Triumph

To what extent might academia have played a role in shaping attitudes toward fictional monarchical institutions? Certainly, real-world "imperialism" has been vilified at great length by a number of scholars (going back to the late 19th century), whereas I've never heard of "kingdomism" (to make up a word for the sake parallelism) comparably critiqued (which is not to say that monarchy hasn't been criticized because it certainly has).

I'm a little surprised no one has mentioned a movie that came out in 1977 for popularizing the concept of the "evil empire." Surely the other SW - Star Wars - played some part in making the notion more ubiquitous? I mean, the opening crawl text literally tells you there's an "evil Galactic Empire!"

So, which A4 character is Jar Jar Binks?

This is so amazing. I think Spiderweb has been permanently enriched by this.

Impressive. Most impressive.

Does playing Avadon include Avadon 2? Also, the other obvious suggestion is the Geneforge series. They have a different feel than the Avernum games, but are still pretty high quality entertainment.

So I can clearly not choose the dangerous penal colony in front of you!

You mean the British didn't also banish all their cats to Australia????

Yes. And yes. Getting clearance is based on reputation...which is based mostly on quests completed. Once you have high enough reputation thanks to completing quests, you'll talk to someone (Gilda at the Castle, IIRC) and she'll give it to you. I think someone tried to check and found that Crown Clearance required 40 rep. I don't recall if anyone identified the Magi Clearance threshhold, but I believe it was a good bit lower. I hope that helps!

You are correct that you need to kill off the boss monitor person ASAP. Are you making full use of consumables (scrolls and potions) for healing and buffing? If not, that might help. What's your class / which other companion do you have? Based on your team, someone might be able to give more specific tactical advice.

Joining the Takers will make a number of zones much easier to pass through than you'd otherwise find them.

Is Randomizer channeling the spirit of Delicious Vlish? This discussion is giving me flashbacks...

I join in expressing incredulity that the forum search function actually found something. Truly, Darth Ernie, your Forum-Fu is mighty.

In the southwest area of the Temple of Nolus zone, there's a locked door (identified on the map as Guarded Doorway). I have now, finally, finished Avadon 2, and I never did figure out how to get in there. Is it possible? What did I miss there?

After I've completed Yoshiria's ransom quest, does it matter in any way if I then poke around the Grey Raptor base until I until I offend them, they attack, and I destroy them?

Maybe Tek was a Shaper artisan, who made his reputation crafting strangely ethereal daggers. That's why there are number of them floating around the world. And they are so distinctive that any time you find one, it's obvious it was ol' Tek's workmanship.

Sorry, no annotated maps have been created for Nethergate.

Re: G1 and skills, yeah, I'm pretty sure. G1 doesn't have much in the way of non-canister methods to gain spells or creation skill. There's the servant mind at the school (IIRC) who can boost your Firebolt, but otherwise, so far as I can remember, all spells level and creation-skill levels come via canisters. As for regular skills, there are people you can pay to boost a few skills (Leadership, Luck, and Mechanics), but those still trainers work even if you've spent some skill points there already. The Tombs can boost your magic skills, but you have to already be invested in those skills before you can obtain the bonuses. What on Sucia am I missing where boosting something by one means locks you out of another means? It wasn't until G2 that trainers became more prevalent and we got stuck with the awkward avoid-boosting-skills-until-you-can-reach-the-trainer nonsense.

Regarding point 1, that's an issue only found in G2, not G1. Regarding point 8, I'm about 99.9% sure you are completely wrong, because I never had any issue with having to repeatedly unlock the same doors over and over, nor have I ever heard of anyone else having that issue.

Welcome! You are totally free to share your thoughts as you go through the games. There's actually currently a thread where another forum user is posting while progressing through Geneforge 3, and other people have done similar things in the past. It's always interesting to see what new observations are sparked by someone going through a game again. Have fun!

Yeah, you can split items. Just hold the down the Shift key as you click the stack.

You might be giving the Shapers too much credit for vigilance and wisdom. Further on in G3, you'll learn some things about how the rebels could have built their strength under the Shapers' noses, and I think it's not too much of a stretch to suppose things could have developed similarly in other places.

To find the special item in question, you need to poke around the South Workshop zone. The zones adjacent to South Workshop (i.e., you'll have to pass through one of them to reach South Workshop) are Winding Road and Sealed Lab, if that will help you find it.

Hey! You're nice! Also, would you include Spider, Spider, or Spider?