Yes, Please Refuse to Define the OSR!

So back when I posted "If We Don't Define the OSR, Ron Edwards Will", I had a string of people, mostly hostile ultra-orthodox OSR types either distrusting my motives (seriously? when the alternative is Ron Fucking Edwards?!) or just having a level of grandpa-simpson-like refusal to want to have to accept any sort of threatening new idea, who said "oh yeah, well then what do you define it as, smartass?"

So yesterday I went ahead and defined it.

This was followed by a string of people (interestingly, many of which were the very SAME people who just two days back were defying and challenging me to give my definition "if I'm so smart", etc.) on blog entries and on G+ uttering denunciations of HOW DARE I try to define the undefinable OSR?! The OSR, they now suddenly insist, is "undefinable", it is like the Matrix (I shit you not, one fucking idiot made a 'meme' with Morpheus in it, and actually LITERALLY said "no one can be told what the OSR is..."), or Love, or Your First Orgasm, or eating croissants under the Eiffel Tower at sunrise in Paris, it is this thing that can never be truly, correctly or accurately defined and must only be experienced!

I was accused of trying to "glorify" myself by daring to offer up a definition, as though I was daring to see the face of Gygax Almighty himself. And of course some of the more well-known blogging literati of the OSR made their snide reeking-of-superiority fake-frustration posts about how they're "Above it all" and certainly can't be bothered to define the OSR nor should they be expected to, nor can anyone do so.

Now, I'm going to ignore the fact that most of the people already HAVE been defining the OSR.  They've done it in all their various posts over the years. They do it any time they talk about the OSR; they just aren't EXPLICITLY defining it.  They're not saying "The OSR is x", but whenever they bring up the OSR they are in some way or another engaging in unspoken definitions of it.  So what they want is to get to have their cake and eat it to.  Refuse the define the OSR, and you're left in a situation where its the mob of whoever can rouse the troops that gets to decide if something is or isn't OSR, and they can change those definitions to their liking.  They can conveniently use one "unwritten definition" of OSR at one moment, and then if someone calls them out on something, deny that this was ever the definition at all.  They can say "Game X is not OSR", but never have to justify why, and turn around and ignore the unspoken reasons later on if it suits them.

When some of the people above have said things like:

"(the OSR is) anchored on classic DnD and on an interest in similar old school games"

or

"(the OSR) is grounded in classic D&D"

or

"(Torchbearer and Dungeon World) are not classic D&D (and thus outside the OSR)"


They are defining the OSR in all but name!  And the very fact that we can look at games like Torchbearer or Dungeon World and say "yeah, those are NOT OSR", means that not only is there such a thing as a definition, but anyone who isn't willing to just say "ANY game at all can be OSR" is making use of a definition!

So while acting above it all, these OSR-literati are making attempts at "defining" OSR just as much as I am, only refusing to be open about it.
The only thing that does in an immediate sense is immunize them from having their definitions questioned, because if you don't stand up to make a definition openly, you can always later disclaim specific parts of what you've been inherently working with as a definition.

In a long-term sense, though? It means that the absence of a hard and fast definition means that someone else can step in and insist that THEY have the true definition, and then use that to make sure it's what they want it to be. That's what Ron Edwards was trying to do, and making up a definition that would allow Storygames to call themselves OSR and that would give all the credit for anything good about the OSR to go to the Forge.

But it's now what I've done instead, creating a much more sane definition to oppose his:

OSR: a design philosophy of creating systems, settings and adventures that fit within the boundaries of old-school mechanics and concepts; that is, either directly utilizing features that were in existence in the period before the advent of 2nd edition AD&D; or features that, in spite of not having historically existed at that time, could have existed in that period without the addition of material or design concepts that are clearly the product of subsequent ideas or later theories.

There. Defined. And by having had the balls to actually define it, unless someone else dares to come along and define a better version, it will end up being, in the long-term, what people accept as the standard. 


You want to keep pretending you're aloof from such concerns and not contribute your own competing definition? That's fine by me; it just means that by refusing to codify what you think the definition ought to be, you end up surrendering the definition to be what I have openly and explicitly defined it as.

