A Storm of Swords by G.R.R. Martin

This one was a long time coming.  By my best guess, I started this book in 2008 while in the process of finishing my dissertation, applying for jobs, and moving across country.  A lot happened around that time, and for a while I basically stopped reading for pleasure.  A few years back, I finally managed to work reading back into my life, thanks in large part to the wonderful portability (and built-in backlight) of my trusty Kindle Paperwhite.  But even then, it took a while to get back to this book.  The Sundering had arrived in the Forgotten Realms, bringing with it six new and (generally speaking) exciting books, as well as their sequels.  And there are always books to read for work.

I finally started making progress on this again last summer.  After having to take a month or so off for some work-related reading, I got back to it again a few weeks ago and have poured through it since.  Here are my comments on goodreads.

A Storm of Swords continues many of the strong points of that carried the prior two novels in the Song of Ice and Fire series.  There continue to be deep, fascinating characters from prior novels that often seem in well over their heads in this violent, dangerous world at war.  Each chapter tells the story from the perspective of different characters, each with their own voice and motivations.  The story remains unpredictable, and the events of this book are nothing short of realm-shaking.  As fans will point out, no character is ever truly safe.  Nevertheless, Martin managed to set this tone--and, indeed, allow some critical characters to perish--without making it seem forced or intentional, and there was really only one time when I felt like I was being teased.

That all said, there is one pretty substantial way that this book departs from prior novels: magic is real.  In books 1 & 2, despite references to magic, I generally found it easy to dismiss this as character superstition or mysticism.  It was never obvious to me that something that ventured into the true, overt supernatural must be part of the world.  But with book 3, there can really be no doubt.  While all may not be as magical as it seems, some form of divine-inspired magic seems a certainty.  When people talk about how good writers show the reader, and don't tell the reader, this is exactly what they're talking about: Martin allows us to discover this on our own, at our own pace.  I imagine that I was one of the last to believe.

I'm glad that I finally came back into the fold.  While there are a few books I want to read before I start up once again, A Feast for Crows is calling me...and a Dance with Dragons beyond that.

Fallout 4 is Coming

At E3 a few days ago, Bethesda made their first major presentation on Fallout 4. It is below.





And part 2, which is just as good...









I thought that Fallout 3 was brilliant.  My concern was that this new one might not be new or innovative enough to be a worthy successor.  We'll see how the story unfolds, but initially it looks really good.  But in terms of features, it looks amazing.  The crafting system looks ridiculously fun.  And the settlement system looks like its own base defense-style minigame nestled neatly into the game world.  I can't wait to fiddle with it.  Given that I just bought a new computer (which I'm using to type this), I will probably even get to play this in the PC version!  Should be such a blast.



Speaking of base defense games, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Fallout Shelter, the new iOS game they just released.  I just downloaded it, and am looking forward to taking it with me on my family vacation next week.  Hooray!

RIP My NWN2 Rig; Long Live My New Rig!

Last week, while playing the excellent Pillars of Eternity, my computer froze and went into an loop while trying to load an area.  When I did a warm boot (reset button), I got a blue screen with bad words on it like "disk fault."  I did a cold boot, I was able to load windows, but things seem to be running strangely.  Steam won't load.  There's a lot of cacheing.  Chrome won't launch, only Firefox.  Things look bleak.

It might be possible to fix it.  Maybe it just needs a new hard drive (would be its third).  But the fact of the matter is that this PC is the one that I bought in Fall of 2006 to run Neverwinter Nights 2.  That makes it almost 9 years old, the same age as my oldest kid.  It's still running Windows XP, which has been discontinued.  My wife can't run Adobe Lightroom on Win XP, which has become a significant need as her photography interests and expertise have expanded.  It has been a great machine, but I think it's time to retire it and move on to the modern generation of computers.

My life has changed a bit in the last nine years.  Rather than working out of an office, my desktop currently sits stashed in the corner of the family room.  I don't have time for as much gaming as I used to.  And while I'm hardly wealthy, I'm a tenured college professor now rather than a Ph.D. student.  So this time, I've decided to go with a desktop replacement-style laptop; something powerful enough to run some modern games reasonably well, with a nice screen, solid hardware, etc...but a laptop nevertheless.

This is the first time since high school that I've purchased a computer without buying component parts.  Feels wrong.  But anyway, after a lot of shopping around, I decided on the Lenovo Y70-70.  Here are the specs of the model I've ordered:

i7/4720HQ (2.6 ghz)
NVIDIA GTX 960M 4GB
16 GB PC3-12800 DDR3L 1600 mhz RAM
17.3" IPS FHD LED Monitor
512 GB SATA SSD

With the educator discount they offer, it runs $1299 at Lenovo's website.  Compared to other "Gaming Laptops" that are comparably equipped, that's an amazing price.  It was surprising to see that Lenovo's own website has the best prices for its products around (often by several hundred dollars), and furthermore that the products offered there are newer and better updated than those on newegg, best buy.com, etc.

You can read a review of the Lenovo Y70 laptop here by the excellent Sherri Smith, but the model I'm buying should outperform the one they reviewed due to the upgraded hard drive (SSD!) and video card (960M!).  Battery will still be an issue, but this thing will almost always be plugged in anyway; as a 17", 7.5-pound laptop, this thing will be a beast to lug around!

I was excited to find a 900-series graphics card with 4 gb of RAM.  I see a lot of the 860M/4gb models around, but most of the 960M cards are 2 GB.  And I'm super-excited to run a laptop with a solid-state drive.  It should result in a huge improvement in the usability of the laptop, with programs opening and closing faster, and hopefully less issues with eternal caching.  Size-wise, 512 GB is a bit small, but I used some Amazon gift card money from my birthday to buy a nice external hard drive for photo/video storage.

