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Is A Love For Reading Tied To A Love Of Historical Strategy Gaming?

S.R. Krol — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:49:00 GMT

As I browsed through the nearly 300+ entries for this year's IGF awards I noticed that there were very, very few historical strategy games. Granted, it's not like there has ever been a huge number entered, but I suppose the massive overall count just made their scarcity even more obvious.

Many of the folks entering in the IGF tend to be on the younger side, honing their coding skills with their entries. As such you just don't see a lot of 18 year olds that just learned BlitzBasic using their newfound skills to make a turn-based historical consim on the Crimean War.

Something that I've been thinking about recently is the role of reading in the generation gap, and how it has affected historical gaming.

I began reading at a young age and my parents encouraged it not only with the usual books but also books on military history. My father would travel a lot and would bring back some book for me on WWII aircraft, or naval battles, or tanks, which made a perfect companion to the weekends of watching World at War or black and white war movies.

Wargaming provided another companion, as I could read about a battle and then actually play the battle. As I met others with similar interests of mine in elementary school I noticed we all shared another common interest: reading.

We were bookworms. We hung out in the school library (yeah, I know...). We traded books amongst ourselves, we spent money at the school book fairs, and our parents would get rid of us on the weekend but no dropping us off at the movies, but at the used book store.

While it was not true that everyone who was a bookworm at our school was into wargaming, it was true that everyone who was into wargaming was also a bookworm. I don't think that was a coincidence.

Amongst schoolkids today are there still bookworms? Considering how information seems to be spiraling down into dumbed-down sound bites, does anyone under 21 still read?

Even our industry is guilty of killing the joy of reading. No one wants manuals anymore, they just want an in-game tutorial.

And so if no one is reading about the battle of the Somme anymore, is it any surprise there aren't any games on the Somme? Does television take up the slack? But heck, even the channels that were once purely documentary driven barely resemble their former selves (History Channel, anyone?).

Is the lack of love for reading another nail in the wargaming coffin?

Worst. Enemy. Ever.

S.R. Krol — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:24:57 GMT

Since trading wood for sheep isn't my idea of a fun game I enjoy games that feature conflict. Something that we gamers never think about though is how important it is to have a worthy foe to make a conflict stimulating. Perhaps it's because the vast majority of our foes are the classic opponents: battle hardened troops of the Third Reich, flesh hungry zombies, or grotesque orcs.

On Halloween night I gathered with my friends for an annual tradition of horror gaming/movie watching. I had recently gotten the Something Wicked expansion for the excellent A Touch of Evil board game and was eager to try it out.

A Touch of Evil is essentially Arkham Horror Lite, which makes the Unspeakable Horror villain in the expansion fit right in. All of us being fans of things that induce sanity loss, we played our first session against it and had a rousing time. Our next session wasn't quite so exciting.

I randomly chose the villain from the expansion's new cast and got the Bog Fiend. The Bog Fiend looks sorta cool, resembling a cross between a Saughin and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and has the interesting ability to cause the regions to sink into the countryside. Once a location is sunken no more adventuring can be done there. This creates a race against time as the heroes need to stop the Bog Fiend before too many areas are out of their reach.

Unfortunately the Bog Fiend only has one minion, a Mosquito Swarm.

Yes, that's right, your brave heroes are now reduced to playing the role of Dale Gribble. You fight bugs. Not even giant bugs. Just a lot of bugs.

How about giant man-eating frogs? Or giant alligators? Or giant ticks? Or will o' wisps?

"Foul fiend, I swear I shall track you to your lair and make you pay for evil ways. If you think you can stop me, send your worst!" A moment later a bug lands and is quickly squashed. Yep, epic conflict going on here.

Ah well, at least the other three villains in the expansion have cool minions.

Weird War Done Right

S.R. Krol — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 02:35:30 GMT

I’m a huge fan of anything in the genre known as Weird War (so named after the old DC comic series combining supernatural/sci-fi/fantasy with military adventure) so I’ve been anxiously awaiting Raven’s follow up to their Return to Castle Wolfenstein. The sequel, simply titled Wolfenstein, has been out for about a week but I’ve only gotten to start into it last night. While not too far along I will say that so far it’s flat out brilliant and by far the best shooter Raven has produced.

