Anyway, yesterday I didn't have any and no headache, as I did years ago, but no energy. This is more devious. This is keeping me on caffeine just to do something! Again, not completely bad but wow.
I use FB too much compared to writing here. I need to post here more. I like typing out my thoughts and need to do that more.
Going to get busy again. I have to plan and get ready for the April DND game, which will come up quick. And I got a new contract with Lone Wolf for a book to be entered into Hero Lab. I also need to finalize some more with the Alternity system and release that at the end of March as well.
So, if anyone here is on dreamwidth and doesn't mind me adding them, let me know!
As I said, I have played a lot of games over the past two years, and Alternity has come out on top.
Right now, I'm thinking of DND because I'm playing the Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition and so my thoughts are going to that.
It's not that DND is bad. It's not. But back in the day, I didn't know how to use the rules as best as I could. Nor did I understand some aspects of GMing as well as I do now.
Basically, DND plays different at certain tiers or levels. 4E out and out called them Heroic, Paragon and Epic. Pathfinder doesn't call them out, as far as I know, but I could be wrong as I'm not an expert on it.
What it comes down to, for me, is that I am using the games to tell a story. I want an interactive story with the players. I don't want it easy, or no character death per se, but I do want there to be drama and for it all to be fun.
I don't think DND can be played that way with the RAW.
1E/2E plays best from levels five to ten. Anything prior to that is too easy to die. (In fact, as a birth from wargaming, it's arguable I was doing it wrong as CHA should have mattered more as they hired henchmen.) Anything after that breaks down. Having said that, there are some very good things about it. AC was a bit more controlled, stopping around AC2 for all but the most devoted (or rules lawyers, which is what I had) to get. Monsters could go lower but I don't think anything except the extremes got to less than -8. What this meant, which I never understood, was that a lot of little guys *could* take a high level, more powerful person. It just was going to take a lot of them. Further, I think there were some good ideas in kits and if I had been the age I am now when 2E had released, I would probably appreciate it more. But there is bad as well. Fighters characters don't have a lot of options, except what the player and DM agree to do. Wizards start out to squishy and then get to be very powerful if prepared. (And that's important, the preparation.) Rogues at least get to control their abilities in 2E, compared to a chart in 1E, but it's still low.
And that's the problem with 1E/2E that I see right now. It was hit or miss. Make it or fail. Back then, coming from a wargame, the game didn't deal with degrees of success. Writing adventures hadn't evolved in how to deal with failure, other than having the group fail. And with BG:EE, I think it showed that adding that idea into it would have helped some.
(I am also playing BG2 and met the lich. Um, nasty. TPK after his time stop spell and getting five high level near instant death spells ready. Again, it's about being prepared and I had no idea that was what was behind the door.)
Having said that, I think that Gygax DID work with his players and say things like, "Okay, this adventure is in a dungeon with more undead than normal." or "This is a wilderness adventure against some druids protecting the forest." Enough to give the players something to research and be prepared. But I only recently found this advice in the 1E PH and DMG and it was hiding among other things. That's not how it was introduced to me or how I played it.
And that's too bad as I think it had a lot more potential but I still think all of the classes need more things to do or gain.
However, that's a discussion for later.
It's been like that through the years. When we got our first cell phones, they weren't the best choice. We got something that didn't have coverage where we would visit a lot. So, lots of roaming and then not using it. At one point, my cell phone didn't work ten blocks from my house! That was really annoying.
That seems to sum up technology. When it works, it's great. When it doesn't, it sucks.
However, it's not 1980 anymore, or even 2000, and I expect a lot more consistency from my technology. We got rid of our landline, and I fought that, such that if my cell phone doesn't work, I don't get calls! That could be a bad situation. Or if my work computer is down or slow or whatever, I can't do my job. At one point, my weekly gaming involved using Skype. So, the gaming could be called if technology wasn't working! We are more dependent on technology than ever and most of the time that's great. But I still fought it.
Back in '06, we were watching the reappearance of the cybermen on Dr Who. In one scene, it has an entire population stop because they were getting the daily updates via their bluetooth devices connected to their phones. I scoffed at that idea and said I wouldn't do that.
Well, it took six years before that happened!
A friend came over with a bluetooth headset. It was very cool! So, I ordered one and OMG I love it! I now have one device that I can use for my laptop (which that one took me off guard it would work with my laptop), cell phone, xoom and even my iPod although that will take an adapter. Considering that I used to have different headsets for each of them, and this is really cool!
I'm not getting daily updates. It's going to let me listen to pandora at work a lot easier than with my broken headset. As well as take calls hands free now. But now I'm worried about the day when Google Goggles is a bit more advanced and everything has RFIDs in them.
I am almost assimilated! :)
I had a friend, named ED. I used to work with ED years ago but I left the company first. I don't think we have seen each other since but were Facebook friends. I say were because ED apparently didn't like any posts that he perceived were against Christianity on my Facebook homepage. Now, obviously from my perspective, that's how he chose to interpret what I was posting. To me, though, most of the time I was pointing out the bad things about the Church and Christians as a group. The fanatics on the fringe and why anything taken to an extreme is bad.
But I think the problem is more that I thought we were better friends than we were. (If I'm being an armchair psychologist on this, I think that ED, in this particular Facebook incident, attributed everything that another friend said in response to ED to me as well. But, that might be wrong as ED said he didn't like my "anti-Christian" Facebook posts for a while.) Further, I think that Facebook is a terrible way to get to know someone or even stay in touch. Facebook is not real. You could take all of my Facebook posts, distill them down and if you were very lucky, you could figure out maybe fifteen percent of what I think. And even then, those would be broad generalizations at best, no better than a horoscope. I'm not even sure how good LJ is for a true look at me, especially because I haven't been posting as much as I used to post. So, maybe you could get an idea of me when I was posting more.
This has been bugging me. ED defriended me in Facebook and I did a friend request. That was rude and it was in the heat of the moment. I wanted to explain to ED that we do agree on many points. I do think that most religious people are fine people who want to get along with their fellow humans. I think we would agree on a lot of stuff. Again, to me, Facebook is like posting clips of comedians onto a wall. Maybe I found most of this comedian funny. Maybe I only like one line from that comedian. Maybe I liked this motivational type poster. Or, maybe ED takes his religion more seriously than many of my friends, or my other friends that I have known longer either know what I'm about or learned to ignore me. I don't know. What I realized after making the friend request was that one person's need to explain is another person seeing someone wanting to get the last word in. If I could take it back, I would.
I have a hard time giving up friends. I always have. I think it's because I never thought I had many, good friends, and so wanted to cling to the ones I did have. I'm not at that point anymore and I have to realize that and I have to learn how to let go. As I sit here and think of it, I shouldn't have discussed things with ED and should have let him go a lot sooner. It's just tough for me to do.
Hmm. I think I was expecting it to be longer or my insightful. But it does show that probably ED and I shouldn't have been friends for a while. Maybe that will help.
I'm an atheist. Let's get that cleared up right now. I don't believe in god, a higher power or whatever you want to call it. I used to believe. I firmly believed the Catholic doctrine, as I grew up in a Catholic house, was raised Catholic and went to a Catholic school through High School. However, the last time I believed, and I mean truly believed, was in fifth grade.
There wasn't any one thing that pushed me away and it certainly wasn't because I prayed for something and didn't get it. In fourth grade, I was an altar boy, I don't know if I was popular in school but I wasn't picked on and got along with most of my classmates. In the fifth grade, the parish got a new priest and I didn't like him. It didn't help that I liked routine and if I wasn't scheduled to be an altar boy that week, I didn't like doing it at the last minute. Even worse than that was being volunteered to do it, either by my parents or this priest. I really didn't like that. (That's a long standing problem that I still work on today.) That happened many times between my parents and this new priest, me being volunteered to do something that I didn't like or want to do with no thought of me.
Seeing this priest, though, was very different than the ones we had. He was more businesslike and about efficiency, even to my young eyes, not about the beliefs. And that started me questioning them. He wasn't there long but for me not liking him he certainly affected me a lot! In the sixth grade, then, I kept doing the altar boy duties, mostly helping during the week at funerals, but it was more about the money than the beliefs. Already, I'm looking for gains that I know are coming, rather than anything spiritual. Eventually, even that wasn't enough and I quit being an altar boy. I wanted the time back for myself.
