My game book has been available on iTunes for about three weeks but it can get buried in the thousands of other books that are out there. I have found a nice clean link to the book for anyone who has an iPhone or iPad.
Month: August 2014
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Check out Phantasm Adventures IV
Welcome to the world of Phantasm Adventures IV! This is the first of many books that will help you play this fantasy role-playing game. Use this book to generate a character for the game. It contains:
• 10 Player Races
• 75+ Background Picks
• 6 Factions, each with 100 levels
• 6 Professions
• 200+ skills
• 25+ Experience Goals
. . . And all the rules you need to play the game!
All the rules necessary to create endless combinations of fantastic characters: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MI7014S
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/465244
Tribute to EQ2
I put this little video together to honor Everquest II. I am still learning how to create the videos and would have liked the volume to have been louder on the music and softer on the jarring special effect noises.
Comic Book Awards
A monthly awards of style, artistry, and presentation of comic books by Nandor Shaffer
Cover of the Month: Cyclops #3
Art of the Month: Avengers #33
Issue & Story of the Month: New Avengers #21
Saving Everquest II
As many of you know, I am a big fan of the Sony MMO game called Everquest II. I started playing the game in early November of 2004 and have been with the game over the last 10 years. In the early days, the game was tough and arduous, with many game rules that made players work in groups and devise tactics and strategies to survive in the world of Norrath. Death penalties were stiff, and the amount of experience points to level was high. Grinding levels, even with quests, took weeks for players to achieve.
Over the years the game has seen many producers and game directors, with each succeeding team wanting to add new things to the game. Everquest II sadly decided to give away free things to entice players to stay. Their philosophy seemed to be feeding candy to starving children. Instead of giving out hardy meals that built strong muscles, they gave out sweets that simply fattened the lethargic player base. Many producers simply doubled the bonuses of items from the last set, tripling or quadrupling the monsters strengths knowing full well the free gear more than made up for the difficulty.
Every new expansion that came out simply made the game easier, turning the beloved franchise into a glorified chat channel. Much of the game is now more of a house decorating simulation than it is about hiking into the back country to fight monsters. Gone are the days of arduous travel, now replaced with teleportation bells scattered literally on every street corner. Gone are the days when a city was vibrant filled with hundreds of characters — all of that being stolen by the endless freebies of the guilds.
No longer is it necessary to seek out crafters, as spells and other items are handed out freely through horrible game mechanics such as the Spell Assistant, Loyalty Points, or the Crafting Assistants. Sadly along with the demise of the crafters, the need to harvest has been utterly gutted by Roving Goblins that do all of it with only needing to click mouse a few times.
So how can we save Everquest II? Its simple, but like an overweight person with the decision to get healthy, the actions are going to be painful. But its either set things right or just give up and wait for the heart attack. Its not if, but when. Don’t let the game slowly fade away and become the next Vanguard!
First we need to strip all the free stuff from the game. Get rid of the Spell Assistants and their crafting counterparts. Stop the travesty of the goblins doing all the harvesting — get players back into the field picking, pulling, and chopping. Flush all of the tertiary coins down the toilet — its platinum or nothing. Everything is earned and nothing is given freely.
Limit double or bonus experience to once or twice a year — during a real holiday. Everyone can agree Halloween is a great times for this.
Limit maximum of three concurrent characters on the same IP — this will stop multiboxers and all of the troubles they have caused. If a family wants to game together, then certainly three slots should be more than enough. A dispensation can allow additional characters to a single IP but this must be authorized by Sony.
Put GMs back in the game and make sure they have the power to kick unruly and brooding trolls. Too often gamers are allowed to say the most vile and horrible things, knowing all to well that Sony has no presence in their games. A few examples go a long way in enforcing gaming behavior. Stick to your guns too — ban IPs to those who are just cruel, merciless, and revolting.
I would really like to see subscriptions come back in full force and get away from the free to play aspect — it is just more trouble than its worth, but I am sure Sony makes good money on the supposedly “Free” game. At least get away from selling aspects of the game that matter — keep the cotton candy, sugar coated vanity stuff. Nothing worse than to see a 5th level character on an epic mount. Every character earns his or her own keep — it doesn’t matter how long you have played the game as a player. Each time is a challenge, not a free giveaway.
Guilds are far too powerful for what their original intention was designed for. Get rid of most the amenities and force the players back into cities.
Get rid of a teleportation bell on every corner and do away with any sort of instantaneous travel. Flying birds and their towers can stay as that was an original concept, but get the boats working again. Make people travel to go places; not an automatic jump — get the wizards and druids porting again!!
All of this can be accomplished if we make the tough choices. Let your voice known to the powers at Sony and Everquest II. We can take this game back and make it the glory it was in 2005.
Knights of Saturday Nights
A special animated movie to celebrate the weekend we spent gaming. All hail the might Twenty-Sided Die! Honor the hobby today by throwing some dice and recalling grand adventure with friends!
City of Heroes?
Has anyone heard rumors that City of Heroes was going to be relaunched? The article I read, and I do not have a link to it, said the server data was still intact and old characters were still viable. Perhaps this is nothing more than wishful thinking. I had great fun in the game and thought the game was prematurely closed.
We want our City of Heroes returned!
An Old Game Finds New Life
There are few better things in life than to rummage around in an old closet and find gems of the past. Old books, forgotten games, and discarded memories. In this case I found an exquisite box from perhaps the late 80s — tried to find a copyright date but could not find one. This game captivated me more than so many others at the time. Perhaps it was that it wasn’t just fantasy, but still could have fantastic creatures. In the late 80s everyone was tired of the same old run of the mill fantasy campaigns and were looking for easy to play but off the wall sorts of role-playing games. Avalon Hill had just moved into RPGs, straying away from their stodgy grognard laden strategic board games. They offered some wildly fun new diversions. I will never forget this game and the Saturday nights spent playing it: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Knights-of-Saturday-Nights/603470363102823
Tonight I am going to settle back and read the rules again for the first time in 20 years — I know I won’t be disappointed one bit!
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