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This page last updated Tuesday, 06-Sep-2005 12:28:33 EDT.

Role Playing News

Editorials, Commentaries, and Reviews:

• Editorial: Observations
• From the Editor
• What to Write About When You Can't Think of Anything
• Submission Guidelines

Observations

I have the good fortune to currently be in (in a way) three games at the moment. One is a prophecy-centered epic fantasy, one is a character-driven fantasy, and one (this is the weird one) was a two-night horror scenario that's spawned a module-based campaign. Being in the three has given me new insights into role-playing that I know everyone is just dying for me to share. As the horror campaign hasn't started yet (though the characters, players, and GM are all set), I'll be focusing on the two-shot that spawned it.

The prophecy campaign is one set in Tolkien's Middle-Earth, some two hundred or so years after the War of the Ring. Our group of eight PC's were brought together under apparently innocent circumstances, but have since been thrown into something far, far bigger than anything since the end of the First Age of Middle Earth. It is a fantastic game, one that is allowing the characters to develop in a very real-seeming way (my character, for example, is an 18 year-old farmer's son who ran away from home a few years back, and has been rather care-free up until now). The main drawback to this game is the fact that prophecies involving the player character have indeed been spelled out, which seems to mean that either we're being somewhat railroaded in what we do, or the GM is going to have to jump through some really big, burning, sword-filled hurdles to make sure we don't mess anything up. As the GM seems to be somewhat of a cinematic bent, it seems that the PC's don't seem to have much free-will in this outside of the immediate, "tactical" decisions they make (i.e. "I swing my staff at the bandit."). That is, the "strategic" ones ("Do we continue heading east towards the big keep, or shall we run away west and hide out in Minas Tirith?") seem to have been made for us. This can be very frustrating and, in game sessions that last upwards of 8 hours, can make for some boring games to boot if the GM isn't careful. A number of players have this perception and have reservations about it, but as this is my first game of this scope, I'm certainly willing to stick it out, and it has, in the last couple of sessions, gotten very exciting, as we seem to be approaching a climax.

The other fantasy game is one where the goals of the group are ever-changing, as the "goals" tend to be rather nebulous at best, and are typically "we're being paid to do this." In this environment PC interaction and "staying in character" are paramount, and a least three of the (6? 7?) of us have our own agendas. However, as this group meets at best every 4-6 weeks, it tends to be more a social event than a game. Not bad in and of itself, but it's very distracting for a game that needs to be so character-driven to have people discussing non-game stuff on the side. This sort of game really needs to have players that pay attention and are willing and able to keep distractions to a minimum. Also, sometimes I feel that the characters need more of an "in-game" reason to stay together, but that's an earlier commentary.

The two-shot horror (actually Call of Cthulhu) is the first non-campaign game I've been a part of in a very long time. It was very refreshing to play what was essentially an episode, and all the players (and GM) liked it so much that were starting a campaign based on it. My big fear is that, being a campaign, it will lose some of the flair that made the one-shot so appealing: characters whose histories we didn't have to worry about, far future consequences we didn't have to worry about, and much less a fear of character loss. These really made for a different feel than I've had from any games I've played lately. My feeling is that the campaign will be wildly successful, as the otherworldly horror genre and the investigatory nature of it are different than what the group of us are used to.

Anyway, I hope these ramblings help people to think about different kinds of games, or at least have amused or interested you for the past few minutes. At the very least, they've filled some valuable space in this paper.

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

Well, it's been about two years since we put one of these out. There are varied reasons why it has taken us two years to accomplish another Role Playing News which I will go into in a moment and a lot of changes have happened in the intervening timeframe.  Several people have come and gone from the gaming groups. The Tracy game (basis for When Last We Left Our Heroes... and Evening Tales) completed the adventure they were on and one more adventure as well and are now working on their third.

Changes are being considered for our web site, including format and location (two people have web servers as opposed to the current ftp site). Format changes include eliminating the announcements of upcoming events as these are generally included in the printed issues to keep people currently involved informed of events. We will also likely remove the more "fluff" pieces we have done, such as updates about tournament games that some players are participating in. These are not of general interest to the web community, but could be brought back if anyone expresses an interest. One last note regarding the web page, we are still receiving responses to it despite not having updated it for two years!

