10-12-2007, 12:25 AM
Adventurers Guild
DAVID AMES introduces this PBM game...
I DO NOT usually bother classifying games, having played a variety of them in years past which have been difficult to pin down as a power or a wargame. However, this creation of epmgames has caused me more difficulties than most and so a process which I normally do not bother with is a more interesting exercise.
First and foremost Adventurers Guild is a game played entirely on the web, nothing particularly unusual or odd about that. Secondly it is a single character game, although it is possible to run multiple individuals if you wish. These characters are created in the same way as in a host of other RP Games, ie a number of points are distributed and allocated to a few primary character attributes, namely Strength, Constitution, Dexterity and Cunning. Again, this along with the choice of several races each with special advantages and disadvantages means that there is still little in the way of controversy so far. Thirdly, this character in his or her first turn is allocated a Guild, or place of residence. Within this Guild area there is a regular tournament held each turn where groups of characters spar in order to win Experience and/or Gold. Aha, you may quip, then it is a single character combat arena game, and this is what my view was for the first couple of turns.
The turns
My long first turn described seven combats, all of which were fairly similar in content. Here's a short extract:
The warriors salute one another, and the fight begins
Goblin Warrior charges in
Goblin Warrior tries booting Uthere in the right leg
Uthere avoids the kick
Uthere swings with his great sword
Goblin Warrior stumbles trying to dodge
Goblin Warrior is struck in the body
Goblin Warrior is not harmed by the attack
Keeping his eyes on Goblin Warrior, Uthere crouches slightly Uthere slices with his great sword
Goblin Warrior is unable to dodge the attack
Goblin Warrior is struck in the body
Goblin Warrior escapes injury
Uthere draws his great sword back and thrusts at Goblin Warrior Goblin Warrior raises his club to parry the attack, but Uthere's great sword forces it aside
Goblin Warrior is struck in the left arm
Goblin Warrior's leather armor absorbs some of the damage Goblin Warrior takes a grazing blow to the left arm
"Go home Goblin Warrior," cries someone in the crowd
Keeping his eyes on Goblin Warrior, Uthere crouches slightly Uthere swings downward with his great sword at Goblin Warrior With a scornful laugh, Goblin Warrior dodges Uthere's attack
* Goblin Warrior - sweating a little, hardly hurt
* Uthere - full of energy
By the time I had read this first one my attention was beginning to wane. I glanced at the next few and then skipped without reading down to the summary of the action at the end. In addition to the fights there was some text about escorting a local nobleman to the theatre to earn some gold if I wanted to undertake this as a quest.
I confess that I was not particularly impressed: this long turn would have cost a paying customer $10 for some largely computer-generated script, most of which was fairly repetitive. Even more frustrating was the website, as I struggled to find my way around it to get at large amount of information contained on it and to access my player order sheet.
My next turn was little different, a long scroll of computer-generated text which I confess I read even less of than the first turn. There was, however, one slight surprise: I lost a combat I probably should have won against a lighter and less powerful opponent. Basically my Great Sword is at its most effective at medium range. At each of the three ranges (long, medium or short) you are allowed to specify what you will do. So, I chose 'advance to medium' at long, 'attack' at medium and 'retreat to medium' at short. Pretty straightforward I thought, I will just play to my strengths. Well on this occasion my small opponent simply always moved to short range. As a result I always retreated and this led to the fight being stopped after a while and me being booed off the rink, with the match going to my more aggressive opponent.
I made a slight modification to my attack plan by including some short range attacks instead of an automatic retreat and sent off my next turn. These results were even more irritating. Not only did I lose another similar match to a quick short range opponent, but I lost another fight to an opponent who used something called an 'Initiative' Skill against me. In effect I never threw a blow and ended up reacting to my quicker opponent. Another match of the seven was lost to a mage who used the 'Daze' Skill against me and as a result I just stood there and allowed myself to be hit. This was silly, I was bigger and stronger than these guys, how dare they beat me. This turn, instead of increasing my strength I invested in the initiative skill myself... what is good for the goose and all that.
Adventuring forth
Anyway, having had enough of tournament matches I decided to spread my wings a little bit and opted to take an adventure instead. The tourney is sort of the default option for those who do not adventure so I thought I would try to broaden my experience of the game. So, it was down into the Rat Tunnels for me this turn, I set the difficulty level at 2 of a possible 20 and down I went. Disaster.
All the rats were smaller than me and intent on one thing, getting to short range and nibbling my legs. What is more, after the first match I had lost health and in the absence of any form of healing my retreat defaults kicked in before every encounter. As a result I killed 0 rats, which must be a record.
