16 May, 2009
Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net
ROGUE FEED divorce – but I recall writing the Example of Play, some of the advice for
Dungeon Masters, and a number of other bits here and there. But it was
An Interview with Lawrence all under Gary’s direction, and he certainly deserves all the credit.
Schick 4. I believe that you were involved in the organization of D&D
MAY 16, 2009 05:01A.M. tournaments for TSR in the early days. Is that correct and, if
so, did you see tournament play as an important part of the
Between 1979 and 1981, Lawrence Schick was employed by TSR Hobbies, growth and development of the game?
during which time he was involved in numerous projects for both
Dungeons & Dragons and other RPGs, such as Star Frontiers, which he The early TSR management consisted almost entirely of hardcore gamers
co-designed with David Cook. I recently had the opportunity to ask him a who loved tournaments for their own sake and insisted that they be part
few question about his time with TSR and more generally about his of every convention TSR sponsored or participated in. So despite the fact
involvement in the game industry. that tournaments appealed to a very small percentage of D&D players,
and designing for and managing tournaments drained development
1. How did you first become involved in roleplaying? resources that could have been spent on publishing more or better
products, we did lots of them. When I was head of the studio mid-’79 to
In college at Kent State University in Ohio; my friend Tom Moldvay mid-’81 I tried to make sure that any tournament scenarios we wrote
came back from a science fiction convention with a Xeroxed copy of the could be repurposed as modules, but they’re two different animals, so we
D&D white box rules – albeit missing a few key pages (as we later weren’t always successful. The A1-4 series of AD&D modules, for
discovered). Though we didn’t have anyone to teach us how to play, we example, were originally written for a big tournament.
grasped the idea immediately, and very quickly began making up our
own supplemental rules. I enjoyed tournaments as much as anyone, but I did not, in fact, regard
them as “an important part of the growth and development of the game.”
2. You’re the author of White Plume Mountain, which remains I thought they were a distraction from what we should really have been
one of the most famous of all AD&D modules ever produced, doing, which was figuring out how to reach a broader audience.
both because of its many unique puzzles and traps, as well as Eventually TSR came around to this idea, and created the RPGA to
the presence of magic sword Blackrazor. What were your handle tournaments and suchlike hardcore community-building work.
inspirations in creating this adventure?
5. It’s interesting that you called tournaments “a distraction,”
White Plume Mountain was written as a sample document to persuade because that’s a view shared by many fans of older editions of
TSR to hire me as a game designer. I just plundered all the dungeons I’d D&D. Are there any particular approaches or projects that, in
designed over the previous four years, took out the best bits, and cobbled retrospect, you wish had been undertaken, because they would
it all together. It worked; TSR hired me, bought the scenario, and have done a better job of reaching out to a broader audience?
published it as a module without changing a word. I’m a little
embarrassed to this day by Blackrazor, inasmuch as it’s such a blatant A more professional approach to publishing, instead of rampant
rip-off of Elric’s Stormbringer; I would not have put it into the scenario if cronyism and callous exploitation of the D&D fan base, would have
I ever thought it might be published. enabled TSR to reach beyond the niche and find a broader audience.
D&D would have been able to co-opt computer RPGs and collectible card
3. Gary Gygax thanks you by name for your contributions to games, instead of being steam-rollered by them. Ultimately Gygax and
the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide. Do you recall what you the Blumes were unable to transition effectively to the mass market, and
contributed to this book? thus lost control of their product and brand. I mean, I was only 24-25
years old in those days, and even then I could see where they were going
When I started work at TSR in January of 1979 Gygax handed me this wrong. They were done in by greed and arrogance.
huge, sprawling, unorganized manuscript and said, “Here’s the Dungeon
Masters Guide – edit this.” So I did. There were a few things he wanted 6. You left the roleplaying world professionally many years
to include that he didn’t particularly want to write; for those parts he told ago. Are you still involved in the hobby?
me what he wanted, and I wrote them. Unfortunately I don’t have a copy
of the original DMG at hand – I lost all my D&D stuff in my recent My role-playing résumé is long and varied, and continues to this day.
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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net 16 May, 2009
Here are the highlights: information you need. That is why you see some of the topics that are
- 1979-1981: Game designer for TSR. covered in later chapters.
