In Space No One Can Hear You Game

If you know me well as a gamer, you know that my gaming preferences lean away from sci-fi gaming.  This goes not only for tabletop rpg's, but also video games.  Sure, I've played some Mass Effect.  I've played most of the Halo games (though I am considering trading them in... GASP!).  I've played Dead Space.  I've loved me some Fallout 3.  When I was younger... okay, much younger, I played a tabletop rpg called Gamma World.  Does anybody remember Gamma World?  I think WotC did a 3E/D20 remake of the game that never really took off (there were actually 5 editions of the game), then it was lumped in as a campaign type for D20 Future.  Now, they're actually re-booting the game again for an October, 2010 launch.

Also, if you know me well as a gamer, you know that my above mentioned discrimination against the sci-fi genre actually bothers me.  I've explored it numerous times, prodding it with sharp sticks.  Picking at it like a scabbed-over, weeks-old sore.  I've squeezed the icky pus out of it.  I've tried to figure it out.  I have conclusions.  I'm not sure if they're final conclusions.  But they're what I have at this point.  I'll still keep prodding at it.

What brings me to write about this today, you ask?  Okay, so you didn't actually ask.  Actually, my last few in-post questions have gone unanswered.  But I'm stubborn.  I'm a persistent bastard.  I'm going to keep at it, because that's what I do.  What brings me to write about this today is a short post over at Gameplaywright where Will Hindmarch asks a seemingly simple question.

"Why don't sci-fi games sell like fantasy games do?"

There it is.

Will got me picking at that scab again.

Will has a good point.  In order to try to sell sci-fi games, especially of the tabletop rpg variety, the designer mixes in strong elements of fantasy.  Gamma World did it.  Warhammer 40K is an excellent example of the phenomenon.  D20 Modern/D20 Future were redolent with fantasy elements (doesn't help that they were WotC products).

There are some excellent comments on Will's short post.  Rob Donoghue mentions the lack of a "shared shorthand" akin to fantasy's "Tolkien standard."  Several others talk about the fragmentation of the sci-fi fan base.  There are several other great ones to read if you click the link.

For me, the conclusion I have come up with thus far is fairly simple.  It's space that does me in.  There's just too damn much of it.  Justin Alexander writes that "Sci-fi games are often guilty of selling the setting instead of selling a game."  He's right.  The infinite boundaries of space are an attractive selling point.  The writers plug in some cool weapons and some neat looking alien races.  They throw in some spaceships and a backstory for the world that is supposed to draw the consumer in and give them plenty of room to customize the setting, bt then they drop the ball.

The truth is, there's just too damn much space to fill in... well, in space.

If you look at the sci-fi games I've played and enjoyed, video or otherwise, most of them are pretty tightly focused.  They aren't concerned with the infinite expanse of space, but rather with the human (or inhuman) drama of fairly tight locational boundaries.  Whether they are a single spaceship (Dead Space's Ishimura), a single city (Fallout 3's DC Wasteland), or a single planet (as in Gamma World or Borderlands), the focus is tight enough to provide a large enough setting to encourage diverse encounters and scenarios, but small enough to provide boundaries.

Sometimes, a canvas can be too large.

Giant empty swaths of blank space to fill can be intimidating and stifle creativity.  Sure, we love Star Wars and Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica, but we aren't creating those settings as we play.  We're just partaking in someone else's creation as we watch the movies, or expanding on it slightly as we play the games (but gaming in those settings is still too limitless for me).

An example of a focused sci-fi game (so far as I've seen it) is David Hill's Maschine Zeit.  I've written a bit about it here previously.  It does feature a setting where space travel is a given.  But it concentrates that setting on the human and inhuman dramas that play out in focused, if not confined, locations.  David has done a good job of setting specific areas of exploration and interest and encouraging play in manageable bits.

My idea for a sci-fi game?  Take sci-fi back to its roots.  Focus on a single planetary system.  Make space travel limited.  Short distances are possible, but the longer the voyage, the riskier it is.  Exponentially.  The traveling fleet is old and unreliable.  Something happened in the past that has taken away the money or incentive to build new ships.  Maybe this is a somewhat post-apocalyptic game.  The characters are in an outpost system, far from the space traveling civilization to which they once belonged.  Some war or other catastrophe has caused most, if not all, of the military and space-worthy crews and vessels to have been long since redeployed.  Now, this small outpost is cobbling together some ships for bold adventurers to take huge risks to attempt to explore nearby planets and learn what happened, or just gather resources and pool knowledge.  Star Trek was once described as "Wagon Train to the stars." I think that this brings us back to a limited, focused setting that feels more true to that concept.  We're in a lawless frontier.  Scope is manageable.  As characters become more accomplished, enterprising GM's may wish to introduce technology that can expand the world.  It's like a space western.  I like it.

Damn.  Now I have more ideas on my plate.

What do you think?  Feel free to post your thoughts about any of this.

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Alan Wake: A Geekcentric Review

Yesterday afternoon I finished Alan Wake.  As most of my regular readers know, I am a horror junkie.  I love all things horror (okay, so all quality things), be it novels, short stories, video games or movies (though I'm not too keen on random and gratuitous splatters of gore).  I know this game fits more into the suspense-thriller genre, but it's close enough.  In fact, one of the things I loved about this game are the homages it pays, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to other great horror icons from Stephen King to The Twilight Zone to Silent Hill, Bioshock and even some scenes reminiscent of Resident Evil and the Left 4 Dead games.  Now, I've read reviews that complained about this title's facial animations and I know that there are people who will like this game and people who will dislike it.  Screw all that.  Welcome to:

A Geekcentric Review: Alan Wake Edition

Just so we're on the same page here, this isn't IGN or Ko-freakin-taku here.  I have my own gaming preferences and this review will reflect that.  I also have to include some frame of reference to the tabletop horror rpg I'm working on, because I did play it with that in mind.  Please note, that I'll keep any spoilers at the end of the review, appropriately labeled, and won't betray any major plot points.

The Story:  Alan Wake is the story of a writer who is suffering from debilitating (for a writer anyway) writer's block.  He and his wife take a trip to the seemingly idyllic small town of Bright Falls, WA for a relaxing vacation. While in Bright Falls, Alan starts to live through the events of a novel he wrote, but doesn't remember writing.  Things in Bright Falls get much more sinister at night and Alan's only feeble protection from the evils besetting the town is light.  This light can come from anything from tiny flashlights to giant spotlights.  It is up to Alan to save himself, the town, and those he holds dear from the evil that hangs over (and under) the town.

I really like the story in this game.  It kept me engaged and wondering what was going to happen next.  The manipulation of light and shadow added an interesting dimension to the game.  There are also some great plot twists along the way.  The biggest weaknesses in this area are the novel excerpts you find along the way, which are poorly written, leading me to believe that Alan isn't that great of a writer to begin with; and the times when story is sacrificed for gameplay.  The latter was particularly evident during the farm scene when the game briefly leaves its strong narrative roots and ventures into arcade shooting gallery territory.

The game is structured into episodes, like a television series, and plays like a tv adaptation of a novel.  Alan spends much of the game running his internal monologue or narration so that you know what he's thinking and how he feels.  I like the structure of the game very much, and I found that the narrative monologue helped cut down on some of what in most games becomes artificial and forced expositional dialogue.  There are a few flashbacks in the game, but they are not too jarring and are handled fairly well.

