Difference between revisions of "Current events"

Revision as of 17:24, 16 June 2008

This page is for discussion of stuff related to the game coming up this week, no matter when that actually is. For instance, we can all assume Nate isnt coming for some lame reason and that Ed is sick of pizza and is bringing teriyaki or some other crap. They can post something here if that happens to be untrue.

Schedule

Date...........game................Location..........(Advanced attendance)
6/06/08......W-Wolf..........BnD............... Dieter not home until 7pm, Brandon absent or late
6/13/08......Surprise..........BnD............... Brandon gone
6/20/08......Super Heroes............BnD............... Brandon still gone
6/27/08......Super Heroes............BnD............... Kim gone
7/04/08......?????...........BnD...............Ed absent
7/11/08......?????...........BnD............... Brandon gone
7/18/08......?????...........BnD............... Brandon gone
7/25/08......?????...........BnD...............
8/01/08......?????...........BnD...............Ben (and Kim) gone, Brandon gone
8/08/08......?????...........BnD...............Ben (and Kim) gone, Brandon gone (& officially married)
8/15/08......?????...........BnD...............Ben (and Kim) STILL gone
8/22/08......?????...........BnD...............
8/29/08......?????...........BnD...............Last session at BnD (BEN: not the last session at the location, but rather the last session with that location identifying itself as BnD, at which time it will revert to its Ur-identity (see "Address" bar, on your screen, above). To be less, as both Ed and I described it, verbose, Dieter is moving in with some friends of his at the end of August. Thank you) (DIETER: Awwww.... I was hoping for a few eruptions of confusion and fear before clearing it all up. Spoilsport).
BEN "spoilsport": sorry. I thought you might be, but then I decided that clearing up fear and confusion on the wiki would take up like 5 pages of text.

Attendance and Food Preference

6/20/08

Ranting and raving or other random comments

--Edmiao 12:58, 13 June 2008 (MST) why would you put a bullet in a classic rifle like that, and what situation ??? maybe i don't want to know.

JASON: Its kinda comical. The neighbors house was broken in to one afternoon, so she called the cops. Just before that Matt had ordered pizza, and the back door was left ajar. The cops came and started walking around to see if the break-in suspect was still around. They saw our back door ajar and approached. They yelled 'Police!', but he was watching a cop show so he thought it was on tv. The cop came in, gun drawn. Matt heard a noise and came out to the kitchen, where the cop aimed his gun at him.

Later that night we were both upstairs talking and we heard a big crashing noise downstairs. Because of the incident we were really cautious. I got the gun and loaded it, and Matt grabbed my kendo sword. We then went downstairs to investigate. No one was there, but still it was pretty funny.

--Edmiao 18:56, 14 June 2008 (MST) that's hillarious... and somehow distrubing.

--Dieter the Bold 13:02, 16 June 2008 (MST) Gentlemen, and lady: It's finally dawned on me that in 3 weeks it will be the 4th of July. On a Friday, no less. I think, given the date, we should be a little more proactive in determining our whereabouts. I already see Ed has declared himself busy. Is anyone else planning on crazy BBQs, late night fireworks, etc., etc.? If so, speak soon, because for those who plan on attending gaming, I'd like to put out the idea of doing a Patriot Themed One-shot or series of One-shots. Are we your average Joes caught up in a time-warp, leading us to fight in our countries greatest battles? Are the Brood invading and we must use our amazing super powers to defend Earth? Or have we accepted a race for charity with people making donations to the hero that can traverse the world the fastest (but some of our arch-nemesis have other plans?)? Regardless, as the 4th is a federally recognized holiday, and we therefore get the opportunity to take off work, I vote we have a gaming day + BBQ, and then leave the night open for more gaming or for fireworks or whatever. I look forward to your responses.

KIM: I too vote for festivities, and will bake cherry pies or other such traditional yums on request (and if you say please). BBQ is good, if heroes, count me as present, if one-shots are to be had instead, I might have a couple friends over for boardgames in the other half of the communal area. Also, isn't the other side of midnight Matt's bday?

--Matts 16:17, 16 June 2008 (MST)I'm not sure if I'm in town or not yet. I may be off having a cabin adventure. Regardless, sometime in proximity we'll party for my big day. It's only once a decade that the digits in your age add up to 10!

