The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Usually when I read a game, I ask for more detail. That's where a game gets good, I say. Anyone can come up with a good idea, but only good writers can make it a good game. Orkworld managed to both prove and disprove that rule. The game is chock full of detail, most of it actually interesting - but almost none of it fits together, and so it just doesn't work.

I did not look at Orkworld because John Wick was involved. His history in the industry really doesn't draw me in at all. Legend of the Five Rings bugs me more the longer I examine it closely, although I still have a guilty love for it, and 7th Sea is almost insulting in its lack of an original game setting. Nor did I look at the game because of his game design column, which I checked on infrequently and found to be of only passing interest (although I did like his break-down of how much it really cost). I bought Orkworld because it was really damn big and only $25. It's a 300-odd page tome for $25, and I can appreciate that. GenCon also had another game of the same volume-for-money ratio, Shards of the Stone, and I really hope that this is a sign of the future. It would be a good one.

I should also point out, however, that I did not enter into Orkworld expecting to hate it. I actually thought it was going to be quite good, I mean he had a lot of space and an interesting idea to develop, how could it not be worth the pricetag? I was expecting something great or at least darn good, despite the fact that I haven't really liked his previous work all that much, it wasn't like he worked alone on anything I had taken a really close look at.

So I have to congratulate Mr. Wick for putting out a big game for cheap and making money off of it, but did I find it worth the $25? Not really, at least in the sense that there were other things I would have spent that $25 on at the convention.

As those who have read Wick's column know, he had quite a printer problem getting the books done for the con, and it really shows. The book has more than its fair share of misspellings, layout errors and reference problems, not to mention a page or so printed twice, all of which makes for a somewhat annoying read. The writing itself is okay for most of the book, except for spots where Wick really seems to step out of mood. While the game is supposed to be set in a medieval/Roman-era world, the writing and myths general have a much more cavalier and modern tone, which doesn't help the tone of the book. The offhand comments explaining things in terms of modern science really go a long way towards destroying tone as well. As much as I normally like a discussion of ATP or modern biology, something like that has no real place in a fantasy game. Wick just did not manage to conjure up an air of myth and mystery and heroism that his game should have had with its orks and dragons and elves. Thomas' Denmark's art was also somewhat inconsistent as well. There are pieces that are quite nice (particularly the cover, which I do love), but on the whole his illustrations are only okay, quite forgettable. My biggest problem, however, is that he failed to make the orks distinct from humans. They really could just be a crowd of people wearing hog masks, and I wanted something much more than that.

The book is also very poorly laid out. I found myself frequently trying to refer back to earlier sections for clarification and reference, but being unable to find what I wanted. Eventually I simply gave up and read through the book straight. Unfortunately, that meant that by the end I was rather unclear on many of the details I normally like. Wick also managed to stumble across a pet peeve of mine: I hate endnotes, a lot. I love footnotes, and Aetherco uses them to nice effect in Continuum, but endnotes require extensive flipping and searching, and are usually much more trouble than they are worth.

So what about the content itself? The best way to describe it is as "inconsistent." Not only inconsistent in quality, but unable to mesh together to create a cohesive whole. For one, the ork pantheon seems to have absolutely no relationship to the values and virtues of ork society. The warrior-god Bashthraka (who borrows from the archetype of Thor or Ares) is little more than a wildly powerful four year old, too stupid to be afraid of anything. Their god of knowledge, Gowthduka, is known for writing books - yet the orks barely have anything resembling a written language, only mentioned in one sentence in the appendix. The trickster god, Pugg, doesn't have any of the style of Coyote or others because he doesn't have any of the viciousness. Trickster gods are almost always more trouble than they are worth, no matter how "wise" they are. Wick gives us almost 60 pages or mythology, but it doesn't seem like enough, because the gods don't seem to fit their people (and they are written in a decidedly modern fashion, as I mentioned). What it really boils down to is that these myths are really that mythic, and they aren't entirely central myths either. There are no myths of creation or the founding of civilization. Myths are big and grand and somber stories that explain the world and the society they spring from, but Wick's stories tell more about how Bashthraka is selfish toddler-god and all the other races are stupid.

