Planet Bob

So I spent another night RPGing, losing totally track of time. So once again I was already way too tired to report before going to bed

 

While my characters now slowly reach their 5th levels, the AD&D system kicks in little by little. The fights now start to get really tactical and interesting. I guess the real fun begins once my magician is able to cast fireballs

 

I managed to complete two more missions, one was just fighting back and forth through a spooky keep, but the other was quite fun, as my party had to disguise themselves as monsters so they could sneak unscathed through the territory.

 

The night ended with halfway exploring a robber's den, with traps and thieves all over the place. I'm having a hard time here managing all the loot

Sounds like a lot of fun, I may have to fire D&D PoR in jNES and check it out ^_^

 

GideonsDad

Make sure to create an extra thief to join the starting party. I'm usually too lazy for character generation, so I just went with the 3 default characters. This feels a bit underpowered at times and tonight I hit a spot only a thief could pass

 

=====

 

Since I was more or less just hack'n'slashing through two more sidequest dungeons this time, I thought to highlight one thing I like about the game and one thing I don't:

 

The bad is that the magic spells seem a bit unbalanced. Most spells are useless except for 1-2 special situations, while actually needed healing and attack spells are too few. E.g. it gets very tedious to heal 3-4 level 5 characters with just the "Cure Light Wounds" spell...

 

The good is the enormous freedom you have in the game. Not only in the superb tactical combat system, but also in the story and quest bits. E.g. when I got a mission from an arrogant nobleman to return his treasure chest, I went all the way getting it, but then just forced it open, claiming the content myself

when I got a mission from an arrogant nobleman to return his treasure chest, I went all the way getting it, but then just forced it open, claiming the content myself

 

LOL! Right on ^_^

 

GideonsDad

 

P.S. - Thief in party

P.S. - Thief in party

 

Wow, that's the best thing that can happen with these articles, when I manage to motivate someone to check out a game themselves!

 

=====

 

Again it was already well past midnight, when I considered further exploration of the Kobold Cave more important than reporting my progress

 

I really liked my adventures last night, as they were a lot more story driven than just plain hack'n'slashing through dungeons.

 

First I visited a silver dragon for some advice, then I helped a nomad camp defending against Kobold hordes, which was a pretty cool part, with the kobolds attacking in three large waves. Kinda like the AD&Ds Alamo, only I secured a happy ending here

 

Next came the exploration of another spooky place, the old library of Phlan. There weren't many random encounters there, but two very tough battles, one against a basilisk and another one against a spectre

 

Just consider how mighty the spectre in the DC universum is...

 

But well, after reloading 3-4 times we made it

 

In the current mission I'm trying to end the Kobold threat once and for all, visiting them in their lair...

 

BTW: I was very surprised when I realized that my cleric hit a level cap at 6 already. So I'm stuck with "Cure Light wounds" for the entire game?!?

Ah, thank heavens I managed to finish that pyramid dungeon in time for this weeks Heroes episode

 

Before that I finished off the Kobolds and created a new dual class Cleric-Magician party member. A bit late doing this on the games final "Playing..." night, but well...

 

Now, this was a fun RPG ride, but I'm also glad to bail out of it on the fifth day

 

I think later episodes of this series will be even more fun. It'll be interesting to see when they get the balancing right and if one has a good enough story so that I'll actually have to complete it

 

Some future day the "Playing..." series may see its sequel "Curse of the Azure Bonds", but first it'll continue with something else.