Just a quick thought . . .
Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition goes live at 3:00pm today.
http://www.baldursgate.com/
Worth checking out.
The game is a cleaned up and enhanced re-release of the original Baldur's Gate AD&D 2e computer game from a dozen years ago. This new version is using an upgraded engine, and additional material including new dungeons and some new characters.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Monday, November 26, 2012
Such Barbarism!
Here I am with my head firmly buried in the sand of not gaming and I missed an announcement that leaves me both fascinated and nauseous in the same instant.
A new Conan movie is in the works and is planned for release in the summer of 2014, just in time to compete with the 3rd Hobbit movie. Good luck on that, you might want to consider releasing before Hobbit 3 does and definitely not the same weekend.
Legend of Conan (current working title) will star Arnold reprising his role as the barbarian 3 decades after the popular, but not true to R.E. Howard, Conan the Barbarian.
I liked that movie for it's over the top and not necessarily good acting, as well as for what I consider one of the best movie sound tracks of all time.
I still refuse to consider Conan the Destroyer or the recent Conan with Jason Mamoa as anything other than a waste of time. I saw Destroyer as part of a double feature along with The Last Starfighter in the theater way back when, and only saw the cerebrum deadening Mamoa Conan on dvd.
Like many of my old-school peers and R.E. Howard fans, I would love to see a movie that holds very close to the writing and not some slingshot of mental masterbation by a Hollywood weenie with no appreciation for the works. Somehow I doubt this movie will even try, but hopefully it will stand on its own as half decent entertainment of the swords and gore variety.
Given that we fans are unlikely to get our wish anytime in the near future, perhaps we could lobby for a full blown comedic endeavour to at least give us some belly laughs. I already know the best actor for the role.
A new Conan movie is in the works and is planned for release in the summer of 2014, just in time to compete with the 3rd Hobbit movie. Good luck on that, you might want to consider releasing before Hobbit 3 does and definitely not the same weekend.
Legend of Conan (current working title) will star Arnold reprising his role as the barbarian 3 decades after the popular, but not true to R.E. Howard, Conan the Barbarian.
I liked that movie for it's over the top and not necessarily good acting, as well as for what I consider one of the best movie sound tracks of all time.
I still refuse to consider Conan the Destroyer or the recent Conan with Jason Mamoa as anything other than a waste of time. I saw Destroyer as part of a double feature along with The Last Starfighter in the theater way back when, and only saw the cerebrum deadening Mamoa Conan on dvd.
Like many of my old-school peers and R.E. Howard fans, I would love to see a movie that holds very close to the writing and not some slingshot of mental masterbation by a Hollywood weenie with no appreciation for the works. Somehow I doubt this movie will even try, but hopefully it will stand on its own as half decent entertainment of the swords and gore variety.
Given that we fans are unlikely to get our wish anytime in the near future, perhaps we could lobby for a full blown comedic endeavour to at least give us some belly laughs. I already know the best actor for the role.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Night of the Living . . . (not dead)
I am still absorbed in the whole work-school-sleep-work cycle and still not doing any gaming. My current lack of interest in gaming can be attributed to all the Real Life(tm) stuff that will be going on likely into early 2013.
Hopefully I can slip in a break and try to do some gaming soon, if just for a few hours over the holidays.
I will be carving out a few hours to do some computer gaming once Baldur's Gate Enhanced launches on the 28th of this month.
An update on my friend the cyborg - Last news I have is that he is home, and his doctors have suggested strongly that he get on disability. At least he is alive. Hopefully I can make some time to catch up with him during the holidays to a least talk and hang out for a bit.
Hopefully I can slip in a break and try to do some gaming soon, if just for a few hours over the holidays.
I will be carving out a few hours to do some computer gaming once Baldur's Gate Enhanced launches on the 28th of this month.
An update on my friend the cyborg - Last news I have is that he is home, and his doctors have suggested strongly that he get on disability. At least he is alive. Hopefully I can make some time to catch up with him during the holidays to a least talk and hang out for a bit.
Friday, August 10, 2012
The Sound of Silence
I knew I was going to be taking a break, but I didn't realize just how much of one. I am still on hiatus and will be for a while yet. Let's call it a summer leave of absence (or is that leave of my senses?).
Between lack of motivation to blog, work/school, and Netflix (evil, evil, Netflix, tempter of the mind) all grabbing my attention, getting the gumption to write anything for the blog has been like seeking a quantum needle inside Schrodinger's cat.
