The return of the original RPG. Guest Post - Christian Ahlin

This guest post comes from Christian Ahlin, creator of the forthcoming pen and paper RPG, Triniton...

The return of the original RPG - why RPG's grew big in the 80's and why it inevitably will again

Let's imagine a time. A time without massive gaming consoles with thousands of streamed games, without social media and their Farm crush clash of GO. A time when children were asked to be home for supper, when VHS had just launched and when "game and watch" meant a pocket-sized game with the current time on it (if you had painstakingly put in the correct time and kept the batteries charged, that is).

This was a time when Dungeons & Dragons spread like wildfire. It wasn't a book. It wasn't a war-game. It was the magical baby of heroic fantasy adventures that a group of kids could take into their basement with some dice, pen and papers and journey as far as their imagination would take them.

Storytelling has been a central part of humanity ever since speech evolved around the cave campfire. There is this intrinsic value of conveying information that one can absorb and better themselves without having the actual experience. But pandora's box opened when the first cave dweller realized you could go beyond actual experience and tell a story that hadn't happened.

Fast forward back into the cellar. With rising tension from the cold war, having your hero venturing out and defeating the evil, being in control from the safety of your sofa was appealing, to say the least.

But the cold war ended. Pacman evolved into Mario kart and roleplaying by pen and paper gave way to Final Fantasy, MUDs, Ultima Online and Everquest.

Although a shrinking niche, the core promise of storytelling in roleplaying games still appealed, in contrast, the boxed experiences computer games offered and the hobby continued on, albeit just a shadow of itself.

Today, 20 years later, we have reached the top of the digital mountain and are finally taking a fresh breath of clarity. 

Reflecting upon that 

• "social" media has 90% of the posted content unread, 
• that the deteriorating mental health of our young strike twice as many since '89 
• and "undefined stomach issues", especially young girls, has become so commonplace that a non diagnosis has become legitimized ("Irritable Bowel Syndrome" means "We don't have a frigging clue, but you are hurting for real").

And all this in a time when the whole world is getting safer, more educated, healthier and richer (if you look at the data and not the news).

The macro trends I see is 

• more communication, albeit digital.
• more sending than listening
• increased polarization of issues and views
• the total absence of boredom reduces reflection and agency of one's own happiness
• less quality in the human interactions that takes place due to

1. many focusing on their phones and other conversations than the one they have at hand
2. the paradox of choice, making many believe you can "just get another friend", not committing to long term relationships
3. the total and absolute personal catering (by businesses) of everything, raises expectations and denormalizes situations that aren't "perfect".
4. the private media mostly enforcing the above values, rather than questioning them. Since their finances are bound to views and people prefer input that agrees with their current state, any questioning content weeds itself away.

And yes, by now you've probably guessed it, the solution to all these issues, improbable as it may sound... is role playing games.

Boiled down to the core, role playing games involve

• getting together
• listening
• being listened to
• creating an experience together
• facing difficulty and overcoming it, together

Many are searching for "fun", but it's the feeling you get when experiencing those things listed above.

And although the new technology can be used in a positive way with

• video chats, that enables meeting people you would otherwise never have a chance to
• online forums, that helps you find real groups playing.
• VR, that will enable shared experiences within a couple of years.

But my take on all this, is that to change the world, you must start at home, with your family and with your own/soon to be friends.

And the biggest lie is not having time, it's always a matter of priority, and now you know what's at stake.

So although I just created my first game, I took all this knowledge, mixed it up with the best stories I could muster and boiled it into a game that's aimed to be

• Filled with guides. How to find players, How to play, How to lead/GM. So everybody should be able to join!
• Simple rules included (but also compatible with FATE or DnD). Bonuses for cooperating. To further enable as many as possible to play.
• "YouTube-generation-friendly" Tons(!) of artwork, paced encounters. Magazine feel. To meet the increased expectations of today.
• Moral dilemmas, (ie. who should a fireman save first from a burning building?). To spur reflection and discussion.
• Family friendly: No sex, drugs, swearing or depictions of violence. Not explicitly forbidden during play, but neither explicitly mentioned in text or rules. Since the children are our future, let's give them a place at the table.

