Not as sneaky with a Paladin
Yesterday we played some Pathfinder, sneaking deeper into the giants' lair.

( 'Sneaking'Collapse )

It's not like the exits vanished, though, so they might be able to defeat the room by leaving it.

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Current Mood: okay

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Sneaking Around
Yesterday we played some Pathfinder, continuing to sneak around underneath the giants' fortress.

( Surprisingly effectively...Collapse )

After the game Tom suddenly remembered that the Lamia were supposed to be draining wisdom 'with all their attacks' which would have been *kind of a big deal* since Kaito's wisdom is really low and Elyssie's monk powers rely on hers. Looking it up, though, they only drain wisdom with one of their five attacks so it wouldn't have made much of a difference -- the only key will save (against the petrify) was a sort that Kaito could make using charisma.

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Current Mood: sleepy

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Oops and also Spelunking
So it turns out I forgot to do a writeup for the game two weeks ago. Well, we had another one yesterday, so I'll try to sum up both.

( basically, we ran away and then turned around and snuck into the enemy's castleCollapse )

It's been a long time since the party was able to go shopping for anything better than healing potions, and it's really starting to show -- their armor class is so low compared to the enemies that it might as well not even exist, and the only one who can 'tank' is Kaito, using temp hp and damage resistance.

At least Phoof's buffs keep their offense relevant!

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Current Mood: mischievous

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Grand Theft Prisoner
Saturday we played some Pathfinder, continuing the rescue attempt for the people kidnapped by giants during the attack on Sandpoint.

( Tracking people faster than you is hard.Collapse )

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Current Mood: amused

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Cleanup on Aisle Giant
Yesterday we played some more Pathfinder, finishing up the invasion of Sandpoint.

( It was mostly cleanup, unless you count getting dragon blood everywhere...Collapse )

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Dragon Chasers
Saturday we (finally) played some more Pathfinder, continuing the fight to defend Sandpoint.

( We defended part of it, at least?Collapse )

We stopped there, with some mop up left to do. The dragon was an obvious distraction but a *really good one* since he was distracting us from the giants taking prisoners by *burning down entire buildings* with people inside them. Hard to say that focusing on him was the wrong choice.

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Short Session
Saturday we had a short session of Pathfinder. We started late because of Community Day and later because of traffic, then had to quit early. We almost got something done at least?

( Almost.Collapse )

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Current Mood: sleepy

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Video Game Woes
Don't shop at Fry's.

"I only have 9.5 inches of space inside my case, so I need a video card that will fit."

They pretended to look up the sizes of cards on the internet and then swore that THIS card was only 8.5 inches long. But... it was actually 10.5 inches long like all the others and its only distinguishing feature was 'cost slightly more'.

So I came back the next day to return it, but apparently their return policy is 'lol no'.

So fuck those assholes. I mean, it's a given that I'm never, ever shopping there again? But if they're willing to go to those lengths to cheat their customers no one should shop there ever. How else are they ripping people off?

Anyway, since I'm stuck with the card I ordered some extension cables off Amazon and I'll see if I can mount it outside the case. I suspect that this doesn't work and the cables are only relevant for bitcoin miners, but it might?

I was getting a new video card because I think my current one is fried. So far I'm only crashing in one game (Warframe) but it's been steadly increasing how often it crashes in that game to the point where it's now literally unplayable because it crashes at the login screen. Also, it's an old card and other games are kind of klunky in it so an upgrade would be nice anyway...

The crashes are the 'screen goes blank, computer freezes and may or may not spontaneously reboot' which in the past was always a video driver problem, but I've updated the *drivers* a lot and the card got accidentally 'overclocked' a few months back when I started playing Battletech (it had a bug that would lock the card at 100% usage for an indefinite period of time during boot, and other people were complaining it fried their cards outright).

Watch it be something entirely unrelated, though.

Anyway, the other woe is that while waiting for various crap I started playing Pokémon Moon again, and it quickly reminded me why I stopped earlier. Wild pokemon call for help. EVERY. SINGLE. TURN. And they get it about 90% of the time. So if you can't sweep them, good luck ever winning the battle. And even if you can, good luck capturing anything because you can't throw a pokeball unless there's only one of them on the field. Which makes the procedure:

(a) Find wild pokemon you want to catch
(b) Carefully lower their health without killing them
(c) OHKO the friend that they summoned while doing this.
(d) OHKO the replacement friend they summoned immediately after you killed the first one.
(e) OHKO the replacement replacement friend they summoned immediately after you killed the second one.
(f-k) keep doing that
(j) Throw a pokeball and hope it captures them on the first try. If not, go back to (c).

So annoying. x.x

Current Mood: annoyed

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A Study on Running Away
Yesterday we played some Pathfinder (after skipping a session because too many people were gone that week) and demonstrated our very best retreat tactics.

( Note that this did not actually result in a retreat.Collapse )

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Just Like Old Times
Yesterday we played some Pathfinder, continuing our assault on the ogre cave.

( Even though we got a message from god saying not to.Collapse )

So yeah. We basically ran off in all directions at once and aggro'd everything in sight, just like old times when we had nine people in the party.

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Current Mood: sleepy

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Ogres... eventually
This week we finally played some more Pathfinder, trying to clean up the second-to-last loose end (retrieving the body of the Dryad's lover).

