Previously, in Trip's Life...
30 June 2010 - Wednesday
Work: Check.
Laundry: Bah, now even the driers aren't working
properly. I am a Sad Parasite (but not as sad as you would be if I
didn't wear clothes).
Silly Computer Games: Oh, look, Puzzle Quest does
have a windowed mode, although in my defense it's not well documented.
Actually, it might not be documented at all; I learned about it from
people's comments on random web fora.
Cats:
Oh dear, apparently Ghirardelli has been trash-talking the manager lady
when she walks by. WHAT is your MAJOR MALFUNCTION, cat?!
I applied the happiness pheromone more extensively. I didn't see any
obvious effect, but Marmalade affectioned me (pointily) when I tried to
go to bed, which he hasn't in a while.
Make a comment!
29 June 2010 - Tuesday
Work: There was a bit of excitement when the power
went out first thing in the morning, but the UPS kept the
network and wireless up, so I was able to keep working from my laptop
until PG&E reempowered us. (Also there was a freaky burning-electrical
smell, but no one could find anything on fire, and it went away by the
end of the day (or I just got used to it).)
Textual Entertainments: SpellCrash
(Kelly McCullough) is a pretty good end to the series. Certainly there's
more that could be written about the main character, but it would be
hard to top the doom and triumph of this plot arc.
Visual Entertainments:
- Soul Eater 29: I'm beginning to think that the main
antagonists aren't very nice people.
- Higurashi When They Cry II 18-19: Earlier we were
disabused of our notion that the various plot arcs are telling
different parts of the same story, but this arc does seem to be
following a previous one pretty closely. We haven't yet found out who
all ends up dead, though.
- Natsume's Book of Friends 9: Awww!
- Kimi ni Todoke 16-17: Awwwwwww!
Cats:
No obvious violence while I was home!
Make a comment!
28 June 2010 - Monday
Work: Check.
My, the Internet really is full of things: Why your god
hates all the same people you hate.
Food: Too hot and also too lazy to eat. Wum.
Silly Computer Games: I only stayed up a
little too late playing Puzzle Quest! (No, really, like 15
minutes. Hardly doomed at all!)
Cats:
I applied some more face juice to cats and various pieces of the
environment, but there was no apparent change in kitty behavior.
(Marmalade is kind of spazzy today, but he gets that way sometimes.)
Make a comment!
27 June 2010 - Sunday
My, the Internet really is full of things: Cyberkitty!
Food: I failed at dim sum because I suck, but there
were enough left overs that I did not starve.
Gaming: We actually started playing Thrace early
enough that we could have a fight and negotiation!
In proper wizard style, Lycoris opened the fight by dropping a
Stinking Cloud on the opposition, although in her defence she waited
until the enemy leader ordered her minions to retrieve particular body
parts, and she did leave the one who was trying to talk her down out of
the area of effect. Sadly he did not appreciate this and blinded half
the party with a spray of acid. Also there were giant spiders. Despite
the ongoing damage, Lycoris wreaked some havoc by flailing the cloud
around the battlefield, but never managed to make the saves, so ended up
unconscious and six points short of dying by the time the dryad carried
her off to a magic tree — which the rest of the party immediately
started trying to cut down.
Next fortnight, we get to see if any of the villains will rat her out
as a noseless shapeshifting abomination!
In related news, Dave volunteered to run something in Roseville, so I
won't. Everyone is saved.
Silly Computer Games: Triumph: I only spent
half the day playing Puzzle Quest!
Cats:
Marith found a web page that suggested spraying the face pheromones onto
a towel and rubbing the cats with that, but when I ended up with stuff
all over my hands, so I just rubbed those on the cats. No change in
behavior, but then they don't always fight. I also tried
spraying some in a couple of places where they sometimes sit, and later
saw Marmalade sitting in one for the first time in a few months. Dunno.
But I haven't seen much if any fighting today!
Make a comment!