It took me two and a half years to get this right, and I hope my daughters will be part of the new generation that carries the healthy values and behaviours into the technological future and makes it not only a better world, but one with happy, prospering people in it.

If you want to support me, head over to www.triniton.se and get your copy, but the important thing is:

Let's play some roleplaying games!

Some sources:

(1) http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/14/5411934/youre-not-going-to-read-this 

(2) https://www.socialstyrelsen.se/Lists/Artikelkatalog/Attachments/19109/2013-5-43.pdf (Swedish study on declining youth health)

(3) https://www.google.se/trends/explore?date=2009-09-02%202016-10-02&q=stomach%20pain 

(4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irritable_bowel_syndrome 

(4.1) Cutting edge research in Sweden points out stress as a cause and tried stress relieving exercises using CBT with massive positive effects.

(5) https://www.ted.com/talks/hans_and_ola_rosling_how_not_to_be_ignorant_about_the_world 

(6) https://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice?language=sv 

(7) http://www.people-press.org/2014/06/12/political-polarization-in-the-american-public/

(8) http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/10/are-partisan-news-sources-polarizing-americans/

Angels, Psychos, and Little Girls With Bombs - Guest Post Author Ian Keeling

I thought I'd write about more video games.

When I was first offered this opportunity to guest-blog (thanks guys!) and write how games influenced my own writing, I figured I'd tell stories about how my first foray into world-building was in my cramped basement trying to recreate the map from Ultima IV with a pencil and graph paper. And yes, I just used the words Ultima IV, pencil, and graph paper in a single sentence. I'm a little old.

Now sure, that influence has extended throughout my extended life, so much so that my new novel, The Skids, (BLATANT PLUG: COMING OCTOBER 2016! I HAVE NO SHAME!) borrows so heavily from Tron that by halfway through the book you'll expect to see Recognizers coming around every corner. And sure, Tron's a movie, but let's face it: it's a video game.

Yep, I thought I'd be writing about Ultima, or Tron, or Final Fantasy, or Doom, Tomb Raider, Fallout, Burnout, KOTOR, Mass Effect, Fallout again, Tomb Raider again…look, it's a long list. And while I have stolen from—I mean, been influenced by—all of those games and many more, just about all the things I wanted to write about, including the world-building mentioned above, could be summed up in one line of dialogue:

"I just bought a pony made of diamonds. Cause, you'know, I'm rich. I'm thinking of calling him butt-stallion."

So instead of talking about Oblivion or Super Mario Kart or Vagrant Story—seriously, long is the list—I've come to celebrate one simple game: Borderlands 2.

I have a confession: I never finish video games. I finished Final Fantasy VII…I think. I finished the first Knights of the Old Republic. Recently, because it was short and the story was great, I finished the relaunch of Tomb Raider. That's it. Three games in a gaming life long enough have included graph paper.

Plus one more.

Because I finished Borderlands 2. Then I played it again with a different character. Then I played it half-way with all of the characters (I could probably walk to Sanctuary blindfolded). Then back to my fav, Gaige, with whom I played all the DLCs. Then True Vault Hunter mode. Then Ultimate Vault Hunter. Then…look, my very extended point is I played the bullymog out of that game.

All the things I love about BL2, things that I try to bring into my own writing, can be seen in that line of dialogue above, uttered early in the game by the villain, Handsome Jack. Although technically it’s an amalgamation of two lines of dialogue, but hey, I cheated. Here’s to console commands!

First and foremost: the line is just funny. The first time I heard it, I laughed out loud and thought: yeah, I think I'm going to like this. Sometimes the genres I tend to write in the most—science fiction and fantasy—can be a bit…uptight about comedy. Or even humour in general. Thank god for horror.

