Loremaster - Blogs - This Side of Entropy by Rev. Lazaro http://www.loremaster.org/blog.php?162-This-Side-of-Entropy en Tue, 21 May 2013 10:35:43 GMT vBulletin 60 http://loremaster.org/images/misc/rss.jpg Loremaster - Blogs - This Side of Entropy by Rev. Lazaro http://www.loremaster.org/blog.php?162-This-Side-of-Entropy This should be an interesting ride. http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?59-This-should-be-an-interesting-ride Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:53:52 GMT Right. 5e is a go.

I can't really be mad at this news. I wanted to be, believe me. I just purchased Essentials, reluctantly, a few months ago, and there's already a new version being discussed. My book shelf is filled completely with RPG books, and half of them carry the D&D brand on them, across many editions. I'm tired of the buy in, I'm tired of the retreads. And I'm not going to lie: I feel a little irked, since I felt like 4e still had so much ground to cover.

But 4E also has warts, big warts that I can't ignore when I look it in the face anymore. We've all heard these discussed time and time again: Character creation becomes a bit heavy on the paper work. Combat encounters are quite lengthy. Powers seem to distract opportunities for creative maneuvers in combat. The math starts to buckle in higher level play, so on and so forth.
Tack this on with errata after errata, and tons of cool concepts that seem to get neglected (rituals, character themes, etc.)

Yeah, it feels like this engine has been pushed a bit hard off the tracks.

Cautious Optimism

I can't gripe about 5e, at least not yet. The approaches and design goals they want are exactly something I want to see. A modular system, intended for the DM to check list what's in and what's out for his campaign. As an RPG tinker gnome, this sounds right up my alley. Hell, the game I've been working on has turned towards a modular "plug and play" design, so how can I bitch about this?

And of course, the open play testing and community feedback. If they really take advantage of this, it could do wonders of actually tuning a system that incorporates the best of old school and new school play. And for all those peeps lambasting WoTC for "copying Paizo"....get real. There's nothing wrong for copying a design approach when it's proven to work with flying colors. Also, remember that Paizo is currently making a name off a modified version of WoTC's baby.....turn about is fair play.

That said, I am going into all of this with a 10' Pole and constantly checking for traps.

Echoing a Plea

Many of said it, and I'm going to echo it:

If, at any point in your life, you were passionate about D&D, if the game to you is more than a branding but an experience and fond memories, then sign up for the damn Open Playtest.

Give feedback. Be constructive. Regardless of which edition was your favorite; tell them what you love, what you hate, and what you would like to see. The worst that happens is that 5e turns out suck, and we go back to either older editions, retro clones, homebrewed hacks or, hell, a whole different system entirely. But, there is a chance that maybe we'll finally get an edition of the game that feels complete, and we can all sit down at the table for it again. ]]> Rev. Lazaro http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?59-This-should-be-an-interesting-ride Could Anyone Help a Fellow Gamer Rebuild? http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?35-Could-Anyone-Help-a-Fellow-Gamer-Rebuild Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:12:00 GMT This summer in Texas (as well as a large part of the Midwest) we've seen one of worst droughts imaginable. It's been terribly hot and dry; and the Texas landscape has been a suffering powder keg. We've seen a lot of wildfires erupt around the state this year, and lots of homes and properties have been wiped off the map due to these flames. I actually know quite a few people whose families and friends have lost so much to the fires this year.

I received a call a week or so ago from a friend down in Austin, telling me about a gentleman, by the name of Jim Spillane, she had met at the Half-Priced Books she worked at. She told me he was buying up as much of the D&D books as he could, with tears in his eyes. Apparently, the man's family had recently lost their home and much of their belongings...part of that being a D&D Collection he had accumulated for over 20 years.

I told her to hook me up with his contact information, and I've been in correspondence with the man over the past week. I feel for him. Some peeps may think that the gaming collection is irrelevant, and that he should cut his losses, but I understand that for a lot of us gamers....those books are memories as much as lost photographs, furniture and antique hand me downs. Those are a cumulation of our social lives, our Friday Nights, and for him in particular it's something he shared with his family.

