Historical Games and Systems Thinking

Systems Thinking

It was when I was catching up with old friends where my problem with running games came about. My first instinct is to look for a simple algorithm.

Example - "Nothing Exists in a Vacuum" or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_vacui_(physics) this means if there is a group of people, there is a tendency for people to jockey for position. It also means people will have an economy of sorts to meet their needs. It implies an Individual cannot Lose a Vice without Replacing that Vice, and fail to factor the needs it serves.

In Games Horror-Vacui or "Nothing Exists in a Vacuum" is one of the critical checklist elements A World Builder has to set out to fix or else Players have some bothersome "Why."

It appears that my limitations and fears are that I cannot produce all the data or sufficiently entertain, and so I need a simple algorithm to work with. Algorithms like 2-second Pitch (one breath long), 20-sec extrapolation (the length of time I didn't take a breath to speak), to listen 2x more than talk (to have many breaths of listening), repeat back what I just heard to confirm, etc...

The Skills I maintain requires me to practice them when I go into a Pedantic discussion, I realize from my Anki studies that I naturally gravitate towards these details because it strengthens the memory. It reinforces the Behavior.

Now many Interlocking Systems, for example, the breathing and Active Listening techniques I elaborated, are part of a much larger and Complex Activity - like Consensus and Storytelling - that happens while playing. These algorithms make it that I know what to do next, even if I'm not conscious about it, there is that conditioned response that makes me do what comes naturally because of a system of feedback loops that signal me to do a practiced action next.

In a System, I'm not alone, isolated, disconnected, and vulnerable. In a system, I know what to do, and get feedback if I'm helping or harming, or contributing. 

Immersion of History

So I'm listening to an Audiobook March of 10,000 of Xenophon's adventures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Thousand, the Adventures that Inspired The Lost Fleet by John G. Hemry and Christian Cameron's Tyrant Series, The Long War Series, etc...

I move through the Imagination as though I'm immersed in it. I mentally rehearse and play the details of getting up, my morning ritual, and encountering the problems. I mentally rehearse all the complications and difficulties I have in life - the messiness of Individual Perspectives to a Problem, and the Big Gaping Unknown of "Objectivity." There are details that I have to carefully note - because verbally, it will be lost in between the for the finite FPS of Attention of other people.

History has the familiarity of being able to take my limitations: my weak immune system, my terrible sleeping habits, my inadequate attention, my limited skills, etc... and put it into the context of a situation that existed in the real world. To put into context how I would have fared in such situations and the gruesome fate I would have suffered.  It makes me aware of the changes from the recent history of current events to those of an Alien world of hundreds or thousands of years ago when the climate and erosion have changed the shape of the land.

That Awe - that triggers Gratitude and sense of Connectedness in Mindfulness, I find experiencing it more when I immerse in a historical setting. Remembering trees and mountain faces only live for hundreds of years and that river paths change in a few centuries carving out many different channels and ecologies.

Systems Thinking and how Historical Settings make me feel more Interconnected and Grateful are ODD reasons to play TRPGS. It's odd to the point of sad because that's a really really narrow audience (good thing I recorded those games).

I remember trying to run a Modern-Day African game using a fictional African country just to give me the allowance of having a poor understanding of Africa. How I studied so much about African history during those days and how I would have made an Anki Deck and memorized the countries and used Pictures to remember all the interesting details about them. If life took a different path - I would have studied Elevation, Climate, Peoples, Languages, economic conditions, etc... and explored the different Accents. Being able to account for the 168 hours of the week and what it takes to maintain my Cost of Living, all this is just a dream and fancy I cannot afford to do in real life. I'm too busy raising my family and helping out in the Family business. It's nice that I can afford to go to Constantinople, Nigeria, Xi-an, Different Parts of the Philippines, etc.. in my Imagination - just like when my brothers and I had nothing else but this to keep us entertained.

Other historical preoccupations right now.

