For a very long time, Sargeras was the big bad of the Warcraft universe. His goal was to burn the universe to charcoal with demonic fire, and it's not hard to understand why we would want to fight such a guy.
But as we learned more about his motivations, Sargeras started to feel less like a pure evil and more of a seriously misguided extremist. Sargeras encountered the Old Gods and was so disgusted that he was willing to enlist the second-most-evil things he had ever encountered and team up with them. Sure, he took a very "we burned the village down in order to save it" approach to his mission, but one gets the sense that he truly believed that he was trying to accomplish the lesser of two evils.
So what's interesting is that there are hints now that even the Void and the Old Gods have their own oddly reasonable motivations.
The Void and its ilk are the Lovecraftian faction in the Warcraft cosmos - all unknowable and unbelievably ancient - a power that one should avoid meddling with as it is so much larger than us that we could never really harness it without succumbing to it.
We've actually gotten a little more clarification on the Void versus the Light and how there are actually some ways in which one could see them as less obviously good versus evil.
The names suggest that they represent existence and non-existence. And in a way, both are necessary for there to be anything of meaning. If every single space is filled with light, then it's just one undifferentiated mass - not much different than a perfect vacuous void.
Yet in truth, what they really represent is fate versus fatelessness. The Light is all about a single truth and ignores all other possibilities while the Void believes that there is no fundamental difference between truth or lies - that all things are true, and nothing is.
Despite its name, the Void is not about ending all things. It's actually about creating a whole lot of new things - just that those things, comprising all possibilities, include every nightmarish thing you could possibly imagine.
But then there's death.
Death embodies the downfall of life and the concept of universal entropic decay.
If you've ever heard about the concept in physics called the Heat Death of the Universe, this might ring a bell. Essentially (and I am by no means a physicist who could really get into the nuances here,) physical law seems to say that over time, entropy increases. A process that creates entropy will happen more easily than one that reduces it (or maybe it's that you can't reduce entropy in one area without creating more than what you reduced in another area.) Entropy is basically the number of states a system can be in - higher entropy means more potential states.
While that would seem to be freeing and very Void-friendly, what it actually means is that the universe is moving every forward toward a state in which things are done doing anything.
Consider the idea that things have energy stored within them. You lift something from the ground, and you are imbuing it with the energy to fall back down. Entropic decay is (again, not a physicist here) the idea that, whatever route it takes to get there, everything has finally fallen to its ultimate resting point. All the things that could have happened have happened, and the only energy you have left is random, meaningless bouncing against each other - aka heat.
Death, in the Warcraft cosmos, is ultimately a force that leads toward this kind of stasis. Nothing really lives and nothing really dies. A world conquered by death is one in which the same undead creatures wander the same unchanging landscape for eternity. It's actually a lot like the era before the Age of Fire in the Dark Souls cosmos.
It's something that came up when we were fighting the Scourge - you could have asked what Arthas' end goals were, but the fact is that the Scourge doesn't really want to accomplish anything except ensure that it endures. If Arthas had won, his plan was presumably to rule over a dead and unchanging Azeroth for the rest of time.
And you know what? Doesn't that sound a lot like what Sylvanas is shooting for? The Forsaken were once dynamic - they had the goal of revenge against Arthas but also the goal of restoring themselves to true life. There has been very little progress made on the latter and the former was accomplished ten years ago.
The Desolate Council decided that if they couldn't return to life, maybe it was all right to simply let themselves die off over time and allow the living to reclaim Lordaeron - they might not live to see Lordaeron restored, but as living humans, they hadn't expected to live forever anyway.
But Sylvanas - notably after being raised by the Val'kyr, whose motivations are very mysterious - instead shifted her mission from revenge and restoration to perpetuating the Forsaken. No longer lamenting her cursed state, she now envisions herself and her people continuing to exist in their undead state forever - and if the only way to secure that future is converting all of humanity (and maybe the rest of the living as well) to undead, she's ok with it. And that, my friends, sounds pretty much like the Lich King.
The Void does not want stagnancy - they want every opportunity for new truths to form.
But Death seeks stability through stagnation.
And now, the Light kind of does too.
In Before the Storm, we saw Anduin and Alonsus Faol channel the light to raise Calia Menethil (sister to Arthas and arguably the rightful Queen of Lordaeron) as a kind of light-bound undead.
Historically, the Light has abhorred undeath. Paladins were the main opponents to the Scourge, and it was a miracle of the Light that freed Tirion to destroy Frostmourne before Arthas could raise us as his champions of death.
And yet, the Light and Death are two forces that do kind of aim for similar things. The Light wants order and truth - a single truth - and to see all living things connected to it. In the Light, we are One - something Maraad says as he dies, somehow using his own Divine Shield to protect Y'rel (who then becomes a much more zealous advocate of the Light 30 years down the road.) The Light immortalizes people - look at how Turalyon has basically not aged in his thousand-year time warp.
The Light seeks for things to remain, stalwart and unchanging. And Death seeks to end change as well.
And now we have a light-based undead Calia Menethil.
Now, is either side really wrong? There is horror to both the Void's nightmarish chaos but also Light and Death's unyielding permanence.
I feel more confident every day that N'zoth will be Battle for Azeroth's final boss. But I'm also feeling much more confident that his defeat will cause even bigger problems for us.
Basically, expect Death to play a big role in the expansion that comes next (which, hey! Should be announced this year!)
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Get that Piranha Plant!
Do you own Super Smash Bros. Ultimate?
Then you can get the Piranha Plant as a fighter when it releases next month!
But it's not automatic, so here's a PSA:
If you bought a physical copy of the game, you'll need to register it on the My Nintendo site.
If you got a digital version (like I did,) you're automatically registered.
In either case, check your email and you should find a code that you can enter into the Switch's eShop. Redeem it and you'll have the fighter when it comes out!
I think you only have until the end of the month to get the code, but you have until the end of June to enter it (though why wait?)
If you enter it now, the new fighter should be added when it goes live.
(I've also got the Smash pass, so I should be getting all the DLC fighters as they come out.)
Then you can get the Piranha Plant as a fighter when it releases next month!
But it's not automatic, so here's a PSA:
If you bought a physical copy of the game, you'll need to register it on the My Nintendo site.
If you got a digital version (like I did,) you're automatically registered.
In either case, check your email and you should find a code that you can enter into the Switch's eShop. Redeem it and you'll have the fighter when it comes out!
I think you only have until the end of the month to get the code, but you have until the end of June to enter it (though why wait?)
If you enter it now, the new fighter should be added when it goes live.
(I've also got the Smash pass, so I should be getting all the DLC fighters as they come out.)
Sunday, January 27, 2019
The Dimir Observer - Ravnica Headcanon
One of these days I've got to run a Ravnica-set campaign.
As you'll know if you've read this blog, House Dimir is my favorite Ravnica guild (if you've read my fiction, you could have probably guessed that.)
While the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica gives you a great jumping-off point for creating a campaign in the setting, DMs will certainly need to fill in some details. So here's one I came up with:
House Dimir is, as we all know from being outside the narrative, basically Ravnica's Illuminati-like ancient conspiracy. But since the events of the first Ravnica block (which, canonically for GGtR, was about 70 years ago - Teysa is looking real good for her age) the existence of House Dimir is now public knowledge (in fact, I believe that reveal is actually what invalidated the original Guildpact.)
And so the Dimir must now have a public face.
That face is an affiliation of librarians, booksellers, private investigators, and in some interpretations (mine included,) journalists.
Ravnica is not a totally medieval setting - the work of the Izzet League has given the city some modern conveniences, like elevators and mass transit (I think there's canonically a subway.)
And while the internet is changing the way that journalism works, one modern(ish) thing to add there is a major newspaper.
So in my version of Ravnica, the most prominent and prestigious newspaper is the Dimir Observer.
