Continuing with the AM Manual.

Next section contains general advice for how to run the game. The section begins with three definition of what the AM is. Neither of them talks about insane homicidal AI, which is a shame. Instead, they’re as follows: Am as a guide, AM as a rule master and AM as a responsible agent.

AM as a guide would be familiar to people with TRPG experience. It’s your standard “GM controls the world around PCs and tells players what happens when they act.” Nothing new or interesting there, but it’s reasonably well-done.

AM as a rule master, again, would be familiar to some. It basically states that the AM observes that the rules are followed and may create new rules if a situation PCs found themselves in is not covered by the standard rules already. It emphasizes players’ input and open dialogue with them, which I like.

AM as a responsible agent, of course, deals with the whole Christianity thing.

It is very important for you to remember that the main purpose of the DragonRaid Adventure Learning System is to teach lessons in Christianity. Help build up your players in their walk with Christ.

It notes two areas particularly important for this: interpersonal relationships and scripture knowledge.

Maintain a good relationship between yourself and the players and encourage this among them as well. The AM should keep a Christ-like attitude in making decisions{being patient, humble, kind, and teachable at all times. Do not forget that you should be an example to those playing the game with you; you have an influence on them. Be fair and consistent, and take every opportunity to teach a spiritual lesson in the game without being preachy or spoiling the fun.

I don’t know, that seems kinda iffy to me. It is important to maintain good relationships between members of the group, but that’s because TRPGs are meant to be played by friends who all have fun with it, not because it makes it easier to teach your players something. I mean, alright, teaching Christian lessons is the main goal of this game, I get it, but being on good terms with your players is important for more reasons than because it makes it easier to teach them a lesson.

Next the book gives the definition of allegory and explains why the game uses it instead of calling Jesus Jesus and not Overlord and such.

But again you may ask, \Is it right to use allegory? Is it really necessary?” Yes, it is, because sometimes people have heard things about Jesus Christ (or about Christianity) to which they have developed very denite responses, both positive and negative. These learned responses may block any further input. By using an allegory to retell those spiritual truths, the game provides a comfortable and non-threatening learning experience.

While it’s true, this game is rather firmly established as being Christian and primary for Christians, so I don’t think that divorcing the message from specific trappings of RL religion is a big concern here.

Moreover, it creates the old problem with allegories: extraneous details obscuring the intended meaning. I’ve discussed at length in these reviews the oddities of moral system based on sin enchantments and outright mindfuck, for example. Much like trying to give a message on why racism is bad using fantasy races which are, in fact, significantly different physically and mentally, this game adds certain details normal theology doesn’t need to deal with, potentially damaging the message it’s trying to preach.

Well, I guess it’s more about allegories in general than this game specifically, so let’s move on.

Next we have a number of advises for running the game: how to run NPCs, how to handle enemy movement in battle, etc. Most of these advises are actually not bad if basic and rather brief. I’m not sure they would be enough for an inexperienced GM, but I’ve said before I’m not the best to judge such things. They do at least outline the complexities of running a game.

Some advises deserve more detailed discussion, however.

To make the battles more exciting and prevent them from becoming a number game, the book suggests being descriptive. Instead of simply stating “I attack the orc with my sword, rolling dice,” you’re supposed to narrate your character’s actions, perhaps add some inner monologue and such.

It’s a popular advice that can be found in many games, but it’s worth noting that its utility is rather limited. There are only so many ways to describe a standard attack, especially if you have to repeat it over and over. In the end, being descriptive can become a chore when the tedium of mechanics keeps undermining your attempts to give each action individuality. The best way to make battles exciting is to give PCs exciting and, more importantly, varied stuff to do. If they simply exchange blows with enemies, it would quickly become rather boring, no matter how well those blows are described. On the other hand, dodging falling spikes while running on a narrow collapsing bridge pushing enemies out of your way and racing a time limit is exciting even without colorful description. That way, you have to deal with many different things, keep track of them, weigh attacking an enemy versus rushing past them and getting hit, etc. There is no room left for boredom.

