Games
So last night we finally got around to our Dresden Files RPG game. Importing characters and campaign from a Witchcraft game makes for certain oddities. The character conversion appeared to work okay. The setting overlay... isn't rough, exactly, but it causes a sense of (previous) isolation. That's not entirely unrealistic. I'm also checking out DC Universe Online...
Our three (plus one who was absent) characters from the existing campaign looked at the new-to-the-campaign (but native to DFRPG) White Council Warden and said "What the heck is the White Council and where have you buys been while we've been struggling to beat back ancient Atlanean gods trying to take over the world?" The characters had no sense of the plights faced by the other group, but that's potentially plausible. The Northport characters have seen all that point-blank, but not been a part of the Council's war with the Red Court. On the other hand, with no real presence in Northport, the White Council is believably oblivious to what's been going on there. Now with the character crossover, things can be interwoven. 'course, our pre-existing group has also been made insular and paranoid by events, so actually trusting a newcomer will take time.
Mechanically, I'm still on the fence about the Fate-based system. Once characters are built, a lot of the pressure about Aspects lightens up. Evocation isn't too terrible, but I'm finding Thaumaturgy to be a pain. It's an extra level of complexity (and Complexity) and we worked through a couple low-difficulty castings (the difficulty may have been set a little too long in my opinion) only to find that they could be resolved without any actual rolling (the character's stats were high enough to pull off the effect even at the worst rolls) which made all the time spent thinking it over pretty much irrelevent. We'll see how that goes.
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On another topic, I went and downloaded/installed DC Universe Online since it just went free-to-play (or "fremiun" or whatever term you like). City of Heroes got too cookie-cutter for me. Champions Online somehow never drew me in. While I've long been more a Marvel fan than DC, I figure it's worth a peek to provide some entertainment.
My first few attempts to play were thwarted by servers being down (F2P rush!), but I did get online for about half an hour last night. It was time enough to make a character and fight the first two or three battles with bad guys in the starter area, so I can't say a great deal about it, but there are a few things that come to mind already.
- DCUO gives you an origin story. CoH and CO (as near as I remember) sort of just dropped you into the beginning action, which allows you to make up whatever but doesn't provide any connection to the setting. In DCUO, you're given powers by nanobots along with bunches of other people. Less freedom, but more connection and some rationale for the tons of player characters sure to be running around with similar power sets.
- DCUO controls are more active than I'm used to. I don't have any fancy powers yet, but left-click is a melee attack and right-click is a ranged attack. Shift blocks. Shift+movement rolls/jumps away. This is a setup that expects and requires real-time input well beyond just autoattack and specials. Honestly, I don't yet know if I consider this good or bad, but compared to any other MMO I've played, it's distinct.
- There's a few little niceties so far. You seem to have access to your movement power right out the gate - I was flying almost before I realized it. Mage-looking tiger with demon wings - no problem.
Edit: And lots of ongoing connection/server problems. Not a surprise, but still disappointing and shading opinion of the game.
Our three (plus one who was absent) characters from the existing campaign looked at the new-to-the-campaign (but native to DFRPG) White Council Warden and said "What the heck is the White Council and where have you buys been while we've been struggling to beat back ancient Atlanean gods trying to take over the world?" The characters had no sense of the plights faced by the other group, but that's potentially plausible. The Northport characters have seen all that point-blank, but not been a part of the Council's war with the Red Court. On the other hand, with no real presence in Northport, the White Council is believably oblivious to what's been going on there. Now with the character crossover, things can be interwoven. 'course, our pre-existing group has also been made insular and paranoid by events, so actually trusting a newcomer will take time.
Mechanically, I'm still on the fence about the Fate-based system. Once characters are built, a lot of the pressure about Aspects lightens up. Evocation isn't too terrible, but I'm finding Thaumaturgy to be a pain. It's an extra level of complexity (and Complexity) and we worked through a couple low-difficulty castings (the difficulty may have been set a little too long in my opinion) only to find that they could be resolved without any actual rolling (the character's stats were high enough to pull off the effect even at the worst rolls) which made all the time spent thinking it over pretty much irrelevent. We'll see how that goes.
---
On another topic, I went and downloaded/installed DC Universe Online since it just went free-to-play (or "fremiun" or whatever term you like). City of Heroes got too cookie-cutter for me. Champions Online somehow never drew me in. While I've long been more a Marvel fan than DC, I figure it's worth a peek to provide some entertainment.
My first few attempts to play were thwarted by servers being down (F2P rush!), but I did get online for about half an hour last night. It was time enough to make a character and fight the first two or three battles with bad guys in the starter area, so I can't say a great deal about it, but there are a few things that come to mind already.
- DCUO gives you an origin story. CoH and CO (as near as I remember) sort of just dropped you into the beginning action, which allows you to make up whatever but doesn't provide any connection to the setting. In DCUO, you're given powers by nanobots along with bunches of other people. Less freedom, but more connection and some rationale for the tons of player characters sure to be running around with similar power sets.
- DCUO controls are more active than I'm used to. I don't have any fancy powers yet, but left-click is a melee attack and right-click is a ranged attack. Shift blocks. Shift+movement rolls/jumps away. This is a setup that expects and requires real-time input well beyond just autoattack and specials. Honestly, I don't yet know if I consider this good or bad, but compared to any other MMO I've played, it's distinct.
- There's a few little niceties so far. You seem to have access to your movement power right out the gate - I was flying almost before I realized it. Mage-looking tiger with demon wings - no problem.
Edit: And lots of ongoing connection/server problems. Not a surprise, but still disappointing and shading opinion of the game.
About DC:UO, once I finally got my crashing issue fixed. When I got dropped into the game and noticed the mouse looked around and the WASD keys moved about and right and left clicks attacked it suddenly dawned on me. These are First-Person Shooter controls. :) Line up the reticle on a target (or hit Tab) and start clicking like mad to drop attacks and build up that combo gauge. It also occurred to me about 20 minutes in that my left-click was a melee attack and my right is a ranged basic. >.> That made fighting zombie dudes and blowing up soul spheres much easier and less damaging. I loved the freedom of flight movement right off the bat, it even allows for a tactic of fly-by zappings with the right mouse button (Or ranged powers once you have those). Character generation isn't nearly as detailed as Champions, and the limit of your character's colors to the palette you create for your costume is stifling, but it's not so bad that it detracts too badly. Just means your wings sort of match your clothing if you go that option. I think the game needs more "fantasy" outfit options, like mage robes, but I suppose I can be happy with the inclusion of animal fur "skins" that don't look as bad (see, fake) as they do in CoH or Champions. It's refreshing in the combat control scheme and fits the super-hero genre by being "active" instead of auto attacks or waiting for powers to recharge before hitting the button again, however quests are the standard MMO variety and offer very little "new". I'll probably play this on and off for a while yet.
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