[Undead Tuesday] Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines

In my preparation for this post, I read up a bit on another person’s replay of the game. First though — I was introduced to World of Darkness rules set by the authors of this blog, and this game follows that system. From what I’ve heard this game has even introduced players to the pen and paper RPG. Something not a lot of other PC adaptions of RPGs can say.

My girlfriend (now fiance) hated that I played this game — for several reasons:

1. The game is violent and bloody, and doesn’t sweeten the dark society that is reality in our world. In fact it portrays it with a realism that is disturbing. Also the Nosferatu are pretty darn ugly.
2. Not sure if she knows this, but the game covers some shady areas, like strip clubs, adult stores and snuff films. Playing the last mentioned part of the game was truly sickening, and not a part I’d really like to play again.
3. I tended to play from about 23:00 to 1:00 (2:00?) on week nights. And some weekends when we should have spent time together.

Everyone (ok not everyone) should at some point experience the game play of the Ocean House Hotel. It is absolutely spooky beyond anything that’s tried it before, and immerses you into the rich history of what happened there. I literally jumped from fright at the unexpected spooks you’ll experience.

Several other reviewers complain about melee  becoming tedious towards the endgame.  I have a couple of things to say to them… You can customize your character! Don’t turn on Auto-Level, there is fun in building the character’s strengths where you want them.  Initially I wanted to create brawler, but at the end of the game, guns and katana is the way to go (but for the weak races out there dunno what your strategy will be).

My suggestion, if you buy the game now (I saw it for R80 at CNA not too long ago) is to get the unofficial community patch (which includes all previous patches, and some new “plus” features which is optional) before you start playing.  Another modification, which I have not tried (and probably due to fiance issues won’t) is the companion mod.  You can somehow convince some NPC to join you in your endeavors!  Sounds like great fun, and will make those physically weak races a bit more competitive in combat.

As a side note: My fiance is loving Plants vs Zombies!

Catan – Dice game

A quick review of Catan – Dice game.  I bought it at Pasttimes in the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town for R150 — Which I must admit is a great shop in concept, but it is not manned by game enthusiasts?!

The dice version of the game is… to put it bluntly, a DO NOT BUY. It is about 85% luck based, and 15% skill/strategy, and no guarantee  even over 100 games that the better player will win out. It’s effectively Yahtzee with6 dice, and a little bit of other options added to it.

However, I just found the plus version of the game… which is the way Klaus Teuber originally thought is better.  And it will definitely be better!  But still even with the new rules there is no resource trading, so it’s pretty much solitaire except for longest road and largest army.

All you really need for the game is 6d6, but with different resource symbols (Gold is the 6th resource, which you can trade 2:1 for any other resource) instead of the numbers 1-6. Even with the plus rules it’s  still too expensive to make it worth it, however the fact that the game is pretty much mobile now, makes it somewhat more attractive – but still not the real game!

Confessions – Rolery

I lost my RP virginity when I was very young. Younger than the box prescribed in fact. I was a mere 6 years old when I role played the first D&D basic set setting. I was a halfling (Basic had Fighter, Mage, Thief, Cleric, Elf, Halfling, Dwarf) and my character’s name was Pias. My very first hit severed a tentacle off a carrion crawler.

My story is entwined with that of my eldest brother (the DM, who also played a retainer cleric called Carl Rihack). He is 10 years older than me, and was thus at a somewhat different developmental stage than myself. So the amount of time we spent playing was extremely limited, but the three younger brothers nagged big brother for every time we could get. So much so that our modified combi (we swapped the seats around so they faced each other, and had a table down the middle) was our gaming table every so often… (actually I think it happened only once)

On our way to Pretoria, we encountered a band of undead, and the elf (Silvergrass Leafhopper) was almost down (in basic you’re dead at 0 HP), so I jumped in to protect him. But it was that fateful day that etched the realness of role playing into the minds of me and my family. It was to be my first experience of death, and for a 7 or 8 year old… it was a genuine death.

Post edited: 18 September 2009, to change hobbits to halflings.

Which Starcraft Race are you, and why?

