[If you wear a helmet while riding a Segway, you’re a wanker. For that matter if you ride a Segway at all: You’re a wanker. Just saying.
So that this isn't a COMPLETE waste of space - here is a funny picture I found.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
Fallout New Vegas review (spoiler free) [GAMING]
I beat New Vegas this past weekend. After over 61 hours of running and gunning through the Wastelands I finished it. Admittedly the vast majority of this time was spent in side-quests and exploration: which are the main reason I think I like sandbox style play. Just like Fallout 3 there is so much to explore that every time I jump on I stumble across a new location. I almost feel like I’ve barely scraped the surface of this place too, which already has me scheming and plotting for my next play-through.
For those who don’t know anything about the game – you are the Courier, and after being hired to carry an unassuming platinum chip you get beat up and buried alive by that twat, Matthew Perry (voicing the just as douchey character, Benny). You are rescued by a cowboy-faced robot and put back together by a kindly old doctor in the nearby town of Goodspring. From there you get the tutorial and are eventually set free to reap mayhem and reward at your leisure. The main plotline, however, leads you on the trail of that douche-a-palooza all over the wasteland in a very wild-west lone gunslinger kind of adventure.
You can approach this from a lot of ways, and even the side quests seem more open then Fallout 3 even. A friend of mine started playing at about the time I did and used a similar starting build that I did. As the game progressed it seems like our experiences slowly divided with each new choice. Once I finally got to the ending I was gifted with a series of cut scenes that provided the epilogue of all the major factions and how I affected them: along with many of the secondary factions which you have strong effect on. Some prosper, some flounder, some get a cool robot side-kick and run off to become the topic of a series of popular children’s books (apparently).
Mechanically it feels almost identical to Fallout 3 but for some re-arranging of skills and the addition/subtraction of a few. For one: firearms all seem to be filed under ‘Guns’, ‘Energy Weapons’, or ‘Explosives’ for the rare machine gun grenade launcher or missile launcher. They have taken ‘Big Guns’ out of there entirely. There is also the addition of loading benches and campfires which add a new function to the repair skill and the brand-new ‘Survival’ skill.
Loading benches allow you to break down and assemble different types of ammo and even special ammo like hollow-points or armor piercing rounds. As someone who grew up around guns and have been able to at least witness the experience of custom-loading cartridges, it is a really cool thing to see in a video game. It is, however, less and less useful as the game progresses though. At maybe the 70% mark of the game you are pretty fiscally sound (or at least I was for the dumpster full of arms and armor I kept selling), and can afford to just fast-travel to the Gun-runners and some faction dealers and buy up all the .50 ammo you need for the badassness of the Anti-Material Rifle. This might change in hardcore mode, though, which I don’t know since I haven’t played it there yet.
Campfires allow you to mix up booze, food, and drugs with the ‘Survival’ skill. Like the Loading Benches, it is a really awesome thing to see that seems a little less useful as events progress. There are some specialty items that you can only seem to get through the campfires though, which offsets things. You can make Party-time Mentats for interest, which give you a bigger boost to Charisma and Intelligence than normal Mentats. In a game where you are pretty much a survivalist wandering the wastelands, it adds a nice bit of utility and fluff to the game. Everything you stumble across seems to be useful in the construction of some such concoction…even if it’s just a steak or a tanned hide.
There is also the Work Benches that were out there in Fallout 3. It seems like they are much more useful though, as you can re-charge spent energy ammo and make Weapon Repair Kits. The downside? Not as many fun toys L if there are Nuka-Grenades or Railroad Spike Gun formulas, I haven’t seen them yet. The Weapon Repair Kits are probably the most useful thing that any of these can make, since each one will increase the condition of your equipped weapon by 25% (to a max of 100%), this is incredibly useful in a game where repair shops are way fewer and far between…plus they are expensive as hell. Why pay 3000 to fix my custom mini-gun “The Hand of Scaavys” when I can just break in some guys home, steal all his wrenches, glue, and duct tape and put it back together again myself? Other than that, see the last two paragraphs for my feelings on these not-ubiquitous-enough stations.
Gear-wise there isn’t too much to talk about. There are still tons of weapons, tons of armor: all are slightly different from the rest, more even than in Fallout 3 I think. For instance, instead of the shotgun, sawed-off, and combat shotgun: in New Vegas there is the single-shot shotgun, the caravan shotgun, the sawed-off shotgun, the combat shotgun, the hunting shotgun, and the list goes on. Power Armor is far less prevalent than in Fallout 3, and the Hunting Rifle doesn’t come in till mid-game (But is WAY the fuck more powerful! Hunting Rifles and ‘This Machine’ FTW!!) There are some cool new additions though, in the gun category you can get a Light Machine Gun, which is in my opinion one of the best options in the game with the combination of rate of fire and stopping power. You won’t bleed through your clip in two seconds like the mini gun, and the LMG seems to have better power-per-hit than a lot of its peers. There is a plasma-gun that fires a shotgun-spread of charges which is pretty brutal when used against ghouls. You can also get a Machine gun grenade launcher (don’t know if this is the actual name or not) that I’m sure would be awesome and amazingly effective if I had a high-enough Explosives skill.
With all the choices and different things you can do with different guns: I ended the game carrying around the final arsenal:
EVEE is an eyebot that isn’t all that impressive in combat, but has decent carrying capacity and a plays high-noon gunslinger music whenever you get detected and drawn into combat. Companions also give you a perk, in EVEE’s case you could detect enemies at longer range and target invisible enemies in VATS. Rex is a cyber-dog that will run off and attack shit like an annoying fleabag.
Of the human companions, Boone, Cass, Raul, and Veronica seem the most useful. Boone is a badass sniper who can bring the pain and causes enemies to flash, which is great when you are running in the dark or fighting yet another mutely-colored enemy on mutely-colored scenery. He seemed ungodly awesome at first, but as I kept going noted he had a propensity to either use weapons you wouldn’t want him to (like grenades while stealthing) or pull a machete out of thin air and hack away at some fools. This is why I switched him with Cass. Cass lets you drink and make booze. Can you think of a more awesome super power? I thought not…she is also great at range and doesn’t go Rambo on anyone when you don’t want her too. Veronica (voiced by Felicia Day of nerdy fame) is a punchy (literally) Brotherhood of Steel scribe who acts as a walking Work Bench (go back to reading about recharging energy ammo and stuff). Raul (voiced by Machete star and all-around Badass Danny Trejo) isn’t much in a fight, but will repair your shit for you.
