"You find yourself in a tavern..."

It's been far too long since I've run a proper table top game.  Life changing events like moving, getting married, changing jobs, and plain old writers block have gotten in the way.  Or at least those are the excuses I make.   

In the end I told myself; "Rather than come up with the next big sweeping adventure, I think I’m going to take gaming back to its roots."  I don't need to come up with an intricate story of intrigue, earth shattering events, or thousands of soldiers clashing on a battlefield.  
Nope.   

I need a tavern, some goblins, and a town missing a few sheep.

Sometimes it can be a headache to plan out travel to the next town, figure out fancy ways to write out old characters and figure out hooks for new ones to join in.  Even worse to deal with players that don't show up and you don’t have their character sheet.   

Then it hit me.

In Neil Gaiman's Sandman conclusion "World's End" a weary traveler finds himself sheltering from the storm in a tavern with a shingle out front reading "Worlds End : A Free House."   Through the story you come to find out that this Tavern appears to help people caught in "Reality Storms" and offers them a safe place to weather it.  Reality Storms being the fall out of earth shattering events like ultimate evils being stopped, worlds destructions happening, or not.  Gods warring and dying. You know; grand, sweeping, intriguing story sorts of things.

It is also mentioned in Gaimen’s story that there are four such places, but there is no mention as to what they might be.  At least not to my, nor Wikipedia's, recollection.  So I wondered to myself, “What are these other three places?”

The second one was easy because it’s Milliways of course. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.  After all, what would be more of a reality warping storm than the End of the Universe? And it's no wonder it's become a tourist destination, everyone knows where it is.   It's at the end of everything.

Number three I had to think about a bit but I eventually came around to Oberon's Three Penny Tavern.

The Three Penny is a roaming wagon that sets up and becomes an open air eatery with entertainment.   A place where you can get almost anything for three pennies. A place where humans often remember paying their three pennies and then not much else after they awake in a forest glade or on a rolling hillside somewhere and what they can call to mind seems an improbable dream.   Others might get more than they bargain for and be ensnared by the fairy court or the butt to one of Robin Goodfellows frolics.

Then there's the fourth place.

The Emerald Inn: "an adventurers retreat"   

Now I'm sure that there are probably many literary examples that could be pulled from to meet my criteria but I decided to make my own and keep it simple.  

Tavern. Adventure.

A lot of great Dungeons and Dragons sessions (and other role playing games) start with the line; "You find yourself sitting in a Tavern…"  Either by appointment, by chance, or by choice it is the cliché that adventurers find work at taverns.

What do you find at the Emerald Inn?

Behind the counter works Hawk, the bartender, keeping her glasses clean and watching every new comer with a sharply arched eyebrow and a half smirk.  She owns the place, along with Amose.  Amose is often seen poking his head in from the kitchen or, more often than that arched eyebrow would suggest is proper, sitting at a table with his feet up sipping at one drink or another.  Ah, and don't forget Mili, bustling amongst the tables serving drink and food as liberally as she does wheeze inducing slaps to those with stray hands or eyes that linger too long.

Rooms are four silver.  A meal, one silver. 
 For a gold you can get your room for two nights, with three meals, and cheese for the road.  Drinks vary by how much you want to spend.  And baths? Baths are a copper. Because adventurers bathe too little as it is.  

 

At some point everyday Amose will poke his head in from the Kitchen door and pass a sheet of parchment to Hawk and they'll talk.  She'll pull out a quill and vial of ink from under the bar and make a few notes on the parchment.  After her and Amose confer a little more she'll take a dagger with an emerald fastened into it's hilt and pin the parchment to a section of wall scarred with scores of knife marks and call out "Contract."

The parchment might be a plea of help from a town council.  A wanted poster from a city guard, a merchants contract looking for sell swords, a scholar looking to have someone retrieve a musty old tome or any other number of jobs suited for adventurers.