I never really rebelled against my parents. Sure, when they were gone visiting my siblings, I had a party, one of which got to be very out of control. But I cleaned up before they got home. I know they found the evidence of it but they never said anything to me and I never brought it up. If I did rebel against my parents, it was over church. I resented having to go every Sunday. At that time, I couldn't articulate why I didn't like it, it was more an emotional thing for me. It didn't mean much to me at this time. By the time I was going to college and coming home for the summers, though, I had reached a balance point with my parents. I had no problem going to church to keep the peace between us. Having said that, while I listened to the homily at times, most of the time I was spacing it all off. None of it was interesting to me.
College for me, like anyone else, was also about fitting into groups. I was looking forward to finding a group of like minded people who liked what I liked and we would all get along. To that end, I joined a fraternity. It was one that my father had started that chapter and my brother had been in it before me, and so there was certainly some arrogance in me about it. Whether the others did it consciously or not, that was figuratively beaten out of me! While I met some people with whom I'm still friends, more than two decades later, and I learned some valuable lessons about appearances and politics that would serve me well in life, living through them was not fun. What I thought would be a great time for me, not only college and learning, but finally not being a pariah, merely ended up me being a bigger pariah, and later scapegoat, and proved to me that college was barely different from high school.
When I was away from my parents at college, I was not going to church. I had no interest in that. I ended up going with a History degree and besides history classes; I also took a bible study class. For the first time, I was finding reasons why, that appealed to my rational side, that religion didn't work for me. I was better able to articulate what I didn't like about church doctrine. And I also find that the church had a horrible history for what it was supposed to be doing. Given what happened, and what was to come, perhaps if I had been more active in the church, I might have found something that would have helped me get through the bad times. But I think it would have delayed things, not kept me in the church.
In what would be my last year staying at the fraternity, because several of my good friends from it were graduating, I went to a TEC. TEC is Teens Encounter Christ and it was offered in high school for high school seniors but I was not interested in going back then. I had a friend, I'm going to refer to him as CE, who was living in the town where TEC was done and he was helping run it. I didn't like staying at the fraternity over the weekends, as most of the people there had decided to blame me for the problems of the fraternity, and I ended up going to visit CE a lot during this time. CE asked if I would want to help on the TEC and I said yes. It wasn't about the TEC, of course, but about another reason to leave the fraternity on weekends.
That TEC was a lot of fun. In it, I found part of what I had wanted to find at the fraternity. Here was a group of people who accepted me, helped me with things and were just there. Certainly I have friends who have done that for me, and this was another group like that. There is a lot of bonding in a short time with those who run a TEC and I found that wonderful. I really needed a weekend like that, especially at that time, and it helped me get through my final semester at the fraternity. I didn't want that weekend to end but that's a life lesson I have had to learn.
Graduation saw me move back home but I stayed in contact and was still going to see CE, and his girlfriend and soon to be wife, during this time. I helped run the '95 TEC by being a table leader. But in the back of my head, I felt like a hypocrite because I didn't want to teach these kids about Christ so much as ways to make it on their own. Give them tools to help them get through the bad times in life and see that life is still awesome. There are those people who look back at high school and want to relive it because it was the "best times of their lives." It wasn't for me and it taught me that life gets better without looking back but looking forward instead. At the end of this TEC, I saw myself helping at TEC for the next decade. I still had to figure out what it meant for me, because I didn't believe. I wanted to do it a bit for me, it was therapy for me back then, but also for the kids, which was the point. I had reached that point where I could focus on the kids there, and I thought that was important.
The '96 TEC couldn't have been more different. We mostly had the same team running it but there were problems that year. The catholic school where we did this balked at hosting it due to conflicts with their own schedule. That pushed us to a new facility that was not as good. Politics in the church again raised its ugly head and all I heard was how much the priest, a man I respected a lot, was having problems in getting the space we needed. The church, the main backer in this, didn't want to help us? I was sick of seeing that, and how hard it was to find facilities to host it. One of the team members we added was a man who loved the idea of TEC and wanted to run it next year. That was approved and I was glad I wasn't able to make it.
The next year saw a lot of things happening in my life. I moved out of my parent's house to a job in a different city. I was on my own! I started dating for the first time ever. I moved closer to my brother and not knowing many people in the new town, I spent a lot of time with his family. I loved that! When the TEC for that year happened, I was not able to make it. I was disappointed until I heard about it afterward. It didn't go well. The person who had the zeal for it from last year, wasn't the person to run it. Poor decisions were made that made the experience confusing for the kids and tough on everyone else on the TEC team. I was still in contact with a lot of the people from the previous two TECs and wanted to help on the next one if I could but I would be sure that the same person wasn't running it. I think I pushed for CE and his wife to run it but I don't remember if they did. Other things came into play.
I asked my girlfriend to marry me and we set a date for a year later in '98. My parents, specifically my mom, asked if I would get married in the church. My siblings had, and my brother was an atheist, and they wanted me to do so as well. So, I tried. This was the final thing that pushed me away from the Catholic Church. I went to the parish that I grew up in and went to school in to see if we could get married there. The priest couldn't have been less helpful and while I get not wanting to allow some non scripture readings that we wanted, he also wouldn't let me have the priest I wanted, the one from the TECs and a teacher to me in high school. He also wouldn't allow us to have a 1920s style wedding that my wife and I wanted, in terms of how we would dress. Flapper dresses and long tailed tuxes was what we wanted and he did NOT like that idea. He shot down our ideas with no compromises allowed. I was disgusted and mad. What does an unmarried, celibate person know about marriage or relationships? What does this stranger know about me and my wife such that he gets to marry us instead of a priest that I had known for a dozen years?
I said no, I apologized to my mom, and I walked away from the Catholic Church as a member. I had no interest in participating after that, even as little I had been doing.
My wife and I did try to find a church to go to and tried out several when we were first married. We went to Unity and Universal Unitarian but nothing clicked. My wife was raised Baptist but had the same interest in history that I did and with it the same perspective on the church I did and while she couldn't call herself an atheist then, was comfortable with agnostic. We eventually realized that Church was not for us and have gone at times with friends and family but not on our own.
And what I have seen over the years has only cemented my thought on the Catholic Church but Christians as well. On an individual level, I have no problems with Christians. I had drifted away from CE at this time, and the attempt he made to do a Bible study email was probably derailed by me and my more scientific look at it, but I'm probably giving myself too much credit as I was probably dropped from the list. But I had no problem with his beliefs, or my parents or my sister's. When my wife and I moved and found ourselves closer to my sister than brother, I wanted to be in her life as well as her kids. So, I have gone to first communions and even a confirmation. And it was the mass at the confirmation that appalled me. I'm not sure I could go back, even for my niece or nephew.
The bishop at this mass, in giving his homily, spoke out against same sex marriage. That has been a hot topic in the past years and the fact that the Bishop was talking about it wasn't surprising nor was the fact that he kept the Catholic Church's stance on it. I get it. He's in the church and that's his job. But to hear someone talk about certain people not getting rights due to who they are attracted to, to a group of young, impressionable kids was too much for me. I couldn't support that anymore, even passively. I hardly got up and left nor did I talk about it with my family. But that was the final nail in the coffin of me even going to church.
This brings me to what caused this reflective look at my journey and it has helped. My mom this past weekend came up to me and said that she had seen CE and that the two of them wondered when they had "lost" me in regards to religion. This floored me. In my mind, I haven't been religious in thirty years and I thought I had come out as an atheist fifteen years ago. I thought of all people, at the very least my family knew this. Maybe I wasn't forceful enough about it. I don't know. I certainly would hope that my friends and family have known this for at least the past five years, when I listed that as my status on Facebook. I guess not.
The spiritual journey I have taken has led me here and I very much like where I am. I think my parents did exactly what they are supposed to do as parents, which is to teach me how to think, not what to think. And in doing so, I questioned the beliefs they had and found them lacking for myself. Maybe I'm finally at a point where I have studied religion enough and read enough to be able to articulate my journey and how I arrived there but my destination was reached a long time ago. I don't see me heading back toward religion. I do consider myself a scientist, or certainly someone with a lot of respect and admiration for science, and so I do have to keep an open mind. But that doesn't mean it's so open that anything can be poured into it and certainly not Bronze Age beliefs.
