Another Friday, another D&D. The Friday night thing has been working out nicely so far. In summary, we didn't have the best night for roleplaying, but we were in a dungeon so we didn't really suffer for it. Frankly, this game can be summed up in one statement; we fought and fought well. Since it wasn't really plot-based, ( I think I'll go straight to... )

So in further news, Cricket told me she had some ground rules for Will's bachelor party, what with only 23 months until the wedding. I thought this was going to a list of things he wasn't allowed to do. Apparently they were more of a "Chris needs to live a little" list. ( Or something... )

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( Finally, here's my update in Vikings Pirates Ninjas. )

Since I've acquired at least one new reader the since the last time I did this... umm... surprise! I randomly write in too much depth about Dungeons and Dragons. So yeah.

( Haven't done one of these in a while. Don't you feel lucky? )

I lent Andres my D&D 4E materials. He used to play and got the itch again after seeing stuff about 4E. After flirting with all the roles and nearly all the classes, I think he's finally decided that he wants to be a Shaman... named Shamandres. If he doesn't change his mind and go Avenger, that is. Also in D&D news, I heard Eberron came out and we have monks now. They're Psionic Strikers. No big surprise I guess. At least now that Psionics are being better merged into the game itself, I'll actually give things like Psions and Kalashtar the time of day.

So our new hobby at work is to find stupid blogs. I thought I should share some of our favorites:

• http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/
• http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/
• http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/

Anybody know some other good ones? I know the Fail Blog and Texts from Last Night, but they weren't as big of hits.

Meanwhile in Punch-Out!!, I've been stuck on the Title Defense version of Soda Popinski for nearly a week now. I have the patterns down, but he's so fast that taking advantage of them is difficult. Then again most of my online boxing has been done in Golds' Gym Cardio Challenge rather than Punch-Out!!.

On the next episode: one of those running gags using Impact font!

Will said he was waiting for my next D&D Review, but I thought the paragraph I wrote about the man-game counted. I guess not. I didn't really put the prepration into it that I should have, and I was taking the whole thing with a grain of salt because it was a one-shot unrelated to any larger campaign.

The dungeon was weird. Not bad, just unusual because it was ever-so-slightly non-linear because we were at the second-to-top floor of a tower, and yet fairly normal as you can't really skip tower floors. We were the right number of people for once so fights moved at a breezy pace, but we still wiped the floor with the encounters. Josh was supposed to be there as well, but he was not. I could honestly seeing a campaign with this group, but Sean needs something to differentiate himself from Dean first even if I had to DM.

( Is it officially a review if I include... )

In the other campaign, Zakk's making me more worry about 4E even more now. Apparently, he's discovered the works of R.A. Salvatore, and preordering the last book meant he got some free miniatures. I think my more D&D savvy friends know where this is going...

He wants to make a Drizz't clone.

For those unfamiliar with D&D culture, Drizzt Do'Urden is an extremely popular character amongst those who read the books. However, he's supposed to be something of an exception to the norm as he's a noble member of an otherwise evil species. Thus, recreating the character or building one just like him is not only lame, it's kind of taking a dump on the significance of the character. Role playing webcomics have done the concept to death so much that even parodying it is old hat. I've been told there's different levels of it, but Zakk is going whole hog and using everything from his fighting style to his animal companion, which brings us to problem #2. With the release of the book Martial Power, Rangers specialize in one of three combat styles in Fourth Edition: Two-Weapon fighting, Archery, and now fighting with an animal companion. While picking something other than an animal means you won't get an animal, a "Beastmaster" Ranger can still fire arrows and swing two weapons, just without the same perks as someone who specializes. For instance, the difference between a Two Weapon Ranger and other Rangers is that he can wield two longswords at once as opposed to a longsword and a shortsword. Unfortunately, Drizz't was written for a different rules system, so he has a Panther and dual scimitars, so Zakk's trying to weasel in both. Seeing as how I've been trying to play the game as written and am going to be DMing when he becomes a PC, I've been standing my ground, but I highly suspect both perks are going to "find their way" in there. Welcome back to 3.5 with Will's friends.

