On game rules and fun

Today I was reading the MicroLite74 rules set booklet, considering it as a possible candidate to use once I finish DMing my current 3.5e campaign, when I came across a sentence on the Designer’s Notes section that caught my eye:

"So don’t search your character sheet or the rules for the perfect solution [...]"

It was like having a deja-vu. When you look over the DM screen and see your players going back and forth their character sheets (or rulebooks) trying to find the answer for any given situation, you should know that something is wrong. It's then time to stop and ask:

People, is this really the game we want to play? Are we having fun?

In the end that's what games are all about: having fun. I've come to believe that in a game (at least in RPGs) the quantity of rules is inversely proportional to the quality of the fun you get playing that game. This has no scientific basis but an emotional one, and by no mean intends to be a static statement, so maybe someone could prove me wrong.

Later in the booklet, on the same section, there's a summary in reference to A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming by Matthew J. Finch, and under the item "Player Skill, not Character Skill " you can read the following:

"Players don’t need to be rules lawyers."

And I would humbly add, neither do DMs. Amen.

Goodbye 3.5e

I never played D&D or B/X. I started playing AD&D 1e, then switched to AD&D 2e, then to 3e, then to 3.5e, always thinking that the new rules set was better than the prevoius one without giving it much thought, but no more. I now DM three 3.5e campaigns all set in the World of Greyhawk; one ongoing (Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk) and two other "on hold" (a long term one that we left in the middle of Maure Castle from Dungeon magazines - heathens! - and a homebrew one).

With time I've realized that allowing the use of books like the "Complete" or the PHB2 was a mistake. I should have known better that with the three core books was more than enough. What was done in the eagerness of adding flavor to the game, in the end became a cumbersome corset for me. I don't need more rules, spells, feats or classes to do what I intended to.

So then it's decided, once we've finished EttRoG I plan to go back to the roots, back to 1e, or B/X, or some of the OSR rules set like Swords&Wizardry or Labyrinth Lord.

One Page Dungeon Contest 2009 Codex & Compendium

Keeping their promise Chgowiz and ChattyDM (two of the contest judges) released in PDF the One Page Dungeon Codex 2009 (the "Hobbyist" version as they call it) and the One Page Dungeon Compendium. The Codex is a compilation of the winning entries, runner ups and honorable mentions and the Compendium contains all of the contest entries. Mine is here!

As a bonus the Codex has a great cover made by Mark Allen. He's the winner of "The Erol Otus Art Challenge" in the Color category (May 2009). Next month they'll be publishing a "Professional" version with aditional content and art for the three winners.

Well done guys!

Medieval battle records go online

The detailed service records of 250,000 medieval soldiers from 1369 to 1453- including archers who served with Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt - have gone online.

See the whole study here.

New look!

I decided it was time to give the blog a new look, so I changed the template and modified its HTML code in order to add a background. The chosen background is the image on the left. I used GIMP to have it resized and then applied an "old photo" filter. All but two of the miniatures were hand-painted by my wife (BTW she plays D&D too!) and me. The other two (Caramon at the front and the barbarian at the center) were painted by a friend and fellow gamer.