Inexpensive Retro PC Gaming

     Did you ever wonder what happens to old computer games that disappear off the shelves? Unlike console games that continue their lives through the used game market, PC games tend to die off and become useless after one owner. Typically the only way to find these games is by stumbling upon them at garage sales, or thrift stores; that or downloading them once they become freeware. I recently found a much simpler way of finding many of my favorite games.
     Recently a friend pointed me to www.gog.com to purchase myself the Might & Magic Heroes Collection series which happened to be a huge part of gaming life in my school days. GoG currently offers 551 games, including several of which they give you for free. All of the games I have purchased and downloaded seemed to be updated to run easily on windows 7.
     Most recently I picked up a copy of every D&D game they had for under 20$. Now We Hate Bards is playing out some Neverwinter Nights 2, for which GoG has provided a list of servers and games that are still up. They also have great hits like Fallout and Fallout 2, System Shock 2, and many more. Go take a look and see what you can find, and don't forget to let us know what you older games you still play.

Dead or Alive You're Coming With Me

If you have not heard all ready a Robocop reboot movie is in the works.  A new graphic novel is also in the works set to drop in August.  But all that does not compare to this:



     That's right, what you're looking at is a 10 foot tall statue of Robocop to be cast in bronze and placed in my hometown of Detroit.  They used a kickstarter to fund the project a while back, and also check out the article they have put together at Slashfim.  I could not be more excited about this.

YouTube Adventures and Time wasters

We all know that YouTube is a huge time suck.  You find one video, that leads to another, then another.  Next thing you know it’s 3am and you have to work in the morning.  Well, get ready to be tired at work tomorrow because I’m about to suck away a large chunk of your free time.

If you are a nerd (and, lets face it, if you’re reading this blog, you are) there are several web series you should be watching.  Some are informative, some are silly, all are entertaining.

Journey Quest - http://www.journey-quest.com/

Journey Quest has two seasons under it’s belt and is a must see for anyone who enjoys Terry Pratchet, D&D, or fantasy in general.  It follows a very dedicated fighter, a rather unfortunate cleric, an elven ranger, a cowardly wizard, an ambitious bard, a troupe of Orcs and various others.  It’s funny, entertaining, and highly quotable.

Nuka Break  - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5E9CAB444A9CECB8

If you love Fallout, you will love Nuka Break.  Started as a one shot short it has now expanded into a two season webshow.  A vault dweller, a Ghoul and a wastelander are on a journey together.  Each has their own goal but they know you can’t survive in the waste alone.  It’s action packed and filled with great one liners.

TableTop - http://tabletop.geekandsundry.com/

If you don’t know who Wil Wheaton is you can just go ahead and leave right now, the rest of you know that he is a true nerd icon.  Wil loves tabletop games in all their forms.  Tabletop is a show where Wil Wheaton and an assortment of his friends play a tabletop game.  It not only shows how to play but shows actual gameplay and stratagy.  Extremely informative and it will make you want to buy more games and become Wil Wheaton’s friend.

The Guild - http://www.watchtheguild.com/

The Guild follows a fictional MMORPG guild in the real world.  They become friends “IRL” and try to help each other navigate real world life. None of them seem to have their real lives nearly as together as their in game avatars do.

PAX DnD sessions - http://pennyarcade.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_D%26D_Podcasts

Gabe, Tycho, Wil Wheaton and Scott Kurtz play D&D with Kris Staub, of Wizards of the Coast, as the DM.  Most of the sessions are played in 4th edition but the most recent one is D&D Next.  If you are interested in learning about 4th edition or getting a sneak peak at Next these are very informative.  If you want to watch 4 very funny people play D&D in front of a room filled with other nerds you will be highly entertained.  The link will bring you to podcasts but you can watch the sessions on YouTube as well.

What do you think is a “can’t miss” video or video series for nerds on the web? Let us know in the comments!

