Readers?

Wow. The last few weeks have just been dead on here.

Do people really miss the tales of my misbegotten gaming group that much?
Sadly, due to scheduling conflicts and other real-life things, it's looking like we might not be meeting any time in the near future. Or at all :/ But, that still remains to be seen.

If that falls apart, I do have another group lined up (in a way), but there's no guarantee that we'll be playing 5e. Which is kind of a bummer, as this campaign is pretty awesome IMHO.

Also, my recent homebrew (the 5e factotum) doesn't seem to have had much thunder behind it. Which I find odd, given that folks seemed to love the original. Any comments or questions on it - feel free to drop me a comment.

Despite a dire drop in readers recently, I will continue writing. Because that is what a blogger does, right?
If there is anything that anyone out there would like to see finished sooner-than-later, feel free to write about it in the comments below :)

So, until next time folks - may the dice fall in your favor.

Surprise Homebrew!

Good morning, everyone!

So, I decided on Monday to homebrew something from 3.X that I really just loved.
But, then I was trying to figure out how to do it.
Over the course of the week, I bashed this thing out and I'm really satisfied with what I've produced.
As always, your mileage may vary and input is always appreciated :)

Here I present:
my favorite class
probably of all time.
Brought back from the mists of time with a tasty 5e twist.

I also have a few other things that I'm working on that I hope will satisfy folks, and I am (as always) working on the soulmeld and psionic powers lists. Made some good headway on the soulmelds, but the powers tend to vex me (they have far more moving parts that need considering).

So, I leave you all to peruse and enjoy.
Until next time, dear readers - may the dice fall in your favor :)

Lord of Magna - A Review

Or "I'm Here to Trade in This Hunk of Detritus."

So, the Sunday gaming group didn't meet, sadly.

But, on the positive side of things, I was able to trade "Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven" away.
And that led me to this thought: I could write reviews of 3DS games on the blog!
"Why 3DS games?" you might be wondering?
Because I own one and don't have time to game at home. Ever.

SO, here goes:
"Lord of Magna - Maiden Heaven" for the 3DS

Normally, I love JRPGs and when I saw a game from XSEED that combined dating sim elements with JRPG elements with bowling elements, I was kinda big on that idea.
So I bought a copy.

Visually, the game is cutesy, using chibi characters. Which, you know, whatever. No big deal for me. Very vibrant.
The music is great, though. Beautifully scored.
And the combat? Using bowling to fight your enemies? Inspired. Mind you, it wasn't nearly as involved as I thought it was going to be. Mostly just setting up foes to fly into each other. Kind of wished that you actually used a bowling ball in combat.

Where this game fell apart, for me, was playability.
Not replayability.
Playability.

There are simply no choices that you make that actually affect the story.
You literally go from cut scene to fight to cut scene.
Very little to do between those points, except maybe buy healing items.

Worse, is that the box promised fully animated cut scenes, then delivered 3 seconds of animation every hour of play time.
And voice acting?
Forget about it.
You get about one line of that per 10 minutes of play.
In this day and age, and with how simple the rest of the game was, you'd think that XSEED could have gotten full voice acting and fully animated cutscenes.

And the combat, while innovative, was extremely repetitive.
You have special attacks, sure, but only once the story allows you to use them.
And there's only so much of knocking one enemy into another to rack up combos I can take.

Kind of a nit-picking point for me about this game: a near complete lack of 3D support.
For a game that is designed for a system that has been shown to really push dimensional boundaries, this game simply lacked 3D scenes.
Even with my slider turned all the way up, there was almost nothing showing :/
It makes me feel like XSEED dropped the ball there.

The game had a lot of promise, and the story seemed to be going somewhere (maybe?), but I just got so bored with all of the repetition that I made it about halfway into the game and traded it away. The quote at the top of the page is exactly what I told the store clerk when I walked in.

Final verdict: 3/5
Visual - 4/5: would have been better with actual 3D and maybe less cutesy characters
Audio - 5/5: great music and sound, even if voice clips were few and far between
Replayability - 0/5: if I couldn't even stomach playing the main game to completion, I dread to think what a NG+ would have looked like
Controls - 4/5: intuitive overall, but could have used more of the bowling mechanic
Story - 3/5: based on what I had gone through, the story was there, but it wasn't terribly original

And that's all for now!
Still working on older homebrew things (which I actually received suggestions on!) and getting my life in order after my move.

Until next time, gentlefolk :)

WE MOVED!

So, my wife and I moved into our new house.
And that's pretty awesome.

But, we don't have internet, so that makes things slightly complicated.
Will work on things as I get time.

Chat sooner or later!

Ask the Audience #3 - What NEXT?

Hello everyone!

So, my move has been pushed back a week. Which means I am another week without any of my books or notes. Which makes working on things a little difficult.

HOWEVER!
I'm still working on all of the stuff that I've posted up to this point.
Nothing else completed just yet, but I have quite a bit of ground covered on several things :)

Now, returning to the title of this post: Ask the Audience!

I just want to know: what would everyone like to see me homebrew next for 5e (previously called NEXT... see what I did there?)
Up-vert old material? Create something new? Bring something from your favorite fandom into the game? WHATCHUWANT?

I would like to focus on 5e D&D stuff (because I'm on a roll there), but I'm open to any suggestions or ideas :)

So, until next time dear readers.

Happy Start of October!

I love this month.

Also, the following homebrew items are "done":

• sha'ir warlock pact
• hybrid class rules
• incarnate base class for incarnum rules
• simple tome of magic conversions

Feel free to use and critique at will :)

That's all I had.

Until next time, dear readers!