Reading "The other Greeks by Victor Davis Hanson," as mentioned by Christian Cameron as one of his Sources - Christian Cameron's Criticisms of the Book. Having read it for the Economics

Christian Cameron's Sources

De Re Military Outlook Cloud Link

one of the early legs of the Anabasis plotted using Gmaps. Its a lot of weaving routes because of the terrain of Turkey. The next leg goes east through the mountains to Iconia/Konya then plunges south  Silicia/Cilicia.

Social Mechanics - is it the Mechanics of a SYSTEM or the social mechanics in All Game systems?

I think the problem is that LIMITS are not taught to the GMs. They imagine skills are like physical Abilities - at a certain point they can deadlift 600lbs*, and Influence people (Influence skills ) can influence people who are hard set. They forget that Social and Mental challenges are different from Physical skills - Someone Hard Set on something is not building up to have the Influence skill to change someone's mind.

 Real-life has plenty of examples of being unable to convince anyone even if you have Evidence, Incentives, Rationality, and Awesome Communication skills. We have people who give false statements under torture and never break under torture, so as to make torture not an effective means of extracting information. Heck, the problem with the Internet Age is that we see the Best SCIENCE and Data doesn't Influence PEOPLE to change their behavior.

Suffice to say Influence or social Skills do not work that way. A bad model or mechanic of Social Skills and Interaction doesn't mean having such mechanics is all bad. In Project Management and Office Politics in General - we use these same social skills every day. Even if we are very Gamer about it and create a mental model for us to guide us adjudicating Social situations.

I tackled - The mental model people attribute to skills is using *the familiar model of how a "Muscle Improves" in my Gaming Work Blog.

Example. I need to propose a dedicated Industrial Engineer group to create Production Targets because we are a Job Order Type, Manufacturing Plant (we do a lot of custom configuration to furniture).  The company has no tradition of Evidence-Based Decision Making, Data Analysis, Cost Benefit Analysis. Everything is in the "Arbitrary World" of My Credibility vs the Mindset.

I Know I have to get a
1) Salary Analysis and get the previous Consultants numbers of how much we lost to inefficiency, (this will help create a foundation for Tangible Benefits).
2) I need to point out the number of people we have in retirement age as well as it effects how we will be getting less productive over time,
3) I need to look at the "Manpower slots" - like QA has not filled its slot, delayed because of the Payroll cutting policy even if the Cost of Lost Quality = greater Rework (no good IT system no DATA, every Claim is Hearsay, even if you have data you have is useless if the audience is not Data Literate OR will never have the time to Validate your claims or doesnt know how to Validate your claims).
4) I need to spend 4 weeks Telling a STORY of the Company and its Challenges, and Anecdotes of the Inefficiencies.
5) If I can, I have to look out for other Capitalists Dynasts (Rich people who own companies and have such dedicated people do such), who use such dedicated Production Target that would let me Show the Management their system.
6) I have to have a Project Management Plan and a Criteria for Success or Failure. I budget, the contract for Temporary work, realistic achievable that have TANGIBLE BENEFITS.
7) I have to do a Time and Motion/Analysis of why currently the current QA with QC cannot perform the duties of a Dedicated Production Target Setter.

Even if I do all this I have a 30% chance to Fail. All it takes as a STAIN on my credibility, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_fallacy, the data by itself is never sufficient. It can be some time I said in a different interaction, my staff and any distrust of them, a competing project with their own resource needs (and note they argue by the strength of their relationship and not the DATA).

Certain organizations with a VERY LOW trust environment cannot apply Evidence-Based Decision making because - low trust will always attribute failure to People and not Systems or allow for the Reality that you can fail in life even when doing everything right.

Same thing Goes for me Proposing a BASIC KANBAN to identify waiting and Idle time.

One of the things I'm passionate about in RPGs is a GOOD system (Called System Based thinking in TPS, Demming, Lean, Agile Schools of thought) has good outcomes. A system that communicates well the main drivers/factors of many situations and gives people a Go-to framework when faced with Uncertainty and Ambiguity is better than nothing and guessing.  A good system lets you know if the system doesnt work.


