The World Format

Since I have been discussing the 'open world' nature of Chaosium's Questworld, I thought I might also share some world building advice from World Action & Adventure.  As I previously explained, author Gregory L. Kinney intended WA&A to be a “realistic role playing game” in that it would be used to play out situations that are possible in the real world.  However, Kinney did allow for “non-historic scenarios” wherein players could “experience fictitious novel-like or movie-like characters and situations.”

Chapter 10 of the Official Guide addresses world design.  Kinney describes five “world plans.”

PLAN 1.  Earth, with its actual history.
PLAN 2.  Earth, with variations in history and structure.
PLAN 3.  A world, required to have many similarities with Earth.
PLAN 4.  A world like Earth, without specific environments.
PLAN 5.  A completely original world.

With plan 1, actors and Action Guides can just use maps of the real world since there are no differences.  For other plans, Kinney suggests using the world format (shown above) to depict the setting world.  Actually, plan 5 does not require use of the world format:

The world can be any size and can even be a fantasy world.  As an option, the Action Guide does not even have to require any physical laws.  The Action Guide can make up a very unusual world, and even have monsters in it.

Kinney lists the steps in using the world format.  Note that – as an option – the world can be named “Earth” or something else.  In this, Kinney's design philosophy is in agreement with my own.

In the three decades since World Action & Adventure was published, tools (such as donjon) have been developed to facilitate some of the first steps.  Yet human imagination is still required to make the world believable and interesting.  Here is a list of 'world features' that Kinney recommends be represented on the world format.

Step 8 requires the Action Guide to complete the “Country Chart” (shown below).  Here is where my design philosophy diverges from Kinney's.  In my estimation, a “Country Chart” should be a list of performers such as Taylor Swift and Garth Brooks.  What Kinney calls the “Country Chart,” I would name the “Nation Matrix.”  Nations are listed along with their type of government and the race and religion of their populace.  Between any two countries nations there is a “condition.”  The spectrum of conditions is thus:  Allied, Friendly, Neutral, Unfriendly, Enemy, and War.  Kinney helpfully informs us, “War ends when there is a peace treaty, agreement, capture, and/or surrender.”

Acting Conditions

In the World Action and Adventure role-playing game, the type of character that an actor (i.e., player) chooses to play determines the actor's 'acting condition' (explained below).  SHIELD traits were discussed last week. Have a safe and happy Halloween.

 

Scores and Ranks

Every so often, your humble host likes to share information from the pages of the World Action and Adventure role-playing game, such as a description of the various Action Guide styles.  Author Gregory L. Kinney's concept of 'Acting Conditions' would be a good topic for a post; however, before taking up that subject, one should be familiar with the notion of the SHIELD traits.

SHIELD is an acronym for the six WA&A primary characteristics – called traits.  These are:  Strength, Health, Intelligence, Endurance, Looks, and Dexterity.  Other than the distinction between Health and Endurance, the traits are self-explanatory.  Health measures a character's resistance to illness.  Endurance, on the other hand, represents several abilities:  patience, movement rate, sanity, resisting physiological and psychological discomforts, need for sleep, and the length of time a character can hold his or her breath.  A character's 'Life Points,' incidentally, are calculated by finding the average of Strength, Health, and Endurance.

Scores for a character's traits are determined by rolling a d20 eight times; any result of 3 or less is considered to be a result of 12.  The two lowest results are discarded and the remaining six are assigned to the traits in the order rolled.  Kinney perceptively notes that “the scale is from 4 to 20.”  However, female characters have their Strength score modified by -2 and their Looks by +2.  Although not explicit, it seems that Strength cannot be lowered to less than four nor Looks increased to greater than twenty.

Scores can be increased with experience, but otherwise remain fixed.  In any event, scores do not measure actual ability, they represent potential ability.  Actual ability is measured by ranks.  Each trait has a 'rank table' where scores for that trait are indexed against a span of age periods.  A character's rank in a trait is based upon her score for that trait along with her age in years.  Ranks range from 2 to 14.

