First, some housekeeping. I feel like I’ve become somewhat satiated on D&D of late. I still enjoy going to Encounters (mainly because I like the people I get to hang out with), but I deliberately did not play any D&D at GenCon because I simply didn’t want to. As such, you’ll you’ll likely see a lot less D&D coverage on this site than you have in the past. Quite frankly, I’m a lot more excited at the moment by the things that are going on in the indie scene; there are a ton of games out there I want to play (some of which I now own, thanks to GenCon), and I’ll probably be talking about them.

Now, on a tangentially related note, I want to talk about something I saw on Twitter this morning. Angry DM, who generally gives some pretty solid advice, said something that I disagree with pretty vehemently. I’m having trouble finding the exact quote, but it boils down to “asking your players to participate in world-building is like asking a demolition crew to help you move your car.”

Now, before you say it, I know Angry DM’s schtick. I realize that his tongue is planted at least a little bit in his cheek. I’m not saying that this quote makes him a bad player or DM.

That does not, however, mean that it’s not worth discussing, because it does raise some interesting points.

First off, a lot of DMs/GMs out there are hesitant to approach collaborative world-building. Many probably feel a sense of ownership over the world, and fear the exact thing that Angry DM is satirizing here. A lot of DMs/GMs probably feel a very real sense of antagonism, maybe stemming from a sense of not being appreciated.

If this is you, take a breath. Player agency isn’t the enemy; it can help supercharge your game if you let it. There’s a lot of imagination in the room when you sit down to game, and if you can harness it you can make your game that much better.

It’s perfectly okay to start small. The next time your PCs enter a room and you tell them there’s a fresco on the wall, point to one of the PCs and ask, “What does it look like?” The next time some oracle murmurs a portentious prophecy about one of your PCs, ask, “What does she say?”

This is scary, and I understand that. Giving up control is very scary when you’re used to having it. But it’s their world, too, and coming to that realization can make the game better for everyone.

The second issue that the quote raises is the game being played: D&D. System matters when it comes to player agency and narrative control. It can be done in D&D, but one of the reasons it’s so scary is that there’s nothing in the system that supports it. There are no mechanics that speak to players gaining narrative control. There is no collaborative world-building mechanic.

A good way to learn to utilize these techniques if you’re not familiar with them is to read, and then play, a game that does support these kinds of concepts. I don’t mean just a game where those kinds of things are possible; I mean a game that explicitly grants players narrative control, a game that explicitly shares the world-building load. There are a ton of them out there: The Dresden Files, Mortal Coil, Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple. I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention Bulldogs! here, though you’re likely tired of hearing about it.

Branching out from D&D to try things that take more mechanical risks can help your D&D play when you return to it. Once you grow more comfortable with sharing the narrative load with your players through rules systems that encourage and even require it, you’ll find it that much easier to implement such techniques in games like D&D, which do not speak to those kinds of mechanics or techniques.

My last day at GenCon was good, if short. I started by going back to Games on Demand to see what was on the menu. I got a chance to play TechNoir, a cyberpunk noir RPG with really elegant character generation and conflict resolution rules. The session was so-so; the GM hadn’t been planning on running anything and decided to at the last minute, so he wasn’t really prepared. I can’t really fault him for that. The session did sell me on the game, though. I’m definitely buying this one.

That was the only game I played. I did, however, go to the IPR booth and pick up a copy of Dread (a horror game that uses a Jenga tower as its primary resolution mechanic). There I ran into Amanda and Clark Valentine (Amanda edited Bulldogs!), and we got to talking (about games). Tracy Hurley (Sarah Darkmagic), Thadeus C., and Tracy Barnett (Troll in the Corner) also stopped by, and we had a nice conversation.

Shortly after I went to the airport, where I started killing time by reading some of my games.

Zombie Cinema is short to read (took 15 minutes or so, all told), but it seems like it’ll be a lot of fun, especially as a zero-prep pick-up game. How to Host a Dungeon looks like a great one-player game, and I have a hunch it’ll go well with a game that I heard about today called Old School Hack, which I’m going to research tomorrow. I’m halfway through Mortal Coil, and every freaking page is giving me ideas. It’s great.

