After about four months, I got to go behind the DM screen once again last night. My party is in between larger adventures - one took over a year, and the upcoming one will probably be a substantial amount of time to complete.
But for now, I'm doing 1-2-session adventures to give the party some variety.
The party was introduced to the Tourachian Priests of Tarrensar, an organization that they didn't really read into much before taking a job for them. The Tourachians (which are a shameless MtG reference) worship Tarrensar, the God of Destruction, who has yet to be born - he's in an embryonic stage. But when he is born, he will march across the cosmos and destroy all things (at least that's what his worshippers believe.) But because he is not set to do so for millions if not billions of years, the priests work to preserve the world so that their god will not be denied his feast.
As such, it's an organization of Chaotic Evil demon cultists who nevertheless wind up coming back around to heroism.
So the Tourachian representative who hired them sent them after a group of heretics - former Tourachians who have attempted to escape their obligations to Tarrensar by serving a different demon lord called Kegari.
The party tracked them down to a drow village in the undead-infested swamps of Greenmarch, where they found the domicile the heretics had stayed in, and where the first combat encounter of the adventure would take place.
The domicile was essentially a three-bedroom house build into the caverns of the village - in my setting, most drow aren't evil, but suffer from racism. They prefer to live underground, and their villages are generally one above-ground building that leads to a cavern where most of the people actually live.
Inside, the cultists had sacrificed a bunch of tieflings (who also suffer from racism in this setting) in order to commune with Kegari and summoned a trio of Bulezau demons to guard the domicile while they were away.
The Bulezau have an aura that deals necrotic damage to anyone who fails a Con save if they're nearby - so when the Wizard in the party turned his familiar into a spider, the aura killed it before it could spy them.
However, the big challenge in this fight was that the domicile was desecrated. The Hallow spell, used by Clerics and Paladins, can consecrate or desecrate an area, and bending the rules a bit, I made it so that anyone entering would need to make a Charisma save or be silenced while inside (the effect was limited to the area of the desecration, but it would last a day, so they couldn't just exit and re-enter to until they succeeded.
The players present represented a Paladin, Rogue, Wizard, and Druid. Only the Paladin succeeded. Now, you want to know how many spells require verbal components? Practically all of them.
I was really excited to see the solutions that they came up with. Largely it involved casting spells outside of the house that would continue to work once they went in. The Druid used Conjure Animals to summon a bunch of Giant Owls, and just let them do the fighting for her (as large creatures in a rather cramped area, I had to make some limits on how many could attack a given target.) The Wizard eventually polymorphed himself into a Giant Scorpion, and managed to get the killing blow on the last demon with his pincers.
Finding a map and a journal, the party realized that they'd find the heretics at a tower in the marshes called Folsom's Folly. When they arrived, they realized that, much like most of Greenmarch (which is dotted with ancient towers,) the small island on which the tower stood was totally covered with skeletons. I had twelve regular skeletons and four minotaur skeletons. Additionally, the soggy ground was difficult terrain - but only for heavy, flesh-encumbered beings - the skeletons could move freely.
To be fair, I actually expected them to just rush this one - they're level 8 and skeletons aren't a huge challenge. But they played it smart - the Druid, being an Air Genasi, could cast Levitate on herself, and the Rogue has winged boots, so he pushed her along. Meanwhile, the Wizard cast Dimension Door to take himself and the Paladin to the top of the tower. The Druid cast Hallucinatory Terrain over the island to make the skeletons (who are not that smart, though the Druid actually has the same intelligence as them) think that there was a cave ceiling above them and not a Wood Elf pushing an Air Genasi through the air.
At the top, they found two of the heretics - a pair of Deathlock Wights. While they didn't manage to totally bypass all the skeletons, the Paladin waited at the top of the tower (there was a door down into it on the roof where the rest of the party hid behind the Druid's Gust of Wind spell) and then used his Turn the Unholy once the skeletons climbed the tower. That cut 18 monsters down to 5 - a much more manageable number.
Most entertainingly to me was that there was one regular skeleton who managed to stab the heavily-armored Paladin and also survive longer than any of the other monsters. Either the Wizard or Druid (they both have the spell) cast Ice Knife at him and not only did they miss him, but he made the saving throw while the other monsters got hit. He was one of those randomly badass mooks, like that one guy in Raiders of the Lost Ark who climbs into the cabin after Indy takes over the truck and then throws him through the windshield. I mean, he's evil and he does eventually get killed (the skeleton died to the Druid's Shillelagh) but you've got to respect him.
Anyway, I was really happy with how it turned out, as we had every party member forced to come up with clever solutions to the problems that went beyond simple combat. So great to get back to DMing and have such a good session.
The party is now getting ready to descend into the tower, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they decide to do when they get to the bottom.
Thursday, February 28, 2019
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
A Return to Dark Souls III
Like the original game, I never beat Dark Souls 3, though I got farther in it that I ever did in the first one, with only Lothric, the Nameless King, and Soul of Cinder left in the main game (I didn't beat any of the DLC bosses, though I don't think I get access to the Ringed City until I have all the Lords of Cinder down, and there's very few bosses in Ashes of Ariandel.
I rolled up a Pyromancer, and I've found that having some ranged spells has made a few things easier. I two-shot Iudex Gundyr and one-shot Vordt (though if I recall correctly, I might have one-shot Vordt the first time. After the gauntlet that is the High Wall of Lothric, Vordt's a pretty darn easy boss.)
My main character through the game was Dexterity-based, and I figure it will be fun to have some spells at my disposal. I figure as a Pyromancer I can easily dip into either Miracles or Sorceries, given that Pyromancy scales with both Faith and Intelligence.
Anyway, I kind of raced through the High Wall section and am now mopping it up, gathering items I missed. It seems to me that Souls games tend to have a kind of brutal gatekeeping section at the start - the Upper Undead Burgh in the original, Central Yharnam in Bloodborne, and High Wall in this one.
I've been dumping most of my souls into health, figuring that with a Deep Battle Axe (the one you can get from a Mimic in the High Wall) doesn't scale, so for now I have a pretty decent weapon and can focus on survival until I'm ready to really pump up a stat. I need to figure out what weapons scale with Faith or Intelligence and pick one of those.
We'll see how well this run goes, and whether I'll want to switch back to my original character and try to finish the game properly. I've killed Orphan of Kos on two characters, and there's one that's really close, so I guess I'm better at Bloodborne.
I rolled up a Pyromancer, and I've found that having some ranged spells has made a few things easier. I two-shot Iudex Gundyr and one-shot Vordt (though if I recall correctly, I might have one-shot Vordt the first time. After the gauntlet that is the High Wall of Lothric, Vordt's a pretty darn easy boss.)
