Ramblings Near the End of the Year

I have a couple of things that I want to talk about.

The first being that Conklederp and I just moved from the abode that we have resided in for the past three plus years and life's been kind of hectic, hence the lack of post by me this last Monday and Dr. Potts chiming in for MIDI Week Singles on Wednesday.  One thing we've discovered though is that 1) companies can be asshats when you say that you want to cancel a service you've previously held for three years.  Say, for instance, you want to transfer services from one residence to a new once, everyone is as helpful as Satan with an handful of sinners, but say that you want to cancel your phone line because you won't need it anymore and all of a sudden you'll be put on hold and disconnected after 10 minutes of said hold (two separate times) like you've contracted the plague from the Montagues or some such rot.  UTTER ROT, and I know my plagues, so it is in fact, a thing.  So we will have interweb services again in 10 days, which, luckily enough will be after we come back from a trip down to the seasonless SoCal (where we will have access to the rest of the global-sphere, so we got that going for us, which is nice).

Next, I purchased my first Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition product and beware, some of you might be shocked and offended (Delaños).  It was the Starter Set that Amazon is currently hawking for a measly price right now.  Gabe over at Penny Arcade talked a bit about it and I have a few friends that have been wanting to get into D&D for a while and I was a bit leary about starting in on 4th Edition, but now that 5th Edition is out and getting, from what my limited ears have heard, pretty good reviews, I thought I would spring for this boxed set to see if Salty Liver and her husband WhoBear were still interested after the short four part quest.  If all goes well, and suspect that it will, the DM and Players guide will soon be on the horizon.  And maybe the monster manual too, but I just might modify the 4th Edition MM for 5th Edition rules, which shouldn't be too hard and honestly, I would find it to be a hoot and-a-half.

The Starter Set is pretty basic as far as D&D packaging goes.  The box includes a whittled down players/rules guide, a DM and story guide, five pre-generated character sheets as well as a blank one for copying and a set of six dice (standard d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20).  One thing brought up in the rules that I really loved was the emphasis that ". . .the rules are a tool to help you have a good time.  The rules aren't in charge. . .If you decide that a rule works a certain way in one session, make sure it works that way the next time it comes into play."  I don't know why, but I found this very refreshing.  I know there are people who are stickler for rules, that they will find a specific rule in the Player's Guide and refuse the game to be played in any other way; not that I have personally played with these people, but I know they're out there.  Not being bound 100% to the rules is nice.

This lead me to another minor epiphany of sorts.  I like being the storyteller in these types of games and I will be the first to admit that I am not the best DM out there; to date SidMesh and PlacerMan are who I tend to look up to.  When playing games like Mansions of Madness, I like playing as The Keeper (equivalent to the DM) and I love playing as the DM.  I like all of the research needed before starting a campaign and being in charge of the story, which is something that goes contrary to my general approach to the rest of the world.  I'm sure someone out there can diagnose this as something-or-other.  There's probably a word for it in Latin.

So that is where I am going to leave you for the weekend.  I'll try to have something up on Monday before hoping on that literal aeroplane but I should also warn you that posts for the next week might be a bit spotty.

Oh, and if you don't know yet, Steam's Winter Sale is happening to lighten the load, as if your wallet/purse hasn't been feeling already.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Instrumental

Monthly Update: October 2014

Madd MS Paint Skilz Yo!

It's that time of the month again, and I'm pretty sure I've used that opening before. . . but you know what?  Neither do I.

This is going to be a hectic month.  First off, Conklederp and I are getting married on Saturday (11th) so some of the posts early in the month might be sporadic, depending on how much I am able to get accomplished ahead of time.  We are presently (at the time of posting) preparing to make our way to Nor*Cal tomorrow, with our goal being ultimately in the south (by California standards) and we'll be back about the middle of the month.  Goodtimes shall be had by all and yes, "goodtimes" is a legitimate word.

I spent a good amount of time during September playing both The Elder Scrolls: The Arena and Path of Exile.  It would seem that the Diablo type of play that is PoE is more enticing and engaging than what I found with DOTA 2, which makes me a little sad that I'm not as interested as I was hoping to be with the free-to-play MOBA, but I think solo game playing is too ingrained in my system.  I did play a session of PoE with Chreekat for an hour or so a few weeks back and since then I haven't seen him on Steam playing PoE, so I'm hoping that I didn't tarnish the 37 hours he's put into the game, but it looks like he was on yesterday.  I on the other hand, have only quested for a paltry 26 hours.  Oh the humanity!