Other items of note:
The Traveller Firefly story arc has come to completion (for now) and when I get the will to write again, it will be chronicled here.
A friend of mine is in the hospital. His heart cannot handle his current body weight and maintain proper circulation. A couple days ago he underwent implantation of a pacemaker and is now, according to another friend "a cyborg". I'll spare the other details except to say his survival has not been a given and he has had to be resuscitated a number of times. Here's hoping he will be able to continue gaming for years to come.
Also, another blog to visit is www.lawfulgoodmindflayer.blogspot.com that my friend Steve has created. It is currently sparse for posts, but if enough folks go over there and drop him a comment I'm sure he can be coaxed into posting more frequently.
Between lack of motivation to blog, work/school, and Netflix (evil, evil, Netflix, tempter of the mind) all grabbing my attention, getting the gumption to write anything for the blog has been like seeking a quantum needle inside Schrodinger's cat.
Other items of note:
The Traveller Firefly story arc has come to completion (for now) and when I get the will to write again, it will be chronicled here.
A friend of mine is in the hospital. His heart cannot handle his current body weight and maintain proper circulation. A couple days ago he underwent implantation of a pacemaker and is now, according to another friend "a cyborg". I'll spare the other details except to say his survival has not been a given and he has had to be resuscitated a number of times. Here's hoping he will be able to continue gaming for years to come.
Also, another blog to visit is www.lawfulgoodmindflayer.blogspot.com that my friend Steve has created. It is currently sparse for posts, but if enough folks go over there and drop him a comment I'm sure he can be coaxed into posting more frequently.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Lost Baronies - the missing campaign
It is rapidly closing in on 4 months since the last session of the Lost Baronies campaign. That is typically a bad sign and indicative of a failed campaign. At this point even I don't feel much like scheduling the next session.
With this in mind I think it might be time to turn the string of mishaps into something official and just declare a hiatus until we (the players and I) can get our crap together to pick up where we left off.
A big factor is the issue of not having enough players to keep things going when someone has to miss a session. This thing began with a bang (7 players and 11 PCs) and we're now down to (again after one new player came and went) 2 players and 9 PCs.
Other factors include my desire to have some repairs and home improvements taken care of over the next couple of months and not wanting to have to deal with too much at my place game-wise until the dust settles so-to-speak.
Once the house issues are resolved I will re-evaluate the matter and if I feel the urge to dive back in, I will begin recruiting additional players. We'll see how I feel around the approach of Fall.
Meanwhile I am still gaming with the weekly group so at least there is that going for me.
With this in mind I think it might be time to turn the string of mishaps into something official and just declare a hiatus until we (the players and I) can get our crap together to pick up where we left off.
A big factor is the issue of not having enough players to keep things going when someone has to miss a session. This thing began with a bang (7 players and 11 PCs) and we're now down to (again after one new player came and went) 2 players and 9 PCs.
Other factors include my desire to have some repairs and home improvements taken care of over the next couple of months and not wanting to have to deal with too much at my place game-wise until the dust settles so-to-speak.
Once the house issues are resolved I will re-evaluate the matter and if I feel the urge to dive back in, I will begin recruiting additional players. We'll see how I feel around the approach of Fall.
Meanwhile I am still gaming with the weekly group so at least there is that going for me.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Shiny! - Traveller in the Firefly Verse
So it is finally underway. I got my first session behind the screen with the weekly gaming group. My brief story arc will be played out using the Mongoose Traveller rules in the Firefly and Serenity Verse.
For the first session not a whole lot happened beyond character generation. Five of the eight players were in attendance and pre-rolled 3 spare characters for the other players to pick up and run with so that we can just jump right into the thick of things next time.
Character generation was a blast, as it always seems to be with Traveller. I remember whole afternoons and evenings of the old group 3 decades ago just sitting around rolling character after character for the fun of it.
The players present ended up with some funny outcomes due to the die rolls. The 5 PCs already involved in the action include a SOC 11 Lord (with possible Companion training?), slumming with the likes of a mad scientist, a gutter rat of a former soldier, a former intelligence agent, and a scout (with an enemies and contacts list as long as the rest of the group put together) who trashed a scout ship early in her career.
After completing the character generation we had time left to move into the beginnings of the story. The players had received the following info via email to give them a sense of where things are headed.