Let's say a character in Age Period 6 has an Endurance score of 15.  According to the table on page 50 of the Official Guide, that character's Endurance rank would be 11.  Such a character could run at 10.5 miles per hour for a maximum of 20 miles.  That character could hold his or her breath for one-and-a-half minutes and is a “short sleeper” for purposes of the Sleep Table in Chapter 9.  Additionally, the character can temporarily endure an “excessive discomfort” for thirty minutes.  Examples of excessive discomforts include “[b]reaking a bone or losing part of the body” and “[b]eing teased and mocked by a group of people.”

“Check-Ups” are an interesting notion, albeit admittedly time consuming in execution.  There are Health check-ups and Intelligence check-ups.

For every year of life, a character undergoes a number of Health check-ups based upon his or her Health rank.  A rank of 2 must undergo 13 check-ups per year while a rank of 14 undergoes only one check-up.  A Health check-up usually means the character suffers some kind of temporary, minor illness such as “slight mental depression” or “diarrhea/ constipation.”  However, it's possible that a check-up may result in a 5% chance of heart attack or a 5% chance of disease.  (A disease list is provided in Chapter 9.)

Unlike Health check-ups, Intelligence check-ups are beneficial.  The number of check-ups to which a character is entitled per age period is based on Intelligence rank.  A rank of 4 provides one check-up per age period while characters with a rank less than four do not receive Intelligence check-ups.  Characters with an Intelligence rank of 14 get five check-ups per age period.  For each Intelligence check-up:  there is a 10% chance of learning 'instrument' (musical instrument?), a 10% chance of learning a language, a 10% chance of rolling twice on the check-up table, a 10% chance each of rolling on three other tables, and a 40% chance of learning nothing.  The three other tables are:  'craft/hobbies,' 'subject,' and 'information about.'  On the 'crafts/hobbies' table are such things as “metal,” “juggling,” and “stunts.”  'Subject' includes things like “reading,” “science,” and “law.”  Finally, the 'information about' table has selections such as:  “A map,” “Something top secret,” and “An important prisoner.”

On page 47, Kinney supplies these helpful observations about intelligence:

The power of intelligence comes from one's mind...A character with weak intelligence is sometimes considered a dunce or knucklehead by others.  Often, he is given less respect than the average person gets.  However, a character with high strength, or high looks score often makes up for the disadvantage of a low intelligence.

What is your Action Guide Style?

In Gregory L. Kinney's World Action and Adventure role playing game, 'Action Guide' is the equivalent of Game Master.  In the Official Guide, Kinney discusses the various Action Guide 'styles' or archetypes.  They include The Technician, The Executive, The Director, The Delegator, The Developer, and The Dictator.  Now – if it were me – I would have used 'The Decider' instead of The Executive and 'The Designer' instead of The Technician because alliteration makes everything better.  Also, I probably would have used 'The Definer' instead of The Dictator because it sounds nicer.  Rather than re-word Kinney's descriptions, I present his own words.

Ghost Towns & Pyramids

Photographer:  Francis Firth (1857; Public Domain)

Nearly a year ago your humble host stated that he would “more thoroughly” examine Gregory L. Kinney's World Action & Adventure role-playing game.  WA&A doesn't warrant the level of analysis that this blog has afforded more interesting games, yet there are a few aspects upon which your humble host shall deign to reflect.  The aspect reserved for today's post is what Kinney refers to as “Explorer's Findings,” discussed in Chapter Eight (titled 'Random Encounters') of the Official Guide.  On page 110, Kinney explains:

Findings of this sort often promote great action and adventure.  An explorer's finding is often hidden from civilization and difficult to find.  Once found, trespass, danger, and treasure are often the active ingredients.

Kinney then provides various tables, some of which your humble host renders for the edification of his cherished readers.  Some scans from the Official Guide are provided; however, some of the tables displayed in this post have been reformatted, altered for esthetic purposes and – when necessary – corrected.  The tables with alternating shaded rows are distinct from Kinney's copyrighted material.

The first table shows the type and frequency of nine types of 'findings' for six 'specific terrains.'

