Darkest Dungeon Update

The squire and I kickstarted this video game, as it has a similar vibe to the original Diablo video game.

Here are a couple of examples of play, based on the current beta state of the game.  Looks pretty intense!

Darkest Dungeon CRPG: Cosmic Horror

A brief interlude before posting more Magic Realm play-by-plays...

Darkest Dungeon is currently on Kickstarter.  I don't normally play computer role-playing games, but Darkest Dungeon reminds me of Diablo, one of my favorite computer games, so I just had to back this one.

Check it out!

Salem's Lot: Horror Adventure Inspiration

As a young lad, I watched "I, Claudius", Salem's Lot, and Night Stalker and found them equally terrifying. My older siblings stayed up late to watch I, Claudius and Night Stalker, and I would often sneak out of bed to watch those TV shows with them, despite being far too young for the adult content.

Several years later, the Salem's Lot mini-series was broadcast on television. Even though I was many years older, I found the final episode, featuring the grisly death of Dr. Norton, the vampire horde in the basement, and the reunion with Susan, quite frightening.

All three of the above shows would make good fodder for horror-themed adventures, but I consider Salem's Lot to be particularly inspirational, since i've always wanted to DM a long-running, all-cleric, vampire-hunter themed horror campaign.

As far as role-playing adventures go, i'm not familiar with any really good horror adventures. That may simply be because my purchases have favoured traditional fantasy fare.

I'm tempted to buy Salem's Lot, and mine it for adventure ideas.

Old-School Gaming: Playing Diablo

Last weekend, in recognition of my son's 12th birthday, we bought him a copy of Spore, a game that is all the rage with his contemporaries at middle school. His two sisters, meanwhile, bought him an old-school crpg game, Diablo, in battle-chest form, which includes Diablo's I and II.

I've mentioned before that during my hiatus from D&D, Diablo was one of my favorite computer games. Released in 1997, I remember playing the heck out of this game, prior to my son's birth. If I remember correctly, we lent that game to one of my spouse's work colleagues, and it was never returned to us.

The arrival of another copy of Diablo into the house provided the opportunity to play Diablo once more. I suspect my spouse enjoyed more Diablo screen-time over the last week than I, but I did finally manage to wrestle the game from her, and fight through the first four levels and attain 12th level as the Warrior.

Even after all these years, Diablo does not disappoint. The graphics, though somewhat rough by today's standards, provide enough realism and interest to keep me engaged. Looking at the scenery makes me want to get out my Hirst Arts molds and cast and build some walls, stairs and floors, in homage to the look of Diablo.

As part of the birthday celebrations, I also ran a six-hour D&D session for my son and 6 other pre-teens. I played the music from the Diablo Dungeons levels while we played, and the kids were freaked out by it, even though they've never played Diablo, and there were no scary images accompanying the music.

Goes to show the power of that early Diablo soundtrack, that even without the images, the music can still evoke fear and discomfort.