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Minireview: Mother of Flies (Pathfinder #29)

While starting out strong, the Council of Thieves adventure path became a bit overly conventional during the middle portions and (in my opinion) did not really make use of the city environment. This fifth part of the tale, Mother of Flies (written by Greg A. Vaughan), fixes that problem to some degree.

It’s slightly ironic that this adventure makes use of the city setting… by leaving the city altogether for small while. The initial portions here assume the PCs want to recruit the support of a presumably-crazy and possibly-evil witch (the titular Mother of Flies) who lives in a nearby wood, so in order to do that the PCs need to go on a short wilderness spree. This might result in hilarity if the PCs are totally city-bred and not too comfortable with the great outdoors. It turns out that the PCs aren’t the only ones interested in the witch, and a large battle is likely unless the players figure out something really sneaky.

In any case, the action soon returns to Westcrown, and the setup becomes more like what I had hoped from this series in general: a semi-freeform set of events and locations which the PCs can experience and/or visit, while trying to drum up support for their cause or to foil the plans of the Bad Guys. There are vampires on the loose, and the old problem of mysterious “shadow beasts” stalking the city night may finally get a solution (depending on the PC actions, naturally). All along this series the PCs have been getting “fame points” if they succeed in doing various things, presumably these will be important in the next & final part of this thing.

While not being anything spectacular, this installment is a nice toolkit for advancing the plot along, and is a quite welcome change of pace after the confined and dungeon-crawly mid portions. Running this adventure path will require PCs who really care about the city, otherwise I can easily see them packing up their toys and moving somewhere else. To Paizo’s credit, this was discussed at length in the initial setup of the series. GMs who ignored that advice will have to figure out their own sticks and carrots to keep the PCs interesting in saving the city.

Mass Effect, or, "prepare to face the awesome power of my biotic superteam!"

I finally got around to playing (the first) Mass Effect a while back, and found it to be pretty addictive; so much so that I actually finished the thing some days ago. Bioware continues to shine as one of the best PC gaming companies, they actually put a lot of effort into this “writing” thing. Even in a game as mired in its console roots as Mass Effect is, there is actual story here, and it’s quite an interesting one.

It’s an rpg/shooter hybrid. While quite linear in main plot, there are lots of variation in how the player can approach tasks, and a large part of the content is “side quests”… i.e. optional stuff, but not something you’ll really want to skip. You can play the thing and just concentrate on the main plot, and doing so would probably take a lot less than the 30+ hours it took me to play the thing, but you’d be missing out on a lot of fun bits and pieces.

The nice touch here is that the player actually gets to make some critical decisions that have an effect on the game plot, and even nicer: you can play with the same character in Mass Effect 2, and have those decisions (and many minor ones, too) have more consequences. I have yet to touch ME2 – I’m holding off buying the thing until I have a bit more free time to play it.

The plot? A Big Bad threatens the spread-out multiracial civilization of the galaxy, and it’s up to you to save the universe! Nothing original there, but there are nice science fiction concepts sprinkled all over the place… and of course, since this is a Bioware game, a huge part of the fun comes from the NPCs. You recruit a team of humans and aliens, and every time you land (or board a ship/station) you choose 2 companions to go with you. I usually went with some combo of Liara, Tali and Wrex, but sometimes I just mixed things up for fun. While the main plot is a variation of the “Big Evil Threatens Everything” meme, the details make it interesting. I don’t want to spoil anything here, but… like I said, Bioware pays attention to story and characters, and it shows. You want to keep on playing “just a bit more”, to see what happens next.

The plot, especially towards the end, contained some excellent twists and turns, and the end was appropriately cinematic. I had a lot of fun playing this thing.

It’s not all sunshine, though. The console roots of this game show badly at times, especially in the fairly horrid inventory system and in the very limited set of on-planet encounter locations. You keep running into the same set of mining tunnels or research bases, it gets a bit old… and the less said about the vehicle controls, the better. I’m no fan of consoles: multi-platform games are held back by the lowest common denominator, which is almost always some crappy console. This game would be a lot better if it took advantage of actual PC resources and UI components (including, gasp, mouse-over tooltips and radical stuff like that).

