Look Twice for Bikes

The morning commute allows us to become complacent; it is too familiar and becoming distracted is easier with every day we travel to work on the same road as yesterday. Before you know it, someone has failed to look twice and you're hit with a force powerful enough to unseat you from your motorbike.

So the precise events of what happened are: I stopped to let someone out of a junction, she hesitated for long enough that traffic appeared in the oncoming lane, we both saw the oncoming car so I assumed she wouldn't pull out, I move off and I'm half way across the junction when the guy on the opposite lane flashes his lights. I think oh crap and I'm hit by the woman emerging from the side road. She didn't look right (the direction she was turning in), but fortunately was only just moving off and stopped instead of following through. There was a tremendous impact (okay it was a slow speed collision but it felt like being hit by a stampede of boulders) as I was flung from my bike. The ablative titanium ankle pad on my left boot snapped off somewhere, so did the side cover on the left side of my bike, and my right indicator as the bike went down somewhere to my right.

As I picked myself up from the road I was suddenly surrounded by people asking if I was all right. One guy, who gave me his name and number as a witness, was wearing slippers identical to mine. Despite everything that was going on around me, all I could think about was trying to remember where I had gotten those damned slippers from.

Then, as luck would have it, one of the guys from the J S Gedge garage pulled up (from the same side road junction) to help. He wrenched my brake lever and gear pedals back into road-worthy shape and we spoke briefly about what had happened. The other motorist was very apologetic and a little panicky (her first accident in nine years of driving apparently), she kept saying it was all her fault, that she was so sorry and if I was okay. I think the insurance will favour me since I had right of way but to be honest perhaps I should have just sat still when I saw the oncoming car in the opposite lane. I just didn't think he would stop to let her out as well.

Riding the bike back to the garage (very, very, carefully) I left it there for the day to have repairs done to it and an assessment of the damage (for insurance purposes etc.), I ordered my new bike and the lessons to go with it (theory test in February), and went to the hospital to get my aching foot looked at. I thought it would swell or bruise but this morning there are no outward signs of injury. I just get a dull ache if I put too much pressure on my left heel.

So I got out of that very fortunately. I haven't told my brother Sam because he will blab to my mum and she'll get sick with worry every time she hears a motorcycle engine. Also Sam is getting a CBR600RR which may well be the death of him if he doesn't learn to ride responsibly, and Marcos jumped on the band wagon by buying a GSR600 which, combined with his lack of 125cc experience and sometimes less-than-healthy attitude might be his undoing as well. But then perhaps I'm judging them both too harshly. I thought I was a safe rider (rarely filtering, keeping to the speed limit, riding defensively, etc.) and I got into an accident. Also, last night Marcos rang me up asking about 125cc motorbikes to practise on before he gets his big bike. So that shows maturity. The only thing is; would it be worth it for him to buy a 125cc bike only to have to sell it a few months later when he has passed his full licence?

At this rate though, there will be a formidable motorcycle gang in the making. A CBF600 (Adam), a CBF600 Hornet (Richard), a CBR600RR (Sam), a GSR600 (Marcos), and my Versys. I think it will take a long time for Nick to get the bike he wants, it would probably be better for him to save for a 250cc first rather than the 800cc beast he dreams of, that way he will be able to keep up with everyone else instead of being left behind. But he is adamant on getting nothing but the Triumph Bonneville so I suppose we won't change his mind any time soon.

Planning Ahead

I have a meeting with my bank on Saturday so they can advise me with what I should do with my money. I'd rather seek independent advise since the bank representative will most likely be biased towards the organisation that pays his wages. I may cancel the appointment altogether since I should be starting my direct access lessons soon; I will be paying the guys at Gedge a visit on Tuesday to organise it all and if they offer me Saturday as my first lesson then I doubt I will turn them down. If I can reschedule my meetings for Sunday morning then that will work out just fine since D&D won't start until after noon any way.

