Just like a comic book villain, you thought it was dead, but it was just hidden biding it's time away in a corner until it was powerful enough to attack again: the anti-Wendy (and friends) blog!

 
damn... it's been so long since i last posted anything worthwhile in either blog... i almost forgot both my user name and my password... damn, i think i need to find some time to post about anything sometime soon...

so, new magazine. when was the last time that i saw a decent filipino published magazine? hm... i think it was around 15 years ago, and if i recall correctly, it had "Super HOT" for its title. or was that "Playboy"? i don't really remember anymore (or i should say, its completely off-topic). i was just stating what i think about filipino published magazines, especially when its a hobby magazine.

don't get me wrong, its not that i hate hobbyists (is that the right word?), its just that i know that most decent hobby writers are busier with other things, than those people who volunteer to write. (i don't know if its just me, but culture crash articles and stories aren't exactly what you would call original... and that's an example of a filipino published magazine). i guess it really is expected that most articles regarding games would refer to online sites for their research -- other international magazines do that, why shouldn't they (like EGM for example...)? i guess it has something to do with a lack of material to write about, or it could be their lack of talent... hey, wraith! that might be a good job for you!

regarding the pictures... i don't know, if FOO is the one who's working as "official liason" between the group and the magazine, i suppose its expected that something like this is going to happen. "if things go wrong, i might not want the group to suffer any bad impression", that might be the thought that was running through his head at the time, or maybe he's bitter that the group no longer calls on his "expertise" for anything anymore...

*cough cough* then again... i could be wrong... i might say, "who cares, they can all go to hell and die" or something like that, right? so they have a sucky magazine, haha, too bad for them -- they didn't approach the right people. haha, let them suffer, bwahahaha! after they suffer, they will know that they cannot survive without my genius, and after that -- they will bow down before me! they will kowtow before their master! they will lick my feet and worship me! and i will have the slave base that i need to rule the world!!!! bwahahahahahaha!!!!!!

(damn, its been a long time since i wrote something this long and depressing, i'm feeling really sleepy suddenly, its not my fault if some strange paragraph suddenly appeared before this disclaimer... i'm just letting my hands go over the keyboard, without even thinking of what to write down... i think i'm going to sleep now, or look for other more interesting sites... i'll post again. soon. in the near future. hopefully. zzzzz.....)

the world is mine! mine i say!
posted by frost at 4:12 PM

 
Records of Lost's Campaign

Starting late (as usual) and missing around half of the party, it wasn't going to be an ordinary session.

To begin with, we're army conscripts. However, for army conscripts, the best front-liner we have is a monk and he wasn't available. The highest strength of the party, aside from the monk (Str 15 I think), is actually 13.

Not that it matters because the party has no real melee combatants. There's the ranger but he specializes in ranged combat. Fool was the cleric and a good thing too because he was the only person in the party who needed healing. A newbie player was playing a wizard, and the two 1st-level spells he memorized was ray of enfeeblement and, uh, ray of enfeeblement (which is a good spell in itself but not generally useful when facing hordes and armies). I was playtesting the Warmage from Miniatures Handbook which is actually quite cheesy in the first few levels.

Of course the actual scenario was to hunt down orcs. And before the session was over, we faced twenty of them (the first batch was four, the second batch sixteen... all without resting, mind you). And while ranged attacks might work in plains, we were in a heavily forested area, which meant pretty much everyone had cover (works both ways), but also meant that we only got to shoot them when they were pretty close (point blank shot range). Oh yeah, the pure combatant kept on rolling 1's, plus we had a newbie wizard. The odds seemed against us.

But as Lost said, a few lucky rolls and extra caution on everybody's part made us win the game. Of course the game was in the typical Manticor fashion, which means uncoordinated and sometimes solo missions (I usually took up the latter, since I'm the only one either too stupid or too brave to take on four is to one and even six is to one odds). Did I mention we were all first level?

Warcraft RPG

Perhaps what scared me is the commitment to get the books. First, it's part of Sword and Sorcery's line. While White Wolf does have gorgeous black and white art, it's just that-- black and white. Second is that since it's a popular title that's not their own, there's a licensing fee, which is represented in the extra few dollars the books cost (rather than $29.95, they're somewhere around $34.95 or so). Third is the fact that it's a whole new campaign setting that you really need all the books, and there's a lot of them. I mean sure, the campaign setting is playable in itself the same way the Player's Handbook is playable in itself: all your opponents will be NPCs. And whereas the PHB had a comprehensive list of spells for the spellcasters, well, this one has few (you need to get the book which actually has all the spells and magic). The book for the monsters is separate and I think there's a few other books you'll need to run a well-rounded campaign.
posted by Charles at 11:18 PM

 
shhh...

calm down people... don't get too worked up... take some deep breaths... there you go... deep breaths...

i'm out of here before shingetter uses that oversized can opener on me!

yikes! (evade! shin mach special!)

how many draggs do you have in final fantasy 0? 2 of them? care to add one more?
posted by frost at 3:54 PM

 
To Shingetter:
Please don't take offense at this but I already know your reasons for changing the schedule (that much was obvious) and while I approve of that, changing it at this point in time (one week before the event, several weeks after announcing the target date) isn't. (If I wanted to kick you in the face, I would have done it publicly, in the ML, etc. But this is a private blog after all, isn't it?)

Anyway, good luck with the rest of your projects.
posted by Charles at 9:28 AM

 
alas, wraith-boy, It seems that I won't be coming home for Christmas. My brother and sister will be going here though.
posted by Melchior at 9:34 AM

 
To Shingetter:

I think the problem in changing it suddenly without consultation is that it's on short notice (especially six days before at that). Also, I think you should have consulted with your GMs first because they're the ones having the games and they might have conflict with the schedule (especially with their erratic hours, and I'm just not talking about Lost). Even if it is open games, you might end up with all CCGs and board games and no RPGs without GMs.
posted by Charles at 7:33 AM

 
BTW, Nim, when are you returning?
posted by Charles at 10:40 AM

 
Apollo should take somewhere around 100 - 150 stones (overestimation) while Midnighter should finish up at around 80 stones (he is rather, human, with no overly-powerful superpowers).

yes, i'm back. for five minutes. i'm not really sure when my damned phone line will get back up, so i can barely post for the past few months.

shingetter, i seem to be unable to log-in properly to your proboards -- whenever i try to log myself in, the site accepts me, but when i start to access other parts (profiles, messages, posting, etc) the site refuses to let me in, stating that i need to register or log-in before i can use the board. looking at the other screens that i access after logging-in, i find instead of my username, i'm being referred to as "guest". (this also happens to my other proboards account).

what do i need to do?

(btw, i intend to join both marvel and final fantasy zero, as soon as my phone line goes back up)
posted by frost at 6:13 PM

 
Hm... I thought that Bbn was the acronym. That's the case in the DMG, anyway.

I agree with the wraith though. We're pretty messed up in a lot of cases. As a GM, I've seen the group flounder about thanks to some rebellious individuals (Wraith and Monkey). But when combat comes, they tend to be like an oiled machine: prone to slippage but otherwise smooth.

As for the PbP in Between Realms, I was planning to join in but I have quite a bit of work to do in RL. When things have simmered down, I'll look at what characters are available.
posted by Melchior at 11:36 AM