I'm also pretty excited to give Windows 8 (and then Windows 10) a whirl.  The screen on this computer is supposed to be bright, crisp, and brilliant.  And it's also a touch screen, which is pretty exciting for me.  This is the kind of thing I once would have had a fit about, but I think it should make it fun to use...and more intuitive to use for my ipad-trained kids.

This is still a 4th-generation CPU.  And it doesn't have the ability to be hooked to an external graphics amplifier like Alienware and some other companies offer.  But it's still pretty powerful, and costs a heck of a lot less than those other systems do.

I've backed up my saved games in Pillars of Eternity so I'm looking forward to giving it a run on this new machine once it arrives.  I have no doubt that NWN1 & NWN2 will also make appearances on the drive; my localvaults for both are already backed up!  I'm probably also going to play Sword Coast Legends when it is released, as well as Torment: Tides of Numenera next year.  And maybe, while I'm at it, I'll give something that pushes the limits as well.  Fallout 4, perhaps?

While I might not get nine years from this one like I did the last, I'm looking forward to many years of fun gaming with this laptop!

Book Review: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

My daughter and I read this back-to-back last week.  The last time I'd read it was when I was about her age (3rd grade).  The book is fantastic.  It provides a wonderfully imaginative, detailed world that feels inherently "real."  The ties to the actual biology of its animal characters -- mice, rats, crows, and owls -- feel real, even as we give even the "ordinary" versions of these animals credit for far greater intelligence and communication systems than they probably have.  The truly extraordinary individuals, whose uniqueness stems from their relationship with the mysterious NIMH, are introduced late enough in the story that they still feel natural, organic, and true.

Everyone loves the rat Justin in this novel.  But I actually found Mrs. Frisby to be a really good character.  She's a recent widow and single-parent of four children.  Nevertheless, despite the book presenting a fairly old-fashioned culture of male and female roles in these animal societies, Mrs. Frisby doesn't balk at her role as sole provider for her family, nor does she shy away from the frequent dangers into which her predicament forces her.  She's no daredevil, but she always does what is needed, without any more than a second thought.

A big chunk of the narrative is told as a story-within-a-story.  I often am not a big fan of this approach, but it worked really well in this book.  If the story was told chronologically, starting with the mice and rats at NIMH, it would be far harder to focus on the plight of Mrs. Frisby's family in light of the other story.  And by keeping the narrative on her family, the Rats of NIMH always maintain an air of mystery.

So, kudos, Robert C. O'Brien.  This is a great example of a book that is just as dramatic and exciting to an adult as it is to an 8-year old.  I've now read the book at both ages, and it will remains one of my favorites.

Review: Vengeance of the Iron Dwarf

The Silver Marches at war.  All three dwarven citadels are surrounded by the massive many-arrows army of orcs and goblins, bolstered by drow from the underdark.  Sundabar and Nesme have fallen.  Silverymoon and Everlund are under siege.  Drizzt and his companions made it through the siege to Mithral Hall, but not before being separated from two of their friends: Regis and Wulfgar as they made their way through the Underark.  Food is growing scarce, the alliance of elves and dwarves seems shattered, and the drow plans for the surface seem unstoppable.

The backdrop against which Vengeance of the Iron Dwarf opens is bleak indeed, and it sets the stage for a book with a vast, epic story in which massive armies come to bear on one another.  This novel, in many ways, resolves the war that has been brewing the past several books between the Many Arrows tribe and the good peoples of the Silver Marches.  As one might expect for a Salvatore book, Drizzt and his friends are right in the thick of it, though are not necessarily the biggest players in the gambit this time around.  The action is far-ranging and unquestionably epic, and some parts of this book are Salvatore at his finest.  He writes of huge, vivid battles that turn on key moments that, usually, feel real and exciting.  The descriptions of hardship under siege were also painfully real, and brought a tremendous sense of urgency to the events of the story.

There are some new characters and plot lines that develop in this book, but this is a book about tying up loose ends.  In that way, it's pretty satisfying.  The events were unquestionably memorable, and I look forward to seeing their ramifications written and described in a future Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide.

I did feel, however, that the book was lacking some multidimensionality.  Tiago, the primary villain in this book, seems like little more than a one-dimensional thug.  None of the villains, in fact, had a lot of depth to them, with the exception of one character who is developing into a potentially interesting character.  Some of the protagonists, similarly, just seem bland at this point, and too "good" at everything in comparison with standard mortals.  The focus of this novel is more about resolving the conflict than character development, but my hope is that we see something deeper with the characters in the future books of this series.

In the end, this book is a worthy finale to storyline of the past three novels.  It's a fast-paced, fun read, with some fantastic, memorable moments that I look forward to reliving with the Sundered book club over the coming weeks.

Short Pillars of Eternity Combat Story

I still haven't figured out how to take screenshots, so unfortunately this is text only.  And minor, non-story spoilers follow...

My party was walking through the Black Meadows, a barren patch of land that appeared to have been desolated by a battle involving a small army of dragons.  As as creep out of the wasted meadow, we entered a small forested region and encountered some Forest Lurkers.  These remind me of the dnd "shambling mound" creature, and are highly resistant to piercing damage, have a lot of HP, pretty good defenses, and pack a mean punch.  I started fairly conservatively with my spell usage, having my cipher paralyze one of the two lurkers, while the wizard used his encounter powers, the rogue tried to sneak attack her way through their high piercing resistance, and my fighter tried to tank.

