Talked to _real for a time tonight. This was, in general, good, because we haven't talked for a while, and Ken has always pretty much been the Man.

This does bring me to a sort of strange place, though. I think I'm tired, because these things always happen when I'm tired. At any rate, I guess Tonto Clan, as heard through _real and assorted conversation on Regina's blog, is going to die the final death on December 12th or so. Happy birthday, me. This is all fairly strange, because I haven't been able to get to Tonto in I don't know how many months but a lot, and had assumed it was already dead. To find that it was apparently alive to some degree during my absence, but will likely die again without my ever seeing what went on is...yeah. I dunno. I pretty much made my peace with Tonto's demise a long time ago, but it still bothers me a bit. Four years will do that.

The other part of this whole talking to _real thing is that it made me remember a lot of stuff - people, posts, whatever. And it's always been shocking to me how much of those years are just a huge blur to me. And as Regina can tell you, because she's heard me talk about this, I mean everything, not just Tonto happenings. There's lots of things I ought to remember, and just don't, and that kinda freaks me out.

But they were good years, after a fashion. And Tonto was a good place. And I guess, while people in Phoenix might like it, and all, I'm not so sure there will ever be another place like Tonto again, at least for me. My gaming clan days seem to be over for the moment. Ah well.

In other, happier news, I just saved a lot of money by switching to GEICO...no, wait, that's not it...[1] Oh yes. Solo thief in BG1. Let me just make you aware that nothing, basically EVER, competes with how fun driving a solo thief around backstabbing people is.

Whir and Cole may yet know this, if they ever get their BG installs working.

Oh, and Mansa Musa is the evil scum of the earth. No torture is too good for him. In that old Greyhawk torture scheme, because the Old Kingdom was like that, we will take Mansa, put a Ring of Regeneration on him, and then stick him in our torture chamber to be tortured FOREVER.

Whir can probably back me up on this.

Also, I found my new favorite book cover ever. It's this 1954 Landmark Book called "The Hordes of Ghengis Khan" in crazy 50s B-movie font, and it's got these crazy B-movie looking Mongols with evil expressions waving swords. It has you waiting for like, Flash Gordon to leap out and save China or something. We were all laughing about it a lot. It was great.

Because I'm not done yet. You people who could care less (which I realize is almost everyone) can just deal.

First, a pretty picture for everyone. Yes, I'm getting totally schooled. Keldorn, Minsc, and Jahiera are dead or out of it, and big ass demons are eating the rest of my team. However, this is way more fun than, say, the Diablo fight or the Mount Arreat fight was. Just so we're all clear that even losing is fun in this game. There's only one fight I get overly frustrated with, and...well, let's not talk about that.

Let us make note of those characters of yore, and demonstrate this whole replayability thing I keep talking about.

Thag (CN Dwarf Male Fighter)
BG1 end date 07/23/99 (Level 7); Khalid, Minsc, Jahiera, Dynahier, Imoen

My very first run through BG1, back before the Tales of the Sword Coast xpack even existed, and back before I even owned the game and was still borrowing David's copy. The whole dwarf fighter thing is a homage to those mudding days of yore, and is apparently the only time I've played a dwarf in a BG game. All my other characters are half-elves or elves. Note the party setup, which is, I feel, the default good/neutral party.

Thag made it all the way through BG1 pre-TotSC (lower level cap!). I'm pretty sure he had runs through TotSC and BG2 as well, but if those saves ever existed, they're not on my 2002 archive CD.

Valerius (CG Elf Male Fighter/Mage)
BG1 end date 11/27/00 (Level 7/7), Ajantis, Khalid, Jahiera, Coran, Dynahier
BG2 end date 10/09/00 (Level 13/13), Minsc, Valygar, Jahiera, Imoen, Aerie

Valerius, I'm fairly sure, was run through for a lot of reasons, primarily because I wanted to try a Fighter/Mage, wanted to have Ajantis and Coran in a party, and wanted to not play Thag in BG2 when it came out (hence the later BG1 end date - I exported him to BG2 as soon as I got it, I think, and came back later). He made it all the way through both BG1 with TotSC and was my first run through BG2. He never went through Throne of Bhaal because he really sucked and I got tired of playing him.

Yesmalin (NG Elf Male Ranger/NG Elf Male Stalker)
BG1 end date 09/23/00 (Level 8); Minsc, Kivan, Faldorn, Imoen, Dynahier
BG2 end date 09/04/01 (Level 19); Keldorn, Anomen, Jahiera, Aerie, Imoen
ToB end date 09/11/01 (Level 29); Keldorn, Sarevok, Jahiera, Aerie, Imoen

Yesmalin was my first character to make it through the whole trilogy. He made it through BG1 just before I got BG2, and then I brought him back a year later for BG2 and ToB. I did a lot with Yesmalin, including having the Environmentalist Party in BG1 (Yesmalin, Minsc, and Kivan as rangers, Faldorn as a druid), getting the ranger stronghold in BG2 (Valerius did both fighter and mage), doing the Jahiera romance (I skipped out and did the Aerie one instead, like Valerius. Jahiera's HARD), and getting Anomen in a party (he sucks). Yesmalin was my first character to finish ToB, replacing Anomen with His Supreme Badassness, Sarevok. Still one of my favorites.

