Defining Drian, or How to Figure Out Your Character's Identity

I've been playing D&D (that's Dungeons and Dragons, for those of you not into the gaming thing), off and on for, well, years. Right now I'm in an intermittent, extended campaign with a couple of our closest friends. My character is Drian, a second level half-elven cleric. (That's a healer.)

Tonight our party found itself disagreeing over our course of action. As a player, I had certain ideas about the wise thing to do. But I'm not Drian; I'm me. Drian doesn't know what I know about her world.

To figure out her stance on the issue, I had to figure out who she was. That's pretty incredible, because I usually have a full back story and a personality worked out before the first session. Somehow, that didn't happen this time.

Defining a character can be a bit intimidating to a new player. I spent literally weeks agonizing over Xandria the elven cleric-sorceress, my first character. So I thought it might help some new gamer out there if I worked through my process on the web. Here we go.…

Drian is a cleric.
Perhaps nothing else defines Drian so much as her chosen vocation, a cleric. As a cleric, she cares for her party, healing them when they need it, and calling on her god to bless and protect them in difficult situations. As such, she feels very responsible for them. Very, very responsible. In fact, the mental, physical, and spiritual welfare of her allies is second only to her duty to her god, Pelor.

Drian serves Pelor.
Pelor is the god of the sun, and by extension the god of summer, agriculture, and time. His clerics are sworn to uphold the cause of good, and to battle the undead. Such beings are anathema to him, having left behind the natural order of things. They are called to help the helpless wherever they can, and stand vigiliant against evil. Did I mention really, really hates undead?

Drian is good.
Okay, I lied before; this is Drian's most defining characteristic. Everything else plays out around it. Above all else, Drian wants to do what's right; it's why she's a cleric, instead of a merchant or an artisan. It's why she's an adventurer, heading out into every kind of dangerous and unpredictable situation when she could settle down in a nice, safe village or city to serve in Pelor's temple.

Drian is a cultural half-elf.
As a half-elf, Drian has been reconciling two different natures all her life. Half-elves are not elves, and they are not humans, yet they are both. Many half-elves are conflicted, torn between the two societies yet never fully accepted by either. However, Drian was raised in a half-elf community, with a distinctive racial identity. Being raised among people who were comfortable with both races, in a society where each half-elf is encouraged to integrate the aspects of humanity and of elvenkind that best fit them, she's confident and adaptable. She's also more able to relate to someone with a different point of view, making her a natural diplomat and quite insightful. Oh, did I mention that most half-elves dabble in other professions? Well, Drian spent enough time with the warlock down the street to pick up a thing or two.

That's only one part of the picture, though. Drian is also defined by her ability scores and skills. They define her strengths and weaknesses, as well as her areas of interest.

Strength: 14
With a strength of 14, Drian's not the greatest fighter. However, she's not especially weak, so she's not helpless; her mace shows enough wear to make that clear. But fighting's definitely not her strongest suit…

Constitution: 12
Drian's constitution is about average for an adventurer, which is just slightly above average for a regular person. It means she has more than enough endurance to carry a good set of gear (including bearing up under the added weight of a fair amount of armor), and she's not especially fragile. Combine that with strength, and she can stand to put herself in harm's way if necessary to get into position to help a wounded ally or innocent. She'll do it, too, if they need her.

Dexterity: 11
Good thing Drian never wanted to be an archer, because she's not especially dexterous. In fact, she's a bit less so that the typical adventurer. Fortunately, her party members aren't counting on her to pick off distant targets, even if she does carry a crossbow; the party's fighter is much better at that. But she has to hope she doesn't get into a situation where fancy footwork is called for, because she's not cut out for dodging attacks or balancing on a precarious ledge! (She would also make a terrible sneak thief, by the way, if she were the type.)

Intelligence: 12
Drian's book smarts are a bit above the average person's, but dead average for an adventurer. She's certainly not dumb, but she doesn't have an extensive education or a head for obscure facts. The only areas where she shines are the arcane, history and religion, and that's only because of her religious training. But where did she learn to speak and read giant, of all things?

Wisdom: 16
Ah yes, now we're getting to areas where Drian shines! She may not be the most intelligent, but she's got more than her fair share of street smarts. She's also quite empathetic (that's useful in healer), and very self-disciplined. If someone in her party is going to pick up on the subtle clues that indicate danger in the making or get a read on the stranger they encounter on the road, chances are it will be her.

Charisma: 15
And with a high charisma, she'll probably do well getting that stranger to trust her. She's persuasive, with a strong personality and innate leadership abilities. Combine that with her diplomacy skills, and she's a good choice to represent the party, if the party leader isn't available. In a pinch, she may even be able to intimidate those standing in their way; they're less likely to see through her bluffs.