My main character through the game was Dexterity-based, and I figure it will be fun to have some spells at my disposal. I figure as a Pyromancer I can easily dip into either Miracles or Sorceries, given that Pyromancy scales with both Faith and Intelligence.
Anyway, I kind of raced through the High Wall section and am now mopping it up, gathering items I missed. It seems to me that Souls games tend to have a kind of brutal gatekeeping section at the start - the Upper Undead Burgh in the original, Central Yharnam in Bloodborne, and High Wall in this one.
I've been dumping most of my souls into health, figuring that with a Deep Battle Axe (the one you can get from a Mimic in the High Wall) doesn't scale, so for now I have a pretty decent weapon and can focus on survival until I'm ready to really pump up a stat. I need to figure out what weapons scale with Faith or Intelligence and pick one of those.
We'll see how well this run goes, and whether I'll want to switch back to my original character and try to finish the game properly. I've killed Orphan of Kos on two characters, and there's one that's really close, so I guess I'm better at Bloodborne.
Monday, February 25, 2019
D&D Going Nautical with the Ghosts of Saltmarsh
D&D's newest 5th Edition book has been announced: Ghosts of Saltmarsh.
Like Tales of the Yawning Portal, Ghosts of Saltmarsh will be an adventure anthology, with content that ranges from level 1 to 12. While TotYP was focused on old-school dungeon crawls, Ghosts of Saltmarsh's unifying theme is naval adventures. In addition to the adventures themselves, the book will have new rules about ships and boats, naval combat, and underwater mechanics.
My understanding is that the mechanical portion of the book will be fairly large (and apply to the other adventures.) If you want to have a pirate-themed (or otherwise nautical) campaign, this might be a good purchase for you.
Also of note: Saltmarsh is a part of the Greyhawk setting, one of the older worlds of Dungeons and Dragons. While they have designed this book to allow you to drop Saltmarsh into just about any other D&D world, it's nice to get some more non-Forgotten Realms content.
I believe this book is due to arrive in May, with a special, limited edition cover available only in game stores.
I've been a bit of a collecting fiend for D&D 5e books - I think the only ones I don't have are the Rise of Tiamat, Hoard of the Dragon Queen, and Dungeon of the Mad Mage.
I'll confess that the adventure books, while intriguing, are somewhat less exciting to me - I have a homebrew setting and one of my favorite things as a DM is to come up with adventures, so while these books can inspire me, I get inspiration from a lot of different areas (my last big adventure was inspired by Stephen King's Dark Tower and Zelda: A Link to the Past.) Books like Volo's, Mordenkainen's, and Xanathar's are endlessly useful to me, though. I also really enjoyed Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica and would love to run a Ravnica campaign at some point.
So I'm hoping the naval rules are both interesting and a big chunk of the book. I'm also curious to see what other books we might get this year. The Waterdeep duology only came out a couple months ago, and we will presumably be getting some book in the fall. Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica was a great tool to introduce the setting to D&D, and I'd like to see either some classic settings like Dark Sun, Spelljammer, Planescape, or Ravenloft-beyond-Barovia, or perhaps some brand-new setting introduced in a similar book.
I'm also, as the name of the blog implies, an altoholic, and while I've only been able to play a grand total of two characters (ok, technically three if you count a one-shot Triton Paladin I rolled up because my friend's work group only had three people show up one night) I love conceiving of characters to play, and Xanathar's gave me a ton of ideas. So a "Player's Handbook 3" style book would be cool (yes, I grant that Xanathar's is more like a PHB/DMG 2.)
I also enjoyed Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes a lot, though I'd love to see the less obvious villains get some stat blocks. I mean, Demons and Devils are easy - how about some more Inevitables or non-Slaad Chaotic Neutral creatures? Also, while they're planes of goodness, it'd be cool to get more details on the upper planes and the ultimately benevolent but still potentially dangerous denizens thereof (this could be a good mix with a Planescape book.)
Like Tales of the Yawning Portal, Ghosts of Saltmarsh will be an adventure anthology, with content that ranges from level 1 to 12. While TotYP was focused on old-school dungeon crawls, Ghosts of Saltmarsh's unifying theme is naval adventures. In addition to the adventures themselves, the book will have new rules about ships and boats, naval combat, and underwater mechanics.
My understanding is that the mechanical portion of the book will be fairly large (and apply to the other adventures.) If you want to have a pirate-themed (or otherwise nautical) campaign, this might be a good purchase for you.
Also of note: Saltmarsh is a part of the Greyhawk setting, one of the older worlds of Dungeons and Dragons. While they have designed this book to allow you to drop Saltmarsh into just about any other D&D world, it's nice to get some more non-Forgotten Realms content.
I believe this book is due to arrive in May, with a special, limited edition cover available only in game stores.
I've been a bit of a collecting fiend for D&D 5e books - I think the only ones I don't have are the Rise of Tiamat, Hoard of the Dragon Queen, and Dungeon of the Mad Mage.
I'll confess that the adventure books, while intriguing, are somewhat less exciting to me - I have a homebrew setting and one of my favorite things as a DM is to come up with adventures, so while these books can inspire me, I get inspiration from a lot of different areas (my last big adventure was inspired by Stephen King's Dark Tower and Zelda: A Link to the Past.) Books like Volo's, Mordenkainen's, and Xanathar's are endlessly useful to me, though. I also really enjoyed Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica and would love to run a Ravnica campaign at some point.
So I'm hoping the naval rules are both interesting and a big chunk of the book. I'm also curious to see what other books we might get this year. The Waterdeep duology only came out a couple months ago, and we will presumably be getting some book in the fall. Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica was a great tool to introduce the setting to D&D, and I'd like to see either some classic settings like Dark Sun, Spelljammer, Planescape, or Ravenloft-beyond-Barovia, or perhaps some brand-new setting introduced in a similar book.
I'm also, as the name of the blog implies, an altoholic, and while I've only been able to play a grand total of two characters (ok, technically three if you count a one-shot Triton Paladin I rolled up because my friend's work group only had three people show up one night) I love conceiving of characters to play, and Xanathar's gave me a ton of ideas. So a "Player's Handbook 3" style book would be cool (yes, I grant that Xanathar's is more like a PHB/DMG 2.)
I also enjoyed Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes a lot, though I'd love to see the less obvious villains get some stat blocks. I mean, Demons and Devils are easy - how about some more Inevitables or non-Slaad Chaotic Neutral creatures? Also, while they're planes of goodness, it'd be cool to get more details on the upper planes and the ultimately benevolent but still potentially dangerous denizens thereof (this could be a good mix with a Planescape book.)
