Game Review: Left 4 Dead 2
Late last year when the game Left 4 Dead was released by Valve for X-Box 360, our friend (and occasional writer here at CH) Joshx0rfz wanted to post a short and sweet review of it saying simply, “It’s as fun as a shotgun blast to the face!” We probably should have posted it at the time, but thankfully we made up for that by featuring the game in our 2008 Holiday Gift Guide. Not too long ago Dave wisely suggested the sequel, Left 4 Dead 2, in our 2009 Holiday Gift Guide but today I’d like to discuss it in detail and address some of the concerns I had about the game, specifically about a full sequel being released barely over a year after the first game.
The first Left 4 Dead game almost instantly became my favorite multiplayer game, probably of all time, finally nudging out GoldenEye (I know, blasphemy, right?) from the position it held for many years. Left 4 Dead 2 is a big improvement over the first game. It has fixed several of the problems the first game had while adding a large amount of new content that makes it worth buying. There is still a large issue that much of that new content seems like it could have been added to the first game in expansions and add-ons without the need to purchase a whole new game. However, when you factor in the length of the five new campaigns added to the game, the new scavenger mode, changes in weapons / adding melee weapons, and the new types of infected that can be played in multiplayer mode you would probably end up with enough downloadable content to equal the $40-$60 price tag of the sequel.
In essence I’m still torn on the issue. I now own both games and am a bit disappointed that many of my friends made the smart decision to trade in the first to make the second game more affordable so I feel that the first game has effectively become useless or not worth playing anymore. Much of my feelings on the matter are probably inspired by that disappointment, but putting them aside the second game takes everything I loved about the first and adds on to it with even more content and options that take the game further than I believe just DLC would have done. [Read the rest of this article]
On 4e Adventures: Part 1, Third Parties and the Freelance Writer
I’m a very instinctive type of guy, and lately my gut feeling has told me that some 3rd party publishers of 4e adventures have left the boat (or are thinking about doing it). For instance, I learned yesterday that Joseph Goodman of Goodman Games has been musing online about adding Pathfinder support to his DCC line.
I also have a good feeling why the 3rd party module market has dropped (I’m excluding Wolfgang Baur’s Open Design 4e projects because they are patron financed):
- WotC corners the market for ‘generic’ adventures that fit in the official worlds with D&Di and dead tree adventures.
- Some publishers create adventure models incompatible with 4e’s design philosophy (the DCC is a likely candidate, worked great in 3.x, not so much in 4e).
- The financial crisis has hit this ‘non-essential’ part of the industry hard.
Again, my gut feeling tells me that there’s a nook that can be exploited for adventures written under the auspices of the Game System License. Adventures written based on a different philosophy than previous projects (learning from them). Adventurers that break the mold in more than one ways.
I smell a business opportunity!
As it so happens, for D&D 4e, writing adventures is what I want to do most. Now that I’ve sunk my teeth in a 5000 word adventure, I’d love to tackle a 32 pager. But I also want to be paid an amount a money for it that corresponds to my skills and experience (irrespective of the capacity of this market to pay).
Choices need to be made.
As a freelance adventure writer that leaves very few possibilities:
- Write for WotC
- Pros: Highest pay rates, highest name recognition, owns the trademark
- Cons: High barrier to entry, slow/opaque submission screening process, getting paid can be a challenge
- Write for Open Design/Kobold Quarterly
- Pros: Decent pay rates (for RPGs), excellent reputation, highly professional, rapid responses
- Cons: KQ takes no adventures, Open Design does but requires familiarity and experience in their patron system
- Write for Goodman Games
- Pros: Very approachable staff and owner, established brands, highly recognizable name
- Cons: Low rates, low product flexibility, editing issues
- Write for an untried/developing imprint (ex: Expy games, Nevermet Press)
- Pros: High product flexibility, easy to pitch to, very low risk
- Cons: Uncertain pay rate (often profit sharing), unproven track record and leadership
- Start your own imprint
- Pros: Full liberty, very instructive experience ( be it in success or failure)
- Cons: Very high risk, difficult quality vs Cost decisions, Wide skill set needed ($$$), uncertain sales level.
Part of ‘The Plan” for me is to hit all of those over the next year… and this may include the last one (likely in partnership with other like-minded souls) if we conclude that the RPG market is a viable use of the growing writing talent around us.
