Friday, May 11, 2012
That Man Is Playing Galaga
The Boy and I went to go see The Avengers today. I must say, I'm not sure how you could make a more perfect comic book movie. By letting Joss Whedon do a sequel maybe? And the lines - wow - just great. Robert Downey Jr. just lords over the screen. Galaga. Really. Just Galaga, man.
;)
- Ark
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Yeah, That's a Pool on Top of the Tower
The evil wizard Chernobog's Tower must be quite an eyesore for his neighbors. It's primarily designed to keep his teenage daughter Yazbella locked up and out of trouble. It's way too high for even Rapunzel. However, Yazbella did discover the concept of rope at a young age, so the poor evil wizard never had a chance.
I actually finished the strip on time again. I owe it to the greatly shortened format - only three panels. The top bit has undergone a change - the indicia, masthead, whatever the right word for it is. Nicer font, I think, and not as obtrusive - but there if you need it. Of course, my style continues to - morph? Evolve? Mutate? Something. Change. That's the word.
And in case you missed it - I'm keeping Chartreuse in the strip. I was bummed when she died in the D&D game, but I think I can go on with her alternate reality adventures in bizarro comic world. After all, it appears she has fans, and we can't let the fans down, can we? :)
- Ark
Friday, May 4, 2012
Come, Come My Child
Come, come my child, come rescue your downed pilot and the glorious and loyal soldiers of the Democratic People's Republic of Glory will spank you until the heavens' turn red with jarhead blood. Come, come my child, and enjoy your thrashing.
- Ark
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Dungeonspiration: RIP Chartreuse
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| Chartreuse, by Angel Urena |
Chartreuse, my 5th level wood elf ranger died last night at approximately 11:45 pm in Crazy-ass Tim's 2nd edition AD&D game.
It's been at least 30 years since I played a character enough to reach such a high level. Actually, Chartreuse was only 52 XP away from being 6th level. Dammit.
I played Chartreuse as a ranger with an emphasis on 'range.' She talked a big talk and rained horrible slurs down upon her foes, but she was allergic to melee something fierce. If she was 20 yards away from combat, she was too close. If she could be up in the tree branches, far above the party, she would be there. She even slept in the trees. She had a very nice hammock. Any excuse to be away from potential physical harm was a good one. I really enjoyed playing her.
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| Chartreuse Drinking |
Early in last night's session, Chartreuse has finally convinced Serendipity to go off and retire from adventuring. Perhaps it was the new found sense of not having to babysit her sister - perhaps it was just something wrong in the air - but this one night, this one dungeon delve, Chartreuse wasn't as cowardly as she needed to be.
A room had been found containing a pack of beetles and an sadistic ogre assaulting said beetles with a whip. Torvalds, the suicidal mage, dropped two burning hands spells on the roomular inhabitants, assured that he would clear the place out in a hurry. Regretfully, the DM didn't have time to mention that these were 11 foot friggin long beetles. And now, they were angry beetles. I had decided to start calling them John, Paul, George, and Ringo, because that's the way I roll.
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| Chartreuse Drunk |
Two heals from the cleric gave her a whopping 3 hit points back. That's when the ogre magi appeared. Well, she was an invisible ogre magi, so appeared isn't quite the right word. The hidden ogre magi sent a cone of frost down the hallway. Chartreuse failed the save in a major way and suddenly found herself at -25 hit points. She turned blue, iced over, and shattered into a million little fragments. In my mind, at least.
Ouch.
What's even more poignant is that Kaye, who has been trying to purposefully get Torvalds killed, survived with flying colors. Of course, he had help. When he was at -9 hp, the cleric maliciously saved his life. Out of spite. Really. Torvalds has actually become one of the more useful and productive members of our party, but that hasn't stopped Kaye from hating to play him.
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| The End |
One big problem is that I have this alternate reality Chartreuse in my Rather Gamey Comic. The intention was her to be a major character in the story. Yeah, she's not the 'real' Chartreuse, so it really shouldn't really matter what happens in the game - but it does. She's dead. Right now, I dont' have any interest in having her in the story or even drawing her. I just want to mourn her and move on.
Weird.
So here is to the characters that we play and how they inspire us to try on different personalities for other people's amusement - including our own.
Rest in Peace, Chartreuse.
- Ark
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Quote of the Game
Quote of the Game for Saturday's SWN game:
"Can we rewind back to 15 minutes ago? If this were a computer game, I would have saved right before we entered this derelict battle cruiser and powered it up. Right before. Can we rewind? Then we can go back and turn around and never look at this thing again. This isn't going to end well. This isn't going to end well at all."
