I am sad to report, that Erick Wujcik, the great game designer, has passed away. It was made public, months ago that he was diagnosed with cancer. I am a great fan of Erick’s work, and when I first read the news, posted an article, that summed up my feelings for what he meant to me as a GM, and what he did for the role playing world. That post can be found here.

Thank you again Erick for all you have done.  I will not forget the times that I got to meet you and that sense of awe listening to you talk about games and game theory.   My condolences go to Erick and his family and friends, and to all the gamers who were touched by Erick’s games and words.

Normally I don’t get into making houserules or my own custom rule sets. Having rarely mastered the Hard Skills of GMing, I tend to shy away from making too many of my own rules, and am content to stick with what has been written in the rule book. Also, I have had some really bad experiences in collaborative rule building that has convinced me that too many cooks can spoil the pot.

All that said, I started making some home rules for an idea for running a game based on the Global Frequency comic books. And I thought I would tell you how it is going….

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So last week, I talked about the Hard and Soft Skills of being a GM. This week, I am going to look at my own path of GM Mastery and see how my recent understanding of hard and soft skills has given me insight into what things I should do next. Along the way, I hope to inspire you to perform some self-evaluation and start to understand your own path to GM Mastery.

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For the past few weeks, I have been in a kind of low-energy state in regards to gaming. Usually during these times, is when I do some soul searching and explore what gaming means to me, my philosophy on GMing, etc. This time was no different. I took myself out for a quiet lunch armed with my favorite new pen, and my leather covered Moleskine journal and got to thinking about where I am as a GM and what things I can do to improve myself.

As I started some mind mapping over some General Tso’s chicken, it became clear to me that GMing is the combination of Soft and Hard skills, a Ying and Yang of sorts. As my mind map expanded, it became clear to me that my GMing Chi has been out of balance fore years, and that for me to make my next step in my growth as a GM that I would have to restore some balance to my Gaming Chi.

So let me take you through what I came up with during that lunch…

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Hello all.

This weekend was going to be my Iron Heroes session, but on Friday afternoon, I got word from Dr. J that he would not be able to play this weekend, because of some work things.  Such is life, and without missing a beat, I reordered my session for Sunday to be character creation for Qin.

Sargon, Spenser, and I made up some characters for Qin and had a pretty good time.  For Sargon and I, this was our second attempt, so we were a bit more prepared, and more versed in the rules, making character creation less surprising.  I also raised the number of points for character creation, to make slightly more powerful characters, as playing low-level (read: 1st level characters) is getting to be a bit boring for us.  The increase in points did seem to help, allowing us to take a few more options than the last time we tried to make characters, but not so much points that we were any kind of uber-characters.

I also spent part of the weekend, figuring out my first choices for GenCon events.  Event Registration is this coming Sunday, 4/20.  As with years past, I expect that Event Registration will be a very tedious and painful process.  While each year it seems to get a bit better, it is nevertheless very tough and frustrating.  As with last year, I have chosen some RPG events in order to try out some games, before I decide if I am going to buy them.  This year, I am going to try the new Traveller by Mongoose, and Aces ‘N Eights by Kenser and Company.   I am also going to play in a few favorite games, including an Iron Heroes game and some Lunch Money (If you have never played Lunch Money) you are missing out on one of the best card games.

I know posts have been pretty dry this week, but I have done some brainstorming last week, and have come up with a new source of material for some articles.  I am going to do some articles concerning the Soft and Hard skills of GMing, and what track I have been on over the past few years, and where I am going with my own quest for GM mastery.  I am also going to put up an article, starting my GenCon survival guide series, about Event Registration, and how to survive it.

So come around, there looks to be some ideas in air….

For my Birthday a few weeks ago, I grabbed a PDF off of my list of RPG’s that I have been keeping an eye on. I picked up Qin: The Warring States. The game is set in the Warring States period of China, and is a Wuxia style game, with Martial Arts, Taoisms, and Magic.

I am about half-way through reading the rules, and I am enjoying them. The rules have a very Asian feel to them, with a focus on themes like the elements and balance. I won’t do a full review of the game, as there have been a few good reviews that have already been done, and in more depth than I would do in any review.

What I really like about the Qin game is the attention to historical and cultural detail. This game is very much like Sengoku, containing a wealth of information about the setting, including politics, religion, and day to day life. I find that with games that are historical in nature, and that are outside of euro-centric themes, that prevail in most modern RPG’s, a strong section on setting, is key to help the GM create the level of immersion necessary to make the world feel real for the players.

So while I have not finished reading the entire rules yet, I did invite Sargon and Dr. J over to make some characters for the game. It took us a little bit fumbling through the rules, not in the design of the character creation rules, but our lack of experience with the system and the mechanics of the game. In the end we put together a few characters that we will take out in a week or two, to take the combat system through its paces.

So with the reading of Qin, I have also re-awakened my love for Martial Arts movies. I have always enjoyed all flavors of Martial Arts movies, but lately I have been drawn to the high-end Wuxia films like, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, and House of The Flying Daggers. On Friday night, I sat and watched Seven Swords. It was a good film, with some entertaining combat scenes. It was not as good as some of the films I listed above, but it was a entertaining and had several great combat scenes.

This week I have selected a movie called Warriors of Heaven and Earth, to add to my Wuxia collection, and I have made plans to go and see Forbidden Kingdom, with Spenser, and Dr. J, next week. All the while I will continue to read Qin, and feed my current Wuxia interest.

My current plan for Qin is to run some very light sessions of it, and not in any serious campaign. I am still holding true to my Iron Heroes campaign, and my time is too limited to be running two campaigns at the same time. But I cannot resist the images of sword fights in tea houses, or battles that jump from rooftop to rooftop, and from tree to tree.