Game Collection: MM OH NO LET'S GO CRAZAAAY,

Let's spend 10-15 dollars a month!  Let's put money into a grindy and pointless array of online multiplayer games where you lose everything if you quit paying or the game goes defunct!

Yep.  Today we are covering the most maligned and embarrassing set of games I own.  MMOs.

Short for Massively Multiplayer Online , these games were something new and exciting in the late 90s to mid 00s.  Now?  Most fail miserably unless they are free to download and have you spend real money for in game things.  And I generally have trouble even enjoying them throughout their free trial sections.  It is another genre of gaming that I just don't care about any more.

Outside of the game that will show up whenever I cover one of the most important and beloved RPGs ever to be put on silicon and magnetic disk, this is all of the physical copy MMO software I own.  Much of which is completely useless outside of being a collectible or giving me maps and stuff I could mine for tabletop RPGs and the like.

Here we have America's Army, which was a multiplayer FPS mostly paid for by taxpayer funds to try to kind of promote joining the Army.  As this came out during the GW Bush administration they needed any help they could get.  Anarchy Online was a sci fi RPG mostly famous for being buggy and unplayable.  By the time I bought this version it was pretty playable and amusing for a month.  Asheron's Call Dark Majesty was the updated Asheron's Call.  An RPG with very bad graphics (even for the time and this rendition's updated textures), but it had one of the best and least grindy character advancement systems ever.  You could basically spend XP on anything and improve it.  Want to run faster?  Ok, spend XP on your Run skill. Jump higher?  Likewise.  A very fun game in spite of looking like a high res PS1 game.  Plus the game world changed as the seasons did in real life.  Dark Age of Camelot was an ok improvement on the Everquest Dikumud mold but I played it for a single month, mostly to support Lum the Mad, a guy who wrote the funniest and smartest things about the early MMOs before working for the company that made this game.  He was working on it so I wanted to support him.

 City of Heroes and its main expansion City of Villains were RPGs with the BEST real time combat system and amazing character creation to make your own super hero or villain.  The problem was that was really all there was to do.  Kill stuff with cool powers and combos, get a few more, do it again.  It is now defunct.  Everquest is the first MMORPG to really get the genre rolling taking out many of the flaws of Ultima Online but using the Diku Mud format to make it a brutally hard and grindy experience where you made your basic class and race and got new stuff and level upped only to be required at a certain point to team up with people and then spend hours on boring raids against bosses who were super hard to kill and needed dozens or more people coordinating to kill it to get one silly item that didn't always drop off the corpse.  Also you could die within minutes via falling off walkways with no railings from the start of the game.  Yeah.

And did I mention you would lose XP if you died after a certain point?  And in many cases one death could wipe out HOURS of XP gain?

 Final Fantasy 11 is the anime version of Everquest that is slightly less abusive while still being slow, grindy, and full of raiding and XP loss on death.  As one person from a Lum the Mad spinoff community put it, "The game for furry midget lovers".  Guild Wars is the only game here I may go back to.  It was a mixture of a free to play game and an offline title based around multiplayer combat but with a storyline mode you could do solo or with friends.  But always online.  The design concept is you would keep buying new expansions to keep the game going.  Buy the game and no subscriptions.  Neat. Star Wars Galaxies (V1) was the slow and BOOORING MMO in the classic Star Wars timeline.  Everything you did required other people.  From healing wounds to fighting anything it was anti solo player.  Even buying any gear.  Yet there was almost no content otherwise.  The entire game was a social experiment where the players were basically tasked with making the content by hanging out and roleplaying with a handful of things to shoot and a PVP faction mode that was rarely used.  They made an action space expansion that was buggy and bombed and then the entire game got a revamp to make it play more like the Diku Mud style nearly every other game in this installment followed to some degree or another.  Which then ran off anyone still playing who liked this style of game and failed to get anyone back who wanted their Star Wars game to involve Jedi and Stormtroopers and not you know, being a Wookie Hairdresser.

And then the final MMO I bought.  The end of the line.  The king of the genre that itself is now leaking players like a spaghetti strainer with water.  The game that did the Diku Mud styled game right so well nearly every other MMORPG that followed it basically copied it and failed miserably, subscription or free.  World of Warcraft.  It looked great with a cartoony style that ran well on most systems.  It was playable on Macs and PCs.  It had practically zero death penalties.  It was fun to play solo or with friends and even had a fair number of PVP options.  But like all these games for me and many others they got boring.

What happened with me?  Well for one I rarely joined up in any guilds or communities.  The few times I played it was either with small forums who weren't on much especially my mostly late night EST availability, or with friends who were almost never on with me or would be on for less than an hour, sometimes falling asleep at the keyboard at 9PM on a weekend!

I am a relatively shy person.  I have trouble reaching out to others and in many cases didn't know or look for communities to join.  And most MMOs, especially RPGs are designed to be hard to play alone, and get boring and tedious as they want to keep you playing as long as possible.

Even though in the end?  THERE IS NO POINT.  No real end to the game unless you count fighting super big bosses or engaging in PVP combat against players who are mostly equated by their equipment as you are.  Nothing you do matters honestly.  There is no real effect on the gameworld for whatever you do.  You might stop a great monster but then "Baron Von Boner", "Bluekakke", "Chronicus Tokesdabong", "Choadbacca", and "Jenna Jameson the Sausage Queen" will be right behind you to kill it in 10 minutes when it respawns.  (By the way.  Only one of those names isn't a name I saw in an MMO.)

And actually role playing in your RPG?  HAHAHA NO.   Almost nobody ever did outside of idiots cybering.  While there was the odd guild or group I hung out with who did some RP it was generally just tryhards wanting to get better gear and kill faster, or people being nimrods.

Games with no point full of people reminding me why I am alone a lot, and others sometimes making me happy about it that always require you to play online and usually pay a fee?

Yeah I think I will stick to cheap offline games thanks!

RPGs and Controversies. My College Composition Report Circa 1999.

The year I bought a 300 or so dollar DVD player with part of my bonus from work they no longer give us (for time and laugh factors I mention this) I was taking a class at the Community Technical College in my area.  While I pulled some of it just out of my own experiences and opinions, it was in general a well researched paper that took me 10-12 or so total hours to write.  I ended up with a 4.0 in the class so it was well done.

I am posting this as image files since I couldn't seem to get such an ancient paper (RUSTED STAPLES) to OCR and posting a PDF file seems silly.  Plus you know, I can take my name off of it for privacy purposes.

Also missing is the instructor's main positive comments on a connected sheet.  Otherwise here is the whole paper.  Read it and think some on RPGs and the way they were and pretty much still are thought of by "normal" people!

Warhammer 40K: A Rogue Trader Styled Campaign Part 3: Mission 1 and 2

One thing to do when setting up your campaign is to have fun missions full of fluff for the PCs to go on.  Being a semi RPG players may, can, and WILL mess up all your plans with backstabbing, machinations, bad die rolls, or being ingenious SOBs who ruin everything you carefully set up because of inspired ideas.

So these missions have to generally be a rough guideline and have options as to what to do if the glorious band of idiots you will love to hate known as YOUR PLAYERS ignore the obvious.

NOTE TO MY PLAYERS:  DON'T YOU DARE READ THIS BLOG POST.  SHOO!  SHOO I SAY!

Which they will.

It is part of the fun.  No, really.

To be sure if the players choose to not go on the missions you assign them there is little you can do, but most RPG campaigns have enough of an unwritten social contract where they will at least try to work with you.

So let's get on with the first 2 missions!  I have a Player side and a GM side so things like background events, secret things happening, and ideas on how to proceed if the script gets scrapped when your Plot Train gets derailed happens have a place.  Show your players the Player side and keep the GM side for your own evil ends...

I haven't listed the basic plot of these early missions because this would give people options to make it their own.  But in general this is my rough layout:

1-6:  PCs get together to train.  Mad Arbite commander decides to rebel and most planetary forces join him.  PCs fight to get to Techmarine Landale who will lead them out of the training fortress through some tunnels as a presumably loyal Arbite screws them over.  They will then escape the planet in a dropship to get to the Revenger of Vengeance.

