This character views the entire world as a reflection of himself. If he wishes to make a change in the world, he makes the change in himself and the world around him follows suit. If a certain aspect of himself is harmful, such as a vampire attacking his friends, he could burn that aspect away, which might manifest as using force magic to destroy the vampire. To resolve a less black and white dispute, he would bring dueling aspects of himself back into harmony, such as by using mind magic to help people see both sides of an issue and come to a compromise.

Then there are all the groups of people in the world that represent different parts of himself. Vampires represent that which is dead inside, werewolves are his wild side, unawakened humans reflect the progress he still has to make in using awakened magic, changelings remind him of the part of him that looks for the fun in everything, and awakened mages represent the part of him that has come into his power to effect and change the world. Just to list some examples.

The overwhelming darkness in the world is reflective of the darkness within him, and when he manages to conquer this darkness, he will be successful in bringing the world back to the light. Of course, being the World of Darkness, I don’t expect to ever reach this goal in a campaign, I simply intend to use this as a driving goal for my character to pursue personal improvement and improvement of at least his corner of the world.

Since the overwhelming goal of this character is the healing and reconciliation of himself and the world, I would look at getting life, mind, matter, and spirit as his first spheres, probably starting with life and mind, unless my storyteller gave me good reason to go with something else. This is still something I have to think about more though, but I have the time, so it works out. Keeping with this theme though, I’d likely choose to specialize in social and introspective abilities, with a smattering of abilities to help my character with observing the world around around him to learn his next personal challenge.

I expect this will be a challenging character to play, but also a ton of fun. I’m used to focusing on combat after one foray into a non-combat campaign was derailed. This will be another try at a non-combatant character, though I do have some combat backup in the concept in case it becomes necessary, as it usually does at least occasionally in most games. Now I just need to flesh out some more  details and wait for the next game to start that I’ll be able to make on a regular basis.

J presents Gears of war 3 – Fans decide story direction posted at Gamers Lounge. Pretty sure I saw this submission in a previous carnival I posted, but as this came in through the Carnival of Video Game Bloggers, I decided to give it a rerun since I’m still doing the whole transition over. The basic info? Purchase electronic product to determine the fate of a Gears of War character. Info inside.

Chris presents If Street Fights Were More Like “Final Fight”… posted at Martial Development. Basically, Chris takes a look at some of the more ridiculous aspects of the way fighting happens in Final Fight (and to be fair, many other brawlers of the  time). Most of these were simply limitations of the time the game was made, though some were also just oversights as the genre was coming into its own. An amusing read, so check it out.

dswtor presents Star Wars: The Old Republic Beta posted at dailySWTOR, saying, “We are a dedicated fan site to BioWares Star Wars: The Old Republic.” Here’s a quick blurb on some well-known info about SWTOR, as well as how to sign up for the beta test. (Can people still sign up for the beta test?)

Chris Cox presents Top 5 Most Annoying Gamer Personalities posted at Psytechology. He goes over the five gamer types he finds most annoying here. I really can’t say any of the ones listed really bother me. Ignore is easy enough for those you don’t wish to interact with. Still, I imagine this list carries some weight with people who spend a lot of time online, and either way it’s worth a read.

Michael Kotson presents How to Buy a Laptop posted at Test My Geek Stuff, saying, “An overview of the things to look for when buying a laptop.” A bunch of tips for choosing a laptop. Directed at all home users, most gamers will likely know these tips already, but if you’re new to PC gaming, this is some good starting advice. Veteran PC gamers may still find a useful tidbit or two as well, so don’t be shy in clicking on over.

Mark Graybill presents A Simple Java Video Game Kernel posted at A Beginning Programmer’s Guide to Java, saying, “A simple video game kernel in Java that new programmers can use to start writing their own video games.” This is a cool look at an aspect of video game programming, definitely of use to starting programmers, and I would say also interesting to those who are just curious about what might be going on under the hood of the games we play.

RateMeister presents [VIDEO GAME] Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 PC Review posted at RateMeister. A quick review of Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 here, the author seemed to think the game is ok, but with lots of annoying quirks. Which is too bad, since he also seems to think it will be the best PC soccer game to look forward to out of this year’s crop.

Steve presents ABC Monday Night Football posted at Every SNES Game, saying, “I play and review every SNES game ever released.” Another sports game review, and this one looks to be pretty bad (the game, that is, the review is quite funny). Anyone care to play as the “Dallas Dollar Signs”?