I honestly believe you can’t have great comedy without drama or great drama without comedy. When I watch Zach Galifianakis, I laugh because his pain is real. On the flipside, I once bailed on watching the TV show 24 because I couldn’t believe not one character cracked: “Man, this day is the worst, I say we go for tacos."

Hamlet is funny, people. Actually, Hamlet is hilarious. And that, to me, is great writing. You can be laughing one sentence and crying the next. Borderlands 2 nails that.

I laughed constantly throughout BL2, but even as Jack would zing me from space—more about that later—he'd turn around and commit some horrible atrocity. If you look past the laughter, there are moments when Borderlands gets crazy dark.

My favourite character, by far, is Tiny Tina. I don't think I'm alone in that among people who've played. But while Tina made me giggle almost the entire time I spent with her, if you peel back the façade and actually take a good hard look at her—where she is, how she was orphaned, what her motivations are—then her story is unbelievably sad. And the end of the DLC in which she makes all the other main characters relive the game as a Dungeons & Dragons session was so beautiful I cried. And not a little. Big, gob-smacking tears.

God bless you, Tiny Tina.

The other thing I like about Handsome Jack’s taunts is they’re all rock-solid dialogue. I love good dialogue and take pride in trying to write it myself. From Jack’s smarmy yet at times cold-as-crap drawl to Mr. Torgue’s over the top bluster, BL2 has great dialogue everywhere. By the way—Mr. Torgue? Imagine the former wrestling great Randy the Macho Man Savage souped up out of his gourd as a politically-correct gun runner. "NOTHING IS MORE BADASS THAN TREATING A WOMAN WITH RESPECT!!!!!!!"

Yeah, sign me up.

The voices flow out of the broad characters—Clap-Trap’s clap-trap prattle, Moxi’s sexy twang, Patricia Tannis’ sociopathic paranoia—but more importantly, the dialogue is just as strong in its down-to-earth characters that drive the story: Roland, Lilith, and Angel. BL2 is a wild, crazy world, but the dialogue feels real, and so I believe in this world.

And that world is wild and crazy, which brings me to the final thing I love about Jack’s taunt, BL2, and heck, video games in general: If it’s fun, screw logic, let’s do it. The genre of science fiction, particularly SF novels, can get a little obsessive about the laws of physics sometimes. Most times. Okay, almost always a lot. Now I get it, gravity works, nothing can move faster than the speed of light, you can’t curve a bullet, etc. But, you know what? I’m not smart enough to write 2001 or any more appropriately modern reference, and curving a bullet is an awesome idea. So is carrying around three thousand pounds of guns, jumping fifty feet, jumping even higher if you use a grenade to jump (WHAT?!?), suspending people in mid-air, summoning a robot from the ether, and randomly finding loot in boxes and chests that are, you know, just spread all around the world. And yes, I know other games created many of these things—I think Quake did the grenade trick first—but I love how BL2 incorporates all these absurd things and more.

Including having the antagonist taunt you from space on his own little personal—what is that, Skype? Now the idea of the antagonist taunting the hero has appeared in multiple mediums and certainly gets used in gaming a lot—the cake is a lie—but when you think about it, WTF? It doesn’t matter where my character is; Handsome Jack has exactly the right thing to say at exactly the right moment. But if he knows where I am all the time, why doesn’t he just blow me up from space: that would make sense, right? For that matter, how does he even do it? His taunts are clean and clear every time. Who’s his wireless provider? I can’t even get a clear signal from my router half the time and I live in a bachelor apartment the size of a pony. There are so many things about that idea that don’t make sense if you think about it too much.