7-11: PCs retake the Revenger.  Make a beachead, free loyalists on board, capture weapons, engineering, and then the bridge.

12-24: Planets in Need: Two different planets ask for help against other rebellions.  One by what will be found out to be a Genestealer Cult, the other Chaos.  If the GS Cult is taken on first, it means the Chaos rebellion ends up having to be fought second as Chaos Marine and Demon forces.  If Chaos, the GS Cult is instead Tyranids.

25-30: Retake original planet:  The Arbite commander needs to be stopped, as does the Imperator Titan he will be unearthing.  The final fight should be in the Titan's control room.  Defeating him should lead to his puppetmasters arriving and making things miserable/letting players know they didn't really accomplish anything.  Your choice based on what sorts of minis you have access to.  Tau?  Eldar?  Dark Eldar?  More Chaos?  Incredibly clever Orks?  A powerplay by a couple loyalist Marine factions to take over the Ultima Segmentum for its own good?

Oh yeah.  Scenario 1 and 2.  In image form so you get a sweet 40K type font for the fluffy bits.  (Casablanca Antique)

I am guessing my first two scenarios will make for an evening's play.  Hell, the first one alone might do it!  But just to be sure I have the second ready to go.  I might even get 3-4 written tomorrow just to have them ready.

Pathfinder Beginner Box Campaign Comic Report Part 3

Its up a bit late and its a bit short but here was our last Pathfinder game report.  3 new players AND one of our other players stopped by while not feeling well to sell me some cool ancient games for an amazing price.  (Combots, and 4 Zip Loc games.)

Yes we basically just got through with one short session.  But 3 new players, 2 never having played any tabletop RPG before got in today.  That's cool.  I now have 9 players which I will probably call the maximum I would use in any one session.  (If we were running Swords & Wizardry or X Plorers maybe more as characters are super light in stats and the rules are about the same, sans my optional X Plorer stuff.  But 2 people already have bought the MASSIVE core book and I keep debating doing the same.  It wouldn't be right to mess with folks' investment.  I play it rules light and only vaguely seem to follow the rules anyhow though.  We will endure.  Besides, the odds of everyone making it even as a biweekly game is usually pretty low.  I'll just balance for 6 players instead of 4 and tweak as needed on the fly.)

Its a very RP lite game so far.  Some PCs don't even have names.  Folks show up, I give a quick recap, they explore the dungeon.  If they want a more guided game once they leave this dungeon I will keep building as such but if they want a more sandbox one I will set that up too.

I might run the game, but without players its just ideas in my brain.  Part of the joys of tabletop RPGs is you can change rules to suit your groups' whims and needs.   You get to hang out and have fun with lots of people, some you might have never met otherwise.  You all get to build a story where luck and creativity reign supreme. 

What's not to like?

What is Going on With D&D 4th Anyhow?

Over at Something Awful, there is this thread in their Traditional Games subforum called "Grognards.txt", which is basically 4e D&D fanboys mocking every other edition of D&D and everyone who dares enjoy other versions of D&D since 4e is the ONLY fun version of D&D.  A little question came up in the thread and here is my reply in a modified form from there since it was going a bit off topic and SA is known for both probating and banning people for silly things, not to mention looking for people's posting histories off site to find out if they are worthy to post there, in a weird Internet version of Joe McCarthy and J Edgar Hoover who seemed to think everyone was a Communist and were damned hellbent on finding proof even if they had to invent it.

SA has issues.  What's sad is its still the best online forum out there.  Though this is the effective equivalent of being the thinnest kid at Fat Camp...

Anyhow..

[quote="MinionOfCthulhu"]
Exactly how well has 4e and Pathfinder done, sales-wise? I can't find any real figures for either.
[/quote]

RPGs tend not to announce sales figures.  I brought up a couple months back that 4e really did cause WOTC to lose a shitload of customers and there is proof from WOTC themselves, albeit not in exact terms.  (And the evidence was mostly ignored here since most of the time this thread really is 4e grogs mocking every other D&D edition grogs.)

Stuff like the ICV sales charts also shows that 4e isn't doing as hot given how Pathfinder beats it in sales quite often. 

Honestly 2 things are keeing 4e afloat.

D&D Encounters which is possibly the smartest thing WOTC has ever done for D&D.

D&D Insider which is basically free money for WOTC every month.

Encounters does bring new players into the fold and is also casual friendly.  An open place for people to get an hour or two of RPG in every week and no worries if you can make it all the time.  Show up and play.  Fits busy adults' schedules and kids.  I've seen it sell a good amount of books to new players, lots of which aren't adults. 

I even try to encourage parents to join in and play with their children.  Its good bonding time, and something both parent and child will look back on with fondness. 

Insider is as mentioned, free money.  Even if you just sub for a month for 10 bucks and just make a gob of characters for the rest of 4e's lifespan you have given them some cash.  And like most online subscription things people tend to forget to unsub meaning more free money.

Honestly I would still pay a good 20-30 bucks for a complete offline suite of tools, and possibly another 10 for a character system that works offline on my Kindle Fire but WOTC doesn't seem to see it that way.  And given how Insider works it does make them a pretty penny.

For the record right now I am running a Pathfinder Beginner Box rules ONLY game though I allow official source stuff provided I ok it first.  And half the combat rules I use is 4e since if it works great why not use it?  (Attacks of opportunity, flanking, terrain and cover.)   Overall my group prefers it over 4th though many of us play both right now.

Pathfinder Beginner is closer to what I have generally always wanted D&D to be.  If they made an Expert set going to level 10 and adding in the main missing races and classes I would be set really.

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In other news I have a couple projects in the comics report style pipeline with photos taken and such.  But I am a bit backlogged in stuff I am doing right now so my posting has been a bit behind my desired schedule.   Not to mention I want to continue my Transformers Toy Comic thingie, and my Atari Computer project which I have been continuing to spend money on. 

And losing out on dozens of bids since I am not willing to risk a lot of money on untested 5 1/4" floppy disks from the early 80s and many collectors are. :(

Now THIS is why Indies Gaming owns!

http://imgur.com/r/gaming/JgKda

An upcoming Dungeon Master/Eye of the Beholder styled first person RPG (I am kind of hoping its turn based but who knows?) called Legend of Grimrock got an interface question from someone with a disability who still loves these sorts of games.

Instead of ignoring him or just giving some BS excuse why something simple couldn't be done the developer PUT IT IN THE GAME.  Probably was a sub 1 hour project for art and coding, maybe 4 at the highest possible.  (I am not a coder but it seems like it would be something super simple considering a game made in 1987 on a 7mhz 512K Atari ST had it in there..)

This is what I like seeing game developers doing.  Not ignoring their customers or giving them excuses but doing things the customer wants.  To be sure you can't please everyone always but if its something simple that will help your audience and give them what they might like?  Why not do it?

Now if we can just get Steve Jackson Games to figure this one out instead of any time any one who ISN'T a Munchkin customer (who probably don't post to Internet boards anyhow..) complaining about or asking for something getting their PR guy posting HOW IT IS.

Sometimes you have to go an extra few inches and you will get MILES out of your customers.

Bad News for 4e D&D and Other Ponderings

Over at the Something Awful forums there is an over 1300 PAGE thread on their Traditional Games subforum to the normal Games forum called Grognards.txt.  In general its a bunch of smug 4th edition D&D fans bashing anyone butthurt over 4th edition.  "Nerds angry at nerds angry at D&D" is what I call it.

Yet...

There is a LOT of good game theory and plenty of examples of terrible RPG players in that thread.  (And its not the two times I have been uncredited quoted as being a grognard either.  I'm on page 1 and in the 1130s.  Neither quote is particularly good or bad really.  When you read the thread and some of the sheer creepy, horrible, and just plain WRONG things gamers on the net say and talk about their campaigns me at my most anti 4e aint doodly squat.  This depresses me greatly.  People never disappoint at disappointing..)

