Ah, but how many hit points did the Construct Council have? Hm?
I was...surprised, I suppose...to learn today that the upcoming issue of Dragon Magazine will have the stats for the world of Bas-Lag, centering on New Crozubon. With much input and the express blessing of Mate China. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I mean, I'll be buying the magazine, but..I mean. Huh?
There are levels at which I understand this. China has stated his own affection for quantifying and codexing strange things, and he played the game when he was younger. I suppose it was inevitable. But the central trick of adventure gaming is the adventure party, and if you've read PSS you know how the world views such people. I don't know. I hope it's a faithful translation.
posted by Tim Akers @ 8:10 AM
5 Comments:
Well, firstly, I think role-players don't much care how the world views their characters, generally, as long as they get a good game out of it. Certainly I didn't. Many role players would enjoy playing the adventurer types that appeared in PSS, I expect, even when they got their consciousnesses eaten by slake moths. (Perhaps especially when they got eaten by slake moths. Dying is fun in RPGs!)
Secondly, they're still publishing Dragon magazine? Wow. Do kids still play role playing games these days? I thought it was all collectible card games now.
Well, dying is RPGs is certainly amusing. For someone.
And yes, they still publish both Dungeon and Dragon. And it is equally parts TCG and RPG these days. The real threat is the whole MMORG thing. Ahem.
I only got about 15 pages into PSS before I decided I didn't want to read it, but one of my big beefs with a lot of RPGs and MMORPGs in general is that there's no such thing as social reinforcement. I've dreamed of designing an MMORPG where there are social consequences for your actions.
I rather liked the PSS protags' view of adventurers and considered it a rational reaction of civilized people to adventurers. Face it: most adventurers in these games are not paladins. They're not bleedin' heroes most of the time. They're thinly disguised pirates.
Now I tend to play either do-gooders or do-badders with lofty or nefarious goals beyond loot. But that's the exception, not the rule.
MD: I had a similiar reaction my first time through. I don't know what I was expecting when I picked it up, but it was something radically different than what I was getting. I came back to it later, minus expectations, and quite enjoyed it. But the first read didn't get very far.
SC:Oh, it's the only possible reaction. I think calling them thinly disguised pirates might be generous, because pirates at least do their thing in large, autonomous groups. Adventurers are simply small bands of barely contained, power hungry sociopaths. I think that's their fundamental appeal.
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