So there's a feature on Facebook where you can suggest friends for new users. Dean recently joined, so I pointed him to Will, Cricket, Matt, Sean, and others. All well and good, but then I find out that I get an email each time he adds one of these people. You would think this would get annoying, but I like it because each email is like a personal "YOU CALLED IT!" from Facebook, ( So in honor of me... )

Also I realized the most horrible thing ever: D=

Edward Cullen: "yes, you are exactly my brand of heroin."

This week we had an all-man D&D game, which is only about half as homoerotic as it sounds. Zakk ran a one-shot where Will, Sean, Dean, and myself were the players. Will was our arcanist, and I spent about ten minutes preparing and it showed. Dean and Sean were practically the same guy except that Sean was a PHB Paladin and Dean was a Book of Nine Swords Crusader so Sean was more like a mini-Dean than a different character. Zakk did a decent job, but Will and I both realized his weakness as a DM; if something isn't key to him, it will not be used. That side character you want to catch up with? Gone. That optional NPC they provide? Dies before the battle even begins. I think I'm losing the touch when it comes to roleplaying anyway.

I'm learning that one of my professors is definitely one of the most interesting people I've met in a while. We've been corresponding over Facebook after that completely uneventful class. To use an "anime I don't actually watch" example, she seems like she could be the Might Guy to Liz's Rock Lee. However, I can see some of Kelly's qualities there too now. I think it's funny that she's an enormous Buffy fan as well, which has allowed me to take advantage of and pretty much indulge in the Angel kick I've been on. For instance, the last friends-only post I made on the other blog and the comments that followed used subject heading were lines from Angelus's passion monologue complete with closing on:

Without passion, we'd be truly dead.

I came to some conclusions about what happened earlier this week. I'm the kind of person who's usually pretty good at burying negative feelings, but the combination of being confronted with this (allegedly) universal sentiment of love and being loved romantically at a young age, the lengths to which these people would go to please that special person, and having to listen to all this with Scrappy (a.) within arms length of me (b.) involved with someone else and (c.) being weirdly "clingy" that day just caused some of the old wounds to reopen. Fortunately, this doesn't mean I'm about to go barking up that tree again.

I hate to say it, but right now, between the class blog and this blog I feel like I'm starting to have a bit of a Clark Kent/Superman identity crisis, and I don't know which is which.

Time for another SUPERWEEKENDATHON 08 update. This Saturday was Laura's birthday, and Sunday was the continuation of Will's D&D campaign.

Laura's birthday was lots of fun. Lauren drove Niki, Mike, and myself down to Laura's around noon on Saturday where we all met up before going to the Cranberry Festival in Chatsworth. The festival was interesting... if you know what I mean. It wasn't as cranberry-centric as you would expect. Basically there's one place about four table lengths long that specializes in all things cranberry. We came back to Laura's house afterwards and cooked hot dogs and S'mores over a fire. That's what she said. After opening her presents, we went on a local haunted hay ride. I think we were the last people on there for the night because it quickly got silly... if you know what I mean. Then again, we spent about half the time teasing and/or sexually harassing girls dressed like a zombie and pinhead because frankly, you can only make so many jokes about Angie. Finally, we finished the night playing SingStar now that she has the game and microphones, which Mike really got into. That's what she said. I have to say William was in a very hands-on mood once he got there, which doesn't merit an "If you know what I mean" since it pretty much perfectly explains the thought perfectly. After that, we drove home, and I got home at the uncharacteristic time of 2:45 in the morning.

I have to admit that while I'm getting used to having him around and he's not a bad guy, I'm not really connecting with Mike. I think it's his sense of humor. He makes sounds and stuff, but you just kinda want to look at him and go "Dude, that's... not anything."

And that was my weeken-- "Objection"

( Alright chums I'm back let's do this. )

...who forgot to feed Sirius Black!?

Sad news on the roleplaying front, the big game hasn't been canceled, but Kim and Dean made some point on Saturday to everyone about putting it off and focusing on smaller groups for now. Or something. I started zoning out when Dean, Kim, and Mrs. Lewis were discussing Whose Game Is It Anyway. It kind of reminded me of when the X-Men split up into the Blue and Gold teams in the 90s and one was totally cooler than the others (hint: the one with Wolverine on it!).

