Hot Heart

This might offer some more insight?

Holy crap. I thought that was a dubbed over comedy thing but it is legit terrible.

Yeah, from what I can tell, she wouldn't be a terrible choice. I mean, it sounds like either Democratic choice would be far better than any of the GOP clowns. I found this a good piece on her. https://medium.com/@zacharyleven/the-case-for-hillary-3564233d524f

Make it happen. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/03/01/rock-band-4-pc-port-crowdfunding/

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny I've not seen the original in 10+ years, but then I was never blown away like everyone else (I didn't see it for a few years after its release though). I was interested in this because it's directed by Yuen Woo-Ping who is the best martial arts action director ever (seriously, check out his filmography) and can get very creative (Twin Warriors is a favourite of mine). Of course, I would never consider him a visionary director and so this sequel is more of a workman-like, middle-of-the-road martial arts film. The plot is very simple, with maybe a couple of surprises, and there is some decent action with some creative flourishes; such as one fighter's robes swishing and gliding as she tosses out darts, or the battle on a frozen lake, or one witch-like character who flits about like Nightcrawler. All in all, it's not a great watch but it's not bad either. It is a little distracting because everyone's speaking English so when I went with my original instinct to select Chinese audio with English subtitles, everyone's mouth didn't match up.

Guess I'll share this here because it's the only thing I'm playing on a fairly consistent basis and it demonstrates the power of traditional pen & paper RPGs. Also it was a fun session overall. Pathfinder: Iron Gods Inspired by Critical Role and the Pathfinder: Adventure Card Game, my friend decided to start running a Pathfinder campaign. So we all built characters first, kind of rounding out the team but just going for what we were interested in. Except one never really made a character so the DM came up with "Jen Eric" rogue... who is a tricksy Gnome. I've got a monk who focuses on physical perfection but also has incredibly high strength and a vicious combat mindset (she's partially based on Raphael, the ninja turtle ). The other members are a tiefling cleric (our healer whose appearance freaks out regular folk) and a half-elven sorcerer (who likes burning things). So we've been working through the first book of Iron Gods, which involves robots and spaceships and energy weapons, gradually finding our feet. At the moment, I'm sort of the "DPS" although I feel a little like a glass cannon (who has benefitted greatly from many low attack rolls against me). At this point in the adventure we'd found a new level in this "strange metal cave" (we know it's a spaceship, but my monk knows sod all about that stuff) and our cleric rebooted a computer to fix some malfunctioning robots... or at least one's that were ignoring us rather than attacking. Funny story: our sorcerer who hates robots (has dragon lineage and hates the idea of artificial usurpers) shot at one of the robots, triggering some attack mode but which ended with the reboot. While that was going on our rogue had done a graceful leap through the opening along a conveyor belt and into an adjoining room... despite the door being just five feet away. In there, he discovered a bigger robot of the likes we'd never seen before. This is followed by a catastrophic series of events in which we discover that a lot of our attacks appear to "have no effect" on the now unfriendly iron giant (the "hardness" that robots have prevents so many points of damage on every attack... in this case a whopping 10) and our cleric flees only to be KOed by a new surprise challenger (an android we'd been hearing about, along with some gargoyle-like sidekick). The rogue and I are trying to whittle away at the big robot, while the sorcerer is aiding the downed cleric and (unsuccessfully) attempting to placate the new enemies who had been drawn here by the reboot. The giant robot is absolutely stomping me. I manage a critical hit that blows through its defences, but it takes a flurry of power attacks just to penetrate its armour. The rogue can barely hurt it, but is virtually untouchable due to the mage armour cast on it by the sorcerer. In the end, the little guy saves my life coming to my aid with a potion when I'm KOed and dying. With our healer down and three tough combatants going at us, things are looking very bad. At this point, the DM manages to adjust the difficulty somewhat by allowing certain things (like letting the rogue try and drag me away from the robot a little... except he rolled a 1) or letting the rogue flit in and out across the conveyor belt (to be in a position to get sneak attack bonuses). Little did we know, but we were essentially fighting three level 3-4 bosses while at level 3 ourselves. ... the giant robot whacks me again but I just about survive enough to crawl away and chug one of our more powerful healing potions. The robot comes for me again and knocks off another chunk of my health and I have to spend a whole turn just getting back on my feet, which grants him another attack. Thank heavens it misses. By the time it gets round to my turn again, I'm at 2HP and have instructed the rogue (who'd been rushing back and forth) to join the others and forget about me. I do not run from a fight. Either I triumph here or I'm dead. My monk unleashes a last ditch flurry of power attacks for all she's worth and scores a critical hit with the first attack, missing with the second. The first attack does a hefty chunk of damage, chopping off the robot's head and it collapses, defeated. Phew! There's a whole bunch to the rest of the battle (we didn't die!) that was also entertaining but that was the crowning moment for me. Any other result except a critical hit and I was toast. I got my own heroic hard-won fight. Of course, afterwards, the DM reveals to me that had I not killed it and merely done at least 1 damage then its auto-heal effect would've kicked in and it would've regained a huge chunk of health. Also... the thing would not have followed if we'd all left the room as our cleric instructed.