Recently there has been the discussion of people saying 4e "ISN'T D&D" and a topic I have probably blogged about before on the lethality of classic D&D and how it sucks.  What follows is both a fellow I am quoting, and my own thoughts on both the lethality, and if 4e is D&D or not:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Guilty Spork posted:

The one thing I have really and truly never understood about D&D is why the paradigm of ridiculously fragile PCs lasted more than a month or so. Having wizards who can't be scratched to death by a single housecat somehow equates to having totally consequence-free play like in an MMO that only exists in grognard's minds.

I honestly say this is what really killed RPGs. Not videogames being easier to get into, not MMOs.

It was kids and preteens in the 80s with thoughts of He Man, Conan, Thundarr, and Lion O in their heads. (And maybe a couple of girls with She Ra or Red Sonja)

Then they get to the table and bring their character into battle. Only to die in the first or second fight.

Ok fuck this let's go play Atari 2600 instead. (Even moreso with the creepy sex deviants who have been ruining everything ever. The Internet just gives sickos a group to talk about how they want to see Rainbow Brite having "group relations" with the Carebears or something. Human sexuality is a terrible thing.)

Its not the effort involved. Sure it might be a lot of work but if its your thing, you won't mind the work.

Some people love to fix and repair their own cars. You have nerds spending 100s of hours painting their wargaming minis. People who love sewing.

But when so many cards are stacked against RPGs as is, the sheer lethality of RAW TSR D&D is just a giant turnoff.

And even beyond the creepy players, what about the PVP parties who think backstabbing a fellow player is FUNNY? That sort of crap drove people away from online games like Diablo and Phantasy Star Online in droves. And basically the PVP flag alone is what helped Everquest beat Ultima Online regardless of what a few hardcore say. Even though in nearly every other way UO was tons more fun.

----------------------------

Going back to IT IS ITS NOT D&D: Well, for a load of people 4e isn't D&D as they know it.

If people were happy about it, would this news have ever happened?
http://www.icv2.com/articles/markets/20743.html

D&D has pretty much always been the Number One RPG regardless of quality.

It keeps losing out or at the very least has shed marketshare.

Compare the style of game you played from 74-99 to 3 and 4e. It really feels completely damned different.

(As much as the 3e fans would like to say otherwise, it really is a transitional phase between TSR D&D and 4th. Its sort of a well intentioned mutt that got overdesigned somewhere in the middle. My least favorite version of D&D. 4th Essentials and a house ruled Basic are my go to D&D branded games, with a houseruled Castles & Crusades my preferred D&D game PERIOD, X-Plorers coming in a close second.)

Sure WOTC says what the brand is on, but ask any Godzilla fan what they think of the 98 movie and its creature is called "GINO" (Godzilla in Name Only), Deanzilla, Sh&*zilla, or similarly childish names. The Godzilla owners ended up calling it 'Zilla and having it get completely smacked down by a Godzilla closer to what people love.

Heck, ask horror fans about how they feel on the Friday the 13th, Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Nightmare on Elm Street Remakes. They are almost universally rejected by the fanbase.

Doesn't matter if its good or not. With consumer products its the fanbase that has some control over the property.  (Though having seen the Halloween remake I can safely say its only slightly less terrible than Halloween 5 and 6.  But only the parts where its not trying to be an actual Halloween remake.  If they removed the remake bits it would actually be an interesting look into a child who murders most of his family and his inability to be rehabilitated in a mental institution.  Once the remake part properly begins it sucks ass.  Lots and lots of ass.  Epic Ass Sucking Time is what it becomes.  Apparently its sequel is even worse.  How you get worse than a movie whose Chud.com review scored it as a "F*&K YOU out of 10" I do not know.)

Change is good, but if you change too much too fast and don't keep enough of what people love it will get creamed unless you find enough of a replacement audience.

Games Workshop was lucky when 3rd edition 40K did a massive shift. Rackham games with the final version of Confrontation was not. WOTC is getting hammered similarly.

(I would say Transformers survives and thrives with constant changes in style and scope because it never really throws away the previous. Hate the idiotic Bay movies? Well IDW makes Generation 1 comics in a modern style and even reprints the old. Are a kid? Transformers Animated and Prime are right up your alley. Heck, they have a line and upcoming show JUST for the 3-6 year old set who probably would cry trying to transform the main line's deluxe class figures.  I've bought the Optimus Prime from this line for my cousin's 5 year old for Christmas.  Its so adorable I kind of want one for myself.)

And I do find it a shame because there is a LOT to like about 4e once you don't look at it as how you would TSR D&D. And its a load better than 3.x.

But I doubt the improvements of 4th will carry to 5th. Class balance, streamlining, pick up and play, not swetting the spergy details? These will all probably be ignored next edition and its a Cthulhu damned shame.

I'm enjoying the 4th ed campaign I am running, I enjoy Encounters when I get the opportunity to play, and I even have an open invite to a Friday game I will finally get to play in for at least one session soon.

WOTC dropped the ball, and a LOT of it has to do with changing too much too fast, hosing over Paizo during the change, and the suits (WOTC and Hasbro most likely) trying to sell RPGs to make Magic the Gathering profits. Which just can't happen.

And I doubt anyone outside of accountants wanting RPGs to sell on a CCG business model.

[Electronic Games] Things (Nearly) Every Game Should Have Month 1A: Familiarity & Terminology

This continuation of the previous entry also applies to tabletop gaming.

Remember how in that post I said you get used to doing things a certain way, how it becomes comfortable and second nature?

Well many games like to mess with this, to their own detriment.  Hell, even comic books.  Try reading a bunch of manga then go back to western styled left to right.  Your "chi" is off for a while and you struggle.  Honestly for no real reason.  (Sure some manga fans care if people are left/right handed and such but ultimately it almost never affects the story at all unless you are the nitpickiest of nitpickers.)

When designers change the wheel there should be a good damned reason for it.  Take the Nintendo DS RPG Etrian Odyssey.  You have character classes as befits a dungeon crawler game inspired by Wizardry.  Do you have Fighters, Rangers, Paladins, Clerics, and Bards?  No.  These classes almost exactly as they are known and loved by over 20 years of RPG gamers both tabletop and electronic are known as Landsnknects, Survivalists, Protectors, Medics, and Troubadours.   (There are other classes in the game which are more original or more hybrid of the classic fantasy RPG classes so I skipped them.)

How does this benefit the game or the player in any way?  It doesn't!  Its just changing names to change them, making players uncomfortable from the outset, having to do mental work to translate them over to the way they are used to, are comfortable with, are probably happy with.  (And has the fun of a really odd word everyone who talks about the game tends to misspell unless they speak whatever European language it came from.  I'm not really interested in which one.)

It IS good to teach people new words and to expand one's vocabulary.  But there is a difference between doing so and just annoying people for no good reason.  The example game above is a generic fantasy setting.  The name changes accomplish nothing.  Its like instead of using the word CAR we are all familiar with, some game uses HORSELESS COMBUSTION CONVEYANCE.  Sure it sounds neat and might even fit the setting (steampunk anyone?), but for us sane folks its just confusing!

White Wolf is a big culprit of this in their tabletop games.  Games already packed with tons of terms and jargon even the average nerd is not going to be comfortable with and have to come to grips with, and now they need a thesaurus handy?   This word dump overflow is one reason I can't ever run Trinity.  Its a whole new setting with tons of new factions and concepts, and the extra White Wolf fancy wording just makes it too much to handle.  And I am known for using fancy words nobody else does!

You can also see this with games that get acronym heavy.  The Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kits are supposed to be easy simple entry points into one of the world's most needlessly overdetailed and complicated wargames.  They throw close to 2 pages of acronyms at you and you better remember them because they won't repeat what they are.  This immediately throws the reader off, confusing and disorienting them, possibly losing yourself a player before they even give the game a chance.

