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The Lazy-Man’s Route

98263So when I started blogging regularly the deal (that I secretly made with myself) was that I would post every day. I did this great for a few months and then decided that I needed to do it on a platform where I had a little more control. I already know sixty billion things about WordPress so I installed it on one of my domains, imported my tumbler blog-back-log and decided to reduce frequency and increase structure. Since then I’ve been making 5 posts a week, and I’ve done a pretty damn find job of staying on top of things (only a couple have been late).

At the start I’d get a few weeks ahead on my movie and game reviews. Rants where never too big of a deal and such. However I think I’m going to switch to three posts a week, with “rants” to fill in space whenever I feel like it. I’ll keep the Let’s Play on Mondays, CYOA on Friday’s and lump all the reviews together for Wednesday. However knowing I won’t always have a great review, or might be behind on my Let’s Play game or whatever, I”ll take the liberty to put in a rant whenever I’m behind. 3 posts a week is still respectable. You’ll still respect me in the morning right?!

So yeah, I hope you’ll keep reading.

Too much fun

Something’s got to give. I work 35-40 hours a week between my two jobs. I run or play in 3.5 RPGs per week. That’s about 6 hours apiece, so another 18 hours (24 every other week). 4 hours or so for darts.  6-7 hours for board games on Thursdays. That’s 75 hours. And theoretically I spend 56 hours sleeping each week. A week has what, 168 hours? Assuming I spend 25 hours a week on meals, chores and hygiene, 3 hours a week on this blog and 4 hours getting from place to place… that leaves me 5  hours each week to watch movies, read books, play video games, surf the net, and all the other fun relaxing things I’d like to do.

And I already multitask like a champ. I read books or play videogames while I walk. I watch movies/tv and play videogames. I watch Doctor Who while I paint miniatures. I need more spare time, and until I’ve got ready access to a pill that makes sleep unnecessary I’m going to have to give something else up. Right now the solution seems like it’s going to have to be one of my several Role-Playing games. The question then becomes which one.

On Fridays I host I Podcast Magic Missile’s weekly game, which is usually some kind of story or indie game. Right now I’m running Monsterhearts. There is lots of story, drama and Roleplaying. I’m not giving that up.

On Tuesdays I run or play Pathfinder Society at Fun-N-Games. This is fun, crunch heavy, RP light. Still there is some RP, and I do like a nice bit of tactics every now and again. And hell, I’m playing a half blind (can’t see past 30 feet) oracle with my new favorite Pathfinder spell, Murderous Command. Last time I played I never even drew my sword, instead sowing strife amongst our enemies and letting them do the work for us.

On Mondays I host Billy’s campaign. Which was All Flesh Must Be Eaten, and then we took a brief stint into  Apocalypse World (for two sessions) and then switched to Big Eyes Small Mouth. We’ve only had one session of BESM so far, and I’m playing a 16yo girl who dabbles in Poetry, Manners, and Witchcraft but largely has no useful skills. The most exciting thing I did was go shopping for new clothes … but then if we’re doing an “anime” game, might as well go whole hog.

Finally every other Sunday Dave is running a Dungeon World game at the store. Again, we’ve only had one session, but it was a LOT of fun. And it is Powered By Apocalypse World so kind of hard to go wrong, even when you’ve got an 8 player party. That’s right, we had 9 people at the table and it was still pretty damn sweet.

I suppose I could ditch the Darts League… however I’d feel pretty bad. Besides our captain Joanna, I’m pretty much the only person who reliably shows up. And we really need 4 people. We’ve already got 2 make up matches to do, which will probably end up happening early saturday or sunday afternoon sometime.

So, most of you who read this know me. What should I drop? What do I give up? Or do I just suck it up and deal with having less than a dozen hours each week that aren’t completely spoken for.

Wreck it review

 

calhoun

Wreck it Ralph may be the best movie I’ve seen this year. It is only March, but damn that was fun. Or maybe I’m just a sucker for retro. It’s certainly true that my favorite Community episode was the “video game” one. Probably my favorite thing in the movie… Well out is super subtle, but once you notice it you can’t not see it. The little people in Ralph’s game all movie with jerky 8 bit styling, that is, if you’ve played any really old games, you know the sprites only have a few frames of animation, and even upscaled to high resolution they retain the low frame rate.

Another thing i really liked was the Sgt. Calhoun’s cursing. It sounded so eloquent and dirty all at the same time. “All right, ladies! The kitten-whispers and tickle fights stop NOW!” Contrast that with Felix’s super cute, super polite style of talking. Even when he was obviously trying to curse, it sounded like the cutest thing ever.

If you haven’t seen this yet, by all means do so. A lot of fun, and a well spent hour an a half. I’ll let you know when I see something that is better.

