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This page last updated Tuesday, 06-Sep-2005 12:28:24 EDT.

Role Playing News

Editorials, Commentaries, and Reviews:

• Editorial: Party Cohesiveness: Why Stay Together?
• From the Editor
• Book Review: Tolkien for a New Generation: Robert Jordan
• Game Review: Fantasy Gaming with Palladium
• Backstage at Role Playing News

Party Cohesiveness: Why Stay Together?

My colleagues and I have been having an ongoing discussion on party cohesiveness in RPG's. Specifically, we've been talking about why groups stay together, and more importantly, how various players see the party. There are some definite differences in playing styles.

In some games I've played, the party had very good reason to stay together; for example, in a Cyberpunk campaign I'm currently in, we're all being hunted by an evil corporation, so it behooves us to stay together. The fact that we were all hired to "extract" a scientist from this corp (and have yet to collect) is just extra "glue." However, in games, it frequently seem as though the reasons the party stays together is more contrived, if indeed there are any reasons. Tracy's game is an example of both. The campaign started with the perfect rationale for a party: we were a military unit. As time went on, though, and players brought in new characters (and players themselves came and went), there seemed a lot less real cohesiveness other than "well, why not keep going with these people?" Currently, the party in Tracy's game has good reason to stick together again (they've all been hired for a job), and some members of the party have their own reasons, as well.

There are still different conceptions of the idea of the party. Some players are simply comfortable with whatever the party does, because hey, the real reason the party is there is so we can all game together! Many players I've spoken with, though, like there to be some reason for the character to stay with the party, and I share this view. I generally like to have a well thought-out character to begin with, and as I develop him during the game, I come to more easily see his goals, morals, and point of view. If it doesn't make sense for the character to stay, I would likely send him on his way and make a new one.

The best games are those where there is at least one overriding game-world reason for the party to exist, rather than the "party for the sake of the players" syndrome. Thankfully, in all the games I'm currently in, there are those reasons, which makes the game much more enjoyable. Even more, if there are Very Important reasons why the party must stay together, it allows the players to act out the individual conflicts that may occur between characters without it truly threatening party unity. This will permit a far wider bit of role-playing than the players would have had otherwise. This situation seems especially likely in the current Tracy game, and I hope that it is allowed to develop, by both the GM and especially the players.

Editor's note: RPN welcomes the opinions of its readers. This editorial does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the paper. Comments and rebuttals are encouraged.
 

From the Editor

It is another month and another month in which we get Role Playing News out just in time.

When we started to put this issue together, thought that we may only have a six page paper, however with the great work of the other editors we managed to produce eight full pages. This, as you might guess, leads me to a point. It would be really nice if people submitted stories, reviews, or whatever all of the time, not just the day that we do the layout. So, don't miss your chance, and write something today.

We have also received a couple of ongoing stories from our readers. We plan to have these in the paper, however we ask to those and others who are planning to write a series that we receive as much as you can write in the beginning. This is to provide us with material for issues when you may not have the time to write. We do not like printing stories that only appear once every five issues.

Enjoy this issue and look for your next Role Playing News.

Tolkien for a New Generation: Robert Jordan

I know I'm going to get flack for mentioning anyone in the same sentence as the grandfather of contemporary fantasy, but I truly feel that Robert Jordan deserves it for his Wheel of Time fantasy series. Currently six books (and expected to be eight) and about 4500 pages, it is by far the best fantasy saga I've read this side of  The Lord of the Rings, and will easily rank Jordan at the top of the heap of current fantasy writers.

The story starts simply enough in a small farming community, and follows the life of three teenage boys and those around them. What they don't realize is that all three of them are literally fated for greatness, whether they like it or not. What follows is not only how the three boys and those around them handle the coming events (and how they are affected and change because of them), but also an enlightening "inside look" at how a prophecy of a savior uniting the world to fight the ultimate evil might come to fulfillment, complete with all of the politics and manipulations of those who think they're in the know.

Jordan fills his books with a fantastic assortment of characters, creatures, nations, and events. More than that, he is a beautiful storyteller, making the whole of his world seem completely new and marvelous. His world comes alive for us, as we are actually there in the city of Illian, or within the mighty walls of Tar Valon. The only complaint I have is that the series is not done yet (but then, I don't really want it to end).