You disoriented them from what's familiar.

Heck, mechanics.  Final Fantasy 8 is one of the biggest electronic offenders I know of.  If you play the game the way nearly every other Console and even PC RPG to that point had played you will all but hate the game and possibly break it, requiring a complete restart of a 40-60 hour game.  It looks familiar, but when you play it or have someone explain the mechanics to you, it plays completely foreign to most of the genre, all but punishing you for playing it like every other game.  Without ever really EXPLAINING these mechanics to you.  (If you haven't played it, its a game that PUNISHES you for gaining levels, connecting enemy power to the main Player Character who is there almost the entire time, and makes drawing magic spells out of monsters something attached to combat power, with higher power spells causing higher stats.  Some of the most powerful spells to attach to the PCs require playing an in game CCG which gets ridiculously complex if you allow the house rules every other town try to convince you to accept.)

For tabletop RPGs we of course can just say AD&D.  Your Armor Class is better the LOWER it gets?  Some things you need to roll HIGH for as the score gets lower like Saving Throws, but other things you want a LOW one for?  If you have a +3 to Hit in Close Combat your THAC0 goes DOWN and that's GOOD int his case?

Is it a wonder most early RPGs from other companies like Tunnels & Trolls and Runequest used simple, logical, straightforward math most people would be familiar with?

Disorienting your players with weird mechanics and unfamiliar terms for familiar things is just reducing their enjoyment of your product, and making the job of entertaining your paying customers that much harder.

Sure those guys playing Legend of the Five Rings RPG campaigns for 5-10 years are gonna know what things like Tetsubos and Yari are.  They have been immersed in the game and its lore and terminology.  Think about people who aren't.

You may want and even NEED to use different mechanics and unfamiliar terms that most of your playerbase has never seen before.

But make sure you do and aren't just switching it around to be a snooty elitist.  And for crying out loud, make sure to properly TEACH THEM about it and not just throw them to the wolves.

If you don't?  Why mess with things most people already know and are happy using?

[Electronic Games] Things (Nearly) Every Game Should Have Month 1: Control Remapping

I've been busy and lazy these last few months, and sadly that doesn't seem to be changing any time soon.  Though at least I have extra income.  Just.. no time to USE any of it.

So here will be a little project to bring my average back to my desired 4 posts a month setup.  These will generally be shortish posts, as most don't need that much said about them, but need more than some TOP TEN list.

A list of things I believe every electronic game should have in them.  Some of these things probably can relate to tabletop gaming, but in many cases they don't.

Expect some of these posts to get updated with photos and the like as I find the time to do so.

That being said, let's start off with one near and dear to my heart:

CONTROL REMAPPING.

Back in the day, videogame controls were simple.  One button on your Atari 2600 stick or paddle, and either the analog positive/negative control of the paddle, or the 8 way control of the joystick.

But then games got more involved.  Arcade games started using trackballs or multiple buttons (Defender, Asteroids), or even multiple control types (Tron, Robotron 2084) to allow for ever more complicated yet still intuitive control schemes.

Home systems had issues keeping up,  Some Atari 2600 games even threw in bits so you could link 2 joysticks together (provided you used the normal Atari joystick), or came with custom secondary controllers (Star Raiders) to allow for advanced controls on systems nobody thought needed them originally.

Systems like the Intellivision and Colecovision added in extra buttons and the then considered good idea of a numeric keypad right on the controller, usually with a slot to slide a little plastic overlay into, allowing for deeper games.

It worked.. ok.  Some experiments like the Atari 5200's analog joystick with pause and start keys failed more due to cost cutting and a little less Q&A testing than it should have had, making them years ahead of their time, but failures at that point.  (Also see U Force, the Power Glove.)

Some games started being designed for one gimmick controller.  Good for that one game or type of game, but generally space wasting and frivolous in the long run.  We still have these today.  (Music Band game controllers, Namco's Guncon light guns for the Playstation systems, the Gamecube Bongo Drums, link cables to use portable game systems as both controller and personal screen, the Sega Samba De Amigo controllers, Fishing Controllers, Virtual On dual stick.)

Eventually controllers both console and keyboard started to morph into one decent mostly all in one type capable of playing most game types comfortably enough.  This really began taking shape with the Super Nintendo controller.  Shaped almost like a dogbone, it had the then default directional pad on one side, Start and Select buttons in the middle, 4 action buttons in a diamond formation on the right, and on the top of the controller a pair of Shoulder buttons a player's pointer fingers could access while their thumbs were working the buttons and D-Pad.

Computers also copied this scheme with the Gravis Gamepad, while having Keyboard and Mouse control for games that really needed it, and the Flight Stick (with or without Throttle controller & foot pedals) being there for the sim game crowd who demanded the proper feel.  (Or Steering Wheels for racing types.)

Outside of sometimes adding in extra analog sticks and a second pair of Shoulder buttons usually done in an analog format, the Super Nintendo controller has been pretty much the de facto standard design since.

Look at most USB gamepads for computers.  Look at the controllers for both the Playstation 3 and XBox 360.  Look at the Classic Game Controller for the Wii (a system designed and sold for a motion control gimmick).  They are all pretty much the SNES controller from 1989 with minor tweaks for comfort and analog stick additions.

We have reached a level where our game controllers are mostly similar to an automobile.  You can generally get in any car and it pretty much works like any other car in your region.  Some have clutches and shifters for manual transmission, but otherwise they are the same.  Same basic dashboard layouts, same basic information and control.

But try driving a normal car then switching to one that does things differently, either because it has some new fancy feature, or the designers just felt like it.  If you drive standard and are used to a clutch pedal and stick shift, you are NOT going to be comfortable driving one of the modern cars with wheel pedal shifters.  Its going to feel WRONG to you.  Now in time you will probably get used to it, and you may even PREFER the change.  But for quite some time you are going to be uncomfortable with all.  Its just going to feel wrong, and your quality of experience and your own ability in driving is going to be severely hampered.

The same can be said for videogames.

Try playing one of the early First Person Shooter titles on PC before WASD movement, mouse aiming/turning/firing was implemented.  You aren't going to do well.  In fact you are gonna suck and possibly hate the game.  You just aren't used to it and it feels wrong.  Because so many other games since have gone to a basic standard style of control.

Hell, just put a console FPS player on a PC Mouse Keyboard control and vice versa.  They are MISERABLE and terrible.  They aren't used to it, and their previous experiences are what they know and are comfortable with.  (I've seen this, especially in the N64 days with Goldeneye.  I couldn't stand the game's controls.  Yet I tried putting my friend on Aliens vs Predator and he could barely move straight, much less aim.  He was used to how the N64 did an FPS, I was used to PC WASD Mouse control.)

Same thing with standard video and computer games using the gamepad.  If you are used to an action game using one button as primary action, and another as the secondary, games that have this setup being different just won't really ever feel right.

Which is where REMAPPING CONTROLS comes in to play.  Don't like the setup of the game?  Change it to one you like.

Awesome, right?  Let everyone play in the style most comfortable to them.  Its not hard to do, games on the god awful 80s UK Sinclair Spectrum computer had key remapping (considering that junkbox didn't even have a built in joystick port, control schemes never really had a default on it).  And by the Genesis era, button remapping was all but a standard feature.

Except...

Many games, especially on consoles still don't allow you to do this.

Why?

Laziness?  Stupidity?  Developers just think everyone wants to play the way they do?

There is no need for this.  The 2 biggest offenders of this in the modern day are Konami on almost everything, and most developers for Nintendo portables.

I have trouble even playing Metal Gear Solid 3 on the PS2, or Contra 4 on the Nintendo DS because their controls aren't what I am comfortable with in my action games.

Most of my DS titles tend to be strategy and RPG titles, most made in Japan where their Accept and Cancel buttons are BACKWARDS from Western style.  It makes adaptation and comfort in a new game kind of sucky.  And sometimes messes me up from when I switch back from a 40 hour JRPG to a Western game.  I have to keep doing something that should become second nature in my head instead of on automatic.

