K2

( Entries from my Druid character's journal in the D&D 4E game run by theweaselking. )

There are some character (and sometimes player) behaviors that really get on my nerves (as a player) when I'm gaming, some things that I just hate to see in any game I'm playing in. These are mostly applicable to the 'dungeon fantasy' style games I play in most, but some of them are broader guidelines.

1. We Are A Team: If your character can't or won't listen to a plan, hopefully contribute to a plan, and then stick to a plan, then he's dragging the entire party down. I hate the brash swashbuckler who charges into the middle of the zombie horde while the rest of the party is 30 yards behind him, and then needs to be rescued. I hate the soldier whose idea of a sound plan is 'kick in the door and shoot everything in sight', but who doesn't bother informing the group when he's about to start.

The plan may actually be as simple as 'kick in the door and shoot everything in sight', but it's important that all the players *and* characters are on the same page.

2. We Are Not Monsters: This is pretty much exclusive to the 'dungeon fantasy' genre, and even moreso to GURPS Dungeon Fantasy in particular, but I've also had it creep into D&D from time to time. If your character is a member of a race that society at large thinks should be driven away with pitchforks and torches, if the party has to leave you outside the city walls to avoid being associated with you, or if you actually *do* eat babies, then I'm probably not going to enjoy the game with your character in it.

Roleplaying one ogre's struggle for acceptance in a society that hates and shuns him is cool, but it's really not what beer and pretzels dungeon fantasy is for.

3. We Are Heroes: That's not to say that Good is Dumb, but there are certain things you expect out of heroes. You don't shiv helpless prisoners, you don't torture people, you don't hurt innocents. Keep your crimes down to petty theft, unless you're Fighting the Evil Empire. Sure, it can be a bitch to decide what to DO with prisoners once you've got them, but killing everything before it's interrogated isn't the answer.

I'd generally expect a GM to reward a group for being Good by not stabbing them in the back for it too often.

4. We Are A Team: Yes, I'm saying this again. Very little pisses me - the player - off so much as a character who steals from the party or betrays the group. I'm also generally aggravated by players who use 'my character is greedy' to justify a lot of whining or unreasonably tough negotiations about the distribution of loot.

Steal from the enemies, not from your friends, and try and keep the best interests of the group as a whole in mind.

http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/news/arc/2009/nz14000.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSfsMJgypdw

-You do not have an unnatural hunger for the flesh of the living.
-You did not defeat the Lich King in a one-on-one battle.
-You did not defeat the Lich King in a one-on-one battle of wills.
-You did not steal Frostmourne.
-You. Are not. A vampire.
-You do not fucking sparkle.
-If you have a desire to destroy all life on Azeroth, you never left the Scourge.
-Darion Mograine was never your drinking buddy.
-You are not carrying Ashbringer.
-You have not been refused re-entry into the Horde (or the Alliance, depending on your race).
-You are not sleeping with Sylvanas Windrunner.
-Or Cairne Bloodhoof.
-Or Jaina Proudmoore.
-You were not 'always free of the Lich King's will and just playing along'.
-You are not possessed by the shade of Gul'dan.
-Or Teron Gorefiend.
-You are not Lord Soth. This isn't even the right fantasy world. Either of them.
-You do not have your own flying Necropolis.
-There are lots of other Death Knights just like you. Your supernatural abilities are not unique.

Jim Ross just made a match between Vicky Guerrero and Santino Morella in drag not just watchable, but entertaining. That was laugh-out-loud fantastic.

Michelle: *strumstrumstrum* "Ow."
Me: "Did you just go 'ow' at your guitar?"
Michelle: *sadvoice* "Yes."
Me: "Michelle, you will NEVER be a rock star if you whine at your guitar."
Michelle: *saddervoice* "But it HURTS."

(Upon being told of this):

(9:48:14 AM) Lyssa: Aw!
(9:48:46 AM) Lyssa: Michelle should totally be a rock star. I would throw my panties at her any time.

( Long. )

"Life got you down? Trouble dealing with the problems of that day-to-day grind? Well, dead is the new alive! Replace all your troubles and worries with the unending hunger of the differently alive. Call ZomCorp today!"

People say that PvP servers are wretched hives of scum and villainy.

( I say, they're just wretched hives. )

I hate the question, "What's your weak stat?"

I hate the assumption that a character in D&D 4e has to be inadequate in one (or more) areas in order to be barely adequate at the things in his area of specialty.

Even overspecialized characters with 20 in their prime stat and 16 in their off stat (or a pair of 18s in the important ones) are not adequate at level 1. Level 1 D&D characters are boring, uninteresting, cookie-cutter people. I'm finding that as they level up, they remain boring, uninteresting, and cookie-cutter - they just add a couple of frills and sprinkles to try and hide the fact.

