Editorial

Holy Wars

The AEG offices have a double– and triple–redundancy feature when it comes to names. Of the nine people who make up the company, we have two Daves, two Matts, and three Johns. Two of the three Johns qualify as extremes along a continuum that some of you may have noticed in the RPG hobby over the last few years: one of them is an Old Guard RPGer, while the other is a New Wave RPGer. Both of them have done countless hours of GMing, each in his own style. Let me give you some examples.

John, the Old Guard gamer, feels that dice are an integral part of the game, and breaks out in hives at the word "diceless." John, the New Wave gamer, considers diceless roleplaying to be the apotheosis of the form, and would rather drop a wolverine into his shorts than let a collection of regular solids overrule his authority.

The New Wave John feels that roleplaying is a lost–and–rediscovered art form, potentially as important and moving as the stage, music, or writing. The Old Guard John feels that a well–played RPG is a satisfying gaming experience, and that's as far as it goes — is there any pizza left, and are the Phillies still playing?

The New Wave John thinks that the GM should be the final arbiter of events in the gaming world. The Old Guard John does too, but he'll roll dice behind a screen and then rule against you.

The New Wave John is convinced that he would be able to convert the Old Guard John to the One True Way if he could just get him into a game. The Old Guard John somehow never quite has free time to game when the New Wave John is running things; he always responds to the invitations with a look like the one an orthodox grandfather gives his mohawked grandkid.

The Old Guard John can run an AD&D melee with seventeen orcs versus a party of eight adventurers and keep everything running smoothly, not ignore anyone, and do so in a way that the survivors have a neat story to tell their gaming buddies. The New Wave John can run a one-on-one saber duel between a PC and an NPC in such a way that the combatants exchange not only blows, but also observations on each other's breeding, training, and romantic proclivities, and the survivor will have a neat story to tell his gaming buddies.

The New Wave John thinks live-action roleplaying is keen, and dresses up for it. He seems to end up in LARP scenarios in which there's a lot of politics, e.g. Vampire and Castle Falkenstein. The Old Guard John can't imagine doing LARP, but is somewhat intrigued by the IFGS because you get to whack people with big foam swords (see pp. 92–95).

The Old Guard John loves plot. The New Wave John loves atmosphere.

The New Wave John occasionally threatens to run a diceless AD&D game. The Old Guard John is still waiting for a version of Amber with dice in it.

Now, I have a checkered RPG history myself. When I first got into roleplaying, lo these many years ago, I started with D&D and moved on to AD&D. When I returned to the fold a few years ago, I ended up in a Mage campaign. As a player, I've had a good time under both approaches. From a player's–eye view, either system is just fine, thanks.

(Not that this equivocal position is going to stop them, or any gamer, from passionately defending their positions. Furthermore, their positions are the only correct positions, and everybody who disagrees is wrong. Sound like your RPG group yet? After all, we're all gamers here, and we love to argue almost as much as we love to roleplay.)

At any rate, I'm almost out of space here. Pity… I was going to enlighten both of them with the revealed wisdom of the ancients — right, the way I GM. Maybe next time.

— D. J. Trindle

NOTE:

Jason Holmgren, the author of Joe Genero and Fineous Fingers, has left SHADIS for greener pastures. We wish him luck, and I look forward to seeing Joe and Fin wherever they find a home.