There are a lot of celebrity voices actually – careful listeners can find that all the companions seem to be voiced by someone famous, as well as all primary and most secondary characters. Renee A-something (I can’t begin to pronounce or spell it) who played Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is the voice of the ominous Mr. House. I’ve already discussed the douchey talents of Matthew Perry. Michael Dorn, who played Worf is sort of a ‘town spokesman’ for a mountainous community of super mutants. Sol from Battlestar Galactica did the voice of Doc Mitchell, who fixes you up after digging you out of the ground at the beginning of the game. I was told Wil Wheaton is in there somewhere, but I haven’t heard him…
The drawbacks of this game? If you are playing it on a 360 or PS3 prepare for it to crash every twenty seconds, losing toiling hours with no immediate promise of a game patch to fix it. If you play it on a PC, there are still a lot of bugs, but I haven’t personally experienced all that many crashes. There have been some pretty big bugs, like when a glitch caused and essential person to my quest disappear or a companion froze and started giving the same line over and over and over and over again. Most have been fixable with Console commands if you want to take the effort of looking them up, but the repeating dialogue one forced me to go to an earlier saved game and lost an hour and a half of game play. So there is that. Developers seem to have been pretty responsive with fixing things in the PC version, though.
So that’s what I think in a nutshell: All in all it is a fantastic game with some errors that I’m sure will be smoothed out in time. Until then I intend to keep playing through with different styles and choices to see how they affect the story.
For those who don’t know anything about the game – you are the Courier, and after being hired to carry an unassuming platinum chip you get beat up and buried alive by that twat, Matthew Perry (voicing the just as douchey character, Benny). You are rescued by a cowboy-faced robot and put back together by a kindly old doctor in the nearby town of Goodspring. From there you get the tutorial and are eventually set free to reap mayhem and reward at your leisure. The main plotline, however, leads you on the trail of that douche-a-palooza all over the wasteland in a very wild-west lone gunslinger kind of adventure.
You can approach this from a lot of ways, and even the side quests seem more open then Fallout 3 even. A friend of mine started playing at about the time I did and used a similar starting build that I did. As the game progressed it seems like our experiences slowly divided with each new choice. Once I finally got to the ending I was gifted with a series of cut scenes that provided the epilogue of all the major factions and how I affected them: along with many of the secondary factions which you have strong effect on. Some prosper, some flounder, some get a cool robot side-kick and run off to become the topic of a series of popular children’s books (apparently).
Mechanically it feels almost identical to Fallout 3 but for some re-arranging of skills and the addition/subtraction of a few. For one: firearms all seem to be filed under ‘Guns’, ‘Energy Weapons’, or ‘Explosives’ for the rare machine gun grenade launcher or missile launcher. They have taken ‘Big Guns’ out of there entirely. There is also the addition of loading benches and campfires which add a new function to the repair skill and the brand-new ‘Survival’ skill.
Loading benches allow you to break down and assemble different types of ammo and even special ammo like hollow-points or armor piercing rounds. As someone who grew up around guns and have been able to at least witness the experience of custom-loading cartridges, it is a really cool thing to see in a video game. It is, however, less and less useful as the game progresses though. At maybe the 70% mark of the game you are pretty fiscally sound (or at least I was for the dumpster full of arms and armor I kept selling), and can afford to just fast-travel to the Gun-runners and some faction dealers and buy up all the .50 ammo you need for the badassness of the Anti-Material Rifle. This might change in hardcore mode, though, which I don’t know since I haven’t played it there yet.
Campfires allow you to mix up booze, food, and drugs with the ‘Survival’ skill. Like the Loading Benches, it is a really awesome thing to see that seems a little less useful as events progress. There are some specialty items that you can only seem to get through the campfires though, which offsets things. You can make Party-time Mentats for interest, which give you a bigger boost to Charisma and Intelligence than normal Mentats. In a game where you are pretty much a survivalist wandering the wastelands, it adds a nice bit of utility and fluff to the game. Everything you stumble across seems to be useful in the construction of some such concoction…even if it’s just a steak or a tanned hide.
There is also the Work Benches that were out there in Fallout 3. It seems like they are much more useful though, as you can re-charge spent energy ammo and make Weapon Repair Kits. The downside? Not as many fun toys L if there are Nuka-Grenades or Railroad Spike Gun formulas, I haven’t seen them yet. The Weapon Repair Kits are probably the most useful thing that any of these can make, since each one will increase the condition of your equipped weapon by 25% (to a max of 100%), this is incredibly useful in a game where repair shops are way fewer and far between…plus they are expensive as hell. Why pay 3000 to fix my custom mini-gun “The Hand of Scaavys” when I can just break in some guys home, steal all his wrenches, glue, and duct tape and put it back together again myself? Other than that, see the last two paragraphs for my feelings on these not-ubiquitous-enough stations.
Gear-wise there isn’t too much to talk about. There are still tons of weapons, tons of armor: all are slightly different from the rest, more even than in Fallout 3 I think. For instance, instead of the shotgun, sawed-off, and combat shotgun: in New Vegas there is the single-shot shotgun, the caravan shotgun, the sawed-off shotgun, the combat shotgun, the hunting shotgun, and the list goes on. Power Armor is far less prevalent than in Fallout 3, and the Hunting Rifle doesn’t come in till mid-game (But is WAY the fuck more powerful! Hunting Rifles and ‘This Machine’ FTW!!) There are some cool new additions though, in the gun category you can get a Light Machine Gun, which is in my opinion one of the best options in the game with the combination of rate of fire and stopping power. You won’t bleed through your clip in two seconds like the mini gun, and the LMG seems to have better power-per-hit than a lot of its peers. There is a plasma-gun that fires a shotgun-spread of charges which is pretty brutal when used against ghouls. You can also get a Machine gun grenade launcher (don’t know if this is the actual name or not) that I’m sure would be awesome and amazingly effective if I had a high-enough Explosives skill.
With all the choices and different things you can do with different guns: I ended the game carrying around the final arsenal:
- ‘This Machine’ – A unique and more badass version of the Hunting Rifle.
- Assault Carbine – Bit of a tougher variant of the Service Rifle, which is basically an M4
- Anti-Material Rifle – A sniper’s weapon that sends people flying through the air. It’ll one-shot Deathclaws.
- Light Machine Gun – I’ve already sung this beast’s praises
- ‘Maria’ – the named 9mm pistol you can get off Benny.
- Riot Shotgun – Basically a combat shotgun
- Marksman Carbine – I only had this for half the time, I eventually gave it to my companion, Cass and a fistful of bullets and she brought the law better than I ever could with one of these.
EVEE is an eyebot that isn’t all that impressive in combat, but has decent carrying capacity and a plays high-noon gunslinger music whenever you get detected and drawn into combat. Companions also give you a perk, in EVEE’s case you could detect enemies at longer range and target invisible enemies in VATS. Rex is a cyber-dog that will run off and attack shit like an annoying fleabag.
