For various reasons, I’ve not been blogging. Some of it is that I’ve felt that I have less and less to say and that I’ve been much more interested in reading others.
I was reading a lot on Twitter, just not posting much. While I enjoyed a bit of the tweets, I found that Twitter wasn’t for me. Conversations are too disjointed, and the 140-character limit was annoying.
About that time, I got into Google+, which I’ve found a happy home. I’ve developed some new connections there, particularly with a very active circle of tabletop gamers. I’m particularly enjoying some game sessions using the video chat feature [hangouts] in google+. In many ways, it scratches my blogging itch, but it’s far more interactive, which I greatly prefer. [It reminds of the good days on usenet.]
I’ll keep this blogging for various reasons, including for the purpose of longer posts. But I encourage you to join and interact on G+. You can find me easily enough. If you do join, let me know and I’ll add you to my circles, as I tend to aim my gaming and comic book posts only to those interested in those topics.
Over the July 4th weekend, I had a chance to play a couple of games, both of which have been around for a while, so I won’t pretend to write reviews. I was meeting family for the weekend, and both my older brother and my son had not really played D&D [although I've played a couple of simple tabletop RPGs with my son]. My 18-year-old nephew has played and GM’ed many D&D 4e games, and he joined us.
D&D Board Game
First, we played Castle Ravenloft, the board game. I had heard good things about the game, and my nephew had played the sequel, Wrath of Ashardalon. There are several reviews that explain how to play these games in detail, but the gist is that it’s a dungeon crawler with 13 scenarios [with different conditions for victory] and a dynamic game board. The game has an element of the 4e rules in terms of healing surges and the different types of powers. But I thought this would be a good sort of intro game for my brother and a little variation for my kids. I loved this game, more than I expected, because it is one of those very well balanced yet somewhat unpredictable games.
What makes the game a challenge is that for each player’s turn, we had to add a new tile with a new monster, or draw an encounter card, which might reveal a trap, loss of points, or some other bad bit of news. And with some tiles, you get both a monster and an encounter card. Fairly early on, we had some awful bad luck with the dice, as we ditched the d20s that we had and searched for a ‘luckier’ one. At one point, we had 5 monsters, and we were all low on health, having used up all our healing surges. More than once, my son’s wizard died [three times, in fact] and my cleric managed to revive him. We were all down to 1-2 hit points when things took a turn for the better.
Quite unexpectedly, when we revealed the chapel and four new monsters, my son discovered a multiple attack that he had been saving for this last card, and he killed 3 of the 4 monsters, enabling to kill the fourth and grab the icon item to win the game. The game has a great mechanic for building tension, even despair, but includes space for strategy as well as chance to allow players to recover from disaster. It’s the sort of design and balance that reminds me of the Advanced Civilization board game. I also enjoyed the coop nature of the game–if you lose one member, you lose the game. I enjoyed it much more than Pandemic, which is a good game.
Castles and Crusades
A while back, while looking at various RPG systems, I stumbled across Castles and Crusades, a supposedly rules-light game that feels like a hybrid of early D&D and 3.5e. Again, this is another game with lots of reviews, with its share of detractors and fans. I liked the idea of no feats or skills and the reliance on 6 attributes for all checks and saves. I grabbed the Quick Start rules and a character sheet and thought it could be something we could play in a short time.
Character creation is indeed pretty quick, though we took some time to explain things to my brother and my son, as well as to go over the classes and races. Still, I can see where creating a character could take 15 minutes, as Troll Lords claims. I used the very simple adventure in the quick start, thinking even a group of newbies would knock it out in an hour or so.
I think this was indeed a great choice for players new to tabletop RPG. Even though my son has played some simple RPGs, like Mouse Guard, this was more complex and closer to D&D, which he has been really wanting to play. For him, this gave me the opportunity to work some on gaming etiquette. He’s a very imaginative sort [a 'hambone' as my mother calls him], so he can get carried away, especially in this session where we had a great mix of humor and adventure. C&C didn’t overwhelm my son and brother with too many options and rules that D&D can bring. It allowed them to focus on their characters and getting into the game.
My brother played his Skullcrusher fighter well, focused on getting money and, where possible, killing. My son struggled with his character but seeing the others, he got the idea to develop a character, not just stats and abilities. And my nephew played his cleric well, bringing his character’s religion into the game on several occasions.
The session took a good two and a half hours, though it had only two fights. [I skipped the treant encounter partly by accident but also because I had them play level 2 characters, who had few hit points. Plus, I wanted to finish the adventure.] In both cases, the creatures pushed the players, who were somewhat acting in isolation. Unlike Castle Ravenloft, the players in this adventure had no reason to play fully coop. In fact, my nephew’s cleric repeatedly withheld information which angered my brother’s fighter, who hated all spellcasters to begin with. We all had a lot of fun with these 15-minute characters, who begin to flesh out during the game.
We ended with player victory and a lot of fun. Everyone was definitely game for continuing to play. In fact, I’m working now on using Maptools for us to try playing online with Skype. My brother admitted that he had doubts about how well the online play would capture the great part of our adventure, which was the interaction among the players. But, as he said, it’s better than not playing.
Castles and Crusades has some issues, even though I plan to continue using it. For example, I thought the money was far too plentiful. The characters had much higher AC as a result. To make it worse, even though I cut back on the gold that the prefab adventure included, they still walked away with about 4000 gold among the three of them. I think 1/20 of that would have been much better. I also did not care for the character sheets, which really didn’t allow space for abilities and which seemed very repetitive and poorly laid out, but that’s something I can rectify myself easily enough. I also think that once I have the actual core books rather than just the quick start, I’ll have a better feel for the game. As it was, I went to the 3.5e spells for details, which didn’t quite fit.
I’m hoping that our online sessions with Maptools goes well so that we can keep playing and maybe move to a better virtual tabletop, specifically Fantasy Grounds.
Just in case I’m one of the last gamers who haven’t tried a Pokemon game, this post is for you. You see, I dismissed Pokemon, like most Nintendo games, for most of my gaming life because I figured they were too kiddie and too simple. I was guilty of judging a game by its color palette and character design. Oh, and let’s not forget the awful anime, which I had to suppress a groan anytime the kids watched it. How could a game so embraced by little kids, even my kids, be interesting for a serious gamer?