Nargol (NG Half-Elf Bard)
BG1 stop date 09/24/00 (Level 6); Yeslick, Kivan, Branwen, Coran, Xan

Nargol was in that unfortunate period right before I got BG2, wherein BG more or less ruled my life (I finished 2 characters and got a 3rd halfway through the game in around 2 weeks!). He got made because I wanted a bard, and because I wanted to play a bunch of characters I had never played before, which is why Yeslick (comes late in Chapter 4), and Coran (comes early in Chapter 4) are in there. He never really got finished (he's just started Chapter 5), because BG2 appeared and destroyed my life, but I do want to take him through someday, because I haven't done the bard quests in BG2 yet.

Feldor (LN Half-Elf Male Fighter/Cleric)
BG2 end date 02/16/01 (Level 13/14); Minsc, Keldorn, Jahiera, Nalia, Aerie

Feldor's existance is simple. I wanted a cleric for the cleric stronghold. I came, I saw, I conquered. Then, having beat the game, I dropped it for better persuits, such as...

Valerian (TN Elf Male Fighter/Mage/Thief)
BG2 end date 05/23/01 (Level 11/12/14)

...Valerian, my BG2 solo character, and the single most awesome time I've had with that game, because of the sheer tactical challenges. It was hard, but I did it. I also know he did it in ToB, too, though the save is lost, and I have no idea how I did such a thing, because ToB is all hard, all the time, even for 6 people. But I did it.

Ergos (TN Half-Elf Male Druid)
BG1 end date 10/27/05 (Level 10); Khalid, Minsc, Jahiera, Dynahier, Imoen
BG2 end date 11/25/05 (Level 24); Keldorn, Minsc, Jahiera, Aerie, Imoen
ToB end date 11/27/05 (Level 27); Keldorn, Minsc, Jahiera, Aerie, Imoen

Ergos exists because I hadn't played either BG in years at this point, because I never did do a druid, and because I never did finish the damn Jahiera romance. So I proceeded to do all of these things. The verdict is that druids suck, their strongholds suck, and Jahiera has the best character plot in the game, by leaps and bounds and rocket packs. Time consuming, but cool.

There are other, lesser characters, of course, but they're at such unadvanced stages in BG1, I shant even mention them. But I will, in closing, mention some of the things I still want to accomplish before I'm done.

1. I've never played a bard through to the end. Nargol's up for that. He can also accomplish a few other things while he's there, like picking up some of the NPCs I don't use much (Haer'Dalis, Mazzy, Nalia, Valygar), and maybe reminding me of the Aerie romance plot, not to mention the bard quests.

2. I've never played an evil party in either game, which means I've never seen Xzar, Montaron, Edwin, Shar-Teel, Safana, Tiax, Kagain, or Eldoth (!) in BG1, and Edwin, Korgan, and Viconia in BG2. Too, there are assorted evil endings and suchlike I've never seen. Plus the joy of rampant Flaming Fist slaughter.

3. I've never soloed BG1 with anything. This is tragic, because I'd love to take somebody through BG1, BG2, and ToB solo, just to say I did. I'd also like to solo a mage, and solo a thief, and maybe solo an inquisitor paladin. It's not that I haven't tried, it's that A) That first part of BG1 is REALLY HARD solo, and B) I'm so freaking tired of Candlekeep. I'm even more tired of Candlekeep than I am of Irenicus' dungeon in BG2, and that's saying a lot.

Anyway. We'll see how far I get with that.

Because Minsc rocks, Boo rocks, and we all know it.

We haven't had a good CRPG post around here in a while, and I've been ranting about the Baldur's Gate games for a while now, so let us just hark back to the days of yore and do so, since I just got done taking Ergos and party through the trilogy.

Some of you have wondered about my sad devotion to those ancient games (BG1 dates to 1998), which I have attempted to answer, and never quite got out. So let us attempt once more.

It's easier to talk about what the original Baldur's Gate did wrong rather than what it did right, because it got an awful lot right. And most of what it got wrong is excusable by the standards of the time. 2nd Edition AD&D rules? Well, 3e didn't exist yet, so what else are you going to make a D&D game with? Dinosauric 640x480 resolution? Well, we can fault them for that, I guess. About my only other complaints involve horrific slow walking speeds (very annoying now, not so much then), and maybe a bit TOO much random outdoor exploration. All very serious, I'm sure you agree.

On the other hand, it's a game that looks good and sounds good (barely at 640x480), even now. It has a most excellent story, pretty good tactical combat, and for the most part is challenging without being highly annoying, unlike, say, Diablo II. You can have up to 5 NPCs in your party besides yourself, and since the AD&D rules allow you to be a lot of things, and there on order of 20 NPCs to choose from...I've played through, with a party, almost 5 times, and there are still NPCs I've never touched. There are enough quests and things that even now I still find new things I didn't know about.