Robert Chapman presents Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game posted at Bob’s Blog, saying, “I started a gaming/television blog recently, and this is only my second ‘gaming’ related article. It’s on Scott Pilgrim Vs The World: The Game.”  I still need to get out and see this movie, but this is about the game review. As Robert lays it out, we may just have another good beat ‘em up game this year. And in a licensed game no less. Seems like those seem to be getting better.

Martin Watts presents The depiction of terrorism in video games: where should we tow the line? posted at The Gaming Enigma. Martin takes a look at how we view terrorism, and what role video games might play in our understanding of terrorism depending on how they handle their depictions of it. Looks most closely at Medal of Honor, as they’re the ones in the hot seat right now. Definitely a good read, and provides something to think about both in terms of gaming, and politics.

Don Salva presents Fraps & VirtualDub: How to save disk space and enjoy good quality, small file size HD video clips | The Don’s Craptastic World posted at The Don’s Crapastic World. Here’s a guide to getting a lot more out of Fraps and VirtualDub while recording your gaming, without killing your frame rate. Good info for those looking to make videos out of their gaming.

Robert Chapman presents Fallout: New Vegas posted at Bob’s Blog, saying, “This is an article about the upcoming Fallout: New Vegas.”  A quick look at some highlights of New Vegas makes this game sound like a winner. Of course, I expect nothing less from Bethesda.

Mark Graybill presents Pathfinder RPG by Paizo posted at An Infinite Number of Cats on Keyboards, saying, “A look at the Pathfinder RPG from the perspective of a GM who has in the past kept going back to OD&D from newer rule sets. This may finally be the game that displaces OD&D for me.” In here, we see that Pathfinder continues to convert gamers to it’s sleek, sleek rules design, pulling all lovers of D&D to slightly better balanced gameplay and rules that are far more intutive than old editions, while still maintaining that classic feel.

Jeremy Rooney -Detroit Performance Car Examiner presents Racer simulator combines RC cars and arcade games posted at Examiner. Ever wanted to drive an RC car? Well, you can’t, but you can get the same experience with this new arcade cabinet. Looks pretty sweet.

Robert Chapman presents Final Fantasy gearing up to go online… again posted at Bob’s Blog, saying, “This was my first post of my gaming related articles I’ve written. It’s all about Final Fantasy XIV and my thoughts on it. As well as some helpful links to other sites I found interesting related to Final Fantasy XIV.” Some thoughts on FFXIV, MMORPGs, and links to info on FFXIV. Take a look if you want to know more about Square-Enix’s new MMO.

That concludes this edition of the Carnival of Video Game Bloggers. Join us next month for more great gaming info. You can use the carnival submission form to submit posts for next month’s carnival, to be hosted on September 30, 2010. Be sure to check out some of the posts of other submitters and perhaps leave a friendly comment or two if you like their work.

So along with an insane archmage, a beefy bear warrior, a warlock, and a druid of questionable moral character, we were off to adventure. Like any high powered D&D party, we wiped the floor with our enemies and sought out ever harder challenges. After stomping on some enemies more than a few CR above our level, as happens in the higher levels of D&D, we sought out a dragon for appropriately epic battle and succeeded in bringing it down. And then the fun began. Most of the party had been drifting toward evil for quite some time. Upon meeting demons looking to do battle with us, the party attempted to negotiate terms of an alliance, and the broker their way to leadership of an army of demons and abominations. Me, being good, would naturally have none of it. So I snuck away to inform the future victims of the impending invasion that they should make preparations.

Being a kender though (and woefully unfamiliar with the cleric spell list at the time), I couldn’t actually convince anyone to take me seriously by any ethical means I could think of. I got written off as telling kender tales. Naturally. So, being a kender and having a woefully underdeveloped survival instinct, I went back to try to pull the invasion apart from the inside. Failing that, I would return to the city to stand with whatever army could be assembled in the time they had once they learned of the invasion for themselves. It never got to that point though. The rest of the party knew I was up to no good, and a few choice divinations told the rest of the story to the wizard. At this point, the wizard told me OOC that he was planning to kill my character, which we agreed made sense given what was going on. He started with spell traps that were mostly ineffective, and certainly failed in their goal of ending the life of a blissfully ignorant kender. Eventually, he settled on assassination. I was hoping to get a good old spellslinging contest between us (I would have lost, but it would have been awesome fun to play such a battle.) Unfortunately, despite his ineptitude at sneaking around, I was asleep and therefore unable to hear his approach. Yes, I had a chance to hear, I just rolled bad. So a quick coup de grace of fire to the face and I was done.

