More Elder Scrolls Addiction

I’ve gotten sucked into Morrowind lately, and I’ve had a lot of fun with that. I will say, though, that I had heard all the talk about how rude the native-Morrowind Dunmer are to outlanders, so I steeled myself for a poor reception. However, it seemed like everybody in Morrowind loved me instantly, and they were quite welcoming and kind. It even seemed like they were all bending over backwards to get me to like them. This surprised me. But I guess it must have had something to do with being a Dunmer bard born under the sign of The Lady. So not only was I the most charming charmer that ever lived, but I was also Dunmer and apparently you get disposition bonuses with characters that are the same race as you. I guess that would explain it.

I also discovered pretty early on that I could get everybody’s disposition towards me up to 100/100 pretty quickly by flirting mercilessly with every single resident of Morrowind. I thought that was pretty hilarious.

In other news, I also finally got Hearthfire for Skyrim. It is also quite addicting. However, a few things about it bummed me out:

1 – I married Revyn Sadri, and Hearthfire appears to have glitched out some of his dialog. Now, whenever I even bring up the topic of moving somewhere, he starts shouting “THE SKY IS SO DARK! THE SKY IS SO DARK! WHY DOES THE SKY LOOK LIKE THAT? WHY DOES THE SKY LOOK LIKE THAT?” And on and on. It’s like, OK, I get it: you don’t want to move. You could have maybe told me in a more constructive way.

2 – Revyn Sadri hates moving. I’m not just talking about the glitch in #1. He literally hates everywhere that isn’t Windhelm. He gets severely depressed and refuses to leave the house, and just sits there not doing anything. Plus he complains and complains forever about wherever he is that isn’t Windhelm. I mean, I kind of get this. I’d much prefer living in my tiny closet-sized apartment in San Francisco over living in a mansion anywhere else (for the same price), and Windhelm is pretty happening and walkable, soooo I can’t blame him for his. Plus, I can’t bear to see Sadri’s Used Wares shuttered 🙁 I’ve learned this lesson for my alt character, so he at least won’t be marrying anybody who can’t be a follower for this reason.

3 – I can’t adopt a child. I figured, heck, I had a billion adults living in my homestead (I actually kind of like the idea that I have a bustling homestead full of people living there, like I’m some local lord. Which… I kind of am). So I decided to adopt a kid, and let my Steward and Housecarl take care of them. I didn’t even tell Revyn about it, because I assumed he’d just complain. But then, when I went to the house where I sent the kid, there was Revyn Sadri, sulking. Apparently, he somehow found out that I had adopted a child, and decided that it was unacceptable to leave a child to be raised by my steward and housecarl, so he moved into the house with her. Ostensibly to raise her and be a father? That was SORT OF sweet. Except, he didn’t seem to acknowledge or accept the child in any way. He just sulked around all day complaining about how much he hated living in the countryside, and that I was out of my mind for moving us there. So apparently, I can’t even adopt a child in Hearthfire, because the game won’t let me put a child in Revyn’s house, so the instant I adopt a child Revyn will shutter Sadri’s Used Wares and pack up for wherever I put the kid. And then become severely depressed.

4 – Faendal, my steward, claimed the master bed in my Falkreath house. I don’t know why or how. In all my other houses, the steward and housecarl claimed the other beds down the hall from the master bed, which is appropriate. But not Faendal. He was too good for those beds I guess. The first time I went to bed in the Falkreath house, I woke up to Faendal standing there staring at me. I yelped and was freaked out, and I told him that was not an appropriate thing to do. Soon I discovered that he always did that, so I followed him for a while. It turns out he claimed the master bed, so if I’m sleeping in it, he gets confused and just stands there watching me sleep all night. I wish… I wish he didn’t do that. Hmm, maybe that’s another big reason why Revyn gets so depressed in that house. I tried fixing it by commanding him to sleep in his actual bed, but he only did that for as long as I was in command mode. As soon as I exited, he went back to the master bed. Oh, well.

But, yep. I’m obsessed.

Cosmic Encounter

Sometime during our wanderings this weekend, Doc and I stumbled upon the most amazing garage sale ever. Amongst the many awesome things we found there, we got…

Check the awesome art

this awesome board game, Cosmic Encounter!

Cited as the progenitor of Magic: The Gathering (and many other games where the game-play changes every time you play it), it seemed too amazing to pass up. It also came with a bucket of expansion packs, but we thought it best to play the original game first before trying to comprehend the expansion packs.

I have enjoyed it thus far, but I have only played it with 2 and with 3 players. I imagine that it really starts getting good with 4 players, due to the ability to forge alliances with players, and team up against others.

You randomly draw one of a kabillion different wacky alien races (the original game only had 15 races, but the box we got has about 75 races), and that determines your alien power for the game.

Some aliens, like Void, have powers that seem frustratingly powerful; but if you have an alien like the Healer in play, then the Void really doesn’t seem so scary anymore. So I guess this really adds to the whole “a different game every time you play!” tagline.

So far, I like Guts of Glory better, but mostly because Guts seems more complex. Therefore, I will probably enjoy Cosmic Encounter more and more as we add more of the optional rules and expansion packs to it. I really love the old science fiction art by Dean Morrissey and the wacky vibe. I should also point out that Cosmic has more opportunities to be totally different each play than Guts has, due to all the different strategies that come with the different races.

To give you an idea of the sorts of issues that can arise during a play-through of Cosmic Encounter, I present to you this discussion on Void vs Zombie.

Guts of Glory!

I got to play Guts of Glory this week, which was a lot of fun. Doc had backed the Kickstarter to get the game, which is a boardgame set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where you compete for glory by eating various things. Things like tapeworms, spiders, and… the moon. The items vary in how tough they are to eat, as well as how much glory they reward you (if successfully eaten).

Doc photobombing my documentation attempts.

You can also sabotage your fellow players by chewing their items, forcing them to chew your items, or spewing unwanted items at them. Everybody in our group seemed to get pretty underhanded pretty fast. Which I think is the point.

Also, you apparently have to be the same colour piece as is indicated by the trim on your mouth board, but Dean and I did not want that so we switched pieces. Doc said we couldn’t do that, but we did anyway and nothing bad happened. You must understand, I NEEDED the pointy-teeth-forked-tongue board with the yellow trim, but I also NEEDED to be the really round and fat blue piece. Needed to be it. And apparently Dean needed to be the yellow guy with tiny feet. I guess what I am saying is, that Doc was wrong and you can switch up the pieces however you want.

And now Dean is photobombing my documentation attempts. That’s it, I give up on getting a natural picture of the game in progress.

Above all I intensely love the amazing artwork. I have a soft spot for post apocalyptic aesthetics, and of course this game has such a fun and goofy twist on it that I find it impossible not to love. I think I might be addicted to this game now.

Nobody ever did manage to eat the moon, by the way. Although there were many attempts, and it seemed to show up in every single game. Nobody swallowed the moon.