And this just in, I am a Steam Stalking Creeper, but no, I still haven't played Minecraft in any of its many iterations.  Line me up to be stoned.  Again.

What the hell!  While writing today's post, music from Dead Island: Riptide (composed by Pawel Blaszczak) has come up a couple of times and it's a lot better than it has a right to be.  Now I've never played Dead Island: Riptide, yet anyway and I'll get to it eventually, but this soundtrack (acquired through the Humble Deep Silver Bundle) is really good.  I'm tempted to even say that it's "beautiful," but. . . you know what?  No buts.  The track that just played, "Let it be Haven," was indeed a beautiful simple piano piece.  There I said it.  Cue the onslaught of hate.  Maybe, but probably not.

Let's briefly take a look at October.  I restarted schooling a couple days ago so I'll be trying to get ahead for the first couple of weeks seeing as how doing school work during a honeymoon so video gaming and said activities will not be as prevalent as normal, at least for the first half of the month.  Game-wise though, October will probably be fairly similar to September with PoE, Arena and I might even delve into Fallen Earth, which I just spotted as being an open world free-to-play post-apocalyptic adventure game.  If I'm able to find time that is.  Although in the next week, I'll be hoping to play another round of Mansions of Madness with our friends so I'll have more tales to tell upon our return.

So have a happy October and I'll see y'all when I'm around.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Instrumental

First Impressions: Mansions of Madness (Board Game)

Conklederp and I received Mansions of Madness from Salty Liver and her newly acquired hubby for our own wedding, which will be taking place in less than two weeks.  Last night, we finally broke into this monster of a game.

One of the main reasons why I wanted to play this game in particular was because despite its size as a board game, it can be played with only two players without losing any of the attempts to create fear and dread.  The other reason I wanted to play Mansions of Madness was because it is based on various stories by H.P. Lovecraft and I have already covered my issues with playing games based on Lovecraft with groups of people unfamiliar Lovecraftian mythos.  So far, knowledge of Lovecrafts stories do not seem to be dependent on having fun with this game.

That being said, Mansions of Madness is an overwhelming game.  Just look at everything that is included with this beast as mere word could not do it justice:

Picture courtesy of: http://www.beastsofwar.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Mansions-of-Madness-1.jpg

The board is made up of double sided heavy-duty cardboard with wonderfully detailed rooms with hallway sized rectangular pieces, large room square pieces (hallway x 2) and one large main hall/front yard piece (hallway x 3).  There are I don't know how many permutations that could be created with these pieces.

Anyway, we are here to briefly talk about the hour long play session that Conklederp had last night.  We did not finish either, but came very close.

I played as The Keeper (the DM in D&D terms) while Conklederp played as the one Investigator (PC in D&D).  Being out first time playing, there were quite a few moments when I had to look at the rules to know what to do with certain cards (if an artifact could be kept after being used or had to be discarded), if the Investigator could search a room when a monster was either in the same room or space or if unlocking a puzzle/lock counts as an action the same way searching a room counts as an action (it does not if the Investigator succeeds in unlocking the puzzle/lock).  

Again, "overwhelming" comes to mind.  It would be like starting a game of Dungeons & Dragons for the first time and anyone who knows what that is like can understand the feeling of performance anxiety, even if it is with someone who is patient and understanding.  Conklederp and I were patient with each other as we asked questions about what to do or clarifying information on cards.  Still, I felt we both had a lot of fun.

Playing as The Keeper, I have to have bits of information kept secret from the Investigators, know which cards I have and when I can play them (cards kept secret) all the while holding down a poker face so I do not give away the fact that I could cripple an Investigator with the drop of a card.  I didn't.  Some cards are event specific while others are dependent on the Investigator being in a specific room or a room with a specific feature (An altar, ventilation grate, hiding spot).  It is a lot of information to take in and keep track of all the while maintaining a sense of fear for the player and role playing the story and keeping the events interesting for the player.

I love it!

Like I said, Conklederp and I played for about an hour, maybe an hour and-a-half with rule clarification happening, but not including the time it took to set up the board, place the room cards in their specific locations, and gather which specific cards I needed for the story that I was telling.  Set-up took about 30 minutes.  Overall, the game is supposed to take about two to three hours from start to finish and I can confirm that with at least two people, this prediction is pretty accurate, although I can understand this being a turnoff for a good segment of the board game playing population.

