Pathfinder Character Creation

So, as you may or may not know (or may or may not care - though if you don't I suggest you skip this post since its going to be geeky in the realm of tabletop RP), I am GM for two games of Pathfinder. One is in person, running the Council of Thieves adventure path, while there is another I have just started last night on the Madman forums, running a specific module related to a haunted forest.

Which leaves me with a lot of GMing, but not so much playing. Lots of keeping track of things, but no room to annihilate and totally ruin a GM's expectations as my players do to me.

I want to play as a D20.

Luckily, there is some hope for me - Andrew has claimed that he will write a campaign himself for us to play in. Whether that actually happens remains to be seen, as there is quite a long time to go in the Council of Thieves.
Tiger also mentioned he will at some stage maybe run an online version to play in IRC. I don't know how well it would work on IRC, and availability is funky as well, but we shall see.

Anyway, I looked through some things, and decided that, if the Advanced Player Guide is permitted, I would much like to play as a Dwarven Drunken Master. Drunken Master being an archetype (specialisation) of Monk. I have yet to look at much else due to time constraints, but the only problem I see here is my natural aversion to playng any Lawful type character - which Monk kind of shoehorns me into.

So I set about trying in my head to come up with some kind of backstory. I have come up with something, and have decided to post it here. Critiques would be much appreciated - though much of it is subject to change. I will also point out that this is somewhat influenced by a book I began to read last week, titled "The Dwarves", which is about a dwarf who was raised in a human land - having reached the ripe old age of 69 or so without so much as meeting another dwarf.

I also don't have any idea for a name for him just yet, so I won't even refer to his name.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He was found as an abandoned dwarven child on the doorstep of the local mages tower, in a country almost exclusively inhabited by humans. His hometown - being a large magical center of some renwon, was known and renowned for the skill of their magi.

Orphaned children tend to be left at this particular tower quite often, and provide a good source of new students. Being a dwarf, however, left little options to the child. Some rudimentary magic lessons were given to him at a young age - as is the custom for children living in the orphanage, but being a dwarf, it seemed that arcane power was destined to escape him.

As per regular procedure for children without the skills required in the magi orphanage, he was passed on to the clergy - where he was given some rudimentary cleric teaching. Alas, it seemed that divine power shied away from him, and he was left unable to cast even the most rudimentary healing spell on his own. Not willing to cast him out of their home, being devoted to a benevolent deity, they raised him as their own with the teachings of their deity - Strength, Honour, and Sobriety.

Eventually an emissary from the head Church brought fortunate tidings for the lad - he was to be transferred to their head branch and trained in the martial arts along with their monks. When he was ready, he was to be dispatched to smaller branches to help spread the word, as well as provide some much needed physical backup in the event that they were attacked by forces of evil.

As it stood, at the time he began his training with the monks, he had never met another dwarf - or touched a drop of ale.

Years later, he had become an accomplished monk, and was sent to a small outpost to help out the clergy. Shortly after his arrival, a band of Dwarven adventurers arrived. Curious as to what his own people were like, he snuck out to meet them in the tavern. He quickly befriended the dwarves, who introduced him to a typically Dwarven vice - ale. Remembering his oath of sobriety, but desperately wanting to be a "true dwarf", he tried the forbidden drink - and became hooked.

However, word travels fast in a tiny town such as that - by the time he arrived back at the Church, the Head Priest of the branch was waiting for him. Excommunicated from the Church, he packed his bags and joined the adventuring troupe - who welcomed him with open arms. Together, they spread good throughout the land - without the religious hogwash he had been brought up with. As they travelled, he learnt about his heritage, and even picked up some typically Dwarven skills!

Eventually, however, the troupe fell on hard times, and began to take jobs that not quite so honourable, and sometimes a little less than legal. After enough of these, he decided enough was enough - he couldn't take the change, and confronted the group.

They turned on him, leaving him within an inch of his life, devoid of all worldly possessions - and worst of all - without a beard. Somehow, he lived, and continues to perfect his martial art alone - combined with the alcoholism of a dwarf once scorned, he seeks to bring his once-compatriots to justice.

Oh, and his beard's grown back. I feel this is an important detail to note.

Burgers

I have been utterly craving a burger.

Ever since I was diagnosed Coeliac right before Christmas last year (and it feels SO much longer than 2 months ago), I have been unable to have a burger, due to the buns obviously containing gluten, being bread and all.

Curse you, burger, for looking so awesome!

It's quite a change, from being able to go to the local burger hole with Andrew and Mark for burgers every second week or so, to being completely unable to. I could go with them, but that would simply be an exercise in frustration, getting to watch them stuff their mouths with giant burgers of the awesome variety, while all I can do is sit and watch. Perhaps order one without the bun. Assuming they didn't add bread crumbs or something to the meat, which is entirely possible.

Hell, I can't even get chips from that place, since they cook battered fish and such in the same oil, contaminating what would be otherwise perfectly gluten-free fried potatoes. Bastards.

I cannot even comprehend the awesomeness of this beast

I even managed to find a burger shop which did gluten free burgers. Awesome, they even looked really good. But they're in Newtown. How the heck am I going to get to Newtown without driving for like an hour? Driving an hour for a burger strikes me as slightly insane. It was, however, almost getting to the point where it would be worth it.