After that, they helped me put together another character more in keeping with the new direction of the party, along with a tad more power to deal with all of the power creep, and we all had fun going through the rest of the campaign.

That doesn’t mean everyone at the table has to be best friends. However, everyone at the table does have to trust everyone else to create a fun atmosphere for the game being played, and everyone at the table also has to be deserving of that trust from everyone else. They also have to be willing to contribute to the game to the best of their abilities.

This means the GM enforces rules fairly. How a GM does this is up to the GM, it just needs to be done in a way the players understand is fair. The players then trust the GM when a ruling isn’t always obvious, because they trust the GM will do the right thing. This way, when the GM has to make an on the fly ruling, the game can continue on without breaking the flow and without people worrying about what the book says, since everyone trusts it’s fair, and then it can be checked out later.

Likewise, the players need to trust and respect each other. Without that, games fall apart quickly. This isn’t to say all the characters have to do so, what the characters do is up to the players’ comfort levels. But this conflict should be restricted to the characters, and not the players. Generally speaking, with more trust among the players, there can be a larger amount of character conflict without bringing the game to a screeching halt. But in short, know boundaries of players, and be sure everyone is on the same page. This also goes for the smaller things, like loot distribution, secrets among select party members, and similar situations.

Most of the time, players are all on the same page and know the boundaries of the game. In some groups though, everyone has a different idea of what to expect, and when they all start playing the game differently, it causes problems if they don’t have that basic level of trust. If they do, they’ll likely talk it out and make the game work within the playing styles they all have. This works when everyone is willing to give and take a little. If they don’t have that trust for each other though, it can seem like everyone is trying to pull a fast one on everyone else.

The most important part of any game is in the relationships you have with everyone else at the table. With a little fairness and trust, things roll on smoothly when the game comes to areas that are minor, usually unnoticed bumps. Without that trust, those minor bumps become giant potholes that cause the game to veer off course, limiting the fun had by all. Making sure everyone has the level of trust and respect for the kind of game you want to play will make things a lot more fun than if it is missing.

Welcome to the July 2010 edition of the Gaming My Way Blog Carnival. This will be the last edition of this carnival in its current incarnation. The carnival isn’t ending, but James Newton has offered to let me host the Carnival of Video Game Bloggers on a regular basis, so from next month onward, this carnival will be the Carnival of Video Game Bloggers. So thank you James for letting me take over the hosting of the carnival, I’m looking forward to it. Despite the title, I will still be accepting submissions for pen and paper rpgs as well, since I do cover them along with video games. This will give us all more great articles to read and more people to see what everyone has to write. For the next few months, I’ll leave submission pages open for both carnivals and accept submissions from both while I transition over. For those who haven’t seen James’ carnival before, you can find the original carnivals at The Collected Writings of James Newton. So, with all that out of the way, here are this month’s contributions.

Daniel Ros presents Used Nintendo 64 Console posted at Hottest Video Games and Cheat Codes, saying, “Find out the latest video games reviews, information on new games, beta testing, sales on video games and more.” He also has a brief discussion on the ethics and legality of roms and emulators, keeping it short and to the point. Following that, there’s a video showing off what looks like a store demonstration console.

William Huddy presents Computer Game Violence posted at Matters For Consideration. William takes a look at violence in video games, how he thinks it may effect children, and notes that while it likely would have some negative effects, we should really consider it in it’s place compared with all sorts of other violence children are exposed to all the time that we fail to consider might also have some kind of effect on children.

dswtor presents What is Star Wars the Old Republic | dailySWTOR posted at dailySWTOR, saying, “Great detailed review on BioWares new game in development, Star Wars the Old Republic.” And here we have some information about the new Star Wars MMO from Bioware. It sounds very interesting for an MMO, and that Bioware is taking a very good direction with it. I like the sound of gameplay being more action oriented than a typical MMO, hopefully they can deliver on that.

Adam presents Blizzard, “Write for Us” Starcraft 3? WOW2? Diablo 4? posted at AirborneGamer, saying, “Blizzard’s short story contest for gamers.” Write a story set in one of Blizzard’s worlds and win cool prizes? Sounds fun to me.

