Timewaster's Guide Archive

I haven't read Order of the Stick, but the authors have a short bio at the end and one of them said that he wrote that comic or came up with the idea or something (not sure, don't have Dungeonscape handy to check).

I think the controls for Armored Core are the same since the original.  The story in all of them is kinda strange too, it never actually explains any of it, but just kind of gives you clues to what is going on.  The very core of the plot is about the same in all of them, though (except maybe the un-numbered ones, AC: project phantasm, AC: Last Raven, etc).  I believe AC4 is coming out on PS3 and xbox 360.

If it is about power creep, then its likely MM4 is a preemptive strike.  Then when you get owned by this stuff, you will hand over the weekly paycheck to equip your PCs with the latest and greatest.

Most of the monsters are okay, if you are ready to deal with them (as both PC and DM).  Like when we first fought those Drowned from MM3.  Two of those smashed our group of something like 14th level chars, remember?  But then we fought one in your low-magic world at lvl 9, and it wasn't too bad...

Another example, check out the sailsnake.  As far as hp, att/dmg rolls/etc its probably about the same as a varag, but its CR 2.  Okay, not too bad, you do get more XP for this... oh yeah, forgot to mention its breath weapon, 20-foot cone of blinding venom.  Get this, blind for 1d4 rounds, DC 13 Fort for half.  So basically it could blind the whole party, even if they made the save!  The most balanced stuff in it are the advaned MM1 monsters (and they are still pretty optimized chars, ie CR 4 orc bbn with +13 att 1d12+10/x3 dmg, plus a potion of shield of faith +4.  So when he drinks it in front of you, not only does he get a +4 AC, you know that you just lost out on some of the loot.)

What I am getting at, should your PC ever come across a bluespawn godslayer or a pack of bluespawn stormlizards, run for the hills.  There is no XP, there is no loot, but there is a quick death.  These guys are even tougher than the greenspawn razorfiend (aka harrowblade), and we've seen a harrowblade shred a lvl 8 dwarven defender before he knew what was even going on (harrowblades are listed as CR 7).

Devil May Cry, Devil May Cry 3, Armored Core 3

If an adventure is going to be all combats, they should be more streamlined.  Like those clockwork menders (they are actually in MMIV), beyond just how hard they are for the CR, they soak up way too much time... attack roll, then saving throw, and this is happening round after round, since even your big hitters will probably miss over and over (a starting AC of 18, and they spring attack in and out of cover).  The jump check to get on the coffins was too high for lvl 2, and you have to get on them just to reach the bugs.  So yeah you live, but it takes a billion rounds, then you get to spend all this time figuring out all the rules for healing poison, and recovering ability damage, etc.

Not to mention the DM having to flip all over the mod just to find out what's going on... I mean, is he supposed to memorize everything in the mod beforehand?  That just defeats the point of buying an adventure, might as well design your own and not only save the $$, it would run smoother since you'd actually know what's going on.  We got through probably 3 times as many combats, plus more roleplaying in the same amount of time while playing Scourge of the Howling Horde... so many things in this mod just ate away time.

Our slaped-together chars were probably more interesting than the plot.  The combats were way too drawn out (I mean a drawn-out fight against the boss is one thing, but this is enter room, fight, enter next room, fight...)  Not even anything too interesting in the rooms... the only real features was the dead bodies we were looking for and the graves that you can't loot b/c they are all the dead reletives of the townsfolk you are helping.  I mean if you downloaded it off the internet, it would be okay to kill a few sessions of a home game with, but if you are going to spend 15$, there's better stuff out there.

The living greyhawk game seems to be happening on friday nights, so its looking like a monday night or saturday afternoon.

I have played Wii, xbox 360, and ps3.  Nintendo was just as fun as the other two, which are a lot more expensive.  An extra paddle for them is like $50, and a game is $60.  Neither of them upcovert dvds like they were supposed to.  360 and ps3 are actually kind of disappointing.