A Green Mushroom

I followed up reading the D&D main three books by looking through the starter set I've had sitting on my shelf for awhile. It's a really well done adventure to kick things off and looks like it has enough content for a good 4-6 gaming sessions.  There are plenty of hooks and fleshed out encounters in the starter set.  I can see why it's such a good place to start. It's hard to know how good it is overall without actually running it with a group, but it's definitely something I'll hold onto and pull from some day. The thing that surprised me the most was actually how many combat encounters there were.  I feel like most of the D&D that I watch or listen to online is at it's best when players and NPCs are interacting to move the story forward.  Not necessarily when they're in combat.  I think if I were to run this for a group I would dial back the combat encounters by at least 50%, but that's all personal preference.  I know there are...

Coming off of reading the Player's Handbook and the Monster Manual it was really cool to dive into the Dungeon Master's Guide. It's basically a giant toolkit to help you create worlds and run the game.  Most of the actual rules for playing the game moment to moment live in the Player's Handbook so technically you don't need the DM's Guide, but it's still really cool. There are all sorts of tables to roll on to randomly generate loot, dungeons, situations, stories, and almost anything you can think of. But, the part I liked the most were the leading questions that make you think.  If you're trying to figure out your world or story or setting or whatever... this is the book you want to be scanning.  It has so many cool ideas and hooks that you can take and run with.  I see now why this is such a helpful tool for DMs. Now that I have a greater context through these books I think I'm going to look through the D&D starter kit adventure... ...

Mecha Ace is the latest interactive fiction that I finished reading.  I haven't read one in awhile, but these are the interactive novels put out by Choice of Games LLC and I've found a bunch over the past few years that I like. Mecha Ace is all about being a Mech pilot fighting for the rebellion against an evil empire.  Sounds like a fairly standard setup but the actual missions and choices in the novel are fantastic.  I loved this author's work and I need to find out if he's written any other interactive fiction that's been put out through Choice of Games. I really like finding good ones put out under the Choice of Games label, but honestly the hardest part is finding a good author and then finding their other content.  It gets buried under the general catch all label too often. Anyway, Mecha Ace is really good, so if you're into interactive fiction or have ever enjoyed a choose your own adventure game you should give it a shot.  You can read/play it...

Hype and Media Coverage In this episode: In the wake of No Man's Sky, we're talking about pre-release hype and gaming media in general. Hype generally makes us avoid games because so much of the pre-release media is blown out of proportion. Expectations can be raised that aren’t met very often. But we do love being a part of the discussion after a game is released. When we were younger, however, we both used to get super excited and consume all pre-release media as a kid. Gaming magazines were a much different hype machine than the current state of the internet and social media. When do we pay attention to pre release media and when do we go on media blackout? Basically, if we are interested in a game, we will consume all the pre-release media until we decide if we'll buy it. Then totally tune out the rest. If there is a game we somehow miss (such as Stardew Valley), we listen to trusted friends and gauge our purchases on their opinions. We also talk about wh...

After reading the Player's Handbook, which I talked about yesterday, I immediately jumped over to the Monster Manual to see what the world of NPCs had to offer.  I was pleasantly surprised. Unlike the Player's Handbook, this isn't a book you can sit down and read cover to cover.  It's a detailed reference for all the major monsters, creatures, beasts, and beings in the game.  It's basically a combination of a world building tool and an encounter building tool for a DM. I scanned through the whole book, stopping to read about the monsters that most interested me.  It was fun!  And now I can definitely see how much of a tool this book could be for campaign building. One of the things I found most interesting was that every monster is given a challenge rating.  That rating is basically a "normal" difficulty rating for a party of four characters at that level.  So, for example, if a monster has a challenge rating of five then a group of four leve...

