Happy New Year's everyone! We're in Melbourne. The weather has gone crazy and it's 40 degrees Celsius which is 300 Fahrenheit or so. It's New Year's in a couple of hours so we're going to wander down to Federation Square, where they've got a fireworks display. (We're staying near the city center, so it's a quick walk.)

Australia is great!

| RLTSBDC

Things going on in my life right now -



Work is definitely getting a little frustrating. I feel I'm getting a little complacent with my old age with dealing with people. Or just not dealing with them at all. Work-wise things are alright. I'm pretty good at the job. So far, I managed to correct our inventory issue, generate new marketing plans, and brought on some new business. Month to month our revenues have been steadily increasing by about 10-15%. Next year, I expect some of my larger deals to pan out, which will basically put our company on the roadmap as far as our pie-share. Somehow though, I have not made any significant friends at work. I don't want to be well-liked, not running for president. Work isn't a place for a popularity contest. But I certainly dont want to be one of the un-liked or at least not so popular persons. On the brighter side, I am a really organized person. My cubicle is spotless and everything is neatly squared away. One of my co-workers brought a Hello Kitty Toaster oven. Nothing beats the smell of toasted bread in the morning especially in the office.



Dating scene - Gonna try taking up salsa dancing and then signing on to Date.com. A friend told me that stuff really works. On the other hand, I really dig this chick in Washington DC but with her job there and mine here, I doubt either one of us would be interested in moving. Provided that we even start dating. Salsa, though is a great way to meet some Latina ladies so i heard.



WOW - Saw a documentary on addicted gamers who spend every minute of their time online, raiding, leveling, grinding etc. The show was actually filmed before TBC where levels were capped at 60, and before the vanilla days. It doesn't really scare me from going back to playing, and with every work related stress issue, I edge ever so closer to the virtual world.

| RDWHAHB

Jael, shoot me a txt from whatever phone you use and then I'll update my phone! I love to txt.

Happy New Years everyone! Be safe tomorrow and have fun. I think I'll be playing it low-key as usual this year.

Started up my first batch of beer last weekend - it's fermenting away. Brown Porter. I had a couple stages of hops and used an extract. In about a week or so I'll rack it to the 2nd fermenter. So should be ready by the con! :) I've already learned so much doing this one batch and I'm itching to do my next.

Relax, don't worry, have a home brew.

PS: check out the Pliny the Edgar reviews on BA - UNCRER - I'm gonna get some more this weekend. I think it was $5 or $6 a bottle. Bevmo doesn't carry it (or apparently any of the Dog Head Fish Balls stuff) so back to Bristol Farms.

never got the text man... you gotta stop dialing those Sexting numbers! Don't get tricked. those girls don't love you, they just love money.

| Greetings form the land UP OVER ;)

Hope you guys are having an amazing honeymoon down unda! Don't overdose on Fosters and BBQ-Shrimp! :) I bet it's beautiful down there, can't wait to see the pics.

Had a X-Mas Eve EVE Game Night last night. Texted you Jael but I'm just never sure if the number I have for you is good or not. We first sampled a bunch of different brews I picked up that night then we played Dixit, Galaxy Trucker, and Ravenloft. Full game of drunken Dixit (which was pretty hilarious and strange) but then more like demo/sample versions of the last two games because everyone was too drunk/tired. Good times.

Happy Holidays!

| Sightings @ ye poopdeck

argg.... avast, no pirates in sight cap' n. Just William Shatner. Cuz he be a butt pirate. yar.

It was great seeing Aaron there... and Dave! (haven't seen that dude in ages) With his hair shaved off, i have to say they both look alike. Happy holidays to all action teamers.

| short lefts, long rights

A very Actiony Greeting from the land down under! This is first time on the internet in quite a while so pardon me if my elite-speak is rusty, etc.

Notes:
- driving on the left side of the road is no joke, but I'm getting used to it. among many other factors that make it confusing is that all of a sudden the right eye is flooded with vastly more visual stimulus in the peripheral area than it is used to while driving. also the turn indicator is on the other side of the steering column, so I keep activating the windshield wipers.
- beer is expensive here. low-grade shit goes for a minimum of $17/six pack and anything decent is more like $20-24! can't wait for some of that cheap low-grade Mr Beer!
- food is very good here. what we would call "organic" here in Australia is pretty much just "normal food". for example, I've got a carton of orange juice in the fridge. it is 99.9% orange juice not from concentrate. eggs here are nice and orange and incredibly tasty. even McDonald's is really good (had a McMuffin that was, apparently, real egg, and "Chicken McBites" are hormone-free)
- kids are just as annoying here as in the states
- I went on a supervised dive trip in the great barrier reef and it was incredible. scuba diving is something I've always wanted to try and now I'm feeling motivated to get my certification. I hear Monterey might be a good place to do it -- Aeryk/Enron, any interest?
- probably won't be back online for a while, so merry xmas to all! if any of you are going to the Poop Deck/Mermaid then we will be calling in tomorrow

I'm supposed to go to this home-brew spot in Culver City on Tue for a free class. Picked up a book on it and have been RESEARCHING different beers by drinking them. I know I should be keeping bottles, dangit. If I can get a batch of d12 (ounce) beer ready for the con, it would be awesome to compare our different brewski-wooskis.

| - What's Grosser Than Gross?

Removing ticks from Cleo's neck. Yes, tickS.

- What's also grosser than gross? My first batch of Mr. Beer homebrew! Something went wrong somewhere along the way and it is terrible.

After reading more and more about the HB, I found a local organic HB shop and went in with the family for a visit. Learned a lot, had a lot of fun, and ended up walking out with a starter kit and some basic equipment, supplemented by a thermometer for the fermenter and a hydrometer.

My first 5 gallon batch (thats 30 22's or so!) of quality controlled, measured, and understood batch of homebrew is fermenting nicely in my garage as we speak.

I have a good feeling about this batch and will of course share it up like a mother lover when it is ready to go!

FOR SALE: 1 Mr. Beer fermenter, instructions, and 8 32 oz plastic beer bottles. Price: Free!!!

WANTED: Empty brown glass beer bottles, any size, no joke! Willing to fill some donated bottles with homebrew and return!

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Cataclysm is awesome! Its just a lot more WoW if you like that sort of thing. I'd say 85% of the starting areas have had their quests changed from vanilla to follow the Cataclysm storyline so even if you have a million characters already, it will be new for you. New skills, abilities, dungeons, equipment, quests, races, class combinations, achievements, much faster leveling, and GUILD LEVELING WITH IN GAME BENNIES just means more of a great game if you like that sort of thing. No doubt if you look you can find something broken or that you don't like about the game, but I have found the good FAR outweighs any bad, which I haven't really found any of yet.

Okay, it is really hard to get a winter hat from a singular drop in a singular dungeon that I have to queue for over 30 minutes because I'm DPS in order to finish all the winter achievements so I can get the title 'the Merrymaker'. That so far is the only bad thing I have found... :)

| How is Wow Cataclysm?

Rude: I totally agree about vegas. Although I'm surprised you only lost 40 bucks the whole trip. I find that when I go to vegas these days, my tolerence threshold for losing money has gone sky high. So instead of losing 100 bucks and swearing off vegas for a year, now I'm losing 300 and up without flinching. Meh... glad the convention costs are still the same, although I still can't tolerate the crappy expensive food.

| "Vegas, baby!" ...

Just got back from Vegas. It was exhausting. Used to love Vegas, then hated it, and am now pretty indifferent to it. I had fun but the walking is killer. I know exercise is awesome but walking up and down the strip just gets kinda old. I also drank more than I ever do anymore, and my body can't really handle it. Also, all the ambient smoke is irritating as hell. And 20-somethings, how fucking obnoxious can they get. "Vegas, baby!" That's just fucking embarrassing man, don't shout that shit out.

The huge-ass hotels and casinos are pretty awe-inspiring. Can't believe they keep getting bigger and bigger. I hadn't been since I think Paris opened, so there were a bunch of new ones to see. But other than the size being overwhelming, there's still a cheap sleazy undertone to the whole thing and I can't imagine lasting more than a weekend there.

I didn't gamble very much. I think I probably spent all of $40 bucks playing over the weekend. $14 bucks was the most I was ever up, and that lasted all of 2 mins. Saw a bunch of shows though and they were fun.

How's life for everyone? I just got an Iphone4, (yeah a bit late to the party). So far, i have just only figured out how to sync my mail & contacts. Complicity at it's finest.















j

Vinhos was rated 8.18 on BGG! what a joke. Ok, that gives serious credibility on the accuracy of BGG ratings, although all rating systems has to some degree, prone to zealots, game proponents, and fallacies of opinion. Then again what does 8.18 mean? I tend to think 8.18 stands for how much fun the game can be, overall game playability and game mechanics. Or I tend to think it's the overall rating of # of people who played (likes the game vs dislikes the game). The problem is that more people who dislike the game, probably wouldn't rate the game either, so clearly the distribution is skewed. Assuming the other games also has the same distribution margin of error, then the scale of BGG can be a huge swing of +- by a factor of 2!

