Martial Movies

Last night I watched Ip Man and the night before Shaolin. Both were really entertaining, full of great action, dialogue with a little humor thrown in. I think Ip Man 2 will be next on the list.

The Pin is Mightier Then the Sword Whip

While I was trying to attach Vasuro to her base, her arm came off. After several attempts at cleaning and reapplying glue, I finally said screw it. It's time to pin. I am pissed off at myself not not doing this at the beginning. The arm went on really well the first time (pre-painting) but now nothing. Next time, as much as I don't like to pin, pin it will be.

The Weekend of Rememberance

Well, of the four ideas I had last week about what to do next, 2 of them happened. I painted Vasuro (the mini I am going to use for the Kingmaker campaign) as well as a couple other wood elf minis. I also finished 2 other wood elves that I had started the last time I was painting (years ago). I tried to take some pictures of Vasuro halfway through plus at the end; but they didn't turn out so well since our camera is not that great and starting to show its age. Even with a digital camera, I had to take several shots before I got anything close to acceptable. It just was not wanting to focus clearly on the mini. Everything else it focused on fine but not the mini. Rrrr.

In between painting sessions this weekend, I also started up a 3 new Diablo characters: a barbarian, a demon hunter and a wizard. The barby got to 10, the hunter 13 and the wiz only to 5. I am mostly playing these to see how their skills work. So far the barb is my favorite of the 3 since with the other 2 it seem to take noticeably longer to kill things compared to the barb and monk. Anyway, going to continue with the wizard up to the Skeleton King then start a witch doctor. Even though I went on with the hunter way past that point, I plan on getting all of them up to the same spot in the game and round-robining them through the rest of the game or at least Act I.

Yesterday, Memorial Day, I went over to Nathan's and played a couple of board games. That is something I had not done in a long time and miss doing. It ended up being Nathan, Nina, Roy and myself (with Andrea showing up after work, watching). First, we played Cosmic Encounters. Nathan and I had not played in a long time, and it was Roy and Nina's first time. After a little expected confusion about how things worked, we slowly got the hang of it. For the races, we had Virus (Nathan), Amoeba (Nina), Parasite (Roy), and the Oracles (me). the Virus and Amoeba came close to winning at one point. The Oracles' home worlds gradually grew bare but were never even attacked let alone invaded (surprisingly). At one point, they answered the Amoeba's call for allies against the Virus. After sending in 1 ship, the Oracles used an artifact to deny the Virus their multiply ability thereby allowing the allied attackers a victory. The Amoeba decided to continue the offensive and once again got the Virus as the defender. The call for allies went out once more with the Oracles responding. As fate would have it, the Oracles pulled out a second artifact to deny the Virus their powers. This victory (which the they foresaw) gave the Oracles their fifth planet outside their home system letting them declare themselves the winner.

The second game played was the original version of Axis and Allies. Here the Axis were played by Nathan (Japan) and Nina (Germany) while Roy (UK) and I (USSR/USA) were the Allies. This was Nina's first time with this game too and the first time in years for the rest of us. While we only played about 5 or 6 years (turns) before having to stop, the last year ended up being a seriously tide turning time. Germany took advantage of Russia's shortsighted mistake of leaving a backdoor open into Moscow through the Baltic. This saw a transport-carried tank blitzing the heart of the Motherland. Japan a turn early had manged to discover the technology of Heavy Bombers and which obliterated then obliterated the American bombers that were helping support eastern USSR. With 2 Japanese bombers (and more sure to come) plus 3 or 4 Japan-based fighters along with a small fleet, the American Pacific fleet (as scary as it was) was surely soon to fall. Therefore, due to time, the Allies conceded defeat. If time had permitted, I would loved to have seen how things would have played out. I'm sure at that point the Axis would would eventually won anyway but I still would have made them pay for it.

This weekend has really rekindled my interest in both mini painting and board gaming. I think am going to have to start moving some of my video gaming time over to those areas. Plus Riley (and I) had fun "painting with daddy" Friday when he got out his markers and books.

There and back again

Back from work trip to Saint Louis. Short yet productive. The two best (non-work) things about going there: the food and Fantasy Shop.

Following my usual philosophy of not eating some place we have here while out of town, Nathan (co-worker) and I ended up going to 54th Street (been there a few times before), Bandana's BBQ (1st time), Smokey Bones (lots of times), and Uno's in the Chicago airport (1st) time).

Fantasy Shop we discovered on our first trip up there and loved it. We both pine for something like it down here; but unfortunately, this area is not big enough to support that level of a gaming shop. We have a good place for comics/CCGs (The Deep) and good place for wargaming (The Foundry) but not a single location for both nor a good place for the roleplayer. Both stores have a small rpg section but nothing like what Book Villa used to be. Anyway, this time, we expanded our search for gaming stores (due to extra free time) and visited 2 other Fantasy Shop locations we had not been to before. Again, we were in heaven.

Gone Digital: Act IV

Act IV. The culmination of Vasuro's journey the Diablo 3 (well, his first) nears an end. I reached Act IV last night before heading to bed. Aside from the really annoying loss of some achievements due to a software bug (thanks Blizzard), D3 has been incredibly fun. I'm not what I'm going to do when I finish normal mode. Right now four things are on the table: forge ahead with Nightmare mode on Vasuro, start over with another class, jump back into miniature painting (at least my Pathfinder mini), or work on some adventure ideas I had. I think painting may win out since I can use mini now and shouldn't take too long.
Of course, I may at least write down my adventure ideas so they disappear in my head. And they're not really adventures so much as locations/encounters. A quick aside, I had talked about running a new Pathfinder campaign a few months ago for some friends. It was going to be a homemade campaign rather then an AP. The players start out as Pathfinder Society probationary members with the first few sessions covering their training as well as their "test" mission. Each probationary member is given a mission that acts as their final exam with success meaning they become a full Society member and failure meaning they can try again a year later. After 2 failures, they are out.
Back to the location's discussion. Each location would have a set theme and goal (ex: find/explore ruins). Then I would determine the minimum difficulty for the encounter based off of character level and group size (ex: 4 1st-2nd level PCs). I would not worry about party composition (i.e. does the group have a cleric or fighter?) Next I decide on the number and scale of each iteration of the location (ex: 3 scales of 1st, 5th, 7th level PCs). After that, I write down an outline of the location's parts, draw a rough map and start filling in the blanks. Each iteration of the location would use the same overall map but have it's own notes. This way I would be able to reuse the location for different sessions or scale the location to better suit the party without needing to "wing it" as much.
While part of the idea of the campaign is to have it be an open world rather then always scaled to the PCs, I don't want the PCs to go wherever they want without thinking about the consequences.