There is a saying that was said by a profoundly wise man: 'When all else fails, read the instructions.' Stung by my crushing failure and knowing I would have to parade my defeat to the sniggering voyeurs that are the Flagship readership, I then re-read the rules. Lo and behold there was an additional skill called Push that allows you to simply push opponents back from short range to medium. Surely the answer to my short range problem, particularly since I was bigger than most and should be able to push them easily. Also, I found it is possible to buy kits to bandage wounds as well as Healing potions. Not only that but I could hire a Healer mercenary character to travel with me to cast Cure spells. Next turn was spent in the rat tunnels again, this time at difficulty level 1 and with some satisfaction I will announce that I kicked some ratty butt.
I found it difficult to explain my glee at this triumph: I had solved the problem which had caused me several game losses and I had formed a small adventuring party. The trouble was I had actually made an in-game loss, spending more money on the Healer Mercenary and the bandaging kits than I had found in the tunnels.
By now I was coming to realise that this was more than a simple combat arena game and my interest in the individual contests was renewed. This turn I read all of them through, and looked for the subtle hints which would allow me to develop my character further. The following turn, myself and the Healer ventured onto another quest on the Isle of Isurus, my Push and Initiative skills developed further. I enclose another transcript (Ssee box): Marina is my healer.
In the action you will note that because of my initiative the hapless zombie never even got to throw a punch. Ha! However, the latter encounter was even more interesting since it is clear that a high cunning would have helped Uthere avoid this spike trap, but I have concentrated on creating a heavy built strong Human fighter. Perhaps a character with high cunning might be useful? I will develop this theme a little because as I have illustrated, Mercenaries are possible to hire. Why not simply dispense with Mercenaries and create a Healer Character instead? Looking at the Abilities and Skills lists I see a 'Heal Party' Skill and a 'Find Traps' ability. Perhaps it is possible to tailor-make a character with the sole reason of making a healer or trap finder for an adventuring party?
Well indeed it is possible, and in fact people do exactly that, they design characters with specific functions in mind. A physically weak character who can cast entangle on their enemies from a distance will immobilise them so that the more physical party members can tear them apart. Healers can heal; trap finders can ensure the party avoids traps and so on.
Communicating
It will not surprise you that a PBeM game has an active message board run by the game. In this there are requests posted for adventurers wishing to join groups and groups advertising for new adventurers. There are boastful jibes at other players, there are threats, and there is poetry and eulogies to the deceased. All in all there is so much traffic on the board that I had to leave it after a few weeks. Some 10-40 messages per day were more than I could cope with.
What is clear though, is that the large gaming community are having a hoot as they discuss the merits of this and that type of character. The latest flavour of the month is a half troll Berserker with a high initiative, but with discussions ranging far and wide over the use of magic or religious artefacts, where to get a magic sword made and so on. The GM regularly contributes to the board and ensures it remains lively and informative about the game mechanics. It is clear that the game has evolved considerably since its original inception and this evolution seems to be mainly player driven and acted upon by a GM as interested in the evolution of the game as his players.
What sort of game is this?
I will now return to my theme of how to categorise this game. It is clearly more than a solo arena game or a solo adventure game: it is now allowing player interaction and for PCs to group together on quests in order to utilise the abilities of the others. What is more, in this situation it is almost inevitable that groups of rivals spring up and when you add religious differences as the various local deities vie for supremacy you have a real hotbed of activity. Wow, all of a sudden this is looking much more complex and from my initial very sceptical turn I am finding this game increasingly intriguing.
As the review draws to a close I am now forced to consider whether I would carry on playing the game after my review turns expire. On balance I think probably not. $10 is probably a tad too steep for what is largely an automated reply, although when I think about it I regularly pay this for other games with a large degree of computer moderation. However, perhaps I am being unreasonable? Maybe I should be considering paying the premium for what is clearly a well programmed and durable game with a large and interactive player base? As to my grumbles on the web site, well now that I have been in the game for a few turns I find the site fairly straightforward. I know where the main areas are and there are plenty of links to the information that you need. So I was a bit harsh on it initially, and I think part of my irritation is that I was disappointed by the first turn and all too ready to be critical.
From a personal perspective this game has been a fascinating one to review, since my initially quite negative thoughts have become more and more positive with each passing turn. For this reason I will give the game a thumbs up, but with the recommendation not to judge it until the end of at least a half dozen turns. Finally returning to the classification theme, in desperation I asked Hugh the GM for his opinion. He describes the game as a 'mostly computer moderated fantasy role-playing game involving combat and adventure.' 'Nuff said.
Adventurers Guild at a glance
A purely e-mail game run by Hugh Bayer at epmgames who can be contacted via epmgames.com. The turns are processed regularly every fortnight and cost 10 US dollars. Additional characters in the same guild area run at $5 per character.
