you could literally steal Bane's lines too and it would 100 percent fit a Drow: "you think darkness is your ally. But you merely adopted the dark; I was born in it, moulded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but BLINDING! "

@BESW I heard it yesterday and nearly had heartattack :P

@JoshuaAslanSmith Great. I already had a hard time taking Nolan!Bane seriously, and now he's Drzzt.

Im sorry

I actually really like Nolan's bane and that movie is my favorite of the 3

I think hes a pretty well made character and I like him as a superbuff Robespeirre

Bane... well, he's not necessarily a bad character, but he has very little in common with the character he shares a name with. The development of his character in the film was rough and rushed, but at the core the concept is--not Bane.

Kinda like Ledger's Joker; aside from a couple similar motifs, they might as well have been original characters.

there's no such thing as batman villains.

And while Ledger's Joker was able to hold his own in comparison to the best prior versions of his namesake, Bane couldn't in my eyes.

The film made him a lackey, a misdirect: he wasn't the villain, he was the puppet. And he did it well, and compellingly, but perhaps because he had so much more motive and development (however rushed) than his master, he fell short of what he could have been. If he'd been an original character I'd be more okay with it, but the original Bane was so much more.

the cartoons depicted bane as an overstuffed steroid abuser with emotional brain damage. What was Bane's "more" elsewhere?

I think it was a decent adaptation if not true to the original intent/backstory of comic bane

@GMNoob The comics

Right, what was the "more" in the comics?

Bane's original appearance in the comics had him as a cunning opponent whose physical strength was secondary to his ability and ruthlessness as a strategist.

bane is a traumatically abused test subject in a corrupt south/central American prison, the only one to survive the testing of what we later know to be venom. During his time growing up in prison (hes literally in there for his whole life) he reads constantly and becomes a very knowledgeable and smart character.

So in the comic bane would have been both the puppet and the master? :P

Before he ever engaged Batman in combat, he spent months evaluating the Bat and then used lackeys and pawns to wear him out both physically and--more importantly--emotionally.

he travels to Gotham to face Batman whom he sees as the only worthy foe, and that he can become the master of gotham if bebeats batman

His goal was not to defeat Batman, but to take his place as Gotham's emotional centre.

His plan in effect was to let all the big bads out of arkham and only then face batman

so batman spends days catching everyone and is physically exhausted, catching a serious cold/flu in the process and then Bane challenges him

and then this happens

@JoshuaAslanSmith Don't forget, Bane chose to do this at a point when Batman was already facing serious self-doubt from his prior storyline.

yes

but tied into all of this

was comic book fans demand for a dark-n-gritty super 90s take on Batman

Bane remained undefeated until an assassin-trained psychopath took up Batman's mantle and went to extremes that Batman never would.

lol

yeah so as much as I like comic bane

hes tainted with AzBats

I kinda liked Azrael!Batman. He was so frikkin'g 90s, but it worked in the context.

@BESW Deadpool? Wait wrong universe.

because in effect his storyline of beating batman is a setup to give the fans what they wanted (but in a "be careful what you ask for.." way)

@JoshuaAslanSmith Exactly: Azrael was a great way to explore what Batman could be, and why it would be so easy for Wayne to give in to that--and why he couldn't.

basically, thats not batman, but here well do it and we'll make the punisher look like a choir boy in the process so you doubt everything you ever thought you wanted was wrong and we can go back to making Batman comics without you complaining/clammouring for 90s batman anymore

its a really funny industry story

Azrael was what Batman would become without Bruce Wayne.

like the phonecall hotline for whether or not jason todd should die

@JoshuaAslanSmith But handled so much better.

@BESW nope, thats the modern age version of zur-en-arrh batman en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman_of_Zur-En-Arrh

Are all comics like this, where a character is written in so many different ways that there is no one version of the character, or just the big famous names?