X-Men Blue (4th Ed.) "Stop doing that weird talky-thing. I wanna roll dice!"	X-Men Gray-Brown (3.5) "I'll show you to not psychically know to be a cleric and live vicariously through me in your first game!" "Can I be a lich at first level if I have max ranks in knowledge arcana?"
Zakk Jubilee Tersha Will Cricket Chris Sharpe	Dean Kim Josh Sean (invited, but not official) Friends of Josh

I realize this isn't the official splitting up of the gang and that in many ways having smaller groups would actually be beneficial, but I still find the concept disheartening. I enjoy playing Skeigh, and it was nice to have a single character and really try to work out his quirks and mindset instead of writing sheet after sheet of characters without ever really feeling it. Also, watching it grow from one person's masturbatory campaign to a reasonably equal group was actually pretty rewarding. Speaking of which, Dean has a tendency to ask what he can do, and sometimes it means "...to help?" and other times it means "...to make this more about me?". Part of me thinks his desire to place more focus on the more Josh-oriented game is the latter, as he can probably be Grand Poobah again there. Also, my experiences with Zakk (and by extension Tersha) behind the driver's wheel leave me afraid their hamhandedness is going to result in 4E falling onto the "Actually, it's a good game. We just didn't follow through with it." pile.

When we move into the new house, I think I'm going to buy a nice television and an X-Box 360. I learned a decent amount about the matter today at Best Buy, and then I learned that Matt's been looking into one of his own as well. Right now, this television has caught my eye. As someone who plays video games, LCD is better than Plasma because, despite improvements in recent years, Plasma has a tendency to leave a "burn in" image if there's something that's constantly onscreen like a health bar in a video game.

Don LaFontaine, voice of movie trailers, dies Many of you may recognize him from the GEICO ads where he was in front of the camera mocking over-the-top film trailer voiceovers. I always found LaFontaine to be an interesting figure; he's such a ubiquitous part of pop culture, and yet most people couldn't identify him in a lineup.

Piccolo Spike! I hear the pants on this outfit are so tight that the balls were inert.

( Now I'll stop changing the subject and talk game. )

I was at the shore from Wednesday morning to Friday afternoon. In the past we've stayed from Monday to Friday, but with work and the fact my dad doesn't really enjoy the shore very much, we each stayed only three days to my mom's five. Frankly, I found two-and-a-half to three days to be too short. There really isn't much to report; I went in the water during the day and got bored around the house at night. Unfortunately, we had a health scare with my grandfather the day after which brought us back, but everything is fine now as it turned out to be one of those things that's a "scare" only when you're in your 80s.

Matt and I saw Tropic Thunder on Sunday. It was a good time and I really heart Stiller and company. I mean, how many movies are hilarious before the film actually starts? However, I think the level of comic violence and R-rated dialog will keep it from reaching that Zoolander/Knight's Tale level of "guess what I watched three times this month on cable" viewing ubiquity, if only because it will be so watered down for TV. Also, I've been wondering if someone else would have been better in Ben Stiller's role. Most of the characters fall into one of two distinct camps: flawed and human yet funny characters where the actor mercilessly pokes at himself and his peers (Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. Oh my God, Robert Downey Jr.) or so ludicrously overblown that they have to be seen to be believed (Matthew Mcconaughey or... well, go see it if you want to know). Well, there's Plot Boy too, but he's just there to play straight man and move the plot along. Stiller's character was silly but not over the top ridiculous, but unlike the other leads, he isn't an action star, even though he had some scary muscle definitions in a few shots. IMDB doesn't have any notes like "X was originally considered for the role", but I'm wondering if watching someone like Bruce Willis go through the same wringer would have actually actually been funnier.

I have a new addiction: Rune Factory: a Fantasy Harvest Moon. One part farming, one part dungeon exploring plus relationship building, fishing, and other wacky fun. So far, the game's done a good job of integrating the two major elements, as each aspect of your life basically opens the door in another aspect.

