Movie Review: Ben-Hur (1959)

Happy Holidays!

This week, I wanted to give a shout out to arguably the most epic (in several senses of the word) movie of all time, "Ben-Hur":

A remake of the 1925 silent film of the same name, which in turn was adapted from General Lew Wallace's 1880 novel, Ben-Hur is an inspirational tale of betrayal, torment, vengeance and redemption.  A sweeping historical drama that also manages to be intensely personal (director William Wyler dubbed the movie "Hollywood's first intimate spectacle"), the film successfully combines period drama, action, politics, and romance.

Set in the time of Jesus Christ, Ben-Hur has a clever double narrative that begins with the birth of Jesus and follows the future messiah into young manhood before shifting to Judah Ben-Hur, a Prince of Judea.  The titular character is reunited with his childhood friend, Messala, who returns as the new commander of the Roman garrison in Jerusalem and who is second in authority only to the provincial governor.

Messala is eager to use his friendship with Judah to cement Roman authority, only to be rebuffed.  Later, the tables are turned after Judah's sister accidentally injures the governor and the spurned Messala sentences Judah to slavery on a galley and his sister and mother to the dungeon.  En route to the gallery, Judah nearly dies of thirst after being denied water by a cruel guard when a young carpenter gives the new slave a drink and stares down the guard.

After a twist of fate leads to Judah's freedom, he returns home and, believing his sister and mother are dead, challenges Messala to a brutal chariot race, where anything goes, including allowing the Roman to ride a scythed chariot!   The tribune's attempt to carve up Judah goes poorly and he ends up trampled to death by another racer.  However, before passing, Messala smugly tells Judah that "the race is not over" and informs him that his sister and mother are not dead, but rather lepers.

Judah brings his sister and mother to Jerusalem to see a young rabbi preaching peace, only to find that 1) the rabbi has been sentenced to crucifixion and 2) he is the man who gave Judah water years before.  Judah witnesses the crucifixion, learning to let go of his hate, while his sister and mother miraculously healed.

This is a monumental (in several senses of the word) film!  Not just worthy successor to the 1925 film, Ben-Hur was an enormous financial and critical success, the highest-grossing movie of the year that won a record 11 Academy Awards (Titanic (1997), tied the record nearly 40 years later)!

Intelligent, engaging, exciting, and dramatic, Ben-Hur has stood the test of time as a landmark film.  In the classic style, there's both an overture and an intermission, breaking up the running time of 212 minutes.  However, the movie never drags yet still allows scenes time to breathe.

Miklós Rózsa composed the longest ever film score, which remains influential.  However, there's no music in the dramatic parts (e.g., leprosy), relying on the strength of the acting and allowing the audience to reach their own conclusions, whereas a lesser film would use musical cues to tell the audience what to feel.

Ben-Hur also successfully treads a fine line.  The movie deals with intensely Christian subject matter, but director William Wyler succeeds in making a film that appeal to anyone.  Additionally, Wyler used Jesus sparingly and didn't show the face or voice of the messiah, only other people's reactions.  This allows the viewer's imagination to fill in the rest.

Ramming speed!

With MGM facing bankruptcy, the studio bet the house on this film!  This was most expensive movie in history at the time, with a final production budget of over $15 million (more than double what was planned).  It featured more crew and extras than any other film before it - over 10,000 extras alone for the stunning chariot race sequence.

MGM built over 300 sets (some of which took more than a year to complete), including the 2000 foot long Circus (i.e., racing stadium) and filled it with thousands of costumed extras, giving the film a verisimilitude that CGI simply cannot match.

Additionally, Ben-Hur was shot in 65mm, cutting edge technology for the time.  These wide shots, combined with the restrained use of close ups, added to the epic feel while also revealing a huge amount of detail, adding to the sense of realism.  The film also featured graphic violence for the time (e.g, dismemberment, trampled to death by horses, etc.)

It was a grueling shoot.  By the end of the production more than 1,000,000 pounds of plaster and 40,000 cubic feet of lumber were used.  With the fate of the studio on the line, producer Sam Zimbalist died of a heart attack from the constant and mounting pressure.

So, if you want to see thoughtful and eloquent storytelling that is both moving and uplifting, check out this all-time great flick!

RPG Design: Tactical Depth v. Complexity

Earlier, I discussed the importance of Tactical Depth to RPG Design.  This week, I wanted to talk about the trade off between a game's Tactical Depth and it's Complexity.

As I mentioned before, by "Tactical Depth," I mean the relative number and types of meaningfully different options available to PCs that can change the state of the game, both and out of combat.  However, the currency which with an RPG Designer buys Tactical Depth is Complexity (i.e., as a game becomes Deeper, it concurrently also become more Complex).  This is because as a game's Complexity increases, there are more rules to consider before reaching a resolution and, as a consequence, the game's pace slows down.

IMHO, ideally any RPG should have sufficient Tactical Depth to keep players interested.  However, this Tactical Depth, IMHO, should be bought with the least possible Complexity to keep the game's pace moving.

