Why I Don't Like Minis & Battlemats

I just reconnected with Andy from Breakfast in the Ruins and gave a re-listen to the podcast episode he kindly invited me to guest on a few years back.

Listening to us bang on about Moorcockean roleplaying I had to laugh at our conversation about minis.

I do not like them, Sam I am.

DISCLAIMER

If you like minis and battlemats, more power to you. They just are not my bag.

My friend KinpatsuSamurai paints amazing mini diaoramas. I love seeing them.

My friend Dave is a master of online grid combat with digital minis. I enjoyed gaming with him.

My friend Chris has cabinets of minis in his basement and knows what every one means. They are awesome to look at.

I just don't want to do any of that in my games. I am a pure Theater of the Mind guy.

So, what do I think is wrong with minis (for me)?

Grab a chair...

1 Not a Roleplaying Game

As Andy puts it, using minis and battle mats doesn't feel like playing a roleplaying game, instead it turns the game into string of combat encounters a la the old Heroquest boardgame. As a GM, some of my proudest moments are when players roleplay in a way that totally avoids a combat slugfest. In my Laughing Tower playtest of a few years back, a Melnibonean high priest bluffed his way past guardsmen, the party hopped on his mystical yacht, and they sailed away from a city on high alert. This just after battling with powerful demons. Having the option to roleplay out of some combats means that the combats you do engage in are meatier and more memorable.

The few times I played 4E, I found combat very video gamey. We had status markers going everywhere, it really was more gamey than immersive, and the game petered out quickly after a few fights.

2 Problems With Scale

Besides distracting from roleplaying, the Dollhouse Scale of most battlmats and minis means that the immense scale of fantasy environments is wasted. Tolkeen's Moria is huge, an endless dungeon, but with minis it is reduced to an endless array of battlemats (ho hum). Go look at the final chase scene in Moria from Peter Jackson's films, the party are ants running along endless corridors that team with innumerable hostiles.

Back when I played AD&D, we had massive maps to explore, and combat was abstracted. We knew our position . Modern gaming has shifted focus from the PARTY on a single 10x10 wide BLOCK to the MINI on a 1x1 or 2x2 TILE. This is a huge step down in scale, and game worlds feel all the more constrained and small for it.

3 Lack of Imagination, Group Cohesion, & Listening Skills

With Theater of the Mind, you have to listen intently to scene descriptions for any tactical advantage. With minis, you peek at the grid, then go get a drink from the fridge until it is your time to roll dice. You are disengaged and disinterested in what is going on until it is your turn.

I saw the difference big time when I ran The Laughing Tower and had old Stormbringer stalwarts (hullo Alan!) and younger games who had been raised on mini combat. The characters had entered a ruined town where the tower had materialized, and were walking towards the rainbow-hued tower. I explained that there was a door at its base and a window straight above it near the top.

The party got half way across the square the tower had appeared in when a disgusting fly headed archer began shooting arrows at them from the window. The vanguard was made up of older players, who all decided to book it for the door, reasoning the sniper could only loose so many arrows before they got to safety. However, a younger player and Moorcock newbie decided to stand his ground and return fire. When he was knocked, an older player asked "Can I just drag him a few steps to the side and be out of the field of vision?"

"Of course!" I replied.

The older player had an image of the scene and the tactical considerations in his head, the younger one had been condition to stand his ground and fire back by reliance on minis and battlemaps. Just as we should be wary of kids nowadays letting AI do their thinking for them, we should also consider the effect of outsourcing our descriptions of combat to mats and minis.

4 Prevention of Narrative Abilities & Overreliance on Rules

Although I am a grognard and love older games, I do believe that adding some narrative rules judiciously can improve the experience of Moorcockean games, considering their narrative origins. Case in point, some of the rules I am working on have narrative effects that reflect Moorcockean themes, such as the ability to sacrifice NPCs or allies if in danger.

If you are using a battlemat and rules made for it, such an ability would have a range of effect and also be limited by the physical positioning of the minis. The player of a Melnibonean PC could offer to sacrifice an ally, but others could point out that their spaces aren't adjacent, or invoke some BS 5 meter casting range. The battlemat and minis thus becomes a physical constraint on rulings and creativity.

This isn't very Moorcockean.

