Dragonsbane: The Awakening (Drakar och Demoner: Uppvaknandet)

 

Why does it have to be spiders?

As noticed, I haven't been playing games lately, but reading books. Finished up reading the collection on H.P. Lovecraft after 5 years. Interesting concepts in his stories and such, but man, it was hard reading at times. So afterwards I read through this book that is part of the new release of Sweden's own Dungeons and Dragons game, Dragonbane or Drakar och Demoner (aka Dragons and Demons, most speculate that direct translation would have been to close to actual Dungeons and Dragons). I actually bought it since it had an adventure for the game in it and I actually wanted a book in Swedish since otherwise it's just english books like Dragonlance, Jules Verne or Tolkien I have laying around and Tolkien is the only one I have some Swedish versions of, but new translation with the worse names and such. 

Still, this book was written by E.P. Uggla and follows the adventure of Tamea, a 13 year old girl that one days awakens when her tattoo begins shining and causing pain on her. She believes it has something to do with her older brother that have the same tattoo, but it causes her father to decide on marrying her away so she leaves on her own.

Also on the adventure is Verven, an half-elf, half-orc that lives on stealing from passersby that gets caught in a swamp and the assassin mallard Gizma that are looking for revenge on Tamea's brother for killing her assassin clan. So basically, no one trust each other and there is snark to go around for this group. They have to fight elf-ear collectors, spiders and avoid Tamea's bodyguard that looks to bring her back home. I enjoyed it for what it was. Easy to read and a fun adventure with the right emotional payoff in the end. Worst offender for the book is that it pretty much ends on a cliffhanger and a couple unanswered questions so I guess I have to lookout for a continuation. 

Well, that's for the story, the real worst offender (and the reason I had to write about it and get it of my chest) is that the language they use at times is atroucious to my sensibilities. Probably hard to express in english, but take for example in the early chapters they talk about "tjejer", which means girls, no problem, the problem is that is a loanword from Scandi-Romani from the 20th Centuary. It's a fantasy setting, it breaks my immersion and they used it twice. And I know it's nitpicking but I can't stop thinking about it. Another example is that they peppered the text with english words as is. One instance Verven thinks about how stupid this is that he is walking to the Vale of Mists with the exact quote (except where I censured it, gotta think of the kids) "Dimmornas f***ing dal". What are you doing? They also throw in "Fine" and "Yes"! It's probably fine in a roleplaying game table, but I'm trying to get immersed in this world and english words that come out of nowhere is kinda bothersome! I know it's petty since there is only 5 times this happened in a 200-page book, but it bothers me! Not only me, I read a blog reviewer also mentioning it!

Doesn't help that I've been listening to Prancing Pony Podcast that talks about Tolkien's world in the Silmarillion and so on, and they stress that language came first and then the world. Language forms the world and therefore the world is so easy to get lost in since it's coherent. Here they break that immersion with the language. Adding insult to injury a long time ago I myself tried writing my own fantasy world and books around it and I got stuck at the language. I deduced that since I wanted different languages, but since I wasn't a linguist I made some choices. The Gods would have closer to latin since I equated them with Romans both in dominance and appearance while the elven kind was closer to ancient greek and philosophies and such. Names reflected that and names for places and such could have different names, but the same meaning depending on who said it and so on. It makes the world more alive, and this is just the cheapest way you do it. And they didn't bother here! Hell, I began looking for different names for elves since it wouldn't jive with the languages and therefore I made them different from the elves of Tolkien or Warcraft or whatever, the language creates the world. It's the same reason there's this discourse in social media (in February 2024) about the yellow paint in game design. In visual media the design creates the world and when someone paints the ledges yellow without reason it breaks immersion. I so have the pulse on the world 1 year after the discourse that will probably die away within a week! Better throw in a Cerveza Cristal reference while I'm at it!

