Dirty Ears

So, after reading some more in the DMG1/MM1 and designing an encounter for my first attempt at DMing (I’m so excited!), I began wondering how easy it would be to code a game that would allow one to run in pre-determined encounters with a group of other players across the Internet. Even more interesting, would be the ability to code these encounters into a text-based MUD, which would allow many people to connect and complete these “dungeons” as a group. Then, you could continue getting into groups and playing through these “dungeons” to continue levelling up and getting awesome loot.

It is a really interesting concept and one that I hope I can keep pursuing. I might even actually start coding something along these lines, since the D&D material is all right there, and all I really need to do is put in the powers/classes/feats into a computer program, right? I’ll take a look into it a bit more, for sure.

As a side note, just so everyone knows. I put up a forums and a wiki on this website a bit earlier today, but the forums especially still need some work as I get more time. Their addresses, however, are below for your perusal.

http://dirty-ears.nickaxmaker.com/forums/ – Forums
http://dirty-ears.nickaxmaker.com/wiki/ – Wiki

I see the Wiki mainly getting used for information on my campaign that I’m running currently and for the game stuff that I might actually do if I decide to do this computer program idea.

~Anthony

I’ve been playing some MMO’s lately (namely Dofus and WoW) and have been enjoying parts of them, though I can honestly say that there are many things I don’t like about them. But on to what I wanted to say, D&D is missing something in particular that I was enjoying quite a bit in the MMO’s: crafting.

Crafting is a very interesting, enjoyable, and entertaining part of most RPGs. In general, it is the best way (in many games) to get the best materials once you’ve gotten yourself skilled in the making of whatever it is. “Skilling up” your crafting ability can be one of the most fun parts about a game especially when you finally can make that godly item at the end of your struggles. However, it’s kinda completely missing from D&D 4th Edition.

I’m not very familiar with previous editions so I don’t know if the crafting worked well, or anything, but I’m sad that it isn’t in 4th Edition. So, does anyone have any thoughts about how crafting should work in 4th Ed? Should it be integral to creating better weapons that are actually better than the “normal” weapons? It’s some interesting thoughts… and I can only hope that we see Wizards of the Coast come up with an addendum that gives us some crafting options in the near future.

~Anthony

So, I was looking a bit more at Warhammer and I found that it was going to re-release another edition of its rule set. This one is supposed be better, and new things are supposed to happen. Anyway, it looks interesting and I have to say that I would be interested in getting a hold of the rules. However, the price tag, which Fantasy Flight Games is talking about being $100, is a bit steep, even for a full introductory set.

Either way, it is definitely  going to be a new player on the scene and as such should be watched by those who are interested in that sort of thing.

Fantasy Flight Games Press Release.

~Anthony

Okay, so … out of academic curiosity … I began looking up Pen and Paper roleplaying games that weren’t as well known as others. So, one cool place to look is the Wikipedia page about pen and paper games. Here’s some of the ones that I found that cracked me up.

° World of Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game. This was expected and yet wasn’t popular whatsoever. I’m sure someone out there actually plays it, but I’d never heard of it before and I’ve heard of just about everything that has to do with WoW. I was even a huge fan of their CCG for a long time (but we’ll leave that for some time where I get really run out of ideas). Either way, they did make a tabletop game and it was fairly interesting looking if you like the lore/world/setting of WoW.

° Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Another one that I figured might be out there, but hadn’t heard of. Warhammer Fantasy is one of the largest and most popular tabletop strategy games out there and it makes sense that they at least tried to get into the pen and paper rpg setup at some point, but still… not a very popular game either. This would honestly be one that I’d want to personally try if I could.

° The Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game. A system that I haven’t really explored at all, I still think that is another one of the expected and yet also another “flop” of sorts. It is not still widely popular and is one that I once again have never heard of even though the setting is quite popular with most things. This is an rpg that I’d love to read about if nothing else, though I’ve never been a huge fan of the series, it is interesting at times.

° DragonRaid. Okay, this I’m just throwing in here, because it’s quite hilarious. I can’t believe that they made a Christian RPG and actually sold it. It would be fascinating to see how people reacted to this game and I’d love to read the rules just to see what it was like.

° Toon: The Roleplaying Game. Wow!!! This one made me laugh so hard after reading the wiki article about it. I desperately want to read this game and find some people to play it with. I think it would be hilariously entertaining and good for some hardcore laughs. This is one that I’ve never heard of before either, and it’s actually been out of print and then re-released in 1991. If anyone has any comments about this game, I’d honestly love to hear them, because it sounds hilariously like a good time.