So, Baldur's Gate II. It's like if you took everything that BG1 did right, fixed all the little things it did wrong, and then made it even better. The story is awesome. The gameplay, the fights, the challenges? Awesome. In 800x600 even 2d games can look fantastic. And then there's that little thing, which no other game before or since has done quite so well, and that's the party system. Almost as many NPCs as BG1, still with that limit of 5, except this time, each and every single one of them has quests attached to them, they talk to you, they talk to each other, they romance you, they romance each other, they disagree with your actions, and if you annoy them they will fight you or leave. It's maybe the most amazing thing an RPG has ever done.

Throne of Bhaal is easily the weakest of the three. It's an xpack to BG2, in the first place. In the second, it's straight out of a 14 y/o power gaming munchkin's fantasies. A certain part of that is needed, considering the plot, but when you need +3 weapons to show up for somebody's army, well. But then the plot hooks you once again, and you're pretty much done with real life for a time. Because the mark of a good RPG is if, when the question is asked "Will, if I play this game, put the rest of my life on hold to experience it?" the answer comes back as "Yes." Except in this case it's more like "Hell yeah!"

Having said all that, the other neatest thing I love about the series, which is almost as awesome as the party interaction? You can play through the whole thing with 1 character. 3 games, 4 years apart in real time. I can start off at level 1 in BG1, and end up at level 30+ in ToB. Sure, you could ignore BG1 and start a character in BG2 or ToB, but why would you want to? But why would you want to, when you can start in BG1, and follow your character through the entire story? It's a thing of greatness, I tell you.

Because if you can fit another dish on the table, you did something wrong.

Dad's turkey gravy is too awesome for words. I also love how I ate enough food to keep me going for like, two days.

And on a serious note, for all I bitch about 'em, I did pretty good in that lottery to determine who got what family. It's days like this that remind me of it.

Which isn't to say we weren't all evil bastards to each other while playing Farming Game, but that's really why that game is so much fun when we play it.

Hope y'all had a good one.

Because I guess people want me to be posting stuff, or something.

Well, ok. Let's see here...

1. Civ IV - this game owns, for all applicable values of owningness. If you take almost everything that was ever good about any Civ game ever, and put it in a game, you wind up with something about like Civ IV. About the only complaints I can possibly make of it is that the wonder movies in Civ II were better, and combat is still vaguely annoying to me, in that they tried to nerf stacks by use of collateral damage, and stacks weren't particularly broken in the first place.

However, if another MP game with Whir comes down to me vs Mansa Musa racing for space, wherein Mansa gets way better land than me, and in fact if I ever see Mansa Musa in an MP game with Whir ever again, the results will not be pretty. Because it's been like 3 games now and I'm tired of it.

Speaking of which, I'm in a couple of Succession Games: RB2c and RB3

Aside from Civ, well, there's our friend the deck, which involves me screwing a lot of screws, drilling lots of holes, and moving lots of plastic boards, sometimes in the rain, and always in the cold. Because it's November. Hopefully we get done by Christmas. Hopefully.

And for other entertainment, we've reentered that joyous phase from the days of yore, wherein I acquire two responsibilities, namely:

A) Doing every single chore in the house;

B) Finding a job.

And if I do A at all, I get yelled at for not doing B, and if I don't do A, I get yelled at for not doing it. So there's not a lot of winning there. Also, filling out job applications sucks. A lot. There seem to be MLS programs in interesting states, however, so there may yet be hope.

Now then, Borders.

A) You know you've totally lost your alcohol tolerance when 3 SBIs is enough to get you staggering drunk. Man am I a lightweight these days. Not that I wasn't before, but.

B) Whereas I was pleasantly tipsy the other night for D&D, which worked because my entire dialogue consisted of "Chirpa clika jihad" and other such lines, which works when you realize that I was playing a giant bug for a character, and when you've seen Team America, which I didn't think was that good, but sure did fit for the session.

C) Serial Experiments Lain is pretty much totally fucked up, drunk or not drunk.

D) There's totally a piece of ramen on my keyboard. I have no idea how it got there. I don't remember it being there. I suspect it has a lot to do with being drunk.

E) Comes after D. Just thought you might like to know.

I crave popcorn.

The first strikes in our campaign against the tyrranical human kulak burgoisie huntist-capitalist oppressors have been made! Viva la revolucion!

Courtesy of Regina's mom, who's awesome for continuing to find this stuff, and Regina, who keeps awesomely forwarding it to me:

IS IT POSSIBLE IT'S NOT THE BIRDS? [Warren Bell] Is it maybe the deer? Have the formerly innocent-appearing woodland creatures used the avian menace as a cover, all the while lulling us into a perilously false state of ease? A deer goes after Gov. Tim Pawlenty, breaking windows. A deer attacks a home in Arkansas, breaking windows. A deer rampages in a hospital in Michigan, breaking windows. All in the last three days? I'm no conspiracy theorist, but this seems to be the work of a vast network of secret underground forest operatives.

I have, sitting next to me, a GeForce 5200. 128 MB, DDR, etc, etc. Only has digital out and s-video.

It's freaking PCI. I didn't even know they MADE PCI anymore. Oi.