Dungeons, Dragons, Character, & Identity

I'm playing D & D again, with an entirely new group. Apparently I get invited to established RPG groups somehow. That's all right. We only just began playing, and it's got me thinking about character creation, role playing, and identity.

Two of the players in the new group have never played RPGs. That in and of itself is fine, but maybe I'm just an actor-type player; newer players tend to make two-dimensional characters. One of the new players is literally playing a version of He-Man. The character's backstory is that he is from the planet Eternia and he's a prince etc. He seems to be garnering most of his inspiration from the Dolph Lundgren version, which is actually better than the alternatives (the He-man cartoon from my youth does NOT hold up well). Still, the character is a meathead and a goon, a caricature and a one-note joke. I guess we'll see how long the charm lasts.



The other new player didn't even create their own character, and so wasn't involved in the process at all (the DM put everything together for them). This new player, through no fault of their own, only understands the rude mechanical core of the game. Their character, at the end of the day, is a list of powers and abilities. Perhaps eventually they will work to create a deeper personality. They didn't have a character name until the DM gave them one two sessions in.

Conversely, myself and at least one other player tend to create characters with depth. Deep characters engage with the story more, as they have complex motivations and a rich backstory can give the DM opportunities for engagement. If my character explicitly has a sister which he worries about, then the DM has a ready-made source of adventure engagement and conflict. On the other hand, the DM gave new player 2 above a sister and used them as a plot device to get them working with the rest of the party. However, the sister wasn't much motivation, and the new player balked at the idea of rescuing for a second (which is sad really).

Normally I create characters based on motivations and (at least in real-world RPGs like Vampire) accents which can let me slip in and out of character to the group through aural cues. It's difficult to try and work with accents in D & D, though not impossible. This time I eschewed that practice and made a character based on the needs of the group (4th Edition D & D is a team effort). Then I sort of built them up around that concept.

My own character is in fact uncomfortably close to a facet of myself, the happy-go-lucky night owl socialite. It has gotten me thinking about D & D as either a source or a solution for identity crisis. Many are familiar with the supposed dangers of the game and it's ability to change or warp a person's mindset.
But what about D & D as therapy? What about exploring a facet of one's own personality, not in order to change the self wholesale, but to gain a greater self-understanding? I'm not sure if what I'm doing in this game is at that level of soul-searching, but I will admit that I sometimes miss my hard-partying late nights from a decade ago. Perhaps this character can allow me to relive those days in a more responsible fashion.

The other player in the new group who creates deep characters (player 3?) is still trying to solidify who their character is. I like this approach as well as the deep backstory one. As long as the player is working to create a character rather than a caricature then the story will feel more alive. It was still amusing watching them question their character's motivations during the first session (why would I do this? Why now? Etc).

This whole experience actually makes me long a bit for my other RPG group, who haven't met in nearly a year now. Those guys all created rich characters; some of them explored them while playing, and some of them spent time before games working out backstory. It was great roleplaying in the end, the characters were vivid and three-dimensional, and at times I felt that the scenes created were poignant.

I guess as long as everyone's having fun playing the game then it's all good, but for me character depth is more rewarding than anything else. It's better than +5 baldrics of efficacious stabinating or slaying ancient mauve dragons.

-Merlin out

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone y'allz



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Elder Sign: Omens for iPhone

I have to admit, the setup for this game is significantly less time-consuming than that of its forebear. As an iPhone game, I can use this app to get my Lovecraftian horror on from just about anywhere. The game features many of the same characters and much of the artwork from Arkham Horror.

Gameplay-wise, the player controls a group of investigators maneuvering through a museum which has many breaches into various other terrible dimensions. There is an ancient one (always Azathoth for simplicity) who awakes and destroys the world if the doom track fills. The investigators must acquire 14 elder signs before Azathoth awakens.



As the game begins, there are 6 randomly chosen adventures scattered through the museum. The investigator who is active chooses one to do, or spends their turn doing some bureaucracy at the museum entrance (buying or selling items, etc.). After choosing an adventure, the investigator enters the adventure screen.