D&D Wiki fun: Dean updated Osric some more. The story is improving, but the final paragraph is more or less code for "I want a spotlight too guys!". Will, wasn't Richtor his overly privileged knight from that awful evil game, and have we heard of this consort before? Wait, no, I just got it. Obvious plot twist is obvious. Also, I can't help but giggle at the fact that apparently he's known as the fallen dictator Osric the Homeless

[To the theme of Joxer the Mighty]

Osric the Homeless
Battles through the abyss
Never seems to act amiss
With Tesa as his sidekick
Making all her allies sick
Riding steeds and righting wrongs
Being stoic all day long
He's Osric—he's Osric the Homeless!
Oohhhhhh—
He's Osric the Homeless
He's never been kissed
Everybody fears him
'Cause he acts really grim
Osric—
Osric the Homeless!

Also, alignment!? I'm the @#$ $%^& Batman!

"Chris you stalwart bastion of what's good and right in the world," you ask, "why are you writing another game review? Haven't you pretty much recalled everything there is to experience with this group?"

"Au contraire," I respond, horribly mangling the French, ( "You see. This time Will is running the game." )

Two references in one header. Bam.

The end of Research Methods is actually extremely close. I'm as good as done on the final paper, and we're reviewing for the final exam Monday. It's kind of sad when you start learning statistics how things in articles just don't add up. Take for instance the article I'm reviewing, Still at Risk: What Students Don’t Know, Even Now. The first statistics don't have a control group or an experiment group except maybe the reader's mental definition of what students should know which is subjective and pretty shaky. When we finally do have two groups, they compare students with educated parents to students that don't have educated parents, which has what to do with teaching to tests? Plus once you calculate it, the literature table isn't even statistically significant, so mathematically speaking there's a noteworthy chance the results are just a fluke, although this might not have been the case had they added more questions. The literature survey practically has half the questions of the history survey.

And on the other brainthinky scale, LJ's featured links led me to a comic journal about video games, mostly Ace Attorney games and this comic! Warning, massive massive Apollo Justice spoilerage.

For my roleplaying friends, I found this wiki that could make searching the Magic Item Compendium easier. I'm building Skeigh's wishlist now that we have actual golds.

( In next week's episode: Grand Papillon-- I mean Skeigh Daetann-- goes shopping! )

[Edit] Will's family has a cake sitting in the basement freezer from Kim's engagement party, and it's shaped like a comma. I was told it was a paisley, but I don't know how that helps the cake's case to be honest. I think it's really a Magatama. Eating the cake will let me see the lies in people's souls.

I've noticed that while I obviously don't like people who bully other people, I really don't like people who bully others and then cry victim at the slightest provocation. This seems to happen around me more than I'd like.

Okay, so people will probably be less than accepting of my lack of love for the Batman, but you know what people are more accepting of my lack of love for? ( The D&D! )

Cheer me up, Psych!

( The post credits extra. This is more a joke than anything else. )

( So what did I think of Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition? )

Been reading some comics, namely Angel: After the Fall. I've been meaning to show Will this one quote. Here it is:

Wesle: "Maybe... maybe we do make you vulnerable. Maybe we shouldn't be around each other."

Illyria: "No! You don't control what happens. You don't tell me what will be. You can't fail at being at my side once and then force yourself in front of me only to walk away again. You don't leave. You're staying with me. _{You're staying with me.}"

Finally, something normal people can enjoy. Wikipedia has songs listed by category, such as songs about war or divorce or abortion, but most importantly we have a list of songs about bananas.