Gone Digital: D3

Vasuro has made his way through Act I of Diablo 3 and a short ways into Act II. I managed to get him up to level 20 before the Sandman visited me. So far I'm enjoying the heck out of D3. I like the way you can interact (loosely) with the main NPCs especially the followers. I also love the random comments the followers make while out adventuring. I love the shared blacksmith and jeweler (whom I've not met yet). Of course, that aspect really won't come into play until I make a second character.

Controllers

This is the forth (and final) of several posts that are notes I compiled back in Oct 2009 of my thoughts on things that interest me. This was mostly done for my son Riley who had been born pre-mature earlier that year. Somethings might not be accurate anymore, but I'm posting them as they were written.

Shortly after I started playing roleplaying games, one role stood out from the others as my favorite: spellcasters. Eventually, rogues/thieves/sneaky dudes took their turn at the top. Casters gradually made their way back to the fore the more I played. So when I started playing Everquest, the very first character I made was a Erudite wizard. I played him for quite awhile to the exclusion of all other classes. I eventually tired the rogue but wasn't too crazy about it. The magician and necromancer also go their chance to show me their power. But for some reason I seemed to avoid the enchanter class.

Finally after playing for over a year, I broke down and tried one. Holy crap! I was in love. The more I played Sino (my enchanter) the more I loved the class. Being able to mesmerize a group of creatures, charm one of them to fight for me, and almost totally control the field of battle. What a better and more elegant way to handle fights then simply blasting away huge spells or controlling a single summoned pet. A really skilled enchanter was one that had to have his attention not just on a single creature or two, and the main tank and off tank, but rather on the entire battlefield and beyond. I knew I was playing the class well as more and more people complimented me on how well I handled not just the creatures we were supposed to be fighting but also the ones that would add whether because they wandered into us or because one ran and got more. The enchanter is by far away the crowd controlling class that I compare all other CCers against no matter the game, MMO or table top. The only one that comes close is the D&D 3/3.5 wizard especially one that specializes in enchanting.

Not all MMOs that I've played have really had a true CC class. Some have had classes that can do CC but none that are so focused as the enchanter. The only real exceptions so far has been the Controller archtype in City of Heroes and of course the wizard/sorcerer in Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO). Ever since playing Sino, I have tried to recreate that experience in other MMOs as best as I can usually with little success.

Lockdown was my Mind Controller in CoH. While I couldn't personally control a creature with him, the role of crowd control was definitely there. While most of my friends loved to see the big damage numbers appear above a mob's name, my thrill was from keeping the enemies locked down (hence his name), stunned, mezed, or whatever you want to call it. And I personally think I did quite well.

Brel Sino (there's that name again) was my character in a long running (~2 yr) D&D campaign. The setting was Forgotten Realms just after the return of the Shade Enclave and the shadovar. Because of this, I created Brel with the Shadow Magic feat, meaning he cast his spells using a different form of magic then vast majority of other wizards and sorcerers. And of course, using Shadow Magic gave him a bonus to casting spells that involved illusions, necromancy, and (tah-da) enchantments. Although I did not have him specialize in enchanting, Brel did have numerous feats and magic items (some he created himself) that enhanced his enchantment spells. He was quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with if I do say so myself.

Recently DDO has let me create somewhat Brel although with a different name: Erradin Mordraehel, yet another name I have used several times. While only just over 3rd level, he too is a non-specialist wizard that is getting enhancements and feats that boost his enchantment, illusion, and necromantic spells. Even at that low level, my ability to control things is obvious. Granted undead and non-humanoid creatures are currently safe from my influence, Burning Hands is there to fill in that (temporary) gap in his powers.

In Champions Online, my main character is Xel Varu. He currently has most of his powers from the Darkness power set with some from the sets of Telepathy, Arcane Sorcery, and Supernatural. His build is of course heavily geared towards CCing plus AE (area of effect) damage.

As for Aion and Fallen Earth, I am still learning those games but have a slight clue for each about how to proceed. In Aion, sorcerers are supposedly good at CC so my second character there is on the path to becoming a sorcerer. The Traveller faction is Fallen Earth had access to mutations that are supposed to be able to CC also. Again, my character in FE will be trying to gain as much favor with them as possible.

This seemly obsession with crowd controllers is not from some deep seated desire to be a dictator, tyrant (although my middle name means tyrant, hmm), or a control freak in real life. Rather it comes from the fond memories of a certain EQ character and my attempts to regain that feeling.

MMOs and Me

This is the third of several posts that are notes I compiled back in Oct 2009 of my thoughts on things that interest me. This was mostly done for my son Riley who had been born pre-mature earlier that year. Somethings might not be accurate anymore, but I'm posting them as they were written.

This section will talk about a group of video games that have comsumed a vast majority of my life since I was first introduced to them: massively multiplayer onlines games or MMOs. (I never have figured out why it's MMOs and not MMOGs. Oh well.) Back around roughly 1999, one of my good friends (Pat) kept telling me to try this game called Everquest (EQ). He explained what it was: an online fantasy game that you pay a month fee for but with your characters living in a persistent world. Monthly fee!? What? Are you crazy? He spent a couple months trying to convince me. (It took that long only because I lived in Alabama, and he in Georgia.) After I visited him next and he showed me the game, I was immediately hooked. Once I got back home, I went and buoght the game. Within the next 2 weeks, I had all of my friends in Huntsville playing too. The next 2 years (luckily we were all on college and had the free time) were spent exploring the ever expanding world of Norrath. It was not referred to as EverCrack for nothing.

