Fantastic Racism

There's enough racism going on in the real world; do we really need racism in our fantasy? But there it is. Whether people are pointing out the differences between elves and orcs or exactly what horrible practices make the Evil Empire so evil, it's all about who's better than who because of ethnic affiliations.

Oz is surprisingly un-racist. While most of the heroes are Caucasian, no one is looked down upon due to their physical nature. The Cowardly Lion and Scarecrow were both valued friends of Dorothy during her original adventure and long afterward. The bad guys are never representative of their fellows. Ugu the Shoemaker was not a typical Herku. The Su-Dic of the Flatheads is more tolerated than loved by his people.

The most racist parts of Oz lore are incredibly tame. In "The Patchwork Girl of Oz", Ojo is subjected to a "ragtime" song in which the singer wails for his "coal-black Lulu". Later in the story, Dorothy, Ojo and company meet the Hottentots, who are playful little people who are intended to resemble African tribesmen. In the Books of Wonder edition of this book, "coal black Lulu" is simply "cross-eyed" and the Hottentots receive much less description and no illustration. Surprisingly tame stuff. I found "The Woggle-Bug Book" more offensive.

Racism does tend to turn up in the fantasy film industry quite often. Not in obvious ways, of course. Remember "Kung Fu Panda"? The backdrop was ancient China, the older characters (Po's father and the ancient kung fu master) had very Asian-sounding voices, but the hero of the film was Jack Black. Not just voiced by Jack Black, but the character was very much Jack Black, to the point of using the word (if word it be) "bodacity."

Apparently, someone in Hollywood thinks that we can't empathize with a hero unless he's "American." Notice that Jackie Chan is almost never the lone star of his American-made films. He is typically paired with an American actor, like Owen Wilson or Chris Tucker.

Some of you might be aware, the popular Nickelodeon animated series "Avatar: The Last Airbender" is being made into a live action film. Well, it seems that they're making a similar move, casting Caucasian actors in "heroic" roles while giving the villain role to an ethnic actor. While the characters are of different ethnicity on the show, it's nowhere near as glaring, as the two ethnicities are much more closely related.

Check out racebending.com for more info and the latest details on this controversy.

America's Fairyland

I'm actually trying not to blog about Michael Jackson this week. Everyone else seems to be saying what there is to be said about it. Almost makes me wish Farrah Fawcett had an Oz connection. For those who are easily distracted, Farrah Fawcett died the same day.

In case you were unaware, Micheal Jackson played the Scarecrow in the movie version of "The Wiz". This leaves only Lena Horne and Diana Ross as the surviving stars of this film. Lena Horne is somewhat surprising, as she is currently in her 90's.

With Independence Day approaching here in the US, Many Americans are thinking all things American.

Oz has been dubbed "America's Fairlyland" and it's true. Of all the fairylands out there, Oz was the only one created in America. Most of Disney's animated films are based on distinctly European fairy tales. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are both creations of the Brothers Grimm, who were German. The Little Mermaid was the creation of a Danish man, Hans Christian Anderson. Middle Earth, Narnia, and Hogwarts were all created over in the UK.

While there are certainly other notable American fantasists, very few have managed the appeal and longevity of L. Frank Baum and his Oz stories.

I'm Late! I'm Late! For a Very Important Date!

First late blog entry in quite a while. I also missed last week's art update, too. Things are just slowing to a crawl here at F. Douglas Wall HQ.

The big delay is the Narrator's portion of the book. For one thing, my SneakerNet (JFGI) crashed a while ago, so my time to actually write is somewhat limited. Also, I've never written Narrator advice before. To a degree, it's like writing down how to ride a bicycle. Just because you can do it doesn't mean that you can readily explain it using only words.

The next challenge is that I'm not sure who I'm writing this for. Is it for Bill Walton, who's been running RPGs with his kids for quite a while and just needs a few tips to keep it Ozzy? Or is it for Jared, an Oz fan in long stading who has never played an RPG in his life?

I'm working through it, and I am seeing light at the end of the tunnel. However, it might mean an ultimate delay in the release of the game. My current plan relied on all of my content being generated by the end of June, a deadline that is looming on the horizon. Depending on how fast I can make it up, I might have time to get the book laid out in August, just before my publication goal.

Either way, I'm working on a new YouTube video as a birthday tribute for Ozma. Even if I don't get the game out on her birthday, there will be an Ozma's birthday treat for you all.

I want my Free RPG!

Just a reminder that June 20th is Free RPG Day and game and comic stores around the country will be stocked with free quickstarts of new games and free adventures for games you might already have. If you've been intimidated by the price of RPGs these days, or just want to try before you buy, here's a great opportunity. Check the store locator to see if a game store in your area is participating. If your favorite game or hobby shop is not participating, tell them "I want my Free RPG!" This is an annual event, so there is a good chance that your retailer will get the message and sign up for next year.

I would love to have participated this year, but I am very much a one-man-band here and can only do so much. I'm going to try to have something for next year.

Yesterday, Oz blogger Jared Davis celebrated his birthday. Happy birthday, Jared!

What am I supposed to do with all of this?

Well, I've been blogging for over a year now but I haven't really answered one of the most basic questions my readers may have: What the heck is an RPG and how do you play one?

In a roleplaying game, each player controls a single character. This character is defined by a set of stats, traits, or abilities written down on a piece of paper. More modern games typically include personality traits of some kind, giving you an idea of not only how strong or fast a character is, but how they are likely to respond in given situations.

