I’ve been having the fascinating experience lately of watching a mild edition war where I have precisely no dog in the fight. The gist of it, perhaps reduced overmuch, is that there is a growing reaction within the amorphous tribal slurry broadly designated “the OSR” against a long-running trend towards Basic rulesets, exemplified in the well-presented Old-School Essentials and the Kickstarter record-breaking Shadowdark. The reaction’s arguments, well-articulated by B/X Blackrazor here, are that B/X-chassis games don’t have the legs to sustain true long-term campaign play, AKA, “Classic Adventure Gaming” like the original campaigns run out of Lake Geneva at the hobby’s outset. The arguments presented advocating for AD&D are excellent, and doubtlessly correct. They also leave me unmoved, even though I find myself broadly in the CAG camp, because…I’ve already been running a Classic Adventure Campaign for years now in my own system*.
*Also I’ve recently wrapped up a longish high-level playtest in ACKS for the Cairn of Night’s final levels. ACKS is kind of a weird “its own thing”, built on Rules Cyclopedia originally but grown into unique form with regards to domain play and mass combat. More B/X lineage than not, but I think it’s been allowed as Now For Something Completely Different in the ongoing grand campaign discussion. Now Pathfinding Light’s suitability for a long-term sweeping campaign (West Marches + Kilodungeon, in this case) is in many ways kind of a cheat…I took the old-school spine of the single crunchiest D&D edition ever designed and ripped it out, plus added 1gp=1XP. Even so, there’s a still a vast corpus of crunch available for any expansion or modifications available to me, spineless and twitching, and I can harvest chunks as desired. Now obviously a superheroes game like Pathfinder would be weird for a long-term sprawling campaign (unless modified with E6, respect), but the thing I like the most about Pathfinding Light is that I can hand the ‘zine-sized 20-page booklet to new players and I have a reasonable expectation that if they’re interested, they’re going to read the whole thing and definitely be able to grok it. What’s the most suitable system to a long campaign? The one where everyone plays by the rules. There’s some important lessons I’ve learned running a big sprawling West March, but while I’m about to be doctrinaire about some things, system ain’t one of them. What is actually the most important for a long campaign: *Strict Time Scheduling Is Absolutely Required. Yeah, you heard me, SCHEDULING. If you want a long-term campaign, you need to make it YOUR HOBBY. Not a secondary to video games, not something you do in between band gigs…if someone asks you what you do for fun, you say “TTRPGs”. That’s not saying it must take a ton of time…I love writing up for publication, but it’s only 3-4 sessions a month, call it 12-15 hours of table time plus a couple hours prep. Just slap a hexmap down and roll encounters, that barely matters. But the campaign has to be a priority. That’s essential. *The Table Must Be Open, and Physical. Now this is going to create controversy, but I think if you’re not looking at everyone else’s face in a real physical space, then at best you’re indulging in some form of simulacra of the actual classic campaign experience. Engagement levels, commitment levels, the whole experience of play…it’s amusing to see people arguing about what edition of the game leads to a more authentic play experience, and then neglect the essential element of physical environment (I don’t DM behind a filing cabinet, though). At a house, at a bar, in the work cafeteria…a campaign works best when all the players and the game master break bread together and share drink. Anyone complaining about the flakey experience of online open tables, well of course, this stuff is primal. Eat and drink at your table. If you’re hosting, provide beer, soda, and/or coffee along with at least a few bags of chips. Feel free to doubt me but I’m right, this is something fundamental to the human experience. As a note, I have played online quite a bit as well, in a weekly game right now, and I quite enjoy it…I’m no luddite. I don’t think the shift in style from 2E to 3E was entirely due to game systems, however. A focused Adventure Path with a committed online group can be a blast, but I don’t pretend it’s the same kind of experience as what the OSR has been chasing in an ephemeral haze of nostalgia. THAC0 isn’t the solution to this phenomenon. Second note, what I’m not saying in “open” is that there should be no gatekeeping. If you’re hosting at a home, PLEASE be picky about who you invite. Those human mores and primal social contracts? There’s also a reason we have legends about not inviting in vampires. Even in a public venue like a bar or a game store, guest-host dynamics still apply to the DM and players, so care is warranted. Despite saying that, the very act of playing in a physical space at all will helpfully weed the very worst troglodytes out. *Always Be Inviting. After responding with “TTRPGs”, if I get a response even vaguely interested and I know the individual well enough/he’s vouched-for enough to allow within my home, my follow-up is “…and so we play this campaign, have you ever heard of the West Marches?” I talk up the lack of commitment, because most adults know they can’t commit to something regular (the schedule priority is you oh game-runner, not on them). When someone new comes along, I work to introduce them to the group, I strive to facilitate pregame conversations and jokes…the game itself is pretty easy. This is a social activity, and if you’re running a campaign, you’ve taken on the sacred role of “host”. This isn’t me suggesting some lame tips like “yes, and” or “no, but” during the act of play, I embrace the flat “no” in response to the in-game question of “can I do X?” But you have to say it with a smile, you have to encourage camaraderie, you want those players united. They’ve made the trip to a physical space for this and they’re sitting with fellow human beings, trust me, you can be as strict as you want with the game rules, there’s no log-out button. But you do need to make darn sure you say yes to the first player who tries to found his own village. There are no hobbyist experiences I know of that remotely match the enjoyment of a long-term sprawling free-form D&D campaign. There are TTRPG systems that work better for those campaigns, and others that struggle, requiring more work. Storygames don’t hold the faintest candle to the stories that emerge from a terrible random encounter roll that nukes one poor PC before he’s even aware he’s in danger. All of those system considerations pale next to the human stuff, though…after all, that’s what will really be producing the best memories. Now stop reading blog posts and schedule your next game session.
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AuthorWeblog of Ben Gibson, the main writer and publisher of Coldlight Press. Archives
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