As for the culture itself, Wick has moments of inspiration and pages of confusion. Things like his divine motherhood and Trouble are great, something that I would take for another game. The orks haven't quite connected sex with making babies, so they believe that mothers are literally touched by the Mother Goddess during pregnancy, and are partly divine (which means dangerous). The orks also have a great idea of Trouble, which is something like Fate, except that it's more antagonistic, but allows for great success. Kind of like "Be all that you can be, or else." I like the ramifications of that idea, especially in culture and myth, but it is not explored as much as I would like. Wick does spend quite a bit of time on ork culture (about 60 pages), but it seems to be much less than the sum of its parts. A confusing layout coupled with some parts that outright conflict with each other really leaves you confused by the time you are done reading about ork life and culture.

Probably my biggest problem with Wick's orks is that they are really not orks. Sure, there isn't any big Truth on the orks out there, but he made them so unlike the stereotype that there is really no reason to call them orks. Like many, many creators, he couldn't resist making his creations the best they could be. His orks don't suffer from greed or prejudice or racial hatred (because in the setting provided, they are actually correct in their racial stereotypes) and they completely understand the "cycle of violence." Their culture really has no flaws, the orks are really much the "noble savages," and that is a role that only fits into a small range of pulp adventures. I was hoping that Orkworld would be a great an intelligently developed look into the stereotype of the ork. "The orks are mean and evil and bloodthirsty." Are they really, or that only on the outside? And if they are, why are they like that? Wick has the detail I love (I'm one of those few strange people who like reading about strange cultural minutia) but it's misplaced and misdirected.

As for the game system, it has some good elements and some serious flaws. On one hand, it's a pretty simple die mechanic, almost identical to the Silhouette or Icon system (although Orkworld is straight die pool, you don't add either your skill or your attribute to the roll). Roll a bunch of dice, pick the highest, and multiples of the same number add to that score. I also really liked how the attributes were Virtues (Cunning, Courage, etc) and how skill titles and purviews were defined by the player and unique to each character (tipping the hat to games like Unknown Armies there). There are also some nice (if poorly formatted) tables for dealing with seasons and the passage of time as well, answering the "what happens in downtime?" question. However, the system trips in the details. The inclusion of an effective rank or level stat (Legend of the Five Rings players will be familiar with the idea) is annoying. And Wick also over-complicates the die roll be requiring you to keep track of each number you rolled (even on dice you didn't keep) for a variety of effects. A neat idea and he has some neat applications for it, but I simply do not thing it is worth the trouble. Although I do admit that since I haven't tried it out, I could be wrong. The game takes a reasonably simple die mechanic and runs much too far with it, adding details that make it rather implausible (a group of orks will always defeat a group of men of about equal size, for example). The opportunity for exciting mechanics with the idea of Trouble and Trouble Dice was also completely missed. The Orkworld game system is a completely forgettable and really rather poor one.

Wick finishes the book with a world setting that is easily divorced from the orks themselves, and while that can make for a very modular game, it also makes for poor integration. Wick also has the interesting idea of something of a cooperative world-building game. The players can pick beneficial locations to live near, but the game master can put just as many dangers nearby. Sure, that may make each world unique, but it also opens the door for ridiculously implausible settings, as well as making it impossible for Wick to weave them together into a compelling world of his own. So it's a neat idea, but not one that I think he should have gone with for final publication. It might have been a good idea for a sidebar or "other options," but I much prefer a holistic world than a shopping list of locations. The sections on the other races, however, are among the best parts in the entire book. The ideas of napalm-spitting dragons, obsessed dwarves and soul-sucking immortal elves are all great ones that I am sure to use in any fantasy game I run, but they are not entirely new ideas either, and are not developed enough to make the game a good one. People looking at the book in the store would do well to flip to the end and read about the other races, even if they are not going to buy the game. And the final thing in the book is the appendix on language, which I would welcome if it wasn't quite so obvious that the orkish language is largely phonetically spelled slurred English, and there isn't even any mention of grammar, the most interesting aspect of other languages.

So in the end, suffered from a confusing organization and misdirected attention to details, as well as focusing too much on the orks and not enough on the world they lived in. Wick does manage to put out a 304 page book for only $25, but he shows how space for detail does not equal quality (and how a large font and big spaces between paragraphs can eat up space). Quantity does indeed not equal quality. More space was just more opportunity for strange details (like the crazy space Romans of the future) that often seem out of place (like the discussion on military tactics for a nomadic and tribal culture) or destroy tone (how ork cells are photosynthetic). Orkworld had a fine high concept, it just is unable to live up to it.