In part 2, I’ll do a high-level review of current 4e adventure and share elements that I’d like to see more of in D&D 4e adventure, maybe elements I could cover.
In the mean time, let me know about your own experience with 4e published adventures, publication plans, imprints you like/own/plan to open.
2009 Retrospective on 4e: The Reality of the Relationship
2009 was the year I reentered the world of gaming in full force. During law school I kept an interest, but played pencil and paper RPGs infrequently, and only out of town. I eagerly followed and consumed all 4e materials. I applauded its newfound sense of balance and streamlined system for enhanced ease of play.
Then, I played it. Entering two games at paragon tier, I got to examine the system. It’s been fun. With streamlined simplicity it has given real number crunchers enough to min-max (though they lament the broken combos of yore) and the casual gamer the means to compete without being forced to spend too much time. For me though, some aspects of 4E stand out as ugly warts on a smooth and well conceived gaming experience. So now, the honeymoon with 4e is over. 4e and I spent our days in bed cooing softly in one another’s ear, and now it’s time to take stock of the situation. It’s time to codify my biggest gripes about 4e.
[Read the rest of this article]
Blog Merge: Gut Reaction and Expectations
(Boy am I glad not to post this on April 1st)
During my scientific training I was thought never to keep a punch till the end if I wasn’t writing a story. So here it is, I’m seriously considering merging Musings of the Chatty DM into the structure of my friend Dave’s Critical Hits* while keeping a clear, recognizable spot on their website. I’ll go into details below, but at least the cat is out of the bag.
Like many nerd projects, one often feels the need to move on once things have been mastered. And while I LOVE writing Musings of the Chatty DM, I’ve grown weary of managing its infrastructure. That’s why I haven’t changed themes in 2 years, that I don’t try to fix my Feedburner issue, that I hardly ever think of changing the speech in the bubble up there.
Oh and don’t ask me about hacking attempts!
As The Plan unfolds (i.e. my 2009-2010 career reorientation), I realize that I want to write, not learn css or how to secure SQL databases. While I’m surrounded by people who have done it for me for free, I’d rather work with someone who’s more into it than I am. As a writer and a teacher, 30 months of blogging taught me that writing and answering comment is what I want to do most.
The idea to merge with Critical Hits came to me while I was answering one of Dave’s recent emails. He was observing that CH’s original crew (a group of pre-college friends) was re-focusing on real-life issues and that keeping the original schedule was going to be harder. He was asking us for ideas on addressing this.
I then proposed the merge as a huge ‘what if’. I no longer post 5 days a week and neither could Dave. I was weary of managing the behind the scene stuff of a WordPress blog while Dave wasn’t. What if we merged? A Win/Win seemed possible.
Of course, when we started talking about it more seriously, I shared my main expectations on this.
- The chattydm.net/com domains would need to be maintained and link to a specific area of Critical Hits where my stuff could be found and well laid out.
- A chattydm-specific RSS feed so readers could keep following my stuff.
- I get to keep full editorial control of my posts, Dave offered some proof-reading and grammar-checking (yeah, I would need that).
- A dedicated space on the site’s front page where readers can find my stuff like it was a feature on those ‘Magazine’ WordPress themes. (i.e. the site would be redesigned)
- Give readers who would prefer the ’ChattyDM’ experience to come in directly, read/comment and leave (actually that one is from Dave, how’s that for service?)
- I keep full publication rights to my posts for possible future blog anthology books.
- The old ChattyDM blog would be closed (there are security reasons behind this)
- A written agreement would be put in place.
None of these seem to be a deal breaker so Dave and I will explore this further. In essence, I would become part of the Critical Hits team, while at the same time having my own ‘section’ of the website doing my Chatty DM stuff.
Heck, I could write about Video Games and movies more often! 
But before we do this, I want to ask you what you think!
Given that I will likely go forward with this (barring no technical or contractual obstacles), I’d like to know what your gut reactions tosuch a move would be? As Chatty DM readers (and potential CH readers too), I would also like to know what your expectations would be to keep you as contented readers during and after the move?
While I’ve always said I write for myself first and foremost but now that we’re about 2000 here, you also get to say your piece. We’ll pay attention I promise.
So fire away!
