Less than three years out of the gates and Wizards of the Coast is looking to move past 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Looking back, it feels obvious. And with Pathfinder (the company that took the helm of keeping the [mostly] 3rd edition alive) outselling D&D 4E it feels even more obvious. D&D was no longer D&D, it became a different game.

Why?

Some may point to various game mechanic changes and while I think that is part of the issue (and not necessarily a bad issue, as the combat is fluid and fun in 4E), it’s not the core issue.

Every role-playing game is, in essence, a world philosophy. The rules reflect, nay, manifest this philosophy. Some games are gritty and lethal while others are fantasy-heroic and within the rules the game’s philosophy emerges to help describe the universe in which the game is set.

How an individual game treats, writes-up, lays out the rules for, the “common” people in contrast to the “heroes” is one of the most key aspects to presenting the game’s philosophy. In Shadowrun the common man is only slightly easier to kill the heroes. Or, rather, death of a character is a constant worry regardless of the power level of the heroes. A common man with a big gun is a threat to new “low level” characters as he is to more experienced characters. In older versions of Dungeons & Dragons, there reached a point where the heroes felt no threat from the common man. It’s a game of epic heroism where heroes can become gods. Both of these games, Shadowrun, older versions of D&D, and other, in my opinion, good games address this idea at some level. This is not to say that large portions of the rule books are given over to dealing with the common people, but it is there. Descriptions of the “average” members of a group, community, species, etc., are laid out. 4E largely did away with this. The “common” man was largely ignored by the rules and where it is addressed is in non-rules format, to just flesh out the personality and physical description of the commoner if needed which ignores the fact that many players often confront (and thereby need rules) these commoners. 4E lacks a world/universe/cosmological/role-playing philosophy, or at least it severely lacks one with respect to older editions of the game.

Another example of this is 4E’s near total collapse of context. New books would be released detailing a plethora of new classes and races (species) for players to play…but the details were generic, they lacked anchorage to a “real” world. Starting with the 1st edition of D&D concrete settings, whole worlds (or at least portions of continents), were created with the likes of Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms. These settings had a history, cultures, societies and when new content was introduced to the game there was an effort (sometimes excellently executed and at others it felt like a square peg was hammered into a round hole) to integrate the new material into the world. If a new species was introduced they came from somewhere, a new profession emerged from some group or groups. But 4E just dropped the new rules into the laps of the gamers and left context as generic as possible.

My argument here is; because the average gamer is now well into their 30s context does as much, if not more, to spur the imagination than an awesome image and the mechanics write up of the new class/race/etc. The context of the new thing must be molded into the game’s philosophy and without a coherent philosophy…the imagination anchor has a far more difficult time finding a hold.

Also, in addressing the established campaign worlds like Greyhawk and, especially, Forgotten Realms, Wizards of the Coast essentially dropped support for them. For the Forgotten Realms they introduced two new books at the beginning of 4E, that nearly destroyed any possibility of importing old characters into the new timeline, but then for two years failed to add anything. Long running campaigns, which in my experience is the standard model for gaming groups (though I don’t have data on this), had to either choose to completely start over or stick with the older rules and therefor, naturally, expand into Pathfinder.

Lastly, 4E dropped any and all social actions to the wayside. The game was nearly completely focused on combat. Social skills are present but they’re either tailored for use in combat (Bluff) or thrown in as if an after thought (Diplomacy) and then all other content is focused on combat. While yes, the players are free to use the skills and to engage in role playing…the game largely ignored it and only address the “role” of being an individual in combat. Emerson into the game is relegated to combat and combat alone.

4E’s only philosophy was “combat happens.” And in that philosophy they made the game fun. But without any serious support for the context in which that combat occurs they failed and the game itself failed. If not, then why a 5th edition, with a call for player input, less than three years after its release?

Part 1 of 3 is finished. The Internet Bible, or Biblios delasel Internetus in the old tongue in cheek, The Older Stuff is complete and uploaded to my website under the non-fiction section. It mildly parodies the Old Testament and Upanishads.

A direct link to the pdf is here.

