Since I keep talking about how I've been writing down the adventures of the intrepid heroes of the last Forgotten Realms D&D game I ran, Jason prodded me about posting them here. Since the only other thing I have to talk about is skipping class because I'm so tired from working on my ILS 501 database I can't think to drive, I'll just go ahead and do so.

But let us not begin with our latest heroes, because that's closer to the end of the story. Instead, let's talk about our original heroes. The time, as best I recall, is 1997. The game was AD&D, Second Edition, with all the various game-breaking books.

Our Heroes:

Kink, Human Cleric of Valkur the Mighty, God of Sailors (Randy). He wields an enchanted harpoon known as Heartseeker with the power to kill foes when a critical hit is made[1].

Shador, Human Thief/Psionicist (Jason). Has the ability to create dimension doors with his mind, which he often uses as a weapon. Also wields Spellbinder, a sword that creates an anti-magic shell around the wielder[2].

"Bob", Sun Elf Psionicist (Jason). Shador's apprentice, who follows him everywhere following the disappearance of their master, who has not been seen in some time.

Kasim, Half-Elf Thief/Wizard (NPC). A mysterious man from the south, skilled at both stealth and magic.

Clyos, Minotaur Fighter. The most frightening death machine this side of Drizzt, Clyos wields two axes: The Axe of Slicing, which can slay its enemies on a critical hit, and the Axe of Slowing Flame, a weapon whose flames cause their targets to be magically slowed[3]. He replaced a ranger who isn't going to live long enough for you to care the name of.

[1] - On a natural 20 on the attack roll, target dies, no save. Moderately broken, but will totally save the party's ass, as you will see.

[2] - Spellbinder here makes a reprise from an earlier FR game (run by Dad, not me), where it was carried by Jason's character, who used it to exceptionally good effect. Yes, anti-magic shell IS as broken as you might think it is. In this game, I started out by having it broken in a such a way as to lose the anti-magic shell ability.

[3] - On a 19 or 20 natural attack roll with the Axe of Slicing, target saves vs. death or dies, or else just takes a 3x critical hit. The Axe of Slowing Flame slows the target for 10 rounds and does 2d3 fire damage[4].

[4] - This is the time when we started saying "save vs death or die" a lot, for obvious reasons. And yes, everyone was vastly overpowered. One of the best things 3rd Edition did was find a good way to balance magic items, as opposed to the Encyclopedia Magica, which really didn't.

Eleasias, 1370 DR (August):

In Waterdeep, the City of Splendors, the party unites to raid the most famous in all the Realms, Undermountain. Monsters are overcome, riddles solved, and the we learn Shador's penchant for slicing people in half with psionic dimension doors[5]. This culminates in a fight with a guardian juvinile white dragon, who is slain at the cost of Cole's unnamed ranger. Much treasure is gained, and the party discovered a portal to the outskirts of Waterdeep, which they take. Shortly thereafter, Clyos the Minotaur joins the group[6].

Various people do different things in Waterdeep, but Shador, seeking a way to repair Spellbinder, takes it to Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun, where he is told he will have to seek out a wizard of power who lives in Amn and knows more about such matters. The party resolves to do this, and is teleported near to the city of Murann, where their quarry supposedly lives.

[5] - We had a fairly involved discussion at the time about this, since the description did make them sort of Robert Jordan-esque gateways that could hurt you. So we worked out rules to damage people.

[6] - Looking back, I'm not sure what the hell I was thinking with that dungeon, because it so clearly sucked, and is so clearly at odds with how good the rest of the campaign turned out to be. My only defense is that it was high school.

Elient, 1370 DR (September):

The party quickly discovers that Murann is a city under seige. Two ogre mages, Sythillis[7] and Cyrvisnea, allied with a priest of Cyric named Koth and the infamous pirate known as the Black Alaric, have led a vast army of humanoids to sack the city, full of treasure ships from the New World of Maztica. The city is surrounded on both land and sea, and an assault seems imminent.

Fortunately for our heroes, they quickly locate the wizard[8] and use magical (or psionic) means to enter the city, where they are greeted with open arms by the rulers and given accomodations in the palace. They settle in for a night of rest.

Sometime later that night, everyone is awakened by shouting, screaming, and fighting in the hallways of the palace. Emerging from their rooms, the party discovers the palace to be under attack by Cyricist troops, who are slaughtering everyone in sight. Except our heroes, who summarily defeat their opposition, and rove through the palace looking for more. In the great hall, they find it - a huge portal opens up, and through it charges a squadron of heavy cavalry, followed by Koth himself. The ensuing battle sees the party victorious, despite Koth's attempts at calling down a flamestrike[9]. The high priest of Cyric flees, and the palace is cleared.

In the city, however, all is chaos. Much is in flames, and humanoid troops roam the streets even as others assault the walls. For the rest of the night, the part roams Murann's streets, dispatching goblins, ogres, and even a group of hill giants. Dawn sees them exhausted and sorely wounded, but victorious - the humanoids are in full retreat[10].

[7] - Poor Sythillis was pretty much always called Syphilis, for what should be obvious reasons. I may have been the only one to use his actual name.

