In a D&D first for Caitlin, I get to run a break-in to a prison camp where the prisoner has already escaped, making their break-in plan entirely pointless.
Having made their plan, the chaotic trio of san, shambles and dakota are attempting to spring Charlamagne from the terrifying Camp Elak. Charlamagne, having already escaped, is desperately trying to get in contact with his friends once again. Will anyone succeed?
Featuring:
Alex as Dakota the Tiefling Warlock
Kerry as Sanphire the Human Cleric
Chad as Veras the Great, the Human Sorcerer
Matt as Shambles the Dragonborn Sorcerer
Caitlin as the all powerful GM, praise be.
Social Medias:
Follow Matt: @TheMattAttackUK
Follow Alex: @SpiderBreadUk
Follow Kerry: @Shirobeans
Follow Caitlin: @CaitlinRC
Follow Chad: @Chads_Mind
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Follow the show: @DungeonJunkiez
Follow Matt and Alex’s show: @GameJunkiezPod
Follow My Content: @OurMindGames
Follow Chad’s show: @Viewfromtoprope
Follow the network: @VisGlobalMedia
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As an introvert who lives alone, is not in a committed relationship, works a programming job and whose hobbies are mostly online or solitary, I do not get out much. Sure, I will go for a walk on days that I need to clear my head. When I need something from town, I will grab my keys and head out the door with relative ease. This solitary nature has led to a running joke in my family about my tendency to melt if I step into the sunlight, or how the fresh air is actually poison to my lungs. However, there are always events that I push through the social anxiety to go to – EGX being one of them.
We have talked about the gaming convention EGX and its smaller counterpart EGX Rezzed on the site before. It was after Rezzed 2019 that Mind Games came into existence. Through the gaming community and the various fandoms that I have been a part of all these years, conventions like EGX have given me an opportunity to meet people who’ve I have only heard through voice chat and to experience the joys of gaming with those I care about, rather than by myself in a university dorm late at night. Despite a global pandemic and lockdown, last year I still got to take part in EGX – through EGX Digital and the brilliant panelists who joined me to talk about mental health representation in gaming.
Considering the pandemic is not yet over (because diseases do not go away overnight, what a surprise), I was unsure of whether this year’s in-person convention would even happen. Originally, I decided not to go, not wanting to spend money on hotels and travel when I am in the middle of sorting a new place to live. However, I struggled massively with FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), especially as I realised just how many of my friends were going to make an appearance. As the closing date for press applications grew nearer, I decided to take a chance. I applied, allowing the acceptance or denial of my application to make the choice for me. Then I got one.
I was immensely surprised. I am well aware of the chaotic period of infrequent content that Mind Games has gone through over the last eighteen months. Between a pandemic, a dissertation, a new job, housing issues, mental health declines and the chaos of adopting two cats – I have not been able to focus on the site as much as I have wanted to. Apart from my Dungeons and Dragons campaign, there have not been frequent posts on the site. Yet, I still received a press pass.
So, on the 7th of October 2021, I stood outside the Excel center once more, ready to face four days of games, socialization, crowds, and joyful chaos. I never regret going to these conventions, they are some of my fondest memories and forge bonds that will linger long after the words on this post have filtered through your mind. The last EGX I went to, I was accompanied by my good friend Rob (RupertLitterBin/RupertRamblings) who brought my coffee/breakfast with him. Thank God for that, I would have died otherwise. In 2021, I decided to take advantage of my paying job and get a hotel so I would not have to commute three hours each way just to attend the convention.
During the previous EGX, I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with my now good friend Matt – @TheMattAttackUK, who runs multiple podcasts over on Visionaries Global Media (a podcasting network). A few months later, he approached me to ask about whether I would take part in a Dungeons and Dragons campaign he was running. I agreed and well, now I am part of the Dungeons and Junkiez crew, who play every Tuesday night. It is definitely one of the best things in my life at the moment. Through Matt, I met Kerry, Alex, and Chad – who have all become good friends. Honestly, I have missed having a group that I see regularly and spend time with. Years at a boarding school and three years of university featuring lots of theatre productions, means that I have grown accustomed to having those periods of socialization, I did not realise that I needed it until it was absent from my life.
Although Chad could not be there (something about an ocean being between the USA and the UK), to see the rest of the group in person and to spend time with them in three dimensions, was invigorating. Big social events are extremely draining to my mental health, but to be honest, I needed this. COVID-19 has drastically changed the last 18 months of our lives and for some people, such as me, this pandemic has clashed with milestones in our lives – tainting those memories. I have not had a formal graduation ceremony or gone out for drinks/coffee with my new work colleagues. So, to see people outside of my immediate family, my housemate and a few select friends, has brought a great deal of relief.
As terrified as I am, and always will be, of these big events, there is a sense of normality to them that I dearly miss. Having a few days to wander around a convention center, sharing inside jokes, trying new games, and making new memories, it brings a human connection that I think we all have been deprived of for a while now.