RPGPundit

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A Working Definition of the OSR

Because others have asked, and I've already expressed this idea before.   If you want a positive definition of the OSR, and what it's all about, here it is:

I would classify the OSR as a design philosophy of creating systems, settings and adventures that fit within the boundaries of old-school mechanics and concepts; that is, either directly utilizing features that were in existence in the period before the advent of 2nd edition AD&D; or features that, in spite of not having historically existed at that time, could have existed in that period without the addition of material or design concepts that are clearly the product of subsequent ideas or later theories.


That's it.  That's what OSR design is.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Stanwell Deluxe + Image latakia

RPGPundit Reviews: Whisper & Venom Compendium

This is a review of the campaign setting/adventure collection called "Whisper and Venom", published by Lesser Gnome games, written by Zach Glazar and John Hammerle. It is a hardcover book, with a 106 page count, and is intended (according to the cover blurb) as a "fantasy role playing adventure and regional setting for use with any classic fantasy roleplaying game; designed for 3 or more players ages 14 and up, character levels 3-5".  The cover is full colour in a somewhat old-school art style depicting what looks like a warrior and magic user fighting  a kind of lizard creature.

Interior artwork is a mix of color and black & white pieces, all of a uniform style and high quality.

I should mention, first of all, that while I will be focusing my review on the book itself, the publisher insisted on sending me a "complete package", which included (in addition to the book):
-a "Companion map booklet" that has a collection of the area map and the floorplans of adventure locales
-a full-colour map of fairly large size, which is quite beautiful although the region itself is relatively sparse in terms of cartographical features.  The map is of the campaign region, which features some mountains and badlands, a river with a tributary, and a couple of settlements, and that's it. Its very pretty, but I don't know if it merited that kind of level of attention.
-a package containing some "lesser gnome" logo temporary tattoos (yeah, seriously); and, much more impressively, a set of very nice cards featuring full-color images of the various monsters detailed in the book, and their statblocks on the back.
-finally, a single miniature of the "lesser gnome" character (a gnomish wizard with a particularly silly mustache)

So all these additions are neat, I suspect they have to do with the kickstarter project for funding the book.  But none of them are in any way essential to the product itself.

So what is "Whisper and Venom" all about?  In the first place, it's a campaign setting, covering a relatively small region (well, from my own perspective, but I tend to like large sprawling campaign areas). Even so, the material is enough that you can have quite a bit of adventuring in the "Whisper Vale", certainly enough to get you from level 3-5, as the book implies. And quite possibly beyond, with a bit of GM creativity in building on what the book already provides.

So what do you get in the book?  First, a small but fairly detailed setting.  The chief locale and home base for a PC party is the tiny town of Whisper, a bucolic kind of place in the forgotten corners of a fallen or decadent empire, mostly known for its quality ales. Nearby is also the town of Cleft, a dwarven town of craftsmen who have a sterling reputation for work, but in reality have fallen into laziness. There's also Swindle, described in the game as a "smutty hamlet" of goblins, who produce 'rotgut' liquor that has assured their long term prosperity. Their rotgut is of a particular quality because they use indentured servitude of a tribe of pixies.


Of course, this being a good D&D setting, not all is well. There's another tribe of more aggressive goblins, who've taken over the ruins of an old monastery.  They found something, something strange in those ruins, which has mutated them and made them larger and tougher than normal. There's also an evil, "black-hearted" gnome wizard around (in fact, the iconic one that is the company's logo).  Naturally, I feel a certain kinship with any product that presents gnomes as black-hearted.

In addition to descriptions of the various locations I've already mentioned, the book provides about ten pages worth of information on the kinds of characters you can find in Whisper; these are provided with descriptions on the NPCs' backgrounds and personalities, and not as statblocks.  Not all of the characters mentioned have direct adventure hooks or anything of the sort; you get stuff like the local seamstress (who we're told "takes pride in being the best dressed woman and the mistress of the most finely decorated home in the Vale") or the local blacksmith (who can repair shields and armor; and can't ascertain the exact properties of enchanted items but "knows good craftsmanship when he sees it").  There are some slightly less mundane characters too, like the strong willed local druid, a seductive nymph, a goblin exile from Swindle; and a full two pages on Thopas, the aforementioned black-hearted gnome sorcerer.

