Tuesday 22 October 2013

Review: Dungeons & Dragons: Arena of War (iOS)

Bob Dylan sang "Oh the times, they are a changing..." and never a truer word was said about how the advent of tablets has changed the fortunes of boardgame and RPG companies.  As a long time Mac user I'd long since accepted my platform as an afterthought from games companies like Wizards of the Coast when making e versions of their popular products so you can imagine my surprise when bumbling around on the App store I found a new official Dungeons & Dragons game!!  Minutes later the download was done and I was ready to get my dungeon bash on...

D&D Arena of War


NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING...

I'll get this out there at the beginning of this review. If you want a like for like simulacrum of a D&D encounter, this app is not for you as once you're past the initial character generation screens and into your first "tutorial" adventure, your carefully imagined plans of strategic movement go out of the window when you realise that this is ANGRY BIRDS D&D!!. Yes that's right, the only way you interact with your character is by using a bizarre slingshot technique to fire yourself at random monsters dotted around an arena.  However, as this is WotC's first iOS release I'm going to give them the benefit of doubt and delve a little deeper. 

CHARACTER BUILDING & DEVELOPMENT

You get a nice selection of characters to begin with which cover the usual spectrum of races and classes with options to change clothing and gender.  The main thrust of character development is reserved for a system of powers much like 4th Edition D&D.  These powers can be enhanced to increase damage (and oddly HP) and you can swap powers between quests to take full advantage of each new ability or upgrade. 

QUESTS

There are 3 Quest Books to begin with (Baldur's Gate, The Trade Way and Northern Sword Coast) each of which you will unlock as you progress through the game.  You will be also be rewarded with Daily Quests for levels you've already cleared and for two days of the week you get to have a crack at the Undermountain quests (a sort of ranking tournament).  Each quest costs Quest Energy (QE) to join and you have 100 QE to begin with which recharges on a timer system.  You can also use Potions to recharge your QE instantly and each time you level up it automatically recharges to full.

Each Quest is essentially an encounter in a single location comprising of a bunch of monsters which attack you in waves.  The locations are nicely rendered but a little monotonous and reflect the overall theme of the Quest level you are on, so dungeon quests are inside rooms and wilderness quests are in forest glades.  The edges of each location have features like walls, teleportation portals, gas vents or spring traps which you need to utilise (or avoid) in order to maximise your combat potential.

The reward for completing quests varies but essentially is a combination of powers, enhancement scrolls or potions of Quest Energy.

COMBAT

As I mentioned earlier you use the slingshot interface to fire your character into monsters with a charging attack. As soon as you start to drag backwards (ie away from your intended target) a small power bar will start to extend from the circle to indicate how far you will charge. Whilst this is fine when your characters are in the middle of the screen, if they are close to a wall you can end up being restricted in the amount of power you can apply and coming up too short. When using Heroes with a missile attack you need to pull back only slightly, they will then move forward a small amount (or not at all if you're really good) and fire off an arrow, thereby stopping them charging across the room straight into danger.

Although this is a weird (and to be honest a little random) interface it does force you to use a few interesting techniques:  

Ricochet: When you charge (or shoot an opponent) they get pushed back into another hero, enemy or bomb. When it's pushed back into a hero, they suffer an attack of opportunity, if it's another enemy then they both take additional damage; if it's a bomb it explodes damaging anyone in it's blast radius.

Rebound: A variation on the ricochet occurs when an enemy is pushed back into a wall and rebounds into the original attacker who then automatically attacks again.

The real trick in the game is to strategically chain these two techniques together to clear each wave of monsters as efficiently as possible.  On occasion I've manged to wipe an entire waves of enemies with just one move, but it was more luck than any type of strategy.

POWERS

Each basic character comes with two power slots which you get to use during combat to cause effects or heavy damage, additional slots are unlocked as you progress through the game and unlock the Tier 2, 3 and 4 characters.

