nexusofgeek
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Thursday, October 3, 2024
Everquest Bristlebane my mmo home
Nexus of Geek is back soloing original EQ. Watch me try to get my toons to level 50 and beyond.
Sunday, March 3, 2024
Happy 2024: 3.0 DMG advice part 1
The DMG from the edition that changed the game irrevocably and ushered more "crunch" |
It may be strange for me to be wishing readers a Happy 2024 in March, but the Nexus blog had been more focused on my mmorpg gaming late last year when I was trying to enjoy my Everquest and wow subscriptions.
Saturday, December 23, 2023
Video of the week: Which version of Wow should I play in 2023?
Force Gaming's video on Wow is my pick for video of the week, considering I am planning to play wow again in the coming year. First up, apologies for the very infrequent posts this season, but when RL gets in the way, social media becomes an easier way to communicate and to get my message across, especially when my Youtube hasn't been updated.
So I got the itch to venture back into mmos, specifically Azeroth. The main reason I had stopped playing it was due to the fact I was getting too many disconnects at my new place where the internet is not optimal.
That and the fact I found a regular gaming group IRL for a weekly D&D table top role playing game session.
Prior to this I had been playing hardcore in non-official servers but Blizzard finally realized how popular (and lucrative for them) that game mode has turned out to be and they finally created official hardcore servers.
On the retail side, I leveled up my undead rogue up to 18, but I am interested in trying out Chromie time and replaying some of the old content, even though in order to do so you need to have at least one character at max. Nevertheless, despite having to start on Battle for Azeroth, whose starting zone is my least favorite one for horde, I managed to have fun chatting my friends on discord and enjoying some game time on Christmas vacation.
So which game will I play moving forward? I am thinking classic hardcore, even though it requires a subscription, that game mode is great for the same reasons I think D&D old school is great: A more dangerous game and therefore more of a challenge than easy mode. What gamer doesn't love a challenge if given a choice? In fact this type of permadeth gaming has been around for a while, I remember blogging about it in the past for games like DDO, for example.
I also heard that it was announced in this year's Blizzcon that the next three expansions of the retail version of the game will all be interconnected in terms of story. This is a mixed bag as far as I am concerned. For the little I played of BfA, the story wasn't great, it was just OK. The jailer is only a meh villain, even though what they did with Sylvanas was interesting. I don't admit to be very knowledgeable about that, although I really like the lore of the game, especially when it comes to the horde, that was never the sole sticking point of venturing in Azeroth for me. The interactive experience of figuring things out and later seeking out a guild to play with, that is the social aspect of mmos is what I mostly look for in these types of online activities.
"Season of discovery" mode is also interesting to me because I have not tried it out. The idea of discoveries in game is not new, I have encounter similar experiences in other games, but the way Blizzard is implementing with open world pvp events really appeal to me because I love pvp, but not necessarily pvp servers. Not to mention the open world pvp zones in classic and the progression servers where you can play Cataclysm and older expansions.
I want social interaction in my mmo? Weird I know. I will have more to say about this in future videos. Happy Holidays to all.
Wednesday, September 6, 2023
4E PHB vs. 5E which one is the better resource?
I think the 4E nudges the current one by just a bit, what do you all think?
Tuesday, September 5, 2023
Emergent story and different modalities of D&D
image courtesy of Patrick O'Neill Riley, Britannica |
I am sorry that I have neglected this blog of late.
My goal for the balance of this last quarter of the year is to update more often with my ruminations and thoughts about the games I am running or am participating in.
These days that means D&D, 5e is still at the top of the mountain for TTRPGs as far as I am concerned and even though I will be taking a more detailed look at Wotc's UA for the new system they are going to roll out next year, or whenever, I have invested heavily into 5e, as have many others and I don't really see myself stepping away from it anytime soon, similarly to how it took a while to transition from 4e to 5e.
Of course, things have changed a whole lot in the hobby in the last 15 years or so since we bid adieu to 4e and embraced the "new" edition.
But the more things change, the more they stay the same. In some ways, some things have not really changed. For example, today I carved out some time to play at my local game store when I found out via text message that they were offering free space and tables at which to participate in regular games.
When I arrived however, the guy at the counter told me that no one else had shown up, and after his lunch hour he was going to reopen to see if anyone showed up for a planning session. So this illustrates how hard it is to find a regular group initially, which has traditionally been a recurring problem to a lot of enthusiasts of D&D and games of a similar ilk.
Now it is immensely easier to find a game online utilizing digital platforms such as Owlbear and Roll 20, which is exactly what I will be doing tomorrow night as I have been invited to rejoin a group which is play testing the new UA classes and mechanics in a digital format. I engaged in this once before earlier this year before things became too hectic, but now I am carving out some time to do it again before the new system drops in 2024.
Different modalities of D&D and running game sessions
Recently I have become very interested in becoming a better DM for the group I have been running game sessions for now for over a year and a half. We play every other week, which sometimes feels like a lifetime when it comes to immersion and having a pause in the narrative, but in my spare time I was doing a lot of prepping and studying how others engage in this same exercise, trying to run the perfect game session. Nowadays rather than having a strict linear adventure, I am really wanting to run games with a more emergent story. I have learned a lot and will probably elaborate more on this topic as part of a more in-depth blog post.
For now, I will leave by saying, I am not sure who, if anybody, is reading this blog on a regular basis, but to you out there who may have stumbled upon it, welcome. And may the rolls be with you.
I do however want to share with some very interesting channels and forums which expand upon these topics which I find interesting starting with:
Saturday, July 15, 2023
D&D box sets: Retro component review
A little over a year ago I looked at the 3.5 boxed set for D&D from 2006 by Wizards of the Coast and the 2010 set which went along with the 4e Essentials line. Both really nice boxed sets in my opinion and both better than then 2022 Starter Set: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle, if you are going by components and a few other factors. The best boxed set adventure for my money remains the 2014 5e Starter set adventure, it's hard to beat that adventure for both new DMs and players getting into the hobby, but as far as starter box sets go, these are some good ones.
I will have a new video soon going more in depth into some of these boxed sets, but for now I enjoy looking back at this video, sorry for the quality, I was having trouble focusing using my new SLR at the time.
-
The DMG from the edition that changed the game irrevocably and ushered more "crunch" It may be strange for me to be wishing read...
-
Force Gaming's video on Wow is my pick for video of the week, considering I am planning to play wow again in the coming year. First up...