Raised on a steady diet of comic books, you grew up to be an unstable lunatic, whose wacky ambitions are only matched by your delusions of grandeur. You're too crafty to get caught, otherwise you'd certainly be locked away in the loony bin!
I have a number iof things that are out that I want/need to buy.
- New HD to replace the one that is in the process of dying on me. This one is fairly urgent, as it is the HD that has my OS on it, and without it, I am stuck using my wife's laptop. While it is nice, it is slow, and it isn.t mine.
- FallOut 3
- Fable 2
- Gears of War 2
- Subscription to XBox Live for a year.
Unfortunately, my budget doesn't have room for all of the above at once.
The new hardrive is a necessity. There are some nice Seagate 250GB drives at Future Shop, I just have to check at home tonight to see if my system can use SATA drives. My BIOS says that it can, I just don't know if I have the connectors.
With some XBox 360 games that I have finished and that I plan on turning in to Future shop, I should get close to $50 in gift certificates, which will bring me close enough to the purchase price of a game for the XBox. I just finished Gears of War, and was fairly disappointed by the shortness of it. Less than 10 hours, all told. Gears of war, while it is expected to have more story, will still be on the short side of things. Plus, Gears of War 2 has on-line multiplayer as its big draw. I don't have that much time for that. plus, I am more n the mood for an RPg right now.
So that leaves me with Fable 2 or FallOut 3. I am nto sure that you can get a more contrasting pair of games in there, unless you were to throw in a JRPG. FallOut 3 is fairly serious, and is supposed to have a lot of different options. The skill system is supposed to be extremely well-developed, and the game is apparantly fairly true to the FallOut franchise. At the same time, it is fairly dark and serious. Fable 2, OTOH, is a bit simpler, but more of a sandbox game from what I have seen described. It contains a lot of silliness, but apparantly also has a lot of silliness in it.
Decisions, decisions. There is also the option of dropping the gift cards on anothet Hard Drive to expand my goodness and then dual-booting with Windows XP on one and then Linux on the other...
I spent some of the weekend, poking around inside my computer.
I took the sides off, and started it up, trying to figure out which of my HDs the noise is coming from. Turns out it is not coming from my HDs, the clicking/grinding is coming from one of my DVD players. When I put my hand on it, I can feel it vibrating.
However, that still doesn't change the fact that my computer won't start up. I tried putting my Windows Installation disk in the drive and set the drive to be the start-up device, and there was no happiness. No real difference in what happened.
This all started wednesday morning, after the power outage on Tuesday night. My computer stuff is behind a power-bar, and we did lose power once or twice on tuesday night/wednesday morning.
Help!!
Some tips to keep us all safe this Halloween!
0. Do NOT under any circumstances whatsoever tempt fate.
1. When it appears that you have killed the monster, NEVER check to see if
it’s really dead.
2. Never read a book of demon summoning aloud, even as a joke.
3. Do not search the basement, especially if the power has gone out.
4. If your children speak to you in Latin or any other language which they
should not know, shoot them immediately. It will save you a lot of grief in
the long run. However, it will probably take several rounds to kill them, so
be prepared. This also applies to kids who speak with somebody else’s voice.
5. When you have the benefit of numbers, NEVER pair off and go alone.
6. As a general rule, don’t solve puzzles that open portals to Hell.
7. Never stand in, on, or above a grave, tomb, or crypt. This would apply to
any other house of the dead as well.
8. If you’re searching for something which caused a loud noise and find out
that it’s just the cat, GET THE HELL OUT!
9. If appliances start operating by themselves, do not check for short
circuits; just get out.
10. Do not take ANYTHING from the dead.
11. If you find a town which looks deserted, there’s probably a good reason
for it. Don’t stop and look around.
12. Don’t fool with recombinant DNA technology unless you’re sure you know
what you’re doing.
14. No, the previous number isn’t missing; Remember rule 0.
15. If you’re running from the monster, expect to trip or fall down at least
twice, more if you are female. Also note that, despite the fact that you are
running and the monster is merely shambling along, it’s still moving fast
enough to catch up with you.
16. If your companions suddenly begin to exhibit uncharacteristic behavior
such as hissing, fascination for blood, glowing eyes, increasing hairiness,
and so on, kill them immediately.
17. Stay away from certain geographical locations, some of which are listed
here: Amityville, Elm Street, Transylvania, Nilbog (you’re in trouble if you
recognize this one), anywhere in Texas where chainsaws are sold, the Bermuda
Triangle, or any small town in Maine.
