Indie Game Friday: Super Stone Legacy

My RPG Review Ratings

So as I'm doing more reviews (not the Indie Game Friday), I've been refining my system more and more, but all the while I've been trying to avoid giving any proper number ratings in my various reviews. I don't intend to start now, but I have noticed that my reviews' conclusions generally fall into five categories, so I suppose they can generally be broken down into numeric values if someone absolutely has to have that sort of ranking. I personally don't find this too useful, as my categories tend to focus a lot on personal taste and target audience, but I figure I'd post these categories below for reference.

• Failure - The lowest category includes works with no, or almost no redeeming factors. These are games that are poorly put together, and even when the content can be made out, it is objectionable, nonsensical, or just plain bad. If it's a video game, it might barely run or not run at all. If it's a tabletop game it may be a total hack job, poorly edited, and barely coherent. You won't see me reviewing many of these at all, because at this level, it's entirely possible that the game in question may be too bad to even be funny.
• Not Recommended - These sorts of games are similar to Failures, but at least they may be considered proper games. Some may have a redeeming factor. The game may be poorly put together, but at least it is playable, or understandable. Some amount of concerted effort was put into a game like this, and sometimes games at this level may be amusing, even if only unintentionally. This is the first level where I may do some sort of review, likely played for laughs.
• Mediocre - At this level, a game is playable, and likely has little major technically wrong with it, but may just not be fun. If it's a tabletop system, it may be complex enough, or just boring enough to put off the flow of a game. If it's an adventure, it may be somewhat bland, and so forth. Again, these are likely not unintentionally amusing, but at the very least they can pass some time, although I wouldn't go out of my way to play them or acquire them. Sometimes I may say a mediocre game is worth checking out if the price is right. Some free games, for instance, are adequate time killers and worth taking a look at. Some may have done one particular thing quite well, and merit examination for at least that one thing.
• Limited Recommendation - This is a game that is well put together. It may have flaws, and it may appeal to a limited audience, but for that audience, I do recommend it. I will tend to put a caveat in place. For instance, 'this game is excellent for those fans of oldschool dungeon crawlers' or 'this game is worth picking up, but only if it is on sale'. Because people's tastes vary, this qualification applies to a lot of things that I review, and a number of excellent games may fall into this if I believe that they'll appeal mostly to one genre. If I believe a genre specific game is excellent enough to appeal even to those who aren't particularly interested in that genre, or might just convert people to seeing the good in it, then I'll probably bump it up to...
• Recommended - These are games that are either works of art in and of themselves, have cross genre appeal, are classics in the general 'rpg' industry, or have other serious merit. There may still be people who aren't going to enjoy them, but these products will likely be memorable some years, or even decades after release. That is not to say that these works are beyond critique, but their merits make it so even their flaws are easily overlooked.

I do hope that this helps for those who want to see the general categories I set things in. I should note that even if I do find flaws in a product, they can very well get into the Limited Recommendation or Recommended categories, if they are a fun or otherwise excellent experience. As I continue to refine my review process, I will try to be more clear about which categories things fall into.

Indie Game Friday: Soda Dungeon

Tabletops & Taverns - Poisons and Diseases

Indie Game Friday: rooMaze

RPG Storytime: Gravity is a Cruel Mistress

RPG Storytime: Jesters Are No Joke

A look back into my RPG memories, and a little bit about intraparty conflict.

Indie Game Friday: Guild of Dungeoneering

Indie Game Friday: Super Dungeon Tactics

New Season of Indie Game Friday

Finally getting around to starting a new season of Indie Game Friday with a review of Void Pyramid!

RPG Storytime: Bloody Mess

New Let's Play - Neverwinter Nights

Let's hope this lasts!

RPG Crawler Reviews: Tome of Beasts

My short video review of Tome of Beasts, from Kobold Press.

