Even though I main a Paladin, and thus it's not like I don't get opportunities to play one much (even in his offspec - though given how little I've been running dungeons or raiding, Ret has felt more like a main spec this expansion than Protection,) I knew as soon as Lightforged Draenei were announced that I'd want to make one as a Paladin. I mean, the Draenei in general are very obvious Paladin-types, and the Lightforged in particular, who have been living in more of a militaristic environment than their blue-skinned brethren for a very long time, seem even better-suited to the role of a holy knight. (Sidenote: Given that Turalyon and Alleria experienced what was to us about 25 years after the destruction of Draenor as 1,000, if the Lightforged experienced the same time distortion consistently since they fled Argus, that would mean that your Lightforged Draenei could be literally over a million years old - and it's not like you see a bunch of children amongst the Lightforged, so it would stand to reason that, given the extreme longevity inherent to the Eredar/Draenei physiology, plus the Light's life sustaining properties, the Lightforged are insanely old.)
But this isn't really a lore post.
I decided to get my Lightforged Paladin, Armaad (I only realized after I came up with the name that it's a pretty close anagram of Maraad - which was not intentional) up to 120. He was the first allied race character on which I earned heritage armor, but was sitting around at 110 for much of the expansion (I've actually still not leveled my Druid or Monk to 120, though I did get my Kul Tiran Druid to 110 so he can take over from the likely retired Night Elf.)
Anyway, with the quarantine buff, I went through the main story quests of Tiragarde Sound and Drustvar and hit 120 while inside the walls of Corlaine (I held off until dinging to make sure I got the axe off the vignette mob there when it was at its highest item level.)
But hitting 120 has meant some very strange things.
First, I grabbed all the plate Black Empire gear I could find, though I also went and bought Benthic pieces of Azerite gear (given that blue gear still only has one major trait and no medium traits.)
However, even after blasting his Heart of Azeroth about 8 levels in a single emissary quest, none of his Azerite traits are even usable yet.
It occurs to me that if I want to play him at all seriously at 120 (which, to be fair, isn't super likely - he'll probably sit there until at least Shadowlands) I'd have to go through a whole lot - unlocking his essence slots, doing the whole Ny'alotha intro quests, and grinding a whole lot to get his Heart of Azeroth up to a decent level.
Now, obviously, any alt is going to have to do some work to become as powerful as your main, and I don't think it's a bad thing for there to be some effort involved.
But it's remarkable to me how many things don't come online when you hit the level cap on a new alt. Even with a bunch of catch-up gear, which boosted his item level by about a hundred, he's still extremely far behind.
I've mentioned before how all the various different systems that have come in with each major patch of Battle for Azeroth have been excessive. Frankly, I think the Essence system is actually decently cool, and while I wasn't too troubled by Warforging/Titanforging, I think the Corruption system is sort of interesting (frankly, I like the Horrific Visions more than Corruption itself, I guess just because I enjoy them conceptually and also having solo content is fun.) The Azerite Armor system, of course, has been a train wreck that they've kind of sort of made less excruciating (a bit).
But it wasn't all that long ago that we didn't really have these sorts of systems to worry about. Warlord of Draenor was not a good expansion, obviously, but it wasn't the fact that we were just traditionally gearing up that made it bad.
I loved Artifact weapons, but the thing I loved most about them was the flavor of them - the stories and visual design for them. And yes, it was fun to get all the little bonuses (I loved that the Subtlety Daggers made it so you took no fall damage whatsoever, meaning I could fly over a world quest and just dismount from a mile up, stealthing and dropping into Suramar like some sort of special-ops commando). But once artifacts started getting into that feature-creep space, like the Netherlight Crucible (which felt a lot like Azerite Armor's system, frankly) it got less exciting than annoying.
Shadowlands is going to have systems like this - it seems to be the way Blizzard is going with WoW for the foreseeable future. But I hope they'll learn to take a lighter touch. Get the initial system working right, and don't go totally crazy making it more complex. They got extremely carried away in BFA. Let's see some restraint in Shadowlands, shall we?
Saturday, April 4, 2020
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Shadowlands Alpha Anticipation
Pretty frequently in recent weeks, Blizzard has been pushing alpha builds of WoW's 8th expansion, Shadowlands. Now, comparing this with BFA, I was already playing in the Alpha/Beta this time two years ago. But this year is, of course, not like other years, given that practically the entire country is in quarantine trying to slow the spread of a deadly virus (man, did not think I'd ever have to write that sentence on this blog when I started it several years ago.) As important as this game and Blizzard are to me and I imagine others who would read this blog, it's hardly an "essential business" in terms of keeping people alive and safe, and being in California, the company is under the same "shelter at home" orders that I am.
Granted, so much can be done online these days that it's clear some people are still working, but I'm going to be forgiving if this expansion takes a little longer to cook than previous ones given the literally once-in-a-century crisis the entire world is currently dealing with.
Still, I do wonder what kind of timetable we're looking at.
Since its announcement last year, we really haven't gotten many updates on how Shadowlands is developing. There are a lot of key systems that need to be tested, and after the debacle that was Azerite Armor, I think it's crucial for them to get these systems into play testers' hands early enough that they can change them before they go live (to remind people, Azerite armor only came in shortly before the end of the Alpha/Beta for BFA, and we all see how that turned out.)
System-wise, here's what I'm curious about:
I want to see how smoothly the level squish goes. In theory, with the existing scaling technology, they should be able to just adjust the ranges on existing content to make it work. That being said, with the actual number of levels being compressed, we need to see things like when we get certain abilities and talents. It will be a surreal experience to have a level 15 tank running Neltharion's Lair, but I think it's also important that classes have the tools to run those dungeons that had previously expected a mostly-complete toolkit (like, Rogues should definitely get their AoE tools earlier. Right now they don't get them until 63.)
Another off-branching issue with the level squish is how legacy raid content will work. Granted, I think that once Shadowlands launches we'll all be trying to get to 60 rather than going back to run Throne of Thunder for transmog pieces. But will the jump from 50 to 60 be so profound that it's easy to run everything from Ny'alotha to Molten Core? Because by that point, at least the leveling content those raids are connected to will scale to the same top level.
Then, of course, we need to get a feel for the systems of Shadowlands itself.
A lot can change after an expansion is announced (I remember when they told us Death Knights could choose which runes they'd etch into their blades - this was of course back when there were three types of runes, plus the "wildcard" Death runes) but as I understand it, the Covenants, which are the big thing in Shadowlands, work thusly, according to the announcement at Blizzcon:
You choose a covenant at max level (or earlier on alts) and this gives you two active abilities, one which is specific to your class. Then, you "soul-bond" with one of a number of NPCs from that covenant, and that gives you various bonuses in a talent-tree like thing.
