Deconstructing D&D: Monsters as Piggy Banks & Gear Fetishism

I find the fascination for hoarding material possessions in an RPG strange.  While being able to fulfill some of our natural wishes of wanting to be rich, or own a fast car, or have a magic sword is neat… too much of them seems to be, well, overkill.

D&D type fantasy games exhibit this sort of behavior in two ways.  Monsters as Piggy Banks and the fact that Theres Always A Bigger Sword.

Kill a monster, find drops.  Even things without pockets somehow have gold or items somewhere on them (or in them).  It’s one of the oldest things that people question when they play D&D.  How the heck do these things have loot?  Half the time the monsters don’t even have any form of written language, much less any concept of commerce.

Speaking of loot, there’s also the old emphasis on magic items over the characters.  This mindset reminds me of the days when I still played World of Warcraft.  At the start, abilities were awesome and Gear was cool.  Later on, abilities start losing their luster and Gear becomes essential.  This sort of focus of gear over the character tends to draw attention away from thinking of the character as anything else as a playing piece.

I think that all things can be done in moderation.  Gold is awesome, but picking them up from corpses of wild animals?  I’m sure that many DMs already avoid this due to the fact that it sounds pretty odd.  Picking up a longsword from the corpse of a wolf, is enough to break anyone’s suspension of disbelief.  Also, having a magic sword that does something awesome is very impressive, but the moment the world is surrounded with a glut of the things… well, let’s just say that we can quote Syndrome from the Incredibles movie “Everyone can be super! And when everyone’s super, no one will be.”

It’s this reason why I like the katana-fetish of Legend of the Five rings.  The sword itself is a standard object.  The true importance lies in the cultural aspect of things.  Since every katana is regarded as a sacred object, the reverence and care for such is the norm, and the idea of permanently discarding one katana for a different one just for a bigger bonus is pretty sacrilegious.

In any case, these two are pretty easy to spot, and most GMs might either keep these for the heck of it, or discard it if it doesn’t suit their vision of how the game should be.  Overall, I’m just glad that they’re easy enough to ignore and correct, and aren’t quite so ingrained in the system as say Classes or Levels.

Deconstructing D&D: Dungeon Delving

Moving on from yesterday’s discussion of Classes and Levels, let’s take a look at the next item… mainly the act of Dungeon Delving.  Admittedly, I don’t really feel that bad about this part, as Dungeons (and the delving thereof) has always been one of those things that brings up happy memories of beer and pretzels gaming.

However, as alluring as jumping into an unknown dungeon is… the fun stops the moment you try to take a step sideways outside of the conceits of D&D.  The moment your game tries to veer away from the standard pattern of “Make adventurers, see dungeon, delve, bring back whatever’s not nailed down, PROFIT” then Dungeons just seem odd.

Most D&D guys might boo and hiss at me for pointing it out, but a lot of dungeons don’t have a reason to exist for very long.  Sure, city ruins, ancient abandoned mage towers and the usual cave complexes should pop up in traditional fantasy, but if so much wealth and items can be hidden in them, I’m surprised that entire kingdoms haven’t rallied armies to sack such places.

If a party of four to six people can do it in the matter of a few weeks, then certainly an army with magical backup from several dozen mages that work shifts can do it in less.  In return, the government treasury gets a huge boost, and everyone can say that they were at the dungeon-so-and-so before an enterprising townsman decided to buy it and make it into a theme park.

That said, I don’t really mind the presence of Dungeons in a Fantasy game, as much as the fact that some of them feel like they’re only tacked on.  Thankfully this trend is starting to go the way of the dodo, with many Fantasy campaigns making sure to at least give some sense of rhyme or reason on why a certain dungeon is populated, and how it actually interacts with the outside world

In the same way, I don’t really feel that dungeon delving for the sake of profit is something that is easily justified unless you’re looking at games that deliberately use that conceit such as the excellent indie CRPG title Recettear or D&D itself.  As long as the dungeons have a reason for being, and interact realistically with the world around them, then I think this is one of those elements that I can accept.