18. If your car runs out of gas at night on a lonely road, do not go to he
nearby deserted-looking house to phone for help. If you think that it is
strange you ran out of gas because you thought you had most of a tank, shoot
yourself instead. You are going to die anyway, and most likely be eaten.
19. Beware of strangers bearing tools. For example: chainsaws, staple guns,
hedge trimmers, electric carving knives, combines, lawnmowers, butane
torches, soldering irons, band saws, or any devices made from deceased
companions.
20. If you find that your house is built upon a cemetery, now is the time to
move in with the in-laws. This also applies to houses that had previous
inhabitants who went mad or committed suicide or died in some horrible
fashion, or had inhabitants who performed satanic practices.
21. Dress appropriately. When investigating a noise downstairs in an old
house, women should not wear a flimsy negligee. And carry a flashlight, not
a candle.
22. Do not mention the names of demons around open flames, as these can
flare suddenly. Be especially careful of fireplaces in this regard.
23. Do not go looking for witches in the Maryland countryside.
24. The mentally challenged make vengeful ghosts and revenants, don’t mock them.
The application I am working on is 400 pages, and the prior art for it is 500 pages.
Stolen from seankreynolds.
If you are on my friends list, I want to know 36 things about you.
I don't care if we never talk, or if we already know everything about each other.
Short and sweet is fine... you're on my list, so I want to know you better!
Comment here and repost a blank one on your own journal.
01) Are you currently in a serious relationship?
02) What was your dream growing up?
03) What talent do you wish you had?
04) If I bought you a drink what would it be?
05) Favorite vegetable?
06) What was the last book you read?
07) What zodiac sign are you?
08) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.
09) Worst Habit?
10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?
11) What is your favorite sport?
12) Do you have a Pessimistic or Optimistic attitude?
13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?
15) Tell me one weird fact about you.
16) Do you have any pets?
17) What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly?
18) What was your first impression of me?
19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
22) What color eyes do you have?
23) Ever been arrested?
24) Bottle or can soda?
25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
26) Favorite band to listen to when you're mad?
27) What's your favorite place to hang out at?
28) Do you believe in ghosts?
29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
30) Do you swear a lot?
31) Biggest pet peeve?
32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?
33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?
34) Favourite and least favourite food?
35) Do you believe in God?
36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?
Ability Scores:
Strength-13
Dexterity-14
Constitution-13
Intelligence-15
Wisdom-12
Charisma-11
Alignment:
Lawful Neutral A lawful neutral character acts as law, tradition, or a personal code directs him. Order and organization are paramount to him. He may believe in personal order and live by a code or standard, or he may believe in order for all and favor a strong, organized government. Lawful neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you are reliable and honorable without being a zealot. However, lawful neutral can be a dangerous alignment because it seeks to eliminate all freedom, choice, and diversity in society.
Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.
Class:
Monks are versatile warriors skilled at fighting without weapons or armor. Good-aligned monks serve as protectors of the people, while evil monks make ideal spies and assassins. Though they don't cast spells, monks channel a subtle energy, called ki. This energy allows them to perform amazing feats, such as healing themselves, catching arrows in flight, and dodging blows with lightning speed. Their mundane and ki-based abilities grow with experience, granting them more power over themselves and their environment. Monks suffer unique penalties to their abilities if they wear armor, as doing so violates their rigid oath. A monk wearing armor loses their Wisdom and level based armor class bonuses, their movement speed, and their additional unarmed attacks per round.
Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)
Detailed Results:
Alignment:
Lawful Good ----- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (20)
Neutral Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (19)
Chaotic Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (14)
Lawful Neutral -- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (21)
True Neutral ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (20)
Chaotic Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (15)
Lawful Evil ----- XXXXXXXXXXX (11)
Neutral Evil ---- XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Chaotic Evil ---- XXXXX (5)
Law & Chaos:
Law ----- XXXXXXXXX (9)
Neutral - XXXXXXXX (8)
Chaos --- XXX (3)
Good & Evil:
Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXX (11)
Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXX (12)
Evil ---- XX (2)
Race:
Human ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13)
Dwarf ---- XXXXXXXX (8)
Elf ------ XXXXXXXXXX (10)
Gnome ---- XXXXXXXX (8)
Halfling - XXXXXXXXXXXX (12)
Half-Elf - XXXXXXXXXXX (11)
Half-Orc - XX (2)
Class:
Barbarian - (-25)
Bard ------ (-25)
Cleric ---- (-6)
Druid ----- XX (2)
Fighter --- XXXX (4)
Monk ------ XXXXXX (6)
Paladin --- (-21)
Ranger ---- (0)
Rogue ----- (0)
Sorcerer -- (0)
Wizard ---- XX (2)
Gears of War 2
FallOut 3
They both lie at very opposite ends of the spectrum. GoW 2 is a first person shooter. Much violence (chainsaw gun!!), much blood, guts and gore. Looks very, very cool. Fallout 3, on the other hand, is very much a RPG. It also looks very, very cool. The gameplay (based on the videos) looks very similar to that in the old FallOut RPGs.