Style: 2 (Needs Work)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Orkworld
Author: John Wick Category: game Company/Publisher: Wicked Press Line: Orkworld Cost: $25 Page count: 304 ISBN: 0-9703013-0-8 SKU: WP 10001 Capsule Review by Derek Guder on 09/20/00. Genre tags: Fantasy Generic	Usually when I read a game, I ask for more detail. That's where a game gets good, I say. Anyone can come up with a good idea, but only good writers can make it a good game. *Orkworld* managed to both prove and disprove that rule. The game is chock full of detail, most of it actually interesting - but almost none of it fits together, and so it just doesn't work. I did not look at *Orkworld* because John Wick was involved. His history in the industry really doesn't draw me in at all. *Legend of the Five Rings* bugs me more the longer I examine it closely, although I still have a guilty love for it, and *7th Sea* is almost insulting in its lack of an original game setting. Nor did I look at the game because of his game design column, which I checked on infrequently and found to be of only passing interest (although I did like his break-down of how much it really cost). I bought *Orkworld* because it was really damn big and only $25. It's a 300-odd page tome for $25, and I can appreciate that. GenCon also had another game of the same volume-for-money ratio, *Shards of the Stone, and I really hope that this is a sign of the future. It would be a good one. I should also point out, however, that I did not enter into Orkworld* expecting to hate it. I actually thought it was going to be quite good, I mean he had a lot of space and an interesting idea to develop, how could it not be worth the pricetag? I was expecting something great or at least darn good, despite the fact that I haven't really liked his previous work all that much, it wasn't like he worked alone on anything I had taken a really close look at. So I have to congratulate Mr. Wick for putting out a big game for cheap and making money off of it, but did I find it worth the $25? Not really, at least in the sense that there were other things I would have spent that $25 on at the convention. As those who have read Wick's column know, he had quite a printer problem getting the books done for the con, and it really shows. The book has more than its fair share of misspellings, layout errors and reference problems, not to mention a page or so printed twice, all of which makes for a somewhat annoying read. The writing itself is okay for most of the book, except for spots where Wick really seems to step out of mood. While the game is supposed to be set in a medieval/Roman-era world, the writing and myths general have a much more cavalier and modern tone, which doesn't help the tone of the book. The offhand comments explaining things in terms of modern science really go a long way towards destroying tone as well. As much as I normally like a discussion of ATP or modern biology, something like that has no real place in a fantasy game. Wick just did not manage to conjure up an air of myth and mystery and heroism that his game should have had with its orks and dragons and elves. Thomas' Denmark's art was also somewhat inconsistent as well. There are pieces that are quite nice (particularly the cover, which I do love), but on the whole his illustrations are only okay, quite forgettable. My biggest problem, however, is that he failed to make the orks distinct from humans. They really could just be a crowd of people wearing hog masks, and I wanted something much more than that. The book is also very poorly laid out. I found myself frequently trying to refer back to earlier sections for clarification and reference, but being unable to find what I wanted. Eventually I simply gave up and read through the book straight. Unfortunately, that meant that by the end I was rather unclear on many of the details I normally like. Wick also managed to stumble across a pet peeve of mine: I hate endnotes, a lot. I love footnotes, and Aetherco uses them to nice effect in *Continuum, but endnotes require extensive flipping and searching, and are usually much more trouble than they are worth. So what about the content itself? The best way to describe it is as "inconsistent." Not only inconsistent in quality, but unable to mesh together to create a cohesive whole. For one, the ork pantheon seems to have absolutely no relationship to the values and virtues of ork society. The warrior-god Bashthraka (who borrows from the archetype of Thor or Ares) is little more than a wildly powerful four year old, too stupid to be afraid of anything. Their god of knowledge, Gowthduka, is known for writing books - yet the orks barely have anything resembling a written language, only mentioned in one sentence in the appendix. The trickster god, Pugg, doesn't have any of the style of Coyote or others because he doesn't have any of the viciousness. Trickster gods are almost always more trouble than they are worth, no matter how "wise" they are. Wick gives us almost 60 pages or mythology, but it doesn't seem like enough, because the gods don't seem to fit their people (and they are written in a decidedly modern fashion, as I mentioned). What it really boils down to is that these myths are really that mythic, and they aren't entirely central* myths either. There are no myths of creation or the founding of civilization. Myths are big and grand and somber stories that explain the world and the society they spring from, but Wick's stories tell more about how Bashthraka is selfish toddler-god and all the other races are stupid. As for the culture itself, Wick has moments of inspiration and pages of confusion. Things like his divine motherhood and Trouble are great, something that I would take for another game. The orks haven't quite connected sex with making babies, so