This son of a bitch here:

In a somewhat odd (but comprehensible) choice, the actual introduction to the book only shows up around p.25; as everything that comes before that (all the aforementioned stuff) is, I suppose, meant to be readable by players.  From p.25 onward, you get the stuff that players theoretically should not read (as it has the adventure material).  Whisper and Venom, being an OSR product, is meant to be played as a sandbox setting.  There are a series of fully-fleshed out adventure locales, but also the potential to have adventures (that would need to be further developed by the GM) anywhere else in the setting, and there's no specific order absolutely required to be followed in the adventures (though there is a kind of natural progression).

The GM section notes some suggestions for how to introduce the players to the setting, with some small adventure seeds, and an old-school style Rumor Table (complete with notes as to whether the rumors are true, partly true, or false).  There's information on wandering monsters (and in the back of the book, you get full wandering monster encounter tables for all the important regions of the setting area).  There's also an explanation of the two major new hostile monsters of the setting: the mutated "L'uort Goblins", and the also-mutated giant lizards known as Attorals.  All these mutations are being caused by the corrupting energies of a planar gate located in an underground area of the setting, which is causing a lot of trouble and is the theme of one of the fleshed-out adventure locales.  The Attoral lizards have a poisoned spit attack that, because of mutation, now doesn't actually poison as such but rather creates mutation effects; there's a table for these effects, and some of them are a bit 'metagamey' (for example, you might have an effect of "next attack roll treated as a natural 20" or "next hit against player rolls again", or "next saving throw fails, regardless of roll").  I suppose this is forgivable only because the mutation is caused by a weird interplanar magic.

In terms of the detailed scenarios, you get a ruined monastery, occupied by the L'uort goblins as well as an infestation of giant bees; the monastery catacombs with the predictable undead; then the main base of the L'uort goblins, the deep subterranean area where the Attoral lizards came from; and finally the underground area of the aforementioned extraplanar gate.  All of these sections are, I would say, a very good mix between traditional old-school dungeoneering with unusual features; they don't fall into nostalgic orthodoxy or total predictability, but instead have a feel to me reminiscent of some of the medium-weird AD&D1e adventures. Not totally out there, but not just killing giant rats and orcs.  In fact, even the bad goblins of the setting have managed to be done in a way that's fairly interesting, so that's quite a good thing.

The next 30 pages or so of the book are the appendices.  Here we get a full statblock and description of all the monsters described in the setting, many of which are new and quite interesting.  As well as the Attorals and goblins aforementioned, you have stuff like Monster Beetles, a giant crab, a murkbeast (described as a cross between a giant leech and a huge crustacean), the demons from the planar gate, and others (including a couple of new undead).  Statblocks are what you could call OSR-standard, AC is listed in descending format.  You also get the encounter tables for every area of the region, and some new magic items found in the dungeon areas.

Finally, there's some notes on specific encounter areas, how to handle particular encounters or how they were handled in the playtest. The back end of the book also has a repetition of all the encounter and regional maps (I guess in case you lose the booklet).

So what can we conclude about Whisper and Venom?  I don't think its total perfection, but it is a very solid and creative sandbox OSR setting. It can probably be ported into some remote corner of most typical settings. So all in all, it accomplishes what it set out to do.

RPGPundit

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“Real Magick” In RPGs, part 666

So, I know that I said when I started this series that it was NOT going to be an instructional series on western Magick; but rather an attempt to help GMs to “fake it” credibly, to be able to imitate the “setting details” of what a modern occult campaign would like in the “real world”.

But I’ve had a few people asking me to please give them some kind of info on where they should start if they wanted to actually get into magick.   Which is weird, since you’d think that mainly what I’ve written thus far would discourage people from getting into it; but I guess there are a few who might read all this and say, “shit, its worth it”.  And in a way I have to feel that’s awesome, since you’d really have to grok it, to get the point, after the completely stark completely honest fairly brutal assessment of all the downside of western occultism I’ve been doing on here.

So this entry is to give suggestions for those who are looking to investigate some magick for themselves; mainly in the question of who would I recommend for reading.

I guess the first thing I’d recommend, above all else, would have to be the writings and magical system of Aleister Crowley.  Now, the thing is that Crowley can sometimes feel a bit intimidating to the casual reader.  So if you have no balls, you might want to start with something a bit more approachable, namely, Lon Milo Duquette.