So, that's where I am at with religion. I haven't talked much about specifics except for the few salient points relevant to my journey. But I'm certainly open to any discussion that anyone would like to have with me. And if anyone would like help with their own journey, whatever that is, I will certainly help them as best as I can but that will be within the framework of my own beliefs.
Gaming but not as much. The twice a week is done. We have settled on a long term Dark Sun campaign using Alternity. Having fun with that but lots of prep for it to get ready.
Still want to play Pathfinder at some point.
Reading Felix Castor, Reacher books and some Dark Sun books. Enjoying them for the most part.
I need to post more but not right at the moment.
I think I ate something on Wednesday that gave me the stomach flu or something as I nearly threw up on Thursday morning. After dropping the dogs off, I went back home and slept. A lot. Same for Friday.
This also meant that I missed my family's gathering this weekend. *sigh* So, not happy about that but I wouldn't have been good in the car.
I really hate all of this sickness in the past few months!
I can't even say I'm better now. I haven't had much to eat today. So, I don't know how my stomach is going to do tomorrow back at work.
Also, I missed gaming, so you know it's serious! :)
I like gaming. I am now figuring out the differences between systems and what skill versus level based can mean. I'm also finding that Alternity really IS a good system, so labeling it my favorite was the right idea. It's too bad it doesn't have a more fully developed fantasy system. (I know about the ones on alternity.net but I don't think those will work for me.) Having said that, it's also a complicated system and not for a casual gamer. There are some optional rules to help with that but it's still work for players, which they don't usually like.
Losing a player in a few weeks to a move. Really hate that. I really like him and his family and will miss him. Sucks.
Been playing twice a week, well, when I'm not sick. Dark Sun with Castles and Crusades and while those two work well together, in that both are grim and gritty and death is likely, there are some things about C&C that I don't like. It's a decent system but I think my group is liking it because of our group and not what it does for us.
I need to do a more thorough review of these systems.
I hope to play Shadowrun as well and then maybe pick a system and setting and stick with it for a much longer campaign.
Read some books on comics, what they are and how to make them. Well, I didn't finish the second one. But quite good. Made me want to get back into comics but that's still a tough choice for several reasons. Not thrilled that electronic versions are as expensive as paper when it's a LOT more work and room to store the paper! And it's not like I get more than a fraction what they are worth selling them back. So, haven't decided on that yet.
Watching Supernatural with our friend, so that's been fun to see again. They do look young compared to current seasons! And some good long term stuff has been done as well!
Too much to say; never enough time.
Interesting dreams. Some seemed like they had the FX budget of the 90s! :) Some action stuff and some puzzle type dreams.
Okay, more to do before bed time.
So, I have a follow up appointment with the urologist tomorrow. The nurse had to push on that as they were originally going to have me not see them until next week! That's a long wait! Fortunately, it's sooner than that.
I don't know if this is big enough that they will have to take it out via laser again or try and break it up or what they will do. I will find out more tomorrow.
I was a bit worried when I was told it was nothing. I'm not thrilled it's a stone but at least I know why the pain is happening. Otherwise, I was thinking kidney infection or something worse. So, yeah, a stone is not desired but it can always be worse!
But the pain was there.
By mid morning, I thought I had thrown my back out and so got a chiro appointment for after work. I couldn't concentrate on work. The pain was just that bad and not fun. By the time I was headed to the chiro, I was convinced it was a kidney stone and that I would be going to the ER after the chiro.
But the chiro adjustment helped. The pain was less and I could move without causing pain. It wasn't to last, though, but the time before, the chiro adjustment hadn't been that effective on the pain. So now I was wondering if it was my back again. I didn't go to the ER on Monday. I went home and sat in a chair with an ice pack and took ibuprofen. However, by bedtime, the pain was back.
I slept okay and woke up okay. Even walking the dogs wasn't tough. But, again, the car ride and my chair at work were not helping. The pain was a bit less but still not fun. This time, I made an appointment with my doctor after work. After struggling through the day, walking in a shuffle or whatever I needed to do not to have pain, I went to the doctor's office.
There was blood in my urine, they found under the scope. But I didn't have elevated blood pressure or heart rate. So, we did some quick xrays there but couldn't see anything. Off to the CT scan! They already had an appointment set up and I had enough time to drive there.
CT scans are quick and I was done in twenty minutes, half of that waiting for them to be ready for me. They thought they would have enough time such that the doctor would get back to me that afternoon.
Nothing.
They found nothing in the CT scan. I think that worries me a bit more than I want to admit. If they found nothing, what's causing the pain and the blood in my urine? It's possible I passed a stone and didn't know it but that seems unlikely. And the instructions were to let them know if the symptoms keep happening. So, not sure what it is at the moment, and I will see how I sleep tonight as well as what I do tomorrow.
Ah, life. It's so interesting!
I need to talk about 4E DND versus Pathfinder versus DND in general.
I need to update about daily things. I have been bad about doing so.
- Вт, 17:09: 3E vs 4E - Rambling http://t.co/ol5OMT3Q
I can’t talk about the two without talking about my own evolution with the game. I don’t think I ever abused my role as the DM with the game but for whatever reason, I had a paranoid player about his character and he was also a rules lawyer. Now, this isn’t bad and even though it caused problems between us, it has taken me years to realize that we were both right but nearly trying to play something different. In any case, that influenced me on many levels and I usually tried to play by the RAW (Rules As Written) as much as I could. So, when I went on a hunt for the “perfect RPG” for myself, it had to be in the RAW or it wouldn’t be it for me.
So, when 3E came along, I was sick of 2E. 2E didn’t work for levels above ninth very well and at the time, I had a couple of groups who were above tenth level. I switched and forced my players to do the same. I shouldn’t have done it that way but it’s what happened.
In a few short years, though, I was not happy with 3E. It still had save or die. Hit points, which I thought were too high compared to weapon damage output, were now even higher than before. Further, spells like Harm that all but kill a character were too deadly. This is from the standpoint of “logic” as it applies to the game world. Why would any villain who really wanted to kill some “do gooders” not want to use every means to kill them? That means teleport in, attack and hit them with everything. That means Harm with a quickened inflict wounds spells. Or disintegrate, which was even more powerful now.
Here’s the problem. As “real” as that might be, in terms of how magic was viewed and what DND did within its own mythology, it wasn’t fun to play. It’s no fun to be in a battle and be the first to go down and it takes several rounds for your character to be revived. I have seen it happened and had it happen to me and it sucks.
So, when 4E came around, it looked like 4E’s mechanics had fixed that issue. They really expanded the levels that were heroic to at least the first ten levels and maybe even first fifteen. I was of a mind, early on, that epic levels would still be lacking in terms of how they worked but there was a lot to explore before it got to that point.
But 4E was too easy. I don’t want to see a character die but in a world with raise dead, or more powerful spells, that’s a small obstacle at best. I spent three years trying to kill characters. I did not pull punches. I did not fudge dice. I rolled everything openly.
I couldn’t do it.
Not once.
I’m not saying characters didn’t go down. They did but were revived fast enough. I’m not saying that characters haven’t died in the campaigns I have run but it was the player’s choice, not the monsters being able to do it. At least, not without it being an uneven fight and that’s always possible. I’m not arguing that’s preferable! That’s how the Dresden Files RPG works, it’s the player’s choice, and I appreciate it. But that becomes the underlying feel to the game and I think it hurts the game, when the player knows that they can really mess up but have no consequences, in this case character death, happen.
So, about three months ago, my weekly game dropped DND and we are playing Vampire. I think we are all sick of some aspect of 4E. In the meantime, my other group was planning its yearly gathering and which edition we would play came up. And I said 3E.
I started planning the adventure in 3E and Pathfinder and ended up picking up a LOT of pathfinder. And it’s good. However, it still has some of the issues that I don’t like. For the one shot weekend, I figured let’s play it by the RAW and see what happens.
This past weekend, with 3E, it was as deadly as I remember it. It’s “real” in that whoever won initiative and went first had the advantage. Indeed, I realize now that I did bring back some ideas of 4E but not enough and it skewed it toward the player’s advantage but I’m okay with that. It was fun so that’s the important thing to me. Back to 3E, though, not only did initiative matter most but also the fact that, with eight players, the monsters had to endure eight characters attacking before they got to go. A lot of them died before they could even do one thing! Now it was fun for the players and me as well. I liked being reminded what 3E was like and what I liked and didn’t.
