My roleplaying history

A roleplaying active and a rising name in the finnish scene, Sami Koponen, encouraged a handfull of finnish roleplayers and scene-actives, me included, to write about our roleplaying history.

Because of Other Things(tm) in my life keeping me occupied, I’m writing this quite a bit later than the others, but nonetheless I present you what has happened to me along the Way thus far.

The beginning

It all began some time around 5th or 6th grade. Me and couple of my friends (I’ll call ‘em M and R) heard that one guy (I’ll call him T) on our grade was doing something called roleplaying with his big brother & his friends. Well, we were curious and as we were already familiar with the concept of “controlling a character you make up” thanks to normal children’s play, we decided to give it a try. At that point all we knew was that roleplaying involves the use of dice and that every character is given some sort of numerical values to tell how strong they are. Oh and we also knew that one of the players needs to be a gamemaster who tells the players what happens around them. And then we encaged in something that could be described as collaborative storytelling. Much like most of out plays of that time. Yeah, in hindsight I could say the we were proto-roleplaying already before that. That just was the first counscious effort at it.

And that’s actually quite essential concidering the question of why I became a roleplayer. You see, I’ve never been a what you could call a fantasy literature enthusiast. The first fantasy novel I ever read was The Lord of the Rings and I didn’t read that until in senior high school. So during that time, in the lower level of comprehensive school, I mostly read just The Famous Five and Nancy Drew (it’s okay to laugh now). And comics, of course. But still, for some reason, I had the interest towards fantasy stories. Maybe it was some movie I had seen or some comics I had read, but it was there. Also those plays we had had imbued me with a drive to create stories.

Now that’s what I’d call a proper breeding ground.

The real deal

So we did our version of roleplaying for some time, until T asked if we wanted to try Real Roleplaying(tm). And boy did we! That’s how I got into RuneQuest, the first real rpg I ever played. (Do you see a pattern here? First no fantasy novels, then not even D&D. What the hell? I was surely off to a good start.) So, it was truly amusing. First of all were these strangely strangely shaped dice! And a character sheet with lots and lots of text! Good thing I didn’t feel too overwhelmed. I still have memories that I think are from my first RQ-adventure. We wandered in an underground evil cultist temple of some sort. My character encountered his end prematurely when I had to choose between laundryshaft and wasteshaft when trying to hide from the cultists. Well, M and R encouraged me to choose the wasteshaft and so I did. We found out that the cultists disposed of their waste with a tunnel to a pool of lava. Still, I wasn’t traumatized by that (in your face, Tyranny of Fun!) and I kept on playing.

Going on

During the following years we had lots of fun although R grew apart from us during the junior high (7th through 9th grade in here). So for many years it was just me, T and M, T acting as the gamemaster. We didn’t play in Glorantha for T found it more fun (I think) to create settings of his own “on the fly.” At some point we started a little experimental campaign on the side. It was corporation agents in a cyberpunk near-future Russia. It went on for several years. And what system did we use? Why, RuneQuest, of course. It was basically the only one we knew of, and we were familiar with it.

It was all well and good. Then in senior high I started to make my first own game! Well, that project is still on the table (mostly in the drawer) and have been through quite a lot changes during it’s eight or so years. Damn, it’s already been that long. Other changes also happened during that time. First T’s big brother introduced to T some new finnish (and I hadn’t been even aware that such things exist!) game called Praedor. We didn’t get to play it right away, as the book still belonged to T’s brother who lived in another town. But when he came to home during the summer, we got to try it out. And boy, was that a strange experience at first. Years after years nothing but RQ. It definitely took some time to get used to it, but in the end it stuck.

During senior high was also the time when I tested my wings as a gamemaster, and well… it wasn’t that good. It could’ve been worse, I’m sure of that. But it was still quite terrible. No matter what, it was a step I had to take. And I’m happy I did. Also, during 2000 or 2001, we had an occasional member joining our group. Didn’t manage to get much done with him as he was almost all the time busy with other things, but new blood nonetheless.

Decline

And then came 2002. M went to carry out his compulsory military service in January. Me and T tried to game once or twice, but it just didn’t really happen. Then when M returned it was T’s turn. Me and M tried to game, too, but to no avail. January 2003, and it was my turn. T was still on sercive as a non-commissioned officer. When me and T finally got out in the summer, there was not much time, as T was going to college in another town. I spent the year wondering what to do with my life, until came summer of 2004. I applied for Degree Programme in Software Engineering in Jyväskylä Polytechnic (nowdays Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences), went to Ropecon the first time and finally moved here.

