Yeah, Lil' Summoner is a pretty sweet game.  I liked it.  The Gods of Chance was a bit more fortunate with the die rolls in my favor this time. Rudes elven archers missed a lot in the beginning which gave me an advantage over the buildup of magic.  I think should play some more with other factions next week.

I'd like to see what happens if archers were allowed to shoot over other character cards.  One strategy I was trying to employ unsuccessfully was to build a meatwall in front.  Instead I had to basically move them up unprotected and pray that they don't get slaughtered.

Torchlight 2 looks cool because it's a budget Diablo-type game :) The new one is gonna have multiplayer now. Also, I guess there will be more than 1 city and also an overhaul on the skills and other junk like that. Seems like a great deal and a lot of content for cheap.

Popped Johnny's Summoner War's cherry this morning. He kicked my ass. I was Phoenix Elves and he was the Tundra Orcs. My first time with these factions and we learned a lot for a future rematch.

Now that I can play it, Diablo 3 is fun. Hooray!

Really enjoying the streamlining and updates from D2. Less clicking to pick stuff up!

I haven't had much chance to try multiplayer yet, but I think the game will shine there. Let's do it!

Re Torchlight: I enjoyed it for the short time I played it, but didn't find it especially compelling and stopped pretty quickly. What looks interesting about Torchlight 2?

downloaded.  Where do you find these updates rude?

| INCONCIEVABLE!

Our local movie theater, the Tacoma Grand, is going to be doing a re-screening tomorrow morning of Princess Bride... free to the first 100 people! Huzzah! Going to be a fun way to start the day. We've watched it so many times as a family, it's awesome to be able to go see films like this on the big screen with the kiddos. Last one we did was "Elf" right before Christmas. Heh.

| Ticket to ride pocket

Is free again for 1 day only. I play the hell out of this app, so if you don't already have it, it's worth getting.

Martin also stated that after the TV series came out he regretted making the characters so young in the books. He seems totally happy with how they've aged up those characters.

Rude: I think a Trojan Virus just attacked and killed my computer!  What was that latter half of your post?   Nay a word of it understood.   I totally agree on your take though.  The acting and cast has been unbelievable.   We can watch next sundays episode on a big screen, eat popcorn and cuddle!

Hola from Springfield las Vegas.  I took a day off and drove down to vegas on mafia bidness and have half a day to blow before doing some presentations.... so...

Eric:  I never thought of it that way, good point.  I agree it seems completely counterintuitive (and ironic) but strangely I seemed to enjoy the adaptation more that way.  Additionally, I read an interview with George Martin in which he confided of his "regret" in making Tyrion as ugly in the novel than after seeing how a comely peter dinklage fit the plot of an unfit and outcast Lannister heir who had the intelligence and charisma unusual to a dwarf.  GRRM plays a large influence in the making of the series and being able to visualize his characters, which I believe he used to essentially perfect his books.  Do I dare say, perhaps the series is more accurate in it's depiction of characters than the book?  I'm sure the book fans are gonna crucify me now.  




        

This season, more so than last season, they have added some new scenes and compressed some characters. It actually works out fine because the main plot points are still being reached but it just makes it a little more exciting for those who have read the books because even we are a little bit in the dark. Like there are straight up major and minor characters that are completely absent from the show but you can see how they've morphed their basic roles into other character's essence. It's pretty neat. Also do this season there's just been some really amazing performances so it's been really fun to watch. I started to reread the second book and while at the same so slow compared to how quick that the show we don't get to tell the main email situations it's still like Johnny said fund to have all this extra day. The Google talk thing when I go. iChat thing has let me down so sorry you got goofy but I don't want to edit that see you guys get the idea good shit Kevin call. PS so much for that diet we'll still try to eat healthy but fuck a salad

| I KNOW!

So lame I stopped where I did!  Life got in the way and I'm afraid to just pick it up from my bookmark because I'm certainly going to be lost and confused, so rather than try I just let it sit there....

It was ramping up for some insanity when I stopped reading.  So as to not spoil it for anyone else all I'm gonna say is there were boats and eunuchs ready to roll, yo.

