One of the great things about getting together with friends for a game is the food and drink shared around the table. Anthropologists tell us that eating and drinking together is one of the very basic activities which have united groups of people for millennia, and is one of the most fundamental ways of expressing social inclusion we have. Well, one of the very earliest alcoholic beverages known to us is Mead and it is very easy to make yourself.

Continue reading Catering for Your Game: Brew your Own Mead

The spoils of last Nerd Day

Or, What We Do On Nerd Day.

After spending some time living and working in the US, I came back to Sydney accustomed to the resources available to Nerds even in a town like Atlanta. While I had spent many years in Sydney previously, I was still in for a bit of a surprise. The bottom had fallen out of the RPG market, and all my favourite stores had closed to be replaced by the Starbucks of gaming, Games Workshop. This meant that the only way I could get my Nerd on (wow… even I shuddered at that phrase…) was to visit the hub of Sydney, the ‘City’ as the locals call it.

This visit has become a bit of a school holiday tradition (I work as a teacher) and there are usually three to four of us who go. What follows is a guide to the day as we celebrate it, and I’m including some variations as well that we have enjoyed in the past.

Step 1: Breakfast

Incredibly important as you will be on your feet all day. We go to Jet Cafe in Town Hall  as it is very near the train station, has a wide selection for breakfast (ranging from $5-20 for meals) and is across the road to our first step on the journey. The coffee is usually excellent at Jet, budget to have a couple (but don’t be too surprised if the staff are a little gruff…).

Step 2: Galaxy Bookshop

This is a nerd’s paradise – a massive bookstore that has only three sections – Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror. That’s it. They import a lot of books as well, so if you MUST have the latest Terry Pratchett six months before it is released locally, this is your store. We allow for 30 minutes here…

Step 3: Napoleon’s Bookstore

Napoleon’s Bookstore used to be a separate trip on the tour, but has conveniently moved in with The Tin Soldier (see Step 4 below). This is purely a military and history bookstore. They have an excellent selection of resource materials for the historical tabletop battler’s out there, as well as an excellent range of documentary’s and other such things. This is also the only place I have seen where you can get WWII action figures (at least since Action Man started sucking…). They also sell a wide range of gaming systems for re-creationists and models for such. We usually stay about 15-20 minutes here…

Step 4: The Tin Soldier

This is pretty much the main event. Tin Soldier used to have lots of stores all around Sydney, but few of them have survived. The Sydney store however is excellent, and still has a thriving business. The front of the store is the traditional role-playing store. It has a wide selection of game systems, models, dice (I bought a HUGE d20 this year…) and the usual paints, brushes, paraphernalia.

Out the back of the store (almost as much room as the front) is the military section. Here you will find lots of painted armies for sale, military books, and resources and rule systems for military tabletop games and is now run by Napoleon’s Bookstore (see above).

The staff at The Tin Soldier are really friendly and helpful and seem genuinely interested in making sure that you leave the store with as much gaming gear as you can… We stay here as long as we like – usually about an hour.

Step 5: Vary the plot

In times past we have:

• gone to watch a nerdy movie at the George Street Cinemas (very close by)
• visited the Powerhouse Museum – a museum of technology currently hosting a Star Wars exhibit
• added Utopia Records to the list of stores to visit – specialist Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal, all things Metal store
• gone home and painted all the models we have bought…

Guide to Places Mentioned

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Jet Cafe

Queen Victoria Bldg
Level Ground, Shop 55, Druit St
Sydney NSW 2000
Phone: +61 2 9283 5004

Galaxy Bookshop

143 York Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Phone: +61 2 9267 7222

The Tin Soldier

40 York Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Phone: +61 2 9279 2668

Whether we talk of gaming, movies, or literature, a single important choice is the setting. By this I mean the time period, level of technology, and the like. In particular, the time period is a very strong influence on a game or story. However, whilst all time is equal, some periods are not as equal as others.

If we look at games and literature, we can see a definite trend to favouring certain time periods. These time periods are chosen because they make for interesting stories and games. But what are they? Lets start at the beginning:

Ancient Rome: A strong choice for several types of game and story. Prime games included Caesar and Age of Empires I. These particular games thrive in this time period because they show off the dramatic architecture and techology of the era. Book series, such as Falco, also thrive on this age of enlightenment.

Medieval: We take a big skip forwards. Why? Because the dark ages are boring. But a good medieval setting is fantastic. A true medieval setting has little or no gunpowder, which maintains the relative elegance of combat, which is important for many stories and games. Games such as Age of Empires II hit this age perfectly, and there are many others. Stories of King Arthur, and knights in general, fall into this category: it is immensely popular for storytelling. The combination of dramatic battles and the perpetual struggle of a chivalrous knight make this setting perfect for almost every kind of game or story. The first modern novel, Don Quixote, falls into this category.

Medieval Fantasy: A side branch of medieval, it is also very popular, both now and historically. Elves, Dwarves, and magic are added to an already strong setting. Gunpowder is still generally limited; if gunpowder is present, we tend to end up with medieval fantasy steampunk (let everyone remember: Warhammer has steam tanks). D&D, Lord of the Rings, Warcraft… there are too many to list. The exact flavour of fantasy varies, but it works well.

