Monday, September 22, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Duty & Honour ... NOW!
Post #200 is reserved for the arrival of my very own roleplaying game, Duty & Honour. I'm finding it quite hard to believe that I started this blog unsure whether any of my hobbies had a purpose and I'm sat here now, with my own rpg in front of me. Its amazing. Thanks to everyone who has helped me along the way - I couldn't have done it without you.
Neil
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Babylon 5 was last of the Babylon Stations. There would never be another...
I missed the UPS man today by three minutes, so my proof of D&H isn't in my hands. If it was, the latest piece of serendipity would be even more vivid. As it is, its kind of cute. I was cleaning out some old gaming stuff today and I came across a stash of old newsletters - Black Omega Squadron newsletters. Not many people will know what they are, so I will explain.
Ten years ago, I used to play a lot of the B5CCG. I was a 'Ranger' - a tournament organiser and it was good. I had just discovered the internet and I was contacting other rangers. It was really the first time I had ever done internet communication and I seem to remember it being very scary and very prone to misinterpretation. I remember it was using Pegasus Mail as well. Those were the days. Anyway, this was just before GenCon '98 in Loughborough and we, that being me, Phil Nicholls and Bruce Mason, decided we should do a newsletter and some t-shirts. We did, it all went swimmingly and indeed snowballed from there. Skip forward two years and we were the official arm of Precedence Publishing in the UK and Europe, we ran their promotions and we produced our bi-monthly newsletter, a websites, t-shirts and regular quite large tournaments. The game folded and we moved on. Some left the CCG hobby altogether whilst others drifted into WWF Raw Deal and indeed, the rest is history.
Reading those old newsletters I was amazed by the quality of the content and the nice layout, considering it was done by me on Word 95 with not one moment of training or experience. And in that realisation I understood the place that newsletter had in my development as a person. It was the first time I actually stood up to the plate and not only joined a community but threw off my oft-held belief that I am a crap leader but a great #2. It was the first time I ever used a web application (Hot Metal Pro...) or a graphics package (Paintshop Pro) in anger. It was the first time I had used my contacts in 'the industry' to source advertising and distribution. It was the first time I had tried to make an impact in gaming. I read some of the things - home organised prize distribution, home organised rankings, massive tournaments drawing people from far and wide, a real sense of community - these are all things that I have taken into other fields and used to great effect and within B5 was where I learned them. It wouldn't be too big a leap to say that without my experiences in B5 and Black Omega Squadron, there would not be a Squared Circle, there would not be Omnihedron Games, there would not be Duty & Honour and there might not even be a roleplaying version of Neil today.
Ten years ago. It makes you wonder really. There are names on those newsletters of people that I still see regularly now - Andrew, Graham, Craig, Gordon - and other people who I had forgotten even existed. There are memories that still get talked about now - like massive long finals - and there are others that have passed into memory - like the uncertainty towards the end of the game when we were handed total power.
Ten years ago, I realised I could make a difference and that in the wacky world of gaming if you didn't make yourself one of 'those people that do things' then no-one else would. Tomorrow I should see whether my own self-published RPG is ready for release. Its one big long journey.
I wonder where it will take me now?
Ten years ago, I used to play a lot of the B5CCG. I was a 'Ranger' - a tournament organiser and it was good. I had just discovered the internet and I was contacting other rangers. It was really the first time I had ever done internet communication and I seem to remember it being very scary and very prone to misinterpretation. I remember it was using Pegasus Mail as well. Those were the days. Anyway, this was just before GenCon '98 in Loughborough and we, that being me, Phil Nicholls and Bruce Mason, decided we should do a newsletter and some t-shirts. We did, it all went swimmingly and indeed snowballed from there. Skip forward two years and we were the official arm of Precedence Publishing in the UK and Europe, we ran their promotions and we produced our bi-monthly newsletter, a websites, t-shirts and regular quite large tournaments. The game folded and we moved on. Some left the CCG hobby altogether whilst others drifted into WWF Raw Deal and indeed, the rest is history.
Reading those old newsletters I was amazed by the quality of the content and the nice layout, considering it was done by me on Word 95 with not one moment of training or experience. And in that realisation I understood the place that newsletter had in my development as a person. It was the first time I actually stood up to the plate and not only joined a community but threw off my oft-held belief that I am a crap leader but a great #2. It was the first time I ever used a web application (Hot Metal Pro...) or a graphics package (Paintshop Pro) in anger. It was the first time I had used my contacts in 'the industry' to source advertising and distribution. It was the first time I had tried to make an impact in gaming. I read some of the things - home organised prize distribution, home organised rankings, massive tournaments drawing people from far and wide, a real sense of community - these are all things that I have taken into other fields and used to great effect and within B5 was where I learned them. It wouldn't be too big a leap to say that without my experiences in B5 and Black Omega Squadron, there would not be a Squared Circle, there would not be Omnihedron Games, there would not be Duty & Honour and there might not even be a roleplaying version of Neil today.
Ten years ago. It makes you wonder really. There are names on those newsletters of people that I still see regularly now - Andrew, Graham, Craig, Gordon - and other people who I had forgotten even existed. There are memories that still get talked about now - like massive long finals - and there are others that have passed into memory - like the uncertainty towards the end of the game when we were handed total power.
Ten years ago, I realised I could make a difference and that in the wacky world of gaming if you didn't make yourself one of 'those people that do things' then no-one else would. Tomorrow I should see whether my own self-published RPG is ready for release. Its one big long journey.
I wonder where it will take me now?
Monday, September 15, 2008
Mid-Tier Thoughts
I never blogged about the last session. Bad player. So I thought I would give Andrew what he always craves and thats thorough feedback in a double session extravaganza. Rather than look at the individual sessions I thought I would look at the game as a whole and see where it is going.
My first observation is that we have a potentially repetitive story structure. In five sessions we have had three where we have had to meet a lot of new NPCs, interact with them in order to attempt to influence their decisions and then end up undertaking a side-quest in order to bring them onside. We did this with The Grub (and the Titan's Barge), the Rebellion (with the quest for the Dwarves) and now the desert clan (with the Denrobi ... or Dragon, as well like to call it in civilisation). There is a possibility that we could face the same with the Kireshi and the Dwarves. The problem I forsee with this approach is that we will simply default to the couple of characters with the accomplished social skills in these situations, sidelining the others.
My second observation comes from the system itself and the sliding DC scale. In theory, the characters gain a steady number of pluses through their levels. However, more likely than not, the DCs increase as well so our relative power stays the same. Wholly, this is part of the system but it does feel slightly ... disempowering? There is a distinct whiffle factor to parts of the game. Daily powers are exceptionally hit-and-miss affairs which takes a lot of their impact out of the play. To balance that, however, we have all identified that as a group we have an inordinate amount of healing and the monsters need to be resilient because well, we are! I do feel for our mage, who does seem to have the most ineffective dice on the planet ... only slightly less effective than Andrews, that is!
The game is developing a pace and a rhythm of its own and thats really strong. It is also developing a narrative signature which is really appealing. Travel happens at the speed of plot, we don't hustle through dungeons - zipping straight to the crucial encounters. The dragon encounter in the last session was excellent with a randomised dungeon, good areas and bad areas and a mo'fo' black dragon that posed our biggest threat yet. It really was terrifying and its mobility, threat range (I hate that extended threat business), breath weapon, stunning roar - can I mention its mobility again? I've never EVER played in a game where movement rate has been so important! It's ludicrous ... in a good way! The dragon erupting through the floor of the temple was an awesome moment. Killing it was even better.
There are, however, a couple of issues here. The first is a failure - at least at these levels - for the game to truly emulate the 'tanking' aspect of MMOs that it appears to attempting to do. My 'threat' of my mark is easily ignored by a monster who wants to eliminate our DPS (the ranger) and there's almost no way for me to mechanically save the guy from becoming a scoobie snack. These things come at later levels - but its buggeringly annoying at this level. The second issue is the perennial 'split' between the roleplaying and the monster smashing. We need to really concentrate to inject that into the game. Even if its just my exasperation at the ranger doing his very best to limp his bleeding bloodied ass as far out of my healing range as possible, it should be displayed IC rather than OOC. The third one - and I am a bugger for this - is denouement and there is nothing that can be done about that. We have a strict time limit now, which is needed and indeed for my benefit. However, it sometimes feels a bit flat when its 'And the dragon dies.... see you back here in three weeks to see how thrilled everyone is!' Thats minor however.
What else could change? I'd like to see quest sheets back because they were a very strong start to the campaign. I'd like to see follow-ons to the quests as well, without it becoming too sandbox. Maybe a couple more magic items? No, not magic items - but in lieu of them a smattering of masterwork equipment. I suppose we could buy it? We are loaded.
My favourite change to this session was the re-flavouring of the mage's spells to ice and water. He now truly is a force of nature and it feels so natural in the context of the game. In fact the amount of flavour that has seeped into the way the rules are interpretted is excellent. It feels like our game, rather than someone else's game we are playing.
Two week break now. Not good. Withdrawl symptoms ahoy!
