I realized as I got up this morning at a way too early time that I actually didn't blog yesterday. It'd be a lie to say that I forgot, I just didn't take the time to do it. So I've already lost my challenge. Doesn't mean I won't keep blogging! I can't get this stuff out of my head fast enough.
While I said that I'd post something about my meta-game idea for Furcadia today, I actually think I'm going to skip it. It's not that I think this idea I AM going to post about is better, it's just more developed. The Furc idea needs to simmer a bit in the stew of my creative juices.
That's actually a really gross metaphor.
Anyway!
I've just recently gotten my grubby paws on a copy of the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook by Wizards of the Cost for 3rd edition D&D. It's old enough so it's probably built for 3.0 and not 3.5, but that doesn't really matter so much; the two are nearly the same anyway, so it's not like it's a big thing. I'm sure a lot of players looked at this book and thought 'Oh, look, more specified rules for an already too-specific game, making it even less of a ROLE-playing game and more of a ROLL-playing game. Whoo. I'll pass.' but in my want for completion, I snagged it up to take a look-see. And while it took a while for the idea to come to the surface of my mental soup (ewww) I got some neat ones from it.
First off, the ability to not only build but price practically any practical building with the system put out in this book. If any of my players in 3rd ed really wanted to sit down and say 'Hey, I want to build my own bar,' I can pull out this book and sit down with them and say 'Okay, here's how you do it and how much it'll cost.' Sure, I could just as easily pull something out my butt and call it good, but it really seems like the uber-planning is half of the fun of 3rd ed. You can sit down and plot out everything to the last speck of dirt and hair if you want to, and sometimes that's a whole lot of fun. Sometimes it's not, and that's okay, but when you want to, there's no better system than 3rd ed.
Another reason to do it is the same reason that I printed a copy of the World of Warcraft RPG section about making cities and towns, and why I photocopied the pages from an old Dragon magazine about building countries: because I'm an idea man, and putting them into 'reality' isn't my strongest suit. Sometimes it's nice to have something there to rely on - to fall back on - to help me out with this stuff. To tell me and remind me what a temple needs in it, what a town needs in it, and all of that. The system has also helped me realize what's wrong with some of my oldest ideas - for instance, Pine's Bend - and work toward fixing those problems so my world doesn't have those gaping plot holes as elephants in the room that no one wants to bring up else they'll fall into them. Pine's Bend isn't a trading town, it's a guardpost and stopping point at which people just happen to also trade goods. It's not a town, it's a stronghold, and I can use stuff in this book to create it and draw it up as such.
The best reason I like this book, however, is because it may let me realize one of my favorite things that I've tried to do with a tabletop RPG for as long as I can remember: Play Warlords. Specifically, for the purposes of that link, Warlords I. I can remember long afternoons, mornings and nights, sitting with my brother playing that old DOS game on the computer that Dad built, having him beat me over and over but I didn't care, it's a fun game and we would sit there for hours, before school, after school, on weekends, whenever we could, just playing the game and listening to Weird Al. To this day, I can't hear "Slime Creatures from Outer Space" without thinking about Lord Bane and the Sirians.
But ever since getting into D&D and playing that game (which, if my memory serves, happened in reverse order) I've wanted to combine the two. To be able to control a fantasy race with a leader who can get cool stuff, and go take over keeps and landscapes and explore ruins and dungeons while building up keeps and troops and dealing with plagues and and and and I could go on, but I won't.
So here's what I'm thinking. I get together a decent bunch of people. They all choose a race and make a hero, probably 5th or 6th level is what I'm thinking right now; high enough level to be important, but not high enough to be the ultimate leader of their people... Yet. Choose whatever the heck you want; all 3.5 rules are available, especially including and suggesting the rules from Savage Species (one of my favorite books thus far, btw). Everyone gets the Leadership feat for free as a way to start off the game; you're a LEADER for crying out loud, you have to have some people to follow you. Plus, everyone would start off with some extra cash specifically toward putting together their first settlement. Enough to make a small keep or something along those lines. I'll have to crunch some numbers to figure out how much money that ends up being. Then, using their initial race as a starting point, they enlist their cohorts and followers (sidekicks and minions?) and hire their henchmen (cannon fodder?) and do whatever it is that they're going to do! I think it would end up having to be played like Warlords, so to speak: Slowly. It's not something that you'd sit around a table on Sunday nights playing. It'd be more of a PBM type game. Which I've never done but heard good things about, so hey!
