20100831

What goes up..

... better doggone well stay up!
- Morgan Gravitonics
Company Slogan 

Oh, so it may come somedays, finally I am on time again, I had the strangest of mornings today. First I got up wayyyyy toooo early, only to leave the house some minutes late already and of course missed my train. Once there, I waited for almost an hour for the next one, only to find out that I forgot my notebook and had to get off early and needed to be driven back home and get it and then once again driven to the main station and get on a train half an hour later. Exhausting. Summarizing up, it took me two and a half hour to the unversity today. Definitely not good, let me assure you of that. So, nothing new on my side of the barn, I can tell. Things stay the same as always, coming days we get some important events for our PnP-sessions, while friday I´ll have a Twilight-Struggle-Playday with a friend of mine, only to get over to the weekly vIIctoria-round saturday morning and a movie night saturday evening. Blade Runner and Cyberpunk-movies, this is going to be awesome. What isn´t going to be awesome is the fact, that some hurdles my yet be presented. And Sunday, we meet for Tabletop. In the meantime I play myself into a daze with LOTRO. Lucky me? Not sure yet, after I listened to a friend whining about it. So much for now, see ya fellas.

20100830

Zeitpunkt verpasst

Soso, nachdem ich extrafrüh aufgestanden bin, nun also ein herumsitzen und däumchendrehen zuhause. Argh. Aber nein, niemals, auch hier und jetzt kann was getan werden, und wenngleich das Wetter mit aller Macht versucht mich zu demotivieren, kann ich doch voller Stolz mir sicher sein, dass ich mit voller Macht dagegen arbeiten werde. Oder mit halber Macht. 

Oder so ähnlich viel. Naja, gegen Mittag erstmal eine weitere Partie Twilight Struggle, mal schauen wie lange diese andauern wird, da ich danach dann wiederrum mich zur Uni begeben will und zu arbeiten. Lassen wir uns also überraschen von den Ereignissen des Tages.

20100827

Das Jahr des Feuers - Part XXIV



Die Reise durch die Wildermark geht weiter, als die Helden eine erste Spur von Rohaja aufnehmen. Bei Gallys.


04.03.2010

Nachdem die Helden beim letzten Mal ihre Reise kurz nach dem Verlassen des Wehrweilers unterbrachen, setzten wir an dieser Stelle wieder an. Kurz hinter Horeth setzen die Helden also ihre Reise fort, nur um des Nächtens im verlassenen Ochsenweide zu nächtigen.

Erst am nächsten Tag, dem 13ten Rondra, sollten sie als nächste Station die zu dieser Zeit und verquerer Besetzung stehende Stadt Zweimühlen erreichen. Diese Kleinstadt mit Burg, durch meisterliche Intervention nach Hartsteen verlagert, war nun zum Schauplatz der Söldlinge von Gerasim II. von Quarian-Quandt und Ludor von Hartsteen geworden, während in der nahegelegenen Festung ein Schwarzmagier namens Nekrotius sein Unwesen treiben sollte.

All dies brachte Thimron und Wulfgar von einem Mietling nahe den südlichen Stadtoren in Erfahrung. Schließlich sollte es sein, dass die Helden sich nach einem kurzen Mittagsmahl Richtung Osten aufmachten, um schnellstmöglich weiterzukommen.

Auf der Straße nach Osten, welche sich schnell nach Nordosten winden sollte, erreichten sie so auch die ehemalige Reichsstraße von Wehrheim zur Trollpforte, welche ihnen eine weitere üble Überraschung in Form von überfallenen Kutschen, Wagen, Leichen und verlassenen Dörfern an ihren Rändern, leeren Friedhöfen und Feldern voller Grabhügel der Untoten präsentierte.

Gegen Abend erreichten sie schliesslich das kleine Dörfchen Arlingen, wo sie durch den Wirt erfuhren, dass Richtung Gallys runter alles von den Aaskrähen kontrolliert sei, was die Helden unter Bezeugung, sie wollten nur in die Sichel aber kalt ließ.

Auch die weitere Reise und das Haltmachen zum Mittagsmahl in einem kleinen Weiler an der Reichsstraße gut 20 Meilen vor Gallys ließ die Helden eher kalt, als sie versuchten zu vermeiden, Kontakt mit den Hinterbliebenen aufzunehmen in irgendeiner Art und Weise.