I'd like to try the VASSAL version of Alien Frontiers sometime if anyone is interested in trying it with me. The first run sold out but if I like it, might pre-order for the next batch coming out in March. Here's the rulebook: RULES

And here's the module: MODULE

Hear good stuff about it. 2-4 playaz.

The Penny Arcade guys have been all over Warmachine lately, talking about it in a few posts lately, and they did one today that's kind of funny. (Although as usual with them, reading the accompanying post makes it funnier.) Kind of weird feeling, in a way.

Anyway I'm making a couple of big resolutions this year, and one of them is to finally paint all the frickin Cygnar I've been collecting all these years. A couple of the unpainted models I have go back as far as 2004 when I bought my starter set. Keep an eye on this space, by this time next year I'm gonna have that shit done!

Also picked up Etrian Odyssey 3 today in preparation for the honeymoon. Playing a video game quietly by yourself is what people do on honeymoons, right???

[update] Oh yeah Rude, that is a good set of deals. Especially for Chaos in the Old World which I think is one of my favorite games. Maybe we could get a few people together and combine an order to get it to $100? I'd be in for the Pandemic expansion. Am tempted to pick up Thunderstone too but I put it on my game group "secret Santa" wishlist and might be getting it anyway.

Cool Stuff Inc is having a pretty nice weekend sale on boardgames. As always, you gotta spend $100 for free shipping which is tre-bummar, but otherwise, their prices are awesome:

COOL STUFF INC


Thunderstone Card Game
Was $25.99 Now $19.99


Cyclades Board Game
Was $38.99 Now $29.99


Mr. Jack Extension
Was $19.99 Now $15.99


Memoir 44 Board Game
Was $34.99 Now $27.99


Age of Conan Board Game
Was $51.99 Now $42.99


Chaos in the Old World Board Game
Was $38.99 Now $29.99


Warhammer: Invasion LCG Core Set
Was $25.99 Now $19.99


Left Center Right - LCR Dice Game
Was $9.99 Now $7.99


Left Center Right - LCR Dice Game w/ Dice Bag
Was $11.99 Now $9.99


Heroscape Collection D1: Heroes of Faerun Expansion
Was $9.99 Now $4.99


Leonardo Da Vinci Board Game
Was $35.99 Now $9.99


Pandemic Board Game
Was $22.99 Now $17.99


Pandemic: On the Brink Expansion
Was $19.49 Now $14.99

That reminds me of the upcoming movie "I Am Number 4" being produced by Michael Bay and Spielbergo. It's based on fake YA written by that fuck James Frey and another ghost writer using a fake name. Anyways, they produce this YA strictly to create franchises and to license movie and various other rights out. So for I Am No 4, they'd sold the rights to Bay/Spiel before it was finished being written, and Spielberg told them to add more detail to the main sword in the story so it would be easier to market as a toy. Shady mother fuckers, one and all.

I still need to find out if I got the vacation time I requested for Gen Con. I'll know for sure before any of the deadlines come up. But I asked for the week off around it so I should be a yes.

Well, Irvin saw the writing on the wall sometime around that time. He bailed after ESB due to creative differences with Lucas's due to his focus of merchandising over substance. He probably hated that line too. In other words, our berating of the Han line is really a celebration of his vision willingness to uphold his artistic integrity.

D>M>

Not the day to be talkin' smack about Empire, kids! R.I.P. Irvin Kershner, director of the last great Star Wars movie.

| Gen-Ghis-Khan

Yeah, not all of the lines are so brilliant in the SW series. We can just assume it's Lucas's fault.

jr0n, I am in like Flynn. It's time for the pilgramage. I believe Pump is still in. At least last he was up he was game. I believe Peter "Panzerfaust" is interested too. T'will be great fun no doubt.

I hope everyone had a great T day. I can't believe how much work it was making the entire meal myself this year. Gives me new respect for people that do it that way every year.

D>M>

Those lines prove that Han Solo believes in Jesus.

"Your tonton will freeze before you hit the first marker."

"Then I'll see you in hell!"

Good one, Han. Good one.

| important GenCon dates!

All right, so we're not SUPER close, but we're getting there:

# Badge Pre-Registration begins Sunday, January 24, 2010 at 12:00 noon (Eastern).
# Housing opens Tuesday, January 26, 2010 at 12:00 noon (Eastern).

GenCon runs Aug 4-7.

We'll have to know who all is going by the time housing opens and then have somebody who will be able to register us that day.

Who is definitely in? I am!

| WARNING DON'T EVER BUY AN HP LAPTOP

I owned an acer before owning this HP DV9825NR. The worst problem it ever had was having to replace the keyboard every year. I dropped that thing several times and warped the case, but took a licking and kept on ticking.

After only a year and half, my HP LAPTOP is starting to fritz for no reason. Apparently the nvidia 8600 series 8m on board GPU is the culprit. The laptop gets hot and loosens the solder or something on the motherboard. So my screen is intermittently black and showing wierd verticle lines. Whats even WORSE, is called HP tech support and they can't do anything about it. Apparently HP hasn't deemed this problem bad enough to issue a recall. Well, it's more like they are unwilling to do a recall, since it would cost them Tens of millions to fix this particular problem as it involves removing the board and replacing the GPU chip probably. And that's tough because then they would have to sue Nvidia.

Next time i'm buying a simple laptop without Nvidia graphic chips. Who needs high graphics performance on a laptop anyway. I do use a few Autocad / photoshop apps, but i could live with the occassional slow performance.

Blame it on Blizzard and Wow, since i bought this laptop thinking I may at some point load that game on this computer.

You applied your old WoW Auction House skillz to this new game. See, ONE good thing that came out of WoW!

OH just a hunch.

I played a boardgame called Masters of venice yesterday. It took about 4 hours before we called it. We were about 80% done. The game mechanics included a stock market, commodity trading, and some quest fulfillment to obtain points. It was basically a big old market trading type game which I really enjoyed. And it was really well done in that regards with certain commodities soaring in value under high player demand while lesser commodities lagged. You had to anticipate which commodies players were going for and get in on it.

The biggest problem with the game though, is that there were a few balance issues that the developers could have spent a little more test play and time on to iron it out. Example, each player is supposed to select a job in the beginning (like puerto rico), but the jobs are definitely unequal in value. Some jobs are absolutely worthless to get. The first player ALWAYS selected the tax collector as that job was optimal in money intake/turn. The Wood commodity which was supposed to be a low-cost abundant commodity turned out to be the most rare. Which sucked because a lot of the quests that I GOT required wood and it was almost impossible to obtain.

I ended up winning the game because I monopolized a lot of the cheap stocks and then luckily the commodity prices drove up and made a huge profit windfall.

Masters of Venice
Gameplay: 8 stars/10 stars
Balance fixes: 4 stars/ 10 stars

What makes you think that? :P

I dub the Action team, officially the game Addict team.

Steam Sale day two has a gnarly Indie Story pack for $5 bucks that has Reccetear and Puzzle Agent in it - totally worth it for those two games alone.

| Holy Fudge!

Now's the time kids, get all 3 WoW expansions for $20, TOTAL. (Battle Pack + Wrath of the Lich King).

| teh internets

SMB (Super Meat Boy) is fantastic. I was just playing a level in the "dark world" (harder versions of the normal levels) and I kept getting a bandaid (hard to get collectables) but it seemed to be glitching out and not giving me credit for it. I said, fuck it, one more time, and blam - it froze up and then the screen flashed "you have unlocked teh internets", hahaha in a 8-bit looking matrix way. Then I was just back in the game - don't know if it did anything.

One of the coolest thing is that it's full of unlockable indie-games characters like the dude from Braid, Castle Crashers, and other games that are too indie for even me. The PC version has different unlockable dudes like a headcrab from Half-Life and the Minecraft dude. Pretty sweet.

| We like to dance the moshing

... what the heck was that from again? Last time I did any time "in da pit" was at the last NoFX show I went to. I went crowd surfing and promptly got dropped right on my knee. Grumble grumble stupid deceptively heavy frame mumble mumble.

Congrats on the nephew Ryan! Kids without having too much responsibility for them, yay! Let's hope for your sister's sake that the kid is not 6'15" or whatever at birth. If that were the case, a C-section would be warranted: fact.

Based on Rude's recommendation I picked up Super Meat Boy last week and hoo boy does it have me by the balls. Basically the premise is this. You are a cube of meat in a horrible, horrible world who is born to lose, but you are eternally optimistic in the face of the continuous bullshit thrown at you. It's a lot like me and my job. The game is a platformer, a bunch of levels that are really short (none take more than 15-30 seconds once you have them figured out), but very very hard (it might take you a few dozen tries to figure out how to do those 30 seconds). Really sadistically hard... although the game is "fair," in the sense that it doesn't kill you with bullshit out of the blue. Part of the fun is seeing the challenges before you and going, "fuuuuuuuuu...". So it's tough, but you can always go work on other levels if you are stuck, and there's a TON of secret bonus stuff. Bonus levels, secret characters, it's sort of awesome how many weird secrets there are to find, many of which are humorously retro or just plain weird takes on old-school gaming platform (there's a set of levels that looks like it's taking place on a gen 1 Gameboy, etc.).

Anyway, I like it! I think there's a demo, check it out!

| Mosh Dancing

- I don't think I have it in me anymore. Just too fragile and intolerant of others.

