Gaming…

Lets see… I played some more WoW. Did a random dungeon. Still didn’t have my Microphone working, but we managed. However, I did figure it out shortly after the dungeon was done. A short rant… So, I have this wicked Creative X-fi card that a friend gave me and I love it. It sounds awesome and Windows 7 just worked with it. No tweaking needed. Except the Mic. I’ve fought with it every time I try and use the Mic since installing Windows 7. Every time I gave up in disgust. No posts from people with similar issues, so I had no clue what it was. I checked and rechecked every setting in Windows Sound. The Microphone jack just showed up as empty. I was baffled. So, I dug through every screen in the Creative Tools application and finally found this one that said something about using the in-line jack as a microphone. Bingo. Worked like a charm. Why would you have this option? That seems silly. Plus, why would that be on by default??? Windows 7 detected that I had another Microphone jack on the front of my PC (which I don’t), so I can only guess that creative decided that if I have this other jack, I’d probably want the other one to be used for an input. Fine… What ever. Much aggravation was had, but it’s done now. I still love the sound quality out of the card, so I’ll forgive a thing like that. Ok, so that was that short of a rant. Oh well. You wanted to hear from me, you’ll hear from me!

Re: Gaming

So, after posting about WoW and listening to The Instance podcast, I decided to load it up and give another try. Solo, but still. I hopped on just to see what had changed, and there was quite a bit. Some very cool new dungeons, that my old friends helped me promptly vanquish. Of course, now I have to decide if I want to let it drag me back in. I could see playing a lot with them, but I don’t think Amy is into it. I think she’s just fallen out of love with it. So, this would leave me with only a night or two a week to play. Which is OK. I could still have some fun on those nights. We’ll see what happens.

Gaming

So, gaming of late has been odd for us. We’ve been doing so many non-video game related activities that we really haven’t been able to put much force behind any one game.

We’ve been playing D&D with a new group. I’m actually playing in it. That’s been nice, but I kind of miss DMing. Not enough to start another game. We are already starting another that I will be playing in as well. I’m playing a Cleric right now, decked out to heal and it’s over kill. We have 5-7 players in a given game session and I have yet to run out of healing. I don’t know if it’s the DM’s fault or mine. I really twinked this Cleric to be heal heavy. So, I think I’m going to morph him big time and make a Cleric/Wizard. I’m really interested in how the multiclassing works out. It seems kind of weak at low levels, but it could be pretty cool at higher levels. I either go that way, or I completely re-roll and make a Barbarian to rip shit up. That would be fun too…

On the video game scene, we’ve pretty much quit WoW. We play once a month, maybe. Mostly, we’ve been not playing. Watching more TiVo together and cuddling. That’s always fun. When we do play, it’s been Borderlands or Left 4 Dead 2. Both of which are stellar games. Borderlands is like the ultimate video game for me. First person shooter with RPG elements. It even includes some hot chicks. What more could anyone want!? We also picked up Fable II on the Xbox. I mean, literally ON the Xbox. No disc even. For those interested (Jen and Bobby), you can download the first “Chapter” for free. The game is multi-player, in a way, on the same box. You can play tandem with one person as a “Hero” and the other as their “henchman.” This works out really well for us. It’s a cool story and we both get to participate in it. I also started going through Guitar Hero 3 on Hard. I’m about 2/3rds of the way through and starting to struggle. That game gets DAMNED hard quick…

Well, that’s all for my games wrap up. I’ll try and post again before 2010…

Social Networking

I don’t know why it works the way it does. I guess it escapes me. I love the idea of sharing information with my friends that I rarely see, but I have a hard time putting down anything in words. I always worry that what I have to say is trivial and not interesting to anyone. But when I do have something really important, like asking Amy to marry me, I have a hard time writing to. Maybe I’m just too private of a person to be a social networker. That’s not actually a word, btw. So, this bring up the question for me, what do you want to read? What do you enjoy reading? Are there any posts I have put up here that you really found interesting? Maybe I just need to focus on some part of my life and keep updating about that.

