Pandokemon, Gotta Catch Them All!!

     So, it's been awhile, between work and internet going out for about a week I have been absorbed by WoW and their pet battles. The best thing about it, in my opinion, is that you can name your pets. My first task was to name my Darkmoon Monkey Wil, after Mr. Wheaton. I mean look at him, doesn't that fez just scream "Wheaton!!"

     As I have said before, there are a few ways this resembles Pokemon, and that is a good thing. The achievement system really pushes you along. Many times I have meant to stop playing, only to have a little voice in my head say "You just need to capture a few more pets." or "You almost have that next achievement!"

     Anyone out there playing WoW and doing the pet battles? Let us know what you think, and what (if at all) you have named your pets? Take care guys.

Mists of Panderia!!

     So for a few months I have played very little World of Warcraft. The week or so prior to the new expansion hitting (which happened this past Tuesday, the 25th) have been an explosion of activity as I began trying out the new talent system they have put in place in an effort to simplify talent selection and put an end to "cookie cutter" characters. Ideally there should be no right choices, and I believe them. Each decision came down to which is cooler, or does this fit how I play. Then, of course, Tuesday the 25th hit.

     Pandas! Pandas! Pandas! Oh my word! I made a pandaren monk and ran with it. Then I hopped on my main (85 blood elf paladin) and went to Pandaria, fought and then made friends with the pandaren and hozen (monkeys) then dragged myself back to the old world to try out the pet battle system, I will refer to as pandokemon.

     I call it pandokemon since I heard Turpster call it that on the Instance. It is a beautiful mash up of Pokemon and Warcraft. I enjoy playing around with the old Pokemon games, so it was natural that I would get sucked into. In fact, I think I have spent more time on this than leveling my main.

     Eventually I came back to the Wandering Isle and made my second panda monk, the first will join the alliance and this one will be in the horde. The fire spirit Huo is with me in both pictures, because I love the stylistic flourishes they gave to the elemental spirits. I am a little nervous about, but still looking forward to, the Tillers where I can get and cultivate my own farm. OMG!! Let me know what you guys think, and take care everyone!

WoW, Minecraft, and Diablo 3. Oh my!!

     Oh man, lately my spare time has been consumed by World of Warcraft, Minecraft, and Diablo 3. Minecraft has overtaken the other two, though I still dip my toe, so to speak, in the other two. Basically Minecraft is like a 3D lego land, and I am currently working on building a pyramid. I tell myself I am only going work on this one thing and soon it is two hours later. So, anyone out there playing anything that keeps calling you back? Let me know!

Holidays 2011

     Oh the holidays, a time for families and friends to get together. Well, mostly families, I understand that, which is why I have moved my game, so I can get everyone together at least once before the end of the year. It is a little discouraging, but I remind myself that some folks do not have a group that they can play with at least once a month. Part of my desire to play with the full group before the new year is one of them will be unavailable for a few weeks afterwards.

     So with all of this prepping for my Deadlands game, I am sticking with my plan of returning to Dungeons and Dragons afterwards. I have just one or two plot threads in mind, so once the players have taken care of business we will return to the campaign

     On the World of Warcraft side of things, I am enjoying it but my altaholic tendencies are catching up with me. I find myself running different characters around repeating various cooking quests in order to get the various cooking achievements. No wonder I get hungry when I play! On the positive side I always have a toon for whatever mood I am in, so that is nice.

     So, have any of you been stymied by the holidays? Gaming plans falling through? Let me know, leave a comment!

Happy New Year!! Oh, and don't blow up the world :P

Welcome back, it's been awhile so this will be a bit lighter than usual. My Sunday D&D game is heading into a new phase, the players almost in paragon tier. They will soon be rubbing elbows with nobility, royalty and leaders of the rabble. I am positioning them to be known in the various nations positioned around Galen, the human one they are currently in. What they have gotten hints about in the past few months is someone is looking for an artifact that may bring about the end of the world. Soon, that will be the least of their worries. I will not give anything away, so if you are in my game, you may continue reading, hehe.

I love fantasy settings that have a bit of a twist to them, examples being Evernight, Legend of the Five Rings(L5R) and Sundered Skies to name a few. Recently World of Warcraft shattered the world of Azeroth, creating a new play experience for veteran players and straightening some convoluted quests. In L5R, the world could have experienced a thousand years of darkness if Fu Leng, the living dark god, had not been defeated by the seven thunders. The story implications from a catastrophe of at least nation wide proportions are exciting, and I hope my group will enjoy what I have up my sleeve.

Once more I am swiping ideas from reliable sources, and reminding everyone reading this that they can, also. If any of you have done anything like this to their group, please share with the rest of us. Once this phase of the game is finished, I will share with you all. Take care!!

Savage Dawn and WoW

Dawn of Worlds (from last week) really has me jonesing to give it a try. To that end I will be looking for a few people to get together with to do it. I will be using Savage Worlds rules and any races I have access to is fair game. This will include races found in the following;Fantasy Companion, 50 Fathoms, Shaintar, and Sundered Skies. I think this gives a broad enough selection, and granted there will be overlap, especially with standard fantasy races such as dwarfs and elves.

I plan on using my battle mat (24"x25") and wet erase markers for the map, maybe take a picture when we are finished and post it here. I am looking forward to this since I have quite a number of setting books for Savage Worlds that will see some use, hopefully Pirates of the Spanish Main.

Once it is completed, I will make some notes, possibly some alterations and then run a game to see how it goes. This may be difficult for the near future, with my Sunday game and the coming holidays so wish me luck.

I play World of Warcraft on occasion (currently playing a paladin tank), and recently the company (Blizzard)has been gearing up for the new expansion, one of the things is elemental bosses you can join others to fight. I fought two out of four of these with out any real problem, just when I went for number three that there was an issue. It is funny how when things go wrong, some folks start calling others names instead of looking for ways to help out.

During the second elemental boss, someone (helpfully) asked if I had Righteous Defense up (a paladin spell), which I did not but should have. I quickly apologized, feeling pretty silly, got the spell up and continued. The next group could barely keep it together and so when it was over I got called noob, and told I shouldn't be playing. This got on my nerves for a bit, then I realized "Who cares". Plus, I won the Awesome shield that dropped, woohoo!

Well, enough of this, any questions or comments, please post and I'll get to them in the order received. Thanks for reading folks!