Legend of Zelda Concert

I have a confession to make... I have never played any of the multiple Legend of Zelda games. Shocking, I know! Here's the funny part - I still consider myself a fan. I may not be fluent in Hylian, but I know that Hylian exists. I get the jokes in LoZ spoofs like Legend of Neil, I can correctly identify a Tri-force tattoo, I've picked out a couple tunes on an ocarina, and I own 3D Dot Game Heroes (LoZ-like game that's basically 8-bit in 3D).


Not as weird as it sounds... much, much weirder.

So when my BFF Maggie suggested we go out to the National Symphony Orchestra's Legend of Zelda Concert, I jumped at the chance. The music in LoZ isn't just there for ambience/background noise - one of Link's most important tools is his musical instrument. A concert, IMHO, was the perfect way to honor the game's 25th anniversary (technically last year - whatever!).

We got there early for crowd-watching purposes. I saw several Links (about half of them female!), a cute Saria, a bird-person, two guys in top hats - Hurdy Gurdy men? - and a very creditable Zelda. Adorbs!

Does consent to pose imply assent to post?
Cosplayers, help me out here.

The music was phenomenal, and clips of gameplay and cut-scenes from various Legend of Zelda games were shown on the big screen. It was awesome to see all the different styles - from the original 8-bit to Pixar-level CGI - all telling the same story. Maggie and me being who we are, we did take a moment to wonder why Zelda hasn't had a more proactive role in any of these games.

And we get it, LoZ represents the archetypical Hero's Journey to Save the Damsel in Distress. The one exception of this I can find is her incarnation as Tetra, the female pirate, but even then she's a supporting character. She's not a playable character anywhere in the main series (I'm sorry, becoming a spirit and possessing a Phantom Knight does not count).

Here's the thing, Nintendo. You've told this story sixteen times now. Maybe, just maybe, it's time for a change? And if you could've seen what I've seen - specifically, a crowd of fans essentially split 50/50 by gender - the direction of that change should be obvious.

In conclusion, this: Zelda and Peach Catch Up. What, you thought they keep getting captured by accident?

RPG Lady Armor

Just stumbled across this comic by Anna-Maria Jung and Andrew Bridgman (link). You can also check out Ms. Jung's comics, illustrations, and merchandise at her website (link). You know... just in case you're gift shopping for a certain hard-working DM/blogger. *innocent whistle*

Encounters Recap: Session 10

When I'm writing an adventure for my D&D group, I don't plan every little detail out in advance. I have the basic story line plotted out, but I typically write each session the week before we actually play. This gives me the freedom to adapt the story line to fit my PCs choices, for (what I hope is) a more authentic "shared storytelling" type of D&D experience.

Encounters is nothing like that.

I don't say this to complain. Wizards of the Coast intended for Encounters to be modular - players should be able go into any FLGS and jump into the game, because they know exactly what's going on from the WotC website. This naturally leads to a more "railroaded" experience - no matter what you do, the same battle will ensue and the same outcome will be achieved (barring, I supposed, TPK).

All aboard! Next stop... DOOOOOOOOM!
(In unrelated news, isn't this a cool picture?
It's based on the Eberron setting - aka Steampunk D&D.)

However (there's always a however). If the party's decisions are going to be railroaded, the writers of Encounters need to realize that non-combat situations rapidly start to lose their appeal. For example, this week we were (apparently) tracking down our two NPC allies who had been captured by the drow. There was an obvious trail of blood. Our DM guided us to use skill checks to "find the NPC." Spoiler alert - he's at the end of this trail of blood. The other NPC will be were there are the most bad guys. It's Encounters, not rocket science.

After we find the NPC and he gives us the obvious exposition, we proceed to the area most heavily populated with drow. By this time, we are pretty sick of skill checks and are ready to jump into battle. But wait! Cries the DM. Don't you want to start by setting traps for the drow? Uh...no. Or, yes. Whatever gets us to killing things faster! So combat was delayed again, while we destabilized key parts of the cavern to... Crash down on drow skulls? Close off escape routes? Prevent them from flanking us? Honestly, I still don't know the reason we did all that.

There is a table at my FLGS that consistently finishes their Encounters module ahead of all the others, simply because their DM chooses to skip most of the non-combat bits. And why shouldn't he? The only good thing about a railroad is that it gets you to where you want to go as quickly as possible.

Silver Company: Dunsmere Ruins

With a group that only meets once a month, I find it helpful to give a quick summary of the story so far. However, I often struggle with recaps because I don't want to give too much away - if I only tell them what's crucial to the plot, how will I fool them with red herrings in the future? I usually compromise by telling them everything they need to know for right now, with a sprinkling of useless/useful facts.

Back story: There is trouble in the county of Corbais – monsters are making unusually aggressive attacks on towns and villages. In defending Corbais, you have met many interesting characters: a gnome innkeeper named Findle Wimrocket, a capricious pixie known as Mistlethrush, a mysterious swamp witch and a retired half-orc adventurer, Reis Uleka. In order to combat the monsters, Reis has put together a fighting force called the Silver Company, of which you are all members. Two of you are Lance Corporals stationed out of the Eastern Outpost, under the guidance of a half-elf named Ingrid. The rest of you are Privates who have just been dispatched to the outpost. From there, you will all proceed to investigate rumors of a disturbance in Dunsmere ruins. Located just outside of the tiny village of Vervaine, the ruins were once the summer castle of some long-dead noble who had too much money and not enough sense. Now the villagers, a superstitious and solitary bunch, have reported some kind of disturbance in the ruins.

We had a strong showing to this session - a total of six 8th-level PCs and two observers. Here's the party line-up:

*Token Male.

