Category: Interwebs Treasures

I’ve been busy working on my GURPS campaign, but found some time to surf the web for some stories…

• Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition gets it mostly right. The author is slightly critical of the new edition’s emphasis on the official campaign setting provided by Wizards of the Coast. While I understand his sentiment (I am after all spending a lot of time coming up with my own GURPS setting), it makes sense to give players something well-developed that they can dig into right away if they wish.
• Christopher, over at Ravens N’ Pennies, came up with these GURPS rules for Variant Judo Throw. Then he wrote a PART 2. Pretty cool.
• I spent some time reading the 2013 Report to Stakeholders, from Steve Jackson Games. Kind of cool to find out what is happening with that company. It’s a great way of letting their customers in on things and make them feel more involved. Besides that fact that I like GURPS a lot, I must admit that one other thing that attracts me to the system is that it is owned by a true small company – a grassroots real-deal company. It’s clear from the report that they don’t make tons of money from GURPS, yet as true gamers they continue to support it. Cheers, Steve Jackson!
• Still on Steve Jackson Games — check it — Gaming Ballistic’s Firing Squad welcomes Steve Jackson – video interview! In the 2nd half, Steve addresses both GURPS and table top RPGs in general. I love what Steve says about the value of NOT being a publicly traded company – allows him to do what he wants.
• And finally, also from Gaming Ballistic, GURPS 101. Good stuff.

• World Builder Blog – just a man and his homebrew world. Lots of cool stuff here, including links to a podcast this dude runs.
• Nerd Sourced – more stuff about gaming and related habits
• Ravens ‘n’ Pennies — another great blog full of RPG advice. Lot of GURPS
• Wikipedia’s entry on GURPS is really pretty good. Good explanation of the concepts. They also have a nice list of GURPS books.

Just a couple of items this week.

• Naked Went the Gamer
• theMook.net — website of GURPS master and RPG enthusiast. Author of How To Be a GURPS GM, which is worth buying — a downloadable PDF. His campaign info is great and fun to read. I am kind of digging the notion of running a GURPS campaign!

While this is stretching it for InterwebsTreasures, I just read this book, which I found on the Interwebs…

More D&D stuff today, as that is what I’m concentrating no these days.

Just  couple of things today…

• Tabletop Review: Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition Player’s Handbook (D&D 5e/D&D Next)
• Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition for Newcomers and Veterans – the first sentence makes this worth the read.

• Become a Better Storyteller Through Dungeons & Dragons – from Life Hacker
• HOW DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS COULD MASTER ITS NEXT RETAILING ADVENTURE (BONG RIP NOT INCLUDED) – from Fast Company
• A visit to the basement where Dungeons & Dragons was born – from Boing Boing
• New Dungeons & Dragons Rules Embrace Diverse Gender Identities, Sexual Orientation – from the Huffington Post
• A Little History With Your D&D? – from Geek Dad
• Role-playing games: all human life is there … or so it sometimes seems – from the Guardian
• An exclusive look at the new D&D Player’s Handbook—and The Warlock -from Boing Boing

Some reviews of D&D Next (also known as 5th Edition).

• From Daily Encounter – My Thoughts on D&D Next
• From Diehard GameFan – review of D&D Next
• From Dungeon’s Master – Review of D&D Starter Set (5e)

I am having a hard time recognizing this as “real” D&D. I am old.

Other stuff I found this time:

• Vin Diesel is a D&D player. I’m sure this is old news for most players.
• #NotAllRolePlayers: A History of Rapey Dungeon Masters: I don’t like the term “rapey” because I don’t think rape is particularly funny, but this is a good article about the treatment some female gamers receive. This seems to be a pretty common thing, actually. One would hope it is not as prevalent today, as “nerd culture” has gone mainstream.
• The above story has a link to an interesting blog, Go Make Me a Sandwich: a (mostly) humorous look at how not to sell games to women. Written by Anna Kreider. Looks pretty interesting.
• The article also links to this book, which I’m going to read.

I have a few observations on sexism and gaming. A few thoughts. I don’t pretend to be a scholar in this area, so cut me some slack if I’m way off base, but do comment if you wish.

1. I have only DMed one campaign in which we had female players. This was when I was in my mid 20s, and I ran a game for my wife, a female friend of ours, and straight male friend, and a gay male friend. I’m assuming this may not be a common mix of players, but times have changed and I could be wrong. All of these people were highly educated – working on or having Masters degrees or PhD in some heavy subjects. It’s been said that women are not attracted to gaming because of the complexity of the rules. I don’t know about this, because I’m not a woman. I can say that these two women had never played an RPG before, and they LOVED it. The truth is that once a player has created a character, and has some understanding of what the character can do, the player doesn’t need to know a lot of rules. The Game Master needs to know the rules. The players just need to tell the DM what they want to do.  So if women really are generally averse to games with tons of rules, it really shouldn’t matter for RPGs. Over time everyone picks up the rules.
2. People get very attached to their characters. Young people in particular, but I think everyone can get very psychologically caught up in the game. Thus, it is entirely possible for an act of violence or intimidation happening to a character in the game to be very much real to the real-world player on the receiving end. When my 15th level thief got killed in the Tomb of Horrors when I was 15, I was BUMMED! And I wasn’t even being harassed by a horny DM.
3. I’ve read some stuff lately about women at conventions being harassed, in particular when they are involved in Cosplay. Dear men: because a woman decides to dress as a sexy Thor, and regardless of how well she succeeds, she is not giving you permission to act like an ass. There is no contradiction in a human being wanting to have fun and be sexy whilst simultaneously not wishing to be verbally or physically harassed, groped, etc.
4. To sum up: if you are gaming with someone, it is incumbent on YOU to help that person feel welcome, respected, and appreciated at the table. Err on the side of caution.

 

• The Ambush at Sheridan Springs: How Gary Gygax Lost Control of Dungeons & Dragons
• There is said to be a demi-lich who still wards his final haunt – Wil Wheaton on the Tomb of Horrors, where my 15th level thief got killed.
• Speaking of the Tomb of Horrors, the Wikipedia entry for the Tomb notes that it is extremely difficult (duh!) and full of traps that can instantly kill a character. Best part of the entry…”One technique some players used to get past the deathtraps was to drive cattle ahead of them, which Lore Sjöberg of Wired described as ‘a bit less than heroic'”. bwahahahahaha. 

Regarding the first story about the ouster of Gary Gygax from TSR: I’m sure Gary was no cakewalk to work with, but man, reading this stuff sorta makes me want to not play anything past 1st edition.