It's not me, Obsidian, it's you:
It does go on.
And on.
And on.
I know, right? 😴
It's too bad, though. To Obsidian Entertainment's credit, the dialogues in that second installment in the Pillars of Eternity series are fully voice-acted, and the actors did a stellar job! (Giving credit where credit is due.)
To be fair, the Pillars or Eternity series has its fan base and its cringe-worthy cosmology has its well-meaning commenders.
Point in case:
I rest my case.
CRPG games are half about mechanics and rules, for one part, and half about story-telling and world-building—i.e. the power of words—for the other part. While many contemporary games, like Pillars of Eternity do well with the former, they seem to have lost their touch with the latter, which was the hallmark of the golden age of adventure games, from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, with titles like, say, Ultima VII (The Black Gate), or even point-and-click games like Quest for Glory (Shadows of Darkness), which did so well creating immersive worlds and engaging engrossing stories (including some simple, yet memorable, mood setting MIDI compositions), with so little, technologically , compared to today's era.
Lestrade may never glimpse the transcendental potential of words—though he well understands their everyday mundane uses.
I, on the other hand, feel that words, and the worlds they conjure, are mostly successful if they open for me a glimpse of attractive and undiscovered places.
Showing posts with label RPG. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RPG. Show all posts
I am not all that interested in your cosmology
Why are you so afraid?
Do you still have no faith?
Welcome to Mansions of Madness, 2nd edition, our next Tabletop RPG!
It's a Lovecraftian universe inspired game.
☝🏼 Howard Phillips Lovecraft was an American writer of weird and horror fiction, who is known for his creation of what became known as the Cthulhu Mythos.
If anyone wanna watch Dagon (the film directed by Stuart Gordon and written by Dennis Paoli, based on H. P. Lovecraft's novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth), we've got a copy in the Loge's library.
The Cthulu mythos is about outer-dimensional, incomprehensible to the human mind, madness-inducing entities, who once ruled the Earth. Some of them—the least of them—are still amongst us (like the mi-go in "The Whisperer in Darkness"). Others, the Great Old Ones, were once expelled in another dimension, but they will return when "the stars are right."
There are cultists (no, not Scientologists—though who is to say what "the truth revealed" to the faithful who ultimately reach OT level VIII really turns about to be?) who are trying to open the "door" to bring about the return of the Great Old Ones.
The hallmark of Lovecraft's work is cosmicism, the sense that ordinary life is a thin shell over a reality that is so alien and abstract in comparison that merely contemplating it would damage the sanity of the ordinary person.
Lovecraft's pantheon is made of "such stuff as dreams [or nightmares] are made on" and "dreams are older than brooding Tyre or the contemplative Sphinx, or garden-girdled Babylon," but not all of Lovecraft's entities are entirely the product of the author's tormented psyche, Bast, Nodens and Dagon are known antic deities respectively from Egyptian, Celtic and Mesopotamian mythologies.
Did you know that the Loge possesses a copy, in the library, of what has been described as "potentially the most dangerous Black Book known to the Western World"?
No, not The Project For The New American Century...
The Necronomicon!
How careless of the librarian.
I think of some unsuspecting guest stumbling onto that book and shuffling unknowingly thought the pages ...
And I shudder.
How the West was weird
Howdy partners,
Welcome to DEADLANDS—our next Tabletop RPG!
Think of it as a some kind of an alternate history Wild West, Steampunk, Horror mashup.
We will be using the Savage World core system. Practically speaking, that means the Deadlands Reloaded edition of the game.
The system is elegantly simple and keeps playing character preparation, during the initial phase of the game, and paperwork, during a game session, to a minimum.
If you're not familiar with the Savage World system, Bobby, from GM Table, has a pretty comprehensive intro about the basic game mechanics, but no need for you to bother with that if rules are not your cup of tea. Don't let game mechanics terrorize you, that's what your friendly easy-going Game Master (aka Marshal in Deadlands) is here for — handle the game mechanics, that is (not terrorize players), and provide newbies guidance with what they need to know, both at the time of character creation and during game-play.
