Category: Games

“Can Jim Darkmagic hang upside down from a rope ladder and cast spells? Fuck yeah he can.”

Posted on By Wil

Episode three of the Penny Arcade/PVP/Me D&D Podcast is online!

Part 3 continues with a visit down the hole in the broken tower….

Something is waiting for them (and their rope ladder), but who (or what)? First down, Binwin the dwarf… where he discovers a room that was never finished, though it is occupied.

It's time for doughnuts, rope ladders, hanging from the ceiling—and for Binwin to drop into the midst of more followers of Orcus. How do things go? Well, here's the last line of the episode: "That is as bad as it could possibly be."

Several astute listeners have pointed out that I made an epic – and I mean eh-puh-hic fuck up when we played – I failed to account for Aeofel Elhromanë's weapon proficiency bonus, and his magic longsword, which means that should have added +4 to … a lot of rolls. We realized this shortly after the final encounter, and I felt incredibly stupid. In fact, I still feel incredibly stupid; I should have known better. Believe it or not, I was so excited to play 4E, so excited to play my Avenger, and so excited to be playing with my friends, I just overlooked it.

Anyway, in this episode, I confessed to everyone playing that I loved listening to the first series of podcasts (not much of a confession, really, because I'd mentioned this at PAX, at Comic-Con, at Emerald City Comicon, and then at PAX again) and pointed out that, as a fan of the original, I knew what it was like to hear them talking about cool stuff, without actually describing to us what the cool stuff was. So for the rest of the day, I gave little descriptions of what we were all seeing, so listeners would have some extra information to use when they imagined what it would have been like if they were in the room with us.

Extra-astute listeners may notice that the donuts arrive, and I actually eat one. Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of donuts, but from time to time, even I fail my save versus devil's food with rainbow jimmies.

the big dog-men live very high in the caves

Posted on By Wil

The fourth edition Dungeon Master’s Guide is the DM’s guide I’ve wanted to read since I was a kid. Unlike previous editions, which were filled with all kinds of stat blocks and very little information on actually running a game, the 4E DMG could also be called The Art of Dungeon Mastering, because that’s pretty much what it is.

I mention this because I just saw a new release from Wizards that is another one of those “Where have you been all my life?” releases:

Dungeon Delve has been released! Dungeon Delve is designed for groups looking for an exciting night of monster-slaying without the prep time. It contains dozens of self-contained easy-to-run mini-dungeons, or “delves,” each one crafted for a few hours of game-play.The book includes delves for 1st- to 30th-level characters, and features dozens of iconic monsters for the heroes to battle. Dungeon Masters can run these delves as one-shot adventures or weave them into their campaign.

We all love a nice long campaign that starts in The Dales, and five years later lands us all at Baldur’s Gate before we head to the Outer Planes to battle the gods themselves, but sometimes you just want to grab your sword, head into the nearest hole in the ground, and whack as many Kobolds as you can, you know?

One of the great strengths of 4E, in my opinion, is that it lends itself perfectly to this type of instagaming, while it also supports the longer campaigns we all grew up loving to play. I really wish more of my fellow gamer geeks would understand this, instead of treating it as a failing or a reason to dismiss 4E without even playing it. I think it’s awesome that Wizards has released a book that contains a ton of pre-built dungeons that can be run as one-shots and finished in an evening, because it means more people will get to play more often. As much as I love gaming, I’ve pretty much given up on ever being able to have a weekly D&D group again; I just don’t have the time. Quick one-and-dones, as my friend calls them, are perfect for guys like me who love gaming and want to play, but can’t commit to something on a regular basis.

in which i send a naughty d20 to the “fuck off” bag

Posted on By Wil

The second episode of the Penny Arcade D&D podcast is online, so if you've been shivering with antici…pation since we rolled for initiative last week, grab yer boots and get ready to dance:

Part 2 continues with a roll for initiative!

Acquisitions Inc. gets the drop on the sheltering guards (with faces painted like skulls), opening up with a brutal tide of iron.

