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Dintiradan

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Everything posted by Dintiradan

  1. We should probably do advances, huh. Jered continues down the path of being a freak of nature.
  2. I vaguely remember playing either Hexen or Hexen 2 at a friend's house. And yeah, Doom with magic.
  3. Yeah, that was me being a dolt. I knew using the Magic regains HP, but not SP, and later on, I kept forgetting it also buffed my characters. So every fight there were two rounds lost as I blessed/hastened my fighters, and I didn't use my casters much beyond that. Also remember that we killed people over a stolen boardgame. Success was never the primary goal of the stream.
  4. I've made a huge mistake (probably NSFW due to occasional language).
  5. (Points at sig.) I'm at a bit of a weird place when it comes to boardgames. I do have friends whom I game with, though less and less frequently as Real Life interferes with their availability. When I do end up playing with them, it's usually a new game each time, since they are people with more disposable income than I, and avid followers of the Cult of the New. Meanwhile, I also play games with family, but that ends up being mostly filler games, party games, and kid-friendly games (typically being one of the first two guarantees the second). These aren't games I particularly enjoy, but I don't hate 'em either. My game collection ends up catering mostly to the latter social circle, rather than the first. Sure, Eclipse is a great game, but I'm never going to get my money's worth out of my copy, so why buy other games like it? This is one of the few situations where wifeing someone appeals to me. Gotta get a consistent gaming partner somehow. Going over my BGG plays and picking out a few highlights. I'll try limit this to games I've played enough times or games that have left a big enough impact on me to comment: - Attribute: A looser, faster Apples to Apples. Not the greatest filler but it's a good icebreaker, and it's very flexible and able to accomidate people dropping in and dropping out. Also gets more fun if you have to pick people's names as the noun each round. - Clash of Cultures: Really like this one, civ-building game with a lot of depth. Also very pretty. - Dead of Winter: I've only played this a couple times, but I loved it. Very thematic semi co-op. But hahahahahahaha good luck finding a copy. - Dragon Delta: Reprinted as River Dragons now. Programmed actions, screw your neighbour, lots of chaos. - Eclipse: 4X game, a bit more Euro-y with its focus on action management, but still a lot of direct conflict. Upgradable ships are neatly implemented -- heck, how things are implemented and the clean presentation is a big plus for me. Not as much politics and 'gotcha' moments as TI, which isn't something that bothers me but is a complaint I hear a lot. I recommend the expansion but the base game is fine on its own. - Forbidden Island: A co-op by the same guy who made Pandemic. It's pretty similar, and since I own Pandemic I probably won't get Forbidden Island unless I see it at Value Village or something. A bit less strategy than Pandemic, but overall the game is more streamlined, and more consistent in difficulty. Nothing like having the Earth overrun by disease in the first round of Pandemic. - A Game of Thrones: Most of my plays are with the first edition and its expansions; the second edition incorporates a lot of the improvements and fixes that the expansions had. It's the right balance between Risk and Diplomacy for me, just the right amount of non-determinism for me. - Guillotine: Screw-your-neighbour filler. No player elimination, which for me means it replaces Bang! in that category. Not a huge amount of fun for me, but it's fine and family members are willing to play it and that's rare so there we go. - Hanabi: I haven't played this much, but it's probably the most elegant game I own, and it avoids the quarterback problem that a lot of co-ops have. - Hey, That's My Fish!: Simple rules, not super deep but still deeper than you'd expect for a goofy game with an exclamation point in the name. More games need exclamation points in their names. - King of Tokyo: Fun, goofy filler. It's Yahtzee except you're giant monsters. I've heard people compare this unfavourably with King of New York, but I've never played the latter. - Magic: the Gathering: Not a board game per se, but probably the game I've played most, and probably the game I enjoy most. I think the thing with Magic is that you have to view WotC as not selling a game, but rather selling the components for a family of related games. I can count the number of 'normal' decks I've made on one hand, but I've played a lot of EDH, and whenever my kitchen table playgroup gets less active, I'm able to go to a FLGS and play limited. - Nexus Ops: It's sort of like Risk but with map exploration and specific unit types, good if you're in the mood for a lot of direct conflict. - Perpetual Commotion: It's just Dutch Blitz, which is good chaotic fun. Recommending this one specifically because it's the only variant I've found with decent cardstock. - The Resistance: I usually hate Mafia/Werewolf games, but this one is good. Gameplay is designed so that information must be leaked, and there's no player elimination. The Resistance: Avalon is fairly similar. Also, if you like this game, but wish everyone was lying every game, check out Coup. - Small World: Area control and conquest game, loads of expansions, haven't played it in a long long while though so maybe my tastes have changed. Still remember liking it a lot, though. - Space Alert: Real time planned action co-op IN SPACE! Loads of fun, but make sure you play it with people who don't mind losing. - Telestrations: Pictionary + Telephone. That's it, really. Great party game. - Through the Ages: Very abstracted civ building game with drafting. Very cutthoat, much AP, wow. But seriously, good. - Ticket to Ride: Team Asia: Ticket to Ride is a decent game, but the Team Asia expansion is fantastic. Co-op TTR is good. - Tsuro: Super super simple filler game, looks nice, quick to teach, quick to play, nice and chaotic with a lot of players. - Zendo: It's Predicate Logic: THE GAME! Which may not be everyone's cup of tea. Also, out of print, but you can implement it with Lego if you want. BGG even has an Emoticon Zendo thread. this seemed like a good idea at the time...
  6. I guess I could restart LigrevPlaysBoA. Maybe we won't murder everyone this time.
  7. This. And for me at least, it's not just an Internet/Real Life divide. I'll come across differently depending on what environment I'm in: public, workplace, school, family, friends, whatever. Typically people are surprised when they interact with me outside of the context they're used to seeing me in. To be completely honest, if tomorrow I'm walking down the street and I happen to see someone from here, I'd just pretend I didn't see them and keep walking. 'Cause that's what I do with my Real Life acquaintances too. No offense, but I'm perfectly happy keeping every facet of my life separate and compartmentalized, thank you very much.
  8. Dintiradan

