The Gaming Outpost

  I am very suspicious that Steven Spielberg must be a closet gamer.  It’s not just because the kids were playing Dungeons & Dragons™ in E. T. in 1982.  1985′s The Goonies, for which he is credited with writing the story (Chris Columbus is blamed for the script), just feels like a game adventure shifted into a modern setting.  The kids find a secret entrance from some old basement into an underground cave complex that has all the marks of a dungeon, complete with traps, secret paths, and clues, and they keep moving through it until finally they find the long lost pirate treasure.  What could be more like an early eighties role playing game adventure than that?

  There is an aspect of the story, though, which is not exactly typical of the typical dungeon crawl, and it’s one worth examining closely.

  After the initial setup, in which we find out how very much the kids need the money, they encounter some nasty (if stupid and inept) villains.  They escape from these by entering the caves.  Thereafter, although they are pushing forward on their quest to find the treasure and confronted by hazards and puzzles at every turn, and saved by their wits and tricks, they are also pursued by these same criminals, who dog their steps all the way to the end.

  We have looked at quite a few designs for adventures over the past year.  The last one, Spelunking, was the purely explorative model, in which the game world is interesting for its own sake and the player characters are driven to discover it.  Before that we had three versions of the quest idea, analogized to Scavenger Hunts (multiple objectives resulting in concurrent miniquests), Treasure Hunt (following a trail from one interim objective to the next), and Flag Captures (knowing the end of the quest but choosing the route).  This idea, though, is something of the negative quest, and perhaps shares much in common with the first model we addressed in Antagonists, that of planning the actions of the villains and adapting to the interference of the player characters.  In this version, the players are attempting to escape.

  Escape, in this sense, is more than merely a quest for the way out.  Although such a quest can be an excellent adventure, what The Goonies teaches us is that the adventure is the more exciting if we are escaping something that is in pursuit.

  However, such a design is fraught with complications.

  Not the least of these complications involves managing the pursuer.  Clearly there must be a real threat that the pursuer could catch the characters, or there’s no excitement in running.  On the other hand, if the pursuers actually do catch the characters, that’s the end of the escape.  Either the characters are then captured, or the threat of pursuit is eliminated.  Thus you have to find a way to control the pursuers such that there is a serious danger of them closing the gap, but at the same time that the players can keep a good distance ahead if they make the effort, all without feeling as if it’s all too easy.

  More fundamentally, perhaps, you have to have a situation in which the characters will flee.  All too many games have been ruined because the quixotic players decided to turn and fight the unbeatable foe, either to be destroyed in the process or to discover that the game was rigged anyway as they did the impossible.

  On that problem, players can be surprising.  Some will think that this is their chance to fight a desperate battle against incredible odds, and that the referee would not have set an adversary against them that they could not defeat.  Others can easily be induced to run, if the threat looks formidable enough.  If your players are likely to run from something that looks reasonably powerful, that’s enough to launch the escape play.

  If your players tend to be the reckless sort, there may yet be a way to overcome this.  In most games there are non-lethal forms of combat.  Grappling techniques, capture based weapons, drugs and gasses, and traps can all be used to imprison characters.  It is entirely plausible for the villains to capture the heroes alive, proving their overwhelming superiority, and then after holding them for a time announce that they are to be executed.  At this point arranging for them to break out of their confinement (presumably with outside help, as they will undoubtedly have attempted to do so on their own already) becomes the first step in setting them on the escape adventure.  It is evident that the pursuing adversary has an overwhelming ability to capture and kill them, unless they can reach a place of safety where the villain will be overmatched by forces allied to the characters.  This doesn’t guarantee that the players will not choose to stand and fight, but at least they will know what they are doing if they make that choice.

  Matching the pursuers to the characters is a good place to start on keeping the gap open.  Unfortunately this is not so simple as it sounds.  After all, for the escape to be interesting, the players are going to have to face obstacles.  Even a locked door slows them down, and unless they find a way to secure it behind them that same door will not significantly delay the pursuers.  The heroes have to solve the puzzles and open the secret paths; the villains need only follow along the trail the heroes have blazed.  The design must account for the time lost at each obstacle.  The players must be afraid that the villains will catch them before they get through this part, but there must be enough of a buffer that escape remains possible even with one or two serious failure delays along the way.