In his own words:
Obviously in comparison to my Family and Animals, Pictures, Family memorabelia, etc they are [the lowest of priorities]. But after the initial scare of almost losing my wife and kids and the realization set in that everything we owned was gone; that collection along with my other quest begotten books hurt me in ways most would never understand.
It represented the reclamation my youth, both good times and bad, as well as the future with my own son. In fact, Ha! All he knows and appreciates as well is the old school stuff.
The man's collection was definitely a hoard worthy of a Dragon too....
Asking what he's needing to replace, the list he had given me was:

Old Basic and Expert set
1E DMG
1E PHB
1E Monster Manual ( I think there were 2 printings which I had both)

Almost all the 2E stuff.. This was the most extensive..
all 3 versions of the PHB & DMG
All the monster manuals, All the splat books, (Blue, Green, Orig Red)
ALL the old modules... including 1st versions and reprints of those that were..
Lairs
Lairs II,
Encyclopedia of magic Vol 1 & 2
2 leather bound Encyclopedia magic indexes
All 4 colored leather bound Mage spell books
All 3 colored leather bound Priest spell books
DM's Treasure card box of magical items
All the AD&D comic books
and on and on..

AND then there were all the metal/lead miniatures.... I had somewhere near 1000 of them I think. What I do know of them was that I had over 53 of the dragons, to include all the dragons of the month and even some of the special store displays they limited out. I had almost all of the old grenadier boxed sets of figures.. Adventurers, dungeon dwellers, wizards, dwarves, halflings, etc.... I had the demon chariot, etc. etc.. And so many wondrous figures most people have never seen or knew existed.
I told Jim I would rummage through my collection to see what I had, and that I would get the word out to the online RPG community about his loss. He's not looking for hand outs or charity; he is completely willing to pay a fair price for any and all of these things to rebuild his collection for him and his son.

If anyone is willing to part with a portion or all of their old school collections, and they're looking to sell them to a good home that will put them to use for this and the next generation, please get in contact with Jim via his email address:
spillaneja(AT)gmail(DOT)com
((written that way to thwart spammers))

Only request is that since he is willing to pay a fair price for his collection, and since he is wanting to hand these down to his kids, that the offers be in reasonable condition.

And if anyone could repost this to their RPG circles, that would be awesome. ]]> Rev. Lazaro http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?35-Could-Anyone-Help-a-Fellow-Gamer-Rebuild <![CDATA[5 Geeky Things I Should be Ashamed Of (But I'm Not.)]]> http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?32-5-Geeky-Things-I-Should-be-Ashamed-Of-(But-I-m-Not-) Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:33:47 GMT We were just outside Podunk when the Escapism took hold.... Stretched out over blankets and writhing in an exhausted pile with friends; half of us... We were just outside Podunk when the Escapism took hold....

Stretched out over blankets and writhing in an exhausted pile with friends; half of us barely wearing anything, most of the men covered in war paint. The women blissfully giggle as they braided eachother's hair, and we banged on drums and passed around the rum and cigarettes like some sacred circle or indian pow-wow. We recited poetry, we exchanged embraces and we drunkenly crooned along with the music fading out of someone's phone.


Looking on at this pile of hedonism, would you ever guess that earlier we were debating Vampires vs. Zombies? During our poetry slam, one of my brothers in arms painted his face and told us how good it was to be a Sith Lord.We took shots of whiskey and rum out of syringes and other strange tools normally reserved for chemists. We played a few hands of Magic; we threw the Spock hand like it was gangsta.


I'm wanting to write something a bit off for SpeakOut with Your Geek Out. Many are taking to the "bloggosphere" to fly their geekflag and encourage others not to be ashamed of their nerdy pastimes.I guess you could look at it as a big "geek pride" event,with comings out of the closets (ya know, where we keep our Runebound collections) and all that good jazz.


What I'm contributing isn't a coming out story...obviously, I'm writing something on a gaming website. I've blogged about RPG's for years,I've owned my own game shop. I'm a pretty flaming nerd when you comeright down to it. No, what I'm going to post here is the truth that is seldom sung, even amongst the geeks: That being a nerd doesn't hinder you from a rock'n'roll lifestyle.


My time as a gamer hasn't been shut in the basement, it's been out in the open and living loud and it has lead me to many misadventures and crazy social situations in my time. And through these experiences -- both at the game table and away from it – the friends I've made along the way have helped culminate this sense of awesome revelry and a passion for life I've seldom seen anywhereelse. And this is important for me to talk about, because during mygaming hiatus this past summer I tried to deny my gamer roots. Only, it's lead me to realize it is part of who I am, and it hasgiven me more experience, knowledge and love of life (as in real life) than most people get out of any college or career.


