Shadowdark is a game about fun and enjoyment. It's the BECMI or B/X of 5E, the 'basic set' that strips everything down to the core mechanics and rebuilds the 'old school' style of play. It's a minimalist, almost rules-light 5E game that leaves much room for expansion and promises endless hours of fun. Tens of thousands of players enjoy this game, which opens the door to 5E players wanting to experience it "how it used to be played."
It almost reminds me of the fantastic Index Card RPG, which has a chance of being added to this blog since it is also a tremendous old-school-inspired but new-school "experienced-focused" game. ICRPG works with any game as a plug-in, so it technically "is" a part of how I play and think about old-school gaming. Like Shadowdark, this is a minimalist, throwback, stripped-down, engineered for fun, and focused on the play experience.
Where Shadowdark is more traditionalist, ICRPG is more experiential, generic, and adaptive to any setting. Both have that "built to play a certain way" and "small book game" thing in common. The only thing ICRPG does not have in common is embracing "3d6 down the line" classic character generation, and it uses a unique action-based dice system for resolution.
Dungeon Crawl Classics is my other go-to for old-school and B/X gaming. This is a chart-heavy game, so the charts do the heavy lifting and create the "anything goes" old-school experience. The game is just fun, random, gonzo, silly, and crazy; anything goes and is built for amazing things to happen (positive or negative). This is another game that embraces the 3d6-down-the-line generation, and you take what you get, good or bad, and embrace the three dice.
That is one thing missing from many of today's games. People want perfect stats and characters. Many players are anxious when their ability score is less than 10, and any flaw or drawback in a character causes them undue stress. If I was a referee and had players with so-called "terrible" characters?
This opens the door!
Rewarding players for role-playing flaws and giving them extra XP? Done! Awarding ability score points for "amazing feats against all odds?" Done! Even changing the narrative due to a flaw and turning a negative thing into a positive? Done! Realizing that terrible luck may also turn into good luck if you are clever enough? Done! Changing a negative attribute or disadvantage into a positive due to the result of a quest or something that happens on an adventure? Done!
It works in the reverse, so those "Perfect Pete" and "Flawless Francine" characters can get flaws during their adventures if they are not careful or the dice come up wrong. Back when we played Tunnels and Trolls, ability scores were so fluid that, based on what happened, you could have three of four permanent positive or negative ability score changes per adventure.
There is no rule in Dungeon Crawl Classics that says ability scores, flaws, or anything else on a character sheet have to stay the same during or after an adventure. If a homely PER 4 Mutant Crawl Classics character wanders into the one-use "beautifier machine" and gets a PER of 16, so be it! They walk out like a Farah Fawcett or Rock Hudson mutant, stunning examples of beauty and charm. If a robot is firing a "weakness ray" that removes 2 points of STR, that is what happens. If a character finds an eat-once "power bar" that gives 3 points of STR later, who gets to eat it? The character who lost STR or the mutant fly PC, who would get a STR of 21?
Hard choices are fun. And be "fast and loose" with ability scores in 5E? Are you crazy? Do you want to destroy your game or lose your friends forever? The game is designed to carefully parse out ability score points, lest the entire system will crash. Taking things away from 5E players is not recommended at all; the system is about power, and it gives you a feeling you are entitled to everything in the book (unless you like fights and hurt feelings). Not all groups are like this, but you would be surprised by some of the groups I have played with.
3d6-down-the-line is terrific fun once you discard your preconceived notions and embrace the randomness and all the fantastic possibilities this system opens up.
No comments:
Post a Comment