In late 2001, Dark Age of Camelot was released. Our little group (and others) jumped from EQ over to the lands of Camelot. Or rather the realm of Midgard: the lands of Trolls, Kobolds, Norsemen, and Dwarves. With that transistion, the Ghet of Fenris was born. (That was the name of our guild.) While PvP (player vs player) combat existed on only certain servers in EQ, it was introduced to the game as an after-thought. DAoC on the other hand not only implemented it from the start, it was a main part of the game. Except there it was not called PvP but rather RvR (realm vs realm). Each realm of which Midgard was one competed against the other 2 for control of various hinterlands and their respective towers and keeps.

Over the next several years, I went though many different MMOs (as noted by the list below). Some only briefly, some for a more moderate time, while a handful consumed me completely. Those that dominated my life while I played them include EQ, DAoC, City of Heroes, Star Wars Galaxies, Age of Conan, and World of Warcraft. Those that are a close second to the previous list are Lord of the Rings Online, Warhammer Online, EQ 2, and Horizons. The others fell anywhere from intense interest but lack of time to oh-my-god-this-game-sucks.

Everquest (EQ) - aka EverCrack due to the high rate of addiction of its players. Being the first real MMO (yes, I know it wasn't truly the first) for most people at its release, EQ was for the longest time (i.e. until WoW) THE game that other MMOs were compared against. It also has one of my all-time favorite classes of any MMO: the enchanter. City of Heroes has come the closest but only by about 75% of the way. My friends and I still refer to specific events from the game that have stuck with us. For instance, John's ogre Oomar and Shadow's troll Balial being mistaken for NPCs (non-player characters) by other low level PCs (player characters) in an area where the evil races (trolls, orges, and dark elves) are known to be in charge. They thought Oomar, a warrior, was a shaman that could cast a speed spell. So John typed an emote that acted like he was casting a spell. "Sorry," John replied, "I think your too low level for that spell."

Or when the three of us were on a race war server (server where the races were divided up into 3 opposing factions) playing pretty much the same characters from out normal (non-PvP) server and a human rogue trys to sneak up on us while stealthed. What he did not know was that my wizard had cast See Invisibilty on all 2 of us so I saw him coming from a distance. The rogue went straight for Oomar (we're still not sure why he went after to 800 lb ogre rather the the skinny wizard). As soon as he was almost behind warrior, Oomar stood up, turned around, and we all promptly started to beat down the non-too-smart rogue. We just happned to be sitting along a zone line (boundary between maps, the computer loads the next map upon crossing a zone line) resting when this occurred. The rogue thinking to escape, moved over to the next zone, hoping his connection was faster then ours. Since we (the players not characters) were all in the same room, John said stay put and he zoned over too. Well, our connection was faster then the rogue's so when the rogue appeared in the next zone, Oomar was there waiting for him. After a coulpe seconds of surprise and beat down, the rogue jumped back to the original zone. not realizing the Balial and I were still there waiting. Once he appeared again, I blinded and rooted him while Balial proceeded to call down hurt and pain upon the poor human. By the time Oomar zoned back over, the little rogue was almost dead. I think the whole encounter lasted less then a minute. There are several other stories that I could tell from the EQ days, but those can wait for another time.

Everquest 2 (EQ2)- Since the original EQ was my first MMO and had an incredible influence on me, I thought I would give EQ2 a try. I was not disappointed. I really enjoyed to new classes although I missed my favorite EQ class, the enchanter. The crafting system was much improved over EQ. The original way of handling classes in EQ2 I much preferred over how the devs ended up doing them. It seems most of the players were too stupid to understand the tiered structure of the classes so the devs changed it so you picked your final "advanced" class up front rather then at level 10 and then again at 20. The original method had a player select an archtype (fighter, mage, priest, scout) at creation. Then at level 10, the character selected a class within the archtype that further defined the character. At level 20, a third and final selection was made between 2 sub-classes within the chosen class. That way made it seem more of a progression of your character than just selecting another class at creation. Oh well. There's no accounting for stupid people. I also liked the separate crafting class feature that was implemented. I was introduced to this concept playing Horizons and much preferred their version over EQ2's but was stll glad to see it. As much as this game interested me, it didn't have the same effect that the original did even though this one was a better game. I ended up playing it about 4 or 5 months.

Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC) - This was the second MMO my friends and I tried. Oh man, did we love it. Graphically better looking then EQ, no corpse runs, better crafting systems, RvR. Just overall better. Of course, it still didn't have an enchanter-type class, but that was ok. The runemages, the shadowblades, and (eventually) the bonedancer were my favorite classes here. Yes, those are all classes from the Midgard realm because that was the only true realm. No puny Hibernians or arrogant Albions for me. (Ok. Yes, I did play in those realms too, but Midgard was always my home here.) We play this game solid (as much as we did EQ) for about a year or so.

Asheron's Call (AC) - This game was only played by a few of our group. We got into it for about 4 or 5 months Then we realized the fact that due to the scripts you could write and run, you could have the scripts almost play the game for you. While the game was entertaining at first, it became rather less interesting after awhile because of that fact.

Dungeon & Dragons Online (DDO) - Neesless to say, with this game's namesake being such a HUGT influence on my life, I was going to play it. When it was released, I immediately made a rogue. The game was interesting in how it translated the pencil-and-paper version into a computer game. I liked how the classes acted and interacted with the world. What I didn't like was that fact that you could not solo with any real degree of success. A group was needed to do most anything. Also, the only places you naturally encountered other players were in the towns. If you were outside of town or in a quest area, it was only you and any party members. Ok. that is nice to keep others from taking something you are trying to get, but it breaks to feel of the world. A true MMO should not limit you like that. Inside dungeons is one thing, but not in the outdoors.

World of Warcraft (WoW) - This one is the current unofficial king of MMOs not due to its quality (which is good) but rather its number of subscribers. With over 11 million people playing (or at least accounts), WoW has taken over Everquest's spot as the MMO that all others are currently compared against. As a huge fan of the Warcraft RTS games and the lore, I was extremely excited when I heard about this game. Needlessly to say, I bought this the day it came out, and it comsumed me for the next 2 years. I ended up taking break from it after that point but eventually went back after the Burning Crusade epxansion came out. Once again, I was consumed for nearly 6-7 months but managed to the monkey off my back. Until Wrath of the Lich King was released. I was able to resist that siren call for almost a week before I picked it up. Over all, I have really (and I mean really) enojoyed playing WoW not just because of the game itself but also because I have had a bunch of friends playing it as well. (With over 11 million people, that's not surpirsing.) Having spent so much time on this game (more then any other video game let alone MMO), I think I will save going into details about my adventures in Azeroth and beyond for a separate area of the site.