After a fairly long battle of attrition, I finally dispatched one, but my cipher was out of focus, and my priest was using all of his spells to heal the fighter who was taking a lot of damage from the creatures.  Suddenly, the last of my cipher's spells wore off, and the last lurker knocked Eder, my fighter, prone and started to really pummel him.  I realized that he was not just in danger of being knocked out, but because of all the endurance healing I'd used, he was actually getting very close to being permanently killed!

Fortunately, at exactly that moment, my cipher hit with his crossbow, regenerating just enough focus to cast a desperate spell.  I cast amplified thrust, and, with Eder being only one more hit away from death, the spell slammed the monster back away from my fighter, allowing my priest and rogue to run interference.  The party still might not have survived it--I had completely exhausted all of my spellcasters' spells by that point, and my ranged rogue was rendered useless by the piercing resistance--but I realized that I had a scroll on my wizard.  He rushed forward to cast it and managed to deal 60 points of damage with that final attack to kill the monster.

Whew!

Also: this game is really fun.

First thoughts on Pillars of Eternity Combat Mechanics

I'm only a few hours in, but I'm loving Pillars of Eternity.  The mood in the world is terrific, and the writing has been excellent.  So far, it has had something of  Planescape: Torment vibe with its dark, macabre themes, though the setting does not have the wackiness that Sigil did.

The combat engine is fun as well.  It definitely seems built upon something that resembles 4e combat to me.  There are at-will abilities, encounter powers (which are even named as such!), and daily spells.  The exception so far is the cipher, the class I chose to play, which uses a mana-like system with a resource pool called "Focus."  You gain focus by hitting with melee or ranged weapons, and then spend it with your spells.  It's a fun system.

Deflection and Damage Reduction

Armor has interesting differences as well.  Like in 4e DnD, there are four defenses: Deflection (i.e. AC), Fortitude, Reflex, and Will.  Interestingly, while these can be enhanced with magic items, they seem mostly determined by your characters' attributes and class.  Armor, typically, does not enhance Deflection.  Instead, it boosts Damage Reduction; donning heavy armor instead of cloth armor does not change your deflection, but instead adds substantial damage reduction to certain kinds of hits.  Damage reduction can really help, especially given the grazing mechanic: most "misses" actually are grazes in this system, which can leave a small amount of damage.  That graze damage will usually be completely negated with decent armor.

As far as I can tell, there isn't such a thing as armor proficiency.  Instead, the main incentive to not wear heavy armor seems to be a speed penalty.  After each action, be it shooting an arrow, swinging a sword, or casting a spell, there is a recovery period before you can act again.  The heavier your armor, the longer the recovery period.  This can be dramatic; the heaviest armor I've seen so far is still just medium armor, and it has a recovery penalty of 50%!  Therefore, if those numbers are true, suiting up is going to halve your damage output.

I think the main consequence of this is that one needs to have characters specialize in combat roles.  You'll definitely want to have a few characters in a party of 6 who can take on a "tank" role, wearing heavy armor and shields, and using heavy damage reduction to survive on the front lines.  Behind them, you can use ranged attackers wearing cloth or light armor that fling spells, arrows, or shoot guns, and it is those characters who will do most of the damage.  I personally enjoy this degree of specialization, and it stands in contrast to the 5e dnd approach where fighters can serve not only as tanks, but also as legitimate damage-dealers themselves.

It's less clear to me exactly what one should do for a "melee striker"-style character.  I think this is where you end up compromising with medium or light armor, and being careful when engaging to minimize your risk of engaging more than one enemy at once, ensure opponents already are engaged with the tank, etc.

Weapon Choices

The fact that Damage Reduction is such a big part of this game has implications for weapon selections.  In 2e DnD, assuming equivalent accuracy, a fast, low-damage weapon will give you equivalent "damage per second" output to a slow, high damage weapon.  3e and 4e didn't have weapon speeds, but you got similar effects from dual-wielding light weapons compared to swinging a big, two-handed sword.

But if DR is important and common, then you could run into issues where a fast, low-damage weapon can't provide much of any benefit because it can't clear a foe's damage reduction.  I ran into a similar problem while playing The Prophet, which features a lot of foes with damage reduction.  Therefore, you see a lot of folks on the internet boards advocating high damage weapons like firearms, which also have extremely long reload times.

Ultimately, it will come down to how much damage reduction an average foe has, and exactly how much longer the reload times are compared to how much extra damage output you get.  If I was really methodical, I'd get out my stopwatch and start measuring this.  ...  but I'm sure some young buck out there will do this before I get it done!

Endurance and Health

Rather than a single pool of hit points, PoE employs a system that involves a combination of two pools of health systems.  Endurance is a comparably small pool of health.  As you are hit, therefore, it quickly drops in combat.  If you reach zero, you fall unconscious.  Most healing spells and potions work to replenish endurance, as do some skills.  Fighters, for example, steadily regenerate endurance during combat.  Finally, when combat is over, characters almost immediately regenerate all of their endurance.  

In contrast, health is a much larger pool.  As you take endurance damage, you also steadily lose health.  It's unlikely that you'll run out of health in a single encounter.  However, after a long series of fights, you'll eventually start to run low.  This is dangerous, because dropping to 0 health will kill your character, permanently.  Furthermore, aside from a pair of talents (aka feats), I haven't seen a mechanism to heal health aside from resting.  Therefore, while endurance is usually one's concern during combat, health is what will ultimately end your adventuring day.  One can always rest to heal, but you can carry limited camping supplies, and resting may(?) come with risk of random encounters (maybe...I'm not sure of this).