So now GenCon is over, and I’m a little sad. Still, it’s nice to be back home, and it’s not like I won’t be gaming. I’ve got D&D Encounters this Wednesday (new season, new character), and I’m also planning on running at least one demo of Bulldogs! at my FLGS. I may run some other indie games, just to get a chance to play them. Huzzah!

I’m going to be documenting a couple of big upcoming events in my life over the next couple of months.

If you’re a gamer, you’ll be more interested in the first: I’m going to GenCon in a couple of weeks. I’ll bring a laptop with me so I can blog about my experiences, and I’ll also be updating my Twitter feed (@Zelgadas) with my experiences as well. I’ll be playing some D&D, some indie games (probably a lot of them), playing Conquest of Nerath and Pillars of the Earth, and I’ll be running some >Bulldogs! sessions. In between all of that, I’ll be doing other nerd things, which I’ll probably share.

The second is actually a much bigger deal for me, though I’ll understand if it’s of less interest to the general public: my wife is going bionic. That is, she’s getting her hip replaced in September. She’s young for it (we’re in our early 30s), but she’s got a degenerative hip condition that has resulted in 70% or so of her hip being necrotic. So, it has to go. The surgery is going to be an interesting experience to say the least, and it promises to improve her (and, by extension, my) quality of life considerably. I’ll be documenting this throughout the process, with pictures even. She’ll also be sharing her thoughts, which I’ll post here.

Although I won’t be liveblogging it, I’d also like to mention that, this weekend, I’ll finally be seeking therapy for whatever emotional/anxiety disorder I happen to suffer from. I’ve spoken about this before, but it’s finally happening this weekend. I’ll likely share my thoughts on the process, but in a less formal way.

At any rate, that’s what’s coming up next month and the following. I’ve got some other posts in the hopper (by which I mean “in my head”) that I plan on posting whenever I get around to it. Also, you can expect to hear more about The Demolished Ones as months progress.

A little while ago, I was contacted by Steve Russell of Rite Publishing to work on a project for him. After speaking to him about it, it sounded like the kind of thing I’d really enjoy working on, so I agreed. I’d like to share a couple of things about this project with you.

First, this project uses FATE 3.0. The rules are available for free online, so we won’t be reprinting them (the page count isn’t high enough to warrant that). I will, however, be making some modifications to core FATE to accommodate some of the story elements within the game. I don’t want to get into specifics, but I’m going to be playing around with how characters are created, and how aspects are handled.

Second, this is a patronage project. This means that we’ll be soliciting patrons at some point in the near future, asking people to contribute funds to the project. What you get in exchange for your contribution is creative control. I will be soliciting feedback from patrons at various points along development, and I will be incorporating patron feedback into the final product. If you decide that it sounds like the kind of project that you’re interested in, support it. Supporting it gets you input, and helps ensure that the final product sees the light of day. It’s a win-win!

Third, this being a patronage project, it’s not yet green-lit. As I’ve said, we’ll be soliciting patrons soon, and trying to hit a specific goal that we need to hit in order to publish. Until we hit that goal, the project is not green-lit. I really hope that it becomes green-lit, because I think this thing’s going to be awesome.

Finally, I’d like to leave you guys with a little teaser, something to get you interested. This teaser doesn’t necessarily represent the final product, but it’s the direction that I’m going in at the moment. We’re not soliciting patrons yet, but keep your eye on this blog; I’ll let you know when we are, and point you in the right direction.

Tom awoke on a cold floor, the taste of cotton in the back of his mouth. His tongue felt heavy, thick; his arms refused to push him up. He floundered for a few minutes there, trying to get his bearings, trying to gain stability, control. He took a breath and was hit with something metallic mixed with the scent of sweat and fear. He opened his eyes, cautiously, and pushed himself up.

The room was small, bare concrete walls and hard stone floor. That was the first thing he saw; the second was the body. It lay in the center of the room, face-down, sprawled, a crimson pool congealed around it. The man was dressed in formal attire, though the clothes were shabby and worn. His hair was dark, mussed, matted with blood.