5 Literary Roots

Last but not least, having a static dollhouse view of the battlefield takes away all the thrill of combat as it appears in the work of literature the game is based on. Go read the scene where Count Brass duels Baron Meliadus, or when Elric fights Yrkoon. These are page turners, tightly worded and pulse pounding descriptions of combat that are exactly why we love Moorcock's books and play games based on them. To read the book then abandon all descriptive efforts in favor of pushing little men around squares seems the antithesis of what I for one am trying to do.

Conclusions

I know I sound elitist or snobby for my dim views on minis, but I have to be true to how I feel. I am not here to yuck anyone else's young, just articulate my feelings.

Now with the 5E glut pumping out products like pocket dungeons and battle maps, the scale of combat will only get smaller.

This make me sad.

To combat this trend, I have started working on a Guide to Theater of the Mind. Look for it sometime next year.

What's Not in the NUNA Quickstart

The NUNA QuickStart stands at just under 50 pages.

For a game that melds arctic survival, adventure, super science, and the weird, lots had to go.

Here are the things that broke my heart to leave out but will shine in the complete Corebook.

1 Community rules - To me, this is the beating heart of Nuna. Why go on an adventure? Because your community needs medicine, or weapons, or more people to sustain it. And the more you give your community, the more it gives back to you. There are hints at this with the Player Character descriptions, but no time to stop and smell the roses.

2 Arctic transport - I used to care for the late great Tony Williamson, arctic expert, and the stories he told of travelling the arctic were the stuff of legend. I try to incorporate that in my game design, and so from massive Soviet ice ships, to super science land ships, to Inuit dogsleds, I have created systems of travel that allow people to traverse the land in all conditions. And choosing the right transport can be a question of life or death on Nuna.

3 Cultural powers - In Nuna, all characters have powers that seem supernatural to people from other cultures. Inuit can see far on tundra and are never surprised, while Whalers can swim in frozen waters. This type of superior ability is not unique to the Arctic. The Kalenjin of Kenya are marathon superpowers, and routinely win marathons the world over against professional full-time trained athletes. The Bajau Sea Nomads of Asia can hold their breath as long as world record divers. Culture is a superpower, and Nuna brings this to the fore.

4 Shaman magic & gonzo super science - Shamanism died out under colonization in Canada, but Nuna conceives this dead mystic art as a potent force trying to find its way back into the land of the living. Ditto super science, which is ancient knowledge unlocked with the Fall. Both can unlock immense power for wielders, but at great cost.

So when you hold the Nuna QuickStart in your grubby hands, remember that this is just the tip of the glacier.

S

The Thunder Perfect Mind Kickstarter - I'm in

I'm backing THIS (as soon as Kickstarter accepts my change in profile info, which is holding up my payment!)

Looks like an eminently playable Wraith derivative, which I found interesting but a bit heavy and needing more motivation.

Tanya's game seems to have motivation in spades.

Good luck Tanya!

Breakfast in the Multiverse - What is Moorcockean?

Just listened to this BANGER of a podcast with Andy at BitR and irrepressible game designer Tanya Floaker.

The conversation circles back around the perennial question, "What do we mean by Moorcockean gaming?"

The answer depends on which works you are basing the game on.

THE ETERNAL CHAMPION GAME

Andy calls The Eternal Champion  games from Chaosium and some indie publishers 'Geographical trappings' without larger themes. He is not wrong. I even called these Young Kingdoms tourism ads when we spoke years ago.

The Elric stories are a fantasy saga and pulp mix up, with serious literary inspirations, with gods and sundry beyond the power of the players to influence. Stormbringer RPG et al do a good enough job of this, but I wrote Stormbringer Redux because I felt more that an overarching framework that emphasized the themes of fate was needed.

Andy notes that players are intimidated by other players changing the narrative, so adding meta mechanics is of necessity limited.

This is what I would call bottom up Moorcock gaming.

MOORCOCK'S MULTIVERSE

For her part, Tanya posits making a game based on The Multiverse Comic - a self-referential series which includes meta-gaming for the multiverse at actual gaming tables. Sounds like a combination of The Microcope RPG and Playing At Worlds RPG, hopefully with better mechanics. She and Andy bandy about using cards to simulate moves of the Lords of the Higher Worlds, both poker and Tarot. Tanya gives hints on poker and the roles (Champion, Consort, Companion, Enemy), something which I have toyed with before.

Sounds tasty!

