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"[S]omething happened to our wildly exciting and almost rebellious role playing experience. It became 'tamed' as wildernesses often do. The thrill of the unknown became replaced with formalized rules sets, complex simulations, and exacting procedures. ... It's time to take back our play, time to rediscover, once more, why we played these games in the first place. They were once thrilling, exciting, and fun. They could be again."
That's not a bad summary of what XDM (to use a lazy abbreviation) hopes to accomplish, and you'll note that I summarized that without using any words of my own, a methodology that XDM calls "offloading"2. XDM is full of DMXDM suggestions like that, intended to make your games better.
It's pretty much what the book's about. And with that said, let's get to the nitty gritty ...
Pictures & Words
When I wrote this review, I could have written it like this:
(And I'm going to need to ask your indulgence for a minute, because I'm not in the same room as you right now, and that means that I can't actually speak my fake-coulda-been review aloud to you. But, if I were in your room, besides that probably being kinda creepy, I'd be reading this in a fake upper-crust accent. I don't know about you, but for me to get into an accent right, I have to imagine some words that fit the accent, and here those words would be, "I say", spoken in a kind of affronted manner. So imagine those words in your head, then read on.)
"XDM is a book about running role-playing games. It is by Tracy and Curtis Hickman. Curtis Hickman is Tracy Hickman's son. He is a magician. Tracy wrote Dragonlance. He is a dude3.5. XDM is one hundred and sixty pages long. It uses a serifed font, though the serifs are just barely visible. There are eighteen chapters. They discuss eighteen different topics. I will now enumerate each in order."
I've opted not to write my review in that manner4 because XDM suggests a different sort of demeanor, one of fun and joviality. It's a funny book5 and a fun book. It's full of footnotes6. They're funny too5. You'll enjoy reading it.
There are a lot of pictures too. They're by some guy named Howard Tayler. He's apparently drawn 15,000 pictures in the last 9 years, of which I'd seen zero. He draws another 125 or so7 8 in XDM. They're funny, but they also show a high degree of mechanical ability. In a past decade, Tayler would have been filling the wonderful print pages of Dragon Magazine(tm)'s "Dragonmirth" section9. Today he instead toils away at some web comic for no reward other than Space Princesses11 and huge piles of Google-driven ad lucre.
I like the art. I like the funny14. They make the book approachable and readable. A lot of humor falls flat for me; this doesn't.
RPGnet likes to ask you to rate "Style". I think of Style as the pretty packaging of a product. For a book that usually means how the words are strung together and whether the pictures are attractive. XDM could scarcely do better15. As such, I've given it an "Archduke Shining Newt" out of "Mega-Lord Festering Dwarf" Style rating. RPGnet will probably interpret that as a "5" out of "5".
But Seriously, Folks
So you've got a pretty good idea of what XDM looks like now. Pretty words. Funny pictures. Or vice-versa. Or both. But what's actually in it? That question takes a bit more work, which I'm going to offer up with a bit less punchiness than the review thus far.
Broadly, XDM covers five different topics17. There's some GM planning advice, some GM running advice, some staging tricks, some player playing advice, and a whole-new roleplaying system. It's also a bit scattered6.
"The Theory of XDM" (that's the GM planning advice) covers some general ideas about how to run roleplaying games. It's all about entertaining players, about creating stories, and about actually preparing your runs.
I think the focus on players is great, and I agree that roleplaying games have gotten too adversarial in recent years, too GMs versus players. Every time I read a thread on RPGnet that starts off, "Can my GM ...."18, I wince.
However, I also find some of the storytelling advice in XDM pretty old-school. I mean chapter four devotes 4 pages to the Campbellian Monomyth. Even I've written an article on applying the Monomyth to gaming19.
But then someone over on a Gloranthan mailing list partially ameliorated my concern (that's your two-dollar word for the day) when he asked, "XDM: D&D's MGF?" MGF is "Maximum Gaming Fun", a gaming style suggested for Glorantha20 about 15 years ago. It's a way of throwing away the rules and making gaming fun again, just like Hickman & Hickman suggest.
What that Gloranthan mailer was saying was that XDM was applying somewhat similar ideas to a group of players who were less likely to have seen them: D&D players. So, under the it's-new-to-me theory of originality, I suspect that a lot of readers of XDM might not find the advice old school at all--and I think Tracy Hickman's name and the general design of this book are likely to get it into the hands of those very same readers. That hopefully means you, if you're still reading this review and trying to figure out if XDM is for you.
