And I’m back
Ok, so here I am again, finally finding the pull to write something after a long absence. Looking back at the last few months since I last typed something up, I see quite a few things that I have done, some things that have changed, and some news worthy things I feel I should touch upon.
First, and foremost – the news that brings me to type today. The already day old news of a new Dungeons and Dragons in the works over at WotC, and the fact that they are taking the open collective approach that helped Pathfinder take a major market share away from them. Instead of boring you with all the details, I’m just going to link you over to Critical Hits, to someone who actually has talked with the Wizard who lives by the coast, and I think has a very good outlook as to the implications of this new system. (Said Link Right Here)
I also think it’s worth noting that we all saw it coming in September, and that a major point of this is that they will be listening to the fans, and it will still be a ways away from taking over. The official article made mention of playtesting at 2013′s GenCon, not the 2012, 45th anniversary one. So right now, they’ve got a lot to work with.
Also worth noting is Paizo’s recent push, in my opinion, to sell as much products as possible in as short amount of time. They may see it as a need to cash in while still relevant - not sure. Either way – for the full Pathfinder experience, expect to pay somewhere between $50 – $120 a month ($120 when two core books come out in the same month, ie last August). Wheras I like the system and still enjoy playing it, it has this little black scar of me looking at a pile of books going “Ya, and I’m missing so much content”.
Politics wise, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has taken center stage and are forcing people to take sides. I’m against it on the basis that it solves nothing, and it is provided by people that don’t know how things work. For instance, mearly knowing what the IP address for a blocked site will get you there, and startup websites can just get blocked because a competitor reports them for “stealing their idea’s”, regardless of whether it’s true. Everyone will play the cautious role, and the internet will be in shambles. And this is just the American side of things – it’s even more whacked when you consider that the US is essentially saying that we will censor everyone’s internet.
And politics aside, personal stuff now. Lost in dual worlds of Skyrim and Star Wars – The Old Republic, lately. Feel my mind inching farther and farther away from being able to focus on my DM’ing, so I’m taking a break from that for the start of the new year. Going to make sure it’s nothing medical that I can take care of. I’m still gaming, still thinking of idea’s – just not going to sit behind the screen for a little while so I can get all my ducks in a row.
Stay tuned for my New Years Resolutions! When in doubt – copy other blog’s topics.
Monte Cook back at WOTC?
According to ICv2 and plenty of other sources, it looks like Monte Cook has been brought back in to Wizards of the Coast to help work on the Dungeons and Dragons franchise. Now all that’s left is the speculation of every gamer on the planet, which all instantly go to “5e” speculation.
But it’s semi warranted – if you look at WotC’s track record, they bought the franchise in 1997, came out with 3e in 2000, after 3 years developing it. In 2003, they updated and re branded with 3.5. In 2005, they started developing 4e, and pushed it out in 2008. WotC has started planning the next edition some 2-3 years after releasing the current one. So now we’re at 3 years of 4e – it’s time to bring in the game changer and start working on a new system.
PC’s Almost Back, Posts to start again
So I know it’s been a long time since I’ve updated, but I have news on my PC troubles. My PC is almost fixed. Just need to finish loading all my software again, and we’ll be set to go. The motherboard I purchased had been backordered a couple weeks, then I had to get a new network card – whole thing was a giant mess.
Gaming wise – been enjoying Arfles Exalted game – I’m actually really impressed with the system. That, and feeling of having all that power is pretty cool. Herauk’s Pathfinder game had it’s first session post GenCon. I have yet to have a session since, for a number of different reasons.
On one hand, I have an ok story going right now, and am the butt of my players jokes for not doing longer lasting games. But on the other hand, I feel a little D20′d out. I love Pathfinder and Paizo, but for financial reason’s after the con, I cancelled my pre-orders for a bit to catch up, and I find I’m not really missing them. I just find myself at a point of re-assessing what I want to do with my game, how to best serve my players and myself, and how to help create a really great story. I’ve been reading more systems lately, Rifts, GURPS, Burning Wheel, L5R – and it made me sit down and think about how I didn’t start with D&D – why do I find myself trying to force a derivative as my system of choice.
Mostly it’s because I have players that are in love with the system – and that really helps keep interest in your game. Also, there’s opposition to change. I encounter it now with the exalted game – some get it, some don’t. Some enjoy learning a new system, other despise it, and only have cranial space for one system. So if I where to go and tell them “Hey – we have Pathfinder and Exalted going – now I’m going to teach you GURPS” – their head would explode. Or I’d be flamed into backing down.
Been thinking also about going through and just doing a couple one shots to see if it’s something I just need to get out of my system. Those that are interested in learning a new game – come over and we’ll try it. Any suggestions?
Computer Saga Continues
Pointless update #2 – Just an update. My PC is now in the hands of it’s creator.
My Father-In-Law.
Talked with him about it, as he’s the one that built it for me 5 years ago, and he’s going to look into it. As a PC Technician, I should have no reason to give it another PC Tech, right? Well, my Father-in-law has far more parts then I do, and said he should be able to get it working. So it’s less of a “I don’t know what’s going on” and more of a “he has the things I need to get it up and running”.
So my PC is some hour and a half away, with no ETA at the moment.
But all is not lost! I still have the netbook full of pictures. So I will be updating you with my GenCon travels. Just slower then I had hoped to.
My GenCon, Part 1
So I’m still without a PC, but I have a little netbook that can get me through, so I’m going to attempt to plug this out on that.
To start things off, our group hails from Syracuse, NY. So the travel was 12 hours to get to Indianapolis with one meal stop, and two to three gas stops. the original plan was that Arfles, our friend Marty, and myself would take turns to do all that, but the rental company instilled a fear in us over the ramifications of having other drivers. So I did 100% of the driving, and we arrived at the Hotel at around 6:30 PM. got into our rooms at the Sheraton, and made our way to the convention center.
