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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Lately I’ve run into a problem at my game table. My games are usually every other week, but for the last few months, they have become very erratic. I’ve come down with a few illnesses, some of my players personal lives have become rather cluttered, you name it, it’s probably happened.
Well, as of last week, I’ve had a player drop. Not permanently but he will be on hiatus for some time. So I’ve decided to switch my 3.5 game to a 4e one and brought in a new player that used to play in our group. The dilemma I am facing however is that I don’t really want to DM and more so, What if this other player comes back? He doesn’t want to learn a new edition and the player I brought in isn’t interested in playing anything other than the new one. I like both players but I just don’t like the idea of choosing one of them over the other.
I’ve never had to face such a decision before and I must say it’s a tough one. I’m hoping that the one player will convert to the new edition of Dungeon and Dragons because I find that he is a valued member of the original group. I am also hoping that one of these guys will step up to become a DM because I’m rather uninspired by the game setting at this time.
Role-playing is a wonderful medium to channel your imagination and act out your dreams. Taking up the role of someone else is essential to this exercise because they act as your avatar in the game world. But where is the line between what you know of and what your character actually does?
Well I think there is no definitive answer to that question but I can speculate a bit based on my own experiences as well as looking at the play style of the original Dungeon and dragons game designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
Too begin, lets have a look at attributes. In Dungeon and Dragons, there are six of them that govern who your character is. Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution are your physical attributes while Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma are you mental. The physical stats are far easier to handle in any given situation of the game because once they are set, it’s easy to say that, as an example, a fighter with a dexterity score of 8 is slow to react to any given situation, be it a dodge or surprise, while a fighter with a dexterity of 15 is agile and quick, possibly able to handle two weapons, one in each hand. With the mental attributes, you are looking at more of an Interpretation than anything concrete.
For example, Dungeon and Dragons uses the assumption that all animals have an Intelligence of 1 or 2 but any player character can have a 3 or higher. The average human is said to have an intelligence score of 10. What does 3 Intelligence mean in this context? Well you can extrapolate that you are nearly animalistic in thought but have enough intellect to actually create a complex ambush using traps. You could say that you think like a 5 year old would. You could also use the monster manual to help further this explanation by looking up monsters with similarly low statistics. Take the troll for example, it has an intelligence of 5. So it’s slightly smarter than your character with 3 Intelligence, but in what ways? Well trolls throw themselves into combat without so much as a second thought and will fight to the death. So this makes them seem rather single minded and slightly animalistic but you can also look at their statistic block to maybe explain why. Trolls are able to regenerate their wounds and have the advantage of size over most foes. You can gleam further information from the blocks how they organize themselves.
However you approach the issue of interpretation, the next problem you run into is “How do I role-play this character’s mental stats?” I mean even with our interpretation, you still find a way to separate your own experiences from those that this character has experienced. If you look at the century that this game is based in, you will find that, even though most humans have an Intelligence of 10, they will still be uneducated farmers. So while we had the convenience of a formal education, what would a farmers education be like to constitute him having a 10 Intelligence? This further complicates the issue at hand because even with a valid interpretation, you have just been thrown a curveball. Average Intelligence of 10 in our world is much different than that of the medieval fantasies.
So we are no closer to the answer than from where we started from. Now we have a few examples up so that we can near accurately say what the mental stats mean but we are still lacking the idea of how it’s supposed to play out.
Well ODnD had a simple approach to the game. Try to cleverly navigate the dungeons to find the treasure at the end. Things that you had to consider were survival and resource management. Inspiration, Intuition, and Ingenuity were common in these games and rightly so. Death was always around the corner. But how many times did the players step outside there character’s knowledge and into there own. Well I cannot say, but I imagine that the lines were as blurred then as they are now. I’m guessing that Gary or any other DM during this time period would have to tell the player when he was beginning to think to much like himself and not his character. I find that a little subjective but it’s the best answer I can come up with. I can say though that I have laid out a few good guidelines for determining what each attribute can mean and can maybe even expand upon it, but that’s for a later time.
This isn’t new to the gaming community but it’s definitely a hot topic at the moment. Wizards of the Coast, in attempt to deal with internet piracy, has pulled all sales of PDF’s from online stores, like Paizo and RPGNow.
Now I’ve not taken a stand on the issue yet nor have I been able to discuss much about it within the community, but I am gathering as much information as I can before I decide what I will think about the matter.
Some of the stuff that is heavily influencing me right now can be found here, through these links(and even more links attached to them):
http://lotfp.blogspot.com/2009/04/i-despise-softball-interviews-that-are.html
http://rpgpundit.xanga.com/698172157/item/
The second like is particularly good because Ryan Dancey is commenting about what he had seen in the industry when he was part of wizards but it’s quite scary to hear his insights because you can see that happening.
Another issue that compounds this one is the fact that Dave Arneson just recently died. He was the father of the industry while Gary Gygax was it’s handler. If the edition wars haven’t been in full swing in a while, they will soon be doing so once more.
I hope the community can pull through these turbulent times, and we can all return to our gaming discussion. Maybe WotC can learn from it’s mistake and actually listen to the Community, but that’s asking for too much in my case.
