Dungeons and Dragons: Jade Regent (The story so far)

Ux now write ux's knowingz

Ux is orc dragonborn. When Ux is little my klan has been ded. Dragon found Ux and takes gud care of ux til Ux is bigga n stronga. Dragon teach ux killy magik and powar of Bahamut. Ux luv this Bahamut and will fight for my new boss. He callz Ux a Kruzada for Bahamut.

When Ux dragon daddy is ded. He tell ux go east. Ux will go east! Then Ux leave montain and Ux meet adventurers going east! Ux followz! Dis here adventures is going to Waaa to make preeti gurl Akemi to be new Emphres of Waa.

Ux also will helpz because.... er..... er..... Ux forgot, but theys takin Ux go places wit plenty of big fings ta kill n it makes ux happy.

This Ux's party now:

 Dis wun does Sneaky Magik and Bewb Sorsery

Dis wun shootz, lockpikz, healz Ux, and talks to herself

 Dis wun is Supa-Powahferl!!

We travellz a long way frum Faerun to Waaa. In Waa, a fox sprit toldz us ta go find Sohei who helpz Akemi be next Empheres. Sohei sez the throne now is taken care by Jed Regent since da last Emphra left it and go to sum island. Akemi iz da onlyz rightferl heir to da thronez. Da Jed Regent haz powerful deamon fingz that serves him. Ux like killing them deamon fings!

Then he sez we nids the Geishas, Ninja Clans, and da Daimyo (They kall bosses Daimyos in Waa). We talk to the ninjas and they sed the Jed Reagent's own ninja clan will send them most sneaky and killy assassin to kills us and they is will only join if we ripps the assassin's ead. So we did.

Then da Daimyo's amry willz only joins us if we kills the ole evil Daimyo and his brotha replaces him. Well no nid, he kills himself wen he found he served evil and iz dishonored or sumfing.

The Geishas will only joinz us if we rescued their missing Geisha gurl. Turns out, her father napp er to an island to take his wife's soul to...... er Ux forgot the rest. Too complex and it urtz Ux's head. But we killz ta bad guy and rescued da gurl.

So wez nowz has da Daimyo, Geishas an the Ninjaz clans (well, sum ninjaz clans) on our side and theys waiting to take call a Waaaaagh.... er Ux meanz waiting fer a revolushan ta start.

But first we is needz to go sneaky into da biggast City in Waa. Das where the Jed Regent lives! Akemi nids ta do sum blessy ritual fing and to mess wit da city so da Jed Regent is all surprised and unprepared.

Review: Treasure Hunt Penang 2014 (Organised by the Institute of Engineers Malaysia)

I have not been in much treasure hunt events. I was told that it is something like the Amazing race where you drive around looking for clues that will lead you to the next destination and so on. I don't see many of these kinds of events in Penang so naturally I was excited when I get to join one on June 2014. So here is my review of Treasure Hunt Penang organized by the Young Engineer's Section (YES), Institute of Engineers Malaysia (IEM).

The event began early 7:30am in Juru Autocity. We got our T-shirts and given stickers bearing the sponsor's logo and team number to stick onto my car. By 8am, a crowd is already forming. Think there were about 70-100 participants in this event. We got briefed on the instructions. Flag waved, and all of us rushed forward looking for our 1st clue. Here is how it went:

Part 1
We were given a piece of paper with all the questions on it. The answers were all in the 'Shop in d'Park' Autocity. It could be a shop's signboard, tiny lights, fans, or table scattered around. Spent about an hour looking answers. No one will tell us if our answer is correct. We were supposed to just submit all our answers at the end of the hunt after which they will only then tell us the correct answers and calculate the scores. After we are done we began to drive to Tayarmart and White Horse Ceramics, all around the mainland. More answers were hidden in the advertisement boards and signboards along the way.

Part 2
After handing in our answers. We were then given an IQ test to complete while we drove to the Dewan Sri Pinang. No hunting for answers, just simple IQ test which we were supposed to figure on our own. This took us 30 mins.

