"A Lot of GMs Get a Bad Rap as Being Frustrated Novelists"

When I was young, I read a lot of fiction. I read all kinds of stuff from hardcore sci-fi from the 50s to the Dragonlance sagas to Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, the Dragonriders of Pern and everything between. This continued into my early undergrad days and then I just didn't read anything but textbooks and technical docs for a long, long time and no, comics don't count. Neither do graphic novels, though I have a fondness for Empowered. Actually, scratch that, I did read one book, an Earthdawn one...er...Talisman which doesn't get its own link, an anthology of short stories which I recall being OK but not great--such was my love of Earthdawn. Sadly, the other Earthdawn books I bought in my ebay buying craze phaze in the early 00's sit next to it unread--er, anyway...

One of the things that keeps coming up in my renewed studies of GMing, is to consume lots of media. Pretty much everyone's said this now. Adult life has taken its toll on me for sure and these days I don't consume a lot of media aside from games and even that has dwindled in the last couple years. This is evidenced by my award-winningYear In Review(TM) posts. Matt Colville recommended Pawn of Prophecy, and at one of my seemingly semi-weekly Amazon orders, I figured what the heck. I hadn't read anything from Eddings but I'd always heard good things. I took the first book home over the Holidays at the beginning of thislast year not realizing it was a ten twelve(!) book series and was immediately hooked.

There are for sure things I don't like about them, now that I've read the first set, but there's an undeniable humanity and complexity to all of the major characters which makes them relate-able. I was pretty much able to guess at all of the major bits of the plot but finding out how those things came to pass kept me flipping pages until late in the night on too many nights. I finished the Belgariad this evening and looking back, I have to wonder how much more interesting the last twenty years might have been if I'd read more. Old age is funny like that.

The quote in the title is from one Adam Koebel of Dungeon World fame. He said this in his award-winning series "Office Hours" which I watch on the youtubes.  (The goods are here at 3:24 if you want to play along at home.)  I got a good chuckle out of that. Hankerin' and Colville (link above) are both actual novelists and folks whose GM tips I've found invaluable. (The goods are here and here and no, I've read neither yet, and I don't get Amazon referral bonuses, either.)

For years I've wondered if I should be writing. I invariably hear about nanowrimo and think, "yeah, I could do that." The same thing happens with game jams, naturally. Part of the reason I started this ridiculous waste of almost no bandwidth is to get better at it. I wrote a comic last century. I build things in Lego out of that universe. I run a game in a fantasy world I've been creating since the mid 80s. Both of these have been touched by dozens and influenced by a lot of crap that I probably can't even remember. Sadly, the only folks who ever really get to see any of it are my players. Is that how it's supposed to be? Did Koebel hit it on the head, or what?

Right at the moment I am too sober and feel the need to lift a toast to Aunt Pol, Belgarath, and Garion. I rather miss them already.

2016 In Review

It's that time of the year again where I regale you of last year's tales of gaming gluttony.  Or gaming and gluttony. Judge if you must.

It seems that 2016 didn't go the way anyone expected. I've mostly settled into my home in the Pacific Northwest, inasmuch as I ever settle in anywhere. It needs a lot of work but I knew that when I bought it. Hopefully property values will continue to rise until I need to sell which might be soon; who knows? Hopefully I'll also have a new job early nextthis year, so there's that.

I did a bunch of BBQ thislast year but that shouldn't surprise anyone.  There was a fun span of like 7 consecutive weekends when I fired up the smoker--it was epic.

The only other news, and it's not really news, is that I've been doing RPG stuff again. Then again, if you've been here before, you probably already know that. Someday I'll spout more stuff about that here, but until then you'll just have to wonder. Unless you're one of my players, in which case, you know most of the gory details already.

This year's gaming started fast and furious but ended with a whimper. I don't think I got through even a third of what I expected to which is sad making. Maybe 2017 will be better. On with the recap!

Dragon's Dogma:  Dark Arisen (2012:2013/2016): *****
If you read my not-so-award-winning post (here) and (here) then you already know how I feel about this game. Angry Joe put the seed in my head that I should check this one out in his review of Dragon Age: Inquisition so when the PC version was released on Steam in January I picked it up. On sale. With all of the DLCs included. Shock and awe is all I have. There's an incredible attention to detail and game mechanics that a) are internally consistent, b) never get old, and c) still pose challenges to veteran players. I struggle to remember a single player game that captivated me as much as this and if they ever release the MMO version in the US, I am so very, very doomed.