Well, Starcraft 2 is probably going to see light of day in 2009 so I recently got a legal copy of Starcraft I at a local computer shop (Broodwars included). These days by the way you don’t need the CD in the drive to play anymore.

So I’ve played through Starcraft, and I am now busy with Broodwars. I’ve finished the initial Protoss campaign, and now I’m busy with Terran. The first round the Terran was ok, as I was getting to know it again, but now, round 2… it sucks. I *hate* terran. In campaign mode the Terran tactic is typically to build up defenses and go slowly at the opponents. Bleah. It takes forever. Nukes are fun, but they are easy to disrupt, and it focusses your attention on micro management of the units.

Protoss aren’t very much into micro management. In fact they can be pretty effective in terms of low management. It’s awesome to be able to set up “intercept” bases close to enemy bases. Though I’m sure in multiplayer that tactic will just lose you money. They are actually more pricy than I initially remembered — we used to lan on basically limitless resource maps… in retrospect that was a disservice to the game, and taught bad tactics and not particularly good play.

In the Protoss campaign in Broodwars there is a mission where you can choose to either play Protoss, or Zerg. Wow, did I enjoy the Zerg. I enjoy lots of units, and literally “swarming” the opponents. It’s fun. In limitless resource games it usually loses… but it is still fun.

Anyway… so I rank my races 1. Zerg 2. Protoss 3. Terran.

I think I will be in a vast minority here, but I think it’s because Terran is the first race introduced to the game, and most people play Zerg like they play Terran, and then they hate Zerg, because Zerg doesn’t work if you think … My precious little Siege Tanks… let’s repair them… No… You build those 24 Zerglings and 12 Hydralisks with 12 Mutalisks 6-12 Guardians for air support to die… The fact is… 4 Hatcheries can spew out half of that army in the time it’ll take 4 barracks to build 12 marines.

Just build another of those armies while the first one dies… Then if you lose… go play Guitar Hero while the rest finish…

So which race is your favourite? And why?

Maijing / Mahjong

A month or so ago, some of our suppliers were in South Africa. They were mostly Chinese, and I was honoured to accompany my girlfriend to a dinner with a supplier (2 people – husband and wife).

Meeting people of other races and origins are always hard, and you try to find a common ground… So I asked the guy about sports in china. I am fairly fond of South African sports, and hoped to gain a foot hole for a decent conversation… He then spoke about Chinese sport… in the 3rd person. “They like table tennis, and gymnastics” and “they have become really athletics mad after the Beijing Olympics”… Well, well… you’re not a sports enthusiast are you? So I realised this and asked him what do they do for fun… and as a gamer friend of mine’s wife remarked (and I’ll remember the comment forever): (paraphrased) “Board games are the best way for friends and strangers connect, such that no other medium can do.”

So he replied… they play Maijing (also known as Mahjong in western societies). So I’ve seen the stupid solitaire version, and I knew the real game is much different – and required 4 players. I asked away, and I could see that both him and his wife became very excited with the mere thought of playing Maijing! She was laughing, and joking with her husband, and I could see that this was what truly energized them.

They sent me a set – a real Chinese set. It has to be cheaper than R200, because of company policy, but I can tell you that R200 can buy a lot in china if it’s not meant for international trade. A set contains 144 “tiles”… these tiles are quite heavy about 30g-35g each (and shaped about 10×13x25mm), leaving you with 5kg of baggage just like that on your flight baggage.

The 144 are broken down into 3 “suits” of 1-9. 4 copies of a number per suit. 4×4 Winds, 3×4 Dragons, 4 Flowers, and 4 seasons.

The game is filled with tradition, and also luck, and a fair bit of skill… One traditional rule (I don’t know if the modern player keeps to this) is that if the first 4 tiles discarded are all 4 copies of the east wind, then the game must be restarted, because of the wind showing that that specific game is fated ill, and one’s souls could get lost if you continued playing.

I must still understand all the rules especially concerning scoring (and apparently playing for money), but the game’s ancient nature, and it’s high traditional value is drawing me in very, very quickly…

I’ll tell you more in my next post!

Cease and desist in 30 seconds!