Friday, February 22, 2019
Schools of Magic and Dark Souls Style Storytelling in D&D
In D&D, magic spells come in eight schools of magic: Abjuration, Evocation, Conjuration, Divination, Illusion, Enchantment, Transmutation, and Necromancy. As the folks at Web DM have discussed, there's a lot of overlap between them in both flavor and mechanics. For instance, they point out that one would think that Necromancy would be the magic most closely affiliated with the Shadowfell, given that it's the realm of darkness and death, but that it's actually Illusion that more explicitly draws upon the shadows of that place.
Still, for the most part magic schools are easy to ignore. They're really only important to Wizards, who specialize in certain types of spells, and to Arcane Trickster Rogues and Eldritch Knight Fighters, whose spell choices are generally limited to certain schools of magic.
But it occurs to me that magic schools have the potential to be a subtle storytelling device.
In Dark Souls, there are basically three kinds of magic. Miracles are the sort of Holy magic given to humanity through the Way of White, which was the religion that promoted devotion to Lord Gwyn. Pyromancy was considered dark and dangerous, as it originated with the Witch of Izalith, who, in an attempt to create a substitute for the First Flame, unleashed chaos and demons upon the world. Finally, Sorcery was pioneered by figures like Seath the Scaleless, and is the more intellectual breed of magic.
Dark Souls likes to tell its stories in very subtle ways, and part of the way it does that is by very carefully controlling what kind of spells or abilities an NPC or enemy has access to. Finding that a priestly character is using pyromancies is actually a big deal - suggesting that they are not so pious as they first appear and in fact have some connection to other parts of cosmos.
Good and evil are so ambiguous in the Souls series that the meaning of these spells being used or certain items being held by certain individuals is always going to be kind of open to interpretation.
But it strikes me that, when building a world, you could do some interesting things with spell schools.
For instance, you might establish that in a certain society, only certain types of magic are considered acceptable. Usually Necromancy is the first one banned, but you could have a society in which Divination is considered heretical - maybe a land governed by a strict interpretation of some prophecy. Or you could have some Fey court where the only acceptable magic forms are illusion or enchantment. Maybe the only place you can learn such magic is that fey court, and thus if you find an NPC or enemy who is using such magic, you know they have a connection to that area.
I often find "detective work" in D&D never winds up as satisfying as it seems like it should be. Mysteries either have to be so simple that the party will just stumble into the right solution or you run the risk of having the party get stumped and bored.
But by taking something like spell schools and giving them very clear and distinct meanings, you have the opportunity to be sort of subtle in an unsubtle way - you remind the players regularly of the meanings of these spell schools and then the clues become much clearer.
Still, for the most part magic schools are easy to ignore. They're really only important to Wizards, who specialize in certain types of spells, and to Arcane Trickster Rogues and Eldritch Knight Fighters, whose spell choices are generally limited to certain schools of magic.
But it occurs to me that magic schools have the potential to be a subtle storytelling device.
In Dark Souls, there are basically three kinds of magic. Miracles are the sort of Holy magic given to humanity through the Way of White, which was the religion that promoted devotion to Lord Gwyn. Pyromancy was considered dark and dangerous, as it originated with the Witch of Izalith, who, in an attempt to create a substitute for the First Flame, unleashed chaos and demons upon the world. Finally, Sorcery was pioneered by figures like Seath the Scaleless, and is the more intellectual breed of magic.
Dark Souls likes to tell its stories in very subtle ways, and part of the way it does that is by very carefully controlling what kind of spells or abilities an NPC or enemy has access to. Finding that a priestly character is using pyromancies is actually a big deal - suggesting that they are not so pious as they first appear and in fact have some connection to other parts of cosmos.
Good and evil are so ambiguous in the Souls series that the meaning of these spells being used or certain items being held by certain individuals is always going to be kind of open to interpretation.
But it strikes me that, when building a world, you could do some interesting things with spell schools.
For instance, you might establish that in a certain society, only certain types of magic are considered acceptable. Usually Necromancy is the first one banned, but you could have a society in which Divination is considered heretical - maybe a land governed by a strict interpretation of some prophecy. Or you could have some Fey court where the only acceptable magic forms are illusion or enchantment. Maybe the only place you can learn such magic is that fey court, and thus if you find an NPC or enemy who is using such magic, you know they have a connection to that area.
I often find "detective work" in D&D never winds up as satisfying as it seems like it should be. Mysteries either have to be so simple that the party will just stumble into the right solution or you run the risk of having the party get stumped and bored.
But by taking something like spell schools and giving them very clear and distinct meanings, you have the opportunity to be sort of subtle in an unsubtle way - you remind the players regularly of the meanings of these spell schools and then the clues become much clearer.
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Locations for Expansion Eight
While BFA is only in its first raid tier, and we've got about another year of content releases to go within the Battle for Azeroth cycle, we can also start seriously considering the future of the expansion as well. We don't know where 8.3 will take us, though signs are pointing toward Ny'alotha.
The first couple WoW expansions were largely about filling in the map. While the Eastern Kingdoms had been established as early as the first Warcraft game (though it wasn't until II that we got anything north of Blackrock Mountain,) Outland, Kalimdor, and Northrend were all present in the RTS games. Obviously WoW launched with Kalimdor fully realized, and so the promise of Outland and Northrend seemed very logical.
Other than Pandaria, which really took a questionably (then) canonical race of Panda people and generated an entire interesting continent with its own multitude of humanoid races, most expansions have built on stuff established in prior canon. Kul Tiras was part of Warcraft II, and Zandalar was first referenced in Vanilla. The Broken Isles were part of the Frozen Throne expansion in Warcraft III.
Now, if WoW is to live on indefinitely, they're going to have to do more Pandaria-like invention over time. But on the other hand, something like Zandalar works out quite well - no, it was never mentioned in the RTS games, but consider that WoW came out only a few years after WCIII and will be 15 years old today. Zandalar had plenty of time to intrigue us before we actually went there.
While the plot is important, as are the villains, every expansion needs a place for us to go. Cataclysm is the only expansion that didn't add a new continent, and that's generally seen as one of its biggest problems. A sense of place is important to set the feeling for an expansion.
Where have we not gone? I'm going to talk about a couple of possibilities. It's not an exhaustive list, but I figure these are the ones with the most potential.
The Shadowlands:
The Shadowlands have the potential to expand the cosmic-tier threats that we heroes of Azeroth have to deal with. I always found the distinction between the Burning Legion and the Old Gods to be a really great one for keeping the Warcraft cosmos interesting. One of my problems with the Diablo games is that it always just boils down to some demons (though I loved how Reaper of Souls flipped the script on it - I still would have liked to see something outside of that binary system.) Making Death its own unique and separate force from the Chaos of demons and the darkness of the Void means the opportunity for interesting dynamics - I love when we're forced to team up with one bad guy to fight another.