Endless Legend (2014): ****
In my award winning post 2012 In Review, I had a short blurb about Endless Space which I liked a lot. I didn't write a lot about it because times were tight, man, and we couldn't afford more words. Endless Legend takes place in the same universe but with a decidedly fantasy bent. The ideas are mostly the same as Endless Space and most of the strategy elements are fairly similar. One big difference is that the myriad factions all play very differently which is interesting if not easily balanced. Quest victories have also been added and leaders can be represented on the field of battle which is an appropriate addition. Strategic and Luxury resources can be burned for large empire-wide bonuses, perhaps too large.

I'm struck by how much like Master of Orion the FIDSI and population system in this game is, though it plays out fairly differently. I didn't like that many of the not-early-game resource were luck of the draw which usually meant I couldn't build the stuff I wanted when I wanted to. I also wish that fewer of the tech options were tied to buildings. As a direct result of this, industry ends up being way more important than anything else in an empire which seems under-scrutinized. I'm also not a fan of the exponentially increasing cost of all techs based on the number of techs researched. I like being able to blind my enemies with science and in this game I can't really do that.

Spell Force: Shadow of the Phoenix (2005): *
This is the last expansion for the original SpellForce.  Your avatar starts at a pretty high level and still reeling from the difficulty of BoW, I farmed the ever loving crap out of the early game. Unfortunately this turned out to be unnecessary since I hit cap around 2/3 through. The story was...not good but it tried its best. It seemed as if each map had its own almost self-contained plot which basically meant they dragged on far past the point of good taste with a very tenuous hold on the one before and the one after. I threw in the towel about four levels from the end stuck on an over-complicated puzzle that I just don't have the willpower to plow through.  It's just too tedious. I gave it three serious tries over two years--I don't think I'll be back. I'm hoping that Spell Force 2 expansions will fare better nextthis year.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (2012):  ****
I miss a lot of games when they come out and this one was cautiously recommended by a few folks. So when it came up for sale on Steam, I picked it up...in 2014. I didn't really have high expectations but it's a decent enough game and I had fun with it. Maybe it's because this year also contained Dragon's Dogma which has raised my bar for RPGs, but its action-y combat left me a little wanting. The writing was pretty good but there was so freaking much of it. The level design fits the same bill--it's like an MMO without one of the Ms and the O. It ends up being is a bit sloggy through some very pretty terrain fighting the same mobs over and over again and walking back and forth and back and forth and back and forth through the same terrain. I found myself skipping dialog and quests, something I almost never do, just so I could get back to smashing things with a hammer. Steam says 64 hours spent but it seemed like a lot longer. It had a satisfying if not spectacular ending but that's OK.

Civilization VI (2016): ***
I had pretty mixed feelings about Civ 5 and overall felt it was too complicated and ran too slowly. My opinion of it dropped when I found The One True Strategy(TM). Civ 6 looks like a lot of the same--only far, far too complicated and I know Civ! It is for sure a slick looking game but I find the UI a little cumbersome and there really does seem to be too much information kicking around. I dunno; maybe I'm not the target audience anymore but there are just so many things to keep track of and there always seems to be something on fire. Starting on the easiest setting didn't help either. I was on my way to losing my first four games. When I finally won one, it was by accident (religious victory) and only because I got tired of seeing their stupid missionaries flooding my space. The second type of win I got was pretty much the same "oh wow, the game ends here and I'm not sure why" (cultural victory) which is weird. Now that I kind of understand the game I kind of see where they were going but not well enough to know if I actually like it or not. More research required, I think.

Parting Thoughts
This year's list is short but sweet, I think. Sort of a sign of the times in what was a pretty freaking difficult year with far too many business trips. I also note that there seems to be a glut of 4x games these days, not that I'm complaining. One does wonder how there were like none five years ago and now we're inundated with them.

I'm hoping to get through more stuff in 2017 so I can keep my 'net cred. Check back next year to see how well I did!