At the end of the line . . .
After finding both false ends in the Will call line that ran the entire building, we finally got into our spot. We where actually being used as a judge for the speed of the line by some of the staff. But it only took an hour and fifteen minutes to get through, get our badges, and then maybe 5 minutes to get our grab bags. So it wasn’t nearly as bad as it seemed.
Steak and Shake
So from there we got diner at the fabled Steak and Shake. Not having any in NY, this was a treat. Due to our exploratory nature, we didn’t get to go back for seconds, but I count it as a must-have next year. We wound down for the evening, and prepared for the weekend.
Thursday started with Panel first thing in the morning. I was too tired and didn’t make it to it, but from what everyone else who went to it told me, it was quite good. I joined everyone for the GM workshop, which brought a lot of things up that we can all use. Originally, we where going to break up into groups, but we where enjoying the discussions so much as a full group, it became a 2 hour discussion group.
Hirst Arts - DIY Dungeons
We had a brief stint in the Exibitors hall, to which I hit the major booths I wanted to hit. Stopped by the Burning Wheel booth, got a combat walkthrough from Luke Crane. Hit Palladium’s booth, finally got an updated copy of Rifts (complete with signatures), and got the Hirst Arts molds I’ve been wanting to get for a while. Finished up, went up to the panel on Writers block, then hit the Exibitors hall again with the rest of my group. We left around 6, went to the Sushi restaurant around the corner and had an awesome meal. In fact, since a reservation cancelled, we got a special room, and excellent food and service.
Friday we arrived for our 10am panel, to find that the panel on worldbuilding had been cancelled. I regret that we failed to gather the courage to hijack the panel. Maybe next year, we will be lucky enough to have similar circumstances.
Hung out for a while, tested some games, then we had Game Design is mind control with Luke Crane (I can go on for pages about how cool of a guy he is), where we went over how limitations in your game effect the players mentality, and how using that can create favorable responses. After that, we made a go at “Action Castle” – something I can only describe as an old text based computer rpg controlled by a rotating line of 50 people. One person, one action.
After that, I had three panels with the guys from Hex Games, Sword and Sorcery, Unconventional Characters, and Hobo’s – the New Pirates. I have to say – that was the order of how entertaining they where. Hobo’s was the best laugh I had all weekend.
Frustration
Well hello again. Two posts in one week? Whats going on here? I have been doing some very rough drafts on an adventure path for the pathfinder RPG system. It can be frustrating at times to stick to a format of writing adventures without coming out with something that is boring/cliche. After i finish the first one, I can tweak/peek it and bounce it off MrWonx and the others and see what they think. So far I am just trying to avoid the old fashioned dungeon crawl through goblin warrens. As it evolves and if it is good enough, I’ll through some different ideas up here. What do you as gamers want to see in an adventure?
Awesome Con, Delay in Responce
So Herauk actually beat me to posting my thoughts about GenCon. And it’s due to a little thing I like to call “my luck”. My PC, the mass media server that it is, is refusing to boot. I’ve diagnosed it down to a short in the PCI Express port on the motherboard. I’m going to attempt one last “Take it all apart, put it back together” move before deeming the board dead, just in case I’m wrong.
But I can’t just leave you for the next couple weeks without my impressions. So I’m going to attempt to post one or two things a day, just to cover all the wonderful things I did and saw.
my GenCon saga…
I critted and boxcarred my dagger.
Hail, good readers! As I am sure you have figured out, the KarpeDM group (most of it) went to the promised land: GenCon. After months of planning and the saving of much hard earned gold pieces, we were off. We got a pretty slick van with a massive amount of storage room. And it takes about 12 hours to drive from Central NY state to Indianapolis. Without knowing it, we were staying at the same hotel that Steve Jackson was. We picked up our badges (long line, but it moved fast) and grabbed some food at the steak and shake, went home, and crashed. The highlights of the weekend will be listed in chronological order.
- Exhibition hall was HUGE! and full of good stuff.
- Got a burning wheel demo from Luke Crane himself (AWESOME GUY)
- Went to some really good GMing workshops.
- Spent WAAAAAY too much money at a sushi place where we were able to snag a VIP room because the reservation was cancelled.
- Got the Dragon and Reaper expansions to Talisman
- Joined a World of Warcraft Tourney (played once in 2k5) and did pretty dang well.
- Met the gnomes from Gnome Stew and they were all pretty swell guys.
- Had a brief interaction with steve jackson without knowing it.
- Tried such games as Redakai, Legend of 5 rings TCG, WoW TCG, Hordes, Warmachine, and Runewars. So many good games, such a limited amount of money.
- Went to a steampunk gaming panel
Soon enough we had to head home from a great week long vacation. I have been to some conventions before, even Otakon. I have to say that Gen Con is a whole different experience. The average atendee was about 10-20 years older and more polite. In closing, if you have a week free and at least $600 to spend (Less if local) go to Gen Con next year.
Home and Burnt Out
I just want to mention that I was planning on posting as things happened, or in the very least, do a Day-by-day review of GenCon – but it was INSANE – in the best way possible. Such a whirlwind of activities kept us going, and you’d be lying in bed going “How much do I want to go to this panel” – juggling sleep, food, and overall eye and brain candy.
Also – the 12 hour drive was complicated by the fact the rental company wanted exorbitant amounts of money to have another driver on the rental, so I had to do the 12 hour drive – TWICE. Nice way to end the weekend.
So I am home, more precisely - I’m at work, and quite burnt out. I will be writting my reviews of the good, bad, and (not so) ugly once I’ve collected my thoughts. One thing I can say is – GO. Make sure you go to GenCon.