It is a good, solid, easy system that plays fast and intuitively and allows players to focus on the story without getting bogged down in overly burdensome game mechanics.
GAMEPLAY:
For a TRULY EXCELLENT example of RPG done right, I highly recommend the series of recorded actual play sessions from the good folks of Radio Multiverse hereunder:
The next installments in the series can be found here:
- Deadlands Actual Play Ep. 1 - Part 2
And here:
- Deadlands Actual Play Ep. 1 - Part 3
You may, at this point, if you feel like it, listen to Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 and Part 7 , or skip those altogether and jump directly to the second Episode in the series, where the story is slowly picking up some steam and the players are becoming; increasingly comfortable in their roles:
From there, the next installment in the series can be found here:
- Deadlands Actual Play Ep. 2 - Part 2
And here:
- Deadlands Actual Play Ep. 2 - Part 3
There is more and the story does get pretty engaging narratively, so do feel free to listen to more online if you feel like it, but, for our purpose, you ought to have a pretty good grasp of how the game is played at that point.
CORE BOOKS:
The bad news is that both the Reloaded Marshal's Handbook and Player's Guide are now out of print and only available from collectors, if at all, for 100's of $.
The good news is that the digital librarians of The Eye—God bless their hearts—have been maintaining a public freely downloadable PDF library of Deadlands Reloaded core books and related published content and adventures.
The Player's Guide can be downloaded here.
Update (April 1st, 2019):
Ack! It looks like The Eye is on the blink:
But, don't fret people, Tik-Tok had the foresight to download all relevant Deadlands Reloaded pdf files from the site.
So, if anyone still needs a digital copy of the Player's Guide, just let us know.
Also, Ethel has successfully managed to acquire a hard copy of the Marshal's Handbook and Player's Guide.
Both volumes are now accessible for consultation in the Library.
Welcome to DEADLANDS—our next Tabletop RPG!
Think of it as a some kind of an alternate history Wild West, Steampunk, Horror mashup.
We will be using the Savage World core system. Practically speaking, that means the Deadlands Reloaded edition of the game.
The system is elegantly simple and keeps playing character preparation, during the initial phase of the game, and paperwork, during a game session, to a minimum.
If you're not familiar with the Savage World system, Bobby, from GM Table, has a pretty comprehensive intro about the basic game mechanics, but no need for you to bother with that if rules are not your cup of tea. Don't let game mechanics terrorize you, that's what your friendly easy-going Game Master (aka Marshal in Deadlands) is here for — handle the game mechanics, that is (not terrorize players), and provide newbies guidance with what they need to know, both at the time of character creation and during game-play.
It is a good, solid, easy system that plays fast and intuitively and allows players to focus on the story without getting bogged down in overly burdensome game mechanics.
GAMEPLAY:
For a TRULY EXCELLENT example of RPG done right, I highly recommend the series of recorded actual play sessions from the good folks of Radio Multiverse hereunder:
The next installments in the series can be found here:
- Deadlands Actual Play Ep. 1 - Part 2
And here:
- Deadlands Actual Play Ep. 1 - Part 3
You may, at this point, if you feel like it, listen to Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 and Part 7 , or skip those altogether and jump directly to the second Episode in the series, where the story is slowly picking up some steam and the players are becoming; increasingly comfortable in their roles:
From there, the next installment in the series can be found here:
- Deadlands Actual Play Ep. 2 - Part 2
And here:
- Deadlands Actual Play Ep. 2 - Part 3
There is more and the story does get pretty engaging narratively, so do feel free to listen to more online if you feel like it, but, for our purpose, you ought to have a pretty good grasp of how the game is played at that point.
CORE BOOKS:
The bad news is that both the Reloaded Marshal's Handbook and Player's Guide are now out of print and only available from collectors, if at all, for 100's of $.
The good news is that the digital librarians of The Eye—God bless their hearts—have been maintaining a public freely downloadable PDF library of Deadlands Reloaded core books and related published content and adventures.
The Player's Guide can be downloaded here.
