As a D&D player, I had a lot of fun. But this was not a great movie.
I’d heard that Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was a brilliant homage to the classic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, full of easter eggs and fun and great action and lovely bits and bobs.
I’d also heard that Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves was a scattershot fantasy action that had some nice minutes but awful quarter-hours, with an incoherent plot, poorly sketched characters, and little for a non-player of the game to latch onto.
Which have I learned is the truth here?
Yes.
For someone who’s been immersed in D&D since the early 80s, D&DHAT is so steeped in lore and in-jokes and setting that it all begins to precipitate out like a passing, meaningless shot of rust monsters arguing over a scrap of metal. From funny spells to dire threats to factions to cities to name-drops of famous figures throughout the history of Faerun, D&DHAT tries to out-LotR LotR in its eye to detail and endless, endless fan service.
And, heck, I’d love to make it a table requirement that every player in a new game of mine watch that movie as a means of setting tone for the sort of game I want to run.
At the same time, desperately taking a step or three back, the movie is something of a narrative mess, from flashing back in sometimes confusing fashion, to throwing new obstacles and perils in just because they are cool, not because they are needed or pay off. Things happen, jokes are japed, battles ensue, banter is banted, the heroes win by the skin of their teeth, and we move on without any meaningful consideration of what it all meant. In a very real way, that’s the worst part of D&D, an endless series of Random Encounter Table rolls, with only the most threadbare plot to go with.
Alongside that threadbare plot are characters whom we root for because they are the characters we are clearly meant to root for, and who have backstories that, with maybe one exception, are simply sketched in, hand-waved, and thrown into the action. It’s less the stereotypical “Let me share with you my novella about my character’s origins (the index is on the last five pages)” and more a Pick-Up Group’s depth.
Even the main character — Chris Pine’s Edgin — who gets more backstory time than all the other characters combined, is such a fast-talking nobody that all the dramatic beats that the movie pretends to provide — love, loss, self-sacrifice, parenting, oath-breaking, regret, redemption — feel rushed and shallow in order to get to the next incredibly geeky-cool action moment.
The acting is all fine for the roles (one of these days, Hugh Grant is going to wake up and realize he’s been a laundry list of character actors over the decades), the SFX are quite good, the attention to lore is astounding (see your reviewer squealing “OMG IT’S GRASSY FIELDS OF THE DESSARIN VALLEY!!!!!”), and I had a tremendous amount of fun watching it. The Rotten Tomatoes scores for critics and viewers were both highly respectable.
But this is not a great movie. This is not even a great fantasy movie (compared to, say the Lord of the Rings trilogy — indeed, one might easily argue it’s a bit more The Hobbit trilogy in tone and content). I enjoyed it, and it’s arguably the best D&D movie I’ve watched since Conan the Destroyer (1982). But the folk who were surprised that it didn’t do better in theaters shouldn’t be: I strongly expect that, were I not someone steeped in D&D myself, I’d not be nearly as likely to have watched it, nor to want to watch it again.
Thoughtlessly killing conveniently-labeled evil races is … dodgy.
So I came across an interesting Twitter thread from Arcanist Press that caused me to think a bit. What it brings up over the length of a dozen tweets is not new, but takes on a bit more immediacy for me at present.
As someone who’s recently taken back up D&D (and is looking to DM a game soon), this thread is a good reminder of some of the problematic issues in the game’s history that continue to haunt it to the present: racism and its interaction with systematic violence.
Working from the fantasy literature of folk like Tolkien and Howard, who baked racial tropes into their fantasy worlds (yes, they did, though the former did it with likely less intent and a more distant gentility than the latter), it’s way too easy to just throw “Other” races against our heroes (or burden them with “Other” stereotypes themselves) and then commit wanton bloodshed over it.
Well, it’s convenient to have an enemy literally labeled as intrinsically “evil,” and having a “bloodlust” for slaughter. It’s turned out so well in human history.
(Throwing in Half-orcs as a Player Character race doesn’t necessarily improve this: “Half-orcs’ … pigmentation, sloping foreheads, jutting jaws, prominent teeth, and towering builds make their … heritage plain for all to see” is, um, the sort of thing I expect to read white nationalism blog.)