Really any potential developer reading this.

Take the hour or so to let your players remap keys and buttons to their taste.  In the end it will provide a lot more player happiness and satisfaction.

Some Stuff March Edition

First off a toy related bit.  After years of collecting and months waiting for them to come in, I now have a complete and amazing Transformers Bruticus, made up of all small run collector's oriented toys.

See during the Transformers Energon line they made a couple combiners based off the concepts of the old 80s "Scramble City" concept where there was one big body bit, and 4 interchangable limbs.  The Energon toys refined this with poseable figures, no extra parts that didn't store on the figure somehow, and even the combiner could pose about.  Sadly these toys only sort of combined with generally terrible hands and feet doing secondary duty as equally poor looking weapons, and each combiner team was really 3 figures, each limb being just 2 different paint schemes.

From time to time since they got reissued, sometimes with better paint schemes, but still sucky.  However the Transformers Collector's Club in a way to not make their 40 dollar a year fee seem completely a waste of money gives you a 8-12 dollar value toy in an exclusive paint scheme every year for free.  For 5 years they did their own team using the above combiners, but with a long running story, and each figure having lots of lovely transparent plastic.  I subbed for one year, used their discount price for member's store (which basically makes in print toys MSRP, and the previous year's freebie toy 20 bucks instead of non member 40.) to grab the other 2 out, and a few months back stumbled upon the limb I didn't have for 15 bucks.

Now Transformers has some third party companies making accessories if not their own figures out there, some of which blow anything Hasbro (TF's parent company outside of Asia) can do, albeit at a 2-4 times price markup of what an equivalent toy would cost in stores.

They decided to improve one of the combiner teams, the Combaticons who form Bruticus.  Not just with parts, but 2 whole replacement figures, being the Space Shuttle Blast Off, and the Jeep Swindle.  For 48 dollars a figure.  Figures who without all the accessories and being from Hasbro would be 8 bucks.

I still bought them.  They are AMAZING renditions of these classic characters with some tweaks.  And the accessories.  Oh the accessories.  Each box with full color instruction booklet has 3 trays worth of moving plastic parts not just for use with the included Transformer, but for the other Combaticons.  Guns, missile racks, truck beds, you name it.  And all these pieces go on BOTH modes, robot and vehicle.

While waiting for these lovely money sinks I grabbed the main body commander bit.

And now?

BRUTICUS IS REBORN!

Thankfully the grey of the combiner/weapon bits meshes well with the primarily red and blue and grey of the TFCC pieces.  And in spite of my less than optimal photo, you can see its big.  And amazing.  Every weapon has moving parts in it, the main AT rifle going down to a smaller size.  The combat knife is an axe for Blast Off.  The feet are both truck bed parts with moving wheels AND as you see they have hidden missiles in them, turning this massive death machine into the universe's most bad ass Jester.

Like in hobby gaming its mostly small companies that really provide fans with what they want.  You just pay a premium for it.


Next up is a bit of gaming.  I got to play some Formula De this week.  (I plan on reviewing it eventually.)  I not only won, but I was vindicated for something an ex friend insulted me with a number of years ago.

See Formula De is a Formula 1 racing game where you have various dice as your gears, and damage points for things like braking, taking turns too fast, downshifting multiple gears, ect.

In 2-3 lap races you can take a pitstop to take care of such damage, in some cases not really losing any time whatsoever.  (Unlike in real racing where you are gonna lose some position even if its just a quick fuel and fly.)  In the official rules you can effectively enter at top speed no problem and possibly leave, still head of the pack.

I remember playing the game and this came up.  I make a small comment about how that seems unbalanced.  My ex friend (and this action is the LEAST of his horribleness) starts YELLING at me for saying it, that I am just whining and don't know what I am talking about and I always do this.

Of course he was always the sort to find any broken advantage in any game ever and you could NEVER EVER EVER remove any unfair advantage he may have discovered.

Going back to playing it with an experienced player I bring up the pit stops being kind of broken and he told me, "Yeah I have houseruled that.  You can't go in at 5-6th gear anymore".

I like when I am vindicated.  I do have a pretty good eye for broken or unbalanced mechanics.

(Games Workshop on the other hand?  Not so much.)


And my final bit of news is that I may actually be in a REAL RPG CAMPAIGN and not the fast food D&D Encounters styled Gamma World game that replaced the D&D Encounters campaign when we all got tired of it.  (Though its a different day so I will probably play both.)

And what is it?  FASA STAR TREK.

A game I bought on a lark a few years back I might finally get to play.  Reading through it and its both impressing and disappointing me at the same time.  Its full of fluff and information on the universe, something a different game I am also reading (Robotech Shadow Chronicles) fails at.

Both are based on TV shows, but Trek expects the players to not just know everything about the setting and gives you that information.  All Robotech gives you is 100s of pages of equipment porn.

But that seems to be a problem with Palladium in general.   When they want to, they can write some compelling background and adventure seeds.  Most of the time its just a laundry list of new weapons.

The disappointment in Trek comes from the involved character generation that involves basically tracking your character's entire Starfleet career till they are skilled enough for whatever role the campaign needs them for.  The example character is in his late 40s!  Its a bit much to have to roll or expect a new player to do.

We will see if its 9 tables of generation works better in practice than on paper though.  It still makes more logical sense than Warhammer 40K RPG/1-2nd ed Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.

(Involved?  9 Steps?  Its an 80s game alright!)

But unlike those games I bought into alongside others who were usually the ones to bring it up in the first place, FASA Trek should at least get played for a bit, while GURPS, Starfleet Battles, Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Star Wars Saga Edition, and Pirates of the (Locale Here), World of Warcraft CCG, and 2 different Star Wars CCGs sit around as reminders why most of my friends are horrible people.

And lets end this selection of stuff with some not just good news but GOOD NEWS.

Ogre Sixth Edition!!!  Big Steve Jackson has decided to do a product other than the endless Munchkin rehashes that form the foundation of his company's profits.

(I'll leave out opinions on the man himself, which from most people seem to be entirely negative.  In this case I am approving of what he is doing.)

Full color big box game with a reported TWENTY ONE SQUARE FEET OF CARDBOARD.  Its gonna be nearly TWELVE POUNDS, containing the rules from both Ogre and the expansions GEV, Shockwave, and some additional things.  (I doubt the long unreleased Ogrethulhu rules will be one of them.)

Look at part of the sell sheet showing what it is slated to look like:

Cardstock constructible Ogres!  Full color counters that also use the miniatures designs!  Map overlays to make for more varied setups!

Its gonna be awesome.  Ogre is one of my favorite games and this edition is a must buy.

Though its gonna hurt.  About 100 dollars, extremely low print run that might not even make it to stores.

But oh lordy do I so want it!

[AT-43] Or: How to get new players. BY PLAYING!!

See, this is a problem with gamers I really need to devote a whole post to one day.

How some gamers are REALLY antisocial about playing other people, trying new games, and don't seem to have the slightest interest in doing anything outside of what they already are.

Take this from personal experience.  Playing in a tiny group in a private venue is a guarantee of eventual no gaming.

But as I may have mentioned I love AT 43.  I love it like..  a lot.

People who are willing to try the game usually really really like it.  But it has been hard to get people to try it.

Thankfully I have been a playing at Arkham Asylum the last few months (even if the guy I went down with to try to recruit folks has gone MIA) since one of the clerks really enjoys trying new games (he isn't from the region which is why he is actually SOCIABLE to a larger degree than the regular New England Gamer) and it helps him from the tedium of endless D&D 4th ed and Magic games.

Its also good to have potential product diversity too.  You never know when an existing market may cool off or even go out completely.

Thus the last 2 weeks we have played AT-43.

People really wanted more info.  Instead of being put upon for people asking questions, I was happy to answer as much as I could, even if it slowed the game down.

And as I was consistent, now there is even more interest and more desire to show off the game.

