(Diplomacy: Success)!!

Two quick announcements of my diplomatic skills this week

1. I've got engaged! Full proposal, down on one knee etc. She cried. We picked out a ring together. I saw the price tag. I cried. Beautiful....
2. I'm the next one up for the Podcast treatment! Be sure to check out episode 65 this Friday! Thanks to Liso and the guys for the opportunity

Well, I'm hoping they were diplomatic successes - at least no intentional intimidation involved, but maybe a smattering of bluff.....

...Hmm maybe I could have worked all the 3rd ed skills into my proposal... Sleight of Hand to slip the ring on unnnoticed, appraise to buy the ring cheaply, craft alchemy to slip something in her drink whilst she's not looking.....

Tristor screenies

Some more screenshots of the village of Tristor, hub for chapter 3 Act 1. Progress on this area has been slow but getting there. The area's split in two halves - a village and a swamp - each with different texturing needs, which makes it a little trickier to handle. I had this problem with the Thornton Hough area from chapter 2 - grassy cliffs and sandy beaches -and you need to plan it carefully so textures management doesn't get too tricky... Progress so far


Shrine to Shaundakaul


Gates of Tristor


Temple of Ilmater


Things always look better in the toolset - that's my excuse anyway...


Baug's Brewery


Sunset by the Hanging Tree


Sunset over the marsh


Moonlight on the windmill

Part of the reason for slow progress is that I've been playing more. Recently played the new release Howls in the Dark - for anyone looking for a good story driven adventure, I can highly recommend it. My reviews on the vault. One of the most enjoyable modules I've played in a long time so congrats to Rasvar. Check it out!

Something that's hitting me as summer finally gets underway overhere (weather system seems to have just realised it's meant to be sunny and is rushing to catch up) - I need to improve my fitness. Never been exactly what you'd call 'svelte', but since my stomach op last year, and all this time spent at the toolset, it hasn't done much good for my health/fitness over the past year. Unless anyone has ideas for combining the toolset and exercise (using a bike to power my PC..?), I'm going to have to start hiking/cycling a bit more...

Rats! Rats! The Elemental Plane of Rats! Rats! The Eleme...

Call it silly season, too much sun (in the UK??), or whatever...

Just got back from my planar jaunt with my sanity in tatters... the results are on the vault

The Elemental Plane of Rats - the mother of all 'Rats in the Cellar' quests!

So anyways, I follow the old man through the portal and find myself in an inn. A kindly looking old woman greets me with a smile. Obviously, I needed a drink and some information, but sadly, she informed me that she wasn't able to think about any of that whislt she had this problem in her cellar. Turns out there was a rat problem - big rats, that needed the heroic type to sort out. Eating all her grain, drinking her mead, running a protection racket, polluting the river and turning babies into oil to power their gas-guzzling motorised carriages. I'd never heard of the like! Couldn't resist the moist glistening in her rheumy eyes as she begged for my help, so off I trundled down the stairs....


it was one of those nagging things in the back of my head - an idea I just had to put to rest. I'd even come up with a jingle/theme tune for crissakes... So I figured I'd spend a weekend on it, get it out of my system, and move on. Maybe someone can enjoy a moments distraction with it.

But hey, it offers scalable gameplay to any level, infinite gameplay time... Give the peoples what they want I say! What more can you ask for?!

...apart from asking for the singing to stop....

A little sidequest of my own

Whilst booting up the toolset last night, ready to continue my work in a linear fashion, a wizzened old hermit lept out from behind my bookcase, and begged me to help him. Turns out there's a portal behind my bookcase - who knew? All of a sudden i found myself with three choices - help him, ignore him, or kill him. My girlfriend would kill me if i got blood onthe carpet, so I thought the best thing to do to get him outm of the house as quickly as possible was to go along with him. So looks like I'm doing something else for a little while...


Quick poll to the left - the first half of Chapter 3 will be a standalone sidequest (much like the Raven's Lake area in CHapter 2) and be based on a pen-and-paper module. So I was wondering if there's any interest in converting it as a standalone SP/MP module in parallel. If people aren't sick of me already of course :p