Champions Online - This is an MMO that I am currently playing so I won't go into too much of my thoughts about it here. Instead I will say that since this was developed by the same company that created City of Heroes/Villains (CoX), it is unofficially considered the successor to those games. While I highly enjoyed CoX, Champions Online has captured my attention much more then CoX did.

Aion - This is one of the current MMOs that I am playing. It has only been out a couple of weeks, and so far I am having a good time. I first played it during one of the Preview Weekends which was esstentially a closed beta. One of it big features is allowing characters to gain wings and fly at 10th level. What I didn't know until the actual open beta was that flight was limited to certain areas of the world as opposed to most anywhere. This kind of annoyed me, but I didn't let it keep me from playing. Since I am playing this game now, I'm not going to go into my thoughts too much here, but will rather save them for a separate Aion-specifc area of the site.

Eve Online - A super expanded MMO version of Elite. What better thing could you ask for in a space trading game. With there being only a single universe rather then separate world servers like most other MMOs, any character playing Eve could potentially met any other character. I really like the continous skill learning system it has, where your skills keep training up whether you're online or off. And the degree of customization of yuor ships plus the fact that you don't have to buy your ship but can research blueprints for it and build it yourself, is really cool. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to get into the game, I couldn't. And I tried both at release and somewhat more sucessfully but still failing a couple years later.

Gods and Heroes - This game unfortunately never saw release. It was put on indefinite hold. I only have it listed here because I was in the beta. In my limited experience with it, I found it to be an interesting game. One of its main selling points was the inclusion of hirelings that you could, well, hire. The higher level your character the more hirelings you could bring with you while adventuring. It was set in the Roman era of Earth with magic and the gods being a real part of it. I'm not sure how well it would have done againt the other MMOs at time but it probably would have had a faithful following.

Ultima Online - I played this MMO for about 20 minutes before promptly uninstalling and cancelling the account. Its isometric perspective, compared to 1st/3rd person perspective of other MMOs, and dated graphics, UO hit a nerve with me. I'm not saying isometric perspectives are bad; it's just not what I wanted in an MMO.

Anarchy Online - When I first heard about this game, I was rather excited. A highly futuristic MMO set on an alien world was quite intriguing to me. Unfortunately due to a highly buggy release, I only played for a couple weeks before cancelling. About a year or so later, I gave it another try. The developers had polished the game significantly since its initial release. Again, I played it for a couple of weeks but just couldn't get into it even though I really wanted to.

City of Heroes (CoH) - Finally a non-fantasy, non-sci-fi MMO. Granted, it may not have been the first, but it was the first main stream one. We loved being able to create characters that truly felt like super heroes. The absence of equipment while strange at first was quite welcome. It made the game less of a "I need to next best piece of equipment to do well" and allowed you to concentrate on your character's powers. Yes, you did have enhancements that could technically be seen as replacing equipment but their aquicision was not the consuming as the "equipment race" of other MMOs at the time. This game also has one of my favorite classes: the controller. It is a close second to the enchanter of EQ. And actually the controller was an archtype rather then the actual class. The Mind Control power set was the focus of my interest. I played this for probably a year.

City of Villains (CoV) - One of the things many people asked about when City of Heroes came out was that ability to play as a villain. Cryptic eventually granted that request with this game. A stand-alone game, you could still play against other that had CoH. I say against because with the release of CoV, PvP was added. While I didn't do much PvP here, I did get back into the super hero/villain kick. Of course, my main character was the Mastermind archtype (the CoV version of the CoH Controller). I think this game lasted just under a year for me. I went back and play it again awhile later after the devs added some ne feature (don't remember what), but it only kept my interest of maybe a month that time.

Age of Conan - As a fan (but not huge fan) of Howard's Conan stories, I knew I was going to give this game a try. After playing in the open beta (which limited characters ti level 20), I knew I was going to buy it. I really liked that fact that the first 20 levels had a somewhat linear story line with slight variations depending on archtype, and each archtype's story tied in with the others. I also thought the night/day feature was really cool. If you chose to play during the day (game day not real world day), then there were other PCs around. If you chose to play at night, you were going solo. You could switch at will between these two modes whenever you were at the Inn. Unfortunately but quite understandably, this feature did not extend of of the starting island. Keeping in line with my usual classes of rogue and mage, I chose to play a Stygian (a race) assassin and a Stygian demonologist. I throughly enjoyed both the game mechanics as well as the fluff (story, background, etc.). This was one of those games that consumed me while I played it. The thing that killed this game for me was after the devs made a change to grey bosses. (Grey meaning that the creature's level was so much lower then the character's as to pose no real threat, and boss meaning that it was a tougher creature compared to others of the same level.) To keep grey bosses in instances (personal areas as opposed to free-for-all areas) from being farmed (killed over and over), they (the devs) decided to have grey bosses scale in health, damage output, damage resistance, and other stats to the level of the character(s) fighting it. So if a level 40 character fights a level 20 grey boss in an instance, that creature's stats would scale to roughtly level 40 while they loot it dropped was still its level 20 loot. What the devs did not mention was that non-instanced grey bosses scaled as well. So one day my level 40 character was fighting a level 30 gret boss for a quest I had not gotten around to doing. I was in the open world and not in an instance. I ran away just barely alive (I almost couldn't see my health) with me only doing maybe 25% of the boss's health. It was at that point that I said screw it and stopped playing.

Lord of the Rings Online - Words can't express the thoughts I had when I first heard about this game. I'm a big fan of Tolkien's Middle Earth and was really afriad that this game would suck. I'm glad my fears were for naught. Altough I only played this game for about 8-10 months, I played it hard and fast. I didn't just do quests and try to level here. I did what I usually do in new games but more-so here: I went exploring. Even places I has no business being like the Trollshaws (level 30+ area) and Misty Mountains (lvl 35-50) at ~20 level were not off-limits to my curious eyes. Needless to say, that once I entered the Mountains, my death came fairly regularly, but that didn't stop me from continuing.