- Grats to Brandi and Drederick! And I will take it a step further and say that it is great to have a little one in the family, and EVEN BETTER if it's your own!

- Bottling my first batch of craptacular beer kit beer. Will let you know what I name it after another 9 days or so... if it's no good at all, then yes, 'Saint Ale' has my vote.

| BR in the house

Better him than Drederick Tatum, right? Haha... Honestly though, it was very strange when my sister had a kid. It's pretty cool though. A little squirt in the family. Especially one that isn't mine.

Is it lame that I would rather blog and browse the Internet while I am at a concert with Bouncing Souls playing? Just never got into their grooves. Now BR on the other hand? Well, I'll pull all the stops for that shit! They are on next. In the pit for me when that starts. Rule.

D>M>

| Update

Brandi, my sister, is having a baby with Tate McCallister, her husband. Weird.

She is due in May. More to come.

| just so ludicrous

Two shining examples of how you do an RPG special edition right:

One tabletop: Deathwatch

One CRPG: The Witcher 2

I'm down for beer making, although my time is pretty limited in the next month and a half due to the honeymoon. Maybe you guys should throw together the first batch and I'll swoop in for the tasting? :)

Also, apparently Australia is being swarmed by locusts right now.

What about St-Ale (stale)?

Thanks.

| No Sister Christian Ale?

How about "Boner In Ale"?

eLzar, I think your first mistake was booze. Then, no water was the second mistake. Oooof, you looked bad.

Not going to lie, that was a lot of beer. I was a tad rough around the edges in the AM.

Also, the kings are ridiculous. Every time I check the Hockey sites I am just stunned.

D>M>

| RB3

Not going to lie, my leg is KILLING me from playing drums all night in the wrong position. Jon, could you see about getting me a proper drummers seat, or throne as they are called, so that next time I invade your house my leg won't hurt so much? plz thx

My sore throat has returned for another round which I directly attribute to my 7.8 beers, gin and tonic, newcastle mini keg, and singing Sister Christian 5 or six times during our 5.5 hours of RB3.

I did not feel so good driving home Sunday morning.

And I sure as hell don't want to name our first brew 'Sister Christian Ale', either. Maybe 'Ol Swampy'....

| Odors Galore

eLzar "Swamp Ass" the Gozarian and Pump laid some serious evil on my apartment last night. eLzar destroyed the toilet and one or both of these jerks laid down some evil flavor mid-night. I got up about 4am and went into the hallway to find that it smelled like rotting meatballs. Uggg.

j0rn, you, eLzar and I polished off approx. 30 beers (not including the Newcastle) and 2 gin & tonics. eLzar looked real crappy when I saw him around 6:30am. I asked him how he felt and all I got from him was, "I am really tired." Also, I had several Rockband dreams last night. Eeesh...

I too enjoyed all of the games yesterday. Three-cheers to good gaming and bad diets.

Rude: The directions for getting from Japan to China were worth a real good chortle. Jet Ski across the Pacific Ocean indeed.

eLzar and I decided we are definitely going to brew some beer in the coming months. That will rule. I think jr0n was interested too. Do it!

D>M>

| WHAT'S YOUR PRICE TONIGHT!??!?

Action Team Elzar and Pumpkin visit statistics:
Hours of Rock Band played: 5.5
Avg. plays of Sister Christian per hour: .6
Beers consumed by me: 10 or 11 (lost count)
% Intensity of man-funk odor in my apartment last night: 100
This morning: 65
Right now: 08
Games played: Only 3, but all rock-solid: Roll Through the Ages, Death Angel, Thunderstone (great game Jael)

Headache/stomach grossness is starting to wear off though. Have had either Space Oddity or Sister Christian stuck in my head since waking up and had many strange Rock Band dreams. I think I'm finally gonna give Agricola a try -- I picked it up from Aeryk at Kubla but haven't broken it out yet.

Yeah man, interestingly, the kid seems more outwardly normal than his parents are, he's socialable, expresses himself clearly, and has some pretty ambitious goals planned. He shared that he would like to start an internet/software company and had a few ideas about that with his friends from school. Gee... i wonder what I was planning in high school... oh yeah, to RULE THE WORLD muhahah..

but seriously the immesurable psychosis damage done to that kid growing up with all those games... His astronomy class would be Space Hulk 3rd edition. But they are nice country folks actually.

Truday - no 21 year olds huh? what about those skeletons in the closet? Ur probably hiding in the basement playing World of Warcraft under another druid character alias, hoping that Jon and Eric doesn't find out your insane addiction. Last time I remember, didn't I try to call you out one weekend, and you were gonna try to get dennis, so we can play some heroquest? I don't think I ever heard back.

New orleans here I come! First time I'll be there, will be interesting. Then it's off to vegas for the weekend.

Jael never wants to come play with me :( I don't have any awkward 21 year olds lurking in my basement, but I do have many adventures for my cool friends, cool guys! COOL GUYS! :)

I've been watching a bunch of Games With Hayden boardgame reviews and they just crack me up. It's totally adorable and hilarious at the same time. Elrick's son will soon have to choose if he goes the agro pro-gamer Hayden path or the anti-fun Jael's new friend's creepazoid son path. :)

| Random Gaming

Dropped by a pomona gaming group this saturday. It was hosted at a private house, the husband is a ex game designer from Interplay but currently unemployed. Tough market. The wife works for a government agency. Anyways, between the two couples let's just say it's how they got so MANY games. Wall to wall, no room for decorations, family photo albums, hobbies, you know, the important stuff in life. Instead, it was decorated with boxes of cardboard joy and wooden and plastic pieces. Their 20 year old kid hates playing board games.

Jealous of your man-con :( Have fun!

Google Map Fun -
Go to google maps, get directions: japan to china
LOL

Check out #43 on the directions, ha.

NaNo is going well. It's hard but I've had a few good moments with it. I'm writing horror, and while most isn't overly scary to me, I freaked myself out pretty bad one night. That was fun :)

Super Meat Boy for XBLA is hilarious and fun but also insanely hard in ways that N+ couldn't come close to. You can unlock the ninja from N+ (plus characters from Braid, Castle Crashers, Bit Trip, and some other indie games), so that's a bonus. I'm glad I got it but it sometimes makes me so furious.

Let's get together at my place around 11:30 (I assume you guys will be hammered by then). Try and stay clear-headed enough to play some Space Alert, I've got a mind to play it! Bring Dungeon Lords too, and we can declare it Vlaada Chvatil day! "Vlaada, you made a game"

Denis, Aeryk, any need for some (slightly used) Sabol foam trays? This shit needs to get out of my house!

| ZOMG

The pending arrival of Denis to our humble abode has me all giddy! Leslie and Wylie both have work/school on Thursday and Friday so it will just be Denis and I mounting up for some hot dice on table action all day! We don't really have any sights to see in Aptos, and who really cares about the meth kids in Santa Cruz, therefore its all games all the time!

Other than a lot of WoW being separately played with headphones on in the same room, any idea for a grand gaming scheme for the SF arrival of Denis and Eric on Saturday?

SIDENOTE: Anyone want to brew a serious batch of homebrew and sort of start doing that regularly? I have a batch fermenting in the closet from a kit and have been reading a few books on the subject, it seems like a totally geek-meticulous thing that we have sort of missed going through the years. I know Enron has some experience, and I know that Jon and I pretty well ruined a batch 10+ years ago, but anyone have any interest?

It's a fascinating and very creative endeavor, it seems. And you get to drink beer and name/label it!

| current resident

print "Hello {name}, I hear it's {occasion}. On behalf of {organization}, we offer our {human emotion}!"

| Ay! Mussolini.

Thanks for the Happy BDay wish Ry. Another few thousand steps to the grave.

j0rn, I am glad you enjoyed the First Law series. Quite an accomplishment for a first writing by Joe Abercrombie. I really enjoyed the characters and the sense of dark humor in the book. Twas a shame eLzar couldn't get into it.

Off to work... Blah.

D>M>

Happy Birthday Enron, you jerk.

| Stuff

1. OK, this is cool. Most of you guys probably know I was a serious nut about Infocom text adventures back in the day. I still break 'em out and play them from time to time. And from about 1995-2002, I spent a lot of time playing modern day IF (Infocom-type games, but written in the modern day), hanging out on various usenet groups, and even took a couple stabs at writing some adventures. Nerd! Anyway one of the best IF writers by far was this guy Andrew Plotkin. He wrote several games that were both excellently crafted pieces of software (exceeding Infocom stuff from their heyday) and extremely well written. Anyway, he started a Kickstarter project to take some time off work and write a text adventure for iPhone. His goal was $8000, and he made it in one day.

2. Jumped in some random WoW dungeons with Aeryk tonight. Very, very fun. Basically you turn on that you want a dungeon and what role you are and go about your business as usual. About 10 minutes later the game gets a group together for you, you automatically teleport into the instance and start killin'. We did two random dungeons in a row and it was a total blast, not to mention XP and loot-tastic. Definitely got the itch to do more of them soon.