The Dangers of Paranoia

Over the weekend, my husband Dorkelf and I got together with some friends (and friends of friends) at Galactic Quest in Lawrenceville to play some Shadowrun. It was lots of fun, even though my character hasn't really done anything useful yet. (She's a dwarf, and a radical eco shaman. I don't think most dwarves would like her, since they're very pro-technology.)

Dorkelf and I were talking about the campaign, and he said it was "almost as dangerous as Paranoia." I disagree; not a single member of our party died during the first session. That should never be the case in Paranoia!

Other things that won't be likely to happen in our Shadowrun campaign:

• Being killed by the food dispenser before you leave for your mission briefing


• An exploding medkit wiping out the entire Troubleshooter party


• Your electric toothbrush going haywire and drilling through your head


• R&D experimenting with the food vats and killing an entire sector

I really miss playing Paranoia!

More Guild Wars Goodness!

Okay, if you aren't a gamer like me, you've probably read my raves about Guild Wars and thought, "Guild what?"

Guild Wars is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, or MMORPG. "Massively multiplayer" means that lots and lots and LOTS of people are all playing it together. "Online" is pretty straightforward: it's played, well, online. And you probably know what a role-playing game is; think "Dungeons and Dragons," the most famous role-playing game around. (And no, D&D is not Satanic. And no, it does NOT drive people to suicide.)

Guild Wars is a fantasy RPG; it's not set in our normal world. Instead, it's set in a world where magic is real and a human can get in a fight with a huge troll and win. (Hey, it's a game, remember?) You fight on the side of good, campaigning against evil. This usually involves killing lots of bad things and traveling lots of places.

So, let's say you have a mission to clear out all the bad guys from an area. You have two professions; your professions determine what type of stuff you do. If you're a warrior, you run up to the bad guys, choose someone to attack, and start whacking it with your sword or axe or hammer, until one of you is dead. If you're a ranger, you may turn it into a pincushion with your bow or send your pet in to fight it.

Elementalists have lots of fun: throwing fireballs, hurling ice shards, shooting lightning, or knocking down enemies with hurricane-force winds. In general, you make them miserable through the wonderful world of the elements.

Perhaps you play a necromancer; then you would curse them to steal their strength. And if you are a necro, you can make nifty little minions out of their corpses, which you can use to fight the other bad guys! Isn't that nice?

Of course there are healers: monks, in this case. But monks can also smite. I guess Balth doesn't much like the enemies...

But if you're me, you're probably playing a mesmer. I love mesmers! They have highly trained minds, and use them to do most of the work. They may hex their enemies and give them migraines, so they can't cast spells or even move very fast. A mesmer may follow that up by interrupting their actions, stealing their health or energy, or turning them into pacifists. It's fun, but it's also one of the hardest choices.

Anyway, those are the core professions. The other campaigns add other professions, but those six make up the bulk of every party. Try it sometime; just don't start as a mesmer like I did...

What's your fandom?

"Fandom" seems to be the big buzzword right now. Everywhere I turn I see it on a shirt or a sig or a blog… It's so ubiquitous that it ubiquitousness was the topic of a Dork Tower comic; you can even buy Igor's "My Fandom is Random" shirt!

So I got to thinking: what's my fandom? I could cheat and say "scifi and fantasy", but isn't that rather vague? But if I list them all, that would be pretty long. I need a top five list (because top ten would make it too easy).

So without further ado, here's my Fandom Top Five! It's unranked, because ranking it would be like choosing a favorite child. And that's just wrong!

• The Lord of the Rings
  How could I not love it? It was awesome as a book (and Tolkien saw it as one book, not three). Add in Peter Jackson's movie, and its awesomeness is beyond measure. Wonderful story, incredible visuals, utterly fascinating characters.


• Star Wars
  I fell in love with it as a child and still find it just as captivating. I had the Underoos and shirts, and I was convinced I made a perfect Princess Leia. Nothing could capture the imagination like it; it revolutionized science fiction and fantasy.


• Star Trek
  Ah, the other side of my childhood addiction! I wasn't as much of an instant addict, but my interest in it keeps growing. (But let's pretend Enterprise and Movie Five never happened, okay?)


• The Wheel of Time
  I love, love, love to read, and Robert Jordan's masterful epic has everything I could want: a sweeping scope, intricate plot, well-developed characters that can hold your interest, and lots of hidden clues to the later stories! Woohoo!


• Role-Playing Games
  Now, I don't love every role-playing game, but I adore several. Dungeons and Dragons tops the list: Third Edition finally made RPGs approachable for me. But I adore Paranoia, too; it's so off the wall and insane! How could you not love a game where your character comes in a six pack? And Guild Wars is my drug of choice: a wonderful, incredibly well done multi-player online RPG. I met a bunch of wonderful new people through my guild! I loved LARPing, too, but there's not a good group here. Maybe at Dragon*Con…

By the way, my Google search just turned up 6,660,000 results. 666…should I worry? Ah, never mind. But tell me, what's your fandom?