The Observer would basically be the New York Times of Ravnica - it's the most prominent journalistic publication in the city, and the one that people generally trust the most. Indeed, most citizens probably think of House Dimir as "that guild that runs the Observer."
I should also note that my take on House Dimir is more of a True Neutral guild than Neutral Evil.
So the Observer would be the paper that everyone reads - if you want some big bit of exposition for your party, you can say that everyone's reading a bombshell article in the Observer.
Given Dimir's capacity for infiltration, it makes sense that they'd have the best investigative journalism, with contacts (who might in fact be Dimir operatives) close to the powerful people in every guild.
Even though the Dimir are obsessed with their own secrecy, they are also ravenous for the secrets of others. Maybe that sometimes takes the form of exposing others.
My sense is that Lazav and other prominent Dimir leaders would have editorial control over the Observer, but exposing the right secrets could be a massively powerful tool for the Dimir to influence the public. It also allows for more idealistic and altruistic player characters to be undercover journalists who work for the Observer.
Of course, my sense is that 99% of what House Dimir does is build up resources and advantages, rarely taking advantage of their assets, and only when it is crucial to accomplishing their goals (that goal most often being to secure additional assets and influence.) As such, in most cases you really can trust the Observer to be telling the truth. The whole point is that they want the public to trust the Observer, and the best way to get them to do that is to just have very solid, professional journalism done right.
But if Lazav gives the order, the Observer can and would run a false story in order to manipulate the public when it serves House Dimir's goals. Similarly, while the Observer probably exposes countless Orzhov conspiracies, Azorius rights violations, or Golgari plots, House Dimir remains its one clear and intentional blind spot. Observer reporters are great at infiltrating other guilds, but the Observer only reveals aspects of House Dimir if the story serves a clear (and usually misleading) purpose for Dimir ends.
As you'll know if you've read this blog, House Dimir is my favorite Ravnica guild (if you've read my fiction, you could have probably guessed that.)
While the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica gives you a great jumping-off point for creating a campaign in the setting, DMs will certainly need to fill in some details. So here's one I came up with:
House Dimir is, as we all know from being outside the narrative, basically Ravnica's Illuminati-like ancient conspiracy. But since the events of the first Ravnica block (which, canonically for GGtR, was about 70 years ago - Teysa is looking real good for her age) the existence of House Dimir is now public knowledge (in fact, I believe that reveal is actually what invalidated the original Guildpact.)
And so the Dimir must now have a public face.
That face is an affiliation of librarians, booksellers, private investigators, and in some interpretations (mine included,) journalists.
Ravnica is not a totally medieval setting - the work of the Izzet League has given the city some modern conveniences, like elevators and mass transit (I think there's canonically a subway.)
And while the internet is changing the way that journalism works, one modern(ish) thing to add there is a major newspaper.
So in my version of Ravnica, the most prominent and prestigious newspaper is the Dimir Observer.
The Observer would basically be the New York Times of Ravnica - it's the most prominent journalistic publication in the city, and the one that people generally trust the most. Indeed, most citizens probably think of House Dimir as "that guild that runs the Observer."
I should also note that my take on House Dimir is more of a True Neutral guild than Neutral Evil.
So the Observer would be the paper that everyone reads - if you want some big bit of exposition for your party, you can say that everyone's reading a bombshell article in the Observer.
Given Dimir's capacity for infiltration, it makes sense that they'd have the best investigative journalism, with contacts (who might in fact be Dimir operatives) close to the powerful people in every guild.
Even though the Dimir are obsessed with their own secrecy, they are also ravenous for the secrets of others. Maybe that sometimes takes the form of exposing others.
My sense is that Lazav and other prominent Dimir leaders would have editorial control over the Observer, but exposing the right secrets could be a massively powerful tool for the Dimir to influence the public. It also allows for more idealistic and altruistic player characters to be undercover journalists who work for the Observer.
Of course, my sense is that 99% of what House Dimir does is build up resources and advantages, rarely taking advantage of their assets, and only when it is crucial to accomplishing their goals (that goal most often being to secure additional assets and influence.) As such, in most cases you really can trust the Observer to be telling the truth. The whole point is that they want the public to trust the Observer, and the best way to get them to do that is to just have very solid, professional journalism done right.
But if Lazav gives the order, the Observer can and would run a false story in order to manipulate the public when it serves House Dimir's goals. Similarly, while the Observer probably exposes countless Orzhov conspiracies, Azorius rights violations, or Golgari plots, House Dimir remains its one clear and intentional blind spot. Observer reporters are great at infiltrating other guilds, but the Observer only reveals aspects of House Dimir if the story serves a clear (and usually misleading) purpose for Dimir ends.
First Look at Dazar'Alor
My guild, after months of no raiding, waltzed into the Battle of Dazar'alor raid this first week and...
Got curb-stomped by the first boss.
Now, part of it is that WoW is not registering my mic, which is a pain when you're typically the guild's raid leader and main tank. But this champion of the light fight (we're Alliance, so it was a troll paladin - which is a thing for Zandalari, and that's pretty cool) has a LOT going on.
First off, you've got a boss that stacks up the tank-swap debuff at a pretty fast clip. Next you have one add that can disorient the whole raid (oh, and that makes the boss drop aggro on the tank while they're disoriented.) There are a million other nasty things that the boss does, and so it's a bit of a wall to start with.
Granted, we only got about halfway through Uldir, so we might go back and finish that (and shake off the raiding rust.) And hopefully I'll figure out a way for the voice chat to work for me!
Anyway, Dazar'alor is interesting in that, rather than an ending cinematic, there's an intro one (and one in the middle after Rastakhan.)
We get a pretty awesome cutscene from the Alliance perspective in which Jaina brings her fleet in and Gelbin Mekkatorque gets a heroic moment after it looks like he's dead.
As great as it is to see the Alliance get a win (and yes, it's a bit of a qualified win, but not nearly as subverted as Undercity had been) it's also pretty clear that what we're doing is really just laying the groundwork for N'zoth.
Got curb-stomped by the first boss.
Now, part of it is that WoW is not registering my mic, which is a pain when you're typically the guild's raid leader and main tank. But this champion of the light fight (we're Alliance, so it was a troll paladin - which is a thing for Zandalari, and that's pretty cool) has a LOT going on.
First off, you've got a boss that stacks up the tank-swap debuff at a pretty fast clip. Next you have one add that can disorient the whole raid (oh, and that makes the boss drop aggro on the tank while they're disoriented.) There are a million other nasty things that the boss does, and so it's a bit of a wall to start with.
Granted, we only got about halfway through Uldir, so we might go back and finish that (and shake off the raiding rust.) And hopefully I'll figure out a way for the voice chat to work for me!
Anyway, Dazar'alor is interesting in that, rather than an ending cinematic, there's an intro one (and one in the middle after Rastakhan.)
We get a pretty awesome cutscene from the Alliance perspective in which Jaina brings her fleet in and Gelbin Mekkatorque gets a heroic moment after it looks like he's dead.
As great as it is to see the Alliance get a win (and yes, it's a bit of a qualified win, but not nearly as subverted as Undercity had been) it's also pretty clear that what we're doing is really just laying the groundwork for N'zoth.
Friday, January 25, 2019
Metroid Prime 4 Development Restarting
The Metroid Prime series, which began on the Gamecube with its first two installments and then went to the Wii for the third and seemingly final part of the trilogy, was a surprisingly effective translation of a side-scrolling exploration/platforming/action game into a first-person-shooter. When a fourth game was announced for the Switch, fans were pretty excited.
Well, it seems there have been some development problems at Nintendo, and while the game is not cancelled, they've effectively scrapped what they had before and are going back to square one.
One piece of news in all this that could be seen as a positive is that Retro Studios, the American game studio that did the original trilogy, will be the ones making it this time around. I don't know if the same people are there (game three came out what, ten years ago?) But nailing the feel of the older games could make for a better experience.