3. I forgot to mention, but Enron lent me this series called The First Law by Joe Abercrombie and it was really good. Definitely worth picking up if you feel like a good, fast-paced, well written, exciting, humorous and cynical fantasy series. In many ways the events of the series are intentional subversions of typical fantasy tropes. Some great characters and a really good ending to the whole thing, well worth checking out.

| Not a committment team... but The Sexy Team

Thats cuz we're sexy. oh and that's a good deal from Amazon. tempting. It's hard to do the middle ground kindof thing. It's either spend 14 hours straight or nothin! Actually, was just thinking about an idea with one of those electrical excercise devices that straps on when you play Wow - So you get excercise while also being able to feel the burn when you run from Booty bay to the Wetlands. It'll also add to the realism, like when you swing a sword it excercises your arms.



Geeky? definitely. crazy? you bet. feasible? possibly

Amazon's having a big "Get Three Games for the Price of Two" sale right now which includes a bunch of random shit, including the 60 day WoW time cards for $30 bucks. Mostly newer games from all different systems/pc, so worth checking out.
LINK!

Starcraft 2 is in that list too, so SC2, WoW card and then something else, blam!

Well, it's always hard to get any sort of meaningful commitment from The Action Team, I mean what do you think we are, The Commitment Team? But I'm signed up for a six month subscription so will be playing through then. My character and Doc are on the same ol' server.

You don't need Cataclysm to see the changes to the vanilla zones. They are just going to flip the switch on 12/7 and the changes will affect everybody. You will need to buy Lich King if you want to play Death Knights or go from level 71-80. You will need to buy Cataclysm if you want to play the new races or go to level 81-85. I could see them putting out some kind of bundle in the future but for now, yes you have to buy them all separately.

If you do decide to check out the changes, start downloading at least a day and a half before you want to play because the patches are MAMMOTH, like 12 gigs. If you don't have the game installed at all then it is much more time-efficient to just download the installer from the Blizzard site and start from scratch than it is to install off your old discs and patch up.

| I am Hitlairgo

So does this mean everyones gonna play and on what server? I wonder if you have to buy the LK and then have to upgrade again to CATA. Or if you buy CATA you get everything??? Kinda of sham if you ask me.

Or should we all just play Starcraft II and go to Korea to beat those silly koreanamese at their game? Jon will definitely have to improve his RTS reflexes from past experiences with Warcraft I.

I don't know, tough call.

Have you guys heard of a site called w w w . s k y m e . c o m? It has all the latest movies, EVERYTHING absolutely free. you have to download a small app about 2 megs, doesn't have a tracker, you might have to read a little chinese, but all the movies are in english. It's an awesome site if you haven't used it yet.

| The Gauntlet Has Been Thrown!

Healing IS an art, not a collection of mods! :P

Each dungeon or raid is going to be different because of the mix of the group you are running with, so even if the boss fights are the same, the dynamic will be different and the healing needs will be different for each situation.

Heroic Lich King dungeons even more so as the boss fights get nutty.

Each class is going to heal differently, and as I only have experience as a healin' priest, I know that Discipline and Holy were totally different ball games, and when running as a Shadow, I know that Droods and Shammies also have different healing schemes.

Mods of course help, but the FACT of the matter is that no mod can automate healz, broham!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DISCLAIMER: The statements in the above blog post are fact and irrefutable. Any attempt to deny, dispute, or discourage belief in said claims will be considered an action worse than any ever performed by a terrorist and/or Hitler.

If you don't like the difficulty/loot changes they made in BC you definitely wouldn't like Lich King, and I assume Cataclysm will move in the same direction. PVE questing is noticeably easier in Lich King than vanilla/BC and the loot is still awesome. It is a good tradeoff for a streamlined game, but it does get a little silly when I only need a couple of my 25+ spells/powers to get through 95% of the quests.

Have you tried out Starcraft II? I always like the idea of those games so much, then play like 4 levels, totally suck and never play again. The mods people are coming out with though are pretty amazing though. Like FPSes and stuff like that.

| Allodin the Palodin returns?

Was reading some of the game changes. Streamlining the stat lines and armor bonuses has potential. The bonuses to spirit and mana regeneration will be improved which will make it a viable spec. This seems interesting, if they do it right. I would make a healer with +spirit instead of +int, since you would last much longer healing over time.

by the way, healing is not an art. Healing is downloading the right healing mod.

I hope they fix the game difficulty a bit though. In the burning crusade they whored out the magic items and saturated the AH with goods. It made level advancement much quicker and better for the casual gamer, but took a lot of the difficulties and fun out of the game.

| Hauser-craft? More like you're Hauser-craft

I hear you. You played that game pretty hard. Meanwhile my main still doesn't even have as many days /played as Ja-el did in his marathon 2 months. Yeah that meetup was awesome, I kept getting killed by alligators running through the effin' wetlands. I also have fond memories of my (first) retirement from the game when you and Ja-el ran me through Gnomeregan. You guys were like level 55 so you just punched everything to death.

I'm looking forward to trying the dungeon finder. That's one thing I've barely done so it should feel relatively fresh. And they are changing almost the entire 1-50 experience when cataclysm launches (don't need the expansion for that) so I'm looking forward to make a new dude at that point.

| world of warcraft? more like world of pffffft-craft

... I can't believe the thrill is gone but it's SO fucking gone for me. I had me some awesome times in WoW but the last few times I've loaded it up it's done nothing for me. Enjoy it fellas. I still remember one of our first meetups in Darkshore after just getting out of Elf-land. I think Eric and/or Jon having to run to Darkshore from human-land. That was such a great time :)

I've successfully pre-ordered games from Amazon with release day shipping and it's worked. The only time I hear about it being an issue for computer games is the risk of update servers being slammed and being unable to actually play on release day. If you buy it electronically through Blizz they're supposedly offering pre-loading (which most pre-release games on Steam offer) which means you can have the game downloaded and installed on your computer before release day and then be good to go at 12:01am or whatever.

Good luck with your project Elrick. I think you're gonna miss out on some joy and pain but hopefully you've got something great and creative in the works. If you change your mind mid-Nov you can always try the "Random Logline Generator" and see what you come up with:

RANDOM
"A large banjo player, a passive-aggressive cult leader, and a sleep-walking conductor plot to take over the world in virtual reality." Hmmm...

Hurry up with your overtime Dennish!

| WoW Tangggggg

Ha! Same here. Though I'm only sipping the juice from a baby sipping bottle. I read somewhere that prior to the release, they are going to have events leading to the expansion. Already I've felt small earthquakes while traveling around. I'll be on more ofter before the release just to see what they do.

Rude - thanks for the heads up on Deth Angle. I canceled my Amazon order and went to the Barnes and Noble by Del Amo Mall. I'm surprised they have so many games. They even had Agricola. Haven't played it yet though. The rules aren't written that well either. Not the worse, but I actually had to "school" focus to get through it. Or maybe my brain is just getting old and soft.

| Back on the Sauce

I'm back on the WoW-sauce.

Docnorvell is alive and well, being retooled with all that I have learned over the years NOT playing him and I want to get him to 80 before Cataclysm hits. Care to join me?

I have abandoned a few other characters I started recently to just get this guy to 80, I think he deserves it and it has been a long time coming.

I still have not done ANY dungeons from Burning Crusade so once this joker hits 80 I'm gonna try and dungeon my way through the levels with my Paladin, although I don't think I can handle tanking anymore; DPS is a science, Healing is an art, and Tanking is a job - I don't want to work two jobs unless I have too, thank you. Unless of course I am tanking for an all Action Team guild run... :)

I am also working on yet another secret Eric project that if it finds it's way to completion, I will let you all know, otherwise I'm burying it. The only downside to it is that it is going to probably make my NaNoWriMo attempt to write a novel in a month not happen. :( Go Rudy, go!

BTW, I'm trying the Amazon pre-order for Cataclysm that guarantee's launch day delivery, anyone have any luck with this?

This Minecraft stuff is pretty cool! Liked the article Rude. Maybe I'll give it a spin once I hit 80 with my main in WoW :((

That video with the guy's house lighting on fire was HILARIOUS. The wifey and I were just busting a gut watching it. It's got all the elements of humor:
- funny accent
- buildup (the guy is so tedious in the minute or so leading up to "the incident")
- escalation (the moment when the bookshelf lights on fire, just BLIP, and then he tries to put it out, and just keeps failling)
- simplicity (the wifey had never heard of the game before, but was instantly able to grasp the concept)
- harmless pain/humiliation ('cuz that house MUST have taken a while to build)

Anyway. Picked up the new Rock Band and a keyboard. I didn't really ever click to drums so I thought it'd be fun to learn a new instrument, and it is really fun! The interface is really weird, but after a few songs I was sort of starting to get a feel for what I'm doing. I'm no Viv Savage, though.

| Back to the Future

Back To The Future Game - 1st Episode Free

Tell Tale Games is offering the first episode of their upcomming Back To The Future adventure game for free. Can't pass that up! It doesn't ask for any credit card info, easy peasy. Sign up now and be able to d/l it when it comes out (soonish I think).

| FREE Music

***EDIT***
Here's the article on Epitaph: Epitaph
It's really good.

I got a bunch of free magazine subscriptions recently by visiting various promo sites and using fake info. SPIN is one of the magazines I've been getting and one of the recent issues had an article called "an oral history of Epitaph records". It's really cool - they interview bunch of the BR guys, Fat Mike, etc, and just talk about Epitaph. Anyways, the issue also includes a free Bad Religion Tribute Album (well, a link to it at least):

BR Tribute

Some of it's alright. Interesting takes on some classic jams. I wouldn't have paid money for it.

man, I'm watching live streams from Essen 2010 - it's so intersting! So many different games.