Oh man. Some of the craziest shit in the whole series goes down in the 2nd half of book 3. Have you read spoilers/heard the audio book or anything?

The wife really liked the show and gave the book a shot, but the show was just too accurate and fresh in her mind.

I've heard season 2 takes some detours... really looking forward to watching it.

| Interesting Take

I have rarely (ever?) heard original source material act as a spoiler for an adaptation before.  I like the show too, but I think that watching the show would spoil the books.  Sure, there is some commitment required for the books, of which mine has failed (only made it through 50% of Storm of Swords), but the payoff seems soooo much sweeter.  There was like a hundred page stretch in Clash of Kings where I could not put the freaking book down!

One thing I found is that if you read the book prior to watching the series, it acts as a spoiler.  The series is so well done and true to the book (with relative exceptions) that most of the "important" themes are represented.  I found that I had preferred watching the series first and then refreshening up and rereading the chapter to fill in some of the "thoughts" that the characters had while going through the chapters.  Also, if I missed any details while reading, the series helped by visualizing the missed plotlines and fills in the gaps.  What made the show so great to me was that I read the book so long ago that I had forgotten most of the details, so it didn't spoil much of the plot for me.  And I agree, this is one of the best Science Fiction series I have seen.

OK, to work

Diablo 3- SUPPOSEDLY it gets better as you progress through the game. It's supposed to really pick up around Act 3. Also, the hardcore mode unlocks at level 10 which actually sounds fun - one life, that's it - you die, game over. Rogue-like! Blizzard's massive infrastructure and probable support are also appealing, but the 30 minutes I played of the beta was enough to "show me the game" and it's not really my thang. Never really played D1 or 2 anyways. Never even finished Torchlight, but it was dirt cheap and I def got my $10 bucks or whatever's worth out of it. I'll support T2 because they seem like a cool developer.

Food: I think I'm allergic to lettuce and all things green. 4 more weeks is a LONG ASS TIME... we've also been trail running at least once a week and that's pretty fun. I LOVE LOVE LOVE hiking, but when you get to do it in like half the time, it's kinda awesome. At least these are easy fire roads. I'd still prefer hiking in more rugged/varied terrain.

Boardgame: Scotland Yard. I remember playing some form of this years ago with the group. Did/do you guys like it? There's an iPad version coming out this week I believe but I think I only ever played it twice. I love the idea of those kind of games (really want to play Letters from White Chapel some day) but don't remember much about it.

Zombies: Eric is king of zombies.

TV: Man, Game of Thrones has been SO GOOD this year! Only 3 more left. They totally upped the production and do a ton of shooting on awesome-location now, so things look a billion times better. They shot all this "north of the wall" stuff in Iceland and it looks incredible. Best friggen show. HBO's new comedy Veep is also fantastic and very funny.

| Diablo ]|[

I tend to agree with you 'Zar. I really do not like the need for a persistent connection with single player games or games that have single player components. I know it is some annoying anti piracy thing, but You never know when your Internets will be down or the servers will fail. Plus, 20 years later when I get nostalgic, there is a good chance these types of games will be unplayable. At least not without a mod of some sort.

Oh well, I can always go mine some 1 meter cubes.

D>M>

| Diablo, Shmiablo

So, I made it to level 3 with my monk before the server crashed and my single player game was rendered useless until Actiblizzard gets their act together.  Kinda lame.

All in all, I'm underwhelmed - shocking!  Given, I'm level 3, but it still feels like the old one-dimensional click-fest that the other Diablo games have been.  Torchlight is 1/3 the price and seems to scratch the same itch, so good on you Rudy for waiting for TL II - I think it would have been a better bet for me too.

All this being said, I'm LEVEL 3, so I have LOTS more to explore, but it gets a big MEH from me so far, and the fact that there is an always on Internet connection required for a single player game REALLY bugs me.

| Ack...

And here is who I suspect will chase you through the woods in Temecula...