So, what would I rather play? Well, as I said above, I think 4E took away the scare of character death and that’s a bad thing. That has to be there, imo. In several of the 3E battles over the weekend, there were real thoughts of a Total Party Kill (TPK) as a possibility. If a few of my rolls had been two or three points higher or if a few saves hadn’t been made, that would have been it for the characters. A few guys min/maxed but overall they worked well together, coordinated spells and played well together. I think that gave them a higher sense of satisfaction than 4E. (The Bless spell helped no less than four misses become hits!) I think 4E allows for errors to be made in terms of not having to do the best thing every single time. But it creating the game to allow for that, the game lost the threat of death for the characters. And it’s not just this aspect that I don’t like about 4E.
4E changed a lot and most of it doesn’t work for me. I don’t like how they have done magic items. Magic items feel “metagame-y” and “board game-y” and not magical. It makes no sense to me that items recharge based on how many challenges a character faced in a day! Spells weren’t these huge affects anymore. Again, with no instant death spells, the spells seem tame. And they don’t work for me that way. It might not be fun but it’s more “real” when a spell absolutely devastates an area, compared to singing it. Or square fireballs. Or square cones. Or square everything! I’m not thrilled about multi class or hybrid rules but I appreciate what they tried to do. It just doesn’t work for me. I really don’t like what they did to FR with the changes. What they did, while adding a very lacking fantasy element, wasn’t FR. That took years and I can only apologize to the friends I had arguments over FR. You were right! It took me years to catch up to that.
So, in the end, 4E doesn’t work for me. However, it’s not one thing I can point at and say “it’s that. That ruined it for me.” It’s a lot of little things that add up. Could I still play or run 4E? You bet! I enjoy playing more than worrying about the rules! But for running the game, I think I would rather start with 3E/PF and modify it, because I now realize that no game’s RAW will ever be exactly what I want, than try and use 4E as the base and work back to something else. I will certainly bring the ideas of 4E back to my game but I won’t use the base 4E mechanics to run my own games.
Besides, with any luck, my group will consent to a long game of Exalted after Vampire and we can see how that system plays!
- Сб, 23:52: More Gaming Thoughts http://t.co/7GMn9n2d
I'm still having fun with Vampire, although it got political enough that the group could fracture. I can't wait to see what happens!
Fun times.
I'm currently running Vampire, but am going to run a weekend 3E game for some friends in Feb.
Next, I hope we can play Exalted and go from there.
More later, if I can.
- Mon, 13:44: Quick update http://t.co/BC4XiQSw
Then, my laptop picked up a virus, different one, and I'm still trying to put it back together after reinstalling Win7. Not happy about that.
Gaming is good. The wiki is updated. Tough to believe that we have only had six sessions as we seem to get so much done. I'm sure I'm not completely faithful to Requiem as the designers intended but it's fun! So that's all that matters!
Haven't been sleeping well. Not fun dreams on being left by my wife. And then a dream of the two of us moving into a different place together and what that takes.
Probably more but I have to take the dogs out.
Playing in the front yard and the '65 t-bird coming into the driveway.
Playing with my toys while my mom napped, waiting for my bother and sister to come home.
I know that's two but I have no idea which is first!
- Вс, 15:38: Merry Christmas! http://t.co/b7L7DXor
I'm on a medicine for my cholesterol and it's going okay. It's supposed to cause muscle aches and I think I experienced that a week ago. However, instead of asking for a different one, I pushed ahead in case my body needed a bit of time to adjust. I still get some muscle aches but it's not as bad.
We finally got to play Vampire and it went really well! Lots of fun! I think I unintentionally made something easier or led them to something more than I meant to do but it worked out. What it means, though, is that stuff is already getting deep! So, very fun.
Vampire is also have some very good rules for reminding the players that they are playing monsters, monsters than can get out of control. We had several such rolls need to happen during the game, and it really makes it interesting to see if "this time" they lose control or not.
As much as I like DND, I could see me staying with White Wolf's systems easily. It "forces" knowing the character more, imo, than DND does and has better rules to judge "alignment" in Exalted, it's fantasy system.
After months of trying, I finally get the xbox set up to accept the media center of my PC, so we can stream things to it. However, it still wasn't that easy! I have had to try a movie several times before it really worked. We don't have tons of control over it, such as scan, just play and pause, which mostly works, I guess. I still need to fine tune some things but at least proof of concept happened. Now it's the time to convert the DVDs.
I have been on facebook a bit more than normal, only because it seems more of my friends, even some from here, are over there. I much prefer LJ but also like to know what people have been doing. I am also looking at twitter more for the same reason but I don't like that much at the moment.
I'm sure there is more to say but that's all I have at the moment.
For those who don't, Happy Thursday!
I had a physical yesterday. Still waiting on blood work of course, but everything else was fine. Weight is up. Sigh. Okay, as I was typing they called me with the results. My cholesterol is high. Sigh. Not surprising. Everything else was good. Have to take a Med and check back in three months.
Our fridge frosted over again, so we got a new fridge. Didn't want to spend the money but the fridge frosting up was annoying. Now we are talking about stain resistant carpetting but that won't be for a while.
Gaming has been good. Switching to vampire the requiem. I think I was just tired of end no matter how much I like it I sometimes need a break from it. Fortunately, my players are willing to play other systems.
No game tonight as my wife is not feeling well and didn't want company. So we will be hanging out tonight. Means no game until December but that's life.
Still enjoying the 360. Playing Batman arkham city. Several other good games as well as I can. On the PC I'm enjoying an older game, vampire blood lines, which helps me get in the mood for the vampire game. I'm playing it again after finishing it as malkavian and the normal responses are weird to me!
We watched Lost Boys with a friend who hadn't seen it. It's cheesy, especially the Frog brothers, but still good. Like Fright Night, and like Fright Night I wouldn't mind seeing an update of Lost Boys. They had trivia on it at IMDB. It was originally supposed to be more like the Goonies! Younger kids and more campy. But, Schumacher didn't want that. Further, it was supposed to be more like a Peter Pan idea but that changed as well. I hadn't known that so that was interesting!
Then we watched Footloose, which I had never seen. I liked it. A good movie. Well done by all. I wonder if Bacon did all of the physical stuff in it? We watched some previews for the new movie and it seemed to be a very close redo of the original.
We talked about going to some movies today, such as Thing or Three Musketeers. We also have a lot of TV to catch up on. We did watch BBT last night and that was good! Funny stuff! We gave up on American Horror Story. Just weird.
Finished Arkham Asylum on the 360 and now am playing Arkham City. Fun! Cracked has a good article on it. (http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-ark
Still read and enjoy cracked!
I had read some of the New DC 52 but decided not to get any more. Still want to read the DND comic but that's about it for ongoing comics. Well, I do pick up trade compilations of KoDT. Speaking of, I probably need to get the newest DND comic.
I really fell behind on another daily thing, like LJ used to be. I hadn't read some online comics that I used to read daily, including Dilbert, Questionable Content, Something Positive and Devil's Panties. Just got out of the habit for some reason.
Ugh. I renewed my DDI subscription and it went through. Then today I get told it didn't get through and don't have access to subscriber content anymore. WTF? I have notified them several ways and hope they resolve it quickly.
Been playing Words with Friends and Hanging with Friends. So, if anyone wants to play me, just send an invite. I don't get to FB much but i did post a few good posters that someone else posted.
We went to eat at a Mongolian grill on Friday and the little girl who came with us drew me. So, I linked to that on FB.
The dogs are doing well. Maybe three accidents in the past month but that's definitely better than what it was. So, we keep working with them. It's getting better when people come over. It's not great but it's better. They know they have to go to their mat but they don't always go or stay there.
Probably more but nothing I can think of at the moment.
Very busy weekend. Worked on getting the house back in order. While not done, we did get enough done to get one car back in the garage. After trash on Friday, the other should be back in the garage.
However, while we did put up some prints, get stuff thrown away, take stuff to good will and clean up, we also made a mess. It's not all back in place and there is stuff that my wife is ebaying, so that needs to be done. Plus, she is still deciding what we will hang or not around the place. So, still trying to get everything figured out.