The Game Master (a generic term. Adventures in Oz uses "Narrator") presents the players with a scenario and adjudicates their responses. They do this with a mix of die rolls, judgment and common sense.

For example,

Game Master: Your house has just crashed down after being lifted away by a Kansas twister. You hear some voices outside. What do you do?

Player: I KILL THEM AND TAKE THEIR STUFF!!!!!

Okay, seriously now

Game Master: Your house has just crashed down after being lifted away by a Kansas twister. You hear some voices outside. What do you do?

Player: What are the voices saying?

GM: You can't really tell. Make an Awareness roll.

Player: Let's see. I've got Awareness 3. (rolls dice) 1 and 4. Looks like a regular success to me.

GM: You don't know exactly what they're saying, but there are a few very nervous male voices and a reassuring female voice. It sounds like she's in charge.

Player: Oh good. I'll step out and introduce myself.

GM: There are 3 men and one old woman. At least you think so. Even though two of the men have beards and the woman looks quite old, they're all only about as tall as you. As you approach, the old woman steps forward and says "You are welcome, most noble Sorceress, to the land of the Munchkins. We are so grateful to you for having killed the Wicked Witch of the East, and for setting our people free from bondage."

Player: Woah. First of all, my character's, like, maybe 10 years old, so these people have to be pretty short. And who did I kill? This isn't like the last game you ran where I woke up with amnesia and I found out I was some kind of CIA hitman, is it? I'll tell her, "You are very kind, but there must be some mistake. I have not killed anything."

GM: She replies "Your house did, anyway, and that is the same thing. See! There are her two feet, still sticking out from under a block of wood." She points at something under your house. Sure enough, there are two feet sticking out wearing silver shoes. And it looks like your house squashed the rest of her flat.

Player: Holy crap! So it's not like I can pick up the house and free her, huh?

GM: Nope. Since you're a little girl and only Size 2, and the house is Size 5, that's a -3 penalty to your Athletics skill.

Player: And I've only got Athletics 2. With that penalty, I'm at less than zero. Right, no chance.

(For an embellished Actual Play log of the rest of this session, check it out here.)

Empowering Fantasy

Many people think of RPGs as a form of "power fantasy", in which the goal is to be awesome and powerful. This is an easy assumption to make, since many RPGs allow characters to wield magic, psychic powers or the Force or play with awesome futuristic technology. Sometimes all at once.

But then you get little oddities, typically in horror games. Both Call of Chthulhu and World of Darkness (without splats) feature characters that are remarkably mundane. In CoC, characters can learn magic, but only at the cost of their sanity. Even specific campaigns can create this effect. Over on the Steve Jackson Games forums, William H. Stoddard and one of his players will recount a game they played in the Transhuman Space setting in which the characters were marvelously mundane people and the game was all about the drama of ordinary people living in a very big, scary, technologically advanced world. No heroics, no earth-shattering revelations, just people leading very complicated lives.

Where's the fun in that sort of thing? Where's the epic awesome? You're not going to find it. Because when you get down to it, roleplaying is not "power fantasy", but "empowerment fantasy." Action oriented games allow us to play the hero, letting us be the one who saves the world, slays the dragon, and wins the heart of a princess. In more mundane genres, we might simply acheive a cathartic "safe space" in which we may explore things that we can't do in real life. Much like a horror movie, a horror RPG lets us experience the horror from a safe distance, allowing us to walk away at the end of the show and laugh about it. A dramatic game can also benefit from this, as an unmarried player might try out married life and its trials and tribulations. The player can make all the mistakes he wants in the scenario with the knowledge that he can get up from the gaming table and be his freewheeling, single self again.

Exalted is a game that actually plays both sides of this fence. Characters wield charms and spells that make them quite powerful, playing neatly into power fantasy. But because of this level of power, characters are very much their own masters. Which can make the experience rather empowering, as well.

Tis better to give than to recieve

I had mentioned to James Wallace in an email that it might be a good marketing move to donate money based on sales of the game to the Humboldt Literacy Project, a non-profit in my area that helps adults learn to read. You know, the more I sell the more I give. And as a limited time promotion around the holidays to really drum up the sales.

If you haven't figured it out by now, I live in California. As in the state that is having a major budget crisis right now. Just last week, a special election for a few propositions that were deemed necessary to get the budget balanced this year (or next year, I'm not quite sure). All but one of them failed. Meaning that lots of cuts are going to have to be made and a lot of programs around the state are going to be hurting.

So now I'm looking to revise my plan. First off, it's not just a holiday promotion. It will be a regular thing. We've really got to break out of the whole "Christmastime is the season of giving" rut that keeps us from doing stuff like that at other times of the year. I might do something around Christmastime, but we'll see.

I also plan on giving within my local community, rather than to a state or national organization. This is because I think local giving has a bit more of a visible impact. Rather than dividing up your dollar into pennies (or less than pennies) to divide among the hundreds of projects, divisions, and people that they support, your dollar is more likely to go (more or less completely) to something that does an immediate good in the community.

The big challenge is who to give this money that I will be collecting to. Schools are an obvious choice and libraries tie in thematically, since I'll be selling books to raise the money. But police and fire services will be impacted as well, so giving to the Eureka Police Foundation would also be worthwhile. What do you guys think?

New on the Gallery: The Scarecrow by Brad McDevitt.

Edit: I read in my local paper yesterday that my local zoo may not be able to maintain the educational programs that it needs to maintain its accreditation due to the budget crunch. One more worthy cause?