World Builders Tools: Medieval History

The Teaching Company's Medieval World lecture, conducted by Dorsey Armstrong is a great way to get into medieval history if your too busy. It has, like many TTC DVDs, a booklet with outlines and bibliographies which allows you to pursue particular aspects of interests.

I owe it to RPGs that got me into Medieval History. When I was in highschool, my brothers and I saved up to purchase Advanced Dungeon and Dragons Revisited, Combat and Tactics for P1200 around 1996. My high school term paper was about the hundred years war, which was highly unusual and difficult because we don't have accessible public libraries.

Interest in medieval socio-economics made me really appreciate the subject matter all the way to modern Philippine context. Analyzing how people tried to devise better ways of living with each other through game theory and evolution colored and enhanced my understanding. It helped me understand how interactive situations tend to have a flow or a manner of growing more complex.

As for games, understanding the simple allowed me to observe the key fundamental elements that result in the complex. So in the beginning of a games premise, as the story begins to move, I'm able to predict or anticipate to changes and apply skills and knowledge that make me more adaptable to facilitate the game.

Details, particularly historical details have a pronounced affect in how I observe and communicate. After learning so many things which I can't retain, I begin to see a patterns that allows me to organize and arrange the knowledge to more accommodating sizes. Simple ideas become extended to have more meanings and iterations, like what is a land holder, an aristocrat, the warrior class and the subtle differences that have a striking affect in the world around them.

Personal formulas or principles begin to form to accommodate how best to communicate certain ideas. The differences between various land holding people, peasants or freemen, serfs and slaves have profound causes and reason that can be found in the mundane.

An example, the rights to bear arms meant to a peasant. the duty to fight for your lord when summoned, also afforded these peasants the ability to demand rights in return. What it means to have one's destiny or happiness within their own grasp, as compared to the will of fate or one's lord. A peasant working a farm compared to a serf is much more productive not just because he doesnt lose 50% of his product, but because he directly benefits for his innovation.

There are many more profound ideas and ideals that make up the ordinary lives of people, that become extraordinary in the right conditions. These help in weaving detail and ideas to the shared story.

One other nice lesson I would like to point out is the mysteries found in history that allows us to play the role of "detective". Since many works are now available, as they came from pre-Information age, a layman-historian can now compare and refined by many other disciplines that are available at our finger tips. Physical Sciences and Game Theory, which allows me to form my own informed hypothesis is a challenging exercise that hones the GM craft regarding improvisation and escalating complexity.

Sun Tzu: Desperate Ground

The Art of war is pretty useful for any war campaign. The anecdotes attached to the document give the GM many ideas of how to describe a situation.

Sun Tzu's 9 situations. is by itself a Powerful GM tool for analyzing character situations. Do not just apply it in combat, approach it socially, and logistically as well. Being able to identify Sun Tzu's 9 situations allows you to simply add on the elements that enhance the risk and challenge of a situation.

(1) Dispersive ground;
(2) facile ground;
(3) contentious ground;
(4) open ground;
(5) ground of intersecting highways;
(6) serious ground;
(7) difficult ground;
(8) hemmed-in ground;
(9) desperate ground.

Ex. Dispersive Ground - this is a situation where the personal weaknesses of the characters can easily overcome them. If you are using disadvantages and understand the motives of your players, Dispersive ground is when they are tempted to give in to a shared weakness.

A party of greedy adventurers might find looting more favorable than a time-sensitive goal that has a much greater pay off. In a situation where the party would rather fight than talk, and where talking is the "smarter" thing to do. The art of war recommends avoiding dispersive ground: or in the case of the PCs, avoid the temptation.

Facile Ground is much like Dispersive ground, except it is in the transition to serious ground (situations where morale and intent is clear). In tenuous conflict, like a difficult melee, there the GM introduces a situations that preys on the discipline of the party. Self-preservation, vanity or pride, and disinclination to think critically create facil ground when the patience of the players wear thin.

Open Ground is when there are too many options, and the NPC opponents also have this many options. Like the dangers noted by Sun Tzu, the first person to move will not be the first to react. These are situations where players who are tempted to make plans and act on unverified information or assumptions.

