Cherry Blossom Rain

Ages ago, after watching Samurai 7 and the release of GURPS Martial Arts, a part of me yearned to run a samurai game.  I already had Weapons of the Gods, but Japanese martial arts are quite distinct in flavor, approach and philosophy from their Chinese counterparts, as are their stories.  I also wanted to dig deep into the combat complexity that GURPS Martial Arts offered, and such a game would give me an opportunity to do so.  Finally, I have long been searching for a proper swashbuckling system (martial arts stories have a great deal in common with swashbuckling) since 7th Sea hooked me on such tales and then promptly failed me as a system.

The result is pictured above.

Originally, I had intended for Cherry Blossom Rain to last a single session, a one-shot that simply explored the concepts and then moved on.  As usual, GURPS proved a remarkably poor match for one-shots, as it requires a heavy investment in character creation (as opposed to other, quicker systems), but as I playtested Cherry Blossom Rain (which you can read here), I discovered a few things. First, the system is better suited to the sort of game I want to see than I expected.  Second, when I introduced Raoul and Roomie to it, even though I ran the same scenario over and over again, they didn't tire of it.  Instead, they learned more each time.  A martial arts game, with its finnicky techniques, deep details and highly specific signature moves, tends to encourage a great deal of learning about your character, trying to see how best to approach a situation, and trying to remember which option to use when and why.  Both expressed dissatisfaction with the idea of playing "only once," and both expressed support for the idea of a campaign.

A small one-shot idea quickly grew into a setting.  The characters came from clans, and those clans had allies and enemies, who also had their own fighting styles, their own histories, their own members.  Martial artists need rivalries and secret loves and hidden conspiracies, and over the months of pondering characters and learning about martial arts, these fell off of me like industrial by-products, seeping into my work until, before I knew it, I had not a one-shot, or even a short campaign: I had a setting.  Given how much detail I was able to create for Cherry Blossom Rain in a few short months, I wonder why I ever dragged my feet on Resplendent Star Empire or Protocols of the Dark Engine.  Perhaps I should work on "One shots" of those as well.

My "first session," the proposed one shot, looms close.  Spring Weekend begins tomorrow, and I need to have my session ready for their high expectations.  However, to my surprise, the people I expected to join did not, either because they could not, they made a mistake, or they felt it better to let other people try (Raoul, as he'd played in the playtest and knew I had limited slots).  All of these people have expressed interest in joining the campaign, but I'm left with a conundrum, facing 5 fresh faces who already find the game, its world and the system interesting, how can I ever fit more people in for the campaign?

But, in preparing this session, I have learned a greater, more important lesson.  Recently, due to frustrations, I ended Weapons of the Gods (more specifically, put it on hiatus as I focused on other things.  I remain undecided as to whether I intend to return to it or not).  Part of my frustration was the sheer amount of work I had to put into each session to get them up to my own exacting standards.  "If I had put more work into the setting in advance," I reasoned, "This never would have happened."  Cherry Blossom Rain should have proved that.  It already has a whole, huge cast of characters.  And, indeed, it lessened the work load slightly... but only slightly.  I've been preparing this session for three days now, far longer than one of my Weapons of the Gods sessions.  Now, to be sure, it's a better session than most of my WotG sessions.  It feels more complete, tighter, and full of details, which is how I like my sessions.  But if all this setting work doesn't ease my planning, then what, exactly, is the point of it all?  Perhaps I must simply acknowledge that "quest based games" like Weapons of the Gods, 7th Sea, D&D and their like (as opposed to sandbox games that dump you in a single location and keep you there) should be designed one session at a time, with an eye on where I want it to go, like Exalted was designed.  Or, perhaps, my standards and those of my players have simply grown.  Or maybe just my standards, as my players often gave me looks (and to my own ear, I've begun to sound like one of those auteurs who's always complaining that his own works are terrible).

As my blog slowly blooms back to life after a cold, hard winter, I hope to put more details down about what I'm doing.  Perhaps I'll have a chance to share more about Cherry Blossom Rain with you, more about what it is, rather than just how I feel about it.

