Dark Heresy - Introductory Adventure - Part 2

 We ran through the second part of my current Dark Heresy adventure on Wednesday. It was a blast, and I felt like it went a lot smoother than the first session. It was a fairly short session, but fun all the same.


Now Entering Stern Hope

Upon entrance to Stern Hope, the PCs were met by Brother Lamark. They immediately took a liking to him, and he to them. They also met a new PC, the arbitrator. Their first stop was the inn, the Crying Clota. Now, I didn't have a chance to look up what a Clota was before the session (apparently it's some herd animal native to Iocanthos). So, the arbitrator's player decided to define it for us, as a limb that was cut off by a chain sword. I love it when the players take on some of the creativity of the game!

After dropping Aristarchus off at the Crying Clota, the PCs decide to wonder around town and see what they can learn. Since they hadn't done much of this back at Port Suffering, I was glad they were starting to do some investigation. They stopped first at the Priory and talked with Brother Lamark. I had a lot of fun RPing him, though I may have made him a bit too silly. After that some of them wandered up into the hills, but without a guide or good directions, they got a bit lost and finally ended up back where they started. The psyker decided to try psyniscience to sense any disturbances in the warp - but all he sensed was an eerie silence, like the calm before a storm. Finally they headed to bed.

On the Heights

The next morning they met Abbot Skae and Brother Severus. They didn't ask too many questions or interact with him too much, but headed right out to talk to the people of the settlement. Specifically they targeted the camp of Ashleen warriors. This was good, since the Ashleen seemed to have the most interesting information about the situation. The arbitrator's high inquiry skill got them a few answers, and they managed to bribe one of the townsfolk to accompany them up into the hills, where strange lights had been rumored to be seen. Lamark also accompanied them.

In the hills, they were ambushed by a strange creature called a hexalid. Again, the arbitrator proved to be a valuable addition to the party. His high awareness allowed the party to notice the hexalid before it attacked, keeping it from surprising them. Additionally, his quick reactions, trusty shotgun, and high ballistic skill (and good roll!) allowed him to nearly take out the creature in one shot. Upon it's death, the hexalid was revealed to be mostly rotten, with it's eyes pecked out. Creepy!

Session End

I ended the session rather early this time since I needed to pack and people had places to be the next morning. We stopped as the acolytes were returning to Stern Hope, at dusk. The next morning would herald the arrival of Esha Raine, the wisewoman, and later in the afternoon, the consecration of the cathedral. Will the ceremony go smoothly? Or will dire and unnatural forces keep it from succeeding? We'll see next time!


Lessons Learned


The hexalid fight would have been more challenging (and more interesting, and possibly more fun) if I had done a few things differently. First, I completely forgot fear rolls again. The hexalid is a frightening creature and should have required a fear roll of 1. Secondly, the creature had a few special qualities that I neglected to look up ahead of time which may have effected the fight. Finally, I handled the hexalid the same way I handled the thugs, which was a mistake. The thugs were somewhat weak, individual enemies which I allowed to die upon taking any critical damage. The hexalid, however, should have kept on fighting until killed by excess critical damage, just like a PC would. This would have made the fight significantly more interesting, and is something I'll definitely do for any tough NPCs or monsters in the future.

The next session in the adventure will be run sometime in the next two weeks. Hopefully it will go well, as I apply everything I've learned so far!

Dark Heresy - Introductory Adventure - Part 1

 I'm currently running the introductory adventure of Dark Heresy for my local gaming group. I thought I'd bring you a brief summary of how it was going, what I've learned, and what I hope to do better next time.

The Acolytes

The group of PCs is a motley crew (but aren't they always?) consisting of a tech priest, cleric, psyker, arbitrator, and scum. Only the players for the cleric and tech priest have significant knowledge of the Warhammer 40k universe, though the arbitrator has some inkling from the Dawn of War games. So far, none has ventured far from their iconic roles, but that's to be expected as many are new to both the system and the lore.


The Brazen Sky

The characters began play on The Brazen Sky, a interstellar freighter taking them to the planet Iocanthos, where they would investigate some "phantasmagoria" (best word ever) surrounding a soon to be consecrated temple to Saint Drusus. The time on the Brazen Sky is intended to allow the characters to get to know eachother and interact with an overbearing purser who had access to the "gray market", a market for illegal and hard to find goods. However, I found it difficult making this work, and we ended this section early.

