The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

You know, I had the idea that, if I ever want to make a “Real blog” (Which means, I guess that this ISN’T a real blog, which is completely wrong. I mean, it’s a Blogtastic Blogfest, right?) where I actually write things people would want to read, I could make a gaming news site, wait for it, that only deals with browser-based games. So I could keep everyone up to date on news with all these browser games I play, and give me an excuse to play so many more of them. Except, you know, I don’t even have time to play what I play now. So… I guess that’s a flaw in the plan. Still, there’s only going to be more and more of these things, and it’s something niche enough that it might get an audience? I dunno. It’s probably a stupid idea.
In any case, though, it’s a new month, and I’ve kind of gotten into the habit of saying what I think about the month’s IoTMs, so I think I’ll do that, and I want to ramble about the latest Forumwarz Ep. 2 announcement as well, so I’ll do that too. But first, IoTMs.

Both of the IoTMs are kind of boring this month? But I picked up both anyway. I’ll start with Twilight Heroes, where the thing on tap is the Letter Shirt. This is a really straightforward piece of equipment, just giving decent bonuses, but that turn length reduction is the main selling point, I think, since it offers a bigger reduction at higher levels than the intensely powerful Xentrium Breastplate. That’s the main reason I got it. So basically, it’s one of those IoTMs that I talk about not normally getting, where it’s just power and no interesting stuff? But it was sort of too powerful to pass up, given that I want to help the game and that my current goal is farming. Just like Wolley’s Index, this is helpful for farming. So I got it.
The thing that really pointlessly excites me about the letter shirt, though, is the “personalized flair.” I mean, it’s really kind of simple and stupid. I can basically put any letter or a question mark on the picture of the letter shirt. People, when they look at my equipment, can see my chosen letter. It’s really simple stuff. Yet, I find it really fun. I like the idea of being able to personalize things, and fiddle with them to entertain me. This being the month after the perfect-for-that Zorromir’s Double Tower Shield, I wasn’t expecting something to throw a little bone to players who like that kind of thing (such as me) any time soon. It just makes me happy that I can pick a letter and come up with some stupid reason why my shirt says that that day. Ryme, if you give a shit about my opinion? More stuff like this, please. It’s just more fun with no gameplay impact, and that’s just fine by me. Still, more than a letter would be nice, though. Heh.

Over in KoL, we have the Disembodied Hand. This is described as the “Mad Hatrack for Weapons” and while it does equip your equipment like the Mad Hatrack, this is a completely different beast. The Mad Hatrack is kind of, in a lot of ways, the ultimate familiar. It becomes just about anything you can ever need ever, and has many great options for various effects that don’t require it to be at full weight. The Disembodied Hand is basically a pumped up attack familiar. It doesn’t do a whole lot more damage, from what I’ve seen, than a normal attack familiar. However, it does give you the effects of any enchantments on the weapon you give it. That’s the real benefit there, not being a really good familiar. Even that is kind of a situational benefit, though. There aren’t a lot of weapon enchantments worth giving up your familiar for. Still, if you were wanting extra damage, this is probably your best bet right now. And there are some neat things you can do with, say, giving it a Witty Rapier at the beginning of a run, since the hand can equip any weapon regardless of stat requirement. Or maybe something like the Club of the Five Seasons or an Immense Cyborg Hand to really crazily increase your damage at the early levels to make battles even more easy peasy and let you run more +Monster Level? Or you could, say, give it a Haiku Katana or a Bottle Rocket Crossbow if you have a ton of extra money or IoTMs on hand to get extra uses for those skills every battle? I mean, there are uses. I don’t know if there are any game-breaking uses? But it’s not useless, and it’s going to be a fun time when I do my 100% run. Still, I mean, I couldn’t recommend this to like… everyone? It’s not a perfect familiar. But it’s nice.