DAVID AMES introduces this PBM game...
I DO NOT usually bother classifying games, having played a variety of them in years past which have been difficult to pin down as a power or a wargame. However, this creation of epmgames has caused me more difficulties than most and so a process which I normally do not bother with is a more interesting exercise.
First and foremost Adventurers Guild is a game played entirely on the web, nothing particularly unusual or odd about that. Secondly it is a single character game, although it is possible to run multiple individuals if you wish. These characters are created in the same way as in a host of other RP Games, ie a number of points are distributed and allocated to a few primary character attributes, namely Strength, Constitution, Dexterity and Cunning. Again, this along with the choice of several races each with special advantages and disadvantages means that there is still little in the way of controversy so far. Thirdly, this character in his or her first turn is allocated a Guild, or place of residence. Within this Guild area there is a regular tournament held each turn where groups of characters spar in order to win Experience and/or Gold. Aha, you may quip, then it is a single character combat arena game, and this is what my view was for the first couple of turns.
The turns
My long first turn described seven combats, all of which were fairly similar in content. Here's a short extract:
The warriors salute one another, and the fight begins
Goblin Warrior charges in
Goblin Warrior tries booting Uthere in the right leg
Uthere avoids the kick
Uthere swings with his great sword
Goblin Warrior stumbles trying to dodge
Goblin Warrior is struck in the body
Goblin Warrior is not harmed by the attack
Keeping his eyes on Goblin Warrior, Uthere crouches slightly Uthere slices with his great sword
Goblin Warrior is unable to dodge the attack
Goblin Warrior is struck in the body
Goblin Warrior escapes injury
Uthere draws his great sword back and thrusts at Goblin Warrior Goblin Warrior raises his club to parry the attack, but Uthere's great sword forces it aside
Goblin Warrior is struck in the left arm
Goblin Warrior's leather armor absorbs some of the damage Goblin Warrior takes a grazing blow to the left arm
"Go home Goblin Warrior," cries someone in the crowd
Keeping his eyes on Goblin Warrior, Uthere crouches slightly Uthere swings downward with his great sword at Goblin Warrior With a scornful laugh, Goblin Warrior dodges Uthere's attack
* Goblin Warrior - sweating a little, hardly hurt
* Uthere - full of energy
By the time I had read this first one my attention was beginning to wane. I glanced at the next few and then skipped without reading down to the summary of the action at the end. In addition to the fights there was some text about escorting a local nobleman to the theatre to earn some gold if I wanted to undertake this as a quest.
I confess that I was not particularly impressed: this long turn would have cost a paying customer $10 for some largely computer-generated script, most of which was fairly repetitive. Even more frustrating was the website, as I struggled to find my way around it to get at large amount of information contained on it and to access my player order sheet.
My next turn was little different, a long scroll of computer-generated text which I confess I read even less of than the first turn. There was, however, one slight surprise: I lost a combat I probably should have won against a lighter and less powerful opponent. Basically my Great Sword is at its most effective at medium range. At each of the three ranges (long, medium or short) you are allowed to specify what you will do. So, I chose 'advance to medium' at long, 'attack' at medium and 'retreat to medium' at short. Pretty straightforward I thought, I will just play to my strengths. Well on this occasion my small opponent simply always moved to short range. As a result I always retreated and this led to the fight being stopped after a while and me being booed off the rink, with the match going to my more aggressive opponent.
I made a slight modification to my attack plan by including some short range attacks instead of an automatic retreat and sent off my next turn. These results were even more irritating. Not only did I lose another similar match to a quick short range opponent, but I lost another fight to an opponent who used something called an 'Initiative' Skill against me. In effect I never threw a blow and ended up reacting to my quicker opponent. Another match of the seven was lost to a mage who used the 'Daze' Skill against me and as a result I just stood there and allowed myself to be hit. This was silly, I was bigger and stronger than these guys, how dare they beat me. This turn, instead of increasing my strength I invested in the initiative skill myself... what is good for the goose and all that.
Adventuring forth
Anyway, having had enough of tournament matches I decided to spread my wings a little bit and opted to take an adventure instead. The tourney is sort of the default option for those who do not adventure so I thought I would try to broaden my experience of the game. So, it was down into the Rat Tunnels for me this turn, I set the difficulty level at 2 of a possible 20 and down I went. Disaster.
All the rats were smaller than me and intent on one thing, getting to short range and nibbling my legs. What is more, after the first match I had lost health and in the absence of any form of healing my retreat defaults kicked in before every encounter. As a result I killed 0 rats, which must be a record.
