D&Dish musings on campaigns of yore...

After talking to Todd Lockwood a bit, and sifting through his artwork for prints to get...I found myself falling in love again with the often ranted about drow: Drizzt Do Urden.

While in general I like my heroes to be cut from the cloth of everyday men and women who rise to the occasion to become HEROES. Drizzt, superheroic and munchie if there ever was a character reminds me a lot of my older days playing D&D.

Not necessarily AD&D 2nd Edition or older...I've had a blast playing D&D 3.0 and 3.5. But I'm reminded of our games, and how we roleplayed it to the hilt. We had fun playing what we wanted and dealing with the consequences of it in-game. We had some great GMs over the years who let us play anything we wanted and built the world and stories around us...but things were going in in-world as well...and we as characters were assholes...we usually ended up having people after us...if we were heroic...people flocked to us as well...but for different reasons.

Point here is that we were able to have an effect on the campaign setting to a degree and we did actually roleplay the hell out of it.

This is not what many people think D&D is good at. Looking at just the rules, D&D is a wonderful vehicle for killing monsters and gaining loot...but so many people see the rules as the sum and whole of the game.

When did THIS happen?

I love the idea of taking a character, making a dude who sets off as an ADVENTURER...not really knowing full well what it means...turning him in to a character who gets in a lot of trouble, fights his way free and learns something. Later becoming a champion of sorts (pick a cause), gaining notoriety and slowly gaining prestige and power...eventually gaining lands and power...finding the trouble now follows HIM.

At some time the character is ready for retirement and we make new characters and the old PCs become NPCs...and we keep on rockin in the free world so to speak. Hell even dust off the old PCs a year or two later for an uber campaign. A war or other campaign world changing event.

Point is, during this whole time, we're still playing D&D in the same campaign setting. Maybe had 3-5 characters over the years and had a helluva lot of fun.

All of this with a system that is derided as "a bad vehicle for Roleplaying".

I call bullshit.

I don't see D&D4E as being anything like it's older roots. The OD&D we could easily do that style of play, mix it up with some homebrew rules, and have a blast. D&D4E seems refined down for a very specific style of play...which is what a LOT of folks say D&D always was.

I can see how that would be true...if the rules are all there is to a game. If that's so, then yeah, D&D has always been just for killing shit and getting loot.

It just seems like such a waste and really...so unimaginative.

When I started out playing D&D...the very point of the game was imagination. We're making a lot of it up and the rules were for the most part a guideline we learned along the way and mix-matched to fit our needs/ wants.

THAT was Roleplaying.

Now it seems Roleplaying is something else and Roleplaying Games something else entirely.

Honestly...I do miss picking up a pile of books I love, with tables and charts, and *crappy artwork...make a character and play it how I want to.

*Well...at least I can make the artwork better. :)

I think the game itself...as it was then...or as some are written today can be played however I want, outside the rules and made up if we like.

Unfortunately some games are written so there is only one true way...and really...I have no interest in them at all. I'm sure there are folks that do. More power to em.

There's a lot of games out that people are calling NEW, and More Efficient, and Better than old style gaming that was "incoherent" and sloppy and "not catering to it's strengths".

WTF?
How arrogant!

I mean...cool...make another game that caters to what YOU want. Rock on! More power to ya! I totally support you and your effort, and know enough of game design that if you want a finely tuned system to do what YOU want...I can help make that happen.

BUT.

Better?
No...it's better for YOU maybe.
Leave me and mine alone!

I actually am coming to the realization that the gaming we've always played...that we've enjoyed for decades is fun because it IS open enough for making adjustments on our own...for making it up as we go...not in spite of it.

Old school gaming goodness...

Yeah, I've been feeling the desire to play some old school games the old school ways.

I'm not ditching (or dissing) my current faves: WFRP, Dark Heresy, WoD, etc.

I'm just in the mood for some AD&D 2nd Ed, or test out the new S&W game, maybe RedBox D&D, but play it like we used to...totally RP it up, not be limited to what is in the rules but go crazy with it and drift way outside the lines.

Ugh...

It's 7am on Thursday and I need to get crackin'.
I didn't get much done yesterday. Between the headache of DOOM and farting around online making playlists: http://view.playlist.com/user/27276001 I didn't finish what I planned to.

Granted, My closest deadline is DECEMBER and I have to color one image yet...I'm not too worried about taking a day off here and there. I've done my self-pimping for the week already.

I DO need to crank out some self-promotion pieces. Finding the motivation for that sometimes is a bit harder than doing the dailies (my daily work on paid projects). Still...the work must be done. I have several pics that need to vanish from my portfolio. A lot of awesome stuff has been done recently...but I can't use them yet as they won't hit print for another month. CRAP!

Okay, I'm outy. Getting some coffee and getting to it.

Gaming and game design...

