Seems I forgot a few follow-up things. First of all, for those tracking my career. For the big job I really want right now my resume got advanced a tier and has been submitted to a hiring manager who I'm hoping will call for an interview this week. It would be really good news since it looks like now more than ever my job will expire at the end of the month. I've taken a leave of absence from LotRO due to it.
Did I forget to followup my Christmas wish list? Two of the things I wanted I got:
* Ramlar: Lost City of Grynix (available as PDF only) * Hirst Arts molds for terrain making
and I've been making a lot of major Hirst arts terrain pieces. Expect some big set pictures before summer. I also got the lost city of Grynix, but we're still foraying into D&D 4th edition right now. It is ... interesting. More because of insight into the people that play it, the whole thing is still 90% combat and combat is 80% rolling the dice. It seems like most of the game could play itself. Grynix looks interesting and and seems like a very nice setting for Ramlar. I like how the adventure or campaign setting books add special material for players that isn't in rulebooks. It makes for some nice surprises.
My birthday is coming up in a couple weeks, and we'll see what else I get.
Anyone have any thoughts to post on The World of Darkness? I've never tried it but we're looking at trying the new Changeling RPG at some point. Might this be a decent new game for someone who is a die hard fan of Shadowrun 3?
Well, my intent had been to mainly post about Ramlar and do a final review of Card Sharp. My opinion of the adventure hasn't changed much, but I should stress I do still really like many of the mechanics of the game. My group is taking a break from Ramlar and we'll be doing more Arkham Horror and giving D&D 4th edition a shake (I'm not a D&D fan, but others are and it would make an interesting comparison to Ramlar).
Also, a word of warning. I'm applying for a job with a local game development company and if I get the position then my posting about computer games will become heavily curtailed or cease entirely. Wish me luck, I really want the job both because of it being a good gaming company and because my current job runs out soon anyways.
So hmm, can't talk about the RPG I've been playing. Can't talk about the minis game I've been playing, can't talk about computer games. So I'll talk about a recent pet peeve... Data Mining. Some sites have been data mining this blog for my personal info. If I really wanted your company to try and find out who I really am, I'd post that information publicly wouldn't I? On the other hand, my email address Thesallust@gmail.com is not that big a secret, feel free to at least get that part correct with the corporate world's attempts to know everything about us.
Finally, if you don't want to hear about war in the middle east stop reading NOW.
Urban warfare is interesting, but I'm very glad I've never experienced it first hand. It isn't gaming related, but this is my blog so I want to bring up some pet peeves as someone who has lived in the Middle East and is sick of current news coverage. The words "Disproportionate attack" are an oxymoron in any real war. What war was ever conducted with the expectation that both sides would fight exactly the same? This isn't some sparring match, war is simply not ever "proportionate". Stop using the words "Amateur Rockets", there is nothing amateur about them. The exact rockets being used are pictured below: Those amateur rockets come loaded with shrapnel, ball bearings, and carry enough explosive to blow out an office floor.
It seems to me the press has decided not to support Palestinians and not to support Israel but to actively support Hamas.
Hamas has been dropping rockets on Southern Israel for years... ever since they stopped occupying the Gaza strip with settlers in fact. They launched the rockets because they had to further to find Jews to kill and no matter what happens, they will continue reaching out to kill Jews however they can. This organization is worse than Nazis, they just lack the power and effectiveness of them. For the record, the civillian casaulaties while taking out the Nazis % wise and number wise were far, far worse. Hordes of innocent civillian germans lost their lives and they weren't even used as human shields.
Case in point to both, in just the last week Hamas has proudly announced executing over 30 members of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza. The English news isn't covering it, but they've covered it in the Middle East and Palestine and sadly nobody cares. Oh, and Gazans starving to death? it isn't news, Hamas has been starving people and depriving them of food, water, electricity and everything else since they took control. But the press will ignore THAT because Hamas tells them the enemy is -> that way.
There is no freedom of the press in the middle east. Egyptian and Israeli press come the closest, but even they have government censors who can stop things from going to print. The press in Gaza is directly controlled by Hamas, no reported allowed without escort "Stringers" and the PA directly controls all press companies in the West Bank. I would think the press would finally acknowledge their failures from Jenin where they broadcast a fake massacre and faked funerals as fact and we're later caught on film hundreds of deaths when it barely broke double digits. Then just 2.5 years ago faked photographs of Israeli damage in Lebanon. Doesn't anyone remember the photoshopped smoke clouds over Beirut? or the same woman throwing her arms up in anger at having lost her house... the same woman in 12 different regions of Lebanon?
