#Blaugust2022 Day 8 Playing catchup

I can’t believe we’re on Day 24 of Blaugust already and less surprised that I’ve only managed 7 (8 including this) posts so far. It’s not for lack of motivation, but time seems to get away with me and especially this summer, with my garden flourishing and requiring attention daily, my daughter getting ready to enter her senior school, and work ticking over.

Add to that, what little free time I’ve had has been spent dipping into various games, new and old.

Chimeraland

Chimeraland has been a new discovery for me and I’m loving the many aspects that the game offers. My character has hit level forty and after accidentally wandering into a fight against one of the massive ancient creatures and finding some sweet loot, I’m not chasing that particular dragon, literally and figuratively.

Lord of the Rings Online

LOTRO has been calling me back too, with a new update on the horizon, I’ve been trying to arrange my storage over 17+ alts, that in itself a mammoth task, as well as levelling my guardian.

Monster Hunter World

Yesterday I jumped back into another game I haven’t touched in some time, Monster Hunter World. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing so have started from the beginning again and thoroughly enjoyed that too.

Lord of the Rings: Rise to War

On the mobile front, I’ve been playing Lord of the Rings: Rise to War. My server is now entering its fourth season and I’m beginning to wonder if I should continue. It’s one of those games that has become a habit, I don’t get much from it, but it’s there. I don’t participate in the War, but just build and grow. I’m a bit baffled by the adverts I’ve seen for it lately, it looks nothing like the game I’m playing!

What are you playing at the moment?

#Blaugust2022 Day 7 Lotro Q and A with Severlin

As regular readers of this blog will know, I’ve been a diehard fan of Lord of the Rings Online for many years and it’s always my evergreen MMO. I have periods where I take a break from it, but always go back. Of late there has been a lack of new end game content but this latest info from SSG is looking promising.

Some interesting tidbits:

• New expansion/region
• New Delving system, making certain content more difficult for greater rewards
• New 6 Man Instance
• New Skirmish
• Alternative levelling area 1-30

youtu.be/5YV_hv6LQxk

#Blaugust2022 Day 6 Welcome to Chimeraland

After seeing a couple of posts from other Blaugustians, I decided to check out the latest MMO/Survival/Open-World game, Chimeraland and I have to say, it’s incredibly addictive.

I’ve never been a huge can of the Asian-style of game, I’ve tried a few like Blade and Soul, Black Desert Online and even Genshen Impact (my daughter’s flavour of the month) but none of them have really grabbed me but there’s something about this.

One fairly unique element of the game is the kind of characters you can play. Races are wide ranging, from humans to every animal type you could imagine each with a different look based on age. I rolled a bull.

It has everything, quick and intuitive combat, resource collection, building, questing and crafting. Just when I think I have the systems figured out, I come across even more detail, Life skills for example, allow you to specialise in particular crafts, with advancement points earned through performing a particular activity. Chopping down trees makes you better at it, which then gives points to learn how to get extra materials from a given tree.

I feel there is still a huge amount to learn, having put in about 30 hours so far, but I’m enjoying everything about it so far.

#Blaugust2022 – Day 3 – Play by Post update

As is traditional (for me anyway) during Blaugust I recap what PBP games I’m currently involved in. For the uninitiated, Play by Post (PBP) is a form of roleplaying game where the players gather together on a forum and describe their character’s actions through a plot run by the Gamemaster. I personally run (and very occasionally play) games through Gamersplane. Looking back at last year, it’s amazing that some of the same scenarios are still running. Of late, Call of Cthulhu has been my focus and the written form works well for investigation games.

Call of Cthulhu – Masks of Nyarlathotep

Having completed the Peruvian step of the campaign, our heroes have found themselves in New York, investigating the death of an old friend. They have found a ton of clues, including some that connect the events in Peru to what’s going on in Harlem to the point we have created a kind of complex murder board via the app Miro.

Call of Cthulhu – Dead Boarder

This is my third playthrough of this Convention scenario and is my go-to to introduce new players to the game. Set in 1930’s Providence, the characters are all tenants of the same building and have discovered the dead body of one of their neighbours in a locked room with no signs of entry. But not all is what it seems.

Call of Cthulhu – Shadows of Yog-Sothoth

My longest-running game, some of the players have been involved for many years. Having solved the mystery of a Coven operating out of the Scottish Highlands, they are now headed to Hollywood to investigate the mysterious murder of a movie mogul.