 

Great Heartland Hauling Game

The Great Heartland Hauling heartlandCompany is my latest Kickstarter to come in. It is basically a trading game. You drive your truck around picking up and dropping off various goods. It is actually a surprisingly quick play only taking a half hour or so and probably less once everyone knows how to play. It even came with an ‘inspansion’ thanks to being a Kickstarter which adds in upgrades, of which each truck can get at most one. The “board” is made of a  dozen cards, randomly deployed, with a variety of different possible setups depending on the number of players. While the basics aren’t too complex, the fact that you MOVE every  turn means goods move around, and eventually become scarcer. Making a profit becomes more difficult. I’ve only played two games so far, so I’m not sure if there is much in the way of complex strategy, but for a quick, portable game with fairly simple rules it works pretty well.

There are a few things that aren’t exactly covered in the rules … like just how optional some of the options are. Can you choose to “deliver” even when you can’t? These are things that maybe I could find out by looking up in a FAQ but I just haven’t been bothered to do so yet. Too many other games to play!

LPX2 Operation Twisted Shroud

xcom7May 18, 2015

Our scientists have developed plans for Carapace Armor. All available fund have been diverted towards construction of 5 suits of this armor, in the hopes that it can help prevent anymore deaths of our operatives.

A UFO has landed in the UK, and we’re scrambling to get there before it takes off. This will be the first time testing the new armor, but we are one set short, and Adam draws the short straw. Will will be leading the mission. Joanna is our Heavy and James T. our support. Adam, Matthew H. and Kev will fill the assault roles.

This is a landing site, not a crash, so the squad moves in extra careful, but no threats are immediately apparent, even when Will moves up and throws a battle scanner far forwards. However it’s only a few seconds later before Kev spots a pair of brutes. James moves up and takes a shot at long range and misses, as does Will. Joanna begins some suppression fire on one of them, and Kev manages to wing the same one. Matthew holds his shot in the hopes one will break cover. Sadly they do not, taking wild shots at Kev and Joanna, both of which miss.

Will takes another shot at long range and fails to connect. James moves up to flank the brutes and spots a trio of Sectoids, who scatter into the underbrush. The squad unloads on the Brutes, but the long range and low visibility (it is twilight) both make it difficult and none do any better than Will. The Brutes move around and flank James, one laying down suppressive fire while the other moves behind him. However the second one exposed himself to Will in the process who takes full advantage and puts a bullet through it’s skull. Matthew moves up and puts a couple rounds into the remaining Brute. Kev moves up to try and finish it off, but comes under ambush from one of the Sectoids in the process. He’s hit, but the new armor absorbs the majority of the damage. Adam grabs the bit of cover Kev just vacated and puts down the responsible Sectoid. Joanna takes down a second one and Kev finishes off the last of the Brutes.

Oh no, even more aliens. Six of the Floaters deepstrike onto the remaining Sectoid’s position. Will drops one with his last remaining shot. Joanna earns our first Pentuple kill, with a well place rocket. Of course, the scientists will be furious about all the destroyed equipment, but the odds are heavily swung back into our favor now. James reloads, and the rest of the Assaulters move into closer position.

Will moves forward and reloads. Joanna takes out the remaining Sectoid and the rest of the squad continues to move slowly forward. Kev patches himself up and as the squad comes up on the alien craft, everyone checks that they’ve got full clips.

Kev and Adam move up and flank the “front door” and kev opens it, the rest of the squad moves in through a smaller entrance on the right side while Will covers everything from the hill outside. No activity is spotted so Will moves up close to where Kev and Adam have stationed themselves. The ship is set up in a Y shape from the main entrance. Kev and Adam break left, with Will covering them from behind, the rest of the squad heads down the right side of the ship. Further ahead both corridors curve back into a central room Matthew, Joanna and James get there first but the room appears to be empty, though sounds can be heard from deeper in the ship.

The last room has two entrances and once the squad is positioned around the right one Kev opens the left door. Inside is another of the Energy aliens, and the scientists come on the comm, strongly suggesting we try and capture it alive. James is the only one equipped with an Arc Thrower, “I’m game!” he says and moves up to try and stun it.  He slips around the corner and the alien can’t even bring it’s weapon to bare before James has tazed it.

Mission Success! And the docs say Kev will have a little bruising, but the new  armor has kept him whole and hale. By selling a few of the corpses to other governments we were able to put together enough money to make another set.

This is not my beautiful crystal ball

Previous Page (B14748). This is page B147481 of the Barbarian Story. This is your second life (the Troll Story ended poorly.) If you are confused go back to the start. If you want a different story make poor choices until you die or excellent choices until you win.