Port Suffering

The next section of the adventure had the acolytes land at Port Suffering. I enjoyed role playing the self-important official who meets them at the drop location, and I felt like the players did a good job of getting into the roleplay and handling him. On the way to meet their contact, the players came across a crazy old man. They succeeded on their rolls to decipher his mumbled ramblings, which was fun. And the scum provoked a combat encounter by roughly grabbing the old man's arm.

Here's where things started to go wrong. I'm simply not familiar with the combat mechanics for Dark Heresy yet, and the combat was one bumbling mistake on my part after another. Still, I feel like we all gained some valuable (out of game) experience on how the combat system works, which I feel was the main point of this particular combat. The PCs were wounded, and learned that working together might have prevented that, as well as being prepared for combat rather than letting it happen to them. These are two important features of Dark Heresy.

After the combat, the PCs would normally have continued on to meet their contact, Aristarchus the Seer. However, they were accosted by the local authorities due to the gunfire in the combat with the street thugs. I (and the book) expected them to try to talk their way out of this, but players always find a way to ruin your plans :) So, Aristarchus met them at the town watch station and collected them there.

The Trip to Stern Hope

The next leg of the adventure involved the trip to Stern Hope, where the cathedral due to be consecrated is located. While there were no combats on the trip, there were two important events. First, during the night, a dead body stumbled into the PC's camp and collapsed. It appeared to have been dead for days. Second, later the next day, the PCs encounter a strange apparition on a nearby outcropping of rock, which disappears right after being seen. Moving closer, they see a symbol of Saint Drusus burned into the rock.

I feel like I didn't handle either of these particularly well. The dead body moving around should possibly have required fear rolls, and could have been made a lot creepier. The strange apparition could also have been made creepier. I need to work on how I describe the strange phenomena going on around the players, to help get them in the mood.

Session End

I ended the first session here, as they were about to reach Stern Hope. One of the nice things about Dark Heresy is that experience is awarded on a per session basis, so that each time players have a chance to get something new. Their fate points also recharge on a per session basis. This also allows players to bypass some of the harshness of the healing rules - a fate point can be expended to regain 1d5 wounds, so at the end of the session the PCs can spend their fate points to recover, then regain the fate points back at the beginning of the next session.

Lessons Learned

This first session was extremely useful in familiarizing myself and my players with the combat system. I also think it helped get them used to the Warhammer 40k lore, though that will take more time to sink in fully. I also became more comfortable with roleplaying 40k NPCs, which I think I did a much better job of in the second session. Finally, it gave me some ideas on how to handle experience, healing, and fate point recharge in the play by post game I have planned.

I've already played through a second session of this adventure, and I'll post a summary of that in the near future!

Personal Update: Moving and PAX

I'll be quite busy during the next week, with moving and with attending PAX (well, one day of it). I'll try to post a few things but it's likely you won't hear much from me until later next week. I'll give my impressions from PAX at that time, as well as a few other fun articles I have planned!

Revenge of the Jiyas: Coldridge Valley

Revenge of the Jiyas  returns today with an article on Coldridge Valley, the dwarf starting zone. As usual, I'm documenting my speed testing of the WoW-Pro Leveling addon.This time our intrepid adventurer was Jiyadwarf, a dwarf warrior.

Note: The 1-5 starter zones are very quick, with levels flying by so quickly it's hard to get an accurate measurement. Additionally,  the pacing of some starting zones is vastly different than others. It will be nice to have a comparison of how long each takes, but not too much should be read into these tests. The higher level tests will be much more accurate and indicative of zone and guide quality.

Total /played at level 5.5: 33min 
Coldridge Valley (1-5.5): 33min

7.3 min/lvl

Previous Chapters:

• Project Overview
• 1-5: Valley of Trials | Echo Isles | Red Cloud Mesa | Kezan | Deathknell | Sunstrider Isle
          Northshire Valley

I rather like dwarves, and there were a lot of charming things about this zone that worked well. However, there were lots of things that did NOT work, as well. You'll notice right away that the time for this zone is very long compared to other speed throughs. Yes, I ended at a slightly higher level, but I felt like this zone simply didn't want to let you leave.

But first, the good things. I enjoyed that it looked like an actual battle was taking place. There were NPCs helping you fight the troggs. You were gathering supplies the civilians needed (though this had us killing boars and wolves forever to get less than 100% drop items. I guess that's just a thing with dwarves). Your quests had purpose and seemed natural, and at first, weren't ridiculously long. Then, all of a sudden, you are sent by yourself to the caves swarming with trolls and told to kill 10 of them, then 10 more. Bleck. The troll quests seemed to take forever. Finally, when it's time to leave, you find your way blocked. But do you immediately hop onto the gyrocopter offered to help you continue on? No, you have to go back inside and gather a bunch of your stuff (why didn't we have it with us to begin with?). It felt very arbitrary. That said, the gyrocopter ride was awesome, and a good way to introduce the rest of the zone.