What a strange time on social media

Now, I ended listening to an interview with the author on youtube and she explained that apparently she had very little time for writing the book, and maybe its just an effect of that, and I can understand that. Still, one might have thought that one of the biggest book publishers in Sweden might have someone proofread and actually question some choices, but I guess the cash needs to flow and we don't have time for that (or afford it). Who cares about quality, right? She also mentioned that the second book is on it's way in august 2024 and she had more time writing it this time. Maybe it gets fixed, but since it's part of the first book that's part of the world now I guess! Yeah, 3 paragraphs for 5 words in a 200-page book might be overkill for my part. Then again, reading about the Dragonlance books (which I'm reading at the moment) someone mentioned that the harshest critics seemed to have the thoughts of "I could have written that", and truly, it might just be jealousy.

Drakborgen - Bokspelsäventyret (DungeonQuest - The Book Game Adventure)

The greatest fantasy game Sweden ever produced! Now in book form!

Haven't been playing that much video games since Christmas 2023 (it's February as of writing, so my usual video game fatigue). So instead I've been reading books and one book I got was the choose your own adventure of the board game DungeonQuest (or Drakborgen, aka Dragon's Keep) that was released in 2023 and I got my hand on this January. Written by one of the original designers of the board game, Dan Glimne. Basically you play as an unnamed swordsman (or woman) going to the dragon's keep and trying to get your hand on some treasure and survive the ordeal.

Sounds easy enough, you generate a character, grabs some dice and head in. Dubbed my character Tyrell the Swift after my Dungeons and Dragons Bard I used in my characters backstory back in 2012... I'm feeling rather old all of a sudden. Anyway, we go in. Enter one of the towers, pass a door (since I know about the traps from the board game I stay away from there) and sees two dark elves guarding a passage, trying to ward me off. Offence is the best defence so I attack and does rather good. I continue and suddenly I'm attacked by invisible bees (?) that stung me to death. That was that, The Keep 1 - Tyrell the Swift 0.

Tyrell the Swift the second went the same way, but lets try the door this time and... Tyrell gets his hand pierced. Knew it. Well, let's continue down this corridor and.... fail the luck check by 1 and gets swallowed by a trap door, killed again. The Keep 2 - Tyrell the Swift 0

Well, Tyrell the Swift the third went back and was more lucky to notice the trap door and jump over it. Meets a mountain troll I quickly dispatches without taking a hit.  Entered a big room with a statue. A red jewel adorned the head of the statue and greed begins to flow within me... but I decide to continue. Fight a though skeleton. Fall through some stairs, find a key that I use to open a secret door that takes me to the treasure chamber! Third try baby! Of course it's Tyrell the Swift the Third that gets there!

I grab 500 gold coins and decide to get out of here. Runs through a corridor, I hear a scream at one end of a room, decides I better go on the opposite side and just runs for it. Well, I'm prompted to guess two numbers, roll the die and one of them shows up. Immediately a spike pierces the foot, the torch goes out and the character just gives up. Dying in darkness. I had to look it up and had I just rolled another number I would have gotten out. The Keep 3 - Tyrell the Swift 0.

That was fun, now I got a craving to sit with the book and chart it in excel to find the most efficient way (or maybe the one with highest probability to survival). I maxed dexterity and choose a rather high luck since I knew that in the board game it was important (apparently it didn't help Tyrell the Swift the second). I also tried to map it out with pen and paper, but after some rooms it wasn't as descriptive about if it was left or right or such things, probably mirroring the fact at the character getting more lost in the keep as the day goes on. There's 500 passages in the book and there is some fun things with the numbers like, the treasure chamber is pretty close to the middle of the book (you have gone halfway through the adventure) and that if you loose a fight against a monster, you get to passage 13 (the unlucky number) and the adventure ends. 

Only exist in Swedish as far as I can see while writing this (February 2024) so if you can't read Swedish though luck. If you can read it's rather interesting. There's also pictures in the book, mostly taken from the different cards of the games. As mentioned, the author Dan Glimne have added things that doesn't appear in the original game, like the statue for example. Haven't played these kind of book games before so I can't compare it to anything. I don't know if the character sheet and die use is that common with these kind of books, but it make it more authentic to a DnD game at least. A pity that you can't change weapon since sword is a bit of a cliché and you can't roleplay as most of the characters from the game. So go and read it if you get the chance.