A great example of Complexity-efficient Tactical Depth is utilizing a universal Core Mechanic, such as the d20 System, the first iteration of which appeared in 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons.

To resolve an action in the d20 System, a player rolls a 20-sided die and adds modifiers based on the  ability modifier, if any, and the skill modifier, if any, as well as other, situational modifiers.  In Dungeons & Dragons, the d20 System replaced a host of different and usually unrelated subsystems in older editions, making the game easier to learn and quicker to play.

However, speed is not the be all and end all in RPG Design.  For example, in Original Dungeons & Dragons, there's no mechanical difference between weapons since all weapons do 1d6 damage.  This is certainly less Complex than variable weapon damage introduced in Supplement I: Greyhawk, but most people would consider non-variable weapon damage to be less fun.

Also, as mentioned above a game's Complexity increases every time a new rule is added, and rules are added for more than just Tactical Depth.  So, Complexity issues must be considered in other contexts as well.

For example, beginning with 1e AD&D, material spell components are required in order to successfully cast spells, such as:

Spider Climb (Alteration)

Level: 1     Components: V, S, M    Range: Touch     Casting Time: 1 segment    Duration: 1 round + 1 round/level     Saving Throw: None    Area of Effect: Creature touched

Explanation/Description: A Spider Climb spell enables the recipient to climb and travel upon vertical surfaces just as a giant spider is able to do, i.e. at 3" movement rate, or even hang upside down from ceilings. Note that the affected creature must have bare hands and feet in order to climb in this manner. During the course of the spell the recipient cannot handle objects which weigh less than 50 g.p., for such objects will stick to the creature's hands/feet, so a magic-user will find it virtually impossible to cast spells if under a Spider Climb dweomer. The material components of this spell are a drop of bitumen and a live spider, both of which must be eaten by the spell recipient.

As a result, material spell components adds a resource management element for casters and is also a way to address Linear Fighters, Quadratic Wizards, since, as a caster levels up, it is increasingly unlikely that they will happen to have all the material spell components that they would like for a particular today.

However, many (if not most) groups consider material spell components to be a poor purchase of Complexity since they consider the rule unnecessarily restrictive and too much of a drag on the game's pace.  Thus, material spell components are often hand waved or ignored outright.

Movie Review: "Ronal the Barbarian" (2011)

This week, I wanted to give a shout out to an interesting recent animated comedic Swords & Sorcery flick, "Ronal the Barbarian":

In "Ronal the Barbarian," our titular character is from the Barbarian tribe (yes, in this film, "Barbarian" is an ethnic identifier rather than a class), except, unlike all the other Barbarians, Ronal is weak, cowardly... and clever.  However, being an outlier proves to be a benefit when the evil Lord Volcazar, comes to kidnap the Barbarian tribe for a sorcerous ritual and mistakes Ronal for an average person rather than a Barbarian.

After Volcazar's men murder his uncle and raze his village, it's up to Ronal to save the surviving Barbarians with his new sidekick, the... amorous... Alibert the Bard.  Next, there's a putting the band together segment as Ronal "recruits" the rest of his adventuring party, Zandra the Shieldmaiden (which again is an ethnic identifier) and Elric the Elf.

Then, the party has to find the Sword of Kron (the only weapon able to defeat Volcazar) before time runs out.  Things end up pretty much as you might expect on this "definitely not a quest," although some tropes are inverted for comic purposes.

First off, I want to say that, while "Ronal the Barbarian" is animated in the style of a children's film (e.g., style, character design, etc.), this is an adult film.  Not pornographic, but definitely not for children, with copious amounts of foul language, T&A and sexual innuendo.  For example:

Elric: "My senses say that Ronal is in great dan-" 

Alibert: "We're fucked."

If they make a TV broadcast version, there will certainly be a lot of edits and/or bleeping!

This film is clearly influenced by Conan the Barbarian (1982) and is a parody or an homage of many other fantasy works and tropes.  It is also purportedly influenced by Heavy Metal, but evidence is scant (other than the movie being set in the world of Metalonia) and it lacks the awesome rock soundtrack of Korgoth of Barbarian.

Overall, "Ronal the Barbarian" is a solid but not spectacular movie.  Assuming one is the appropriate audience, this is a fun film, with plenty of slapstick, juvenile and sexually-based humor.  The animation is okay but not great, and the story is reasonably entertaining (there's an interesting face-heel turn that's unfortunately telegraphed from a mile away).

So, if you want to see an earnestly made animated Swords & Sorcery yarn that's heavy on comedy and fan service, check out this film!  

RPG Design: Spell Points

Last year, I discussed a hallmark of Dungeons & Dragons, Vancian Magic.  This week, I wanted to take a look at perhaps the most popular method of handling magic in role-playing games, Spell Points.