But who cares? It’s awesome when the villain does it. I liked it so much that I put it in The Skids (COMING SOON, #NOSHAME!!!) Because even if there is a small part of me that wonders if it makes sense, what we get in return is great. We get opportunities for humour, character development, and most importantly, we create tension, an awareness that the threat is always, always, always there. And that’s good fun. It’s good writing, and it’s why I love Borderlands 2.

Plus, you know, butt-stallions.

Ian Keeling is an author, actor and owner of a half-decent beard. His day job is teaching improv and sketch at The Second City, in Toronto, Canada, which is, you know, pretty cool.

 His first novel, The Skids, will be published in October 2016 by ChiZine books, and is a full-throttle cross between the video game Burnout, the Hunger Games, and the Matrix. Which, hopefully, is also pretty cool.

Amazon UK link

Amazon.com link

You can follow me on Twitter @KeelingIan, or my website (under construction, be gentle ) www.iankeeling.com  Thanks so much for having me!

LoTRO and the 2017 license speculation

Recently at Dadi's Lotro Guides, Cordovan, the community manager for Lord of the Ring Online (LOTRO) commented in an interview on the subject of the much speculated end of licence for the game, purported to be 2017.

"Cordovan:  I would like to chime in on the licensing thing too, it is something that comes up on the forums quite a bit.  What we do with LOTRO is not particularly different from other video games that operate under a licensing agreement for intellectual property (ex. super hero games, etc.).  They all have license holders and LOTRO is no different.  Typically these kind of agreements are pieces of business that are not really disclosed to the public.  As part of the corporate business decision making that is involved with the creation [and maintenance -ed.] of a game like LOTRO.  The LOTRO community has historically had some particular sensitivity over the licensing agreement, but the agreement itself has basically always been a routine piece of business from the very start.  So while we can understand that some folks like to talk about it on the forums and as you said; “doom say”, the reality is that it is just a private piece of business that has been routine (lawyers getting together).  Ultimately if there was a major issue with the license you guys would probably find out about it because the game would no longer be operating after a certain point.  This is not a reality show “are they going to get kicked off the island” thing worth speculating month after month, year after year.  It is basically just a routine piece of business and we have no reason to think this won’t be a continuation of that."

Now as much as Turbine may view this as "a routine piece of business" they need to realise that speculation from the community without any input from the company will have a severely negative impact on the business and the game in general, after all, who wants to invest time and money into a game with what could potentially shut down with 12 months. 

I was a die hard fan of LOTRO for seven years, though 6 months ago I started to lose heart. The game became too grindy with less and less content and to add to that, the constant speculation of the game's license ending made me step away and after close to 7 years of constant subscription, I unsubscribed. Now I can't be the only one driven from the game in that way.

So rather than ignoring the speculation, Turbine need to deal with it, openly and honestly and encourage those they have lost to return to this great game and give hope that there is a long term plan for the world they have lovingly created.

Blaugust 2016 Day 22 Blaugust Wrap up

And so that's the end of another Blaugust!

As mentioned at the beginning of the month, this was described as the 'Super Relaxed Edition' and the pressure to get a post out every single day was reduced leading to far less of a feeling of burnout with blogging that I felt last year. Having said that, I feel that pressure of previous years forced me to be more creative, finding topics I wouldn't otherwise cover. This year I managed 22 posts including this one out of a possible 31 so better than I thought I'd be capable of..

This year I approached things a little differently and invited guest bloggers, all authors that either write and game or their writing has connections with gaming. Not only did this take the pressure off me but gave some cracking articles from some far more talented writers than myself, so I'd like to thank Nick, Chris, Forbes, KC and Jason for their contributions. If you haven't seen them yet there's a link to guest posts at the top of the blog or if your lazy, you could also click here..

I hope to continue this collection of articles beyond Blaugust with more authors potentially lined up already so stay tuned and if you are an author and would like to contribute, drop me a line! If you're a reader and not familiar with these authors, buy a book or two. They are all outstanding (and you'll be supporting their gaming habits, always a worthy cause!)

