It seems as though all free download games are introduced to me by my friends...
Months ago - sometime before summer - my friend Clint dragged me to a game's website. The game was simply known as League of Legends, and he made a million promises about it: that it was an RPG, an MMO, and a TD game, all rolled up into one, and was free to play, too. I brushed his claims off as outrageous, but decided to check it out anyway. I browsed the site for quite a while, finding a couple of rather interesting videos that presented me an epic game where teams of different characters met on a dark battlefield and duked it out using magic, armaments, and brute force. This finally persuaded me to click the download link and play. After I had it up and running, I was presented with an impressively easy-to-understand tutorial, pleasing graphics and dove right in to the streamlined PvP realm, which makes up the main portion of gameplay.
I was rather impressed from the get-go: on a half-decent gaming rig, League of Legends looked...well...great! Even the sign-in page was captivating: a desolate battlefield with a powerful-looking wizard conjuring wisps of blue energy from his hands, and an assassin, poised to strike with blades glowing a menacing green. This took me off guard, as many free-to-play/download games' graphics leave players rather wanting. Even as I began to play the game, the interface and arena of play looked wonderful. Character detail was varied, the color palette was interesting, and the whole of the 3D area didn't have a polygonal feel. It always leaves a warm, fuzzy feeling in my heart when I know that the developers of such a game actually put time and effort into graphical appeal. :D
I figured that before I actually got into the game, I should learn a little bit of its lore and basic strategies, as when Clint was discussing it, he threw so much jargon into every sentence that I was absolutely lost.
The lore behind this game is based around a utopian society where different city-states have come to dominate the political sphere of a fictional world. Rather than wasting time and resources drawing out wars, the city-states instead agreed to form a central combat arena, where they would send their champions to do battle and decide the fate of the realm. You, the Summoner, are an agent of the city-states and control/direct these champions in their battles, connected to them by the Nexus, which sits in the heart of your base. Your objective is to level up your champion, break through the enemy's tower- and champion-based defenses, and destroy their Nexus, thereby winning the match for your team. Of course, this is no small feat, as you have five enemy champions against your team as well, along with the hordes of minions sent as cannon fodder out onto the battlefield from both sides.
After this most basic of research, I found myself thrown into an incredibly intricate arena of play. It would take me an entire blog post to explain its nuances (foreshadowing!), so I'll just go over the basics: in general PvP, two five-person teams, composed of different characters, each with unique skills, are thrown into the arena and attempt to destroy one another's defenses, and eventually their respawn center, the Nexus.
League of Legends insanely fun and disturbingly addicting once you get into it. The graphics are pleasing to the eye, and gameplay is satisfyingly complicated. It's definitely worthy to hold its place as October 2011's Free Download of the Month.
Have fun, good gaming, and remember - don't feed the trolls.
-Toast
Friday, October 28, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
I Cast Magic Missile (A DnD Blog): Gameplay 02
Time to finally continue that DnD Gameplay blog that I started oh so long ago!
Before diving into statistic determination, one must have a rudimentary understanding of the dice system used by DnD players. Each die is used in different situations, and DMs as well as adventurers often have their own sets that they use. Sets consist of die that range in number of faces, and each die is referred to by how many faces it has - for example, a 6-sided die would be called a D6. Required for adventurers are the D20, D12, D10, D8, D6, and D4. (DMs generally add one more die to their collection: the D%, which is similar to the D10, except that it counts in tens rather than ones, and is used for determining percentages.) In my guides, I'll be referring to dice with their abbreviated names. Oftentimes, to indicate the number of rolls with a certain die, a number precedes the D. Take, for example, an instruction to roll the D6 four times. To indicate this, I'll write 4D6, just as many DMs (and even other players) will say in gaming sessions.