What I like about the system is that, most of the time, character death isn't something that one has to worry about.  Most of the time, you'll bounce back up after a difficult fight, even if you get knocked unconscious.  But at the same time, you have to take damage seriously, because it will eventually catch up with a character, forcing a risky rest out in the wildnerness or within a dungeon.  There is still risk and there are still consequences.

As you can tell, I'm having a blast with this game, and am really enjoying learning the mechanics of this dnd-esque system.  Most of the changes have seemed like very positive improvements, or at least very enjoyable alternative mechanics.  Can't wait to get back in game soon!

Pillars of Eternity Released

Like a fair number of people of my generation, my first true DnD experience was playing Baldur's Gate.  I'd played rpg-light board games as a kid.  I'd played computer RPG's before, starting with Might and Magic 3 as my first "real" RPG.  I'd even played some pen and paper games in college.  But Baldur's Gate, released in 1998, was my first foray into true Dungeons and Dragons rules and worlds.  It was a fantastic game, and launched my love affair with other DnD products like BG2, Planescape: Torment, and, of course, the Neverwinter Nights games.  And, based on my play through Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition, the game still holds up quite well.

So when Obsidian launched their kickstarter proposing to build a modern game along the lines of Baldur's Gate, I do remember taking notice.  But then, for some reason, I decided to take a pass.  I'm still not completely comfortable supporting Kickstarter projects, mostly because of the sense of no guarantees.  I've certainly preordered my share of games before, but at least in those cases it is usually only a short time until a game is released.  With Kickstarter, you pay in your money long before a project will ever turn up in your mailbox, and there's always some chance that the project won't ever materialize.

I might need to start rethinking those kinds of concerns, because I almost overlooked this game.  It was really only through a few retweets on twitter that I noticed the game coming a few weeks back.  I've been catching up ever since.

Today, Obsidian officially released Pillars of Eternity, their modern homage to the Infinity Engine games.  It looks really impressive.  The world looks dark and full of flavor.  The interface looks crisp and clean.  The combat looks strategic and tight, with a lot of neat innovations (endurance vs. health, new ways of thinking about character attributes and how that affects builds, etc).  The early reviews have been very positive (92 on metacritic as I write this).

Right now, I'm at 2.87 GB of 6.33 GB downloaded from GOG.  I teach in the morning and my wifi in this part of the house is not stellar, so it's not going to finish tonight.  I have family coming to visit for the weekend that arrive tomorrow.

In short, I can't wait to play.  But I also probably won't be able to play for several more days.  So, I'm going to content myself to read the manual tonight, think more about my first character choice (cipher vs. druid vs. wizard...decisions decisions), and head off to bed.  ::sigh::

NWN Module Review: Prophet II - The Century of Sorrow by Baldecaran

Mysterious ruins once again play a critical role in this module

Having unwittingly become the center of an ancient prophecy, and dubbed the unmaker who will bring about the Century of Sorrow that leads to the end of the world, the PC sets off for the desert city of Hierathanum.  There, you hope to meet with the Dreamweavers, a group of mysterious dreamers who, like you, are gifted with The Sight.  With their guidance, you hope to learn more of your powers, and hopefully find a way to avoid bringing about the end of times.

Chapter I of the Prophet featured a vast journey with incredible twists and turns, and featured powerfully-written NPC companions who were integral to the plot.  Therefore, it was with some excitement that I launched the next chapter.  It was a well-polished module, with strong writing, good technical skill, and a bare minimum of typos, small bugs, etc.  Area design was about as good as it gets in NWN1, with creative skillful use of custom spectacular custom content.  The "Mountains" tileset has never been used so well as in this series, and I loved many of the other innovative ideas he used.

Combat remained interesting, with damage absorption continuing to play a big role in the success of my character.  This was also true of the NPC's, and therefore required me to do whatever I could to make use of sneak attack damage to avoid lengthy battles of attrition.  While I started the module trying to "tank" with my rogue/ranger, I did find it necessary to reverse things and let my ranger companion be the primary melee character with the majority of the good damage-absorption equipment.  This meant my character wasn't as well equipped, but it made sense to keep the enemies on him: he had more HP, and if the foes were targeting him then I could sneak attack them.

I love Baldecaran's use of the mountain tileset

That all said, I found the module's story to be a bit disappointing.  The first half of the module established the setting and flavor of Hierathanum, but ended up largely just being a blockade to the character's progress in the story.  The elements of the main plot that were present were largely just a rehash of the events of th first module, which seemed overdone.  And when the story did progress...well, it was on rails.  One's choices did not matter.  ....  I fully realize that this is kind of the point of the module--it's about a prophecy, after all--and is what puts the PC in the center of the story's challenge.  But for some reason, it still just didn't ring true the way the same kinds of themes did in the first module.  

In any case, it certainly serves the purpose of setting up the final chapter of the trilogy.  I had a fun time playing in the author's world once again, and I'm excited to see how my character will work his way out of this situation...if he is even able to do so.  The module ends on a dark note, and it's hard to imagine what can be done amid all of the hopelessness.  Here's hoping for an epic solution in chapter III!

My rating: 8 - Recommended to Anyone

More screenshots after the jump!

Sword Coast Legends by N-Space Announced

Wizards of the Coast recently announced Sword Coast Legends.  Here's the trailer video:

As someone who loves the Infinity engine games, not to mention NWN1/2, this is really exciting footage.  But I found it a bit hard to ge ta lot of detail about what exactly the game is.  But having read this interview, this part grabbed me:

GamesBeat: So Sword Coast Legends itself is almost like an old-fashioned Forgotten Realms boxed set? You’ll have other material coming out that builds on that set in the future? Is this right? 