Get it on Amazon [Affiliate Link]:
http://amzn.to/2ghi6NH

Or as a pdf on RPG now [Affiliate Link]:
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/190499/Tome-of-Beasts-for-5th-Edition?affiliate_id=902296

Tabletops & Taverns - RPG Strongholds

New Let's Play - Skyrim Special Edition

Started a new Let's Play of Skyrim Special Edition. So far so good, only three episodes in but I managed to fix a lot of technical issues after the first one. I do intend to go back and do Oblivion at some point, seeing that my Oblivion let's play crashed halfway through, but we shall see how things go. I have a feeling Skyrim's actually going to go by pretty swiftly.

Review - Tyranny

Hello, this is the RPG Crawler and let’s talk about Tyranny. Developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Paradox Interactive, it was released on November 10, 2016, and is currently available on steam and gog.com. The list price will vary depending on edition, currently ranging from $44.99 for the Commander edition through $79.99 for the overlord edition, with each edition tier coming with additional goodies.

Now this review will cover my first impressions of the game and examine the technical details rather than the storyline as a whole, as after some hours I realized I really really wanted to do a proper let’s play of this at some point. However, I did play through for over five hours, longer than a certain other review I did on another game I wanted to play, long enough to see what I believe is most of the core systems of the game, and certainly enough to convince me whether or not it was a good buy. Hopefully this will be enough to help you make your own decision as well.

So before I go into what Tyranny is, we need to go over what Tyranny is not. Tyranny is not Pillars of Eternity 2. It does not take place in the same world, it has different lore and there are differences in the underlying system even though it uses a very similar engine. Tyranny is not for people who can’t handle at least a little moral ambiguity in their stories.

What Tyranny is, is an isometric view, party-based role-playing game in the style of the infinity engine classics in the same mold as Pillars of Eternity, another game developed by Obsidian. In fact the engine it uses, while built on Unity, is derived from the one used for Pillars of Eternity, and many of the mechanics cross over. This similarity will invite many comparisons between the two games, but I don’t believe it is to either game’s detriment.

The world of Tyranny is a unique fantasy world, steeped in magic and history. Unlike many such games, the great evil has already conquered the world, in the form of the overlord Kyros. The player is a Fatebinder in service to one of his Archons, each Archon an individual of immense magical power and ability. Fatebinders serve as judge, jury, and executioner, traveling with the armies of Kyros and exacting their particular brand of justice.

Before you create a character, you can select from one of a few difficulty levels, all of which should be familiar to players of Pillars of Eternity, including an ironman challenge mode and an expert mode for those who don’t need help deciding what stats to where.

Character creation is similar to other in depth rpgs. All player characters in Tyranny are human, but you may select a gender and basic detailing, and then a History that tells how you joined Kyros’s army. This game features quite a number of choices that have more than just a cosmetic consequence, so even choices here will start affecting how the game plays out. After your origin, you select a primary and secondary expertise rather than classes, allowing you to effectively mix and match your starting skill levels. After a few additional cosmetic options, you can assign your attributes and skills.

Attributes are similar but not identical to Pillars of Eternity. There’s six of them, with might dealing with physical strength, Finesse with physical and mental precision, Quickness on how often a character’s cooldowns refresh, Vitality determining physical health and strength of personality, Wits determines a character’s mental acuity, and Resolve their ability to endure physical and mental challenges. Skills are also somewhat similar to those in Pillars of Eternity, with 7 Weapon skills and 5 Support skills, but in Tyranny, skill use gradually improves said skills over time.

The final step in character creation is optional, and unique to Tyranny. You can quick start and skip it, or go into a conquest mode that lets you choose how your character was involved with the conquest of the Tiers. Conquest mode presents a branching path and series of events that affect both the character’s skills and abilities, but also the starting relationships with the various factions in the game. In each section you are given a few scenarios in which you must make choices, with the various consequences of those choices then playing out. You can then decide which route you take on your path through the Tiers, though it’s impossible to select every path, making it a rather balanced way to set things up.