My first observation is that we have a potentially repetitive story structure. In five sessions we have had three where we have had to meet a lot of new NPCs, interact with them in order to attempt to influence their decisions and then end up undertaking a side-quest in order to bring them onside. We did this with The Grub (and the Titan's Barge), the Rebellion (with the quest for the Dwarves) and now the desert clan (with the Denrobi ... or Dragon, as well like to call it in civilisation). There is a possibility that we could face the same with the Kireshi and the Dwarves. The problem I forsee with this approach is that we will simply default to the couple of characters with the accomplished social skills in these situations, sidelining the others.
My second observation comes from the system itself and the sliding DC scale. In theory, the characters gain a steady number of pluses through their levels. However, more likely than not, the DCs increase as well so our relative power stays the same. Wholly, this is part of the system but it does feel slightly ... disempowering? There is a distinct whiffle factor to parts of the game. Daily powers are exceptionally hit-and-miss affairs which takes a lot of their impact out of the play. To balance that, however, we have all identified that as a group we have an inordinate amount of healing and the monsters need to be resilient because well, we are! I do feel for our mage, who does seem to have the most ineffective dice on the planet ... only slightly less effective than Andrews, that is!
The game is developing a pace and a rhythm of its own and thats really strong. It is also developing a narrative signature which is really appealing. Travel happens at the speed of plot, we don't hustle through dungeons - zipping straight to the crucial encounters. The dragon encounter in the last session was excellent with a randomised dungeon, good areas and bad areas and a mo'fo' black dragon that posed our biggest threat yet. It really was terrifying and its mobility, threat range (I hate that extended threat business), breath weapon, stunning roar - can I mention its mobility again? I've never EVER played in a game where movement rate has been so important! It's ludicrous ... in a good way! The dragon erupting through the floor of the temple was an awesome moment. Killing it was even better.
There are, however, a couple of issues here. The first is a failure - at least at these levels - for the game to truly emulate the 'tanking' aspect of MMOs that it appears to attempting to do. My 'threat' of my mark is easily ignored by a monster who wants to eliminate our DPS (the ranger) and there's almost no way for me to mechanically save the guy from becoming a scoobie snack. These things come at later levels - but its buggeringly annoying at this level. The second issue is the perennial 'split' between the roleplaying and the monster smashing. We need to really concentrate to inject that into the game. Even if its just my exasperation at the ranger doing his very best to limp his bleeding bloodied ass as far out of my healing range as possible, it should be displayed IC rather than OOC. The third one - and I am a bugger for this - is denouement and there is nothing that can be done about that. We have a strict time limit now, which is needed and indeed for my benefit. However, it sometimes feels a bit flat when its 'And the dragon dies.... see you back here in three weeks to see how thrilled everyone is!' Thats minor however.
What else could change? I'd like to see quest sheets back because they were a very strong start to the campaign. I'd like to see follow-ons to the quests as well, without it becoming too sandbox. Maybe a couple more magic items? No, not magic items - but in lieu of them a smattering of masterwork equipment. I suppose we could buy it? We are loaded.
My favourite change to this session was the re-flavouring of the mage's spells to ice and water. He now truly is a force of nature and it feels so natural in the context of the game. In fact the amount of flavour that has seeped into the way the rules are interpretted is excellent. It feels like our game, rather than someone else's game we are playing.
Two week break now. Not good. Withdrawl symptoms ahoy!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
What a wasted day...
You know when you just have a day where nothing of any worth happens? Today was that day.
I re-wrote some supplementary material for D&H. That was hardly taxing. I was dragged to the cinema by Mrs Gow. We saw Babylon A.D. - it was utter garbage. We could have seen The Duchess (Keira, moderate sexual scenes....) but no. Vin fucking Diesel. Accept it Vin, there is no life after The Pacifier! So I come home and I decide to make my Omnihedron Games website. Good idea eh?
Oh no.
So clever clogs here has already used a Wordpress blog as a website for Duty & Honour. So I thought, I know - I'll do another one. Bad idea. Wordpress, the three-toed sloth of application aggression decides to play up. And play up. And be a complete arse. Two installs later, things are working fine. But where are my Pages? Oh, this particular lovely theme I have been using doesn't have fucking pages. OK, ditch theme, find a new one. New one looks pants in comparison. Snarl a bit. Sort out links.... eventually. Hardly professional navigation but for fucks sake, I've just saved myself days of fiddling doing it this way. Give me a break.
OK, forum. That should be easy. I've installed phpbb a dozen times. No problem? Ah, this is phpbb3 so its a little different. Still, everything goes smoothly. I set up the forums, I look for ... hang on?! The Cache folder is generating an error. Bizarre. Deal with that. Find new template for the forum. Install it. Voila. ..... where are the new topic buttons? Oh ffs! Search support forums. Known issue. Fiddle. Doesn't work. OK, re-install. Wrestle with WTP program that doesn't want to work properly. Swear. Install. Same again. Fuck off!
Right, look to my current, existing old phpbb2 forum - thats actually working! And I install a new style that I can edit and push onto the site. Excellent. Oh... hang on. I remember now - this site is locked down tighter than nun's knickers to keep the spambots off it. Its absolutely useless as a forum. Scrub that idea. Fuckers.
Right - lets see whether there is a forum plug-in for WordPress. That sounds sensible, doesn't it? There is! Something called bbpress. Excellent. Oh, its a little complicated. Thats not good. I can learn. Oh look. The developers haven't caught up with the latest edition of WP - the one I have just installed. So its there, but I cannot use it.
That sound is my head hitting off the table. So I currently have two blogsites that sort of work but not like I would like them to, one forum which doesn't have any new topic buttons and refuses to delete, one forum which is like Pandoras Box of spambots and a timer ticking down on the WP devs to get their finger out of their arse.
What a great way to spend five hours. Oh and Vin Diesel sucks!
I re-wrote some supplementary material for D&H. That was hardly taxing. I was dragged to the cinema by Mrs Gow. We saw Babylon A.D. - it was utter garbage. We could have seen The Duchess (Keira, moderate sexual scenes....) but no. Vin fucking Diesel. Accept it Vin, there is no life after The Pacifier! So I come home and I decide to make my Omnihedron Games website. Good idea eh?
Oh no.
So clever clogs here has already used a Wordpress blog as a website for Duty & Honour. So I thought, I know - I'll do another one. Bad idea. Wordpress, the three-toed sloth of application aggression decides to play up. And play up. And be a complete arse. Two installs later, things are working fine. But where are my Pages? Oh, this particular lovely theme I have been using doesn't have fucking pages. OK, ditch theme, find a new one. New one looks pants in comparison. Snarl a bit. Sort out links.... eventually. Hardly professional navigation but for fucks sake, I've just saved myself days of fiddling doing it this way. Give me a break.
OK, forum. That should be easy. I've installed phpbb a dozen times. No problem? Ah, this is phpbb3 so its a little different. Still, everything goes smoothly. I set up the forums, I look for ... hang on?! The Cache folder is generating an error. Bizarre. Deal with that. Find new template for the forum. Install it. Voila. ..... where are the new topic buttons? Oh ffs! Search support forums. Known issue. Fiddle. Doesn't work. OK, re-install. Wrestle with WTP program that doesn't want to work properly. Swear. Install. Same again. Fuck off!
Right, look to my current, existing old phpbb2 forum - thats actually working! And I install a new style that I can edit and push onto the site. Excellent. Oh... hang on. I remember now - this site is locked down tighter than nun's knickers to keep the spambots off it. Its absolutely useless as a forum. Scrub that idea. Fuckers.
Right - lets see whether there is a forum plug-in for WordPress. That sounds sensible, doesn't it? There is! Something called bbpress. Excellent. Oh, its a little complicated. Thats not good. I can learn. Oh look. The developers haven't caught up with the latest edition of WP - the one I have just installed. So its there, but I cannot use it.
That sound is my head hitting off the table. So I currently have two blogsites that sort of work but not like I would like them to, one forum which doesn't have any new topic buttons and refuses to delete, one forum which is like Pandoras Box of spambots and a timer ticking down on the WP devs to get their finger out of their arse.
What a great way to spend five hours. Oh and Vin Diesel sucks!
Duty & Honour .... very soon!
I sent Duty & Honour off to the printers to get a proof copy yesterday. I'm rather excited. As soon as it arrives, I will post some images and generally go SQUEEE! a lot.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
The Eye Of the Storm
Ah, Sunday mornings. Nice and early. A little oasis of calm for me. No-one else is up, no noise coming from Radio 4 or the Discovery Channel. Just me, my keyboard and the tweeting birds. Lovely.
The rain has finally stopped after two days of almost constant downpour. Luckily I live on the top of a hill at the mouth of the Tyne, so if I flood, you're all fucked. However, it does create a sort of stir-crazy mentality in the house. Luckily, due to the extension, we all have our own rooms now so yesterday we were able to retreat into the various corners and hide! I think there is probably more rain to come. The skies look a bit heavy and well, since we seem to have lost our delivery of summer this year, we should just get on to winter as soon as possible, if thats OK.