In much of these situations, the GM is "heaven" or "fate". Since the GM facilitates the situation, he should be able to identify the flow and direction of the challenges through these useful constructs and put his or her finger on point that makes it interesting and engaging.

Random Disadvantage Installment II

This is another random roll table. This is for socio-economic background. This is supposed to be used in tandem with the previous random disadvantage table (Personality background table).


Socio-Economic Background
Not everyone is part of the predominant TL10 society of the game setting. Technology Level in varies greatly. Characters who live in sub-sector capital worlds that has a strategic economic advantage have a technological familiarity advantage. This goes both ways, since technology requires a sophisticated support system, characters familiar with lower tech can operate farther and farther from tech support.

For the purpose of the background, TL is more about familiarity to certain technologies.

• Roll 3d
• 3-4 -3
• 5-6 -2
• 7-8 -1
• 9-13 +0
• 14+ +1

Wealth and Status represents a particular social group the character belongs. Socio-economic conditions have a strong affect on people. It affects their education, the kind of people they are able to access, and what opportunities are open to them.

• Roll 3d
• 3 Poor (roll 1d)
• 4-6 Struggling (Roll 1d)
• 7-10 Average (Roll 1d)
• 11-13 Comfortable (Roll 1d)
• 14-15 Wealthy (Roll 3d)
• 16-17 Very Wealthy (Roll 3d)
• 18 Filthy Rich (Roll 3d)

Note: This is meant for Traveller TL10 society. This has a very optimistic division of wealth. Medieval or Dystopic games will have a much larger poor, and struggling class..

Medieval or Dystopic

• Roll 3d
• 3-8 Poor (roll 1d)
• 9-11 Struggling (Roll 1d)
• 12-13 Average (Roll 1d)
• 14-15 Comfortable (Roll 1d)
• 16 Wealthy (Roll 1d)
• 17 Very Wealthy (Roll 1d)
• 18 Filthy Rich (Roll 1d)

Poor (roll 1d) (status -2)

1-4 x0.2 wealth modifier

5-6 x0.3 wealth modifier

Struggling (Roll 1d) (status -1)

1-4 x0.5 wealth modifier

5-6 x0.7 wealth modifier

Average (Roll 1d) (status 0)

1-4 x1 wealth modifier

5-6 x1.5 wealth modifier

Comfortable (Roll 1d) (status 1)

1-4 x2 wealth modifier

5-6 x3 wealth modifier

Wealthy (Roll 3d) (status 2)

3-9 x5 wealth modifier

10-11 x7 wealth modifier

12-14 x10 wealth modifier

15+ x15 wealth modifier

Very Wealthy (Roll 3d) (status 3)

3-10 x20 wealth modifier

11-13 x30 wealth modifier

14-16 x50 wealth modifier

17-18 x70 wealth modifier

Filthy Rich (Roll 3d) (status 4)

3-10 x100 wealth modifier

11-12 x150 wealth modifier

13-14 x200 wealth modifier

15-16 x300 wealth modifier

17 x500 wealth modifier

18 x700 wealth modifier

This is followed by an additional roll for for other disadvantages.
Roll for the added number of disads.
Roll 1d-1 (exploding d6; roll again when you roll a 6. Add them all up)
Then roll for the kind and severity of each disad.
Roll the Kind 1d

• 1-3 Behavioral
• 4 Mental
• 5 Social
• 6 Physical

Roll the Severity

• Roll 3d
• 3-9 Quirks
• 10-11 Minor
• 12-13 Serious
• 14-15 Major
• 16+ Severe

Use this spread which can be found here for a whole bunch of other disadvantages Random Disadvantage Roll.

Random Disadvantages installments

Here are some random disadvantages to be rolled up. This is founded on my basic 7 GURPS defined common human disadvantages. Each of the 7 aspects are rolled up, to create some variety and challenge for the role-player. Its easy to modify the frequencies and odds of some disadvantage depending on what you believe should be more or less common.

This is part 1 of 2 parts of rolling disadvantages for some character randomization tables I'm making. There is second roll for other disadvantages typically: mental or involuntary psychological, behavioral, social, and physical disadvantages. Because of the Self-control roll and variable disadvantage costs, this will take a week or two to fix up.

