Underground Elemental Beastfighting -- The Video Game

(Although that's a really generous term for this...)

I found myself with some time to devote to geek projects on Monday, and while I intended to knock out something worthwhile in progressing People of Adventure (aka POA...my take on 3.75" action figure skirmish gaming), of course I ended up getting distracted by Pokémon.  In this case, it was because I had seen an article where a guy talked about using AI to code a simple video game (even though he had no coding experience), and so I wanted to take a quick look at what that process was like, and the next thing I knew, I'd been on my phone going back and forth with ChatGPT for a few hours trying to make it understand the direction I wanted it to take the game's programming (and to keep it from "deciding" on changes I didn't request at all).

I'm honestly not completely sure how I feel about the use of generative AI in creative pursuits (and my thinking gets even muddier when it comes to its use in the technical realization of human-generated ideas)...BUT I thought it'd be worth mentioning on here how crazy it is that a very averagely-technologically-savvy old dude like me can put together a functional "app" as quickly and easily as I did.  I know it really doesn't look like much, and it's just a simple HTML document, but man does this get my brain bouncing around among possible future projects to start and never finish.  Maybe I should work on this piece by piece and turn it into the fully realized version of Underground Elemental Beastfighting...?  Maybe I should use AI to finally get Ring Doctors into a completely playable form...?  Or maybe I should try to keep my focus on just one project at a time...but attempt to harness this newly tapped resource into improving it...?

Yeah...I dunno.

But...I'd be delighted if you wanted to take a moment to check out the direction I'm going with UEB.  You can click here if you'd like to see its humble opening scene.  You'll be asked to choose an element for your Beast...

...then given a randomly generated monster (with d20-ish stats) and the option to send them into the Beastfighting pits to find glory, misery, death, or some combination of the three.

There's not much more to the story at this point, but I can't really exaggerate how amazed I am that this thing works at all.  And now that I have a skeleton to build from, who knows...maybe it'll actually lead to me learning a thing or two about coding...?

Whoa whoa whoa...guess I don't want to get ahead of myself.

Anyway...if you have any ideas on this, please send 'em my way!

Monstrous Mini-Review: The Twenty-Sided Tavern (Off-Broadway Show)

Before I forget...and while I'm thinking about positivity...here's a little writeup I've been meaning to do for a while.  Why is it on the topic of positivity?  Well, in the wake of the election a couple of weeks ago, when a lot of folks (especially in NYC) found themselves a little...eh, somber...the Off-Broadway show The Twenty-Sided Tavern (hereafter "the Tavern") opened the doors to its 11/7 show at Stage 42 to all interested parties on a first-come, first-served basis.  I don't know, maybe they have a lot of empty seats on Thursday nights anyway.  It still seems like a pretty cool gesture.

As for me, on Sunday 10/13, Laura and I took advantage of the ticket deals of NYC Off-Broadway Week to visit the Tavern, which turns the quirks of a D&D adventure into a stage production.  I had been intrigued by this since I first heard about it (maybe before it even became an official D&D entity), so I was pretty happy to see how the game I love translated to the art form I'm increasingly becoming a fan of.  I'm kinda kicking myself for not writing this up sooner...but I guess better late than never in sharing some thoughts on this fairly interesting appearance of RPGs in pop culture...

Let me say up front that for some reason, I imagined we had something a little different in store for us when we entered the theater.  I can't say exactly what set my expectations as they were, but I kind of thought I was going to see a fantasy story with Off-Broadway (so, pretty high) production values and some nods to roleplaying conventions.  And I knew the plot involved audience choices so that every show ends up being a little different.

What we actually watched was somewhere in between an actual-play show (which I don't watch or listen to very much) and a full stage production, with a very heavy dose of improv theater (and indeed...comedy) mixed in.  That description is certainly not to tear it down; I was honestly very impressed by how much it felt like an actual game was in progress (in a way, it really was).  It was like the stage show provided a framework that allowed a full table of over-the-top personalities to shine, when in our games at home, you really can't have too much of that good thing, or it goes off the rails pretty quickly.

