On No Artpunk II

With the morning of NAP II hovering above 700 downloads and more then that in donations (my thanks to all of you for your generosity), it might be a good thing to offer some additional context to dispel any confusion resulting from the various takes floating around the internet.

Why the contest?

Over the years I have observed the quality of many of the offerings in the OSR beginning to waver. Initially this was just a gut feeling, most apparent in the more artsy stuff, with Mork Borg and Troika but prevalent elsewhere. At around this time I also started delving seriously into old Gygax era DnD, revisiting some of the material I had been exposed to as a precocious teenager but much of it was fresh. The prevailing wisdom, based on Bryce Lynch’s still very useful standards and the concept of Conceptual Density, was that the value of an adventure was rooted in having lots of creative new things, usually in the form of creatures, items and spells. And to a degree this is certainly true, there is a large theme of exploring the Unknown and new so-called Gygaxian Building Blocks (creatures, treasure, spells) are part of that.

My observation was that although many of the new modules in question have a much higher percentage of these new building blocks, they tend to be far more primitive and how people actually tackle and interact with them is much simpler then the best of the older material (Albie Fiore, Paul/Jennel Jaquays, Gary Gygax etc.). The question is, could you write, not just a good, but a great dungeon module while using only extant material? Of course you could. But you would need to interact with the old game at a different bandwith. Whether you call this the structure of the adventure or simply a different order of Conceptual Density does not really matter. The point is that the weight of this quality of structure, the organization of Gygaxian building blocks on the quality of the adventure, is higher then that of the quality of any of its individual component parts.

To a degree you already interact with this structure. You map, you set the monsters, you place and conceal treasure etc. But the creative drive tends to focus on either a) Gygaxian building blocks, b) a single high-concept idea or c) layout and presentation. All three are sub-optimal, and can only reach their full potential when the structure, or process of DnD is understood. It is less a question of what you use, but how you use it. But they have the singular advantage of being highly visible, attractive to newcomers and relatively easy to do.

This contest was started as a way to rail against this prevailing trend, to draw attention back to what is most important and as an experiment to see if I could encourage people to engage with DnD on this deeper bandwith. By limiting the outlets for creative expression, I hope to see it applied to areas like mapping, clever compositions, interesting monster tactics, treasure placement, set pieces, evocative description, environmental effects, complicating factors and miscellanious weirdness. Whether I have succeed is up to you.

How can I compete?

As soon as the contest begins, submit your entry via email before the deadline, labelled NAP (number) and there we go. Previous NAP saw some people entering modules that they had already written. While not illegal, some stipulations on the date of creation will have to be added in future editions.

Do I retain ownership of my work?

Absolutely. By submitting you are giving me permission to publish the work in a compilation. If I end up wanting to publish it in another format (there have been questions of doing it in print, say) I will ask for your permission again. If you want to publish your own work before the publication of the No Artpunk volume, you can, although I would prefer it if you would wait.

What are the contest stipulations?
I will compose a full, detailed post on the format (go figure), material you are allowed to use, other limitations etc. with each edition of No Artpunk.

Do you make money off of this?
Nope. I can envision some sort of future when we try to bundle the best entries into a hardcover and ensure every contributor gets a fair share but for now, posting this does not cost me anything more then time and any proceeds go to charity.

Why do you hate layout and art?

Although the state of both manuscripts might dictate otherwise, I hate neither layout nor art 😛 There is a baseline level of layout beyond which efforts start to yield diminishing returns, and I also think art, while essential in communicating a vibe and attracting customers, does not have a huge influence on the quality of the adventure. In my perfect world, we have craftsmanship, fantastic new gygaxian building blocks, evocative writing, brilliant art and layout. In the world of limited time, single creators, limited budgets and massive competition, that perfect storm seldom occurs. I do see increasing attention paid to what amount to peripheral characteristics of the game when actually running it. Is the structure of the game in such a rut that we must innovate on the level of format?

You just hate all Artpunk!

This one is more complicated and that’s not really a question Virginia. I don’t think this Artpunk as a creative current is ultimately a generative direction for the OSR at large (a moot point really), but I have certainly given some positive reviews to artpunk in the past, and will likely do so in the future. Example reviews here, here and here. I’ve reviewed and appreciated donations from weirdo DnD. as well. Hell, one of the entries in NAP II borders on Artpunk. Promising future candidates include Ben L. , Arnold K. and Yoon-suin.

You just want to keep X out of the hobby!

If my plan was to gatekeep people with any particular set of characteristics not related to gaming I would say I have probably done a terrible job so far. Not only can I make no meaningful differentiation based on the entries, even if my supposed dastardly plan succeeds and all Artpunk is outlawed they could just play non-Artpunk. Even worse, I don’t even gatekeep fans of Artpunk. You could take the contest stipulations and submit Artpunk! As for my claim that the method of Artpunk yields diminishing results, well, you can always just compete and prove me wrong.

Do you really think we all have to go back to 1974?

No. I don’t think my contest stipulations are universally perscriptive to all adventures. You should add new material as an extension of the old material. You should innovate. You should try out entire new modes of adventuring. My thesis is that that innovation, for many people, will be of much higher yield once a firm grasp of the fundamentals is established.

This is an incoherent ideology based on a false dichotomy that looks to a mythical past and must fall like all demagogues do when the promised future does not arrive!

What? The dichotomy exists when considered as the degree to which a given population is interested in and attuned to the principles and concepts of oldschool dungeon design as expressed by Gygax, Jaquays, Fiore, Harold Johnson et. al. You might not be able to point out the exact point of division, but there is certainly a difference. My contention is that material from that time by those authors and others seems structurally more complex and solid, and is more fun to play then a lot of the material now, and that refocusing on those fundamentals will improve adventure quality as a whole. As a caveat, I also think reading Appendix N, while not mandatory, is a great way to gain a deeper understanding of the fantastic concepts and spirit of the original game. Once again, the theory is that innovation is possible and desirable, from a plateau of understanding and with an eye to continuity. If that ends up being utterly wrong, at the very least there are some good adventures people can play.

Prince, I love you, admire you and want to be with you but you could do this and be less mean about it!

That’s probably true. What can I say? I’m provocative, a brickthrower, an enfant terrible, a possibly incorrigible misfit. I run my mouth off, I swear like a sailor and I get into stupid fights on the internet. I believe in the spirit and benefits of healthy competition! My goal is not nefarious and my methods are benign. Come play a game of DnD with me sometime.

Happy gaming!