So this week I had a light scenario to show off the game, using smaller, simpler forces.

I prepared as much as possible before the game with prebuilt armies, and even a little scenario.  If I was capable of getting my butt out of bed on time and stop looking at stuff for random reasons I would get even more going better and faster.

(Today's stupidity was half awake model kit investigation and reorganization.  No I do not know why I needed to spend a good 30-45 minutes in my undershorts looking at my model kits instead of just getting up and getting ready to go.)

The scenario I came up with was pretty good and lots of people were oohing and ahhing over the game. And some folks even LIKED the idea of prepainted figures since Arkham doesn't really have a big active minis group.

Third biggest Friday Night Magic participation in the country most weeks, but not much minis gaming.

So the lack of Games Workshop fanboyism and painter elitism actually HELPED in this venue.

Of course, exploding zombies is always popular too...

(Zombies from underground grates try to blow up my poor Fire Toads.  Durka Durka Romero Jihad.)

So people are asking for more demos so they can give it a shot.  

Thus I am building some simple forces for next week if my casino overlords don't have me scheduled to work.

I showed off my UNA, Oni, and Red Blok armies, so this week I will show off my remaining two:

The Therians, commanded by Nina Zero, Atis Astarte, and Sigma Urash.  2000 points in 4 units.

And the Karmans, also with 2000 points of HOT.  MONKEY.  LOVIN.   Also 2K points in 4 units.

But because its a demo and training game I am trying to make it smaller forces as to not overwhelm people or take too long to play.

So let's see how it goes.

But what am I learning of getting new players of the gaming sort?

1:  Play multiple times consistently at a PUBLIC gaming venue.

2:  Be friendly and welcoming, and willing to answer questions.

3:  Keep games smaller and simpler as to not be overwhelming.

4:  Be willing to offer interested parties the chance to play, if not this time, the next one.

5:  Have plenty of things folks can look at.

[AT-43] Preppin for a Demo

The backstory: This week I ran a nice fun demo game of AT 43 down at Arkham Asylum that actually got some interest and notice.

(Oni vs Red Blok.  A classic duel of amoral corporate greed up against communism.  No matter who wins the common man LOSES.)

I used the super rad 2000 point starter boxes for it, and while it was called for time it was overall a really close match.  (I so need to do a review of the starters.  One of the best and smartest deals in minis gaming.  Which Games Workshop doesn't need to do since they have their own zombies.  Of the consumer and marketshare kind.)

So.. with more people wanting to possibly try its better that I prepare an easier to get into group demo game.

I decided to use the Oni 2000 point starter box for the first force.  People seemed to like the idea of exploding suicide zombies and zombie cyborgs whose guns make the dudes they shoot into more exploding zombies.

Well Oni is an amoral corporation whose mercs work for anyone.  (If the zombies didn't give the whole amoral thing away.  Oni is practically Resident Evil's Umbrella Corp!)

I choose to have Oni be in a siege situation against a slightly larger foe, the UNA.  I don't have the UNA starter which I don't think is even out yet, but I use pyAT43 army builder found at the AT 43 forum and build up a quick army.

As the Oni 2000 force has a medium and heavy AFV (armored fighting vehicle) in it, I choose to make the attackers more based around infantry with a trio of the lowest sized AFVs.  Oni has a 2 and 3 star tank.  The UNA forces will have a squad of 3 1 star tanks.  I throw in a bunch of infantry squads, though only half have anti tank capabilities.   Also the UNA have numbers but not quality officers or many special rules to keep things simple.

One important thing in demoing a game is to not overwhelm new players.  Leave some rules out, and others don't worry about unless it comes up in play.

(From back to front: Fire Toad squad with Sgt, Death Dealer Tacarms lead by Lt. Epstone, a squad of  Star Troopers with a Master Sgt and Volcano Cannon, a squad of Shock Troopers with 2 flamers and a Sgt, 2 squads of Steel Troopers, one with medic & mechanic, one without. M Sgt in one, Lt in the other, and a support squad of Steel Trooper Missile Launchers.)

I hadn't based these figures yet, so any models that weren't done now have a nice flocking.  Notice how there looks to be 2 different colors of flock?  Its not.  Its the base paint I slop on and dip into the flock tub.  The darker green ones were Goblin Green, the newer Camo Green.  I honestly have to say I like the Camo better.  In a fit of inspiration and laziness instead of painting the edges with the 2-3 coats it would take I leave them alone except for each squad's officer which got the Camo Green in 2 coats.  (Good old Vallejo paint.  Covers real nice.)  This way everyone can quickly see where the officers are which matter in AT-43 for the purposes of measuring range. The few models that had already gotten edge painting got a black paint pen.  I should go back and hit everything again sometime soon.

But for now, my models are all personalized.  In the unlikely event other AT-43 players show up ( I posted a mention of the game on Facebook and the AT-43 forums) it will be easy to know whose models are mine.  That's a handy tip for you prepainted minis game players.  A nice flocked base is super easy to do and makes it look that much nicer.

So now I have the minis needed packed up into a Plano type case outside of my 3 Fire Toads.  I pulled out my army cards, and the Oni force is just the one that comes in the box.

Now I just need to have a scenario completely set up for Wednesday.

Perhaps something with a number of random tunnel entrances on the board where some of those exploding zombies can pop out of?  Superior numbers only do so much in a siege situation when you can freely send random amounts of zombies with bombs attached to them to pop up out of the ground and then go kablooey...

(If this game had continued the Zombie Guns that turned casualties into zombies would then get to explode next turn and these warriors for the Proletariat were going to be dead.  Imagine the fear of these things popping up out of vents every turn to explode?  Add in Zombie Gun creating them and the UNA players are gonna be on serious edge!)

Zombie Month! All Things Zombie! Actual Play Experiences

And by experiences I mean, "Things myself and a friend found in playing that the rules don't bother to mention".

Maybe I just misread the rules.  I've gone over it in play, and now again before doing another minicomic talking about my issues with some pictures for quick reference.  (I like pictures.  They are shiny.)

(Y'all know the click for bigger drill by now.)

Yeah.  This game for 60 bucks is a complete disaster.  Its limited in scope, overly luck dependent, missing obvious and important rule situations, got a totally borked set of timing for events, and the game's design makes it possible you will lose just due to a bad Zombie card draw.  

Heck, the scenarios don't even list partial victories!  Just all or nothing for the most part!

If this was a 5-10 dollar print and play PDF game or a 15-20 dollar minibox game ala the old Steve Jackson games I would say its a fun little diversion for what it is, and any flaws could easily be houseruled.  

But as a 60 dollar game I have been waiting for since preordering in July 2008?  INEXCUSABLE.

Thick cardboard mapsheets that have tears in them just by virtue of being thick cardboard folded.  The fact that you have 4 maps but you can't even use all 4 sides at once due to them being double sided.  Lock N Load's first game used thin laminated cardboard sheets that were single sided allowing for lots of fun scenarios.  (And it was only a 35-40 dollar game.  With 5 sheets each almost as big as one of these mapboards.)

Yay a full color big manual.  That's missing obvious information, has such loose timing rules its almost a complete mess, and not even enough scenarios to justify the price even if the rules were totally clear!

I mean, the rules don't even have SCALE information listed in them.  This is something nearly every hex n chit game has in them!

This game WASTED money on high production values instead of gameplay, what really matters.  Yes, the counters are great and the maps do look really pretty.

But the game is so lacking its not even funny.

Its an ok play if you aren't paying for it, but as someone who did, I feel cheated honestly.  For any sad sack unlucky enough to pay full MSRP plus shipping you are getting cheated, AND Lock N Load is repeatedly punching you in the groin.

Maybe a FAQ will fix the rules queries, but for a game in development this long it should be AIR.  TIGHT.

Mechanics of Electronic RPGs.