26 June 2010 - Saturday
Textual Entertainments: As of the fourth in the
series,
MythOS (Kelly McCullough), it's still entertaining but
cheesy. I was worried about the bit with Tisiphone being [SPOILER] but
it turned out to not be horrible.
Visual Entertainments: Claymore 24:
Nearing the bottom of the Death Spiral™!
Silly Computer Games: I finally gave in to peer
pressure and bought Puzzle Quest.
It's all Marith's fault that I didn't get anything done today.
Apparently I really suck at Bejeweled, but that's not news.
Cats:
I got some of the Feliway synthetic catface pheromone spray, but now I'm
not sure what to do with it. It doesn't seem suitable for direct
application to cats. Maybe I should have bought the diffuser version
instead.
cats by cat (Thu Jul 1 16:56:40 2010)
Oooh, i think we have a spare diffuser somewhere. We've got three in use - office, hallway bathroom where Phoenix was picking up a bad habit in the bathtub, living room. I'm not sure why we have an extra, but i'm pretty sure there is a spare one sitting around. Heck, i could even throw in a bottle of stuff for it! (I've been buying them a few dozen at a time from teh internets.) The effect seems mild, but I think it's there. o_O
For the spray, I've used it in cat sleepy spots, or towels for the pet carriers. We tried it for the blanket for Madeleine at the cat fair, but it didn't seem to help her mood.
Re: cats by Trip (Fri Jul 2 12:14:00 2010)
If we ever manage to visit your place again, I would be glad to accept a diffuser for experimenting on my cats!
I've been spraying in place the cats hang out, and also (as suggested by the teh interblags) on doorjambs and furniture and stuff at cat level, so they encounter it wherever they go.
Madeleine's personality is beyond the power of mild psychological effects to affect!
Make a comment!
25 June 2010 - Friday
Work: Check.
Silly Computer Games: I got up to 96/115 elements
and all 14 groups in Doodle
God, but then I stalled out. I know the names of a few I'm missing, but
none of the obvious combinations produce them, and I don't feel up to
trying all 4608 combinations. (I also don't feel like looking for spoilers,
although I easily could.)
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
24 June 2010 - Thursday
Work: Check.
My, the Internet really is full of things: Ack, teh
KYOOT!
Textual Entertainments: CodeSpell is
the third in Kelly McCullough's fantasy series that can best be
described as Amber × Greeky myth × hackers. Cheesy, but
entertaining.
Visual Entertainments: Slayers 23-24:
It looks bad for the (remaining) good guys!
Food: I failed at sushi, but Ayse made me eat vegatable
pasta and sausage until I became less grumpy. I still think it's a
terrible misprioritization on her part to want to take care of me, but
it seems to make her happy.
Silly Computer Games: Curse you, Marith! Curse you!
I stayed up playing Doodle God until
923485 o'clock. Or maybe "playing with" is a better way to put it, since
despite the score at the top of the screen,
it's not really a game. It's more like a jigsaw puzzle without a picture
on the box: all it takes to complete is an exhaustive search, but if you
do the search, you get to find out what you end up with.
I was up to about 63 of 115 "elements" but had at least one in 13 of the
14 groups when I made myself go to bed.
Cats:
Marlamade has a patch of missing fur and a scab on his neck. I wish I
knew how to make Ghirardelli stop oppressing him. :( Anyone know
if those synthetic cat-cheek pheromones work?
Make a comment!
23 June 2010 - Wednesday
Work: Check.
My, mathematics really is full of things: Numbers
make patterns.
Headgear: My existing hat really really needs to be
replaced. Actually, it really really needed to be replaced a year or two
ago, and it's not getting better. I found the web site for the company that made
it, but they make many different kinds of hats, which means I have
to make a decision. And every day I don't make decision is one
more day of wearing the old hat. Gah.
My existing
hat is too air-tight, but the leather looks better than any of the
woven stuff. There are partially-leather hats with mesh bits, but none in
styles I want. If they had a hat like the one I have now but with, say, a
mesh insert in place of a hatband or something, that would be good, but
they don't seem to.