Okay, a lot of people on roleplayers have been reminiscing in threads like these as the last of the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 books have been written and the brand new 4th Edition becomes available in stores tomorrow. I realize my fascination with role playing has been a frustrating and intriguing one, probably not only for myself but people around me as well. I think part of it extends from the idea that despite the exponential advances in technology and video games over my lifetime, tabletop gaming still possesses the potential to be the pinnacle of interactivity. When I was a kid, playing games like the original Final Fantasy really captured my imagination but I would get frustrated because talking to NPCs was entirely one-sided and had zero room for additional information or clarification. I think another aspect that drew me into the game was that with the release of additional books as time went by, Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 slowly developed into a "research fight" if there ever was such a thing, mixing and matching thousands of feats, spells, and classes amongst the books to find new combinations. So here was this fun, creative activity that, intentionally or not, catered to my skills and interests. This isn't to say that 3.5 was a game without flaws. Many problems were due to one of two facts. The first was that some things scaled and improved as the characters level up while others did not, and the second was that the game spends a great deal of energy and rules trying to represent the limitations of reality in a world with magic spells and sentient killer underwear that makes you serve its bidding. I'm still optimistic about this new edition because I began to notice a clear difference in 3.5 Edition between the release of the original books and the newer material. The designers appeared to gain a better understanding of what made for a fun game rather than what gave the most realistic representation. And hey, that's what we're here to do.

Let's talk Nintendo games and Fresh Prince. I'm in case 3 of Phoenix Wright: Justice for All. It takes place in a circus, and I just experienced one of Moe of the Clown's more random outbursts. Meanwhile in Mario Kart, whenever I put Toad in the kart I renamed the Mini Pimpin' Buick (and not the Cheep Cheep kart pictured), he does this head bopping gesture that reminds me of Baby Sinclair. I know there's a YTMND of that same clip set to the theme from Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

There's an app that lets you build crappy little cities on Facebook. Mine is called Latveria, and its description is: "Bah, Doom will not describe his city in order to win your petty approval!". It's actually a lovely place; our culture is lacking, but we have good science (Doombot research), workforce (building Doombots), and safety (enforced by Doombots).

ninjadebugger reviews books, from roleplaying books to actual novels. The guy actually has some really good insight on things. Also, I comically walk into things I shouldn't, as I found a page with at least a gig of books. It's kind of out of date though, but good for catching up on classics like the Complete series.

Between grad school, the gym, and work, I began to have increasingly less time on my hands, to the point where when I finally have a weekend to myself I seriously don't know what to do. Saturday and Sunday have largely felt like one big wait since work pretty much fills my "What's happening online?" quota for life. I'm at a weird place with most of my Wii games as the normal stuff is way too easy, but I'll probably never complete the super extreme hardcore master things like finishing the vault in Smash Brothers or getting my damn Blue Falcon in Mario Kart.

Today I found a fun new webcomic called Darths and Droids. Much humor to be had here. Strangely, this story makes Jar Jar one of the more likable characters by blaming his creation on a small girl with an overactive imagination.

Also, on a roleplaying note, Matt and I came up with a joke character that I should submit should Skeigh ever fall. This basically takes Kim's "this is how I choose to play" mantra and runs with it. Off a cliff.

( When Role-Playing Goes Horribly, Horribly Wrong )

So today is Will's birthday, and since he probably wouldn't have the same appreciation for a Phoenix Wright skit that Matt would, I'm going to do another snarktacular update in my most Will-centric series ( Better Know a Distr-- I mean-- Role Playing Party! )

So another week another game. This was like one of those pseudo-finales the show Heroes loved having because it's not a winter break and it's not a summer break; it's just a month long break. This game was good but not remarkably great, starting off strong and then riding a water slide into Lake Crap. Still there were some positives amongst the negative.

Sean was definitely the MVP because he couldn't make it, leaving Will to play his character as the dual threat spellcasting warrior he should be. We figured out that Tersha didn't know how to calculate an attack roll and has actually been underperforming as a result, which is ironic because I think Zakk is doing the opposite. Josh has moved into the upper echelon of the party now that we're in a genuine dungeon and he got a pair of gloves of dexterity to boot. Also, there was an awesome moment near the end where everything clicked for once; Cricket cast Speak with Dead and Mrs. Lewis not only role-played but did it well!

This is usually the part where I make jokes about people based to their stereotype of being dumb/fat/likely to run away with a cult. I'm even going to skip over our DM, though I had a few strong opinions this week.

And then there's Kim. What I'm about to say is going to be so harsh that I'm going to actually preface by saying that she is not a bad person:

( She is not a bad person. She is not a bad person. )