Watched some premieres on TV this week.
Charlie's Angels - I like some of the things done with it, in that they have a questionable past, and Bosley is young, although perhaps too young. However, there are also somethings that don't work. For having a questionable past, they were very willing to do the right thing. I guess I was expecting Bosley to keep them in line more or something. They just worked well together and that didn't work for me, given their pasts. I might watch a few more and see how it goes.
Ringer - Eh. Nothing that was especially great. Might watch a few more for SMG but not worried if I don't see more.
Person of Interest - Love the idea but they need to call themselves scifi to make the technology work. I was surprised as Jim C was terrible. I remember him being a good actor but not from what I saw. He was the weak link. We will watch a few more and see if it gets better but the idea was good.
That might be it for new. BBT was good as was Castle. Trying to get back into Fringe and Mentalist but have lots to watch to be caught up. Haven't watched Supernatural yet.
Actually got some comics and read them. DC started the "new 52" which was 52 series starting over at issue one. Some have been good to me and some eh. I don't know if I'm going to keep going or not. Maybe a week by week basis, as long as it keeps me entertained.
Haven't been reading much else. Finished up with Seanan McGuire's series and haven't gotten into anything new.
Still gaming on Thursday and the wiki is up to date. Started over a few months ago on a new campaign, so they are just now fifth level. I think it's going well.
Wow. Can't think of anything else at the moment.
I am reading and hope everyone is doing well.
Back in '03, we signed up for the electronic payment option at a bank, which I will call Fells Wargo. They didn't have an automatic withdrawal so we had to pay for it. This allowed us to pay bi-weekly, which is supposed to save us money but I don't know how. See, they still only make one payment, but somehow this saves us money? I don't get it.
Anyway, we got it set up and have had no problems.
Cue last May, when I go to refinance the place. Instead of a 30 year, it's now a 15 year, so it's a lower rate and still bi-weekly. So, I called Fells Wargo and verified that my old payment was not happening and the new one was going to start. I was actually starting early compared to when it's due, again something that should help us.
Come to find out last night that we have been paying for BOTH mortgages. WTF? I told them to cancel but it didn't happen. So, I had to call Fells Wargo. Turns out the electronic payment we did was now through a third party, which I swear is a fully owned subsidiary of Fells Wargo, and we had to cancel them specifically. No one told me that. And if it was in one of their five letters we get a week, I didn't see it.
So, I had to get the payments refunded. The electronic payments, and in two parts. The first part is sending out a fracking check! So, that needs to be deposited. The second still takes a week for that one as well! WTF?
AND after paying for a service, which is now free btw, it is only the initial cost that is free to me. There was still a charge to refund my money. And that was the electronic one, not the check!
tl;dr - My mortgage holder screwed me out of a service that is now free but I had to pay for, is charging me to send me my money and this was after I asked them if the old payment was canceled.
And I found five more boxes for downstairs. I knew about three of them, which have pewter/lead minis, but not the other two. *sigh* I still need to spend time down there and get it straightened out but haven't.
Have a Torchwood to watch.
Watched some more Scrubs, which has been good, and IT Crowd, which is okay. I can watch Scrubs in a row but sometimes after one IT crowd, I can't take it anymore.
Watched Hudson Hawk again. :) Then watched Die Hard 3 again. Fun movies! Should go for Surrogates or RED, to keep going with the Bruce Willis theme.
Actually got some emails done to people, which is good. I owe several more but at least I got these done.
Been taking the dogs for walks this weekend. Used the My Tracks app to confirm it's about a two mile walk I take.
Been tired. Really tired. As if I can't catch up enough on it tired. Not sure why. I don't sleep well in general but these past few weeks, it's been worse.
Might watch more Buffy tonight. Trying to keep doing marathons of that.
Almost caught up on my other shows, except Covert Affairs. Love White Collar and Burn Notice! Covert Affairs is good when I watch it but doesn't entertain me as much as it did. Not sure why. I think maybe because they lost the long term arc that used to run in the background. Now that it's episode to episode, it's not as interesting as when there is an overarching story.
Trying to catch up on some RPG stuff. I need to do the wiki. The Thursday campaign started over after the group turned evil and decided they didn't want to play evil. That's fine, although I had some ideas for it and how to approach it, but now I'm trying to figure out how to make my new ideas for the new campaign work. I will see.
Got some cheap games via Steam but then I don't feel like playing them. It's too easy to put on the TV.
Need to read book four of Seanan McGuire's series. Not sure what I will read next. I really like being able to read several in a row of an author, and my wife has suggested I do that with the (last) of Kelley Armstrong's novels as it sounds like they are connected so I would remember them better. So, I'm going to try that. Can't do it with Butcher! But with most others, I can.
Saw Cowboys & Aliens and enjoyed it.
Got the back deck mostly figured out.
Not doing DND Encounters or Tuesday games anymore, just Thursdays.
Gah. It's too much to try and summarize it all. I know I'm not doing myself, and my journal, any good with a quick thing like this.
Saw the family this past weekend and went to Adventureland. That was fun! Celebrated some August birthdays in the family. Then my niece went back to her mom's. My nephew is spending it with my parents and then he goes back, right before school starts for them.
The oldest is working for some cash before college starts. I think she is enrolled and ready.
Read Dresden. Re-reading DND comics and the new comics. Re-reading some other comics.
Reading Seanan McGuire's October Daye series. Very good! Anyone who likes the Changeling RPG should read them as that's what October is.
Been watching IT Crowd and Scrubs. Both are good for different reasons.
Been tired. Dogs get up some morning at five am and then I'm up for the day and tired.
Cracked is good as always! I highly recommend this article: http://www.cracked.com/article_1937
Maybe more later.
http://www.facebook.com/media/albums/?i
I need to detail some things more specifically, such as the gun shop trip or the grand canyon trip but haven't yet.
Out in Vegas now. Having fun but am now broke.
Saw Penn & Teller, Blue Man Group and Phantom. All were awesome for different reasons.
Went and shot some guns. Look to my facebook for pictures.
Reading a lot of the Elemental Assassin.
Watching summer shows, Burn Notice, White Collar, Covert Affairs.
Saw Horrible Bosses. It was better than I thought it would be. Not as embarrassing and fit mostly well.
Don't know that I will ever be back to this town.
I did like shooting the guns. If it weren't so expensive, on many levels (guns, then ammo, club costs, target costs, etc.) I might do it more. Not sure I want to own one or have it in my house but it was fun. I must admit that.
Trying to catch up on LJ and some other sites. Not doing well. Did go for a walk around the casino, though. Several laps in fact.
Might watch Paul and stay in the room tonight.
I had a bad week. Just in a surly mood. I really killed a friends enthusiasm and gaming was off for me in many ways. So, not fun.
I ended Extended Encounters. It would only get an hour some nights and it wasn't doing anything for me. I think i called it "hiatus" in difference to network people.
Dresden Files ended as well and we switched over to Shadowrun (4E) but I'm playing instead of running. I am really looking forward to this! Made my character and have ideas for his background even if I haven't written it up formally.
Thursday's game was not fun either for me. It turned into a long combat that bored me and so I went looking for solutions for it. I went overboard and didn't make the players happy but I think we talked it out and next time will hopefully be better. Hopefully the realization that it's taking a long time is what we needed.
So, not a fun week.
Picked up some games.
Hacker Evolution is a puzzle game but with some "hacker" like elements. Still simplified for the puzzle aspect of it but interesting.
Dragon Knight Saga has been fun! I have enjoyed it more than I thought as it didn't catch my eye when it was first released.
Dungeon Siege 3 has been fun as well. I think the very poor DRM is what is stopping it from getting better reviews and my wife and I aren't happy about it either. It means that instead of being able to play our game in our household with the one DVD, we would each have to buy it. Not happy about that. I know it would stop multi player and we didn't do that, so I accepted that. But they used Steam for the DRM which really angered my wife, rightly so. (I like Steam myself but it shouldn't be forced on us.)
Played the demo of Duke Nukem. Not sure. It's getting terrible reviews but seemed like the game I remember. Maybe when it's cheaper I will pick it up for some FPS fun.
I like cracked.com still.
Finished Connor Grey and am reading Laura Blackstone. Waiting for Dresden Files! Re-read Earth One and want more of that! Might get JMS' new WW comic.
