The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

First off, Oh. Man. Persona 4 Battle Theme. I’m in love. Apparently the soundtrack hits Japan tomorrow, so I shall, um, be on the lookout for where I can acquire it. But man, I can’t wait for the game! Even though I won’t get anywhere near beating it! Like Persona 3! And Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne! Oh well.

Secondly, take a look at this comic. It’s actually pretty damn funny. I was shocked and entertained yesterday. Here are a couple of favorite strips from their archives. Anyway, I was entertained. You can be too!

Let’s see, what happened since last I posted… well, the “not having any hours” thing I alluded to disappeared when I picked up like 17 more hours, so that was exciting and will make this paycheck exciting. They seem kinda serious about giving me more hours, which is exciting times as well. I may not be poor this last semester! Which is good, because I’m sure I’ll still have waaaaaaay too many video games I don’t need to buy to buy.

I also saw The Dark Knight. It’s good. But seriously, you probably knew that already, cause, let’s face it, you’ve seen it or you’ve seen the internet telling you that it’s fantastic. Well, I’m saying it again. So there.

We also played some more DnD! This time we had a whole lot of role-playing, actually, which was… unexpected! But fun. Spaeth’s “Dagger trap” he created by laying a dagger on the ground and Essner’s bluff tale of everyone’s experiences in a Tiefling Brothel were high points. There was also some good combat! I think I need to kick the encounters up a bit more… Binks Stubblecleft is sort of unstoppable… Combat Challenge is crazy good. I really need to either start ignoring the challenge or come up with enemies that can stop the fighter in his tracks, cause really, as long as Guy de Purplopolis and Captain Darryl Restitution use their healing moves intelligently, Binks is just… not going to die. There should be some element of danger, even if the last thing I want is someone permanently dead.
I also, in my sad little way, decided to roll up a character. Her name is Rachael Sparklewhisper (Thanks, Wizard 101, for the awesomely horrible last name!) and she’s all Eladrin Warlord style. Man, Warlords are all awesome and shit. Eladrins even have a really great racial feat that just adds free damage onto longswords and spears, and I was going to use spears anyway, so I took that. All in all, I feel like it would be fun to play! All badass and such! But I probably never will.
Anyway, our next gameplay session should probably mostly finish up this odd fetchquest arc I have going on, while still having combat… that’s sort of the hard part, I guess, as the next session seems really… talk-heavy in my head. Maybe I could just have it leading up to one HUGE combat. I don’t know. I’m thinking about it.

Last, but so, so, so very far from least, Mama drew me a new desktop background, and it is BEYOND AWESOME. Gaze upon it. My Twilight Heroes character never looked so badass! I don’t know if I thank her enough for how awesome she is to me sometimes.

Anyway, I guess that’s kinda caught up on things… so… bye!

So. The Electronic Three. The EEE. The E3. It was so not exciting! Well, I mean, I’m glad I don’t have to pony up for a PS3 to play FFXIII, but it was mostly not exciting. What was exciting, though, was watching all the big press conferences with all my Talking Time… I was going to say friends, and then I was going to switch to peeps, but that’s lame… so friends. My Talking Time friends. A chat room was made, and it was enjoyable making jokes at all the marketing speak and such going on. I had a good time. Nothing really earth-shattering was shown in these presentations. The big notes are like… Rhythm Heaven on DS this year? OMG. And, like, the FFXIII thing, I mean, I don’t really know. Nothing big was announced. I mean, I will probably get the Wii Animal Crossing, but everyone could guess that was coming and I knew I’d get it. I’m not looking forward to typing letters with the Wiimote, though. It might be faster to point at the screen? But it is a pain. In. the. ass, and I hate it.
Anyway: E3? Uneventful. You heard it here last, folks.

