Thalen

Bullet Hell

September 17, 2015September 10, 2015 by Thalen

Back when we played Astebreed for the Aggrochat Game Club, Ashgar also recommended the game Jigoku Kisetsukan as a more traditional example of the bullet hell genre that was free on Steam. Last night, staring at Steam and not wanting to start up anything requiring serious thought or time commitment, I decided to try it out.

I'm not entirely new to bullet hell shooters, though I'm nowhere near the aficionado that Ash is. There are quite a few examples of the genre on Kongregate, and I've played a number of them over the years, though never with any real focus. The gameplay is generally pretty similar throughout; you have a primary shot (often upgradable), a special attack that clears out all the bullets on the screen, and a button to slow your movement for maneuvering through tight spaces. That last one is crucial as the real challenge of a bullet hell shooter is dodging the insane storm of projectiles that get thrown at you. Most of the time in a boss fight my focus is squarely on my character to the point of having only the vaguest idea of where on the screen the boss is.

This is the second boss. On easy. It gets much, much harder.

The available characters in Jigoku Kisetsukan each have different attack styles that necessitate playing them somewhat differently. For instance the catgirl has a wide but short range shot that forces you to play further up the screen to keep enemies in range. The alien girl has a constant laser that narrows and powers up when in focus mode, so you have to pay more attention to where enemies are to keep damage on them. The starting character, some sort of minor forest deity or something, has a good middle of the road shot (wider than the laser and able to hit from the length of the screen) and gains homing shots when powered up. Those homing shots are especially useful since they let you focus entirely on dodging bullets and still be able to do at least some damage.

The story has something to do with trying to stop some sort of incipient darkness. I didn't really catch it. Mostly the motivation of the characters other than the primary one seem to be 'wander around and get into fights with other beings that look remarkably like teenage girls due to misunderstandings'. The story's not the point anyway; the point is to try and advance further through a combination of quick reflexes and pattern memorization. Much like a rhythm game now that I think about it; just themed as a shoot-em-up rather than a musical game.

Here we see an immortal diety and a centuries old extraterrestrial being.

Overall, it's a fun game with decent, if somewhat lo-fi graphics, (when you can actually look at them) and a catchy chiptune soundtrack. I would consider it worth the cost for a couple bucks, so for free I definitely recommend it if you have any interest in bullet hell shooters at all. And really, how many other games let you fly around blasting robots with a cat on your head? Actually, knowing Japan, probably quite a few.

Totenkopf

September 9, 2015 by Thalen

I hope everyone had a good weekend. I had grand plans of a four day weekend to get some things done and relax; instead I spent most of that time sick. Frustrating, but what can you do? It meant I got some reading done, and once I felt semi-decent I was able to do some gaming.

Firstly, I joined the Shadowrun game that Tamrielo has been running for a while now. It had been mentioned to me that the party was perhaps lacking in information gathering capability, so I put together a character loosely based on the Occult Investigator example in the book. I focused primarily on spellcasting and conjuring with a specialization in detection spells. I feel like I can still be useful in combat though, tossing fireballs and summoning spirits. My first run with the team went pretty well; we'll see if the rest of the long night goes as smoothly.

Second, I played through Wolfenstein: The New Order. Twice. Okay, not two full playthroughs. I picked up where I had left off when I started playing a couple months ago and got distracted; I had made it up to the train depot and was getting murdered by SuperSoldaten. Pro tip: once you can ignore the two SuperSoldaten that jump out of crates near the end of the level and just run to the train and GTFO.

In any case, I finished up that first playthrough and decided that I wanted to see the other timeline and pick up the collectibles I missed the first time through. It is amazing how much of a difference having most of the perks makes in that game. The first time through there were a few places that gave me a lot of trouble, particularly near the end. Second time through, I pretty much breezed on by. Having all the secondary fire options and laser upgrades was hugely helpful too. Once I realized using the scope made the laser fire a massive shot that could take down nearly anything my life got a lot easier.

These jerks were much less of an issue the second time around.

I was a little disappointed that the two timelines were mostly identical. I had hoped that the game might branch at some point or have some alternate levels for certain chapters, but apart from some shortcuts that are only available in one timeline or the other it's pretty much the same. Even the ending is entirely identical either way. The difference is pretty much entirely in the cutscenes in the middle of the game and which of two resistance members is present. On the whole, I think I preferred the Wyatt timeline; Fergus' snark started to wear on me after a while and I preferred J to Tekla. I definitely thought his final stand against the Nazis was cooler.

Gosh, I can't imagine what 'J' could be short for.

Mystara Monday: Module B2 – The Keep on the Borderlands

November 10, 2015September 7, 2015 by Thalen

Here it is, arguably the most well-known adventure module in D&D history. Today we're taking a look at Dungeons & Dragons adventure module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands.

Mystara Monday: Module B2 - The Keep on the Borderlands

The Keep on the Borderlands was written by Gary Gygax as a new introductory module to go with the D&D Basic Rules. It replaced In Search of the Unknown in the original Basic Rules set and was included with the Moldvay edition of the Basic Rules throughout its publication run. The Mentzer revision of the Basic Rules did away with module B2 in favor of the castle adventure included in the Dungeon Masters Rulebook. If I had to guess, I'd bet that it was decided that a simpler adventure should be included due to the younger audience that edition was aimed at.