Maybe this is why people don't wear more hats.
Gaming: Weekend after next would normally be Palo Alto
D&D, but instead it's 4th of July. If I were clever, I would starting
thinking of a 4e adventure to run in Roseville now, instead of in
the car on the way up.
MM3 has some new low-level monsters...
Cats:
Oh dear, it smells like one of the cats has been Bad. None of them has
ever done this before, not even Aspen. I hope none of them are sick.
(Maybe they're just stressed out from the fighting? That's not a lot
better.)
Anyway, I think I found the only affected place and cleaned it up,
but it'll probably be a bit before I can verify that by scent.
Bleah.
hats by kit (Thu Jul 8 12:54:31 2010)
Nah, people don't wear hats because JFK didn't wear one at his inauguration. Curse him, anyway.
Re: hats by Trip (Thu Jul 8 16:34:06 2010)
Assigning a scapegoat is the first step in any investigation!
Make a comment!
22 June 2010 - Tuesday
Work: Check.
Gaming: Finished reading through the Monster
Manual 3. There are things in here I can use. Muahahahahaha.
Visual Entertainments:
- Soul Eater 27-28: "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that--
No, actually, I am bad."
- Higurashi When They Cry 17: Gaaaaaaaaaah!
- Natsume's Book of Friends 7-8: Natsume seems to be
meeting a lot of cute girls this season, but it's Not That Kind of
Show.
- Kimi ni Todoke 15: Awwwwwww!
Food: The Pizza of Bacony Goodness (
Pizza My Heart's Sunset Beach
minus bell peppers) might not have been quite as gratifying as when we
first ordered it, but it was still suitably festive for Marith's safe
return from the Horrors of New England.
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
21 June 2010 - Monday
Work: Oops.
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
20 June 2010 - Sunday
Work: The load is still chugging along, without
requiring any intervention from me. Part of it even completed, although
the other part is like ten times the size.
Gaming: Having prepared nothing, I sucked, but not
really more than usual. Some city actions were taken (ack, NPC
interaction!), then the PCs got
sent to take care of the will-o-wisps they let out of the soul-sucking
rock in the first place, and even got a cash reward.
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
19 June 2010 - Saturday
Work: I spent all day trying to shove data into order
and then into a database. It was bad enough when I thought there was only a
few GB of inconveniently-arranged stuff, but it turns out there's about
10TB. Glaaaaah.
Gaming: Several people who are not me went to Ken's and
played Twilight
Imperium (Third Edition) (deemed Insufficiently Fun
because it's too easy to get hosed by random setup and spend turns and
turns struggling only to not accomplish anything) and Dominion (still
fun).
Visual Entertainments: Claymore 23: Level
UP!
Cats:
Ghirardelli and Marmalade both think the laptop keyboard is Comfiest
Spot Ever. This makes working a little difficult, but it's good to stop
and pet a cat every once in a while.
Make a comment!
18 June 2010 - Friday
Work: Blargh, stayed at work late trying to recover
data from compressed files on a machine that doesn't have enough disk
space to uncompress them all. No laundry tonight!
Gaming: I meant to prepare for D&D on Sunday, but
instead I worked and then I had no brain (and worked more).
Textual Entertainments: I think it was
Sarah Rees Brennan who
mentioned J D Robb's "____ in Death" series as an example of books that
are by any objective SF, but shelved without comment in other sections
(mystery, in this case). (It's not very good as SF, probably
due to the author being familiar with SF tropes only from visual media,
but that's a separate issue.) However, although the author is female and
I'm not, I still want to penalize her 50 feminism points for
perpetuating "even strong independent women want a ridiculously wealthy
and manly man to tell them what to do and stalk them and not take no for an
answer". Bah.
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
17 June 2010 - Thursday
Work: Check.
Gaming: My local non-large-chain bookstore
is willing and able to order D&D books for me, so I can avoid Borders. I
still have to go to Powell's for obscure stuff (IE, any gaming material
that isn't D&D).