Once the game proper starts, players of Pillars of Eternity should feel almost at home. Graphically, Tyranny very much resembles Obsidian’s prior offering, with most of the changes in the UI itself. The area maps have been moved from a separate screen to a window that functions as a combat log or map interchangeably, depending on context. The party window has been reworked, and I have to say that I’m not particularly fond of the new layout, but it is what it is and one can get used to it. Individual characters still have a row of usable skills and spells, with slots for quick items. Movement and targeting designation is very similar to Pillars, and there is a menu bar allowing for quick access to the various screens.

Character inventory is very much akin to Pillars and similar games, with each character having their own sub inventory in addition to what items they have equipped, up to four weapons sets depending on their talents, and a number of quick item slots that can vary depending on talents. There is also a stash that can be accessed and holds the miscellaneous things that the party picks up.

The attribute screen lets you review a character’s attributes, skills, and active effects, but also how far along each skill is toward an advancement. When a character levels up this is also where attribute points may be distributed, with each character gaining one attribute point and one talent point at each level.

Talents come in several categories, with the main character receiving a choice of six different categories: Leadership, Defense, Power, Agility, Range, and Magic, while additional party members merely get two talent categories designed for them alone. This allows some customization of the additional party members while keeping them fairly set in their overall roles. Talents can have a wide range of effects, from passive bonuses to activated abilities to unlocking certain additional elements of the character screen.

The journal is pretty robust, allowing for sorting and examination of various quests, whether completed or not, and breaking them down between primary quests and other quest types. There is a reputation window, which allows for an overview of the character’s reputations with the various factions, as well as individual NPCs. Finally, there’s a spell creation system, a spire tab that replaces the stronghold in Pillars, and a Missives tab, for when NPCs have sent you letters.

First, let’s take a look at the combat system. I think I can best describe it as a streamlined version of the Pillars combat system, retaining the same range and area effect diagrams, the same engagement system that prevents enemies from scooting around each other, the same ‘per encounter’ style abilities that can be used limited numbers of times and the same vulnerability to having attacks and spells and the like interrupted. The actual attack interruption mechanics seem to have been streamlined somewhat, as has the hit point and wound system. Rather than having endurance, then hit points, which might result in a wounded state, health is simply one bar, and when it gets low enough the character might be subject to wounds. Wounds reduce the maximum health a character can recover to, as well as impose a penalty to actions. Wounds can be recovered through certain items, through camping, through certain actions, or when a character levels up.

And on that note, the limited ‘camping supplies’ makes its return from Pillars, although this time it seems a little more generous. Basically, the mechanic puts a cap on how many times you can rest on any one expedition, since you can’t simply rest and restore without supplies on hand, and you can only carry so many at a time. There is a day and night cycle and passing time and dates, and even in the handful of hours I played there was a quest with a hard time limit, so even with a more generous camping supplies store, there can still be a harder limit at certain times.

The exploration map has icons and interaction areas similar to Pillars of Eternity, where certain areas include lootable containers, some include icons you can click on for more information, and certain icons indicate an interaction event, usually dependent on a certain skill. Finally, compass roses indicate where the party can exit to the overworld map. Like Pillars, there is a stealth and scouting mode which can allow the party to sneak up on opponents, but taking a cue from the later Pillars mechanics, there’s a certain chance to uncover hidden traps and caches even without the scouting mode active.

The overland map art is more stylized than in similar games, and areas are situated as hotspots that can be traveled to as they are discovered. Travel on the overland map takes time, and there is the chance to uncover scripted encounters while moving from area to area.

In terms of mechanics beyond the basics described, certain ones bear special mention. The reputations system is interesting, mostly because rather than simply having a single positive or negative slider, the main character can influence factions or other characters through two means each. For factions, you can gain or lose favor or wrath. Favor represents what it sounds like, what you’ve done for a faction, how you’ve furthered their goals and so forth. Wrath, on the other hand, is what you’ve done to anger them. Each of these may be influenced independently. It is possible to both irritate and favor a faction in turn. Doing so unlocks certain tiers, which can affect interactions with their members, but may also unlock special abilities at certain levels. For instance, attaining level 3 favor with the Scarlet Chorus unlocks Merciless, which gives a bonus to hit precision against targets below 35% health. Archons use a similar system to factions.

