Bitter Veterans

OK normally I'm not one for moaning about people on my blog. It's not something I've done since I used to do gig reviews; in all honesty I'm not a fan of receiving the backlash that comes with saying negative things about people. It rarely came up because I was never nasty about it, but the few times it did knocked my confidence quite a bit.

However, with the games I've been involved with in the last sort of year and a half, and some of the conversations I've had with people, there is a demographic with which I find my patience rapidly receding into the dark and spite-filled hole from whence it came. That demographic is what I've now come to recognise as 'Bitter Veterans,' and since there are quite a few of this sort of people around and I know many in person, I'm in quite a strong postition to say I'm not talking about anybody in particular here. When I refer to specific conversations I'm not going to use names, most of them ought to know who they are and if they've got a problem with what I'm saying, well, maybe they should think about the reasons why I'm saying it and be a bit more careful what they're saying in future.

So what is a 'Bitter Veteran?' Let's start with Veteran shall we - I don't really know what characteristics you need to be able to call yourself a veteran but I tend to find they're people who've been doing the hobbies for a long time and are particularly good at playing the game or painting the models where applicable, or both. Now I've been doing the Games Workshop hobby on and off for half my lifetime and I don't think I'm much good at either painting or gaming, and I don't consider myself a veteran for that reason. So it's a subjective matter as much as anything else.

I'm afraid that my attitude towards veterans isn't always kind, and this is largely to do with the time I spent working for Games Workshop. A lot of the reason it caused me so much anxiety was that I always had to make a terrific effort to go up to people and talk to them, and particularly if I knew those people didn't want me talking to them. With veterans, I'd say this was the case about 80% of the time. Understandable to a degree - I know the GW staff come on too strong sometimes, and it can put people off going in to the shop at all so it's not surprising that veterans don't always think too kindly of the GW staff either. But what I really didn't like when they would say things like "I've been doing this longer than you've been alive," as though I'm not going to find that the slightest bit condescending. The worst one I had was when I worked in the Walsall store, which at that time was packed with veterans who didn't think I had the right to be telling them anything at all and that I should just let them get on with it. Every single time I worked in that shop I closed up wishing I didn't work for the company, it was horrible. The specific incident I'm talking about was when one person I'd never seen before but was clearly a hobbyist - he knew everyone in the shop and had a certain 'look' about him - came into the shop to either buy a model or pick up a mail order, I can't quite remember which. When I handed over whatever it was I asked him if he'd got all his clippers, glue, paints etc, a perfectly reasonable question that I would have asked anyone who'd brought a model. He gave me a look of bitter amusement then looked back into the shop, saying to everyone something to the general effect of "He's asking me if I've got clippers and glue?" There's something about being treated like a pile of dog mess that still resonates with me, years later.

Now to avoid tarring everybody with the same brush, some veterans are actually really nice people when I get talking to them. Most of the ex-staffers I'd happily sit and talk to for hours. A lot of the regulars who went into the Dudley store when I worked there I have no problem with. Even one or two of the tournament players, with whom I usually entertain very little patience indeed, escaped my prejudice because they had no problem with talking to me and understood what needed to be considered in a shop environment. And it's those people whose names and company and remember as being the good bit about working for GW.

So, moving on. Bitter Veterans, what are they? Well, for a start, applying everything I've just said about veterans, bitter veterans are miserable buggers who don't really enjoy the hobby anymore and think that nobody else should either. Everybody's story is different, but the pattern rarely varies: At some point, the game company they have been following for years and years and years have done something, said something, or heaven forbid release a new version of their game, the bitter veteran isn't happy with it and on principle decides to boycott the game, the company and all who play it. The reason they annoy me so much is that they've somehow got the idea that just because they think that something is rubbish, that means that no one else is allowed to enjoy it either.

And what better time to see them cropping up like boils on a backside than after Games Workshop release 6th Edition of 40K? One particular conversation I saw on Facebook yesterday involved one person wanting to sell something like 27,000 points worth of Tau because the new rules didn't fit his tactics, and he'll never play the game again. Now I can understand that some of the new rules don't fit all the armies quite as well as they did before, but to be brutally honset this nothing more than a bitter veteran having a strop. A few holes in his comments to pick out straight away:

1. The Tau codex was designed for 4th edition. Of course it's not going to work as well with 6th; that shouldn't be news to anyone.
2. That being the case, Tau are probably going to get an update in the mid term future, where they'll be resdesigned to work just as well as they ever did, if not better.
3. In the meantime, if you have 27,000 points of an army and can't find SOMETHING that works in the new edition of the game then you probably shouldn't be playing it anyway. Be honest, when did you last play a game?

So yeah, go ahead and sell everything you've spent all that time and money building up just because you're not happy with a change in the rules that alters the way you use the army in the game. Really clever decision, that.