Anyway, the thing I really wanted to talk about, though, was how well my recent game purchases have been working out. Civ:Rev and Chocobo Dungeon are both not games I can play for huge periods of time straight. I can only dungeon dive about 3 to 4 times before I want to do something else, and playing more than 1 game of Civ:Rev just sounds crazy. Still, I was worried about having two new games in the house at the same time, thinking that one would fall to the wayside. That hasn’t been the case, though! I find once I tire of one, next time I want to game, I play the other, and then back again. It’s working out well. Good for me!
They’re both pretty good games, though I could recommend Chocobo Dungeon better if it was 30 bucks, but apparently a DS remake was announced the day after I bought the game? So that would be that OH WAIT SQUENIX TAX. Still, it’s a fun Mystery Dungeon game with the jobs. I just unlocked Scholar, which I am told is “easy mode.” That’s good. I like easy mode. That’s why I like Pokemon Dungeon more than Shiren. That, and because I have a high threshold for still liking and putting up with extremely kiddy games.
Civ:Rev I probably couldn’t recommend on the consoles for $60 bucks, even if you want a dumbed down Civ experience. Knowing you can get so much more and just set it to easy in Civ4 on the PC for the same price just makes me hesitant to recommend it. But on the DS? It’s pretty darn great. Good price, same gameplay… not having a minimap is completely stupid, but otherwise the game is spot-on. If you want an on-the-go Civ, I wouldn’t hesitate.

But yeah, so… that’s what’s been going on! Shocking, I know. Hopefully we’ll be playing DnD again this weekend, which means I should probably put the finishing touches on my notes soon… we’ll see… Also, you know… Dark Knight. It should be a good, if lacking work and thus funds, rest of the week. I think I’ll get to that rest of the week now.

Despite my better judgment, my head has been percolating and thinking and designing a character to go along with my idea for a Warlord in DnD. Gah. I want so bad to play it as a player, and not just a DM< but it’s really just not going to happen. The likelihood of it is just…  nothing. Bleh. I was going to try Dungeons and Dragons Tactics to try to scratch that itch, but Brer was all like “What, are you stupid? That game is horrible” and it is from a time before the existence of Warlords, so I mean, I don’t know. Probably wouldn’t have helped. Sigh. I sorta wish I could just force people on Talking Time to run an online campaign, but I mean, it’s all this work and I’m not going to force it on anyone, and if I start trying to take up the mantle myself, I’m going to end up DMing again, which is like… completely missing the point of me wanting to play an online game of it. I don’t know… just gotta ride it out. It’ll pass.

In other news, I asked for more hours at work! Since Ad Set is no longer going to give me shit, I have a feeling. We’ll see if that worked on Tuesday when I get my new schedule. It better have, or I will be sad. You’ll look at me, and one tear will roll slowly down my cheek. So sad.

I feel like there are other things to talk about, but fuck if I know them. I guess I should probably just stop blogging and get back to nothingness, which is my specialty. Whee!

I am happy to report that The Hand of the Sacred Scroll Chronicles Chapter 1: In the Barn of Despair and Torment was a complete success! I’m making a note here, so to speak. (Man, it’s so fucking sad that Portal jokes are worn out now. That game was brilliant.) Everyone loved the combat, everyone leveled up and picked up some new abilities, and everyone wants to play again… it was pretty well best-case scenario. So now, I guess, I need to start brainstorming Chapter 2. Fun times! It does make me wish I could mix it up in combat with everyone else, but someone’s got to run it, and it’s not like I can say I wasn’t having fun as DM, cause I totally was.

In other news, um, I completed another ascension by accident yesterday. I was going to waste a day playing around in Hobopolis, but when I finally got to the main part, I couldn’t kill anything. So I decide “Well, okay, I’ll work on the rest of this run” which accidentally got me all the way to victory! I permed Powers of Observatiogn. And now, totally at random, I’m a Seal Clubber! And going for Gender Bender! This is going to be a long run that I set up without thinking about it… oh well!

And now I go to spend lots of money on Video games. Namely, Chocobo’s Dungeon and Civ:Rev. Yay? Yay!