Okay, so, now that those IoTMs are out of the way, let’s talk Forumwarz. I got two things to say. Thing one is that I wish this poster was something I could use. I mean, I don’t feel like I have use for a poster? But I think that’s pretty completely in every way great. But that’s not really game-related. Just wanted to say it.
The Trout that is Evil posted an update on their little dev blog about the last unannounced feature in Forumwarz Episode 2. That feature is, basically, adding loot drops. I mentioned earlier how it was sort of a disadvantage to the game that they don’t have any loot in a more “active in the game” sense in previous stupid blog post. (I’m even going to link it, like you care to go back and check) This really seems to be a great and potentially hilarious vector for that sort of thing. Having to collect the equivalent of those stupid broken-into-chunks .rar files is a great idea, and the whole “oppressive DRM” concept for explaining why you can’t make infinite copies of them is also a relevant and functional narrative justification. Plus, you know, they’re a vector for serious internet humor. I fully trust these guys to write hilarious shit, find and make awesome image macros, disturbing videos, and sound clips, and who knows what to find. Plus, since you can equip them, I am hoping that they affect your attack messages in combat, making that whole “none of the items really do entertaining things in combat” complaint I had in that last blog post disappear.
Anyway, I already pre-ordered Episode 2 (How can I pass up free lengthening of my E-Peen for something I know I’m going to buy anyway?) and I really can’t wait for it to hit. All of these tweaks to the formula just seem like exactly what they needed to make an even more well-rounded experience out of what was already a pretty damn good experience. I really can’t wait.
I just hope I come up with the time to actually play through it. Damn.

So, uh… does anyone know what time it is?
Gods, I love my job.

Anyway, I’ve been feeling like shit! Yaaaaay! But I’ve been getting my stuff done. So that’s good. Also, it’s new IoTM time, I suppose. Let’s take a look at them…

In Twilight Heroes, we have a three-piece equipment set! I have the whole set, but I’ll be honest, the only piece that really thrills me is Zorromir’s Double Tower Shield, since the Battlecry ability is just plain fun. Basically, I get to make up any battlecry I want for my character to shout when I charge into battle. Right now, my battlecry is “I’m in a murderous rage, apparently!” The overall set bonus might be worth it, too, if I was actually fighting hard enemies, but I dunno. I’m not the kind of person who knows such things. I’m pretty happy with the battlecry, though. I’ll probably pick up another shield for later resale, to earn more stars and spread the battlecry love, but not the rest of the set.

In Kingdom of Loathing fronts, we have the Haiku Katana. This thing is pretty sweet. I mean, I don’t guess it’s bleeding edge? But if there’s one thing I prioritize, it’s healing, and thus I love the Spring Raindrop Attack. Haiku State of Mind is also just a complete and utter lot of fun. Since I buy things for fun more than for utility, this was kind of an instant no-brainer, thanks to that. The thing I wasn’t expecting was how good the just base enchantments on it are. I’m in a Pastamancer run right now, but since I’ve picked this thing up, I’ve basically be able to run as a muscle class, with its bonus combined with my stainless steel skullcap. I don’t know if it’ll keep up to the higher levels, but if nothing else I’m sure I’ll pull and use this sword whenever I’m grinding for stuff, to create MP for buffs and shit, and I’ll probably be dual wielding this and the origami riding crop during low-levels of a muscle class run. I kinda wish that would make sleazy haiku, though. Heh.

Anyway, I’m tired. I need this semester to be over. Wait, what? What’s that you say? It’s the second week? Ah hah hah hah hah!

Let’s start with IoTMs, shall we? First off, the KoL item, the Cotton Candy Carnie. Now, when I read what this did, Potato + Whelp, I was very excited just by that! Could it be? My two favorite familiar effects in one? There was no hesitation snapping it up. I was kinda sad when it was a Carnie, though. It makes sense, however. I just finished a run and started a 100% Hardcore Disco Bandit (For Advanced Cocktailcrafting) with him, and already I think he could easily be one of my favorite familiars. He potatoes, as advertised. He gives HP and MP at the end of battle, Whelp-style, as advertised. However, when you’re mostly full on HP and MP, he instead gives you healing items to use later, which is an awesome little tweak to make him even more awesome. He’s currently named Homespun, but I’m looking for a better name… it is kinda growing on me, though… anyway, I’m real excited to see how he plays out over the course of this run. I’m also looking forward to hopefully having a few less turns to play this run, due to the Hardcore nature. I’m feeling kinda burnt out, especially since I want to play Digital Devil Saga (which I’ll get to later).
I also want to make a quick note about my 100% Star Starfish run I just finished. I see why he’s one of the best non-IoTM familiars. I was overflowing with MP the whole run.