I foresee the group getting through more than expected this coming Sunday, just like they did in the first session. Depending on how they play it, they might get through adventure 4 very quickly and ask to go onto adventure 5 straight away. I should be able to do this for them with enough time but if there are too many delays then it would be better to leave the next adventure for a fortnight and come back to it in the next session. I've been working out notes on travelling from one village to another (the PCs will want to travel north to Solling once they're done in Windy Cross... well they had better want to travel north. Otherwise they'll find their way blocked by arbitrarily placed beholders, trolls, illithids, and wyverns!) and it has been fairly smooth sailing so far. The biggest problem stems from not knowing what speed the party will be travelling at. I'm guessing it will be the speed of a mule or cart since one character (Sten) has a mule (called Evil Bastard) and short of putting the poor animal on a cart or wagon they can't really make it go any faster... even then a wagon travels at the same speed as a mule! So unless Sten gets rid of Evil Bastard they won't be going much faster. Also there are no rivers that lead directly from Windy Cross to Solling (see the map for details) short of going into the mountains (against the current) where the river parts into the Dragonwing river and the Downvalley river.

I met my first bloodsucker in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.; not a pleasant experience. Unfortunately Sam was watching at the time so I can't claim that I didn't wail like a scared little girl while firing madly in every direction. But I did manage to kill the freak without it landing a... paw? talon? on me.

I'm thinking of buying this since I enjoy wearing a cloak so much I thought why not go to the next level? And right now I've got the money to spare on things like this. I'm not going to go too crazy but this is something I've been looking at for a long time. I'd like to try archery again too... and go back to martial arts. Perhaps after my direct access lessons are over I can look into starting again.

Don't Rush It

Song and Silence, a Rogue and Bard source book for D&D 3rd edition (not too hard to convert into 3.5) arrived yesterday. About time too; I had ordered it from Amazon some time at the beginning of the month. It has served only to distract me from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. which is kind of a good thing because I really want to get my campaign fired up enough that the players remember it for a long time. Although the books seems to favour Rogues and Roguish skills/abilities (sneak attack, hiding, stealing things, picking locks, disarming/setting traps, etc.) over Bard specialisms it will still be a very useful book as the D&D party is formed of one Rogue, one Bard, and a Ranger. I was after the Ranger source book but had trouble finding a supplier. Hopefully this will be remedied soon.

I've been reading some on line Dungeons and Dragons material from games masters and players alike. I think this evening will be spent polishing my campaign material and preparing for the post-Windy Cross adventures as well as reading Song and Silence. Reading Shamus Young's D&D campaign on his website (the one linked above, he's the guy who did the genius DM of The Rings web comic) I've been... inspired to improve my own. I think that I might have the ideas to make this a good D&D campaign, but perhaps not the storytelling ability to convey them in a way that is best. Still, the players seem pretty excited about it and they have spoken to me in-between sessions about it asking questions and discussing ideas.

The big problem I see with my storytelling is what I've done in the past two sessions (our only sessions so far) at the end. I just can't help but rush the epilogue rather than take it at the same pace as everything else. At the end of last week's session the party had just survived what they called "two boss battles in one dungeon" and discovered the whereabouts of their benefactor's old friend. Then we had to stop because one player was going home early. I sort of just blurted out, "You get out of the caves, rest in the clearing and get back to the village to find that your benefactor is dead!" In response the players just kind of said "...huh. Really? Bang goes our reward then!" Rather than "What? No way! All this for nothing? I thought we'd saved his life!" It also meant that there was no tension leaving the caves they had explored. They were worried about giant spiders ("Haven't you read the example adventure in the Dungeon Masters Guide?") and some dire weasels that were following them through the tunnels.

So not this Sunday, but the Sunday after, when we next get together and play, I'll make sure to take everything slowly, get that laminated battle mat out of my wardrobe, and have a proper DM's screen between me and my players.