A DnD Tale: Tomb of Annihilation - Across the Great Sea (Part 1)

 

It's no mine, it's a tomb!

And so the adventure continues. Having found the vault of dragons and getting the hand on the second piece of the rod of law they have been hooked in by Volo to travel to Chult in order to find another treasure in the jungles. They spend three days preparing the departure, getting passage with one of the traveling circus ships and loading it with Volo's books he plans to sell in Port Nyanzaru (which my middle sister realized means something like cat ape which probably is a reference to the Tibaxi catpeople who lives there). Parker has no intention of following them so he sends word to Candlekeep to his college Destinova Blackstar, forest gnome wizard that arrives to Waterdeep on the day of departure. They travel for 21 days across the ocean until the ocean where they face of the giant dragon turtle Aremag who guards the bay, who they are able to convince that they don't have any money, but he warns them that he will have an eye on them when they leave, IF they leave. They then began looking at what they had an they realized they have something like 7 000 gold each... oops!

They enter port and finds the quiet inn and see the bill board with the guides and have to decide where to go. They spend the next day gathering information on what is going on in Chult. They find the tale of the missing airship the most interesting since they see a way to get out of Chult while avoiding the dangers of Aremag. They get provisions to survive 60 days in the jungle, 2 canoes, insect repellent and four rain catchers to make the travels bearable. They also learn that they need a charter from the flaming fist in the fort up north. They decide to head there by themselves without guides since they want to save in on the fees for the guides... I told you they had 7 000 gold each right? Unbelievable cheapskates! The trip to the fort goes rather smoothly really. The only incident is when Destinova looses his rain catcher when a group of flying monkeys fly by them. They get to the fort, pay for the charter and learn that the flaming fist takes a cut of half the treasures they find which spurs them to get the airship even more as well as push away some guides since they fear they will snitch on them. 

So they head back to port, this time experiencing extreme heats causing them exhaustion several times, they find a trio of sea hags near a canoe trying to lure people near the water to drown them. Our heroes hit them with a mage hand in order to see if they really where dead, which they weren't so after that they have been haunted by the canoe over the rest of the days, so from now on the sea hags is after them. They find a tibaxi hunter that tell them to get a guide, a chwinga spirit steals Hope's crowbar and leaves a couple of nuts in exchange. They pass by a group of lizard folk and some red wizard group and a couple of dinosaurs. They only got lost twice while traveling. After a tour of 22 days they have returned to Port and decides to go with the guide Eku after Shalida gave them strange vibes. Which might speed along the game. She will probably hint them towards Nangalore and the spirit Naga and from there straight to Omu, unless they first wants the wreck of the Star Goddess. And here ended the first session.

Overall, I will probably use the excuse of the guide to heighten the encounter DC to 18-19 instead of 16 since it happens to often otherwise for such small things (especially when they don't need to level up since they already are level 9). Another thing is that I got the dungeon master screen for the game and it speeds the game along really well. A miss in accessories on the other hand seems to be the game mat maps you could buy. I thought that would help and avoid using the map in the book, but hex grid is really hard to see making it hard to count the hexes and they are a bit smaller so the little screw that represents the party is just a bit to big, but not with the map that came with the book. The city maps on the other hand in the set works really well. But it's the hex map that I would wish worked better. So if they find the airship and fix it I might let them turn it upside down so that they can see everything. But I also assume they will go the airway towards Omu and fight the gargoyles guarding the city.

Super Mario RPG (Switch)

 

Clash of the Gaming Titans!

Yet another remake, this time of a Super Nintendo game, the very first Mario RPG, made by Square (now Square Enix). Originally not released in Europe until it was one of the first special Wii Virtual Console releases during a certain Japanese holiday and cost a bit more than the usual releases. I got it there and then they released it for the SNES Mini as well. Never finished either version. Only tried it on the Wii Virtual Console, but I fell asleep somewhere after the bow boss. Should probably finish it some day to see the differences from this game.