Metroid is one of the big Nintendo franchises, but it has never been quite as ubiquitous as Mario or Zelda. There was no N64 Metroid game, nor was there one for the Wii U (I think...?)
My hope here is that we'll be able to see this release on the Switch eventually and not have to wait for the next console generation.
Well, it seems there have been some development problems at Nintendo, and while the game is not cancelled, they've effectively scrapped what they had before and are going back to square one.
One piece of news in all this that could be seen as a positive is that Retro Studios, the American game studio that did the original trilogy, will be the ones making it this time around. I don't know if the same people are there (game three came out what, ten years ago?) But nailing the feel of the older games could make for a better experience.
Metroid is one of the big Nintendo franchises, but it has never been quite as ubiquitous as Mario or Zelda. There was no N64 Metroid game, nor was there one for the Wii U (I think...?)
My hope here is that we'll be able to see this release on the Switch eventually and not have to wait for the next console generation.
Thursday, January 24, 2019
N'zoth, Sylvanas, and BFA's Endgame
The Battle for Dazar'alor is likely to be the biggest major battle of the current Alliance/Horde war, at least if the war does not continue into the next expansion.
Given expansion cycles, to get meta for a moment, we've had our intro raid with Uldir, we're getting a Trial-of-Valor-like Mini raid in Crucible of Storms, and that leaves the Azshara raid in 8.2 and then presumably some final raid at the end of the expansion (Ny'alotha is my bet, but I'm getting ahead of myself.)
It's been pretty clear from the start that there's something going on beneath the surface (no pun intended) in this war. There are a lot of factions and players involved outside of Big Red and Big Blue. In the Dazar'alor raid, we see Bwonsamdi's takeover of the Zandalari royal line fully actualized (the finger he points when he directs Talanji to pursue the Alliance is a fantastic moment of visual storytelling.)
We know Bwonsamdi has his own boss, and that thread remains shrouded in mystery (it seems like a next-expansion hook to me,) but what is also quite clear is that N'zoth has been active as well.
SPOILERS AHOY
In the run-up to the Crucible of Storms mini-raid, players recover Xal'atath, the Blade of the Black Empire. Shadow Priests during Legion were intimately familiar with this weapon, as it was their artifact weapon. But now everyone gets to interact with it, and the sentience that had been trapped within.
There are four major Old Gods in Warcraft canon, but it turns out that there was at least one more that appears to have never attained the levels of power that Y'Shaarj, Yogg-Saron, C'thun, or N'zoth did. Defeated by her "brothers," Xal'atath was trapped within the blade and forced to serve the other Old Gods through it. In the Crucible of Storms quests, we actually allow Xal'atath to manifest outside of the knife, taking the form of a female void elf.
It would seem that Xal'atath is the Warcraft equivalent of Nyarlathotep - manifesting in a human (or humanoid) form, and so we find ourselves walking alongside and aiding this eldritch abomination that looks like an elf woman as she offers to help us fight against the Naga forces in Stormsong Valley.
In truth, however, she uses us (not really a shocker) to help open the way for N'zoth - whatever that means. Despite the fact that they were clearly once rivals, they enact their bargain, and N'zoth actually "blesses" us with his gift in thanks, allowing us to see the thousand truths.
His only request is that she leave the dagger behind, which she does as she steps into the void.
So this confirms that the dagger and Xal'atath are not one and the same - it was her prison, not her body.
To my mind there are two clear possible final bosses for Battle for Azeroth - Sylvanas or N'zoth.
But we don't want a Garrosh 2.0 situation here, so I suspect that instead, Sylvanas will wind up doing something huge in our fight against N'zoth.
We know that in 7.2 Sylvanas wields the dagger - does she do so with N'zoth's permission, or does she steal it from him?
We know this dagger is capable of trapping an Old God within it. Yes, Xal'atath was probably never as strong as N'zoth, but what if?
What if Sylvanas uses the dagger to imprison N'zoth within it?
The implications are fascinating:
On one hand, it gives Sylvanas a world-saving move to take, which would force us to reevaluate her a bit. It doesn't erase the horrors that she has committed, but she proves herself valuable to Azeroth in a way that is hard to deny.
But also: the dagger was super-powerful when Xal'atath was trapped inside. What kind of absurd power might it hold if N'zoth were the one inside of it? (And could we get Darin dePaul's voice whispering to us for an expansion? Sidenote: I really wish that they'd use the creepily casual voice that he first uses to speak with Azshara more instead of the booming monster voice. C'thun's voice acting was always more compelling to me than that of Yogg-Saron. Let the Lich King have the lowest, scariest monster voice - it works for him.)
It's pretty clear to me that Xal'atath is being set up to be a major player in the future. If we go on another cosmic excusion - to K'aresh or some similar void-infested world - I could easily see Xal'atath returning to use us.
But I think we have a pretty strong "holy crap" moment that might occur at the end of the final raid of the expansion being set up quite nicely.
Given expansion cycles, to get meta for a moment, we've had our intro raid with Uldir, we're getting a Trial-of-Valor-like Mini raid in Crucible of Storms, and that leaves the Azshara raid in 8.2 and then presumably some final raid at the end of the expansion (Ny'alotha is my bet, but I'm getting ahead of myself.)
It's been pretty clear from the start that there's something going on beneath the surface (no pun intended) in this war. There are a lot of factions and players involved outside of Big Red and Big Blue. In the Dazar'alor raid, we see Bwonsamdi's takeover of the Zandalari royal line fully actualized (the finger he points when he directs Talanji to pursue the Alliance is a fantastic moment of visual storytelling.)
We know Bwonsamdi has his own boss, and that thread remains shrouded in mystery (it seems like a next-expansion hook to me,) but what is also quite clear is that N'zoth has been active as well.
SPOILERS AHOY
In the run-up to the Crucible of Storms mini-raid, players recover Xal'atath, the Blade of the Black Empire. Shadow Priests during Legion were intimately familiar with this weapon, as it was their artifact weapon. But now everyone gets to interact with it, and the sentience that had been trapped within.
There are four major Old Gods in Warcraft canon, but it turns out that there was at least one more that appears to have never attained the levels of power that Y'Shaarj, Yogg-Saron, C'thun, or N'zoth did. Defeated by her "brothers," Xal'atath was trapped within the blade and forced to serve the other Old Gods through it. In the Crucible of Storms quests, we actually allow Xal'atath to manifest outside of the knife, taking the form of a female void elf.
It would seem that Xal'atath is the Warcraft equivalent of Nyarlathotep - manifesting in a human (or humanoid) form, and so we find ourselves walking alongside and aiding this eldritch abomination that looks like an elf woman as she offers to help us fight against the Naga forces in Stormsong Valley.
In truth, however, she uses us (not really a shocker) to help open the way for N'zoth - whatever that means. Despite the fact that they were clearly once rivals, they enact their bargain, and N'zoth actually "blesses" us with his gift in thanks, allowing us to see the thousand truths.
His only request is that she leave the dagger behind, which she does as she steps into the void.
So this confirms that the dagger and Xal'atath are not one and the same - it was her prison, not her body.
To my mind there are two clear possible final bosses for Battle for Azeroth - Sylvanas or N'zoth.
But we don't want a Garrosh 2.0 situation here, so I suspect that instead, Sylvanas will wind up doing something huge in our fight against N'zoth.
We know that in 7.2 Sylvanas wields the dagger - does she do so with N'zoth's permission, or does she steal it from him?
We know this dagger is capable of trapping an Old God within it. Yes, Xal'atath was probably never as strong as N'zoth, but what if?
What if Sylvanas uses the dagger to imprison N'zoth within it?
The implications are fascinating:
On one hand, it gives Sylvanas a world-saving move to take, which would force us to reevaluate her a bit. It doesn't erase the horrors that she has committed, but she proves herself valuable to Azeroth in a way that is hard to deny.