One Family presents Kids Video Game Software and Consoles – An Introduction for Frugal Families posted at One Family’s Blog. Here we have a guide for parents looking into picking up video games for their kids to get started with. While there’s definitely some good info here, I would argue that most kids who enjoy gaming will know about and be very interested in the “premium” consoles, that is, those of the current generation.

J presents Gears of war 3 – Fans decide story direction posted at Gamers Lounge. Want to have a say in if a character from Gears of War lives or dies? You can, but you have to buy something to cast your vote. Details inside.

That concludes this edition of the Gaming My Way Blog Carnival. Join as next month as I take over hosting of the Carnival of Video Game Bloggers. You can use the carnival submission form to submit posts for next month’s carnival, to be hosted on August 26, 2010. Be sure to check out some of the posts of other submitters and perhaps leave a friendly comment or two if you like their work.

Jimmy Lofton begins the carnival this month with The evolution of the DS at Phantasy Gaming. He briefly goes over the long history of the Nintendo DS and all of it’s iterations, and also has a few comments on Nintendo’s choice to release so many versions of their handheld so quickly. An interesting read, so head on over and check it out.

Eric Gargiulo comments on the current console war between the PS3 and 360 in his piece Console Wars: Playstation 3 Vs. Xbox 360 at CamelClutchBlog.com. For a piece comparing the PS3 and 360, he does have a lot to say about the Wii. Most of which I must respectfully disagree with, as I quite enjoy the Wii and the motion controlled gaming. I simply ignore shovelware and play the good games, just like I would on any console. However, after the Wii bashing, he gets into an extensive comparison between the PS3 and 360, covering a large area of console features in coming to his conclusion for his favorite for this year. Read his piece to find out which console he thinks will come out on top.

Shaun Hudley tells how all of his family enjoyed playing video games on the Wii in his post The Family Gets Together at What Nintendo Did For The Hudley’s, asking, “What can Nintendo do for your family?” Well depends on the family, but if they’re anything like Shaun’s (and many more families than traditional consoles will reach), then likely Nintendo can get that family into gaming to give them something else they can do together.

Meg details her experience playing the alpha version of Fantasy University over at Simpson’s Paradox. It sounds a lot like Kingdom of Loathing for Facebook, but with it’s own original twists that justify it being it’s own game. It also sounds like it’s not going to suffer the pitfalls most Facebook wannabe games suffer from. Indeed, from what Meg has said, FU sounds like it’s shaping up to be a real game without any spamtastic tendencies. If this turns out to be the case in the final version, Facebook games will have a lot of good lessons to learn here.

Z. W. Van Kleeck has two pieces for us today over at Hit, Crit, or Miss: Gaming Insights. First up, he tells us that there’s more to RPGs than XP and items in RPGs Are Not Just Games Where You Equip Items And Use Magic. While he makes some interesting points, I think it’s safe to call games such as Final Fantasy RPGs. This isn’t because they provide choice, but because they picked they’re genre from their source material, and the original Final Fantasy played a lot like computerized Dungeons and Dragons. Now, I would never try to argue that games such as this are an RPG in the sense World of Darkness or Dungeons and Dragons is, but terms do evolve with time, and RPG is one that now has multiple meanings. However, he makes some good points about this, and they are all worth taking into consideration when evaluating if a game is an RPG, or a true RPG. I do, however, agree with him that it’s ridiculous to call anything with some RPG elements an RPG, I just happen to think the line is a bit fuzzy.

His second piece is Used Games v.s. Pirated Games: Which Is Worse For The Developers? Now, I try to by new whenever possible, which is basically anytime the game is still available new. For five extra dollars, I can afford to support the developers of games I like and who provide a quality product. However, I also support the right of anyone to sell the physical media they purchased as well. Yeah, I know you technically license the game, but by selling the physical media, you also sell the rights to your license, so still no problem. It’s the same thing as selling off your used TV set when you don’t want it anymore. However, this is something that should always be in the back of gamers’ minds when making decisions about purchases, since supporting the developers is what will get us more games in the future. Some good points in here that should get you thinking. I still say inconvenient DRM for any reason is bad though.

That concludes this edition of the Gaming My Way Blog Carnival. You can use the carnival submission form to submit posts for next month’s carnival, to be hosted on June 24, 2010. Be sure to check out some of the posts of other submitters and perhaps leave a friendly comment or two if you like their work.