There's a lot of audience participation!  (Btw, if you're in these pics and don't want to be on here, please just let me know...)

The story, however, was very skillfully guided by DM Conner Marx and Tavern Keeper Alex Stompoly.  They definitely made some concessions to the fact that they were playing this out on stage for an audience.  When the first combat started, I thought, "Uh...is this what we're doing the rest of the show now?"  But after about three rounds, there was this sort of declaration of "okay, we see how this is playing out," and rewards and consequences were doled out to keep the game flowing.

The story did not lack detail, however.  I lost track of specifics exactly as I do when I'm playing D&D, and I still enjoyed watching it all come together.  I would say that's the thing that cements my ability to declare that I really liked the show...the story was somehow both very linear and all over the place at the same time...and that appeals to me because it's exactly how every D&D adventure ends up feeling.

There's one performer designated each show to be the Warrior, the Mage, and the Trickster, with the exact characters they play changing up each night.  Apparently, there are more than 30 possible characters, and when you combine that with multiple paths for the adventures...and I think there was some rolling for character details (there were certainly some interesting rolls on random tables as the game progressed)...well, it's easy to see how every performance ends up being unique.  I'll probably have to go back at some point just to see how much my two random (heh) experiences differ.

Our Trickster for the evening

In case it needs to be said, all of the cast members are very talented.  (For our show, the Warrior was played by Will Champion, which is just a perfect name for a Warrior.)  They play off of each other and the audience very well.  Some folks are sure to feel that a selection of the jokes are too juvenile (drinking and sex, hahahahaha)...but, uh, I think those jokes probably landed pretty well overall with the target audience.

I left the theater thinking that to fully enjoy the show, you probably need one of (1) familiarity with (and love of) the source material (a lot of the humor is also connected to fantasy RPGs); (2) strong interest in improv; or (3) a tendency to go with the flow and just enjoy chaotic stuff that you might not fully understand but would like to appreciate.  With that said, it's easy to come across testimonials like this Reddit post that indicate it's just a good show that can be enjoyed by someone who's never played D&D before.  The audience participation probably goes a long way in making sure of that.  There's a lot of influence by the crowd (via electronic decision-making polls, trivia, actual stage participation by selected audience members, and at least one pretty cool puzzle that gets you interacting with your neighbors in the crowd).

Oh, and the theater is nicely decorated to evoke the Forgotten Realms...

Hmm.  Maybe I'll go in costume next time...?

The Tavern really is unlike anything else I've experienced, but it was very familiar at the same time (how's that for hedging?).  I know Laura enjoyed it, but I also know (via her own words) that this was influenced somewhat by seeing me enjoy it as much as I did (she's sweet that way).  I'm not sure she would have dug it as much otherwise...but I also think there aren't going to be too many people who just find themselves at that show without a connection to the material, either from their own life or that of someone close to them...or at least who have an interest in watching how this crazy thing we call D&D plays out.  And make no mistake...this is definitely D&D, and a lot more faithful to the game, as it's actually played, than any of those popular dragon shows can claim to be.

I haven't seen an ending date, and I think they're booking shows out through next April, so it appears that there are still plenty of opportunities to experience the Tavern.  Special guests frequently make their way into the cast, and I'm sure a lot of folks are excited to see their favorite figures from nerd culture up there gaming on stage.  Oh, and performances in other locations are coming!  If you like D&D...and if you read this blog, that's a very strong possibility...you'll probably find it worthwhile to see what The Twenty-Sided Tavern is all about.

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And now that I've rambled way more than I intended to, how about I divert this all back to what I've been doing here on the blog?  Here's the Warrior from our show, converted to be a very quick 'n simple Monstrous6 starting character...just a few details short, I suppose...

Alistair

Aarakocra Paladin

15 HP, 19 Defense (plate armor)

Flies (2x walking speed)

Strength 3
Dexterity 5
Knowledge 1
Presence 3

Skills: Perform +4, Swords +2, Divine Magic +1

Goal: Vengeance, I guess...to please his deity...?

Quote: "Open your mouth, I'm going to baby-bird you..."