@gmnoob there are generally defining traits that occur between the major writers/storylines for the character

@GMNoob If they last long enough to have multiple writers/supervisors, it's likely you'll see some major shifts over time.

no one version/telling of the character can be definitive for everyone

Over longer periods of time, they change with society.

for example, I could say batman not using guns is a hallmark of the character, which would be mostly true, except he had a gun in a multiple issues when he was introduced in detective comics by bob kane

Major superheros become archetypes in their own rights and then each writer's take on that character is their interpretation of the archetype

Captain America was written for WWII. In the 50s they tried to continue his story, but it inadvertently turned him into a paranoid Commie-hunter. In the 60s they retconned that version to be other people using his name.

compare Adam west batman to say Nolan's or frank miller's

I'm asking because of the famous batman alignment pic

and realized it could be used on superman as well

The Green Arrow went on walkabout across America with Green Lantern in 1970 in order make the character's series more socially-conscious, and it's mostly stuck ever since.

theres an alignment for every superhero

@GMNoob Ah, well. Some of the more extreme differences are because of shifts in media (like to TV or film), or in "elseworlds" style comics: short non-continuity stories set in alternate universes that explore a "what if" idea inconsistent with the main comic universe.

Like "Red Son," which wonders what would have happened if Superman had fallen to Earth in Russia.

@gmnoob these are equally loved and valid (though I have ones I prefer) interpretations of batman.

(Answer: Batman would wear an ushanka.)

thats just the visual representation of the suit, the kind of stories each of these batman exist in differ from one another, the Batman 66 tv show and frank miller's take being the farthest apart

Batman is somewhat unique, in that he's got so little actual personality settled on his archetype that he slips seamlessly from one portrayal to another.

Most other characters need a bit more nudging to get such extreme variations.

Anyway, sleep now.

So most other characters like Ironman, or Hulk, or Wonder woman and flash , green arrow, etc have stayed pretty consistent?

shrug

flash is not good for comparison since there have been different flash's

as in different actual people

usually this is something more prevalent with DC characters in my experience

but it happens to marvel characters like spiderman a fair bit

basically if the character is part of a team as part of their man run (say wolverine from xmen) their core character tends to change less and more the relationships between the characters is what is played with

Interesting, thanks.

@gmnoob now is a great time to get into comics (at least on the DC side) new 52 rebooted the whole line

also, comixology makes it super easy to buy and read digital comics

@JoshuaAslanSmith Let me know when the book is more than 20 pages :P

@GMNoob this is why I buy omnibus editions :)

@GMNoob they have digital volumes already

one sec

@gmnoob comixology.com/Batman-2011/comics-series/6644

speaking of which, I need to hunt down Avengers Vs X-men from a couple years ago

@waxeagle Hmmm. I am not sure who would win that.

its also problematic since wolverine is often an avenger

grr, don't like how marvel does their event collections :( grump grump grump

but hes probably with the xmen on this one

@JoshuaAslanSmith yeah and IIRC he plays both sides in the run

yeah I avoid marvel comics because there is too much messy crossover stuff all the time

you basically need to read everything

@waxeagle nice

huh, this might be the way to go, they have an annual subscription to their digital library

@JoshuaAslanSmith Wait what?

@Aaron heh, Wolverine is often an Avenger, don't let the movie license issues fool you, Marvel's super hero universe is very interconnected

@Aaron Practically everyone's been an Avenger at some point.

Oh brain fart. I thought they were DC and Marvel. I feel dumb now.

Spider-man was an Avenger.

Beast was an Avenger.

the fantastic 4 sometimes hangs out with the avengers :)

Yea I had a dumb thought thinking they were different universes. I don't know what I was thinking.

easy to do

So my co workers think as long as Prof X is fighting the avengers are screwed which I think I agree with. Without Prof X though I am not sure who would win.

I mean is anyone in the avengers immune to mind effects?

@Aaron last volume I read had Prof X retired and Cyclops + Emma Frost in charge of the X-men, not sure if that was the case in this run though

1 prof x doesnt usually show up to fights

2 just build a helmet ala the juggernaut or magneto

3 what wax said

4 Magic aka magic seems to trump a lot of stuff in the marvel universe, scarlet witch is probably there and would wreck xavier

ooh that's a character available to both X-men and Avengers for cinematic use IIRC

Depends on who's part of the relevant Avengers lineup.

