pen-and-paper
Latest
Champions Online dev Randy Mosiondz on storytelling and gameplay
Writing for Examiner.com, Daniel Nations recently interviewed Champions Online lead designer Randy Mosiondz about the balancing act between providing guided gameplay and exploration. The interview also touches upon Champions Online's gameplay across different environments. Namely, Mosiondz explains a bit about the challenges that players will face in the underwater area of Lemuria with its full 3-D movement capabilities, and how some player powers will be modified for use underwater. Also a nice touch is that the discussion heads into his roots as a writer for pen and paper games. Mosiondz explains the differences in storytelling between pen and paper games and MMOs, and why it can be tricky to bring a story with lasting consequences to a massively multiplayer online game. Check out the Champions Online developer interview over at Examiner for more about what the Cryptic Studios super-hero title will offer.
Bill Roper of Cryptic Studios discusses Champions Online
MMO-centric website Allakhazam is running an interesting piece on Champions Online. Tamat, the site's Editor-in-Chief, caught up with Bill Roper, the Design Director for Champions Online at Cryptic Studios. The interview ranges from what Roper does at Cryptic to some of mistakes learned along the way -- particularly in the wake of what happened with Flagship Studios and Hellgate: London.The interview covers a good range of topics, discussing Roper's transition from the business side of an MMO developer to focusing on creating a game, and how trying to compete with WoW isn't a concern for Cryptic with Champions Online. Roper also discusses the idea of bringing some of the original pen and paper Champions Online system to the MMO. He says, "We're including the core concepts of talents, perks, and even exposing the stats system to a degree. We've streamlined some of the concepts of the game to make it more accessible to a broader range of players, but without losing the beauty of what makes Champions the great game and IP it is." Have a look at the full interview with Cryptic's Bill Roper over at Allakhazam for more on the directions Champions Online will be taking.
The Daily Grind: What do you think of table-top games?
There exists a very close relationship between MMOs and table-top games.Yesterday saw the launch of Ethernauts, the fifth expansion to EverQuest-related collectible trading card game Legends of Norrath. LoN is digital, but gameplay-wise, it's totally a table-top game. World of Warcraft has an entirely material trading card game. Warhammer Online is of course based on the Warhammer miniatures game, and WoW is getting a miniatures game of its own. And of course, the RPG genre originated on the table-top with Dungeons & Dragons.We're wondering: how much crossover is there between digital and table-top games? How many of our readers play them? Tell us! What do you think of table-top games?
Big Download taps into Champions Online
We give em' two big thumbs-up, and we hope you don't think super-hero and villain MMOs are overplayed. One very cool thing about Champions Online is that Hero Games will develop a tabletop version in tandem with the MMOG. The pen and paper ruleset will borrow heavily from the design-direction in Champions Online. You won't make any throw-away character sheets. Whatever character you play in the MMOG will be available to create and play in the pen and paper arena. But enough about the roll hacks. That's long ways down the road, and our sister site Big Download is slowing it down for those looking to catch up. Their Champions Online feature, is a retrospect that details how it all came about: In it they delve into the mastermind and find out why Jack Emmert and Cryptic Studios decided to develop the comic property. Emmert's candidness might surprise you. The feature also details the bios and back stories behind some of the caped and masked crusaders from the Champions Online Universe.
Cryptic Studios delves into the tabletop DNA of Champions Online
The highly pedigreed PC-gaming site Rock, Paper, Shotgun is offering up a week of Champions Online features. They began at the very beginning - the pen and paper game that spawned the online representation. Jack Emmert kicks off the week by noting that moving from tabletop to MMO is a no-brainer move. The Champions license has a 25-year history, allowing for a lot of really compelling content to be 'just lifted' straight from the pages of the RPG sourcebooks. He also notes the relative infancy of the MMO genre, and obviously hopes that future titles like his own will aid in the game type's creative expansion.Following close on Mr. Emmert's heels comes commentary from pen-and-paper designer George MacDonald. Mr. MacDonald had worked on the Champions game for some time, and has a great viewpoint on the point-based system driving the game's undercarriage. The site and the designer go back and forth on the concept of "expressive" game mechanics, and briefly reflect back on MacDonald's work with the SSI gold box D&D games. These are two great pieces about the intersection of MMOs and their originating art form.