The guide for this zone was very good, aside from a couple auto-complete issues. I liked the use of single objective steps as well as a hearthstone use to get you back to town quickly.

I've updated the guide page for this section on WoW-Pro.com, and the changes will be included in the next addon update. I wouldn't recommend trying to update the file on your own unless you are experienced working with addons. If you do decide to update early:

1. Go to the Coldridge Valley page and copy the contents of the guide. 
2. Open up your WoW folder and go to Interface > Addons > WoWPro_Leveling > Horde 
3. Open up 01_05_Gylin_Dwarf_Starter.lua
4. Copy the guide contents there.

Next Up: ALLIANCE - Shadowglen!

Revenge of the Jiyas: Northshire Valley

 We're back to speed testing today with a new Revenge of the Jiyas article! In this series, I document my speed testing of the WoW-Pro Leveling addon. This time through I was in Northshire Valley, on Humanhiya, the human warrior! Sadly I forgot to take screenshots. Oh well, there's always next time!

Note: The 1-5 starter zones are very quick, with levels flying by so quickly it's hard to get an accurate measurement. Additionally,  the pacing of some starting zones is vastly different than others. It will be nice to have a comparison of how long each takes, but not too much should be read into these tests. The higher level tests will be much more accurate and indicative of zone and guide quality.

Total /played at level 5: 18min 
Northshire Valley (1-5): 18min

4.5 min/lvl

Previous Chapters:

• Project Overview
• 1-5: Valley of Trials | Echo Isles | Red Cloud Mesa | Kezan | Deathknell | Sunstrider Isle

This zone was FAST. I have to confess I stopped paying attention occasionally and killed too many creatures for the kills quests, and I still got through it faster than any starter zone so far. That said, it was also incredibly boring. The kill quests were only a small step above the originals for this zone, and they seemed longer for some reason. It also felt like there was a lot of pointless running back and forth, that had nothing to do with the guide and everything to do with bad quest design.

One thing I noticed for this zone, that makes a LOT of sense to me, is that quests are class specific and so are rewards. This makes it impossible for a newbie to accidentally chose the wrong type of gear.

The guide itself was pretty good, but there were definitely some occasions that it needed to say a little more. In particular, it was difficult to know what quest givers where inside the abbey and which were outside, so I'll be adding notes to that effect. I did appreciate the use of hearthstone to return from the final quest objective!

I've updated the guide page for this section on WoW-Pro.com, and the changes will be included in the next addon update. I wouldn't recommend trying to update the file on your own unless you are experienced working with addons. If you do decide to update early:

1. Go to the Northsire Valley page and copy the contents of the guide. 
2. Open up your WoW folder and go to Interface > Addons > WoWPro_Leveling > Horde 
3. Open up 01_11_Kurich_Elwynn_Forest.lua
4. Copy the guide contents there.

Next Up: ALLIANCE - Coldridge Valley!

Dark Heresy - Grim Dark Awesome

I've recently begun GMing (acting as game master for) a game called Dark Heresy. Dark Heresy is a tabletop RPG set in the Warhammer 40k universe. For those unfamiliar with the setting, Warhammer 40k is a science fiction setting in the year 40,000, and the future is not nice. In fact, it's termed "grim, dark" in the official book descriptions, and "grimdark" has become a minor meme around the internet to describe the gritty, harsh conditions that characterize this setting.

Rather than attempt to describe the setting further, I'll give you the official description:

"It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor of Mankind has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the master of mankind by the will of the gods and master of a million worlds by the might of his inexhaustible armies. He is a rotting carcass writhing invisibly with power from the Dark Age of Technology. He is the Carrion Lord of the vast Imperium of Man for whom a thousand souls are sacrificed every day so that he may never truly die.Yet even in his deathless state, the Emperor continues his eternal vigilance. Mighty battlefleets cross the daemon-infested miasma of the Warp, the only route between distant stars, their way lit by the Astronomican, the psychic manifestation of the Emperor's will. Vast armies give battle in His name on uncounted worlds. Greatest amongst his soldiers are the Adeptus Astartes, the Space Marines, bio-engineered super-warriors. Their comrades in arms are legion: the Imperial Guard and countless planetary defense forces, the ever-vigilant Inquisition and the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus to name only a few. But for all their multitudes, they are barely enough to hold off the ever-present threat to humanity from aliens, heretics, mutants -- and far, far worse. To be a man in such times is to be one amongst untold billions. It is to live in the cruelest and most bloody regime imaginable. These are the tales of those times. Forget the power of technology and science, for so much has been forgotten, never to be relearned. Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods." 