Down near the corner of the parchment, in Hawk's flowing hand, will be a reward price if it is not already on the “contract”.   Other notes might include non coin rewards, a recommended skill set needed to complete the contract.  But always a percentage.  The percentage is The Emerald Inns finders fee.  The contract holder pulls the dagger and takes the contract and heads out the door when they’re ready.  

When the contract is complete all an adventurer has to do is look to the dagger.  The emerald in it’s pommel will glow green and as the adventurer points the blade towards the horizon it will grow brighter as it faces the direction the adventurer needs to travel to return to the inn.  

After returning to the inn  there is a slot in the bar that the dagger is set into. Scales fit across the pommel with one tray facing behind the bar lower than that of a another tray facing out into the common room. Coin and/or gems found or paid to the contract holder(s) are placed into the common room side of the scales until the scales reach even.  Many have argued that the scales tried to cheat them, but when the accusers have produced their own scales and weighed out the earnings, painstakingly counting the coins, and had  jewelers appraise their gems.  Each and every time they found the division exact down to the ha'penny.

Hawk takes the Inns cut and slides it below the bar.  

It should be noted that the percentage doesn’t have to be paid, but the dagger will dissapear from your pouch one night and the inn almost never found again.   

Tavern.  Adventure.  

Story’s can be as simple as I need them to be, or as grandiose as I want to make them.  It allows my players to jump into and out of the game.  And it allows characters to blow through and out as need be.  Not to mention open up the possibility of having adventures wherever I want them to go.  

The only limitation is my imagination.

End of an Era: PS3 v.s. 360

As the next generation of consoles looms I still can’t decide which system I like better.  They both outshine each other in different regards and they both have some serious flaws that may or may not be addressed in the newly announced systems.

 So here’s a break down of the issues that I find important as a gamer.

~~Online Play~~~

*PS3
It’s free!  Unless the game you are playing requires a subscription.  Since the PS3 firmware architecture is closer to the open nature of a PC than the Xbox is, the PS3 is opened up to various MMO games like DC Universe Online.  The PS3 dashboard will tell you when a friend is online and what game they’re playing, but it will not tell you if they are in a joinable multiplayer session. There is no open voice chat option to click over too and ask them and if they’re in a game.  And because of the messaging interface they probably will not see that you’ve sent them a text message unless they actively check during their play.  In essence you are at the mercy of whatever multiplayer and chat support a given game has.

*Xbox 360
You have to pay for it. But…  You have “Party Chat” that allows you to talk to friends no matter what you (or they) are doing on their Xbox.   On the PS3 you can only chat when/if the game supports it.  Joining and finding your friends online is seamless on the 360 and easy.   From the dashboard (assuming you already have the game disc in or the game installed on your hard drive) all you have to do is go to your friend on the friends list and click “join game” assuming they are in a joinable game place.  Or you can easily send an invite.  At this point the Xbox takes over, loads everything up and puts the player into the place needed to join the game (or strait into the game if the option is available).

***Winner: Xbox (You get what you pay for)***


~~~Premium Accounts~~~

*PS3

Playstation Plus is relatively new.  It doesn’t change the online play experience much.  What it does offer is cloud saving for games and data, automatic firmware updates for your PS3, (without it you have to update manually as needed), heafty discounts on games and add-ons.  (seriously. I picked up Hot Shots golf for $6.25 because of the Plus discount, usually $15 to $25 game depending on the sale and where you get it)  Timed Trials and Free Games.  

Time Trials let you download the FULL game and play it for the entire trial, (kind of like a rental) and if you end up buying it you get all of the Trophies and other things you might have unlocked during the trial. 

The Free games are full games with all the bells and whistles and are 100% playable as long as you have your Plus account.  PSN seems to rotate the selection once a month or so but once you download the game you have it as long as you keep your account.  Free games include Vita and PSP games that can be downloaded and transferred over to you hand held.  And the titles, so far, have been pretty well worth it.  Quantum Conundrum, Little Big Planet 2, and Spec-Ops: The Line being amongst my favorites. 

*Xbox 360
In essence you’re paying for an Xbox Live Gold Account to play online multiplayer.   Your dashboard is inundated with ads to the point that you don’t really notice if you have a theme or background up.  The monthly deals offered through the marketplace are…maybe $5.00 or $10.00 off of retail for a game.  If you’re lucky you might find an arcade game for half off but rarely does content on Xbox Live drop under $5.00 even for Gold Members.  You must have a Gold account to use things like Netflix and other services.  The only things that you can access without a Gold account is; the marketplace to buy things, the party chat and messaging.  And since fewer games are supporting couch co-op or LAN play this is becoming more and more noticeable. 

***Winner: PS3***

 