If you haven't seen discussions of story in RPGs before, this section of XDM is a great place to start, because it includes pictures and charts and keeps you reading while giving you the advice you need to start thinking about games in a different way.
"Being the XDM" (that's the GM Running section) talks a bit more about how to run effectively. Whereas I found some of the stuff in the previous section old hat, this one made me think more. Just the advice to not mumble is thought-provoking. How often do you really consider your tone of voice, your inflection, and your volume21 when you're gaming?
XDM also pushes the concept of dungeon-mastery being a performance art, and while I'm not convinced that I'd go that far, I think the it offers a good starting place for a dungeon master to consider how he's running his game.
"Ultimate XDM" (that's the staging tips section) is one that I find very odd. And very cool. And largely non-helpful. It's mostly full of magic tricks, and that's because Curtis Hickman is a magician. There are some card tricks, some dice tricks, and some tricks for burning things.
I'm not convinced that 9 out of 10 GMs will use anything in this section21.5. Maybe I'm jealous because I can just barely manage the one-deck one-handed fan22. But, I don't like blowing things up23; I'm afraid what would happen if my players got their hands on fire; and I can't imagine ever going to the trouble of creating an in-room hologram just to get that wow! response from my players.
I think LARPers would get more out of this section. And maybe some GMs will be inspired to wow and amaze their players. But as a fair-to-middling dungeon-master, it falls pretty flat for me.
"XDM: The Player's Section" (that's the player playing advice, duh) is the shortest section of the book at 8 pages24. Which is a pity, because I think it's great.
It talks about how to play in order to really enjoy roleplaying, rather than playing it like death-by-spreadsheet. My favorite section is "The Boring Long Life Character", because I remember well the revelation in my early college gaming days that I could play a character who did stupid things, who did things that might get him killed, and it could be fun25.
I'd like to see Hickman and Hickman write a whole book of advice for players. I'd like Tayler to illustrate it. I'd like my players to read it and entertain me.
(That's offloading. Do I get an XDM level?)
The book ends with "XD20 Role Playing System" (that's the whole-new roleplaying system). It's a super simple system that highlights ease of play and narrative.
In a normal book, this role-playing system would never be used. But Hickman and Hickman have set XDM up as a cult. They've even given it a secret recognition sign26. I feel pretty certain that there will be XD20 games at cons, that there might even be an XD20 con some day. With magic shows.
Still, I'm not convinced of the game system's usefulness. It's elegant and simple. Maybe you'll see how it illustrates the ideas of the book. But, con experiences aside27, you won't use it as a gaming system.
Conclusion
Overall17, I find XDM to be a bit of a hodge-podge. To various extents I agree with the advice given in the book about how to run and play roleplaying games. I want to tell better narratives, to stage better sessions, and to make my games more electric and more enjoyable. XDM offers good advice on all of this.
But on the other hand, I don't plan to do magic tricks in my gaming sessions, I don't plan to stage elaborate illusions, and I'm not going to use a minimalistic system. I also most definitively have considered some of this advice before.
As such, I've given XDM a fairly average Archduke Lurching Nuke out of Shining Newt stars for Substance. RPGnet will rate that as "3" out of "5". However, if your main experience in RPing so far has been a fairly mechanistic, non-story-oriented (*cough*D&D*cough*) game, then you will get a ton more out of this tome. I suspect it shines best as a first-GM's-advice book. And the book will also be a lot of fun to read, whether you end up using the advice within or not.
Finally, I also can offer it kudos on my highest criterion: it's made me think about the games I'm running (*cough*D&D*cough* and Traveller) and I've genuinely tried to use some of the advice to improve those games already.
Now where's my XPC: X-Treme Player Charactery?28
2. Though I always thought that the goal of offloading wasn't to reduce your workload as a DM, but instead was to get your players to stop playing those damned Facebook games.
3. Are you just reading through these footnotes without looking at the references? Shame on you, and after I did all that work linking the little numbers to the little words at the bottom of the screen. But, then, I think that's a point that the Hickmans try to push in the book: if you're the XDM, you can do what you please. If I were a Mega-Lord Festering Gargoyle, I'd offer you 1 level.