Already, I'm a little concerned at the complexity of this off the bat. This is a bit more than the Aldor/Scryers choice in Burning Crusade. To be honest, unless they can really carefully balance this (preferably keeping it simple,) I'd more prefer this as an aesthetic/flavor choice than a deep mechanical one (something Blizzard always seems to resist - see Garrisons, and remember how well those turned out?)
The other headlining feature is Torghast, a repeatable procedurally-generated endless dungeon. This could be really cool, but given that it's the way we get our legendaries, it'll be "required' content and thus needs to be fun and have legs.
While all of this is certainly important, I think a crucial consideration will be story.
Now, Shadowlands has a big advantage: given that it's a new plane of existence with practically no existing lore to contradict, Blizzard can be extremely novel and creative in the sort of things we encounter in the Shadowlands.
But WoW's story tends to focus on key individuals. And giving them each interesting plots that work with their character will be important.
As of now, we know of two characters who will be central to the story - Sylvanas and Bolvar.
Sylvanas has completed her transition into full villain territory, to the point that even if I'd kind of like it if she turned out to be playing a long game for the greater good, I think we've passed a point where such a thing was plausible (Teldrassil was really the last straw.) I definitely preferred morally complex, ruthless but principled Sylvanas over Omnicidal Maniac Sylvanas, but given that we're at that point with her, I want to know: A. why she decided to go that way, B. when she made her alliance with the Jailor, C. what she actually wants to accomplish.
Bolvar is no longer the Lich King, because there is no Lich King. The pre-expansion patch will evidently see us fighting a rampant, leaderless Scourge spreading out from Northrend as some kind of zombie apocalypse (or zombocalypse, as I prefer to call it) while we fight to get near enough to discover the reason why things have gone totally crazy (and get close enough to see that giant rift in the sky.)
The thing is, Bolvar was all set to do this gig for eternity, and instead got about a decade. He's still burned to hell by red dragonfire, but surely the fact that we just met his daughter this expansion means there's got to be some very complicated family reunion. Also, while Bolvar was certainly not the world-threatening monster that Arthas was, there are a lot of things Lich King Bolvar did that Paladin Bolvar certainly wouldn't have. Is he due for a reckoning, or are the stakes too high for us to worry about stuff like sending the Deathlord to attack the Silver Hand and the red dragonflight?
We're also going to be meeting some dead folks, given that we're literally going into the afterlife this expansion. We know that Uther, Draka, Kael'thas, and actually Cenarius (who seems to bounce between Ardenweald, the Emerald Dream, and the physical plane) are going to show up. There's a dungeon that'll involve Bwonsamdi (which I'm super happy about, as he's maybe my favorite NPC from all of BFA.)
Given the faction focus of BFA, it might make sense for us to leave them behind a bit - a little like early Mists of Pandaria. Also, it would feel really strange for the Alliance and Horde to establish bases in Bastion and fight over territory in what is essentially Heaven (or probably more accurately, Mt. Celestia, the primary Lawful Good plane in D&D.)
I'm sure that we're going to be introduced to various factions and threats. Blizzard has played a bit close to the vest in terms of end bosses for expansions. It seems likely Sylvanas or the Jailor will be that for this one.
But we also know so incredibly little about the Jailor at this point that it's hard to speculate on exactly what role he'll play (I think he's a he. I think the Arbiter is a she.) Clearly, the Jailor is a very powerful entity, but we don't know where he sits in a cosmology of Titans, Old Gods, Ancients, Naaru, etc.
As a big lore nerd, especially for grand, cosmological lore, I'm really eager to find out more about the Shadowlands, and how it relates to the greater Warcraft cosmos. While Warlords of Draenor took us to an alternate timeline and Legion (and arguably Burning Crusade) gave us worlds that were at least touched by the Twisting Nether, this is the first truly planar-travel expansion (ok, another asterisk, Cataclysm did have us go to each of the Elemental Planes, and Legion had us enter the Emerald Dream/Nightmare.)
While I'd initially filed the Shadowlands as the WoW equivalent to D&D's Shadowfell, in truth it seems much more like its Outer Planes. And that raises interesting questions about how much the cosmic entities we've encountered before relate to it. The Titans, godlike in power though they seem to be, are also, I believe, entities of the physical world like us. What do they know of the Shadowlands?
And if they aren't integral to the Shadowlands, perhaps other things are? Like, maybe that mysterious moon goddess the Night Elves are always talking about, you know, the one being Blizzard has always unambiguously referred to as a god, but without defining that?
The potential for revelation in Shadowlands is immense, and I think that's why I'm so eager to start seeing testing.
Granted, so much can be done online these days that it's clear some people are still working, but I'm going to be forgiving if this expansion takes a little longer to cook than previous ones given the literally once-in-a-century crisis the entire world is currently dealing with.
Still, I do wonder what kind of timetable we're looking at.
Since its announcement last year, we really haven't gotten many updates on how Shadowlands is developing. There are a lot of key systems that need to be tested, and after the debacle that was Azerite Armor, I think it's crucial for them to get these systems into play testers' hands early enough that they can change them before they go live (to remind people, Azerite armor only came in shortly before the end of the Alpha/Beta for BFA, and we all see how that turned out.)
System-wise, here's what I'm curious about:
I want to see how smoothly the level squish goes. In theory, with the existing scaling technology, they should be able to just adjust the ranges on existing content to make it work. That being said, with the actual number of levels being compressed, we need to see things like when we get certain abilities and talents. It will be a surreal experience to have a level 15 tank running Neltharion's Lair, but I think it's also important that classes have the tools to run those dungeons that had previously expected a mostly-complete toolkit (like, Rogues should definitely get their AoE tools earlier. Right now they don't get them until 63.)
Another off-branching issue with the level squish is how legacy raid content will work. Granted, I think that once Shadowlands launches we'll all be trying to get to 60 rather than going back to run Throne of Thunder for transmog pieces. But will the jump from 50 to 60 be so profound that it's easy to run everything from Ny'alotha to Molten Core? Because by that point, at least the leveling content those raids are connected to will scale to the same top level.
Then, of course, we need to get a feel for the systems of Shadowlands itself.
A lot can change after an expansion is announced (I remember when they told us Death Knights could choose which runes they'd etch into their blades - this was of course back when there were three types of runes, plus the "wildcard" Death runes) but as I understand it, the Covenants, which are the big thing in Shadowlands, work thusly, according to the announcement at Blizzcon:
You choose a covenant at max level (or earlier on alts) and this gives you two active abilities, one which is specific to your class. Then, you "soul-bond" with one of a number of NPCs from that covenant, and that gives you various bonuses in a talent-tree like thing.
Already, I'm a little concerned at the complexity of this off the bat. This is a bit more than the Aldor/Scryers choice in Burning Crusade. To be honest, unless they can really carefully balance this (preferably keeping it simple,) I'd more prefer this as an aesthetic/flavor choice than a deep mechanical one (something Blizzard always seems to resist - see Garrisons, and remember how well those turned out?)
