Archiv der Kategorie: Allgemein

Die ixte Wiederauferstehung

wormyEin weiterer Versuch, wieder aktiver zu bloggen. Anlass ist dieses Mal die Wiederholung eines Experiments, dass ich bereits schon einmal erfolgreich abgeschlossen habe, dass allerdings keine Langzeitwirkung zeigte. Ich rede von der 7 Day Creative Writing Challenge, die von Joe Buntings Projekt The Write Practice regelmäßig ausgerichtet wird. Dabei geht es kurz gesagt darum, eine Woche lang jeden Tag einen Text von wenigstens 1000 Worten Länge zu schreiben. Der Inhalt und das Format dieser Texte ist egal, es geht nur darum, eine gewisse Routine in den Schreibprozess hineinzubringen (und jeder, der meinen Blog irgendwann einmal verfolgt hat weiß, dass ich genau damit so meine Probleme habe).

Dieses Mal ist die Herausforderung allerdings etwas größer, weil die Challenge schon halbwegs herum ist, ich aber gerne die 7000 Worte trotzdem schaffen möchte, also entsprechend längere Texte verfassen muss. Schon beim letzten Mal wollte ich die geschriebenen Texte eigentlich hier im Blog veröffentlichen, bisher stecken sie aber immer noch in einem Ordner auf der Festplatte, wo ich sie bei Gelegenheit aber herauszuholen beabsichtige.

Den Anfang macht – wie könnte es bei mir auch anders sein – ein weiterer Post, in dem ich für mich selbst noch einmal aufzulisten versuche, worum es bei meinen Schreibereien eigentlich gehen soll. Irgendwie liest sich mein Blog zwar bestimmt schon wie eine ständige Wiederholung nie vollendeter Absichten, aber einmal mehr kann ja auch nicht schaden (und ich hab inzwischen fast schmerzhaft gelernt, dass ich die Sachen nicht aus meinem Kopf kriege, wenn ich sie nicht hinschreibe, was das Weiterdenken inzwischen fast unmöglich macht).

Kleine Vorbemerkung noch: Ich denke immer mal wieder darüber nach, ob ich nicht doch nochmal in die englische Sprache zurückwechseln soll, zumal es bestimmte Dinge gibt, bei denen das einfach mehr Sinn macht. Bis ich fertig mit Denken bin, bleibe ich aber vorerst im Deutschen (ich gebe aber keine Garantie, dass ich da konsequent bin). Damit aber ran an die Würstchen, die ich zumindest in meinem Kopf endlich mal auftauen und fertig braten möchte:

Der Titel meines Blogs hatte schon immer eine Doppelbedeutung für mich. Die naheliegende ist natürlich der Bezug zu den verschiedenen Spielwelten, die im Laufe der Jahre mein Interesse geweckt haben, und die ich nach wie vor immer mal wieder gerne besuche. Dazu gehört insbesondere auch die Welt von Tetheril, die es bisher (ja, immer noch) vor allem in meinem Kopf gibt, und die (siehe oben) dort unbedingt mal rausmuss. Weil ich sie einerseits endlich mal einer geneigten Gruppe von Spielern vorstellen möchte, Tetheril andererseits aber auch eine Grundlage für Geschichten aller Art sein könnte, die ich gerne schreiben möchte.

Die zweite Bedeutung liegt für mich darin, dass die Welt der Rollenspiele nur eine der Welten ist, in denen sich mein Leben abspielt. Da gibt es zum einen natürlich die schnöde Realität, die in den letzten Jahren leider wieder zusehends spannender geworden ist, und über deren Entwicklungen ich durchaus eine Menge zu sagen wüsste. Daneben aber auch die Welten der Musik (ein Hobby, das in der Zwischenzeit wieder einen deutlich größeren Raum einnimmt, als das zu der Zeit der Fall war, als dieser Blog startete), der Literatur (die sich etwas konträr zur Musikwelt verhält; ich würde gerne viel mehr lesen, als ich es aktuell tue, komme aber nicht so richtig dazu. Was ich allerdings zu ändern plane) und der Comics (insbesondere amerikanische Superheldencomics stehen hier im Vordergrund). Ich könnte noch andere Dinge nennen, (Fernsehserien, Professional Wrestling, Fußball) bei denen mein Drang, mich dazu zu äußern aber eher gering ist, die hier also eher keine Rolle spielen werden.

Wie dem auch sei, hat sich aber für mich herauskristalliert, dass einer der Gründe, warum ich hier im Blog immer mal wieder verstumme, der ist, dass Rollenspiel nicht mehr ganz so stark im Zentrum meiner Freizeitaktivitäten steht, und ich teilweise wochenlang einfach etwas ganz anderes mache. Mein Plan ist also, in Zukunft verstärkt aus den anderen Welten zu berichten, wenn das Hobby Rollenspiel gerade nichts hergibt (oder ich einfach keine Lust habe, darüber zu schreiben). Ich weiß noch nicht genau, was das für die Zukunft dieses Blogs bedeutet, bezweifle aber, dass ich plötzlich so viel schreibe, dass es sich lohnt, für die anderen Themen eigene Blogs einzurichten.