Part 3
After submitting our answers, we were given another set of questions. This time, we needed to look for the answers scattered along Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling. A stroll along the road yielded answers hidden in tourist information boards, signboards and so on. This took us 1 hour.

Then a lunch break in Times Square.

Part 4
After the lunch break, another set of questions with clues all hidden in the Times Square shopping mall complex. We looked for the answers, wrote them down on the questions list, then submitted our answers. This took us 1 hour. Game ends at 4pm.

 

Arggh! Why there be no gold doubloons in my treasure?!

The game although fun-ish, it had flaws. LOTS of flaws. The questions given to us during the treasure hunt was so poorly written we had trouble deciding if it was a bad poet's riddle or simply bad grammar. Because they tried to play with the questions' words but at the same time made many grammatical errors, whenever the questions did not make sense (which is most of the time) we can't tell if we should try to make sense of it  or dismiss it as bad English and that is frustrating.

The logic behind some of the answers to the questions was too abstract for my taste but you be the judge:

e.g. Ques: The youngest son can be found here.

       Ans: Mercury River

       Explanation: Son sounds like sun. Planets are related to sun. Smallest planet in our solar system is

                           mercury.

I guess I could understand the designers wanting to make the game challenging, but it should not be like this. For a puzzle to be good, the answer to the questions must make solid sense. A good puzzle is when after revealing the answer, the players thinks "Oh! I never thought of that!". A bad one is when they give you a confused look and say "What?".

My brain hurts trying to figure whether I am dumb or game is dumb.

The part were we had to look for the answers by the highway was dangerous. Because we cannot reverse in a highway to review any answers we might have missed, we had to stop by the highway and walk to retrace our steps. That felt dangerous. Even the police came and shooed us away.

Some of the questions were not fair. One requires you to know what a Random Access Memory is (which sucks if you do not know computers), and another requires you to translate "giving luck" into Hokkien (which sucks if you not Chinese or not from Penang).

We did not know any other people there, which puts us in a disadvantage to others who joined the hunt in a large group of friends so even if they are separated into multiple groups, they will help each other out. Although this happens often in many games, good games try to avoid this unfair advantage. Game time of 8am to 4pm seems unnecessarily long.

In short, the treasure hunt was bad. I understand that it is the IEM's 1st time organizing a treasure hunt and people who design this are not professionals. But if they want their future treasure hunts to be fun, changes will have to be made.

Final Verdict: It was bad but decent 1st try. Will have to do better next time. I'd give a 1/5

Would I Recommend?: No. But who knows if future hunts will be much better and thus worth joining.

Review: Break The Code Penang

I am a fan of puzzle games and one of my favorite is the "escape room" mini flash games you see often in the internet. It always begins with me being stuck in a room and to escape, I need to use the tools around the room to figure my way out. After plenty of head scratching, puzzle solving, and mindless clicking of every pixel on my computer screen, I would eventually escape and scream "Yes! I beat your game sucka!"

What if I use the match to melt the door?

But, people are taking this genre to another step by making it real life! You will actually be locked in a room and you have to figure your escape! This is the newest fad that is sweeping across Malaysia and one of the Gamerooms what delivers this is Break The Code. I went to the place in Belissa Row, Penang to check it out and played 2 of their rooms with my friends. Here is my review of Break The Code: Real Room Escape

NOTE: NO SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW

So I picked the room "Crazy Lab: The Undead Zombie". Story is there is an epidemic and the entire human race is infected I must go into the lab to go find the antidote. The people who worked there were very nice and we got started with the game fairly quick. They led us into a room and told us that we had 1 hour to escape this room. There was a bell that we could ring twice only if we got stuck and they would come to provide us clues. Simple enough.

My Psycho-Kinetic Energy Reader is peaking!

Then he closed the door and the clock started to tick. First thing we did was frantically flip over everything that is in the room. One we had the pieces we tried to figure out how they will help us go to the next room. Since most of the obstacles are blocked by numbered padlocks, the puzzles all revolved around figuring the correct code. We eventually got to the last room but the time ran out. Guess we lost!