Archlord - This is another game that lasted less then a day for me. I played for maybe 20 minutes, uninstalled, cancelled, and even threw away the disk. Yes, it was that bad.

Auto Assault - I loved the video game Autoduel for the Commadore 64. This game looked like the MMO verison of it. Hell yeah, I was going to play it. Again, I only played during open beta (usually the time where the game is finished but being stress tested) and didn't buy it when released. I think the game in general had potential but unfortunately it didn't live up to it for me (and obviously others since it was shutdown about a year after release).

Chronicles of Spellborn - I followed this game from its annoucement with quite interest. At this point in time I had been burned by more then one "cool upcoming" game to let myself get too excited. I played it during open beta, and after it released, even bought it when my character reached level 9.9. (That was as far as you could go after release without buying the game.) I don't remember what caused me to stop playing, but I did. Unfortunately the company went backrupt, and the game has currently been frozen (i.e. no updates/patches) and made free-to-play while the devs re-make the game into an actual free-to-play game with microtransactions. I hate to see this game go through such a bad spell (no pun intended) because I think it has a lot of potential.

Dungeon Runners - I didn't play this much not because it was a bad game but rather due to lack of real interest. It was essentially a MMO verison of a Diablo clone. I read yesterday that NCSoft will be shutting it down soon.

Entropia Universe - A strange futuristic setting where you can spend real world money for in-game items/money and vice-versa. I tried it for a few days but couldn't get into it.

Fallen Earth - Again this is one of those MMO that I played during close/open beta but have not picked up when it released. This is not because it is a bad game but rather because I am currently trying to play 3 other MMOs, and this one got the short end of the stick.

Guild Wars - While not really an MMO, it is usually listed as one for some reason. Overall I really like the game. It is an massively multiplayer online community. The ONLY places you truly interact with people outside your group is in the cities. While you are out adventuring, the only people you see are those in your group. I would probably still be playing this game if is was more solo friendly. And I don't count the stupid henchmen that you can take with you as playing solo.

Horizons: Empire of Istaria - This game had so much potential that I was seriously sad that it did not stay around long at all. The first and only really MMO that allowed you to play as a dragon. While this was one of its selling freatures (and one that I really liked), it was not what made me love this game as much as I did. The way Horizons handled adventure classes and crafting classes was probably its biggest drawing point for me. The separation of adventure classes from crafting classes was unique (I think) up to that point in MMOs. Add in the ability for each character to have multiple adventuring (and crafting) classes with a single active class and not lose experience in the inactive class(es) was incredible to me. Another feature I thought was really cool was the in-game requirements for unlocking new races. At launch there were 2 playable races that were locked until certain in-game events took place. With the intricate crafting system, players were able to build actual buildings and other structures (like bridges) with various stages of construction visible as the building was under development. New areas were also inaccesable until massive bridges were completed by players encouraging cooperation between players further. There are so many thing about this game that I loved and miss in other MMOs that I am still upset that Horizons fall.

Lineage II - Eastern fansty game with good graphics and decent game play. The first character I created was a dark elf something (I forget the class). At first, I thought there was something wrong with my character because he ran with the top half of his body completely horizontal and his weapon arm stretched out behind him. Then I saw every other dark elf running the exact same way. Ok, I said to myself, let's try a normal elf. They did't run quite so gay. Their bodies were only at a 45 degree angle not 90. Next game.

Pirates of the Burning Sea - I played this MMO during its closed and open betas. I played the heck out of Sid Meier's Pirates and was chomping at the bit for an MMO version. You would have thought I learned that lession with Autoduel/Auto Attack, but no. The ship combat was good, the land combat so-so, but overall it lack something I can't quite put my finger on.

Ryzom - I tried this game when it came out. I thought it looked quite good graphically but because of limited documentation or explaination in-game, I didn't know what to do for a number of things. This quickly led me to move on to another game.

Runes of Magic - A free-to-play (f2p) fantasy MMO that has micorpayments for in-game items? Oh what the heck I'll give it a try. And I'm glad I did. While not no the same caliber as subscription MMOs, this game is a hidden gem for gamers. I like its dual-class system but mostly its f2p status. While I don't currently play it, I do keep the game up to date in case I get the urge.

Shadowbane - I was excited when I first heard about this game. I'm not sure why I never played it when it was released but I eventually tried it out many years later when it went free-to-play. Very dated graphics and gameplay found me giving it a short life on my computer.

Star Wars Galaxies - A Start Wars MMO? Hell yeah!. Several of my friends and I jumped on this when it came out. I loved the class system it had as well as the way it handled crafting and resources. My character (I only had one because that was all you could have per server) ended up as a Master Scout/Master Ranger. I really liked creating camps of increasing size out in the wilderness and having random people stop by to rest and recover. I especially liked it when I was able to create the High Tech Camp, It was freaking huge and looked really cool. I got a lot of compliments about it probably because not many people went Master Ranger (to get access to it). The PvP was ok but not great. And the fact the Jedi were not available to play at creation but rather something pseudo-random and/or extremely (I mean extremely) difficult to unlock was nice too. I liked that crafting allowed one to create pretty much anything from food and drinks to clothes, weapons to houses, medpack to droids and eventually vechiles and spacecraft. After the game went through a massive overhaul and became NGE (New Gaming Experience), it was no longer the same game it was at release and not in a good way. Luckily for me, I had stopped playing by then. I tried the NGE and was not too impressed. Oh, yeah, NGE allowed a player to create a Jedi character from the start too.

Tabula Rasa - One of those games that I played in open beta but not release. I thought it was interesting especially that fact that you could clone yourself at specific levels, giving you the chance to take different paths with your character. I think it had potential but was rushed out, and the game has since gone away.

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes - Created by some of the original EQ guys, this one captured my complete interest from its annoucement. I was really interested in the diplomacy feature it was adding. It was a card game within the game that could influence not only the NPC with whom you were interacting but even influence the town you were in to some degree. Even with it threat of old school corpse runs, Vanguard and its backstory kept me enthralled until it was released. At first I thought maybe it was my computer that couldn't handle the game but I found out that no, it was the game that couldn't handle itself. Lag, buggy quests, and poorly implemented features, doomed this game from the start. After a couple weeks, I finally convinced myself to put it down and move on to something else. I eventually tried to pick it back up a year or so later, hoping that tihngs had improved, but I couldn't bring myself to give it mre the a few days.