By "Spell Points," I mean a game mechanic whereby a Player Character's ability to use magic (or similar abilities) is denoted as magic points (or mana points, etc.) and where each use of magic has a certain magic point cost.  Different spells have different magic point costs and if a Player Character runs out of magic points, they must wait until the game's recovery mechanic kicks in before being able to use magic once more.

Spell Points have been around since almost the beginning of tabletop role-playing games.  For example, Warlock, a home-brewed variant of Original Dungeons & Dragons (1974) that used Spell Points, was published in the Spartan Gaming Journal in August 1975.  No less a person than J. Eric Holmes, author of the Holmes Basic D&D Set (1977), was a fan of Warlock.  Indeed, Messr Holmes tried to convince Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, to include a spell point system in Holmes Basic.

However, Messr Gygax was famously not a fan of spell points.  For example, in The Dragon #16, he pontificated:

"Spell point systems are also currently in vogue amongst the fringe group which haunt the pages of “Amateur Press Association” publications. Now APAs are generally beneath contempt, for they typify the lowest form of vanity press. There one finds pages and pages of banal chatter and inept writing from persons incapable of creating anything which is publishable elsewhere. Therefore, they pay money to tout their sophomoric ideas, criticise those who are able to write and design, and generally make themselves obnoxious.* While there are notable exceptions, they are far too few to give any merit to the vehicles they appear in. From this morass rose the notion that a spell point system should be inserted into D&D. Strangely enough, “realism” was used as one of the principal reasons for use of spell points. These mutterings are not as widespread as the few proponents of such a system imagine. The D&D magic system is drawn directly from CHAINMAIL. It, in turn, was inspired by the superb writing of Jack Vance. This “Vancian” magic system works splendidly in the game. If it has any fault, it is towards making characters who are magic-users too powerful. This sort of fault is better corrected within the existing framework of the game — by requiring more time to cast spells, by making magic-users progress more slowly in experience levels. Spell points add nothing to D&D except more complication, more record keeping, more wasted time, and a precept which is totally foreign to the rest of the game."

The above is, of course, just one of many examples of Messr Gygax passing off his opinion as fact and a part of his epic flame wars with various West Coast gamers in the 1970s.

Other minds were more open, even in the early days of the hobby.  For example, Adventures in Fantasy (1978), the second fantasy RPG produced by Dave Arneson, the other co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, used a Spell Point system.  Of course, Adventures in Fantasy was a commercial failure, due in large part to the complete lack of marketing support.


Like Vancian Magic, a well-designed Spell Point system is simple, easy to understand and turns spells into a limited resource, adding Tactical Depth to a game.  In addition, if the number of Spell Points is correctly balanced, a Spell Point system can help address Linear Fighters, Quadratic Wizards.

Hands down, the biggest attraction of a Spell Point system is that they give magicians great flexibility.  However, that flexibility in a poorly-designed Spell Point system can exacerbate Linear Fighters, Quadratic Wizards, so due care must be taken to balance a game properly.

Literature Review: "The Seven Geases" (1934)

This week, I wanted to give a shout out to a really interesting vintage Swords & Sorcery tale, "The Seven Geases":

Written by Clark Ashton Smith (one of the Big Three of the Golden Age of Weird Fiction, alongside RE Howard and HP Lovecraft), "The Seven Geases" is part of the Hyperborean cycle, a fictional prehistoric setting influenced by Smith's friends Lovecraft and Howard that mixes Cosmic Horror with Iron Age technology, and part of the Cthulhu Mythos.

The story follows Ralibar Vooz, a Commoriom noble out to hunt some Voormis, a race of yeti-like bipeds.  Unfortunately for the warrior, he interrupts a sorcerer in the middle of a casting a spell:

"Know that I am the sorcerer Ezdagor," proclaimed the ancient, his voice echoing among the rocks with dreadful sonority. "By choice I have lived remote from cities and men; nor have the Voormis of the mountain troubled me in my magical seclusion. I care not if you are the magistrate of all swinedom or a cousin to the king of dogs. In retribution for the charm you have shattered, the business you have undone by this oafish trespass, I shall put upon you a most dire and calamitous and bitter geas."

As a punishment for his insolence, Ralibar Vooz is magically forced to venture into the depths to seek out the toad-like god Tsathoggua and to offer himself as a sacrifice.  (Un)fortunately, Tsathoggua has no need for the noble as a sacrifice and places a second geas upon him to seek out the spider-god Atlach-Nacha and to offer himself as a sacrifice.  So, once again, Ralibar Vooz battle his way through the darkness and horror, only to have a THIRD geas placed upon him!

This happens four more times.

First published in the October 1934 issue of Weird Tales, this is a fun, witty and well-written read.  I would say that "The Seven Geases" is *TECHNICALLY* a Swords & Sorcery story (in the sense that there are swords and sorcery present) but there's relatively little action.  Instead, the focus is more on Horror and Weird Fiction, as Ralibar Vooz has to put up with a *LOT* of crap.  Moreover, there's a dark sense of humor to this yarn, especially with the highly unexpected ending!

