SWTOR: Rix’larril’an of the Ascendancy – Commentary Track 1

By Paige Francis Posted Monday Dec 11, 2023

Filed under: Epilogue, Epilogue, Paige Writes, Random 7 comments

As teased in the last post, Rix’larril’an’s upcoming adventures on Dromund Kaas will introduce Revan to the world of Star Wars: The Old Republic. I say “introduce” because, despite Revan being created by BioWare for the first Knights of the Old Republic roleplaying game…they were THE playable character in that first game…BioWare had to adopt a canonical “version” of Revan, and a canonical story, for SWTOR. To be fair, this had already been done in comics, at least; from what I remember. There *may* have even been a novel or two by the time SWTOR was introduced. Point being, to the players of the earlier games, Revan existed primarily as head canon…Revan had made particular choices along an overarching path and ended up being a particular person. And that person mostly didn’t agree, to varying degrees, with what the official Star Wars canon became. Yes, secondary canon, “Legends” canon; this will all be dealt with when appropriate. We’re not talking about canon philosophy. Within the SWTOR universe, I’m not exactly a fan of how Revan was integrated. But the same concept applies to each character you create in The Old Republic, and some of these choices end up being…incompatible…with future expansions and stories. That’s not even counting the two big game-changing expansions that created an entirely new concept of “The Emperor” and were also, incidentally, written with force-using characters in mind as the player; leaving the non-force-using characters to just fill in their own blanks as to why they got sucked in to the story.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “SWTOR: Rix’larril’an of the Ascendancy – Commentary Track 1”

 


 

DM of the Rings Remaster XLIX: The Name Game

By Peter T Parker Posted Sunday Dec 10, 2023

Filed under: DM of the Rings Remaster 26 comments

Nobody wants to play a campaign with Emperor Fred or High Chancellor Gary, and so the usual approach is to give everyone high fantasy names like King Geon’ai, Sir Lua’an-Eradin, or Lady Alaain Mera-Dovrel. You know, strange and fantasy-ish. Of course, this means the names will all be unpronouncable, difficult to spell, and easily confused. For fun, have your players describe the plot of your campaign after it’s over. I promise it will sound something like this:

The dragon guy with that black sword was oppressing the people that lived on those hills. Then that one king with the really long beard got that one chick with the crazy hair, and she went to that one lake. Then she got corrupted by that curse thing that made her attack that group of guys we found dead. You know, the ones that had that +1 sword and the bag of holding? Once we broke her curse she told us about the dragon guy and gave us that thing. And the map. Then we found the dragon dude and kicked his ass.

It’s like living in a word without proper nouns. I’ve always wanted to make a campaign like this:

The Dark Lord Walter, wielder of the Black Sword of choppery, was opressing the peoples of Pittsburgh. Then King George Washington enlisted the help of the Warrior Princess Rapunzel. Sadly, in the Land of Yellowstone she fell under a spell and slew the Steelers, Knights of Pittsburgh. At last the heroes freed the princess, traveled through the kingdom of Barstow, and confronted Walter in the land of Spokane.

Sure, it sounds stupid, but you have to admit: your players will be able to remember, pronounce, and even spell all of the important people and places.

-Shamus,  Wednesday Jan 10, 2007

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “DM of the Rings Remaster XLIX: The Name Game”

 


 

Wednesday Action Log 12-6-23

By Issac Young Posted Wednesday Dec 6, 2023

Filed under: Epilogue, Action Log 28 comments

This week I’m not doing much, I’m in between games right now and all I’ve played was Mario Galaxy; hopefully I’ll find something to play for next week.

What are you guys up to?

 


 

SWTOR: Rix’larril’an of the Ascendancy 2.01 – Head Fake

By Paige Francis Posted Monday Dec 4, 2023

Filed under: Epilogue, Paige Writes 4 comments

Watcher Two indicated the statue of Darth Vowrawn “towered over the landscape, facing Kaas City threateningly.” Despite this, Kaliyo and I had to ask directions. We end up backtracking all the way through the jungle to the ((current) plebeian) entrance to the Kaas City spaceport looking for the right FOOTPATH THROUGH THE JUNGLE that leads to the GIANT STATUE YOU CAN’T MISS, that is incidentally in the MIDDLE OF A SLAVE REBELLION. It shouldn’t be this hard. However, I’ve always been told if you need to hide something, put it in the middle of the desert or the jungle. I guess that’s true. Continue reading ⟩⟩ “SWTOR: Rix’larril’an of the Ascendancy 2.01 – Head Fake”

 


 

DM of the Rings Remaster XLVIII: Dwarven Diplomacy

By Bay Posted Sunday Dec 3, 2023

Filed under: DM of the Rings Remaster 18 comments

 

I see a lot of kids with those “I Roll Twenties” t-shirts. I don’t know what game they are playing, or where they get their dice. I need one that says, “Help. The dice are trying to kill me.”

-Shamus, Wednesday Jan 8, 2007

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “DM of the Rings Remaster XLVIII: Dwarven Diplomacy”

 


 

Abandon ship! (Teeth)

By Bay Posted Friday Dec 1, 2023

Filed under: Epilogue 6 comments

So, I was fully ready to sit down and write a post this evening after my dentist appointment, but I came home with…three more dentist appointments, within the next seven days.

The day before writing this post: X-rays and cleaning
The day before this post goes up: Fillings (four)
Today: Fillings (four)
Tomorrow: Fillings (Three)
Next Wednesday: Oral surgery to remove my wisdoms and two misbehaving molars.

I haven’t mentioned it, but I’ve spent every day since Halloween on a liquid diet. I cracked a back molar somewhere between the Reese’s Cups and the Payday bars, and suddenly chewing became impossible. I’ve put some things into the blender in this last month that was never intended to be liquid. I am going to  leave this experience with more respect for my inside-outside bones.

(I’m not a total slob; one of my many disorders causes tooth enamel to break down without nearly excessive care. That in combination with the fact that ‘brushing my teeth’ was a weird bedtime ritual that happened at Grandma’s house until I was well into my teens, I’m very, very lucky to have the healthy teeth I do. I’ve learned, but the damage is done.)

Also, never ever ever wear noise-canceling headphones in an attempt to escape dentist mouth drill sounds. It does not have the intended effect. Instead of protecting you from the drill sounds, it traps you in a universe of only drill sounds. Any attempts to add music to drown out the drill will only add the distant echo of said music.

All that to say, I’m still going to do my normal back-end work, but the Sims Overthinking will be a few weeks. I need to catch my breath between stabbings.

 


 

Wednesday Action Log 11-29-23

By Issac Young Posted Wednesday Nov 29, 2023

Filed under: Epilogue, Action Log 19 comments

This week I’m done with Risk of Rain Returns. There are only a handful of achievements left, I don’t think I’m going to get them any time soon. I’ve been sick the past few days so I haven’t done anything else. I have been looking at Mortal Sin which is a first person roguelike focused on melee combat with heavily stylized graphics. I also might try Lethal Company which I don’t know much about, but it seems like it would be fun to go in blind.

What are you guys up to?