Now, given that we are still in the midst of a pandemic, there were concerns that EGX would struggle to provide a safe event. Others, especially those online, complained that the convention was not good enough as it lacked representation from the AAA game companies – giving more of a focus to the tabletop and indie communities. Personally, I prefer the smaller, indie developer focused event that is Rezzed, but I can understand where people are coming from. However, walking around in my facemask, watching developers wipe down controllers and surfaces between play testers, handing over my proof of vaccination to the venue security team, I could tell that they were doing all they could. Part of my fear of attending EGX was whether I would inadvertently pass my germs onto someone who is less able at fighting them off.
Part of the writer’s block that I have been experiencing since lockdown began, has been due to lack of enthusiasm for games. Since I have not been going round to friend’s houses after lectures to play Uncharted or forwarding upcoming release trailers to those that I know would love it, a lot of my passion for writing articles has fizzled away. Not because I do not enjoy the games or that I do not want to write about them. It is more that I have lost that sense of community, that joint excitement for new experiences. I can say with confidence that EGX has brought that back. Walking around the retro zone, being terrible at rhythm games, conquering most of Russia in a board game, chatting to developers about their inspirations, it has brought it all back to me. I play games on my own but the communities and excitement surrounding them are what makes it all worth it for me.
So, what can you conclude from this rambling mess of an article that has no real structure to it? Well, I have my love of writing back again. Even if it is only here for a few weeks, I am going to try and take advantage of it and start producing content for you all again. To wet your beaks a bit, here is a list of things that are coming your way:
A Juggler’s Tale – A game about puppets. Yes. Puppets.
More D&D – Woo the D&D train never ends, even more for my players to suffer
A big rebrand of the site, including the launch of my tabletop games as an actual entity – Blades In The Dark, D&D 5e and hopefully a lot, lot more!
More articles about board games!
More bits about mental health/conditions that impact people in the community
Requests?
It’s good to be back. I would love to hear from you all again, so send me your suggestions, feedback and ideas! Heck, even just how you’ve been doing these past few months 🙂
If I’m honest, this episode of my campaign has the best back and forth roleplaying between myself as a DM and one of my players. If you listen to any of my campaign, the first hour of this is definitely worth it. Hella intense.
Back in episode 9, Charlamagne was arrested by the military and taken to Camp Elak. Let us see how the group’s “tough guy” handles the horrors of the camp and the probing questions of a mysterious Calreo.
Featuring:
Chad as Charlemagne/Veras The Great – Changeling sorcerer
In traditional Mind Games style, we are ridiculously late to the bandwagon. Hades was released in the second half of 2020, to uproarious applause from the gaming community. Nominated for various awards at the Golden Joysticks and the Game Awards, as well as winning several, Hades had the opening season that most game developers dream about. Whenever a game does so well off the bat, I tend to be instantly skeptical. My cynical soul will wonder whether a game is doing anything new or if it is treading over the same ground that has been trod a thousand times before. However, I am glad to say that Hades has proved me wrong. It is a game well worth all the awards and accolades being thrown its way. So, let us see what all the fuss is about.
Hades takes a leaf from the Breath of The Wild playbook and lays out your final goal from the get-go – escape hell. You must wage war against the onslaught of enemies and obstacles that the underworld has thrown into your path, to stand on the surface of the earth – a feat no other had achieved. You play as Zagreus, known in this game as the son of Hades and Persephone, though the earlier mentions of Zagreus in mythology quote him as “Zagreus highest of all the gods”. Others say that Zagreus was the child of Zeus and Persephone. Go look him up, there is a lot more to him than Hades can get into during its gameplay.
Let me explain how Hades works for anyone who does not know or like me, hid under a rock away from popular trends for several months. Every time you attempt to escape from hell, you fight your way through a series of chambers until you reach that regions boss. Beat the boss and you travel to the next region, so on and so forth until you reach Styx. It is here where the entrance to the surface world dwells and after bribing the best three headed doggo to stand aside, you challenge your father to a fight. If you survive all of that, you can venture out into the surface world and witness some cool story things. If you die at all in the course of your escape attempt, you emerge from the pool of what I assume is blood, back in the House of Hades. Not sure how good a bath in blood is for your skin but hey, I’m no dermatologist.
There’s something remarkably addicting and therapeutic about Hades. Sure, it has a similar approach to losing a fight as most roguelike games – Dead Cells, Dark souls and Bloodborne for example, where death has more of a consequence than a slap on the wrist. However, your deaths in Hades have a greater purpose than simply sending you back to the beginning. The various gods, servants of hell and lost spirits that you meet during your trek out of hell can be found in the House of Hades, allowing you to discover tidbits of the story and explore the relationships that affect the world around you. Naturally, your quest to escape from hell is the focus of the story, but there is so much more to Hades than simply conquering the Underworld through brute force.
