Acid Burned

We're Back

2008-11-19T22:14:00.002-06:00

This post is to let anyone subscribed to this blog know that RPGX.org is back online and ready for another round. It will be a while before I have time to write articles, but the site is returning one page at a time.

Table Chatter: The GM Nightmare

2008-03-04T21:29:00.002-06:00

We have all been there before. Pure tension fills the room as the group moves forward. Thomas searches diligently for traps around the base of the statue. Seeing nothing he tells the Barbarian to carefully remove the heavy idol from it’s base. As the barbarian pulls it away, suddenly the door starts to close behind them. With very little time to react to the trap Furnok point’s toward the entrance and exclaims “Dude, you have to check out this video on my phone. This guy hurls all over the place.” Suddenly conversation breaks out that has nothing to do with anything in game. You the GM are lost in your own universe wondering if you should spoil the fun that your players are having (out of game) or be the jerk that brings everybody back together to the problem at hand.

You have become the victim of table chatter. It takes many several forms; from in jokes to misplaced questions about toppings on the pizza being ordered. It can strike at any time and even disguise itself as relevant conversation at times. But, whatever form that it takes, it is the enemy of any role-playing game and sure to frustrate any GM that set time out of their schedule to run a game. But what are the causes of needless table chatter, how can it be avoided, and when should it be allowed?

The root cause of most table chatter may not be what you think. Most GM’s (at least myself) place much of the blame on boring games and themselves. Now, while this may be partly to blame for some incidences of chatter, it is more often caused by the excitement of your group playing. Which is great. Your group should be excited about playing. It’s a great sign that you are doing your job right. But no matter what the cause, in-jokes, table chatter, and disconnected (out-of-character) conversations during the game can really ruin a serious game. So what can you and your players do to keep the chatter to a minimum and the experience of good roll playing to a maximum?

First off, a little disclaimer. This article is for people who WANT to reduce the amount of chatter at the table. This is not a guide to how all games are supposed to be played. Different groups like different levels of seriousness and immersion with their games. If your group enjoys a good hack n’ slash with beer, pretzels, and Monty Python jokes flying around, by all means run your game that way. There is no wrong in playing your games that way. In fact when I play straight war gaming, that is the only way I will have it. However if you are like me, your role playing sessions are (excuse the pun) an entirely different world all together.

One thing I like to do before a game is a recap of the last game. This is for several reasons,a few known a few secret. For one I make my players do it. Each one will take part in telling me the events in as good of detail as they can remember. This is done casual and out of character. For one it gives them a period of time to begin the process of “getting into character.” It also gives each of them a chance to talk to each other about the events of the game and how they perceived what was happening. It can give me an opportunity to jump in and clarify something that was misunderstood or do some minor GM fixes on something I might have screwed up in the heat of the moment. It helps me as the GM to get even more fresh on current events (hey even we forget things from game to game.) And, above all, it gives the players a chance to get all of their in-joking out of their system. While the recap is limited on time, it is relaxed. There is no pressure to be in character so the players have a chance to tell game related jokes, make fun of each other and get their laughs out of the way. Out of all the chatter problems I ever have “in-jokes” are the least because of this step. Since the players know that they will have a chance to joke about the situations later, nobody feels like they have to break up the game so their one-liners can be heard.

Another trick I employ into my “serious gaming mood” arsenal are game-breaks. This is something everyone talks about but rarely follow through with. I too am guilty of pushing past a break time because the story was intense, but I pay for it in the end every time. By taking a break once an hour to an hour and a half, you give your players a chance to relax. The reason distracting chatter can break out is tension. If your players are really into your game, they are tense. Remember, these are untrained people trying to act out an improvised scene. There are people who get paid for that, they are called actors. It’s a hard job an you’re trying to do it for fun. Give them a little break once in a while to keep the energy up. I promise that with a little practice, a good GM will be able to thrust his players back in exactly where they were. And, with the new energy the group has gained from their break. It will be like nothing ever happened. Aside from that, breaks give players an opportunity to ask questions that they might have on their mind, smoke, go to the bathroom, eat something, and tell a joke or two. It also gives the GM an opportunity to snoop a little and find out what the players think of the game so far. With that kind of input, you should be able to make adjustments according to what the players want to do and keep the energy of the game high.

Finally, if possible, try and keep everyone involved in the scene. When you let your groups characters split up too much you tend to end up with allot of side conversations as you try to deal with one “mini-group” at a time. With everyone involved from scene to scene you will have more of the player’s attention. Since they will be focused on you and what your telling them, there will be less motive to start chatter. If you do have to split your group up (say for shopping excursions) try to keep your splits in groups of at least 2. That way you can send the players (not in the current scene) out of the room together. They won’t get bored because they will be able to go chit chat somewhere else while you deal with the others which will keep them from feeling excluded. Which is a cause for arguments later (especially if your wife plays in your gaming group.)
Basically the moral here is “Idle Hands.”

Well I hope this helps. I know many of you out there have had problems keeping your games from going off the rails, I know I do. But, a cool head and some good GM practices should keep you on the right track to a serious, but still fun game. And also remember, have a good time with your players. The idea behind gaming is to have fun, it’s what you want and it’s what your players want. Sometimes it’s okay to put the game away for the night and cut loose. It isn’t what your doing with your friends, it how you do it.

Army of Two

2008-03-03T15:59:00.004-06:00

If any of you have been keeping up with the game list for this month, you would know that EA's new game "Army of Two" hit shelves tonight. This is a new third person combat game the closely mirrors the style of Gears of War. A02 is one I have been anticipating for a little while now.

Originally the game development got off to a slow start as the team had to make quite a few adjustments. One thing that has me excited about the game is that it brings back the long loved split-screen 2 player co-op to the Sony (As Gears did with X-Box.) I have not heard yet if there will be online co-op, but I am sure it will be an option as there is for sure an online vs. mode.
It has been a rough few years for the split screen and I am really beginning to miss it. Out of the 20 games I have played for PS3 so far, none have been two players on the same system. While I am a huge fan of the online multi player features that are now common place on our next gen systems, I miss smacking my friends in the back of the head after fragging them. (I'm sure they don't.) I will write more on this topic later.

For those of you who want to know more about this game's development. Below is a quick Q&A with the games Lead Developer, Matt McDopeblog.

In some recent articles, it seems that some vehicles were taken out of campaign mode. What was the reasoning behind this, and will we still see vehicles in the multiplayer mode?

-We ended up cutting a couple of vehicles (namely the tank and dune-buggy) because they weren't quite up to scratch with the rest of the game in regards to pace and flow. When we sat down and made our polish plan those two sequences ended up low on the priority list and we felt that the game would benefit more from not having them at all as opposed to having half baked idea. BUT we were able to implement a couple of them in the versus mode...oh yeah. That made us happy. Want to know which ones? Buy the game!!!

How does co-op campaign work when playing people over Xbox LIVE or PSN? Do you keep a saved file for each person you play with, or can you hop in at any point no matter how much you've played the game before?

-The guest must have played up to, or further than, the current checkpoint of the host in order to join the game. Once a player has completed the whole game once through, they can jump in anywhere or start new games from anywhere.

When you are playing by yourself with an AI partner, how do you control the AI?

-You are able to give the PAI loose directives. They are: Advance, hold position and cover me and each one of these directives has an aggressive and passive mode. There are two ways to order him. The primary way is to use the D-pad but the secondary (and cooler way, in my opinion) is to tell him using your microphone...yeah that's right.

For people looking for a big challenge, is there a hardcore type mode that is more realistic?

-Yes "Professional". It's pretty rough-neck and not for the faint of heart. You can only unlock this mode by first finishing the game in "Contractor".

If one player is new to the game and they keep dying, is there a limit to how many times they can be revived?

-The healing mechanic is infinite provided your partner stays alive and is able to drag you to a safe position to heal you...which can get tricky if the person who is down likes to play Rambo and run around in the open blindly firing.

Multiplayer Questions:

Are you able to upgrade your weapons in multiplayer? Does the money you make in campaign mode transfer over to multiplayer or vice versa?

You can't upgrade individual parts of individual weapons like in the campaign mode but can buy weapons kits during the matches. The campaign and versus operate of completely separate economies so there is no crossover between the two.

Since the goal of multiplayer is to get the most money, does buying weapons reduce your overall score, or just your personal money ?

-Well, the team with the most total money at the end of a match wins. And the total money is the sum of the team's personal accounts. So if you drop 250k on a sweet kit it will diminish your money and in turn your team's total...so yes. BUT they are much more powerful guns so it can be worth it. It adds a certain balancing act to the matches which is fun. And of course if you drop half your money on the most expensive kit with 1 minute left in the match and you lose because of it, it will affect your overall scores on the leader boards.

In versus if you die do you lose all your weapons?

-No sirry-bob. We're not nuts.

Will there be split screen online in Army of Two? (2 people on one console vs. another team of two over the Internet)

-Yup. You can play split screen (if you are on the same console) against 2 guys playing split screen or 2 people playing with each other online...

Can you customize matches in non-ranked versus mode? If so, what options can you change?

-Yup. You can pick the length, mode and map in any kind of match.

What game modes will we be available for online?