*Critical Hits is an Ennies-nominated blog that talks about RPGs, Boardgame, game designs, gaming news, movies and all things geek. It’s the first geek blog I started reading 3 years ago before I launched Chatty DM.
Changing the Way We Think About Published Adventures
I think a lot about communication. My MA is in a communications field, my day job is all about figuring out the best ways to communicate and organize information, I’m thinking about getting a Doctorate of Communications Design, and so on. I also think a lot about games. I mean, a lot.
Published adventures (or adventure modules, or whatever you want to call them) are an area that has always, always bugged me. That’s one big reason that I never really got into running them, and even today, I’m much more likely to hack them apart and steal what I want then run them out of the book (though I do have a few favorites.) A big part of the problem for me is that I want adventures that communicate everything you need to know to run the adventure with minimal prep time and minimal disruptions while running it. [Read the rest of this article]
Inq. of the Week: So This Is A New Year
Last week, we asked what 4e books you were looking forward to in the new year. With nearly 300 people responding, the clear favorite with 60% was the Player’s Handbook 3, introducing all kinds of psionic goodness into 4e at last. Dark Sun, which is the poster child psionic-heavy setting, came in second with 53%. Monster Manual 3 was in third place, for those of you who can’t wait to match wits with the spider queen herself. Last place are the HS adventure modules, which we don’t know much about, but maybe will surprise us, even those a bit jaded by previous adventure offerings. Several people chimed in on our Facebook fan page as well, though they clearly weren’t as enthusiastic.
As we roll into the new year, there are two important questions here. One is an open-ended question, to which you will have to answer in a full comment: what are some of your predictions for the coming year?
The other is multiple choice, and I assure you, of vast importance:
Loading ...To the first question, I predict we’ll see some more experimental steps into new gaming frontiers, but they won’t realize their full potential for another few years. We’ll see something out of Project Natal this year, and it will be an incredible technology that I am fully confidant Microsoft will figure out some way to make annoying and counter-intuitive. (“You must sign in with your Xbox Live account and key it to your facial identification, and then it can only be played by you, unless you purchase downloadable content…”) We’ll also see other inroads into casual markets with whatever the heck is Apple is doing coupled with Surface and similar tabletop/computer fusion. Likewise, tabletop games will continue to experiment with format and further divide the gaming base but set the stage for something really interesting and innovative.
I also predict that I will hear a lot of complaints about lack of flying cars from people who have a computer in their pocket that can do incredible things.
As to the second question, I firmly stand by the opinion that we have waited long enough to enter the future, and that Twenty Ten is the future way of stating the year. After all, we’re only 91 years away from war was beginning.
Image Credit: Grunge New Year by Dezignia via Stock.Xchng
Gears of Ruin: Party Creation Session Template
We start the new year with a new D&D 4e campaign. I spoke a little bit about this new D&D 4e clockwork campaign we were starting.
After having read the first chapter of the Dungeon Master Guide 2, Mouse Guard and having heard about several games where character generation is part of the shared game (i.e. you do it with all players around the table), I decided that we would try doing the same thing for that new campaign. So we decided to make the first session into a character/party generation session. We had it shortly before the holidays We spent some time on it and then we did a trial fight to test the PCs.
Thus I thought I would share the annotated version of this “party building template” I built for our campaign (a series of objectives, setting elements and questions to be answered as a group). I’ll also share some of the cool answers we got.
(Start template here)
Objectives of the Session:
- Create, with player input, a cohesive party
- Create an overarching mission for the party
- Create locales that have a special meaning for each PC
Notes: This was my road map for the preparatory sessions leading to the campaign. If you adopt a similar template this is where you write your expectation as a DM for the character/party generation session.
Highlights of the World
- Water poor
- Deep Wells (rare and guarded)
- Imported from other worlds ($$$)
- Ice mining from polar caps.
- Transported from open portals in Elemental Chaos.
- Drained from people.
- Surface world very harsh
- Most ‘civilization’ is into Airship “towns” or Mountain Cities.
- Some fortified outposts on the surface, built around strategic resources like Iron, Water/ice or equivalent material.
- There are no ‘kingdoms’ or ‘countries’ on this world, just companies, guilds and factions that have a vested interest in this world.
