Shewstone Publishing presented SEM21197814 Realistic Hacking for Games and Fiction at Gen Con Online 2021 on Thursday, Sept. 16.
Here are the slides from that presentation, and the video of course:
Beyond Battles 2021 Video, Slides, and Notes
Shewstone Publishing presented SEM21197813 Beyond Battles: Overloooked History for World Builders at Gen Con Online on September 17, 2021. This year’s topics were:
The legend of King Arthur and how it conflicts with archaeological evidence of the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain.
Real-world clerical necromancy, an underground of monks and priests who practiced black magic and mostly got away with it.
The “taming” of English nobility by the Tudor dynasty at the end of the fifteenth century.
Our Historical Fantasy RPG
We publish Magonomia, the RPG of Renaissance wizardry. Everyone plays a wizard wielding magic based on authentic Renaissance lore.
Video
Slides
Here are the slides of the presentation.
Notes
Here are the notes and follow-up from each section.
Legend of King Arthur
Although the legend is no longer considered factual, it makes a great adventure setting. Andrew recommends the Age of Arthur RPG.
A good science fiction novel set against an empire’s decline is A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine.
Here’s a direct link to the Secrets of the Dead episode “King Arthur’s Lost Kingdom.”
Wikipedia’s article on the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain summarizes recent discoveries about the period.
Clerical Necromancy
We didn’t mention it in the presentation, but an excellent overview of (European) historical magic is Magic and superstition in Europe : a concise history from antiquity to the present by Michael F. Bailey.
A more focused book about medieval magic (containing no actual spells) is Magic in the Middle Ages by Richard Keickhefer. Kieckhefer also has several other books about the history of magic that are worth a look.
An audience member asked about books with actual spells that pre-modern people believed would work. We didn’t research actual spells from the medieval period so we’ll have to direct you to your search engine or your friendly local reference librarian. We do know quite a bit about fifteenth and sixteenth century spells. Two books we used heavily while researching our game Magonomia are:
The Book of Oberon: a sourcebook of Elizabethan Magic by Daniel Harms et al.
Making Magic in Elizabethan England: two early modern vernacular books of magic edited by Frank Klaassen
Also, we touched on the investiture conflict, the 500-year struggle between the Western church and monarchs over how much influence the Crown will have over selection of priests and bishops. It’s a big topic; for a good overview of this and other important historical trends, we recommend Civilization in the Middle Ages by Norman F. Cantor.
The Taming of the Nobility
There wasn’t any discussion of sources during the seminar. Many history books give surprisingly light treatment to Henry VII, which is perhaps the way he would have wanted it. I’ll refer the interested reader to The Tudors: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty by G.J. Meyer.
Also I found a good documentary about Henry VII on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1ZKruLTJQ2Y
Historical Characters in RPGs
One of the challenges in designing a historically themed RPG is that history is full of controversial figures. This doesn’t have to put you off playing in a historical setting or even weaving those figures into your stories. After considerable thought and study, we at Shewstone Publishing have come up our preferred approach.
The following short article is an except from the Magonomia® Core Rules.
Real-world people are complicated. One could read several entire books about Queen Elizabeth and not come away with a clear opinion whether she was a good ruler or a bad one. In fiction, especially in collaborative fiction like an RPG, nuance and moral ambiguity don’t always improve the narrative. When you want to use historical characters in your game, we recommend you decide first what role you want that character to fill in your campaign, then choose Aspects, skills, and stunts that suit that role.
For example, consider the famous buccaneer Francis Drake. You could portray him as the dashing, heroic figure he seemed to want to project. If you research his actions, some of the shine comes off his image. He led one slave trading voyage and some might say he recklessly provoked war with Spain. Thus, it’s possible to write two rather different characters based on Francis Drake: “Drake as a Patriotic Hero” or “Drake as a Manipulative Loose Cannon.” Either is perfectly usable, depending on the role you want Drake to have in your campaign.
When we present a historical character in Magonomia products, the character’s name will always be accompanied by an explicit “angle” we’re taking on the character. You may later see the same historical person presented from an entirely different angle, with different Aspects and a different role in mind for the character.