-Merwyn, playing Captain Goodnight, as a giant mech controlled by a crazy rogue AI blasted them with a plasma cannon on the Engineering Deck, but missed with a natural '1' and accidentally shot full force into the meta-dimensional energy reactor.
- Ark
"Can we rewind back to 15 minutes ago? If this were a computer game, I would have saved right before we entered this derelict battle cruiser and powered it up. Right before. Can we rewind? Then we can go back and turn around and never look at this thing again. This isn't going to end well. This isn't going to end well at all."
-Merwyn, playing Captain Goodnight, as a giant mech controlled by a crazy rogue AI blasted them with a plasma cannon on the Engineering Deck, but missed with a natural '1' and accidentally shot full force into the meta-dimensional energy reactor.
- Ark
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
36 Cent War
I've been reading the rules for the Tomorrow's War scifi wargame and am impressed by the combat system. The design seems to focus on having the game feel like a fluid, interactive battle, rather than a chess match.
As always, table size is one of my biggest concerns. If I use my 28mm Star Wars figures, the intro game would be on a six by six foot game board. At 15mm, it plays on a 3x3, which is quite a bit better. But before I go invest in 15mm pewter, I figured I could do something with copper. Well, zinc. Abraham ain't made of the same metal that he used to be.
Merwyn, however, has some very spiffy 15mm scifi grutns and hover tanks, so after my beta testing, I'll go over and play with his toys. :)
- Ark
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Stars Without Number: Dramatis Personæ
I just got home and am still basking in the glow of a particularly successful Stars Without Number game. I've promised some accounts of our gaming sessions on the blog, so I'll start off by introducing the players (even though some of this information is outdated by the sweeping events of tonight's game.):
Reginald Goodnight,
Captain of the Fat Tuesday
Merwyn plays Captain Goodnight, who started off life as a two-bit computer hacker. Merwyn's natural sense of initiative tends to have him rushing in where angels fear to tread, and his inborn charisma tends to cause the rest of the party follow him. When they seized a pirate ship and repurposed it for their own ends, Merwyn was willing to pay the npc crew out of his own pocket, making him defacto captain of the ship.
Jermayne Starace,
Astrogator Extraordinaire
Ron plays the ship's pilot, Jermayne. Mr. Starace was a pilot aboard a boring commercial starliner when he ran into the party, who was busy fighting off a bounty hunter/pirate at the time. Jermayne quit his job and threw in with the ruff and tumble party, never to look back. He tends to be very lucky, making wild maneuvers in space combat and drilling holes through meta-space that no sane astrogator would ever try. While Jermayne doesn't have a great deal of statistical charisma, he is also lucky in love as well, finding a warm bed and a soft partner in just about every port.
Darth Nerf,
Ship's Psychic
Crazy-Ass Tim plays the disgruntled psychic aboard the Fat Tuesday. Darth Nerf's parents hated him, thus giving him his awful name. Darth entered a life of crime at an early age, using his skills of persuasion and his psychic abilities to steal, swindle, and coerce. Having angered law enforcement officials in his home sector, he left and met up with the party en route to greener pastures. An incident with the strange aliens known as Methans left him with an arm that could turn into a bow and shoot bone fragments at enemies, but with enough chromosomal damage to cut his lifespan in half.
Kevalt Loranzo,
Head of Security
The Boy plays Sgt. Loranzo. Kevalt's father once ran with the party, but was killed in action during a casino heist. Kevalt found the group and joined it, providing all the heavy fire power needed. He's a no nonsense warrior, focusing on little else in life. Over their adventures, Loranzo has assembled a trio of npc marines, all female, that the crew have taken to calling Kevalt's Angels. They are vicious when fighting space pirates, and very loyal to their Sergeant.
AR-50,
Alien Robot
Kay runs the ship's robot. AR-50 is a stealth robot created by the Methans, who can take on various humanoid shapes and pass various biometric tests given enough DNA samples of a subject. AR-50 is obsessed with upgrading himself, grafting various implements into his system, and pushing his components to the limit. This has caused quite a few problems for him, and the entire party, as his expansions tend to make him vulnerable to being hacked and taken over by enemies.
Minnie Man,
Ship's Doctor
Kayette plays Dr. Man, who was encountered by the party on planet Amazon. Minnie was a maltech researcher on the jungle planet, investigating the Amazon Floral Hive Mind before it went berserk and eradicated all humans there, except her. Dr. Man now works on the Fat Tuesday, helping to patch up the party when it gets injured, and experimenting with dangerous, forbidden maltech on her off hours. She also enjoy running over people in a grav tank far more than she probably should.
So, there you have it - the six party members that tend to show up the most. There have been others that make cameo appearances every so often, but I won't mention them here.
- Ark
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