D>M>

| Zombocom

You know what's funny, I'm not even that into zombies.  I mean, it's not a thing I do, but when you look at my recent track record one could easily deduce that I love zombies so much I want to marry them:

 - Walking Dead game - I like it!
 - Alan Wake - there are dead things in it!
 - Nightfall - a game with zombies in it, I like it!
 - Zombies, run! - a game I am using to get in shape and I like it!
 - Run For Your Lives - a fun 5k that I hope will recapture some of the goofy scares and thrills from my trips to Knott's Scary Farm
 - Diablo - I regret it without even playing it, but I hear there are zombies...
 - Listening to Cannibal Corpse (why?) right now at work
 - I colored eggs on Easter to celebrate the zombie Jesus, aspect of Bunny.
 - I picked up the Filth Summoner Wars faction, which I think is undead/zombies?

Maybe I will marry them.

| Diablo, three minute impressions

Lovin' it! But, all I did was launch it this morning and verify it runs ok on my circa-08 laptop, which it does!

I did notice one thing which, Aeryk, the news I have to say is going to 100% blow your mind and turn your doubts into pure love. Are you ready? There are zombies in this game! :)

A couple people have already friended me in game through FB (not even sure how that happened).

Definitely excited to jump on tonight. I think I might make a Witch Doctor. I haven't played through any previous Diablo as a spell caster, and I like the idea of throwing jars of spiders at people.

Thanks for the tips man! The book I have focuses heavily on nutrition and making sure you're getting the most bang for your buck nutrient wise, so I think I'm mostly ok, at least for the 6 weeks of the main program. I take flak seeds every day as well as beans/legumes, so think I have most things covered. They do mention how to handle what I might still be missing through other means, so I'm hopefully covering my bases pretty well. It's only really "vegan" in that it says that you can get more out of your calories from greens than meat, but allows for lean meats occasionally like certain fish or eggs. My biggest struggle is that it gets boring, but that's on me to figure out how to spruce things up. I'm tryin!

Jon/Denis/Eric: Hows Diablo?

Elrocko:

That Zombie Run looks like crazy fun! Hah! My poor knees though. :( I really should get them roto-rootered here some day. I know it will improve my quality of life a bunch.

Rood:

Grats on the diet. One small word of caution bro (just some stuff to be cautious of and be aware of), a lot of vegan diets are lacking in several key areas that can cause serious health issues. For example, there are amino acids only found in animal fat (or by capsule) that your body doesn't like going long stretches of time without. Vegan diets typically have trouble with B12 and Calcium intake as well.

You can probably do ok on a Vegan diet for a prolonged amount of time, but don't kill yourself trying to get healthy. :)

Flax / Hemp seeds are a good source of omega fatty acids. Legumes are good protein sources. You can supplement for amino acids, B12 and vitamin D & Calcium (although Calcium is probably the easiest thing of the bunch to find in the veggies). Some folks metabolize supplements better than others compared to natural sources, but you may wanna look into an amino / B12 supplement.

Just looking out for you mang.

Silvia and I are down for the Zombie Run if you guys really come down for it! We'll all have to dress up. Sounds fun :)

I have Nightfall iOS but goddamn it has the worst tutorial. I've heard if you know the actual game, it's fun. I'll make an effort to understand it. OMG Eric, play Ascension with us! I'll set the turn time limit to like 30 days for you!

Jael: After we ever complete an entire game of Twilight Struggle, let's play some other stuff! I'm always down for M44 or any of those C&C games.

| Run for your lives!

So there is this race called Run For Your Lives that is basically a 5k, with a live-action zombie theme and I want to do it. (here's a good overview video!)

You know those mud run 5k's?  This is like those, but with dressed up zombies that try and eat you (take flags off of your flag belt) during the race!  Everyone is assigned a flag belt and if you have any remaining at the end, you live! Otherwise you become a zombie, either way it looks like you have an fun time and I think we should do it!  Apparently, there are forks in the road and depending on how you choose, your 5k could become a 10k.... :)

Yes, it sucks because it's in Temecula which is near San Diego, and in the summer T'Mec is about 10% hotter than SD at any given time, but the race is in October so it should be cool enough.  My thought is the NorCal-ers carpool down on Friday (taking the day off work), sleep in LA, drive to Temecula Sat morning for the race, get eaten by zombies, have some beers, drive back to LA and sleep, then drive back north on Sunday?