Visual Entertainments: Slayers 1.21-22: Yay,
it's a dungeon!
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
16 June 2010 - Wednesday
Work: I made a customer happy, although it was
mostly by accident.
My, the Internet really is full of things:
Sparkly
death (via Marith)
Gaming: I can oppress the PCs in various ways, but
does that actually constitute an adventure? (Does an adventure consist
of anything but oppressing the PCs?)
Visual Entertainments: Claymore 22: The ones that can carry on a coherent conversation are the worst.
Cats:
Twelve paws! Still furry!
Make a comment!
15 June 2010 - Tuesday
Work: Check.
Gaming: Bdibidbdibdib.
Textual Entertainments: Five Odd Honors,
third in Jane Lindskold's "Breaking the Wall" series of mostly
Chinese-flavored modern fantasy. Like the first two, it is entertaining,
but (aside from possibly the coolest explanation for an alternate universe
ever), not spectacular.
Visual Entertainments:
- Soul Eater 26: It's hard being Crona. I wouldn't know
how to interact with most of those people either!
- Higurashi When They Cry 15-16: That's a possible
explanation. It seems kind of meta, but this is an experimental
multi-media work, after all.
- Natsume's Book of Friends 6: Wow, a cliff-hanger!
- Kimi ni Todoke 13-14: AWWWW!
Cats:
Today the cats were not locked up! I hope they appreciated it!
Make a comment!
14 June 2010 - Monday
Work: Check.
My, the Internet really is full of things:
Geeky My Little Pony Mods
(via Carl).
Gaming: The PCs have reached a city, so I really
need to figure out how to run skill challenges for getting information,
before Sunday. Er, before Saturday, since there will be no D&D prep on
Saturday (there will be only Zuul).
Silly Computer Games: Marith tried to turn me on to
some game called Puzzle Quest, but the website that sells the Mac version
(something called GameTree) demonstrated that they didn't want our business
by not having a working interface. These days, it takes a lot of ineptness
to not be able to sell things on line.
Cats:
This time I locked all the cats in the back bedroom together (which was
a bit tricky when Aspen realized what I was up to, but I had already cut
off her usual refuge). They were all still alive when I got home, and
my door is a uniform dark blue, so hopefully that oppression is behind
us.
Make a comment!
13 June 2010 - Sunday
Work: Even less on-calledness today than yesterday!
Gaming: Somehow we managed to have multiple hours of
Thrace! First we beat up some spider monsters, without getting killed
hardly at all, then we slogged through the creepy forest to find their elven
masters and... not immediately kill them, which apparently confused the
GM. I'm sure sometime next session Ayse's character will demand that we
crush them like the civilization-destroying monsters they are.
Food: That lime was deficient in juicy squishiness,
but Ken's guacamole turned out fine.
Silly Computer Games: Check.
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
12 June 2010 - Saturday
Work: I am on call, but so far no customers have
exploded. One caught on fire a little around the edges, but was soon
extinguished.
Visual Entertainments: Claymore 21: If
only it were, "the bigger they are, the easier they fall".
Silly Computer Games: Check. Maybe double or triple
check.
Cats:
Twelve adorable paws!
Make a comment!
11 June 2010 - Friday
Work: Check.
My, the Internet really is full of things:
Greta
Christina rocks.
Textual Entertainments: Terminal World
(Alastair Ryenolds) has giant artifacts, mysterious planetary doom, and
Sky Pirates!
Visual Entertainments: Claymore 20: Oh
look, mysterious people wandering in the wilderness. They're obviously
not at all suspicious, oh no.
Cats:
The bozo owner's minions didn't even show up, so I ended up locking up
the cats for nothing. The manager says Monday, for sure, but I don't
think she has any power to make the painters actually do their job.
Make a comment!