@waxeagle just like quicksilver

honestly after seeing DOFP I have no idea how marvel is going to top Quicksilvers appearence there

Haven't seen it yet.

Though he's going to be very different there, I expect. The word "mutant" isn't allowed to be used, nor the name Magneto.

me neither...maybe next week Friday :) (or following Monday/Tuesday)

Somehow my wife, and most of my friends, have seen it already.

hang on, your wife didn't take you along?

not cool

(waiting to see it with my wife :))

haha

She went with a friend who had just broken up with her girlfriend and needed a pick me up. :)

seriously DOFP is possibly the best xmen movie

thanks

but I really liked first class

@lisardggY all right then :)

@waxeagle And anyway, we've decided that when we can't get a babysitter, we'd rather go do things separately than do nothing together.

@lisardggY totally legit. During the summer we manage to finagle days off together when we can. I work a compressed schedule and she has to work some weekends in the summer, So it's pretty easy for us

her fiscal year ends this month so she has to take days off anyways or they get put into a critical leave bank, and between the schedule and the fact that I've been here 5 years now, I get an awesome amount of vacation)

so we send the kids to daycare/camp and do stuff during the day :)

@waxeagle I dropped down to working three days a week when the baby was born, since the baby's still a bit too problematic to put in a daycare or something similar (born premature, she still gets a bit of oxygen support). But since she's my mother's first grandchild, after many years of waiting, we get a lot of babysitting and support. :)

lol

Ooh sounds tough, glad you have good family support around. We don't have much family close by, but we do have lots of good friend who are willing to babysit

It's not as bad as it sounds, but it's a bit limiting. Can't take her anywhere for longer than a few hours. But we did leave her with my mother for a weekend a few days ago, which was fantastic. :)

that's nice, it's hard to get a night or two away from the kids. We realized we hadn't spent a night out of our house w/o kids in over 5 years, finally did this Spring

@lisardggY Oh man, a premature baby is like double the new-baby shock. Good to hear you've got family near, and it sounds like you're already figuring out the changes in relationship logistics. Ours is 6 now. There are always new challenges, but it does get easier just from practice. :)

@SevenSidedDie Ours will be a years old in 3 weeks, so we got most of it down. After the 3 months in the NICU, at least. After that, everything is a breeze.

@lisardggY That's about how long her NICU stay was too. I think that's the hardest part, since it's interminable.

We did 5 days with our first (on time, just had meconium then a very quick bit of apnea) and it was hard, can't imagine 3 months

@waxeagle It was... not fun. :)

Will I manage to get a D&D 3.5e character ready before Sundeay evening? Bets are open.

@Zachiel High level?

13, but that's not really the problem

@Zachiel Because even with your analysis paralysis, a low-level character isn't too hard to make.

I have problems building a level 3 one

because I want to plan it in advance

So essentially you're always building a lv20 character.

Regardless of what you're about to play.

I figure that no plan survives contact with the enemy, so pre-planning that far in advance is futile. This saves me work.

Personally, I don't enjoy planning anyway. I usually play with people around my level of optimization anyway, so it works fine, and our GM usually lets us retrain anything that wasn't too heavily used, if it turns out to be crap or we find a good reason for it.

@lisardggY I'm often building a level 60 or 70 character, optimizing at that level even when I know I'll never reach it.

Heh, retraining is either XP-costy or downright impossible in my games. So system mastery is even more important

Speaking of, I am now in a D&D 4e game. *shock* *lamb is born with two heads* *rain of eels*

The character I'm building now (the level 13 one) is for the costy retrain (more costy every time you change the same kind of thing)

@SevenSidedDie Those are all nice things you can refluff your spells into XD

@SevenSidedDie lol, it's a really nice combat engine :)

My character Leilani scoops up an eel and elects it as her familiar

I swore I'd never run it again but that I'd play in it, and it's finally happening five years later.

