If excuses had any word value, I’d have written at least three novels in 2011.  Work, family and social activities were the main source – but nothing out of the ordinary I grant you

Of late, a new reason not to write has crept into my life.  An inability to sit at my computer.

To be fair, my number one reason is still a desire to wait for the perfect idea.  I have at least seven novels started but abandoned as a better idea forced its way into my brain and convinced me to start afresh.

But to combat my number two excuse, I have decided to start – and complete – my 2012 novel on my iPad.  It’s not perfect for typing, and I may have to invest in a separate keyboard, but it has a number of benefits:

1. It is invariably to hand
2. It doesn’t require me to have to switch on the ‘big’ computer
3. I can take it with me wherever I go in the house and also kep it with me if Icog out of the house

The big down side is that I tend to write in long periods and the idea of using the iPad will be to write in short bursts.  Will it work?  That’s up for debate but I know that the tried and trusted method has produced a year with precisely zero novels completed.  A tally of one for 2012 would be asignificant improvement.

To keep me honest, I’ll blog and tweet my progress in terms of words per day.  And I’ll use myiPad to do so.

Instead, I was urged to post based upon something I wrote a while ago.  I posted that a good GM knows his or her GMing style and will ensure that this is moderated to suit the entire group – and not just those that like to role-play like the GM.

As I rolled a new character for a play by post game, I was encouraged by my sense of being the best GM I can be to role-play a class I’ve never been before.  Why?  Because I figure that to be a better GM, I should know what it’s like to play different classes.

I need to know what is a challenge to them, what they find easy, how the class progresses through levels etc. 

That way, when I’m creating an adventure, or considering what changes to make on the fly – I can have a good idea how each of the classes will be impacted.

And a good GM shouldn’t stop at classes.  How many GM’s not only stick to one or two classes when they role-play but also prefer one race over another.  Or one alignment?

And players – how do you know how much fun you might have as a different class or race if you never try?  Encourage your GM to run a one-shot scenario and purposefully choose something you would never usually play.

Does it work?  Absolutely.  Not only have I found a great character in a class I would never usually pick – but I also know that when I GM players with this class, I will have a whole new perspective on the way they play.

It’ll just be an overview with my opinions sprinkled liberally.

The PDF copy of the document runs to 90 pages – including covers etc. Much bigger books I can review quite quickly – with a basic outline of the content, some specific examples and a summary of the plusses and minuses.

The KGGD, due to its structure and variety of content, makes that format redundant. So I will devise a different review format for this product.

To start with, the title is quite self-evident. It is a guide to designing role-playing games. I would suggest the advice is as applicable to entire system design as it is to campaigns and adventures.

Where it might leave some readers behind are the pages devoted to selling the said output. Some of it can be useful e.g. marketing (as you should consider what your players want) but aspects like making a pitch can be glossed over by most that would look to buy this book.

I’ll digress for a second. Is this a book? I bought it as a PDF and it runs to less than 100 pages, but I’m not sure what to refer to the title as. Kobold call it an, “88-page collection of essays.” It is certainly a publication and I’ll continue to call it a book – but you see my dilemma.

So the title works for those wishing to become freelancers (indeed every aspiring writer/designer should have a copy) and those wishing to improve their homebrew efforts. Plus, I’d add it would help if you wanted to write articles for publication on the subject.

It’s written by people who know what they’re talking about and the style and ease of reading reflects their professionalism.

I could summarise the content thus:

• Marketing (who is the audience and making a pitch to sell your offering)
• Design tips
• How to be a better writer
• Writing style (pacing etc.)
• World-building
• Games genres (good advice on a variety here)
• And then some more.

See how it’s a challenge to review quickly? To consider the topics covered in the publication, I offer the following (and these are my headings, not theirs):

• How to get the most information with the fewest words
• Making fantasy realistic
• World-building and settings and bringing it to life
• Games aren’t books (the differences in writing styles)
• Pacing
• Cliffhangers
• How and why to raise the stakes
• Misdirection
• Structuring your story
• Subplots
• Genres (city adventures, Arabian, hardboiled, underdark)

As I write this, it is starting to look more like a list than a review – and that is the fault of the publication! It is so varied (despite keeping to the same topic) and in-depth that it defies a quick line on each section.

I’ll focus here on the GM that wants to build better adventures, and as I usually do, I’ll pick some sections at random to show you what to expect.

Section 4 is entitled Fantasy Realism and starts:

“I hate the common critique of fantasy adventures and settings that they are “not realistic enough.” At the same time, I totally understand. The critique is not about realism. It is about depth and plausibility. A realistic setting does not have wizards, 20-pound battleaxes, or half-naked Amazon elves. Or giants, dragons, or beholders. Or anything fun, really.”