Of the human companions, Boone, Cass, Raul, and Veronica seem the most useful. Boone is a badass sniper who can bring the pain and causes enemies to flash, which is great when you are running in the dark or fighting yet another mutely-colored enemy on mutely-colored scenery. He seemed ungodly awesome at first, but as I kept going noted he had a propensity to either use weapons you wouldn’t want him to (like grenades while stealthing) or pull a machete out of thin air and hack away at some fools. This is why I switched him with Cass. Cass lets you drink and make booze. Can you think of a more awesome super power? I thought not…she is also great at range and doesn’t go Rambo on anyone when you don’t want her too. Veronica (voiced by Felicia Day of nerdy fame) is a punchy (literally) Brotherhood of Steel scribe who acts as a walking Work Bench (go back to reading about recharging energy ammo and stuff). Raul (voiced by Machete star and all-around Badass Danny Trejo) isn’t much in a fight, but will repair your shit for you.
There are a lot of celebrity voices actually – careful listeners can find that all the companions seem to be voiced by someone famous, as well as all primary and most secondary characters. Renee A-something (I can’t begin to pronounce or spell it) who played Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is the voice of the ominous Mr. House. I’ve already discussed the douchey talents of Matthew Perry. Michael Dorn, who played Worf is sort of a ‘town spokesman’ for a mountainous community of super mutants. Sol from Battlestar Galactica did the voice of Doc Mitchell, who fixes you up after digging you out of the ground at the beginning of the game. I was told Wil Wheaton is in there somewhere, but I haven’t heard him…
The drawbacks of this game? If you are playing it on a 360 or PS3 prepare for it to crash every twenty seconds, losing toiling hours with no immediate promise of a game patch to fix it. If you play it on a PC, there are still a lot of bugs, but I haven’t personally experienced all that many crashes. There have been some pretty big bugs, like when a glitch caused and essential person to my quest disappear or a companion froze and started giving the same line over and over and over and over again. Most have been fixable with Console commands if you want to take the effort of looking them up, but the repeating dialogue one forced me to go to an earlier saved game and lost an hour and a half of game play. So there is that. Developers seem to have been pretty responsive with fixing things in the PC version, though.
So that’s what I think in a nutshell: All in all it is a fantastic game with some errors that I’m sure will be smoothed out in time. Until then I intend to keep playing through with different styles and choices to see how they affect the story.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Why I like Protagonists who get Their Teeth Kicked In (AKA - Why Old Boy is a great movie) [NARRATIVE CONVENTION]
"Pull the switch you fucking pansy"
I have been made more and more aware as of late by the rather fatalistic preferences I have in storytelling.
Maybe it is from reading too much H.P. Lovecraft or Machiavelli, or maybe it’s a natural inclination that is without a cause. Regardless of the reasons, I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I don’t see it as fatalistic or sadistic to see characters in stories fail or suffer. I am of the opinion that that is what helps make a story good.
Or maybe I’m a closet Catholic (I already don’t believe in God and am a slave to several mindless routines, so I’m not ruling it out).
The way I see it is that a story is supposed to be about events traveling from one point to another and the characters involved changing as the story progresses. For good or ill they have to change, along with the world around them.
Just like in life, people change over time, and the characters should do the same. Otherwise, there just isn’t really any point in the story. Otherwise, it is just another ‘day in the life’ and the story holds little significance. The characters can be realizing a love interest, discovering something about themselves, or losing/regaining faith in something, all are valid. The more drastic and stressful the events, the more drastic and dynamic the change can be.
To the example I listed earlier – H.P. Lovecraft. The father of modern horror’s story almost has EVERYONE start off as fairly mundane (vaguely anti-Semitic) people who get driven inextricably insane by the horrors they witness. Most have their infectious insanity taken to such a degree that recovery of the old self is impossible. Along the way they seem to all discover something about themselves and realize with horrible consequence the truth in their own desperately bleak place in the universe in the face of eldritch horrors.
To a more common example: One anyone who has been in a high-school lit class can relate to. Anyone out there remember ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’? (If not, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about, if you don’t have time to read go Netflix the Jack Nicholson movie adaptation. It’s great!) Murphy’s whole story was about his struggle to change his surroundings and break from the suffocating numbness Nurse Ratchet’s regime held the ward in. While he failed, eventually breaking himself on the oppressive surroundings, his actions sparked changes in the surrounding characters. The Chief is a perfect example, eventually being spurred by Murphy’s actions to take action rather than mutely holding up a mop.
That is another thing: the change doesn’t have to be an obvious one. In the ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ example, Murphy didn’t change as much as he changed others. It was also a subtle, slow change in the people around him. It doesn’t appear that there is any direct character development. Brave heart was all about the change that William Wallace affected on others through the story through his efforts and sacrifice.
That is another thing: the change doesn’t have to be an obvious one. In the ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ example, Murphy didn’t change as much as he changed others. It was also a subtle, slow change in the people around him. It doesn’t appear that there is any direct character development. Brave heart was all about the change that William Wallace affected on others through the story through his efforts and sacrifice.
So while a character’s development help makes a story compelling, it isn’t all that interesting unless there is a good story to move them along. No one would have given a shit who Kaiser Soze was if he hadn’t killed Dean Keaton (and if Verbal hadn’t done so well to vilify himself- I mean Soze…er…). I think it is better illustrated in movies where it ISN’T done well. Shitty chick flicks or artsy movies that struggle to be feel-good movies or tear-jerkers can often fit this billet.
I am ashamed to say that I watched ‘Elizabethtown’ on a long flight once. Believe me, it is the last thing I ever want to confess to. It was an AWFUL fucking movie, worse even than the Keanu Reeves remake of ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ (I do stupid things on long flights…like watch the movies). The story revolved around Legolas trying to discover that his daddy loved him and that he can move on in life or some such nonsense. The change over the course of the story was drastic, but none of the events in the story seemed compelling enough to have warranted the change. Legolas just went from ‘boohoo I didn’t know my dad’ to ‘Hey, I think I might have known my dad! Let’s make out Kristen Dunst!’
If events don’t warrant change then it’s all pointless. Maybe that’s a better way of saying it.
So: By setting characters in a very grim circumstance and run them pretty much to death and back is a pretty good excuse for having a lot of shit happen to a person that evokes change. People always seem the most changed by the big (almost traumatic moments) in life. Brushes with Death or Life both seem to be the kicks in the teeth people need to change who they are. Wars haunt veterans for the rest of their lives, the birth of someone’s child is the wake up call to shape up and be more adult, having to declare bankruptcy will make someone skittish about money the rest of their lives.
This is why I like the grimmer stuff. It seems to have more potential. When the main character gets the crap kicked out of him, does he give up or keep going? Does he keep going it alone or seek help? Does the character’s cause inspire or deter others? How WILL he react to the mind-flaying horror waiting in the sleep New England town?
As for seeing characters getting killed, well…that might just be my fatalistic streak. It is too easy to have a hunky-doory happy ending where everyone wins, so I really like and admire stories and writers who aren’t afraid of putting a bullet in the head of the main character. (Case in point, Layer Cake, which is a BADASS movie…, or if I keep going for the classics: anything Shakespeare)
Friday, August 20, 2010
Ding versus Cha-Ching
(This picture doesn't really have anything to do with today's topic. I just think every entry needs a picture...and while writing I thought 'leveling barbarians' and sure enough Frank Frazetta (RIP) jumped to mind).
