Showing posts with label PC and console. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PC and console. Show all posts
Sunday, 30 December 2012
Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson at Dragonmeet
Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson talk at Dragonmeet (London 2012) about the very humble origins of Games Workshop as importers of Dungeons and Dragons, the start of Fighting Fantasy (and Sorcery!) right through to the recent Blood of the Zombies, books and apps.
I was excited to hear the mention of the Puffin School Book Club from which I got my copy of Warlock of Firetop Mountain. Usually I’m fairly down on Games Workshop’s rejection of imported RPGs and yet they appear to have been under a lot of pressure by TSR to innovate and create products to which they owned the intellectual property because TSR controlled their lifeline to the supply of D&D products. This leads to the invention of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (1st ed). Unfortunately GW eventually walk away from RPGs altogether.
There’s also some talk on FF documentary related Kickstarters towards the end - which I’m more than a little dubious about. Just write it and publish to Lulu … enough, already..
(This edit doesn’t cut to Russ Nicholson's art when talking about Warlock of Firetop Mountain, and the volume is very low, but I’ll forgive GMS, because there’s some real gold in this talk ;) )
Source: GMS Magazine
http://youtu.be/FYqooWqbD8Q
http://www.gmsmagazine.com/
-Thanks to Scott Craig on Facebook for drawing my attention to this!-
Saturday, 15 December 2012
Baldur's Gate - it's a type of fetish
So, I've been playing Baldur's Gate ... on the iPad. I have got very far, but that's BG for you. I haven't really tried the arena fight Black Pits side game, and I've barely looked at any "enhancements". In Baldur's Gate -Enhanced Edition- proper, you crawl inch by inch, you die, or a party member dies, you sell weapons for resurrection fees, you learn something, someone tells you to go somewhere, you die, you have a think, you go back to an earlier save, you crawl, you fight, and you may even be victorious! You pray that in the next inn there isn't another assassin who attacks you right at the point you need to sleep, heal and regain spells, but no, someone wants you and your Chaucerian travelling crew obliterated, for a paltry 200 gold coins.
I discovered Baldur's Gate a few years later than when it came out - a friend insisted I played it. It was already dating but it still ticked all the boxes with regards to simulating the mechanics of D&D, right down to the fact that at first level wild dogs can kill you. When I played the game on the PC around 2000 I marvelled at how it combined managing a party, a traversable campaign world, character speech etc. with good old fashioned AD&D rules. Except I had played AD&D 1st edition and despite what people say, there are differences with 2e plus whatever small changes Bioware had made. Talking to NPCs can be a real drag -way too much text, laboured acting, with some humour - reminding you that across the table this would be an actual conservation - but therein lies the 30 year rub with computer RPGs, so all that left is the graphics and the system.
The graphics, in terms of the map backgrounds, have always been a pleasure to look at. The extra zoom on the iPad is a nicely up-to-date feature. With BG I always got the sense that I was exploring a whole world - you can literally wander anywhere -within plot limits- of course, you may also die, but hey, you choose to stray... The character graphics will be a disappointment to new players, but there is customisation there with armour and weapons which amongst the whole party which you didn't really see in older games like Diablo and is one of the reasons that Dungeon Siege blew me away (Neverwinter series aside). What you're left with is the story and game system.
The story is pretty slow -location triggered mainly- and since I didn't finish BG first time around and got diverted by the expansions I can't say whether or not the story arc is a selling feature - but what I can say is that many of the sub-quests and purse holding patrons connect with the background of the main plot, always reminding you of bigger politics. It isn't just a series of meaningless dungeon and forest locations. However, random encounters when trudging across different areas (oh yes, you walk, no-one rides horses in old Faerun) can feel a bit "samey" - but they fit into the action more than in, say, Fighting Fantasy (I'm playing FFIII on the iPad atm and random encounters really are just a grind for XP).
The main point I wanted to make here was about the game mechanic/system. I think that many of us who choose to play solo D&D PC games because we are armed with, quite literally, tomes of rule knowledge, and we experience pleasure when we strategise regarding strengths and weakens based on our knowledge of weapons, spells, class abilities, and monster stats. It's a fetish! The love of rules, exercised as a fetish! ;) Your character casts a spell in an allotted round and the hobgoblin fails the save - you even see the results of the die-rolls.
There is even a part of me that really enjoys the fact that first level characters can barely load a crossbow without tripping over and dying in a ditch of rats. I'm going to go as far as saying that if you don't think you like D&D (in the very specific sense, my WoW friends, I'm looking at you) then Baldur's Gate is not for you. The controls, actions and equipment and spell choices are about as intuitive as string theory. However, as with the PC version, the D&D player in you forgives the fact that the game drags itself along like overweight sea-lion in a desert, D&D players are a patient and cautious lot. Unfortunately the D&D player in me is tuned to AD&D and D&D B/X, not 2nd edition AD&D - where class rules do differ.
About this time last year I finally bought (and had bought for me) copies of the core rulebooks for AD&D2e. So this time around playing BG, I am armed with the knowledge! Therefore I'm flicking through the Player's Handbook, only to find that I can't find anything yet about Monks (or is that new character one of the "enhancements"?). Then I remember, AD&D2e was a huge tree of supplements and add-ons, naturally better organized that AD&D (with it's bolted-on Unearthed Arcana etc.). Oops. Oh well, at least I have the basics. You really don't need AD&D2 to play BG, but understanding any of the early flavours of D&D can go a long way I reckon.
I discovered Baldur's Gate a few years later than when it came out - a friend insisted I played it. It was already dating but it still ticked all the boxes with regards to simulating the mechanics of D&D, right down to the fact that at first level wild dogs can kill you. When I played the game on the PC around 2000 I marvelled at how it combined managing a party, a traversable campaign world, character speech etc. with good old fashioned AD&D rules. Except I had played AD&D 1st edition and despite what people say, there are differences with 2e plus whatever small changes Bioware had made. Talking to NPCs can be a real drag -way too much text, laboured acting, with some humour - reminding you that across the table this would be an actual conservation - but therein lies the 30 year rub with computer RPGs, so all that left is the graphics and the system.
The graphics, in terms of the map backgrounds, have always been a pleasure to look at. The extra zoom on the iPad is a nicely up-to-date feature. With BG I always got the sense that I was exploring a whole world - you can literally wander anywhere -within plot limits- of course, you may also die, but hey, you choose to stray... The character graphics will be a disappointment to new players, but there is customisation there with armour and weapons which amongst the whole party which you didn't really see in older games like Diablo and is one of the reasons that Dungeon Siege blew me away (Neverwinter series aside). What you're left with is the story and game system.
The story is pretty slow -location triggered mainly- and since I didn't finish BG first time around and got diverted by the expansions I can't say whether or not the story arc is a selling feature - but what I can say is that many of the sub-quests and purse holding patrons connect with the background of the main plot, always reminding you of bigger politics. It isn't just a series of meaningless dungeon and forest locations. However, random encounters when trudging across different areas (oh yes, you walk, no-one rides horses in old Faerun) can feel a bit "samey" - but they fit into the action more than in, say, Fighting Fantasy (I'm playing FFIII on the iPad atm and random encounters really are just a grind for XP).
The main point I wanted to make here was about the game mechanic/system. I think that many of us who choose to play solo D&D PC games because we are armed with, quite literally, tomes of rule knowledge, and we experience pleasure when we strategise regarding strengths and weakens based on our knowledge of weapons, spells, class abilities, and monster stats. It's a fetish! The love of rules, exercised as a fetish! ;) Your character casts a spell in an allotted round and the hobgoblin fails the save - you even see the results of the die-rolls.
 |
| Manuals and reference cards. If you already own these from the original game, they might help. |
About this time last year I finally bought (and had bought for me) copies of the core rulebooks for AD&D2e. So this time around playing BG, I am armed with the knowledge! Therefore I'm flicking through the Player's Handbook, only to find that I can't find anything yet about Monks (or is that new character one of the "enhancements"?). Then I remember, AD&D2e was a huge tree of supplements and add-ons, naturally better organized that AD&D (with it's bolted-on Unearthed Arcana etc.). Oops. Oh well, at least I have the basics. You really don't need AD&D2 to play BG, but understanding any of the early flavours of D&D can go a long way I reckon.
