Things That Grind My Gears #1: Grinding!

Hello again, dear internet!

Today, I thought I'd start yet-another article type thing.
This one is about my gripes about games, gaming, and gamers.

The topic this time:
GRINDING!

To begin - I LOVE JRPGs. And dungeon crawlers. And pretty much any sort of video game that has RPG elements.

However, something that bothers me about most of those games is
HOW.
MUCH.
GRINDING.
THEY.
REQUIRE.

I recently bought Xenoblade Chronicles on my 3DS.
And made it through a good portion of the game without having to grind.

But then, around level 70, I encountered a boss at level 75.
For those of you that aren't aware of the math/combat of Xenoblade, that much of a level difference means I would hit that boss once in a blue moon.

Not hitting at reduced damage.
Just not hitting.

So, I decided to try to do some grinding to gain some levels and even the playing field.

It took me two weeks, gaming for about one hour for each of those days, to gain one level.

Suffice to say, I will not be completing Xenoblade.
I give up.
I refuse to invest that much of my time in just leveling up a couple of characters to advance a story that is fairly typical of the genre.

But why grind at all?

What drives game designers to continue to use this mechanism to "increase play time?"

Anyway, that's just my most recent complaint about this practice.
What sorts of experiences do you all have with grinding?
Do any of you enjoy it? Hate it as much as I do?

That's the end of that rant. Stay tuned for more fun sometime next week :)
Until then, may the dice (virtual or physical) fall in your favor!

Difficulties in Getting the Group Together and Other Gaming Group Discussions

Internet people! How goes?

So, Sunday fell through.
As usual.

But, Hekatonchires' and Rellon's players showed up and we hung out anyway.
And discussed a campaign that Hek's player wanted to run.

For those of you that are familiar with Giant in the Playground, this campaign is called "The Test of Ice and Mettle."
For those of you that recognize that, you can stop reading now.

For the rest of you:
This campaign takes place in a fantasy-version of Scandinavia/Norway.
It is cold.
The whole thing is an escort mission.
Death is expected more often than not.
The classes are all homebrewed (and pretty freaking cool!).
The rest is pretty crazy (bloodlines, feats from anywhere, traits and flaws, one homebrew item, any race, etc.).
Full information here.

So, there's that.

I'm playing an eighth level Pengu (refluffed tundra halfling turned sapient penguin) Pathfinder with a major Titan bloodline and feats that focus on his "backstory" of being one of the spawn of Loki.
Might tack on some other stuff...

So... yeah...

Anyway, I've decided to stop saying that the group "will meet," because I'm constantly surprised.
However, I can say with certainty that I will not be doing any gaming this weekend, so any updates will be on completely random tracks :)

As always, may the dice fall in your favor!

Ask the Audience #2: LARP?

Hello, everyone!

I have been kind of rambling along in my thoughts and realized that I should probably post more than just things about my 5e campaign here.
Because this is For Gamers, By Gamers, About Gamers.
And, part of me thinks maybe I should start posting twice per week...

Anyway, I thought I'd try the Ask the Audience column again.

This time: LARP!

Okay, so my questions for you all are:
Do any of you have any experience with LARPing?
If you do, what did you think of it? Fun? Boring? Way-too-childish?

I'm just curious what everyone thinks of this oft-misunderstood pastime.

On my experiences: I have none.
The most detailed portrayal I have experience with is from "Knights of Badassdom," which was filmed in the woods near where I live (Spokane, WA).
If you haven't seen it, I'd suggest changing that. It's pretty entertaining.

But I am interested in giving LARP a shot.
I'm thinking of trying to write up some basic rules and put something together with friends and family, see where it takes me.

In the Spokane area, I know of two groups that exist that do things of a similar nature ("Society for Creative Anachronism" and "Stormhaven"), but they don't really do the RP portion of LARP (from what I can tell).
So, that's my take on the subject.