The last time I played D&D (Technically Pathfinder, but whatevs) was an epic cluster-fuck: where in desperate circumstances the PC’s rushed in with a feasible plan that fell apart in such an epic way that it could be likened easily to Reservoir Dogs. We ended up playing till ~330am and by the end, everyone was tired and frustrated and the session ended on a somewhat sour note as everyone had hit their limit. Everyone would have been fine the next week, but extenuating circumstances from employment and personal life stuff caused the group to disband.
We still talk and there is some rustling about eventually getting back into it, but I doubt that will happen any time in the near future. (Weep)
Instead, after a few weeks of slowly whispering the tainted words of Chaos into my friends’ ears I was able to convince some sheep to come over and play Dark Heresy. I’ve talked enough about DH to bore everyone to death, and that’s not what I’m talking about today.
The last couple of days I have, over the course of my normal meanderings and day dreaming I pondered some ideas I am going to throw into the cluster fuck that is the Northlands of Aesirholm. The ongoing ever-expanding world I’ve been fidgeting with since I was maybe 12. However, some of the ideas I had to cut off or re-think because I am now in a mindset of buying abilities with XP then an automatic updates that come with D&D style leveling.
They both have their advantages: The auto-leveling (The Ding method) still gives you some freedom in deciding feats and skills. You also have the ease of automatic upgrades based on your class that ensure a balance between all the classes. In practice I find this method a faster process since all you do is run your finger down a line on the chart and throw some points around.
Buying your levels (hereby the Cha-ching method) gives you a lot more freedom with your class and I personally think makes the whole game system and characters unique and interesting. I have yet to see any two career choices built exactly the same with the same XP presented. There are some flaws that mostly come from misprints, but by adding the dynamic of ‘elite advances’ where at the GM’s discretion you can purchase things outside of your normal career you can easily look past them. This system, I find, takes longer to level not because there is more work to do (the opposite, in fact), but that there are so many OPTIONS. Do I want this skill or that talent? Do I want to update my shooting skill or pick up another wound? Especially when you are down to the last hundred points it gets hard to choose sometimes, and every choice can influence your character’s future.
The disadvantages are a little harder to point out. The Ding system is a time-tested and proven method. It is great for people of all skill sets and play styles. If you are a power-gamer you can spend your free time running numbers and optimizing your Feat selection, while a complete newbie can just go ‘Power attack sounds sweet!’ and roll with it. This does tend to narrow your leveling options though. How many times have you seen a Ranger with two weapons fighting and what is commonly called a ‘Drizzt clone’? How many Barbarians rock Cleave and a Great sword? Exactly. If you play long enough you start seeing everyone as cardboard cut-outs with just a crudely-drawn mustache in sharpie to make them stand out.
With the Cha-ching method you have a beast that looks pretty intimidating at first. ‘Easy to learn but hard to master’ is what I keep coming back to. It is easy to figure out “I have 100xp, I can buy 100xp worth of abilities”, but with an architecture that vague unless you have a clear character concept it is easy to get lost. Even allowing people to ‘unlearn’ abilities doesn’t do too much to mitigate this initial confusion. While it may not be ideal, I think in the way it may make the characters more interesting and posses more flaws. Maybe you started as a bookish cleric only to later discover your fiery zeal and picked up an Eviscerator and some Close-combat talents. You may not be as unstoppable as someone who has been doing Combat from the beginning, but it isn’t like those knowledge skills stop being useful.
I have been rolling around the idea of both systems in my head, and think I may have to scribble something on paper for the future. I am thinking you rely on the charts for D&D and Pathfinder leveling, but instead purchase the upgrades to attack, saves, and abilities with the XP you gain. Maybe up to a maximum of +3 what your current level is. So maybe you want all the Monk saves but don’t want to spend the money on their special abilities, you can go for the saves and spend the XP on something else later. It might make cross-classing easier too. Everyone buys a transition package which adjusts the class to represent the long time it would take to start learning both things. The big problem I currently face with this though is I haven’t run Pathfinder yet, and when I was playing we hadn’t been playing long enough to get the feel of the Game’s balance. I might have to practice the actual rules for a while before I can accurately come up with a balanced Cha-Ching/Ding mutant for the series.
So yeah…that’s all I have to say about that…
The last time I played D&D (Technically Pathfinder, but whatevs) was an epic cluster-fuck: where in desperate circumstances the PC’s rushed in with a feasible plan that fell apart in such an epic way that it could be likened easily to Reservoir Dogs. We ended up playing till ~330am and by the end, everyone was tired and frustrated and the session ended on a somewhat sour note as everyone had hit their limit. Everyone would have been fine the next week, but extenuating circumstances from employment and personal life stuff caused the group to disband.We still talk and there is some rustling about eventually getting back into it, but I doubt that will happen any time in the near future. (Weep)
Instead, after a few weeks of slowly whispering the tainted words of Chaos into my friends’ ears I was able to convince some sheep to come over and play Dark Heresy. I’ve talked enough about DH to bore everyone to death, and that’s not what I’m talking about today.
The last couple of days I have, over the course of my normal meanderings and day dreaming I pondered some ideas I am going to throw into the cluster fuck that is the Northlands of Aesirholm. The ongoing ever-expanding world I’ve been fidgeting with since I was maybe 12. However, some of the ideas I had to cut off or re-think because I am now in a mindset of buying abilities with XP then an automatic updates that come with D&D style leveling.
They both have their advantages: The auto-leveling (The Ding method) still gives you some freedom in deciding feats and skills. You also have the ease of automatic upgrades based on your class that ensure a balance between all the classes. In practice I find this method a faster process since all you do is run your finger down a line on the chart and throw some points around.
Buying your levels (hereby the Cha-ching method) gives you a lot more freedom with your class and I personally think makes the whole game system and characters unique and interesting. I have yet to see any two career choices built exactly the same with the same XP presented. There are some flaws that mostly come from misprints, but by adding the dynamic of ‘elite advances’ where at the GM’s discretion you can purchase things outside of your normal career you can easily look past them. This system, I find, takes longer to level not because there is more work to do (the opposite, in fact), but that there are so many OPTIONS. Do I want this skill or that talent? Do I want to update my shooting skill or pick up another wound? Especially when you are down to the last hundred points it gets hard to choose sometimes, and every choice can influence your character’s future.
The disadvantages are a little harder to point out. The Ding system is a time-tested and proven method. It is great for people of all skill sets and play styles. If you are a power-gamer you can spend your free time running numbers and optimizing your Feat selection, while a complete newbie can just go ‘Power attack sounds sweet!’ and roll with it. This does tend to narrow your leveling options though. How many times have you seen a Ranger with two weapons fighting and what is commonly called a ‘Drizzt clone’? How many Barbarians rock Cleave and a Great sword? Exactly. If you play long enough you start seeing everyone as cardboard cut-outs with just a crudely-drawn mustache in sharpie to make them stand out.