Tudge: Yeah, it’s pretty close. We’ve often talked about — we hope that fans love this so much and play this so much that it becomes the Sword Coast saga in a lot of respects. We have a lot of stories to tell and a lot of places we’d like to visit, a lot of people we’d like to meet. I can see this going for as long as people keep playing. 

Stewart: I’d definitely like that. My ambition for this title from the beginning is for a new group of D&D players, when they talk about getting together and playing D&D this weekend and whatever campaign they’re doing, they’re talking about Sword Coast Legends. D&D is just the shorthand. It still has the DM and the player interaction and the crazy fun joking. But really capturing that essence and spirit. That kind of base set and then the modules that add on top of it and shape it, I love that analogy, because that’s what I see this game becoming, just a different version of that.

The interview is a little all over the place, but this is the basic breakdown as I understand it for the game's pitch:

• 1-4 player, isometric, real time tactical combat with pause.
• Modular, single player adventures will be released and available for purchase.
• Some of these adventures may mirror the thematic story that is current with D&D Adventurer's League, like the recent Tyranny of Dragons and the current Elemental Evil storyline.  
• Some future expansions will also include new races and classes.
• A DM mode by which you can stage your own adventures.
• Built upon 5e rules (I think!).  I'm not sure that they're going to show dice rolls and be that rooted in the rules.  But perhaps closer, I hope, that Neverwinter was to 4e rules?

All of that is pretty freaking exciting.  Here's more on the toolset:

GamesBeat: Are these going to be easier to use than the tools from the Neverwinter Nights games?
Tudge: I’m happy to say, absolutely yes. For me, the promise of what Neverwinter Nights offered was really exciting as a fan of D&D and a person who enjoys being a DM. Even before I worked at BioWare, I got in there and started working with those. I was a little disappointed. I come from an art background. I got in there and learned it, but I was a little — I was looking forward to something far more accessible, something that could get me creating adventures much quicker.
Right from the start, we’ve talked and made sure that is the case, that you can get together at 7 on a Friday night with your friends for a session and you can start in the lobby at the same time as the players and be DMing right away. You don’t have to spend a week preparing for the adventure. You certainly don’t have to be writing any complex scripting.
Stewart: Another point, you remember months ago now, you guys came out and we set up stations here at Wizards. We let everybody at Wizards who wanted to come in and play, whether they worked on Magic or Duel Masters or D&D, whether or not they were a DM. People who knew D&D but were not big video game people, definitely not any kind of technical people, jumped on and were DMing and having fun in five minutes. The whole team here was so impressed at how cool it was to be a DM, but also how you could really DM on the fly without having to have all kinds of crazy knowledge from the outside world.
Tudge: It was interesting, because initially, when you volunteer — when you have a group you’re demoing with and you let them play, nobody volunteers to be DM. Almost every time, one of the dev team ends up DMing. There’s this immediate intimidation. DMing has to be really complex, right? It has to be a lot of work. But I don’t even think the first dungeon run is even done before everyone is fighting over who gets to DM.

That's awesome.  Look at how successful the Neverwinter Nights games were!  Their toolsets were incredibly powerful, but there's no question that they required a massive time commitment to produce something suitable for play.  NWN2, in particular, with its terrain editing system, required incredible commitment to produce even a small module, even after one had mastered the toolset and scripting language.  Module authors have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours producing content.  What they can do is amazing, but I definitely think there is a big market for something that is easier to use.

The game, so far, reminds me a lot of a blend between Neverwinter (the MMO), the Neverwinter Nights series, and the Baldur's Gate games.  Neverwinter has the ongoing content releases that mirror current storylines.  It also has the Forge, a simplified toolset that allows users to build adventures for other users.  But it's set in an MMO world, which doesn't appeal to everyone--myself certainly included.  Here, we have a game that takes those good ideas, but converts them into a modern, isometric, single or multiplayer experience.

So, we have TONS of promise.  This is exciting.  It's right up my alley, and exactly the kind of game that I could go gaga over for years.  If they execute and deliver on what they're talking about, I am going to be desperate to give them all of my money.

The question, of course, will be how well the entire package is executed.  I'll be watching this one closely...but I'm old and jaded enough that I will most likely be waiting for the first reviews to come in before I purchase it.

Update: More Links
Article on PCGamesn - Excellent preview that helps flesh out some of the basic principles behind the game, though doesn't get into the plan for the future.

True Story

My wife is traveling this week for work.  I talked her down to the garage with her suitcase, gave her a kiss, and waved goodbye.  When I got back upstairs, I was greeted by my five year old holding my Chessex mat.  "Can we play the Adventure Game*?" she asked, wide-eyed and excited.

Apparently, they remembered me saying that we could play while the wife is traveling.  We got about three hours in yesterday, and the girls finally reached level 3.  Having fun playing through the Mines of Phandelver.  Tonight we will hopefully have time to kick some Redbrand bottom!

* The Adventure Game (TAG) is our in-house name for Dungeons & Dragons.

Review: Elfshadow by Elaine Cunningham

Arilyn Moonblade is a half-elf assassin.  Or, perhaps, Bounty Hunter might be the better term.  Almost unequaled with the blade, she works contracts for a number of shadowy organizations, most prominently among them the Harpers.  But recently, even as she successfully dispatches agents of the Zhentarim, someone else is hunting Harpers.  For each Zhentarim who falls, it seems, so too does a dear ally.  And worst of all, despite not knowing anything about it, signs are starting to point to Arilyn.