@SevenSidedDie awesome, what are you playing?

@Zachiel I'm playing a beatstick of a fighter, so no spells for me.

@waxeagle Core PHB figther, of the defender variant. I'm not sure she's optimised, but probably enough for the group's standard of optimisation. Lots of HP and AC and a few moves to keep her sticky and healed.

@SevenSidedDie heh, I've been playing a fighter of a similar vein for a long time now

@waxeagle They've never had a tank. Their dragonborn warlock was serving as their tank forever, so it'll be interesting how she changes the equation.

In the group I DM, the warden is making a really good work when the fight happens in close quarters. Plus everyone getss lots of temp HP and healing is abundant.

@SevenSidedDie yeah, they're going to like having a wall around

@Zachiel love wardens. So much love them

they are tough and can dish out a lot of marks...almost too many at low levels

So he can mark people while he's dazed, and still do his attack

It's been said I should refrain, at least until I get the grasp of the basics of roleplaying my character believably, from playing characters that are too different from me.

Now, I'm a male with low charisma

Which means I can't be an incantatrix nor a DMM:persist cleric

I could technically be an incantator but we already have one and the fluff asks for very few of them in the whole world

And I love going melee, so I'm discarding weak melees and blasters/controllers.

@lisardggY And that's basically why

Can someone explain the uncommon/common magic items thing Brian is talking about here? I think it's an errata thing (I have a first printing PHB), but... I've seen the errata before, and it's awful to dig through.

@SevenSidedDie It's been introduced in some later manual. I think it's in the Essentials line, maybe the Rules Compendium

Items have been divided in three categories: common/uncommon/rare (WHY YOU NO fantasy for names, WotC?)

common items can be bought, the others need to be found by adventuring.

Uncommons can also be gotten at character creation and I guess they're easier to find than rares

I never studied the system in depth

It's basically meant to replace the "item power slots per day" mechanic of PHB as a balancing mechanism

Instead of limiting uses per day the ffects that would be dangerous if bought in multiple copies are put under DM control

Ah, ok. So for making my 6th-level fighter, just picking stuff out of the PHB without worrying about rarity should be fine then.

@SevenSidedDie introduced in essentials, it's all in the compendium online, and that particular information is not paid

@SevenSidedDie probably 99% of that stuff is uncommon

or common

@waxeagle I think the group is still playing with un-errata'd core books, so the item powers per day system is probably what I'll be facing.

@SevenSidedDie ah in that case item rarity is out the window

@waxeagle Ok, cool.

It's weird. They're the ones who've been playing 4e, but I feel like I'm more aware of the "current tech".

And I don't want to be all "HEY GUISE WHY ARE YOU PLAYING RONG"

Not only because it would be messing with what's working for them, but also because: woah, how did I become the 4e optimiser in this group, wth.

yeah, there is definitely that.

I sort of became the default optimizer in our group (not that I mind, I like it), because I work a desk job and hang out here all the time...

yo guys

yeah my optimization path was similar

Partly because my GM was like, dont go for 20 in your main, spread it around some

which he told everyone

it sorta worked for my character as an avenger, getting to roll twice is statisically a+5

but he was also kinda nooby at balancing encounters so I was still wiffing a fair amount

so I started doing research and found the handbooks and got my own insider account so I could rules laywer etc.

I realise I probably could get all optimise-y in this group, but I think I'll resist going down that road. It's not the thing I'm in RPGing for, and I think I'd start an arms race with the DM that would have unintended consequences. All their gaming stories are about stuff that's happened outside of the combats, so I don't think the combats are where I should put more than basic energy.

@SevenSidedDie the good news is that there aren't a lot of bad power choices for most classes...the only class that's really easy to screw up in the PHB is the Paladin

and that's only if you go balanced

@waxeagle Yeah, I think I'll look at it as toys to play with. Considering that they were getting by without a tank at all, just making any fighter might be disruptive to the DM's preparation habits all by itself. :)

@SevenSidedDie heh :)

@SevenSidedDie yeah, after 3.x, the degree to which someone uninterested in optimization can throw something competent together has become an extremely important qualification for me in a system; it's basically what I mean when I talk about a system's balance.