Which is why last night was so damn awesome.

My mother found a place that did gluten free bread rolls. Yes, gluten free bread is horrendous, but my dietician offhandedly mentioned last time I visited him that people tend to not have such a problem with the rolls - that they're different somehow.

So last night's dinner was a burger, on a gluten free bread roll. The roll wasn't amazing, but it doesn't have the horrendous aftertaste that the regular GF bread leaves. However, the fact that I was having a burger, and it was edible, and it didn't make me sick, made me so very very happy.

Well, at least until next week when I get blood taken to test for how I've progressed. That's likely to go about as well as it did last time - ending with me on the floor in a less than conscious state. Eugh.

Randomness

Unable to concentrate on a single topic today, I shall post whatever comes to mind. Hey, the damn blog title says its rambling, so I'm entitled :)

I saw a poster for a new movie with Matt Damon in it this morning. Is it a bad thing that every time I hear or see the name Matt Damon I think of Team America?

I also saw a poster for a movie starring Colin Farrell. Unlike Matt Damon, when I hear the name Colin Farrell I think of movies that he actually starred in, like S.W.A.T, Daredevil and that weird Irish Comedy I can't remember the name of. While the movies may not be amazing, he's fun to watch.

I got to Matsuri in time for beef teriyaki today. No running a kilometer for tacos today!

A new programmer started at work today. All of a sudden I feel more professional because he set the company up with a git repository, and sorted me out in terms of getting onto it. It also relieves me that I'm either unlikely to be coding the server stuff, or that I will be taught how to do it by someone who actually has a clue on how to do these kinds of things.

Tomorrow night I have Japanese class. All I can do right now is struggle to remember what I did on the weekend, since its a foregone conclusion that I will be asked this in Japanese class. However, when I realise that at least half of the weekend was spent playing Pathfinder, I try to think of something else to say, as history has proven that Pathfinder and trying to explain what happened in Japanese class do not go together. Mainly because Tomoka-sensei doesn't quite get Pathfinder, or D&D etc.

せんしゅまつ　なに　か　しました　か？

No I don't know any Kanji. Don't ask.

It has been brought to my attention that I am an idiot who forgets a lot of things, and as a result I probably have no business running a Pathfinder game, let alone two. Why I persist, I'll never know.

I'm thirsty, and have a slight headache. I might run off to get myself some Coke. Not particularly healthy - and something I probably should be avoiding due to current gut issues, but I don't care. I want a Coke dammit!

I've been sick a lot lately. But not in the typical way. Well, its normal for me, but different. For the last week and a half I've been sick at least once a day (with the notable exception of Pathfinder day), but unlike pre-gluten free dietness, it wasn't in a way that I have not been able to eat for hours following. Its been brief sickness, followed by quick recovery. Weird. I still do not like this though... in fact, its getting to the point where I am wondering what the point of a diet that seems to be having no effect on me is. *shrug* No choice but to continue until I see the doc again.

Oh crap, I have to get blood taken again in like 2 weeks time. I'm totally gonna pass out again.

I received some games in the mail from PlayAsia yesterday. I was stoked to get Megaman Maverick Hunter X for PSP in their sale (along with Valkyria Chronicles 2, Folklore, Little Big Planet 2 Collector's Edition, and the still-on-its-way-in-the-mail Demon Souls) until I realised that this is the same Megaman game I had borrowed from Andrew a few months ago - returning it shortly after due to its extreme difficulty.

Its not a real Megaman game unless its difficult.

Is Pacman a game about a pizza at a rave that can see and eat dead people? This knowledge makes me love the game even more.

You should totally watch this tetris video. It is amazing.

Now I'm gonna go grab that Coke, and take some Nurofen. My head hurts. Ciao!

Adventuring for Lunch

Lunch is an important meal. It is what allows people at work to stop doing their work for a short period of time, known colloquially as a "break". It is what sustains people during the day. It typically tastes quite pleasant.

For someone like me, who doesn't eat breakfast, Lunch is important because LUNCH IS LIFE. This simple fact is what drove me to walk over a kilometer in the rain to get food, and then walk back to consume said food and return to work, but let's rewind a little bit to the start of the story.

I work as a software developer. I typically spend my time at work writing code for iPhone programs, complaining when it doesn't work, then fixing whatever stupid bug I somehow caused before attempting to add more new features. I find this quite an interesting task. However, a programmer needs his sustenance for this.

However, I tend to land myself in quite a quandary with this in regards to lunch. I hate leaving something that I'm working on in a state where it either flat out doesn't work, or crashes, or malfunctions horribly to go get lunch, or indeed to go home. This is due to the fact that by the time I return to it, I'll forget where I was up to, and have to spend some time reading around my code trying to figure out what was broken, or what I was doing to fix something if I've trailed off mid-fix. In the case when I bring lunch to work, this isn't so bad - since I simply retrieve my lunch from the fridge; heat it up (if necessary); and chow down.