The next advice is for for maintaining the suspense, and it basically amounts to “don’t tell players anything their characters wouldn’t know.” It’s a good advice, but it’s an advice about meta-gaming, which is only somewhat connected to suspense. Suspense is maintained by constructing the game narrative in a way that would keep players on their toes, not simply keeping them in the dark over how many HP a troll has.

It’s not surprising that the game doesn’t mention it, however, since there is absolutely zero advice on constructing your own adventures. The underlying assumption of the game is that you’re going to exclusively use official adventures, which, frankly, is a silly assumption. Even the GMs who actually do it would eventually run out of material, and cooking up something themselves is a natural course of action when there is a demand from players for a new game. Or, well, moving to something else, which is not exactly a desirable outcome.

As long as the game is at all popular, people creating their own adventures is inevitable, so it would have been nice of devs to include some advice on how to do it, especially since they’re concerned with spiritual lessons and stuff, and this shit would probably be the first to go in a homebrew project simply because it’s easier to not include if nothing else.

Then there is an advice on how to organize (or, rather, create) your gaming group.

Begin with your friends{invite them to your home to play DragonRaid. You may wish to prepare them a little by telling them briefly what the game is about, or you may find it more interesting to say nothing until after they have read the New Player Briefing.

OK, see the bolded part? Don’t do it. If you want to invite someone new to the game, be upfront about what it is. Some people are not interested and would decline, but the same people would find it harder to do when they’ve already made plans to spend time with you and got to your home. Such tactics are simply disingenuous.

At least the game is aware enough to note that it’s not for everyone:

Remember that DragonRaid is not for everyone. Some people will be uncomfortable with it. You should try to decide beforehand who you think would enjoy the game.

Except, again, it’s not you who should decide who would enjoy the game.

Also, the advice contains an interesting tidbit:

DragonRaid is primarily for Christians, but you may want to invite some non-Christians. We suggest that you do not play entirely with non-Christians, however, since they do not have a previous knowledge of some of the subjects that are covered in the game. On the other hand, if you are ready to teach and explain patiently, it could be a way to create spiritual interest and eventually bring someone to the Lord.

I thought the allegory was here to nullify the influence of preconceptions about Christianity? Which kinda implies that you don’t need to be familiar with Christian concepts to get this game?

Of course, in reality it does help to be a Christian to play this game since then you won’t ask questions like why Overlord doesn’t kill all demons and such. I think the allegory of DragonRaid is here not so much for the purpose of divorcing the message from the trappings of religion and preconceptions as for making it more comfortable for Christian AMs to play as NotJesus, NotDemons and so on.

Alright, next section is additional rules for the AM, and it starts with difficulty levels charts. For the most part, they do confirm my assertion that 1-2 difficulty is for easy tasks, 4-5 for standard ones and everything above is difficult.

What is interesting here is our old friend Righteously Mingle With Evil, unsurprisingly. It’s an ability that allows you to associate with evil without being tainted by it. So, for example, you may watch an execution of innocent people without interfering in order to maintain your cover, and it won’t affect your stats and make you more OK with sins.

And you know what’s the highest difficulty for this skill?

8. Have a casual friendship with a dragon slave
9. Have a close friendship with a dragon slave
10. Live far from other LightRaiders and have only dragon slaves for close friends

Friendship with non-Christians.

The devil is in the details, namely wording here. It’s not that evil deeds committed by people you care about are easier to excuse or be tempted by, it’s friendship itself that taints you. Remember that servant girl from the example adventure? If you get to know her as a person, you will SUCCUMB TO SIN. Unless you’re righteous enough, anyway.

So, remember, kids, don’t associate with non-Christians. It can only end badly. Leave it to people experienced enough in hating evil (a prerequisite ability) to not be swayed by reason or emotion from the path of righteousness.

