Acid for Blood

Kill (or Run Away From) Zombies With Me

Role-Play OnLine has hundreds of play-by-post games of every genre you can think of, and perhaps some that you didn't think of. I have played in a couple of short-lived D&D games on RPOL which disbanded due to the games' participants getting too busy to play. My experiences were great. The DMs were good DMs and the players were good writers.

I am playing in a zombie game right now, with a couple of my friends, plus the GM (whom I don't think any of us know). The setting is present-day London, and the GM is going for a Shawn of the Dead sort of feel -- ordinary people put into extraordinary circumstances. The game mechanics are not rules-heavy (a relief for me, as I don't consider myself good at memorising many rules) because the GM's focus is on story and player creativity. We just started a couple weeks ago, and as yet there have been no hardcore zombie killings and such. There soon will be though. In game time, we are currently waking to the first day after some strange occurences in the city.

Anyway, it would be really cool if we had a couple more players. There is no pressure to post incessantly. Everyone has lives and such. Even the GM was absent last week for a few days, the game stalled for a bit, but we're all still playing. So far the unspoken commitment has been at least one or two posts per day to keep the game going. If any of you would like to play, get a forum account at RPOL.net and send a request to join message to the GM. Upon approval, the GM will associate your forum name with an alias. This alias is your character's name, and it will appear as such when you go to "The Dead Walk" game menu.

Anyone who is a decent writer *looks at blogroll* is especially welcome to join. With a cast like this, how could you possibly resist? I will leave you to guess which character I am playing. ;-)

Slain

My Tiefling Rogue died tonight. A party member was using a Psionic ability to attack an enemy, he rolled a 1, and accidentally hit me instead. For triple damage. I haven't had the best luck with increasing my Hit Points each time I level, because I am teh suck with my die rolls. But even if the Psion had rolled the minimum amount of damage, I still would have been dead.

The DM has this table of what happens when you roll a 1 for your attack. You roll percentile die, and depending on what the results are, something bad or very bad will happen.

On the positive side, it's the first time she has died, so yay for that. The DM has been looking forward to her death for a long time, because of background character plot stuff. I wrote this awesome (if I do say so myself) background for her which gave the DM a lot to work with storywise. I'm looking forward to what he has in store for Rui's death experience. She has infernal blood, and so I think her soul is going to travel to horrible places before she gets resurrected. I'm tempted read up on devils and stuff... And the Planes.

Oh, and I killed a black dragon last week without taking damage because I rock. Okay, other people softened it up, but I killed it. I took some teeth as a trophy.

In Guild Wars last weekend, I defeated all 6 aspects (one for each Profession) of the dragon oracle, Glint, as well as killed Glint herself (the Bonus Mission), so it was a weekend of dragon slay-age all around.

EDIT: I know that Tieflings ordinarily can't be resurrected, but when it was brought up a few months ago, the DM said that I could be.

EDIT: And so I am alive again. Proper Ressurrection as well, none of this Raise Dead nonsense. I also have a Belt of Earth's Hide +4 now, because a bunch of dwarves were grateful for the party destroying a lich who made his home on the borders of their lands. This means more HP for my fragile Rogue -- hooray!

Objection

Last night, one of my guildmates suggested that I stop going to my table-top Dungeons & Dragons games every single week so I had more time to quest with him regularly in Guild Wars. Unlike my D&D party, he can group with Henchmen and other players. My DM will generally not use PCs as NPCs when the player is absent. This guildie didn't seem to understand that I have a group of people who rely on me to be there each week. My Rogue may not be the highest damage dealer or damage soaker in the party, but she does contribute to the team in her own way.

I have always contended that I'm not the most skilled Guild Wars player, but he seems very dependent on me to go on Missions with him. The reason I do my extracurricular Guild Wars reading is because I enjoy the game, and I like knowing how to complete Missions most efficiently. I don't mind the pressure to know the Missions and Bonus Missions in detail, to know where to go, and to lead our guild on the rare occasions that the most active members (three of us) get together to quest. However, usually it's just me and him because we live in the same time zone. To be honest, I'd rather quest with the other guildie than with him most of the time.

Bearing the weight of knowledge is totally fine, but I object to him suggesting that I sacrifice one game for another. Granted, if I spent more time doing Missions with him, I would progress as well, since we are in the same area. At one point, he progressed further than me, and now he's stalling. He dislikes the idea of joining PUGs unless I'm in the same party because he has had several frustrating experiences with randoms recently.