-Bounties - Ao2 Bounties is a fast-paced 2 vs. 2 experience that challenges opposing teams to destroy important objectives and assassinate key enemy targets. A quick strike can turn the tide of war!

-Extraction - Ao2 Extraction is an intense and strategic 2 vs. 2 experience that challenges teammates to work closely with one another to complete challenging escort and defend/attack objectives. In times of strife, it's important to protect high-profile targets!

-Warzone - Ao2 Warzone is a diverse and chaotic 2 vs. 2 experience that has a wide variety of objectives including: attack/defend, extract, guard, assassinate, destroy and more. In the heat of battle, anything can happen!

How do you think fans will respond to Two vs. Two online, whereas some previous games allow up to 24 players online?

-Army of Two is a heavily co-op focussed game which requires two man tactics and two man strategies. It's an entirely different game then previous shooters and therefore a different versus experience. I think that it's different enough to attract the attention of gamers out there and they will like it.

Any plans to release new map packs after launch as Downloadable Content?

-You know it. When? Post launch. What? Wait and see. All I can say is that it's awesome.

Interview: Robert Howard of P&PG

2008-02-27T18:54:00.004-06:00

You asked for it, so we’re giving it to you. Interviews. Starting this month RPGX is going to start bringing you more interviews with game developers, writers, directors, editors and authors. Anyone you ever wanted to talk to in the gaming industry has made our list. We chased down and bugged everyone we could find.

This month I wrote an article called: Is There Anybody Out There? The Internet's Top 10 "Gamer Finder" Sites In which I named http://www.penandpapergames.com/ as the number one registry on the internet. Shortly after making the decision of making them “#1” I decided that I would also interview the man responsible for the site’s success. After talking with Mr. Robert Howard, I found him to be a very real sort of gamer / developer. Below is the interview I had with Mr. Howard in which I discovered just how much we had in common as gamers, site founders, and visionaries for the future of gaming.

What first gave you the idea to provide this type of player registry?
When I was “growing up,” the way to find players and games was to go down to the local comic book or hobby shop and tack something up on the bulletin board. Another tactic was to hover around the roleplaying section in the local bookstore for hours browsing books. It was a very time consuming and often unfruitful process.

The web opens up a vast new arena for connecting with people, or social networking if you will--which just happens to be all the rage at the moment. Unfortunately, what I found was that the tools that were out there were kludgy or ill-suited to the task. Finding someone on the WotC forums involved paging through hundreds of pages of posts. Like any enterprising developer—and a gamer that wanted to use these tools myaself—I thought, this can be done so much better, and I know how to do it.

Has it personally helped you locate other players for you own games?
Ironically, by the time that I got the site up and running, my gaming group was pretty solid and I wasn’t looking for any more players. It wasn’t until a year later after I moved to Seattle that I finally had a chance to give it a spin myself. It took under two weeks for me to put a group together from scratch, and I was impressed by how well matched my players and I were.

Did you ever think it would grow as big as it has?
I hoped it would. I felt that I had the best tools available on the web, but even the slickest interface wouldn’t mean anything to someone if they couldn’t find other players to game with. I actually think it will grow a whole lot larger as the word continues to spread about the community we’ve built.

What future plans do you have for improving on the site?
My to-do list of features that I would like to add is extensive. I have literally pages and pages of ideas. Currently though, our main focus is on enhancing the Player Registry and creating more tools for both individual gaming groups and local gaming communities. To this end, we’re actually going to have a pretty major addition to the site in the near future that is going to add a lot of new social-networking type functionality, including the ability for members to carve out a section of the website for their own private or public gaming groups. I’m very excited about it, and I think it is going to be a big boon for our members.

Do you currently or would you consider networking with other sites on a more direct basis to widen the scope of your site or to offer more services?
I think there are a lot of crosspollination opportunities out there for P&PG and other sites. To give an example, I recently ran across a play-by-post (PBP) website that has some amazing tools for PBP gaming. They also have a “game finder” section specifically for their site. My feeling is, why not widen the exposure their PBP games get by bringing in a feed of the games looking for players into the P&PG database. This would help both sites. We’d be able to help our members find more options for online games, and they would be able to reach a wider audience. By the same token, I think we could offer a lot to the publisher websites who would like to provide their members with a great tool for finding other people who play the same game in their area.

What interests do you have outside of role playing?
Well, I have a wonderful wife and two-year old who occupy a lot of my time and attention, and running the P&PG website takes up a fair chunk itself. I’ve actually always been interested in martial arts. When I moved to Seattle, I decided to take it up again, and I joined a phenomenal dojo studying Chito-Ryu style karate. Top that off with a strong passion for computers and fantasy/sci-fi fiction.

Where does the strongest following of the site seem to come from geographically?
The largest group of players registered in a single area would be Dallas/Fort Worth, followed closely by a few others like California and New York.

Would you say that is because P&P gaming is more popular in that area or for some other reason? Dallas is a unique story. While DFW definitely has a large concentration of roleplayers, it is also where the Pen & Paper Games website got its start. When I was first starting the site, I reached out to the Dallas RPG Group organizer, Ron Pyatt, to try to see if he could help spread the word in the Dallas community. He had been looking for a long time for something better than Meetup.com that would be more tailored to the RPG community. Don’t get me wrong, Meetup.com is good at what it does, but their focus is on a larger community in general. Ron even loved the limited prototype that I had built, so we collaborated on merging his group with the larger PnPG community. So, the very first members to join were all brought in en masse from the DFW RPG group.

Have you noticed a particular age group that is attracted to the registry (or P&P gaming)? Most come in somewhere close to my age, between 26 and 35. What really surprised me was that our oldest member is ninety-eight years old. Can you believe that? Our second oldest is eighty-eight. I hope that when I’m that age I am still spry enough to whip it up with the younger folks for a good ole’ jaunt of PnP! Anyway, I’m a report building kind of guy, so I whipped up a quick chart showing our age bracket breakdown if you’re interested.

Allot of people enjoy play by post gaming, does you site currently support an area for this type of playing? Absolutely! We have a number of currently running play-by-post games going on right now, and in fact, we recently added a new integrated forum dice roller to help facilitate online play.

How easy is it to gain access to these types of games and how would you say they differ from P&P style gaming? The play-by-post section is open to all visitors to checkout. Most of the current running games are probably full, but any member is free to request to start their own game on the forums. All they need to do is send an email to gm@penandpapergames.com or send an IM from their account to Farcaster to get it set up.

As to their differences, play-by-post (PBP) games generally focus on social interactions over strategic play, simply because resolving combat can take a lot of time when strung over a long series of posts. Probably one of the most attractive elements of PBP games to me is that the medium encourages more descriptive language from the players and game master instead of simply rolling the dice and announcing the result. In the interest of full disclosure though, I have never personally played or run a PBP game. I prefer the face to face nature of table-top gaming.

Do you currently attend conventions in (or out) of your area?
Since my move about a year ago, I have not yet attended any major conventions. I have gone to one of the mini-conventions that the Seattle D&D Group sponsors, which was a lot of fun. Pen & Paper Games has been pleased to help sponsor several RPG conventions recently though, including NOLACon in New Orleans and TempleCon in Providence, Rhode Island. Sadly, I couldn’t attend personally, however.

Would P&PG be interested in making an appearance at some con's to help boost it's visibility. (Possibly with RPGX as a joint effort?) I’d love to. Just ping me with the details. I’ve actually been looking for an excuse to come back down to Dallas – Seattleites have no concept of good Tex-Mex and I’m dying for some fajitas!

As an aside, Pen & Paper Games is also happy to help promote conventions, big or small, by getting the word out to our members when there are conventions coming up in their area. Organizers interested in a co-sponsorship opportunity should email us at gm@penandpapergames.com.

Best estimate: How many people would you expect to be on the registry by the end of 2008. These things are really difficult to estimate. Currently we have over three thousand player profiles, and if things were to continue at their current place, we’d probably have somewhere around five thousand by the end of the year. However, often these things tend to snowball as the word starts to get out. And honestly, I think this is going to be a break-out year for Pen & Paper Games. Even in the first few months of 2008, our community forums have been exploding with activity way beyond my expectations.

Do you work in the games industry full time or do you have a day job like the rest of us geeks? In real live, I’m a mild mannered reporter. Well, not exactly mild mannered. And, I’m technically a “report developer.” Not to get too technical, but I am a database developer for a major telecommunications company.

How long have you been playing pen/paper (and other) type games?
I got my first introduction to roleplaying games at about ten years old. Ever heard of Bard’s Tale? I used to play that game for hours—or even days at a time—on my Commodore 64. It opened me up to a whole new world of gaming. I enjoyed it so much; it was actually my step-father who suggested I should check out Dungeons and Dragons. So, around twelve, I picked up the old “Red Box Set,” and began my lifelong addiction. I’ve been playing now for somewhere around twenty years.

What is your favorite game / genre?
I’m very partial to fantasy, and Dungeons and Dragons in particular. It’s where I got my start, and where I am most comfortable weaving interesting stories for my players. I occasionally enjoy a jaunt into other genres, but I always end up returning to my favorite standby.

