He just keeps coming back for more. Yes, my D&D group had a gap between adventures so, once again, muggins here foolishly volunteered to run a short “dungeon”.
The first time I ran an adventure was hard work, but I think my second, far more scope-limited, single-session attempt went pretty well! So I doubled down on the principles of the latter and prepared a… two-shot. Which ended up as a three-shot. Oops.
Continue reading “Blog 885: “I’m Never Being Dungeon Master Again,” he said”
Lots of games got better with their expansion packs. Warcraft III unlocked the modding universe with The Frozen Throne. Age of Empires II‘s The Conquerors gave us the fantastic Mayan and Aztec civilisations (and snowy tiles). Morrowind‘s Bloodmoon gave us the delightful (snowy) island of Solstheim. Supreme Commander‘s Forged Alliance gave us the gloriously shiny Seraphim faction (but, alas, little more snow than we already had).
And Neverwinter Nights got… well… marginally better with its first official expansion pack, Shadows of Undrentide. Then there was a second, a direct sequel to the first expansion pack! Remember when games could get two expansion packs?! It never happened! (Still raging that WC3 never got a second pack at the time, and let’s not talk about… whatever Re4ged is.)
It’s time for Hordes of the Underdark.
Continue reading “Blog 852: Hordes of the Underdark”
Yes, I know what you’re about to say. “You hated Neverwinter Nights, so why are you playing its expansion pack Shadows of Undrentide?”
Honestly, I do not have a satisfactory answer for you. A big part of it is that I have two games waiting on my shelf for the Windows XP machine, but I want to stay on the main PC during August while the Edinburgh Fringe is on — because the main PC’s attached to the printer and I’ll need to print show tickets. Not the greatest justification, but what is that saying? “Wars have been fought over less”?
And, well, there’s also pure morbid curiosity. Did they manage to rescue the art and the potential when they made more bits of the game? It’s already installed and its siren call is irresistable.
Sometimes I hate myself.
As far as I can remember, I played Neverwinter Nights precisely once at the time, and the same again for its first expansion pack Shadows of Undrentide (before missing out on its second expansion Hordes of the Underdark). A while back, gog decided to hand out the complete Diamond Edition for free, so I figured it might be time to give it another shot. I created a Paladin who seemed to be utterly unable to hit anything and gave up on it not far into chapter 2.
But I was haunted by this failure; I had to try again and see it through. This time I made a Fighter — who I knew would be boring to play, but at least should be able to hit things and not die.
Continue reading “Blog 847: Neverwinter Nights”
Remember when I tried being Dungeon Master once, and swore that I’d never ever do it again because it was intensely stressful?
Apparently I lied, because we had a hiatus last week while our current DM went on holiday and I volunteered — VOLUNTEERED! — to run a one-shot to fill the gap.
They say “no D&D is better than bad D&D”, and yet…
Continue reading “Blog 834: One Shot”
I’ve been playing tabletop RPG Dungeons & Dragons (5th edition) regularly for a couple of years now, with a small group of close friends. We started with one of our number running a big long campaign, then when we got to level 20 (and after I’d finally cajoled him into letting us fight the Tarrasque), the next started his big campaign. About half-way through the first, we took a small break to play the published adventure Dragonheist. During this second campaign it… fell to me to provide the interlude adventure.
Picture the scene: a man who has dedicated his life to spending years meticulously crafting scenarios hosting an infinitely-responsive adventure with only a week between sessions for planning.
, as the old saying goes.
The final piece of the Infinity Engine puzzle is mine at last. I had been waiting for Icewind Dale to either appear in a shop or for me to finally be bothered ordering it online. Before crimbo, it appeared in a shop and I decided to add it to General Grievous’ Starfighter as part of Santa’s booty.
Rao Dao Zao 