It won't even be that good after, working to closely with something makes certain mistakes harder to catch, so even if I do finish it, I will have to wait for a couple of weeks before I can look at it again without feeling it was too much work.

This can be used in other games, if you want to roll up the character's general personality but it requires references to what the GURPS disads mean and going beyond the game definition (which i tend to do).

Disadvantages.

Roll for random disadvantages. First roll for Duty, Sense of Duty, Code of Honor, Discipline of Faith, Honesty, and Pacifism.

Duty

Duty represents responsibilities. The parenthesis represents the frequency, assume, 3000 at 15, 2000 hours of work at 12, 1500 at 9, and 1000 at 6 a year. Quite simply, a duty means a Job that allows the character to support his lifestyle.

Jobs are never as they are defined. Many times there is more work than initially expected. The bottom line is to do what has to be done to get it right. Two people with different circumstances, but the same job can have varying responsibilities, many implied and indirect.

Roll 3d

3-5 None

6-7 Roll 1d

• 1-4 Non-hazardous (6)

• 5-6 Hazardous (9)

8-11 Roll 1d

• 1-2 Non-hazardous (12)

• 3-4 Hazardous (9)

• 5-6 Extremely Hazardous (6)

12-14 Roll 1d

• 1-2 Non-hazardous (15)

• 3-4 Hazardous (12)

• 5-6 Extremely Hazardous (9)

15-16 Roll 1d

• 1-4 Hazardous (15)

• 5-6 Extremely Hazardous (12)

17-18 Extreme Hazardous (15)

Sense of Duty.

Sense of Duty represents social bonds the characters prioritizes. Typically characters have a strong connection to a “family-like” group. This family fill various roles as companions/ peers/ siblings, authority/ father-figure, care-giver/ mother-figure, partners/ spouses, and dependents/ offspring.

Roll 3d

3-5 None

6-8 Individual

9-13 Small group or “Family”

14-15 Large group

16-17 Nation

18 “Humanity”

Code of Honor.

A character's personal moral beliefs can be found within their code of honor. Essentially, it is a set of behavior practiced with the intent to further one believes to be good. Code of Honor defaults to be non-religious in nature, treat religious disciplines as an “add-on” to Code of Honor.

The severity of Code of Honor is how much it is valued compared to the person's safety and survival. A soldier, whose life is at a hands of an authority, has a serious code of honor. A chivalric knight or a religious devotee has an extreme code of honor. Values like Social Bonds, Religious Faith, Respect for Authority/Order is rooted in the character's personal code.

Roll 3d

3-6 No Code of Honor

7-8 Quirk

9-12 Code of Honor (Professional)

13-15 Code of Honor (Serious)

16+ Code of Honor (Extreme)

Discipline of Faith.

This is the presence, absence and intensity of a character's religious belief. Stricter disciplines of faith, impose greater restrictions over a character. Look to the character's Code of Honor as to the intensity he carries these beliefs.

Roll 3d (Typically Secular Society)

3-6 Discipline of Faith (Monastic)

7-8 Discipline of Faith (Ritual Observation)

9-10 Mild Discipline of Faith

11+ None

Honesty.

This represents the character's attitude towards those of Authority. Many factors play into this perception, particularly regarding legitimacy, credibility and their personal moral beliefs. Characters who have a greater measure of honesty, try to enforce on themselves a stricter discipline. Since nothing is without consequence, this measures the character's law-abiding track record so far.

Roll 3d

3-6 None

7-11 Honesty (15)

12-13 Honesty (12)

14-16 Honesty (9)

17+ Honesty (6)

Pacifism.

General Humanity of the Character. Pacifism extends farther than just killing, as it applies generally to harm. There are exceptions, to protection and value of life and this is defined by the kind of pacifism.

Roll 3d

3-5 None

6-8 Reluctant killer

9-13 Cannot Harm innocents

14-15 Self defense Only

16-17 Cannot Kill

18 Total Non-Violence

Intolerance

Roll for the odds that the character has a typical intolerance to what his society generally finds acceptable. Rarely are people are able to tolerate everyone completely. There are highly intolerable people that can easily be defined as a group.