I saw this quite a lot with the new edition of Warhammer Fantasy as well, a lot of people who I knew from the shop - I'd not long left, at that point - wanting to sell their armies because they don't like the new edition of the game, their armies don't work, or whatever. Now, I'm not being funny, but if your current army doesn't work, it can't be that much of a tall order to find something that does? I shouldn't imagine that it would be much more of a job than coming up with an army list that will work better in the game, and buying another couple of units if you need to? I'm not sure how many Warhammer armies get an update in one gaming iteration - I've never really sat Warhammer out from one edition to the next so I don't actually know when a lot of the current army books were published - but chances are, if your army is that bad for the current edition of Warhammer, an update can't be far away? And GW have more freedom to do this with Warhammer than they do with 40K because they aren't restricted to lavishing so much attention on Space Marines...

Now I've seen a blog from FrontlineGamer - well worth a read - who is quite adamant about his dislike of the current edition of Warhammer Fantasy. Initial reading of his blog might make him come across as the kind of veteran that I wouldn't necessarily enjoy talking to while I worked for GW. But looking a little deeper and you discover that his opinions are formed not by taking the popular opinion, or by looking at the rulebook and deciding he hates it, but by road-testing it and actually playing some games. Reading his coverage on Warhammer, he did actually give the new edition a go and found that he didn't enjoy it because of the way the game plays. Now to me, that's fair enough, for two reasons:

1. He's formed an opinion on something more solid than arrogant wishful thinking
2. At no point during any of his reviews does he instuct that people do not play the game; he recognises that others have their own opinions and reviews are there to form and assist opinions, not instruct. So he's never said "None of you must ever play Warhammer 8th!"

I see it in other games as well, and if you want to see a spawning ground for bitter veterans look no further than Dungeons and Dragons. My word, that game divides opinion like no other. Spend 10 minutes on Youtube, guarantee you'll find someone's posted a rant to the general effect of (dorky scene kid voice) "Oh wow dude, like, no one can play D&D 4th because it's, like, totally retarded, and it's all about the combat and not about the roleplaying, and it's destroyed everything that Dungeons and Dragons is supposed to be about, and it's like, whoa..." and his mate standing next to him going "Schyeah, whoa..." No wonder I find it so hard to get a game in, if even its own demographic aren't prepared to take the game for what it is and give it a go.

I could go on, but... Basically, I find conversations with bitter veterans uncomfortable, claustrophobic and infuriating. It's ironic that they voice their opinions about games so strongly as they are the people I am least likely to listen to. Because at the end of the day, I can't help but think that most of them are moaning for it's own sake; they like to have a bit of a whinge, and because they're not enjoying something quite as much as they did before they think that none of the rest of us are allowed to enjoy it either.

Now, I'm not exactly rushing to Games Workshop or Wizards of the Coast's aid here. They're the more popular companies for roleplaying and wargames and are easy to pick on. I know GW has made some appalling decisions in the last few years that I don't agree with, but funnily enough I'm still coming back to them after 13 years... Because the plain fact is that with the popularity of their games still outstripping their competition by quite a long way, this is where the new hobbyists/gamers/roleplayers are going to come from. And by refusing to get involved in anything new, all they're doing is stifling themselves from the evolution of their own hobby. Change is going to happen - it has to. Otherwise the companies that make the games will stagnate, fold completely and you'll be left with all you've got now. It will never change, and you'll be stuck playing the same game for however long it takes you to get fed up with it.

In the spirit of this, I sometimes find myself in a position of responisbility when I'm running games; it's up to me to make sure that everybody's having a good time so that they'll come back and have another go; I'll talk about that another time.

So yeah. Not a fan of bitter veterans.

Now I've avoided saying what I think about the new edition of 40K because that's something for another blog I think. Hopefully it won't be too long before I can get some new painting blogs and some commentary on my armies out. Until then, ciao, hope you've enjoyed my thankfully rare rant and I'll see y'all again soon.

What's New for 6th Edition 40K

Been a while since I've posted! I burned out doing the Dungeons and Dragons blogs, and I haven't done much else in gaming for a while so I've not really had all that much to say. Today, however...

Been thinking a lot about the new edition of 40K out next week. I went in to Workshop today as it happens, and they gave me a card with the date on, I won't be going in. Not being funny, but even if I did want to go in on a day where they were releasing a new game so that you can't move for the amount of people in there, I am otherwise occupied that day! However, I have been thinking about what changes they're going to make, not necessarily with the rules, I've covered that already, but with what they're going to release, in what order, and why.

Well if they follow the pattern for the last edition, we're looking at a new rulebook next week, and sometime in September they're going to release a new boxed set for it. This leads to the inevitable speculation about what they're going to put in there. Obviously it'll include Space Marines, you can't not have Space Marines in a 40K boxed set, though the paint set that I understand has already been released is suggesting very strongly that it will be the Dark Angels who feature in the boxed set this time. Nothing wrong with that; Ultramarines have been in the last 2 boxed sets, so it won't hurt to show some love to the other chapters! (As far as I know, the boxed sets for 2nd and 3rd edition weren't based on any specific chapters of Space Marines, though the Blood Angels and Black Templars featured on their respective cover art.)