- 1980s: occasional scenarios for game publishers (a DC Heroes for
Mayfair, a Traveller for GDW), plus articles in RPG magazines. This is a large book, but it is not large on rules. 12° is not a heavy rule
- 1987-1993: Game designer for MicroProse software, eventually system. The mechanic is very easy to grasp. The bulk of the book is not
Producer of Role-Playing Games for them, including BloodNet, an rules, but information. If I would have to give a percentage about rules to
Adventure/RPG. background, I would have to say it is 30% rules, 70% background
- 1991: Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games (playtesters or those who have read the final version of the rules, please
published by Prometheus Press. speak up).
- 1990-1994 (sideline): Leader of Cruel Hoax Productions, a troupe of six
who wrote and produced live-action role-playing games (LARPs) for 50- So the best place to start with talking about the games is with the first
100 players. Invented Romance rules for LARPs. chapter.
- 1995-1999: General Manager and then Executive Director of all games
for America Online (AOL); pioneered programming of casual games for a Chapter 1: A Primer
mass audience, while simultaneously pushing early MMO RPGs for
hardcore gamers, which included (among many others) the original As many know the Primer is a staple of any of the games James and I do.
Neverwinter Nights and Ultima Online. The idea behind the primer is a simple one it is about telling both the
- 2007-2009: Joined Big Huge Games in Maryland to work with old player and GM what they need to know about the game and what to
friends Ken Rolston (Oblivion) and Brian Reynolds (Colonization; Rise expect. As I’ve said many times, if we cannot write the Primer, we do not
of Nations) on a triple-A single-player RPG for Xbox and PS3; did system do the game.
design and lead narrative design for their (now-canceled) game
Ascendant. Anyway, not much has changed with the Primer. It is still the straight to
- 2009: I have accepted an offer from ZeniMax Online Studio to be their the point chapter it has always been. The one big change, and this is due
Lead Content Designer on an unannounced MMO RPG, and will be to incorporating the new flavor of 12°, Degrees. From the book:
starting there in two weeks.
Degrees
7. Do you still get the opportunity to play traditional tabletop
RPGs? As you might expect a game mechanic called 12°, your Hero’s
Degree of Success is important. Your Degree of Success is the
Sometimes at conventions. I play tabletop RPGs, miniatures games, and amount by which you roll under your Target Number. For
LARPs several times a year. But mostly I play console and PC RPGs, example, your Hero’s TN is 14 and you roll 11, your Degree of
because that’s what I make, and I need to stay current. Success is 3. In combat, your Degree of Success acts as a
multiplier to your weapon’s base damage.
Using the above example, if your Hero is fighting with a
sword with a base damage value of 5 and achieves 3 Degrees
of Success, he would deal 15 points of damage to his
ROGUE FEED opponent. In skill use, Degrees of Success have a much more
“impressionistic” meaning, which is to say, it is largely up to
13 Chapters in 13 Weeks — the GM. Generally, degrees of success either indicate the time
factor removed from the task or the increase in its
Chapter 1 effectiveness. Returning to the above example, a task
MAY 15, 2009 10:14P.M. normally taking 10 rounds might take only 7 if you achieve 3
Degrees of Success.
Ultimately, the Game Master is the final arbiter of how
Degrees of Success improve Skill-based tasks, but it should
First off, yes, 13 weeks. I hope you have the patience to endure this. always be an obvious improvement that increases with the
more degrees of success a Hero achieves.
In a previous post, I posted the long table of contents (you can read that
here). The first thing you should take away from that post, and the TOC Basically, Chapter 1 is the same chapter you have seen before, just
is depth. This is a deep book when it comes to content. I really wanted to modified a little to reflect the change in the rule system.
give both the gamemaster and the player all they need to run this game.
If you are not familiar with the period, I wanted you to have the
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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net 16 May, 2009
As many who have read the blog know, it was a decision that I did not
come to lightly. I really hate revisions and making people buy the same
game twice. That is why when I pulled the trigger I decided to do a few
things:
ROGUE FEED 1. Add to the game, and make the Rulebook complete.
13 Chapters in 13 Weeks. Or. 2. Clean up a lot the inconsistencies
Where Richard talks about 3. Add in a wealth of material that should have been there from the
start.