The Graphics:  The visuals in this game fall into a few different categories, some of which are handled better than others.  The wide vistas of Bright Falls and surrounding area are beautiful.  I found myself occasionally stopping to admire some of the more breathtaking views in the game.  The character modeling is uneven and goes from adequate and occasionally good to distractingly bad.  Alan must use some strong hair gel to keep it shellacked to his head even during strenuous physical activity.  I didn't find the facial animations to be particularly distracting.  I also didn't see too much extraneous and inappropriate hand gesturing (see Premonition, Deadly for an example).  The vehicles and other props are handled pretty well, as are the enemies that Alan encounters along the way.

I love the way the cinematics are incorporated into the game.  I often found my attention pulled in by a cinematic without even realizing it until I saw the graphics shift back into gameplay mode.  Throughout the game are radios and televisions that Alan can turn on to watch the live action Night Springs tv show (a la The Twilight Zone) or listen to the friendly local radio personality.

The Controls:  The controls are the biggest weakness of Alan Wake.  Thankfully, the game is structured in such a fashion that it never becomes a game-breaking concern.  The left analog/left bumper combination to get Alan to dodge attacks is unwieldy at best, and at worst doesn't work at all.  I did have this cost me Alan's life a few times when a dodge didn't register and I was pummeled by an enemy.  The other side effect of the dodge mechanic is that most of the time, when Alan runs, he starts with a strange looking stumble step, as the interface thinks you are trying to dodge before it realizes you are just running.  Shooting at enemies is also tricky and takes getting used to the games reticule being attached to Alan's flashlight beam.  I often found myself hitting the left trigger to unnecessarily boost the flashlight beam before pulling the right trigger to fire.  This cost me battery life on the flashlight, but I imagine it was reflexive due to the controls of games like Call of Duty that use that left trigger, right trigger combo.  The flashlight boosting mechanic was cool, if a bit metagame, but was difficult to pull off with vehicle headlights.  I often found myself changing direction unintentionally when I needed to boost the car headlights to take out an enemy.  As far as the driving controls go, I think this game nailed them.  I thought they were better even than Grand Theft Auto IV, with a more stable camera.

EDIT:  I realized that I forgot to mention contextual prompts...  I hate them.  I despise contextual prompts.  They kill my suspension of disbelief and remind me that I'm playing a game.  Resident Evil 5 did this constantly, prompting me to "press B, press B, press B, PRESS A, now hold down the left analog stick and swizzle it from side to side" and then making me repeat the scene if I didn't get the sequence and timing correct.  Terrible.  Alan Wake has some contextual prompt (such as starting generators, etc.), but they follow my cardinal rule of contextual prompts:  If you're going to use them, make them do the same thing every time. Remedy follows this, so they don't drive me crazy or kill suspension of disbelief.  The contextual prompts here are done pretty well.

Soundtrack:  This game has one of the best video game soundtracks I've ever experienced.  The music is well selected and utilized to optimal dramatic effect.  I love the music between episodes and always listened to the entire song.

Spoilery Stuff:  This paragraph (and only this one) contains some moderate spoilers.  If you don't want that, just skip it!  I noticed two fairly serious plot holes in this game.  The first is with Emil, who we never really meet.  We are warned about him, being told that he was Thomas Zane's apprentice and told to beware betrayal by Emil or a supposed ally like him.  Only it is never developed.  Also, there is a scene in the Sheriff's Office when Alan's agent, Barry Wheeler (who starts the game as a pretty annoying character, but is stealing scenes by the end), is on the telephone alerting a network of people that is dubbed "Night Springs" (like the in-game television series) to help combat the evil, but who never show up to help out.  I like the ambiguous ending and have been pondering the significance of the game's last line since I finished it.  Also, where does the cardboard Alan Wake standee disappear to?  Barry spends so much time carrying it around that I expected it to have some significance.  I also expected the radio host to have a more prominent role in the story.

Overall:  I think this is an excellent game overall.  It handled some of the themes that I plan on tackling with my tabletop rpg pretty well, such as the division of the action in to manageable bits and the shift from the "normal" world into a world where the paranormal is ordinary and back again.  I've read a lot of discussions about how this game isn't scary at all, but I think it is scary and atmospheric and well done.

There you have it, folks.  My take on Alan Wake.  I loved this game, even if it does have a few weaknesses.  I definitely recommend it for all of you survival horror and suspense fans out there.  I am anxiously awaiting the sequel.

Have you played Alan Wake?  If so, let me know what you thought!

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Game Hacking in the Cold War Era

If you read my first post on Geekcentricity, you know the bare bones on how I was first introduced to role-playing games.  That was almost 30 years ago.  I know, I'm ancient.  I'm that old guy saying, "back in my day, we walked ten miles to school in four feet of snow."  But there were some great things, as far as gaming goes, happening then.  The first was, in the days before the internet (yes, Virginia, there really was a time when we didn't have that) - accessibility.

Back in the early 1980's, there were "mom & pop" toy stores around town.  There was even one in the local mall.  That toy store, which was later bought out by a national chain and then closed, was where I bought most of my first Dungeons & Dragons books, dice and miniatures.

There was another large toy store a few miles down the road from the mall that also carried Dungeons & Dragons materials until the whole anti-D&D craze took off in the area.  The one benefit of that is that when they discontinued everything in the gaming section, I was there with my friends to buy it all at greatly reduced prices.  I even found an original printing of Deities & Demigods, with the two extra chapters, that had fallen behind the rack long ago.  They sold it to me for $5.  Most of the adventures were marked down to $2.  We cleared that place out in a hedonistic frenzy of consumerism.

There were even a few dedicated gaming stores around town then.  If it was published, you could go to one of them and purchase it.  Every now and then, my friends and I would find a way to make the nearly two hour pilgrimage to the Green Dragon in Charleston.  I think it's still there, though I haven't been in years.

Now, we have the internet for accessibility.  There are still some exciting things going on in the hobby.  To me, the most exciting is the number of "indie" game publishers quietly turning out excellent products in the shadows of the juggernauts (Wizards of the Coast, White Wolf, etc.).  There are dozens of small companies and individuals creating some great games with either fresh ideas or revisitations of classic ideas in new ways.  I've heard many people say that the tabletop rpg hobby is dying, being eaten alive by console gaming and mmorpgs.  Personally, I think there is a renaissance on the horizon.  The electronic publishing formats, coupled with technology like the iPad, have a universe of untapped potential to change the gaming hobby as we know it.

Personally, I just hope to get something out there that somebody wants to play.  I want to write something that I want to play and then make it accessible to others.  I'm not talking about a revolution.  I'm just talking about finding a hole, a niche, and filling it.

Back in the early 1980's, D&D was the only game in town and Ronald Reagan was playing cold war chess with Leonid Brezhnev.  I wanted to play a game that reflected all of the cold war angst that was in the air.  The problem was, it didn't exist.  Sure, there was something close.   A little game called Top Secret.  Which was close, but not quite what I wanted.  To use modern video games as an analogy, Top Secret was Splinter Cell when I wanted Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.  It was also brand new and not very fleshed out.

So I did a little game hacking.  I worked from my beloved Mack Bolan: The Executioner series of books (along with all the other tie-in series') by Don Pendleton (and others).  I borrowed a few things from Top Secret, but mostly just hacked Dungeons & Dragons into a game that I called Terrorist Wars.  It was about as immature an effort as you would expect from a twelve year old kid.  It was about as comprehensive and complete as anything an obsessed twelve year old could create.  I filled a pretty thick loose-leaf notebook (on college-ruled paper - I always use college-ruled paper) full of rules.  I had stats for just about every gun you could think of (I got them from a Mack Bolan weapons locker book I had and created stats for them).  I had character classes from Soldier to Spy to Assassin, complete with character advancement charts and everything else that standard D&D classes had in the Players' Handbook.