10 June 2010 - Thursday
Work: FAIL. My glasses exploded (at the bridge, same
the last subsequent pair) and patching them with
masking tape only worked for a limit period of time. Fortunately my new
glasses had actually arrived at the optometrist (yay insurance!) so I
just had to go pick them up. I even logged back in from home like a good
laptop-toting employeedroid!
Gaming: Gaming is hard, let's explode into a million
pieces.
Food: Ken provided smoked porkchops with onions and
sauerkraut, green beans with browned butter, and risotto for his guests
to feast upon. I knew there was a reason we liked visiting him!
Visual Entertainments: Slayers18-20:
New record BOOM! Also, the Kitling Episode!
Cats:
Oh dear. They (you know, Them) want to finish painting my door, but that
means they'll need to leave it open for several hours. I guess
the cats will have to be confined tomorrow. :(
Make a comment!
9 June 2010 - Wednesday
Work: Check.
Gaming: I've been reading through stuff downloaded
from Dragon (and Dungeon, I guess). Some of it
I can definitely use to oppress the PCs, muahahahaha.
I presume the articles on how to come up with patrons and pact
conditions and stuff for warlocks mean that we aren't the only group(s)
that ignored that and charged ahead with "cool, vast magical
power!".
Visual Entertainments: Claymore 19:
I dunno, seems like it was a pretty good plan to me.
Cats:
Now it is Ghirardelli's turn to be locked in the bathroom until he chills
out. In better news, I petted Aspen quite a bit and she might have vibrated
slightly!
Did you know that my apartment is full of adorable (if sometimes
obstreperous) cats?
Make a comment!
8 June 2010 - Tuesday
Work: I would probably have been more productive
today if Marmalade hadn't been so enthusiastic about helping me sleep
last night. Oh well, it was a pretty quiet day, at least until the point
when I went home.
Gaming: For 135gp of components, a professional
teleportation circle caster can pretty much guarantee opening a 10' circle
(standard size) for 3 rounds (requires an Arcana roll of 20 with a bonus of
+4 (level 8) +5 (Arcana trained) +4 (Int) +3 (skill focus Arcana +0-6
(three assistants) = +16 to +22 depending on how many of the assistants
make their roll, and there are more bonuses that can be scrounged). The
question is, how much can a group of greed-motivated NPCs transfer through
that portal?
D&D doesn't have rules for acceleration, so technically one should be
able to just drive wagons through at full speed, but I can't disagree
with Dave's position that having critter-drawn wagons leap through from
a standing start could cause disbelief to plunge to its death. However,
you could do a lot with pack horses. (If you don't mind your beasts of
burden granting combat advantage, you can get probably two horses in a
10'x10 square, each carrying say 500lb (equivalent to very large
people riding double, but only for a few minutes), so a quarter ton for
each square your pack train move in 3 rounds, so even at the fairly
modest speed of 4, that's 6 tons. Plus 48 horses, if there's a market
for them on the other side!
One could probably do even better with simple mechanization. The
portal will open at a known time, at known locations that can be
furnished with smooth floors or conveyer belts or whatever.
Visual Entertainments:
- Soul Eater 24-25: It does in fact seem to be the case
that no one sane has ever graduated from the DWMA.
- Higurashi When They Cry 14: Another, slightly more
different, story of DOOOOOOOOM!
- Natsume's Book of Friends II 4-5: Awww!
- Kimi ni Todoke 12: Awww!
Food: It is sad that
Pizza My Heart costs 50-60% more
than the other pizza place we order from, because they make pizzas with
bacon.
Cats:
Tonight it was definitely Ghirardelli starting the fight. Hmph! Bad
kitty!
Make a comment!
7 June 2010 - Monday
Work: Check.
Textual Entertainments: From Hell With
Love is the 4th (I think) in Simon R Green's "Shaman Bond" series
about the family that tries to keep the world from being destroyed by
the sort of characters that show up in Simon Green books. I'm sure if I
knew more James Bond trivia, I would get more of the references, but
the books are fun anyway.
Visual Entertainments: Claymore 18:
That seems like a bad plan.
