The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

I always talk about IoTMs, don’t I? Well, I’m interested in them. So deal.

KoL’s offering is the Sugar Fruit Fairy, which is a sort of replacement for the supposedly extremely awesome Pygmy Bugbear Shaman. I picked it up, but I am personally unexcited.
I mean, I get that gaining stats and increasing item drops are the two most important things to do in KoL to be effective and quick at it. Thus, this fairyball which effectively does both is the shit. But it’s just so unexciting to me. I mean, I appreciate playing well, but I more appreciate playing easily and entertainingly. The MP drain this creates is an annoying cost to juggle, though I admit less than I originally thought. I thought it would be a HUGE pain, but during my short test so far, putting an origami “gentleman’s” magazine on it and using Spring Raindrop Attack left me with a positive MP gain, so I suppose it’s not so bad. But it’s still something to work around. My Wizard Action Figure isn’t nearly as powerful as this, but I would be much more eager to use it if I needed a fairyball because it does nothing but good and I really appreciate the deleveling and healing it does. I feel constantly like it’s doing awesome things, whereas, after every combat, I get that MP drain reminder message with the Sugar Fairy…
I dunno, I guess it feels like I’m so easily manipulated, to let something like that sway my decisions, but dammit, I play these games to have fun. If something FEELS more fun, then I should do that, right?
Still, I’ll give this one a full 100% run like all the others, and we’ll see how it does overall. I do like it dropping buffing items, maybe those will make me love it more, though they drop really rarely. But I’m not hoping for too, too much.

First off, let me say that sometimes I make some really fucking stupid decisions. When I decided not to use the Combat Action Bars back when they were released months ago? Someone should have slapped me. That interface makes playing KoL a lot more fun when using more than one skill a combat. I mean, yes, most of the time, I am just using one skill a combat. But now that I’m diving into Hobopolis for the second time, I am using multiple skills constantly.

That’s right, I’m back in Hobopolis. The first time I tried it, things did not go very well. I learned that you can’t plink Hobos, which made my “Oh, I’ll be a Moxie class and it’ll be fine and the fact that I’m stuck with this familiar for my 100% run won’t matter too much” strategy work like shit. I ended up having to borrow a V for Vivala Mask and a Navel Ring of Navel Gazing and bum a ton of buff potions just to get to my goal, which was buying my Hobocobo. It really kind of embarrassed me, having to depend on all the help, though it did point out how completely awesome my friends in KoL and Twilight Heroes and whatnot are, which I, of course, completely appreciate.

This time, though, things were different. I was a Seal Clubber, which, as far as I’m aware, is about the best choice, as muscle classes have it easiest for most of Hobopolis (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) and I also have pretty powerful Mr. Store gear of my own, that being my Haiku Katana, which can really lay the smack down on just about everything in game. I got to pick my familiar this time, thanks to the update where I could complete my 100% run when I break the prism, instead of when I ascend, and thus am using my P.R.E.S.S.I.E. cause, well, it’s Crimbo season and it’s a pretty good familiar who is also giving me stats so I can keep improving. So I can now kill Hobos in the town square with little effort, and I’ve been working on the Hoboes at The Heap, and I seem to be able to deal with these stench-aligned ones with little problem as well. I couldn’t take the ones at the Ancient Hobo Burial Ground yet, mostly because a lot of my damage is from some Elemental boosts, so their resistance to elemental damage was really cramping my style. But I’ll get there.
The general idea is to keep killing Hobos until the Crimbo content comes out, and then re-evaluate. Until then, though, this is certainly a fun time, and I look forward to getting to buy some gear with all the Hobo Nickels I’ve been getting. Also, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the name generators. Completely. Awesome. Still, it’s pretty obvious most of the REALLY cool stuff comes from playing with many co-ordinated people. But I dunno if that’s going to happen. Heh. But you never know! It might! Still, I doubt I’ll keep this up long before I get the ascending bug again. But it would be kinda cool if I got a telescope and the level 30 trophy before I did, though. Who knows.

So the other day I finally found that this stupid thing I’ve been wanting to try is finally in open beta, so I can try it. That thing is PMOG, or Passively Multiplayer Online Game. It’s basically a Firefox extension that you install and then it attempts to turn the simple act of browsing into a game. It sounds potentially lame AND potentially awesome, and I’m proud to report that, so far, it’s been pretty awesome.

