Mad Brew Labs

I wanted to take a moment to look at how I collect and collate news and information about the tabletop roleplaying hobby. My target audience is those that have just plugged into the online element of the hobby, but I might even be able to show the old geezers who have been doing this since BBS ^[1] a new trick. It might be especially useful to new bloggers as staying abreast of the latest and greatest will either allow you to be a leader or at least abstain from contributing to the echo chamber ^[2].

Mad Brew's iGoogle

Tabbed Browsing

I don’t know if many people aren’t using a tabbed browser, unless you use an old version of Internet Explorer (and if you do, get a frillin’ update). I just happen to have a dual monitor set-up, so I keep a browser nearly maximized on one of the screens. I usually have anywhere between two to four tabs opened in that browser (#1 in the image).

The primary tab is my iGoogle home page, which I’ll cover in depth next. The other tabs tend to be aggregator sites that I don’t really want cluttering iGoogle all the time. I suppose I could add them to a separate iGoogle tab, but these work for me just fine. Some examples sites that you might find useful include:

• Role Play Media Network
• RPG Bloggers Network
• Savage Bloggers Network
• 4e Bloggers Network
• Reddit RPG
• Delicious RPG Tag
• Google News
• EN World
• RPG Site

iGoogle

If I’m married to Microsoft, Google is my mistress and I think their “web 2.0” homepage is the bee’s knees. What is exactly is iGoogle you ask? Well, it’s a customizable homepage that you can add widgets (Google calls them gadgets) that retrieve information and interacts with other web services. It also loads Google Chat just as if you were in Gmail.

As you can see from the screenshot of my iGoogle page (residing in Chrome, which I highly recommend), it is customizable. You could create your own theme if you wanted, but I’m using the official Dungeons & Dragons theme. I’m not sure if you can make the header any thinner, but I’d prefer information to eye candy.

You can create numerous tabs within iGoogle (to the left of #2 in the image, this is my “Networks” tab) and fill them with the gadgets of your choice. On my iGoogle set up, I have a Google Group gadget where I can keep tabs on new messages in the mailing lists I subscribe too (I dislike cluttering email with group messages).

Below Google Groups is my Gmail gadget (#3). It displays the 5 latest emails. Below Gmail is my Facebook Gadget (#4), which is basically an iframe of the mobile FB site. Again, I like to keep the inbox clutter free, so I don’t allow a lot of email traffic from Facebook. This gadget also lets me see updates from RPG related pages I have fanned and updates from friends involved in the industry.

In the right hand column I have my Google Reader gadget (#5) which allows me to follow my favorite blogs (not necessarily RPG related). You may have noticed I use browser tabs to visit feed aggregators instead of subscribing to them. I find that is the best method to keep a high signal-to-noise ratio of relevant information in my feeds. I sort of browse the aggregators to see if anything catches my eye from time to time (and to make sure I’m not contributing to the echo chamber).

The final piece of my iGoogle experience is TwitterGadget (#6). It’s an excellent Twitter client, and while it doesn’t support fancy crap like grouping my connections, it is still feature rich. I utilize Twitter more and more every day as a source of news and information. Twitter excels as an information broker.

Conclusion

I highly recommend iGoogle to organize your information sources, and I totally encourage you to find new gadgets that get the job done better than the ones I have (been awhile since I set up my iGoogle page). In fact, if you’re code savvy, try your hand at making one.

I also welcome readers and fellow bloggers to share your own methods of hunting and gathering information. Post your tips in the comments or write your own articles and post a link here.

References

[1] A precursor to the World Wide Web. Go read the Wikipedia entry.

[2] This happens when you have multiple sites reporting the same tired crap.

Listening to: Dr. Steel – People of Earth – Atomic Superstar

Conflict Roleplaying Rulebook

Conflict Games has recently released the Conflict Roleplaying Rulebook, “a tactically-driven system for player vs. player roleplaying using unlimited d20 rules.” Conflict is exactly what it sounds like, a PVP system for Pathfinder RPG.

