Video Game Review: "Warhammer Quest" (2013)

I wanted to give some love for the "Warhammer Quest" port for iOS devices!

The port is based on the short-lived but well-loved "Warhammer Quest" board game, which is, in turn, basically the 2nd edition of the "HeroQuest" board game but set in the Warhammer Fantasy world and using dungeon tiles rather than a static board.

If you are a fan of the above board game, you'll like this port.  The mechanics are largely faithful to the original, so it's unsurprising that this iteration is a turn-based, top-down view CRPG.  This set up works really well for iOS, with the computer dutifully crunching numbers whilst you get to focus on tactics, movements, etc.

If you are a fan of dungeon crawls, you'll also like this port.  The dungeon tiles are beautifully rendered, with lots of interesting details:

The blood and gore effects are also effective, especially since they don't cross the line into cartoonish.

Gathering of loot and gear is also quite addictive and, as a nice touch, your characters' avatars update as you change their kit (e.g., if you switch to a different type of shield, the avatar's shield changes accordingly).

The dungeons do, however, become samey after a while, which is unsurprisingly since they recycle the dungeon tiles and the text blocks!  This is less of an issue for the iOS port, since you'll likely be playing in 15-20 minute increments, but is more of an issue for long plays.

There isn't a true instruction manual, just a journal that explains certain things as you go along, so this game involves a bit of trial-and-error, especially if you aren't familiar with the source material.  However, it is fun to figure out that, for example, wizards can be a pretty decent combatant since, in Warhammer, they, unlike in D&D, can use swords!

Your options are a bit limited with the base package for the iOS port: you get four characters (Marauder, Dwarf Ironbreaker, Wood Elf Waywatcher and Grey Wizard) and can adventure in one province (Stirland).  You can add more characters, provinces, special items, monsters, etc. but the price adds up quickly!

With the in-app purchases and the relative dearth of in-game treasure, it's easy to feel nickeled and dimed.  However, there is plenty of gameplay with the base package for the iOS price (I paid $2.99), though I hear that the return on investment isn't as good with the PC port because of how that port is bundled.

Like the source material, this "Warhammer Quest" CRPG is pretty much all about dungeon crawling, aside from some short trips into towns or the simplistic overland travel.  If you're looking to be fed an immersive storyline, you'll be disappointed but this type of organic, emergent storytelling that you create for yourself about your characters' adventures is, in fact, quite Old School.

In addition, it is possible to get a string of bad dice rolls that quickly cumulates in a TPK, but frankly, that's quite Old School, too!

So, if you are looking for a casual, Old School dungeon crawler that's easy and fun to play, you could do a lot worse than "Warhammer Quest".

RPG Design: Core Four Classes

I've mentioned before that my rules set, Sorcery & Steel, grew out of, among other things, countless hours analyzing the mechanics of 1e Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.  However, in addition to 1e, several other Old School products have also provided inspiration.  For example, the Core Four Classes are drawn from Original Dungeons & Dragons and Supplement I: Greyhawk (i.e., Fighting-Man, Magic-User, Cleric and Thief).

One might ask, "What about the Paladin?" (which is also featured in Supplement I), to which I would reply, "The Paladin in Supplement I, unlike 1e, is not a standalone class but rather an option for Fighting-Men who meet the prerequisites."

Also, I should add that Sorcery & Steel uses the term "career" rather than "class", both because the former more accurately maps what this rules set is trying to accomplish and because the latter is one of a number of unintuitive word choices in D&D.  My rules set does add a bit more crunch, adapting 1e's weapon proficiency system to allow players options to customize.

Nevertheless, I do quite like the minimalist approach of only a handful of classes.  Not only does this streamline character creation, but it also encourages player creativity and imagination.  For example, if you are a "Fighting-Man," what does that mean beyond your stats?

You might be a mighty bear of a bruiser, able to absorb and dish out tremendous amounts of damage:

Alternately, you might be a lean, pantherish warrior, relying on your quickness and cunning:

Or whatever else suits your fancy.  It is up to each player to supply their own answer.  In other words, you have to think for yourself.

Literature: "Elric of Melniboné" (1972)

This week, let's take a look at Michael Moorcock's seminal Swords & Sorcery novella "Elric of Melniboné":

Elric of Melniboné follows the eponymous protagonist, Emperor of the titular island nation of  Melniboné, fend off the multiple blatant and unclever attempts of his cousin Yrkoon to usurp the crown.