The other headlining feature is Torghast, a repeatable procedurally-generated endless dungeon. This could be really cool, but given that it's the way we get our legendaries, it'll be "required' content and thus needs to be fun and have legs.
While all of this is certainly important, I think a crucial consideration will be story.
Now, Shadowlands has a big advantage: given that it's a new plane of existence with practically no existing lore to contradict, Blizzard can be extremely novel and creative in the sort of things we encounter in the Shadowlands.
But WoW's story tends to focus on key individuals. And giving them each interesting plots that work with their character will be important.
As of now, we know of two characters who will be central to the story - Sylvanas and Bolvar.
Sylvanas has completed her transition into full villain territory, to the point that even if I'd kind of like it if she turned out to be playing a long game for the greater good, I think we've passed a point where such a thing was plausible (Teldrassil was really the last straw.) I definitely preferred morally complex, ruthless but principled Sylvanas over Omnicidal Maniac Sylvanas, but given that we're at that point with her, I want to know: A. why she decided to go that way, B. when she made her alliance with the Jailor, C. what she actually wants to accomplish.
Bolvar is no longer the Lich King, because there is no Lich King. The pre-expansion patch will evidently see us fighting a rampant, leaderless Scourge spreading out from Northrend as some kind of zombie apocalypse (or zombocalypse, as I prefer to call it) while we fight to get near enough to discover the reason why things have gone totally crazy (and get close enough to see that giant rift in the sky.)
The thing is, Bolvar was all set to do this gig for eternity, and instead got about a decade. He's still burned to hell by red dragonfire, but surely the fact that we just met his daughter this expansion means there's got to be some very complicated family reunion. Also, while Bolvar was certainly not the world-threatening monster that Arthas was, there are a lot of things Lich King Bolvar did that Paladin Bolvar certainly wouldn't have. Is he due for a reckoning, or are the stakes too high for us to worry about stuff like sending the Deathlord to attack the Silver Hand and the red dragonflight?
We're also going to be meeting some dead folks, given that we're literally going into the afterlife this expansion. We know that Uther, Draka, Kael'thas, and actually Cenarius (who seems to bounce between Ardenweald, the Emerald Dream, and the physical plane) are going to show up. There's a dungeon that'll involve Bwonsamdi (which I'm super happy about, as he's maybe my favorite NPC from all of BFA.)
Given the faction focus of BFA, it might make sense for us to leave them behind a bit - a little like early Mists of Pandaria. Also, it would feel really strange for the Alliance and Horde to establish bases in Bastion and fight over territory in what is essentially Heaven (or probably more accurately, Mt. Celestia, the primary Lawful Good plane in D&D.)
I'm sure that we're going to be introduced to various factions and threats. Blizzard has played a bit close to the vest in terms of end bosses for expansions. It seems likely Sylvanas or the Jailor will be that for this one.
But we also know so incredibly little about the Jailor at this point that it's hard to speculate on exactly what role he'll play (I think he's a he. I think the Arbiter is a she.) Clearly, the Jailor is a very powerful entity, but we don't know where he sits in a cosmology of Titans, Old Gods, Ancients, Naaru, etc.
As a big lore nerd, especially for grand, cosmological lore, I'm really eager to find out more about the Shadowlands, and how it relates to the greater Warcraft cosmos. While Warlords of Draenor took us to an alternate timeline and Legion (and arguably Burning Crusade) gave us worlds that were at least touched by the Twisting Nether, this is the first truly planar-travel expansion (ok, another asterisk, Cataclysm did have us go to each of the Elemental Planes, and Legion had us enter the Emerald Dream/Nightmare.)
While I'd initially filed the Shadowlands as the WoW equivalent to D&D's Shadowfell, in truth it seems much more like its Outer Planes. And that raises interesting questions about how much the cosmic entities we've encountered before relate to it. The Titans, godlike in power though they seem to be, are also, I believe, entities of the physical world like us. What do they know of the Shadowlands?
And if they aren't integral to the Shadowlands, perhaps other things are? Like, maybe that mysterious moon goddess the Night Elves are always talking about, you know, the one being Blizzard has always unambiguously referred to as a god, but without defining that?
The potential for revelation in Shadowlands is immense, and I think that's why I'm so eager to start seeing testing.
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
The G-Man, and the Mystery Box
J. J. Abrams has often talked about a narrative convention he likes to use which he calls "The Mystery Box." Supposedly, at some carnival or fair or some such thing many years ago, he bought a novelty "mystery box" that was really just a big cardboard box with a question mark on it, and claimed to have some incredible thing inside, but you would only know once you opened it.
Abrams, realizing (almost certainly correctly) that the truth of what was in the box would be a disappointment, has kept the thing for decades, never opening it, and just allowing the mystery to be preserved.
When I was in college, I was a big fan of Lost, the show that really put Abrams on the map in Hollywood (though he had worked on other projects previously, like Felicity.) Indeed, there is a lot about the show that I still find very compelling - the beaten up, 70s/80s aesthetic of the various hidden facilities on the island, and the gradually unraveling mystery about "the Others" and such.
But like a lot of viewers, I was left a little underwhelmed by its conclusion. Partially, there was what felt to me like a superfluous element to the final season that had the unfortunate consequence of sort of, except not really, confirming the "they were dead the whole time" fan theory that had been quite popular (in fact, the preceding seasons and the "present" timeframe of the final season are implied to be totally real and on the real world), but also, the ultimate explanation for things was left vague after six years of build-up, in which we hoped to find some real answers.
The mystery box style of storytelling can be very effective as a way to start a story. You introduce an element that is unexplained but remarkable, and the audience naturally wants to keep watching/reading/playing in order to discover the truth about that what that element actually represents.
The mystery genre is built on this, but that genre is also one of the most rule-bound genres that exists - there's a promise that every notable detail will be accounted for, even if they're misleading.
Speculative fiction is the supergenre (containing within it science fiction, fantasy, and most horror) that allows the answers to those mysteries to be profoundly extraordinary.
That being said, I think you can run into issues with this device in the long run, and frankly, it's an issue I've started to have with works by Abrams and those inspired by him (though my biggest issue with Abrams is his insistence on playing things safe by just remaking movies he liked in his youth claiming them to be sequels.)
See, that promise that the truth will come out is the thing that gets people hooked on the mystery box in the first place. An audience will invest in it because of the promise of an answer. So the way I see it, if you are going to use this device, you are obligated to do one of two things:
Have an interesting answer to reveal later in the story that justifies the mysterious build-up, or
Make the mystery a revelation in and of itself.
Let me get to the point here: Half-Life: Alyx came out recently, the first game in that series in 13 years. The Half-Life games, and particularly Half-Life 2, have been hailed as masterly crafted game experiences that explored environmental storytelling and a number of innovating gameplay mechanics.