As was evidenced by the amount of time between issues, RPN lives and dies by the contributions of our readers. When the original editors (Matt, Mark, and John) all got very busy at the same time, RPN got put on the back burner. Once there, it was continually pushed off in favor of more pressing concerns. Matthew began working full time at Brockton Community Cable Television as the Access Coordinator. Mark took a job with Shorenet, an Internet access provider, and has to respond to hundreds (thousands?) of e-mails every day. John recently graduated from school and is working at Tuffs Medical Associates in their computer department. I congratulate all of them, and I hope they will be able to find the time to make contributions to this new version of their endeavor.

One of our problems in the past was the attempts to put out the newsletter on a monthly basis. I am looking to send out four to six issues a year. The two to three month timeframe should be more than adequate to allow people to write up items for inclusion (see submission guidelines for more information) in the issues.
I hope you enjoy this issue and will contribute to its continued success. Be sure to look for your next issue of Role Playing News.

What to Write About When You Can't Think of Anything

There are times when we badly need articles for this newsletter (as the length of time it took to get this one out should indicate), but no one seems to be able to come up with any ideas. Usually, some quick brainstorming over food in a convenient restaurant with friends will do the trick, but there are times that nothing will fill that void in your brain. Even when one looks at the start of various articles one has let languish on a computer for far too many months, one sometimes simply gets brain cramps. The tidying up of old articles is a lot less creative and more "workish" than one would normally like, especially when the paper is a volunteer effort. However, with a relaxed mind, ideas can start to percolate up from the void. I myself was once in this horrible and embarrassing position of not having much to write, when it struck me (in fact, I was thrown across the table in the pizza restaurant we were all in at the time, getting sauce and cheese all over myself while upsetting all the drinks and most of my friends; it struck so hard) that one can wander off-topic occasionally and delight the readers with amusing tales and razor wit. Indeed, I think it would be good to have an article that goes of on a tangent in this paper from time to time. I'm just certain that most of you would not want me to write it.

Submission Guidelines

Role Playing News is dedicated to exploring the issues involved in role playing games and in bringing out the latest news and events that are happening in gaming today. We will occasionally highlight articles or issues from other places (usually on the World Wide Web) that have a bearing on the perception of gaming, both specific games and generally speaking. To this end we would ask that people who wish to submit articles follow the following guidelines:

1. When submitting an article, make sure the article is related to role playing games. At several points in the past we published articles relating to computer games, board games, and card games that had nothing to do with role playing. There are several good outlets for those types of games, we do not want to be one of them. We do want to be a great source for information and ideas about role playing.

2. When submitting a story, make sure you are willing to continue or conclude it. We will publish many on-going stories and some are based on games (Heroes..., Evening Tales) but it turns people off to have a story begin and then never hear from it again. Also, if a story is based on a game, you should be willing to make the commitment to keep writing about the adventures until the game ends.

3. Do not expect your story to published word for word. Many times we found that writers used poor English or sections of a story did not make sense grammatically. The editor's of RPN reserve the right to alter the grammar or to reject an article or story outright if we feel that it does not meet reasonable writing standards. We don't expect perfection (we make PLENTY of mistakes) but we do expect people to use a spellchecker and to write complete sentences. We won't write your story for you, but we will aid anyone who is willing to sit down with us to write a piece. We will do everything in our power to avoid changing the flavor or style a writer uses, but we can't guess what the writer is writing about.

Just a few words about due dates and articles. We will set a date for all items to be submitted. If you get us something after that date it will be in the next issue after the current one being released. The due date is the absolute LAST day an article will be accepted for the current issue. About two or three weeks later the issue will be put together. This is to allow time for the editors to compile, review, edit, respond, and layout the next issue. If you are called regarding the item you submitted, you should try to answer RPN quickly to assure it gets printed.

We will have a section for upcoming events and request that anyone with knowledge of an event that may be of interest to others let us know as much in advance as possible. We will try to include all items we can in each issue.

If you have any questions regarding submitting of items, contact Milton via e-mail at the following address mstrumpf@ix.netcom.com. If you do not have e-mail, write to:

Role Playing News
10 Coweeset Drive
Brockton, MA 02301-4502.