My fifth player will play a Bladesinger (after warden, hellock, bear shaman and star sorc)

I've never seen the class in action and the wonderful thing about 4e is that I don't really need to!

@Zachiel meanwhile, I achieved similar comfort in 3.5 by gaining an encyclopedic knowledge of every class printed for the system, its options, advantages, and traps....

@Zachiel that one is on the list of weaker classes in 4e

still competent, but it can't really get striker level damage

I really want to play 4e for exactly one reason: I want to play an artificer who doesn't require a CPA to run.

@KRyan heh...4e's most bookkeeping intensive class is the runepriest IMO...too much tracking there

and on that note. Reading Rainbow is approaching 75k backers already.

@waxeagle for a level 5 artificer in 3.5, I had a multi-sheet Excel workbook with automatically-updating values and a look-up table...

is there anywhere in your profile you can see stats relevant to things like edits and tag wikis and stuff, for the badges that rely on those? the starred comment about Tumbleweed has me looking at the badges and I'm curious

@KRyan yeah....a pack of index cards would be sufficient for a runepriest...not to say a solid excel sheet wouldn't help but....it's not necessary

@KRyan there are probably data explorer queries...there used to be a page for editing...let me see if I can find it

@waxeagle wasn't it a controller?

@Zachiel aye it was...but it doesn't really do much controling either :(

@waxeagle that sounds like more effort than this idle curiosity deserves; don't worry about it ;)

@waxeagle like the seeker?

"seeker" strikes me as a really dumb class name

@KRyan funny that you say CPA, one of the biggest advantages of artificer is the big money discount and ability to craft things

@JoshuaAslanSmith I'm very well aware, I use CPA for this very intentionally

@Zachiel yeah, quite similar issues there. The wizard encounters as dailies just fuels the fire

@waxeagle its a good melee multi hitter with soft control its not great

but Ive seen a friend really make it work

it does require a lot of I do this and then this free action triggers etc.

their punishment is a no action I think which makes it unlimited in theory

@JoshuaAslanSmith the bladesinger thingy? it's 1/attack and on turn (which is a bit of a bummer)

yeah like I said not great but Ive seen it used well its control is really more defendery then controllery

@KRyan data.stackexchange.com/rpg/query/196784/… copy editor is here

data.stackexchange.com/rpg/query/194327/… tag wiki edits

@waxeagle neat thanks

np, poking the data explorer can be a lot of fun

I've never really taken a look at it

@waxeagle this place is pretty neat!

@KRyan I can see that.

@KRyan I think where we diverge is that, of the two ways imbalance can be dealt with, I tend to prefer games where balance between PCs is across domains rather than within-domain.

@SevenSidedDie I'm comfortable with it being across-domain, as long as it's there (and either the domains are equally-relevant, or at least players were aware of how relevant each would be going in), it's just that I would not use a D&D-ish system for any game that wasn't fairly strongly predicated on combat, since I find its rules decidedly lacking for anything that's not dungeon-delving and dragon-slaying.

also, in 3.x at least, the weakest classes in combat tend to only be good at combat (or, at least, only have explicit features relevant to combat), while the classes best in combat also tend to have extremely potent utility spells

@KRyan I'd use a different D&D maybe. 3e moved all (attempts at) balance into the combat domain. Witness the thief, my favourite class: not interesting in 3e or 4e due to being a combat monkey instead of a catburglar. :/

@SevenSidedDie thieving is also really awkward in the party-centric scheme of (WotC-)D&D, since if at least one person in the party is bad at stealth, you can't go stealthing together (and most groups are loathe to split the party)

Legend attempted to alleviate that by allowing one person good at Stealth to try to "help" the rest of the party, but there they went too far (if you have at least one stealthy character, a second starts feeling redundant)

@KRyan Yeah, which is another reason I prefer fast-resolution editions of D&D for that kind of play. They also tend to work better for the "Party Thief" style of campaign.