they believe that mothers are literally touched by the Mother Goddess during pregnancy, and are partly divine (which means dangerous). The orks also have a great idea of Trouble, which is something like Fate, except that it's more antagonistic, but allows for great success. Kind of like "Be all that you can be, or else." I like the ramifications of that idea, especially in culture and myth, but it is not explored as much as I would like. Wick does spend quite a bit of time on ork culture (about 60 pages), but it seems to be much less than the sum of its parts. A confusing layout coupled with some parts that outright conflict with each other really leaves you confused by the time you are done reading about ork life and culture. Probably my biggest problem with Wick's orks is that they are really not orks. Sure, there isn't any big Truth on the orks out there, but he made them so unlike the stereotype that there is really no reason to call them orks. Like many, many creators, he couldn't resist making his creations the best they could be. His orks don't suffer from greed or prejudice or racial hatred (because in the setting provided, they are actually correct in their racial stereotypes) and they completely understand the "cycle of violence." Their culture really has no flaws, the orks are really much the "noble savages," and that is a role that only fits into a small range of pulp adventures. I was hoping that *Orkworld* would be a great an intelligently developed look into the stereotype of the ork. "The orks are mean and evil and bloodthirsty." Are they really, or that only on the outside? And if they are, why are they like that? Wick has the detail I love (I'm one of those few strange people who like reading about strange cultural minutia) but it's misplaced and misdirected. As for the game system, it has some good elements and some serious flaws. On one hand, it's a pretty simple die mechanic, almost identical to the Silhouette or Icon system (although Orkworld is straight die pool, you don't add either your skill or your attribute to the roll). Roll a bunch of dice, pick the highest, and multiples of the same number add to that score. I also really liked how the attributes were Virtues (Cunning, Courage, etc) and how skill titles and purviews were defined by the player and unique to each character (tipping the hat to games like *Unknown Armies* there). There are also some nice (if poorly formatted) tables for dealing with seasons and the passage of time as well, answering the "what happens in downtime?" question. However, the system trips in the details. The inclusion of an effective rank or level stat (*Legend of the Five Rings* players will be familiar with the idea) is annoying. And Wick also over-complicates the die roll be requiring you to keep track of each number you rolled (even on dice you didn't keep) for a variety of effects. A neat idea and he has some neat applications for it, but I simply do not thing it is worth the trouble. Although I do admit that since I haven't tried it out, I could be wrong. The game takes a reasonably simple die mechanic and runs much too far with it, adding details that make it rather implausible (a group of orks will always defeat a group of men of about equal size, for example). The opportunity for exciting mechanics with the idea of Trouble and Trouble Dice was also completely missed. The *Orkworld* game system is a completely forgettable and really rather poor one. Wick finishes the book with a world setting that is easily divorced from the orks themselves, and while that can make for a very modular game, it also makes for poor integration. Wick also has the interesting idea of something of a cooperative world-building game. The players can pick beneficial locations to live near, but the game master can put just as many dangers nearby. Sure, that may make each world unique, but it also opens the door for ridiculously implausible settings, as well as making it impossible for Wick to weave them together into a compelling world of his own. So it's a neat idea, but not one that I think he should have gone with for final publication. It might have been a good idea for a sidebar or "other options," but I much prefer a holistic world than a shopping list of locations. The sections on the other races, however, are among the best parts in the entire book. The ideas of napalm-spitting dragons, obsessed dwarves and soul-sucking immortal elves are all great ones that I am sure to use in any fantasy game I run, but they are not entirely new ideas either, and are not developed enough to make the game a good one. People looking at the book in the store would do well to flip to the end and read about the other races, even if they are not going to buy the game. And the final thing in the book is the appendix on language, which I would welcome if it wasn't quite so obvious that the orkish language is largely phonetically spelled slurred English, and there isn't even any mention of grammar, the most interesting aspect of other languages. So in the end, suffered from a confusing organization and misdirected attention to details, as well as focusing too much on the orks and not enough on the world they lived in. Wick does manage to put out a 304 page book for only $25, but he shows how space for detail does not equal quality (and how a large font and big spaces between paragraphs can eat up space). Quantity does indeed not equal quality. More space was just more opportunity for strange details (like the crazy space Romans of the future) that often seem out of place (like the discussion on military tactics for a nomadic and tribal culture) or destroy tone (how ork cells are photosynthetic). *Orkworld* had a fine high concept, it just is unable to live up to it. Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 2 (Sparse)