Essen 2010

This is one of my favorite Minecraft bits: house tour.

Pump: I will be sure to set aside those days too.

D>M>

| $4 MILLION dollars

I was just reading about that game Minecraft which I had tried for a few minutes a while back and the dude has made $4 million dollars off it so far! WHOA! Here's the article I was reading:
5 Minutes of Minecraft
I know people have made amazing things inside the game (on YouTube some dude made a scale model of the USS Enterprise in Minecraft - friggen insane!) but it has never clicked with me. Kinda blows my mind though and it's cool to see 1-man teams making it , even when they never expected it.

minecraft.net - you can play a free version from the site

Hey that sounds good Denis. I'll set aside some time that weekend for sure. So is the plan for you to stay at Elzar's place and come up here? Elzar if you'd rather have an action team man-party (which would be fun, I haven't been down there in a while) then I am sure I could drive down there.

Also, Aeryk, you need some new Tweets homeboy. Those 41-day-olds are starting to stink.

J-Dog: Never heard of that movie. I'll look into renting it if it's rentable. This past weekend I was on a Hitchcock kick and watched 3 of his early movies I'd never seen. That guy was a genius. Those movies were equal parts funny and suspenseful. They don't make movies like that anymore.

D-Dog: Can you cancel your pre-order? I've literally seen Death Angel at every local B&N and Borders. And you can easily find 30-40% printable coupons for both those places that would make it the same cost as Amazon. Cancel! Hope your back feels better old man!

Coffin-Dog: I didn't set out to make them coffin-shaped; I was just trying to take your basic hex shape and make it look different. I should have just made the theme something ghoulish but I'm too lazy.

| I gots teh backorder bluuuues

Been doing some crazy overtime recently. On top of that, I threw my back out this past week. I don't even know how it happened. It grew progressively worse until I was on my back in bed for most of Thursday and Friday. I'm so fragile.

The movie sounds interesting. Did it just come out or did you watch it on video tape? I only saw Being John Malkovich.

I actually pre-ordered the Space Hulk game through Amazon waaaaaay back. It's still backordered. Seems pointless to preorder if I could just walk to the Barnes and Noble during my lunch break. Booooo! In space no one can hear you whine...

So it looks like I'll be visiting Action Team North next month. Leave the weekend of Nov 12-14 open and make any preparations and offerings to the deities of your choice.

I recently picked up Deathwatch, the Space Marine rpg. It's the next step up from Rogue Trader powerwise. Where Rogue Trader starts at 5000 xp (relative to Dark Heresy), Deathwatch starts at about 13,000 xp for character power. (maybe 4th level Rogue Trader character)

Obviously you can only play a space marine. Which is fine if all you ever wanted to be was a space marine. As for me, it looks like I'll still be waiting for Eldar! to come out. Your skills and powers are based on what chapter you come from. There are currently six. Five from GW fluff and a new one created for the game. They hinted that future supplements will have more chapters. I'm looking forward to the Rainbow Warriors myself.

It's an interesting read for background, but I don't see myself playing this game. Roleplaying-wise, it's very constraining. Unless of course you are really onto space marines. Really really. Rogue Trader suits me better. The naked grab for power and wealth speaks much more to my gamer heart than Gears of War rpg. My hope lies in the next instalment of this rpg series: "Titanicus!" You roleplay a titan and go apeshit on styrofoam buildings. That's hardcore!

Speaking of hardcore. I especially like that the warning is basically the name of the product.

This is Hardcore!

Rude - Interesting game concept. I was thinking the same thing Jorn was about the cards. Coffins?

Saw this movie Synechdoche, New York last night, wow. Any of you guys seen this one? It's written/directed by Charlie Kaufman, the guy who wrote Being John Malkovich, so it's similar in that it alternates between moments that are hilarious, and/or really sad, and moves towards a somewhat incomprehensible yet emotionally compelling conclusion.

The short description is that Phillip Seymour Hoffman is a theatre director in a troubled marriage whose body is breaking down in bizarre and horrible ways. He wins a genius grant and uses the money to rent a mammoth warehouse in which he stages an exact reproduction of his own life.

Definitely worth checking out if you liked Malkovich/Adaptation/Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and maybe even better than those other movies (certainly up there). Shrek it out! Four Puss in Boots up!

I was inspired to play another game last night and won! Yay me! My experience was somewhat similar to yours Aeryk, I had an easy time of it in the brood lord room. I also randomized and had a very good pull, with both yellow (lightning claws), purple (flame on) and blue (f'in unkillable on defense). Luck mostly went my way too, this was the first time ever that Brother Claudio didn't die (roll 0) on his first attack. I was also much more careful with the "important guy" on each team, as well.

| ..aaaarrarrghhh....~rines... *final exhale*

Played me another two games last night and the night before. It's a fun game, but I think it would be a lot more fun if I didn't have a defective die that has 5 sides reading '0' and one side reading '4'...

I actually did win my game last night which puts me at about a 20% victory rate so far. I like to randomly select my teams from the counter mix which sometimes leaves me with some, er, poor options for killin' stealerz - any game without the autocannon is a super-extra tough hill to climb.

Last night I had the pleasure of hitting the last room with two counters on the door that let me eliminate two of the carry over genestealers which put the Brood Lords in two separate swarms of 1 and 3, including the Lords. The swarm of 3 just happened to spawn in front of monsieur autocannon and the other infront of a team of two that I had an attack card for.

Four marines survived the night!

I tend to only play this game late, late at night when my brain isn't willing to work on other projects anymore so it has made it's way into my subconscious as being a very dark, draining game. I need to play more in the light so I don't get burnt out on it, me thinks. Good stuff!

| SPACE MAaaaarrgh

OK, first of all, I found this article about Insane Clown Posse to be utterly hilarious.

Picked up Death Angel (Rude's tip of checking the bookstore paid off) and got in three games today! I've never encountered a rulebook further opposed from the way in which I like to learn rules, but the game itself is lots of fun. The first game was the most painful -- four of my six Marines died in the first room (of four), the last two barely keeled over quickly in the second. Second game was almost as nasty but I somehow made it to the third room and just now, two stalwart Marines made it to the last room before being utterly swarmed (although the Librarian did go out in a moment of glory, gunning down four consecutive 'stealers). I dig it!

| a little over two weeks

until we start writing our novels, Action Team! Start thinking of ideas, and stuff. :) I think I know what I'm going to write (was Sci-Fi, now Horror). The countdown begins!

| ps: death angel

Oh, Barnes & Noble had a killer board game selection and they had Space Hulk: Death Angel - $20 bucks, online it would have been around $16 but was sold out from where I like to shop. It's fun! Played a game this afternoon. Rules were a headache but eventually it all clicked. Only lost 1 marine through the first 3 rooms and then lost the reminder in the final room. Started with a card called "They're Everywhere!" I think that spawned a genestealer on EVERY marine. Then the last room had the two Brood Lords and I was able to kill 1 before just getting annihilated. Fun! Horribly laid out rules though, so I'm going to browse BGG to clarify a few things. But it's a good game.

Oh, you don't have to try my game Jon. I don't think it's very good, but it was just fun to try and create a game system. Might try to take some of these ideas and make something more concrete. Here was the basic rules:

Rules:
Advance 5 times on the Hospital-track to get your wife to the hospital in time. If you advance the Baby-track 8 times, roadside delivery and game over.

1. Shuffle tiles face down then draw 1 to begin.
2. Connect 1 to 3 new road tiles (depending on the tiles design) to the top of the current tile.
3. Choose which road you want to take and add the number next to that road to the number on the bottom of the destination tile. This is the target score you need to roll equal to or under on the six-sided dice to advance. If you roll over the target score, advance the baby-track by 1 and stay on the current tile. Re-roll on any available road. If you roll equal to or under the the target score, advance to the new tile and move the time-tracks according to the icons on the lower right-hand corner of the new tile. An 'H' means you've advanced 1 closer to the Hospital, while a baby-icon means the baby is 1 closer to arriving.
4. Repeat from step 2 until you reach the end of either the Hospital or Baby time tracks.

I was trying to make it so it wasn't JUST random d6 rolls determining if you win or lose. I tried to make it so the more desirable tiles, ones that just advance the Hospital track and not the baby track, are harder to get on. So they'd have only a +1. You might get lucky and have it connect to a piece of road with a +3 but that's just chance. So trying to make risk/reward system. The theme is silly and cliched too. :)

Alien Frontiers
You guys heard about this indy title?
Alien Frontiers!
I guess they used that Kickstarter program to get funding for it and it built up hype on BGG. Someone on the SA Forums play tested it and said it was good. It's a "worker placement game" - what's another example of that type of game? I don't have the exp that you guys have.

Maybe I'll pick that up! I heard the movie was OK -- good, not great. There are a lot of Michael Cera haters out there. Personally I'm not one of them, he's still got love stored up from Arrested Development and Superbad, but I get it if people don't like him.