Once you have your character designed - class, race, and gender decided upon - you MUST record this information where it will be readily available at all times. These three facts play a huge part in how sessions play out. When determining statistics for your character, race and class are the two most important of these data, for they determine a multitude of different things. The first and most vital thing to determine is your Ability Scores. Each race has their own Ability Modifiers, and individual DMs have different ways to determine base Ability Scores. (To provide a generalized explanation, in this blog I'll be using my house rules, which follow DnD rulebooks from series 3.5 relatively closely.) In my sessions, players roll 4D6 and remove the lowest number each time to get their scores (see example below for greater detail). They then can place the scores in any of the 6 Abilities they choose: Strength, Constitution, Intellect, Wisdom, Dexterity, and Charisma. It would be wise to assign high Ability Scores to the Abilities essential to your class, as doing so confers high bonuses to the skills available to you. From here, you must find your Ability Modifiers. Based off of your Ability Score, these numbers are critical, as they will be applied to skills, saving throws (which will be reviewed later), and many other numbers that might just make the difference between life and death. Be sure to record these in their respective areas on your character sheet.
Scores below 10 confer negative bonuses, but as these are relatively rare among adventurers, I'll begin at 10.
10-11: +0
12-13: +1
14-15: +2
16-17: +3
18-19: +4
Example:
For one Ability Score, Godmund the Fighter rolls 4D6, and the die fall in his favor - he gets 2 sixes, a 5, and a 3, which give him one score of 17 after he removes the low 3. He continues his rolls and gets a 12, two 14s, a 15, and an 18. All of these scores are unusually high - the average is 10 - but this is normal for an adventurer. Because Godmund is a Fighter, he must focus largely upon Strength and Constitution - he'll be taking the brunt of the blows from enemies he and his party faces. He places 17 into Strength, and 18 into Constitution. To hit often, he assigns 14 to Dexterity. The adventurer playing Godmund decides to put a twist on his character - he assigns his third highest score of 15 to Charisma, making Godmund more appealing to others so that he can lead his party effectively. To Intellect and Wisdom, he assigns the 10 and the 12, as these abilities are the least relevant to his class.
From here, he determines his Ability Modifiers. Strength gets +3, Constitution +4, Dexterity +2, Intellect +0, Wisdom +1, and Charisma +2.
In the next installment of I Cast Magic Missile, I'll continue my overview of DnD character statistics, covering health, Armor Class, Initiative, Grapple, and other easy-to-determine statistics.
Have fun, good gaming, and remember - don't feed the trolls.
-Toast
Before diving into statistic determination, one must have a rudimentary understanding of the dice system used by DnD players. Each die is used in different situations, and DMs as well as adventurers often have their own sets that they use. Sets consist of die that range in number of faces, and each die is referred to by how many faces it has - for example, a 6-sided die would be called a D6. Required for adventurers are the D20, D12, D10, D8, D6, and D4. (DMs generally add one more die to their collection: the D%, which is similar to the D10, except that it counts in tens rather than ones, and is used for determining percentages.) In my guides, I'll be referring to dice with their abbreviated names. Oftentimes, to indicate the number of rolls with a certain die, a number precedes the D. Take, for example, an instruction to roll the D6 four times. To indicate this, I'll write 4D6, just as many DMs (and even other players) will say in gaming sessions.
Once you have your character designed - class, race, and gender decided upon - you MUST record this information where it will be readily available at all times. These three facts play a huge part in how sessions play out. When determining statistics for your character, race and class are the two most important of these data, for they determine a multitude of different things. The first and most vital thing to determine is your Ability Scores. Each race has their own Ability Modifiers, and individual DMs have different ways to determine base Ability Scores. (To provide a generalized explanation, in this blog I'll be using my house rules, which follow DnD rulebooks from series 3.5 relatively closely.) In my sessions, players roll 4D6 and remove the lowest number each time to get their scores (see example below for greater detail). They then can place the scores in any of the 6 Abilities they choose: Strength, Constitution, Intellect, Wisdom, Dexterity, and Charisma. It would be wise to assign high Ability Scores to the Abilities essential to your class, as doing so confers high bonuses to the skills available to you. From here, you must find your Ability Modifiers. Based off of your Ability Score, these numbers are critical, as they will be applied to skills, saving throws (which will be reviewed later), and many other numbers that might just make the difference between life and death. Be sure to record these in their respective areas on your character sheet.
Scores below 10 confer negative bonuses, but as these are relatively rare among adventurers, I'll begin at 10.