Story is that Bowser have kidnapped Princess Peach, but as Mario beats Bowser in his castle a gian sword falls from the sky and throws Mario, Bowser and Peach in different directions. Apparently the sword was sent by Smithy from Weapons land as he intends to take over the world. So Mario begins the rescue of the whole world.

First he meets Mallow a cloud boy that says he is a frog. He had a run in with a pick-pocket so you help him and you go back to his father, the frog sage that tells him that he really is adopted since the sage found him in the river so he took care of him. You also meets up with a living doll called Geno that have been possessed by a star entity to find the seven stars to restore the star road (that was smashed by the sword crashing down) so that wishes can be granted again.

I played to much D&D when this is what I think of as star entities.

You also recruit Bowser and Peach in order to stop this existential threat to the Mushroom kingdom and all others. You fight underwater shark pirates, climb to the clouds and fight off a usurper to the throne that belongs to Mallow, you traverse Star hill, fight some dwarf in a tower that tries to marry Peach and so on until you fight off Smithy in his weapon factory. Beat him and you win, a parade is shown and everyone lives happily again. 

It was a fun adventure. The changes made the game go a lot faster. For one, if you time your attacks right you get an area of effect that damage all enemies and that greatly speed up the game. I think that was what broke me last time, that I had to fight every individual enemy in a fight. You also can gather energy to a super attack with all three players in your party either do some buff or healing effect or do decent damage. Otherwise it's seems to be just graphics and music that is changed. Also they added cutscenes that was a bit more cinematic than the in-game cutscenes from the original. Interesting choice not to have any voice acting. You are able to play some post-game stuff and finish up unfinished quests, like what's behind the locked door in Monstro Town... OH NO!!!

I haven't been fooled like this since Final Fantasy V and the damn treasure chest!

Overall, I found it most enjoyable. Finally finished it for the first time. Really looking forward to the Thousand Year Door remake in 2024. Why I mention this is that the Paper Mario was the sequels to this game Nintendo made themselves and you can feel that the first Paper Mario really took a lot of the story like the seven stars and star road and incorporated it into that game. Due to the first Paper Mario being on the Switch as N64-game I have a hard time seeing that being remade. All I'm saying I got a craving for more Paper Mario. (This was of course played well before the announcement of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door Remake)

Star Ocean 2: The Second Story R (Switch)

 

SPACE!

Got the sequel to the game Star Ocean I played something like 3-5 years ago. That one was a remaster of a PSP remake of a SNES game. This one is apparently a remake of a PS1 game. So first choice is choosing between Claude C. Kenny or Rena Lanford. I choose Claude first since he was a melee fighter. We begin in space as the space ship Calnus is investigating a planet where they found an energy signal, but the planet is abandoned. The landing party has the Admiral Ronyx J. Kenny (one of the heroes of the first game) and Claude C. Kenny. Claude gets too close to a machine that teleports him to another part of the galaxy where he lands in a forest and rescues a woman named Rena Lanford on the planet Expel. She mistakes him for the Hero of Light that with his sword of light is gonna rescue the world.

Apparently the world is having an increase in monsters and earthquakes the last 3 months since the Sorcery Globe landed on the continent of Ell. Rena was kidnapped by a suitor under the control of a stone that seems to be linked to the Globe so Claude rescue her and both of them set out to solve the mystery of the globe. On their travels they meet the wizard Selene, the unlucky warrior Ashton that is cursed with two dragon heads, the inventor Presis, the... student (?) Welch, the kid genius Leon and the zoologist Noel... I find it rather fun that the characters Leon and Noel is the names backwards.  

After travelling across two continents the gang arrive at Ell and finds a tower. Climbing it Claude finally is contacted by the Calnus that beams him up. He wants to go back, but an alarm sounds as the planet is drifting toward an energy wave that is about to pass by. Claude asks to say goodbye to his friends and back in the tower he drops his communicator and continues up the tower. There they meet the Ten Wise Men, ten individuals that seemed to be trapped in the globe and are using it now to enter the energy field in order to return to their home. Your team is dragged into the energy and find yourself on the planet Energy Nede after destroying Expel. Here you learn that the Wise Men was genetically engineered people to rule the galaxy, but defeated 100 million years ago they were trapped in space until this moment though. You get help in order to prepare against the battle and charges the Wise Men. In the confrontation they use a weapon to rule the galaxy that destroys the Calnus that hovers over the energy cloud, seemingly killing everyone aboard, including Ronyx.

