Difference between revisions of "Current events"

Revision as of 09:02, 10 March 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)
1/4/08.......WFRP............BnD...............(Ben Gone, Ed present)
1/11/08......WFRP............BnD...............
1/18/08......totally cancelled
1/25/08......W-Wolf..........BnD...............
2/1/08.......W-Wolf..........BnD...............
2/8/08.......W-Wolf .........BnD...............
2/15/08......WFRP............BnD............... ed gone
2/16/08......bday one shot..BnD...............
2/22/08......???.............BnD............... Matt at GDC
2/29/08......???.............BnD............... ed maybe
3/07/08......WFRP(?).........BnD............... Brandon gone
3/14/08......W-Wolf..........BnD............... ben gone
3/15/08......Board Gaming....BnD............... BBQ is an option, so weigh in. Est. Noon starttime.
3/21/08......W-Wolf..........BnD............... ben gone, Brandon gone
3/28/08......WFRP............BnD............... Gabe gone

Attendance and Food Preference

3/14/08

--Matts 08:02, 10 March 2008 (MST)I'll be there...

Ranting and raving or other random comments

GABE: Wait a second... wasn't it Grant IE Dieter who set off that grenade in the PA game? From now on, Dieter should not be allowed to play anyone with explosives. So thats 3 times he has blown himself up or was about to! You crazy Dieter.

--Dieter the Bold 14:07, 4 March 2008 (MST) Of what do you speak? I only count twice.

Gabe: When the black spiral leader came to talk to you you were about to try and blow up your flame thrower... So its a potential! That said I'll be giving Frank a load of grenades in WW...

--71.216.15.253 16:25, 4 March 2008 (MST)A sad day: Gary Gygax dies

--Justin 17:13, 4 March 2008 (MST) I, as well, was just getting online to report this fact. Yes, a sad day.

--Dieter the Bold 13:39, 5 March 2008 (MST) Sad indeed. But good words here. I will, in fact, purchase a two-liter of Mountain Dew and a bag of cheetos today to pour some out for him.

GABE: You know, I feel bad, I never really bothered to look into who created D&D or the history behind it. Just took it all for granted. I can safely say though I owe a lot to him and his creation. All critism of D&D aside, its what got me into pretty much everything I do now. Console RPGs, paper and pen rpgs, you name it. Seems like he helped a lot of people, and allowed so many to make a career out of their love of gaming... pretty amazing. I mean I knew who he was but like... I didn't really research it much...

JASON: Gabe, you are right. There is one more thing to consider. Creating DnD was a two man job, both Gygax and Dave Arneson share the writing credits for the game, and in some circles Arneson gets even more credit. Yet he is completely forgotten. Still, its a sad day for RPGs. Goodbye Gary Gygax.

GABE: Yeah, I don't hear his name as much, although the news did note Gygax as a co-writer at least.

--Dieter the Bold 16:53, 5 March 2008 (MST) A nice personal story from Ed Greenwood (creator of the Forgotten Realms) about Gygax here

GABE: That is a wonderful story, and I must say, awesome.

By the way, and please respond as soon as you read this if able! I really, really need some allergy meds. Besides Clairton, which had an adverse affact on me, are there any other suggestions? Because my allergies are raging right now and I spend over half the day with a running noise and watery eyes. Thanks in advance!

JASON: I have had great success with Flonase and now Nasonex. I recommend them both.

BEN: flonase and nasonex are steroid based, so you tend to build a tolerance to them, and they can have nasty withdrawal effects (in my personal experience). But for clearing your nose/sinuses, they work really, really well in the short term. What was your adverse effect to claritin? Anyways, I can't remember what the active ingredient in claritin is...is it loratidine? I don't know. If you want a sledgehammer that will put you to sleep (ie, something to help you sleep), you can take benadryl or a generic containing diphenhydramine. Be careful cause it can take 12 hours to wear off, so you may be drowsy in the morning. zirtec and the other shmancy anti histamines should all work as well, just make sure they don't have the same active ingredient as claritin if that made you sick. Also, drixoral is a combo of one of the above drugs (can't remember which, again, check active ingredient) and pseudephedrine, which will help with the allergy stuff and give you a boost sort of like sudafed.

JASON: I am probably lucky because I have been taking Flonase for about 4 years with no side effects and no marked reduction in efficacy. The only side effect I have is a redness inside my sinuses and my nose hairs turning white. How is that for TMA? In any case, I take 1/2 dose 3 times a week or so and I still have pretty much no sickness of any kind (or at least quite rarely).

--Edmiao 21:15, 6 March 2008 (MST) There are two first line classes of medication for allergies: antihistamines and steroids.