Enjoy and heed the words therein well

Brick wall. Late night brick wall. Did you see it. There, right there. I ran into it. Maybe it ran into me. Relative. Regardless, brick wall. In the face. Nose smushed to the left. I can feel the pocked indentations of the texture of the brick imprinting on the flesh around my nostril. Brick wall. I could taste it. Part my lips, stick my tongue out, drag it along the red brick and the white lined mortal. That’s the brick wall. It’s there, in front of me, as ifI’m laying on top of it, or it on me. Relative. And while I know, as a deep terrible desire-like emotional and intellectual knowledge, that I should walk away from the brick wall. It’s heavy. Or I’m heavy. Relative. The brick wall invites exploration, it beacons my fingers to slide along its surface, begging my eyes to map out every porous pit, demanding my lungs to expand and inhale through my one open nostril the dusty dryness. Brick wall. Late night. Move away, back off, but the brick wall sticks to my clothes like Velcro. Or my clothes stick to it. Relative. Sledgehammer, need to find that sledgehammer. I left it somewhere, it’s either in my bed, a book, or some start to some written work…hopefully not about brick walls. But what ever. Relative.

I’ve been playing role-playing games since Christmas 1982. That’s just about 28 years of reading hundreds of RPG books, from rule books to magazine articles to short and long fiction. In the beginning it was Dungeons & Dragons, and while there have been other games during those nearly three decades only two have stuck out as my favorites; Dungeons & Dragons and Shadowrun.

Shadowrun, which was first released in 1989, is a near future dystopian fantasy/sci-fi game where you typically play a criminal in a world controlled by corporations and dragons, where magic exists and has enough influence on culture that even MIT changed their name to MIT&T (Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Thaumaturgy), and sadly, I haven’t played it for nearly 5 years now. But as of 2004 I had read every Shadowrun game book (90+ books), excerpt (at least 3-5), and novel (35+) (at least the products publish in America, there are additional books published in various European countries that I haven’t read).

In role-playing games there is the idea of the “game world” or “campaign world.” This is the world in which the game is played with “world” being in its broadest sense (think cosmological). As players you can create your own world, but D&D and Shadowrun both have published worlds, where they, the publishers, construct the continents, politics, cultures, regions, species, races, etc. In published books they update and detail different regions, peoples, societies, etc. These books tend to read like fantasy travel guides. For D&D there were multiple campaign worlds. In the beginning there was Greyhawk. Then came the Forgotten Realms and on its heels came Planescape, Ravenloft, and many others. For Shadowrun there’s always been one world, our world with our people, species, races, and cultures only on an alternate timeline that significantly diverges from ours in 2011 when magic “comes back” to our world.

In the summer of 2008, Dungeons & Dragons 4^th edition was released. It completely changed the rules and feel of the game, for better or worse. I lean towards worse. In past versions of the game the “travel guide” books would come out and mixed in with the guide part, the fictional story-telling, would be additional rules to add to the game in order to give that region its own feel. With the 4^th edition of D&D, these travel guides have been completely dropped. They no longer exist. The books they publish contain rules, additions, updates to the rules, but all severely lacking context. In a word, I find them boring.

Now, one might say, “so what?” To that, my answer is that the travel guide aspect allows for “immersion.” It allows players to create characters with ties to people in local communities, create backgrounds for their characters; they enhance the ability to create an integrated history for that persona which the player plays…it fosters the “role” in role-playing. For the Game Master (Dungeon Master since we’re talking about D&D here), the person that controls everything from the monsters to the weather to the local farmers that the players meet, it allows them to draw upon individuals and settings that the players are familiar with. The travel guides anchor the improvisation storytelling to a foundation-script.

All that is gone. For the past two years it has been a barren landscape of grey rules coming out of the Dungeons & Dragons product line that reads like it is written for 8 year olds.

A week ago, after nearly 5 years, I finally started buying some Shadowrun books (thanks Leif!), mainly because I loved the old (pre-five years ago) books and secondarily because I really want to play Shadowrun in 2011…the year when magic comes back in the fictional world. I bought an adventure book, a book that has new gear (weapons, vehicles, drugs, etc.), a book that updates Seattle to the current timeline, and a comprehensive timeline book of the Shadowrun universe that includes write ups on many countries as they currently stand.

