Gamma World

Ah, Gamma World. I'm not old enough to have played the original editions of this game, but I've heard stories, and I did pick up the (sadly) much less wacky version created for 3rd Edition - Omega World, I think it was. I am not sure I can really give a description that does Gamma World justice, so I'll quote from the Wizards of the Coast website:

Bruce: Most people believe the world was once perfect, but then the Big Mistake wiped it out, leaving behind the blasted landscape and visibly cracked moon of Gamma Terra. Residents of that utopian former world (you and me) are called Ancients, and their ruins and still-functioning super-science artifacts can still be found.

Insofar as it can be determined by people of Gamma Terra, the Big Mistake was a combination of events kicked off by an accident at an Ancient installation called the Large Hadron Collider that was attempting to locate the “God Particle.” Depending on the story, it was one of those tiny things that didn’t seem important at the time: a bird dropped a piece of bread, which precipitated a series of cascading malfunctions culminating in the event that partially collapsed billions of parallel timelines into a single worldtrack! Uncomprehending nations in a large percentage of these parallel Earths mistook the collapse for an attack by enemies and immediately launched their arsenals of nuclear, chemical, biological, and superscience weapons at each other.

That was some years ago. Since then, remnant poisons, fluxing timelines, and transposed creatures and technology of myriad alternate dimensions combined to create a unique tableau that any Ancient would deride as the gibberings of a down-on-her-luck pulp novelist. From where you’re sitting, it’s obviously no fantasy, but sometimes it sure seems crazy.

So, Gamma World is a wacky game. And characters for it are correspondingly wacky. For initial character creation, you have two origins for your character; it is left up to the player to decide how the two fit together. Right now, the origins table is just something you roll 1d20 on twice, but I have hopes it will be expanded. So, starting out, I roll Cockroach for my primary origin, giving me an 18 Constitution, and Hawkoid for secondary, giving me a 16 Wisdom. With Cockroach, I get +4 to Mechanics skill checks, +2 to Reflex saves, I can climb my speed, even upside-down, and I can spit at opponents, while as a Hawkoid I get +4 to Perception checks, the ability to fly, and a terrifying shriek attack. I then roll 3d6 for each of my remaining stats, and get Strength 10, Dexterity 10, Intelligence 12, and Charisma 16. I start with 30 hit points, saves of Fortitude 15, Reflex 14, and Will 14, and for random gear, I get duct tape, night-vision goggles, and a tent.What this all looks like:

'Hawkroach' (Cockroach/Hawkoid)

Strength 10
Constitution 18
Dexterity 10
Intelligence 12
Wisdom 16
Charisma 16

Fortitude: 15 Reflex: 14 Will: 14
Hit points: 30

Skills
Acrobatics: 1
Athletics: 1
Conspiracy: 2
Insight: 4
Interaction: 5
Mechanics: 6
Nature: 4
Perception: 8
Science: 2
Stealth: 1

Gear
Heavy armor
Weapon: speed limit post, with sign
Weapon: potato gun

Explorer's kit
Night-vision goggles
Duct tape
Tent

With that, my crazed hawkroach is ready to wander out into the madness that is Gamma Terra. If you're interested, there's a random character generator for the new edition of Gamma World; you can find the character generator here.

Rogue Trader

Rogue Trader is one of three RPGs set in the grim darkness of the future - the world of Games Workshop's popular miniatures wargame Warhammer 40,000, in fact. Humanity sprawls across the cosmos, but over time has lost much of what makes it great; instead of innovating new technology, a stagnant Imperial priesthood carefully controls all advanced technology, and so very little is new under their sun. Humans fight many enemies - the terrifying, robotic Necrons, the ever-hungry Alien-like Tyrannids, the murderous (yet happy-go-luck) Orks, the advanced, allof, yet ailing Eldar, and the corrupting forces of Chaos, man's greatest foe.