I've made up my mind to get a job rather than pursue the self-employed option. That was a reasonably hard decision for me but I made it. So I have four applications out in the wide world and two more heading out this morning. Its that lull period between the chirpy optimism of application, the crushing inevitability of rejection and the hollow dread of interview when you realise there are at least four other people who would happily shiv you in the face for the position.
Duty & Honour is, for all intents and purposes, done. I'm waiting for two adverts to come in and the replies from two people doing read-throughs but other than that, we are cooked. I have set up my account with the printer, designed the cover, sorted out the bleed and worked out what I can get initially with my scant budget. By this time next week, I will hopefully have a .pdf at the printers and a proof copy winging its way to Chez Gow. Pre-orders are good and if my maths is correct, a decent showing at Furnace will result in a tidy profit and future printing fund. Moreover, I have answered that perennial question - "What are you going to do now?" with the answer being "More of the same!". I've settled on a new name for the nautical version, 'Beat To Quarters' (because Hearts of Oak was taken already, dammit) and that will be next. I'll be going ahead producing my free .pdf almanac of extras and I'll have some content in the Collective Endeavour 2008 annual too.
In about 10 hours we'll be cracking ahead with our fourth session of D&D4e - a gaming fix which really cannot come around quickly enough every fortnight. This week, I believe we are going to suffer the consequences of our actions last time when we killed a high-up witch in the Cabal. They have rained retribution on the City of Kings and the Rebellion in general and thats going to come home to roost at our feet. It should be a lot of fun. There should also be a lot of intra-character conflict at the table as well, which I hope will really power the direction of the game. This could well be a pivotal session for our story and I have no idea where it is going.
So there you have it - everything is quiet and peaceful at the moment, just about ready to kick off in all sorts of directions. But until then, I think I'll sit and be mellow in my hole.
The rain has finally stopped after two days of almost constant downpour. Luckily I live on the top of a hill at the mouth of the Tyne, so if I flood, you're all fucked. However, it does create a sort of stir-crazy mentality in the house. Luckily, due to the extension, we all have our own rooms now so yesterday we were able to retreat into the various corners and hide! I think there is probably more rain to come. The skies look a bit heavy and well, since we seem to have lost our delivery of summer this year, we should just get on to winter as soon as possible, if thats OK.
I've made up my mind to get a job rather than pursue the self-employed option. That was a reasonably hard decision for me but I made it. So I have four applications out in the wide world and two more heading out this morning. Its that lull period between the chirpy optimism of application, the crushing inevitability of rejection and the hollow dread of interview when you realise there are at least four other people who would happily shiv you in the face for the position.
Duty & Honour is, for all intents and purposes, done. I'm waiting for two adverts to come in and the replies from two people doing read-throughs but other than that, we are cooked. I have set up my account with the printer, designed the cover, sorted out the bleed and worked out what I can get initially with my scant budget. By this time next week, I will hopefully have a .pdf at the printers and a proof copy winging its way to Chez Gow. Pre-orders are good and if my maths is correct, a decent showing at Furnace will result in a tidy profit and future printing fund. Moreover, I have answered that perennial question - "What are you going to do now?" with the answer being "More of the same!". I've settled on a new name for the nautical version, 'Beat To Quarters' (because Hearts of Oak was taken already, dammit) and that will be next. I'll be going ahead producing my free .pdf almanac of extras and I'll have some content in the Collective Endeavour 2008 annual too.
In about 10 hours we'll be cracking ahead with our fourth session of D&D4e - a gaming fix which really cannot come around quickly enough every fortnight. This week, I believe we are going to suffer the consequences of our actions last time when we killed a high-up witch in the Cabal. They have rained retribution on the City of Kings and the Rebellion in general and thats going to come home to roost at our feet. It should be a lot of fun. There should also be a lot of intra-character conflict at the table as well, which I hope will really power the direction of the game. This could well be a pivotal session for our story and I have no idea where it is going.
So there you have it - everything is quiet and peaceful at the moment, just about ready to kick off in all sorts of directions. But until then, I think I'll sit and be mellow in my hole.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Tiny Adventures, Usual Problems
This week I discovered a wonderful little application on Facebook called 'Dungeons and Dragons: Tiny Adventures'. It is the official WotC D&D application where you take the role of one of the eight iconic characters from the new game and, under a stripped down version of the game system, run through a load of adventures, getting loot and marching towards the mythic level 11 when your character is retired. Cool eh? There's almost no skill involved except buying the right equipment and using a potion at the right time. There's no special powers or abilities. Its just a random dice-fest.
Plainly, this is a promotional tool for D&D 4e. I know me and some of the guys from Collective Endeavour had a chat in March about the possibilities of something similar. Facebook has a massive latent geek audience who appear to have no problems outing themselves as fans of some pretty obscure topics, so having a roleplaying promotional app. seems pretty damned obvious.
However, as always, never underestimate the power of the internet to reduce people to their primal idiot. Already the applications forum is being deluged with complaints and whining. The most prevalent is that the app. is not particularly stable. It isn't. WotC blatantly underestimated the depth of geek on Facebook and the way that an app. which procs every 8 minutes or so is a gem in the world of the tabbed browser. There will obviously be a point where the expected conversion rate of people from D&D:TA to purchasing the D&D4e PHB makes any extra expenditure unviable - it is a promotional tool after all.
The next complaint is that it isn't complex enough. "Why can't my cleric heal?","Why can't my wizard blast things?" etc. Could that be because that would cause untold levels of programming complexity that this little side project doesn't need? Its not targetted at old school D&D players. Rather it is targetted at lapsed players or new players, letting them see the new system. It doesn't need to be complex - all it needs to do is get you to pick up a copy of the PHB the next time you are in Borders!
Another complaint is that there are only two female characters in the game. Two of eight. Oh the flame wars! Apparently WotC should offer male and female versions of each character. The fact that the character images are from the iconic art from the books seems to have passed by everyone who is complaining. 'Why does my advert for Sure not have a MAN dousing himself in deodourant?!','Why is the Admiral in Admiral Car Insurance not a woman on 50% of the adverts?!'
The whinges go on and on. The problem, it seems, is that people are mistaking an advert for a game. Thats why you 'retire' at Level 11, the beginning of the Paragon tier in D&D. I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't a 'Want to continue your adventures? Buy D&D and build your own!' message at the end. As an advert, its fantastic - addictive, tongue-in-cheek and easy to use. As a game, it sucks massive wobbly throbbing monkey balls. As a catalyst for interweb angst and griping, its as good as ... well, anything else!
Plainly, this is a promotional tool for D&D 4e. I know me and some of the guys from Collective Endeavour had a chat in March about the possibilities of something similar. Facebook has a massive latent geek audience who appear to have no problems outing themselves as fans of some pretty obscure topics, so having a roleplaying promotional app. seems pretty damned obvious.
However, as always, never underestimate the power of the internet to reduce people to their primal idiot. Already the applications forum is being deluged with complaints and whining. The most prevalent is that the app. is not particularly stable. It isn't. WotC blatantly underestimated the depth of geek on Facebook and the way that an app. which procs every 8 minutes or so is a gem in the world of the tabbed browser. There will obviously be a point where the expected conversion rate of people from D&D:TA to purchasing the D&D4e PHB makes any extra expenditure unviable - it is a promotional tool after all.
The next complaint is that it isn't complex enough. "Why can't my cleric heal?","Why can't my wizard blast things?" etc. Could that be because that would cause untold levels of programming complexity that this little side project doesn't need? Its not targetted at old school D&D players. Rather it is targetted at lapsed players or new players, letting them see the new system. It doesn't need to be complex - all it needs to do is get you to pick up a copy of the PHB the next time you are in Borders!
Another complaint is that there are only two female characters in the game. Two of eight. Oh the flame wars! Apparently WotC should offer male and female versions of each character. The fact that the character images are from the iconic art from the books seems to have passed by everyone who is complaining. 'Why does my advert for Sure not have a MAN dousing himself in deodourant?!','Why is the Admiral in Admiral Car Insurance not a woman on 50% of the adverts?!'
The whinges go on and on. The problem, it seems, is that people are mistaking an advert for a game. Thats why you 'retire' at Level 11, the beginning of the Paragon tier in D&D. I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't a 'Want to continue your adventures? Buy D&D and build your own!' message at the end. As an advert, its fantastic - addictive, tongue-in-cheek and easy to use. As a game, it sucks massive wobbly throbbing monkey balls. As a catalyst for interweb angst and griping, its as good as ... well, anything else!
Monday, August 25, 2008
Shades of Grey
In the past, I have been THAT roleplayer. Every character I played was a goodie-goodie two shoes who always fought on the side of the angels and never once strayed into dodgy territory. Indeed, every game I played in during my youth was very black and white, good vs evil and you knew damned well which side you were fighting ... and lets just say you didn't get the cool uniforms and classic sinister goatees!