The Sovereigns

Last night I completed Mass Effect just to make sure it didn't turn into just another game on the list of games I've reached the final level on but never actually completed. The final stages were pretty good. Fighting two Geth Armatures while on foot was pretty difficult, and so were the rocket turrets. I managed to "resolve an impossible situation using diplomacy" which means instead of fighting the final boss, you get him to back down in a very cool cinematic sequence. The ending was satisfying, apart from the hey let's leave the storyline open so we can make a sequel part. I'd like to take the time to play it again to see the things I missed before like getting to level 60, using different skills to overcome the objectives, follow a romance sub plot, be an arse hole instead of a paragon... oh and apparently I missed one codex entry. One! I think it was to do with the Salarians.

If a sequel is released then I'm sure I'll want to get my hands on it. I'd like to see more Quarians, find out what happens to the Krogan, find out what female Turians and Salarians look like (and Volus for that matter) as well as see what some of the races look like without all that bulky armour on. For example, why do the Taurians have those huge lumps on their backs? What is the natural posture for a standing Krogan? What do Quarians and Volus look like under those masks? The game was intriguing and, at times, compelling. There was still too much the world is about to explode but we can talk calmly for ten minutes while all that stops and waits for us to finish conversing for my tastes. Although the voice acting was fine, it didn't convey a sense of urgency when it could have done. A very enjoyable game though, I'd recommend it to almost anyone with an XBox 360.

After completing Mass Effect I thought I wouldn't have time to get into S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for the evening so I started a magic-centralised character in Dark Messiah. I don't have any of the massively damaging spells yet (lightning bolt, fireball, inferno) but so far it has been pretty interesting. I really like the freeze spell since you can use it to disable a whole gang of orcs and then blow them all up with a firetrap spell while they try to get up.

My sound was acting up in Gun, Dreamfall, and Call of Juarez but I think it's fixed now, I just need to test it out. I've also started downloading all my STEAM games. Since I'm not really playing Guild Wars now (I've always preferred single player games and now I have a big bundle to play through) it means I can leave STEAM to download all those Half Life games while I play other games I've already installed (i.e. the three listed above).

Oh and the relevance of today's post is that the big Reaper ship in Mass Effect is called "Sovereign", and so is the big demon trying to escape imprisonment via the prophecy of the dark messiah in Might and Magic.

High Road or Low Road?

The choice is charging towards me like a mad bull and I have to choose whether to dodge to the left or dodge to the right. If I dodge one way I choose the Kawasaki Versys as my big bike, if I dodge the other I choose the new Honda Transalp. If I don't make up my mind then I get crushed by the bull of indecision.

The Transalp would certainly be my motorcycle of choice if I had to choose a Honda brand bike. That was the one I was aiming for before I even took my CBT. I prefer the idea of an upright, comfy riding position and a bike that can take you anywhere, any time, for as long as you like. But on the day of completing my CBT, there was Trevor Gedge gunning the engine of a brand-spanking new burnt-candy orange Versys. I didn't know the make or model of the bike but I instantly thought holy crap that's a friggen awesome bike.

So with my inheritance finally getting cleared I am presented with the opportunity to buy my big bike outright. The guys at the local Gedge centre also promised me a deal on getting direct access training (by Trevor himself no less), a theory test, and a practical test for the low, low price of £400 alongside my new bike, whichever one I choose.

Now, by local Gedge dealership I mean the Honda garage in Ore which is literally a two minute walk from where I live. The two sales representatives there are both proficient in Jedi mind tricks and could sell a second-hand, beaten up Goldwing (practically a car with the roof and two wheels missing) to a conservative, blind, wheelchair-bound grandmother whose only experience with locomotion was pushing her toy lawnmower around as a kid. Not that they would. But they could. Both sales reps, while admitting that any other big-brand bike will perform just as well, have advised I get the Transalp on the grounds that being a Honda machine it will have a better resale value. They also spoke about the engine which is bigger and possibly has more torque.

However. I don't really intend on selling whichever one of these bikes that I get. So that's a moot point. Sure I might change my mind in years to come (when I first hopped onto my CG125 I thought to myself why would you ever want to go faster than this?) but for now, resale value doesn't enter into the equation.