On opening the first book, Seattle 2072, I nearly cried. It is beautiful. It captures why I love Shadowrun above all others. The book is written (like its 1989 counterpart set in 2050) like an actual normal travel guide. Really. The first section (after a two page short story) reads:

“The City On The Sound

“Seattle: the Emerald City, premier metroplex, the western port and outpost of the United Canadian and American States, an urban locale of culture, history, and vibrant activity nestled amidst the Native American Nations and the thriving ecosystem of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle is a prime destination for travelers; for business, and urban sight-seeing vacation, or an extended visit to the surrounding wilderness. This Guide looks at the things you should know when planning your next trip to Seattle, the City on the Sound!”

But it is written like a travel guide that has been posted to an underworld online distribution site, where the various criminals and quasi-criminals (i.e. Shadowrunners) can post their own comments. Right after that opening paragraph a very famous shadowrunner posts the following:

“Seattle, city in the shadows. Welcome to our version of the popular “Living Planet™ Guide to Seattle, where we make the Guide a little more “living” than the publishers originally intended by stripping out much of the oh-so-helpful commentary on tourist attractions, family-friendly places to eat, and top ten lists of the Most Romantic or Most Reasonably Priced establishments in town. Instead, we focus on the “real” Seattle Metroplex: the crazy, mixed-up, fucked-up place that has been and continues to be one of the greatest haves for shadowrunners and edge societies in the world. If you want the tourist stuff, buy (or pirate) an original copy of Living Planet’s Guide for yourself. If you want the real skinny on what’s going on in the Seattle shadows, then you’ve come to the right place. We’ve got intel from the usual suspects along with some local experts I’ve invited onboard. Enjoy, and use it well.

-Fastjack”

And the rest of the book is filled with shadowrunners commenting on the best places to work, people to avoid, where to buy illegal items, what corporations are in control of what areas, and so on. Nearly every paragraph contains something that can be used by players or game masters to help add depth to their game.

Then I opened the Sixth World Almanac. I was expecting something similar to the Forgotten Realms book, The Grand History of the Realms (which was published just before the change to 4^th edition D&D). The Realms book is a timeline of that fantasy world covering thousands of years with small font size basically in the following format

Year N: So and so nation did this.

Year N+1: This guy did this causing this event. And over there so and so nation did this.

Year N+2: This event happened. This person was born.

Etc.

And every couple of pages is a sidebar, a detailed half-page write up on some interesting or important event.

But Shadowrun’s Sixth World Almanac? Granted, it doesn’t have thousands of years of history to write up…only just under a century. But instead, the sidebars are the timeline, the Year N…, important events. The rest, the majority of text, are fictional write ups on important events that are written “in character.” The write ups are presented as news articles, lyrics to best selling songs for that year, excerpts from interviews of important personages. I only flipped through most of the history so far. But I read the excerpt of the flight recorder for EuroAir Flight 329, in 2041. I read the last line and began to sob. I know, I’m getting old. Maybe ten years ago I would have just gotten chills. But regardless…when was the last time that a D&D book inspired such passion?

The last half of the book presents two page (on average) write ups on many nations across the world from the perspective Shadowrun’s fictional wikipeadia-equivalent (much like the Seattle’s book “Living Planet Guide”) with shadowrunners throwing in their two nuyen in a forum style commentary.

The Sixth World Almanac also includes several short stories, two pages or so each, sprinkled throughout the book.

Then there’s the gear book, Arsenal. The 4^th edition D&D equivalent is the Adventurer’s Vault. The Vault is 223 pages mundane and magical items (mostly magical) where the only fictional text, text not relating to the rules or how the item works, is in brief, one-sentence, descriptions on what the magic item looks like.

Shadowrun’s Arsenal is 199 pages that is written like an online catalog from 2071 that includes one page short stories as well as the forum-style comments from shadowrunners.

Shadowrun books are, on average, more expensive that D&D books (though D&D’s new line of “Essentials” looks to be lowering the overall cost but at the expense of even further lowering the quality). But the entertainment of the Shadowrun books, which read like fiction (anyone familiar with Lauren Myracle’s “ttyl” teen novel?), is a step, no, several stories above anything that D&D 4^th edition has produced in the 2+ years that it has been out.

In the past 2 years of playing just D&D 4^th edition I’ve only taken pleasure, I’ve only had fun, with the fact that I’m with friends and the stories that we, collectively, have been creating. But with Shadowrun, I’m having fun the moment I’m reading their books.