What makes it so damn good is the fact that this time around Raven actually embraced the Weird War vibe right from the get-go. The problem with RtCW was that for 90% of the game it felt like a very conventional WWII Nazi killing shooter. Wolfenstein very quickly dumps you into the occult, introducing a parallel dimension that co-exists with our dimension (sorta like From Beyond, right down to nasty floaties, but without a leather clad Barbara Crampton). You can travel into and out of the dimension via a magical amulet, which also provides the player with certain magical effects such as the now requisite slow mo. There’s also some really great anti-gravity effects keyed into the dimensional energy that look great.

Other nice features include a central hub location, mission selection from the hub, and a purchasable weapon upgrade system based around earning cash while completing missions. Health packs have been ditched in favor of the now typical ‘pause that refreshes’ regeneration. Speaking of health I wondered once why Raven didn’t use GHOUL more often and it appears they have done so with Wolfenstein, as enemies can be cut to ribbons and bloody chunks. I think I’ve even seen looping intestines. Interestingly, though id has something to do with it Wolfenstein seems like it was built off the Call of Duty engine right down to how you lob grenades back.

If the occult + Third Reich + massive death and destruction is your bag you will not be the least bit disappointed with Wolfenstein. Amazing, amazing game so far.

Other recommended Weird War:

Secrets of the Third Reich

Incursion

AE-WWII

Airborne/Panzer Grenadier Zombies

Games Workshop: Geniuses Or Bastages?

S.R. Krol — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:18:24 GMT

Way back when Games Workshop actually produced board games. At the time they were sort of the Fantasy Flight of the ‘80s, with games that were generally entertaining with high production values. Over time the board games began to be replaced by miniature gaming, although there was a certain point in which both coexisted. It was during this period that GW gave the world Space Hulk.

Space Hulk is a very basic game wrapped around an awesome theme that everyone can get on board with: the sci-fi bug hunt. With an Aliens rip-off vibe, in Space Hulk armored Space Marines (whose armor provides no protection and hinders their mobility, by the way…ahh, don’t question the Warhammer 40K universe, just go with the flow…) battle vicious aliens on derelict space ships. There are some clever mechanics and thanks to the modular board design Space Hulk is a game with lots of replay value.

Space Hulk went out of print though and became one of the most sought after tabletop games, with prices easily running between two and three hundred dollars. Reprinting Space Hulk would be a license to print money for Games Workshop and yet for the longest time they chose not to do so. But then rumors began circulating about a year ago that there was indeed a reprint in the works. Very little was ever talked about officially until last week when it was confirmed that yes, it is happening, and not only that you’ll be able to get it in weeks. And oh, by the way, it’s a limited run.

Limited edition? The game every gamer wants and it’s a limited edition? What type of sense does that make?

Well, first thing I did was contact my game guy in Wisconsin and make sure he reserved a copy for me. Suddenly, it started to make sense.

What Games Workshop has done by making it a limited edition is create an instant artificial demand for the product. At a MSRP of $99 how many gamers would have sat on the fence, debating on getting the game even though they’ve heard lots of good things about the original? But now that it’s a limited edition, and once the copies out there in distribution channels are gone the game is gone, you can’t wait on the fence. You have to act fast. You have to get in touch with your game guy and get it reserved.

Yet for the most part games are limited editions. They eventually go out of print. Wargames and specialty games go out of print faster than generalized gaming (and admittedly, family games like Monopoly never go out of print). It’s just that they aren’t announced as such. So is Games Workshop trying to create a bigger demand or are they just wanting to let people know that if you wait six months you may not be able to get the new edition?

Panzer General Returns As A Collectible Card Game (?!?)

S.R. Krol — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 01:37:48 GMT

One of my all time favorite computer game series was the Five Star series from SSI, beer and pretzels wargaming at its finest. To this day I still play Pacific General (with all the homebrewed goodies that folks have done since its release). So when I heard today that Ubisoft was doing a new Panzer General game I got excited.

And then I read about it.

Look, it may be a perfectly fine game. I can't say because of course I haven't played it. And the idea of coming out with a board game to complement the computer game is a nice idea. I'm always open to another "lite" conflict game to hit the table. But when I think Panzer General I think of well, Panzer General. Not some electronic collectible card game that bears absolutely NO resemblance to its namesake.

Why in the world are you going to use the Panzer General name? Those that know what Panzer General is will be turned off and alienated, while the folks who aren't aware of the SSI games won't care one way or the other. You don't get anywhere with anyone using that name.

What's next? Watch, EA will release Alpha Centuri 2 and it will be a hidden object game...

F*ck Off Shapnel, I'll Just Steal Your Games Instead!