I'm no expert on motorcycles, engines, mechanics, or... well, not much really. But at a glance here are the comparisons. The size difference between engines is only about 30cm³ so I'm not convinced that one has an advantage over the other. As for torque, the Versys has 1 Nm more than the Transalp, but at higher revs. Like I said, I'm no expert, but to me that says that while the Versys is capable of better acceleration, the Transalp can accelerate faster at lower revs. But not by much. The Versys holds more fuel, is lighter, has wider tyres both front and back, and is slightly more compact (but also, barely noticeably, taller). This makes me think that it will probably handle better, for longer.

So, I can trust that Andy and Phil know what they are talking about, but the Versys is the bike that I really want. In the original burnt orange, not the horrible Ninja lime-green that Kawasaki are showing on their website at the moment. The Versys is also marginally cheaper. When I do order it, I'm going for a higher windscreen and might start thinking about getting panniers for it at some point too.

As for the old CG125... well I'll find it a good home, hopefully.

This Seems Familiar

I was way too tired to go to Eastbourne for AvP2. From what I hear I didn't miss too much as the storyline had been replaced by gore. Someone did say "Get to the chopper!" and it was apparently fun to watch but not something the guys would want to see again. Ah well.

I've installed and played S.T.AL.K.E.R. which has impressed me no end with its AI and setting. The way dogs move around in packs (one pack in particular was lead by a pseudodog freaking huge monstrosity which I avoided), creatures avoid the anomalies, factions contest with each other and make expeditions deeper into The Zone... it was very cool. And difficult. Human enemies have proven to be quite deadly thanks to their firearms. Unfortunately I've had to start the game again from scratch because patching the game makes all your previous saves incompatible. Fortunately I wasn't very far into the game. I'm dreading nightfall in S.T.AL.K.E.R. though, some anomalies can be hard enough to spot in daylight and the reduced vision range after dusk will make things (such as avoiding packs of blind-dogs or wandering mutated boars) a whole lot more difficult.

I've completed Dark Messiah twice now and seen all four endings. Okay, mathematically that doesn't make much sense. The four endings are based on four choices you have to make. Firstly you have to choose which of two characters you ally yourself with; and secondly, later on, you must choose whether to free or imprison a significantly powerful demon. The second choice is literally at the end of the game so after watching the credits roll you can just load the last auto-save and make the alternate choice. While the action within the game is brilliant, not one of the endings felt right. What doesn't help is that each one is almost identical to the last. If you completed the game one way and then a month later completed it with the opposite choices you probably would not realise you were seeing a different ending. Which is really disappointing. Especially since the rest of the game is done in such a powerful and dramatic way (the video at the end of the Spider Temple Catacombs is one of the most exciting I've seen among in-game cut-scenes). There are still some choices to be made in the game though; along the way there are optional objectives to complete. So far I've always completed them for the experience points but I wouldn't mind seeing how certain characters react when you avoid some of them. I can't describe the choices you get to make without spoiling parts of the game, but suffice to say a sequel based around certain choices would be very interesting (not to mention welcome).

Dungeons and Dragons went very well. The characters got their hands dirty (literally) in enough combat to satiate them for a while. I don't think they will be wandering willy-nilly into any caves without good reason any time soon. They had very lucky dice rolls when they were fighting the choker and the dire weasels (although they ran away from the main dire weasel nest "Oh no... it's dire! Flee!") and even more fortunate rolls when avoiding the Vargouille's kiss. Samulus managed to pocket some loot without the others seeing and everyone is forming ideas around the mysterious events surrounding the village. I think they will enjoy the next adventure and that it will be tailored more towards their abilities. Although combat is fun (adventurers don't spend all their gold on magic swords just for show), we're not going very kick-in-the-door heavy, which is good. I think the group will enjoy role playing more than combat anyway, with fighting here and there to mix things up a little and avoid monotony.