In Rogue Trader, your job isn't to fight the good fight against these foes, though - you are given a Warrant of Trade to travel the cosmos, find new places, meet interesting people, and make money off of them. You keep communication lines open, you travel the rough edges of space, and you fight (or trade) with most of the aliens listed above, and many others. It's a bit like Star Trek, if the Enterprise had opened a chain of department stores or dropped mining colonists off on every new world they found. Your ship is a millenia-old masterpiece, with a crew in the thousands, if not tens of thousands, and your Warrant gives you the ability to go places that are normally restricted - so, where do you want to go?

For this, I'll make a character who is the iconic Rogue Trader. I won't be including a ship, as that is like creating another character entirely. Stage 1 of Rogue Trader character building is generating statistics. There are nine statistics: Weapon Skill, Ballistic Skill, Strength, Toughness, Agility, Intelligence, Perception, Willpower, and Fellowship. To get these, I roll 2d10 for each statistic, and add 25; this gives me, after I roll, scores, in order, of 36, 33, 41, 35, 34, 37, 40, 33, and 39.

Next, I work my way down the origin path. First, I choose a home world; I'll make a Rogue Trader who's been in space all his life, so I choose Void Born. This gives me -5 Strength and +5 Willpower, the Speak Language (Ship Dialect) skill, the Charmed ability, a -5 on all Fellowship tests made with non-void-born humans, the ability to count Navigation (Stellar) and Pilot (Spacecraft) as Basic skills, immunity to space-travel sickness, 10 Wounds, and 4 Fate points. Then I determine my Birthright; I'll choose Scapegrace, so my Rogue Trader will have a bit of a shaky beginning. This gives me Sleight of Hand as a Basic skill, +3 to Intelligence or Perception, and 3 Corruption or Insanity points - I'll take Intelligence and Insanity, thanks.

Then we move on to Lure of the Void, what drew my character towards this life. I'll say my Rogue Trader was always fascinated by Alien life and take Chosen by Destiny: Xenophile, which gives me +10 on Fellowship tests with aliens, and a -5 on Willpower tests involving alien artifacts or psychic powers. Then we have Trials and Travails; I'll take Dark Voyage, to represent a terrible voyage that prepared me for things to come; this gives me the Forbidden Lore (Xenos) skill, as well as 3 more Insanity points. Who needs sanity, anyway? Finally, for my Motivation, I'll choose Renown; I want to be remembered, for good or ill. This gives me the Peer talent; I'll choose Adeptus Mechanicus as the Peer group, to help keep my ship in repair. Then I look at the Rogue Trader career.

As a Rogue Trader, I begin with the following skills: Command, Commerce, Charm, Common Lore (Imperium), Evaluate, Literacy, Scholastic Lore (Astromancy), and Speak Language (High and Low Gothic). I also gain the talents Air of Authority, Piston Weapon Training (Universal), and Melee Weapon Training (Universal). As for Starting gear, I get: A best-Craftsmanship laspistol OR a good-Craftsmanship hand cannon OR a common-Craftsmanship plasma pistol; a Best-Craftsmanship mono-sword OR common-Craftsmanship power sword, a micro-bead, void suit, set of fine clothing, xeno-pelt cloak, and best-Craftsmanship light carapace OR storm trooper carapace armor. I want to be showy, so I'll pick the plasma pistol, power sword, and the storm trooper carapace. Finally, I have 5,000 experience points to spend. Yes, I get experience to spend even before I start playing, how cool is that?

I'll spend enough experience to get +5 bonuses to all my statistics, which comes to 2300 XP. I'll spend another 1000 XP to get +5 more to Intelligence, Fellowship, and Agility. I'll then drop 1400 XP to pick up training in every skill my career shows me I can get - Awareness, Command, Commerce, Charm, Ciphers (Rogue Trader), Common Lore (Imperium), Common Lore (Rogue Traders), Dodge, Evaluate, Literacy, Pilot (Spacecraft), Scholastic Lore (Astromancy), Secret Tongue (Rogue Trader), and Speak Languages (Trader's Cant). You may notice some of these are skills I already have training in; getting them a second time gives me Skill Mastery, which gives me a +10 to all checks with those skills. Finally, I'll drop 200 XP to get the Renowned Warrant talent, putting me at 4900 XP spent. So, at the end of this, I come out with a character that looks like this:

Roland Xanatov, Rogue Trader

Weapon Skill 36
Ballistic Skill 38
Strength 41
Toughness 40
Agility 44
Intelligence 50
Perception 45
Willpower 43
Fellowship 49

Skills
Basic: Sleight of Hand, Navigation (Stellar)
Trained: Awareness, Ciphers (Rogue Trader), Common Lore (Rogue Traders), Dodge, Forbidden Lore (Xenos), Pilot (Spacecraft), Secret Tongue (Rogue Trader), Speak Language (High and Low Gothic, Trader's Cant, Ship Dialect).
Trained (Skill Mastery): Command, Commerce, Charm, Common Lore (Imperium), Evaluate, Literacy, Scholastic Lore (Astromancy)

Talents
Air of Authority, Piston Weapon Training (Universal), and Melee Weapon Training (Universal), Peer (Adeptus Mechanicus), Renowned Warrant

Special Abilities
Charmed; -10 to Fellowship with non-void-born humans; immunity to space-travel sickness; +10 Fellowship with aliens; -5 Willpower against alien artifacts or psychic powers

Equipment
Common-Craftsmanship plasma pistol; Common-Craftsmanship power sword; Best-Craftsmanship storm trooper carapace; micro-bead, void suit, set of fine clothing, xeno-pelt cloak

Wounds: 10
Fate Points: 4
Insanity Points: 6
Movement: 8

And now I am ready to roam the stars, shooting, dealing, and running away as I see fit.

Character Creation, Continued

So back in March I embarked on a journey to create a character for every RPG I own. About two months or so in, I ran into troubles - namely summer, then the loss of my dog, and then a bunch of school-related things. I think, though, that I am back in a place where I can reasonably continue the project. After going back to the original list (which you can find in one of my two entries for March), this is the list I still have undone:

Star Wars: Saga Edition
Exalted
Weapons of the Gods
Trinity
Aberrant
Houses of the Blooded
Big Eyes, Small Mouth
Deadlands Reloaded
Scion
Godlike
Savage Worlds
Earthdawn 3rd Edition
Ars Magica
Alternity
Grimm
Pendragon
Heroquest
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2nd Edition
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 3rd Edition
Fireborn
Dresden Files
Rogue Trader
Dark Heresy
Gamma World


d20 Settings:
Midnight
Dawnforge
Fading Suns
Dragonstar
World of Warcraft
Iron Kingdoms
Scarred Lands
Arcana Evolved

If anyone has any preferences, then please, let me know. Otherwise, I'm going to start with Rogue Trader, as it's what I'm currently reading through.

Is Essentials Essential?

Wizards of the Coast just recently started coming out with a new group of products for D&D called the Essentials line. It was created as a means to get new players into the game by simplifying the way certain things worked in the game and also smoothing out some of the language and the more complex rules. It started with the release of a new beginner's set in a red box - reminiscent of the red box the original version of D&D came in. While I don't have the boxed set myself, I have heard from people who do have it, and it is full of goodies - a map, plenty of counters for monsters and PCs, basic rules for PCs up to 3rd level, and an introductory adventure reminiscent of a Choose Your Own Adventure book - every decision you make in the adventure guides you along the character creation process, and if what I've been told is true, it turns out to be quite an ingenious way to make a character, to develop the character in a simple and easy fashion.