But also: the dagger was super-powerful when Xal'atath was trapped inside. What kind of absurd power might it hold if N'zoth were the one inside of it? (And could we get Darin dePaul's voice whispering to us for an expansion? Sidenote: I really wish that they'd use the creepily casual voice that he first uses to speak with Azshara more instead of the booming monster voice. C'thun's voice acting was always more compelling to me than that of Yogg-Saron. Let the Lich King have the lowest, scariest monster voice - it works for him.)
It's pretty clear to me that Xal'atath is being set up to be a major player in the future. If we go on another cosmic excusion - to K'aresh or some similar void-infested world - I could easily see Xal'atath returning to use us.
But I think we have a pretty strong "holy crap" moment that might occur at the end of the final raid of the expansion being set up quite nicely.
Monday, January 21, 2019
Reminder: Ballad of the Goddess is just Zelda's Lullaby Backwards
It's been several years since The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword came out. We're now in year three, I think, of Breath of the Wild being the most recent Zelda game.
I'll confess that I didn't like Skyward Sword as much as I wanted to (actually same with Breath of the Wild) but there is one element that I really find awesome:
Skyward Sword's big musical theme, its main title as it were, is the Ballad of the Goddess:
It's a stirring, heroic piece of music that really seems like a great call to adventure.
But there's a secret to it (read the title of the post if you want a spoiler): The main musical phrase of it is actually just Zelda's Lullaby reversed. No change in pace or rhythm. You can literally just reverse the song and you'll hear Zelda's Lullaby.
I'll confess that I didn't like Skyward Sword as much as I wanted to (actually same with Breath of the Wild) but there is one element that I really find awesome:
Skyward Sword's big musical theme, its main title as it were, is the Ballad of the Goddess:
It's a stirring, heroic piece of music that really seems like a great call to adventure.
But there's a secret to it (read the title of the post if you want a spoiler): The main musical phrase of it is actually just Zelda's Lullaby reversed. No change in pace or rhythm. You can literally just reverse the song and you'll hear Zelda's Lullaby.
I still find this mind-blowing. The two melodies sound so profoundly different, despite being exact mirror images of one another.
I do not know much about music theory, so maybe someone else could explain how this works, but it feels really magical.
And it plays into the story of the game:
Spoilers ahead for an 8ish-year-old game:
Skyward Sword is the earliest-set Zelda game chronologically. While Ocarina of Time had been the "prequel game" back in the day, telling us how the dark lord Ganon became the horrible pig-demon he is, Skyward Sword goes pre-Ganon, pre-Hyrule world where the Goddess Hylia actually raised a kingdom into the sky so that it could be safe of the dangers on the surface.
We eventually discover that Zelda, Link's childhood friend, is in fact an incarnation of the Goddess - which then goes on to explain how Zelda has shown up generations later in different lives. All this time she was the Goddess Hylia!
And so the Ballad of the Goddess sharing the same notes as Zelda's Lullaby makes sense: it's the same song about the same individual.
Friday, January 18, 2019
Reckoning with Sylvanas
Sylvanas is the closest thing to a singular villain we have in Battle for Azeroth.
Now, I'm still largely convinced that N'zoth will turn out to be its true big bad - we could discover that many of the ills of the expansion are his doing or we might simply find that he's the biggest threat rather than the singular one - much as the Lich King had little to do with Yogg-Saron or Malygos.
But we have this issue:
Sylvanas is evil. Sure, she might feel she's justified in her actions and might have some kind of protective motivation for what she is doing, but at the end of the day, she has killed a massive number of people who very easily could have been left alone.
The Horde has this odd identity crisis: when interacting with anyone other than the Alliance, they are clear heroes - yes, you sometimes see them do shady stuff, but it's almost always as a way to get a leg up on the Alliance. They have no problem championing the weak and fighting to save the world, but their tactics against the Alliance and their obsessive desire to fight them turns them into aggressors and warmongers in only this one type of conflict.
But while the Horde is a largely good organization except when dealing with the Alliance, their current Warchief struggles to have any redeeming qualities.
Sylvanas doesn't have to be evil. Yes, she was raised as a banshee by Arthas and forced to serve the Scourge for a time, but when she regained her free will, she was mostly restored to the same high elf personality she had once had.
One thing I think would be interesting to consider is how much of the Forsaken psychology is inherent and how much is psychosomatic. Are they truly incapable of experiencing positive emotions, or has their state afflicted them with a powerful depression - one that is certainly not easy to cure (as it is in real life) but one that is not inextricable from their unlife.
Sylvanas uses her undead to justify a lot of horrible things.
Her worldview appears to be roughly the following:
1. The undead will never be accepted by the living. The Horde barely tolerates them as allies, and the Humans want nothing more than to destroy them.
2. The undead must perpetuate themselves in order to defend themselves - they cannot be allowed to simply die off gradually because once the Forsaken population begins to decline, the remaining few will be unable to defend themselves against a world that wishes to see them exterminated.
3. Because humanity - one of Azeroth's most populous races - seeks to have their undead kin exterminated, the only way in which to prevent them from doing so is to turn them undead, making all of humanity into Forsaken (and then possibly the rest of Azeroth.)
All three of these premises are shown to be false, but Sylvanas cannot admit that because A: her entire power structure is based on them and B: she would have to admit to the fact that she has done so many terrible things for no real purpose.
Sylvanas had plenty of blood on her hands before this expansion, but after Teldrassil it really doesn't seem there could be any justice if she doesn't meet some kind of punishment.
The obvious choice would be death - that she is overthrown in a rebellion or a successful campaign by the Alliance. But not only would that be a repeat (roughly) of the Garrosh story, it would also seem to justify her - proving that death was the only thing her enemies ever wanted for her and allowing her to die for what she believes in (even if what she believes in is a horrible lie.)
But let's consider another option:
What if Sylvanas were restored to life?
I became a big Buffy fan when I was in college (right after the show had ended, actually.) One of the main characters, who got his own spinoff after the third season, was the vampire named Angel. His story was that for about a hundred years he had been one of the most vicious and horrible vampires in the world, but after killing the wrong person, he was afflicted with a "gypsy curse," (the show's politics were in the well-meaning-but-problematic range) which - as a punishment - restored his soul to him, forcing him to feel guilt for his actions and empathy for his victims, which did put him on a road to redemption eventually but first drove him into a deep, self-loathing depression (and also ruined his relationships with his fellow murderous bloodsuckers who had become something of a family.)
So when I think of the meanest thing you could do to Sylvanas, it would be to make her alive again.
Presumably this would first mean that any emotions she had muted in undeath would come thundering back to her. Now, living people can be cruel and callous, but I suspect that the defenses she has built up around her emotions were largely based on her undead nature - she would no longer have that as an excuse to rationalize her behavior away.
But more than that, she has spent a great deal of effort trying to convince the Forsaken that you just can't trust the living, and that they are a wholly different nation and people from those who are free of the undead curse. By making her live again, she is alienated from the Forsaken, now being the very thing she has taught her people to hate.
Where does she go? Would she become a Blood Elf? Does she now have to grovel before Lor'themar Theron to be allowed back into Quel'thalas? Or does she adopt a High Elf affiliation and attempt to reconnect with her Alliance-bound sisters?
Meanwhile, is she still running the Horde?
If we assume that this process makes her horrified (or at least far more aware of her culpability) at what she has done, will she falter? Will it change how she runs things, and if so, will people turn on her?
Frankly, I think a far more interesting arc for Sylvanas is not to see her become a raid boss, but instead see her become an NPC that has gone into hiding. She could play more of an Illidan role - someone who is useful to us but also very dangerous.