And the Good vs. Evil trope (and its self-righteous assurance of any actions being justified in the fight for Our Side) creates synergies with that racism that lead to even worse ramifications.
“Some kobolds appear in the road and attack you.”
“Yay, we can kill them because they are evil! Which we know because they are clearly labeled as such in the Monster Manual, and also they look like monsters.”
That’s bad story-telling, as well as problematic ethics.
(It’s one thing to say, “Hey, we are being attacked by these people, so we need to defend ourselves.” It’s another thing to add, “But it’s okay, because they are evil and deserve to be killed, so no quarter offered, no prisoners taken.” It’s also one thing to say, “There’s been war with the orcs for generations here” and another to promote, “The only good orc is a dead orc” as a morally defensible position.)
The thread also touches on (under the disturbing Gygax link) the tangle with morality and killing that I just ran up against recently in-game (Lawful Good Paladins and the killing of prisoners). I get it that an intrinsic part of D&D is Killing The Bad Guys, but I personally need a bit more to keep from feeling like a Spree Killer with the Insane Priest whispering in my ear that It’s Okay, They’re All Bad–Trust Me, I Speak for the Gods.
(We won’t even talk about the “Murder Hobo” tropes of “Hey, let’s raid this dungeon, kill everything, and take their wealth for our personal enrichment” types of scenarios.)
Wait, I thought it was the evil Orcs who “satisfy their bloodlust by slaying any humanoids that stand against them.”
I also get it that D&D missions with a purpose (“You are sent by the king to deal with …” / “You hear rumors of villagers disappearing in the area of …” etc.) can create a violence-is-justified / take-no-prisoners situation. A commando team behind enemy lines (probably the closest analog to the typical Dungeon Crawlers With A Mission Other Than Lining Their Pockets) faces some moral decisions (which they should probably internally settle before the mission starts) that normal front-line soldiers don’t.
That said, trying to dress a necessary evil as a good is … not good.
I’m not saying that every D&D character should be suffering from PTSD and wake up every night in their bedrolls, screaming over what they had to do to that Drow village — but “Okay, we questioned him, now cut his throat” should not be an undisturbing proposition, either. I also understand that when I’m playing D&D as such, I’m looking at a dopamine shot of victory, not seeking a deep, philosophical debate before each encounter. But just as I would cavil at a game that rewarded me for raping all the opposition, or commit systematic genocide against the racially different folk living in the next valley over, I think there’s at least some room for nuance in considering the in-game justification for killing all the opposition, or treating other races as sub-human, intrinsically evil monsters that deserve to be wiped out. I think human history demonstrates how those attitudes, unchallenged and unconsidered, don’t lead to heroic results.
All that said, I don’t have any grand solutions, other than discussing the matter, and efforts from game fans to offer up alternatives (as Arcana Press says they do) to supplement some minor changes from D&D’s publisher itself. But as I go through the module I plan to DM, I do intend to consider what sort of tropes — social and ethical — I’m being handed, and consider whether there’s something I can do in this instance to make them a bit less problematic, at least for my own conscience.
The MMORPG of my dreams came back (sort of) in 2019.
So in case anyone was wondering (Narrator: “Nobody was wondering”), yes, I have been playing a lot of City of Heroes on the rogue Homecoming server.
Wow.
There’s that old phrase that you can’t go home again, but diving back into CoX has been just gobsmacking fun that feels completely natural. Are the graphics a bit out of date? Sure. But the gameplay is as good as ever, the rich backdrop and fun social aspects are all there, and it’s been a huge treat (and, of course, time suck).
The backstory
After NCSoft shut down CoX in 2012, apparently some clever folk calling themselves SCoRE (Secret Cabal of Reverse Engineers) backward-engineered a bunch of stuff and got the game running, on a private server accessed by a handful of players. The secret came out this past spring by one of the players finally squeeed too loudly about it and it became openly known — and SCoRE then distributed their code to anyone who wanted it, ensuring it couldn’t be stamped out.