Enraged Claude climbs this tower as well killing all the Wise Men, but the last one, Gabriel are preparing the Symbol of Annihilation in order to destroy the universe since he can't rule it for himself. But our heroes uses a symbol of their own that redirects the power toward Energy Nede and they are transported back to Expel as it is brought back together with its people. Endings dependent on your relationships status between characters, no hint if the Calnus was brought back as well (but I found a reference that the writer let it be up to the players to decide... so of course it came back, they didn't do anything wrong).

Overall, I liked it better than the first game. Didn't get destroyed in battles so either I'm better or I actually understood the level ups and stats progressions on the skills. 40 hours of gameplay and then it allows you to replay it again on a New Game+. Fun to start over with over 100 levels. The graphics are really nice, especially liked the water effects. And lastly, the music is made my Motoi Sakurabi, you know, the Golden Sun-composer! How can it be bad? But I start to hear the similarities between Tales of-games and this soundtrack, but you gotta love the prog synth in the dungeons. 

A DnD Tale - Waterdeep: Dragon's Heist - Wizards In Winter (Finale)

 

*SNAP*

And so begins the finale of Waterdeep: Dragon's Heist. They continue from where they last left off in this interdimensional mansion belonging to Manshoon. The first thing that happens is that the Manshoon doppelgänger melts into water. They begin raiding the place finding a room with an ice coffin, a library where they pilfer a collection of books they plan to sell and the sleeping quarter of all the dead guys where they pilfer all the items. And then they meet the big guy himself. They try to persuade him to give them the skull, I won't waste 2 months of preparations so after some awkward laughter from all involved the battle starts.

They begin in good mood as Immeral begins the charge and begins hitting him... and he just hit with a dirty 20. When they realise that they went "oh no". Then it was his turn. And I changed my way playing since we usually play it mechanically, you do this and this happens. This time I described it more, the air vibrated with unknown forces and I asked Hope's player to roll a d8 to see which character would get the blunt of the spell. She of coursed rolled a 7 which meant Parker, their cleric and only one that could raise them if they died. I cheated a bit before the game since none of the players had counterspell which meant that they couldn't stop the incoming spell, Power Word Kill, that instantly kills a person below 100 HP. So I gave Parker counterspell so they wouldn't be completely left to chance. So described that he felt something grabbing his heart and then I told them about this level 9 spell. This time they went "Oh No". And then I described Parker raising his hammer summoning the symbol of Moradin as white light as a ray of green light shot like a laser toward Parker. I asked Hope to roll a d20 and told them that to save Parker they needed a 19. Now it was "OH NO!". She rolled a 19 on the die. Parker was saved.

With that I had Parker using Death Ward on the players while Manshoon shot lightning bolts on them and the others tried to take him down. Since he was alone they wouldn't have a problem and after 3 rounds he was pretty much dead, but with the DM Fiat I let him break his staff over his knees, teleport away and sending a shock wave across the room that did 160 HP. Would have killed everyone if I hadn't Death Warded them and Parker rolled rather good on his Dex save having something like 5 HP left. Even if they are overleveled for most encounters that thaught them hopefully that they can still die. They rested up, leveled up to level 9, searched the rest of the mansion and found a ledger with names in it, Manshoons spell book and the skull. They got the rings from the dead henchmen and return to Waterdeep, bluffing their way out of the towers and back to town. They get the rest of the skulls and uses them to get to the Vault of Dragons. 