Edit: Oh, you fool, Billiam, Rassad the Monk is one of the new characters in the Enhanced version. At this rate you'll find that there are no Monks in AD&D 2e.
In fact, the original BG game manual and the pamphlets in Tales of the Sword Coast give you a boiled down version of D&D, with strange extras, like by having a Lawful-Good character with high charisma, the prices in all shops become reduced, plus or minus some "party renown" points (if I remember right).
The Help button on the iPad version brings up some context specific symbol definitions, but it still makes you work. So tonight I'm going to be reading the BG manual and prepping myself with the old reference cards. Maybe it would help if I visited the website as well? Again, perhaps it's just like real D&D, when you find yourself reading-up rules between sessions. ;)
Edit: There are tutorials for each class, but I'm an impatient player... Maybe I should try playing through the tutorials...
On the iPad the stylised font text is tiny. Bear this in mind when you're thinking about trying to run it on a lower resolution iPad. The picture symbols for the spells and actions can be hard to make out - even if you know what they mean in advance. Maybe this is like the old days, when learning to type INGLISH (TM) in The Hobbit computer game, finding out what all of the icons do is part of the charm? Selecting items and walking through doors has it's own learning curve as well. There's a knack and your brain will eventually rewire itself, hopefully.
I believe that this is a nostalgia game in the sense that a majority of the customers will have played the game before, or wanted to - and so far (apart from changes in cut-scenes) it's incredibly loyal to the original game, right down to the overly clunky interface, except this time you don't have any keyboard short-cuts. No keyboard short-cuts? It's a tablet. Oh crap. The quest log seems easier to follow than on the PC - but maybe that's because I'm still in the infant stage of the campaign and my parchment rolodex isn't very full. And now, of course, you don't have to insert different discs when you go to a new map area. Bonus.
If you're new to Baldur's Gate, the only advice I have to give is take a careful look at the "Auto-Pause" settings - and read the text at the bottom of the screen- otherwise you quite literally won't know what hit you in combat. Maybe, avoid robbing every shopkeeper you meet, but that's an alignment choice, I guess.
Baldur's Gate is also available on other tablets - site link
You must gather your party before venturing forth ...
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| Map from Tales of the Sword Coast -a BG Expansion- because you really needed more CD-Roms Never mention "Durlag's Tower" to me, I get very upset. |
The Help button on the iPad version brings up some context specific symbol definitions, but it still makes you work. So tonight I'm going to be reading the BG manual and prepping myself with the old reference cards. Maybe it would help if I visited the website as well? Again, perhaps it's just like real D&D, when you find yourself reading-up rules between sessions. ;)
Edit: There are tutorials for each class, but I'm an impatient player... Maybe I should try playing through the tutorials...
On the iPad the stylised font text is tiny. Bear this in mind when you're thinking about trying to run it on a lower resolution iPad. The picture symbols for the spells and actions can be hard to make out - even if you know what they mean in advance. Maybe this is like the old days, when learning to type INGLISH (TM) in The Hobbit computer game, finding out what all of the icons do is part of the charm? Selecting items and walking through doors has it's own learning curve as well. There's a knack and your brain will eventually rewire itself, hopefully.
I believe that this is a nostalgia game in the sense that a majority of the customers will have played the game before, or wanted to - and so far (apart from changes in cut-scenes) it's incredibly loyal to the original game, right down to the overly clunky interface, except this time you don't have any keyboard short-cuts. No keyboard short-cuts? It's a tablet. Oh crap. The quest log seems easier to follow than on the PC - but maybe that's because I'm still in the infant stage of the campaign and my parchment rolodex isn't very full. And now, of course, you don't have to insert different discs when you go to a new map area. Bonus.
If you're new to Baldur's Gate, the only advice I have to give is take a careful look at the "Auto-Pause" settings - and read the text at the bottom of the screen- otherwise you quite literally won't know what hit you in combat. Maybe, avoid robbing every shopkeeper you meet, but that's an alignment choice, I guess.
Baldur's Gate is also available on other tablets - site link
You must gather your party before venturing forth ...
Saturday, 8 December 2012
Baldur's Gate on iPad -"My house is as clean as an elven arse"
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| Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition on iPad $9.99 |
I’ve downloaded BG for iPad.
Yet again I have bought Baldur’s Gate.
Yet again I will almost certainly never finish it.
But it’s worth it ...for the acting. ;)
I have not yet left Candlekeep. Doing errands, basic shopping. I settled for a human ranger called “Fayril Baneslew” which seemed liked a good idea until I imagined Dungeon Bastard shouting it in my face as though I was a homosexual gnome with a proficiency in origami. Baneslew will come through for me, I'm sure.
I cannot comment upon how "enhanced" it is as I haven't explored the extras. The movies are different - a sort of well illustrated moving graphic novel in Flash (if you know what I mean - like Thief 2? my references date quickly), but so far it feels very similar to the game I hunched over night after night on the PC. At least with the iPad I can sometimes lie down. The text at times is tiny - Curse you retina-someting-something-HD definition! Hopefully it's soon to be released on Android as well.
At least this time around I have copies of 2nd edition AD&D (I mainly cut my teeth on AD&D 1e and bought AD&D2 more recently) so when I’m being decimated by denizens of Faerun I can look them up in the Monstrous Manual.
Racial Enemy: Gnoll.
Oh, to be able to add Gibberlings, Xvarts and Kobolds as well!
Oh God, this and Final Fantasy III on iPad…
I can barely afford to charge my iPad as it is.
Saturday, 4 August 2012
Browsing, Wanting, Owning
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Little Books of Dungeons : MegaDungeon Level 1 (Kristian Richards / CSP) is a product which covers all bases. I adore the greyscale style of CSP's maps. In this pack the DM is treated to printable PDFs and jpg sections of a truly massive area. Note sheets and maps with numbered labels are provided for the DM's own notes. I haven't used any Virtual TableTop programs myself but I've experimented with using map jpgs on an iPad with figures (allbeit a tiny area) - so I now truly appreciate the power of zoomable jpgs. It's hard to see what Kristian has left out of 'Level 1. All a DM would have to do is "populate" the dungeon - or perhaps just play using random tables. Usuable for any fantasy roleplaying game and adaptable to a variety of technologies (beyond just printing the PDFs) the $5 price tag is a very reasonable price. This is a truly wonderful product. Congratulations again to Crooked Staff Publishing.
Talking about cut-out figures ... The work of David Kiladecus Wears becomes yet more and more impressive as he solidifies his status as a professional figure artist. Era of War: Xiarn Dynasty brings us original models of quality - which, although intended for his Era of War tabletop battle game, would adapt well as NPCs and unique monsters in RPG settings. Don't be put off by the instructions to trim such detailed work so closely - the figures work just as well with square or oval trimming.
Squid aliens, bubble helmeted spacesuits, shoulder fins, goggles, rayguns - I would readily use Retro Space Set Four Hero Squad with Tales of a Space Princess and Cosmic Patrol, or any retro- Flash Gordon sci-fi space opera you can mention - ideal for characters. This a layers based product which, again, like other Okumarts sets, maxes out out on colour choice, plus a bonus level with some weird robots and aliens. At $2.50 - this is stupidly cheap and David Okum clearly plans to die penniless.
I briefly mentioned the, then forthcoming, Lord Zsezse's Works Modular Trench System in a post about his square tiles because I like to compare square tiles to irregular shaped systems (it's an odd hobby, I know). The solution here is the use of a terrain background poster over which are arranged the abundantly detailed trench segments. Suitable for contemporary and post-apocalyptic play. The versatility of these tiles means that they have a high reusuability value - and are ideal for wargamers and RPGers alike, which makes the current price of $5.50 good value - especially when compared to preprint floor plan products.
I haven't seen inside the unimaginatively entitled E-Z DUNGEONS: Expansion Set 10 and if did I not already have my own rudimentary 3D card furniture I would snap this up pretty quick - definitely ideal for taverns and feast halls. What I like about "props" sets is that whether or not you use battlemaps, floor plans, paper walls or moulded dungeon scenery, the paper chairs, barrels and tables always complement your fantasy minis, and at a low cost. Most of the pieces look box-shaped so I'm assuming that even the most clumsy of modellers would be able to cope with this set. At $5 it's definitely one of there cheaper and more portable packs. Sometimes I hate to praise Fat Dragon, because they make paper scenery look effortless. *Jealous*
Rapscallion is a solitaire adventure by veteran T&T writer Sid Orpin, designed specifically for Rogues (self-taught magic-using warriors) using the 7/7.5 Tunnels & Trolls rules. It has 142 sections which appear to cater for a wide selection of spells (no mean feat in solo-texts) - nice black and white art - amazing value at $2 for the PDF.
