Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition

I said before (a long time ago now, but since I don't think I have any regular reader, I don't think it matters much!) that I play roleplaying games, specifically Dungeons & Dragons. As people who have an interest in D&D probably know, a new edition of the game came out about two weeks ago. This weekend, I started Dungeon Mastering my first campaign.

I had previously worked on creating some characters with my wife, but Saturday was the first time I actually created characters from A to Z and actually ran an encounter. So, my friends Sebastien and Valerie came over and, with my wife, created characters. Since the game is now built around four character concepts, I also created a character which I am running at the same time as I am DMing. Here's an overview of the characters:

• Sebastien: Dragonborn Paladin of Pelor - Defender
• Valerie: Elf Ranger - Striker
• Isabelle (my wife): Tiefling Warlord - Leader
• Me: Eladrin Wizard - Controller

The creation took some time, as we had to get familiar with the new races and classes, as well as the various new systems. They arrived home around 4 pm and left around 1 am, and we had time to create the four characters, do a quick introduction and play through one encounter. This might seem like very long, but we stopped for at least two hours and a half to make and eat dinner, give our son his bath before putting it to bed, and preparing the set for the game (more on that below).

I have decided to change the way I DM at the same time as we change the game we play: instead of drawing the map on a white erasable board and play with minis, I tried playing with my laptop and a screen plugged to it using Maptool. Available here: http://www.rptools.net, Maptool is a virtual gaming table. It enables me to load in a picture of the dungeon I'm running and moving tokens representing the Player Characters, Non Player Characters and monsters. This new way of playing was very well received, except by my wife who wondered why we had spent so much money on minis :-) The main reason were the clarity of the map, as I can't draw as well as professional illustrator, and the gain in time: no more pausing the game while I draw the map.

We are currently playing the adventure at the back of the Dungeon Master Guide and the players are based in Fallcrest, the town also described in that book. We might retcon that later to include this introductory adventure in a longer campaign, maybe using the guidelines to play the Keep on the Shadowfell (the pre-release adventure by Wizards of the Coast, which I plan to play next) in the Forgotten Realms, as explained on http://www.dndinsider.com.

I did a quick introduction, having the character I play introduce himself to the other characters as representant of the baron and enrolling the other characters to rid Kobold Hall of its inhabitants in exchange for the reward, as explained in the character hooks for the adventure. Nothing really interesting, but since what we really wanted was to test the new rules and not start a campaign, we did not bother with character background or motivation to go adventuring. We'll probably look into that some more if this adventure is successful (and I'm still not confident it will be as the last encounter seems quite deadly) and we decide to turn this one-shot (or rather, two-shot since we'll need two sessions to play the whole adventure) into a campaign.

The characters then moved to the dungeon area where we ran the first encounter. It went well, with the characters doing quite well, although we made several rules mistakes throughout: no one added their proficiency bonus to powers using a weapon, the ranger forgot to apply her Hunter's Quarry class features, and I did not use the Kobolds' Shifty power correctly (I used the power to shift using a minor action, but I did not realize they could use it twice in a round by spending their minor and their move action), and I should have removed one monster as the encounter is set up to have one monster per character in the group. But overall, it went well, was fun, and looks promising.

To make the next session easier, I have decided to work on two things: setting up the adventure in Maptool, which will make it easier and quicker to start the encounter, and create power cards with all the power the characters have, to avoid having to flip the books to find the description of the powers they have. I found very nice ones made by a fan called Ander00 on the EN World forums at this address: http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=4274554&postcount=568.

I'll try to post a recap and my opinion of the new ruleset after the second session, probably during the weekend of the 5 & 6 July.

Final Fantasy XI - First impressions

This Saturday, as my wife and I were doing some shopping, we bought Final Fantasy XI. I had read some good things about it and had kept an eye on it for some time, so a deal for two games at 40 euros with a free month seemed enticing enough. So we came home, installed the game, which already took more than an hour since you first have to install the launcher, then the game, then the three expansions. Then you register for the game, using a tedious process, probably made counterintuitive to me since it is a game that can also be played on consoles. Once all this is done, you have to update the game, which took about 8 hours. In other words, I went to bed and gave the game a try on Sunday.