Basically, the human regime is harsh, xenophobic, and violently intolerant. The average human can expect a short life filled with little more than work and duty, often cut violently short. But the alternative to the Imperium is much worse - chaos powers and violent aliens are barely kept at bay by Imperial armies.

I've read several books set in this universe - they can be very good, but also very bad, as books commissioned and controlled by a company can be (other examples include Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Star Wars, Star Trek, and others). If the setting sounds interesting and you'd like to try some of the novels, I'd highly recommend the Last Chancers series, or for a lighter and more fun introduction, the Ciaphus Cain series.

Warhammer originally began, and is best known, as a tabletop wargame. However, the RPG (both the fantasy version and 40k) have become more popular recently. The 40k RPG is called Dark Heresy. In it, the characters play as Acolytes, servants of the Inquisition. Their missions from their Inquisitor can vary greatly, but examples include investigating strange phenomena, possible alien activity, or rooting out heretical tendencies. Unlike in D&D, characters are not (in the default rules) particularly powerful compared to other people. Combat is extremely deadly, with characters easily ending up maimed or killed. Additionally, healing is not easy to come by, and unless extraordinarily lucky, characters have access to at best similar medical conditions as those in real life. Often, the party will be visiting a backwoods planet with much lower caliber medical facilities. So an emphasis on investigation and avoidance of combat is the best way for characters to survive.

I've been running the basic, vanilla game. However, there are many supplemental sourcebooks. Additionally, Games Workshop (the Warhammer publisher) has released two standalone expansions to the game called Rogue Trader and Deathwatch. In Rogue Trader, rather than playing Acolytes in the Inquisition, the characters are rogue traders in a ship out to seek their fortune. A rogue trader is a combination of freelance explorer, conquistador and merchant. They are Imperial servants, given a ship, a crew, a contingent of Marines or Guardsmen and carte blanche to roam the worlds beyond Imperial control. Rogue Trader uses a different system for wealth than Dark Heresy, and in general the players have access to more stuff right off the bat since they are more autonomous and have their own ship.

In Deathwatch, the characters play as Space Marines, the Adeptus Astartes. Anyone familiar with the setting knows that space marines are pretty much the scariest thing the Imperium has to offer. They are huge superhumans genetically modified to be tougher and stronger than a normal human. Their skeletal structure has to be strengthened to carry their massive muscle bulk as well as to protect them in battle, they have redundant organs as well as new organ such as one which allows them to ingest and breathe most poisons harmlessly. They wear power armor which is extremely tough, as well as having climate control features and drug delivery methods to pump medical drugs as well as combat drugs into the marine as needed. They use primarily bolters as weapons, somewhat expensive personal firearms whose bullets detonate on impact. Additionally, most have chain or power weapons as well. Yes, chain swords (think chainsaw swords) are really a thing in Warhammer 40k. Deal with it.

Deathwatch space marines fight primarily xenos (aliens) and are usually called in by the Inquisitorial Ordo Xenos. Obviously the Deathwatch RPG is at a much higher power level than the other two RPGs. I don't have the pleasure of owning this rulebook, so I can't comment on much other than that, but I do hope to play it sometime in the future!

I'm currently running the introductory adventure in Dark Heresy for my local gaming group. I'm also considering running a play by post version with my guild. Finally, I'm hoping to join a Dark Heresy game next month as a player. I'll update here with how each have gone, perhaps including the full play by post if we complete it!

Novel Review: Ender's Game

Those who follow my blog know me to be a book lover. So it may be somewhat surprising that I'd never read, until this week, Orson Scott Card's classic Ender's Game. Ender's Game and one of it's sequals, Speaker for the Dead, are among the most influential science fiction novels of the 1980s. The bottom line? I loved this book, and would highly recommend it to anyone even vaguely interested in science fiction, war strategy, or psychology. The book is not particularly long or dense, so even light readers shouldn't have trouble with it.

I purchased Ender's Game on audiobook earlier this week, and finished it in three days of listening. It's not a long book, after all. The story follows the life of a young boy who is a third child, something that is seriously frowned upon in the future Earth where the book takes place. However, it seems his parents had special permission to conceive him. Little by little the reasons for this, and many other strange events in the boy's life, are revealed. It's no secret that the boy is a genius, but to what purpose, and in what fashion, his genius will be used is the focus of the book.