The game was actually pretty popular among my friends for a few years and several groups I played with seemed to always want to play Terrorist Wars instead of Dungeons & Dragons.  I was always happy to oblige and constantly revised it.  Somewhere around 1985-1986, the game got put away and never taken out again.  Maybe it was Glasnost.  Or maybe we had finally outgrown the game.  Either way, I look back fondly on my first game hack.

Okay gamers.  Here's my question of the day: Have you ever hacked a role-playing game and made a new game out of the rules?  Tell me about it.  What was it called?  What was it about?  Did you ever play it?  How did it go?

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Geekcentricity's Gaming Guide - Video Version

You've been naughty.  I thought we had an agreement.  In my last post, I said that I was going to show you mine, but first you had to show me yours.  Well, nobody bared their dirty little naked video game secrets for me.  What am I supposed to do, just show you mine without your reciprocation?  What do you think I am?  An exhibitionist?  Easy?

Okay.  You're right.  I am easy.  But you've still been naughty.  You all deserve to be spanked.  Except you.  Yeah, that's right.  YOU. You still deserve it, but you'd enjoy it too much.  Everyone else, line up and prepare for your punishment.

Since I can't virtually spank anyone (I don't even have a copy of Record of Agarest War for XBOX 360 to pretend with either), the only punishment I have available is to go ahead and share my little manifesto on what I look for in a video game.

The other day I was browsing my feed reader and came across an excellent post on Kotaku by Luke Plunkett called "What Are You Looking For In A Video Game?"  Working in the video game industry (and I use a loose definition of the term) for the past few years, I have often thought about this question.  I'm pretty selective in my game purchases.  When I purchase a game, I usually don't run home, play it all the way through in one sitting and then rush back to the store to trade it in on something shiny and new.  I usually purchase games for the long haul.  I make a commitment.  It's rare that I ever trade a game in.  If it's not something I'm going to want to keep, then I usually don't make the purchase.  That's what rental is for.  Of course, I'm a collector.  If I love a movie, I buy the DVD.  I have a huge book collection.  I have close to a thousand audio CD's.  Hell, I even own a ton of LP's on vinyl and almost as many audio cassettes (thought my 8-track collection disappeared somewhere along the way).  No, if I am going to drop $60 or so on a game, it had better be worth keeping.

My preferences in video games may not be anything like yours, but I have standards.  Sometimes I lower them to get what I want, but hey, who doesn't, right?  So, if you want to know what I look for in a video game, then you have come to the right place.  Using Luke's post as a guide (and some gratuitous alliteration, here is my:

Geekcentricity's Gaming Guide - Video Version

Story Is King -  I'm not saying that the game has to have the equivalent of a Pulitzer or Hugo award quality story, but I like the events of the game to be basically story-driven.  I know that it's been debated whether or not games can tell an effective story, and Chuck Wendig has several excellent posts on his blog about this very topic (here, here, here, and here).  If you're interested in the topic, I highly recommend reading them.  Regardless, I like to feel that there is a story driving the action and that I am advancing that story as I play the game.  Also, the story must be interesting/intriguing to me.  An example of this is Grand Theft Auto IV.  Now, a GTA game, or most "sandbox" games for that matter, doesn't usually have a strong story to drive it.  This one, and the subsequent Lost & Damned and Ballad of Gay Tony expansions, were exceptions.  From the first trailer, where we learn about our protagonist, Niko Bellic, the poor immigrant who came to our country trying to escape his sordid past and make a better future only to find that this new land of opportunity was just as soaked in blood, corruption and violence as the world he left behind, I was hooked.  Sure, that story has been done countless times in almost every medium imaginable, but there's a reason for that.  I love books and movies, and I'm okay if a game plays like a movie with the player getting to make some of the decisions that affect the direction of the story.  Which brings me to...

Decisions That Matter -  I like it when the choices I make have some impact on the direction of the story.  I don't care if you have the most well-crafted story ever presented in video game form; if you don't let the player (me) affect that story with the decisions I make in the game, your not going to hold my interest.  A few years ago, I was really looking forward to the game Kane & Lynch: Dead Men.  I love mob stories.  I'm a huge fan of the Godfather movies, along with Reservoir Dogs and other "crimeland cinema."  The story behind Kane & Lynch is a good one, I just got the feeling when I was playing that the writers thought it was so good that they didn't want me to ruin it.  In other words, I don't just want to press buttons because that's what I'm supposed to do when my button pressing doesn't affect the outcome (except potentially causing my character's death).

Contextual Prompts Kill Me -  I am definitely not a fan of gratuitous contextual prompts.  To me, these are a metagame conceit.  They kill my suspension of disbelief.  I don't have great hand-eye coordination or reflexes.  I don't want to have a "press A 16 times in rapid succession then press B and hold it for 3 seconds" pissing contest with a machine.  Why am I pressing "A" all in this context when for the rest of the game, that button does something else?  Make the controls consistent and not a county fair midway contest.  Resident Evil 5, while a good game overall, was full of pointless contextual prompt pissing contests that pulled me out of the engaging story and reminded me that I was holding a controller.  Instead, keep me in the story and let me use the same controls I learned at the beginning of the game.  Even though I'm a huge fan of survival horror (and horror in general) Resident Evil 5 got traded in as soon as I finished it (and I had the collector's edition).  I almost never do that.  I just hated replaying the same 10 minute scene a dozen times just because I couldn't get the button sequence straight.  Leading me right into...

Accessibility -  Like I said, I don't have great hand-eye coordination or reflexes.  Blame my mother for smoking when she was pregnant if you want, just don't make a game unplayable to me because of it.  When I read a book, the author doesn't make me do strength tests to see if I'm worthy of getting to the ending (unless we're talking about Stephen King's The Stand: Complete & Uncut Edition).  When I watch a movie, I don't have to press random buttons on the remote control to get to the next scene.  The "Play" button always does the same thing.  Don't make me learn complex button sequences (see above).  Don't make me feel stupid and uncoordinated by forcing me to repeat large sections of the game ad nauseam until my eyes glaze over and I start to drool on my controller.  Let me get immersed into the game and keep it moving forward. the aforementioned Kane & Lynch and Resident Evil 5 are offenders here, while Bioshock is a great example of how to keep me immersed in the story by keeping the game accessible.  Accessibility also goes for the supplemental materials that are packaged with, or available for, a game.  I want a clear, well written instruction manual.  I want the option of a quality strategy guide (I like the printed book better than having to stop playing, get up and walk to the computer, find the information I need, then go back to the 360 and start playing again) with maps and clear, concise descriptions and bulleted lists of things like achievemens and such.

