What the heck is DADA?

Hi!

DADA - Daring Adventures in the Dark Ages - is supposedly a game written by a disgruntled fan of the original M&M who didnt like the new edition. It also happens to be set in a different environment - in some ways a more traditional middle ages fantasy (but not really a Tolkien one). It never became as popular as M&M, and basically only a few eccentrics played it.

I have the basic game design down, and what I have been wresttling with has been *style*. There was a certain style to old school RPGs that is hard to capture. I am, basically, trying to "roleplay" while I write, and I have not found my character yet. Unlike M&M, supposedly it is "I" who originally wrote the game who looks back on it in facsimile, which among other things means that my comments should be taken with a grain mound of salt.

DADA's rules are fairly similar to M&M, only slightly more complex. I have, as I said, the basic principles down, and as soon as I can get to do it (besides other jobs, including my day one) I will write them down *without* "playing" the Other Erik Sieurin, the one that logically is 30 years older than me and wrote the "real" game. This will be so I can get people to playtest so I can figure out what exact numbers to crunch through the basic rules.

The main actual old school game influencing me is Dragon Warriors, btw. The world will supposedly have a similar feeling as well. Just like DW, the basic book has no rules for actual magic. Those came in Book 2. Book 3 is about the Barbarians - it details *not* playing people from the basic dark ages feudal culture of the game, and is best seen as a book on how to play "demihumans" since they replace them in the typical D&D paradigm. The original Book 4 was about the world's equivalent of the Middle East/Northern Africa but was never printed; the "reprint" will include those untested rules.

Erik

I look forward to seeing this project unfold.

Dave

Erik Sieurin wrote:DADA - Daring Adventures in the Dark Ages - is supposedly a game written by a disgruntled fan of the original M&M who didnt like the new edition.

So, you mean DADA will be M&M's own "Adventures in Fantasy" ?

http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=5328

Seriously though, I'm glad to welcome Erik to this forum - and I also look forward to learning more about DADA.

BTW, speaking of that classic old school gem Dragon Warriors, have you heard that it's coming back later this year (with a stunning cover BTW) ?

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/news/news_item.php?pkid_news=230

It's funny to see how the whole "old school / retro revival" thing has really become a major trend in our hobby / industry (especially with the release of D&D4, but no, I guess we don't want to talk about that here).

So, you mean DADA will be M&M's own "Adventures in Fantasy" ?
Bingo! (It could have been worse - it could have been the Spawn of Fashan of M&M! )

I should have some sort of basic rules document up here by the end of this week. I have most of the basics straightened out, though I really need to learn to write better, but I need to write down *why* things are as they are.

M&M was not only a very nice pastiche, it was and is also eminently gameable. I want that to be true of DADA as well.

Erik

Erik Sieurin wrote:M&M was not only a very nice pastiche, it was and is also eminently gameable. I want that to be true of DADA as well.

Erik

Well, my only advice would be : K.I.S (Keep It Simple).

And if you want to do a "retro-pastiche" game with "present-day" comments about the "past" rules, the simplest (and IMO most efficient) way to go is to keep the justifications and explanations for the "present-day comments" part, separating the game stuff proper from the meta-game stuff.