Okay, I’m convinced… WoW is fun

World of Warcraft has been pretty much pushed my way for a few months now ever since some of my gaming buddies got into it.  I’ve never been all that into playing MMORPGs as much as I do with tabletop, given the fact that until WoW, none of the ones I’ve tried have been able to hold my attention very long.

Ragnarok Online was fun for a while, but after the initial amusement of the cutsey game sprites, and seeing thousands of other players of higher level spoiling the abilities and pretty much crapping all over my game experience, I deleted the damn thing off my pc.

Granado Espada had promise.  I loved the graphics, the costumes and the idea of a three man team to keep things interesting.  However again, I wasn’t able to really enjoy it when the bots started creeping in.

Finally World of Warcraft.   I got into this one with the free 10 day trial thing just to see if it would run on my system and connection.  It was laggy at some points, but overall it ran well enough to be playable.  The stories were well crafted, each of the races given cultural attention to and with a decent balance for most of the classes.  The fact that each class benefits from or can contribute to a group of other players is a great mechanic, and the sub professions keep things from being too stale.

Of course it always helps to play an MMORPG when you have friends playing the same thing, and I suspect that has a lot to do with my current enjoyment as well.  Still, I’d like to recommend this game to those who want to give an MMORPG a try, it’s certainly well worth the price of a subscription.

Autumn Nightmares

Having been very impressed with Changeling: the Lost, my Girlfriend and I bought a copy of Autumn Nightmares, the first supplement for C:tL detailing the various Antagonists and threats to Changeling characters.

The book sports more than just a few examples of different types of antagonists, including Changelings that will betray their fellows to buy just a few more months of freedom, the alien entities known as the True Fae, and the disturbing body doubles known as Fetches left behind after a Changeling has been abducted.

I found the descriptions of each of the antagonists to be very engaging.  Their histories are pleasingly close to the ones that player characters could have, leading the reader to experience the “This could easily have been you” sensation that you get from reading profiles of certain criminals.

I’d like to focus on that fact a bit since I’ve always felt that antagonists must somehow make some kind of sense.  Even the True Fae play by some kind of bizarre logic, which might be difficult to discern, but it’s there for the clever or lucky changeling to exploit.

This book is excellent as an addition to the Changeling: the Lost corebook and I’d say that it’s a necessary addition.  GMs will find a lot of inspiration from the sample characters, and the ones provided are easily inserted into any chronicle.