Call of Cthulhu – Flotsam and Jetsam

This series of loosely connected one-shots has gone down well and the heroes are coming to the end of their investigation of a health farm that has had some connection with unexpected pregnancies around the area,

Warhammer Fantasy – Death on the Reik

Part of the Enemy Within campaign, the characters have infiltrated Castle Wittgenstein where there seems to be some Chaos Activity afoot.

Warhammer Fantasy – Spires of Altdorf

Part of the Paths of the Damned campaign, this one has seen the heroes trying to locate a chaos artifact, the Dagger of Yul K’chaum. Having located it, they are about to take part in a ritual to destroy it, but they are not the only ones interested in this object.

Blaugust 2022 Day 2 – Listening to Liveplays

In recent months I’ve been diving even deeper into my Play by Post hobby and this has given me more of a need to consume content related to roleplaying games, especially related to Call of Cthulhu, of which I’m currently running four different games, but more on those in another post. Live and recorded playthroughs have become popular thanks to Critical Role and are a great way to get your RPG fix when you don’t have time to play yourself. Here is some of the content I’ve been watching of late.

Stream of Chaos – A Time to Harvest – This is the official channel of Chaosium, publishers of the Call of Cthulhu RPG and for the last several months the team have run through the newly published campaign, A Time to Harvest. After initially streaming on Twitch (which I only caught live towards the end) the episodes are backed up to Youtube.

Stream of Chaos – Two-headed Serpent – Following from the previous campaign and after a couple of one-shots, the same team are running Two-headed Serpent, another long-form Call of Cthulhu campaign. Expect this to run for months, so jump in now on the Chaosium Twitch channel or catch up on Youtube.

Glass Cannon Network – Masks of Nyarlathotep – I only recently discovered Glass Cannon and they put together some great play-throughs of all kinds of games but one that I’ve become hooked on is their playthrough of the epic CoC campaign, Masks of Nyarlathotep, which I am also running. They stream live on Twitch and replays are on their Youtube channel.

Vampire the Masquerade: Blood Hunt

This game slipped under my radar but was released a couple of days ago and resurrects to the online gaming world, a beloved IP of mine, Vampire the Masquerade. Developer, Sharkmob are at the helm.

Taking on the role of a member of one of the Vampire clans, fighting it out on the streets and rooftops of Prague. It plays as other Blood Royale games made popular by games like H1Z1 and later Player Unknown Battlegrounds. The arena gets small and smaller as gas closes in, killing anything caught in its path, forcing players into a tight space until only one remains. There’s an interesting mechanic where your vampire can feed on civilians for different buffs or even get extra lives, in case you fall foul of a competitor. Of course, get caught and you break the Masquerade and a hunt begins! Feed at your peril

Different play styles come about through choosing different clans with different specializations or archetypes. The Clan gives a particular skill and the archetype gives another couple.

Clan Brujah has two archetypes – Brute and Vandal. Their clan skill allows them to perform a huge leap. The Brute’s passive skill heals up to 50% of their max health when they aren’t being damaged, while their class skill sends out an energy shockwave to block enemy attacks. The Vandal’s passive skill reduces the damage they take from close-ranged attacks from enemies, while their class skill allows them to punch the ground and create a shockwave that sends opponents flying.

Clan Nosferatu (my current personal favourite) has two archetypes – Prowler and Saboteur. This has class skills that allow them to turn invisible for a few seconds. The Prowler’s passive shows a red trail in the air that only they can see, which leads to other players that have been wounded. Their class skill creates bats that reveal the position of enemies nearby and shows their outline through walls. The Saboteur’s passive skill allows them to turn semi-invisible after crouching, while their class skill allows them to create a poison gas mine that damages over time.

Clan Toreador has two archetypes – Muse and Siren. Their clan skill allows them to project a fake image ahead of them, which they can perform a short-range teleport to, or use as a feint. The Muse’s passive skill refreshes their active cooldowns, allowing them to use their class abilities straight away, while their technical skill acts as a healing regeneration aura that restores themself and allies. The Siren’s passive skill allows them to charm mortals on the map, making it easier to feed on them. Their class skill can temporarily blind opponents, leaving them helpless.

My Nosferatu Prowler, ready for a snack

So far it looks pretty good. Bloody, as you’d expect, given the content but this really gives a fresh spin on the Battle Royale genre and represents the IP well.

Blaugust 2021 Day 8 – Back 4 Blood

OK, so time got away with me and I missed a number of days, but I’m going to keep my numbering so at least I can see how many times I posted.

Back in 2008 a game-changing game was released on the world, Left 4 Dead, a co-operative shooter where four survivors of a zombie apocalypse survive through scenarios filled with endless waves of zombie hordes. The game was followed a year later by the originally titled “Left 4 Dead 2”, same scenario, different episodes.

