The Second-coming of Snow: A Blog Resurrection, Part 2 - "Stop being Racist!"

I like to think of myself as a fairly social person, but nothing makes me feel more removed from the human race like when I try to explain to someone what I’m doing with my Thursday night. 


“I can’t meet up, sorry; I’m DM’ing a game tonight.”


*blank stare*


“I’m a dungeon master for a tabletop game.”


*confusion displayed in rapid blinking*


“Ok, hmm…you know 'Lord of the Rings’?"


“Like, with the elves and dwarves and the stuff? The hobbits?”


“Yep.”


“Oh…realllly?”


The conversation goes on from there to a familiar place most of you might have been. It is that exchange which got me thinking about my next topic: the races that define our world. Think about your favorite race in tabletop. What is it? Say it out loud…


You chose that over all. And if you muttered the words of a race outside of the core, you’re ballsy…or you know, just being you. You’re bound to get some stares, particularly from those eagerly ready to defend the Human race as perfection. 


In my most recent campaign, I introduced a new race called “The Goro”— a four-armed thuggish, mass of meat with servitude demeanors (and a direct homage to the Prince in Mortal Kombat). I needed to create a race that made up a reformed prison population, set forth into a city-kingdom to reshape their lives. Because of this specific purpose, I chose to go with something original/ made-up. My reservations were that existent races, as players might see it, pack too much history. Hmm, should I have defaulted to Orcs? Would it be expected? If I made them Gnomes, would it provide more shock value or evoke laughter? If I made them human, would I simply be stirring in the flavor story of the week into a big batch of vanilla? 


I would like to think that the blank slate of a race left open the door for what my players might think could happen with this race. Moreover, I love the idea that each of my players filled in what the Goro’s actually looked like for themselves. 


Using race with intentionality is a prospect I’m truly in support of. Yes, when I think about Dwarves and Elves, I feel a sense of nostalgia for a game I’m still participating in. They are hallmarks. They are older than I am in real life and have a legacy even outside the game. Take for example, the Ivy league colleges: Princeton, Harvard, Yale, etc. Did you know that when the Assistant and Associate Deans of the academic colleges get together, they actually refer to themselves as ‘The Gathering of the Dwarves and the Elves”? Seriously. When I was working at Princeton, I learned this and was simply giddy to know they used the jargon. Still, when I’m creating a story/ campaign, I feel ultimately stifled by the core line of races; and thus, I have a fond place in my heart for looking into unconventional races. 


There are people who actually get paid to invent races for the worlds we play in and create, and in honor of those lucky bastards with the best jobs on Earth, I decided to seek them out to share some of their race cases with my readers. I contacted the following game writers/ designers and asked them simply two questions: "What’s your favorite race that you’ve created?”, and “What’s you’re favorite race that someone else has created?"


James Wyatt, writer of Oriental Adventures, designer for Eberron Campaign Setting, and co-author of Book of Exalted Deeds, to name a few, had this to share with me:




"The vanara, from Oriental Adventures, are my favorite racial creation. I'm proud of the way I was able to integrate Indian and Southeast Asian history, folklore, and myth into that book, in addition to all the things from China and Japan that you'd expect to see.”

He continues, “It's hard to name a favorite [race created by someone else], but I have a soft spot for both changelings and warforged (both of which I *helped* create), because of my use of them in my Eberron novels. When it comes to making a character for a game, though, it's usually human, elf, or dwarf. Classics!”


I was certainly hoping one of the game designers would pick a race with an animalistic aesthetic. I feel like these are some of the most underutilized in the bunch. What are your thoughts on adventures of the monkey, toad, feline, and insect kind? No, I’m not talking about being in Wild Shape…


Ed Greenwood, the father of Forgotten Realms, may have not given me much in content; but he certainly surprised me. He couldn’t identify a favorite race of his own creation; though, his non-selfie selection is among one of the oldest races to exist and yet unknown to those unfamiliar with the Hollywood canon. 