The game is deep, much deeper than I expected. Thinking I was touching the bottom of it, I swam into the multiplayer end and discovered a whole new depth, one that I probably won’t touch bottom on for some time. This isn’t so much an introduction to the possible gameplay as much as my coming to see it.
how I was sucked in
My kids have played Pokemon games for more than 2 years, though mostly for a love of learning the various Pokemon and their evolutions. The card collecting side of it, if you will. My daughter especially loved it. So, I bought her Diamond and one of the Mystery Dungeons. She played them for a while but left it to pursue other interests.
About 5 months ago, the kids’ interest flared up. My daughter restarted Diamond and was doing much better. My son bought HeartGold and fell in love with it. Over in Alabama, my brother and his son [now a high school senior] were playing. Not to feel left out, I decided to buy Pokemon White when it released. For the first couple of hours, my fears seemed confirmed–it was a mindless, repetitive hack n’ slash RPG-lite.
finding new depth
Still, my kids were excited that I was playing, and I kept on playing partly on their behalf. Then around 10 hours into the game, I saw some of the depth.
With only four slots for moves [types of actions, like attacks, buffs, heals, etc.], I had to decide which moves to keep and which to forget. [I later learned that I can forget and relearn forgotten moves, though not until much further in the game, some 50+ hours.] For a long time, I looked no further than the game, with little idea of what future moves awaited me. This brought an element of surprise as the levels varied at which each pokemon got a new move. Still, it was a move-by-move decision as the game provided no means to look ahead a la Diablo’s skill tree. Not only did I have to decide what type of move to keep [grass, water, fire, ice, steel, etc.] but I also had to decide what fighting style I wanted to develop for each Pokemon. On the last point, my notions were fuzzy, but I had fought Pokemon that immobilized and drained hit points rather than use attacks. I saw it as a kind of caster vs melee choice, though more subtle.
Similarly, I could carry a maximum of 6 Pokemon with me as I traveled and battled. At first, I didn’t quite have a mental model for this type of game. It wasn’t exactly like the party combat found in so many Japanese RPGs because, for the most part, it was one-on-one combat. But still, it was a kind of party combat.
My first problem in seeing it as a party-based game is that I became very comfortable with my starter Pokemon, Oshawatt/Dewott. Its Sea Shell attack was very effective, and I found myself one-hitting my way through battles. I looked at my other Pokemon more as second-rate backups than as a team of any sort. That is, until I encountered a grass Pokemon that defeated Dewott easily. Then, I focused on building a Pokemon team that could tackle Pokemon of any type. [Insert mocking laughter from the Pokemon oldtimers.] The problem is that there are too many types to cover with just 6 Pokemon. But I knew it would be too much of a time sink to try leveling up more than 6 Pokemon at a time. I did want to finish the game, after all. At this point, I saw there was no easy answer to my question, and my respect for the game grew.
At 30+ hours into the game, I was seeing the subtleties of the various types of Pokemon [grass, fire, water, etc.] as well as the different roles to use while in combat. I was using Throh as a kind of tank, my default starter Pokemon for battles, because he had the highest hit points of all my 32 Pokemon at the time. But I also observed that the Pokemon that made the first move in a battle varied, something that I figured was determined by the Pokemon’s speed attribute. I also noticed that the different attribute values changed, even without leveling. As I was to learn later, this is a significant part of the game. I began to re-build my Pokemon team based less on their types and more on some fuzzy roles that I was defining for myself and on their abilities.
thrown into the deep end
One night about a week ago, I met my brother online, and we explored the various multiplayer features, including some friendly combat. The game allows for custom matches, but the point was that I saw a whole new side of the game that was now more like the card game battles. I hadn’t really played the card game, but I knew that it was like others that I had played where building a deck of compatible, complementary cards is key.
We then went to see my brother and his family for a wedding, although for the first night, it was all about Pokemon as the 5 of us played and talked about the games. My nephew had played Pokemon for several years, starting with Pokemon Blue when he was 9.
In short, I learned that the campaign in the game, of defeating the Elite Four, could be viewed as a setup for the real meat of the game–the multiplayer game. Four things in particular opened my eyes about this part of the game.
Effort Values (EV)–In addition to leveling, you can boost your Pokemon’s stats by defeating Pokemon in combat. As it turns out, particular types of Pokemon boost different attributes. That means, by fighting specific Pokemon, you can increase any one attribute by a maximum of 255 points, significantly altering a Pokemon.
Natures–Pokemon have natures–timid, naughty, brave, impish, etc.–and I learned they are more than cute descriptors but important influences on a Pokemon’s abilities. My nephew bred several Zorua to get the right nature for the role that he planned for it. If I want a tank, then I might look for a bold or impish nature to improve its defense against physical attacks or a calm, or careful nature to improve its defense against special attacks.
Effectiveness–I knew that each type of Pokemon was weaker against some Pokemon than others. What I didn’t realize was that it was more subtle than that because the damage might be 0.25, 0.5, 2.0, or even 4.0 of the normal damage.
Roles–The roles are not hard and fast, but the community has some well established roles, with some general agreement on definitions. But the idea is that you have lead, attacking, defensive, and supporting roles with many variations.
There’s more than just these, but just seeing these 4 aspects changed how I saw the game. At smogon university, you can find tools, like a team builder, and analyses of each Pokemon, of good roles for it to play, different sets of moves, distribution of EVs. I also saw that attacks and defenses were more than just grass, water, fire, ice, or some other type–they were also physical or special. So, I might want a Pokemon that was focused on special attacks–raising that attribute and focusing on moves that used the special attack attribute.
Admittedly, I’ve not battled online except with my family. I don’t know that I will. But seeing that the game is a lot more than ‘catch ‘em all’ has impressed me. I’m now playing the campaign a bit differently, more aware of which Pokemon I level, what moves I keep, how I groom a particular Pokemon for a role. I check Serebii and bulbapedia for information about specific Pokemon, their resistances and their list of moves. Maybe I’ll plan a team and try the Pokemon Online battle simulator to see how well it might play.
What impresses me most, though, is that the game works at different levels. It’s a fun collection RPG as well as a sophisticated strategy game. It’s something my 9-year-old daughter can play and love as well as my competitive 18-year-old nephew.
Yes, I’m still around, though I’ve turned into quite a lurker on Twitter and Buzz. I’ve not really had a lot of strong opinions lately, and to be honest, I’ve not been playing a lot of games.
But this past weekend, I tried to change that by buying a 3DS. As I explained elsewhere, I bought a 3DS for a couple of reasons–
First, I lost my DSi to my son, who along with my daughter has become a Pokefiend. And I’ve been missing my DS, of taking it with me to work or wherever to play a few minutes of a game.
