ArtMonkey

Rainblow Sux: Lickdown

2006-04-11T17:35:00Z

Damned game!

I picked up Rainbow Six: Lockdown the other night. It's fun enough. I find that I die alot, but then again I just suck. I've read on the interenet that there seems to be a good chunk of the gaming populace that thinks that Lockdown ruined the series, that is to say that it sucks and "misses the point" so to speak of what a Rainbow Six game ought to be. I don't know. I'm not an expert on it or anything. However, I did try to get online and play against other people because that's the most fun with this franchise. You don't have to deal with targets zipping by like crazy or leaping off of buildings at you or jumping up and down when you shoot at them like some kind of retard. It's alot more "realistic" (whatever that means). However I found that I couldn't connect to other players on UBI.com because of the "NAT settings" on my router. For the life of me I couldn't find any real support on the Rainbow Six website and when I finally found something that tells me how to open up the ports, it tells me that I need a static IP for it to work. Dear god, why does this have to be such a retarded mess? I play Battlefield 2 and DDO and occasoinally other online games just fine. What is it about this game that can't handle basic router functions? Poor progamming? I just don't know. What I do know is that it makes me sad and I'm rather irritated by it. I almost can't play the stupid game now in my frustration (and of course I can't play online at all, frustration or no). Grr. Ok, that's all I've got.

¡Buenos días!

2006-04-07T16:38:00Z

Estudiar español

Ok, so I'm trying to learn Spanish. It's something to do and it should make me a better person on some small level, and it's kind of fun, too, I suppose. I might take a class next time the opportunity arises. As it is now, though, I'm mostly teaching myself with books and online resources. I suppose I'm doing well enough. My wife says I have a knack for languages. I do like words, so I imagine that probably helps. Of course, like anything else, I lose interest quickly, as least the driving kind of interest that keeps me doing stuff. I've often during my last "hiatus" I would often look at my Spanish book on the floor and think to myself, "Yo debo estudiar Español." But it usually didn't happen. I'm currently on another studying kick, so we'll see how long that lasts.

Mi esposa

My wife had to go to a week-long training seminar thing in Atlanta, Georgia this last week. It ends today, but she still has to fly all the way back to Arizona and then drive from Pheonix to Sierra Vista, which is far too far to drive when it's 3AM after a long day of crappy group activities and "role-playing" (the lame kind) exercises. It was rough for her because she's been sick and she has a physcial addiction to the cuddling of her little chihuahua. The withdrawl must have been terrible. I can imagine her sitting on the bed in her hotel room with a pillow tucked under her arm as she pets it with a shaking, sweaty palm, whispering "Wheeee. Wheeee. No lick. Woooo." A terrible thing. But I, and the little dogs, look forward to having her back. I just hope that she doesn't try to drive back if she's too tired.

Bicicleta

Why can't a bicycle stand on its own?

Because it's "two tired"!

Get it? Huh? Huh?

Bah! You suck.

DDO

Well, my Halfling Rogue is one thin rank away from 6th level. I've decided, somewhat belatedly, that I've got to get Weapon Finesse. I'd let it go before because I figured I'd stay out of melee. Realistically though, I'm in melee often enough for it to matter (especially now that I have my shiny, flamey, burny rapier). I've also got to get some sort of ghost-touch weapon. Not being able to properly backstab undead is bad enough, but when they're all incorporeal it's even worse.

It's funny, gamers all sort of sound the same. There are like 3 different male voices I've encountered, though I've recently encountered a new one. The new voice was annoying. Not so much a tone as a speech pattern. Sort of the "nervous noob" voice. Trying way too hard and trying (unsuccessfully) to be funny with a bunch of strangers who are trying to concentrate on successfully making it out of whatever tomb of horror alive (or at least with XP).