Black Friday

As per tradition, I always try to run something when I visit the states, so my players can see me in running a game in person (plus it's far easier to get this group of luddites together in person than online).  This time around, I was inspired by twin revelations: Iron Man + L4D2.  First, I have a friend named Walter whom I have gamed with for years (friend?  I should probably call him my step-brother now ^_^ but one can be both, hmm?) and we often have a hard time gaming with one another.  Specifically, I had been misreading his gaming style for years, and watching Iron Man finally let me grasp what he wanted.  For example, he often wanted to play an inventor character, but hated the grunt work involved.  After seeing Iron Man, I grasped that he wanted to be like Tony Stark (one of his favorite characters) or Doctor Who (another favorite): To be a clever super-hero who solves his problems with his mind, but is always central to the action.

Playing L4D2 got me thinking about zombies.  Normally, I see zombie horror stories and post-apocalyptic scenarios as gritty and a struggle of survival.  You play low powered characters and see if you can handle the situation or not, right?  Walter loved these genres as well, but never really meshed with my vision of them.  It wasn't until I read this article (warning: Cracked.com is known to devour your time!!) that I saw another vision, another way to tackle those genres, and I was reminded of the appeal of Rifts.

With these ideas in mind, I set out to create a character Walter would love in a world that would appeal to my group.  In a continuation of my experiment to stuff as much awesome into a single session as I could, I wanted to give the players this feel of an entire world with just a snippet of character and a single session.  I also wanted to experiment with strong, highly cinematic characters with unique play styles, and to do that, I borrowed from the more cinematic options found in GURPS (and suggestions from the forum).  Those systems tend to involve the expenditure of character points, which I don't disagree with, but once you call them character points, players are less likely to use them.  So I called them "Action Points" and gave them 5 at the start.

For the world, I drew a core inspiration from Rifts, creating a post-apocalyptic world that combined magic and technology, with dystopian dictatorships fighting monstrous madness with the players and survivors caught in between.  I drew further inspiration from L4D2, tossing in crazy assortments of zombies and leaving whispers and hints that the dystopia was created from the corrupt remnants of the CDC, and then added a Supernatural vision of a post-apocalyptic world: Demons as possessing spirits rather than titanic beasts of fire and shadow, subtle rituals meant to fend off monsters, and with tough-but-ordinary men fending off the night.  Finally, I layered a good dose of GURPS sensibilities, including a tech level disparity of 7 (the survivors) and 9 (the remnants of civilization that have moved on) and adding a grand conspiracy for the Illuminated, and then leapt with both feet into the session.

HotBlooded: After Action Thoughts, part 1

I'm posting from the distant hinterlands of America, so I'm afraid I can't post all that often, but I thought I'd at least take a little time to talk about my very first LARP while my impression was relatively fresh.  I don't have pictures yet (they're coming), so I'll hold off on the actual report until I do.  But I can at least discuss my thoughts and theories behind the design of the game, why I think it worked despite the concerns of my editors, and what I learned from the experience.

I seldom LARP (very, very seldom), but I often listen to people discuss their experience.  I personally find that the greatest foe to LARPing (and RPing in general) is boredom.  Players need something to do and wandering about saying "How do you do?" and "My isn't the weather lovely" makes for a terrible game.  Someone once argued that RPGs are 4 hours of work to get 1 hour of fun, and I don't want that.  I want the players to hit the ground running, and so I tried to create a game that would explode as soon as it came into contact with the players. 

My editors found my approach overwrought.  "Are you writing a one-shot or a campaign?" they asked.  They pointed out that there was no way all of those story elements would come out, and that my details would overwhelm the players.  In some ways, I felt they completely missed what I was trying to do, and the general success of my LARP proves me right.  First, a campaign needs less work than a one-shot, not more.  In a campaign, we build story, layer by layer, session by session.  We can start with nothing and slowly build context.  In a one-shot, we don't have the time for that.  Players need to know who they are and what they're doing NOW.  Second, it's true that not all my story elements would come out (thought at least one thought that large strokes would fall through, and that didn't happen: Every major element showed up in the game), but that as the point.  I don't know what players will like and what players won't, and I don't know how their interactions will shift the story.  NOTHING happened like I anticipated, but because of the ruggedness of my design, it remained terribly interesting.  For example, Rianne's character was supposed to be the target of romance, but instead, all of the boys fixated on Sabrina and Desiree's character.  And yet, Rianne's association with the murder of Fyx Steele turned into a huge story element for her.  Some people have asked how I would know these things would happen, but the point is that I didn't, and I wrote knowing that I had no control.  I gave everything enough material to keep them busy, and if one line of story failed, they had two more they could pick up, and that's exactly how it worked out.  Finally, I too was concerned I would overwhelm the players (Erik Kamerman's game certainly did, and I produced as much word-count as he did).  I tried to avoid this by carefully explaining how the system worked several times, and by making much of what they had to read optional.  However, I found that the players dug right into the game and weren't confounded at all by the complexity.  I expect this was the result of two things, neither of which I had actually anticipated: First, I spoke a great deal with my players, asked them what they wanted and generally stoked interest in the game (entirely by accident).  Second, I put the LARP characters out about a month ahead of time.  This proved critical: Apparantly, the main problem with Erik's LARP wasn't necessarily the detail, but the fact that people only had two days(!!) to read it all up.