The difficulty curve is also a bit… jaggy. While most of the combats were balanced, towards the end they tended to be very easy… but then, now and then during the game, you’d get a ridiculously difficult battle. This happened more mostly in the beginning section of the game; the worst case I had to reload over 10 times to complete (I had a non-optimal team along, and kept getting slaughtered). To add insult to injury, these “big battles” were usually preceeded by a long cutscene, often with lots of dialogue – so when you die, you have to go through it again. And again. And again. Going through the same dialogue and cutscenes over 10 times starts pushing steam out the ears. A sane game would save a checkpoint at the beginning of the actual combat itself. The game Witcher had one aggravating cutscene + hard battle like this too, and I hated it there too.

Small warts aside, this is a very good game, and was much more fun than I had expected. I hear extremely good things about Mass Effect 2, but… maybe next week. If I buy it now I won’t get anything else done.

Minireview: Three Days To Never, by Tim Powers

For those in the know: it’s a Tim Powers book. Buy it. Enjoy.

For others… well, Three Days To Never is the latest book by the esteemed Tim Powers. It follows in the footsteps of most of his other books, arguably being placed in the same world – one where the “supernatural” exists, but is usually rare, subtle, scary and bizarre. While not quite as complex as some of his other books, that’s only by comparison; simple this thing isn’t and some of the plot twists make your head hurt. The story features Albert Einstein, Charles Chaplin, disembodied talking heads, psychic projection, telepathy (of several bizarre sorts), remote sensing, ghosts, time travel, and multidimensional alien beings. It’s also the story of a professor and his daughter, who accidentally fall down the occult-intelligence-organization rabbithole while checking up on their just-deceased grandma, and find themselves chased and shot at by various organizations including the Israeli Mossad. As per the title, they have three days to figure out what’s going on, before many things end. Permanently.

Determinism (or lack thereof) and time travel play a big part here. It’s also helpful to have some general understanding of general relativity in order to follow some details of the plot (especially of the 4-dimensional “event cone” concept), though the book does have quite a bit of exposition to help the reader along. Unusually much, I’d say, for a Tim Powers book.

Tim Powers remains one of my favorite authors. His output is slow, but the quality makes up for lack of quantity. This book isn’t quite up to the class of the amazing Declare, or my second-favorite Last Call, but it’s still a very good book. The pacing meanders a bit at times and I found the exposition to be a bit heavy in spots. On the others hand, “I could not understand what was going on!” is a common complaint with Tim Powers, so maybe that exposition has a place – and it wasn’t especially bad in any way.

What I love most about Tim Powers is how he deals with the supernatural in his books. It’s never “I cast a spell!”, or “summon monster!”, it’s… far more subtle. You get the feeling that there are rules to everything, a method to the madness, but those rules are simply bizarre. A covert operative might step on sidewalk cracks just so, while humming a certain tune, in order to distract a tail. Others might routinely carry a bottle of vodka with them in order to commune with ghosts. There are means. There are ways. But it’s a secret world, with those in the know usually jealously guarding what little they know from others. The role-playing game Unknown Armies took a lot of cues from Tim Powers and is probably the game that’s closest to his books. In his world, the supernatural takes a heavy toll, and there’s always a “playing with fire” feel. I like that.

Minireview: Saturnine Night (Promethean)

Saturnine Night is the last supplement to White Wolf’s Promethean: the Created game, and it’s also that game’s “science fiction supplement”, in a way. While Promethean is pretty weird to begin with, this book explores some “way out there” concepts for the game: machine creatures, artificial radioactive life forms, stuff like that. I like Promethean as a game; it’s possibly the most “indie” World of Darkness game so far, and this book is a great way to finish off the line.