Soles que se descoloran

Alright, I may have mentioned before that I like the Fading Suns sci-fi/fantasy RPG setting. I may also have said that the game systems for the game aren't that great. Soooo, I've been trying to convert the game over to a different system, but geez, that's alot of work. It might possibly be worth it, but it might not. I'm often struck with waves of nauseating disinterest. It really makes it hard to stay motivated. I've already typed up a fair amount of notes for using True20 rules, but there are plenty to go and I don't even have a gaming group to use it with yet. I've still got to finish (well, likely scrap and revise) the Theurgic powers and then add the rules for cybernetics and mutants (though those shouldn't be too hard. I'm borrowing liberally from d20 Future for that). I'm feeling a little better now, though, and maybe I'll put some more work into it this weekend. I feel like I'm almost done, yet at the same time I feel like it's taking forever.

I want to run a game based in a small city. I've rather been inspired by playing Dungeons & Dragons Online, actually. The visuals for that game are great and help to remind me that not all cities are flat, geometrical grids of buildings. I also like the idea of "neighborhoods". In the game the is the Marketplace, the Harbor, and various House areas. Within those are even little sub-areas, like Aspirant's Corner, or Soulgate. I guess I just like the loose "organizational" quality it suggests. It also helps characters find what they want in a general way. I want to take the Fading Suns city of The Hub (formerly Gilgar) and take advantage of its neighborhoods as described, adding visual detail, points of interest (beyond what's already there) and perhaps "sub-neighborhoods". Maybe I'll see what advice the DMG II has in it. They've got a nice little sample town laid out in there and it might be useful as, well, a guide.

Really, the whole thing is a great deal of work for something that may never happen. It's possible that I won't get any players interested in playing in the first place. *sigh*

Tecnología

My boss/friend recently sent me an enormous scanner to help with the comic and other scanny art projects I might need to work on. The thing is huge and now I'm trying to figure out where to put it. I might have to get a new desk (which I kind of need anyway) to make room for it. I suppose I could go out and get a longer SCSI cable. That might help. The one it came with is like maybe a foot long. I'd have to rest my feet on the scanner while I worked :P Perhaps we'll get Galactic Chasms going again, even if it's only "when we have time" and I can use the scanner to scan larger, better drawrings. Yay!

See what I mean?

2006-03-29T16:37:00Z

Ok, well, this is like my second blog entry and it looks like it has been just over a year since my last one. Tune in next year for the follow up! :)

For some reason, I suck at journaling in general. You should have seen my old high school "enforced" journal entries. Stream of consciousness crap and the occasional little story. The teachers didn't like it, but they just didn't seem to understand that I simply don't work that way. I don't have opinions on things and I don't dwell in pools of angst over the events of my life, assuming I even notice them as "events" to begin with. Yes, I can have an opinion, but it only springs into being when it is needed and might be different on a different day. My opinions don't sit under a heat lamp, they're made fresh to order.

Plus it's hard to write about things that I don't find interesting, which is most stuff. Well, rather, everything is interesting once, but after I've explored it, I'm done. I can't read the same novel twice, for instance. Once I've experienced it, I get nothing from experiencing it again...

The same thing that keeps me from journaling keeps me from holding conversations. I've basically got nothing to say to anybody. I can respond to questions and maybe even elaborate on them, but if I don't keep getting prompted the conversation will die. My wife often accuses me of being "argumentative". Well, sort of. The problem is that, for one, I don't hold any strong opinions, so I'm always on the "other side" of whatever crazy opinion anyone might have. If everybody is left or right, and I'm in the middle, then I'm to the right or left of everybody, so to speak. The other thing is, since I don't have anything to say, all I can really do is debate a point. I generally don't have any emotional investment in "my side" of the argument. If I'm proven wrong, well then, the conversation is over just as much as if I'm proven right. It was just something to do.

Even this blog is just a dull rehashing of things I've said on the subject before. Honestly, I bore myself, why would I want to inflict that on other people?

Anyway. What am I doing?