This week I'm staying at my girlfriend's place. This leaves me without supplies to bring my lunch. In addition to this, as you no doubt know if you read my rambling regularly, or know me in real life, I am a Coeliac. This means that food that contains gluten will make me sick. This heavily restricts the foods I can eat, and the places I may dine.

Near(ish) to work, there is a Japanese restaurant. Their entire menu is gluten-free - and so in this situation I typically go there for lunch. Apparently there are a fair few other places that are fine for me to eat at nearby - but I don't know the area well. The other Coeliac in the office was going to show me some of the places, but she's been off work sick the last few days (if you're reading this Michelle, get well soon!) This leaves me with simply going to Matsuri for lunch.

Today, I delayed lunch due to having an odd crash bug in the current small project I am working on. As above, I didn't want to leave it in a bad state, so I stuck around with intent to fix the problem. At 1pm, I had finished fixing the issue, and dashed off to Matsuri with beef teriyaki on the brain.

Of course, with my amazing luck, I got there and there was a large line. That's not a problem - they're popular. Which is good, because they're awesome and gluten free. I'd hate for a safe eating haven to go out of business!

After what seemed an eternity, I reached the front of the line, and ordered. However, I was informed that they had run out of beef for the day. This was not helpful at all! The only other options were salmon teriyaki (didn't feel like fish), sushi (again, didn't feel like fish), and chicken dishes. I hate chicken. I can't understand why people like a meat that tastes so bland! I politely decline and leave the shop.

This left me in quite a quandary. There exists many a food-hole around here in Surry Hills. However, most of them aren't gluten free. In fact, the only one I knew with certainty was safe I had just walked out of! Short on options, I turned to technology.

On my iPhone, I have a couple of applications with food directories in them. These applications search for nearby places with gluten-free food, and then give me an approximate distance, and gives me the address. The nearest place was called Mad Mex - a mexican food place about a kilometer away from my current position. The only other options were Crust pizza (which was much closer, but doesn't open until 5pm) and Gelatissimo. I like gelato, but it is not lunch material. It was also much, much further than Mad Mex.

I weighed up the options - walk a kilometer in the rain to get tacos - keeping in mind I would need to hurry back to work, eat hurriedly, then code again. Or go hungry, and simply wait until the evening to make gluten free pizza for myself and Sarah.

My stomach rumbling provided the answer. To tacos!

It was only ten minutes later that I realised for the 572th time exactly how far a kilometer is. Particularly when hungry.
I finally reached Mad Mex, and mulled over my options for tacos. Being fairly western in my fooding, I went for crunchy tacos with beef, mild salsa, cheese and lettuce. No beans (not a fan). After paying (3 tacos and a can of Pepsi for about $12 - not bad!), I began the trek back to work.

Then the rain got heavier. Dripping with a combination of sweat and water, I trudged on the way back to work. Twice I got stopped by idiots asking me for money. Both were annoyed when I declined - one went so far as to make fun of me after I declined. Who does that? If I wasn't going to give you money before, then I sure as hell aren't going to now!

I reached the corner of whatever street it was... and the rain got even more heavy. Realising that the only way this could get worse was if I'd dropped the tacos that I'd walked so far for, I tightened my grip on the bag, and hastened down the hill.

I finally reached the office looking and feeling like a drowned cat, bag of tacos in hand. After drying off slightly in the bathroom, I sit down, and bite into my tacos. They were lukewarm (somehow), and totally worth the walk.

dos tacos

The moral of the story is... EAT. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD EAT!!!

Pathfinder: What Lies In Dust II

Friday night, and Saturday, somehow the gang managed to get together for quite a long Pathfinder session. Or perhaps I should correct myself to saying two Pathfinder sessions - since it was over two days, separated by an amount of sleep which was entirely not enough to GM off after a week of coding.

Nevertheless, we didn't get quite as much done as I had hoped, but fun was still had. Also, my fear that my players would simply stomp everything I was provided with by the Adventure Path was quelled, but more on that in a moment.

The session began with the group attempting to open the Wave Door - where a long-since-dead Pathfinder had stashed some supplies to assist whomever was involved in future attempts to secure Delvehaven. After finding the door (which proved quite simple due to two thirds of the party having insane Survival skills), they dealt with the crappy weakling shadows waiting for them, and got into the door. After being foiled by a locked chest, they decided the best course of action was to break the thing open. This worked perfectly - and they were rewarded with some notes, scrolls and potions. Hooray!

The next day was the prepared match at the Devildrome, where the group decided to send Dorn in to contend with Spammy McSpamalot (not his real name) 's army of summoned lemures. After intimidating the conjurer into losing two of his summon spells (which severely simplified the battle), he utterly stomped the lemures that managed to appear on the scene - enraging the summoner who decided the best course of action was to jump in the ring himself. He didn't last too long, though he did manage to deal a decent amount of damage to Dorn via the use of Acid Arrow spells. After restraining him, the group were awarded with their meeting with Ghaelfin - a passed Pathfinder who they intended to use a Grave Candle on to get some information about Delvehaven from.

Unfortunately, old Ghaelfin wasn't very useful. He was able to confirm the location of Coriana (which was a moot point considering they had already rescued her ashes from the Asmodean nuns), and to tell them that he believed Loremaster Liriam and Donatalus Bisby had left Westcrown, and teleported to the country of Absalom. This information conflicted with other information they had received... so who was to be believed? Was somebody lying, or is someone simply mistaken?