Other RPG or Non-RPG gaming Events

Monthly Board Gaming Day

--Gdaze-- Well if anyone is interested in some Heroscape let me know in advance.

Weekly Magic Whining/Complaining/Smack Talking

--Edmiao 16:53, 13 June 2008 (MST)you can never ever prevent a cost from being paid. Costs inclued: Tap, mana, sacrifice. thus you can never prevent a tim from tapping nor a bloodfire from sacrificing itself. example: Terror bloodfire, in response sacrifice bloodfire, and terror fizzles. example: icy manipulator to the Tim, in response tim taps to do 1 damage, icy fizzles. ben hates this mechanic, but still icy manipulator is one of the best all around cards in the game.

JASON: One other way to think of this is that an effect does not begin to resolve until all of its costs are paid. First pay, then resolve. In the above example the Icy Manipulator does not fizzle because it still has a legal target and that target is tapped, it just doesnt make any further difference. Icy is a good card, but not nearly as used as it once was. The 4 cost is kinda high. I have like 6 of them, since they reprinted in Darksteel and Ice Age, but I never put them in decks. I always think of it, though. Back in the day it was one of my favorite cards. I was really disappointed when they reprinted it in Ice Age because the original art was so nice.

--Edmiao 18:57, 14 June 2008 (MST) i'm using icy in a deck with betrayal (enchant creature opponent controls, when creature taps draw a card) and with psychic venom in a blue control deck. it works sometimes but needs some tune ups.

--Edmiao 19:00, 14 June 2008 (MST)what was the rules question that I had last night, ben?

BEN: if you have a spell that says: remove target creature from the game. return it at the end of the turn to play. Do enchantments on it go to the graveyard?
Also, I realized that with all the control decks our group loves to make, I've got to play to the demographic. I've never been very good at taking the "field of play" into consideration when making a deck, except when it comes to red elemental blast. I thought some more about the elf deck and I think I can tune it to work at least a little better against decks that just grind it into the dust, like the black deck.

BEN: Home > Games > Magic > Magicthegathering.com > Columns English | Français

GABE: I thought the other one was if you put a creature (or land) into play that says "when this card is brought into play return other creature (or land) to your hand, if you don't have any other creatures or land does the card go back into your hand?

--Edmiao 09:01, 16 June 2008 (MST) so blink does the following: protects creature from any instant, and/or disenchants all enchantments on it, and/or removes all tokens from it, and/or morphs the creature for free, and/or removes it from combat. it's a counterspell, a disenchant, a fog, a free morph, probably protects from activated ability targetting like prodigal sorcerer. that's pretty ridiculous. How is this different from phasing, which also removes creatures from the game but I don't think it did all those other things.

JASON: Phasing is something that kinda sucked. A creature with phasing was either in phase or out of phase, and this changed every turn. It was denoted by a counter. When it was in phase, it was in the game. When it was out of phase, it was effectively removed from the game.

--Edmiao 09:43, 16 June 2008 (MST)so how is momentary blink different from phasing? both remove creature from the game, but blink kills enchantments on the creature and phasing does not, or does it?

JASON: I dont know for sure. My inclination is to say that they enchantments are preserved, since they would not be removed until the creature goes to the graveyard, which it never does. The only possible counter argument is Disintegrate, but that says if a creature would go to the graveyard, remove it from the game instead, so the creatures goes there, leaving its enchantments, then ends up somewhere else.

--Edmiao 10:12, 16 June 2008 (MST) i would think that enchantments have to check to see if they still have a creature to be attached to, and since the creature comes back to the game before the enchantments get a chance to check that they would never notice. seems like a really screwy mechanism, but meh.

BEN: momentary blink and turn to mist are different. turn to mist says "comes back at the end of the turn" momentary blink returns the creature immediately.

--Edmiao 10:27, 16 June 2008 (MST) and Phasing says comes back at the beginning of your next upkeep. is it different? and to the other question above, if a blue creature comes into play and says return a blue creature to your hand, it will return itself to your hand if there are no other blue creatures. this I am absolutely sure of. I'm building a deck that uses a Kavu: RG to cast a 3/4 creature but you must return a red or green creature to your hand. paired with haste 1/1 this should be nasty. also paired with ball lightning will be fun.

