Late to the Party: NWN Hordes of the Underdark

A couple of days ago, I finished the campaign included with the first Neverwinter Nights expansion, Shadows of Undrentide (SoU). At first, though, it was a bit disappointing because this campaign assumes you start fresh; porting over my level 16 character from the previous campaign was possible but hardly logical, as SoU has you starting as an "apprentice" adventurer.

After four artifacts were stolen from your master's home (a dwarven wizard who's apparently also a Harper) by kobolds, you're tasked to track down and get the artifacts back. This brings you into conflict with the white dragon that rules the kobolds as well as its accomplice, a (Drow?) sorceress that keeps the gnolls in thrall. Caught in between is one of the most interesting NPCs ever created for NWN, Deekin, who'll soon join you as a Kobold Bard. After recovering the artifacts, you find out that one of them (the Tower Statue) was more than it seemed: inside was a mysterious jewel whose true powers can only be identified by journeying across the Anauroch to find your master's archeologist friend. And from there, you end up in the sunken city of Undrentide which the "big boss" wanted to raise up. Undrentide was apparently one of the flying cities of Netheril, an ancient empire which wielded powerful magic compared to present-day standards. The climactic final battle takes place in the highest tower of the city, as the city floats above the desert.

SoU's adventure was a bit shorter than the first campaign's "plague in Neverwinter" storyline, but noticeably better designed. For starters, it was less of a Monty Haul than the previous campaign, and there were really a couple of times (okay, maybe more like a handful) that I had to reload and rethink my strategy in order to continue. The final "boss" fight was also more epic: as I went around smashing the mythallars that gave the medusa sorceress nigh invulnerability, pieces of masonry were starting to float up into the air in a Dragonball-Z-esque way!

Still high from finishing the adventure, I immediately set off on the 2nd expansion's adventure, Hordes of the Underdark. Hordes of the Underdark (HotU) is a direct sequel to the previous expansion, SoU. The hero is assumed to be the same one from SoU, as evidenced by the copy of a book titled Shadows of Undrentide, written by one Deekin. Also, this expansion's teleporting/respawn mechanic, the Relic of the Reaper, is said to have come into the hero's possession during his "brief stay in the Plane of Shadow." People who played SoU would remember that at SoU's end, as Undrentide crashed back to the desert, the hero used the Portable Door (one of the artifacts you gain in the endgame) to flee to the Plane of Shadow.

Deekin also makes a reapperance as your first henchman. Also, some of the henchmen who were available in the first NWN adventure (i.e. the plague in Neverwinter), make their appearance here as a party of adventurers which you would probably need to save at some point in the story.

This time around, it's off to Waterdeep and the mysterious mega-dungeon that lies beneath the city, Undermountain. This time, the City of Splendors faces an attack from the Hordes of the Underdark which apparently is making their way through Undermountain, something that has not happened before. They need a hero to take the fight to them and you are one of those who heeded the call.

So I loaded up Laire Random, my Rouge 6/Fighter 6/Weapon Master 1 character from Shadows of Undrentide, and started the adventure (HotU actually allows you to start out as a fresh Level 15 character but I wanted to play the actual character I went through SoU with). The very first event that happened divested Laire of his gear from SoU. Wah. I've read somewhere that you have a chance to recover them later in the story though. Right now, I'm running around Waterdeep--the small section you're allowed to explore at least; the City's closed a la Neverwinter in the first adventure--trying to get adequately equipped before descending into Undermountain.

Wish me luck!

Out of Town Trip: Subic Beach!

Went to the beach in Subic with the Mez Barkada (basically, batchmates who have stayed in one way or another here in Los Baños). I think it was my first time going out of town with friends, and it was surprisingly fun. The food was great, from the initial snacks on the trip (especially Cel's tuna sandwiches) to the potluck lunch (Paeng and I brought the salted eggs and tomatoes, which got sliced and turned into salad--yum!) to the fantastic dinner (pork liempo plus porkchops plus assorted seafood!).

Didn't do much swimming because I couldn't swim.

I almost won the Texas Hold 'Em Poker match that night. Made it to the final four before becoming bored and wagering off my winnings (largely because of my luck with the river that night) loosely.

The next day, before driving off home, we had lunch at a very nice (but a bit expensive!) place called Meat Plus, a steakhouse, where I had a well-done tenderloin that really hit the spot.

From there, we stopped for an hour at the Subic Duty-Free mall (forgot what it was called) but I was disappointed, both by the selection and the prices. Still, I got some sort of scented crystals for ashtrays, since they were selling them for about $1 each.

I'm waiting for my friends to post the pics of the outing.

And I do hope we do it again. Go out of town and have fun, that is.

Just watched my latest download of House M.D.

"Commitment is only commitment because it has no expiration date." --Dr. Foreman to Dr. Cameron, House M.D. season 3, episode 14.

Why do I feel...demoted?

Just got back from seeing my "girl" off at MIA, again (people tell me it's called NAIA now, but I refuse to recognize the name change because some stupid Pinoy loser went off and got himself killed there; google up "Ninoy Aquino" and you'll see what I'm talking about).

Note the double quotes surrounding the word "girl" in the above statement. In friendster relationship terms, we're somewhere along "It's complicated" and it's true.

I spent almost the entire week with her and her family, and during that time, I've wondered what I was doing there. Don't get me wrong. It was very fun spending time with her, talking to her, but sometimes, the fact that I'm not actually her boyfriend now seems all too jarring.

Or maybe it's just that she's really focused on her kids now more than ever. Which is a good thing for them. Not exactly a good thing for me. Still, I don't envy the kids that focus; they deserve it more than I do. That's life, I guess.

I'm still pursuing her in this weird second courtship thingy. She's worth it.

Updates!

Woke up early today. Fell asleep some time last night while playing Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney -- Justice For All (the second Turnabout Court game; just finished the first one last night too!). I was probably all tired from the travel: saw my "girl" (it's rather complicated) off at MIA--she's heading back to UAE where she works.

Turns out there's been a goof-off somewhere in her flight booking, and she missed the flight. By the time I found out though, I was well on my way home (about an hour and a half drive away from the big city).

In other news, I also finished my playthrough of the Neverwinter Nights original campaign and am beginning to sink my teeth into the first expansion, Shadows of Undrentide. It's a little disappointing, since you need to create a new character for SoU. Still, I hear Hordes of the Underdark (the second NWN expansion) is actually a sequel of sorts to the first NWN adventure, so all I need to do is finish SoU. After that, it's off to NWN2, which I already had since it released last year but have never gotten to finishing on account of my gaming ADD. Or is it ADHD? Heh. In any case, I want to finish at least the official campaigns for the first NWN before tackling NWN2. No hurry after all.

I loved playing through Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, especially the fifth (bonus) turnabout case. I actually thought it was over after the fourth case, and was very pleasantly surprised when Nick cried out "Hold it!" as the credits stopped rolling. Also trying to juggle a little Pokemon Diamond on the side, but it's more a token gesture to join the craze more than anything. Heh.

Handheld Gaming

Last April 3, I bought myself a Nintendo DS Lite for about Php 10,000. Included in the package was an R4DS (a slot 1 "cartridge" you can load up with NDS ROMs, MP3s, and other media) as well as a 1GB micro SD memory card. It was the best 10k I ever spent.

Right now, I'm trying out all sorts of games, owing to my gaming ADD: from the side-scrolling action of Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin to the weird RPG goodness of Contact. Other games that I'm currently playing include: Phoenix Wright 1, Elite Beat Agents (and its Japanese counterpart whose name escape me at the moment), Hotel Dusk, Megaman ZX, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, and Age of Empires: The Age of Kings.

Surprisingly, the title that made me buy an NDSL, Puzzle Quest: The Challenge of the Warlords, is getting very little play time despite all the hype and raves from US fans, particularly Penny Arcade.

Now, I need only two more things for perfect handheld gaming: a slot 2 flash cartridge that will allow me to play GBA games (and possibly GB/GBC as well) and a wi-fi dongle (to connect to the Nintendo WFC).

Puzzle Pirates!

Last week was a harrowing one: thousands of final exam papers waiting to be checked, lots of attendance notes to collate, and a non-existent grade record to build. In short, it's the end of a grading term for me, which means it's one of the few times I actually work. Not that I'm thankful, I'd rather really avoid working as much as I can and just wallow in...hedonism.