I'm not telling you. Not yet, anyway. I can't have the players read this and be spoilt can I? :P

The next day, they ventured into Delvehaven. This is where things got a little hairy for the players. After the party split (mainly due to Sarah getting bored whilst Mark and Andrew discussed things), a certain rogue (Sian!) appeared, looking for vengeance, appeared, stabbed Dorn, and then disappeared again. After regrouping, and tracking her to the library, she reappered and stabbed Azelia this time. After a few more rounds of combat, Sian fell - though she did manage to deal a decent amount of damage in the time.

The party then decided it was time to read - and they each had some memories of past Pathfinders imparted to them magically via books. This had the side effect of traumatising them slightly, however, the benefits were completely worth it. Permanent bonuses to certain skills, depending upon the book read! Azelia was unlucky in this regard - she learnt Draconic from her book. Being a Draconic bloodline sorceress, she already knew the language!

They opened the door to the next room, and were confronted by a large Triceratops skeleton. Wisely closing the door, the group decided to look upstairs.

Upstairs, they found the vanity room, where a water elemental had been bound to act as a mirror. Of course, over time, it became corrupted, and when Azelia looked into the water, the elemental attacked! After trying to escape over a rope bridge in the next area (which broke - dumping Azelia into a courtyard), the group managed to destroy the elemental - again which dealt some decent damage to the party via the use of power attacks and a high AC - although its inability to leave the pool it was bound to ultimately became its undoing. However, they had successfully avoided the triceratops room - since that was the room directly below them at this point.

Down in the courtyard, the group found some tiny toys which had malevolent spirits imbued in them - a tribal fetish; a teddy bear; a girls doll; a straw man and a dragon. After some fairly interesting (but ultimately simple) combat (mainly due to my forgetting that the long grass gave the tiny toys total concealment), the group annihilated all but the teddy bear.

They then entered the bottom area of the building they were heading for - and found a simple council chamber. There was nowhere else for them to go - without searching the triceratops room. Unfortunately, things weren't so simple in the council chamber. While Azelia and Dorn looked around, Kynan found himself being repeatedly electrocuted by an invisible force. When Dorn cast a field of protection against electrical energy on Kynan, the invisible force revealed itself by moving to attack Azelia. It was a Will-O-Wisp!
On the next round of combat, it was immediately surround by the party and pets, and annihilated before it could escape. However, it had definitely left its mark on the party - Kynan was left with a measly 8 HP, and Azelia wasn't in much better shape. The party resolved to return to the Shrine of Aroden, and rest up before returning.

And this is where the session ended.

Looks like I may be able to kill off a character! :P

Games Games Games

Americans get to play Marvel vs Capcom 3 very soon. Like, midnight tonight in whatever stupid timezone they have. I hate you, America. Give me my game already. Grrrr.
I've already decided two thirds of my annihilation party as well (character usefulness notwithstanding) - Dante and Deadpool. Mainly coz they're awesome. The third could well be Viewtiful Joe, or Zero, creating a team entirely of RED.

A friend gifted me Monday Night Combat on Steam the other day. I haven't played any of it beyond the tutorial - but that part was at least fun. It kind of has a Team Fortress 2 feel to it, but making it third person, and allowing for single player defence of the money ball. Tonight, I'm totally gonna give it a bit more of a play.

I haven't touched WoW in at least two weeks. And somehow, I don't miss it. Until I realise that I still haven't quite hit level 85. I don't know, I want to hit level 85, but there are many other games to be playing at the moment.

I prepaid for Dragon Age 2 on Steam. I still haven't played much of the first one. Well, scratch that, I played it for a fair while, however this consisted of replaying the early stages of the game repeatedly. I believe I have completed the Mage origin story and the Ostagar Castle segment of the game at least 4 times now. I have been besieged with horrific luck with this game - one time losing my save and having to start over. Another time finding a weird glitch where it would always revert my save to be inside Lothering again, then upgrading my PC and losing content due to that. Eventually I'll finish it.

Damn, I want Marvel vs Capcom 3 now. NAO I SAY!

I bought a strange little game on the iPhone on Sunday. It's called Dungeon Raid - and combines a puzzle game with an RPG. This is a combination I thought I would see the last of with Puzzle Quest (and my clone of it in Game Dev Story). I thought wrong. It works quite well, although for some reason I still cannot top the score I got on my first play. There's got to be something wrong with being able to get a good score on your first play - and then being unable to repeat it when you understand how the game works!

I also found Devil May Cry on the iPhone. This makes me happy, except for the part where it didn't work - it froze. I then read reports that it worked if you turned WiFi off and were patient with the seemingly frozen load screen. I tested that this morning - lo and behold! The game works! Due to being at work, I didn't actually play the game, but that's likely what my trip home will involve. Or maybe just more Dungeon Raid. Or Final Fantasy Tactics...

