Okay this is hilarious and I had to share it. What happens when Siri runs a D&D game? It turns out Siri is the worst GM ever!
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Tag: game
Taversia, author and artist for the Vampire webcomic Wayward Fall, takes the hot seat.
Q1. What’s your webcomic ‘Wayward Fall’ about?
A1. Over the course of the past couple of years that Wayward Fall has been online, its storyline has continued to unravel and evolve. I first began the comic with my co-writer, AntiType, in Autumn/Winter of 2008 (it was a transitional period; the first pages were created on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. But the comic itself did not go live until December 17th). It centres around a vampire, Vigana, who grew up in the Dark Ages, now reawakened in the modern era, in an urban underground society. She fell in with the mob, operating the fictitious city of Wayward Falls, and soon came in to working for them as a hit-woman. It outlines her inner struggles, coming to terms with the trials and tribulations of her rather unfortunate life. Although there are many comedic elements within the comic, at its core, Wayward Fall is an ongoing romantic tragedy with a strong fantasy/sci-fi theme. There are also subtle religious undertones abound. As the story continues to develop, it will gradually become much darker. Furthermore, not any one character is safe from at some point, facing destruction at the discretion of the writers (currently, just me).
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Movie Review: The Gamers
The Gamers is an Independently produced comedy by Dead Gentleman Productions, and focuses on a group of student role-play gamers (I can confidently say they are playing Dungeons & Dragons – I recognise the books). It fully embraces the concept of this being a game and interchanges between the game-world and the real-world, which adds much of its humour. The Gamers succeeds in accurately showing what the experience of gaming is like: to the outside viewer just a bunch of nerds sitting around a table, but once you enter that imaginative world you see it is much more, and a ton of fun!
The Movie is very much carried by its humour, the plot itself isn’t very robust being a basic defeat the villain, rescue the Princess cliché but nonetheless serves as a good vehicle. Likewise the characters are very stereotypical but that’s okay because it’s what the movie is making fun of.
After the atrocity of Dungeons & Dragons the Movie it’s doubtful whether any sequel ever had lower expectations than this. Fortunately things could only get better. Wrath of the Dragon God could not be more different from its predecessor, and it’s gratifying to see criticism being used constructively.
Set in Ismer a century on the city is unrecognisable, but Damodar, the blue-lipped henchman (minus the blue lips) and only recurring character (played by Bruce Payne), plans to destroy it. It seems Jeremy Irons cursed him with undeath (justification for blue lips if ever I heard one) so Damodar, seeking revenge, locks him in a room with the first movie playing on a continual loop recovers the magical Orb of Thingamabob to awaken the sleeping Dragon God.
I’m starting to believe that Dungeons & Dragons is to film what Macbeth is to Theatre: cursed. Invoke the name and you spell disaster. Perhaps you’ve seen the 80’s cartoon series or Dragons of Autumn Twilight? They were bad, to be sure, but this is worse – far worse than you can possibly imagine. Which, believe it or not, is sort of it’s charm; it keeps you watching with morbid fascination to see just how bad bad can get.
Blue lipstick? Bugger me!
The movie’s tag-line was ‘This is no game,’ and truer words were never spoken. The classic role-play game is only conspicuous in it’s absence from the production that bears it’s name. A few scant elements were incorporated from the source matter, but those inaccurately, so what was intended as fan service comes across as a kick in the teeth.
Amuletts takes Clodins bribe to vote for him, making him the new party leader. The delighted dwarf taunts Martin then does a victory dance concluding in the moon walk, complete with crotch grab!
In a role-play game the player just says “I do a victory dance.” There’s a lot to be said for a visual!
Yes – I need to turn that last frame into an animated gif.
Myst – I like Myst now, unfortunately it was responsible for initially putting me off the series (and point and click games as a whole). Why? Well, it is a very short game, something I did not realise until I replayed (and finished) it. On first play I got through most of it then got stuck at the music/space ship puzzle, which is very glitchy. This was frustrating. I felt I was stuck at the beginning (when actually I was close to the end)! It took me 10 years and a friend to talk me into Riven. After that I had another go… and got stuck in exactly the same place! Fortunately (technology having come on somewhat) I now had access was the wonderful internet to (a) help me and (b) make me realise I was not alone. So I got past it, and realised Myst was pretty good on the whole. (I played REAL Myst the second time around which was probably an improvement). But Riven…
Riven – WOWIEEEE! Dang fabulous game (but in 2nd place, keep reading)! Great puzzles and plot, tremendously beautiful and atmospheric. Amazing world-building mythos, plus the villain, Gehn, is fabulous. You really want to watch the alternate endings just to see how evil he can be. Myst is full of ideas and potential; Riven fulfills it.
Exile – This is my favorite. Why? Saavedro. He is fantastic. I like to get inside the heads of individual characters and this is a game where you really do. He leads you on a tour, you understood exactly how f***ed-up he is and how he got there. The actor, Brad Dourif, (the same guy who played Grima in LOTR and Suder in Voyager) does a truly superb job.
Revelation – This one is good but not a stand alone, and there were some bits that were annoying game-play wise. I was often left with no clue as to what I should be doing next, and spent a lot of time stumbling through the forest randomly poking things; for this it slips into 3rd place. But you’re hooked in here by Atrus’ children, Sirrus and Achenar, and discovering what happened to them after Myst. Having played the previous games I was invested in the characters and therefore really wanted to help, and understand.
End of Ages – Um. Yeah. The actors were CGed in this one, very good CG but I think it took away a lot of what made Myst so unique, appealing and realistic. I have not finished End of Ages, but so far I have found it pretty dull. Atrus isn’t there, nor anyone you recognise (the original actors were not involved with this project). The gameplay in all of the Myst series is slow, but they had me interested. This one didn’t. If I finish it I suspect it will purely be for completeness of the series.