Anyway, with tons of work to do, I naturally started looking around the net for stuff to occupy my time. Penny Arcade once again showed me the way: a discussion about Puzzle Quest led to them dropping the link to Puzzle Pirates in one of their news posts. Which I promptly clicked.

Puzzle Pirates is a multiplayer puzzle game, all centered around the theme of pirating. Players create their own beginning pirate, and then wander around in a persistent world, doing piratey stuff. It's basically just like an MMORPG, you get an avatar, which you can dress up in piratey gear (Ahr!), and you can interact with the other players: talking, trading, and fighting with them.

In this game, piratey stuff is accomplished by performing various puzzles: for swordfighting (an important piratey skill, useful for fighting duels as well as fighting with your own crew members during a ship grapple), there's a falling block-type of game where blocks can be eliminated by a sword of the same color. As you eliminate more blocks, attacks are dealt to the opponent's own board in the form of grey blocks, blocks that cannot be eliminated until about 2 turns have passed, in which case they turn into random colored blocks. A pirate gets knocked out when he booches it; that is, his entire board is filled, and there's no more space for falling blocks.

Different puzzles represent working on the bilge pumps (those pumping out water from the hold of a ship), sailing (my favorite; determines how fast your ship goes), carpentry (for patching up holes on the ship's hull during a voyage), and even gunnery (operating the four-cannon ensemble common on most ships).

What's more interesting is that you can become a member of the crew of a real player-run ship, with a Captain in command, calling the shots, a Navigator, several Sailors to fill the ship's sail with wind, Bilge Pumpers, Gunners....and this whole shipload of pirate players gets to sail all over, looking for plunder and pillaging!

My character, Lenard (Sage Server), started out just knowing how to sail (probably the easiest puzzle to pick up), and was content with that as long as he gets paid his cut of the booty. Sure, sometimes, when the Captain grapples with the other ship, he had to let go fo the sails and draw his foil, wading into a battle royale with the crew of the other ship. But that's just icing on the cake. Ahr.

Haruhiism

It's been almost a year since I first heard of and watched The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, it's a comedy/slice-of-life/highschool series that's unlike any other. Since then, I've been a fan of Haruhi, reading the light novels on my cel as they get translated into English (thank you, ReadManiac!). This afternoon, I got an urge to rewatch the entire series again (in chronological order). Damn, I really missed the S.O.S. Brigade, especially Yuki!

It's nice to hear that it's being released in English. I definitely must have a copy! I've heard somewhere that there's going to be a live-action movie. I don't know about that, but I wish they'd adapt the rest of the stories into anime.

Puzzle Quest

I've found yet another reason to buy a DS Lite. I hope my meager finances can handle it. (Why are you so poor, Kenny?)

The PC Demo for Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords had me both addicted and a bit disappointed. Addicted because, well, it's a damn good pick-up game, perfect for casual gamers who can only squeeze in small amounts of time to play, or the consummate hardcore who can sit in front of his PC for inhuman lengths of time. Disappointed because the PC demo cannot be converted into a full version of the game! Aaargh. Right now, the publishers are focusing on the handheld console releases (DS and PSP).

The game is the latest following the trend of crossing puzzle games with RPG elements (if it can be called a "trend;" as far as I know, there's also Bookworm Adventures, which is another highly-recommendable game): this time, RPGs are crossed with a connect-3 puzzle (as seen in Bejeweled, Diamond Mine, and similar games) where you're presented with a grid of gems. You swap adjacent gems and if it connects a line of three or more similar gems, those gems are scored, taken off the board, and more gems fall into the empty spaces--pure, simple fun that'll siphon several hours of your day.

It's a fairly involved game from what's been hinted at in the demo:

You create your character from one of four classes, each with its own style and set of skills (Druid, Knight, Warrior, and Wizard). After a quick character creation part where you pick your character's class, picture, and name, you're then taken into the world, represented by a map with terrain and cities and roads connecting cities.

Central to the game are quests, that you can find in cities with marked with a "!". Green !'s denote side quests, while Red !'s indicate important quests that will advance the storyline.

Aside from questing, there's a lot of other things to do. You can build buildings that'll open up new abilities and minigames, capture monsters, lay siege to cities, and even forge items. I hope those features live up to expectations since you can barely try them out in the demo (you're limited to Level 7).

All in all, even if I do get this on the DS Lite, I'd still want it on my PC. I hope Infinite Interactive releases the full PC version soon.

Oh right, fans of the Warlords series of strategy games may feel right at home, as this game is set in the Warlords' world of Etheria.

Game on.

Neil Gaiman's Stardust

Wow. Yet another movie to look forward to.

The trailer does hint that the film's more...epic than my reading of the novel. I don't really remember any pirates riding airships in the book; I know I would have remembered if there were any. I liked the novel's "fairy-tale-esque-ness" but like other Gaiman books (like American Gods and Neverwhere), I got that feeling of being held back--as in "wow, this premise is cool; this or that event will surely happen" except Gaiman doesn't go where you expected. That's a good thing, right? NOT! Well, normally it is, unless it's Gay-man at the helm, in which case he takes you in a disappointing direction.

Anyone else felt Shadow needed a good thwack up the side of the head, or for that matter, all the characters in American Gods?

Transcendence

It's the end of the semester and I'm supposed to be grading a lot of papers. Ever the procrastinator, I naturally grab this opportunity to scour the 'net looking for something to do! Which means only one thing: games!

Almost immediately, I stumble upon this little gem. Liberated Games features commercial games that have been "liberated" into the public domain, through various licenses. This effectively means that they're now free for download. This also means that the game's probably too old too enjoy. Unless it's a classic.

Anyway, I started trying out games left and right, and found Lure of the Temptress! It's Revolution Games' first adventure, right before they started making The Broken Sword series. It's a little old, having been released in the early '90s, but it's still a fun point-and-click adventure, especially because its key features seems to be NPCs that carry on with their lives, walking through town, talking with each other, etc. This game is a definite must-play for adventure gaming fans.

Aside from Lure, I also discovered Transcendence.

Actually, Transcendence wasn't listed; Anacreon was. But as it turned out, Anacreon was Transcendence's sister game. And I found out about Transcendence through a link on Anacreon's other games page.

Since watching Firefly and Serenity, I've longed for a game where you get a ship and then just wander all over the galaxy, trading stuff, fighting other ships, going on the odd mission, and upgrading your ship. In short, I wanted a spaceship game that's set in a sandbox. One of my gaming friends suggested X2, but that wasn't it. Star Control 2: The Ur-Quan Masters was a bit too difficult for me; I don't have much patience with bad design decisions. I'd settle for turn-based spaceship battles, rather than fast-paced frantic shooting.

Transcendence is a little like Star Control 2, except you start out a bit less wimpy: initial battles in Transcendence are quite fun, in fact; the first battle in SC2 is fun only if you're a masochist.

Anyway, try it out.

Game on.

Perfect World Closed Beta Test Contest Part 2!

Chances are, if you're a Pinoy gamer, you're probably all hyped up about Level Up's upcoming MMO, Perfect World (like me). And there's even an even greater chance that you can't wait to get your grubby paws on a Closed Beta Test account (ahem, again, like me). Thankfully, Level Up's GM Tristan is giving out three accounts per day until the CBT opens.

Here's how to join, taken directly from his blog:

HOW TO JOIN

1. Open only to gamers residing in the Philippines (PW Philippines CBT is locked to our country, sorry)

2. If you already won at the first contest or at Waukster.com, then you are ineligible. Period.

3. Second, like before, to join the contest, you MUST *subscribe* to my blog via my Feedburner e-mail applet on my right sidebar. Be sure to *activate* your subscription. Inactive subscribers cannot win.

4. Now, it’s time to be creative. Instead of just simple questions, I’ll be throwing pretty hard “complete-me” phrases (or some equally “evil” brain teases). This will be posted everyday.

5. There will be three (3) winners everyday until the PW Closed Beta on March 28, 2007. Winners will be announced here regularly.

6. Instead of submitting to my email, you have to submit your answers to perfectworld@levelupgames.ph, the PW Team will randomly select the most creative answers and inform me ASAP. Before, it was submitting fast and being first… now, even if you’re late but you have a cool answer, you still have a chance of winning.