Powers are ranked from Common (C, C+), Rare (R, R+), Ultra Rare (UR, UR+) to  Legendary (L, L+) and can be enhanced by fusing identical lower level cards to them with the Fuse Power option.  Scrolls or different powers can also be fused, but are less effective.

You can then use the auto equip button to assign the strongest powers to your character and increase their Attack and HP values to take on tougher monsters in higher level quests.  Whilst this is a simple enough mechanism, it is a little obtuse and I have yet to understand how to get the best out of my upgrades.

OVERVIEW

The graphics, animations and interface are all flawlessly rendered and very reminiscent of other WotC products.  The quirky catapult mechanism is fun once you get the hang of it and whilst this will leave most experienced role players left wanting, it is quite a fun use of the D&D brand and has potential to bring younger players into the hobby.  It has some of the iconic elements of D&D such as monsters like the Gelatinous Cube and Beholder, a turn based combat system which feels like initiative and a simplistic system of character progression. 

However, I still yearn for an experience closer to a simulation of an actual game, so come on WotC you've given me a taste of what you can do on iOS, I'm salivating to see some real D&D.

8/10 - Can't wait to see what else you've got in store.

VIDEO REVIEW OF ACTUAL PLAY

You can also check out a video walk through showing some actual game play on my new You tube channel Roleplay Geek TV.

Tuesday 13 August 2013

Reaper Bones #6: Mimic, Treasure Chest and How I Rebase my Bones

There are a handful of miniatures from the Vampire Kickstarter that I've been looking forward to painting, and this mimic is one of them.

I've never used one in a game, but now I have one in my arsenal you can bet you're bottom dollar I'll be throwing it at my players.

Mockingbeast (Julie Guthrie SKU: 77048) 
Reaper Bones Mimic (Front)
Reaper Bones Mimic (Front)
I really struggled with the eyes, I tried several different paint combos until finally settling on fluorescent orange with a dab of white for the reflection.
Reaper Bones Mimic (3/4)
Reaper Bones Mimic (3/4)

Reaper Bones Mimic (Back)
Reaper Bones Mimic (Back)

Of course you can't have a mimic without having the treasure chest it's mimicking.

Chest - Crypt of the Vampiress set (Bob Ridolphi SKU: 02990)

Reaper Bones Treasure Chest and Mimic
Reaper Bones Treasure Chest and Mimic

How I Rebase My Bones


All Purpose Filler and a Craft Knife
In comments Welleran asked, "When you rebase these, how are you cutting off the old bases? Are there any tricks to it?".  The simple answer is no I'm not cutting off the bases and there are no tricks, just a tried and tested method I've used for years.

For this you'll need a scalpel or craft knife and some all purpose quick drying wall filler, the sort of thing you use to hide cracks in plasterboard (aka gyprock or rockwall) you should be able to buy some in the discount shop for about £1.

Tutorial


  1. Superglue your miniature to your chosen base material, for me that's old 2p pieces.  As you can see in the photo, the miniature's base stands proud of the new base and we need to hide that cliff edge.

  2. Dab on small amounts of the filler and use the craft knife to smooth it out in a nice transition from  the base edge to the height of the miniature's base.

Smooth out the filler to transition from the miniature's base
to the edge of your new base.
  1. Use the blade of the craft knife (or other implement) to texture the filler to taste, or to extend the existing base style if it had one.  I like to give dungeon dweller bases a paved look, which is easy to recreate by gently pressing a blade into the filler before it dries.  Wilderness creatures get a mud base which is just dimpled with the end of a paintbrush as the surface is going to be hidden with flock.

Texturise your base before the filler dries

Bones Progress

Reaper Bones: 245 - Painted: 32

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Thursday 11 July 2013

Reaper Bones #5 - Introducing Shaina Coppervein, Dwarven Orc Hunter

Last Friday saw a new campaign start at the Hobbits Hole with Andy donning his DM's hat (truly a thing of majestic beauty which I will have to snatch a photo of) whilst I assumed the role of Shaina Coppervein, Female Dwarven Orc Hunter.  Of course a freshly minted PC needs a freshly painted mini and the Vampire Kickstarter came to rescue in the form of

Freja Fangbreaker, Dwarf Sergeant (Werner Klocke SKU: 14085).