Probably the most widely known of theses servers are running under a common label of “Homecoming,” and that’s where Margie and I are playing (on the Everlasting shard, for those interested). The Homecoming crew has been in negotiations with NCSoft to allow them to continue and not get a cease-and-desist; so far NCSoft has been holding back, almost certainly because they realize that the djinn is out of the bottle and stomping on the “out” servers won’t keep others from loading up the same code in private. In return, the Homecoming folk have been quietly reimposing some of the IP restrictions NCSoft had to keep themselves out of trouble with other companies (so sorry, Wolverclaws dude).
All of this means’ things are precarious. The servers could be shut down a legal order at any instant, zapping all the characters rolled up and played. The servers themselves could be taken down if the money isn’t there to maintain them (though the public donations to cover costs tend to close within a day each month after folks have contributed).
We found out about this in August or so (waves at Lorne), and first I and then Margie hopped on, and it’s become a regular feature of entertainment during the week and weekends.
The development and servers themselves seem reasonably sturdy — occasional glitches but no more (or less) than the old days. There are five Homecoming servers, including one for European time zone. We’re usually on Everlasting (the RP shard, though that’s not why we chose it), and some of the most popular zones (Atlas, PI) occasionally get 2 instances at peak (which, given that zones are now capped at 50 people, says something); a glance right now at the server status shows 200-500 people on each, mostly hero/blue-side. Devs and petitions seem to respond quickly, and the forum has healthy participation.
What’s New?
There are some differences from back in the “Live” NCSoft days, mostly stemming from not being a for-profit endeavor. Here are the main ones:
Micropayment stuff is essentially free
All those special gifts, tools, VIP awards, purchase-this-expansion temp powers, etc? They are now all available from a vendor in the starting zones, many of them free, others available for Influence. Costume pieces that were expansion-specific, etc., are also all available to everyone, with costume revamp tokens readily available.
Thus, everyone can start with the Nemesis Staff or Blackwand. Everyone can get a sprint aura, and minor super-sprint power. Everyone can get a jump pack. And, once you’re off and running, you can spend influence for temp flying power (starting at 5000 inf/30 minutes), or a Summon the Team, or a Mission Teleporter.
The result is that the lower levels have some serious non-grindy aids for everyone, and you don’t really have to settle on a travel power until much later (though this, too, is not an issue, see below).
Margie and I started playing on “Live” (the old NCSoft days) on Issue 3, so we had all the VIP and expansion goodies. That gave us a big Quality of Life leg up on other players. That’s all equalized now, and it’s a Good Thing.
Experience Is Easy
Everyone hates the grind. Alt-oholics hate it even more, along with having to churn through the same content over and over again.
This problem is solved in two mechanisms.
The Play2Win contact in Atlas (and Mercy) can sell you, for free, “No Influence, just XP” boosts, up to 8 one-hour boosts at a time, in 25%, 50%, and 100% varieties. Assuming you have other tactics to churn up influence in the early game (or higher alts to gift it), it’s easy-peasey to crank up to 100%, so that you get no influence, but double the XP rate. Most people play that way all the way to 50.
Throw in two low-level trials: Death from Below (DFB) for 1-20ish, and Drowning in Blood (DIB) for 15-25. You can almost always find a DFB running, and it’s easy to start one, and they run about 15-20 minutes, and at 100% XP increase, you’ll level 3-4 times per run.
That is to say, with an hour, two tops, you’ll have your shiny starter character up to lvl 15, which is where things start to get fun anyway. Run a (harder) DIB or two, or a couple of Positron TFs before that if you’re old school, and they’ll hit 20 easy. At which point more enjoyable content and still more TFs and Trials are available (including nightly-at-least Rikti Mothership Raids, which I’ll get a 2-6 level boost out of for a 90 minute investment in button mashing).
This is arguably a mixed blessing — I have seen people kvetch that characters are leveling up too fast, good content is being missed, kids are on their lawns, I had to walk to school up-hill both ways in a blizzard, etc.
I can see the argument around content, and as someone who slooooowly ran dozens of characters from the ground up, it definitely sometimes feels like cheating (even if less aesthetically objectionable than AE fire farming).
But it’s undeniably fun, too, and there’s Incarnate stuff to do once you hit 50 or, if you’re like me, a dozen other alts to continue to play, all of which are easily gotten to a “am I really enjoying this build?” quickly enough to feel free to experiment.