Warhammer: Age of Reckoning (WAR) - I love the Warhmmer fantasy setting. I have played the table-top roleplaying. So when this was accounced, I jumped for joy. Of course, I ended playing the Destruction side, the Dark Elves specifically. I also made Chaos and Greenskin characters but mainly played my Sorceress with my Disciple of Khaine as a near second. Being created by Mythic, the same company that made Dark Age of Camelot, RvR was a huge part of the game. PvP was not necessary to level, but it WAR let a character gain experience fully through PvP without needing to do PvE at all. I loved the Dark Magic mechanic of the Sorceress. They could cast really powrefull spells that did lots of damage but over time, they built up chaotic Dark Magic. With enough of this, a sorceress could (and usually did) have a spell backfire damaging the caster rather the an enemy. I lost count of the number of times I killed myself this way. The Disciples were cool (in my opinion) because of their requirement to do damage to an enemy to gain spell power. This was due to the fact that they worshipped the od of murder and combat. The Disciples were also the main healer of the Dark Elf race. The Magus of the Chaos faction was probably my next favorite class. Being another spell caster, the thing I liked best about them was that they always were riding around on a floating disk. Granted this sucked when taking a Maguc into PvP because the disk immediately gave away from a distance what class you were. I was surprised that I didn't get into the Witch Elf class more because I am usually a big fan of rogue type classes. I guess that the Sorc, Disc, and Magus captured my attention enough that I didn't have time for the Witch Elf. This game held my attention for quite awhile. Not sure what caused me to stop playing.

Wurm Online - I played this MMO during its beta. It first caught my attention due to the fact that it was written almost entirely in Java. Cool, I thought. Let's give it a try. Wurm turned out to be an atypical MMO. You didn't go around doing quests, killing monsters, and getting better equipment. Instead you learned to survive in an open world. You had to cut down trees for wood that you then turned into lumber that you in turn used to build things like buildings, carts. handles for weapons. You could also mine ore, smelt it, make metal tools and weapons. One of my favorite parts of Wurm was that you could also dig! Yes, dig. Each time you dug, a pile of dirt was created. If you dug enough times in the same area, you could make a hole. Pile the dirt in the same spot and you could create a mound or hill. I could go on and on about this game; but in the end, I did not play it when it came out due to missing my "normal" MMO experience.

Neocron - I don't remember much about my experience with this game. I know it wasn't all that great but it falls into the "only played a couple days" category. I mainly gave it a try because of the cyberpunk setting. Even that was not enough to keep my interest.

RPGs and Me

This is the second of several posts that are notes I compiled back in Oct 2009 of my thoughts on things that interest me. This was mostly done for my son Riley who had been born pre-mature earlier that year. Somethings might not be accurate anymore, but I'm posting them as they were written.

I still remember sometime around 1979 or so (I was roughly 8 years old), my cousin Bob sitting down with my brother Brian and I to teach us a new game he and his friends played. He explained the rules and the basics of what the game was about. This was not like any other game I had played before. It didn't involve cards, a board, a ball, or even a certain number of people. All you needed was a pencil, some paper, some strange looking dice, and most importantly, your imagination. That game was Dungeons & Dragons.

I remember my first character was a dwarf. Not a dwarf fighter or a dwarf cleric, just a dwarf. That was an actual class back then. Unfortunately, I don't remember what my brother played or anything about the "adventure", but those (game) sessions in general struck a cord deep within me. I loved (and still do) to play various card games abd board games but this roleplaying game thing was really fun and interesting.

My next birthday saw the D&D Basic and Expert Box Sets as 2 of my presents. I'm not sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if those were my two favorite presents that year. I can't even guess how many times I read through those books, how many characters I created, or how many maps I made after getting those sets. Comic books at the time were something I collected and read a lot of, but D&D and its books quickly caught up in interest and eventually surpassed comics.

Over the next several years, I purchased or recieved as gifts more D&D books. I didn't get to play with Bob much since shortly after he taught us, my family moved to Alabama. I didn't play with Brain either since he wasn't really into it. So I ended up just making adventures (stories), maps, and eventually parts of new worlds for myself just to have fun and expand my imagination. We moved to Alabama when I was halfway through third grade, but it wasn't until forth grade that I managed to meet someone else that played D&D as well: John Doston. He and I quickly became best friends. Sometime during that year, I also meet another lifelong friend (another John) who was a year behind me. Mr Jenkins, Mr Dotson, and I would get together and delve into other worlds of fantasy righting wrongs, slaying evil monsters, and generally having a good time.

Over the next next few years, more people joined our little gaming group. We would end up having a great influence over each other; and by the time high school rolled around (no pun intended), we were a really solid group of friends. Also, during this time, we discovered other roleplaying games (rpgs) besides D&D. We played Marvel Super Heroes, Call of Cthulhu, Paranoia, GURPS, Top Secret, Star Wars (WEG), Middle-earth Role Playing, Rolemaster, Champions, Star Trek, Vampire: The Masquerade. Other games we tried but never really played beyond once or twice: The Morrow Project, Elfquest, Pendragon, MechWarrior (several times but never at a strech), Robotech, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Ars Magica, Shadowrun. Although we played or tried numerous different rpgs during high school/early college, we would always eventually come back to D&D.

Our games were usually played at my parents house in the back patio room although sometimes we would play when we spent the night at someone's house. We didn't have a specific person being the DM/GM (Dungeon/Game Master). Instead, someone would usually volunteer to run an adventure or an entire campaign. All of us play the part of the GM several times while the others would be the actual players.

Around 1990 (when I and about half of the group graduated high school), our gaming group started its slow but inevitable break-up due to people going off to college or joining the military. It was shortly before this time that we had moved mostly away from D&D being our staple rpg to Rolemaster, or as we eventually would call it Chartmaster. While we liked D&D since it was our introduction into the world of rpgs, Rolemaster quickly became our favorite game. This was mainly due to its higher degree of character customization, individual weapon charts, and it just seemed like a more "advanced" game. This is not to say that we didn't do one-shots (or two-shots) of other rpgs during those next few years because we did. When we got together to play. Like I said, between the dispersion of the group added to the crazy college schedule of those of us still here, our gaming sesions became less and less frequent.