Stellt sich natürlich die Frage, was ich zu den einzelnen Themen zu sagen habe. Um mit dem einfachen anzufangen:

1. Musik

Da wird es wohl am ehesten auf Rezensionen von Alben herauslaufen, die ich gerade für mich entdeckt habe. Ich bin ja bekennender Metal-Fan, habe aber Ende der 80er komplett den Anschluss verloren und bin eigentlich erst 2013 wieder aus Zufall dazugestoßen, als ich mir die damals aktuelle Ausgabe des Metal Hammer kaufte, weil ich grad nix besseres zu tun hatte. Zunächst war ich vor allem erstaunt, wie viele der in dieser Ausgabe erwähnten Bands immer noch aktiv waren, dann hab ich mir den Soundchecksieger des nächsten Monats (das war Amorphis – Circle) und aus reiner Neugier das Doppelwerk einer mir völlig unbekannten Band zugelegt (die Rede ist von Stone Sour – House of Gold & Bones I + II), die mich so dermaßen aus dem Sessel gehauen haben, dass ich seitdem auf große Entdeckungsfahrt gegangen bin, sowohl was Neuerscheinungen als auch, was älteres Zeug aus den mehr als 20 Jahren, die ich verpasst habe, angeht. Hier hab ich also ein quasi unerschöpfliches Fass an sich aufgemacht, und da ich inzwischen auch das ein oder andere Konzert besuche, könnte es also außer Rezis auch mal einen Konzertbericht geben.

2. Comics

Gut, die Helden von Marvel und DC kennt ja dank der Filme jeder, die beiden Comic-Universen sind aber weitaus reichhaltiger, und auch da habe ich noch eine Menge zu entdecken und nachzulesen. Ich bezweifle, dass ich mich lange mit Rezensionen einzelner Ausgaben aufhalten werde (da schreib ich ja länger, als ich lese), aber Zusammenfassungen von Storylines, aktueller Entwicklungen der Industrie oder Kommentare zu bestimmten Momenten, die mich irgendwie anfassen, könnte ich mir schon vorstellen. Vielleicht berichte ich aber auch einfach sporadisch über mein Vorankommen beim wahnsinnigen Versuch, mich durch alle Comics bestimmter Figuren durchzulesen.

3. Literatur

Neben Fantasy und Sci-Fi wird es hier wohl eher um historische Bücher gehen. Am ehesten in Form von Buchbesprechungen, da ich Mitglied bei goodreads.com bin und dann quasi zwei Fliegen mit einer Klappe schlagen kann. Deswegen werde an dieser Stelle aber wohl auch öfter mal ins Englische wechseln, da ich mich selbst nur ungerne übersetze und ich die meisten Bücher eh im Original lese (und ja, deutsche Fantasy lese ich kaum). Aber wie bereits erwähnt, ist dieses Hobby eines, dass ich nur sporadisch lebe Früher war ich eine richtige Leseratte, aber da bin ich beim Lesen auch nicht immer so schrecklich müde geworden. Allerdings haben sich eine Menge Bücher bei mir angesammelt und erscheinen quasi täglich neue interessante Werke, von daher möchte ich das eigentlich wieder etwas forcieren.

4. Rollenspiel

Wird hoffentlich und soll eigentlich auch das Hauptthema dieses Blogs bleiben. Ich habe immer noch vor, mich durch alle Ausgaben der alten D&D Magazine zu lesen, auch wenn der letzte entsprechende Blogbeitrag jetzt schon über ein Jahr her ist. Dieses Vorhaben ist mit dem Hintergedanken verbunden, als kreative Übung aus dem gelesenen eigene Abenteuerideen zu basteln, wie ich das bereits anhand der zweiten Ausgabe des Kobold Quarterlys durchexerziert habe. Außerdem bin ich mir sicher, dass sich da so manches interessante Element finden lässt, dass ich für meine eigenen Spielrunden entwenden und nutzbar machen kann.

Das gilt auch für die Idee, Monsterbücher durchzugehen, und mir Gedanken darüber zu machen, wie ich die jeweiligen Kreaturen in eigene Abenteuer bzw. ins jeweilige Setting einbinden kann. Auch da habe ich schon mal mit angefangen und sage und schreibe einen Artikel dazu hinbekommen.

Desweiteren möchte ich mich wieder aktiver in der deutschen, aber auch internationalen Bloggerszene umsehen, wobei da sicherlich auch Material für meinen eigenen Blog abfallen wird. Insbesondere liebäugle ich schon länger damit, am RPG Blog Carnival bzw, der deutschen Ausgabe dieses Wettbewerbs teilzunehmen, da ich die Grundidee hinter dem Karneval mag und eine Teilnahme ja auch die eigenen kreativen Muskeln trainiert.

Außerdem (auch daran hat sich nichts geändert) möchte ich weiterhin die OGL-Bewegung unterstützen, in dem ich Produkte rezensiere, von denen sich in den letzten Jahren sicherlich hunderte bei mir angesammelt haben. Da fallen natürlich letztlich auch die offiziellen Pathfinder-Produkte von Paizo drunter. Ich darf gar nicht drüber nachdenken, wieviel Geld ich in meine Sammlung gesteckt habe, vor allem wenn man bedenkt, dass ich das meiste davon noch nicht mal angelesen habe. Da gibt es sehr viel nachzuholen.

Allerdings, auch dass muss ich an dieser Stelle dazu sagen, habe ich mich ein wenig von Pathfinder als System entfremdet. Nicht, dass ich jetzt plötzlich alles schlecht finde, aber da ich aktuell vor allem für eine Runde von Familienmitgliedern (inklusive Kindern) leite, muss ich zugeben, dass mich die Komplexität des Systems zunehmend mehr Zeit zur Vorbereitung kostet, als ich eigentlich aufbringen kann. Was auch dazu geführt hat, dass ich aktuell an keiner Play by Post-Runde mehr teilnehme (bzw. keine mehr leite), da ich oft durch Nachfragen beteiligter Spieler mehr aufs regeltechnische Leiten als aufs gemeinsame Geschichtenerzählen fokussiert bin. Der bevorstehende, von mir durchaus ersehnte Editionswechsel zu PF 2, hat daher dazu geführt, dass ich im Moment nicht ganz sicher bin, welches System ich in Zukunft leiten bzw. spielen möchte. Im Moment liebäugle ich ein wenig mit 13th Age, dessen deutlich narrativerer Ansatz mir sehr sympathisch ist, werde mir aber auch die 5E von D&D nochmal genauer anschauen, und verfolge durchaus gespannt, welche Änderungen den am Ende bei PF 2 rauskommen werden. Und da ich auch in Zukunft die Abenteuer von Paizo zu erwerben gedenke, könnte es durchaus sein, dass PF 2 gewinnt, weil ich eigentlich ein großer Fan des Optionsreichtums von Pathfinder bin, auch wenn das im Gegensatz zu dem steht, dass ich gerne zeitsparender spielen möchte.