10-11: +0
12-13: +1
14-15: +2
16-17: +3
18-19: +4
Example:
For one Ability Score, Godmund the Fighter rolls 4D6, and the die fall in his favor - he gets 2 sixes, a 5, and a 3, which give him one score of 17 after he removes the low 3. He continues his rolls and gets a 12, two 14s, a 15, and an 18. All of these scores are unusually high - the average is 10 - but this is normal for an adventurer. Because Godmund is a Fighter, he must focus largely upon Strength and Constitution - he'll be taking the brunt of the blows from enemies he and his party faces. He places 17 into Strength, and 18 into Constitution. To hit often, he assigns 14 to Dexterity. The adventurer playing Godmund decides to put a twist on his character - he assigns his third highest score of 15 to Charisma, making Godmund more appealing to others so that he can lead his party effectively. To Intellect and Wisdom, he assigns the 10 and the 12, as these abilities are the least relevant to his class.
From here, he determines his Ability Modifiers. Strength gets +3, Constitution +4, Dexterity +2, Intellect +0, Wisdom +1, and Charisma +2.
In the next installment of I Cast Magic Missile, I'll continue my overview of DnD character statistics, covering health, Armor Class, Initiative, Grapple, and other easy-to-determine statistics.
Have fun, good gaming, and remember - don't feed the trolls.
-Toast
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Elder Scrolls Explorer: Introduction (Premise)
Another mini-series I'm starting! The Elder Scrolls Explorer is bound to continue on for quite a while
There are thousands of RPGs (Role-Playing Games) out there, of all different sorts. Open world RPGs leave the player to do whatever they want, while guided RPGs bring them along for a ride, giving them goals to reach and bosses to defeat. These two styles are different ends of one spectrum, and there are loads of games in between, each of them unique in what they bring to the table. One specific series has touched me, and helped define what I find to be a good game. The games are known to many by their individual titles: Arena and Daggerfall for the oldschool gamers, and Morrowind and Oblivion for the newbies in the gaming arena. All together, these games make up what is known as the Elder Scrolls Series. They're renowned for their open-ended gameplay and their humungous worlds, and have won many awards, such as Game of the Year, and Best of E3...
I've loved these games ever since I was introduced to them, and I figured that for all of you that haven't yet been introduced, I'd better fill you in. For those of you that have experienced the glory that is an Elder Scrolls game, hang on for the ride, and maybe I'll show you a couple tricks you never knew about beforehand. :D
The premise of the entire series is stated outright in the instruction manuals (that people rarely read, which I have a problem with - but that's for another time): play the way you want to play, and have fun with it! The series always starts the player in a relatively simple tutorial area, whether it be a dungeon or a customs office, where the controls are explained, and the player can design their character any way they like. Character design sets up the general experience for the rest of the game, so quite a bit rests upon it, but if the character doesn't seem to work, it's always possible to work around or fix it (or just design a new character).
After design, the player is sent off with their character into the vast world and left to their own devices. Oftentimes, players choose a mix of exploration and questing, which generally provides the most rewarding gameplay experience. As the world is full of quests for both the most holy and darkest of dark characters, so there's always something new to discover in cities or the wilderness, and dungeons and temples are scattered about as well, offering their loot up to anyone that can face their dangers without being decimated. Combat along journeys can be dealt with in many different ways, and it serves as the main gauge of your character's skill.
The self-guided nature of these games makes playing them feel like leading another life in which decisions at one point can affect hundreds of things in your future...I find it absolutely wonderful, and so do thousands of other gamers. They're definitely worth checking out.
I'll be continuing this series with an actual breakdown of the games, the series history, and the plotline that ties the series together.
Have fun, good gaming, and remember: don't feed the trolls.
-Toast
There are thousands of RPGs (Role-Playing Games) out there, of all different sorts. Open world RPGs leave the player to do whatever they want, while guided RPGs bring them along for a ride, giving them goals to reach and bosses to defeat. These two styles are different ends of one spectrum, and there are loads of games in between, each of them unique in what they bring to the table. One specific series has touched me, and helped define what I find to be a good game. The games are known to many by their individual titles: Arena and Daggerfall for the oldschool gamers, and Morrowind and Oblivion for the newbies in the gaming arena. All together, these games make up what is known as the Elder Scrolls Series. They're renowned for their open-ended gameplay and their humungous worlds, and have won many awards, such as Game of the Year, and Best of E3...