Second, mobile games have done little for me. Part of it is the device: not having physical controls greatly impairs it as a gaming platform because it means taking up precious screen real estate. The other, smaller part is that I’ve not found the games quite as engaging. So, my phone has been a poor replacement for my “lost” DSi.
The 3D was a small reason for the purchase. I could have gotten a DSi on the cheap, but hey, I had a bonus that I mostly stocked away, so I felt I could indulge myself.
The other thing is that I bought my first Pokemon game–Pokemon White. My daughter got Pokemon Black from my brother [who is into Pokemon Black as well], and my son bought a copy, too, with money he’s been hording for a long while.
I confess that I was really surprised at how such a repetitive game like Pokemon is still so captivating. I took it with me as we shopped for new clothes for my niece’s wedding, and we all ended up playing as we waited for my wife to try on dresses or my daughter to try on shoes. It has that wonderful pick-up-and-play aspect as well as depth. I do feel a certain bond with my starter Pokemon [Oshawott], but I know I have to play others. And then there’s the anticipation of learning a new maneuver and deciding which of the four existing moves I’ll forget to learn the new one.
And then there’s the experience of sharing a geeky little obsession with my kids. As the picture shows, we sometimes play together at night before bed, playing our individual games but also watching status updates of what the others are doing. ‘What? You ran from a fight?!’ ‘Oh, congrats! You beat the gym leader!’ It’s an intriguing experience of the individual and shared experience at the same time.
And we find that we can turn any space into a gaming space–in the shoe department, after dinner in a restaurant, waiting for the rail. Yes, we’re mockable for gaming in public. But we know it, and we’re laughing at ourselves as well. Yet, that seems much preferable than the guy who’s making his phone conversation about work public for everyone to have to listen to. With us, you just have to endure the giggles and the occasional Pokemonese.
Back in the winter, I bought the PDF for the Mouse Guard RPG, a game based on the very enjoyable Mouse Guard comics, a story that has fans among children and adults. Red Walls is another fantasy that has its fans, but neither the kids nor I really got into it. I never got around to reading the PDF until recently because we had our Star Wars game going. [BTW, if you are interested in Mouse Guard RPG, the book is very hard to come by now although you can download the PDF. A new boxset is expected later this spring or early summer. I also recommend the downloads at the Mouse Guard wiki.]
What I find attractive about this RPG is that it seems so much more focused on the characters–on their beliefs, instincts, and goals–than D&D, which often seems more focused on skills and on consistent character behavior. The GM’s task is less to create a story than to challenge the players, to make them rethink what they value, and to sometimes act contrary to those values. In fact, it is crucial that players fail some tests–to advance their skills and to earn something called ‘checks’ which allow them to take actions in the second part of the game, the players’ turn. The game is somewhat formulaic.
There’s a mission which tells the mice what they have to do.
The players write their individuals goals in the context of the mission.
The GM chooses two types of obstacles [which can be a simple test, or roll of dice, a complex set of tests, or a conflict].
If the players fail to succeed in the
Recently, I got the bug to play it, so I poured over the manual, which is certainly a beautiful book, as well a different organization with character creation coming towards the end instead of the beginning. I decided to play one of the sample missions in the book and use the premade characters with my kids. [For an excellent review and a more detailed overview of the game, see the review at Gnome Stew.]
We played the “Find the Grain Peddler” sample mission from the book. My 11-year-old son played Kenzie, and my 9-year-old daughter played Sadie. Overall, it was good but a little slow in the second part, partly because even though I thought I knew the rules, I found that I had to check the book. My crib notes helped in several spots, but they didn’t capture all the details. The kids said that they liked it, particularly with the action and the opportunities to act out their characters. However, my son had reached a point at the end where he was ready to end since they had accomplished their goals. Although I explained the purpose of awarding the points (to learn that part of the game and to award points for the next session), he was ready to be done.
I think a third or fourth player would have been nice but would have made the game longer. I really enjoyed the game and look forward to more impromptu GMing. All in all, it was a very good session. My only criticism (and this might be more how I played the game than the game itself) is that the kids had a lot more dialogue and roleplaying in our Star Wars game than in Mouse Guard. Maybe it was the familiarity. But I also allowed them to drive a lot in the Star Wars sessions. I had a couple of key bits planned, but we had some fun, extended conversations in Star Wars. I think also their familiarity with the Star Wars characters and universe allowed a lot more opportunities and known history to play off of. But I think we could get to that point with Mouse Guard. By far and away, there was more variety to the conflicts in Mouse Guard. And even though complex on paper, the conflicts went far faster than fights in our Star Wars minis (where positioning has a large role important).
The kids understood their goals, beliefs and instincts and played to them pretty well. For example, my daughter played Sadie as kind-hearted, making sure that the peddler wasn’t injured even though they suspected him as a traitor.
One thing I would do differently is have some kind of flavor roleplaying at the outset. First, my kids (and probably a lot of players) like to roleplay, and, second, I think allowing them to do that first avoids the problem of my talking too much in the beginning as the GM. I could this being something like “You’ve woken up early. You have more than an hour before you report in, so what do you do?” or “Whom do you see on the streets? What is going on in the town?”
I think we’ve definitely found a great tabletop RPG for the family.
So here’s an outline of the hazards and events in our session. I didn’t capture the roleplay dialog, which was there but less than usual because we were so focused on learning the rules and playing the game for the first time.
GM’s Turn:
Hazard 1 (Mice): Sadie rolled her Scout 2 with additional dice from Kenzie, wise, and gear. Peddler rolled 6D for Nature with 3 successes, and Sadie rolled 5D for 2 successes. She did not have any 6s so she could spend a Fate point to reroll.
They couldn’t find the peddler, but they did see his cart. Kenzie decided to search it for any evidence of the peddler being a traitor. (I thought it was a little vague, but I counted it.) Kenzie rolled 5D for 4 successes, a very excellent roll. As a result, Kenzie found the map.
Since there was no failed search, I didn’t apply a twist.
Hazard 2 (Animal): As a result of their rummaging through the grain, the snake appears behind Kenzie to attack him. Sadie jumps to his defense. This initiates a conflict with the snake. Sadie rolled the disposition and added her bonus for a total of 6. The snake had a poor roll and had a disposition of 5. I then explained how the conflict works and asked that they collaborate on who did what action. They alternated actions: Sadie, Kenzie, Sadie.