When you first start the game, you are treated to a nice video giving you indications on the background of the world. You then create your character and are sent on your way in one of the three starting cities. Once you are in the world, you are welcomed by two characters who give you an idea of what the city is about and send you on your way. And that’s it! Nothing else in the way of a tutorial.

It took my wife and me about 20 minutes to find each other, as the map is hard to find. The game uses a lot of text commands and keyboard shortcuts and it really feels like to have to learn two pages of commands before accomplishing anything in the game.

I have played my fair share of online games from oldies like Ultima Online or Meridian 59 to newer games like Star Wars Galaxies, City of Heroes/Villains and World of Warcraft (which has kept me hooked for nearly 3 years now, taking two breaks from the game in that time). I have some beta experience, having tested Star Wars Galaxies for a long time before its release, Anarchy Online, Pirates of the Burning Sea and another game I am currently beta testing but that I cannot name since I am still bound by an NDA. All this to say that I have played online games using lot of different UIs and even unfinished ones (meaning a lot less user-friendly than in the released version).

But this really blew me away. I had no idea where to click, I had no idea where to go, I had no idea what to do. We ran around for a while, tried interacting with NPCs, and then I had enough, closed the game and launched World of Warcraft for some easy daily quests and some PvP. I have now printed the manual and will give it a thorough read-through, hoping to have some idea on what to do and how to do it to start in the game.

Honestly, after the smooth ride that is WoW, I was depressed after my first time in Final Fantasy. Of course, FFXI is a lot older than WoW, but when you compare your start in the two games, it is mind-boggling to understand that after so many years on the market (the game was released in 2003), they have made no change to the starting area to make it easier on new comers. As a comparison, here is how it works in WoW: after creating your character, you immediately have a small button pop up at the bottom of your screen with help on how to play the game, with others buttons (about 10 if memory serves me right) popping up every time you need to do something new. Right in front you is the first quest-giver with a big yellow exclamation point above his head, letting you know that you should speak to him (by right-clicking – I find it very strange in Final Fantasy that a right-click deselects what you have currently selected; as far as I remember, all role playing games on pc use left-click for selection and right-click to perform an action).

Anyway, I will give Final Fantasy XI a second chance after reading the manual. Hopefully it will be better than the first, because I would be disappointed if I had spent 40 euros, even if it is cheap for two games, for a game that is much more difficult than what I can already play…

Introduction to World of Warcraft

If you read the description of the blog just under the title, you will see several subjects of interests that I have not touched yet, such as soccer or role playing games. I thought that I would give a brief overview of the other one, World of Warcraft.

For those who do not know about it, World of Warcraft is a computer game, more precisely a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game, or MMORPG for short. To sum it up briefly, it is a game where you play the role of a character in a fantasy world, fighting monsters and completing adventures (called quests) to advance your character. Different types of advancement exist and are usually not mutually exclusive: you can gain levels, your character becoming stronger and stronger as he goes from level 1 to level 70, equipment to improve your abilities, gold, used to purchase items from computer-controlled character (called NPC for Non-Player Characters) as well as from other players.

For more information on the game, you can visit the official site at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com or http://www.wow-europe.com

I started playing the game in June of 2005, so I have quite some experience already. I used to raid in the days prior to the Burning Crusade extension and went through Molten Core, Blackwing Lair and Zul Gurrub before leaving the game for some time and returning with the release of the extension. I did some Kharazan before transferring to my current server, downing Attumen and having good (but unsuccessful) attempts on Moroes and the Maiden of Virtue. I am now no longer in a guild (technically, I am still in one, but it only contains my wife's characters and mine!), as I can't and don't want to plan my game time as much as I was able to in the past and I don't like the idea of showing up only when a raid is taking place and stealing a spot from someone who's there all the time for the guild.

Though I have characters on several servers, I am usually found playing one of three toons on Les Sentinelles, a realm on the French-speaking European servers.