All the content is still there. Nobody’s forced to skip anything. Nobody’s compelled to run anything, either. And, to be honest, the rate of reward feels just about right for me.
An Embarrassment of Power Slots
Another pair of game changers are powers you don’t have to take.
In one of the later issues, the restrictions on travel powers was lifted. Until then, you couldn’t get a major travel power until 14, and as a prereq you had to take a minor power from its pool beforehand. Thus you had a lot of folk with Hover and Combat Jump, etc.
That restriction got removed toward the end of the pay run, and in the current Homecoming game you can take a major travel power at 4, with no pre-req. (Ironically, the P2W items and low-level experience boost mean you can skip getting a travel power to much later, though I find it convenient enough for TFs to take a travel power by the time I finish a DFB cycles set.)
Another time/power saver is that the Fitness pool — Health, Stamina, Swift, Hurdle — all come standard on the character. You have to still buy additional slots (including the ED-driven total of 3 on Stamina), but you don’t have to take those powers as part of a level-up. That’s really significant because most people ended up taking one or more of those in the old days, and had to take them instead of an interesting alternative.
So that’s five power slots freed up for … moar powers!
The only disadvantage to this is that, for some of my alts, I’ve found myself scratching my head as to what the hell to take next. Even with the other and expanding pool powers, epic pools, etc., I’ve found it easy to build out a character to where I want and find other powers superfluous. (If only there were a way to trade in power levels for slot levels!)
But that’s a good problem to have, I think.
Change Is A Constant
For those who remember the Good Old Days, remember running actual mission chains to change costumes? Or the Terra Volta respec trial to change powers?
You still can, but you really don’t need to.
Everyone starts off with 10 costume slots, all of them populated with your original costume. You still have to pay influence to make costume changes, but it’s dead simple to do that. There are missions to get tailor tokens (which don’t have to be used at the tailor) to do the costume changes for free, and more are rewarded with levels, so, combined with all the costume parts from all the expansions available to everyone, it’s easier than ever to play paper dolls. And fun.
Power respecs are similarly fun. You can still do the trial, but you also get them free a couple of times while you are leveling, and I believe you can buy them with influence. Which is all fine — there’s no game-play reason not to be able to say, “Damn, I took a crap power” and fix it.
All Your Base Is Belong To Us
Supergroup bases were a huge thing in the original CoX, but also a pain — everything cost SG influence, there was a monthly rent, and the utility was pretty limited outside the SG.
The current Homecoming setup has free bases — no cost for decorating or items or power, no rent. Which is nice — it’s less effort without losing anything needful. Again, I’ve heard some folk complaining that it makes it too easy for a 1- or 2-person SG to be created with its own base (essentially a personal base), which in turn reduces the socializing that SGs can do.
There’s some merit in that argument, but the reality is that people who want that sort of socializing and/or RP opportunity can still seek it out (and there’s a lot of RP out there), but those who don’t … now don’t have to.
There’s also a convenient /altinvite command to invite a named alt of yours into your SG. That saves some time, let me tell you.
At present, there’s also a command to enter the base through a passcode, allowing a base teleport button to be created as a macro. (When you exit out you exit in the same place where you entered.) This also means you can share your base easily with others, which can be convenient for transportation on TFs, or allows people to hold events in their SG base for other (I see a lot of both). There’s word that this functionality was not intended for public use, but I hope the devs don’t reel it back.
Because there’s no rent or power consumption, our base is fully stocked with crafting tables and shelves, but, more importantly, teleporters to anywhere. Which leads to …
I’m a Travellin’ Man
As I mentioned, back when we first started playing CoH, it was Issue 3. Travel powers weren’t available until a long, grinding level 14. It was back when the Hollows and Perez Park were de rigueur for up and coming heroes to fight through. It was back when sprinting through town was a common thing to do — and a common cause of face-planting in more hazardous city zone. It was a time when knowing where the connections between zones through the War Walls was essential.
Oh, yeah, there was also the tram system. Which was actually two tram systems, for (as I recall) upper and lower level zones, with the double trams in Skyway and Steel (and maybe IP) bridging the difference. Which meant getting from Talos to Atlas was, frankly, a pain in the ass.