DON’T FORGET TO INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION in your e-mail

Complete Name
Complete Address (with zip code preferably)
Age
E-mail address
MylevelUp or Netgames username (if you have one. Either will do)
Blog URL (if you have one):
Your email subject must be (GMTO PW CBT 2 – for )

Instructions on how to claim your prizes are here.

7. But wait! There’s more! If you have a blog and include my blog (http://gmtristan.blogspot.com) and Perfect World Philippines (http://www.levelupgames.ph/perfectworld) in your blog roll, (and you replicate this contest on one of your posts) then you get NOT ONE… BUT TWO (2) CBT accounts! Woot!

Perfect World: Race and Class Descriptions

I haven't actually ensured a CBT account yet, but I'm really hyped about this new MMO from Level Up! Using my meager Google-fu techniques and a couple of hours, I've come up with the following race class descriptions that may give some of you people an idea about the character you're going to create in the PW CBT.

Perfect World has three playable races, with each race having access to two classes, one class focused on physical aspects and the other on magic. Both male and female members of the human and elf races may choose either path; only the beasts are locked into a class based on their gender (i.e. male beasts are automatically Warriors and female Beasts are automatically Summoners).

HUMANS are blessed with boundless adaptability, making them excel in both sword and sorcery. Humans may choose to be Swordsmen or Mages.

Swordsman	Mage

• Swordsmen are trained in all aspects of weapons and armor, making them masters of hand-to-hand combat.
• Mages, through long study and meditation, are masters of magic: the secrets of water, fire and earth are theirs to command. They are, however, the physically-weakest characters when just starting out.
  

ELVES are a winged race descended from the Aves (Don't know if this is an actual "ancient race" in PW or if it just meant "birds"). They are the only characters able to fly when just starting out. Elves may choose to be Clerics or Archers.

Cleric	Archer

• Clerics channel the wind, thunder, and electricity--curing their allies and cursing their foes.
  
• Archers are lean and graceful, beautiful but strong. They are masters of the bow, dealing superior long-distance damage.
  

BEASTS are legendary animal spirits made flesh.

Warrior	Summoner

• Male Beasts are Warriors: Attuned to the balance between life and death, they are able to unleash their rage with explosive force. Warriors are also able to shapechange into their respective animal forms.
  
• Female Beasts are Summoners: Blessed with natural charm and beauty that attracts everyone, they are able to call upon the aid of the animal kingdom, as well as shapechange into a Beast Fox (don't really know what this will be called in the real English translation though), which greatly raises their physical combat capabilities.
  

So there you have it. Have you already chosen your character's race and class?

As in previous MMOs I've played, I'm going to first create a human swordsman, whose first strategy would be to charge at an enemy and start the beat-down! I believe this focuses me on exploring the game world, and to get used to the nuances of the game system .  

Tune in next time for the skills of each class!

Sources:
http://kanbisekai.wikiwiki.jp/ for the class details and pics
http://wiki.perfectworld.cc/ for the "official" translations of the race and class names

Perfect World: The Perfect MMO?

Ragnarok Online was my introduction into the world of MMORPGs: I started playing on pRO Chaos during the Beta period, and stayed on for a good two-and-a-half years of my life. Through those years I've met countless friends, made not so few enemies, lost others to the Real World(tm), leveled up, and loved. Sadly, it was that last thing that proved to be my undoing: hearts were broken and my characters were deleted by my ex in an unrivaled act of vengeance.

Since then, I've tried a handful other MMOs, from a short stint in Ran Online to an even shorter stint in Silk Road Online. Lineage II caught my attention for a good long while because most of its features reflect what I've been looking for in a new MMO (chief among others: a full streaming world whose every corner you can explore). Most recently, I took part in the Granado Espada Beta Test--Multiple Character Control is indeed interesting, but too bad that it was all the game really offers.

I first heard of Perfect World when GM Tristan announced his contest on the AEGIS yahoogroup only a few days ago. I've been looking for a new game to satisfy my MMO fix, and so I fired off my Google-fu to find out more about this Chinese-created game. What I found out about it could be summed in one word: perfect.

But here's what I'm eagerly awaiting about Perfect World:

Huge continuous terrain
The entire game world is within one large map that requires no loading or no changing of maps so players can move around without waiting for scenes to change.

I've only seen streaming world content in Lineage II, and was disappointed that more recent MMOs still haven't adopted that new MMO technology. Perfect World gets a whole lot of points from me, just for including this feature.

Day, Night and Weather Shifting
The game shifts from night to day and sunny to rainy season on a regular cycle, changing the view of each area to suit the time. This "real world" effect will immerse the players more effectively in the game.

Oh yeah. Day/Night cycles and weather changes to boot!

Perfect World Mailing System
This enables players to communicate with their online and offline friends, clan mates or factions. Aside from mail, items can also be sent through this unique system.

Sounds a lot like KoL's mailing system because you can also send items. Another winning feature.

Battle in Land, Sea and Air
Each character and class in Perfect World has the special ability and peripherals to fly, trek, and swim in different terrains. Inherent attributes, special equipments, summons or even mountable animals make it possible for characters to not only fly, trek, and swim but also to duel and clash on any of the terrain. Perfect World created a world with flying monsters and floating cities and ruins, all waiting to be explored.

Wow. This just gave me an MMOG-gasm! Now that is a truly 3D world.

Massive Quest/Mission System
The game itself has more than 5,000 quests waiting to be discovered and completed. Quests can be race- and class-specific. Instance quests are available for players who would like to make their own adventures.

Ahh, for me, this is the crowning glory of every MMORPG: a rich collection of quests to occupy your character's time. I have little tolerance for grinding but having quests to fulfill while you do seems to make the time worthwhile. So definitely lots of quests! The use of instancing also adds to the feeling that you're the hero of your own story, which is as it should be. Also, it protects you from the interference of player griefers.

I've barely covered the entire list of features, but the four I've discussed above are my personal faves. You can find the rest of the features here at LUG's Perfect World site.

Perfect World is definitely on my must-play list. Now all I need to do is get a CBT account....

Quotes taken from: http://www.levelupgames.ph/perfectworld/about.html

Unwell

Sigh. This is gonna be one of those emo posts again, isn't it?

Well, here I am again, taking time out from a hectic schedule to blog something. It's been years since I've actually written my thoughts here, I think. I just realized that last night when I tried labeling all of my posts; read the ones at the start, and they're really something. I've forgotten I wrote those things. I guess that's what I'm trying to do now.

Ever since I lost her, I've been drifting along, aimless and alone. That's pretty much emo crap. I've got my job to distract me a bit, but even that's losing it's effect these days. It's been--what?--six months without her already? We do still chat every now and then, but there's this sinking feeling of drifting away farther apart each time we talk. You know when you're desperately trying to save someone, but their blood just keeps running through the fingers you've pressed on their wound in an attempt to staunch the flow of blood, but it's not working, and their dying, and there's nothing else you can do except watch. (Aha! Someone try to say that out loud without pausing for breath!)

It's funny, because, before I met her, I was used to this life. I was used to being alone, doing my own thing, you know: your typical bachelor loser deal. But now, I'm dreading my future, because all I'm seeing is me. Noone else. Stark gray landscape, and just me in it.

Noone else.

Star Frontiers: Remastered!

Star Frontiers, TSR's science fiction roleplaying game, gets a new face-lift in Bill Logan's excellently well-done remastered PDFs!

On his webpage, you can find PDF downloads of Alpha Dawn (Star Frontier's "core" rules), Knight Hawks (the spaceship campaign supplement), and Zeb's Guide to Frontier Space (originally intended to be the first of many volumes but only 1 volume got released; the guide revises Star Frontiers with a tighter, albeit universal-table-based system a la Marvel's FASERIP). Also available are remastered PDFs of Parts 2 and 3 of the Volturnus trilogy of modules (Part 1 of the story-arc is included as a sample adventure in the Alpha Dawn core rules), as well as tons of gaming aids from character sheets to quick references to map to minis--practically everything you need to get started adventuring on a far-flung frontier.

