D&D 5 Monster Manual review

The first of my D&D5 manuals' reviews.
Since I got the D&D5 trilogy it was all too clear to me they all deserved that.
I am a sworn AD&D2 fan, I started my adventure with it and thought I'd finish with it.
But just out of sheer curiosity I decided to take a look at the new PHB. And I was captivated.

What's so good about it?

I will not go to great lengths to describe the publication's quality. It is wonderful to look at, wonderful to hold in your hand. It's simply top-notch.
But the meat is the contents. You get dozens of classic and not-so-classic monsters. But, we've seen all that before right?
All wonderfully illustrated in a cut-the-bullshit fantasy style that's serious enough to inspire and not to remind you of manga or anime series for kids. It's climatic, dark yet brilliantly heroic-fantasy-like. Just check out the cover.
But there's more to it than just pretty illustrations (there better be).
Stat blocks go without saying. The true gem is written information you get. The flavour texts.
Finally instead of some dry ecology information which is all fun for a world-building DM perhaps you get... context.
Wait, what?
Yeah, I remember leafing through MMs and subsequent creatures just wondering - whoah, that one looks weird, how can I use it in my game to make any sense? Of course, it worked sometimes, it did not at others.
But now each monster is supplied with a few text blocks that are just loaded with inspiring information for your campaigns or one-shot adventures.
Finally all those atrocities make sense, even the most weird ones.
And I also failed to mention that it's an impressive selection of creatures. There is probably none that would make you think 'how did that come to be here'? 'What sorry mind came up with this wretched creature?'
The new Monster Manual is beautiful, precise, useful and inspiring. What else would you need?

Do you need to have it?

I toyed with an idea of not purchasing this book. Sure you can invent your own creatures. Sure you can create your own stat blocks (I often modify those anyway to suit the game's needs).
You don't desperately need another bestiary full of wodnerful illustrations on your bookshelf.
But if you're willing to take this manual for what it is then you will not be disappointed.
And above all that, this is the best bestiary I have ever held in my hands.

The search for meaning

or musings on the suspension of disbelief.

"Is this the real life? Or is this just fantasy?"

- You should know who said (sang) that

Ok, let's get the obvious out of the picture first. This is not directly about the entertainment the game gives you. Nor it is about the satisfaction as one of my favourite bloggers out there (Tao) puts it. It is about what makes the game MEANINGFUL. On my terms.

Roleplaying games are proclaimed by their worshippers as games that base on your imagination. But they are different than your personal fantasies. Consider this: you lay down on your couch and imagine yourself a legendary hero that saves lands and kingdoms from great peril. You are worshipped by the folk, praised by the kings. Dames and wenches faint at the sheer mention of your name. Do you see it? Of course you do, it's the immediate product of your imagination. Does it feel real? Well, that depends on the power of your imagination. Yet there is one problem that I see. This fantasy exists solely for you.

Let's consider the concept of reality. What is the experience of reality? To put it simply (for the purpose of this brief post) it can be perceived as objective truth or subjective collective experience. 

For the purpose of roleplaying games I want to deconstruct the latter. Reality is something we can all agree upon, something we all consider true regardless of its objective genuiness. We've seen artistic expressions of this - take 'Matrix' for instance. What we perceive as real is something that we and our companions can agree upon. Now we're nearly ready to transplant this idea to the roleplaying field.

Things seem more real if more people perceive them as real. Or in other words they perceive them as true. This works for all kinds of conspiracy theories, history falsifications, media manipulation, religion etc. The level of reality grows with each additional 'believer'. If you can convince all the people there is one true god or that the Smolensk plane crash was an assasination then it will become real, at least for all the parties involved (sorry objectivists).

And so, if your fantasy about being a legendary hero can be attested and confirmed by other people than yourself this gives the idea a bit more believability. It becomes a bit more real. More alive.

And isn't his A point we're all playing roleplaying games?

We want to take part in fantastic stories, we want to live a different life for a change. A life full of adventure, intrigue, romance, glory and mystery. Whichever is currently lacking in our experience of everyday reality. And we want to feel it as real as possible.

If we can live through it alongside other people it gains more meaning than our individual fantasizing on a couch (or wherever you do it).

To me there is yet another factor that makes the experience more real. What differentiates the game from our personal fantasies is the presence of objective rules. You can imagine that you win at chess everytime, but what makes it real is actually winning chess playing to the official rules. The fact that the two of you just sit over a chessboard and agree that one of you wins does not appoint an actual winner of chess. (I fully appreciate this analogy can go way further but it's irrelevant for the topic at hand.)

Now, in the preceding post I enumerated the hats a DM wears at the gaming table. In this post's context there is one prominent role that has particular significance - the referee. The reason I recently started stressing that role is due to its reality-creating powers. When I am DM'ing a game there is no real value created if I'm totally in control of what is going on. I can agree on anything with my players after all. But manipulating reality is a lie. And I don't like living a lie.