With the Cha-ching method you have a beast that looks pretty intimidating at first. ‘Easy to learn but hard to master’ is what I keep coming back to. It is easy to figure out “I have 100xp, I can buy 100xp worth of abilities”, but with an architecture that vague unless you have a clear character concept it is easy to get lost. Even allowing people to ‘unlearn’ abilities doesn’t do too much to mitigate this initial confusion. While it may not be ideal, I think in the way it may make the characters more interesting and posses more flaws. Maybe you started as a bookish cleric only to later discover your fiery zeal and picked up an Eviscerator and some Close-combat talents. You may not be as unstoppable as someone who has been doing Combat from the beginning, but it isn’t like those knowledge skills stop being useful.
I have been rolling around the idea of both systems in my head, and think I may have to scribble something on paper for the future. I am thinking you rely on the charts for D&D and Pathfinder leveling, but instead purchase the upgrades to attack, saves, and abilities with the XP you gain. Maybe up to a maximum of +3 what your current level is. So maybe you want all the Monk saves but don’t want to spend the money on their special abilities, you can go for the saves and spend the XP on something else later. It might make cross-classing easier too. Everyone buys a transition package which adjusts the class to represent the long time it would take to start learning both things. The big problem I currently face with this though is I haven’t run Pathfinder yet, and when I was playing we hadn’t been playing long enough to get the feel of the Game’s balance. I might have to practice the actual rules for a while before I can accurately come up with a balanced Cha-Ching/Ding mutant for the series.
So yeah…that’s all I have to say about that…
Friday, July 2, 2010
This first thing I can't stop laughing at
THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DON'T CLEAN OUT THE LINT TRAY YOU FUCKING ANIMALS!!! (lol)Another thing that has made this morning a little easier is this video of the 100 best movie insults ever. Watching it just caused me to add about thirty items to my netflix list that I had previously forgotten about. It also has one of my personal favorites "I'm the guy who does his fucking job, you must be the other guy" from the Departed; though I think "Maybe...maybe not...maybe go fuck yourself" should have made the list instead if you could only choose one.
Had a long rant basically about people who take up causes, not do anything about them, and then get all preachy whenever you do something they don't agree with. However, like most of my 'essays' it was really just a rant in written form: and I discovered while trying to edit that it drifted too far off-topic for me to justify putting it out there just yet.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Deathwatch Intro/Sample adventure released
So as those one or two people who read this already know (two if we count myself AND the person who got to this blog by clicking the wrong link): I have been super-excited for Fantasy Flight Game's new RPG Deathwatch. Today I saw that they have posted a sample introductory adventure to give the gaming community a peek at what we can look forward to in September. So head on overand check out Final Sanction.
Civilization
MMOs and Starcraft are killing Koreans left and right, but I think there is one highly overlooked game series which dwarfs these in their time-killing power.
Sid Meier’s Civilization
Let’s put aside the fact that Sid Meier is the gaming equivalent of the greasy bastard that invented free-basing and focus on the game for now.
I got my first copy from a friend of mine who handed it off to me in the same kind of burned-CD that I used in those glory days when I was unemployed and still in school. The game had been around for a while, but I hadn’t heard of it. It was a conversation about world conquest I think that sparked the idea of introducing me to the game.
On the disc was a copy of Civilization II Gold Edition and though it couldn’t hold a candle to the graphics of Star Craft or the pace of Half Life. Still I was engrossed. So the stacks of other burned games sat for a long time collecting dust as hours fell from the clock. To this day I feel sorry for some of that neglect…my poor copy of Baldur’s Gate II…
When Civ III came out I was exuberant, but was quickly disappointed as the controls were awkward and the game felt all around too slow. I didn’t care though, I still had Civ II…and I would install/uninstall it over the course of the first decade of the new millennium. I was happy with it, and when the fourth rendition of the game came out I was pretty indifferent. My sister picked it up and had a blast, but even the promise of hearing Leonard Nimoy announcing “I AM the state” was not enough to dissuade me.
But, where reason fails sometimes wallets prevail, and a few months ago Steam offered another one of their ridiculously cheap sales, and for what I think was around ten or fifteen bucks I got the Civ IV bundle with all the expansions. I tinkered with it and was impressed, but at the time and full knowledge of what kind of time-sink the game is, I had to break myself from it till I had the time.
Now…I have that time, and last week I re-installed it. I am LOVING it. There is the thrill of marching hapless units to their deaths in a pointless attempt to take a city for the sole purpose of personal amusement. There is the Machiavellian joy of watching your enemies slowly fold and convert as your cultural influence consumes their cities. And the melancholy of having a city brought low by plague (How was I supposed to know I had to build a fucking Aqueduct!)
I regularly jump on for five minutes and spend two or three hours on the game.
Sid Meier’s Civilization
Let’s put aside the fact that Sid Meier is the gaming equivalent of the greasy bastard that invented free-basing and focus on the game for now.
I got my first copy from a friend of mine who handed it off to me in the same kind of burned-CD that I used in those glory days when I was unemployed and still in school. The game had been around for a while, but I hadn’t heard of it. It was a conversation about world conquest I think that sparked the idea of introducing me to the game.
On the disc was a copy of Civilization II Gold Edition and though it couldn’t hold a candle to the graphics of Star Craft or the pace of Half Life. Still I was engrossed. So the stacks of other burned games sat for a long time collecting dust as hours fell from the clock. To this day I feel sorry for some of that neglect…my poor copy of Baldur’s Gate II…
When Civ III came out I was exuberant, but was quickly disappointed as the controls were awkward and the game felt all around too slow. I didn’t care though, I still had Civ II…and I would install/uninstall it over the course of the first decade of the new millennium. I was happy with it, and when the fourth rendition of the game came out I was pretty indifferent. My sister picked it up and had a blast, but even the promise of hearing Leonard Nimoy announcing “I AM the state” was not enough to dissuade me.
But, where reason fails sometimes wallets prevail, and a few months ago Steam offered another one of their ridiculously cheap sales, and for what I think was around ten or fifteen bucks I got the Civ IV bundle with all the expansions. I tinkered with it and was impressed, but at the time and full knowledge of what kind of time-sink the game is, I had to break myself from it till I had the time.
Now…I have that time, and last week I re-installed it. I am LOVING it. There is the thrill of marching hapless units to their deaths in a pointless attempt to take a city for the sole purpose of personal amusement. There is the Machiavellian joy of watching your enemies slowly fold and convert as your cultural influence consumes their cities. And the melancholy of having a city brought low by plague (How was I supposed to know I had to build a fucking Aqueduct!)
I regularly jump on for five minutes and spend two or three hours on the game.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
In the grim darkness of the future...there is only awesome (Maybe)...