While the vast majority of these games has you shooting aliens and humans who have chosen to collaborate with the conquering alien Combine or solving various physics puzzles that are worked diagetically into the environment, there is one figure who, to me (and I imagine a lot of players) is the most fascinating character in the series: The G-Man.
The G-Man is a perfect enigma, including the fact that that name isn't even mentioned in-game, and has become just a way to refer to him.
The G-Man takes the appearance of a middle-aged, thin man in a crew cut and a dark grey suit, carrying a briefcase. The name is a reference to the image of mid-20th century government agents of the FBI or CIA. The G-Man was actually considered a sort of heroic figure, the kind of straight-talking, strait-laced guy who lives for his work, and his work is keeping America safe from authoritarian threats. Of course, in a post-Vietnam, post-Watergate world in which American trust in the government started to degrade, these figures took on a more sinister tone (considering what J. Edgar Hoover was up to when he was running the FBI, it's not as if that's undeserved.)
But in a lot of ways, the G-Man also resembles the trope of the Men in Black. While most of my generation is probably more familiar with the Men in Black from the Will Smith movie from 1999, which riffs on the notion by suggesting that the organization is actually a benevolent one that protects Earth my regulating alien visitation, the MIBs are the subject of some of the creepiest stories form UFO folklore.
The G-Man is far more than just a weird (and also kind of weirdly normal) guy who would look at home in 1949, though. Because while he can be glimpsed occasionally in the distance throughout the games (or at least Half-Life 2,) generally when he speaks directly to the protagonist (which is usually Gordon Freeman,) he does so by warping reality, playing even with the visual conventions of video games by freezing the 3D environment being simulated and seemingly occupying different places at the same time.
He seems extremely sinister, given that he has captured Freeman and transported him, perhaps through time, and certainly across great distances, supposedly "hiring" Freeman for his "employers," who seem to be above even the inter-universal Combine whose conquest of Earth takes place before the events of Half Life 2.
The G-Man appears only rarely. I believe in Half Life 2 proper, he is only there at the beginning and the end - seeming to have placed Freeman exactly where he needed to be at the start to get to where he was at the end.
And we know almost nothing whatsoever about what he is, who he works for, what he really wants, and even if he could be considered a good guy or a bad guy, in the grand scheme of things.
What I find particularly compelling is that he must be some kind of incredibly powerful otherworldly entity - an eldritch abomination, to use the TVTropes term - and yet he appears to us only ever as this odd-looking and off-putting but ultimately passable facsimile of a human man.
So, what to make of the G-Man?
The truth is, I don't think they could ever provide a satisfying answer. If we ever see a "true form" that looks like some blobby alien, it'll feel like a let-down. And if we ever find out for certain that he's evil, or for certain that he's good, it might also rob him of that mystery.
The thing is, Half Life as a game series is now 22 years old. If this were some tight trilogy released in a span of six years or so, it could be the kind of situation where one should just let the cat out of the bag finally.
And yet... at this point, the defining characteristic of him, the whole reason why the G-Man is so cool, is that we have no freaking clue what his whole deal is.
It puts me, at least, in a frustrating position. I want to know all about him, but I also think that we'd lose something if we ever got definitive answers about him.
So, I guess I'll have to give this one to Abrams.
Abrams, realizing (almost certainly correctly) that the truth of what was in the box would be a disappointment, has kept the thing for decades, never opening it, and just allowing the mystery to be preserved.
When I was in college, I was a big fan of Lost, the show that really put Abrams on the map in Hollywood (though he had worked on other projects previously, like Felicity.) Indeed, there is a lot about the show that I still find very compelling - the beaten up, 70s/80s aesthetic of the various hidden facilities on the island, and the gradually unraveling mystery about "the Others" and such.
But like a lot of viewers, I was left a little underwhelmed by its conclusion. Partially, there was what felt to me like a superfluous element to the final season that had the unfortunate consequence of sort of, except not really, confirming the "they were dead the whole time" fan theory that had been quite popular (in fact, the preceding seasons and the "present" timeframe of the final season are implied to be totally real and on the real world), but also, the ultimate explanation for things was left vague after six years of build-up, in which we hoped to find some real answers.
The mystery box style of storytelling can be very effective as a way to start a story. You introduce an element that is unexplained but remarkable, and the audience naturally wants to keep watching/reading/playing in order to discover the truth about that what that element actually represents.
The mystery genre is built on this, but that genre is also one of the most rule-bound genres that exists - there's a promise that every notable detail will be accounted for, even if they're misleading.
Speculative fiction is the supergenre (containing within it science fiction, fantasy, and most horror) that allows the answers to those mysteries to be profoundly extraordinary.
That being said, I think you can run into issues with this device in the long run, and frankly, it's an issue I've started to have with works by Abrams and those inspired by him (though my biggest issue with Abrams is his insistence on playing things safe by just remaking movies he liked in his youth claiming them to be sequels.)
See, that promise that the truth will come out is the thing that gets people hooked on the mystery box in the first place. An audience will invest in it because of the promise of an answer. So the way I see it, if you are going to use this device, you are obligated to do one of two things:
Have an interesting answer to reveal later in the story that justifies the mysterious build-up, or
Make the mystery a revelation in and of itself.
Let me get to the point here: Half-Life: Alyx came out recently, the first game in that series in 13 years. The Half-Life games, and particularly Half-Life 2, have been hailed as masterly crafted game experiences that explored environmental storytelling and a number of innovating gameplay mechanics.
While the vast majority of these games has you shooting aliens and humans who have chosen to collaborate with the conquering alien Combine or solving various physics puzzles that are worked diagetically into the environment, there is one figure who, to me (and I imagine a lot of players) is the most fascinating character in the series: The G-Man.
The G-Man is a perfect enigma, including the fact that that name isn't even mentioned in-game, and has become just a way to refer to him.
The G-Man takes the appearance of a middle-aged, thin man in a crew cut and a dark grey suit, carrying a briefcase. The name is a reference to the image of mid-20th century government agents of the FBI or CIA. The G-Man was actually considered a sort of heroic figure, the kind of straight-talking, strait-laced guy who lives for his work, and his work is keeping America safe from authoritarian threats. Of course, in a post-Vietnam, post-Watergate world in which American trust in the government started to degrade, these figures took on a more sinister tone (considering what J. Edgar Hoover was up to when he was running the FBI, it's not as if that's undeserved.)
But in a lot of ways, the G-Man also resembles the trope of the Men in Black. While most of my generation is probably more familiar with the Men in Black from the Will Smith movie from 1999, which riffs on the notion by suggesting that the organization is actually a benevolent one that protects Earth my regulating alien visitation, the MIBs are the subject of some of the creepiest stories form UFO folklore.
The G-Man is far more than just a weird (and also kind of weirdly normal) guy who would look at home in 1949, though. Because while he can be glimpsed occasionally in the distance throughout the games (or at least Half-Life 2,) generally when he speaks directly to the protagonist (which is usually Gordon Freeman,) he does so by warping reality, playing even with the visual conventions of video games by freezing the 3D environment being simulated and seemingly occupying different places at the same time.
