The #BROSR's inquiry into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition can be summed up thusly: "We want to use the machine as it is to see what it does."
There is great value in doing this sort of thing for tabletop games, doing the equivalent of making a cutaway view of the machine in operation and observing it do so.
This is what critics miss in their attacks.
The criticisms come from mistaken perceptions. First, that they know how the machine works; they don't, and their reactions prove it. Second, that it doesn't matter because of user modifications; this misses the point because tableop games are consumer goods in the minds of common users. They buy a widget, they use a widget, and the widget does what they expect it to do or they throw it away. They do not modify it. People do not buy wrenches expecting them to be hammers; telling them do so misses the point.
What the #BROSR has found is that the game promised in the manuals is there, but the shibboleth of the game that is commonly believed to be is not that game. From there more discoveries and their impacts have come ever since, and continue to impact, such that the discourse has changed because of what a handful of dedicated gamers refused to dismiss.
What other games have so much "Just So" lore about them that it warrants similar treatment? I can think of a few.
Classic Traveller
The game is not at all like AD&D1e or other RPGs like it. It should be reconsidered as if it were brand new, and players never played a RPG before (but had that classic wargame background).
It must be played exactly as-written, from start to finish, with exacting care given to reading the manual and executing its procedures. It must be played for an extensive period of time, long enough for a campaign to start and conclude, in order for the full experience to be had. Notations on what goes down and how, corrections on mistaken readings noted and implemented, findings made and posted, Actual Plays posted with notes, and so on as has been done with AD&D1e.
Make obvious what is hidden. Make explicit what is implicit. Compare what the game actually is with what is believed to be, and compare what the game actually is with what peoples' expectations are. Put all of this on display in easy-to-read format.
I bet the results would be as explosive as what has come out of AD&D1e.
Twilight 2000
It's time to take another look at the World War 3 RPG from a future that never happened but yet feels familiar. Either the first or the second edition will do, depending upon if you want the option to buy a physical copy or not (or if you have an alternative means to turn PDFs into PODs).
Same methodology applies: play it as it is, take care to execute procedures correctly, publish results with notes.
This game is also nothing like AD&D1e or other Class/Level games, including others in or near its niche (e.g. Palladium's Ninjas & Superspies, TSR's Top Secret, AEG's Spycraft) and yet lacks the poor reputation of games like Leading Edge's Phoenix Command. The need for logistics and diplomacy cannot be ignored here, as players soon discover.
RECON (published by Palladium Books) is another game in this vein, focusing on the American War in Vietman and later going into mercenary action.
Bushido
A while back Jeffro Johnson did some playing of the original Boot Hill. His revisiting of that nigh-forgotten classic Western game got me thinking that it was time for another nigh-forgotten classic to get its own revisiting: Bushido.
This is not the later Sengoku (though that is a decent game) and it sure as Hell ain't Legend of the Five Rings (whatever affection lingers for it), but without it (a) we would never have had Oriental Adventures and (b) none of those other games would have happened either.
Again, the same methodology applies. It would be interesting to just get it, learn how to play it, learn how to run it, do so as it is and publish the results. Then see how that stacks up to decades of Just So stories, headcannon that isn't actually there, and other misconceptions and misperceptions to find what was missed and why.
There's more out there. I'll come back to this down the road on another Saturday and mention a few more then.
Original Traveler, in my opinion, works best as a resource management game. In many ways a ship is like a domain in D&D. Getting and maintaining a ship should be the focus of the campaign. Rules As Written provide constant character motivation in terms of financial pressure, for fuel, for trade goods, for repairs, for upgrades. When I saw the series Firefly, with the focus on hunting up jobs to get enough money to keep the Serenity flying, my first thought was "This is just like the Traveler game I played in High School."
ReplyDeleteBushido is a great game and well worth getting into. I also believe it to be more influential than most realize, not just on the other oriental games/supplements but also in games such as Pendragon.
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