On the adventure screen, the investigator conjures various random runes necessary for completing adventures. With luck, special abilities to manipulate runes, or items to change them around, the investigator can complete the adventure and gain the rewards, which can be items, spells, or even elder signs if the adventure is challenging enough.



Failing to complete the adventure will have consequences that range from stamina or sanity loss to spawning monsters and adding to the doom track. Most adventures are set up with risks and rewards that are reflective of the adventure's difficulty. Tough adventures yield elder signs and lots of items, whereas simpler adventures will give an item or a clue.



Each investigator has a sanity and stamina level that will deteriorate as they complete and fail tasks. If either trait goes to zero the investigator is deceased of insane and no longer helps the team against the mythos.

Adding to the "race against the clock" feel of the game, there is a literal clock on the screen which advances with each investigator's turn. It periodically strikes midnight, and a random bad thing happens then, usually more doom and monsters.



It's a fun little game. I lost my first few games while learning how to play, but since then I rarely lose. Managing the investigators' sanity, stamina, items, and skills and matching those to appropriately difficult adventures is easy enough. As long as the team is completing adventures I seem to do well.

I think it's pretty good, though it suffers from a grind-y vibe as there is always more adventures spawning to complete. I quite like the art style and general mood of the game, but I'm not sure how often I'll come back to it. Few iPhone games have captured my long-term attention span. We'll see if this one holds up. Overall a 3.0.

-Merlin out

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone y'allz

Board Games on the Road: Arkham Horror

I actually got this last Christmas, and I hadn't played it until recently. It's a big time-sink, and a massive game. Luckily, it can be played single player, and since I apparently like single player games from Fantasy Flight Games, I decided it was time.

I'm traveling a bit for work here and there, and since I'm spending some time alone in hotel rooms I thought I should direct that time toward the blog and gaming. To this end I'm going to try and play some single player board games here and there during my travels.

Arkham Horror is an investigation and horror game based on the writing of H. P. Lovecraft. I'm a fan of his work, and the RPG community that's grown around his mythos is impressive. In the game, the players take the role of distinct investigators who must stop the otherworldly entities from devouring humankind.




The set up for the game took a long time. There are over a dozen different decks of cards, another dozen types of chit or counter, and some large cardstock pieces that represent the investigators and the Ancient One, one of eight mythos entities that represent the games antagonist element.

I played two games during an overnight stay. It took about 45 minutes to set up the game for the first time, but I imagine that it will be significantly easier and could be streamlined further by packing the game away in an organized fashion.

Game one featured the investigator Michael McGlen, the Gangster, pitted against the Ancient One Shub-Niggurath. McGlen has a high stamina, starts with a Tommy Gun (one of the more powerful mundane weapons), and takes less damage during combat. Shub-Niggurath makes her creatures more difficult to kill as well. So it was a toughness battle.




Each turn the game has several phases. Each investigator gets to move, do some encounters, collect clues, and so forth. They may even step through gates to Other Worlds. The last phase of each turn is the Mythos phase. During this phase gates open, monsters spawn and move, and additional clues and effects happen.

Each turn a gate will open at one of the dangerous locations on the map unless an elder sign token is on the location drawn, or a gate already exists there. If there's already a gate there, monsters pour out of the gates already on the board.

Here's a list of bad things that will awaken the Ancient One and force a difficult final battle:

Too many gates open on the board (8 for single player).
The Terror Track is filled (starts at 0 and advances every time there is an overflow of monsters).
The Ancient One's Doom track is filled (each time a gate opens a doom token is added)
There's more but I'm forgetting some. . .

To seal a gate requires 5 clue tokens, a successful check against the gate, and requires that the investigator has explored the other world to which the gate leads. It takes at least 3, sometimes 4-5 turns to seal one. A single-player experience seems to require the player to aggressively seal 2-3 gates ASAP to keep the ancient one from awakening due to the amount of gates on the board.

Mike did okay sealing his first two, but by then a Rumor Mythos card had popped up. Rumors are bad effects which linger until a specific condition is met. In this case the Rumor had a 33% chance to increase the Terror level. Mike had to get two gate trophies (seal gates for trophies) to stop the rumor. He did manage it, but by then the Terror track was almost full, and he'd been Cursed as well. Being Cursed is all kinds of bad.