JASON: I dont think that matters. The effect removes the enchanted creature from the game. Until the creature hits the graveyard the enchantment doesnt notice anything (its still attached to its target), in game or no. Its similar to the Arabian Nights card Oubliette. This is all opinion, however. - - The Kavu does work as you say, but I dont think its quite as nasty with the 1/1 haste guy (you have to pay for him again, almost like he has Echo), though Ball Lightning does do well (since its undercosted). I have a few of that Kavu.

--Edmiao 10:49, 16 June 2008 (MST) i'm trying to make a speed deck, so getting a 3/4 out on turn 2 is an ok cost to have to cast a 1/1 again on turn 3, especially since the 1/1 can attack on turns 1, 2 and 3..... at least that's the concept. i have the magic 4 of that kavu plus one that is RG2 to cast a 5/3 with return a green or red critter plus one tim damage. Oh, it just occured to me that this second kavu is an everlasting spark, do one damage and return it to your hand, repeat. nuts. almost as bad a blink.

BEN: you sure are bent out of shape over one common card. That kavu deck sounds brutal. There's a 3/3 elf that's two mana in lorwyn that I wish we had some of, but that's alright. You should put our two wirewood beastmasters in there (are kavu beasts?): everytime you play a beast spell, you draw a card (!). Hmmm...that gives me an idea...

JASON: Red has a ton of good haste creatures, I like the goblin that is 1/1 haste, first strike for R1 (Goblin Striker I think). I also like the Slith Firewalker. On the super cheap front I have a 3/3 Wolf that is WG to cast, no side effects. I am using that in my Sabretooth Nishoba deck. And since you are using green, do you have Tinder Wall in there?

BEN: watchwolf? That's an awesome creature. goblin striker is great...first strike is a much better power than it gets credit for.

JASON: Yes, Watchwolf. I need one more. Red decks like that also need Blood Lust, especially if you have first strikers. Then it becomes as defensive as it is offensive.

--Edmiao 11:23, 16 June 2008 (MST) tinder wall and blood lust both on the list for this deck, still in the works. it'll probably suck now that i've chatted about it here.

GABE: I just want to have another instant battle like Ed and I had, as confusing and crazy as that was it was also quite fun.

BEN: our three bloodlusts are in my raidmother deck right now, but we can disassemble it, since we won't be doing emperor for a while.

GABE: We are so productive right now, eh? By the way I want this card, to make an utterly confusing blue deck... It is an enchantment.

Whenever a player plays a spell that counters a spell that has been played or a player plays a spell that comes into play with counters, that player may counter the next spell played or put an additional counter on a permanent that has already been played, but not countered.

--Edmiao 11:41, 16 June 2008 (MST) no problem about the bloodlusts, there are plenty of good spells, giant growth for example. gabe, that sounds very confusing. and the instant battle was awesome. Jason, it was a creature gabe had such that his life total cannot go below 1. i tried enchantment alteration to move a control magic onto it, then he forked that, then i cast ray of command to take it and he counterspelled it, then i deflected the counterspell on his original fork and then he forked my deflection. it was awesome and crazy. the whole game was awesome actually. we should play those decks again.

JASON: Wow, you have that many Forks? Thats like a $20 card. The problem there is you cant Fork Control Magic, thats an Enchant Creature.

--Edmiao 11:55, 16 June 2008 (MST)sorry, i had control magic on another huge creature. i needed to get rid of the 0/1 creature that says controller can't go below 1 life. so i enchantment alteration on control magic to move it to the creature. he forks enchantment alteration to move it back. in response i cast ray of command. in response he cast counterspell on ray of command. in response i cast defelction to counterspell the fork in the stack. in response he casts fork to cast another counterspell, i think or did you fork my deflection to deflect something else?

GABE: I forgot how it ended up, but I kept my dude around... didn't I? You ended up winning though cause you got rid of my girl and tapped my land.

--Edmiao 11:59, 16 June 2008 (MST) i did win, but i forget the winning move. was it the next turn?

--Gdaze-- And yes I do have two forks, I may actually have 3 but only 2 in the deck. Back when I played 3rd edition I worked very hard to get them... So many broken bodies... So many broken homes...

JASON: I have two Forks too. And is that Ali From Cairo? I love that, it was one of my old timers. He is very valuable in his own right (like $60).