Hopefully the gaming group will meet on Sunday (looks good right now).
And hopefully Washington state will not be smoldering ashes by then.
Stay safe out there folks, especially those firefighters taming these blazes.

Until next time, may the dice fall in your favor :)

Praerus D&D 5e Campaign Notes, Session 8

Evening, everyone!

Sunday was certainly interesting for gaming, and here's how!

To begin, the phrase "rub your butt on the enlarged man" was uttered.

This week, we had Sabah and Ulic in attendance, and Saito's player introduced a new character named Rellon (information on the character page). Hec and Trinity's players couldn't make it, making this the first time that Trinity was on DM-autopilot.

As a note, there was a lot of improvisation on my part as the DM this week. And, you know what, I think everyone enjoyed it that way.

----------------

Rellon was en route from the Arcanum to Rosewood to locate the prophecy that was underground.

After some trial and error, he was able to find his way into the tunnels below Rosewood (the same pit that Kara and Ulic had used when they first went there).

It was about that time that Ulic's amulet "ping'd" and set Sabah on guard.

She assumed a defensive posture and approached the hallway while Trinity and Hec enjoyed "brain over brawn." Ulic was ill from trying the stuff.

After some quick searching of the nearby tunnels, Rellon discovered an ancient armory where everything was marked with elemental runes. As a researcher, this tickled him in a powerful way.

Sabah and Ulic decided they might want to seek out the mage that triggered the charm, so made their way slowly through the tunnels.

After some bungling about on both parts, Sabah and Ulic located Rellon and Sabah attempted to sneak up on him.

Rellon, however, has unusually keen ears and heard the approaching priest. With the snap of his fingers, he produced the sound of a rattlesnake near her feet, freezing her in place.

Rellon took advantage of the situation to knock over a table and take cover.

However, it turned out that such movement triggered some sort of elemental windstorm in the chamber, snuffing out all light sources and making it hard to hear.

At this point, Ulic cried out "I think I know him..." and the player's cell phone indicated a text message with two silenced pistol reports. Much laughter ensued.

After settling down, Ulic and Rellon confirmed each other's identities and the party gathered once more.

Together, they looked about the room for anything interesting or important.

And, in a stack of odds and ends, Rellon found a shortsword that was strangely clean.

He wrapped and stowed it and the party moved onward.

This room had several entrances, and they tried one of the doors.

Sabah heard something on the other side and warned everyone, getting them into combat positions.

Without warning, she kicked the door in.

And it bounced back from something.

With another kick, it was revealed that the room beyond was full of zombies.

Thankfully, Sabah's Channel Divinity feature was ramped up at this point and could destroy any undead of CR 1/2 or less. And so, only one zombie (an ogre) was left in the room.

And it failed its saving throw.

It made a very hasty retreat toward some stairs that it stumbled down and promptly went to pieces under.

As Sabah torched its remains, the other party members examined the room.

It was a way-shrine to the traveler god Fharlanghn.

But, the question was asked, what was it doing here?

With this mystery ever-building, the party headed downstairs.
And discovered a large summoning seal in the floor of the first chamber.
With a little remembering legends and lore, they discovered that this was part of a long-lost labyrinth complex described in some passages of Old One literature.
And it was hiding under Rosewood the entire time.

With a little wandering, they mapped out a good chunk of the southern portion of the map.
There, they found a chamber for guards to rest in and a place where they stored their food.
While passing through the storage room, Ulic set off a trap that launched two walls at each other.
Thankfully, his checkered past prepared him to jump out of the way.

With a few minutes of work, he was able to dismantle the trigger to prevent any further trouble.

Beyond this, they saw a strange sight - a shrine. It was apparent that this was not part of the original construction.
Shortly after entering, Sabah approached the alter, knelt down, and said softly "so, this is where I died..."
It turned out that a ghost was residing in this room and possessed Sabah to communicate with the party.
During a rather pleasant conversation, the party learned that this was the ghost of Arroh Hartsight, a member of one of the races they call the Old Ones. She was once a huntress, but became the high priestess of the god Trykus (knowledge and light, symbol is an open tome with a scepter along the spine). And, much like the party, she was unsure as to how she got to where she was presently.