Social Experience If Appropriate -  Sometimes I purchase a game so that I can enjoy playing online with my friends.  Like it or not, gaming has become a social medium.  Back in my old life (and profession), I used to play the occasional round of golf for the social connections that came with chasing a small, round, white object across acres of chemically treated grass, braving snakes and sometimes even large alligators (because my golf balls were always equipped with homing devices that sought out water, woods, and even sand).  Now, in some circumstances, video games serve the same function for me as a round of golf did then (and a video game is cheaper than a single round of golf).  So, I do own some games just for purely social reasons.  One of the best social games I've played is Call of Duty: World at War.  Besides having Kiefer Sutherland as one of its voice actors, it allows players on XBOX Live that are in a party together to stay in party chat.  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 doesn't allow this, so it isn't as good as a social experience.  Party chat allows me to talk to my friends and saves me from having to listen to all of the 8 year old kids curse like salty sailors while they teabag each other.  Just as importantly, don't try to shoehorn a social experience into a game that doesn't lend itself to that.  Some games just don't need a social element.  The original Bioshock is a work of art and a complete game, without a multiplayer option.  Same for Fallout 3.  Have you ever played the multiplayer on Bioshock 2?  This is a game that didn't need a social element.  Don't force it.  So many games are trying to be Call of Duty to capture a segment of  that multiplayer audience.  There are enough Call of Duty clones out there already, so stick to what your game does best.  And yes, Dead Space 2 design team, I'm talking to you.

Quality Acting  - The acting, voice or motion capture, doesn't have to be Oscar quality, but it shouldn't look like something from the big screen on MST3K (somebody seriously needs to make a show like that for video games).  Bad acting is bad acting no matter the medium.  Good acting, like Mark Hamill as the Joker in Batman: Arkham Asylum, can take a good game and turn it into a great game.  Like I said before, just being chastised by Jack Bauer, I mean Kiefer Sutherland,  in Call of Duty: World at War, made me want to do better, so that I could hear him say, "Nice work, Marines!"  Even animation should be considered along with the acting.  Don't have the character make inane and inappropriate hand gestures while talking, or give her a flirtatious, inviting facial expression while she's telling me about the giant creatures who kidnapped her child.

Beauty Is Only Pixel Deep, But It's Important -   I want to play games that look good.  If I want to play something that looks like it was made 20 years ago, I'll pull out my NES.  There are some games being made today with incredible visual realism.  LA Noir looks like it's going to be a revolutionary game in this aspect (especially if Red Dead Redemption is indicative of where Rockstar is going graphically).  Good graphics are, to me, as important as good controls.  Graphics problems (among other things) killed Alone In the Dark and made The Saboteur less than it could have been.  On the other hand, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a beautiful, nearly photorealistic game.  Color is an important consideration here.  Fallout 3 used some green hues to give the world that post-apocalyptic look, but looking at that green-tinted scenery for hours on end made me feel nauseous.  Try changing your HUD color to blue to save your eyes on that one (I'm glad the player gets that option in Fallout 3).

Controls That Make Sense -  If you've ever played the Saw game, you probably found it next to impossible to shoot with any accuracy (unfortunately, Alan Wake is proving fairly difficult in this regard as well).  Give me a control scheme that makes sense and stick with it.  The Medal of Honor games had a great control scheme.  I like the controls in them better than in the Call of Duty games.  The designers of both franchises understand that you need to be consistent though.

If I Wanted To Ride the Rails, I'd Take the Train -  I love traveling by train.  Actually, it's my preferred method of travel.  I don't have to drive, but I do have the time to relax en route to my destination (airplanes just get me there too fast) and the freedom to get up and move around.  I just don't like games that treat me like I'm on a railroad.  I don't want to be given only one path between point A and point B.  Scene blocks are the bane of my existence.  It really bothers me when I'm walking down a street in a game and I suddenly come to a jumbled stack of debris that blocks my path.  I know... My beloved Silent Hill games are egregious offenders in this category.  I believe that even a survival horror game can be made with a wider path, if not an open-world environment.  Kane & Lynch (yes, I keep picking on this title) was a game that punished the player for trying to take an alternate path between objectives.  If you tried to deviate even a little, the game forced you back onto the tracks.  Dragon Age: Origins, for all of its visual beauty, was also a bit on the restrictive side in this regard.  On the other end of the spectrum, I rarely felt boxed in on Bioshock.  Also, Rockstar is the king of open-world games.  They give me choices and let me forge my own way through the landscape.  Also, Fallout 3 has such a huge world that just exploring it can take dozens of hours.

Time is Money -  Time and money are both things I never seem to have enough of.  When I was a teenager, my friends and I used to have games of Risk that lasted for weeks (our parents loved having the board set up on a table in the middle of the living room for long periods of time).  We used to play Dungeons & Dragons almost every day (sometimes all day... sometimes all day & all night and all day the next day).  I no longer have the luxury of time.  I work a more than full time job.  I have a family (my wife & dog count as a family).  I have household responsibilities and recently started a small business.  I also have my writing projects.  Every now and then, I even need to sleep.  I don't have anywhere near as much time for games as I would like.  Even though I love huge, immersive open-world games with hundreds of hours of content (Fallout 3, Fable II and GTA IV, I'm staring at YOU), I rarely have the time to make a sizable dent in them.  So, those games take me years to finish.  Yes.  You read that correctly.  Not months.  Years.  Hell, I'm a fast reader.  I can read a 300 page book in about 6 hours.  Still, because of the size and scope of it, Stephen King's The Stand: Complete & Uncut Edition (one of my favorite books) took me about 3 months to read (so maybe King did give me an endurance test on that one).  I even have to plan my schedule carefully to fit in a 2 hour movie (don't even get me started on fitting in a trip to the time sink known as Wal-Mart - I have a theory that time passes differently there than in the outside world), and once I get behind on a tv series, it takes me forever to catch up (Supernatural, I promise I'll be catching up soon).  For these reasons, I like my games to be built with modern time commitments in mind.  An ideal game, for me, would be about 6-8 hours long OR divided into segments of manageable length.  I finished Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in a single sitting.  So far, Alan Wake is working well in that respect.  It's constructed in an episodic format, like a television series, with episodes that are self-contained enough that I can stop playing after I finish one and not feel like I've lost all momentum in the story if I don't get to play again for a few days.  For all its faults, Alone In the Dark was built in similar fashion.  Even GTA IV gives me short story arcs/missions so that I can do the same thing.  On the other hand, Fable II is a game I look at on the shelf and am not sure when I'll be able to get back to it.  I don't remember where I was in the story and quickly lost all momentum after not playing it for a while.  The time I spend gaming is a valuable investment and I want to spend it wisely.

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So, there you have it.  My gaming manifesto.  I realize that some of these points fly in the face of conventional thoughts about video games.  So what?  It's my list.  You're welcome, in fact I encourage you, to make your own list.

I've shown you mine.  It's hanging out here for the whole world to see.  I even wrote it while on some heavy pain medication (I rarely take anything stronger than OTC Ibuprofen, so this has been adventure).  Now it's your turn.  Show me yours.  What do you look for in a video game?

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Happy Friki Day!

That's it.  I've stumbled onto the truth.  May 18th must be some sort of geek holiday.  Is there a "Geek Day"?  Like Fathers' Day but only with gadgets and games and all sorts of geeky goodness?

[checks Google]

Why, yes.  Yes Virginia, there is a day for us.  And it is in May.  Unfortunately it's not May 18th, but instead May 25th.  I should've known.  "Geek Pride Day" has been celebrated on May 25th, the anniversary of the premiere of the first Star Wars film in 1977, since 2006.  Interestingly enough, the holiday first rose to prominence in Spain.  Wait... a Geek holiday... with a date set because of Star Wars... started and became a national craze... in Spain and not the US?  Wow.  I think we kind of dropped the ball on that one.

Friki is the Spanish word for geek or nerd, so 25 Mayo is the date for El Dia del Orgullo Friki.  Geek Pride Day.  Thankfully the day has caught on in America and Canada, so we do have an excuse to celebrate.  As for me, I'll be celebrating a week early this year.