Elfshadow was my first Elaine Cunningham novel, and it apparently was her first set in the Forgotten Realms.  I think the thing that stood out to me the most about this book was its characters.  Arilyn is a great character: focused, ruthless, impatient, and stubborn, but still possessed of a strong moral compass.  Along the way she is joined by Danilo Thann, a bard of significant magical skill who spends his time posing as an aloof dandy.  The two make for an unlikely pair, but the fact that they are almost forced into companionship by the events of the story results in surprising synergy, in addition to some genuinely hilarious moments.

I found the plot to be interesting, even if a bit convoluted.  It delves into a lot of backstory about tensions between races of elves within the Realms, which was really interesting to learn about.  I've read my share of Realms books, but distinctions between Moon Elves, Sun elves, etc, have never been given much attention in those books.  The story made sense, but I will confess to occasionally having some trouble following it.  I also thought that Cunningham's writing ranged from excellent to a little bit clumsy in some areas.  I'm no genius with prose, to be sure, but I did feel that she had a tendency to overuse certain writing patterns.  For example, she often referred to Arilyn as "the half-elf," which works a few times per novel but not the dozens of times it was used here.

Overall, it was a fun read.  I'm probably going to read a few more of her books in the coming months at the suggestion of a goodreads friend, and I'm looking forward to seeing if these characters continue to appear.

November 2014 Custom Content Challenge

Pretty impressive stuff coming out of this past month's Custom Content Challenge, most of which the product of Shemsu-Heru.  Future modules will have the opportunity to add amazing new townsfolk models that are vast improvements over the stock NWN1 fare.  And on top of that: the gnomish battle machine!!  A few select favorites:

And, finally, "oh hells yeahs!!"

Review: The Grim Company

It's long overdue, but I finally was able to read Alazander's first novel, the Grim Company. Alazander, aka. Luke Scull, is one of the great module authors for Neverwinter Nights, both for his original work as well as his subsequent efforts with Ossian Studios. Here is my review of his book, which I posted at Goodreads:

The Grim Company by Luke Scull is set in a world where a group of mages rose to such power to defeat the gods themselves.  In the generations that passed since that conflict, the most powerful of the surviving mages took territory for themselves, and now wage war against one another.  While their fortified cities and impossibly powerful magic provides protection against the demons that encroach on the world now that the gods have been exterminated, the magelords rule as tyrants.  In Dorminia, home of the Magelord Salazar, a small group of resistance fighters have been quietly waiting for their moment to strike back.  While the odds seem close to impossible, they have a few tricks up their sleeves: the deep pockets of a successful merchant, drugs that permit them to escape the notice of Salazar's patrolling mindhawks, and Davarus Cole.  Cole, an orphan, possesses his father's enchanted dagger, Magebane, a magical blade that provides magical defenses against the Magelord's magic.  He would form a potent weapon, were it not for that two-copper head of his...

The thing that stands out the most about this book is the setting.  While I hope this is not offensive to say, Scull's world reminds me a bit of a post-apocalyptic Forgotten Realms: a high-magic world with a rich history and powerful, meddling deities...but set in the turmoil after mortals rose up to destroy the gods and rule on their own.  We "meet" only four of the Magelords.  Each is unique in his/her own way, and the personalities of their kingdoms follows from their masters.  It's a fantastic setting, one in which the history is every bit as exciting as the current events.

I am familiar with some of the author's prior works, and the thing that has always stood out to me was his ability to create three-dimensional, interesting characters.  That knack unquestionably continues in his novel.  We have Daravus Cole, the outrageously cocky, virtually clueless, wannabe hero.  There is Brodar Kayne and his companion Jerek the Wolf, two highlander mercenaries on the run from the North.  Sasha, the brave, adopted daughter of the resistance leader and his lieutenant.  And we have Isaac, the curiously adept manservant of Eremul, the halfmage.  It is an intentionally ragtag bunch, but each has his or her own, important role to play in the story.

As much as I ended up liking them by the novel's end, however, the thing I struggled with the most in this book was that it seemed to take a while for the depth of these characters to shine through.  Each of the heroes (antiheroes?) is presented, at least initially, as little more than the stereotype I describe above, as are most of the villains in the story.  Cole, in particular, is presented as so over-the-top-ridiculous that it was hard to continue reading through his initial strutting and immature angst.  With the exception of old Brodar Kayne, none of the characters were particularly likeable from the start of the book.  Furthermore, there were what seemed to be an inordinate number of penis mentions in the first third of the book, which I found to be off-putting (and I don't consider myself a prude).

As the book went on, however, we see more sides to each of the characters.  They are challenged, they crack, and sometimes, they find the strength to go on.  Or, they die.  Somehow, along the way, I found myself caring about all of the main characters--even Daravus Cole.  The plot develops quickly as well; far more happens in this book than I expected from the first in a series.  This book is not just about introducing threads to be wrapped up at a later time.  Rather, events happen that will permanently change the power structure of the region.  Despite the satisfying ending, there are more than enough open lines of mystery to make purchasing the next book an easy decision.  I am very much am looking forward to Sword of the North!

Musings on Dex Fighters

Maybe tanking with a rogue isn't the best strategy?

I'm currently playing through the Prophet, Chapter II by Baldecaran. My character in that module is a rogue/ranger, and is pretty similar to my character from Swordflight: a dual-wielding, dex-oriented fighter type. In Prophet, my character is a halfling with many more rogue levels than ranger levels (I think he's 8 rogue/3 ranger or thereabouts; in Swordflight, he's a human fighter/rogue, with equal levels of each).

