Character Project: Basic D&D

I was intrigued by someone's idea to create a character for each rpg that they owned, and I thought I would try it myself.  I don't remember exactly where I got the idea, but I'll post some links at the bottom of this post to other people who have done this.

For each of the characters I create, I'll give product information from the rpg (including publishing date and printing number).  Then I'll post the character stats in whatever standard that game uses for its products (maybe modified to include character creation information that doesn't show up in those stat blocks).  I'll note if I made any changes to the character creation rules provided by the books, but for the most part I'll follow the rules as they're written.  Finally, I'll give an overview of the process and a general impression I have of the game as a whole. 

For the first entry, I thought I would go with Original (aka 'Basic') Dungeons and Dragons. I'll be "rolling straight," 3d6 for each ability score in sequence, and leaving the numbers where they fall.

Product: Dungeons and Dragons Fantasy Adventure Game, Basic Rulebook
Date: January 1981
Printing: First

Pickett, Level 1 Thief; Alignment: Neutral; Abilities: Str 11, Int 9, Wis 5, Dex 13, Con 11, Cha 8; AC 6 (leather armor, -1 Dex); Hit Points: 1; Attacks: short sword (1d6); short bow (+1 to hit, 1d6 damage); Move: 120'; Languages: Common, Neutral; Special Abilities: +4 "to hit" from behind, Open Locks 15%, Find/Remove Traps 10%, Pick Pockets 20%, Move Silently 20%, Climb Sheer Surfaces 87%, Hide in Shadows 10%, Hear Noise 1-2; Equipment: backpack, dagger, iron rations (1 week), large sack (2), leather armor, quiver with 20 arrows, rope (50'), short bow, short sword, small sack (1), thieves' tools, tinder box, torches (6); Money: 15 gp.

Extrapolating what I know about Dungeons and Dragons, I can see the functionality in this statistics block.  Sometimes that original D&D gets a bad rep for being nothing more than dungeon crawling hack-fests.  Granted.  But remembering that this is an advancement of a strategy miniatures game, we can see where the notion came from, and in retrospect, we can see where it is going.

There won't be much difference between two fighters, or two thieves.  The only thing that sets them apart, aside from level, is equipment and name.  Even the statistics get eerily similar.  There are high odds that statistics are going to fall within a limited range, and there isn't much of an effect that exceptionally high or low scores have on the character overall.  Simplistic? Perhaps.  But imagine original D&D as a series of puzzles and mazes, designed to challenge the players more than the characters.  The idea of roleplaying only came from the imaginative folks who project identity upon a sheet of paper filled with numbers.

D&D purists argue that the lack of individuality in the characters encourages roleplay for the individual, because statistics only go so far to distinguish one character from another.  What makes a fighter something special isn't his ability to hit a target, but the choices the character makes in his lifetime.  It's the history of a character that counts, and the experiences he has are what defines him.  The later products for D&D, particularly the Mystara setting, came out of that imagination that sets apart otherwise similar individuals.

I wish I could play this thief for a while.  He has only one hit point, so I'd have to be particularly cautious at early levels.  Every challenge would be a matter of life or death, and there are no guarantees that he'll come back from his first dungeon delve.  What would drive someone who is somewhat frail to risk almost certain death for a few coins?  I'd save that answer for later in Pickett's career.  I wouldn't want to waste time with background for a character that might die in the first encounter.  And if he does or not is entirely dependent on how I run him.

Related Links:
Philotomy's OD&D Musings
Indie-RPGs Forum: Challenge the Player, not the Stat Block

RPG Design: The 'One Mechanic' Epidemic

First of all, why does everyone feel like they have to name their game mechanic system?  Why pick a die and develop a system around it, rather than construct a world and explain how that world works?  People like simplification, and I'm all for it, but at some point the oversimplification makes a game feel cheap, generic, and boring.  On the other hand, games shouldn't have a variety of mechanics just to have variety.  In game design, the rules must reflect the world, genre, tone, and relative level of realism the game is aiming for.

What's worse is that every game mechanic comes out to be the same thing.  Roll a die, add up all the pluses, and see what arbitrary difficulty rank number was surpassed.  Another choice is to roll a LOT of dice and either add those up or count successes.  On the other hand, games that rely on rolling UNDER a set number feel awful limiting in how far a character can advance.  Not only that, but there is a psychological aversion some of us feel towards seeing numbers go down when we're getting better (never mind we're getting closer to being #1).