He seems extremely sinister, given that he has captured Freeman and transported him, perhaps through time, and certainly across great distances, supposedly "hiring" Freeman for his "employers," who seem to be above even the inter-universal Combine whose conquest of Earth takes place before the events of Half Life 2.
The G-Man appears only rarely. I believe in Half Life 2 proper, he is only there at the beginning and the end - seeming to have placed Freeman exactly where he needed to be at the start to get to where he was at the end.
And we know almost nothing whatsoever about what he is, who he works for, what he really wants, and even if he could be considered a good guy or a bad guy, in the grand scheme of things.
What I find particularly compelling is that he must be some kind of incredibly powerful otherworldly entity - an eldritch abomination, to use the TVTropes term - and yet he appears to us only ever as this odd-looking and off-putting but ultimately passable facsimile of a human man.
So, what to make of the G-Man?
The truth is, I don't think they could ever provide a satisfying answer. If we ever see a "true form" that looks like some blobby alien, it'll feel like a let-down. And if we ever find out for certain that he's evil, or for certain that he's good, it might also rob him of that mystery.
The thing is, Half Life as a game series is now 22 years old. If this were some tight trilogy released in a span of six years or so, it could be the kind of situation where one should just let the cat out of the bag finally.
And yet... at this point, the defining characteristic of him, the whole reason why the G-Man is so cool, is that we have no freaking clue what his whole deal is.
It puts me, at least, in a frustrating position. I want to know all about him, but I also think that we'd lose something if we ever got definitive answers about him.
So, I guess I'll have to give this one to Abrams.
Man, I'm Really Enjoying My Vulpera Rogue
The Vulpera are, obviously, adorable. Tiny fox-people who use fuzzy alpacas as their primary working animals - what's not to love?
But they are something of an oddity as far as allied races go. Mag'har Orcs, Dark Iron Dwarves, Zandalari Trolls - these have all had some sort of prominent position at least at some point in WoW's history. The Vulpera are a brand-new race as of Battle for Azeroth (and while they use a modified Goblin skeleton, they're not a "variant" like the other allied races are.)
Vulpera are, in fact, found only in Vol'dun and a few places in Tiragarde Sound as pirates. In any other expansion, they'd probably fill a role more equivalent to the Grummles of Pandaria or the Tuskarr in Northrend - a fun little animal race that we get to do quests with and then leave behind.
But now, they're a playable race, and a part of the Horde.
Admittedly, the status of allied races as core members of each faction remains a little ambiguous. Thalyssra and her Nightborne seem to be pretty prominent Horde members now (much to the chagrin of my Human Paladin who spent months helping them liberate themselves from the Legion...) But there hasn't been a ton of WoW's story dedicated to seeing how integrated the new allied races are into their factions.
Given the diversity of the world and the two factions both functioning as their own broad coalitions of people, it actually makes perfect sense to me that more people (especially given that most are related to existing races) would be joining up.
But the Vulpera really feel like a left-field entry.
Admittedly, you could compare them to the Void Elves - the Void Elves were an oddity in that they had not appeared at all in-game before they were added as a playable race. Alleria Windrunner was sort of their precedent, but she came by her void-y nature a different way, and does not have the blue-skin look of her Ren'dorei brethren, even if they look to her as a leader.
But the Void Elves have the benefit of, as individuals, having been part of Warcraft lore since WCII - though then they were High Elves, before becoming Blood Elves and then Void Elves. Indeed, the Void Elves' defection to the Alliance was really a return to their original faction. Even if at this point I'd just make playable Alliance High Elves just to get people to stop complaining, technically Void Elves fulfill that player desire (and frankly, once you get past how abruptly they were introduced, I think Void Elves are a lot cooler than High Elves would be.)
Anyway, Vulpera came in alongside Mechagnomes. Of course, the oddity of the Mechagnomes is that we've actually seen two types of creatures with that name - the originals, who were fully mechanical, and the new ones, which are really just gnomes who are essentially artificially reversing the curse of flesh through cybernetic augmentation. Given that we saw at least those originals starting in Wrath, I feel like Mechagnomes had the rough precedent to make them feel a little less jarring as a race we'll be carrying with us for WoW's foreseeable future.
But the thing is, I like the Vulpera. Their animations are good, and I love the desert-scavenger aesthetic they have. (I realize that you can remove the wagon-hood from the racial hyena mount using the "Make Camp" racial ability and clicking on the bag that appears next to the tent, but when I did, I realized that I actually liked it with the hood up.)
I'd initially been holding back one allied race alt to make sure I could try out the new starting zone when 9.0 hits, but then remembered that allied races skip that, so instead I just started it up. I'm playing him as Outlaw (after a brief attempt to enjoy Assassination) and while it's been lots of fun (things get way more interesting once you get Roll the Bones) it's kind of crazy to me that Fan of Knives, Shuriken Storm, and Blade Fury don't come until level 63 - other than multi-dotting with Rupture or Nightblade, this is your only multi-target skill, and so it means that until you're a bit into Outland/Northrend, dungeons are going to make you feel really weak (if you're watching damage meters.)
But, with the quarantine buff up, I've managed to get this guy to level 62 in just a few days, so soon that issue will be moot.
But they are something of an oddity as far as allied races go. Mag'har Orcs, Dark Iron Dwarves, Zandalari Trolls - these have all had some sort of prominent position at least at some point in WoW's history. The Vulpera are a brand-new race as of Battle for Azeroth (and while they use a modified Goblin skeleton, they're not a "variant" like the other allied races are.)
Vulpera are, in fact, found only in Vol'dun and a few places in Tiragarde Sound as pirates. In any other expansion, they'd probably fill a role more equivalent to the Grummles of Pandaria or the Tuskarr in Northrend - a fun little animal race that we get to do quests with and then leave behind.
But now, they're a playable race, and a part of the Horde.
Admittedly, the status of allied races as core members of each faction remains a little ambiguous. Thalyssra and her Nightborne seem to be pretty prominent Horde members now (much to the chagrin of my Human Paladin who spent months helping them liberate themselves from the Legion...) But there hasn't been a ton of WoW's story dedicated to seeing how integrated the new allied races are into their factions.
Given the diversity of the world and the two factions both functioning as their own broad coalitions of people, it actually makes perfect sense to me that more people (especially given that most are related to existing races) would be joining up.
But the Vulpera really feel like a left-field entry.
Admittedly, you could compare them to the Void Elves - the Void Elves were an oddity in that they had not appeared at all in-game before they were added as a playable race. Alleria Windrunner was sort of their precedent, but she came by her void-y nature a different way, and does not have the blue-skin look of her Ren'dorei brethren, even if they look to her as a leader.