Goals:
Sadie – To kill the snake to protect Kenzie
Kenzie – To distract the snake so that Kenzie could kill it (Not a very good goal)
Snake – To kill the mice to protect the nest
Action 1: Sadie – Attack, Snake – Attack
Sadie used a trait, gear, and a Persona point to roll 6D for 3 successes. The snake rolled 7 and had 3 successes.
Action 2: Kenzie – Feint, Snake – Defend
Kenzie was lucky and had a good round. He use a trait and gear to roll 5D for 3 successes. The snake’s disposition was 0.
I had them describe the fight, and I then added that Sadie cut the snake’s belly at the bulge, which then spilled out the peddler.
The players talked to the peddler but didn’t confront him with the map. The peddler said that he was fine and needed to make it to Barkstone. The mice decided to accompany him with Sadie offering to pull the cart so the peddler could rest, but he continued to look in the grain. Kenzie asked repeatedly if he was looking for something. The peddler acted nervous, and I tried to bait Kenzie with dialogue like “What? Are you suggesting something? I . . . I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Still, Kenzie did not have a direct confrontation.
They reached Barkstone, and the mice parted ways . . . except then Kenzie said that they would follow the peddler to see whom he was meeting. (He didn’t confront the peddler because he wanted to find who the contact was. Sneaky boy.)
Players’ Turn:
Hazard 3 (mice): The peddler tried to hide from the mice to meet his contact. I make this a complex test.
First, The peddler used his Nature to hide, rolling 6D for 2 successes. Kenzie rolled 5D for 3 successes. He described how he spotted the peddler as he was meeting someone in an alley, whom I say runs at the sight of the mice. With the peddler then bound, Kenzie quizzes the peddler.
Then, Kenzie tried to persuade the peddler to spill his guts. I could made this a conflict, but I could tell the session had been long, so I made it a simple test. Peddler rolls 4D for the Persuader skill + 1D for the Cunning trait for a total of 1 success. ONE! Kenzie rolls 5D for 4 successes. The peddler and the players then act out the conversation, with the peddler revealing that he was selling the secrets of the Lockhaven defenses to the weasels for gold. When Kenzie asks if he has no loyalty, he says that as a trader, he has a home in many cities.
As described earlier, I’ve decided on a basic layout and template for a digital comic. What I didn’t explicitly state before is that I’m going to use a landscape mode rather than portrait for a couple of reasons, but landscape mode present certain challenges.
Flipping between landscape and portrait is too confusing, except if that were the intention. The point is to build a certain rhythm to the comic through the use of panel designs, word balloons, and actions. Landscape also makes sense given the medium. Visit most web comics that use the portrait mode used in print, and you’ll find yourself scrolling, which I think affects the rhythm. In particular, I think intuitively people look at the whole ‘page’ whether it’s in print or online and get something from that overall design. Also, my personal experience with mobile comics is that portrait is not as satisfying as landscape, the latter of which seems to provide more space.
The challenge is that landscape doesn’t provide a type of page flow that portrait does.
First, let’s look at a few of the common layouts and grids used for landscape comics:
Undoubtedly, landscape provides several interesting possibilities. But its very orientation implies a certain rhythm that is different from a portrait layout. Wide panels generally suggest a longer period of time, and the landscape mode is itself wide, but it can be divided into narrow panels to convey brief moments in time. It seems possible, even unavoidable at times, to have a quicker rhythm with landscape modes, because you can fit more panels from side to side and because the reader’s focus does not have to travel vertically. The landscape mode seems great for focusing on action, like newspaper strips.
But I think the loss of the vertical makes it difficult to have a contrast of brief moments and a lingering, long shot of time.
Here are a couple of examples of what I’m talking about, where I’ve indicated the page flow in a red line, which could be defined by word balloons, actions, and focal points.
If an artist used the large space without border panels, the effect is heightened, as that would suggest a certain timelessness. Each of these example layouts suggest a falling tempo, like a sustained note. I can and have seen this flow and layout used to show actions that lead to a prolonged moment or action, such as a conversation in which one person says something pointed that makes the other character pause and think.
The landscape mode doesn’t easily afford that kind of falling flow. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible, but I think it requires even more of a design challenge. For example, a landscape layout could get something of a falling flow in this way:
But it still feels shorter than in the portrait mode.
Another challenge of the landscape mode is the use of successive wide panels. In a portrait layout, I’ve seen artist use 4 or 5 wide panels. In a landscape layout, I frequently see 2 wide panels, maybe three.
Artists such as Frank Quitely use multiple wide panels to show longer moments over a long period of time. [Actually, Quitely does more than that with wide panels which I'm only now appreciating.] It’s not something likely to be used often, but it can have its uses. I’m less concerned about this particular use, but it highlights that a landscape layout is likely to have two rows of panels. The portrait mode has a long history of 3 columns [for the 9-panel and 6-panel grids].
None of this is to say that the landscape mode is bad for comics. In fact, it probably says more about my abilities, but as I plan my story and its designs, I’ve come across these and other challenges.
There are a couple of games that I’ve been hoping will be localized for the West, and for one of them, that isn’t happening–Hironobu Sakaguchi‘s Last Story. I don’t play a lot of Japanese RPGs, but this one caught my attention, partly because I want to see if Sakaguchi’s return to game directing translates into a significant change in JRPGs. The combat system, particularly the gathering ability, sounds like a good update for the traditional group combat in JRPGs.
I know the story is that JRPGs don’t do well in the West anymore, but FF XIII still sold well in the Americas [2.24m versus 1.88m in Japan]. Instead, it might be a concession that the Wii has lost its audience for these types of game, even though I think Monster Hunter 3 shows that it’s still around.
The other game that I hope is localized is another Wii game for which I’ve seen little detailed information–Earth Seeker. Collection is clearly a part of it, which I hope means exploration, but the combat looks similar to Monster Hunter. But, given the premise and the fact gamers play the same female character, it seems to have a story.
Unfortunately, I now have zero hope that the West will see this game localized. Enjoy this clip, too.
Knock me over with a feather. Right-wingfanatics find a Muslim Batman just too much to bear. I don’t have much to add othertakedowns of this insipid argument except to point out that Muslims weren’t behind the French riots this fall. And, yes, Mr. Huston, neo-Nazis are part of what is ‘really going on in France’–attacks on soldiers’ graves, a Nazi sympathizer in Jean-Marie Le Pen, and an assassination attempt on Jacques Chirac.
