The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

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!

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.

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.

I am a special, special snowflake.

My opinion, as an amazingly special snowflake, is that every online shooter should have Mercenary Team Deathmatch. I mean, the ability to make a party of friends and have them follow you around and always be on your team? It’s a damn amazing, feature, and any game that doesn’t have it and expects to have people playing it online? They’re fools. But by creating this party system, you create another problem for casual players like me who just want to shoot people for a few rounds every week or so. These parties of clan members who play nothing but these games roam around, and the chances of you not getting in a game with them are slim. If you are lucky enough to be on their team, you’re useless but win. If you’re not, you’re useless and lose. The ability gap is too big most of the time. Call of Duty 4’s solution is this Mercenary Team Deathmatch. It’s just Team Deathmatch, but you can’t bring parties into it. The change is immediately felt. I can get a 1 to 1 kill to death ratio in this hopper, which is all I want, really. I am so rarely overwhelmed. The power-players stay out of this hopper, because the power-players are playing with their power-playing team against other power-playing teams. It is just the perfect mode for me, and I think anyone who casually wants to play online shooters alone. Every game should have this, just like every game should have a party system.

Then again, maybe CoD4 is just so awesome in multiplayer that it’s keeping my interest no matter what. CoD4 multiplayer is currently my podcast game of choice. As in, you know, game I play while listening to podcasts. That’ll probably change Tuesday when I pick up Etrian 2, though. That’s a pretty good podcast-listening game. All nice and grindy and stuff.

Anyway, the important part is, you know, that I’m a special, special snowflake. Whoooo!

So today I, perhaps pointlessly, bought a copy of the Player’s Handbook for 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons. Also, I didn’t look at it and instead got caught up in my other book, When You Are Engulfed In Flames, which Essner got me for a several months old birthday present and is completely awesome. But anyway, so when talking about that with Brer, and such, and we’re been talking about the Shadowrun attempt that went down and really was kinda boring in my eyes and the idea of me GMing something… and I want to do something fun, you know? I could do it, but I don’t want work. I want to enjoy it, through and through. Something fun. That’s what I kept saying.

So here are some ideas that are fun.
Bunnies and Burrows: Granted, I think I would rather be a PC telling bunny folktales, but I would love to just see this in action. I have no ideas for it or anything, no grand story arc plan, and I think the GURPS rules are kinda lame and stupid. I don’t care. Bunnies. Burrows. Yes.
Pokethuhlu: I would run this. For reals. I would have a blast. For Reals. Basically any way to play a children’s TV show I would be ecstatic about. I remember planning a whole horrible Yu-Gi-Oh GX campaign that would be so horribly awesome.
Primetime Adventures: I think this would work less without the LARPing aspect, but would probably still run fine. Of course, what the little group would actually want to do I do not know. Probably not the kids show I’d want to do. But then again, it’s all about negotiating a neat show together, isn’t it?
The Nighttime Animals Save the World: Due to the mechanics, this might not work well over the internet either. But it would be fun, yes?
BESM: I would dig out my book, wherever it be hiding, to run something like this. But again, what it would need is to heavily play on Anime stereotypes and such more so than actually… you know… telling a neat story? Sort of in the same way I’d like to do a kid’s show RPG.
Everyone is John: Well, I think it would be awesome for one night, anyway.
Paranoia: As much as I LOVE this game, I just feel like it wouldn’t work right… like… Brer says he likes the game, but I don’t feel like he’d get into it, and I don’t know the other people well enough… well, I don’t know them well enough for anything like this, really. Anyway, Paranoia is a game I don’t hate that I actually have experience with and could run. It just isn’t as exciting to me at this moment. Also, I have no fucking idea where my mom hid the book for it.

Yeah, my ideas are kinda silly, I guess. Oh well, I can dream.

So the Let’s Play has finally been completed. It ended… well, you can see for yourself. Once again, here’s the link for the start of the thing. Let’s just say I have now gotten further honors, with things such as getting 5 out of 5 Parish heads. That’s intense.
As far as doing another? I’m going to be lazy for a few weeks, and then, if I feel the need for mass public approval once again, will order The King in Yellow and do a play-through of that. That is the plan. But the fact that I got this done is awesome. I never finish projects. I’m so proud of me. I’m giving me a pat on the back. Pat Pat Pat.

Now I turn my attention to Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, which is as awesome as it is completely confusing. I have a FAQ open at all times while playing it. But it’s fun, and I’ve got nothing to play until Etrian 2 comes out, so I might as well try to blaze through as much as I can.
Honestly, I wish there was a good Megaten game on, say, the DS. I would eat that shit up and beat the crap out of it. The only portable whatever I’ve heard of is DemiKids, and that’s impossible to find and not really what I’m looking for. I’d like it, though. Maybe they could translate the originals and put them on a DS cart or something. I can hope. Not that it’ll do me much good, but I can hope.