So,for hilarity's sake, I'm going to open up a bit and share with you guys the things that I probably should be ashamed of about my gaming past, but regret none of it. It has given me so many stories to tell, and has honestly lead me to some of the bestest friends I've ever had; and a life so rich, I wouldn't trade it for the world. In no particular order.....
  • I've Lived off a Diet Completely Paid for in EXP.
    In high school I GM'd an insanely huge Shadowrun group. Looking back, I'm surprised so many stuck around – I think we threw half the rules out the window just to have an insane campaign. People loved it so much that, for a summer, I was able to afford eating completely on the graces of my players. One of them was even a night manager at a local burger joint; our code word was "Hook Me Up Star Wars" and nightly we walked out with bacon cheeseburgers, "God Size" fries and chicken strips. Free of charge. For a whole ****ing summer.
  • I've GM'd Games for Rent.
    During one of my down and out phases, I moved in and couch-dwelled in a house with a bunch of guys, whom to this day are still some of the dearest friends to me and I love them like brothers. The initial offer? I got to live there rent free as long as I pitched in on chores....and ran role-playing games every night when they got home from work and school. I think I pulled this off for a couple months of non-stop nightly gaming (one of the most epic Vampire chronicles I have ever had the joys of running.) When we weren't gaming, we were drinking, partying, and having a running rotation of hot girls joining us. We even made friends with a particularly awesome gal who happened to have gamer geek roommates (and she was a nerd herself) so our gaming circle got bigger. We also stayed up all night discussing philosophy (thanks to Mage: The Ascension and The Matrix films, which were new at the time.) Sadly, burnout hit me after a while, and they were sad the day I told them I had a job and paid them rent.
  • I've Hooked Up at Parties Because I Could "Speak the Geek."
    Sometimes, making a Firefly or Star Wars reference at a party with strangers gets you blank stares at best, bad looks at worst. Sometimes the girl you're talking with says "...the spice must flow" and you find yourself having the upper hand over all the d-bags who couldn't grok the differences between River Song and River Tam.
  • I've Seen More Nudity at The Game Table than The Bedroom.
    This may offend a lot of peeps out there, and I'm probably going to be crucified as a misogynist male chauvinist pig for bringing it up, but I've gamed with a lot of girls (and guys) – good looking ones at that – who are pretty comfortable with themselves and know how to shake things up. Granted, the flip side of this coin is I've met quite a few who do this more for attention, and I've actually had to ask women to put their tops back on so the game could continue. You may call that having priorities skewed; I call it being jaded.
  • I've Successfully Suggested "Strip d20" as a Lead In To a Threesome.
    I think that speaks enough on its own.
]]> Rev. Lazaro http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?32-5-Geeky-Things-I-Should-be-Ashamed-Of-(But-I-m-Not-) Digging on Encounters http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?30-Digging-on-Encounters Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:01:28 GMT Another Wednesday behind us, meaning another session of D&D Encounters is in the books. This has been my first season to participate with the Encounters program, as well as my first to DM it. Like I mentioned in my opening blog post, it's been an awesome way for me to get over my RPG Hiatus and get my DM groove back.

Mind you, the turn out for the D&D game nights at our FLGS has yet to pull more than my table (although, thankfully, I do have a regular player who is on standby to DM should everyone manage to show up.) It's not that we don't have enough peeps on the roster to open more tables; just with real life obligations, many folks can only hop in and out every so often.

But I do think that's the charm of the Encounters game...the way folks can come and go and completely new players can hop in and get a taste of the action. Meanwhile, I have a few players who are vets of gaming but because of real life issues, this has become their main fix in their busy lives.

I've also been grooving the encounter design this season. So far, Lost Crown of Neverwinter has offered some interesting role-playing opportunities both outside and inside the combat encounter every week. The returning players do seem to be invested in the story, and newcomers seem to really groove hearing the re-caps every week.

A thought on the numbers...

One aspect that has been getting some mixed feedback, though, is the difficulty of the encounters. The characters are still level one at this point, and so far have dealt with hordes of spellplagued monsters, including a white dragon, a drunken bar brawl and a gang of thugs. I'm honestly not trying to kill the players, but I am using tactics with the NPC's and letting the dice fall where they may (I don't hide my rolls, everyone sees the crits and damage rolls.)