But the Void Elves have the benefit of, as individuals, having been part of Warcraft lore since WCII - though then they were High Elves, before becoming Blood Elves and then Void Elves. Indeed, the Void Elves' defection to the Alliance was really a return to their original faction. Even if at this point I'd just make playable Alliance High Elves just to get people to stop complaining, technically Void Elves fulfill that player desire (and frankly, once you get past how abruptly they were introduced, I think Void Elves are a lot cooler than High Elves would be.)
Anyway, Vulpera came in alongside Mechagnomes. Of course, the oddity of the Mechagnomes is that we've actually seen two types of creatures with that name - the originals, who were fully mechanical, and the new ones, which are really just gnomes who are essentially artificially reversing the curse of flesh through cybernetic augmentation. Given that we saw at least those originals starting in Wrath, I feel like Mechagnomes had the rough precedent to make them feel a little less jarring as a race we'll be carrying with us for WoW's foreseeable future.
But the thing is, I like the Vulpera. Their animations are good, and I love the desert-scavenger aesthetic they have. (I realize that you can remove the wagon-hood from the racial hyena mount using the "Make Camp" racial ability and clicking on the bag that appears next to the tent, but when I did, I realized that I actually liked it with the hood up.)
I'd initially been holding back one allied race alt to make sure I could try out the new starting zone when 9.0 hits, but then remembered that allied races skip that, so instead I just started it up. I'm playing him as Outlaw (after a brief attempt to enjoy Assassination) and while it's been lots of fun (things get way more interesting once you get Roll the Bones) it's kind of crazy to me that Fan of Knives, Shuriken Storm, and Blade Fury don't come until level 63 - other than multi-dotting with Rupture or Nightblade, this is your only multi-target skill, and so it means that until you're a bit into Outland/Northrend, dungeons are going to make you feel really weak (if you're watching damage meters.)
But, with the quarantine buff up, I've managed to get this guy to level 62 in just a few days, so soon that issue will be moot.
Friday, March 27, 2020
Legion Going to Legacy Loot Rules on March 31st, Months After I Already Got Spaulders of the First Satyr
For any transmog fans, there's some excellent news: next week, running Legion Raids will use Legacy Loot rules. That means that, like earlier expansions, bosses will now drop several items on each kill, even if you run the raid solo, making it far more likely for you to get those transmog pieces you want.
Even fairly early in the expansion, it wasn't terribly difficult to solo some of Legion's early raids, and while I think Antorus remains a pretty big challenge to solo, if you've been wanting to complete your Nighthold or Tomb of Sargeras sets, or if you have been able to do Antorus, this will be a welcome change.
To tack on a little editorializing, I'm excited for this but also feeling sort of bittersweet about the lack of interesting-looking gear in BFA. The lack of class sets - something they say will continue in Shadowlands (though I hope they change their minds on this - we're going to be done with Azerite Gear, so there's no reason we shouldn't be able to get tier sets once again) - has made much of BFA's gear feel very generic.
To me, much of BFA's raid gear looks more appropriate as blue dungeon gear, with its lack of bright colors or particle effects. Obviously, this is a case of different people having different aesthetic opinions, but I feel like epic gear ought to look epic, and some sets (particularly thinking of the Eternal Palace sets) just feel boring.
On top of that, while I understand that coming up with your 18th Warrior set (I'm not counting tier 7 - which was a retread of 3 other than the then-new Death Knights - tier 9 - which was only marginally different between classes and more similar to the current model - and tier 20 - which was a retread of tier 6, except for classes that didn't exist yet during Black Temple) might strain your ideas, but class-based sets gave the classes a chance to feel unique, not to mention it created more incentive to farm additional looks. Hell, I had the entire Ny'alotha set's LFR appearance before I ever stepped into the raid, given that they just used the same model for quest rewards.
I am excited to see the various Covenant sets, but I do worry a bit because Blizzard claimed that we'd actually be seeing more models of gear in BFA than previously, which was patently false.
Because I'm an obsessive, I'm going to count appearances between Legion and BFA to compare. I'll do this behind a cut because you don't need to see that unless you're as obsessive as I am.
Even fairly early in the expansion, it wasn't terribly difficult to solo some of Legion's early raids, and while I think Antorus remains a pretty big challenge to solo, if you've been wanting to complete your Nighthold or Tomb of Sargeras sets, or if you have been able to do Antorus, this will be a welcome change.
To tack on a little editorializing, I'm excited for this but also feeling sort of bittersweet about the lack of interesting-looking gear in BFA. The lack of class sets - something they say will continue in Shadowlands (though I hope they change their minds on this - we're going to be done with Azerite Gear, so there's no reason we shouldn't be able to get tier sets once again) - has made much of BFA's gear feel very generic.
To me, much of BFA's raid gear looks more appropriate as blue dungeon gear, with its lack of bright colors or particle effects. Obviously, this is a case of different people having different aesthetic opinions, but I feel like epic gear ought to look epic, and some sets (particularly thinking of the Eternal Palace sets) just feel boring.
On top of that, while I understand that coming up with your 18th Warrior set (I'm not counting tier 7 - which was a retread of 3 other than the then-new Death Knights - tier 9 - which was only marginally different between classes and more similar to the current model - and tier 20 - which was a retread of tier 6, except for classes that didn't exist yet during Black Temple) might strain your ideas, but class-based sets gave the classes a chance to feel unique, not to mention it created more incentive to farm additional looks. Hell, I had the entire Ny'alotha set's LFR appearance before I ever stepped into the raid, given that they just used the same model for quest rewards.
I am excited to see the various Covenant sets, but I do worry a bit because Blizzard claimed that we'd actually be seeing more models of gear in BFA than previously, which was patently false.
Because I'm an obsessive, I'm going to count appearances between Legion and BFA to compare. I'll do this behind a cut because you don't need to see that unless you're as obsessive as I am.
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
The XP Boost and Allied Races
A couple things have converged to inspire me to level up more alts: first, we're all stuck indoors while we wait out this pandemic (I'm very grateful for things like Roll20 and Zoom allowing me to keep playing my D&D games despite our not being able to meet in person,) plus we're officially in the lull stage of the expansion.
Actually, I'm a little disappointed in myself for not having finished the final wing of Ny'alotha on my main in LFR - I've really been sitting out LFR this expansion (I haven't even entered The Eternal Palace yet) and I wanted to make an effort on Ny'alotha given that there's been a decade of build-up to the raid. I only wish there had been more of a build-up in the expansion. I've done the other wings, and this is my basic impression:
Overall, this feels like a remake of Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj, which I mean in a good way. It has that ancient evil Lovecraftian city feel (ironically, while Temple of Ahn'Qiraj is the one that actually has C'thun in it, I think I like the aesthetic of AQ20 better - more Cyclopean architecture than endless generic caves). I particularly love the first wing, with its massive and oppressive black stone and gaping voids below.
But anyway, as I procrastinate (possibly to the point where actually finding an LFR group will be interminable) Blizzard has given everyone a 100% experience buff, which seems like the perfect cue to level up a bunch of allied races I never had done.