Whoever wins, we get to see it

Tonight we're going to bike it over to Eastbourne to see Aliens vs. Predator 2 Requiem. From what I've seen of the trailer it will be a gory frag-fest between the two extraterrestrials. I'm guessing it won't be as good as the original Alien and Predator films (actually I didn't much like Predator 2). I might actually prefer to see Cloverfield, despite having previously thought of it as an excuse to use viral advertising. It was this blog that turned me around. Well we'll see. The last film I watched was Die Hard 4.0 which my colleague John lent me. I really liked it and thought the special effects really hit home. The only part that bothered me was the jump jet hovering under the overpass - that was a little too over-the-top. Also I was waiting for McClane to stomp over and punch the pilot after he "landed", before walking over to the finale.

I'm still enjoying Dark Messiah. It feels so dramatic at times, like you are really struggling against a colossal enemy and must fight with every ounce of your being to overcome it. The scene in the temple (chapter 9) impressed me no-end. Fantastic stuff. I think the formula and the elements that were implemented with the game could scarcely be improved. I'm certainly going to play this several times over, especially now I found out that there are choices you make in the game that have an effect on later events. I was disappointed that the city guards I helped turned on me the moment I accidentally cut them with my sword (I was trying to save him from a pouncing ghoul). Most games have a few "Hey, I'm on your side!", "You don't want to do that again!", or at least "Hey watch it!" warnings before your allies decide you're attacking them on purpose. The city guard in Dark Messiah seem to be very eager to bathe their blades in your bodily fluids, despite ignoring stray fireballs, arrows, and sword strikes that allied NPCs might hit them with.

Yesterday I was linked to a short film on YouTube called Black Button which turned out to be far better than I expected. The man behind the desk's acting was very impressive and the twist at the end was well orchestrated. I always like unexpected twists.

I'm mentally preparing myself for Dungeons and Dragons this Sunday. We're starting early as Bob has somewhere to be in the evening (I didn't catch the details). It should pose too much of a problem as Adventure 3 will provide enough action to keep the game moving at a fair pace, hopefully.

Little Bundle of Joy

Do you know what the happy dance looks like?

It looks like this. Let me show you.

See? See? I'm doing the happy dance.

Taking a moment to step back every so often I notice that I'm really excited over finally receiving my new computer. Which is sort of sad because it is, after all, just a computer. A really big, powerful, dream-machine computer, but still... just a PC.

But it's a PC that will be able to play all those games I've been wanting to play. I'll be able to see them with the graphical effects they were intended to deliver and double (or triple) figure frame rates!

I've managed to install all the drivers I needed and get Windows Updates and a few utilities (such as AVG Free Firewall, all the free MapMage applets I use, video codecs, etc.) but I've still got lots to install including a bundle of Firefox plugins, Photoshop, my scanner, my graphics tablet, STEAM, lots of games, and goodness knows what else. Game-wise, so far I've only installed Dark Messiah and Oblivion, and out of those two I've only played Dark Messiah (obsessively). I installed Oblivion to check the graphics. Of course I temporarily forgot that you have to play underground for about twenty minutes before you see the outside world. Still, the game recommended I turn the graphics down to Medium Detail (you best be joking) but I've pumped everything except anti aliasing up to full. I suppose I'll see the effect of this when I get into combat with eight spell-spitting daedra above ground in a blizzard. There was no noticeable slowdown during character creation or walking around my prison cell but it's early days yet. I also increased the graphical detail in Dark Messiah almost to their limit (anisotropic filtering only to x8 and anti aliasing only to x2) and still getting frame rates between 45 and 60 FPS according to FRAPS.

I feel I must comment on Dark Messiah and how much I'm enjoying it. It really is fantastic. Despite the amount of people complaining about bugs, crashes, and incompatibility I've had virtually no problems with it at all. The only thing I noticed was a tiny bit of texture flickering on a tree while I was under the effects of a night-vision spell. I'll be able to post a full rant on how much I enjoy the game once I've completed it. I'm sure I'll want to play it over again after I've finished it.