Colonial Gothic Revised in
4. Make what is new available for those who do not want to switch.
Depth.
MAY 15, 2009 10:12P.M. So those four points guided me, and everything I have done with the
game.
Before I talk about each chapter, let me address one of the big changes
How’s that for a title? right up front, the rules.
With work on Colonial Gothic Revised done, and now in layout, I can 12° is a game mechanic that James and I truly enjoy. It is the perfect rule
talk about the game. First let me say I find it hard to talk about my set for the type of games we like to run, and is a good balance between
games. Why? I hate self promotion. rules lite and rules heavy. The original version of Colonial Gothic was
the first flavor of 12° and worked very well. When designing Thousand
I have always been this way. It might be a psychological thing, but when Suns, 12° under went a change. The change was one that really clicked
it comes to talking about things I have done, or worked on, I feel as if I with me. In many ways, what Thousand Suns did was force 12° to
am being arrogant. It might be due to my childhood, but I learned early grow up. In working on the other games we have in development, it was
on that talking about myself was not the right thing to do. Still, as I got this version of 12° that James and I have moved to, and because of this, I
older, I have learned to shed the baggage of my youth, and learn that decided very early on that Colonial Gothic Revised would move to it
sometime talking about things I’ve done is a good thing. as well. There is a consistency here, and though 12° is tweaked to fit the
setting of Colonial Gothic, it is still the same easy to understand and
easy to grasp system.
Man, how’s that for a heavy opening?
So with the rules changed and modified, the real work started for me –
Anyway, Colonial Gothic Revised is a game that has been with me for revising the whole game. The revision, judging from those who took part
a long time. I wrote in the way too long prologue found in the first in the playtests, read the game, and have seen the final version pre-
edition (which btw is not in Revised) that this game saw many versions. layout, feel that the revision works and the game is better. In the end, the
One version that I did not talk about is the one that James and I were gamer will have to decide.
going to write for Goodman Games – Cthulhu 1776. That version did
not see the light of day, but the work we did back in early 2003 is what I Before I start the next post covering Chapter 1, one more thing needs to
went back to for Colonial Gothic Revised (more on that later). be mentioned – fiction.
When forming Rogue Games back in 2006, Colonial Gothic was I was very lucky at last year’s GenCon Indy to meet the writer
going to be the first game we released. We did. Many liked it, but many Jennifer Brozek. She was walking past the booth, and Colonial
did not. No big deal, because in life you will never have 100% like or Gothic’s covers caught her eye. We struck up a conversation, and
dislike in anything. To be honest with you, I was never happy with the quickly decided we wanted to work together. The first thing she did was
Rulebook and that was due to it having some deficiencies. I worked to write three short stories for Colonial Gothic Revised which will be
to correct these with Secrets, but the more I looked at the Rulebook, found in the book. These stories set the tone, and help get across the
the more I was not happy. Why? It was not complete. A lot was left out, a feeling of the game. I hate game fiction as a whole, but I will be honest
lot was cut out, and a lot was missing. It was then that I realized I need to with you, I love these stories. They strike the perfect tone and really help
do something, start over. set the table for the game.
Well, not start over, but revise the game. Ok, this is longer than I like, so next entry will talk about Chapter 1.
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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net 16 May, 2009
Such a statement is nothing new in the old school community, of course,
but it’s always good to see this philosophical point restated, as it’s at the
core of the Old Ways it hopes to revive.
As I noted above, the presentation of this issue is a vast improvement
ROGUE FEED over that of the first one. That’s almost certainly due to Jeff Preston’s
coming on board as art director for Knockspell. Everything looks a great
REVIEW: Knockspell #2 deal more polished than it did in issue 1 but without losing that hobbyist
MAY 15, 2009 02:00P.M. quality that’s so essential to the appeal of endeavors like this. The
interior illustrations are terrific, with many old hands like James
Holloway and Liz Danforth joining the best of the new generation of old
school artists. The color cover by Peter Fitzpatrick, depicting an
adventurer being lowered down into a forgotten ruin, is inspiring and
nicely sets the tone for this issue, a good portion of which is devoted to
the thief character class.
Given how much material is packed within its 86 pages, it’d be
impossible to comment on it all in any reasonably-sized blog post.