I found this yesterday and immediately skipped like a small child over to facebook to post it on a few friend's pages. One of whom is the infamous Milday Geek. She sited me as a source so I am reverse-sourcing her to this awesome sauce clip to what may potentially draw me back into the soulless void that is MMOs.
*drrrrrooooolllll*
I have always loved the grim darkness of the 41st millenium and just about anything Warhammer. I have been collecting the miniatures for close to a decade and have immersed myself in every aspect of the fluff I could get my greedy hands on.
The only thing that really stands out in my mind as a sense of disatisfaction is with Warhammer Online. I did a trial and played it for maybe about an hour, if that, hoping and hoping that the reviews were wrong and I could claim some new sense of fun and novelty. Needless to say, I didn't. What I got was a bland experience that just felt like WoW with a different set of animation.
I love this Penny Arcade comic as Tychos BEST SPEECH EVER...but in this topic I sadly have to site it with a nod of agreement to Gabe's comic in the first panel.
So, I am understandably hesitant for Dark Millenium Online. On the one hand I could potentially get to tear up shit as a Chainsword wielding member of the Adeptus Astartes (or Space Marines for you mere mortals)...on the other this could just turn into an expirience as disappointing as its fantasy equivalent.
Come on...who WOULDN'T want to play as someone this bad ass?
I will, of course still sign up for the beta.
Now, it should be noted that I am a recovered WoW player. I used to enjoy exploring its expansive world and hanging out with friends with it. After several years of playing on and off due to work issues I eventually quit after growing tired of repetitive gameplay, constant guild bickering, and a general sense of disinterest in what I was getting for what I was paying for it.
This news also comes at the heels of the announcement of a new paper-and-pencil RPG from the makers of Rogue Trader and Dark Heresy: Deathwatch. In this one you play as the near god-like Space Marines sent against the myriad alien horrors that assail mankind. This version of the Fantasy Flight produced 40K RPG series should be a lot more action oriented as you are tasked to track down, flush out, purge clean, and generally wipe out any foul bug-eyed Xenos out there.
"Suffer Not the Alien to Live" - Moto of both the Deathwatch and the Arizona Department of Immigration
(Drawn by DarkLostSoul86 on DeviantArt)
*drrrrrooooolllll*
I have always loved the grim darkness of the 41st millenium and just about anything Warhammer. I have been collecting the miniatures for close to a decade and have immersed myself in every aspect of the fluff I could get my greedy hands on.
The only thing that really stands out in my mind as a sense of disatisfaction is with Warhammer Online. I did a trial and played it for maybe about an hour, if that, hoping and hoping that the reviews were wrong and I could claim some new sense of fun and novelty. Needless to say, I didn't. What I got was a bland experience that just felt like WoW with a different set of animation.
I love this Penny Arcade comic as Tychos BEST SPEECH EVER...but in this topic I sadly have to site it with a nod of agreement to Gabe's comic in the first panel.
So, I am understandably hesitant for Dark Millenium Online. On the one hand I could potentially get to tear up shit as a Chainsword wielding member of the Adeptus Astartes (or Space Marines for you mere mortals)...on the other this could just turn into an expirience as disappointing as its fantasy equivalent.Come on...who WOULDN'T want to play as someone this bad ass?
I will, of course still sign up for the beta.Now, it should be noted that I am a recovered WoW player. I used to enjoy exploring its expansive world and hanging out with friends with it. After several years of playing on and off due to work issues I eventually quit after growing tired of repetitive gameplay, constant guild bickering, and a general sense of disinterest in what I was getting for what I was paying for it.
This news also comes at the heels of the announcement of a new paper-and-pencil RPG from the makers of Rogue Trader and Dark Heresy: Deathwatch. In this one you play as the near god-like Space Marines sent against the myriad alien horrors that assail mankind. This version of the Fantasy Flight produced 40K RPG series should be a lot more action oriented as you are tasked to track down, flush out, purge clean, and generally wipe out any foul bug-eyed Xenos out there.
"Suffer Not the Alien to Live" - Moto of both the Deathwatch and the Arizona Department of Immigration
(Drawn by DarkLostSoul86 on DeviantArt)
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
A conversational overview of WTF the deal is with Koreas right now...
I was chatting with my sister, who doesn't keep up with current events like I do - and partly as a joke and partly for something for her to read as she tried killing the work day she asked for a history of what the news is on Korea. I wanted to see how much I could accomplish in a five-minute blurb. Here is the comprehensive low-brow description of what is going down and the history behind it.
So, Prior to the US involvement in WWII, The Japanese face-fucked most of East Asia into submission and made them part of their illustrious Empire. During this period, a lot of the former ruling classes of Korea were in exile in the Soviet Union. This is the time/place where Kim Jong Il was born. After WWII, when Japan got curb stomped by the allied nations, and they busied themselves rebuilding Germany and Japan and the Cold War was heating up - those exiles returned to Korea.
Initially it was founded as a Republic, but after a series of failed elections that all saw heavy allegations of fraud and corruption - a growing socialist party tried to grab power. The power grab quickly devolved into a civil war, and both sides brought their backers in. North Korea pulled in the Soviet Union and the recently formed People's Republic of China while South Korea drew aid from NATO and the US. Enter the Korean War and every episode of MASH that you may/may not remember. The Korean War was most noteworthy on a global scale as the first significant armed conflict in the Cold War.
It was also known as the funniest of all 21st century wars due to the wide-spread deployment of wise-cracking doctors...
The war never officially ended, but an armistice was reached on July 1953, with a DMZ established at the current battle-line of the 38th parallel. After lengthy negotiations the world lost interest and Korea rested in the relative obscurity of the World's eye.
Fast forward to the fall of the Soviet Union; With the Soviets down North Korea lost one of its major backers, and its economy turned to shit. Progressively Kim Jong Il, who had recently inherited power from his father, started getting even more crazy and ruthless (an accomplishment for any dictator). With the continued boldness of North Korea and their desire to be viewed as a world power, they started to lost support from their last major supporter, China, who is also turned off by their constant and shady attempts to develop nuclear weapons.
Developing nukes and their constant funding of extremist organizations has seen them under constant scrutiny by the UN and getting slapped on the wrist with numerous economic sanctions and angry letters.
In recent news - on 26 Mar a South Korean corvette (The Cheonan) sunk along the NLL (Northern Limit Line), the northernmost naval boundary between the Koreas and a site of numerous clashes since it was established after the armistice. At first North Korea stayed quiet and all officials were really reluctant to name any cause. A week after the Cheonan sank, it was found that the ship was conclusively sunk by an external explosion, and North Korea started making denials. When the international team of investigators found remains of a North-Korean produced torpedo amongst the wreckage, South Korea was pissed and demanded an apology from the North. North Korea told South Korea to go fuck itself, and in response North Korea cut off economic ties (this was Mondayish)
South Korea is responsible for a HUGE portion of North Korea's income, so this doesn't make the North happy. In response after a day or two they cut off all diplomatic relations with South Korea and expel all South Korean citizens (an action normally reserved for when a country is RIGHT about to go to war).