What advice do you have for RPGX or any other person out there trying to be successful at creating something useful and unique to the gaming industry or Internet? I have to admit that it feels a bit strange to be asked that question. I don’t count myself amongst the greats. Nor do I see myself as particularly savvy when it comes to things like marketing or strategizing. What I did have is an idea on how it could be done better. I think that in the vast expanse of the internet, innovation is the key. If you do the same thing every one else is doing, its difficult to stand out in the crowd. This is particularly true if you’re an upstart like P&PG without the benefit of thousands of advertising dollars.

Second, the old adage, “If you build it, they will come,” is bunk when it comes to the web. You can’t just put up a site and wait for your audience to find you. P&PG has spent a grand total of perhaps a couple hundred dollars or so on advertising over the past year and a half, but we have spent a lot of time networking with other sites and gaming communities to help get the word out there. This has been critical in helping build the community.

I had a great time working with Mr. Howard an have started discussing the possibility of adding him on to the RPGX crew as a casual writer. Keep an eye on the site for more works by this person here at RPGX.

Xbox Failure Rate Causes Sony and Nintendo's Rise to the Top

2008-02-20T15:38:00.003-06:00

Xbox 360 failure rates worse than most consumer electronics
A new report by warranty-sellers SquareTrade puts the defect rate of the Xbox 360 at 16.4 percent. That's a bit above average for consumer electronics after three or four years (the 360 has been out a little more than two), but much higher than the Nintendo Wii or Sony PlayStation 3.

So with this kind of failure rate why do I still hear only horror stories about the PS3 freezing and catching fire problems? Sony and Nintendo's rates hover in the 3% area while Microsoft plunges head first into 16%.

The damned company can't even work out the bugs in their own hardware and 3rd party support still goes almost exclusively to them? I think that part of the problem is consumers are no longer checking the hard facts before purchasing a product.

For a while now the only argument has been the price point on each of the systems, but the line is starting to blur as Sony changes up their system and Wii adds more online features. But with stats like this I can't understand why a consumer wouldn't want to pay more for a better product anyway. Apparently we are getting what we pay for!

Clan Gaming

2008-02-20T10:40:00.003-06:00

So you wanna' join an on line clan, eh? Okay, so let's start with the basics. Maybe you already get the basics, but I'll start by explaining what an on line clan is, it's purpose and typical pitfalls that can cause a clan to fail or general make you the target of someones hate. I think what brought this article on would be the mention of the two RPGX clan sites that are under development (to be finished late march, early April) and all the questions that I have received since.

For starters, what are these “clans” and “guilds” that you speak of? Well kiddies, let me ask you... where have you been for the passed 10 years? Just kidding. Well a clan is a group of on line gamers that get together on line to play either a specific game or a specific group of games. When specific players group together to play in groups, they will often form what we call a clan. The earliest experience I can remember having with any kind of on line clan was in the days of the first Diablo game by Blizzard Entertainment. Night after late night I would sit up on battle.net thinking that I was the top dog. I would power level my wizard winning duel after duel thinking my light forge armor and Archangel's Staff of Apocalypse were indestructible. That was until I met a certain member of the Dark Force Clan. Within minutes I had been destroyed by the single most bad-ass rouge I had ever met. From then on, I refused to play Diablo unless I was part of a clan.

The reason he was able to beat me was due to the fact that his particular clan was comprised of game developers who happened to be able write applets that allowed them hack their characters. While this isn't always a perk of clan gaming it is a common one. Clans will develop special tools that will give all their members roughly the same advantages over other normal players. This is viewed as cheating by many non-clan gamers and for the most part it is. But in more recent years gamers have split their game play into clan bases and non-clan based servers. That means you know what your getting into before you play so there are no unfair advantages. But, that's getting ahead of ourselves.

There are two main views of what exactly an on line clan is. One positive view about on line clans is that they are on line communities in which a player will always be able to find others to game with. In this respect a clan may have their own server with games playing 24 hours a day, possibly open to outsiders to come challenge a clan player or sign up. A clan site will typically have forums for people to post tips, cheats, questions and tutorials in and possibly plan on line or IRL events such as tournaments or conventions.

However, there is always a negative outlook for every positive activity (usually based in fact.) Gaming clans are little more than on-line gangs out to push other gamers around with strength of numbers. I think this outlook goes back to the example I gave before. The Dark Force clan was famous for about a month when bulletins went up across battle.net to look out for any members of the clan. They would PK even in non PK games simply to steal a characters equipment and gold simply because the could.
Ironically, other people, in response to this kind of on line terrorism were forming clans of their own dedicated to protecting people from becoming victims. The idea was strength in numbers.

As more and more games became on line compatible multi player adventures clans became a more common approach to how they would be played. Eventually games like Tribes and Guild Wars would be released. Games designed specifically for clan play that would allow bonuses to anyone who clicked an option showing that they were affiliated with same clans would receive in game bonuses like shared experience or extra damage.

Okay, so what is a clan? Personal view points aside, a game clan is an organized group of individuals who get together either in person or on line to play a single game or a group of games together and are usually represented by some sort of web site or on line forum.
So what are the advantages and disadvantages of clan based gaming? Well the most obvious answer is game availability and familiarity. Most clans today own their own “clan server.” This means that 24 hours a day, 7 days a week there will be dedicated space on the web where members of that clan will be able play their game with other members and new recruits. Now while it may not be hard to find random people to play with, open servers are often unregulated, lag, or have so many people of different skill levels in them that playing the game is more frustrating than fun. On a closed clan server you will be matched against the same players time and time again, ping rates are usually monitored, and traffic is controlled. On a well maintained server (that you may be paying a due to use) game play is smoother and less frustrating. On the other hand, a clan member may find it difficult to find a game going at particular times of the day or night depending on the size of their clan and how spread out over the world it might be. A small clan might not have any games going at 2:00am.

However, being a small clan is not always a disadvantage. Smaller clans tend to be more tight knit, coordinated, always recruiting, and able to function together in game as a more cohesive unit. Traits clans start to lose after they get too big.

Big clans have advantages over the smaller ones as well. Cooperate sponsorship from game companies, booths at conventions, and product demos are all perks that a large clan might receive.

So, you want to join a clan. How do you get into one you ask? Well there are several different ways. Back in the day you had to be recruited, but that is almost completely a thing of the past. Very few clans are invitation exclusive anymore. Most clans want to grow as many members as possible to help pay for their servers. A simple Google of gaming clans followed by the game of your choice should pull up a big list of possible candidates. After that it's a simple matter of checking out the clans home page, seeing what looks like something you would like to try and following the sign up instructions. It's usually as simple as registering on a clan forum, but a few might screen. Beware of anyone who asks for money up front, many scams have been pulled this way and all transactions should be made through pay pal for safety.

Sometime towards the end of March and the beginning of April, keep an eye out for 2 clans that will be created and sponsored by RPGX. The clans that we are creating will be like no others. Unlike other clan sites, we will be hosting two separate factions under one server. (While we are of course all friends regardless of clan alignment) the two factions will be locked in war. The idea is based of the structure of a PvP server, but will apply to a slew of different games. This will make the clan appealing to all kinds of PC gamers. Events will be organized for the two rival clans to battle it out for prizes and dominance over the clans themselves. The sites should be interesting and players will be encouraged to try both out to decide which flavor is right for their style of play. Each clan will have it's own theme: One being “Good” the other “Evil.” Drawing a line in the themes in this way will allow our members to decide if they want to play a good guy or bad guy in the war of the games.

Of course more on that at a later date... for now, enjoy your games and above all find new ways to enjoy the things that you love doing.

Is There Anybody Out There? The Internet's Top 10 "Gamer Finder" Sites

2008-02-19T21:56:00.005-06:00

If your anything like me your gaming hobby consists of allot more than on line internet gaming.” You probably play some table top games, maybe some CCG’s and a fair amount of pen and paper games as well. That’s good. That makes you a well rounded gamer, or someone who is trying entirely too hard. (Just like me.) Well whatever your motivations are for playing all those games, we all share something in common. At some point we will need to reach out to a new gamer. Maybe you just broke off a friendship, relationship, moved away from the old neighborhood, or just want someone new to join the group. Finding other gamers in a new area can be a little daunting.

Back in the good old days a gamer or GM’s only option was to either hang around college campuses (which might be illegal depending how old you are) or stalking the shadows of your local hobby and game shop. While the latter seems like a fairly obvious choice it does have some problems. For starters, they are at a game shop. It’s pretty likely they are there to buy materials for the game group they are already in. Usually if a group isn’t shopping for a new player you might just be wasting your time. Many game groups (like mine) are tight knit. Outsiders have to be screened by every member and twice by the GM. Second, most gamers like myself tend to be shy. Now granted the trend may have changed a bit since I started playing, but in general gamers have never been the typical cool-guys. As such we tend to be a little withdrawn and not very enthusiastic about starting conversations up with complete strangers. Of course there are exceptions to these rules of thumb, so don’t go flaming me. Do what works for you.

Now while previously these were our only options, a great dandy invention has changed the face of gaming forever. Yes pants… No, idiot. I’m talking about the internet. The internet has made the world a smaller place and more accessible than ever. The internet is an easy way to buy pizza, catch a virus, order a bride, and yes… find other geeks to play our games with.