I do have a single complaint about the PC itself though. Everything is great but the motherboard only has one PCI card slot in addition to the PCI-E slot. And it is currently being used by the sound card. This means my capture card won't be installed in the new machine unless I decide to use the (considerably good) nForce sound on the motherboard and remove the Soundblaster Audigy card to make room.

Neither the Time nor the Place

It must be strange behaviour to write something as (relatively) private as a blog (yes I know that blogs get posted on to the Internet and therefore they can hardly be classified as "private", bear with me) such as this one in while at work rather than at home. There are one or two things that I'd like to write but they require uninterrupted time and space to think around. But still I write my blog from work. Probably to avoid actually doing anything constructive. One thing I'd like to blog about is free will (or more accurately, our lack of it). I know it's an old subject that countless fools and philosophers alike have blathered on about but I had a revelation last night that I thought I should share. The problem is a) I mostly blog at work, probably not the best location; and b) it's not easy for me to share this kind of thing, least of all on a blog where a great deal of communication (i.e. body language, tone, facial expression, e.t.c.) will be lost. Maybe I'll try later.

On the note of work, this afternoon I have a presentation to give to the entire college staff. That's right, every single one. I've never given a presentation to that many people before and being the introvert that I am I can see I'll have to concentrate on staying focussed and following the notes I've written up. It's not a presentation on how email will benefit the school, it's a presentation on how to use the email we already have. I would prefer to give several presentations to a number of smaller groups but the Powers That Be have decided to save time by doing it this way. I've had two people approach me since the meeting was announced, informing me that they need half of the time I've got. So now I've only got a third of the time I thought I had. I'll have to rocket through the entire thing going at a speed which makes note taking impossible or useless. I hope nothing goes wrong with the equipment while I'm up there since there won't be anyone to call for help since... well I'm one of the two ICT technicians here.

My new PC should be arriving this afternoon. I'll be very miffed if it doesn't. The specifications should keep me going for a while and allow me to play some of the more recent games I've either not been able to install or have only been playing on minimum graphics and two frames-per-second.
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 AM2 6000+ dual core
Memory: 4GB DDR2 800MHz
Graphics Card: PCI-E GeForce 8800GTS 640MB
Storage: 500GB SATA HDD
Sound Card: Creative Soundblaster Audigy 7.1
Optical Drive: DVD RW
So the processor isn't amazing (AMD are currently falling behind Intel's latest products) but the computer is far superior when compared to what I've been using up until now and it's certainly going to be good enough for me!

You might ask why I didn't buy components individually and build the computer myself since it is often cheaper to do so than to buy a computer pre-built. Well that's a good question, but the guys at Crystech might not have a very pretty website but they seem to do amazing deals on computers. I looked at eBay, Overclockers, and a few other sources and compared their prices but Crystech somehow came out on top. So I was happy to have them build a computer to my specifications and then deliver it to my door.

I'll probably end up writing here about how it performs. I plan on setting it all up this evening and performing benchmark tests on it as well as installing all the gadgets and games I'll want on it.

Alignment

A discussion that springs up in Dungeons and Dragons time and time again is the whole alignment debate. When you try to put things like morals and ethics into an almost black-and-white structure for a game, you come up with problems.

In my campaign I've tried to clarify the differences between alignments without changing the rules or interfering with what players have already learned about alignment. For example; when Samulus executed the injured, defenceless bandit who had tried to run from the PCs, he earned an "evil point". When Sten attempted to heal the bandit that had given up, he earned a "good point". So far no one has earned any chaos or law points. The way I'm handling alignment change is thus: characters start with two alignment scores both between 1 and 100, one score is for law/chaos, the other is for good/evil. A Lawful Evil character would have starting scores of 75/25, a Chaotic Neutral character would have scores of 25/50. When a character performs a good, evil, lawful or chaotic act, their alignment changes accordingly. Up for good/law, and down for evil/chaos. A score of 100/100 would be a pure Lawful Good character who almost never goes against laws or traditions, and always tries to help others. A character with a score of 30/52 would be a Chaotic Neutral character but we can see that they have performed some lawful acts, and one or two good acts. Perhaps they started out as a True Neutral character but acted in such a fashion that their law/chaos alignment dropped into Chaotic territory.