That's right.  Tomorrow, May 18th (also known in Spain as 18 de Mayo), is my Geek Pride Day.  Unfortunately, because I work in a Geek-based industry (video games), I won't have the day off.  But I am taking the next three days off for a spectacular Geek Week orgy of writing (mostly on the game I'm developing), blogging (more writing), and video gaming.  That last is the reason for the celebration.

Tonight at midnight (which is technically tomorrow morning for you sticklers out there) there are some games releasing that I've been waiting for months to be able to play.  Of the highest profile games being released, I'll be purchasing two of them (I've had them on pre-order for months) at the midnight launch.  Another will have to wait until I've made some headway with the first two, as I have an incredible backlog of games to play and, with my writing project in full swing, I'm not going to add it to that stack just yet.

I'll start with the game I won't be likely to play at all.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands is one of the four big titles dropping at midnight.  I won't be playing because I've never been a huge fan of Ubisoft's franchise.  This one takes place in the temporal gap between Sands of Time and The Warrior Within.  The main feature of the game seems to be huge combats, with the titular prince fighting up to 50 enemies at a time.  Hopefully, it's better than the 2008 entry in this franchise.  The true focus of the game is to generate hype for the Jake Gyllenhaal Prince of Persia movie that opens in theaters later this month.  Hence the giant cinematic battles in the game.

Video Games | Prince of Persia: TFS | Destiny of a Kingdom Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

The game that is going to have to wait for me to play it is Disney's Split Second.  This game is reminiscent of the old David Carradine film, Death Race 2000.  The premise is mostly identical.  The player takes the role of a driver in a reality television show built around an auto race.  In the race, drivers get the power to detonate high explosives, cause building and bridge collapses, and otherwise take out their fellow drivers.  The only thing missing is the assassination plot at the end.  I got to play a build of this game last year and it was a ton of fun.  It is a white knuckle, fast reaction game where dodging explosions and debris forces split second decision making.  So, the title is appropriate if nothing else.  I will probably rent this game first to see if I want to buy it or just give it a single play-through.



The last two titles launching tonight are Alan Wake, which I wrote about a few days ago, and Red Dead Redemption.

For weeks, I've been calling Red Dead Redemption "Grand Theft Horse."    After all, it is made by Rockstar Games, the folks who brought us all of the Grand Theft Auto games.  The game has two of the features I like most in video games: an open-world environment and story-driven action.  The story was the only reason I liked GTA IV.  I've never been a fan of the GTA games, but GTA IV had Niko Bellic and a story that drew me in.  RDR has John Marston.  The player takes the role of Marston, a former outlaw who has now settled down.  That is, until the newly-formed Bureau of Investigations kidnaps his family and forces him to hunt down his former gang of outlaws.  The story is quite similar to Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch.  The game looks beautiful so far, and I can't wait to play it.  I still think Alan Wake will make it into my XBOX 360 first, but this one will follow soon after.

Video Games | Red Dead Redemption | Launch Trailer HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Speaking of video games, a few months ago, I was surprised by the arrival of a game I'd never heard of before, with a release price of only $19.99.  The game was called Deadly Premonition.  I considered checking it out, but after reading the review on IGN, which gave the game a Terrible Rating (2.0 out of 10), I decided to pass it up.  Then I happened upon another article.  This one sang the praises of the game, calling it "so bad it's good."  Deadly Premonition is a campy Japanese open world survival horror rpg that mixes Twin Peaks, the aforementioned Grand Theft Auto, and Resident Evil.  Yes.  You read that correctly.  This has to be the worst game ever made for the XBOX 360, and I'm afraid my system may commit suicide by red ringing when I fire it up, but I can't wait to play it.  Take a look at the trailer and see what you think?  Does it make Alone In the Dark (2008) look better?

I read an excellent article on Kotaku this morning by Luke Plunkett.  It's called "What Are You Looking For In A Video Game?"  Luke's preferences are quite similar to mine (Luke, are you my doppelganger?), and I highly recommend this article, if for nothing else than to get you to think about why you like the games you do like.

 This brings me to the obvious question: What are you looking for in a video game?  Let's play a little game of "Show me yours and I'll show you mine" shall we?  I'll be sharing mine in my post on Wednesday (5/19).
  After I sleep off my Geek Day video game induced hangover a bit.  On Thursday (5/20), I'll be sharing more about the tabletop survival horror role-playing game I'm working on.

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Alone In Bright Falls - Hoping Alan Wake Lives Up To The Hype

See More Alan Wake Screenshot at IGN.com

I don't play video games nearly as often as I'd like to be able to.  On top of the demands of normal life, my day job has added a little extra pressure lately.  There's also the writing.  Let's face it.  Right now, the writing is far more important than gaming.  I'm working on the game I've been writing about here on Geekcentricity.  I've got at least one other project on the back burner, simmering away, getting a few notes and such every now and then, but since the game is starting to really come to to a "rolling boil" in my brain, it's been getting the bulk of my writing attention.  Then there's this place.  I'm still here.  Still writing things other than the game.  And posting them here on Geekcentricity.  But I can see things gravitating.  Most things have been tying back to the game.  Even when I write about something else, I still see the relationship.  I'm okay with that.  I know that it will come back around.  I do cycles.  Since you're strapped in for the ride here, you might as well get used to it.  It'll make the trip must more pleasant.

Where were we?  Oh yeah... video games.

There are a couple of games I'm really looking forward to.  One of them is a game that's been scaring the hell out of me even though it doesn't come out for another 10 days.  It is a horror-themed game, but that's not what's been scaring me.  I'm scared because this game has the potential to be either phenomenal or really, really bad.  The game is Alan Wake.

I know.  The developer, Remedy Entertainment, isn't calling it a horror game.  They're calling it an "action thriller."  Even so, it still looks like it can pack a pretty good scare.  I just hope it works.  Sure, Remedy has the Max Payne games on its corporate resume.  But this game just looks like it's going to break a lot of rules.  That can be a good thing, or it can be something that the XBOX 360 audience is just not ready for, even if they do everything right.

The narrative structure of the game is arranged into episodes like a television series.  It's even said to have been inspired by television series like Twin Peaks, Lost, and X-Files.  I won't go too far into the setting or plot of the game other than to say it is set in a seemingly idyllic small town (Silent Hill anyone?) where the protagonist has gone to break out of a funk-inspired writer's block.  His wife disappears (Silent Hill again?) and he begins searching all over town to find out what's going on.  Except he finds out that he's written a novel that he doesn't remember writing (the game is also inspired by the work of Stephen King - The Dark Half seems to be an influence here).  And the horror novel that he wrote, but doesn't remember?  Well, it starts coming to life.

I can't wait to play this game.  It's been in development for years (first announced at E3 in 2005).  It has an ESRB rating of "Teen."  Those things scare me as much as any game content I've seen.  Not that a game has to be rated "Mature" to be good, but it's a horror... errr, I mean action thriller game.  I just associate the genre with some gore and the accompanying "Mature" ESRB rating.  Still, everything I've seen from this game looks incredible, so I'm stoked about it.  Let's just hope it's not another Alone In The Dark (2008).

Video Games | Alan Wake | Accolades Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

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12-Bar Blues In the Key of Some Psycho Is About To Rip My Face Off... and Eat It

Here's the situation:

You're on your way home from work.  It's rush hour and traffic is backed up as far as you can see because some idiot was paying more attention to his cell phone than to the car in front of him and now, two lanes of traffic are squeezing into a single lane to get around the fender bender.  You keep looking at the clock on the dash because it's already getting close to 6:00 p.m. and you are supposed to have a table full of gamers looking at you for their weekly fix of role-playing goodness in about an hour.  Normally, you spend some time during the week preparing for your weekly sessions, but this week you've been slammed at work, the kids needed help with homework, or the dog had fleas, or whatever.  Your slack ass didn't get the prep work done and now you're brain dead from a day in the coal mines and you have a deadline.  You can't jab that role-playing needle right into their junkie brains if you don't figure something out, and quick.