I know certain gamers are going to balk at the idea thinking it is practically antithetical to everything they believe roleplaying is about. I can hear the terms power gamer and munchkin being uttered by readers right now. Personally, I think inter-player conflict can be interesting and unofficial PVP combat has been sort of a time waster with my group during times when we haven’t actually started the game for one reason or another (waiting for the GM to finish some last minute prep, waiting on players to arrive, or waiting for character creation to be finished).

Frankly, when I think about, I am surprised I haven’t seen a book like this before. Another interesting point is that the book seems to be written with the fact that there is still a GM moderating play, so players can feel free to try things beyond the rules in order to get an upper hand on each other. I imagine a couple of players could run without a GM, but I definitely see rule interpretations becoming an issue.

Here is a quick look at what the book includes:

Battlepoints

Conflict realizes that level alone isn’t a complete indicator of how well two characters are matched. Instead, players are given a Battlepoint cap and basically purchase levels, ability scores, race, and equipment.

Match Types

Match Types are scenarios with unique tactical elements, objective, and victory conditions. Some of the match types include Ambush, King of the Hill, Snatch & Grab, and Monster Mash. It really reminds me a lot of match types from first person shooters. For instance, in McGuffin, players compete in a sport like event where they have to score points by bringing a loadstone to the opponents’ goal, which reminds me a lot of UT2004’s Bombing Run mode.

Map Elements

Players and teams may purchase elements such as traps, barriers, and creature and place them on the map. The book has a lot of original elements for players to use as well as providing rules on how to create new ones.

Conflict Laws

Laws are option requirements or restrictions that can be placed on matches. Laws affect character generation, actions, and even players. For instance, the Blade Bound law restricts character class to barbarian, fighter, monk, ranger, and rogue. An interesting player law is Steal the Roll, where twice per match a team may designate someone else to roll the dice, which could be very interesting if you have a bunch of superstitious gamers.

Conflict Maps

A key element of the game, conflict maps all have grid coordinates (so tactics and map elements can be secretly communicated to your team and GM on passcards). They have map ends, centerlines, restricted areas, and a center square. Teams roll initiative and then begin claiming starting areas and may place or pass characters on their turn, which adds to the strategy and tactics involved.

Passcards

Represent the key method of commination as well as tracking round by round actions and track important character information such as hit points. The most important thing about the passcard is it allows players to secretly communicate their intentions to the GM to keep metagaming elements from encroaching upon play.

Team Feats

Team feats are exactly what their name implies, special abilities available for teams. The number of feats available to a team depends on the number of players, or GM discretion. A sample team feat is All For One; it improves the Aid Another action bonus from +2 to +4. I actually think the team feats could be used outside of the Conflict rules as something like Adventuring Party Feats.

Conflict Roleplaying Rulebook Back Cover

Player Tips and Tactics & Game Mastering

The rest of the book is dedicated to helping players make the most of the Conflict rules and giving GMs advice on how to run Conflict matches.  Advice on hidden movement, when to remove miniatures from the map, and how to integrate conflict matches into a campaign are some of the topics covered.

Conclusion

Without running a few matches, it’s hard to say how well they work. However, I think Mark Scott, the designer, clearly put a lot of thought in how to make PVP interesting and tackled the critical issue of metagaming. The Maps Elements and Team Feats definitely have use outside of the PVP game and I think it would make for some interesting gladiatorial scenarios in the context of a larger, more tradition campaign.

And for those days that only a couple of players show up on game night, I think Conflict makes an exciting alternative to the current campaign.

Want to learn more about Conflict Roleplaying? Read on…

• Atomic Array: Episode 042: Conflict Roleplaying
• Apathy Blogs: A new way to play Pathfinder

Open Game Table Participant

I’m proud to be able to announce that Mad Brew Labs will be appearing in the second volume of the Open Game Table, along with 32 other blogs. The Labs also participated in the ignagural edition of the OGT last year. Being honored twice in row is astonishing to me because not only were there far more nominated blog posts this year, I actually had TWO articles make the cut!