I've loved these games ever since I was introduced to them, and I figured that for all of you that haven't yet been introduced, I'd better fill you in. For those of you that have experienced the glory that is an Elder Scrolls game, hang on for the ride, and maybe I'll show you a couple tricks you never knew about beforehand. :D
The premise of the entire series is stated outright in the instruction manuals (that people rarely read, which I have a problem with - but that's for another time): play the way you want to play, and have fun with it! The series always starts the player in a relatively simple tutorial area, whether it be a dungeon or a customs office, where the controls are explained, and the player can design their character any way they like. Character design sets up the general experience for the rest of the game, so quite a bit rests upon it, but if the character doesn't seem to work, it's always possible to work around or fix it (or just design a new character).
After design, the player is sent off with their character into the vast world and left to their own devices. Oftentimes, players choose a mix of exploration and questing, which generally provides the most rewarding gameplay experience. As the world is full of quests for both the most holy and darkest of dark characters, so there's always something new to discover in cities or the wilderness, and dungeons and temples are scattered about as well, offering their loot up to anyone that can face their dangers without being decimated. Combat along journeys can be dealt with in many different ways, and it serves as the main gauge of your character's skill.
The self-guided nature of these games makes playing them feel like leading another life in which decisions at one point can affect hundreds of things in your future...I find it absolutely wonderful, and so do thousands of other gamers. They're definitely worth checking out.
I'll be continuing this series with an actual breakdown of the games, the series history, and the plotline that ties the series together.
Have fun, good gaming, and remember: don't feed the trolls.
-Toast
Friday, October 14, 2011
Retro Gaming 03: It's-a Me, Mario!
For anyone who grew up around a Nintendo 64 that actually had any decent games, the phrase "It's-a me, Mario!" will hit their nostalgic nerve like a freight train. For those of you that don't know, the Mario series is the iconic series for Nintendo, and the number one hit for its series on the N64 was Super Mario 64 (genius title, I know). Aside from the title, the rest of this game is actually relatively brilliant. It was of decent length, varied gameplay up compared to old Mario games, and kept the player thinking the whole time.
The premise of the game is that Mario has been invited to Peach's castle for cake, but when he arrives, the castle has been taken over by the evil King Koopa, Bowser. He scattered the power source for the castle (and all of the land, the Mushroom Kingdom), known simply as Stars, across different worlds that manifest themselves in paintings throughout the castle. The player then assumes control of Mario and must explore these worlds, gathering stars on each different level and eventually advancing to defeat Bowser - not once, but three times.
Gathering Stars is easy at first - the worlds start off with simple challenges like races, jumping, and defeating easy bosses. Amassing the first 20 Stars and defeating the first iteration of Bowser is obscenely easy. After that, however, things become more challenging: jumps are harder, puzzles more complicated, and situations more dangerous - death is common to the inexperienced player after the first 20 stars. Bowser seems further and further away, as one must collect 70 stars to reach Bowser for the final time (though to truly beat the game, one must collect all 120).
Mario's arsenal of moves had been greatly expanded upon in Super Mario 64. He can perform a number of acrobatic jumps and can even launch off of walls. Mario can also access powerup hats that provide him with different characteristics not otherwise available. There are three different hats: the Wing Cap, Metal Cap, and Invisibility Cap. The Wing Cap allows Mario to take off and fly after successfully performing a Triple Jump - this allows players to fly anywhere they want around the map for the duration the cap stays on Mario's head. The Metal Cap turns Mario into pure sentient steel, making him invulnerable to most kinds of damage and able to sink to the bottom of bodies of water instantly (which proves to be essential many a time). Finally, the Invisibility Cap immaterializes Mario, giving him the ability to pass through certain walls.
Super Mario 64 proved to be an incredibly fun, rather challenging game. Though it had points where it did drag a little, those were made up for by the sense of triumph after completing the puzzle at the end, or getting that final Star in a level. All in all, it's definitely worth a 40 to 50 hour gameplay session.