I have perhaps six choices to make during creation of a level 1 character - class (which serves to determine race; nobody makes Dwarf Rogues or Eladrin Fighters) and race first, then apply the point-buy selection of stats that is ideal for that class/race combination (and there is one), then choose two out of four at-will powers (make sure they're the ones that suit your stat distribution), one out of four encounter powers (again, this isn't much of a choice), and one daily power (still not much of a choice).

Worse, none of these choices *matter*, once I've picked class - and that choice only matters in the context of party composition, since a group without a defender, a controller, and a leader won't get far at all. It doesn't matter what kind of Rogue I've built nearly so much as it matters that there is a Rogue, and he is here. I may as well be playing a video game for all the control I get over the way the character plays, except that if I were playing a video game I'd at LEAST get decent graphics.

Ultimately, the two games that D&D 4e reminds me most of are World of Warcraft and Battletech. It bothers me that they've made a pen and paper RPG that works like an MMORPG. I *play* MMORPGs. I *like* MMORPGs. But I don't sit down and roll dice in my MMORPG, because that'd be *boring*; I didn't play Battletech on a tabletop either, because miniatures wargames aren't interesting when I have to roll the dice.

I do pen and paper games for different reasons, and D&D4 simply doesn't bring what I want to the table.

(12:19:09 PM) Harald387: So on top of everything else.
(12:19:16 PM) Harald387: My girlfriend told me yesterday that she's pregnant.
(12:19:44 PM) Mom: what
(12:19:53 PM) Harald387: Yeah. I don't know. She's on the pill, *and* we used condoms every time.
(12:19:59 PM) Mom: kevin
(12:20:10 PM) Harald387: You're going to be a grandmother again.
(12:20:21 PM) Mom: when is it due?
(12:20:31 PM) Harald387: April 1.
(12:20:54 PM) Mom: you little bastard

So, I just watched Twilight (with lyssachan and sheyrena), because apparently I'm some kind of masochist. Who knew?

Speaking as someone who's been playing Vampire RPGs since the mid-90s - I lived through Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand, Clanbook: Malkavian, and Montreal By Night - I have SEEN 'bad vampire writing'.

This?

This was painfully bad from "Dying to save a loved one would be the best thing EVAR" through "Hold still, or you might enjoy this" through "I WILL STAY THE COURSE AND BECOME A MOON PRISM POWER SPARKLEPIRE I PROMISE."

Also, where the fuck are Kristen Stewart's HIPS?

I actually have to give some props to Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. Not only did they manage to get through the achingly bad dialogue, wholly unbelievable characters, and completely laughable action without quitting, they actually (from what I've been told) were INCREDIBLY faithful to the way the characters in the novel acted. Actors are always asked to stop being real people, of course, but these two managed to become people who could NEVER be real, because they were TOO STUPID TO EXIST. So, y'know, props there.

Now I'm going to go stab a fork into my temple.

It'll be less painful than being able to remember that movie would be.

No drabble today. Instead, some pet peeves:

You nock an arrow to your bowstring. You knock on a door.
You are fazed by something terrible (or unfazed, if it doesn't bother you). Transitions can be called 'phases'. 'Phaze' is not a word.
Knights wear armor and hit things. Nights are when it's dark.

Thank you.

(Missed yesterday's. Bad Kevin.)

1868: National Union Party candidate Ulysses S. Grant wins office in a landslide election. Despite the end of the War between the States, the NU Party retains strong support, drawing members from the political center of both Republican and Democratic parties and fostering a three-party system with radicals from both sides of the fence distinctly marginalized.

Whirr. Click. Hum.

The machine continued working as it always did. It had no way to mark the passage of time. The machine could not see, could not hear, could not even feel its own vibrations.

Whirr. Click. Hum.

Something was different. The machine could not feel, but felt a presence there with it.

Whirr. Click. Hum.

There was a change. The machine could not hear, but heard a deep voice speak.

Whirr. Click.

And then there was light.

Interview went well. Got a second interview, along with the implication that the second interview was a formality and that the job was mine if I wanted it.

4PM to midnight, five days fixed schedule (may not be Mon-Fri, but will have a two-day weekend). Job starts March 30.

Off to a job interview. Wish me luck!

2016: Ford Motor Company, having long since shifted their manufacturing capacity to military applications, unveils their new model energy projection pistol. Dubbed the Ford 'Solo', the blaster becomes the sidearm of choice for military and police forces around the world.

Pick one of my characters: PC or NPC, alive or dead, pen and paper, LARP, Journal RP, or MMORPG.

1. I will tell you the origin of his/her/its name.
2. I will tell you (up to) five random facts surrounding his/her/its creation.
3. I will give you a random fact from his/her/its backstory.
4. I may give one random fact about their future plans/goals, if applicable.
5. I'll answer one question about the character or their past actions.

I'm not involved in any games right now where secrecy matters, so you can be assured of honesty. ;)

(If I've played the character in more than one game, please mention which one.)