Over in Twilight Heroes, the IoTM is Wolly’s Index. This is… not a very exciting IoTM. No in-game content, just a really powerful effect. I normally pass up IoTMs like this, because I’m not interested in pure power. However, I picked this one up. Why? Well, because I have, over the past months, become a dedicated farmer. If that’s really what I’m going to do until new content hits, I might as well work to be the best at it I possibly can be. And that means picking up all relevant farming gear. +20% Item Drops is insanely relevant, since the highest accessory other than it is only +10%. (Well, and the Hero’s Cape, but me getting one of those isn’t happening, unless I can go back in time and convince earlier me to buy one.) So I picked one up, and I’m going to do my best to get one for investment, too, cause it will eventually be in high demand. I’m also kind of pleased that this sort of… well, I might be reading too much into it, but this sort of suggests that Ryme is dedicated to giving a Hero’s Cape equivalent to the playerbase every year (Well, with weaker effects than the MP regen, but that’s perfectly fine) which I kinda agree with. (though I was admittedly hoping for a permanent cape-type something in the Wok of Stars. Everyone wants a cape, right? Even if it’s not as badass as the Hero’s Cape?) It gives two benefits, one being that the Hero’s Cape is, by far, the most powerful IoTM, and it keeps everyone on a near level playing field while not forcing him to come up with something else that might surpass it. The other is that it had to be crazy easy on Ryme to make this IoTM. Especially after all the programming that had to be done on the plaid couch, I’m glad he could take a break and still please people. I think 1 month of break out of the year is a good idea. Don’t want him getting burned out!

So I’ve been playing Digital Devil Saga, since I picked it up from Rei since he’s, I dunno, liquidating everything he owns to get to PAX. Talking Time and Persona 3 also have gotten me all… in love with MegaTen, so I’m kinda slowly but surely picking up what I missed during the PS2 era. This game is a decent bit different from other MegaTen games, because there’s no recruiting demons and fusing them. Instead, each character is a demon, and then can take on “Mantras,” which correspond to various easily recognizable MegaTen demons stuff, and teach them their skills. Then each character has a growing number of slots to equip moves, and passive bonuses, and stuff that they learn from these Mantras Final Fantasy Fiveishly. (Though instead of equipping two categories of movies, you equip a certain number of moves total) It’s been a lot of fun, and I’ve been enjoying it, and am going to play more of it after I finish this long overdue huge-ass blogpost. I hope I beat it. It seems shorter than other games in the series (which I consider a benefit) which seems to be because there’s a “Digital Devil Saga Part 2” out there, which I may pick up if I beat this one. Anyway, it’s something to keep me happily distracted until the more awesome DS games come out in September. This and the upcoming cornucopia of awesome XBLA releases should keep me happy.

So Talking Time was talking about this anime called Xam’d: Lost Memories. They then linked to the opening, which I watched. The music was awesome and it looked interesting! So I grabbed the first couple of episodes and tried them… and really didn’t like it. But man, that song was awesome. So I looked up the band, which is called Boom Boom Satellites. They’re a JRock band with one album, and honestly, the whole thing is listen-able to me, which is very rare. There’s much better music out there? They’re not going to become one of my favorite bands? But they’re pretty good. Feel free to try them.

Last night, we had out first session of Essner’s campaign. Impressions! He did quite well for his first time, I think. HIs encounters were a little weak, but I think everyone but Jonathan wasn’t expecting “Sten the Potent” to fucking murder everyone with his trusty knife, The Stabernackle, quite as much as he did. I enjoyed playing Warlord, as I expected. It’s a pretty great class! Commander’s Strike is just a lot of fun, and I still get to heal with Inspiring Word (and now, Aid the Injured, my level 2 Utility power) and… yeah. I really like the class. I think we are going to have a crazy amount of healing, though, since Spaeth is making a Healing-focued Pally while multi-classing Cleric. If I had to make some comments, I’d make the comment that Essner was railroading us quite a bit. Do I do that? I don’t know. I try to come up with situations where they can’t help but get into my battles, but I don’t like… tell them to do this or that… but who knows, I probably do. I felt very railroaded. It didn’t really impact the fun for me, though, until he didn’t let Rachael yell at the asshole at the end and give her a piece of her mind… but eh, even then it wasn’t too much of a big deal, and I can only assume he’ll take what he learned into his next session. I’m eager to play again. Of course, that means I need to do more scheduling. Ugh. Worst part of this, let me tell you.

