Month: September 2016

Last game of your life

GamingSF

Syl at MMO Gypsy raised the topic yesterday of what game would you choose as the game to play for the rest of your life, if you had to choose just the one. That’s quite a conundrum!

Unlike many bloggers it seems I haven’t got that much of a nostalgia for pre-online gaming. I played plenty of video games before going online for sure, but I just am not that interested in replaying old single player RPGs or platformers.

So I guess I’d go with one of the many MMORPGs I’d played as my top pick. I’m thinking breadth of gameplay would be the most important content, and actually solo-ability – if I were stuck in a single game, and presumably other gamers were not then inevitably I’d be left behind as the latest expansions or releases distracted the more mobile of gamers.

Although the obvious choice in terms…

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The Book of Syncletica: My Monk Guide is now Public

The Order of Syncletica

Some time ago I wrote down a script to what I had planned to be an video-based strategy/build guide to the Monk class.

I only got as far as making the full script, which was a guide in and of itself. I shared a link to it from Google Docs to my guild alone for a time until, somehow, it leaked out into Google itself.

Many guildies (and a few non-guildies) appreciated that they had something to go on for the fundementals and to polish up their end-game. The guide doesn’t contain any startling revelations for those of you who play them happily now. It’s designed for players who have been interested in the Monk class, tried and gave up, or are brand-new to it.

So, with Google Docs being a poor place to host the guide, as well as the formatting limits for illustrations and links, I made a…

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GuestBloggerMania’10: Pondering: What do you play when it’s all free?

Bio Break

Steve “Slurms” Lichstinn is a great bear of a man who lives off the land and raises Striped Biologist Taunters. You can see more of what Steve writes and hear him podcast with others over at www.multiplaying.net. He regrets nothing.

Pondering: What do you play when it’s all free? by Slurms

A couple years ago, if you mentioned to someone that an upcoming massively multiplayer online game was going to be released as free to play, they would most likely have assumed it was for kids or casual gamers. It was nothing to be taken seriously by someone who played any subscription based MMO. Now though, the Crazy Eddie’s of the computer gaming industry have found a way to make even more money with big budget titles all while passing on the savings by allowing you to step into the game free of charge and hitting you for cash…

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Guild Shopping

Occasional Hero

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Recently I’ve become disenchanted with basically all of the guilds I’m in in all of my games. I’m not sure if it’s the cause or the effect of the burnt out feeling I talked about last time, but either way it’s there. Surprisingly, there’s no drama happening in any of them, and they’re all for slightly different reasons (even the different divisions of the multi-game guild I’m a part of). For some games, I just don’t feel like I fit in anymore, for some I feel like the guild grew so much that I’ve gotten lost in the crowd, and one in particular had just decided it was time for us all to go our separate ways. This has me a little frustrated, since I hate trying to find a good guild, and the idea of doing it in a bunch of games makes me not want to play…

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Petty and Unknown Gods

Dyson's Dodecahedron

phelonious-god-of-ancient-kings

A recent discussion of Tegel Manor (a classic third-party D&D module published by Judges Guild in ’77 that was a gonzo madhouse, but that has the best looking map of any adventure I had ever played) had me delve deep into my Judges Guild stuff (mostly looking for stuff with Jennell Jaquays’ name on it).

One book I haven’t looked at in AGES is “The Unknown Gods” which is full of 83 “minor” gods statted out for D&D. But we are talking lower-echelon gods mostly – with hit points in the double digits, some abilities not much stronger than some PCs have, and a d6 table for their attitude when encountered.

Because these gods are meant to be encountered.

It reminds me of the gods in Lankhmar and the ones in Thieves’ World. Gods that wander the world or are even trapped in a particular city. The patron god of…

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GuestBloggerMania’10: Dealing with MMO Burnout

Bio Break

Today’s guest post is from Professor Beej, who isn’t actually a professor of anything, but a wonderfully-themed superhero.

Dealing with MMO Burnout by Professor Beej

I love MMOs.  Love love love them.  In the past twelve years,I’ve played superhero MMOs, science fiction MMOs, Triple-A titles, and Free-to-Play disasters.  The ones I’ve stuck with the longest have been Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, and World of Warcraft.

I never really felt the need to take a break from UO or SWG.  However, when WoW came along, and I put in an equivalent amount of time as I did before, I found myself burning out on the game.  No matter how much I loved it or wanted to play, I just couldn’t find the motivation to care anymore.

Being the overthinker that I am, I came to the conclusion that my burnout comes because I am playing the…

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Monastic Tanking

The Order of Syncletica

portrait-lynncletica1

I’ve been enjoying opportunities to run many raids, some I’ve rarely or never run before, such as “The Mark of Death” and “The Master Artificer.” I think, now, that the only raid I have never participated (primarily because of my disdain of the quest series needed to gather sigil, shield and frame ingredients) is “Accursed Ascension.”

But “Mark of Death” isn’t my favorite raid, anyway, so I’m sure “Ascension” won’t be a loss. I’ll still try to flag for it when an opportunity arises.

Ninety nine percent of my raids are as a DPS character, be it with the fortification-bypassing steady-hitting archery of Pynthetica, the crowd-controlling mass-destruction from the bow of Paracleta, or the poisonous shortsword damage of Ryncletica.

But one matter is common in many raids. The need for a tank, a character that can keep a central boss target busy while the rest of the…

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Herding Fifth Edition Cats

Dyson's Dodecahedron

img_20160919_001637-01-1

Last weekend was spent in the glorious herding of cats in my 5e campaign.

This campaign was launched as a playtest of the new rules set before I run a “real” 5e campaign. As such I’m now aiming for the campaign ending and am willing to do a bit of railroading to get there.

ALL SIGNS POINT TO THE TEMPLE OF IRON has been the slogan of the campaign for pretty much all of 2016. Yet the party has only spent two sessions in the actual temple of iron and insist on exploring every little red herring I let get in their way.

But at the end of tonight’s game, they found their way back (via three other adventure hooks that lead on different missions that all end up aiming … to the Temple of Iron / The Iron Temple) to the front door of the Temple of Iron, hidden…

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Things to come

Tactalicious & Craftalicious

The producers letter makes clear that there are exciting things yet to come. Much of it sliding into 2017, but nonetheless encouraging.

How about 3 possible races? Kobold or Dragonborn and thiefling and something else? That’s a lot of stuff right there. Makes sense that the other 2 comes in a possible expansion and to me it sounds like the expansion itself will be Ravenloft. I don’t know much about it, but it sounds like a delightful thing to drop around Halloween 2017 but most likely as the last quarter offering.

Other interesting things are Deist feats and quest hub. I’ve always wanted something like that. A way to get to the area you’re playing more than spending a lot of time running around. And it helps people breaking into the game. Because the interface of quests and where the patron are is more then confusing and vague.

But in…

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