  One way to arrange this is to provide potential delaying techniques along the way.  If the fleeing heroes can cut the bridge they have just crossed, this delays the villains and widens the gap.  The downside of this is that the players might not recognize the delaying tactics that have been supported, and might instead use other methods whose efficacy is more difficult to determine.

  A more direct means of controlling the gap is measure time rather than space.  Rather than tracking the position of the villains on the map and working out how they handle various obstacles independently, determine a time factor.  Start the villain a specific time behind the characters.  If you know the normal movement rates of the characters and the villains, you can determine whether the gap will normally widen, narrow, or stay about the same.  Use die rolls to impact whether this changes, and by how much, on the assumption that there will be some variation in the speed each party moves.  If the players use a delaying tactic against their pursuit, adjust the dice accordingly; if they are themselves delayed, that too becomes part of the system.  Allow the possibility that the enemy could be stalled for an extended time, such as ten or fifteen minutes, quite apart from any character actions, by such complications as being uncertain of the trail, or stopping to rest, or encountering some distraction or impediment.  Otherwise try to arrange their relative speeds such that the tendency would be for the gap gradually to narrow.

  The endpoint of the escape has to be the place where the characters are safe.  It could be the fort, or the police, or some other secure place where there are reinforcements sufficient to defeat the pursuers.  This might be because the villains would not take the risk of being captured or killed; it might be because once you’re there, they are no longer your problem, and they will be captured or killed.  It could simply be a territorial matter.  They say Shelob never leaves her lair.  The police won’t cross the boundary into the next jurisdiction.  Vampires cannot live in sunlight.  Of course, this sort of escape is less certain.  Shelob did leave her lair once.  If the police think they can drag you back across the line and get away with claiming you never left, they might try it.  A vampire might be angry enough to be suicidal, assaulting his victim in the daylight in the hope that the victim, too, will die–or worse.  The design should be clear as to when the escape has been successful, and the players should be able to determine which way to go and where they will be safe at a reasonable point in the adventure, so that the escape will appear a possibility.

  There are still some other adventure ideas to pursue, but adding this to your repertoire will make it considerably more versatile.

  Next week, something different.

—–

M. Joseph Young is co-author of Multiverser and Vice President for Development at Valdron Inc.  His many contributions to online literature are indexed for convenience, and he looks forward to discussing these things by e-mail or on our Gaming Outpost forums.

  There is a red flashing symbol in the bottom right corner of my computer screen at the moment.  It is telling me that there is a severe weather warning for this area tonight, and I should take precautions.

  I have looked at weather in our campaigns before in this series.  Snow Day was about description, but it took us all for a walk in a blizzard.  Foliage talked about bringing weather out of the background and making it a major event in a campaign, such as with a severe storm.  Obviously Weather was about weather, in that case about how genuinely unpredictable and inconsistent it can be at times.  We have not neglected weather, nor have we neglected the idea of severe weather.

  Yet this flashing red icon is not warning me of impending blizzard or rainfall; nor is it telling of high winds, hurricanes, tornadoes, or flooding.  It is flashing because it is cold outside, and expected to get considerably colder tonight.

  Cold weather hardly seems like it warrants a red flashing severe weather warning icon on my computer screen.  It’s just cold.  If I were to go outside, I would not get wet; there would be no ice hanging off me.  The winds won’t buffet me or throw debris at my body or my house.  There’s little danger of the power failing due to lightning strikes or high winds or floods, as there would be in many storms.  I would realize after a moment that it was cold outside, and I would come inside and have a cup of hot chocolate to warm up, maybe bundle up in a blanket by the heater if I really overdid it, and that would be the end of it.  It’s just cold.  That’s all.  It’s not even that cold, being twenty-three on the Fahrenheit scale sometime after midnight.  It’s expected to drop below zero, but it is taking its time about it.  There’s a nip in the air; it’s a bit chilly out.  Some would call it brisk.  My middle son will remember to throw his sweatshirt over his shoulder before he leaves for the bus in the morning.  It’s no big deal.

  Yet weather like this kills people every year.  This particular cold front already has killed several in the Midwest from which it has come.  I don’t want to think what would happen if we lost power.  Our furnace burns gas to generate heat, but the controls for it and the fan that circulates the air are electric, so it would never light and the faint heat generated by its pilot flame would remain in its basement enclave.  Our hot water heater also burns gas, but the pump that pressurizes our well water is electric, so all we’ll have is a large well-insulated tank of inaccessible hot water in the cellar.  The gas oven is electronically lit and electronically regulated; it cannot be ignited manually (as I learned when the igniter broke), nor can the gas supply to it be opened when the circuitry is dead.  If I found some matches, I could light the stovetop burners.  They would generate some heat.  We would weather a difficult night, bundled in blankets and hoping the pipes did not freeze.