Deconstructing D&D: Classes and Levels

Picking up on where we left off in yesterday’s post, let’s take a look at the Classes and Level-based progression in D&D, and see how we can work around that sort of mechanic when running a Fantasy Campaign.

The most obvious workaround is to use a system that doesn’t use these mechanics.  Games that often use point-based character creation mechanics such as Savage Worlds or HERO are an example of these.  Characters of these systems don’t have a Class that they have to adhere to.  People can pretty much slap together whatever combination of skills, traits and powers they see fitting to their concept.  Likewise, when improving their characters, there’s no arbitrary milestone that they have to reach to simultaneously improve across the board as characters often do in Level-based advancement.

The advantage of this is that you really can make more complicated characters whose backgrounds impact the actual mechanics of the characters.  Say, a Merchant Prince who was laid low by treachery and had to resort to joining a pirate crew (and lead a mutiny against the crew’s cruel Captain) to become who he is.  While technically there might be some Corsair Class that might approximate it somewhere in the many supplements of an established game line, it’s just easier to put it all together via a point buy system.

But what if that’s not an option?  What if you like the mechanics, but you want to try and somehow break out of the mechanics-oriented mindset of D&D when considering characters?  That’s a lot more difficult to do.

In theory, one could simply just exercise discipline in enforcing the fact that nobody in the world you’ve established actually uses the names of the various Classes “in-character” to maintain the transparency of rules to narration.  Avoiding the usual visual shorthand that we’re used to helps in this manner.  Even something as encountering a beardless dwarf dressed in a silk doublet and hose is sufficient to snap people out of thinking “Hmm… he’s got to be some sort of Fighter, maybe a Rogue…”

I’ve had some success with the above, by avoiding mention of anything that might definitively shoehorn NPCs into a given build, the players are left guessing.  That way, they’re forced to stop thinking mechanics, and work with the NPCs as characters rather than moving stat blocks.  Not that it stops players from trying, as I’ve had a few players who were so annoyed by the fact that I didn’t rattle off a build when they meet an NPC that they started taking notes of what actions the NPCs was taking in the midst of combat just to figure out what the NPC actually was.

Another concern with Classes for character creation is that sometimes you run into a situation when a Class is this close to what you need, but then tacks on stuff that don’t really fit your concept.  GMs might want to consider allowing swapping of skills or feats that don’t make sense with what character concept your players are gunning for.  Just make sure that you keep an eye out for game balance, and that a given player doesn’t abuse your generosity.

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Personally, Classes and Levels are handy mechanics for helping out in two things:

• They allow for a structured methodology of making characters based on templates, and advancing them in a manner that maintains balance across multiple Character types.  New players are less intimidated, as the Class structure keeps their number of choices limited, and they don’t have to suffer from analysis paralysis.
• They enforce the stereotypes of the setting.  Legend of the Five Rings is a prime example that uses Classes and Levels to great effect in maintaining the feel of the world.  L5R relies heavily on character types falling into given niches that existed in the game world as defined by their Clan.  A purely point-based system would homogenize things to the point that it would be difficult to display one Clan’s expertise over another.

Ultimately, I feel that the Classes and Levels mechanic constrains creative freedoms but to a positive end.  The issue lies not necessarily in the mechanics themselves, but how a group ends up relying on them to define their characters and their play experience.

From my experience, the more transparent a system is in play, the better it is for suspension of disbelief.  The moment you start seeing numbers and builds instead of characters, then you lose out on enjoyment of the immersion, and snap out into the tactical mindset.

Deconstructing the D&D Quest Pattern in Fantasy Gaming

While trying to figure out what I’ll be running next for my group, the topic of not being able to run a lot of Fantasy campaigns came up.  Hikkikomori noted that the difficulty of Fantasy gaming is that no matter how you change the setting or the system, the inherent pattern of D&D Fantasy Gaming is difficult to break from.