Rumblebelly is my main, the character I have played the longest and still play most. He is a level 70 gnome mage, specced frost/fire. At the moment, apart from some daily quests (cooking and Shatari Skyguard), I also farm for my lower level alts to smooth their arrival in Outlands and send some gold their way to raise their profession. My main activity, though, is pvp as I am trying to earn honor to be able to update my equipment with season 1 pvp gear. I suck at 2v2 arenas, but I give it a try each week with my wife's feral druid to earn some other equipment pieces. We also have great fun trying to duo lower level instances; our last attempt (and success) was the Ramparts.

Thariol is a level 44 human warrior, working towards a 31/30/0 spec, that I play with my wife's retribution paladin. Our goal is to reach level 70 before the next expansion hits and if it is still a long time away, try to work on a tank/healer combination for instances. This is the main reason behind our desire to reroll this duo. My wife's druid used to be specced balance and it was incredibly difficult to find groups to run instances as two dps classes. Hopefully having both the tank and the healer will give us more freedom when looking for groups.

Grogam is a level 61 BM-specced orc hunter. I wanted to roll a hunter since I discovered the incredibly useful and funny blog Big Red Kitty. We decided to give the Horde a try and my wife rolled a shadow priest. They are currently staying put at level 61 ready to start questing in Outlands. Unless we have a change of heart, they will stay there until the release of Wrath of the Lich King, kind of an insurance policy if Northrend proves to be overpopulated and we might want to decide to play them in the then-deserted Outlands.

In the future, I will probably go into more details about some of these characters. I will maybe even try to get my wife to write a bit about her characters and her opinions about my posts, just to give you some perspective. Another idea I just had writing this is to write a comparison between the different styles of play due to the different duo we're playing. The Hunter and Priest are kings when it comes to higher level mobs but the Warrior/Paladin are great when it comes to fighting multiple mobs. The mage and druid don't offer much in synergy, but that is due to the fact that my mage was already level 60 when my wife started playing, so synergy between characters was not on our mind when my wife created her druid.

Superbowl opinion - Part II

Last time I mostly commented the result of the game, so I thought I'd give my opinion on the actual game, so here goes!

First of all, I'll say that the game was very defensive. For fans of defense in football, the game was great to see. For myself, I would have preferred a game similar to the one in week 17 when the teams combined scored more than 70 points. Furthermore, the time difference with Belgium meant that I watched the game from midnight to 4.30 am, which of course dampens your enjoyment of a game with fewer big plays.

Now, don't get me wrong, me preferring offensive football does not mean that I could not enjoy the great game played by the Giants defense. Prior to the start of the game, I told my wife that the duel between the Giants D-line (probably the best in the NFL this year) and the Patriots O-line (in the top 2 with the Colts – they were not to blame for the defeat against the Chargers in my opinion) would be the key to the game. I think I got that one right and the way the Giants outplayed the Patriots was a key to their success. Brady had never suffered so many sacks this year and though I cannot find stats to confirm it, it looked to me as the game where the offensive line of New England had the most penalties (I can find stats on the number of penalties per team for each game, but I cannot differentiate between penalties to the offensive line or to other members of the team).

I was looking forward to the way Osi Umenyiora and Michael Strahan would face up against Matt Light and Nick Kaczur. I was not disappointed, the duels between these players were great, but I thought the solution for the Giants came from a third defensive end: Justin Tuck. I really feel that the MVP award was given to Eli Manning simply because it could not be given to those three players at once.

On the subject of Eli Manning, he had a good game, but you can hardly say that he was the dominant force in the Giants team. Sure, his resilience on the one play that will probably gone in the annals as THE play of Superbowl XLII, when he resisted the pressure from the Patriots Defensive Line to deliver a 32–yard pass to Tyree with 1:15 remaining and with the Patriots ahead by 4 points, was the stuff of great players. But I don't believe you can point to his game as the reason why the Giants won the game. However, as I said above, the MVP could not be given to three players or, even more deservedly, to the whole defensive unit of the Giants, so I feel he is a deserving winner as he was the best player of the offensive unit.