I enjoy this character type a lot, but I'm having a little bit of trouble in the Prophet II. The module author made use of a lot of physical damage resistance on his monsters. That's fine if you're a power-attacking fighter, but for a rogue/ranger with very little strength, it's tough to lose 5 damage on each hit I land with my shortsword and dagger. My halfling has only STR 10 (probably a mistake on my part, but I was focusing on DEX, INT, and CHA for these rp-oriented mods), so he really relies on the extra attacks from dual-wielding to keep his damage rate respectable. There haven't yet been any +STR ogre gloves, nor have there been many potions of bull strength available in shops or dungeons.  My character does have 5/- resistance to all three physical damage types as well, and pretty good armor class, so he can hang in there.  But the battles have become these long, kind of boring wars of attrition because neither side can do much damage to the other.

I think the solution moving forward will be to move a lot of my protective gear from my character to the Ranger henchman in the module.  I've been letting him hang back and snipe with arrows while my rogue basically tanked, but it'll make more sense to reverse roles.  That way, I can take advantage of my character's sneak attack more easily.  I'm sure this was the obvious strategic move, but I have a bad habit of trying to horde useful equipment for my PC's and neglecting my henchmen...

Swordflight, Chapter One, Review

Hacking up rats has never been so much fun!

With dreams of glory, wealth, status, or other motivations, you arrive in Calimport and enter a tavern in search of work as an adventurer.  While early jobs are rather mundane--rat hunting and the sort--you quickly find yourself in the company of another would-be adventurer and on your first well-paying assignment: caravan escort duty in the Calimshan Desert.  That job, minor as it might seem, is what ultimately results in your entanglement in plots that involve bandits, undead, and even extra-planar beings.  Here are my comments to rogueknight333, the author of Swordflight, Chapter One:

I really enjoyed your module.  The story might not sound original on the surface, and employs a lot of fantasy tropes, but it's well-told.  As you mentioned below, it's clear that you try to put a twist on all of the fantasy tropes that you wield.  The result is a fresh and engaging tale that got my youthful adventurer off the ground and on his feet in tales fit for bards.  The entire module is meticulously polished, and was a blast to play through.  

Mysterious desert ruins!

Combat is most definitely very challenging.  Heeding your warnings about combat difficulty, I brought a level 2 fighter/rogue that I had from another module into this game.  The module seemed very well-balanced for him.  In fact, in a lot of ways, the module seemed custom-made for my character.  I've never made so much use of usable items like choking powder, potions, etc.  And because he had good use magical item ability, he was also able to make heavy use of magic wands against foes.  The result was a really dynamic combat experience that I found really enjoyable.  My character would probably do better if he had a henchman to tank for him, but he held his own.

Thanks for the fun module!  I'm eager to see what the next chapter will bring for my character and his companion!

Hmm...what's this?

Review: Fire in the Blood by Erin M. Evans

Having survived the Shade's internment camps and come to grips with the missing years in their life, Farideh and Havilar travel to Suzail, capital city of Cormyr.  There, they hope to give Brin time to work out the problem of his engagement to the Princess of Cormyr, Raedra Obarskyr.  At the same time, Farideh must wrestle with the recent discovery that she is a Chosen of Asmodeus, and the terrible power that comes with such an arrangement.  Dahl and Vercaras also are in the city, and hope to investigate the disappearance of one of their Harper operatives in the city.  But hoping for any respite to get one's bearings proves impossible, for Cormyr is at war with the Shade, and life in a country at war is anything but predictable.

Fire in the Blood is my second Erin Evans book.  I began reading with The Adversary, which I thought was excellent.  This book, however, was another step forward.  The challenge in the Adversary was largely one of isolation.  This book, however, puts Fari and Havi at the center of a vast conflicts that erupt not just among political factions within Cormyr, but also between the nations of Cormyr and Netheril.  

All of the major characters undergo a great deal of development in this book.  Havilar must wrestle with the strains that reality place on her now-adult relationship with Brin, who is pulled between duty to his country and his love of Havilar.  Farideh must continue to struggle with her relationship with Lorcan, the half-devil, and the question of whether to pursue it as a romance or write it off as nothing more than the pact.  The character, however, who really surprised me in this book was Dahl.  After returning, unexpectedly, to field operations in the Adversary, Dahl is back in full action in this book--and proves time and again to be exceptionally good at his job.  He continues to be plagued by his fall from paladin-hood with Oghma, but his regrets over his past no longer smother him.  In fact, he often thrives, and may be the most effective character in the book.  We are also treated to a full development of Princess Raedra, who proves to be a nuanced, powerful figure in her own right, with no shortage of humanity.  In many ways, this book is her story, and it's worth every page turn.

As with the Adversary, all of this goodness is rooted firmly to Forgotten Realms lore, both on Toril itself, as well on other planes, including the nine hells.  There are nods to current events in the realms, including the current Tyranny of Dragons storyline.  There are also references to events in other recent Realms books, such as the siege of Marsember in Troy Denning's The Sentinel and the future massing of armies to attack Myth Drannor, as told in Ed Greenwood's The Herald.  I also found neat connections to other Realms stories that I'm reading.  For example, Raedra made mention of Alusair Obarskyr, the Steel Regent, a prominent figure in Cormyr's history.  She also made an appearance in Tiberius's Neverwinter Nights module, Saleron's Gambit, which I was playing as a read this book.  It is these kinds of connections that makes reading and playing in the Forgotten Realms so much fun.

This was the best book I've read all year long, and I've had a lot of fun reading this year.  Highly recommended to everyone.

Link: Current bookclub discussion of Fire in the Blood at Goodreads!