• Villainous Vivisection
• Gamer Elitism

I actually nominated a couple of posts myself, but neither of these were the ones I submitted. That’s really cool since I that means I had at least one fan nominate me. So thanks anonymous fan(s)!

I’d like to thank Jonathan for being insane enough to continue the hard work he started last year when decided to jump into publishing with nary a clue of what it entailed. His experience with OGT is certainly a benefit for our shared endeavor, Nevermet Press (shameless plug: if you’re not subscribing to the NMP RSS Feed, Twitter account, or a fan of our Facebook page, you SHOULD be).

I would also like to thank all the participating artists, reviewers, and editors for the work do doubt most of them are doing for nothing more than pleasure of helping the OGT become a tradition in the RPG Blogosphere.

Call for Artists

If you’re an artist looking for some exposure, Jonathan is looking for artists to help illustrate the Open Game Table Volume 2.

Other Nominees

I would like to recognize all the fine articles that were nominated this year. I know that 375 posts made it very hard for the editors to narrow it down to the final selection.

Disclosure

I should note that while I was a reviewer for the Open Game Table, Jonathan’s process keeps people from reviewing their own stuff and other than Jonathan, nobody knows who the other reviewers are until the process is finished. And from the caliber of many of the posts I reviewed, it makes it that much more significant to me that Mad Brew Labs was selected to be included.

Foursquare

I just unlocked the Iron GM badge on GameSextant ^[1] and I’m about to become the Seneschal of the LFGS if I visit it again this week. Well, maybe if such a thing existed. If you’re a technophile with a smartphone, chances are you’ve heard of social geolocation sites/apps like Foursquare ^[2] or Gowalla. ^[3] These location-based mobile social networks allow you to announce what you’re doing and gain rewards for visiting new venues and many other behaviors.

While such social networks are not without peril when used by the unwary, ^[4] I think such little addictive apps like Foursquare could be quite useful in increasing participation in such things as organized play, hobby store shopping, conventions, or even private gaming groups.

What is Geolocation

According to Wikipedia, geolocation is the identification of the real-world geographic location of an Internet-connected computer, mobile device, website visitor or other. IP address geolocation data can include information such as country, region, city, postal/zip code, latitude, longitude and time zone.^[5]

So basically, an mobile social network that utilizes geolocation will grab the address of a device (most likely a smartphone) using the device’s built in GPS or by surveying the local cell phone towers for a rough estimate. It then cross references that address with a database of local venues and allows the user to check-in. It then updates the user’s social network with relevant information.

Hobby Applications

Well, whenever someone checks into a venue, such as a convention, friendly local gaming store, or other gaming event, the app will broadcast a message saying as much across many social networks (or at least as many supported by the app and approved by the user). It’s free advertisement!

The killer part is people want to do this. I have found myself want to vigorously defend the mayorships I have earned at certain locations through FourSquare. It’s about bragging rights (meaningless, but bragging rights all the same). And venues can encourage such behavior by offering specials for people who have earned such trivial rewards. An example would be a monthly $5 award for the current mayor come the deadline.

Organized play societies could tie in with the network and offer free stuff to the most dedicated GMs and players. Exhibitors could make a game out of visiting certain booths and events at a convention. Private gaming groups now have a surefire method of figuring out who is immune to being the wipey bitch (what my group calls the guy that has to wipe off the battlemat and record initiative scores).

What Do You Think?

Is it too gimmicky? Do grognards even use smartphones, or do they still communicate via smoke signals and telegraph? What ways can you think of to utilize this technology within the realm of roleplaying games?

If you’re interesting in finding out more about how roleplaying games can use technology, check out my other articles on technology.

References

[1] GameSextant is my own conceptual version of a location-based mobile social network engineered specifically to enhance the gaming lifestyle. It does not actually exist (yet).

[2] Foursquare is a location-based mobile social network that allows you to check into locations found nearby utilizing the phone’s location awareness (via GPS or triangulation). Foursquare has awards called badges that can be earned by certain behaviors.