©2021 Shewstone Publishing LLC. All rights reserved.
Magonomia® will use Fate™ Condensed Rules
A couple of weeks ago, the awesome folks at Evil Hat Productions released a slightly revised and considerably streamlined version of their award-winning Fate™ Core System rules, called Fate Condensed. After reviewing the design changes, we’ve decided to adopt Fate Condensed for Magonomia®.
The changes are minor but they smooth out some fine points of the rules that we tripped over while we were learning Fate and playtesting our game. They’ll result in a slightly smoother play experience and will make the rules easier to learn.
You won’t need a copy of Fate to play Magonomia — we’re including all the rules you need, with permission from Evil Hat. We do wholeheartedly encourage you to check out Fate Condensed. It’s pay-way-you-want on DriveThruRPG.com. If you find it useful, please consider paying a few dollars for a copy. We did!
Big thanks to Evil Hate for sharing their outstanding rules system under the Open Game License and Creative Commons license!
Magonomia will be launching on Game on Tabletop on March 14. This minor rules update does not affect the release schedule.
The Platinum Rule
A good RPG experience is everyone’s job!
The Platinum Rule
For Magonomia ®, we developed something we call the Platinum Rule:
All players share responsibility for making the game fun for everyone.
A lot of RPG players and GMs understand and use this rule already, of course. Strangely, I have never seen it written down in an RPG rule book in quite this form — many games address making the game fun for the players, but usually that’s framed as solely the GM’s job.
Why the Platinum Rule?
I’ve tried to make our game accessible to new RPG players and to players who might want to re-enter the hobby after a long absence. Therefore, I thought a lot about how to present the rules to make the essential concepts clear. The Platinum Rule emerged as the most important concept I could think of that I wanted to communicate. This is the one principle that I most want to share with the whole RPG community. It’s the distillation of my 40 years in the tabletop RPG hobby.
Now that it’s occurred to me to write it down, I am rather puzzled that I haven’t come across something like the Platinum Rule more often in other games. I have certainly seen language to the effect that the GM is responsible for making sure all the players have a good time — but that places all the responsibility on the GM. If you think about it, players have a great deal of impact on the quality of one another’s experience. That is both a responsibility and huge opportunity.
Full Text of the Platinum Rule Section
The text between the separator lines is directly from the Magonomia ® core rules manuscript, ©2020 Shewstone Publishing LLC. See “Republishing the Platinum Rule,” below, for legal information.
It goes without saying that the reason for playing the game is to have fun with your friends. We think it's useful, though, to make that idea explicit and examine it.
This is the only rule that's really important: all players share responsibility for making the game fun for everyone.
The implications are far-reaching. How do you, as a player, get to have your character shine without upstaging the other characters? How do you encourage a shy player to participate without being pushy? As a GM, how do you know when you're making things too easy or too hard?
What is “fun,” anyway? Different players will have different priorities. Some want to solve challenging problems, some want to immerse themselves in an imaginary world, and some want to create a rousing adventure tale. You’ll need to discuss this a bit so you can make sure everyone can get what they want out of the game.
Roleplaying games are a hobby. Everyone, new or old, develops their own style. That means everyone, including you, has something unique to offer. The best experience comes when you realize that you can contribute to making the game awesome for your friends.
Bad Habits to Avoid
The Platinum Rule is primarily about making positive contributions, but there are some pitfalls in roleplaying that are worth bearing in mind.
Don’t hog the spotlight. Some people are naturally more assertive than others. Go ahead and have your character be awesome! Just make sure everyone else also gets their moments to be the star.
Don’t undermine other players. Don’t make choices that directly contradict what another player has started to do. For example, if one of your fellow PCs has started to negotiate with an enemy, don’t suddenly interrupt and challenge that enemy to a duel. If you really want to change direction, ask permission.
Don’t make a character who’s a jerk. You control what your character is like, so you’re responsible for whether they’re a positive or a negative influence. This is not to say your character can’t have personality flaws – a flawed character is often the most enjoyable and rewarding to play. Just make sure your character is likable in some way and can work well with others.