Over at : Gamespite, there is a REALLY long article about the mechanics of electronic RPGs and their flaws.  Being that Gamespite is one of the usual electronic game websites where the NES or SNES is largely considered the ONLY SYSTEMS THAT EVER EXISTED/MATTER in retro times, the article skews VERY heavily towards the JRPG side of things.  Which sort of misses the point that many problems in electronic RPGs have either been solved by a computer based RPG, or were things designed to work in tabletop games that were just sent straight over to digital without wondering if it actually WORKS in an electronic environment where there isn't any GM to referee, and players are mostly limited to whatever the game understands.

(This is pretty much why I just cannot enjoy the Adventure Games genre.   The games basically insist on each problem having one solution.  In the Text Adventure days, this not only meant knowing what to do, but typing it in the correct format the game's "Parser" understood.  So to get by a nasty Orc guarding a chest might not accept "Kill Orc", "Hit Orc", or "Fight Orc", but ONLY wants you to "Use Sword on Orc", even though its all the same thing.  The later point & click games fixed the parser problem, but then turned into pixel hunts for objects/environmental objects to be used, but came up with ridiculous puzzles such as putting tape on a mouse hole to get mouse fur to make a fake mustache to get by an NPC.  In an RPG players could come up with dozens of ways to get by the same NPC.)

See the electronic RPG genre has ALWAYS had flaws.  The earliest games were basically fun because they were replicating the simplest parts of a tabletop RPG, though usually with an electronic GM who was hidebound at following the RULES BY THE BOOK the way Gary said it MUST. BE. DONE. in AD&D.

(As opposed to the way most people really played it.)

For a time this was enough.  Then the JRPG genre began being birthed with Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.  They made the games a LOT more user friendly, and were in general a lot easier and simpler than their more draconian CRPG parents/competitors.

Dragon Quest never autosaved your PC dying.  Not even a "Game Over".  You just lost half your cash, but kept everything else you had accomplished including Experience Points and finding that nifty Sword of Facebreaking.

Which lead to increasingly boring games as all you did was wander around fighting easy, pointless random combats you needed to do to have enough money and levels to take on the next dungeon's end boss.  Who was usually in a room just after a save/rest point where all the resources you expended to get to that point were recovered, removing even any resource management challenges.

And then the boss was the usual "Immune to all status effect spells, fighters should hit, mages should cast buffs/obvious direct damage spells, healers heal party every turn possible" strategy that will guarantee you to defeat 90% of all JRPG bosses out there.

Of course this lead to JRPGs BEING MORE ABOUT THE STORY/CHARACTERS TO LUST AFTER WITH DIRTY COMICS AND FANFIC, and all the level gains and even the sheer joys of exploring a new world being little more than time sinks and busywork to the point most JRPGs are 50 hour games with 40 hours of filler content and anything semi meaningful being the other 10 hours.

Now this is not to say Computer RPGs haven't found their own sins, though they have mostly become action games with Adventure Game dialogue trees.  Except the action is half controlled by the RPG part, which annoys BOTH groups.  The RPG player doesn't get the strategic itch scratched, while the action player has to deal with resource management and character building and his or her skills are only about half the equation.

Both sides are sort of leading towards why RPGs are becoming a smaller and smaller segment of the marketplace.  Now this leaves out the market's increasing desire to sell to the biggest demographics (which they sort of have to given the insane budgets most games have these days), and how the mass market is generally only interested in being a virtual sociopath (Grand Theft Auto type crime games), virtually teabagging someone after shooting at them (First Person Shooters), or the "Casual" game which are for non gamers mostly.  (Stuff like Peggle, Wii Sports, Bejeweled, Tetris.  Basically the pick up and play games the "Hardcore" gamer market seems to loathe, but was most of the game market in the early 80s.  Pac Man and Donkey Kong would be classified as Casual games now.  Clearly Casual is a term which SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED A BAD THING.  I may one day do a discussion of this term.  It really can apply to tabletop games too.  Some times you want Advanced Squad Leader.  Other times Ogre fits the bill.  And you really aren't getting ANY ASL players without them getting into Ogre first.  But again, topic for another time.)

What follows is some more of my thoughts on Electronic RPGs as I had posted to Gamespite, but with some edits to be blogpost worthy.

As if the above pile of text wasn't enough additions..

The problem with electronic RPGs, both C and J types is that they are based off of tabletop RPGs without actually using the lessons of tabletop RPGs.

Take the mentions of level grinding and such.

In a tabletop game the GM can put the odds in the player's favor or properly warn the PCs if they go places they shouldn't. Players can also do creative actions and things no electronic game can really be prepared for. (Well except for some of the Roguelikes...)

Not to mention the game mechanics in tabletop RPGs have been bastardized into electronic ones without actually understanding them much. In general Dragon Quest and much of the JRPG family seems to use the gameplay mechanics of Tunnels & Trolls over D&D.

The problem is T&T is designed for tabletop games where the GM can officiate things and actually INSISTS players and GMs houserule and use creative thinking.

This doesn't work as mentioned on an electronic device.

As an example, in the most recent T&T ruleset they explain using a battle between 2 goblins and a troll. Mechanically the goblins CANNOT WIN. EVER. The troll's stats are too high. Much like JRPGs level and stats mean all, and 10 level 1s are no match whatsoever for 1 level 10. Not even a speedbump.

(Some systems like older D&D editions, or Basic Roleplaying are nowhere near as bad. In Basic Roleplaying a master swordsman will still probably die if outnumbered just like in real life. In older D&D the high level is just going to be injured, but will still probably win.)

But T&T has a Saving Roll mechanic where you take an attribute, and make a Saving Roll to do things. (GM tells you which attribute to roll against and maybe gives a penalty/bonus.) In the T&T rulesbook example it has one goblin making a kick to the troll's groin. The Saving Roll succeeds and the GM decrees the troll is stunned and can now be beat on for a couple rounds till Mr Troll gets his senses back.

Obviously electronic RPGs can't plan for this stuff.

But they kept the long amounts of monster bashing without really understanding WHY it was in the tabletop games. Because a GM and players can make even the most irrelevant random encounter an entertaining night's play.

Heck, I had a weekly 6 month Dragonlance campaign built on a minor encounter taking on a life of its own due to player actions. (And me rewarding the players for cleverness. Which also made up for the initial encounter being too tough for them. A PC got captured, and due to some smart RPing turned a one shot baddie into the grand villain of a whole campaign. That the 6 month mark was really only 1/3rd of the total story.  It was never continued due to a mix of a self absorbed player constantly forcing scheduling changes on us, causing many people to stop playing, and myself not really wanting to continue it with half the group no longer with us.)

This sort of thing is why I have always wished e RPG makers would stop the grinding and make more meaningful encounters. I'd rather have shorter games without the time wasting killing the 1000th Slime. Instead of a 60 hour game with 1000s of 1 minute speedbump fights I would much rather have a 30 hour with 100 carefully preplanned encounters where I could do more and have more strategies and actions.

This is probably the reason I love the SRPG genre so much. In the best games' cases the battles ARE the game, and tend to be epic, interesting, and cinematic.

I have seen games that have covered some of the other flaws in RPGs as well.

Fallout 1-2 keeps the random encounters on the overworld map as you explore, with all the genuine combat and encounters mostly being prebuilt setpieces with a variety of solutions.

Most of the early Ultimas used a form of level scaling and play time length timers which gradually scaled up the number and power level of the random encounters on the overworld map (which you could avoid fighting entirely if you spotted them far enough off, sometimes leading to dozens of monster hordes chasing you around the map. Course you could usually get vehicles to shoot at enemies from afar if you needed to clean house.), and many hand crafted strategic battles in the dungeons.

Older games handled level scaling pretty well too, usually going with the classic D&D paradigm of "The lower the dungeon level the tougher the monsters", which made for a nice risk v reward scenario. Sure the first level of Werdna's dungeon has easy to kill monsters. But the XP gain will be slow, and the treasure sucks. Once you hit level 3-4 this level stops being the slightest threat, and is just.. BORING.


What I think electronic RPGs need to do is look at what tabletop games have done since 1980, and try to figure out what can be applied to them.