[3] Gowalla is an application very similar to Foursquare. ^[2]

[4] Please Rob Me was stunt website that aggregated everyone’s location-based messages. It highlighted how the unscrupulous could take advantage of such information to break into your home while you’re not there, or worse…

[5] Wikipedia’s Geolocation Entry.

Listening to: Black Light Burns – Cruel Melody – Cruel Melody

Last November, Neoncon introduced a series of presentations from tabletop gaming industry insiders called GamesU. Luminaries like Eric Mona, Ed Healy, and John Wick gave seminars during the convention for the series. I think Neoncon did a great job executing GamesU and I especially enjoyed being able to stream a couple of the presentations live.

Now, Neoncon is editing the presentations and placing them on their YouTube channel. The first video they released was the keynote by Eric Mona on the topic of Pen & Paper Games in the 21^st Century. I obviously have a large interest in how roleplaying games will evolve in the next decade, but this article is to address the latest video released from GamesU, Marcelo Figueroa’s Live the Dream: Building a Career in the Games Industry, which is presented below:

If you’re not willing to watch the entire presentation, let me tell you what I took away from it. Marcelo basically argues a couple of points. First, people who are not willing to make games their career need to quit. Because the industry, the games, and the gamers do not want non-career people. The other point he tries to make is that idealist game designers are incapable of being savvy business people. So, according to Marcelo, if you want to be in games you need to make it your career and you need to be what he calls a realist.

I really don’t want to take the time to dismantle everything he said, and I do think viewers can take away some useful information (but more of a general, common sense type of useful). Interestingly, I’m going to use evidence he actually tried to use to support his own arguments.

Non-Career Orientated Need Not Apply

About 9 minutes and 20 seconds into his presentation, after unloading the salesman’s spiel about how it’s all about the mighty dollar (which he admits that you can’t find a lot of it in the industry), Marcelo makes this statement:

“Idealists. Honestly, truly… from a completely industry side of the perspective on this, Idealists should just go home.”

He also makes a statement about how only business people and professionals who want to improve the environment of the industry should stick around.

So let me break this down. There’s not a lot of money to be made in games, but the industry craves business people. So what kind of business people are going to risk investing their time and money in games? Well, I propose that there are two kinds: diehard fans (with minds for business, but unmalleable expectations about games) and shitty business people who can’t make it in better paying industries. Maybe that’s why the industry keeps shrinking…

Idealists Will Not Make It

Marcelo mentions Peter Adkison and Richard Garfield, who were both part-time game designers with “day jobs” before Magic: the Gathering exploded. According to Marcelo, during that idealist non-career time of their lives, they should have quit. Curse those idealists, Arneson and Gygax, for even launching the roleplaying games industry!

Idealists are going to be the ones to reinvent the industry with new games, new delivery methods, and new somethings we cannot anticipate. I feel like the “realists” he is touting are fools that contributed to the d20 glut (because that’s what was selling). The guys that will drive the industry into the ground because they’re only concerned about the bottom line and not innovation.

Have Realistic Expectations

Marcelo does backtrack near the end and says not leave your day job before you’re financially ready. Which for those of us with mortgages, families, and other bills means we’re most likely not going to ever be at that point. The one good point he does make is to be realistic. It’s rare that anyone in the industry is going to get rich. If you do start a business, be smart about it and make savvy business decisions.

Marcelo may have been exaggerating his argument to scare and intimidate the unwary, but I totally disagree that you need to be in the industry to make money. That sort of corporate bullshit irritates the hell out me. I think you need to be industry to make great games. The money will follow if you can do that (and market it decently).

Suggested Reading

I’ve been reading Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics, which are comic books about comic books. He is, in my opinion, a freakin’ genius. I can see a lot of his approaches to the study of sequential art and his insights on that industry that could be applied to the tabletop gaming industry. Scott’s an idealist too…

Listening to: Black Label Society – Shot to Hell – Concrete Jungle