The Kaldahar Chronicles: Session 1, Part 1

So this is an old game that I played last year and loved.  I wrote up every session in a fair bit of detail, and I thought it would make a good addition to things to stick up a section every so often.  Please note: I wrote all of this from the perspective of my character, if I remember rightly, so events are often... slightly biased.

Session 1:

Eladrin Wizard=Leon (Me)

Dwarven Cleric=Dalziom

Tiefling Rogue=Ika

Human Warlock=Seraphim = Local criminal

Dwarven Warlord=Gotrek=Absent=Failure=No XP 4 U

DM=Sir=Stays up too late playing Assassin's Creed

Part 1: THE CITY

Our heroes met in a tavern in the capital city, beneath the Crystal Palace that floats above the city with a spell I want to either learn or dispel, I haven't decided.  We'd adventured together some years back and had decided to renew old acquaintances and have a bit of fun.  We overheard talk of a convoy that had been raided in Kaldahar, and decided that this was just the hook we adventurers needed to get ourselves a job.  So we asked around and were directed to Pep, servant to a High Mage Lord Man.

At the same time, a crafty wizard planted an Explosive Runes on me.  He was an old 'friend' of mine called Desuto (pronounced Deceit-o).  When asked about admissions to study with the wizards of the city, he directed me to a High Lady of the college.  When I got there, I found it deserted, and quickly found out that the Lady had died.  I was thrown into a sewer for asking.  Wandered around and tracked down Desuto, who was in the library, who gave me the Explosive Runes spell, not without casting it on me again first.  Very.  Annoying.  Man.

Dalziom decided to train at the local Temple of Kord.  In the meantime, our rogue and our maniacal, criminal warlock went off to find Pep.  They found the house eventually, and were told he wouldn't be back for a few hours.  Instead of waiting, they walked in and looked around, found nothing, and then waited.  Seraphim, using his criminal connections, waltzed into the thieves’ area in the meantime and bullied his way into getting some information on a rogue hired out after the convoy by the High Lord and a pair of oranges.  When Pep returned home, he decided to, as an icebreaker, try and persuade Pep that the orange was a special delivery for his lord master and that it was really a secret special magic enhancing drug. 

That failed, and Ika was left to try and get the job for us.  She went to meet the Lord, who somewhat dismissively sent us on a long trail of mercenaries after a chest and a leather case for the flimsy reward of 10k gp.

Dalziom had managed to gather intelligence about the nature of those both on the convoy and those who'd gone after it.  We all reconvened in the tavern for a meal and to discuss what to do.  Then the trouble started.

My wallet was stolen, and I saw a halfling running off with it.  Seraphim grabbed him and a band of warriors jumped to their feet, claiming he was with them and they'd defend him to the death.  So a fight broke out in an (apparently) extremely crowded tavern.  5 big burly warriors charged Seraphim and Dalziom immediately, and hacked into them.  I decided to end things quickly, and spent my action point to knock them on their feet and to blast them across the room with a thunderclap.  Unfortunately, area effect spells, no matter how well targeted, always hit civilians.  Everyone was deafened and a lot of patrons were on their backs.

Now, there was still a pair of crossbowmen and a mage in the far corner, but they couldnt' be bothered to join in the fight, though the crossbowmen did manage to get a shot off each.  Ika decided the fight didn't look like fun, so she walked out, making an excellent, and out-of-the-box start to her D&D career.  The cleric and warlock made a quite valiant stand, and Dalziom especially was smacking people with moderate success with his hammer.  I tried to freeze a pair of the warriors in place, but missed with both, and with the damage I did, managed to freeze two civilians and propel their icy corpses through the back wall, upon which they shattered at Ika's feet.  Good times.

I ran.

Dalziom, obviously deciding that now was the time to take things seriously, started laying about him with lightning strikes, making the situation decidedly deadlier.  Ika decided that with the convenient hole in the back wall, she would nip back in and KO in the mage in one hit, which she did with complete success.  Upon realizing that I, an eladrin mage, had just killed two civilians, and that Ika had just killed an eladrin mage, and that there was a troop of guards coming, I decided to blame everything on the dead guy.  Dalziom finished off the head warrior and they all surrendered, taking their dead with them, and giving us the mage's purse in recompense.  It had nearly 4 times the amount of gold in it that I had lost, so that worked out well.

The guard, for some reason, bought our story, and sent people out after them.  I probably want to keep a low profile if and when we return there, though. Seraphim smuggled me out of the city, and we rode off to Kaldahar in search of the convoy.  Ika had to stay behind to take care of some things, so it was just the 3 of us.

Bonus Gaming Challenge (Day 31): Hardest Moral Choice

*SPOILER ALERT* - Naturally, today will contain spoilers for Jedi Academy and a tiny one for Dragon Age: Origins, so don’t look if you don’t want to.