Also, if you like High Gygaxian (e.g., the 1e AD&D DMG), this yarn is filled with obscure SAT words!  Just the first paragraph features scaurs, scoriac, blazonries, and catoblepas!

Speaking of D&D, actually, it's a bit surprising that Messr Smith is absent from Appendix N of the 1e DMG, especially given that Smith's friends Lovecraft and Howard are listed and that "The Seven Geases" is likely the inspiration for the 6th level Geas spell:

Geas (Enchantment/Charm)

Level: 6      Components: V     Range: Touch      Casting Time: 4 segments     Duration: Special      Saving Throw: None     Area of Effect: Creature touched

Explanation/Description: A Geas spell places a magical command upon the creature (usually human or humanoid) to carry out some service, or refrain from same action or course of activity, as desired by the spell caster. The creature must be intelligent, conscious, and under its own volition. While a Geas cannot compel a creature to kill itself, or to perform acts which are likely to result in certain death, it can cause almost any other course of action. The spell causes the geased creature to follow the instructions until the Geas is completed. Failure to do so will cause the creature to grow sick and die within 1 to 4 weeks. Deviation from or twisting of the instructions causes corresponding loss of strength points until the deviation ceases. A Geas can be done away with by a Wish spell, but a Dispel Magic or Remove Curse will not negate it. Your referee will instruct you as to any additional details of a geas, for its casting and fulfilment are tricky. and an improperly cast Geas is null and void immediately (cf. Wish).

That's pretty much how it goes in this story.  There are also other classic D&Disms (e.g., underground action, the astral plane, etc.)

So, if you want to read a terrifying tale from one of the greats of Weird Fiction, check out this  ripping yarn!

Character Creation: Stat Inflation

Last year, while discussing the merits of Point Buy or Random Roll for character creation, I mentioned the issue of "stat inflation," the incentive for players to play characters with higher statistics.  This week, I wanted to take a closer look at stat inflation, which comes up in games that use Random Roll for character creation.

As I mentioned before, Random Roll in character creation can produce disparate results.  These disparate results, when combined with a distribution of bonuses that is skewed toward high stats, can in turn produce starting characters of vastly different power ability.

For an extreme example, let's take a look at the Exceptional Strength mechanic for AD&D:

A first level fighter with Strength 18/00 will be in every way mechanically superior to a first level fighter with Strength 9 (the minimum required by the class) and will be the mechanical equivalent of a fighter with significant magical equipment (e.g., Gauntlets of Ogre Power)!  So where's the incentive to play a starting fighter with Strength 9?

The Exceptional Strength mechanic, of course, was introduced in Supplement I: Greyhawk (1975) as an early attempt to address Linear Fighters, Quadratic Wizards.  However, rather than buff the class directly (ala the Druid's ability to Change Shape) and boost all fighters, either only a tiny minority of fighters benefit or chargen rolls become suspicious.

This is a striking change from Original Dungeons & Dragons (i.e., not including the Supplements),  where ability scores are mostly for roleplaying purposes and generally have little to no mechanical effect (e.g., a Fighter with Strength 9 fights as well as a Fighter with Strength 18).

Furthermore, stat inflation is also "incentivized" for all classes (e.g., Cleric's bonus spells, Thief's bonus to Thief abilities, etc.) in AD&D.

I discussed this issue with my old AD&D DM and his recommendation for a PC with low stats is to play a Magic-User, since M-Us don't get bonus spells at first level.  However, by the book, a Magic-User with Intelligence 18 will still be significantly superior in the long-run compared to a Magic-User with Intelligence 9 because of the Minimum Intelligence to Use Spell, Chance to Know Spell and Maximum Spells per Level mechanics:

People say that it's Old School to play with low or average stat characters and there's some truth to that POV. Additionally, it is true that some people aren't bothered by playing a significantly weaker character than other members of the party.  For others, however, it is hard not to be understandably jealous.

One can, of course, make house rules to curb or address Stat Inflation.  This is the path I've taken for the rule set I'm designing: I want to keep an Old School feel of Random Roll for ability scores but I also use a Point Buy system where the number of creation points increase as starting ability scores decrease.

Movie Review: Hercules, Samson and Ulysses (1963)

This week, I wanted to give a shout out to a ripping Sword & Sandal yarn that puts together two great tastes that taste great together and that kicks more butt than you can shake a Bible at, "Hercules, Samson and Ulysses":

Exotic lands!  Dangerous women!  Evil tyrants!  Legendary heroes!  Mighty thews!  This movie has it all!

The action begins in Ithaca, where a fearsome sea monster (*cough*sea lion*cough*) is ravaging the coast.  Brave Hercules, crafty Ulysses and a few redshirts ship out to stop the beast but end up shipwrecked in Judea!  Meanwhile, Samson is hiding out from the Philistines for killing a number of their men and generally resisting their rule.