Okay, that out of the way. I have some cool news - well, at least from a personal perspective. Apparently I've been super supportive of my partner and as a result she's been treated me to a whole load of goodies. Every man has a price and mine are RPG hardbacks. So it really has been Christmas in July!
Firstly, to accompany my Pathfinder Core rulebook (which I've come to years later than everyone else because I was insisting to myself that my D&D3.5 rules were doing an "okay" job) - she's bought me a copy of the Pathfinder Bestiary, and I must say that the artwork and background layouts are absolutely gorgeous. Since many of my RPG rulebooks end up being shelf-eye-candy (as opposed to becoming battered on an actual gaming table) I am happy very with this. Also, I was desperate to know what I've been missing with regards to comparisons between Pathfinder and D&D3.5. Rules-wise, not a great deal, but aesthetically speaking the Pathfinder products clearly have their own style and identity.
...[Deleted: dull digression about D&D Edition Wars and PF being some sort of counter-culture...]...
I love the Bestiary - it looks mighty fine!
Whilst we're talking about good looking hardbacks, I now feel much more confident in my assertion that the AD&D Reprints are a luscious and worthy purchase even if you already own the original rulebooks. For me the shiny bright white pages and darkest fresh new black ink make the rules easier to read. The gold edging and metallic print on the padded embossed covers makes these books truly special. (Check out The Other Side for comparative photos, also see my post regarding how to get them in the UK). It was nice to receive them as a gift from my partner, because this completely absolved me from the dilemma of buying something that I already own -she bought them at Leisure Games by the way. So maybe do a deal with a gaming friend where you buy copies for each other. My only confusion is that of "errata" - were the texts corrected or is it time for me to download errata texts? (see the Acaeum Library). Rereading these rules in the new format is a divine pleasure.
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| AD&D Reprints? with the gold edging ...? and the special ribbon...? and the shiny pages ...? and the embossed metallic effect covers? MAEBEE I HAZ DEM. :) |
RPG book porn aside...
"TROLL!!!!!"
I watched Troll Hunter recently. Darkly humorous - you'll either love it or you'll hate it. Much of it's quirkiness may to come from the fact that it's a Norwegian film - but I am way out of my depth when it comes to citing contributions to world cinema by Norway. I bought it on budget in my local Tesco - which gives you an idea of how sophisticated my film tastes are before I mention this next DVD - which was also a gift from my partner...
*Mexican whistle*
Hawk the Slayer!
In terms of British cinema history, this film is a bit of a conundrum. It's made by Hammer, those horror masters of cheap gore (years before Troma films were big on VHS) - but there's no blood on the sword blades - in fact it verges on being a family film. There's also an assortment of comedy actors, including Bernard Breslaw and Roy Kinnear. The hero and his nemesis are stalwart American actors, John Terry ("Hawk") and Jack Palance ("Voltan"). Even as a young chap, I could see that this was cynical casting where hero had to be American. Even then it wasn't hard to see the costume likenesses of Hawk to Han Solo and Voltan to Darth Vader. What had escaped me at the time was that the film's watchability stems from the fact that it's modelled on Westerns, with musical motives, fast draw duels and twitching eye shots. It's the cliches being played straight which makes this film so special. My parents were very aware age-related classifications on rented films and at the cinema (and my own thought-police morals perpetuated this) so when my friends were talking about Conan the Destroyer, Excalibur and Sword and the Sorcerer my main reference was this film, because it was a PG. I think I may have seen it in a morning matinee at the cinema, but my memories are usually of watching tapes recorded from the TV. The settings appealed to me, because the forests are English-looking and the main church looks like the sort of universal basilica church found in early medieval Europe - the kind which pre-date churches with steeples. Hawk the Slayer ties closely to Basic/Expert D&D in my mind, where the some of more interesting low level encounters are often human (bandits, beserkers, pirates and so on). The second half of the film essentially a stand-off by a D&D-ish party (human warrior, "giant", elf, dwarf, a magic-user, plus a wounded protagonist with a repeat-firing crossbow*) in a church surrounded by forest besieged by 0-level bandits. If you think about it, most of the creatures - humanoid or not- in films at the time were fairly rubberised - so the lack of goblins or orcs or even muscley barbarians is perhaps to Hawk the Slayer's credit. Just don't mention the scene with the glowing silly-string. This film is a treasure. Had it not been a gift it would have eventually have been a definite "guilty" purchase. ;)
*I was never very happy about the repeat crossbow with a loadable magazine - it just wasn't "low-tech" enough for me at the time.
I gave in, and bought Legend of Grimrock from Steam. I regret nothing!
(I also really hate giant squealing poisonous spiders, and trapdoors...)
A random book-"want" hereby follows:
I'm looking forward to browsing for this book in the shops,"For Young Men and Literate Women..."
Dr Grodbort's TRIUMPH
Thrashingly good nonsense! Tastes like Victory! Not for the weak. Steampunk for colonial fascists, better than all that foreign muck.
Happy gaming.
And if you're not actually gaming, don't do too much shopping. ;)
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Saturday, 4 February 2012
Dungeon tiles, chests, blast-doors (Fat Dragon/Forever People/PWork)
I'd hoped to be a bit more balanced in linking to different types of RPG products, but at the last minute usual obsessions tint my shades and filter out so many titles.
So ... back to printable floor plans and cardboard scenery...
Whilst trying to finish some maps for Raging Swan Press, staying off my new (second hand) iPad and avoiding DriveThru/RPGNow has been a real challenge! -Incidentally on the iPad, I'm leaping from Fighting Fantasy Citadel of Chaos*, Fabled Lands, a bit of CoC Wasted land (see previous post) and the shockingly addictive Dungeon Hunter III.
*Strangely, the FF titles with embedded combat system are not on Kindle yet in the UK, despite some US releases (The Citadel of Chaos
Kindle/Amazon)
Back in random bargain PDF download-world: four products leapt out at me this week:
EZ Dungeons Expansion Set 8 by good old Fat Dragon Games has become an hottest/platinum-seller, and it's a no-brainer to see why. It doesn't matter what type of figures or scenery you use, chests, barrels and boxes will embellish any style of dungeon (or inn, forest etc) and you can never have enough of them!
$3.99
My own Inked Adventures experiments with simple chests and boxes can be found in 3D Furniture for dungeons (mirrored post on blogger) Proceeds from that set go to DWB/MSF charity. having clumsy hands I rarely like my 3D models to me much more sophisticated than boxes. (Product page on DriveThru) I'll be honest, mine down have lids which open - but they might be faster to assemble and have that home-grown hand illustrated look. ;) (okay, who am kidding ...?)
Into The Pit 5 - Doors, Gates and Portals (from Forever People) I'm extremely intrigued by the art here, because the designers been brave
enough to employ 3D-as-seen-from-above doors (I get immensely excited
about top-down perspectives - I blame the graphics in Atic Atac! Something, again I try to do in my own Modular Dungeon Basic Pack)
$1.98
Fantasy Tiles: Dungeon (PWork Paper Wargame) These look great and I'm guessing that they work in a similar way to the old Dungeon Floor Plans - where the pieces are trimmed to represent as close as possible the dungeon in the DM's notes. Which I find myself having to explain to players who believe maps for minis should only ever come as square tiles or otherwise drawn on a battle-mat, which is fair enough - but they're missing a trick. Also, it's really important to remember that these sets are re-printable, so you can assemble, glue, move sections around, and re-use small bits. With this is mind I'd print on to firm card (-stock) and not foam-card (as is the fashion) - unless you're using exactly the same dimensions for rooms and corridors in every dungeon. They'd probably look fabulous when lain on a black cloth / flock or sugar paper. Again, this is advice applies for anyone using my own sets - or maybe I'm projecting here, since I haven't actually used PWork's tiles in play. If you're new to this chop-n-change style of plans it's time think outside of the square tile and beyond the tessellatory geomorph! ;)
$6.58
From the same publishers are these nice looking industrial sci-fi Aliens/Space Hulk style plans: Wargame Scenery Starbase Sector
Check out also the seriously cauterised version: Abandoned Sector.