More D&D

So, we took the plunge and joined ANOTHER D&D group through the Internets. I know, it’s a gamble, but it paid off pretty well. The new group is a little bit of a drive, but not that bad. about 20-30 minutes away. The group is quite new to D&D 4th, but I’m OK with that. I get to pay. I built a pretty interesting great spear wielding cleric that can kick out the heals, and do some nice damage from a safe distance. I like him a lot. The DM comes from a more story-teller based background, so he’s all about story and skill checks. I like it. It seemed a bit hoaky at first explanation, but he executed it pretty well. Kind of a murder mystery through D&D. I hope he can pull it off well. So far, not too bad.

D&D and the temple of doom

So, I had a good game of D&D last night. Ran my group through another installment of the Sanctum of Raina (not actual name) and they fared pretty well. Only one near wipe, and that wasn’t heir fault. They triggered an encounter with 6 Clay Scouts in a wide open room. Said meanies throw a mind bolt at range that no only makes it so you can do almost nothing (daze effect), but when the PCs are dazed by the effect, all of the scouts become invisible! A might be over powered if you ask me. I think it might have been OK if there were half as many of them. I’ll remember that next time.

I got to play with some very fun encounter types in this part of the delve, including a very fun room with a pillar trap that would summon skeletons every time you got near a pillar. Even when the skeletons got near them, they summoned more! It was awesome. I think I actually cackled with glee at one point. They ended up killing over 30 skeleton minions before the trap was all said and done. AND I dropped two party members in the fight. I would say that’s a perfect challenge for the party. It never felt like they couldn’t win, but it pushed them to the edge. They also got a boat load of exp for killing so many skeletons. Much fun was had!

And, next week I get to play in a game! Woohoo!!! I can’t wait for that part. I’m planning a wicked little Paladin healer. Should be really fun to be on the other side of the DM shield again. I just pray that this new group is good. They are an unknown quantity in the extreme. Here’s hope they don’t blow donkies!

Primed and ready to go!

So, the other night I finished priming all of my minis. They are now much more chaotic looking, since they are sprayed Chaos Black. Now for the long journey of painting them. I’ll be sure to post pictures of my “test cases” soon. Now I need to find a good color scheme to pull my army together.

Next time I try and photograph black minis, I’ll put them on a background that ISN’T black…

Primed!

Organizing chaos

It took a while, but here is the first milestone for my Chaos Army. I have clipped, glued, and accessorized the horde that will some day soon trample my foes under boot and hoof. Now, I just have to assemble the other 12 warriors, 10 Chosen Warriors and Lord of Chaos. Oh, and then I have to prime them all. Oh yeah, then I need to paint them all meticulously  so they strike fear into the hearts of man… OK. Maybe it won’t be some day soon. But it will happen. Mark my words, it WILL happen! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

My Army of Chaos!!

Plastic Chaos Theory

In response to my last update about paining abilities, I have fallen to the dark side. I bought a 2000 point Warriors of Chaos army. I will post some pictures when I have mustered my nefarious men of war!!! So far, I have clipped and glued 2 regiments or 22 soldiers. This might take a while…

I can’t wait to try out some new techniques I learned in the session. I also signed up for a kind of painting boot-camp they do with one of the Games Workshop professional painters. It’s 6 weeks of Warhammer painting! I can’t wait!

Mini painting

Maybe tonight I will post some of the latest batch. I think they turned out pretty good.

The point of this though, is that I want to find some way to get better. You know, besides just practicing more. Scott Kurtz, wecomic artist, has been dabbling in mini painting for his D&D game and posted some pictures. I think mine turn out pretty close to as good. I like his dry brushing better, but the thing I really envy are his bases. Mine usually look silly under the mini. I really dig this look. I know how to do the flocking on the base, but I can’t tell if he’s actually painting that crackle effect around the edges. I really dig it!

Scott Kurtz painted mini

For reference purposes, here are a couple of the ones I’ve done in the past and posted. Like I said, I like my results too, but the base is a really nice touch.

Chigatana painted mini

Along the lines of learning this stuff, Amy and I will be driving down the bay area this weekend to go to a car show, and we will be stopping at the Games Workshop store. They will sit down with you and show you how to paint their minis for free! How awesome is that? They tend to be more on the Warhammer side, but that’s OK. The old school Warhammer minis work well for D&D too. Here’s hoping I get good!