It’s a fun mix of serious stuff and not. I mean… this book contains radioactive zombies! And it has those without going all zany about things. In fact, those radioactive zombies are actually quite creepy and not much at all “pulp”. Still, if you want to inject some more over the top elements into a Promethean game, or any WoD game as a crossover, this book has you covered. Artificial machine hive minds, rogue A.I.s and such are slotted into the Promethean paradigm, so they are in some weird borderland between straight scifi and supernatural weirdness. Very nice, especially if you wan to to throw some real curveballs at your players.

The treatment of radiation and its effects is fairly realistic (i.e. nasty) here. No Fallout/Gamma World “fun mutants” here, radiation usually just kills you (fast or slow) in various bad ways. Except when it gives birth to something else. And yes, you can play a radioactive artificial being, if you want. Good luck finding other PCs you can interact with, though…

The book also contains some ideas about running Promethean games in general, including some crossover ideas.

All in all, a great book. Even if you’re not interested in running Promethean, this book will give you lots of fun NPC/antagonists ideas for pretty much any (new) WoD game – assuming you want some really strange NPCs.

Minireview: Second Edition Duelist's Handbook - Champions and Daredevils (Heavy Gear)

The second edition of the Duelist’s Handbook contains data on Terra Novan (and Caprican) gear dueling traditions and pilots. It’s presumably an update on the first edition book, but I haven’t read that one.

The whole thing began with old military dueling traditions, which covered the ground from friendly bouts to deadly ones. Naturally, once gears became standard equipment for armies, some bright soldiers got the idea of using them in dueling… and thus a tradition was both. Like unarmored duels with blades or weapons, these also cover a lot of ground with regards to intent. There is also a lot of variance between the North and the South, here. The South is big on the whole “personal honor” thing, so even relatively slight insults might lead to a duel (though rarely to a deadly one). The North is (slightly) more down-to-earth on this, though the tradition of having regimental duelists also exists there.

The book covers the history of the phenomenon and the variances. There is also a short section on Caprican dueling, which is similar but handled with slightly different hardware.

The second half of the book covers the “sport dueling” scene, including the underground semi-illegal “bloodsport” one. As with most things, “real” combat has resulted in combat-as-sport, with high-paid professional duelists fighting in “fight circuits” and gathering fame & fortune in the process. These fights are designed to be non-lethal and (ideally) not too dangerous, though accidents are always possible when playing around with mobile, multi-ton fighting vehicles.

Then there is the underground scene. Like other illegal bloodsports at various points in history, this is held in various (often literally) underground locales, with lots of cash exchanging hands based on the winners of each round. This scene is a lot more dangerous than the legal sport arena, though “to the death” is still very rare; it’s more a case of reduced safety measures and the (limited) use of live ammo.

The book also offers a short description of Khayr ad-Din, the rough and rowdy Badlands “underground gear dueling mecca”, along with a bunch of NPC descriptions (from gang bosses to famous gear pilots).

For a “normal” Heavy Gear game there isn’t anything you absolutely need here, but the info on the whole dueling phenomenon does make for nice background color. Also, Khayr ad-Din is a nice “hive of scum and villany” location for the game, and might be useful in pretty much any Heavy Gear game.

Minireview: Haarlock's Legacy Part II - Damned Cities (Dark Heresy)

Damned Cities is the second part of the Haarlock’s Legacy trilogy of adventures for the Dark Heresy game. The whole thing is actually slightly more than a trilogy, since the adventure included in the Disciples of the Dark Gods book, “House of Dust and Ash”, is also part of this storyline.

I’ve really liked the first installments of this series. The House of Dust and Ash was great (if deadly), and the first adventure book in the actual trilogy (Tattered Fates) was also high-class. Both of those did share one common flaw (or “feature”, at the least): they had extremely deadly portions to them. Expect PC casualties if you run those without modification. They are also a bit complex, so some amount of GM prep is necessary.