For 28mm figures etc. Set to "overwatch"!
$6.58
Whilst we're on the subject of chopping up dungeon tile flavoured cardboard I recommend that the more discerning DMs take a look at Kev's Lounge Dungeon. There's sweety freebies there!
Wow :o
A whole post and I never mentioned SOPA (which confused the heck out of me... using the net was like walking into a house where some of the lightbulbs had been stolen in protest ...), ... or any recent world events... Prince William is in the Falklands ...?
No, wait, I wanted to talk about those 1st edition AD&D reprints, which is surely one of the first signs of the apocalypse .... [[ OUT-OF-TIME ]] *static*
So ... back to printable floor plans and cardboard scenery...
Whilst trying to finish some maps for Raging Swan Press, staying off my new (second hand) iPad and avoiding DriveThru/RPGNow has been a real challenge! -Incidentally on the iPad, I'm leaping from Fighting Fantasy Citadel of Chaos*, Fabled Lands, a bit of CoC Wasted land (see previous post) and the shockingly addictive Dungeon Hunter III.
*Strangely, the FF titles with embedded combat system are not on Kindle yet in the UK, despite some US releases (The Citadel of Chaos
Kindle/Amazon)
Back in random bargain PDF download-world: four products leapt out at me this week:
EZ Dungeons Expansion Set 8 by good old Fat Dragon Games has become an hottest/platinum-seller, and it's a no-brainer to see why. It doesn't matter what type of figures or scenery you use, chests, barrels and boxes will embellish any style of dungeon (or inn, forest etc) and you can never have enough of them!
$3.99
My own Inked Adventures experiments with simple chests and boxes can be found in 3D Furniture for dungeons (mirrored post on blogger) Proceeds from that set go to DWB/MSF charity. having clumsy hands I rarely like my 3D models to me much more sophisticated than boxes. (Product page on DriveThru) I'll be honest, mine down have lids which open - but they might be faster to assemble and have that home-grown hand illustrated look. ;) (okay, who am kidding ...?)
Into The Pit 5 - Doors, Gates and Portals (from Forever People) I'm extremely intrigued by the art here, because the designers been brave
enough to employ 3D-as-seen-from-above doors (I get immensely excited
about top-down perspectives - I blame the graphics in Atic Atac! Something, again I try to do in my own Modular Dungeon Basic Pack) $1.98
Fantasy Tiles: Dungeon (PWork Paper Wargame) These look great and I'm guessing that they work in a similar way to the old Dungeon Floor Plans - where the pieces are trimmed to represent as close as possible the dungeon in the DM's notes. Which I find myself having to explain to players who believe maps for minis should only ever come as square tiles or otherwise drawn on a battle-mat, which is fair enough - but they're missing a trick. Also, it's really important to remember that these sets are re-printable, so you can assemble, glue, move sections around, and re-use small bits. With this is mind I'd print on to firm card (-stock) and not foam-card (as is the fashion) - unless you're using exactly the same dimensions for rooms and corridors in every dungeon. They'd probably look fabulous when lain on a black cloth / flock or sugar paper. Again, this is advice applies for anyone using my own sets - or maybe I'm projecting here, since I haven't actually used PWork's tiles in play. If you're new to this chop-n-change style of plans it's time think outside of the square tile and beyond the tessellatory geomorph! ;)$6.58
From the same publishers are these nice looking industrial sci-fi Aliens/Space Hulk style plans: Wargame Scenery Starbase Sector
Check out also the seriously cauterised version: Abandoned Sector.
For 28mm figures etc. Set to "overwatch"!
$6.58
Whilst we're on the subject of chopping up dungeon tile flavoured cardboard I recommend that the more discerning DMs take a look at Kev's Lounge Dungeon. There's sweety freebies there!
Wow :o
A whole post and I never mentioned SOPA (which confused the heck out of me... using the net was like walking into a house where some of the lightbulbs had been stolen in protest ...), ... or any recent world events... Prince William is in the Falklands ...?
No, wait, I wanted to talk about those 1st edition AD&D reprints, which is surely one of the first signs of the apocalypse .... [[ OUT-OF-TIME ]] *static*
Sunday, 18 December 2011
Hot off the altar ... CoC Wasted Land Jan 30th 2012 ... LotR Lego
Ooh shiny baubles ...
....New Screenshots of Call of Cthulhu Wasted Land for iPhone, iPad, Android...
....New Screenshots of Call of Cthulhu Wasted Land for iPhone, iPad, Android...
./START/..
... Telegram from Red Wasp Design:
... Telegram from Red Wasp Design:
'Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land' Screenshots HD Released,Launch Date Announced as 30th January 2012
After much chanting and summoning of dark forces, indie developer Red Wasp Design today announced that the stars will be right for the release of Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land on the 30th January 2012. To seal this pact with expectant gamers they have accompanied the date announcement with a slew of never-before released High-Definition images.
Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land is a turn-based strategy RPG based around the works of cult horror writer H.P.Lovecraft. The game is set in the midst of the First World War and pits a team of soldiers and investigators against an insidious cult intent on using the slaughter of the Great War to open the doors to an invasion of eldritch horrors.
Announced in May this year and set to launch initially on iPhone and iPod (both SD and HD versions), Red Wasp Design then later plan to infect other platforms such as iPad, Android, PC and consoles with their World War One themed turn-based strategy horror. The game has been developed in co-operation with Chaosium, the purveyors of the cult horror role playing game based on Lovecraft's work, Call of Cthulhu. The much loved RPG marked it's 30th year of publication in 2011 and continues to grow in scope and reputation.
Red Wasp Design can also be followed on Facebook, Twitter (@redwaspdesign) and on their site at redwaspdesign.com
.../END/..
 |
| Lego Frodo and his massive ring |
Facebook and the blogs this week are alive with curious excitement over Lego acquiring the rights to make models (and games?) of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Hobbit(s).
Prior to this epic announcement, there's been some amazing Lego fan constructions of scenes from LotR, it'll be hard to see the Danish brick builders' own sets top those. ;)
Lego has flirted with the fantasy-medieval genre in the past and currently, but maybe new Lego sets will bring us more weapons and fantasy garbs for our minifigs! Maybe Legolas and Gimli can be imported to our Heroica Sets ... ooh the possibilities!
 |
| BrickQuest!! brickquest.com |
Whilst you're on the Lego site check out the "Lego Universe to Close" Press Release. Apparently the kids didn't have access to Dad's credit card, after all. ;)
(No wait, I shouldn't make assumptions about age groups - especially rereading my last paragraph)
Happy reading, gaming, collecting, playing! :)
Saturday, 19 November 2011
Teach Your Kids to Game Week randomthoughtsonintergenerationalgaming
Looking through the strange selection of games presented on DriveThru, I have three, not quite related, thoughts:
1. a kid themed or "soft" setting game may not be the answer to getting the kids hooked (see below) ;
2. why not play Lego Heroica? ;
3. I want to steal other people's children to play the Dungeon! boardgame with me.
As I decelerate into my fifth decade of life, it seems to be blind fate, that has procured me with a nil chance to spawn little ones upon which I can project my joys, fears, prejudices and/or personality shortcomings. No Frankensteinian experiments for me! No pitter-patter of little geeky stormtrooper feet. ;)
Back when I first played Dungeons & Dragons, it was coming in for a lot of flack (early 80s), and that was way before Pokemon cards hit the playgrounds and were clearly of a much more straight-forward evil. As a young teenager, I defended D&D for it's cultural and educational value (but you also have to remember that nearly all children-to-teens know that citing anything as "educational" was a sure way of getting Santa to deliver). I thought I was fighting for the misunderstood underdog. According to me, D&D had made me a genius in Maths, English and History, inspired me to notice geology, nature and architecture, to draw, and later, to express and be loud in drama. I would bat aside myths of spell casting witchery and heavy-metal Satanism. Although no-one was actually hunting role-players, an ominous threat was ever present, because my parents would absorb misinformation, like the mindless sponges I thought they were, and they could act fast: dining table hosting of games could be revoked at the last minute, I could become grounded, with friends turned away at the door. Perhaps, thinking back I had defended the hobby like an angry paranoid drug addict - seeing conspiracy at every turn, if only people understood, they wouldn't want to deprive me of the magic.