Basically, you get two datapoints for every new domain you visit in a day. These datapoints are experience AND money. What basically happens is, as you move around the game, you get money, and you use the money to buy the tools to let you do the stuff that you want to do. As you do whatever you feel like doing by using these tools, you level up in different aspects based on what you do the most in the game. You can leave crates on websites to leave people gifts, set up portals to teleport people to other places when they go to a website, lay mines to damage people who come to a website, equip armor to protect yourself from mines, deploy St. Nicks to keep people from laying mines, and finally, set up lampposts as the links in building a mission.
Missions are basically guided tours of certain topics. I saw one that showed me a bunch of iPhone/iPod Touch games, for instance, where I found out about this. So as you’re browsing a site on a topic, the game will pop up a mission that goes to that page, which you can accept if you want to find out more stuff. It’s actually pretty damn cool. Alternatively, you could find a gift there from someone, or you could get mined for going there, or whatever. You can set up your own themed missions to guide people through things, or leave gifts for awesome people who visit the same websites you do. Hell, you can even work for browsing achievements for going to certainly websites religiously.

If this sounds lame, well, you probably won’t like it. But if it sounds vaguely interesting, I highly suggest you join. And then add me as a friend. This is my profile. I’m going to keep on leveling up, and I’m sure I’ll tell you if things get better as I unlock more stuff. I’m trying to mostly be a Benefactor and leave gifts and whatnot, because I hear eventually you can get puzzle boxes where you can add trivia questions and stuff that people have to answer to open them and get the goodies. Also, I just enjoy giving out stuff. See, say, my Pouch of Many Lost Things love.

On a complete whim, I joined Twilight Heroes’s PvP system a couple nights ago by paying a few chips at the Unbranded Arena. I’m still not completely clear why I did this. I mean, I’m a Hearty-Diamond. Beating other people is about the farthest thing from my goal in these games. I’d rather buff them to high heaven. But there were a bunch of PvP items in there and I wanted to see what those items were, so before I knew it, I’d joined. After realizing it drains my in-game time and thus my Sidekick time, I went about using up the rest of my Mafia informant action and then I gave it a go.
It’s actually pretty fun.
The main reason I don’t like PvP is because it’s almost inherently picking on people in games like this. I have to go and find a target and then keep on attacking just them because, well, it would be a pain in the butt to find another target, wouldn’t it? Ryme fixed that well by having a little box of “hey, while you’re in the arena, here’s a list of 10 heroes of a similar PvP rank to you who are PvP active.” So you just click “Duel” on one of those and away you go. The game takes you out of that PvP active list if you haven’t attacked someone in a week, I think? So I know everyone on that list wants me to attempt to punch them in the face. Plus, I can only beat them up twice a day, so I couldn’t even pick on them if I wanted to. Basically, I feel like that list makes random aggression acceptable in my eyes. Perhaps that’s weird.
The other main reason I don’t PvP is because I’m not competitive. I never try to have the best and most powerful in a game or optimize the shit out of myself. I’m just in it to have fun. TH’s PvP is like an entirely different game, with a very small selection of equipment you can pick which you set aside in a locker and don’t actually have to equip. It’s just changed magically the moment a duel starts. The mechanics, too, of trying to outsmart how your opponent has set the Rock-Paper-Scissors generator is also a fun little mind-game. But basically, it’s so removed from the main game, it doesn’t have to disrupt what I’m doing over there. I don’t have to adjust my equipment every time I decide to have some PvP matches. If I lose, it’s just ruining my PvP ranking and keeping me from getting more Lambda Tokens to buy more PvP gear or just to put in my Memuseum to brag. It’s set up to be a game lifestyle choice, hopefully, eventually, but it’s also in a nice little side box so that I can go in when I’d like, and get out and get back to normal when I prefer. Compare that to something like WoW or whatnot, where you’re either completely removed from PvP or you could be attacked at any time. I like this better.
Did any of that make sense? I mean, I’ve been needing something new to do in game besides farm chips, so this is filling that role nicely as well. I think I’ll keep up the PvP at least long enough to get the PvP equipment I want, and then do an attack or two every couple of days so I can keep defending against attacks after that.
Yep. That’s my PvP ramble.

What? November IoTM Impressions? Don’t mind if I do.

Twilight Heroes has the Judo Kid Gloves on tap this month. They are… well, they look fairly unappealing at first glance. I was underwhelmed but assumed they would be fun. I was mostly right about the fun, but still, it’s very situational. Obviously, these only work if you have a steady supply of sidekickness, which is actually kind of rare for some classes who can’t summon their own in the game. You almost need the Plaid Couch to make it worthwhile. Luckily, I have 2, so I’m making good use of it. The +50% effectiveness comboed with the Mafia Informant it putting my chip drops through the roof. I’m wearing less +chip gear and getting more chips than before. It’s wonderful. The extra PP and Damage are also always appreciated. The extra PP effect can actually trigger during non-combats, too, which is just weird but neat.
Basically, though, it doesn’t do a lot. It just improves what was already good. It’ll get used if you get one, but, well, this might be an IoTM you can safely skip.