Recently a number of the games I have played in and ran have deviated from this sort of game massively. The playtest of Hot War I ran essentially had three neo-facists dispensing justice to a terrified community. Cold City was a hot bed of potential nastiness and indeed, the one surviving character ended up being possessed by the spirit of Adolf Hitler. None of the characters appeared to be particularly nice people to me. Even Pendragon - that bastion of honour and chivalry - was tainted with some inter-character assassination attempts, a virtual cuckolding, the massacre of innocents, a bloody vendetta that wiped out an entire tribe and more random violence than you could shake a stick at.
And of course, the crowning glory of this is our current D&D 4e campaign where (most of us) are about as 'shades of grey' as you can get. My character is a paladin, but bless this new system in that it has removed that stupid 'lawful good' restriction. He is an absolute single-minded weapon of mass destruction. Born as a slave, raised by tieflings, used as a handservant, sex toy and bodyguard until he was freed, he is a scarred and wounded psyche in a brutal world. Our campaign is very Conan-esque sword and sorcery with demons, sacrifices, slave girls, deserts and all the trappings of a nasty nasty world. Its fucking fantastic!
We're all thirty-something gamers and I think its fair to say that at our age you have been brought up in gaming in one of two schools; you either thrived on the carnage of unabashed intra-player conflict or you were taught that this is BadWrongFun and should never happen. I am certainly of the second school and I still think that the random PC-killing I saw in my youth is totally counterproductive. However intra-character conflict is absolutely essential and indeed drives some of the most memorable parts of our games. These conflicts absolutely do not have to come to physical conflict but they can and should strain the relationships between the characters.
Even if we look back at the relationships between the characters in the classic RPG 'bible' - Lord of the Rings - we see conflict between everyone and Boromir, Gimli and Legolas (which is obviously resolved!), Frodo and the Fellowship etc. Star Wars? Luke and Han? Leia and Han? Han and Londo? C3P0 and R2D2? Even Luke and Yoda are at each others throats at times. Star Trek? Spock and McCoy? Worf and Pickard at times?
Of course, the real trick is that the driving force behind 'shades of grey' characters is a far more complex set of drivers than 'do good' (or indeed 'do evil'). The characters are more complex, less predictable and generally more intriguing. You can never quite be sure whats going to happen. Thats a good thing. It keeps you thinking at the table rather than simply falling into tried and tested character reactions.
I like Shades of Grey. Indeed, I wonder whether I could really go back to the White Hat role again and have the same level of impact? Who knows!
Recently a number of the games I have played in and ran have deviated from this sort of game massively. The playtest of Hot War I ran essentially had three neo-facists dispensing justice to a terrified community. Cold City was a hot bed of potential nastiness and indeed, the one surviving character ended up being possessed by the spirit of Adolf Hitler. None of the characters appeared to be particularly nice people to me. Even Pendragon - that bastion of honour and chivalry - was tainted with some inter-character assassination attempts, a virtual cuckolding, the massacre of innocents, a bloody vendetta that wiped out an entire tribe and more random violence than you could shake a stick at.
And of course, the crowning glory of this is our current D&D 4e campaign where (most of us) are about as 'shades of grey' as you can get. My character is a paladin, but bless this new system in that it has removed that stupid 'lawful good' restriction. He is an absolute single-minded weapon of mass destruction. Born as a slave, raised by tieflings, used as a handservant, sex toy and bodyguard until he was freed, he is a scarred and wounded psyche in a brutal world. Our campaign is very Conan-esque sword and sorcery with demons, sacrifices, slave girls, deserts and all the trappings of a nasty nasty world. Its fucking fantastic!
We're all thirty-something gamers and I think its fair to say that at our age you have been brought up in gaming in one of two schools; you either thrived on the carnage of unabashed intra-player conflict or you were taught that this is BadWrongFun and should never happen. I am certainly of the second school and I still think that the random PC-killing I saw in my youth is totally counterproductive. However intra-character conflict is absolutely essential and indeed drives some of the most memorable parts of our games. These conflicts absolutely do not have to come to physical conflict but they can and should strain the relationships between the characters.
Even if we look back at the relationships between the characters in the classic RPG 'bible' - Lord of the Rings - we see conflict between everyone and Boromir, Gimli and Legolas (which is obviously resolved!), Frodo and the Fellowship etc. Star Wars? Luke and Han? Leia and Han? Han and Londo? C3P0 and R2D2? Even Luke and Yoda are at each others throats at times. Star Trek? Spock and McCoy? Worf and Pickard at times?
Of course, the real trick is that the driving force behind 'shades of grey' characters is a far more complex set of drivers than 'do good' (or indeed 'do evil'). The characters are more complex, less predictable and generally more intriguing. You can never quite be sure whats going to happen. Thats a good thing. It keeps you thinking at the table rather than simply falling into tried and tested character reactions.
I like Shades of Grey. Indeed, I wonder whether I could really go back to the White Hat role again and have the same level of impact? Who knows!
Sunday, August 24, 2008
An Englishman's Hole is his Castle
As an upshot of the Great Extension Erection 2008, I have managed to get myself a study/office/hole. Its been the first time since I left home for University that I have been able to have a place that is wholly my own. Its great. It is a total refuge from the madness of the world. Somewhere I can just go to and relax, be quiet and think. So, here it is!
As you see, I am not the only denizen of the hole. It would appear that Sam, our cat - as opposed to the streets cats who have adopted us, appears to have found a new place to sit. OK, so its on my desk and he is in the way, but its the first time in ages he has even come close to me in a non-food related context, so thats cool!
I have moved all of my books and graphic novels into the room and for the first time ever I have thrown some books out. Not a huge number - maybe two crates of stuff like chaff SF and new-age stuff that I was into when I was at Uni, but it was a watershed. My roleplaying games have suffered a purge too and the remaining ones will be making an appearance in here soon. This really is the underpinning of my room and its very gratifying to see.
Of course those aren't my ONLY books - there's also my burgeoning Duty & Honour reference library, which is shelved to the left of my desk. The desk was a bargain £20 from a local second hand shop, and the chair was £10. My one tip-of-the-hat to being a teenager at heart is my full wall Sin City poster featuring Jessica Alba. This is now my little nerve centre. If I get a phone on it, I may not have to move...ever.
The piece de resistance however is my lovely worn two-seater leather-ette sofa. Its wonderful. I can happily sit there and sleep, read, relax, chat - its fantastic. And as a final touch, just out of camera shot is the ubiqitous little fridge for snacks and Pepsi.
All-in-all, the furniture in the room cost around £100 (with the shelving being scavenged from the living room) and it was so well worth it. Now, of course, this gives me the perfect creative environment, so no excuses now for things not happening!
As you see, I am not the only denizen of the hole. It would appear that Sam, our cat - as opposed to the streets cats who have adopted us, appears to have found a new place to sit. OK, so its on my desk and he is in the way, but its the first time in ages he has even come close to me in a non-food related context, so thats cool!
I have moved all of my books and graphic novels into the room and for the first time ever I have thrown some books out. Not a huge number - maybe two crates of stuff like chaff SF and new-age stuff that I was into when I was at Uni, but it was a watershed. My roleplaying games have suffered a purge too and the remaining ones will be making an appearance in here soon. This really is the underpinning of my room and its very gratifying to see.
Of course those aren't my ONLY books - there's also my burgeoning Duty & Honour reference library, which is shelved to the left of my desk. The desk was a bargain £20 from a local second hand shop, and the chair was £10. My one tip-of-the-hat to being a teenager at heart is my full wall Sin City poster featuring Jessica Alba. This is now my little nerve centre. If I get a phone on it, I may not have to move...ever.
One of the unrealised upshots of this is that I can now have sound on my PC without having to concern myself with anyone else. And that sound can be quite high apparently. Thats a new one for me and eventually when I get back to the world of MMOs, it will be cool to have sound again.
The piece de resistance however is my lovely worn two-seater leather-ette sofa. Its wonderful. I can happily sit there and sleep, read, relax, chat - its fantastic. And as a final touch, just out of camera shot is the ubiqitous little fridge for snacks and Pepsi.All-in-all, the furniture in the room cost around £100 (with the shelving being scavenged from the living room) and it was so well worth it. Now, of course, this gives me the perfect creative environment, so no excuses now for things not happening!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Don't Watch with the Zohan
I'm a big Adam Sandler fan. Not a 'oh theres a new Adam Sandler film, I must see it now!' fan, more a 'Oh look, there's another repeat of 'Happy Gilmore' on Sky One ... thats a pleasant and assuredly pleasing way to pass an evening.' sort of fan. So, when Hellboy II was sold out this afternoon (!) we plumbed to watch 'Don't Mess With the Zohan' instead. It looked like it could be a good laugh. In some ways, it was, but in others it was a horribly painful awkward viewing experience.
The plot, if you haven't seen the trailer, is that Adam Sandler is 'The Zohan' - a legendary Israeli counter-terrorist who is tired of war and wants to move to the US and become a hair stylist. He does this, falls in love, has sex with lots of old women and then his past catches up with him and he is revealed! There are some other 'subplots' but really, thats not the point of the film - or indeed, this post.
