T w e n t y S i d e d
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I could not figure out a way to put Liv Tyler into episode LIV. Pity. But I did manage to work Danny DeVito in there, which was kind of unexpected.
DM of the Rings LIV:
Neverwinter Nights 2: Nitpicks
Here is a list of flaws, great and small. A lot of this stuff is the kind of thing that never gets mentioned in reviews, but I think it matters. I wouldn’t want developers to get the idea that we don’t care about things like CD key length or a predictable autosave.
The flaws, in increasing order of seriousness, from the minor to egregious:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Neverwinter Nights 2: Nitpicks”
DM of the Rings LIII:
Waste Not, Want Not
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Don’t get too hung up on horses. While the rulebooks have all sorts of rules for movement speeds while on foot, encumbered, or riding, the truth is that all travel takes exactly as long as the DM wants it to. This brings to mind the wise old saying:
“A player is never late, Dave. Nor is he early. He arrives precisly when the plot dictates he should.”
Or something like that.
Neverwinter Nights 2: First Impressions
Now that I’ve savaged the lazy, junior-high ending of this game and taken some time to cool off, let’s talk about what worked:
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| A female half-orc… Warlock? Hey man, whatever floats your boat. |
The game does an excellent job of stepping you through the process. The explanation for every race, class, feat, and spell is available right there, so you never feel lost and never feel like you don’t have enough information to make a decision.
I’ve been negative towards attempts to bring d20 gaming to the PC in the past, and I stand by those comments. Having said that, this is an excellent adaptation of d20 gameplay, and I don’t think it could be done much better. If you’re going to bring the tabletop rules to a computer-driven world, this is how you do it.
The game has a fairly modest system for cutomizing the look of your character, but the variety of races more than makes up for the lack of ability to really customize your appearance. It also offers a few fun surprises, like the ability to create dwarven or half-orc females, which has always been tough for me to picture. It will let you create an Elven Barbarian, or a half-Orc Wizard, if you really want to.
Once the game starts, it does an excellent job of teaching how to play as you go. At the outset, your home village is having a harvest fair with a number of different competitions. Each one teaches you the specifics of some gameplay or character class, and does so while keeping you amused with several colorful (and wonderfully voice-acted) characters around town.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Neverwinter Nights 2: First Impressions”
D&D Campaign: Unanswered Questions
Here is my third and final wrap-up post on the D&D campaign. Hopefully this will answer the last remaining questions anyone might have.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “D&D Campaign: Unanswered Questions”
Sidequesting
(The following is a little gruesome.)
Nilus left a comment here, talking about looting companions after they die when playing a tabletop RPG:
At least in D&D most lootable items are not surgically implanted in the player characters. I remember a Shadowrun game where we spent several hours debating how many times you would have to slam a car trunk in order to decapitate a person with it. This was because the party Decker, who had several million dollars in cyberware in his brain, just died and the rest of the party felt it a waste to let all that expensive equipment get buried with him. Of course no one thought it was a good idea to carry his whole body around and no one had a blade large or sharp enough to cut his head off easily. So thus we used a car trunk.
I’ve never played Shadowrun, but I’ve read Neuromancer and seen a few cyberpunk movies, so I think I get the idea.
Just for fun (fun for me, I don’t know if anyone else will enjoy this) I thought I’d detail how I would handle something like this. This is not to knock on Nilus’ GM – everyone has their own style, and there is no right or wrong way to play this game as long as everyone is having a good time.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Sidequesting”
DM of the Rings LII:
I Specialize in Ranger-ing
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When dealing with railroading DM’s, never waste skill points on the tracking skill. If it’s part of the plot, you’ll find it no matter what you roll. If it’s not part of the plot, then it doesn’t exist anyway.
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