Before the DnD session the other day, though, we went to Champions Games, (Man, I think that’s the name. I’m doubting myself now. Something like that.) the game store run by a cool guy I used to work with named Shane. I really hope he manages to make the store work, cause it’s much closer to what a game store should be than the bleh places that always fail around here… but Cape is just incapable of keeping a game store going, so who knows. But we went in there and bought more little DnD miniatures, because they’re pretty neat and because I’m much more comfortable getting them in the little theme bags for decent prices he has them in. I got a bag of Soldiers, mostly because there were these two bad-ass guys with tower shields, and this long-haired maybe -female letting out a battle cry and holding a flag, which I thought was very badass, and I wanted to represent Rachael Sparklewhisper. I also got the bag of Lycanthropes for Essner. Essner got a random box (cause he’s weird and likes random better. There were a ton of miniatures in the box! But it cost more than my two focused bags of stuff, so I’m not planning on ever getting one) and a bag of goblins, cause we fought some goblins last night and wanted them to use. Anyway, they’re all cool, but I do think we’re quickly approaching the like… threshold of how many we’d ever need. Which makes me wonder what I’d buy when I go in there after that. Cause I want to buy things and help Shane out, but if I don’t need anything? Who knows.
Anyway, while I was there, he had all these little sheets to preorder various roleplaying books that were coming out, and I noticed a DnD 4th Edition supplement I didn’t know was coming, which is Martial Power. More ability, feat, and path options? Yes please. I might actually physically pick up a copy of that. (Whereas some other supplements coming I am interested in, but will probably use various… dishonest methods to acquire, such as this upcoming Adventurer’s Vault.) That makes, um, two DnD books I see me buying in the future (The other being the Player’s Handbook 2, for all the other classes, such as Bard, which I want… though I don’t see it on the 2008 release list, which annoys me. Oh well, it says March. Maybe for my birthday) along with the screen thingy, cause it’s not too expensive and I’d rather look at helpful information instead of Dragon Strike information (we’ve been using the Dragon Strike screen. Heh.)

I continue to have strong urges to buy expensive electronics. I was thinking about getting an iPod Touch for awhile, and now I’m all serious about buying an MSI Wind. Mmm… I should probably resist, but… it’s been awhile since I bought a new toy like that. Hmmm… eh, I’ll probably keep resisting. Who knows.

Whew, that was a fucking long one, wasn’t it? And now I’m done, and can play Digital Devil Saga. Huzzah!

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.

So I just want to talk about KoL. Sorry.
Tonight I did a bunch of research about Basementing. I would like to have a telescope. But that just seems so damn boring in a game where I feel like I have so many other goals to work for… if there was something like that in Twilight Heroes right now? I’d do it, no question. But here… maybe after I get bored of collecting skills, but not yet. No.
Other than that, though, it’s weird to me that now that I’m doing a hardcore run, I want so badly to do things with the Mall (which is one of the things you can’t do in Hardcore). I want to buy an Ancient Yuletide Troll. Why? I dunno, the carols just seem like fun, and they’re still selling for only a little over a Mr. A. How do I know this? Well, I recently found out about this nifty Mall Market Search Thing. It’s really cool! And it makes me think about picking up cheaper Mr. Store items I missed… the other maybe would probably be the Penguin Goodfella. It currently costs LESS than a Mr. A in the mall! And it’s certainly useful, if not completely impressive… but having more items to Funksling is always nice. They apparently cost meat to use, though… but weight times 3 meat… At most it’s going to get up to 40 pounds… 120 meat is nothing at all, really, in softcore, which is where I normally live. Anyway, it’s an idea. I’ve finally warmed up to the idea of Mr. Familiars, really, especially since I am in the process of loving my Mad Hatrack to death… He’s probably going to be a dedicated familiar for my hardcore excursions because he works so well and so neat, even without my Mayflower Bouquet or origami “gentlemen’s” magazine, and especially since he can’t use those anyway. Well, he can, but he’d be 1 pound of useless if he did.
At this point, in all honesty I should probably wait until there’s an Item of the Month I don’t want, and then pick one of these up instead… but who knows. It’s almost my birthday. I might give in and treat myself. We’ll see.