I seem to be reaching the late sections of Final Fantasy II. Again, playing this on the iPhone. It was much cheaper to spend $5 or so on the iPhone for it, than to track down and spend $50 on the PSP version. Totally worth it - and the game works just as well. I think its actually identical to the PSP version, so go for it, if you get the chance!

I want to play some Final Fantasy XIII, but my girlfriend just bought a PS3, and wants to play it together. So I'm waiting for her to catch up before I play again. Couple this with staying at her place for the next week and a half starting on Thursday, and I won't be touching the game again for a while. I'll probably forget how the battle system works (again) by the time I get back into it :P

Where's my copy of Marvel vs Capcom 3? :(

Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes is fun. Don't expect a sophisticated game though - it is literally the Dynasty Warrior / Samurai Warriors engine with some tweaks, and shiny graphics, and superpowered samurai. Its still good fun to play as Date Masamune, slashing people up with six swords (all at once, held between his fingers. Yes, he fights as if he's Wolverine, but with swords instead of mere claws).

Ooh, Bulletstorm and Deus Ex: Human Revolution appear soonish! I played Duty Calls, the Call of Duty parody that was an ad for Bulletstorm. Quite a funny game, if you can't afford the 700 MB or so download, then watch the video playthrough at the very least.

I just lost The Game.

Quite sad news that Guitar Hero has officially been killed by Activision. Though interesting that Harmonix plan on pressing ahead with Rock Band. Maybe that means we'll see some of the pro instruments in Australia?
Yeah, as if. That would imply that American game companies saw us as an actual market, rather than a strange sized dump on the southern end of the planet.
I wonder what'll happen to DJ Hero...

I want Marvel vs Capcom 3 gah it hurts just sell me the game already!

The Best Laid Plans...

I posted last Friday about a planned busy weekend. Well, it turned out to be nowhere near as busy as expected - indeed most of the plans got thrown out of the window!

Saturday morning, Sarah and I (and her mother) headed to the mall to do our shopping. This consisted of looking for new shoes, getting some Christmas present rings resized (they were too big for us - and yes, by us I mean both of us - we got one each), and then finding Sarah her PS3.

We got quite lucky on the PS3 search - we headed to JB HIFI and looked at their deals - the one we were interested in was $599 for the PS3 and standard controller etc, and 3 games. These games were Final Fantasy XIII (yay!), Gran Turismo 5 (blegh!) and The Ashes Cricket thingy (ewww).

Of course, being a geek herself, Sarah had no interest in Gran Turismo 5 and cricket. She managed to convince the store worker to let her choose two other games of comparative cost - of which she chose Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes (after having played it coop with me), and some other $10 samurai game, the name of which escapes me.

After that, I received a phone call from my mother - my grandmother was going to go out with the family for lunch on Sunday, and I was expected to attend. Except that I had already planned (and informed her) of the plan to go to the Code Geass marathon with the cosplay group. She suddenly remembered that plan, let me off the hook, and then told me to not to tell her of plans too far in advance or else she'll forget.

I plan on telling her about my next trip to Japan the day before I leave.

Sarah had been feeling fairly ordinary for most of the week, unfortunately, and decided against going to the marathon. This left me trying to find my own way there - the plan becoming that I would return to my home area and link up with Andrew, who would be driving in later on. After ensuring that Sarah didn't mind me going without her (I rarely get to see these people, after all) and that she was going to take the medicine we bought for her, and rest, I left - deciding that I would work on the cosplay costume at the next available opportunity.

By the time I arrived in Andrew's vicinity, I was also feeling ill. I called and cancelled, then went home to rest. The killer here being that a few hours later, I had completely recovered! It was an ill feeling from my Coeliac... as I am still recovering I still have odd attacks semi-frequently. Not fun at all.

On the other hand, I got to finish F.E.A.R: Perseus Mandate, but the less said about that the better. My GOD that game is bad...

So I tried to look on the bright side - Sunday I would get to see my grandmother and go out for lunch with the family - something I hadn't done in a while.

After waking up (and freaking out that I was in my own bed on a Sunday morning - something that hadn't happened for almost a year), I was informed that my grandmother had hurt her back, and so the lunch wasn't happening. I took matters into my own hands, and drove up to her place to visit. I hadn't seen her in ages, after all!

I arrived and we talked for a while, though she was keeping a hot water bottle on her back to try and relieve the pain. When said bottle got cold, I decided to refill it for her - I wanted her to rest.
In the process, I somehow manage to pour a large amount of boiling hot water straight onto my right hand. It hurt. A lot.

I ended up spending the next two hours running my hand under cold water, and occasionally putting ice on it, to relieve the pain. Nonna wanted me to go to the medical center, but I was having none of it - after calling home to ensure that we had some form of burn treatment (turns out we did), I got her to sit down and rest again, and left for home.

Air conditioning in cars is an utter godsend. If it weren't for that cool breeze on my hand, I may not have made it home.

Once I got home, I put this burn cream on. It did a great job of inflicting much more pain on me - though the burn has mostly healed now. My hand is still red, but it doesn't hurt now. It just kinda looks bad.

The moral of the story is: don't get sick, and don't let anyone else get sick. EVER.

