Umbral Echoes Blog

So after the fiasco of the previous night, you'd think I would stay in and sleep it off, right? Fucking wrong. 4 hours of sleep, then up, shower, and down to the registration area, and shortly thereafter to a Changeling the Lost game run by The Wrecking Crew. I feel the need to put in a few notes here.

First, I was on the design team for the CtL corebook. However, I had never actually played the game or even managed to read all the way through the book, as ironic as that is. So I was interested to see what the final product ended up being like.

Second, The Wrecking Crew is awesome. They run tabletop games for White Wolf products at all sorts of conventions. Back in the day they used to help White Wolf with the setup and breakdown of their booths at said conventions, too. They are not only rabid fans, but they are very good at what they do. So I was doubly excited to play in this game.

Third, I was still vaguely nauseas, hadn't eaten since 3pm the previous day, and hadn't even had any water that morning. But I am not a little bitch, and I was determined to get my game on. So instead of doing the intelligent thing and saying, "Hey guys, give me 5 minutes to go get a bottle of water," I toughed through it. HTFU.

–Begin geeky game reminiscing–

The game had pregens, I was the last to the table but I found a great character: an Autumn Court librarian. Autumn Court changelings are the creepy ones. The girl running the game left the specifics to us, so I described him as a spindly man in his late 40s with straight, almost dead-looking black hair that was about chin-length, who had the musty smell of old books. He had sunken eyes, wore a moth-ridden tweed jacket, ivory button-down shirt, and brown corduroy pants. Also, from time to time a spider or two would skitter out from the hair hanging at his neck, scamper across his neck or face, and disappear on the other side.

His mein (how he looks to other changelings) was much the same, except instead of eyes he had black pits that seemed to suck in the light, features even more gaunt to the point of looking skeletal, and elongated teeth that were all sharp canines.

The basic plot was that the group of us "came to" on a dock with a wooden crate in front of us, and a person, with no memories of the previous 24 hours. The person was contractually bound not to tell us anything. My character snooped and sniffed around, and figured that there was most likely a dead body in there. Around that time, a car drove up and we were shot at. My character, not being a fighter, hid and used his powers to freak out the gunmen — or at least one of them.

We gain control of the situation, find out who hired them, then go up the chain to find out who hired that person to hire them, find out who that person was working for. It was basically a big court plot to make it look like the Autumn Court queen was abducting/killing the other three courts' queens, the plot lead by someone who hoped to take her place, and was working with the True Fae (bad, bad news) to do so. We blew up the would-be queen, I did some research on the fae and found her weakness (she is known as the Weeping Willow, and can't attack anyone that's crying), and the local changelings banded together to smack her down.

Behind the scenes, apparently we were hired by the current Autumn queen to investigate the disappearances.  I'd thought maybe we were the ones that had caused them, since we did "wake up" in front of a box with a dead body in it that I was pretty sure was one of the other queens, after all.

–End geeky game reminiscing–

After that, Lauren, Charles Bailey, and I went to grab brunch. I wanted some gumbo (it's New Orleans after all, and I love me some cajun food), so on the advice of friends we went to Gumbo Shop. Yes, it's a gumbo place called Gumbo Shop. It was pretty good, except that they put a crab claw in mine and there were little bits of it in the gumbo itself that I had to spit out from time to time. I found them, of course, by crunching down on them with my teeth, which was none too pleasant.

Then we went to a gelato place right around the corner, and it was divine. Lauren and I got some horchata gelato. They had some single malt Glenlivet gelato that I really wanted, but thought might be a bad idea after the previous night's debacle.

We helped Charles find a geocaching thing, then I caught the tail end of an artist panel and we went out to eat again.

What? I have a tapeworm to feed, you know. Or a hollow leg to fill. Or both.

We really wanted to check out The Green Goddess, since it seems to have great Yelp reviews and some of our friends raved about it. By "we wanted to go" I mostly mean that I did, and Lauren grumbled about it. Turns out, it was too packed anyway — it is but a tiny place, not capable of handling even the runoff of the crowds that the convention brought. So we ended up at House of Blues, where I had some shrimp and catfish creole. Though we had to wait a long time to get our food, it was very tasty, and the waitress was awesomely nice as well. I will definitely go back there whenever I'm next in the area.

Damnit, even writing about this is making me hungry. Maybe if I lived in New Orleans I'd actually gain a few pounds.

That night there was a… well, cocktail party is the best way I can think to describe it, at the Blue Room downstairs. CCP was giving the fans a chance to talk to some of the game developers, and have some nice snacks and free booze while they were at it.

This seemed to translate to "OMGfreebooze!!!!" and instead of talking to the developers, everyone seemed to go straight for the two bars, resulting in about a 45 minute wait to get drinks. I chatted some with Rich Thomas, Bill Bridges, and others before deciding to move along to bed.