Lolz. GURPS prepared me for Real-life because Real life has a complicated set of Mechanics. If I can understand GURPS I can see how some aspects of real life are like a Complicated Game System. If I can improve on GURPS I can improve on my understanding of certain real-life systems. If I can try and see other game systems, I can see the Perspectives of other Peoples, Beliefs, World View, and Conditions.

 

Gaming and how kids play

In the chapter of how kids play, I learned that my son (currently 8) has a long way to go before he can play along with other kids in the kind of structure of an TRPG.

This reworks my entire mental narrative of how we learned to game as a kid. The reason why my younger brother at 7 was able to play TRPGs was that I was 11 and younger kids would adopt the maturity of the kids they would be more around.

It also sets the expectations that in the "Median" 50% of kids would be more likely to be able to grasp TRPG play at 11+ and up. Any earlier or later would have contributing factors.

So until my son is 11 I'll be rolling that Roll d20 against DC10 every year, or every time I get a chance to be able to offer him the opportunity to play.




Lately, we've been playing Minecraft together via home ubuntu server. Wondering what would allow him to immerse in a storytelling. Its strange that he would listen to all these YouTubers and when it's his dad, me, can't have the patience for my storytelling and cringes when I emulate the YouTubers.

There was a part of the lecture that talks about gently exerting dominance during play, which I dont understand how (because this was mentioned off-hand, and there was a not a full lecture of how parent dominance dynamics works). Maybe raising him I never did this appropriately and thus created this circumstance whereas the dad I'm the "old uncool guy" against the YouTubers that populate his mental stage.

With my 3 year old, I got to see the very big difference in developmental stages between the two. its having first hand experience with the concepts of the lecture. Which definitely would have been different if I never had the first-hand experience. A concept explained and how it manifests has some distinct differences that the lecture doesn't really communicate because it would be endless to go into that level of detail.

How my son at 8 will progress to 11+ in a play-along would be a curious thing - I remember how I progressed to TRPG. I remember it as Wanting to play "imagination games" and wanting more structure so that the fun doesn't end with disputes or issues with other kids. The idea is "why cant we fight monsters and go on adventures" with just imagination, and immediately visualizing the places and challenges with pretend.

As GMs go, I am strong in remembering immersion details - the system the world works*. Empathy, Storytelling, Emoting, and Theatrics are my less developed areas. Those areas are more important to kids. Although even with all my Technical Storytelling practice, kids require the ability most with the natural talent exhibit - being able to catch people's attention with a "story's hook". That "unknown" posed by the first seconds of the storytellers' pitch. 

When I analyze my son's youtube clickbait history its really the Minecraft game's hacks and experiments. As to making an "engineered" Hook for him, taken out of minecraft would be something I would need to figure out.

Sadly there is a risk my son will never learn the fun of TRPGS because its are really not for everyone. Its a different world as the one i grew up in, where there was very little IP to access. Now there is so much IP and some are engineered to capture his attention far better than my GMing skills can possibly reach given that its a hobby (even its a lifelong hobby).

*good for world-building and immersion.

Testing: Talking about Making Game Notes screen cast and webcam

Testing OBS and Screencasting to show me tinkering with notes. Using an AMD A10 processor, 8GB RAM, Win10, 64bit. This translation of De Re Military is in the Public Domain. So is De Agricultura. If I were to tackle Non-public domain things I guess I'll have to only show my notes and never the material itself. 

Dungeon Fantasy Box Set Challenges.

My Dungeon Fantasy Box Set Arrived.
I bought D&D starter set and essentials for my son and myself.
I have more Material as a GURPS GM to Run Mines of Phandelver (D&D5E Starter Set) and Dragon of Ice Spire Peak (D&D5E Essentials Set) as Dungeon Fantasy Game. I bought this out of Curiosity than the Intent to Play. The problem is that I don't know what to expect till I have it in my hands and able to directly observe the contents and the challenges.