After that, though, the Essentials products start doing some things I'm still not sure if I like. The main player book, Heroes of the Fallen Lands, introduces new builds for the most basic of D&D character classes - Fighter, Cleric, Rogue, and Wizard. There are two Fighter builds, the Knight and the Slayer. The Knight is a standard defender; he creates an aura around him that causes monsters to get penalties to attack anyone but him. The Slayer, though, is a new animal - a Fighter build for the Striker role. The Slayer wears heavy armor and does heavy damage, and that's it. Neither Fighter build has Daily power anymore; they were removed from the martial classes, as some people thought it odd that a class that relies solely on physical ability would have abilities they could only use once per day. This applies to the Rogue, too; now the Rogue build, the Thief, gets not new Daily powers, but various movement powers that let the Thief move around the battlefield more easily and in new ways. The Cleric build, the Warpriest, is essentially two builds in one, as you choose either to utilize the Sun or Storm domain. Each has different powers; Storm is more offensive, while Sun is more healing oriented. In the interest of simplification, the Warpriest has little choice of powers available; you can only choose Daily powers and Utility powers. The Wizard build, the Mage, is similar; you can specialize in one of several schools of magic, and they will effect what choices you get for Daily and Utility powers. The choosing of feats, too, has changed; now feats, at least in Essentials material, are not restricted to the various tiers of character advancement, but they are all available to anyone, as long as you meet the requirements.

I'm all for simplification of things for new players; sometimes the crunchy aspects of D&D can seem very intimidating when you are trying to get someone new to try it out. And I like the Cleric and Wizard builds, because the power choice, limited though it is, seems solid and flavorful, and very iconic. The changes to the martial classes, though, I am more worried about. Does WotC really think that players will be so turned off by their having Daily powers that they'll abandon the game? The cinematic aspect of a warrior or rogue busting out that one truly cool power at the best possible minute is one I find easy to visualize. But the removal of the daily power isn't what really worries me; what worries me is that they took a Fighter build and changed it from its normal Defender role to the Striker role. Now, I like the idea that Fighters can be flexible, but what if it spreads to other classes? Will we have Wizard Defenders, or Rogue Leaders? That will mean either a truly ridiculous number of class builds, or a confusing mix of options that dilutes everything until no class is unique anymore, where every class can do everything. And this won't be an isolated thing; the Heroes of the Fallen Lands book confirms they will have several more such role-jumping class builds in the advanced player book, Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms.

So I'm very worried about the Essentials products. I don't want 4th Edition D&D to become a horrific, incomprehensible mess because they decided suddenly that all classes can be all things; niche protection of certain roles is part of what makes D&D the game it is. I'm still hopeful, though, because this comes so soon after the great products that are the 4th Edition Dark Sun books; surely, if they can do something like that, they can keep something like Essentials in check, not letting it go too far. Or, at least, that's my hope.

Comics for the Casual

I'm a big reader of comics, which is probably not a surprise to anyone who reads this. I know, though, that getting into comics nowadays can be very tough, especially for people who don't want to have to deal with 50 years of continuity: How many characters are related to Scott Summers? How many times has Jean Grey died? When did Spiderman stop having a relationship with Mary Jane? Which version of the Avengers are we on? How many Robins has Batman been through? How did Superman died, but not really, but then come back, but not really, and then turn into some electric guy? And what the hell is Final Crisis, and why is it so complicated?

All this kind of stuff is a pain to have to make your way through, and a lot of people are put off by the very idea of having to read through it - even if they want to get to some of the most classic stories in comics. So I thought I'd put together a small list of cool comics that, thus far, have a fairly limited run, and don't go on forever. Sometimes they're personal favorites, some of them are recommended by friends, and some of them are just because I have always had good luck with a particular writer or character. In any case, the list is this:

Planetary, by Warren Ellis. This takes place in the Wildstorm comic universe, but as a comic it is remarkably self-contained. It is collected in four volumes, and tells the story of the field team of the Planetary foundation, a trio, sometimes quartet, of superpowered people looking to uncover the secret history of the world. It has interesting riffs on many other popular comics; League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, justice League, Fantastic Four, Tarzan, the Incredible Hulk, and probably a few others, and deals with some truly bizarre encounters - a character from a fictional universe entering their own, an island of Godzilla-like monsters, a voyage to the moon by Victorian explorers, and hidden cities in Africa. It's well-written, fun to read, and always keeps my interest.