Andy adds that this would emulate the Balance and the 'correction through violence' that is a staple of Moorcock's works.

This is what I would term top down Moorcock gaming.

THE GAME OF CREATION

Tanya then brings up the Lester Dent master formula for writing pulp as Moorcock's process.

How about instead of the game mechanics, we focus on GM training. Lester Dent as a guide to Moorcockean storytelling?

Let's run Elric through this! The first 1500 words:

1 Fistful of trouble - The armada from the Young Kingdom draws near!

2 Hero Pitches In - Elric armors up and heads out to meet them on his battle barge

3 Introduce Everyone - By this time we've met Elric, Cymoril, Yrkoon, and Dyvim Tvar in short order.

4 Hero In Trouble - Elric is thrown overboard by his cousin. GAME OVER?

5 Surprise, It's A Twist - Strassha comes to save Elric, upending Yrkoon's betrayal and ursurpation of the throne.

In hindsight, we can see that Moorcock used this framework in his stories. But how do we adapt it to a game about fragile rat kickers? Maybe preparing a Fiasco style playset is the ticket.

Tanya notes that Moorcock was unsettled by the accuracy of Tarot readings. Maybe the cards give not only randomized events, but also the possible moves to counter or deflect them as determined by the cards.

We are thus trapped between the tendency of random events to go off the rails, and the need for superior improvisation and interpretation of game events by masters.

This is what I'd call Meta Moorcocking.

WHERE I COME IN

As for me, I think I would be up to creating a Bestiary that leans into the aesthetics of Moorcock's monsters that I previously categorized into Metaphorical, Allegorical, Psychedelic, Weird, Alien, and Cosmic Horror, or a combination of the above. This would spice up any bottom up Moorcock game and avoid the baby + bathwater conundrum. Could also be used as moves in top down gaming.

I'm also interested in making scenarios for the old games. Other than that, I would just continue my fine tuning of the old rulesets.

I like what I like.

THE PROBLEM

As I see it, there is always a contradiction between player interests and the meta game. Can you play Elric if you control Arioch and see what move is coming? Also, what is the benefit for players of being pawns? Elric is a main character who dies, yet players want to avoid death.

In the end, game and fiction are not the same. We have to temper our expectations (ie prepare to die) but reach for the stars (improvise like madmen and madwomen).

ANDY'S HABERDASHERY

One thing that I really dug was the talk of character fashion. Andy hits the nail on the head when he notes any Elric or Moorcockean game needs a haberdashery with a wild array of absurd or frivolous clothing options. I remember Elric's yellow silk kimono, later on his kilt and tartan breeches, and the infamous shopping scene from the 2nd or 3rd Hawkmoon book just before the hero acquires the Sword of the Dawn (the comic adaptation was simply Zoolander with a sword). Moorcockean fashion seems to be a mix of 1960's psychedelic clothes and Camden Market thrifting, but it should also give advantages to social skills or survival I reckon.

There was an old OSR random table that did this. Maybe I should make one for Stormbringer...

Thanks again Andy and Tanya!

PS I am editing and polishing up Stormbringer redux again.

28 Years Later Review - 28 Bone Temples Later, American Angst, and British Cinema

I'm clearing out a backlog of materials I haven't been able to get out due to the double whammy of work and Nuna writing. Here is my review of Alex Garland and Danny Boyle's latest infected movie. I had planned to start a YouTube channel for reviews, but it has proven beyond my reach. This was originally a script so a bit different from my normal posts.

WAVE OF ADULATION & DENIGRATION

There were lots of positive reviews before and after, mostly from UK or international creators. But Yank presenters were very negative. The main American criticisms were of 28 Years as a sequel / continuation, as part of zombie genre, and as having too much male genitalia.

As for me, before 28 Years I was hyped.

I refused to see any type of spoiler beyond the trailers.

I went in fresh.

And I LOVED it.

I think a lot of people ruined it for themselves by bringing in dumb questions and preconceptions.

1) Would it continue the franchaise?

2) Would it add to the lore?

WORTHY SUCCESSOR?

I don’t think Danny Boyle or Alex Garland give a shit about making a good sequel or making a franchise.

I think they filmed 1-2 back to back because they foresaw the divided reaction.

I also think this question misses the point.

Z PROBLEM

Zombie franchises are diminishing returns. Look at how Romero’s movies petered out at the end.

By contrast, DB & AG are going out with a bang.