[8] - I call him the wizard, because he never actually got a name besides "the wizard" or "the sage." He was only around for a night, so.

[9] - I rolled all 1s and 2s. And then most everybody saved. I MAY have done 10 damage to somebody with that flamestrike. It was pathetic. Nobody ever took Koth seriously again, and we still talk about people "Kothing" dice rolls.

[10] - And I mean that literally. From the teleport from Waterdeep to the final city battle was played in about a 12 hour session one night until about 6am. I'd like to note that we drank a LOT of caffeinated tea that night - several 2 quart pitchers worth.

Elient, 1370 DR (September):

After consultation with the wizard, the party learns that the magical globe needed to repair Spellbinder is in the hoard of a blue dragon who lives in the remote peaks of the Small Teeth. Being a powerful wizard, he has no issues teleporting them directly to the lair of the dragon[11]. Inside, the fighting is vicious, and several party members are almost killed by the dragon, including Shador, who was scouting the dragon's hoard[12], until Kink slew the dragon in a mighty thrust with Heartseeker[13]. Licking their wounds, and carrying a vast amount of treasure, the party returned to Murann, where Spellbinder was repaired to its full glory.

[11] - The guy was something like 15th level and had access to Teleport Without Error, for the record. I believe Koth was about 14th level. That these characters were able to compete at level 6 or so is a testament to how ludicrous they were.

[12] - Jason's characters almost ALWAYS have a sneaky side to them, and Shador was no exception. There were plenty of times when he'd sneak into the bad guy treasure room and steal half of it before the party got there. And they didn't find out until years later.

[13] - That natural 20 saved their asses, because the dragon was definitely winning. I believe Shador and Kasim were down, and Clyos and Kink were pretty close.

Elient, 1370 DR (September):

Still in Murann, Shador recieves word that his master has been kidnapped by mysterious psionicists in Calimport. The party buys a ship, hires a crew, and sets out. Midway, they are ambushed by pirates led by the Black Alaric, whom they defeat, it being very hard to kill a ship whose crew includes a minotaur and people who can make dimension doors that cut large parts of your hull away. In persuit of the remaining pirates, they come to the Sea Tower of Irphong. Deep in its bowels, Shador meets the Black Alaric in single combat and defeats him, though he is grievously wounded in the process[14]. The legend of Jordy, first mate of their vessel, is also made here, when his coolness in action and seeming invincibility come to the notice of the party[15].

Departing the Sea Tower of Irphong, the party continues sailing towards Calimport. They are briefly waylaid by a gigantic shark, who almost causes Clyos to lose one of his prized axes but is otherwise unsuccessful in claiming a meal.

Disembarking in Calimport, the party is severely ambushed several times before following some clue into the Muzad and vanishing, never to be heard from again[16].

[14] - Shador fought him in single combat because he was, once again, looting the treasure hoard. What actually got him was a fairly severe trap on the hoard door after he looted it and gave the party some of his old items they didn't even know he had.

[15] - It all started as a bit of flavor, me describing Jordy fighting off some pirates. Then it got to be "Hey Erik, what's Jordy doing?" "Oh, he's fighting about five pirates at the same time and winning." The obligatory salty sailor talk didn't hurt any either. We still talk about Jordy.

[16] - Actually, there's more to it than that, but it's to ludicrously munchkin, high school, and just plain bad to talk about. While part of the fun of this game was the insane power levels, we had some severe problems with them that led to us toning them down an awful lot in future games.

There were two (actually three, if you count the brief foray into Undermountain) boxed sets involved in this game. Lands of Intrigue, which details Amn, probably my favorite FR country ever (as you will see), and Empires of the Shining Sea, which details Calimshan and was brand new (as in I held off playing so it would come out) when the party went to Calimshan.

Join us next time for further adventures in the Realms, albeit slightly later and with a moderately different group.

I'd love to say I got a lot done this Thanksgiving break, but I really didn't. My sole human interaction was with the mail lady yesterday, and I'm currently hard at work on my Access database for ILS 501. Every so often you have to do an Access project, just to remind yourself how much databases just totally suck. They're the Antichrist.

So what I've actually done with my week, besides spending a couple days so far on this database, is watch a crapload of anime, and work on a bunch of D&D stuff. Well, some D&D stuff. The most awesome-looking maps nobody will ever see, because I am, as Whir told me, a perfectionist.

I'd love to tell you all what I thought about Neon Genesis Evangelion, but, uh, yeah. I dunno. As I was telling Whir, it makes me want to go watch Serial Experiments: Lain so I can make sense of something, because while Lain is REALLY CONFUSING, NGE takes that to entirely new levels. Also, while Asuka is cool, and Misato is cool, and Pen-Pen needs to team up with tachikomas to rule the universe, I seriously want to retroactively reach through the screen and throttle Shinji. Just beat the crap out of him. I've been wanting to for days. He's THAT annoying.

On the other hand, Trigun ruled. It's nice, it's simple, it's a good combination of comedy, action, and drama. Also Vash the Stampede is a cool name. I watched about 16 eps of it in one sitting last night it was that good. It also makes me want to go watch Cowboy Bebop, for reasons I find obvious and Whir doesn't. But I won't, yet. Instead I'll just listen to the soundtrack.