As you would expect from most of these US Laugh Pack films, it is PACKED with cameo appearances - Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, Mariah Carey, John McEnroe, Kevin James, John Turturro, George Takei, Henry Winkler and (for the pro-wrestling geeks out there) Michael Buffer amongst others. Its quite funny seeing them pop up and wondering how the hell they got involved with this ... thing.
The problem is two fold. The first is that this film is a massive pisstake of the Arab-Israeli conflict wrapped up on some of the bluntest and least sensitive satire about the character of both sides of said conflict you could possibly get away with. Indeed, I think it is the almost absurd levels of satire (like Israeli's brushing their teeth with hummus, all jewish men working in electronics stores and the really near-the-knuckle 'Hezzbullah Hotline' segments) that allow it to carry on without being too much. That said, the fact that the incredibly hot woman in the salon where the Zohan finally gets work falls for him, despite the fact that he has shagging the octigenarian clientele in the back room (and she condones it) just beggars belief.
The second problem is that a LOT of the jokes are verbal ones spoken in what I assume is Yiddish (I'll be honest here, I have no idea!). You can sort of infer what is meant but half the time people were just laughing uncomfortably because they sort of assumed that what was said was supposed to be funny. It was like painful real life canned laughter.
And that was the real problem. As I had to explain to an American that stumbled onto my messageboards a couple of years ago and decided to brand every other person an Anti-Semite, in the UK we just do not make jokes about Jewish people. At all. Its just not done. Now I can recognise that a large number of the actors in this film are Jewish and they were being rather self-depricating. I can also see that this was a very blunt edged swipe at the Israeli man stereotypes but it was as if people felt that they weren't allowed to laugh. As if they would be told off if they laughed. It was exceptionally uncomfortable.
My laugh-out-loud hooting and wailing probably didn't help. No doubt I will be being visited by the police any time now...
'Don't Mess With the Zohan' is not a good film. It has to go to levels of intense absurdity to be able to frame the subject matter in a way that is even palatable. I would recommend seeing it when it comes out on SKY, just to experience it.
Oh, and it was a 12A apparently. *shakes head*
The plot, if you haven't seen the trailer, is that Adam Sandler is 'The Zohan' - a legendary Israeli counter-terrorist who is tired of war and wants to move to the US and become a hair stylist. He does this, falls in love, has sex with lots of old women and then his past catches up with him and he is revealed! There are some other 'subplots' but really, thats not the point of the film - or indeed, this post.
As you would expect from most of these US Laugh Pack films, it is PACKED with cameo appearances - Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, Mariah Carey, John McEnroe, Kevin James, John Turturro, George Takei, Henry Winkler and (for the pro-wrestling geeks out there) Michael Buffer amongst others. Its quite funny seeing them pop up and wondering how the hell they got involved with this ... thing.
The problem is two fold. The first is that this film is a massive pisstake of the Arab-Israeli conflict wrapped up on some of the bluntest and least sensitive satire about the character of both sides of said conflict you could possibly get away with. Indeed, I think it is the almost absurd levels of satire (like Israeli's brushing their teeth with hummus, all jewish men working in electronics stores and the really near-the-knuckle 'Hezzbullah Hotline' segments) that allow it to carry on without being too much. That said, the fact that the incredibly hot woman in the salon where the Zohan finally gets work falls for him, despite the fact that he has shagging the octigenarian clientele in the back room (and she condones it) just beggars belief.
The second problem is that a LOT of the jokes are verbal ones spoken in what I assume is Yiddish (I'll be honest here, I have no idea!). You can sort of infer what is meant but half the time people were just laughing uncomfortably because they sort of assumed that what was said was supposed to be funny. It was like painful real life canned laughter.
And that was the real problem. As I had to explain to an American that stumbled onto my messageboards a couple of years ago and decided to brand every other person an Anti-Semite, in the UK we just do not make jokes about Jewish people. At all. Its just not done. Now I can recognise that a large number of the actors in this film are Jewish and they were being rather self-depricating. I can also see that this was a very blunt edged swipe at the Israeli man stereotypes but it was as if people felt that they weren't allowed to laugh. As if they would be told off if they laughed. It was exceptionally uncomfortable.
My laugh-out-loud hooting and wailing probably didn't help. No doubt I will be being visited by the police any time now...
'Don't Mess With the Zohan' is not a good film. It has to go to levels of intense absurdity to be able to frame the subject matter in a way that is even palatable. I would recommend seeing it when it comes out on SKY, just to experience it.
Oh, and it was a 12A apparently. *shakes head*
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Post GenCon Blues
I remember the first time after four years that I didn't go to Wrestlemania/Raw Deal World Championships. On the day of the event, I was like a bear with a sore head. Intellectually I knew that (a) the free trips had to end sometimes and (b) I had chosen to end them, but it still really got under my skin that something that I thought was so cool and I had been such a part of for such a long time was happening without me.
I had similar feelings this weekend. This year will be the first year since 2002 that I have not gone to the USA. I know that sounds amazingly indulgent, and indeed it is, but the trips have been a real highlight for me and have acted as a watershed for me to sort my head on so many things. Moreover, being someone with a very broad and active online social circle, they have also been a chance to catch up with my friends. This year would have been particularly poignant as it would have been the first chance to see some people since the death of our mutual friend, Barron. He was a big part of GenCon - in more ways than one - and he would have been sorely missed.
I promised myself last year that I would NOT get it into my head that I could attend GenCon every year. The commitment of £1000 every year just for me to go on my jollies would be simply unfair on Christine and the girls. Indeed, finding myself currently 'between jobs', if I had commited to going I would have almost certainly have had to cancel. That still doesn't stop me being jealous as hell of the people that could go.
For a while now I have also been having a thought about how things like this will progress. The airfares to Indianapolis have risen by £100 since last year and given 'the current climate' I can only see them getting higher. You never know, give it a couple of years and we might have caps on our international air travel! I guess things will look a lot more achieveable if I was, you know, working but even then I can see another trip being an expedition too far.
So yeah, post GenCon blues and I never even went!
I had similar feelings this weekend. This year will be the first year since 2002 that I have not gone to the USA. I know that sounds amazingly indulgent, and indeed it is, but the trips have been a real highlight for me and have acted as a watershed for me to sort my head on so many things. Moreover, being someone with a very broad and active online social circle, they have also been a chance to catch up with my friends. This year would have been particularly poignant as it would have been the first chance to see some people since the death of our mutual friend, Barron. He was a big part of GenCon - in more ways than one - and he would have been sorely missed.
I promised myself last year that I would NOT get it into my head that I could attend GenCon every year. The commitment of £1000 every year just for me to go on my jollies would be simply unfair on Christine and the girls. Indeed, finding myself currently 'between jobs', if I had commited to going I would have almost certainly have had to cancel. That still doesn't stop me being jealous as hell of the people that could go.
For a while now I have also been having a thought about how things like this will progress. The airfares to Indianapolis have risen by £100 since last year and given 'the current climate' I can only see them getting higher. You never know, give it a couple of years and we might have caps on our international air travel! I guess things will look a lot more achieveable if I was, you know, working but even then I can see another trip being an expedition too far.
So yeah, post GenCon blues and I never even went!
Lies, Damned Lies and (Olympic) Statistics
Just a little observation.
Every medal table I have ever seen in all my time following sport has been ranked with the number of golds being the primary ranking factor, with silvers and bronzes deciding ties. I checked some news site - British, German, Australian, Canadian - they all use the same system. I checked the official Olympics site - that uses that system too.
However, CNN (via Sports Illustrated) doesn't. It ranks the teams by aggregate medal count i.e. all of the medals added together with no weight given to golds or silvers. And guess what? That just sneaks the USA ahead of China in the medal table.
I had to laugh.
Every medal table I have ever seen in all my time following sport has been ranked with the number of golds being the primary ranking factor, with silvers and bronzes deciding ties. I checked some news site - British, German, Australian, Canadian - they all use the same system. I checked the official Olympics site - that uses that system too.
However, CNN (via Sports Illustrated) doesn't. It ranks the teams by aggregate medal count i.e. all of the medals added together with no weight given to golds or silvers. And guess what? That just sneaks the USA ahead of China in the medal table.
I had to laugh.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
When is a MMO not a MMO?
When it's D&D4e!
OK, I'm being very specific here but 4e is raising very MMO-ish feelings in me.
1. There is a level of 'must play again'-ness rising in my mind. I want to see what happens next, not only in the game but also in the statistical development of the character.Optimising the choices that I make with each level is becoming an intricate process. Feats, Powers, Stats, Skills - its all very relevant and very enthralling for me on a certain level.
2. Builds! I've been running through different builds in my head and on paper and I have began to see different routes that a character could take. I realise now I have made a fundamental mistake with Morn, making his primary stat STR when it should have been CHA. However there are some great synergistic (is that even a word?) combinations of powers coming in the future. Its a lot of fun.