Similarly, companions can be influenced, although they use Loyalty and Fear. You can inspire a companion to accompany you through either, in keeping with the whole evil twist to the game. This can allow you to unlock abilities, similar to the factions, although these abilities tend to be combo attacks that you can use with your companions.

Another system that bears mentioning is the spell creation system. Rather than simply adding spells to a spellbook, each member of the party has a number of spell slots based on their lore and their talents. As you adventure, you’ll uncover various sigils that can be combined into different spell types. Core sigils define what sort of spell it is, be it life manipulation, fire, illusion, or the like, while Expressions determine the target, and the target can alter the way the core takes effect. Finally there are accents, which may modify aspects of the spell once it’s defined. Things such as extending range or duration are all Accents, which are optional. Once a spell is created, it can be socketed into one of the spell slots of any character that meets the requisite Lore skill, and that character can then use it in combat. I think it’s really a nice way to do spell creation, and would like to see something similar in other rpgs.

Finally we have the spire page, which lists various mysterious spires and the devices associated with each, as well as the various parts of the Tiers and whether each particular area is under an Edict. Edicts affect broad swaths of land, and are central to the game’s plot, while the Spires function, apparently, like a miniature stronghold. Each one may be upgraded through various hires that provide services.

So let’s talk about aesthetics. Graphically, as I said, it’s very similar to the Pillars of Eternity game. Although the styling is a little different on the interface and maps, the actual character models and environment art actually seem a step up from the bar set by Pillars, reminiscent of the hand drawn maps of the old infinity engine game while being properly detailed in a modern rendering engine. Now I’m no art critic, but the harsher, more ominous landscapes present in this game seem to have been well realized by the designers. Musically, the soundtrack is worth listening to, though I don’t know if any of the tracks really stand out, at least thus far. It’s at least on par with Pillars.

As for the writing and storyline? Well, as I have stated earlier, I didn’t play but through the first five or so hours, basically through the first act. What I did see was quite impressive. The storyline itself is told from the eyes of someone in service to this evil overlord, at least at first. Having played many, many evil characters in tabletop roleplaying and such, I found the treatment of the various factions and characters quite well done. Even playing the honorable sort, you are going to be hit with some very tough decisions, and the various characters genuinely feel properly fleshed out, with their very evident flaws, ambitions, and whims. Furthermore, decisions you make in the game feel like they genuinely have weight, although I’ll clearly have to play more of the game to see if this holds up. The real question here is how long the story itself holds up. I’ve seen some indications in other reviews that you can finish the game in 20 hours or less, and that the story seems to leave off unfinished. This is not something I can confirm or deny in this initial look, so it’s something that you’ll have to consider for yourself if you’re looking to purchase this. Whether you can accept a game that is quite a bit shorter than an epic like Pillars will be key.

Now, in terms of stability and performance, I didn’t personally encounter anything game breaking, but you need to take that with a grain of salt, since often games like this do tend to work just fine for me even when others have issues. I will say that it is based on an engine that has had a lot of work put into it already, so it has been tested and tried with a prior game, and that’s always a benefit.

So what we have is a solid entry into the RPG arena that is graphically pleasing, decently written, and uses an underlying RPG system that is effectively an evolution of one that proved equal to the task of another game. I’m not going to say that it is going to unseat any of the current ‘best rpgs ever’ from their place, far from it, but it does have a rather unique premise, and approaches the whole heroic saga thing from a different starting perspective than most RPGs. I very much want to do a full Let’s Play at some time in the future. Suffice to say that I’m hooked.

Now, is it worth the cost? For me, yeah, at least the Commander Edition. I’m not one to pay for the extra digital content that’s included with the other versions, things that include forum avatars, short stories, soundtracks and ringtones and other extras. If you enjoy those things, more power to you. Taken as it is, my main concern is the projected length of the game. For the price, I generally prefer games with longer playtimes. On the other hand, although supposedly short, it’s not like it’s a full price game that only lasts nine hours, and the different choices, challenges, and difficulties might make for some replay value.