Also on that D&D note, something I was discussing with Whir last night:

[19:14] Whir: There just aren't enough explosions in my life.
[19:15] Dwip: There's all those Chicom tanks waiting to be Hellfired, too.
[19:15] Whir: If only I could do it with my 55 warrior.
[19:15] Dwip: How well does he fly the Cobra?
[19:15] Whir: She, and I'm not really sure about the technology gap.
[19:16] Dwip: That, and knowing your preference for either very very large or very very catlike races, will she be able to FIT in the Cobra.
[19:17] Dwip: Because, well, the little-publicized failure of that squad of elite Tauren helicopter pilots they tried to set up.
[19:19] Whir: No cat race in WoW. Undead was the smallest I could get.
[19:19] Whir: On horde anyway. There's always gnome on alliance.
[19:19] Dwip: You aren't playing a gnome. Please tell me you aren't playing a gnome.
[19:20] Whir: I just said I was playing undead.
[19:20] Dwip: Multiple characters, and all that.
[19:20] Whir: I'm not even sure how people can play gnomes. Their sounds are so fucking annoying.
[19:21] Dwip: And undead is ok. Death's better than being a gnome.
[19:21] Whir: Pretty much.
[19:21] Dwip: Is there any way to make gnomes anywhere unannoying?
[19:21] Whir: Make them cannibals.
[19:21] Dwip: I say, remembering how Kyle's paladin slaughtered an innocent gnome tinker, and everyone was like "Well, it WAS a gnome."
[19:22] Whir: Fine line between murder and mercy killing.
[19:22] Dwip: Not for gnomes.
[19:23] Dwip: ...I wonder where I picked up the pathological hatred of gnomes from.
[19:23] Whir: My WLD gnome was okay. He had huge floppy ears.
[19:23] Whir: That'll happen when you get bit by a vargoille.
[19:23] Dwip: Probably Dragonlance novels. I think Kender are cool though.
[19:23] Whir: However you spell it.
[19:23] Dwip: Hoopaks add a lot.
[19:24] Whir: WoW needs hoopaks.
[19:24] Dwip: I kind of miss staff slings in 3e, too.
[19:24] Dwip: Maybe just because I used about 800,000 of them in the gold box games.
[19:24] Whir: They don't have them in the Krynn books?
[19:25] Dwip: I dunno, the only DL thing I have is the 2e setting box.
[19:25] Whir: I should make a halfling that uses an atat.
[19:25] Dwip: atl-atl, or AT-AT? Either would rock.
[19:25] Whir: Or atlatl or whatever.
[19:26] Dwip: "Well guys, we ready to plunder to this dungeon?"
[19:26] Whir: In a 1/2 scale AT-AT.
[19:26] Whir: On the other hand, gnomes do get to ride mechanical chickens in WoW.
[19:26] Dwip: That COULD have style.
[19:27] Dwip: I'd like gnomes a lot more if they didn't ALWAYS have annoying voices.
[19:27] Dwip: Maybe if we could get some tinker dwarves. Ale, beards, and gigantic steam crossbows. How do you lose?
[19:30] Dwip: But seriously. Huge steam-powered crossbows. I bet you could get away with some sort of steam-powered rock crusher-inspired tank, too.
[19:31] Whir: I'll stick to the steam muskets from Last Exile.
[19:31] Dwip: And dwarves never get annoying voices.
[19:31] Whir: No, they just talk like pirates
[19:31] Dwip: And?
[19:31] Dwip: I mean, where's the downside, here?
[19:32] Dwip: You've got steam weapons, beards, battleaxes, copious amounts of alcohol, and piratical voice acting. How does that lose?
[19:32] Dwip: And they kill orcs. Who doesn't like killing orcs?
[19:33] Dwip: Might need some eye patches though.
[19:33] Dwip: And a war elephant. War elephants make everything cooler. Besides, they can mount the steam weapons on the howdah.
[19:34] Dwip: I mean, forget archers. How about a repeating steam ballista?
[19:35] Dwip: If nothing else, sell the posable action figure that shoots suction darts. It'd be like printing money. Or taking it from small children, one of the two.

--------------

Because, well, imagine Minas Tirith being attacked by a bunch of dudes that look like Gimli, except riding the giant war elephants with enormous steam-powered weapons. Where does this go wrong? Where?

So Mom's birthday was the 17th, and she calls me up, and she's like "Dad got me a 40" widescreen TV!"

"Ooo," I say. "Will it fit in my luggage when I come home?"

So then she calls me last night, and we're talking, and she says "Oh, you'll never guess what our new pre-bedtime ritual is now."

"Er, no..." I say, wondering if there's some goat sacrificing or something I just wasn't aware of for 25 years.

"We've been playing Mario!"

"Mario. Like, original NES, Mario 1? That Mario?"

"Yeah! With the coins, and the plants that eat you!"

"That's too awesome." I say.

Because there's something highly amusing about my parents hooking up games from my 1980s childhood to a state of the art TV. That vast increase in graphical quality, you understand.