First and foremost, I highly recommend you download and use Torchleech to manage and download your mods. It makes it very easy to find most mods you might be looking for. I won’t be including links to any mods that can be found on Torchleech, since I don’t have links to most of them and it’s just easier to use the mod manager in most cases. Now, onto the mods.

1. Darkfirebird’s Class and Pet Mod

This mod singlehandedly extends the life of Torchlight a hundred times over. It adds 14 classes, though two, the Warlock and Demonologist, are known to cause some problems. It also adds just about every possible pet transformation as a base pet, plus what seems to be some extras. It’s a bit on the powerful side, as some creatures make quite powerful starting pets, and there are some excessively powerful classes included as well, but on the whole, it’s all fairly well-balanced. It should be noted that Darkfirebird did not create the classes that are included, but rather compiled them all so they could be used all at once without a lot of effort on the part of the player mucking around with class locations and conflicting files. Definitely worth installing, will add tons of variety to the game. This is the one mod I’ve tried that’s not available on Torchleech, so I’ve provided the link.

2. Anya’s Gem’s Emporium, Baklah’s Finest Gear, and Spell Dealer (Zeris the Cursed)

I’ve grouped these together because they are all merchants. There are others available if these don’t cover what you’re looking for, but these three are the ones I’m using. They provide shops to sell gems, magic gear (including rare and unique items), and spells, respectively. If you like finding your gear as loot, it’s highly recommended you don’t use these mods, especially Baklah’s Finest Gear. If you’re like me, and prefer to have the pieces you want to build your character at hand, you should give these, and perhaps some other merchant mods, a try. These do, naturally, make the game easier by a bit, so be warned. It’s not massively easier, but better gear availability has its effect.

3. Better Balanced Sale Prices

What this really means is all your items sell for a bit more gold. For unique and rare items, they sell for a lot more gold. This mod is still balanced, giving the player what the mod creator deemed a more fair price for their items. I’m inclined to agree. This mod does make gold a little easier to come by, but it still remains a scarce resource. All in all, makes the game a little easier, but also makes you feel like your items are worth something and helps get you closer to your next purchase.

4. Better Random Quest Rewards

Ever feel ripped off after completing a quest, only to get paltry sums of gold, xp, and fame to go with that useless green magic item? This makes any quest reward that is randomly determined far higher in terms of gold, xp, and fame, and assures you that only rare and unique items will be quest rewards. This mod will make the game far, far easier, as quests are plentiful and the amount of xp and fame will let you level at a fairly steady clip. Only use this if you like leveling quickly.

5. Difficulty vs. Reward

Another mod that makes xp, fame, and gold bountiful, by giving you a bonus based on the difficulty level you play the game on. Of course, the bonuses to these items basically kills the point of playing on a higher difficulty as it makes the higher difficulties easier by providing you with more xp and higher levels on those difficulties. Great if you hope to level quickly, not so great if you wanted the harder difficulties to actually be harder.

6. Respec Mod and Easy Respecs

Both of these mods allow you to respec your skill points through potions available at the general store. The Respec Mod sets the base price of a respec at 15,000 gold, a stiff price, forcing you to use the service only occasionally but providing a reset button when needed. Easy Respecs sets this price at one gold, making it possible to respec whenever you like, for those who feel character builds should be fluid to allow you to experiment and find your playing style. Easy Respecs also allows you to respec your stats by buying potions to lower one stat to raise another, again, for one gold per potion. Respec Mod was released by one of the Torchlight devs, so some people might consider it to be more official and balanced. Whether or not you’ll like either of these depends on your attitude toward respecs. Neither makes the game especially easy, as it doesn’t allow you to do anything you couldn’t without careful planning, it just makes it easier to find your playstyle without making new characters all the time.

7. Epic Boss Maps

Be warned, this mod will cause you to level up insanely quickly and find copious amounts of loot. Do not use it if you want to enjoy the scenic route through Torchlight, or at least wait to use it until you don’t mind hitting level 100 in the next few hours. That said, it’s great fun to go into battle against champion after champion. The champion floors are accessed by buying map portals, so you can choose when you would like to head in, making it easy to decide when you’re ready to face them all. They will be a challenge on all but the easiest difficulty, so bring your best gear and lots of potions. A great mod, so long as you use it in the end game, or to try out new characters after finishing the game without the mod beforehand.