A friend's mother had rung my mother and suggested that they should organise a tennis club, specifically for their children who were playing this sinister game. In all of this fresh air and racket wielding was just a hint of clean Christian fun, which would mould us into well-balanced morally grounded sin-free pre-adults. I think my mum was not entirely convinced and had probably encountered this type of busy-body before. She laughed it off, and perhaps realised that her clumsy PE-hating boy might find tennis just a little too healthy. (Side note: as a youngster, I'd attended the Scouts once, but it was on the same night as Blake's 7, and missing one episode was enough for me).
When some teen problems later occurred, I was banned from reading my RPG rulebooks, and stopped from going to games, but this may have had more to do with the mistaken belief that if I had nothing to do in my spare time I would choose to revise for exams. Hmm. Naturally. Anyhow. "Maybe the depression will go away dear, if we deprive you of familiar things you like..." That was you-don't-understand-me teen stuff vs. protective parent logic (perhaps now it's all about the confiscation of knives, hoodies, I-pods and blocking Live-play MSN- "Aw, Mum! I HATE you!" etc.).
I think we're originally talking about child gamers here, not teenagers, .... I think the point I'd planned to get to was that it seems so strange that it's the parents who are trying to sell role-playing games as a concept to the children (and not the other way around) especially if they're pushing those archaic styles of play with the pencils, paper sheets, coloured dice and combat matrix reading. "Sorry, Dad, I just want to finish my homework on the iPad. Can't mum play with you? She understands all that old stuff with the dusty boxes and the smelly books."
I mean, is it possible to talk to kids about RPGs without describing it as "World of Warcraft before graphics cards and consoles"? Am I the only one thinking that suddenly tabletop RPGs sound like those jokes about grandparents having no toys apart from a piece of coal, a tangerine and a wooden horse (and the tangerine had gone off)? It's all true, before 1965, all of the world was in black and white, and toys were basically whittled figurines - now mistaken as religious fertility symbols. At 12 you started an apprenticeship in an underground steel mill or had a baby and most of your childhood games were actually variations of how to avoid being beaten by the parents, relatives or neighbours, because in those days you were allowed to hit other peoples kids and it was expected of you and you could leave your doors unlocked and no-one would steal anything except foreigners who couldn't be trusted because they were foreign and didn't understand our honest ways etc. It's all true, believe me, no really, ask yer dad.
A three year old showed me how to play on a Wii the other day. Naturally, I had to defeat her at ten-pin bowling and table tennis (just to prove a point). Okay, she beat me at some sort of frisbee game - the one with the manic happy-then-sad dog. I mean, even wires on consoles must look exotic and retro to these kids. I'm still impressed about the Talisman board being in colour!
Perhaps this our chance to rewrite history and claim that D&D was played with chalk and blackboard slates. throw in some marbles and a tin soldiers, perhaps a spining top, and it's all good wholesome Victorian fun for all the family (Sunday fun before Papa had to go back down t' pit and Mama had finish washing rags outside the Workhouse...).
It's really great to read about a new generation of gamers bonding with parents in this way. Maybe we're like the hobby-railway enthusiasts, or scaletrix drivers. letting the children into the attic, showing them the diorama and controls - but don't touch that button, only daddies are allowed to touch that. I'm pretty sure that dedicated Lego hobbyists are pretty strict with which sets they let the kids play with. Our "inner child" vs. the real child. Get out, haven't you got texts to send?
Unless I was gaming with very young children I think I'd avoid child-like settings, perhaps this is because it brings me back to my own childhood where I despise the cuter characters and child protagonists - I identified with archtypal grown-up heroes (or at least teenage heroes). I liked my fantasy to be played straight and absorbing. Hawk the Slayer and Krull, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars were infinitely preferable to Neverending Story, The Goonies and Caravan of Courage An Ewok Adventure. As an adult I really like the kids in ET, and I think I buy in to the idea of "family" movies better than I used to. Mum once once described the Doctor's assistant Leela as "something for the dads to watch" - I must ask her why she watched Doctor Who - I think it was to do with plot solving and mild scary peril, judging by the sort of programmes she likes now. Okay, I've gone off the point. The question is, if your kids want to play muscle black magic dealing killers, can you cope with that, or is My Little Pony with some numbers more the sort of thing the kids should be playing?
Random aside: if you're into the psychology of children relating to heroes in fairy tales I recommend dipping into Bruno Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment which blew my mind just a little at college and led to the devising of the dubiously titled Edinburgh Festival play "Grimm Realities". But that was another life, and we shall never speak of this again.
 |
| Well, sonny, back in them days, we's had what some folks called "nuclear" families. Thems were bad news when they played them boredom-games together, as it led to explosive argy-ments and nuclear fallings-out. Then, after Chez-Noble, the UN banned the boredom games and we wuz all told to sun-scribe to only-lined video games like Wally Warcraft. And we was grateful for the 'Warcraft too. We didn't have to talk to folks no more. Well, not to folks we wuz gene-related to. And we could play any-time, -not just at Christmas. ... |
I'm pretty sure I really know nothing on the subject of inter-generational gameplay, and I have never been forced to weigh up educational merits verses fun, or justify the moral abandonment of stealing tomb treasure being "okay" because "it's a goal related reward". Only recently I was struck very hard in the face with the idea that many games (or at least the ones I truly enjoy) are nakedly capitalistic on so many levels. Competition, wealth acquisition, renown and power. (I love it) Which, incidentally, was part of the inspiration of the title of this blog. Of course there's that bit where you have to share the wealth with others in the party, but it's done with a begrudging attitude and the glaring subtext of "I could just kill you now and take your share". Would I worry about navigating these moral minefields? I mean I struggle at work daily, trying to avoid being sacked because I think some words and ideas are very funny, whilst the rest of the grown-up world seems to I'm being some sort of an unprofessional monster (at this point I want to pretend to you that I'm actually primary school teacher... but that would be lying and the judges told me that it would never happen... actually the truth is in fact much scarier...)
Anyhow, I suspect this is probably what I'd be like as a dad playing games with his sons:
(Fast Show - Competitive Dad - http://youtu.be/0MigZFRWYHg )
Educational merits (or worries) aside, perhaps it's just important to "have fun" - which reminds me of that immortal D&D/RPG ethos that there are no winners or losers, because you "win" by having fun. Cheesy, yes, but curiously applicable to all forms of creative play.
Anyhow, gamer-parents, I salute you!
To sign off, I especially liked this entry on Daddy Grognard.
Teach Your Kids to Game Week - on DriveThruRPG - with links to Facebook news and groups.
Sunday, 23 October 2011
Third level cleric with a crossbow on Facebook?
I meant to post this a few days back when the Hasbro vs. Atari news seemed just a little newer.
Hasbro and Atari resolve D&D dispute (News WotC site) I really hadn't realised that most of the D&D PC game titles I own have the Atari logo on the spine, and apparently they're bringing out the new game Daggerdale (official release news).
Like many players (I guess), I'm not too bothered about which parent company holds copyright or franchises as long as console and PC games are published regularly and are of a decent quality. In the case of D&D, it's always preferable that computer games include something resembling the actual dice mechanics in the tabletop game. So one naturally hopes that the brand won't be just used to sell first-person fantasy shooters. I don't need graphics of actual d20s being rolled on the screen but I like seeing a character sheet and a get a strange satisfaction with acquiring a ring of "+1 protection" - I'm in a familiar zone. There's always something a bit clunky about those game mechanics being represented in such a dynamic way, like in combat, but I was more than relieved to see that Neverwinter Nights 2 was working out fiddly 3rd edition Attacks of Opportunity for itself.
The closest I've come to playing AD&D 2nd Edition was through Baldur's Gate (which I have yet to finish and get on with BG2 - shameful admissions time!). I'm not a MMORPG player - I have gaming commitment issues, so a re-creation of a group experience is not why I play RPG-style games on a PC - it's definitely more to do with structured questing, plausible narrative and the acquisition of stuff.