Prior to this buff, I'd gotten a Lightforged Draenei (Paladin,) Void Elf (Rogue,) Nightborne (Hunter) and Kul Tiran (Druid). I have members of all the other allied races left to go, and they're all sitting at various levels (I'm also leveling my Goblin Hunter, whom I've had now for... Jesus, ten years, but who had been sitting at 100 since later Warlords - given that there's now Goblin heritage armor).
Playing so many alts - there are now 23 playable races - does lead to some redundancies. Ever since dual-spec came out in Wrath, and particularly now that you can swap specs on the fly, it feels harder to justify having multiple characters of the same class. And ultimately, even if I really love some of the new races (I'm a big fan of Lightforged Draenei, though I hate that their heritage armor helmet cuts off the awesome beard you can get) the only character who has truly overtaken an old "primary alt" of a given class is my Kul Tiran Druid, but given that my Druid is one of my least-played alts, it's not like I'm maining a Kul Tiran now.
I was tempted for a bit to race-change my Draenei Death Knight to a Lightforged Draenei, suggesting that by confronting his literal demons on Argus, he might have finally found redemption and embraced the Light, but until 8.3, one could not be a Lightforged Draenei Death Knight, and now that you can, I've decided that it would be weird to hear a different voice from the character I've played for twelve years (I did make an alternate-universe version of him on my main server's connected server, though, and was lucky enough to have the same name available.)
Indeed, the very concept of Allied Races bumps into this issue: you cannot unlock them unless you have invested heavily in content from Legion or Battle for Azeroth (I pity anyone who didn't play much in Legion and wants to have a Void Elf) but most people who have gotten that far are probably pretty invested in their existing characters.
So to an extent, I'm really just leveling these guys up for the sense of accomplishment, and it's likely that most of them will be sitting on my character select screen and just showing off their heritage armor, rather than playing through into future expansions.
Perhaps if I weren't already so invested in existing alts, I might be more motivated to play these ones. Admittedly, it's fun to get the ding-satisfaction of leveling them up through the old content, but on the other hand, the power level at those low levels (after leveling so very many characters up over the almost fourteen years I've been playing this game) can get pretty frustrating (Rogues don't get any sort of AoE other than multi-dotting until level 63!)
I'm eager to see how leveling feels in 8.0 and beyond. I imagine that if you can get from 10 to 50 in just a single expansion's quests, it'll make this current buff feel like nothing (consider that if you choose BFA to level through, that means you could level up 13 times just doing Drustvar).
Still, WoW currently has a huge benefit - you can see your friends and fight alongside them without any risk of spreading this deadly virus.
Actually, I'm a little disappointed in myself for not having finished the final wing of Ny'alotha on my main in LFR - I've really been sitting out LFR this expansion (I haven't even entered The Eternal Palace yet) and I wanted to make an effort on Ny'alotha given that there's been a decade of build-up to the raid. I only wish there had been more of a build-up in the expansion. I've done the other wings, and this is my basic impression:
Overall, this feels like a remake of Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj, which I mean in a good way. It has that ancient evil Lovecraftian city feel (ironically, while Temple of Ahn'Qiraj is the one that actually has C'thun in it, I think I like the aesthetic of AQ20 better - more Cyclopean architecture than endless generic caves). I particularly love the first wing, with its massive and oppressive black stone and gaping voids below.
But anyway, as I procrastinate (possibly to the point where actually finding an LFR group will be interminable) Blizzard has given everyone a 100% experience buff, which seems like the perfect cue to level up a bunch of allied races I never had done.
Prior to this buff, I'd gotten a Lightforged Draenei (Paladin,) Void Elf (Rogue,) Nightborne (Hunter) and Kul Tiran (Druid). I have members of all the other allied races left to go, and they're all sitting at various levels (I'm also leveling my Goblin Hunter, whom I've had now for... Jesus, ten years, but who had been sitting at 100 since later Warlords - given that there's now Goblin heritage armor).
Playing so many alts - there are now 23 playable races - does lead to some redundancies. Ever since dual-spec came out in Wrath, and particularly now that you can swap specs on the fly, it feels harder to justify having multiple characters of the same class. And ultimately, even if I really love some of the new races (I'm a big fan of Lightforged Draenei, though I hate that their heritage armor helmet cuts off the awesome beard you can get) the only character who has truly overtaken an old "primary alt" of a given class is my Kul Tiran Druid, but given that my Druid is one of my least-played alts, it's not like I'm maining a Kul Tiran now.
I was tempted for a bit to race-change my Draenei Death Knight to a Lightforged Draenei, suggesting that by confronting his literal demons on Argus, he might have finally found redemption and embraced the Light, but until 8.3, one could not be a Lightforged Draenei Death Knight, and now that you can, I've decided that it would be weird to hear a different voice from the character I've played for twelve years (I did make an alternate-universe version of him on my main server's connected server, though, and was lucky enough to have the same name available.)
Indeed, the very concept of Allied Races bumps into this issue: you cannot unlock them unless you have invested heavily in content from Legion or Battle for Azeroth (I pity anyone who didn't play much in Legion and wants to have a Void Elf) but most people who have gotten that far are probably pretty invested in their existing characters.
So to an extent, I'm really just leveling these guys up for the sense of accomplishment, and it's likely that most of them will be sitting on my character select screen and just showing off their heritage armor, rather than playing through into future expansions.
Perhaps if I weren't already so invested in existing alts, I might be more motivated to play these ones. Admittedly, it's fun to get the ding-satisfaction of leveling them up through the old content, but on the other hand, the power level at those low levels (after leveling so very many characters up over the almost fourteen years I've been playing this game) can get pretty frustrating (Rogues don't get any sort of AoE other than multi-dotting until level 63!)
I'm eager to see how leveling feels in 8.0 and beyond. I imagine that if you can get from 10 to 50 in just a single expansion's quests, it'll make this current buff feel like nothing (consider that if you choose BFA to level through, that means you could level up 13 times just doing Drustvar).
Still, WoW currently has a huge benefit - you can see your friends and fight alongside them without any risk of spreading this deadly virus.
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Explorer's Guide to WIldemount: First Impressions
My copy of EGW arrived today, and it's sure nice to have some new stuff to peruse while under the general plague quarantine.
Like Acquisitions Incorporated, this book carries a black banner at the bottom, identifying it as a collaboration, in this case with Critical Role.
Much of the book's length is a thorough description of the continent of Wildemount on the world of Exandria, where the second CR campaign has mostly taken place. It's divided into four broad regions: The Menagerie Coast, which is governed by a confederation of city-states called the Clovis Concord, the Dwendalian Empire, which is a more traditional feudal society ruled by an emperor king (though there are various organizations within the empire that try to run things behind the scenes,) the lands of Xhorhas, ruled by the Kryn Dynasty, a sort of religiously-backed monarchy of so-called monstrous races like the Drow, and the Greying Wildlands, which are more wild and ungoverned.