I found out Weird Al's new CD was out and had no idea how to get it. Do we even buy CDs anymore? Then I found some old ones with songs I don't have but remember! So, the CDs are in my cart at Amazon, including his new one, but I'm not sure what to do if I get them! I don't like iTunes but will probably have to use it to get them onto my iPod, which I do use occasionally. I have been using my phone and Pandora for music, which has been really cool! Seriously unsure of what to do here.
Behind on summer TV of Burn Notice, Covert Affairs and White Collar I just realized. I haven't watched them from last week! Ah, well. TiVo has the room and more at once is not bad!
Lots of stuff loaded up from Netflix on Google tv. Watching some Coupling, which is okay. Watched the first twelve episodes of Studio 60 and love that show still. Watched 30 Rock, which everyone said was better, and HATED it. I don't get why intelligent writing in TV shows is so threatening/offending/incomprehensible to people. Watching Cheers. Some Craig Ferguson via YouTube.
Haven't been to the WotC site. Well, I have for the tools but haven't been happy with the content on the articles. And they were supposed to announce a new (computer) tool but I don't think they have. Of course, I might have missed it if it wasn't front page. Just haven't been happy with support and content on the site for a month or so.
Saw Green Lantern and Super 8 and liked them both. Waiting for HP, Cowboys and Aliens, and a few others.
So, that's about it. How is everyone else? I do read LJ, so I mostly know that answer, as much as you all share, but any comments are always cool.)
Started a new occasional weekend gaming group on saturday. Went well and a lot of fun. Some good players.
Last dresden game went really well.
Still trying to get our stuff back and put away. I sprained my knee on sunday, it involved a trampoline. It's slowly getting bettet.
Dnd encounters is going well. I like the adventure better than the last one.
Saw super 8. it was good.
Rewatched in & out. Still funny.
Watching some macgyver episides. Dated, cheesy but still fun for me. Probably due to nistolgia.
Watching coupling. Eh. I keep watching it but it seems off a lot of the time.
Caught up on connor grey books. Quite good!
just busy in a good way with the games, books, moving stuff back, dogs. Leaves me tired most of the time.
It's been so long, not sure what to say.
Got the place painted but not put away. I did finally get some shelves over here from where we are storing them, and it wasn't as bad as I thought. The first floor has it's skeleton done with that, in that the furniture is in place but nothing is on them yet.
We did get the entertainment center and the TV set up. We aren't using the stereo anymore, so not as much there. And we did get Google TV. Probably have to get hulu plus at some point and then I have to wonder why we have cable. But then that leads me to wonder why we have TiVos! So, not sure what we will do about that long term.
My Alienware computer got struck by lightning. Killed the sound sound and video card. I called Alienware, they confirmed my card was bad and sent a new one! So that was awesome!
The lightning also took out our cable modem and router, so had to get new ones for that as well. In theory, could have used insurance on this but it's not big enough to do so.
My niece graduated last Friday! Wow.
Still have to get the basement figured out. The gaming area is open but still need to arrange things so they work. Not sure how or what I will do yet.
Picked up the DND game, Daggerdale. I'm torn. I'm having fun with it but it's got it's issues and really isn't DND 4E. It was cheap and fun, though, so that's a plus for it.
Gaming is going well. Dresden Files is an interesting game. DND Encounters and Expanded Encounters are going as well. The players seem to be enjoying it. Thursdays are also going well. Haven't been able to play regularly due to the painting. Hopefully we can now. The wiki is up to date and it's been fun to write!
Reading Connor Grey and it's good. I like it.
Waiting for the next Butcher book.
The dogs are doing well. Mimi wants attention whenever Mouse gets it.
Probably more but that's all I got at the moment.
I did take the dogs for a walk and that really wiped me out. Probably shouldn't have but there it is.
Didn't game last night but did do Dresden Files on Tuesday which was fun. DND Encounters and extended encounters were okay.
Just feeling blah. I do read but haven't had the energy or want to post anything.
*****
The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc
Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.
I'm asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.
In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.
Congressional Reform Act of 2011
1. Term Limits.
12 years only, one of the possible options below..
A. Two Six-year Senate terms
B. Six Two-year House terms
C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms
2. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.
3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.
4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12.
The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves .
Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive the message. Maybe it is time .
THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!! If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just delete
You are one of my 20+. Please keep it going.
This has nothing to do with Republican or Democrat .... it has everything to do with your kids and mine!
CoC finished up last night. They did manage to stop the creature and destroy it and it only cost them to characters to do it! It was close but I think they had fun, which was the point.
We had fun and learned a lot about the d20 CoC game and CoC in general. It's definitely more thinking than action! It's like a detective story in that they have to figure out how to stop the bad thing from happening. And combat is bad! It can turn deadly quick! Spell casting was also very interesting as it cost Sanity and did temp ability damage. So, not something he did lightly. It would have been cool to have that option in DND some days, especially back in 3E. The only bad thing is we didn't see the after effects too well. They lost anywhere from ten to twenty points of sanity as well as one guy losing ten points of INT to a spell. So, that would have taken several weeks game time, probably months if it was "real" to recover from that. It was still quite interesting to see.
Up next, Dresden RPG!
I was also happy because one guy is in the Tuesday night group and in Extended Encounters. And he was really curious as to what was going to happen given the events of last time! So, that will be tonight and it's nice that I have intrigued at least one person with that!
Going to try a 4E combat manager this week and see how that works. Not sure if I will use it tonight or not for various reasons. Encounters is pretty easy to track on the combat pad I have, and it's the same for extended encounters. However, if I can speed up combat even a little in my home game, then it's worth it to save up that time. At least, I think so.
Still behind in reading. Started the next Black Company book and it's pulled me in much faster than the first one. I also started the next Remy Chandler book because reading two books, something I don't prefer to do, might be the only way I get to read anymore! *sigh*
I also picked up a new gaming book that allows 4E vampire characters! So far, it's been interesting what they have done with it and I'm glad it's back to the hardcover format instead of the essentials small version. Those are okay but I much prefer the hardcover.
The new phone has proved itself very useful. I got the 4E book at my FLGS because I was wanted to read about the vampire class and since I had preordered it on Amazon, I was able to use my phone to cancel the book! Wow. Very kewl and fun as to what technology can do.
Been replaying Batman Arkham Asylum. Still fun!
Got a quick game via Steam called Hoard, which is about playing a dragon and trying to amass their hoard. It's a fun, quick game. Also picked up Magicka: Vietnam but it appears I have to beat the main game to play it and I had only done that in multi player, so have to work on that.
So, very busy these days! I still read and try to comment on LJ but don't take the time to post anymore. I'm glad to read that everyone seems to be doing well! I hope that continues.
During one of the runs to TK's place, she wanted to show me where another friend, TM, was moving. Actually buying. However, she didn't know exactly where and we ended up wondering around a bit and never sure if we saw it or not. We made a few more runs over to her place but then stopped.
Saturday, we didn't start moving our things until that night and TM was with me on these runs to TK's garage. He wanted to show me the place he bought, or made an offer on, and so took me directly to his place. We didn't go in, just saw it from the outside and then went back to make more runs with stuff.
Friday in our area, a realtor got killed. It's very sad and tragic anytime murder happens but I don't know more than that or much about her. TM was freaked out because she was killed near where his realtor was supposed to be showing places, which is also close to where he bought his place, and his realtor wasn't answering his emails or texts. She finally did hours later but he was worried until he heard from her.
Over the weekend, our AC died. Well, it wasn't working. Saturday had us working in 79 degrees and Sunday it was 80 degrees or so which is too hot for us. We can't open the place up for a breeze easily with the dogs, either, so we tried to stay cool as best we could. I did call an AC place but for a Sunday call, it was $75 for them to show up and $189 an hour! Monday it would only be $35 to show up and $79 an hour. I figured it was worth it to wait.
That meant that Monday, I stayed home for a few hours and they called and said they would be there at nine. However, they later called back and scheduled for that afternoon. So, I wasted time waiting for them that morning and had to use vacation because of it. I had to leave work early, I told my boss what was up and what I was doing, and went to meet and let the AC guy in.
