games
2010 in review
Floating around somewhere is a post I did early last year saying what I wanted to acheive in gaming in 2010. I would link to it, but I can’t seem to find it. Regardless I thought I would sum it up here:
- I spent the better part of 2010 writing, in collaboration with two others, a 66 person LARP called Al Shir-Ma. It’s set in an Arabian Night-esque world which borrows from Al-Qadim. It was done for the yearly KapCon gaming convention here in Wellington, and it’s first run through is happening next weekend. It’s been a really interesting experience and has I think made me a better scenario writer. But man, has it been a lot of work.
- I wrapped up my campaign, using the Green Ronin A Song of Ice and Fire rules, in a not hugely satisfiying way. By the end I’d kind of lost interest and time, and it all got a bit too railroady. It showed me that I really want to run long term games that leverage off character backgrounds and story rather than some over arching plot I’ve come up with. Means less work for me too.
- I ran Peril in King’s Landing a pre-written scenario for ASoIFRP. It’s one of the few times I’ve actually run a pre-written scenario and while I liked the low prep of it all, I found that I had the most fun when I was adding in new elements passed on player actions.
- I played a lot of Xbox 360. Notably Alpha Protocol, Fallout 3, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 and Fallout New Vegas. Some of these games, like Mass Effect, I played through for a third time so I could carry my character into the new game. Yes I am that much of a geek.
- I played a lot of table top and LARP games. For the first time I played more than I GM’d and it was great.
- I discovered some great new table top games like Prime Time Adventures and Apocolypse World.
So from a gaming perspective 2010 was great. Though as the silence from June on might have told you, other stuff wasn’t. Now though it’s time to look forward to 2011!
Dragon Age 2 – not long now
I’ve spent more hours than I care to think playing Dragon Age and I’m pretty excited that Dragon Age 2 is coming out in a couple of months. I have hoped to have a PC to play it on, but I may have to just stick with the old Xbox 360.
IGN have a nice preview article, outlining some of the changes made to the follow up. They all sound great to me, especially the more Mass Effect-esque character acting and dialoge.
Also, here is some eye candy.
They just need girl time…
While I’ve never played Zelda and I haven’t player Super Mario since the Sega days this is pretty funny.
Hot War: Transmission
Hot War hasn’t been getting much love here recently (but let’s be honest, nothing much has. That’s real life for ya!) so I thought I’d quickly mention the Hot War Transmission series that have come out over the last few months.
So far there have been two Transmissions. Issue 1 focused on the work of Nigel Kneale, creator of the Quatermass series which was a huge influence to Hot War creator Malcolm Craig. Issue 2 focuses on UK politics in the early 1960s and how they might have flowed into post-apocalyptic London.
Each Transmission also includes a pre-written game set up, with appropriate characters so you can give Hot War a go with minimal set up.
They’re both well written and useful for Hot War games. So go check them out.
Green Ronin bags another licence
But is it one too many? I was surprised to read that Green Ronin had signed an agreement with DC Comics to release a series of four books as part of their Mutants and Masterminds line. It makes me wonder how many licensed products are sustainable for a small publishing house like GR.
Fall – Episode 23 Lull before the Storm
This is also known as the Filler Episode (as Norm couldn’t make it), and happens to also be the most amazingly awkward roleplaying Ive ever done.
Not much happened in terms of plot in this one, most of it is dealing with the bomb Calvin dropped in the episode before and Alex not knowing how to deal with it all. As all of this is gone into in by Jenni in her blow by blow recaps, I think I’ll leave it at that.
But to sum up:
- Calvin and Alex barely talk when they wake up in Calvin’s bed the next morning, having spent the night together.
- Alex gets busted leaving the house by Martha, Calvin’s sister.
- Megan tries to sweet talk a priest into giving her some holy water, and when that doesn’t work steals it instead.
- Darius is still recuperating (either in hospital or at home, I was a bit confused).
- Calvin tries to find Gina, and discovers that shes disappeared. The car she borrowed is found in a parking lot near the train station and he assumes that shes left town.
- Megan is oblivious to whats happened between Alex and Calvin, even when the three of them hang out at her house trying to find out what happened to Gina. (Cue awkward silences)
- Alex totally confuses Calvin by bursting into tears in front of him, after he offers to just forget about the night before and she says she doesn’t want to.
- Calvin and Alex have another bonding cemetery moment when they’re attacked by two vamps. This fight doesn’t go so well and Calvin ends up getting bitten.
Next time round well be getting back on track with the plot and edging that much closer to the end of Fall, Season 1!
Previously on Fall
Jennis write ups
Fall – Episode 23 “Q&A”
The next in the quick fire Fall recaps is episode 23, Q&A aka the one with the romantic ending. But I get ahead of myself.
The episode picks up exactly after the last one left off. The team are driving around Fall River with their people divination wire trying to track down Xavier.
Fall – Episode 22 “Icarus gets his Wings”
It’s been awhile since my last Fall write up, four episodes to be exact. I’ll try to be succinct and will leave out most of the dialogue, for that head on over to Jenni’s write ups (the link is at the bottom of the page).
First up is episode 22, Icarus gets his Wings.
Fallout: New Vegas gets some screen time
So Fallout: New Vegas has been getting a bunch of screen time this week. With a new first impressions being posted on a bunch of different blogs and sites.
I’ve been pretty keen for this to come out since it was first announced last year. I liked Fallout 3, I mean it was no Fallout or Fallout 2 but it was a pretty solid game and I’ve recently been wanting to go back and have more of an explore.
But when it was announced that Obsidian would be developing this game under licence I was pretty stoked. Knights of the Old Republic 2 (despite the ending) was a great game and I’m also really looking forward to the long over due Alpha Protocol.
So I look forward to more news about this next part of the franchise, and the ability to zoom in for those messy and devastating headshots through V.A.T.S.
This is seriously awesome!
Pictish Rock Art a Written Language. (from Boing Boing)
Although I suddenly realise I’ve never seen anyone use pictograms for a fantasy language. Odd. But my theoretical ‘Celtic islands dark fantasy game’ is definitely going to have a ancient pictographic language in it.