I was searching through the family bookcase looking for something interesting to blog about when I happened across a few RPG rulebooks/guidebooks. Now I am one of a good chunk of the population who are quite familiar with RPGs, but I never had the itch to play one. I prefer to use my imagination and writing skills for the general fiction world of the novella & novel, but I have mad respect for those who enjoy RPGs and the worlds they can create.
Anyways, I performed a bit of research on the three books that we possess, as well as a brief skim through, and I have to say that I am seriously impressed with the amount of effort from a collective to create these three books. Two of the three books are sadly out of print, as they were created by a close family member who no longer maintains that level of participation in the RPG community, although they have branched out in other ways {click here to see}.
The other role/guidebook was created by a company called West End Games, which surprisingly enough, is still in business under a different corporate umbrella. I won't bore you with the convoluted details, but please click on the link if your curiosity is piqued.
In general, I am astonished with the amount of work that went into creating these worlds (and their background, although it seems that the ones created and published by my close family member are heads above the corporate one), and so I will be explaining what each one is to the best of my ability.
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The first of the two books created by my cousin is called Twin Crowns and Other Lands.
Considering I'm a serious neophyte when it comes to RPGs, what impressed me the most while I was thumbing through the book, was the incredible amount of detail and back story that were created for this particular RPG. I always knew that worlds were created for fantasy novels/series, but I always assumed that they would be limited to what would be actually needed for the story (like mine is), but I guess with RPGs, it skips to a whole new level of thoroughness.
The second book that my cousin had created was a role-play for the Twin Crown world that was based on Live Action Role-playing, which was something that I had never heard of before. Think of it as dressing for a Ren fair and then playing a D & D adventure, or one of those dinner theater mysteries.* And yes, my cousin and her gaming friends are featured on this cover.
*okay that last one is pulled directly out of the definition from Google of Live Action Role Playing.
Again, just like the first, it's extremely dense-not so much concentrated on the extensive background dump, but more concentrated on the characters and their respective KSAs, as well as the assorted ephemera that makes a fantasy world function.
The third book seems to be the only part of an entire box that was left behind somewhere. Not knowing much about RPGs, I'm gathering there's other components that are needed in order to successfully play this particular adventure called Torg: The Possibility Wars.
If you check out the link for West End Games, it goes into greater detail about the origins of this game, and the company, which was found in the late 70's, and created a lot of well known RPGs for some very popular IPs such as Star Wars.
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My views on all three games are decidedly mixed. On one hand, they have really opened my eyes to the amount of worlds building that is required to have a successful RPG (or fantasy series, both written and celluloid), so having top notch writing skills is a major plus, with a solid imagination a good second (especially if you're creating your world from scratch and not using an established IP.
On the other hand, the amount of world building, along with the extensive KSAs involved with that particular world, is incredibly daunting and challenging to a neophyte such as myself, who has a very hard time putting that much effort to playing an RPG to begin with (which is why I never migrated beyond sports when it came to video games in my young adult years).
In spite of this kind of game not being my cup of tea by any stretch of the imagination, I do like learning about a facet of life that a lot of people enjoy participating in because it works both as a stress reducer and a way to build a skill set that you can successfully apply to the real world.
Gaming is a great way to improve your critical thinking and problem solving skills, no matter what type of game you enjoy playing. Try one today. Or as my cousin used to say on her podcast, "happy gaming everybody."
I DM the D&D game we play with some friends and it is a ton of work to create stories and adventures. Even with modules, the DM has to come up with a lot on his own.
ReplyDeleteCool two of those are homemade.
My cousin was a hardcore gamer of D&D back in the day (seen paintings that her and her gaming friends had commissioned for their chapters from one of their games) and still has a love for it to this day.
DeleteI was intrigued by RPGs, but flipping through one of them impressed me to no end. The writing was just out of this world and I will always have respect to those who can do RPGs.
I did some Old Nintendo rpgs like, Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Crystalis. I remembered Crystalis so well years later, that I helped my brother through it years later over the phone when he got stuck.
ReplyDeleteThe Mario/Yoshi's island magazines with cheat notes was great.
I always read manuals.
I haven't done any since my super NES was put in storage, though I did get a 2ES, but got stuck, then lost the charger.
I remember West End Games but can't think of which of their games I have. I did many notes and maps in notebooks while I played.
Yes, worlds invented are neat and extensive, and some music is great. My grandson composed and conducted a Final Fantasy theme song for a Senior project I posted on.
Neat that your cousin did books for his games! Bet they helped many players.
I wrote manuals for the thermal printer I had to do at my software job (so others could do it) before I left. Didn't have to, just for fun to not waste my knowledge.
No time for games lately, as I have 30 days to get my 1040 done.
Ev Johns/SnagglTooth
I was mostly interested in sports when it came to video games. I do remember my brother being heavily into The Legend of Zelda back in the day, but the last time I played any type of video was in the late 90's when I had a SEGA Genesis console. Fun times.
DeleteI was a fan of some of the traditional board games, but didn't have exposure to those types of RPG's that are all the rage today. Very cool to hear that your grandson composed a theme song for a Senior project. Sometimes you have to go above and beyond to make a project stand out.
From what I understand, the books were a group effort, as the only reason we have copies is my brother did some photo work for them for the books. She's still into gaming, but with a family, keeps her focus to non-RPGs of D&D variety.