I'm going to go make Pine's Bend as a settlement and see what that takes for cash, and use that as a guideline to figure out how much to give these people. Then I'll bring it all up and see what they think.
Doom to others!
Today's post: Playing old games with new twists!
In a few instances, this concept requires cheating, and may not be for everyone, but they might just be a good way to get some more play out of an old, good game.
The first and the one that I've been playing this way for the longest is something I fondly refer to as Beastmaster DooM, perhaps not-so-aptly named after the movie of the same name. The concept is to play DooM - as in the video game of the same name - while putting a new twist on it. The idea is never to kill anything yourself. In many levels, especially those in Doom II, there are plenty of monsters and zombies and what-have-you that you may never have to actually dirty your own hands to get through the level and even get close to a 100% kill ratio. Here's how you do it.
Start the game off as normal - begin the level in question with a pistol, and that's it. Sure, you could cheat if you wanted to and give yourself more guns and ammo with a simple code, but there's no need. What you do want to do, however, is to make yourself invulnerable (otherwise known as god mode) and gain the ability to walk through walls - and thus, monsters as well. This keeps you from picking up any more ammo or weapons too, but in this scenario, that's a good thing, as you only need the one gun that you already have. Besides, if you get really strapped for ammo, you can fix that easy enough with the aforementioned cheat code.
I never really decided on a real story idea behind this one, but the beastmaster idea always appealed to me, for the same reason that I enjoy Pokémon - you get to be in virtual control of something else that you can make fight for you. And because the monsters in Doom will fight each other if you can get them to damage each other - a brilliant and fascinating game feature that seems far before it's time for such an old game, and one that I've never seen correctly reproduced - you can go through the entire game letting everything else fight for you.
Walk through the level chosen as normal, getting the attention of the demons and zombies therein and enjoying the symphony of their screams and rage as you do so. Don't worry, you're not even here - practically an illusion to them, since you can walk through them and they can't affect you in the least. If you're not getting the proper attention, take it from them with your pistol; consider it a godly smite for not worshipping properly, or a simple slap from a trainer to get the unruly beast's attention. Since it takes several pistol shots normally to kill anything, even the simplest zombie, the pistol is the best weapon to use. Then, after you get a decent sized group following you, lead them into another group, and have fun! See which side comes out victorious, and egg them on if you have to.
Here's a few tips and strategies I've found work well with this type of game:
* Imps are the best army of folks to use in this scenario for one simple fact - their ranged attack doesn't aggravate or damage their fellow imps, so they'll never set upon themselves. Because of that pack mentality, they'll be the best to get to follow you, and they'll follow you the longest.
* Try to stay close to your chosen herd. If you have their attention, they'll usually engage you in melee (that is, those who have melee attacks will, anyway). If you want something else to get their attention, pop out of melee - remember, you can walk through anything - and get the attention of some long-ranger with your smite pistol, then hop back behind one of your herd as the other target shoots back. Instead of hitting you, the new target'll hit your herd, and then you'll be at it again!
* Try to stay away from elevators and teleporters. Sure, almost all of them work for the monsters, too, but sometimes it's hard to get them to follow you onto them.
* Use Doom Legacy. All you need is the (small) program from their site to run the game, and the (large) Doom and/or Doom II and/or Heretic .wad files that hold the game information. Honestly, the main problem these days is actually getting your digital hands on the wads; unless you own a copy of Doom or Doom II, they're practically impossible to find, and since they're supposedly still being produced, it's not abandonware.
* Have the monsters respawn. It's not an actual cheat code like you'd expect, but apparently a game setting (at least, I know it was available in the copy of Doom 95 I used to play on, and in Doom Legacy as well). The monsters are on a timer; after they die, their corpses disappear in a flash of green light and they respawn where they originally are. This will greatly increase the amount of time you can spend in a level having fun, and (if you're a completionist like that) also increase the chances that you'll get at least 100% kill ratio greatly.