But throughout the game, although it was fun to work as a team to try and solve puzzles and in turn feel excited once we solved one. The number puzzles appearing over and over again felt stale after awhile. The atmosphere was uninspiring. It felt like they'd just filled up the room with stuff they bought from a Halloween shop. The posters for this room gave us the idea the rooms was scary but actually playing it? The rooms did not manage startle us any one bit. The theme "Crazy Lab" was immediately forgotten once we started solving the puzzles.

 But I thought there were gonna be zombies :(

A few of the puzzles themselves were problematic. We found a way to cheat around one of the puzzles. Think being able to break the puzzle is fun? It is not, trust me. It felt like the person created this was careless rather than me being smart. The puzzles don't fit the theme well and were pretty much just there because the designers wanted you to solve a puzzle and go to the next room. Perhaps if they had a puzzle that was, oh I don't know, created by the Lab's Professor and in it contains the formula for the antidote and only I can solve it because I am the only one he could trust? Then the whole game would have been much enjoyable.

The puzzles were of varying difficulty, but they did not tapper the difficulty accordingly. It felt weird that after we spent 15 minutes of mathematical mind breaking to solve one puzzle, the next one that followed took us only 1 minute.

When I left the Game-room, I was not thinking about how exciting it was or how smart the puzzles were. But instead I was thinking of whether all that was worth my RM 35.

Final Verdict: It was very average. Could have been done better. It was fun just because it was something new. Fun rating, I'd give it a 2/5.

Would I Recommend?: Only if you are with a group of friends and you want to do something different for fun. If you wanted to play puzzle games you might as well go play better escape rooms on the internet for free.

The Saga of the Exploding Wolf (Part 1)

A short but fascinating tale of a lone Wolf Scout assigned to the Deathwatch. A Deathwatch RPG adventure Narratus.

"....and thats is when Froyd lifted his lightning claw. With its blades sharp as the Fenrik's fangs, and blue energy crackeling like the roughest Fenrisian storm. He stabbed into the 4th Eldar Howling Banshee's chest, the blow so mighty it caused filthy alien blood to spray like a leaked promethium can from the Eldar's back and the blood covered the 5th Eldar's visor," recounts Brother Sorgen.

He pauses and extends his hand clad and grey power armour for a pint of frothy Fenrisian ale, and chugged it down sloppily. Huge ammout of ale spills from his mouth to the his unkempt grey beard and fur pelts slung around his chest armour.

Sorgen then stares into the eyes of the ten Space Wolf blood claws. "The last Eldar horrified what Froyd had done to his begotten brethren that he turned to run away in terror! Ha!" Sorgen continued. "No alien can best the fury of Space Wolves! They run, all run, like the cowards they are!" replies one of the blood claws. Then the table bursts into a laughter which covers the entire empty hall.

"Then Froyd goes to chase this coward down and delivered him the coward's punishment. No glory in that," says Sorgen
"Wait, tell us the Saga of the Exploding Wolf Brother Sorgen!" requests one of the blood claw.
"Aha! Tis A tale of extreme stupidity and extreme glory!"
"I heard it is a glorious sacrifice!"
"That it maybe, he is probably the stuff of nightmares in any traitor's mind!"

A large armor clad hand swings and smacks Sorgen in his bare skull, the blow knocks him down his seat. "We do not encourage foolishness to our young ones, brother," speaks the Space Wolf who delivered the blow. Sorgen looks up to see a black armored Space Wolf wearing a helm shaped like a wolf skull. He has apparently entered the hall unnoticed. "Sorry Wolf Priest, I thought it a tale to rouse a beating heart after a drink!" Sorgen replies.

The Wolf Priest turns to look at the blood claws. Then he sits down at the table and removes his helmet. He too takes a pint of ale and starts drinking. "Sorgen will tell you a tale of a wolf's heroic sacrifice. I will tell you a tale of a wolf who could not belong in a pack............
___________________________________________________________________________________
"I am sending you to the Deathwatch, Erikson," announced the Wolf Priest to Erikson alone in his the Wolf Priest's chambers. Erikson was stunned beyond belief. He thought a heroic feat was going to get him rewarded or at least a praise even if those that would mean very little to Erikson who rather wonder into the wilderness of Fenris alone.