Now? Well, the travel power and tram system issues are fixed. People have base transporters (which deposit you in locations in zones of varying convenience), to the extent that some folk just post their base entry codes publicly to let folk come in. There’s also cross-zone passage through the Midnighter Club, through Pocket D, through Ourobous, through the Wentworth travel power, through the TUNNEL system …
The fact is, except in rare circumstances, there is almost always a way from Point A to Point B, often several, and it’s more a matter of optimizing paths or even remembering them than struggling to get there. Which, frankly, does occasionally wrankle when I think of those long, long jogs and how Kids These DaysTM don’t have to suffer like we did … but, much more often, just feels like the right way for things to be.
Most of this was in place before the 2012 shutdown, but some was brand-new and some was more focused on VIP players
New Content, New Powers
On the Homecoming servers we’re already getting new content (a couple of mission arcs) and some powers that were in development when NCSoft pulled the plug. We’ve also gotten the Sentinel archetype (I don’t believe that came out during the original “Live” game), which is a true and enjoyable blapper AT (probably my favorite at the moment). We even have a new zone (Kallisti Wharf, a mixed hero/villain for the 40s level). The game is presently in Issue 26, after having shut down in Issue 24.
One interesting development here is that, as the back-engineered code that Homecoming is using is actually part of a broader community, there are other CoX servers not under the Homecoming banner that have been forking off different development priorities. Which is actually kind of cool, in terms of seeing what works and what’s popular.
Net-Net?
Frankly, it all feels good and comfortable. No subscription fee (just donations that I hardly ever get a chance to make because they get what they need to keep the servers running so quickly), no micro-transactions, lots of Quality of Life settings, and so lots of opportunities to play and have fun.
So what have we been doing?
I do a fair amount of solo play, but Margie and I duo regularly (it still remains one of the best games out there for duoing, even without the Level Pact stuff working yet / again / ever). We’ve reestablished the Consortium of Justice on the Everlasting server (I’m @3StarDave, if you’re interested in reaching out), and have some of our old duos back in action — Torchielle and Hildegard dinged 50 a few months back, our highest, but Mighty Psiclone and Amorphau (neither of our original names were available) are out there in their 30s, and we have a few others, too.
Amorpha and Psi-clone are back, if with some costume and name updates
For myself, I’ve both rebooted some characters I had before (Al McGordo, Ms Crackle, Saucy Jack), but also a lot of new ones. Blood Charade (a Dual Pistols/Ninjitsu Sentinel) was my first to hit 50, but my Loki-alike[1], Prince Shenanigans (Illusion/Time Controller, badge “Sibling Rivalry”) just hit 50 last night, and Milady Zebra (Martial Arts/Regen Scrapper) is at 46. I have (you will be shocked) another 2-3 dozen alts, at all levels and most ATs[2], so no matter my mood or what TF/radio team mish/etc. is being solicited in the LFG channel, I always have someone suitable.
Blood Charade, my first toon, this time around, to 50.
I’ve been playing steadily since August, and I’m still getting a kick out of seeing things I haven’t seen for while, and discovering new things I’ve never tried.
By having our own SG for the two of us (well, three, since James has a character), it means we don’t socialize quite as much, but we also avoid the drama llamas that we all recall with a shudder. And for my solo characters, there’s a rich RP community on Everlasting, and frequent PUGs for missions and TFs, enough for me to play and socialize to the degree I want.
Will the game continue to improve? Will it get shut down? Will I get tired of it someday?
Maybe. In the meantime, I’m really enjoying it. Here’s hoping for another long run for City of Heroes.
[1] An homage, not a real IP ripoff. No TMed IP is actually used. Honest. [2] I have yet to make a Stalker, nor have I played with any of the Squiddies or Arachnos types (EATs/VEATs) this time out. Yet.
Got to play lots of game I’d not done before, which is always fun
We had a fine Game Day yesterday, simultaneously celebrating May and the return of the Boy for the summer break.