I found Ender's Game to be a beautiful combination of sports, war strategy and psychology. The characters were intriguing and deep, in particular Ender was believable both as a young child and as a genius. His schoolmates were also a delight, and I'm looking forward to other books in the "Enderverse" which follow the other characters. The rules of the battle games played at Ender's school were complex and interesting, and the strategies and gameplay unfolded in a very natural pattern.

Since this was an audiobook, I'll also comment on the audio quality. There were three (as far as I could tell) cast members for this reading, though it's possible there were more. The first was an older man who did most of the narration, in particular the sections where Ender was the point of view character. The second was a younger man, who mostly did voices for various characters (not all characters were voiced specially). Finally, there was a young woman who narrated and voiced Valentine, Ender's sister. Overall the voices and narration was very high quality, and certainly didn't detract from the experience. The sound quality itself was a little low - I could tell it was rather old. But it wasn't a significant distraction from the story.

Books in the Enderverse (from Wikipedia). Short stories are in red, novels in blue.

Ender's Game was short, but I'm excited because there are a lot of other books and short stories set in this world, about Ender and the supporting characters. People describe the collection of books loosely as the "Enderverse" (or more boringly, the "Ender Series"). There are roughly 5 novels, give or take some short stories, in the main storyline. There is also a concurrent storyline known as the "Shadow Saga" which follows the supporting characters of the main storyline. I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the series. I also found out that there is a comic series based on the Ender books. I'll have to check that out as well, and report back here with my impressions!

Revenge of the Jiyas: Sunstrider Isle

 Welcome to another Revenge of the Jiyas article! In this series, I document my speed testing of the WoW-Pro Leveling addon. This time I was testing Sunstrider Isle, the starting zone for blood elves. Join me as I share the beginning of the journey of Jiyelf, the blood elf warrior!

Look at that mocking salute.
She looks like she's going to kick somebody's butt.

Note: The 1-5 starter zones are very quick, with levels flying by so quickly it's hard to get an accurate measurement. Additionally,  the pacing of some starting zones is vastly different than others. It will be nice to have a comparison of how long each takes, but not too much should be read into these tests. The higher level tests will be much more accurate and indicative of zone and guide quality.

Total /played at level 5: 29min 
Sunstrider Isle (1-5): 29min

7.4 min/lvl

Previous Chapters:

• Project Overview
• 1-5: Valley of Trials | Echo Isles | Red Cloud Mesa | Kezan | Deathknell

Overall, I was pretty disappointed with this zone. It's not a bad zone, and it's still better than Valley of Trials, but they simply didn't bother updating it at all with Cataclysm. You still do the same old quests, with very little story involved, killing creatures and looting them. And, as the time above shows, it's not particularly fast.

Despite their datedness, the Eversong Woods are still pretty nice looking.

The guide for this zone was in good shape. There was one note that was a bit out of date, describing  a method for pulling mobs that used to be hostile. One step could also be moved forward. Overall the guide was really good, though, and incorporated use of the hearthstone, which I approve of.

I've updated the guide page for this section on WoW-Pro.com, and the changes will be included in the next addon update. I wouldn't recommend trying to update the file on your own unless you are experienced working with addons. If you do decide to update early:

1. Go to the Sunstrider Isle page and copy the contents of the guide. 
2. Open up your WoW folder and go to Interface > Addons > WoWPro_Leveling > Horde 
3. Open up 01_12_Snowflake_Eversong_Woods.lua
4. Copy the guide contents there.

Next Up: ALLIANCE - Northshire Valley!

Revenge of the Jiyas: Deathknell

Revenge of the Jiyas is back again, and this time in Deathknell, starting area for the Undead. In case you've forgotten, this is a series of articles in which I speed test the  WoW-Pro Leveling addon.Today I'll be sharing the adventures of Deadjiya, the undead warrior.

Deadjiya embraces her new
life as one of the Forsaken.

Note: The 1-5 starter zones are very quick, with levels flying by so quickly it's hard to get an accurate measurement. Additionally,  the pacing of some starting zones is vastly different than others. It will be nice to have a comparison of how long each takes, but not too much should be read into these tests. The higher level tests will be much more accurate and indicative of zone and guide quality.

Total /played at level 5: 22min 
Deathknell (1-5): 22min

5.5 min/lvl

Previous Chapters:

• Project Overview
• 1-5: Valley of Trials | Echo Isles | Red Cloud Mesa | Kezan

I love what they've done with Deathknell and the rest of the undead starting area in Cataclysm. I had the privilege of recording this area's guide the night before the Cataclysm release, and despite the rush, I really enjoyed it, and that definitely hasn't changed. I was also pleasantly surprised by the speed at which I went through the zone. It was the second fastest time so far, losing out to Red Cloud Mesa by only 2 minutes.