"Was I not the one who hunted down a Squiggoth on Culis III? Was I not the one who killed of the biggest beast in the greenskin's ranks? I do not deserve to be sent off from Fenris!" retorts Erikson in a tone close to barking.
"You disobeyed an order!"
"I followed the instinct to hunt the biggest threat!"
"You were supposed to assist two packs of blood claws and a pack of grey hunters to hold the west flank, but you manage to sway the two packs of blood claws into abandoning the flank and join your little hunt! Do you know what happened to the grey hunters?"
"They should have followed me."
"They followed their orders, and if the blood claws did too, they would have survived!"
"The Squiggoth would have crushed us all in the end."
"Not if the Warboss is dead! and it would have been if we did not need to send reinforcements to drop pod into the west flank and hold the mechanicus forge."
"I do not care! I have hunted a great prey and the halls shall sing my name!"

Pushed to his limits, the Wolf Priest lifts his right arm and swings his unpowered Crozius into Erikson's chest. The swing knocks the wolf scout Erikson off his feet and he lands just a few feet away. "Lord Bjorn is not pleased with you. Because of the missing reinforcements to block the Warboss's escape, the Warboss is on on the loose again. Your little shenanigan caused Lord Bjorn a chance to end all major Waaaghs in the subsector," explains the Wolf Priest.

Still trying to regain his footing, Erikson stares up as the Wolf Priest moves closer to him. "If I keep you in Fenris, the other Space Wolves would only sing praises for every foolish bravado you commit. No, you will go to Jericho Reach, you will join the watch. Perhaps with a new pack made of placid Space Marines from other chapters, maybe you will learn the value of patience, and if I am lucky a little respect," explains the Wolf Priest. "Also the Deathwatch is charged with dealing with the worst of the Xenos threats. I'm sure you would not miss the chance to hunt the biggest aliens the universe has to throw at the Imperium now would you?"

Erikson paused and wonders at his predicament. Now it seems like less of a curse.

Wolf Scout Erikson

How to start Warhammer 40k?

So, you are into Warhammer 40k and you want to start an army. But how? What do you need first? Which army should you start? So here is a little guide on how do you start Warhammer 40k.

Step 1: Know How to Play The Game.
Although it seems fun when we are playing 40k, we also spend a lot of time bickering over rules. The more we remember the rules, the less we have to bicker about. 40k just like any other tabletop wargaming, has many rules governing how your army can move, shoot, attack, or just about anything else. When you first start playing, other players are more than happy to show you the basic rules. But it's up to you to read up on the rest.

There are two books which you will need:
1) The Main Rulebook

All praise the holy bible of 40k. What is written, is the almost immaculate truth.

The main rulebook contains all the basic rules for all armies and a must have for all players. However, the problem is this book is big, bulky, and expensive. 50% of it is just back-story, and 50% of it is the real rules. But trust me, you NEED the main rulebook because you will be referring to it very frequently.

PROTIP: Get "Dark Vengeance" starter set and you can a smaller copy of the rulebook which is cheaper, lighter, and contains 100% rules.

2) The Army Codex

Discover the Greater Good, Greater Guns, and Greater Mechas

The Codex is a supplement rulebook to your main rulebook. It focuses on an army and tell what that army can do, what weapons can it take, and how to create your own army. Its a must have so you can create an army, and defend yourself if your opponent accuses you of playing cheating. Relatively cheap, light, this should be the next thing to get (after getting the main rulebook) if you want to start an army. The models can wait.

Step 2: Create an Army List.

Now that you know how 40k works, it's time to form an army of your own. First select an army you want to play. (More information on how to pick an army will in later posts.) The if you look at your Army Codex's "Army List" page, it will include the units you can get, and how much points do they cost.