Good Habits to Cultivate
Giving a list of advice on how to be a good roleplayer may seem overwhelming to some (and superfluous to others). It’s certainly sufficient to start with the Platinum Rule and just apply it as you think best. If you want some more specific suggestions, here’s a list you can refer back to from time to time to help you develop your collaborative roleplaying skills.
Keep the story moving. As long as everyone is enjoying themselves, the game is going well! There will come times when the game session feels stalled or goes completely off track. When you notice that happening, say something or have your character do something to refocus people’s attention on the story. This is everyone’s job, not just the GM’s. If your group is having trouble making a decision, the General Divination spell is a powerful tool for getting past that impasse.
Yes, and… The first rule of improv theatre is to accept your partner’s idea and add something to it. You will find many opportunities to do this as you play. Aspects and Fate Points, explained later in this chapter, are a game mechanic for creating “yes, and” moments in the game.
Give positive feedback. When another player or the GM does something great, say so! This will help build a shared understanding of what your group enjoys.
Embrace setbacks. There is more to a good story than having your character go from success to success. A good story needs moments of tension! Some of the best experiences in a roleplaying game come when the heroes have to claw their way back from the very brink of destruction. Don’t be afraid of bad things happening to your character. Be afraid of letting their story become bland and forgettable.
Show your character’s reaction. Showing or describing how your character reacts to what’s happening around them is an easy and powerful method for engaging everyone in the story.
Learn the rules. Nobody expects you to memorize everything in this book – even the authors have to refer to it frequently during play. That said, the better your grasp of the rules, the more you’ll be able to apply them creatively. Spend 10 minutes re-reading sections of the rule book before each game session and you’ll probably be surprised how much that helps.
Being a Great Player
A good player doesn't interfere with other players' fun.
A great player actively promotes other players' fun.
If you try to be great, you will probably succeed.
Applying the Platinum Rule
The Platinum Rule only works if you talk about it. It doesn’t have to be a long conversation. Just introduce the concept and make sure everyone knows it is part of your group’s social contract. During that conversation, it’s a good idea to invite the players to volunteer what makes the game fun for them. Focus on the positive, to encourage players to start collaborating.
I find it especially helpful in breaking the ice at convention games, where players may be meeting for the first time.
Something particular to Magonomia ® is that it’s a historical fantasy game, and a lot of gamers will understandably hesitate to step into a setting based on a time that’s so strongly sexist, racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and generally nasty compared to our own. The Platinum rule is a very tidy shorthand for how to make even a historical fantasy setting safe and welcoming. If something wouldn’t be fun for everyone, then don’t bring it up at the gaming table. Simple enough?
Related Subject: The X Card
I would never have thought of the Platinum Rule if I had not been taught about a similar and very useful concept, the X card, at Gen Con 2015. I definitely recommend you use the X card in addition to the Platinum Rule. They compliment one another.
Why It’s Called the Platinum Rule
The reason we called it the Platinum Rule is simple: Magonomia ® is based on the Fate™ Core System and Fate™ already has a concept called the Golden Rule of Fate. In other words, the term “Golden Rule” was taken.
Republishing the Platinum Rule
We want people to use the Platinum Rule in their games, including commercial products! You are welcome to use the Platinum Rule in any written work. The exact text of the Platinum Rule (appearing between the separator lines in this article) is Open Game Content under the terms of the Open Game License version 1.0A. If you prefer, you may also use, modify, and republish the entire text of this article or any portion thereof under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0). Magonomia ® is a registered trademark of Shewstone Publishing LLC and must be acknowledged as such. You can also just paraphrase the Platinum Rule: it’s short and simple and we’re not going to sue you over it. If you feel, as we do, that the Platinum Rule is a worthwhile contribution to the gaming community, please use it!
Update: Revised Jan. 20, 2020 to add full text of the Platinum Rule from the Magonomia ® Core Rules manuscript, change X-card link to the original source, and revised to emphasize positive reasons for using the Platinum Rule.