Even with the stunning graphics of Oblivion part of the fun of playing that game was in the stat building. It's amazing to think that on-screen numbers and primitive health bars are still part of the strategy. Turn-based fights seem like an anachronism in games and yet it's still a big part of the genre. Familiar attributes, turn based fights, spell durations - this is all the stuff of tabletop gaming, so sometimes this is the closest a solo gamer can get to exploiting all of their games system knowledge borne from dusty rulebooks.
The (Atari) D&D Heroes of Neverwinter (Beta) on Facebook surprised me after playing a previous D&D app (which I've forgotten the name of) which lamely took a reader from one paragraph to the next, with perhaps a combat dice roll. I mean, would a bit of multiple choice been too difficult? At least Heroes' actually has graphics - actual dungeons! They're retro-isometric, too. :) It's a fun distraction, logging in to collect gold and climbing the levels is addictive in a not-quite Diablo way.
For a very naive and optimistic moment I thought it might be like a morpy-multi-thingy, but the play-with-your-friends side is all to do with borrowing other people's characters, hence the social pressure to maintain a half decent character. The option to watch your character in someone else's game is interesting in terms of seeing other people's playing style, and the fact that when your character is wounded they my choose not to heal it - the cheek!
The sinister financial aspects of the game are a less exploitative than in some Fb games, but who knows, one day, in the middle of the night, at an adventure's zenith, a character revival by cost of diamonds, purchased by Paypal might actually tempt me.
It's been a bit stop-start playing the beta - the window can go blank - possibly a problem with server communication (?) and sometimes I've had Flash crashing, which reminded me a lot of the memory leak problems I had with CafeWorld which had nothing to do with the different computers I was using (hmm, Zynga, stop promising the world and telling me to "publish to profile"...).
There's been a couple of extra dungeons set up along a Halloween theme - one is so buggy that it crashed three times and when I log back in I'm asked to return to the adventure which then doesn't load. Abandoning an adventure can lead to a loss of hired characters and energy points. Perhaps I've been unlucky, but it can put you off a bit. Seasonal themes are the disease of Facebook games. I assume that designers feel that players easily become bored, so they spice up the games with new backgrounds and special seasonal bonus items. I'm not sure that this is a good idea in the fantasy setting of Heroes, especially if they plan is to slow the game down with multiple welcome notices - perhaps like "Only 2 days left to complete Santas Grotto and defeat the Christmas Trees of Evil" - which is what made Farmville utterly unbearable for me (Gaga-ville was the final straw), that and an emotional attachment to wilting rice crops.
I like my fantasy settings to be played fairly straight and have a consistent reality. Neverwinter is a well documented campaign world with it's own seasons and celebrations. I'd be surprised if it's citizens observe pagan or Mexican pre-All Saints Day traditions. I don't mind the spiders, but please, less masks and pumpkins, if you know what I mean. Out of all of the Facebook games I've played so far, I'm enjoying it the most, but I shudder at what extra themes and splash pages they are planning.
However, what I really wanted to say is that despite the locations and encounters feeling mechanical and a little limited, I'm enjoying learning some of the very basics of the D&D4 system. Suddenly the new Player's Handbook seems less alien with specific reference to daily- and encounter powers. I'm still not sure why Clerics or Wizards should be allowed hand-crossbows, but for a very small moment I'm having to put my old-edition prejudices aside and embrace the new laws.
For anyone still baffled by a "Fey Step" or a "Sly Flourish" maybe Heroes' is a good teaching aid. For now, my preferences are still with older editions of the game, but at least D&D4 combat makes a little more sense now.
In way of healing the differences between Atari and Wizards, this game may do a lot for introducing novices to the tabletop game (firmly WotC's jurisdiction), possibly more than a dedicated console or PC game. Facebook app exposure can be massive and egalitarian. I haven't seen that many good adventure games of Facebook (especially ones where the fights don't look like a card game), so in some ways Heroes of Neverwinter shines. The bad news is that this is a how many people will discover D&D. Apart from the odd scene-setter paragragh there's very little here that resembles the creative magic and wonder of a conversation based role-playing game. But hey, it's amazing that fantasy table-top games still exist at all, even if most of it is just about shunting figures across squares (...says a fan of Warhammer Quest). Perhaps it's a tactile thing, perhaps World of Warcraft isn't the ultimate be all and end all of co-operative games.
... Yadda, yadda. ...
Given the choice between this and Farmville, I'd opt for heroes of Neverwinter, but then I was a rubbish farmer.
Almost related .... (skip this if you're bored of D&D edition wars) ;)
Let's see ... rumours around the return of Monte Cook to Wizards'...
I actually heard about this from Dungeon Bastard on Facebook who was telling us to be "very worried", presumably because those 4th edition power attacks met get pruned back to D&D3.5 / Pathfinder levels - man, I love Dungeon Bastard. :D He also seems to be on relatively good terms with Mr Cook.
I'm pretty convinced the renewed rumour grenade of a possible 5th Edition, generated by a forum post and taken as verboten "from the horses mouth" is actually a joke or a wind up (?). Also, it would be very strange if WotC were to suddenly embark upon act of mass wish-fulfillment and return D&D to the 3rd edition style. But, alack, alas, I'm out of my depth with regards to the soap operas of personalities, joining and leaving games companies. Upon reflection, the whole Arneson-Gygax-TSR history seems to change subtly wherever I read it on different web pages - naturally revised and recontextualised, which is to be expected. I am not up to date with the entire bibliographies and work history of Tweet, Cook, Costikyan, Slavicsek, to name a few of the authors and designers names that I actually recognise of the old guard of the 80s (hmm, maybe I should go and check Wikipedia, meh, me lazy), and I know that MC is a significant player in today's gaming products, but he's probably just co-authoring some decent campaign books. I say all this because even WotC wouldn't be dumb enough to kill the 4th Edition product line so soon...
I mean dropping Dragon and Dungeon as printed magazines was a good move, right? Damn, I miss printed those monthlies.
I know that some DMs shrug and say "I have a set of rules my players like, and we'll continue playing with that ruleset. Wizards can do what they like." The community fear generated by edition change feels similar to fear of new operating systems. It's about support, and being able to buy compatible products - or even cover design. If you've spent £200 ($300) on matching shiny hardcovers, interlinking core volumes and campaign settings, there's a considerable emotional as well as a financial investment, and that might be before you've actually played the game. I know I do this, although I drew the line at PH2 with 4ed, no PH3 for me until I actually play with a group of human beings. (Does that make my opinions about D&D4 redundant?) There's a celebration of being up-to-date, of being on the cutting edge of the gaming zeitgeist. My relief at discovering the OSR was immense, that talking about, playing and writing for older versions of D&D is acceptable, because D&D4 had left me baffled, alienated even. I'd never played any "storytelling" RPGs but suddenly you find yourself hunting about for just an essense of speech, of the "radio-drama", of quirky NPCs, which I'm sure can be shoe-horned into D&D4, but it's certainly not the focus of the game.
Okay, getting side tracked. My point is that I wanted to see what new D&D was like, bought (and had bought for me) a lot of the rulebooks. As a dabbler in designing accessories I think I was fantasising about writing OGL products for 4th edition. Initially I wanted to write solo-text-games. I had just about felt comfortable with 3.5, but 4th edition was just too bound up with group management and physical space on the battle-mat. Oh well. However, as a collector, I'm still strangely proud that I own these pretty tomes.
So let's see: I like older systems or new systems which look like older systems, but no matter what ill guided decisions WotC eventually make, I'll probably end up begrudgingly buying at least the core rulebooks of any new edition because they'll be shinier and more colourful, and I hate not knowing what everyone at the RPG party is talking about (or grumbling about).
4th Edition D&D is right up there with the Star Wars prequels, which I'm glad I've seen and owned, but ... but ...
Oh God, Lucas/WotC (delete as applicable), what have you done to my childhood?!
*Goes off to hug the original red box and browse the net for all-in-one clones*
It's okay. I'll be fine.
No, really.
Hey, if you're a Facebooker, check out Heroes of Neverwinter, it's harmless fun (if you can repress thoughts about how D&D is not what it used to be).
Thanks for reading. :)
Hasbro and Atari resolve D&D dispute (News WotC site) I really hadn't realised that most of the D&D PC game titles I own have the Atari logo on the spine, and apparently they're bringing out the new game Daggerdale (official release news).