S.R. Krol — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 02:18:17 GMT

No, this isn’t some sort of public meltdown post. The title refers to how not to win over hearts and minds at customer service. Specifically, recently we had an angry customer who in part said:

Quote:

Thanks for the help. I guess I'm done buying wargames, which is a shame, because the first two I purchased were from you and were very enjoyable. Since your position is unchanging, and your use policy overly restrictive, you can go f*ck yourself, Annette Brooks.

Yep, that’s a good way to handle things. Insult not only customer service but the wife of the owner of the company. Obviously this can only get better from here on out.

So what do you think happened next? If you said, “He’s probably going to talk about how much easier it is to torrent it,” give yourself a cookie.

Quote:

You realise that these files are available illegally, correct? I made the choice to support you by paying for your product, but I could just as easily download your games for free AS MANY TIMES as I want. I would ask you to reconsider your policy so that I will make a similar choice in the future.

Apparently though the torrent sizes are huge and he’s worried that they may contain more than a cracked game (oh come on, take a chance and let the Russian mob have access to all your passwords and accounts!). Yeah, we feel for ya.

The incident stems from someone who needed to reinstall one of our games multiple times in a very short period due to (supposedly) (a) accidentally deleting the original game and (b) then buying a new computer and needing a copy on that. Mind you, he was given the ability to download the game again after his first “deletion”, so what happened between that and the new computer is anyone’s guess.

Now some may see a policy of not allowing multiple downloads as restrictive. Myself, I’ve downloaded products from places that range from one time only downloads to a limited number of downloads so I’ve never seen an issue with it, but I can understand if someone does look at it that way. The thing is though even services that supposedly provide a lifetime of downloads may not always live up to the promise. If a service goes under so does your chance to download. Then there are licensing agreements, as shown by the most recent announcement by GOG:

Quote:

Due to some expiring licenses within the games, Codemasters is obliged to withdraw copies of TOCA Race Driver 3 and Colin McRae Rally 2005 from all sales outlets within a certain time period, which includes GOG.com and its servers. This means that the games won't be available to re-download from your GOG.com account as of August 29th 2009 (TOCA Race Driver 3) and October 29th 2009 (Colin McRae Rally 2005). We know it would be ideal for these games to be available for re-download forever and we're working on this, however we kindly ask you to download the games and back them up on CDs, DVDs or flash drives.

It’s also important to keep in mind that many downloadable products are tied directly into a server based DRM scheme. Ask an Amazon Kindle user who recently lost their Orwell. Yes, Amazon should not have sold those novels in the first place (apparently there was some sort of licensing problem with the publisher), but the fact that Amazon could come into your Kindle and yank your files away on their whim should illustrate that online DRM can be a scary place.

Here at Shrapnel we don’t do DRM other than the occasional key gen that you need to enter at installation (and even then I can’t think of anything but Dominions 3 with that). We allow you to make back up copies of your downloadable purchases (or for that matter of the physical CDs). In fact, we encourage you do to so. Stick it on a CD, or a jump drive. Put it away someplace. Install it on a new computer, a second computer, your wife's netbook. Where ever.

We think our licensing agreement is pretty fair. Users may take their game and install it on any computer they want. There’s none of this BS limited activation checks that the AAA guys use, nor do you ever have to worry about not being able to play your game because our server is having a problem. In return all we ask is that you protect the files your purchased.

That’s what this all boils down to: personal responsibility. We know hard drives can crash. Which is why if someone contacts us politely we’re happy to provide a new download. We know CDs can become damaged. Which is why we will provide replacement disks for a nominal charge. But also understand this comes with the knowledge that we’re not doing this forever. There’s a big difference between being contacted once a year after a purchase for a new download and being asked multiple times in a span of a couple of months.

Look, computer game publishers aren’t evil bloodsuckers. Sheesh, if I lost my toaster in a move do you think GE would send me a new one? How about if I left a newly purchased GPS on the train, do you think the store would give me a new one even if I had the receipt? Just like anything else you buy in this world take reasonable care of your purchases. They are after all yours; this isn’t a rental or a lease. You own the game. Keep them safe.

PC Wargaming Design Risk Aversion

S.R. Krol — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 23:00:22 GMT

When a writer sits down to create a fictional piece they first decide on the method of execution. All concepts can be told in a variety of ways, from very brief poems to massive novels, but which method ultimately needs to complement the original idea. Focusing on a single event may work best as a short story, while focusing on an entire range of events would be best served as a novel.

