Rambling - Dancing With Endful Machinations

Fake Shepard isn't as badass as my Samantha Shepard.
But she'll do for now.

If everything goes right, then eventually everything will change.

Whether incrementally, as is the norm of things from what I can tell, or as an aberrant massive sweeping change or series of changes, everything will eventually be different.  On a long enough timeline, nothing is recognizable.  Why people seem to fight this baffles me on a regular basis, even as I occasionally find myself guilty of such stupidity.  Change is the true unstoppable force, and this particular linear meat sack is as yet incapable of imagining the immovable object that might contrast it.  It has been said that death comes to all things, but even death would not come but that it is carried on the wings of change.  Or do they just fly together?

Regardless, it comes to everything, and in some places I want it to arrive sooner even as I lament the loss of what once was.  As an example; tabletop RPGs.  On the one hand, I am very much a loving fan of books in their physical form.  I love holding a book; the tactile feel to me brings to mind thoughts of wizards' tomes (and, given my cherished nickname of "wizard," and my favorite class having always been the spellcaster, I am fond of these thoughts).  I love the smell of old books; it puts me in the mood of history, and the older the book the more pleasant the feeling.  I love the sight of a well-stocked library; it feels to me like the physical manifestation of knowledge.  I fully believe that tabletop RPGs must leave books behind.

I will miss books, don't get me wrong.  Terribly.  Yet I do not think they can give our hobby the adaptability and flexible power that is offered by the online format.  The most obvious example of this shortcoming comes in the form of updates or errata, a thing with which many gamers who like to play the most up-to-date versions of our favorite games are very familiar.  Many gamers are, I am quite sure, very happy to buy their core books and play that game as it is for quite some time.  Others however, and I am among them, quickly jump upon each update and errata posted and apply them to our existing campaigns as we go.

These updates can be a pain, as they are rarely ever added to future publications of a game's core rulebook.  Even if and when they are, purchasing new copies of the rulebooks we already have is onerous at best and a waste of money from any viewpoint.  What's more, implementing these changes can be aggravating, as it involves either constantly flipping to the updates document and contrasting it with the core rules to find changes, or taking the time to scribble notes throughout the core books (or at the very least leave marks indicating a particular rule or element has been changed).

Much more significant than rules updates however, are genuine rules changes.  Fundamental changes to a game system are inevitable; as the players discover flaws, loopholes, or weak points in the rules that no game designer can ever anticipate; as the game's design philosophy changes, matures, or undergoes revision; or as any other event brings about a significant change in a rules system (which is inevitable, and usually for the better), owning a previous version of a game's core rules book or books becomes a bit of an issue.

It has been said by some that any significant change in a rules system (whether a fundamental change like 3.5 or Essentials, or a full-on system reboot that is a new edition) renders the previous books obsolete, useless, or other more colorful terms.  While I wholeheartedly disagree with such an assessment (in fact, I recently played a 2nd Edition AD&D game, and had a blast), I can definitely share the frustration of being forced to buy yet another set of books if I want to keep playing with the most recent version of a rules system.  That shit gets expensive, and most gamers aren't rich.  Yet from a business perspective, the purchase of books is of course the most important thing any gamer can possibly do (thus facilitating yet another reason that rules system changes and edition changes come about).

All of this--the problems caused by updates, the expense and occasional frustration of fundamental changes or new editions, and the inevitability of each of these occurrences--leads me to the conclusion that the printed format is just something that the tabletop RPG hobby should move beyond.  Much like hit points and experience points (both of which are things I believe the hobby has matured enough to leave behind), I believe printed books are something that will only hold the hobby back if we do not actively choose to move forward.

Obviously, Wizards of the Coast has taken a great step with D&DI.  I believe this can and should be taken further, however; much further.  I envision a tabletop game released entirely via software that can be downloaded (or of course purchased on disc if someone is really tied to physical media), and accessed by paying monthly fees.  These fees can be extremely small (smaller than even those for D&DI), and supported by a system of micro-payments similar to those that are becoming ever-more popular among most console and computer games.  Updates could be made in real-time, new sourcebooks could be released and downloaded without any hassle, fundamental changes and edition changes can be applied without any fuss or replacement of previously purchased books, and everything moves along smoothly.  Hell, off the top of my head it would even be possible to enable user preferences such as "I want to look at the 2nd Edition rules today, not the 3rd Edition rules," or "I only want to reference material from these select sources."

This is my pipe dream, and something I hope to do with my own game system one day in the future.  I just felt like talking about it to you, my throng of beloved readers.

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Rambling - Giving Promised Gaming Sanctions

Lovely Knight - Cleavage Armor
(Follow the link on the pic)

As hopefully known by those who are close to me, I generally make a conscious effort to embrace change and support new things.  Normally, I don't even have to make that conscious effort, as I am a genuine fan of things that are new and events that bring change.  As my gaming group would hopefully be able to tell you, this extends most powerfully into my love of tabletop RPGs.

