And the Geglash Tavern, dusty and full of cob weds.
Now Here are two links of webwalkers that everyone should have and browsed! New players and those returning after a while away.
Itemlist & cube recipes:Quests FAQThe Quest facts link is the important one.. After have two of my guys, characters, blocked from doing the CE extra quests, when a party member does Christs Hammer quest.... Come on guys read about the quest and really enjoy playing here.
And now for the latest addition to the long, strike out all that. This year, since I'm now 70, I thought to scribble out brief history of my past gaming. Well it is not too brief and some things were not included. Read it, enjoy it (I hope) and poke fun at it if you must.
9 November 2015
So there I am, trying to level a teen level sorc, when I realize it is time to get something ready for the yearly post to the Tavern.
I did hear rumor that Old Joe is off milk & cookies, back to lager, ales, oh by gosh the hard stuff. Now this is just a rumor, probably not true. Time to dislodge a few spiders from the bar top and break a ant trail across the bar. Get down there and whip up that spilt drink. Wonder who the slob was?
Since this is the end of my 70
th year, I thought I'd spill a little more about the Grumpy Old Generalist that makes these crazy stories up.
It all starts back in the dim past with an old AT pieced together box that a friend helped me with. Yes I do have old friends. It was a big step up for me from a Tandy HX 1000, it did have two floppy drives. The AT box, the kids called Leo the Lion, had a, ah heck, 12 kb or was it a 28 kb dial up modem. That don't matter much, what matters is I score a few more RPG games at the local computer show and I was hooked.
They were all sword & staff D&G RPG games (whack & stack). I like whacking monsters almost as much as freezing them. After a while a new and better game was being touted. Diablo, it was. The bbs boards were all talking about it. For you youngsters the BBS Boards came before Gore's great Web of lies.
The web was up and working letting Diablo start its run as an on-line playable game. The other two Blizzard (boo, hiss) games were up make noise too, on the web. Times were lean if not out right bad with two kids, big mortgage and spotty work. A penny here and a nickle there, let me get my fist copy of Diablo. A monster was born. GRIN
About then work picked up and long train computes let me read and latter write a crappy story line for a game. Told garbage but I was proud of it. Then one night (not playing with Diablo) I learned more about mods on a BBS. A few days latter, I snagged a copy of Hellfire, a semi commercial mod of Diablo. Now it was played off-line and really upped the pleasure of whacking monsters. Time goes quickly while whacking monsters waiting for Blizzard's long delayed Diablo II.
Again penny pinching (that is hard on the fingers) let me get the three CD disk game. It had to be good, it was three disks long. Damn, it was horrible on the old box, Leo the Lion. Off to a computer show with a friend and a pocket of scrap money (lucked into some copper scrap money). After getting a few new pieces and a better used MB & case, D2 ran better. Free Blizzard On-line was a miracle to me. A better dial up modem and I was making friends on line while whacking monsters. A few good years of gaming went quick. Lost touch with my friend, divorce can do that, his, also traveling for work.
My new, used box took a hit with hard drive crash. A collection of used pieces got a box running (limping) and Leo was hurting, had to make it better for the kids. Needed a 2
nd one, both girls wanted there own. Those were the days....... I was back using the slowest dial up modem, mostly off_line. One to three second lag doesn't play well.
Someone shook the dial up modem tree and 56 kb modems were every where, cheap. Broad band, DSL was the new thing. I was never at the leading edge on the tech scene. $12.00 bucks and OI was back up with the big boys, ah, sort of. But the 2 & 3 second lag was gone and a ½ second lag I could die by. LOD was still a year or two in the future.
I was still reading and writing on the long train commutes, when working downtown. A story this time, better but not really much better than before. Early morning train rides require coffee, smokes and naps. Fortune favored me while working a nuke (power plant) close to home, over time, extra money. Then a coal plant, more over time. Got a better used box, wife got $8.00 cable, no adverts. We thought we had made it. It snowed and snowed, work dried up, till spring. No body knew how to dress and work in the cold weather any more, the pussies. Bean counters were the blame. (men didn't work well in cold weather.) We just were stuck home, hoping the unemployment didn't run out. Don't forget about getting a new bigger mortgage because the other ended with big balloon payment. The wife did it.
Working again, kid needed DSL or is it broadband, huh? The kids got it, so did I. I the fumbling thumbs tech guy for the whole family, including grand kids. Back up with Blizzard & LOD, till the mid 90s....
Traveling for work (no work to be had at home), nukes, paper mills, refineries, gone five, six, seven days a week. Some how managed to get money home using branch banks. Reading and radio, hamburger or beer on pay day, keep just enough till next pay day. Never grossed so much and been so poor. But the mortgage was paid every month and the kids ate well. Or was that the grand kids?
The years do blend together in the blender I have for a mind. When not traveling I was up with LOD and then CE mod, our favorite Chaos Empire. At first Joe let anyone play on-line. Then started to ask for donations to keep the servers running.
Have you donated?
I donated when I could and was off-line mostly. A couple hard drive crashes, a different box or two and I had to retire early. A couple lean but livable years before all the pensions kick in and now were almost here in 2015. Still off line, writing some of the stories that I posted in the past. Got some extra and bought a fast, smart brand new box, with windows 7 (boo, double hiss). Good enough to be a central smart comp in one of my stories but not the main or weapons smart comp. Might be the last box I ever have.
Writing and playing of line, a bit extra and donate nicely when Joe needed it badly. Now on line most days, not doing much else.
BY THE WAY HAVE YOU MADE EVEN A SMALL DONATION TO CE.
Darn ants are back in force, a soapy spritz ends that, slipping and sliding to hell.
Hey Joe don't let the beer go flat. Where are you? I see your handle on line but I won't tell what it is.
So far this is two pages of my grumpy history. Kept everyone fed and started in collage, even if I didn't pay the tuition. Scholarships are great, makes them keep the average up. I can now pay extra on the mortgage so things are fair to good.
Now Joe wants ideas that can improve the mod. Who cares if there hair brained, they might just work.
An old one, sockets on charms, Joe. One on a large, two on a grand. Can you up the rate of rare charm drops? Can we use some oil on them ? ? ?
All these +3 skill items make it real hard for some characters to survive in the mid teen levels, in the last part of act one. Of coarse I like to whack and stack even with a sorc...Grin. +3 armor is good, need better class specific armor for the less robust characters. Requiring them to be under a certain low level with 2-3 + experience. Just one of my odd thoughts. Limit the item to be used in certain acts not by level (item can be used in acts 2 & 3 only). Then the players would have to really look for better item drops and stop all the running in the halls. Some players do gamble too much, playing to gamble. Grin
Bye till next time
bdpf, the grumpy old man, a generalist. Never put all your eggs in one basket, skills that is.