(As a side note, the only piece of fiction that I wrote that got accepted, and I’ve only attempted to get published through Shadowrun or D&D publishers, was a Shadowrun short story, Some Runs, but the magazine that was to publish it went under before the issue in which the story was to appear was printed.)

I only caught the tail end of the Stewart/Colbert Rally to Restore Sanity and or Fear. A few hours later I wondered what the big media’s take was on the whole thing so I went to CNN and read their main entry on it. After reading that I went to fox and read their take. Then I read MSNBC’s account.

While reading MSNBC’s account I realized that Fox and MSNBC were doing some copy-pasting from the Associated Press’ article so I looked that up and read it (Using AP material isn’t new or strange and Fox states “The Associated Press contributed to this report” and MSNBC gave credit to the whole AP article as they didn’t change anything, just a total copy-paste).

This got me interested in looking at what was added, changed, or not included to the Fox article from the AP version and after a little bit here’s some interesting things…

Fox News:

“The crowds were festive, goofy, disillusioned with the state of politics if not the nation, and ready to play nice at a gathering called to counter all the shouting and flying insults of these polarized times. So were the hosts.”

AP Text used:

“Part comedy show, part pep talk, the rally drew together tens of thousands stretched across an expanse of the National Mall, a festive congregation of the goofy and the politically disenchanted. ” and from another paragraph, “The idea was to provide a counterweight to all the shouting and flying insults of these polarized times. But there were political undertones, too, pushing back against conservatives ahead of Tuesday’s election.”

Another interesting change;

AP original:

“In the shadow of the Capitol and the election, comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert entertained a huge throng Saturday at a “sanity” rally poking fun at the nation’s ill-tempered politics, fear-mongers and doomsayers.”

Fox News:

“Just three days before pivotal midterm elections, comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert threw a “sanity” rally in the shadow of the Capitol that organizers insisted wasn’t about politics.

“But there were political undertones to Saturday’s event as the two Comedy Central hosts entertained a huge throng stretched alongside the National Mall by poking fun at the nation’s diversity and its ill-tempered politics.”

What’s interesting here is the decision on Fox’s part to change the AP’s “fear-mongers and doomsayers” to “nation’s diversity.”

An interesting omission on Fox’s part comes from the following:

AP:

“Colbert, who poses as an ultraconservative on his show, played the personification of fear at the rally. He arrived on stage in a capsule like a rescued Chilean miner, from a supposed underground bunker. He pretended to distrust all Muslims until one of his heroes, basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who is Muslim, came on the stage.”

Fox News:

“Colbert arrived on stage like a rescued Chilean mine worker, in a capsule from a supposed underground bunker, after Stewart made a show of counting the crowd, tens of thousands strong, one by one.”

The Fox News article does not mention Kareem or the interplay between the basketball great and Colbert.

There are other smaller changes as well, such as Fox News inserting “especially” in the AP’s sentence of “Stewart is [especially] popular with Democrats and independents…”

Despite the written word being mostly dead, textual analysis can shine a nice light on the values of those writing the words. Where with one text you can only say that the whole of the text was important to the author, but with two texts, one based primarily on the first, you can see not only what the second author found important to transcribe and in what sense, but also what wasn’t important (to them) at was left out.

Well, nearly every major island and all the lakes on the map have now been named. All other mixed-language named locations have been fixed so that it is single-language. For example, when it gets late or if I’m in a rush I might name a forest “Raungemrif Forest” on the map. Where “Raungemrif” is dwarven for “northsea,” but “forest” is, well, heh, English. So over the past week I’ve been going through the labels on the map and fixing that, so if there was that forest it would now be labeled “Raungemrif Burid.”

On Thursday I got back to working on the timeline again.

Chapter XI, Section F & G: Historical Overview & Khormadal Timeline: 49 pages (still-still).

Chapter XI, Section B, C, & D: The World, Physical Geography, & Cultural Geography: 65 pages.

Chapter XIII, Section A: Glossary: 37 pages.

Total project size, not including maps: 306 pages.

Average pages per week: 4.333 (-0.042 change from two weeks ago)*

Average pages per day: 0.62 (-0.005 change from two weeks ago)*

Tentatively finished sections/chapters size: 155 pages.

*I discovered errors in the spreadsheet that calculates my averages and changes, but I think it’s fixed now.