So, what's the other side going to be? Well, I'll tell you what it won't be: Imperial Guard, Grey Knights or Sisters of Battle. Thematically, the game needs to be straightforward 'Good vs Evil,' and while a lot of the rich drama in 40K includes the imperium of man fighting against itself for various different reasons, themes like this are things you can immerse yourself in when you're hooked, not when you're just getting into it. Ultimately, 40K is about Mankind's struggle for survival in a hostile galaxy, so it needs to be good guys vs bad guys, not good guys vs good guys with different ideas.

Nor will it be Chaos Space Marines. This is more to do with the rules than anything else, as Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines work in pretty much the same way. If you look at the stat line of both, the only real differences are that Space Marines have They Shall Know No Fear, whereas Chaos have a slightly higher leadership value. They still move in much the same way, they both need 3+ to hit when shooting, and will wound on 4+, they'll both get 4+ to hit and 4+ to wound in close combat and both get a save of 3+.

Contrast that with what we've got now in Assault on Black Reach, where Space Marines and Orks have substantially different stat lines and fight completely differently, and you start to see my point. If they go ahead and put Chaos in the boxed set, they'll have a situation where it actually won't matter which side you're playing because they both fight in the same way. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; Space Marines vs Chaos battles are always bloody and really good fun, but in a boxed set designed to get people into the hobby, you need that differentiation. People have got to feel a substantial difference when playing the two different sides. I would imagine they'd leave Necrons out of the boxed set as well, for much the same reason.

This leaves Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tau, Orks and Tryanids. Out of this lot we can write off Orks straight aways as they were in Assault on Black Reach; even Games Workshop wouldn't be so stupid as to release a boxed set that is so fundementally similar to the last one that their currently existing fanbase feel cheated. (Or at least, more cheated than they already do.) Tryanids and Dark Eldar have already featured in boxed sets as well; that doesn't necessarily mean they won't get featured again, but... I'd quite like to see the Eldar in there, if I'm honest. I think they're a race that's not seen a lot of light over the last few years, and are different enough from Space Marines to get a challenging experience of playing the opposite army if it comes to it.

Oh, and put some scenery in there as well, please. I've already covered this so I won't go into it too much but I still maintain that this is all that's been missing from AoBR.

So with the boxed set out of the way, what's next?

Surely any of the Space Marine chapters could use this?

Well, again if GW follow the regular pattern there'll be a new Space Marines codex out not long after; it'll be 2008 all over again. There's the obvious reason for it - once again, it's Space Marines, you can't not do Space Marines - but also Space Marines have now added a lot of flyers to their roster that don't feature in the current codex. I remember when the Stormraven came out and a lot of people were thinking, 'what, so you can only use it if you collect Blood Angels?'  And while the Storm Talons look good, currently you'll only be able to use them if you've got the current edition of White Dwarf in which they're featured. Of course, this update could be done with a PDF, so what other changes will they make to the Space Marines in the next codex? Over to you...

Let's see these in their own box...

For pretty much the same reason I would expect an update for the Orks in the not too distant future; their new flyers will need some new rules printed in a codex on general release. Oh, and while we're on the subject, can we have Deffkoptas out on general release as well? I really didn't want to have to buy several copies of Black Reach in order to use more than 3 of them in the army. When you think about the extra customisation options that come with the Ork vehicle kits these days, quite frankly I'm astounded they haven't done this already, but hey - it was their own game plan and they stuck to it!

Of course with Orks, GW have the added incentive that they haven't had an update since 4th edition. Actually, if they time an Ork release for early next year, not only will they be able to use that 'Januwhaaarrggghhyyy' pun again, but also there couldn't really be a better time for a new Ork codex. I think in 5th edition 40k, the Orks worked pretty much as well as they needed to. In 6th, they might need a bit more of a going over depending on how the rules change, and as the archetypical 'bad guy' army for 40K, I don't think we'll have to wait too long for a new codex.

How long have we been wating for an update to this?

Beyond that, it's difficult to say for certain. However, if it's true that they're putting Dark Angels in the new boxed set, or even if it isn't, I don't think we're too far away from a new Dark Angels codex. GW re-released most of the other non-Ultarmarines-based Space Marine armies throughout 5th edition, Dark Angels and Black Templars missed out on that to a degree but I think an update will be on the cards, if not for this year then certainly throughout the 6th edition of 40K.

Of course, there are some Space Marine chapters that have never really had their own codex. Imperial Fists, for example, Raven Guard or Iron Hands. I can sort of see the reason for this - making an army based on these chapters is really more about who and what you have in the army rather than any special rules to apply across an entire chapter. I think that's why the current Space Marine codex relies on the Chapter Tactics special rules. What do you think? Would you like to see new codexes for these armies? Or will this open too many 'power creep' doors?

Anyone else think it's time for an update?

Then there are the other armies that haven't had an update since 4th edition; Chaos, Tau and Eldar. Well if they put any of those in the boxed set (see earlier comments) then I doubt we'll be far away from a new codex as well. Now I don't know so much about Eldar but there were definitely some rules in the Tau and Chaos codex that were designed for 4th edition and work just a little bit too well in 5th. The CSM Dreadnought, for example, and which by the way is long overdue for a new model, can have a Plasma Cannon attached to it for 10 points. (With just about everything else that can use this weapon it would be about 30/40 points depending on what you were attaching it to.) Sounds horrible, until you remember that the Chaos codex was written for 4th edition when there was still such as thing as a partial hit. I suppose it makes up for it by the fact that there's a very real possibility you'll start to fry your own men with it, and also I'm pretty sure it's the only thing in the Chaos army that can use a Plasma Cannon, but it's still pretty cheap.