  Without the protection of the house, we would be hard pressed to survive the night.

  It’s not impossible to fight the cold.  I have been camping in some very cold weather.  I remember on one Boy Scout outing the leaders laughed about the fact that the beer they were drinking as they huddled around the after-hours campfire was so cold it was freezing while they were drinking it.  I could build some sort of protective shelter; I would find some way to start a fire.  I am not helpless against the cold.  Yet I might lose.  People lose every year, some of them better prepared for that fight and in far better health and physical condition than I.  Even if I won, I would not enjoy it.  I remember that those winter camping trips were not so much fun; I have difficulty remembering why I wanted to go on them.  I was cold.

  Cold is an unusual danger.  It is not dramatic.  It is quiet, and creeps up on its victims.  You go outside without your coat, thinking that it’s not really so bad.  The atmosphere sucks heat away from you, weakening your resistance and leaving you chilled.  At first, you just recognize that the air is cold.  You don’t so quickly realize that your body is trying to compensate, redistributing blood flow in a confused effort to prevent your skin and extremities from freezing while maintaining your core temperature.  Energy reserves are tapped, and muscles start working to turn sugars into waste products and heat.  Gooseflesh is a relatively benign natural protection, as your skin tightens to shut your pores, increasing the amount of insulation provided.  More serious, shivering is hard work, as your muscles burn energy reserves to replace body heat that is being carried away by the surrounding air.  Every exposed area of skin becomes an open vent for heat to escape.  Heads are particularly vulnerable in this regard.  Hair serves as insulation, such that bald men lose more heat even on warm days.  A single layer of clothing affords significant protection, as it impedes the air near the skin from moving away and being replaced by cooler air.  Multiple layers of clothing are the best insulation available.  Without such protection, cold steals our energy, leaving us weak and tired.  Those who freeze to death become too tired to move, to tired to shiver, to tired even to care.

  It is a lesson in subtlety.  Not everything that can kill a character does so in one fell stroke.  Some dangers wear him down slowly, subtly.  He doesn’t know he has been weakened until suddenly he needs his strength and it’s not there.  The killer takes him without ever alerting him to his danger.

  There are other hazards with similar effects.  In tropical and subtropical cities, heat claims the lives of some.  I’ve seen radiation used to good effect in a game.  Diseases and parasites can play out this way.  Magical curses might have this effect, and poisons and traps sometimes have an effect that is at least analogous.  In all these, defeat is gradual, but no less serious.

  Keep warm.

  Next week, something different.

—–

M. Joseph Young is co-author of Multiverser and Vice President for Development at Valdron Inc.  His many contributions to online literature are indexed for convenience, and he looks forward to discussing these things by e-mail or on our Gaming Outpost forums.

  Here’s an idea for a game.  Those who like science fiction may enjoy this, particularly those who think the genre has been ill-served by role playing games to date.

  Start with your characters in a modern world, or one close enough to today that it’s easy enough to create a clear image of the way things really are.  Science fiction gaming tends to be about stock tropes, such as space opera and post apocalyptic stories, while some of the best sci fi literature is about how technology impacts our world.  The problem with most games then is that all of that is already laid out in the world description–we know how these technological advances have impacted the world, because the setting book describes the results.  A science fiction game which was about the impact of technology, and not merely about adventures in a world where technology has already formed a new order, would have to make it possible for the players themselves to explore the impact of the technology.  To do that, we need a baseline of sorts, a place to start, a world which we all understand as far as what technology is and does and how people live because of it.  Thus, we start with today, with things as they are, so that we can build on them.

  Once we have established that it is today, we are going to add our first major technological advance.  One innovation will be chosen, and it will be assumed that this new technical ability is in the hands of technologists and being made available to the rich and powerful.  Play will then revolve around how this technology changes the lives of the player characters.  Who has it?  What do they do with it?  As time progresses, the player characters will also have access to this advance.  What do they do with it?