* Pick the right level. A good level for this type is a decently large one with a good selection of monsters and a good number of them. Of course, always play the game on the hardest difficulty - not Nightmare difficulty, since the cheats don't work, but the one below that - so you get the largest number of monsters in each room. My favorite level to play this style of Doom in is one from Doom II. It's called the Refueling Station, and I believe that it's level #14 in the wad, but it's been a while.
I was going to use this post to also describe my thoughts on how to make playing Furcadia more interesting if you're tired of just hanging out in one dream and/or role playing in one place, but I don't want this one to get too long.
In a few instances, this concept requires cheating, and may not be for everyone, but they might just be a good way to get some more play out of an old, good game.
The first and the one that I've been playing this way for the longest is something I fondly refer to as Beastmaster DooM, perhaps not-so-aptly named after the movie of the same name. The concept is to play DooM - as in the video game of the same name - while putting a new twist on it. The idea is never to kill anything yourself. In many levels, especially those in Doom II, there are plenty of monsters and zombies and what-have-you that you may never have to actually dirty your own hands to get through the level and even get close to a 100% kill ratio. Here's how you do it.
Start the game off as normal - begin the level in question with a pistol, and that's it. Sure, you could cheat if you wanted to and give yourself more guns and ammo with a simple code, but there's no need. What you do want to do, however, is to make yourself invulnerable (otherwise known as god mode) and gain the ability to walk through walls - and thus, monsters as well. This keeps you from picking up any more ammo or weapons too, but in this scenario, that's a good thing, as you only need the one gun that you already have. Besides, if you get really strapped for ammo, you can fix that easy enough with the aforementioned cheat code.
I never really decided on a real story idea behind this one, but the beastmaster idea always appealed to me, for the same reason that I enjoy Pokémon - you get to be in virtual control of something else that you can make fight for you. And because the monsters in Doom will fight each other if you can get them to damage each other - a brilliant and fascinating game feature that seems far before it's time for such an old game, and one that I've never seen correctly reproduced - you can go through the entire game letting everything else fight for you.
Walk through the level chosen as normal, getting the attention of the demons and zombies therein and enjoying the symphony of their screams and rage as you do so. Don't worry, you're not even here - practically an illusion to them, since you can walk through them and they can't affect you in the least. If you're not getting the proper attention, take it from them with your pistol; consider it a godly smite for not worshipping properly, or a simple slap from a trainer to get the unruly beast's attention. Since it takes several pistol shots normally to kill anything, even the simplest zombie, the pistol is the best weapon to use. Then, after you get a decent sized group following you, lead them into another group, and have fun! See which side comes out victorious, and egg them on if you have to.
Here's a few tips and strategies I've found work well with this type of game:
* Imps are the best army of folks to use in this scenario for one simple fact - their ranged attack doesn't aggravate or damage their fellow imps, so they'll never set upon themselves. Because of that pack mentality, they'll be the best to get to follow you, and they'll follow you the longest.
* Try to stay close to your chosen herd. If you have their attention, they'll usually engage you in melee (that is, those who have melee attacks will, anyway). If you want something else to get their attention, pop out of melee - remember, you can walk through anything - and get the attention of some long-ranger with your smite pistol, then hop back behind one of your herd as the other target shoots back. Instead of hitting you, the new target'll hit your herd, and then you'll be at it again!
* Try to stay away from elevators and teleporters. Sure, almost all of them work for the monsters, too, but sometimes it's hard to get them to follow you onto them.
* Use Doom Legacy. All you need is the (small) program from their site to run the game, and the (large) Doom and/or Doom II and/or Heretic .wad files that hold the game information. Honestly, the main problem these days is actually getting your digital hands on the wads; unless you own a copy of Doom or Doom II, they're practically impossible to find, and since they're supposedly still being produced, it's not abandonware.
* Have the monsters respawn. It's not an actual cheat code like you'd expect, but apparently a game setting (at least, I know it was available in the copy of Doom 95 I used to play on, and in Doom Legacy as well). The monsters are on a timer; after they die, their corpses disappear in a flash of green light and they respawn where they originally are. This will greatly increase the amount of time you can spend in a level having fun, and (if you're a completionist like that) also increase the chances that you'll get at least 100% kill ratio greatly.
