Abbreviated List

Here's a list of links to the things I wasted time on today.

Dr. McNinja
Forumopolis
Hand-eye Coordination (My record so far is only 24 seconds)
The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny

The Boys Next Door

I went to the theater last night. The play was The Boys Next Door, a play about a group of mentally handicapped guys living in an apartment together and their social worker. An very good play, and excellently acted. The actors were very believable and did an amazing job with what looked like a very difficult role. Generally, I don't care for plays that have a point, let alone ones that tell you what the point is, but this was done well enough that it didn't bother me.

And from the comments I overheard from the rest of the audience, it seemed as if they needed the extra little prod about the play. I don't think they had any real conception of what retardation is. They seemed to be expecting them all to be "cured" by the end of the play. Weird.


Gremlin Theatre

So Tired...

The reason for this is, of course, gaming last night. Played what appears to be a pretty awesome new game called Battlestations. It's a space RPG in boardgame form. Not a dungeon crawl like Space Hulk or Doom, but an actual RPG. (For those that don't know, Descent is the upgraded version of Doom.) Anyway, so far a very cool game. We didn't get through the first mission due to how long it took to get through the rules, but we plan on continuing the mission next week. If the game lives up to its initial promise, this might be something we play on a fairly regular basis, continuing the campaign.


I had intended to write a short summary/review of the game, but I'm tired. So here's a good
general overview of the game. And here's a more detailed breakdown of how the game actually functions during a round.

These RPG boardgames are really something I've come to like quite a bit. They have a lot of the things I enjoyed while playing miniatures, without the time or financial constraints. I don't have to but several sets of miniatures and paint them in oder to have a rewarding experience. Playing with other people's miniatures always feels slightly hollow. You're not really playing your figures. You're playing someone else's. In Descent or Battlestations, your character isn't reliant upon a miniature. Your character is the concept. The unique set of skills and abilities, that you can take anywhere someone is playing that game. I like that RPG aspect.

Speaking of RPGs, I've decided I like FFTactics better than FFTactics Advance. I don't like how skills are tied to weapons. In order to learn new skills, you need to equip new weapons, more powerful than the previous ones. I don't like it. I generally pay very little attention to my gear in RPGs, preferring to use underpowered items for much of the game. It makes the battles more difficult, and allows me to swap in more powerful items in crucial battles to make them easier. I don't like all the micromanagement of equipping gear to learn skills.