Morrowind:
I've stopped playing Morrowind for some time now. The "main" quest was delayed for "several moons". Without any pressing goals, I wandered around a bit and then quit. Just as I don't like "hunting wandering monsters" I don't especially feel compelled to "hunt for wandering quests". Oh well. However, that leads me to...

Oblivion:
It's a pretty cool game. I'm looking to upgrade my system to take advantage of its shininess. Even with everything on low, though, it's a nice looking game and it's fun to play. It's very flexible. After the first few "main story" quests, I wandered off to explore the world and get into some trouble. I accidentally picked up a few quests, and I'm working to clear those out, before returning to the main story, but the main quest is beginning to loom over me and I may have to do a little more of it before clearing out the quests I have on the side.
Apparently, the encounters and rewards in Oblivion are scaled to your character's level. This is good as it keeps the game appropriately challenging and is pretty much what any good GM does in a pen and paper game, but I find that I feel just a little bothered by it. Basically, I could persue the main quest from start to finish right now. Or I could roam the countryside gaining levels only to return to the main story and find that it is now... just as "challenging" as before. *shrug* It's still a good way of doing it, but I kind of wish I hadn't been told about it. Of course with all of this Oblivion playing, I've fallen behind a bit in...

Dungeons & Dragons Online:
It's a great game. It's simple, really, but it's fun and fun to play with friends. It captures the root of the Dungeons & Dragons experience which is what is really important. Sure, there's no "crafting" but other than making magic items for personal or party use, who really plays D&D to make and sell stuff? Nobody. Well, almost nobody. Can't account for every weirdo out there. Leveling is "slowish" but they break it up into little "sub-levels" which keeps things interesting.

Las Vegas:
I'm going to Vegas next month for work. That ought to be fun... I haven't seen my friends there in a while.

Scientology:
So, I caught the recent South Park where Chef dies. It seemed vindictive and petty and I didn't really enjoy it. Not to say that Scientologists aren't messed up, just that the level of violence in Chef's death, and the attention to datail, were disturbing. Looking for meaning and direction in life, I recently read a book on Scientology. It started out good, and I was willing to suspend disbelief on a couple of elements in an attempt to benefit from what it had to say, but then it got all crazy and pretty much asked for my credit card number. The book I read, for instance, decried psychology as worthless since it refused to see the benefit of a system that would allow people to heal themselves of psychological problems. It said that the psychological community didn't want to give up its monopoly where only the "specially trained" can help with mental/spiritual ills. It then goes on to talk about its special "soul-o-meter" device, which is absolutely necessary to spiritual healing but (get this) can only be "interepretted" by a specially trained Scientologist. I couldn't get past that unfortunately. The rest of the book was practically a catalogue for classes, tapes, books and a variety of other tools and courses to help one advance spiritually. Notably these things were not free. Now I understand that nothing in life is free, but if it's so great and they are so interested in helping the world, why isn't it free on the internet? A couple of decent donations from the stars who like this "religion" could host a nice website and even pay some people to create and maintain it. I didn't even get to any of the ridiculous "sci-fi" crap that I hear about. Silly or not, a scam is a scam. It's too bad, too, because the first chapter of the book seemed very insightful. Scientology may even be the route to happiness, but I'm not going to support a corrupt system that attempts to bilk the populace as it doles out "wisdom". Bah!

