kingandy | Tuesday Night Breakdowns

Last night: D&D - The End. It was nice to get the conclusion in; far too often a game just peters out due to lack of interest (on the part of either the GM or players). If I've one complaint it's that it was a bit short for a final session; ideally the hour-and-a-half of action (a couple of undead mashes and an extended hack at the Dracolich's phylactery) would have been appended to the previous session (dropping the Dracolich's henchmen). As a last-minute race against time it would have been mondo impressive, but as a grand finalé it was all over a bit quickly. But this was only a small niggle - the flight from the collapsing city was very cinematic and quite satisfying. Narratively there should perhaps have been a scene wherein we are all presented with gifts and badges from a delighted populace, but given we exploded the Wildeth to twice its previous size (several cities in Swallowed By Forest shock) it was probably more sensible to slink off into the night. I'll miss Woodrun a little, even if his fantastic arrow-shooting ability was marred by the pitiful damage he dealt. But I have Wandering Blossom to fulfil my Wild Man Of The Woods thing now, and Woodrun has completed his life's goal (seeing, and climbing, the Really Tall Trees), so he can be allowed to head off into the sunset.

Next week (?) we begin a short Star Wars adventure, which should be more encapsulated. We've been saying for a while that, since we have so many games we want to play, we really should run more shorter, self-contained games. This is one of them - a pre-planned adventure before

gowhonker commences his long-considered Mage campaign. (Which may or may not be open-ended.) In Star Wars I'm playing Kurn Lifegripper, a large man with a big gun who may have been heavily influenced by Jane in Firefly. (Also Canderous Ordo from Knights of the Old Republic.) I'm hoping to make him no-nonsense and efficient, but we'll have to see how harsh Nook's going to be with Dark Side points for non-force-sensitives...

I feel like I should run a game of something at some point - Big Eyes Small Mouth, Mutants and Masterminds or Farscape. The problem is that I really don't have time to commit to an extra game (Lord knows I'm involved in far too many occasional or prospective games already), and Nook's perfectly capable of filling the Tuesday Night slot for the rest of his natural life, so it may never happen. Also I am a lazy ass.

Anyway. The planned Star Wars game may be the reason we retired to Nook's house to watch his Star Wars (ANH) DVD. (Of course it's more likely that we did this because Nook had just bought them and wanted to play with his new toys, but I'm trying to link my writing here.) My general opinion is: Meh. It is nice to see the picture so clear and sharp, and some of the changes are worthwhile. The additional shots of Mos Eisley from a distance, the Falcon taking off, texture and context things - these are good. The Jabba scene is still enormously out of place (it repeats Greedo's dialogue, demeans Jabba as a crime lord (when Han walks over him) and detracts from the first sighting of the Falcon later on ("What a piece of junk!")), but at least the graphics are better than the old special edition. It's just a shame Lucas can't tell genius from madness in his own work.

Greedo still shoots first. A good frame or two before Solo.

Then, spent a fitful night in Nook's spare room. (See? Not a couple.) I can happily doze off in cars, on trains, in front of the TV, in many places where there's constant noise at a much higher level. But music on a stereo in the next room just keeps me awake for some reason. It's not nearly as bad as back in Levenshulme - at least it's not Geri Haliwell Kareoke - but I may have to invest in earplugs.

Spam update: SEMICOLONS are the latest thing. My hotmail account has several mails from S:H:EWA:NT, with the subject AH:UG:EP:E:N|S. Good to know, I suppose. I'm so glad that whoever sent it (perhaps a relative of Mr. Do:nger, who also sent me several) found such an innovative way of getting around spam filters. Why, I might otherwise have accidentally blocked this valuable information!