Not Your Average Geeks
Games
Game Master Roundtable – Intro
Jul 22nd
There are two kinds of people in this world, those who build and those who play. This is the Game Master’s Roundtable; a gathering place for those of the former and those with the desire to rise above mere content ingestion.
For those unfamiliar with the role, a Game Master (a.k.a. GM, Dungeon Master, DM, referee, etc.) operates as the manager and guide for a group of players. Most often, the GM is responsible for constructing the game world and adventure that the players will experience. There are thousands of tools available to a Game Master to assist in creating these worlds. For game settings that are much more popular, there can be a plethora of pre-made content. A Game Master can use this content to alleviate some of the work required in constructing an enjoyable experience. A more experienced GM will often forgo the use of pre-made content in an effort to create a truly unique and custom tailored experience for the players.
It takes a variety of skills along with a healthy dose of time and dedication to create an enjoyable end product. While we all must ultimately figure out our own approach, it can be extremely helpful to learn from the experiences of others. Through this column, myself and other GMs will share our advice, tools, ideas and general thoughts with the hopes that something we have to offer can enrich your gaming experience.
Stay tuned each and every Thursday for more thoughts from the GM’s Roundtable.
-Sim
Our heroes take a page out of BP’s book
Jul 21st
The Charnel Lord
After a peaceful night’s sleep in their fortified room, the adventurers of the Epic Fail adventuring group set off deeper into the halls of the Pyramid of Shadows. All was well until they entered a non-descript hallway, and suddenly two of their party were catapulted down a steep ramp and into a charnel pit inhabited by a very hungry tentacled beast. While it might not have been so bad if the party’s paladin had been thrown down the chute, in this case it was the Wizard and Ranger that ended up in a pit full of blood and rotting meat, being chewed on.
As the rest of the group attempted to figure out what had triggered the trap, the cleric of Pelor used his magic boots to leap over the dangerous area to inspect the rest of the hall. However, this led Splug the goblin to assume that he too could make the jump, which led to him joining the Ranger and Wizard in between a rock and a hard place. Two NPCs that were traveling with us (members of a criminal gang that were also trapped in the pyramid soon joined them. More >
Penguin Mafia – Weekly Update – Season 42 Week 13
Jul 20th
The Penguin Mafia survived their match against Mons last week. This was a must win if they had any hope of promotion. That set them up for this week which was a match against a bot team. Unfortunately, as seems to be the case around any match with Mons, both the starting and backup goal keeper ended up being injured before this weeks game. That meant that once again the Penguin Mafia would have to put aside their dreams of a stadium upgrade to acquire a new goalie.
The bright side is that the PM now have 2 decent goalies, rather than one decent one and one garbage goalie.
Needless to say the match against the bot was a rout. They stood absolutely no chance and the Penguin Mafia series goal differential took another giant leap into the positive direction. Tor Ahndahl was able to cement his location as the top scorer for the series, baring some freak triple hattrick by another player in next weeks final game of the season. Luckily, there were no further injuries to result from this game.
While I was expecting to have to fight in a relegation match, it would seem that the fates have been kind. As long as the PM win next weeks match, they will be able to auto-promote. However, next weeks match is no push over. A human player has stepped in to take over the team that the PM play in the final season match. They haven’t had a significant amount of time to build a quality team, but they will certainly be more difficult than a bot based team.
The Penguin Mafia won’t count their chickens before they hatch. Expect them to play all 90 minutes. See you next week for another update. Same time, same place.
-Sim
Classics on the go with PSP homebrew
Jul 16th
I have a confession to make. I’ve never played through such classics as Super Mario World, Earthbound, Super Metroid, Super Mario RPG, A Link to the Past, or ANY Final Fantasy. You can pretty much add any 8-bit or 16-bit games to that list as well.
Now, it’s not all my fault. My parents refused to buy me videogames of any sort, so the first console I actually owned as a pawn shop purchased PSX sometime in late highschool. My early forays into gaming were limited to hand-me-downs from my uncle, things like Dark Forces, Steel Panthers, and Wolfenstein.
PSP with necessary accessories, Pandora battery and memory stick
Enter the Sony PSP. I’ve had my eye on getting one for a while, not really to play PSP games, but to emulate the classics I missed out on as a kid. I scrounged up a $30 PSP with a broken disc drive (I’ll be running everything from the memory stick so the drive won’t matter) from our local Craigslist this weekend, and set to work installing a custom firmware to allow the use of homebrew like emulators. Between 8-bit, 16-bit, ScummVM, and MAME I’ll have my work cut out for me!
Emulating the classics also means I can use savestates, which will overcome one other gripe I’ve had with playing these games in their original form, the need to play them all the way through in one sitting.
Installing a custom firmware on most fat or slim PSPs is fairly easy. The PSP 3000 and PSP Go are a slightly different story, and as I don’t have any experience with them, I won’t go into it here. If you want to know if your PSP can be hacked, check here.
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only hilariously failed dice rolls.
Jul 15th
Our little gaming group just can’t get enough. In addition to our weekly 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons game, we’re about to start a Dark Heresy game played entirely over Google Wave. 