To finish that story, it turns out it was a loose connection on the AC unit. *sigh* Something I could have done and would have saved us some money. As that's something I worry about, it bugged me but I can't blame the tech as he did a thorough job of looking at it and figuring out what the problem was. I was happy with what he did. (It's also amazing what technology can do as he charged me and wrote up the ticket via his blackberry!)
I get into work on Tuesday morning to find that a Special Agent from the DCI (Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation) had tried to get a hold of me to talk. Further, he had talked to several co-workers. I called him back and arranged to go see him that morning.
As I thought about it, the bad timing suddenly came together. The realtor had been killed Friday afternoon near where TM was buying his place. I was over there both Friday night and Saturday night, driving around slowly looking for TM's place. I must have been noticed as the DCI, and WDM police officer, had my license and what I assume was a background file on me when I went to be questioned!
The talk with them went fine. They were very courteous and asked questions on where I was during the murder. I was at work but not sure any co-workers could confirm that! We don't really watch each other that way! They then asked to look at my car, not in it but at it, to get an idea of what people were calling a black SUV. After that, they thanked me for my time and I left.
That afternoon, my manager was asking around with my co-workers to confirm if I was there. I don't know if someone confirmed that or not, actually, and certainly don't want anyone to lie if they don't remember when I left. I did leave early but had sent an email to my boss at 6:33 am so he knew I was in early and confirmed that is sop for us.
I think the only bad thing about this is that I do have another friend who had their computer hacked and then stored bad stuff on it. It cost him a lot of money to prove it wasn't done with his knowledge and he's still paying it off. I hope this is different enough from that such that I don't need to go as far as he did but it's an unfun thought with everything else we have going on.
So, that's my week. How's everyone else? :)
Links:
I like the scruffy part but doubtful it refers to me otherwise.
Just vague about SUV vehicle
I was nervous about CoC but it went well! Lots of fun! Looking forward to it tonight.
DND Encounters continues to go well. As does extended encounters. For the most part. It really is extended encounters in that there isn't tons of role playing but there are in the middle of a dungeon crawl right now. I could control that but am not sure if that's what is wanted. I will have to ask.
Thursday's DND group went well also. The wiki is updated for any who read that. I am having fun writing the updates to it. I have put in some extra information in it but probably need to clarify as it wasn't obvious what I meant. Of course, obfuscation works for me in many ways!
Speaking of writing, I started the script for the video stuff I want to do. It's not great. It's probably barely passable. But it's started and at least got me going. I am using Page 2 Stage, a free program to help me write it. Again, it helps with formatting the script in the proper way. I am having fun doing it. I have ideas but now it's a matter of getting them into a script.
Busy weekend. Took the dogs to the park Saturday and Sunday. They seemed to enjoy running around. Also took them for a walk.
Not doing well in eating less or exercising. *sigh*
We got new phones. So now I have a smart phone. It's a fun toy with phone capability! Actually, making and receiving calls have been the toughest thing to figure out! I did miss an appointment, though, because I used my (old) phone's calendar to track those. So that wasn't good but it's been rescheduled.
We watched the movie Tangled. It was a fun movie! We also got together with friends and had a great time seeing them.
Llamas with hats still amuses.
The group that I did an Orcus battle with now wants me to DM them. I'm flattered but already stretched thin. So, not sure how to approach this. I think I should have been more explicit in saying that I couldn't do anything with any sort of regularity because they seemed to take my very conditional yes as a firm yes. Again, I'm flattered but not sure how this will work.
I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. I went to bed at a good time but then I think I power napped and then was up until past midnight. *sigh* I did get to play more Batman Arkham Asylum, so that was cool. But not much sleep. When I did sleep, an interesting dream about zombies. Maybe even something to use in a script! :)
Work is a whole different post.
Oh, Loot is a fun site for your gaming needs. It's a daily deal place like woot but with gaming stuff. The only bad thing about them is that it's a flat rate $16 for shipping, so cheap items won't be as big a deal as they might be. (Today's is half off a $35 item but the shipping means instead of saving $20, you only save $5.) I did get some 4E modules and enough of them that even with the shipping, I only paid half of their retail price. I figured it would be some good ideas for the extended encounters.
I don't mean to take this long between updates but time seems to slip away from me these days. That's mostly good! I still read and comment when I am moved to do so.
Friday was resting and then catching up on some TV. We were asked to go see Paul but didn't and now I am regretting it. Once we saw a preview for it, we realized we would like it. Ah, well.
Saturday was the Orcus adventure for some people who asked me to take them through it. It was a LOT of fun! I think it was more exciting because it was much more close. Orcus almost won. I also had changed the game and really liked playing it more as I intended and getting some good reactions out of it! So, very satisfying to me.
Sunday, I got ready for Tuesday's CoC game. It's a *very* different game than Star Wars! A lot more emphasis on role playing and figuring out what's going on. I don't think I could have chosen a more different game, using the same basic mechanics, to do next.
That was the morning. That afternoon, we had another Buffy mini marathon of five episodes, finishing up season two. It's still a good show and doesn't try and hide that it will be cheesy at times but also get emotional.
Then, Sunday night, I went to see Sucker Punch with a friend. I liked it! A fun popcorn movie! Definitely leads to questions and talking about it afterward.
A good weekend but busy and over way too fast!
After that, I went home to let the dogs out and take them for a quick walk. It was a cold and sprinkle-ly day, though, so we didn't get to do much. My wife wasn't home so they went back into their kennels.
I then headed out for DND encounters. After last week's one table, I wondered where we would be at this week. And was pleasantly surprised! I had four new people last night! Several hadn't played before, although knew of MMOs. So, I got to introduce the game to new people! That's always fun and I think puts me in a much better mindset to run the game. I am more aware of all of the things that need to be described and done.
The guy who played MMOs was getting into it and read his powers and was wanting to try the ones he hadn't used yet! So, he was having fun. I hope. The student asked me after we were done if I would do an interview and I said yes. And not my first one for DND! I did one way back in the 80s.
Hmm. Now that I can convert VHS to computer, I wonder if I should convert it and put it on youtube? Hmm.
After that, I did Extended Encounters and that was a lot of fun as well! We are in a dungeon crawl at the moment for a few areas but that's not bad as it keeps a known format there. Besides, as I think of it, I might switch things up. But, had a lot of fun.
After that, I ran to the store for some lunch stuff for my wife and then went home. Got to bed a bit late and now I am tired. Again. I think the state of being tired is constant now for me.
I mailed something on Monday via USPS priority mail. It arrived yesterday to the person. I'm only talking one state away but it still made it very quickly. the company that mailed the computer part to me is on the east coast, NJ, and I'm in IA. So, maybe not that fast. But still, four extra days?
Further, what I mailed was in a bigger package and probably weighed as much and it cost less than what I paid to have the computer part shipped to me! So, again, there are some big discrepancies here that are just annoying.
It's like having to go to the car mechanic and every time, especially at the dealership, feel like I'm being had and they are adding things that don't need to be done but are drumming up some extra business. It just leaves a bad feeling about it all and me wondering if I did the correct thing.
blah
We did run another fight and then a space battle. In the fight, one character died. He got critted at low health and died. Not much to do as he was the medic! Then another guy got noticed but managed to make it and drag the third character onto the ship. But one would have died. It's a tough system and it seems to work for Star Wars.
I will say that the player wanted to have a melee based character and while he did succeed at that, he wasn't a Jedi to deflect shots at himself. When the bad guys get a few shots as you run down the corridor to get to them, it's tough. He played it well and it was a good experiment. I should ask him if he would play a melee based character again.
We were also down to three players, and obviously an extra target and person shooting would have helped a lot. Or two. At one point, we had five and those extra two characters would have really helped. Obviously.
In the space flight, it was interesting because there were no complicated ship movement rules. That's good! But simplified. In a fight between the three characters on a shuttle with weapons and one squadron of Tie Fighters, they won. But they had lost shields and were only another hit or two away from exploding. Two squadrons would have been too much.
With three people, they had two people shooting and one piloting and shooting. With no movement rules to add tactics, it was just like character movement, everyone got to fire in near optimum range. They didn't always hit and it took about two hits to actually kill a Tie Fighter but one could do it on a good roll for damage.
If they had had a few more people, then they could have had an engineer type character, the wookie in our case, try and restore shields and systems. That would have helped. In fact, two engineers would have made a big difference in terms of bringing the shields back.