"Beholders, I think...because there's still an aura of mystery about them, and the idea of so many supra-geniuses and what they might make of their lives intrigues me,”notes Greenwood.


Wow, an aberration race as a favorite! This side-line tackle makes me smile. A race more than ten years older than I am (I’m 27), having graced the pages of so much fantasy literature STILL intrigues a man that has long been cognitive of the game’s possibilities. 


Finally, Stephen Radney-Macfarland, a Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Designer at Paizo Publishing and co-developer of 4e  D&D, shared this with me:


"My favorite race that I have created? That's a hard one. I've done a number of them somewhat recently, including all the sample races for the Pathfinder RPG Advanced Race Guide race builder (and those entry's races in Pathfinder's Bestiary 4). Of those races I think my favorite is the wyrwood--a race of living constructs, which are a basically wizard's experiment gone rogue--Pinocchio without the heart. I will admit they can be a challenge to play, both on the player's and the GM's side, but they have great story potential.”


If you haven’t read the Pathfinder’s Bestiary 4, stop reading this and go check it out. No, wait, finish this; then go read it. The homage to horror icons is brilliant. The wormwood is another example of the unconventional as favorable. When I’ve heard players wanting to be constructs as player characters, I’ve always heard them talk about the build in a bulky way. Seldom have I ever considered a Small construct to be the go-to thought, let alone an option. Perhaps I’ll play this race in a game soon and write a review of what I thought.


He continues, "As for my favorite race I have not created, 

that race is actually not in a game supplement at all (or at least not that I know of) but I would love to stat them up. That would be Jeff Vandermeer's gray caps. Fungus creatures that inhabit--or more like haunt--his novels. I talked to Jeff about writing them up when I worked on D&D, and he liked the idea, but I never got around to it. There are some IP hoops to jump through. But that is not the only problem. To be honest the race is so strange, I feel like I would have to spend weeks brainstorming and asking Jeff stupid questions before I could even approach a first draft of these critters. They are extremely cool and creepy, and advise anyone who loves weird races to check out Jeff's work. All that said, they have appeared in a number of my home games.”


Boom! Stephen drives home the validity I needed in this interviewing adventure. Sometimes, races so intriguing just need the breath of game incorporation. 
I’m going to drop the mic there and simply ask, what’s your go to race? Classic or avant garde? How would you/ have you incorporated them on the table?

The Second-coming of Snow: A Blog Resurrection, Part 1 (The Story of a Deeply Complex Departure)

Last year, I launched my first campaign and became self-inaugrated into the amalgam of amateur dungeon masters. "Hi, my name is Snow. I am a Dungeon Master. I do dungeon mastering.” I could go into what that all meant, with anyone who cared to ask; and my-my, what an earful they might get about what I think I do -- creation, manage, co-exist, structure; oh, and have fun with friends around collections of food/ leftovers. Yet, I decided to do something I’ve longed to do for some years: start a blog. I transferred the energy I had with running a campaign into a complimentary project. So, with that said, would anyone like to guess where my blog went once the campaign started to fizzle? 


The correlation, whether I realized it during the writing freeze or afterward, is a stark one. I didn’t, by the game’s end, feel like an accomplished DM. My flow of topics for the blog, my willingness to write, vanished. Recently, I’ve been granted True Seeing, and I’ve noticed some hidden pathways in my adventure as a blogger. I start this two-part resurrection with an epiphany. If no one else reads, if no one else plays, you’re still a blogger, and you’re still a dungeon master.


Now, I know what some of your are thinking: Umm, without a group, no, you’re actually not a dungeon master. At to that argument, I offer this refutation and a modification to an old movie saying. "If you build it", you are an architect; regardless if "they will come". Towards the end of my final campaign days, I solicited feedback from my players about what they thought about me as a DM, what they thought about the game, and asked them to share some advice for me going forward. Some replied. Some flat-out ignored it. While I would be lying if I said this didn’t shut me down, I would also be remised if I didn’t acknowledge that the silence left room for some much needed introspection. To get my act together as a DM, I needed to have one night of simply doing what I felt was natural. Rather than end the campaign I had been running for 5 months, I created a one shot for the group; but set it up as if the game could continue. In just that game, I validated for myself two points which I knew were true all along: failure with a group happens, and trying too hard as a DM is a fallacy. 