Like many players (I guess), I'm not too bothered about which parent company holds copyright or franchises as long as console and PC games are published regularly and are of a decent quality. In the case of D&D, it's always preferable that computer games include something resembling the actual dice mechanics in the tabletop game. So one naturally hopes that the brand won't be just used to sell first-person fantasy shooters. I don't need graphics of actual d20s being rolled on the screen but I like seeing a character sheet and a get a strange satisfaction with acquiring a ring of "+1 protection" - I'm in a familiar zone. There's always something a bit clunky about those game mechanics being represented in such a dynamic way, like in combat, but I was more than relieved to see that Neverwinter Nights 2 was working out fiddly 3rd edition Attacks of Opportunity for itself.
The closest I've come to playing AD&D 2nd Edition was through Baldur's Gate (which I have yet to finish and get on with BG2 - shameful admissions time!). I'm not a MMORPG player - I have gaming commitment issues, so a re-creation of a group experience is not why I play RPG-style games on a PC - it's definitely more to do with structured questing, plausible narrative and the acquisition of stuff.
Even with the stunning graphics of Oblivion part of the fun of playing that game was in the stat building. It's amazing to think that on-screen numbers and primitive health bars are still part of the strategy. Turn-based fights seem like an anachronism in games and yet it's still a big part of the genre. Familiar attributes, turn based fights, spell durations - this is all the stuff of tabletop gaming, so sometimes this is the closest a solo gamer can get to exploiting all of their games system knowledge borne from dusty rulebooks.
 |
| D&D on Facebook Heroes of Neverwinter with seasonal additions - God know what Christmas will bring. ;) Link to Fb App |
For a very naive and optimistic moment I thought it might be like a morpy-multi-thingy, but the play-with-your-friends side is all to do with borrowing other people's characters, hence the social pressure to maintain a half decent character. The option to watch your character in someone else's game is interesting in terms of seeing other people's playing style, and the fact that when your character is wounded they my choose not to heal it - the cheek!
The sinister financial aspects of the game are a less exploitative than in some Fb games, but who knows, one day, in the middle of the night, at an adventure's zenith, a character revival by cost of diamonds, purchased by Paypal might actually tempt me.
It's been a bit stop-start playing the beta - the window can go blank - possibly a problem with server communication (?) and sometimes I've had Flash crashing, which reminded me a lot of the memory leak problems I had with CafeWorld which had nothing to do with the different computers I was using (hmm, Zynga, stop promising the world and telling me to "publish to profile"...).
There's been a couple of extra dungeons set up along a Halloween theme - one is so buggy that it crashed three times and when I log back in I'm asked to return to the adventure which then doesn't load. Abandoning an adventure can lead to a loss of hired characters and energy points. Perhaps I've been unlucky, but it can put you off a bit. Seasonal themes are the disease of Facebook games. I assume that designers feel that players easily become bored, so they spice up the games with new backgrounds and special seasonal bonus items. I'm not sure that this is a good idea in the fantasy setting of Heroes, especially if they plan is to slow the game down with multiple welcome notices - perhaps like "Only 2 days left to complete Santas Grotto and defeat the Christmas Trees of Evil" - which is what made Farmville utterly unbearable for me (Gaga-ville was the final straw), that and an emotional attachment to wilting rice crops.
I like my fantasy settings to be played fairly straight and have a consistent reality. Neverwinter is a well documented campaign world with it's own seasons and celebrations. I'd be surprised if it's citizens observe pagan or Mexican pre-All Saints Day traditions. I don't mind the spiders, but please, less masks and pumpkins, if you know what I mean. Out of all of the Facebook games I've played so far, I'm enjoying it the most, but I shudder at what extra themes and splash pages they are planning.
 |
| Does D&D4 PH make more sense after playing on Facebook? |
For anyone still baffled by a "Fey Step" or a "Sly Flourish" maybe Heroes' is a good teaching aid. For now, my preferences are still with older editions of the game, but at least D&D4 combat makes a little more sense now.
In way of healing the differences between Atari and Wizards, this game may do a lot for introducing novices to the tabletop game (firmly WotC's jurisdiction), possibly more than a dedicated console or PC game. Facebook app exposure can be massive and egalitarian. I haven't seen that many good adventure games of Facebook (especially ones where the fights don't look like a card game), so in some ways Heroes of Neverwinter shines. The bad news is that this is a how many people will discover D&D. Apart from the odd scene-setter paragragh there's very little here that resembles the creative magic and wonder of a conversation based role-playing game. But hey, it's amazing that fantasy table-top games still exist at all, even if most of it is just about shunting figures across squares (...says a fan of Warhammer Quest). Perhaps it's a tactile thing, perhaps World of Warcraft isn't the ultimate be all and end all of co-operative games.
... Yadda, yadda. ...
Given the choice between this and Farmville, I'd opt for heroes of Neverwinter, but then I was a rubbish farmer.
Almost related .... (skip this if you're bored of D&D edition wars) ;)
Let's see ... rumours around the return of Monte Cook to Wizards'...
I actually heard about this from Dungeon Bastard on Facebook who was telling us to be "very worried", presumably because those 4th edition power attacks met get pruned back to D&D3.5 / Pathfinder levels - man, I love Dungeon Bastard. :D He also seems to be on relatively good terms with Mr Cook.
I'm pretty convinced the renewed rumour grenade of a possible 5th Edition, generated by a forum post and taken as verboten "from the horses mouth" is actually a joke or a wind up (?). Also, it would be very strange if WotC were to suddenly embark upon act of mass wish-fulfillment and return D&D to the 3rd edition style. But, alack, alas, I'm out of my depth with regards to the soap operas of personalities, joining and leaving games companies. Upon reflection, the whole Arneson-Gygax-TSR history seems to change subtly wherever I read it on different web pages - naturally revised and recontextualised, which is to be expected. I am not up to date with the entire bibliographies and work history of Tweet, Cook, Costikyan, Slavicsek, to name a few of the authors and designers names that I actually recognise of the old guard of the 80s (hmm, maybe I should go and check Wikipedia, meh, me lazy), and I know that MC is a significant player in today's gaming products, but he's probably just co-authoring some decent campaign books. I say all this because even WotC wouldn't be dumb enough to kill the 4th Edition product line so soon...
I mean dropping Dragon and Dungeon as printed magazines was a good move, right? Damn, I miss printed those monthlies.
I know that some DMs shrug and say "I have a set of rules my players like, and we'll continue playing with that ruleset. Wizards can do what they like." The community fear generated by edition change feels similar to fear of new operating systems. It's about support, and being able to buy compatible products - or even cover design. If you've spent £200 ($300) on matching shiny hardcovers, interlinking core volumes and campaign settings, there's a considerable emotional as well as a financial investment, and that might be before you've actually played the game. I know I do this, although I drew the line at PH2 with 4ed, no PH3 for me until I actually play with a group of human beings. (Does that make my opinions about D&D4 redundant?) There's a celebration of being up-to-date, of being on the cutting edge of the gaming zeitgeist. My relief at discovering the OSR was immense, that talking about, playing and writing for older versions of D&D is acceptable, because D&D4 had left me baffled, alienated even. I'd never played any "storytelling" RPGs but suddenly you find yourself hunting about for just an essense of speech, of the "radio-drama", of quirky NPCs, which I'm sure can be shoe-horned into D&D4, but it's certainly not the focus of the game.
Okay, getting side tracked. My point is that I wanted to see what new D&D was like, bought (and had bought for me) a lot of the rulebooks. As a dabbler in designing accessories I think I was fantasising about writing OGL products for 4th edition. Initially I wanted to write solo-text-games. I had just about felt comfortable with 3.5, but 4th edition was just too bound up with group management and physical space on the battle-mat. Oh well. However, as a collector, I'm still strangely proud that I own these pretty tomes.
So let's see: I like older systems or new systems which look like older systems, but no matter what ill guided decisions WotC eventually make, I'll probably end up begrudgingly buying at least the core rulebooks of any new edition because they'll be shinier and more colourful, and I hate not knowing what everyone at the RPG party is talking about (or grumbling about).
4th Edition D&D is right up there with the Star Wars prequels, which I'm glad I've seen and owned, but ... but ...