    2014 Movies

    (checks Wikipedia) It seems the only film I've watched from beginning to end is Interstellar. There are a few others that were being played while I was nearby, mostly kids' movies, but that's it. Interstellar is a very weak recommendation: if you like science fiction and you like Christopher Nolan films, then watch it, otherwise give it a pass. There were some aspects I really liked, others I didn't, and a whole lot of little things that just bugged me. Eh.
  9. Nioca and I were brainstorming a potential RP back in (checks PMs) early 2012. It never got past the early early planning stages, but here are a few things we discussed about how it would be managed. I've generalized them to not be setting-specific, maybe they will help: - Have players submit their character/faction/whatever on the OoC thread for communal approval before the RP even begins. - An emphasis that disputes are handled via the OoC thread, rather than starting an arms race in the IC thread. Some voting or veto system would be required. Of course, this becomes simpler but more dictatorial once you have a GM. - A setting that encourages player-controlled characters/factions/whatever to interact with each other, rather than players building their own supporting casts and focusing solely on them. - To keep the plot moving, IC would be divided into 'chapters', each chapter having its own theme. A prompt, basically. Players would have to incorporate the theme into their writing for the chapter. This is the only idea we had that required a GM, though there's probably a way to do it with voting or something. Also, time limits (albeit generous ones) for each chapter, to ensure that the entire storyline does eventually end. - Some form of posting limit. Having some players post double or triple the amounts others did has been a problem in the past. Exactly how do this and make everyone happy, and foolproof the system against dropouts, would be tricky. Bringing RPs back here is something I've wanted to do for quite a while, but there's a lot of things I want to get around to doing, and there's always been one reason or another to put it off. Also, each time I revisit the idea, I rethink how I want to implement it. For instance, after reading the rules for Ben Robbins's Microscope, I starting thinking about how to repurpose the rules for an RP here. Maybe start RPs off with players creating a Palette? (Of course, there's also the question of "Why not just play Microscope itself, or something like it...") Anyway, bit of a late night ramble, but hope this helps.
  10. The Arabs may have conquered you from without, but you shall conquer them and their servants from within, you who would be satrap. Tell me, what of your current master's other vassals? Are there any whom you believe will aid you in your mission? And what of your own vassals? Though if they are not willing to aid their own liege lord in this, perhaps more pliable vassals could be found. And what of your brother? If you die without issue, not an unlikely event should your liege discover your plotting, would he be capable of ruling in your stead? Best to plan for the worst, and ensure that he is married and siring children of his own, lest your line die out.
  11. (Note: both these cases deal with companies that don't have a presence in Canada, so I'm not fully up to date with them. As far as I know, these remarks don't extend to implemented practices, but I could be wrong). I don't base my purchase decisions based on the beliefs and actions of the owners of a company. Yes, they benefit from my purchase, but so does every other employee in the company. Should we punish everyone in the company with a collaborative boycott just because of the beliefs of the person at the top? This is a personal decision, of course, but I'm willing to do business with someone I disagree with, so long as the product itself or the immediate results of doing business isn't 'tainted'. The question of whether or not to do business with Israeli companies ties into this. Would I directly donate money to the Israeli government? No. Would I do business with companies that do so, or engage in the same oppressive practices? No. But would I do business with Israeli companies that didn't, but still paid corporate taxes to the Israeli government? Now the lines get blurry. And why stop there? Shouldn't you also boycott anyone who in turn does business with Israeli companies? Is guilt transitive in ethical consumerism? To bring this example closer to home, should I stop buying games from Spiderweb Software because Jeff pays taxes to the US government, and I disagree with many aspects of their foreign affairs policy? I mostly agree. Most of the time, charities are a band-aid solution. But while bandages don't heal