Where might on go to find such a person you might ask? Well typically we used to hang out in gamer forums, chat rooms, and even in the war rooms of our favorite online games (I found many a play tester on the Diablo chat board.) I even used to spend a great deal of time locating gamers in the old “Wheel of Time” chat room. However, in those days finding a gamer with same interest (and region as myself) were pretty hit and miss. These day, the only way to find a gamer of the same cloth as yourself… On Line Gamer Finders. I know sounds corny. But more and more people have started to create them.

An online gamer finder is a database of registered gamers usually sorted by region and interest. Finding a gamer (in most cases) is as easy as putting in your zip code, entering a genre and you will be given a list of other gamers in your travel radius. It’s that easy. Of course different sites do it better than others, so to make your life even easier I have compiled a list of the top 10 sites for you to find other gamers. Of course you will bring them back to RPGX to actually get some games together… won’t you?

1) Pen and Paper Games (http://www.penandpapergames.com)
This is my number one choice for finding gamers of all kinds. This site is run by Robert A. Howard and has been around for a little over 1 year. In that time frame it has grown to be the second largest data base for gamers not only around the United States, but in a few other countries as well. Anyone who signs up on this site (via a forum) will answer a series of game prefrence questions, location details (Which aren’t actually revealed to anyone searching you other than zip code) as well as some standard profile questions. Once finished a player can either manually search the player database for players within a certain proximity or be notified by e-mail when other players register within a certain travel distance. The site also serves as a gaming board and standard forum which enjoys a large amount of use. If you donate towards helping the site, the user is rewarded with special board features and access to the Pen and Paper Games war chest which features many invaluable tools, scenarios and other goodies to be used in various different games. If this is the SECOND largest database on the net, why did it get first you might ask? 2 reasons: First of all ease of communication. This site beat out the #2 pick because of it‘s forums. They are easily accessed, used, and maintained by the owner frequently. Second, find times. While my number 2 pick actually has a bigger data base the load times between the two are staggering. This could possibly be due to the list population sizes, but I doubt it. Something about the web design just feels tighter and less lazy. Pen and Paper Games is the stress-less solution to finding gamers near and far away from you. (Be sure to check out my other article this month where I get a one on one interview with the creator (and GM) of this fantastic site.

2)Access Denied (http://www.access denied.net)
Another great gamer finder site that almost took the number one spot right out from under Pen and Paper games. While it falls #2 on the list, don’t let that fool you into thinking that it lacks in features. Access Denied actually boasts a larger data base and a much longer run on the internet. But keep in mind that this registry spans more than one country. It may boast more total gamers registered, but are they in your area? Well, surprisingly YES. We ran searches for all 50 states and never turned up less than 25 gamers in our zip codes. Which suggests that there are actually more registered gamers on the data base than what the homepage is boasting. How easy was the site to use? Click search, enter in some info and click submit. Yep that easy… so how did the other site beat them out? The answer is speed and features. We tried to set up a new profile which proved to be a little more lengthy of a process (about 1000 more questions to answer) and searching the data base was a little more of a chore. Also, visiting the site really gives you a feeling of a more worn-in environment. A few less features and a lacking newsletter put this site behind P&PG by just a hair. Also not to mention that the site is actually affiliated with another bigger site that does the same thing. But don’t let that fool you, this monster is not to be reckoned with.

3)Nearby Gamers (http://www.nearby gamers.com)
This is a relatively new site on the net. Going back a little ways in the sites history reveals that it originally started off as another project by the site owner. The data base hasn’t had a great deal of time to grow but has a significant amount of features that I feel will propel this site ahead of the pack in the near future. I placed this site in the number three spot for it’s unlimited potential. The site’s core functions off of a type of Google map tool. On this map players may register a pin mark on the map where they can fill in some bits about themselves, a tag about what games they play, and even a profile picture. The site also sports some mini forums, that while not especially organized make a great IM board for gamers to post a bit about the games they are running. Searching gamers proves to be a little difficult at first, but after learning how the board works becomes easier. The whole site functions on tags. These are like key words that the engine searches for. Based on these tags the search function will return compatible gamers. As I said the site is still under development, but my ultimate reason for awarding this as the number three spot are because of the improvements I have already been told about by the web developer to come this year. In the near future NBG will have a function that allows a webmaster to integrate the game finder into their own page on their own site. Bloggers, webmasters, and homepage jockeys all around will be able to connect themselves and their personal pages directly to the tool and allow people to search for other gamers via their page. A great way to bring traffic to any gaming community as well as the NBG site itself.

4) RPG Registry (http://www.rpgregistry.com)
Let’s talk about commercialization a bit. The higher you can get your ranking on a search engine the more visible you are. The more visible you are the more users you have. The more users you have the more your site can grow and become useful. When you Google the words “RPG finder” or “Gamer Finder” this is the site you will get. Highly commercialized and widely used, the guys that own this site own allot of space on the net. While this site sports more features than all the sites on this list combined including, downloads, registries, rpg stores, character sheets, free campaigns, and much more I have knocked this down to my fourth favorite game place on the net. There is a point when a browser can be overloaded. While the tools on this site are fantastic and the uses for them unlimited, I can only take a limited number of ads. While even RPGX itself sports a few ads, it’s nothing like this. From page to page users are bombarded with not only affiliate ads, but ads for the site that you are already on. A great site for anyone with a pop up blocker or ultra high speed, but if you still live in the world of dial-up pass this one up.

5) SJ Gamer Finder (http://www.sjgames.com/gamer finder)
This site is proof that something can be great almost to the point of perfection, but still be completely useless to those who don’t use a specific product. Enter the SJ gamer finder. From here on in gamer finders will become decidedly more narrowed down. All the features of this board are great. Easy to use, accurate, large data bases, fast, tons of options. The problem… it’s only good for you if you play an SJ game. Now of course there is always the off chance that you will contact someone who is into another brand of gaming you are in (let’s be realistic) but you don’t have the option to search by this. Now this isn’t without understanding. It is in fact SJ games “gamer finder” we are talking about. Of course they want to promote their own product. But it would be a show of good faith in their gamers if they also offered options for other peoples games to be searchable fields. After all their products should be good enough to attract some attention from those other gamers. After all they did think to check SJ games for their D&D game.

6)Board Game Geek (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/users.php)
Easy to use and similar to P&PG in it’s design. But solely for finding other board gamers. A little limiting when making a search for that new party member.

7)Wiz Kids (http://www.wizkidsgames.com/usersearch.asp)
This search probably has the biggest data base of all but our number 2 pick. Unfortunately it can only be used to find other gamers playing WizKid games and tournaments.

8)(http://ps3mods.blogspot.com/2007/01/find-other-ps3-gamers.html)
This site (lacking a title) is operating under the same idea as NBG. It works almost as well. The only things holding it back are: A) The site limits itself by targeting only PS3 players, which is fine but we typically find each other on Playstaion Home Online. B) A small data base and a lack of features make your options very limited.

9)White Wolf (http://www.white-wolf.com)
There is such a thing as too spread out. While White Wolf does have a small game finder that isn’t narrowed down to just their games, it is hardly useable at most times. Instead White Wolf relies on their vast network to bring players together. By basically blog-rolling all the indi sites that worship them together White-Wolf uses this tactic to bring gamers closer together. However in the process you may end up doing more surfing that what you would have by stopping somewhere else. But in the long run, it is an interesting way to meet new gamers and sometimes the actual writers of the games as they spend a significant amount of time on the forums and their “blog-roles.”

10) RPG Gamer Finder (http://www.rpggamefinder.com)
This site comes in dead last for now as it has not opened yet. The site is currently shrouded in mystery. It was put up nearly 6 months about without any change. I only bring it up to draw attention so that we may watch it as it grow. Judging by the description at the bottom of their page, they feel they will have something new to offer us. Hopefully they will read this article and learn a thing or two about what real gamers want.

Getting the Most Out of Your Writing (Part 2)

2008-02-16T00:08:00.002-06:00

Well gamers, I'm back again to talk about how to add depth to your role playing game stories. Last month, we talked about how to take a simple core idea for a plot and map it out to give it depth. This month we are going to talk about fleshing out scenes (key moments in the plot) and ways to incorporate longer stories into your existing plot.

It's no good having an in depth plot map if your not prepared for your players actually doing something that will move them through it. To prepare for that you will first need to further flesh out your major plot points into scenes. This is something everyone does quite a bit different. Some game masters may actually write out character sheets for each NPC that they plan on their players encountering as well as pages of dialog. Others may choose a more simple approach not writing down anything and choosing to run the scenes “off-the-cuff.” But, once again, the core idea is the same from game master to game master whether written written or winged. Only the method changes.

The first method we'll discuss, I think works best with heavy NPC interaction style games. I call it “The Loose Structure” scene plan. (A blank version of the document will be available on the RPGX website soon.) The loose structure plan works best with this style game because with high NPC interaction means there are more variables in the scene that could cause the plot to change. By using a loose structure scene plan, you will be able to adapt to the players decisions easier.

