13 posts tagged “roleplaying games”

When Mrs. WQ runs, she listens to books on her MP3 player.  Well, yesterday she noticed that the USB-USBmini cable that she uses to move stuff onto and off of her player was missing from her purse.  We turned the house upside down looking for it, but it was gone.  So we went to the store to discover that a replacement cable (which was about five and a half feet longer than the original) would be $20.  But a new MP3 player with the short cable and twice as much memory as the old player was $25.  So, WQRob got a new MP3 player, and we're sharing the new cable.

Otherwise, we're all good.  Church was fine, but not very interesting.  I have to say that the one who is having the most fun on vacation is my dog, who has surprised all of us by not running off when he gets outside of the screened-in porch but instead just meanders around, chasing squirrels and watching the lake.  He lackadaisical attitude is at once both inspiring and trouble.  Inspiring in that it reminds me to relax (especially about my anxiety that my dog will run away someday) and troubling in that it indicates also that he is getting along in years.

On a lighter note, I've been cruising around some of the free alt-D&D stuff on the interwebs.  There's loads of "old school D&D" material out there, which I'm mining for good ideas for my own campaign

Fourth Edition D&D poses a challenge to me.  By "challenge" I mean, "will I bother buying this game?"  I've read dozens of reviews of the game: good, bad, and indifferent.  The general consensus is that the game is simpler than 3.5, quite a bit removed from the initial D&D universe, and similar to MMORPG's.  Some of the complaints mention the lack of social-based skills and ability, but I am of the opinion that I'd rather see player's roleplay things like bluffing and interrogations, rather than just rolling a die.
In addition, Paizo has created Pathfinder, so of a "3.8" edition of D&D.  Basically they cleaned up some of the minor problems, eliminated some unused skills, and tried to make some of the under-powered classes more attractive.  They also borrowed a couple of notions from fourth edition, including allowing spellcasters (cleric and wizard) to cast 0-level spells at-will.
Pathfinder has some attraction for me because it would allow me to continue to use the many 3.5 books I already own rather than buy a whole new Monster Manual, etc.  It doesn't hurt that they are giving away the .pdf of the rules.  What's Paizo's angle?  They are still producing a huge line of OGL material, including a series of adventures under the Pathfinder aegis.  They're also figuring that there are going to be a lot of people like me who'll be interested in hanging on to and using all that stuff they've bought over the decade since third edition came out.
Of course, I'm still playing Castles & Crusades, ironically a blend of the previous two editions.  But while I like C&C for its advantages, I'm still struggling under its shortcomings, and continuing to look for that game to switch to.

I'm thinking of hanging up my molds and my brush for a while.

Last week I didn't have a free evening with work, and this week I don't have one with kid-related stuff, and I just don't feel like trying to shoehorn in yet another thing into my life right now.  This Saturday I'll get in a gaming session with my once-a-season gaming group, but I haven't got one in for my "should be better than once-a-season but often isn't" group in a while.

I know that I'm not the only one in this situation.  In a conversation I once had with Bruce Hirst, he admitted that summer was the worst season, and that he frequently tried to release interesting molds during this time. 

So, a little vacation from my hobbies, perhaps mixed with a seasonal cleaning of my worktable.  I haven't bought D&D 4e yet, and don't know if I will for a while.   Reviews have been solidly mixed, so I may wait and see what distills out of it over time.  I'm also looking at Paizo's Pathfinder, although I find it funny that I played a 2.5 D&D clone during 3e, and I'm thinking about a 3e clone during 4e.  Always one step behind, that's me.

I mentioned a few days ago that I was hoping to get a mini painted (in Rastl's honor, if you will).  He's the last of my Castles & Crusades PC minis, a gnome thief named Xane.  The photo sacrifices the chest detail for the face.

xane

I like how the background turned out.