The Shadowlands do have a bit of the same problem Blizzard had with an Emerald Dream expansion. It's basically an overlay of the existing world. Now, on the other hand, while the Emerald Dream is supposed to be an unspoiled Azeroth without any signs of civilization (which they kind of cheated around in order to make the Thunder Bluff part of Emerald Nightmare more recognizable) it's not clear there are such rules in the Shadowlands. Consider, for example, that the Drust are there now, and we could have plenty of distinct and spooky populations existing within it.
Still, is Blizzard willing to have a whole expansion take place in an extraplanar setting? We'll see. Warlords of Draenor was an alternate universe, but presumably was still a sort of "material plane" setting.
The Dragon Isles:
This to me seems like the safest option. We know that the Dragon Isles exist in the real world, and it would be pretty simple to just make five zones like the Broken Isles, each themed around one of the five dragonflights. There's not obvious villain other than maybe the Infinite Dragonflight - the Black Dragons are coming back, though, and so you could have Wrathion as a central figure.
K'aresh or another Space-Based Adventure:
It's funny that Burning Crusade felt way more Science-Fantasy than Warlords of Draenor despite taking place on different versions of the same world (and same zones in many cases.) It wasn't until the last patch of Legion that we really got that spaceships-and-lasers feel we got in Burning Crusade. While I think it's something to use in moderation - sometimes it's fun to go for more traditional fantasy settings - I think it's a mode that WoW can certainly return to.
On the other hand, I'd prefer, especially if we fight N'zoth at the end of BFA, to let the Void-themed villains fade into the background for a bit before we return to them. Still, playable Ethereals would be a lot of fun.
The Where of Warcraft
We're still several months out from Blizzcon, which is when I expect the next expansion to be unveiled. It could go in a lot of different directions, but my current money (not that I tend to bet actual money) is on a death-themed expansion. Where that will be set remains to be seen. I personally really want to see a Shadowlands-set expansion, but I don't know how comfortable their creative department is with that as an idea.
Given that we've defeated the Burning Legion on Argus, there's really no ceiling to the kinds of stakes we can get into. A bit of restraint is a good thing to make sure we don't get jaded, but I think that by level 130 there's really nothing they can't have us do.
The first couple WoW expansions were largely about filling in the map. While the Eastern Kingdoms had been established as early as the first Warcraft game (though it wasn't until II that we got anything north of Blackrock Mountain,) Outland, Kalimdor, and Northrend were all present in the RTS games. Obviously WoW launched with Kalimdor fully realized, and so the promise of Outland and Northrend seemed very logical.
Other than Pandaria, which really took a questionably (then) canonical race of Panda people and generated an entire interesting continent with its own multitude of humanoid races, most expansions have built on stuff established in prior canon. Kul Tiras was part of Warcraft II, and Zandalar was first referenced in Vanilla. The Broken Isles were part of the Frozen Throne expansion in Warcraft III.
Now, if WoW is to live on indefinitely, they're going to have to do more Pandaria-like invention over time. But on the other hand, something like Zandalar works out quite well - no, it was never mentioned in the RTS games, but consider that WoW came out only a few years after WCIII and will be 15 years old today. Zandalar had plenty of time to intrigue us before we actually went there.
While the plot is important, as are the villains, every expansion needs a place for us to go. Cataclysm is the only expansion that didn't add a new continent, and that's generally seen as one of its biggest problems. A sense of place is important to set the feeling for an expansion.
Where have we not gone? I'm going to talk about a couple of possibilities. It's not an exhaustive list, but I figure these are the ones with the most potential.
The Shadowlands:
The Shadowlands have the potential to expand the cosmic-tier threats that we heroes of Azeroth have to deal with. I always found the distinction between the Burning Legion and the Old Gods to be a really great one for keeping the Warcraft cosmos interesting. One of my problems with the Diablo games is that it always just boils down to some demons (though I loved how Reaper of Souls flipped the script on it - I still would have liked to see something outside of that binary system.) Making Death its own unique and separate force from the Chaos of demons and the darkness of the Void means the opportunity for interesting dynamics - I love when we're forced to team up with one bad guy to fight another.
The Shadowlands do have a bit of the same problem Blizzard had with an Emerald Dream expansion. It's basically an overlay of the existing world. Now, on the other hand, while the Emerald Dream is supposed to be an unspoiled Azeroth without any signs of civilization (which they kind of cheated around in order to make the Thunder Bluff part of Emerald Nightmare more recognizable) it's not clear there are such rules in the Shadowlands. Consider, for example, that the Drust are there now, and we could have plenty of distinct and spooky populations existing within it.
Still, is Blizzard willing to have a whole expansion take place in an extraplanar setting? We'll see. Warlords of Draenor was an alternate universe, but presumably was still a sort of "material plane" setting.
The Dragon Isles:
This to me seems like the safest option. We know that the Dragon Isles exist in the real world, and it would be pretty simple to just make five zones like the Broken Isles, each themed around one of the five dragonflights. There's not obvious villain other than maybe the Infinite Dragonflight - the Black Dragons are coming back, though, and so you could have Wrathion as a central figure.
K'aresh or another Space-Based Adventure:
It's funny that Burning Crusade felt way more Science-Fantasy than Warlords of Draenor despite taking place on different versions of the same world (and same zones in many cases.) It wasn't until the last patch of Legion that we really got that spaceships-and-lasers feel we got in Burning Crusade. While I think it's something to use in moderation - sometimes it's fun to go for more traditional fantasy settings - I think it's a mode that WoW can certainly return to.
On the other hand, I'd prefer, especially if we fight N'zoth at the end of BFA, to let the Void-themed villains fade into the background for a bit before we return to them. Still, playable Ethereals would be a lot of fun.
The Where of Warcraft
We're still several months out from Blizzcon, which is when I expect the next expansion to be unveiled. It could go in a lot of different directions, but my current money (not that I tend to bet actual money) is on a death-themed expansion. Where that will be set remains to be seen. I personally really want to see a Shadowlands-set expansion, but I don't know how comfortable their creative department is with that as an idea.
Given that we've defeated the Burning Legion on Argus, there's really no ceiling to the kinds of stakes we can get into. A bit of restraint is a good thing to make sure we don't get jaded, but I think that by level 130 there's really nothing they can't have us do.
Monday, February 18, 2019
A Very Different Sort of D&D
One of my friends was at OrcCon this weekend (actually, she's still there, as it's a 4-day event.) I went and joined her and her friends yesterday and experienced a taste of what it's like to do D&D modules in a convention setting.
My experience of D&D has previously all been home games. I showed up and had to roll a level 14 version of my level 2 Warlock very quickly in order to have someone to play.