Then, there's a bit of mistaken identity when Hercules slays a lion with his barehands, since only one guy is supposed to be able to do that...

Meanwhile, the Philistine King engages in a bit of ethnic cleaning and kidnaps Hercules' friends, with the help of sexy troublemaker Delilah.  To free them, Hercules has to bring in the rebel Samson, setting up the epic no holds barred smackdown of the ages!

Made toward the end of the golden age of peplum films, "Hercules, Samson and Ulysses" is as good (or bad) as you might expect.  This is fun film about manly men and superheroes teaming up to fight evil.  It is a (mostly) lighthearted romp that is gloriously and unabashedly cheesy (e.g, there's an obvious English language dub, the "rocks" are clearly Styrofoam, etc.) but in a way that simply adds to the charm.

The story is straightforward but not aggressively stupid.

The fight scenes are good in a chop socky way and the acting is played straight is mostly effective, with some fun flirting between Hercules and Delilah.  Also, it is super nice to see real sets and animals rather than CGI!  And the ladies are easy on the eyes.

So, if you want to see big, beefy, sweaty dudes wrestling in a totally not homoerotic way, check out this classic flick!

On Vacation!

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Please return later!

Movie Review: Aragami (荒神) (2003)

With All Hallows' Eve soon upon us, this week, I wanted to give a shout out to a rare gem, a spooky samurai film, Aragami:

Directed by Kitamura Ryuhei, "Aragami" is a low fantasy, horror action film featuring badass samurai and philosophical musings.  The movie begins with a pair of seriously wounded samurai who seek shelter from a storm and their enemies in a remote and forbidding temple in the mountains.

Next, one of the previously wounded samurai wakes up to find himself mysteriously healed and that his friend is suspiciously missing.  He then finds that the sole inhabitants of the temple are a sinister warrior and a strangely silent woman.

"Aragami" is not a conventional horror film (there are no jump scares), but it does brilliantly succeed in being mysterious and creepy.  From the beginning, there's a growing unease as it becomes increasingly clear that something is not right about this lonely temple.

As events unfold and the truth is revealed, things are not what they seem, as the samurai is in for a really bad night.

This movie is part of the Duel Project, a challenge issued by producer Shinya Kawai to Kitamura and fellow director Yukihiko Tsutsumi.  The goal was to film a feature-length movie with only two actors, battling in one setting, and to be completed in only one week.

However, despite (or perhaps because of) these limitations, Kitamura manages to put together a film that is both slick and stylish, as well as clever and thoughtful. There's a close feeling, sometimes  intimate, sometimes claustrophobic, sometimes terrifying.

Unsurprisingly, "Aragami" seems a lot like a play, having only a single location and only a handful of characters.  It's quite atmospheric, with thoughtful ruminations on the nature of war and conflict and the boredom of immortality.

There are also lots of nice touches, such as the weird purple glow in the background for most of the movie and the subtle black humor.

The acting and score are excellent.  The fight choreography is also good, if fantastical.

So, if you are a fan of low fantasy, samurai films and/or interesting and clever stories, you owe it to yourself to watch this film!  However, don't just take my word for it.  Here's a link to the film from the director himself!

RPG Design: Player-Facing Mechanics

This week, I wanted to discuss a New School fad that has popped up in a number of tabletop RPGs: Player-Facing Mechanics.

No dice for you!

By "Player-Facing Mechanics," I mean that the mechanical parts of the rules set (e.g., rolling dice) are handled by the players, often to the exclusion of the Game Master.  For example, in RPGs such as Numenera (2013), the players are the only ones to roll dice.

Fate Points, and other types of Player Narrative Fiat, are another type of Player-Facing Mechanic.

Myself, I see mostly Player-Facing Mechanics as a marketing gimmick.  Some people claim that they speed up the game, but unless the number of actual dice rolls are reduced, I am skeptical of such claims.  For example, there's no mechanical streamlining by replacing an enemy's attack roll with a player's defense roll, simply re-fluffing.

Another argument made by fans of Player-Facing Mechanics is that they promote Player-Empowerment.

Here, I would agree that they do make the game more player centric.  This change fits some genres and play styles, but not others.  For example, Old School D&D is, to many, a gritty game with death around every corner and about trying to strike it rich.

Some games with Player-Facing Mechanics, such as Dungeon World (2012), go so far as to deliberately undermine Rule Zero, presumably since that rules set does not trust the GM to be fair.  However, if players don't trust the GM, why are they playing with him/her in the first place?

Player-Facing Mechanics also make it more difficult to for the GM to fudge rolls.  This can help prevent GM tyranny but, again, if players don't trust the GM, why are they playing with him/her in the first place?

For my own group, Player-Facing Mechanics would probably produce worse outcomes for my players since I do occasionally fudge rolls, but I only do so in the players' favor when Random Number Generation produces a result that I think is too harsh.

In any event, I don't have any problems with Player-Facing Mechanics, per se.  However, that's just not the type of game that I usually prefer to play.