(Splitting the party for a bit isn't such a problem when it takes less time than a 4e combat round takes to come back around the table.)

@SevenSidedDie yes, I understood and agree

Is it just me and my weirdo CSS hack, or are we missing our main site's top art?

Nice Answer, and Enlightened, for my answer on ghost armour, which ultimately hasn't been accepted.

@SevenSidedDie I still see it.

@SevenSidedDie skip cache reload? and if that fails, check your dev tools to see if there is a cdn issue?

@Metool Eh, accepted is nice, but being right in the eyes of the community is better. ;)

@waxeagle These are things I might have done when I was (slightly) younger and keener, but these days I'm more likely to just wait and see if it fixes itself. :)

And it's back. Wonder why it did that in the first place.

caching, it's always caching

I was kinda hoping it presaged a surprise art update for 5e. @waxeagle Yeah, shift-reload did it.

@Metool doesn't Enlightened require being accepted?

@SevenSidedDie that would be incredible, but Jin isn't a table top gamer, he'd pop in here to preview anything probably

> First to answer and accepted with score of 10 or more

@KRyan This is why I said ultimately not accepted.

The accepted answer changed.

@Metool ah

@Metool Ah. On the plus side, you keep the badge.

Hi everyone :p

honestly, I'm not really satisfied with any of the answers to that question, and I suspect that is because no satisfactory answer exists

@NahynOklauq 'lo

@Aaron Thanks for the link, I think I'm going to use this for my next session :D

@NahynOklauq Hiya!

@Metool WTF.

the first response is hilarious

yeah...pretty much.

@Metool Oh god, WHY ? xD

its soluble in both alcohol and water so I try to leech it out of her face

@NahynOklauq well...face masks are often depicted as green...but I'm pretty sure that's from avacado

yep

Ironically the green in common wasabi is food colouring. It's actually prepared horseradish. So, concentrated mustard oil.

yep

@SevenSidedDie yeah, wasabi is one of the things that's rarely wasabi

both of which are also water soluable

and alcohol soluable

@waxeagle The guy say "I put", I imagine that the face masks was ready to use, no ?

@NahynOklauq not necessarily, it's farily common to make face masks at home. see: pintrest

@waxeagle Cinnamon being the other one I know of.

I still wondering why did someone should do that ^^"

@NahynOklauq Recent comment seems to indicate Bad Ideas taken from Japanese game shows. Dude deserves everything he gets, then.

prank, he probably thought the amount he put in would burn/tingle only a little

user is being a moron

nah, it's a puton:

ah

xD

@waxeagle "Hi! My name is Matthew. I think a hoax about causing my girlfriend unbearable pain is a) funny, b) a good encapsulation of myself as a person. Hey, where did everyone go."

@SevenSidedDie excactly

I should probably take this sudden urge to burn things and put it to good lunch-creation use instead.

@NahynOklauq No problem.

@SevenSidedDie noms!

maybe only I have this problem, but there is a small, bright red dot on the Daily D&D background right now, every time I switch to that tab quickly and back off I think I have a notification in...something (it spacially matches (very roughly) to where FB notifications are)

oh by the way the wizkidz dice game announcement made me think of an old D&D boardgame

Inn-fighting

boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/29198/inn-fighting

which comes with the most swingy broken d20 I have ever seen (rolls crit fails or crit hits 25% of the time almost)

@JoshuaAslanSmith the little castle window thingy

Urg, those comments.

@SevenSidedDie Oh, yeah. [popcorn]

I think it needs a good old fashioned "Describe the challenge you're facing rather than assuming what the solution should look like."

Aaand I'm done.

...yeah.

@BESW Oy. So they're just fishing. We should maybe send them to a real forum.

@SevenSidedDie Checking out their profile is now part of my SOP when engaging with someone I'm not "getting."

@BESW So... they're just a troll?

Dammit, and I foolishly retracted my close vote when I thought it was getting cleared up.

I think he's got a genuine question but is also suffering from Person On The Internet Syndrome.