Cats:
Ghirardelli still has fur to shed, but he is significantly sleeker now!
Make a comment!
6 June 2010 - Sunday
Gaming: I probably should have cut that encounter
even shorter, bah. But, plenty of loot and LEVEL UP! Paragon tier is
within sight!
Possibly I should declare a blanket rejection of all powers not from
published books that I own. But that would be mean to Dave.
Eventually I'll get around to buying Hero 6 and deciding if Fantasy
Hero is still the answer.
Visual Entertainments: Claymore 17: Why
don't RPG characters get new powers/level up like that? Okay, I know why:
the principles of pacing inherited from 1st edition D&D give PCs order
of ten fights between level-ups, while characters other forms of fiction
level up for almost every fight. Also, I play the wrong kind of RPGs.
Cats:
Twelve paws of fuzziness!
Fantasy Hero by Carl (Sat Jun 12 02:39:41 2010)
Being mean to Dave may be a useful GM skill? If he wants the power badly enough he could loan/gift you the book!
Fantasy Hero 6e should be out at Gen Con, and I think the 6e Grimoire by the end of this year. I don't know if it has rules for accelerating heavily-laden horses through portals, but possibly you just buy that as teleport 48 tons with the limitation 'requires hay' or something.
The herogames.com website has a 2 or so page PDF listing the changes from 5e to 6e, but not in enough detail to not still need 6e if you want to use it instead of 5e.
I think it might be very exciting to level up after every fight. It's a model that seems to work very well for Bleach. Speaking of anime, the Death Note creators are apparently making an anime version of Supernatural. Brothers in a cool car fighting demons, it's a natural fit.
Re: Fantasy Hero by Trip (Sat Jun 12 17:48:35 2010)
I also can parasitize Ken's D&DInsider account to look up the more obscure plusses, but it still annoys me to have to do so. It's too much like paying real money to get a better character. (Also the interface isn't great, although I suppose there's only so much you can reasonably do with a browser window.)
Hero used to have rules for acceleration, although I suppose past mechanics are no indicator of future revisions. I mean, they don't even use hexes anymore?! WTF?! But I still intend to buy 6th ed, when I get around to it.
It would definitely be exciting to level up after every fight, and it would keep the campaign from dragging on! It might be confusing to players to have new powers every fight, but on the other hand, the shows where PCs level up after every fight also have fights that last two or five or twelve episodes, so there would be time to figure out the new powers. (In D&D, that might be written up as multiple encounters, but like two or three, not twelve. And possibly arranged so that characters actually level up between the first part of the encounter, in which things look bad, and the finale, in which they pull out some extra cans of whoop-ass.)
Make a comment!
5 June 2010 - Saturday
Gaming: I guess I should prepare for tomorrow. Hm.
Braining is hard. Well, maybe I can use these monsters and those
monsters. And some doom!
Visual Entertainments: Claymore 15:
That's a disguise?! Claymore 16: Actual villains instead of
just monsters, yay!
Cats:
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
4 June 2010 - Friday
Work: Check.
Consumerism: Hm, maybe I shouldn't have bought quite
so many books and a new computer. Oh well.
Textual Entertainments: Up Jim River is
a sequel to Michael Flynn's The January Dancer, set in the
same star-spanning, progress-free future of rogues and conspiracies. (Jim
River is the one you're up when you have no paddle.) I'm still not sure
what I think of the mishmash of mutated Earth cultures.
Visual Entertainments: Claymore 14:
Well, that's one way to get a power-up!
Cats:
I think I have brushed enough fur out of Ghirardelli to make two or three
new cats, and he's still shedding!!
Make a comment!
3 June 2010 - Thursday
Work: Check.
My, the Internet really is an essential part of life: It
sucks that when I reported that my phone line was completely out on
Saturday, AT&T said they couldn't get someone out to look at it until Thursday.
On the other tentacle, my phone line was in fact fixed when I got home
this evening.