- You sent waives to your normal list of contacts on your approach to Persephone. The trip in-system took about a day during which you heard back about available work. Mostly small jobs or nearly worthless cargo runs were all that seemed to be up for grabs.
You had to land anyway since you were running short of fuel. Having used 48 of your 52 tons, left you with at best a couple more days of operation.
Worse yet, a month of laying low after the last job has left you nearly broke. Despite making enough from that single job to pay two months of overdue ship mortgage bills, you're wondering if helping those siblings get from a Fed facility on Sihnon to Persephone was such a great idea.
Sure, you have confidence that your cover story will pass muster, and the stolen shuttle you ditched had nothing on it that could lead to your involvement, but curious Feds poking around tends to interfere with finding the better paying, less legal, work.
You didn't figure on getting a meeting request from Cricket. A former Companion, she runs in High Society circles and no job coming from that crowd can be called "small".
The meeting is scheduled for 11:00am tomorrow at the loading dock of Pearl of Heaven Industries. Can't hurt to hear what she has to say.
Funny thing about Cricket. Rumor says she is over 60 years old, but she doesn't look a day over 23. Suspicion is that she's big into use of anagathics, anti-aging drugs. If true, that is a very expensive and dangerous habit.
Nothing's ever what it seems.
The players decided to take care of some items of immediate necessity such as getting at least a little fuel. Nessa Black (the aforementioned scout) was taking care of buying 10 tons of fuel, not enough to jump, but enough to make sure they had over a week of operation otherwise. At 500 credits per ton, that 5,000 credits felt like a kick in the gut to some on the crew.
(note: I do not have my notes so some names will be edited back in later)
Lazlo Jenn, ever curious, put his intel gathering skills to work and began researching viea the cortex what he could about Pearl of Heaven Industries and Cricket. Cricket is the public face of the corporation some of the time. The company is currently pushing a new cosmetics line "Touch of Eternity" with lots of Eqyptian design stylings, and marketed as helping hide signs of aging, etc, yadda, yadda.
Cricket is also a broker for "work" of a less legitimate sort, though that is not public knowledge except to some in high places with more money than god.
Meanwhile, Morgan Cahill (aka Lord Morgan) and Dr. Zarkhov decided to wander over to the high side of the city and reconoiter the meeting space get a feel for what they might expect. They already knew there would be tighter Federal, corporate, and personal security in place, and that their own hardware would not be welcome, but they were more interested in the layout and possible exits should things turn ugly.
While making their way high-side, Morgan discovered that they were being followed, almost from the time they stepped off the ship. The tail stuck with them until somewhere near the upscale area, then they managed to shake whoever the two goons were and made their way to just outside Pearl of Heaven HQ.
The building was a construction involving three high-rise towers, the center one the tallest at over 20 stories, and the loading dock appeared to be a landing pad for shuttle sized vessels, placed well above the ground between the right and center spires, 12 stories up.
Lord Morgan decided to have a drink or three at a nearby upscale restaurant. Dr. Zarkhov however would not be able to get in the front door so bribery at the rear of the building would have to make due.
While inside Zarkhov's lack of social graces managed to endear his face to the fist of one of the kitchen staff. This resulted in a call to the local fed patrol and the doctor being booted out of the building.
Lord Morgan had a much more pleasant experience and after finding that he was under observation, began sending drinks to the table of the curious duo before eventually joining them for conversation. Before the two tall, thin gentlemen in dark suits and sunglasses departed they remarked that they might see his Lordship tomorrow.
Zarkhov, alone and annoyed had tried returning to the ship without the company of Morgan Cahill. He was about halfway back when he was jumped. (to be continued).
It is funny that most of the crew seem to have some former ties to the Alliance. I am really looking forward to continuing this in about eleven days with session 2. Hopefully we'll have a full house of players.
For the first session not a whole lot happened beyond character generation. Five of the eight players were in attendance and pre-rolled 3 spare characters for the other players to pick up and run with so that we can just jump right into the thick of things next time.
Character generation was a blast, as it always seems to be with Traveller. I remember whole afternoons and evenings of the old group 3 decades ago just sitting around rolling character after character for the fun of it.
The players present ended up with some funny outcomes due to the die rolls. The 5 PCs already involved in the action include a SOC 11 Lord (with possible Companion training?), slumming with the likes of a mad scientist, a gutter rat of a former soldier, a former intelligence agent, and a scout (with an enemies and contacts list as long as the rest of the group put together) who trashed a scout ship early in her career.