Darüber hinaus gibts natürlich auch andere Systeme. The One Ring zum Beispiel (das ich dank Humble Bundle jetzt mein Eigen, meinen Schatz nenne), aber nach wie vor auch DSA (soviel zum Thema einfache Systeme :D), was erstens an der Spielwelt liegt, zweitens aber daran, dass ich gerade eine Einladung erhalten habe, an einer DSA-Runde teilzunehmen). Auch da besitze ich also einiges an Zeug, was ich a) lesen und b) rezensieren könnte und sollte.

Eigentlich aber interessiere ich mich viel mehr für Spielwelten als für Systeme. Neben meiner eigenen Spielwelt habe ich auch noch lange nicht mit den Vergessenen Reichen abgeschlossen (siehe meinen letzten Post vom Februar), und da jetzt auch Eberron benutzt werden darf, um eigenes Material zu kreieren, rückt auch dieses von mir sehr geschätzte Setting wieder in den Fokus. Golarion eh, Aventurien sowieso, und als Großmutter aller Settings kann ich Mittelerde auch nicht einfach aussen vor lassen (Planescape bekommt noch eine ehrende Erwähnung). Ich hoffe also, dass ich endlich in die Pötte komme und an meiner eigenen Welt weiterbaue, möchte aber nebenher auch Szenarien, Abenteuer und Kampagnen für meine anderen Lieblingssettings basteln (dazu gehören ausdrücklich auch Konversionen von vor allem Paizo-Abenteuern in diese Settings).

Beziehungsweise habe ich ja durchaus vor, im Rahmen dieser Dinge meine eigene Version der Vergessenen Reiche zu erschaffen. Mein letzter Blogpost ist da durchaus noch aktuell, auch wenn ich in der Zwischenzeit nicht mehr ganz sicher bin, ob ich wirklich auf dem Stand der dritten Edition anfangen möchte, oder ob ich nicht doch die Grey Box und den ein oder anderen Zusatzband (insbesondere Waterdeep and the North und die Savage Lands) als Grundlage nehme.

Wie man sieht, habe ich in diesem Bereich also alleine schon viel zu viel vor, weswegen ganz sicher irgendwas davon auf der Strecke bleiben wird. Da es mir aktuell aber vor allem darum geht, wieder ins regelmäßige Schreiben hineinzukommen, werde ich den Teufel tun und mir da selbst schon von vorneherein zu enge Fesseln anlegen.

5. Politisches

Stimmt, da war ja noch was. Ich bin schon immer auch politisch interessiert gewesen, habe aber lange nicht die Notwendigkeit gesehen, mich zu politischen Themen groß zu äußern, schließlich lief ja eigentlich alles ganz gut so weit. Dass das ein grober Irrtum meinerseits war, muss ich wohl nicht besonders betonen und gerade als Vater dreier Kinder sehe ich es durchaus als meine Pflicht an, mich politisch zu betätigen und einzumischen. Das ist natürlich in Zeiten von Hatespeech, Internettrollen und politischen Agenden eine Sache, die gut überlegt sein will, da politische Blogs leider auch immer bestimmte Leute anziehen, die zu einer der genannten Gruppen gehören. Meiner Erfahrung nach ist es da oft schwierig, auf sachlicher Ebene zu diskutieren und ich schwanke noch, ob ich das wirklich im Rahmen dieses Blogs tun sollte, oder ob ich das lieber in einen separaten Blog auslagere. Ich hoffe ja schon, auf Dauer den ein oder anderen Leser zu finden, der über den Rollenspielrand hinausdenkend an solcher Diskussion interessiert wäre, möchte natürlich aber auch niemanden abschrecken, der das Hobby und die Realität lieber getrennt voneinander hält.

P.S.: Und jetzt beim Korrekturlesen fällt mir siedend heiß ein, dass ich die Welt der Computerspiele nicht mal im Ansatz erwähnt habe. Die passt natürlich auch hier rein; ob ich dazu aber wirklich etwas zu sagen habe, muss sich erst noch herausstellen.

Neues Jahr, neues Glück

Vorwormy etwas mehr als zwei Jahren hab ich meinen Blog auf die englische Sprache umgestellt. das hat sich leider so ein bissl als Rohrkrepierer herausgestellt, weil der damit verbundene Plan, sich besser an die englischsprachige (und viel größere) Bloggercommunity anzuschließen,  nicht funktionierte, und weil zweitens (und damit sicherlich einer der Hauptgründe für das Scheitern meines Plans) die Sprachumstellung dazu führte, dass ich insgesamt eher weniger als mehr gebloggt habe. Also alles auf Anfang, ich kehre (wenig reumütig, muss ich sagen) zu meiner Muttersprache zurück, schliesse allerdings nicht aus, zwischendurch mal hin- und herzuwechseln.

An den urspünglichen Plänen hat sich allerdings nichts bis wenig geändert, und ich zähle die auch gerne immer mal wieder auf (wahrscheinlich bin ich besser im Einleitungen schreiben als im Hauptteil, obwohl das früher bei literarischen Erörterungen immer andersrum war :D). Als da wären.

1. Rezensionen zu allen möglichen Rollenspielprodukten, insbesondere aus dem Pathfinder-Universum; damit verbunden die Unterstützung der OGL-Bewegung, indem ich besonderen Fokus auf die Angebote von Kleinverlagen richte.