The premise of the game is that Mario has been invited to Peach's castle for cake, but when he arrives, the castle has been taken over by the evil King Koopa, Bowser. He scattered the power source for the castle (and all of the land, the Mushroom Kingdom), known simply as Stars, across different worlds that manifest themselves in paintings throughout the castle. The player then assumes control of Mario and must explore these worlds, gathering stars on each different level and eventually advancing to defeat Bowser - not once, but three times.
Gathering Stars is easy at first - the worlds start off with simple challenges like races, jumping, and defeating easy bosses. Amassing the first 20 Stars and defeating the first iteration of Bowser is obscenely easy. After that, however, things become more challenging: jumps are harder, puzzles more complicated, and situations more dangerous - death is common to the inexperienced player after the first 20 stars. Bowser seems further and further away, as one must collect 70 stars to reach Bowser for the final time (though to truly beat the game, one must collect all 120).
Mario's arsenal of moves had been greatly expanded upon in Super Mario 64. He can perform a number of acrobatic jumps and can even launch off of walls. Mario can also access powerup hats that provide him with different characteristics not otherwise available. There are three different hats: the Wing Cap, Metal Cap, and Invisibility Cap. The Wing Cap allows Mario to take off and fly after successfully performing a Triple Jump - this allows players to fly anywhere they want around the map for the duration the cap stays on Mario's head. The Metal Cap turns Mario into pure sentient steel, making him invulnerable to most kinds of damage and able to sink to the bottom of bodies of water instantly (which proves to be essential many a time). Finally, the Invisibility Cap immaterializes Mario, giving him the ability to pass through certain walls.
Super Mario 64 proved to be an incredibly fun, rather challenging game. Though it had points where it did drag a little, those were made up for by the sense of triumph after completing the puzzle at the end, or getting that final Star in a level. All in all, it's definitely worth a 40 to 50 hour gameplay session.
Retro Gaming 02, Part 2: A Link to the Past
Continuing my last post, I'll now be diving deeper into the game that is The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
Uncanny for its time was the sheer vastness of the realm: it takes a few minutes to traverse from one end to the other (unaided), and often about half an hour to hit all the large landmarks in the land. Yet this is only the singular realm of Hyrule - after you battle Agahnim, you are sent to Hyrule's parallel, simply known as the Dark World. The contours and landmarks are essentially the same, but the feel is entirely different: while in Hyrule, you wander a friendly, green landscape, constantly oppressed by the soldiers' omnipresence, in the Dark World you find yourself surrounded by depressing shades of brown, or menacing red and black areas (as well as the occasional white or blue that sticks out like a sore thumb), and are constantly threatened by those that were foolish enough to pursue the Golden Power and are now stuck in their hideous, evil forms.
Gameplay capitalizes on traveling between these two worlds: if the player exploits such transport to the fullest, s/he will find that their heart container (the ingame life meter) is always full, that their equipment is always in top condition, and that treasures await around every corner. The most rewarding part of exploration for many players is the discovery of heart pieces, which are treasures that, when collected in groups of four, increase your heart count (health). These eventually prove essential, as enemies become more deadly and bosses more challenging.
The actual game leads you through the three dungeons in the light realm of Hyrule, and then through the seven temples scattered throughout the Dark Realm. In each dungeon/temple, the formula is relatively simple: find the Big Key (which is usually possible through a little bit of thought-out puzzle solving), get the dungeon's item, and use it to defeat the boss, thereby earning whatever reward (be it pendant or crystallized descendant) afterwords. Though the formula itself is relatively simple, it is made much more entertaining by the fact that there are so many intricate puzzles in each dungeon that one might spend an hour or three in each simply figuring out what's going on, and the satisfaction of finally acquiring that big dungeon item. I remember, just the other day, I was spelunking through a dungeon and dying over and over because of a few obnoxious jellyfish enemies - pathetic, I know, but they're always in the way - until I got the Hookshot. After that, I could fly around wherever I wanted with no fear - the jellies were killed instantly when I shot them. It leads to a small (yet still satisfying) sense of triumph, as the land becomes less and less dangerous as you brave its perils.
All in all, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is a game definitely worth playing through at least once, if not multiple times, to discover its multitude of secrets and experience the sense of triumph after getting all the items.