Best new discovery for me was Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu, which wedges the cooperative Pandemic rules into scurrying about various Massachusetts towns (Arkham, Dunswich, etc.) trying to stamp out cultists, drive off Shoggoths, and close portals to the elder gods, even as those damned cultists and Shoggoths keep waking the Old Ones up and slowly driving you mad.
Pandemic Cthulhu
I’ve never been a huge Pandemic fan, but for some reason the ruleset worked much better for me with different set dressing. Even though we lost at the last moment.
Another game played in the next room was Stuffed Fables, which looked like great fun — sort of D&D with stuffed animals on preset maps, telling a story. Hope to play it myself next time.
Stuffed Fables
Potion Explosion was another fun one — it’s been here before, but I’d never managed to play it. Simple enough mechanics to make it enjoyable, even with enough strategizing needed to make it interesting, combined with randomizing elements and marbles.
Potion Explosion
Last one I got in on was Azul, which on one level is just sort of a filling-in-patterns, but is gorgeous and tactile and relatively simple and interesting and fun.
Azul
A couple of other games I didn’t get in on included a birthday-requested round of Settlers of Catan, and some folk in the other room having at 5-Minute Marvel and 10 Minutes to Kill; the latter got unenthusiastic-enough reviews that matched my previous play time with it that it may end up going to the donation bin (fun concept and cool art, but just not quite all that in game play).
And yet another world-leading sports champion has been suspended for doping, and had all titles, medals and points from the previous year wiped from the record books.
Of course, what else could you expect from the high-stakes, high-pressure, high-drama world of … um … Bridge?
As announced Thursday by the World Bridge Federation, Geir Helgemo was suspended for one year after he tested positive for synthetic testosterone and Clomiphene, a fertility drug that accelerates testosterone production in men, after September’s World Bridge Series in Orlando. The WBF said Helgemo — a Norwegian-born player who now competes for Monaco — admitted to doping and accepted his suspension, which ends Nov. 20.
One might obviously ask two questions (at least) about this news. The first would be … they do doping tests on bridge players?
Apparently so. The World Bridge Federation is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (though they don’t play bridge at the Olympics … yet). As such, part of the WBF’s means of labeling themselves a “sport” and therefore getting all sorts of other interesting sponsorship and prestige and etc. opportunities, its competitors have to abide by World Anti-Doping Agency rules.
The second question would be: um, how did these drugs actually help Helgemo’s “performance”?
That part is a lot murkier.
Kari-Anne Opsal, president of the Norwegian Bridge Federation, said the drugs were “not performance enhancing”. In a statement on the federation’s website, she said: “Geir Helgemo … has previously played for the Norwegian national team and is our biggest star. Many within the bridge community know Geir and respect him.
That said, there’s been no small amount of doping news around the cut-throat world of professional bridge over the last few years.
The sedentary world of top-level bridge has somehow been on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s radar for years. WADA’s 2016 summary of that year’s drug-test results found that 22 percent of the doping tests done on bridge players came back positive, up from 3.6 percent in 2014. Most of the 2016 positives were for “diuretics and other masking agents,” though one was for “anabolic agents.”
“Bridge is played in tournaments two or three weeks long,” Jaap Stomphorst, a physician and doping expert who works with the WBF, told the Independent in 2015. “People tend to get tired, so a stimulant can keep you awake during play.”
So, yeah … no, I got nothing.
Here’s hoping Mr. Helgemo gets clean before he gets back into competition again. The bridge world really doesn’t need another scandal like this to draw such bad amused press.
I was, um, very big into Ingress when it kicked off and for several months thereafter. I'm curious as to what this series will look like, and also what the revamped game will do with lessons learned both from the original and from Niantic's Pokemon GO augmented reality game (which I dabbled with but never quite got into in the same way).
Posted: 12:15 a.m. by LordOrcus I’m so mad that there’s a new edition of The Better Joy Cookbook out. Thanks for making my old copy obsolete, you greedy hacks! For five years now, my friends have been coming over for my eggplant Parmesan, and now I’m never going to be able serve it again unless I shell out 35 bucks for the latest version.
(Actually, if you get real cooking geeks talking about cookbooks, they will offer sometimes ranty critiques, especially for how certain books change over editions. But, joke-spoiling reality aside, as someone who has read the negative hyperbole over new editions of game systems, this article really hits home.)
