Literature Review: "The Farthest Shore" (1972)

Two years ago, I discussed Ursula K. LeGuin's seminal "A Wizard of Earthsea," and last year, "The Tombs of Atuan."

This week, I wanted to take a look at the next book in the Earthsea Cycle, "The Farthest Shore."

In a somewhat surprising move, the second entry in the Earthsea Cycle has a new main character!  Rather than Ged from "A Wizard of Earthsea," we follow the action through the eyes of Tenar, a young Kargish girl who is the high priestess to the "Nameless Ones" at the titular Tombs of Atuan.

The Tombs are the center of religious activity for the Kargish Empire (one of the antagonists in "A Wizard of Earthsea") and feature several different faiths that seem to get along quite well.  Oldest and most sacred (but also neglected) is worship of the "Nameless Ones" and their high priestess is the "undying" Arha- undying in the sense that every time the incumbent high priestess dies, the other priestesses find a girl child born at the same time, while apparently becomes the new vessel for the "undying" Arha.

As so it was with Tenar, taken as a child and raised in this strange place by strange women for this strange purpose.  She loses her name (becoming the new Arha) and grows up a lonely servant of a mostly neglected religion.

Ged does show up, but only half way into the book.  He has recovered half of the broken ring of the archmage Erreth-Akbe is looking for the other half, hidden in the Tombs of Atuan.  Once rejoined,  the ring will reveal the powerful magic rune of Peace.  Arha/Tenar manages to trap him in the underground labyrinth but will he escape?  No spoilers but this *IS* the second book in a trilogy...

After "A Wizard of Earthsea," I found "The Tombs of Atuan" to be rather disappointing.

Like its predecessor, this is another coming of age story.  However, unlike Ged, Tenar is a victim of kidnapping and brainwashing and has no special powers.  Unsurprisingly, she has very little agency and spends the most of the book simply reacting to other characters.  In fact, when she asks to become an apprentice sorcerer, Ged shoots down this idea and she simply accepts his judgment!

So, why exactly would young girls want to be her?

The tone and feel of  "The Tombs of Atuan" are also vastly different.  For example, there's no exploration, and very little sense of the magical world of Earthsea.   In addition, the pacing is quite slow for most of the book.

Another area where the story is weak is that, rather than presenting a more balanced view of the Kargish, they are still portrayed unambigiously as the bad guys.  They worship the clearly evil "Nameless Ones",  They are okay with child slavery.  They even banned literacy!

Doing so, LeGuin turns them into orcs.

Of course, "The Tombs of Atuan" does have good points.  It's well written and imaginative and it does shed light on some of the events in the first book.

However, if you are expecting another fantasy adventure tale, you will be quite disappointed, as "The Tombs of Atuan" is more a psychological character study of a pretty weak character.  There are also some horror aspects, but frankly, this is not a frightening tale as I never felt that Tenar or Ged were in serious danger.

Let her be Eaten?  Whatever. 

TV Review: "The Last Kingdom" (2015-)

This week, I want to give a shout out to arguably the best historical adventure show presently on the air, "The Last Kingdom":

Based on Bernard Cornwell's "The Saxon Stories" series of historical novels, "The Last Kingdom" is a historical adventure television series that tells the tale of King Alfred the Great and the rise of England, as experienced by the protagonist Uhtred of Bebbanburg, a noble from Northumbria who became a Viking slave then son to his Viking owner then independent warrior.

Movie Review: "Masquerade" (2012)

This week, I wanted to give a shout out to another overlooked Historical Drama gem film, "Masquerade":

Set during the reign of King Gwanghae, the fifteenth monarch of Korea's Joseon dynasty, "Masquerade" is a creative interpretation of the missing 15 days in the 승정원 일기 (Journal of the Royal Secretariat), based on the cryptic entry:

"One must not record that which [the king] wishes to hide."

Director Choo Chang-min spins the above quote into a fanciful tale wherein the King is poisoned and, fearing further assassination attempts, temporarily replaces himself with a physically identical acrobat and comedian, Ha-sun, for the 15 days while he recovers.

