Good Gentile Boys and Girls

So for 7 Book Trilogy's Christmas show, we're playing The Night Santa Went Crazy by Weird Al Yankovic. That little riff at the beginning? Yeah, I can totally play that on guitar.

Why am I bragging about this? Cause it's harder than it looks. Seriously, that I was able to pick up this lick (the whole thing, not just the melodic notes) and play it comfortably after only 4 or 5 times through the song makes me think that, after all, I may know what I'm doing as far as this guitar-playing thing goes. So there. 

D&D With No Ability Scores

The 3-18 ability scores have been around since D&D's inception, but I believe their original purpose has become so distorted and, honestly, taken for granted, that I truly think an old-style game (not necessarily in rules, but in spirit) that uses the 3-18 system can never live up to its potential, simply because, as role-players in general and D&D players specifically, the 3-18 ability score range has become so ingrained in our minds that it is inseparable from all of the excess baggage that the game has accrued over the years.

So when I finally begin running my old-school game in a couple weeks, I'm ditching ability scores. Well, not entirely.

Characters still have six scores: Strength, Dexterity,Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.
Players roll d12+d8, in order, for each score, and then compare the results to a table to find the ability modifier:
2-3: Poor : -2
4-7: Below Average : -1
8-12: Average: +0
13-16: Above Average : +1
17-19: Exceptional : +2
20: Superhuman : +3

Players may swap any one pair of results. In situations where chance is involved, players add a given ability modifier to the die roll. Attack rolls and saving throws are functions of class, and thus not affected by these modifiers.

The table is weighted in favor of average and lower-modifier scores (+/-1). I'm getting rid of ability score prerequisites for character classes, but I still wanted that "feel" of the older editions, where high ability scores were still special. However, a character with low scores isn't hopeless, because the two most critical rolls in the game (attacks and saves) remain unaffected. A fighter with exceptional strength has the advantage in bending bars and opening gates. However, he is no better at attacking than a fighter with average strength of the same level. Although the fighter with superior strength will cause more damage (the mod is added to damage rolls), statistically he will hit an opponent no more often (magical equipment and other enhancements notwithstanding).

I'm looking forward to seeing how this system works.

Because I Think So

Right. I've been watching my DVD copies of the History Channel show Dogfights on DVD because my mother was awesome enough to order them for me.

I merely suggested that this new show was awesome the first time I saw it. Mom asked me what I was watching, and I told her, and I also mentioned how awesome it would be if History Channel ever released it.

Lo and behold, come next Christmas, I unwrapped an oddly rectangular package which contained: Dogfights: Season 1. So I was happy with this gift, watching the computer-recreated battles in the skies over germany and the pacific and north korea and vietnam.

So next Christmas, what do I unwrap?

Dogfights: Season 2.

I didn't ask for this, becuase I didn't even know it existed. But I got it as a christmas present, dutifuly labeled, "To Wolfie, From Santa" even though I was a quarter-century old when I got it.

The point is: I have an amazing mother, and there is no other way to describe it. I defy anyone on the web to say they have a better mother than me (not similar or equilataral, but dyed-in-the-wool BETTER). I shall slap- bet any such person, and will gladly pay for their air-fare, hotel accomidations, and hospital bills as I slap the everloving shit out of them.

Sheesh, it's been a month!

Right, this will not do. This will not do at all.  A month with no posts? How could I let my readers wait so long? But no more!

Over at grognardia the author just made a post about how to bring Blackmoor and Greyhawk back through a modern publication from WOtC. As much as I normally respect and agree with everything JM says about the old-school renaissance, in this case I disagree. The schools of old and new have fractured too much. The modern world has affected even RPGs, and if Wizards wants to stay competitive as a company, they'll have to adapt or die.

Wait, they already have. When 3rd edition first came out, my friends and I were enthralled at Wizard's business strategy. Sure, they made the game uncomfortably close to Magic: The Gathering (which even back then struck me as a sign that something was wrong with this new edition). But personal feelings aside, Wizards' approach to the business side of RPGs has been unquestionably successful. They realease new products and expansions and whatnot, and have a dedicated base of buyers that are absolutely convinced that in order to remain a viable participant in the hobby they must equip themselves with these new publications (an attitude partly created, and continually reinforced by the Company itself).

Unfortunately, the old school has nothing of the sort. Its products are cheap and from third-party publishers, who traditionally (at least in many fields) produce cheap knockoff crap. Whether or not that's actually the case with RPGs, these types of products have a public conception as being, well, crap. So there's one mark against them.

Instead of a single company with the force of a huge corporation behind them, modern old-school products are designed by individuals or small groups. And, unlike Gygax and Arneson, they're not inventing something new, they're trying to recreate something old, amid a consumer community already flooded with more fantasy games than you can shake a piercer at. So there's another mark against them.

There is no way an old-school product will ever be commercially viable. It will always be a niche in a hobby that itself is already a niche (just think of people that play WOW versus people that play D&D). The old-school movement will never die, because there will always be the occasional gamer that becomes fed up with the new and finds the old to be genius in its simplicity. But in the long run, the old-school will remain the old-school. IMHO, I think this is for the best.