The way it worked was that you'd sign up for modules in different tiers (1-4, 5-9, 10-14, 15-20) and hope you got in with your friends if you weren't quick to sign up.
This was much more mechanically-based D&D. The focus was on combat (and to an extent environmental exploration) and definitely not on RP.
So it's not really the way I like to play the game. But it was an interesting experience.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to play with my friend in the second module I ran, though I thankfully was able to play with her brother and one of her friends I had previously met. But there was no time to establish characters very well - I don't even really know what the races of the other characters were.
While I wouldn't suggest we do it as well, the games I tend to play are more in the Critical Role mode - my group tends not to mind if it's a combat-less session, and we're more focused on the storytelling aspect of the game. My best friend Tim and I have a lot of fun building complex backstory for characters and worlds (he's got his own homebrew setting). Indeed, I've often pitched the idea of D&D as a group improvisational storytelling system - and as a writer with a bunch of actor friends, that's a comfortable mode for us.
My experience of D&D has previously all been home games. I showed up and had to roll a level 14 version of my level 2 Warlock very quickly in order to have someone to play.
The way it worked was that you'd sign up for modules in different tiers (1-4, 5-9, 10-14, 15-20) and hope you got in with your friends if you weren't quick to sign up.
This was much more mechanically-based D&D. The focus was on combat (and to an extent environmental exploration) and definitely not on RP.
So it's not really the way I like to play the game. But it was an interesting experience.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to play with my friend in the second module I ran, though I thankfully was able to play with her brother and one of her friends I had previously met. But there was no time to establish characters very well - I don't even really know what the races of the other characters were.
While I wouldn't suggest we do it as well, the games I tend to play are more in the Critical Role mode - my group tends not to mind if it's a combat-less session, and we're more focused on the storytelling aspect of the game. My best friend Tim and I have a lot of fun building complex backstory for characters and worlds (he's got his own homebrew setting). Indeed, I've often pitched the idea of D&D as a group improvisational storytelling system - and as a writer with a bunch of actor friends, that's a comfortable mode for us.
Friday, February 15, 2019
Charting the Remainder of Battle for Azeroth and What is to Come Next
With the Battle for Dazar'alor now live (I have yet to try it out on LFR - I'm in a bit of a WoW lull these days) we've now had BFA's first major raid.
If we imagine that BFA will have a similar release pattern to Legion, we can expect Uldir to be the equivalent of the Emerald Nightmare, Crucible of Storms the equivalent of Trial of Valor (the order is slightly different, but they're still equivalent,) Dazar'alor is BFA's Nighthold, and then we'll have the Azshara raid as the Tomb of Sargeras equivalent.
So what is to be the Antorus of BFA? I think we can reasonably guess that we have only one more raid and one more major patch to anticipate in this expansion.
While the focus of the expansion has been on Alliance/Horde conflict, the hints we have been receiving throughout have been that N'zoth is most likely to figure prominently by the end.
It is, to be fair, possible that N'zoth will come later, but frankly to me it seems the trajectory of the expansion seems far more likely to have N'zoth as its final raid encounter. I could certainly imagine another Alliance/Horde-themed raid to end the expansion, but given how experimental Dazar'alor was, I doubt they would have had two in the pipeline already.
I'm not putting it at 100% certainty, but I believe that we're going to be transitioning to a heavily Old God-themed remainder to the expansion, starting with the Crucible of Storms.
We already know we're heading to Nazjatar in 8.2, with the raid on Azshara's palace as the capstone of that patch. So where, then, do we go to follow?
It seems to me that Ny'alotha must be the location of N'zoth. Whether it's a Titan facility (unlikely given it's not an Uld-something) or an ancient Black Empire city (I tend to think those are Ahn-something like Ahn'qiraj or Ahn'kahet - while they did at some point declare Ahn'qiraj a Titan facility as well, what we've seen of Black Empire architecture to me suggests that Ahn'qiraj is actually a preserved part of that era of Azeroth's history.)
Ny'alotha could be another zone with a raid inside or perhaps we'll find an Ahn-something city somewhere with a Ny'alotha raid. It seems most likely that N'zoth's prison is beneath the ocean, though with the waters opening up over Nazjatar, who knows?
One suggestion that I think someone at Blizzard Watch made was that we could have a zone in which N'zoth is actually fully visible and ridiculously enormous, and we only get to fight it once we enter the raid zone.
While a fight against the eldritch monstrosities of N'zoth seems like a great final act for the expansion, we have to consider how the other major plots will fit in:
In classic Warcraft fashion, it seems like we could see the Alliance and Horde setting aside their differences in order to fight this larger foe. The real question is how it would be different this time. We don't know exactly how the faction conflict will "resolve" this expansion, but it would feel pretty cheap if we had a Warlords-style lull in hostilities only for them to reignite again an expansion or two from now. The stakes were raised tremendously when Teldrassil and Undercity were destroyed, and that means that a simple truce ain't going to be a very satisfying conclusion to the story.
We also need to see what the Heart of Azeroth ultimately does. Azeroth the Titan is still theoretically dying or on life support. At what point do we imbue her with the power we've collected? Would that need to happen not at the end of this expansion's plot but rather at the beginning of the next one? Mechanically we need to hold on to the Heart of Azeroth until we're ready to move on to bigger and better things, but in theory we're supposed to give her her, you know, blood back once we have enough.
Finally, even if I could see the Zandalari and Kul Tirans finding some semblance of peace (though that's harder post-Dazar'alor, with the Horde side finally having better reason to be angry!) what we've seen of this war has only been escalation. The Alliance can't possibly trust Sylvanas to honor any peace they make with the Horde. To my mind, it feels as if Sylvanas cannot remain Warchief. But I also don't think she's going to die, because that would be played out.
The Death with a capital D stuff we've seen in BFA seems as if it has been hinting toward something massive in the future - likely the next expansion, much as the Old God hints seemed to be foreshadowing this one. I'm going to throw out an idea here that is a little more speculative than the other stuff I've had in this post:
Could the next expansion start with the hunt for Sylvanas Windrunner?
What if Sylvans goes AWOL, abandoning the Horde and evading the Alliance? The two factions might have different motives for finding her, but she is nevertheless Azeroth's most wanted.
WoW expansion tend to begin with some kind of big war - an invading army or devastating atrocity. But wouldn't it be cool if we had one where we initially think we're just tying up loose ends? We figure, ok, war is over and we've saved the world and killed an Old God. All we need to do is find Sylvanas and we can finally take a breather. But then we find out that Sylvanas has gone somewhere where a far greater threat lurks - like the Shadowlands.
The great thing is that Sylvanas isn't the villain here. She's searching for answers and attempting to retain her freedom, but when she sees what is waiting for us on, as Bwonsamdi would put it, "de other side," she realizes that she is going to need our help - the very people who want her dead.