Fading Suns:
I really like this sci-fi/fantasy RPG setting, but the original rules I find to be somewhat lacking. They're supposed to be working on a 3rd edition, and I'm hoping it learns from the likes of d20, Shadowrun 4th Ed., and the new World of Darkness line (which one of the Fading Suns creators collaborated on). Until then, however, I'm stuck with no good system. The original is functional, but clunky and weird math-wise. The d20 version is also doable, but it wasn't given enough thought. It's like they just put a Fading Suns veneer over the standard D&D 3.0 (another issue, since were doing 3.5 now) rules, even going so far as to come up with a psychic "Beastfriend" class. Basically, they needed something to fill the "Druid" slot. Yuck. Still, I'm really starting to feel the need to get out of the house, and I think I'd like to run a Fading Suns game. Along comes True20. It's a very flexible "lite" d20 variant and so far, in my conversions, it seems like it's really going to fit the bill. Once I get the rules conversions done, I've got to come up with a campaign. So far, I'm thinking of keeping it on Pandemonium, based out of the Hub. The trick will be keeping it interesting and keeping the players in the "sandbox". I suppose that with enough "unsolved mysteries" in the Hub I can keep them going until I can get them invested in the city's politics and economy and whatnot... That's the plan anyway. There will certainly be trips to other parts of the planet, and maybe even the occasional "in-system" space flight to one of the other planets nearby. First thing's first though. I've got to finish the conversion. I've got the races done and I'm working on equipment now. Next is feats and then perhaps the trickiest part, the supernatural powers. Wish me luck.

Ok, that's enough for me. See you next year. :P

Blogging is Hard

2005-03-23T13:32:00Z

Well, for me at least. I'm not one to think very hard about what's going on around me, and what I do think about is so scattered that I don't really articulate it well unless somebody asks me a direct question. I'm like a database. With the proper query, I can be a wealth of information. Otherwise I'm just a jumble of fields and data. But anyway, to retouch upon the topics I covered last time...

Dungeons & Dorks
Things are coming along nicely, mostly due to the efforts of Rich, although I have been adding more reviews to the site and came up with the latest poll. The comic is looking good, especially with Jenn's new coloring technique. The comic comments are getting a good deal of use, which is great because interactivity is an important element to the site's success. I'm working on a pretty image to go into the Photo Gallery, but I"m having some trouble with the color. My attempt at a forum skin has pretty much aborted. I may try again soon, but it will require me to design first and program later, I think. I'm still not the master of CSS. While the Member Arena will be cool, I've decided to make a couple simple DnDorks Flash games to get me back in the swing of things. Those should be available soon.

Member Arena
Unfortunately with all of the work on the main site, I haven't done much with the MA since last time.

Galactic Chasms
Not much happening here either (www.GalacticChasms.com). The comic looks good at least and the story is progressing interestingly. I've been trying to write an adventure module for GC, but for some reason it's hard. Maybe I'm being too much of a perfectionist. I'd like the game to be challenging, balanced, comprehensive, interesting and maybe touch on a theme while I'm at it. Come to think of it, that does sound like a great deal of stuff. Maybe I should just throw some monsters in front of the heroes :)

RPG
I've pretty much given up hope of writing a great, narrative RPG for the web. Maybe I'll revisit this later, but I'm letting it go for now. I own plenty of RPGs that I don't play, so I'll have to dig out some of those. Lately I've been itching to try Scared Stiff: The B-Movie Horror RPG again. I don't know how it well it works on the web, though... I'll have to see if I can't get a live game going somewhere...

Morrowind
I haven't played in a couple of weeks, as I'm trying to focus more and get more done. Cool game though, now that it actually runs smoothly on my PC. :P

Gaming
Ok, well, while I haven't found an RPG group yet, I'm spending my Thursday evenings playing random board games up at Pyramid Comics. The meeting was apparently called off last week, but the week before, we had a blast playing Formula De. I'm hoping this week to play Betrayal at House on the Hill. Playing against myself, while interesting and informative for testing purposes, surely can't be as fun as actually playing with a full compliment of six players. I did get a chance last week to show a guy how to play Aquarius and Fluxx. Aquarius was fun, but would have probably been better with more people. Fluxx was even more fun. I had wanted to try a game of Chrononauts, but my fellow player had some things to attend to and wandered off.. I was stuck playing "Solonauts" the sad, lonely, no-friends variant :) Oh, geez! Have you heard about the PSP?! It looks very cool. I'd love to get one, but they're expensive and, to be honest, I don't actually go anywhere that would require a portable game system. Still, it's a cool toy, it's high-tech, it's Playstation, and I just plain want one. Oh well, unless I win the lottery sometime soon, it looks like I'll have to wait. Maybe I can look into getting one for my birthday.

