Fallout 3

So I just got my hands on Fallout 3. It's awesome. So awesome, in fact, that I'm going to stop burning minutes on blogging and go play.

Wow.

Gun self defense
by secretstory

I'm always amazed by good hand-to-hand skills, and this guy's are pretty amazing. No flash, no showboating, just simple, effective control of the weapon and the opponent. Brilliant. This is why I like to play RPG characters with really high hand-to-hand skills. Guns are nice. Knives, swords, crossbows, hand grenades, and flails are nice, but never, ever underestimate the awesome combat effectiveness of a pair of human hands.

Cheap fun!

Since I'm on a streak of plugging things I like, I may as well add one: gog.com. Gog.com (which stands for Good Old Games) sells older PC games, often bundled with their soundtracks and other goodies, DRM free, for about $6 apiece (or, in some cases, about $10). Right now the catalog is limited (but it does include Fallout 1 & 2 and Fallout Tactics...) but they're adding new stuff and they have a wish list. Since PC games definitely fall into the category of "they don't make 'em like they used to!" if you like older games, you may want to check it out.

Burning Wheel

Thanks to the Sons of Kryos I've picked up Luke Crane's innovative RPG, Burning Wheel. It's really cool stuff. In fact, I'd really like to try it out; it's much grittier and more versatile than d20 in terms of what kinds of adventures you can use it for. It's also far less pricey; there are currently four books you'd need to have the entire system for the purposes of a fantasy game. They have a combined cover price of $70. (Two of them come bundled together). By way of contrast, D&D 3.5 PHB, DMG & MM go for $90, and the 4e versions go for $105. But it's not really the price that has me all interested. It's the game itself. Burning Wheel uses a "lifepath" system for character creation where you trace your character's history from their origins to the present through several lifepaths. For instance, a typical starting game might have a bunch of 5 lifepath humans. The party's "warrior" could take any number of different routes through life to get there. two opposite ends of the spectrum:

He could be born into a noble family, become a page, then a squire, then a knight, and finally a captain in the king's army.

Alternatively, he could be born as a peasant, be conscripted, become a foot soldier, get promoted to sergeant, and then "retire" to a village as a guard.

These two characters will look very different, and that's not even taking beliefs and instincts into account.

Beliefs are just what they sound like; three things (sometimes four or even five) that the character believes that drive the story in some way. Instincts are three reflexive behaviors the character has, from "When attacked, go aggressive" to "Always keep ingredients for soup handy". The players make these up from whole cloth; there's no list to pick from.

Social conflict and combat also follow an innovative system.

Very cool system. It would be perfect for any sort of gritty low fantasy you wanted to do. The works of J.R.R. Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, Glen Cook, and the Thieves' World anthologies would be especially well-suited to adaptation.

Shameless Spousal Promotion

If any of the three of you reading this aren't already aware, my wife has an online craft store. She sells all kinds of very nice handmade leather and fabric crafts (her specialty is leather flower pins) for what I keep telling her are ridiculously low prices. If that sounds at all interesting to you, go check out her shop before my suggestions to raise her prices take root.

Food!

One of my other interests, besides gaming and politics, is food. I like cooking, and I like eating. Because of this, I've uncovered a few neat tidbits that might be interesting:

Cooking by Numbers
-Check the boxes and see what you can make. For when you want to cook, but don't want to shop.


The GM Gourmet
-Gaming AND food! Recipes for feeding hungry gamers.


Good Eats
-As far as I'm concerned, the best cooking show on earth. Alton Brown is entertaining and educational at the same time. He's the mad scientist of cooking.

All Recipes
-A collection of recipes for just about anything conceivable. If you had something at a restaurant or friend's house and want to know how to make it at home, start here.

And one more: how to make dulce de leche out of canned sweetened condensed milk.