Game Mileage Varies By Age (part 2)

Don't get me wrong, I like a good challenge in my games. I suppose one of my biggest complaints, though, is a game that doesn't make my objectives clear and causes me to wander around aimlessly, dealing with random encounters that feel purposeless because I don't know where I'm going. I also don't like games that I can put hours and hours into, but because of randomized rewards, I might not gain anything useful to advance in the game. Yet games like this that require “grind” seem to appeal to the younger generation, and I catch myself about to judge them when I recall how much more time I had back when I was that age. Long, empty summers with no job, no family to take care of and nothing to do meant a lot of time to kill--what better way to pass time than to pound away at a game and feel like I'm accomplishing something through brute force? It can be immensely gratifying, somehow, but these days, not so much.

Game Mileage Varies By Age (part 1)

There are all types of gamers, but one way to categorize them is by age. Games mean different things to each of us at the various stages of our lives. I remember when my friends and I used to gather around a table to play Dungeons and Dragons, back in elementary and middle school. Once high school began, there wasn't as much time for getting together with friends, but we still managed once in a while. However, video games became something I could do on my own more spontaneously. The types of games I spent my time on varied, though, mostly because of my limited budget as a teenager. I remember dedicating myself to solving a single game, working on it for months and months, practicing all the patterns and tricks to get through a game that I finally was able to solve—Ghosts 'n Goblins. I solved the game because I didn't have the money to buy any others, so I got the most mileage I could out of it. Today, I often move on to a different game before solving it. Buying a new one isn't as much of an issue, and I have less free time to devote to a game that is punishingly difficult. If I don't feel like I'm progressing, I feel like I'm wasting my time and since I have so little of that, I switch to something different.

NASA Discovers 7 Earth-sized Exoplanets!

You may have heard about the recently announced NASA discovery of 7 earth-sized worlds orbiting an ultra-cool dwarf star. The system is called TRAPPIST-1, named after the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) in Chile, and is 40 light years away from earth. To give you a small idea of how far that is, if there are aliens in the TRAPPIST-1 system, they are just now receiving our TV broadcasts from 1970. Still, this system is considered relatively close to us, and scientists are excitedly trying to determine if any of the planets have an atmosphere or water on the surface. An interesting feature of the system is that the planets are thought to be tidally locked with their sun—meaning that one side of the planet is always facing the sun, producing a permanent daytime side and a permanent night-time side. Coincidentally, the Reln planet of Sardos in the Solar Echoes universe is also tidally locked with its sun, and its influence upon Reln life is significant. Imagine what it would be like to live in such a place!

Drop your weapon!

Every once in a rare while, players interpret something in the rules differently than intended. The game last weekend involves such an example. In the equipment section, the “Flash Freeze Grenade” description stated that the grenade “freezes everything in the blast radius.” An obvious, literal interpretation of that description is the assumption that everything is frozen in place, including targeted enemies, although this was not the intended design of the grenade—it was simply meant to do cold damage. I've since updated the Player's Guide with a new description, which now states, “the grenade covers an area with a wave of extreme cold.” I still played out the player's interpretation, though, which led to comical effect: a smuggler was aiming a pistol at the characters, but got hit with a flash freeze grenade. I allowed it to freeze him in place, and the characters all shouted, “Drop your weapon!” He tried to say between frozen, clenched teeth, “I can't!” but they couldn't hear him, and decided to shoot him anyway! Clearly, from nearby security camera footage, he had refused to drop his weapon!

Dreamation Battle Report, part 3

Yesterday, we left our indomitable hero clutching the hood of the smuggler's skimcar, racing away from the warehouse at high speed. Zack, the undaunted human agent, declared, “I'm pulling out my machine-gun and I'm aiming at the engine!” The smuggler saw this and reacted by slamming on the brakes, sending Zack flying through the air about 30 yards. Before hitting the ground and suffering painful injuries, Zack still managed to fire his gun at the smuggler's car, damaging it but missing the engine and the smuggler. As he landed upon the hard asphalt, now critically injured from the grenade and the crushing fall, Zack heard the smuggler revving the engine threateningly. The smuggler then opened fire on Zack with the mounted rotary cannon on his car. Zack somehow managed to roll aside fast enough to avoid the bullets, and as the car sped towards him, he used his last bit of strength to stand up. The car was about to crush him but he used his Reaction to sidestep away just in time, declaring, “I'm shooting him through the window as he drives by!” Unfortunately, the penalties from his critical injuries prevented Zack from hitting the escaping smuggler, but the rest of his team had already piled into two cars and were racing after him. Zack called angrily over the com unit, “Guys, come pick me up, I can barely stand here!”

Dreamation Battle Report, part 2

“I don't care, I'm doing it!” This statement was something that the player of the human character on the team was heard to say several times, and the other players knew better than to try to dissuade him—he was fiercely determined to see his plans through, every time. When a smuggler ran to his car to escape the firefight, the human character, Zack, ran to the car as well, trying to hop in the passenger side with the smuggler. A contested skill check resulted in the smuggler managing to lock the doors just in time. Undaunted, Zack decided to “slap an EMP/Flash grenade on the windshield of the car,” despite my warnings that he, too, would be in the blast radius. “I don't care, I'm doing it!” he said emphatically, then ducked down on the side of the car. The smuggler made a skill check in Reaction to seeing the grenade placed on his windshield, and activated the windshield wipers, which quickly knocked the grenade right into Zack's lap. This might have been the end of our hero, but he reacted by Diving for Cover—onto the hood of the car! The grenade went off, damaging both him and the car, and the next round, the smuggler floored it and the car sped away at high speed—with Zack clutching the hood! Find out what happens next, tomorrow!

New Miniature Available!

I finally got the 3D prints from Shapeways, and they turned out great! I've now made the Reln Voidrunner available online at Shapeways, check out the different materials and how cool it looks! 

Reln Voidrunner at Shapeways