Recognizing Champions Online's tabletop roots
One of the unexpected benefits (at least from our perspective) of Cryptic's shift from Marvel Universe Online to Champions Online is the professional relationship it fostered with the guys who managed the Champions pen and paper IP. While the crossover from paper RPG to MMO is far from straight-forward, there is a considerable brain trust from which Cryptic can draw in the creation of their game. The Escapist recently posted a terrific article which went into some depth with one such mastermind -- 16-year veteran of the franchise, Steve Long.While Long maintains some unadulterated affection for the HERO character creation system of the pen and paper game, he seems to be of the belief that the current arrangement (with Cryptic buying the Champions IP outright and licensing it back to Hero) is going to be beneficial for both parties. While MMOs seem to be driving the overall simplification of pen and paper RPGs, Long thinks that MMOs have a lot to learn as well, especially in the areas of customization and interactivity with environments.
The Daily Grind: Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition?
Today's the day, long anticipated by tabletop gamers of the d20 variety; Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition releases today, coming to a Friendly Local Gaming Store near you. If you aren't familiar with the new edition of the game, Eurogamer has a great rundown on the system's ins and outs. For a more hands-on technical approach, you can't beat the official Wizards of the Coast site and their lengthy series of preview articles. You might have also noticed Penny Arcade's recent discussion of 4E. Though it requires a site login to reach, their hands-on playtime with PvP's Scott Kurtz is hilariously listenable.We ask, because we have to imagine some of you MMO fans out there also have occasion to 'roll the bones'. These games are ultimately all built on the foundation that the late, great Gary Gygax built, right? So, how about it: are you jumping to the newest edition?
A Champions Online QnA special broadcast
Get your decoder rings out kids. It's time for a super-special secret broadcast for this recent Champions Online Q&A, brought to you by Ovaltine! Well no that's not true. Actually, this particular decoding article is brought to you by the guys over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun and it isn't trying to sell you more Ovaltine. What the article is trying to do is explain some of the answers in the recently published community Q&A all about Champions Online.Most of the commentary covers the powers customization answers and rightfully so, as they're a bit daunting for people that haven't experienced a point-based table top RPG before. So if you're not experienced with the pen and paper version of Champions or un-familiar with pen and paper RPGs completely, then we highly recommend reading it. As they saying goes: There's gold in them there hills, or possibly some kind of super gamma-exposed uranium that could give you laser nostrils able to cut through anything at the smallest of sneezes.
Cryptic has something to ask you
You probably already know that Cryptic Studios plans on coming to Gencon Indy and PAX this year. What you may not know is that Cryptic would like you all to tell them what you want to see. What team members do you want to meet? What panels do you want them to attend and discuss? All of your questions can be asked in the discussion thread.Our personal suggestion is definitely related to PAX, where we'd love to see Jack Emmert, Randy Mosiondz and John Layman. Last year at PAX there was a very interesting "Future of MMOs" panel that we would love to see get some Cryptic input. Although truthfully we just want to find a bunch of you guys and chat about all things superheroes, MMOs and pen and paper RPGs. Oh and of course if we could get some crazy demoing of Champions Online, that'd be super awesome too. It's probably asking a bit too much, but it's nice to dream isn't it?
Pen and paper roleplaying pioneer Gary Gygax is dead
Gary Gygax, who has long been attributed as the father of Pen and Paper roleplay gaming via the co-creation of the classic Dungeons and Dragons system alongside David Arneson, died this morning at his home in Wisconsin of an apparent heart attack. We here at WoW Insider would like to pay tribute to him, and recognize his contributions to our gaming lives. Even if the World of Warcraft is not a pen and paper game, pen and paper games were where many of us first gathered with friends to slay dragons, orcs, and all kinds of creatures, and a good number of us who now play games like World of Warcraft first cut our teeth on gaming with a six sided die. The same can be said for many game designers, I'm sure, and it is probably fair to say that we might not even have MMORPGs to play without PnP for the genre to spring from. I myself will have my weekly pen and paper game this Thursday, and even if the system we use isn't Dungeons and Dragons, I'll be rolling in his memory. Among some of the most memorable quotes from the impromptu message board eulogies I've heard was from someone who said, "He's in chaotic good heaven now." Another said, "As long as people gather around a table to roll dice and slay dragons, Gary Gygax won't be truly dead." I couldn't say it better myself. Godspeed, Mr. Gygax. May your memory live on.