I created software which creates cards, and plays 30 seconds. (Actually 31 seconds, but hey…) The software is buggy, and far from perfect.

I have received a cease and desist email. I am not a lawyer, and there’s lots of technical jargon (class 28?), but it seems that the real issue is using the 30 seconds trademark. So I will cease… I think that the game has more to offer than that what the “physical” game does… but hey? It’s not my intellectual property or trademark.

Actually I have 7 days, and I’ll remove my facebook page tonight, as facebook is blocked at work…

/me is a sad panda… *sniff*

Top 5 Time Wasters of my Youth

Inspired by Jatori’s post… I also love lists!  But I don’t have time to do a whole top 10 lists…

5. Quake II

Railgun made some good giblets!

Well, Quake II was just awesome! Though it only was available 2 years of the 90s, it added up to a lot of game time.  Though admittedly, more the multiplayer than the singleplayer.  The Edge will remain an ultimate level in my opinion, and I even downloaded “demos” of tournaments, to see how insane the really good guys are. I played a lot 2 player with my twin brother, and loads of multiplayer.  Our bot of choice were the Gladiator bots, that came with Orange Smoothie Production’s OSP Tourney Q2.

4. Crusaders of the Dark Savant

Battle options, and a full party!

We had a really cool party, and I might still have my “winning” save games to continue in the next one.  I think Wizardry Gold was released after that, but I don’t know if the party would be compatible with that.  The world was vast, maybe not the vastness of Arena (Elder Scrolls) or it’s decendants, but a vast map, and a decent(ish) story.  Cool Uniques.  Nice “system” in terms of gaining levels, and developing chars etc.

I can still remember us searching for cool names for characters… and the dictionary did well… Frugal (a monk/priest) and Pandemonium (a wizard)…  Can’t recall too many of the other characters.

We had to get a walkthrough though to help us with some place in the game where blood was dripping or something from the ceiling… :-/

3. Civilization (I)

To my disgust, Civ I, (and to a lesser extent) Civ II got the hours flying by much quicker than I hope.  These days I don’t play games that take that long, and is mainly an admin game… If I want admin, I’ll do my work.  It’s not that I didn’t enjoy it then, but it’s as if I feel robbed somehow now. It’s not worth screenshots and a link… (Ok it is, but the others deserve it more IMO).

2. Quake I

In Quake I, II and III swimming is real easy...

Quake I rocked my world.  I played it, and played it, and played it some more.  Completed it on Hardcore.  I installed reaper bots, and played and played and played.  I played on the net… some weird ISP who don’t exist anymore’s servers.  Joined a clan (Campers Clan – should I say Campercide?) eXeCuToR, Johnson (me), doorknob, and some others who I can’t recall.  Installed add-ons, etc. DM2 is my favourite, but DM1 is also great!

1. Tetris Classic

In-game screenshot

Well, our family, and a shared PC made this one of the top time wasters… Our top 10 high scores were seperated by less than 500 points, so each game you had to play nigh perfect, and have quite a bit of luck to reach it.  Later even the 2 minute high scores were filled to the brim, that you just couldn’t get on.  You can download the game by clicking on the name! This is the best Tetris version I’ve played.

- rolery

30 Seconds Software and Boardgame

30 Seconds is a board game that started in South Africa, and revolutionized the “knowledge” gaming scene that was dominated for years and years and years by Trivial Pursuit.  Other games like “Who wants to be a Millionaire” might have gained temporary favour, but was always defeated by the classic Trivial Pursuit.

30 Seconds really arrived on the scene when it was played by the house mates in Big Brother South Arica (first series).  The most important difference between Trivial Pursuit and 30 Seconds, is that in Trivial Pursuit a team’s collective knowledge was important.  Therefor having a diverse team is very important.  In 30 Seconds the team’s communal knowledge is more important, therefor having a team with similar strengths is good.  Like all good games (and good gamers) we always try to improve on the rules.  30 Seconds has one very, very stupid rule… the negative dice.  Random bonus is fine in a game, but a random penalty is demotivating.  Rather double the squares on the size of the board, and make the 0-2 a bonus.  It’s much better moving 5-7 when you get 5/5, than moving 3-5 when you get 5/5.  Or even worse, imagine struggling, getting only 2/5… and then having thrown a 2, you don’t get to move at all.  It’s the same thing, but it works very differently on the psyche of the players!

