Game Geeks #113 Tracy Hickman & X-Treme Dungeon Mastery

[bradwatson7324]

Fun gaming is 98% words and 2% numbers. Get the math, charts, unrealistic structure, and gamespeak out of it as much as possible! Keep the pace of play up, too. As a rough rule, something significant should be accomplished per every 3 hours (or less) of play time.

[pspboy7]

I loved the Gollum pose with the lightsaber! :)

[ArchArturo]

I remember my first game was at school, in between classes, and it was awesome! Screw the rules, my ranger threw fireballs and had more charisma than dexterity! :p

But, more importantly, it was fun, and it was the slippery slope that got me into gaming in the first place.

[upinarms79]

This actually looks pretty good.  While I have a lot of respect for Tracey and I certainly know he knows his stuff, I have to disagree with complexity not being fun. It's still very fun with a system like 3.5 if you have a DM that can run the game smoothly. It takes skill and experience not to let it become a page-flip quest for half the game to keep up with rules but a complex system allows for more realism and more fun when done right instead of feeling cheap and over-simplified.

[battleroyaleveteran]

AMEN.

[guitardbucket]

That was great.

[snakeoi1sean]

Thanks for the review, I'm going down to my local game store to order this tonight.

[LuisureSuitLarry]

I think I'm going to buy this book.

[ArchArturo]

You're a Chemist? Cool!.

[TacticusPrime]

Spirit of the Century, DnD 4.0, Savage Worlds, come on. The trend is toward simpler and more streamlined systems. Certainly some "RPGs" like DnD have became essential tactical battle games with unit position and range and crap like that. But compared to 3.5? Games are moving toward simplicity.

[pugknowspro]

I have to say, I haven't played RPG games in years (loved the The Fantasy Trip and played a lot of Warhammer and Games workshop games in the day otherwise I'm to busy making videos and painting figures. But I've been having a blast reading the book and it's making me want to play again. That's worth it to me plus Tracy was fun to work with.

Rob

Producer

[mysticcrh]

It's a mistake to think that the focus of the book is entirely on making gaming simpler. Gaming in general has indeed grown toward more streamlined systems and mechanics. If you have ever been to Mr. Hickman's killer breakfast then you know exactly what he means by having "more fun" in a game. The book is filled with tips, advice, antidotes and effects to enhance any variety of role playing. And yes there are also ways of making the game even more streamlined (like the XD20 system for example).

[CathodeRay00]

Yes--I agree with MysteryCycle... no disrespect to Mr. Hickman, but I think it's only certain traditional / hardcore style games that have gotten more complicated. Otherwise, the overall trend since the mid-90's has seemed to be toward simpler, more streamlined games--especially the Indie scene (at least in a general sense). 

I'm sure X-D-M is an entertaining book, but I think there's a whole lot more to the hobby than it seems to give credit for.

[acm4bass]

Wow, Kurt pulling the elite interview...How many cloroform bottles did you use when you kidnapped Hickman from that GenCon. I agree that DnD intentionaly with Dragon Magazine and latter the Supplement books drove the game to complexity, but likewise SW and other are leading back.

[rebirthangel]

Great review as always Kurt, and I do want to check out X-D-M. Seems like a good read.

[mysterycycle]

I don't think I agree with Tracy on the future of RPGs. I think the trend toward simpler rules has been happening for some time now. There are those games which ramp up the complexity (Burning Wheel is one which comes to mind), but I think that tends to be the exception rather than the rule. There's also the growth of the indy-games market, and PDF publishing which has made it possible for everyone and their grandmother to create and sell their own game. We've never had such variety before.

[mysterycycle]

(cont.) Likewise, there has been a growing "old school gaming" movement online, and retro-clones like Labyrinth Lord, Basic Fantasy, Mutant Future, and others have been appearing with the intention of returning to the way people used to game at the industry's birth (or how they remember it, anyway).

Finally, while it's all well and good to remind people to have fun, I don't know who Tracy's been gaming with that they aren't having fun. I just don't get to game as much as I used to.

[Ogma01]

I agree with you there, mysterycycle... My favorite system is Savage Worlds ("Fast! Furious! Fun!"). I'm also quite fond of UniSystem (another pretty simple system). There are NUMEROUS examples of very streamlined (and new/recent) systems out there!

[AntonyPlaza]

LOL This is by far the best episode of Game Geeks I have yet seen,

Outstanding job guys,

For this episode alone I would consider buying your DVD,

[Jeffrywith1e]

that poor girl... "sigh"

[Klavitopalm]

Fantastic review!

Our group has been playing Rolemaster and Harp (aka Rolemaster light) for years. After watching your great reviews we gave Savage Worlds/Shaintar a try and we really like the reduced complexity of the rules.

Roleplaying truly is more than just throwing dices and looking up tables. and more publications should be made about bringing back the "roleplay" in roleplaying games.

[nutherefurlong]

I'm glad someone was willing to talk about this. I like tactical games, but RPGs don't have to be just that. Once you get past the rules the actual fun comes down to how everyone interacts and creates a world. Some of the funnest times I've had were after-the-game chat sessions where we discussed the fates of the characters. THAT part was more roleplaying than the "I'm behaving like a stereotypical dwarf now!" stuff because we knew dice weren't going to decide for us.

[jesternario]

Conversely, a creative GM can take a die roll and make it interesting. My current favorite moment in a game I ran is when a PC botched a roll with a flaming arrow and blew up half a continent in Exalted.

But you're right. Tactics is not what people should play Role Playing Games for, they should play them for the experience of pretending to be someone else for a time and to spend time with friends. I leave the large tactics to games like Warhammer 40k.

[nutherefurlong]

Yes. Sometimes I think the reason die rolling has been around so long is that even for the GM the dice make things interesting, because he or she has to react to something throwing the plans off and making somewhat unpredictable results.

Yeah, exalted has been known to do that :)

I'd say tactics can be in RPGs, fine, but "RPG" shouldn't mean only tactical combat.

There is something to be said, though, for the randomness that players automatically bring. More unpredictable than dice :)

[salsatheone]

XDM properly acquired ;D

Never spent so much money on RPGs in a single month lol, first Grimm, Mouse Guard, now this. It is indeed a great time for gaming.

[LifegrindX]

I couldn't agree more with your statements about games being too complex...and it's a shame, because so many have really awesome settings.

[lukeskywalkerrules]

luv the show i bought my first rpg bord game (the star wars role playing game) and im gunna get yelled at for this but can anyone explain how to play it the manuel i got has pages missing because i bought it online

[jesternario]

do you mean Saga edition?

[lukeskywalkerrules]

yes

[lukeskywalkerrules]

yes i do

[lukeskywalkerrules]

i got it after i got my 15th or so star wars miniature booster pack and it sed on the back it can be used with the saga edition book so i got it but i dont really get

[decovedder]

I'm a better person, DM and player because of your show, Kurt.

Thanks.

[canadiancitizen]

first love the show