Runic Games is doing the Lord’s work, in an robust and unambiguous fashion.
Torchlight has the bracing qualities we associate with pure mountain streams. Let’s run with that, actually; elemental is the keyword here, and not just because many weapons bear enchantments which confer elemental effects. I’d have said that an action RPG without multiplayer in the year two-thousand and nine was a fever dream before playing Torchlight; with the product in hand, I wonder if other people wouldn’t just get in my way. As a design consideration, it was almost certainly the result of the eleven month development cycle - and multiplayer will obviously be core to the MMO that Torchlight becomes. But there’s something so clean, so unfettered about braving these dark places alone than I think there’s a case for it. Even in two-thousand and nine.
In this sort of game, one is constantly bedeviled by the strictures of your inventory space. Some games rely on a one item/one square nomenclature, while others manage equipment via what is sometimes called “lootris,” where the shape of the item is taken into account in your pack. Dungeon Siege allowed players to employ a friendly burro to lighten your load, and let players (inefficiently) transmute items into gold, but I must say that I like the cut of Torchlight’s particular jib.
Games sometimes offer among its menu of character choices a “pet class,” but all characters in Torchlight have pets. The difference here (well, one of the differences) is that these pets can wear rings and an amulet, in addition to slotting two spells, so even though you have your choice between “dog” and “cat” it doesn’t accurately describe the breadth of customization. Also, when pets eat fish, they, uh… turn into other animals. So, yeah.
But that isn’t the portion of the jib I was referring to. Your pet has a tiny pack, which serves as an auxiliary storage space. What’s more, right there in the upper left, there’s a gloden button - gold, because it sends your pet back to the surface to sell the contents of this pack automatically. It then returns to you, its haunches straining with coin. This is YES. Unequivocally, indubitably super yes. While he’s gone you forego his benefits, so there is a price to pay. Along with whatever mysterious fees he skims off the top, of course. Expect to see dog couriers next in line for comprehensive regulation.
(CW)TB out.
years expended, gone
I un… truncated it(?). In the future, I will assess all posts for truncability.
(CW)TB
PAX East is coming up quick and we’re going to need some new enforcers to help us out. We will be bringing over about 150 of our west coast enforcers but we’d like to supplement that with another 150 new enforcers from the east coast. Enforcers get into the show for free but in return we work you like a dog. If this sounds like a fair arrangement to you then fill out this enforcer application and mail it to klindsay@penny-arcade.com. We’ll be accepting applications until November 25th.
The east coast show is shaping up incredibly well. You can take advantage of our early bird pricing until December 31st. That means a three day pass will only cost you $45.
-Gabe out
My D&D group is so hungry for content that we actually play via email between games. Sometimes it’s just the characters talking amongst themselves, other times it’s more of a structured skill challenge. I tweeted an example yesterday of one of our exchanges and I got a lot of feedback as well as questions. I thought I’d respond to some of it here rather than trying to tweet back to everyone individually.
First of all, here is the example I posted.
-Why do you write so much for your players? As a DM you should never tell your players what their characters do or say.
I got this quite a bit and I understand it comes from a different style of play. I think everyones game is different but my players actually really like it when I write up little stories for their characters. I describe these email skill challenges as being akin to a quick time event in a video game. You provide the most basic sort of input (A button press at the right time or in this case a skill roll) and the story and the action push on. Obviously you can see that my players are free to RP as much as they like. IF they know what they want their character to say they say it. Maybe they are at work though and only have time to log in a quick roll. Well they still get to see their character take part in the action.
This is just how we do it.
-Can you release the online rolling app you use?
I will talk to my friend about making the app available. I’m not a programmer type guy so I have no idea what would be involved. It’s a nice program though and if he’s willing I’ll try and get a version of it posted.
-Wouldn’t Google Wave be a better system for this sort of thing.
Yes I am sure it would. Sadly not everyone in the group has access to Google Wave.
-4e is an abomination, you should play X, that’s the real version.
“X” in this case is everything from 3.5 to Pathfinder. I have no opinion on these games as I’ve never played them. All I know is that my group is having a blast with 4e.
-Do you award Xp for these email challenges?
Yes I do actually, but only if the entire party participates. I’m not looking for each character to right a novel but everyone does need to contribute to the overall story for Xp to be awarded. If that happens then I give them Xp equivalent to an encounter of their level.
-Wouldn’t this kind of thing be better done at the table?
I think it works both ways. I know that my players actually like doing RP via email because it gives them more time to think about how their character would respond. The way our games work tends to be that RP happens between games via email. Then when they sit down at the table it’s almost like entering an instance in WOW. They spend the week talking to people and picking up quests. Then on Monday night it’s combat and usually one skill challenge.
Again, this is just how my game works. I only share it because I know how much inspiration I’ve gotten from other DM’s blogs.
-Gabe out