An interesting question to ponder here is whether or not it’s intentional. There are other parts of the game seemingly advocating isolationism, like a prayer to ditch nonbelievers, but on the other hand the game also recommends playing with non-Christians to eventually bring them to God, which kinda requires you to associate with non-Christians to begin with.

Personally, I do think it’s devs’ convictions bleeding into the text without them noticing.

Moving on…

Next we have a brief section on dark creatures’ use of advanced combat. Most of them use normal attacks or half-swings when they want to capture PCs, only a few creatures use critical strikes. That’s sensible as it avoids too many insta-kills and permanent consequences. Still don’t like it in general, but, eh.

Next we have the penalty for killing dragon slaves. Accidental killing results in all character strengths dropping one point, deliberate killing results in all stats being reset to 1 unless you can say the repentance prayer, in which case they’re halved.

That’s some serious shit right there. No slippery slope here. One kill and you have less self-control than some serious killer, all but abandon your faith and erase all goodness from your soul.

Honestly, while I like the idea of forbidding killing enemies as they’re just victims, the punishment really seems to be too severe as it makes your character utterly useless since both your abilities and your HP drop to minuscule amount. After that, it’s actually easier to abandon the character or let them die in a fight (which they would probably do either way since 4 HP can be easily lost to one hit, and they have little in terms of defense), which means the message would be greatly lessened. Instead of taking a fall and working your way back in the game, enduring hardship as a punishment, the player would just get a fresh start, potentially more powerful than the previous character thanks to the broken character generation system.

And yes, you can reduce penalty with a prayer, but this thing is fucking huge and doesn’t come up that often unless you have a group dedicated to be contrary, so it’s a moot point either way.

Honestly, dropping attributes by one point feels like punishment enough if you want to implement a punishment system to begin with.

Alright, next we have another guide for fighting dragons. It’s the same as in the rulebook, just with more details, so I’m skipping it. Determining what the dragon would do with a dice roll is still stupid, though.

Next we have a rule for generating a new character after the previous one dies. For the most part, it’s the same as generating a brand new character, meaning you lose any progress you’ve made. But given how you can decrease your stats during the game, I guess sometimes it may be a blessing. Honestly, the stated goal of achieving a perfect score harms the game on many levels. Gamist structure is really not suited for this kind of thing…

Anyway, the only score that just grows linearly is the Sword of the Spirit, which determines the maximum level of word runes you can use. The rule basically states that the new character may regain the old Sword level instead of it dropping back to 1 if they can recite from memory (after revision) two runes picked by the AM.

That honestly feels incredibly dickish to me. Most games allow you to generate a character equal in strength to the rest of the party both for gameplay considerations (so as not to be useless) and because the death of a PC is a huge deal already, no need to add insult to injury.

Do the devs really think that D&D players start from the first level each time their characters dies or something?

Next we have more information on prestige classes, but it’s mostly rules for running animals and dealing with stat bonuses when players switch classes, nothing notable.

Next we have battle prayer. Basically, during a battle players may submit names of each other’s PCs to the AM. At the AM’s choosing, something terrible good may happen to them. There are tables to run this thing, which makes it totally possible to get a healing potion when you’re at full health and stuff like that. Overlord moves in mysterious ways.

The AM decides when a battle prayer is appropriate and usually indicates it to the players.

Eh, honestly, not the best idea. Deus ex Machina should generally be avoided, even the one relying on RNG as it tend to cheapen the struggles of the characters. It also brings home the question of why Overlord doesn’t do more. Not only is he capable of clear communication yet doesn’t use it, he is also clearly capable of direct intervention and often does it, yet not every time it’s actually needed. Light Raiders and dragon slaves alike die without Overlord saving them, important missions end in failure thanks to a few unlucky dice rolls, but Overlord is silent.

You know, at least when people deal with the problem of evil IRL they can be assured there is no help coming for anyone, not just for some people and not others in more or less the same situation.