Have fun, good gaming, and remember - don't feed the trolls.
-Toast
Uncanny for its time was the sheer vastness of the realm: it takes a few minutes to traverse from one end to the other (unaided), and often about half an hour to hit all the large landmarks in the land. Yet this is only the singular realm of Hyrule - after you battle Agahnim, you are sent to Hyrule's parallel, simply known as the Dark World. The contours and landmarks are essentially the same, but the feel is entirely different: while in Hyrule, you wander a friendly, green landscape, constantly oppressed by the soldiers' omnipresence, in the Dark World you find yourself surrounded by depressing shades of brown, or menacing red and black areas (as well as the occasional white or blue that sticks out like a sore thumb), and are constantly threatened by those that were foolish enough to pursue the Golden Power and are now stuck in their hideous, evil forms.
Gameplay capitalizes on traveling between these two worlds: if the player exploits such transport to the fullest, s/he will find that their heart container (the ingame life meter) is always full, that their equipment is always in top condition, and that treasures await around every corner. The most rewarding part of exploration for many players is the discovery of heart pieces, which are treasures that, when collected in groups of four, increase your heart count (health). These eventually prove essential, as enemies become more deadly and bosses more challenging.
The actual game leads you through the three dungeons in the light realm of Hyrule, and then through the seven temples scattered throughout the Dark Realm. In each dungeon/temple, the formula is relatively simple: find the Big Key (which is usually possible through a little bit of thought-out puzzle solving), get the dungeon's item, and use it to defeat the boss, thereby earning whatever reward (be it pendant or crystallized descendant) afterwords. Though the formula itself is relatively simple, it is made much more entertaining by the fact that there are so many intricate puzzles in each dungeon that one might spend an hour or three in each simply figuring out what's going on, and the satisfaction of finally acquiring that big dungeon item. I remember, just the other day, I was spelunking through a dungeon and dying over and over because of a few obnoxious jellyfish enemies - pathetic, I know, but they're always in the way - until I got the Hookshot. After that, I could fly around wherever I wanted with no fear - the jellies were killed instantly when I shot them. It leads to a small (yet still satisfying) sense of triumph, as the land becomes less and less dangerous as you brave its perils.
All in all, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is a game definitely worth playing through at least once, if not multiple times, to discover its multitude of secrets and experience the sense of triumph after getting all the items.
Have fun, good gaming, and remember - don't feed the trolls.
-Toast
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Retro Gaming 02: A Link to the Past
If you take a look at my childhood, about a quarter of it was spent playing one game for the GameBoy Advanced (though I actually played it on an SP). Which game, you might be asking yourself? Well take one look and you'll recognize it from the Legend of Zelda series. It premiered on the Super Nintendo in November 1991, and its name was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I was able to spend so much time on this game simply because of its size: it had two full worlds that were completely explorable and absolutely enormous. Gameplay was fun and addicting, and the quest was straightforward, but always a challenge because of the puzzles you faced along the way.
The game begins with an introductory cutscene describing the situation that the realm of Hyrule faces: an evil wizard named Agahnim has killed the king, seized the throne, and is attempting to gain a mysterious "Golden Power" that would make him omnitient. This Power was sealed in a different realm long ago by seven sages, but the wizard is breaking the seal by capturing the sages' descendants and locking them in crystals. You, link, are called out to by the final descendant conscious: Princess Zelda. She summons you to the palace, where Agahnim is about to complete his dark ritual.
At this moment, your uncle (whom you live with) hears the call as well. He was part of the royal guard before the king was murdered, and thusly heads to the castle to save the princess. You leave after he does, braving the storm and avoiding guards, to find him dead in the castle sewers...he gives you his sword and his shield and commands you press on to save the Princess and therefore the world. You're then sent to explore the castle grounds in search of the princess, who's locked away in the dungeon. After a few minutes of wandering and joyfully killing palace guards, you encounter her in her dungeon cell and free her by defeating her flail-wielding guard. You then take her to a sanctuary connected to the palace by a system of poorly lit sewers, leaving her in the hands of the priest there, who then informs you fully about your quest and your duties: you are perhaps the only chance the land has at peace, and the only one in any position to search for the three pendants that unbind the Master Sword from its place in the forest. From there, you're thrown into the massive world that is Hyrule.