Also, as a tangental side note while transcribing the maps from the old AD&D modules A1-A4 into CC2 so I can run them come December, it turns out that one of the dungeons therein has The Cave. We can only presume that this is the natural lair of The Deer (and perhaps The Elk as well), though I have yet to spot any flamestrikes or plaid fire.

If anybody but Cole gets any of that, I'll be impressed.

First Wikipedia, then the world!

Also this, just 'cause.

And a bit of gaming action, also just 'cause.

NWN2 - I thought having to run through a wall of fire to get their guys was cool. It didn't save them, but.

And the extra-special "Yeah, BG2 is still cool." shot. That's from the Solaufien mod, and check out how many effect icons Sola has, anyway. That fight was more than just a little out of control, as you might be able to tell. Each of my mages (3) went in there with contigencies, spell triggers, and lesser spell triggers, plus other buff spells. I shot off something like 3 Abu-Dazim's Horrid Wiltings, 6 Cloudkills, a couple of Teleport Fields, and I don't even remember what else. It was ugly.

But the pic looks neat.

[03:27] Gormican: I'm raising Gnome the bunny to be EVIL its all part of my plan!
[03:27] Dwip: With that name...
[03:29] Gormican: soon he will grow into an evil Bunny and join the gnomes where he shall train in thier wily ways
[03:30] Dwip: ...
[03:30] Gormican: then he will infiltrate the rabbit lair
[03:30] Gormican: and subvert the female rabbits with his sexy James Bond style ines
[03:30] Gormican: lines
[03:31] Gormican: and slowly form a Rabbit rebellion force to overthrow thier leaders
[03:31] Dwip: Bunny. James Bunny.
[03:32] Gormican: but of course all his rebel forces will be powerless compared to his heroic mojo
[03:32] Gormican: In a heroic manner he will free the rabbits and become thier king

[03:33] Gormican: King Gnome THE BUNNY
[03:35] Dwip: You know, anything I try to say here couldn't possibly add to it. So I think I'll just blog quote it.

Brought on by TNK talking about Planescape: Torment (a game I sorely need to play one of these days), a bit of BG2 rambling, since I actually played an entire game of it while traveling across the country.

So let us make a couple of additions to this list here. I should put all of this on a page somewhere one of these days.

Najah (NE Elf Male Assassin)
BG1 Tutu end date 12/12/05 (Level 10)
BG2 stop date 09/11/06 (Level 16)

At the bottom of the old list, I mention a couple of things I really wanted to do, two of which were soloing a thief through, and soloing BG1. I also wanted to test out a mod called Tutu, which ports BG1 to the BG2 engine. Thus was born Najah the assassin, who as of this writing is in the middle of quests in BG2 and got abandoned for Argorath down there.

Verdict? BG1 solo was mostly pretty hard. Low level thieves don't have a lot of staying power. A backstab with or without poison weapon is insanely powerful, however, if you know what you're doing. The Iron Throne fight was still ludicrously hard, however. Sarevok was actually fairly easy, though, once I figured it out.

BG2, on the other hand, is all hard, all the time. It turns out that you CAN solo a dragon as a thief, but it's spectacularly hard. Even the routine fights are exhaustingly hard. It's why I paused to go play Argorath.

Worth noting, too, that while the idea of Tutu is good, getting the save to port from BG1 to BG2 is really hard. I ended up porting the character. It was very frustrating.

Argorath (CG Human Male Fighter->Priest of Lathander)
BG2 end date 09/07/06 (Level 26/9); Viconia, Imoen, Solaufein, Nalia
ToB end date 09/11/06 (Level 37/9); Viconia, Imoen, Solaufein, Nalia, Sarevok

Argorath is a guy I started mid-trip sometime or another when an exhausting day of driving and an exhausting night of driving Najah was getting to be just too much. Except for the "I've never had Viconia in a party" and "Sure haven't played Nalia in a while" bits, he does not especially conform to the list. What I really wanted to do was test out the Nalia romance mod and the Solaufein as a joinable NPC mod. To do that required a fighter, but I didn't want to play a pure fighter (been there), so I went with a fighter dualed into a cleric instead. I also played as a not-quite-solo. Started with just me, ditching everyone but Imoen. Picked up Nalia/Viconia to replace her at the appropriate time, and to tank for me while I was in that weak not-a-real-cleric stage duals go through. Rescued Imoen, then picked up Solaufein in Ust'Natha and Sarevok in ToB for the final full party.

This was new and novel and worked pretty well. I also liked Solaufein as an NPC. On the other hand, the Nalia romance had horrendous dialogue (and a couple of bugs, IIRC), and I forgot how ANNOYING she is. And Solaufein, well, let's just say that some of the fights are pretty ludicrous. I got one of them sprung on me directly before the Ilasera fight in ToB, which was a little intense. The Eclipse fight made me angry, too, more than being fun. There are people who enjoy that sort of thing, but I'm not one of 'em.

I think the next time I play (probably sooner rather than later), I'll end up finishing my BG1 bard (or starting a new one with some of the NPCs I never use), then sending him through BG2 with an "I don't use these characters ever" party, though most of those are evil, so I may need to merge the two. We shall see.