God love them.

THE LORE!!

Another mistake is focusing on the lore or canon.

As AG states, DB does not care about canon.

As I see it, they had two goals with 28 Years Later.

1) Subvert the oppressive American take on zombies (a la TWD)

2) Celebrate UK film

SUBVERTING AMERICANA

Jimmy Carr notes that British music is just American music repackaged and sold back to them. Same goes for zombie flicks.

NotLD = bleak, hopeless death

Zombieland = power fantasy (Hollywood, raves)

Walking Dead = Zombie redneck elegy

This approach is played out, and also doesn't grow well in UK soil.

CELEBRATING UK CINEMA

28 Years Later has more in common with The Wicker Man.

The Infected masks are more like a pagan symbol, the villages isolated and secretive.

Nudity abounds. This is pure UK cinema.

FAREWELL AMERICA'S RETURN TO NORMAL FANTASY

28 Years explodes the fantasy of a return to normal after the apocalypse, as in TWD town arc. It instead explores the strange new world created by the infection, one that has become ahistorical.

UNMOORED IN HISTORY

I loved how 28 Years shows an England unmoored in history. With its lush green landscape and abundant deer, it could be an ancient Celt film, or PreSaxon, preRoman England redux. This allows the loss of industrial time keeping, elevates the iron statue that could stand for millenia, and allows the hopeful discourses of memento mori & memento amoris. This works as an antidote to the apocalypse (end of history) narrative and instead posits a new cycle of history.

ROBIN HOOD INSTEAD OF CLINT EASTWOOD

Whereas TWD's Rick Grimes is a Clint Eastwood stand in, complete with honking big revolver and cowboy hat, Spike's father is Robin Hood, that quintessential British hero. Spike himself is young Arthur, wandering the land, counselled by an old wizard (Dr Kelso). Might he become king in a future film?

A ZOMBIE BY ANY OTHER NAME

One of the ways this shift is effected is by eschewing the term zombie. Notice the only character that calls the Infected ‘zombies’ is the UN soldier, Eric. It is an outside concept, and the film's UK characters keep it such.

Z BABY

Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead has a zombie baby that reinforces the dead end of infection. 28 Years has a living, healthy baby from a zombie mother. Could this portent a future where infected and uninfected might reunite? Dr Kelso's comments tend to hint at this.

JIMMY SAVILLE’S CABIN FEVER

I dug the ending, which many American commentators HATED. It could be a reference to the out of left field surprise ending of Canadian horror hit, Cabin Fever, where an autistic young boy kung fus the crap out of the survivor when he reaches civilization. Add to this the implication of UK celebrity pedophile Jimmy Saville, and we see a fresh UK take on the nature of power and leadership in crisis. This is especially powerful given the current state of the US as its power pedophile class empire crumbles.

CONCLUSION

Cultural blinders shape opinion on what constitutes a good movie. As a Canadian, I can appreciate both the US and UK views of how a film should be.

Movies are not insights into parallel realities, they are cinema. Trying to see them as reality simulations is a self-defeating task, I feel.

DB & AG reinvigorated the genre with 28 Days Later. Kudos for one upping themselves with 28 Years Later.

I have seen The Bone Temple and love it just as much as 28 Years. Expect a review when I come up for air.

Daibosatsu Toge - The Great Buddha Pass

 I am currently enjoying the incredible warm weather and sunshine here in Vancouver. First snowless year in 47 years, with the rest of the country snowed under.

(I wanted to put a movie poster here but Blogger is having issues today)

Meh, this is all I could upload. Tilt your head right to see correctly.

While I recuperate from balancing work and writing the Nuna QuickStart, I am reading The Great Buddha Pass - a huge work of fiction from the prewar period about a wandering, evil samurai. Post Nuna, my next project is Giri-Ninjou, my rules light TRPG about Duty & Humanity among the samurai.

You can read The Great Buddha Pass HERE, and several movies have been made based on the property over the years.

And I'm Spent

 I just tied the Nuna Quickstart draft to the leg of a giant owl and sent it winging its way to the Lord of the Round Shield and his wildmen playtesters.

And I'm spent...

I'll be taking a little break from Nuna. Writing an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) for a game is a massive chore compared to all the discrete bits of Stormbringer Redux.

Speaking of, expect more Stormbringer and Hawkmoon posts, as well as other musings, when I have my strength back.