I’m already falling off on my blog schedule, but time of year, work, RL and Shadow World projects take priority! I have a number of pending blog topics, but I use these Random Musings as a way to organize my thoughts through writing. Hopefully they add value for reader(s), but it also creates a record of my creative development. I was reading back through my posts from 10 years ago, and I was surprised by how my perspectives have changed or my approaches to the game have progressed.
- Rolemasterblog.com. Clearly the RMBlog activity has really whimpered out over the last few years. Peter isn’t actively playing, we’ve covered A LOT of topics over the last 10 years and you sort of run out of things to discuss. Additional, sites like discord have become the primary place for roleplaying discussions. We are pondering the future of this blog and hopefully we can come up with a long term solution to keep things going. Other ideas are porting over to substack; this seems to be the new alternative to long form discussions.
- AI. I heard there was some discussions on Discord regarding AI. I’m dealing with significant industry disruptions from AI in my own professional practice, and it’s no surprise that roleplaying, and publishing, are also coming to grips with new technologies. As a hobbyist, AI can be a great aid for organizing sessions, generating quick content during gameplay (battlemaps, NPC’s etc). As a content creator, I certainly feel defensive about AI generated material. I just don’t see how it goes away and we aren’t far from AI run games…exciting or scary?
- RMU. Based on a relatively small data set, RMU continues to be a crowd pleaser! I think that’s fantastic. I will reiterate that there will always be a base of gamers that are seeking out “crunchy” systems. That was true in the 80’s and still true now.
- Shadow World. Not sure what to say about Shadow World. I’m going to keep pushing out material.
- Verisimilitude vs Simulation. I’ve been reflecting on this a lot. I would argue that Rolemaster provides verisimilitude: the appearance of realism and complexity. Despite it’s reputation, RM mechanics are a simple probability system. Culturally, we are programmed for probability and deterministic outcomes, so the d100 system is appropriate for modelling virtually any action. I also have a background in early wargames (Squad Leader) and RPG’s were birthed from wargaming. These games arose out of battle field analysis and tactics. Rules were specific, inflexible and were designed to simulate reality: line of site, facing, weather effects, morale, RoF, etc. To finish this thought off, I feel like there is a streak of simulation design driving RMU right now. Endless debates on rule wording, the appropriate penalty, conflicting effects. For me the goal is the appearance of complexity with tactical options without the need for over engineering.
- Trends. LitRPG/Progression Fantasy/Challenge Zones/Level Matching. I’m probably late to the topic, but fantasy literature is being parsed into all sorts of sub genres. Two that keep cropping up is LITRPG and Progression fantasy. Both are fiction that emulate a game system mechanics and seem quite popular. Adjacent to these fantasy genres is the concept of level matching. Whether it’s difficulty zones in Everquest, or a progression of challenges starting in the village, moving into the wilderness capped with increasing difficulty as one goes deeper into a dungeon. This is the norm in many RPG’s and now in fantasy fiction as well but I’m not a fan. The reason I like Shadow World as a setting and Malazan as a book series is it’s lack of progression. Shadow World has a deserved reputation for being dangerous and perhaps high level. As a mixed genre setting, dangers can be mundane, magical or even technological. Power is not distributed evenly or uniformly and the Rolemaster system can be the “great leveler” with it’s open ended rolls and critical charts.
I’m not sure I fully thought through any of these! But I wanted to get it down in words and reflect upon it further.