One thing I'll say for the BGs, they sure do have replay value. 10/10 alien type games.

[edit] Because I didn't even remember actually doing this...

Nargol: (CN Half-Elf Male Bard)
BG1 end date 08/16/06 (Level 10); Coran, Kivan, Branwen, Xan, Yeslick

Not quite 6 years to the day of the stop date (9/24/00), but at 5 years, 11 months, who's counting, really? I'd like to talk about this one, but I actually don't remember a bit of playing it. I would like to point out, however, that Coran and Kivan rock, Branwen and Xan blow, and Yeslick is actually a lot better than I gave him credit for.

With a nod to this MT strip.

As Sarah was telling me Friday, with a nod to this old MT strip, it's funny how they were talking about NWN1, and here we are on NWN2. Not to mention the about 6 year progression between a BG2 which hadn't come out when that strip was made, and NWN2, which is 6 years and 2 engines more advanced.

I'm sure that had a point somewhere.

Anyway, let's talk about NWN2. Actually, first, let's talk about NWN1, with a nod to my old Alsherok review of it. I find it deeply amusing that as it was in 2002, here we are in 2006 with both an Elder Scrolls game and a Neverwinter Nights game. I don't really want to compare Oblivion to NWN2, however, except a few incidentals. This is because, unlike NWN1, NWN2 is actually a good game. And let's just say that again right up front:

NWN2 is the game that NWN1 should have been, in pretty much all possible ways. Let's run through a few.

Thar be SPOILERS in them thar hills. In case it wasn't obvious.

Graphics: It's not Oblivion, to be sure, but neither is anything else, so that's to be forgiven. This is more like what I wanted NWN1 to look like, though I imagine the graphics just weren't there in '02. You do want to put textures up on High, however. I did, and it's like playing an entirely different game.

And let's just say that adding heightmaps and getting out of the tile-based system makes NWN2 twice the game NWN1 was all by itself. Also helping is a return to something vaguely resembling reality for architectural models. Overly fantastic city walls from NWN1, I'm looking at you, here. Thanks, medieval-looking NWN2 models, for being cool.

There are also a fair number of fairly awesome cutscenes, which I'm not going to talk about because they'd be huge spoilers. Let's just say that the one involving a crystal thingy is way cool. Not quite the Oblivion endgame, but close.

Interface: Actually, last I played NWN1 was the Diamond edition, 3-4 years of patches and expansions later, and I've come to appreciate the radial menu.

NWN2 has some issues, though. First and foremost, the camera STILL sucks the good suck. I'm not sure how they managed, because it worked ok in KOTOR, and we've somehow stepped back from that. It's not quite NWN1 levels of awful, but it tries hard sometimes. Top down mode fixes a lot, but not all.

What I really miss, though, is Baldur's Gate-style autopausing. It's needed. Unlike NWN1 or even KOTOR, NWN2 is very much a return to the detailed tactical combat days of yore, what with you and up to 4 other NPCs driving around at the same time. Combats can be VERY confusing.

The other thing I'll mention here is that the AI needs some more work. They sometime go some very nonsensical routes to get places, and in a couple areas they didn't even move at all without a lot of coaxing. On the other hand, the new AI is mostly quite good, though I had a few flashes of missing the old package system used in the BGs and KOTOR. I will say that NWN2 is the first game where I've felt ok with leaving the spellcaster AI on.

NPCs: And here's the fun part. Our friends at Bioware learned a lot of lessons from NWN1, one of which was that the partially-controllable, unequippable NPCs that came with NWN1 out of the box were a really stupid idea. Fortunately, somewhere in NWN1 they reversed that design and went back to fully-controllable, fully-equippable BG-style NPCs, which also carried the day in the KOTORs and made it into NWN2. This is good.

Another BG-style trend is the sheer number of NPCs you can have join in NWN2. I believe the number is around 12. I've lost count. All of them are at least moderately interesting, though I think only Khelgar approached the level of greatness that you'd expect from, say, Jahiera, or Carth, or HK-47, or Deekin, to name a few of the more memorable ones.

Some other good things:

1. The dialogue is GREAT. Many, many one-liners, no really George Lucas-esque cringe-worthy stuff. This is something Bioware/Obsidian has always been excellent at, and it's at top form in NWN2.

2. The influence system from the KOTORs is back, though not quite to the same degree. At least Khelgar can get a class change ala the KOTOR2 Jedi changes, and there's (I'm told) at least two romances, though Casavir and Elanee wouldn't have been my first choices.

3. And on both those notes, the interparty banter. Wow. Though there is a point where it gets VERY catty (to quote Khelgar during a memorable Neeshka/Elanee/Qara display, "Rrroowr!"), but it's all very good. All of it. All the time. I can see myself replaying a ton just to hear different people go off at each other.

A few bad things:

1. The voice acting varies between "OMG teh win!" (Khelgar, Sand) and "Random people off the street" (many lesser characters and voiceovers), which can be highly annoying. Guys, if you're going to have voice acting, do it well. Otherwise it breaks your game. Seriously.