people, they do stop people from bleeding to death. And it's not as if it's choice between supporting charity and supporting social reform. You can donate to Habitat for Humanity and be an advocate in the political sphere when it comes to housing policies. Granted, progress in the latter is slow at best, but that should be all the more reason to support the former. That all said, there is an argument that supporting charity disincentivizes governments from taking action, and I can see that. It's a tricky situation, but ultimately I'll continue donating time and money, making a little difference, rather than resort to brinkmanship and risk making no difference at all. *shrugs* Your opinion, of course, but it's not the opinion of everyone in need. And not all charity (or even most, in my opinion) is done for selfish reasons. And even if it was, would it really matter? Heh. Don't read Hansard then.
  12. Hey everyone, here's a bump, but it's gonna be the last one in a long while. I fired up my CK2 game again after a long hiatus. Since I've last played, Paradox has pushed out a new DLC. Not one that I own currently, but that doesn't matter, because they pushed out a free patch as well. One that was automatically applied, of course. After loading my save and realizing this, I went back and specifically chose which version of CK2 to run... but the damage was done. The mere act of loading my save in CK2 2.2.x made it unplayable in CK2 2.1.x. I don't think I'll be touching this save any longer. For what it's worth, it was in the 1230s when I stopped, and the world map like this. Same ruler as my last post, and he's been very busy absorbing entire kingdoms into his empire (yellow). He created his own antipope, and then installed his successor. The back of the Holy Roman Empire (white) has been broken, and the Byzantine Empire (purple) isn't looking too great either. The only other Christian powers of note are Nubia (orange) and Volga Bulgaria (brown), both of which I've left alone. Sunni Muslims are all but gone from Spain and Africa. I've continuously taken land from the Shiite Caliphate (bright green), not the least of which is Mecca and Medina. The only real threat right now is the Ilkhanate (puke green), and I was moving my standing armies eastward in preparation for the first direct conflict I was plotting against them. All in all, gameplay had become easy and rather... masturbatory. The end of the game was still over two centuries away. I was planning to stick it out until the Aztec invasion, but I guess that will have to wait for another day. I can still see myself having fun with the game, but as long as Paradox treats it like an open beta, I'm not interested. I have enough other stuff to do (some of it isn't even games!), so it'll keep. Maybe I'll come back to it once they start releasing CK3. Then, at least, I'll finally be able to play a complete game without save issues.
  13. Slarty, there's a good chance I'm the only other person here who knows about Magic psychographic profiles. It's been about a decade (!) since I've played the original Avernum trilogy, and I haven't played any of the Exile trilogy, for what it's worth. My take is that the dominant quest throughout the game (once you finished the first three chapters) was rescuing the three Crystal Souls, with Garzahd being more of an end-game boss. This might be a result of the order I played the game, though. In terms of increasing focus, the quests go "this is something that needs to be dealt with, and we'll mention its importance from time to time", "this is someone that needs to be dealt with, and he'll show up from time to time and so will his underlings", and "these are three beings you need to rescue, each with their own subquest, and also two entire chapters of the game are dedicated to their importance". Avernum 1 is another game with three "victory" quests, with different amounts of focus given to them. Sure, Hawthorne and the Empire is mentioned frequently, and sure, getting out of Avernum is something you and others are trying to do. But Grah-Hoth was the focus in my opinion, even though it was the first "victory" quest I finished in my playthrough. From the sliths, to Fort Remote, to the Tower, then finally to Skarragath and Akhronath (thanks EE), you deal with Grah-Hoth indirectly and finally directly. Whereas with the other two, it's more, "Hey, you know those brooches/passwords you've been collecting throughout the game? Turns out they're useful for something!" Now I don't think either game suffers because one quest was focused on more than the others. It's not like you need all three to receive the exact same amount of screen time. But I do think in both cases, one is the clear "this is what you're working on for most of the game".
  14. Dintiradan