Busy Weekend is Busy

This last week has left me quite tired. I have spent the week living at my girlfriend's place, which, while awesome, also means getting up earlier than usual in order to make it to work on time (due to boat timetables), and going to bed slightly earlier. And being woken up repeatedly during the night by her dog.

So I'm tired, and have a busy weekend ahead of me. Tomorrow we plan on running off to the mall so she can buy a PS3 (the confirmation of Tales of Graces being localised, in addition to finding a bunch of games she was interested in playing on the machine finally convinced her to join the current generation of home-consoles. Because the Wii doesn't count. At all)

After that, I get to try my hand at stitching myself to material, as we begin working on the cosplay outfits we have planned for Supanova.

And if that wasn't enough, we are meeting our Code Geass Cosplay group (for the aforementioned convention) to have a Code Geass marathon - watching as much of the series as possible in the space of an evening and part of a day. I can guarantee right now - I won't make it through the night without sleep!

Also, some members of said cosplay group have NOT seen the show - hence the marathon.

While I severely doubt our ability to get through even the first season of Geass in this timeframe, and the fact that I will be utterly exhausted by the time Valentine's Day rolls around on Monday, it will totally be worth it to catch up with everyone.

So I won't be posting until Monday at the earliest. Have a good weekend everyone! :P

F.E.A.R it. Again.

I started playing the second F.E.A.R expansion yesterday. Cryptically titled "Perseus Mandate", it seems to have very little relevance to anything.
Heck, in my post the other day about the other expansion, I even pointed out that the expansions are disregarded by the sequel that I plan on playing at some point. So, the first question is, why bother?

This would be because, as much as the prior playtime angered me, I was intrigued. It did leave off with your character having just taken a helicopter explosion to the face, then turn to see the entire city in flames. Kind of an interesting hook to continue playing - even if all the gameplay that lead up to it was boring as hell.

So I began the Perseus Mandate. And it seems the chapter or so I have played has been totally NOT worth it, as predicted.

For starters, you start playing as an entirely different character, from another F.E.A.R squad. This means that the hook of the nameless character I have been dragging from one empty warehouse to another being left alone on top of the hospital with fire everywhere has been instantly removed, in favour of giving me a new, slightly less nameless guy, with a full squad.

And why does this new guy just happen to have the same slo-mo bullet time power that the other guy, who reportedly has this power because he's "special"? As a good friend of mine pointed out in his blog - once everybody has superpowers, they're not superpowers anymore. They become typical. Normal.

Not to mention that the enemies and locations are - again - identical to the two games prior. Generic clone soldiers, generic not-so-clone soldiers, and the ninjas. Admittedly, the creepout sessions have gotten more disturbing, but this seems to be through virtue of simply having lots more gore and death involved, than being suspenseful in their own right.

Oh, and the game seems to have had most of the first chapter in well lit areas. Brightly lit places tend to not be scary. And the ninjas attacked again - way too early. And in a well lit room. Sure, they're still hard to see since they've stolen OTACON's stealth camo, but they're much less scary to fight in a room where you can see more than 10 metres in front of yourself!

As my girlfriend arrived at my place last night to rescue me from my self-imposed videogame-born hell I had reached a new type of enemy. Finally something new! Except that they're a different type of generic soldier. With better guns. Of course, the better guns advantage is quickly lost when I take said gun from the first one that goes down - the rest serving as obstacles to my ending the drudgery, and slight ammo stockups.

To sum it up, one of the squad members, shortly after encountering the ninjas said "That's new". "No, no it isn't new" I answered, quite vocally. To the utter confusion of my brother.

Is it bad that I'm talking to a game? Probably.

Either way, I will finish this stupid game sometime next week most likely - and then move onto something infinitely more enjoyable. I won't touch F.E.A.R 2 right away, because I;d rather not rip my soul to shreds more so than it already has been.

Nothing to fear but F.E.A.R. And ninjas.

I recently finished F.E.A.R Extraction Point - the first expansion to F.E.A.R. For those who don't know, F.E.A.R (First Encounter Assault Recon) is a first person shooter crossed with a horror game. Except that it didn't quite work.

Note that huge spoilers will follow. But really, the plot, while it has its moments, seems fairly disposable.

The original game begins with you being the new recruit / pointman of F.E.A.R, which is never really explained well to the player through the game, but is essentially S.W.A.T for paranormal/supernatural things. Which is a horrendous idea in the first place. Since when have ghosts and other paranormal activities been susceptible to assault rifles? Oh right, they aren't. Even in this game, they're not.

No, the main bad guy, Paxton Fettel if my memory serves me correctly (and if not, I'll call him that anyway because his actual name was at least as ridiculous as that) is some... random guy. You get to watch him eat people at the start. Kinda creepy.

Somehow, he has some kind of clone army, which he directs to kill people. Your squad shows up to figure out what's going on, and to "eliminate" him. There is also the small matter of some insane little girl (as it always is in horror) with supernatural powers making weird shit happen occasionally.

You will literally receive visions occasionally - usually completely harmless, but sometimes less so - of weird stuff. A hallway with blood down the walls, the hallway itself stretching as you attempt to walk down it. Or maybe the entire world around you becoming black except for a circle of flame, with ghouls flying at you in an attempt to eat your soul, and drag you to the hellspawn pit from whence they came.