The only way I can ensure a new value and meaning is born is when objective conditions in terms of rules are around. The rules that I, as a DM, enforce with reasonable diligence.

Under those conditions you gain right to claim having defeated the dragon, saved the kingdom, rescued the princess. Any other scenario will be just you fantasizing about doing something instead of doing it. This might work for you. It does not work for me.

That is the reason I am often astonished by people who 'cheat' at roleplaying games trying to convince the DM to rule always on their favour. Manipulating die rolls. Trying to intimidate the DM. They lie to themsleves. They create an even more fictional reality than a roleplaying game would create.

I love this game. I truly want to touch the fantasy. And I am constantly searching for any means to get closer to this goal.

Why did I write this? I hope you can stop at some point and ask yourself what makes your game valuable. Meaningful. You might come to fresh, interesting conclusions. And well, a bit of philosophy has never done any harm, now has it?

Godspeed

Storm season - new Witcher novel review

This is probably a risky enterprise. To review the newest novel of A. Sapkowski.
Hearing that name Polish readers will unmistakably think about the Witcher stories and saga. Foreign readers might recall the awarded video game series.
Be it as it may, the essence of the Witcher is in the books. And since the last Witcher book was released in 1999 (Lady of the Lake) and the author himself was quite firm in his assurances that he would never ever write anything about the Witcher, it came as quite a surprise that in the autumn of 2013 the new Witcher novel landed on the bookstore shelves out of the blue.

I must say it felt like an old friend coming back from a long exile. Or oblivion for that matter.
The Witcher stories and saga is one of my  favourite fantasy series. The games for one allowed to return for a moment to the good old days when Geralt, Dandelion and Ciri were my day-to-day companions.
But it was not exactly the same as holding a fresh, unread Witcher story in my hands.
Feeling the Witcher's world come to life again and share new untold secrets with me.

It should suffice to say that the new book had some quite high expectations to meet among the fans.
Did it do the trick?

First I want to note, that reading of the book coincided with the birth of my baby-daughter. I read it aloud to my wife between and while nursing, feeding, lulling the baby and changing diapers.
And in these rather harsh circumstances we managed to finish it in one week. Does it speak for itself?

Being well into the book I started to look around the reviews and noticed that there are generally two main attitudes. One is a joyous praise full of admiration for the oeuvre and its creator. Thickly interwoven with threads of sentiment and nostalgia. The other is of embarrassment and disappointment. Little wonder given the expectations I mentioned earlier.

To me Sapkowski is a master of short forms. Tales, stories are his natural element. To this day many fans claim (and with good reason) that nothing can beat his Witcher stories. Short, witty, brilliant, innovative and surprising. Dynamic, both dramatic and fun to read. If you don't like Witcher's stories that you have no taste for good fantasy literature, no argument about that.
There were already many a complaint regarding his 5-tome-long saga. I do agree to a certain extent, it seemed to loose its momentum. Despite that, it was fun to read, the story was interesting and epic.
The ending - moving. The last time I read it aloud with my wife we both cried.

The one thing important to point out is that in Sapkowski's case it's not only about his ideas. It's about the writing style, the composition of text, the language, the vocabulary he uses that enchants the reader and creates the Witcher's magic. And the sole fact that the whole saga was bursting at the seams with this individual style was enough to go through it all with fascination.

So now, coming back to the matters at hand - the new novel of Sapkowski - Sezon Burz.
It is neither a story (400 pages long) nor a saga (1 complete book). The action takes place somewhere between the stories preceding the events from the saga.
It is not as concise and focused as the stories - there are several subplots - but the variety of plots in my opinion does not make it a classic novel either. All in all to me it is more of a prolonged story. A combination of ideas connected chronologically and geographically. Does not sound that good, does it?
Well, to my surprise the book was very enjoyable to read.
The plot is interesting and dynamic, certain supposedly unrelated story elements form a big coherent picture at the end of the book.This is indeed a display of Sapkowski's composing abilities.
There are the characters we all love, and though in the beginning of the book the reader must take his time to believe they're the same people he knows from the previous stories, quite soon we suspend the disbelief completely.
But this would not be enough to make up a good novel.
The most important fact is that this book brings us back the unmistakable style of A. Sapkowski.
It might not be at its peak as some reviewers claim, but it is still there. Smart and witty, opulent and sophisticated, yet dynamic and harsh when necessary. It's all there, the dark and pessimistic humour, the trademark sarcasm, the irony of life.
I claim that the combination of the three elements: the story, the characters and the writing style make this book more than worthwhile.
The overall quality might only reach the writing level of the last two saga tomes (the lowest in all Witcher's bibliography), it might not blow hardcore fans' socks off, but for God's sake the Witcher is truly back, alive and kickin' (arses).