Blink and You'll Mist It Devin Low Latest Developments Friday, April 18, 2008

omentary Blink has performed all kinds of crazy acrobatics ever since it was printed in Time Spiral. Sometimes it seems like you run into a new Momentary Blink combo every week. Your key creature blinks away to dodge an Incinerate. Your Avalanche Riders blinks out instead of paying echo, then blinks back in to destroy more lands. Your three-mana morph blinks out, then blinks in as the eight-mana Akroma, Angel of Fury. Your Mulldrifter blinks out and comes back again to draw more cards. And soon your Murderous Redcap can blink back to shed his -1/-1 counter and deal 2 damage all over again. Momentary Blink is definitely an update of the Urza's Destiny rare sorcery Flicker that inspired it.

For all that Momentary Blink does, there are definitely some things it fails to do. It can't save your creatures from Wrath of God or Pyroclasm, since your creature always comes back immediately, just in time to die to the mass removal. You can't use Momentary Blink to tuck your creature away long enough to Jokulhaups the board and have your creature come back, since Blink just doesn't keep it away long enough. Liberate, from Invasion, is a similar card that addresses this, keeping your creature out of the game for the whole turn while Wrath or Damnation resolves, then returning the creature to play at end of turn.

But in Shadowmoor, Liberate liberates itself from all those pesky restrictions, like white mana, being uncommon, and only targeting your own creatures. Click here to see it:

Turn to Mist is a Shadowmoor common that does something similar to Flicker, Liberate, or Momentary Blink, but with key differences, giving up a four-mana flashback for a looser colored costs and a variety of new tricks that Momentary Blink can't perform, revolving around the ability of Turn to Mist to hit opponents' creatures. Hitting opponents' creatures means you can remove their auras, which turns out to be crucial in a world of multiple, powerful, common auras like Shield of the Oversoul.

You can prevent all the damage that an enemy Dragon would deal to you by Turning it to Mist at the last moment, another place Momentary Blink can't help you. You can "flicker" out enemy blockers with Turn to Mist to get them out of the way for the turn while you attack, which is something else Momentary Blink can't do. Turn to Mist eliminates enemy token creatures forever, in a way that Momentary Blink can't.

Since Turn to Mist brings creatures back at end of turn instead of right away, it also saves your creatures from mass removal like Wrath of God in way that Liberate and Momentary Blink can't.

BEN: it's a good spell, but so are a lot of cards. since we only have one, I don't think it'll change your black deck's win record, to be honest.

The Next Step in Werewolf

Werewolf Recap

Next step in Super Heroes

--Matts 14:48, 7 June 2008 (MST)My preference at this point is to start supers at the next session I run, since momentum on WFRP is low at the moment, and I'm personally more excited to start something new than to have a few lame-duck sessions of WFRP.

So this bumps up the timetable a bit, but if characters aren't totally done by the 20th, we can just run play out some prologues as we finish up the characters.

KIM: So I just figured out how this damn page works, and finally found the secret scroll of supers lore. Geesh. Seems general consensus is cool with me hopping on-board so (barring a nay-say from Matt) I will put some time into building a backstory for my character, and bat my pretty eyes at Ben to help me with the sheet. As my fav characters are Batman and Marvel Girl, I'll likely feel most comfortable channeling a bit of the two, so expect brainy but moody, and the occasional surprise kick-ass-ness.

--Gdaze 22:40, 11 June 2008 (MST) So will your name be Batmarvel? No wait... MARVELBAT! Marvel girl is pretty cool though.

--Edmiao 09:52, 12 June 2008 (MST) so we still need to integrate Gabe, Kim and Deiter and maybe Jason's characters into our Super Heroes Wiki-Prologue? Or should we just have everyone meet on session one, as the wiki-prologue is not making much progress as of yet.

KIM: So I built the concept of my character to somewhat fit into the picture, so if she may have interacted with other heroes in backstory, they may not have been aware of her abilities, but she knows about them. Try this on for size: by day, a famous actress (gives her money for cool gadgetry a la Bruce Wayne, and easily puts her in NY) who is also a UN Goodwill Ambassador (a la Angelina Jolie, and can put her in Iraq around the time that everyone else is there). As an ambassador, she's clearly empathetic, savvy, and excels at communication... so, powers to heal, telepathy, telekinesis perhaps, but as she's a woman AND and actress (true to form) when her powers are drained she's moody and goes into PMS mode (hoping to incorporate the Phoenix here). Feedback, anyone?