Now we are in a stand off where China is trying to calm the two down, not wanting to see a fire-fight on their front door. Russia doesn't seem to care and hasn't said much of shit. Japan and the US are like 'Fuck you, North Korea chill out and say you are sorry". With our mutual defense treaty saying that if the two Koreas throw down, we have to jump in to back the South up.
So that's where we are now. While the Obama administration is adamant about trying to defuse the situation, they still make it known that they condemn the attack. They also sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to talk to all the regional heads-of-state for a 'diplomatic' solution. Personally I think this is just to piss off all the countries involved because if I had a lot of shit going on and I had to go and talk to Hillary I would be pretty offended and pissed off. Maybe Obama is also hoping she gets assassinated and the US gets a two-fer out of the deal. Hillary Clinton gets off AND Kim Jong Il gets the piss bombed out of his crazy ass.
Sending this lady to talk to you is like the international way of putting a flaming bag of dog poop at your front door (in my personal opinion)
So, Prior to the US involvement in WWII, The Japanese face-fucked most of East Asia into submission and made them part of their illustrious Empire. During this period, a lot of the former ruling classes of Korea were in exile in the Soviet Union. This is the time/place where Kim Jong Il was born. After WWII, when Japan got curb stomped by the allied nations, and they busied themselves rebuilding Germany and Japan and the Cold War was heating up - those exiles returned to Korea.
Initially it was founded as a Republic, but after a series of failed elections that all saw heavy allegations of fraud and corruption - a growing socialist party tried to grab power. The power grab quickly devolved into a civil war, and both sides brought their backers in. North Korea pulled in the Soviet Union and the recently formed People's Republic of China while South Korea drew aid from NATO and the US. Enter the Korean War and every episode of MASH that you may/may not remember. The Korean War was most noteworthy on a global scale as the first significant armed conflict in the Cold War.
It was also known as the funniest of all 21st century wars due to the wide-spread deployment of wise-cracking doctors...
The war never officially ended, but an armistice was reached on July 1953, with a DMZ established at the current battle-line of the 38th parallel. After lengthy negotiations the world lost interest and Korea rested in the relative obscurity of the World's eye.Fast forward to the fall of the Soviet Union; With the Soviets down North Korea lost one of its major backers, and its economy turned to shit. Progressively Kim Jong Il, who had recently inherited power from his father, started getting even more crazy and ruthless (an accomplishment for any dictator). With the continued boldness of North Korea and their desire to be viewed as a world power, they started to lost support from their last major supporter, China, who is also turned off by their constant and shady attempts to develop nuclear weapons.
He is the reason I have a standing policy never to trust shirtless Asian people (except Bruce Lee)
Developing nukes and their constant funding of extremist organizations has seen them under constant scrutiny by the UN and getting slapped on the wrist with numerous economic sanctions and angry letters.In recent news - on 26 Mar a South Korean corvette (The Cheonan) sunk along the NLL (Northern Limit Line), the northernmost naval boundary between the Koreas and a site of numerous clashes since it was established after the armistice. At first North Korea stayed quiet and all officials were really reluctant to name any cause. A week after the Cheonan sank, it was found that the ship was conclusively sunk by an external explosion, and North Korea started making denials. When the international team of investigators found remains of a North-Korean produced torpedo amongst the wreckage, South Korea was pissed and demanded an apology from the North. North Korea told South Korea to go fuck itself, and in response North Korea cut off economic ties (this was Mondayish)
South Korea is responsible for a HUGE portion of North Korea's income, so this doesn't make the North happy. In response after a day or two they cut off all diplomatic relations with South Korea and expel all South Korean citizens (an action normally reserved for when a country is RIGHT about to go to war).
Now we are in a stand off where China is trying to calm the two down, not wanting to see a fire-fight on their front door. Russia doesn't seem to care and hasn't said much of shit. Japan and the US are like 'Fuck you, North Korea chill out and say you are sorry". With our mutual defense treaty saying that if the two Koreas throw down, we have to jump in to back the South up.
So that's where we are now. While the Obama administration is adamant about trying to defuse the situation, they still make it known that they condemn the attack. They also sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to talk to all the regional heads-of-state for a 'diplomatic' solution. Personally I think this is just to piss off all the countries involved because if I had a lot of shit going on and I had to go and talk to Hillary I would be pretty offended and pissed off. Maybe Obama is also hoping she gets assassinated and the US gets a two-fer out of the deal. Hillary Clinton gets off AND Kim Jong Il gets the piss bombed out of his crazy ass.
Sending this lady to talk to you is like the international way of putting a flaming bag of dog poop at your front door (in my personal opinion)
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Dark Heresy - A brief review (Part 1 of However many I end up writing)
I have got a chance to start running a game of Dark Heresy for some friends a few weeks ago. For those unfamiliar with the game; it is a paper-and-pencil role playing game taking place in the dark and gritty universe of Warhammer 40k. The players take on the roles of acolytes for the fabled and mysterious Inquisition, a secret organization that exists largely as myth and is tasked with fighting the manifold enemies of humanity regardless of cost, holding authority over all but the Immortal God-Emperor himself and his Adeptus Custodes.
The system is a lot of fun, the full depths of which I am still in the process of retrieving from the foggy depths of my memory. It is a system very unlike most other games I have played, and seems to really shine in three particular kinds of story elements “intrigue”, “action”, and “horror”.
Intrigue – The best place for the Inquisition to work is in the shadows, while they have limitless authority and could flash their badges of office (if the party would even be issued with such things) and get anything they want – many Inquisitors realize this closes as many doors as it opens. One of the huge threats to humanity takes form of evil cults or secret societies. To combat threats Acolytes must be subtle, tracking down contacts and unearthing clues to whatever insidious machinations such organizations have in store.
In game terms this takes the form of a wide array of skills for social interactions (Charm, Scrutiny, Intimidation, Deceive, and Inquiry, even Interrogation) to help them unearth clues and get people to tell them what they know without immediately playing good-cop-bad-cop and making things official. There are also a huge amount of skills based on specific kinds of information that might unearth subtle clues that help the PCs piece together their mystery (Common Lore (Imperium, War, Ecclesiarchy, Tech, Administratum, etc.), Scholastic Lore (Chymestry, Astromancy, and Law), Forbidden Lore (Xenos, the Warp, Cults, Mutants, Daemons, etc.)). There is a quote that floats around the 40k universe that goes “Knowledge is power, guard it well” – something that truly becomes evident in one of the only RPGs I’ve played where knowledge skills can prove to be as or more important then combat skills.