Saleron's Gambit Review

This is one of many posts I've made on Saleron's Gambit.  As the last "review" I made was for Chapter III of the series, I'll begin by assuming that module as background.  The series is available as a combined download on Neverwinter Vault, so this post focuses on chapters IV and V.  If you'd like to read my thoughts on the first three modules, they can be found here: I, II, and III.

Chapter V features some amazing tilesets.

Having located Natalya in Chapter III, you have learned of how the two of you, along with Saleron, are linked by your murdered parents.  Now united in your goal to rid yourselves of the sinister threat imposed by the Dread Lord Vraxilom, you travel to the remote island of Ajit-Kuhn to find instructions for a ritual that might free you.  Little did you know that it was there that you would finally come to learn the greater truth about your parents, and ultimately make your mark on history.  Here are the comments I left on the Vault's module page:

This was a terrific module series.  The story begins as fairly traditional "Farm Boy Rises Up" tale in the early modules, but gradually goes far deeper.  The story becomes increasingly complex, but it is told in a way that makes it both approachable and, most importantly, personal.  I think this is ultimately one of Tiberius's great strengths.  He allows me to connect with stories on an emotional and personal level.  His NPC's are well-realized,  his locations richly presented, and the story is well executed.  But he keeps the focus squarely on the player character and his place in the story as well as any other module author. 

I'm never above some goblin smashing.

I loved that this series is, in some ways, an homage to some of the great Infinity Engine games of the past.  Areas, events, and characters from Baldur's Gate II appear prominently in chapter III and, more ephemerally, chapter IV, whereas parts of Chapter V take strong inspiration from Planescape: Torment.  Moreover, it is extremely well-grounded in published lore of the Forgotten Realms, again featuring numerous appearances from known NPC's, areas, and even plot ideas that have been published over the past decade.  In a favorite example of mine, the Steel Regent, Alusair Obarskyr, makes a prominent appearance in Chapter 5.  What's great is that I'm currently reading Erin Evan's terrific Fire in the Blood, and the very night I encountered Alusair this module she (or her ghost, rather) appeared in the book.  This is why I love reading and playing in the Forgotten Realms!

It also is an important module because of its emphasis on low-power gameplay.  While there are a handful of magical artifacts in the game, they are rare and well-prized.  Your character's innate abilities, along with consumables like potions, are what ultimately make the difference for your character when trying to survive through his modules.  Combat in the last two modules was very well-balanced for my melee-oriented bard, who could use his buffing spells and abilities to overcome his native weaknesses in attack modifiers and HP.  I'd guess that it would work well for a fighter-type as well, as long as you made aggressive use of potions.  Wizards and Sorcerers, provided they can survive the first module, really would seem to shine in this game.  Their spells would largely be unmatched by your non-magical opponents, and you will do battle with several magical casters that prove very potent opponents for those without a good way to penetrate their defenses.

The module features fantastic, cinematic cutscenes.

I've played both this series and the Maimed God's Saga.  Both are excellent, but I think the tone of the two modules is different.  Maimed God is very mature, gritty, and serious.  Saleron's Gambit, on the other hand, is a bit more jovial and lighthearted, despite the fact that it is quite challenging.  The villain in Saleron's Gambit, for all his power, is a bit of a buffoon, and is quite a contrast from what you fight against in Maimed God.  Nevertheless, the story itself is gripping, and just becomes more and more interesting as you move into chapters IV and V.  I'm glad to have finally had the chance to play it all the way through.

More screenshots after the jump!

Rise of the King by R.A. Salvatore

Having tied up some loose ends in Night of the Hunter, Drizzt and his companions begin their trek toward Mithral Hall.  There, Bruenor hopes to reclaim his throne and rectify what he views as his error in permitting the orc king of Many Arrows to establish a peaceful kingdom that borders the Silver Marches.  Little do they realize that the Drow are already moving, and war is coming to Luruar.  Orcs, giants dwarves, elves, men, and even dragons clash in this book of conflict and struggle.

This is among the most enjoyable Salvatore books that I've read, and in my view is definitely the best of the Sundering era.  The action is fast, furious, and epic.  While other books have featured exciting, small squad skirmishes, this one gives us those as well as epic battles for the fates of cities.  On top of the battles, we are treated to reconnaissance, espionage, and another hearty helping of political machinations among the Drow.

Regis, who in many ways was the star of The Companions, took something of a back seat in Night of the Hunter.  In this book, however, he was back to playing a central role, and in my view has easily become the most dynamic and interesting character in the crew.  Furthermore, while Jarlaxle spent Night of the Hunter reacting, in this book he seems to be back on the offensive.  As we might expect, of course, exactly what he's after still has yet to become clear.  Beyond those two, I'm not sure that we see a lot of significant character development, aside from some continued discussions between Drizzt and Catti-brie on the inherent nature of orcs and goblins.

I really enjoyed the book, and will, of course, look forward to reading the next in the series when it is published in 2015.

Torment: Tides of Numenera

So, I happened across Tides of Numenera recently.  Today I noticed that they had a first-peak of the gameplay.  It looks awfully promising.  Definitely one that I'll keep my eye on!

I'm familiar with Numenera from afar, having seen references to Monty Cook's new game that he made after bowing out of 5th edition D&D.  I've always enjoyed some of the final fantasy games as a blend of fantasy and science fiction, and this looks to do that as well.  I'm looking forward to the game.  It's been a while since I've followed a PC game before it came out.  I think the last one was...probably Neverwinter Nights 2. :)

In NWN news, I'm playing Saleron's Gambit 5 right now, and am nearing the end.  It ultimately isn't quite on the level of Maimed God's Saga, but it's really fun.  I can't wait to see what happens in this plot that has been building for five modules now! :)