3.5. Anyone want to make any guesses as to whether I get more junk mail misaddressed to "Ms. Shannon Appelcline" or Tracy gets more junk mail misaddressed to "Ms. Tracy Hickman"? And, no, Eric, I wasn't named after my grandmother.
4. And that might be why you've already stopped reading this review, and if so I offer my apologies to Tracy Hickman, who was kind enough to send a pre-release copy of this book to me, no doubt flown into the United States by dragons. With lances. I won't bother offering my apologies to you because you've already stopped reading. Ipso facto ergo.
5. Unlike this review?
6. Like this review.
7. Yes, I counted, but I lost track somewhere around 30 and figured "close enough" after that. Without these damningly truthful footnotes I might have said "127" or something like that, and figured that it being such an odd number would give it veracity, and that no one would double-check me.
8. But then this is RPGnet. It's the site where you can make a post in Other Media that says, "I read this book this one time, and it had some guys in it. Can anyone identify it for me?" and within 5 minutes you'll have three correct responses, one person saying that you forgot the name of the book because of the well-known liberal bias of the site, and some other fellow posting an ever-so-mildly funny motivational poster vaguely related to the signature of someone else in the thread. Which is to say, someone would have double-checked my count.
9. Yes, I'm still bitter, Mr. Wizards "The Man" of the Coast. When I was a boy Digitial Initiative was something that you generated with a Dragonbone10 .
10. That's an electronic dice roller, you young whipsnapper, and the fact that I had to explain that to you means my joke fell flat, which is a pity because I thought it was a damned fine one.
11. Available at your local gaming con. RPGnet makes no guarantees as to the appropriateness of the words "Space" or "Princess". Or "Available". Some limitations may apply. Ask your doctor if "Space Princess" is right for you.
12. Just so you know, XDM doesn't have nearly this many footnotes. But about half the pages have 1-5. I just have to get my footnote quota into a much shorter amount of space.
13. Did you read these footnotes, again, without any reference in the text above? I'm not not giving out another level for the same trick.
14. Best way to get me to read a book: send me a review copy. Second best way to get me to read a book: pretty pictures and funny words. This one was a two-fer.
15. Note to self: color holograms for next book, to prove RPGnet Style rating scale goes to 11.
16.That phrase is almost as outdated as the Dragon Bone, but you've probably
17. "I say!".
18. I much prefer number-two most-popular thread starter on RPGnet, "I never thought I'd write in to RPGnet Magazine, but ..."
19. Actually, I wrote two.
20. Glorantha has a monomyth too. Damned God Learners. I also suspect it was the earliest RPG to apply Campbellian theory to roleplaying games, way back in the early 1980s, with the introduction of "hero quests". No, not the one by Milton Bradley.
21. Talking with Mr. Let-Me-Tell-You-About-My-Character at cons suggests that most gamers don't think about volume at all. Also see: "Inside voice."
21.5. But 9 out of 10 GMs do prefer D&D to a generic store brand in a blind taste test.
22. And I managed to bend up a deck of cards when I tried. Maybe I should have marked this article as a "Playtest Review" instead of a "Capsule Review", because I also explictly used some of the book's GMing advice in a game by purposefully making up a roll required to kick a midget ghoul off of a forty-foot high iron cage, while the players were still trying to look up 3.5E's laborious grappling rules. ("First step, take the attacker's Grapple skill, his Strength modifier, and the age of his second child; add them together, multiply by 7, and take the square root.")
23. Bad experience with a gas spore as a wee lad. Don't ask. It sure looked like a beholder.
24. Yes, I counted. And even kept track this time.
25. For me at least. Sometimes, not so much for the other players. Just ask Donald. Or Dave. Or Dave. Or Dave. Yes, we did have bad (or good) conservation-of-name policy in our college gaming group. But we made Donald an honorary Dave, so it was OK.
26. Do not skim pages 19-20 of XDM in your Friendly Local Game Store unless you are planning to immediately order it from amazon.com upon returning home, after enjoying your FLGS's "Free RPG Day" giveaways(tm), using its free gaming space, and getting Cheeto(tm) finger prints in its free-to-read books.
27. What happens at GenCon stays at GenCon.
28. XDM is being released at GenCon and should show up in stores this Fall. If you've managed to read this far, you might as well look at the X-Treme Dungeon Mastery web site for more, as you're clearly a putton for glunishment. Void where prohibited. Some restrictions may apply.