To create a loose structure scene plan you will only have to flesh out the basics. Assuming that you are a decent GM and have already drawn up your location maps, the first section of the scene plan is a physical description of the scene. This is the single most important part of the scene plan because this is the part that most GM's screw up. An unprepared GM will give bad descriptions of the scene, leave out critical information, or simply give a bland utilitarian description of the area (which could cause your players to lose interest.) The most important part of the scene is the description, it should appeal to your players senses and draw them into playing their characters. To add depth to a scene description, a GM should use as many sensory appealing words as possible. You want to describe not just the layout of the room, but it's smells, sounds, and how it makes the players character feel. When I start off a new scene, I read directly off my scene plan and then add to it as my players ask questions. By writing your scene description as a narrative, it can help to draw in your players as if they were reading a novel or watching a movie.

[Example] “As your characters enter the tavern the first thing each of you notice is the sweet smell of dinner cooking somewhere in the back. The smell is of a sweet meat that you cannot immediately identify roasting slowly, teasing your pallet. Looking around the room is a bit of a chore in the dim light of the wooden building. Small oil lamps on every table illuminate the faces of the many patrons that have settled in for their nightly conversations. The low roar of chatter fills the room like a calm ocean slowly pulsing and shifting. A quick estimate puts the room at half capacity and currently holding about 20 people of mixed races and sizes. Two bar wenches walk quickly back and fourth from the main bar area serving drinks and food.”

Notice how I gave a description of the room, but not a verbal layout. This section is to set the atmosphere of the area. Leave the layout descriptions up to your maps or as answers to your players specific questions.

The next part of your scene plan should be the NPC's that will appear in it. Of course you do not need to fully flesh out every single character that might be in the room. You need only spend a great deal of time on the NPC's that your players may interact with in the scene. Now this isn't a full blown character sheet, or even the NPC's stats. Instead this is a short mood setting description of the characters in the scene that will give each “extra” in your game a face for your players to remember. In real life every person is unique, and so should they be in your game. By doing this it will go a long way towards making the world “real” for your players. In addition to the mood setting description you should give a small list of items the NPC is carrying. This way should the character somehow end up in combat and get killed, or decide to barter, you already know exactly what they are carrying.

1)Joe the Bartender (Human, Bard)
Tall man, slightly balding, wearing a leather apron.
6gp, Butcher Knife, Pocket Comb

2)Lidia the Wench (Elven, Common)
Short frail figure, Bright blond hair, strange red necklace
3gp, 2 throwing daggers, jewelry, letter to father back home

3)Gamb (Human Cleric)
Mysterious and brooding in the corner, white cloak with hood up
25gp, mace of destruction, boots of warmth, Temple Keys

Now even though there are more people in the room these are the main people who have anything to add to the plot. Everyone else you can wing, but these characters are placed to add flavor. If you wanted you could add some random cool sounding characters in for flavor as you were writing. Not only will it ad depth to have extra characters that stick out a little, but it will make the game seem unique to the player who is allowed to notice or interact with them.

Finally, you will need a short description of the scene direction. This is like an over all goal for the planned scene. Ask yourself: What are my players supposed to get out of this scene, and how obvious will the next step be while still presenting a form of challenge? All this means is at the bottom of the page make some notes on the over all scene direction and how it should progress. As the players start to hit each goal you will begin to know as a GM when to move characters to the next scene or location.

1)The players were told to find Gamb because he would have the key to the back room of the temple. Any listed character will know who Gamb is and point him out, but warn that he does not like to be bothered when he drinks.
2)Gamb will not answer any question and only sit in silence until he hears the name “Silvan” the man who sent the characters. Other than direct conflict he will ignore the characters completely.
3)As soon as the characters explain to Gamb exactly why they need in the temple he will take them there via the back door and alley way. (Go to scene 4)

Of course the characters may do a number of things while in the scene. Drink, eat, or talk to characters not on the list (who will not know Gamb and probably suggest they talk to the bar keep.) But as they stumble around the goals they will be propelled further into the story.

Well, that's it for this time. Keep on gaming and be sure to check the “New Downloads” section of the homepage for the “Loose Structure Scene Planner.”

Setting Up An SLI Configuration

2008-02-07T16:29:00.001-06:00

Recently I have been talking allot about SLI configurations vs. Crossfire configurations. A question I have been asked allot lately "That's all fine and dandy Acid, but how do I set up my SLI configuration to test it?"

Below are my notes on getting your SLI configuration set up and off the ground.
Later on I will write about Crossfire configs, but for now here you go...

Setting Up Your SLI Configuration
NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI reference design calls for a slot to be placed on the motherboard that will handle how many PCI Express lanes go to the second x16 slot. Remember that despite the fact that there are two x16 slots on the motherboard, there are still only 16 total lanes allocated to them at most - meaning that each slot is electrically still only a x8, but with a physical x16 connector. While having a x8 bus connection means that the slots have less bandwidth than a full x16 implementation, the real world performance impact is absolutely nothing. In fact, gaming performance doesn't really change down to even a x4 configuration; the performance impact of a x1 configuration itself is even negligible. (The SLI card slot looks much like a SO-DIMM connector)

The card itself has two ways of being inserted; if installed in one direction the card will configure the PCI Express lanes so that only one of the slots is a x16. In the other direction, the 16 PCI Express lanes are split evenly between the two x16 slots. You can run a single graphics card in either mode, but in order to run a pair of cards in SLI mode you need to enable the latter configuration. There are ways around NVIDIA's card-based design to reconfigure the PCI Express lanes, but none of them to date are as elegant as they require a long row of jumpers.

With two cards installed, a bridge PCB is used to connect the golden fingers atop both of the cards. Only GeForce 6600GT and higher cards will feature the SLI enabling golden fingers, although we hypothesize that nothing has been done to disable it on the lower-end GPUs other than a non-accommodating PCB layout. With a little bit of engineering effort we believe that the video card manufacturers could come up with a board design to enable SLI on both 6200 and 6600 non-GT cards. Although we've talked to manufacturers about doing this, we have to wait and see what the results are from their experiments.

As far as board requirements go, the main thing to make sure of is that both of your GPUs are identical. While clock speeds don't have to be the same, NVIDIA's driver will set the clocks on both boards to the lowest common denominator. It is not recommended that you combine different GPU types (e.g. a 6600GT and a 6800GT) although doing so may still be allowed, yet resulting in some rather strange results in certain cases.

You only need to connect a monitor to the first PCI Express card; despite the fact that you have two graphics cards, only the video outputs on the first card will work so anyone wanting to have a quad-display and SLI is somewhat out of luck. I say somewhat because if you toggle off SLI mode (a driver option), then the two cards work independently and you could have a 4-head display configuration. But with SLI mode enabled, the outputs on the second card go blank. While that's not too inconvenient, currently you need to reboot between SLI mode changes in software, which could get annoying for some that only want to enable SLI while in games and use 4-display outputs while not gaming.

Turn on the computer, go into your SLI configurator and check the multi GPU box.
Click "Okay" and re-boot. You are now in an SLI configuration.

Finally, you need to use the latest SLI Forceware drivers. I mentioned before that the driver is very important in SLI performance, the reason behind this is that NVIDIA has implemented several SLI algorithms into their SLI driver to determine how to split up the rendering between the graphics cards depending on the application and load. For example, in some games it may make sense for one card to handle a certain percentage of the screen and the other card handle the remaining percentage, while in others it may make sense for each card to render a separate frame. The driver will alternate between these algorithms as well as even disabling SLI all-together, depending on the game. The other important thing to remember is that the driver is also responsible for the rendering split between the GPUs; each GPU rendering 50% of the scene doesn't always work out to be an evenly split workload between the two, so the driver has to best estimate what rendering ratio would put an equal load on both GPUs.

GameSpot names new editor-in-chief

2008-01-28T15:15:00.001-06:00

After the much-publicized departure of editorial director Jeff Gerstmann, GameSpot's parent company, CNet, has named its new editor-in-chief: Ricardo Torres, who has been with the site since 2001. "I'm eager to continue the site's tradition of excellence" Torres said in response to the promotion, "and I'm confident we can move forward into 2008 and set a new industry standard for how video games are covered."

As editor-in-chief, CNet says that Torres "will oversee GameSpot's award-winning editorial staff in their coverage of the latest games and breaking news." What it doesn't mention is that he will also take on the responsibility of repairing GameSpot's shattered image. GameSpot's editorial section has been in a state of disarray since the Gerstmann incident, in which rumors suggest that the former editorial director was fired due to advertiser pressure. After his departure, several staff members (including Alex Navarro) left the publication in protest. (By Andrew Webster Published: January 28, 2008 - 02:32PM CT)

Okay so now my turn to comment on the situation (What you didn't think I would just leave this alone did you?

I noticed this article doesn't seem to say anything about if they plan on doing reviews that are honest. So this guy has to come in and repair the rep of the company? Can that even be done at this point? Nobody will let them preview or review their material. Even if they did would you trust any future reviews from this company? I mean, apparently one CRITIC under their employment tried to have an opinion about something (his job I might add) and he got canned because how dare you bash the product of one of the companies signing checks!