Thus ended day 2. Not terribly exciting, but it involved good food, and the next day was the birthday party, so I knew adventure awaited. And indeed it did, but more on that in the next installment.

This post is in relation to the World of Darkness Online MMO that was recently announced at The Grand Masquerade. I've heard a few gripes that seem to come up a lot in various forms and forums, and I would like to address them here. Most of my thoughts boil down to: stop making assumptions, and have patience.

They aren't adding in X supernatural type, so I'm not going to play this game!

So what have they said?

The top-level points below have been outright stated (mostly at The Grand Masquerade), sub-points are logical extensions that others have drawn.

• It will be a player-driven game with lots of social and political elements.
  • Giving power to the players is a double-edged sword. So while they might not have mechanics to stop someone from talking in netspeak and being a douche, other players will presumably have the power to smack that bitch down¹.
• The themes that the game explores will be: Mystery, Romance, Power, Danger.
• It will be an adult game, that aims to invoke emotion in you.
• Vampires will be the only supernatural player characters, but stuff from the other games will be present in some form. Also, there will be the option to play a human, though no specifics on that were given.
  •  Other supernaturals will most likely be environmental content, NPCs, that sort of thing.
  •  Humans will likely be ghouls or blood dolls, but maybe we could see some human vampire hunter PCs too.
• Character customizability and aesthetics will be big in this game. They have even hired a fashion consultant.
• They want to make the game as accessible as possible, and this is one of their criteria for success. So they want it to be fun for both hardcore and casual gamers.
• They also want to cater to an array of players by having three ways you can play the game: sandbox (open-ended like EVE), theme park (traditional MMOs like WoW), and coffee shop (social). These playstyles will be interconnected, with each one feeding to and from one of the others.
• The game will not be combat-intensive, unless you choose to play it that way.
  •  Being the biggest social/political mover and shaker will garner you far more power than being the strongest fighter.
• Factions and territories will be a big part of the game.
• The game will have gay clubs.
• The game will be fully PvP, but that's not to say that you can be attacked anywhere. If you don't want to get attacked, you might want to hang around Elysium a lot.
  • This will probably be like any LARP. If you go down a dark alleyway, you might get jumped by your enemies, or even some random person. On the other hand, if the person jumping you breaks the Masquerade, they're in for trouble.
• Some Disciplines will not be included because they're impossible to have in an MMO, like Temporis.

There are some other things, mostly other nitty-gritty stuff like they are using Scrum development methodologies, have already spent like 314 man-years (which equals one Shane DeFreest year)  in development, etc. But that's the core of what is publicly known about the game so far.

I will start this out by saying that DragonCon was my first convention ever. I went on a lark at the last minute in 2003 thanks to a friend, and had an absolute blast. I met tons of new and completely awesome people (I'm still good friends with my roommates from the first year), saw lots of cool panels, took hundreds of pictures, and got almost no sleep because I was too excited to waste my time sleeping.

Since then, the convention has gotten different for me, and in general. I hardly take any pictures. Yes, it's full of awesome costumes. They'll be there next year too. And the year after. I go to fewer panels. As time goes on, DragonCon is more about hanging out with friends and partying than it is seeing celebs or sitting in on panels. Many of those friends, I only get to see once a year at DragonCon, in fact. So generally I plan one or two panel-type things to do per day, max, and otherwise just fly by the seat of my pants.

Caveat: A lot of this might seem very doom and gloom. My intent here is to prepare you for the worst. Things aren't necessarily this bad, but if you go in prepared for what could happen, you will have a much better con experience.

What you came here for

Okay, enough with the reminiscing. DragonCon, if done improperly, is a torturous thing. Some bits of advice actually come from the pitfalls the poor E experienced in that linked blog post. So here are some tips to get you through the convention:

• Parking: Don't park downtown. For the love of Cthulu, just don't do it. If you're lucky, it will only be absurdly expensive. If you're not lucky, you'll get your car booted. Most of the little lots that seem like they're cheap will "reset" at 6am, so you have to pay again around 6-7am or have your car booted (which will cost you about $75). They are especially bad about doing this on Saturday morning, when the parade is. I speak from experience (see picture to the right). So where do you park? The convention hotels are all right by the Peachtree MARTA rail station, so I highly advise that you park at a MARTA station with long-term parking, and take the train down. Some MARTA stations will charge $5 per day, and some are free. For those of you who have never taken public transportation before: don't panic. It's very easy, and safe, and after you've done it you'll laugh at yourself for being so nervous about it.
• Hotels: Book at one of the convention hotels, in October or November. Whenever they open up, book a room at one of the convention hotels (preferably Marriott, Hyatt, or Hilton). It's well worth it to have your room right there, without having to take a cab or train back. They are expensive though; with taxes, plan on paying around $200 per night.
• Hotel check-in: Do it early, request a low floor. Elevator wait times are absurd. Really, really absurd. At 1am, you seriously might have to wait 30+ minutes to get on an elevator. So if you can get a floor low enough that you can just use the stairs, do it. Also, by "early" I mean, get there around 11am on Thursday. Have a job or something else that prevents you from coming until Friday? Pray that some non-convention-goer left a room on Friday. Otherwise, you're fucked.
• Elevators: Go down to go up (and vice-versa). It's sad that people do this, because it actually slows down the elevators overall. But because so many other people do it, you sort of have to, in order to get anywhere. So no matter which direction you're going, push both buttons, and hop on the first elevator with a spot regardless of which way it's going.
• Badge lines: Bring a book. This year, on-site registration (the people who didn't get one ahead of time) had very short lines, like 30 minutes or less. For those who wanted to save money and pre-registered? 5-6 hour waits. No exaggeration. However, I'm betting that because of that serious dichotomy, more people will pay on-site next year. So either way, plan on staying a while. I suggest getting in line Thursday or Friday morning, about an hour before the lines actually open up. That way you'll only have around 2 hours total waiting, and it won't be in the blistering hot Atlanta sun.
  Edit: Next year they're supposed to be using a barcode scanning system that will speed things up. Cross your fingers and hope that it works; if so, waits should be more like 1-2 hours max.
  • Alternatively, you can do what I did and get an eternal badge. This is if you know you're going to be coming to at least 10 more Dragon*Cons, otherwise it's not worth it. But if you are, you pay 10x the going rate for on-site registration (this last year that meant $1,000), and you get a forever pass. Now, you still have to get a badge each year, you just don't have to pay for it and you get in a special eternals-only line, which has almost no wait.
• Celebrity panels: Watch them on Dragon*Con TV. Seriously. It's either that, or get in line 3 hours before the panel begins. If you only get there an hour early, you won't get in. This also applies to otherwise popular panels, like the Buffy Horror Picture Show, and pretty much anything to do with Firefly. Lines literally wrap around the hotels for these panels. If someone is being organized about it, they'll count and say, "Everyone past here won't get in." That level of organization and thought is a very rare occurrence though.
  Edit: This isn't necessarily true in all cases (mainly for popular celebs/shows, though sometimes even then you'll get lucky), but it's best to plan ahead. If you get there 3 hours early and no one is in line, go do something else for 30-45 minutes then come back.
• Room parties: find where they are, and go to them. DigiTribe usually has an awesome open roomparty all weekend long. They don't charge for booze, but they gladly accept donations, so please toss 'em a few bucks so that they don't run out on Friday night. There are other cool room parties, but sometimes you just have to know someone throwing one, to know where they are.
• Drinking: Know your limits, stick to one type of drink. Trust me, it is Bad News^TM to start off with beer, move to vodka crans, then finish the night off with a Jaeger bomb. Other normal drinking rules apply: know your limits, eat well beforehand, and if you're female don't leave your drink unattended (I've never heard of someone getting slipped something in their drink at DCon, but better safe than sorry). Also, stock up on Saturday. Beer and liquor cannot be sold at bars on Sunday in Georgia (only at bars). Yeah, fuck the Bible Belt and our teetotalling governor. Also, don't buy drinks at Pulse in the Marriott. They're stupid expensive, like $16 for a Grey Goose martini expensive. Rum buckets are the way to go, generally available at the bar on the smoker's deck of the Hyatt. $12 for about 6-8 shots of rum in a tasty mixed drink. Cross the street from Marriott to Hyatt, go up the stairs, and the smoker's deck is the area right before all the glass doors.
• Eating: bring snacks, don't expect to get a seat in the food court. The places in the food court are actually pretty decent at getting people their food quickly. And they are amazingly nice for having to deal with such a horde of people. But there is simply not enough seating for everyone. So be prepared to go back to your hotel room to eat, or to camp out on the floor somewhere. Also, bring snacks. Not only can they help you wait until after the lunch/dinner rush, they come in quite handy at 3am when you're plastered and really need something other than booze to put in your stomach. There's only one good 24-hour food place near the convention, the Metro Café Diner.
• Buying stuff: avoid impulse buys (generally). What I do is take a picture of things I want on Friday (along with the price tag and booth it's at), then on Saturday or Sunday if I still want them, I'll buy. However, if there's only one or two of what you want left, this rule doesn't necessarily apply. This year, I lost out on getting a sweet leather mask because I waited too long.
• Walking around: be careful where you walk. This actually consists of a few parts:
  • Do not, under any circumstances, just stop where you are. Step off to the side, then stop. If you can't find a place outside of traffic in the immediate vicinity, then keep walking until you do. Otherwise the fifty people behind you will keep moving forward while you're trying to stop, and you are the loser in that equation. This applies everywhere with crowds, including the dealer rooms.
  • Don't rush into empty pockets in crowds. If you're in a really crowded area and you see a big empty pocket? Look again; there's someone trying to set up a picture there. They've probably been trying to do so for the past few minutes because dumbasses keep getting in their way. Do not be one of those dumbasses.
  • When you get to the bottom of escalators, keep moving. If there are people not moving in front of you when you get to the bottom, yell at them. If they don't respond immediately, push them the fuck out of the way. Screw politeness; this is safety. People get hurt because of stop-ups at the bottom of the escalator. If you stop, even if it's because someone in front of you is stopped, expect to be pushed. Really, the people behind you have absolutely no choice in the matter — that escalator sure as hell isn't stopping, after all. (Note: usually there will be hotel security staff making sure that people keep moving. Do not be angry at them; they keep things sane.)
    