What have I been up to...

1. Today we actually finished a WFRP adventure! Wow! Took one intro session and three sessions (well, two and a half). Overall I like the system and the adventure went pretty well. It was an investigation where the PCs had to uncover a cult at an isolated hunting lodge surrounded by Beastmen. The adventure was fairly "sandboxy" and pretty much resolved in a big, ugly fight in the Chaos temple in the basement. Enron's character almost went permanently insane, everyone came out of it with some critical injuries, and at one point a group of cultists was totally obliterated by a single blast from a blunderbuss.

2. I picked up Batman: The Long Halloween which people seem to think is pretty good. Looks like the two Nolan Batman movies lifted a bunch of dialogue and characters from it.

3. The last two weeks have been totally exhausting in terms of my new job and I'm glad they're over.

4. I'll try your game Rude, but is it a coincidence that the pieces for a game about driving your pregnant wife to the hospital real fast are shaped like tiny, baby coffins?

| Scott "Debates" Pilgrim - Kill all the vampires

Scott Pilgrim: I haven't seen the movie but I was curious about the comic and picked up the entire series, Vol 1-6, for around $23 bucks on Amazon. At the book store they're about $12 bucks each, so this was a massive deal. Just read the first book and it's really good! I highly recommend it. Very much feels a part of "our generation", similar to how MicroSerfs felt back in the day. I'll see the movie after I finish the series. If you look up book 1 on Amazon (it's $3.63) there's a "buy 1-3 together and save X dollars" - so buy that 3 pack and then look up book 4 and find the 4-6 together to do the same. Bargain! I suspect they over-stocked it for the movie or something.

| babytime, go go

I knocked out that print-and-play game. It's not playtested OR very good, but I like the tiles I made and the idea is alright. In my mind the actual tiles would have more art to them than just a road, but for a 1 week contest I only spent 3-4 hours on it; been busy! I won't give you the rules, but I will say the game involves 1d6. See if you can figure it out. :)

bad relegon
Wow, I had no idea they had a new album. Listened to the samples on Amazon. Sounds okay, and like Ry I love the guys voice, but I don't think I'll get it. Let us know if it grows on you Ry-dub.

Rudy's Car Advenutre gaem
On the forums there's a little 1-week contest to design a free print-and-play solitaire game. I have till this weekend to post it. I was thinking of a tile-laying car game. The premise could be, you're wife's having a baby, get her to the hospital ASAP! There's a start piece (home or wherever) and the hospital as the finish piece. To keep it simple I'd like to use a d6. You'll have a time limit (she gives birth in 10 turns or maybe it's random or maybe certain tiles will advance her birth-o-meter.) Maybe your car has a speed and the faster you go, the sooner you'd get her there, but maybe with riskier dice rolls to make.

I dunno, sounds simple enough and I think it'll be fun to try it out over the next couple nights. If you guys have any idears, let me know! One thing I was thinking of trying was, you're laying the piece of road that's 1 ahead of you, so you can decide to speed up or slow down depending on what's there (curvy road, traffic, construction, cop, etc.)

| BR

The special lady friend and I just picked up tickets to see BR on 11/19. Looking forward to seeing them in concert again. I saw them on their last tour and I was quite glad I did. They really have a knack for revitalizing my interest in that era of punk and they really put on a solid show. I haven't heard the new album but I think I will check it out.

I just got my passport renewal back the other day. I can not believe it has only been 10 years since eLzar and I went to Europa. That seems like eons ago.

Just a head's up, the Gen Con Indy 2011 dates have been announced: August 4-7, 2011. Badge registration begins in January and it sounds like January will also be when "Housing Opens". So, once we have a badge, we can reserve rooms as part of the Gen Con hotel block.

D>M>

| The new Bad Religion...

... is just okay so far. I have really only listened to it a couple of times all the way through and only a couple of tunes stick out. Pound for pound, it isn't as good as the last album, but Greg Graffin's voice is very comforting to me and it still is good to hear some new songs. It is still worth picking up IMHO.

The bonus songs on the album are live versions of Generator, Best For You, Pessimistic Lines, and How Much Is Enough. Admittedly, those are not my favorite BR tunes (except Generator. I really, really like that song for some reason), it made me go back and listen to Against the Grain, No Control, and Suffer this last week.

BR is celebrating its 30th year (!), and there is some crappy comp coming out with some crappy bands covering some classic songs.

Where would my music tastes be today without the influence of this band?

| big plastic barrel of pretzels

Been a hectic couple of weeks. I got a new job. Still with the city, but after next week I'll no longer be with the crime lab. Moving over to records in San Pedro near the port. It's a little more money and a lot more closer to home. 15 minute commute versus 45+. The only weird part is that after a few months I'll be moving into a AM shift which is Midnight-8:30 in the morning or so. Yikes! Been years since I worked a night shift. Can't wait to see how it goes. I think it will be an adventure.

Applied for a passport this morning. Never had one but since they last 10 years, figure this will spur me to travel some. I think 8-11 (never forget) and the need for a passport to visit Mexico or Canada also played a part. I'd like to take a cheesy cruise some day. They're so damn cheap and local, so in 5-6 weeks I'll be legal to get off the boat on occasion.

Finished Arthur C. Clarke's "Rendezvous with Rama". It was good but hasn't aged as well as some other classic sci-fi. It has a really dry narrative and felt "too safe". I never feared for any of the character's lives. The basic story is interesting and I'm glad I read it. There are a bunch of sequels that were written by a collaborator, right up into the 1990's, and the plot summaries are hilariously bad.

Still going to write a novel in November, so taking Stephen King's main piece of advice from "On Writing" and READING as much as possible.

Next on my to-read list are a bunch of Elmore Leonard's short-story westerns, random Steinbeck I've never read (I loved Grapes of Wrath in school and never really read much else by him), and "The Passage" vampire book.

I've gotten horribly out of shape again, so I've also been trying to bring hiking back into my routine. I love it and it's convenient to where I currently work, but I'm going to have to find a new exercise hobby when I start work in San Pedro. Maybe riding my bike at the beach?

| Xamnation

Well... Nothing really terribly exciting for all you Actionteam members. Just boring work news:

We just sold our building to yesterday for a cool $265 million. Of which I get a little less than the real estate brokers. They get 3%. I get 0%. Sweet. It's cool though, I do get to keep my job for another 6-12 months at a minimum. After that, I will hopefully be joining the new management group with the rest of our staff. A new company. Again. That will be 4 companies in 6 years for the same job at the same location. The good news is this company is a long term asset holder, so hopefully no more name changes. Also, I don't like my current company. It is a big, bureaucratic, company filled with Kool-Aid drinking cheerleaders. That and the left hand never seems too know what the right hand is doing.

I also joined the nefarious eLzar sponsored fantasy hockey league. Yay hockey.

Also, I hear eLzar likes green.

jr0n, I am stoked that you started reading The First Law trilogy. I really enjoyed the series. I have the second and third books if you are interested.

D>M>

or defined as a website that helps you pass that test to all your college courses,

or a site dedicated to diagnostics for aids/herpes/genital/mamographic testing.

| Hot fresh content needed for hip website

Xamn people, what's going on?

(xamn: hip new swear word? Or typo?)

Problem with iPad is reading something that hellaciously bright at night IS going to fuck up your sleep. Kindle/Nook has the eye ink thing, so no backlight, but easier on the ol' circadian rhythms.

Everything old is new again:
- Just finished reading the revised 2nd edition rules for Tannhauser! We played this game a bit back in the day and it was fun but with a few really niggling design problems that held it back (no overwatch, limited functionality of heavy weapons due to minimum range restrictions, fiddly dice mechanic). The 2nd edition fixes ALL these problems so I'm excited to get this sucker back on the table.

- I think I'm gonna sign back up for WoW, dammit. Cataclysm just sounds too good, but I want to finish up the high level content (Death Knight, and get Borst to 80) before making a new character.

- I will run an extended Earthdawn campaign at some point in my life. You heard it here first, folks.

I was into the idea of an e-reader as well, but I've cooled to it lately. I've played with a Nook at the stores and it was alright, but I'd probably go for a Kindle just because it seems like they'd have the biggest selection. Haven't seen the others. If I was rich I'd get a Ipad or something and then the kindle and nook apps. I use the kindle app for my laptop and it works well. I just download the free books though.

I had just finished reading 'Under the Dome' by Stephen King. I like his writing, I really do, but once again the ending of this mammoth book was just awful. The journey was fun - it felt like The Stand-Lite - but the last 3rd was difficult to get through.

I chose Rama for my next book because it's under 300 pages and I haven't read something that short in years. I also have a book called "The Passage" by Justin Cronin that got really good reviews. I think it's a sort of post-apoc/vampire story, but more "The Road" than "Twilight". Supposedly depressing as hell, so looking forward to it in a sick way.

"For that fine young thing, Shirley Temple."

