Let me just say one thing. I am a huge Dungeons and Dragons fan. I love old school Dungeons and Dragons, Advanced, 3.x, even 4th edition is fun, though it's a very different game. I love being a player and DM. As a player, I'll go under any edition. But as a DM, I have to keep static which edition I use if I have the same players or running a campaign. I can't run 3.x one day, 1e the next session. With 3.x, and even first edition, I have trouble keeping my players interested due to the complicated character sheets and generation. Fourth edition is easier, but it's a different game. Therefore, I decided to traverse back into B/X D&D with Labyrinth Lord. This post is a little retrospect on Sunday's session.
This Sunday there were only two players, both fighters, roleplaying AD&D classes. One player was a barbarian from the south, Warrior Prince Bast of the Icewalker Tribe, seeking military aid for fighting off the invading Bloodfire Berserkers. The other player was Nokura, Bladefighter of Tellamina, a paladin seeking a sacred jewel called the Kokiri Emerald. (Yes, like in Zelda.) They both arrived by boat in the town of Freehold, a port town outside a prosperous city-state, Lidius, on the same day. They met with each other and also with a mercenary, Gunthorian, the character of an absent player. Gunthorian delivers shipments of ale and spider silk from Freehold to Lidius every so many weeks, and works as a mercenary in his offtime. He needed a little extra muscle because of a bandit threat, so Bast and Nokura rode the caravan with him for the path through a forest to Lidius.
During the travel, the PCs took a rest at a lake and were attacked by bandits. Bast rolled a 20 the first roll of the game and decapitated a bandit, causing the others to flee, but not before they had a chance to kidnap Gunthor. Gunthor was injured so the PCs followed a trail of blood through the forest to the bandit cave and managed to rescue Gunthor from a horde of bandits, before the powerful leaders arrived, and escaped with their lives, but not much health.
After arriving at Lidius, the PCs met with a historian, Aran, the town sage. He agreed to tell Nokura the location of the Kokiri Emerald according to legend and get Bast an audience with the king if they investigated the castle of Tyras, a former lord raised as a lich that's a threat to Lidius. The PCs rested for a bit in the town and went to his castle. After arriving, they found out it was taken over by orcs. They snuck into the castle, dressed in orc skin, and the game ended there.
All in all, it was a short but fun game. There were two near-deaths, but both were avoided by luck of the dice. It was a fast game, with twice as much being accomplished during the game as would have been during 3.x. It was much simpler and more reliant on role-playing. We didn't run into any obstacles. I'll update next week after the next session.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Breaking in Blogger; Vampires, MSI, and 2012
Hey everyone. This is the Villain of This Tale, or Charles Pinmissile, or simply Jay. I've decided to open a Blogger account so I'd have some place to rant about things or give updates on my D&D game when there was noone to talk to. If you're here, you probably know me some way, whether it be my Let's Plays on Youtube, you added me on Facebook, or you go to school with me, so I don't think an introduction is necessary, but I'll give one.
I'm Jay, I'm a bit of an oddball. I like NES, Godzilla, Dungeons and Dragons, painting miniatures, and Mountain Dew. I also like working out and cycling. I'm pretty but awkward. I have Asperger's Syndrome but I don't mind it. Anything else you need to know about me, you can read my side column.
SO! ONTO THE RANTING! First off. Vampires. You like Twilight? Get the fuck out. This isn't for you. If a vampire sparkles in the sunlight in your mind, you don't know what a vampire is. A vampire is a zombie that feeds on blood, rather than flesh. They're more humanoid looking than a zombie because a vampire hasn't fully died yet, ergo their organs still work, albeit they're not as important as a human's. This is why a stake to the heart of a vampire will paralyze or even kill the vampire; a vampire can survive it because blood circulates much more slowly, but will still have to be stitched up. But, that's not what this post is about. It's about vampires in sunlight. Halfway through typing this, I realized my answer, but I'll continue. I was discussing how stupid it is for vampires to sparkle in sunlight, but then I realized, why do they burn? In Vampire: The Masquerade, which I consider to be the Bible of all things vampire, vampires get sick during the daytime, and are burned from the sunlight. At first I was like, maybe they just have so little melanin it can kill em, but they wouldn't burst into flames, would they? But, rather than rant more about it, I figured it out; Caine, brother of Abel, is the granddaddy of all vampires. After killing Abel and getting with Lillith, God was like, kay, you're filth, you're a vampire now. You can't come out during the day, you have to live in darkness. Because Caine was cursed as a vampire, any of his kin would in turn have the same curse and not be able to come out in the light. Problem one: solved.
Number two. Mindless Self Indulgence. Let me just say, I think this band is great. I heard about them back when they were underground, back in... 99? I was seven years old then, wow. I used to hear a lot of the underground music from NY because I'm just a short 3 hr drive from there, so it spreads up to CNY, and when you have brothers and sisters like I do you tend to get more culture than you bargain for. Anyways, MSI. Good band. Better band since they've become mainstream, although they toned down from an NC-17 rating to an R rating. I think this is one band that the mainstream actually helped them. Just one thing; kids. Don't take the fucking music seriously. Take for example "2 Hookers and an 8 Ball." It says in the beginning of the live version, "Always talk about drugs, in your songs! Whether you do them or not, the kids LOVE IT!" Take that to heart; just because it's about violence and drugs doesn't mean they condone it. It also says in the song, "Two hookers and an eight ball, can you believe that I write this shit? Two hookers and an eight ball, it ain't that fuckin' hard!" Which leads me into my next point; Music should have effort. A lot of the old MSI had no effort, but it was still good. Why? Because they had an original sound and were passionate; not part of just another cookie cutter scene like all these shitty bands like Brokencyde or Dashboard Confessional are, just trying to market to kids. God damn teenagers are stupid.