2. Besprechungen der alten D&D Magazine, Dungeon und Dragon, da hab ich seit 2 Jahren auch nichts mehr zustande gebracht.

3. Eigenbasteleien (eigenes Setting, eigene Abenteuer, und falls mir mal eigene kleinere mechanische Elemente einfallen, kommen die auch hier rein)

4. Ideen für die Einbindung mechanischer Elemente in Kampagnenwelten oder Abenteuer

5. Adaption von Pathfinder-Material in andere Kampagnenwelten (insbesondere die Vergessenen Reiche und Eberron, die ich nach wie vor dem Paizo-eigenen Setting Golarion gegenüber bevorzuge.

6. Und (noch eine Rückkehr) ein bissl mehr DSA; ich versuche mal rauszufinden, wieviel Nostalgie bei mir im Kopf dafür sorgt, dass ich da immer noch hinwill.

7. Als würde das noch nicht reichen, könnte ich mir auch vorstellen, die ein oder andere Musikbesprechung hier einzustellen; hat zwar nichts mit Rollenspiel per se zu tun, aber der Blog heisst ja auch „Wormys Welten“, und die Welt der Musik ist sicher eine davon; gibt noch ein paar andere Welten, aber dazu mehr, falls das wirklich mal Gestalt annehmen sollte (Bücherrezensionen beispielsweise, ich hab mir vorgenommen, wieder mehr zu lesen, aber auch das hab ich in den letzten beiden Jahren eher schlecht hinbekommen).

Und wenn jetzt jemand sagen möchte, dass ich das eh alles nicht hinbekomme, hat er wahrscheinlich recht, aber das hält mich nicht vom guten Vorstatz ab.

 

Some more thoughts on my campaign

MusingsSo I’m still not at 100%, which puts a bit of pressure to my plan of outlining the campaign until end of november. Makes me glad that I didn’t promise more, because so I might be still able to meet the deadline.

I’ve already talked about my participation in John Four’s adventure design workshop and while I still have to work on that adventure I wanted to do then, I can also use what I learned there to work on my campaign for the RPG Blog carnival. At least it will add a bit of structure to what I’m doing and that can never be a bad thing. I’m probably not going through the whole process, as I want to get finished by the end of the month at least with an outline of the campaign, but as I can still use the work done afterwards, I try to stay at least close to what John suggested in his course.

So the starting point would be my First Move, which normally would be a map of the starting village or a backdrop detailing the location and its inhabitants. This time though, I think I made my First Move with deciding to participate in the Carnival and chosing the article I want to follow up. And as the First Move mainly serves to get the brain juices flowing, I think that I can let it stand this way at least for the time being (I might have to go back to that step when I actually start with the design of the adventures). Does not mean that I won’t start working on that location this month if time allows for it.

The second thing to consider is the Razor of my campaign, which is a tool to define the basic ideas behind it, so that the designers have an easy way to decide if a new idea fits into the project or if it doesn’t. Now it’s no secret that the movie Dragonheart became a huge inspiration for my campaign when I recognized certain similarities between my ideas and what happens in that film. It has the evil king, it has a dragon whose fate is bound to that of that king, it has a rebellion, it has even a lot of forest scenes. It also has a low-magic approach, that I really appreciate, and while I won’t go sooo low magic, it is certainly something I’m having in my mind regarding my own setting.

(As an aside: I still have to fiddle with a lot of things mechanically so for this exercise I’m just using the normal Pathfinder approach, but I’ll probably scale back to a lower power level in the actual design.)

The campaign will also contain a certain amount of kingdom building and (h)exploration, so I keep coming back to Paizos Kingmaker AP, especially as it also has fey and yes, those will play a role as well.

Part of the AP will also be the Rebels trying to forge alliances against the evil king, and as I’m a bit at a loss for a good reference on that, I’ll just use the penultimate adventure from Paizo’s Savage Tide AP back then in Dungeon, “Enemies of my Enemy” by Wolfgang Baur, where the PCs traveled through the planes to find allies against Demogorgon. Now there won’t be any planeshopping in my campaign (my brain cries immediately that that might not be true completely), but I like the evocative title of that adventure, so I’ll just use it nonetheless, so my Razor in the end looks like:

Dragonheart meets Kingmaker meets “Enemies of my Enemy”.

And the third thing I add today is the What If, the premise of my campaign. And with all I’ve already said about the campaign, it seems clear what it will be about: What if the king turns evil and starts to suppress his people to a point where this suppression becomes unbearable?

Now let’s end this post with talking about the structure of my campaign. I’m a big fan of the Pathfinder Adventure path format, so this is what I plan to go for for starters. This said, that would make the single parts of my campaign into really big adventures themselves, with big wordcount and all, so maybe I’ll separate those big parts into 2 (or three) smaller adventures which would probably make it easier for me to actually finish some stuff. Thinking about it, I could also use the old format from the pages of the old Dungeon magazine, where one AP would be printed over the course of 12 issues (11 in the case of Shackled City, though in the hardcover, a 12th part would be added later on). I might actually prefer that approach, as I want to use the full level range up to 20 and it might be just that bit easier to do if I don’t have to cram all the stuff into 6 adventures like with the Paizo APs.

Race and Culture and a Carnival

MusingsYesterday, I read two extremely interesting articles by The Angry GM about how race and culture can interact with each other. The first one, „Making Race and Culture matter in RPGs“ basically tells you not to be afraid of stereotypes, when it comes to the description of races. The main argument is that the human race – as the game’s standard race – is already built to be very flexible and to make any character possible, so the only way to stand out while playing another race would be to build on a strong archetype (which are sometimes dismissively called stereotypes) to avoid feeling like a human with . That doesn’t mean that any dwarf must look-alike, but even when you deviate from the norm, it’s better if you start with that archetype in mind, because it strengthens the design of your exceptional character and he won’t feel like a human in a costume.