Therefore, here are some of the issue’s highlights in my opinion:
• Allan Grohe’s discussion of “dungeon dressing,” using the example
of doors and how they can be used in different ways.
• Jason “Philotomy Jurament” Cone’s expansion of his superb essay
on “The Dungeon as Mythic Underworld.”
• Four alternate thief classes for Swords & Wizardry, two each for
the Core Rules and White Box versions of the game, plus an
additional one in an interesting article task resolution in S&W.
• Another fine Fomalhaut adventure by Gabor Lux.
• Interviews with Stuart Marshall, Chris Gonnerman, Dan Proctor,
and Matt Finch, where they each talk about the retro-clone games
they’ve created.
As a general rule, I avoid reviewing any products with which I have even
a slight association, but I am going to make an exception in the case of
• Michael Curtis offers up an amazing article on “Dungeon Oddities”
issue 2 of Knockspell magazine. I do so because I think it’s both a
that has already inspired me as I continue to work on my
noteworthy product in its own right, as well as another milestone in the
Dwimmermount megadungeon.
development of the old school renaissance. That said, do bear in mind
that I contributed two short articles to this issue and weigh my words
• Spell Complexity rules inspired by the fantasy supplement to
here accordingly. Although I believe I can offer a fair review of this issue,
Chainmail.
the possibility of undue bias nevertheless exists and I’d be remiss not to
mention it.
• An Arnesonian magic system.
Issue 1 of Knockspell was an excellent kick-off for this magazine devoted
• Many new magic items and creatures.
primarily to supporting Mythmere Games’ Swords & Wizardry. Issue 2
builds on the virtues of its immediate predecessor by expanding its page
This list doesn’t do issue 2 justice, as there are many more articles, both
count (t0 86 pages, up from 61) and improving on its presentation. In
large and small, to be found within its pages. What’s remarkable, I think,
addition, this issue sees the announcement that Knockspell will now be
is not just the diversity of articles, but their quality. There wasn’t a single
the “official” magazine for OSRIC, as well as for S&W, although Matt
article that left me wondering, “How did that get in here?” Furthermore,
Finch states in his Editor’s Note that he doesn’t “like the word ‘official.’
each one gave me something to think about, even the additional thief
Don’t look for any offi cial rules or official anything else to be coming out
classes, which is high praise given that I’ve already written a thief class of
of this magazine, but you can expect to see more 1e material starting to
my own (and which appears in this issue).
show up in these pages as we continue to expand the magazine’s scope.”
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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net 16 May, 2009
Issue 2 of Knockspell really does exemplify Mythmere Games’ tagline This issue contains posts from between
“Imagine the Hell Out of It.” For $10.15, you get an impressive amount of May 15, 2009 07:04a.m. and May 16, 2009 03:05a.m..
imagination, to be used as-is or to inspire your own creativity. I’m not Visit the Rogues on the Web:
exaggerating to say that this issue reminded me of Dragon during its http://www.rogue-games.net
Golden Age height. What we have here is a hobbyist periodical that
manages to walk that fine line between amateur and professional that I
consider the “sweet spot” for old school products. This isn’t something
thrown together in a slapdash fashion nor is it a slick and soulless cash
grab. It is, I think, a textbook example of just what hobbyists can do
nowadays, given the technology currently available.
Knockspell #2 thus sets a very high bar for its future issues and for future
old school products in general — something about which I doubt anyone
can complain.
Presentation: 8 out of 10
Creativity: 8 out of 10
Utility: 7 out of 10
Buy This If: You’re looking a terrific collection of articles to inspire
your old school fantasy adventures and campaigns.
Don’t Buy This If: You’ve already got all the inspiration you need.
ROGUE FEED
Lulu.com Discount
MAY 15, 2009 01:36P.M.
If you’re thinking of buying any Swords & Wizardry products this
month, you can get a 10% discount on their cost, if you use the coupon
code “MAYCONTEST10” when you place your order. It’s a nice little
bonus, especially if you place larger orders.
ROGUE FEED
BHP Site is Live
MAY 15, 2009 01:27P.M.
The Brave Halfling Publishing website is now live. The new site is your
one-stop shop for purchasing BHP products, posting on their forums,
and contacting the people behind the company. Check it out.