Update (April 1st, 2019):
Ack! It looks like The Eye is on the blink:
But, don't fret people, Tik-Tok had the foresight to download all relevant Deadlands Reloaded pdf files from the site.
So, if anyone still needs a digital copy of the Player's Guide, just let us know.
Also, Ethel has successfully managed to acquire a hard copy of the Marshal's Handbook and Player's Guide.
Both volumes are now accessible for consultation in the Library.
Twas the night before Christmas . . .
The moon on the breast
of the new fallen snow,
Gave the lustre of mid-day
to objects below...
When what to my wondering
eyes should appear?
I knew in a moment it must be Count Stahd Von Zarovich
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came...
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
"Now, DARK FANG! now, REAPER! now, HECKLE and JECKLE!
On, DARK STAR! on TWILIGHT! on, ROÄC and RIPTAIL!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
SAVE THE DATE:
of the new fallen snow,
Gave the lustre of mid-day
to objects below...
When what to my wondering
eyes should appear?
I knew in a moment it must be Count Stahd Von Zarovich
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came...
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
"Now, DARK FANG! now, REAPER! now, HECKLE and JECKLE!
On, DARK STAR! on TWILIGHT! on, ROÄC and RIPTAIL!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
SAVE THE DATE:
Quis, quid, quando, ubi, cur, quomodo
"Who, what, when, where, why, how," that is the question.
1. WHO and WHAT
Not such and easy target.
The possibility are endless... I get it.
First things first, then.
Let's just put "WHO" on hold for now, and let us try to narrow it down a bit by first getting started with WHERE, HOW and WHY.
2. WHERE, HOW and WHY?
What's your cup of tea? Or is it coffee? Or something more exotic? (Pick your poison.)
Where in the world do you envision your merry adventures unfolding?
Do you fancy yourself living in a rich, vibrant city? A city of splendors?
A modest hamlet?
A cabin in the woods? (Because what could possibly go wrong with that, right?)
Or are you, maybe, an itinerant wanderer? Some kind of a performer, perhaps?
Which takes you next to the related questions of HOW and WHY.
Wherever it is that you live, how do you do it?
How do you support your life style?
And why? Why is it you do what you do?
3. TIME
It doesn't necessarily have to be Sword and Sorcery or Heroic Fantasy, you know.
There's nothing stopping you from taking your D&D game to the modern era:
Or the future:
1. WHO and WHAT
Not such and easy target.
The possibility are endless... I get it.
First things first, then.
Let's just put "WHO" on hold for now, and let us try to narrow it down a bit by first getting started with WHERE, HOW and WHY.
2. WHERE, HOW and WHY?
What's your cup of tea? Or is it coffee? Or something more exotic? (Pick your poison.)
Where in the world do you envision your merry adventures unfolding?
Do you fancy yourself living in a rich, vibrant city? A city of splendors?
A modest hamlet?
A cabin in the woods? (Because what could possibly go wrong with that, right?)
Or are you, maybe, an itinerant wanderer? Some kind of a performer, perhaps?
Which takes you next to the related questions of HOW and WHY.
Wherever it is that you live, how do you do it?
How do you support your life style?
And why? Why is it you do what you do?
3. TIME
It doesn't necessarily have to be Sword and Sorcery or Heroic Fantasy, you know.
There's nothing stopping you from taking your D&D game to the modern era:
Or the future:
Life is an adventure. Take risks.
It's a relatively short journey from Neverwinter to Phandalin.
What could possibly go wrong, right?
Be as it may, I would feel a lot better about this if we could strengthen our ranks with a wizard and/or a cleric.
An extra fighter might not hurt either.
It pays 10 gold coins, each.
Interested?
Meet with us at the appointed time and we'll tell you more.
What could possibly go wrong, right?
Be as it may, I would feel a lot better about this if we could strengthen our ranks with a wizard and/or a cleric.
An extra fighter might not hurt either.
It pays 10 gold coins, each.
Interested?
Meet with us at the appointed time and we'll tell you more.
Prendés i Garde
That's because you are doing it all wrong, Ryan.
Hmm... Better roll a Stealth check on that one.
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