The players have yet to fail, but I have started acquiring a hefty dying count at the table. These are not easy encounters, even though they haven't been anything too fancy or elaborately complicated yet. And last night it was pointed out by the number crunchers how stacked against the players the fights were.

For instance (and I hope I'm not violating some WoTC trust issues sharing this....we'll say potential spoiler alert): Some of the spellplagued monsters the players fought last night had a nasty gang-up combo. They had a grappling attack that, if successful, held the players at a DC 12 to break out....but also dealt a straight 10 points of fire damage. Their slam attack initially dealt d12+6 damage...but against a held opponent it did d12+12! That means, at the minimum, someone subjected to this gang bang is taking a minimum of 23 points of damage (enough to kill a couple of the premade characters, and maim just about any level 1 character well past the bloodied state and hanging by a thread.)

My 2 cents?
Despite dropping 3 players into a dying state last night, they won the encounter. It required some hefty tactical game play, a bit of table talk between the players discussing what their powers can do and how they can help each other (especially with everyone being bloodied to assist the Paladin's Vengeful Strike) and some careful resource management with the healing potions, second winds and the cleric's heals.

One 4E vet and 3 newcomers who at least had some D&D experience managed to pull together and stomp the field. But I think had it been a full party of newcomers, they would have been toast. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing....far from it. I'm a firm believer in risk and reward, and personally I'm glad as hell WoTC didn't make this a candy-striped nerf fight. It had the players sweating, and it felt awesome when they ganged up on the last monster and beat the snot out of it.

I think so far they have managed to provide challenging encounters that aren't going to punish a new player completely in terms of not knowing some of cliches of the dungeon crawl game, yet forces them out of the comfort zones of trying to be a solo badass and really depends on the group's ability to pull together as a team. It seems any of the complaints we've had about the difficulty of the opponents have been purely on a 1v1 scale....and despite how jacked the encounter is, the players have yet to wipe or face a final death.

Loving the Game.
For me, it's been a nice weekly diversion and a great excuse to meet up with friends and make new ones at the local game shop. Actually DM'ing the Encounters has felt like a good exercise to flex my gaming muscles and giving me ideas for adventures and campaigns. It's also helped me introduce the local gaming scene to one of my favorite editions of the game I love, that really never took off around here.

Nothing like seeing the curious stares from the smug d20 elitists looking at us when my players high-five for crits and slay the dragon. Yes, we're still playing that game :D ]]> Rev. Lazaro http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?30-Digging-on-Encounters Checking out: Heroes of Neverwinter http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?29-Checking-out-Heroes-of-Neverwinter Tue, 06 Sep 2011 23:53:42 GMT Attachment 125 (http://www.loremaster.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=125) Attachment 126...
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Heroes of Neverwinter is a new facebook app from Atari that brings the tactical game play of D&D 4E into the realm of games like Frontierville and all that other silliness.

I've barely started the game but so far it seems like a casual enjoyment for peeps who are looking for a good time killer on their lunch breaks but aren't interested in building farms or tending cattle.

The game allows you to make characters between 4 races (Dragonborn, Eladrin, Halfling and Human) and four classes (you guessed it: Fighter, Cleric, Wizard and Rogue.)

While a lot of the game comes off feeling very identical to our loved (or in my case loathed) Farm/Frontier games, especially the way you can add friends and share gifts, the actual game play is a pretty fun tactical RPG.

I also like how you recruit party members from either friend's character rosters or hiring other PC's from the tavern. It's not an MMO; but during one of my dungeon crawls a friend of mine was able to observe the encounters using his character and chat with me.

There's still the usual "social game" gimmicks: each delve into a dungeon costs energy, which replenishes as a set rate. You can receive in-game items as rewards that boost your energy points, or you can purchase more (or unlimited) using the game's premium currency: Astral Diamonds. Astral Diamonds can also be used to purchase other convenient items and services. I'm patiently playing through the game trying to find the inevitable "fun wall" where the game is rendered almost unplayable without shelling out money or recruiting a **** ton of friends into playing.