Essentially a retelling of the classic tale "The Prince and the Pauper," "Masquerade" is a fish out of water story where Ha-sun needs to quickly learn how to be a royal or all kinds of things could go wrong.  Additionally, King Gwanghae and his body double are quite different, the former being a tyrannical asshat whereas the latter is empathetic and kind hearted, so it doesn't take too long for people to start to figure out something is amiss.  Nevertheless, Ha-sun is able to make a mark on the court and even the King with his earnestness and compassion.

A lively historical film, "Masquerade" nicely balances drama and comedy without becoming overly sentimental, and includes some pointed shots at Chinese soft imperialism.  The production design, sets and costumes are first rate and Lee Byung-hun excels in the dual role of both King Gwanghae and Ha-sun, where he gets to show off his acting range beyond his typical gangster-type roles (e.g., "The Good, the Bad and the Weird").

So, if you are an East Asian history buff, lover of K-dramas or just want to watch a good costume drama, check out this film!

RPG Design: Hit Points

This week, I wanted to touch on an issue that comes up in almost every RPG: a PC's health.

Hit Points are by far the most popular method of indicating PC health. Examples of RPGs with Hit Points include D&D, Call of Cthulhu, and most other RPGs.

By "Hit Points," I mean a numerical measure of the amount of damage a PC can sustain before death or incapacity.  

Hit Points have been in RPGs since the beginning of the hobby, being an innovation of Dave Arneson in his Blackmoor campaign.  Some people might argue that Hit Points started with Chainmail, but Chainmail's system of "Hits" was different and didn't really track to the man-to-man scale.

What Hit Points are supposed to represent is a topic of debate to the present.  Gary Gygax notes in AD&D's PHB:

"Each character has a varying number of hit points, just as monsters do. These hit points represent how much damage (actual or potential) the character can withstand before being killed. A certain amount of these hit points represent the actual physical punishment which can be sustained. The remainder, a significant portion of hit points at higher levels, stands for skill, luck, and/or magical factors. A typical man-at-arms can take about 5 hit points of damage before being killed. Let us suppose that a 10th level fighter has 55 hit points, plus a bonus of 30 hit points for his constitution, for a total of 85 hit points. This is the equivalent of about 18 hit dice for creatures, about what it would take to kill four huge warhorses. It is ridiculous to assume that even a fantastic fighter can take that much punishment.The some holds true to a lesser extent for clerics, thieves, and the other classes. Thus, the majority of hit paints are symbolic of combat skill, luck (bestowed by supernatural powers), and magical forces."

However, Gygax ignores an issue that he indirectly brings up, namely that that 10th level fighter with 85 hit points, will only recover, as per the DMG, 1 hp per day of rest (for the first week and then perhaps a bit more later), which doesn't make sense if "the majority of [the 85 hit points] are symbolic of combat skill, luck (bestowed by supernatural powers), and magical forces".

Nevertheless, for D&D's abstract combat system, Hit Points are a quick and intuitive way to tracking a PC's health.  In that kind of system, Hit Points also add tension and drama to combat, escalating with every hit.  At least up to a point, as a PC with too many Hit Points raise game balance issues.

For example, that 10th level fighter with 85 hit points is a literal tank who can singlehandedly wipe out a small army.

Hit Points don't work as well for less tactical games, such as New School RPGs with story game elements.  For example, Ten Candles has no Hit Points since a PC's health is determined narratively.  This is also why Dungeon World, a New School game that apes Old School conventions, severely reduces the chance that a PC fails a roll.

Hit Points also obviously don't work for non-combat games, such as Golden Sky Stories.

Culture: Ancient Olympic Games (776 BC)

When we think about the culture of Antiquity, there's one event that stands out so much that we brought it back in modern times, the Ancient Olympic Games:

Like they are today, the Ancient Olympic Games were the ultimate international athletic competition, as well as a religious celebration of and for the greek god Zeus.  For example, a grand sacrifice of 100 oxen was made to Zeus during the Games.