• Waiting in lines: be sociable. You'll be surprised at the awesome people you will meet while waiting in line. Plus, it helps pass the time.

I think that about covers my advice. What do you think; is there anything I left out?

Edits/additions based on feedback

• Bathe. Do this, every day. If you need to, bathe once in the morning and once in the afternoon or evening. Remember the rule of thumb: if you can smell yourself at all, other people smell it ten times worse. And if you really hate the funk on others, carry a small bottle of Febreeze and spritz people who stink around you. Be nice about it, and they'll probably even thank you, since most geeks don't seem to be aware of the statement in bold above. The same goes for bad breath — carry some gum with you and offer it to people with halitosis when having a conversation. If you talk to enough people, this will happen.
• Beggars: ignore them. Whenever you go even a half-block from the hotel, beggars will ask you for money. They all have a story ("I just need a buck or two to pay for a bus ride back to my family in <city>"). These stories are not true. Do not give them money. Do not tell them "no." The only defense is to pretend like they don't exist. Seriously, even if they get in your personal space, just ignore them. Have a conversation with your friend as if the beggar were incorporeal and invisible. This is the only way to get them to go away. If you tell them, "Sorry I don't have cash," or anything else, they will pester you even more, because you have acknowledged their existence.
• Health: beware the con crud. You've got tens of thousands of people packed into a small area. So carry water with you, don't share drinks or food, wash your hands before eating, and bring some vitamin C along. And if you don't like secondhand smoke, avoid all smoking areas at all costs, especially the smoker's deck at the Hyatt (just outside the Hyatt series of glass doors on the way to the Marriott). Also, if you're drunk, beware the stairs down from there to the street — they will test your equilibrium.
• Costumes and clothing: think it through. First off, they don't call it Hotlanta for nothin'. You're going to be walking around in the heat, so keep this in mind when you're planning your costume. And if you're doing body paint, use sealers so it doesn't run everywhere when you start sweating. Also, you're going to be doing a lot of walking. Ladies (and guys), this means wear comfortable shoes. At the very least, have a backup plan for when those sexy 4-inch stilettos get unbearable. If you're making a complex costume, remember that at some point, you're going to need to use the restroom. Make sure your costume can accommodate that.
• Be nice, and have thick skin. This weekend is fun, but also stressful for a lot of people. A lot of the people here are introverts, and don't do well in large crowds. So try to be nice to them. Also treat the convention staff and hotel staff well. They have to put up with a lot of shit. Don't add to it. They might even be short with you; if so, be nice — you'll be surprised how far you can go with that (apparently this doesn't work on the dicktards who boot cars in the parking lots though).

Yes, it seems that I’ve decided to go on a tangent about my thoughts on roleplaying.

GM, DM, ST, whatever you call the person running the game, they are the ones that set the mood, lay out the plot, and in general keep the game running. We’ve* all experienced good game masters and bad game masters. I’ve been trying to think of some traits that separate the good from the bad.

There’s no formula to being a good storyteller.  But in my experience, good storytellers have some things in common.  A lot of these things have synergy, and sometimes they’re hard to nail down exactly, but I’ll give it a go, based on my personal experience (both as a game master and as a player).