8. Gold Sharing Service

This nice mod adds a bank portal to town, bringing you to an area where you can buy deposit slips to put into your shared stash to transfer gold between characters. Very nice for those who wished you could keep gold in the stash and share it with characters like items. Deposit slips are bought and sold for the same amount of gold, so there’s no need to worry about losing any gold in the transfer.

9. Low-Res Texture Mod and High-Res Texture Mod

These do exactly what you would think. The Low-Res Texture  Mod is for those whose computers still struggle to run Torchlight. Install, and the low resolution textures should take up less memory, providing a smoother game experience. The High-Res Texture Mod is for those with modern computers that laugh at Torchlight’s minuscule system requirements and would like to add a bit more punch to Torchlight’s already wonderful graphics. Most likely, you’ll want to take a look at one of these mods, depending on the power of your computer. Completely cosmetic, but can definitely enhance the game.

10. More Stash

This does not give you anymore shared stash space, but it does give you 19 more chests scattered through town for all your gear storage needs. If you thought the measly space offered by the single chest wasn’t enough and found yourself making tons of mules, this should keep up with your storage needs for quite awhile. Very helpful.

11. Potions Stacksize

This handy mod will allow you to keep up to 200 potions or scrolls of the same type in a single stack. Far nicer than the original 20. Some might complain this makes the game easier, but I’ve never gone through more than twenty potions in a dungeon anyway, so all it really does is give you less bookkeeping, since you can just buy (or find) your potions all at once instead of swapping them out every time you get back into town without losing all your inventory space.

12. Shadow Vault+ (Bosses and Warps)

This fun mod adds boss fights back into the Shadow Vault. I personally get tired of just fighting the old monsters all the time and like to mix things up with additional boss fights. This mod adds in the old bosses you fought before, with scaled up levels to match the floors they’re appearing on. Very nice for those who like their boss battles. It also attempts to continue adding warps at all the boss floors, but only the first warp actually works, so don’t use the waypoints this mod generates, or you risk having to walk back to the floor you were at before.

13. UniqueDrop + SuccessEnchant or Enchant Never Wipe

The first of these mods forces most item drops to become unique and set items, with the occasional rare and magic drops included. The rate of item drops slows down a bit, but the rate of unique drops is much higher. Both of these mods will prevent items from being destroyed through enchantment, though that is the sole purpose of the second mod. Though the first mod causes insane amounts of increased power, both will definitely make the game easier and should only be used if they fit the style of game you want to play. UniqueDrop is great for those focused on building a character, gear and all, rather than looking for loot. If loot is what you play for, UniqueDrop will kill your fun pretty quickly, in addition to making the game easier. If you play to build, this might be a good addition for you. Also worth noting is that if you combine this mod with Baklah’s Finest Gear, the new magic gear merchant will sell almost all unique and set items, making it easy to pick and choose the gear you want as long as you can get the gold. If what you want is to get insanely powerful items through enchantment, either mod is a good pick for you, though the second will allow you to continue experiencing the wide variety of items Torchlight offers.

14. XP Potions

This mod will destroy the game balance of Torchlight. However, if you’re simply looking for gold and XP, and lots of it, this mod is the ticket. XP Potions grant as high as a 150% XP bonus, and they sell for oodles of gold as well. Yes, they actually drop from enemies, with higher level potions dropping as you reach higher levels. If you’re willing to fork over a good chunk of gold, you can also buy them from the new XP Potion merchant in town. As they’re good for one hour, a single potion will go a long way. If you’re looking to build characters quickly, or create lots of heirlooms, this is a good mod for you. If you prefer a long(ish) grind to level to max level, or like the current balance of wealth, you should skip this one.

So there you have it, 14 mods for Torchlight that you might find worth checking out. Give any that sound interesting a try, and see if they improve your experience. Also feel free to share your favorite mods in the comments so we can give them a try.

Welcome to the April 2010 edition of the Gaming My Way Blog Carnival. My apologies for the late post, it’s been a busy day for me. Let’s see what’s in store for this month, shall we?

First up, we have Casey Markee with her post 15 Warning Signs You’re Addicted to World of Warcraft | Troubled Teens Wizard at Troubled Teens Wizard Blog, saying, “Who knew World of Warcraft could be so addictive? If you or your loved ones exhibit any of these 15 warnings signs seek help immediately…the life you save may be your own!” While gaming addiction is a real problem, I think it is usually overstated a bit by blogs like this. However, there are the occasional people who exhibit extreme symptoms who really do need to reevaluate things, and most of the things written in this post truly are things to worry about if you see them in yourself. Still, let’s remember this is a game, and the people who experience this kind of addiction are an extreme minority. I want to stress, most of us gamers are perfectly normal (aside from being a tad eccentric) and there’s nothing wrong with the hobby. Still, check it out, and engage in civil debate or support if you feel the need.