The second article is from 2015 and discusses „Why Race isn’t broken in Pathfinder and How to fix it“ (I love that title :)). Here, The Angry GM talks about his issues with races having abilities that partly seem learned by training, partly being a race-inherited trait, which poses the problem that even when you’re growing up in a vastly different environment (let’s say an elf growing up in a human orphanage) and never had contact to your own people, you would still have those racial traits that you would have learned by training. What follows is a stroke of genius (well, The Angry GM might say: „What the s$&%y do you wonder? I f$&% told ya that I’m the best!“), because he uses the race building rules from the Advanced Race Guide to split the racial traits into two packages, one containing the genetic traits, the other the cultural traits, and now, when you’re building your character, you can just chose which packages to use so they better fit into the background of your PC.

That is simply awesome because it’s so incredible simple and even better, you can use the same system to build your own templates in case you use other races in your game. Which is highly interesting to me because I might fiddle a lot with the races‘ culture for my own setting and this gives me an easy way to do that. On a side note, I also planned to express a race’s culture by their choice of classes and archetypes respectively, so if for example, only elves are allowed to become rangers (stupid example, I know), members of the other races could, given the right cultural background, still take levels in that class.

Another topic: Campaign Mastery is hosting this month‘ RPG Blog Carnival. I had already planned to participate in that carneval for quite some time, and November’s topic seems at it would be a perfect fit for me to finally do it. It’s quite a long topic title, actually: “The Past Revisited: Pick a post (your own or someone else’s) and write a sequel. Should include a link to the original article if it is still online.” I immediately thought about an article I had originally written in 2012 (which would mean that I get extra points :D), ironically a sequel itself to a review I had written about the second issue of the Kobold Quarterly magazine. In that follow-up article, I had developed the idea for an adventure that was based on certain themes and topics in KQ #2. And more, I even had imagined how that would fit into a greater campaign arc. Nothing came out of it (in terms of me going on and developing that idea), but it stayed on my to-do-list, and this month’s Blog Carnival topic might just be the kick in the ass I needed to finally going back to that and doing a little series of Blog entries in which I expand on that idea.

I’ll probably start with translating the original article that was still written in German, and then go on from there. And if all goes well, I’ll end this month at least with an outline for the whole campaign.

Tetheril through time

teth_alphaOk, first, dammit, already failed the challenge I set up for myself on day 2. Well, I’ll simply pretend it didn’t happen. But in the meantime, I’ve read some blogs, had some ideas, so the adventure ideas for the Alp might still have to wait for a bit.

First off, I should talk a bit about Tetheril, the setting I’ve been brainstorming for a couple of years right now. In my head, it went through various stages, and as I’ve real difficulties to cut away stuff, at the moment, I’ve kinda kept all those stages and turned them into different time points of the same setting. Here’s what I have so far in chronological order:

1. World creation: The history of Tetheril is not really important at this point and serves only to explain how this world came to be and why certain things are different from what a standard D&D campaign might be like. Questions like why is there no plane-hopping possible and why is Tetheril still populated with planar beings? Why is magic functioning the way it does (or rather: doesn’t) and why are there no dragons? And when the status quo on all this questions start to change, what might this spell for the future of the world? I think I might get more explicit about all that stuff in another post, but as it just serves as a starting point for my ideas, it might change or even be totally rewritten at any time.

2. Once upon a time: Like in Eberron and Golarion, the actual campaign start coincides with a big world-shaking event. In my case, it’s a catastrophic cataclysm that completely destroys the continent that used to be the home of the human race and makes it absolutely inhabitable for the time being. The few survivors have no other choice than to seek shelter with the elves, which is a bit of the problem because the human-elf relationship was very shaky before. The elves will allow them to resettle a bigger island before the elven main continent, including the ruins of an old elven metropolis that was abandoned by the elves during the last war between elves and humans.

3. Nothing like the present: A whole lot of time later (think millenia), the humans have enough of the elven hospitality (for reasons) and decide to go looking for another home to live in. An expedition finds another continent and soon stumbles about hints that this might be the old human home of legends that no one knows why they had to leave it in a past long gone (the elves might know, but they aren’t saying :D). Humans start to resettle that continent that is not quite as empty as you might expect, given what I wrote about it’s destruction before.

4. You never know what the future holds: Well, actually I do know a bit about that. Again, time has passed, humans have settled parts of the continent, but so far, no one has able to find the location of the capital of the historic human kingdom. That might change , but you know the old saying? Be careful what you wish for, because you might not like, if you finally get it?

5. The big finale: Remember the questions I asked in the world creation paragraph? Well, there are answers to them, and my main problem with them is that while I know how I want them to answer, I have actually no idea how I can answer them without destroying the setting once and for all. This is really high level cosmological stuff which I might completely ignore except for the “one campaign to end them all”- campaign. If you have read the Marvel storyline before the 2015 Secret Wars event, when the Beyonders decided to completely destroy the multiverse, then that’s kinda what I’m talking about.

So what I have here is in fact several settings combined into one, and if you believe that I’m a bit megalomaniac thinking this big, you might be totally right. What it mainly does for me, is that it gives me several docking points for stuff I create/steal for the setting, because when something I stumble about doesn’t fit the part I’m working on, It might still be usable for another part of the world. Also it allows me to create adventure arcs (that I already have in mind), that can be played independently and still have common ground in that they are using the same setting. Plan is to work mainly at the earliest part of the setting and then go from there through time. But I’m a free man and I can totally change my plans as soon as another idea strucks me.