It was kind of a long and very full weekend.  Friday I got the Quarrelers painted (see below).  Saturday I was invited to a roleplaying game in Columbus, Ohio.  The game was The Morrow Project, a post-apocalyptic game written back in the early 1980's.  It was such a different experience than what I have with Castles & Crusades, for several reasons.  First, I was a player, not the gamemaster (first time in ten years).  Second, it was sci-fi and not fantasy.  Third, the group plays once every three months, but for an entire day: 7 full hours of gaming.  I play more frequently, but only for roughly two hour sessions.  That means an entirely different pacing.  Finally, it was a group that has been playing together for years and year, all guys.  The whole thing was fun and new and at only once every three months might even be something I could do again.

Sunday, after a very long service I went over to the fire station to play a game of Warhammer I was pretty sure I was going to lose.  For one thing, I had decided to experiment (at 4-0 you can afford to try some stuff out) with a gunpowder-free army.  Crossbows instead of handguns, bolt throwers instead of cannons, flame cannon instead of an organ gun.  Everything else was just large blocks of infantry and a gyrocopter.  Vince (my usual opponent) I knew would be ready to finally put paid to his four losses at the tiny hands of my dwarfs and after the first turn I thought he had the game in the bag.  His catapults decimated my large infantry blocks, wolf riders and ogre mercenaries were tearing away at my flanks, etc. 

Then suddenly the luck just went sour for him.  Animosity checks started holding his line back.  He miscast twice.  He got no less than five misfires on his warmachines.  And while he is being forced to hold back those crossbowmen (enjoying a 30" range rather than the handguns 15") peppered away at his army.  By the eighth turn, he had two figures left (aside from warmachine crew) and I had still half my army, including all of my heroes.  Now I'm 5-0 and Vince is swearing vengeance.

While I was writing this, I got a call to do a last-minute funeral for another church tomorrow, so I'll be wrapping up here to prepare for that.  Take care.

Last night we had a rather impromptu C&C session, since most of us didn't have to work or go to school on MLK Day.  It was even more impromptu than normal because I forgot my rulebooks, notes, and maps at home.  Thankfully I was able to recollect most of the relevant information and the group looked over gaps like people's names, etc.  That's the benefit of "low-crunch" games like C&C, and given the fact that the system has been working for a campaign that may be one of the longest I've ever run, why am I so desperate to mess with it?

I'm thinking I may just start looking at more homebrewed monsters and perhaps some of the skill/proficiency systems running around out there.

Over on the Forge, there's a long (and worth your time) article by Ron Edwards called "Fantasy Heartbreakers."  The article is about a bunch of games made by indie developers as an attempt to tweak Dungeons & Dragons.  In the article, he mentions how many of the games maintain elements that the author views as poor game design, hence the term "heartbreakers."  When I think about C&C, I have my own things I wish were different, in particular two elements: the lack of skills and the fire-and-forget Vancian magic system.  There's several "heartbreakers" that might fit what I'm looking for.

The first is an old game, Palladium Fantasy by Palladium Books.  It has its own issues, as anyone familiar with Palladium would know.
The other is Everquest, a d20 mod based on the d20 system, but with mana-based magic.  Don't know much about it.
Another is True20, another d20 mod like C&C, but with a stronger focus on feats and skills, but missing hit points (which isn't as much an issue for me as for some).  There's no "magic" per se, but supernatural feats.
d6 Fantasy uses a radically different game engine than the others.
I'm not familiar enough with Rolemaster (barring reputation) to attempt to run it, although it was recommended by a player.

Of course, I could just do D&D, despite the new version coming out in a few months.  I'm not opposed to D&D as a game, it was just more complicated than my novice players wanted to deal with.  Now, though, it may be another issue altogether.  But coming up with a game that suits everyone involved may be darn near impossible.

For at least two years, I've been running a Castles & Crusades RPG (by Troll Lord Games) for several friends.  The current group is about seven or eight people at each session, having grown from an initial three when it started.  Actually, when it started, it was Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, and I made the switch after a few episodes because most of my players were complete novices, and found the D&D rules confusing.

Now, two years in the future, C&C is starting to show some flaws.  For one thing, XP progression is ridiculously slow.  After two years of playing two-hour sessions every other week or so, the long-term PC's are at level four.  Now, when it comes to level advancement in C&C, the rules vary from class to class with some classes advancing quickly (e.g. fighters) to compensate for lackluster class development.  But for the most part, the advancement is roughly exponential.  This means that Xander the wizard, having gotten ~10K experience points to get him to level four over two years of gaming will now need another two years to get to level five.  Of course, I'm supposed to be throwing more powerful monsters at them, with great XP awards, but this is another area that gets me frustrated.