Comparing task resolution difficulties across RPG systems (D6 + d20 + more)

I'm hoping someone out there might find it useful to see the side-by-side comparison of skill resolution target numbers/difficulty classes for a small variety of RPGs that are of interest to me right now.

If you just want to see the tables, you can skip on ahead to the figures so you don't get bored by my introductory rambling.  If you want more detail, possibly along with a small word salad, read on.  Either way, please let me know if you see any errors on these charts.

So...when I was beginning my deep dive into RPGs around 20 years ago, I was really intrigued by mechanical systems that lent themselves to covering modes of gaming outside of just crunchy campaign play, like miniatures, card games, or even just more casual roleplaying.  The D6 System from West End Games (WEG) really caught my eye, especially once I realized that it was implemented in such diverse forms as Ghostbusters (its genesis), Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game (perhaps its best-known form), DC Universe (altered to handle superpowers), and Star Wars Miniatures Battles and Live-Action Adventures.

These last two might have been the most intriguing, as they shifted the typical WEG D6 mechanics from a dice pool to [D6 + Attribute + Skill].  And somehow, using pretty much the same values as the standard WEG Star Wars RPG, that shift seemed to work in play.  It almost felt like I didn't know at the time that this kind of adjustment was even allowed in RPGs. :)

As I've looked around lately for a system that I might be able to use for a variety of gaming projects, I found myself looking really hard at Ghostbusters...and liking what I saw, a lot.  Also remembering a message board post where someone pointed out the similarity between the target numbers of the D6 System and one of the major iterations of d20 (I think it was already 5E at the time), I decided to take a look at how some of these systems stacked up in terms of difficulty classes for skill rolls.  Here are the systems included:

1.  Ghostbusters -- The point of the exercise and maybe the greatest RPG ever written

2.  Spooktacular -- A retro-clone of Ghostbusters with an associated OGL-friendly SRD (Sixtacular)

3.  FIE, I SAY! -- A traditional fantasy take on the Ghostbusters core rules, from Tim Snider; clearly constructed with love, humor, and an eye toward old school cachet

4.  The D6 System -- A generic toolkit for RPG system construction, published by WEG in 1996 and often called "the Cookbook" by fans

5.  Mini Six -- The clever and concise universal D6 ruleset released by AntiPaladin Games under the OGL

6.  Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, Second Edition -- The WEG one, not the WotC one...although the numbers are probably pretty similar considering...

7-8.  Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 and 5E SRDs -- Probably the two most-referenced RPG System Reference Documents

9-10.  Mörk Borg and Shadowdark -- Some darlings of the old school RPG crowd over the past few years (well-deserved reputations, I believe); both d20-based, with toned-down expectations for stat bonuses

11.  Star Wars: Live-Action Adventures -- A system for LARPing in that galaxy far, far away; uses essentially the same stats as the tabletop game but relies on a single D6 for task resolution (same scale as the WEG Star Wars minis game)

12-14.  Live-Action Adventures, +4 and +4/adjusted -- Having found 1D6 resolution to give a narrower range of results than I would like (relative to the possible spread of attributes and skills in the system), I'm looking at using 2D6 instead; +4 accounts for the added die, and the "adjusted" values shift the typically 2-point difficulty bands for 1D6 rolls to 3-point or 4-point bands (shifting "Moderate" downward in order to move toward a standard of 10 as the target number when attacking an average, unarmed human)

Here's the full table:

Here's a quick reference on how closely Ghostbusters and the WEG Star Wars RPG actually line up with target numbers in the d20 System (which would come along around the turn of the millennium and dominate roleplaying for years):

And finally, here are the tracks for FIE, I SAY! and Shadowdark, along with the table that I'm leaning toward as the eventual model for my ongoing Monstrous Matters campaign and its associated endeavors.  I like this scale quite a bit, and it's interesting to me that a dice-pool approach (FIE!) might match up so closely with both 1D20 (Shadowdark) and 2D6 resolution mechanics in terms of skill difficulties.

Thanks for checking these out, and please let me know if you have any thoughts on improving or adjusting these!