The worst part is Militia "police" executioners that kill dozens of "collaborators" a week. It is why there are so many rockets fired from rooftops and such. If you don't allow them to, then you can be shot as a "collaborator". It also makes it easier for them to get dead bodies for photo shoots of destroyed areas. I recommend the Palestinian directed movie "Paradise Now" which talks about Suicide Bombers. I won't give it away, but it is a great glimpse into Palestinian life and the motivations over there.
But I could fill a library with what westerners don't know about the middle east and I'm not even a native of the region.
I'd like to thank and remember all my friends from over there. I miss my Lebanese floormates who used to play board games on the Sabbath to alleviate the boredom caused by a lack of transportation. You guys gave me wonderful insight and words of wisdom while playing chess... "What we have here is a total seperation between the sexes... (pause) ... it sucks:
To my Palestinian friends, probably still doing guard work on the border. I hope you've learned not to depend on words learned from watching R rated american films. (15 minutes lost trying to figure out how to explain the hilarity without offending some of my readers... don't think I can do it).
To my Israeli friends, sending you some better movies your way from my country this last summer. I really miss getting pulled over and "arrested", but I'm married now as a result of living over there and my wife wouldn't approve. In no other country has getting interrogated by female security/police/military officers been so much fun... in fact it is the only country it has been any fun in at all.
Yes, I spent a lot of time back then being pulled over for long talks with security guards. I developed a nice little nickname on both sides of the security border from my fun (and I'm not using that sarcasticaly) chats to ease the boredom of guards. It still puts a smile on my face that every guard on both sides of the border knew the nickname you gave me.
Two more days till Mines of Moria expansion release for Lord of the Rings Online. I'm somewhat excited; excited because of the new Moria content but heavily dampered by nerfs and bad class redesign. Expect to hear a lot about it in my next post. Also, this next weekend my gaming cohorts will gather and play some more Chronicles of Ramlar and Arkham Horror.
In good and interesting news, Stardock has finally announced their fantasy strategy game in development. You can see an early promo picture to the right for the game. I'll be following this game with much interest till it is released. The release isn't slated until winter of 2010, but as with other Stardock games if you pre-order you automatically get into being able to beta test and can play the pre-release versions of the game. The game looks like it will be the only true spiritual successor to Master of Magic and I have little doubt that it can top the old classic as well. It will be a true 4X game no doubt, but with duel research paths of technology and magic and a lot of interesting dynamics are being discussed that involve trading your power for different kinds of advantages and achieving different kinds of victories. The only disappointment so far is that they're only planning on two playable civilization races for release at this point and I think the game could easily gain from having a couple more. It shouldn't be too hard to do so without falling into the typical elves, orcs, dwarves fantasy trope.
Now the biggest and best news is saved for last and about VOR. I grab local bioplazm forum gamer Scott (left) and went up to Canada to meet "Skuzz" (wave 'hi' Skuzz!) who I caught in the below unprepared picture amid revealing juicy details of Vor 2.0 So I've got the spoilers, sneak peeks, and news about Vor 2.0... unfortunately Skuzz long ago got the promise of secrecy from me so there isn't much I can reveal. I can confirm seeing concept doodles for a new masher unit, and that other work towards the new release is proceeding. My opinions however are not under NDA and I can tell you that I'm very excited and eager for the release of what is in store with Vor 2.0 Old time fans like myself will not be merely pleased with a re-release of VOR but I think you'll be beside yourselves with excitement for the some of the game changes and story advancements. I don't think it will be difficult for VOR 2.0 to make a huge number of new fans as well.
I start a new job on monday, yay me! This means less time and more money for gaming of course. I was hoping to have pictures of the Golden Growler up, but the contest hasn't had pictures posted yet let alone judged. When it is expect to see my most recent creation as my new mascot and avatar all of the place.
So I've pre-ordered the Mines of Moria expansion for Lord of the Rings Online. Sadly, I'm not too enthused about it at the moment. Partially because my kinship is having a lot of drama and I suspect on the verge of falling apart, but mostly just because for most classes the expansion doesn't seem like one. Turbine is behaving more like Funcom, upsetting class balance badly, giving a lot more to certain playstyles that already have plenty while ignoring what the customer base really wants while the marketing folks and community go ... oh we'll get around to fixing it this year.
All computer game developers have to understand, customers expect things to work properly right out of the box. Patches after the fact aren't shouldn't be used for fixing content, it should be used for adding content. That said I'll be there on patch day seeing how good or bad it is for myself.