Anyway, uh, that’s what I’ve been doing. Fun times, eh?

So I’m playing my Hardcore Pastamancer 100% Hatrack run, right? And it’s going really badly. I can’t kill anything, can’t get anything done, and have run out of easy tasks to do. Ugh. Really bad. Finally, I just say “fuck it,” and blow a rainbow of Candy Hearts and a cheap studded belt to attempt to kill the Knob Goblin King, and pull it off. Suddenly, I have the Crown, and with it, a way to make my Mad Hatrack a half Ghuol half Barrrnacle. It was like the rain stopped, sunlight poured down, and happy music began to play, because suddenly I could kill things again. If he did the delevel, I could kill stuff with my normal attack, and if he didn’t, I actually had enough MP for Ravioli Shurikens. Man, I love Ghuol-based familiars, and deleveling really does make a difference. Things are looking up!
Moral of the Story: I have these special consumable-summoning skills for a fucking reason, I shouldn’t be so hesitant to blow candy hearts and such on things, because I will almost always have too many unless I am running them constantly.

Well, my Let’s Play is coming to a close, which is why I haven’t been posting here. It’s been called “Solid Gold Win” so I suppose that’s means it’s been successful. It’s been fun writing stuff on a regular basis and getting such great feedback, but I can’t say I’m not unhappy it’s almost over. A shame I’m probably going to lose the game, though… I’m going to post more story bits tonight, and try to finish it up with ultimate epic conflict tomorrow. Fun times.

Speaking of fun times, I finally opened up that sealed copy of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne sitting on my desk, and started playing. It’s been good so far, although I just know the game is going to start ramping up in difficulty instead of staying about here or slightly higher, where I would like it. Oh well, there’s nothing coming out this summer like… at all… besides Tactics Advanced 2… so I have plenty of time to see if I can’t work through it. Fun times!

Did I mention fun times!

Anyway, there’s that update I should have been making.

I mean, I knew this before I started, but seriously, now that I’m doing one, it is a lot of work.
I’ve been doing so much worrying about it, as well. I started it, and then Parish put a “Okay, enough with the stupid Let’s Plays” post, which, granted, was probably not directed at me, but it put the pressure on. And then I was checking rules and making sure the fiction-y bits were okay… so much so that I kept waking up constantly last night worrying about Arkham die rolls and rules, and didn’t get any sleep.
But yeah, I think it’s turning out okay. It’s this thread on Talking Time. My Arkham Horror Let’s Play, full of rules information and little creative bits fleshing out the back story of the investigators. Follow it. Tell me what you think of it, and tell me I know the rules wrong, because I’ve already had one big rule oversight pointed out to me. My pride as a rule whore has been tarnished. Still, though a lot of work, it is pretty fun. I mean, I’ve been working on it basically non-stop since I started it. I’m really tired. I have a week of work ahead of me. But still, it’s worth it to actually accomplish something, and to have people there with that push to make sure I get something done I start. I’m glad I’m doing it.
I just hope the game doesn’t run TOO long. I’d like to be done with this sometime next week. Heh.

So that whole me starting writing thing? Yeah, that hasn’t happened. I was going to on Monday, but then I got distracted and eh… I should. I know I should. But I also just want to have fun and my mind is working in Small Souls, not Role-Playing. I suck at projects.

But other than that, what else is going on, you say? Why, I checked my grades for the semester, and escaped with a 3.25 GPA, which, at this point, is perfectly perfectly fine with me. I could do better. I know I could. But at least I’m getting things DONE. That’s all I want. As long as I’m passing these classes with decent grades so I can graduate in December, I have succeeded in my book. So huzzah! Something like that!

I also got the “I Love A Parade” trophy in KoL last night, which means I’ve almost completed my 11th Post NS-13 ascension. Neat! Or something like that. I should hopefully be done with this one within the week, unless I decide to get the red balloon of valor. Which I might. Doing such things is really good for profits, and possibly getting another Natty Blue wouldn’t be a bad thing… I do sort of want a full set before I start selling them. You never know when I might decide to do a farm and level to basement thing. I do want to at least get the first level of telescope sometime. Probably will never get any more than that, though. Heh. Basementing holds no appeal for me besides that piece of campground equipment. Anyway, I’ve made up my mind that my next run is a no-path Hardcore Pastamancer run for Pastamastery and the stainless steel solitaire. So wish me luck with that… hopefully being no-path means the run will go much faster than previous pathed hardcore runs… that’ll bring my list of hardcore skills to Pastamastery, Amphibian Sympathy, and Cannelloni Cocoon. Oh, and Summon “Tasteful” Gifts and Summon Candy Hearts, I suppose. That’s a pretty decent loadout for my un-optimal play style.
Man, just looking at that Plexiglass pith helmet… it is godly. I’d like it. But man, I’d have to do another Hardcore Oxy run to get it. Fuck that.

