Team Ohai followed this architecture and created the click based games called Vampires/Zombies/Slayers/Werewolves. The objective of the games are simple, recruit as many of your friends as you can to become a more powerful being while ranking up and fighting your way to the top of the leaderboards. This is fun to do however it becomes a bit daunting because of the repeated amount of clicks you must perform day in and day out with resulting in little momentum of skill levels.

Ohai’s answer to the boring aspects of the click based game is a flash based MMO called City of Eternals. Currently, the game is still in its early Alpha stages and is perceived as an add-on to the click based game however you can expect a stand-alone version in the near future or at least that is what the developers at team Ohai have lead me to believe. Essentially there will be two versions within facebook, the hip joined click based vamps with CoE and then CoE on its own. Don’t worry, people from both version will see each other in the same world.

City of Eternals is really an MMORPG in nature. Essentially everyone plays the same role and performs all the same missions resulting in the same outcome however along the way you can trade & sell with other players, make items and rank up in skill level for every aspect of the game. You can even create groups in which all members get the same experience as you do and vice versa. More recently a minion concept has been introduced in which you assign your friends to do time based quests (the friend doesn’t actually have to do anything) which will gather booty and occasionally rare items like a fanny pack that adds two extra slots in your inventory or Ohai’s (most valuable currency in CoE). Minions, much like grouping will earn you experience points while you are way. In my experience, this is the only way to rank up minions at this time and I believe there is still a lot of work planned around this functionality.

Unfortunately the game doesn’t allow combating with other players however I assume in the near future it will. You can also expect features like the addition of slayers, werewolves and zombies. Currently, the game is solely based on vampires and this is probably because of the larger following of the genre and the constant blockbuster releases of vamp movies. Too get the latest news on City of Eternals, check out Ohai or the Vampires Digest.

As a little bonus to this article, I have created an evolving world map of CoE so that you can see how large the game is and refer to it on the occasion you decide to join me in my quest for world domination in the New Valencia.

Once again, the good people at You Too Can Cthulhu! allowed me to sit in on a few of their events. An awesome time was had by all.

The first event I attended was a brand new campaign this year entitled, “A Time of Crisis.” It takes place in Revolutionary France, where the head of the Committee for Public Safety has collected a team of individuals to track down a formerly well-respected doctor and philosopher. The team travels to a picturesque village, chasing the now mad doctor to arrest him, but find unspeakable horrors instead.

Six players participated in the campaign, including an actual medical doctor and his bookish companion, a coquettish spy, a ladykilling (allegedly) actor, a former soldier, and a no-nonsense inspector. Everyone did a fabulous job, and I was entertained the entire time.

Listen to some of the audio from the event here*:

1.) Introduction
2.) Thomas
3.) Afflictions
4.) Thomas (Again)
5.) Inspector
6.) Mysterious Boils
7.) Identifying Gustav
8.) Back at the Inn
9.) Climax/Big Finish!
10.) Black Letter Winner

*You may need to turn your speakers up or down accordingly. Pictures to follow.

Stay tuned for audio and character interviews from Sunday’s “Black Letter Game.” Trust me, you don’t want to miss it.

Had a fun-filled day full of interviews, booth-scoping, talking with authors and artists, and participating in writing seminars. Listen to some of my thoughts after the jump!

1.) An introduction to Day One of Gen Con Indiana.

2.) My thoughts on the population of the convention.

3.) Interview with Atari games about their upcoming release Champions Online and soon to be announced Star Trek Online.

GenCon 2008 is finished, and I’m finally home. It was a fabulous time, and I have a few more posts to make with video of some of the events I attended. The following videos are from an RPG campaign from the group, “You Too Can Cthulhu!” based on the popular “Call of Cthulhu” Role-Playing Game.

These videos, sadly, are only a sampling of the nearly three hour session. I would have liked to film the entire thing, as these players were absolutely fabulous. Sadly I had to cut it short and skitter off to the Zombie Walk, which I will be adding later.

An introduction to the setting: A handful of people are left behind on the last day of a mental institution before it closes for good. Those left include a doctor, a nurse, the groundskeeper, and several patients (one with Jerusalem Syndrome, one who can see ghosts, and another who believes he is from the future!) The intrepid few are investigating mysterious deaths, and a grey dust that seems to have coated everything…

The GM was fair, but points to him for having written this campaign. Hopefully these videos at least give you a taste of how fun this was to watch!