I wouldn't really call this a book review, but it kind of is?  I finally got around to reading the Dungeons and Dragons Player's Handbook! I've only played three sessions of D&D in my life but I watch some YouTube series and listen to some podcast series that are basically ongoing D&D campaigns.  I've been doing this for years now.  I thought it was finally time to actually pick up a copy of the D&D books for myself and sit down to read them. I actually loved reading the Player's Handbook and I basically read it cover to cover.  I didn't read every single stat of every single spell, but that was the only exception.  I found some clarifications to the rules that helped me understand the game better than what I've picked up over the years.  But, best of all, I got to read all about the races and classes in the world of D&D. The world building contained in the race and class descriptions along was just amazing.  I especially love...

I finally got back around to my Fire Emblem Fates Conquest campaign and finished it off!  I really liked it! I was sitting at around 60% done with the campaign.  I had jumped into it right after finishing Birthright in the first week that Fates came out and just gave myself burnout on the game by playing so much.  Now, coming back to it, it only took me another two days to finish off the campaign and wrap it up. It's really cool to see the other side of the story.  Birthright covers siding with the Hoshido side and Conquest is about picking the Nohr side.  This is definitely the darker story.  Hoshido is more conventional and you get to be the "good guy" pretty clearly.  The Nohr side sees you trying to change things from within an evil kingdom even though you're trying your best to not be evil.  It's actually more interesting because of that. But, it's also the harder campaign by far.  Birthright has some challenges but most levels...

After writing about Dragon Quest 3 last week I followed it up by trying on Dragon Quest 8 on iOS since I already owned it anyway. It's better.  It changes up the exploration, look, and feel of the game a bit because of it's transition from 2D to 3D.  I thought because of this it might hold my attention for awhile and maybe it could even become the second Dragon Quest game I finished fully. But after only a few hours with it I was done.  It was quickly obvious that the same exact battle system and underlying mechanics are the same here as they are in every other Dragon Quest.  There's nothing new and exciting to switch things up outside of the jump to 3D graphics and that's just not enough for me. It looks like I'll mostly be sticking to Final Fantasy games when I want to go back to older JRPGs and not venture much more into Dragon Quest.  One of the core concepts of Final Fantasy that I've always loved is the constant reinvention of itself.  Somet...

No Man’s Sky In this episode: No Man's Sky is out! And we’ve played a bunch! We were both excited for the game, but avoided a lot of hype and details being released because we wanted to experience the game for ourselves. That said, we have mixed feelings about the game. The first 10-15 hours of the game are brilliant. The first time you see a new element of the game, it is breathtaking and truly a unique gaming experience. It takes about 15 hours of playtime to start to see the limits of the procedural generation, which takes some of the wonder away. The game is basically a survival and gathering game more than exploration. You gather resources, craft upgrades for either yourself or your spaceship, travel to a new planet/solar system, and repeat the process. Inventory management is a big part of the game, which was a letdown for us, but that didn’t take away from the wonder we felt at discovering new aspects of the universe. Our favorite things? Glad you asked! Aliens...

After loving the Final Fantasy series so much I thought I should go back and check out another famous JRPG series with Dragon Quest. I played around with Dragon Quest 1 and 2 awhile ago and wrote about them.  While I liked DQ1 and finished it when I got to DQ2 it felt like more of the same, only paced much worse. Whenever it was that I bought these I also picked up Dragon Quest 3 and 8 since they're out for iOS too.  I finally got around to giving DQ3 a try and... it's ok I guess. It again feels like more of the same.  Nothing new or innovative.  Nothing close to the reimagining that Final Fantasy undergoes with every entry.  But it's ok I suppose.  I played it for a few nights, leveled up my party and completed some objectives... then set it down.  I probably won't pick it back up. Most people I've talked to about the series say that it doesn't change much from game to game and that's part of the appeal.  I need more variety than that...

I don't really watch cartoons and haven't since I was a kid.  That's why it totally caught me off guard when I had a ton of people recommend the new Netflix Original Voltron series to me.  These are people I trust who know my taste, so I gave it a shot. And... I really liked it.  I didn't think I would, but I did.  I watched the entire first season that's available on Netflix right now and I'll definitely dive into a season two if they decide to make one. It's fun and it's a throwback to when I was a kid and everyone needed the color coded power to transform into better versions of themselves and then get giant mechs.  Although I was more of a Power Rangers kid and Voltron passed me by I still see enough similarities in this new one to truly enjoy it. I can easily recommend this show to anyone who likes cartoons, Sentai shows , or was a kid in the 90s.  Check it out and let me know what you think.