Next blog post, I'll be continuing this section of Retro Gaming, diving deeper into the realm of Hyrule.
(Blogging Week 3, Post 1)
Have fun, good gaming, and remember - don't feed the trolls.
The game begins with an introductory cutscene describing the situation that the realm of Hyrule faces: an evil wizard named Agahnim has killed the king, seized the throne, and is attempting to gain a mysterious "Golden Power" that would make him omnitient. This Power was sealed in a different realm long ago by seven sages, but the wizard is breaking the seal by capturing the sages' descendants and locking them in crystals. You, link, are called out to by the final descendant conscious: Princess Zelda. She summons you to the palace, where Agahnim is about to complete his dark ritual.
At this moment, your uncle (whom you live with) hears the call as well. He was part of the royal guard before the king was murdered, and thusly heads to the castle to save the princess. You leave after he does, braving the storm and avoiding guards, to find him dead in the castle sewers...he gives you his sword and his shield and commands you press on to save the Princess and therefore the world. You're then sent to explore the castle grounds in search of the princess, who's locked away in the dungeon. After a few minutes of wandering and joyfully killing palace guards, you encounter her in her dungeon cell and free her by defeating her flail-wielding guard. You then take her to a sanctuary connected to the palace by a system of poorly lit sewers, leaving her in the hands of the priest there, who then informs you fully about your quest and your duties: you are perhaps the only chance the land has at peace, and the only one in any position to search for the three pendants that unbind the Master Sword from its place in the forest. From there, you're thrown into the massive world that is Hyrule.
Next blog post, I'll be continuing this section of Retro Gaming, diving deeper into the realm of Hyrule.
(Blogging Week 3, Post 1)
Have fun, good gaming, and remember - don't feed the trolls.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
I Cast Magic Missile (A DnD Blog): Gameplay
(Toast's Note: This blog is part of my blog series, I Cast Magic Missile, and I'd suggest reading the first two parts before you proceed. ^-^ )
So you've decided to step into a gaming session of DnD for the first time, and have absolutely no idea what's going on - all you've ever heard about is dice rolling and a lot of paper. Well, my good friend, jumping in to the DnD adventuring experience is relatively easy (and even more so if your DM is committed), so relax and have fun!
The first thing adventurers need to know is who they are: this is what the entirety of the rest of their gameplay style should be centered around. Are you the cunning rogue that beguiles enemies and taunts your friends? Are you the silent wizard, whose fiery rage explodes when his allies are touched? Or are you the guts-and-glory warrior, who charges into everything head-on? These are all entirely up to you when you create your character. Pick a class that seems like it would be fun to play, but also fits the group you're adventuring with (ask your DM what is and isn't good at the time), and record basic details such as eye, hair, and skin color, race, and gender so that your Dungeon Master knows how to describe you when other characters encounter you.
After you've determined all this, you can move on to the statistics of your character - how s/he actually gets about when the dice hit the table. If you take a look here, you'll find the sheets many Dungeon Masters prefer to use when crunching data. It might seem like there are an overwhelmingly large number of stats to record, but if you know how your DM forms the numbers, then it should be completable without much trouble. Next blog, I'll follow up this basic character overview with descriptions of the information found on the character sheets such as skills, abilities (which are entirely different than skills - yes, I know it's odd), feats, and the most basic overview of spells.
(Blogging Week 2: Complete)
Have fun, good gaming, and remember - don't feed the trolls.
-Toast
So you've decided to step into a gaming session of DnD for the first time, and have absolutely no idea what's going on - all you've ever heard about is dice rolling and a lot of paper. Well, my good friend, jumping in to the DnD adventuring experience is relatively easy (and even more so if your DM is committed), so relax and have fun!
The first thing adventurers need to know is who they are: this is what the entirety of the rest of their gameplay style should be centered around. Are you the cunning rogue that beguiles enemies and taunts your friends? Are you the silent wizard, whose fiery rage explodes when his allies are touched? Or are you the guts-and-glory warrior, who charges into everything head-on? These are all entirely up to you when you create your character. Pick a class that seems like it would be fun to play, but also fits the group you're adventuring with (ask your DM what is and isn't good at the time), and record basic details such as eye, hair, and skin color, race, and gender so that your Dungeon Master knows how to describe you when other characters encounter you.