I’ll relate this to my profession. In a teachers’ meeting, a faculty member talks about how students just aren’t engaged with learning, how they have an unhealthy relationship with the education. Straight up, they’re lazy. We’ve been saying this for decades, and we find news ways to say it, new scapegoats to point fingers at; and yet, we never own up to the reality that we may just not be effective at what we do. In the future, I hope I am not a DM who claims to know what I’m doing based on the fact that I’ve been doing it for years. I’ve read so many posts online from DM’s who refuse to shake up their system or cater to their audience. To each their own. May I never abide by the rules of ritual. 


To end this rant, I leave this advice for DM’s, especially new DM’s out there: Try less, Fail to allow failure to continue, and Shake it up. Yay, now I have officially completed my prestige class as Motivational Hippie.

Your party doesn't need a Tank; it needs a chef !

I have never outright awarded any player of mine for food they've brought to game, nor do I think I would; still, I consider offerings to the feast of the DM as almost sacred. If for nothing else, it pays tribute. This Deity of the Dice has been spoiled, and I could not be more pleased.

Let's be clear -- this has largely been true, as far as I can attest from other DMs' confessions: a happy DM keeps his party happy in return. Food just happens to be the schema commonly framing that cycle.

All jokes set aside, I am no "Bacchus of the Orc Throne", but my games are constructed around a great deal of work and effort to keep my players entertained, engaged, and content with setting some time aside for tabletop every week. So yes, I appreciate some gratitude. Gratitude is Chicken Soup for DM Soul (remember that series?).

Pirate Treasure Map themed cupcakes!

Details matter -- the pirate gummy bleed out

I have a particular player who could have been born in the kitchen, next to the warm and fuzziness of an oven's heat, wafting apple pie scents on a cozy Autumn afternoon. Yeah, she's that good. She, famously, goes to great lengths to create and satisfy her friends' bellies; but for her DM's, well, she is probably her adventurer party's greatest ally. 

On the launch night of my new campaign, to which my players had a great deal of story exposition prior to playing, she brought in a tray of cupcakes that completely represented the world the players were in. Oceans, floating kingdoms, rare and magical stones...and all this presentation with an equally impressive taste. In another game DM's pirate game, this same player brought cupcakes that resembled a full treasure map, including swashbuckling gummy bears and Swedish fish infested oceans.

Come on, what DM wouldn't feel completely honored? 

What foodies have been a part of your games? Is there bribery afoot?

I wonder if I should start being bribed? Hmm...

Paper or Plastic: Are tabletop tokens facing a paradigm shift?

So, you're a player, and your character is on the map, charging in for an attack on the boss of the night: what are you pushing/ carrying along the squares? Is it the fine craft of a classic miniature? If so, did you paint it yourself? How much did you pay for it? Have you used it to shape your character, or is it the other way around? Do you even care?

One of my players brought this topic to my attention for the blog, and I've been M.I.A. ever since. I've thought about it, from a player perspective, but more importantly, for the sake of this blog, from a DM perspective.

Let me set the mood: You are a new player being brought into a group. You enter the room, where game is already underway. The table is set: map, characters, monsters, and in full-swing. The table is mounted with all types of miniatures, some medium, few huge, and one colossal.

Now, Replace the image with card board cut-outs, those similar to what you see in classic boardgames, such as Clue. Does this change anything inside of you? Are you less enthused, less impressed, more intrigued, or merely indifferent?

Here are the contenders: miniatures vs. pawns (and every other substitute).