Oh God, Lucas/WotC (delete as applicable), what have you done to my childhood?!
*Goes off to hug the original red box and browse the net for all-in-one clones*
It's okay. I'll be fine.
No, really.
Hey, if you're a Facebooker, check out Heroes of Neverwinter, it's harmless fun (if you can repress thoughts about how D&D is not what it used to be).
Thanks for reading. :)
Saturday, 15 October 2011
It has a dinosaur on the cover
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| Totems of the Dead: Game Master's Guide to the Untamed Lands |
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| TUROK! Stab, slash, stab! Rah! |
This is possibly because it makes me want to play Turok Dinosaur Hunter on the N64. (Well, the first few levels at least, which can be completed using only the knife! I love the killing but hate all the jumping...).
Totems of the Dead: Game Master's Guide to the Untamed Lands - Gun Metal Games
PDF, 140 pages, $13 on DriveThru
A campaign setting using the Savage Worlds system.
RAAAAH!!!
Whaddayawant? An actual review?
It has a dinosaur on the cover, I'd buy it for those reasons alone. ;)
Friday, 16 September 2011
Chibis Ate My Dungeon
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| Human Paladin -Super Dungeon Explore- Soda Pop Miniatures |
It's difficult to recollect how strange the art for Pathfinder first seemed. I'm mean it looked really strange, and that was even after I'd seen the art it the relatively new D&D. After years of hoarding the heavy paged black and white rules for AD&D, it was in great contrast touching those luxurious colour magazine pages of D&D3, every one with an art border. Even nonsensical inter-dimensional monsters seem real and plausible, once shadow and camouflage was added. Gnomes and bards actually looked cool. *Headspin.* I think players, designers and publishers always have to remember that even the apparently silliest of ideas can take on a machismo when treated with respect by a good artist. If someone says "d20 Space-Rabbit-Samurai", take a deep breath and think about how mutable the mind is when faced with the right art work.
Naturally, it also depends on a reader's influences from other media (films, comics, console games). I'm sure that some of today's players go a bit misty-eyed at the thought of musket-toting C18th pirates in their quasi-medieval game, possibly because a certain franchise of films made them seem wickedly dynamic. Judging by some recent releases in the figures and games world, some players are drawn to sword wielding mice and badgers - I'm not quite turned on by this yet, but I know that deep in my heart, given little hard sell, that I'd enjoy playing a cavalier character like Reepicheep (sp? from Voyage of the Dawn Treader) but I possibly wouldn't admit this to my close friends just yet.
As a child I hated the idea of kids as lead roles in action films. In games and films I preferred to identify with grown-up heroes (i.e. Indy vs. Goonies). However, later in life, the Legenda of Zelda games came along and well, to be honest I was always a bit disappointed when Link has to grow up and you have to play him as an adult (which sort of works in terms of the themes of innocence vs. experience in The Ocarina of Time - or am I over-analysing?) So from that point, I was finding it acceptable to play anime-manga influenced graphics of a boy hero with a slingshot. He aint Conan, but he's still an unstoppable Stalfos killing machine!
Back to pirates, or more specifically, muskets and flintlocks. Guns (or "gunnes") in fantasy RPGs and tabletop wargaming, for that matter. I reckon that this is a subject which can divide a room at a convention.
Don't worry, I'm not going to get into talking about ray guns from 'Barrier Peaks here. ;)
Basically, I think I'm a genre-ist (re. like racist but with game settings), but an ill informed one at that, which means that I half-believe that guns, or even canons, have much of a place in Middle Ages battles. Actually, it's turning out they did. As a younger player I didn't care much for pole-arms either. Hand-crossbows send a wave of worry over me. Somewhere in my mind Arthurian fantasy and the Battle of Hastings combined are what influence my view of battles in games like D&D and Tunnels and Trolls. Glorious combat is done hand-to-hand with swords and shields! Most of what I read now says that battles throughout history were determined victoriously through archery/primitive artillery and surviving infantry meeting with pole-arms, shield wall smashing and general meat-grinding. So essentially my view of combat beyond court melee is deeply flawed. My concept of the rate warfare technology advanced is a bit hit and miss as well.
A little while back I bought Warhammer Quest with character and expansion packs. However the dual pistol wielding Witchhunter rarely made it out of the box - aesthetically and genre speaking he fell too much into a later period of (quasi-fantasy) history. I could almost cope with the steampunkified Skaven. Fortunately WHQ didn't contain the infamous Dwarven 'Copter, which would have been more than I could bear.
Final Fantasy VII on PS1 broke my prejudice just a little, but still the mixture of swords, guns and even lasers seemed a bit much. "But hey, it's fantasy" people say, "mix it up!" But to me it didn't feel right, and I think that might be just down to art from traditional sources. Siegfreid wasting Fafnir with a gatling gun wouldn't work for me ... at the time.
History aside, pirates and flintlocks came from a different story set. But the artificers, alchemists and mechanical races didn't go away - "High Magic" embraced the simpler explosive arts. The Warforged of Eberron looked at me with warm bejeweled eyes, beckoning me onto strange energy driven steam engines. I crawl back to the 1980's D&D Basic fantasy world of a few classes with simple weapons. In Fighting fantasy, even missile weapons seemed like a hassle. No bows? Harsh. You just can't beat metal armour, grit and swords. If I DMed again, maybe I'd get rid of crossbows... too mechanical.
Even the pictures of the dwarf with the dragon headed musket in D&D3 (&3.5) and the section on Gunnes in T&T didn't fully sway me. Despite both having special rules for making the devices explode on players - which added a whole gamble to the arms race, I just couldn't accept these infernal hell rods in my fantasy worlds.
Several weeks of playing the PC game, Torchlight, have converted me utterly to pistols and muskets.
Acting upon a recommendation on Facebook from a fellow Diablo (I) fan, I downloaded the demo on Steam and hammered it, to the point that my partner, taking pity on me, ordered a full copy from Amazon. For the reasons of usually having an older computer and never paying the full price of a computer game, I often discover games , a few years late, when they hit the budget lists. Torchlight came out in 2009, I believe Torchlight II is imminent in release.
If you like single player dungeons, I recommend this game, and I also recommend stockpiling muskets, blam-blam! The world iso-metric world is just medieval enough, with a touch of brass clockwork and gorgeous colour themes. Flipping from massive axes to muskets seems to appropriate here (in that misproportioned way that works for tabletop miniatures and characters in fantasy games). It was the look and the feel of kick-back which makes it believable that a muscley hero would use a flintlock.
So there you go. Headline: "Issue-with-genre collector opposed to firearms in FRPGs now totally accepting of musketty-blunderbusses"
(I still think the flamethrower in Deathtrap Dungeon was an abomination, mind.)
Demos and trailers and full game available from:(for Torchlight on Amazon see adverts on right)
It's a visual thing. The game sold me the concept.
Now, here's a larger leap. For years we've been playing chibi style characters in computer and console games. But are tabletop gamers ready for chibi miniatures and a whole 3D game?
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| Super Dungeon Explorers! A game where having a "big head" is essential. |
Soda Pop Miniature's Super Dungeon Explore.
It caught my eye initially because I somewhere there was the mention of "modular" board sections, which I'm a real sucker for, but so far I haven't found much about the board itself, or the quality of gameplay, mainly just the figures are making the news.
The figures do indeed look supberb, and are certainly from that new generation of figures designed on computer. The base scale measurement is 32mm - but how that translates into the actual height of these figures, I'm not sure.
I'm guessing that you have to really like that level of caricature in order to invest in the whole series. The style extends to the dungeon props, chests, for example (see photo)
These figures, like the banished muskets above are growing on me.
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| I'm falling in love with that dwarf, -is this natural? |
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| Which shall you open first? (photo courtesy of Board Game Geeks site) |
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| Kobold Art Putting the "cute" in "brute" |
- Soda Pop Miniature's Super Dungeon Explore
- Demo Rules: Rise of the Kobolds (pdf) on the Soda Pop site
- Board Game Geek summary and photo gallery
Has anyone seen this game in action at any of the conventions?
The conclusion of this particular post is really that I don't like change in the look of my games or rulebooks even, but in the end I'm complete gimp for cool art and graphics!
Thanks for reading (or for just clicking on the pictures ;) ).
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