    Artemis

    (No, seriously, where is everyone.)
  15. Dintiradan

    Artemis

    (Slightly less than) 48 hour warning for our Friday session (6:00 PM to 8:00PM, October 24, MDT)! Make sure you have Artemis 2.1.1 and Mumble ready by then! Apologies to those who were disappointed by the lackluster session last week, but thanks to that session and some prep work the technical issues have (hopefully) been ironed out. (I've made some minor updates to my Artemis resources page, including a few more video tutorials.)
  16. Dintiradan

    Artemis

    Triple post! There's going to be a shakedown cruise this Wednesday (October 15th), from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM, MDT (ish). Don't feel obliged to attend this session, as it's a spur of the moment thing. But we have an eighth (!) person expressing interest, and we felt a practice session would help. So if you're a new player who wants to get acquainted with the game (or an old player who wants to get re-acquainted), this will be the perfect time. I can't say how much of it will be instruction and troubleshooting and how much of it will be actual missions, so we'll play it by ear. (The session on the 24th is still on as planned.)
  17. Dintiradan

    Artemis

    Bump! First off, session is rescheduled to Friday, October the 24th, from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM, MDT. Secondly, I've been doing some experimenting with Mumble and VAC, and as it turns out, it's not too difficult setting up a second Mumble account to transmit audio from the server. Not only does this mean remote players can now hear everything that LAN players are supposed to (weapons! shields! engines! the oh-so-important red alert klaxon!), it means that playing third-party missions, especially missions with pre-recorded audio, is now a possibility. I dunno if we want to do a mission this session; it's been a while, and there are a few more options in the new version of Artemis that we might want to try out. But it's a possibility for the future. Speaking of that new version, make sure you have Artemis version 2.1.1 installed. Get the EXE from my site, and the patch from the Artemis website. Only the server needs to install missions, so don't worry about that.
  18. Dintiradan

    Artemis

    Meant to post this yesterday but didn't get around to it: we've had a seventh person sign up who also can't make it on the 17th. The next two alternatives are Friday the 24th, any time from 3:00 PM to 9:00 PM MDT; and Saturday the 25th, any time from 4:00 PM to 9:00 PM MDT. So if everyone's okay with it, we can reschedule to one of those times to accommodate everyone. Speak up if you have a preference. (Of course, playing on both weeks is a possibility, if people want.) More players are still welcome; once we hit 8+ players, we can comfortably crew two ships. As it is, seven is enough for a full crew plus a game master. Time to see if the latest version has improved how GMing works...
  19. Dintiradan

    Artemis

    We now have enough players to crew a single ship, and the earliest possible time for a session is Friday, October 17th at 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM, MDT. We won't be able to go outside these bounds without losing someone, but two hour sessions is what we've done in the past, so let's stick with that. If that time doesn't work for someone, there are some later alternatives. EDIT: And I got the download on my site working again. To get the most up-to-date version, download and install the 2.0 installer (message me if you need a username/password), then download and install the 2.1.1 patch. And again, six is the minimum, but more people are welcome to join in.
  20. Dintiradan

    Artemis

    It's been over half a year, and the people have spoken! They want more Artemis! Well, some people have expressed interest in starting this up again. But in order to have a full crew, we need YOU! If you own a computer and microphone, and playing an officer on a spaceship bridge simulator is something that sounds cool to you, sign up here.
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