3. ALTS! Gah! One of the things that I have realised over the years is that we tend to play a game once. We rarely return to something we have already played. So this could be it for D&D4e! I only get to play a Paladin. But what about the Warlock? What about the Halfling 2H Weapon Ranger? What about the Eladrin Fighter? I want to make alts! I want to try new stuff out. Its almost tempting to seek a second group to try it out. (Tempting but inevitably flawed and deadly)
I can feel my MMO-senses tingling with 4e. The same feelings, the same thrill on levelling, the same development of powers and the same yearning to explore things from a different angle. Very clever.
OK, I'm being very specific here but 4e is raising very MMO-ish feelings in me.
1. There is a level of 'must play again'-ness rising in my mind. I want to see what happens next, not only in the game but also in the statistical development of the character.Optimising the choices that I make with each level is becoming an intricate process. Feats, Powers, Stats, Skills - its all very relevant and very enthralling for me on a certain level.
2. Builds! I've been running through different builds in my head and on paper and I have began to see different routes that a character could take. I realise now I have made a fundamental mistake with Morn, making his primary stat STR when it should have been CHA. However there are some great synergistic (is that even a word?) combinations of powers coming in the future. Its a lot of fun.
3. ALTS! Gah! One of the things that I have realised over the years is that we tend to play a game once. We rarely return to something we have already played. So this could be it for D&D4e! I only get to play a Paladin. But what about the Warlock? What about the Halfling 2H Weapon Ranger? What about the Eladrin Fighter? I want to make alts! I want to try new stuff out. Its almost tempting to seek a second group to try it out. (Tempting but inevitably flawed and deadly)
I can feel my MMO-senses tingling with 4e. The same feelings, the same thrill on levelling, the same development of powers and the same yearning to explore things from a different angle. Very clever.
Monday, August 11, 2008
The City of Kings Pt2 - Onion Skins...
...rather than banana skins. Congratulations to GM Andrew for getting over the difficult second session with consumate ease. I'm not going to go into the body of the game in detail as you can read it on his blog, rather I'll look at some interesting aspects of the game itself.
1. Invisible Skill Challenges.
In the previous session we had been introduced to the 'Win 3 before you lose 3' skill challenge technique. It was very explicit. This time the skills challenges melted beneath the narrative and no mention was made of them specifically. This made for a far less mechanical game and was, I think, better. As players I think it is imperative upon us to maximise our bonuses for skills. When I challenged the Captain of the Grub's Guard I could easily have used my Insight (+8) to size him up first and claim my +2 bonus. I didn't. We're still learning.
2. Oodles of Roleplaying
Thats more like it. Every character now has a voice in the game. The duplicitous tiefling hating Artemis, the blunt instrument of Morn, the cultured ambassador Assamber and the quite alien and pious Azhanti. Very good. I loved the interactions between the characters and the very 'shades of grey' that (mostly) they inhabit. There can only be trouble ahead between Morn and Artemis and thats going to take a little thinking about to stop it resulting in one of us being dead or dying!
3. A City ALIVE, I tell you, ALIVE!
My hat comes off to Andrew for his sheer verbosity and excellence in narration. He never stumbles over his words and never has less than an excellent description of that is going on. He covers all the senses and gives a real spark of life to the setting. The City of Kings lived yesterday. A broken guardtower in the spice district of the market, the derelict sea walls made poor by the Sundering, the deathly march of the Giant's Cradle, the chaos of the Night of Madness, the decadence of Jabb.... The Grub's Lair. It was all excellent.
4. However, too much too quick.
If I had one criticism it would be that the pacing of the nights adventures was too fast. We had individual issues which lead to doing a job for the rebellion which lead to doing a job for the Grub which lead to doing one of two jobs for the Cabal whilst still doing a job for Kyia and whatever else we had left over from our personal stuff. We saw the docks, the Night of Madness, the tieflings, the Cabal, the Rebellion, the Giants Cradle, The Grubs Palace ... it was all a bit of a blur. I missed the Quest sheet from the previous session as they gave these interactions a bit more solidity. I understand that the game needs to settle into a pace of its own and that will mean that the characters need to be established but it was just all quite difficult to take in. Or maybe thats my age!
5. Levelling without Scope
There is one more issue that I would highlight and that is the consequences of the storyline levelling that we are doing. We are aiming for one level per session (or set of adventures) which will see us through the game from 1-30 within say 18 months. One of the issues with this is that the characters are gaining 'power' at a pace. This means that a monster that last week would have caused us problems was now a reasonable inconvenience. The GM has recognised this and has signalled that he intends to 'ramp up the opposition'. This is cool but it doesn't allow us to wallow for very long in our new power level. This means that we have no real handle on how tough we are and we have to trust the GM that the things presented before us are beatable. Next session we have been contracted to either (a) kill the Cabal's Big Chief Bountyhunter Woman or (b) kill her boss. I have no idea whether this is achievable or suicide, because I have no real idea of our capabilities. A little consolidation, occassionally, might be in order?
Regardless, this was an excellent game and created some excellent interactions at the table. Looking forward to the next session a lot - oh, and I got my legendary item as well - the Uber Hammer of Knocking Over!
1. Invisible Skill Challenges.
In the previous session we had been introduced to the 'Win 3 before you lose 3' skill challenge technique. It was very explicit. This time the skills challenges melted beneath the narrative and no mention was made of them specifically. This made for a far less mechanical game and was, I think, better. As players I think it is imperative upon us to maximise our bonuses for skills. When I challenged the Captain of the Grub's Guard I could easily have used my Insight (+8) to size him up first and claim my +2 bonus. I didn't. We're still learning.
2. Oodles of Roleplaying
Thats more like it. Every character now has a voice in the game. The duplicitous tiefling hating Artemis, the blunt instrument of Morn, the cultured ambassador Assamber and the quite alien and pious Azhanti. Very good. I loved the interactions between the characters and the very 'shades of grey' that (mostly) they inhabit. There can only be trouble ahead between Morn and Artemis and thats going to take a little thinking about to stop it resulting in one of us being dead or dying!
3. A City ALIVE, I tell you, ALIVE!
My hat comes off to Andrew for his sheer verbosity and excellence in narration. He never stumbles over his words and never has less than an excellent description of that is going on. He covers all the senses and gives a real spark of life to the setting. The City of Kings lived yesterday. A broken guardtower in the spice district of the market, the derelict sea walls made poor by the Sundering, the deathly march of the Giant's Cradle, the chaos of the Night of Madness, the decadence of Jabb.... The Grub's Lair. It was all excellent.
4. However, too much too quick.
If I had one criticism it would be that the pacing of the nights adventures was too fast. We had individual issues which lead to doing a job for the rebellion which lead to doing a job for the Grub which lead to doing one of two jobs for the Cabal whilst still doing a job for Kyia and whatever else we had left over from our personal stuff. We saw the docks, the Night of Madness, the tieflings, the Cabal, the Rebellion, the Giants Cradle, The Grubs Palace ... it was all a bit of a blur. I missed the Quest sheet from the previous session as they gave these interactions a bit more solidity. I understand that the game needs to settle into a pace of its own and that will mean that the characters need to be established but it was just all quite difficult to take in. Or maybe thats my age!
5. Levelling without Scope
There is one more issue that I would highlight and that is the consequences of the storyline levelling that we are doing. We are aiming for one level per session (or set of adventures) which will see us through the game from 1-30 within say 18 months. One of the issues with this is that the characters are gaining 'power' at a pace. This means that a monster that last week would have caused us problems was now a reasonable inconvenience. The GM has recognised this and has signalled that he intends to 'ramp up the opposition'. This is cool but it doesn't allow us to wallow for very long in our new power level. This means that we have no real handle on how tough we are and we have to trust the GM that the things presented before us are beatable. Next session we have been contracted to either (a) kill the Cabal's Big Chief Bountyhunter Woman or (b) kill her boss. I have no idea whether this is achievable or suicide, because I have no real idea of our capabilities. A little consolidation, occassionally, might be in order?
Regardless, this was an excellent game and created some excellent interactions at the table. Looking forward to the next session a lot - oh, and I got my legendary item as well - the Uber Hammer of Knocking Over!
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Thanks Gary Rhodes!
Being a man of leisure for the last few weeks, I have been able to watch 'Rhodes Across China' this week. Its been good - more accessible than Rhodes Across India and probably more interesting as well. Anyway, after watching it a couple of times they made some dim sum. I love dim sum but, despite my quite decent culinary skills, it has always been something that I reckoned only experts could make. No. I just made some prawn and chicken steamed dumplings with a nice rich dipping sauce. And know what? They were bloody lovely. Thanks Gary!
Monday, July 28, 2008
The City of Kings Pt1 - Hot in the City
As no-one else seems to have blogged about last night's D&D game, I might as well kick things off. I've been giving Andrew all manner of grief over the last month about the levels of expectation for this game and in true Watsonian fashion, Andrew delivered. As the first session of a campaign, it was wonderfully evocative and played to our groups strengths. Not everything was perfect - it never is - but I left the session feeling like a 'proper gamer', which is silly, I know, but it was true.