Now that I’ve got a few post under my belt and started interacting with the community, I seem to find a common theme developing: Old School gaming versus New School gaming. Now a few of the other bloggers have begin posting the truth of how the two styles should be handled or even if there is a difference in styles, but that’s not what this post is actually about. This post is about getting to the youth with our games, our products, so that we can keep the hobby alive.
I’m not one for picking a side of the argument at this time because I’m actually on the fence of what I want out of my game, but I can say that WotC has picked a great marketing scheme for their newest edition, flood the internet with Ads, and a lot of the LFGS based methods of finding a group are beginning to die. Sites like Gleemax and Meetup.com have come into power, relying less on flyers and LFGS and more on Ads and Amazon or other Major Book chains to sell their material. So in return, those players that used to stop in at the LFGS when they are first starting up, are not getting the diversity of titles out there.
This is where we are failing, while the game is moving into the internet age, we are still trying to use the table as our method of play.
Now I’m sure this is shocking to think. I mean the game is meant to be played at a table. But the table has moved out of our homes and onto the web.
Now Play by Post, email, or chat room games have been around for some time, but these are becoming the more popular methods of play. This is due to time, money, etc. But WotC with DDI and Maptools, these forms are evolving.
DDI I’ve experienced first hand and it’s not ready yet, but I can’t wait to see the finished product. It’s only drawback is that it’s only there for 4e. What it does do though is give you the minis, maps, and dice so you can play a game in a 3d environment, with Voice Over Ip or chat based functions for communication.
Maptools is much like DDI. It’s not as pretty as DDI and it’s not 3d, but it’s free to use, fully customizable, and gives you the option to play what you want.
But if you are looking for a place to play online that will keep all your materials there for you to use, I’d suggest the Play by Post method offered over at mydndgame.com It has a form fill sheet that you can use for your characters and it allows you to customize your private or public game forum.
So in conclusion, look to the web and embrace it to find your new group of players and the future of the hobby. WotC is starting to realize it and has made the mass move to this market. The only other way I could see the market seeing your material is getting a TV commercial, but I don’t see any of us gamers with the capital to do such a thing. ;)
After the very moment I posted up my latest blog, I came across this on Lord of the Green Dragons.
http://lordofthegreendragons.blogspot.com/2009/04/old-school-vs-new-school.html
This is just an amazing article and I’ve found it very easy to relate to. If there was ever a must read, it is this one. Enjoy!
The other day, while hanging out in the chat room of mydndgame.com, a discussion came up about homebrewed races that evolved into a homebrewed solution about animal intelligence. Though I don’t really want to go into to much detail, I will point out the basic premise of the system: All animals have intelligence 10. Why in the world would such a group want their animals to be as intelligent as they are? Well I delved deeper into this discussion and found out why the DM had changed the rule. He had felt that animals had been shafted because they can show more intelligence than the average human. Now this made the chat room erupt into debate but ultimately he would not budge on his idea despite several good arguments for keeping the system “as is”.
Now my stance on the subject of homebrewed solutions is to not use them unless they are necessary. Rules for drinking alcohol or using actions not covered in the rules fall into this territory, but to change something that is covered by the rules because you don’t like it? I felt that this was a bad idea for a few reasons.
1) Dungeon and Dragons assumes that animals have intelligence of 1 or 2 while average humans have an intelligence of 10. This is to separate man from animal as well as to place restrictions on what animals are affected by(i.e.. Spells) and can do(Less skill points, more natural ability).
2) Animals that have 10 Intelligence are no longer naturally driven, and are smarter than trolls. Now I really shouldn’t have to explain this one in too much detail, but when a rat has more brain power than a troll, how are trolls surviving in such a world?
Now I could list other reasons, but these were just the main two. The only thing I could hope was that the players were ok with this change. I mean those characters that wanted to have an 8 Intelligence are no longer smarter than a rat. I could see them now going around trying to role-play in such an environment. But I guess that point didn’t cross any of their minds and the campaign seems to be doing ok.
This brings me into the point of a player having fun in such an environment. I don’t think any of the players experienced any obstacles yet but that may be due to the fact that the DM and the players really hadn’t thought this solution through. Maybe the DM didn’t that in a world where animals are as intelligent as humans, that anything below that level of intelligence is very feral and unable to think.
I could keep going on and on about the subject but then I wouldn’t have anything more in depth to go into about the subject, if it arises again. Trust me, there is a little click on the site I mentioned above that is all about home brewing and I run into these people quite frequently, so it’s safe to say that it will come up again.
So if you didn’t catch the idea of this post, this is my first time blogging in some time. I’ve used to blog over at livejournal but it really didn’t suit my needs(plus I forgot my login information).
Anyways, I’m Ryan and I’m hear to post my thoughts on movies, gaming, and anything else that catches my fancy at the time. Most of my content will be the former two items but I will not be known for such things, at least that’s what I’m hoping.
So any of you that happen to stop on by and like what you see, please feel free to follow this blog and comment freely. I’ll be around to converse with you as much as you wish.
Enjoy!