I liked Rendezvous with Rama a lot, but that was probably like 20 years ago (yiiikes!). I'm reading a lot myself these days, too:

- Just read Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. Really good if you feel like a suspense/thriller kind of book (or are just a fan of books turned into movies by Leonardo diCaprio). Going in I thought maybe the trailer had given away too much of the plot, but it didn't after all, so yay!
- Now reading The Blade Itself, a fantasy book Enron lent me. It's a pretty good read so far (halfway into it) with some memorable characters and the guy has a sharp writing style. I believe I will read the whole series, unless it falls apart at the end, like so many Death Angels led by Sgt. Aeryk.
- Next up I've had this fantasy book called Name of the Wind sitting in my queue for quite a while. A relative gave it to me and I have seen it highly recommended on numerous fronts (the Penny Arcade guy loved it too) but the name is so bad I've had trouble committing.

Any of you guys have any Kindle/Nook/etc experience? I'm thinking it might be cool to have a nice, light device loaded with books to bring to Australia later this year. And Kindles aren't TOO bad these days, $140 for the basic model.

| docking big ships in tiny ports

Did you sneak that Space Hulk review in!? I missed it last time I posted. See man, I think our podcast would be sweet with stuff like Space Hulk reviews. :) Glad you like it. It's all sold out to high hell right now, so no rush to get it, but it still looks kind of abstract and strange, so I'm less excited than I thought I'd be. I really loved the visual component to OG Space Hulk.

-----

I started reading Arthur C Clarke's "Rendezvous with Rama" because I've always wanted to and I picked up a used copy. The book is dedicated to Sri Lanka and right away that pinged my brain with a thought, "wait, didn't I hear he was a pedo?" After some research, I found that there was an article that came out before he was to be knighted that claimed he talked openly about it, but he denied ever saying that. He claimed it was aimed at embarrassing Price Charles and that he was in no way one. THAT'S GOOD! What an ugly rumor and it was just sitting there hidden in my mind, probably like a lot of people! Bummer. But now I can keep reading, not feeling so dirty.

Happy Life Day Dennish, RyRy, ME AND JON, and whoever else.

I played a few more DungeonQuests over the last couple of days - I was sick and it's actually compact/sturdy enough to be played right in bed! Someone on BGG created a nice Solo Adventure Log for DQ that's been fun to fill out. So far my shortest game was 8 turns but that game could have been even shorter with a bottomless pit being the first friggen tile. The game is really fun.

| Space Hulk: The Failing

Ha! Fooled you!

The game succeeds, I fail at playing it!

Its a weird game that plays great solo and the games play out very much like Space Hulk Proper games do 85% of the time: The Marines start strong, they have enough firepower and people to position themselves at the right places most of the time. They move through the hulk smoothly, and then something happens to slow things down. Maybe there are 5 corridors that need covering but only three marines to do so, or maybe one marine has found himself trailing behind, whatever the cause the end result is the same - DISASTER.

One marine croaks, then the rest are vulnerable. Then another, and by that time the house of cards that is the mission is about ready to fall the eff down.

So far my first two missions have ended in marine slaughter - my most recent mission in the first room I needed to clear (of 4).

All in all, I really like it, just when you think you have a handle on things it all falls apart. Good stuff.

| Botz Partz

They say it's your birthday... It's my birthday too! Well maybe not. But Harpy Bday jarks. With regards to Pump, I think Elves count years the same as us vulgar Humans, its just that he can count a hell of a lot higher. He's probably already 230 years old now. How do you think he was able to collect such a massive array of unpainted miniatures?

In other news, this is pretty much how I feel about Juicy Fruit and Utilikilts.

Rude: Nice write up for DungeonQuest and Castle Mikenloft. Mikenloft looks pretty sweet and well, you can never do wrong by throwing down a little DungeonQuest. I will admit, the combat system is a little obtuse at first, especially when drunk, but it does work fairly well once the system sinks in. Besides, would it be a proper GW throwback game if it didn't have a few lovely rules quirks?

The question of the day, as quoted from the soon to be owner's representative of my building, "Does the management office really need four employees on staff to run it?" Yikes! Can't wait to interview for my job again. This has become all too common these days.

D>M>

Anyone try out the Space Hulk card game? It's pretty sold-out so I haven't had a chance to get it yet. Looks kinda weird from some of the video reviews I've seen, but people seem to be enjoying it.

So Cal dudes, lets game this weekend a wee bit.

| Alternatively

On your birthday, I will put up a banner that says: "It is your birthday."

When I was at Mattel we spent a lot of time coming up with depressing corporate mottos, and one my friend Steve came up with was, "If today's your birthday: happy birthday."

I can totally see you plastering that on the walls at some business you run, Aeryk. Thanks a lot.

Oh happy birthday Denis. How old are you in Elven years?

| Hey Jerks

Been busy.

- Happy Birthday to all the jerks who have had one!

- Nice writups of your sessions Rudy! Loved the pictures!

Ah, shucks.

If Facebook isn't lying, it seems like it is Icarus Waning's birthday. So happy birthday Denish.

| Nice write ups!

I love that kind of thing!

DungeonQuests combat system isn't really too bad, but it is a lot more complicated than anything else in the game. You shouldve seen me trying to explain it while everyone was hammered!

I think for new players I'd just use the solo rules. Way simpler to explain and good enough for the kind of game it is.

Castle Mikenloft looks pretty boss!

| DorfQuest

Played my first solo DungeonQuest tonight. I'm leaving to Portland in the morning, so only had time for the one quick game. I think I'm going to enjoy it, but I don't really understand the combat yet.

My dwarf got 4 spaces into the dungeon before encountering a bottomless pit. He made his luck check and then the next tile was bridge where he fell in the catacombs. Dorf was in the catacombs for a long ass time and got down to 1 hitpoint thanks to combat with a golem and troll. Finally got out of the catacombs with 3 or 4 turns till the dungeon closed and escaped with 1400 gold he got from 2 treasure chests discovered in the catacombs.

I don't really get combat. Playing solo it made a little more sense, but with other players it sounds more complicated and strategic, MAYBE. Fucking confusing.

It's a good game overall and I'll need to play a bunch more to figure it out.

| Escape the Tomb

You wake up alone in the depths of Castle Ravenloft. The last thing you remember was when the man with the piercing eyes and long cape approached you on the dark street outside the inn. It had to be Count Strahd, the vampire! Outside the castle, you know that the sun is high in the sky. Now you have to find your way out of here before the sun sets and Strahd returns to finish whatever foul plot he began last night.

I played the introductory solo-adventure in the Ravenloft board game this afternoon and it was a lot of fun. The first game is 10 random tiles and an 11th "secret stairway" tile which you need to reach to beat the game. Certain tiles trigger a setting-sun counter which when it reaches sunset, Strahd awakes. Every tile you expose, you draw a monster card. There's also a chance you'll have to draw an encounter card which is more monster, traps, etc.

Fighting my way to the exit I defeated the following foes:
3 Wolves
2 Rat Swarms
1 Wraith
1 Zombie
2 Kobold Skirmishers
1 Ghoul
1 Blazing Skeleton
1 Spider

I also encountered a few traps along the way. I was about 9 tiles in when Strahd awoke but I also hit a dead end, so had to backtrack to an explorable area. Strahd moves fast as hell (2 tiles a turn) so he caught up to me on the last tile.

To win you have to start your turn on that tile, and unfortunately I triggered an encounter: An arcane symbol flashes at your feat(sic) and you disappear from sight. - Teleport Glyph! This sent me back to the start of the dungeon. So in the most Scooby-Doo fashion, I had to run back through the dungeon passing Strahd at the mid point. I escaped with 2hp remaining.

| My bday present to myself arrived today :)

We didn't have time to swing up to Aptos, but the Aquarium was fantastic and totally worth the $30 buck ticket price. The rest of Cannery Row was pretty skeezy though, ouch. Carmel was really nice - we had a awesome dinner there.

Blood Bowl is only $10 bucks on Steam right now - I'm not buying it again but daaamn, what a discount. Still, that game had some jankyness issues.

| Stuff to Do

- Go to Big Sur

- Come up to Aptos to get our year passes for the Monterey Bay Aquarium, then go the the aquarium, then drive the passes back up to us. :) ~ 60 mile round trip, but the drive might be worth the savings at the aquarium!

- Take her to your old stomping grounds, UCSC!

Gonna be up in Monterey/Carmel this weekend for my birthday - lady friend is taking me up there for a romantic weekend. You live sorta close Elrock and friends - any ideas of stuff we should do/see? I doubt she'll let me go to SC for gaming tho :(

| In honor of Strategicon...

...I stayed in my room and watched Small Wonder. It was a good weekend.

| some things never change

I got the bug to play Dragon Wars (a super fun, old RPG from the Apple days). I spent a long time on character creation, then jump in and 5 minutes later what happens?



Fuckin' hemophilia strikes again.

Yeah! Totally awesome Rude, I'll forward you the links and stuff through email. It would be a lot more fun getting all of us in a group. They get together really often. Each group gets together officially once per month, so, 2 groups is 2 weekens, (1st and 3rd), then individual members gets together on the weekdays soemtimes. I can't really do those because I actually have to work and stuff.

Oh man, wish I would have gone Jael! I've been interested in game design for awhile now and would have enjoyed being exposed to all the different games. Let me know about those meetup groups. I used meetup for lots of active-life kinda groups (hiking, biking, etc) but never looked at gaming groups. Also local is Dennis and Peter from the cons (don't know if you've met Peter) so I was going to try and get in some gaming with those dudes soon if you want to join us. I got a bunch of new games incoming to try out.

