Friday, March 07, 2008

| N+

Trailer

I met with Jon and Janice for a drink while they had a stopover in Los Ang-a-leez tonight (they're on their way to Costa Rica) and we were shootin' the shit and I mentioned N+ for X-Box Live Arcade and he'd never heard of it!?! Shit is rad. It's an update of the computer game N which is free for mac and pc.

It's a great game! Puzzle/action thingy sorta like Lode Runner if you guys remember that one. This you only have two buttons - jump and suicide (and believe me, you'll fucking use that suicide button, dammit.) And you run around the maps trying to get to the end of them. Great description, huh?

Go here for N for free: The Way of the Ninja or if you got a console, check out the demo/trial for N+. It's a really solid update. Very smooth, addictive, goddamn frustrating, and generally cool. It's cheap to buy or go for the pc version for free, basically the same.

I thought everyone knew about this game, I was all shocked! So, just sharing.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

| Space Hulk, GW, Teardown, and You

Teardown.se Space Hulk Game 6 Feet Under

Well, it looks like GW may have thought differently about the little side project these two Swedes put together. Apparently the d/l numbers have risen so high, that GW took notice and now probably see that their IS a market for Space Hulk and they need to squash competitors in that same space.

That being said, I wouldn't doubt it was their intention all along to allow the little guys take all the time they needed for dev and use their little program to gauge the interest in their IP. Now that interest has been proven, bye-bye little guy, and now GW will sit on the IP until they feel like developing it for the DS.

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

| Mad props

I really think it is cool that some many people are sharing their D&D memories and its impact on their lives. A great tribute to the genre built by Gygax.

jr0n: No truer words have ever been said than, "Roll four six-siders, drop the lowest. I can't even imagine how many thousands of times I've done that in my life."

D>M>

Gygax, rolling 20's in the house of Pelor.

| He will be critically missed.

(Ok, last quote I have to steal on the guy. It's a good one though!)

Tuesday, March 04, 2008


That's the crazy thing, like what I'm seeing all over the internet with what people are thanking Gary Gygax for: the lasting friendships that were created over D&D. Isn't that a trip!? I guess when you're young and playing RPGs you just BOND with the people you're around. There's definitely a weird sense of comfort that you gain with people in your gaming group (at least when we were kids.) I'm SO glad that I thought it was "cool" to play RPGs. My first exposure to D&D was this crazy public-access-ish show on hobbies that had this nasty neck-beard giving tips on painting D&D miniatures and explaining D&D (it was totally 1st edition.) I remember I was blown away and SO wanted to try it out. It would be a few years (quite a few in fact) before I ever got to play in a group, but man, what a lasting impression it left.

Here's a cool comic about his passing.
Comic
And it's funny, on the news tonight there was some story about WISCONSIN and they were talking to locals about "this tragic loss" and it was about some fucking football player retiring lol. For a SECOND I thought it was about GG. Oh well.

| Heart condition? Wow, I always thought it’d be owlbears that got him.

(Also stolen.)

I heard about this through the nerd grapevine at work; someone I don't really work with, but with whom I had previously discussed D&D 4th ed in the carpool sought me out and told me.

Bummer.

My literacy-pushing uncle was bitterly disappointed when I used a B. Dalton gift certificate to buy the red box basic D&D set when I was in 4th grade. I was really into Zork, and Fighting Fantasy books so I thought this would be right up my alley. I tried reading through the set and just had no idea what the hell was going on. I lost the books.

A year later in 5th grade I used another gift certificate to buy the red box again and this time I was able to figure it out. I recruited Nathan and Paul, fellow fantasy geeks courtesy of the Bard's Tale series, and we were off and running. Most of our adventures were moronic journeys through poorly thought out cave systems. There were always a lot of 10x10 rooms with one-way doors. Over the next couple years our group expanded and contracted to include at various times Matt, Dan, Brandon, Jordan... I vaguely knew your crowd (through Eric and Alex) played but honestly you guys were scary-looking fuckers and I stayed the hell away as much as possible.

Not that we ever, ever got anywhere beyond the first five levels, but it was so much fun looking through the Companion and Master level sets (15th-25th and 26th-36th level, respectively) and drooling over the treasure, spells, and arcane rules sets. I spent an entire sleepover at Dan's house one night rolling up treasure troves from ancient dragon hoards.

Playing D&D appealed to my both my sense of storytelling and my obsessive interest in studying anything that wasn't in a school book. By the time junior high rolled around D&D was a big part of my life. When my family went to Australia for half a year in 7th grade I spent a lot of my free time doodling out epic campaign ideas in graph paper journals. Of course none of these went anywhere when I got back, but at least it kept me from going out and enjoying the Australia sunshine.