Ah, the cheery Tirisfal Glades...

The guide for this zone didn't seem to have any issues that I could see - but as I recorded it, it's unlikely I'll find anything I dislike. Testing your own work is always a bit dangerous, as you don't always see the bugs that may be obvious to others. That said, I mindlessly followed the arrows and did what the guide said, and completed everything with ease.

I do have to say that one of the quests was extremely difficult, and could probably use some tips in the guide. The final quest in which you are sent to kill Marshall Redpath nearly did me in, and I seem to recall dying to it during my first run through of the zone. Not only is Marshall himself pretty tough, but the other mobs are also quite deadly. I could easily see a newbie having trouble with the quest. So, my only change to the guide file was to add a cautionary note for this quest.

Bye for now!

I've updated the guide page for this section on WoW-Pro.com, and the changes will be included in the next addon update. I wouldn't recommend trying to update the file on your own unless you are experienced working with addons. If you do decide to update early:

1. Go to the Deathknell page and copy the contents of the guide. 
2. Open up your WoW folder and go to Interface > Addons > WoWPro_Leveling > Horde 
3. Open up 01_12_Jiyambi_Tirisfal_Glades.lua
4. Copy the guide contents there.

Next Up: Sunstrider Isle!

Revenge of the Jiyas: Kezan

 After a long wait, chapter four of the Revenge of the Jiyas series is here! In case you've forgotten, this is a series of articles in which I speed test the  WoW-Pro Leveling addon. This time, I was testing the goblin starting area, the island of Kezan. I forgot to take screenies this time through, so you're sadly left without that entertainment. 

Note: The 1-5 starter zones are very quick, with levels flying by so quickly it's hard to get an accurate measurement. Additionally,  the pacing of some starting zones is vastly different than others. It will be nice to have a comparison of how long each takes, but not too much should be read into these tests. The higher level tests will be much more accurate and indicative of zone and guide quality.

Total /played at level 5: 35min 
Kezan (1-5): 35min

8.75 min/lvl

Previous Chapters:

• Project Overview
• 1-5: Valley of Trials | Echo Isles | Red Cloud Mesa

Sadly, this was the longest run so far. While a small part of this is because I was out of practice, I feel it's mostly due to the zone design. Kezan is a lot of fun, but it's very spread out and not particularly fast.

The guide played through wonderfully, aside from one coordinate issue, but there were definitely some stylistic problems that I'll be fixing for the next release. Level benchmarks were also unrealistic for a character with no heirlooms, and that will be fixed in the next release.

I've run through Kezan several times before, as I wrote the original paper guide for the zone, but I still love it. Despite it's slightly longer play time, it's one of my favorite starting zones!

I've updated the guide page for this section on WoW-Pro.com, and the changes will be included in the next addon update. I wouldn't recommend trying to update the file on your own unless you are experienced working with addons. If you do decide to update early:

1. Go to the Kezan page and copy the contents of the guide. 
2. Open up your WoW folder and go to Interface > Addons > WoWPro_Leveling > Horde 
3. Open up 01_05_Malorajan_Kezan.lua
4. Copy the guide contents there.

Next Up: Deathknell!

Pollinator Update - Time for Top Down!

With all the drama and business going on in my life the past month, I haven’t devoted much time to my game development work. I’m determined to change that this month, no matter how busy I get. My main objective this month is to re-write pollinator’s code so that it is top-down and radial-based, rather than side view and rectangle-based. My good friend and fellow game developer from V Squared productions shared some ideas with me for accomplishing this, as well as his radial collision detection code, so I should be able to get the re-write done with minimal headache.

After that, I plan on working diligently on the C++ version of the game, then porting it to a Java Applet, Android, and possibly HTML5 or even Flash. I plan to begin working with my artistic teammates this weekend to discuss ideas for graphics, sound, music, and voice acting. I’m quite excited and hope to be posting updates more regularly!

Once I get the basic top-down game ready, I plan to record a short video of the gameplay and post it here. Look forward to it!

LoL What? An Introduction to League of Legends

Since my WoW account was offline the last month, my friends and I revisited a game called League of Legends, also known affectionately as LoL. LoL is a free game - and when I say free, I mean FREE. Not pay to win, as so many free games are these days. LoL is legitimately, 100% free. You can pay for special cosmetic skins for your champions, or to unlock features more quickly, but there is no significant disadvantage in NOT paying.