Anyways, number three: 2012. Kay, if you believe in the 2012 theory, look back at Y2K. You're retarded to believe it. This, I'm talking about the film. I really enjoyed it. It was shit, but I liked it. Why? Look at the Day After Tomorrow. It was a crappy film about the earth destroying itself. Why is this better? It's the same thing, with better actors, better CGI, and NO CHARACTER DEVLEOPMENT AND LITTLE TO NO PLOT. Seriously. We pay $9.50 a ticket to see wanton destruction for 2.5 hours. We don't care about the plot. Most Godzilla movies you can cut them down to 30 minutes and have a marathon of fights between Godzilla and the other monster. Well, besides the big monster rumbles and Final Wars where it has martial arts for 60 minutes rather than talking. But, I digress. 2012 was almost exactly what I paid to see; the earth destroy itself, in glorious CGI, and nothing more. Although it had three or four plane scenes when one would suffice, and it was too long for my tastes for a simple destruction movie, it was great. I give it a B-. Cut it down to 1.5 hours and remove one plane scene and you get an A-. I can't give it higher than an A- for a movie with no plot or character development, but a movie like this you can't expect more. A- is 90/100 anyways, is it that big a deal?
Anyways, just wanted to get that off my chest. I'll post tomorrow about D&D probably.
I'm Jay, I'm a bit of an oddball. I like NES, Godzilla, Dungeons and Dragons, painting miniatures, and Mountain Dew. I also like working out and cycling. I'm pretty but awkward. I have Asperger's Syndrome but I don't mind it. Anything else you need to know about me, you can read my side column.
SO! ONTO THE RANTING! First off. Vampires. You like Twilight? Get the fuck out. This isn't for you. If a vampire sparkles in the sunlight in your mind, you don't know what a vampire is. A vampire is a zombie that feeds on blood, rather than flesh. They're more humanoid looking than a zombie because a vampire hasn't fully died yet, ergo their organs still work, albeit they're not as important as a human's. This is why a stake to the heart of a vampire will paralyze or even kill the vampire; a vampire can survive it because blood circulates much more slowly, but will still have to be stitched up. But, that's not what this post is about. It's about vampires in sunlight. Halfway through typing this, I realized my answer, but I'll continue. I was discussing how stupid it is for vampires to sparkle in sunlight, but then I realized, why do they burn? In Vampire: The Masquerade, which I consider to be the Bible of all things vampire, vampires get sick during the daytime, and are burned from the sunlight. At first I was like, maybe they just have so little melanin it can kill em, but they wouldn't burst into flames, would they? But, rather than rant more about it, I figured it out; Caine, brother of Abel, is the granddaddy of all vampires. After killing Abel and getting with Lillith, God was like, kay, you're filth, you're a vampire now. You can't come out during the day, you have to live in darkness. Because Caine was cursed as a vampire, any of his kin would in turn have the same curse and not be able to come out in the light. Problem one: solved.
Number two. Mindless Self Indulgence. Let me just say, I think this band is great. I heard about them back when they were underground, back in... 99? I was seven years old then, wow. I used to hear a lot of the underground music from NY because I'm just a short 3 hr drive from there, so it spreads up to CNY, and when you have brothers and sisters like I do you tend to get more culture than you bargain for. Anyways, MSI. Good band. Better band since they've become mainstream, although they toned down from an NC-17 rating to an R rating. I think this is one band that the mainstream actually helped them. Just one thing; kids. Don't take the fucking music seriously. Take for example "2 Hookers and an 8 Ball." It says in the beginning of the live version, "Always talk about drugs, in your songs! Whether you do them or not, the kids LOVE IT!" Take that to heart; just because it's about violence and drugs doesn't mean they condone it. It also says in the song, "Two hookers and an eight ball, can you believe that I write this shit? Two hookers and an eight ball, it ain't that fuckin' hard!" Which leads me into my next point; Music should have effort. A lot of the old MSI had no effort, but it was still good. Why? Because they had an original sound and were passionate; not part of just another cookie cutter scene like all these shitty bands like Brokencyde or Dashboard Confessional are, just trying to market to kids. God damn teenagers are stupid.
Anyways, number three: 2012. Kay, if you believe in the 2012 theory, look back at Y2K. You're retarded to believe it. This, I'm talking about the film. I really enjoyed it. It was shit, but I liked it. Why? Look at the Day After Tomorrow. It was a crappy film about the earth destroying itself. Why is this better? It's the same thing, with better actors, better CGI, and NO CHARACTER DEVLEOPMENT AND LITTLE TO NO PLOT. Seriously. We pay $9.50 a ticket to see wanton destruction for 2.5 hours. We don't care about the plot. Most Godzilla movies you can cut them down to 30 minutes and have a marathon of fights between Godzilla and the other monster. Well, besides the big monster rumbles and Final Wars where it has martial arts for 60 minutes rather than talking. But, I digress. 2012 was almost exactly what I paid to see; the earth destroy itself, in glorious CGI, and nothing more. Although it had three or four plane scenes when one would suffice, and it was too long for my tastes for a simple destruction movie, it was great. I give it a B-. Cut it down to 1.5 hours and remove one plane scene and you get an A-. I can't give it higher than an A- for a movie with no plot or character development, but a movie like this you can't expect more. A- is 90/100 anyways, is it that big a deal?
Anyways, just wanted to get that off my chest. I'll post tomorrow about D&D probably.
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