I love the trope of being forced to work with odd bedfellows, and while that often applies any time the Alliance and Horde cooperate, it would be really cool to see Sylvanas - one of the least trustworthy people in the Warcraft cosmos - needing to earn our trust.
If we imagine that BFA will have a similar release pattern to Legion, we can expect Uldir to be the equivalent of the Emerald Nightmare, Crucible of Storms the equivalent of Trial of Valor (the order is slightly different, but they're still equivalent,) Dazar'alor is BFA's Nighthold, and then we'll have the Azshara raid as the Tomb of Sargeras equivalent.
So what is to be the Antorus of BFA? I think we can reasonably guess that we have only one more raid and one more major patch to anticipate in this expansion.
While the focus of the expansion has been on Alliance/Horde conflict, the hints we have been receiving throughout have been that N'zoth is most likely to figure prominently by the end.
It is, to be fair, possible that N'zoth will come later, but frankly to me it seems the trajectory of the expansion seems far more likely to have N'zoth as its final raid encounter. I could certainly imagine another Alliance/Horde-themed raid to end the expansion, but given how experimental Dazar'alor was, I doubt they would have had two in the pipeline already.
I'm not putting it at 100% certainty, but I believe that we're going to be transitioning to a heavily Old God-themed remainder to the expansion, starting with the Crucible of Storms.
We already know we're heading to Nazjatar in 8.2, with the raid on Azshara's palace as the capstone of that patch. So where, then, do we go to follow?
It seems to me that Ny'alotha must be the location of N'zoth. Whether it's a Titan facility (unlikely given it's not an Uld-something) or an ancient Black Empire city (I tend to think those are Ahn-something like Ahn'qiraj or Ahn'kahet - while they did at some point declare Ahn'qiraj a Titan facility as well, what we've seen of Black Empire architecture to me suggests that Ahn'qiraj is actually a preserved part of that era of Azeroth's history.)
Ny'alotha could be another zone with a raid inside or perhaps we'll find an Ahn-something city somewhere with a Ny'alotha raid. It seems most likely that N'zoth's prison is beneath the ocean, though with the waters opening up over Nazjatar, who knows?
One suggestion that I think someone at Blizzard Watch made was that we could have a zone in which N'zoth is actually fully visible and ridiculously enormous, and we only get to fight it once we enter the raid zone.
While a fight against the eldritch monstrosities of N'zoth seems like a great final act for the expansion, we have to consider how the other major plots will fit in:
In classic Warcraft fashion, it seems like we could see the Alliance and Horde setting aside their differences in order to fight this larger foe. The real question is how it would be different this time. We don't know exactly how the faction conflict will "resolve" this expansion, but it would feel pretty cheap if we had a Warlords-style lull in hostilities only for them to reignite again an expansion or two from now. The stakes were raised tremendously when Teldrassil and Undercity were destroyed, and that means that a simple truce ain't going to be a very satisfying conclusion to the story.
We also need to see what the Heart of Azeroth ultimately does. Azeroth the Titan is still theoretically dying or on life support. At what point do we imbue her with the power we've collected? Would that need to happen not at the end of this expansion's plot but rather at the beginning of the next one? Mechanically we need to hold on to the Heart of Azeroth until we're ready to move on to bigger and better things, but in theory we're supposed to give her her, you know, blood back once we have enough.
Finally, even if I could see the Zandalari and Kul Tirans finding some semblance of peace (though that's harder post-Dazar'alor, with the Horde side finally having better reason to be angry!) what we've seen of this war has only been escalation. The Alliance can't possibly trust Sylvanas to honor any peace they make with the Horde. To my mind, it feels as if Sylvanas cannot remain Warchief. But I also don't think she's going to die, because that would be played out.
The Death with a capital D stuff we've seen in BFA seems as if it has been hinting toward something massive in the future - likely the next expansion, much as the Old God hints seemed to be foreshadowing this one. I'm going to throw out an idea here that is a little more speculative than the other stuff I've had in this post:
Could the next expansion start with the hunt for Sylvanas Windrunner?
What if Sylvans goes AWOL, abandoning the Horde and evading the Alliance? The two factions might have different motives for finding her, but she is nevertheless Azeroth's most wanted.
WoW expansion tend to begin with some kind of big war - an invading army or devastating atrocity. But wouldn't it be cool if we had one where we initially think we're just tying up loose ends? We figure, ok, war is over and we've saved the world and killed an Old God. All we need to do is find Sylvanas and we can finally take a breather. But then we find out that Sylvanas has gone somewhere where a far greater threat lurks - like the Shadowlands.
The great thing is that Sylvanas isn't the villain here. She's searching for answers and attempting to retain her freedom, but when she sees what is waiting for us on, as Bwonsamdi would put it, "de other side," she realizes that she is going to need our help - the very people who want her dead.
I love the trope of being forced to work with odd bedfellows, and while that often applies any time the Alliance and Horde cooperate, it would be really cool to see Sylvanas - one of the least trustworthy people in the Warcraft cosmos - needing to earn our trust.
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Ravnica Guild Alignments - Headcanon
Now that they're part of D&D, the Guilds of Ravnica are fit into D&D's famous 9-option alignment chart. In the book, we get descriptors like "Typically good, often lawful" to describe the Boros Legion.
While the book itself is clearly acknowledging wiggle-room - you could have a Chaotic Good Rakdos Cultist or a Lawful Neutral Selesnya Initiate - it's pretty clear that the guilds themselves largely fall into particular categories:
Azorius Senate: Lawful Neutral
Boros Legion: Lawful Good
House Dimir: Neutral Evil
Gruul Clans: Chaotic Neutral
Golgari Swarm: Neutral Evil
Izzet League: Chaotic Neutral
Orzhov Syndicate: Lawful Evil
Cult of Rakdos: Chaotic Evil
Selesnya Conclave: Neutral Good
Simic Combine: True Neutral
So with ten guilds and nine spaces in D&D's classic alignment chart, there's bound to be one overlap. But what we see here is that there's some space missing. There is no Chaotic Good guild. In fact, only two of the guilds are even listed as good. Law is decently balanced with Chaos, so it might not be in such need of rebalancing.
Ultimately, I think the setting works best if you feel free to play against type. But even within these types, I think there's good alternatives to make things a bit more interesting.
Azorius Senate: Lawful Good: This one's easy. While bureaucracy can sometimes feel cold and callous, the intention tends to be to prevent abuse. While you might get a lot of cowboy cops (who are far more likely to abuse power,) in the Boros, the Azorius commitment to consistent ethics can turn out to be a way to be good - maybe you're someone who wants to write the ideals of justice into Azorius law rather than simply apply them arbitrarily like the Boros wish to.