But the indisputable fact is that that all 3 of those armies need an update. Apart from anything else, GW have been introducing a lot of flyers into the more recent 40K armies, and Eldar and Tau's use of Anti-Grav technology lends itself to this perfectly. If GW follow the pattern I've predicted, then updates for these armies will be part of the mid-long term plan for the new edition of 40K. I hope it happens sooner rather than later though, because Necrons and Dark Eldar were screaming for an update near enough all the way through 5th edition and only really got one in the closing stages of the iteration. I just hope these armies get done before GW feel the need to release the Tryanids codex again. And Sisters of Battle need a proper update, with some new models and a proper codex. There's not much going for them at the moment and they've been missing out!

Anything else? I'm pretty sure, once enough of the armies have got Flyers, there'll be a Cites of Death/Planetstrike style expansion for 40K using mainly flyers. And why not? Dogfighting in the 40K Universe? Hell yeah, we'll have some of that! Bombing runs across an installation? Yeah, let's blow some shit up! Wow, that could work really well, and I'll be very surprised if this doesn't happen to one degree or another.

All in all, some exciting times for 40K. But hey, we need to see if the new rules are any good first. See you soon...

Dungeons and Dragons: In Search of the Unknown #3

Having found the allies in the Human Fighter Ahlo, and the Elven Rogue Estra, that he so desperately needed, The Forsaken journeyed to the stronghold once more to try to find the ever-elusive Bag of Devouring...

The first thing The Forsaken did on entering the catacombs was to journey to the Library to find out what was in the chest he spied. The addition of allies made short work of the Stormclaw Scorpion he found in there, though privately the hirelings felt that the use of the cleric's Avenging Flame was a little over the top. The chest turned out to contain nothing more than 15 gold pieces, but The Forsaken wasn't complaining. He'd have to pay his hirelings somehow...

The party stopped for a while in the Storeroom to make camp, and The Forsaken took some time to get to know his newfound companions. Ahlo was somewhat incredulous, but nonetheless explained that he had a background in the military, which ended in what he would only describe as 'some unpleasantness. With the commander's wife.' Since then, he's been working in a guard capacity for the River Rats. Estra, however, had only ever known the street life, and joined the River Rats through an offer of protection from the authorities in exchange for a cut of her 'takings.'

With the party fully refreshed and ready to move on, they first investigated the stronghold Kitchens. While there was nothing of particular use in the form of kitchen implements as weapons, The Forsaken nonetheless found a leather pouch containing 35gp, hidden under a pot in one of the cupboards. This day was just getting better and better. They then moved on to the dining room. The Forsaken sent Estra to scout ahead where she found a surprise...

Estra had always thought this sort of thing was just a joke, but it was true: The dining room featured a table 20 feet long with a chair at either end. I mean, why? What was the point? It's not like Roghan and Zelligar entertained much company; did they dislike each other to the degree that they refused to sit together for meals?

Rather less amusing were the two zombies that had caught sight of her, and The Forsaken was not at all pleased when Ahlo refused to go in and fight them. This left the Elf and the Revenant to do battle with the undead minions. The Forsaken took a savage mauling, but Estra came to the rescue and distracted one of the Zombies momentarily. This gave The Forsaken time to finish the one he was fighting and dispatch the other one, though he did make the mistake of invoking his Revenant power of dealing necrotic damage; there's little use in doing that if your victim is already dead! Estra took a beating as well, and although they both survived without serious injury, the Elf did not have much left in her...

In an antechamber just off the Dining Room, the party found a small amount of gold in a box. More interesting was the marble statue of the nude and extremely alluring woman in the centre of the room, though The Forsaken knew that, thinking objectively, they'd never be able to move it. The Forsaken lead his warband through the stronghold until he came upon the Mistresses Bedroom once more; he had not forgotten the Scorpion that nearly killed him and wanted to see what lay at the end of the door it was guarding...

They found what looked like the Master Bedroom, judging by the decor probably used by Roghan. But there was no time to investigate, as the room's current denizens were a pair of Gnolls, and they did not look as though they welcomed the intrusion. The Forsaken lead his party in a formation, and Ahlo did an impressive job of momentarily cowering the more feral of the two Gnolls, causing it to misjudge its actions and fall back, leaving itself open to attack. However, the fight was always going to be a challenge, and the fury of the gnolls was not to be underestimated. Estra, already exhausted from her fight with the Zombies, became seriously injured, and the Gnoll savagely tore into her once he'd smelled the blood. Estra collapsed onto the bed, weak and bleeding. The Forsaken and Ahlo made a fight of it, but the first Gnoll would not fall and the second fired arrows with worrying prescision; it was all The Forasken could do to make sure at least two people left the room alive.

Back in The Mistress's bedroom, The Forsaken and his hirelings licked their wounds, and took their rest. At some point they would have to return. But not yet...