I was a big fan of both games, playing them on the Playstation 3. Similar games have launched in recent years, notably Big Shark’s “Warhammer: Vermintide” with a similar idea but set in the Fantasy world of Warhammer Fantasy and instead of zombies, you face the rat-men known as Skaven.

Now Turtle Rock studios, makers of the original Left 4 Dead (as Valve South) and Evolve have created what they describe as a spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead, entitled Back 4 Blood. Thanks to Discord user, everwake, I got a key for the beta so jumped in over a few days to check it out.

I can definitely say that what little I saw did not disappoint. It has the same feel and general gameplay of the originals, running and gunning through hordes, searching for supplies, special mobs that can take down a disorganised team with ease. In addition, the game has a card system adding extra buffs and you can select from a deck which cards to use based on your play style. Graphics and sound are clearly improved for a modern version.

Obviously being Beta, the game is not completely bug-free yet, but I loved getting into the world and I look forward to its official release.

Blaugust 2021 Day 7. How not to be an MMO cockwomble

I don’t usually have cause to vent about anything, let alone other players in LOTRO and especially on my server of Landroval which has an exemplary level of considerate community members though but tonight something occurred that really got my goat.

I am accustomed to running my own daily stair runs, a 6 man instance that is the current daily end game but today I joined someone else’s run. It was a little odd as I was the third man in, the other two being in the same kin as each other. I recognised the name of one of them but have had no negative dealings. We started clearing trash mobs and normally at this point, the lead would be calling for more to fill the six. Often this isn’t necessary but it’s generally accepted that its good form to give everyone an opportunity to join a run. I asked if they were inviting anyone else, which they did but ran straight into the first boss before the others had reached the fight. This happens to reset the boss so as soon as they arrived it did so, so we went through the fight again. As is usual I looted and one started shouting, why did I loot, not everyone was in the instance. Sure enough, we had done it on five and the sixth man hadn;t entered. It seemed odd and I apologised saying I hadn’t realised. They promptly booted the sixth man without a word.

The rest of the instance went fine with the five of us, no problems, then as we were about to kill the final boss, the leader booted me without a word. This starts a countdown before I get booted from the instance but I had seconds to grab the chest before I realised what had happened. It seemed they intended me to not get the loot.

Don’t do that, it really is a dick move. I feel somewhat vindicated that I managed to get my loot in time but I’m sure they were having a good laugh. Idiots!

Blaugust 2021 Day 6: Play by Post Update 2

Further to my earlier post about the current state of my play by post games on Gamer’s Plane, here I go through what’s currently happening in my other games.

Call of Cthulhu – Masks Of Nyarlathotep

Following the end of the Time To Harvest campaign, I’ve decided to launch one of the biggest Cthulhu campaigns ever written, often considered the best. I’ve never had the opportunity to run it, so this updated 7th edition version is beautiful, easy to follow and well illustrated, I’m enjoying it already. This one has been tricky to get started, as very firmly set in 1921 but the characters were previously in an adventure ten years later, but a bit of timey-wimey, bendy-wendy stuff related to portals they passed through and we made it work.

The heroes has just arrived in Lima, Peru to meet the head of an expedition to a before undiscovered pyramid. Not much else to say without going into spoilers for the new players but needless to say, Horror’s Await!

Call of Cthulhu – Shadows of Yog Sothoth

This one has been going on for some time and is very slow going, but the characters are currently in the Scottish portion, having rescued a baby from the clutches of serpent people with a penchant for sacrifice, they are now in a standoff against the main villain and her henchmen.

Call of Cthulhu – Flotsam and Jetsam – Insanitarium

This one is fast becoming my favourite campaign. In the last scenario, the investigators were sent to investigate the reading of a will for a woman purportedly well over 100 years old. Uncovering the family’s dark secret of a bloodline of Deep One hybrids, they also discovered that one of the investigators is related and cursed to change into one of the sea-dwelling creatures, or so he was told. Approached by a mysterious character with a magical needle, who offered a warding tattoo to protect against the curse. The character went through with it and it has a dark side-effect, he needs to sacrifice a deep one every sixty days.

Following that episode, the characters are now investigating a rash of supposedly virgin-births taking place around a wellness centre.

Blaugust 2021 Day 5 . Interview on Gamers Explane

Today an interview was released between myself and Qralloq, a fellow Gamersplane user, on his channel, Gamers Explane. It’s part of a series of interviews to learn about gamers history with gaming and PBP in general.

So if you like that kind of thing, here it is.