So, I touched on the winners, let's talk a bit about the losers, though it feels harsh to call a team who went through the season 18-1 as losers. What happened to the best team of the regular season? Well, simply put, they found a team in the Giants that had the mean to stop them. Tom Brady is good; he proved it by doing what he had to do to rally his team for a fourth-quarter comeback. But how good were the people around him? The offensive line was outclassed and his receivers, with the exception of Wes Welker, were subdued, at least compared to their showings in the regular season. Maroney and Faulk, who had good playoffs, were very calm on Sunday. You cannot help but feel that all of this makes sense: the offensive line could not contain the defensive line, so the run never became a threat and because of this the secondary of the Giants (apart from those who were set to blitz) could focus on pass defense, negating the number one weapon of New England.

What could they have done differently? What can they change for next year? I feel the defense is good enough to lead the team to a second Superbowl next year, at least if they can cope with being one year older (especially the linebackers). Offensively, they need to work a lot more on the run throughout the season, so that their offensive line works on rush-blocking more and so that other teams do not know where the danger might come from. But the single position where they can improve and where it would make a real change is the tight end. Sure, Watson was not bad throughout the season, but when they needed to add that extra player to come to the aid of the offensive line, he could not be counted on.

All in all, it was an interesting game and a very close Superbowl. The tension in the fourth quarter made up for a tame beginning (this was the second lowest scoring Superbowl of all time at the end of the third quarter) and I enjoyed it very much. Can't wait for next year!

Carnival time!

I live in Anderlues, Belgium, which is very close (about 10 km) from Binche, a city renowned for its carnival that happens once a year on Mardi Gras. As it happens, Mardi Gras is today, so I thought I'd pop up and explain a bit about what takes place in Binche during these festivities, now recognized by UNESCO as cultural world heritage.

Here is a description of the carnival, straight from the official website: http://www.carnavaldebinche.be/page.php?lang=fr&menu=3&sousmenu=25

This is all official and boring stuff. The fun stuff actually comes from being there, though to be honest I'm not a great fan of the carnival in Binche, for two reasons: first, it is a carnival steeped in tradition, and I find that it often goes in the way of fun; then it also thousands of people each year, which means the streets are overcrowded, you can barely see the processions of the gilles with all the people standing in your way, it is nearly impossible to find friends in the throng of people and going to have a drink in a pub is made very difficult and not that much fun.

For me, the most fun to be had happens the week after the carnival in Binche, when the carnival of my small hometown takes place. There, nothing gets in the way of fun; you can approach the gilles without any problem and getting in pubs to have a drink seems to be the only reason the carnival is taking place! It also helps that I know a lot more people than I do in Binche, since you have a lot more fun in a group than on your own sipping on a beer.

But the part that is missing from the official description is really what happens on a personal basis. How does one become a gille, what happens to him throughout the day. Though I am not one myself, I have friends and family who are and I have followed them from the early hours to the evening.

It first starts with them donning the costume of the gille in what is called bossage, when the wife or mother stuffs the costume with straw, easily doubling the girth of the gille. Friends are then invited to join, where they are welcomed with a glass of champagne and oysters (at around 6 am, that's not my favorite breakfast, so I skip the oysters and only drink champagne!). A batteur, a musician playing the drums, then comes to the house playing one of the many tunes of the carnival to pick up the gille. Together, they leave and go to pick up other gilles, going from house to house and having a drink with the friends and family of the gilles.

In a group, they then move towards their local, usually a pub in town that serves as the place where musicians' repetitions and other meetings take place, to join the rest of the members of their société, basically an organization in charge of making sure everything is ready for the carnival, such as the musicians and the oranges the gilles will throw in the afternoon as well as the organization of the festivities hand in hand with the town officials.

The société then moves to the town hall where gilles who have reached a milestone (5, 10, 20 years of taking part in the carnival) are handed a medal by the mayor. They then go back to their local and do a rondeau, dancing in circle to tune of the drums. They then separate and each gille goes back to his house for lunch, accompanied by a batteur.