THE GOOD
1. The rules tweaks - 'Wealth levels' instead of money makes coin counting obselete. 'Legacy items' - iconic magic items which scale with level and include the balancing properties of all the necessary items in the game are wonderful. Abstract levelling rather than XP grind allows us to pace the game and see the run of the system without 'grinding'. We discussed them before the game and they worked well.
2. Peripherals - we used a battleboard, minatures, dungeon tiles, power cards - hell, we even had an official D&D pen at the table. It all worked really well. The combats we played out were so very different from the ones we have done before. They were tactical. They required thought. Every single roll of the dice had a weight of meaning that, on reflection, I have rarely seen before. Not one of the fights had a bit of wiffle in it. The minatures were evocative and worked far better than I ever thought they would. Even something as petty as the power cards really cut down the amount of book flicking that was needed. Really really good for this game.
3. Reskinned monsters - I loved the fact that Andrew had taken the time to create his own monsters for the game, even if they were reskinned versions of Monster Manual creatures. Faced with the slavering savagery of a Carnage Demon, what were we to expect? Skeletal Flame Priests? Hounds of Shadow? The risen cadaver of the Sun God Azhura. Hardened gamers reduced to second-guessing noobs. Love it. Total and utter ignorance.
4. Structure and Pacing - the structure of the game was great. We were straight into the action at the start of our rebellion sanctioned tomb robbing, rather than playing out the arrival in the City of Kings or our meeting with the rebellion. It kicked the game off brilliantly.
5. Skill Challenges - Andrew's interpretation of the skills challenge system is inspired. Rather than wander a tomb checking for traps, we have to make two successes before we make two failures using a selection of skills. If we succeeded, we narrated a situation and how we got around it. If we failed, it triggered an encounter prepared by the DM. Why was this gold? Threefold. First off, it took what could have been a dire dungeon crawl and made it very quick and dynamic, cutting to the good stuff. Second, it made us use an array of skills in very different ways. So rather than the Ranger/Thief stealthing through the entire dungeon, the Mage and the Paladin narrated the unpicking of a runic bomb trap using magic and religious nouse. Thirdly, once again, every roll counts. Feel the tension.
6. Missio... sorry, I mean Quests - We all have group and personal Quests to fulfil in true MMO style and they work magnificently. It adds a focus to the game, reinforces situation, tweaks conflict, plans out our rewards and generally makes the game a lot of fun.
THE NOT SO GOOD
1. FOCUS - Whilst I readily accept that this was due to it being the first session of the game, it did feel a little stop/start at times, especially around food ordering and breaks etc. They were the right times to do them, but I was so 'in the zone' that I didn't want to stop!
2. CHARACTERISATION - We REALLY are going to have to keep an eye on our characterisation if we are going to stop the game descending into a glorified game of Warhammer Dungeon. We can't let our characters just become pieces on a board.
3. NO TALKY TALKY - We had very few chances to actually roleplay within the adventure. There were some, I admit, which we may not have grabbed. However, we're dead good at this roleplaying lark and less so at this tactical combat malarky, so we probably needed the practice!
4. THE BOW OF ILLUSIONISM - Artemis got his legacy item, a magical phoenix style bow (very cool, even if he is now forever Ranger from the D&D cartoon). We were told not to take things from the tomb or we would have to face the wrath of the dead Sun God. The Bow was in the tomb. Oh, so we're fighting the Sun God then, regardless, because well ... we're not leaving someone's Legacy item behind. Or are we? We could have and then Andrew could have been placed in a real pickle. Would he have had to reintroduce the item at a future point? Would he have let Artemis continue the entire campaign hamstrung without his item? No, whilst we appeared to have a choice, we had no choice at all. But really, like we wanted to avoid a fight like that - which was tooth and nail awesome!
It was a great game which really hammered home that (a) system matters, (b) we really do love fantasy, (c) Andrew is an excellent GM and (d) we've got a whole lot of gaming in the City of Kings to come.
Personally, its the first time in well over a decade that I have levelled a D&D character and I was thrilled. Morn, the 2nd level Paladin, is an absolute S.O.B. and I'm loving it!
THE GOOD
1. The rules tweaks - 'Wealth levels' instead of money makes coin counting obselete. 'Legacy items' - iconic magic items which scale with level and include the balancing properties of all the necessary items in the game are wonderful. Abstract levelling rather than XP grind allows us to pace the game and see the run of the system without 'grinding'. We discussed them before the game and they worked well.
2. Peripherals - we used a battleboard, minatures, dungeon tiles, power cards - hell, we even had an official D&D pen at the table. It all worked really well. The combats we played out were so very different from the ones we have done before. They were tactical. They required thought. Every single roll of the dice had a weight of meaning that, on reflection, I have rarely seen before. Not one of the fights had a bit of wiffle in it. The minatures were evocative and worked far better than I ever thought they would. Even something as petty as the power cards really cut down the amount of book flicking that was needed. Really really good for this game.
3. Reskinned monsters - I loved the fact that Andrew had taken the time to create his own monsters for the game, even if they were reskinned versions of Monster Manual creatures. Faced with the slavering savagery of a Carnage Demon, what were we to expect? Skeletal Flame Priests? Hounds of Shadow? The risen cadaver of the Sun God Azhura. Hardened gamers reduced to second-guessing noobs. Love it. Total and utter ignorance.
4. Structure and Pacing - the structure of the game was great. We were straight into the action at the start of our rebellion sanctioned tomb robbing, rather than playing out the arrival in the City of Kings or our meeting with the rebellion. It kicked the game off brilliantly.
5. Skill Challenges - Andrew's interpretation of the skills challenge system is inspired. Rather than wander a tomb checking for traps, we have to make two successes before we make two failures using a selection of skills. If we succeeded, we narrated a situation and how we got around it. If we failed, it triggered an encounter prepared by the DM. Why was this gold? Threefold. First off, it took what could have been a dire dungeon crawl and made it very quick and dynamic, cutting to the good stuff. Second, it made us use an array of skills in very different ways. So rather than the Ranger/Thief stealthing through the entire dungeon, the Mage and the Paladin narrated the unpicking of a runic bomb trap using magic and religious nouse. Thirdly, once again, every roll counts. Feel the tension.
6. Missio... sorry, I mean Quests - We all have group and personal Quests to fulfil in true MMO style and they work magnificently. It adds a focus to the game, reinforces situation, tweaks conflict, plans out our rewards and generally makes the game a lot of fun.
THE NOT SO GOOD
1. FOCUS - Whilst I readily accept that this was due to it being the first session of the game, it did feel a little stop/start at times, especially around food ordering and breaks etc. They were the right times to do them, but I was so 'in the zone' that I didn't want to stop!
2. CHARACTERISATION - We REALLY are going to have to keep an eye on our characterisation if we are going to stop the game descending into a glorified game of Warhammer Dungeon. We can't let our characters just become pieces on a board.
3. NO TALKY TALKY - We had very few chances to actually roleplay within the adventure. There were some, I admit, which we may not have grabbed. However, we're dead good at this roleplaying lark and less so at this tactical combat malarky, so we probably needed the practice!
4. THE BOW OF ILLUSIONISM - Artemis got his legacy item, a magical phoenix style bow (very cool, even if he is now forever Ranger from the D&D cartoon). We were told not to take things from the tomb or we would have to face the wrath of the dead Sun God. The Bow was in the tomb. Oh, so we're fighting the Sun God then, regardless, because well ... we're not leaving someone's Legacy item behind. Or are we? We could have and then Andrew could have been placed in a real pickle. Would he have had to reintroduce the item at a future point? Would he have let Artemis continue the entire campaign hamstrung without his item? No, whilst we appeared to have a choice, we had no choice at all. But really, like we wanted to avoid a fight like that - which was tooth and nail awesome!
It was a great game which really hammered home that (a) system matters, (b) we really do love fantasy, (c) Andrew is an excellent GM and (d) we've got a whole lot of gaming in the City of Kings to come.
Personally, its the first time in well over a decade that I have levelled a D&D character and I was thrilled. Morn, the 2nd level Paladin, is an absolute S.O.B. and I'm loving it!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
From the Ashes
Tomorrow is the start of our new Dungeons and Dragons campaign. That in itself would not be a notable thing, but eight years on, it feels like a partial rebirth of our gaming group.
Eight years ago we came together to play D&D3e, 'we' being the players from a disparate larger group of gamers who wanted to turn a very casual approach into something a little more concrete. Since then we have seen people come and go from the table. We have moved venue on a number of occassions. We have played some awesome games (Pendragon, Buffy, Spirit of the Century) and some awful ones (Werewolf ... what was I thinking?). We have seen off CCGs and to an extent MMOs. We have even grown our own family of gamers and now have a packed out gaming social calendar, which includes our own mini-convention!
However, despite all of these achievements, its the things that we haven't done that please me more. We never argue. We never keep things bottled up - instead choosing a very open feedback mechanism to help support each other as we develop. We have never turned on a player or ejected a player from our table. We play with respect and fairness. We don't abuse people's hospitality for opening their homes to us. We haven't ever let external pressures - primarily from MMOs - get in the way of our gaming.