Dungeons and Dragons: In Search of the Unknown #2

This week was supposed to kick off a new campaign starting with Keep on the Shadowfell, however with the people we were playing with more flaky than a packet of breakfast cereal the only person to actually turn up was Dave. So it was back into the Unknown once again, in search of riches, treasure and the Bag of Devouring...

The Forsaken awoke from his slumber in the wreck of the Wizard's Workroom where he had fought the gnome some time ago. Fresh and ready to begin his search for the Bag of Devouring, he first investigated the laboratory next door. He was a little surprised to discover a skeleton hanging over the far corner of it, and made a point of crushing its skull to prevent the skeleton from giving him a much larger surprise later on. The room did not at first appear to have much else to offer, apart from a small smoked-glass bottle on the table. The Forsaken had no way of knowing what was inside it, but he did not trust whatever substance lay within. His suspicions were confirmed when he hurled it against the wall, whereupon the gas issued forth; he never found out what the substance was, as he chose that moment to leave and allow time for the gas to dissapate... On returning to the room, The Forsaken found amongst other things a coffin propped up against the wall; he cracked it open to find what he recognised as an Amulet of Protection. With the memory of the battle with the Scorpion still etched in his mind, he took the amulet and continued on...

He remembered there was another secret door in the opposite side of the door and went across to investigate what the denizens of the dungeon would want to keep hidden from view. He found a simple store room with around 60 barrels full of things like meat, salt and coal. Some of the foodstuffs were a little stale but it survival became an issue, the Forsaken now knew where he could find something to eat. There was, however, one little problem...

Fearsome, if not particularly accurate...

Out of nowhere, a spider leapt at the Forsaken. Perhaps due to the surprise, the spider misjudged the attack and did not manage to do any damage to the Forsaken, who was having none of it and brought his bastard sword around for an attack. The spider suffered a substantial blow and leapt off to hide within the barrels. Not wishing to play a game of hide and seek with a creature with half his size and eight times his agility, The Forsaken stomped off to where there were no barrels in the room. The spider crawled across the barrels, lined up his attack and made a powerful leap towards the Revenant Cleric, only to have the Cleric dodge out of the way just in time and the spider slammed into the wall. A little dazed, it was unable to respond as The Forsaken cut off a couple of its legs, but it made a ferocious counter attack, biting the Revenant but never quite managing to poison him. Eventually the spider, tired from a fight it hadn't a hope of winning, was impaled by the sword, then unceremoniously scraped off.

The fight had tired The Forsaken as well, so he was pleased to find amonst the barrels a small box containing a little gold in there. He was less pleased to discover on leaving the room that a couple of barbaric humans had ambused him, after hearing the commotion with the spider in the other room. When The Forsaken, not being one to suffer fools, had satisfied himself that there was nothing helpful or even intelligent that either of these men had to say to him, he dispatched them both very quickly.

The Forsaken continued to search the dungeon. Now that the Raven Queen had given him the task of finding the Bag of Devouring, he knew he must leave no stone unturned until he found it. Returning to the bedroom he had originally slept in, he broke open some closets in there to find a substantial amount of gold that should see him proud, should he ever have cause to spend it. He happened across what appeared to be a library, which had what looked like a small chest in there. However as the library had also become home to another Stormclaw Scorpion, The Forsaken decided that if it came to it, he should hire help to clear the dungeon. This feeling was further enforced when he came across a different room where a Carrion Crawler had made its nest....

Things became more interesting for The Forsaken when he entered a room with a glowing, blue gem on a plinth. When he tried to pick it up, it became apparent that neither the gem nor the plinth was going anywhere. However, when he then left the room, he appeared to be in a completely different place. Confused, the Revenant walked along the ever-twisting corridors, and arrived at a blacksmith's forge. There was little there of value to him; the weapons there were useful but not in comparison to the bastard sword he was already using. The forge lead onto another room, which appeared to be a storage room for the fuel for the furnance in the forge. There was also a pit dug there, with an iron ring to tie a rope around, but before he could investigate further there was an interruption...

Really didn't want anyone else going in that hole...

The ghostly spirit of a fallen warrior accosted the Forsaken and began a furious assault, tearing into his undead flesh. The Revenant fought back for a while, but the insubstantial form of the ghost proved too much for him to keep up for long. Instead, he tried to find out why the ghost was attacking him, reasoning that as they were both undead, they should have a certain kinship about them...

The plan appeared to work. The ghost, for his own reasons, seemed to want to prevent anybody from going down the hole. The Forsaken informed the ghost that this would not be necessary; he was looking for The Bag of Holding and asked the ghost if he knew where it was. The ghost didn't know, but appeared satisfied that it was not the Forsaken's intention to go into the hole. With some difficulty, the ghost raised a finger, pointed at the logs and said 'over there...'

It looked like this...

The logs turned out to be concealing a magical mace. While not particularly stronger than his bastard sword, the Forsaken recognised that it had the potential to increase his output of damage, so he chose to take it and use it in the upcoming fights. However, his experience in the dungeon had convinced him that he could not complete his task alone. He decided to venture back to Fallcrest, to look for reinforcements, and he knew just where to start...