So all in all, Blaugust was as fun as ever and I look forward to participating again next year. Congratulations to all the other bloggers that worked to put out as much content as they were able and I've enjoyed reading more blogs than I normally would too.

Happy Gaming!

This post is part of Blaugust 2016, an initiative to Blog throughout August. For more information visit the Tales of the Aggronaut Blog

Blaugust 2016 Day 21 - Mass Effect and writing - Guest Post by Author KC Alexander

For my 200th post, I'm honoured to welcome guest blogger K.C. Alexander, Author of Necrotech from Angry Robot Books, oh and she's played the occasional game.

Mass Effect & Writing

I think it’s no secret that I love Bioware games. With the exception of one—okay, two notable abominations, I have been a Bioware fanatic since Knights of the Old Republic (please, we will not speak of The Unfortunate Sequel). To date, I have over 500 hours clocked in to the Mass Effect franchise, creeping up on 400 in Dragon Age, and prepping for more as Mass Effect: Andromeda nears its release date.

Anyone who has read my books and played the games probably realize exactly how much playing these games flavors my writing.

First of all, Bioware has made a fucking art out of turning a protagonist into A Protagonist™. Of course it’s always about the player in a single-player RPG, but Bioware takes it a step farther. 

Between Bioware’s steadfast refusal to canonize Shepard, for example, and their loud and proud public line of validating the player’s choices, they make clear that whatever your Shepard did, it was their choice, the right choice for Shepard, and that’s that.

If it meant your Shepard was a stonecold bastard who Renegaded every chance he got and slept around with everyone he could before the romances tangled? Then that’s Shepard.

If your Shepard was a hardcore diplomat with a heart of gold, cozied up to Liara in the first game but fell for Thane’s “gonna die” zen in the second? That’s Shepard!

Did he die?

Did she live?

Did he make the choice to finish the mission?

Did she decide to play god?

Any option, all options, specifically chosen by the player in the moment, combined to create a powerful, solid, thought-filled (if not thoughtful) character. Was she woman? Who cares! Was he a man? Who cares! Did he sleep with other men? Who cares! Did she sleep with eeeerreone? Who cares!

You, as they say, got to do you, boo. And Bioware didn’t flinch.

Mass Effect inspired generations of gamers to believe that their choices, their character, their dialogue mattered, and they only got better with time.

So I thought to myself… Who says I have to stay in a lane designated by some old white guys back in the day? With all due respect to them, I am neither old (yet) or a guy (mostly), but I am white, and as a white female-presenting author, I was tired of being told that my protagonists had to be “heroes”. That they had to be “redeemed”. That they couldn’t have flaws that would make them “unlikable”—and counted among them, I felt, were protagonists of color. Of sexuality different than what the stereotypical “men can sleep around for virility and women can’t because chastity” trope demands.

My Shepard is a badass woman who talked a good Paragon game and pulled a fast Renegade hand. She’s a woman who fell for a crewmate and made a hard fucking choice, only to be betrayed by that same crewmate. She’s pansexual, hard-assed, with a sense of humor and a fierce protectiveness for her crew.

But she ain’t afraid to hit ‘em if they come at her. Or get punched for her troubles.

My Shepard has never been sexually harassed.

I took these choices—this right to make these choices—and I wrote Necrotech without bowing to the establishment. Riko is a thug: angry, loud and crass. She’s a multi-racial balls-to-the-wall woman—shit-talking, sex-loving, aggressively flawed and incredibly skilled. The kind of ambulatory tech-sporting bundle of energy and sinew you hope to god you never meet on the thrashdance floor because she’ll take you out at the knees and leave you with the trash when last call rolls up.

Shepard made choices that no one else can take away from her. So does Riko. As The Protagonist™, her story is her own. Maybe readers will see their playstyle or themselves in her, in her swag or her mistakes, but I never bend to someone else’s demand that my characters be something else. I didn’t start in Dragon Age, when that bastard noble interrupted my wedding, I didn’t start when those old white dudes in SF/F told me women weren’t supposed to act “like men”, and I ain’t starting to bend now.