Also, I like rolling dice when I GM.

Literature Review: "The Tombs of Atuan" (1971)

Last year, I discussed a work that is both one of greatest fantasy novels AND one of greatest young adult novels, Ursula K. LeGuin's "A Wizard of Earthsea."  This week, I wanted to take a look at the sequel, "The Tombs of Atuan."

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. 

RPG Game Play: Rule Zero

This week, I wanted to talk about an issue that's potentially confusing but hugely important to traditional tabletop role-playing games: Rule Zero of RPGs.

The Game Master is Always Right

By the above, I mean that Rule Zero states that the GM always has the final say, even over the rules as written.  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.

Rule Zero came about because in role-playing games, player creativity can produce almost unlimited options.  For example, in the board game "Clue" players only have a limited number of things that they can do in their turn.  However, if "Clue" was a role-playing game, Colonel Mustard would be able to set the kitchen on fire.  Also, some rule sets simply have gaps.  Consequently, sometimes someone needs to make a ruling about the "legality" of an action.

Rule Zero also serves as a check upon Rules Lawyers, Munchkins and/or if the players are just being rowdy in general.

Unsurprisingly, Rule Zero is the foundation of GM authority in tabletop role-playing games.  Giving the final decision making to the GM is what allows the GM to override even the rules as written.  It also gave rise to the proliferation of house rules and other aspects of the DIY nature of Old School games.

Of course, Rule Zero assumes that GMs will be reasonable.  However, if abused, Rule Zero  can lead to railroading, turning the players into an unwilling audience for the GMs fan fiction, or even the GM becoming a petty tyrant!

By contrast, some New School games, operate differently since more or all (for those games without GMs) decision making is distributed to the players.  Other New School games, such as the *World games, try to constrain the GM within the rules set (though actual effectiveness of such constrains is questionable).

Rule Zero is, for the most part, an unspoken rule or referred to only obliquely.  However, not only does it remain important to this day (especially in Old School games), but it also is part of the history of  tabletop role-playing games and the reason why old terms for GM included "judge" and "referee".

TV Review: "Rome" (2005-07)

This week, I wanted to give a shout out to a show that is one of the greatest historical drama TV series of all time, HBO/BBC's "Rome":

First off, I want to say that this series (or at least Season One) is friggin' Awesome!

"Rome" is an epic show with a sprawling cast of interesting characters that covers the death throes of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire.  Filled with personal and political machinations, the show chronicles how various individuals and factions ruthlessly vie for power, with Julius Caesar and later his nephew Augustus carving their way to the top over an enormous pile of bodies, shaking Rome and her people to the core.

Our viewpoint characters are Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo, who are based on a pair of Roman soldiers mentioned in Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico, though there are some obvious changes from the source material.  In addition to showing the plebeian side of things, this odd couple provides humor and much of the action of the show.

In fact, Vorenus and Pullo are basically PCs in an RPG, to whom all kinds of ridiculous and implausible things happen (including escaping being marooned on a island with a raft made of driftwood and corpses!) as they repeatedly play a role at key historic events.  Indeed, a one point, Caesar muses whether to get rid of them but decides against raising a hand against ones so obviously favored by the gods!

Setting itself apart from lesser historical dramas, producer Bruno Heller's "Rome" is big, sweeping, brutal and unapologetic.  Of course, there's the graphic sex and violence ("Rome" was what "Game of Thrones" is now known for), but more importantly, this ambitious show recreates and brings ancient Rome to life with lavish sets and costumes and superb writing, direction, and acting.

While not historically accurate beyond broad sweeps (a number of the details are incorrect or fictionalized for dramatic purposes), what "Rome" definitely gets right is the feel of the time and place.  A big part of this is that these Romans, while the height of civilization for the time, clearly do not have our sense of morality.

Also, Vorenus and Pullo are ridiculous killing machines and anyone getting on their bad side might die at the drop of a hat!

"Rome" does have some flaws, chief of which is the lack of major battles scenes.  Super disappointing!

There are also big jumps in time that are scarcely covered with a line of dialogue, particularly in Season Two.  This can be quite confusing at times and is particularly bad in Season Two (when Messr Heller learned that the series wouldn't not be extended so he crammed in multiple seasons worth of material).

Season Two also suffering in comparison to Season One in terms of a lead actor: James Purefoy (playing Mark Anthony) simply lacks the gravitas of Ciarán Hinds (playing Julius Casear) and failed to carry the production in the same way.

Still, the overall quality of the show is excellent.  So, if you are a history buff, political scheming or a fan of Sword & Sandal, this show is right up your alley!

RPG Design: Balancing Classes

Last year, I discussed the important overlooked issue for tabletop RPGs of Balancing Skills.  This week, I wanted to discuss another important issue for tabletop RPGs involving game balance: Balancing Classes.

Not many RPG players would choose to be a sidekick!