The next table shows “if an explorer's finding can exist in a particular region.  If the result from table 1 does not agree with table 2, then roll again on table 1.”

Basically, the purpose of this second table can be summed up with the following admonitions:  Coniferous and deciduous forests can't have pyramids. Tropical Forests, savannas, and deserts can't have dungeons. Tropical Forests also can't have ghost towns.  The third table shows the possibilities for various “features.”

'Creatures,' 'guards,' and 'treasure' are self-explanatory.  However, if a lost mine has guards, is it really lost?  What about ghost towns with guards?  Anyway, 'peril' refers to the structural integrity of the 'finding,' with six possibilities:  (1) weak floor, (2) weak walls, (3) weak supports/pillars, (4) cliffs or pits, (5) narrow/weak bridge, and (6) entire structure might collapse.

Kinney has this to say about 'riddles' on page 118 of the Official Guide:

Riddles bring about mysterious action.  When a riddle is encountered, the Action Guide makes up a riddle on the spot, unless he has already made some.  The riddle can be a rhyme, pun, play with words, or mixed up statements.  As long as the Action Guide can come up with a clue or hint for the actors' characters, that is all that is required.

Kinney's riddle determination tables:

Kinney's trap tables:

Details for three sizes of lost mines:

Details for three sizes of pyramids:

Details for three sizes of ghost towns:

With regard to 'Points of Interest,' Kinney lists eight varieties:  (1) bridge, (2) church, (3) gallows, (4) mill, (5) mine, (6) river, (7), tower, and (8) well.

World Action & Adventure

It seems that OSR bloggers like to post about their 'Christmas swag' so why should your humble host be any different? Via the wonders of Alibris, I acquired the World Action & Adventure trilogy by Gregory L. Kinney. Yes, THAT is how much of a geek I am. I've been (moderately) intrigued by this game since seeing the above ad in Dragon #106. Back in 1985, the time of its publication, neither my interest nor my disposable income were sufficient to actually purchase the game. A quarter of a century later, my disposable income has increased somewhat and I can buy the books for less than cover price.

Kinney touts WA&A as “The Universal System for Realistic Role-Playing.” Although the concept of a universal system wasn't novel in 1985, the execution of such was still in its infancy; GURPS was yet to be published. Kinney's notion of 'universal' does not conform to what is usually meant as 'universal' in a role-playing sense; that's because WA&A is realistic. Yes, your humble host has excoriated 'realism' in RPGs, but only when 'realism' is forced upon the fantasy milieu. WA&A is universal only to the extent Kinney intends for it to simulate any historical or current setting in the real world. Extremely little provision is given for situations that could not reasonably be encountered in everyday existence.

So, WA&A is realistic in that it is supposed to represent the real world. It also contains a boatload of 'real world' information. However, the realism of the rules system is debatable; in addition to absorbing some degree of damage, armor makes a character more difficult to hit. Doubtless, Kinney's notion of RPG realism is heavily influenced by D&D; he even lists the Gygaxian array of pole arms. Kinney does go into detail but he manages to avoid the sort of convoluted mathematics that afflicts some systems. We will examine WA&A more thoroughly in later posts. For now, let me say that I am not disappointed in my purchase. The Animal Combat Table includes a line for “Spit (Camel).” How awesome is that? The SRD camel description doesn't mention spit at all. WA&A can sit back with a smirk on its face and say, “Camel spit? We got that covered.”

WA&A is not a great RPG, but it is playable. The production quality is less than perfect, but it puts The Realms of Atlantasia to shame (although that's not saying much). It seems that Kinney received fifteen units of college credit for his WA&A books. Any geek can write a role-playing game, but how many can get an institute of higher learning to give them credit for it?

One wonders whatever became of Kinney. The only definite reference I found is this. Alas, his attempts at being a screenwriter did not meet with success if his lack of an IMDB listing is any indicator. (I mean, even Alexis has an IMDB listing.) This is not surprising given his script ideas. A more cruel blogger would ridicule some of these ideas, but I just don't have the heart.