1. Make sure both you and the players are having fun.
   That’s what this is all about, right?  It’s your duty to make sure that the players are having fun, but be sure that you’re having fun running the game, too.  It shouldn’t be a chore!  On that note, know what type of game your players like, and try to give all your players what they’re looking for.  Does Al really love combat and number-crunching, but Bill loves plot and intrigue?  Find a way to mix things up so that everyone gets to do what they enjoy.
2. Make sure the player characters are the stars.
   Pretty much all players have the most fun when their characters are doing cool things.  So let the player characters have the spotlight, and do cool things. One of the mortal sins of game mastering (which I’ve committed myself, sadly) is tossing in powerful NPCs on the players’ side, and making the players themselves into side-characters.
3. Give everyone their time in the spotlight.
   Related to the item above, make sure each player has their time to shine. Some players like to hog the spotlight, so you do have to be careful of that. On a related note, if the group splits up (as player parties have a tendency to do), make sure that you’re giving each sub-group an appropriate amount of time and attention. This also means that you should switch your attention between the groups on a regular basis; no one should sit around and twiddle their thumbs for an hour.
4. Be flexible.
   The players will absolutely fuck up your plot and take it in directions that you didn’t necessarily want it to go, or didn’t foresee. When given clues that seem as obvious as a sledgehammer to the face, they will overlook them. When given ultra-subtle clues, they will connect the dots way earlier than you expected them to. If you just want to tell a linear story, then write a book. Roleplaying is an interactive experience of telling a story, and though you as the game master might have more sway over things than players,  avoid railroading your players at all costs. I personally find that it’s better to give players challenges without having set solutions in mind, to promote this sort of flexibility and to allow the players to really flex their creativity. More often than not, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by what they come up with, and players’ creativity should be rewarded.
5. Be creative.
   No one’s saying you have to be the Picasso of the game mastering world. But do try to explore some different themes in your games. Mix up your NPCs — maybe the antagonist one storyline is an evil plotter, and in another it’s a relentless thug, and in another it’s someone with good intentions but an “ends justifies the means” mentality. Use different voices and mannerisms when speaking as different NPCs. Tricks like including physical handouts or representations of in-game artifacts (an old photograph, half-burned note, etc.) and using some non-invasive background music are good ways to help immerse the players and set the mood.
6. Control the game session.
   Don’t bring a whip to crack at anyone who ventures off-topic or out of character (unless that’s your bag), but do remember that you’re there to play a game. Don’t let a rules discussion go on for 20 minutes — just say, “This is what I’m ruling, we can talk about it after the game.” If you’re running a one-shot at a convention, feel free to say, “Okay, I’m making it a rule that the party has to stay together. We don’t have enough time to deal with splitting up.” This is also related to #3, above.

What do you think? Are there any important traits that I left out?

* By “we” I mean people who have done a fair amount of roleplaying, so probably most of the people reading this. 🙂

Last time, I outlined a few ways that I’ve seen people go about creating characters. So this time, I’ll go over how I do it.

Sadly (or perhaps it’s a good thing), there’s no one formula I use. Sometimes I will think, “Wow, that’s a neat power/ability! I think I’ll design a character around that.”  Sometimes I’ll be intrigued by a character in a movie or book, see a synergy in them with another character from some different series (or half-formed concept already lurking in my brain), and combine the two (or more) into something new.  Sometimes I hear a particularly awesome song and it just gives me a concept.  That last was how I made my character Sammael; here’s the song (not sure if this will work in Facebook, so if not, the file is here):

[display_podcast]

The child-like-yet-creepy tune gave me the image of a kid in a cathedral with dead bodies all around him.  I let the scene play out in my head, and created a character from the result.  What caused the scene?  What happened before?  What would it do to a child, and what would they end up like after?  Just a small jump from one step to the next, and by the time it’s done, you have a character.

But more often than not, inspiration strikes randomly. I’m not sure what path those neural impulses take, but one minute I’ll be all, “Mmmm, steak,” and the next it’s, “Wouldn’t it be neat if there were a modern-day cop who worshiped Aztec gods and made human sacrifices out of really evil people that got let go due to legal loopholes?”

So if I had to nail down a formula, here would be the steps (though sometimes the order shifts drastically):

1. Figure out the character concept — the core of who the character is, what they do, and why.  This part is actually pretty easy for me.
2. Flesh out the personality.  Give the character some quirks.  If the character concept follows a stereotype, find some ways to break the mold.
3. Write a background story.  This part is also pretty easy, but requires a bit more discipline.
4. Fill out the character sheet.  Also easy, once the above are complete.
5. Come up with a name for the character.  Hardest part, almost without fail.

I’ve found that once I’ve done 1-3, the character sheet comes almost without thought.  By that point, I know the character.  I know what they’re good at, what they like, what they would have practiced and studied.  So filling out the skills, powers, and the rest of the character sheet is easy.

Step 5, ironically, probably takes me longer than any of the other steps.  I don’t like just giving a character any name; I like to give them a name that “feels” right for them, that evokes the right emotions, and that often takes a while.

Overall, I find that I enjoy characters as much as playing them, on average.  Sometimes I have more fun making the character than playing it, or vice-versa, but in the end it’s about even.  If there’s one thing I like about being the storyteller/gamemaster/what-have-you, it’s that I get to create and play a bunch of different characters.

This is talking about character designs in roleplaying games, and here I mean actual games where you take on and play a role, so not games like World of Warcraft.  An experience/level system does not a roleplaying game make.

Creating a character is one of the defining parts of roleplaying games, and as a player it’s the first thing that you do after acquainting yourself with the rules (or sometimes even before that!).  Your character is the extension of yourself in the game world, the one and only tool you have to interact with the story.

I think there are as many different ways of creating a character as there are players who create them, if not more.  But there are some general themes people tend to follow.  There is no best way, except the way that is best for you personally.  As for me, I tend to use many different methods, depending on how inspiration strikes.