For purposes of this post, by "Balancing Classes " I'm referring to classes being balanced in terms of power/utility compared to each other as they level up.  In addition, this discussion focuses on RPGs with character classes.  By contrast, in a Point Buy character creation/advancement system, the balance issues presumably have already been addressed in the design of the Point Buy system.

Most class-based RPGs try to balance classes using some sort of niche protection (e.g., fighters will be better at (surprise) fighting).  Of course, poorly designed niche protection raises its own issues, but that's a discussion for another time.

Why are balanced classes important for an RPG?  Because, ideally, we want to keep players interested and involved in the game.  This obviously can be a problem when one class is notably more powerful than another, since every player should have a turn in the spotlight and a chance to Be Awesome.

...I'm quite good at my BMX...

Of course, the most glaring case of unbalanced classes is Linear Fighters, Quadratic Wizards, where one class can outshine another in its purported area of speciality at a lower investment of resources (i.e., spell slots).

Is it possible to have fun playing a game with unbalanced classes?  Yes, for example, classes in Rifts (1990) are hugely unbalanced in terms of power, where an adventuring party can be a dragon, a demigod, a lord magi... and a hobo!  Yet, according to stories, apparently author Kevin Siembieda is able to make it fun at his table by exercising GM fiat narrative control to give each player their time in the spotlight.

So, who wants to play a hobo?

This is the crux of why designing balanced classes in a game is helpful.  With unbalanced classes, a GM has to wrestle with the rules (and possibly the players) to reach a good result, whereas in a game with balanced classes, a GM can spend precious time and bandwidth on other issues.

Movie Review: Willow (1988)

This week, I wanted to give a shout out to yet another film that I thought was totally awesome as a kid, but, with hindsight, doesn't look as shiny, George Lucas' foray into High Fantasy, Willow:

Willow has a somewhat meandering plot wherein a girl with a special birthmark is prophesied to bring about the downfall of the evil sorceress Queen Bavmorda.  Consequently, Bavmorda imprisons all the pregnant women in her realm.  Nevertheless, this baby Elora Danan, is born and smuggled to safety, eventually ending up in the care of our titular character, Willow Ufgood.

Willow is a simple farmer who dreams of becoming a sorcerer and is tasked with finding a safe place for Elora Danan.  Along the way, he meets rogue sellsword Madmartigan, a couple of brownies (who are the comic relief), Princess Sorcha (daughter of Queen Bavmorda, who does a heel-face turn) and Fin Raziel (a good sorceress polymorphed into a possum).  Also, armies clash, swashbuckling happens and dark sorcery must be averted!

Much like Star Wars, Willow is a mishmash of different ideas and inspirations, some of them painfully obvious in hindsight, such as Star Wars (Madmartigan is pretty much fantasy Han Solo) and the Lord of the Rings (the Nelwyns are pretty much Hobbits with the serial numbers filed off).  However unlike Star Wars, in Willow that mishmash never really comes together, unfortunately.

This film also suffers from an underwhelming performance from lead actor Warwick Davis, who fails to solidly anchor this ambitious project with his often hammy and wooden delivery.  And the tone of the film wildly swings from super kid-friendly to really grim dark.

Still, there are also plenty of positives.  Val Kilmer brings the necessary rock star qualities to Madmartigan and the rest of the cast is filled with good character actors.  The cinematography, action sequences, production design and costuming are good to excellent.  The VFX look dated now, but were good for the time.

So, if you are looking for an ambitious but flawed epic fantasy film that's still a fun romp, this might be up your alley!

RPG Focus: REIGN (2007)

Previously, I have focused on 1st Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and on 6th Edition Call of Cthulhu, two old favorites that have been highly influential upon my own developing rules set, Sorcery & Steel.  This week, I want to take a look at another game that has taught me many lessons in RPG Design, REIGN:

Right off the bat, I'm going to say that I love REIGN to bits.  That might seem a bit odd since REIGN  utilizes a number of New School ideas and mechanics.  However, I am not against New School games that are designed well and I played in a REIGN campaign for a couple of years, followed by GMing my own REIGN campaign for a couple more years.

REIGN is a low-powered fantasy game powered by the One Roll Engine (ORE), a count success dice pool system, with applicable stat and skill determining the size of the PC's dice pool.  This is not anything revolutionary.

However, what sets the One Roll Engine apart is that, rather than looking for a fixed target number, "successes" are based upon matching sets of dice.  As a result, as the name suggests, you can determine success, speed and degree of success all in one roll.  Furthermore, the same system can be used for static, dynamic and opposed rolls.  ORE does have a learning curve but, overall, this makes the game run very quickly and smoothly.

Another thing that I really like about ORE is the stripped down skill list that still covers 95+% of what PCs might encounter during an adventure (i.e., skills are broadly applicable).

There are lots of other things that a would-be RPG designer can study in this game as well, including using a strong authorial voice throughout the work, effective flavor text, really well-balanced mechanics and character advancement, an interesting and effective approach to Linear Fighters, Quadratic Wizards, etc.  One really does get a lot for their dinero!