This is true of really all creative processes. If as an illustrator you have an idea to showcase a lovely spring day you’d want to do it with bright, vibrant colors, right? So you’d chose to paint your idea rather than do a pen and ink drawing. A musician trying to convey emotional loss would look to work in a somber tone. How a film maker uses lighting, perspective, and more all can affect the outcome on the viewer.

Games are no different. Yesterday I had a lot of fun playing The Hell of Stalingrad from Clash of Arms, a card game (there are also counters, but they are used as markers). Expect to see a snapshot review in the next Frag!, our monthly newsletter. (If you don’t already received it sign up here. Besides allowing you to catch up on all the latest events with Shrapnel you can read about current in print wargames and save money with special discounts on Shrapnel products available only for newsletter readers.)

The battle of Stalingrad has been gamed numerous times in many different forms: tactical, strategic, hex based, area based, miniatures…and then within each form several sub-forms. Tactical by way of platoon, tactical by way of squad, tactical by war of individual soldier, et cetera. Each designer chose the way he wanted the game to play based on what the core idea happened to be. Want to showcase the brutal house to house fighting? A skirmish level game would be best. Perhaps you want to make clear why the obsession with Stalingrad damaged the overall effort into Russia…make the game a strategic level one, with Stalingrad occupying a few hexes out of hundreds.

As a card game even before opening the box you should be able to assume a couple of things about The Hell of Stalingrad. One, there will be abstraction. Two, it will play relatively quick.

Card games are inherently abstract because the mechanics don’t allow a great deal of precision. You’re gaming ideas and areas, not fighting from hex 1017 to hex 1118, moving counters. They play quick because usually once you understand what the cards mean you have 90% of the mechanics down. The cards are often the rules, after all.

The Hell of Stalingrad is definitely abstract (and ‘gamey’), but it gets the feel of the battle across. Stalingrad was a slaughterhouse, one in which saw thousands and thousands of troops destroyed (sometimes by their own side!) and as players continually throw units into battle only to see them eliminated a moment later by their opponent’s card, it’s easy to understand the escalation that went on. One of the mechanics in the game revolves around who has what remaining when it comes time to ultimately determine the battle, and so feeding troops into the grinder is simply what you do in order to try and win. Interestingly, in games with specific OOBs and counter mixes players often hesitate at this, being victims of analysis paralysis and the min/max effect.

Now why is it that while in the world of board gaming designers are happy to explore all types of mediums for their messages when it comes to computer gaming designers stick to the tried and true? The possibilities that a computer offers a game designer are amazing, and yet few seem willing to push the boundaries. Not that there’s anything wrong with “classic” gaming styles, just that so much more can be achieved.

Wargaming on the table top has always offered new and exciting methods of play (i.e. the Combat Commander series, Battleground, Bonaparte at Marengo). I wish wargaming on the computer would take more chances.

Is Conquistador By Avalon Hill The Most Brutal Game Ever?

S.R. Krol — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 07:54:27 GMT

During the ‘80s a favorite game of mine was The Seven Cities Of Gold. Like all really good games I easily lost track of time while playing, and entire days would vanish with my exploration addiction. While overall a simplistic game (what can you expect from 48K of RAM?), it was the sense of discovery and open ended gameplay that really kept the midnight oil burning.

Around the same time as I was enjoying Seven Cities I would see Conquistador from Avalon Hill at my FLGS sitting on the shelf. Having been published in ’76 Conquistador was already a fairly old game by that time, but I had no knowledge of the game. I had not seen a review, nor did I know anyone who owned it or even had played it. But in my mind I imagined it would be just as enjoyable as Seven Cities but with the added bonus of opponents.

I never got around to buying Conquistador and over the years whenever I saw a copy I would think briefly on purchasing it but never did. Boy, did a dodge a bullet.

Tonight, after decades of conjuring up visions of how awesome Conquistador must be, I finally got a chance to play it. Okay, actually suffer through it would be more accurate. And even then, it was only five turns. I can only imagine what sitting through its full twenty-one turns would be like.

From one to four players (in our case, three) take on the role of the major powers at the time interested in the New World. Gameplay pretty much goes like this:

Roll for random events. Bad things happen and lots of your people die.

Spend gold to outfit expeditions. Sail expeditions to the New World. Roll some dice and watch lots of your people die.

Stroll around the New World. Roll some dice and watch lots of your people die.

Send ships back to the Old World. Roll some dice and watch lots of your people die.