If it feels like I’m rushing this section, it’s because I am. There isn’t really much to talk about, unlike the next section.

This one is about handling game problems. It actually starts pretty strong with people problems section: a player wants to leave, a player dominates the game, a player doesn’t participate, a player is disruptive, arguments between players or between players and the AM.

For the most part, the game does provide solid advice. For example, when a player wants to leave, the game suggests first trying to improve your style and talking with the player in case there is some problem or frustration preventing them from enjoying the game. If it didn’t help, however, the player should be allowed to leave with minimal fuss.

Dealing with disruptive players, however, is not handled very well as the game suggests using Bear Kotomine to tell them they behave unbecoming of a Light Raider or seriously injuring their character, thus preventing them from acting and speaking. Generally speaking, such things don’t solve the underlying problem and may even contribute to the player becoming more disruptive, now powered by spite. I’m a firm believer that people problems should be resolved with, well, people, outside of the game. It’s generally a much easier and cleaner way to deal with them.

To its credit, the game does include the advice to talk with the player in private or ask them to leave if nothing else helped, I just think these solutions should be the first and foremost in the GM’s arsenal, not some quadrupedal priests.

Also:

Part of a Christians leader’s responsibility involves disciplining those who need it. However, these suggestions are to be used only when a player is deliberately being disruptive, not when he is merely role-playing or acting out a sin enchantment to create division and diversion. Usually, public humiliation in front of a group of friends is sufficient to help keep such a player in line.

No, no it isn’t. Playing TRPG is a fun activity that should be done with friends or at least people with whom you have cordial relationships. If you need to keep someone in line, it’s a sign that you already have a problem exceeding game boundaries and you should sort this shit out before playing.

It’s also important to understand that not all your friends would make good players. Some people may not be really into TRPGs and simply tag along due to their friendship, which results in building frustration manifesting in disruptive behavior, others have personalities unsuited for gaming. In such a case, you’re really better off playing without them. Everyone has things they don’t like to share with some of their friends, it’s nothing bad or unusual, and often TRPGs are one of these things.

Alright, then we have spiritual problems. Despite the name, they don’t actually deal with players who’re way into sin or something. The first problem on the list is how to prevent an overuse of easy spiritual solutions like praying for the problems to be solved or rebuking dark creatures in Overlord’s name.

Well, I have an easy non-spiritual solution to this spiritual problem: don’t give players an easy way out.

It’s literally as simple as that and most games get it, but apparently not this one. No, it goes on a theological tirade about how God sometimes answers our prayers but other times doesn’t for reasons.

But many times God says no to our prayers. There are, of course, many reasons for this, most of them probably unknown to us. It may be because we are asking for easy deliverance from hard things that have been sent into our lives so that we might grow in the likeness of Jesus Christ.

The same is true of rebuking evil. Often it is God’s will for us to wage an active battle against it, rather than simply to escape it. God wants us to be strong Christians, so He does not always grant our requests for miraculous deliverances, nor does He always grant us power to rebuke evil in His name.

Well, it’s nice to see the game at least attempting to deal with the problem of evil, though the answer is still unsatisfying.

The advice basically amounts to “give players an easy way out, but only when they stray far away from the intended course of an adventure so they can get back on the rails.”

Which, meh. But the discussion about railroading have to wait for another section…

The next problem is what to do when a player cheat, and the solution is to give a penalty. Pretty basic, should work, though I would say sometimes you may let it slide with a warning.

Next we have game-related problems.

The first among them is maintaining game balance. You’d expect suggestions for designing encounters, perhaps something along the lines of testing waters with weak enemies before gradually increasing their strength to see when the PCs start to struggle, or perhaps charts covering what threat would be appropriate depending on PCs’ weapon abilities and HP.

But no, it’s actually what to do when you accidentally make the fight too hard or too easy. The solution is reinforcements in a form of ponies angels, animals, random Light Raiders or elements.