Riots are happening across Europe, including when a dictator is elected. And to say that the riots are based on religion is to badly misread what’s happening in Europe.
Bit by bit, I’m regaining time to work on a digital comic. I was sad to see that DC closed Zuda, which I thought was good exposure for creators and their digital comics. [However, parts of Zuda live on with Comixology, an application for downloading and reading comics, including DC and, supposedly, some of the Zuda comics.]
That said, I’ve struggled finding how to set up digital comics. If you visit any number of online comics, such as those at webcomics nation, you’ll see many creators using print layout for the web. Indeed, it’s hard to leave behind that format. To open yourself to other formats and layouts for the web is almost intimidating. For example, you can go so far as to use Flash or HTML5 to design interesting interactions, such as Never Mind the Bullets.
For me, while that kind of design is very appealing, I’m just trying to finish one comic. So, I decided to stay with a static digital format. The problem is that I wasn’t sure how I would deliver–as a mobile comic? as a CBR file? as a web comic? If you search for recommendations, you see a lot of references to monitor resolutions, not for mobile devices.
Fortunately, I found layout information at Robot Comics, the creator of Droid Comic Viewer, which is available for Android phones and iPhones. Using Manga Studio 4, I created a template that is 5 times the size of Robot Comics’ recommended 480 x 320 dimensions–2400 x 1600. If I decided to publish it as a web comic, I can export the comic to a more appropriate resolution, such as 960 x 640 or 1200 x 800. I set the DPI at 300, in case I wanted to print it. I ended up creating a template with the following settings:
Take the settings for what they’re worth. I’ve tested them, and they seem to work well when I export them to 72 or 96 DPI and 480 x 320. [It's a little small on my Nexus One which supports 800x400, but the Droid Viewer allows you to easily zoom in.]
One thing that I searched for but found almost nothing was how to size the fonts. Downsizing the comic to 1/5 could mean that certain fonts might not scale well or be very readable for both the web and as a mobile comic. Blambot offers a lot of nice free fonts, so I grabbed a few and decided to test with WebLetterer. Exporting to the 320 x 480 resolution, I found that 9 point font was readable. 8 point pushed readability, and I thought 7 point was unusable. Mind you, I have middle aged eyes, but even with reading glasses, the 7 point font was too small to read easily. However, when I zoomed in to a larger resolution for my phone, the 8 point was very good and 7 point font was still readable though with more effort. I double-checked this by exporting to 600 x 400 and still found 7 point on the small side.
So, 9 point seems safe, although it seems large. In the end, I’ll keep my text on separate layers so that I can resize them as needed, but I’ve decided to go with 8-point. However, if I choose a different font, I should test the sizes again.
If you want to create a comic for the Droid Comic Viewer, check out this information about creating the zip and XML files.
I might still run into problems, but I think I’ve done my research and come up with a layout that is flexible but still aimed at digital distribution. [However, ereaders such as the Kindle and Sony have different requirements, which Robot Comics has discussed. For now, I'm not going to worry as I doubt that I'll go that route, especially since the Kindle uses the 4:3 screen ratio.]
Of course, now’s the tough part–actually working on my project.
In recent months, an interesting thing has happened without my knowing it–I’m reading more comics with a female lead. I didn’t seek these books out. I tried them and found that I enjoyed them.
Now, none of these books are written by a woman. So, a fair criticism is that I’m reading a man’s interpretation of a woman. Indeed, three of the four characters have their sex appeal in full display–Power Girl with her cleavage, Wonder Woman with her long legs and cleavage, and Zatanna with the fish net stockings and bustier. Not exactly feminist characters. Wonder Woman, Power Girl, and Zatanna are all heroines that have been used to objectify women. And I’ve been wary of female superhero comics for that reason. In fact, I had that feeling of a guilty pleasure . . . except that I was not buying the comics for the boobs. I was attracted to the comics because of the art–for the style, not the cheesecake.
You see, they have something that’s sorely missing from American superhero comics, something that takes me back to what I enjoyed about comics as a kid.
First, they have solid action. Yes, a couple have large story arcs, but each issue has a story and action. I can read each issue and finish a story [most of the time].
Second, except for Wonder Woman, they have a sense of humor. It’s not P.G. Wodehouse humor or the kind that makes you laugh aloud, but the humor keeps the book light and the characters likable.
Too many superhero comics today are moody, dramatic, and dark. I appreciate the desire to be more serious, although most fail. The fact is that the earth can only be threatened so many times before I’m ready for it to explode. What I like about these female-lead titles is that they’re personal, about the character in transition, which makes their humor even more appealing. Wonder Woman is the exception in these four titles because the Amazons are under a dire threat. Yet, even she has an interesting personal conflict, as she questions her faith.
So, I like the characters in spite of the cheesecake element. I don’t think Wonder Woman can escape her bikini wax [although they have her in long pants now] or Power Girl can escape her porn star breasts. Yet, I see the artists making some effort to minimize those features. For example, I first picked up Power Girl 17 and saw this pages like this where her cleavage was hardly noticeable:
I don’t doubt these books and depictions still have their problems. I’m not ignoring them, but I see progress. I see these comics as upholding a tradition that I thought had been lost, as something quirky and fun that couldn’t be recovered even more than 25 years after the Watchmen and Dark Knight. I think these comics are passing the Bechdel test. I don’t feel that these stories are wholly at the expense of women. [Honestly, as long as the DC characters are who they are, they will always be sexist.] Yet, they are doing some good while being objectified, even if the objectification is pushed to the background. It’s like women who do have big breasts, sexy lips, beautiful hair, a great body and who have to deal with the responses to their attributes. Taking Zatanna out of the fishnet stockings and giving her smaller breasts might be considered an easy out for the male because it completely removes the sex appeal and doesn’t ask the male reader to change. I know I’m focusing back on men, but that’s where the problem is . . . with men’s perceptions of women.
So, there are two ways to look at the problem of women in comics–how they are presented and how they are viewed. The former puts the onus on the artists, and the latter, on the reader. Much of the criticism of comics has focused on the former. In a way, it’s almost a puritanical approach, focusing on removing the temptation rather than on changing the sinner. One could argue that the latter is a far more mature approach the former.
Now, I don’t want to exaggerate what these titles are doing, but I think they are all doing this to some degree, going beyond just wrapping a lame story around any excuse to get the women characters in sexy positions [although I think Zatanna succumbs to this on occasion]. Maybe I’m finally growing up myself, enjoying female comics for the stories and the characters themselves.