  As time progresses, there will be additional advances.  These should be brought into the game in the same way, one at a time, again with the assumption that it starts in the hands of the few but eventually reaches the many.  Having one new technology from which only a few can benefit, one that is spreading among the middle classes, one that is starting to reach the poor, and one that is available to everyone is probably a good balance for this.  It’s not too many innovations to track, but it allows players the opportunity to consider how one advance impacts another.  Once a technology has reached the point where everyone has it, it should be easy to remember and to integrate with other advances.

  Of course, there would have to be some modifications to traditional play to make this work.  Although technology works its way into our lives hour by hour, we can’t really see its effects at that scale.  So our game will require a few special rules to work effectively.

  First, we should use a scale of play that is something akin to that used in the game Pendragon.  A turn consists of some detail of a few weeks of life played out, and then the assumption that a lot of other things happen and it’s the next year.  This will make it possible to explore the impact of the technology on daily life, while at the same time permitting the technological advance to push forward relentlessly into the future.

  Because of this scale of play, it is probably best for the first technological advance to involve gerontological research.  The player characters should have their aging slowed drastically early in the game, so that they can live to see the changes.  This could be done with the generational style play of Pendragon (in which a player plays members of the same family from father to son to grandson), but given that modern society does not foster the concept of sons following in the footsteps of the fathers that would be less practical and more complicated than simply letting the character live long and prosper.  This advance could take any of several forms.  Genetic manipulation of the body’s shut-down codes, drug therapy and organ replacement, and mechanization of the body are all possible choices, and which is pursued will itself impact the direction the game takes.  Also, the speed with which new technologies permeate the world will be increased, again for the sake of play.  Portable telephones were in use for many years before they reached the vast numbers who now have them, but in game terms it will be easier to compact that to four or five turns.

  Because the game is about the impact of technological advance on society, the players cooperatively should agree on each major advance introduced into the game.  At the same time, individually they should be free to introduce minor improvements and foreseeable combinations and assume these happen.  For example, if our first innovation were the cellular telephone system, our second the Internet, and our third the personal computer, a player should be permitted to declare that his character is now able to access the Internet from his personal computer through a cellular phone.  That having been established, a player could declare that he is able to wear a computer at all times, so it is constantly in use and connected to the Internet while he is awake.  In doing so, however, the players are required to explain how this changes their lives and the lives of others in society who have access to the same advances.

  It is also practical for the major characters to have significant roles in society.  Law enforcement, defense, government, medicine, education, banking and finance, retail management, manufacturing, social services, and labor all have potential for examining the changes that inevitably occur.  Having players take different roles will make the flow of the game easier, as each player will be focused on how the changes impact his character, and the combination of effects on the various player characters will suggest more changes in society beyond the experience of those fields.  It would also be worthwhile for characters to be different ages and more particularly in different social classes, specifically in relation to the penetration of new technologies.  One player may always be first to have the new technology impact his life, but he should be constrained by his own resources, less able to innovate because such advances cost a great deal of money at first.

  The interesting aspect of the game arises as players perceive what the world might become as their changes filter through society.  It may even lead to moral and ethical issues concerning whether people will do the right thing with their possibilities or abuse them to everyone’s detriment.  Will government use advancing surveillance capabilities to monitor and control the public (such as in Orwell’s 1984)?  Will robotics in the workplace displace workers such that unemployment balloons out of control?  Will the ability to work entirely at home result in growing isolationism as individuals cease to interact in person?  Whether these questions are addressed in the game will ultimately be in the hands of the players, but the potential for them is present.

  I am not one to say that science fiction must be about the way technology changes our lives, or about any other ideas.  I’m happy with my space operas and post apocalyptics and utopian futures, and would gladly explore these worlds without complaint.  However, I do see that for some fans science fiction should be doing more, should be looking more closely at how the world is changed by the advances proposed.  These tools might provide a way to accomplish that in play.

  Let me know how it works for your players.

  Next week, something different.

—–

M. Joseph Young is co-author of Multiverser and Vice President for Development at Valdron Inc.  His many contributions to online literature are indexed for convenience, and he looks forward to discussing these things by e-mail or on our Gaming Outpost forums.

  Just over three years ago, we mentioned Michaelangelo in one of our columns.  As long as the ceiling remains on the Sistine Chapel or his statue of David survives, he will be remembered as one of the great artists of the world.

