Feo Takahari

Come to think of it, why are we writing wikis for Geneforge anyways? Encyclopedia Ermarian can at least be used to check details for Blades of Avernum, but unless somebody's writing another Geneforge fanfic . . .

While we're at it: how do you tell whether a town has been destroyed, or it was in ruins from the start of the game? And what happens if you set back the day timer to before it was destroyed?

No, that was Tucker. There were two explorers whose names began with E, and the dialogue referred to each by both names (presumably an error.) I think Elner was "supposed" to be the dead fellow in the cockroach-making place.

Come to think of it, Elner was also one of the members of the initial surface exploration team in the third game. A name worth reusing, I suppose?

Almost straight north of Harkin's Landing, there's a seemingly unnotable door in a wall with a sign saying to keep out. If I recall, it has a fairly strong lock on it. If you can bust it nonetheless, you can get in easily. I also recall a trapdoor down from town, but the lock in front of it is much more strong. P.S. A lot of people who accepted the geas restart the game rather than kill Anemona. Hope you've got a spare save (or else that you're heartless.)

Well, there is the fact that the lead character's a black guy.

Well, I think it said somewhere in the first game that battle alphas are an upgrade of the thahd design. The question is merely where thahds come from.

Hmm . . . One thing I've been noticing is that the people who argue that creations should serve loyally have the same base idea as the people who argue anti-mutant regarding X-Men (like the San Francisco Chronicle's movie critic Mick LaSalle.) Both are similar to those who hate neo-Nazis, and all three base their beliefs on the same basic idea as neo-Nazis themselves. To get to the point, the feeling is one that certain individuals are "people" and certain individuals are not. Those who oppose them argue that both groups qualify as people. Myself, in regards to almost all the groups people argue about, I wouldn't distinguish at all if other people didn't. For instance, someone else might say that black people are just as good as white people, but without the context of people arguing on the subject I wouldn't divide "black people" and "white people" any more than I would divide "left-handers" and "right-handers." So far, my computer seems to be mindless, but if it started expressing a wish to be free, hell yeah, I'd listen!

Found a five-volume fantasy series called "Winds of the Forelands" in a corner of a library I don't often go to. I'm on book 4, and so far, I'm quite impressed, if only because everyone listed in the six pages of "major characters" has a distinct personality and role in the storyline. I also have to give the author credit for not using cardboard-cutout villains--the lead bad guy is a bit overdone, but all his henchmen have a motive and a reason for sympathy. I spent all Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday morning reading these books when I was supposed to be doing homework .

Originally Posted By: Nenayar Well, if you don't need porewful comp, there is no real reason to buy it just for Geneforge 5 (or maybe is ). If you can't play a game by Spiderweb Software, you need a more powerful computer. No exceptions.

Originally Posted By: Stareye and the Siege of Spidweb In popular fantasy culture and in Avernum rakshasas seem to be tiger-demons fond of their creature comforts (read: drugs and possibly perfumes), so maybe that's the smell. In the original Hindu mythology they're demons, but I don't think they're specifically tiger demons. —Alorael, who is certain that the rakshasas in Jeff's games come straight from D&D. His own take with a smell (where does that get mentioned, anyway?) doesn't change that. In the town just mentioned where they kill you if you sleep, there's one person who gives you a rational but unprovable explanation for why the town is empty except for him. If you ask him about the smell in the air, he says, "I don't smell anything."

Just went to the library and picked up a whole bunch of new books. Glasshouse by Charles Stross absolutely blew me out of the water. It's about people several centuries from now engaging in a reenactment of present-day American society, with one of them regretting her agreement to participate and trying to sabotage the program. Also read Blood Music by Greg Bear, but I thought it was more twisted than interesting.

It's so much fun to fill in plot holes--canisters have been improved through experimentation, and that's why they're no longer instantly lethal to serviles!

Incidentally, anybody know where Jeff got the idea for Rakshasas and other weird creatures? D&D's monster manual has an entry for "Rakshasa," but it said nothing about a strange scent associated with the beasties, so I'm wondering if he had an older source.