I was playing Spain, the other players represented England and France. A typical turn would see the three of us building towering stacks of units, only to end the turn with not a unit in sight except for our ship counters. Next turn, we’d do it all over again, although we questioned why anyone would want to explore the New World after the second or third voyage. Let’s see, everyone who goes over dies. Finding gold is difficult, and when you do finally start to mine it you’ve spent so much to reach that point you’re basically taking a loss. All the natives hate you. There is no way to co-exist other than having so much military might in the area they won’t dare rise up.

Conquistador is absolutely brutal in its elimination of units to the point that there’s really no sense in even using the map board. Just keep a stack of units near you and roll some dice each turn, eliminating that many. That’s about as fair as the system in place.

Games with a high mortality rate, such as NetHack, negate that by constantly surprising the player with new things to see and experience, which is what drives the gamer. Conquistador gives you nothing. While players gain victory points for making certain discoveries, ninety percent of the discoveries can be easily achieved within two or three turns of the game starting. There are no surprises in the game, nothing to keep you driving across the New World. If ever a game cried out for a paragraph system or event cards, this is that game.

It’s a shame. The game I had envisioned in my head was a heck of a lot more fun. A remake is being done and what little information there is seems to indicate that a lot of the original mechanics are being completely replaced. Let’s hope that the new one remembers that a game about the Age of Exploration should make the act of exploration fun.

Shrinking Origins

S.R. Krol — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:11:10 GMT

Ogrecave notes that attendance to Origins this year was down a whopping 18% from last year. And while it's easy to blame the current state of the economy I think that becomes too much of a crutch. In fact, as long as your outlook looks pretty stable this is actually a great time to travel. Gas is actually affordable and there are plenty of travel deals to be found.

With an exception here and there, such as the San Diego Comic Con, I think the days of big cons have faded. Thanks largely in part to what the Internet offers conventions are no longer the Mecca that they once were. Cons will never go away, but I think you'll see them becoming more like the early days of gaming cons; smaller and more regional.

It's also worth noting that a number of large publishers such as GMT and Days of Wonder chose not to participate. This is another sign of the times. From a business standpoint cons don't offer a lot. At best you may break even to cover the cost of travel, lodgings, and all the necessary equipment, but typically you'll go red. While it's nice to chat up folks the money can be put to better use elsewhere. Again, blame the Internet. Why bother waiting to announce your next great thing to 10,000 gamers when you can do a Tweet and reach millions?

July 4th. Looking For Something To Do In Atlanta?

S.R. Krol — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:10:07 GMT

Hey, if you live in Atlanta and are looking for some entertainment July 4th I recommend heading down to the Capitol. Starting around 4 my buddy Ed and Mike Martin (best known for Fozzy and Stuck Mojo) will be playing (and I think may even be doing some co-hosting duties) the shindig. Runs until around 9 so you can then head on over to Lenox for the fireworks. I think I’m going to be gaming Saturday afternoon so I won’t be there, but I told them to do some viral marketing for us so if anyone goes make sure they’re doing so! Request from Ed his version of the Weird Worlds theme song.

History Matters. Or Does It?

S.R. Krol — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 03:05:26 GMT

Over at QT3 someone started a thread discussing their surprise that H.G. Wells had written Little Wars, one of the earliest miniature gaming rulesets. Of course preceding Wells was John Frederick Thomas Jane (you know him as the guy who started Jane’s All The World’s Fighting Ships) and his naval miniature wargaming rules published circa 1898. And before that was the Prussians with their Kriegsspiel, and before that were wargames created in the 1600s and 1700s.

I’m always surprised when a gamer isn’t aware of Little Wars, it seems like it should be such common knowledge. I remember a couple of years ago I was talking to a friend who had just discovered a game store near where he lived called Little Wars. At first he thought it was just some sort of goof on the fact that miniature gaming used little pieces but then he learned that the shop owner named the store after Wells’ book and thought that was the coolest thing since Lou Zocchi created the d7. Much to his disappointment I didn’t share his enthusiasm because well, it wasn’t a surprise to me.

How important is the history of gaming to gaming itself? I mean whether you know about Little Wars or not has absolutely zero impact on what you play today, or what you will play. A kid discovering miniature gaming by playing in a pick up Warhammer game at his FLGS isn’t at a loss if he doesn’t know the pedigree. Just like to enjoy a movie you don’t need to be an expert on the silent film era, or the fact that appreciation of your local neighborhood band doesn’t require you to know the impact of the Beatles on popular music.

To me gaming history is somewhat important and represents more than just trivia. Since all gaming essentially “borrows” from what has come before knowing how mechanics evolved can be informative, although this is more useful when talking about the nuts and bolts of gaming. And consider that from a pure conversational standpoint being able to tap a vast reservoir of gaming knowledge is better than dipping into a shallow pool, right?