Invincible, by Robert Kirkman. Invincible is a comic set in the Image universe about a boy who discovers, one day, that he has superpowers, just like his father. And then finds out that his father is far, far different than he ever imagined. Invincible is a little like Superman, if Superman discovered that not only was he Kryptonian, but that Krypton was alive - and it wanted to conquer Earth, the planet Superman is sworn to protect. It mixes a story about a teenager becoming a man and the trouble that brings with a story about being the most powerful guardian of your world - and knowing that might not be powerful enough. Kirkman seems to have a lot of fun writing this, and it shows; Invincible is one of the best comics still running at the moment.

Fables, by Bill Willingham. Fables is a comic in the Vertigo universe, and has a spinoff, Jack of Fables. Fables is a comic about characters straight out of fairy tales and children's stories - Cinderella, Snow White, the Big Bad Wolf - and how they are refugees on our world, driven out of their own homeworlds by a great Adversary. They live, in secret, in a small community in New York City, with a farm upstate for those who cannot pass as human, and they live their extremely long lives. Some plot to get their old homes back, some look for ways to come to power in the modern world, and some just want to be left alone. Familiar characters from the fables and stories we knew as kids come to life and become much more interesting in this series, which eventually manages to defeat its great Adversary, at great cost. It's a great twist on old characters, and immensely enjoyable to read.

Global Frequency, by Warren Ellis. Global Frequency is a comic set in no set universe; it is a comic about an organization called Global Frequency, an independently funded and run group of experts on any number of things that gets called in to handle strange occurences. From the implications of creating actual cybernetic soldiers to doctors driven mad by bio-toxins who then turn their patients into freakish works of art, Global Frequency handles it. It only ran for 12 issues, but it's a good comic of speculative fiction and the kinds of things we humans can get into if we start messing around.

Powers, by Brian Michael Bendis. Powers is a comic initially published by Image Comics, and later on by Icon, a Marvel Comics imprint. It is the story of two detectives in a world where superpowers are real, though uncommon - and one of the detectives used to be a superhero. The storyline of Powers is part police procedural, part superhero tale, part 'VH1: Behind the Music'. It is sometimes funny, sometimes brutal, and sometimes just bizarre, but it is always entertaining to read, and the way it treats the superpowered community is something that isn't seen very often in comics.

The Return of Dark Sun

Dark Sun, as I have probably mentioned before, used to be my favorite campaign setting in 2nd Edition D&D. It was radically different from the other main settings, like Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance. It was one of several new and unusual settings that came to 2nd Edition, though sadly the others have not survived as well - they were either folded into the current realm of 4th Edition, such as Ravenloft, along with bits and pieces of Spelljammer and Planescape, or were totally forgotten, like the Birthright setting.

Now Dark Sun has returned; just a few weeks ago, it was brought out as the third official setting of 4th Edition, after Forgotten Realms and Eberron. It may have been the only decent thing to come out of last month; sadly, just a week after Dark Sun came out in stores, my dog, Merlin, reached a point in his health that we had to put him to sleep. I'm still coming to terms with that, but that's a whole different thing; I'd like to talk about Dark Sun, the new and improved version.

Dark Sun in 4th Edition is both similar to the original 2nd Edition setting and radically different. The timeline of the setting, unlike that of Forgotten Realms, which was moved forward, was actually rolled back to the timeline that the first version of the setting started - while the world is still mostly ruled by vicious sorcerer-kings, and threatened by the terrible Dragon, the city of Tyr has been freed from the tyrannical rule of its king Kalak. The world is still mostly a wasteland, much of it covered in desert; the ruins of the past dot the landscape, and the places of ancient kingdoms and cities where great populations must have once lived haunt those few who remain. Cannibalistic halflings live in the few forests that remain in the Ringing Mountains, and tribes of the insectoid thri-kreen roam the plains far from the human cities. Life is harsh and unpleasant, but there is some hope, and it is up to the players to find it.