Fred Phelps and his daughter barred from entering the U.K.

So I caved and bought Left 4 Dead, because it was half-off this weekend.

Killing zombies is a HELL of a lot of fun.

That is all.

EDIT: For those interested, my Steam UID is harald387, same as my LJ username.

1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. No cheating and doctoring your list to make yourself look cooler than the person you took this from. Not that looking cooler than me is hard. Seriously, Ace of Base?

(Because I'm a silly sheep, I'm imitating lyssachan and putting in selected lyrics from each of these as well.)

( Clickie! )

...And then they laid me off.

My EI application is already in; I've found links to several good jobs; I'll touch up my resume tomorrow and start shopping it around. I've got two weeks+ of pay coming in, and then EI, so financially things will (obviously) be tight, but I should be okay in the short term.

I am not going to let this break me.

There's more, but I don't know how to say it - or don't want to, I'm not sure yet. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be okay, though. I'll get a new job, it will probably pay better than the old job, and everything will be all right.

Roommate: *walks past my office into the kitchen*

*CLANG CLATTER CRASH THUD*

Me: "...You alive?"

Roommate: *something I can't quite make out, but which assures me she's not actually dead*

A couple of minutes pass.

Roommate: *stops at my door on the way back* "That never happened. You heard nothing."

Me: *opens up LJ to post*

So yeah, we have internet again.

And the new apartment rocks.

I'm too lazy to go back and look at my friendslist, so if y'all could just re-post everything that's been posted since about noon Saturday, that'd rock.

I'm shutting down the PC here, and my internet's going to be out for an unknown period of time (hopefully just a few days) while we sort out the Rogers move.

I'll be back once that's over. Until then, I'll be playing lots of Civ IV.

LET THE MONGOL HORDES RULE THE WORLD!

The lease is signed, the key is in my hand, first month's rent is paid. Now I feel comfortable posting about it.

I have a new apartment. I'm moving this week. It's not a big move - I'm shifting one unit over in the same building, to an apartment that's MUCH larger, with an extra bedroom and significantly more kitchen and living space. The floors are new, the walls are freshly-painted, the windows actually fit their frames. The kitchen appliances are two years old, and aren't that really ugly shade of green that screams "I was popular in the '70s".

It's more money - a lot more, really - but my job is good enough, and stable enough, that I feel comfortable with that, and my roommate is going to be contributing a larger share towards the rent.

The cable company will be switching service over on Friday, and cutting it off here on Saturday, so I don't even expect to be offline long.

I'm really happy about this move.

"We cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller our common humanity shall reveal itself."

( Gaming quotes fun. )

[Officer] [Kethek]: Just threw an extra fiddy in the gbank to cover the vig on that loan.
[Officer] [Riley]: Vig?
[Officer] [Khaia]: Vig?
[Officer] [Alamexia]: What's a vig?
[Officer] [Baalder]: Vig??
[Officer] [Kethek]: You people suck.
[Officer] [Celiena]: I understood him perfectly.

San Diego woman offering her virginity at auction. Bidding is up to USD $3.7 million.

Alternate headlines:

"Ideas I wish I'd had when I was 14."

"If any of my friends has four mil to throw away and wants to buy me a present..."

Seriously, this article really bugs me. This is the single most played game on the internet, exhaustively researched and documented by hundreds of thousands of hardcore players and familiar to millions of casual gamers.

This is not the sort of thing it's easy to get wrong, but they did it.

It makes me twitch.

Grr.

( I was going through old gaming files on my HD, and found this guy. )

Happy New Year, everybody. Have a mood onion.

Edit: WTF no mood onions sadface. ;_;

My new electric shaver is not for internal use.

It says so.

In the manual.

WTF?

EDIT: I broke Nat's vocabulary.

(12:28:17 AM) Harald387: "Not for internal use."
(12:28:44 AM) Harald387: I'm trying to think of any rational internal use for an electric shaver.
(12:28:46 AM) Harald387: I'm failing.
(12:30:25 AM) Nat: LOL
(12:30:51 AM) Harald387: This leaves only the irrational.
(12:31:06 AM) Harald387: Which includes 'well, it vibrates, and it's smoothly contoured...'
(12:31:23 AM) Nat: LOL
(12:31:21 AM) Harald387: And there's ample proof that to the stupid, ANYTHING is an insertion toy.
(12:31:29 AM) Nat: ROFL

Harald387: I'm shopping on my way home. Probably back WAY late.
Harald387: D'you want anything?
Harald387: Rainbow? Unicorn? Milo Ventimiglia wrapped in a big red Christmas bow?
Chelle: Milo!
Harald387: You might have to defeat Hayden Panettiere in a deathmatch before you can have him.
Chelle: Bitch ain't got nothin'. I could take her.
Harald387: Heeeee.