The race is about 70% full, and zombie registration is already closed.  $77 for thrilling fun!

I'm currently using Zombies, run! to train, and if you have an iPhone you should too because it makes the drudgery of running (for those of us not classically trained in running) fairly fun and engrossing.

Also, I recently discovered Nightfall after purchasing it for a neighbors birthday.  I had it on iOS and regretted that purchase too until I got my hands on the actual cards and stumbled through a game - it is really, really fun!  Its a deckbuilding game with a good twist of combat and card chaining that I have not seen in a cardbuilder before - if you have the patience to learn the game on the iOS (which I really didn't have), go get it.  I will TOTALLY play an online game with you, because I TOTALLY excel at remembering and finding time to play all the online iOS games that I start...  but it really is a good game, maybe I'll bring the neighbors copy (which is living at my house right now.  The game, not the neighbor...) up to Kublanacht next week for some fun!

Nope.  Your cards are not with me.  Without the faction cards, you can't play it either.  Not sure what happened to my doomtown cards.  Maybe I gave it to some hooker in the philippines.  jk!

| Diablo users!

The actual installer is now working! Bit of a hefty install, seems to have to download quite a bit past what the downloader did, I've been running it about 20 minutes so far.

Ah for the days when staying up until midnight was a feasible option for me. Sadly 10 PM is now my bedtime.

| Warmachine = Doomwhaaa?

Do you still have Doomtown cards? You don't have some of mine by any chance, do you? I've still got two big boxes of cards, but the third box, that should have my Dudes and faction Home cards has been AWOL for years. Whither my precious Whateleys?

Anyway, I'm a bit surprised you can't sell the models off. WM is pretty popular these days. What are the minimum bids you're setting and what is your S&H?

One thing to be aware of is the battlegroup boxes are plastic now so demand may not be as high for the metal ones. Then again, enough people prefer the metal battlegroups to the point I don't think it should be a tough sell. Which leads me back to wondering if your minimum bid is too high.

Of course you could always, you know, play the game as God intended, which I'm sure would make your friends happy. ;P

Your First born Child!   ...no wait... that cliche was already used in a movie.  I'll look through your games later and see if there's something we can trade or something.  Also u have to help me sell the stuff.    I already tried to sell the warmachines online, but nobody wanted it. period.    I listed it like 4 times.  Warmachines = Doomtown cards.

M44 is a cool game, but it's just like Battle cry, if I ever get to play it that is.  I could demo it for you one of these days and it will be the first time that the game will be used!   (clapping with anticipated excitement!)

Well keep in mind, Rude's diet was primarily Slim Jims and salt licks, with a refreshing glass of ocean water on the side.

Battle cry - rejected, would compete with my copy
Warmachine - rejected, selling stuff I gave you would make me very sad ;_;
Memoir 44 - might take this off you actually. I think this is the best C&C game. What do you want for it?

That's cool, I'll make sure I stock up on some yams and green beens and look out for Achmed teh terrorist dude with the sunken cheeks, swollen eyes and sandals!  10 lbs huh?  thats alot man... take it ez!

yeah, sodium is bad in large quants...

No man, I've lost almost 10 lbs! 1 lb would be horrible and not worth it, lol. This is also more than just about weight loss and more about overall health. We'll chat it up this weekend when I try to indoctrinate you, but salt is wicked bad, yo.

Yeah, Sat around 10 should be cool, ya? I'll be the orange-skinned dude with the hemp sandals.

Jron, That's a mighty list of games.   If I see you before your big sale event, I will consign to you a couple more games to sell as well, Battlecry, Memoir 44, Warmachines starter kit, Warmachines longgunners to add on to it.