So now, on Sunday, the original five sit down again with the next version of D&D, but this time I get to play rather than DM. The game has all the hallmarks of an excellent campaign. We have excellent characters and a brilliant situation. The setting, which is a homebrew, has a feeling of focus to it that I have rarely seen. It has great flavour around it whilst still allowing huge variety. Andrew, the GM, has concoted a fair few tweaks to 4e to keep the game ticking over in the manner that we have become accustomed.
Really, we are going to have to try really REALLY hard to fuck this one up!
And what does the future hold for us? Who knows.... but I hope we continue in the same way we have for the last eight years. Damned fine gaming.
Neil
Eight years ago we came together to play D&D3e, 'we' being the players from a disparate larger group of gamers who wanted to turn a very casual approach into something a little more concrete. Since then we have seen people come and go from the table. We have moved venue on a number of occassions. We have played some awesome games (Pendragon, Buffy, Spirit of the Century) and some awful ones (Werewolf ... what was I thinking?). We have seen off CCGs and to an extent MMOs. We have even grown our own family of gamers and now have a packed out gaming social calendar, which includes our own mini-convention!
However, despite all of these achievements, its the things that we haven't done that please me more. We never argue. We never keep things bottled up - instead choosing a very open feedback mechanism to help support each other as we develop. We have never turned on a player or ejected a player from our table. We play with respect and fairness. We don't abuse people's hospitality for opening their homes to us. We haven't ever let external pressures - primarily from MMOs - get in the way of our gaming.
So now, on Sunday, the original five sit down again with the next version of D&D, but this time I get to play rather than DM. The game has all the hallmarks of an excellent campaign. We have excellent characters and a brilliant situation. The setting, which is a homebrew, has a feeling of focus to it that I have rarely seen. It has great flavour around it whilst still allowing huge variety. Andrew, the GM, has concoted a fair few tweaks to 4e to keep the game ticking over in the manner that we have become accustomed.
Really, we are going to have to try really REALLY hard to fuck this one up!
And what does the future hold for us? Who knows.... but I hope we continue in the same way we have for the last eight years. Damned fine gaming.
Neil
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Titbits
1. Gordon Brown wants more curfews. David Cameron wants all that annoying paperwork taken away from Stop and Search procedures for the police. I despair...
2. Its episode 2 of Bonecackers tonight. I can hardly wait!
3. Apparently its OK to refuse to do your job if you are a Christian and your job is performing civil partnerships with gay people. I wonder what sort of precedent this sets? Could a Christian housing officer refuse to housing an unmarried couple as they would be living in sin? Barking!
4. Newcastle are still very quiet on the transfer front. I'm worried. Shit or get off the pot Mr Ashley!
5. The extension knocks through this week ... its officially scary, but also quite exciting.
2. Its episode 2 of Bonecackers tonight. I can hardly wait!
3. Apparently its OK to refuse to do your job if you are a Christian and your job is performing civil partnerships with gay people. I wonder what sort of precedent this sets? Could a Christian housing officer refuse to housing an unmarried couple as they would be living in sin? Barking!
4. Newcastle are still very quiet on the transfer front. I'm worried. Shit or get off the pot Mr Ashley!
5. The extension knocks through this week ... its officially scary, but also quite exciting.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Police State?
This morning I was woken up by someone in the House of Lords quoting Pastor Niemöller with regard to the 42-day hold without charge debate. Always a grand way to wake up. I was then reading about a police curfew that has been placed upon a Devonshire village for the under-16s.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/3535090.stm
Now whilst on the face of it, this would seem OK - after all, we are not going to condone violence or intimidation - what it does do is remove any idea of 'innocent until proven guilty'. By virtue of apparent age, apparent being something I will come back to, a 15 year old kid can be in trouble with the police for being out of his house during the summer holidays at 9.05pm. What a very strange world we live in? I wonder what provision is made for those children returning from evening activities such as sports clubs, hobbies or just visiting relatives? Will police snatch squads stalk public playing fields with a stopwatch, as lads try to have a kickabout during the long nights? No longer the chance to go to the cinema for a snog in the back row, as you will have to be back in your house by 9pm! Rules like these criminalise the innocent and I can imagine a number of other police authorities looking at it and wondering whether it would work for them?
Just to reiterate, thats a curfew in operation on British soil effecting innocent British citizens.
And this is apparently a good thing?
Remember I said 'apparently' before was operative in all of this? Well, this lead me to thinking about another of my favourite bugbears at the moment. Task 25.
http://www.harpers.co.uk/news/5791/Morrisons-implements-Task-25-S.ehtml
I was in Morrisons last week and saw that in order to buy alcohol, if you look under 25, you will have to produce proof of ID. Again, it seems innocent enough but what is the logic behind it? The legal age for the purchase of alcohol is 18. Not 21. Not 25. Its 18.
So you go into Morrisons and you look, say, 22. Obviously older than 18, probably not more than 25. And you have to produce ID? Why? The assistant can see and accept that you are older than 18 (and thus the sale is legal) so why not make the sale?
To make matters worse, I'm pretty sure that Tesco Extra operate the same policy for anyone who appears under 30!
One the one hand, I find this arse-covering at an insane level. If the supermarkets are honestly saying that they cannot tell the difference between someone in their mid-20s and someone who is 17, then I suggest they need to look harder! Regardless, what makes 26 or 31 suddenly an age without any qualms about sale? Its arbitary and illogical, at best.
Either we push towards a society where we all carry ID and it is used all of the time for various things (ie. like in California, where you are ID'd for your first drink in every bar, no matter how old you are (at least in my experience!)) or we do not. These self-imposed halfway houses create ludicrous paradoxes.
To whit, imagine the problems the police in the curfew town are going to have with all of those ambiguously aged youths? If a supermarket cannot tell the difference between a 17 year old and a 30 year old, how the hell can the police be expected to tell the difference between a 15 and a 16 year old. Or 17? Or 18? Or 21? How many innocent adults are going to be 'dispersed' by the police?
Maybe David Davies is right? Maybe there is an erosion of our civil liberties that is happening in this country? Maybe we are just letting it happen because it makes us feel safer.... until we are the ones that are fingered with being the danger and then we will have let it all go too far.
Remember the words of Pastor Niemöller ...
First they came for the Socialists, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left
to speak up for me.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/3535090.stm
Now whilst on the face of it, this would seem OK - after all, we are not going to condone violence or intimidation - what it does do is remove any idea of 'innocent until proven guilty'. By virtue of apparent age, apparent being something I will come back to, a 15 year old kid can be in trouble with the police for being out of his house during the summer holidays at 9.05pm. What a very strange world we live in? I wonder what provision is made for those children returning from evening activities such as sports clubs, hobbies or just visiting relatives? Will police snatch squads stalk public playing fields with a stopwatch, as lads try to have a kickabout during the long nights? No longer the chance to go to the cinema for a snog in the back row, as you will have to be back in your house by 9pm! Rules like these criminalise the innocent and I can imagine a number of other police authorities looking at it and wondering whether it would work for them?
Just to reiterate, thats a curfew in operation on British soil effecting innocent British citizens.
And this is apparently a good thing?
Remember I said 'apparently' before was operative in all of this? Well, this lead me to thinking about another of my favourite bugbears at the moment. Task 25.
http://www.harpers.co.uk/news/5791/Morrisons-implements-Task-25-S.ehtml
I was in Morrisons last week and saw that in order to buy alcohol, if you look under 25, you will have to produce proof of ID. Again, it seems innocent enough but what is the logic behind it? The legal age for the purchase of alcohol is 18. Not 21. Not 25. Its 18.
So you go into Morrisons and you look, say, 22. Obviously older than 18, probably not more than 25. And you have to produce ID? Why? The assistant can see and accept that you are older than 18 (and thus the sale is legal) so why not make the sale?
To make matters worse, I'm pretty sure that Tesco Extra operate the same policy for anyone who appears under 30!
One the one hand, I find this arse-covering at an insane level. If the supermarkets are honestly saying that they cannot tell the difference between someone in their mid-20s and someone who is 17, then I suggest they need to look harder! Regardless, what makes 26 or 31 suddenly an age without any qualms about sale? Its arbitary and illogical, at best.
Either we push towards a society where we all carry ID and it is used all of the time for various things (ie. like in California, where you are ID'd for your first drink in every bar, no matter how old you are (at least in my experience!)) or we do not. These self-imposed halfway houses create ludicrous paradoxes.
To whit, imagine the problems the police in the curfew town are going to have with all of those ambiguously aged youths? If a supermarket cannot tell the difference between a 17 year old and a 30 year old, how the hell can the police be expected to tell the difference between a 15 and a 16 year old. Or 17? Or 18? Or 21? How many innocent adults are going to be 'dispersed' by the police?
Maybe David Davies is right? Maybe there is an erosion of our civil liberties that is happening in this country? Maybe we are just letting it happen because it makes us feel safer.... until we are the ones that are fingered with being the danger and then we will have let it all go too far.
Remember the words of Pastor Niemöller ...
First they came for the Socialists, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left
to speak up for me.
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