Joe Gamer

With a fierce roar, the five headed beast melted from this reality, first its body and tail, then each of its five chromatic heads.  Quiet settled on the ruins of Drellin’s Ferry and the weight of their accomplishment fell on the party.  The two giants fell honorably against the Aspect of Tiamat but peace had finally come to the Elsir Vale.

Death, however, could not hold the Heroes of the Elsir Vale.  Trellara Goldenbrow prayed to the Sun God Pelor to revive the fallen heroes: Longstrider and Dustwalker.  The kind hearted god of compassion granted her request and returned the two to the material plane.  In reward for the adventurers’ accomplishment, the city of Brindol granted Vraath Keep to the Heroes, and several villagers agreed to help build a settlement around the keep to establish a guard for the Northern Pass.  Not content to settle down, however, most of the group split ways.  The bonds they developed while traveling were too powerful to keep them apart and therefore they never left each other for long.

Umon the psion stayed at Vraath Keep to rule the new settlement and continued to develop his mental abilities.  Aisha the Dragon Shaman returned to her Copper Dragon patron to bring him the heads of the dragons she’d slain and to continue to serve her liege.  Imzy the kobold druid, satisfied that killing the Aspect of Tiamat really had made her a ‘dragon’, accompanied Dustwalker to his desert home, marveling at nature as she went.  Dustwalker had found the psionic crown that had been stolen from his people.  He returned to his home in the far desert to wrest control from the weak leadership that had plagued his tribe for years.  Finally Longstrider, the contemplative goliath whose ever step worshiped the carefree god of travel, Fharlanghn, began to walk.  His steps took him to lands far and wide, and his fists protected the weak of world for as long as he could move, never sleeping under the same roof for long.

I hope you excuse this little aside here from me.  We just finished the module “The Red Hand of Doom” and I had an itch to write the epilogue on paper.  This is the most closure I have ever felt in a D&D game.  Though my character, Dustwalker, died during the final encounter, knowing he was able to be resurrected and finish his expressed goals meant a lot to me.  JoeGamer and I will be starting Pathfinder this week and it will be my first encounter with the system.  Look for thoughts on Pathfinder later this week.

Also, for those of you that will be playing 4e Darksun with me in the next few weeks, start thinking of a character concept.  Be wary of arcane classes, as magic is considered extremely taboo on Athas, but I will not ban them.  We will be rolling stats instead of using point-buy (since that’s what everybody is used to and likes) and I will only allow classes, races, feats, powers, and items from books I own.  So if you read a char-op thread somewhere that has something from a book I don’t own or an issue of Dungeon or Dragon magazines, it is not allowed.  Have a great week!

© 2010, Jeff Hollingsworth. All rights reserved.

I picked up Fantasy Flight’s Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Core Set. I was quickly impressed with its massive volume and weight but put off somewhat by it’s considerable price (MSRP $99.95). I should have gotten it though Amazon.com (click the link above to the product or the ad below), but I’m creature of impulse, and I was there, and it was there, and well I can drop that kind of scratch – (if my wife says so). I wanted to rip into it immediately, but waited until I bought it. Then I had to wait until I got in our car. THEN I still had to wait until I got home. OK, truth to nuts, I didn’t make it home. I had to stop over at Monkey Lord’s place and I ripped it open there.

I’ve seen previous incarnations of Warhammer’s attempts at a RPG, and while I’ve never played it I was always impressed. I could never get into the groove of the game or find anyone willing to run a game so I never got a chance to play. That said, it didn’t prevent me from purchasing one of the editions (5th I think) for myself. It currently resides someplace on one of my bookshelves drawing all of the other books around it into it’s own orbit. Here I’m imagining all of the books being pulled close to the Warhammer book due to it’s own gravity and the book saying “I win”. So when I saw this new product on the shelf, turned over the huge box in my hands and noticed that it contained 35 special dice I knew it had to be mine.

Being both a Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight product, the artwork is of course brilliant. Once the rather huge box is opened, one finds many cards, counters, and yes – dice. So many dice. Also included are four soft bound books: one for all players, one for wizards, one for clergy, and one for game masters. The books can be purchased separately, but in reality one boxed set is needed by a gaming group. Finally the discerning eye will find three simple card stock boxes which at first impression have no real purpose. Seems these are how one keeps track of his or her character’s cards between games. I find that both interesting and a bit annoying at the same time.

By simple examination of the contents, it may not be easily discernible how one plays the game. While the archetypal polyhedral dice are present, they are not covered with numbers but with archaic symbols instead. Character sheets are double sided but only about 1/3 the size of a standard sheet of paper. The cards vary in size, shape and meaning. I imagined that the game may be played on two levels: as a classical RPG like Dungeons and Dragons or a pseudo-board game like Warhammer Quest or Descent. I can tell you now it is purely a Roleplaying Game.