I personally refuse to support gamespot until they show me that they have really changed their dirty ways. And effective February 2nd, all of their affiliate banners will be pulled from RPGX. This isn't just a moral thing either. Because of current events, all indie site ads have been pulled from the site. That includes us. While it is not something I wish to go to war over, it is something to consider when deciding where to get some of your videogame source materials.

Props in Pen/Paper Gaming

2008-01-18T13:03:00.001-06:00

Many people have asked me for little tips here and there on ways to make their pen/paper style RPG's more immersing. While my biggest advice is always going to be to use sensory words whenever possible to describe EVERYTHING; The room FEELS cramped, the tone of the room SOUNDS shallow giving you a sense of CLAUSTROPHOBIA. Pulls the player in allot more than “You have entered a 10x10 room and the lights are out. What now?”

Of course this is the most basic and important aspect of creating an immersing environment as a GM, and hopefully you are already doing this. That's why I want to talk about a trick you can use along with “good GM” skills... Props.

Generally when you think of props in Role-playing your mind goes into two very distinct locations; One would be the gutter, and the other LARPing (The live action version of whatever it is you are playing.) The idea is borrowed a bit from the latter, but not on such a large scale. Instead of fully acting out entire scenes or constructing elaborate sets, a GM may use a few key items to help draw in their players.

One example might be a letter from the prince. However, instead of scribbling a simple note, a GM might take the time to print it in a handwritten style font on a piece of parchment. Then, seal it in an envelope with a bit of red wax. Things like this can go a long way for giving your players a little taste of what their characters may actually “experience” helping to draw them into your world. Another good example of prop placement is the creation of character credentials. Give your players a drivers license sporting their characters portrait and information. Even better, give them an opportunity to use it or lose it in game.

While I am on the subject of props, there is something I should address... prop weapons. Of course the decision is entirely up to you and your group. But, as a personal choice I GREATLY urge groups never to allow any form of prop weapons. Some pen/paper groups and LARP groups use cardboard cutouts, Nerf, and air soft weapons. With the right level of maturity and a close group this could work. I have no doubt in my mind that my group could probably handle the same kind of responsibility. The effects of allowing such types of props into your games is far more hindering than immersing (in my opinion.) Now while you may think that I am an anti gun activist, or some extreme safety nut. That is not the case. I have a very large weapons collection as well as a large assortment of air soft assault weapons for back yard fun.

My main argument is of course safety. Beyond that there is more to the case. Weapons are a distractive prop. By giving your players weapons to brandish at the table, you have set a hack n' slash tone. You are telling your players that combat will always be the most viable option in your game (why else would you have armed them for combat, but not given them the spell book prop?) It sets an aggressive tone. Rather than actually negotiate a situation, you may find more standoffs at gun point than you normally would. Weapons have a tendency to replace role-playing, which is not the goal of props. There are many more reasons I am against weapons at the table, but I'm sure you can think of many more. Ultimately the choice is yours. But I urge safety. And Never, ever take your weapons out on the streets.

Zombies Everywhere

2008-01-16T13:50:00.001-06:00

Wow, it's been a great year for zombies. Somehow I failed to notice how beloved the shambling hordes have become here in America. It seems not to long ago that any movies containing zombie anything were pretty much doomed to become a piece of cult b-movie nostalgia, that only die hard fans of the genre would seek out an buy. While that is still true to some extent, that idea isn't as relevant as it once was. With many box office, A-list movies that have come out,somehow zombies have managed to chew out their own little niche in our society.

I'm almost embarrassed that I didn't notice one of my biggest loves becoming so popular sooner. I feel like the last in on a joke. I only started noticing the rise in zombie-popularity when I started new board games for our gaming group to get into this year. Naturally my first choice was Zombies!!! a zombie killing “board game” by the great minds at Twilight Creations. As easy as this choice might seem to the rest of you, I was actually confronted with quite a conundrum at the time. “Which zombie board game do I pick.” Because what you may not realize is... I had about 10 to choose from in stock, and 5 more I could order. While 15 games isn't exactly a daunting number, the fact that they were all the same theme makes it quite a bit more significant.

When did Zombies become so popular that the market for zombie board games became so large? The really surprising bit is that only about 1/3 of these are simple type “run n' gun” games. Many of the genre's board games are well fleshed out strategy style “thinking man's” board games. The list goes on forever: Zombies!!!, Doom, Maul of America, Zombie Town, Zombie Plague, Give Me The Brain, Dawn of the Dead, Last Night on Earth... Not to mention the 6 expansion sets for Zombies!!! some of which are stand alone products.

Twilight Creations deserves special note since they have been ever present in the underground world of “horror” board games. Not only do they have the title Zombies!!! in their arsenal but a slew of others including, Zombie Town, Mid-Evil, Grave Diggers, When Darkness Comes, and The Haunting House. I'm not even going to name off the 6 expansion sets to their core game. Not to mention you can buy zombie figures buy the bag load for about $10.00 for a bag of 100! All of these are quality games with great flavor and mechanics that I would recommend to any horror fan.

But back to the core of the discussion. What has made these “un-dead” nightmares so popular in recent years? I think that movies have had allot to do with it. Sure we have had zombie movies shambling onto our TV sets in hordes ever since Gorge A. Romero broke the genre in 1968 with “Night of the Living Dead.” But, most of what we saw was either campy or just down right horrible with only a few gems of goodness to speak of. While there is an audience for anything and everything, before there just never seemed to be much of one for the “classic” zombie flick (dooming them to the bottom of the b-movie bargain bin forever.)

In recent years though, a few directors have shown main stream movie goers the light at the end of the grave. Moving away from a lust for “Brains!” and turning the world upside down with... bigger budgets?!? I think the trend may have actually started with the release of 28 days later. This fresh take on the zombie condition scared the hell out of people all over again. It took the message that Romero gave and turned it up to eleven. For those who could not hear, a little while later we were greeted with a remake of Dawn of the Dead. The zombies who at one time were ridiculous were now horrifying and valid. Later more movies would come and go, a few failing miserably. The makers of the Doom video game movie tried to jump on the zombie bandwagon but would see certain defeat. At the same time Resident Evil movies have shot through the roof with success.

Another factor in the popularity surge may stem from well made video games. Zombies really hit their stride with the Resident Evil series. While now campy, at the time the original Resident Evil by Capcom struck a serious chord with gamers. Nobody I knew dared played that game with the lights off. Soon to follow in it's footsteps would be the Silent Hill Series, House of the Dead, as well as a slew of other horrifying games that would either feature zombie type enemies as it's main attraction or as part of a family of enemies that you would have to face. While horror games may not have been anything really new to the world, the quality behind them was. As an argument you could say that a good quality game will always bring in new interests regardless of whatever the content actually is. After all a good game is still a good game.

So it seems that the “Recently deceased, returning back to life...” have found themselves a bit of a place in the heart of our modern society. Not that I am complaining. Zombies and their movies have been longtime favorites of mine since I first saw the late night showing of Night of the Living Dead.

Assassin's Creed Patch

2007-12-06T09:06:00.001-06:00

The patch that Ubisoft promised to deliver to PlayStation 3 owners of Assassin's Creed is due to be delivered over the course of a few days. Ubisoft's community manager posted on the company's official forums that "a corrective update has been developed and will be released worldwide on the PLAYSTATION® Network over the next few days." As you may have heard, Assassin's Creed PS3 users have reported lock ups and "white screens of death" on the official forums.

You know, that's record time for getting a patch out. I think maybe Ubisoft knew that the game was full of bugs when it was released. (Trust me, no shock on my face.) I think it's great that consoles can now have bug fixes released post production through a download because it can improve the game. It also opens up the idea of downloadable expansions 9Unreal Tournamnet III anyone?) But it also means that game companies don't have to have any kind of quality control. It means that the consumer has potentially become the play tester (and we'e paying to do it) so that hey can just patch the game later.

Getting the Most Out of Your Writing

2007-11-20T15:12:00.000-06:00

(2 Part Series)

One of the big questions I used to hear allot: How do you make your games so entertaining? The answer is really simple... Depth.

A game is only going to be as exciting and entertaining as the imagination of the GM. Now that's not to say a boring person can't be a good GM, but if they do not have an active imagination they should probably stick mostly to published campaigns and adventures. However, imagination is only going to get a GM so far. An Idea is great, but unless you are able to proficiently translate it into a playable game, nobody is going to notice.

So how does a person transpose an idea into an game ready adventure? How does a GM make the story as exciting for the characters as it was in their head when they thought about the idea in the first place? You may be surprised but very little of the transposition has anything to do with the rules of the game you are playing. In fact, your greatest asset will be your ability to utilize writing structure. Of course no GM writes out their games or game notes in the same exact way. Others don't even write their games down and still manage to have spectacular games even while playing “off the cuff.” However, while these styles are all different, in the big picture they are all using the same basic method (although, the best GM's are able to do it mentally on the fly.)

The Very First Outline
This article is assuming that you already have a group set in a particular game. If not, this article can still help you out, just adapt it to what you are doing with your group. As with everything I write, it is only an opinion. Take from it what you want and ignore the rest. I also welcome any feedback or alternate methods that you might use.

So you have this great idea for a game. Maybe it's a few games. You will either want it to stay that way or expand it out into an entire campaign. This part you can decide later, but you may want to keep an idea in the back of your head how long you would “like” your game to be. This all happens before you even pick up a pencil.