I won’t deny the fact that the D&D pattern is so prevalent in the hobby that breaking from it is extremely difficult.  In fact, a lot of us GMs tend to fall back on it out of sheer habit.  So how do we try to move away from it?  Well, first of all, it’s important to establish the baseline of the D&D pattern via the elements involved:

• Classes -  The presence of classes automatically shoehorns player character choices to a strict subset of types that are more or less perceived to meet the barest minimum for adventuring.  The normal person has no place here.  If you ever wanted to play a farmboy who becomes a hero, you make a fighter and say that he was a farmboy.  The concept becomes mere backstory.
• Levels - A level-based advancement system works hand in hand with Classes.  It presents a clear progression upon which a character of a given type improves upon hitting certain milestones, often represented as a given benchmark of experience points.  Much like in Classes, Levels serve to homogenize a greater subset of concepts to move along predetermined and “balanced” lines.
• Dungeon Delving – Dungeons themselves don’t necessarily enforce the D&D pattern, as they may exist as a function of worldbuilding.  That said, the act of delving these locations as a means for gainful (and somehow sustainable) employment is a hallmark of the pattern.  Not that I’m saying that dungeon delving is bad of course, merely that the practice of such tends to promote a D&D mentality.
• Monsters as Experience Points -  While monsters are (and should always be) a significant obstacle in Fantasy gaming, pegging corresponding experience point costs on them as a primary source of experience is a sure fire way of reinforcing the D&D pattern.

So now that we’ve identified these, let’s take a step back.  Not all Fantasy games run on classes and levels… Savage Worlds, GURPS, HERO have all got their own fantasy spin on things.  And I think that’s a good start if we want to step back from the standard D&D setup.

The setting is another consideration, picking something that would not scream Tolkien-esque fantasy is definitely a good idea as this pushes you to explore stories in settings where you don’t have the visual / imaginary shorthand of popular culture.  There are limits to this of course, as going overboard will end up in a setting which is very difficult for players to relate to due to the alien nature of its culture or people (like say, Tekumel or the Skyrealms of Jorune)  Not that learning them is impossible, but it does take a bit to get them to appreciate the sheer complexity of the worldbuilding involved.

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The purpose of this deconstruction of course, isn’t to bash D&D fantasy but to help with trying to show the flexibility of the Fantasy Genre.  While it’s easy to fall back into the usual things, Fantasy is more than just Elves and Orcs and Dungeons.

What Do My Players Want Me to Run?

In the interest of finding out, I decided to ask my players the following question: “Assuming that you were to have your way, which five campaigns / games would you like me to run?”  A simple enough question, I feel, and got the answers below:

Silver Countess:

• Exalted: Dawn of Sorrows
• nMage highschool
• Legend of the Five Rings
• A horror game, something like Fatal Frame-ish with normal people.
• Blue Planet

Tarathiel:

• Pulp (I want my Zeppelin!)
• Mage: the Awakening Japan
• Exalted West
• HERO Supers
• Renaissance or Victorian Fantasy

Hikkikomori:

• Call of Cthulhu
• Badass!
• Super Supers!
• Rival Schools
• Mage School or other nMage Variant

Sheimaruen:

• Mage
• Mage
• Mage
• nWoD
• Savage Worlds

Rvelasco:

• Victorian Anthrophomorphic Disney Adventure
• “Slice-of-Life; Supernatural School; Action-Comedy” not ala rival schools tho, but more like Railgun.
• Gaimanish Scion/Changeling game
• Historically accurate Bakumatsu period game
• token Fantasycraft game here

Dulio:

• Dark Heresy
• Rogue Trader
• HERO 6th
• Cthulhutech
• Scion

Mappy:

• Savage Worlds (Preferrably Deadlands)
• Mage: the Awakening
• HERO or Mutants and Masterminds
• Cthulhutech (non-Tager, non-Engel)
• Legend of the Five Rings

It’s quite a list admittedly, and I’m not yet certain as to what to make of it.  If we go by lowest common denominator, then I ought to run Mage: the Awakening, since it’s something that people seem to have associated with me quite strongly.  Not that I mind, I still regard it as one of my favorite games.

I like the fact that the answers are so varied, if anything it does go to show just how open the group is to trying different games and new things.  Given that this year is coming to a close, I’m going to have to put some serious thought as to what game I plan to run.  As I always realize, it’s not for lack of options, but the fact that I have to really nail myself down and run something big.