So, the LARP was a grand success.  I mean, really, a huge success.  I can't tell how it rates in the grand pantheon of LARPs (I'm tempted to say that Jimmy's LARPs are generally better, but I really have no idea).  I do feel it's safe to say that "It was a success."  I've outlined why I felt it worked, but I thought I'd touch on a few elements that were mixed or could be improved.

First, the system.  The more veteran players looked at me like I was crazy for including a system and, in general, it went well, but almost nobody used the "contest" system.  I think that's John Wick's intention: He included that not as something players would use all the time, but as something the players would touch on only if needed.  Still, there are elements of the Contest system I don't like: If I spend 3 style persuading you, or 3 style contesting you, I'm still out 3 style either way.  Second, the contest can force players to do something they don't want to do, and I'm not sure I like that.  At one point, Loes tried to force Hugo's character to do something he simply wouldn't do, knowing what he knew (she wanted him to kill someone he was allied with over something that Hugo knew that the character wasn't involved with).  What if she had succeeded?  I could have declared Bad Form, or simply told her not to do it (which is what I did), but it would be nice if the system simply prevented things like that from happening.

Related to the system were the characters.  I found that players both loved and hated going over their character sheets and choosing.  Raoul argues that it's a great mechanic as it encourages players to think about their characters in more detail than they normally would, and I think that's true.  On the other hand, several players strained against their limitations, wanting to bring everything, and others couldn't be asked to figure it out, and resented dealing with mechanics at all.  I doubt I could ever please both the mechanic and the fluff side of an RPG, though this system was a great compromise.  Still, most interestingly, I found that players didn't care much for Aspects except as neat little additions to their character (I think players would have enjoyed them more if they didn't have a simple list: they liked things like Heartbroken and Madness), but they really enjoyed the Special Powers aspect of their character.  If I had to write a new system, I'd probably make the kewl powerz front and center of the game, as players used those more than they used anything else except spies and soldiers.

The only complaints I really recieved were the servants.  Ironically, I had chosen to follow the advice of my editors and simplify, partially with the assumption that the servants would interface with their lords and work together.  This turned out to be partially untrue: the newer players felt they had no right to speak to their lords, to interrupt them.  Interestingly, the veteran players had no problem shifting their focus based on what was going on around them.  I could have given them even less material and they would have done just fine.  I think this is what my editors were talking about, as they generally run games for veterans.

The trading game was also very, very well recieved.  Having little pieces of paper helped a lot, I think.

The game began very slow.  There's this sort of feigned stateliness that I just hate in LARPs.  People walk in with lifted chin and speak slowly and quietly, saying things like "Ahhh, how do you do?" and "Oh, it's so lovely to meet you," and it's all a giant tea-party.  That's lovely, if it's what you're looking for, but we want soemthing to happen.  We want drama and shocking revelations and tragedy!  For the first hour, this seemed to be all that was going on (though several disagreed and pointed out that they made big trades early on, and I certainly missed some elements of the game), and I worried that my game was going to devolve into mindless conversation, a sure sign that I had failed.  But once Raoul announced the murder of Fyx Steele, the game quickly accelerated into high gear, and when I closed out the game, I had several players giving me puppy-dog eyes asking for the game to keep going.  I still can't decide if I made the right decision closing it out, but I certainly left them wanting more.  Still, there has to be some way to kick-start a game more quickly.  Those I ask are of two opinions: Some agree with me and think there must be a way to go faster, but most think that players need about an hour to "get into character" and to feel one another out.  Maybe that's true

I've been bitten by the bug, and within a day, I was inventing an even better system (cough).  I think I need more exposure to LARPs before I try again, but I must say, I was very very pleased to make such ripples in the LARP community with my first effort ^_^

Weapons of the Gods: Session 6

Rounding out my hell week, I've finished the 6th session of WotG.  I'm too exhausted to give you the sort of cool exploration of what we did that I like to do, but I can hit the highlights.