I’ve always been something of a Star Wars fan, but my son’s love of the stories has been very infectious. So, it’s been little wonder that we have anticipated Force Unleashed II. The first one was fun, though hardly great. Yet, as I read about TFU 2 and all the complaints about how short it is, I can’t help but think back to Jedi Knight – Dark Forces II. It was by no means a great game because it had some problems with level designs and some of the linearity. Still, it was very enjoyable, and some puzzles were challenging.
It’s amazing to me that given this is a sequel, why did they not produce a better game when they had so much existing framework and resources. Part of it is that I see they have lost their way on what made their earlier attempts so good.
First, the original trilogy had likable characters who had a friendship that we liked. But they also were part of a good story of the underdog, of the ‘little’ people who stand up and win. Dark Forces II isn’t so light hearted, but it’s still a story of a likable, sympathetic character. But with the prequel trilogy and TFU, we have stories of much more unlikable characters. And whereas Jedi powers were impressive, they weren’t godlike as they have now become in TFU 2 [whereas the light saber now seems weaker, requiring 3-5 strokes to kill a storm trooper].
Star Wars isn’t a great story . . . but it is great fun. And that fun, coupled with characters that we could recognize and like, made it memorable. The Star Wars franchise has lost that sense of fun amidst the darkness. Admittedly, the current animated Clone Wars series tries to create some friendship and fun with Obi Wan and Anakin [and Ahsoka], but we know where it’s headed. In fact, with the more likable characters, like Shaak Tii and even Ahsoka, it’s hard to invest much in them because we know their inevitable fates.
I think what’s missing is the hope, the fun, the parts of life that actually get us through the darkness. Maybe the current writers think that message is too immature for them. I don’t know. But they need to stop wallowing in these dark characters and stories. Giving us a game in which we focus on new, more destructive ways of killing people is not fun. After all, in parts of the Clone Wars, like the animated series, we’re supposed to like them. In Karen Traviss‘s novels, I think we’re very sympathetic to them as creatures that are treated like disposable droids. So, it’s easy to question this mass murder spree in the TFU 2 and to feel that our avatar is little different from Darth Vader.
When you think about it, the game title itself is a bit ominous–force unleashed. It appeals to a desire for power, allowing us the guilty pleasure of having all the power of the dark side. Gaming’s version of the Milgram Experiment, if you will.
Oh, and I have not bought TFU 2, and I doubt that I will.
I have found a couple of interesting tabletop RPG game sites: RPG Blog II and Gnome’s Stew. Gnome’s Stew is a multi-author blog and has varied articles, including some nice How-to’s, reviews, and tips. I look forward to reading them in the feature.
I also had some money from a recent birthday, so I splurged on GameScience dice and a nice reversible, flat-bottomed dice bag from Marsbarn.
Put me down as another gamer who loves Minecraft. Even though it has some significant issues, it does so much right–in fact, more than AAA games I’ve tried lately. It’s a player-driven, open game but one whose mechanics push most gamers in the same direction of creating things. [And humans are the tool-using animal.] It’s a game that illustrates that timing and good suspense is never outdone by shiny graphics and surround sound. Those barely-recognizable pixelated zombies are terrifying in a way that Resident Evil 5 wasn’t. Undoubtedly, the craft of timing and the rudimentary media are worth a good discussion.
But I’d like to look at the game from another perspective–the tension of metaphors.
First, a little background. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson wrote a short but great book about basic metaphors called Metaphors We Live By. Their point was to look at the mundane metaphors we use daily but don’t always see them as metaphors. Orientation metaphors are one of those basic groups.
up is good, happy, conscious, health, life, control, virtuous, rational, safe.
‘He’s in high spirits.’
‘I’m in top shape.’
‘I’m on top of things.’
‘She’s climbing the corporate ladder.’
‘She has high standards.’
‘He took the high road in the debate.’
down is bad, sad, unconscious, sickness, death, subjugation, depravity, emotional, dangerous.
‘She’s feeling down today.’
‘He came down with the flu.’
‘He fell from power.’
‘She’s low on the pole.’
‘Things have been going downhill.’
‘Morale is low.’
‘That was an underhanded thing to do.’
‘That’s beneath you.’
And we’re aware of this cluster of associations so that, when some argue that men are rational and women are emotional, they also argue that men are good, happy, virtuous, and in control. These base, controlling metaphors are prevalent, powerful, and ‘natural’ and I think they evoke a visceral response. For example, Hollywood knows that certain features create discomfort and even fear in audiences–faces with a 45 degree slant are more threatening than faces with more vertical alignment. Think of wolves and other predators. Likewise, being unable to see someone’s eyes makes us uncomfortable, which is why Disney creates doe-eyed characters.
The up-down and light-dark metaphors are strong in Minecraft, largely because of the primitive nature of the game. As this simple and gratuitous graphic shows, the hilltop ‘feels’ like the best place to be in the game while the mines seem the worst.
In fact, I spent a bit of my time early in the game building a good, protective base at the top of a hill for various reasons.
By building high, I could avoid building a roof so that I could see the passage of time while inside.
Monsters seemed to be more prevalent at lower levels.
A tall structure would be easier to find when I explored in search of materials. (Indeed, I had built 2 basic structures which I never could find again.)
The hilltop feels safe, then, because of its height and exposure to light, especially if you have a structure as I did where I could watch even the passage of night and know when to go outside. The hilltop and outside areas in general have a great pull for the gamer [at least for other Minecraft players I spoke with] while the caves and mines have a certain repulsion.
At this point, the game design kicks in for a great experience because Minecraft, true to its name, forces the gamer to the more uncomfortable dark and lower parts of the world, as this second figure shows.
To build more advanced items, the player must go into the mines and caves, almost regardless of how the player has decided to play the game. What is especially brilliant is that most players have a similar experience for that first night in the game–no torch, the player huddles somewhere, probably a dark cave where unidentified noises keep you wondering exactly what’s out there. As crude as the graphics are, that experience of huddling in the dark is an iconic one because the player is completely defenseless, something few games force players to experience. As players, we’re used to having some light for the dark, some weapon to defend ourselves, some knowledge of what is threatening. Not here. And at this point, the graphics do not matter because dark is dark, and you have no weapon to hold.
Yet, if there’s any aspect of the graphics that is superb, it is probably the lighting. First, you have the sun and the moon passing through the sky, which you can watch. With no other means to tell time, this mechanic in itself creates tension, especially in the early stages as the player searches for resources, often far from a base, if one exists. The player might wonder, ‘Do I have time to run back? Do I need to build a new shelter?’