Reaper Bones Freja Fangbreaker
Shaina Coppervein (aka Freja Fangbreaker)

I found her incredibly tricky to paint for some reason, I guess I'm just getting old and my eyes and technique are getting long in the tooth.  However, she turned out okay and this will be the first mini that is used in actual play so we'll see how she stands up to everyday wear and tear.

I also have to own up to having given one of my bones minis away to fellow club member Stig, who deserved a nice new gnome rogue more than I had the desire to paint it.

Bones Progress


Reaper Bones: 244 - Painted: 36

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Tuesday 2 July 2013

Reaper Bones #4 - A Shuffle of Zombies


It's zombie time at roleplay-geek as more undead Bones miniatures got finished today.

Zombies x3 (Bob Ridolfi SKU: 77053)

Zombies x3 (Stefan Niehues SKU: 77014)

Reaper Bones Zombies Front
Reaper Bones Zombies (front)

Reaper Bones Zombies Back
Reaper Bones Zombies (back)

Bones Progress


Reaper Bones: 245 - Painted: 35

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Wednesday 19 June 2013

Reaper Bones #3: A Carcase of Skeletons

The Reaper Bones Painting Marathon continues, this time I have a carcase of skeletons.

So far I've been pretty impressed with the PVC material the bones minis are made from.  It's much more robust than the plastic that the WotC D&D or Paizo Pathfinder plastic miniatures are made from and the sculpts have been intentionally strengthened in some areas to ensure that they don't break or bend excessively.

The skeletons are a prime example of this as during transit they tend to get a bit bent, particularly in the polearm and base/ankle areas, which means when you unbox them they can have some weird lean angles. I had to use the hot water / cold water dipping technique on a few of them to refresh the plastic's memory and return them to their intended poses.  If you want to change a pose slightly you can, you just have to overbend them slightly as the plastic really wants to go back to its original shape.   

DHL Classic Skeletons x3 (Ed Pugh SKU: 03467)

Six skeletons (Front)

Six skeletons (Back)
From the pictures you'll see that these are the first Bones I've tried to mod.  I was pretty unhappy with the flexibility of the upper bow limbs, so I decided to string them to give them a bit of extra realism and to give the bow limb a bit of support. This involves a few steps:

  1. Heat a thin guage sewing needle over a naked flame until it glows cherry red, then pierce the miniature between the bottom limb of the bow and the skeleton's leg.  This will create a hole through which you can feed your bow string. 
  2. Cut a suitable length of solid thin wire to form your arrow and glue this between the drawing hand and the thumb with small dabs of superglue.  My knocked arrows are way too long to fit into the skeleton's quiver and I should really cut them down, but I like the way that they fit the skeleton's half draw pose so I'll leave them for now.
  3. Take a length of sewing thread and knot one end.  Then thread it through the hole you made in the bow in step 1 and set with a dab of superglue.  Stretch the thread in as straight a line as you can to the flight end of the arrow (ie the bit the skeleton is pulling) and set with a dab of superglue.
  4. Make a loop in the end of the thread and hook it over the topmost bow limb.  Tighten this thread until both bow limbs are symetrical and then set the knot with superglue.
  5. Coat the thread in superglue on both sides.  Once the superglue dries, the string becomes rigid and supports the upper bow limb and prevents any excessive flexing.
  6. The final stage is to cover up the drawn end of the bow with a flight.  Make this by pressing a small amount of modelling clay (milliput or green stuff) into a thin diamond shape on a cutting mat.  Whilst still pliable cut the diamond into two triangular halves and then stick one to the end of the bow.  You don't have to be too great at modelling to do this, just patient.

Bones Progress

Reaper Bones: 245 - Painted: 30

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