Plus I think that the Forsaken would have some interesting stuff to deal with - theoretically they originally were hoping for a cure to undeath, but Sylvanas beat into them that they should be both proud of their undead status and also mistrustful of the living. But if Sylvanas is truly cured, might the Forsaken reorient themselves toward a similar treatment, or perhaps seeing what happens to Sylvanas as a result, they might evolve her undead-nationalist philosophy to be even more extreme.
Now, I'm still largely convinced that N'zoth will turn out to be its true big bad - we could discover that many of the ills of the expansion are his doing or we might simply find that he's the biggest threat rather than the singular one - much as the Lich King had little to do with Yogg-Saron or Malygos.
But we have this issue:
Sylvanas is evil. Sure, she might feel she's justified in her actions and might have some kind of protective motivation for what she is doing, but at the end of the day, she has killed a massive number of people who very easily could have been left alone.
The Horde has this odd identity crisis: when interacting with anyone other than the Alliance, they are clear heroes - yes, you sometimes see them do shady stuff, but it's almost always as a way to get a leg up on the Alliance. They have no problem championing the weak and fighting to save the world, but their tactics against the Alliance and their obsessive desire to fight them turns them into aggressors and warmongers in only this one type of conflict.
But while the Horde is a largely good organization except when dealing with the Alliance, their current Warchief struggles to have any redeeming qualities.
Sylvanas doesn't have to be evil. Yes, she was raised as a banshee by Arthas and forced to serve the Scourge for a time, but when she regained her free will, she was mostly restored to the same high elf personality she had once had.
One thing I think would be interesting to consider is how much of the Forsaken psychology is inherent and how much is psychosomatic. Are they truly incapable of experiencing positive emotions, or has their state afflicted them with a powerful depression - one that is certainly not easy to cure (as it is in real life) but one that is not inextricable from their unlife.
Sylvanas uses her undead to justify a lot of horrible things.
Her worldview appears to be roughly the following:
1. The undead will never be accepted by the living. The Horde barely tolerates them as allies, and the Humans want nothing more than to destroy them.
2. The undead must perpetuate themselves in order to defend themselves - they cannot be allowed to simply die off gradually because once the Forsaken population begins to decline, the remaining few will be unable to defend themselves against a world that wishes to see them exterminated.
3. Because humanity - one of Azeroth's most populous races - seeks to have their undead kin exterminated, the only way in which to prevent them from doing so is to turn them undead, making all of humanity into Forsaken (and then possibly the rest of Azeroth.)
All three of these premises are shown to be false, but Sylvanas cannot admit that because A: her entire power structure is based on them and B: she would have to admit to the fact that she has done so many terrible things for no real purpose.
Sylvanas had plenty of blood on her hands before this expansion, but after Teldrassil it really doesn't seem there could be any justice if she doesn't meet some kind of punishment.
The obvious choice would be death - that she is overthrown in a rebellion or a successful campaign by the Alliance. But not only would that be a repeat (roughly) of the Garrosh story, it would also seem to justify her - proving that death was the only thing her enemies ever wanted for her and allowing her to die for what she believes in (even if what she believes in is a horrible lie.)
But let's consider another option:
What if Sylvanas were restored to life?
I became a big Buffy fan when I was in college (right after the show had ended, actually.) One of the main characters, who got his own spinoff after the third season, was the vampire named Angel. His story was that for about a hundred years he had been one of the most vicious and horrible vampires in the world, but after killing the wrong person, he was afflicted with a "gypsy curse," (the show's politics were in the well-meaning-but-problematic range) which - as a punishment - restored his soul to him, forcing him to feel guilt for his actions and empathy for his victims, which did put him on a road to redemption eventually but first drove him into a deep, self-loathing depression (and also ruined his relationships with his fellow murderous bloodsuckers who had become something of a family.)
So when I think of the meanest thing you could do to Sylvanas, it would be to make her alive again.
Presumably this would first mean that any emotions she had muted in undeath would come thundering back to her. Now, living people can be cruel and callous, but I suspect that the defenses she has built up around her emotions were largely based on her undead nature - she would no longer have that as an excuse to rationalize her behavior away.
But more than that, she has spent a great deal of effort trying to convince the Forsaken that you just can't trust the living, and that they are a wholly different nation and people from those who are free of the undead curse. By making her live again, she is alienated from the Forsaken, now being the very thing she has taught her people to hate.
Where does she go? Would she become a Blood Elf? Does she now have to grovel before Lor'themar Theron to be allowed back into Quel'thalas? Or does she adopt a High Elf affiliation and attempt to reconnect with her Alliance-bound sisters?
Meanwhile, is she still running the Horde?
If we assume that this process makes her horrified (or at least far more aware of her culpability) at what she has done, will she falter? Will it change how she runs things, and if so, will people turn on her?
Frankly, I think a far more interesting arc for Sylvanas is not to see her become a raid boss, but instead see her become an NPC that has gone into hiding. She could play more of an Illidan role - someone who is useful to us but also very dangerous.
Plus I think that the Forsaken would have some interesting stuff to deal with - theoretically they originally were hoping for a cure to undeath, but Sylvanas beat into them that they should be both proud of their undead status and also mistrustful of the living. But if Sylvanas is truly cured, might the Forsaken reorient themselves toward a similar treatment, or perhaps seeing what happens to Sylvanas as a result, they might evolve her undead-nationalist philosophy to be even more extreme.
Thursday, January 17, 2019
Rolling for a New Campaign
This Saturday we're having a 1-shot whose primary purpose is to get one of my roommates to play D&D (she and my other roommate, her husband, were picking day one spells for her forge cleric earlier today) and I am very excited to play an Eldritch Knight fighter (I wrote a post a while ago about picking spells for him - I swapped out Shield for Disguise Self and Toll the Dead for Frostbite - the former because I figured I should take advantage of my level 3 option to pick a non Evocation/Abjuration spell and the latter because I figured I should make use of the disadvantage effect on Frostbite instead of going for pure damage with Toll the Dead - that's what my warhammer is for.)
Anyway, the plan is that the DM for our one-shot will start running a true campaign at our apartment (likely Dragon Heist/Dungeon of the Mad Mage) and naturally that puts me in the position of wanting to roll a new character.
So here are the ideas I've had:
1. More EK!
Eldritch Knight is an archetype I've wanted to play for a long time, and I might want more than one session with it. The difference, I think, would be that I'd want to play a Warforged - likely cloaking how a Warforged got to the Forgotten Realms in some fun character-background mystery.
2. Drunken Master/Shadow Monk
I think Drunken Master has a lot of potential to be a fun character personality to play - I actually think that he'd secretly be something of a teetotler, using a Tankard of Sobriety to make it look like he was getting drunk. It's mainly a question of whether I can do a Xanathar subclass with a non-PHB race. I'd want to play either an Air Genasi or maybe a Githzerai. Alternatively, I could imagine going Shadow with either a Wood Elf or Shadar-Kai. That character would probably be more serious.
3. Shadow/Divine Soul Sorcerer
The problem with the Monk is that it doesn't do spells (well, maybe a little as Shadow.) I think a Sorcerer could be pretty fun. The big question again is race options. I could maybe go Half Elf, but I think I'd prefer to go with either a good-aligned Aasimar Divine Soul sorcerer with an evil-aligned divine source or I could essentially play the enchantment-focused Half Elf Shadow sorcerer that I'd want to play in a Ravnica game (can you guess which guild?)
I think those are my primary ideas: I do like the idea of playing, say, a Wizard or a Paladin, but I might save those concepts for later.
Anyway, the plan is that the DM for our one-shot will start running a true campaign at our apartment (likely Dragon Heist/Dungeon of the Mad Mage) and naturally that puts me in the position of wanting to roll a new character.
So here are the ideas I've had:
1. More EK!
Eldritch Knight is an archetype I've wanted to play for a long time, and I might want more than one session with it. The difference, I think, would be that I'd want to play a Warforged - likely cloaking how a Warforged got to the Forgotten Realms in some fun character-background mystery.