So on Tuesday, CJ from Talking Time is apparently getting institutionalized. Which, I mean, that’s good. That he’s getting help. But it’s also kind of shocking to me how close we’ve gotten and how concerned I am. Not that that’s bad, just sort of… you know, you never realize you have some feelings until you have them? Before all this, I probably wouldn’t have been able to guess it would affect me this much, even though, you know, we’re friends. But then it happens and I realize, you know, we’re really good friends? I don’t know, I don’t think I’m summing up the situation well.
In any case, I wish I had something more helpful to offer him, and I hope things work out well for him, and that all this helps him turn things around. It also makes me think about my problems and how I’m not doing anything to take care of them… makes me feel like I should. I don’t know.
I really don’t know.
But again, super-best wishes his way. Yeah.

Anyway, you didn’t come here for that, you came here for a report of our first DnD game! Well, um, too bad. I’m all moody thinking about this. I’ll try to type that up tomorrow, but, short version: It went well, even if there were some minor issues, and everyone wants to play again, so that’s awesome.
But yeah, lighter post in the morning, hopefully.

So I don’t know if you’ve looked in the 4th Edition Monstrous Manual, but… well… Riding Horses are a level 1 monster. You know… domesticated horses you ride around on? So I’m hoping everyone is ready, because The Hand of the Sacred Scroll Chronicles, Chapter 1: In the Barn of Despair and Torment is coming this Sunday, to a gaming table near you. Many horses will be slaughtered! Experience will be had! Glory will be found! And hopefully everyone will have a good time.
And okay, so we won’t be fighting horses. But here’s some non-spoiler comments about my experience planning this thing so far.
First off, these manuals are very useful and have plenty of ideas, but what shocked me was how little I used what they gave me. Instead it was more “What does a level 1 monster have for AC?” and then looking one up and then just writing that down and creating my own little monstrous Frankenstein creations. I assume that’s how it is supposed to work, actually, since there is a chapter of the Dungeon Master’s Guide that pretty well tells you to go nuts with it. But it still kind of shocked me, especially how nervous I normally get with such things.
Also, the more I think about it, the more I know Jonathan is probably right. I should really say “Screw Experience!” and just have each session equal, shockingly enough, exactly enough XP to reach the next level. Everyone likes that character building aspect and doing badass things and getting new badass things. We’re all Final Fantasy Tactics fans. Hell, the combat has been compared to Tactics multiple times by my friends. I should give them a steady increase in abilities to let us all experience the game from a variety of points in that curve, and just see what happens. If I keep everyone hooked, we can try a slower campaign later.
Anyway, here’s to hoping for the best. Any last minute Dungeon Mastering tips? Let me know. Also, anyone who will play with me as a PC so I can try out how awesome Warlord is, also let me know. (How awesome is Warlord? Let me give you a hint: Awesome. Let me give you another hint: It seems to be pretty well made for me: Totally support-based, but still able to go kamakaze without dying immediately.)

Let’s see, what else is going on… well, in IoTM news, we have the little box of fireworks in KoL, which… well, if I didn’t love my Mayflower Bouquet and have been shunning that one for the… ease and enjoyment of the origami “gentlemen’s” magazine, I’d probably pick it up. If you don’t have a Mayflower or a Plastic Pumpkin Bucket, I’d think it would be an easy sell. But I really can’t see me using it all that much. The effects are nice, but the Mayflower potatoes and gives me buffs. I love potatoing and buffs.
The Twilight Heroes IoTM, though, is fucking awesome. It’s a plaid couch. It’s so new it doesn’t have a wiki entry as of this writing (edit: But now it does! Whee!), but it dispenses items as per the Pouch of Many Lost Things, only these items summon sidekicks instead of give you buffs. I am pumped, and I’m pretty sure it will rock my world, not to mention that if rumors are to be believed, there’s a sidekick that will up my item drops, which will help me right now in my farming, so it’ll even actually be useful to me now, instead of in the vague future. Neat.