I've a fond space in my heart reserved for Star Frontiers. The game was one of the first RPGs I've ever run, after I got the Alpha Dawn boxed set as a gift from my father in the summer of '90. While it wasn't the first RPG I owned (that honor belonged to TSR's Conan RPG), it was the first I fell in love with: poster maps and cardboard counters and all. My group actually took a break from our favorite fantasy fare (I think it was High Fantasy at the time, since we didn't have D&D rules yet), and for the succeeding months, we played only Star Frontiers: from their first job as explorers aboard the Serena Dawn, to their subsequent crash landing on the (not-so) desert planet, and until they've united the local alien races in a huge war against the insidious Sathar in Starspawn of Volturnus. By that time, most of the original characters have been replaced with new ones, as the old ones died in the hostile Volturnus environment.

It was a fun and quirky system, but fun nonetheless.

My group has always talked about going back to it again, but other RPGs--among them various flavors of D&D--and time had so far confounded us. Flipping through these newly-remastered files, I feel an urge to revisit the Frontier once more. Maybe we will, one of these days, if the stars are right.

Yet Another Attempt

So here we go again.

By now, I've realized I'm not into blogging regularly. Too many things need my attention to indulge in this pleasure. But still, here's my blog, moved over to the new blogger system thingy. I still haven't migrated most of old links to stuff. But I plan to do that later. For now, I think I've got a base layout that won't make people vomit on first glance.

Same deal: I post random things that happen to be of interest to me and hope someone's watching....

Supervillain!

Your results:
You are Dr. Doom

Dr. Doom 63% Magneto 61% Dark Phoenix 59% Juggernaut 58% Mr. Freeze 57% Apocalypse 57% The Joker 55% Riddler 52% Lex Luthor 51% Venom 44% Catwoman 43% Kingpin 39% Poison Ivy 34% Mystique 30% Green Goblin 30% Two-Face 22%

Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity.

Click here to take the Supervillain Personality Quiz

Of Dreamers, Shifters, and Disciples

I just finished Dreamfall: The Longest Journey last night. Almost exactly a week after I installed it. And the game's ending left me shocked.

Zoe faded away while in coma, April Ryan was apparently dead in the swamp, and Kian was captured by his fellow Azadi. To top it off, WATICorp still manages to release the Dreamers and "the Undreaming has been unleashed," apparently upon the twin worlds of Stark and Arcadia.

I'd like to say I feel cheated, but if there's one thing my most favorite story of all time has taught me, it's that heroes do fall, if only to make them more heroic when they do rise again (and, um, return). Dreamfall is the second game in The Longest Journey series, and it seems like Ragnar Tornquist took a page from The Empire Strikes Back!.

So, all in all, looking forward to the next game in the series! Be it TLJ3 or DF2 (really, I don't see the difference), I'm hoping it will finally bring The Longest Journey to a satisfying destination. I just hope it gets released in my current PC specs' lifetime. Heh.

Game on.

Video Games!

Picked up three games last week when I got my paycheck: Neverwinter Nights 2, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (or is that the other way around?), and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. So far, I've installed and played the first two only.

Neverwinter Nights 2

I still haven't finished Neverwinter Nights 1, having only reinstalled and restarted playing the game earlier this year. For the original NWN, I've installed everything: the two expansions, the community expansion pack, some premium modules (Witch's Wake, et.al.), but I've never finished even the original campaign. I'm lazy like that. And now, with NWN 2 installed, chances are high that I won't be able to play NWN 1 again anytime soon. Times like these, you wish you don't have Real Life(tm) to attend to.

I've played quite a bit of the NWN 2 original campaign since I installed it last Wednesday. As usual, my character's a fighter/rogue, Laire Random, with almost the same build I used in the first game. I'm also shooting for the weaponmaster prestige class. Fighter/Rogue's are the epitome of the fantasy hero for me, or rather, the fantasy adventurer: wise-cracking, witty, quick-on-his-feet, tough without being too brawny, and most of all, wields a big-ass sword. Not to mention access to most magical items via Use Magic Device, and you've got a very well-rounded character that could go toe-to-toe or hurl spells from a distance, depending on one's mood.

From what I've heard, a lot of people are unhappy with the changes made in this latest edition of NWN. Which is puzzling, because most of the changes I've seen actually do improved the game experience. Well, "improved" in the sense that you get a more true-to-the-pen-and-paper-game feel. For example, and perhaps one of my most favorite changes was the removal of the Stone of Recall, a magical item that you get since Chapter 1 of NWN 1 that allows you to essentially zip back to base and return, a la Diablo town portal. Another example would be the new familiar/animal companions, which bring them more inline with what you'd actually get in the actual D&D rules. Maybe it's just that those complaints come from people who have not played the actual pen-and-paper game.

The graphics are nothing to get all excited about, although they're definitely an improvement over the previous game's. One of the things I really like was when you finally reach Neverwinter. The city layout was vastly improved, owing to NWN 2's new capabilities, I guess. Gone was the squarish city blocks of the old game, and the districts actually look like they've been taken almost directly from the Forgotten Realms pen-and-paper game supplements.

All in all, NWN 2 is definitely recommended for RPG fans everywhere, especially if your tabletop game of choice is D&D 3.5.

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

Dreamfall is the sequel to The Longest Journey, which is an adventure game (in the traditional point-and-click gameplay sense) featuring a single female hero who must travel between Stark (the Earth of high technology) and Arcadia (the Earth of magic) in order to save both worlds. At least that's how I remember it, since I can't remember when I actually played the first game. Nor can I find my copy of the game cds.

Anyway, Dreamfall is essentially part 2 of TLJ, and this time, the story focuses on three people: a new chick, the old chick from the first game, and an adventurer-type guy. I forget the names right now. Too lazy to check the manual. Sorry.

Dreamfall's set in the same world, or worlds, as the case may be, and is still an adventure game (in that you need to solve puzzles and pick things up in order to advance the plot), but with the addition of certain action game elements, like a combat system. So in this game, unlike most other adventure games, there's a possibility for game over thoroughout most of the game.

The graphics are crisp, colorful and cartoony, but not too cartoony--a combination I like very much. The worlds of Stark and Arcadia, some locations of which you'll revisit in this sequel, have all been rendered in glorious 3D.

I haven't gotten very far yet, because of NWN 2, but I'll definitely play more of this later.

Maybe I'll post some screenshots later.

As for Oblivion... I don't really like the cultures presented in the Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, although the game really was immersive. Well, at least until I started playing Lineage II. But since it was cheap, I thought I'd buy a copy. But I don't think it'll get installed any time soon.

Well, then, I'm gonna clock some more quality gaming hours. Until next time, folks. Game on!

Dino Jesus

So True.

You Are 15 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

Yay! I'm more boyish than girlish!

You Are 70% Boyish and 30% Girlish

You are pretty evenly split down the middle - a total eunuch. Okay, kidding about the eunuch part. But you do get along with both sexes. You reject traditional gender roles. However, you don't actively fight them. You're just you. You don't try to be what people expect you to be.

How Boyish or Girlish Are You?

On the bus home...

It's the end of the day. End of the week as well. YAY!
Sky's still blue, but Park Square 2's orange night lights are already
on. Someone just sat beside me, had to move over. Paeng just texted
me: HOSTEL TOM. Don't know if I can come. Bus is leaving now, and my
mobile's lowbatt already, so until next time...this is fun!

test again

hiya! this post was done using mini opera and gmail mobile and my post! heehee!

--
=-====================
Leonard Anthony P. Arcilla
[blog]Random Punk: http://randompunk.blogspot.com/
[serialnovel]Beyond Black Doors (A Knights of Obscurity Tale):
http://beyondblackdoors.blogspot.com

"Without this playing with fantasy, no creative work has ever come to
birth. The debt we owe to the play of our imagination is
incalculable."
--Psychological Types, Carl Jung

Cave Story

I heard about this game from a post on rpg.net.

So I checked out the link he gave me, which lead to the Aeon Genesis website. Aeon Genesis is a fan-translation group who had brought over a lot of quality Japanese games, mostly SNES RPGs which we non-Japanese folks would have no hope of playing otherwise.

This time, they translated a freeware Japanese game called Doukutsu Monogatari ("Cave Story"), released December 2004 by Studio Pixel. Such a simple name for a wonderful action adventure game. With gameplay akin to the current incarnations of Castlevania, you control a soldier girl who must explore the caves until she gets to the end. A bit simplistic but Cave Story actually has a "story" of sorts: there are NPCs sprinkled althroughout that advance the plot, as well as give helpful hints. You'd even come to love the villains you'll encounter.