Word count day 3: 791

average word count: 436 *sigh*

Staring at Monsters – The Alp

In my last post, I said I would steal a lot from other bloggers, even if it’s only the idea. One such idea stems from The Daily Bestiary by Blogger Patch, a blog that goes through diverse Bestiaries since 2011, taking one monster at a time, commenting on their backgrounds and powers and then adding their own adventure ideas, 3 at a time. Initially, I thought about just taking those ideas and fleshing them out a bit (something I still might do), but then I thought I could give it a try myself and do my own adventure spark stuff. Apart from that, Patch started with the original Paizo Bestiary, and the first entry in it just happens to be the Aasimar, so I was willing to take that as an excuse to start with the much more recent Bestiary 6 instead.

Which has the Alp as it’s first entry, an old mythological creature whose name’s related to the English „elf“ that sits on a sleeper’s chest at night, causing them to have nightmares (which is „Alptraum“ in German) and drinking it’s victim’s blood. Originally thought off as a nature god, the Alp would turn into a demon in the middle ages, and it’s easy to see how the stories around it might be early predecessors of what would eventually become the vampire. While doing a bit of research on that topic, I also stumbled about an interesting article about sleep paralysis, which I found very enlightening and that also theorized about the existence of those creatures being early explanations for that phenomenon.

John_Henry_Fuseli_-_The_Nightmare

By Johann Heinrich Füssli – wartburg.eduimage, common license, Link

It is easy to see how the bestiary entry turn’s this creature’s traits into monster abilities. The Alp (CR 10) has several spell-like abilities like Deep Slumber and Nightmare, it can turn invisible via Greater Invisibility (in folklore, the Alp is often narrated as wearing a Tarnkappe, like King Alberich from the Nibelungenlied used to, before he lost it to Sigfried. It has a bite attack, draining it’s victims blood, and with the special abilities Crushing Leap and Nightmare Rider, it is able to pin and grapple it’s victim, making itself so heavy in the process that the victim gets serious problems with breathing. It even can shape-change into several smaller animals.

What I find interesting is that the entry makes the Alp‘ alignment into a Chaotic Neutral rather than an Evil entity. And in fact, mythology hints at Alps being able to be negotiated with, and while being mischievous in nature, they are not necessarily out to kill other beings, which I think would make for a rather interesting approach to a scenario, in which the PCs have to use their brains rather than their swords to get rid of such a beast.

But you know what? I already have nearly used all my 500 words for today, and one thing I want to avoid very much for the time being is to go over that limit, so my adventure ideas must wait until tomorrow, which also means that I’ll have another 500 words and can do a bit more than short online descriptions.

Word count day 1: 517.

Challenging myself

MusingsOk, I try something new. Beginning tomorrow, I challenge myself to put a daily post on my blog, that should have no less than 500 words and might contain anything RPG related I just want to get out of my system, ideally with my homebrew in mind, though it may also be generic stuff that I’ll have to adapt to the setting later on. I do have some ideas I want to tackle and a lot of them involve stealing ideas from others and making them my own. There are quite some blogs out there with a steady output of awesome ideas to peruse, I still have a lot of material to read which might also inspire me to put my own spin to it. In the end. this experiment serves first and foremost to force me to develop a steady writing routine; if you think about it, doing this on a day-by-day basis would mean that in 3 years‘ time, I would have reached the word count of the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy. Not that I’d think this far, but at least for me, this thought makes the idea of writing any kind of book (or at least a roleplaying adventure) much more realistic.

So, what ideas am I talking about? For example, I might flex my creative muscles and try to come up with some wondrous items. I’d try to limit myself and follow the rules set by Paizo’s RPG Superstar contest (and as this would only mean 200 words per entry, I might extend my post by additional ideas around that item). I might do the same with other parts of said contest just to challenge myself.

I also think about going through diverse Bestiaries, thinking about adventure hooks for different monsters or just about how to integrate them into my homebrew. Taking a map and creating new ideas for the use of that map. Musing about what to do with a 3pp class, and archetype or whatever comes to my mind. Converting stuff (especially adventures) to other settings I like to run or play in, multi-part “Wormy reads…” posts. And naturally there’s still the stuff I announced I would tackle with this blog and that I somehow never go through with actually doing. Reviews, posts about my homebrew, going through the old Dragon magazines and so on.

In the end, it’s more about that I write, not what I write. Direction might come later, but if I never start writing, I don’t need that direction anyways. And you know what, my blog’s not called “Wormy’s Worlds (plural!) for no reason. So I might even start to write about other worlds I live in (musics, comics, politics). The topics are all there, So the only one that holds me back from doing something with them is myself.

And you know what? From what my office program tells me, now I’ve just written around 500 words to get this from my chest. Wasn’t even very hard to get it done. I’m really good talking about the things I want to do (instead of just doing them) after all.

If I could turn back time…

Well, originally I wanted to make another post in which I put out some ideas about what to do with the „Abbey of the Crusader Goddess“ in my own setting, but as that could get kinda confusing I think it’s better to talk a bit about the setting itself, especially about where I started with it and where I landed at the moment. Because in fantasy worlds, you sometimes can turn back time and that’s what I did while mulling ideas in my head over and over again.

So where did it started ? It kinda started with this sentence I found in the 3.5 Eberron Campaign setting: If it exists in D&D then it has a place in Eberron. What a bold and impressive statement that was. And given that I was an avid reader of all things D&D at that time and that I tend to get a lot of ideas just by reading things, I immediately thought that it would be awesomely cool to make that statement my own and build a world containing all the ideas I found in the books or magazines I was reading (with the additional caveat that it should all make sense and still feel like a cohesive setting).