So Shub-Niggurath woke up and ate Mike.

The Rumor card really did him in. It was fun, but difficult.




I played another game as Bob Jenkins, the salesman. Bob's special ability gives him extra items. He also starts with a number of items. I happened to draw two Elder Sign unique items (two of the same unique item?) which I thought was pretty awesome. Bob managed to seal two gates right quick and had saved up enough clues to do a third. He'd also managed to get a Tommy Gun during character creation, so he was tough.

However, a number of difficult monsters have Physical Resistance or Immunity, which makes fighting them without spells terribly rough. A Rumor popped up that put a pile of monsters into Miskatonic University, and if the pile ever grew to 8 (it gains one per turn) the terror track would max out and the final battle would begin.

Thing was, the Ancient One against Bob was Azathoth, and there is no final battle with Azathoth. He (it?) just destroys the world.

Bob spent several turns trying to prune the monsters at Miskatonic U while creatures and gates continued to spawn (because the game doesn't stop while you're dealing with a Rumor). Eventually the list of monsters at the University was just filled with ghosts and spectral beasts who didn't give a shit about Bob's machine gun. The number grew to 8 after a fire vampire knocked out Bob's last stamina and he wound up in the hospital. Azathoth destroyed the world.

So that was cool.

Overall, it's a fun game, but it has some trouble at the single player level. Perhaps since it's co-op, I will try it again and control 2 or more investigators at a time. I'm sure this will change the game in a number of ways, but hopefully it's a bit less challenging.

Perhaps it's meant to be super-challenging? The Lovecraftian mythos doesn't have a lot of rays of hope going for it. Maybe the difficult choices in the game are meant to represent the inevitable decline of humankind as Elder Gods and Things From Beyond encroach on our world.

Flavor-wise, it certainly gets an A. Gameplay-wise, it felt a bit like a gate-sealing grind, with so many additional complications that it felt impossible to win. I know that solitaire games tend to be brutally difficult, but Arkham Horror is the toughest I've played.I'd give it an overall grade-point (on the community-college 4.0-0.0 scale) of 3.0.

There's a stripped-down version of the game available, called Elder Sign. There's also an iPhone game just released called Elder Sign:Omens. I picked it up, and I'll talk about that soon.

-Merlin out

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone y'allz

Building Lists v. Building Factions

Many excellent warmachine and hordes players recognize that playing factions is alright, but playing one caster or warlock and building a single solid list is cheaper and tends to be a better play experience. I'm not necessarily a good WarmaHordes player, but I can see the advantages.

I chose to play Cygnar, and I've collect a good portion of the faction, which gives me lots of options when playing Cygnar. However, I've only been playing the Warcaster Constance Blaize in the last two months, and so much of my Cygnar stuff is dusty.

Also, getting skills requires some dedication to a strategy. Having a single 'caster to work with makes it easier to become jouzu at the game. Having a huge faction worth of possibilities leads to a shallow understanding of a broad range of things instead of a deep understanding of a few.

Further, my Trollbloods exploration has made me rethink buying into a whole 'nother faction. I'd rather build a couple solid lists and work from there.

Don't get me wrong: tournament play generally requires several lists from the same faction, but in general it's cheaper to work in lists rather than factions.



To this end, I decided to build a Trollbloods Grim Angus list. One reason is cost: Grim supports mercenaries as well as his own troops, unlike most Troll warlocks, so my Nyss Hunters are ready to work for him. Another reason is that Grim looks like a lot of fun, with a series of debuffs to help his army land hits and buffs to help his stuff move and target. He's really all about buffing accuracy. On top of the rest, he's got a gun, so I can shoot with him. That's something I like about Cygnar warcasters, so it fits into my comfort zone despite being in a different faction.

Looking through the Trollbloods faction book, I decided I would buy a heavy warbeast (because the goddamn warpack didn't come with one) and a full unit of trolls. Then I would cherry pick support solos and the like to support those troop choices, and add in the Nyss Hunters to fill out the list.