Kurz vor Gallys, knapp 2 Meilen sollte es sein, dass die Helden sodann mit ihren Beobachtungen der Stadt selbst und der aufgespannten Banner und Söldlingsheere begannen und sich alsbald entschieden, direkt erstmal Richtung Norden zu ziehen, Richtung der Sichel. unwissend ob der Gerüchte darum, dass sie angeblich Rohaja in der Hand der Schwarzen Truppen in Gallys befinden sollte.

Es musste in Wink der Zwölfe sein, der sie schliesslich zu den Ruinen eines Praiosklosters führte, wo sie auf einen Deserteur der kaiserlichen Streitmacht Wehrheims trafen, den Soldaten Bärfried Auerlein, welcher ihnen erst erzählte, er wäre ein entflohener Soldat und Flüchtling, um ihnen gegenüber alsbald zu behaupten, er wäre als Agent Ugo von Mühlingens unterwegs, wobei ein Bannbaladin Thimrons enthülte, dass er in Wirklichkeit mit seinen Kameraden unter Befehl von Sulman al´Venish auf der Suche nach Rohaja wäre.

Hier war es erstmals, dass die Helden davon erfuhren, dass eine Blonde Fraur in Berler, einem größeren Dorf auf der Straße von Wehrheim nach Gallys, angeblich teuren Schmuck eingetauscht habe, welchen Bärfried auch sogleich präsentierte, und nach vorsichtigen Schätzungen seitens Thimrons und Kinjaos sogleich als möglicherweise der Thronfolgerinnen Besitz geachtet wurde.

Nachdem jedoch Bärfried davon berichtete, dass nach angeblichen Berichten der Aaskrähen Rohaja in Gallys festgesetzt worden wäre nachdem sie im Grassinger Land um Arlingen herum gefangen worden wäre, liessen die Helden Wulfgars Säbel über Bärfried richten und begannen damit, einen Plan auszutüfteln, um herauszufinden, ob sich wirklich Rohaja in der Stadt befände.

Alsbald begann sogleich Thimron mit einem Adlerschwinge sich als kranke alte einbeinige schwerhörige Krähe mit leichten Gefiederschwierigkeiten, nach Gallys aufzumachen und die Stadt zu erkunden, wo er auch neben dem blanken Chaos und der eisernen Faust der Truppen der Schwarzen Lande auf dem direkten Marktplatz der Stadt am ehemaligen Galgen einen Käfig entdeckte, der fast vollständig vernagelt war mit Holzbrettern, und dafür sorgte, dass er selbst als Krähe kaum in den Käfig hineinschauen konnte, was es schwierig machte, mehr als eine weibliche Silhouette auszumachen.

Dies reichte ihm jedoch, um ihr erst in Rabengestalt einen kupfernen Bratspieß entgegen kommen zu lassen, und seine Erkenntnis dann seinen Gefährten mitzuteilen. Obwohl die Magier sofort damit begannen, eifrig zu tüfteln, um Wege zu finden, wie sie erkennen würden, ob oder ob es sich nicht um Rohaja handeln würde, entschied man sich schliesslich kurz nach Mittag, für eine äußerst einfache Methode. Mittels eines verzauberten kleinen Astes würde Thimron diesen mit einem Flim Flam Flunkel verzauberten und nur für Rohaja auslösenden Ast zum Käfig bringen und sehen, ob es sich um ebendiese handeln würde.

Der Plan wurde in die Tat umgesetzt, und schnell ergab sich, dass es sich bei der Gefangenen nach Magiermeinung nicht um Rohaja handeln konnte, da der Ast nicht ausgelöst hatte. Mit den Überlegungen, welcher Spur und wohin dieser wenn denn, zu folgen sei, endete der Abend.

20100825

Change

You may not yet have noticed, but I really liked the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels. So much infact, that in the course of one single month since I´ve got them, I have read them twice. Intensely. And let me tell you, they are pure gold, I assure you of that. In a certain way, it seems strange to me, but as the final message, when everything ends, we learn within the stories pages, that everything changes. Change is the only certainty of life. Seems like a strange paradox, but it is also even more strangely understandable.