Mat Growcott has an Interview with Visceral Games for us at NonsenseGamer, saying, “A great interview we just managed to score with Visceral Games. It’s a fun read for any fans of Dead Space/Dante’s Inferno.” I remember the piece being a good one, but as of the time of this carnival the site is going through some reorganization and the post is unavailable. I’m placing the link here anyway so people can see it when the page goes back up.

Next, you should check out Meg’s post Passionfruit Hutong over at Simpson’s Paradox. Lucky girl got herself a chance to beta test Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box from Passionfruit Games. Since she’s been playing it for a bit, she figured it’d be good to give us a preview of what it’s like so far and where she thinks it’s going. While she can’t say too much, what she does have to say ought to get people who like this kind of game interested in giving it a whirl when it hits stores.

Finally, Natasha Rucker has kindly pointed out an issue some MMO communities suffer from in her piece I Swear I’m a Girl! at The Girlie Geek Blog. I haven’t played in the raids of any MMO, so I have no personal experience with observing this behavior (and being a guy, I also might not notice as much anyway), but my women friends who game online seem to have this issue as well. So, I find myself in agreement with Natasha, and bewildered that we can’t just treat the women who game online the same as the men. At home, we don’t have a problem with this in our local gaming circles, but it seems to be a big issue online.

That concludes this edition of the Gaming My Way Blog Carnival. You can use the carnival submission form to submit posts for next month’s carnival, to be hosted on May 27, 2010. Be sure to check out some of the posts of other submitters and perhaps leave a friendly comment or two if you like their work.

The game has three character classes, who fit the common archetypes of the Warrior, Rogue, and Mage, but with a bit of twist. They’ve been redubbed the Destroyer, Vanquisher, and Alchemist, respectively. And each class has some overlap with the others through their skills, which allows you to build characters that are hybrids of the traditional roles with a great level of ease. Add in spells that can be learned by anyone in addition to the class specific skills, and you end up with a game that, even though there are character classes, allows you to do a great deal of customizing when building your character.

The story is pretty cookie-cutter, but it does it’s job of motivating the game. In a nutshell, there’s an ancient evil below the town of Torchlight. As the hero, it’s up to you to investigate and stop it. Done.

Now, the click-fest fighting, on the other hand, is actually like nothing I’ve seen in an action rpg before. Yeah, Diablo and Diablo 2 had click-fest fighting. But not like this. You will be swarmed, charged, and ambushed. You will uses aoes, regardless of class, to decimate hordes of enemies and watch them go flying before you, only to be replaced with more than you just wiped out. In short, you will be awesome, but the hordes of monsters will keep up with you and drag you down if you aren’t careful.

On another, more mechanical note on the fighting, if you liked the way hotkeys worked in Diablo 2, you can assign hotkeys to F1-F12 and switch between them just as you did in that game. However, there is also the option to assign them to hotkeys 1-0, in which case pressing the button uses the skill. I much prefer the second way, but anyone who likes the other method is free to use it.

All characters also have a pet who fights with them, who can also be sent to town to sell junk you don’t want to keep lugging through the dungeon. They can also learn spells to cast in combat, which is very handy to have. The most useful bit is not needing to leave the dungeon until you want to go back to town to turn in quests or buy more swag.

Once you finish the game, there is also an infinite dungeon, the Shadow Vault, which is basically more of the same gameplay, at a level of difficulty appropriate to your character level. There are quests to do every floor, so those who like something to do will certainly have it. No bosses in the Shadow Vault though, so champion monsters will be the toughest you can hope for in the base game. There are plenty of champions, however.

You can also retire a character upon finishing the game, which gives you a chance to build a new character and gift them a single item from the retiring character. This item is called an heirloom, and it gains more power than it had before and has less stringent requirements for it’s use. Passing the same item down many times will make it very powerful and easy to use, though most of the benefits do cap at some point from what I’ve read.

The one thing I wasn’t impressed with was the load times. For such a small game (about 400 MB), it takes a long time to load. I’ve actually taken to browsing the internet while the game turns on and dungeons load. I usually make it 3/4 of the way through a moderate length article during a given load. Still, while annoying, it’s a minor gripe in an otherwise great game.