So, if you are a fan of RPG Design or simply want to check out a neat rules sets, you can do a lot worse than REIGN!

Culture: "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" (1949)

Fundamentally, most tabletop role-playing games seek to tell thrilling yarns about heroes triumphing in the face of great odds.  So, this week I wanted to give a shout out to the seminal work of comparative mythology, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces":

Written by legendary mythologist Joseph Campbell, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" is a hugely influential study that combines modern psychology with comparative mythological analysis.  Building on work from earlier scholars, Campbell found heroic legends from all over the world and from many different periods of time shares many similar elements of plot, structure, theme and symbolism.  

This begged the question of why heroic legends possessed so many similarities, despite being separated by great gaps of space and time?  Campbell's tremendous insight was that the reason for this universality was that these heroic legends were reflections of and expressions of elements of the collective unconscious of humanity.  According to Campbell and legendary psychologist Carl Jung, the collective unconscious produces "archetypes," which form the basis of many myths.

Furthermore, Campbell was able to break down these heroic legends into a basic narrative pattern which he called the monomyth or "The Hero's Journey", which he summarized as follows:

"A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man."

The concept of "The Hero's Journey" has been widely acclaimed since the 1970s.  Moreover, Campbell's ideas have been adopted and adapted repeated in popular culture, perhaps most famously in Star Wars, but also in many, many, many other works.

“In the three decades since I discovered The Hero with a Thousand Faces, it has continued to fascinate and inspire me. Joseph Campbell peers through centuries and shows us that we are all connected by a basic need to hear stories and understand ourselves. As a book, it is wonderful to read; as illumination into the human condition, it is a revelation.” - George Lucas

A Call to Adventure!

So, if you are a fan of mythology and want to learn and understand more about the hows and whys of heroic legends, check out one of best written books of the 20th century!

RPG Design: Dice Pools

Earlier this year, I highlighted the issue of Core Mechanics in tabletop role-playing games.  This week, I wanted to discuss a type of Core Mechanic that became hugely popular beginning in the late '80s/early 90s, Dice Pools:

Binomial distribution: a characteristic of all dice pools

As tabletop role-playing game mechanics evolved beyond those of Original Dungeons & Dragons (1974) and similar games, a number of games began to utilize Dice Pools as their Core Mechanic.  By "Dice Pools," I mean that each die used to determine task resolution is considered individually.  There are two major types of dice pool system that are used tabletop role-playing games: 1) fixed target number dice pool systems, and 2) count success dice pool systems.

In fixed target number dice pool systems, the dice are added together and compared to a target number.  One of the most popular fixed target number dice pool system is GURPS, which is mostly a 3d6 target low system (but sometimes a 3d6 target high system).  There's little difference between fixed die target number systems (ala D&D, BRP and similar systems), save that the former, like all dice pool systems, produces a binomial distribution, whereas the latter produces a flat distribution.

Dice Pools have been around since relatively early in RPG history (e.g., Traveller (1977)), but what really caused hoopla in the hobby was success dice pool systems, which became a killer app.  In count success dice pool systems, the dice are individually compared against a target number to determine whether or not a "success" occurs.  Then, the player must reach another target number of successes to determine whether or not the character was successful at the task.

The most famous games with count success dice pool systems are probably Shadowrun (1989), and White Wolf Publishing's seminal Vampire: The Masquerade (1991), the first entry of  the Storyteller system.

Depending on the number of dice in the dice pool, count success dice pool systems can be faster and more streamlined than fixed die target number systems, especially fixed die target number systems with lots of modifiers to the fixed die.  Also, count success dice pool systems can be used creatively from a design point of view (e.g., botches, exploding dice, etc.)

And, it can be immensely satisfying to roll a giant handful of dice!

However, the drawbacks of count success dice pool systems are many.  First of all, they don't bonuses and penalties easily, as the math when changing the target number or the number of dice is often non-obvious or at least requires a bit of crunching.  Consequently, this increases the difficulty for GMs of adjudicating these variables on the fly, which can lead to unexpected or unwanted results.

Also, if the dice pool is too small, the results may be too grainy for modifiers to work properly.

Furthermore, from a physical standpoint, large dice pools (10 or more dice) usually slow the game down considerably as hunting for successes becomes increasingly time consuming.  Also, the chance of dice rolling off the time or otherwise becoming lost also increases.  These can even be issues for medium-sized dice pools.

So, count success dice pool systems can great or not so great in practice, depending upon the implementation.  Probably the most clever and fastest  count success dice pool system that I've seen is the One-Roll Engine (ORE), which uses a dice pool of d10s equal to the character's Stat and Skill similar to that used by Storyteller system.  However, rather than calculating a "success" against a fixed target number, ORE uses a matching system, which produces some interesting results.  If you're a fan of count success dice pool systems, check it out!