Should gamers strive to learn the hobby’s history? Or is that only important to the obsessed?

Storming Paradise Ends/The Tankies

S.R. Krol — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:21:42 GMT

Storming Paradise, the six issue series from Wildstorm about Operation Downfall, just wrapped up. While the issue is pretty satisfying the ending itself leaves something to be desired. Not that it’s a bad ending per se; it definitely is different from MacArthur’s War or 1945 (of course neither had a German a-bomb). The problem is that it’s a somewhat open ending. Good if they intend to follow this up with another series continuing the action. Bad if they don’t.

The third Battlefields series is out. “The Tankies” primarily follows the inexperienced crew of a Churchill shortly after the initial D-Day landings as the Allies attempt to break out. Losing their commander (who gets his head blown off during an artillery barrage) a veteran tanker originally from Newcastle takes over. Instead of allowing the reader to simply imagine his accent Ennis makes you slog through his lines, which can sometimes be rather annoying. Take this:

Quote:

Oh aye, ah bet we’d gan like the fookin’ clappers. An’ al git kilt afore gannin’ anoother two mile. The hedges alang them lanes are ten foot high, mostly hard earth wi’ roots al tangled oop in it. Jerry sites soom bastard s.p. goon doon there an’ we won’t be gittin’ oot of ‘is way in a hoorry. An’ if we dee git through the hedge, we’ll be showin’ oor belly to watever hun’s waitin’ on t’other side wi’ a panzerfaust. Exit one chorchill stage left. This bocage is ****e tank coontry. Dia-fookin’-bolical. So ye just leave the thinkin’ to me, al ret, dreever?

I think my spell checker just exploded. So yeah, any time the CO talks you pretty much lose your reading rhythm but at the same time I’ve noticed the more you read the easier it is to pick up on his speech pattern.

Lots of great violent battle scenes and fun stuff like the problem of having a squished corpse stuck to your tank’s tread.

Into The Storm by Taylor Anderson

S.R. Krol — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:50:00 GMT

Taylor Anderson’s Into The Storm is one of those books that don’t benefit from a one sentence summary. Two WWII USN destroyers go through a wormhole and end up fighting alongside intelligent lemurs against evil lizardmen. Sounds like The Final Countdown reimagined by a furry, right? Thankfully the art of story telling is rarely about the story itself (let’s face it, you can boil down all the great and popular works to simplistic and uninspiring overviews) but how well the tale is told.

Anderson, who teaches history in Texas and also is a gunmaker and forensic ballistic archaeologist, does a fine job at crafting his story. The book opens shortly after the Battle of the Java Sea. We are introduced to the USS Walker, an old WWI four stacker destroyer, and her crew as they escort the HMS Exeter in an attempt to run the Japanese gauntlet and make it to Ceylon. Also acting as escorts are two more US destroyers, Pope and Mahan, along with a British destroyer the HMS Encounter, all together making up Destroyer Squadron 29.

Under constant observation by Japanese spotter planes the small task force is eventually brought under attack, the Exeter blasted into oblivion while the remaining destroyers continue their attempt to flee to safer waters. Things look about lost when the IJN battlecruiser Amagi is encountered. As a sidenote, the Amagi was in reality never completed after being damaged during an earthquake while under construction. Walker and Mahan were also real destroyers, but Walker was scrapped in December 1941 and Mahan had been scrapped in 1931.

As the remnants of Des Ron 29 come under fire from the Amagi, other IJN warships, and even air power, they make their way into a heavy squall in an attempt to shake their pursuers, a squall which takes them into a parallel earth which humanity never evolved. Instead, the dominant species are a race of evolved raptors (the new, feathery kind) and lemurs (interestingly there is new theory suggesting that lemurs are the missing link). The raptors are called Grik while the lemurs are named by the humans Lemurians. While a more surprising route would be to make the lemurs the bloodthirsty aggressors Anderson takes the obvious route and makes the reptiles the bad guys and the lemurs the good guys.

In this first book (the series is a trilogy and recently the author announced that another trilogy is in the works with the first new book being published next year) the Grik aren’t explored very much. We know that they use 18th century sailing technology (how they acquire it and some other explanations of the interactions of the lemurs and the humans venture into spoiler territory so I won’t discuss that aspect of the story), are extremely dedicated to committing violence, and not only like to kill things but eat them. Besides being practical (no need to worry about supply when your troops simply eat their vanquished enemies) it’s also a pretty good motivator to want to fight against them since few folks enjoy being eaten by lizards.