I would love to play Guild Wars every night of the week, but it's impossible. It's nice to feel needed, but I won't tolerate someone making demands on my free time, and putting pressure on me to quest. He says there's no pressure, but each time I log on to MSN recently he's all "Can you quest tonight?" or "Will you have time to play Guild Wars tomorrow?"

I also discussed the lack of appreciation for my contribution to the team, which he was very defensive about, saying that he expresses his gratitude by giving me money and items. If that's the case, I don't recall him offering anything to me after the Galrath quest. I have always refused to accept items from him unless he insists. I don't want gold, I just want acknowledgement. The other guildie is much better about showing her appreciation, and noting my contributions.

And I brought up the point that because our guild didn't have regular meet-ups, I felt that we didn't have unity. He interpreted this statement as an accusation that he was disloyal. Urgh.

The frustrating discussions last night have led me to the decision not to speak to him or play Guild Wars with him until I am no longer angry.

EDIT: We talked things over on the phone, and we have come to an understanding.

CA Day 3, GDC Day 2

D&D last night went fairly well. We had some n00bs (or they were rusty players) in the group who kept checking the Player's Handbook, so the pace was a little slow. Wow, I can actually say that I'm not quite a n00b at D&D! Well, I can say I'm not a n00b at being a Rogue, at least. There were three DMs running the same three campaigns in three different groups (Emerald, Ruby, Sapphire) con-currently, which was neat. I got a compliment on my four-page character background, which was nice.

My Rogue got to use her Sneak Attack (with a Spiked Chain) on a blue dragon, which was cool. The Rogues in the other two games did not have the opportunity to use their Sneak Attack abilities. I am in Emerald group. One of the Rogues in the other group is played by a Software Engineer from EA (Redwood City). I was working with him at yesterday's Tutorial.

Tonight there will be more D&D, but considering how slow of a start we got last night, and the slow pace of the game, I am not sure how we will finish the campaign tonight. There are only two nights of D&D because Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights are the nights when people try to blag their ways into invitation-only parties.

No work for me today. I got up at a relatively leisurely hour to make it in time for the 09:03 morning CA meeting.

The only thing I have attended so far today was the IGDA Game Curriculum Workshop's "The Shape of Things to Come" rant session. The Tutorial is education-oriented, so academics and those involved in teaching games were present. The rant session was pretty interesting, and I may type it up later at some point (I took notes). I don't feel comfortable hogging this computer to compose my thoughts.

Had lunch with Lisa and ran into Alice at the Marriott. Apparently, they are off to play WOW tonight at Xerox PARC with the Terra Nova peeps. How very geeky and cool! Going to meet Tara at some point today or whenever.

Tomorrow is when GDC really begins. The first two days are mainly devoted to day-long tutorials, many of which are very technical in nature. So things at the convention centre are fairly quite and low-key.

I've been having fun so far, and meeting people is really cool. I've had loads of really great conversations with plenty of people. It's so fun to be able to talk about geeky things like D&D and have others join in and know exactly what you're talking about, or have them quite interested in what geek-talk you're spouting.

CA Day 2, GDC Day 1

I spent the entire day working at the "Social Dimensions of Digital Gaming" Tutorial session. This was my top choice of session to work at, because of my interest in the subject matter. It was incredibly interesting and awesome to be present for the discussion. There were loads of really smart academics and game designers present.

One of the main themes that was repeated throughout the day was the need for co-operation between academia and industry, as well as how the each could benefit from the other. Another theme was the need to utilise both qualitative and quantitative research methods for studying games.

The keynote, by Julian Dibbell, was about MMOGs and the blurring of the boundary between work and play. Quite interesting, and cool. Apparently there will be a book soon about making a living from Ultima Online.

It was nice being able to nod sagely at quite a lot of the stuff that the academics spoke about, particularly the bits about qualitative and quantitative research methods. Almost felt like I was in a research methods refresher course.

I spoke to a few people about their research and such, which was cool. It was great to be able to put faces to names as well. Sadly, I was engrossed in my duties after the whole thing was over, so I neglected to grab handouts for myself. I'll have to email people for them. Grr.

A random crazy woman came up to me and expressed extreme disappointment about not receiving any socks in her conference packet. Just kidding, Alice. :-) BTW, your sock problem has been sorted, so I'll try to find you.

Must dash as the CAs are going to start playing a D&D game soon (and people seem to be queuing for the computer). Apparently it's going to be quite a hardcore role-playing session. They have this rule where you have to make a hand signal to say that you're speaking out of character, which hasn't been a rule previous table-top games I've played in (LARP, yeah).