In the Lower Keys, where the River Rats group were bullying early morning traders into paying more than they should for the goods they were taking on, The Forsaken stood silently, and was eventually met by Carson, the man who'd sent him on the quest to the dungeon in the first place. After handing over the statuette of the Raven Queen as insurance, the Forsaken was instructed to return to him in the evening where Carson would provide him with some reinforcements. He needed time to search for people low-key enough so that no one would notice if they went missing and certainly couldn't accompany The Forsaken himself, but he'd find someone...

Coming next week...

Ahlo, the Human Fighter

Ezra, the Elven Rogue

Dungeons and Dragons: In Search of the Unknown #1

Narrator (DM): Matt
The Forsaken (Revenant Cleric): Dave

The tower stood on the rise of a hill beyond the Winterbole Forest. Far from the dubios protection of the Nentir Vale, along way from any of his former allies and with no reason to still be alive, the Revenant known only as The Forsaken stood in contemplation of the events that lead him to seek out the fabled stronghold...

Hitherto he had metered out a a pitiful existence in the town of Fallcrest, hiding by day and moving by night, visiting ferocious retribution on those who sought to take what was not theirs. Until one evening, he was approached by Carton from the irreputable band of miscreants, the River Rats. Carton told him of a tower, North of the Vale. Carton said that the tower, and the stronghold beneath, once belonged to great heroes of legend, Roghan the Fearless and Zelligar the Unknown. He said that some years ago, the two heroes set off into the barbaric Northen lands to fight the bandits that roamed the area, and never returned. In their abandoned fortress lies riches, treasure and equipment of stupendous quality that was there for the taking. Carton demanded 20% of the total of whatever The Forsaken managed to get from there. The Revenant agreed and began his journey, knowing that a promise made did not have to be the same as a promise kept.

Nonetheless, the idea that a fortress full of gold and riches that was abandoned by heroes troubled The Forsaken. Such wealth and Fame was not given up lightly, and it was all too possible that Roghan and Zelligar were still there, waiting for someone to try to take their gold...

The Twisting Halls

Still, he had not come this far to back out now. The Forsaken found the entrance to the stronghold set in the South side of a stony hill, and made his way into the tunnel to find a wooden door. The door appeared closed, but the chips on the wood suggested someone had recently tried to make a forced entry. Undaunted, The Forsaken stepped over the threshold to find a long corridor of substantial masonry, with alcoves set into the walls at regular intervals. The Forsaken could not detect the presence of anything there, but he still moved through the hall with considerable caution. When he drew level with the alcoves, awful voices surrounded him, filling the corridors and echoing sounds of loathing and dread:

"WHO DARES ENTER THIS PLACE AND INTRUDE UPON THE SANCTITY OF ITS INHABITANTS? ONLY A FOOLHARDY EXPLORER, DOOMED TO CERTAIN DEATH! WOE TO ANYONE WHO PASS THIS PLACE - THE WRATH OF ZELLIGAR AND ROGAHN WILL BE UPON THEM!"


After recovering from this very nasty surprise, The Forsaken ventured towards the first cross section where he was met with a grisly sight - the aftermath of a battle, where at least five people died. Three of them looked like adventurers; a fighter, a wizard and a Dwarf. The other three looked like Barbarians. The Forsaken examined their bodies for any sign of life, but their essence of life had long since slipped away...

With the feeling that this meant nothing good, and perhaps a little out of his depth, The Forsaken took some time in choosing the right hand path. When he came upon another crossroads, he carried straight on to the end of the corridor where he saw two doors. Trying the first, he found it had little to offer but another corridor. Opening the second, he found himself in what appeared to be a bedroom.

The Mistress' Chamber


The Forsaken examined this room with some suspicion. Rather than the formulaic stone masonry that had done little to capture his imagination so far, this room was ornately decorated with a four-post bed, a mirror and a tapestry depicting what appeared to be the rescue of a beautiful maiden from a burning village, by a handsome and robust warrior. Embroidered in gold on the top read "Melissa, the most dearly won and greatest of all my treasures." However, the room was dusty and had obviously not been used for some time. The Forsaken tried some of the draws and closets; some were locked and he chose not to disturb the locks. Far more interesting to him was a difference in the colour of the stone on the far wall...

Proved too big a match for The Forsaken...

He decided to investigate, and found a secret door leading into a dark tunnel. It was narrow, and not long, but The Forsaken never saw what was on the other side. Running at him with a determination to defend its lair was a Stormclaw Scorpion, which lost no time in securing a grip on The Forsaken. The Revenant managed to shake him off and landed a blow on the Scorpion, using his considerable power to heal his wound. However the Scorpion's tough carapace proved too much to do any significant damage. The Scorpion made another grab, and this time The Forsaken was unable to shake it off. The Scorpion lashed out with its tail, stinging The Forsaken twice and injecting him with poison. Realising that there was no way he would survive another round with the Scorpion, The Forsaken made the wise decision to cut his losses and get away. While in the bedroom, he locked himself in and slipped into an uneasy rest, in order to get the poison out of his system...

