Is The Realms of Atlantasia a Fantasy Heartbreaker?

Ron Edwards introduced the term 'fantasy heartbreaker' here and further elaborated upon it here. (tl;dr? A brief definition can be found here.) Does The Realms of Atlantasia qualify? John Holland's masterpiece may well be the epitome of fantasy heartbreakers. However, the reason such games are 'heartbreakers' is because they tend to...

...have one great idea buried in them somewhere.... That's why they break my heart, because the nuggets are so buried and bemired within all the painful material...

Is there a great idea buried in TRoA? Your humble yet intrepid host will attempt to uncover this hypothetical kernel of creativity and report his progress to his cherished audience.

In order to grasp the mechanics of TRoA, I shall try to generate a character. Please, do not try this at home. Thoul's Paradise represents a controlled environment and your humble host is fully cognizant of the risks involved.

Evidently, the first step in creating a TRoA character is to select a race. There are four player character races in Atlantasia: humans, gnomes, dwarves, and various flavors of elves.* Apparently, the Atlantasian gnome is intended to be “cute.” From page 8:

Gnomes do not actually take things from people they pass, things magically transfer into a gnome's pouch...and for this reason, other races perceive gnomes as outright thieves. If someone catches a gnome with something that is theirs, they will immediately give it back with a "Don't know how that gots there but must be yers cause ya can describe it."

I have an intense dislike for Atlantasian gnomes. Humans are the only player character race that does not tolerate gnomes; therefore, my character shall be human. Let's call him Johann Nederland.

Of course, I want to gain an understanding of Atlantasian magic, so Johann will be a spellcaster; specifically, a Mage. The only class with which Mages may “double-class” is Spy. A Spy Mage sounds pretty cool; I'm going to go for it.

Next, we determine the attribute values. Page 11 states, “Your attributes are listed as 2 attributes per main (shown as an outer and an inner)...” I think this means there are six pairs of attributes; each pair consisting of “an outer and an inner” seemingly related to one another. The attributes are as follows (inner attributes are in parentheses):

Strength (constitution)

Intelligence (mental quickness)

Wisdom (mental retention)

Dexterity (agility)

Charisma (magnetism)

Psychic Strength (psychic defense)

For each outer attribute, 3d10 are rolled and the highest result becomes the value for that attribute. For each inner attribute, 2d10 are rolled and the higher result becomes the value for that attribute. Wait a minute. If the attributes in a pair are not related, why pair them together? If they are related, why doesn't the outer affect the inner or vice versa? As it is, the attributes in a pair can have values at opposite extremes. (What I would have done is, for inner attributes, take half of the paired outer attribute, round down, and add 1d6. Whatever.) There are no racial adjustments for humans, but each career provides adjustments. Since Johann is 'double-classed,' he gets the adjustments for both careers. So, including adjustments, here is how Johann looks:

Strength 5 (constitution 2)

Intelligence 10 (mental quickness 5)

Wisdom 8 (mental retention 11)

Dexterity 9 (agility 5)

Charisma 4 (magnetism 4)

Psychic Strength 12 (psychic defense 10)

Based on these results, Johann has +2 languages, +10% to diplomatic rolls, +2 to spell rolls, +25% to reaction rolls, x4 spell damage, and +25% to spell save rolls. Yeah, that's right, quadruple spell damage.

The Social Status Chart on page 16 requires a d% roll. For Johann, we roll a 19. This means he is “low class.”

Next, a character's day of birth is determined. In Atlantasia, days are called cycles; Holland confirmed this back when the Atlantasia site displayed comments. Anyway, there are 360 cycles in a rebirth (i.e., year). A rebirth has five seasons; one season for each of the classic elements (air, fire, water, and earth), having 80 cycles each, and a season of chaos, having 40 cycles. How or if these seasons compare to Earth seasons is unknown. Magic seems to ebb and flow with the seasons. Magic is weak at the beginning of a season, then it becomes powerful and intense with an apex mid-season and thereafter subsides, becoming weak by the end of the season. The season of chaos is a special case; magical mishaps are prone to happen. There is almost no chance of mishap at either end of the season but a certainty of mishap mid-season. (The season of chaos exists because that's when the Chaos Dragons engage in their mating ritual...) Anyway, Johann was born on the 22nd day of the fire season.

So far, this hasn't been too bad, but when we continue, I'm afraid it's going to get ugly.

*  Perhaps the most well known fact about TRoA is that there are no half-elves. However, the possibilities of half-dwarves and half-gnomes are not addressed. The foul shadow of Tolkienian racism extends quite far; very few games consider the potential of non-elf 'demi-human' crossbreeds. To my knowledge, only High Adventure Role Playing from Iron Crown Enterprises provides for such pairings.