I sped through here as well by describing much what happened. As they opened a door Parker gets charmed by a Fresco so he can't leave... so Freya got to use countercharm for the first time, singing a rendition of Hellfire from Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame. They get to the second floor and the three bridges. As they cross the middle bridge Parker, Hope and Immeral jumped over while Freya rolled a 1 and fell down in the hole. Immeral, being now able run up walls jumped after her while Hope threw a rope toward them. Immeral misses, but Freya is able to grab his leg while Hope and Parker pulled them up. They get in, solve the puzzles and get to the vault and meet the dwarf protector. And since they only want a piece of a staff they get it and leave... and Freya once again rolls a 1 on the jump, and this time Parker hangs from the other side. Hope pulls Parker while Immeral, again tries to grab Freya... and misses again. Freya has to save herself and throws a rope toward Hope and Parker is able to roll a 20 to stop Hope from falling backwards and let Freya do a pendulum swing with the rope so that they all arrives on the right side of the bridge. 

They leave and on the way out they are stopped by Jarlaxle and his troops as he arrives on order of the Open Lord of Waterdeep, They give the spellbook to them, they get 50 000 gold from the Open Lord and then they leave. They go back to the pub and goes to bed. they have a dream of Mishka within his spider cocoon as they see his face in it. The next day they get visitors that need payment so they loose 20 000 gold at once, begin selling everything and as they open the pub again all the people they met are their until Volo comes by with a treasure map to an jungle island where they will find the third piece of the rod of rule. The End!

We will continue in February of 2024. Maybe it overstayed it's welcome, but I believe it more has to do with not playing as much as we did before the third sister joined. Now it might be 9 times a year when we got something like 12-18 sessions a year before. Had we played more often I might have went through with playing all dungeons (we skipped Jaraxle) and maybe have more pub adventures, but now it was to get the story going. Need to read through Tomb of Annihilation and create a new DMPC to help them around, don't know if a wizard, warlock or ranger is the thing to go. Need magic to balance the team, but a ranger might be easier to explain in game... of course, reading through the book it's probably use the guides mentioned, let the players make the decision. And now the final parting words of the session:

Will our heroes find the third piece before the Spider-Demon is released?

Will they survive in the Jungles of Chult!

Will Immeral find a were-Tiger to be bitten by?

Find out in "Tomb of Annihilation", unknown time, same blog!

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Metal Gear Solid Master Collection vol. 1) (Switch)

 

Someday you go through the rain
Someday you feed on a tree frog
This ordeal, the trial to survive
For the day we see new life! I give my life
Not for honor, but for you
Snake eater
In my time there'll be no one else
Crime, it's the way I fly to you
Snake eater
I'm still in a dream, snake eater!

The last of the PS2 duology of Metal Gear Solid-games. Wrote about it back in 2017 and probably haven't played it since then. Would have gotten the 3DS version if they hadn't pulled it from the 3DS eShop before taking the whole store down. Same story, Naked Snake is sent into the Soviet Union to extract a scientist named Sokolov that have worked on the secret weapon that will be able to launch nukes all over the globes. But Snake is betrayed by the Boss, the special forces commander that taught him everything so he has to get back, rescue Sokolov, destroy the weapon and kill the boss.

Quite the departure from the other Solid games since we now are mostly outdoors and that the main mechanic is using the camo to hide and take your time. Hunt and get resources. And they are as of writing in late 2023 on the way to remake the game for modern consoles (non-Nintendo that is). Don't know why since it still looks good. Snake looks his best here and actually have facial expressions, which makes Big Boss the most fun Snake to watch. That it has homages to James Bond movies is rather fun as well. 

It had other interesting ideas like the fight with the Sorrow. He basically sends the souls of all enemies you've killed along a river you have to walk through, so the more you killed the harder that section is (if you don't do the easy way out by drowning yourself to force the to be continue screen in order to use the revive pill). I recall I didn't kill anyone when playing my PS3, but here I killed a lot more people and the bosses (the bosses especially since I was just tired of them at this point, especially when the Fear constantly regained stamina for some reason). I think it was a reference to the part in the first Metal Gear Solid when Liquid says Snake enjoys the killing... and I know in one playthrough I didn't kill anyone making the comment really weird.

Works perfect on switch, load times seems to be minimal compared to the PS3 version making this an optimal version to play. Missing the trophies though when you have things like the frogs that doesn't do anything I guess... or maybe there is a camo you will get, but it would be nice with an indicator.