And it is the writing style as much as the content that makes this publication work. It reads like a learned favourite uncle (Uncle Wolfgang in this case) has sat you down and spun you some home truths about writing fantasy adventures.

The language is accessible and flows smoothly. The down-side is that you have to read it – it is difficult to dip in for a line or two.

It is the ongoing theme that imparts the knowledge, not half a dozen words written in bold.

If I leap to section 11 City Adventures, the second paragraph reads:

“I always enjoy the subcategory called “city adventures” because they break the established rules of the D&D combat arena. Unlike dungeons and other secluded locations, city adventures are constantly interrupted by the presence of bystanders and busybodies, by the forces of the law, and by villains hiding among the innocent. They can be wildly unpredictable.”

I’ll close my excerpts by moving to section 15 Inspiration and Discipline in Design (aka Fire and Sword). In keeping with my approach, I’ll print the opening paragraph:

“To be a successful game designer, you need all the tools of the trade: wordcraft, imagination, mathematics, and discipline both in mechanics and in daily writing. To get started, you need the spark of inspiration that gets your query approved by an editor (for periodicals) or that gets your pitch accepted by a publisher.”

I would add that spark is just as necessary to get your gaming group fired up by your suggestion for a new campaign or game world.

Buy this if:

• You are at all serious about writing professionally
• You blog, write for fanzines etc. and want to improve your output
• You are serious as a GM and want to be the best you can
• You are prepared to sit down and read 100 pages of text
• You can review advice and fit it to your own situation (i.e. the excerpt above about the spark)

Don’t buy it if:

• You simply want some campaign ideas
• You like lists and step by step guides
• You can’t see the bigger picture 

Finally, I’d like to say I do recommend this publication. I recommend it to anyone who wants to be a better GM. And anyone who doesn’t want to be a better GM – your players don’t deserve you.

I am reminded of a trainer I met when I took over an HR function many years ago. I asked him what his aspirations were. Asking for my job had come top of the list to date.

He said he wanted to be the best trainer there was. I dismissed him as lacking ambition.

Yet, he was as ambitious as they come – and I learned that over the next few years. He really did want to be the best trainer IN THE WORLD.

He was relentless and looked to improve every aspect of his work. He was good to begin with and could have coasted and still performed. But he was driven to be better.

Unless you’re driven to be better, this book could just collect dust on your shelf (or virtual cobwebs on your hard-drive).

Next time, I’ll review Volume 2 that covers How to Pitch, Playtest & Publish. It is more focused on the writer that wants to be published but still includes enough for the cover price for GMs to purchase (but I’m getting ahead of myself).

In response to a comment, you can find the title if you go to:

http://www.koboldquarterly.com/kqstore/

You can see both their standard offerings e.g. Kobold Quarterly magazine as well as The Kobold Guide to Games Design. Just use the search facility.

So a small conundrum has been rattling around in my brain for about six months now and I’m darned if I have a solution – but I do want to share my thoughts. So…

Consider a role-playing scenario. In it, the player’s character has to fast-talk his way out of a situation. Imagine you had a player that was naturally gifted with improvisation. Role-playing would take the floor and he would probably be able to talk his way out of the problem.

Now consider an average player. If his parents had rolled dice, he would be straight 10′s. He can’t do the talk as effectively and finally asks to roll a die instead.

If both players had a character that had bluff or a similar skill, both PCs would survive the encounter. On the other hand, if the character lacked these skills, the eloquent player may get away with it and the tongue-tied player would flounder.

Now I already have the first counter-argument ready. Don’t let the smooth-talker have the chance to role-play his way out of trouble if the character doesn’t have the skills.

But if you extend that logic – we would never role-play. We’d simply roll the dice and let the stats decide.

We could of course force players to only roll characters that reflect their abilities – but what’s the fun in playing yourself?

I can see some logic in limiting meta-gaming but not to the extent of taking away any opportunity to role-play.

And I was reminded of an old Dragon’s Inn podcast where a player with autism emailed in to relive where he was forced to role-play a social situation and the GM refused to let him roll dice.

Which leads me neatly into a closed circle. I don’t believe that the stats should be used exclusively. Nor do I think it’s fair that players can compensate for their character’s deficiencies and other players can’t. Do I have a solution? No.

Other than accepting the situation and applying that much misunderstood common sense wherever possible, I guess I’ll just have to live with the injustice of it all.