We often have boards, sometimes pieces, and occasionally literary references to the games played in ancient civilizations, but actual rules? Those usually have to be reconstructed, and rarely without giant question marks in the process. That’s true for stuff dug up in ancient graves, and stuff that was widespread around Greece and Rome in their day.
Just another reminder of the importance of keeping your game rules with your games.
The biggest stress was the whole most-of-the-year-unemployed thing. Which would have sufficed, but there were enough other blood pressure pumped during the year — not even counting US political madness — to challenge my hypertension medication mightily.
On the other had, there was a lot of positive in 2017. Life with my loving wife. A kid who gets niftier with every passing year. Some satisfying writing in November (and elsewhen). One of the most enjoyable RPG campaigns I’ve played in perhaps ever. Teeing things up for a remarkable 2018.
And that year has so many possibilities. A couple of incredible trips. A new chapter with the kid heading to college. My mom moving to Colorado. And, one trusts, a new job.
Past realities. Impending possibilities. With friends and family to make it all worthwhile. I look forward to it.
While this is labeled as a parody against EA’s Star Wars Battlefront, the fact is it works as an explanation of why micro-transaction games of any title are … just … rrrg … no.
I’ll pay for a monthly sub if it a game’s that engaging. I’ll pay for an occasional nice quality-of-life bonus. But a constant death-of-a-thousand-micro-transactions? No thanks.
(Note: this applies to Real Life, too, where such things are more likely to be called “a la carte services”. Give me a package deal where I’m not constantly digging into my wallet if you want me to consider something enjoyable.)
(Except for Cable TV, where I would love to go a la carte.)
I don’t listen to podcasts in general — I’ve just never found the right combo and cadence of devices and opportunity and process — but I often take a few minutes when +Stan Pedzick forwards these “GM Word of the Week” posts.
This one is glorious — an examination of the word “Wyvern” and the history behind it. In the grandest traditions of geekery and nerditude, it veers and meanders across a dozen different fields, through a dozen different digressions, and, most appropriately, starts with a discussion of the word “pedantry.”
Had a great get-together yesterday, a bit over a dozen people, usual array of games (e.g., Betrayal at House on the Hill, Forbidden Island) …
… except for two new ones:
Evolution — Create new species! Give them attributes that help them feed better, breed easier, defend themselves well … or predate on other creatures more easily! Grow their population (but don’t exceed the food supply)! Grow their body size (or else they can be eaten more easily)!
Good game, pretty easy to learn and play, but with a lot of different strategies that can be pursued. Even (vaguely) educational as an example of how natural selection can work. We’ll definitely be pulling this one out again.
Imaginiff — Classic party snark game game — “If Fred were a tree, what kind of tree would he be” — where you advance by guessing aligned with the majority. Most of the amusement is answering about others around the table (or, if you’re short of players, people who aren’t there).
I prefer “True Colors” for this sort of thing, but it was amusing nonetheless.
Good times, as I said. Probably won’t get together again until after Marching Band season, but looking forward to it.
Another fun game day today, with a larger crowd than usual, which just meant more opportunities to play different games.
I won’t mention all the ones I saw out at various times — since I didn’t catch them all (Sushi Go!, Tsuro, Forbidden Island, Exploding Kittens, Betrayal at House on the Hill, plus others I missed) — but I will give special recognition to two we opened up for the first time:
Bears vs Babies
Bears vs Babies is from the same zany crew (including game designer Elan Lee and The Oatmeal‘s Matthew Inman) who brought us Exploding Kittens. I got mine via the Kickstarter.
The game mechanics are fun and pretty simple — building monster animals from different parts to fight different armies of babies — with plenty of ways for players to mess each other up, and plenty of room for the silly, gross, or (since I pledged on the Kickstarter to a level to get the NSFW pack) NSFW humor to come into play.
I don’t know that it will be the centerpiece of every future Game Day, but it will certainly be played again. The shock/humor value may pall after a time (more so than Kittens, I think), but the gameplay is pretty good.
Medieval Academy
Medieval Academy is another in the current flock of “You’re trying to score points in different types of scoring tracks, where your strategic and tactical decisions will influence your final score against your different competitors” games that are so popular right now.