Lemurian society is examined in much more detail. Essentially exiled from their homeland by the Grik, the Lemurians have become an civilization spread amongst the islands of the South Pacific. Somewhat nomadic, they also travel in large clan ships that are the size of aircraft carriers. These clan ships are essentially floating islands, not the most practical for sailing, but useful for being self-sustaining. I thought it was a sorta neat idea that could be lifted for a fantasy RPG.

Speaking of RPGs gamers make for a very special kind of reader, as having experienced the most bizarre ideas in our campaigns, we’re used to poking holes, especially in fish out of water tales. To his credit Anderson manages to cover all the necessary bases without resorting to anything that seems to deus ex machina-like. Before their fateful voyage the Walker takes on an Australian construction engineer for Royal Dutch Shell who also considers himself a naturalist (useful for explaining dinosaurs), a pair of Army pilots (useful for when they find a Catalina that also made the journey between worlds at some point), some nurses (romantic interests), and Marines (good for killing lizards). They also end up capturing a Japanese sailor who studied in California (allows side stepping the whole language barrier problem), and there are some crew members of the Walker that were once roughnecks in Texas (good for figuring out how to keep the Walker fueled). So while yes, it is a tad neat and tidy to have so many various talents and roles easily filled, it’s all within the realms of plausibility.

One impressive facet of Into The Storm is the lavish detail of life on a WWII USN destroyer. It’s obvious that Anderson is fascinated by destroyers, and a great deal of care went into everything from describing the actual physical design down to what color latrine seats for those suffering from VD were painted, to the slang used by the destroyermen. Just as obvious is Anderson’s obsession with artillery, as any time the story discusses gunnery (especially in a section describing casting cannons) you immediately recognize that love of the subject emanating from the pages.

As a first novel Into The Storm fares well. Characters are interesting enough, although since the book deals with a large cast some characters blend into each other. With the exception of one character there really aren’t any surprising reveals, and the main romantic interest is a tad too obvious. All the action scenes are quite good, especially the bloody climax as the crew of the Walker board a Grik ship.

Into The Storm makes a good read for WW2 naval buffs, fans of The War That Time Forgot, or those looking for speculative historical fiction that doesn’t involve the usual suspects.

The Plausible Dungeon

S.R. Krol — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:51:49 GMT

Jay Barnson recently posted a piece regarding the role of dungeons in RPGs and what could be done to make them more believable and/or fun. While fun is an entirely subjective word from person to person, group to group, trying to achieve the latter is confined to knowing what makes a RPG fun for you and your players. Tackling the former, believability, is somewhat easier beginning with counterpoints to his whole “dungeons are kinda stupid” commentary.

In his article he points out three points of stupidity in dungeoncraft.

Quote:

Stupidity #1 is enemy behavior. Unless you've got a locations that's truly ginormous in size, or contains no creatures smart enough to even come close to normal human intelligence (or they are all craven), there's no way they are just going to hang out in their rooms and wait for the adventurers to kick their door open and kill them.

True. And if your dungeon is restricted to this kind of behavior you have no one to blame but yourself. It can be fun though in limited, old school ways though. One of my favorite dungeons to run is The Ghost Tower Of Inverness. One room consists of nothing but a lake of fire, a column, a fire giant, and a bunch of rocks. The PCs must figure out how to get to the next room (if I remember, there was an area of reverse gravity which propelled them to the next level) while avoiding the fire giant slinging boulders at them. What he did in his spare time is anyone’s guess.

I’ll talk about enemy behavior later on, but for now we’ll leave it as I agree that enemy behavior is an important aspect of the plausible dungeon.

Quote:

Stupidity #2 is the laws of physical science. Ask any civil engineer, and they can give you a reams of lists of issues and dangers of underground construction. Air contaminants, ventillation, structural integrity, the threat of fire, flooding, lighting, limited movement or escape - these are all huge issues in real life. Let alone the fact that there's probably not much in a dungeon for the monsters to eat.

Stuff like this has always been a pet peeve of mine in RPGs. I had a player once give me grief by not allowing him to use all the rules of nobility in my game that was found in 15th century France. Dude, you’re trying to bring history into a game with flying creatures, fireballs, and talking swords? Really?

Look, in order to keep things from getting too crazy you have to accept some bits of physical science. Water should be wet, fire should be hot, falling fifty stories should kill you, et cetera. But in a game of fantasy complaining that a dungeon couldn’t pass inspection from a Boston tunnel engineer seems a little silly. Don’t worry about how they’re constructing, and you know what, if your PCs are smart enough to use things like flooding out the tunnels, or smoking out the critters, more power to them.