2. Drunken Master/Shadow Monk
I think Drunken Master has a lot of potential to be a fun character personality to play - I actually think that he'd secretly be something of a teetotler, using a Tankard of Sobriety to make it look like he was getting drunk. It's mainly a question of whether I can do a Xanathar subclass with a non-PHB race. I'd want to play either an Air Genasi or maybe a Githzerai. Alternatively, I could imagine going Shadow with either a Wood Elf or Shadar-Kai. That character would probably be more serious.
3. Shadow/Divine Soul Sorcerer
The problem with the Monk is that it doesn't do spells (well, maybe a little as Shadow.) I think a Sorcerer could be pretty fun. The big question again is race options. I could maybe go Half Elf, but I think I'd prefer to go with either a good-aligned Aasimar Divine Soul sorcerer with an evil-aligned divine source or I could essentially play the enchantment-focused Half Elf Shadow sorcerer that I'd want to play in a Ravnica game (can you guess which guild?)
I think those are my primary ideas: I do like the idea of playing, say, a Wizard or a Paladin, but I might save those concepts for later.
Friday, January 11, 2019
Super Mario Odyssey
After experimenting with a return to more linear "get to the end of the level" design in Mario 3D Land for the Wii U, Mario Odyssey goes back to the established 3D Mario design of having you track down items held by bosses or hidden in puzzles.
Odyssey is a very fun game, and one that is filled with charm. Attempting to stop a wedding that Bowser has planned for himself and Peach (of course against her will - there's kidnapping involved, as always,) Mario finds himself stranded in the Hat Kingdom and befriends a hat-spirit-creature named Cappy who becomes the main mechanical conceit of the game - you can toss your hat at various creatures in order to inhabit them and use their abilities - something that recalls, of all things, the now-obscure Space Station Silicon Valley for the N64.
With a hat-shaped ship provided by the Hat Kingdom, you travel the world to various different Kingdoms that each have their own inhabitants, ranging from friendly Mexican skeleton people to tree-growing robots to realistically-proportioned humans who all wear suits and hats.
Along the way you collect Power Moons to allow your ship access to the next Kingdom. Each of these Kingdoms has a "main story" that you can play through first to get a good number of moons (often getting three-moon clusters that also look weirdly like bunches of bananas) but along these paths and after finishing these stories you'll have plenty of stuff to find.
Coins, oddly enough for a Mario game, actually function as a currency. You'll be taxed a very modest 10 coins if you die (I think you'd have to actively avoid coins to run out of them, as it's pretty easy to get into the thousands) but otherwise you can spend them in the shops in each kingdom for various costumes and stuff you can decorate your ship with.
Each Kingdom (with one or two exceptions) also has its own currency that is finite and can be used to purchase a limited number of local items including costumes, travel stickers (like the ones you'd find on an old-timey suitcase, only these go on your hat-airship) and other cosmetic rewards.
It's a great entry in the series and feels inventive and charming in a way we haven't seen since the first Mario Galaxy game.
I also want to take a moment to talk about my favorite area in the game: the Metro Kingdom. Here, in its capital of New Donk City, Mario gets to return to the place he bested Donkey Kong and rescued Pauline, who is now mayor of the city. And she is also a singer in a band! Granted, when I was a kid Mario was from Brooklyn and Donkey Kong was set in New York, but... New Donk City is a very Nintendo-ized New York City. Every car on the street is a yellow taxi that looks like it's from the mid 80s, and everyone there dresses like it's the 1940s. One would think its inhabitants, being realistically-proportioned humans speaking some strange nonsense (the exception being Pauline, who is cartoonish like Peach and who actually speaks, and most notably sings in English,) would be off-putting, but the place is actually very charming (the music, exuberant as any Mario music tends to be, helps.) There is a kind of innocent urban aesthetic the feels like something from my childhood that this seems to embody.
Anyway, this a great core-franchise Mario entry for this console generation and definitely recommended to anyone who likes the classic Nintendo offerings.
Odyssey is a very fun game, and one that is filled with charm. Attempting to stop a wedding that Bowser has planned for himself and Peach (of course against her will - there's kidnapping involved, as always,) Mario finds himself stranded in the Hat Kingdom and befriends a hat-spirit-creature named Cappy who becomes the main mechanical conceit of the game - you can toss your hat at various creatures in order to inhabit them and use their abilities - something that recalls, of all things, the now-obscure Space Station Silicon Valley for the N64.
With a hat-shaped ship provided by the Hat Kingdom, you travel the world to various different Kingdoms that each have their own inhabitants, ranging from friendly Mexican skeleton people to tree-growing robots to realistically-proportioned humans who all wear suits and hats.
Along the way you collect Power Moons to allow your ship access to the next Kingdom. Each of these Kingdoms has a "main story" that you can play through first to get a good number of moons (often getting three-moon clusters that also look weirdly like bunches of bananas) but along these paths and after finishing these stories you'll have plenty of stuff to find.
Coins, oddly enough for a Mario game, actually function as a currency. You'll be taxed a very modest 10 coins if you die (I think you'd have to actively avoid coins to run out of them, as it's pretty easy to get into the thousands) but otherwise you can spend them in the shops in each kingdom for various costumes and stuff you can decorate your ship with.
Each Kingdom (with one or two exceptions) also has its own currency that is finite and can be used to purchase a limited number of local items including costumes, travel stickers (like the ones you'd find on an old-timey suitcase, only these go on your hat-airship) and other cosmetic rewards.
It's a great entry in the series and feels inventive and charming in a way we haven't seen since the first Mario Galaxy game.
I also want to take a moment to talk about my favorite area in the game: the Metro Kingdom. Here, in its capital of New Donk City, Mario gets to return to the place he bested Donkey Kong and rescued Pauline, who is now mayor of the city. And she is also a singer in a band! Granted, when I was a kid Mario was from Brooklyn and Donkey Kong was set in New York, but... New Donk City is a very Nintendo-ized New York City. Every car on the street is a yellow taxi that looks like it's from the mid 80s, and everyone there dresses like it's the 1940s. One would think its inhabitants, being realistically-proportioned humans speaking some strange nonsense (the exception being Pauline, who is cartoonish like Peach and who actually speaks, and most notably sings in English,) would be off-putting, but the place is actually very charming (the music, exuberant as any Mario music tends to be, helps.) There is a kind of innocent urban aesthetic the feels like something from my childhood that this seems to embody.
Anyway, this a great core-franchise Mario entry for this console generation and definitely recommended to anyone who likes the classic Nintendo offerings.
Smash Bros. Ultimate
It's funny to think that 20 years ago (holy crap I am old) the original Super Smash Bros. was a kind of low-budget, experimental game. Two years later, on a new console and with graphics that were about a million times better, the first sequel, Smash Bros. Melee, really cemented the series as an every-generation mainstay of Nintendo's brand.
Since then, we've had Brawl, the split "for Wii U" and "for 3DS" entry, and now, Smash 5 or 6 depending on how you count the previous two wisely went with the very accurate "Ultimate" as its subtitle.
The premise this time around: Everything. Every single fighter they've ever had is in this, and possibly every stage (though I feel like there's a Metroid one from the last entry I don't see.) Even the N64 ones are there (ooh! Not the Starfox one, though that would be pretty redundant with the Starfox one from Melee.)
But every fighter is back. There has been a bit of shuffling: Charizard is now once again simply one third of the options the Pokemon Trainer uses and they've made Zelda and Shiek as well as Samus and Zero Suit Samus into separate fighters (a change that came last time, I believe.)
They've included all of Wii U's DLC fighters (including Cloud, one of my favorites - who ironically made his Nintendo debut with that game) as well as adding a few more. My best friend always felt it was a huge oversight that we never got Simon Belmont in there, and well, guess what? Also, we've wanted Ridley ever since seeing the cinematic intro for Melee. Now he's there. Also, King K. Rool!