What sorcery is this? As your foot comes down, the heel of you shoe clips the rubbery case and the squawking device flips over, the crystal on it’s front cracked and as you bring your foot down again to finish the job you catch the briefest glimpse of a beautiful woman trapped within, her hands and face pressed against the inside of magic box as if attempting to escape, but it is too late. Your foot connects with it a second time, and the pealing sound ceases, there is a brief spark as the magic escapes and then the box is still, quite and dark.

As you look down on the scene below you wonder if the woman inside is trapped forever. Maybe it is worth bringing the pieces with you in case you run into a sorcerer who can be persuaded to free her. The men who late arrived are all dressed in similar dark blue uniforms, or white and orange ones. The latter have rushed over to the corpse of the boss, whilst the ones in blue are speaking with the peasants, several of whom are pointing towards where you entered the forest. The soldiers in blue confer for a moment then rush into the forest, hands clasped in front of them. It might be a good time to move.

CHOICE (B147481)4 Pick up the ruined artifact and head deeper into the forest, away from the soldiers who are tracking me.

CHOICE (B147481)5 Pick up the ruined artifact and head back to the scene down this rocky slope, once the soldiers are all out of sight.

CHOICE (B147481)6 Leave the artifact and head deeper into the forest, away form the soldiers who are tracking me.

CHOICE (B147481)7 Leave the artifact and head back to the scene down this rocky slope, once the soldiers are all out of sight.

 

Late

This week has been crazy for me. I’ll try and get the CYOA post up tomorrow sometime. Sorry.

RIP Google Reader

If there is one service I use to access the internet more than any other it’s Google Reader. Google Reader tracks for me 131 websites. Some of them update three times a week (or more) like Penny Arcade. Some of them update once every 1-3 months (like Lackadaisy). Most are somewhere in between, but when I discover a new website, with periodical updates, that seems interesting the first thing I do is find the RSS feed, and plug it into my reader. That way I never miss anything. And yeah… I’m usually behind, right now having nearly 200 unread posts, but they’ll wait for me. Maybe today I can only read 2-3 comics, and a blog post.

I’ve tried a couple alternatives, but only just barely. Do you use an RSS feed reader of some kind? What is it? Keep in mind a lot of people are looking for alternatives, so probably a lot of potential services are going to be having problems for the next couple of days.

Dodger

 

dodger

Terry Pratchett may have Alzheimer’s, but thankfully that’s not stopping him from writing excellent books. In fact, if anything the quality keeps going up.  The Long Earth was one of the best books I’d read in a while, and Dodger doesn’t disappoint. The setting is London, approximately during the Victorian era, though there is a certain fantastical element to it, and some liberties are taken with historical accuracy. Really though it all works. The main character, whom the book is named after, is a Tosher. That is basically, someone who searches for lost coins, and other valuables in the sewers.

Dodger aids in the rescue of a young lady whose name we never learn (spoilers), encounters several famous personages such as (more spoilers) Dickens, Sweeney Todd, and more. There is a little bit of Pratchett’s well known humor, but not as much as I might have liked, and that is probably the only complaint I can levy against the book. Well, I suppose the brevity could be cause for complaint as well… but really the book ended right when it needed to. And with a nice lead-in to possible future sequels.

If you like Terry Pratchett, it’s probably already on your list. If you like historical fiction, and don’t mind a book that isn’t perfectly historically accurate this also would be a good bet.

Puzzle Strike

puzzle strikePuzzle Strike: Bag of chips is a deck building game. Except instead of cards, you use “poker” chips. The nice thing about this is that you don’t really have to shuffle, instead you just toss them all into the bag and shake. This game simulates a puzzle game (that doesn’t actually exist) that simulates a fighting game (that also doesn’t exist.) If you’ve played Super Puzzle Fighter you know what’s what. If not, imagine a mix of bejeweled and tetris as a multiplayer game. You can combine gems, and then crash them to send them over to other players.

At it’s heart though, this is still a deck building game. You buy chips, they can give you various actions, or let you trash chips from your “deck”, or you can buy better money. There’s a few dozen different possible piles of chips, so every game is different.
One key thing that is unique about this game is that each player’s starting deck is dependent on what “character” they pick to play. So each starting deck is 3 unique chips, a crash gem (used to send crap to other players) and 6 $1 gems.

Once you know what you’re doing, the game is pretty quick. The only complaints I have are that it can only support 4 players at a time. Of course with an extra dice bag, we could probably do a bigger game. The other complaint is that it can be confusing to keep your hand/in play/discard separate from your gem piles. Apparently the 3rd edition of this game does resolve that issue, but I picked up the first edition at a con for half off, so can’t really complain. In fact, what I may do, given time is make a bunch of them, one for each character, maybe even put a little “Agrajag’s playstyle is:” blurb on each of them to help new players pick.