I just added a page for Geneforge on www.tvtropes.org (despite the name, the site has grown to cover books and games as well.) Anyone who wants to check my work or add more tropes can feel free.

Market Forces by Richard K. Morgan--or I attempted to, anyways. I always did suspect his work would be unreadable if he shortened the sex scenes. Also attempted the Petaybee series by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, but I have a hard time rooting for any character who'll kill ninety people in "self-defense." Next up is The Thanatos Syndrome by Walker Percy, a conspiracy-novel parody in which drugs are put in the water supply to "improve public behavior." Oh, and for school I'm reading The Grapes of Wrath and desperately wishing Steinbeck would SHUT UP. (I'm feeling snarky today. Have you noticed?)

I'd support a title on the basis that G1 and G2 both show a Shaper in the pictures. I suppose we could say they have the same name, but in the G2 picture of shaping a fyora the Shaper appears to be a girl, and Andras sounds rather like a guy's name.

I'll second that "yay" as soon as a: I get enough money to buy the game, and b: I'm willing to put myself through more moral torment. (Curse you, Jeff, for forcing me to kill Miranda in G4!)

One note for those of us who are not Sss-Chah: there's a drake fairly late in the game who, each time you pay him, will give every character a point of Magery if they haven't hit 10 yet. This is after you get the opportunity to buy Magery for individuals up to 5, and also after you find a crystal that trains you in it for 3 points. The crystal in particular is worth hanging on to, since once you've hit 10 you can use it to get 13 (at least, I think so. I never had the opportunity to test this . . .)

Originally Posted By: Vent Do you mean that now you are used to E2 and A5 you won't be able to play another RPG using a different system? While I can play both earlier and later Avernum games, I've certainly been rendered incapable of liking most RPGs not by Spiderweb. ''Two Worlds'', ''Mass Effect'', and other hybrids are good, and the ''Final Fantasy'' series can get me to hang on to the end based on storyline, but ''Neverwinter Nights'' and such have all left me bored out of my gourd. Here's hoping ''Fallout'' will turn out to be more fun when I finally get around to buying it . . . P.S. Very nearly mentioned ''Mass Effect'' without making fun of the sex scenes. We couldn't have that, now could we? Therefore, insert mocking comment here.

In A3, it's also worth noting that some cursed items are actually useful when uncursed, and that the "uncurse items" option when buying a healer's services will remove curses from every item in the selected character's inventory. Uranium bars will sell for a pretty good price when uncursed (or, in A2, even while cursed.) I just leave them lying around in temples, then pick them up whenever I find something useful but cursed like the Humanskin Gloves. Cursed items are rare enough that you probably won't have any disappearing if you leave them in one place.

Originally Posted By: Thuryl Sluggish is always terrible and not worth using for the lost AP alone. Even Brittle Bones isn't as bad. It can be rather funny, though, particularly when given to a mage who's also wearing armor that drops his AP a point. I thought of him as my REAL tank: move, fire, move, fire, repeat. (Mind you, this being a mage, "fire" was literal.")

I confess I didn't understand what Dark Fenix meant, but if he was talking about being able to type your own journal notes, I'd like that too. It'd be nice to be able to say, for instance, that there's a cache at such-and-such a place and I should come back and dig it up when I get more Nature Lore. (I suppose I could write this stuff down on paper, but I've always been very, very thrifty.)

I went for the Trakovites on the basis that both the Shapers and the Rebels were doing highly unpleasant things for what they considered the greater good. However, I never got the chance to see the ending, because I didn't get powerful enough to survive the final battle. (Halfway through the game, I went through a little rebellion of my own and stopped committing cruelty to pixelated images. Naturally, I also stopped gaining experience and loot.)

Do goblins count if I didn't really begin to be fond of them until A4? The fondness extends to earlier games upon replaying--they're so determined to make a living through banditry, but so easily squashed.