So thanks, Bioware. Thanks for showing me that I could tell the story I wanted to tell, and that it could be epic and heartwrenching and badass and never even bother to take beauty, gender or tired old limitations into account.

Riko is what she is. She makes the decisions she does because of who she is. I stand by them.

Any good RPG would, too.

About the Author

About K C Alexander

K C Alexander is the mostly human, occasional Outer God, and author of Necrotech – a transhumanist sci-fi called “a violent thrillride” by award-nominated noir urban fantasy author Stephen Blackmoore. Previous writing credits include a critically acclaimed stint as Karina Cooper, where she won an RT Reviewer’s Choice Award for her steampunk urban fantasy series and contributed to well-received collections such as Fireside Fiction Magazine, Protectors 2: Heroes, and Last Night, a Superhero Saved My Life.

After peeling off sixteen layers of outer chitin and hiding the evidence across dimensional planes, K. C. Alexander is now indistinguishable from the rest of the human species. She intends to make the most of this by writing transhumanist sci-fi, epic fantasy, and speculative fiction of all stripes.You can find K C online at her website and on Twitter as @kacealexander

About Necrotech

Street thug Riko has some serious issues — memories wiped, reputation tanked, girlfriend turned into a tech-fueled zombie. And the only people who can help are the mercenaries who think she screwed them over.

In an apathetic society devoid of ethics or regulation, where fusing tech and flesh can mean a killing edge or a killer conversion, a massive conspiracy is unfolding that will alter the course of the human condition forever. With corporate meatheads on her ass and a necro-tech blight between her and salvation, Riko is going to have to fight meaner, work smarter, and push harder than she’s ever had to. And that’s just to make it through the day.

This post is part of Blaugust 2016, an initiative to Blog throughout August. For more information visit the Tales of the Aggronaut Blog

Blaugust 2016 Day 20 Red Markets

I've just signed up to play in a new Play by Post game over at Gamer's Plane in the newly Kickstarted Red Markets, described as "a game of economic horror where the world has ended and the rent is still due."

Set in a Zombie apocolypse, the characters play Takers, essentially hired scavengers in the wasteland called The Loss to earn their way into the safe zone, known as The Recession.

My character, Jimmy "Home Run" Larsson is a former Major-League Baseball star, or was about to be. After being headhunted for the Boston Red Sox, and a multi million Dollar contract, the world turned to hell. Now he is obsessed with money, looking for that big payday, with his only possession in the world, his trusty bat.

The One Shot podcast recently featured the game and the creator, Caleb Stokes gives and overview of the system at about 9:15

I'm really looking forward to trying out a new system and I can never pass by a good Zombie Apoc and this one looks pretty profitable!

Blaugust 2016 Day 19 Return to Mass Effect 2 and a little pbp update

I've had an incredibly busy few days, with lots of work and no time to game. I got in a little No Man's Sky here and there but no major progress. Last night however I managed to carve out of a whole hour and decided it was time to tackle something from my list of RPGs from my Gaming Goals post.

Mass Effect 2 always comes to mind when I want to get a game finished so I dived in. I managed to get plenty in during that short time. I completed a mission I had been in the middle of retrieving a new member of my crew, Mordin Solus, the Doctor with a shady past in the Special Task Force, a great character with a very pleasing clipped way of speaking.

I also tracked the original Normandy and visited where it crashed, placing a monument to remember it by and finding a few dog tags from the lost crew.

It served as a good reminder how good the game is and I look forward to dipping back in.

Not much time for gaming tonight, I've been working on my Play By Post games. The Warhammer game is about to kick off with a new adventure and Call of Cthulhu: A Time for Harvest is heating up as the players approach the end of part one of the campaign and uncover something long hidden.