Duquette is easily the most brilliant writer on the occult since Crowley.  His books are incredible, though he rarely treads any new ground; what he’s really good at is translating Crowley’s work into a slightly folksy, straightforward style of modern American writing that absolutely anyone could understand.  Duquette’s “The Magick of Thelema”, is probably the best introductory book to the magical system designed by Crowley.  Any of Duquette’s other books are great too, particularly his “Chicken Qabalah” (written under the pseudonym of “Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford”).

So start with those.  Then read Magick in Theory and Practice, by Crowley.  Then Magick Without Tears, also by Crowley.  Then buy a Thoth Deck, and read The Book of Thoth, by Crowley, and after that read Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot, by Duquette.

At this point you should already be familiar with all of the basics of magick, and you should have by now decided if you think its “for you” or not; you should also have probably decided by now if you plan to be one of the 90% who read a lot of Crowley and Do No Magick, or the 10% who actually get off their asses and do magick.  If the latter, by this point you should certainly already be writing in a magical diary, performing solar adorations, meditating daily, doing the banishing ritual of the pentagram, working with the Tarot and/or the I Ching (for the latter, I recommend John Blofeld’s translation) experimenting in astral travel, learning all the magical signs and god-forms, “Saying will” before eating, and giving sex magick some serious consideration.

In other words, you’ll be well on your way to being batshit obsessed; and if you do the above you’ll also very quickly be having some initial experiences that will confirm to you why this shit is worth becoming batshit obsessed about.  Your ego will start getting little cracks, and you’ll start getting little glimpses beyond the veil that surrounds the tiny little tower you constructed for yourself that you called “reality”, into something way beyond what you could have conceived of.

So yeah, there are a few other writers I could recommend (and after getting a good solid grounding in actual magick, you might want to look at some of these crazy chaos magick types like Peter Carroll, or Dave Lee); but I don’t see the point; the above will be more than enough to get anyone who actually wants to do something to get started.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Masonic Meerschaum + Image Perique

(originally reposted June 26, 2013, on the old blog)

Uncracked Monday: how to become part of the Intellectual Elite of rpgnet in one easy step

Today, if you've ever looked over at the self-absorbed self-styled (pseudo-)intellectual elite fashionistas of rpgnet and asked yourself how they managed to write such endless streams of meaningless drivel they can feel so smug about, we may now have found out the secret.

I give you the rpg.net jargon generator!

With the simple push of a button you can write such profound examinations of meaningful rpg subject matter like:

"The popularity of DitV: a symptom of any of this? Somebody? Somebody? Maybe I ought to take this elsewhere. I mean, we're talking about improving on perfection!"

or

"Well, a point of your choosing if anyone can answer one simple question. Is social contract underappreciated around here? Why hasn't anyone noticed this before?"

or

"I'm all for negotiation mechanics, why aren't the makers of Polaris? The answer is no. The prevalent use of pawn stance in Mage leads to chronic prole behaviour which is flawed. Or so you'd think. Don't tell me I'm the only one who's even HEARD of abused player syndrome? I know what I'm talking about here."

I think it might be a little too good.  Someone could use this to become an instant star. The only thing missing (and I suspect this generator is a bit old on account of this notable absence) is all the "Pseudo-activism". If the generator incorporated stuff about Privilege and how things are Problematic ("Problematic": a term for something a smug asshole feels should be condemned as a problem on principle, whether or not it actually is in reality. Used exclusively in reference to things people said asshole already didn't like have done or said, and should be forced to change or stop doing, as it is a given that said asshole and people said asshole likes are naturally inoculated against being problematic by their 'awareness'), it would be absolutely perfect.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Mastro de Paja Bent Apple + Peterson's Old Dublin

If We Don't Define the OSR, Ron Edwards Will

Not only will he define it, but he'll simultaneously claim:
a) it doesn't actually exist
and
b) inasmuch as it does exist, HE was actually the sole architect responsible for its existence.

It sounds fucking cretinous, right?  But there we have it, the King Fuck Swine of all pseudo-intellectual swinery has claimed it, when he briefly crawled out of whatever rock he's been hiding under to give an interview with "runas explosivas" (who interviewed me first, though I'm sure that had nothing to do with his motives), where in this interview he said all kinds of insulting and stupid things. Things like ""Old school" is a marketing term and is neither old nor an identifiable single way to play".  And that absolutely anything good about the OSR is "all the Forge".