Get it on Steam:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/362960/

Or on gog.com:
https://www.gog.com/game/tyranny_commander_edition
 

Review - Fifth Edition Foes

A quick review of Fifth Edition Foes, a monster book for D&D 5th edition from Necromancer Games:

Hello, this is the RPG Crawler, and welcome to another product review. This time I’ll be taking a look at something that’s been on the market for a while, indeed to the point where I had to order it from the Frog God Games website: Fifth Edition Foes, from Necromancer Games. Published in 2015 by Necromancer Games, it is available in both hardback and pdf formats, and is compatible with the fifth edition of the world’s most popular roleplaying game.

So for those who don’t know, Necromancer games was a company that rose during the third edition era, and published a lot of 3rd party content for the d20 systems, many of which had an old school 1st edition feel. This included a series of monster books called the Tome of Horrors, which included a fairly large number of of monsters during its four volume run, with a pathfinder translation available later. Among those monsters were many which were culled from the earliest days of dungeons and dragons, 1st edition and original, which were made available to Necromancer games through a special agreement beyond the normal OGL. I believe it’s this same agreement which allowed them to be used in variations throughout the cycle of the Tome of Horrors series, through 3rd and 3.5, and into Pathfinder. Even the monsters that were written just for Tome of Horrors had the same sort of look and feel that you’d expect monsters from an early edition product to have.

Now what does Tome of Horrors have to do with Fifth Edition Foes? Well, everything, since Fifth Edition Foes uses a number of the monsters from Tome of Horror, as well as creatures from the original first edition material, all translated to the fifth edition system. There’s over two hundred fifty creature types (some of which are subtypes of the same creature) spanning a variety of themes, from conversions of first edition classics such as the adherer, cave fisher, and vegepygmies,to creatures designed just for the tome of horrors series, like the arcanoplasm, the fear guard, and two types of ‘grue’.

So now that we know what Fifth Edition Foes is, let’s take a look at the technical details. Physically, the book is a good quality hardback, it seems a bit thicker than the official D&D monster manual. The binding is fair for moderate use. Pages are done in black and white, without a gloss finish, in a style reminiscent of older game books.

In terms of contents, there is a short foreward from Steve Winter, who was with TSR back in the classic era that some of the included monsters would’ve been from. The majority of the book is indeed the monster descriptions, with a few pages at the end devoted to lists of the monsters by type and by challenge rating, and then the legal information.

It should be noted that this book was compiled and released before the 5th edition SRD was released, therefore it operates off of the old 3rd edition one. As a result, some of the concepts like advantage and disadvantage, etc, that were included with 5th edition were not part of the earlier SRD and are referred to by alternate terminology in this book. For instance: Tactical Advantage vs. just normal ‘advantage’. It’s not a deal breaker by any means. Also of note is that the monster stat blocks are arranged more like you’d expect a pathfinder or 3rd edition monster to look like, rather than the 5th edition list methods. Again, it’s something that can be worked around, since all of the information is still there.

Since the vast majority, if not all of the creatures were released in the tome of horrors line of product, it is perhaps not as surprising as it should be that a lot of the interior art was reused. Most monsters have black and white illustrations done in a manner similar to older edition artwork from the 80s and early 90s, of varying quality. It was mostly pulled over from the tome of horrors releases, and fit into the new format.

I’m not going to go over the monsters individually, since with over two hundred fifty of them we could be here all day. As of this review, it is available on rpgnow as a pdf as well, and the preview allows access to the table of contents, so if you need a quick look to see if any of the monsters jump out at you, you can check it out there. I will say that there’s no split between normal animals and monsters, and there are a few normal animals scattered amongst the pages, just blended in with the rest of the monsters. I should also point out that I believe a few of these monsters were released in core d&d products since, though that number is relatively small. There’s a really good mix of different monster challenge ratings, with monsters available up to CR 20, but the vast majority of them in the CR1-4 range, which is appropriate for the new power layout in 5th edition. Likewise there’s a really good mix among the various monster types, with a slight edge given to the monstrosity type, and only a few giants listed.