Rude - Saturdays good, same bat time and channel?   We can continue the Twightlight struggle onslaught and test Version 3.1416 of my Dungeon Crawl game.  Also bring the Kindle and Ipad!  I've just downloaded a million apps from the itune store.  It's more addictive just to download the apps than actually using them.  As for diets, it's cool you lost a pound!  The thing about diets though is the sustainability and that's really the problem.  Like I was on a all 80% protien/fat diet, and had to get tons of meat from the supermarket weekly.  Then when I went to restaurants or vacations in other countries, it just wasn't practical.  You'd achieve the same weight loss effect by sticking to a 1500 calorie diet (eat anything).   Just make sure you count the calories!

Diablo 3 is installed on both my machines, ready to make Aeryk sad!

I am sorta obsessed with Android, but it is certainly a flawed gem which badly needs a second edition. I think/hope all the emphasis on that IP will lead to that down the road.

Net runner was a great game! Rude, I think the "Deckmaster" thing is that was the name for Richard Garfield's line of CCGs, which only turned out to be Magic and NR.

I think NR was a moderate success, it was definitely a good game, but I think it had a couple problems. First I believe it could be "solved." And there wasn't a lot of design space to keep pumping out expansion after expansion, so they put out one or two then that was kind of it.

MAN I hope FFG puts Doomtown out on LCG format. I'd spend SO much money.

Have you guys followed Descent 2nd Ed at all? I'm pretty optimistic about it, it looks like they are trying to solve a LOT of the issues 1st Ed had:

Long playtime (campaigns with short levels are the norm now)
Stalling tactics (overlord no longer needs to delay and build threat to lay cards and win)
Easier LOS
Monsters spawn at fixed points rather than dicking around with LOS
XP for both heroes and OL
It appears your guys now get knocked out and have to be revived Gears of War style rather than doing the Diablo style respawn in town (which I recall was Aeryk's major pet peeve)

So basically 2nd Ed will be the best game ever and we'll never have to buy or play any other game.

Re my board game list, yeah a lot of that stuff is hard to get rid of, but I rarely see anyone these days and need the shelf space, soooo... new homes for all!

Aeryk don't just give that shit away, put it in the auction!

| GO KINGS GO

eLzar, that is a pretty sweet, scraggly beard. Probably better looking than mine would be, LOL. Unfortunately, I cannot be a heathen at my work. No playoff beard for eNron, booo... I have been keeping my mouth shut about the Kings, but damn is it super exciting. Talk about a turn around late in the Season.

r00d, That sounds really tough. I did a similar diet a couple of years ago for about a month and a half and it was really tough, but at least I could eat oils. That sounds crazy hard. Good luck, I hope you are able to stick with it.

jr0n & eLzar, I will probably have a few to add to the pile. Not too many though. I got rid of a lot of my stinkers. eLzar, you need to do what I did, just throw the rest on the balcony for the next guest to discover (GOOTMU & 6 Billion). Never looked back on that decision. Look forward to seeing you jokers on Kubla Friday.

D>M>

That's a mighty list of games Jon! Hope you and Eric sell everything. I'll be soon moving in with my lady and have to consider my meager game collection. After an initial buying rush, I've been pickier with my purchases the last year or so. Size really matters (that Kickstarter OGRE box, jesus - 14 lbs!? No thanks), so I've been sticking to games on the smaller size. Arabian Nights has been out of print for awhile I think, so I bet you'll get a decent price for it!

Eric, the lady who sits in the cube next to me is a massive Kings fan, so all season I've been hearing about it. She's gotten to go to 2 games these playoffs, so she's been super stoked. She's got all this Kings shit all over her desk like the towels they give out at games and other weird memorabilia. I still don't follow sports, but it all sounds pretty amazing! Been a long time.

Jael: Let's kick it this weekend! This past weekend was crazy for me so didn't have much free time.

Denis: Android Netrunner sounds interesting. It's so weird to me that FF is pushing the "Android Universe" so hard. Was not a fan of Android, but the art and flavor text were top notch, so I assume they wanna milk that shit for all it's worth. I don't know my Magic history, but I read off hand somewhere that the reason that all Magic the Gathering cards have the words "deckmaster" on their backside is somehow related to Netrunner. Anyone know what's up with that?

