Erenshor: Oh, by the way, which one is Bink?

It’s been a couple of weeks since I joined the Erenshor Beta Test. I haven’t had a super huge amount of time to play — there was CaptainCon, and then there’s a bunch of new models to paint for an upcoming Malifaux tournament, and then there’s just other games out there, etc.

This is a game that has both NPCs, that stand in one place or walk slowly in a circuit, as they do, and SimPlayers, who run everywhere, accidentally train your group in dungeons, inspect you and compliment your gear, say hello to you or ask for a group if you’ve grouped with them before; standing in the main hub of Port Azure is like standing in the main hub of any MMO. Lots of players going about their business, most of which doesn’t concern you in any way.

I was in a group pulling some sort of goblin creature in Blacksalt Strand. We’d broken the camp and were doing pretty well fighting the respawns, when a player came running by, followed closely by some crocs and gorillas. Dropped dead at the foot of a merchant, who was then promptly killed by the train. My group just stayed back and watched as the mobs slowly returned home.

XP wasn’t that great, so we peeked into the Elderstone Mines. Nope. We finally ended up in the Lost Cellar, pulling Spark Spiders and Royal Dogs. The Spark Spiders weren’t bad, though they tended to come in groups and I had to keep mezzing them so our tank wouldn’t get overwhelmed. Those Royal Dogs were brutal. We went deeper into the cellar and found some tough looking people that we didn’t feel like taking on.

There were some deaths, but I managed to get more than halfway through level 14. I went and explored some around Port Azure and found the tunic I’d bought for 10,000 gold at the auction house, on sale at the Arcanist vendor for 1,000 gold. I’d been ripped off. And the person who ripped me off was IN MY GROUP. But she was the healer, so what are you going to do?

One of the spiders dropped a mold for a charm I need. I’ll have to do some running around for the crafting components. I don’t have anything for that slot at the moment.

I had to go with a new tank tonight, as my usual one, Lumi, was off playing his main. Not sure of his main’s name, but he says he was the first to level 35 on the server, so would be out of my grouping range anyway.

This is the charm of Erenshor. It’s not an RPG where you are the hero saving the world; you’re just a player, and the stories you tell about your time are going to be MMO stories. Stories about an MMO where you always can find a group and you always get first dibs on loot. Stories about spending an evening getting just half a level before getting in the way of some soloer’s train.