Team Soe's team has won a battle in the Hall of Heroes!

Yes! Tonight we won in the Hall of Heroes! It has taken a long time (I’ve been playing for two years, and I’m rank 3.) But it was worth it.

And it was an alliance group, not a guild group, which was kinda cool. We had members of SoE (Spirit of Elijah), SOE (Spirit of Elisha), JCHC, FSCF (Four Star Christian Force) and HOLY (Holy Angels).

To make it even better, we won a FLAWLESS victory against GANK and CCCP, two of the best guilds in the Hall, 22 to 3 to 2!

See more progress on: win a battle in the Hall of Heroes in Guild Wars

Now, part of the reason we won is that GANK and CCCP, as two of the highest ranked teams, fight each other often, so there's lots of rivalry there. The battle started with each team quickly scoring one run. But then GANK and CCCP turned on each other and fought bitterly, until we had seventeen relics scored. Then they finally came after us...but we did very well. None of us died (flawless, remember?), and we scored five more runs. They only managed three more runs combined.

Not bad, huh?

Confessions of a Guild Wars addict!

Wow. Can't believe I've never talked about Guild Wars. I mean, I'm an addict. Really.

I've been playing Guild Wars since less than two months after its release on April 28, 2005. For the first seven months, my husband and I played on our own or with a small group of RL friends. Then, in January 2006, I found Christian Gamers Alliance, which has a very active GW chapter! Woohoo! We joined and found out that GW is even more fun with an active guild...cause my husband talked me into liking PvP!

Okay, "talked into" is a bit of a stretch. What really happened is that he told me, "Here, they need a mesmer. Do what Fiona Dredd tells you." He then logged me in to TeamSpeak and left me there!

After I got over the shock, I started having fun. Sure, I had NO IDEA what I was doing, but it was still fun. And now we do PvP every Tuesday and Friday night. (Oh yeah, Friday night playing a video game. I really am a geek.) In fact, I'm now rank 3 (/rank)...and I only earned about twenty or thirty of that rank during double fame. GO SoE!

Oh yeah, "SoE" would be "Spirit of Elijah," my guild. Well, technically I'm in two guilds; my husband and I have two accounts, and we each have characters on each account. One account is in each guild. So to be exact, I'm an officer in both SoE AND SOE...Spirit of Elisha, that is. Twice the fun! Except that we're actually one guild. (Yeah, it confuses us, too.)

And now my social life depends heavily on TeamSpeak, alliance chat, guild chat, and team chat. Is that good or bad?

Full of 8bit geeky goodness!

I love 8bit Theatre! Some of my friends at Fans for Christ got me addicted. The first day, I read the first one hundred episodes. (So pathetic, I know.)

8bit Theatre takes a jab at everything gaming-geeky, but in a good-natured way. You name it, it's there. D&D? It's there? Trekkiedom? It's there, too. And of course the whole thing is inspired by Final Fantasy. So if you're a fan of the old 8 bit RPGs (and gaming in general) and you haven't read it, head over there right now!

By the way, my favorite character is White Mage. She's the only consciously good character in the bunch! Fighter is great, too, with his ridiculous fixation on swords and shinies. Black Mage is just so...not good (but eternally hilarious). And while Red Mage and Thief aren't evil, they definitely wouldn't be found on the good axis. Of course, they're just as neurotic as everyone else!

Katamari Damacy: "Clumps of Soul"

First, let me get it out of my system: I LOVE KATAMARI DAMACY! Okay, now I can talk about the game.

I loved the idea the first time I saw it. "I really wish I could play that!", I thought. "That game is so perfect for me!" I read about it time and again, longing to roll up giant whales into my very own "Clump of Soul" (literal translation). Finally, I noticed some magic words: PlayStation 2. My brother and one of my best friends own the PS2! (And I won't admit how long it took me to make the connection.)

By the weekend, I owned Katamari Damacy. That's right, I bought a game–and a memory card–for a system I don't even own. But it's been worth it!

The game is even more addictive than I expected, with great gameplay. Your "katamari" (weird sticky ball you roll around) is controlled a lot like a tank, using the two joysticks. You start out tiny, "rolling up" pushpins and dice, advancing to bigger and bigger items. As you progress, your goals become more challenging, with shorter deadlines. It's a blast!

The storyline is wonderfully absurd. You are the Prince, son of the King of All Cosmos. Your dad got carried away (due to some interesting mushrooms, I suspect) and broke all the stars. Now it's your job to fix it: your dad sends you to earth to create katamaris, which he will turn into stars (or stardust) to restore the sky.

Eggs hatch, chickens cluck, and people squeal or giggle as you collect them all, determined to make your dad proud. If you don't meet your goal, though, be prepared! Let's just say he's not exactly understanding.