Apparently, they stole the concept for the Uncharted games from some films a while back. Indy Jones or something? Can anyone confirm this? Seriously, though, have they done that with other stuff too?

Does this technically count as games? Paid above the average for a bunch of Pathfinder books on Humble Bundle. That way I can maybe choose more feats that would piss off the GM.

Not exactly "board games" but Humble Bundle has a whole bunch of Pathfinder books as PWYW https://www.humblebundle.com/books/paizo-pathfinder-bundle

Played it for a couple of hours yesterday and that's pretty much my thoughts too. I think it's cool to "go out into the wild and forage" and build a better base, etc. but nothing's really gelling for me. Constant in and out of menus to upgrade stability by 2.50% or put on some gloves that have the same armour value but make the + go up 2 green chevrons, waiting for a "pulse" charge so I can tell whether the guys halfway down the street are bad when they can spot me half a mile a way anyway. And the shooting isn't even that fun. The cover thing sounded cool, but I don't feel as free or mobile as in Gears of War, or that flanking is even worthwhile or rewarding. I don't even know who I'm shooting and people keep barking things at me through my controller. I get that it's an RPG first, shooter second so I guess I just prefer Destiny as a shooter first, RPG second. That said, I gave a citizen in need a medkit and they gave me a beanie. Well, they dropped it on the ground. Ungrateful bastard.