- Unless channeled through from the Elemental Chaos Magic (Arcane and Spirit) is too weak to be invoked without the help of clockwork machinery embedded in magic items, implements or the equivalent of the Wrist watch, an armoured clockwork catalyst.
- Most of the Airship borne factions and companies are Human-centric of vaguely Germanic origins.
- Airships fly because of Helium (lift), precise manufacturing (constructs) and Clockwork.
Notes: I don’t have a Wiki yet for my campaign’s setting so these notes were mostly mine, to present to players and use them as a reference during the upcoming steps of the session.
Names of PC:
- NarBeth the Waterfinder (Stef): Dwarven Druid, born on this world, in a dwarven colony established here over 100 years ago
- Magma (Franky): Earthsoul/Firesoul Genasi Swordmage, voluntarily exiled from the Elemental Chaos. “It’s all behind me”.
- Vorian (Mike): Githzerai Monk from the Zerthaldlun Monastary in the Elemental; Chaos. Fights the influence of Chaos on this world.
- Holy Clank (Yan): Warforged Fighter/Cleric Hybrid. ”Squishy things are mysterious and must be understood”.
- Rod Stone (Math): Goliath Warden. Big and strong… and running from something.
- Eric was missing, he’ll likely play an Avenger. I’m pushing him to make some sort of ecological terrorist of a radical nature cult.
Notes: While the players were giving me their PC names they were also sharing their backstories so instead of stopping them, I noted the main idea and asked for an extra element in the next section (see below).
Party Cohesion
Each PC provides a 1-2 sentence story/background for his PC
- Holy Clank : Squishy things are mysterious. Very curious about out of ordinary phenomenon.
- NarBeth: A water Robin Hood. Finds freshwater wells for poor surface dwellers.
- Rod Stone: Wanderer, counts coups. Still searches for his role in the world. Has had high stress recently in his native cloud-top village.
- Vorian: Seeks to attain harmony of body, mind and soul. Emotions get the better of him in stressful situations but he tries to control it.
- Magma: Voluntary exiled from the Elemental Chaos, seeks his lost path. Two opposed personalities Stone/Fire.
Notes: This is pure story gold. I’ve was handed a gift basket of what the players wanted to achieve with their PCs and everyone around the table learned a simple fact about each other PC.
Each PC creates 2 positive relationships/links with 2 other PCs (We only had time to do one each so far)
- Holy Clank: Developed a friendly competition with Rod Stone about all physical feats.
- NarBeth: Along with Holy-Clank, has made Airship-City Deputy Minister of Security of headquarter crazy with their experimenting with dangerous technology on the main-airship.
- Rod Stone: Likes to follow Magma’s impulsion, makes life exciting and simple .
- Vorian: Sought Magma out, following the instruction of his sensei in order to help him find “The Path”.
- Franky: Sought out a Warforged, met one on a battle field (Holy Clank), fought on the same side. Became friends.
Notes: If you were to borrow just one ‘question’ from this whole template, I’d say use this one. By asking players to create positive relationships you require players to start asking the thorny ‘why are we together?’ question at the best possible moment, when everyone is willing to be cooperative all excited about a new campaign.
Each PC creates a Tension with a PC he has no relationship/link with
Notes: We didn’t get to that yet. This is a nice little drama tool where players get to create little ‘stress fractures’ in the party to explore later. Great for Psychodrama-driven players and helping players roleplay PC/PC scenes.
Each PC creates a friendly NPC he is linked to
- Holy Clank: Killinerix, Adult Bronze Dragon. Philosopher, keeper, mentor and friend.
- Nar-Beth: Ratchet, dwarven mechanic and mentor, teaches the Druid about technology. Also the party’s airship mechanic.
- Rod Stone: Perre-Grina . The youngest girl of his village’s Chieftain, she’s just too friendly.
- Vorian: His sensei in Zerthaldlun who sent him into this world. Vorian trusts him implicitly.
- Franky: The “Old Mage in the Park”, an old Archmage who likes to talk about everything and nothing.
Notes: How cool is it to start a campaign with a full set of friendly NPCs? Plus, I’m a great believer of the one-sentence NPC. And yes, the party starts with its own Airship and crew. Lucky dogs…
Each PC creates an enemy/rival NPC
Notes: We didn’t get to that either. This is to allow players to create their nemesis and enemies in advance. This will make your Storytellers really happy.