Being an introductory module, the first few pages consist of much the same information that was provided at the beginning of module B1; advice for the dungeon master, information on tracking time, how to divide treasure and compute experience, and so forth. Of particular note, it's stated that the module is designed for 6 to 9 players, and is intended to require multiple sessions to complete. B2 has a reputation as a challenging adventure and I'd bet that more than a few under-manned parties found themselves in way over their heads. The adventure adamantly states that smaller parties must have the services of several men-at-arms made available to them and should be advised to keep to the lower caves.

The eponymous Keep is presented as a base of operations for the players situated near the border of 'The Realm' where the forces of Chaos are forever trying to invade. Shops, temples and so on are detailed with NPCs to interact with (although not a single one is given an actual name, titles only here). The intention is clearly that the players can use the keep as a staging point to first clear out the nearby Caves of Chaos and then go further afield to whatever dungeons the DM comes up with next. In practice, I suspect a lot of parties began murdering their way through the keep for all the nifty magical loot within.

The actual adventure area is made up of nearly a dozen caves scattered in a sort of box canyon area not far from the keep. Most of the caves are populated with humanoid tribes of various types who have ongoing alliances and enmities with each other that the players can take advantage of if they're particularly clever. It's easy for the players to get in over their heads here since a lot of the tribes will call others to their aid if given a chance; in particular the goblin tribe has an agreement with a nearby ogre who is entirely capable of making some level 1 characters exceptionally dead. There's also one cave populated by an owlbear and three grey oozes.

You'd be cranky too if you looked like that.

We're still very much in the old school of D&D here; the players are sent out to kill monsters and take their stuff without any real plot beyond 'they're monsters, they have cool stuff'. B2 is a step up from B1 though in that it sets up opportunities for some memorable encounters (the aforementioned mercenary ogre, an evil priest with a veritable army of undead, an imprisoned medusa, and so on).

We're still quite a few years away from Mystara coming into existence at this point, but it's worth noting that the Keep was given an official location in the Mystara campaign world. Like most low level adventures it's placed in the Grand Duchy of Karameikos, in this case in the mountainous region in the far north of the Duchy.

Unlike module B1, I've run Keep on the Borderlands a few times. Not many, as I tend to prefer to either use more plot-driven modules or write my own for early play, but I've definitely made use of the Caves of Chaos. Curiously enough, the parties I ran it for were actually pretty competent so I don't have any stories of utter PC failure in the face of overwhelming odds. Knowing when to retreat is, I think, the most important lesson this module teaches; there's no way an adventuring party will clear the entire cave complex in a single attempt and some encounters really require the players to be prepared ahead of time to realistically handle them.

Next week we'll continue our trek through the B-series modules with a rather infamous one. Join me for a look at Adventure Module B3 - Palace of the Silver Princess and learn why the terrifying decapus is a whole lot creepier than you might have thought.

Thalen Reads The Martian

September 14, 2015September 5, 2015 by Thalen

Hell yeah I'm a botanist! Fear my botany powers! - Mark Watney

When a massive sandstorm endangers the third manned mission to Mars, astronaut Mark Watney is tragically killed during the evacuation and his crewmates are forced to leave his body behind. There's just one thing. Mark's still alive.

The Martian, by Andy Weir, opens shortly after Mark wakes up alone on Mars and follows him as he deals with the difficulties of being stranded, not just on a deserted island or in the harsh wilderness, but on another planet. When the crew evacuated they left everything apart from the MAV (Mars ascent vehicle). So Mark has a pressurized habitat with working oxygen and water reclamation equipment as well as enough food to last him about 400 days. Too bad the next Mars mission isn't scheduled to land for four years, and nobody on Earth has any idea they need to rescue him in any case. The primary communication equipment was destroyed by the storm, and the backups were in the MAV.

On the up side, Mark's areas of expertise are botany and engineering. He'll need both as he tries to find a way to supplement his food supplies, come up with a way to alert someone that he's still alive, and figure out how he would rendezvous with a rescue mission even if one did arrive. For a book with no antagonist apart from the environment, this was an often tense page turner. Not everything goes to plan, and Mark has to think fast on more than one occasion.

Considering that we're pretty much following Mark as he fights alone against a hostile environment, it's a good thing that he's a very likable character. He's clever and willing to take calculated risks without being unbelievably hyper-competent. He's also a smartass and deals with stress by cracking jokes, so what could have been a relatively straightforward (and dry) survival tale is in fact often very funny. The majority of the book is presented as log entries over the course of his time on Mars written in a very conversational tone.

Weir made a special effort while writing The Martian to ensure that everything in it was scientifically accurate. No bug-eyed aliens or future technology here; everything is within the reach of modern science. The book actually started as a thought experiment by Weir to plan out a manned Mars mission and consider the ways things could go wrong and the contingency plans that would need to be in place.

I tore through this book in just a couple of days; it was that good. I absolutely and unreservedly recommend The Martian to any science fiction or outdoor survival fan. If you've seen the trailer for the upcoming movie version, everything in there is remarkably accurate to the book. Believe me, it's worth your time.

Next week's book is going to be a rough one. Not because it's terribly long or because I expect to dislike it. It's a book I've been anticipating for most of two years. It's also the last book by one of my all-time favorite authors. Next up, I'm reading the last novel of Discworld, The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett. Tune in next Saturday to see if I can make it through the whole thing without crying (Spoiler: I can't).