2. Guys, this whole female rogue thing. Seriously. While we must agree on the awesomeness of Imoen, Nalia was generally annoying, Mission Vao was actually unplayable she was so annoying, and we'll kind of lump Mira in there too. And don't try to pretend that Neeshka isn't Mission's horned older sister, because you can't. I actually got to like Neeshka, but we really need a new idea, here. Atton Rand was awesome. Clone him.

While we're there, you haven't had a cool Paladin-type since Keldorn. Casavir reminds me of Anomen, and that's NOT a good thing. Trust me on this one. Also, Elanee as the token druid. You got it right with Jahiera and Faldorn. Stay there. Don't go all Cernd on me, please.

On the other hand, I wholeheartedly endorse the inclusion of belligerant dwarves. Khelgar is awesome. Keep doing this. It doesn't get old.

I'd also like to acknowledge Qara and Bishop as being wildly awesome, interesting, and unique.

3. On the negative side, though, when I only have four NPC slots to fill, I'd appreciate it if every other quest you weren't taking up one of those slots with some random NPC I never want to use otherwise. It gets very expensive on the gear, you understand, and I abhor having gnomes in my party. In fact, Grobnar's the first, and I hated every minute of it. And for gods' sakes, if you give me a choice between two NPCs to go do something, and I pick one, don't have the other one leap in and replace the one I picked. It sucks.

World and Plot:

In a word, damn cool. I STILL don't like Neverwinter as a setting (and never have - can we go to Westgate or something next?), but this game had a cool plot, full of double-crosses, intrigue, and twists. Act I dragged on a bit too long (very much like Chapter 2 of BG2, this is where ALL the side quests are), but Acts II and III were just about right. I felt like there were plenty of quests to do, and plenty to explore, which is directly the opposite of NWN1. It's not quite BG2 or Oblivion, but it's more than either KOTOR.

There's a stronghold. I don't want to talk about it much, except to say it's got so much awesome factor I could hardly restrain myself each and every moment I was there.

The mass combat fight scenes, in general, are fantastic, and there are a lot of them. It's very very cool in a way that I wanted, say, the Bruma one in Oblivion to be and it wasn't. There's a point in Act III where I had to stop myself from shouting in glee at 2am and waking up the house. Every game with mass combat for the last ten years I've been saying "Wow will this be better when they figure out how to put reasonable numbers of guys on screen at once." This has happened. Rejoice.

Unlike NWN1, I felt pretty good about the loot progression (if you read my review, it was one of things I felt VERY at issue about). It was even a bit Monty Haulish at times, but better too much than too little, I think. It's supplemented by a crafting system heavily based on what's in the D&D 3.5e DMG, which is very nice, if a tad overpowered (my ranger had a Holy Acidic Scimitar +5 and a Shocking Handaxe +5 of Disruption towards the end of the game, and let's not talk about what the dwarf had).

The fights, in general, were not so hard, though I was playing on Normal and had Qara in my party, which meant you could fling fireballs without issue. It wasn't quite a KOTOR2 level of ease, but it was noticable. I hear this is much improved on either Hardcore rules or without Qara blowing enormous holes in everything. YMMV, though the last battle STILL kicked my ass about 5 times.

Multiplayer

I'll talk briefly, because I've only played a little bit. Get a headset, because you won't be talking much otherwise. The game freezes every time you're in a conversation with an NPC, so good luck chatting during that. Also, every time somebody goes into a house or something, everyone in the party goes with, which is definitely not how it was in either BG, and I believe in NWN1, and is kind of annoying. Other than that? Playing the first bit of the SP campaign was pretty fun.

Other Stuff:

1. Unlike NWN1 pre-Hordes of the Underdark, NWN2 ships with more or less all the feats, classes, and presteige classes present in the core 3.5e rulebooks, with a few exceptions, but plus a few things. About the only thing I'm missing is my beloved Mystic Theurge class. This is one of the things that made me blindingly angry about NWN1, and I'm glad they learned that lesson.

2. Khelgar's still cool. He really is.

3. Deekin cameo! Yay Deekin!

4. On the downsides list, NWN2 sure is a resource hog, and I'm not sure why, exactly. Oblivion sure doesn't blow my system to hell like this. Not sure what the deal is, but it's noticable on area loads. Very noticable, even on a good system.

5. The manual's pretty hideous. It needs to be about twice as thick, and needs to explain a few of the finer points of the interface (want to quick slot a special ability? Do it from the character sheet, not the shift-right click dropdown menu. That took a while to learn). You guys had it right with the BG2 and both KOTORs. Why did you go wrong here?

6. One thing I am happy to see is good patch support a week and a half post-release. There have been two thus far, and I'm happy to see some sort of effort on the devs' part to fix some bugs. Most other companies, even Bethesda as much as I love them, don't seem to have this kind of ethic. And let's not even talk about Civ 3 here.

7. Khelgar, Destroyer of Worlds.

8. Oh, yes. While the voice acting is hit or miss, the soundtrack is generally great. I still haven't had anything replace Serpent Isle's soundtrack in my affections, but NWN2's is good.