From that point I developed the idea of a world created by dragons, shut up from the rest of the universe in a closed demi-plane [insert long cosmological background here]. Dragons would have gone extinct on that world, and as they were the universal bearers of magic, magic would be all but gone as well. Until the barriers between that demi-plane and the surrounding material plane started to dissolve and magic crept back into the world (and with the magic the dragons would return), though that was planned to be the theme of the adventures to be played in that setting. By the way, I think the dragon theme was inspired by Eberron as well, as Tetheril (the setting’s name) was literally the ancient time dragon that created that world.

Now, the reason for the slow dissolution of the plane’s barriers was intended to be a big cataclysmic event that all but destroyed the continent on which the human race had developed. So I developed the idea that in a future age, humans would return to that continent to resettle it, eventually finding out what the mystery behind that cataclysmic event was. I’m not totally sure about the timeline, but I think that at that time, Pathfinder’s Kingmaker AP was published and I thought that hexploration was a good way to introduce players in a setting totally unknown to them. By exploring the continent, they would not only learn about the general setting, but they could also delve into the human race’s history and learn about past events as those started to shape the present and future.

In the meantime I had suffered a severe case of GM burnout and basically stopped doing anything roleplaying-related. I probably would have totally given up on the hobby, if not for Johnn Four, publisher of the Roleplaying tips, who started an adventure workshop in which he let me (and other interested people) take part in his design of an adventure and invited us to develop our own adventure parallel to his. I have to admit that I didn’t succeed with that, but it renewed my interest in the hobby and it brought some new inspiration. And this is where the first time jump comes in. Because when originally I had planned to start with the landing on their old/new home continent, the adventure I had planned for the workshop was intended to be a prelude to that, basically explaining the reason for why the humans wanted to go back to the old continent. (in short: after the cataclysm they had found refuge with the elves that lived on another continent, but because of old enmities they were basically living in a golden cage which is nothing human nature is suited for.)

I didn’t went through with this idea and again, things kept simmering in my stew pot brain, until I got (again) an email by John, in which he announced a second walk-through through his workshop, only that this time, he went from a messageboard to a homepage-based format. I started again, but in the meantime, another idea had formed in my head. And here comes another time jump back to the past.

Because in the meantime, I had found out for myself that one thing that I really don’t like in campaign settings, is that more often than not, that there are big-world-shaking events that you never get to experience first hand because the campaign starts well after those events took place. Think Golarion, where campaign play starts 100 years after the death of the god if humanity, think the Realms‘ Spellplague, that was a major shake-up between the editions, only that 4E started the campaign when it already was over (again, 100 years later). Contrary to that, Eberron really clicked with me because there the campaign started directly in the aftermath of such an event (the destruction of Cyre resulting in the end of the Last War), so the direct consequences of that were point and center of campaign play in that world.

So why not start directly after the destruction of the homestead of humanity (I would have started with it, but that would have meant explaining the mystery around that event) and the rest of humanity finding shelter with the elves. The idea was that the elves would allow the humans to settle an abandoned elven city located on an island before the coast of the elven kingdoms. So I could still have exploration of a new setting, but I could also explore what the loss of their old home and the reliance on what they used to consider an enemy would mean for the human survivors.

And this is basically where I am now. A huge elven city in ruins (think Myth Drannor) to be explored and to be settled by the PCs, maybe finding new allies (and enemies) in the process. That does not mean though that I’ve given up on all those other ideas I had before. In fact, wouldn’t it make for an awesome chronicle of the world of Tetheril, if I could succeed in developing the different parts throughout time and space and make them into a coherent hole?

Guess I’ll better start soon, because I’m only human and my life is finite.

My To-Do-List or the list of some of the things I plan to do but so far never did

So again, a long time has gone since my last post, and not only didn’t I post anything, I did also nearly no work on the projects I had planned to do. Which is a shame really, as I’m constantly thinking about them, but I already had a post about my talent to procrastinate. Though I’m also stubborn, so I’m still not willing to let my plans go, especially as in recent days, inspiration struck from several places.

But before I start to work, I’d better collect my different ideas in a single post for future reference. Nothing more than a to-do-list that might help me to plan what to tackle first. I’m not going into specifics here, as I plan to tackle single points in future blog entries.

1. I finally want to realize my own setting, which I already talked about and that I started thinking about around 10 years ago. Ideally, it will have a very sandboxy structure, so that it can be used as is by others in case it gets published, but it might also be the starting point for a very big chronicle with an overarching storyline and a certain endgame in mind. Those ideas might never see the light of day though, so I probably won’t do more than hint at some of them in the actual setting.

2. A campaign arc very much inspired by Paizo’s Kingmaker AP, that should let the PCs explore part of the new setting and might hint at future developments .

3. I also talked about the adventure I started to design for Johnn Four’s Adventure Workshop and that will be the first introduction to my setting. It might also spawn a campaign that highlights an important point in the past of my planned setting, though it uses it’s own mini-setting (same world, other place) that should be easily usable as a stand-alone thing.

4. Another possible campaign arc mostly inspired by the second issue of Kobold Quarterly. Not sure where this will fit in with regards to my setting, could be basically the follow up to one of the campaign arcs mentioned in 2 or 3.

5. And (ain’t I the adventure guy? 😀 ) another adventure that definitely will take place in the new setting (meaning sometimes after the events of #2), that will put some events in motion that will lead to a big climax (which was the original inspiration for my setting.

Apart from all this creative stuff, there are some other things that I’d like to do as well, so Iäll also mention them here.

1. I still plan to re-read the old Dragon Magazine issues (and also the Dungeon ones) and put short reviews/commentaries on this blog.

2. Same goes for reviews of Paizo/Pathfinder 3PP materials (might also include products for other rules systems)

3. I have a certain fondness to do adaptations of adventures in other settings that I love. SO I hope to be able to do a series of articles how to adapt Paizo Adventure Paths (and stuff from other Publishers like the recently announced Rage of Wyrms AP by Legendary Games) for the Realms and Eberron. Oh, and did I mention that I plan to do my own setting? So we might see adaptations for that one as well 🙂

4. Depending on what my setting needs, I might also work at rules modifications, If so, I’ll certainly talk about it here at this blog as well.