And then there're the hero's different guns, ranging from the basic Polar Star to weirder ones like the Bubbler. Each of these guns can be powered up 3 levels by collecting crystals from destroyed monsters, with their effects growing with each levelup. However, if the hero takes any damage, the weapons also take damage, often resulting in them degrading. Powering them up doesn't take much effort fortunately, so it becomes only an issue during boss battles.

The gameplay is solid and the graphics are charming, especially when we consider the fact that this is a freeware game. Which kind of puts to shame those US/UK game companies who churn out crap games.

I played Cave Story using my Logitech Dual Action Gamepad, and the game automatically maps to the buttons, even to the point of using the Left Analog Stick for its directional control.

If you loved Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (inclusing the various GBA remixes) and Metroid, be sure to check this game out. Here are the download links again:

Doukutsu Monogatari -- LZH is a compressed archive format; I used WinRAR to unpack mine.
Cave Story English Translation Patch -- unzip this, run the patch, and tell it where you installed the game.

Game on.

Massively Multiplayer Roleplaying Games

As I'm writing this, Windows Update is downloading the Microsoft .NET Framework (it's taken 2 hours and counting... don't you just love crappy 56k dialup?). I need it to run WinTin, a MUD client. I've recently begun to play MUDs again, hoping to find there what I found lacking in graphical MMORPGs like Ragnarok Online.

I'd use zMUD instead as the client, except it'll cost me $30, which I can't pay for right now. So I chose WinTin instead. It's got the same power functionalities and it's free and open source too!

What exactly am I gonna play? Lusternia! One of the things I hated about RO was the bland fetch quests. Lusternia seems to tout it's quest system a lot on their page, so I thought to give it a whirl. So in case you find yourself adventuring in Lusternia, give my character, Laire, a call.

D&D 3.5e and Humor

Since my disconnection from Ragnarok Online, I've been prepping up on reviving my pen and paper gaming hobby. Got the v3.5 books (didn't get around to buying 'em when they first came out because I was too hooked on pRO at that time). Did some online surfing to get a feel for the state-of-start in gaming. Subscribed to a couple of RSS feeds (mostly rpg.net and morrus'). And that's how I stumbled on this little web comic serial called The Order of the Stick.

Now I'm a fan.

If you haven't read the comic yet AND you're a D&D gamer, then you're missing out. Get your d20s ready and join the party ASAP! You'll be traveling with Elan the Bard, Durkon Thundershield (dwarven cleric of Thor, complete with Highlands accent to boot), the beautiful rogue Haley Starshine, the halfling ranger Belkar Bitterleaf ("world's best tracker under 4 feet tall"), the mysterious elven wizard Vaarsuvius, and their leader, the veteran fighter Roy Greenhilt.

Happy birthday to me!

I think that title kind of makes me sound pathetic... *shrug*

Haven't posted in ages, despite previous promises to post more regularly. So I won't make any this time. Okay, so here we go. What have I been up to?

Well, for starters, I've semi-retired from Ragnarok Online. That's right. My decision was a bit forced; someone (who I trust enough to give access to my game account) freaked out and deleted all of my Loki server characters. Took me almost two years to get those electronic avatars to where they were. Guess that's life for you. I did cry about it, mostly because it was the lowest blow she could deal me, but, on the other hand, I guess I'm thankful. My life's been starting to move in another direction right before this incident happened, so I just took this as confirmation of my new path.

Of course, I won't forget what she Fynn Elenium and the others. They will be avenged someday. I shall have to cause the deletion of the culprit, her entire family, and all her hopes and dreams. Oh sweet, sweet revenge.

All that's for later.

I've been working again (for a month now, I think). Systems Administrator for some exclusive girl's school. Job's good, no complaints there.

My girlfriend's leaving soon (November 13th) for Abu Dabi (sp?). I do hope this time we'll hold on. We didn't have much luck the first time she left (about a couple of years ago, for Qatar). But we've learned, we've loved, and we're gonna try harder this time around. I love you, Janette.

OH RIGHT! Today's my birthday! Sorry, I almost forgot. Mom and sis just treated me to a very nice birthday lunch. Nothing fancy, just spaghetti and chicken and those little hotdogs and marshmallows on sticks... Heehee. Like a kid's party. I should be in Katiklan later today though (to meet Paeng and Krishlex and hangout at Boracay). But with my girlfriend's imminent departure, I had to take a raincheck on that.

I'm also enjoying Day Number 2 of our ultra-long vacation! No work on Monday (Oct 31st) because November 1 is a holiday. School holiday on the 2nd as well (All Soul's Day; thank you, catholicism). And I think November 3's the end of Ramadan (thank you, Islam), and the 4th's also declared a holiday since it's lonely getting stuck in between two non-working days. To make it short, no work until the 7th! It's nice having a long-ass time to relax.

I'm, like, 29 years old already, I think...? Or at least that age when you're in denial that you're growing old. Growing old's only a mindset anyway. I'm still that impish 15-year-old boy who loves gaming.

The future might be hazy, but I'm thankful that I'm getting somewhere.

Which Marvel Superhero Am I?

Like A Phoenix...

(or, Yay! KoO's now level 2!)

The Knights of Obscurity, my pRO Loki guild, was broken a couple of weeks ago. It was immediately reformed on the very same night, last January the 5th, with Fynn Elenium taking on the guildmaster position as replacement for former guildmistress, Sevrin Astergarden. Now, a little over two weeks and two guildhunts later, the new KoO has gained it's first level up! (Pwede na ulit maki-salingpusa sa guild wars! XD~!!)


800k EXP to go (from left to right): Ices Frostmourne, Fynn Elenium, Sevrin Astergarden, Alena, Leon Cross, Maria (and her pet lunatic, Kimmy), and Kaela.


Knights of Obscurity, Guild Lv. 2 again (from left to right): Kaela, Stajah (who joined us just as we entered the "guild" dungeon), Sevrin Astergarden, Fynn Elenium, Alena, Leon Cross, Alestor (who managed to join us shortly before levelup), and Ices Frostmourne. Maria had to back out during the middle of the guild boost on account of extreme sleepiness ^^;; Special mention to Maraksus, who did join the guild as we celebrated at the Prontera tambayan (in front of Grandma's House) XD.

Game on!

Turning Japanese...

My japanese name is 猿渡 Saruwatari (monkey on a crossing bridge) 駿 Shun (fast person).
Take your real japanese name generator! today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

Happy New Year, everyone! ^_^v

Another Year Older

Had my birthday last week. Whoop-de-doo. I'm feeling just how mortal I am, and I'm not even 30 yet! LOL. Still, I'm happy with my life, my love, and where everything's all going at the moment. But enough of that. Here's what I'm up to currently:

Beyond Black Doors
Okay, my online collaborative novel about the guild, Knights of Obscurity, has been posted everywhere: RagnaBoards, Writing.com, and even FanFiction.net. But we've finally decided to use Blogger to serialize the entire story. So check out Beyond Black Doors: A Knights of Obscurity Tale, for an action-packed fantasy saga where the knight Sevrin Astergarden, the assassin Fynn Elenium, and the rest of the Knights of Obscurity must face the demons of their past in order to save Rune-Midgard's future. Has Ragnarok finally come?

Dragon Quest V
I'm currently playing the fan-translation of this SNES console RPG classic using Snes9x, and I'm hooked! This is one of those must-play games for console RPG fans. I love the nostalgic feel of the game, which takes me back to that magical time when console RPGs were more game and less eyecandy. I'll write a full review when the Quest ends!

Plans
I'm trying to go back to pen-and-paper face-to-face RPGs (with some of my old gaming group intact) and a new campaign is in the works. I really miss GMing a lot. Soon, the dust would be blown from my rulebooks and the stacks of old campaign notes would be opened and reviewed, and this Yuletide would be a gaming-filled season for my gaming group. Hope you have the same too!

Well, that's all for now. Game on, all.

Gaming Style Evolution

People play roleplaying games for differing reasons. That's a given. There are a myriad of styles, and gamers over the years have tried to classify them into several different models in hopes of making sense out of the chaos. Here we'll focus on the typical roleplaying game which uses rules to resolve conflict, and freeform storytelling roleplaying games.