Our games are built on paper and dice
As a tip of the hat to the passing of a tabletop gaming icon, I thought it worthwhile to link back to a great article Allen Varney wrote for the Escapist website in 2005. Entitled "Our Games Are Built On Paper", it outlines the incredible impact that people like Gary Gygax and Dave Arenson have had on videogames in general and Massively Multiplayer games in specific. The piece notes the numerous PnP designers that have made the jump to videogame development; a reminder of the numerous people who have worked on City of Heroes and City of Villains that originated in the pen and paper world. It concludes by noting the advances of a more recent generation of tabletop designers, and fittingly begins with words that ring very true today:IN THE BEGINNING - which is to say, 1974 - there were E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, two tabletop miniatures gamers in Wisconsin who begat Dungeons & Dragons. And D&D begat an orc-horde of paper-and-dice imitators and emulators. And it was good.
All the World's a Stage: Magical table, magical screen
All the World's a Stage is a source for roleplaying ideas, commentary, and discussions. It is published every Sunday evening.As with many other people, my first experience of roleplaying was with a "tabletop" roleplaying game in high school. The older kids introduced me to Vampire: The Masquerade, and although I wasn't enthralled by the whole "bloodsucking" thing, I quickly realized that the basic activity was lots of fun, and I ended up starting my own roleplaying group with Earthdawn, a more traditional (yet surprisingly original) fantasy setting. Those games were my some of my happiest memories from high school.In college I couldn't find many people who were interested in playing with me, and when I came to live and work in China after graduating in 2000, I thought that my roleplaying days were over for sure. You may imagine my surprise when in late 2007, I came across another foreigner here in Nanjing, discussing Dungeons and Dragons with his Chinese wife in one of my favorite restaurants. It turns out he needed another player for the group he has going here, and although his wife wasn't interested, I happened to appear, ready and eager to join up.Originally I had thought that WoW would be the only way I could continue roleplaying while living in the far East, but starting to get back into my old hobby has given me a chance to see more clearly what the differences are between tabletop roleplaying and roleplaying in a game like WoW. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, and different people have their preferences. Both have a special value which is mainly derived from connecting creatively with other people.
DDO Module 6 includes raised level cap and more
Module 6 for Dungeons & Dragons Online is currently in testing, and the developers have posted a list of changes they're working on. The most notable of these is a raise of the level cap to 16, but there are many other interesting updates as well, such as whole slew of new spells. Want to charm whole masses of enemies, or trap their souls in a gem? Well, soon you'll be able to!Though it's not exactly Turbine's flagship product anymore, DDO provides a unique online gaming experience to a passionate niche that includes fans of the table-top RPG. If you're part of that niche, get ready to move on up to the next level and take on new quests sometime soon-ish.[Via Razorwire]
When did you first understand your role?
It occurred to me the other day that something I would never have understood before has, thanks to WoW, become part of how I think about gaming, to the point that I instantly recognized it when I heard that the new version of D&D is basically copying it - I'm talking about the role a character plays in a party or raid.Before WoW, I played a lot of pen and paper RPG's, and the one thing that always stayed the same about them when compared to games like World of Warcraft or its MMO antecedents is that, in most pen and paper games, there is no mechanism for roles like 'tank' or 'dps'. There would usually be a healer of some kind or another, but in a tabletop RPG no one cares if the strongest melee combatant in the party is a holy paladin, a brutal sword-swinging warrior or a stealthy rogue, and whether or not any of them did more damage to the monster than, say, the wizard would be totally irrelevant. There was certainly no mechanism in the rules to keep a monster or monsters attention fixed on the guy with the most health or armor, either. So when I first started playing WoW I had no idea that my first character, a paladin, would be asked to heal people nor what 'tanking' even was. And since I was playing it at the time it first came out with other folks new to the game, no one bothered to explain to me what tanking was because none of my friends knew, either. It wasn't until my first Scarlet Monastery run that I even realized I was supposed to do something there besides just hit things. Now, MMO's like WoW are so popular that the oldest pen and paper RPG is trying to learn from them, including incorporating how the various classes work in combat to some degree. It's all gone full circle, I guess - the first MMO's seemed determined to be D&D, and now D&D is becoming more like an MMO.Did you immediately understand what you would be expected to do in a party? Did you accept it or reject it? And do you think it will translate into offline play? I went out and bought every book for the World of Warcraft Roleplaying Game but I never tried to actually run it... maybe I was just behind the times.