Now the Scratch ‘n’ Sniff Sticker Tome was an IoTM I was SERIOUSLY looking forward to. I’ve enjoyed all my other magic books, and I figured filling up that last slot on my Mystical Bookshelf would be really great. Not to mention the idea of a customizable weapon was just an awesome one.
I was quite disappointed.
I mean, the item is powerful, don’t get me wrong, but it’s completely just a series of buffs held back by the need to equip a weapon. That’s fine, I suppose, but it… well, I can’t seem to find many times when it would be worthwhile to load up a Scratch ‘n’ Sniff Sword with stickers and use the benefits. I mean, okay, it often would be worth it. But it’s never worth it enough for my stingy ass to use up the items. It doesn’t help it that some of the best uses for it, getting stats, are rather eclipsed by my Naughty Fortune Teller.
I mean, I suppose the real benefit of this is not in softcore, but in hardcore. There the extra stats from the Apple Stickers would be very useful, and getting a good sword with neat effects early would be more significant, since I can’t just pull my Haiku Katana or whatever. If you’re in hardcore, I’m sure it’s a great help. But for someone all softcore like me… it just feels like it doesn’t do quite enough. It disappoints me.
Maybe if I’d just get over myself and use my items, though, I wouldn’t have that problem. Hm. Either way, though, “Accepts Bedazzlement” is a great-sounding enchantment, isn’t it?

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!

So, hey, remember that game I used to play? Forumwarz? Well, I stopped playing it because I hit a point where it was a needless grind for no real benefit… like, when I grind in Twilight Heroes, I’m at least earning Silver Stars for cool shit… but I had kinda gotten all the cool shit from Forumwarz, and so I stopped, only to stop in and play the new custom forums I’d missed every once and awhile.
This doesn’t mean I no longer like the game. Far from it. I think it’s a really damn good game, and you should go play it if you haven’t yet. However, endgame competition holds very little appeal for me, and once again, this was a community I was too shy to try to get into… so there was nothing there for me. So I was biding my time and every so often checking the devblog, waiting for when Episode 2 hit.

Today, they posted this. They’re going to charge money for the next episode! Now, I’m sure like many internet people, I immediately had a kneejerk reaction against it when I read the title… but moments after, I realized I was going to drop the 10 bucks to play it without any hesitation. If they deliver on giving as much content as Episode 1 with new, awesome features, it is completely worth that money. I drop 10 dollars on IoTMs in KoL and Twilight Heroes basically every month, and get much less content in return. I also buy 60 dollar games with similar lengths of gameplay, and I honestly enjoy these sorts of browser RPGs close to if not as much. Add all that to the fact that people making things so awesome deserve to get paid for it, and it’s a no-brainer to drop 10 bucks on more content.

I donate for KoL and TH IoTMs for two reasons. 1, often the items are fun and, you know, I like fun. That fun also helps to keep my interest in the game, for often, by the time I feel like I’ve completely wrung the fun out of what a particular IoTM has to offer me, there’s a new one ready for me to pick up and try. Reason 2, though, is that I think Ryme and Jick’s team deserve to get paid for making something that gives me so much enjoyment every month. I love free as much as the next person, but they deserve it. So I give it to them. At least for as long as I’m not budget-crunched enough for it to be an issue.

Forumwarz is not designed well for that sort of content, the sort of small monthly, fun perk content that you could get a constant stream of donations for. I really think that might have hurt them. I honestly don’t know what they would put out that would seem worth it, especially with all the custom forums, but if they, I dunno, could come up with a custom quest with a cool reward every month, I very well might add them to the list of monthly donations as well. But again, that seems hard. Forumwarz has items, but they’re not… they’re not impressive. They affect the game. They’re important. But they’re not publicly visible, they don’t change how combat looks in any way… they don’t currently do the kind of cool things that, say, one of my KoL items does. I think it would be hard to design monthly paid-unlock quests into cool rewards within the current system that would be worth it. I’m not surprised they haven’t done it.
They have their vision, and I’m glad they have the guts to stick to it and stick with it and keep making an amazing game the way they want to. I’m also proud of them for making the hard decision to put this next episode up for pay. I want them to be successful. I will be picking it up the moment I notice it out, and I will probably be buying a second character to try out another character class all the way through around then as well. I’m thinking Camwhore… I mean, they’re coming out with the new Hacker class, but I dunno. I have no doubt they’ll make it great, but Camwhore just seems more entertaining. Heh.

Anyway, I thought that a really interesting decision, and even though I commented on their blog, I wanted to let myself ramble about it fuller here, because, well, the blog is for getting shit out of my head, and also because the main writing guy of forumwarz, the, um, thematically named Jalapeno Bootyhole, has commented here not once but twice. Which kinda blows my mind. Cause I continue to think this blog offers little to anyone but myself. But in case he comes back, just, you know, wanted him to see my opinion. And to say hi.
Hi Jalapeno Bootyhole!
You have a good game.
Hi.

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!

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!