Gone Digital: Issue 1 (Unleashed)

Issue #1 for Secret World (that's what they're calling their monthly updates) has been out since the end of last month, and it's was cool. It added six new missions (5 being investigations, which I love). I have finished all of them and can't wait for Issue #2 (which was announced yesterday). The "special" mission is one that I encountered during beta but with some differences, mainly the ending. For those that care about the game's story and lore (and I most definitely do), will be even more curious about a certain alluring blonde lighter of the morning.

On a side note, I have added links to the profile pages of my characters for both Secret World and Diablo 3 under the respective game link.

Limitless

Overall, this past weekend was a good one. Ang and I watched Limitless which turned out to be a pretty decent movie. For the most part, the main character did almost exactly what I would have done in his situation. I even called the ending about 20-30 minutes into the movie. Whether that means it was just that predictable or I'm just that awesome...well, I'm going awesome. Either way, it was entertaining.

I also finally got around to pinning Vasuro's arm back on her. I'm really not happy with the final outcome but at least it's back together and holding (for now). Next time I do a metal mini, I'm going to pin the pieces at the beginning whether it needs it or not.

On the Diablo front, I've managed to get the barb, hunter, and wizard all up to Doom in Wortham with the hunter a little beyond. I then started the witch doctor (MojoJojo) and got him to Reign of the Black King (Skeleton King here I come, again).

One last note, I picked up the updated version of the Tome of Ultimate Mapping. Since I had purchase the previous version just under a year ago, they (ProFantasy) sent me a voucher for this new version. So rather then full price, I only had to pay 5$. I can't wait to start playing around with CC3 again.

The Weekend of Rememberance

Well, of the four ideas I had last week about what to do next, 2 of them happened. I painted Vasuro (the mini I am going to use for the Kingmaker campaign) as well as a couple other wood elf minis. I also finished 2 other wood elves that I had started the last time I was painting (years ago). I tried to take some pictures of Vasuro halfway through plus at the end; but they didn't turn out so well since our camera is not that great and starting to show its age. Even with a digital camera, I had to take several shots before I got anything close to acceptable. It just was not wanting to focus clearly on the mini. Everything else it focused on fine but not the mini. Rrrr.

In between painting sessions this weekend, I also started up a 3 new Diablo characters: a barbarian, a demon hunter and a wizard. The barby got to 10, the hunter 13 and the wiz only to 5. I am mostly playing these to see how their skills work. So far the barb is my favorite of the 3 since with the other 2 it seem to take noticeably longer to kill things compared to the barb and monk. Anyway, going to continue with the wizard up to the Skeleton King then start a witch doctor. Even though I went on with the hunter way past that point, I plan on getting all of them up to the same spot in the game and round-robining them through the rest of the game or at least Act I.

Yesterday, Memorial Day, I went over to Nathan's and played a couple of board games. That is something I had not done in a long time and miss doing. It ended up being Nathan, Nina, Roy and myself (with Andrea showing up after work, watching). First, we played Cosmic Encounters. Nathan and I had not played in a long time, and it was Roy and Nina's first time. After a little expected confusion about how things worked, we slowly got the hang of it. For the races, we had Virus (Nathan), Amoeba (Nina), Parasite (Roy), and the Oracles (me). the Virus and Amoeba came close to winning at one point. The Oracles' home worlds gradually grew bare but were never even attacked let alone invaded (surprisingly). At one point, they answered the Amoeba's call for allies against the Virus. After sending in 1 ship, the Oracles used an artifact to deny the Virus their multiply ability thereby allowing the allied attackers a victory. The Amoeba decided to continue the offensive and once again got the Virus as the defender. The call for allies went out once more with the Oracles responding. As fate would have it, the Oracles pulled out a second artifact to deny the Virus their powers. This victory (which the they foresaw) gave the Oracles their fifth planet outside their home system letting them declare themselves the winner.