After completing the character generation we had time left to move into the beginnings of the story. The players had received the following info via email to give them a sense of where things are headed.
- You sent waives to your normal list of contacts on your approach to Persephone. The trip in-system took about a day during which you heard back about available work. Mostly small jobs or nearly worthless cargo runs were all that seemed to be up for grabs.
You had to land anyway since you were running short of fuel. Having used 48 of your 52 tons, left you with at best a couple more days of operation.
Worse yet, a month of laying low after the last job has left you nearly broke. Despite making enough from that single job to pay two months of overdue ship mortgage bills, you're wondering if helping those siblings get from a Fed facility on Sihnon to Persephone was such a great idea.
Sure, you have confidence that your cover story will pass muster, and the stolen shuttle you ditched had nothing on it that could lead to your involvement, but curious Feds poking around tends to interfere with finding the better paying, less legal, work.
You didn't figure on getting a meeting request from Cricket. A former Companion, she runs in High Society circles and no job coming from that crowd can be called "small".
The meeting is scheduled for 11:00am tomorrow at the loading dock of Pearl of Heaven Industries. Can't hurt to hear what she has to say.
Funny thing about Cricket. Rumor says she is over 60 years old, but she doesn't look a day over 23. Suspicion is that she's big into use of anagathics, anti-aging drugs. If true, that is a very expensive and dangerous habit.
Nothing's ever what it seems.
The players decided to take care of some items of immediate necessity such as getting at least a little fuel. Nessa Black (the aforementioned scout) was taking care of buying 10 tons of fuel, not enough to jump, but enough to make sure they had over a week of operation otherwise. At 500 credits per ton, that 5,000 credits felt like a kick in the gut to some on the crew.
(note: I do not have my notes so some names will be edited back in later)
Lazlo Jenn, ever curious, put his intel gathering skills to work and began researching viea the cortex what he could about Pearl of Heaven Industries and Cricket. Cricket is the public face of the corporation some of the time. The company is currently pushing a new cosmetics line "Touch of Eternity" with lots of Eqyptian design stylings, and marketed as helping hide signs of aging, etc, yadda, yadda.
Cricket is also a broker for "work" of a less legitimate sort, though that is not public knowledge except to some in high places with more money than god.
Meanwhile, Morgan Cahill (aka Lord Morgan) and Dr. Zarkhov decided to wander over to the high side of the city and reconoiter the meeting space get a feel for what they might expect. They already knew there would be tighter Federal, corporate, and personal security in place, and that their own hardware would not be welcome, but they were more interested in the layout and possible exits should things turn ugly.
While making their way high-side, Morgan discovered that they were being followed, almost from the time they stepped off the ship. The tail stuck with them until somewhere near the upscale area, then they managed to shake whoever the two goons were and made their way to just outside Pearl of Heaven HQ.
The building was a construction involving three high-rise towers, the center one the tallest at over 20 stories, and the loading dock appeared to be a landing pad for shuttle sized vessels, placed well above the ground between the right and center spires, 12 stories up.
Lord Morgan decided to have a drink or three at a nearby upscale restaurant. Dr. Zarkhov however would not be able to get in the front door so bribery at the rear of the building would have to make due.
While inside Zarkhov's lack of social graces managed to endear his face to the fist of one of the kitchen staff. This resulted in a call to the local fed patrol and the doctor being booted out of the building.
Lord Morgan had a much more pleasant experience and after finding that he was under observation, began sending drinks to the table of the curious duo before eventually joining them for conversation. Before the two tall, thin gentlemen in dark suits and sunglasses departed they remarked that they might see his Lordship tomorrow.
Zarkhov, alone and annoyed had tried returning to the ship without the company of Morgan Cahill. He was about halfway back when he was jumped. (to be continued).
It is funny that most of the crew seem to have some former ties to the Alliance. I am really looking forward to continuing this in about eleven days with session 2. Hopefully we'll have a full house of players.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Happy 1st Birthday to The Dice Are A Lie blog
Huge thank you to Mark Allen for creating not only the blog logo, but this wonderful bit of celebratory mayhem.
Now I have the jitters thinking about how the heck I'll keep this pixel-bound ego trip rolling for another year!
Thanks to those who signed on as followers. It is knowing some folks out there find an occasional post of mine interesting enough to follow that helps me keep posting.
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