Example 1 “ Game A”: Your group is playing a sci-fi space exploration RPG. After watching a zombie movie one night you decide to add in an element of horror by planning an zombie outbreak on their smuggling ship. You think that because of the cramped conditions of the ship, isolation of space, and the lack of anywhere to run it could make for a really tense game.

Example 2 “Game B”: Your group is playing a fantasy type RPG. After reading a really cool book, you decide that it would be cool to play a character questing after the fountain of eternal life. You also think that even if the characters have no desire to live forever, their enemies do. The characters will either be tempted by it's power, or want to destroy it before it falls into evil hands.

To start the process, begin by making your first (broad) outline in a linear format. Only touch on the key elements of the story that have to happen to make the story go forward to the end.

Game A: For the zombie scenario you decide that it actually make more sense with the sci-fi genre that the “zombies” are actually “infected” with a virus. For the most part the plot remains the same. The characters are trapped on a ship full of “infected” and must somehow survive without getting infected themselves. You decide that you only want the scenario to last for one game, maybe two if things run slowly for some reason.

Broad Outline:
1) Group encounters a derelict space ship.
2) Characters are trapped on ship when "infected" break out and attack.
3) Characters finally escape to their own ship to get away.
4) One of the crew is starting to feel sick. (Cliffhanger open ending)

Game B: After thinking a little bit about the scenario you decide that it will fit into your currently existing campaign well over the course of a few games. With a little behind the scenes tinkering, you decide that the plot of this adventure fits in really well with your groups arch enemy Lord Voradin, and evil cleric bent on ruling the realms. Note that even though you decided that this adventure would last over the course of a few games, the broad outline isn't any longer than the one-shot adventure. This is because you are only touching on the key elements of the game that have to happen in order for the story to take place. In fact each step of this outline may take place in a different game, while each step of the other plot may happen within a few rounds.

Broad Outline:
1) Characters overhear a rumor that Voradin has started excavating to the East in the forbidden zone. A rumor is circulating that he is looking for a powerful artifact that will make his army invincible.
2) Characters follow clues and spy on Voradin to figure out the truth behind what he is looking for.
3) Characters find the fountain before Voradin's army can. Must decide what to do.
4) Voradin finds the characters (and the fountain if they haven't destroyed it.) Huge final battle.

Giving the Idea "Depth"

Okay, so now you have a decent idea of what you want your group to do. Now it's time to transpose your “idea” into a playable format. To add depth to a game, the players need to feel like they have options. Your game may only really have one ending, but your players need to feel like they helped create it by the actions that they took. A really good GM will adapt as the game progresses to add in extra options that they did not previously write in and sometimes even multiple endings based on what the characters did. Players will always find a way to do something the GM did not expect so think of your game plan as more of a guide line that your plot will stick to, not your players.

The following are examples of how I write out my main plot line for games.
Example Game A: http://www.rpgx.org/Acid_Burn/infected.pdf
Example Game B: http://www.rpgx.org/Acid_Burn/voradin.pdf

While not all GM's may choose to use this format, all will agree that they are doing some form of it either mentally or in just another format. These examples show how multiple options can derive the same results. Notice that the main plot points are marked as “Scenes” and the different paths they take are “sub-scenes.” You may decide to write in more or less options, but you should never limit what the player can try because of your lack of imagination. Always try to adapt a players actions to fit in with your plot without forcing the player to take different actions. By letting your players try different things and failing or succeeding, they will feel that the world is reacting to their presence in it. This will make the world they are playing in have depth and seem more real.

Also note that example "B" is actually a tighter and shorter outline. That's because each element of it is only a part of a large scale picture. While in example "A" the entire outline will happen over the course of one game, in example "B" the characters may only move one or two progressions in each line per game (most likely while questing for something else.)

Stay tuned for part II, on detailing your scenes. Part II will teach you to expand on your plot points, plan for unexpected player choices, and add even more detail to the world you are creating. I will also explain how to integrate your long term plot (example B) into a pre existing adventure.

Graphics Changing Gameplay

2007-11-14T09:12:00.000-06:00

There are some that say graphics do not matter. For most of my gaming days I have been on the band wagon that graphics are great, but game play is the ultimate factor in my opinion of a game. But what if the graphics actually alter the way a game is played? Now that high definition gaming has become the new standard, the increased resolutions and high res textures are actually altering game play.

Hi def gaming is the way of the latest generation of console gaming. Of course with every new generation of systems to hit the market, each new machine has been able to boast better graphics over its predecessor. While this has been the selling point for many a gamer, I have always just wanted to keep up with the latest system so that I could continue to play the latest games. While I have always enjoyed jaw dropping graphic effects (I own an 8850 GTX GPU) I have always just thought of them as, for the most part, a gimmick.

With the next generation of gaming consoles, graphics are no longer just eye candy. They are an integral part of the game. The high def graphics are being used to exploit special features in the games. With the ability to show higher amounts of detail, programmers are actually able to do more with the game. For example, a high def graphic game can display enemies in the background much clearer than a standard digital TV can. With this kind of detail, you would be able to target an enemy that would otherwise not have been able to hit. Higher level of detail is making it possible for game developers to put in elements of a game that they might otherwise omit due to lesser functionality.

Other special options are becoming more and more common as games have "regular" and "high def" modes. One rumor that was circulating about the upcoming game "Assassin's Creed" was that climbing features in the game would be hindered for anyone using a regular display. While the rumor turned out to be false, it did make sense. The game is designed so that your character is able to climb on any extruding surface that was 3d rendered, including brick, rocks, and trees. With high def turned off, these textures would have not been as predominate or defined thus keeping a player from being able to use them as the physics system would normally allow.

With all the next gen consoles there is an option to play with high def turned off. It is interesting to see the difference in game play when comparing the two side by side. I have two friends who are rabid Halo fans, so you bet that they were both in line when Halo3 hit the shelves. One has a high def display, while the other does not. For the most part each game mode has a similar over-all experience, but if you are paying attention there is much missing from the "standard" game. For example, on the second "mission" of Halo3 there is a corridor containing a secret room full of pickups. We found it playing through with the high def settings. The lines for the door are clearly visible. Shoot the door and you're in. However, in the "standard" version we went back to the exact same location. Not only could you not see the door lines, the room is not there. We wasted pretty much all our ammo up and down the corridor trying to open up the door, only to find that it was unavailable.

So is this a ploy to have everyone go out and buy expensive plasma TV's? I don't think so. I think it's just another step in the evolution of video games. With greater technology to utilize games are destined to become more in depth, in story and in visualization.

Gaming: "On the Grid"

2007-11-09T14:36:00.000-06:00

I have been an avid Dungeons and Dragons fan since my very first experiences with the game when I was 13. If you know anything about my personality at all, it wasn't long before I started DMing and tinkering with the mechanics of the game. Allot has changed in the world of D&D since the glory days of TSR. While I am referring to the rules by which the game are played, I am addressing a less obvious change in the system.

For the most part when running any game I have run the majority of my scenarios "off the grid." By that I mean that my games are heavy in role playing and not as much in combat. Because of that I am usually able to get away with not pulling out the trusty hex map every time I tell the group to roll initiative. Not that I don't enjoy a good grid battle (I am a dedicated Heroscape player) it's just that most of my scenarios either aren't epically elaborate or it's an ambush and I don't particularly want the players to have a knowledge advantage by being able to meta-game the map accidentally. (Such as seeing a blank area on the map not drawn yet, but instantly knowing the dimensions of the building just by running around it in combat.)

However, as much as I like running games off the grid, I also love running games On the Grid. In my experience in allot of cases (especially with allot of things going on) it helps solidify what a character can and can't do, in some cases speeds things up (players don't have to constantly ask what their surroundings look like in detail) and with the most recent rules for D&D, helps everyone understand exactly how attack of opportunities work. Also, I get to draw maps which is always a plus.

First off deciding to run a game on a map board is a big deal when most combat is run without one. Why, you ask? Because almost completely destroys the GM's ability to fudge combat rules in terms of mechanics and especially with attacks of opportunity. Since everyone can see what's going on, it's like putting a giant magnifying glass on the GM showing exactly how everything is working in their head.

So recently I planned and ran a game using a map board for the first time since 3.5 was introduced. I had noticed before that the standard for the game had changed from hexes to squares [from second edition to third edition] but never really cared until last weekend. Not that big of a deal, just flip the map over and boom, I got squares. What did surprise me is how well the rules work and react with squares rather than hexes. I had always figures the six sided space would be more accurate for combat, but WOtC really improved the standard grid combat. As a side note, I do think attacks of opportunity would be better served on a hex map since a character would only have 6 adjacent spaces to them rather than 8.

I had decided to go ahead and run the scenarios on the grid because of the sheer amount of combat that I was going to be putting into the game. Because of where the characters left off last time in the story (right before a surprise attack in the prison district of Neverwinter) and the events that would follow (because of decisions made by the characters in the previous game.) Using pre-fabed maps were obviously the way to go.