There is a saying that was said by a profoundly wise man: 'When all else fails, read the instructions.' Stung by my crushing failure and knowing I would have to parade my defeat to the sniggering voyeurs that are the Flagship readership, I then re-read the rules. Lo and behold there was an additional skill called Push that allows you to simply push opponents back from short range to medium. Surely the answer to my short range problem, particularly since I was bigger than most and should be able to push them easily. Also, I found it is possible to buy kits to bandage wounds as well as Healing potions. Not only that but I could hire a Healer mercenary character to travel with me to cast Cure spells. Next turn was spent in the rat tunnels again, this time at difficulty level 1 and with some satisfaction I will announce that I kicked some ratty butt.
I found it difficult to explain my glee at this triumph: I had solved the problem which had caused me several game losses and I had formed a small adventuring party. The trouble was I had actually made an in-game loss, spending more money on the Healer Mercenary and the bandaging kits than I had found in the tunnels.
By now I was coming to realise that this was more than a simple combat arena game and my interest in the individual contests was renewed. This turn I read all of them through, and looked for the subtle hints which would allow me to develop my character further. The following turn, myself and the Healer ventured onto another quest on the Isle of Isurus, my Push and Initiative skills developed further. I enclose another transcript (Ssee box): Marina is my healer.
In the action you will note that because of my initiative the hapless zombie never even got to throw a punch. Ha! However, the latter encounter was even more interesting since it is clear that a high cunning would have helped Uthere avoid this spike trap, but I have concentrated on creating a heavy built strong Human fighter. Perhaps a character with high cunning might be useful? I will develop this theme a little because as I have illustrated, Mercenaries are possible to hire. Why not simply dispense with Mercenaries and create a Healer Character instead? Looking at the Abilities and Skills lists I see a 'Heal Party' Skill and a 'Find Traps' ability. Perhaps it is possible to tailor-make a character with the sole reason of making a healer or trap finder for an adventuring party?
Well indeed it is possible, and in fact people do exactly that, they design characters with specific functions in mind. A physically weak character who can cast entangle on their enemies from a distance will immobilise them so that the more physical party members can tear them apart. Healers can heal; trap finders can ensure the party avoids traps and so on.
Communicating
It will not surprise you that a PBeM game has an active message board run by the game. In this there are requests posted for adventurers wishing to join groups and groups advertising for new adventurers. There are boastful jibes at other players, there are threats, and there is poetry and eulogies to the deceased. All in all there is so much traffic on the board that I had to leave it after a few weeks. Some 10-40 messages per day were more than I could cope with.
What is clear though, is that the large gaming community are having a hoot as they discuss the merits of this and that type of character. The latest flavour of the month is a half troll Berserker with a high initiative, but with discussions ranging far and wide over the use of magic or religious artefacts, where to get a magic sword made and so on. The GM regularly contributes to the board and ensures it remains lively and informative about the game mechanics. It is clear that the game has evolved considerably since its original inception and this evolution seems to be mainly player driven and acted upon by a GM as interested in the evolution of the game as his players.
What sort of game is this?
I will now return to my theme of how to categorise this game. It is clearly more than a solo arena game or a solo adventure game: it is now allowing player interaction and for PCs to group together on quests in order to utilise the abilities of the others. What is more, in this situation it is almost inevitable that groups of rivals spring up and when you add religious differences as the various local deities vie for supremacy you have a real hotbed of activity. Wow, all of a sudden this is looking much more complex and from my initial very sceptical turn I am finding this game increasingly intriguing.
As the review draws to a close I am now forced to consider whether I would carry on playing the game after my review turns expire. On balance I think probably not. $10 is probably a tad too steep for what is largely an automated reply, although when I think about it I regularly pay this for other games with a large degree of computer moderation. However, perhaps I am being unreasonable? Maybe I should be considering paying the premium for what is clearly a well programmed and durable game with a large and interactive player base? As to my grumbles on the web site, well now that I have been in the game for a few turns I find the site fairly straightforward. I know where the main areas are and there are plenty of links to the information that you need. So I was a bit harsh on it initially, and I think part of my irritation is that I was disappointed by the first turn and all too ready to be critical.
From a personal perspective this game has been a fascinating one to review, since my initially quite negative thoughts have become more and more positive with each passing turn. For this reason I will give the game a thumbs up, but with the recommendation not to judge it until the end of at least a half dozen turns. Finally returning to the classification theme, in desperation I asked Hugh the GM for his opinion. He describes the game as a 'mostly computer moderated fantasy role-playing game involving combat and adventure.' 'Nuff said.
Adventurers Guild at a glance
A purely e-mail game run by Hugh Bayer at epmgames who can be contacted via epmgames.com. The turns are processed regularly every fortnight and cost 10 US dollars. Additional characters in the same guild area run at $5 per character.
David Ames
2004-12-06
2004-12-06