I basically met everyone in the Action Team through D&D or related activities. In the summer after 8th grade 2nd edition AD&D came out, and Paul and I sensed it was time to put away our childish Basic D&D books. We were men now and men played AD&D, dammit.
In 9th grade the old group was mostly gone except for Paul and Jordan. It was time for fresh blood and Paul was a pretty good recruiter. He pulled in Rude through their pedophiliac English teacher's class, and recruited Ja-el to play a ninja whose first action was to commit flaming seppukku, permanently scarring my ranger. In 10th grade I started going to cons with most of the rest of you bastards from the Action Team and suddenly there were a wealth of players and lots of people willing to run games. And through my first or second year of college we played a lot of D&D, especially me, Mike and JP in the dorms.

Roll four six-siders, drop the lowest. I can't even imagine how many thousands of times I've done that in my life.

At Mattel I met a few more role-players. Mattel bought a company that had bought a company that was developing an, inevitably shitty game based on these weird new 3rd ed rules that were coming. Bob, one of our lead testers summoned the geekiest of us (Denis, Laurie, Mark, Peter, Jay, and I am surely forgetting others) to a dim office and asked us if we'd be interested in reading over the new rules to prep for the shitty game shortly coming into test. Would we be interested? Hell yes, we'd be interested. I signed an NDA and remember reading a brass tack bound printout of the 3rd ed rules in Eric's good old bedroom on Elm, where few women may have set foot, but where certainly many dice were rolled.

Then some of us went to GenCon in 2000 for the big release, still my only GenCon. Playing the new game just felt so fresh and fun. It was obviously superior to the old editions in so many ways. It didn't have the texture of nostalgia but it was a great rule set. It really felt designed.

I honestly have barely played D&D since that last campaign we played, but man, I can still remember almost every detail of that campaign. That fight against the kobolds, where everybody went down except Rudy, and it all came down to a crossbow shot to kill the kobold running for the door beyond which an entire unaware tribe waited, was honestly one of the most tense and fun things I've been through in any game.

Damn, now I want to draw up a dungeon.

I could go on.

| Boo...

This is how I found out...

My Boss: Huh. I guess the inventor of Dungeons & Dragons died.
Me: Whoa?! Gary Gygax dies?!
My Boss: Uhh... Yeah that's what the article says.

Damn. The first thing to pop in my head: "It's a... *the sound of rolling dice* Pleasure to meet you!"

My first memories of the D&D fantasy world begin with Dungeon. I owned the game as a pretty young kid. 1st or 2nd grade and I didn't know how to play it for a while. Regardless, the cards were awesome and the dungeon full of adventure, heroism and mystery. I would pour over the game relentlessly and create my own fantasy stories before I knew how to play. Once I did know how to play I would play by myself for hours.

My first true D&D books, bought at the old B Dalton, were the purple cover basic set and wayyyyy beyond my comprehension skills in 2nd grade. I think Megan Steven's brother had a hand in this and Dungeon for that matter. He was a good bit older and into D&D. He had all these minis and a wooden labyrinth he had built that drew me right in.

O rugs helped introduced me to the real deal in 3rd grade. We went over some weird older kid's house only once, but that was more than enough. He had all these well worn character sheets with fantastic high level characters and he ran a little mini adventure for us. I was so in over my head. He didn't really explain the whole concept of an RPG and at first I was lost, but very quickly enchanted.

The sad thing is, that I really didn't get any consistent D&D experience until I was a Sophomore in High School. O rugs and I had interest but no one to game with that had working knowledge. Rich deliberately isolated us from the convention group for a long time, but eventually busted in during High School. Purely by accident O rugs and I came over while Elzar was over. From there it was all a natural series of progressive steps immersing into the realm as a whole. Unfortunately, by then the group had played the hell out of D&D and was moving on to other systems. By far the longest single campaign I played in was the El Segundo era.

I still very much miss D&D. It has the feel of that comfortable old chair in your favorite cozy room occasionally remembered from the salad days of childhood.

D>M>

| Gygax 0HP

Someone made those words into a microbadge at BGG. Clearly an homage in only a way that a gamer molded by many years of gaming could attempt, or appreciate, and mean in only the most kindest way.

We need some 1st Ed. gaming to pay our respect. Maybe I'll solo some Dungeon! tonight.

I still remember buying my first D&D stuff from Zak Langley's brother, Morgan in 5th grade I think, so that would be what, 1984 or so? The image that is forever burned into my memory as I discovered and poured over these new wonderous books that would TOTALLY define my existence for years to come, was Chateau d' Amberville. I will remember this image til my dying day (63 years from now).

I could seriously rattle on and on about D&D and me.

| I guess this calls for 1d6 minutes of silence.

