I saw this online, and laughed out loud...



It's the conspiracy-theory favorite "Grassy Gnoll".

Hah! That's funny.

Thu Oct 16, 2008 8:18 pm

....is the time-stamp for the very first post by Emily in the Rivenroar thread, which kicked-off our Scales of War campaign. That means she has been DMing the campaign for 649 days, 19 hours, and 47 minutes as of this post.

Congratulations on putting up with all of our crap for so long! And thank you very much!

Just 1000 or so more days to go, eh.

I have enjoyed the ride and look forward to more. Oh, I have such lovely plans for the Liberators...

Next Tuesday, February 22nd is the launch for the Dragon Age 2 demo on PC, Xbox360, and PS3!!!!!

Long live Ferelden!

I started playing Dragon Age: Origins over the weekend. Only a little bit in, but it's awesome.

Gary wrote

I started playing Dragon Age: Origins over the weekend. Only a little bit in, but it's awesome.

Welcome to the Grey Wardens!

I am disappointed in Dragon Age 2.

I didn't get it. I tried playing the original again to get some of the achievements a couple months ago and was reminded how bad/boring the combat was (especially considering how good it is in Mass Effect). What is wrong with the second one?

I've only played the DA2 demo so far, but am excited how they upped the pacing of combat a lot. I've played ME1 and ME2 as well. From what I've seen, DA2 has adopted the cinematic conversation style from the mass effect series and also focuses on one main character only (similar to how mass effect focuses on Shepard). As such, all dialogue and cut scenes are voice acted probably.

The battles are very fast paced if you want them to be (with no pausing), akin to an an action shooter, or very slowed down with pausing for chained commands if you prefer. It's user driven I think. Storywise, I can't really comment although I think that the "origin story" concept is gone with focus being on just one character (Hawke). Given the similarities to the mass effect series, I'm guessing the plot would be more linear overall as well.

I'm more a fluff than crunch person. I really liked the story and replayability of Origins. The characters were amusing and the romances options were fun. So far, the characters in DA2 are flat and the story is not appealing. The fighting seems about the same as before.

Yeah, the story of DA:O was fantastic, as were the characters. I was just trying to replay it and couldn't get past the unwieldy combat.

DA2 combat isn't unwieldy anymore and doesn't have any lag from selecting a power and it being executed. At least not in the demo and on the ps3. I think PC also has a demo version, so you could try that Josh.

Sounds like you don't like the story of DA2 Emily. I hope I won't be similarly disappointed once I start playing. I think we all agree the origin stories were very fun in DA1. I actually played through all six origin stories before picking a character to start the campaign.

Hah!

It was especially annoying when Githyanki (as partially written-up in the Monster Manual) were the only Int/Con race (a combo that's perfect for several classes), but weren't fully PC-ified. Now that Warforged and Genasi can go Int/Con, there's less Githyanki longing. But they still are pretty awesome.

Is that a spelljammer backdrop?

Pretty much. It's the cover to 4e's The Plane Above - Secrets of the Astral Sea, which has some Spelljammer slipped into it.

Invisi has abandoned us. Does anyone know any other die rolling websites that keep a record of the roll?

It did this one other time, where it was down for a couple weeks. I am hoping that is all this is.

Not sure if it's been discussed other places, but IC is back up and running.

Has anyone tried one of these? Are they only events at certain places or could we do a live session one ourselves?

I think Lair Assault is one of organized play WotC's store events, like Encounters or Living Forgotten Realms. I haven't really looked into it. However, even if WotC doesn't officially recognize home play of the scenarios, we could probably find one online and play it just for fun.

Check it out. Not a new Baldur's Gate as many had hoped and yet I'm intrigued.

http://www.baldursgate.com/news/2012/03/15/announcing-baldurs-gate-enhanced-edition/

Interesting. But the electronic gaming news of the day I'm more excited about is Blizzard announcing that Diablo III will be reeleased May 15th.

Yes, saw that, and it is exciting. Especially since my 6 year old computer is crapping out on me, which means I'm due for a new one that will hopefully stand up to Diablo III (although my free time won't). Any recommendations? I recall you got a new PC recently and can't remember the brand/specs.