This sounds cool doesn't it? Well, this is all that about the game that is different - or even mildly interesting. And its not even scary.

Well, its creepy the first few times, but it happens quite a lot, so you kinda get used to the idea that your character is possibly losing his mind for brief periods, before being returned to whatever warehouse he was in, to continue on his merry way killing generic soldiers.

And that's exactly the problem. In the original game, I seem to recall a grand total of two types of enemies. Generic armed forces (because guns don't hurt ghosts, they had to give you something you could fight), and ninjas. I shit you not.

There are random ninjas which appear, and attack. Usually from behind. A shotgun blast usually deals with them well enough, until the next 3 attack simultaneously...

The major problem with this game is that EVERY LOCATION IS THE SAME. SERIOUSLY. It leads you through abandoned warehouse after abandoned office to abandoned parking lot to abandoned lab to abandoned office... every building looks the same!

F.E.A.R itself, wasn't so bad. It retained some form of interest, particularly with the giant explosion near the end, and the ending itself, where your helicopter is dragged down by the creepy little girl.

The expansion, however, was much, much worse. The reason being that it is THE EXACT SAME GAME. For some reason, the telepathically controlled clone soldiers reactivate themselves (even though their creator / controller is dead - and the reason he can still control them is never explained. The character himself even tells you in a vision that this makes no sense), and you are forced to try and regroup with the surviving member of your squad, after the helicopter crash.

Never mind the identical plot (you spend a large portion of the original trying to regroup with your squad, as well as chasing Dudeface McGee in between being driven mad by visions), this one's completely different.

How, you ask? BY KILLING OFF EVERY REASON YOU HAVE TO CONTINUE PLAYING. You early on link up with one of the survivors, who proceeds to fight with you for a couple of levels, and then gets himself killed in an admittedly creepy possession-type scene. His last words are to find Jin - the only other survivor.

You spend the entire game trying to get to the hospital where she is, traipsing through (stop me if you've heard this before) abandoned office buildings, an abandoned subway, an abandoned parking lot, and then, eventually, said hospital. Except that when you find her, she's dead (as expected).

Your mission then becomes "get to the extraction point on the roof". When you get there, the helicopter you are about to get in... explodes. Then the credits roll, you see a buring cityscape, and are told to go play the other expansion.

And will it be worth it? No, no it won't. Particularly since Wikipedia clearly states that both expansions are completely disregarded for the sequel F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin.

The moral of this story is that the F.E.A.R games are not scary. Particularly Extraction Point. The visions occur often enough that you begin to expect them every 10 minutes or so, the grisly scenes you come across where soldiers have been decimated become same same, and the only times in the game where I was creeped out involved the ninjas appearing behind me without warning, and a particular vision where the hospital became a completely different locale. And the reason that vision creeped me out was because it proved to me that the game's artist's were capable of texturing walls a colour other than white.

Also, why do you have bullet time? I never really understood that...

We interupt this Pathfinder session to bring you... PAIN

Yesterday, I had planned a Pathfinder session of the Council Of Thieves Campaign. We were to begin book 3 - What Lies In Dust, hopefully completing most of the chapters, apart from the dungeon / Pathfinder Lodge of Delvehaven (which, as a 4 floor lodge / dungeon crawl, would not have been doable in the same session as all of the investigation and side questing that the book allowed).

So, we started playing and all, with the group, predictably, outsmarting me in certain aspects (which will be covered in detail below), until I fell ill. Not your regular, "I've got a cold" ill, or the "I've been glutened, brb" ill either. This was more like, "Argh my stomach, it hurts!" *runs off to bathroom*. After returning, I was forced to run again 5 minutes later, to writhe in pain for a while. This was not a fun time for anyone - least of all myself.

The culprit was most likely milk. Allow me to explain.
Two members of our Pathfinder group, Andrew and Mark, have a penchant for purchasing 2 litre bottles of strawberry milk from Woolies, and consuming most of said bottle given half a chance. I like strawberry milk, and so I decided to join them on this endeavour this time. MISTAKE.

In the end, I had no choice but to end the session early, while I lay down and rested. Which achieved a grand total of *nothing*, as I remained ill for the rest of the night.

I did, however, recover enough to finish F.E.A.R: Extraction Point last night, and I feel that should count for something. Below is the summary / tale of what went down in the Pathfinder session.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After repeated failures, and somehow resisting the urge to simply hit it with a hammer, the Chelish Crux was opened (in the end, by Azelia). The crux held within in several papers, some scrolls, two wands, and a screaming, disembodied head.

The head of an Erinyes, seemingly immortal. Quite clearly insane. In her lucid periods, the head was able to tell the group that she had been stored (in her current form) in Delvehaven for a short period of time, and would be able to assist with some information about the lodge if taken there - since her memory is fuzzy. My group somehow also decided to destroy her head after this deed is done, in an effort to release her from her curse. While this was unexpected, I was happy to let this go on - since it frees up the crux for their use later, as well as disposes of what is surely the most annoying character this side of Thesing!