  Perhaps a month before that, we had talked about Thomas Alva Edison, whose legacy lies in his inventions.  Audio and video recording have advanced so far since he created them that little of his technology is used in it, yet even as we listen to digitized recreations of music and watch digital video disc recordings we are indebted to his pioneering efforts, and those who are informed remember him because of these inventions.

  Nearly a year later, we met a man named Kahanamaku, because his picture appeared on a postage stamp.  His contribution to the world is that he was a surfer, but an extraordinary one, the father of Hawaiian surfing.  He is gone (United States postal regulations specify that living persons cannot appear on postage stamps), but his memory not only remains but has spread to reach at least some of us whose hobby is not surfing but gaming, because he was a famous surfer.

  Others have left more dramatic marks on civilization.  Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Genghis Kahn, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, and Napoleon Bonaparte are all known names today because they achieved great military victories and built kingdoms or even empires on their successes.  They will not be forgotten soon.

  Even some who are forgotten have left their mark on the world.  Napoleon had great military victories in Europe.  Although the map of the continent has not retained much of his changes, he has still changed the world.  He, the man who said that an army travels on its stomach, gave us canning, thanks to the work of Nicholas Appert–a name that is not a household word, but a chemist whose invention in one form or another has brought food to most of the world.  Napoleon is also responsible for the creation and proliferation of the metric system, which has conquered much of the world despite those of us who still cling to the quaint and colorful English system.

  For some, what they leave behind is their own fame.  As we considered in Prestige a year ago, this alone can be a significant motivation.

  Not so long ago we discussed basic motivations that inspire characters to take risks and undertake quests, to set and accomplish great goals.  We then were discussing how to design a McGuffin, that object in the story that for whatever reason everyone wants.  In that discussion reference was made to the motivation of pride of reputation.  The fact is, most people want to make a difference in the world.  We want to leave our mark on the world after we are gone.  Our tombstones will bear mute testimony to the fact that we were here, but we want someone to recall some contribution we made to what remains.  We want to have mattered, to have lived a life that changed the world, even if only in a small way that impacts a few people for a few generations.

  To some, this legacy is found in wealth left behind, the founding of funds or charities or scholarships or prizes which bear our name and touch the lives of others.  Many are authors of books, hoping to change the world through the written word, or at least to be remembered for it as long as Poe, or maybe Shakespeare, or possibly Chaucer, or dare they even hope Homer.  Contributors to philosophy and science may not all achieve the fame of a Nietzsche or a Newton, but Camus and Crick prove that it is still possible to be remembered for such work.

  For vast numbers, immortality is seen through children, descendants who will have descendants, with the hope that in a few generations they will still remember something about their ancestors.  Yet even if the ancestors are forgotten, the success of their descendants is made possible by them.  “My father was not a failure,” Harry Truman said of a man who had failed at more businesses than most people ever attempt and who died believing himself a failure.  “After all, he was the father of a president of the United States.”  In some ways, children are an opportunity to impact future generations.

  In a similar way, we impact the future through our influence on those with whom we interact.  The Reverend Doctor J. Edwin Orr’s name is not familiar to many people despite his several doctorates and substantial contributions to nonfiction literature.  He is known, though, to the Reverend Doctor Billy Graham, and helped him through a critical moment in his life in a way that enabled Billy Graham to begin his ministry.  Part of Doctor Orr’s legacy is the worldwide work of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.  The lives we touch will touch others; we may have far greater impact on the future than we imagine.  Ask any schoolteacher the reason for that career choice, and you will almost always hear a tale of another schoolteacher.

  The desire to be remembered, to make a difference, to leave something behind when we are gone–this seems to be a basic human drive, something that infects everyone, in one form or another.  Consider how it infects your character, and what he will do in his life to create that legacy.

  I am reminded of a very short poem.  A quick search of the Internet revealed that it is frequently quoted, but without citing an author, so I shall again quote it uncredited:

Only one life, ’twill soon be past;
Only what’s done for Christ will last.

  It may be that some legacies are eternal, and that characters who perceive the possibility of such a legacy will eschew anything less.  We all want to be remembered in some way, to have left our impact on the world.  How our characters wish to do that is within our control, and worth considering in the choices they make.

  Next week, something different.

—–

M. Joseph Young is co-author of Multiverser and Vice President for Development at Valdron Inc.  His many contributions to online literature are indexed for convenience, and he looks forward to discussing these things by e-mail or on our Gaming Outpost forums.