It's Not Really immediately ready to Play. I'm sure a GM with more practice and ready materials has enough already prepared material to quickly get people to play.
I would say that assuming I'm talking to D&D Players, it would take about 5+ hours for me to prepare. This would include the following:

1. Studying the Sample Adventure. 1 hour. This include notes, where I typically try to predict my players and imagine how I'm going to introduce or execute the scene. 
2. Writing the Action list for Character Gen. 1 hour. I need to do for creating Preparation for the Players and Imagining or having a "flashback" of all the problems typical of Character Creation. Including the Decisions Paralysis, a lot of Options would generate. 
3. Reviewing all the Options wholistically, budgeting for a 4-hour game. 1 hour. Mentally rehearsing all the things that will happen in the game, and then writing my assumptions so the "me" in the next day will see how stupid and short-sighted that was. 
4. (Next Day). Executing the Action List and the Adventure Notes.  4 hours (2-3 nights of free time). Prioritizing the 20/80 Pareto and Know what to prioritize. 
5. Pregame Prep and Rehearsal. 90 mins. 

Expected Material to Make (Item numbers 1 and 2).

1. A5 prints out portable rules. *
1. Character Gen. 
1.  Dungeon Fantasy on the Cheap by Eric B. Smith in A5/Statement would be very useful when cleaned up. Estimate about 1.5 hours. Modificaitons are.
1. Keep to "essential" Professions. Wizard, Rogue, Cleric, and Warrior. 
2. Options, Actions, and Rolls.  Using my old GURPS lite notes, about 1.5 hours. 
1. The checklist would be Physical, Mental, Technical and Social Rolls. 
3. Basic Combat. (good thing I have a lot of Material). (Note the number of Processes in GURPS is staggering, but its internal logic and pattern to realism makes its learnable. Its just such a high upfront cost. ). 2-3 hours or 2 nights. 
2. Pregenerated Characters based on Mines of Phandelver Pregen. 
3. List of Skills. 30 mins. (easier now that I have a Google Sheet I can pivot and Filter). 
4. List of Equipment. (Using my Old Notes and Material) 30 mins. (GURPS Stuff in GSHEETS to pivotable and filterable would be so 

*No "GURPS Medium" when I check E23. I'm surprised they didnt make the Print-on-Demand of the Lighter Exploits and Adventurers. 

In house Game Notes.

Currently, my Strategy would be Fantasy Trip and when the Players want more immersion to creep towards GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. 

Realistically, Scheduling such a Game would happen in about  Late Feb. Because of taking a leave to study on Dec means I have a lot of Catch-up Work on Jan.

Everything is measured in "Nights of Free time". 

Aging Tinkering Gamer and Skills

Skill is a concept that keeps changing year to year in my life. Although we are being introduced to skills early in life, it is through games where I see the implications of mastery.

Before my understanding of skills is that its these discrete corpora of knowledge: like "Management," "Leadership," "Diplomacy," etc... I believed that, over time and practice, these discrete corpora would allow me to perform greater and higher levels of mastery. I would have a more difficult challenge, and my mastery will allow me to overcome these. In Management, I can handle more problematic organizations, in Leadership more demoralized people, and Diplomacy more complex issues.

But I was wrong. Skills are not discrete corpora, but we learn a vast amount of small skills like "Sarcasm" (a kind of framing), "truth sandwich," "next action," (131 tools and techniques in PMBOK, )etc...  and that we use all these different tools and ingredients to create specific results. We don't have the Large Overwhelming Problems; we can break down all problems into smaller and smaller components. The problematic organization in a Management problem has a root cause and will require an adaptive lifestyle approach. The issue of morale and behavior in an organization can be a mixed bag of bad policy, bad culture, and conflicting incentives and penalties. It gets more complicated as Diplomacy can be confused with Leadership because there is a give-and-take with people.

For ease of understanding - our brains still think of skills in discrete corpora, but in actual daily use, our Skills are made up of many smaller skills. These lesser skills are mastered to the level of conditioned response or requiring minimal conscious effort. Mastery to not need any conscious effort allows us more complex feats since this mitigates the limitations of our working memory. When so much skill is in our Long Term Memory, that place in our mind beyond our Working and Conscious awareness, and we have a positive feedback loop going on with those skills, we seem to achieve FLOW.