9. I'd like to tell you about editing, but I can't yet.

Final Score: 7.5/10 aliens and the Most Improved Sequel award.

So I haven't particularly been talking about politics on here for a while, being still worn out from that whole '04 mess, wherein we all kind of went off the deep end for a few months. But I do want to note a few things, post-election.

1. I did not, to be honest, actually vote. Had I still been registered as an Oregon voter I would have, though I wouldn't have been excited about my choices - OR conservatives are a scary bunch in general, and Kulongoski's not exactly the greatest governor we've ever had, really. However, since I'm now a CT voter, and I'm brand new in the state, I found that I didn't like the idea of trying to cast a vote when I don't even know who the people and issues are. I'm all for voting, but I'm all for informed voting more.

2. And let's just plug Oregon's vote by mail system here once more. I have no idea why the rest of you, which I guess now includes me, continue to persist with the notion that you ought to haul yourself down somewhere to vote when it's a lot nicer to sit down with your nice state-issued voter's guide and take your time. I may be influenced by the fact that it's cold and raining here, but seriously, the first thing I'm doing when Marechal and I take over is going to be to decree vote by mail everywhere. Your votes will be meaningless, mind you, because we are, after all, ruthless dictators, but we promise a kinder, gentler, more Darth-Fuzzylike ruthless dictatorship. With playgrounds at all re-education camps.

3. In any event, this entire show seems to have been one big win for the Dems - they run the House, Senate's going to be neck and neck again, and the Republicans in general seem to have gotten owned.

I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, there's all sorts of reasons the GOP deserved to lose, from all those nifty scandals to the part where I consider (and have since that rediculousness with Bill Clinton) the Republicans to be, as a party, a bunch of soulless hypocrites. The party of assholery, if you will. I have some sympathy with the whole fiscally conservative thing, but so far as I can tell that wing of the party got subverted by the raving evangelicals years ago. And that's the wing we need to kick back in its dark little hole. But that's a rant for another time, and I think you've all heard it before anyway.

On the other hand, the Democrats haven't been filling me with a lot of confidence for the last few years. It keeps seeming to me like they have this opportunity to show up as the actually concerned about social welfare, the rights of the people, and doing the right thing by Iraq party I'd like them to be, but then they give into the fools and it all gets lost. So please guys, do all sorts of things to thwart Bush, but please don't do anything dumb in Iraq.

4. Along those same lines, if the entire media would like to just shut the hell up, I'd really appreciate it. You guys really aren't winning a lot of friends these days.

5. But enough, you say. Get us to the Marechalisms. And I can provide them. Oh yes I can:

[22:33] Tonto_Marechal: So yeah.

It's like ... you know what? Time to see the GOP take a slap in the face ... cuz it's like ... "Yeeeaah, you guys have been in control of Congress on/off since '94 and the presidency since '00 and .... you accomplished WHAT of the party platform? Geeeee ... I'm really confident in your leadership ... bureaucracy has gotten even huger, outta control spending and government, disregard of states rights, nothing about abortion, we kinda put a plan thru to some day build some sorta fence on the border, we put a buncha nubs in charge of airport security, we hit Iraq--fine and dandy--and then we play hop-scotch with Iran and North Korea lighting off nukes, and yeah, it's like we ... actually haven't done much of jack or shit to distinguish ourselves from the DNC and then it's like ... gee, why are former party faithful like Mr. Marechal not paying party dues for years and years and not even bothering to vote cuz they can't distinguish between Democrats and Republicans anymore?
[22:36] Dwip: Nice rant.
[22:36] Dwip: Ranttastic, so to speak.
[22:42] Tonto_Marechal: Sorry . . . just a little worked up that's all. Hearing peeps at the table talk politics and all ... since today is election day and all. But ... DAMN ... if that doesn't make me mad. It's like ... we vote you guys into power ... cuz we like and believe in the platform you have ... that's why I voted for you ... obviously ... and then ... whoop. And you really can't blame it on obstructionist democrats... I'm not expected to get the entire GOP platform passed thru house & senate with 3/4 majorities or anything .... but they wasn't even an attempt at anything ... the only real hot button issue the GOP seemed to run with was ... of ALL things ... GAY MARRIAGE ... and it's like ... WTF? Of all the things we could be doing about taxes, bureaucracy, states' rights, education, blah blah ... and we decide to fight about gay marriage? ... /sigh. It's not gonna make me vote Democrat or anything, cuz I find their platform just sad and disagreeable ... but ... why vote Republican if we're not going to try to pass our program or do anything to impliment the issues we're allegedly standing behind. But yeah.

And to follow up, a bit of me/Jason dialogue:

*talking about the '08 race*
[19:39] Dwip: Maybe they'll run Pelosi. And then the Republicans can finally get away with running a stuffed animal, everyone will vote for the bear, and we'll be better off.
[19:40] Gormican: Rofl
[19:41] Dwip: In reality, Cheney's going to turn out to be Darth Sidious, and will turn us into the not-quite-Galactic Empire.
[19:41] Gormican: lol
[19:42] Gormican: it'll be some little independent with funky 70's hair and a green party troll shouting "Use the Force Luke" to overthrow him
[19:43] Dwip: That's frightening.
[19:44] Dwip: Now casting Ralph Nader as Obi-Wan Kenobi. The very idea scares me.
[19:45] Gormican: Help me Obi Wan Nader your my only hope
[19:46] Dwip: I shudder.