I still think the Virtual Reality Helmet is really boring, though. I had this rant at Brer, but I think I’m going to try to sort of… sum it up… basically, as far as what I will and won’t donate for in these sorts of games… I want to be entertained. That’s why I play. I play because it’s fun, and if you’re making a game that’s fun, I am more than willing to support you by slipping you some cash. I don’t think, however, it’s unfair of me to ask for some in-game benefit, and that’s where the items of the month (and, in the case of Forumwarz, removing the annoying ads) comes in. When I get such an item, though, I’m not in it to be better, faster, stronger, whatever. I want more entertaining things to do. The Virtual Reality Helmet makes me better at things I can already do in the game. This is boring, and I do not want it. The Hero’s Cape, an item so expensive and so coveted right now, is boring to me. It lets me cast more spells, but I can already cast spells. Unlike some players, I don’t MIND burning turns resting. There’s always more I can do tomorrow. Now, the Pouch of Many Lost Things, the one donation item I DO have in Twilight Heroes, now that is fun. It lets me do something I couldn’t do otherwise. It gives me fun little buffs with fun little descriptions. The buffs themselves may not be special, but the fact is that not everyone has a pouch. Especially as time goes on, those who have one will become less and less, and those buffs will become more and more unique, and I can help people out by buffing them with them. This is really appealing, and the fact that it gives you a bonus effect for buffing someone else (Toasty Heart) just makes it all the cooler. That is something new and different I couldn’t do before, so I wanted it. Granted, there are powergaming benefits, too. The Lost Remote Controls and Lost Toys are really damn useful to cut down on turns resting, and before I dump the pouch out its a fairly effective piece of farming equipment.
Does this translate over into my KoL acquisitions? I believe so, although for different reasons in most cases. Most KoL items I have picked up because they entertain me. Sure, they offer game benefits as well, but I’d be lying if I told you I picked up a Crimbo P.R.E.S.S.I.E. for any reason other than the Can Has Cyborger buff and all the humor that comes with it. I picked up the Mad Hatrack because it does so many different things, and has so many different messages for me to see and laugh at. Naughty Origami Kit was a combination of loving the magazine messages and liking the whole mechanic of one item being many, and you can keep changing it about at the cost of damage. That’s something nothing else in the game does, so it interests me. Compare this to some of the high-powered items I have passed up. The Libram of Divine Favors is crazy powerful, but I can do everything it does by other means, although not as well. The Green Pixie I found kind of boring, thematically, and although there is a lot of content in the Worm Wood, which you’d think I’d want, I can get there easily just by buying tiny bottles of absinthe in the mall (where they’re selling for a mere 200 meat), if I ever want to experience it a few times and get the outfit there. After that, I doubt I’d be the sort of person to want to farm Not-A-Pipes, so I really don’t need extended access.
Does my theory make sense? I’m not saying Ryme and the KoL guys should NOT make items that are just powerful. They obviously sell, and get people who enjoy the fun of investing in and playing the market to buy more of them. I want them to succeed, so if that gets them more money, they should have at it. But if you want my money, you need to give me the silly stuff. The fun stuff. The enjoyable stuff that I can smile at again and again. Every time I return a lost item to someone, or try out a new hat to see what my Mad Hatrack does and how useful it is, I am getting all the benefits I could really ask for. I’ll keep getting those items of the month.

Wow, that turned into quite a rant. I just wanted to mention one more thing. This about card games, specifically the World of Warcraft card game. Tycho posted a short description of him running the Molten Core raid deck with Gabe and friends. I realized then and there how badly I wanted that experience. It’s… it would be like playing something like Arkham Horror or some such, only totally a collectable card game. I want to play! But I don’t want to invest in the WoW card game that much… Gathering Ground sells WoW singles at non-crazy prices, though… so a plan has entered my head based around making several people order up just one deck, shouldn’t cost them more than 10, 15 bucks if they don’t buy any crazy rares. This deck would be the kind of character they’d like to play in a WoW raid. I’d do a shaman deck, Jonathan would tank, whatever… and then we’d just use those decks just to play the new Raid decks as they come out. Maybe buy a few more singles to spruce them up, but have no other connection to the card game.
This is probably completely a dream, but I can hope. I really want to give those three raid decks a try.