* Pick the right level. A good level for this type is a decently large one with a good selection of monsters and a good number of them. Of course, always play the game on the hardest difficulty - not Nightmare difficulty, since the cheats don't work, but the one below that - so you get the largest number of monsters in each room. My favorite level to play this style of Doom in is one from Doom II. It's called the Refueling Station, and I believe that it's level #14 in the wad, but it's been a while.
I was going to use this post to also describe my thoughts on how to make playing Furcadia more interesting if you're tired of just hanging out in one dream and/or role playing in one place, but I don't want this one to get too long.
To Dos and Goals
It seems like I haven't blogged in forever, even though I just blogged yesterday. I guess it's just been a long day.
Anyway, besides that...
My wife brought up the idea of making a few lists: one for short term goals, one for long term goals. I didn't say so at the time - I was pretty zoned, after work and driving around aimlessly can do that to me - but it seemed like a pretty good idea. So I thought I'd do it here. Why? Two reasons, really: One because it makes the list seem more solid, more real, if I show it to someone else, and who better to show it to than you, Internet? And two, because maybe someone else will read this and get their own idea to do the same thing to make themselves better, too. Hey, who knows? I'd love to have more positive impacts on other people's lives.
So here goes.
Oh, a little definition first: The short term things are things for the next week or so, while long term is more like next month through the rest of the year. The short term list is the To Do for the next seven days, long term are more Goals than To Dos.
I want to make sure that I take my vitamins every day, and in doing so make sure that Kiddo takes his, too. We both take the gummy Flintstones (r) or (cm) or (whatever), so it's easy to get him to take his because I'm taking them too. This is a To Do.
Along with that, I want to keep taking the St. John's Wort. To Do.
Another To Do: Walk three times a week. Even if it's just down to Walgreen's and back - heck, that's almost a mile, so that's a good walk. The four-hour walks that Kiddo and I take are good, too, but almost too long. And I need to stretch before and after I walk so maybe my legs won't hurt so much so often.
Stop eating more than two servings of sweets at a time. Hey, I gotta start somewhere. Another To Do.
It seems most of my list is going to be To Dos. Like stop eating fast food. Which does include Hardee's, even though they're technically 'slow' food.
I want to get to level 55 on Wow before the Refer-A-Friend bonuses wear off. I want to be able to make Death Knights on other people's servers, and finally have a decent leveled character.
Let's force out some Goals.
I want to save $200 and put it in savings.
I want to never be called by someone collecting money again.
I want to pay back my debts.
Another To Do: I want to rearrange my hard drive and re-backup my stuff once it's arranged in a logical manner.
Really, that's about all I got.
It's sad that all my Goals have to do with money. And I really can't come up with any more.
I bet that says something about me.
Anyway, besides that...
My wife brought up the idea of making a few lists: one for short term goals, one for long term goals. I didn't say so at the time - I was pretty zoned, after work and driving around aimlessly can do that to me - but it seemed like a pretty good idea. So I thought I'd do it here. Why? Two reasons, really: One because it makes the list seem more solid, more real, if I show it to someone else, and who better to show it to than you, Internet? And two, because maybe someone else will read this and get their own idea to do the same thing to make themselves better, too. Hey, who knows? I'd love to have more positive impacts on other people's lives.
So here goes.
Oh, a little definition first: The short term things are things for the next week or so, while long term is more like next month through the rest of the year. The short term list is the To Do for the next seven days, long term are more Goals than To Dos.
I want to make sure that I take my vitamins every day, and in doing so make sure that Kiddo takes his, too. We both take the gummy Flintstones (r) or (cm) or (whatever), so it's easy to get him to take his because I'm taking them too. This is a To Do.
Along with that, I want to keep taking the St. John's Wort. To Do.
Another To Do: Walk three times a week. Even if it's just down to Walgreen's and back - heck, that's almost a mile, so that's a good walk. The four-hour walks that Kiddo and I take are good, too, but almost too long. And I need to stretch before and after I walk so maybe my legs won't hurt so much so often.