I really don't know if you've ever been in that kind of circumstance, but I damn sure know I've been there, done that.  Unfortunately, my gaming group can vouch for me on this one.  Sometimes I need something... some kind of framework to help my already tapped-out brain get jumpstarted for a session.  Sure, there are published adventures out there, but I usually run an on-going campaign and it still takes lot of work and preparation to fit them in there.  If I run a published adventure, it's never right out of the box.  It's usually heavily customized, almost to the point of unrecognizability.  If I haven't finished that work, I can't use it.

Though I don't play nearly as often as I should, I'm a musician.  I love to play some jazz.  I'm comfortable improvising, but man I need some changes.  Throw out some chord changes and give me a rhythm section to lay it down for me and I'm good to go.  In the above situation, what I really need are some chord changes.  I need the gaming equivalent of some good old 12-bar blues so that I can lay down some riffs.  Thankfully, those types of things exist.  There are actually a bunch of them out there on the market, whether for download as PDF's or to buy as hard copies from either an online retailer or your FLGS.  Since I usually run modern horror games, I need to find products that are geared towards that genre.  Say, 12-bar blues in the key of some psycho is about to rip my face off... and eat it.

Two of the products I have found extremely useful in this regard are 100 Horror Adventure Seeds and 100 Dark Places by Postmortem Studios. You can download them as PDF files from RPGNOW for a pretty good price ($7.50 each)  Hopefully you find them useful as well - after all, why else would we be having this little show and tell?  Okay, so I'll be honest.  I'll level with you here.  Lean in.  They're offering up some of their role-playing goodness for me to shoot directly into my brain just for sharing this with you.  Have I sold out?  Maybe.  Do I want to get free stuff?  Of course!  I promise that after I receive it and read it, I'll tell you all about it.  I'll let you live vicariously.

What do these products do?  They lay down some solid chord changes that you, as gamemaster, can improvise on with fairly little prep time.  Each product lays out 100 story starters for you to take off with.  They're easily good for a night of gaming and many of them, if you're players are digging what you're laying down, can spin off into either recurring encounters or an on-going scenario.

In 100 Horror Adventure Seeds, each "seed" is conveniently laid out on its own page.  This makes it easy to print out just the page you need for that night's gaming session.  There's lots of negative space around the text, with simple illustrations (or no illustration) and clear margins.  This way, you can write all over the page.  There's plenty of space to make notes, take food orders, or whatever you want.  Each "seed" consists of a description of the event, location, antagonist, or circumstance that forms the basis of the "seed", followed by a number of potential twists.  You can incorporate any of these twists as desired, combine them, or use none of them.  The "seed" then concludes with an epilogue that sets out some of the conditions for resolution, some possible outcomes, and often some potential for taking things further.

100 Dark Places is very similar, but each story starter/plot hook is based around some version of the archetypal "bad place" that is so common to horror gaming.  Like in the previous title, the places are each laid out on their own page.  The margins are smaller on this one, with less room for notes and such, because the pages are crowded with text.  While this takes away some writing space for you, it gets a lot more juicy information on each page for you to use.  Hey, write on the back... or borrow some paper from your kid's school notebook (or your own, if you're still in school).  Each place starts out with a description that is followed by a section called "The Horror."  This section explains what is so dark or scary about the place.  After "The Horror" there is a layout of the place, but no map. While the inclusion of a map would've been nice, it would make for an unrealistically long product.  I use floor plan websites and real estate sites as the source for most of my maps, so it shouldn't be too hard to come up with a map if you or your players feel the need for one.  After the layout, there are three brief stories about each place that you can easily expand into at least a full gaming session, if not longer.  The stories are easily combined with each other, or you can go off on your own and throw your own story creation into the mix.

If you run horror games, check out the links above and take a look at these excellent products.  If you do, or if you already have, please let me know what you think.

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May the 4th Be With You, But I Need a Fifth

I know that I wrote a post only a few days ago that was basically a link dump, but here I go again.  I wish I had time for more today, but this is going to be one of those weeks where time is at a premium for me and I'm choosing to spend a good chunk of what little writing time I have this week working on the crunchy bits for the still-untitled tabletop rpg I'm developing.

My starting point for those rules is a framework called Fudge (which used to be called FUDGE, but is now "new and improved" with fewer capital letters - by "new" I mean about 10 years ago).  You can follow the link above to see what Fudge is all about.  I'll be using the Fudge SRD as my jumping off point (actually, I'm using this PDF of the SRD) and completely customizing Fudge, a bit like the guys over at Evil Hat did for the excellent looking new Dresden Files RPG, but I'll be going in a much different direction (they created a new system based on Fudge called FATE).  You can do that with Fudge, since it's more like a framework than an actual ruleset.  It allows you to build a ruleset out of that basic framework without tying you down.  A huge bonus is that it is royalty-free and completely OGL compatible, thus easy to license and customize.

As far as the game goes, I am still sans title, but otherwise, things are rolling along rather smoothly (other than my huge lack of time to write - damn that day job!)  Yesterday, I received some awesome fan art from someone I've been gaming with for a long time.  I also exchanged emails with someone about potentially doing the art for the game (I know that's a long way down the road, but it felt right).  Hopefully it will work out because she's really good, likes where I'm going with this game, and I'm giving her a free plug right here.

Since art really has the power to set the mood for a story, or even a game, I went looking for some art that I could share here that captured my "shift-world" of Morior.  Here is one to get you in the mood (wink, wink):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/subzeroconsciousness/ / CC BY 2.0

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo, which I think is Spanish for "get really drunk" and is somehow in direct competition with St. Patrick's Day, which is Irish code for "get really drunk."  That means today is that very special holiday known as Intergalactic Star Wars Day. So, "May the 4th be with you."  Which, coincidentally is Geek code for "get really drunk."  Happy holidays, everyone!  Please check out the posts on my game development and keep the feedback coming!

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Selling Them The Farm: Growing NPC's With Personality

Let me warn you again.  This is going to be another post about tabletop rpg's.  If you want something else to read, how about the 10-year deal that Bungie and Activision just signed.  Take THAT Infinity Ward!  Or, the always incredible Gameplaywright take on the NEW Sam Fisher for all you Splinter Cell fans.  If you like that, take a look at the Gamasutra article.  We'll be right here when you get back.

So, you're a tabletop gamer.  I'm a tabletop gamer.  You run games.  I run games.  Call it DMing (I like that because of my awesome initials), GMing (also works with my initials), Storytelling, Refereeing, whatever.  You're the guy behind the screen (even if you don't use a screen).  No matter how often you get together for gaming, everybody pulls out their dice and character sheets and looks at you.  No pressure.  After all, you've got a great adventure planned for the session and you're ready to rock 'n' roll!

Except, when they ignore your hook and do something you hadn't planned for.

