Hey Man, well this is Babylon

What a weekend!

Good Times (anytime you need a favor!)

Friday night Avatar: good times! Thanks for bringing over those episodes, Trinity. I’m glad you’re finally getting to see Season 3. Soon you will understand why I love Zuko so much! And thanks for Skies of Arcadia Legends, Andrea. I’m enjoying it greatly. Plus, it’s good inspirational fodder for the Sky Pirates game (further below). Also, Bethany picked up a copy of No More Heroes for the Wii, and so far, it’s pretty sweet. My one complaint: so far, I don’t notice any strategy in it. There’s several things you can do in it when facing enemies, but mainly it seems that the “hit A repeatedly to beat them down” strategy is really the best tactic. Regardless, it’s bloody and brutal and lots of fun.

Saturday Metal Gear 4: good times! As much as I dislike the horribly convoluted and oh-so-terribly Japanese story of the game, it is damn pretty. I think if I could get past Kojima’s frequent masturbatory expositions and lectures, I could probably enjoy the gameplay. That OMFG NERDGASM AMAZING fight Beth showed me was, well, OMFG NERDGASM AMAZING. It’s so hard to resist the urge to post spoilers, though.

Sunday Tea Party: good times! Thanks for putting it all together, Sarah, and thanks for the excellent cake that I unfortunately did not actually eat (all the other sweets killed my appetite). Having squirrels come up to me and take food from my hands was pretty nice. Those little tree-rats are so gosh-darned cute.

Gaming

We’re unexpectedly making a return to the Undiscovered Countries! Yesterday we met to create characters for Torch, but after we realized that none of us were really all that interested in a more serious game, we played some cards and then came to a unanimous decision for a new game: mufuggin sky pirates. Yargh! All of us loved the idea, and characters were made with an extreme quickness. The new campaign will take place within the months following the events of the Dynastic Purge (from the Burning Wheel game that was doomed to never happen, sadly). Back again we go to the Undiscovered Countries, this time mere months after the fall of the great Dawn Empire, we follow the adventures of a group of outcasts on the Far Fringe currents, trying to make a living in the post-war fallout. Remnants of the Empire still vie for control of scattered holdings, rogue nobles struggle to retain their tenuous grips upon ancient familiar properties, remote opportunists seek to establish their own power bases on the edge of the known currents, and all the while, the common man tries so desperately to cling to his traditional way of life.

The characters have a small short-range island-hopper craft, and are trying to make a living in the Far Fringe currents in a time of post-war fallout. So far, Sam is playing a deserter soldier-turned-card-sharp, Chris is a scholar-mechanist, and Kevin is a historian monk. The group is strong on the social and smarts, light on the ass-kicking, and I like that a lot. A beat-stick meat-shield might round the party out, but I’m good to go either way. Lacking a major physical presence can make for some really excellent adventures, as they use “non conventional” methods to achieve their goals.

Also, Saturday was Free RPG Day, and I ran the Ice and Fire demo. That will get its own Actual Play post much later.

Any of you remember the time back in The Olden Days when video games did not have movie-like cutscenes? Remember the ads and trailers for those games, and how they contained footage of the actual game play of those games? Yeah, I do too, and I miss that a lot. Nowadays, it seems that with every new video game trailer I see, the developer is trying to sell me on some Masterpiece of Digital Animation instead of an actual game that I’m supposed to have fun playing.

Miscellany

A sure-fire sign that I’m getting old: I’m seriously excited by the fact that I enjoy a high-fiber diet. That’s right: get the fuck off my lawn.

And if you didn’t know, yesterday was my pseudo-birthday, 6 months before the real one that I don’t celebrate anymore. Why, you may ask? No, it isn’t because I’ve always been slighted for presents every year of my life due to Christmas being two days later, no, not that at all, and no I’m not bitter. Truth be told, it’s because every year on my birthday, I’m cold and alone and rarely ever have anyone to celebrate with. On my birthday I tend to end up getting a free drink alone at a bar while everyone else is either out of town with their families, or so chock crammed full of Christmas Cheer that I can’t stand being around them until they stop crapping out all those damned candy canes. I’m jealous of all the good times I hear others have, so in order to actually enjoy good birthday cheer, I moved mine to June. And no, I don’t care about presents, I just want people to spend time with.

Thanks to Bree for the excellent Birthday dinner!

Hell, it makes me want to custom-time the birthdays of my own children, even. “No sex between the months of March and May, baby.” Yeah, that’ll be healthy, totally.