What this shows about me, is even more bizzare, as I know quite a few comics over the years, which seem to massively influenced me and the way I think about stuff. Be it TRANSMETROPOLITAN from Warren Ellis, Y - THE LAST MAN, BATMAN, EMPOWERED, KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE or DORK TOWER, SANDMAN and THE AUTHORITY, THE METABARONS and THE BOYS, not to speak of WATCHMEN or XIII. Of course there are more, uncountable, even those I believe with lesser influence or perhaps a bit more subtle, like EL MERCENARIO or CONAN, heck, even HELLBLAZER and INVINCIBLE or DIRTY PAIR. And yet, an amalgamation of so much more. And I may read far too much comics, for that matter. 

And that is not to mention all the other influences we had over the years, be it Cyberpunkt in literature (Neuromancer by Gibson), television and movie (Blade Runner by Scott, Ghost in the Shell or Standalone Complex) or in games, like computer (Deus Ex) or table (Shadowrun and Cyberpunk 2020) and many many other motives. Far too much to mention and yet, perhaps even impossible in itself, enhancing in the end only already established character/personality traits.

Whats the point of this, some may ask. And I´d answer twice. Once I´d say, that I pity those who question, for they seek something that either is without use for this reflection of an inner self or search for something for the sake of their own satisfaction. The other time, I´d say, that it is all about change. In ourselves and our outside. These past few months have seen some changes for me, and others. It may be strange to think about something like that this openly, and still. I cannot deny this.

20100822

Inbetween

So, today MafIIa got out. At the same time I consider going to Lord of the Rings Online as part of a scheme to finally change and break out from the same old WoW-playing every few months. But alas, at the same I´m still kinda smitten with Dragon Age:Origins, while NWN still stirs and yet slumbers on the harddrive and I kind of cannot get myself to really get a go on Kane&Lynch2, eventhough its been quite a few days there already. Damn.

At the same time, I really seem to get myself into quite a bind with some of me chaps and wether or not that will be resolved, has yet to be seen. Ahh well, Scott Pilgrim got camRIPPED in Russia. You know what they say, in Soviet Russia movie camRIPS you. 

Still no sign of it on german shores unfortunately. And the news don´t get any better, as I will have to sacrifice coming days to my ill cousin, attending to someone me own mother got with illness in the first place, and thus further ruining these days, as it already meant losing out on a weekend without my old folks. 

And meanwhile I´ll have to prepare my batch of university work, await results of a work gone bonkers and still feel in a state of mhm....how to describe it.....weightlessnes. Curses.

Tonight once again meeting a chaotic crew, a motley band of mischiefs only to plot for nothing and nothing on end. Let it be said, that we must be harmless thus.

Should I despise some things?

20100820

Some good, Some bad

You know, there are those days we just loathe, and then there are those, we believe to loathe, only to find them transformed into some kind of Shamballa for the eternity of the moment. I´ve just gotten word of my local games dealer, that a copy of Twilight Struggle is going to arrive for me next week.
There are things in this universe too awesome for me to find words for. Like Scott Pilgrim, the Discworld or this boardgame. Already legendary in status because of its background and replay value, it allows for a heated game of strategy during the era of the cold war between the US and the USSR. 

And already having read the manual, numerous playtroughs and seen some gaming aids and yet having been unable to aquire my own copy for over a year, this news make me all kinds of fuzzy and tingle deep down. Just wonderful.

In other news, I....hmm, strangely enough, It seems I will get quite alot of Shadowrun GMing in the next few weeks, as a few members of my weekly PnP gaming cabal seem quite fed up with it and seem to just wing it. 

On the other side the fact, that the new Lords of the Rings Online Free-2-Play starts during early september means I will have a new online game to enjoy, as it seems that Dragon Age mostly overstayed its welcome and Kane&Lynch2 have lost the multiplayer appeal by going all steam and No-hotseat-twoplayer-mode. Too bad. 

Hell, the even announced Crusader Kings 2 last night. This is surely, if anything, a time for celebration, if anything else. 

Not sure what you will do right now, I know what I´ll do, I´ll do as every good GM does and update the campaign-journal for me gaming group, those foul and lazy fellas. And of course,  good night to ye, good Sirs and Madams.