The Wizard's Workroom


Feeling somewhat refreshed, The Revenant re-investigated the left-hand path from the original scene of the bloodbath, and found himself down a long, twisting corridor. After nearly breaking his foot trying to force open a locked door, he happened upon a junction that had a possibility of three directions. He chose to head South, and immediately noticed that there was a couple of concealed doors. After taking the left hand door, he found himself in what looked like a workroom, in some disorder. There was a mess of glass containers of chemical compounds on a desk in the middle of the room, a stone table with a lid and a table that had been kicked over.

Investigating, he found the items rather mundane; some were empty, some had crushed charcoal, and some had obsidian, but nothing of use. However, from the table that had been kicked over sprang the Workroom's current occupant - a mischievous, rude and very angry Gnome...

Small, mean and fiercely territorial...

The Gnome scurried towards The Forsaken and made an immediate attack with his War Pick. However The Forsaken was not going to be intimidated by such a ridiculous-looking creature, and called upon the power of darkness to inflict several lacerations on the Gnome. Sensing what kind of danger he was in, the Gnome faded into the shadows and scuttled away, however The Forsaken knew enough about gnomes to know that the fight was far from over. He went over to the stone table to heal his wounds, whereupon the Gnome attacked him again, this time inflicting a savage blow. The Forsaken called upon the aid of his deity, The Raven Queen, who obliged by lifting the lid from the Stone table and smashing it into the Gnome. Having already taken a ferocious slap from The Forsaken's Bastard Sword, the Gnome was exhausted but not quite out of the fight. Both sides stepped away, and The Forsaken used his reserves of strength to move out of the Gnome's range. The Gnome, not to be outdone, skipped onto the table, smashing most of the glass containers, and took a pot-shot at the Revenant with his crossbow. The shot found its mark, and The Forsaken knew he would not win the fight through inaction. He ploughed forward and lunged at the Gnome with his sword, driving it into the creatures chest. He watched, satisfied, as the life of the creature ebbed away.

There will be a price to pay...


On searching the room, The Forsaken looked inside the table with the lid now off. Inside, pinned to a bronze statuette of The Raven Queen lined with silver and copper, was a note. There was, according to the note, hidden somewhere in the stronghold the Bag of Devouring. The Forsaken was to obtain that bag, and see that it gets to Kelson in Fallcrest. And not to be too long about it either; The Raven Queen does directly control the minions of the dungeon, but she knows they were there... and that some of them had once been alive...

Join us next time for more Dungeon-Crawling Goodness!

matt

Thunderstone, 23/2/2012

Our most recent foray into the dungeons of Grimhold was a little one sided on my part but it's worth mentioning how it all went down. Udead - Doom, Enchanted and Doomnights were our enemies for this game, and the heroes were Lorigg Thieves, Redblades, Clerics and Amazons. This was an interesting set of heroes actually because they're all relatively low power, and with almost no magic power going around for the first few rounds, we were going to have to rely on wit, guile and cunning in order to secure victory in the dungeon.

We had quite a lucky draw of monsters as well in a sense, because our first few opponents were relatively low-powered. This gave me the opportunity to get into the dungeon early and rack up some kills, even though in some cases I hadn't even got a hero. (I'd got militia, but you know what I mean.) It did also mean I got some disease cards; you can't avoid it with Undead - Doom, but in the Thunderstone game you can at least get rid of that card in a round so it didn't bother me too much.
Dave hadn't cottoned on to this and spent the first few turns trying to build up some forces, so when he did eventually decide to venture into the dungeon, most of the easy monsters had gone...

We found our way blocked by a couple of high-powered monsters that needed a very strong attack before they would go down. A couple of them also had the added effect of killing one of the fighters. The obvious tactic at this point was to go into battle without a fighter - after all, it was only the Redblades that counted as fighters. However, it became apparent to me that there was no way we were going to manage this, as the thieves, clerics and archers we had left couldn't come up with a powerful enough attack. I was well ahead of Dave by then and I knew it, so I had to make an uncomfortable decision that I could afford to lose a Redblade Assassin (as good as it gets, and the top level heroes also grant victory points) to take out some of those high-powered monsters.

We also came up against a monster that could only be hurt by magic; I got around this by drawing a top level Cleric who is strong enough to use a polearm, which brings their attack power up to 6, then drawing the arcane energies card that converted all attacks with weapons into magical attacks. It was  a tricky manouvre but I'm quite pleased that I pulled it off!

Nasty little beast, this...

The other monster that gave us some grief was Blink Dog, part of the Enchanted set, that can't be attacked if any light penalty applies. I'd stocked up on torches and lanterns but this is really where the Thieves became useful, as the higher level cards come with light bonuses. That way, I managed to use a combination of Thieves and Amazons to take out the Blink Dogs. The Amazon's thing is their attacks become more powerful in the second level of the Dungeons. It doesn't really work if you don't have any light because the penalites would negate this anyway but all of the hero cards in Thunderstone are best used in combinations, and Amazons are no exception.