That's how I'm handling alignment change anyway. For the definition of alignment I'm asking a simple question. What would the character go out of his/her way to do? This is how I'm defining alignment. If a fighter would go out of his way (perhaps detouring on his journey, or spending precious time) to help break slaves free from an orc war camp then we can safely say that he is a Good character.

If a wizard would go out of his way (by using up valuable materials, spells, or resources perhaps) to burn a village down after the local elder council insulted him, then we can probably assume that he is an Evil character.

If a Ranger is willing to go out of her way (maybe by helping out to a greater extent than normal, or by using her rare abilities) to ensure the tax collector tracks down the peasants who are trying to dodge paying their lord's rent this month, then we can say that she is most likely a Lawful character.

If a cleric goes out of his way (by putting himself at risk) to hide the outlawed adventurers in the cellar under the temple, we can assume that he is a Chaotic character.

Of course, not everyone would repeat this sort of action all the time and so we still have neutral characters. While a Good character would go out of his way to help people more often than not, and an Evil character would go out of his way to harm people more often than not; a Neutral character might do both, or neither, establishing a middle-ground. And because the best stories involve the protagonist(s) learning and changing because of their experiences, I have tried to implement the alignment changing system outlined above. I think it will work.

The question that lies before me now is: will Samulus, the PC mentioned above, turn out to be Evil because of a lack of Good acts? How will that work? If he commits many selfish acts (Evil), bypasses situations in which he could make a choice one way or another (Neutral), but only acts kindly (Good) very rarely, he will eventually end up being an Chaotic Evil character, not a Chaotic Neutral character. Will that work? Will Samulus actually be Evil? I suppose I'll have to see. It will be a challenge for Samulus' player to role play, and a challenge for me to adjudicate when the time comes to decide. The other two PCs, Elysia and Sten, are hovering closely to their original alignments (Chaotic Neutral and Neutral Good respectively).

Another point to make about this system is gradual neutrality. If Samulus doesn't perform any outlandishly lawful or chaotic actions or a long time, can I still say that he is Chaotic Neutral? Should I add/subtract points towards neutrality when a character doesn't perform an act that swings them one way or another? You see, these are the problems you face when you try to put ethics and morality into nine labelled little boxes.

Two in One

Dungeons and Dragons went as well as could be expected. I thought there would be less capering and more gaming with the group that I have brought together, I know that everyone wants to have fun but too many jokes eventually detract from the game itself.

The members of the party seem relatively suspicious of one another. Actually they seem suspicious of everyone from the bailiff and the barman to the priestess and the druid. This is fine with me, I want to see who they eventually end up trusting the most... or at least being suspicious of the least. Bob's character, Elysia, keeps getting headaches when she is around certain NPCs; Nick's character, Sten, doesn't trust the other two PCs because they were so willing to use terminal force on the bandits they were sent to deal with; Sam's character, Samulus, doesn't trust Sten because he was so unwilling to use terminal force on the bandits. I want to pick up the pace for the next adventure which will be Adventure 3: The Curse of the Vargouille.

Which may hint at the speed at which the game was played yesterday. There was a lot of discussion and deliberation during the early stages of the game, there were perfectly normal accidents and mistakes (Samulus fell off a wall when trying to infiltrate the ruined tower the bandits were holed up in, meanwhile Sten was almost crippled by a goblin ambush on the way back to the village) which make for good role playing and character development. In the end, the players blazed through Adventure 1: The Watchtower with able speed and when I asked if they wanted to start Adventure 2: The Elixir they immediate said yes. I skipped through one part of the second adventure (originally the PCs were supposed to help the druid Ollen find his staff) because I felt like the players had done enough "fetch my boots" missions for one day. They also arrived at Ollen's location very quickly. I'm glad they visited the parts of the village that they did, they could have seen more but what they did see was important enough.