As you can probably guess, I heartily endorse this book, and consider it almost necessary reading for any serious fantasy fan. All the glory, mystery, violence, magic, and marvel that makes epic fantasy great is here in spades. Don't miss it.
;

Fantasy Gaming with Palladium

Palladium's magic systems are great. There are a number of types, ranging from "normal" wizard spells, to elemental magic, to circles, to wards, and so on. This makes the magic system far more interesting than those that just have a bunch of spells, even when the spells are broken up into "colleges" or whatnot. Also, the treatment of psionics as being other than magic is rare and very refreshing.

The choice of 13 races to choose from (and more, GM willing) will likely satisfy any gamer, as most species archetypes are represented. Each have different strengths and weaknesses, and so balance out quite well. You could take a strong, intelligent but intolerant wolfen to a lithe elf, to a big, dumb troll. It's all there to choose from.

The skills list, while not the longest, should be able to satisfy most gamers. It is not so easy, however, to make up new skills. Being level based, you would have to determine how much a new skill goes up with each level, rather than a more logical skill-based system.

Every game has its problems, and one of them for Palladium is the concept of classes. Not a bad concept per se, but one that I am not especially comfortable with. I prefer designing a character from the ground up, though other gamers may appreciate the ready-made framework of the classes. One good thing is that you are allowed a decent number of "elective" skills to round out your character.

Alignments. I really don't like them. They make no sense to have them for a character. If you've thought out your character, given him/her a fitting history, then you already know what his/her motivations, outlook, and morals or ethics will be. What is "evil" to one character may not be to another, so such designations don't really need to apply, except at a personal level. Spells such as "sense alignment" and other such ilk never made much sense to me, either, so alignments are simply too contrived.

The worst part of the system (ok, maybe tied with alignments) is the concept of levels. I prefer the logical increase of those skills you've used, not a broad level increase. This is especially true when the system, as is the case with Palladium, allows you to only increase one class at a time.

All in all, it's not a bad system. It does have enough problems that it wouldn't be my system of choice to run a game, though there are certainly much worse game systems out there. In this case, I would have to say, to each his own.

Backstage at Role Playing News

This is an article I've wanted to write for a long time. I'm going to take you, dear reader, behind the closed doors and into the secret places from which this newsletter comes... (Ground Round?)

While we do get articles from our readers, most of what you see is written by our dedicated staff; myself, Matt, John, or Andrea. Our newsletters, except in special instances, are never planned beforehand; that is, we never know what they'll contain until we've cranked out whatever we crank out. Even in cases like our year-end issue, we only knew that it would have the survey in it (which almost no one returned!!!). Yes, we have regular features, such as Evening Tales (usually written the day we send out the paper), the most popular. However, we're never sure what we'll get, even with those.

A typical issue is put together as follows: about a week before Tracy's game, we'll decide to write When Last We Left Our Heroes... right after his game ends. When we do play and finish, we invariably avoid writing Heroes for some reason or other. Over the next few weeks, as the deadline approaches, I'll send Matt anywhere from one to five articles, by e-mail, to put in the paper. He'll have stuff of his own written, as well as what Andi sends him (and occasionally stuff not from one of the four of us...). He'll then start putting the whole thing together (usually). Then comes the tricky part: getting the four of us (or more) together to give Matt the last of our articles and write the few more we need to fill out the paper. It is at this point (usually a week or two after the deadline) that is the most fun. We try to organize the use of the computers available to us while at the same time brainstorming ideas for the articles we didn't write for the entire month before. This is usually an event in and of itself, especially if we're trying to write up Heroes. We'll all sit around a terminal, with some poor sot enlisted as typist, and try to remember what happened a month ago at the last session. Invariably, half of what we come up with is, "Does that sound right to you?" "Yah, I guess. Who'll remember, anyway?" I'd swear that fully half of most of the Heroes articles are made up.

What is especially fun is when we are in a car together, babbling about something or other, and one of us realizes that it would make a great article, editorial, or whatnot. We do our best to actually remember the subject so that we might actually have something interesting for our readers. It is in this way that we get many of the more interesting commentaries or editorials.

Well, this is pretty much it, or at least all that we actually want you to know (or at least think you know). If you want to find out more, become a contributor (blatant request for submissions), and perhaps we'll enlighten you...