Roll 1d

1 General Intolerance

2-5 Towards natural cultural bias

6 None

Basic Traveller Templates

These templates were made to reflect basic proficiency with regards to the hours of training that would into their contemporary real-world counterparts. I plan to emphasize on specialized intelligence, because IQ is too cost efficient and does enourage the diversity we are able to observe in the real world.

Currently I am working to make a basic: randomizer add on for gamers who want a way to randomize their stats within reasonable paramters.

TL10 Background [5]: Literature (Cultural) (H) IQ-2 [1]; Research (A) IQ-1 [1]; Computer Operation (E) IQ [1]; Mathematics (Applied) (H) IQ-2 [1]; Philosophy (Science) (H) IQ-2 [1]; Savoir-Faire (Communications) (E) IQ [1].

Starship Deckhand

7 points

Attributes [0]: ST 10 [0]; DX 10 [0]; IQ 10 [0]; HT 10 [0].

Secondary Characteristics [0]: Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs.; HP 10 [0]; Will 10 [0]; Per 10 [0]; FP 10 [0]; Basic Speed 5.25 [0]; Basic Move 5 [0].

Primary Skills [7]:

Crewman [7]: Spacer (E) IQ+2 [4]; Free Fall (A) DX-1 [1]; Environmental Suit (Vacc Suit) (A) DX-1 [1]; Savoir-Faire (Merchant or Military) (E) IQ [1].

Starship Petty Officer

35 points

Attributes [20]: ST 10 [0]; DX 10 [0]; IQ 11 [0]; HT 10 [0].

Secondary Characteristics [0]: Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs.; HP 10 [0]; Will 11 [0]; Per 11 [0]; FP 10 [0]; Basic Speed 5 [0]; Basic Move 5 [0].

Advantages [5]:

Petty Officer [5]: Merchant or Military Rank 1 [5].

Primary Skills [10]:

Crewman [4]: Spacer (E) IQ [1]; Free Fall (A) DX-1 [1]; Environmental Suit (Vacc Suit) (A) DX-1 [1]; Savoir-Faire (Merchant or Military) (E) IQ [1].

Choose from:

• Steward [6]: Housekeeping (E) IQ+1 [2]; Cooking (E) IQ [1]; First Aid (E) IQ [1]; Savoir-Fair (Servant) (E) IQ+1 [2].

• Gunner [6]: Gunner (E) DX+2 [4]; Artillery (Missiles) (A) IQ [2].

• Flight Crew [6]: Mechanic (High performance Spacecraft) (A) IQ [2]; Armoury (Heavy Weapons) (A) IQ [2]; Armoury (Vehicular Armor) (A) IQ [2].

• Freight Handler [6]: Freight Handling (A) IQ [2]; Hazardous materials (A) IQ [2]; Environmental Suit (Exo-skeleton) (A) IQ [2].

• Medical [6]: Physician (H) IQ-1 [2]; Diagnosis (H) IQ-1 [2]; Electronics Operation (A) IQ [2].

Starship Officer

45 points

Attributes [20]: ST 10 [0]; DX 10 [0]; IQ 11 [20]; HT 10 [0].

Secondary Characteristics: Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs.; HP 10 [0]; Will 11 [0]; Per 11 [0]; FP 10 [0]; Basic Speed 5 [0]; Basic Move 5 [0].

Advantages [10]:

Officer [10]: Merchant or Military Rank 2 [10].

Primary Skills [15]:

Crewman [4]: Spacer (E) IQ [1]; Free Fall (A) DX-1 [1]; Environmental Suit (Vacc Suit) (A) DX-1 [1]; Savoir-Faire (Merchant or Military) (E) IQ [1].

Choose from:

• Bridge Officer Skills [11]: Administration (A) IQ [2]; Electronics Operation (Communication) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Electronics Operation (Sensor) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Electronics Operation (Electronic Warfare) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Electronics Operation (Medical) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Piloting (High Performance Spacecraft) (A) DX-1 [1]; Navigation (Space) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Navigation (Hyperspace) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Gunnery (Beam) (E) DX [1]; Artillery (Missile) (A) IQ-1 [1].