There's a long description of organizations and important NPCs (funnily enough, you could consider some of these spoilers as to the alignments of various NPCs from campaign 2, though I think they're playing a more nuanced game with alignment than "chaotic evil" would normally suggest. Also of note, Khary Payton's guest character Shokaste is listed among the NPCs.)
The Gazetteer, which goes through the various locations in Wildemount, is very detailed (don't trust the distance scales on the maps, though, as an error led to cities like Port Damali being thousands of miles across.)
What I love about this section is that just about every location has multiple quick prompts for DMs to build adventures - these are just single sentences like "a coven of sea hags has been secretly sabotaging the docks here" or the like, but it's a great way to allow your players to explore where they want to go and have something ready for them.
There are four 1-3 adventures set in each of the major regions of the continent, each with its own tone and vibe and story to play through.
For character options, there are three new subclasses, all themed around the magical discipline of Dunamancy (think of it as a third branch after divine and arcane magic, rather than a school of magic.) The Echo Knight is a very cool Fighter subclass that allows you to summon a shadowy copy of yourself from an alternate timeline, with lots of really fun shenanigans like swapping positions with your copy and choosing whether you or your copy is making attacks.
Chronurgists and Graviturgists are two Wizard subclasses. The former gives you ways to manipulate time on the battlefield. The latter lets you manipulate mass and gravity.
Additionally, there are various Dunamancy spells. Again, these are not a new school, but they tend to have fairly interesting effects, manipulating space and time.
Another very interesting addition here is the Heroic Chronicle. Given how story-focused Critical Role is, it makes sense that they'd come up with a system for creating a rich backstory for your character, and should help your character both fit into the setting as well as giving the DM plenty of ways to make adventures that will revolve around the players. I haven't read this in depth yet, but I might make a separate post about it.
Additionally, there are some new backgrounds: the Grinner, members of the Golden Grin, who are performers that also secretly fight tyranny and communicate through coded songs, and Volstruckers, who are magical assassins that serve the Cerberus Assembly.
There are also a number of magic items to be found here, and this, I'd say, is some of the most epic content in the book. If you've watched campaign one, you'll remember the Vestiges of Divergence - legendary items that get upgraded over the course of the campaign. While you won't see those particular items here (they might be in the Tal'dorei guide, which was not published through WotC, though I don't have that) there are a number of new Vestiges that are quite interesting, especially several weapons that served the Betrayer Gods and are each inhabited by a fiend. These weapons begin in a Dormant state, and can then be upgraded to Awakened and then Exalted, growing more powerful each time.
Finally, we come to monsters. While not quite as extensive as what you'll find in Ravnica or Eberron, there are still quite a few really cool monsters. I'm particularly enamored with the eldritch "Core Spawn" aberrations. There are also fast-moving Husk Zombies that have a built in contagion mechanic to turn others into zombies (I believe these are the first monsters the party fights in episode one.)
What Wizards and Critical Role have delivered is a very fleshed-out world that could support all manner of campaigns. I will, of course, need to do a deeper read through this, but I'm really enjoying it so far.
Like Acquisitions Incorporated, this book carries a black banner at the bottom, identifying it as a collaboration, in this case with Critical Role.
Much of the book's length is a thorough description of the continent of Wildemount on the world of Exandria, where the second CR campaign has mostly taken place. It's divided into four broad regions: The Menagerie Coast, which is governed by a confederation of city-states called the Clovis Concord, the Dwendalian Empire, which is a more traditional feudal society ruled by an emperor king (though there are various organizations within the empire that try to run things behind the scenes,) the lands of Xhorhas, ruled by the Kryn Dynasty, a sort of religiously-backed monarchy of so-called monstrous races like the Drow, and the Greying Wildlands, which are more wild and ungoverned.
There's a long description of organizations and important NPCs (funnily enough, you could consider some of these spoilers as to the alignments of various NPCs from campaign 2, though I think they're playing a more nuanced game with alignment than "chaotic evil" would normally suggest. Also of note, Khary Payton's guest character Shokaste is listed among the NPCs.)
The Gazetteer, which goes through the various locations in Wildemount, is very detailed (don't trust the distance scales on the maps, though, as an error led to cities like Port Damali being thousands of miles across.)
What I love about this section is that just about every location has multiple quick prompts for DMs to build adventures - these are just single sentences like "a coven of sea hags has been secretly sabotaging the docks here" or the like, but it's a great way to allow your players to explore where they want to go and have something ready for them.
There are four 1-3 adventures set in each of the major regions of the continent, each with its own tone and vibe and story to play through.
For character options, there are three new subclasses, all themed around the magical discipline of Dunamancy (think of it as a third branch after divine and arcane magic, rather than a school of magic.) The Echo Knight is a very cool Fighter subclass that allows you to summon a shadowy copy of yourself from an alternate timeline, with lots of really fun shenanigans like swapping positions with your copy and choosing whether you or your copy is making attacks.
Chronurgists and Graviturgists are two Wizard subclasses. The former gives you ways to manipulate time on the battlefield. The latter lets you manipulate mass and gravity.
Additionally, there are various Dunamancy spells. Again, these are not a new school, but they tend to have fairly interesting effects, manipulating space and time.
Another very interesting addition here is the Heroic Chronicle. Given how story-focused Critical Role is, it makes sense that they'd come up with a system for creating a rich backstory for your character, and should help your character both fit into the setting as well as giving the DM plenty of ways to make adventures that will revolve around the players. I haven't read this in depth yet, but I might make a separate post about it.
Additionally, there are some new backgrounds: the Grinner, members of the Golden Grin, who are performers that also secretly fight tyranny and communicate through coded songs, and Volstruckers, who are magical assassins that serve the Cerberus Assembly.
There are also a number of magic items to be found here, and this, I'd say, is some of the most epic content in the book. If you've watched campaign one, you'll remember the Vestiges of Divergence - legendary items that get upgraded over the course of the campaign. While you won't see those particular items here (they might be in the Tal'dorei guide, which was not published through WotC, though I don't have that) there are a number of new Vestiges that are quite interesting, especially several weapons that served the Betrayer Gods and are each inhabited by a fiend. These weapons begin in a Dormant state, and can then be upgraded to Awakened and then Exalted, growing more powerful each time.
Finally, we come to monsters. While not quite as extensive as what you'll find in Ravnica or Eberron, there are still quite a few really cool monsters. I'm particularly enamored with the eldritch "Core Spawn" aberrations. There are also fast-moving Husk Zombies that have a built in contagion mechanic to turn others into zombies (I believe these are the first monsters the party fights in episode one.)
What Wizards and Critical Role have delivered is a very fleshed-out world that could support all manner of campaigns. I will, of course, need to do a deeper read through this, but I'm really enjoying it so far.
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