I grew up playing 2nd Edition AD&D, and it was incredible fun.  Samus the barbarian and Aerial Teshlin the wild mage were two characters from that era who still hold places in my dark little heart.  Aerial, for that matter, maintains a prominent role in my own fantasy setting.  THAC0 and negative AC values still bring me fond chuckles, and I even ran a 2nd Edition game recently for two people who never got to experience it.

Yet when 3rd Edition D&D came, I was excited and I embraced it.  My excitement was not misplaced, as the new edition was versatile, intricate, and just as fun as any of the games I'd had in the old days.  The staggering changes were readily apparent; reversal of AC values, change from THAC0 to Base Attack Bonus, the addition of feats, and the creation of a skill system are easy and readily apparent changes.  These were so significant that, while translatable to 2nd Edition, their inclusion rendered the new books into a truly new edition.  It was fun, and I embraced it whole-heartedly by devouring as many books as I could get my hands on.

Later, there came this strange 3.5 thing.  At first, I admit to a little confusion.  Was this a new edition?  Was it a simply reprinting to include errata?  After a brief perusal at my local game shop, I quickly came to realize that this new publication was exactly what it advertised to be; 3rd Edition plus.  The changes were fundamental and significant, but not staggering.  The alteration of class features were a change to the way the game played, the inclusion of weapon damages by the size of the wielder altered the way many characters worked, the functionality of damage reduction changed the face of combat.  These changes and more meant that the game now functioned in a different way...yet all the rules were in every sense compatible with the previous 3rd Edition publications.  One could (and we often did) lift something from 3rd Edition and plunk it down in our 3.5 games with only the most minimal effort.  I was happy, and I embraced the change by devouring every book I possibly could.

Then, came the latest change in the form of 4th Edition D&D.  I watched the development of the newest edition as closely as I could (being an industry outsider), and I grew more excited with every morsel of information.  Once the books were finally released, my excitement was palpable and it was not without cause.  The new edition is amazing, and I thoroughly enjoy it.  Heroes are heroes from the get-go, everyone has something to do in a fight at all times (magic users don't end up standing there with nothing to do), non-magic users have interesting things to do (they don't get outshone by magic users anymore), and in general everyone can have fun through the whole of an adventure.  My gaming group dove into the new edition, and barring social and geographical shifting since then we've been playing steadily ever since.

Coming down the pipeline, something that is causing as much consternation among the D&D fanbase as any of the previous bits I listed, are the D&D Essentials books.  I will admit that I am not entirely happy about this.  The mere mention of the Essentials line actually makes my stomach twinge just a little.  My roommate constantly shouts the praises of Essentials from the mountaintops, and I am occasionally forced to ask him to be quiet about it just to give myself a break of peace.  That being said, I have no problems with Essentials.  My problem is that WOTC won't just admit the truth.

Essentials is D&D 4.5.

It is!  You can't deny it!  Fundamental and significant changes, but not staggering changes.  This will still be 4th Edition, but it will be as different from 4E as 3.5 was from 3rd Edition.  Fundamental changes to the way the core classes work, alterations to some of the most basic feats, new inclusions to the way magic items are categorized; all of these represent changes that push the edition forward without changing it.  There is nothing wrong with it!  I am excited for the changes!  The new rules for classifying magic items in particular sound fun to me and seem to make sense.  I am really excited about the return of the schools of magic (wizard has been and always will be my favorite class).  I am glad the core classes will be getting upgrades to the current standards of class design.  Every single bit of Essentials--thus far--sounds good to me.

I just wish WOTC would admit it.

On one hand I genuinely do understand that they kind of painted themselves into a corner when they released 4th Edition.  I seem to remember there being many very clear, loud, repeated declarations that "there will never be a 4.5."  I didn't entirely buy that at the time, in fact many people didn't, yet now WOTC has a problem on their hands.  If they come out and admit that Essentials is 4.5, they'll have a wave of fans descend upon the forums calling them liars and frauds, bitching and complaining about how "all the books I bought are worthless now," and other such ridiculousness as was spouted upon the release of 4E itself.

The problem is, those people will always be there.  Perhaps not those specific individuals, but there would be other people filling the role of "angry dissenters."  There will always be angry dissenters.  I'm sure that somewhere out there can be found a mathematical formula to determine the percentage of a fanbase that will be put off by a change to the medium of which they are fans, and I'd love to find it.  If you change too many things, you'll piss off some of your fans.  If you change nothing, you'll piss off some of your fans.  I just find myself annoyed that WOTC chose to listen to the specific group of fans that subsequently frightened them into saying "there will never be a 4.5."  Because now look where we are.

"Hey look, here's the Essentials line!  It's as significant and fundamental a change to the game as 3.5 was, but it isn't 4.5, we swear!  It's just...a significant and fundamental change.  That's all."

I'm going to buy the books.  I'm going to support my beloved hobby.  I just wish WOTC would admit it.

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