Rationalizing Anachronisms

More Metamorphosis Alpha Analysis  

  

As we progress into the new year, let us consider the inscrutability of the future as well as how much our world has changed since the mid-70s, when Ward imagined the time of Metamorphosis Alpha. Given the state of our technology now, there are a few aspects of the Warden that seem peculiarly primitive. Of course, we can hardly fault Ward for envisioning the future with imperfect accuracy; even if he possessed the mental mutation of precognition, he would only be able to see three minutes into the future.* Most of these 'anachronisms' can be 'corrected' because they have little or no impact upon the setting. For instance, “Operation tapes” for robots – a referee can disregard this notion and assume a 'modern' control technology for robots. However, not all anachronisms can be dismissed so easily; for such anachronisms, I like to rationalize why they exist given technology we have in the 21st century.

The 'Means of Exchange' section on page 24 references “domars” as monetary units.** Physically, a domar is “a small, lightweight plastic type of coin that was [reasonably] indestructible.” (Why not make them out of duralloy?) Gamma World provides additional information, stating that domars are “inlayed [sic] with colors and symbols denoting various denominations.” In a multi-generation starship, would they really serve a purpose? With regard to the Warden, the rules state...

...[T]here was no need for “money” as such, so the domar was not widely used except for gambling and other such diversions.

So, rather than as currency, domars were used as glorified poker chips? Actually, poker chips have value because they represent money. Gambling is exciting because something of value is at stake. If there is no resource that imbues domars with value, their effectiveness for gambling purposes is rather limited. They fail as a means of exchange because there is nothing to exchange. A 'token economy' on the pre-disaster Warden might make sense; domars could be used to acquire privileges and items of limited distribution. If only from a sociological perspective, circulation of domars could be worthwhile. Regardless, I think that monetary transactions for whatever purpose – including recreational – could be handled on board the Warden by the equivalent of an ATM network and cards; physical coins would not be necessary.

Physical domar coins would have no purpose on route to the colonization planet, but would be useful as currency on the frontiers of the planet until ATM networks are established. Domar coins can be rationalized as establishing an economy necessary for the colonial stage of the Warden's mission.

Ward states on page 6, “The office section of the city contains the microfilmed and paper records necessary to operate the giant ship and keep track of all its equipment and people.” I think we can safely assume that microfilm will not have any practical application in the 23rd century. It is possible that the Warden bureaucracy could be paperless – certainly the records can be electronic – but let's assume there will always be need for some amount of paper. Over several generations of more than a million people, a substantial volume of paper will be consumed. Even with efficient recycling processes, it will be necessary to create 'new' paper. Fortunately, the Warden has several forests. With scientifically precise “managed sustainability,” the Warden can easily accommodate its paper needs. Also, making paper gives the colonists something else to do.

The 'Languages' section on page 24 mentions that the main ship's computer “continually updates its robots” on the common language.*** However, “robots deactivated prior to the...disaster...will [upon reactivation] immediately go to the nearest computer tie-in for instructions...” Wireless technology precludes the necessity for physical “tie-ins” and we know that radio signals can permeate the ship. However, if a robot has been off-line for decades or more, perhaps wireless re-calibration would be necessary via a physical connection.

*  Regarding the precognition mutation described on page 16, Ward states, “It is perfectly all right for the mutant to change the course of history by acting on this information…” Precognition “requires intense concentration,” so it's not a passive ability. In Metamorphosis Alpha, there are no other restrictions but Gamma World recommends limiting the number of times per day (d4 or d6) that precognition can be employed. Also in Gamma World, the mutant suffers damage when it foresees damage to itself. If the mutant foresees its own death, it automatically loses consciousness for 3-18 minutes. Assuming that the mutant cannot change the course of history while unconscious, this would seem to guarantee the mutant's demise. So how often can the mutant change the course of history with one precognitive episode? A great many choices can be made within a span of three minutes. For a simplistic example, let us assume the precognitive mutant comes across a wall panel with five buttons. Three minutes would allow each button to be pressed individually as well as many combinations of buttons to be pressed. Although not expressly stated, Ward may have intended only one 'probability path' to be followed per precognitive episode.

**  Curiously, a Russian website named 'domar' refers a significant number of visits to this blog.

***  Would different levels of the ship have different dialects?

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.

Happy Holidays!

Your humble host's seasonal gift to you devoted readers is a custom level of the Warden for your Metamorphosis Alpha edification. This level features full scale replicas of 'wonders of the world' and other structures of historical and cultural import. As long as there's the space to do it, why not have recreations of these structures so that the colonists can have a better appreciation of their human heritage? This is the layout before the disaster; feel free to add radiation zones and whatever details you see fit. You can have type-4 humanoids inhabiting Petra and Angkor Wat infested by sword bushes!

The approximate scale of each hex is: 3 miles (4.83 km) from side to opposite side or 3.464 miles (5.577 km) from corner to opposite corner. Depending on which level this represents, the scale will vary slightly, but unless the characters have surveyor's tools (and know how to use them) they're not going to notice the meager difference. Please note, since there is no curvature of the Earth, there is no horizon per se.

On the map, the thick gray line represents a simulated section of the Great Wall of China. For other features, please refer to the following key: