Catching Up

Almost no posts for nearly two years, you would think that I would have a long list of revalations and experiences that I would like to share with you, broken up into several long posts.

Well I decided against that at this time. I will just summerize some of the things that I've done in the time.

+ I learned two new systems. I picked up Spirit of the Century and Savage Worlds. These games have been a life saver for me because I was growing tired of the Dungeons and Dragons model of play. Though I will never truly give up on it, I just find the stories that I can play out in those systems to be much more interesting at this time.

+ I attended another Paizocon. This time I didn't stretch myself out as much and only ran two games, on two separate days. I was really glad that I went. Even though I don't plan to play their system, their community is amazing and their staff are even more amazing. I hope to continuing going in the future.

+ I moved across the country again. When I started this blog a few years ago, I was living in the gaming state of Washington but I've moved back to my home state of Pennsylvania. So I've traded the availability for gaming for a better standard of living, but all hope is not lost. About an hour away is a great shop in Maryland. I hope to visit it soon and find a group of gamers in the area to begin gaming once again.

+ For a short time during my absence, I attempted to combine three systems into one great edition of Dungeons and Dragons. I took Star Wars Saga Edition, 4e and 3.5 and tried to combine them. However the problem I ran into was spellcasting. That speedbump kept me from completing a prototype of the game. Since then, my work has vanished due to my computer breaking. I do plan on writing a blog about what I was doing sometime soon.

I think that's enough for now, though it's not beefy, it gives you an idea of what I've been up too. Until next time, Good gaming.

Ok. So I'm a horrible Blogger.

My life has been full chaos and woe since I've last posted on this site. However I am putting that behind me and coming full on by starting my posting again. I don't know what I'll post about first but I have much to say since I've increased my library of gaming books and have experienced new ways of gaming. So please stay tuned for an update that is happening soon. (Before the end of the week is my plan.)

I know, I know

It’s been a while since I’ve kept up with this but not much as really happened.  I’ve do have a line up of some topics I would like to get into, like the tier system of balance, but those will be coming at a later date.  Right now, I’m saying that I’ve not forgotten about this page and I’ll continue to make an effort to use it.

Happy Gaming!

Some Thoughts on Playstyle

I tend to spend a good amount of my time over at the forums and chatroom of mydndgame.com.  Often a discussion will arise where we discuss a difference in playstyle and I’m often finding myself taking the side of the argument “Play the Game as it is” but with the reservation that you can reflavor elements within the game to work as you want without changing the rules.

I don’t know about you, but I find this stance is increasingly rare.  I read other blogs and also discuss games at gaiaonline.com and even there it’s rare.  Everyone wants to change the game from what it is to fit what they think the game should run like.  If you want examples of this, look at some of the previous posts I’ve made on this blog, but to give a few more recent examples (mainly from Dungeons and Dragons 3.5):

1. People want to use a 32 point buy for attributes while the game is under that assumption that it’s players will be using a 25 point buy.  Then these same players begin to complain that the game doesn’t work for them because the monsters stop being a challenge after a while.  This seems like it should be self explanatory but they just don't see why the game doesn’t do what they want it to do.

2. The skill system of the game allows for a great amount of versatility but people think about things like the RNG(Look it up on google or find the gaming den).  I think people are limiting there experience with a robust system so that they can play numbers games and metagame their way through the campaign.  These players to like to complain.

I guess the point that I’m trying to get at is that I’m tired of people saying a system doesn’t work and needs to be fixed when all the player has done to the system has caused the game to not function like it should.  I think this is why I prefer a rules lite system like the older editions of the game DnD, or I run a game that doesn’t stray far from the rules.  And that is my playstyle.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Review

Last week, on Thursday, I took my family out to see the latest Transformers movie.  Little did I know what I was getting myself into when I planned this event but overall the movie was good.  What follows are some pros and cons to the film based on my opinion.  You don’t have to agree with my assessment but I don’t have to agree with you either.

First thing that got me about the movie was that matinee price has risen to $7.75 a ticket.  That’s not as much a problem for the movie as is one of the movie theater, but how is a family supposed to come during the day and enjoy a movie when you can only afford the price of a ticket?  I can understand hard times but this is ridiculous.   Well I was able to pass my son off as 3 so we had to only purchase two tickets to enter.

We picked seats near the middle section of the theater and waited around until the movie started.  The thing I noticed was that we were the only parents there with children of that age and that should have alerted me to the rating of this movie but I was thinking about how the first movie was.  They really pushed that PG-13 rating.  There was so much swearing in this film that I was shocked and felt offended in a sense.  It was all pointless and didn’t add humor or anything.  I guess it was used to establish a set of characters but over it was bad.  There are also scenes of lude conduct (like a robot humping a Meg Fox’s leg) but I let that slide since I didn’t pay attention to the rating.  I don’t know how my son saw the film but I think it didn’t instill any negative things in his little brain because I think he’s only going to remember the giant robots.  So this is a warning, check the rating before you enter a movie with children.

Last thing before I actually get into the movie review, the movie was bloody long.  My son was a trooper for a 4 year old because he was able to remain in place for almost 3 hours.  3 hours of my life were spent there in that theater.  The movie was good but not that good or at that price.  I’ll talk more about the time issue as well later because it will be part of the review.

And now the actual movie stuff and I’ll minimize the spoilers as much as I can.  So you have been warned there will be a few to explain a few points.

Overall, the movie was good.  Michael Bay has an eye for a scene and his focus on the humans instead of the robots is actually an interesting one for the Transformers universe.  The robots look amazing and the voice acting is superb despite the fact the robots don’t have as much screen time.  There is also a bit of good humor in the movie and some intense action.  I was glad to see a few of my old favorites make an appearance in the movie; most notably Soundwave, still voiced by Frank Welker.  Instead of the cassette player this time, he happened to be a satellite in orbit about the planet.  I would have loved to seen him fight but he sent down his little hound thing to do his bidding which was ok with me, I was glad to see him.  Starscream actually had some spoken lines as well.

But what the movie needed the most was to be pulled back a bit.  Mr.. Bay couldn’t fit his movie in the 3 hour time slot and there are quite a few holes in the movie because of this.  A great example of this is when the twins are fighting the giant robot in the desert.  They just disappear and the other robot starts to scale the pyramids.  The Twins were fighting this thing and then all of a sudden disappear.  I didn’t get why.  I also noticed that they took a shortcut when they started reusing Decepticons from the first movie or you would see the same Decepticon over and over again being shot, stabbed, knocked down, etc.  This is very apparent in the end of the movie for the big fight scene.  As I mentioned before, the tone of the film was much different than the first, with more swearing, more sexual innuendos or lude acts, and this idea that there is always something bigger and badder out there.  I would like to say I enjoyed these elements, but for this film they didn’t work.  Leg humping aside, you had panty shots, most of the swearing was done by a goofy looking pair of autobots, drug humor, and a mockery of ethnic backgrounds.  Any way you look at it, it wasn’t really a welcome addition to the movie and could have been cut to bring the movie back down to a manageable time.

I still found this movie to be good after all that, that means Michael Bay has a magic touch.  My son still remembers all the robots and doesn’t talk about the things I would have censored him from so I think can’t be all that bad.  I think it’s a good rental but not worth the price of a ticket.

PaizoCon2 and the weekend

This weekend was a blast.  I would not have traded it anything for the world because of how much fun I had.

Friday: After the two and a half hour ride on a bus, I arrived at the Coast Hotel in Bellevue, the location of Paizo’s convention.  I had no clue what it would be like and I was an hour early, so I registered and received my bag of goodies.  Within this large purple bag, there was a game I’ve never heard of before named Key Largo and the game that was gaining a little buzz, Yetisburg.  There was a fanzine that was nicely put together, a map pack which contained a dozen or so tiles of elven style, and two booster packs of item cards.  The cards I found to be most amazing and decided to pick up the starter deck.

Then one o’clock arrived and I came to the location of my game, The Marco Volo series, to find that many all 8 of my players had arrived and were no ready to play.  Now I had thought ahead so I allowed them to build there characters.  It took an hour before they had finished their characters and we were underway.  The conversion was smooth and the players had a blast.  They weren’t used to fighting such large encounters, i.e. 12 or more monsters at a time, but they handled it in stride and exceeding my initial expectations.

The game lasted until 5pm. but this wasn’t the only event that I had planned for the day.  My next event was Painting Miniatures with Sean K. Reynolds.  Sean Reynolds!  It was awesome and I received two minis for attending. (though I didn’t attain that second mini until the next day)

At this point, I was hungry and I had run into two people I have known for some time so we went to dinner instead of joining in the fun of the Interactive.  This decision was also made because we hadn’t made characters of the Pathfinder Society.

Saturday: The bus ride was a little longer because I had to take 4 of them, and it didn’t help that I had to wake up at 4am to get out the door by 5am.

Anyways, I got to the hotel in time to find out that I wasn’t running the adventure that I had volunteer to run.  SO I played instead.  The adventure was difficult and rather unfair.  But we were persistent and we finished the quest.  I provided one of the lighthearted, memorable moments of the game.  We had a few rounds to remove this object from a central obelisk which was made a alter because  it didn’t make sense, but anyways, I had received a bag of tricks earlier in the adventure.  I had decided that on my first round of combat would be to retrieve with whatever critter I pulled out.  I was hoping it would be the bat but I didn’t care.  So I reached in and pulled out a bat and I was excited.  I stood up and let out my excitement.  The players looked at me puzzled a moment until they realized my plan.  Then we were all up from our seats and really into the game.  We ended shortly afterwards but I think they would remember that for some time to come.

I had a short break afterword before my Marco Volo game.  So I ended up in a few conversations about various things in gaming.  Well the game started up with one player not showing up.  I don’t know if he was not able to or he dropped out, whatever the case, we didn’t let it stop the game.  They did exceptionally well.

After the game, came to panels about getting into the fantasy industry, and then came the big event of the night.  The Banquet.  It was so fun because of the trivia game and I got to see some previews of the upcoming Pathfinder Role-playing game.  Going home, I felt rather high.  Thanks to my two friends, I had been getting enough sleep to function for the whole convention.

Sunday: The last day of the convention and it begins with another bus trip.  I sense a trend here though I enjoy riding the bus. ;)

So the day started of rather interesting, a little disheartening to be exact.  My adventure was made an example of as bad, down right appalling to be exact.  But I learned more from my mistake than I think a lot of the others had.  Take your time and think of your audience.  Next time I make an adventure, I’ll keep those things in mind.

And then there was the final day for my Marco Volo series.  This was the big climax of the game.  There were smaller ones but no where near enough to touch this one with a 20 foot pole.  Only one character died but the rest were able to still finish without him.  And the players loved the game.  They had a good time for all three days and that was what I was after.

Then came the real fun of the trip…I had to walk around Bellevue for an hour trying to find a bus that would take me home.  Yeah, never want to do that again.  And the trip was longer than the one up.  How was that possible?

So that was my weekend.

Finally! Another Update.

I know, I know, I’m rather chaotic with my posting, but who isn’t.  I’m going to make an effort this week to post at least once a day on topics that cover gaming or flights of fancy.  To let you know what has been happening since the last post, I’ll use a numbered bullet point system.

1. Paizocon: This convention I’m glad I picked up the tickets for.  Though I’m not a big enthusiast for the system they have been working on for the last year, it will be interesting to see how it runs in a convention setting.  I’ve always like their adventures, so it comes as no surprise that I volunteered to run one on Saturday morning.  I’ve also thrown in my talent of converting older modules so that I can run the Marco Volo series from 2nd edition.  This is going to take place all three days of the convention and I was surprised to see it filled up to the max number of players, eight.  I was able to sign up for a few of the other events as a participant but by volunteering as I have, I’m missing out on some of the other events that I wanted to attend.  At least I got my minis painting with Sean K. Reynolds. ;)

I would also like to mention that I had to make an outline for an adventure that could become a submission for the next Pathfinder module.  Though I would be generally excited about such a thing, I didn’t know I had signed up for the event and received an email on Tuesday that mentioned I had until Friday to submit something.  So I don’t think the adventure was my best work, but it does show off how quick I can come up with adventures.

2. My Player Dilemma: I’ve figured out what I wanted to do.  I’m going to stick with a 4e game, though I haven’t been in contact with the missing player.  I feel sorry for when he wants to come back to find we are not playing a game he is accustom to, but I like have a game were the players are enjoying themselves and I’ll have regular attendance.  So if he decides that he doesn’t wish to continue with us, I’ll be saddened at the lose, but it’s for the sake of the game.

The funny thing that happened here, the first 4e game session will be a month apart from the next one because of a few things that occurred in the real world with one of the players.  So much for continuous gameplay. :p

3. Another game night: I’ve picked up another game.  Over the last month, I’ve been looking to start up another group so that my gaming experience isn’t limited to me doing the DM thing.  So one of my gamers from the regular Friday game asked me if I would be interested in joining a Saturday 4e game at his place and I jumped at the offer.  I would have wanted to play one of the Retro clones out there, but we can’t all be choosers.  4e is good enough for me, especially in the way the DM is planning to run the game.  This was what sold me to the group.  So in two weeks, the first session of this game will commence and I’ll post regular updates on it here.  The first post will give a little detail on the setting and the character, then a few of the notes I will take from the game.  I’ll do each subsequent post based on my notes.

So that’s all that’s really happened in these past few weeks or months, depending on the date I last posted.  Catch me tomorrow as I post something that will rock your socks off.