Ultimate doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it has definitely polished things to a bright sheen. The fact that there are over 70 fighters (and more coming with DLC!) means that, yes, you'll have to search through piles of Fire Emblem heroes you've never heard of when selecting your fighter (one of them is voiced by Matthew Mercer, though, so that's fun!) but the main philosophy of this entry in the series (and I think the franchise itself) is "the more the merrier," and it works quite nicely that way.
Like Brawl, Ultimate's adventure mode is ludicrous, and like 4's Smash Tour, it introduces a ton of new mechanics. But thankfully, they've streamlined unlocking fighters. You begin with only the first 8 fighters you started with in the original game (not even the four unlockable ones) and as you play, every ten minutes a new fighter will challenge you (waiting for you to finish whatever mode you're in the middle of.) The only downside is that you might feel hesitant to try out fighters you're less comfortable with in case you get a challenge after that match. If you fail one of these challenges, you'll actually be able to get rematches in the Games and More menu (there's a little symbol of a... gate, I think?) though losing a rematch will require you to play a bit more before that fighter pops up again. I think Cloud took me three tries to get.
One cool thing is that Classic Mode now has a set of fights built around a theme for each individual fighter. For example, Samus is sent after various space-based characters. Some characters will face alternate final bosses instead of Master Hand or Crazy Hand: for example, Link fights Ganon (not just Ganondorf, but fully-powered evil pig-god Ganon.)
Another feature I really like is that you can set up your Smashes (standard fights) to have "Stage Morph," where periodically the stage shifts between two selected arenas. Also, if you want a Final Destination or Battlefield-level simple stage but want more visual variety, all stages now have those modes.
And naturally, along with new fighters we have new stages and music. There's a Gerudo Valley stage with an awesome flamenco guitar version of the Gerudo Valley theme.
If you're a fan of the franchise, you'll want this version. It's got essentially everything you liked from previous games and more. And it's on the Switch, so you can take it with you!
Since then, we've had Brawl, the split "for Wii U" and "for 3DS" entry, and now, Smash 5 or 6 depending on how you count the previous two wisely went with the very accurate "Ultimate" as its subtitle.
The premise this time around: Everything. Every single fighter they've ever had is in this, and possibly every stage (though I feel like there's a Metroid one from the last entry I don't see.) Even the N64 ones are there (ooh! Not the Starfox one, though that would be pretty redundant with the Starfox one from Melee.)
But every fighter is back. There has been a bit of shuffling: Charizard is now once again simply one third of the options the Pokemon Trainer uses and they've made Zelda and Shiek as well as Samus and Zero Suit Samus into separate fighters (a change that came last time, I believe.)
They've included all of Wii U's DLC fighters (including Cloud, one of my favorites - who ironically made his Nintendo debut with that game) as well as adding a few more. My best friend always felt it was a huge oversight that we never got Simon Belmont in there, and well, guess what? Also, we've wanted Ridley ever since seeing the cinematic intro for Melee. Now he's there. Also, King K. Rool!
Ultimate doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it has definitely polished things to a bright sheen. The fact that there are over 70 fighters (and more coming with DLC!) means that, yes, you'll have to search through piles of Fire Emblem heroes you've never heard of when selecting your fighter (one of them is voiced by Matthew Mercer, though, so that's fun!) but the main philosophy of this entry in the series (and I think the franchise itself) is "the more the merrier," and it works quite nicely that way.
Like Brawl, Ultimate's adventure mode is ludicrous, and like 4's Smash Tour, it introduces a ton of new mechanics. But thankfully, they've streamlined unlocking fighters. You begin with only the first 8 fighters you started with in the original game (not even the four unlockable ones) and as you play, every ten minutes a new fighter will challenge you (waiting for you to finish whatever mode you're in the middle of.) The only downside is that you might feel hesitant to try out fighters you're less comfortable with in case you get a challenge after that match. If you fail one of these challenges, you'll actually be able to get rematches in the Games and More menu (there's a little symbol of a... gate, I think?) though losing a rematch will require you to play a bit more before that fighter pops up again. I think Cloud took me three tries to get.
One cool thing is that Classic Mode now has a set of fights built around a theme for each individual fighter. For example, Samus is sent after various space-based characters. Some characters will face alternate final bosses instead of Master Hand or Crazy Hand: for example, Link fights Ganon (not just Ganondorf, but fully-powered evil pig-god Ganon.)
Another feature I really like is that you can set up your Smashes (standard fights) to have "Stage Morph," where periodically the stage shifts between two selected arenas. Also, if you want a Final Destination or Battlefield-level simple stage but want more visual variety, all stages now have those modes.
And naturally, along with new fighters we have new stages and music. There's a Gerudo Valley stage with an awesome flamenco guitar version of the Gerudo Valley theme.
If you're a fan of the franchise, you'll want this version. It's got essentially everything you liked from previous games and more. And it's on the Switch, so you can take it with you!
Switching it Up!
Right! So for Xmas, and for the first time in my 32-year-old life I actually got a video game console as a gift (to be fair, the chores I did to save money for the SNES and N64 were rather generously rewarded.) I now own a Nintendo Switch.
So far I have two games for it - Smash Bros. Ultimate (obviously) which I downloaded because A: I didn't want to try to find an open store on Christmas and B: I figure that's the game I'm going to go back to the most.
The other, which I got a week or so later, is Super Mario Odyssey.
I think I'll do separate posts for them, but both have been great.
The console itself is a really clever system. Until I got back to LA I was using it basically as a mobile device, unlocking Smash Bros. 70-some-odd fighters at an embarassingly fast rate.
Sitting in its dock, the Switch simply becomes a standard console to hook up to a TV. I got a second controller for Smash Bros. purposes, this one a wired one that is almost identical to the Gamecube controller. As such, by leaving the Switch's Joy-Cons attached, it allows me to take the Switch out very easily and use it in its mobile function.
It feels a little funny that we've circled back around to cartridges, but the funniest part is that Switch cartridges are basically just SD cards - they're tiny, so I'd still recommend you keep the game cases to store them. Of course, with one downloaded title and one cartridge, I simply leave Mario Odyssey in there at all times.
My one complaint so far is that the power cord is rather short, which is tough given that we have a rather tall TV console and the only reasonable place for the Switch is on top (in front of the Wii U gamepad.)
The Joy-Cons can be configured in a number of ways - when taking the console with you, they can simple stick to the sides. Alternatively, you get a little more ergonomic grip that will hold them in more of a standard controller configuration. You can also just hold them separately, and there are sliders to put on their flat edges that include wrist straps and sort of "button extenders" to allow you to hit the buttons on the inside of those edges.
The main purpose of those buttons is to serve as shoulder buttons if you wish to use each Joy-Con as its own SNES-style controller. You can thus play multiplayer games like Smash Bros. even if you don't have any extra controllers, though the ergonomics of this configuration leave something to be desired.
Obviously any console lives on its library. So far I think one of the Switch's strengths is its ability to give existing games mobile flexibility, but I don't feel the need to buy Dark Souls again or Skyrim a third time (a couple years ago the "deluxe edition" was cheaper than buying the DLC separately.)
Given that I also got Breath of the Wild for the Wii U, I am unlikely to get one of the Switch's flagship titles (I hope no one throws rocks at me for this, but to be totally honest I wasn't crazy about BotW - I like a little more structure and also would have liked more enemy and environmental variety.
Anyway: the Switch is clearly doing many of the things they wanted for the Wii U. I hope we see some really classic games come out for it. I'll have to talk about the ones I have just after this post.
So far I have two games for it - Smash Bros. Ultimate (obviously) which I downloaded because A: I didn't want to try to find an open store on Christmas and B: I figure that's the game I'm going to go back to the most.