The basic problem is that people think of mechanics as only a randomization for statistical variants.  When was the last time someone asked, 'Okay, how does my world WORK?'  I want to explore fundamental questions that other games take for granted.  If attributes and skills don't function the same way, then why do we (or, rather, many games) have a single mechanic to work for both of them?  Why is combat resolved the same way as fixing a car?  Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems as though there are some fundamental differences between rebuilding an engine block and piercing someone with a sword.  And I don't know how many games I've seen fall apart because they try to handle firearms in the same way they handle melee combat.  Even these things, which are both combat related, work in totally different ways.  I shouldn't have to go into why magic should be handled differently than animal training.  If your game involves taming and training forces of nature to do your will, and you see animal training parallels, then use the same system you use for animal training...

The game I'm working on will have a few different systems in place in order to reflect different aspects of the game world.  First, though, I have to decide what is important to that world.  What are player characters trying to accomplish, and what assets would be the most beneficial in the pursuit of that goal?

Related sites:
RPG Mechanics: Universal Versus Varied
Single Mechanic Conflict Resolution
The Stupidity of Universal Mechanics

First Post - The Hobby

I believe that a hobby is an area to excel in. Whatever hobby we choose, if we choose one at all, we strive for creating something with skill and confidence. A hobbyist approaches their interest with passion and a critical eye, because elevating the hobby, either for themselves or for the hobby's overall community, is the primary goal. Even those hobbies that are entirely self-contained or have evolved into a form that is standard or static require the personal dedication of individual hobbyists to maintain a level of quality and craftsmanship. And really, it's the craftsmanship that goes into a hobby that is the end itself. Once long ago, the artisan created with his hands something of beauty and refinement, something that was both aesthetically pleasing and functional. The cobbler, the smithy, the tailor. In an industrialized age, faster production replaces time and skill, even if the end product is of a lower quality.

The Roleplaying Game is no exception. A single major corporation has assumed control of most of the hobby, turning it into an industrialized industry. Perhaps this is how it should be, or must be - progress will progress. Still, the small-press roleplaying game is suffering, both in sales and in development. However, most of the small-press roleplaying games are minimal, offering only a few core rulebooks and a handful of supplements. Of course the industry giant, with its ability to flood the market at a fast pace, is going to overshadow the basement-run small business. But the result of this is that the industry wanes, the hobby slows down, and ideas are either underdeveloped or have nowhere to go.

Regardless, I'm a hobbyist. I shied away from roleplaying for a while because I didn't like the state it was in. But I can't help it; I'm drawn to it. I have an itch to roleplay, create, write, develop, and watch an isolated group experience unfold. I have a need to contribute to this hobby despite how I currently feel about it because I know its potential and I enjoy it on a personal level. To that end, I'll be working on developing my own roleplaying game, while posting thoughts and ideas about roleplaying and roleplaying games here on this blog.

I hear people talk about roleplaying as a return to oral tradition, the passing around of stories around a primitive fire. I like that idea, and I believe that there is something to it. I tend, however, to avoid simple escape into fantasy to avoid thinking about the real world. Escapism should be a method of learning about the real world in an abstract setting or temporary space, much like real oral tradition. In those stories, there was always a subtle or subconscious relationship between the stories and the world outside. The listener would take these stories with them into the world and keep them in mind when they encountered real life situations. While full, isolated escapism can be an empowering thing in the real world, giving the participant the strength to endure a harsh world long enough to return to fantasy, it can also be an addiction and poor substitute for actually confronting problems.

This is all heady stuff, and I admit that I'm no psychologist or therapist. I don't intend to fix anyone's personal problems just by writing or just running a roleplaying game. But I believe that the more separated from reality a game (or anything for that matter: movies, television, books) becomes, the less easy it is for the participants to relate it to the real world. There may be no problem inherent to that issue, but for those who dedicate themselves so wholly to the hobby, like myself, their ability to comprehend and function in the world outside will slip away unless the hobby can reflect it in some way. This problem isn't isolated to roleplaying, though it gets the worst reputation for it. The same can be said for model train builders, coin collectors, and fantasy footballers. In fact, these other hobbies in and of themselves have almost no relation to human interaction outside their respective groups. Roleplaying, on the other hand, is all about human interaction, and if that interaction is abstracted and played with on an honest and realistic level, regardless of how many unrealistic fantasy elements are introduced, then the roleplayers have the opportunity to develop themselves and grow as human beings and members of the society as a whole.

Well, that's all I have for now. I have some ideas specific to roleplaying, particularly the aspect of the game I am writing, to discuss in later posts.