If you're wanting in to try the beta, check out their fanpage here and keep an eye for when they open up more slots. As it gets closer to release I'll do a video review of my experiences with it.
]]> Rev. Lazaro http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?29-Checking-out-Heroes-of-Neverwinter Falling Back into The Swing http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?28-Falling-Back-into-The-Swing Mon, 05 Sep 2011 22:25:23 GMT We gaze out at the living room, admiring the piles of empty bottles of beer, liquor, and vitamin supplements scattered amongst the cans of Coke Zero... We gaze out at the living room, admiring the piles of empty bottles of beer,
liquor, and vitamin supplements scattered amongst the cans of Coke Zero and half-smoked packs of cigarettes. We know we're nerds, because we always remember to take our B-Vitamins before and after drinking. I'm busy trying to piece together the events of the night before, and wondering whose bra was left in the kitchen.

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We hunker around the living room, slowly eating leftover Pizza or the remnants of a Taco Bell run and The Gypsy couch dweller I took in looks up at me, grunts a little and says "Admit it, dude, you're like gamer Jesus or something. Just accept it."

My eyes come into focus and I see what the dirty bastard is getting at. Among the debris of our late 20's hubris is a plethora of polyhedrons, grid boards and scribbled character sheets stained with the rings of beer bottle sweat and nacho cheese. I suddenly remember the name of the half-elven druidess the bra belonged to....but I can't remember the player's name. ****. We gamed last night.

Let me back up a few months. Long story short, at the breaking point of my depression and self-imposed alienation after ending an almost six year relationship, I had decided to swear off gaming. I felt it had consumed me; every facet of my social life seemed tied to my nerdy habits. Even parties with strangers had somehow landed me rolling dice or playing esoteric board and card games. Borrowing a phrase that a friend of mine used to explain her own gamer hiatus, I was tired of being a bad-ass in a fantasy world. I wanted to be a bad-ass in real life.

The summer long hiatus wasn't bad to me at all. I have finally started writing again...the ideas of have been uncorked and flowing. It was rewarding – and relieving – to not have to be brewing stories in the hopes of interaction and player expectations. I also rediscovered in this my love of poetry, prose, the spoken word and abstract thought. I had also taken back control of my health, losing weight and getting my blood pressure back under control. I'm finally buttoning up shirts that I haven't been able to in years.

I also discovered something that I can't remember having – self confidence, and that I really can do anything I put my mind, time, and discipline to.

But one other lesson that came screaming back to me is that, while you can take the geek out of the game, you can't take the game out of the geek. And it's not a bad thing. While I tried so hard to mask my gamer nerd background in social circles, I rediscovered just how diverse and open geeks are these days. I somehow forgot the very thing that I have been preaching for years....that geeks are no longer the shut in basement types. While trying to hide my roots, I had many outsiders come up and expose theirs willingly. At first I thought I was cursed....I literally had dreams where I had an MMO-style exclamation mark over my head, and everyone knew I was a nerd. But now I realize that the traits that had these cool peeps open up to me are positive ones, ones that I shouldn't be ashamed to fly.

My summer came to an end with a new local FLGS asking me to run D&D Encounters, since I'm one of the few locals who made the leap to 4E D&D. I took it not out of a desire to game, but out of a love for the community and the wanting need to support our new shop (having been a former game shop owner myself.) Taking advantage of the bite-sized gaming session every week has weened me back into the DM chair.

Over the course of the past month, my attitude towards the weekly game has gone from slight annoyance and burden to an enjoyable time and, now, a rekindling of a pastime that I enjoy. A lot. And I can't believe I wanted to walk away from this.

The hiatus was necessary. It was a time to purge a lot of dead weight in my life, to get priorities re-aligned and to focus on things that I have been neglecting for years. I rediscovered so much about myself, and in the end I even got to rediscover why I love this hobby so damn much. A break from the vitriol, flame wars and other asinine things that can plague a good thing.

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Forward to this morning. As we groggily pick up the trash and clean our place back up, the final life lesson here is that you can be a geek, and still kick ass. Our geeky hobbies teach us to think on our toes, how to gauge the odds and – most importantly – how to take risks. It's also blessed us with a witty vocabulary that lets us weed out the narrow minded, and find those true gems of people to be crazy with. Couple this with vivid imaginations and passions, and anything is possible at a geek party.

And in light of some recent controversy, you know....involving a certain article about dating a Magic pro champion....I'm reminded that if I have to hide that aspect of my life from someone, then I probably don't want to invest my time in them any way.

The Rev is back. Expect more dispatches from This Side of Entropy. ]]> Rev. Lazaro http://www.loremaster.org/entry.php?28-Falling-Back-into-The-Swing