By the time we found the Thunderstone, it was a bit late in the day for Dave to pull it back, but fair play to him for making a fight out of it. By then, I had so many monsters that I was drawing one in almost every hand, and very few of them worked to my advantage so I found myself having to deal with this. This might have given Dave some room to rack up some points, but it was too little too late for him, as I found the Thunderstone. The final score was 54-15, so quite an easy victory for me.

That's twice I've won it now so I'm at level pegging with Dave. I think for this game, you really need to be aware of what everything does together so that you can use it to its best effectiveness. That's not easy, since it changes each time, but it's working a damn sight better than picking a strategy for the game and sticking to it (a popular wargaming effort, but it's not a wargame!) Also, it's a good idea to remember that if you can go in for an attack, it's a good idea to do it, otherwise you leave the other players open to take their own spoils!

Then again, Dave also plays Resident Evil, which works in a similar way but rewards caution to a certain extent because you don't know what you're going to be attacking from one round to the next...

31/1/2012: Aye, Dark Overlord

Hi,

So this is part of a project I'm involved with for work. This one is actually going up around one or two other blog sites that Coady Consultants use, but I thought I'd put it here anyway because it's actually quite good to see how I'm turning a very entertaining hobby in to something I can use in a professional environment. So, what we have is an introduction from John, the Head Consultant, Company Director and also my Dad, and then I'll make a few comments about what I've seen while playing the game:

John:

Our work is all about relationships, productive ones between us and our customers that often present us with an opportunity to try something that is hopefully different and memorable: we hope!

The Director of an innovatory and outward facing team from one of our major clients-a local university-was involved in a feedback exercise related to Conflict Styles. The activity was originally used with the University’s mediators and Dignity at Work Advisers. As our conversation developed the possibility of an extended Team Development Day was discussed and we are due to deliver towards the end of February 2012.

We tend to work along the (to me at any rate) pretty obvious lines that we learn better when we’re having some fun and even though it’s taken some knocks of late, the application of multiple intelligences still holds up for me. There’s a superb piece on TED and YouTube by Sir Kenneth Robinson called “Shifting the Paradigm” in which he present a cogent and enjoyable argument that we’ve tested the joy out of learning: it reminds me that there’s a range of approaches that are valid, have value beyond the event and help us to understand a little more about each other and ourselves.

So, at our next Team development Day, we are going to use a fantasy role play game that requires participants to think on their feet and shift blame: some might argue that this is and has been the primary survival tool for a successful career! Machiavelli would have “got it” straight away.
 

We’ve employed an enthusiastic game player/developer with a view to expanding the approaches we use to Team Days and other areas of our work: watch this space! So it’s now over to my elder son, Matt to talk about the specifics.

Matt: 31/1/2012: Aye, Dark Overlord at the University

This came about as an introductory session to a portion of a development day that Coady Consultants are organising at the University. My part of the day involves running this activity for the team after the lunch break, and we are having four ‘observers’ to comment on the behaviour of their colleagues during the game and to what extent they show the various skills and attitudes that would be conducive to having a good game, and also for getting on effectively in the workplace.

I’ve covered how the game works before in my gaming blog; this and the whole story for how this came about will be in a future blog about the event itself. However, for the purposes of this piece, I would like to discuss a couple of things I’ve observed as I’ve played the game.

The game works incredibly differently between different demographics. The players still have to do the same things to win (or at least, to avoid losing,) but the style of play varies hugely. I’ve noticed the following things about the people I’ve played it with:

The Family

Playing Aye, Dark Overlord! with my family was absolutely hysterical. We played it on Christmas Day in the evening and it was great fun watching everyone being the Dark Overlord; we were really playing up to the role and it was great to see how differently we all did it. Seeing my brother lost for words is a very rare occurrence and I will savour the moment for many years to come. And given the fact that there is generally – across a great many people – a certain prejudice towards the themed games I tend to play, it was great to see one that the family could pick up reasonably quickly and have a play. Great stuff.

The Club

I took it down to the Black Country Roleplaying Society where I go every Thursday, to see how the game played in its own demographic. The guys with whom I played it were all what we might consider seasoned gamers; they know how card games work and they play to win. They had the right idea, but it seemed to be less about having a laugh with it and more about making sure that they didn’t lose. It was still fun, though.

The Professionals

I won’t pretend that I didn’t approach the idea of playing a game like this with academic professionals in the middle of a working day with some trepidation. But at the University, the game actually went as well as I think anybody could have expected. We had already covered the behaviours and skills we were looking for on the day and the team were making sure of the things that were important – speaking clearly, making sure everybody got a turn and at the same time having a bit of fun with what for many of them was an unfamiliar activity! I also saw the team turn the game right around on its head, and all start working together as a team to overthrow the Dark Overlord by coming up with an explanation he had no choice but to be satisfied with. I don’t know what the team do on a day-to-day basis, but if the accommodating and collaborative style they showed here isn’t conducive to a great working environment, I don’t know what is.

So, three different groups, and almost literally three different games! One thing that didn’t change, though, was the fun. We always enjoyed it. And I’m looking forward to running the activity at the Univeristy in a few weeks’ time, to give some light relief in to what is promising to be an enlightening and very productive day for the team – and, it seems, for Coady Consultants.