Miniatures, the reigning champion:

Career: Miniatures, what I am calling the fan-favorite, are timeless; that is, they are routed in history and tradition. There is an undeniable nostalgia experienced players have with miniatures, and an aesthetic magnetism attractive to new players who lay eyes on them. Representation wise, miniatures are almost synonymous, both in language and in body with the game of tabletop, itself.

Stance and Style: 3-D models set a tone. I don't care how good your image on paper is, your tower of cardboard is less foreboding than a mountain of plastic. In my experience, there is an "oh s***" moment when your players realize you are carrying over something to the table that requires you to lift with your knees. Exaggeration? A little bit, but you get the idea. Ask those who favor dragons. They're more likely to connect with the "fun" of plopping a breath-weapon miniature onto a map. 

Miniatures, for the most part, hold up. They literally stand, and in some cases, can take a beating before they start to function less reliably. Nit-picking, I know; but for some people, this matters.

Miniatures don't have to be the same. Model-wise, you may own the same mini four times, but a good paint-job not only personalizes your miniature, but it can also show your talent and dedication for the game to other players.

The Right Hook: Merchandise and collection are a huge, immortal component of tabletop as a recreation. Companies thrive from selling them; and players, like with any hobby, have proven that rarities, brand loyalty, and product appreciation is still important to them -- and so, they keep shelling out the clams. And let's face it, when a player-collector shows off their booty, you can help but stare and hope to fondle with care. Sharing moment: While I am proud of my dice collection, I only own six miniatures; and well, that makes me sad inside.

Achilles' heel: Price. Miniatures, to those with cobwebs in the pocket, or simply life-expenses that take precedence, are an unattainable luxury. You can get one here and there, maybe even assemble a small faction through gifts over some time; but, especially as a DM, when that sorcerer mini has been your last 2 NPCs, your enemy from three weeks ago, and the character your new player chooses to play their arcane caster, it can get kind of annoying. 

Pawns, the formidable contender:

Career: The new kid on the block is simply this -- a pawn star. Still, I am cautious to call these contenders new. Perhaps in the lifetime of tabletop, new is appropriate; but pawns have some years of presence under their belt. The "Quiet Revolution" of tabletop, as quoted by a blogger over at The Rot Grub called pawns' introduction back in 2011, started probably most notably in D&D's 2010 Monster Vault release with circular, lay-flat punch-outs, and soon after with Paizo's 2011 Beginner Box (including 80 stand-up, cardboard pawns). When the major game companies offer pawns as the entry experience to their game, they are making a statement about the place of pawns in the industry.

Stance and Style: Pawns are simply a "get what you pay for" product. Like the difference between your crappy printer at home and your best print-joint (FedEx Kinkos, and what not) down the road, at the table, a picture is a picture. You may enjoy the classic monster designs of the companies that publish them, and thus either pirate their design from the internet, or buy direct. You may enjoy, instead, to find appropriate fan-art to the characters of your game and apply them to your own crafted pawns. You may, as I once saw a DM do for 10 of his players in the same pirate world, create pencil drawings on tri-fold cardboard to fit the caricatures of his party; that is, custom design to your own artistic fabrication. Either way, pawns lend themselves well to an open canvas -- the image you want on the table is the one you're going to get.

The Right Hook: Affordability. Whether you're buying a set of 30 punch-out pieces for the cost of one standard miniature off Amazon (free shipping), or printing them out yourself, the bottom-line is you are certainly having more to bring to the table for less financial output. 

Achilles' heel: Impact, and perhaps this is subjective. Beyond the thrill of punching out fresh pieces, these tokens lose their marvel quickly. When you're catching the thin-side of your pawn, you're losing the presence of it adding to or impacting the environment. Imagination and being fully-engulfed in story/ mechanics/ the camaraderie of the game/ etc. may remedy this; but in comparison to its opponent, there's just less pizazz.

So...Who wins this fight in your opinion? Who are you placing your bets on for the future favorite in the game?