Quote:

Stupidity #3 is the rather silly arrangement of monsters. So why, exactly, are the weakest monsters at the front trying to protect the strongest "boss" monsters in the furthest and most inaccessible reaches of the dungeon? Maybe all strong monsters are cowards at heart, and all the brave ones die before they level up.

Did the Allied High Command storm ashore the Normandy beach head? No, just as in war, you’re going to find the ranks rise the farther you get from the front lines. That’s not to say you shouldn’t have the occasional strong “mini-boss” here or there; the sergeants or lieutenants for example. So ramping up from the weaker monsters to the tougher monsters as you progress seems perfectly logical as it exists.

When I was a kid my dungeons essentially consisted of spending my class time drawing out endless rooms and tunnels on scientific graph paper and then populating them with cool critters and phat lewt. For the ‘70s and early ‘80s it worked out just fine, partially because that’s what most of the official dungeons consisted of (see that Ghost Tower Of Inverness comment earlier) and mostly because we weren’t exactly looking for much out of our RPG sessions.

As the years went on as I matured both as a gamer and as a person (debatable by my parents I suppose since I still play games) I wanted more out of my dungeons. I wanted to make them not realistic, since that is an impossibility, but rather plausible. Which leads me to the one rule of my dungeoncraft, which all boils down to one word:

Planning.

Planning is the key to plausibility. First, sit down with a pad of paper or in front of your computer and answer the following questions.

Question 1: What was the original purpose of the dungeon? Was it a dwarven city, a mind flayer’s lair, an ancient temple, a tomb for gnomish nobility? The original purpose will dictate such things as size, (initial) defenses and traps, and room layout. A city would lead to a sprawling dungeon, probably on multiple levels, while an ancient temple may be rather small in size. A city would only have a few areas that were more defensible/trap laden (such as guard armories, the high court, etc) while a tomb would have little in the way of defenses but heavy on the traps.

Question 2: What has become of the original dungeon? Did its original inhabitants simply abandon it? Did their civilization crumble into ruins? Did another underground race conquer the region? Did nearby monsters overcome the denizens? And how many times did the dungeon change hands? Perhaps a dwarven outpost was first fell by their ancient enemy, who were then in turn run over by their most hated foe, which led to a party of mercenaries clearing out the dungeon that was then taken over by wandering monsters. As the dungeon changes hand that will impact treasure found, traps still functioning, new uses for rooms.

Question 3: What made up the original dungeon? List all the rooms/chambers/buildings that would make sense for the type of original location. For example, a monastery might have sleeping quarters for novices, for monks, and for the abbot, a kitchen, dining hall, meditation chambers, library, and more but probably wouldn’t have a whirling tunnel of death. A tomb though would have plenty of whirling tunnels of death but no need for amenities. Once a logical listing of room types have been made the actual dungeon can be plotted out in a logical fashion. Done with that, go ahead and figure out what the rooms have become over the years. A throne room may end up being the sleeping hall for a pack of goblins. A kitchen could have been long over run by giant rats or ants (which would then lead to another dungeon).

Question 4: Who are the current inhabitants? Intelligent creatures? Wandering monsters? Undead? After answering this question you must then create the world that allows these creatures to exist. If you have wandering monsters how is territory divided? Plot out what happens when some creatures interact with each other. If your foe is intelligent where do they get their supplies? What type of action plans do they have? A clan of kobolds who is squatting will react completely different to intruders than a group of evil raiders who are using the dungeon as a base of operations.

Question 5: What exactly remains in the dungeon in terms of treasure? Never, ever give out treasure randomly. A dungeon which has been sacked and conquered time after time may have very little left to give except for what the current inhabitants possess, while a trap infested tomb may still possess all its riches.

You’ll note that everything follows a natural progression. Once you start answering one question you’ll be able to answer the next question. By creating the dungeon in a logical order you’ll create something that is entirely plausible, as opposed to something that is just filled with things that seem kewl.

The Longest Day

S.R. Krol — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 16:56:09 GMT

You may think it's easy just slapping a video up but let me tell you, shifting through countless bootleg videos for one with decent enough audio and visuals is a challenge. ;)

The greatest band ever performing their song The Longest Day since it does happen to be the sixth of June today.

You know, there's free RPG day and free comics day, we should really try starting something in game stores to make June 6th some sort of wargaming day.