Stop eating more than two servings of sweets at a time. Hey, I gotta start somewhere. Another To Do.
It seems most of my list is going to be To Dos. Like stop eating fast food. Which does include Hardee's, even though they're technically 'slow' food.
I want to get to level 55 on Wow before the Refer-A-Friend bonuses wear off. I want to be able to make Death Knights on other people's servers, and finally have a decent leveled character.
Let's force out some Goals.
I want to save $200 and put it in savings.
I want to never be called by someone collecting money again.
I want to pay back my debts.
Another To Do: I want to rearrange my hard drive and re-backup my stuff once it's arranged in a logical manner.
Really, that's about all I got.
It's sad that all my Goals have to do with money. And I really can't come up with any more.
I bet that says something about me.
Thirteen to Thirteen: 30 Days of Blogging
Okay, I've decided something. Whoa, hold on to your chairs, this is different: I made a decision! Omg.
Anyway.
I'm tired of ignoring my blog. I started it for a reason and wanted to do something with it, and then I keep thinking about it and talking about it with my wife, but I never do anything.
So today, in the shower, I made a decision.
(I find I think about a lot of interesting things in the shower. Stephen King mentions stuff about that a few times himself; he likens it to the environment in the womb - filtered light, constant noise, warm, moist heat, and solitude most of the time. I find that a bit more than half of my showers are taken with a cute toddler these days, but it still feels pretty solitary.)
I'm going to force myself to blog every day, at least once, for the next month. Thirty days, at least thirty blog posts. It's not like I don't have enough to post about - I can think of at least five blog posts just here sitting mostly formed in my head right now that I just haven't taken the time to post yet. Talking about KFC and Talyana's, making wish lists and rambling about not only plots but systems for role playing games and pointing out things that I think are cool online and talking about why. Mind you, I'm not really doing this because I think other people will be interested. I hope they will, because it'd be cool to get some feedback finally and have people actually read what I write (though not necessarially in that order...), but that's not why I'm doing it. I'm doing it because I want to.
So that's it! I think now, because not only do I think most people don't know I have a blog but would believe that I would never get one - as I think I've claimed at least once before, I'm going to make some sort of post about this on Facebook. And hey, maybe I'll challenge others to do so, too! Start a blog (Heck, it's free here on Google) and post something every day. Sure, there's no post limit, it doesn't have to be so many lines to be considered a post, I'm not going to be anal like that (though it is tempting...) but just make a reasonable post, get a whole idea out, once a day for thirty days. Until 5/13.
Anyway.
I'm tired of ignoring my blog. I started it for a reason and wanted to do something with it, and then I keep thinking about it and talking about it with my wife, but I never do anything.
So today, in the shower, I made a decision.
(I find I think about a lot of interesting things in the shower. Stephen King mentions stuff about that a few times himself; he likens it to the environment in the womb - filtered light, constant noise, warm, moist heat, and solitude most of the time. I find that a bit more than half of my showers are taken with a cute toddler these days, but it still feels pretty solitary.)
I'm going to force myself to blog every day, at least once, for the next month. Thirty days, at least thirty blog posts. It's not like I don't have enough to post about - I can think of at least five blog posts just here sitting mostly formed in my head right now that I just haven't taken the time to post yet. Talking about KFC and Talyana's, making wish lists and rambling about not only plots but systems for role playing games and pointing out things that I think are cool online and talking about why. Mind you, I'm not really doing this because I think other people will be interested. I hope they will, because it'd be cool to get some feedback finally and have people actually read what I write (though not necessarially in that order...), but that's not why I'm doing it. I'm doing it because I want to.
So that's it! I think now, because not only do I think most people don't know I have a blog but would believe that I would never get one - as I think I've claimed at least once before, I'm going to make some sort of post about this on Facebook. And hey, maybe I'll challenge others to do so, too! Start a blog (Heck, it's free here on Google) and post something every day. Sure, there's no post limit, it doesn't have to be so many lines to be considered a post, I'm not going to be anal like that (though it is tempting...) but just make a reasonable post, get a whole idea out, once a day for thirty days. Until 5/13.
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