How I write

I'm trying to get back into writing again, as I said I would after I finished my Open Uni assignment. I remember a friend telling me that if I wanted to write, and in this instance we were talking about writing fiction, just to WRITE. It doesn't matter if it's rubbish, at least you can then look at it and see how to improve. If you never write anything, then you have nothing to work from. I've not spoken properly to this friend in a few years now, but I hope that I can sometime soon and that I can show him what I have written. It may not be fiction, I found that I really couldn't get to grips with it, but it's hugely liberated to vent ideas onto a page, which won't judge you unless you give it to someone else to read.

Today I sat down with the intention of starting to write my own rules for a fantasy dungeon crawler and what I actually ended up writing were rules for a futuristic table top wargame?! The reason being that, for no apparent reason, an idea came into my head a few days ago about the basic mechanics of a table top game and over these last few days they've over taken my thoughts about how I was going to get my dungeon crawler to work, so I had to get it down.

The rules I am writing at the moment could well be rubbish, infact I'm not really sure where I'm going with them, but the core mechanics seemed to make sense in my head so I thought I'd explore it. If it ends up being rubbish then at least I won't have to worry about them clouding my mind; if they end up sort of working then I can explore them further.

My aim is to get back into writing Wastelands v2 and I will. Soon. I promise!

Gears of War 3 is £10

Go and buy it!

The horde mode alone is easily worth this poultry sum.

I play with a friend relatively regularly and we can't get past wave 20, with just the two of us. Another body or two and I reckon we can crack a big run, maybe get all the way to the 50th wave.

It gives such a brilliant sense of achievement when you struggle past the next wave, clawing for survival, repairing your hammered defences, re-arming your turrets and scavenging for weapon ammunition amongst the dead enemies.

The campaign didn't feel as epic as Gears of War 2, but it is good and worth playing, and as the game has the capability for 4 player co-op, it's another big tick in the plus column.

I wish I hadn't bought the game when it first came out, but I'd have happily paid £25 for it.

The joys of an old game

One of my brothers bought me the enhanced re-release of Baldurs Gate for xmas and I've been taking some time out to play it for an hour or two for the last couple of weeks. For a game that is coming up to 15 years old, it is still brilliant! The enhanced-ness seems to relate to an updating of graphics and the inclusion of the more extensive character creation options that became available in Baldurs Gate II, so you can now properly play 1 character all the way through the story, without having to compromise on your original character selection. There are some other changes, but the game feels as wonderous and full of adventure as the original.

I'm hoping to now peer pressure some friends into buying it, for the modest price of just over £12 ($20), as the game has improved multiplayer facilities, which should run better than the original game did.

It's classic AD&D 2nd edition, which, despite being level based, feels gritty and more like a dark, low fantasy setting, than the newer D&Ds. I had forgotten how hard it is to get started! You only have a handful of hit points and one hit and you're dead, or very near it! I've just got my character to level 2 and a full party around him.

The character I have gone for is a classic cleric, which became my staple character in D&D games, as I enjoy the heavy armour, hammer wielding, healer/buffer role when playing in a party. I think it's interesting to consider which characters friends and family would be/choose. I hope some of them get the game and we can enjoy adventuring around Faerun together.

No progress

December was a frustrating month.

After a great play test at the end of November I was set to crack on with pushing Wastelands v2 forward, but with Open Uni work and other commitments I wasn't able to do anything!

Still, it's the new year now and I've been scribbling ideas down. I'm hoping to be able to commit some proper time to developing Wastelands v2 more and really keen to at least get a fresh copy made soon for further play testing.

My new years resolution is to get one game fully designed. Wastelands is still going through some changes, but as I've said so many times, it now needs some art work and nicer quality cards to be made for it.

I hope to start getting back into the flow of writing here more often again.

Happy New Year.