So which one do I choose?
For example, I can share cool posts and blogs that I really like. I plan on using this feature more often.
Your result for The Mythological God Test...
Thoth
Indeed, you are 67% erudite, 63% sensual, 46% martial, and 46% saturnine.
Within his main temple were said to be stored his books of magic which were open for the edification of all, providing those absorbing this magic understood its sacred content. Over the centuries, these books were said to have been carefully translated by various priests of secret orders until finally, the Greeks compiled them as the works of Hermes Trismegistus.
One book most everyone is familiar with which is attributed to the mysteries of the God Thoth is the Tarot, considered to be an unbound book of symbols that may be read in an endless variety of sequences imitating the random nature of existence itself.
The Fifteen Gods
These are the 15 categories of this test. If you score above average in
all or none of the four variables: Dagda.
Erudite: Thoth.
Sensual: Frey.
Martial: Mars.
Saturnine: Mictlantecuhtli.
Erudite & Sensual: Amun.
Erudite & Martial: Odin.
Erudite & Saturnine: Anubis.
Sensual & Martial: Zeus.
Sensual & Saturnine: Cernunnos.
Martial & Saturnine: Loki.
Erudite, Sensual & Martial: Lug.
Erudite, Sensual & Saturnine: Coyote.
Erudite, Martial & Saturnine: Hades.
Sensual, Martial & Saturnine: Pan.
What class to pick this time??
I am thinking I will go straight Adept this time, and go for soldier the next time.
It always, always puts them in order. Even if I have read a whole bunch of them, I need to scroll through the read ones to get to the older unread ones. That is a pain in the ass with the number of updates that show up.
I would use an offline aggregator, except for the fact that I check the feeds at work and update certain threads/posts on the WotC website.
Does anyone out there reading this know of any decent online RSS aggregators??
And then I found out that there looks like there is going to be a Fallout MMO.
Me is a happy!!
- Mood:
happy
There are some steps you want to do first before we start work on this.
1 - Open the grid file that you saved.
2 - Save the file under the name of the dungeon that you are working on. Make sure that you
are not working on the master grid file. If you want to be really safe, set your original grid file to be
read-only.
Making the dungeon layer
The first thing that we want to do is to make a dungeon layer. This is the layer that will contain the
layout of the dungeon.
1 - In your layers window, make a new layer (I called mine Dungeon Layer). Set the Layer Fill type
to either foreground or background.
You should now have three icons in your Layers Window. You look at them top to bottom. The top
layer
should be your grid (If you want to change the name, just double click on the name of the layer, and
change it.). The second layer is the colour of your dungeon walls, rocks, etc, the third layer, that you
just created, will be the colour of the open areas of the dungeon.
2 - Using the Up/Down arrows in the Layers Window, move the layer you just created to the top of
the stack.
3 - Configure the grid to what you had it before. (In my case, 16 pixels apart)
4 - Use the Foreground/background colour selector (red rectangle) and pick a colour that you
want the filled-in of your dungeon to be.>
5 - Select the Fill with Colour or Pattern tool. (Red Circle)
6 - Make sure that Fill Type is set to either FG (Foreground) or BG (Background) colour,
depending on which colour you want to use.
7 - Click somewhere, and the layer should change colours.
8 - Move the layer to the middle of the stack.
Making the Dungeon
Now we are going to make the dungeon. The concept that you want to keep in mind is that we are cutting into the rock of the dungeon, leaving behind holes the shape of the corridors, rooms, etc
1 - Enable Snap to Grid (View -> Snap to Grid) if you want. I will be working with it enabled.
Having Snap to grid enabled will force all lines to be either vertical, horizontal or diagonal. This is useful when drawing castles, prisons and other dungeons that have been worked and contain traditional, straight-line architecture.
Having Snap to grid disabled will let you draw freehand. This is helpful for drawing cavern systems, curves and natural dungeons.
2 - Pick either the Select Rectangular (Red square) or Select Elliptical (Red circle) tools. (I'll be using the Rectangular tool in this example.
3 - Select an area.
4 - Switch to the Freehand selection tool. (That is the lasoo beside the Select Elliptical tool)
5 - Now press and hold the shift button
You should see a little cross beside the cursor. That means that you are adding to the area you are selecting.
6 - Add some hallways and rooms by drawing their outline.