Much like the old setting, there are a few new races for Dark Sun - the aforementioned thri-kreen, an insectoid race that are unfamiliar to most humanoids, but whose fate is also affected by the destructive powers of the Dragon and the sorcerer-kings, and the muls, a race that is a hybrid of dwarves and humans, bred for hard labor, slavery, and battle in the gladiatorial arena. The old half-giants are now simply reskinned goliaths, and the dray, a reptilian, almost draconic race from the original version of the setting, are now dragonborn. There are no new classes in Dark Sun - indeed, several classes are missing by default, as the gods of Dark Sun are all dead or gone, leaving no Divine power source. Several classes gain new builds, though, such and the Wild Battlemind, the Arena Fighter, and the new Sorcerer-King pact for the Warlock.

Defiling, the destructive use of arcane power, has a new and interesting implementation in Dark Sun now - it is an at-will power available to all Arcane classes. It can only be used to augment the daily powers of Arcane users, though - it allows for a reroll should the power miss its target, or should the user roll insufficiently high damage, though the second roll must be taken. In return, it deals damage to all nearby allies of the user equal to half of a healing surge value, damage which cannot be resisted or reduced. There are a number of feats that augment this power, making it more useful and powerful - and all you have to do is hurt your friends to use it. Preservers, the 'good' arcane magic users of the setting, refuse to use this power; in fact, for a few paragon paths, it is lost altogether. The two paths of magic lead ultimately to the big epic destinies of the setting - the Avangion, the ultimate symbol of preserving magic, and the Dragon, the ultimate expression of the defiler's power.

The setting also includes notes on what to do for weapons and armor in a setting with little available metal, including optional weapon breakage rules, and also a number of weapons which would be familiar to those who know the old setting. Potions and other liquid consumables are rare in Dark Sun, so instead of small liquid containers, they take the form of various fruits. Because of the lack of most traditional magic, they also include ideas from the second Dungeon Master's Guide, the granting of boons and special powers from various sources, such as the sorcerer-kings, elemental powers, the glory of arena combat, and the like. Finally, there is a section on how to handle the harsh environment of Athas - the most unpleasant of which, at least for PCs, is sun sickness. If PCs go without supplies for long enough, sun sickness hits them, and like the rest of Athas, it is harsh - 3 missed saves, and the affected person dies. Life on Athas is dangerous, even without monsters trying to kill you.

Finally, there is the atlas of Athas. It is a fairly short portion of the book, relatively speaking, but it covers the major areas of the land. It covers each of the seven major city-states of the Tyr region, from rulerless Tyr to the warlike city of Urik and the forested area of Raam. It covers many of the areas in between, as well, from the Ringing Mountains to the Ivory Triangle and the dry but still deadly Silt Sea. There are numerous areas of interest given in each, with enough information given to be a starting point, but not enough to box a DM in. It isn't a huge amount of information, but I'm OK with that - especially since I still have all my old 2nd Edition setting information to help give me some expanded setting areas.

Overall, I'm a big fan of the new Dark Sun. It satisfies my nostalgia concerning the old version, and does a great job of bringing the setting into the present. I only wish that I was going to be in a position to use the setting sometime in the near future. Sadly, while I am in a regular D&D game now, the game is ongoing and set in Eberron, and unlikely to change anytime soon. Don't get me wrong, I like my current group, but I'd like a chance to play in my old favorite setting. If you're interested, or have any ideas you'd life to talk about, or really anything gaming-related to talk about, feel free to comment here, or reach my by e-mail at jacobgreyfang@gmail.com or on AIM as knightveritas.

Video Games and the Illusion of Choice

As you may have noted from my two previous entries, aside from tabletop gaming, I also enjoy video games - most often of the RPG or action/adventure genres, though sometimes something different. Which brings me to the topic of my entry today. In video games of the RPG genre, we, as players, are often offered choices. Or are we? Sometimes we are given things that seem like meaningful choices, but do they mean anything? Do they meaningfully impact the story in any way? I've got a few examples in mind; they may or may not be entirely correct.