Fantasy + Sci Fi: I honestly didn’t want to mention this, but it exists. Early Ultima games, Might and Magic, the Shannara books… they’re all fantasy with random bits of sci fi mixed in. I think it’s silly, but hey. Now, lets move on as quickly as possible.

Age of Gunpowder: Specifically muskets and cannon. Strictly no rifles; why? Because rifles break the delicate balance of dramatic, heroic combat, which is important in many stories and games. An example of a classic tale of this era is The Three Musketeers. Any stories or games involving pirates fall smack bang in the middle of this age. Sid Meier’s Pirates! is a perfect example of a game using this time period.

Renaissance: (Post-Rifles) No. No no no. Combat is boring, because everyone has rifles which can kill too easily, and social interaction has moved on from stories of heroic chivalry to silly romantic squabbles. Oh, sure, there are a few decent stories, but mostly you get stuff like Pride and Prejudice. *sigh* Unfortunately there are a lot of novels of this age, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find many games.

Steampunk: Gunpowder or Renaissance with steam powered everything. Or, alternatively, simply with pre-electicity technology that is far too advanced. It’s not big by comparison to other areas, but it’s there. Frankenstein could be considererd steampunk, but considering it was written in this era it’s more a Modified Present Day (see below). Medieval fantasy settings that go one step too far can end up here: Warcraft II has submarines, for example, and don’t get me started on Eberron. Anything with pre-modern airships is pushing into this category.

WWI: I’m mentioning this because I’m not mentioning this. Almost nothing is set in WWI. WWI is dull, and was historically a stupid slugfest with a lot of people dying in not very nice ways. Not fun for anyone involved. You’ll occassionally get movies dealing with WWI, but overall they deal with how horrible it was. WWI is a terrible setting for a game or story.

1920s-1930s: Once we get past WWI, things start becoming interesting again. Many games and stories of this period are focussed on organised crime in the USA. Games such as Mafia use this perfectly. There are other stories as well: HP Lovecraft’s stories are this time period, although they also fit into Modified Present Day (see below), and you’ll find a huge variety of other types of stories in this period.

WWII: A perfect modern setting. Combat is interesting because people got good at it again. Drama is interesting because of the occupation of France and the fact it was a total war. The force of evil is perfect because Nazis are the perfect enemy: everyone says they’re evil, they fought with a good mix of fairness and sneakyness, and they’ve already been defeated; no one is going to complain if you’re fighting Nazis. There are too many war books and movies to list. Great games include Battlefield 1942 and the like, plus Commandos, several strategy games, and a few tabletop miniature games. Indiana Jones movies fit into this category because he’s fighting Nazis.

Current Day: I skip Vietnam and such because many such things count as Current Day, having been written then, and now there’s nothing you can do with Vietnam that you can’t do with the Current Day or WWII. Anyway, the Current Day is a great setting simply because people are familiar with it. Drama is more interesting if someone can relate with the people in the story. For games, the Current Day has good combat mainly because of small squad-based operations, like counter-terrorist operations. Overall, it’s a pretty decent option.

Modified Current Day: Command and Conquer, I’m looking at you. The whole series is a prime offender. In books and movies, any time the writer suddenly thinks the story would be better with robots, vampires, or lasers, you get Modified Current Day. As commented above, many stories written some time ago, such as Frankenstein, fit in this category.

Futuristic: Science fiction has long been popular. Star Wars is arguably the best in this category, because it also feels like it’s set in WWII, making it a blend of two excellent settings. The overall technological level of the setting varies, but there’s often spaceflight, or advanced AI at the very least. This setting is strong because of the perpetual human desire to expand and discover what is beyond our horizons. When you have a setting that is literally the size of the galaxy, or bigger, the limit really is the imagination. Perfect game examples are Halo and Freelancer, whilst literary examples include Asimov’s books, and there are many movies as well, such as The Matrix. There are also piles of TV series, such as Stargate.

There we have it. Overall, the most popular of the settings for games seem to be Medieval Fantasy, WWII, Modified Current Day, and Futuristic, with literature branching out more. These settings are deep enough and interesting enough to provided oodles of entertainment, and keep people coming back for more. Besides, as Pokemon has taught us: if something’s selling, keep producing more of the same. I predict we’ll keep seeing more of these settings for many years to come.

If you think there’s more to anything above, or think I’ve missed something, join the discussion by clicking on the Comments link below.

Apparently the hugely awesome masterpiece The Call of Cthulhu came into public domain in April 2008… How could I miss it! I’m three months late! Anyway, here is a link where you can download the title in various formats:

The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft

I. The Horror In Clay

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

Theosophists have guessed at the awesome grandeur of the cosmic cycle wherein our world and human race form transient incidents. They have hinted at strange survivals in terms which would freeze the blood if not masked by a bland optimism. But it is not from them that there came the single glimpse of forbidden eons which chills me when I think of it and maddens me when I dream of it. That glimpse, like all dread glimpses of truth, flashed out from an accidental piecing together of separated things – in this case an old newspaper item and the notes of a dead professor. I hope that no one else will accomplish this piecing out; certainly, if I live, I shall never knowingly supply a link in so hideous a chain. I think that the professor, too intented to keep silent regarding the part he knew, and that he would have destroyed his notes had not sudden death seized him.

- H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu 1928