• Engineering Officer [11]: Mechanic (High Performance Spacecraft) (A) IQ [2]; Electronics Repair (Communication) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Electronics Repair (Sensor) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Electronics Repair (Electronic Warfare) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Electronics Repair (Medical) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Electronics Repair (Computers) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Computer Programing (H) IQ-2 [1]; Machinist (H) IQ-2 [1]; Armoury (Heavy Weapons) (A) IQ-1 [1].

• Pilot Officer Skills [11]: Electronics Operation (Communication) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Electronics Operation (Sensor) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Electronics Operation (Electronic Warfare) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Piloting (High Performance Spacecraft) (A) DX+1 [4]; Navigation (Space) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Gunnery (Beam) (E) DX [1]; Artillery (Missile) (A) IQ [2].

Starship Engineer

45 points

Attributes [20]: ST 10 [0]; DX 10 [0]; IQ 11 [20]; HT 10 [0].

Secondary Characteristics: Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs.; HP 10 [0]; Will 13 [0]; Per 13 [0]; FP 10 [0]; Basic Speed 5.25 [0]; Basic Move 5 [0].

Advantages [10]:

Chief Engineer[10]: Merchant or Military Rank 2 [10].

Primary Skills [24]:

Engineer [9]: Engineer (Starships) (H) IQ-1 [2]; Mechanic (Jump Drive) (A) IQ [2]; Administration (A) IQ [2]; Leadership (A) IQ [2]; Armoury (Vehicular Armor) (A) IQ-1 [1].

Engineering Officer [11]: Mechanic (High Performance Spacecraft) (A) IQ [2]; Electronics Repair (Communication) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Electronics Repair (Sensor) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Electronics Repair (Electronic Warfare) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Electronics Repair (Medical) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Electronics Repair (Computers) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Computer Programing (H) IQ-2 [1]; Machinist (H) IQ-2 [1]; Armoury (Heavy Weapons) (A) IQ-1 [1].

Crewman [4]: Spacer (E) IQ [1]; Free Fall (A) DX-1 [1]; Environmental Suit (Vacc Suit) (A) DX-1 [1]; Savoir-Faire (Merchant or Military) (E) IQ [1].

Starship Commander

59 points

Attributes [20]: ST 10 [0]; DX 10 [0]; IQ 11 [20]; HT 10 [0].

Secondary Characteristics [0]: Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs.; HP 10 [0]; Will 12 [0]; Per 12 [0]; FP 10 [0]; Basic Speed 5 [0]; Basic Move 5 [0].

Advantages [15]:

Commander [15]: Merchant or Military Rank 3 [15].

Primary Skills [24]:

Commander Skills [9]: Leadership (A) IQ [2]; Ship-Handling (H) IQ [4]; Intelligence Analysis (H) IQ-2 [1]; Tactics (Space) (H) IQ-2 [1]; Strategy (H) IQ-2 [1].

Bridge Officer Skills [11]: Administration (A) IQ [2]; Electronics Operation (Communication) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Electronics Operation (Sensor) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Electronics Operation (Electronic Warfare) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Electronics Operation (Medical) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Piloting (High Performance Spacecraft) (A) DX-1 [1]; Navigation (Space) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Navigation (Hyperspace) (A) IQ-1 [1]; Gunnery (Beam) (E) DX [1]; Artillery (Missile) (A) IQ-1 [1].

Crewman [4]: Spacer (E) IQ [1]; Free Fall (A) DX-1 [1]; Environmental Suit (Vacc Suit) (A) DX-1 [1]; Savoir-Faire (Merchant or Military) (E) IQ [1].

GM tools: Planning what Random tables need

Its been 2 weeks since my Random Village generator v0.1, which in hindsight needs a lot of improvement. I've been reading all the books again and trying to find out the best way to generate a random village. Mostly this details the steps I need to take, so that I can really visualize the challenges I will be undertaking for this tool.