The story works both as a straightforward Swords & Sorcery yarn, but also as a deliberate deconstruction of the genre: Elric is physically weak and dependent on drugs, highly flawed and a master of dark sorcery.  This is where the novella shines, as Moorcock is intentionally playing against the archetype.

There's also an interesting gothic and moody vibe with the protagonist as the doomed ruler of a doomed people.

Unfortunately, Moorcock shatters my sense of disbelief with an unbelievable (in several senses of the word) own goal at the very end: he tries to play up the tragic angle by making Elric a complete moron and by making the Melnibonéans completely unrealistic: placing would-be usurper Yrkoon as regent should rightly shatter confidence in Elric and his government.  Furthermore, Yrkoon's heel-turn is telegraphed from approximately a bazillion miles away.

I realize that Moorcock is trying to show that Elric is different from the rest of his people because he is thoughtful and capable of mercy.  However, by flying in the face of common sense and basic self-preservation, he merely comes across as unbelievably stupid.   For example, Elric pointedly ignores the prudent advice of his trusted advisors, while offering nonsensical counterarguments.

I also realize that this work was written over 40 years ago, but if one attempts to defend the above idiocy on those grounds, they are admitting that the story is horribly dated, as successful modern authors are typically far more sensible on matters of political science (at least post-Babylon 5).  I mean, even Ned Stark would do the smart thing and kill Yrkoon!

Character Creation: Point Buy or Random Roll? (Part II)

As noted last week, while developing a rules set, a key early mechanical decision for a designer is whether to use Point Buy or Random Roll for character creation.  We've already examined the former, so let's take a look this week at the latter:

Like Point Buy, Random Roll has both strengths and weaknesses: In a well-designed Random Roll system, character creation is typically significantly faster and actual play is more organic and can produce really interesting and unexpected results.  I consider Lifepaths a form of Random Roll where the system has preemptively generated stats rather than the player.

Plus, there's little that's more Old School than rolling and praying to the Dice Gods during character creation (and it's quite satisfying, for example in Dungeons & Dragons, to roll an 18).

The primary drawback of Random Roll (of ability scores in particular) is that it can produce swingy results which, in turn, can produce PCs of considerably different starting power levels.  It is true that it can be awkward to be the player with crummy stats, especially if there's someone with ludicrous stats in the same party.  So, some people protest Random Roll on the basis of fairness.

However, this argument ignores the ability of a GM to flatly disallow overpowered PCs at his table and to allow players to reroll or otherwise augment underpowered PCs.  Furthermore, the importance of swingy results is proportional to the importance of what's being rolled (e.g., ability scores).  For example, in the three LBBs of Original Dungeons & Dragons (i.e., not including Supplements), ability scores are more for roleplaying purposes and have little mechanical effect (e.g., a Fighter with Strength 10 fights as well as a Fighter with Strength 18).

On the other hand, when what's being rolled becomes more important, Random Roll can produce disparate results for unlucky players.  For example, as "stat inflation" set in for Dungeons & Dragons, the incentive for higher stat characters arose.  Indeed, by the time of AD&D, the Players Handbook flatly states, "It is usually essential to the character's survival to be exceptional (with a rating of 15 or above) in no fewer than two ability characteristics."

Swinginess is not necessarily an issue for Lifepaths, unless, for example in Classic Traveller, PCs can die or character creation otherwise prematurely ends.  This doesn't, however, prevent character creation in Traveller from being addictive.


Based on last week's post, you might think that I am way down on Point Buy systems.  However, this isn't the case: as a system junkie, I've spent hours pouring over the character creation rules and contemplating potential characters in a some Point Buy systems, such as Exalted and Ars Magica.

Also, only the oldest of Old School games are pure Random Roll (e.g., Original Dungeons & Dragons).  Not long after, hybrid systems appeared, such as in Basic Role-Playing, where players roll ability scores but also assign skill points.  Point Buy elements also soon appeared in Dungeons & Dragons itself, such as 1e's weapon proficiencies.

Overall, Point Buy systems are great for character focused and more serious games, whereas Random Roll is better suited for more casual games and where players are less invested in their characters.

For the rule set I'm designing, I want to keep an Old School feel so I decided to use a hybrid system, with Random Roll of ability scores but to also adapt a version of 1e's weapon proficiencies.