I could have just done this as a normal post, but it makes sense as a Gaming Challenge topic, so I will occasionally be doing bonus days for it from now on.

I almost didn’t do this topic, not because it was too difficult, but because the answer is too obvious.  Morrigan’s offer at the climax of Dragon Age: Origins forced me to sit back and think it through thoroughly for a good 10 minutes before I could make an ultimate, still tentative decision.  It gave me a genuine moral choice that I simply couldn’t determine what was the best thing to do.  However, as I have done before in my 30 Days of Gaming Challenge, I prefer to find a more interesting answer instead.  And I think I found one.

The only other decision I spent the same about of time on as the Dragon Age decision came from Jedi Academy, which surprised me.  Jedi Academy is a really fun game, and was one of the first of the eternal line of Star Wars games to allow you to carry different lightsabers.  That was definitely a major selling point, as you could use one lightsaber, two lightsabers, or a lightstaff.  With three fighting styles as well, the combat system was relatively sophisticated.  It had to be two lightsabers every time for me, on the fast style of combat, so that no one could stand up to the flurry of blows I was landing on them, especially with Force Speed on.  Great times.

The story was interesting, as you fought your way across the galaxy investigating leads and assaulting Sith footholds.  The level design was quite good, and felt familiar because I had spent a lot of time playing Jedi Outcast, which has some very similar levels in it.  It was challenging too, especially with the number of saber-bearing opponents to tackle.  It was also one of the only games I ever played online in Multiplayer mode.  That was a lot of fun.  Massive use of force powers, so you had people speeding about all over the place and the carnage was so much fun.  Force Jump made for fantastic aerial ambushes, and you never knew where someone was going to leap out at you from.  Hilarious.  It was a little difficult to control, especially at speed, but it wasn’t an insurmountable challenge, and I was seldom frustrated by the game on that front.  Graphically, it was decent enough to make it enjoyable, although certainly not my favourite game artistically.

Anyway, the choice.  The ultimate choice between the Light Side and the Dark Side comes quite late in the game, and it’s very difficult, but not for the same reasons as in Dragon Age.  There isn’t any real choice in your dialogue throughout the game, and so you don’t really get to declare yourself to be good or evil as you play.  However, you generally have some idea as you decide whether or not to take the time to hack apart the civilians in the bars or pushing people over cliffs.  Also, you can choose whether or not to take Light or Dark powers whenever you finish a level, so you definitely have a clear idea of where you stand by the final stages of the game.

You are given the choice to join the Dark Side, and then the screen pauses, waiting for you to decide, and you know what?  I have a really hard time with it.  It’s not because it is a particularly unsolvable dilemma like in Dragon Age, where even if you are a good character you don’t know what to choose.  If you’re a Jedi, you’ll stick with the Jedi.  If not, you’ll probably turn.  After all, there’s not much of an incentive to join the cause you’ve been destroying at every turn, except for the offer of power.  That one’s always tempting.  No, the reason that it is so difficult to decide what to do is because the Dark Side is so much FUN!

I play a good character most of the time.  I find it really difficult to be evil, and I’ve never completed an evil characters campaign when I’ve tried on Neverwinter Nights.  But when you haven’t really been overly drawn in to your character in Jedi Academy, you are so tempted to say, “Why not?  Let’s kill some Jedi!”  You may have been good, but there’s no punishment for turning, and you get to see the more interesting ending of things.  Also, Force Lightning is so cool.  Why was it not a Jedi power?  What did they have against electricity?  SO basically, the decision in Jedi Academy is so hard because good characters are essentially forced to choose between staying in character and playing it as an RPG, or breaking character and just having a good time messing everything up and becoming all powerful.  It’s such a strong temptation that I have a difficult time deciding every time.

The final boss for the Dark Side, by the way, is MUCH harder than the Light Side boss.  Two words: Kyle Katarn.  Longest boss battle ever.

Classic Game Music – Why more restrictions made better music

Everyone knows the Mario theme tune.  Most know the Zelda theme, and even a fair few know the one for Tetris.  Now hum the tune to Metal Gear.  Ok, maybe you know it, but it’s definitely less widely known, if there’s even an identifiable theme at all.  Kingdom Hearts?  Great music, but not much you can really sing.  Halo?

Sound technology in games has improved exponentially over the past few decades.  We’ve got from the days of 8-bit gaming with only a handful of available tones to live recorded orchestral scores.  And yet while the quality of the sound we hear has increased so much, the music has not become any more memorable, if not becoming less so.  Of course, there are exceptions to every rule.  I really like the Kingdom Hearts music.  Video Games Live is an incredible series of concerts playing all sorts of gaming music, and they certainly don’t play music only from older games.  If you go to one of their concerts though, and I’ve been to two, it is unmistakeable that the biggest cheers and the loudest roars are for the great melodies of the classics.  At the last concert I went to the entire audience was calling for the orchestra to play Chrono Trigger, not Halo.

