Semi-automatic

I have noticed something when I was writing the Draeckenberg LARP characters:

I am horribly inefficient with words. Not that this is a shocking conclusion for me, I have always known that I am not a good writer. But I always tend to use too many words.

Some people, especially experienced writers and storytellers, wield language as a surgical knife. They carve their way through their story with miniature precision, never using more than they need but always getting to the point they want to make. And then there is the way I tend to use language. I use language as a machine gun. I just blurt out what I am thinking at the time, spraying my words all over the place and meanwhile I pray to hit my target.

Normally this is not a problem. Quantity somewhat makes up for lack of quality and eventually I manage to get my point across. But it does become a problem when I am trying to be precise and cohesive like when I am trying to write a LARP. People do not want to read my rambling, they want to see and feel their character. And the same goes for other bits of text that I am writing for other people.

Ironically, there is only one solution to this problem I guess; write more! With more experience, comes more feel for the medium. I will never be able to wield a surgical knife, but I might be able to learn to use short controlled bursts of fire instead of doing a full all out attack towards the target of my message.

English Spoken

I guess most of the people who read this (All four of them!) know what it is like to be a dutch roleplayer. We read the english books, post on the english-speaking boards and then progress to do our game in dutch, which is filled with english terms.

This behavior hasn't really bothered me before. When a Dutchman has to deal with a person who speaks another language, we always try to speak their language, instead of sticking to our own, and even when the conversation breaks down due to linguistic troubles, we switch to english instead of attempting to do so in dutch. It isn't just because we try to be helpful, it is also because no one understands dutch and the Dutch are just really proud of their multi-langual nature. An american friend of mine, who lives here in the netherlands, actually has to devote a week of every month specifically to the dutch language, because without "Nederlandse week" we would all just keep on speaking english to him.

And then there is the roleplay hobby. Most books are in english, so then we end up using english terms in our roleplaying games. It is not unusual to hear things like "Dat is dan twaalf damage." or "Hij gebruikt een contract." But where to draw the line between English and Dutch?

The reason why I am writing this is because I got my hands on the preview from the Eindhoven LARP yesterday. Their new setting is a gaslight fantasy social LARP set in a place called High Britain. Groovy.

But what made most people frown was not the great setting, it was the language of the document. It was writting completely in english. The problem with dutch people writing things in english is that you always notice. (Just read this post, I am quite sure you can find a few sentences that only a dutch person would use.) Sabrina actually thought it was quite bothersome to read the document and I had to agree. I would have done it in dutch, the players are dutch, why bother doing it in english? Or would I actually have done it in dutch if it were my document?

I then realised that I was being a hypocrite. I am currently working on my own Iron Kingdoms session, and it will have quite a bit of fluff written down. And I was going to do it all in english. And I can understand why I was going to do it too. I mean, things just don't look official in dutch for some reason. The dutch are actually scared of dutch roleplaying games because the few attempts to translate things into dutch are just horrible and leave a dirty taste in your mouth when you try to read the linguistic-frankensteins that the translators have created.
But more importantly, english is the international internet language; if you want feedback from the internet, you'd better write everything down in english. And you could translate everything you have written in dutch into english, but then we get back to the awkward translation problem and a lot of double work.

So now I am stuck at an impasse, should I put my money where my mouth is, and actually try to write it all in dutch and just hope that I don't need international feedback, or should I just accept that our hobby is english-centered and that we will just have to embrace our international nature, accepting all the awkward english sentences that we make?

And yes, I know I am even more of a hypocrite by doing this blogpost in english...

The essential part of updates

Although this is mostly a post to get back into the Dungeons and Dragons mood, it is also a post to express my thoughts on a subject that has been (once again) been causing controversy among the Dungeons and Dragons players.

Well…controversy. I was a bit too new to roleplay to remember the transition between 3.0 and 3.5, but as far as I remember, a lot of DnD player were shouting fire and brimstone as they saw all their hard-earned books become useless by a rules update. And now there are the DnD essentials.

Yesterday I purchased the first two DnD essentials books. I already knew that I wanted to get the rules compendium; WotC has just been releasing way too many errata on my existing books for me to keep up with them all. So a book which has all these little rules updates together under one cover and on top of that explains some of the mechanics a little clearer. I also purchased the other book, Heroes of the Fallen Lands out of a morbid kind of curiosity. This book includes five “subclasses” for the cleric, fighter, rogue and wizard. These classes are basically easier to create and play than the normal versions of these classes. Further, it also contains some of the information from the PhB but, just like the rules compendium, this information has been condensed and rewritten to be more comprehensible.