As I’ve said before, Deus ex Machina should really be avoided. If a fight is too hard, give the PCs an opportunity to retreat and regroup. Normally it’s not too hard. Or perhaps make it so the enemies capture them instead of killing, so now they have to escape. Throwing PCs a bone can be done as well, but generally you’d want it to look natural and not like you cover your ass. And sometimes you may simply allow PCs to fail.

Though I guess pegasi suddenly appearing to bite your enemies to death is less immersion-breaking for people who believe their lives are a part of some grand design.

Next problem the game talks about is character death, though the solution amounts to quickly creating a new character and inserting them into the game.

Have the party encounter a dragon slave who accepts the OverLord and becomes a member of the TwiceBorn.

Wait, it’s actually an option? But the information about the setting is incredibly limited, and such a character shouldn’t be expected to know any word runes despite them being an important part of the game and… I’m not supposed to think about it, am I?

Oh, hey, next section actually answers what to do when the whole party falls under an enchantment: Bear Kotomine. Or angels or other Light Raiders who just happened to stop by, but why use them when you have Bear Kotomine?

Next problem is about the AM being confused over the course of the game or some rules, and the solution is to take a break and figure out how to proceed. Nothing interesting or objectionable here.

Next we get the cake:

In many role-playing games, it is common{and sometimes even desirable{for players to leave the written adventure and go o in some direction of their own choosing. However, this is not always the case in DragonRaid. Since the system is designed to teach certain truths, a departure from the text may cause players to miss out on valuable spiritual lessons. So you must help them stay as close as possible to the material in the Adventure GuideBook.

Hello, railroading, I didn’t miss you.

So, I’ve noted a few things in the previous post that seemed to actively advise you to use railroading in your games, and here is a confirmation that it was intentional: the book openly states that departing from the adventure as written is a bad thing.

Now, railroading is a complex issue. On the one hand, you do need some boundaries. If you were preparing for a murder mystery in a small town but the players decided to go to a big city and open a business, completely ignoring the mystery, chances are none of you would have much fun since you won’t have any prepared challenges for them to face and there is only so much improvisation can do.

On the other hand, openly manipulating game events to lead characters back on track is incredibly immersion-breaking and makes it clear to the players that they don’t have any real control over the events of their characters’ lives: at any time the GM can directly interfere and make everything they worked for moot.

As such, in successful groups there is generally a balancing act performed by the GM present.

What form it takes depends greatly on the group dynamic. Some groups contain very driven, active players who know what they want out of the game and are capable of easily devising the course of action that would lead them in the desired direction. With such groups, the GM is better off not having any grand plans. Just ask such players what they plan to do, think about what kind of people they’re likely to make their enemies, think what those people will do, go from there. It’s better not to have specific plans but a collection of potential encounters and events that are likely to happen.

Other players are terrified of freedom and would just freeze up if left to their own devises. For such a group, it’s preferable to ensure that at any give time the next goal is clear. In such a setup the GM can get away with more definite planning, a specific plot by the villains moving along a set course.

In either case, however, it’s preferable to not lock yourself into defined timelines and events that must happen for the game to proceed. Keep your ideas fluid and abstract enough to adapt to changed circumstances. Speaking of adaptations, one particularly useful trick is to take a set core idea and change the details to fit the new situation. A dramatic fight in a burning factory can easily become a dramatic fight on a burning ship, for example. You may change maps and recalibrate enemy positions and such, but a lot of planning done for the first encounter can be easily used for the second one. Same for twists and invisible retcons. If an NPC you intended to be important dies, there are always more NPCs around, you can give them parts of the role of the dead one.

What’s important to remember here is that TRPGs by their very nature is a collaborative process. Players’ efforts should be respected, their actions should have a visible effect on the narrative. If the players stray from a set course of your adventure, don’t force them back, try instead to incorporate the important parts of the adventure to players’ new path. And if they deliberately run from your adventure, then you have a problem best resolved outside of the game. There is a good chance the players are bored with the adventure, which means it simply was bad for your group, so abandoning it in favor of something new is a good thing.

