D&D musings

Monday! Another start of the week, this year is really zooming by. Well, onto to this week’s blog.

Dungeons & Dragons

This week I have been really busy putting Pentholas back together for our weekly Dungeons & Dragons table. Suffice to say, I am really excited to be playing a pen and paper RPG. I have been a fan of RPG’s for a long time, ever since my good friend, and now Dungeon Master, @dragonlord77 introduced me to Shadowgate, the dungeon crawl-type game for the NES. The genre has changed a lot from those early games, and to me, it has regressed.
The stories made the earlier games compelling and unique, and I am not saying this in retrospect, failing to acknowledge the technical aspects of early video games graphics. Most of them looked the same, but the stories set them a part. They had to, since the graphics engine was the same. Aside from my complete biased opinion about the Final Fantasy franchise, revisiting these games the last couple of weeks has been surprisingly gratifying. I won’t expand my thoughts on the many virtues of Final Fantasy VII, I would need another blog post for that, and I will write one once I am done, but I do have a couple of things to say about a couple of old games versus newer games. Chrono Trigger, for example, relies on quirky storytelling to get their point across, the graphics are not bad for a SNES game, but the unique traits it had set this game a part. I mean, how many games could hold a trial based on actions taken earlier with the main character? Not many. Square, I believe, has always paid more attention to the progression of the story and how their characters develop their relationships. It is pretty fun to watch, even after only about an hour’s worth of playing, how the characters interact with each other and how it affects, not only the overall arch of the story, but also the game play. In newer games like Mass Effect or Dragon Age, the stories are part of what makes them great games, and you build relationships based on your actions. The graphics are to die for and the story arches are good as well…but something is missing. I don’t know what that might be, but to me, these games are lacking something that the older games have. I don’t know if it is has to do with the stories themselves, but the innocence of the quests, of the search, might have to do with this feeling.
That is why I needed to play D&D again, to give importance to the story first, to the leveling and experience second. I mean, I love to gain new attributes, new skills and new spells and feats, but I am, in all honesty, much more inclined to accept these increases as simple growth my character is going through. I have been through so much with Pen both in terms of game related issues to real life ones, that this version of him, might not be the most complete, heck, he is level 1, but he might be the most accomplished, after all, he has been part of my arsenal of characters for a long time now. But another aspect of D&D that is highly underrated, is the social aspect of the game. I mean, you actually sit down around a table and play, eat Cheetos and wash them down with Mountain Dew. You actually get to see the expressions and body language of the people that will embark on the adventure with you, you will be able to roll your eyes in disgust or to giggle like a school girl and the people around will be able to determine if you are having fun or not. I mean, that is whole point of playing something, to have fun. So, I am excited about the possibilities that any new adventure brings, the beauty of D&D is that I don’t have to find the online guide to get through the hard parts.

Books

I am reading now the second book in the First Law trilogy written by Joe Abercrombie. The first one, the Blade Itself was really good. In my quest to discover new fantasy series to read, this first foray has been successful. I love the way the world described feels, the way the characters interact with each other, the language used, the descriptions, but above all, the Bloody Nine is fast becoming one of my favorite characters. The story is really interesting and there are, still, a lot of questions left unanswered. I am really looking forward to this second book.

Micah, book 13 of the Anita Blake series has been slow this week, my attention was mostly set on the book mentioned above, but I still managed to wrestle a few chapters out of my iPad. I like where the series is going, I think that Anita has become on of those characters that will always be a part of your reading repertoire and I have been enjoying her immense growth both in terms of her natural abilities and about her knowledge of what she want to do with her life.

The Temple of the Winds, book five of the Sword of Truth series has also been feeling a little neglected, but I will make headway this week. Now, as I stated before, I had found these series of books to emotionally drain me, because in the end, the series is about the love story between Kahlan and Richard and everything that gets in their way. So, after a while, the formula of keeping them apart, for whatever reason seemed to irritate me to no end, and thus I usually walked away from the series altogether. However, I have not pinpointed the exact reason why, but his time around, re-reading the books, I believe that I understand much more why the two of are them being kept apart and why is Richard acting the way he is. Regardless of my previous feelings, I do believe that this time around I will be able to finish the books in time, because the new book of the series will be out in August.

I also intended to read, well, to re-read the Dracula Tapes, but I have not been able to start it again, and I don’t think I will anytime soon, because I have an itch to continue reading E.E. Knight’s Vampire Earth Series.

Series

I did not see last week’s episode of Game of Thrones, but I did that in purpose. I know what is coming and even though I loathe to admit it, what happens to the Stark’s is not something I am willing to accept lightly. Seeing rather than reading about them changes things, at least for me. The blood is too real and the viciousness is too real. I am torn about seeing the series or just wimping out completely.

Camelot has been on hold too, but for different reasons, laziness being the principal culprit. Ditto for BSG and Sanctuary. Firefly, well, I just don’t want it to end…so my wife and I are trying to stretch the series as far as we can…but Firefly withdrawal is beginning to corrupt our souls…

Writing

This week I want to share with you all how I am doing with the different projects I want to do this year. I am writing a short story for a contest and I am also writing a fantasy novel that hopefully, someday, you guys will be able to enjoy.
The short story has been a real hassle for me, because I am not used of thinking in a smaller scale, so I end up writing the beginnings of massive stories or just miss the whole cadence of the story because I drag out things for too long. So, this week, I plan to polish the story a bit more, before diving head first into writing the piece that will be sent to the contest.

With the novel, well, I have been really applying myself to finish an overview of the whole story, so that I can begin writing the actual chapters. I think I have been doing pretty good so far, and I might be finished with the overview in another couple of weeks. So, at least I have been disciplined with my writing, but still, not enough. Hopefully this week will be better.

Well, have a great a week, and don’t forget to register and comment!