And frankly, this unmitigated bullshit is possible because of how Edwards is choosing to define the OSR.  Ron Edwards, at least in what has to do with gaming, has been absolutely wrong, and proven absolutely useless, in every aspect of his intellectual approach to RPGs in his entire life.  His "success" at being the King Swine, and at creating a movement that for a while posed an enormous threat to regular RPGs (and whose ideas even managed to hijack one edition, the least successful and most despised edition, of D&D), is largely due to the fact that he has always been a master at precisely one single thing:  the manipulation of language.

I can claim to have invented the Burrito, if I successfully redefine "burrito" as the mix of olives, chorizo, sharp cheese and potato chips in a lehmeyun wrap, and successfully 'undefine' anything people formerly understood as a "burrito".  That's exactly what Ron Edwards does.  Its standard university training these days of a bullshit pseudo-academic, following the examples of the deconstructionists.   

Shit, don't take my word for it, read the interview. He TAKES PRIDE in how he manipulated language to try to turn around the CENTRAL PURPOSE of RPG play (Immersion) into something utterly irrelevant to his NEW definition of what an "RPG" supposedly does and is about, and even gloats about how he used the equivalent of Linguistic Terrorism to deconstruct the idea of "GM" to the point that the most important power-structure of Regular roleplaying could be effectively neutered (and replaced by the "Genius Game Designer"). 

And this is what he does with the OSR in the interview, in order to take credit for it even as he simultaneously insults the notion that the OSR is anything other than 'marketing'.  He just twists around and reinvents the structure and context of the word so that it means what HE wants it to mean, so that he can actually (absurdly) take credit for a movement that holds Rulings, not Rules as its central motto (and is therefore the antithesis of everything the Forge ever actually stood for, as the cult of Trained and Forge-Certified Genius Designers making Perfect Theory-Based Games that must then never ever be allowed to be "ruined" by Evil Unwashed-masses GMs, who must be stopped at all costs from ever being allowed to act outside of the Designer's Sacred Rules because "SYSTEM MATTERS").

So,  here is your proof, of why it matters that within the OSR we create a set of boundaries, of Landmark-definitions that, at the very least, prevent the hijacking of old-school by the likes of Edwards.  There are times when it is necessary, even vital, to define the OSR; particularly when others are trying to define something as "this is OSR" when it is clearly not (that is, going beyond the landmarks of what old-school design really is) or trying to define something as "this is not OSR" when it clearly is (that is, well within the landmarks of old-school design).

Otherwise, Ron Edwards would be right about the OSR not being anything other than a marketing logo (that, therefore, ANYONE could use for ANYTHING, like he just tried to do).  
But he's not right (and thank Mordenkainen for that; I wouldn't want to live in the universe where he was), because we in the OSR all know when we're seeing something that is OSR, and when we're being bullshitted at.  You can argue within the movement about what is "real" old school or not, but the visceral reaction all old-schoolers would feel when some asshole on rpgnet tries to claim that "FATE run in a dungeon is totally an OSR game" gives proof to the fact that the definition of qualities, of landmarks, exists.   The OSR IS a definable thing, I just reject reactionary small-tent definitions as much as I reject post-modernist 'the OSR is whatever you feel like' definitions that are all too often opportunistic moves on the part of non-old-school designers to try to get more sales for their obviously-not-old-school games by calling those games "OSR".  Or of piece-of-shit pseudo-intellectual architects of failed, disproven 'theories' to try to somehow define their way out their track record of total fuckups.