Youre right! sorry, it was Dominion, not Imperial. Dominion was the 2009 game of the year. Thunderstone is a role playing variant of the card system Dominion. I brought that up because I knew you would be interested. The guy at the dealer room was introducing me to the games and it seemed interesting. I was a stone throw short of buying it partly to support the persistant business owner of the empty dealer room. It was awkward not buying anything but 60 bucks for another game I would eventually be parting on Ebay. Less hassles.



Excilis was definitely much better in person. Parsing it on internet video streaming didn't get the overall UI and feel of having the actual miniatures and computer on the table.

my thought however, and I might actually work on this can you imagine using Iphones or Android phones, tablets, instead of laptops which are bulky for competitive, bluetooth interface. Second, Excilis confined itself to the limitations of the board and used the software only a tool. My idea is rather, get rid of the confinement of the board. You can make complete software game including card management, resource management, and even strategy management on the software portion. The game itself adds the visuals, but also you need to have physical inputs into the software, in order for the game to manifest itself completely. Did I lose anyone?



Jon, another reason I think I had a good time at this con was I didn't limit myself to Axis and Allies and shogun. I actually went around playing different games, learning and perusing different mechanic/game systems. Also I befriended a lot of people and was invited to join two separate meetup.com gaming groups, one in pomona and one in Thousand Oaks. From different walks of life.



Anyway, it was cool.

Wait did you meet the owner of Kublacon or Strategicon?

I can't believe you went to Strategicon! That's a blast from the past. I honestly don't know if I could go to that again, it would be really weird. We started going to those 18 years ago or so. Probably the last one I went to was in 2000 or 2001, then the the era of KublaCon began. I randomly met the new owner earlier this year when he bought a game I sold on eBay -- seemed like a nice guy. I remember the dealer room was good about the first three years we went there and after the mid-90s it just went downhill. Hopefully the event has hit a good parity level though.

Did Exilis look fun, Ja-El? Matt mentioned it a while ago and I checked out the website. I couldn't get my head around the multimedia aspects of the game (I love rolling dice, so I was dubious about having the computer resolve stuff for you) but I definitely could be talked into giving it a try.

I looked up Thunderstone. I keep seeing it at the game store so your mention made me curious to check it out. It looks very similar mechanically to Dominion (I'm not sure if you've played that one) with a strong fantasy hero building theme, which could be really cool. Buy it dude!

I picked up Tales of the Arabian Nights to play with the wifey. This is a pretty neat game that basically is a board game combined with choose-your-own adventure. You go around the board having semi-randomly determined encounters out of this enormous book. All kinds of crazy stuff can happen to your character like you can get sex-changed, married, become a sultan or vizier, etc. It's fun to follow along with the crazy crap that happens to your adventurer so it's a very fun casual experience.

| Strategicon

Yeah, it was a mixed bag of craziness. Was fun just doing some random small gaming and signing up for events. Should come out. Just fyi, they moved back to the Radisson, aka wyndham aka hyatt from Westin around 5 years ago. The Radisson is really nice though. Some elements of the con

Game design competition hosted by Labs:
Open gaming seemed crowded but was decieving because they also consolidated, miniatures, open gaming, and boardgaming. The trend this time around was a "Game design" competition with a panel of professional industry judges/testers which brought out a lot of home brewed games littered with paper chits and maps. I met some interesting game design professionals, including an old friend who founded a consulting company for publishing games. I also met a graphic director from the Art Institute of Gaming, that taught 3D graphics modeling, art design etc. This might be good if I actually tried to publish my game. But after seeing the game design competition, it's no wonder why 99.9% of most games fail. Just the INCREDIBLE amount of game concepts/inventors ther are out there in the works. (The girls were nice too)

Dealer room:
Dead. There were 2 major booths, the rest were displays. most just couldn't compete with online pricing, which diminishes the spending value of the dealer dollars

Notable new games:

I saw this game demoed Excilis - Have you seen this rude? was better in person. Half computer simulated events (die rolling, combat) which saves time, and half miniatures for movement.

Thunderstone - Imperial was the first of this type of 500 card based game. Won the 2009 game of the year. Imperials a conquest type game, but Thunderstone is a Role playing game/adventure party type variant utilizing the same 500 card progression system.

That's cool that you won! I looked up that game and it looks pretty interesting. What was the con like? Lots of people? I haven't been to one of the LA ones in YEARS!

| I won!

what... 15 years going to the cons? Never placed in anything. Won at the "Endeavor" tournament and placed 1st place at a game I've never even played. 10 dealer bucks to boot. I wasn't planning on buying anything, but looks like i just got mad gaming skillz. Still at a huge loss, minus 50 bucks for not preregging, minus 20 bucks for valet parking, minus 10 bucks for a measly sandwich. still awesome though as my name will forever be etched in the strategicon guidebook. +1 level

Also met with some interesting folks that invited me to join them around the Thousand oaks area. I might actually see what theyre about.

| There ya go

Dragon Age GOTY edition: Oct. 12.

I have to get back to that game and finish it. I only got halfway through it before getting distracted.

| game I'm running at next man-con:

Alright, ordered Ravenloft. Read enough fun stuff about it, I think I'll enjoy my time with it. I'll wrangle up Dennis and Peter for some games once it arrives.

I loved the demo to Limbo, but it will be on sale in 6 months or something and I'll get it then. For $15 bucks I will buy a thousand Steam games on this weekends sale (that I'll never play.) Speaking of which, I gifted some of you guys a copy of Plain Sight because it was $1.50 in the 4-pack. It's fun and I got my $1.50's worth.

| Limbo

Equals Bad-Ass. So worth the 1200 gold crowns or whatever it costs. Great experience, great ending.

I have the PS3 version of DragonAge if you want it! It's been on sale thru Steam, just hang in there, it'll be cheap again. They might be doing crazy labor day sales, so scope it out. Brah.

| Mas Que Updates

- Had a blast playing Dungeonquest! Yes, we started drinking at 9.30am I think so by the time Dungeonquest at noon rolled around, we were totally in the mood. The combat system SEEMED cool, and I THINK I can remember how it worked but while a little bit tipsy it made no sense. Also good to know that some players of the game will never make it past the first time while in the catacombs (Mike) just like the old days!

- I hooked up my XBox to my monitor and downloaded Limbo! I couldn't stop thinking about it after leaving jr0ns place. Lots of fun!

- I REALLY REALLY want to get Dragon Age and start up a role-playing game, but still don't wanna pay $29.99 for it. Anyone have an XBox copy they wanna give up for cheapz? :)

- Castle Ravenloft looks pretty fun. Heard mixed reviews so far, but it can be played legitimately solo so I am intrigued. Anyone played it yet?

- I'll put an order in with you Rudy (and Denis?) for coolstuffinc.com! I'll have it delivered to my house, then you guys need to just road trip it on up to get your stuff... of course we will then have to play the games you ordered while you are here for the weekend.

Check out this game that's coming out on Steam on Sept 10th:
Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale
You play a girl who's forced to run an Item Shop for adventurers due to your dad skipping out on a loan. You also get to dungeon crawl with different characters. The demo is fun and it's so different, I'm looking forward to picking it up.

These two guys on the Something Awful forums wanted to get into the game industry doing localization of japanese games, so they contacted the makers of Recettear (sounds like Racket-Tear) and licensed the game to do the localization and publishing of it here in the states. It's an interesting story, and these dudes were able to get Steam and a couple of other online places to put it out, so this should be pretty successful for them.

| Just for Jorn

Human Centipede Cat-Toy. Enjoy!

Mount & Blade: Warband is still on sale... I thought it was just for the weekend but it's still $10.20 today... I love it. Realistic sword chopping n' shit... http://store.steampowered.com/app/48700/

Hey Dennis (or whoever is local) - do you want to go in on an order of game stuff from http://www.coolstuffinc.com/? I want to pick up DungeonQuest for cheap ($40ish) but you need to spend $100 for free shipping. I might pick up another game as well, but if you're interested, let me know. No rush.

| DungeonQuest is so fun

The Adventures of Hugo the Glorious

Game 1: Hugo the Glorious was pursued by a shade for most of the adventure. Despite that, he got some sweet loot in the dragon's lair, including the precious Harp of Tranquility. Unfortunately, the doors slammed shut on him two spaces from the exit and he was no doubt killed horribly by the dragon.

Game 2: Hugo the Glorious decided to take a "shortcut" through the catacombs and was instantly bedeviled by traps, monster ambushes, rats, and poor-quality torches. He emerged near the dragon's lair, then promptly fell back into the catacombs through a trapdoor. Unfortunately, the fall was fatal.

Game 3: Hugo the Glorious bumbled through a series of cave-ins and trapped rooms before deciding to try the catacomb "shortcut" again. Although he rapidly found an exit, it placed him nowhere near the dragon's lair but instead right near one of the dungeon exits. Mulling over his options, he decided the handful of coins he'd found looting corpses and crypts was enough for him and bolted. Upon exiting, a mocking bottle imp granted the ashamed adventurer another handful of coins. Total loot: 510.