Food: Ken fed us salad and baguettes, because it was
way too hot to eat cooked food.
Visual Entertainments: Slayers 16-17:
It's hard being Gourry, even if you don't get blamed for all the evils
of the world.
Cats:
Not too much fighting!
Make a comment!
2 June 2010 - Wednesday
Work: Check.
Gaming: Speaking of infinite magic food, the way the
Everlasting Provisions are written up suggests that each morning, you
could pass the basket down the line and each person who'd just finished
a long rest could pull out five day's worth of rations. I think most GMs
would probably limit it to once per day or at most once per six hours
(the length of a long rest), though.
More Gaming: I read the Player's Guide for the Dragon
Age tabletop RPG (because I could). It's a pretty basic system: eight stats
rated from about -2 to +5, skills ("focuses") give a flat +2 if they apply,
rolls are 3d6+stat vs (10 or 3d6)+stat, D&D-style hit points, mages get
small numbers of standardized spells and spend mana points on them,
characters improve in discrete levels, the usual. The one somewhat
innovative bit is the "dragon die", an odd-colored d6 that for basic rolls
tells you the degree of success (but is part of the 3d6 roll, not
independent as in In Nomine's d666 system). In combat, if you
get doubles out of your 3d6 roll (about 44%), then the dragon die gives you
it's value in "stunt points", which you can use to do things like slide
your target, shift, negate some or all of the target's armor, increase
damage, or even attack another target. (This probably frustrates people who
like to pre-plan their turns, but oh well.)
I guess now that I have a modern Mac, I could play the Dragon Age
computer game. Eh.
Textual Entertainments: Apparently I did something
very clever a while back, because now I am the possessor of a Signed
First Edition of Demon Hunts by world-famous author C E
Murphy! (Obviously the "C E" stands for "Completely Excellent".)
Visual Entertainments: Claymore 12-13:
Hey, it's like reincorporation!
Cats:
Yay no fighting! Aspen is really opposed to kitty treats, though.
Make a comment!
1 June 2010 - Tuesday
Is it just me, or was it somewhat reckless to get rid of the support
manager before finding out everything she did and making sure someone else
knows both how to do it and that it needs doing? (It's probably just me,
which is why I will never be a CEO.)
Gaming: I knew the D&D4 economy is nonsensical with
respect to magic items and rituals, but I did not until now realize that
agriculture is obsolete in 4th edition.
Adventurer's Vault 2 introduces a bunch of non-portable
wondrous items for PCs to furnish their secret bases with. One of them is
the Feast Table (9th level, 4200gp), which as an at-will power can produce
a feast for twelve people. Even if it can only be activated once per round,
that's a feast for 120 people every minute, 7200 every hour, 172_800 every
day. Cut that down by a factor of ten because people are incapable of
lining up efficiently, and that's still 17_000 people fed every day. Heck,
reduce it from an at-will power to an encounter power, so it's only twelve
people fed per five minutes, and that's still 3456 per day. In other
words: even if you nerf this item severely as a house rule, it still takes
only slightly over a 1gp investment to provide one person with a feast
every day forever.
I understand why WotC wanted to move away from actual world-building
toward something like Star Trek (substitute your choice of
episodic TV show as desired), but gah.
Visual Entertainments:
- Soul Eater 23: Who would have thought victory would
hinge on exactly how much of an insensitive goon Black*Star is?
- Higurashi When They Cry 12-13: Yep, that plot arc ended
in DOOOOOOOM as well. I wonder if Keiichi will ever find a strategy
that does work?
- Natsume's Book of Friends II 3: Definitely a contender
for least fanservice in a hot-springs episode ever.
- Kimi ni Todoke 10-11: Purehearted Obliviousness: +2 vs
Evil Shoujo Sparkles!
Cats:
When I got home, there were still twelve paws! I guess it was okay to
leave the windows open that much after all! (Usually I leave the balcony
door open for ventilation, but it's covered in plastic until the owners'
hirelings finish screwing around with paint.)
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