RFI Actual Play Podcasts

If you've never played Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (perhaps it exceeds your geek out factor ^_^), the folks at Roll For Initiative have recorded the sessions of two campaigns that were played online via Skype. One of the campaigns, Barons of Hogsend, is no longer active unfortunately, but the other, Quest for the Book of Sorrows, is going strong despite having replaced most of the original players. I finally caught up with all the Book of Sorrows episodes this week.

Listening to an AD&D game is like listening to a radio program in which you hear the actors as they play their characters, and the writers as they discuss what the characters are going to do. It's hard to tell which is which since the actors and writers are the same people! In addition, there is very little explanation of the game mechanics as the players are all experienced. As such, if you decide to give these podcasts a try, don't be surprised if you find them slightly confusing at first, especially if you are unfamiliar with the rules.

I recommend listening to the Book of Sorrows series first as it has much faster pace compared to the Barons series. This is largely due to difference in the Dungeon Master's style and isn't really an indication of one being better than the other. And just so you know, there is occasional swearing, although it's surprisingly restrained. ^_^

D&D Is Dangerous. Again.

Dungeons and Dragons has been labelled many things in its 35 year history, but this one really takes the cake. Apparently, playing D&D promotes gang activity, according an expert on gangs. This kind thinking makes me wonder if there is any intelligent life on this planet. I'm kind of surprised Wizards of the Coast didn't come forward to defend their game, since they are so very protective of its image.

Little Wars

In the category of you-learn-something-new-every-day, I discovered that H.G. Wells is considered to be the father of table top war gaming. His book Little Wars, published in 1913, contains the basic rules for a game with toy soldiers. The book is available on Project Gutenberg. The full title is just great! It's so nineteenth century and oh so politically incorrect. ^_^

Work Around

I found a work around for the joystick problem by force loading the joydev module. I still have no idea why this module loads automatically with a 32 bit kernel but not a 64 bit kernel, even though the 32 bit user space is identical. My Google-fu has not found anything yet.

First oddity I encountered with a working joystick attached to the system, was that MPlayer assumed the joystick was some sort of remote control. It wouldn't be a problem if MPlayer did not automatically disabled the keyboard control, when it detects a joystick. Digging through the MPlayer man page, an "-input js-dev=none" argument solved the problem.

The joystick works with Extreme Tux Racer, BZFlag, and TORCS, which is heaps of fun. Flightgear, which is the reason I got the joystick, isn't running properly for some reason, which is a bit annoying.

Minecraft

Holy crap! The things people are doing in Minecraft is... is... is... Oh, never mind, just watch some videos. Some people have way too much time on their hands. ^_^

It's Just A Game

I started playing role playing games in 1981 with the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game. (So I'm a geek. Get over it.) I enjoyed RPGs as games, nothing more. Since returning to RPGs on Google Wave last year, I've discovered that I'm definitely in the minority as far as treating it like a game. Many other players, mostly younger that I, describe RPGs with phrases such as "collaborative story telling," which I suppose is an attempt elevate RPGs to something more meaningful. Why bother? It's just a game. Enjoy it for what it is. Why is that so hard?

Battle For Wesnoth

Battle for Wesnoth is one of the best free games available. I had not play it in a while and so decided to install it again, when I was feeling a little stressed out with work a few days ago. Like most good games, Wesnoth is also quite addictive, so perhaps playing it was not such a good idea, given how busy I am, but I needed a break. ^_^

The creators of Wesnoth describe it as a "tactical strategy" game which is quite accurate, if a little confusing. I would describe it as an operational level war game, but that assumes some knowledge of pre-computer wargaming. The tactical part is obvious as the combat style is very wargame-like. The strategy part is very light weight and mainly involves supply and recruitment, but each game is a campaign that consists of a series of scenarios, so you need to plan ahead as well.

BZFlag Results

The BZFlag game today needed more players. Three people showed up but considering I invited thirteen, it really wasn't a great turnout. Paul and I started shortly after 3pm and played for two hours before Al joined the game. He only played for maybe 15 minutes before Real Life called him away again. By the that time, both Paul and I were burned out so we packed it in for the day.

Paul and I were using cat and mouse tactics which flat out wouldn't work if we had more players in the melee. With a small number of players, using the automatic team assignment algorithm isn't the best plan. When Al joined he was assigned to my team since I was weaker. Problem was that I wasn't that much worst the Paul, so the balance was way off in a two against one battle. If we had continued playing, it would have been better for Al to manually select his team. Just another thing to consider when I setup the next game, assuming there will be one.

I would rate today's game moderately successful. It was fun but it could have been better.

No More Ikariam

I deleted my Ikariam account today. Nothing against the game. It is a good game and I actually enjoyed playing it for a while, but it couldn't overcome my lack of interest in strategy empire building games.

Pillaged!

I became too complacent in Ikariam and my capital was pillaged. The attacking force was very strong, so I doubt that I could have prepared for that level of assault. My problem is that I'm a little bored with the game since I'm not hugely interested in empire building strategy games. I prefer to play Rommel or Montgomery rather than Hitler or Churchill, in terms of game scale.

I got an offer from an alliance which I decided to join just to see how that part of the game works. Maybe it will renew my interest a little.

Another Time Waster

Just what I need, another distraction and time waster. In the pub after the TLUG meeting last night, I talked with two enthusiastic players of Ikariam. Ikariam is a browser based massively multi-player real-time strategy game similar to Civilization and Age of Empires. Although I am not overly fond of strategy games, I decided to check it out today. Bad mistake. Yes, it is addictive.

Fortunately the game truly is real-time, i.e., game time and clock time pass at the same rate. If it a building takes 6 hours to construct, you might as well logout and come back 6 hours later when it is done. So, while the game is definitely a distraction, it can at least be pushed aside, while you wait for something to finish.

I did have the misfortune of starting on a very crowded island. A couple of the other towns are already high level and could swat me like fly, if they were so inclined. I hope the neighbours are not too aggressive.

Games On Linux

The topic at this month's TLUG meeting was games on Linux. It was a introductory talk so it covered a lot ground, from simple pickup games to the commercial 3D first person shooters that are available for Linux. For the retro game enthusiast there are emulators like MAME which enable one to play classic arcade and console games, and open source interpreters for the text adventure games like Zork. The console and arcade games are copied from the ROMs and are not modified at all, so for example, the arcade games still require coins to be inserted, which is simulated with a key press.

The talk didn't cover any open source games that I have not played. This might be because the good games are quite well known and bound to be popular. The presenter enjoys Battle for Wesnoth and gave a good demonstration. He obviously plays it a lot, because he had all the keyboard short cuts memorized. After the talk, someone suggested asking each person in the audience which games they played. I mentioned BZFlag since that was the most recent one I've played, but I've also played Wesnoth, Crossfire, Extreme Tux Racer (formerly Tux Racer), and others depending on my mood.

There are lot of games available for Linux and only the truly hard core gamer would have difficulty finding something interesting. The Linux Game Tome is a good place to start.