XP awards are determined by the base hit die of the monster, with additional XP granted per hit point and special ability, like casting spells, multiple attacks, etc.  Now, optionally, the CK (Castle Keeper, their unique way of saying GM) can also grant XP awards for treasure at 1 XP per gold piece of treasure gained (with coin equivalents for items, including magical ones).  Now, I'm a guy who thinks that money and materials are their own reward in the way that they make the PC's more powerful and effective, so I didn't grant XP for treasure until I realized what a frickin' snail's pace the PC's were progressing in terms of experience.  After the upteenth "I've got to throw kobolds and goblins at them again, because anything else will wipe out the party" I started either granting treasure XP or just making up an amount based on how well I thought they played.

That "kobolds and goblins" comment brings me to my third issue: the lack of C&C support.  Forget that their parallel product, Castle Zagyg  (written by D&D co-creator Gary Gygax) is complete and utter vaporware, supplemental C&C products, especially core product support and not adventures, are as rare as rocking horse poop.  You can buy "personalized" copies of the two core handbooks in existence, the Player's Guide and Monsters & Treasure, but that's it.  The real "nemesis" (in the words of C&C's creator) is the Castles Keeper's Guide, which was described in his blog as "extraordinarily late" back in early December.  In the meantime, they could have been keeping the pump primed with supplemental monster sourcebooks, like a Field Folio, to add some home-grown variety to the sparse OGL-based listing in M&T.  I'm wondering how they really haven't managed to just squeeze out something, having had several years now to work on multiclassing or dual-classing rules, mock up some game running advice, and pad out the CKG into print.

If I feel like I'm just ragging all over the place, it is really out of sense of disappointment with a game that has, frankly, been good to me.  I haven't even talked about how I think the SIEGE engine is based too much of CK discretion, or how it makes attributes worthless in high-level games.  Really what is bringing me around is the fact that my players seem to be outgrowing the simplistic mechanics of the game and want more crunch to their rules.  That, and their growing awareness of a lot of rules structure that is grounded not in good gameplay, but sentimentality for 1st Edition D&D.  When one player suggest RoleMaster, I knew that the time had come for me to start shopping around.
This is particularly troubling given that I was considering writing a series of mini-adventures for C&C.  It was to be the crown jewel of Strange Vistas, my hobby-oriented blog, and now I don't know what to do.

I haven't done much in the way of painting lately, but I did get my brother's miniature painted.  This guy is supposed to be "Hammer," the group's half-orc barbarian.  He's pretty archtypical in terms of personality.  Anyways, the miniature is "Ilkhan the Bloody" from Reaper's Dark Heaven.

hammer1

I've started the Lodunwrisea.

I had really talked myself out of it until was sitting at the computer and just began banging out room entries.  I'm up to fifteen, which is about six pages of material, after just a couple of days.  Now that represents <does math quickly> two percent of what I need to do, but a journey of 300 steps begins with a single one.  Or sixteen, something like that.

I've told myself that I won't stress about this, but rather just work on it as it comes to me.  I've noticed that the backstory tends to grow as it goes along, mostly because I really do wonder why and how someone would create a seven-level subterranean kingdom.  So it has gone from "a mad wizard did it" to "a mad wizard and three of his buddies did it" to "a mad wizard and three of his buddies did it because they were manipulated by the consort of a diabolical figure who is engineering the overthrow of her spouse."  That makes it start to sound like a place with a plot.  I've also started thinking about what lies below, because that will have some impact on what lies above, even if the first level is primarily intended to be a cheap, disposable barrier to surface dwellers.  I've also begun to think about an overlying alignment for the place.  Most big places tend to favor Chaotic Evil, because it is the "most evil" of the evils.  But most players tend towards Chaotic Good in my experience, so the antithesis would be Lawful Evil, in a sort of Darth Vader vs. the Rebellion kind of dynamic.  Besides, how can you have so many forces co-existing without a little structure?