Miscellany

Weekend gaming consisted mostly of Guitar Hero, when I could actually get a turn. The song line up for this game is really great. It would have been cool if they'd had a song (or two) from The Darkness, Poison, and/or Guns n' Roses (maybe unlockable?). Oh my God, that would be sweet. Great game, though. If only I knew someone who has it around here. I can't really spend the cash on more games now (and Guitar Hero is $80.00), since I have mentally allocated my money to other titles.

I think I'm going to try to get back into DDR seriously. I'm very firmly stuck on Standard, and it would be nice to consistently pass Heavy songs. Playing on a semi-soft dance mat is underwhelming, since I learned how to play DDR at the arcade. Perhaps I could reward myself by saving money for a nice metal dance pad later on, if I improve enough. I guess I'll check my progress in six or eight months from now, and decide whether I've improved enough to think about a metal pad.

I got a call from one of my D&D mates last night with an update on the campaign. I have missed the last two Sundays of D&D due to other obligations. Apparently our Psion has died; killed by a Drow Rogue on a rooftop. The party had saved the enemy's armour and weapon for me, because it is best-suited for my character. I am the only full Rogue. A couple of others have taken a Level of Rogue, they wouldn't be able to use this armour and sword as well as my character. So now I have really awesome armour and an awesome sword (possibly the best equipment in our party), and I haven't been there in a fortnight. I feel bad that my character is going to be using the equipment that the Drow used to kill our Psion.

I'm going to become pretty busy in the next few months, due to my involvement with Otakon. I'm a Department Head at Otakon, and also in charge of another Department-like entity for Otakorp, Inc., the non-profit corporation that runs Otakon. The latter position is effectively a Department Head position, though the event does not take place during Otakon. Otakorp sponsors an anime film marathon at the National Cherry Blossom Festival and for the past few years, I have been coordinating that. These commitments will likely mean fewer posts and fewer reading of blogs.

First D&D Session of the Year

My D&D group had its first session of the year yesterday. The DM added another dimension to our campaign: sound effects and music. It was really cool! He got a hold of this program that manages music and sound effects for table-top role-playing games. He apparently spent ages working on the sound for the campaign, and the results were awesome. That right there is a committment to delivering a good gaming experience. Wow.

Background music played for travel through certain areas. Last night, we were tracking mysterious creatures through a creepy forest, and appropriate music played. When we entered combat, we had different, faster background music. As we traveled, fought, and spoke to NPCs, he played a variety of sound effects. For example, we visited a work site for a lighting rail. Here, the DM played sounds that one might hear at such a place: hammers against stone and general worker bustle and noise. During specific combat events, such as when one of us hit an enemy, another sound effect would play: steel against wood, bashing against another creature, grunts of pain, death screams, etc. Sound effects were mapped to the keyboard, so he would simply press a key when an event warranted a sound effect.

My character also didn't get hurt! No Orcs falling from trees, no temples collapsing after encounters with diabolical extra-planar creatures, no poisoned traps, etc. For the first time in the campaign, she used her Sneak Attack ability (combined with Point Blank Shot). The way Kourui has developed, she became melee-shy early on. Subsequent events only served to increase her fear of close combat and general risk-taking. However, recent sessions haven't been too bad for her, so her confidence is increasing.

During the break, one of the players logged on to the D&D Online: Stormreach beta. After watching him complete a short quest, and after listening to the DM's critiques of the game, I don't think I will be playing this. The artwork isn't too inspiring or especially beautiful. I did like use of the Voice of the DM in the game, because it added a little descriptive depth to play.

One of the things that put me off is the fact that the only city you have access to is Stormreach. All adventures begin and end in Stormreach. I don't know if that will change for the final release, but I haven't read anything about additional cities. The story is exactly the same no matter what Classes you choose to replay the game with. The PvE story of Guild Wars is like this, except with GW, there is no monthly fee, you get a deep PvP system, you can solo most of the time, you travel to a variety of different countries and locations, and GW is much much prettier.

I'll already be paying monthly fees for WOW, so that is another factor in my decision. Speaking of WOW, I didn't get to play this weekend. Somehow the download of the 1.9 patch got corrupted. I used Blizzard's repair utility, but that did not work. So I need to reinstall the game tonight. Plus, I was super busy with D&D, Guild Wars (I'm not addicted, honest.), and other stuff.

I Was 1337 Before I Even Knew It

This article is actually quite a balanced one on LARPing (though there are a few inaccuracies). Some quotes and my comments follow.

LARPing, however, has always been the upper echelons of dorkdom, an activity considering by some as too geeky for even the geekiest of geeks.