7 - After drawing each room, let go of the mouse button to see what it looks like. If you don't like it, you can always press CTRL-Z to undo it.
Here is the dungeon so far.
8 - Hmm, that room in the upper left-hand corner isn't right. Not symmetric, I want to remove the top level of squares.
Let go of Shift, and hold CTRL. You should see a little minus sign appear next to the cursor. You are now removing areas from the selection.
The red square in the image below is the area that I outlined while holding CTRL.
This is the result.
9 - Let go of the CTRL button, and you should have an outline of the dungeon so far.
10 - Hold the Shift button down and continue adding rooms/corridors as you want.
11 - When done, let go of the shift button.
12 - Edit -> Cut
13 - Play with the Fill tool and the colours until you get the contrast that you want.
If you want to change the colour of the stone, click on the middle layer in the Layers window, choose the fill tool, choose a colour and click on a stone area.
If you want to change the colour of the open areas of the dungeon, click the bottom layer in the windows area, choose the fill tool, choose a colour and click anywhere.
14 - Now, in the Layers window, move the grid layer to the middle, and you will have your finished dungeon.
15 - To make columns or rooms within rooms, simply make the room outline first (Using Shift) and then, using CTRL, draw the columns where you want them.
There you go.
Create a New File
1 - Start up Gimp
2 - Create a new file
File->New; or CTRL + N
Here are the settings that I will be using:
Click OK
Create a Grid
1 - View -> Show Grid
The default settings has the grid being a bunch of crosses. Nice for drawing, kinda useless for making a dungeon. We need to change this to lines suitable for an (x,y) coordinate grid system.
2 - Image -> Configure Grid
3 - Change the line style from Intersections - Crosshairs to Solid
4 - The default spacing for me was 10 pixels apart. On my screen, I decided that was too small, so I increased it to 16 pixels apart. This is entirely up to you. You will probably have to play a bit to find a setting that works for your map.
5 - Make sure the image is displayed at 100%. You can double check this by looking at the header of the window. If it is not at 100%, go the lower left-hand corner of the window and set the drop-down menu to 100%.
6 - Take a screenshot. In Windows, the fastest way is to click the Print Screen key on your keyboard. For Macintosh, it comes with a tool that can take screenshots, found in the Application list.
7 - Edit -> Paste as New
8 - Select your Crop Tool. There are three ways to do this. The first is Tools -> Transform Tools -> Crop and Resize. The second is Shift-C. The Third is to use the button on the main Gimp Toolbar.
9 - Make sure the window setting is at 100 % and that the entire grid is visible in your window. You may have to expand the window to do this.
10 - Starting at the Upper-left hand corner, click and drag down to the lower right-hand corner. Once you click the button, a window will open up. Ignore it. You will know when you are perfectly aligned with the borders of the grid when the borders of the grid change colours.
11 - Click Crop.
12 - Save the image as a GIMP XCF image.
Cleaning up the grid
1 - Pick the Select Regions by colour tool.
2 - Click inside one of the squares.
3 - Edit - Cut (CTRL + X)
4 - It will look kinda wierd, but that is all right, we haven't set a background colour yet.
Adding background layer beneath grid
Now it is time to add the background layer that will go beneath the grid.
1 - First you need to select a colour for the underlayer beneath the grid.
2 - Go to the Tool window and click on the background colour.
3 - Using the options, pick a colour. I am using 6f6363 (the html code) in my example.
4 - There are two ways to add a new layer. Through the Window Menus (Layer -> New Layer) or from the Layers Control Panel. (See red circle)
5 - Make sure the Layer Fill Type is set to Background colour, give it a name (I called mine Underlayer) and click OK. Your precious grid just disappeared, but don't worry, it is just hidden by the new layer you put in.
6 - Go to the Layers window, click on the new layer that you just created, and click on the down arrow. Voila, your grid just appeared.
7 - Save your file.
Thanks to SpaXe for the inspiration and for allowing me to copy his Photoshop Tutorial format.Map Making Tutorial for Gimp - Part 1
Hello all,
I have spent some time putting together this small tutorial for mapmaking with GIMP. GIMP can be found at http://www.gimp.org/ If you own the software and it is accessible on a computer, and can't wait to make a map for your campaign, this tutorial is right for you.
My goal is to create a simple step-by-step instruction that an experienced user can whip out in 10 minutes, 30 minutes for first-timers. You can always expand your map later.
Before We Start
This tutorial assumes you use Microsoft Windows as your OS. If you are a Macintosh user, substitute Command in place of Ctrl, and Option in place of Alt, and so forth. If you are using GIMP on another OS, you should be familiar with the user interface available.