Played a few games the other night. Started with Galaxy Trucker, which I'd never played before (I actually grabbed the app when it was supercheap but need to play it on a tablet, really). It's sort of like FTL mixed with Oregon Trail (or like Orion Trail now, I guess). You are a... galaxy trucker who assembles a spaceship from junk and then travels across the galaxy avoiding hazards and taking advantage of certain opportunities. It takes place over 3 rounds and each round starts with a timed mad-grab for the parts (tiles) that will make up your ship. Here is where you grab engines, guns, shields, extra crew, cargo holds, and batteries for powering the better engines and guns (with some "upgraded" alien crew quarter mods more for rounds 2 & 3). It starts very simple, and there are basic rules about 1 line connections, 2 line connections and triple connectors (work with either) and that any engines need 1 tile kept free behind them and guns need 1 tile kept clear in front of them. The game got underway and I made this: I won't get into deep explanation but this is a terrible ship. I really screwed myself with that first engine placement (I kinda put it down and took my fingers off it then realised a second later what I'd done) so couldn't do anything with that left-hand side. Anyways, I lagged behind in speed, which meant I didn't get to grab any cargo anyway and a big meteor took out my batteries (which I didn't need anyway because anything to shoot got shot by people ahead of me). Note: those numbers on the board represent where meteors will hit from if the meteor storm card comes out (lot of those) so there's a greater chance of things hitting centre (since 7 is the most likely number with two dice). So you'll usually want a gun right there, yeah. It was a pretty terrible first round. Lesson learned. Okay. So I started building a better ship for round two. See, while you're grabbing for these tiles, you can also check the decks of events coming up... but I was too focused on just trying to build a functional ship within the time limit. Anyway, I actually built an alright ship for round two except one thing about ship order fucked me up (something to do with who gets what event greet them first)... which then left me fucked up for a future event which then put me out of the round 2-3 cards before the end. Fun. I was not enjoying the game at this point, although I think a lot of it was just being completely new to it (and there were a few little rules we missed or forgotten during explanation). Anyway, we move onto round three and that's when you get a big ol' space for building your ship and loads more time to build it. So I made this: I messed up with that shield placement, so illegal stuff goes into a section where you have to pay 1c (victory points, basically) for each tile there. Whoops. So I managed to slot in lots of guns, some alright engines, some shields, both of the possible alien upgrades (brown increases engine power, purple does guns) and FUCKLOADS of batteries. This is fortunate because goddamn meteor storms took out two of my batteries (one of them with a full charge of 3). The round went okay and I actually got myself out of last place (but waaaay behind 2nd and 3rd, I think). And, apparently, I did better than the other guys on their first try (although, they were helping me with some hints about those event cards I barely had time to look at while building as well). All in all, I might enjoy it next time around, but I think it only got better once you got to build those bigger ships and go in for the long haul. Next up, we played Flick Em Up Started with the basic scenario of a simple shootout; first one to eliminate three of the enemy team wins. I was on the team of lawmen (the guys in white) while the outlaws in black were invading our clearly flourishing and lively town. At Dean's behest, and only because of it, I will go over the rules. Thankfully, they're far easier to demonstrate than they are to explain in text. Anyway... The team of 5 characters are wearing numbered hats that denote which character they are (if you look at the stand at the back, that shows the outlaws). This is mainly for tracking hit points (each one starts with 3), but will also be showing who has which guns/dynamite/objective-related pieces in different scenarios. There is also an "initiative pretzel" which shows which character acts first each round. Rounds are actually tracked by a clock tower than alternates between red and blue; when a character has taken their turn, the hat flips over to the other colour to show they'e been used this round. On each turn, you have two actions from three possible options 1. Move 2. Shoot 3. Pick-up/drop/exchange You can do any of them twice and in any order. So you can move then move again, move & shoot, shoot & move or shoot SHOOT! The third is not required in this scenario. Moving is done via that cream disc you can see near the rulebook in the bottom left. You simply pick up your guy and flick the disc from where he was stood. The move is a success as long as you don't hit anything (characters, scenery, etc.) or leave the play area. There is some stuff involving entering buildings, but they are closed off in this scenario. Sometimes, you might just use a movement action to pivot your character; either because you want to make a slender, harder-to-hit target or you need to aim off to the side. This is because of the shooting rules... Shooting is done via the little bullet pieces (there's one to the left of the movement disc, right behind one of the good guys). In terms of where you aim from, you put it one-bullet-piece-width to either side of the character's arm and then flick it. The placement is important because that means you can't be leaning over the character and doing weird sideways shots, you'll want to be facing the general direction of your target. Now, flicking itself has a few, somewhat loose, rules. The flick is done with the index finger and mustn't make use of resistance from the thumb or table. The general guideline is putting your nail right up against the piece then extending the finger straight like a little "kick". This should ensure that no one's flinging wooden pieces all over the shop or into people's faces but it also places an importance on the balance between power and accuracy. This is because when you shoot, the hit will only count if it wasn't a ricochet (even if it was a really cool ricochet) and if it knocks the character over (and any sort of domino effect doesn't count). When a character is hit, they stay down until activated again and can't be hit until they stand up (so you could leave someone down for a while, or they might have to stay down if they've already gone that turn). It was a really fun game and I think everyone really enjoyed even the simple scenario. My partner did a great flanking move early on and the guy even survived a hit with a bullet because it simply turned him ninety-degrees without toppling him (like some Neo bullet dodge, he imagined). The good guys were on course for a victory, mostly standing our ground and then I decided I'd try and finish off the final guy at "long-range" with the option of taking two shots instead of moving and shooting. My friend decided he'd capture it on video in case I made the shot. He made a very wise decision and got a great low-angle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQV0jM22O30 So, yeah, highly recommended. Next we moved onto Splendor I'll let Board With Life explain. ...oh, right, how does it play? Did you see those chips? They're really nice. So, the game, well, you collect chips. Those things are super nice. *ahem* So, it's essentially an "engine-building" game. On your turn you're either grabbing certain gems (the different colours of the chips), buying cards with certain combinations of gems or "reserving" cards you want to buy (so some arsehole doesn't take that thing you were trying to get!). The twist is that buying a card will then give you 1 of a certain gem permanently for when you buy future cards, so it acts like a discount (or like having resources in 7 Wonders). This is because some of the more valuable cards (most of the basics don't have victory points on) require combinations involving more than 10 different gems when you can only hold up to 10. There are also variations on bonuses for having so many cards of a certain type (4 reds & 4 greens or 3 red, 3 white & 3 green, etc.) The first person to get to 15 points triggers the end and then everyone gets an equal number of turns. It's alright, but it seems a bit lame that some of the starter cards also carry victory points so it's generally easier just to collect those and go for the bonuses (which the "winner by 7 points" pretty much did). Decent enough filler (although, personally, I think Port Royal fits this mould better). Then we finished up with some Coup & Coconuts. No, we didn't combine them. Although...

A couple of my Crimson Doubles matches. Yes, my cousin has to go see to his crying child at the start of the heavy round! Fortunately, it meant I got to look like a badass. Of course, if one guy were using something besides No Land Beyond... who knows? Such a scrappy final round. Very satisfying and close game. We'd played one previously on this map where we switched to a super aggressive strategy that almost got us a comeback from 1-5 but faltered at the end, so we executed it a little better this time.

Yeah, I was probably just overthinking what you were saying (interpreting "died" as eliminated rather than just "shot once") but there's a turns/activation thing regarding the hats and flipping them over at the end of a round, and even if a character dies it wouldn't eliminate you from the game since you just activate another available character.

Just had a minute to check stats on the app and, yeah, I think you did 8 in total.

Haha, thanks. I'll probably try and get it to the table on Sunday. Were you just doing 1v1? I had heard things about tactically leaving a character down (since you only activate those with hats matching the clock colour) or something like that.

I was counting them, but yes, I believe there is a quest you get from Shaxx called "Crimson Days" or something that just needs you to complete 7 matches.

Managed to win 3/7 matches. So many cheesy fuckers. Had some good close matches though and learned some valuable lessons for if I ever play Trials. Was a bit let down by my wingman at some critical moments (you've gotta push hard once you've downed the first opponent!) but I was making mistakes as well.

Sorry, didn't see your earlier message. The evening one.