~~~The Hardware~~~

There is a negligible difference in graphics quality between the two systems.  It all boils down to whether or not the developer took the time to program the game for that particular system to take advantage of it’s processor and graphics setup.  And since there  have been aesthetic and  functionality fixes on both sides it really boils down to the controller. 
Both controllers are pretty solid.  The Xbox controller feels a little more comfortable in an adult hand and the triggers for the top buttons feel like triggers.   The PS3’s controller is a little lighter and smaller, and if you grew up playing either the PS1 or PS2 it feels a little like coming home. 

The PS3 controller is rechargeable out of the box. Where as you have to buy the rechargeable battery packs separately for the Xbox   But the Xbox controllers either/or ability is nice if you’re in the middle of a game and don’t want to plug in.  Just swap out battery packs. 

 ***Winner: Draw***

 

 

~~~~Game Selection ~~~~

In the age of multiplatform games game selection is similar across the board.  So we’ll bust it down to brass tacks and talk price.  

Xbox versions of games initially came out faster, and since the xbox has better multiplayer support more copies of those games were purchased than the on the PS3.  So there are many more used Xbox games in game stores which drives down the prices. Also, because of the processing structure of the PS3 some games that were ported from other systems got bad treatment resulting in poor graphics or game freezing.
On the other hand, if you invest in premium accounts the Plus account offers so many discounts and free game options for both “Triple A” titles and smaller indy titles it can very easily offset the difference. 
Which one has the better exclusives?    Depends on what you’re looking for.  They each have racing games and licensed titles that need little mention.  But for the series that you’ll continue to see it breaks down to the Notables

Uncharted, Sly Cooper, Killzone, Resistance, and Little Big Planet

V.S.

Halo, Gears of War, and Fable

***Winner: With a very slight edge due to diversity of exclusives, the PS3****

 

Even after thinking these things over, there is no clear winner in my mind between the two consoles.  Much like the Genesis/SNES battle of the 90's it breaks down to how well the games were made for their system.  In the end, the gamers win because we, for now, have two systems worth owning and keep each other in check with regards to both the price of hardware and launch price of games.  Let’s hope that the next generation of consoles sees as much on our end. 

 

 

*Side Note Why didn’t I include the Wii or WiiU?*

Where PS3 and Xbox are both vying for the same demographic of gamer Nintendo’s focus has been much more towards finding innovative ways to play games. And when I refer to demographic I do not refer to Age or Gender, but more the style of game play.   In this case: the hardcore multiplayer gamer and the big budget blockbuster gamer. 
Yes the PS3 has the Move and the Xbox has the Kinect, but both of these things were reactionary additions to their systems.  After the little Wii came along and carved out a whole new niche in gaming with its Wiimotes, both Microsoft and Sony saw this and wanted a slice of the pie as well.  

 

 Look at all of the utilities that have become staples of modern gaming.

 Hand Held to Console connectivity?  Nintendo.
4 controllers?  Nintendo had a multi tap for the NES and SNES
Motion Controls, Voice commands, and now touch screen controllers.  All tried first by Nintendo consoles. 

So, in my mind,  Nintendo doesn’t really belong in a showdown between these two systems.  Because Nintendo (and Sega), through the 80's and 90’s, pioneered and established most of the main stays for modern console gaming and continue to push the boundries and try  new ideas, even if they don't really work. (I'm looking at you virtual boy)

Why not PC?  Because PC’s are where the games are made, taken apart, and put back together again.  Not simply played.