New horizons

I found a new gaming group (if you’re reading this, guys, you’re awesome <3) which has now quite effectively disbanded as 40% of us have moved to another town. I also found other players and started gamemastering again, encouraged by who knows what.

Since that fall of 2004 I've played more or less regularly with 22 other local roleplayers, 4 of whom have also/entirely been gamemasters and I can soon add two more people to that count.

I have found countless new games to like, exposed myself to rpg theory, gotten myself into the finnish rpg scene, I’ve been an administrator of the roleplaying site Kiukkuisen Oravan majatalo (The tavern of Angry Squirrel) for four years, and the other owner of it for three years. I’ve read a lot and learned a lot, about roleplaying in general and rpg design in particular. These past five years have actually been quite awesome. I’ve also learned about myself and my preferences, which has in the same time made things clearer and easier, but also a bit trickier.

These have been pretty good 15 years, roleplaying-wise, and I definitely could’ve spent my time with poorer hobbies. Now I’m positively excited and curious what the next 15 years will give.

Sami’s own history in finnish: Kehä laajenee: Henkilökohtainen roolipelihistoriani
Other brothers to answer the call:
NiTessine: My Gaming History
Thanuir: My rpg history
Eero Tuovinen, in his usual Eeroish style writing so much he had to divide it into five separate parts: My Roleplaying History #1, #2, #3, #4, #5
Late additions:
Merten: My roleplaying history
Gastogh: How I got into fantasy and RPGs
Navdi: My gaming history, part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.

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Currently playing: The Birthday Massacre – Looking Glass

Why can’t you fucking idiots have a proper conversation?

Ok, children. Today we’re going to talk about this funny little part of gaming culture: Discussion of opinions that seemingly consists of huge amounts of nitroglycerin.

This post by mxyzplk is really a prime example:
Mike Mearls Strangles Realism In D&D Like It’s An Unruly Hooker

I was going to pick and quote some of the juicier idiocies and comment on them, but now I’m feeling lazy and will go on with just a general commentary.

1) It’s not sacred. When reading something that is contradictory to your beliefs*, first take a deep breath and take some time to calm down. Then remind yourself that RPGs are not religions or anything like that. To be a smart and decent human being, it’s required that you can look things from an angle other than your own. It’s even better if you can look at things objectively, outside of the box. But that’s not gonna happen every time.

2) Don’t be a fucking douchebag. Don’t flame, don’t troll, don’t build strawmen, keep those ad hominems to yourself. Capiche? I understand that sometimes it can be quite hard. It’s not easy to treat someone, who’s throwing burning poo like a sorceress overdozing on PCP and crystal meth, like a real and decent person. To an extent, that’s a failing of the medium. But still, the internet is not wholly to blame. And the other side of the coin: Ignore the poo, don’t feed the troll. Try to be the maturer one.

3) Don’t take every friggin’ thing someone says about a game personally. If someone doesn’t like the game that is most precious to you, you have two good choises and a third, bad one.

1. You can agree with him that the game doesn’t produce those things that he looks for in a game. That is, he has understandable and acceptable rationalisations for not liking it. To put is short: You agree to disagree.
2. You don’t agree with him and think that his perceptions about the game are incomplete. Maybe you should try to clear things a bit for him. Be careful though, when proceeding with this option. It’s easy to get yourself misunderstood and give the impression that you’re trying to force-feed your preferences. If he still won’t “convert,” leave it at that. It doesn’t suit his needs. Again, agree to disagree.
3. The wrong road: Be a dick about it. I mean, not liking YOUR PRECIOUS GAME is, like, the same as mocking UR MOM. NERDRAGE!!! My response: Just shut the fuck up and grow up.

4) Reasoning, motherfucker, do you have it? If not, then zip it. “Because the big boys told me so” is not proper reasoning. And you can replace the big boys with anything like “those guys on RPG.net” or “that dude who’s really into D&D and he practically breathes experience points and craps initiative rolls.” Or anything. Here’s a pointer: Think. For. Yourself. Question other people’s opinions and “truths.” Especially if they are in authoritative position, one way or another. If you’re too dump to think for yourself, then why the hell are you roleplaying? Unless you’re just doing it for the miniature battles. HULK SMASH!

Now, someone has propably read that thread I’m linking to and noticed that I myself have posted a couple of meaningles comments. And hey, I’m not perfect. No one is. Even mxyzplk himself, although showing a good deal of tolerance, “lost it” a couple of times.

“Never argue with idiots, they just drag you down to their level then beat you with experience.”