Action – I won’t hit on this too much. Most RPGs out there have their own action elements and mechanics and saying the system lets you kick ass and take names is nothing unique to any game in a genre where empowerment fantasies are abound. However, combat in Dark Heresy is BRUTAL. Very often you find yourself legitimately concerned for your characters lives, and while some systems may have you blast away with guns at point-blank range to little effect – people start dropping quick when the bullets/las bolts/bolt-rounds/super-heated plasma starts flying. If Dungeons and Dragon’s combat system is Rock & Roll, then Star Wars is Alt Rock, GURPs and Rifts are Punk, then Dark Heresy is Heavy Metal…just to take the analogy its full course and before any Vampire/Werewolf gamers chime in – White Wolf games are Emo Rock.
Horror – In a world where just beyond the thin veil of the Imperium of Man and the ethereal void that is Chaos (or Warp-space) where Daemons circle like vultures to prey on anyone they find to show that right moment of weakness, horror plays a big part in the story telling. The Acolytes through their career will be exposed to all manner of horror. It is experienced in the shock and trauma that comes from being in pitched battles. It is felt when they look upon an abominable brain-eating alien possessing physiology is so different that the primal parts of the brain scream and try to claw its way out of your skull. It comes in the form of the very raw materials of daemons that push their way through into the living world from their realms of pure madness and evil. Such is the sacrifice of someone who serves the Inquisition, they expose themselves and deal with the aberrations that prey on humanity so the rest of the world can sleep easy at night.
In the game this really shines through a quick-paced system for dealing with Fear, and the reactions players may have to the shit they see (To quote – “I’ve seen some shit…and some stuff…and none of it good.”). It also is represented through two more long-term gauges of how disturbed your player may be or how much palpable evil they have been in the presence of.
With Insanity points, your player slowly gets driven mad as their career progresses and they are exposed to increasingly unsettling events. As your character progresses they begin to delve odd tics and habits which represent this. Eventually, if not curbed through counseling, soul-cleansing rituals, or retreats to monasteries, your character will go off the deep end and become unplayable. There is also a more nasty system for Corruption points.
Corruption points are like a Geiger counter for how much of the raw stuff of the universe you have been exposed to. Daemons, Psykers, and where they all draw their power come from the Warp: a constantly-shifting realm of madness – and exposure to it tends to spark mutation. As your corruption points increase you are slowly twisted into a hideous mutant horror, starting with minor disfigurements at first and working up to being as unsightly as some of the monsters you fight! This can also be curbed and corrected, but there is only so much that can be done.
These systems aren’t all bad though. Mutations normally have minor perks, though un-cosmetic you could gain better hand dexterity through the addition of an extra set of thumbs or sharper eye sight with cat-like eyes. And with Insanity, the more points you accumulate the more unfased you are by the terrible sights you take in. For what are the horrors of the physical world compared to those that dwell in the human heart or mind?
The system is a lot of fun, the full depths of which I am still in the process of retrieving from the foggy depths of my memory. It is a system very unlike most other games I have played, and seems to really shine in three particular kinds of story elements “intrigue”, “action”, and “horror”.
Intrigue – The best place for the Inquisition to work is in the shadows, while they have limitless authority and could flash their badges of office (if the party would even be issued with such things) and get anything they want – many Inquisitors realize this closes as many doors as it opens. One of the huge threats to humanity takes form of evil cults or secret societies. To combat threats Acolytes must be subtle, tracking down contacts and unearthing clues to whatever insidious machinations such organizations have in store.
In game terms this takes the form of a wide array of skills for social interactions (Charm, Scrutiny, Intimidation, Deceive, and Inquiry, even Interrogation) to help them unearth clues and get people to tell them what they know without immediately playing good-cop-bad-cop and making things official. There are also a huge amount of skills based on specific kinds of information that might unearth subtle clues that help the PCs piece together their mystery (Common Lore (Imperium, War, Ecclesiarchy, Tech, Administratum, etc.), Scholastic Lore (Chymestry, Astromancy, and Law), Forbidden Lore (Xenos, the Warp, Cults, Mutants, Daemons, etc.)). There is a quote that floats around the 40k universe that goes “Knowledge is power, guard it well” – something that truly becomes evident in one of the only RPGs I’ve played where knowledge skills can prove to be as or more important then combat skills.
Action – I won’t hit on this too much. Most RPGs out there have their own action elements and mechanics and saying the system lets you kick ass and take names is nothing unique to any game in a genre where empowerment fantasies are abound. However, combat in Dark Heresy is BRUTAL. Very often you find yourself legitimately concerned for your characters lives, and while some systems may have you blast away with guns at point-blank range to little effect – people start dropping quick when the bullets/las bolts/bolt-rounds/super-heated plasma starts flying. If Dungeons and Dragon’s combat system is Rock & Roll, then Star Wars is Alt Rock, GURPs and Rifts are Punk, then Dark Heresy is Heavy Metal…just to take the analogy its full course and before any Vampire/Werewolf gamers chime in – White Wolf games are Emo Rock.
Horror – In a world where just beyond the thin veil of the Imperium of Man and the ethereal void that is Chaos (or Warp-space) where Daemons circle like vultures to prey on anyone they find to show that right moment of weakness, horror plays a big part in the story telling. The Acolytes through their career will be exposed to all manner of horror. It is experienced in the shock and trauma that comes from being in pitched battles. It is felt when they look upon an abominable brain-eating alien possessing physiology is so different that the primal parts of the brain scream and try to claw its way out of your skull. It comes in the form of the very raw materials of daemons that push their way through into the living world from their realms of pure madness and evil. Such is the sacrifice of someone who serves the Inquisition, they expose themselves and deal with the aberrations that prey on humanity so the rest of the world can sleep easy at night.
In the game this really shines through a quick-paced system for dealing with Fear, and the reactions players may have to the shit they see (To quote – “I’ve seen some shit…and some stuff…and none of it good.”). It also is represented through two more long-term gauges of how disturbed your player may be or how much palpable evil they have been in the presence of.
With Insanity points, your player slowly gets driven mad as their career progresses and they are exposed to increasingly unsettling events. As your character progresses they begin to delve odd tics and habits which represent this. Eventually, if not curbed through counseling, soul-cleansing rituals, or retreats to monasteries, your character will go off the deep end and become unplayable. There is also a more nasty system for Corruption points.
Corruption points are like a Geiger counter for how much of the raw stuff of the universe you have been exposed to. Daemons, Psykers, and where they all draw their power come from the Warp: a constantly-shifting realm of madness – and exposure to it tends to spark mutation. As your corruption points increase you are slowly twisted into a hideous mutant horror, starting with minor disfigurements at first and working up to being as unsightly as some of the monsters you fight! This can also be curbed and corrected, but there is only so much that can be done.
These systems aren’t all bad though. Mutations normally have minor perks, though un-cosmetic you could gain better hand dexterity through the addition of an extra set of thumbs or sharper eye sight with cat-like eyes. And with Insanity, the more points you accumulate the more unfased you are by the terrible sights you take in. For what are the horrors of the physical world compared to those that dwell in the human heart or mind?
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