We were missing our shaky player again, and he's having a hard time fitting in.  It wouldn't surprise me if he dropped out entirely, and I wouldn't be sure if he would be making the wrong choice if he did (but I will say I would miss him if he left.  I missed him in the game).  One of the players, after finally grasping what the game was really about, changed his character, and I think the new character is a wonderful fit.

We hadn't played for two months, so you'd think fitting back in would be slow, but this time, I focused on one of my strengths: Character.  I have numerous characters and a somewhat complex plot, but by simplifying it and reiterating it, and then showing the world from the perspective of those characters, I was able to bring some neglected NPCs back to the fore:

• Prince Hei: The heir to the Dong Clan who struggles with his sexual orientation and the obvious love interest of one of our player characters.  I've wanted to highlight that scandal, that element of forbidden love, the tragedy and love/hate of the stereotypical kung-fu relationship, and this session, I got it in spades with Jimmy's beauty and the truth of his profession triggered a tantrum that cost Hei the tournament and made it appear that Jimmy had set up Hei (when he had not).
• Fen-Fen: Bee's handmaiden has a tragic back-story, and I'd never really touched on it, as it's important for later story elements involving her.  Finally, I wrenched the story to the side and showed people her story.  It's turning her into a bit of a woobie, but I suppose that's fair.  She lives a hard life and faces it stoically.  She's never relied on others to take care of her, but that doesn't mean they don't want to give her a big hug.
• "Littlest" Ping and Li: The "crown prince" of Southern Liang draws a great deal of inspiration from Prince Tai, though I'm working hard to make them distinct.  Where Tai was a cunning little bastard, Ping is growing into an irresponsible but contagious idealist, and Li is, while not bright, terribly practical, and asks uncomfortable questions (when Li ran off to help Ping with his madcap adventure and was later criticized for it, he pointed out that Ping is a prince, and thus Li is obligated to follow his commands.  When the player couldn't answer that, another player pointed out "You're losing a debate to a little boy."  Priceless).  WotG fares so well when you point out the differences in generation, so bringing the kids in with the adults helps a lot.
• Evil Sage: (one of) the big bads of the game has been referred to, but we haven't seen him.  So he played a song with one player character, and then casually murdered another (it's ok, he got better).  He's not etched onto the consciousness of the players ("Uhhhh, that kung-fu's not very nice..."), and that's good.
• Jun Zhi: The King's brother, ambitious, competent and powerful, needed to be more than a brooding-but-awesome guy lurking in the background.  We brought him to the fore as a powerful ally of the players, so they should be looking to him more often, making his role as a major player in the politics of the region more sensible.

We finally had the beginning of our tournament (only one player made it to the second round by pummeling a very inexperienced character on his way to more important things), while the other forfeited in favor of protecting his princess.  I didn't actually get a chance to reveal more about the mystery, but the pieces are set into place so that the players will know more in the next session.  All in all, we had a nice, tight game that felt like it flowed and I felt "in control," in the sense that I wasn't scrambling or terrified about the game.  It was easy.  This is the way a game is supposed to feel: I'm where I need to be.  At last.

HotBlooded: Tapestry Preview

One of our experienced LARP assistants, Ellis, wanted to paint little tapestries for each Houses' coat of arms.  Here's a preview of the first three:

HotBlooded: Release Day

I've heard nothing from my editors, meaning that there's no disaster in my material, and that means: Release day. I have a few things to work out, but I'll be editing this post with constant updates.  Because I know you guys are totally watching this blog breathlessly.  Look, I'm excited, awright?  Awright.

^_^

Release day!

EDIT: Character sheets separated, and PDFed.  Cover Sheets complete.  Waiting on word about release.

EDIT: They want to have a meeting first.  Ok.  But that means we won't see release until sometime after 5:00 pm :(

EDIT: They've decided they want to send all the sheets themselves, so I went to bed.  Got to zip them all up now.  It'll be a bit.  Hopefully today, though.

EDIT: It should be out!  Enjoy!

HotBlooded: Update

I finished the last of my second drafts today.  If I had to, I could send all the characters out right now.  I'm going to leave them for awhile, let my editors look it over (if they have time, it's looking like they don't), put together a rules summary, and then send.

I think it's safe to predict that you guys should have your characters by Monday.  Then it's just a matter of squaring away the servants, and then I'm done woohoo!