Boros Legion: Chaotic Good: This is already represented in a number of Boros NPCs and creatures. It's explicit that the Boros care more about doing good than following rules, and so it makes perfect sense to go with this alignment.
House Dimir: True Neutral: Maybe I'm just a fanboy, but I really like the idea that this is the actual alignment of the Dimir. Their methods might skew toward evil, but I think the notion that the Dimir simply want to maintain the balance of power and keep Ravnica stable without growing stagnant makes for a great True Neutral guild.
Gruul Clans: Chaotic Evil: They're already kind of skewing toward this anyway, as their vision of nature is a very brutal one. Sure, they don't have any of the dark, black-aligned magic of the other "evil" guilds, but I given that the Gruul Clans are basically Mad Max villains I think you're already most of the way there.
Golgari Swarm: Lawful Evil: The Golgari dedication to the cycle puts them in this weird Lawful/Chaotic place that translates decently to Neutral. But I think that it's easy enough with all the necromancers they've got for some upstart Golgari leader to want their eternal army of the dead to serve them.
Izzet League: Chaotic Good: While they are basically all insane (but not malicious as the Rakdos,) the Izzet are theoretically trying to improve the city with all their innovations and experiments. I definitely think that most of them skew a little more toward good than evil (minus Ral Zarrek, of course.)
Orzhov Syndicate: Neutral Evil: While the Orzhov emphasis on control and stability makes their Lawful Evil alignment maybe the most appropriate of all the guilds' (maybe tied with the Rakdos,) I think that the structures of the Orzhov seem perfect for a Littlefinger-like figure to manipulate the system to climb the ranks and seek only their own personal enrichment and power. I also wonder what Teysa Karlov's alignment is - I never read the books.
Cult of Rakdos: Chaotic Neutral: Again, the Rakdos, when they are in full "murder the audience for fun" mode are pretty perfect examples of Chaotic Evil (the Joker would 100% be a member of the Rakdos) I think I'd want to emphasize the more reasonable members of the guild who are more in it for the satire and the chance for artistic expression. I feel like you could have a lot of really fun weirdos who have found a home in this macabre vaudeville environment who don't actually mean anyone harm.
Selesnya Conclave: Lawful Neutral: Yes, this one skips over Lawful Good and goes right to LN. The Selesnya are basically a giant hippie commune, and that's fine when it's really all about love and peace and grooviness. But if you wanted to emphasize its cult-like tendencies, you could go for more of a Lawful take on it - this is the aspect of the guild where it really is about taking control of peoples' lives and making them submit themselves to the collective's needs.
Simic Combine: Just About Anything: The Simic sit at True Neutral because I think they could go nearly anywhere. It would be super-easy to imagine a chaotic evil Simic Biomancer who just wants to create giant monsters to destroy the city. But you could also have good-aligned Simic who are fighting to make life on Ravnica better. I'll confess that I've often felt the Simic are the guild with the least clear identity, and to be fair I think they've been working on improving that. Creating a race of super-soldiers that could take over the world? Sounds kind of Lawful Evil. Creating giant monsters to destroy swaths of the city? Sounds kind of Chaotic Evil. Eliminating diseases and cleaning the air of pollution? Sounds Neutral or Lawful Good. Creating new organisms capable of processing waste and thus cutting the treacherous Golgari out of the loop? Sounds Chaotic Good.
Again, these are just suggestions. Playing against type could be a ton of fun in any of these guilds. I also think using Magic colors as an alternative to alignment could be an interesting experiment (especially if you use colors outside your guild's.)
Alignment is also something of a rough suggestion - it's never enough to simply declare an alignment and feel as if you have a fully fleshed-out character. There's nuance to all of these, which is part of what makes the game so enjoyable.
While the book itself is clearly acknowledging wiggle-room - you could have a Chaotic Good Rakdos Cultist or a Lawful Neutral Selesnya Initiate - it's pretty clear that the guilds themselves largely fall into particular categories:
Azorius Senate: Lawful Neutral
Boros Legion: Lawful Good
House Dimir: Neutral Evil
Gruul Clans: Chaotic Neutral
Golgari Swarm: Neutral Evil
Izzet League: Chaotic Neutral
Orzhov Syndicate: Lawful Evil
Cult of Rakdos: Chaotic Evil
Selesnya Conclave: Neutral Good
Simic Combine: True Neutral
So with ten guilds and nine spaces in D&D's classic alignment chart, there's bound to be one overlap. But what we see here is that there's some space missing. There is no Chaotic Good guild. In fact, only two of the guilds are even listed as good. Law is decently balanced with Chaos, so it might not be in such need of rebalancing.
Ultimately, I think the setting works best if you feel free to play against type. But even within these types, I think there's good alternatives to make things a bit more interesting.
Azorius Senate: Lawful Good: This one's easy. While bureaucracy can sometimes feel cold and callous, the intention tends to be to prevent abuse. While you might get a lot of cowboy cops (who are far more likely to abuse power,) in the Boros, the Azorius commitment to consistent ethics can turn out to be a way to be good - maybe you're someone who wants to write the ideals of justice into Azorius law rather than simply apply them arbitrarily like the Boros wish to.
Boros Legion: Chaotic Good: This is already represented in a number of Boros NPCs and creatures. It's explicit that the Boros care more about doing good than following rules, and so it makes perfect sense to go with this alignment.
House Dimir: True Neutral: Maybe I'm just a fanboy, but I really like the idea that this is the actual alignment of the Dimir. Their methods might skew toward evil, but I think the notion that the Dimir simply want to maintain the balance of power and keep Ravnica stable without growing stagnant makes for a great True Neutral guild.
Gruul Clans: Chaotic Evil: They're already kind of skewing toward this anyway, as their vision of nature is a very brutal one. Sure, they don't have any of the dark, black-aligned magic of the other "evil" guilds, but I given that the Gruul Clans are basically Mad Max villains I think you're already most of the way there.
Golgari Swarm: Lawful Evil: The Golgari dedication to the cycle puts them in this weird Lawful/Chaotic place that translates decently to Neutral. But I think that it's easy enough with all the necromancers they've got for some upstart Golgari leader to want their eternal army of the dead to serve them.
Izzet League: Chaotic Good: While they are basically all insane (but not malicious as the Rakdos,) the Izzet are theoretically trying to improve the city with all their innovations and experiments. I definitely think that most of them skew a little more toward good than evil (minus Ral Zarrek, of course.)