Silly Concepts Like Bardic Immunity

Often times when someone in our group run's out of ideas for their current project, we look to the web to find other creative ideas to inspire us. One such gem is a very comedic approach to a fantasy RPG from the good folks over at JourneyQuest. Take a look at Episode 1 below and share one of our favorite web series. 

Character and Settings

In some situations, it can take hours, or even days to plan a game with enough content that will hold the attention of your adventuring party. Well, your in luck! We've found a few online Generators that may help in the planning process.

• First and one of our favorite random generators comes from Chaotic Shiny which is a great tool for creating the various forces that shape your story and drive your characters. 
• To fill that world with characters use a character generator like Pathguy's.  Just take a look under the Fun section, this site has a bunch of goodies for character generation, and offers generators for nearly any system that are all really easy to use.
• Finally to flesh out the world and fill it with those pesky minions, a random generator like Hail Scape's. This will keep the adventurers distracted with plenty of individuals to interact with or destroy as they see fit.

All of these and more are located in our Toolkit section. Be sure to bookmark it for all your future needs.

Review- Tomb of Horrors

System Used- Dungeons and Dragons 3.5
Module Length- 4-5 sessions
Challenge Rating- Exceptional Hard
Number of Players- 4-6 9th Level

Is the Tomb of Horror as bad as its reputation?  Those who have not heard of the Gary Gygax module that chewed through parties of adventurers should know that it is all true.  The Tomb of Horrors, an updated version played with Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, is a masterpiece of a bygone era.  The traps are deadly, the monsters are tough to beat, and the layout is confusing, but that just adds to the challenge of the module.  If you are thinking of playing this module, skip to the bottom link, Spoilers Ahead.  The basic back story is an ancient lich named Acererak has a tomb that is rumored to have an immense treasure hold.  So being a party of adventurers that could be motivated by greed for the money or goodness for the destruction of the lich you all venture out to the tomb.  The conclusion to this story is that most or all of the party is going to die. 

          The lethality rate is no exaggeration.  During my groups playthrough we lost an immense amount of characters.  There were more than what is listed but I'm going to give a few highlights:

·        Drang- Half Orc Barbarian, killed by a four armed stone gargoyle thing.

·        Erwin/Erwinnia- Human Paladin, changed sexes and alignment to Chaotic Evil.  Killed another party member, Cameron, and took off to sell fake maps to the tomb to future adventurers.

·        Voice- Pixie Rogue, killed once by a trapped green slime tapestries, killed again by having her soul sucked out by a lich-like construct

·        Necromancer(could not remember the name)- Killed by another party member who was mind controlled, Krag.

·        Cameron- Halfling Rogue, killed by Erwin/Erwinnia by slitting his throat in the night.

·        Gthork- Half Orc Barbarian, killed by having soul sucked out by lich-like construct

·        Blerty- Gnome Cleric, wanted to go home, made a wish on a cursed wishing stone, incinerated.

·        Kylsyne- Halfling Rogue- Soul sucked out by lich-like construct

·        Astra- Half Elf Cleric- Had alignment changed to Chaotic Evil, incinerated by cursed wishing stone

·        Celesta- Elf Druid- Soul sucked out by lich-like construct

·        Krag- Half Ogre Fighter, killed by Astra after he became dominated by a brain in a jar.

·        Uusteen- Mind Flayer Sorcerer, had alignment changed to Lawful Good, killed by being disintegrated by a false lich

·        Trev Rockbreaker- Dwarf Cleric, killed by having soul sucked out by lich-like construct.

 To be fair this module does exactly what it set out to do, create problems and ingenious traps that a party cannot hack and slash their way to victory.  This is a thinking-man’s module, but even then the answers are often only clear after some trial and error, and a few dead adventurers.

Who should play this module- Veteran D&D players, old school Save or Die 2nd edition players, and players who need a good humbling.

Who should not play this module- New players to RPGs or Dungeons and Dragons in general, players who love the style and feel of 4^th edition D&D.

Overall, the module rates as 3 out of 5 Dead Bards - The module is a classic on Gygax masochism and does not play well with all groups, but it is recommended to run through this at least once.  Your character may not live, but that is the point.