In the afternoon, once lunch is finished, all the gilles of the town go back to their local and then all sociétés congregate to the place where the cortège will start. The cortège is a procession through the main street of all the gilles of the town towards the city square. It is at this time that the gilles don their famous hat with ostrich feathers if the weather permits it (rain would damage it and wind makes it too heavy to wear) and that they throw oranges towards the crowd. Nice gilles will even come and offer people and children to take oranges straight from their basket.

In small towns, but not in Binche, the gilles will stop during the cortège in various pubs along the way where they will have a drink together and with the other people in the pub. The musicians usually play a tune in the pub and all the people inside start dancing together.

At the end of the day, once the cortège has reached the city square, a big rondeau uniting all the gilles and musicians of the town takes place. In my hometown of 11.000 inhabitants, that means around 300 gilles and around 100 musicians. A lot of people from the town are around the city square watching the rondeau and dancing to the music.

Once the rondeau is over, all the sociétés move back towards their local to have the last drink of the day. The people in attendance usually go back to a pub of their choice, having drinks with friends they met during the day. If you have a child, you also usually go to the kermesse (again, not present in Binche – did I not tell you that due to tradition they were missing on a lot of fun?), some kind of fair with carousels, arcades and a lot of good food… well, it tastes good but I'm not too sure a doctor would tell you it's good for you!

Superbowl opinion - Part I

So, upset or no upset?

Clearly, an upset. All bets were on the Patriots winning the game (though apparently not all bets were actually on the Pats - bookmakers were giving them winner by a 14-point margin and the majority of betters chose to put their money on the Giants, assuming that even if they got beat, it would be by a smaller margin), the first team to go through a 16-game regular season undefeated and probably one of the top 5 offensive team in league history.

The real question for me is: surprise or no surprise?

The answer for me is a no. Taking someone by surprise is defined a taking him unaware. If anyone thinks the Patriots were not aware of the potential of this Giants team, they are seriously deluding themselves. The week 17 games was one of the three games in the regular season that New England won by a margin of only 3 points (Philadelphia and Baltimore being the other two in week 12 & 13 respectively - the Colts game was an easy one, won by a huge margin of 4 points!) and the Giants scored more points than any other team did this year, including pre- and postseason.

As Strahan so emphatically said right after the game, that defeat in week 17 made the team believe that they were capable of playing in the same league as the undefeated Patriots and probably gave them a mental edge as they went on to seek revenge for that defeat.

Postseason results were also a clear indicator of form. The Patriots had to beat Jacksonville and San Diego to reach the Superbowl; solid teams both of them, but hardly contenders for the championship. On the other hand, the Giants had to defeat Tampa Bay (same comment as above applies here), then Dallas and Green Bay, two very good team who clearly had a shot at the Superbowl. Furthermore, the Giants seemed to gain in confidence with every match whereas the Patriots seemed to be a team completely different than the one who played so brilliantly throughout the season.

So great upset for the Giants, congratulations to the team and their fans, but I am more disappointed than surprised by New England's defeat. Not that I am a fan of the Patriots (though I was a fan of their pass-only approach), but I would have loved to witness history since I was not even born in 1972 when the Dolphins became the first and only team to this date to go through a season undefeated.

But there is only one person to blame for this defeat: why did coach Belichick wear a red sweater instead of his lucky gray one?

Lowly beginnings

I have just finished setting up this blog, trying to learn how to do it along the way and making it look ok, although there will probably be some more changes in the near future.

My first real post will probably be my thoughts on this Sunday's Superbowl, which was my drive to start this blog in the first place, although other subjects have crossed my mind.

Anyone who would happen to visit this blog and would be interested can probably expect it sometime tomorrow.

Now a hot bath and to bed to try to shake up some fatigue that comes from watching the Superbowl live when there is an 8 hour time difference between you country and the state where it takes place, meaning I had to go to bed around 5 am knowing that I would have to wake up around 9 am to go to work. Thankfully spring holidays have started here in Belgium, which means there was nearly no traffic, just as I hoped, so I was at work on time even though I left home nearly half an hour later than usual!