Redwolf's Journal (continued)

But first, just another reason to love the Mythbusters. We assimilated a couple coworkers for Wednesday night's roleplaying game. Both newbies - one totally and one with very old/limited experience. The game went pretty well and was laugh-out-loud funny at multiple points, though the "grumpy old gamer" in me finds new players something of a burden. One opted paladin-ish. He was pretty reserved, understandably, and fixated on generic civilian-giving-information NPCs as possible threats (actually, they both did to an extent). The other went with biiig, dumb, half-orc fighter-type (after having to be talked down from wanting to play a half-ogre vampire - which wouldn't really fit in the setting). He provided much entertainment by getting into a non-lethal (though he couldn't really help the snapping bones here and there) fight outside a bar in which he casually brutalized something like nine guys who took offense to him. They'll probably be back, and that'

So... to catch up: The Circle has gone on to Autochthon and had to convince the local leadership they came to help. There was a fight with a couple corrupted/insane alchemical alts and meetings with multiple levels of the "Tripartate" governing bodies. This diplomacy culminated with a meeting with Autochthon himself (by way of his temporarily possessing Symphony). He was most displeased with the exalts in general, his memory going back easily to a time when they turned on his creations/people after they had helped in the Primordial War. But with some nice rolling, he was convinced of the Circle's sincerity and allowed them to remain and help. (Allowed to be of assistance - so nice, ain't he?) The Circle then proceeding to the most imperiled of the nations, setting off the spell Alexandra learned to cleanse the plague and making plans to confront the First and Forsaken Lion's forces. It should be noted that information was sorely lacking for the fight. Troop s

Disclaimer: This post revolves around a roleplaying game that might be run, but it is entirely theoretical at this point. No assumptions should be made, but opinions are asked. Having played the Force Unleashed demo and gotten my copy of the SW: Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide recently, the game-that-never-was is on my mind a bit. But also alternative thoughts. And so I'm hoping to tap some opinions beyond my own. If I were to run a Star Wars game, what would you want to see? What era do you prefer to play in, and why? What sort of character would you want to play? What sorts of adventures would you want to undertake? What sorts of opponents would you want to face? All of that stuff. I tend to favor the thought of playing in the KotOR era. Why? No Lucas! ... Okay, that's not entirely correct. It's more precise to say that I feel the time frame of the movies is too limiting. The big events are laid out, so there's less room to be creative, at least in

So... checks have gone through and what I put on my credit card is all cleanly paid off without any interest. Now I get to figure out how much of the rest to toss at the mortgage and what to stash for an emergency fund. For that matter, I need to take this kick in the rear as a motivator to make said fund on my own. I think it's been about four weeks now since they started peeling old wood off the condo exteriors. Most of that is done and a lot of patching has gone on, but the word isn't done and the painting hasn't even started. Progress seems a little slow to me, but there are 23 units in a total of five buildings and I don't really have any frame of reference. Exalted Building up to fighting our first death lord, the First and Forsaken Lion. Army units of undead crumple before the sheer damage output that is Kashim. The two death knights that got in the circle's way went down before most of us (them included) got our second turn. And the Lion himself has mad

I was looking into a string of murders, but it was definitely deeper than that. The whole thing had a feel of major terrorism plot/government cover-up/supernatural activity - people were specifically being targeted for what they knew. The investigation, which must have been for some higher/secret government agency as there was no badge-waving, led me to an old cathedral-turned-sanitarium. I was listening to someone tell me about the place as we rode up and open elevator in the middle of the building. We passed a floor lined with normal rooms and went on up through a level that looked more like a prison block with a communal area and two rows of small, barred cells. Reaching the roof, I looked around the little garden area there with windows down into the main hall. This seemed significant for some reason. And I was conversing with the caretaker/chief doctor/priest of the place who was waving aside my concerns. He was even slow to react when I told him to "get down" upon seei

... or Mass Potential. Or maybe Missed Potential. I finished the game last night, in the sense that I completed the main storyline, but not all the side quests. Further thoughts below. I love the setting. A sci-fi universe that hasn't been done a thousand times before. The galactic politics feel believable. I really, really like the way the "impossibilities" of the setting (FTL travel, "magic," and such) are, at least for the most part, keyed off of one technological leap and themed thusly. Interstellar travel? Well, that's doable because of the element zero-based drives let you alter the mass (at least in a practical sense) to zero in order to break the limits of relativity. Artificial gravity? Same process, but it manipulates relative mass of the ship to create a downward pull inside. Biotics? Through interaction with element zero, humans (and probably other races in the distant past) have developed the ability to use telekinetic powers - but all the

So... exterior repairs are underway. I'm still waiting for the financial stuff to all fall in place, but that'll probably happen toward the end of the month. At least I'm not sweating it so much at the moment. I'm comfortable enough that I picked up Mass Effect for PC, something I'd intended for a while. But hey, I had to do something with that gift card. Mass Effect I actually played the Space Siege demo, but found the controls frustrating enough that I'm not bothering with that, so back to a game I have wanted. Mass Effect's controls are... odd. Not perfect, but serviceable. The console roots are pretty clear. I keep wanting to either get into first-person mode and play like a shooter or to be able to pause and deal with things like a turn-based game (like I could in Knights of the Old Republic). Instead, the game sticks with a third-person hybrid of those two that is awkward to me. The game is pretty, by and large. The missions could have used some m