Wednesday 1 April 2009

The Imp of the Perverse

I've been more-or-less using BECMI D&D as my default for Yoon-suin, but the contrarian, obscurantist part of me (which is a rather big part) keeps wanting to use something Unusual. Candidates include:
  • The oft-overlooked and almost entirely unknown Zeb's Fantasy Roleplaying System, with its Sword & Sorcery vibe and colour-coded charts. Advantages: atmosphere, ease of use, can probably be included whole with whatever pdf I put out without invoking the Dark God, Litigation. Disadvantage: Obscure.
  • Advanced Fighting Fantasy, the by-all-accounts-horribly-broken, but incredibly rules-lite (Tunnels & Trolls eat your heart out) system of my youth. Advantages: Almost criminally easy to use and learn, endearing disregard for realism, cool Dark British Fantasy vibes lurking somewhere beneath the innocent exterior. Disadvantages: Legally dubious, would require extensive rule-fiddling.
  • Risus, the Anything RPG, because I love it so. Advantages: Easy to use, simple, free to use. Disadvantage: Has 'humourous' connotations I don't necessarily want.
  • Some sort of hack of Amber Diceless, which is my new obsession after I finally started reading the copy I've owned for about 16 years. Not a serious option, but hey.
  • Swords & Wizardry, which I'm sure you all know. Advantages: Easy and simple, free to use, familiar to 95% of role players. Disadvantage: A bit too fashionable for my obscurantist tastes.
I probably will end up sticking with BECMI. But the Imp of the Perverse is calling me...

9 comments:

  1. But BEMCI loves you! Don't run away from it!




    *grins* ;3

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  2. There must be some Oscar-Wilde-era-pre-Gygaxian decadent Victorian parlor game you could use--"Knaves & Harems" or something.

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  3. Y'know, I just realized, writing that comment, what it is that seems so interesting about your Yoon-Suin setting...

    The problem I've always had with Lovecraft in games is that his world isn't really meant to be ADVENTURED in--the idea in his books was: some guy goes through the normal world, finds a few hints of an unspeakable horror, then is swallowed up by it as soon as he realizes the full extent of it. Story over.

    It works fine in a horror story, but it kind of prevents the sort of D&D-like world-building richness and complexity and internal logic that adventure games build up over time--a Lovecraft story (like most horror stories) is a story basically about one monster at a time.

    Call of Cthulhu, the game, has a similar issue--it's not really about exploring a mysterious world over the course of a campaign, it's about short forays into madness.

    Basically, Lovecraft's world seems incompatible with thorough exploring, politics, campaigns, and intrigue--get too much into the details and you literalize the metaphor and kill the magic.

    I mean, Cthulhu is allegedly some kind of priest. Literally imagining it doing priest stuff is ridiculous.

    However--Yoon-Suin seems to hit a nice balance--it is creepy and exotic and alien, yet at the same time, it's still a whole world to be adventured in. The monsters seem to have a level of intelligence and not-quite-totally alien-ness that makes you believe they could have intrigues and schemes between each other even though they're slug-people and yet they're inhuman enough to still feel as uncanny and unreadable as Lovecraftian monsters.

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  4. Roll your own, baby! Or, you know, synthesize your own by judicious borrowing from all of your favorites...

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  5. I didn't know Swords & Wizardry was "fashionable" these days...

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  6. I think ZEFRS is cool too. I liked the old TSR Conan game and with the fan create rules, you have a document that is easily house ruled.

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  7. taichara: I will always love BECMI too, but sometimes I feel the need to, you know, see other people. I think she understands. ;)

    Zak: I never thought anything I did would be compared to Lovecraft. Very flattering though... wait, is that comment part of some elaborate scheme to butter up the DM? ;)

    Martinsz: Aha, an unholy hybrid of AFF, ZeFRS, S&W and Amber... the mind boggles.

    Edsan: More fashionable than AFF or ZeFRS, anyway.

    Mike D.: The people who did the fan-created ZeFRS project are true unsung heroes. OSRIC and the like might get most of the glory these days, but that ZeFRS site is a genuine labour of love.

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  8. Why don't you just give in and go with Tunnels and Trolls? More fun and more support than any of those other games you mentioned. :)

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  9. Ken St. Andre: Wouldn't happen to have a vested interest, would you? ;)

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