 You can download the module for free HERE from wizards.

Holy Snap It's a Post

Well if you accidentally stumbled upon this site, and now you are terribly confused as to whats going on, or do your friends constantly ask you why you arn't going out on Saturday night and you would much rather hang out in your friends basement, then send them to this link where Wizard explains D&D for you.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/whatisdnd

The only girl in the room

Being a female who works in IT, plays video games, enjoys board games, loves Dungeons and Dragons (or really any role playing system), loves SciFi and Fantasy movies and books, reads manga and watches anime puts me in a rather of small circle of girls. I get weird stares when I walk into a comic shop or a gaming shop.  Most clerks just assume I’m in there against my will or that I’m there to get a gift for one of the men in my life.  I am a unicorn.  Many have heard tell of my kind, but few believed.

Over the years my tribe has grown, we aren’t so few and far between now.  I know quite a few girls who are interested in a lot of the same things I am, I even game regularly with two such girls!  Even though there are more of us it seems people still don’t believe we exist. We have to prove our nerd cred at every turn. Having guys ask if I know what Monty Python is, or if you know the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek is kind of insulting (honestly, if you want to really stump me ask “what is the difference between a Coach purse and a Louis Vuitton purse?”) Pro tip boys, if you want to test a nerd’s cred (boy or girl) ask who was the better Captain, Kirk or Picard?  Every nerd worth their salt has an opinion on that.

Now, I know this blog isn’t about nerd girls, heck, I know a lot of you don’t even want to hear about it but there are plenty of us out there that are just at least as hard core as you, dear reader.  So please, be kind to ladies at the table, online, in the comic book store, or in the computer section.  Don’t belittle, talk down to, or assume anything about them.  If you want to meet girls, it helps if they are in to the same stuff you are. So try not to frighten them away.

If you ARE a nerd girl, or you want to know more about us, here are a few sites that are written by nerd girls of various types

http://www.notinthekitchenanymore.com/
http://thebloggess.com/
http://teamunicornftw.com/
http://feliciaday.com/
http://justnerdgirlproblems.tumblr.com/
http://www.nerdgirlarmy.com/

If you know of one I've missed leave it in the comments!

Married to a GM

I am a gamer in my own right, I enjoy playing tabletop RPGs in various systems and in many different settings.  But when you are married to a GM you end up playing systems and in settings you don’t like if they need more players (as you often do).  I have found myself playing in campaigns I find nearly painful out of love for my husband multiple times.

I am married to a Call of Cthulhu mad man.  Call of Cthulhu is the system I dislike playing most.  I’ve gone mad and been eaten by possessed/evil/evil possessed things more times than I like to think about.  I feel like there is no way to win CoC. I don’t mind losing, but if I have no hope of there ever being a good ending it’s hard for me to invest in a game.  But when there just aren’t enough players it becomes my job to fill in the gaps.  I know the system, I know the rules, I understand what the setting is, I’ve got my own dice so I have to fill that empty seat at the table.  If he has a new campaign that he’s written and needs to test it, I’m always in the first go around and a lot of times I’m in the second and third too.

If I get out of playing in a CoC campaign, either due to having enough players or because I’ve earned a reprieve for the night or because we just can’t find a sitter, I do get to help brainstorm for the campaign or help make props.  Once I even got to be a secret helper in a CoC campaign and moved things around and made noises, I even put a cow tongue on a player’s character sheet when he was out of the room.  I get to help set the mood, and that is one of my favorite parts of being a GM’s spouse.

Now, it’s not all CoC all the time, there are other systems that he runs and I happily participate in those (even RIFFS, although I hate making characters in that system).  Because my husband is such an RPG nut I get to experience lots of different systems that your standard role player might not get to dabble in.  Because he has forced me into systems and situations outside of my comfort zone he has made me a better role player.  I am quicker to adapt and end up knowing a bit about every system, even if it’s one I've never played, because he has talked at length about it.