An hour in, and I have control of only four monsters.  Plenty to drive Conklederp's character insane!

Before we started playing, I also quickly created a playlist of instrumental background music that I set to shuffle.  This list included music from Bram Stoker's Dracula by Wojceich Kilar, Castlevania 64 by Masahiko Kimura, Motoaki Furukawa and Mariko Egawa, Amnesia: The Dark Descent by Mikko Tarmia and Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem by Steve Henifin.  At times the music seemed to mirror the actions in the game, but I never noticed that the music was out of place, but then I was also paying attention to the music when it changed while I cannot say the same for Conklederp.

There is a lot that I have yet to cover such as horror checks, trauma cards, combat, how the choices The Keeper makes during setup affects and changes the story and how events unfold during play, and how the game is won.  I will say that while it is The Keeper's objective to prevent the Investigators from achieving their objective (which is revealed to them through the course of the game/story), if an Investigator dies, that is not the end of the game, but the player can bring in a new character (one that has not yet been killed) up until the final act in the game.  I love that this is a game designed around everyone having fun but still knowing that in the end, someone will have to come out victorious.

I am looking forward to concluding this one (of many) possible storylines with Conklederp and more so to playing with our friends next weekend.  The one downside is that the game is designed for 2-5 players and apparently can be very cluttered and may not be playable if more than four Investigators are playing as the Investigators end up just stacking up in rooms without being able to either do much "investigating" or they spread out too much, uncovering information that would have been uncovered a turn or two later, progressing the story at a slower, more manageable pace.

The point is, there is a lot to this game and I cannot wait to delve deeper into its tentically depths.  Perhaps after we are finished, Conklederp will do a write up about her experience as an Investigator playing Mansions of Madness for the first time.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Something It Appears Has Changed

Rambling In The Name Of

I had an interesting week last week, and by interesting, I mean that it will be not at all interesting for you, the reader.  So needless to say, which is why it is needed to be said, I will not be winning any Pulitzers for this one particular article.

First off, this happened to my computer screen last Thursday.  This is not only why steak knives and computer screens should not be friends, but also a lesson in the activities of stretch/yawning while moving toward a spinning ceiling fan.  As is the slogan of Nike in one of many alternate universes goes:

The other non-interesting aspect for you of my last week was that I was indoctrinated into Path of Exile.  I've known about this game for some time, in that it was a Diablo-type clone that was a lot of fun to play and that it was free-to-play.  For whatever reason, those two descriptors together made me wary about trying the game.  Then I noticed Chreekat playing it a lot while I was learning the ropes of DOTA2 and thought I would give it a try.  17 hours later (after figuring out why it wouldn't initially download the first five times I had tried), I've fallen in love with this game.  The character choice is plentiful, the artwork and world design is beautiful, the music is semi-atmospheric-eh, and the skill tree, holy damn the skill tree!

This is maybe just a quarter of the skill tree too.  All these tiny lines and dots were a little overwhelming when I first started, but now I feel that this tree will be manageable.  Did I mention the game is free?  I gladly would have paid money to play this (having played the game now) and the moment I have a steady income again, these fine folks will be receiving a bit of mine.  Oh, and presently, I have not experienced anything that leads me to believe that I have to pay money in order to progress through the game and I am not inundated with adds or special offers for glowing glitter eyes.

I've also just finished Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer, the book in the Summer Reading BINGO, and so now it is onto a book "With a number in the title."  Time to go look through the book case or peruse what free titles I already have on the ol' Kindle.  That is, unless I plan on reading something by Janet Evanovich, but that'd be an easy out and I have no real interest in Evanovich.  The search begins.

Returning to the world of games, Salty Liver and her newly acquired husband gave Conklederp and myself, for our own nigh-approaching wedding, the Mansions of Madness board game.  I am excited to play this game, which I will get into in a later post, but for now, looking through all the materials will have to make do.

Apologies for this less than stellar submission to the Nobel Prize for Literature, but then again, we all can't be Steinbecks.  Or Kings.  Or Revertes.  Or Tolkeins.  Or Pratchetts.  Or Lovecrafts.  Or Crichtons.  Or Adams'.  Or Machens.  Or Poes.  Or Dumas'.  Now Shakespeares, those're one a dozen.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Converting All Your Sounds Of Woe