This whole series is somewhat freeform. While the general expectation is that you run either House of Dust and Ash or Tattered Fates as the intro, then the other one of those two as a follow-up, and then this one… nothing forces that sequence. As all of these are standalone scenarios with just some plot lines and themes linking them together, the GM is free to combine them in any form that feels natural, or to add some extra scenarios in between. I like the format, it’s very flexible. The upcoming last part is meant to be played last, however, since it is apparently meant to tie off the storyline.

Damned Cities continues the storyline of the Acolytes (PCs) chasing down the trail of the vanished Rogue Trader, Erasmus Haarlock. Haarlock has killed off most (all?) of his bloodline, and has also left deadly traps all over the sector and apparently organized some sort of grand plan, which is now slowly activating with various countdown times winding down.

This time around, trouble brews in the decaying formerly-grand Imperial city of Sinophia Magna. A series of brutal murders has upset the balance between the local nobility and the powerful criminal gangs, and the whole place is on the verge of sliding into anarchy. Something about the murders has triggered the interest of the Inquisition, and the PCs are sent to investigate. Mayhem, shootouts, insanity and heavy rainfall ensues.

It’s good stuff. While primarily an investigation piece, there is room for lots of action here too. It’s very freeform, almost a sandbox (with rain replacing the sand). The GM is given a host of interesting NCPs and a general timeline, with some helper events to spring on the players in the event that they bog down. It doesn’t feel quite as deadly as the previous installments, but that’s just a gut feel – there’s plenty of danger here. The PCs need to figure out the killer or killers, and the possible tie to Erasmus Haarlock, before things get… interesting. Where “interesting” means “very, very bad”.

Despite the fairly slim page count, the book is nicely organized and a lot of thought has been given to how the GM can best use the material. There are lots of GM helper ideas and events, with discussion on when and if to activate various subplots, and the NPC descriptions are very nice. I also liked the discussion on general themes and motifs for the whole series; the use of clockworks, countdown times and such as symbols, etc.

So far, I’ve liked this series so much I’m almost considering running them myself. Scary, that.

Dragon Age finished

Well, I finally finished Dragon Age: Origins. With the zillion things demanding their share of my free time, it’s pretty rare for me to actually finish a computer game – most of the games I like are long and complex affairs, and… well, they take time. I think the previous “big” game I finished was Half-Life 2 (including episodes 1&2).

Playing through Dragon Age took me a whopping total of 69 hours of play time. It’s a huge game, just like the game it’s the “spiritual successor” of: Baldur’s Gate II. Since BG2 happens to be one of those other big games which I have actually finished, and also one of my all-time favorites, it’s fitting to compare the two a bit.

So which is better? I honestly don’t know. I loved both. BG2 has a slightly more unorthodox plot and has more weird plot twists, but Dragon Age’s plot switched to high gear during the end section. While the beginning was a bit predictable and by-the-numbers in places, the end was pretty awesome: it forced you to make a lot of honestly difficult choices, both morally and tactically, often with no really “good” choice available. The end part delved heavily into realpolitik, and overall Dragon Age is a much more “gritty” and realistic game – as far as action-adventure fantasy games generally are, anyway.

Both have excellent NPCs, but I guess Dragon Age wins simply because the NPCs have full animation and (good) voice acting.

Both have interesting tactical combat, where the more difficult fights will kill you dead if you just wade in. On the other hand, neither featured frustratingly impossible battles of the “aaargh, let’s reload that for the 50th time” sort. Overall, nice balance.

Both have lots of variability in how they play out, depending on player choices. I think Dragon Age wins here, there are tons of subplots and even main plot variations that depend completely on what you do. This contributes to a great replay value; even though both of these games will eat up a humongous amount of time, paradoxically both are also games that tempt you to play them again. I played BG2 about halfway through the second time, and I’ll probably give Dragon Age another go too, this time with a different character and main companion selection (played as a mage this time).

I’m keeping Morrigan, though. She’s an amoral antisocial bitch, but she’s fun.

So. Fantastic game, jumping to my “all time favorites” list. It’s not perfect, it’s a bit predictable and cliched at times… but it’s quite a ride.