Has anything else been going on since I last posted? Not… really. Um, the parents are gone for the weekend… it’s the fourth of july and people who aren’t me are shooting fireworks… and… I dunno. I’m slowly working through FFTA2… I’m also sad that Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon is not budget-priced at 30 dollars, because then I would have bought it, since it seems to mix the ease of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon’s lack of level loss with the Final Fantasy Job system… also, what’s up with all the games I want coming out this summer? Summer’s supposed to be a slow time where I can justify things like buying Chocobo’s Dungeon. Heh. I mean, hell, maybe I will anyway, I dunno. But next week I’m buying Civilization: Revolution on DS, so… Eh, who knows.

Anyway, I think I’m going to get some food. THIS HAS BEEN A BLOG UPDATE.

Making a quest is hard.
Well, maybe not. But I don’t know, I’m just sort of paralyzed while thinking about it. I feel like I’m in this really weird position, where I need to put in some love, and effort, and really make an interesting little slice of something, but at the same time I know my friends are going to dick around in it, and I’ll have more fun if it’s somewhere I don’t mind dicking around with too. So I just keep trying to think of that middle of the road sort of idea… I don’t know. I suppose I could just use the little thing in the back of the DMG, or Keep on the Shadowfell, in parts or as a whole… but again, I don’t know. Also, I still have no fucking idea what I’m going to do about mapping. Bleh.

I did, however, see Wall-E last night, and dammit, Pixar is just great, you know? Essner and I talked about it today, and I can tell he’s still down on it. I’m not saying it doesn’t help if I can let your childish side out and just be charmed by all the cute robots doing cute things, but it’s a great movie besides, and a surprisingly dark one. But yeah. You all should see it. It’s pretty awesome. Pretty awesome yes. Also, you get bonus Fred Willard. There’s no downside!
Or something. I don’t feel like I can say anything to really do the film justice.

In other news, everyone is playing FFTA2! Even me, though apparently in smaller chunks than they are! And I got Ticket to Ride on XBLA, which is fantastic, but I don’t think Spaeth and Jonathan got into it too much when I made them play it. So that’s unfortunate, but at least I can still play with the Talking Tyrants.

Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.

Did you know it was Spend Lots of Money Day? Cause it is! Here’s what I spent!

All of the DnD 4th Edition core rulebooks: $65 - I had on order the 7 dollars cheaper boxed gift set, which game in a nice case, but it got delayed so that I wouldn’t get my books until like… August. That’s kinda shitty. I tried to get them to switch over my order and keep my 7 bucks, but they wouldn’t, so… I just ordered them all individually, and then signed up for that Amazon Prime trial for free 2-day shipping. I assume if I order another thing (Which I will, Brer’s birthday present) during this month, using that free trial was worth it. I also went ahead and pre-ordered Freakazoid on DVD, hoping it would lock in that free shipping action. Let’s hope! And if you need anything from Amazon, I’m the person to come to for the next month.
A new network card: $17 - I’m tired of all the BSODs when I torrent things, and some internet research determined that it was due to the network card I was using being shitty. So I bought a new cheap one. I’m testing if it’s fixed the problem now… if I complete this episode of Doctor Who without resetting three times, the cost will be worth it.
Microsoft points: $20 - Ticket to Ride comes out on XBLA tomorrow, and I must be prepared. Also, I’m sort of hoping the fucked up named Roogoo is addictive, but I haven’t tried the demo yet.
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2: Grimoire of the Rift: $40 - Thanks, Squeenix tax, for making this expensive! But it’ll be totally worth it. After I finish this blogging, I’m totally going to try it. I’m sure I’ll enjoy.
Gasoline: $30 - Yay for a little over half a tank of gas!

Total Expenditure today: $172 Whoo! Money spent, baybee! Fun times! I didn’t need all that money anyway, and I certainly don’t need to work to replace it. Thanks, Kohl’s, for scheduling me so much, by the way!

On another note, all this talking with Brer has made me feel all guilty again, and I’m trying his books. I’m keeping notes! I might type up my impressions at some point, but not right now, cause, you know, Tactics. But I’m going to be doing that in bed for the next couple of days. I don’t have high hopes. I’m sorry, love. They just don’t seem fun… but we’ll see what happens.