I’ve considered that adding cards to an RPG might be benificial, but I had yet to see it actually put into action. This game does this and does it pretty well. The cards represent talents, abilities, insanities, and wounds that a character acquires over the course of his or her career.

The books are not difficult to read if read thoroughly and in order. If you wish to simply thumb trough the books and get an idea of the character classes and what each is capable, then you will NOT be happy. Thumbing through the books can be a very annoying experience as the Player’s Guide is designed to teach and is not designed to be a reference. I’m not entirely happy with the order that the concepts are presented either as some concepts are referenced before they are explained. If you have patience though, the concepts eventually become clear.

The Game Master’s guide presents some additional core concepts as well as some game master advice. Since many of the basic concepts of how to play have already been covered in the Player’s Guide (you will read that one first won’t you), many of the new concepts presented in the Game Master’s guide are less annoying to learn. The Game Master’s guide also provides a short adventure to get things started and while I haven’t played it yet, it feels like the presentation was a little hurried. I’ll comment more once I run the adventure myself.

There are a variety of starting character professions included in the set. Players choose a profession for their character which provide a number of special abilities and possible directions for progression. As a character gains experience, he or she may purchase advancements that include stat increases, access to new abilities, and even a new profession. Characters get a bit of a boon if they follow their profession all the way to the end of it’s advancement, but eventually the character must choose a new profession if he or she wishes to continue to advance. Each profession has exit professions that generally expand or compliment the current profession. Player that run a wizard or a member of the clergy will need to thoroughly read the wizard’s guide or the clergy’s guide respectively. The one main drawback to the set is that there are only a limited number of professions, but that will be addressed with expansions (of course).

Expansion is not only planned, but already here. The very first thing I realized as I read the books is that everyone is going to want their own Extra Dice Set and they are now available. Honestly you’ll probably want 2, more if you have a lot of disposable income and don’t like other people touching your dice.

Also, the first expansion of character classes, The Adventurer’s Toolkit, has been released though I have yet to examine these. Both items can be found on Amazon, and I’ve also seen them at hobby stores and even Books A Million.

© 2010, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.

Lately I’ve been taking a break from playing Dragon Age: Origins to play Boarderlands. I like first person shooters almost as much as I like RPGs. Boarderlands is essentially both though it is still primarily an FPS.

You have your choice of 4 characters each of a different class. As you explore the land of Pandora you gain experience which allows you to gain levels. Every class has several skills that can be purchased as you level. The skills are divided between three different paths, essentially specializations for your chosen class. All very RPG. Where the game misses the mark in the RPG arena is that your missions (quests) are very linear and do not allow the various options and multiple choices that good RPGs now have.

Where the game truly shines is in four areas: world, style, multiplayer play, and guns. The world of Pandora is where Boarderlands is set. It is a dark and gritty land where only the strong survive. The style of art and animation both reflects the land of Pandora and has a very unique 2D quality to it. The multiplayer action allows for co-operative campaign play and PVP arena fights. Finally the sheer number and variety of guns is amazing. Using a method of gun generation much like the magic item generation system of Diablo, the number of possible unique guns in Boarderlands is in the millions.

My current character is a level 26 Assassin (a hunter specializing in snipper rifles). With two sniper rifles, a rocket launcher that fires three rockets at once, and a corrosive sub machine gun my character dominates the landscape. I admit that I’m still very much a divide and conquer player. I also tend to use the terrain to my advantage keeping the enemy at bay while scoring critical hits against the heads of my opponents until I’ve cleared the area.

I very much enjoy the game and I suggest it to anyone who loves FPSs and RPGs.

© 2009, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.

For those of you in my “A Hero Restored” campaign, I wish a Merry Christmas with the gift of free magic items. Please spend 25,000 gp on any magic items from the DMG that the party desires.

How you distribute is up to you.

© 2009, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.

My newest addiction is Dragon Age: Origins. I have no idea the number of hours that I’ve poured into this lovely game for the X-Box 360, PS3, and PC, but I do know that my wife doesn’t speak to me anymore while I play and my child is noticeably taller. My sleep is suffering and my recliner has a permanent mold of my rear firmly implanted in it. That said let me actually speak about the game itself.

Dragon Age: Origins is a dark fantasy RPG. The player has control of up to four characters that form his or her party. And your primary character has six possible origin stories spanning three races and three classes. The remaining party is comprised of NPCs that you meet along the way. Interaction between your primary and secondary characters is more dynamic than many other games. Each character class has several possible combinations of skills, abilities, and specializations to give the game some replay value.

The game leads you down a road of violence, betrayal, lust, and violence. Yes I know I said violence twice. When you see how gory our characters get after their first real fight, you’ll understand. The game isn’t for little kids. If you’re the kind of parent that gets your teenager anything, expect your teenage boys to be begging for this one. The Desire Demons are some of the hottest monsters I’ve ever slain in game. Some of the subject matter out side of the violence and almost partial nudity isn’t for kids either, but then again I’m not your kid’s parent so do what you want.

© 2009, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.