Flonase and Nasonex are the same class of drugs, they are nasal steroids. Some patients use them long term. I don't recall learning that they generate tolerance, but I'm no doctor (or at least should not be). I think that all nasal steroids require a perscription.

Antihistamines come in two classes: drowsy (crosses blood brain barrier) and non-drowsy (does not cross to brain). Benadryl (diphenhydramine) causes drowsyness, but is very potent as an antihistamine. Claratin (loratadine) is nondrowsy and less potent than benadryl. Other antihistamines that are over the counter are all drowsy like benadryl (diphenhydramine) and other non-drowsy antihistamines are all perscription. Many of the perscription non-drowsy ones are more potent than claratin.

There are other perscription drug classes also in addition to steroids and antihistamines, including cromolyn, montelukast, and ipratropium. Afrin (not a steroid, but over the counter) does gererate tolerance and dependence (ie if you stop you get much worse) if used more than 3 days or something like that, so probably a bad idea for seasonal allergies.

What was the side effect you had with claratin?

To sum up, you can try the drowsy over the counter antihistamines (including chlorpheniramine, diphenhydramine...) or try claratin (loratadine) again. Loratadine works great for me. If these don't work, see your doctor and they will have a recommendation for you.

doing a little reading..... also you can try decongestant like sudafed. and apparently Cromolyn nasal spray is also over the counter. Cromolyn prevents histamine (and other mediator) release while antihistamines block histamine receptor. cromolyn is a spray while antihistamines are a pill.

GABE: Whoa, lots of info, thanks! Oh wait this is online... FUK U HITLER!

Other Non-RPG gaming Events

JASON: Dieter and I have been talking about doing a board gaming day/night, and the 15th is our chosen day. I can host at my house or if Dieter is amenable we can do his place. I will be bringing the following games if it is not at my house (if it is they will all be available as well.):

Betrayal at the House on the Hill [1]
Dune [2]
Shogun [3]
Fury of Dracula [4]
Blood Royale [5]
Vampire: Prince of the City [6]

Who is interested?

--Edmiao 13:08, 3 March 2008 (MST)Interested! been trying to work up a board game session for months. also would love to introduce y'all to PuertoRico. Might be able to host as well.

--Dieter the Bold 14:02, 3 March 2008 (MST) I'd be down with having it at the apartment, but happy to trek over to your place if you'd prefer. I'll look over the games and see what strikes my fancy, but I'd probably vote against Dune, since we've already played it before and I want to get something new on.

JASON: Puerto Rico is great! If we have enough people we might even be able to do two games at once. Rumi is in as well, and possibly the elusive Matt#2. And Dieter, I would be fine with playing the new games, love to try em, but Dune will be around as well for backup purposes.

--Dieter the Bold 14:08, 4 March 2008 (MST) Schweet. Always good to have backups. I'll talk to Ben and see about our place. Which would you prefer if our place is available?

BEN: uh...I'll be out of town from the 14th to the 23rd (the two friday absences are already noted above) visiting my sisters and Kim's family in New York, so the house is all yours, dieter. If you throw a party, just remember that there is to be NO poop in the fish tank. Thank you.

JASON: I suggest we do it at BnD or at my place, just because I will be on call that weekend and Ed's is less convenient if I have to go anywhere. My house is much better organized than it was previously, if that makes a difference. Either way, its on!

--Dieter the Bold 13:43, 5 March 2008 (MST) If we could do it at my place, I looked through my concerts and there's one Saturday evening at 8pm. So if we can play at BnD, I can roll until 7 and then have to bounce out.

JASON: Its settled. BnD lets say about 11 or 12? How is that for everyone? I am going to consult with Rumi and see what kind of food we can bring, hopefully it will be BBQ weather.

--Dieter the Bold 16:48, 5 March 2008 (MST) 11/12 works for me. I know we have briquets and the like, so whatever you want to bring should work, Odin permitting.

Weekly Magic Whining/Complaining/Smack Talking

BEN: hey gabe, can I borrow one of your demonic tutors? I want to incorporate it into a deck this friday. Also, Brandon, I've found a bunch of goblins in my old cards, and I think I'm going to disassemble the TIM deck, so you can have those spikeshot goblins, which should nastify your deck, I think.

--Edmiao 15:17, 5 March 2008 (MST) remember, turor is restricted, one per deck.

I know, but I think your cards have at most one, and if so, its in a deck.

--Brandon 15:36, 5 March 2008 (MST) Sweet, I like nasty goblinssss. Ed, I've been having fun with Magic Workstation, so thanks for that.

JASON: Just to rules lawyer a bit more, if you are a super competitive type, restricted doesnt mean you can only have one in your deck, it means that you can never draw more than one from your library during a game. So, you could have 4 of them in your deck to increase the chance of drawing that card, but if you happen to get two in your hand, or draw a second one, you lose the game. Of course, the opponent only knows this if they inspect your hand and graveyard after the game (which is legal and encouraged in tournament play).