Its not enough just to be a simple emulation of the basic tabletop RPG elements any more.

Why I Quit LARPing. (At Least in a White Wolf Game)

For those of you who for whatever mad reason read my older posts from the 08 timeframe will remember I did some reports on playing in a White Wolf Changeling LARP.  In 09 I did a few more, but they became more and more infrequent till they stopped.

Mainly because a few months after I quit writing them I finally gave up trying to have fun with the game, and decided staying home and sleeping before work was a vastly superior use of my time and money.

This little post will be my thoughts on why I tried it in the first place, and then why I quit.

Let's head back to Connecticon 08....

I was there with a friend and his friend and they are active fans of the original Changeling and had some interest in the current one.  They are also in a more hardcore fantasy LARP up in Mass that has the stereotypical "LIGHTNING BOLT LIGHTNING BOLT!", sorts of boffer combat where you get to use nerf like weapons on your opponents while dressing silly.

Not my thing, and working weekends it never WILL be my thing I can safely say.

But as I like to be social I was hanging out with them Friday when they went to look into playing in the Changeling LARP the next evening.  For curiosities' sake I asked how the game was played, having heard how silly the Old World of Darkness LARP games were with Rock Paper Scissors game resolution and people dressed horribly and so on.

The organizer mentioned it used a card draw system, something few RPGs seem to use and I find quite a fun diversion from the norm.

I decide for the hell of it to join in too as the Warhammer 40K tournament I was scheduled to play in would be over about an hour or so beforehand.  (Well it was SUPPOSED to be.  It actually got cut short and still took 3 times longer than it was scheduled to.)  As my friends had the book on them instead of using a pregen I got to make my own character.  (Albeit one that was unoptimized and kind of underpowered due to rules mistakes.)

I learned the basic concepts of Changeling which seemed PRETTY AWESOME AND RAD.  (New World of Darkness Changeling involves people being abducted to the world of Faerie where they are forced to serve their masters, which changes them in mystical ways, and they then escape back to the real world where they try to recover what they can of their shattered lives.)

I chose to take one of my array of characters and build a version of him for Changeling.  Rufus Landale.
Going through the book I found what seemed to be a good fit of abilities and faction selections for his personality.

http://wargamedork.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-changeling-larp-character-let-me.html

Go to next day.  Wake up with little sleep (yay being a night shift worker.  Doing days is VERY hard to impossible for me.) and do my Warhammer thing.  Win the first match with my Tyranids get owned by what was probably a cheating Tau player who seemed to have 2-3 times as many models as anyone should have.  Then its time to go to the LARP.  Since I lost match 2 of 3 and I felt I had promised my friend and his friend I was gonna be there, I go.  It starts off really slow and stupid, but gets moving pretty well later on as in general the entire group works together to find out about a murdered official and take revenge on him and the Faerie minion who comes afterwards.

We kicked butt, and I was apparently so in character I not only won an in continuity leadership position should I keep playing in the active campaign, but by 20+ player vote they also voted me best roleplayer and I won a nifty prize worth a good 25-35 bucks.

I FELT AWESOME.

I don't exactly have the greatest of self esteems and life hasn't done much to help this.  I was nearly bouncing off the ceiling that convention and for much of the week afterwards and the game was to blame.  It wasn't the doofy Goth nonsense I always considered LARPing to be.  It was basically tabletop gaming with cards and you moved around a lot more instead of sitting around a table.  (Well 20 or so people at a normal sit down game all needing GM attention would be INSANE anyhow so it is sort of for the best...)

I find out the normal game is run once a month in the afternoons about 20 minutes from my house and ends with plenty of time for me to get to work after provided I don't mind losing an hour or two of sleep.

I go and in general have a decent time of it for a while.

But the more I play the more problems come up.

The biggest is the one that seems to infest EVERY White Wolf LARP.  Its less about adventures than it is about Machiavellian power struggles as done by supernatural beings.  Its a bunch of high school cliques.  Except they have neato powers.  The campaign settings almost all have ways to encourage and enforce this, and most players and Storytellers LIKE IT THAT WAY.

I constantly had to deal with people wanting power struggles, trying to be douchebags, characters that "in character" were insulting my more straightforward heroic character who the host out of character once in what I considered an insult, deemed me as "A White Hat".

As if wanting to play a hero is a BAD THING.

MY WHOLE POINT OF PLAYING AND RUNNING RPGS IS TO BE INVOLVED WITH HEROIC STORIES.

This does not mean being an unstoppable perfect Jesus figure mind you, but it is about as far away from how most White Wolf games are encouraged to run as you can get before you get into joke games like Paranoia, Kobolds Ate My Baby, and "I Kill Puppies for Satan".

(Which I consider to be the greatest name of a game EVER.)

I was actually starting to feel insulted even though in general most of the players seemed to be perfectly nice folks out of game.  In game most REVELED in playing jerks to various degrees.

The Storyteller's response to my desires for a more heroic game?  "Its the World of Darkness for a reason.  Deal with it".

The fact I am writing this shows I dealt with it by quitting.

Now I am not condemning this style of play.  I just don't get the damned point, and I want NOTHING to do with it.  But by all reports the local group was LIGHT (at least in Changeling.  The Vampire game which I tried on a day or two when I used a sick day was REALLY jerk charactet central!) as many people came from other groups or travelled to other groups where PKing (player killing) and deviant characters forming stupid political alliances to bone over other characters were the order of the day, instead of just most of the side dishes.

Yet it was not the only reason.  Just the biggest part.

Another one is the whole Camarilla LARP setup itself.  Unlike your average RPG campaign, the game is connected to a worldwide organization requiring players to cough up membership and sometimes site fees in order to play.  This of course brings in REAL LIFE politics and organizational nightmares as characters need to be approved and higher powered ones need to be ran through Regional Managers and there are a good dozen or more acronym laden titles going up the ladder.

My friend chose to take one of the local roles which not only involved group voting, but it required TAKING TESTS.

All this to play a game?

And the worst part is yet to come.  Because of this worldwide thing and approval being needed, you could gain extra experience points by going to other games, being one of these Acronym People, or doing things that HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH PLAYING IN THE LOCAL CAMPAIGN.

Yes kids, you can grind for XP in White Wolf LARPs provided you have time to drive around your region.  We had people drive to and from Virginia here to Connecticut, to New York, all over the place.

So in a game where hosing over other people is pretty much part of the normal situation, if you have a lot of extra time and money to get there, you too can play a character that can curbstomp anyone else, especially if you have been playing longer than the newbies.

And don't tell me the whole approval process helps keep broken PCs away in a system that makes it VERY easy to custom build broken characters.  We had more than a few PCs that nobody could really do anything about that if the player wanted to could have wiped out everyone else at the game!

I'm sorry.  That goes against EVERYTHING I think an RPG campaign should be.  Sure its nice you can play in a worldwide metaplot and all, but why should one character be better than another just because they do some extra paperwork?

There were so many broken PCs the higher ups did a "soft reset" which had many PCs brought down to sane levels, but only just.

And once we add in the expense of losing sleep on a workday and the money for meals and the various site/small yearly fee and I just felt it wasn't enough fun for the way I PERSONALLY enjoy RPGs so I dropped out.

The soft reset brought the current story arc to its end and I felt that was a good place to bow out.  I would have tried talking it over with the organizers as I could be taking things the wrong way, but there was no game at this year's Connecticon and the few times I talked about anything at all on the Google Group the local group uses not a single person replied either public or privately as if I didn't even exist so why bother?

Now I am NOT condemning the group or the Camarilla or White Wolf or really even LARPing in general.

Its just a perfect storm of time, money, bureaucracy, and style of game I seriously dislike all joining together to make me not want to play period.


I guess I am just too used to nice normal sit down RPGs where you don't have some silly organization to care about and the GM (with a little help from the players of course!) is all that is needed for a good fun game.


But I am a "White Hat" so what do I know, right?