20100818

After Inception


Gute Filme sieht man selten. Inception geört definitiv dazu. Kucknotwendigkeit vorhanden, vor allem 
weil es viel zuwenig gute Filme heutzutage gibt. Ärgerlich, dass ich Despicable Me und Scott Pilgrim noch nicht sehen konnte. Besonders letzteres. Ärgerlich,

20100815

Das Jahr des Feuers - Part XXIII



Die weiter Reise durch die Wildermark

18.02.2010

Thimrons Traumgestalt bei Jenrek dem Boten erbrachten den Helden keinen Hinweis, woraufhin sieden Ritt nach Nordosten begannen, in einiger Ferne Reiter auf der Strasse nach Puleth sahen und abseits des Weges Richtung Osten geschlagen ein Nachtlager in den Hügeln aufschlugen.

Des Nachts werden sie von Banditen angegriffen, wobei Wulfgar bewusstlos geschlagen wurde, die anderen werden im Schlaf überfallen, wobei die Pferde von Kinajo und Thimron gestohlen werden , bis dahin andere Räuber zusammengepfercht werden und von den Helden erschlagen.

Auf der Jagd nach den Räubern am nächsten Morgen, reisen die Helden weiter Nordosten zur Burg Zwingzahn in Baronie Reichsgau, wo sie auf Flüchtlinge treffen und Baron v. Bernhelm Ogerfresse von Reichsgau treffen, welcher sie mit Lebensmittel für den Weg nach Norden versorgt.

In derselben Burg werden die Pferdediebe gefunden und dem Baron überstellt, nachdem sie von Wulfgar im Kerker zusammengeschlagen worden sind, wobei dieser vorher die Wachen bestochen hatte, wegzuschauen.

Thimron hat einem gefangenen Boten innerhalb der Burg dazu gebracht, ihm vom Lumpenmann zu erzählen. Auch hören die Helden hier erstmals Gerüchte von Rohaja in Gallys und machen sich daraufhin auf den Weg nach Norden gegen Mittag des 13ten Rondra. Kurz vor dem Dergel, nicht einmal eine Meile davor, bei Wehrweiler Halt gemacht es herrschen unruhige Zeiten. Die Helden verschaffen sich Eintritt in ein geschlossenes/verlassenes Gasthaus.

Überqueren später den Dergel und reiten weiter nach Nordosten. In der Zwischenzeit haben die Helden erste Vermutungen über den Lumpenmann und das Saatgut, magische Spuren werden an letzterem jedoch nicht festgestellt von Kinjao.

20100813

Sleep....overwhelming!

Haven´t gotten enough sleep last night. Mostly about 3 hours. Must rewrite quite a bit for my studies. Curse me old fool for believing in working something out by myself for once. Need coffee. Something. Anything. Must scour for caffeine......me.....so.....thirsty......hungry.....something.......yawn......sleepy now......NO, bad me!...no sleepy now......groan.....yawn......eyelids soooooo heavy......need....to....work......curses.

20100812

And now for something completely different!

From Neverwinter Nights, a poem. 

 I hereby 
proclaim
my true and all
love 
to you.

Lady 
Aribeth de Tylmarande

Always
my heart
shall be yours
in battle
in spirit
in peace
in mind

I long
for your presence
Always

I miss you
my beloved.

As tears 
roll down
I know
I will
Never
to feel you
Your touch
See you dance
Hear you laugh
I miss you
my beloved

My heart
is bound
to you
in eternity

My lady.
I miss you
my beloved.

It seems strange to me, that even after all these years you can still find stuff like this on the internet. Someone must have smoked some very strange things to have made this. And still, it shows a devotion to something unfound in most modern media. Or is it? What really changed? Nothing at all, not that everything keeps being the same, but not the same as it always was. Appearances can deceive and the outside may look different. 

But it will by no means be different on the inside. So it is with most things, so it may well be with modern games. Even nowadays you can find these things like those up above for other games, like Dragon Age Origins, hell, I suppose if I were to look long enough, I might find a poem for Gears of War. And that is a, well, if not scary, then at least somewhat strange thought.

Oh, well. 

20100810

Ggggggggames!

So, downloaded the Victoria II demo, just to get my arse kicked by the AI. Priceless in a paradox game. Of course, I just had to think about how and when to start modding efforts, but as always, it should start with the small things. Like flags, leader images etc. And while much of the application itself runs much better than previous incarnations did, I am sort of bumped, because my computer once again shows me up. In fact, it seems as if either the hardware or the software just wishes to go against me on this. And it sucks big time. But that s whining on a higher level, really and as such mostly pointless in truth, as on its very basis it still is very playable and works great.