999 is a game I struggled to get into on DS and eventually gave up on.  The final game in the series came out recently so I went to take another look and a friend mentioned there's a visual novel version of 999 on iOS that would fix most of my problems with it. I tried it out and found it mostly enjoyable.  The main problem I had was with the overall quality of writing and dialogue between characters.  They never use one sentence to explain something when they could use fifteen instead.  But the plot hooked me enough to push on to the end. And then I found out it had different endings, six in fact.  And a flowchart to let you jump around the story and get to all the different endings easier!  So, I finished all the endings and unlocked the "true" ending. That's when the game totally jumped the shark.  A bunch of stuff happens that doesn't make any sense and then right when it feels like the game might explain itself... it ends.  With no ...

I've been seeing a bunch of advertising for the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie lately and I realized I had never read the book, so I thought I would fix that. It's a spin off book from the Harry Potter series and it's really short.  I read it in one sitting but I'm also sure adults aren't really the target audience.  But, it was interesting anyway.  The introduction and writing about the magical beasts in the world of Harry Potter was the most fascinating part.  The center part of the book that was a listing of the beasts and descriptions of them was less so, but still had some worldbuilding for Harry Potter. It actually inspired me to go back and pick up the first Harry Potter book.  I haven't read through the series since they originally came out so I thought it might be time to work through it again.  The first book is definitely rougher around the edges and more aimed at kids than I remembered.  But it should get better and a...

Geeky Exercise Habits Are Geeky! In this episode: Just because we’re geeks doesn’t mean we don’t (or can’t) care about exercise. Both of us make time in our days to take care of ourselves. We make sure, however, that we still get in plenty of geekery while we’re out pounding the pavement. Running is both of our primary exercise. We were late-comers to the sport, and neither of us ever really thought it was something for us. But as post-college adults, something clicked, and we fell into step with running. (Pun totally intended, y’all.) Interestingly enough, we also both suffer from asthma. Void’s is allergy-induced, while Beej’s is exercise-induced. Both of us have to train differently than non-asthmatics, and it took a while for us both to become comfortable with that. In the end, we realized that being healthy and fit is a personal issue that concerns only us, and we learned how to stop comparing ourselves to others--but it wasn’t an immediate thing! Running and exerci...

This is the last of the games I picked up on the Steam Summer Sale that I've been sampling.  It's kind of a mixed bag for me. I typically like South Park's modern episodes and I thought Stick of Truth might be like them but instead it relies a lot on the crude humor and in-jokes of South Park which are kind of the weakest part of the show. The combat system is decent enough and the base of the game is structured like a typical RPG.  But, that's one of my problems... it's just typical.  It doesn't do a lot to break genre conventions or add something new to the game.  The only unique thing about it is that it has a South Park skin slapped on top of it. And that's just not enough for me right now.  Maybe some day I'll come back to this game but not right now.  That being said, if you're a huge fan of South Park I bet you would really like this game.  If you're more of a casual viewer like me... not so much.

This has been one of the biggest hits for me that I picked up in the summer Steam Sale. Chroma Squad is basically Power Rangers behind the scenes of the show but as a turn based strategy game.  Your squad breaks off from the main show and forms their own studio.  You get to start making episodes of the show and it's hilarious. It includes all sorts of RPG mechanics like buying new gear, crafting, and upgrading.  Along with this are some unique things like studio upgrades, marketing agencies, and growing your fans to get a bigger audience watching the show. Battles are fun not just because the core of the turn based strategy is solid but also because you always get "Director Notes" of certain things you should do in battle to make for a better show which will in turn get you a bigger audience.  It's actually a really fun mechanic that pushes you to complicate battles while having fun with it. As of writing this I'm a little past the first chapter of the...