Second, when you go into a cave or mine, you lose sight of the sky and, thus, the passage of time. I don’t think I’ve played any game where that loss of time has been so affective. By the point I was in the caves, I had already internalized that apprehension of the night, knowing what it meant, even if I might not be as affected in the caves. And losing sight of the sky creates another source of tension.
Third, while in the caves, I saw that my torch would sometimes flicker on an object that I could not identify. Did I see something or not? Again, I talked with other players who experienced the same thing. While objects and creatures are primitively represented, we still have the real experience of thinking we see something. Lighting is critical to the game, in my experience, and I think the presence of a torch is not only satisfying and comforting, the torch lighting works pretty well to show a little of the darkness’s secrets.
When asked why Minecraft is addicting, I basically point in the direction of these metaphors, in so many words. It makes me feel, experience some basic emotions. We are used to thinking that sophisticated graphics make us feel ‘as if we are there,’ as people often said after watching movies like Saving Private Ryan and Avatar. The problem is that as gamers and the audience, the details of the movie or game world captivate us, and we’re impressed. Yet, while details can be important, they can also overwhelm, sometimes to the point of distraction.
Minecraft does not make us feel transported to a specific place, but it does make us experience some genuine tension. And I think the primitive graphics and game design actually help us focus on those basic metaphors, of how they affect us.
NOTE: The Android market is expanding, and I’ve seen other d20 and D&D apps added since I wrote this post. I probably can’t keep up with these new apps, but I will look at another roundup in February.
You like tabletop RPGs? Oh, good. You have an Android phone? ah.
My friends and I have been chatting about good uses of smart phone or tablets with our D&D sessions. Not to feed a gadget fetish, it seems that there are some good ways to use technology. In this post, I’d like to take a look at some of the better D&D apps for Android devices. One thing to keep in mind is that the Android market is growing daily. Several of these D&D apps were added only in the last 3 or 4 months.
Overall, it’s not great, but there’s progress. It’s not surprising to see that the iPhone has many, many more D&D apps. However, almost none of the iPhone apps are free, and several are $2 or more, up to $29.99. The iPhone apps have more graphics than the android apps. Perhaps the most interesting tool I see for the iPhone is the various map applications, which a DM could use to display on a larger screen. But I also like the idea of an app that can generate a map or room quickly.
In a future post, I’ll review some ideas for useful D&D or tabletop apps.
d20 Character Sheet [€3.00]
This app allows you to maintain your D&D 3.5 characters. Although I’m not a fan of the UI design, it covers the basic functionality and information that I’d want in a character sheet, as the online manual explains. It tracks alignment, stats, money, feats, skills, abilities, saves, attack bonus, racial traits, items. But it omits languages, deity, class specialization [such as flurry of blows or nature sense], weapon proficiencies, and spells.
Even though the app is flexible enough to allow you to edit classes, skills, feats, weapons, armor, and goods, you cannot add languages and deity. As for spells, fortunately another application handles that hole very well.
I like how easy it is to add skills and feats to favorites so that you can track them more easily. It handles multi-classing well, and it’s compact and easily accessible. I’m not fond of the background image which I think makes reading the basic stats more difficult. Unfortunately, the thing that would make it more valuable than a paper character sheet is missing–descriptions of skills. It does show the basic stats for feats, however. Instead, it lists the page in the handbook for the appropriate description. It also does not calculate weight, something that an app should offer easily. Finally, another missing stat is mana points.
If the app were free, it’d be a no-brainer to recommend it. For €3.00, I’m not so high on it. It still has uses, like being able to modify your money, inventory, hit points. But the lack of reference information and missing attributes are major drawbacks. Hopefully, it’s something the author can add in a future update. This app does a lot right, but it’s missing too many vital and useful features. I have it so I will probably use it, but I won’t be leaving my paper character sheet at home.
Update: I contacted the author of d20 character sheet with most of my complaints. He quickly responded and noted that he’s working on adding the class-based feats. He has deities, languages and weapon proficiencies on his backlog of features, but he’s focused on the most requested items, particularly spells.
Spellbook D&D 3.5 [free]
Our group probably spends more time looking up and parsing spells more than anything else about our characters. Skills would be a distant second. A very recent addition to the Android Market helps greatly. Currently, I use a web browser to visit our group’s site and look up spells and other things, but it’s not well formatted, and I have to zoom, which can be slow. Spellbook D&D 3.5 is a great spell reference. You browse all the spells or search for a specific spell. You can then select spells as favorites. Each spell description appears to have all the information found in the handbook, and where appropriate, there are links to other spells. You can even add notes for each spell.
It’s a simple but very excellent application. It loads quickly and is easy to read. This might be the best D&D app for android at the moment.
d20 Reference [US$0.99]
This would appear to be the motherload reference for D&D 3.5e. It covers information for spells, armor, weapons, combat actions, feats, races, classes, and magic items. Unfortunately, it suffers a couple of faults.
The text formatting is bad. In some cases, several items might be listed, but the text has no formatting to make scanning easier. This is particularly true of the spell lists.
It has no search tool.
You cannot mark items as favorites.
For $0.99, it’s not bad, though a little frustrating given that the data itself is publicly available. I would like to see a little more programming effort to warrant charging me. It is faster than using my web browser, but in some cases, it’s faster than looking up in the handbook.
Pocket RPG Help [free]
This is another character tracker for multiple games as well as a dice roller [which we don't use in our games]. Although this is a free app, it is not terribly useful as it tracks only a few things–hit points, mana points, ammunition and initiative.
RPG Sidekick [free]
This is the third and last character tracker that I’ve found and tried. At first, it seems barely an app. It has no character name information or reference. Instead, this is purely a stat tracking app. Unlike Pocket RPG, however, it allow you to create stats. You give the stat a nice and then specify the maximum value. The stat then appears with a slider, allowing you to easily adjust it. I find the slider using more screen space but easier than + and – buttons or an editable field. You can edit the stats, but you cannot reorder them.
This is a nice approach, but a set of defaults would be nice. The prospect of creating all the stats for a character [and you can track stats for multiple characters] is daunting. It also has not reference information about skills, feats or spells, and you cannot track inventory items. Again, another free app that I couldn’t recommend.