5. I sometimes feel the urge to talk about things that are not roleplaying-related, mainly music and politics. I’m still not sure if I should do that here, but I also hesitate to start another blog and those worlds (the music world and the reality) are also two of the worlds I live in so they might actually fit here. We’ll see.

Probably forgot some things. But already this list feels like the reason I do procrastinate so much. Too many ideas to do them all in my lifetime. At least that’s my excuse all too often, though it’s not a good excuse to do nothing at all; so that needs to change.)

About social advocacy in RPGs

MusingsTwo days ago, I listened to a most interesting podcast , The RPG Room, posted on G*M*S Magazine, about „Culture and Social Advocacy in RPGS“. This is a topic I normally avoid, but there is one thing I heard (and actually another one I didn’t hear) that disturbed me quite a bit so I need to get it off my chest. But let me start with saying that I’m all for social advocacy and that I agree with most things said in this podcast. To me, being inclusive is an important thing, and so I embrace if RPG products take the same stance, because to feel included, you need to feel represented. And I’m well aware of the fact that as a part of the white male group, I enjoy some privileges compared to nearly every other group of people, privileges I didn’t ask for, privileges I don’t need to feel included.

What disturbed me a bit was the notion that came up quite often in this podcast, that people who don’t agree with the need for inclusivity are being old-school. In fact, the term „old-school“ seemed to be used as kind of a synonym for those people. Now, as I said before, I’m all for being inclusive, but I’m also considering myself as being quite old-school (I mean, I’m not a first generation grognard, but I most certainly belong to the generation following the trailblazers of RPGs.) No I won’t deny at all that the time I grew up still wasn’t very friendly to women and that a lot of groups where discriminated against (being a role-player meant to be part of such a group). But at the same time, the games I grew up with playing seemed to me more progressive generally. D&D made clear from the start that women were as able as men and made a point in not making differences for example as far as the attributes were concerned. Not everyone liked this but I happen to think that this was much more than could be expected by other media of that time, so I think that even at that time, role-players were ahead of it. Was it perfect? Naturally not, but as far as it did cater to a certain segment of the society (young, male whites), I don’t think that it did that out of racism or social ineptitude, but simply because that was the major group interested in and ready to pay money for it (at that time).

Which is kind of a problem of modern time as well. Lately, Paizo got kinda accused at being racist for starting their setting of Golarion with a very eurocentric viewpoint. And again, I don’t think that this claim is true in any way, it’s just a fact that when they started they kinda went the safe way (no wonder, when you know that the existence of Paizo publishing firmly depended on the success of the Pathfinder line) so they published what they knew that it generally sells. And even in the beginning, they had already two major nations from Asia (Qadira) and Africa (Osirion) firmly integrated in the core part of their setting, followed soon by an Oriental adventure-style AP, one playing in the northern Africa equivalent (Legacy of Fire) and one playing in the central African (Serpent’s Skull). You can even say, that in the very first Paizo AP, two defining cultures where influenced by hispanic Roma culture (the Varisians) and by the native American culture (Shoanti) respectively. Doesn’t keep people from complaining of exact these cultures about being left out of the greater picture (and just in case, I’m not talking about Paco Garcia Jaen, one of the two hosts of this podcast).

Paco made a good point in explaining why people who fell victim to discrimination time and time again tend to overreact if they perceive something as being injustice, but sometimes it seems that they make life quite hard especially for those people caring. Paizo has a proven record of trying to be inclusive regarding race, gender and sexuality, and they are very clear about that this is intentional part of their policy especially to those people who disagree for whatever reason. So I don’t get it at all why they have to defend against criticism for having included one group but not having included another. Because, you know, even if you want to include every group imaginable, you still have to start somewhere, so just because your group wasn’t so far, that doesn’t mean that they don’t intend to in the future, and it especially not means that they are discriminating your group.

This is also why I tend to avoid such topics, because I have experienced to often being acused for discriminating people just for not agreeing with everything they said 100 %. I can live with being offended by all those idiots out there who think they have the right to discriminate because they are something better than anyone else, but getting attacked by the people whose side you’re actually on is something I don’t like to get used to (and working as a nurse, I already get that a lot by my clients; it’s part of the job, but it’s no fun at all).

Which brings me to my second point about what was left unsaid. At the start of the podcast, Paco and Jim spoke about what RPGs meant to them, when they grew up: it meant a safe space where they didn’t have to put up with the same crap they had to in reality. I totally can relate to that, and that’s exactly why I actually don’t want to explore topics like race, gender and sexuality in my games. From the start, I’ve played with everyone who wanted to partake (can’t remember one group without women at the table and that goes back to the early 80’s) and we have played characters with different races, genders and sexualities, so it’s not as if those topics didn’t exist within the frame of our games. But it was never about those topics, because what we wanted was having fun together as friends with a good, healthy dose of escapism involved. Talk to me about those topics anytime you want, but role-playing is the one part of my live I actually don’t want to do it.

So if suddenly those things seem to be the only one to matter regarding a product’s quality irritates the hell out of me and not being able to communicate that without being directly called a bigot, a racist or worse already made me feel unwanted more than one time.

My safe place doesn’t seem so safe anymore. And that is something Jim was too cautious about addressing in the podcast, that having been discriminated against doesn’t give you a free pass to discriminate against other people. It also doesn’t make everything you say automatically right. It just makes the environment more unsafe for everyone, if you’re looking for offense where none is meant. If you need help raising awareness, I’ll stand by your side, but when you’re getting offensive, you’ll lose me immediately, and in the end, I don’t think that you’ll win the war this way.