Highmoon's Ponderings

I wrote the following review at Goodreads, but I have more to say after it.

40 Years of Gen Con by Robin D. Laws
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hard to believe that Gen Con has been around for 40+ years. Heck, hard to believe that roleplaying games have been around for almost that long! And right there, in the space where believing these statements are, amazingly, true, is where 40 Years of Gen Con lives.

Robin Laws had his work cut out for him in setting out to put together this book. Made up of a pastiche of chronological interview quotes from a vast array of people associated with Gen Con throughout its history, the book gives you a transcribed oral history of this most central gathering of the Hobby Gaming Industry. From its days as a tiny gathering at chez Gygax, to its move to current and gigantic home in Indianapolis, you can follow the wonderful and weird history of the convention, and in many ways of the industry as well.

If I have one qualm about the book is that, personally I would have preferred an actual written-out narrative of the history instead of the put-it-together-yourself approach of the various interview segments. A thousand kudos to Robin Laws for having the patience and the archeological skills to assemble a narrative out of all those interviews, though; that alone should win him some sort of prize.

Our hobby, our industry, has officially entered its second generation of life, and we’ve already begun to lose some of the pioneers. I continue to be amazed that there has been no effort to create a biography of the hobby/industry up to now, though 40 Years of Gen Con is a fantastic proxy that deserves to be in every gamer’s library.

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It is very strange to me that after over four decades of hobby gaming, from historical miniatures to the latest games debuting at Gen Con, this is the one history book about/on our hobby/industry available. Surely I cannot be the only one who sees value in there being a written history of the development of the industry, the development of the types of games, and even of some of the games themselves.

40 Years of Gen Con, beyond any flaws it may have, is a brilliant artifact because of the gathering of otherwise hard to find/lost information about that one (very defining) aspect of our hobby.

In 2014 we will see the 40th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons (and my own, but we’re not talking about me now). Will we see a book on the history of this pivotal game? I hope so. I so hope so. But more than just a D&D book, I want to see a book (many books?) on the history of our hobby.  We deserve to have our history chronicled, and no one but us will do it.

Happy Ireland day to all. It seems like the perfect day for me to finally talk about Ierne, don’t you think?

For a few weeks now I have been writing these little vignettes set in a land called Ierne, each showing a small glimpse of ongoing events before moving on to the next tale. I have also been dropping vague statements about my plans for Ierne as well as some hints as to what I’ve had in mind right from the start. Astute readers as well as customers of my Bardic Lore products for Highmoon Games (and also anyone who read my last Ierne tale) may have figured out that Ierne has been showing up for a few years now; this is a world that has been brewing in my mind, in one form or another, for over a decade, and I think it’s time to move from brewing to serving (stretching the beer analogy to its limits there). So, let me tell you about Ierne…

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There weren’t that many entries for the St. Patty’s blog carnival this year, but still, there were a few and that’s what counts! Here you go. Hope you have a fantastic St. Patrick’s Day!

Ierne: Celtic FATE – My announcement of the Celtic-themed FATE game I’ll be working on.

The Emerald Isle – Ireland statted as a culture for the Synapse RPG.

Protectors of Éire – Three mythic champion-protectors for the Ghosts of Albion RPG.

Savage Menagerie: Leperkahn – Evil leprechauns for the Savage Worlds RPG.

St. Patrick’s Day Plot Devices – Five quick plot hooks to launch new adventures with an Irish theme.

It’s not Spring Break yet so no new design posts from me. However, I think you should take a look at the posts I am linking to below.

Nothing happens in a vacuum, especially not creative endeavors, and since I both send links to my design posts to Twitter, as well as “think out loud” there, it is inevitable that a network of influences would eventually emerge. Take for example last week: I’m not sure how it started, but for some reason, my Twitter feed last week was awash in a number of conversations about the World of Darkness, both old and new. Over the five days of the work week, there was not one day when at least a handful of World of Darkness-related tweets flew by, sparking conversations and blog posts.

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I did this last year and had lots of fun, so I’m bringing it back for an encore.

From March 1-17, 2010, I’ll be hosting the a St. Patrick’s Day RPG Blog Carnival.

• Who: Open to any and all RPG/Hobby Gaming blogs (RPG-related content preferred).
• What: Write a post on anything dealing with RPGs/gaming and all things Irish. As long as your post is about Ireland/Irish stuff and gaming, it’s cool.
• When: Your post must be published on or before Wednesday, March 17, 2010.  As soon as you publish, leave a link to it in the comments of this post. Feel free to use the graphic provided on your posts as well.

I will collect all the posts and publish a round-up on Wednesday, March 17 (though if I have at least 3 posts by St Patty’s morning, I’ll publish the round-up and update as I can during the day).

You can see the post roundup for last year’s St. Patrick’s Day.

I hope you’ll join me and celebrate the Emerald Isle. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments section.

It’s midterms this week so I’m taking a break from game design thinking. You can follow the posts in this series so far by checking out the tag “Rebuilding Vampire.”

In lieu of more design, I’d like to quickly address a couple of things, just to be clear to myself mostly, though others may find this useful as well.

First the caveat.

I think I already said this in a previous post, but it bears repeating to be 100% crystal clear:

I love Vampire: The Masquerade to undeath. Really, to little tiny bits. Thus, this game that’s emerging as I write along is *not* me saying “VtM Sucks!” Not even by a long shot. This *is* me saying, “VtM had some things that I felt got lost in the shuffle and here’s me trying to bring them back to the spotlight in my own way.” The latter does not detract from the former. If I wanted to be more dramatic in my answer, I’d say that this game is both my reply, and love letter, to VtM, my way of saying, “You made me think about these things, here’s what I thought of them; thanks so much, and enjoy the gift.”

Now the self-deprecation.

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