DM Assist [free]
This is a single-purpose app for DMs–to track the intiative order and hit points for monsters during combat. Actually, you can use it track monsters, NPCs, players, and spells. It works well for what it does, but it’s such a specific application that I wonder how useful it is, given everything else that a DM tracks. And frankly, this is one of those things where paper is much faster and easier.
kmonster [free]
This app is a monster reference for D&D 4.0, but, because it requires a subscription to the D&D Insider, I was not able to test it. But you can save monsters offline for later use, and it can auto level your monsters. The extent to which I could use it, kmonster seems like a good, quick application. And I think there’s value to this sort of app, even by itself, because managing monsters is not trivial.
Update 2: D20 Helper [free and $0.99]
This app has a nice focus–tracking your hit points and rolling dice. It’s similar to RPG Helper. One thing I like about it over RPG Helper is the buttons for adding or deducting hit points, as opposed to writing in the new hit point value. Yes, the math is simple, but I like just clicking a button. Also, for the random dice roller, you can enter the multiplier. You can’t save your character info with the free version. Like RPG Helper, it seems to support one character. Visit the web site for more info.
I quit for a variety of reasons, and I tried other MMORPGs, but I didn’t find anything that came close to my experience with Everquest. Over the last year, I’ve toyed with playing it again. [Because I first played it over 10 years ago, I guess this might qualify as retro gaming.] As it turned out, some of my original guild and a couple of my fellow D&D game pals were thinking along the same lines. So, about 5 weeks ago, we met, talked about the classes we’d like to play, and set some ground rules to play it casually [1-2 times a week].
Coming back to the game, I found that much had changed [which didn't include the dreadful interface]. I bought into the original vision of Everquest, that forced grouping allowed them to create a difficult game with extreme risk and reward. It was one of the handful of games where I feared dying, that I put myself at risk even trying to go from one zone to another. Yet, when we took those risks, we found great reward in accomplishing what we did.
Yet, returning to the game, I found much that made me think that the Everquest I loved was gone. In sum, I thought the game had itself turned into a World of Warcraft clone, where levels came easily and fast and where everyone could solo. But then I discovered how much deeper the game is than I thought all these years.
easy like sunday morning
At level 10, my paladin had equipment that exceeded anything my old warrior had when he was in his mid and late 20s.
Money came easily. Again, by level 10, my paladin had 7000 plat. [Actually, I made most of that money in about 6 hours. I looted the crates scattered throughout the tutorial to build up to 40plat and used that speculate in the bazaar.] My level 57 warrior had 10,000 plat to his name.
Experience comes fast, whether it’s in the tutorial zone or in the ‘hot zones’ for high levels. Before our guild disbanded the first time, we thought it was good night if we got 1/2 to 3/4 of a level. Now, it’s not uncommon for our starting and high-level characters to level once or twice in an evening.
Players can now rent mercenaries, which they use to solo or to enhance their group. The mercs seem to be overpowered. For example, when our high-level characters had a couple of mercs, including a cleric, they rarely worried about mana levels and hit points for the mercs.
the epiphany
So, I began to think that this return wasn’t going to be as fun as I hoped. But two things changed my opinion.
First, last week, our very balanced group of 5 went out in search of some tough creatures. When possible, we ignored creatures that conned white or lower. We moved along, clearing out a building of its redundantly named undead creatures. Then we went out further, and I thought that we had found a good pull spot. So, we settled in, pulling yellow and red con creatures. The monk and I settled into a groove of chain pulling.
At this point, I realized how we had somewhat tired of the game . . . endlessly pulling and fighting like clockwork. It was too smooth, too monotonous. Someone suggested that we cross a bridge near us and make our way to some caves.
As we crossed, we drew the attention of a tough mob. Once on the other side of the bridge, we parked and fought it, only to find that another creature attacked. And then another. At one point, we had the original creature and 4 adds, which our enchanter was trying to mesmerize. To make it worse, our cleric had a critical phone call that he had to take. Our group was not wiped, but one character died as the rest of us ran for relative safety.
Even without the phone call, we probably wouldn’t have succeeded. In fact, it might have been worse. The key, tough, is that how the game changed dramatically just by moving a few yards in the game.
Second, over the weekend, a couple of the group played their level 60 characters along with two mercs. I won’t go into detail about their weekend-long adventures, but they did things, visited places, and fought creatures that we had never taken on with our characters before. In short, it opened a new aspect of the game.
When we first played the game, we rarely took on named NPCs, especially as we levelled up. The named ones were often too tough for our group, so we tended to fight by finding a safe pull spot and chain pulling what we could. Sometimes, we went into dungeons, but we rarely took on so many red cons. We found back then, that blue and white creatures were often enough of a challenge.
In both of these experiences, though, the key is that while parts of the game were easier, it was still a game of risk. Even with the mercs, the players found many, many close calls, even running for the zone in a couple of instances. The game still had its risks.
What I realized is the original game could be significantly tougher and, thus, riskier if they forced gamers to play in groups and [later, in multi-group raids], allowing them to create significantly tougher monsters than games before had. Yet, 10 years of improved equipment, a vibrant game economy, and various changes to the gamers allowed them to face even tougher challenges. The game now makes the player more powerful, but the player, especially those long in the tooth like my group, has to change, to go beyond the comfortable. Go now and try to clear the Plane of Justice. Those unexpected and exciting back-and-forth fights are what made the game, and they are still there. You can solo to an extent in the game, but you still need mercs, which you have to pay for and which are limited to one per person.
I think the game has some of the old issues as well as some new ones, but I have to credit the developers for building a more resilient, deeper game than I originally thought. And my friends, being who they are, continue to provide good fun themselves.
As a note, we were amazed to see that the changes include the destruction of a city by giants–the very interesting city of Firiona Vie, with its catapult defenses, is no more.
First, we played Castle Ravenloft, the 
In recent months, an interesting thing has happened without my knowing it–I’m reading more comics with a female lead. I didn’t seek these books out. I tried them and found that I enjoyed them.
very recent addition to the Android Market helps greatly. Currently, I use a web browser to visit our group’s site and look up spells and other things, but it’s not well formatted, and I have to zoom, which can be slow. Spellbook D&D 3.5 is a great spell reference. You browse all the spells or search for a specific spell. You can then select spells as favorites. Each spell description appears to have all the information found in the handbook, and where appropriate, there are links to other spells. You can even add notes for each spell.
Also, for the random dice roller, you can enter the multiplier. You can’t save your character info with the free version. Like RPG Helper, it seems to support one character. Visit the 