Dark Heresy is a pen and paper RPG set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, in which humanity has spread among the stars and is under siege from various alien races and evil forces. The players take on the role of underlings sent on missions by a powerful Inquisitor boss.
The world of Dark Heresy can be extremely lethal, and there is lots of potential for things to go hilariously wrong, so this should be a pretty entertaining game. The fact that we are playing it over Wave also means that we will hopefully be able to focus a little more on noncombat events and roleplaying than we tend to in D&D.
We are just in the planning phase at the moment, and haven’t even rolled the characters, but keep a lookout for a weekly game update once we get started. I’ll try and distill the game down to the most epic or entertaining parts for that.
The Adventures of the Epic Fail Adventuring company
Jul 14th
As I discussed in my earlier post on the subject, Sim, myself, and a group of our friends have an ongoing weekly Dungeons & Dragons game. This post will be the first of a weekly column detailing the highlights of the adventures our player characters find themselves involved in.
Alteria - Nentir Vale (map by Sim)
First off the party’s name came from our friend JJ, who’s Dragonborn Paladin has a nasty habit of failing even the easiest dice rolls and falling off high ledges. It’s statistically unlikely just how bad that guy rolls. You usually don’t even need to ask what he rolled, as it’s enough to just see the look of despair on his face while his character is hanging on for dear life.
The party began in the town of Winterhaven, which had a kobold problem, like so many small fantasy hamlets seem to. Investigating this led us to Keep on the Shadowfell
to stop a cult of Orcus from opening a portal to the Shadowfell.
After stopping the cult evil plans (just barely), we ventured to the much larger city of Fallcrest, where we learned of a slaver ring that had abducted several people, including a goblin friend of ours. This led us to Thunderspire Labyrinth
where we eventually did away with the slavers, ran off an evil mage, nearly died many times, and were reunited with our goblin companion, Splug.
The party then headed off to collect a bounty on the notorious gangster Garash Vren, only to find themselves sucked into the Pyramid of Shadows
The Pyramid of Shadows, session 4
The pyramid is a very dangerous place, with one or more heroes being knocked unconcious almost every session so far. This session saw the group exploring deeper into the first level of the pyramid, in search of powerful magical weapons supposedly stashed in an armory near where they had last rested.
While we’re talking zombies
Jul 13th
How about a zombie-filled, free MMO that only takes a couple of minutes a day to play? I’m talking about Urban Dead, the brainchild of web-developer and game designer Kevan Davis. In Urban Dead, one can play as a survivor, a zombie, or both, all within the sprawling suburb of Malton, which has been under quarantine for five years now following an outbreak.
I first played Urban Dead shortly after it went live five years ago. At that time, the options for your character were fairly basic, but today there are expanded character roles and possibilities (detailed here).
Those that wish to fight the outbreak can play as humans, barricaded inside buildings, reviving zombies, or just run around mowing them down without mercy. Zombie players can get a variety of upgrades to help them spread the infection, and break into barricaded buildings to get at the juicy meatbags inside.
D&D Encounters
Jul 10th
If you’ve always wondered exactly how Dungeons & Dragons worked, but weren’t willing to buy the books and actually run a game with some friends, D&D Encounters is a great way to get a taste at minimal cost to yourself.
Encounters are held Wednesday nights at local game stores all over North America. All you need is to show up with dice (although depending on the store you may be able to borrow some your first time. If now, they shouldn’t run more than $5 or so). You are provided with a character sheet, and will be grouped with 4-5 other players for that nights encounter.
Hattrick – Transfer Market Tips
Jul 10th
Buy Low, Sell High. Use the comparison tool provided by the website. Don’t be a douche and snipe auctions. You’re on your own with this one.
-Sim
Hattrick – Youth Leagues
Jul 9th
There are two options presented to you when it comes to youth players. You can either pay for youth scouts to drum up some random recruits into the senior team or you can start up a youth academy. If you enjoy the main game, then I would highly recommend the starting a youth academy. The youth academy provides an entire new experience very similar to the senior team and gives you control over the quality of youth players that will be available for recruitment into the senior team.
Assuming, you have now started a youth academy, you may be a bit confused about why you can not see the abilities of your youth players. Well, that my friend, is part of the fun. First thing you will want to do is find a league for your youth team. This can be a bit of a pain. I would recommend looking in the forums for open leagues, or searching for international leagues with open spots. Look for a league that has a start date sometime in the future.
Once you have a league you will want to set match orders and training types. Note that you can set 2 training types in the youth academy. The primary type gives 100% training and the secondary gives 50% training. It is typically not recommended to set both to the same training type. This results in less than 150% and you do not maximize training. You will gain insight into the abilities of your youth players through the results of matches. Your coach will give feedback and slowly reveal their nominal skill values.
Youth players have varying caps for each skill. Your scouts and coaches will slowly give you visibility to these caps. As the owner you will want to recruit players with higher caps and put the players in the correct spots that will allow them to train to their caps.
Youth academies take time, but in the end they give you more control over your team and another outlet for strategy. Stick with it and you will not be disappointed. Good luck and good recruiting!
-Sim