As I related previously, I was a LARPer before started playing table-top role-playing games. Shit, man, I had no idea you table-top geeks thought that we were even geekier than you! I actually viewed it the other way round. We were more 'evolved' because LARPing is more social than table-top gaming. But since I am a table-top gamer now as well, I don't hold such rigid views anymore. You can put your proverbial Sword of Smiting +5 and your dice away now, thank you very much.

There's some cliquishness and separation between the role-playing entities -- some SCA people think the Ren Fest is for pussies, some LARPers think SCA fighters are dumb jocks, some tabletop role players think LARPers take it too far. In that, it's not much different from other subcultures. Just like any large organization, there are flurries of inner turmoil: bickering, drama, arguing over how the games should be run.

LOL. Yeah.

Even some role-playing gamers themselves say the level of psychological immersion in LARP is troubling, blurring a critical line between reality and fantasy.

I have to agree with this statement somewhat. Some of the people that I call 'obsessives', often took it far more seriously than I was comfortable with.

It's easy to have a cheap laugh at LARPers' expense. When goth kids playing Vampire lean against a wall at City Club and "obfuscate", crossing their arms over their chests to signify they're invisible, it's hard to stifle a giggle.

What the fuck ever! Stop laughing! Well, okay, it is funny, I suppose. There was once this girl in a LARP I played in, and she had this habit of crossing her arms over her chest, because she was a sad, pathetic goth (as opposed to the happy, non-pitiable variety) and because she was a bit weird. Anyway, we never knew whether she was Obfuscated or just being her sad goth self. Highly annoying. Of course, she pointed out angrily that she was a Toreador (of course), so why the hell would she even have Obfuscate (since Toreador do not normally have Obfuscate as a power)? Whatever.

"Parts of their personality tend to bleed into whatever character they play. You pick up cues to someone's personality. Jack Nicholson is a great actor, but in every role he plays, he's Jack Nicholson. It's the same thing with LARP -- the good and bad things in your personality stand out."

I think this is true of even table-top, though with table-top gaming, the immersion level is much, much lower. Hence, LARPing is far more addictive (and often more fun) than table-top gaming, in my experience.

Anyway, I am not really sure about this 'bleeding' of personality into one's character. I suppose it's true, though I always considered the fact that my characters behaved too similarly to my real personality was failing of my acting ability (which is negligible) and perhaps my questionable creative ability. This is one of the reasons why, with the last LARP character I played, I tried to make her as different from me as possible. I figured that the most foreign thing to me would be to play someone who is insane. It's a shame I didn't get to play her for very long.

Thinking about it more, though, perhaps I would agree. Most of my characters, even my table-top characters, are all similar to each other (and to me) in some way. For example, I think all of my Vampire LARP characters, and possibly my Werewolf LARP character as well (I would have to dig up their character sheets to verify), had a Code of Honour. Usually, their Code of Honour entailed that they would not knowingly slay a Mortal/human and/or an innocent. For my table-top characters, all of them have some sort of standard, some good-aligned moral code which they live by.

I think that playing someone who is evil would be even more difficult than playing someone who is insane, at least the way I play. I like to try to understand my characters as much as I can, and this involves a lot of thinking. Perhaps that's why it's such a challenge for me to play characters that deviate too far from my personality. And I guess that is what made me a boring LARPer in my eyes. If I ever go back to LARPing, I'd try harder to explore a character that is very different from me.

Walton also says role playing can be extremely useful in education. He has two kids, and plays RPGs with them frequently. "It's great for kids because it teaches them how to put yourself in someone else's shoes, and how to see things from a different point of view."

Trombley, the high school teacher, also supports LARP in education, and sometimes has his students use role playing to analyze characters in plays or literature.

Whether in a childhood game or in the adult world, everyone has role played in some shape or form at one point.

"When you think about it, people use it all the time in business, role playing transactions," Walton says. "And the military uses role playing when they stage mock terrorist attacks. It's an excellent tool."

No shit. The more that people recognise this, the better. And then people will stop calling role-players 'Satanists' or 'murderers' or whatever.

"As it's become more widespread, the rumors and urban legends fade away. It used to be geeky and evil, and now it's just geeky. Geekdom in general has become more popular. Certainly the popularity of home computers has helped that. More people consider themselves geeks because they know how to fix a computer when it breaks down."

Sure. And I see my childhood being harvested to make comic book and video game films that are hit-and-miss in their suckage levels as well. Did you know they were making a Watchmen film and planning on making a Sin City TV series? Geez! The Sin City film was an utterly brilliant adaptation, but that can be said of far too few adapatations. I fear that the TV series will not have much Frank Miller input, and will thusly be utterly crap. Uh... Sorry, digression.