"obviously you are not a golfer". Uh.

"Discourse" pun.

Just stop engaging.

Oh for the love of...

Flag if you think that's a good idea.

Yeah, I'm done there.

... or not. "at request"? The rabbit hole, it's full of stars!

Physically walking away for a bit.

Troll.

[face/palm]

Flagging here and on sf.se.

... Tron?

Why Tron?

AHAH. They're roleplaying as Clu, from Tron. We are their roleplaying victims/playthings.

Because the Internet is a strange and marvellous place where trolls come in all shapes and sizes.

It seems a bit of poetic justice that account deletion will be "derezzing".

I admit to moderate levels of amusement that the answer he got lists as one of its positives a low-graphics layout.

@SevenSidedDie I'm taking this as the Riven reference it almost certainly isn't.

The stars, or the "at request"? I haven't played through Riven (yet! one day!)

The final scene of Riven (and a major visual in The Book of Atrus) features a crack in the ground filled with the night sky.

@polyphant Hi!

@BESW Oh, a star rift. Yeah. Not an intentional reference, but appropriate given the meta and world-hopping roleplay we've been unsuspectingly drawn into.

@BESW I really enjoyed the Myst books. (hi!)

Hello, @GamerJosh!

@GamerJosh Those are some of the best-written books based on a videogame. They really stand on their own merits.

@SevenSidedDie Indeed.

@SevenSidedDie Agree.

@GamerJosh Hi! Book of Atrus is really quite stellar. NPI.

I have this copy: g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/01/c7/…

also the trilogy paperback version

@GamerJosh I have that one. Another with that trade dress, but I forget what the title is. In arca alibi est.

Book of Ti'ana had some awesome visuals and concepts, but it draaaagged in places and I kinda felt like it had unnecessarily many characters--but that's a personal choice, I just prefer the Myst franchise when it's focusing on the dysfunctional family dynamic and all the Awesome Epic Setting Stuff serves that story.

Book of D'ni felt superfluous and heavy-handed, probably for the same reason I was dissatisfied with Ti'ana.

I felt they all dragged in places. But the setting and dynamics between the characters when it wasn't dragging fully made up for it, imo.

I wasn't prepared for the third book (D'ni) to be the last. =(

You've heard about Obduction, right?

.... No?

oh, yes

Didn't have the disposable income during the kickstarter, but was definitely excited to see it

Aye.

Puzzle exploration games like Riven and the Journeyman Project have always been my favourite.

I've learned a thing: the reason secretaries tend to have their own room is not for the secretaries, but for everyone else.

There is a secretary in this open-plan office who is on the phone very often, and is very loud, and it's consistently disruptive to a lot of people nearby (including me).

Oh, dear.

...blurgh. Barium sulfate is kinda icky.

@BESW Apparently it's used in pyrotechnics.

@JonathanHobbs I have to drink 1.35L of barium sulfate suspension in three hours this morning.

It's one of the compounds used to obtain green fire, apparently. [thoughts wander back to Fritjof, gets ideas...]

@BESW @_@ Oh dear

"The barium sulfate makes the drink have a mild acidic burning sensation."

@BESW I presume the "mild" might be an understatement in your perception?

No, as acidic burning sensations go, it is best described as "mild."

Haha, fair enough I guess...

I'm distracting myself with Teen Titans.

But I'm discovering it's a lot harder to watch now that I know what the comics did with Slade and Terra's relationship, and what they eventually had Doctor Light do...

(Also Beast Boy's "gorilla" noise is the same as WoW's stock "bear" noise.)

@BESW oh dear xD

i'd notice that too

(I like noticing the Wilhelm scream when it appears in movies too)

@JonathanHobbs One of the reasons I liked Primeval from the start was that they put the Wilhelm into every single episode of the first season.

"Yes. You know exactly what you are, show, and I like you for that."

BTW, @JonathanHobbs, I hear Bob Dylan is touring in Australia in August.

@BESW I'll let my parents know! I'm not much of a bob dylan fan myself