Sometime around 1992-3, new people were introduced into the group. These newcomers were due to Mr Jenkins working at the Space and Rocket Center. They were basically their own gaming group that met for the most part while at Auburn University. For the next several years, the members of the two groups merged, playing various rpgs but also got together to play card/board games or to just hand out as friends are wont to do. As fate would have it, school and work schedules, family, disagreements, and life in general would cause the gaming group to fluctuate greatly with a small group of people playing whenever they could. Needless to say, I was part of that group. The games we played during this time were Rolemaster, GURPS, Hero System, and Imagine.

I have been fortunate enough to have a job that while not paying as well as the previous one outweighs it in almost every other aspect. I have my own office, not a cubicle or even a half cube (don't ask, Rrr). I am friends with the people with whom I work (although there were some at the pervious job that I liked). While I really do miss the 3D Java project of the old job, I like the web work I'm doing now. My current job is not on the Arsenal or in a secure room (Yes!). But even more fortunate for me is that 1 of my immediate co-workers (Nathan) was a gamer (and I mean that in the general sense but just rpg) before he started work at the company. I eventually found out that another guy here was as well. Nathan and I eventually manged to convert our boss (Roy) into a huge rpg gamer. Our work gaming group numbers 4 (with a very random fifth), we have gone from 4th edition D&D to Shadowrun to our current game of Pathfinder.

Also, over the past 4 or 5 years, the main(?) group was somewhat still around. We played Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Legends of the Five Rings, Star Wars Saga Edition, and GURPS. Our current game is 4th edition Shadowrun and has been going on and off for about a year and a half now. That group is down to 4 people. While I am technically part of that game, I hardly ever play due to lack of time. (Play with 6 month-old son or play rpg, hmm, no contest there.)

Anyway, that is a quick summary of my roleplaying career. Of course, I did leave out the numerous times I (by myself or with friends) would try my hand at creating my own rpg. And even though a complete game system never really evolved from those attempts, I did have fun trying and learned many useful things doing so.

Below are some thoughts on most of the roleplaying games I had played. I tried to keep them in order of "appearance" in my life.

D&D Basic/Expert - Of course, being the first rpg I encountered, these are forever stuck in my head with fond memories. I can't think of how many times my friends and I played through Keep on the Borderlands. Sometimes we played the actual module while others we would change things up a bit to keep things interesting.

Advanced D&D (i.e. 2nd ed) - The next logical game once it came out and again one that was played at every possible convienence. Being the main rpg we played during high school, this more then any other made the fantasy genre my prefered whether for rpgs, books, or movies.

D&D 3, 3.5 - Once again, this rpg proved to be a success with my group. We had a sinlge campagin go for almost 2 years before it stopped. I say stopped rather then ended because that's exactly what happened. We just stopped playing it as opposed to the campaign coming to an end. It kinda sucked because the character I was playing I really enjoyed ans was one of my favorites ever.

D&D 4th edition - This is the current edition of D&D. Honestly, I was not really impressed with it when it first came out. Wizards of the Coast turned what used to be a roleplaying game into a tactical, MMO-like (Massively Muliplayer Online game), CCG-like (Collectible Card Game) combat fest with no crafting or real economy what-so-ever. It is now a more or a roll-playing game then a roleplaying game. The rules are rather vague or poorly worded more often then it should be from such an established gaming company and for a title that has a long history. That is not to say that it is all bad. Characters in 4th edition have much more variation and abilities (for comabt) then those of previous editions. Dispite my early dislike of the system, it has slowly won me over, but I still am not truly fond of it when there are other better systems out there.

Marvel Super Heroes - This game saw a lot of play as well and was probably the second most played during high school. Playing as the super heroes in present day was exciting.

Call of Cthulhu - Interesting game for an interesting setting. I love HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos, and this game does it quite well. Being a more investigative and roleplaying game then a combat game, this one didn't see much play during high school. Even after, it would only ever be a 1- or 2-shot game for us.

Paranoia - This game is just insane, literally. Another game the was unique in it concept. Everyone is a clone, everyone secretly has a mutant power, and everyone is secretly part of a secret society. Too bad being a mutant and being a member of a secret society are both highly illegal and punishable with instant death. It may sound like a gruesome game but it is actually quite humerous. Another one that was usually a 1-shot at random times or maybe a few consecutive games but never a long campaign.

GURPS - 2nd edtion we played during high school. It was ok but never really got into it. Later, when the 4th edition came out, I gave it another chance and ended up liking it better. Even though it can be used for any genre, we still used it for a fantasy setting (Banestorm).

Top Secret - Another one we didn't play that long, but was cool while we did. Our first rpg to let us play as spies.

Star Wars (WEG) - Ah. The d6 version of Star Wars. Lots of good memories (like shooting Darth Vader with a shuttle laser). One of the many games we were really into when we played even if not for very long.

Middle-earth Role Playing (MERP) - Short lived game (for us). Let us play in Tolkien's world and was our first introduction to critical charts.

Rolemaster - Speaking of critical charts, ICE (Iron Crown Enterprise) came up with this game after making MERP and expanded on what they had done with that system. This game eventually came to replace D&D for our group. I LOVE this system. We played this rpg through 2 editions.

Champions - Another super hero rpg. This one didn't see anywhere near as much play time as Marval Super Heroes but allowed for way more customizable characters.

Star Trek - This rpg falls into the short-lived category as most others here. It was a good game that saw quite a bit of play but mostly only managed to get 2 short campaigns out of us. Being a huge Star Trek fan at the time, I bought most of the books for this game even ones that we never really used.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Interesting setting if not a great system. Again, as with Star Trek, I bought more books for this game then we actually used. But I mostly did it for the fluff (background story). Although technically separate games, I include here Werewolf, Mummy, and Mage.

The Morrow Project - It was an interesting system from what I remember which is not much. It was a post-appocalyptic setting. Not sure it we ever really played ir or just made characters.

Elfquest, Robotech, Ars Magica, and Pendragon - Yes, these are 4 very different games but I grouped them together here because I know we only ever made characters for these rpgs and never actually played them.

