Redwolf's Journal (continued)

Feeling better in general than I have in a few weeks, though I still can't say I'm highly motivated to creative roleplay. Slowly accumulating more fantasy world thoughts to record, though. Longevity I mentioned it in passing before and had a little follow-up discussion. So why is such a small point in a setting worthy of such consideration? Well, in the case of a book or campaign, it absolutely isn't. Unless there are supernatural aging effects floating around (2nd Edition AD&D ghosts, for example), it generally doesn't matter if a character is 20 or 60. Adventurers aren't likely to live to a ripe old age anyway. But in a persistent/ongoing world, such things do have an effect. The phrase "long term plans" doesn't even start to cover it. Plus, I think a mechanical enforcement actually works along with reality - or believability rather. As I said, I see someone who extends their life through magic as losing their "humanity" (for la...

Perhaps the least "materially" rewarding raid night in a while. Knocked out Flame Leviathan, then Ignis for the weekly, which amounts to 5 Emblems of Frost, then spent a lot of time on the Lich King himself, but without success. I did see some signs of improvement, which is good. We don't have the Phase 1 wipes completely beat, but we got past that several times. If we do wipe there, it's almost certainly due to a Necrotic Plague that wasn't cleared off fast enough. Our timing on pushing into the first transition is usually pretty good, we don't usually have horrors up. The transition phase is hectic, but we're doing better in general. And we got into Phase 2 a few times - enough to wipe to a Defile and to know we need to kill those raging spirits faster. Alas, I can claim responsibility for one wipe where we were doing well, as I didn't quite make it off the outer ring in time and fell to my demise, resetting two raging spirits on everyone else. N...

Some comments about offline gaming. It's interesting as now the group is a blend of the old Saturday regulars and the mid-week group that I go into. Our Dresden Files game is on hold, it seems. The GM didn't make one session and wasn't up to another. In some ways, I like that. Probably that whole "jaded gamer" thing is preventing me from enjoying it as much as others, but I don't really want to discourage a budding GM either with criticism. Instead, we've played a couple one-off games of Warrior, Rogue, & Mage. 'tis a small game, free (at least at the time) to download in PDF. Rules are fairly light and straightforward. Three main stats. Pick three skills that give a flat +2. Rolls use d6. Secondary stats include HP, Mana, Defense, and Fate (used to avoid certain death for the most part). It works fine for the "classic dungeon crawl" style in which we've used it, where you have a band of characters that may not know each other...

Realism, or Not One article I recently glanced at summed up an aspect of fantasy for me in a way that resonates pretty strongly. "Internal Consistency, not Realism, is the benchmark of a believable fantasy world." If you made things realistic, it wouldn't be fantasy. No, what the audience and/or players want is to be able to make the initial leap of logic and then not have their suspension of disbelief shaken further. You're already accepting magic (in some form and measure), historical variances, and whatever else. Being given cause to question "well, why doesn't the archmage next door take five minutes out of his day to solve this problem?" takes you out of the illusion of a working world. The world doesn't have to work/grow/develop/look like the real world, it just has to be believable within its own confines. Well, that and be at least somewhat relateable in most cases - it's hard to roleplay something/someone that is completely alien....

In the past few weeks, I've replayed Deus Ex 2, Deus Ex, and restarted Neverwinter Nights 2. DE2 reminded me how "meh" it is. The levels between loading screens are annoying small. The "choice" you get in which factions you support is weak at best, as it still comes down to what you do at the very end to decide the epilogue. The graphics are certainly improved over the first one, but that's about the only good point to it, really. Deus Ex on the other hand, remains a friggin' masterpiece. The graphics are looking very dated, but don't distract (me anyway) as much as I would have thought. The game plays well. The levels are interesting for the most part. And while there isn't much branching to the plot, the storyline is good . It's also a heck of a lot longer than I remembered. I recalled the locations you visit and roughly the order, but I had forgotten some of the small "in between" parts and the times you revisit places. It...

I wondered a few weeks back, after watching Salt , if a movie was predictable because of its own construction or because of my own experience. Well, that was actually answered somewhat unwittingly when a friend and fellow roleplayer in our weekly game commented something along the lines of "You thought it was predictable?" So, okay, I'm jaded. I can attribute a lot to that simple descriptor. Disinterest with play on Furryfaire? Yep, I feel like I've done it all hundreds of times before. I feel much the same about other games, it seems, where I'm just not as into it as others (or as I feel I should be). It's not always true, but it appears so to me more often than not. I don't have much desire to go see plain old "action movies" because... you guessed it, I feel like I've seen it all before. So what is a jaded roleplay/sci-fi/fantasy-fan to do? Is the only answer to turn to other sources of entertainment, or is there some way to make thi...

I want to see a "Raid Camp" guild. Experienced raiders who could take newer people through the fundamentals of raiding. Communication, movement, adapting to phased encounters, etc. All non-BoP loot and gold would go to the guild to support repairs and such. "Graduates" could use that as a reference when applying to other guilds. Suppose it'd be a thankless job, but... I really like the idea.