Some people just play themselves in a game.  The character’s personality is the player’s personality.  The primary benefit is that you don’t even have to pause to think what your character would say or do in any given situation; your character reacts as you would.  There is no qualm of, “Would my character be upset by this?  Would s/he like this person?”  Especially for many people new to roleplaying, this is the easiest way to get into it.  You’re playing the role of… yourself.  On the downside, the line between in-character and 0ut-of-character is easy to blur.  Someone insults your character, it’s easy to take it as an insult to yourself.  Your character fails, it feels more like you’ve failed.  So while I might recommend this for people new to roleplaying, I’d always recommend it stressing those warnings.

Some players take inspiration from other sources when creating a character.  “I think Spike is really awesome, so I’m going to create an Exalted version of him.”  This is very common, and has a similar benefit as the “playing yourself” method of character design.  You’re already familiar with the character, so you have a better idea of how they should react when presented with any given situation.  Personally, I like melding different sources and adding a twist, to create something my own.

Some players create something entirely from scratch, or from different inspiration altogether — maybe a song, or a line from a poem.  This is probably the most challenging method of character creation.  You write the background, and you try to get inside the character’s head, but really until you’re playing the character, it’s hard to get a handle on it.  But eventually, this is where characters can take on a life of their own — where, in thinking as the character might, a thought or line comes into your head that never would have, otherwise.  Of course, sometimes people who successfully pull this off end up playing the same character over and over again, because they like their creation so much.  When you create something awesome, it’s easy to get attached to it, which runs many of the same risks as playing yourself does.

I personally tend to use a mesh of the previous two paragraphs.  I’d be interested to hear other people’s takes on how they go about it.  In my next post I’ll go into a bit more detail on some of my own methods.

First off, let me say that I’ve only been in one Google Wave gaming session so far, and have seen a few other sessions.  So I haven’t done very in-depth or broad testing of this stuff.  Also, Google Wave itself is evolving — it’s still in beta, so I’m not going to talk about bugs, or technical issues that I’m sure will be hammered out.

My friend and former coworker Justin Achilli is running a 3.5 D&D game via Google Wave, as an experiment in its viability for online roleplay.  He’s shared his own thoughts, and I’d like to share a few of mine from a player’s perspective.

So, from my perspective, so far I’m getting exactly what I expected.   It’s somewhat of a mix of playing via live chat (of which I have several years experience on White Wolf’s now-defunct moderated chats) and play-by-post, with most of the advantages and disadvantages therein.   I’ll list some below, and again, I’m going to refrain from putting any disadvantages down that I expect to be addressed (e.g. it’s still fairly slow and has the occasional glitch).

Advantages (compared to tabletop)

• It’s easier to schedule.  No transit time to/from; just log in and bam, you’re in game.
• When a player misses a session, the playback feature makes it easy for them to get caught up.
• It’s possible to narrate aspects of your character’s actions in more stylish detail.
• It’s easier to have secret side-conversations where necessary (no passing of notes or leaning over and whispering).
• There’s a complete record of each session, which game masters or payers can look back on (or search) if they’ve forgotten something.
• It’s possible for several people to type simultaneously without the “talking over one another” effect you get in real life.
• It allows you to multitask without being distracting to others.

Disadvantages

• Hell of a lot slower-going than tabletop for character interaction.
• Even slower than that for combat — and the more crunchy the combat, the slower it is.
• More impersonal.
• Can’t use things like mood music/lighting to set the mood (though it would be easy to use a third-party app to stream a playlist).

Overall I prefer tabletop, but I do like online mediums (including Wave) as an option if tabletop isn’t.   I think Wave offers some advantages over both chat-based and PbM/PbP play as well — it’s the best of both worlds when talking about those two options.  I also think Wave is better for more story-centric games/systems than crunchy games, but I’m sure that there will be a number of plugins (or “robots” as Wave calls them) for that sort of thing.  There are already some robots for things like dice rolling, maps, and other such things.  I’m excited to see what can and will be done.

I didn’t go to a single damn panel this year. There was lots of partying, drinking, and… well, that sort of thing.

We stayed in the Hyatt this year, and I have to say that having a balcony is very awesome. It was good for socializing so that everyone wasn’t in one loud heap, and also let the smokers go out to smoke without having to leave the room. I have heard good things about the Westin though, and from a brief stint there trying to find a room party (and failing), it looked to be quite a nice hotel. So perhaps I’ll have to have a look at their rooms and prices for next year. Would also be nice not having to deal with the convention elevators. This year the Hyatt updated their elevators I think though, because when we had a full load it went straight to the bottom floor instead of stopping on every single floor as in years past. Made the elevator wait time more like 15 minutes instead of 30-45 minutes.

