Redwolf's Journal (continued)

... some of it the hard way. Went through Shattered Halls and Caverns of Time: Old Hillsbrad recently. Both were cake walks compared to previous times. Honestly, I was surprised and wondered when we'd gotten that much better. But suspicion of some "easy" mode having been set on the game would fade later. Oh. My. God. I'm not going to call it the most difficult dungeon I've done or anything. We wiped once, got back on our feet, and got through it the second time. But... it's not so much a dungeon as defending a point against wave after wave of continuous enemies. No chance to rest, and I'm still confused over not running out of mana. I think I would have liked to see a little more in the DPS department to help kill the constant stream of dragony things. Two tanks was less than ideal. But it did work. We did get through it. And, for once, my priest stayed in shadow form most of the time and left the healing to our paladin. It was tense from my point

Allergies have been a bitch the last few weeks. I'm back to popping generic Claratin tablets daily to keep symptoms in check, though it doesn't eliminate them completely. I tried a generic Zyrtec yesterday and almost fell asleep at work. Whee. In spite of the "non-drowsy" claims of this generation of antihistamines, it's really only "less drowsy than some previous drugs." I still find myself more lethargic this time of year in general and I'm pretty sure its the medication, but I'm left more functional than if I were overcome with sneezing, watery eyes, and a running nose all day long. So as I discussed before, if you accept the extended continuity, Jedi have undergone some changes. I'm not the only one to see this by any means. In fact, the Ruusan Reformation was conceived to retroactively fix continuity errors including different references to the age of the Republic in the movies as well as covering changes in the Jedi Order. To sum u

"You father was seduced by the dark side of the Force. He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader. When that happened, the good man who was your father was destroyed. So what I have told you was true... from a certain point of view." "A certain point of view?!" "Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view." Ah, how often things hinge on perspective. And that's why clear communication is important. But even in terms of the source material it's a big thing. As I write - short, scattered, and fragmented as those writings may be - I think about a lot of peripheral things, perhaps more when dealing with Star Wars fiction than in some other settings. First, I have to consider the source material. The movies (alas, perhaps, but yes all six) are the core material (G-canon, as some refer to it). Anakin restored balance to the Force by killing the last of the Sith when he to

Been playing some more on-and-off in my spare time. Got my paragon up to 20th (maximum) level even though my biggest goal was getting him to where he could get from the expansion continent he started on to the other continents so he could adventure with people from the base (Prophecies) campaign. It seems this takes some time. Something about Nightfall is more enjoyable to me, though I'm having trouble pinning it down. The level design seems a bit more friendly (I'm not running into dead ends left and right), but I doubt that accounts for all of it. And because I'd have to go through another few areas to get back to where the guild left off doing missions, I stuck with my warrior for group play last night. I'm not quite clear on why we took another player along on our first run through Borlis Pass. It proved disadvantageous when she was idle and the healer NPC who was attached to her stayed back while the rest of us were trying to make progress (and dying repeatedly i

So I watched The Forbidden Kingdom yesterday. It's not exactly an epic movie, but it's quite good and fun. I know stories of China's Monkey King have been done many times and many ways, and I can't say I'm familiar with more than a few, but I still recognized some elements here and there. The action sequences were good. The story was relatively sound in and of itself. Seeing Jet Li and Jackie Chan on screen at the same time was amusing. I'm not a big Jet Li fan (as I have a poor opinion of most of what I've seen him in), but I've no complaints about him here. Very good entertainment movie. It even has a couple training montages. And, unsurprisingly, it's good inspiration for Exalted. Over-the-top wirework and action is a given. The Jade Emperor and his court appearing from Heaven every five hundred years to partake in elixirs of immortality gives shades of Yu Shan and the sidereals/gods there. The Monkey King himself makes a good solar in terms of

Easy come, easy go. Why is it whenever I think I might have enough "extra" money to do something, something else comes up? This time, an assessment for snow removal from the condo roofs, probably followed by more expenses for repairs as the snow and ice did some damage here and there - mostly superficial, but damage nonetheless. Whee. And looking at dropping money to rent a car next month, too. So... no PS3 on the horizon. No new mattress to sleep upon. No other vacations planned after the trip next month. Just life as "normal" for a while. The Exalted game goes on. This is good. We've a new addition to our player base. Group dynamics... still are what they are. I may worry too much about it. A GMly perspective From the point of view of a player (and character), I have to say it feels like there's an almost overwhelming amount of stuff going on. That's... not all bad, but I feel as though I have to make every single day count, and that complicat

So we actually had five people on Guild Wars last night and dove off into the wilderness on a longer quest. We died. Lots. In the end, it wasn't pretty and it was a frustrating few hours as we didn't really accomplish anything (save acquisition of XP). But, heck, if we won all the time there wouldn't be any challenge, neh? I am, however, finding that I don't know how to tank. Playing warrior? Check. Managing creatures? Uhh... that's where I'm clueless. I understand the relationship between damage/healing and threat in WoW and how to "hold aggro" of mobs or pull them off other people (I don't always succeed, but I understand how it works). But it's not working the same in GW. I've seen them focus on someone to the utter exclusion of the warrior pounding away at them. If there's a way to get the attention of a critter reliably after it's started attacking someone else, I haven't found it. I guess it's something to try resear

Ah, but for the good ol' days. Wizards of the Coast isn't what it used to be. They've got a fake page "overlay" on the D&D site and an announcement about a Pirates versus Ninjas deck , but that's about it. Some others remain, though... Google retains its sense of humor with a plot to go to Mars. Blizzard's up to its old tricks. Starcraft II gets a new unit. Wrath of the Lich King is to have a new class, the bard. And they will introduce us to the 2-D glory of the Molten Core game! And, if that weren't enough, IGN has the premiere of the trailer for the Legend of Zelda movie. So now I'm decked out with all four Guild Wars boxes and the expansions. I still don't think I would have paid for them, but if access to that content is important to those I play with, I've nothing against accepting gifts. Each of these has come with a trial key for multiple NCSoft games. I passed one to gabefinder and kept one myself to try something