I recognized (in 2003 already) the educational use that 30 seconds could have.  Imagine for instance trying to teach the capitals, states and other important cities and monuments to a class of kids.  If you had a small database of 200 or 300 words, this could be a quick and fun way for the class to gain the knowledge quickly.

So I created an application back then, and now rereleased it, now that printing cards are somewhat easier via Excel.  If you’re interested you can download the application for free at the website. Also you can become a fan of the boardgame on Facebook or a fan of the software.

Magic Trad(ing/ers)

Magic:the Gathering in South Africa is kinda dying.  I’d like to know from any international readers (or SA readers who disagree – or just want to lay an egg) if it is looking to be the case there too?

I’m kind of going out on a limb here, but Magic in SA was never cheap.  However it’s now costing the clients more to buy it (used to be about 2.5 bigmacs), and are now up to above 3 bigmacs.  Also, the cards have a limited lifecycle.  So looking at it from a retailer’s perspective, it’s not attractive.  The price went up drastically (maybe not so much in comparison to other things in the slowing SA economy), enough to make the stock flow slower out of the store, making the return on your investment less profitable (if at all?!).

But what’s driving this?  Well, my guess (and I’m going out on a limb that I got due to working in retail) is that Hasbro said… oh!  You’ve grown in revenue 20% last year (that was probably 3 years ago… Mirroden anyone?), so your target for next year is revenue growth of another 20% (or more).  So the guys at WotC thinks… ah 20% growth… our market is pretty fixed, so let’s just up the price a bit.  Forecast about the same amount of units sold, and up the price by 20% and Bob’s your uncle!

So my guess is, that it’s the beaurocracy that’s killing the game (in SA), and had WotC stayed independant they’d have the freedom to keep things going where they wanted to go, rather than go where other’s want them to go.  Maybe things will pick up, but for me, the game was always, and will continue to be, too expensive to play.

A deck of bicycles playing cards costs <R20 at Pick and Pay/Checkers… and you can play a gazillion games with it.

DnD 4th Ed Alignments

‘ve now played several different DnD editions, and the alignment system changed a couple of times…

Basic DnD had only three (Lawful,Neutral,Chaotic).  Then 2nd ed came, and they had 9 as seen below.

2^nd and 3^rd ed

	Law
Good	L/G	L/N	L/E	Evil
	N/G	Neutral	N/E
	C/G	C/N	C/E
	Chaos

But the “neutral” option tended to always have been “wishy-washy”… Neutral-Good… what is that?  I’m goody… but actually average Joe. Actually it’s “I just want to play this game ok… don’t give me this much options!”.

But in 4th they decided to chop it to 5…

	Law
Good	L/G	L/N	L/E	Evil
	N/G	Neutral	N/E
	C/G	C/N	C/E
	Chaos

It is decent enough options (definite improvement!)… but the “wishy-washy” types stayed (in Good and Evil) and you can just 1-up them.  Be “very-good” or “very-evil”.

I think it should be

	Law
Good	L/G	L/N	L/E	Evil
	N/G	Neutral	N/E
	C/G	C/N	C/E
	Chaos

Balance,Chaotic,Lawful. Neutral, Good, Evil.

These are two different axis for a reason.  Being good has nothing to do with following the law.  Being chaotic is not at all an evil act.

In 4th Ed, alignment is not a gaming mechanic.  (Although I think Paladins still have to be Lawful-Good?) But it is, and always be, a role playing mechanic.  World of Darkness equivalent (vices and virtues), creates a character without too much restrictions, but it does help to aim your character into a roleplaying direction.

Choosing an option of the extreme on the axises gives you a lot more definition to your character, which will help make your roll playing (decisions) quicker and more predictable by the other players.  This means a quicker game for everybody, and that is by far the biggest critique of RPGs… the speed. (Why I am watching the d0 concept closely)