The quality of the monsters themselves is, in my opinion, great, but your mileage may vary. They are geared toward an older edition feel, and as a result may be quite challenging for the equivalent challenge rating. There’s a good mix of interesting abilities present among them, that can make for a surprise for people used to the stuff from the core monster manual. There’s more than a few entries that’ll make older players go on a nostalgia trip once they recognize the creature in question.

From a dungeon master perspective, I think it’s well worth the price, especially the cheaper pdf version, for the sheer quantity of monsters available. Another consideration, however, is those who want to reuse monsters in their product. A large number of these monsters are ordinary ‘open game content’, albeit content from an earlier version of the license, and can be reused under the normal licensing restrictions in your products. There are, however, a number of others, taken from the earlier versions of dungeons and dragons,  that follow special rules for reuse, including a reference to the original tome of horrors license. And you’ll have to include a special entry for each of those in your legal section. I haven’t really investigated mixing monsters from this ogl content with those from the 5th edition SRD, but it should be possible.

So my final thoughts: If you’re willing to accept that the majority of these are basically updates of monsters that were already printed, and keep an eye out for alternative wording due to the use of an older SRD, then this is a great addition to the library of a DM, especially one who likes older editions and games with a retro feel.The hardcover itself may be a bit iffy to track down, but I for one have already found it well worth the investment. Maybe we’ll see a new version using the modern SRD some day, or another volume with more similar creatures.

For now, I’ll leave it at that. This has been the rpg crawler with Necromancer Games’ Fifth Edition Foes. If you like what you’ve seen, remember to leave a like, comment if you have feedback, and subscribe for more RPG Content. Until next time, take care and good bye!

You can pick it up as a pdf from RPGNow [Affiliate Link]: http://www.rpgnow.com/product/195015/Fifth-Edition-Foes?affiliate_id=902296

RPG Crawler's Patreon Launch

So a few days ago I went ahead and started a Patreon page, for those fans who might want to directly contribute. I know it might seem a bit early, but I figured hey, why not. Now, for those who don't know what Patreon is, it's a website that allows people to pledge support for artists and content producers that they enjoy. A content producer can set the page up to accept pledges on a monthly basis, or per item produced. I have set mine up on a monthly basis, because I believe that model lines up with the content I produce best.

How it works for the patron, the one pledging support, is that you can pledge any dollar amount, and set up a payment method. Each month, that amount is automatically deducted by the website. You can discontinue your pledge at any time. Simple and efficient.

Now, the creator can set various rewards for certain levels of pledges, and I have done exactly that. Patrons who pledge $1 or more a month will get early access to certain types of videos that I produce. Specifically exempting the let's plays, the indie game friday series, and the rpg news roundup. It'd be difficult to do the latter two, since many times I record those on the day they are released. The early access will apply to other reviews, tabletops & taverns, rpg storytime, and other 'specials' that I might put together. The $1 tier also gets you access to certain patron only posts that I will put up from time to time, either sharing my thoughts and methods, talking about the future of the channel, or just offering whatever interaction I think that patrons might find interesting.

I have also put a $5 tier and a $15 tier for those who want to go the extra mile in supporting my content. at the $5 tier, you will get access to my video scripts and notes, as well as access to a monthly patron chat and any patron specific streams I may be doing at that moment. Access to my scripts and notes might interest some who want to see how projects I've put together were arrived at, or get a glimpse at some upcoming projects, or even projects I decided not to do just yet. The patron chat and streams will allow patrons of that level or higher a high degree of interaction. I might chat with them about the state of the channel, might give more personal anecdotes than I usually share with the general public, or might just kick around and play games that they want, possibly with multiplayer elements they can join in on. It all depends on the mood and the way things go.