Sean doing body shots off of Cary

I didn’t really expect my room to be a party room, but these things happen. I could not have predicted some of the things that happened, as seen to the right, but everyone had fun. 🙂 I was very glad to see my GenCon friends Daniel (aka Frodo) and Lia there, as well as Stephanie and Shawn, and Kirstie and Shaun, and Corinne and Sean and… holy crap, I know too damn many of those Sean guys, and every damn one of them spells it differently! Sean Fannon was holding the Court of Bedlam, in which I was bequeathed the Count of Carousing, and also assistant barkeep. I mixed some drinks, and they were… well, let’s just say stronger than I intended. However, that was perfect for the Court. These are not amateur drinkers. They like their vodka crans to taste like vodka with a hint of cranberry.

I think the most memorable night was MC Chris’s birthday party on Sunday night. I had just the right amount of booze for a good buzz, the atmosphere was very high-energy, I saw an old friend from Colorado, hung out with Loryn and other good friends, and afterwards my friend DJ Catt Ninetails spun some 80’s music, and there was impromptu dancing by attractive women on stage. I’m a sucker for cute dancers, especially if they’re in thongs.

I won’t bore you with the mundane details, but some other random highlights include my (well technically, Loryn’s) luggage breaking due to being overloaded with booze, condom balloons, and finding that there is a leather clothing maker about 1/2 mile from where I live.  Also, chicks kissing.  Can you dig it?  I said, “CAN YOU DIG IT?!”  10 movie geek points if you get the reference without doing a web search.

For my initial impressions, I am going to leave out issues that are obviously bugs — the game doesn’t even officially launch for 2 days, and there really aren’t that many bugs to speak of.  Far fewer than I’ve seen in most products at release these days, in fact.  In any case, this review will be pretty scattershot — a lot of 90 degree turns.  So strap yourself in.

Character Creation

First things first: the character creator.  It’s even better than the one in City of Heroes, which itself was lightyears ahead of everything else I’ve seen.  However, I say “better” with a few caveats.  The Champions Online character creator is lacking some costume basics — for example, there is only one option for an emblem on your back, no option for a trench coat, and other small things of that nature.  It’s also tough to find some of the options; they seem grouped somewhat unintuitively to me (for example, the “Shirts w/Integrated Shoulders” section has no items that have integrated shoulderpieces).  But from my experience with City of Heroes, I know that this will be fixed in time.  I think one of the things they were trying to do was avoid copying City of Heroes costume pieces.  In fact, I’d bet they went to great lengths to do so, for legal reasons.  And with the huge library of things available in City of Heroes, it will be difficult to come up with new pieces that are notably different in Champions Online.

Depth of Play

The game definitely has more depth than CoH.  Around level 5, you start working with the crafting system, in fact.  This is a little too soon for my tastes — I like to just run around and get the basics down for the first hour or two of play, myself.  Were I not already familiar with the CoH crafting system, I would probably be confused by this.  Actually, I am familiar with the CoH crafting system, and I am still a little confused by this.  The main way to build things seems to be by deconstructing items that you get (akin to disenchanting in World of Warcraft), and then using those base components to build something.  You also gain skill much faster by deconstructing things than by building things.

Speaking of level 5, you get a fast-travel power at level 5.  I have not the words for how awesome this is.

Annoyances

This brings me to my first annoyance.  Latency.  This is a huge one.  I’m not talking about real “lag,” but rather when you press W to go forward, it takes about 0.5 seconds to start going.  Same when you let off to stop.  Which isn’t even noticeable when you’re running around normally, but once you get that travel power, it can make you overshoot your target by about 30 feet.

Another annoyance is the aggro range of mobs, which is ginormous.  Actually, I like this in theory, because it seems more realistic.  Seems pretty silly that if you’re thumping some dude’s friend 30 feet away, he’s not going to come over.  However, the problem is that in most of the zones (that I’ve been in so far, anyway), there are mobs strewn about every 30-40 feet.  When you fight one small group, at least one adjacent group generally joins the fray.  This gets really annoying when you’re trying to fight a mini-boss, and/or when you’re about to die and attempting to run to a safe place.  It’s also bad because you can’t pull the camera out very far.  I like for my camera to be out to where I can see around 3-4x the aggro range around me, at least.  Can’t do that here.

Combat and Missions

This is also made more of an issue by the game’s AI, which I must say is fairly good.  If you’re using a bunch of close-range attacks, and your opponent has a ranged attack, then they will generally try to distance themselves.  Villains and sometimes even normal mobs will go out to get reinforcements.  This makes the game feel a lot more realistic than other MMOs I’ve played, and also adds a bit of challenge

The combat system is pretty straightforward, aside from one thing: blocking.  You can press the Shift key to block attacks.  This is very important in a lot of villain fights — there will be a visual indicator (starburst usually) over the villain indicating that some big attack is coming.  If you don’t block, you get walloped for a big chunk.  If you do block, then it’s not so bad.  It makes combat feel more active.  They still need to work on the targeting though; often you find yourself in the middle of a pretty big group, and tabbing through to get to that villain isn’t always feasible.