I use GIMP 2.2.15 myself. If you have an older version of GIMP, don't worry. It can still do wonders for you. However, some of the graphical user interface may not be in the same place, or look the same as mine. If you have a different image editing software, this tutorial may be a good reference for you. If you are confused in following any step, or find an error in the tutorial, feel free to PM me, or discuss in this thread with others!
Is This Tutorial For me?
If you have no experience with GIMP, but own it, and want to attempt at making a map, this is for you!
If you are also a GIMP user, and have inspirational experience to share with the Weavers community, post away! I will compile an index in this first post, providing hyperlinks to your posts.
What Do I Need?
* A computer with GIMP installed and capable of running.
* A curious, never-afraid-to-try mindset.
* The desire to make a map for your own campaign!
Tutorial Index
* Part 1 - Making A Grid For Your Map
* Part 2 - Defining Your Own Dungeon
* Part 3 - Creating Your Own Tokens
He has played a lot of D&D, all the way from AD&D up to 3.5, and is fairly familiar with the rules.
The rumors and bits that he had heard about 4E worried him, and he wanted a quick overview of the rules. So we went through the PHB from cover to cover, section by section. Once he started seeing how all of the individual pieces that he saw that had worried him all fit together, he started getting a lot more excited about playing in 4E.
One of the things that worried him was the whole "roles" idea in 4E. Once he figured out that character creation in 4E required a bit of a shift in thinking, it clicked in his mind. In 3.5, a large part of what your character can do is decided by what class you pick. In 4E, they take this concept and abstract it a bit farther. First you decide what you want to do. That is your role. Then, once you have decided your role, you look at the various classes that are in that role and decide how you want to perform that role.
He also seemed very cautious about the skill challenges. After giving him a couple of examples, including the ones in the DMG (questioning a corpse, navigating a forest) and explaining that failure was not the end of the adventure, it just added some difficulty, he got really excited. More so when I said that the skills that were to be used were at the discretion of the players. If they came up with a good use of a skill, then I as the DM would allow them to try it, that the list wasn't a hard limit, the list was just suggestions.
He also liked, once it was explained, the multiclassing method. He saw that it didn't allow quite as much freedom for choice as it did in 3.5, but he saw how the limits in the choices were all much more viable as the multiclassing is much more tightly controlled. He also saw how it would allow a lot more customization of your character to make one fighter/cleric a lot more different from another fighter/cleric. Combine that with the retraining aspect of 4E, and he was very happy.
All in all, despite no combat it went quite well, and I look forward to starting a once-a month campaign in the fall for a bunch of people. I plan on starting first an introductory session or two with the pre-generated characters from WotC and some basic gladitorial combat ("You have been brought together by a mysterious power to fight for the amusement of a crowd. Fight or die!!") to get them used to the combat mechanics. I imagine one or two frinday nights of that, then get into the actual gaming.
I haven't yet decided on whether I will pick out one of the WotC modules, or work on one myself. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. We will see.
If you have ever wondered what atom smashers do, this little tune is for you.
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wolfstar, vacation beats blogging like rock beats scissors.I have been on vacation since the first of August. My youngest daughter is heading to daycare on the 8th of September, and my wife goes back to work (from maternity leave) the same date. So, because we haven't had an actual vacation in a while, combined with the look in my wife's eyes that said that if I didn't take the vacation, I would be coming home one day to find my kids locked in the dryer, I took the month off. The Collective Agreement that my work has is great. Combined with the wonders of the Canadian social network, I am getting pretty much my full salary for the month that I took off.
This is the last week of my vacation, and it looks to be a good one. My wife is at her school, running a training camp for her schools cheerleading team, so I get to play with my daughters all day.
My oldest is almost 3 1/2 years old. She is starting to assert what she feels is her authority. I am papa when she is asking for something, and Marcel! when she is demanding something. If I then don't answer, I become Marcello!! It is rather cute. She is also demonstrating a surprising amount of intelligence that I wouldn't expect from a 3 1/2 year old. For example. Last week, when I was staying at the chalet with the in-laws and my daughters (my wife was in town running a summer camp for, you guessed it, cheerleaders), we drove by a rock cliff. My daughter piped up "One day, we will get rope and climb the cliff". Nothing unusual in that, except for the fact that the only time that she has seen someone climbing anything with a rope is in Robin Hood. Another thing. We were asking her questions about who lived on what lake. When she was stumped with one answer, she told us "Wait a minute, I need to reflect on my answer." WTF??
Anyways, more tomorrow. For now, it is bed time.
- Mood:
sleepy - Music:I kissed a Girl - Katy Perry