At the $15 tier, I have allowed a limited number of slots to be effectively 'producer credits', to be credited at the end of my non-let's play videos. During a given month I'll create a pre end card credit sequence that will list up to 15 people as producers, under whatever name they might want (within reason). If said individual has a youtube channel, I can readily link to them. I have a non-credit version for anyone who might want to give this much, but do so relatively anonymously. I'm currently wracking my brains for something else to offer in that $15 tier, although I feel I might have quite a bit of time. I was thinking perhaps writing a custom adventure each month to offer them, or something similar, but I'll have to see if I have any time whatsoever with my new posting schedule goals. I am, of course, open to suggestions.

But really, whether the rewards are enticing or not, the whole Patreon experiment boils down to two questions: 1) Whether you believe that my content is worth contributing anything each month, and 2) Whether or not you're comfortable making that pledge. And at the end of the day, that's something only you, the viewer and reader can answer. The current content I produce won't be put behind a paywall or anything like that. This is just a piece of a larger puzzle, to gradually get enough to reinvest in the channel. If I can start getting a little income in, whether it be through ads, through patreon, through affiliate sales or through direct donations, I can start upgrading my equipment, afford to build sets, or even just generally devote more time to making videos and blog posts, increasing the quality (I should hope).

At any rate, I thank you for taking the time to read this. If you'd like to watch my video on the subject, I'll include it below, as well as a link to my Patreon page. Until next time, take care and good bye!


Support my Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/rpgcrawler

Review - Ultimate Intrigue

I've another review up on the Youtube channel. This time for Ultimate Intrigue, a new Pathfinder RPG accessory. You can watch it here:

If you wish to acquire it, you can get it:
From Amazon (hardback) [Affiliate Link]:
http://amzn.to/2davyCE

From Paizo (pdf and hardback):
http://paizo.com/products/btpy9j6p?Pathfinder-Roleplaying-Game-Ultimate-Intrigue

Started a new D&D campaign

So, on Thursday, I started a new D&D campaign, adapting the Curse of Strahd adventure I've reviewed previously. I've taken liberties with some of the elements (for instance, writing a new intro) to adapt to my personal style, as well as make things flow more smoothly. It's the first time in years that I've run a full adventure over a non-text based medium, for all that I talk about how excellent it is to play D&D over the internet. As a result, many of my skills are incredibly rusty, but hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things.

However, I'd like to take a moment to talk about some of the technical and logistics problems that I encountered while setting this up and running it, not to bemoan their existence, but rather to address possible fixes, as well as marvel at how we finally did get this together.

First, some background: I don't have a lot of friends that play D&D who have a lot of free time anymore. As I am a relatively old man by Youtube standards (and getting ever older), most of my old players have moved on, and I've had to pick new ones up. And thus I have long turned to online solutions to set games up. I've been running a long running series of campaigns over IRC with a fairly steady core of players, but unfortunately about half of them won't do video chat or even voice chat, despite the various advantages thereof. So for years I've been running games either wholly over IRC, or occasionally through forums. Neither is conducive for getting much done.

Forums, by their nature, take a long time to play over. Their main strength: allowing people of vastly different schedules to interact, is also their main weakness. I could estimate maybe  1 or 2 rounds of posts a day in the fastest of the forum games I've played in, and many times somewhat slower, which means that your average combat could take a week or so to finish. If you have any miscommunication, or if someone asks for clarification on something, then it can easily kill a day just passing information back and forth to sort things out. Furthermore, this slow pace means that you're likely to lose members, either through disinterest or life events that can pop up over the sometimes months that it takes to run even one minor adventure.

With IRC and similar chat programs, interaction is theoretically only limited by reading and typing speed, but in practice it is much slower. People tend to AFK or not pay attention to the screen as much as they would be in a face to face game. If they are a slower typist with a lot to say, it can take a few minutes to type in something that could've been stated in seconds verbally. Because everyone who thinks ahead can have access to logs, sometimes players will rely more on logs of the chat than notes, and thus whenever they need to refer to some sort of specific mention, they might be paging back through MBs of text files, rather than just a page or two of relevant information. Further, you still have to rely on some sort of virtual tabletop if you want to share maps. It makes for a sometimes awkwardly slow play session.