A dedicated gamer can beat it fairly quickly, but there's real replay value. You can repeat levels to get faster times, shooting stars, and bigger stars/more complete constellations. If you make a big enough star, you reach "Eternal", removing the time limit for that stage. Then there's the Royal Presents to go back and collect on each stage except the first. The best (and one of the hardest to get) is a camera which allows you to take photos of your katamaris.

Plus, there's two player mode. The "Space Mushroom" is a sort of arena where you and a friend (playing as a Royal Cousin) compete to make the biggest katamari. If you're big enough, you can even roll up the other player! How fun is that?

My advice: if you have a PS2, start rolling. Too bad the game's not available for other platforms.

Xandria

Confessions of a Female Geek

Hi, my name is Xandria, and I'm a geek. (Hi, Xandria.)

I like science, math, computers, and gadgets. I've spent Friday nights at the observatory, at software launch events, and at gaming marathons. I play D&D, board games, and an MMORPG; I've even played a TCG. I love scifi/fantasy, and am rarely without a book. I can't find my eyeliner or lipstick, but I can keep track of a TiBook, an iPod, a cell phone, a PDA/GPSr, and a GBA (with only a little trouble). I've even done Live Action Role-Playing and attended movies in costume. Like I said, I'm a geek.

Amazingly, I was in denial until two or three years ago. Sure, I was a bit odd, but that hadn't kept me from finding a (really wonderful!) husband; I had friends, too. In truth, though, I'd been a geek since childhood; I had just never realized it.

It started innocently enough. My parents were both big Star Trek fans, so I grew up watching reruns. Then of course there was Star Wars; my sister and I were avid fans. (I was Princess Leia, and I had the Underoos to prove it! And I can't count how many times we saw A New Hope at the drive-in.) Too, my favorite cartoon was Battle of the Planets. Bad sign!

School didn't improve things: my favorite classes were math and science. (They told me girls could be whatever they wanted to be; I believed them.) I became a bookworm, visiting the library almost daily.

High school was worse: I attended a science magnet program in ninth grade. I took BASIC programming and joined marching band (Flag Corps). When I got bored, I read Niven, Asimov, Robert Aspirin, and Harlan Ellison; I carried a book everywhere. I was guaranteed a place with the "outcasts"—who were much more interesting than the popular kids, since they were willing to be themselves!

In college, I found the local Baptist Student Union, where conformity was not demanded! Freed of the last constraints of high school, I followed a path of increased geekiness and vastly improved pool skills... My new boyfriend (now husband) was a true geek, and he leaped at the chance to indoctrinate me, starting with the writings of Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, and Frank Herbert. His roommates were worse: their contributions included David Eddings, the PlayStation, Nuclear War, and the Illuminati game! (And Paranoia, and AD&D.)

I switched my degree from science to art. (Gee, four quarters of calculus and a semester of quantum mechanics are lovely as electives...) My husband and I did a short stint with live action RPG; then third edition D&D came out, and I was hooked. I also got sucked into MagiNation...and Munchkin, and all the classic "beer and pretzels" games (without the beer).

I realized he was a geek. We began hanging out at the local gaming shop. (No one complained about having an extra female gamer around...even an almost-thirty married chick.)

Oh, did I mention I'm a Mac addict? And I have a gadget problem? (Just a small one—I can still lift my purse...)
With all of this, it became too obvious to ignore: I was a geek. It was hard, at first. But I have embraced my geekness, and wear the label proudly. The geek shall inherit the earth!

Xandria

Online RPGs as an economy?

I was never really interested in MMORPGs until a friend let me try Guild Wars. It's so much fun! (Check out the screenshots of "Maid Mirawyn". Mirawyn loves yaks, and especially enjoys visiting Yak's Bend.) My husband also got me to try Diablo II (which neither of us ever thought would happen), and it's fun, too. But I still can't understand the EverCrack and WarCrack addictions! (That's "EverQuest" and "World of Warcraft" to the normals. If you ever have an addicted friend, you'll understand the nicknames.)

EverQuest players, in particular, are infamous for the incredible amounts of money they will pay for in-game stuff. High level characters or rare items can go for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. That's real money, mind you, not in-game money! And players have to pay a monthly fee (neither of my games has a fee), as well as buying the game and expansions. (The games require a pretty fast computer with lots of memory, and high speed access, too. I have the computer and broadband anyway, but you get the idea...)

Anyway, one economist-gamer by the name of Edward Castronova wrote a scholarly paper on virtual economies, primarily EverQuest and Ultima Online. He calculated how much a platinum piece is worth in real-world dollars, as well as how much wealth is created every day. By his reckoning, the world of EverQuest is the seventy-seventh richest country in the world, based on the real-world value of its "virtual property." Wow!

If you're looking for a career and are good with video games, there are people who make a living aquiring and selling that virtual property! How do you list that job on a resume?