I'm somewhat torn on gaming and by extension game design.
On one hand I believe a game system needs to cater to its strengths: like a cinematic game setting should have a system that is quick, fast, maybe have some cool maneuvers that makes things pop.

At the heart of this is (in my mind) G/N/S theory.
Try and accomplish one or two of these, but avoid trying to accomplish them all.
Don't try and do too much with your game: have a focus, and design your system to fit it. Don't be too broad and do it all. Jack of all trades, master of none. That sort of idea.

Along with this comes the idea that the system is part of the game, and it's all one thing. Role-playing is a part of the whole, and the system is a part as well.

Drifting the system isn't playing the system anymore...you're playing a homebrew.

AND THEN we have the other side...

How do "I" like to play?
I'm absolutely cool with drifting a system to make it fit what I want. I hate the idea of the rules being the game. I hate the idea of "if it's not in the rules, it's not a part of the game".

I hate that shit.

I really MISS the old days of old D&D where we had great games that had great roleplaying (even for a system that for many of thr game-design nazis say wasn't rewarding of RP and really was just a gamist vehicle for killing monsters), great campaigns, and we "drifted" the system regularly and it was okay.

Granted, nowadays I play more WFRP, Savage Worlds, CoC and WoD-type games. I think maybe this is partly because I like the rules to be somewhat fluid or even minimalist and leave me to free-form Roleplay as I wish. I DO like the idea of a unified mechanic (ala D20) for everything. Shadowrun used to drive me crazy because everything had its own system (thank you SR4 for cleaning that up).

Looking back at OD&D and maybe even 2nd ED D&D, I loved those games and that system (with a couple tweaks on occasion) and we played them very loosely...and that was okay.

Why isn't that okay anymore?

There are a number of folks who are steadfast in their belief that that way of playing is somehow "bad" or "wrong" or at the very least a waste of time because there are "better" vehicles for the same play that does it entirely within the rules/ mechanics.

This brings me right back to the frame of mind that reminds me that I HATE folks that live and breathe system System SYSTEM. I don't CARE. I'm here to have a good time with friends in a fantastical make-believe setting and want a bit of escapist fantasy for a few hours with friends.

So how do I make all that jive up in my head?

Social Contract.
Yeah.

As long as everyone is open about what they want, their expectations and all that...who gives a shit? As long as everyone involved is more or less on the same sheet of music, or at least open to what's proposed, then it's doable. You can play V:TM with Rocks Paper Scissors for all I care and make it work.

;)

Been busy...

Art every day. All day...every day.
Well...that's a bit of an exaggeration, but close.

So I'm a freelance illustrator. Anyone can do that. You don't need a license or hang a shingle really. Just say you are... and you are.

Sort of.

What do I do?
I'm up and working around 7am. Why? Because my wife is up and on the road and I get up as well.
I start the coffee, grab some cold pizza and check emails.
After emails, I'll check Facebook, Livejournal, and a couple forums for open calls...then get some coffee and schedule my day.
Which pieces am I working on currently, where are my deadlines, prioritize my work and get it ready to go.
Next I'll pick up my office area (which happens to be my livingroom), feed the dog and cats, start up the current favorite playlist and get to work.
I take little breaks when I finish a section successfully: check email, update an adventure in D&D:TA, pee the dog.
Around 1200 I take a lunch. This is usually 30 min, but sometimes is an hour (like today).
I'm back to work until about 5:30pm (which is when my wife gets home).

Sometimes I need to work late, so I do. But usually I work from 7-7:30am to 5:30-6pm, every weekday, just like clockwork.

Why?

Because I have an xbox 360 staring at me from across the room, and if I don't keep a disciplined work schedule (pronounced shh-edule BTW) I will find a way to screw off...I won't allow that. The TV doesn't get turned on during the day at-all.

So I'm a Freelance Illustrator. I take a lot from Matt Forbeck's playbook. That man is the living embodiment of a Freelancer! Holy Shit that is one working man. I stick my nose in everything to make my work better. I'm involved in a wide variety of interests to expand my knowledge of what I do. I expand my breadth of work daily (though it sometimes takes a while to get those pieces in the portfolio by nature of NDAs and publication schedules). I like WORKING.

I'm a big fan of social networking, and I'm always on the hunt for more work. I actually keep a spreadsheet of clients and publishers who I hit up for work every two or three weeks. It's not all-inclusive, but I'm getting there. I've got to stay busy.

Staying busy means digging my hands in the work and doing it, all day, every day, and there's no better teacher than first-hand experience. Especially with art: fine art and traditional skills as well as Photoshop/ digital skills. It likely applies to writing and macrame too, but right now I'll stick with what I know.

Right now I'm not a superstar. I'm not Steve Prescott, or RK Post, or Sam Wood (thankfully these guys are all really cool too). I'm not a Boris Vallejo or Frank Frazetta either. But you better keep your eyes open boys (and girls) because I'm coming up fast and catching up skill-wise with every piece I do.