Part Time Job
Ok, I haven't found one yet, and haven't really been looking... Maybe I'll take some time to do that today. It's hard though because I don't feel like I need another job, so I'm not as motivated as I could be. Needs to be done though. My wife is teetering on the brink of insanity thanks to the messed-up politics and poor management at her current job. GRR! Must find job!

Other
I suppose that I must encounter other problems and interesting anectdotes during my day, but to be honest, if I'm not dealing with them at this very second, I tend to forget about them. Makes life a lot less stressful I imagine, but also leads to a rather passionless existence. *sigh* Well, I'm off to look for a job and buy some lottery tickets :P

First Blog

2005-03-01T21:15:00Z

Ok, so this is my first blog... ever.

I'm not even sure what I'm going to put here. I've never been good at journaling. I don't think about things that aren't an immediate concern unless they're an immediate concern...

Soooo, I guess I'll use this as a sort of progress report on whatever it is that I'm doing...

Let's see... Things I'm working on:

Dungeons and Dorks
Trying to keep the comic up-to-date, refine my technique and add more content to the site. After the new forums are up, we'll be refining and updating the DnDorks main site to make it more professional, easier to maintain and able to accommodate the content we want to add... Most of that is on Rich's end, however. I'm trying to keep regular product reviews going, new polls, rants (that's tough, not much of a ranter), industry news and the occasional graphic addition. I'm also doing some skins for the new forums and continuing to work on the DnDorks Member Arena.

Member Arena
Speaking of the MA, it's making wonderful progress. We may need to go back and clean up some of the database routines to optimize them and limit the time it takes to update information when the character buys something or is injured or whatnot. Right now you can make a Mage, Fighter or Rogue, fight in the Arena, buy equipment, and get healed. That's pretty much all you need, but now I have to finish adding feats, more stuff to buy and the ability to level the character when he (or she) earns enough gold. It's very exciting and I'm looking forward to everybody playing it...

Galactic Chasms
Not much happening on this front as it hasn't been a major priority. The GC comic is updated regularly-ish though, and on my list of things to do is to finish writing up a low-level adventure for Galactic Chasms characters. Most of the other creative elements fall on Rich because it's his baby, but once things are more clearly defined and we have a "bible" of sorts, I might be able to add organizations, planets, monsters and so forth to the setting. d20 Future is a blessing for our purposes, though we're not sure how the OGL applies with regards to the d20 Future book.

RPG
I kind of want to create a simple, narrative role playing game/ game system along the lines of Story Engine or The Pool for general use, but with an eye toward gaming in the DnDorks forums. So far, I got nuthin'. I'm currently focusing, pretty much arbitrarily on d6s but that may change. Unfortunately, as systems go, almost everything has been done. I'm going to have to decide what I want my game to be about, so that the rules will follow suit...

Morrowind
I stumbled across this game in a box while I was putting things away and realized that my PC has been upgraded enough that it ought to be able to handle this game, and I was right. The other day I spent over an hour running around a dungeon full of monsters that were immune to my weapon, trying to find a puzzle box. Finally, as I'm crossing the main room for the bazillionth time, I notice that the wall of the main room, the room right by the front door, has a second level. So I crawl up a rock, whack a guy, and there the stupid thing is...

Gaming
I've decided it's finally time to try to find some gamers down here where I live. I've emailed one guy, but he has yet to respond. That's ok, though. He was more of a wargamer it seems. I contacted him first though because he had an email address. I've got a D&D player's phone number, and I'm going to call him soon though. Besides, I'm going to need somebody to playtest review material on :)

Part Time Job
I'm still keeping an eye out for a part-time job as well. I figure with a little extra money, my wife can afford to find a job that doesn't suck. We'll see...