The other, which I got a week or so later, is Super Mario Odyssey.
I think I'll do separate posts for them, but both have been great.
The console itself is a really clever system. Until I got back to LA I was using it basically as a mobile device, unlocking Smash Bros. 70-some-odd fighters at an embarassingly fast rate.
Sitting in its dock, the Switch simply becomes a standard console to hook up to a TV. I got a second controller for Smash Bros. purposes, this one a wired one that is almost identical to the Gamecube controller. As such, by leaving the Switch's Joy-Cons attached, it allows me to take the Switch out very easily and use it in its mobile function.
It feels a little funny that we've circled back around to cartridges, but the funniest part is that Switch cartridges are basically just SD cards - they're tiny, so I'd still recommend you keep the game cases to store them. Of course, with one downloaded title and one cartridge, I simply leave Mario Odyssey in there at all times.
My one complaint so far is that the power cord is rather short, which is tough given that we have a rather tall TV console and the only reasonable place for the Switch is on top (in front of the Wii U gamepad.)
The Joy-Cons can be configured in a number of ways - when taking the console with you, they can simple stick to the sides. Alternatively, you get a little more ergonomic grip that will hold them in more of a standard controller configuration. You can also just hold them separately, and there are sliders to put on their flat edges that include wrist straps and sort of "button extenders" to allow you to hit the buttons on the inside of those edges.
The main purpose of those buttons is to serve as shoulder buttons if you wish to use each Joy-Con as its own SNES-style controller. You can thus play multiplayer games like Smash Bros. even if you don't have any extra controllers, though the ergonomics of this configuration leave something to be desired.
Obviously any console lives on its library. So far I think one of the Switch's strengths is its ability to give existing games mobile flexibility, but I don't feel the need to buy Dark Souls again or Skyrim a third time (a couple years ago the "deluxe edition" was cheaper than buying the DLC separately.)
Given that I also got Breath of the Wild for the Wii U, I am unlikely to get one of the Switch's flagship titles (I hope no one throws rocks at me for this, but to be totally honest I wasn't crazy about BotW - I like a little more structure and also would have liked more enemy and environmental variety.
Anyway: the Switch is clearly doing many of the things they wanted for the Wii U. I hope we see some really classic games come out for it. I'll have to talk about the ones I have just after this post.
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
Vampires as a Playable Race in Ravnica
While I don't have any concrete plans for my Ravnica campaign (though I have a rough plot figured out) I have been very excited to run a D&D game in my favorite Magic plane.
Officially, Ravnica has eight playable races: Humans, Elves, Half Elves, Goblins, Vedalken, Loxodons, Minotaurs, and Simic Hybrids. But while those cover a lot of bases, there are a few I felt were somewhat glaring in their absence.
Merfolk and Viashino are easy enough to add: simply use Tritons and Lizardfolk respectively from Volo's Guide to Monsters. The one that I felt compelled to add, however, is Vampires.
Magic has treated Vampires as both pure scary monsters and also as one of Black's standard humanoid races (when they get tired of zombies.)
Given Ravnica's vaguely Central/Eastern European theme and the historical role they've played in the world (particularly House Dimir's Parun, the vampire Szadek) it seems fitting to let people play as vampires.
Taking the playable vampire race from Plane Shift: Ixalan as the main model, I've altered the race to allow for two sub-races and changed up the stats slightly.
As is pointed out in the Guildmaster's Guide, Ravnica vampires are different than others in that they can safely go out into the sun - not a vampire would want for shadows in an urban landscape like Ravnica. One question I have is whether to make playable vampire characters undead or allow them to be kind of "lesser vampires" who aren't fully undead yet.
The main bit of invention on my part is the Mind-Drinker's Mind Drain and Memory Thief abilities. The former is mainly just a re-skin of the Bloodthirst ability Blood-Drinkers have, but I wonder if Memory Thief is too powerful or not powerful enough.
Officially, Ravnica has eight playable races: Humans, Elves, Half Elves, Goblins, Vedalken, Loxodons, Minotaurs, and Simic Hybrids. But while those cover a lot of bases, there are a few I felt were somewhat glaring in their absence.
Merfolk and Viashino are easy enough to add: simply use Tritons and Lizardfolk respectively from Volo's Guide to Monsters. The one that I felt compelled to add, however, is Vampires.
Magic has treated Vampires as both pure scary monsters and also as one of Black's standard humanoid races (when they get tired of zombies.)
Given Ravnica's vaguely Central/Eastern European theme and the historical role they've played in the world (particularly House Dimir's Parun, the vampire Szadek) it seems fitting to let people play as vampires.
Taking the playable vampire race from Plane Shift: Ixalan as the main model, I've altered the race to allow for two sub-races and changed up the stats slightly.
As is pointed out in the Guildmaster's Guide, Ravnica vampires are different than others in that they can safely go out into the sun - not a vampire would want for shadows in an urban landscape like Ravnica. One question I have is whether to make playable vampire characters undead or allow them to be kind of "lesser vampires" who aren't fully undead yet.
The main bit of invention on my part is the Mind-Drinker's Mind Drain and Memory Thief abilities. The former is mainly just a re-skin of the Bloodthirst ability Blood-Drinkers have, but I wonder if Memory Thief is too powerful or not powerful enough.
Vampire Stats:
Ability Score Increase. Your Charisma score increases by 2.
Age. Vampires don’t mature and age in the same way that other races do.
Alignment. Vampires might not have an innate tendency toward evil, but their
thirst to feed upon others often encourages vampires to abandon moral
forbearance.
Size. Vampires are the same size and build as humans. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
Darkvision. Your nature as a creature of the night grants you superior vision in
dark and dim conditions. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if
it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t
discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Vampiric Resistance. You have resistance to necrotic damage.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common and Vampire.
Subrace: When you
create a vampire character, choose a subrace, between Blood-Drinker and
Mind-Drinker.
Blood-Drinker
Vampires:
By far the most
common form of vampire, Blood-Drinkers can subsist on the blood of living
creatures, including humanoids. Blood-Drinkers are linked together through
Bloodline families.
Ability Score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Bloodthirst. You can drain blood and life energy from a
willing creature, or one that is grappled by you, incapacitated, or restrained.
Make a melee attack against the target. If you hit, you deal 1 piercing damage
and 1d6 necrotic damage. The target’s hit point maximum is reduced by an amount
equal to the necrotic damage taken, and you regain hit points equal to that
amount. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target
dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0.
Feast of Blood. When you drain blood with your Bloodthirst
ability, you experience a surge of vitality. Your speed increases by 10 feet,
and you gain advantage on Strength and Dexterity checks and saving throws for 1
minute.
Mind-Drinker Vampires:
Far less common than
blood-drinkers, Mind-Drinker vampires are generally more solitary and secretive
than their blood-drinking kin. Nearly all mind-drinkers serve as operatives of
House Dimir, but some choose to ignore the guild’s dictates and either keep to
themselves or in very rare instances, join other guilds (there are rumors of a
few mind-drinkers working for the Azorius to aid in interrogating criminal
suspects.)
Ability Score Increase: Your Wisdom score increases by 1.
Mind Drain: You can drain thoughts and life energy from a
willing creature or one that is grappled by you, incapacitated, or restrained
within 15 feet. You can use an action to force the target to make a DC 15
Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, the target takes 1d6 psychic damage and you
become aware of the target’s surface-level thoughts. The target’s hit point
maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the psychic damage taken, and you
regain hit points equal to that amount. The reduction lasts until the target
finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point
maximum to 0.
Memory Thief: When you use your Mind Drain ability on a
creature, you can attempt to force them to recall a specific piece of
information or memory, allowing you to peer into more guarded thoughts. Make a
Charisma check contested with a Wisdom check from them. If you succeed, that
memory or thought is revealed to you.
Once
you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you finish a short or long
rest.
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