This is another game that came highly recommended so I picked it up on Steam sale.  Unfortunately, this was another flop for me. I think the underlying systems could actually be interesting but the theme is so depressing that I just don't want to spend my time in the game. Making prisons for inmates is dreary and sad. So, if you can get over the theme and aesthetic this game might be for you.  But, if you're like me and find it off-putting then just skip this one completely.

After seeing all the hype and all the build up for this LEGO Star Wars game somehow I thought it would be different enough from the last few LEGO games I tried that I would actually enjoy it. I did not. It turns out I don't like absolutely everything with a Star Wars name slapped on it.  But, after playing the demo I can see that this is probably the best LEGO videogame to date.  It controls well, ties into Star Wars, and actually has really nice graphics (which is weird to say for a LEGO game). Anyway, I'm sure a ton of people are going to have fun with this one but it's just not for me.  I'll wait for the next Star Wars videogame release.  I'm sure it won't be too long until they start coming out regularly.

Gaming for Non-Gamers In this episode: After getting a question from a listener about how to get their spouse to play games, it got us thinking. There are a whole lot of people out there who don’t consider themselves gamers. But almost everyone plays games thanks to smartphones. So why don’t they identify as gamers? Is it because they were never introduced to them? Is is a negative cultural stereotype? One of the biggest hurdles is simply the controller.  The number of buttons and the layout are super intimidating. Our suggestion is to introduce people to smartphone games because the interface is something almost everyone is used to already. Mobile games get around the controller issue. Find a gameplay mechanic or IP that interests you or the person who you want to introduce to gaming. Do they love Star Wars? Then maybe Star Wars: Angry Birds is the way to go. Do they like puzzle games? Try Two Dots or Candy Crush (seriously!). Do you enjoy strategic thinking? Well, Her...

After really liking Zootopia the other day I thought I'd play catch up on Pixar animated movies and not just Disney animated movies.  The Good Dinosaur is the latest Pixar movie that I had never gotten around to. And it turns out... it's not really for me.  It had some gorgeous vistas in CGI but the story itself got really boring really fast.  This isn't a review because I didn't actually finish the movie.  I wasn't enjoying it so I just decided to stop watching. Maybe I'll give the next Pixar movie a shot instead, but until then it truly seems like the Disney animated CG movies are where all the good stuff is now.  I can't wait to see what they do next!

I've never watched a boxing movie before but I heard a lot of good things about Creed so I thought I'd give it a try.  People said I didn't actually need prior knowledge of the Rocky movies to see it which went a long way toward me giving it a chance. I ended up actually liking it.  Not liking it enough to own it and rewatch it a bunch, but enough that if they made a sequel I would probably watch it. I still don't like boxing or MMA in real life but I can appreciate a well shot and well choreographed fight scene in a movie.  Luckily for me all the fight scenes in Creed were very well done.  I thought they were interesting. I'm still not going to run out and start hunting for more boxing movies but I'll keep my eyes out in case Creed has a follow-up.

Twilight Struggle is consistently rated as one of the best board games on Board Game Geek so when I saw it for cheap in the Steam Summer Sale I grabbed it and thought it would be a good one to try out. It turns out this game is super complicated and not at all user friendly.  I didn't even make it through the tutorial before I was extremely bored and just completely done with the game. It seems like this is a game that you need a friend to sit down and teach you rather than a tutorial.  Maybe it's better as a board game too?  I dunno.  But trying to learn this on my own through the videogame version of the game was just and exercise in frustration.

I've been messing around with Tabletop Simulator a bit since I picked it up on the summer Steam sale.  It's a really cool product. Basically, you can use your mouse and keyboard to interact with tabletop pieces with other people online.  In doing so you can essentially recreate a ton of tabletop games. It's been fun just messing around with it, but the real reason I got it is because they're slowly patching in HTC Vive support and that's really the way I want to play this game.  I want to be in VR and able to reach out with my hand to interact with the table.  I want to walk around the tabletop looking at the mini animated figures while playing a tabletop RPG. I think it has a ton of potential to be cool, especially for adults since getting schedules lined up for a tabletop night of gaming is super difficult.