Sadly I've not been able to get any games of Anima: Tactics in. The support for it at my local game store has pretty much died. I'm not sure what is going on there, a change in management it seems as one of the owners has seemingly lost interest in being involved or something.
We had our second session of Ramlar last night. I had a lot more fun GMing the game than I expected. This was partially do to the fun layout and intrigue for the Card Sharp adventure. This adventure makes a great beginning adventure for Ramlar, though they really need a better "first time" adventure for the game to introduce players to basic mechanics and such. The Card Sharp adventure I feel though is giving my two players a good feel for the setting, the races, and cultures of the world of Ramlar. I eagerly look forward to the next session of the game.
The first Presidential debate is now over so I can blog at last. I had my priorities this evening. Speaking of which if you follow this blog you should also be reading GamePolitics. Have you figured out who to vote for to preserve the right to play the games you like? Have you been playing The Political Machine to see who will win in November? It seems my games of Obama and McCain keep coming down to Ohia and Michigan, can't win without them.
I've been doing some more resurgent MMO playing lately. My wife has been playing LotRO again sporadically and I've been playing Saga of Ryzom now that it is free to play. Free is a very good price for this MMO. It had a lot of features that were very promising for roleplayers, but in the end it remains a hall of broken promises and missing content. The mechanics are neat, but grinding gets old and you can choose to do that in any game. Never the less if you like MMOs you should check it out because there are numerous features that many good MMOs should copy from it. They have a great way of avoiding the class sytem and an interesting take on skills. Their faction system has a nifty way of gaining loyalty with factions... they just need some real incentives for actually doing so. The difference between a faction that totally loves you and one that is neutral is ... nothing. None the less you can grind it for the sake of seeing numbers scroll on your computer screen. I'll continue playing it while its free but I wouldn't pay anything for it in its current state. Say "Hi" to the lonely Pilgrim guild leader Svayvti if you stop by, the last Pilgrim leader of Atys.
I had a good post-PAX match up of Anima: Tactics at my friendly local games store (FLGS). My Church force Vs. Church Inquisitors Vs. Dark side. You can see me and the dark side player going at it to the right here. However, now that I've got the Konosuke figure from PAX... I've changed my playing allegiance to Samael for the time being. People seem to be down on them but I've found they can really put the hurt on. I've had one 300 point game with them and won it handily while still learning to field a Samael force. Good things appear to be in store with this force so lets hope we can really stir up a lot of local interest in this game.
In VOR news I haven't gotten any good games in lately with Scott and to a lesser degree myself being fairly busy. There is however a new Golden Growler contest going on. My wife took second place at the last one and I'm glad in this one we won't be directly competing. She is doing a Diorama entry for the Diorama contest and I'm doing a special character entry for the special character contest. Can you guess which special character I'm going to bring to life? For a harder question guess what Kirara's diorama will be of... You can see a picture of the fantastic trophies that Merc created. Will there be more good Shard entries? Last time I was totally impressed with Balrog's Shard Axion and thought is should have won first place. I hope we get more Shard entries ths time.
On the subject of RPGs, I've got yet another new RPG to try out. This one is the Chronices of Ramlar "Revised edition". The setting is classic fantasy, but the system mechanics are very intriguing and completely oriented towards hardcore roleplaying that I like. Tomorrow they have a RPG day at my FLGS and I'll see if I can poach some roleplayers to try and get a group going. Expect to hear a good deal more about Ramlar in the future. Shadowrun 4th edition continues to disappoint and their 20th anniversary is focusing on the failed Earthdawn crossovers rather than anything truly good and original from 1st edition. Smith & Tinker, please, please don't let me down in my hopes for a good Shadowrun game. Just trust Mike Mulvihill and Jordan Weisman because they made 1st and 3rd editions rock.
I'm getting back into the swing of applying for regular employment. Some of the jobs I'm well qualified for just look too boring. Would I like to make good money working in a boring downtown job for a soda distributor or dare I hold out for something interesting but less lucrative like game testing or working for government environmental consultants? I've inquired into both and potentially may have something next week involving contract work for Microsoft. We'll see what happens. Any ways it goes, my twice a month blog schedule I have going probably won't be impacted.
Seems I forgot a few follow-up things. First of all, for those tracking my career. For the big job I really want right now my resume got advanced a tier and has been submitted to a hiring manager who I'm hoping will call for an interview this week. It would be really good news since it looks like now more than ever my job will expire at the end of the month. I've taken a leave of absence from LotRO due to it.