5) Addendum: It’s not enough to read it, you also have to understand it. I myself like provacative writing. It humours me. The downside is, many peole take those over-the-top provocations literally. They don’t know when to laugh. There are also other types of writing that can fool you, like satire. All of us have been taught to read the letters, the words, the things you see. But not everyone can read the meanings, understand the subtext. Still, it is something you can learn. And you should.

*Yes, beliefs, for it sometimes feels like I’m watching the Superbowl of religious fundies vs. atheist fundies.

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Currently playing: Stereophonics – Have a Nice Day

Addition to blogroll: d7

I read a comment by d7 on Geek Related, in the post Why Complain About 4e? Stop the Edition Wars!. I’m not going to comment on the original post and instead focus on Mr. d7 and his comment, for I think that he writes well and most importantly: knows what the hell he is writing about. Too many people out here in the blogosphere don’t. Intrigued by his well written and thought comment, I decided to check out his blog, The Seven-Sided Die. I don’t know about you, but after reading a couple of the more interesting posts, he ended up to my blogroll.

I’ve picked a couple of samples I myself found pleasantly readable.

What’s wrong with alignment

Why it’s not insane to like Rolemaster

The Fear of Unfun

These two have less content and mainly just have links to other interesting stuff:

GM advice, industry musings, and storming

Women as players and characters

I absolutely have to dig into his archives, sooner or later.

Positively surprised

A person in irc linked to this post in Lamentations of the Flame Princess: I Hate Fun
Usually I disagree with him, basically about everything he writes about. But that post, damn. That’s the shit. It’s about roleplaying, about what it is and what it’s not. And stuff. It’s a long one, but you should read it.

Getting the show back on the road

Okay, it’s been over a month already, and I think I’m beginning to stabilize enough to get some shit done. Besides, I already have friggin’ three posts on the table, waiting to be finished.

Last weekend I visited the last Tentacles Convention in Germany, and had a blast. Might write a bit about that, too. It was nice to get to compare the finnish and german convention culture.

Until next time, Olorin out.

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Currently playing: Manowar – Carry On

Almost saw it coming

Breaking up with girlfriend, don’t quite feel like updating.

See ya later.

Things you should know about #1

Damn, I was going to post this before midnight, but after a gap of five years Fallout has once again captured my full attention.

Like the previous post, this one will be kept short, too. (I do have a long long post on the way, though. Maybe even too long, and will be splitted to several parts. Just have to wait and see how it comes together.)

But, straight ro business. Because I’m a finn and a roleplayer, I want to promote some finnish RPGs. These two are of course in english. Would be kinda stupid to tell about the awesome games we have that are available only in finnish. These games are both by the same author, Ville “Burger” Vuorela, who have thus far released six games through the years.

1) Code/X
This game came into being as a logical conclusion to Mr. Vuorela’s ideas about Arcade Roleplaying, in which the game mechanics (and to some extent, the premise) are designed with influences from videogames, to make the game easier to start (e.g. you don’t have to spend the first two hours of the first session explaining the rules and the setting). It was first called Operation: Half-Life, for the setting is inspired by survival horror games like Far Cry and the Resident Evil -series. And Half-Life, of course. The version 0.7 has been the newest for a while now, but it is extremely playable even in it’s current state.

I haven’t done everything with it, not yet. But mutant zombies? Check. Bioengineered beasts? Check. Ninjas? Check. Super zombie mutants? Check. Nazis? Hell yeah, check.

2) Mobsters (pdf 1,5MB)

Downloadable PDF-game of the golden days of the American Gangster. Found your own mob and build an empire of crime in the spirit of Al Capone or Lucky Luciano!

The PDF-layout is arranged so that all you need to do is to print it out, two pages per paper, stack them and put staples through the middle. When you fold it, you’ll have a neat A5-sized booklet.

Click and download. Fun, easy and free!

It has fast system and New Orleans as a setting example. If being a gangster interests you, check it out!

Enter the authors main page here: Burger Games

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Currently playing: Pain of Salvation – America

Getting to know me, part 1

Chatty DM has this series of posts in which he explores Robin Laws’ views on roleplaying and gamemastering called Robin’s Laws Revisited. The one on my plate today is the second part of that series, Player Types and Traits. Because the traits offer a little more detail, I’m going to go with them and skip the player types completely. At least for now.

It basicly boils into this: What things, in and during the act of roleplaying, give you a sense of reward?