Due to the constantly growing amount of DLC, I also just had to reinstall Dragon Age: Origins. I can´t really remember wether or not the game actually was as good as I´d think it, but I do remember the fact that some of the things in there were in fact quite good and as such another origin story might be nice, instead of the elf with no voice. Though the romancing for a dwarf is kind of....mehhh...though more like non-existing. Will have to use some mods to fix that, should I really need my romance-fix. And I know I do. Aww curse me. I also found out that high quality texture pack was available from the modders and that is very good as well, as it improves something very bad from the xBox-original.

 
Which brings me to part 3. I ´ve been downloading some mods for Deus Ex, you know, new renderer, new textures, that kind of stuff. Might improve a classic and make me replay it for the n-th time. Can´t count how often I´ve argued with Gunther about his Augmentations or shot Agent Navarre or left Paul to die...

While kind of bizzare world this is, where a game from 2000 still manages after 10 years to be yet better than every kind of game released as a first-person-shooter-rpg. Strange, really.

20100807

An solchen Tagen

...passiert einfach garnichts. Nichts. Nichts zu erzählen. Ärgerlich.

20100804

Starcraft II



So. Starcraft 2. Can´t write much now, but it´s good. Took me about mhmm....20 to 23 hours till finish. LIked it very much. Not sure wether the price is right.Will post more in an update within the next few hours.

Till then.

Update:
Well, damn, so it took me a bit more time since calling my review in. Oh well, nothing I can do now. So, Starcraft 2. My first reaction was to feint interest and play a few levels. So I did, and then stopped for a few days. Seemed nice, but nothing groundbreaking. After that I took myself 2 days and went trough the rest of the campaign. While the campaign plot and missions did good enough to suck me in and keep me interested in the outcome of the, the very first impression did never really change. 

Yes, it is good. But so was the first game too. Starcraft 2 in essence is a game, which whom no one should be able to understand, why they needed to wait almost a decade to release it. Even with the graphics engine they could have done this one years ago, like 2004 at the earliest I´d say. In fact, the graphics are the most bizzare thing, as the game itself uses an engine comparable to the WoW graphics engine in details and otherwise could be completely in 2d, if not for the particle effects you´d almost never notice. You can´t really zoom out, only a bit inwards like in Warcraft3, the units are almost completely copied over with a fews new ones in the mix and some old ones redrawn and retextured for further effects. 

Alas, the singleplayer game was also enrichened by the ambience, as you can choose missions by your own volition, although the very visible and linear campaign strings are still there, at least you get to decide in which order you do them. The campaign is itself is very varied and bundled with decisions within that change the missions you play, though not by much. Between missions you are allowed to update units and buy special research updates with points you gain in the missions as you fulfill bonus objectives, otherwise you might miss out on these. Neither is really necessary to do the game, but as an added feature they come along nicely, as they allow some tricks with the game and your playstyle. Sometimes you have to decide which research you´ll choose and as such will miss out on another one that gets locked afterwards. Still, this is not enough to make the campaign very replayable. 

Also there are achievements, as seems to have become the usual thing nowadays, but except a simple score and some nice lines for the missions they really do add nothing as you never gain anything from them in game terms. It´s a nice to have but not really necessary. In fact, the whole systems is only for the hardcore gamer interesting, as only these guys might replay the campaign more than once, on another difficulty for more achievements. Oh, and for the difficulty, I was mighty suprised, as I breezed very often trough the missions, sometimes finishing in under 10 minutes, though that was mostly in the early missions, no wait, in one almost in the last third of the campaign there was a mission, where I did that too, and I laughed about it. Sometimes it seems the game simply doesn´t want to bee too hard upon you.

In conclusion, I have to wonder, what took them so long for this game to make. It´s good, but then again, what did you expect, it´s exactly the same game as before, with a 3d-engine and some new units in the mix. And only one racial campaign at the moment, the rest to be released within the next years. At full price, most likely.  

20100802

Nach dem Filmabend

Soso, TabletopClubTreffen ist auch schon vorbei, der Filmabend war gut mit überraschenden Mitkuckern. A-Team ist sehr guter Film, the Warlords war nicht nur absolut langweilig sondern auch mäßig gemacht und Green Zone ist so Matt Damon wie Matt Damon Matt Damon Matt Damon.....argh......Matt Damon. Naja, wer auf die Bourne-Filme stand wird auch diesen gut finden, ich mochte ihn nicht.