Once, the party was out in the woods, looking for the ruins of an old monastery where is was rumored that the monks had all gone crazy and turned on each other.  After wandering through dense undergrowth for hours without a lead, the parts stumbles onto an old trail.  Suddenly, a bent old man in tattered robes appears out of the trees some ways down that trail and begins shouting gibbering nonsense at the party before scampering off into the woods down the old trail.  How did the players respond?  They ignored it, and the trail, and kept moving in the same direction with a collective shrug.  They eventually found the place, and realized that the trail the old man disappeared down would have led them there with much less effort.  This incident led to my players joking for years that they needed the spell "Detect Plot Device."

We've all had it happen.  And there are a million articles out there for advice on what to do when it happens.  This isn't necessarily one of them.

Since I run mostly modern horror-themed games, when the players miss a string of clues or ignore the obvious, it runs the risk of completely destroying the atmosphere you've been building by increasing the dramatic tension towards an event or encounter.  Sometimes the players just need a break from the tension and will send their characters out for a night on the town, go interviewing NPC's you didn't think of when you envisioned how they were going to find the "Cannibal Killer" or just plain do something you never expected.  In many cases, these sidetracks involve NPC's.  Whether it means interviewing the guy at the Oriental Market on 5th Street, hiding out in a crowd of revelers at a Cinco de Mayo fiesta, or hanging out in the club where the killer stalks his/her/its victims, you may very quickly find yourself in serious need of some generic NPC's.  In case your game of choice uses different terminology, here I use the term NPC to mean "non-player character" or a character that you, as gamemaster (again, an arbitrary term), control.

Personally, I like all of my NPC's to have personality.  I don't like the party wandering through a scene filled with cardboard cut-out throwaways.  Sometimes, I introduce an NPC on the fly that I think I'll never use again, and the party likes him, or keeps going back to him for information, or just enjoys torturing the shit out of the guy for some perverse reason.

Over the years, I've come up with a system of organization... actually, system is FAR too generous a term for what this is.  This is more like... a mnemonic NPC's for dummies device that still helps me to categorize my NPC's and select the right type of personality out of my head for a given situation.  I like to call it:

Selling Them the Farm

A Guide to Growing NPC's With Personality

Let's talk about farm animals.  No, not in THAT way, you sick bastard!  I'm talking about taking some cues from George Orwell and thinking of NPC's as farm animals.  If we classify some basic NPC types into farm animal categories, it helps us pull up the right personality when the need arises.  Yes, there are a ton of stereotypes here, but my NPC's have never organized a protest or uprising about it.  Here are some of the NPC animals on my farm:

• Cows:  Correctly or not, we often see cows as dumb, slow creatures.  The Cow NPC may not be dumb at all, but he/she is deliberate.  The Cow NPC is a thinker who takes time to make decisions and often can, through inactivity, stand in the way of the players when decisive action is needed.  An example of the Cow NPC is the small-town bureaucrat who has to consider how he will look to his voters before cooperating, or even hindering the party; in a crowd scene, the Cow NPC may be rooted to the spot by indecision on whether to run, hide, fight, or shit her pants.  That latter may happen no matter what, but the Cow NPC may have to be rescued (or not) by the players as she just stands there, despite any apparent danger.  She may even be clueless as to the existence of said danger.  Alternatively, Cow NPC's may also be the oblivious fans at a concert who don't know enough to get out of the party's way when they are chasing the villain or his henchmen through the club.  They may also object to being violently shoved out of the way by the party and resolutely stand their ground, ignoring prudence or common sense.

• Bulls:  Bull NPC's often charge through their scenes with little or no seeming regard to the consequences.  This may or may not be stupidity.  It may just be that taking the direct approach is the only way the Bull NPC knows how to handle himself.  Quite the opposite of Cows, Bulls waste no time making decisions, often making them before they have all the facts about a given situation.  A Bull NPC may think nothing about making unfounded accusations against the party ("Them Zombies didn't start showin' up until you folks came around!") or rushing off to deal with something that is totally out of his league.  Another example of a Bull NPC could be the business magnate who attempts to run the Villain's upstart company out of business, without bothering to learn that in every town t which the company has expanded, people who've tried that have gone missing.  In a crowd scene, the overconfident Bull is likely to charge the villain, causing the party to have to consider the option of saving him, or the Bull may try to organize the crowd to mount an impromptu defense.  Which leads to:

• Sheep:  Sheep NPC's are characters that follow directions without question, often en masse.  The starry-eyed teenaged groupies that practically worship the villainous lead singer of a Vampiric band are an example of Sheep NPC's.  Congregants who blindly adhere to the tenets of of a cult despite the disappearances of their friends and family members are Sheep NPC's.  On the other hand, a group of thugs who will do anything their gang leader says to avoid looking weak, or an elite fighting unit who believe they are doing the right thing by enforcing all of their tyrannical commander's draconian laws are also Sheep NPC's.  Also, Sheep don't have to be found in groups.  Sheep make great Vampiric thralls.  A lone sheep could attempt to seduce or murder a party member at the behest of her master.  In a crowd scene, the Sheep NPC's are either obediently doing whatever the most charismatic and in-control character tells them, or are fleeing en masse towards the most obvious exit or point of safety.  In such scenes, a large group of Sheep NPC's can serve to block an escape route or obscure lines of fire.  Or they could just make the possibility of civilian casualties go through the roof.  Which brings us to:

• Lambs:  It's an old cliche, but "like lambs to the slaughter" is a universal phrase.  Sometimes it might be  necessary to turn Sheep NPC's into Lambs.  That group running for the exit?  They just happen to be right in front of it when the grenade meant for the party rolls through that door.  A potential Lamb NPC might also be alone.  He may be that small child that that will die if the party chases down the villain instead of pulling him off the edge of the cliff.  Generally, I look at any NPC that exists only to die (or potentially die) a horrible death, or even suffer grievous injury in service of the story.  They work even better if you let players get comfortable, or better yet, emotionally close to them.  Let a character start dating Lamb NPC, or the mother of a Lamb.

• Chickens:  Chicken NPC's are scared of their shadows, or even overly pessimistic.  "There is never any hope" (Chicken Littles) or "We must abandon the town tonight" (Boneless Chickens) are statements made by Chicken NPC's.  An example of a Chicken NPC is the town elder who secretly sells out the party to their enemies in exchange for him agreeing to leave the town alone.  In crowd scenes, Chicken NPC's can be like Sheep NPC's but instead of having a sort of group mind, they scatter in all directions at once, seriously disrupting lines of fire and escape routes.  Chickens may cling to party members and beg to be saved, hanging on to them for dear life and restricting their movement.

• Hens:  Not really related to Chickens, Hen NPC's are the town gossips and rumormongers.  Hens are great sources of information for the party, but are just as likely to spread information back to their arch-nemesis just because they can't resist sharing a juicy piece of gossip... and maybe sowing a little creative discord.

• Roosters:  Again, not related to Chicken NPC's, Roosters are the dominant alphas in the NPC community.  A Rooster NPC may take control of a group of Sheep and create all kinds of havoc, sometimes causing the players to think that the Rooster is really the Villain, when he may just be a misguided high school quarterback encouraging his entourage to slip laxatives into the school milk supply just to have a little fun.  The local television newscaster can be a good example of a Rooster NPC.  The townsfolk respect him and will listen to him in a crisis situation, if only the party can convince him to broadcast the right news.