Straight quote from Chatty DM’s post:
Accumulating Cool powers: Enjoying the acquisition of loot/powers, planning a character many levels in advance.
Kicking Butt: Enjoying combat for the sake of inflicting mayhem and destruction on foes.
Brilliant Planning: Enjoying combat for the sake of winning, beating foes with brains and tactics.
Puzzle Solvers: Resolving riddles, short puzzles or longer investigation type puzzles.
Playing a favorite role: Seeking the same class/themes/roles campaign after campaign.
Supercoolness: Being a badass and be able to show it often.
Story: Seeking the range of emotions that comes from a game’s narrative and non-crunch achievements.
Psychodrama: Seeking to explore and develop a character from an internal perspective.
Irresponsibility: Being able to create trouble without having to deal with real-world consequence (ex: jumping off the rails and go wild!)
Setting Exploration:Seeking new horizons in a setting and learning the lore of in-game objects, locales and events.
The Outlier: Seeking the emotional kick of subverting a group’s dynamic by creating weird characters or actively seeking failure.
Lurker: No clear goal or motivation except to show up at the game and participate.

As it happens, Exalted is one of my favorite games (not in the sense of quality, but in spirit). That’s easily explained by the traits of Accumulating Cool powers and Supercoolnes. On the other hand, in game like Unknown Armies that works in a completely different level, there are Psychodrama and a variation on The Outlier.
On a more general level, I love Kicking Butt, Solving Puzzles, Story and Setting Exploration.

So in the end it’s actually easier to say what traits don’t apply to me: Lurker, Irresponsibility, Playing a favorite role, Brilliant Planning.

Many kinds of games, and all of them give a distinctive and unique reward. Could be worse. :)

What I’d like to do is make profiles of all my players, so I’d know better who fits in which game and with whom. But I think that topic needs a post of it’s own.

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Currently playing: Deep Insight – Superficial

Chilling Heat, part 4

Dick lying lifelessly in a puddle of blood and Megan sobbing in the corner, Derek and Osmon were scratching their heads, the big question lingering in their minds: What now? Soon they noticed that the ruckus had awoken Sam, and he was coming up the stairs. Seconds went by slowly. How would Sam react? A grown up orang-utang can tear a man up to pieces easily. Luckily, Sam wasn’t of the kind that go berserk in situations like this. Derek and Osmon carried the body to the barn for the time being, every one gathered in the kitchen and a bottle of whisky was opened. And then another. In drunken stupor everyone went to sleep uneasily.

It was already a late morning when they began to woke up. Osmon was cooking some hangover breakfast, when some knocked on the front door. Deathlike silence took over. Who could it be? What would they say if some one asked for Dick? What if some had come for Megan? It didn’t really help to find out, that it was the cops. To be presice, the Sheriff, with his Deputy waiting in the car. I don’t remember his exact business, but he was looking for Dick. They gave him a plausible excuse for Dick’s absence, and he left without too much suspicion.

After breakfast Derek and Osmon set out to bury Dick’s remains behind the barn, for there was already a suitable ditch that Dick had been digging. (Curiously, it was the size of a grave, and for that it had made Osmon a little suspicious earlier. Maybe it really was for them, but Dick now being dead instead of them, there was no way to be sure.)

—–
I don’t really remember when the next thing happened, but I’ll put it up now as it just came to my mind. It definitely happened after Richard’s death.
—–

Late in the evening, the three of them decided to delve into the mystery of the hoof prints. Armed with flashlights, they followed the still visible tracks for a mile or so, and found themselves at the edge of a forest. Encouraging themselves, they pushed on. After a couple minutes walk, they got this strange hunch. Almost like someone, or something, was watching them. And they didn’t have to wait long, for in a few blinks something huge came crashing through the underbrush.

Only narrowly avoiding the charge, they had a heck of job to gather their wits. Derek pulled out his six-shooter and briefly pondered whether to aim at himself or the beast, and decided to try his luck with latter. It might’ve been wise to decide otherwise. At the same time Megan was taking a better look at their attacker, and doubted her eyesight as there seemed to be some kind of tentacles or organs protuding from the beast body. Osmon, being the valorous guy he is, was already halfway up a tree.

Derek pulled the trigger and cursed in his head, as it seemed that the bullet nearly ricocheted off the monstrous ox’s skin. And then he didn’t have time anymore. The beast rushed towards him, pierced his forearm with it’s horn, throwing him almost three meters into air. After that, it just run away.

Megan, her heart pounding and fearing the worst, approached Derek who was lying there silently. Then weak moan. Thanking God, she rushed beside him, and did all she could to restrain the bleeding. With Osmon’s help, they rushed Derek back to the farm, and loaded him into Dick’s Cadillac.