Each PC creates a locality he/she’s related to.
Notes: This is where players create taverns, temples, headquarters, gardens and so on that have significance to them. They can help to inspire you for creating adventures.
And that’s my template for our next D&D campaign.
Do you know what is the biggest selling point here? The players won’t feel like they have to do any work. In exchange for one or two hours of game time, we fill the template which often feels like we’re actually playing the game (although the storytelling part), giving the DM a ton of useful leads for the campaign and gives the player some solid bases to start adventuring together.
Do try to keep this as short as possible, as your Power-gaming butt-kickers will start becoming restless after the first hour.
Anybody else, in D&D or other RPGs use something similar? What kind of questions do you ask? What would be the benefits for your groups of using a similar template. What would be the downsides? Let me know!
Critical Bits for the week ending 2010-01-02
- RT @allgeektout: You can win Chrononauts for #free at allgeektout.com right now! http://ow.ly/PWgb Sponsored by @gatorgames. #
- RT @WyattSalazar: Check out my skill challenge/powers/rituals hybrid homebrew. http://bit.ly/8wp8sY #
- RT @unclebear: (Attempted) Review: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay PDF http://is.gd/5FNYs #
Chatty's Goals for 2010
Happy new year people! New year, new ‘decade’ (hush, pedants) and possibly new pants!
As is becoming a tradition on Musings, this is when I look over last year’s goals and set new ones. I say goals and not resolutions because resolutions are all about ‘have to, and should, and ought to” and I have zero tolerance for that passive aggressive guilt-ridden crap. 
Objectives are things you strive for, resolutions are things you hope to achieve, like maybe, if I feel like it.
So onwards to the objectives.
RPG Writing and Online Presence
Looking over the 2009 list and given the state I was in when I wrote it, I’m impressed to see just how much was achieved. Without rehashing yesterday’s post, I was able to recapture the fun of blogging and put Musings back on track.
It’s not as meaty as it used to be, I post less often but it sits exactly where I want it to be. It remains my little corner of this digital gamestore where I talk about my campaign, debate ideas, flirt with Indie games and describe my quest to become a better GM.
In 2009, I targeted a few up and coming writers and tried to give them a nudge here and there to get them to consider taking it to the next level (Submitting ideas for publication). It might be weird for a guy who hasn’t actually published anything in 2009 to do that, but you have to understand I’m as much a teacher as a writer.
More specifically, my talent-senses have zeroed in on the guys who hide behind the aliases of Wyatt Salazar, Gamefiend and NewbieDM. These guys ooze potential, quite possibly more than I do. I like to think that I helped them a bit over the last year and will continue doing so over the next one. Be on the lookout for them.
I also did go to Gen Con but I never got around to publishing an e-book. Missing just one Online objective isn’t bad.
I also officially started writing for RPG publishers, with one 4e adventure and 2 gaming magazine articles written, I overshoot last year’s objective. Yay! The adventure and one article will see publication for sure. Let’s hope the other one does too.
For 2010 things are going to be the logical progression of what was started in 2009.
- Maintain the blog , tackle and complete cool series like the ongoing one on creativity.
- Go to PAX east and Gen Con with the primary mission of playing and having fun (less working and schmoozing. Well… Some schmoozing)
- Build myself a name in the RPG industry outside of the online community (more gaming articles and pitches for magazines like Kobold Quarterly, Level Up and Dungeon).
- Make a pitch for one major D&D 4e product (like a 32+ page adventure or a guide)
- Publish at least 2 e-books of material based on my Blog.
Other Objectives
I’ve discussed my personal life too much in 2009 so I’ll spare you the review. Suffice it to say that re-achieving balance and serenity was only the first part.
I’m also building myself a teaching, translating and non-RPG writing business. I seriously doubt that it is viable to make a living as a freelance RPG writer and I want to expand my writing horizon further out. I will remain a Hobby-lancer because RPGs are one of my passions. Just don’t be surprised when you see my name pop in other types of blog.
(If you write such a blog, I’d love a guest post invite).
And who knows, maybe I’ll find a way to support my family without needing the ‘day job’ anymore?
So there you have it. 2010 will be about building a name outside of the Blog/online arena and implementing the changes that started in 2009.
What about your goals? Any armchair designers getting ready to swim with the sharks yet?