So what is LoL? In short, it’s a team based PvP e-sport in which you combine macro and micro game elements to destroy your opponent’s base before they destroy yours. But there’s a LOT more to the game than this simple summary. If you've played DotA (a mod for Warcraft III), then you've played LoL. LoL is made by the same folks who created DotA. You control a single character (a champion), and team up with two to four other people in a team contest to destroy the opponent's base. Your character begins each game at level 1 and can advance up to level 18 by gaining experience through killing minions, creeps, and other champions.

The most popular map, for five
player teams, called Summoner's Rift

In the early game, players stay in one of three lanes - this time is often known as laning, though some champions are designed to jungle instead. The idea is to farm minions, which mindlessly walk from your opponent’s base towards yours down the lane. When minions die near you, you gain experience. Even better, if you get the last hit on a minion, you gain money which can be spent on gear. Unlike laners, junglers farm by running through the jungle in between lanes, killing the neutral creeps located there. They have to be much more durable than laners, since they must essentially tank these creeps from level 1. Farming well in the early game can give you a big advantage later on.

The shop, where you can purchase items

This introduces what is known as the macro game - how to build your character, in gear and in the order of the abilities you unlock. There are a wide range of items available, and there are many guides on exactly what items to get for each character. Often the best choices will change based on your team and the opponent’s team.

Ashe sets her sights on Teemo

Of course, even though the early game is more about farming than killing the opposing champions, it’s important to always look for opportunities to harass and possibly even gank your opponent. Keeping your opponent from farming effectively can also really help out late game. Killing the opponent keeps them out of the game for a short time, gives you an experience and money boost, and generally improves your team’s morale. Junglers, in particular, are designed to help where needed and assassinate unsuspecting opponents early game.

Tower pushing can be dangerous!

During the farming phase, it’s also possible to push the opponent’s lanes and take down towers, though this more often happens later in the team fight phase of the game. There are some champions that are much better at tower pushing than others, but most can succeed in tower pushing with enough skill. The idea is to kill the opposing team’s minions faster than they kill yours. Your minions will slowly move down the lane, and eventually reach one of the towers which guard the opponent’s side of the map. The towers are extremely deadly, but will attack minions preferentially over champions, as long as you don’t attack the opposing team’s champions while in range of the tower. With enough minions surrounding you to take hits from the tower, you can destroy it and move closer to the opponent’s base. Pushing towers is one of the most important facets of the game, and the number of surviving towers is a good way to measure how well a lane (or team as a whole) is doing.

Nunu's ult makes for an
interesting team fight.

Finally, once champions start getting a significant number of levels, teams will start grouping up and pushing a specific lane. This begins what is known as the team fight phase of the game. These massive brawls usually involve all members of each team, though clever teams will find ways to pick off members of the opposition or set up ambushes in order to gank some or all of the opposing team. Synergy of champion abilities and communication between players is essential during this phase. Even if all players are highly skilled by themselves, they won’t be able to succeed in the late game without supporting eachother in team fights.

Nexus destroyed!

The game ends when a team destroys the opposition’s nexus, at the heart of their home base. However, it is possible to surrender early if most team members agree that it’s a lost cause. Experience points (used to level up as a player) and influence points (used to purchase new champions or runes) are awarded both for winning or losing, though you gain the most from winning. Surrendering awards the fewest points, but it allows the team to more quickly move on to a new game.




Outside of games, your player (known as a summoner) has a level as well. This level ranges from 1 to 30, and increases the more games that you play. This level determines how many mastery points (think talent points from WoW) that you have to spend, and what rune slots (think glyphs in WoW) you have available. It also determines what summoner spells you can use - you have two spells which you chose at the beginning of each game, which act as extra utility and customizability for your character. This level-based mechanic gives high level summoners a mechanical advantage, in addition to their experience advantage. In general, when using the matchmaking service, you’ll be placed with summoners of similar levels.

As a whole, LoL is very enjoyable to play even without knowing your teammates. However, it really shines when the entire team is coordinating in a voice program such as Skype or Ventrilo, and has arranged their champions and skills to compliment eachother. There are a huge number of champions, builds, items, and spells available, and more being added constantly. Additionally, Riot (the makers of LoL) just announced a brand new game mode which will be playable at PAX Prime later this month. I’m extremely excited about this, and will report my reactions to this game mode here on the blog when I play it at PAX.

