>----- Original Message -----
>From: Alan Kellogg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2000 6:03 PM
>Subject: Re: [Open_Gaming] Why Buy?
>
>
><snip>
>> >Wow! That was incredible. It was like watching someone type out of the
>back
>> >of my own skull.
>> >
>> >-John (Still dealing with eye-problems from trying to read Aria's first
>> >printing.)
>>
>> About the back of your skull, do you ever sweep back there? Had to
>> wear a surgical mask because of all the dust. And have you ever
>> talked with a shrink about your childhood traumas?:)
>
>
>Nah! The breeze between the ears keeps the dust from settling. And, no I
>haven't talked to a shrink about my childhood traumas. I have successfully
>repressed them all. :)
Maybe if you let the dust settle, it wouldn't be so bad. Been two
whole days and I'm still tasting gray.
BTW, your childhood traumas have formed a trade union and are in the
process of organizing your adolescent memories. There's talk of a
work stoppage.
>
>> About Aria. leave us not forget the prose. The vocabulary I didn't
>> mind (I like big words), but the prose flowed like a rock. In a
>> private correspondence Christian Moore said he planned to completely
>> rewrite both books for the second edition, cancelled due to
>> circumstances.
>>
>
>Oh, Aria had its good and bad points, alright. I ran it in combination with
>Primal Order and let the players run their own Empires/Races/Gods etc. Went
>really well too. I think the best thing about the game was how it let your
>players' actions affect the world "in the long run" and skip down through
>the ages as different characters. Great stuff.
>
>While the prose never bothered me (at least not as much as the gray on gray
>printing), I've heard it panned by other folks. Apparently it was really
>hard for people to locate all the information they needed in the sea of
>descriptives. I just attached little post-it notes on the commonly
>referenced tables and printed up "GMs screen" style reference cards for
>everybody.
>
>For me, the graphic presentation was the worst thing. Not only the printing,
>but the stylization was cranked-up way to high. It made it hard to mentally
>separate example from rule from narrative.
>
>Personally, I read it over a few times and was amazed at how well-hidden the
>resolution mechanic was. You'd think the central mechanic of the game would
>have, like big pointers and stuff, but IIRC it was just another table. The
>discussion of game-myth-story theory was pretty cool, but I'm odd that way.
>I did think they could have chosen more "common" words for a lot of their
>terminology, it sometimes made it hard to follow.
>
>Hmm...I think I'm gonna have to go dig that off the shelf again.
Another pet peeve of mine, hiding the game system in the exposition.
Set it aside so people can read it, then provide examples in your
deathless scribblings. Another example of hidden mechanics would be
Vampire: The Masquerade 1e. It's there somewhere, but you gotta dig.
This is role-playing games, not archeology.
All things considered, Aria was badly mismarketed. It's not an RPG,
it's a set of guidelines for society creation; along with guidelines
for game design. Hell, the Star Trek games were obviously designed
using Aria. When I finally get my taxpayer supported tush moving
(disability) I'll be using Aria and The Worldbuilder's Guide to do a
campaign world.
Idea flash! How about a set of guidelines for designing D20 system
games? The SRDs are a start, but I don't think they'll give one all
the tools one needs.
(Back to Aria) The layout was fine, clean and spare, which is what I
like. But the fonts... Almost as bad as the tightly packed, teeny
Krone font used in the Mythus book. Eyestrain city. A bad font
definitely has a negative impact on reading comprehension. If you
can't make out the letters, you can't read the words. You can't read
the words, you can't play the game.
As to the vocabulary, never try to impress potential customers. Use
plain English; and if you must use big words, include as
comprehensive a glossary as you can. Being consistent in your use of
vocabulary helps one hell of a lot. BTW, Aria did explain a term when
it first appeared, and the glossary appears at the beginning of the
books.
Another thing, if you're not sure of what a big word means, don't use it.
Alan
--
Perilous Perambulations, <http://mythusmage.freewebsites.com>
-------------
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