For far too long, people have wagged it in my face: that storytelling is the "superior"/"more evolved" gaming style. That is all well and good. Different strokes for different folks I always say.

Let's forget the fact that such freeform games (they are barely "games" as such) are more of a devolution, a return back to the make-believe "games" we played as children. RPG rules were created to resolve the problems we had when we played Cops & Robbers: the "I-hit-you!-No-you-didn't!" arguments that almost always ended the game soon after.

I favor moderate rules that cover most instances that would crop up in a game with little to no question. It needn't be heavy. But a game system can get too rules light, to the point that everything is vague it's unplayable for me. Rules that offer tactical choices for the player and GM alike (crunchy bits as some may put it) are my preference. The point to a game system is to supply the game part in a roleplaying game.

Even so, however, that does not preclude me from telling a good story, given the framework of the game system. I am, after all, a writer as well. I just want to get my game in my RPG, and keep my freeform RPing in my own stories. People who wanted to freeform to be able to tell a good story (because otherwise, they claim, that the rules get in the way) should just write their story. There's no need for the false pretense of calling it a game.

Game on.

Spire City Ascendant

Hi, everyone!

I haven't posted here in weeks! (I know, I know, I just promised a couple of posts back to post regularly =P)

But I actually have an excuse! My play-by-post Returner Final Fantasy RPG playtest campaign, Spire City Ascendant, has finally begun! It's on this site called StoryCrafter, a place for online collaborative storytelling, freeform roleplaying, and of course, role-playing games (I love my dice *kiss kiss*).

Well, go have a look into Spire City if you're interested. The game's full right now and all five main characters are just starting to poke around in the old tower-city. Hopefully, they'll all be caught up in the tangled storyline about falling empires, evil High Priests, mysterious ever-changing dungeons, cults using a previously unknown dark magic, and of course (no Final Fantasy without this one) the end of the world.

So join Dent Flair, an Okami Swordmaster; Jack Lorekeeper, the Thie--err, Treasure Hunter; Kylor Tristan, the Black Mage; Vilis Valenti, the Rune Knight (and her dragon, Valostine); and Yate the Red Mage (he's a male Mithra too, of all things!), as they make their fortune in Ascendant, the Spire City!

It is in the nature of things to change. Eternally.

Game on!

Final Fantasy: Another Story

Hi, all.

I miss pen-and-paper gaming.

Since I've started playing the philippine Ragnarok Online (pRO), I didn't have the time to run any face-to-face games anymore. And that's sad. Maybe I did need the break though; it's been 15 years since I started GMing afterall and I was seriously burnt out.

Now, though, I feel ready to take on the GM's mantle again. I'm planning a mini-campaign that'll be using the current 3rd Edition of the Returner Final Fantasy RPG. Aside from giving me a much needed pen-and-paper gaming fix, it'd also introduce a new player to the world of tabletop RPGs, and playtest the new Final Fantasy rules as well!

The working title for the campaign I'm planning would be tentatively titled Final Fantasy: Another Story. It'll feature an entirely new world and an action-packed story inspired by the themes prevalent in the Final Fantasy series of console games (well, FF I to FF IX, for the most part). I plan the venue to be online, using OpenRPG as the virtual tabletop.

Players can expect lots of action as in the console games (but not to the extent of random encounters every few steps or so), as well as dramatic scenes involving character development. I'm aiming to make it just as enjoyable as the eye-candy in the recent FF games. My GMing style focuses on the story as well as the game, a nice middle-ground between being freeform and being too rulesy.

Tentative timeslots would be from 4:00 to 8:00pm (GMT/UTC). That's 12-4:00am in the Philippines (GMT+8).

I've got about 3-4 slots open so anyone who'd like to try are invited to contact me by posting a comment here or emailing me (my email address is in my profile). Keep in mind that you need to have OpenRPG installed in order to play. A copy of the 3rd Edition Returner Final Fantasy RPG rules can be downloaded here (you can view the rules in the wiki or just download the latest compilation as a Windows Help File here).

Game on.

No Need For It.

Take the quiz: "WHAT RELIGION BESTS SUITS YOU?"

What Kind of GM Am I?

Ever since I discovered RPGs late in my grade school years (which was, like, 18 years ago), I've mostly did the running. Through all those years, I've learned, stumbled at, enjoyed, and even got burned out at GMing. I've taken this test, to see what kind of a GM I am, with the following result:


God GM: You revel in your ultimate power as GM.
Nobody may question your rulings and those who do
find their characters smited with lightning bolts.
What style of GM are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

I've also added random punk to both blogsearch and blogarama, and updated the URL for the blog's listing at blogwise.

Thanks to RPGs-a-plenty for reminding me about blog directories and for the link to the GM quiz as well. There's a definitely cool blog.

Game on, all!

Number One Hundred and One

As I was going through each of my past posts yesterday, enabling comments and setting titles, I suddenly realized that yesterday's post was both the 100th and random punk's 2nd birthday. Nice coincidence there.

A hundred posts in two years isn't really all that impressive. It even underlines the fact that the blog author's really quite lazy. Still, it's about 50 posts per year, or about 1 post per week, so still somewhat regular.

In the coming year, random punk's third, I guess I really should try to post as much as I can. And I will. Then again, I might.

Game on, all.

Changes

Format Tweaks
Finally got around to tweaking my random punk's template to take advantage of the post title field, among other things. Also, removed the d20 News box on the right side-bar (di na naman ako masyado interested sa d20).

Online Games
I've added a new box called online games since that's what I've been playing a lot of recently. There's only a couple of links right now: one for Philippine Ragnarok Online (pRO), the Philippines' first and most popular MMORPG right now; there's also another link for The King of Spades (KoS), a cool browser-based superhero MMORPG (one I wouldn't mind donating money to if I only had money).

If any of you ever try either of the two games above, you can contact me at these character names:

In pRO (Loki server only, the best server IMHO ^_^v),
Fynn Elenium or Perverse or Diradem

In The King of Spades,
Leonard Anthony or Arc Ranger (both of whom are based in Hong Kong right now.

Have a good day and game on!

P.S. Thanks to my beloved Light for letting me work on this.

9 More Levels To Go!

Fynn Elenium (Assassin Lv.90/50) and Sevrin Astergarden (Knight Lv.80/49) have adventured in the world of the MMORPG, Ragnarok Online, since last year. They're now one of the high-level characters on the Philippine Ragnarok Online Loki Server, and also charter members of one of Loki's finest guilds, the Knights of Obscurity.

...only a mother could love

Well, a close approximation, at least...

The above pic was created using Abi-Station, an online face-making webpage using graphic compositing. Thanks to my Light for pointing me to the site. ^_^v

I'm Leorio!

Which Hunter x Hunter Character Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Live Without Warning

"ACHTUNG!

random punk may actually be a spider-human hybrid

Username:

From Go-Quiz.com

Acronym Fun

R	Relaxed
A	Accurate
N	Noisy
D	Distinguished
O	Odd
M	Mesmerizing
P	Perfect
U	Unusual
N	Neglected
K	Kind

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

If I was a girl....

Took this interesting test just for the heck of it...got my virtues and flaws right ^_^;;

A GARAGE-GURL. Youre into loud music, hot guys and
wild fashions. Youre most at ease when you've
got all your mates around you and you like to
party. Boys are a game and youre always on the
ball because you make sure youre always number
one.
Your virtues: Confidence, fun nature, sociability.
Your flaws: Loudness, jealous tendency, need for
attention..



What kind of girl are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Giant Monster!!

random punk is a Giant Squid that is Blind, cowers from Fire, has a Humorous Nephew Sidekick, and eats Rocks. Strength: 7 Agility: 1 Intelligence: 5 To see if your Giant Battle Monster can defeat random punk, enter your name and choose an attack: fights random punk using Strength Agility Intelligence

More Beyond Black Doors

My Light and I have just finished the Prologue and Chapter Zero of the continuing novella about our pRO Loki Guild. You can read it here:

Beyond Black Doors: A Knights of Obscurity Tale

We'd love to hear your comments! ^_^v

Collaborative Writing: Beyond Black Doors

Just started a novella with my Muse. It's set in Rune Midgard, the world of the Ragnarok Online MMORPG, where Norse mythology collides with pop culture.