--Gdaze-- Just as long as you don't dismantle us into atoms iz A-OK with me.

That said, I picked up a bunch of my comics yesterday I so I just wanted to double check this because the Dieter talk page is so lengthy... this world is going to have a Marvel feel correct?

--Gdaze-- Quick question for those who know the hero system... what is the point in aid STR? I wanted to give my guy the ability to boost himself up, but lets say he wants to increase his stregth right? Like he utilizes the eletricity in himself to power up. But then I look at Aid.. at a basic cost it is five points for 1D6 of STR...

So that is 5 points for a potential of 6 STR, but I could just buy 5 points of STR for 5 points. Not only that but with aid I'd have to buy a delayed return rate in order to benefit from it for any amount of time, thus increasing the cost. I get aid when it is for other people, but it doesn't seem useful in this sitution.

I'm having a hard time coming up with other powers for my dude to make him a little more then just a T2 copy or a metal Venom.

--Edmiao 09:44, 16 June 2008 (MST)you can put disads on aid to make it cheaper, like charges or increased endurance or something.

--Gdaze-- Hmm charges could work, yeah... like only able to use his boots so many timers per day, but then, isn't it still cheaper just to buy some STR with charges... wait is that even possible?

Also they have WWH - Xmen at the book store here... I just may have to get that...

JASON: Also, self only.

--Gdaze-- Oh DUR, self only too. I sometime forget how much POWER an actual power gives you. AID costs no END to activate, right? Cause if it does I really can't see why taking that would be better then just taking str with charges... (Although with stuff like speed AID could be better at higher dice amounts...)

JASON: Aid costs no END unless you buy succor.

--Edmiao 10:46, 16 June 2008 (MST) remember, aid gives character points, so 1d6 of aid can never give 1 speed (which costs 10 character points)

--Gdaze-- Right, so at higher levels it might be nice because the extra point run-off could equal an entire point of speed.

--Matts 10:55, 16 June 2008 (MST)What do you mean by "marvel feel"? In the sense that I want all the heroes to be flawed in some way, then yes.

--Gdaze-- Well I was looking over some image comics, and for example, in the opening few panels of one, one of the characters is shot in the head and killed. So as in, are we more Marvel/DC where killing is an awful act condone by many a hero (good example would be Kingdom Come), or more like image where mowing down your enemies is a bit more acceptable. I'd like this to be established before play rather then we set the tone.

I've also noticed characters in comics can take a lot of damage, clearly some more then others. This way battles are a bit longer and maybe will make characters find other ways to damage their oppent?

--Matts 11:43, 16 June 2008 (MST)Killing is going to be a big deal. It's going to happen, but it should be significant.

I don't know what specifically you're looking for with the second point, but I'd like to tune the villains so that in significant encounters, people aren't going down with one hit, or if they do, they come back later in the fight. Significant villains should also be more designed than "hit this guy till he goes down".

--Edmiao 11:57, 16 June 2008 (MST) i think my guy is "hits you until you go down" maybe he should be less hit and more diversity....

--Gdaze-- Good, so more Marvel/DC-ish. I just meant most guys can last at least awhile so we should take that into consideration. 2nd point was really just musing.

KIM: Still waiting to hear back from Matt re. my character sheet... *nudge nudge*... AND, I felt it would be worth noting that I be JUST so excited about joining in on the game that this weekend Ben and I went out to buy my first set of dice... EVAR.

--Gdaze-- Nice! I remember when Noelle was buying some dice I was rolling them and the guy was like "your gonna let him roll your dice?" I wanted to say "She lets me in her pants so dice are really the next step in the relantionship." I didn't... but I should have. I think Matt is busy with real work... something insane like that.

--Matts 16:24, 16 June 2008 (MST)Your character is fine as far as I'm concerned, Kim. Before we play on Friday, I want to do a pass over everyone's character and get them into at least partially-defined team roles and make sure that power levels are normalized. Then we'll do some prologues, and people can tweak their characters again if desired. Once we get into the real game, character tweaking needs to come with a plot explanation, so you'll need to coordinate it with me.