This one does it all quite well — some scoring areas are short term, others are long term, most are scoring (or gaining advantage) by investing the most cards into them, but others are avoiding penalties for investing the fewest cards, and others are a straight return on investment. There’s enough randomness in the initial card deal to keep things interesting, while plenty of areas to make your own decisions and pursue your own course of action.
Most of the competition comes in your strategy, but there are tactical tricks you can play on your opponents that can also gain you some advantage. While it’s PvP, it’s more doing better yourself and being flexible in dealing with the luck of the draw, than tearing down the other players.
Here's a lovely recreation of the footage from the Warcraft movie, done in "World of Warcraft". And, to be honest, I feel like I'd be more likely to watch it in gaming animation than what they're doing for the movie (which feels like a cheap imitation and nothing that works as "realistic" CG).
I never got into this ( +Kay Hill already has a "Skylanders" setup), but I loved the figures they put out for it — various Disney animated characters, but also from Marvel and Star Wars. Sorry to see it go.
Alas, these are all sold out (http://shirt.woot.com/plus/shirt-neutrality-2). Of course, given the nature of my shirt drawer, I'd actually prefer a coffee mug, but these do look like a ton o' fun, at the gaming table or in the office.
Short time lapse from the January Game Day, but February's a kind of hectic schedule for us. Good time, with more than enough for two games running in parallel, plus massive quantities of goodies put together / brought by Margie and her folks (and De, and Randy).
I'm stuffed.
OLD FAVORITES PLAYED:
– Tsuro of the Seas – Still not sure I like it better than the original. – Betrayal at House on the Hill – Our current "at least once a Game Day" standard. – Exploding Kittens – Our current pick-up "what do we play while they're playing that" game. – Sushi Go – I've not managed to play this one yet. – Settlers of Catan – First time this one's been out in a while. – Guillotine – Always good for a quick play.
NEW GAMES PLAYED:
– Elder Sign — This one was new to me; Scott and Jackie brought it out last Game Day, I believe, but I was in the middle of something else.
This game took a massive amount of pre-explanation before we could start playing, but once we did it went along pretty smoothly. The window dressing on the system (investigating items / locations in the museum to avert the impending arrival of an Old One of some sort) was richly done, but ultimately the mechanic beneath it was a heck of a lot of dice rolling trying to match patterns in a way that was pretty but not meaningful. I'll likely play again if it comes up, but it won't be the first game I ask for.
– We Didn't Playtest This At All — It's sort of like Fluxx, only with less structure. Yes, less structure. Any given card could arbitrarily cause folk to win, or lose, which can be hugely entertaining or really frustrating depending on the crowd and amount of beer flowing.
– Colt Express — This is a western hold-up game, most eye catching for its cardboard-assembled train for the various bandits to make their way through. Putting together all the pieces took quite some time, but gameplay (once we read through the rules) was pretty understandable and reasonably enjoyable — "programming" a set of actions for your bandit to move around the train, punching folk, shooting folk, and robbing folk (with limited visibility of what the others players are planning to do), and then dealing with problems as the programming goes awry.
I'm pretty certain I saw descriptions somewhere of the game as "cooperative" with a "competitive" ultimate conclusion, but, no, it's all straight competition, with shooting, punching, and trying to foil the plans of others. That part remains fun, though, and foul-ups are frequent enough that when a plan does work out it's actually pretty exciting.
The main problem I had was the excessive time for setup to punch out and assemble a locomotive and six car train, plus some cactus and rocks. That';s a one-off issue, and all of it was very pretty and doubtless draws the eye at conventions, but much was simply ambiance / eye candy rather than assisting in play, and to be honest maneuvering the character tokens into and above the train cars, and dealing with purses and gems in the trains, was something of a hassle. A more schematic game board would have been just as pretty and a lot easier to use.
All told, though, a fun game — not my go-to, but one that holds pretty well (even for first time players) at the advertised 40 minutes, and I'm sure we'll be playing again.
IN SUM:
A great Game Day, with people old and new. I look forward to the next outing, theoretically in March (better start planning that).
[Pictures attached are from the Intertubes, not from our game sessions.]
