didn’t work but now…I realize it did.  I don’t think a bearded man slides down my chimney mind you, but I do feel the spirit of the myth deep inside my soul.

Let our children dream as long as we can, and maybe we should dream as well.

 

Victoriana & Steampunk

This is merely an opinion, but I wonder if anyone shares this.

Victoriana and Steampunk do not have to be linked together.  That is, the tropes of steampunk do not have to include Victorian England.  That location/Era certainly could be included but in order for something to be steampunk is it necessary?   I don’t think so, in fact I am quite sure I could at list at least one or two things that don’t include Victoriana that most would find Steampunk.

It irks me when people assume such a narrow view of the genre (or any genre).

Just a mini rant, but thanks for reading

Origins Game Fair 2010

This year for fathers day my wife sent me to Origins for a day, with a pocket full of money.  I went with two wifely instructions, 1) Buy her a couple of sets of Gamescience dice and 2) buy new games. I was only going for the day so I purchased a day pass so I could check out the exhibit hall and make some purchases.

Honestly there wasn’t much there that appealed to me, but I did make some purchases.  First there were three notable things I didn’t purchase that I liked.

1) Houses of the Blooded-I read John Wick on Facebook and so would have loved to buy this one but I couldn’t justify the cost.  $44.95 for a digest sized (or similar size) soft cover.  Nothing against Mr. Wick here, with so many potential games I had to be selective.

2) Eclipse Phase- Sounded great, I was looking for a sci-fi game….$49.99 This time for a nice shiny hardcover, but only about a third as many pages as Dark Heresy which cost only about ten dollars more.  I might have jumped at Cthulhu Tech but the core book is out of print currently.

3)Maschine Zeit- I follow the author, David Hill Jr. on twitter and as I said above I was looking for sci-fi…but sadly the game was only available in electronic format and I prefer dead tree to digital.  I did pick up the thumb drive about five times while debating.  It has mood music and extra art all for twenty dollars.

So what did you buy you picky bastard? Glad you asked.

I picked up Dragon Age set one-because it reminded me of the boxed sets of my youth and because I have heard a lot about it and the video game that inspired it.

I also bought Savage Worlds Explorers Edition and the Fantasy companion for it- I do own the SWEE in PDF but I prefer to have a dead tree copy of things.

Colonial Gothic was snapped up as it was a totally different setting idea then what I usually do.

and last but not least was Fiasco, by Jason Morningstar.  In his opening pitch he tossed out Coen Brothers films as a descriptor…sold.  Jason Morningstar came across as an excitable but very likable guy and the game sounds so super neat I want to give it a shot.

I also bought a set of dice and had lunch at North Market which included a small bit of Jeni’s Ice cream.  The food was good, Ice Cream was fantastic and the general atmosphere was all chaotic goodness.

Thats it for the moment, if I think of more I will make another post.

later