Silvia and I have been following this diet book called "Eat to Live" which is basically a vegan diet. Kind of intense but I've been losing about a pound a day. Not a very FUN diet, but it's very nutrient-packed and healthy, so even after the wedding I'll hopefully follow some/most of it's tenets. Here's the basics for each day: 1 lb of raw veggies, 1 lb cooked veggies, 4+ servings fruit, 1 serving nuts, 1 serving a whole grain (oatmeal, pita, brown rice, etc). NO oils, salt, dairy, refined sugars, or really any processed food if it can be helped. The salt was the hardest thing to change and I still miss it, but my taste buds have been adjusting. Been making my own salad dressings and discovering all kinds of goofy and delicious veggies that I've never had in my life.

| Western Conference Finals

Of course in celebration of the Kings continuing playoff run, I am growing a playoff 'beard', as best my poor unmanly face can withstand anyway.

I want to make a shirt that says "This IS my playoff beard"

| Kublamos

I see a lot of familiar faces in that list o' games - sooooo many ill advised purchases in my time...

I'm down for some Friday - Saturday Kubla action, me thinks.  I will probably drive up Friday morning and just work from the hotel (I work from home on Th/F).  I too have crates and crates of crap to offload and I'm seriously considering whatever I don't sell I'll just leave in the lobby with a 'FREE' sign on it.  I'm tired of having this much shit dragging me down.

As the minutes tick by, my Diablo 3 regret-o-meter rises...

| Kubla Krap

I'm interested to hear what you have to think! It took me about 45 hours to go through the game, which seems to be a bit on the slow side from what I've heard.

Enron and I are definitely renting a room for Friday night at Kubla. I'm planning to divest myself of a bunch of games -- if you're interested in any on the list let me know. I haven't done any price research yet.

Arkham Horror + Innsmouth Expansion
WoW Adventure Game (includes a few of the character expansions)
Battle Cry (1st ed)
Cosmic Encoutner Hasbro/AH (pretty sure this is worth NOTHING since FFG's current version is very popular, but you never know)
Santiago
Tales of the Arabian Nights
Acquire (I have both the Hasbro/AH, and an older AH version)
Diplomacy (AH version)
Alhambra
Citadels
Rune Age
Cities of Doom (x2, weird dice game, one is sealed)
I'm the Boss!
Nexus Ops, 1st ed
Risk: Godstorm
Samurai (Knizia, first edition)
Duel of Ages
Wizard Kings
Adventurers: Pyramid of Horus (includes the painted figs)
Gears of War
Doom + Expansion
Dragon Delta
Death Angel (includes 2 POD expansions)
Frag Deadlands (hot item, I'm sure)
BSG
Mutant Chronicles the boardgame (aka Rectal Fortitude the game -- thanks Enron)
Legacy of Glory (some weird Napoleonics rules I won at Kubla last year -- sealed!)
Runebound 2nd ed (includes 2-3 mini expansions), + Island of Dread expansion
Combat Commander (just never play with anyone but Aeryk, and he'll NEVER sell that shit)
Mansions of Madness (includes 2 POD expansions)
Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers
Bang!
LotR Confrontation (small box)
Blue Moon
Starship Catan (the 2-player card game)
Boomtown
Hive (wood version)
Serenissima
Scarab Lords
Dungeon Twister
Cars Wars Deluxe
Game of Thrones 1st ed (man, I REALLY should have sold this before 2nd ed came out, might just keep it actually, great game)
Battlestations
Evo (1e)
Ricochet Robot
LotR board game (includes both expansions)
How to Host a Murder!
Titan: the ARENA
Battletech 4th ed

Lots of junk, but some gems in there too!

I have to finish ME3 - I'm barely an hour into it. Seems fun and can't wait to finally see the end to get what all the fuss is about.

Saw The Avengers - loved it! Awesome movie, best of those Marvel flicks. Written and directed by Joss Whedon, ya baby. I also wanted to see his Cabin in the Woods movie from earlier in the year but I think it's come and gone. I'll catch it on video.