It was very interesting to see the game in action. We had a guy create a Jedi but then he didn't make it the past two sessions, so we didn't see much of that in action. But overall, the system was pretty good. I mix of 3E DND, d20 Modern and some 4E ideas. I think if we played it long term, we would change a few things around here and there but it was a fun time.
I will say that ship stuff did seem wrong. The threshold was way too high for ships. They did this system where they created ability scores for the ships, including CON, and while an interesting idea, I don't think it worked. They didn't assign ability scores to a door, so why a ship? Again, we would "tweak" a few things but the base system worked well and it was fun.
Next week: Call of C'thul'hu!
Hi
Thanks for your email.
First of all, we are sorry for the inconvenience, we do apologize.
You ordered it on Saturday, but we do not ship items at weekends, so your item was shipped on Mar 14th, Monday.
And yes, this shipping method is for 2-5 business days. could you pls let me know which date did you receive it?
We just want to clear that we only issue full refund if it is our fault.
So pls do not worry about it, we must be full responsible for this matter, if it turns out to be our fault.
Also we will contact the shipper to verify this issue, and file a claim with the shipper if needed.
Pls let me know your next move, thanks a lot.
Best regards,
New Harbor
I'm still having a hard time believing them. I ship things via the USPS all of the time and know that if they had sent it via priority mail, it would have been in the price of what I paid for it and taken two days or three at the most, not five as happened. Also, it's got to be me and how I am thinking at the moment but the emails from them come off as a bit snarky and with weasel words and phrases.
"if it is our fault."
"if it turns out to be our fault."
And other ones like that.
I think this is on my mind because, like how the Karate Kid training montage has skewed our thinking about what it takes to be good at something, the other thing taught to us is how "one person CAN make a difference." Sure, if they have a last name of Kennedy, Rockefeller, Bush, or Gates. Again, it takes three things to "make it big" and that's talent, discipline and LUCK and they are all equally important in that equation. It's not bad, and I am not feeling like I need to make a difference on such a huge scale, although certainly I want to make a difference in my friends' lives. It's just some observations.
I placed the order with expedited shipping, which by USPS is two days. I ordered it on a Saturday. It did not arrive until the next Saturday! So, I asked about how I could send it back as it took too long. Their first reply to me said that they don't do returns but if they did, they would only return the cost of the item, not the shipping, and I would have to pay for shipping back.
I sent them my issue with the mail and they said they would send back the part at a full refund but only due to them missing the shipping window. I had to pay shipping back to them. So, I sent them a summary of all of this but haven't heard back from it.
Here's the thing. I can post this here and I can give them a negative Amazon review. But, in the end, it doesn't matter. It won't hurt them at all. So, why bother?
Point in fact. My first and second PCs were a Quantex. I had read several magazines and they seemed to have a good reputation. I got both of them with no problems. In fact, when I had a problem with a monitor, they sent me a new one as it was under warranty and they paid for both shippings no problem. I had nothing but success from them. My mom and aunt also bought from there with no problems.
When I went to get my third computer, I play games and wanted an upgrade with the old ones going to someone, Quantex was gone. In fact, as I went searching for them, I found a website devoted to how they are terrible. (It's gone now or I would link to it.) Someone was so upset about how bad they were treated by them, they built a website devoted to showing how bad this company was.
And as best I can tell, it didn't mean or do anything.
Quantex did go out of business but it was because their parent company and main supplier declared bankruptcy and took them with them. Otherwise, they had a high approval rating and had won several awards, including after going out of business!
So, why I am saying all of this? Because, it just doesn't matter. The company on Amazon has a 96%+ positive rating, same as Quantex. I just happen to be one of the 4% that it didn't work out for me the way I wanted it.
So, who lost? Well, me. And there is nothing I can do about it. But, I still blogged it. Maybe that was a bit cathartic but that's about it.
(The emails we went back and forth are under the cut, if anyone wants to see it. Again, start at the bottom.)
( emails sent and receivedCollapse )
Definitely looking forward to Torchlight 2 with multi player! Now that I have some guys who would get together for a LAN party, I'm more interested in that! And Diablo III!
I did get back to Majesty 2 but am disappointed with the level design. The game itself is about what I expect and like. But, several times, the levels have been "okay, don't attract the attention of the main bad guy of this level. Build up first. Oh, and here's the main bad guy attacking us now but don't attract his attention. More than this." WTF? Essentially, I get no time to build up a base because the bad guy shows up and I haven't done anything to them! So not happy about that. I think it would be better without that. I haven't tried the add ons yet.
I re-watched two of the Sherlock shows. Still love it! Great show!
I finally watched Red Dwarf Back To Earth. Yep, two years later! I liked it and how they did it. I really liked the "season nine was the best one ever" lines they kept doing. I did watch one behind the scenes that was cool too.
I took care of my sick wife so that did kill the Buffy marathon plans we had. Not much that could be done about that. Hopefully she feels better soon!
Went for several walks with the dogs over the weekend. That was good.
I didn't get to work more on the wedding video. Darn it. Or video stuff. It's at the bottom of the short list of things I want to do and work on but it's still the bottom, so tough to get to.
We are trying to refinance our mortgage. It's a good long term plan but can really make me sick of banks at times.
I started Guild season three but still have most of it to watch. I did read a comic they did and thought it fit well.
I watched more of Mr Sunshine. A few things that were typical and some things that were good. I like the actors so will probably watch more. I did hulu it and except for some buffer issues that worked well.
I do want to do some of the meme's I see to put more about me out there but am lazy. Maybe I can do a fake Q&A or something at some point. Maybe.
The SW game went well and came together well. They managed to come up with a good plan on how to destroy the ship and managed to enact it as well. The role playing was a lot of fun! The group started with really high rolls but did have some fumbles in the middle, including in combat when a player rolled two ones in a row and ended up using his stun grenade on himself! It was some fun fighting and very revealing in how combat and healing works in the game. I was quite impressed and happy with it.
DND Encounters went well, too. The only bad thing was that there were only six players and two DMs so we combined tables and I ran it and the other DM played, for seven players. I made it a bit harder of a fight and they did a good job of it! I won't spoil at this point but they defeated the plot of the module and that will be fun!
The Extended Encounter I am running also went VERY well! I was very happy with it. We had some good role playing and then a fun fight. I had an idea of what I wanted to do and bought a pre made map. I think, at this point, I'm calling ProFantasy a failure for me. I can probably use it better than I think but I don't like my results and that's what matters. So, I bought some pre made maps and was happy for it. I used the dungeon map and they had a bad guy who slipped away show up and they were happy to go after him! They didn't fight him but it was a good fight against more orcs.
Then last night also went really well! A lot of things came together and I was really happy with it all. I have updated the gaming wiki for any who want to read about it. I am also happy with the write up!
I was worried that the players on Tuesday wouldn't like the idea of changing systems. You get a character and you want to play them. But, like me, several of the players also want to try other games and see what they are like. I think talking about Call of C'thul'hu has them excited about trying that game system, so maybe it work will work out better than I thought! I did learn that I need to make the characters, though, and hand them out instead of doing character creation first. And I won't make them first level, so they will have some experience as well, which I think is good.
I have been reading some HP Lovecraft to prep for it and it's good stuff. Some of it is dated but that's to be expected when you start your genre and make many of the main tropes of it! There are some stories that hold up quite well, though, including the titular C'Thul'hu story itself.
I'm feeling mostly better, which has obviously helped. Tired though! Very tired! I haven't gotten to bed some nights until past eleven and am up at my normal time. So, not a lot of sleep. With my cold, I'm surprised that I'm not sleeping more but it's been going well.
Trying to get through Torchlight. I want to finish it but I found a level that is tough. I was walking through the other levels and so the tough one really slowed me down. It's still fun and I am excited for Torchlight 2 as multi player with this would be fun!
Also playing Majesty 2 and enjoying that. I think I mentioned this before. I haven't gotten back to it but that's part of why I am pushing on Torchlight.
Reading The Black Company by Glen Cook. It's been good so far. And I have a lot more to read after this, including more Jane Yellowrock, the newest Mercy Thompson book and many, many others!
tl;dr: Still doing a lot of things and still busy and enjoying life! What else can I ask for and expect, really?