I love the combat. It feels more than just a mechanic or a button masher to me, there’s a remarkable elegance to how Zagreus weaves through his enemies, dodging projectiles and traps, utilizing his gifts from the gods of Olympus and the weapons known as the Infernal Arms. When you fall into the fight’s rhythm, it’s so viscerally satisfying and heck, pheromone inducing, that you want nothing more than to lose yourself in the siren-song of Hades. Not that it’s easy, it is far from that. You are meant to die, to learn from your mistakes and improve Zagreus’s abilities. Sure, dying repeatedly is frustrating, like when Hades himself only had a tiny sliver of health, after which I may or may not have thrown my controller down in rage.
As humans, we learn from our mistakes. We seek to improve ourselves, to adjust the parameters of the situation to ensure that failure no longer remains an option. There’s a reason we don’t throw ourselves from great heights, eat raw foods, have fist fights with sharks or surface immediately after diving deep into the ocean – we know these actions have negative consequences and risk our health, so we evolve, we change. Game developers have become very good at creating experiences that force the player to adapt, to change, to persevere in a seemingly impossible situation and to eventually emerge triumphant. Hades is one such game. Regardless of how many times you’ve run through the depths of Tartarus in your attempts to escape hell, your combat strategy will not remain the same. Different enemies require different approaches, something that becomes painfully clear when you stop clinging to the starting weapon (yes, I know about that, don’t deny it, we all do it). Variety is the key to success – no run through Hades is identical. Some of the most satisfying combat in Hades comes from experimenting with various combinations of “boons” from the Olympians.
If you’ve read some of my other articles or have the misfortune of following me on Twitter (@CaitlinRC/@OurMindGames), you’ll probably know that I am a big nerd when it comes to all thing’s mythology. There’s something fascinating about the field of mythology and the impact that it’s had on the world as we know it. Every civilisation in history had their own belief systems, deities, and methods of worship – imprints of which can be found in all forms of media nowadays. Take the rising of the sun every morning. The scientific community explains that the sun rising in the morning is a result of the rotation of the earth on its axis, and its relation to the rays of light being emitted by the giant blazing ball of gas at the centre of our solar system. However, in Greek mythology, such as what Hades is based upon, the sun rising is the god Helios riding his flaming charity across the sky. There are countless explanations for things we now dismiss as commonly known facts. It’s fascinating!
Hades does a fairly good job at sticking to the more commonly known mythological figures and deities in Greek mythology. The core Olympians are all present, references to minor gods and key players are present throughout the dialogue, the regions that you battle through are all beautifully distinct, with entrancing visuals and music accompanying you on your journey. Plus, it’s nice to hear the often-overdone tales like Eurydice and Orpheus or Hades and Persephone told from a different perspective. Then again, maybe I’m biased. The game doesn’t rely entirely on the player’s knowledge of mythology to be enjoyable, it’s very much a detail that adds more dimensions to the world you explore and the trials the characters speak of.
Going to talk more about the plot points here so if you still haven’t played/watched a let’s play of Hades and want to remain unspoiled, beware!
Although based in mythology, Hades is very much a game about family. The entire reason that Zagreus wants to escape hell in the first place, is to find his mother. Persephone, known as Kore to her mother Demeter, left the Underworld shortly after Zagreus was born and the boy grew up knowing Nyx, goddess of the night and mother of the fates, as his mother. He eventually finds out that Nyx is not his birth mother and sets out to find her in the outside world. When you eventually escape hell, you arrive in Greece and have a few moments with Persephone on her little farm – filled with beautiful life, a sharp distinction to the swathes of death that Zagreus has spent his entire life surrounded by.
The reunion between mother and son is remarkably heartfelt, more so when Persephone tells Zagreus that he was originally stillborn. Heartbroken by the loss of her child, she had to leave the realm that reminded her too much of the son that never got to live, leaving Hades and the later revived Zagreus alone. Their time together is cut short hover, as Zagreus is unable to survive on the surface world for very long. Like his father, his life force is bound to the Underworld and perishes in his mother’s arms, returning to the House of Hades. Eventually, after many trips to the surface, Zagreus convinces his mother to come home and his family is reunited, with an …adjusted version of the truth told to his various uncles and cousins on Olympus to prevent a war breaking out – after all, Demeter wouldn’t be happy to hear that Zeus had essentially kidnapped her daughter and handed her to Hades as a “consolation prize”.
End of spoilers!
Hades is a game that has stuck with me throughout lockdown and the shit show that the last 18 months have been, and an experience that thoroughly deserves all the awards that it received. Plus, you can pet Cerberus.
Anyways, I’ve rambled for a while, so I’ll let you all get back to whatever you were doing. I know all that I’ve really posted since February has been episodes of my Dungeons and Dragons campaign (which you really should listen to, it’s bloody brilliant if I do say so myself), but hopefully this article is the start of me getting back into the swing of things. I’ve played a lot of great games over the last six months, and I’d like to write about them, as well as a few more think pieces about general life/pursuits that I have outside of gaming.
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