Final Fantasy XIII came out a few months ago; as you can tell, it is the 13th FInal Fantasy game numerically, though there are a number of spinoffs. While I did not play it personally, I was present when a goof friend purchased it, and watched while he played for about 30 hours over 5-6 days. Now, as they have been in the past, Final Fantasy is on the cutting edge of graphics; the visuals are beautiful, the FMV (full-motion video) is great, and the characters look stunningly real for people in often ridiculous costumes. The story, while often terribly complex and bizarre, is long and intricate. But my biggest problem with Final Fantasy games, even though I love a number of them, is that they really offer the player no choice. There is one singular path you have to take, one story to follow, and there is no real, meaningful deviation; only after playing the game for more than 30 hours are you even given a chance to choose which area you want to go see - until then, you are shuttled from one beautifully-rendered locale to another, put on a linear path, and run through the paces. This is especially ironic, given that the main story is all about whether or not the characters have any choice in their lives. You have some minor choice in how you characters progress, but you never choose their dialogue options, you never make any goal choices, and often it doesn't feel like an RPG, but more of a virtual novel in which you take a very minor part.

Then we have a game like, say, Mass Effect 2. It's an RPG game by Bioware, and while the visuals aren't quite up to par with the latest that Squaresoft puts forth in Final Fantasy games, they are quite nice. If you played through the first Mass Effect, you can carry over your saved game and thus the choices you made in the first game, so some things will change. If you were mean or nice to a reporter in the first one, it will note that and she will respond appropriately when she meets you in the second; if you took the time to save a particular member of your team, Wrex, in the first one, he'll show up as an NPC in ME 2. There are a lot of little moments like this in Mass Effect 2, but the thing is, they really don't mean anything that pertains to the plot. Whether or not you threatened a reporter or saved Wrex won't impact the greater story; it just gives you the illusion that all of these choices, interesting though they may be, actually have some sort of greater meaning. Now, there is supposed to be a 3rd Mass Effect game eventually, and perhaps Bioware is building towards that, and maybe all these choices will culminate in something meaningful and concrete, but right now, Mass Effect 2 goes to some effort to make it look as if you have a choice, and while you do have more say in what you do - dialogue choices, where you do your missions, which weapons you upgrade - the story remains essentially the same.

Most recently of all, we have a game like Alpha Protocol. I don't know if this really qualifies as an RPG, but it does have a number of RPG elements, and so I'll toss it in there for the purposes of this entry. In Alpha Protocol, at a number of points during the game, you can make choices that actually, meaningfully effect what you do. If you rough up a Russian info broker, he'll inform on you to your enemies. If you let a leader of a terrorist group who has information you want live, he'll provide help later on, in the form of information and assistance - you won't be attacked by members of his group in a later mission, for instance. In one of the most notable instances I found (this will have spoilers, so you may want to close your eyes if you haven't played), there is a boss in the Moscow mission hub who is a truly ridiculous character - he worships the 80s. When you face him in his fortress-like home, you face off in his giant room with a stage suitable for an 80s hair band, with 80s hair band metal playing in the background, a full light show going, while he dual-wields gold-plated submachine guns and wears an 80s jacket so loud it hurts. After you injure him enough, he then snorts cocaine, which makes him a ravening, nigh-invincible death machine whose physical attacks will brutally maul you. Unless, of course, you went to the Taipei mission hub first, and made contact with a 'secret agent' named Steven Heck, and made a favorable impression on him. If you did this, and then go to face the Russian arms dealer/cokehead, you have the option of giving him a shipment of poisoned cocaine, which will slowly kill him every time he partakes of his wonder drug, making the battle far simpler. This is a choice that actually has some effect on the game. It is one of many; often, the amount of info you can gather on important personalities will give you different avenues of action or conversation with them, and this is sometimes the only way to get certain things done.

Now, all three of these were good games, though my friend who played Final Fantasy XIII was getting bored of the lack of impact he had on the story when I last saw him play. This same guy tore through Mass Effect 2 twice over the course of a couple weeks. He hasn't played Alpha Protocol yet, but I think if he does, he'll have a number of things he'll want to replay. So, is choice, or the illusion of choice, in a video game really so important? Does it have anything to say about the player, or about the game developer? How will it effect the future of video gaming, if at all? All questions I find myself wondering about at night sometimes.