So I've been promising various people (hi Mom, hi Dad!) a glimpse at what scenic Hamden, CT actually looks like, and what exactly I've gotten myself into here. Today, as it happens, is your lucky day. I have a fair bit about Neverwinter Nights 2 I want to say, but I'm going to wait on that until I finish it.

So let's start with school pictures, since I took those first, back in August. Campus was really the first thing I found, see, oddly enough since getting to SCSU from either interstate isn't exactly trivial. But anyway, I spent about a week hanging out at school and then living in a hotel.

It turns out that we have a duck pond. Among other things. One of the things I like about SCSU is that it's kind of like an island of awesomeness and tranquility in the midst of New Haven, which is a slum, and which you won't be seeing pictures of, really, because I don't REALLY want to go walking the streets. It's just that side of shady.

The main bit of SCSU. The tan building with lots of glass is the Adjanti student center, which is brand spanking new and has all sorts of things including a Dunkin Donuts. Now, Oregon readers might ask "Why is that such a big deal?" It's a big deal because Dunkin Donuts is seriously the national religion of Connecticut. It's really crazy. It doesn't look all that big, but the student center is actually the main food court, bookstore, a computer lab, a ballroom, and several meeting rooms and offices. It's tricksy.

And this is Buley library, which is where I more or less spend all my time on campus. Which I know is an amazing thing for a library science student, but. Fourth floor is where the library science folks call home, and most of our assignment doing takes place on the other three floors. Currently, the library isn't a patch on, say, Valley Library at OSU, but the construction going on in the background should fix that by about the time I leave.

Now, to the house pictures. Hamden's a lot nicer than New Haven, believe you me. Day I moved in, I hung out and watched some guys throwing football and playing basketball in the streets. Goes on all the time.

And that's the house. Built sometime in the 1920s. 2 real floors, a basement, and an attic, which is where I and Pierre the landlord live. The dormer with the two windows up there at the top? That's me. My car is right next to the gate and the back door, which is the only way up to where I'm at.

This is Warren Street, which runs between North and First and is the handy parking place. You have to be a bit careful pulling out, because people DO round that corner, and spend about a block going 40 mph. CT driving at its finest.

Looking east along First Street. If you follow it about three blocks, you come to Dixwell Avenue, which has more or less everything in Hamden on it, plus runs straight into downtown New Haven, which is handy.

Looking west along First Street. Following this takes me to Eli Whitney Technical High School and thence to SCSU on school days. Most of the neighborhood is 1920s duplexes/row houses/whatever. Just this side of run down, but not bad. Well-patrolled by the cops, 5 minutes from school, and right next to Dixwell and all the shopping, so I'm happy with it.

Now for the house.

Amazing how much you can fit in a car, really. That's from the first night I was here, back when I was living on second floor because the third wasn't remodeled yet. Wasn't a bad room, but as Sarah pointed out to me, third floor has a lot more character.

These are the Stairs of Doom between the first and second floors. Very narrow, twisty, and very very dark at night, which can be lots of fun. There's a light switch for lights on the stairs at the bottom, which is great, but the light switch at the top is actually inside the second floor apartment, which works not so well, unless you want to leave the light on all night.

We'll bypass the second floor landing and balcony and go straight upstairs. These are the Carpeted Stairs of Doom, which are much nicer than the Stairs of Doom, except you see that third stair down? It's kinda fun when you forget about it and it's dark.

We've had lots of fun getting things up those stairs. Such as the fridge, for example. That thing was the most monstrous pain in the ass to get up from street level, believe you me. We eventually had to cut it out of the box to get the necessary inch or so to get it around the corner.

And here's the kitchen. The bit that goes around the corner to the right there is the stairs. Door on the right leads to the bathroom. Note the gas stove, which actually isn't as bad to cook on as I feared. All the appliances are brand new, which is very nice.

The most amusing bathroom in the world. Note how the ceiling does that really dramatic slope down like that? Yeah. Let's take a look at how the shower that's hiding behind the door handles that.

Strange angle, but yeah, the shower gets a little...cramped, shall we say. And the hot water works backwards, so that it's really hot when you first turn it on, and cold the further you turn it. A little strange, but not bad once you get used to it.

Going back to the kitchen, here's the hallway to the bedrooms. Pierre's room is at the end of the hall, and me and the hall closet are on the left. The skylight-looking thing is actually a panel you can take out to get on to the roof.

And the bedroom, featuring the Futon of Orangeness, which my department chair, Dr. Sche, was nice enough to give me. I keep my air mattress on top of it, which I then flip up to make the world's best sprawling couch.

Most of the other two walls are taken up by bookshelves. I actually need to get another one to put where the filing cabinet is, to hold all the CDs and game boxes and suchlike.

This concludes our tour.