Month: March 2017

So I got asked about how I feel about The Secret World changing.

It happened in comments here, and it’s a fair question.  Basically: The Secret World is re-configuring itself as Secret Worlds Legends, a free-to-play game with a Patron level, presumably to pay for the whole thing.  There are a lot of people gasping and clutching at their chests at the coming loss of their cheevos, pets, mounts, and vanity gear… to say nothing of their high-end weapons and artifacts and maxed-out ability wheels and everything else.  So how do I feel about this?

The answer is: …I’m OK with it.  I love that MMO, but it was slowly strangling for lack of meaningful content and there’s a limit to how far you can coast on that.  In retrospect, the uninspired Halloween event of last year should have been a warning sign.  TSW’s best holiday has always been Halloween; having it be so blah suggested real problems.

As I understand it, I can reserve my favorite character name and restart with a goodly portion of my loot.  Plus, as a Grandmaster I am going to be a Patron for life anyway, so it’s actually free-to-play for me for real. If I can get new content and we can all go back to the model of freaking out new players by swooping in on them and inexorably and mercilessly helping them out, I’m good with the new model.

But I want that new content.

 

Hey, you playing Conan Exiles?

…Technically, I still am; which is to say, I was, and in a month I probably will be again, as soon as I go and finish saving ANOTHER galaxy from having to do its own fetch quests. But for right now I’m playing Mass Effect. Which is a shame, because Conan Exiles is offering a bounty on exploits:

Similar to Ark: Survival Evolved’s bounty program, Funcom has introduced a cash-powered vehicle for tracking down exploits in their Early Access survival game, Conan Exiles.

[snip]

Funcom says it’s looking for “Serious exploits which can be used in online play and on multiplayer servers” that give players “big advantages in the game, like duplicating items or being able to build inside mountains/rocks.” Players spotting these kinds of exploits can email the developers to provide them with the info…

$100 to $500, depending on the exploit.  First person to report gets the money. So, hey, go for it. I gotta go rescue that cute asari reporter from something or other, myself. Swear to God, no wonder the Initiative went pear-shaped…

Book of the Week: The Deed of Paksenarrion.

The Deed of Paksenarrion is a compliation of a fantasy trilogy by Elizabeth Moon about one Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter. It is probably one of the best High Fantasy series ever written: unlike most other modern works in this genre (some of which are quite good, actually), Ms. Moon takes the tropes of High Fantasy quite seriously, and respects what they do and do not mean. There may be better books that try to imagine what it’s like to be a no-fooling paladin; but I can’t think of one, offhand.

And so, adieu to The Stand.

In the Mail: “Curse of Strahd.”

It’s one of the oddities of my roleplaying history that I didn’t actually do much with Dungeons & Dragons until I hit college, mostly because my parents were down on D&D.  …Just D&D, though. Rolemaster, Call of Cthulhu, Paranoia, GURPS, Hero System?  No problem.  But no D&D.  So, anyway, I never got to play Ravenloft.  So I’m kind of looking forward to perusing Curse of Strahd. Hopefully, it won’t suck…

Tweet of the Day, …Giant Sloths. Giant SLOTHS. Riiggggghhhttt… edition.

Delta Green knows the score:

Although you don’t have to go full Mythos, there.  Cryptozoology works just as well. Giant South-American Mega-Ants could work, for example.  Especially if you could tame and ride them while wandering around the Amazon.

But, yeah: given the claw-marks, you probably have to go full Mythos.

Item Seed: Ghost Canoes.

Ghost Canoes – Google Docs

Ghost Canoes

 

These incredibly handy artifacts can only be made from wood from a tree that died, and was then left strictly alone for a full century.  This makes them available only from Elves, a similarly long-lived species, or a community of incredibly patient mortals. Fortunately, once constructed Ghost Canoes can be repaired with regular wood.

Continue reading Item Seed: Ghost Canoes.