Anyway, go read the article if you're at all interested in role-playing games, and LARPing. :-) The Guardian Gamesblog presents the article to video gamers to show that LARPers, too, have a 'bad' reputation in the mainstream. But what the post does not point out is that LARPers and table-top gamers are far more marginalised than video gamers.

[Via GamePolitics]

VGL Group and D&D Stuff

Forgot to mention that I found, through a former GameStop co-worker, a bunch of people to go to the show with me. Four of us used to work at GameStop, so I do know some people, though not very well. One of my other friends is going, too. In all that makes eight in the group. Should be good fun.

EDIT: Apparently, all the Video Games Live shows have been cancelled except for the Seattle and Vancouver shows! This vexes me greatly.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, Video Games Live will not be playing many of the shows scheduled for this fall. We will however be playing the Seattle and Vancouver shows on October 29 and October 30. Furthermore, plans are being made for additional shows in specific markets across North America for 2006.

Been busy with D&D at the weekend, which is good. It gets me out of the house, meeting new people. It also gets my creative and tactical brain functions working again, a distraction which I sorely need.

My character, poor girl, nearly died again. Three weeks ago, it was from an Orc Ranger leaping down from a tree and cutting her down to 1 Hit Point. A fortnight ago, it was from an Orc Fighter who got a lucky shot whilst stumbling around in the Darkness she had cast. Again, cut down to 1 Hit Point in one blow. Yesterday, it was from a poisoned cloud from a trap that she had triggered due to (me) being an idiot and not answering the magical "gatekeeper's" (disembodied voice guarding passageway) question correctly. She was actually dying. Dying! I think the DM was being nice to me, because after the party's Cleric stabilised my character's condition (bringing her up to 1 Hit Point!), he didn't make her do loads of Fortitude Checks to see whether Rui got worse or better or what. Rogues may do it from behind, but we sure don't get many Hit Points to work with.

I am simply dreading the Halloween game coming up. I don't want my character to die. I worked very hard on giving her an interesting backstory, and I'm still discovering what her personality is like.

New Game With People IRL

I found a Dungeons & Dragons game! We had our first session yesterday. It has been three years since I have played D&D properly.

I don't count the time I played for a few months in 2003, because the campaign never really got off the ground. Hell, I never even had a background for the Half Elf Wizard I played in that game. I got as far as a cool first name and that was it. I can't even remember casting any spells, either. It was meant to be the campaign in which I learned how to play a magic user, but it never happened because of player time and work travel committments.

Yesterday was good, because I managed to roll up my character, get her some 1337 skillz0r, arm and armour her up, equip her with supplies, and all that good stuff -- without asking questions every other second. Not that I didn't need some help, because I did. For example, I forgot to add 10 to my Armour Bonus and Dex Modifier. Doh.

We didn't get stuck into the story yet. The DM gave some information on why our characters were on this mission, and some history of the land. All the characters and players were introduced, and people gave a little bit of information about their characters' backgrounds and appearances. I remember the character names better than the player names, which is probaly just the way it goes. I'll have to ask them their names again.

The Druid of the party has an animal companion, a wolf. During combat, the wolf had a turn, of course. Each time someone said "wolf" or "wolf's turn", I had to stop myself from responding, because I had a character named 'Wolf'. That was slightly amusing.

I am playing a Tiefling Rogue, but I am unsure as to whether I will eventually add the Barbarian Class. I was considering it, because I had fun using Rage in that game last summer, however I am not sure now.

Here are her stats:

Strength: 15
Dexterity: 19
Constitution: 12
Intelligence: 18
Wisdom: 16
Charisma: 9

My first D&D character was a Human Rogue, and I think if I wasn't playing a Tiefling, I would be hesitant to play a Rogue again. I do like the number of Skills they get, however I had wanted to try something new. "New" is the Tiefling. I don't know what I will do, but it doesn't really matter too much yet. I'm the only full Rogue in the party at the moment. I'll see how the character develops before deciding to add another Class.

I spent a solid hour yesterday thinking of a background, and I think I've got most of the major bits out of the way. The most important part is figuring out how she feels about the major events in her life, and this will require more time to think.

Today, I managed to get some ideas down on paper as to her appearance. I think this month's art project will be to draw a picture of my Tiefling. It will be a bit challenging partly because of her hair... I'm not so good at drawing hair that sticks up and goes everywhere, but we will see whether her look changes before I draw her.