After you've determined all this, you can move on to the statistics of your character - how s/he actually gets about when the dice hit the table. If you take a look here, you'll find the sheets many Dungeon Masters prefer to use when crunching data. It might seem like there are an overwhelmingly large number of stats to record, but if you know how your DM forms the numbers, then it should be completable without much trouble. Next blog, I'll follow up this basic character overview with descriptions of the information found on the character sheets such as skills, abilities (which are entirely different than skills - yes, I know it's odd), feats, and the most basic overview of spells.
(Blogging Week 2: Complete)
Have fun, good gaming, and remember - don't feed the trolls.
-Toast
I Cast Magic Missile: Intro (Part 2)
Though some are content to
categorize players into different playing styles, I firmly believe that there
are as many different styles of playing as there are people on the planet, no
matter the role. But there are trends that emerge in players, and though they
might seem it, many aren’t mutually exclusive.
Dungeon Masters, for example, can take an infinite number of
routes, depending on a multitude of factors, such as group size, personality,
tendencies, and preferences. Trends in DMs, however, are easily recognizable
once they are set:
The Quickie DM:
This Dungeon Master is often in his position to fill a hole, or simply to
experiment as being a DM. They aren’t quite familiar enough with the particular
style of gameplay they want to forge, so they often resort to dice-rolling and
consulting a guidebook. Storylines developed by these DMs are simple, but not
uninteresting, and show a lack of thought before the gaming session.
Descriptions are conjured hastily and often leave adventurers wanting, and
lines like, “You kill the goblin,” and, “You enter the town,” pop up
frequently. Though the want to create good gameplay is there, the will to
create it isn’t yet present.
There’s a long gradation from this white into gray space that
leads us to…
The Committed DM: These
guys are really into what they do, and they absolutely love it. They contrast
starkly to quickie DMs, and oftentimes even those in between, because of how
intricate plotlines are, how varied geography and demography can be in their
worlds, and how intense gameplay situations are. These DMs are in their element
all the time, no matter what the adventurers do, and have a way of manipulating
the other players to do just what they want to spring brilliant plot points
upon them. Often, they employ every method they know to make the world more
real: they might whisper to adventurers when they discover a secret that only
their character is being told, or yell and flail intensely when the flame golem’s fiery hand comes down to
crush the wizard, but at the VERY last second a spiraling spout of water erupts
from his staff and puts the entire golem out, and then he turns to you, his
blonde hair streaking out behind him, magical essence snapping in the air, and…
You get the idea.
Adventurers, on the other hand, face much more restriction:
they only have one character to manage, and can only act as they would. But
despite (or maybe because of) these
restrictions, there are hundreds of different playing styles an adventurer can
take, such as:
The Looter: These
people absolutely love the idea of amassing a huge store of gold and magical
items and thusly do all they can within the game to acquire riches and fame for
themselves.
The Quester: Players
like this take joy in exploring the world that the Dungeon Master has laid out
for them, and
The most important quality in a player is their willingness to
play! If they dismiss acting out the adventure as silly or boring, act as a ‘troll’
within the group and go against everyone else’s wishes, or are just outright
obnoxious, they become a nuisance quite quickly and can ruin individual
sessions and even entire games. However, when the DM and the adventurers are committed, Dungeons and Dragons sessions can become the most anticipated hours of one's week, if not month. Because of this, I strongly recommend at least trying out a few sessions of DnD with a group that seems legitimately concentrated. Who knows? Maybe you'll be the player that turns the tables in that final battle with the dragon ;)
In my next blog, I'll be continuing the I Cast Magic Missile series, kissing the surface of actual basic DnD gameplay.
(Blogging Week 2)
Have fun, good gaming, and remember - don't feed the trolls.
-Toast
In my next blog, I'll be continuing the I Cast Magic Missile series, kissing the surface of actual basic DnD gameplay.
(Blogging Week 2)
Have fun, good gaming, and remember - don't feed the trolls.
-Toast
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