When you start a game, both players agree on how many points each player can use to build an army. Then you have that many points to build an army for the game. Each unit you include into your army cost points. The more powerful, the more upgrades, the more expensive. So the more powerful you units are, the less units you have in the game.

Try and create a 500 points list first. (Your army must have at least 1 HQ and 2 Troop choice.) If you are unsure about anything, check the forums, check the codex, or ask any other players.

PROTIP: If you are unsure, play Space Marines. Most people know how to play them so you can ask for help. Space Marines army is versatile and more forgiving on mistakes for beginners.

Step 3: Get the Models.

 

Comes with pointed sticks for that evil chaosy feel.

 

Now that you have a list of what to get, go get the models. Sometimes if you buy a package of units, you may get it cheaper.

PROTIP: 

1) Get "Dark Vengeance" starter set and you can get a 500 point-ish Dark Angel and Chaos Space Marine army at a very cheap price. Just sell of the other army that you don't want.

2) Play Space Marines. They are a very common army and it is easier to buy 2nd hand models from other players or eBay.

Step 4: Assemble the models (and Paint them)

It doesn't get any easier to paint than this (unless you love undead things)

 

Assembling models is easy and fun. You need a clipper and modeling glue which is easily obtainable from any hobby shop. 

Painting is another matter, but we will leave it for now. Unpainted models (although not nice looking) are still playable.

Step 5: Get Equipment to Play

You need: 1 Tape Measure, 1 set of 40k Templates, lots of 6-sided dices, 1 40k Scatter Dice

If you have nice miniature scenery to set up your battle field, that's great! If you don't, make do with cups and boxes, they'll do fine

 

PROTIP:  "Dark Vengeance" starter set also includes 1 set of 40k Templates, and 1 40k Scatter Dice.

Step 6: PLAY 40K!!!!

Now you have all it takes to start playing Warhammer 40k with your friends. You will make lots of mistakes at first. But once you get the feel of the game, you can now expand your army to play games with higher points, customize your army to suit your playing style, or even get another army.

Beta Test: 'The Peides Curse: Earth' Boardgame

So I had a chance to beta test a boardgame by Game Design House a boardgame designing company based in Kuala Lumpur. The game is called 'The Peides Curse: Earth'. This game is the first product to be created by them.

One of the peoples from Games Design House came to Penang to let us test the game. I haven't managed to finish the game because the rules explanation took so long, and understanding it took a bit longer. But since it's a prototype, guess they'll smooth out the rules to make it easier in the future. Here's a quick look into 'The Peides Curse: Earth'

Theme: There is a great formless evil unleashed upon earth causing great havoc. The heavens knew this evil will come and prepared a machine to free the light back into the earth. However, the codes to activate the machine is scattered and hidden in airports around the world (for some reason). You play as one of the humans who receives the heaven's call to retrieve the codes and activate the machine to destroy this evil. The theme reminds me a sort of Da Vinci Code morden day detective game where you are supposed to race to figure out clues to unlock secrets to the celestial universe.

Design: The boardgame's design looks decent with a futuristic feel to it. Cards look rather plain but manageable. In this prototype, the models/tokens were not ready yet. Who knows, maybe when this game is in production, hopefully the look will improve.

Gameplay: This game is a competitive type boardgame. All players have the ultimate goal of solving the clue to the heaven machine but the first to get there wins. Each turn you get to move closer to different airports and from there you get clues to solve and once you solve the clue, you get a part of the code and points.

This game is a puzzle solving game, it is unique as I have never see a puzzle solving game yet. To top it off, everything in the boardgame is a clue, the tokens, the names, the cards, all of them. The game won't tell you the boardgame itself is a clue, you have to notice and figure it out.

However, the problems of a puzzle boardgame became apparent after a few rounds. For starters, not many people like puzzle solving games, and since it is a competitive game, other players cannot help you except to wait until you solve the puzzle or until the time is up which is a buzz kill.

The rules for this game is immensely complex, with plenty of different rules governing different game mechanics that make up the entire game. Understanding the game and solving puzzles on the beta-test just drained all the brain juices left in my cranium. But maybe if I played it a few times, perhaps the game will be easier to understand.