The story features our guild in pRO Loki, Knights of Obscurity, but focuses more on the intertwining pasts and futures of two characters--the lady knight, Sevrin Astergarden, guild mistress of the KoO and the wandering assassin, Fynn Elenium, Sevrin's perpetual companion--as well as the actual formation of their obscure guild.

Will Fynn, Sevrin, and the rest of the Knights of Obscurity conquer the demons of their pasts and stop the latest threat to Rune Midgard?

The adventure begins here!

Just Breed!

Last January, Stealth Translations released the English translation of Just Breed. Just Breed is a NES Strategy/RPG released by ENIX way back in '92. I'm guessing this is pretty late in the console's life, as the game seems very advanced for a NES game.

If you're familiar with Sega's Shining Force games, then you already know how Just Breed plays. Basically, battles happen on a wilderness battle map as you travel from town to town. One difference is the concept of Commander and Soldier characters. Your entire army is divided into sub-armies of 1 Commander and up to 5 Soldiers, who must stay within one screen of each other.

While the game's plot is quite cliched (save some kidnapped damsels-in-distress who were guarding some magical jewels), great gameplay combines with superb script translation to deliver a game that most console RPG fans--even those who aren't really hardcore strategy/RPG fanatics--would love.

You'd have to play it on an emulator though. I recommend getting the latest version of FCE Ultra (version 0.97.5 as of this post). The patch is available from Stealth Translations. As for the NES ROM... well, try Googling for it. Can't help you there. ^_^;;

Capsule Review
Story 4 out of 5 stars
Gameplay 5 out of 5 stars
Graphics 4 out of 5 stars

New Comments System

blogspeak had problems with its hosting service and had to close down. Fortunately, HaloScan took the all the poor orphaned comments and gave it a home.

Happy New Year!

Sevrin and I are still on a quest to find the elusive Katar of Dusty Thornbush...

Merry X-Mas!

GeoURL

Stumbled upon GeoURL while browsing blogwise. Seems to be a popular indexing service used by the blogs there so I decided to join the bandwagon. Apparently, it indexes websites (URLs) according to geographic location (longitude/latitude).

I found my geographical coordinates at Heavens Above.

Check out my neighbors by clicking on the GeoURL button at the bottom of the sidebar to your right (you may need to scroll). It looks something like this:



Game on.

Mortality

(or, Disjointed Thoughts On A Recent Funeral)

My grandfather died last week and was buried just this weekend. I haven't been to San Miguel regularly since my childhood summers. In fact, the last time I remember going there was back in December 2000, when my lolo first had a major seizure.

There's never been an organized reunion in my family. Everyone goes their own way. I'm not even sure that I'll recognize some of my cousins if I happened to pass them in the street. Such a dysfunctional family... Ironically, Lolo Narding's passing away made us all return to San Miguel, and made us plan for a semi-regular get-together. There are times when I wish I had been more empathic.

I remember my childhood in that small rural town, capering all over the countryside with my cousin, Maricel (the only cousin close to my age on my father's side), bike rides with my grandfather (he fashioned a seat that can be set on the bar in front of the bike's actual seat so one can ride along comfortably), puto and kutsinta and chicharon and pastillas from carabao's milk (or was it goat's?) made by my great grandmother, ghost stories of the many old houses in town... those summers are long gone, but their memories will be always remain in my heart.

May the random cosmic forces bless his life-force.

Anime and Mecha d20

Finally got around to downloading the Anime and Mecha d20 System Reference Documents from Guardians of Order the other night (this is probably the first pen-&-paper-RPG-related thing I've read in months, since I got hooked on RO).

From what I've skimmed, the Anime d20 SRD offers point-based character creation, adds in Tri-Stat Attributes, and tinkers with a few nuts and bolts to add a more cinematic anime feel to the d20 system. New classes are drawn from popular Japanese animation concepts such as the Pet Monster Trainer, Magical Girl, and Mecha Pilot. The standard D&D classes are also broken down and modified to bring them in-line balance-wise with these new classes. So, essentially Anime d20 is BESM converted to d20. I'd prefer to stick to either standard BESM or even Tri-Stat dX for my "fast-and-fun" games though.

Now, Mecha d20 brings mecha-creation rules to d20 in much the same way that Big Robot, Cool Starships did to 1st Ed. BESM. Mecha in the rules set is not limited to classic mobile suits or super robots though but can be extended to include any vehicle. One thing that caught my eye is the Attributes, Booster and Chobam Armor. o_O Now I want to run a Super Robot Wars campaign with this! >.<

Still trying to find enough time to launch a Tri-Stat dX campaign. Something with mecha would be cool but high fantasy wouldn't be bad either. If anyone's interested, leave your idea here or email me; maybe we can set something up, even over the 'net. ^_^V

Game on.

Very Secret Diaries of the Fellowship of the Ring

"Day Three Million Five:
Am bored. Have been waiting for Middle-Earthlink guy to come and install DSL in Barad-Dur since second-age. Will use palantir as alternative to personal ads, as am lonely."
—The Very Secret Diary of Sauron, Cassandra Claire

Now that The Lord of the Rings Return of the King is just around the corner, you guys may want to brush up on what has happened in the previous two installments by reading the hilarious "very secret diaries".

Oh, and watch the trailers here (trailers of the upcoming movie; not a parody).

Game on.

A Battery of Tests

Recent spam on the friendster network led me to the Quiz Me webpage. Below are the results of a handful of tests I took on a whim.

Gods, I miss her.

My Color

ORANGE You are driven and optimistic. You strive to succeed in life while lightening the mood of those around you. You do well at any job you put your mind to. Find out your color at Quiz Me!

Am I or Am I Not? That is the question.

Are you Addicted to the Internet? 67% Hardcore Junkie (61% - 80%) While you do get a bit of sleep every night and sometimes leave the house, you spend as much time as you can online. You usually have a browser, chat clients, server consoles, and your email on auto check open at all times. Phone? What's that? You plan your social events by contacting your friends online. Just be careful you don't get a repetitive wrist injury... The Are you Addicted to the Internet? Quiz at Quiz Me!

Oh, man...

Completely Pointless Personality

The Completely Pointless Personality Quiz

My Past Life

Leonard Anthony P. Arcilla was a Stubborn Photographer in a past life. Discover your past lives @ Quiz Me

Untitled

now i cannot speak,
i lost my voice,
i'm speechless and redundant,
'coz I love you's not enough,
i'm lost for words.
-- greenday, redundant (from the album, nimrod)

The Real Deal on Philippine Culture

A batchmate of mine sent this URL (Get Real Philippines!) via our highschool batch's yahoogroup; pinoys out there may want to check it out. I found it a very amusing read, but it's not news, though. We Filipinos certainly do have festering culture. Still, I'm damned proud to be part of it.

Game on.

My Matrix Name

Find out your Matrix name. Mine's Ares.

Game on.

Landfall

(or Dawn Of A New Day)

I've been trying to reconcile what I'm truly feeling for the past few weeks. Something (or more appropriately, someone) suddenly came up and swallowed me whole. And the funny thing is, I was actually glad it happened.

Before she came, I was nursing my wounds from a previous battle, wounded and hovering on death's door. I was beginning to slide back into my previous Darkness, that ugly misshapen thing that had once consumed my being and spat it out, angry, forlorn, and cynical. I was getting sick of people leaving me. Leaving with promises that they'll never forget me and yet breaking them almost immediately.

But now she's here--my Muse, my Inspiration--and I've thrown my fate to the whims of the random cosmic forces of the multiverse, hoping that she will be the one. That this time, it's for real. That this time, it's forever. Because I will gladly face opposing odds, just to be with her.

It's finally sinking in, this new reality. The last battle was not the final one. I am still standing, thanks to her healing hand. My beloved's hand.

And here I am poised upon the brink of the future, thinking, I am so thankful she decided to stay...

Game on, all.

Farewell To A Friend

As I was updating my blog links today, I took a peek at Enelya V.'s pRO journal and got quite a shock. It's been closed! o_O

(Now that I think about it, my Inspiration mentioned the fact to me in passing a week or so ago... but a lot's been happening then for the fact to sink in.)