Rellon decided to see if Arroh could recognize the summoning seal in the other room, and so led Sabah/Arroh to the door.
Where the two promptly separated, with Arroh's form floating in the doorway.
At this point, one of the ghost's natural defenses kicked in and everyone had to make a Charisma save to avoid being frightened.
Sabah and Rellon were fine, Trinity and Hec were frightened.
But Ulic got hit the hardest. Having failed his save by more than 5, he also aged 40 years, making him go from his youth to middle age in the blink of an eye.

Arroh did not expect that happen and apologized immediately.
With short order, however, her specter vanished from sight.

With some puzzling over the situation, Rellon decided to become a willing vessel for Arroh.
While the two were connected, they did a very high-speed information exchange. Rellon ended up converting to the faith of Trykus in that time.

Then the joined-souls struck upon a plan.
Using his conjuration ability, Rellon created a holy symbol of Trykus to act as a focus for his beliefs.
The theory was that this would allow Arroh's spirit to leave her final resting place.

So, with a deep breath, they crossed the threshold...

And it worked!

Now free of the shrine, the group went back to the summoning seal and let Arroh analyze it.
Unfortunately, she knew nothing of it.

With their new ghostly companion, the party returned to Rosewood to try to establish a more permanent abode for Arroh and restore Ulic's youth.

And that's what happened.
Lots of fun for everyone, like I said.

But what sort of strangeness is going on in the tunnels below Rosewood?

Tune in next time to see what happens!
Until then - roll the bones :)

Yet Another Late Update

Hey folks!

Sorry for a delay in posting. The reasons are many-fold.

1. My Sunday group ended up not meeting after all due to assorted scheduling troubles. So, there's that.
2. I haven't worked on any homebrew in a long while, so that wouldn't be updated.
3. I've been working on a pet project of mine that has been tormenting me for over a decade. But, now I'm making great headway on it and hope to share it with you folks in the near future :)
4. I had an interview for a new job this morning, and got a call back just 1 hour later saying I got the position. So, was freaking out about that for a while, but I am overly happy now :)

So, nothing terribly new to report for the time being.
However, everyone seems to be on board for Sunday.
If it fall through, though... maybe I'll see about a new game...

We shall see then.
Until then, may the dice fall in your favor.

Funny Things

Greetings, internet!

So, Sunday passed in a rather funny way.

As Sabah's player and I were walking to check her mail, Hec's player called to say that he couldn't make it.
That's okay - I can run the game with three players!

On the way to the store to get some food stuffs for the group, Ulic's player sent me a text. He wasn't showing up either.
Darn. Guess we'll inform Trinity's player...

She responded saying that she couldn't make it either.

And so, Sabah's player and I grabbed some lunch and headed back to our apartments (we're neighbors).

And that was how Sunday passed :)

--------------

Now, on to other business: why is this post tagged "Pathfinder?"

I've been following the business of the Vigilante class since the beginning of the playtest.
And it amuses me that pretty much every single post in the "Final Thoughts" board is negative (my opinion is in there as well, btw).

It seems to me that Paizo is on the verge of losing a lot of money if they don't change their thoughts on this particular class.
But, I also know just how staunchly RP fans defend things from their favorite publishers, even if they are flawed beyond reason.

So, more like a "snarky funny thing" here, I guess.

But, I do hope that Paizo learns from this experience. I still rather like some of the improvements from 3.X that they made, and would love to see the game continue.

Anyway, due to having my desk at work moved, posting is going to be slightly more difficult and/or later in the day than normal.

May have more for you all later this week.
Who knows?
Until then, may the dice fall in your favor :)