This review is just a short breeze through. When the game is available for purchase with all the components ready and errors sorted out, maybe I'll do a full review. I heard they are planing to put this game up for kickstarters somewhere in September 2013. So if you are interested, you can check it out.

A Time Before Computer Games

When I was young (that was the time before the internet, that was the time before Windows. I'm talking of the time when computers run purely on DOS.) I remember when my father would type random sentences (or commands as they are called) into the computer, then the computer responded with more sentences. It was plain, it was confusing, it was boring.

However, on occasions my father would stick a floppy disk into the computer and the words disappear, and lines and shapes appear which is more appealing to my young brain. He had just introduced me to a world of computer games. But that time the only games I had were PAC-MAN. Although, it was entertaining at first, in the end it was still plain, and boring.

And it looks like this for all levels

Just like all games that runs on DOS, though it was amusing at first, it still lacked what a child look for in a game. To fully experience its fun, I had to invite my friends over or go to the arcade and play PAC-MAN, it was just much more fun that way. So how does it fulfill my male adolescent needs?

1. Challenging - VERY! Early games don't come with easy mode. To beat a game is as if slaying a dragon, glorious.

2. Visually Simulating - All games were in 16-bit those days. Watching TV or read books was much more fun.

3. Story - I still don't know why is PAC-MAN chomping on the dots. I'd read or play board games for that.

4. Competitive - Being able to be better than somebody in almost anything is fun for a boy. That's why its better to play with my friends around so i can show off. Then they'd play just to challenge me.

5. Achievement - Having a high score record helps. Nothing like telling my friends that the high score was mine.

6. Socialize - PAC-MAN can't do that. You'd have to go mix with friends.

7. Accessible - No way. Games technology were big and bulky, you can't be playing games everywhere.

8. Money - You can't make money from that. I have to wash my dad's car.

9. Girls - Taking a date out to play games is a risk. Not many girls like games.

So you see games don't fulfill all the needs. They are like little gimmicks to have fun for a while. You'd still have to socialize to have the most fun out of the game.

These days, digital (PC/Console/Phone Applications) game companies have a better understanding of what digital gamers want in a game. With advances in technology and the birth of the internet, all good games has one way or another to fulfill these wants. How they do it?

1. Challenging - They know that some people do not like really challenging games. Adjustable difficulty was born.

2. Visually Simulating - Amazing visuals that capture the imagination well and its the only aspect we can expect it to constantly improve.

Teaching history better than textbooks with old photographs

3. Story -All good games come with a plot. Great ones have very imaginative and intellectually stimulating ones.

4. Competitive -Multiplayer modes over the internet helps players to play with not only their friends but people they never met before.

5. Achievement -Levels and achievement medals helps boasting your success over the internet.

6. Socialize -Massive Mutiple Online Role Playing Games allows for complex socializing system so you can play, chat, hang around with your friends even those you never met like in real life.

7. Accessible -Very. Portable Consoles, Smart Phones, and Wireless Internet makes it all possible.

8. Money -You can convert money you earn in some games into real money and vice-verca. Some could sell characters they played for thousands of Ringgits.

9. Girls - Read here (Article yet to be written)

So what you have is a games that fulfill most of an adolescent male's wants by just playing them. Sounds great? My answer is no. Here is what we end up creating.

The games are so entrancing and portable, it sucks the attention away from the gamers even in social settings and with games being so fulfilling, there is not much incentive for them to get their attention away from these games. As an adult now, it does not affect us much because we grew up in an age where virtual games were at an infancy. We just socialize less often now. 

But, what of our children? What happens when we bring them up in a society where there is so much stimulus from TV, games, and the internet? We do 2 things:

1. Grow children with weak willpower. (Read more in Article yet to be written.)

2. Grow children who has problem socializing. (Read more in Article yet to be written.)

There's a reason why I support the return of non-virtual games (Boardgames and the such). They are fun, weakly addictive and don't take the socializing out.