Anyway, the controversy that is once again going all over the internet is that this is DnD 4.5. They fear that these products will oversimplify the game, and ruin the game forEVAR. I have to disagree. In the dark years of the transition between DnD 3.0 and 3.5 Wizards promised to keep the rules of the game compatible, but they didn’t. This time, they once again made this promise. And they actually kept it. The essential classes can exchange abilities and paragon paths with their normal counterparts. Further, these classes can play perfectly along with the normal and more complicated classes. “So why would I want to play a dumbed down class?” Well, you probably don’t want to. But maybe your friend who isn’t really familiar with DnD might. These classes are easier to understand and easier to play. They don’t pose any challenge to experienced players (personally, playing the Knight, one of the fighter paths, would bore me to tears) , but that is not why they are there. And this is not, as a certain Knight would put it “DnD for n00bs”. I mean, it is for new players, but these players are not necessarily idiots, something that the word n00b does imply. What the essential classes DO present is an opportunity for the new players to join the table with the big boys. The Knight is easier to play, but because he is compatible with the other classes, it gives people the opportunity to join the big boys (or girls) table. Basically, what it does, is decrease the learning curve.

But what the essential line does indicate, and this is my main gripe with the whole essential line, is that the medium is getting too old and cannot keep up with the technology. Wizards’ advanced into the 21^st century with the introduction of a serious online component to the experience. The problem is that they got stuck halfway. They are trying to stick to their books, despite them releasing an update every month. Heck, the July update updated almost EVERY single number in the Monster Manual 1 and 2. Because of these regular updates, it has become harder and harder for everyone to remember what has been changed. What I don’t get is that they don’t switch to a completely digital medium. Most people that are into roleplay at least have some kind of internet access. Especially with new gadgets like the Kindle, allowing people to bring their game to table without it being out of date.

I told you I would forget about this thing!

Yep, it says it right there on the tin. I told you before that I would forget about this whole thing in two weeks.

Actually, what really happened was: STUFF. And a LOT of it. I mean, it was just this endless stream of stuff. The introduction, my board stuff, first week of school (actually, I feel lazy when it comes to that). Further, I guess being on the board of a role-playing society really is a lot of work. I partially blame this on us, the board that is, for being new at the whole governing 75 people thing, but also partially on the role-players themselves. When you have a hobby that quite often relies on reading the rules as they are written, this kind of creates a certain way of thinking. So basically, we just have too many rules lawyers ;)

On the other hand, rules are nice, they make things clear. (Un)fortunately the hobby doesn't entirely rely on rules. And neither does being on a board. The rules are there to guide you through the situations, and the situations are there to guide you through the rules. If that makes sense in any way.

Sometimes it would be nice if the rules as written would suffice. Any game would be an awesome game if you could just read these rules, and any decision made by you as a board member would be accepted by everyone. BUT, it would also result in situations where the game would be predictable, or the justice enacted by the rules as written would be unfair towards the members of the society.

Then again, the no rules scenario seems less forable to me. Sometimes this scenario leads to awesome things. During the introduction week I ran several sessions for random first year students that came to visit us during a day where they were introduced to the different culture societies. THE MOST RANDOM things just happened. It was like watching an Old Spice commercial. Non sequitor on top of non sequitor. In some of the other games...less ideal stuff happened; people were bored, were ruining the game for others or it was hard to come up with something exciting. And don't even start with me on what would happen if there were no rules in a student society.

What I am trying to say I guess, it is hard to find that sweet spot between rules and no rules, and then add your own X-factor on top of that. If you can find that X-factor and find the balance, it means that you are in an awesome place where great things happen. Or at least, that is my personal view on things.

And the way I feel right now, both as a role-player trying to run games and as a board member trying to run a society, is that it is hard to find that specific spot. But isn't that what live does to people all the time? It is partially about trying to find the sweet spot, and then adding the X-factor. Unfortunately, there is always a chance to be brought off balance. And I kind of believe is that this is what is taking me by surprise. It sure is exciting, because I have no idea where I will find my next "sweet spot", but on the other hand, it is scary as fuck.

What else was scary was my first one-shot in years. Tonight I ran my first game in err I don’t know, THREE YEARS. I only ran a few sessions before, and this was for this group of Gameforce gamers (no offense, if any of you Gameforce people read this, but it wasn't a fun game, try rerolling your character every 2 sessions for a few months in a row). But I actually ran a friggin GURPS session, a system that I have only played for a few sessions myself. Looking back at that, that is an amazing accomplishment. I managed (together with the help of two experienced GURPS game masters) to tell people a somewhat mildly amusing story. Sure, it was clunky, yes people were left behind at some points, and I messed up. But I managed to run this mildly entertaining game with basically 8 session’s worth of GURPS experience, in a different setting as experience to go from. As one of the players said, it wasn't bad. Yet it doesn't feel so to me. I see so many errors that I made; I lost half my story, made the game drag along at points and I think it is kind of a pity that one of the players that I like as a person was a disappointment as a role-player (but she often says so herself, so I was warned). But I think one of the reasons why I criticize my own game, and maybe also why I also worry about my board membership, is because I haven't found my sweet spot for either, let stand a lone my X-factor.

Or I maybe, I am slowly discovering them, and I just don't see it yet myself. (Damn self-criticism) There is a reason why people like the stuff I do as a board member, and why everyone in my game enjoyed his or her time.