MechWarrior - Granted this is more of a war game then a roleplaying game but a roleplaying element was eventually added by the creators (although we pretty much stuck with the war game side of it). Was one of those "every so often" games.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay - I picked up the original edition on a whim because I thought it looked interesting. I managed to convince the others to try it out. I think we only played a single adventure of it. It was not due to it being a bad game because we did like it, but as usual D&D sucked us back in. The second edition, years later, caught our attention again, and we actually played it for several months. Another game where I really like the system.

Shadowrun - 2nd (during high school) was one we played once or twice and that was it. I'm not sure why it didn't see more play then it did. I liked the setting, but I think the others didn't really. By the time 4th edition came out, I was working at BRC (my current job), and this version is much improved and has seen over a year's worth of play from my group. I love the wireless update that 4th has seen compared to 3rd. Before 4th, all Matrix (read internet) connections were wired but 4th saw wireless as the main connection type. Being a computer nerd, this aspect quickly grabbed my attention. Also, technomancers (next evolution of 2nd/3rd's otaku) are freaking cool in my opinion.

Pathfinder - Based off of the OGL (Open Gaming License) version of D&D 3.5, this system is the newest one I have played. So far I have only played a single gaming session. After playing 4th edition for about a year and not having played 3.5 for almost 2 years before that, I am trying to remember the nuances of 3.5 without 4th vaguary getting in my way.

Dark Heresy - I have not played this game yet but would like to sometime. It is the same basic system as Warhammer Fantasy 2nd edition but set in the Warhammer 40k universe. I am currently reading through the core book and have the Inquisitor's Handbook to go read next. Chances are all I will ever do is read the books; but like most rpgs, even if I never play, I still reading the rules and fluff.

Video Games and Me

This is the first of several posts that are notes I compiled back in Oct 2009 of my thoughts on things that interest me. This was mostly done for my son Riley who had been born pre-mature earlier that year. Somethings might not be accurate anymore, but I'm posting them as they were written.

There are so many different videos games I have played over the years that I not going to do what I did with the roleplaying games and list each one. Instead I will briefly mention the ones that left a lasting impression on me whether for good or ill. I'm going to try and list them into the typical broad categories video games as usually list under: Real Time Strategy (RTS), First Person Shooter (RPS), Adventure, Roleplaying (RPG), Turn-based, and Simulation.

RTS Games

• Age of Empires I and II
• Star Craft/Brood Wars
• Total Annihilation and TA: Kingdoms
• Rise of Nations
• Warcraft I, II, III
• Empire Earth
• Command & Conquer, CC: Red Alert, CC 3: Tiberium Wars
• Settlers I and II
• Majesty
• Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns
• Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War and sequels

FPS Games

• Wolfenstein 3D
• Doom 1,2,3
• Quake
• Rainbow Six
• Medal of Honor
• Half-life 1,2
• Unreal and UT
• Starseige
• Mechwarrior games
• Bioshock
• AvP

Adventure Games

• Zork
• Phantasmagoria 1,2
• I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream

RPG Games

• Temple of Apshai
• Ultima
• Alternate Reality: The City
• Bard's Tale 1,2,3
• Autoduel
• Wasteland
• Pool of Radiance
• Eye of the Beholder
• Elder Scrolls: The Arena
• Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall
• Elder Scrolls: Morrowind
• Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
• Diablo 1,2
• Balder's Gate 1,2
• Planescape: Torment
• Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor
• Deus Ex
• System Shock 1,2
• Dungeon Seige 1,2
• Star Seige
• Neverwinter Nights 1,2
• Star Wars: KOTOR 1,2
• Star Wars: Jedi Academy 1,2
• Titan Quest
• Hellgate: London
• Fallout 3
• Fable
• Assassin's Creed
• Mass Effect
• GTA: San Andreas
• GTA 4
• Sid Meier's Pirates

Turn-based Games

• Civilization 1,2,3,4
• Alpha Centauri
• Master of Orion 1,2,3
• Diplomacy
• Europa Universalis 1,2
• Risk
• Stars!
• Master of Magic
• Archon
• Shogun: Total War
• Medieval II: Total War

Simulation Games

• Creatures
• Elite
• Merchant Prince
• Caesar 1,2
• Railroad Tycoon 1,2
• M.U.L.E.
• Little Computer Poeple
• The Sims
• Spore
• Black & White
• Rock Band

Diablo 3

It finally arrives. After having given countless hours to the previous incarnations, I foresee even more time spent trying to figure out the secret of the fallen star. My first real foray into the that new world was during the weekend beta where I played each of the classes all the way through the available levels. It is hard to say which one I enjoyed the most. So when it came time to start the adventure for good, Vasuro stepped forward to take up the challenge.

Vasuro is a tiefling monk from Dtang Ma that worships Nalinivati, the goddess of fertility, nagaji, snakes, and sorcery. And also happens to be my current character running through the Kingmaker Adventure Path. Thanks to Vasuro's selfless offer, she is now running around New Tristram kicking bad guy butt. Although what she didn't know when she chose to go on this new adventure was that a sex change would occur. (Mainly because I liked that male monk look better then the female one.)

After many hours of playing, Blizzard decided to bring down the servers. After waiting for about 30 minutes, I eventually gave up and went to bed. Although Vasuro didn't get to confront the Skeleton King, he did manage to make it to his house. The way to the fallen star continues tonight.

Return

Today I reenter the land the the mind. Several years ago I had a site called Terra Animi that was mainly a collection of links to sites I found useful or interesting. This was way before the advent of being able to sync your browser data with something like Firefox's Sync. It eventually evolved into a repository for my creative writings, rpg creations and other personal stuff. Of course, even using Sync (or something similiar), you need to sign in to whatever computer you are using; and if you happen to be on a public computer, you run the risk of being compromised. With my site of links, I did not have to worry as much about that. Anyway, Terra Mentis will not be a replacement for Terra Animi but rather more of a personal portal for my thoughts.

Several of my first posts will be ones that I wrote a few years ago that I want to consolidate in one place. They are mainly about some of the various video games (MMOs in particular) that I have played. Over time, I will probably add more musings about old games when I feel the urge. Now I just need to find the USB drive they are on. Sigh.