• Chicks:  I know.  This one is horribly sexist, but if it makes you feel any better, Chick NPC's can be male as well.  The Chick NPC is there are eye candy, or a potential dating pool, possibly to be later turned into a Lamb.  These NPC's can turn into an interesting distraction, or lead the party to other NPC's or hooks.  Think of the typical beautiful Chick that always seems to walk into the private dick's office with a problem in all those noir stories.  In a crowd scene, the Chick could be the hometown hero (former football star turned war hero turned local boy who made good) that the party convinces to calm the Sheep before tragedy strikes.  Chicks can be self-sufficient like the prior example, or helpless potential Lambs.  Whatever it is, there is something about the Chick that the party finds irresistible.  They just feel compelled to love and/or protect the Chick.  Cute kids can also be used as Chick NPC's.  Kids say the damnedest things and the Chick could be that adorable and informative NPC that the party just wants to protect, and pinch his cheeks.

• Pigs:  I hate to upset the pork farmers, but when I say Pig NPC's I mean NPC's with less than stellar ulterior motives.  The Pig  NPC may be a corrupt mayor who is willing to sell out his constituency to allow the Villain to run a highway right through the middle of town, in exchange for some compensation or course.  The Pig NPC almost always is more than just misguided.  He is filled with questionable morals and shady ideas.  In a crowd scene, the Pig NPC wants to do whatever it takes to ensure his personal safety or benefit, no matter what happens to everybody else.  He may take control of the Sheep and use them as human shields, or at least hide among them to make sure that he gets on the first lifeboat.

• Donkeys/Jackasses:  The Donkey NPC, or Jackass if you prefer, just seems to act out of spite, usually towards the party.  This NPC just seems to have some kind of vendetta out for the party, a chip on his shoulder, or some grudge.  He isn't the villain, just a minor (or possibly major) annoyance, that seems to show up at disadvantageous times for the party.  He takes offense when the party phrases a question the wrong way during an investigation.  The NPC that one of the characters is dating may be the ex-boyfriend of a Jackass NPC.  She may later show up to embarrass this character publicly, or pay a Sheep NPC to slash her tires.  The stubborn Jackass NPC may show up in a crowd scene with a group of Sheep and try to prevent the party from escaping, possibly turning into a potential Lamb NPC when the Super Villain shows up and the Jackass is trapped between the party and their nemesis.  Will the party save this annoying NPC or let her death buy them some time to escape.

• Goats:  Goats are the downtrodden of the NPC world.  Often misunderstood or misrepresented, Goat NPC's always seem to be taking the blame when something goes wrong, or taking the fall when an unthinking Bull, a careless Rooster, or spiteful Jackass needs someone to go down in his place.  Goat NPC's can be lovable losers, or they can bring all their misery on themselves and deserve everything they get.  An example of a Goat NPC is the town drunk who gets hauled in as a precaution anytime the local sheriff even smells a misdemeanor.  Another Goat may be the spooky old man who lives in the creepy house on top of the hill.  The local kids are always telling stories about how he cooked and ate his family, but they were really all killed by the game's Villain, even though nobody believes him.  In a crowd scene, the Goat may end up being used as a human shield by the Jackass who was is now trapped between the Villain and the party.

• Horses:  These reliable NPC's are the ones the players will end up turning to time and time again to help them when the chips are down.  These Horse NPC's often help pull the story along, sometimes dragging the party forward by providing clues, information, resources, etc.  These horses are often likable (to get the players to remember them and want to go back to them), but can be snarky and have a superiority complex ("Don't yell at me, Wilbur.  I'm not your wife." - Mr. Ed), but have something that the party needs or wants that keep them coming back for more.  Horses are usually reliable and some can be used to assist the party, even in a fight.  These horses can be useful allies in crowd scenes, such as the likable grocery store manager the players enlist to help them lead the Sheep to safety before the villain arrives.

That's my stable of NPC's.  Or my barn, whatever.  I hope you find this helpful when trying to come up with NPC's that you can use to keep your game interesting and on-track (or at least interestingly off-track).  Let me know what you think.  If you have any more animals for the NPC Farm, let me know that as well.

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Laying the Cornerstone of Concept - Building an RPG, pt. 1

Let me go ahead and warn you now.  If you've never played a tabletop role-playing game, you may not be incredibly interested in this.  We can fix that.  Give me a call.  I'll get you playing in no time.  It's what's best really.  Join us.  Or go find something to do while we talk about gaming.  Don't worry.  I'll give you something tasty soon.  Go ahead and scurry off now.

Now that we're alone...

This is the first step in a potentially long walk off the proverbial short pier and into unknown waters.  There are things swimming down there.  Cold, slimy things with unnatural shapes.  Possibly dead things.  Waiting to get their hands on us.

I've been telling you that I wanted to write a tabletop role-playing game.  Before you stop me: I know.  I don't want to do it to become rich and famous.  I know that it isn't sitting on my ass all day, shaking the money tree.  I know that writing is hard work.  Believe me.  Why do I want to write an rpg?  I want to write an rpg because there is an rpg I want to play that hasn't, to the best of my knowledge, been written yet.  I want to write an rpg because I have a game in my head.  I know what I want out of a game and I haven't completely found it yet.  Sure, there are some games that come close, but nothing that wins the prize.  I know there isn't a perfect system or game.  I just want to write the game I want to play.

The crazy part is: I want to do a good bit of that process right here.  On Geekcentricity.  This post is the first in this ongoing series.  Expect more of them from time to time as things take shape.  Don't worry, my normal inane ramblings will continue.  This will be supplementary.  Think of it as a carrot, or an easter egg, for those of you that are tabletop gamers.  This first installment deals with concept.

The Concept

I'm a sucker for a good scare.  I wrote a book report in 2nd grade about The Amityville Horror  by Jay Anson.  Hoax or not, that book scared the shit out of me.  I've been hooked ever since.  Unfortunately, I've never found a horror game that gave me the best of what I loved about horror.  Call of Cthulhu is close, but too hopeless even for my taste.  Also, it's more cosmic in scale than what I am looking for.  The most popular horror role-playing games are probably the World of Darkness games published by White Wolf.  Their system is one of the best I've played.  The individual games however, are concerned with the player characters taking the roles of monsters.  Believe me, I know the whole "He who fights monsters" thing.  I think Hunter: the Vigil  is probably one of the closest concepts I've seen to what I want to do.

So, what is my concept?  The term that describes it most closely is borrowed from video games.  I want to write a survival horror  rpg.  Generally, I want it to be set in modern times, but I want it to be flexible enough to accommodate   settings from at least the middle ages up to the futuristic (a la Alien or Dead Space).  I want the characters to be ordinary people thrown into extraordinary circumstances.  The players won't be playing characters who have superpowers or sparkly vampire characters.  

I want  the characters to be isolated and surrounded by the unknown.  In the Silent Hill  series of video games (as well as the movie), the main characters always find themselves isolated with few, if any, friends or allies.  They are trapped in a small area with no known means of escape.  Visibility is limited by a thick fog or mist (also used in Ravenloft  and very effectively in Steven King's novella and subsequent movie, The Mist ).  They are constantly low on resources.  They are surrounded by mystery.  Many of the challenges they have to overcome are more than just physical tests.  There are many mental challenges as well.  To me, this world defines the survival horror genre.

Unfortunately, I need a concept statement that describes the game concisely, preferably in one sentence instead of a 5 paragraph essay.  This is the first challenge.  

How about this:

The player characters are ordinary people, cut off from the world they know and forced to live off their wits and survival skills in a world where all of their worst nightmares seem to have come to life.

There it is.  Let me know what you think.  Seriously.  I NEED CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK, people.  Get to it, my minions.  Even if it's not your favorite genre, or even if you're not a gamer (GASP! Congratulations for making it this far), tell me what you think.

The next installment will talk about setting/synopsis.  I will attempt to elucidate upon the concept above.

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