Tomorrow is Party Time

Tomorrow is the big day. As in, the début for my D&D campaign. I'm hoping it will go smoothly and everyone will ease into the adventure without any trouble. My youngest brother Sam is playing an indiscriminate halfling thief(again); one of my house-mates, Nick, is playing a mid-life-crisis bard; and Bob (who I was introduced to when Nick started GMing a WFRP campaign) is playing an outcast ranger. I'm looking forward to the gaming, especially since the party doesn't have any specialised tanks, healers, or nukers to speak of. Sounds like it will be role-play heavy and relatively combat light. That's fine with me.

The holiday is coming to an end. It's back to work on Monday for me; I've gotten used to not riding out to Robertsbridge every morning and sitting on my backside in a cramped office half the size of my bedroom... to be honest I'd like a career change. I don't think I want to work in the computing field any more, I'd rather do something else. The big problem is knowing what to pursue.

It was my mum's birthday yesterday. I got her a photo album box; it's a small chest with 'window frames' on every side (except the bottom) in which you can put photos from you collection. Inside there are sleeves for more photos which fit into slots that remind me of the slides for the really old cameras that had separate stands to hold the magnesium (was it magnesium?). I'm also going to take her to a restaurant on Thursday for a meal because I don't get to talk with my mum when I visit as Marcos or Sam have a habit of interrupting.

Nick bought Mass Effect and I've been playing that a lot recently. It's a very good game. I can see how they built up from the ideas in KotOR, but I also see how the game is moving away from the old "click the enemy to have your character attack them" style. Games like Deus Ex, Arx Fatalis, and Morrowind have been labelled "not real RPGs" because they used the first person shooter style of combat rather than the Diablo/Baldurs Gate style of fighting. But I see more and more RPG games moving towards the personal, more involving way of handling combat. I for one think it is a good move. Computer games are there to give a simulation of an alternate reality, not to provide a flashy graphical interface representing a dice roll. I play tabletop RPGs at home, and that's fine. When you play a pen & paper RPG you use your imagination to illustrate rolling a 16 on a d20 while in combat. When you play a computer game you are removed from the dice rolling. Okay, some games show you the dice rolls, but for me a computer game should make the RPG aspect of the story and character development even more of a background element. Would F.E.A.R.'s gunfights be as dramatic and exciting if shooting an enemy resulted in a number flickering above their head indicating how much damage they had taken? Would you rather kill the end boss in a game with a skilfully pulled off head-shot among the chaos of battle, or simply see "CRITICAL HIT!" as your in-game avatar decapitates the enemy for you?

Well my soapbox is threatening to crumple beneath me so that's it for now. I may report on the first D&D session's outcome soon.