This is null and void if the rules on this happen to have changed...;-)

--Edmiao 19:37, 5 March 2008 (MST) that's nuts. i think we should not play that way. and there are zero demonic tutors in the big set. Brandon, we should play on magic workstation. i have some decks and it has an online play function. i've tried it out once or twice, it's ok. it doesn't do anything for you except make decks and show you cards. ie there's no auto resolving damage and such, you tell it when to throw creatures into the graveyard. but it's free and you have all the cards. i have several decks made and you can use the world tournament decks to kick my ass. when i played with my bro in law, we used skype to talk.

--Brandon 21:57, 5 March 2008 (MST) Yeah, I've been playing online (in fact, I'm about to play in a second) with a piddly T2 goblin deck, and a ridiculous elf deck I found online. I get disconnected a lot, but it's fun and free. Let's arrange some time to play before too long.

--Edmiao 22:05, 5 March 2008 (MST) how bout now? 245-8809

I hadn't played a pickup game with random folks online before. just smoked someone with mystic snakes.

BEN: alright, say I have an enchant creature that says, "1 colorless: creature gets +1/-1 until end of turn" if I cast this enchantment on an enemy creature, the enchantment is still under my control, so I get to do the mana spending, etc, right? Or can my opponent do it instead/as well?

--Edmiao 12:12, 6 March 2008 (MST)you control the enchantment, the enchantment targets some creature. only you can pay the cost

BEN: just looking on the WOTC website, found a crazy deck with 0 lands. basically uses a bunch of "discard x color card to not pay the casting cost" cards, along with 5 color legendary cards. Hilarious, and potentially deadly. It's in the blog about last year's World Championship.

GABE: Dang, thats actually a pretty awesome idea! I mean imagen going up against it and not knowing how it worked before hand.

--Edmiao 17:12, 7 March 2008 (MST)can you post a link?

The Next Step in WHFRP Reboot

WHFRP Reboot Recap

Ignotus: gentlemen, events are heating up. with war thrust upon us, we must think quickly: for war represents both great risks and significant opportunity for those who know how to use it.
If we can think how to make best use of it, the River of Echoes represents by far our most valuable asset. This river would allow us limitless smuggling from tilea: not only that, but because kreutzhofen sits at one mouth, it could be turned into a massive source of income for the town and catapult it to the forefront of local trading. We may also be able to use it to rapidly move tilean troops into the empire, something of significant value in the current conflict (at least in the baroness' eyes, but more on that later). There are, of course, still challenges to this: first, the cave is completely overrun by rat men. Second, the oriental fellow insists that a water demon, or water monster at least, infests the cave, and I imagine it must be dealt with before navigating the river is possible. Third, we know nothing of the geography of the cave. Fourth, it is absolutely crucial that we keep the existence, and the locatio of the cave a secret: if others were to realize its potential, they would be quick to take it from us.
The cave, to my mind, also raises interesting questions about the baroness: I can think of only two reasons she would ask us to get troops from tilea, clearly an impossible task given over land or sea geography: either to get rid of us by giving us an impossible task, or because she knows that we know of the location and identity of the river of echoes. Let us assume for the moment that Dimentis' reports rule out the first: in that case, how could she know? I think the fact that she found nothing regarding the water poisoning is important evidence here, because to me, it suggests that the baroness von toppenheimer should be a prime suspect for being in league with the rat men: they are the only ones who know of the cave, and if she were in league with them, she would have been able to cover up the existence of the water plot and then, to free herself of suspicion, attempt to seek it out nonetheless.
regardless of whether she is in league with the rat men or not, I am curious what her motives are for summoning a mercenary army from the notorious city of miragliano. Nevertheless, I see this as a golden opportunity to increase our own power: we represent the crucial conduit between the baroness and this general. We are also the primary conduit between the count and the baroness. Regardless of how we wish to proceed, I think that we must think long and hard about how we will protect what we have won first, and how we will increase it as well. I think that we should seek to get as much of the credit as possible for bringing troops to the empire's aid. I think that we should search for opportunities in all of this chaos to replace the Count as wardens of this region. And I think we should seek to consolidate our control of the river of echoes, and to begin exploiting it as quickly as possible.
one other point. The castellan-countess von liebowitz is a notorious schemer, who is rumored to be arch rivals with Salud-al-din...but what if she is in fact in league with him?

--Edmiao 22:55, 5 March 2008 (MST) i can't find elrin character sheet. Matt or Ben/Deiter do either of you have it? it might be in a purple spiral binder at BnD

The Next Step in Werewolf

Werewolf Recap

WEREWOLF PITCH