It's not that there are Big Problems that require an Overwhelming Mastery of Skills. Its that there is a scarcity of Attention, Time, and Resources. In the Information Asymmetry of life, Prioritization is the Indommidable and Ubiquitous problem.  Our biggest problem can be fixed by a bunch of small skills, but it would take a lot of resources we don't have. That we juggle a lot of problems, and when we do we sacrifice the ability to solve deep thought problems.

These days I want to lose 2-4 hours just updating my definition of Skills. Either tinkering with D&D or GURPS, either simplifying or elaborating and categorizing these skills by their historical, economic, and social value.

Thanks to GURPS Fandom and =importHTML and google sheets fu, I was able to finally make that cleaned up list of GURPS Skills. I used PIVOT table to remove redundancies.

It is interesting to Listen to E. Goldraths Beyond the Goal, because his "unifying theory" for work and problem-solving compliments or supports any gamers unifying theory of World/Reality Mechanics.

If you have kids and if your kids use "Newb" "Pro" "God-Tier" to describe skills, they seem to get it. But even when my son has that understanding, his ability to overcome his anxiety regarding the work that goes into these skills seems to be my constant stumbling block. Its not that I cannot reframe and reword an argument, its that kids have a Finite window to change their mind. Once they lose patience they lock up their mindset. What I think I will discover as I spend more time with my son are the early indicators of his loss of patience and how to head these off.

Ordered Dungeon Fantasy and Fantasy Trip for Xmas

It does not make sense to order gaming when I'm obsessed with working and achieving financial security. But after meeting my friends and catching up on old times, I realize how hollow and empty I feel not being able to game and play. 

How do I fit in Gaming when I study about 30 hours a week, and Work 35 hours a week? The logical solution is to make the Gaming serve two purposes - Time with my Son and family and time for me. I'm sure you'll realize the amount of lost control that happens when you play with someone who may not be interested in gaming. 

Time with family is something I've neglected because of how hard work is. Juggling HSK and PMBOK, and laying the groundwork for RHEL Sys Admin, as well as the bringing the family business to more modern management Practices (reminds me of benefits of Quality Management - Leadership, Evidence-Based Decision Making, Process, Improvement, Relationship Management, Engagement of People, and Customer Focus). 

I miss hanging out with Friends and Gamers, but at the same time committing to having a family means those relationships take a back seat. In 2014 I realized that I spend about 20-30 hours a week doing game-related preparation. I realized I needed to migrate that to Studying to be able to ensure financial security for my family. After 5 years of prioritizing studying and duties, I've found the well dry. 

Anki/SRS will allow me to reduce my study hours by 1/3, from 30 to 20, but that won't happen immediately. I need to invest about 40-50 more hours to prepare my study material so its more efficient, and of course there are some Maintenance and Correction that happens as some concepts are challenging. PMBOK has about 800 concepts for me to master and memorize.  HSK needs that I master 1200 words and probably around a hundred grammar points to the point that I recognize it in less than a second and can hold those words and thoughts in my temporary memory for my brain to figure out so as to understand the Chinese. Still hoping to reach that moment where it begins to make sense even If I can't understand some of the words. (like in "Me talk pretty one day" 我一天希望说得好）my goal is still to be able to introduce Chinese people into TRPGs. Why master chinese to be able to run Games in Chinese by the time I'm 45? Whats the point? The Same point why i wanted to run a game in 19C philippines, 11C Crusades, Present Day Manila, and 6C BCE Warring States. 

I want to be the guy who was able to lay the ground work to be able to bring TRPGs to a culture whose values would be very Alien to TRPGs. I am aware how weird the set of goals I have regarding gaming. to Play, to run strange games, and to try very different things. 

I hope my Gamble pays off, That Melee and Wizard is more accessible. That my son would more likely be interested in Melee and play it with his friends.