Orzhov Syndicate: Neutral Evil: While the Orzhov emphasis on control and stability makes their Lawful Evil alignment maybe the most appropriate of all the guilds' (maybe tied with the Rakdos,) I think that the structures of the Orzhov seem perfect for a Littlefinger-like figure to manipulate the system to climb the ranks and seek only their own personal enrichment and power. I also wonder what Teysa Karlov's alignment is - I never read the books.
Cult of Rakdos: Chaotic Neutral: Again, the Rakdos, when they are in full "murder the audience for fun" mode are pretty perfect examples of Chaotic Evil (the Joker would 100% be a member of the Rakdos) I think I'd want to emphasize the more reasonable members of the guild who are more in it for the satire and the chance for artistic expression. I feel like you could have a lot of really fun weirdos who have found a home in this macabre vaudeville environment who don't actually mean anyone harm.
Selesnya Conclave: Lawful Neutral: Yes, this one skips over Lawful Good and goes right to LN. The Selesnya are basically a giant hippie commune, and that's fine when it's really all about love and peace and grooviness. But if you wanted to emphasize its cult-like tendencies, you could go for more of a Lawful take on it - this is the aspect of the guild where it really is about taking control of peoples' lives and making them submit themselves to the collective's needs.
Simic Combine: Just About Anything: The Simic sit at True Neutral because I think they could go nearly anywhere. It would be super-easy to imagine a chaotic evil Simic Biomancer who just wants to create giant monsters to destroy the city. But you could also have good-aligned Simic who are fighting to make life on Ravnica better. I'll confess that I've often felt the Simic are the guild with the least clear identity, and to be fair I think they've been working on improving that. Creating a race of super-soldiers that could take over the world? Sounds kind of Lawful Evil. Creating giant monsters to destroy swaths of the city? Sounds kind of Chaotic Evil. Eliminating diseases and cleaning the air of pollution? Sounds Neutral or Lawful Good. Creating new organisms capable of processing waste and thus cutting the treacherous Golgari out of the loop? Sounds Chaotic Good.
Again, these are just suggestions. Playing against type could be a ton of fun in any of these guilds. I also think using Magic colors as an alternative to alignment could be an interesting experiment (especially if you use colors outside your guild's.)
Alignment is also something of a rough suggestion - it's never enough to simply declare an alignment and feel as if you have a fully fleshed-out character. There's nuance to all of these, which is part of what makes the game so enjoyable.
Mass Layoffs at Blizzard and What It Might Mean For Future Games
Blizzard has worked hard to be a company that people have a certain loyalty to. While WoW has always remained my primary interest with them as a company, I've tried out Diablo, Starcraft, and other titles of theirs largely due to the sense of their commitment to quality.
Eleven years ago, Blizzard merged with Activision, and many worried this would mean the exact sort of thing we've seen recently, with as many as 800 people losing their jobs despite the fact that the company had record profits in the last fiscal year.
I don't pretend to know how to run a game development/publishing company, but that seems backward and does not do much to dispel the sense that there's a mercenary level of corporate greed at work here.
Blizzard's success of course ebbs and flows, and different titles have their days in the sun. My concern for their titles is of course based more in a critical approach rather than raw numbers. They stopped publishing subscriber numbers for WoW after they started to dip from their late-Wrath/early-Cataclysm high, but from a subjective point of view, I think that Legion was the best expansion they ever came out with. As a player, even if I find Battle for Azeroth a lackluster follow-up to Legion (which, to be fair, was a hell of a tough act to follow, and it's still a hell of a lot better than Warlords of Draenor) I have had faith that we'd continue to get interesting stuff that makes the game worth playing.
The staff cuts have been primarily in marketing, it appears, and other "non-developmental" roles. This is admittedly a fuzzy subject for an industry outsider to comment on. But I do think that the identity that Blizzard has built is largely due to the efforts of some very skilled marketers.
It also appears that much of the games' support staff is being cut as well, and that to me is a huge red flag.
One of the reasons for my loyalty with Blizzard has been their fantastic customer support. It might take a while, but when I've had issues with WoW, GMs have always been incredibly helpful and responsive and willing to stick with the problem until it is solved. Beyond the quality of the games, this is one of the things that has always given me a positive impression of Blizzard as a company.
I don't think they're going to be cancelling any of their major titles as a result of this, but I do really worry that one of gaming's legends is putting short-term profits ahead of long-term quality, and that's never a good strategy.
My heart goes out to the people who have lost their jobs. I know for many of them it was probably a dream to work for a company that has earned such good will from its fans, and getting canned for no good reason must feel like an intense betrayal.
This blog started as a WoW blog, and while it has diversified (largely as I've learned to obsess over other games) I still want WoW and Blizzard in general to be something I can root for and enjoy playing. Seeing stuff like this adds a bit of bitterness to that experience.
Eleven years ago, Blizzard merged with Activision, and many worried this would mean the exact sort of thing we've seen recently, with as many as 800 people losing their jobs despite the fact that the company had record profits in the last fiscal year.
I don't pretend to know how to run a game development/publishing company, but that seems backward and does not do much to dispel the sense that there's a mercenary level of corporate greed at work here.
Blizzard's success of course ebbs and flows, and different titles have their days in the sun. My concern for their titles is of course based more in a critical approach rather than raw numbers. They stopped publishing subscriber numbers for WoW after they started to dip from their late-Wrath/early-Cataclysm high, but from a subjective point of view, I think that Legion was the best expansion they ever came out with. As a player, even if I find Battle for Azeroth a lackluster follow-up to Legion (which, to be fair, was a hell of a tough act to follow, and it's still a hell of a lot better than Warlords of Draenor) I have had faith that we'd continue to get interesting stuff that makes the game worth playing.
The staff cuts have been primarily in marketing, it appears, and other "non-developmental" roles. This is admittedly a fuzzy subject for an industry outsider to comment on. But I do think that the identity that Blizzard has built is largely due to the efforts of some very skilled marketers.
It also appears that much of the games' support staff is being cut as well, and that to me is a huge red flag.
One of the reasons for my loyalty with Blizzard has been their fantastic customer support. It might take a while, but when I've had issues with WoW, GMs have always been incredibly helpful and responsive and willing to stick with the problem until it is solved. Beyond the quality of the games, this is one of the things that has always given me a positive impression of Blizzard as a company.
I don't think they're going to be cancelling any of their major titles as a result of this, but I do really worry that one of gaming's legends is putting short-term profits ahead of long-term quality, and that's never a good strategy.
My heart goes out to the people who have lost their jobs. I know for many of them it was probably a dream to work for a company that has earned such good will from its fans, and getting canned for no good reason must feel like an intense betrayal.
This blog started as a WoW blog, and while it has diversified (largely as I've learned to obsess over other games) I still want WoW and Blizzard in general to be something I can root for and enjoy playing. Seeing stuff like this adds a bit of bitterness to that experience.
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