The papers, after some investigation, revealed some clues about the fates of 5 Pathfinders who were involved with Delvehaven in some way. It also revealed the presence of a cache of items which may assist - though the location and how to unlock it were not known. The crux also contained some grave candles - which the group can use to speak with the dead in lieu of using an actual spell (a good thing too, since none of the group actually knows this spell).

First off, they decided to investigate the whereabouts of Coriana (I *may* be recalling her name incorrectly here). The papers indicated that her ashes were in a jar, in an Asmodean nunnery in the ruined part of the city. These female monks are part of a cult that wishes to become Erinyes after their deaths - and typically hired out as assassins in the pre-Thrune Westcrown. Post-civil war, they have waned and are merely low level monk-thug-nuns. Monks with bladed scarves for weapons.

Seriously, this weapon is a scarf with knives stuck to the end of it. Pretty damn awesome.

Dorn drew the conclusion that since they wanted to become Erinyes, they could barter the head they found for the ashes - a tactic which worked perfectly until it became time to actually hand the head over in exchange for these ashes. My mistake here, was letting said events occur at the door of the monastery, with only a single nun in attendance. Dorn simply cut her in half in a single strike, with Azelia catching the ashes with mage hand. They then ran for their lives - a minor dungeon effectively bypassed. Smartasses...

Coriana's spirit was able to explain a cypher that was part of the notes they had acquired, as well as the location of the goods and how to unlock them. The cache is hidden in a small pocket dimension behind a door known as the Wave Door - above water, at night they must shine a Pathfinder's wayfinder upon the door's location, while someone recites the Delvehaven oath. Then the door opens and the goodies can be found.

For the rest of the day, the group followed up another lead, opting to visit the Devildrome - a semi-legal fighting ring run by Rance Lucca - who has the petrified remains of Aiger Ghaelfin, one of the Pathfinders who went missing. Rance believes the remains to be simply a statue.
Anyway, Rance was a member of the crowd when the group performed the Six Trials of Larazod - and as such was delighted to meet them. He was quite forthcoming with the fact that he has the "bust" of Ghaelfin, and in return for letting the group see it, he wants them to perform in the Devildrome for him.

The devildrome is a fighting ring, where two summoners pit their abilities against each other by summoning creatures to fight each other - like a game of Magic: The Gathering. If they are missing a summoner, he allows the "one person enters and fights a summoner's beasts" type of battle. Occasionally he runs this style of battle anyway, and it is always a crowd pleaser. The group has not yet decided if they will let Kynan have a summon-off in the Devildrome, or send Dorn in alone. To be honest, I would recommend to them that Dorn or Kynan actually enter the ring. I would love to see Kynan kick some ass!

It was at this point where I fell ill, and needed to end the session. Quite lucky that it was able to end so cleanly! When we pick back up again, the group will visit the Wave Door at night, and two days later, have their round in the Devildrome.

D&D Character Test

Just a quick post - maybe a longer post will appear later today.

I took a "Dungeons and Dragons Character Test" - essentially asking LOADS of questions about what I'm like, what I'd do in certain situations, etc. It then spat out a D&D race, class, alignment, level and stats as if I were a D&D character. I thought I'd share the results (and test link) with you guys.

My results:

Neutral Good Human Wizard (3rd Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength- 11
Dexterity- 13
Constitution- 10
Intelligence- 15
Wisdom- 13
Charisma- 11
Take the test here

Note that its quite a LONG multiple choice test. And it gives you some detailed results in terms of how close you were to other ones.
I was -21 points for Monk :3

Chime

Today, I bought a game off Steam cheaply. I played it for the last 30 minutes or so, and I figured I'd share my experience with you all.

The game is called Chime, and set me back merely $5 - quite cheap for a game. Cheap enough for you to think its an indie title. A thought which is entirely accurate. However, indie games does not always mean cheap and crap games. In fact, quite a lot of indie games reach levels of awesome that the AAA titles can never aspire to, simply because indie developers are more willing to take risks, and do something different than to make generic shooter #357.

I'm looking at YOU, Bungie.

But I digress. This was not to be a tirade defending indie games, this was to bring some attention to Chime. This game is great.

It is slightly confusing to play at first, because it has quite an odd idea behind it. It is a puzzle music game.

I'll let that sink in for a moment. Not a music action game like Beat Hazard, or a rhythm action game like Beatmania, Amplitude, Guitar Hero, DJ Max, etc. A music puzzler.

The idea behind the game is that you are given a large grid, and blocks to fill it. The block are different shapes and sizes, and your job is to arrange them as neatly and quickly as you can to form quads. A quad being a square that is 3x3 or more, or a rectangle of similar minimum size. As you make more quads, your coverage of the grid is increased, which will allow you to complete the level and move on once the timer runs out.

The interesting part here, is that each level is a song, and the amount of the song that you can actually hear is dependant on how much grid coverage you attain.

After a little bit, the square you place get stamped into the grid, and you can place new ones over the top - so if you mess up you can make the coverage work better. When the time runs out, 50% coverage will unlock a new level, while 100% coverage will give you a bonus of some kind. I've not obtained it in my short attempt yet, so I cannot say what happens. Mainly because I don't know.

It's like a demeted, awesome, musical game of tetris, and I love it. That is all.