Gary Gygax, rest in peace. (And I stole that title from someone's response in another thread, but it totally works...)

Sunday, March 02, 2008

What the hell is wrong with you Johnny!? As the dudes can attest, I'm a pro at dealing with ladies of the night.. NOT that I have actually ever DONE anything, but at conventions they seek me out and offer to pay ME for services rendered. I don't understand it, but I have not the heart to deny a damsel in disdress. (dis-dress, cuz I ask them politely to get naked my friend, oh yes.)

I don't know man, you shoulda been "would you like to have sleep with me?" and just took care of business. Take my ass to the movies man, I'll buy the fuckin' popcorn.

I can't for the life of me beat Run For The Hills or The Who song at the end of Rock Band on Hard drums. Fuck those fuckin' song. Bleh. I'm 56/58 for songs beat, and I think I shall give up and move onto guitar/vocals or something. Rented Gears of War and playing that here and there. Pretty cool. Doesn't blow my socks off but it seems pretty solid and fun so far.
hehe...

rude--- did you like my intro? At first I had How's mike first but then the effect at the end was better...

So jorn, maybe it was bordering the relationship side when you exit the bar scene that I deliberately persued. The thought of some periodic free action with a special friend makes it alluring and she was finely built for some details, if u must know, but that is all I will reveal =). Would it have ended happily if I didn't persue the movie route and had just blurted how much for the night? It plays in my head for sure. The honest and frank stench of a desperate man looking for some relief is a deadly combination of failure. (cry) I'm so pathetic...

Possibility of Princessness? of Comeandlayme island in hawaii maybe!


P.S by the way did you catch my double entendre in the paragraph? (Hint: ended happily??? == happy ending??? )

| Battle for Hill 218

The effing game has me by the balls.

Fun little computer version of a little deck of cards, filler game. I have the $6 deck of cards on order, and found that you can play this online fo fre.

The link takes you to an intro webpage with a link to a little java d/l, click it, launch it, then read the rules from in the game, and proceed to get your ass handed to you. So addicting, and yet so annoying. I have beat the AI a fair amount (meaning = quite low) of times on 'easy' but never on hard. I actually fully understand how the game works now, so I am beating the AI more regularly, and it's not that the learning curve is that high, but I just didn't FULLY understand how combat worked. A word from the wise, Pennywise that is: Heavy Weapons are sons of bitches.

Check it out for a nice diversion!

Battle For Hill 218
Johnny, your stories are hilarious.

Is there some kind of etiquette? Maybe once you take a "bar girl" on a date it indicates an exit from the typical "bar girl" relationship?

Maybe she's not actually a bar girl but is instead the princess of the phillipines? (I dunno how their government works.)

As for Mike, he seems generally fine but too busy with work. I talked to him about whether he could join Enron and I for some gamin' and his response was no, he couldn't, he had to present a paper today. Today being Sunday. That's pretty much how he is most of the time these days, hopefully things will loosen up at some point so we see more of the dude!
dude!

best part of your story then you make me think about michael anderson when I'm still half-hard from the bargirl section!?
M*A*S*H? But then again I used to watch the Andy Griffith show, giligans island, i dream of jeannie, the Munsters, almost all the old sitcoms. Something about dated filmography that's less enticing these days. Just don't have the penchant to watch anything black and white anymore or without stunning visual effects. As a kid, it was probably because there was plenty of time to blow after school especially playing hooky with homework. I DO watch a lot of discovery channel and the traveling and cooking series. Anyone? It feels like traveling also.

Eryc: downloaded Teardown and played a 5-6 missions, pretty cool, much better than the old versions in terms of control and playability. Can't say much about the graphics since everything is small scaled so there' snot much to actually see. There's no sustained fire on doors, and i've passed every mission on the first try. Kind weak AI OR i'm just brilliant. I think I got wiped on killing 30 genestealers cuz the stormbolter jammed on every turn. Sfun tho.

wtf Movies...
Movie: Assasination of Jesse James by the coward robert ford.
paid it. saw it. avoid it. (was pretty boring)

wtf again
I'm so pathetic I couldn't even get laid with a Bar girl. Not that I ever had game, but last night I got down and so I went to a bar to just "talk" with the professional ladies. Well this one acted all interested in me and we got to talkin. We got to talk about going to the movies and coincidentally we had nothing to do on sunday. So she asked me if I wanted to go. Movie went pretty well, and then she bought some clothes, oh and stuck me with the bill. Fine. Thinking now I'm her shooger daddy, I take her home to my place. But what? I get the I think I should go home now. I dropped her off. I was gonna just curb her somewhere but I'm not a dick.

How's Mike???