The first Olympics is traditionally dated to 776 BC and the games were thereafter held every four years.  This measure of time, an olympiad, which became the main unit of time in Greeks historical chronologies.  And, in fact, so important were the Olympics to the Greeks that an Olympic Truce was enacted so that athletes could travel from their cities to the games in safety!

Beginning with just the stade (στάδιον), a foot race, the Ancient Olympic Games became a series of athletic competitions among representatives of Greek city-states.  As noted above, prior to the start of the Olympics, priests of Zeus travelled the land to announce the Games and tell any warring factions to wrap things up.

As long as they met the entrance criteria, athletes from any Greek city-state and kingdom were allowed to participate, with some notable exceptions.  For example, in AD 67, the Roman emperor Nero participated in the Olympics. He bribed organizers to postpone the games for a year so he could participate, and artistic competitions were added to the athletic events.  Unsurprisingly, Nero won every contest in which he was a competitor.  After he died a year later, unsurprisingly, his name was removed from the list of winners.

The Ancient Olympic Games gradually increased to twenty-three contests, although no more than twenty featured at any one Olympiad.  Participation in most events was limited to male athletes except for women who were allowed to take part by entering horses in the equestrian events. 

Unlike today, in the ancient Olympic Games there were no gold, silver, or bronze medals and there was only one winner per event.  This winner was crowned with an olive wreath made of wild-olive leaves from a sacred tree near the temple of Zeus at Olympia. 

The victorious athletes were honoured, feted, and praised. Their deeds were heralded and chronicled so that future generations could appreciate their accomplishments.

Also unlike today, killing your opponent was not forbidden: a victory was only negated if the death was the consequence of breaking the rules (e.g., Kleomedes of Astypalia).

A victorious athlete brought great honour to his home city. The sixth-century BC Athenian statesman Solon promoted athletics by rewarding Athenian victors at the Games financially - an Olympic victor would receive 500 drachmae (for comparison, a sheep was worth one drachma).

As their importance increased, the Ancient Olympic Games became a political tool used by city-states to assert dominance over their rivals.  In this, the modern Games have followed suit (e.g., the US boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the USSR boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics).

The Ancient Olympic Games continued to be celebrated when Greece came under Roman rule, until the emperor Theodosius I suppressed them in AD 393 as part of the campaign to impose Christianity as the State religion of Rome... until the modern Olympic Games kicked off in AD 1896 in Athens, Greece!

Citius, Altius, Fortius!

RPG Game Play: Rules Lawyers

Last year, I discussed perhaps the important meta-rule in RPGs: Rule Zero.

This week, I wanted to talk about an issue that was driving factor in the creation of Rule Zero: Rules Lawyers.

"Rules Lawyer" is typically a pejorative term used to describe someone who attempts to use the letter of the rules of the game without reference to the spirit, usually in order to gain an advantage for themselves.  As this can be a literal form of "Gaming the system," with the attendant negative consequences, Rule Zero arose.  As I mentioned last year:

"For games where meta decision making is distributed along traditional lines, Rule Zero serves as a manual override to the rules set: in other words, it exists in case someone needs to override the rules when they result a nonsensical result.  Furthermore, it serves the underlying philosophy that the rules should take a back seat if they interfere with having fun."

As  "judge" and "referee," Rule Zero allows GMs to keep a game from slowing down too much or going off the rails for various reasons, Rules Lawyering included.

However, as you might expect, Rules Lawyering can be a problem for some New School games that reject traditional GM authority in favor of greater Player Narrative Fiat, such as GM-less games.

A softer and more proactive way to address Rules Lawyering is with the group's Social Contract.


In addition, in some cases Rules Lawyering and System Mastery (high knowledge of the rules) are just two sides of the same coin, even though the latter is generally viewed positively and encouraged.

Furthermore, a clever GM can sometimes recruit Rules Lawyers to assist in running games, such as serving as a rules reference, managing less focused or experienced players, etc.

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