I know some GMs that can’t resist telling their significant other details of their campaigns even when their significant other is playing in the campaign.  Not my husband.  He won't even leave his notes lying about on the off chance I might see them.  I’m never given an edge, he doesn’t go easy on me, he doesn't save my character from a terrible death or a fate worse than death just because I’m his wife, and frankly, I appreciate that.  At that table, with the battle mat out and dice at the ready, I’m just another player and he’s just another GM.  

Unless it’s CoC.  Then he’s a terrible person and I’m there against my will.

2 Gamers, 1 Console

At some point or another I think anyone who plays video games ends up in a situation where two people want to play video games but there is no way they can both play what they want at the same time.  Whether its siblings, roommates, or even parents and kids you end up having to share.  And while sharing is caring, I want to play my game right now damn it! You've had your turn!

Our house is no different.  And while we both have other hobbies that don’t involve video games, inevitably, one of us will want to play their game while the other is playing theirs.  As we are grown adults one of us will normally ask if we can play for a while, and normally we are reasonable people.  But some days we just both want to play.

There a few different approaches to this dilemma:

Take Turns
Seems easy enough.  I play for an hour and then you play for an hour.  Normally I like to watch others play video games almost as much as I enjoy playing them, so this can be win win.  But, if you are in the middle of a quest and your hour is up, now what?  Do you get to finish the quest?  Does that mean the other person tacks on some time to their hour? What if your quest ends up taking you 2 hours and now there is no time for the other person to play?  Taking turns is nice, but not perfect.

First come, First serve
The law of the wasteland! If you are first to the console, you get to play.  End of story.  When you are done, and only when you are done, someone else can play.  Certainly not fair, but neither is life, suck it up Nancy!

Multiplayer
This works well if both parties are into the same type of game.  If one of you likes hack and slash and the other likes puzzle games, you might have a harder time.  This also works better if you are at near the same skill level. A pro and a n00b will end up at each others throats in multiplayer unless the pro is very gracious.

Schedule
Make up a schedule of what time each of you gets the console. This, like communism, looks good on paper, but doesn't tend to work great in reality.  Life happens and the next thing you know your time on the schedule has come and gone and there was never an opportunity to even get the game out of its box.

Double Down
Buy another system. And another TV.  Also, if you like the same games, you are going to need to get two copies. Now you have two of everything, no more fighting.  You will also be eating Ramen noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner for a while.  Tastes like progress.

Critical Fails: Fighter Discrimination

     Anyone who has ever played a D20 based system knows to hate the dreaded 1 roll and love the 20. I have long argued with many a game-master over the nonsense that is a critical fail chart. My problem with it extends not from early on in game-play, such as in traditional low level campaigns, however it truly begins at mid-level and becomes a large upset towards high levels. The problem is that as a character advances beyond the 10th level or possibly lower depending on your campaign, they are greatly beyond the real of normal men, and into the realm of legendary hero's. With the standard base attack bonus system implemented in D&D 3.5, Starwars, and D20 Modern, a high BAB class such as a fighter, has many more attacks each round than a low BAB class such a wizard. The lower BAB classes also have unique class abilities, or magic, or Jedi powers that counter this over sight against melee smash characters. This one action per turn character is significantly less likely to roll that dreaded 1 than a ranger making five attacks with both weapons. This could be logical since doing more things raises the opportunity of screwing up, however the whole point the BAB system is that it measures proficiency and a truly heroic character of meta-human capabilities, as most characters should be, is beyond the realm of a normal man's failure.
     My philosophy as a GM is that the characters are always individuals who answer the call to become more than they could be as non-heroes. It's not about realism, or really bringing the players down, its about being in a fantasy world where you can achieve that greater than normal feeling, whether heroic or villainous, no one wants to be average. Most of the time, my NPC's and monsters are incapable of scoring that devastating critical hit on players, this may lesson some of the suspense for the characters in the drab between boss fights, but at the end of the day I actually want my players to become more attached to their characters and not keep that bit of detachment that comes from the inevitable fear of failure or poor luck.