So when I decided to run a campaign over video chat, I was quite excited. Here was a chance to finally get some D&D over the internet without having to wait for a day between posts, or for someone to decide to come back to the keyboard after an unannounced absence. Unfortunately, scheduling reared its ugly head, and thus it took me over a year and some change to actually get a D&D group together.

I pulled a few players in from my IRC based D&D/Pathfinder group, those who were willing to at least try video chat. The other two I drew from another chat channel I mod in, and whom I knew had video capability from past experience. And thus we set a day and actually managed to get everyone to show up for a game. The first game is always a real accomplishment.

Unfortunately, one of our players was sick when the day finally came. An unexpected roadblock, to be sure, but he was a real trooper. He agreed to play regardless of being ill, but did ask about not using his webcam so as not to look terrible. I readily agreed, so long as the audio worked fine. It did, and thus we were down one player's smiling face from the very beginning.

Then two of our players ran into technical and logistics problems. They are signing on from the same residence, but their place is currently undergoing  remodeling, so they only had the one room to work from. Compounding this issue was the fact that one of them was on a laptop with no working webcam, so we were down another face. Fortunately the mic worked just fine. Unfortunately, the other player in the same room was using a built in mic rather than a headset mic or other directional mic. Thus, the problem of Echoing. It was horrible, Godawful really, but about halfway through the play session, we figured that we could just turn the mic off on one of them, and let the other broadcast both voices. With the lack of visual feedback, this meant that sometimes we kind of lost a voice, but it wasn't enough to present a real issue.

Just as we got started with play, the internet connection on the two sharing a mic and cam began to bomb. But by then we were ready to start, and I really, really didn't want to put the game off anymore. After a year plus of trying to get some sort of 5th edition game together, I was desperate. So we went ahead even with all the problems we were having. I was intending to get some overlays done, and drop the appropriate areas into it, but I didn't get them done in time, so everything you see in terms of overlay and graphics is done in post. And of course, the 'buzz' is back, because I ended up recording in OBS, which made for difficulties in cleaning up the audio.

Speaking of audio, the echo caused by the two players in the same room was only one issue. Roll20 tended to break up audio a lot when multiple people talk, and there doesn't appear to be anything that can be done to fix that, so in the future, we'll have to try to keep crosstalk to a minimum, or use another audio solution. The video seems just fine for now.

Also, because of my hectic week prior to this, I didn't get to refresh my memory with the actual Ravenloft content that I was likely to use, above and beyond the new intro I'd written. I hadn't initially expected to get to it, because I had grown so used to the pace that IRC and forum games run at that it didn't occur to me we'd actually get that far. I suppose that it's a testament both to how much faster the video/audio method is over plain text, as well as how focused our group was.

Of course, we have solutions incoming for almost all of the problems we encountered. First and foremost are things I can do on my end: better time management so that I can have time to prepare, taking my time with narrations to set a better mood, recording my own audio separately so I can clean the 'buzz'. The ill player should be up and running again next week in terms of a camera, and supposedly the player with no webcam now has one, and should be able to get it working.

For audio, I'm going to try to get one of those two players to get a headset, which should also cut down on their echo and crosstalk. Failing that, I'll have one of them mute their mic again, as I did in this particular session, which seemed to fix things. I'll also have my own audio recorded separately, and at the end of the day the only real problem (besides the variable mic qualities) will be the cut offs and dropouts during crosstalk. A few applications to use instead of Roll20.net's a/v service have been recommended to me, so I'll be trying those out in the future.

All in all, I'm rather pleased with how this session went. It'll be at least a week before I'll know the group's schedules to try to pick another day, but I'm optimistic that this will be a good, ongoing thing. And in the meantime, it's helping me identify problems and correct them, so perhaps I can run another campaign besides this one, if people are interested.

At the very least, it feels damn good to be in the DM's seat again. This feels so much closer to the tabletop setting than the IRC and forum games I've been relying on thus far.