So I saw they had the entire Orange Island series of Pokemon in a little DVD set for 27 dollars at Best Buy today, and I was like… it took all kinds of restraint not to buy it. But the whole “not working” thing combined with the whole “Still have half of Sam and Max on DVD that I haven’t watched” thing made me balk on it. Oh well. The last thing I need is Pokemon on DVD, but I wants it.

So last night, after so much searching for a clan with, like, people in it, random conversations with Cristiona (Twilight Heroes chat moderator who has quickly become a really good friend, for those who don’t know) have caused me to join her softcore character’s clan, the Ernest Borg Nine. I don’t think there are nine members, though. Anyway, so I look forward to seeing if her’s is more happening than my old furry clan with seemingly nobody in it. Worst Case Scenario: I get meat instead of snack machine chips. Best Case Scenario: I get to be part of an awesome clan. She also invited me in so that I could give their instance of Hobopolis a try. I probably will, though I will wait until the end of this run. I’m perming Tao, so I need to level anyway, and I can dive in with my extra turns and see what hobos I can kill. Maybe I’ll get so addicted I’ll see it till the end! Or maybe not. Who knows?
The important thing is, though, that I am making a lot of in-game money. With my recent switch to actually using fortune cookies to control semi-rares (thanks, once again, to Cris for hooking me up with a Greasemonkey Script to make it possible) I’ve been farming Lunchboxen to sell. Those things sell for 50,000 meat, which is just… insane. That’s a lot of meat. So I’ve been getting one of those every other day (The way semi-rares work, I can’t get two of the same one in a row) to sell, and then some distilled fortified wines for myself. I’ve also been selling all the feathers I’ve been making in Form of… Bird!, which is nice, since the way I get them, it doesn’t really affect what I do, so it’s kinda free money… that added to my pepsi point funds… well, I’ve got a lot of meat again! Unfortunately, I think I’ve got basically everything in the past that’s in my price range. Heh. So I’ll just be saving it for a rainy day, I suppose.

Spaeth is over here, and we were talking DnD! We were even going to make characters, (Jonathan was thinking of naming his character “Loinrender”) but got distracted by Star Trek movies. Oh well, so it goes.

I also learned that Tactics Advance 2 comes out next week. Dammit. I’m not going to have near enough time with Etrian 2…

I have Etrian Odyssey 2. I’ve been grinding, and my party just hit level 10, and I still don’t think I can take on the first F.O.E. Grindgrindgrind!
Oh, whooo! I beat one! Only after throwing every single one of my character’s desperation limit-breaky moves at it, though. Which I only had up because I had done grinding for like 20 minutes before hand. Man, I make this game sound so appealing, don’t I?

Well, it is. Why? Because it’s a very customizable experience. Most people don’t think it strange to get joy out of grinding in FFT or FFV for hours to get their own special weird combinations of powers, right? That’s just fun. This is the same way. I can hire anyone I want, and mix up any weird party I’d like, and have at it. See what happens. See if I can survive a very harsh and hardcore game with that group. Etc. It is fun. It’s a neat game. But if you don’t find those sorts of aspects appealing and hate dungeon crawling, stay far, far away.

Still, I went with a Protector and War Magus for my front line. I’m learning Protectors suck balls, though. I hope I can make it work out. My back line is a Troubadour, Gunner, and Medic. I’m sad they took away the Troubadour’s TP regen song, but he’s still pretty nice. He’s also the only male in my party. Heh. Anyway, I’m going to keep rambling about it and asking for advice on Talking Time and seeming like a complete n00b, even though I’ve played the first one. Fun times!

Anyway, I gotta see how far I can get before Civilization Revolution came out, as that’s next on the game-buying agenda. CivRev team? Your demo completely sold me this game, by the way. Totally off my radar, then, bored, I played your demo? And now I literally cannot wait. I hope your claims that the DS version’s gameplay is exactly the same as the 360 version besides interface tweaks holds true, because that is exactly, exactly what I want.