Why would anyone in their right mind recommend checking out Knights of Everflame? Well, it’s not so much that it’s the best gaming experience ever or the most well put-together gaming group, but more that it’s what you might expect from a role-playing game and might be interesting to watch if you’ve ever played a game such as this. Having been into Dungeons and Dragons for a while, yes I’m a nerd and I own it, I can honestly say that this might be worth watching for anyone that’s ever been interested or even confused by the games that tend to cost massive amounts of money to play and take up hours upon hours of storytelling time on average. If this is your thing then this is your show on YouTube and it might even give you a few pointers as to what you may or may not want to do with your own campaign.
You might be thinking as to why it’s so expensive, but that’s easy to explain. While the Knights of Everflame isn’t going off of a D&D quest it would seem like, they are using very similar concepts that are easy to spot and recognize. But as to why it’s all so expensive it has a lot to do with the fact that no matter how popular it is, this is still a niche and it does require more money to produce everything and as a result the expenses are raised for each book and the equipment that many campaigns tend to use. From miniature figurines to character sheets to maps and even the dice, the expense of playing a role-playing game can get fairly high depending on how much is used. Some people tend to want all the books, all the figures, and as many materials as they can get when it comes to running a game. Some people want to keep it simple and don’t bother getting anything they figure that they don’t need or won’t be using on a regular basis. In some games you might even use household items that are stand-ins for parts of the scene or even creatures that are simply too big to draw out completely. Hell, I once had a Dungeon Master that used a pepper shaker as monster and it worked just fine, plus we all had a good time with it.
Knights of Everflame isn’t really any different in that it’s a group of people getting together to listen to and affect what happens in the story with their actions as they navigate the unseen pathways of the world that their storyteller is relaying to them. A lot of people might call this a nerdfest and many other kind of colorful and exciting names that would seek to break these people down, but role-playing games are actually quite fun and they stretch the imagination in ways that doesn’t always make sense but at the same time makes a person think in the moment and keeps them moving quickly along since each person’s turn is only supposed to take so long. That is perhaps one of the things that can stall out a game and make it less than worth playing since those that tend to look in the books and nitpick at the rules while attempting to gain every advantage possible are typically those that will make the hours drag by. This type of game is meant to be played for fun and yet it’s best when it’s dynamic and moves swiftly enough that each person has to be on their toes thinking about what they’re going to do next.
Hours can typically pass in such games without anyone even thinking of quitting since with a good enough storyteller the fun is contagious and a person might find themselves drawn into the story in such a way that they don’t even realize how long they’ve been sitting there, until they get up that is. This is the kind of game, and possibly the kind of show, that’s addictive enough that people will want to keep watching in the hopes of seeing how the story turns out. When it comes to role-playing games though a campaign can take a long, long time to finish depending on a lot of variables, among them being how effective the person telling the story is, and of course how receptive the players are. A good storyteller will take the group from start to finish in a manner that is somewhat professional but can be playful as well depending on the mood of the party and the campaign they’re running. One thing is paramount though, unless the storyteller is seriously flawed and takes things personally or tries to actively derail the game, they’re not to be questioned in games like this since they make the rules. Edward Schmalz of Pawns and Pints outlines the elements of a great role-playing experience, but the one thing to remember is that the storyteller is needed more than anything. A good storyteller will keep people interested and wanting to hear more, but only so long as the players realize that it’s a game, and that within the game the storyteller or dungeon master, whatever title they take, is absolute.
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