But the armed guards are not without their backup, and soon enough the fight is joined in full. Overwhelming strike, (Jim's) magic missile, scorching burst, and even the legendary d12 are all employed in the battle… to various degrees of effectiveness. How well does the newest member of Acquisitions Inc. perform? Well, everyone has trouble their first time.

But in the end, they learn how fast minions fall… and why you bring Jim Darkmagic to the party!

If you're subscribed to the podcast in iTunes, you won't miss a single episode, but if you don't go to the homepage at WotC, you'll miss the awesome artwork that Mike and Scott have made to go with each episode, and nobody wants that.

drop down, reverse direction, increase speed

Posted on By Wil
I told my wife, "You know, I haven't gotten past the first screen of Space Invaders in at least 20 years. I think I need to practice more." I thought for a second. "Train for it, I guess, is what I'm saying."

She looked at me. "Train for what?"

"Oh, um." I said, "you know, just to get better."

"Because?"

"Because I haven't gotten past the first screen in 20 years."

I have this Space Invaders T-shirt that I wear from time to time.

I don't wear it as often as I'd like, because it's filled with errors, like the score is all wrong for the number of invaders that have been shot, the shots in progress are all wrong, and … well, look, it's just nerd shit, I guess. It's still a cool shirt, and normal people can't see anything obviously wrong with it.

I had it on yesterday, when Anne and I went to the grocery store to pick stuff up for dinner, and the girl at the register commented on how much she loved to play the game when she was a kid.

Anne, Nolan, and Ryan have all told me that I should just keep my geek to myself in certain situations, but sometimes (read: all the time) I can't help myself. This was one of those times.

"Oh, yeah, I love this game," I said. "And I saw this T-shirt at Threadless.com earlier today that – " this is when she totally glazed over and got really interested in scanning our items.

"She's tuned you out! Shut up!" My brain screamed at me. Anne, polite to a fault, gently squeezed my arm.

I ignored them both. "It was so cool. It was one of these little guys," I pointed to one of the invaders on my shirt, "standing in front of several rows of these other little guys," I pointed to other invaders on my shirt as Anne tightened her grip, "and it was like he was a general, showing them the battle plan, which was a little dotted line going in this kind of 'move to the side and then drop down' direction!"

She and Anne shared a look. I couldn't tell who was more sympathetic to the other, but the message passed was clear: I am so sorry.

She totaled up our order, Anne paid her, and we walked out of the store. As the door closed behind us, I think I heard a loudspeaker say, "Clean up on register 5 … someone got Geek all over the place."

For the record, here's the shirt I was describing, which you can purchase from Threadless:

A Simple Plan - Threadless, Best T-shirts Ever

I know, right? Awesome.

one more from orccon

Posted on By Wil

I just remembered this moment form Orccon on Monday that I thought was amusing enough to put in its own entry.

On the way down to the con, Nolan told me that he really wanted to buy some of his own dice to go with the dice I’d already given him.

“I want a huge bag of dice, like the one you have.” My heart swelled as he continued, “Do you think I’ll be able to do that thing you told me about where they give you a cup and you fill it up for like five bucks?”

“I can’t remember the name of the company that does that, but if they are at the con, I’m sure you’ll be able to do it.” I thought for a second. “In fact, it’s kind of a rite of passage, so I hope you do get to do that.”

“And it would mean more to me than you could ever understand to get to be part of it with you.” I thought.

We walked through the whole flea market, twice, and he couldn’t find any vendor who was offering the cup-o-dice, but while I was buying my giant d20, he picked through the little cases of dice on the table, eventually picking up up one of those d100’s that you always see at cons.

“What is this?” he said.

“A d100,” I said.

“Who uses that?” He said.

“Someone who doesn’t know how to roll 2d10,” I said.

We laughed together, and the vendor joined us. It was funny, because it was true.

Note: In the original draft, I misquoted my son. I recalled him saying “who needs that” but what he actually said was “who uses that.” It’s an important difference, and I wanted to correct my error.