Tom pushed himself back, away from the corpse, and looked around the room wildly, alert for danger. That was when he saw the others. Four of them, two men and two women, all around the room. Three were unconscious, prone, as he had been, unceremoniously left on the floor to wake. The Fourth, one of the women, was huddled in the corner, her eyes shut tight, rocking gently and muttering to herself.

Who were these people? Was one of them the killer? Were they all potential victims? What was this place, and why was he here?

Tome searched his memory for the answers, but found nothing. Nothing at all. That struck him as slightly odd at first, but the more he searched the more terrified he became. He knew his name. He knew how old he was. The more he searched, though, the more he became aware that nothing else was there. He could remember nothing of his life, nothing of the events that had led him here.

Something was very wrong.

Apologies for the re-posts, everyone. I just set up the Guild to automatically pull any game-related content from 2d6 Cents (where that stuff is also posted), and I guess it decided to pull it all again as new.

As you were.

I just wanted to talk a little bit about the Bulldogs! kickstarter, which is going really, really well. Brennan Taylor, the primary author of the book, originally set his sites at $3000, the bare minimum he needed to fund publication. Now, because of the generosity and excitement of more than two hundred awesome people, he’s raised more than $9000, and there’s still eleven days left.

That’s just fantastic. If you’re one of the backers on this project, thank you. Seriously, I’m extraordinarily excited to be a part of a project that so many people are enthusiastic enough to give money to, sight unseen. And Brennan has been thanking his backers by providing extra rewards when he hits certain thresholds.

The backers have already earned one reward: an exclusive adventure for hitting $7000. Every backer will get this, and it won’t be seen anywhere else. If the project hits $10,000, another exclusive reward will be given to all of the backers: a supplement containing a new planet and a new playable species, again, not seen anywhere else. That’s pretty awesome, and we’re only about $600 away from that goal.

So, at the risk of turning this blog post into a telethon, I want to suggest something: if you’re planning on picking up the book anyway, back the project. Here’s why. If you contribute $50 to the kickstarter project (I don’t know off hand how much the book will retail for, but I imagine it’ll be somewhere in the $30-$40 range), you get a signed and numbered copy of the book. You also get a PDF of the book, and you’ll be listed in the credits of the book you just funded as an engineer. That’s all in addition to the free adventure, and the free supplement if we hit our next goal. Seems like a pretty darned good deal to me.

My new blog is up: it’s called 2d6 Cents. As I’ve mentioned, it’ll be a more general blog than this one. This blog will remain in place, and will continue to be game-focused. Likely many things that I post here (if not all) will also be posted there. If all you want is the gaming stuff, stay subscribed here. If you want more, go subscribe to 2d6 Cents. Enjoy!

Just wanted to give you guys an update on the status of the blog. Here’s the big news: The Gamecrafters’ Guild is staying up. I’m going to be setting up a second blog, and any game-related posts that go up there will also go up here. So, if you’re only interested in the game-related stuff, then stay subscribed to this feed, or keep this bookmark. If you want to read my non-game stuff, you’ll be getting a new feed and URL pretty soon. I just need to secure the domain name I want, and set up the blog, itself.

It’s official: I’m going to GenCon this year. I’ll be arriving in Indianapolis on the 5th of August, in the morning, and leaving in the evening on the 7th. My schedule, thus far, is as follows:

• Friday at 1pm: Conquest of Nerath Board Game Tournament – Entry
• Friday at 7pm: INTRO1-3 The Rarest Bloom (D&D 4e)
• Saturday at 9am: Pillars of the Earth (w/expansion
• Saturday at 2pm: Games on Demand

It’s also entirely likely that I’ll be running some Bulldogs! at the con, which I’ll update you on when it becomes finalized.

The reason I mention this is that I’d really like to meet some people at the con. It’s my first time going, so if any of you GenCon veterans want to show me the ropes, I’d appreciate it. Feel free to comment on this post if you want to try to schedule a meetup at some point.

So, as you know, tomorrow the world will end. Also, in related news, the CDC now has a contingency plan for dealing with a zombie outbreak. Also also, here you go:

[Edit: Stupid links, why do you break? Curly quotes!]