The More Things Change, Part I

This is an article I wrote for the RPG Times two years ago. Having recently read it, and approaching my birthday, I am reminded, once again, that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

The More Things Change….(Part One)
As I sit here putting this month’s article together, I contemplate two things: my recent 31st birthday, and the pending 4th anniversary of September 11. Now, I know what you might be thinking: how will these two things be applied to gaming and rules? Aha! That is why I am here. All this and more will be made clear in the mere space of 2500 words – then will be continued next month.
Part One – My Birthday. Yes, I have hit a milestone in that I am older now than I used to be. In looking back at my gaming career, I realize that I have been involved in gaming since the spring of 1991. About 14 years. That is serious gaming. The kind where you buy your dice at strange shops with “weirdos” hanging out, usually located next to a pizza joint, or at least has one on speed dial. For me, that place was Wargames and Fantasy (since closed). It had a Domino’s pizza next door that had a walk-in special for customers of the shop. Very cool. I started in playing Star Fleet Battles, but, through some friends in high school, I moved into Teenagers From Outer Space, GURPS, and Mechwarrior 2.0. Don’t get me wrong, I still played wargames and board games a-plenty, but, I had my share of RPGs, as well. That summer I went to my first convention – the New Orleans Science Fiction and Fantasy Festival (also now defunct). I was riding high and on top of my game. Everything was going swimmingly well, I knew all the right people, had all the good grades, had some hobbies that didn’t involve getting trashed every weekend. Things were great. I started college and moved on to other groups and games. I played my first Star Wars D6 system game, got into Silent Death (miniature starship game), did some playtesting for a game called Movie Oriented Concepts that never saw a publisher. I got heavy into Axis and Allies, which lead to the other games in the MB Gamemaster Series, as well as other “plastic miniature board games”. Since that time, I suffered the nightmare of law school and the bar exam, been laid off/unemployed – twice, did temp work, been darned near broke, almost got thrown out of my house, and now, things have come full circle. I am back on top of my game, things are going well, I know the right folks, have a great job doing something I love, have a great group of friends, and still get to enjoy the hobbies I love to do.
Now, 14 years later, I look at what has gone before and I think “DAMN, did I spend some money!! I could be rich!” Seriously, I think about the games that have been around, and gone through revisions (both miniature and RPGs). For example – D&D, the old staple, has been redone as Third Edition, then again 3.5. And on top of it, it has spawned a whole cadre of D20 based games and supplements that occupy an entire section of the wall at my current Friendly Local Game Shop (FLGS) – Galactic Games Emporium (which has a Papa John’s next door, plenty of “weirdos” – some are just older versions of the ones at my first shop). The good old standard White Wolf Storyteller system has been reinvented, with the “end of the world” in their four main lines and a rebirth following. I’m still not totally up to speed on that one, except to know that they seem to have universalized some of the mechanics, and left the specifics to the particular denizens of the dark (ie – the base game mechanics don‘t appear to shift all that much between the various games, but there are still flavorful and rich components specific to the particular genre). Star Wars has been reborn as a D20 entity, with Wizards of the Coast acquiring the license from Lucasfilm. And speaking of Wizards, they started off with Magic the gathering and a smattering of Richard Garfield games, and have now come together with Avalon Hill (old standard of the counter and hex military games), Hasbro, and TSR. They get all the good stuff. They have reissued my old favorite, Axis and Allies, but have punched it up a bit, adding elements that give more flavor and depth to the game. They have also released three supplemental games based on the mechanics, and are releasing (by the time this goes to press) a collectible miniature game based on the property, as well. We all know the TSR story by now. Steve Jackson Games has also issued a new version of GURPS (4th). When I started with them, Third Edition had just come out (give or take) and Third Revised wasn’t until 1998 (or so). They reissued Ogre, and did miniatures for it (again). And these are just the examples I can think of off the top of my head, industry-wise.
As far as my gaming groups goes, we have swirled around and around, but we are, essentially, the same group that began playing together back in 1991. A few new folks have been added, but that’s only because folks have moved away. Heck, I was one of the first to go away (to college), but I came back. That’s not to say that the folks aren’t happy where they are, or would likely come back to New Orleans, but, the point is, we’ve been through it before, and are going through it again.
Fourteen years ago, we had George Bush in the White House and a war in Iraq. Today, we have George Bush in the White House and a war in Iraq. We (collectively) watched 90210, Friends, Seinfeld, Mad About You, Home Improvement, and Full House. Today, with the magic of syndicated television, we still watch the same shows. Thirtysomething was ending its run, now we are thirtysomething.
What I’m getting at here is that everything that was old is new again. We are seeing pretty much the same things, over and over and over again. How do we deal with this in our games? How do we stay fresh in the ever-changing world that keeps coming back on itself? That’s why I am here. There are rules for that, and ways you can incorporate that sort of thing into your games.
For argument’s sake, I will go back to my old World of Darkness game for an example. Back then, we had our own plots to work up and goals to work towards. Now, with the system overhauled, we have a much broader opportunity to choose characters, and still make them work. But, in that particular situation, I could run a new game. Pulling the characters that I still have notes for, or liked the concepts, I could just as easily update that particular setting, fast forward the time, and revisit the same characters later on in their lives. They could be the NPCs in the game, with the players facing off against their old selves. I like to give credit where credit is due – this is not a new idea in gaming, overall, and, it was from reading Steven Marsh’s column, “Random Thought Table” in Steve Jackson Games’s “Pyramid Magazine”, that the above brainchild popped into my head. Mr. Marsh advocates things like reunions, social gatherings, and other events where characters may not have seen each other in quite some time. (As a side note, the issue current with the writing of this article talks about change as well – great minds think alike, it seems.) When everything old is new again, you can do that very thing with plots, characters, o whatever you like. The idea is to be fresh and not predictable. As I’ve stated before, I think, my plots are shamelessly “borrowed” from works that I admire. In the case of some of my players, they may recognize the basics of the plot I am throwing at them. This isn’t so bad, right, they can play within something they already know and with which they are familiar. However, since that is such a predictable thing, and since I know my players very well, I need to come up with some “alternatives” to keep them on their toes.
When you pull something like this in the game, you need to be prepared for your players calling you on it. Some of them, though familiar with the plots, may not be big fans of the outcomes or of the methods used to get from point A to point B. This will happen, after all, they are people. My current Star Wars game is a great example of this. I really enjoyed playing the Xbox game "Knights of the Old Republic". I went ahead and borrowed the plot to make a sequence of events happen, that all seemed to flow with my plot. One of my new players had actually played out its completion in the four basic methods of play. Needless to say, the first scenario he was a part of, he somewhat ran the whole show. Needless to say, I wasn't quite prepared for that, and have since gotten it worked out with the plot that he will not be able to do so again, whenever we get back to playing.