The second game played was the original version of Axis and Allies. Here the Axis were played by Nathan (Japan) and Nina (Germany) while Roy (UK) and I (USSR/USA) were the Allies. This was Nina's first time with this game too and the first time in years for the rest of us. While we only played about 5 or 6 years (turns) before having to stop, the last year ended up being a seriously tide turning time. Germany took advantage of Russia's shortsighted mistake of leaving a backdoor open into Moscow through the Baltic. This saw a transport-carried tank blitzing the heart of the Motherland. Japan a turn early had manged to discover the technology of Heavy Bombers and which obliterated then obliterated the American bombers that were helping support eastern USSR. With 2 Japanese bombers (and more sure to come) plus 3 or 4 Japan-based fighters along with a small fleet, the American Pacific fleet (as scary as it was) was surely soon to fall. Therefore, due to time, the Allies conceded defeat. If time had permitted, I would loved to have seen how things would have played out. I'm sure at that point the Axis would would eventually won anyway but I still would have made them pay for it.

This weekend has really rekindled my interest in both mini painting and board gaming. I think am going to have to start moving some of my video gaming time over to those areas. Plus Riley (and I) had fun "painting with daddy" Friday when he got out his markers and books.

Gone Digital: Act IV

Act IV. The culmination of Vasuro's journey the Diablo 3 (well, his first) nears an end. I reached Act IV last night before heading to bed. Aside from the really annoying loss of some achievements due to a software bug (thanks Blizzard), D3 has been incredibly fun. I'm not what I'm going to do when I finish normal mode. Right now four things are on the table: forge ahead with Nightmare mode on Vasuro, start over with another class, jump back into miniature painting (at least my Pathfinder mini), or work on some adventure ideas I had. I think painting may win out since I can use mini now and shouldn't take too long.
Of course, I may at least write down my adventure ideas so they disappear in my head. And they're not really adventures so much as locations/encounters. A quick aside, I had talked about running a new Pathfinder campaign a few months ago for some friends. It was going to be a homemade campaign rather then an AP. The players start out as Pathfinder Society probationary members with the first few sessions covering their training as well as their "test" mission. Each probationary member is given a mission that acts as their final exam with success meaning they become a full Society member and failure meaning they can try again a year later. After 2 failures, they are out.
Back to the location's discussion. Each location would have a set theme and goal (ex: find/explore ruins). Then I would determine the minimum difficulty for the encounter based off of character level and group size (ex: 4 1st-2nd level PCs). I would not worry about party composition (i.e. does the group have a cleric or fighter?) Next I decide on the number and scale of each iteration of the location (ex: 3 scales of 1st, 5th, 7th level PCs). After that, I write down an outline of the location's parts, draw a rough map and start filling in the blanks. Each iteration of the location would use the same overall map but have it's own notes. This way I would be able to reuse the location for different sessions or scale the location to better suit the party without needing to "wing it" as much.
While part of the idea of the campaign is to have it be an open world rather then always scaled to the PCs, I don't want the PCs to go wherever they want without thinking about the consequences.

Gone Digital: D3

Vasuro has made his way through Act I of Diablo 3 and a short ways into Act II. I managed to get him up to level 20 before the Sandman visited me. So far I'm enjoying the heck out of D3. I like the way you can interact (loosely) with the main NPCs especially the followers. I also love the random comments the followers make while out adventuring. I love the shared blacksmith and jeweler (whom I've not met yet). Of course, that aspect really won't come into play until I make a second character.

Diablo 3

It finally arrives. After having given countless hours to the previous incarnations, I foresee even more time spent trying to figure out the secret of the fallen star. My first real foray into the that new world was during the weekend beta where I played each of the classes all the way through the available levels. It is hard to say which one I enjoyed the most. So when it came time to start the adventure for good, Vasuro stepped forward to take up the challenge.

Vasuro is a tiefling monk from Dtang Ma that worships Nalinivati, the goddess of fertility, nagaji, snakes, and sorcery. And also happens to be my current character running through the Kingmaker Adventure Path. Thanks to Vasuro's selfless offer, she is now running around New Tristram kicking bad guy butt. Although what she didn't know when she chose to go on this new adventure was that a sex change would occur. (Mainly because I liked that male monk look better then the female one.)

After many hours of playing, Blizzard decided to bring down the servers. After waiting for about 30 minutes, I eventually gave up and went to bed. Although Vasuro didn't get to confront the Skeleton King, he did manage to make it to his house. The way to the fallen star continues tonight.