The NPCs they have interacted with so far have stirred questions in the minds of the players. They definitely don't trust Gendrax; they were first questioning about Kofrax but now seem to think of him as their personal piggy-bank; although their characters don't know about Elysia's problems with some NPCs they have encountered, the players are all discussing the strange headaches she has been getting; they think the local bailiff is obsessed with his work and a little too high-strung; and they think that the local courier is more than she seems too. They haven't asked many questions about the herb that Ollen, the druid, gave them; but Sam seems to think it has something to do with Elysia's headaches.

I can't wait for their discoveries of the secrets within Windy Cross and their reactions to each and every revelation. I hope they are enjoying it as much as they say they are. I think everyone would like to see more dice/heads rolling but at the moment the party is quite fragile. We'll have to see how they toughen up.

Sam also said he wants to see the bandit leader, Russ Needlebridge, again after he sent him running for the hills. I may do a full write-up of the gaming session and post it on my website later.

Also, now I'm back to work, it feels like the Christmas fortnight off was longer than the summer holidays break. Go figure.

Tomorrow is Party Time

Tomorrow is the big day. As in, the début for my D&D campaign. I'm hoping it will go smoothly and everyone will ease into the adventure without any trouble. My youngest brother Sam is playing an indiscriminate halfling thief(again); one of my house-mates, Nick, is playing a mid-life-crisis bard; and Bob (who I was introduced to when Nick started GMing a WFRP campaign) is playing an outcast ranger. I'm looking forward to the gaming, especially since the party doesn't have any specialised tanks, healers, or nukers to speak of. Sounds like it will be role-play heavy and relatively combat light. That's fine with me.

The holiday is coming to an end. It's back to work on Monday for me; I've gotten used to not riding out to Robertsbridge every morning and sitting on my backside in a cramped office half the size of my bedroom... to be honest I'd like a career change. I don't think I want to work in the computing field any more, I'd rather do something else. The big problem is knowing what to pursue.

It was my mum's birthday yesterday. I got her a photo album box; it's a small chest with 'window frames' on every side (except the bottom) in which you can put photos from you collection. Inside there are sleeves for more photos which fit into slots that remind me of the slides for the really old cameras that had separate stands to hold the magnesium (was it magnesium?). I'm also going to take her to a restaurant on Thursday for a meal because I don't get to talk with my mum when I visit as Marcos or Sam have a habit of interrupting.

Nick bought Mass Effect and I've been playing that a lot recently. It's a very good game. I can see how they built up from the ideas in KotOR, but I also see how the game is moving away from the old "click the enemy to have your character attack them" style. Games like Deus Ex, Arx Fatalis, and Morrowind have been labelled "not real RPGs" because they used the first person shooter style of combat rather than the Diablo/Baldurs Gate style of fighting. But I see more and more RPG games moving towards the personal, more involving way of handling combat. I for one think it is a good move. Computer games are there to give a simulation of an alternate reality, not to provide a flashy graphical interface representing a dice roll. I play tabletop RPGs at home, and that's fine. When you play a pen & paper RPG you use your imagination to illustrate rolling a 16 on a d20 while in combat. When you play a computer game you are removed from the dice rolling. Okay, some games show you the dice rolls, but for me a computer game should make the RPG aspect of the story and character development even more of a background element. Would F.E.A.R.'s gunfights be as dramatic and exciting if shooting an enemy resulted in a number flickering above their head indicating how much damage they had taken? Would you rather kill the end boss in a game with a skilfully pulled off head-shot among the chaos of battle, or simply see "CRITICAL HIT!" as your in-game avatar decapitates the enemy for you?

Well my soapbox is threatening to crumple beneath me so that's it for now. I may report on the first D&D session's outcome soon.