Enelya V. was a great acolyte in Rune Midgard (yes, on all three servers), and a good friend as well. Her absence will surely be missed. Those of us who struggle against the final days of our world have lost a valuable ally.

Game on.

Sevrin's Knighting

I've mentioned Sevrin Astergarden's reaching knighthood earlier. Here's a screen cap taken a couple of hours before her knighting, showing the two taking a much needed break after some frantic combat in the fourth level of the Payon Caves.



And this one's taken while we're celebrating her knighthood; she's already wearing her knightly armor here:

Fynn Elenium, Assassin

Should have posted this earlier but didn't feel like it. Here are pics of Fynn as an assassin (he joined the ranks of the assassins some time last month).



Oh yeah, Fynn's really blue-haired. I made a mistake with his previous pics (see Fynn Elunium, Thief of Morroc). Thanks to Mai for pointing it out ^_^. One more thing, Fynn's surname is "Elenium", unlike the Rune Midgardian armor-upgrading ore (which is "elunium", of course).

EarthBound!

From my retrogaming news front: I just finished EarthBound on the SNES! I've had a copy of this game for some time but I only managed to find enough time to sit down and play it this month. Now that I've played through and defeated Gygas (the game's final uber-menace), I'm wondering why this game isn't as famous as it should be. Sure, the graphics, battle scenes, and story may not be as cool or as angsty as other RPGs on the SNES (particularly Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger, and Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals) but EarthBound has a charm of its own: it doesn't take anything, even itself, seriously!

EarthBound: The War Against Gygas! is actually called Mother 2: Gygas Strikes Back! in Japan, since it's the second game of the Mother series (the first game was Mother on the NES, but it wasn't released in the US; Nintendo of America translated it but scrapped it before release; the prototype ROM got out though and was dumped by DemiForce).

The game is set in a world like our own 1990s Earth, and tells the story of four kids who are destined to save the world from an evil force called Gygas. Along the way, you meet a talking space bee, demented policemen, skate-thrashing street punks, Mr. T (yes, Mr. T), a Blues Brothers parody (The Runaway Five), insane cultists who worship the color blue, flying saucers, living piles of puke, dinosaurs, a village full of beings all named Mr. Saturn, a town infested with zombies... And then there's also the background music ranging from blues to a weird ambient techno-thing. The list is long and the weirdness never ends. Well, until you get to the end of the game, that is.

The battle engine is menu-driven, similar to the Dragon Quest series', where you choose which action each character takes every round. You fight un-animated enemies on a psychedelic background of swirling colors, and there's a text box that tells you the effects of the combatants actions. The game varies the text for certain enemies so you don't get the usual "So-and-so attacks!" and instead have "The Spiteful Crow pecks at your eyes!" as well as "New Age Retro Hippie uses a toothbrush!" (Yes, both are examples taken from the game itself). Combat is fast and fun for the most part, with the challenge factor amped a few for the bosses. Most bosses have a weakness you can exploit though.

I highly recommend EarthBound for RPG fans. This is a game that deserves to be up there with the classics.

Earthbound Review Rating:
Gameplay: 9/10
Story: 9/10
Graphics: 9/10

For more information on Earthbound and the Mother series of console RPGs, see starmen.net, which is probably the best Earthbound-related site out there.

Game on.

A New Look

Okay. I've finally done it. And I think it's not pretty. Grabbed a template from somewhere of the net (*cough* blogskins *cough*) and modded it with my meager html skillz (thanks, maystar! ^_^). It'll have to do until I learn more and/or find time to redesign.

Also added whole new stuff on the sidebar thingy off to your right. Cool Blogs includes links to my inspiration's and her friend's RO journal (Sevrin and Mirielle, respectively); it'll fill up with other blogs of note when I update in the future. Check out also the Online Comics I read: currently only Sluggy Freelance and RPGWorld right now.

In other news, Sevrin Astergarden has reached knighthood in pRO Loki. Congratulations, Lady Sevrin! Fynn is looking forward to more adventures with you in Rune Midgard. May we always get the rarest drops! ^_^

Game on, all.

BlogSpeak

The Blogger editor thingy gave me hell, but I managed to set up a way for anyone to leave their comments, courtesy of BlogSpeak.

Game on.

Fynn Elunium, Thief of Morroc

Here's my only character on the pRO Loki server (shown is his combat stance where he wears a dorky Hat and one of those annoying Smiley Masks the King of Prontera keeps promoting, and his sitting position, while waiting for his date in a room at the Pronteran Inn):

Selrotta, Archer Inept

Blitz's constant travelling companion, Selrotta is also a member of A.E.G.I.S. Adventurers. She calls herself "Archer Inept" but she's a better shot than Blitz ^_^ (she's shown here wearing a Red Bandanna).

Laire Allicran, Knight of the Rune

And here's a picture of my knight in pRO (wearing a Helm and Sunglasses... he lost his Phantom of Opera Mask in the 7-day rollback 'coz I was playing with it at the time >_<;;):

Blitz Harper, Fate's Falcon

Here's a picture of my hunter in pRO (he's wearing an Apple O' Archer, Purple Glasses, and a Flu Mask):

An Acolyte's (ongoing) Tale

Not a flash movie, but definitely cool, here's the ongoing account of an acolyte's journey through Rune Midgard: Enelya Vardamir's Adventures in Philippine Ragnarok Online. This daily journal chronicles Enelya's thoughts, experiences, and hopes, on both pRO servers (Chaos and Loki). May fortune smile on you, good cleric!

An Assassin's Tale

Here's a flash movie that'll touch the hearts of most RO players out there. It uses text-based illustrations and BGMs from RO and .hack. It's Japanese-created, and the "Engrish" is pretty bad in most places... but somehow, I was too caught up in the story to notice the typos and grammatical errors. Enjoy!

"Assissin is a very strong job!"

Returning to the fold...

Hi, everyone. I'm very sorry for my absence this past few months. But like I said in my previous post below, "Ragnarok Online has taken over my life..." Heh. Well. Since the game's beta test period in June, until it ended last August, and up to now, which is the second week of pay-to-play service, I've adventured, explored, fought, died, loved, laughed, triumphed and lost in Rune Midgard. And I am looking forward to more experiences still.

My pRO Characters
Here's my two characters in Philippine Ragnarok Online (pRO). They're both on the Chaos server (I've not created any characters for the Loki server yet).

Blitz Harper Hunter Lv. 60/30—Also known as "Fate's Falcon", this mysterious hunter hails from the Forests of Payon. He has travelled the length and breadth of Rune Midgard as an archer, from the Mandragora-infested woodlands northwest of Prontera City to the Hode-spawning ground south of exotic Morroc in the Sograt Desert. Together with his guildmates and a few other travelling companions, he has braved the depths of the Pyramids in Morroc as well as the Coal Mines north of the magical city of Geffen. After these wanderings, he returned to Payon to join the Hunters. He now hunts the Argoses and giant Argiopes on Mt. Mjolnir, with his falcon, Beat, and the huntress Selrotta and her falcon Chopper, as his constant companions. As the world spirals ever closer to Ragnarok, it is yet to be seen what part Fate's Falcon will play...
Guild: A.E.G.I .S. Adventurers [ Fate's Falcon ]
Pet: Rottie Lv. 3(poring)

Laire Allicran Knight Lv. 63/35—this self-styled "Knight of the Rune" once wandered Rune Midgard as a swordsman, fighting the ever-growing monster tide, and aiding those in need. He has since been inducted into the ranks of the Knights of Prontera. While he has mastered the skill of Cavalry, he currently eschews riding Pecopecos. He has fought against the Golden Bug at the end of the Pronteran Culvert, but was unable to defeat it; the reason why Thief Bugs still infest the underground waterways. He has also explored the Undersea Tunnels beneath Byalan Island, helping keep the monster population there in check. He has also taken part in the A.E.G.I.S. Emperium Hunt which scoured the caverns of the Orc Dungeons. Recently, he was last seen near the Sunken Ship, just off the coast of the merchant-city of Alberta, looking for Success, to commission the hard-to-find master blacksmith for the forging of two star-wrought katanas, one with the power of the winds and another with fire. As Ragnarok approaches however, he knows the weapons will be of little help, but he has no choice but to try.
Guild: A.E.G.I.S. Explorers [ Knight of the Rune ]

Well, that's all for now.

Game on.