- Master of Orion is one of those games that defined the gamer that I am today. Back in 2007 when I began this blog, I listed it as one of my Top Five PC Games. It has been thirteen years since the game came out. But if I were to remake that list today, it would still hold a position.
- I recently bought a second copy of MoO from Good Old Games. Since my first copy is on 3 1/2 inch floppies and I haven't owned a drive for years, I was overjoyed to see it released on GOG. $5.99 is a perfect price for up-to-date and easy access to this game (bundled with MoO2).
- So, how does the game hold up? The best review I can give you is that I did not get to sleep until 3 AM this morning. I had to check the clock twice to make sure I wasn't seeing things. I remember playing so long in my younger years that some days I would not stop playing until the singing birds would tell me that I has stayed up all night. It obviously hasn't lost its "Just One More Turn" hook.
- I decided to start on easy just to get my feet underneath me. I rolled the humans because their diplomacy bonus is a big help. And I chose the green flag because I love those ship designs.
- So far, it's exactly the game I remember. Exactly the game I lost so many nights to. Now I just have to keep my willpower strong because I can't afford to miss any work.
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- Found on the road a couple miles outside of the nearby town and heading the opposite direction, the adventurers find a man with wild charcoal hair with a dark, bushy beard. He is dressed all in rags hanging loosely from his wiry frame. On his back he carries a backpack twice the width of his shoulders.
- If the party approaches him, he will wave and greet them warmly. He introduces himself as Edwin Tamelas. A toy maker by trade, he travels around the countryside, visiting small villages and towns, selling his wares to parents and children everywhere. He will readily tell the party that he has just left the nearby town as the people there were quite disagreeable. Also states that his next destination is several days distant and that he would enjoy the company of others on the road. If they agree and so long as the party does not intend to travel to the town, Edwin will accompany them for a few days. He is happy to share an local lore (65% chance to answer questions about local geography or legends) due to his extensive travels.
- One thing Edwin doesn't talk about or show off is his backpack. If asked, he refers to his toys as trifles. His profession is just a way to get bye and an excuse to travel the world. But if an adventurer gets curious enough to search the bag during the night, they will discover something quite different.
- Edwin's toys are small rag dolls only six inches tall. Each is magically animated and will run, play, and talk, though in a tiny, unintelligible manner. Edwin will not share his method of making the dolls, though he will vaguely refer to long lost mystical arts. Further investigation will be cut off by the toy maker swiftly.
- If no one has discovered Edwin's secret by the third night, one of his toys will escape from his pack and try to make a break for it. As the toys are very small, it will not get far before Edwin catches it. Instead of putting it back in his pack, the toy maker burns the toy in the fire. It pitiful screams will last for half a minute before dying away. If asked, the toy maker will only say that the toy was not a good one.
- After being discovered either way, Edwin will disappear on the fourth morning without a trace. He does not take anything from the players and leaves them nothing either. If the players ever backtrack to the town from which Edwin has traveling from, they will hear rumors of multiple disappearance from the townsfolk, though no one has any idea where they have gone or who might be responsible.
- Unexplored Worlds is my attempt to design an RPG campaign in the open. Since I have not rolled a d20 in anger in many years, this is my way to keep playing without actually playing. All posts are written to be system-agnostic, so please use whatever keeps your interest in your own games. Just let me know how it goes!
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- With so much chaos in the universe, it's easy to fall into the logical fallacy that one's thoughts can shape the world around them. For instance, I was in the shower the other day (where I do my best thinking) wondering about why I never got around to trying Dawn of War II. I have a long running dislike of RTS games, but everything I'd heard about the game (especially on Idle Thumbs) made me think that I might actually enjoy this one. Then this weekend, Steam put the DoW II Gold Edition (the original game plus the Chaos Rising expansion) on sale for twenty dollars. I don't really believe that I caused an amazing game sale to show up, but coincidence is kind of hilarios sometimes.
- Instead of the standard base and army building paradigm traditional to RTS games, DoW II's campaign gives you control of only four units, all spawned at the beginning of the level. Your goal is to shephard your forces through various conflicts, assaulting enemy positions, and holding strategic objectives. As your units fight and achieve their goals, they earn experience and find gear, both of which can be used to improve their abilities. In its way, DoW II feels more like a real-time RPG. And with the interesting storyline, optional missions, and bonus objectives, there is a lot to enjoy.
- My main complaint with RTS games still holds here. There is too much going on too fast for me to feel like I have enough time to act or react with any precision. However, the Recruit difficulty setting is forgiving enough that I don't feel like I have to micromanage my units. I do what I can and use what special abilities I can remember. But if I don't always remember to find the best cover or use the perfect tactics, the setting is forgiving enough that I haven't yet felt frustrated by the game.
- I've already finished the Dawn of War II campaign and I'm just starting Chaos Rising. Relic did a great job telling the story of the Blood Ravens' multi-front battle against the Orks, Eldar, and Tyranid. I was amazed by how interested I got in the characters, especially since they are less than an inch tall on my monitor. The final battle had some great lows and highs with the last boss being a suitably epic confrontation. I was genuinely excited to see my men triumph against such tremendous odds.
- I was also amazed to find out how much fun I've been having with The Last Stand online mode. Instead of a pitched battle against random people (a mode I may never launch), The Last Stand gives you a single hero unit and places you in an arena to fight off waves of opponents alongside two other players. I generally prefer single-player gaming, but this drop-in co-op is a lot of fun. I look forward to seeing how far I can go in that mode.
- Considering how much time I drilled into the game over the weekend, it is safe to assume I found the right RTS for me. Now I just have to hope they keep making expansions because I don't want it to end so soon!
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- First, a game where you, playing as a woman, can shoot all the jerks harassing solely due to your sex can be found here.
- Second, an article explaining why the game resonated with her can be found here.
- Third, a blogger feeling vaguely guilty about any contribution he makes to all this can be found right here. No link required.
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- I was not going to write anything in response to Darren's post over at The Common Sense Gamer because I figured he was just being his curmudgeonly self. But then when Tobold took up the same topic, I could not just let the thing lie.
- Way to miss the point, guys.
- You and your ilk are so set in your MMOing ways that you genuinely accept that there is no solution to the quest problem. The fact that people are clicking through quests is not a sign that no one wants stories in their MMOs. Blocks of text are just archaic ways to tell stories in a video game.
- I remember back when Wrath of the Lich King came out. Various bloggers declared that they would turn the Instant Quest Text option off so that they would take the time to savor the stories the game wanted to tell. And yet now we're cynically proclaiming that story is so inconsequential that we may as well skip the text altogether and just hand out quest blurbs that say "Kill ten rats", "Collect ten rat tails", or "Click the Glowing Thing" and that's all gamers need to keep grinding away.
- Games like The Old Republic and Guild Wars 2 are banking on the fact that people really will play for the story if you tell it the right way. And I think we should applaud them for the effort, not complain about how they are missing the point. Year in and year out, we complain about how there is not innovation in MMOs. Everyone is making a WoW clone and we're bored before we've even played it. But as soon as a developer puts one foot outside of our comfortable bounds, we tell them that they don't understand MMOs and it will never work. Shame on us.
- By the way, Zubon has already said all this much better and more succinctly over at Kill Ten Rats. I just want you to hide the link way down here at the bottom so you'd have to read everything before clicking away.
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