RPGPundit

Currently Smoking:  Lorenzetti quiete + Dunhill 965

DCC campaign update: Inside The Perverted Swamp

In this week's Action-packed Adventure, the heroic PCs:

-camped out on the coastline and ran into the Pirates of the Furry Bay
-found out that with pirates, women are 'bad luck'
-found out that with pirates, humans are 'bad luck'
-found out that with pirates, elves are 'bad luck'
-found out that with pirates, just about everything is "Bad luck"
-decided to leave the pirates, as they were too ridiculous
-met 'Frenchie', the old grizzled gold mutant prospector; that is, a gold mutant who pans for gold, not a dude who prospects gold mutants.
-contracted Frenchie with the promise of as much gold as he could eat, if he'd guide them into the perverted swamp, past the dangerous and savage nudist mutants, and into the half-sunken temple.
-on entering the swamp, learned that nudist mutants look just like naked humans except for the little black bar with the word 'censored' floating in front of their junk.
-drove off dangerous nudist mutants by making a series of silly animal sounds.
-had a dangerous encounter with a giant swamp crocodile, after eating its eggs for breakfast.
-hightailed it to the Half-sunken Temple, chased by 200 nudist mutants.
-discovered that the temple was the only good place to take refuge from the horde of deadly nudist mutants; that's the good news.  The bad news is that the reason they don't dare enter is that it's supposed to be haunted.
-went in anyways, of course.
-left their horses outside right by the temple arch, knowing the mutants wouldn't dare come so near... that's true, but they did dare to throw a few hundred spears at the horses, killing them all.
-faced a knob-polishing robot.
-discovered that if you destroy a knob-polishing robot's knobs, he gets understandably pissed and goes on a kill-all-humans rampage.
-had a near-fatality from elven friendly-fire.
-saw the same elf then use his mighty power rings against the robot... to almost no effect.
-upon defeating the knob-polishing robot, spent several days in the haunted temple recovering. 
-assisted their recovery on discovering that a piece of loot they'd been carrying with them for ages was actually a mechanical jug that generates curative alcohol.
-proceeded to generate curative alcohol out of water, and then out of urine.  And when the urine ran out, they got really desperate and used their regular alcohol.
-found that curative alcohol certainly cures, but it also sure packs a punch.
-while recovering, had yet another near-fatality due to elven friendly-fire, when said elf went mad trying to contact his daemon patron.
-also witnessed said elf lose his elven ears (or in fact any ears, for that matter) to corruption, which the rest of the party thought was the very least the fucker deserved at that point after nearly killing two of his team-mates.
-found a room full of coins and bones.  They wisely chose not to proceed, especially after discovering a tentacled-wall-clinger.
-proceeded to burn said tentacled-wall-clinger to death.
-discovered a bronze door with an iron handle-claw.
-realized that the magic-user's weird mercurial effect wherein casting "Color Spray" causes the nearest iron object to rust would prove enormously useful to get past the door.
-exercised extreme caution in the tunnel full of shades.
-saw the elf use his mighty power rings against the shades... to enormous effect!
-found a sunken, partially flooded room, and no sign of the Mint Condition Pythian Power Armor Suit (with jet-pack and butt-rockets), that appeared to have been looted long ago.
-saw the group's magic-user fall down a drain trap while exploring said room!
-feared the magic-user's death, but in the underwater drain said magic-user made a lucky choice of where to swim, and found his way not only to breathable air, but to the REAL armor-room, complete with Mint Condition Pythian Power Armor Suit (with jet-pack and butt-rockets).
-while busy trying to catch up to the magic-user, had no idea that said magic-user had also encountered the Ghost of Great Bertha, previous owner of said power armor.  The magic-user wisely chose not to confront Great Bertha in single combat for the armor, particularly since said power armor was clearly designed with female proportions in mind, and the party's very tough female Warrior was on the way.
-made a tactical decision as a party upon arrival, to ignore Great Bertha's demands for single combat, and just slaughtered the ghost en-masse.
-obtained the Pythian power armor, finding it to have superlight maneuverability, jet pack, and high-explosive butt-rockets (though only 4 of the original 12 butt-rockets yet remain).  They also found the seal-attachment that grants defense against energy attacks.
-found a sword as well, which immediately took mental control of the surprisingly weak-willed magic user. But since the sword is a kick-ass Pythian Wizardbane sword with a dozen powers, no one seemed to mind much, not even the magic user.
-felt a little less certain, out-of-character, when they realized the sword is also as much of a dick as any elf (particularly an elf from the last great elven military empire), and wants to restore the world to "Law" (and by "law", it means a situation where elves run everything, and everyone else licks their boots).
-promptly Plane-stepped back home, leaving behind the dead horses and the hundreds of violent nudist mutants. They took Frenchie with them, though.

RPGPundit

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