( We... got to the cave?Collapse )

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Dam Trolls
Yesterday we played some Pathfinder, finally dealing with the troll tribe occupying the distressingly skull-themed dam.

( And for some reason making nice with the ogres we hate.Collapse )

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Here Comes the Flood
Saturday we played a shortish game of Pathfinder with a couple of not-really-fights.

( It started with a flood...Collapse )

It was a little early, but we cut it there.

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Current Mood: amused

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Runaway Wizards
Yesterday we played a little Pathfinder, finishing up the battle and discovering why Teleport is a better 'run away' spell than Dimension Door.

( At least when you're in a fort with a ludicrously gigantic courtyard.Collapse )

It was a reeeeeally short session, about two and a half hours. x.x

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Current Mood: sleepy

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Wha -- Fa--
( Read more...Collapse )

Okay, now that I calmed down (it took a while) I realize what happened -- the first crash left some sort of lock on the save file directory, so nothing could be saved after that. I should have realized this when I saw the GOG launcher failing to cloud-sync the save files. Probably could have fixed it by rebooting.

The game DOES let you save during that mission and probably autosaves at the start like with every other mission.

That still really sucked though. x.x

Current Mood: enraged

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Battletech
TLDR: The shiny is real. @.@

( First, there were technical difficulties...Collapse )

The game itself is kind of mesmerizing. I think I played 20 hours of it over the weekend? SOMEHOW. I didn't even think there *were* 20 hours in a weekend. The way the game goes is, you get these mechs, see, and you have pilots that drive the mechs, and then you go fight other mechs and vehicles and stuff in a series of missions, most of which are procedurally generated.

Someone compared it to XCom, and it's not a completely wrong comparison? It's sort of in the same genre, except that the doom hanging over you between missions is the threat of going bankrupt and having the loan sharks foreclose on your space ship.

The actual combat is sort of like XCom if you didn't have cover, and instead had to run around at top speed every round to make yourself harder to hit, but still end up facing close enough to 'towards your enemies' to be able to fire. And you can fire all your weapons every round. And instead of 'reloading', you have to take a round off every now and then to cool down before your mech overheats, because overheating damages the structure and you'll have to pay to fix it after the battle. And instead of waking up a 'pod' of enemies that immediately run for cover, you'll get within sensor range of them and then go into phased combat mode until the blips are close enough to actually see.

The biggest difference is probably that you don't have grenades. No AoE at all! D8

Interesting moments:
On a scripted mission: "Watch out for those vehicle blips, they're SRM carriers. Don't let them get close!"
Me: "Oh, some Strikers? Those aren't so bad." *accidentally lets one get close*
SRM carrier: *fires* *fires some more* *keeps firing* *OH MY GOD STOP FIRING ALREADY* *keeps firing some more* *fires the rest of its missiles*
Dekker: "That shot went internal!" ... yes. Yes it did. After stripping off every last shred of armor from every section except the head. HOW ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?

Later on, on a random mission... Dekker finally met his end. His mech was pretty beat up so I had him hiding behind a rock sensor-locking people for my mechs that weren't about to die. I'd just managed to blow both side torsos off an Orion and knock it down to kill the pilot (letting me salvage the whole thing) and all that was left was a single, beat-up Spider... which ran through my entire force to perch on top of the rock and shoot him.

He lived! This is where I should have had him eject. Instead, I had him run away and brace -- a spider's pitiful weapons shouldn't have been able to kill him. So... the spider did a Death From Above and managed to hit his center torso. RIP Dekker.

That was the last time I brought a Vindicator into combat. Those things are death traps.

*sigh* Later on I lost Medusa in basically the same way... she was really beat up and I had her try to hide instead of ejecting, and the enemies chased her down and blew up her mech. I don't think I like that getting your mech blown up automatically kills you -- it's not how it worked in the lore from anything I've seen. I mean, there's a reason you're in the head and not sitting right next to the reactor.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that if you have someone heavily damaged enough that you're having them go and hide, maaaybe you should have them just eject instead. Even though it means buying a new head for the mech. Heads are cheaper than torsos anyway.

Also, buy the game. It's fun. n.n

Current Mood: amused

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Home Invasion
Yesterday we played some Pathfinder, continuing on to invade the keep of the fortress overrun by ogres.

( Knock knock...Collapse )

We stopped there since a couple people had to leave early, and the fight was obviously not going to end soon.

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Current Mood: amused

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Death From Above
Saturday we played some Pathfinder, planning and then starting on a big assault.

( With some questionable tactics.Collapse )

We stopped there, figuring that the assault on the inner keep would have to wait since a bunch of people had to leave early.

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Current Mood: amused

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Burning Down the House
Yesterday we played some Pathfinder, continuing to explore the cabin in the woods.

( And then we burned it down.Collapse )

Me: "I guess we'll have to fight 'Mammy' again at the fort, since she must have teleported back there."
GM: "Who says she teleported back to the fort?"
Me: "I was sure we'd find her in the basement, but she wasn't there. Unless we were stupid and she was just hiding out in the barn."
GM: "You were stupid and she was hiding out in the barn."

Damn it!

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Current Mood: sleepy

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Cabin in the Woods
Yesterday we played some more Pathfinder, continuing our adventures around the small village up by the lake.

( We were trying to rest...Collapse )

And we stopped there, because it was getting late in the day to start another combat.

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Current Mood: sleepy

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