I really like the mission system overall.  It shows you on the map and minimap exactly where your objectives are, circled in the case of objectives that are in a general area.  When you mouse over it, the mission name comes up you can click on it to open a description of the mission details.  Very nice for keeping track of what you’re doing.  There are also impromptu group missions, that you don’t actually have to group up for.  For example, aliens are invading and when you come near the city defense system, you can jump in and start helping to defend it.  There are several phases to this, with different objectives (defend the cannon, get parts for it, etc.).  When you’re through, it opens up another quest for you, and it also shows you a ranking of who helped the most.  Then the mission resets.

I think this open mission system is really great, because a lot of MMO players frankly aren’t very social.  It can be tedious and annoying to get a group together.  But if you can just jump in and coordinate your efforts, then you skip all of the awkward and sometimes tedious rigmarole of forming  a group.  Plus, it’s very superhero-like to see a situation, then just jump in.

Overall Impression

Overall, the game feels much more superhero-like than City of Heroes.  You can take out the mooks and minions like chaff (unless you do something dumb and really overload yourself), which is thematic.  The game has extremely customizable character aesthetics, even more so than its progenitor.  It’s a lot deeper than City of Heroes, which I hope translates to a more sustainable end-game.

This is a post for MMO gamers (and possibly comic fans). The rest of you should probably feel free to skip it, lest your eyes glaze over.

At GenCon this year, I spent a fair amount of time at the Champions Online booth. This is a superhero MMO made by Cryptic. Yes, the same Cryptic that produced City of Heroes. This is, essentially, City of Heroes+++. It was both sad, but informative, that almost every question and comment I overheard was comparing CO to CoH.

There are cosmetic improvements. The game looks a lot more comic-book-like, with the thicker black outlines and cell shading. You can customize how your powers look. Do you want that power beam to come from a jewel in your forehead instead of your fists, or maybe from your chest? You can make it so.  There are even more character appearance customization options than in CoH (an almost overwhelming amount, in fact).  There are some cool gameplay improvements — you can mix and match powersets as you please, so there are no set archetypes, for example. You get 14 total powers at max level (if I recall), and you can mix and match them from different power sets as you please.

But what I really want to talk about are the more groundbreaking aspects of this game.


Perhaps the biggest is player-created arch-villains. At level 20, you start getting clues that someone is watching you. For example, you might find some pictures of yourself during the last mission. These develop into a storyline, and then at level 25, you actually design your own arch-villain. You choose their power set (though not specific powers), design their look, determine what sort of a villain they are (mastermind, mad genius, thuggish brute, etc.), and you even design the look of their minions. You proceed along a storyline that culminates in an epic battle, and your arch-nemesis being jailed.

And then, you get to make another one. Think Batman here, putting people away in Arkham Asylum. And just like that, sometimes your villains will escape and come after you. Sometimes several of them will escape. And if you group up with people, sometimes your arch-villains will also team up against you.

I haven’t seen this in action yet, but if the implementation is as cool as the idea, this could really go light-years forward in making an MMO feel more personalized. I’m very much looking forward to it.

On a technological level, everyone is on one server (just with different instances of zones). That’s right, no more, “Oh you play too? Awesome, what server are you on? … Oh, well I guess I could maybe make a toon on that server.” All MMOs should do this, and I think in the future, I think most will.

But this brings up another issue: it is (or, can be) sometimes difficult to find an unused name in an MMO when everyone is split between servers, much less with everyone on the same server. Well, you can use whatever name you want, even if someone else has used it. You’re uniquely identified by your account name + character name. So there can be fifteen Shadowbats, or Tits McGees. I’m not quite sure how I feel about this, but I think I will like it.

There are Open Missions, which I think have promise.  As you’re flying by somewhere, there is a bank robbery in process.  You, and other heroes, can intervene.  No creating a group necessary, you just jump in and do it, and get a mission reward at the end of it corresponding to how much you helped.  This I will have to see in action, but I love the idea.  Helps a lot in making the game more… well, open.

On the marketing side, they’re offering a lifetime subscription option for $200, but I believe this is only good until the release date of September 1st. It’s ingenious from a marketing perspective (City of Heroes was also very good when it came to marketing ploys). From a consumer perspective, I feel like I’m taking a $200 gamble though. Sure, in about 14 months it’s paid for itself. But what if, once the game goes live, I don’t like it after 6 months of play? I suppose I could always sell my lifetime membership to someone else, but I’m relatively sure that would be against the terms of use.  I will note that I’ve gone ahead and ordered a lifetime subscription, and am feeling a little unsure of it even though I think this game has a lot of promise.

Overall I’m pretty excited.  There are other cool features to this game that I haven’t even touched on, and it seems like CO is doing a better job of appealing to both casual players (like me) and hardcore gamers, though still with more of a focus on the casual player.  My preorder copy is on its way, and once I get that I’ll be able to delve deeper into this game.