TAO Games adopts new business model, makes best games ever.

Above: Bliss Stage

TAO Games, makers of Bliss Stage and Polaris, have just adopted a "pay-what-you-want" model ala the Humble Indie Bundle for PDF copies of all their RPGs.  This is something you should definitely care about, because they make games that kick lots and lots and lots of ass.  They're experimental, relationship focused, and, most importantly of all, recognize that being a hero costs more than it pays.   I remember hearing an interview with Ben Lehman, the designer behind TAO, in which he said something to the effect that when he was first getting into gaming he noticed that other people were trying to keep their D&D characters alive while he was trying to get his killed in the right way.  This anecdote basically describes my initial experiences with D&D to a T.  Anyone who's ever gamed with me or talked about fiction with me or basically ever met me is well aware by this point that nothing gets me going quite as much as a well executed melodramatic heroic sacrifice.  It's why I love David Gemmel, it's a large part of why I love Lloyd Alexander, it's why I still cry every single time Boromir takes that third arrow and keeps chugging in The Fellowship of the Ring.  I like to see my heroes worn down by the business of being heroes.  It's not an easy business, and I hate it when it appears to be.  If you've ever felt the same, you should absolutely buy a copy of Bliss Stage.  I'll do a more complete post about it at a later date, but suffice to say that it manages to out-Evangelion Evangelion and is about emotionally scarred child soldiers battling aliens using mechs made out of love.  Also, the mechanic for resolving major plot points mandates that PCs die, and it's got all kinds of character erosion going on at all times.  So yeah, it's pure, unadulterated Ben-shit, and you can get it for whatever you're willing to part with.  Do it now.

We Wanna Rock

Only tangentially related but awesome regardless.

Power metal has always been about heroes and their deeds, but I'm intrigued by the number of songs that present metal itself as something innately heroic.  Songs like Freedom Call's "Metal Invasion" and Sabaton's "Masters of the World" immediately leap to mind, but I'm sure there are countless other examples.  It makes me think back to the metal of the 80s.  Back then, it was all about how you wanted to rock and everybody else wanted to stop you.   I don't think Twisted Sister ever wrote a song that wasn't about rocking despite opposition, and Quiet Riot's classic anthem "Metal Health"... well, I think that one speaks for itself.  At a time like the early 80s when metal was still mostly marginalized it made sense for the genre to write these kinds of battle hymns.  Why do you guys think there's been a resurgence?  Or did these songs never really go away, and I'm just really noticing them now?  Is it a response to the way mainstream music has been swinging further and further into electronic territory, making the rockers feel like they need to fight back for their genre again?  Or is it just an indication of community and solidarity, something metal fans have always prided themselves on?  Also, if you can think of any good songs that fit this category please drop a link in the comments box.

Shock: Social Science Fiction

I've rarely loved anything the way I love Joshua A. Newman's Shock (stylized "Shock:" by the author). This is why RPGs exist.   Those who know me are aware that, even back in my D&D days, I was never really interested in the whole "get loot, go up levels" focus of a lot of games.  Shock is most decidedly not one of those games at all.  Instead, it works like a collaborative world-building and novel-writing framework with a laser-like focus on the thing that makes the science fiction genre interesting, namely the way it explores extrapolated societies and their pressures.  In a single sentence, Shock: is not quite a game, it's more like an engine for creating dense, meaningful, exploratory stories like Dune, Neuromancer, and The Left Hand of Darkness, and then watching them play out in realtime with a bunch of your friends.

The game starts with creating the world.  There are 2 major elements that need to be decided upon, called Shocks and Issues.  Shocks are the scifi insertions that separate this world from our own.  Shocks can be anything: old classics like "Robots," "FTL Travel," and "Human Cloning" or stranger excrescences like "Death is reversible."  The other category, Issues, Are the social concerns that will be important to the society.  "Corporate Greed," "Human Rights," whatever, these are the confilict zones that will drive the story.  Everyone comes up with these together, all the players building on eachothers ideas and tossing out suggestions until you have your shocks and issues set, as well as an understanding of how they intertwine to create a functional, realistic alien/future society.  Each person gets to "own" a shock or issue, giving them final say on any matters related to that particular subject and how it pertains to any situations in the fiction.  Given the conflicts at stake, you then create the Praxis Scales, the measures of how things are done in this world.  There are 2, and each has 2 differing ways of solving problems that are emblematic of the culture and its core issues.  For example, Neuromancer might look like this:

Shock: Cyberspace
Issue: Urbanization
Issue: Globalization
Issue: Wealth Gap
Praxis:  Buying vs. Stealing
Praxis: Confrontation vs. Deceit


When you are done making the world, you populate it.  Everyone plays 2 characters, a protagonist and and antagonist.  Each protagonist is defined by his/her/it's conflict with one of the issues in play, which will form the backbone for their individual story.  Each character is also given a rating on both praxis scales, showing what their most effective means of getting things done are.  Once each player has a protag, they choose another players protag and create an antag for that character.  An antag can be anything, an individual, an organization, a political movement, whatever.  It's the force that drives the protag into conflict with their central issue.  The also are rated on the praxis scales.

When play begins, you take turns going around the room, each player getting a turn to showcase a scene where their protag battles with their issue, and the person playing their antag trying to break them down or push them into greater conflict, and all other players adding details and subtly changing the outcome of events through their manipulation of the shocks and issues they own.  Each antag has a pool of points they use to hamper the protags, and when they run out, that particular story enters its conclusion. You're basically guaranteed tons of interesting character play, a deep multilayered meta-narrative constructed from the individual protags' stories, and even some meaningful commentary in the course of a single night.   If you're playing with smart, cool people (which you doubtless would be), you're probably going to end up with something that would be worthy of a Hugo nomination after a couple of drafts.

Addendum:
Kelly, Jon, and Ben, if you read this, we need to have another hot-tub Shock: party when I'm back in the US.