But, of course, this game is not really interested in accommodating players’ desires. Its main goal is to teach spiritual lessons, and by God it will do it, no matter how forced they are:

This need not hamper your creativity, or theirs either. You can even be innovative in the way you bring them back to the text. Tell the players that a talking magpie flies down in front of them and advises them that what they are about to do isn’t in the OverLord’s will! As a general rule, keep each adventure running fairly close to the GuideBook. If you do not, DragonRaid may become just another game{fun, but without educational value. And imparting Christian truth is what DragonRaid is all about.

The thing is, this obsession with imparting the right lesson via creating just right circumstances is ultimately detrimental to the game. The players would know you’re railroading them towards a set course, don’t ever think otherwise, and they would know that whatever your lesson is, it only came to pass thanks to your control over the artificial environment. Would the moral be the same if they were allowed to act as they will, to escape the written narrative as the game itself put it? They wouldn’t know, but they would wonder, and your lessons would be undermined by doubt.

It doesn’t mean that you can’t use TRPGs to talk about morality and ideals, but it must be a dialogue, not a lecture. The only real way to do so is to present the players with a situation where a moral lesson can emerge and allow them to do as they see fit, confronting them with realistic consequences of their actions afterwards. And if the lesson doesn’t work out, if the events make it so evil and selfishness look more appealing than love and kindness, well, it’s the same in the real life more often than many would like, and it’s important to learn to deal with that fact.

It does run a risk of players learning a wrong moral lesson, of course, if they, say, manage to design a perfect crime and get away with it, but doing otherwise just doesn’t really work. In an artificial environment like that, the players would quickly shift from thinking about what is right to thinking about what the AM wants them to do, since it’s the only way to advance in the game and every other choice is a dead end.

And, well, reality doesn’t work like that. There are no helpful guides who would inform us when we strayed from the rightful path. There isn’t even a singular path. Whether you’re a believer in something or just someone who wants to be a good person, ultimately it’s up to you to decide what is wrong and right. You may heed advice of other people or old books, but you can’t expect the world to always confirm them. Sometimes the only lesson the world has to teach is “shit happens.”

And that, I think, is what’s sorely lacking in DragonRaid: doubt. Between prophetic dreams, word runes providing a rebuke to every harmful thought, divine guide ready to help you when you struggle and now open advice to railroad, there is no room for doubting how you should proceed. Perhaps it’s different in other adventures as these materials are intended for beginners, but I kinda doubt it as it seems to be integral to the game structure.

And, well, without a doubt no ideal can survive, only fanaticism. It’s not something I would want to teach my players.

Now imagine a game where considerations like this one are absent. You’re warriors of a vaguely Christian God sent on a mission to generally improve the lives of people laboring under the dragons’ reign. You have no guidance, no assurance of your righteousness in the face of mingling with evil, no divine guard assigned to you. Just you, your comrades and your holy armor. So you go from village to village, from town to town, talking with people living there, spreading the word of your god and doing good deeds both in his name and for the hell of it. Some people are glad to see you and are curious about your god, while others are not. Some suffer under the dragons while others prosper. Some are happy, others live in quiet desperation. And it’s hard to decide what should be done with each situation you find yourself in and whether something should be done at all. Everything is interconnected, and your actions may have far-reaching consequences.

Would you help people who spit at your god even if they suffer? Would you try to preach to people who are perfectly content without your religion when they indicate they’re not interested in your words? Would you lose faith when it turns out that your best attempt at fixing a situation was not enough and just led to more suffering?

Now, that would be an interesting game to play.

Alright, folks, we have two more sections to go, and I expect them to not take as much words to describe. Tune in next time to learn how to become a better AM. For some reason it doesn’t involve picking up some other game.