I read Sevwall's strategy article about the Pygmy Burrowers unit ("Dygmies") on the Privateer Press forums, and it paints a convincing picture of the Dygmies as a versatile, difficult-to-deal-with unit. They are dirt cheap in army-points cost, but they're also terribly, awfully inaccurate. Trolls have access to a lot of solos who buff units, however, and many warlocks also help. I decided to buy me some Dygmies.

For a heavy, I took a look at the several options available and decided that the Earthborn Dire Troll was the most versatile. It's got a lot of terrain-variable buffs, it can often hit as hard as whatever it's hitting, and it's animus can give buffs to other friendliest based on nearby terrain. It's good. It also has pathfinder, just like Grim, and just like the burrowers, and just like the Nyss Hunters.

So my Grim list is very much shaping up to be a list built around taking advantage of available terrain.

At 15 points it looks like:

Army Name: Grim Beginnings
Trollbloods
15+6 points, 13 models

Grim Angus +6 points
* Earthborn Dire Troll 10 points
* Troll Impaler 5 points

10 Pyg Burrowers 6 points

It has quite a few weaknesses at this level. With only one heavy hitter it will have trouble killing the tougher enemy warcasters and warlocks. I won't be able to afford trading the Earthborn Dire Troll (EBDT) for an enemy heavy unless I feel the burrowers and Impaler can finish the caster. The Dygmies really require some support solos to shine. They have a miserable melee attack stat and a similarly poor command check. To buff those they need a Fell Caller Hero and Trollkin Champion Hero nearby. Grim buffs their accuracy somewhat, but the additional buff from the Fell Caller takes them from good with Grim's feat to hitting just about everything on average rolls. Their poor command leaves them vulnerable to Terrifying entities (lich lords and such) or Abominations (bigger lich lords and such), but the Champ Hero is a battlefield commander with a respectable Command stat.

So to pump the list up to 25 I would take those two solos, each of which cost 3 points (they also kick butt themselves, so the cost isn't too painful). With the remaining 4 points I had a lot of choices, but I would settle on either Janissa Stonetide, another 3 pt solo, and the Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew, or a 3 troll, 4 pt unit of Runeshapers. Probably the former.

These support pieces add a lot to the burrowers and Grim's survivability without reducing their overall punch. However, at 25 the lack of a second heavy might hurt the list's performance somewhat. High-armor opponents might give it trouble, but hopefully if I can kill a heavy with the burrowers, or with the Earthborn during Grim's feat turn, I can win the attrition war. If I can get an Earthborn charge on an enemy 'caster they will probably also die, so that's a secondary option. The EDT can get a 12" charge if circumstances permit, so that can surprise some players.

At 35 points, I still don't add a second heavy, mostly because I don't own one. Instead I add the Troll Axer for his animus and his infantry-clearing thresher attack, and with the last 4 PTs put the Runeshapers in. I could add the Krielstone bearers with UA instead of the Runeshapers (dropping the Gobbers for a full unit) instead, but I don't have the stone yet, and I'm not sure Grim really needs it.

The Runeshapers give the list 3 magical aoe attacks, and if they crit they cause knockdown. At this point the list is very much about clearing a charge lane for the EDT to get an assassination. The aoes, the thresher attacks, and the burrowers cause a lot of problems for enemy infantry, and they can open some serious holes for the Dire Troll to fly across the board.

Grim's Cross Country spell can even allow the EDT to target enemies through forests which normally would block LOS, and the Axer animus can give the Earthborn yet another 2". If it gets all the buffs in a single turn (Axer animus, starts w/i 2" of rough terrain for +2 spd, and Grim shoots the target with his rifle to add 2" with Bait the Line) it can charge 14" away, and with its melee range of a half inch it can get to a lot of enemies. The thing to remember is to move Grim far enough forward that the EDT is still in his control to be forced.

That can be dangerous of course, but on the feat turn the speed debuff can keep Grim safe from much reprisal.

At 50 I add in my aforementioned Nyss Hunters, and. . .another Impaler at the moment. It's not optimal, but with the models I currently own that's where I'm at. I'll eventually get a Slag Troll and fit that in at 50 instead. That thing can wreck it some constructs.

Overall the list will struggle with high armor, but with any luck I can control the board enough to outflank or out last my opponent.

-Merlin out