After a tormenting drive they finally arrived to Vega and rushed to see the doctor. The doctor? Of course the drunken cretin Derek had met earlier. And this time he wasn’t just hungover, has was positively as high as a kite. So it’s propably quite understandable that Osmon and Megan weren’t amused when doc thought that he must absolutely amputate Derek’s arm, with a bonesaw. One swing of a bedpan later the doctor was resting peacefully on the floor.

Then suddenly a gruff voice interrupted them. A shabby looking man they had seen a couple days earlier stood there. “Looks like you need help,” he said.

—–
Yes, they had met him in passing a while ago. Derek had taken notice that he had a very gruff voice and silent tinkle accompanied him. The known characteristics of a person referred to as The Freak. Someone who he had earlier took as just a rumor.
—–

Accidentally, when Derek lied on the bed bleeding and unconcious, the following song happened to play on the background. We found it quite amusing.

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Currently playing: Bob Dylan – Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

Chilling heat, part 3

Okay, so I was thinking of commenting the contents of the previous post, but I realized that there really is not much to say, except that at that point I didn’t yet have a clear vision of what was going on, so I was just throwing all of my ideas in, hoping that something good would come off. Now, in hindsight, if I were to run this scenario again, I would leave the haunted house out. Or at least drop the mirror-beings completely.

But now, moving onward.

Megan’s uncle, Richard “Dick” Shanahan, took the posse with him to his home, a one hour drive from Vega. Yes, for some reason Dick invited Osmon too. I had decided beforehand that Dick had a some sort of soul sight, so he could recognize adepts and avatars, although he himself was neither.

Dick lived on a simple farm with a medium sized house and a barn. After our protagonists had settled, they met Dick’s friend Sam. The funny thing is, Sam was an orang-utang. (Did I mention that Dick kinda looked like Clint Eastwood?) I really liked Sam as character, for he certainly wasn’t just a mere pet. Sam cooked (proficiently), played poker (surprisingly well) and drank whisky (and hold his liquor better than Derek). Dick also reassured Megan that she was completely safe while she was here, but he didn’t give explanation. The reason is, of course, quite simple. To not be an adept or an avatar, doesn’t mean that one can’t do magick. During his long and adventorous life Dick had picked up some pretty useful rituals, and one of those was sort of “hiding” anyone residing in the house from public consciousness. (For those interested: I didn’t make up any spesifics for that ritual, because those weren’t really relevant for the scenario. Sorry.)

But, after an evening of tasty beans, good whisky and some poker, everyone went to bed. Megan got the guestroom, Derek found himself quite comfortable on the sofa and I think Osmon fell asleep outside, in front of the house. Next morning Megan wake up with a crumbled note on the nightstand, on it written with illegible letters a warning that they (she, Osmon, Derek) were in grave danger. Also some strange tracks had appeared around Osmon. Closer inspection suggested them to be left by some sort of huge cloven-hoofed animal. At this point my memories blur a little, but I think that Osmon tells others of his discovery, and Dick thinks that some neighbour of his might have lost an ox.

I have recollection of what happened next, during the day. They propably visited Vega, and the occultist’s house, but to no avail. During the day Derek also inquires after the item which he was supposed to take to his mentor. Dick gives him an ambiguous answer that he’s still searching for and so on, and also dodges the question considering what kind of item is in question.

Fast forward to the following night. Megan’s sleeping uneasily, and wakes up in the middle of the night to a weak creak. Quite soon she realizes that someone’s in the room, and in a split-second she has rolled of the bed. And just in time, as she hears some sharp implement piercing her mattress. Throwing the bedside lamp towards the presumed location of this unknown attacker, she sprints towards the door and almost makes it, but feeling a big and strong hand grasping her ankle, she has only an instant to brace for sudden impact with the hardwood floor. Struggling onwards to the illuminated staircase, she manages to stand up and face her aggressor. Quite a surprise it was to find out that it was Richard, her very own and dear uncle!

Megan’s shouts of course woke Derek and Osmon, now both sleeping in the living room, who soon rushed to see what had upset Megan. Meanwhile Dick continued his assault on Megan, trying to slash her with big hunting knife. Derek and Osmon joining, they continued to struggle for a while until Megan picked a heavy bronze statue from a small table, and hit her uncle in the head. And again. And again. Dick lied still on the floor, a pool of blood growing around his head. When [Derek or Osmon] checked, he was sure that Dick really was dead.

Oh boy did I enjoy that one. My friend playing Megan is quite an immersive player, and that moment gave her some tough shit to deal with. I truly wish that I could give moments as strong as that was, in (almost) all of my games, at least once per character.

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Currently playing: System of a Down – Violent Pornography