So three weeks, a pirate ship map (covering four pieces of poster board), a market square map, an underground sewer map, and a brand new vinyl roll out map board later I was finally ready to call the group out to play the next game that I had labored over three weeks to create. I was psyched. I knew all my rules, had my bookmarks ready, made some house rule notes, and we were ready to roll. I thought it would be the game of the year. Plot, combat, miniatures, and caffeine.

In theory the game was great, unfortunately after almost 10 hours of real time only 15 minutes of game time have passed. Because of the tedious nature of the beast, six seconds [one round] of combat managed to take almost 20 minutes. By the end of the night we had only managed to make it about a quarter of the way through the second battle of the scenario. The group and I were so worn out (at about 3:00am) by the end of night, as the DM I finally just cleared the three remaining baddies off the map pf the ship deck the characters were exploring [so we wouldn't have o place them again when we picked up the following game] and called it a night.

In the experience I have learned a lesson about map campaigning. Do not run two combat scenes back to back on the grid. While the grid takes all of the guess work out of combat it seems to slow combat to a crawl, and heres why. Since the technical aspect of the game is sped up due to visual confirmation of surroundings and measurements, it allows the entire group more freedom to utilize special rules that give their PC's and NPCs abilities that aren't normally considered as options. This means more time is spent going to the books checking to see exactly how tasks are resolved, spell effects, special abilities, feats, and exactly what provokes AoO's (Attacks of Opportunity.) Because of the more technical approach that the game was taking, the group followed suit with their play style. (Somehow the grid even managed to bring table chatter down to a minimum.)

In the past I have run back to back combat without a problem. It has served as a good medium for teaching over confident characters a lesson about depleting their "combat stock." It's always interesting to see what a group can accomplish on half health, low ammo, and a depleted spell list. However, not in a technical game. Looking back I should have ran the small encounter off the grid and only brought out the maps afterward for the larger second encounter.
One comment that was made by myself and later by one of the players is that we should have used an egg timer to limit the turns. While i think the idea has merit, I don't know that this would help as it was not always the decision making process that was taking forever, but the time it took to decipher the effects the actions would have after being filtered through the D20 system.

There are some things that can be done to make combat run a bit more smoothly. First off, in my experience in many private groups, tournament groups and my own personal groups is the use of the secondary initiative rules where each round requires an initiative roll. While I really enjoy the realism that this method reflects and recommend using a variation of it in any "Of the Grid" combat scenario, grid combat for sake of sanity might should take a different approach. Rolling initiative order only once may not be realistic combat, but would significantly speed up the time it takes to count down turns. By making this predefined combat order list, a GM can simply go down the same list every time streamlining the turn taking process. It should also help your group to be more ready for their action knowing exactly when their turn will come again. This is just another situation where maybe sacrificing a little realism for the sake of easy mechanics isn't such an unbalanced trade-off.

Another great technique for keeping a game moving is breaking up multiple actions. This one sounds a little strange. It would seem that if a character has two attacks that by rolling them one after another and resolving them together would be quicker. This isn't the case. A round is only 6 seconds long. By resolving both actions together you are using the characters FULL ROUND ACTION. Any character acting after that one basically takes a step back in time causing a pause while the DM resolves the action in their head to explain the scenario. If multiple actions are broken up into turns, it gives the effect of freezing every second to add something else in as it goes. Thus a scenario where 4 people attack the same monster are resolved allot faster as the creature is actually pummeled WHILE being knocked down, rather than being knocked down and the next character rethinking his attack action in response to what WILL happen at the end of the round. Also this will help a DM with damage resolution managing HP in smaller doses, making the over all effect a more precise, clean, and quick combat round.

My final bit of advice for the DM. Creatures can run away. I have seen many a DM make the mistake of forcing their creatures to fight to the death. I have no problem ending combat when a creature has realized it's defeat. Awarding the characters experiencing for defeating a creature has just as much merit as killing it. Combat can end much sooner when bad guys retreat. not to mention it can add an element of realism to the game, especially if the characters insist on chasing it down to kill it after it has given up. Murdering anything that has given up and is no longer a threat to the character can always be considered an evil act. Of course if your running an evil campaigns, this doesn't much matter, but a creature at the point of retreat should be killed quickly out of the combat phase.

So while there is merit to playing a game on the grid be sure that you take the steps involved in managing your game well. My case should prove that while great preparation is the key to streamlined gaming, even that can fail at keeping a game from dragging. The only things a DM or player can do to keep a game moving are done at the table with the help of the players and DM alike.

Living Together in Harmony

2007-11-03T01:19:00.000-05:00

Which is a better platform: PC Gaming or Console?

While there is no question that PC's can out perform ANY console in all aspects, many have contended that the console is so much simpler and cheaper to use for the everyman, that it out weighs the benefit of decking out a PC for gaming. Either way you slice it, one thing has always been true; PC Gamers and Console gamers have never been able to play games head to head. Until now...

Since the video game "Shadowrun" hit the market, there has been much debate over whether or not the cross-platform format would take off. While many said it was a fantastic idea, others said that it would never work or that there would just be too many obstacles to overcome. Of course, it doesn't help that the otherwise solid shooter pretty much sucks. While the game was a solid multi player shoot em' up FPS, it's total lack of depth, plot, and game modes/options completely cut it's balls right out from underneath it. If the cross-platform experiment was a success, nobody knows it because nobody wants to play the garbage that FASA has shoveled out from behind the outhouse. Not to say that the game wasn't pretty, or it didn't have (some) solid game play. The turd just needed a few more nuggets of corn in it before they tried to polish it so well.

However, there is another hope. Unreal Tournament III. Epic games has taken great leaps and bounds with the development of it's newest game, not to mention a page straight from FASA's play book. Not only will the game work as a cross platform multi player. Those wonderful XBox/PS3 boys and girls who were to scarred to venture into the PC platform will be able to have access to ALL of the same online mods that will be available for the PC users. To sweeten the deal even more, the PS3 version of the game will be Keyboard and Mouse compatible!

It seems that Epic is trying to make the line between it's PC gamers and it's console gamers (at the very least) fade a little. Unfortunately, I will no longer be able to blame my bad aim on my inability to use an analog controller at my next console tournament.

UT3 will ship for the PS3 and the PC this holiday season, with an Xbox360 version following later.

The Killing Starts at Midnight and the ESRB is Pulling the Trigger

2007-10-30T16:42:00.000-05:00

Well folks, I have to say that this might make me lose credibility as a hardcore gamer. I enjoy adult/mature video games, graphic violence, sexual content, and full on gore. However, in spite of this I am in support of the ESRB rating system. While I do feel there may be some flaws in how a game rating is determined I feel for the most part that the rating system is pretty accurate and sadly necessary.

What has brought this on is the recent controversy surrounding the game to be released tonight, Manhunt 2. Initially when presented to the board, the game was full of so much graphic violence and sexual content that the board gave it a unanimous AO (Adults Only) rating. I am not in any way surprised by this and I tend to agree with the rating. I am a little disappointed that Rockstar decided to throttle it back a bit to get the M (Mature) rating, but I understand why.

An Adults Only rating bans a game from being carried at certain retail stores. While I agree that the game should be labeled as a game for adults only, and that anyone under a certain game should not be allowed to purchase the product, I do not agree that the title should pose a limitation on WHERE the game should be carried.

An AO rating is similar to an NC-17 rating on a movie. The rating does not prevent a movie theater from showing the movie, but the theater has to adhere to a strict code in not knowingly allowing anyone under the age limitation access to it. I do not feel children should be given access to the game (without parental guidance) and neither should they be allowed to go See showgirls. But I think it's crap that something limited to ages 18+ is not allowed to be sold in a retail store. It just doesn't make sense to me that I can walk into a Wal-mart and buy cigarettes which have been proven by the surgeon general to cause cancer and kill people, but they refuse to sell a violent video game with an adult rating because "some" studies "may" show that it will cause violent tendencies in an audience that it is not intended for.

Let also focus on that last phrase "...an audience it is not intended for." Unlike cigarettes, this game has not been marketed at all towards younger audiences. I didn't even know this was coming out until a short time ago when I found an online article talking about it. That's because Rockstar hasn't even advertised it. Despite what you think this company has integrity to their customers. Rockstar doesn't want children to play this as much as the ESRB doesn't. But that shouldn't mean that their adult audience should be limited as to where they could get the game. Sales would have suffered greatly if the game couldn't have been purchased by normal means.

I hate to say that I don't have a great wrap up for my argument. Only that censorship HAS gone too far. I believe in censored versions of things as long as the uncensored versions are available for those who want to see/hear them as the artist intended. I believe in a rating system for movies and games that allows people to understand the content of something before they see or hear it. But I do not believe in someone deciding for me what I am ALLOWED to see, hear, or play. I think that by rating something or making an extra version that is suitable for a larger audience is okay, but for the ESRB to dictate to the consumer market that anything should be banned that isn't 100% proven to be harmful is overstepping a boundary.

I will be buying Manhunt 2 tonight at midnight, and I will enjoy it. I will be sad that much of the content will be missing. Though it doesn't mean much, I nod my hat to the developers, writers, artists and programmers who a portion of thier hard labor will be missing forever. Just please don't make the same mistake that you did with the hot coffee mod.