Silver Company PFCs

Aranelle (Rachel) the eladrin wizard
Elora (Carly) the halfling rouge
Marianna (Maggie) the human cleric
Shun Wei (Kelly) the dragonborn paladin

Silver Company LCs
Aukan (Alex*) the goliath barbarian
Iriena (Katja) the dryad ranger

The party sneaked into the courtyard of the ruins and found a sleeping guard dog... well, Cacklefiend Hyena. To-may-to, to-mah-to. When they attacked the hyena, it yelped awake and alerted the Gnolls within the ruins to attack. I did a big dramatic entrance for the HBIC - a Gnoll Demon Scourge. I was standing up out of my seat, swinging an imaginary flail over my head, and making (a very ominous, I assure you) "whum... whum... whum..." sound. I rolled my big light-up d20 - critical hit! I felt like the Universe was rewarding me for good flavor text.

The PCs progressed into the upper level of the ruins, only to be trapped in a corridor by a Harpy and her minions. But the rolls were not in my favor in this encounter, and soon the Gnolls' numbers were so reduced that they could no longer use their pack attack feature to do extra damage. No one fell unconscious, though I think I brought most of them down to bloodied at one point or another. A couple of my PCs dropped Daily Powers - which is completely appropriate, since at this level you shouldn't be able to save everything for the boss fight. Speaking of which...

Next time, on Silver Company: Dunsmere Ruins Boss Fight!

A Bard's Tail: Kismet's Journey

In one of my home campaigns, my friend Mac and I switch off DM duties. When I am not running the game, I play a Tiefling Bard named Kismet - I consider him my "main." I love him to pieces, and he is so much fun to roleplay. He's grandiloquent, sometimes to the point of foppishness, but there is a darkness lurking just beneath his polished surface. Kismet's back story can be found on our Obsidian Portal site (link).

Currently (while I'm DMing), Kismet is on a solitary journey through the Kadagast Mountains, in search of the ruins of Bael Turath - the tiefling empire - exploring his heritage. His adventures bring him into contact with other teifling pilgrims, and for the first time he is surrounded by his own people. A lifetime as outcasts has made many of them bitter, and their suffering affects Kismet greatly. He begins to think that life might not be an epic adventure, and a seed of misanthropy enters his heart (setting up for his Cunning Prevaricator paragon path).

At the same time, his nobility and romanticism wins him a special place in his new friends' hearts. While his own lineage has been lost to the ages, he records the histories of everyone he meets, building them into a enormous compendium. Kismet being Kismet, he sets most of the stories to song - inadvertantly beginning an oral tradition that preserves and disseminates knowledge about the tiefling race that was all but lost after the fall of Bael Turath.

Eventually, he will become a household name wherever tieflings meet - Kith and Kin Kismet, since he wants to know all about your kith and kin (setting up for his Heir to the Empire epic destiny). A few even go so far to send him letters with their family stories, with requests that he pen another ballad in their honor. These usually end up being forwarded back to his home, the old library where he grew up. His mother is touched at his interest in this heritage, and the head librarian is surprised and proud at his thirst for knowledge. Both feel certain that Kismet is destined for great things.

Sexist Gamer of the Week

I sincerely hope that experience will put lie to the title of this post. C'mon, my fellow gamers, man/woman/gender-queer up!

So, I was at a happy hour with my friend Kim the other day, and we were talking (bragging) about how many women we have at our session of D&D Encounters. And by "many" I mean at least one per table of six, including the sole female DM. One of her friends starts complaining loudly about girls in D&D - apparently, we bring up the level of conversation too much for his tastes. Kim assured me he was joking when he said, "I mean, when's the last time someone at your table raped a wench?"

What dudes like this don't understand is that I'm not offended by their "blue humor." I'm offended by the fact that they consider it humor. It's easy to throw out a curse word, an innuendo, or a poop joke - I do it all the time. But it still has to be funny. And the idea that female gamers make the game less fun for "everyone else" (e.g. egocentric male gamers like this one) is unfunny, and out-dated, and Just. Plain. Wrong.

The other happy hour attendees were not subjected to this rant, however. I think my exact response was: "You clearly have never played with my all-girl group. They are the filthiest people I know."

Encounters Recap: Session 9

Or: Grumpy Healer is Grumpy.

In last night's session, my party was both clever and lucky - in other words, we hardly took any damage. While this sounds awesome, as the party's healer it made me feel pretty useless. We started with a skill challenge - we had to get past a set of portcullises guarded by two ogres. We were able to bribe one with food and the other with gems, and they toddled off like good little monsters. All that remained was to deal with the drow within the fortress.

YAWN. 

There were some opportunities for relatively cool moves - our defender climbed up a battlement, defeated one enemy, then leapt across to another battlement to engage two more. Our controller skulked around the corner and sniped at everyone else. And one of our strikers turned insubstantial, sauntered up to two baddies, and dropped a killer Daily power on the asses.

And then there was me. I charged in and missed, then was bloodied, shifted, and knocked prone by a single attack. I'm a melee combatant, so there wasn't a great way to get back into the fray - I spent the next round healing myself. After that, I was immoblized by an area attack and couldn't do anything to save my comrades from ongoing damage. By the time I was finally free to actually do something, the session was over.

I know I shouldn't complain - the healer (aka leader) is a somewhat reactionary role, and if there's nothing for me to do that means my allies are doing pretty well. However, when I ask the table if anyone needs heals at the end of the session and they all turn me down, it's kind of depressing. My "main" is a leader (a tiefling bard) that I have a lot of fun roleplaying, even when he doesn't do much in a battle. However, Encounters is not the forum for role-playing (sadly).

Coming soon: Exclusive details about my main, Kismet. It will make me feel better.