What I think I will need for a Random Village Generator v1

1. Select Terrain - Of course the GM will always have a location in mind for the village. Almost everything depends on the location! Location! Location!
2. Population - Population is next. It is affected by terrain, key modifiers and GM's fiat.
3. Produce - Since location is a pretty important determinant, several tables for a particular terrain. They will overlap, but a glosary and more trivial tables should follow of how certain details may turn out.
4. Political Center - This represents how the "organism" which is the community is organized and interact with each other. I've spend most of the week struggling in how to describe it sufficiently for GMs. It sucks when Ideas of politic science can be offensive to some people. I guess I shouldn't try to please everyone.
5. Wealth - Again this touches on my socio-economic studies that might piss off people. I've gotten often into debates when I assumed that credibly accepted and tested science or hypothesis. Its just weird to be so conditioned to tip toe around such, even in games where there should be not offending anyone who can just click away from the material.
6. Problems - Everyone has problems, even a community struggles with their day to day, or long term needs. This is what adventures are made off, if there were no problems, no one would leave their comfort zones to do anything. The problems table works with generalized situations applied to the context of the details above. When I say Civil Dispute, I'll provide several examples of the sort (a social arrangement gone sour -like an arranged marriage, typical land dispute, minor feud, petty differences escalating etc...). I'll leave it up to the GM to use the details he randomly rolls-up to tie into the circumstance.
7. Village Persona generator - this leads to the territory of random PC motives or NPC generation. In my gaming style, I usually grab what ever personality profiles I'm familiar with (which i don't like to do because it makes me predictable and doesn't exercise my improvisation). I'd rather break them down into "schools" of thought using what I learned about game theory and my observation of behaviors: complexity of self interest. The self-interest premise, from my game theory studies can be offensive to the sensibilities of other people. Its a personal philosophy, which will take a lot of source citations and studies to prove and explain. I don't like to make a the typical "archetype" generator all long-time gamers are familiar with from other game systems. I want to apply what I've learned in creating a wide variety of motives that has the ability of making NPCs run deep enough to allow GMs to impov effectively without rehashing familiar and predictable personalities.

I guess I shouldn't worry about offending to many people, anyway its not like I'm forcing my point of views on anyone. Its a blog people can just close the tab or window.

Looking at what's up ahead, It will take me some time to make the village generator. Especially since I'll be work on it, when I wait for each idea to clears up before putting it into words. Probably a 2 weeks or 3.

Telescopic Flexibility and Escalation

A question in the Forums got me thinking to why I like the complexity. It boils down to 2 things: telescopic flexibility and escalation.

Has anyone here, that mainly plays GURPS, ever play with another system and realize at some point that there was a skill/skills you [I]really[/I] missed and wished were available in that system? If so, what was it/were they? - Ragitsu (SJ games boards)

Telescopic. When I compare real world skills to GURPS, which I read up on to give a better story telling effect and it comes up as part of my job, GURPS skills looks simple.

Anything simpler than GURPS for me underestimates the many factors and limitations that affect certainty and risk (which i do a general study as an entrepreneur).

I am aware it is a game and the need for practical speed and simplicity. The details help in "escalating" the game along with the PC's advancement. It does so by giving a informed idea of the consequences and factors that affect situation and flow.

Details are Telescopic in Hind-sight. Its easy to abstract complex to simple, its hard to telescope into abstract to specific details without being informed about the differences. Being able to move back and forth between detail to abstract is a useful (but not necessary) tool among the many skills that figure into GMing IMO.

How details figure in the game and story telling. They enhance realism and allow for a more consistency and allow for more senses to be engage by the imagination (describing via 5+1 senses). It also places more engaging/attractive stimuli before the players (like a trail of candy).

Escalation. Details add Complexity. Complexity are more opportunities to screw up. Thus, complexity and details Escalate challenges. This all has to do with understanding and widening of options.

I'm sure everyone knows the principle: "...with more knowledge comes more questions." It works that way with details. As in Robin's Laws, its pretty much covered by the GM's standard response of "...and then what." and "tell me more.".

Inflicting my players with the problems, complexities, and dilemmas I found in business, historical, and behavioral interest books may sound unworkable. Although, a great measure of understanding is how I'm able to apply the basic principles in a way that is interesting to to the players.

It is a matter of the hobby perpetuating/enhancing the skill that allows me to have more time (and less stress) for other things. One can look at in another way: real life skills that make life workable, perpetuating/enhancing the game experience.