On the gaming front, apparently Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness comes out next week? I guess I finally need to make the decision on where I’m going to pick the game up. Since your character carries over, it’s going to be forever. It’s basically down to getting achievements on the 360 vs what I assume will be more flexible download rights granted to me on the PC. The fact that they made their own download service, however, makes me wary… not because I don’t trust them but because, I dunno, I use Steam pretty much exclusively for such things. I don’t for Sam and Max (and, whenever it comes out, Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People) because they offer me that sweet deal where they send me a physical copy after the season ends for no charge but shipping. (However, they’ve completely met and exceeded my expectations. Their copy protection is low to no hassle, and they let me re-download whenever I’d like and install wherever I’d like. That’s how DRM should be.) Rain-Slick won’t be offering me such a deal. Also, achievements, and the fact that the real-time RPG combat seems like it would work better with a gamepad… I don’t know. I’ll think about it some more. Either way I’m buying it next Wednesday, though. I also have a feeling that it might come down to me being too lazy to run out and buy a Microsoft Funmoney card.

I also have added homebrew capabilities to my DS… well, I ordered stuff to add them to my DS. It hasn’t gotten in yet. Why? It was pretty much solely because of this: Lone Wolf DS. That shit just looks like a lot of fun, and on the DS is a form in which I could consume it. Loki is doing an awesome Let’s Play of the book version on Talking Time here, and it’s all awesome. I wanna play too! But yeah, after I play that, I guess I need to look for other sweet, sweet homebrew stuff. Anyone know of any awesome homebrew games or programs for the DS?

Ah, I found a thread discussing the DRM on Greenhouse games. That doesn’t sound too bad, but I think I prefer Telltale’s system. Or Steam. I like Steam.

In fact, I just bought a new game on Steam, Everyday Shooter. It was going to be a PC game, and then Sony paid him fat stacks of cash to make it a PS3 exclusive, and now, out of nowhere, it got released on PC, so I plugged in my 360 controller and have been playing it. The basic description of it is if you like music arty kinda games like, say, Rez, and you don’t mind Robotron-style shooters, this game is for you. The problems I have with it is that it’s too hardcore. I’m quickly becoming more and more a casual gamer, which is fine by me, as long as I’m having fun. Robotron-style shooters are some of the most hardcore games about, and this is kind of hardcore in some levels too. I just want to turn on this “Shuffle” mode, which picks the various songs/levels in a random order so I can see everything, and turn my max lives up to maximum, which I assume to be 9, just so I can enjoy the whole game with no stress. To do that, however, I have to beat the game several times and collect many, many points to unlock all this stuff. That’s… not what I want to be doing. Replaying level 2 over and over is the quickest way to get these points, and I’ve been doing that, but I just want to experience the game, not have to grind to play the game the way I want to. I wish there was some sort of code I could use to just unlock everything, but I’m not aware of any. Still, it was totally worth 9 bucks. You should look into it if you missed it on the PS3 like I did.

I guess that’s about all I have to say for now. Huzzah! Or something!

So if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that I will never do a puzzle in a book or something unless I’m CRAZY BORED, but I will do sudoku and crossword puzzles and such all day long if they’re on the DS. Why is that?
Well, 1, I’ve sort of trained myself to get my entertainment that way. I’ve never filled out books of puzzles, I’ve always played video games. When I’m bored, I turn on my DS. Just having it there makes me more likely do turn to it and do it.
I think the main reason is, though, that these games tell me if I’m wrong. I’ve done some sudoku on paper, and had the whole thing ruined because I made a stupid mistake that I didn’t notice. With these games, when I make a stupid mistake, it makes a little noise and puts it in red to let me know I’m completely wrong. Yes, this makes the puzzles easier, but it also significantly reduces my frustration. I hate frustration. I have more fun when there’s no chance of being frustrated. Thus, I have more fun playing these Touch Generations puzzle games on my DS.
Also, yes, this means I bought Crossword DS. It’s really quite awesome. I mean, as far as a crossword puzzle game goes, but actually, from what I’m hearing, it leaves something to be desired for the hardcore crossword fan… people on Talking Time were saying “I do the NYT crossword puzzle all the time, and the lack of theme and lame hints just make this no fun.” Personally, the clues on the harder puzzles are exactly where I need them. Enough to stump me once and awhile, but there are always things I can figure out around the tough ones so that I’m always making progress. Plus, if I seriously get stuck, I have hints or can just guess at letters. See? Having it digitally is useful! Add this to the fact that it has a really great interface and I feel like it was worth 20 bucks. If you’re one of those people who bought your mom a DS for Brain Age or whatever, I think they would really get into a game like this… though get them Picross first. Picross is awesome. It made me sad when I saw those copies of it on clearance at Toys R Us… wanted to hug them and take them home with me…