Something to remember about all these games are that most were published back in 1980’s and so not many people still have copies of them, let alone actually play them anymore. I would love to hear your comments though about these games (if you’ve played them) or any other obscure games.

Not something that’s really sticking with the theme here, but I thought this was thought-provoking.

I’ve been thinking about the old cartoon tv show called “Pinky and the Brain” lately quite a bit. That may have something to do with the fact that I watch it quite often, not sure. Anyway, I was comparing it in my mind to other shows and I think I realized something very interesting. Pinky and the Brain seem to be like the first anime in America. Here’s my thoughts on this very important matter.
 
° Anime (the more adult focused parts of it) tends to be making jokes or ranting against something in the current day society. Pinky and the Brain had much of their humor making a parody out of something that we do/did/had/or followed. Quite interesting and usually politically bent.

° Anime’s characters are  usually outlandish and completely unbelievable. What’s more outlandish than two genetically altered lab mice bent on taking over the world? Only quite possibly a little boy who got a demon locked inside him taking over the entire city (Naruto reference). Either way, both shows have this going for them as well.

° Although both anime (in general, now it’s getting less this way) and Pinky and the Brain have the humor and references that only an adult could get, it’s still fun to watch for those who don’t get all the jokes. Pinky’s stupidity and the Brain’s ideas still get a laugh out of everyone even if they don’t get the Bob Dole jokes that he sprinkles in there liberally.

° And finally… they don’t appeal at all whatsoever to anyone that doesn’t particularly love them. If you’re an anime fan, then you clearly love anime and want to watch it and the same goes with Pinky and the Brain. However, there’s no halfway point there, you either love it or you don’t want to watch it ever again.

So anyway… I just wanted to put that all out there, something I felt was really interesting. I honestly do believe from the points above that Pinky and the Brain was probably the first American attempt at anime.

So how’s that for thought provoking!?

Arjon Rhin was a Dragonborn cleric of the fifth level. Emphasis on -was- I have to say. So in my current campaign that I’m in, we ran into a little problem. All the green dragons are controlled by a single green dragon orb… well, it happens to be in the hands of the bad guys. That’s complicated by the fact that my party seems to have the key to work the orb. Well, anyway… to make a long story short… it’s just not working.

So… we went running across the countryside looking for a halfway decent place to drop the key where it would be safe. To make a rather long story short, we ran into a good campsite one night and we camped out. Well, during that night our bard wandered off and disappeared. The group scouted around, found a huge stockade that was well guarded, and then ran like little girls, because our leader is a halfling rogue that hates taking chances.

Anyway… after a while, the cleric started feeling bad and headed back to get the bard out. The Druid summoned a creature to find the cleric and soon it came back with news that the cleric was no longer of this world.

So ends my attempts at healing in D&D! He was specced as a battle cleric, and was also the only leader/healer in our party. It didn’t go well. I have to say that I suck as a healer and probably a caster as well, but at this point, definitely suck at healing. Forgot to heal for an encounter and almost killed all of us.

Anyway… moving on! The DM let me roll a Barbarian… so now I’m back in my element. More stories to come from that particular character.

~Zyferiax

Hello and welcome to Dirty Ears! This blog is entirely about pen and paper roleplaying games, specifically and most often Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition and Shadowrun 4th Edition, though there’s always the possibility that more could get covered based on interest from me and the readers.

I started playing D&D4 quite recently, so I’m still new to the game. I’m still in my first campaign as a player and have never DMed but I’m looking forward to trying both of these things out as I continue to get more familiar with the game. Currently, in the campaign I’m playing, I play as a Dragonborn Cleric, but I’m sure that I’ll tell you all more about him later on.

As for Shadowrun, I’ve never actually played it, just started reading the source books for 4th Edition and find myself intrigued by the system at large. I hope to gain more insight and actually be able to play it eventually, though at this point I don’t’ have a gaming group for it. I may be able to play on IRC though, as I found a really neat group on IRC over on #Undernet.  So we’ll see how that all goes…

Anyway, I started this blog because I wanted to do something that would allow me to think and plan, talk about, and otherwise discuss the games that I’ve been enjoying so much lately. After reading some of Critical Hits and Musings of  a Chatty DM, I’ve decided that I wanted to join the ranks of blogging pen-and-paper freaks annd so here it is. As for the name of the blog, that’s a whole different story that will have to be told at a later date.

Either way, welcome to Dirty Ears and I hope that you get as much enjoyment out of reading this as I do out of writing it.

~Zyferiax