The Intarblags

Someone blogged about something on the Internet, of all places, and now I must blog about it too:

I shamelessly approve of this post.

There is no loot in it for the author, though.

Not back, just visiting, pt. 2

On a more usual note, I lost considerable interest in 4th Edition D&D about a week after release; I was really looking forward to the online tools. I hear a few of them are out now (or maybe just the compendium, I can't remember). And as much as I like the new rules, the adventures and other supplemental NPCs/monsters/items/etc. from the e-zines just didn't seem that interesting. The lack of an electronic GSL registry (and the requirement of registration) is more of a turn-off than the prohibitive license itself (since I just want to give my stuff away for free anyways, and D&D rules could provide me with a few handy shortcuts).

I'm probably not going to come back with a typical article of the type I set out to write when I started this blog, but rather very flavorful, genericised RPG supplements.

P.S. I think the most consistently awesome thing about D&D would have to be the art. I especially like the work they've been using since 4E's announcement. At the very least, it seems D&D products will always be pretty.

Not back, just visiting, pt. 1

I have miraculously discovered $15 in an online-transaction-ready account, and have yet another month of City of Heroes/Villains. My villain hit 50 about a month ago, and my hero is almost 20.

I never got into World of Warcraft. It was mostly because I didn't like the people there, and so I solo'd up to level 20. That was the limit of the trial account, and as far as I was concerned, I had accomplished everything I had set out to do. Did I mention I didn't like the people there? Wonderful areas, mildly interesting items/spells/etc. And I'll refrain from making generalizations about the players. During the 14 day trial I didn't meet anyone I'd want to associate with. That's just sad.

So when I started up City of Villains, I made a character that could solo. Oddly enough, the Brute archetype was also in high demand for groups - if you can take on a whole mission by yourself, you're very valuable for anyone's mission, after all. The nicest folks would invite me to team with them, do Strike Forces, mop up heroes and other villains. We'd talk about our new costumes and powers and beat the tar out of anything from petty thugs to rival archvillains, and of course the occasional hero. The City of Villains is populated by the most pleasant crime lords, demons and world-eaters you'll ever meet. It helps that I chose a medium/low-population server, too, probably. The folks hero-side seem to be a little more insular, although there are far more heroes online at a given time. Still, every one of them has been better than the folks I met in WoW, even the "hero" that logged in his L50 Blaster to toast me for beating him in fair PvP. (I swear my villain has saved the world more times than is right! Just what kind of game am I playing!?)

For both sides, it's a game centered around defeating enemies in exchange for resources that make it so you can defeat more enemies. It's been very cleverly set up so that the best way to get the most exciting enemies and powers most often, you have to work with other players. A major component of the game is also the costume and power selection. I've never met another player with a build like mine - I even get lots of "dark/stone/teleport? neat build" PMs. (It is a neat build, by the way. Could use more damage, but at least I'm tough as nails - or rock.) I've also never met another player with a costume like any of my 5 villain costumes or my hero's costume. (Which is also a source of occasional compliment.)

Anyways, City of Heroes/Villains. Buying one will unlock the other, now. Definitely worth the money, and that's coming from a stingy bastard. I play on Justice. (Although I have heard stories about the Freedom server... avoid that one, perhaps, if you're not sure?)

Star Wars

So I used to play the West End Star Wars game. It was a bit different than normal games of Dungeons and Dragons that I've had (if you could call those normal). Because of the game mechanics, I had bought a plastic case of all small 6-sided red dice - there were probably about 45 dice in all - and we called it the brick. Now, I made a childhood promise to the guy that worked at Gamer's (the game store) about never losing my dice. Maybe it didn't seem very important for anyone else, but this stuck in my memory. Possessions are very dear to me, both in game on character and things I physically own such as the dice. Out of everyone in the group, I was the one who cared the most about these things. I worshipped them secretly. On my desk I would have all my dice lined up in their original plastic cases, in order. You may remember my previous story about how I obtained my first set of sky-blue dice. Hold that as a reference point now for what you are reading.

We never spelled it out, but the rules of our group concerning dice were that whenever dice were left behind, they became the property of the person who lived at that location. I'm not the kind of person who would forget to pack up my dice - I always kept an eye on where mine were on the table - but once in a while I would notice that a few were missing from my set, so I would take a look through my friend's dice pouch (That's right. A pouch. All the dice thrown together in one place without regard to keeping the ones of a set together. Ridiculous.) and find a few that I knew were mine. This was a very difficult decision whether to take them back though. I summoned all my ethical skills that I had as a child and in the end found myself unable to reclaim the dice which were mine, even though I fully believe they were stolen from me.

To get my dice back, I would be going against the rules of our group.

I could not do it. It would have been traumatic for my young mind. Behaving with such disregard for rules and laws out of the game just could not be done because of all the illegal activities going on in the game. As you know, there are only two things in the Star Wars universe: Storm Troopers and Crime Bosses. Nobody wants to actually be a Storm Trooper, only obtain their armor which outclasses bounty hunter blast vests. So the only thing you're going to be doing in Star Wars is working for Crime Bosses to get credits to pay off those absolutely ridiculous black market fees. It was tough, but the only way do go.

I never saw that guy at Gamer's again. It might have been related to me never again entering the store, but I failed to keep my promise. My dice are gone.