Finally, there’s the modding scene. Not enough content for you? Modders can make new classes, new pets, new items, new levels, new npcs, and completely new campaigns linked to the town of Torchlight. They can build standalone static levels or work them into the random level generator. They can tweak xp, fame, and gold, boost the level cap, change what you get on level up, and anything else they want. The GUI can be changed, and there are even texture packs to increase graphics quality, or in the event your computer doesn’t meet the already very low system requirements, texture packs to reduce graphic quality to boost your framerate. Absolutely everything can be changed or added to, and you can probably find a mod to bring the game closer to what you would like.

So, as you can tell, I think Torchlight is a game that’s definitely worth playing for anyone who likes action rpgs, and it might even convert a few new players to the genre. When I’m looking for some action rpg fun, I’ll be coming back to this for quite awhile.

Let’s start with character creation. If your players want to play a certain kind of character, it’s generally a good idea to let them play that character. The reason to not allow a particular character to be played is if it will reduce the fun everyone else is able to have. Having a character who constantly antagonizes the group is one such concept (unless the group likes such party conflict), as is having a character who can do everything the other characters can do, better than the other characters. Ideally, this will be worked out while letting the player stick with his concept, but the fun of the whole group has to come before the needs of one player. Compromise is useful here, and your job as the GM is to try to find the middle ground, or the house rules needed to accommodate everyone. Some concepts are inherently antagonistic or too powerful, and they might have to be shot down. Also, there is also a clause of sticking to things that are within reason. No, you can’t play a dragon in D&D. You can play one when we get to that World of Darkness game though. Still, character creation is a small part of this. An important part, since it effects the rest of the game, but still a small part.

The bigger part comes in once you’re actually playing the game. If a player wants to try to do something, let them. There are some things that are impossible (in most systems, casting a spell without training comes to mind), but they sure can try it if they want to. That said, most of the time, you should come up with some reasonable mechanic that lets them have a shot at success. If you aren’t sure what that is, ask the player what they think. They can probably tell you what they had in mind. Then you can run with it, or modify it as necessary. Using Pathfinder as an example, if someone wants to swing from the chandelier, leap off, and stab the bandit leader across the ballroom, you have a couple options. One, you could just say he succeeds on swinging across the room on the chandelier and lands next to the bandit… make an attack roll to see if you lodge your sword in the bandit or in the floor. Or you could pull out an acrobatics check of dc 15-25 depending on how hard a leap it is to make before the player gets an attack roll, if you prefer to add more crunch or make sure skills get lots of use. In either case, you’re giving the player a chance to do what he wanted. That example is easy, but there are others that might be more challenging. It’s up to you to get a system up quickly that will make it work.

Another thing is giving players control over the little things in your world. If a socially motivated character wants to visit his contacts in town, don’t say he has no contacts. Have contacts that help hook the players into your plot. They don’t have to have the answers, but they can certainly provide a hint to the hint you originally placed in the game if they don’t. And there’s nothing wrong with the contacts having a more direct answer either, if it makes sense they would. Go with what makes the game move forward best, rather than sticking to exactly what you planned. If the D&D/Pathfinder style sorcerer wants to be descended from a great dragon, why not let him? It fits the fluff easily enough, and if the dragon is well known, this can give him some benefits and challenges not normally faced. He may be perceived as being more powerful, but he’ll have a name to live up to. Furthermore, powerful people who dislike his ancestor may target him for revenge as he is related, but not nearly as strong, making him an excellent target or even hostage if the ancestor is still alive. Basically, use your players contributions to build out the story.

Now, in the end, you may have to deny some things your players want. If the earlier mentioned sorcerer, for example, wants to know more spells, or have higher ability scores due to his heritage, you may have to explain that while the background is good, the extra powers can’t happen because of game balance issues. Besides which, his magic already comes from said dragon. However, you could then recommend the dragon disciple (if playing Pathfinder and not 3.x) as a way to get those ability scores up, though he’d miss out on a few spell levels.

It’s your job to make sure everyone (including you) enjoys the game. This means a lot of talking and compromising, figuring out what people want, and integrating it into your game. It also means making sure nothing gets in that ruins everyone else’s fun. That can be a difficult line to walk, and I’ve crossed it both ways in my gaming. Usually, if you get it mostly right though, everyone will have a good time and feel like they’ve contributed meaningfully to both game and story.