I can’t recommend LoL enough. If you want to jump in and get your feet wet, I suggest trying a game against bots (computer opponents) first before going up against other players. Riot has really improved the AI on the bots, but they are still much easier than real opponents, even newbies. Just pick a champion that seems interesting to you out of the free champions, look up a build on Leaguecraft (or use the recommended items that Riot provides for you in game!), and get started! The free champions change every week, but if you find one you like, you can use the points you earn playing each game to purchase them (that’s right, you do NOT need to use real money, though you can if you want to get champions more quickly).

Hopefully you’ll try it out! I’m still quite a League of Legends newbie, but I’m enjoying it quite a lot and may write some character specific guides later on if the fancy strikes me. If you play, be sure to look me up and request a game! I go by Jiyambi, as always.

WoW Insider Recommends the WoW-Pro Addon

WoW Insider just threw another recommendation our way in their most recent Addon Spotlight column. A user wrote in seeking a questing replacement for the over-bloated Carbonite, and the addon columnist Matthew McCurley gave us a solid referral. Thanks WoW Insider, we really appreciate the shout out!

How to Host a Successful Guild Meetup

So you’ve decided to finally take the step forward and get your guild together for a meetup. This is a huge undertaking, and you should expect to put in a lot of work if you want it to be a success. That said, it’s one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had. So read on if you’d like some tips on making your guild meetup the best it can be!

Get Help!

Hosting a guild meetup is a LOT of work. As the host, you’ll be setting up and organizing events at the meetup locale. Unless you are lucky enough to have guild mates in your area, you’ll have to do a lot of that yourself. So anything else that you can get help with, do so! Examples include planning meals, organizing carpooling or airport pick up / drop off, non-location-based activities, etc. Often officers in the guild are good choices for this, but they also have their in-game duties, so if any enterprising and reliable guild members offer to help, be sure to give them a chance!

How Long is Too Long?

Most likely, you’ll have people traveling long distances to attend your meetup. You want to make sure they’ll be staying long enough to make it worth their while. However, too long and your guildies can end up sick of eachother. You want to find the right balance. The meetup I attended lasted four full days and nights. This was the perfect amount of time for our situation, but as everyone has difference circumstances, this might not work for your guild.

Plan Activities!

It’s much better to have too much to do and end up not doing some of the planned things, than to be bored. Some things we did at our meetup:

• WoW
• Minecraft (guild server)
• XBox (rockband)
• Movies
• Cooking
• Board Games
• Card Games
• Tabletop RPGs
• Shopping
• Swimming

If your location has some awesome tourist attractions, you might want to plan some outings involving those. Just keep in mind various athletic abilities of your guild mates, as well as different spending budgets. It would be a good idea to have alternatives if people didn’t want to or were unable to attend some of these.

One thing to remember if you decide to have computer gaming as one of your activities: Not everyone plays on laptops, or has portable desktops. Not everyone will be able to play at once. We solved this by being generous with sharing computers, and having other activities going at the same time.

Eat In

You’ll definitely want to plan meals ahead of time. Avoid racking up a huge dining bill by eating in. Cooking together can be an awesome bonding activity for guild mates. Just make sure one person isn’t doing ALL the cooking! Have a menu planned out and the week before the meetup go to a bulk store such as Costco or Winco to get all the ingredients. Keep in mind that some of your guildmates may have special dietary needs, and not everyone likes the same foods - try to have a variety of things available. 

At our meetup, we served a main dish as well as a fairly substantial side dish with each dinner. That way, even if someone didn’t like one, they might like the other. Lunches were simply leftovers, sandwich stuff, or hotdogs/sausage dogs. Breakfast was served each day but leftovers were also an option.

Space Planning

The only thing I could fault our meetup with was lack of space. Our host lived in an apartment, which made things interesting for us. With a gaming meetup, you need lots of table space and chairs. We were okay on that account, with a dining room table as well as a large coffee table available. However, we were all in one room and after four days it started to feel pretty crowded. Having a separate room for people to spread out into, especially if different groups are doing different activities, would be an improvement.

During the meetup, people sometimes got tired mid-day. Everyone has different schedules normally, and jet lag can hit hard. Having a place for exhausted folks to crash mid-day was very nice. Our hosts graciously let tired guests use their bed, but a futon or air mattress set up in a quiet place would work just as well.

Our group would not have all been able to sleep in our host’s apartment. Additionally, some of our guildmates could not afford a hotel. We worked it out so that some stayed on our host’s floor while others got a hotel room a block away. This worked well for our location, but it might not work if there are no nearby hotels. Keep this in mind when choosing a location.

Stay Chill and Have Fun!




Having a large group all in one place can be difficult. The most important thing to remember is that you're all there to have fun, so stay relaxed and enjoy yourselves!