Character Creation: Point Buy or Random Roll? (Part I)

In developing a rules set, a key early mechanical decision for a designer is whether to use Point Buy or Random Roll for a character creation system.  Both have their strengths and weaknesses, so let's take a look this week at the former:

In a well-designed Point Buy system, a player is able to create exactly the type of character that he wants, the PCs are balanced with each other (assuming that they start with the same number of build points), and scaling the starting power level of the campaign is simply a matter of adjusting the starting number of build points.  And it is quite fun to look for interesting combinations and synergies from build options.  I consider Standard Arrays of ability scores a form of Point Buy where the system has preemptively generated stats rather than the player.

On the downside, character creation often takes considerably longer since Point Buy places a premium on initial character conception (although pregenerated templates can help speed things up), which in turn often means that character death is a more bitter pill for the player to swallow since the player has invested more time and energy.  Also, metagaming often increases, with players playing to the system rather than in game considerations, the most notorious example of which is min-maxing.  

Attribution to Gage Skidmore

Moreover, even where a player isn't min-maxing per se, once players figure out the "best" build for an archetype, a blandness of PCs often sets in.  Better systems will offer more choices without a clear "best" for an archetype, such as GURPS.

Other lesser examples of metagaming include players attempting to twist the narrative to fit their character's skills, sometimes in the face of common sense.  Overemphasis of system mastery may sacrifice more organic gameplay, as well.  For example, Gimli of Arabia may never have happened in a Point Buy system where a player is loathe to use a suboptimal weapon.

Also, please note that I wrote "well-designed", as it is often easy to cheese a poorly-designed Point Buy system, with a player able to exploit flaws in the system, such as picking up effectively free build points for Disadvantages that are never enforced in actual play.  "REIGN: A Game of Lords and Leaders," by Greg Stolze, has the best implementation I've seen to prevent this kind of cheesing: In  REIGN, rather than additional build points, Disadvantages give extra experience points (and only after the PC has suffered a tangible setback).

Literature: "Queen of the Black Coast" (1934)

Today, I wanted to touch upon a vintage Swords & Sorcery tale, the great "Queen of the Black Coast" (1934) by R. E. Howard:

While this is ripping yarn generally acknowledged as one of R. E. Howard's finest Conan of Cimmeria entries and while I generally agree with this assessment, something about this story has always irked me.  Specifically, at the beginning, Conan walks into the courthouse open carrying his broadsword and apparently no one tried to relieve him of his obviously lethal instrumentality.  One might argue that the court staff was cowed into submission...except that the judge's behavior obviously indicates otherwise.

This utter lack of self-awareness or sense of self-preservation by the court staff broke my suspension of disbelief.

ಠ_ಠ

Next, Conan brutally murders the judge in cold blood because the latter dared to ask the barbarian displeasing questions.  Leaving aside the issue of the Cimmerian's obvious sociopathy in killing an innocent person, making the court staff unbelievable stupid is, well, unbelievable.  Really, the whole beginning reads like Howard's revenge porn against some authority figure that irked him personally.

Howard then resorts to massive Plot Armor in order to prevent the logical conclusion of this scenario (i.e., Conan's capture and execution).

O_o

Thereafter, "Queen of the Black Coast" kicks into high gear and becomes a fine heroic fantasy story, featuring perhaps the most interesting supporting character in all of the original Conan works, Bêlit, "the wildest she-devil unhanged."

But that first speed bump is a doozie.

Design Philosophy (Part II)

As I mentioned in my last post, speeding up gameplay is a second major design focus for my rules set, Sorcery & Steel.  In grade school, I ran a very loose 1e AD&D game, using a theater of the mind style, which played quickly (e.g., combats rarely lasted more than 15 minutes).  By contrast, my current 1e AD&D GM runs a much tighter, by the book, game.  His style is proper Old School, including a battle mat and miniatures, which is great for highlighting the tactical side of encounters but can take much longer (e.g., combats can run more than an hour).  And he doesn't even include the most fiddly bits of the rules set, such as Weapon v. Armor Class.

So, with Sorcery & Steel, I want to combine the best elements of both play styles to have an Old School rules set with enough interesting tactical options but also with reasonably fast speed of play.

In addition to eliminating in-game look up tables, my rules set also hand waves most in-game accounting, such as encumbrance.  Instead, PCs are allowed to carry whatever they can reasonably explain, with the GM as arbiter of "reasonable".  So, if you want to carry five swords, that's fine so long as you can explain where exactly you are carrying said swords and why you shouldn't be penalized during combat.