Link for those who are interested (i.e. all of you): http://www.videogameslive.com/index.php?s=home

At that concert, I got to hear a talk by the head composer for Blizzard, which was really cool.  He talked about how in the past, when technology was limited, the composers were forced to stick to one solid, strong melody with only light harmonization because that was all that they could manage.  This meant that tunes were catchy and easy to remember.  Now that more complicated arrangements are possible, composers are free to go as big as they like, and while this means that music is more varied, there aren’t as many solid melodies to hang on to, and we forget more of it.

Obligatory Image for Today

Perhaps Ocarina of Time is the balance point here.  The songs that Link plays on his ocarina are simple, and those are the ones we love, and have become incredibly iconic.  Yet the background music, as it was just on the stage where music was becoming more complex, isn’t worth remembering at all.

In my 30 Days of Gaming Challenge, I put Syberia down as having the best soundtrack.  This is because it is one of the exceptions to the rule.  It has strong, beautiful Russian melodies with a full orchestral score.  The designers probably had to make sure that the music was pleasant and enjoyable to listen to as there is so little action or dialogue in the game (it’s a mystery game).  VGL plays a lot of modern music, certainly.  I have a CD with Halo, Medal of Honour, and God of War on it.  They’re pleasant to listen to, stunning even.  But you can’t hum it, and I can’t remember them.  Medal of Honour has a decent trumpet part, but meh.

I’d like to see more games with a melodious soundtrack.  If they need to strip away the fancy technology of the composers to do it, I’m fine with that.  I listened to a whole concert of World of Warcraft music, and you know what?  I was bored.  In the meantime, here are a few of my favourites.

Super Mario Sunshine Bonus Stage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw-udW34t1o

Civilization 4, Baba Yetu: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmut6FBx4xk&feature=related

Sonic 2, Mystic Cave Zone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVEyGntyOZQ

Sonic 2, Metropolis Zone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRuJfhEeCe8

Erfworld and Strategy: The Perfect Warlord

I’m moving on to webcomics for a short while, everyone.  Got to keep you on your toes.  Don’t know if I’ll do several this week on them, or just do the one for now.  We’ll find out on Wednesday!

Erfworld has to be one of my three favourite comics, if not the outright favourite.  It is incredibly well drawn (Book 2 far more than Book 1), has a beautifully crafted story, sharp and witty dialogue, and above all, a world which constantly fascinates.  The rules by which Erfworld operates form a significant part of the plot, and Rob Balder manages to create gripping suspense and cliff-hangers out of revealing new game mechanics and abilities.

In short, Erfworld is the story of a dungeon master who becomes the target of a magical summoning spell searching for the Perfect Warlord.  He gets sucked into (in his eyes) a game world, where the world is turn-based, everyone has stats, and he’s in the employ of a besieged lord who needs his expertise to survive.  Things kind of take off from there.  Anyway, ignoring the rich cast of fascinating characters and the complex web of intrigue and the fantastic sense of humour that Rob has (especially for references... some are completely hilarious), one of the best things about Erfworld so far is the strategy.  Parson (the DM and protagonist) is summoned because he is the best strategist the spell could find.  And he shows it.  Book One of Erfworld I could happily recommend as a guide on How to Do Strategy the Right Way.  I learned quite a lot from that book, and have even tried to apply some of its lessons to my life, sad as that may sound.  “We try things.  Occasionally they even work,” is by far the line I quote the most frequently.

Quickly, the best page on strategy, for those who are interested.  I don’t think there’s really much in spoilers there: http://www.erfworld.com/book-1-archive/?px=%2F124.jpg

Other webcomics have a great story (FreakAngels and Goblins) or are very funny (Dr. McNinja and Questionable Content) or are particularly intelligent (xkcd and HappleTea).  Erfworld has all of this, and gives a subtle course on how to play an RPG at the same time.  So often when facing up against a particularly difficult battle, especially in D&D, you need two things: strategic planning and a knack for finding exploits.  In a fight where you’re outnumbered?  Stand on the stairs so they can only come one at a time.  Need to wipe out a fortress?  Sneak in the back door or burn them out.  Facing off against an Ancient Dragon?  Teleport inside it and start hacking wildly!  Exploits and strategy.  Parson Gotti excels at both and it adds a great element to an already amazing webcomic.  I highly recommend it to everyone interested in role playing, strategy, or just want to read a really good story.  It will probably be brought up again in the future.