Invader Smee's page

My wife and I love to play co-op RPGs, and we have gotten a lot (A LOT) of mileage out of a few games that we love. First there was Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and its sequel BG: DA 2 which cleaned up some of the game-play of the first and added a few new character options. We were SUPER excited to learn that the original design team went over to another company and came out with a near-clone of the original game, Champions of Norrath and its sequel Champions: Return to Arms which use the same game-play engine as Dark Alliance. We have played all of these games over and over so many times that we know every level backwards and forwards, but it is still fun for us to try out new two-person party combos.

We have been hoping against hope that there would be a sequel released for either of these franchises, but it has now been five years or more and no luck. I recently upgraded to the PS3, and I’m looking for new games to try. If anyone is familiar with the games that I mentioned and can recommend something in the same vein, it would be greatly appreciated. Or even if you are not familiar with those titles, any recommendations for high-quality two-player hack-n-slash-type RPGs for the PS3 or PS2 would be awesome.

(Honorable Mention because it’s only one-player: The Bard’s Tale is just about the funniest, raunchiest version of this particular style of RPG game that you will EVER come across. Highly recommended.)

You Got Served!
Sorry that it's in Russian or Bulgarian or whatever. All the English versions I could find had garbage image quality.

Dead & Breakfast
If you can track it down, listen to the rest of this song. It's called "We're Comin' to Kill Ya" by Zachariah and the Lobos Riders. It's kind of... well... it's a hip-hop/country-western song about zombies. Yeah.

Maybe the ability to recognize the Doctor in a new body only applies to those who have at least a little psychic sensitivity. Sarah Jane Smith was pretty, spunky, and adventurous, but always struck me as an average person - no special destiny, no mental powers. If anything, she was psychically susceptible; she got her mind dominated quite a lot.

Remember, no body

not dead!

That doesn't even matter. Remember, the Doctor burned the Master's body on a funeral pyre, and he STILL came back!

Matthew Morris wrote:

David Fryer wrote:

See it's kinda like the Face of Boe. When he first recognizes the Doctor after he hasgone from Christopher Eccleston to David Tennent I was like, what the crap? However, if he is really Jack it would explain a lot. Another theory that just poped into my mind is that anyone who has spent time with theDoctor devlops an instinctive ability to recognize him regardless of what he looks like at the time.

Hmm, except Tegan didn't recognize the first doctor in the Five Doctors. (the companions comparing notes still makes me laugh though)

Yeah, that is the flaw in my thory.

Well, Tegan was a bit dense...

@ HoustonDerek:
I normally just lurk around here, but you have inspired me to jump in and give you a piece of my mind. Why does this always seem to happen – some reasonable adults are having a civil (if heated) discussion, and you have to show up and spray your antipathy and vileness all over everyone? And I’m not even talking about how tired and unoriginal your whole “everything suxx and the world is going to Hell in a handbasket” routine is – I’m just talking about your language. Do you even understand what the Code of Conduct is for? The language filter is not there to encourage you to come up with creative ways to insert punctuation into your curse words, it’s there to let you know that WE DON’T APPRECIATE CURSING HERE. Just because this is an involved political discussion, it does not automatically mean that there aren’t children reading it. Your ranting and swearing just makes you come off like a boor, and a bore (and possibly a boar, but I’m not going to speculate about your personal grooming habits). All kidding aside, please can the sailor talk, dude. It comes down to a show of respect. If you can’t manage to muster any respect for the other people who post here, then maybe the Paizo Forums just aren’t for you. However, I do know of a place where your particular brand of atrocious behavior is acceptable.

Dudes: if you've never been to The Whoniverse, I suggest you take a moment of your time to step in and have a look 'round. A good place to start is The Rules of History, which explains how the site attempts the epic task of collating and clarifying everything, prioritizing and establishing as canon the televised episodes and the audio plays and the novels and the comics.

The new Doctor looks like a potato. >:P

Be careful, you may have to eat those words.

Not any actual horror stories, but just one little detail that I'll never ever forget about. My first dorm roommate in college was a nerdy, quiet little guy who mostly kept to himself (Engineering Major - big shock, I know). The thing about this guy, however, was that he had a full-on skinny little Hitler-mustache. I never really had the heart to ask him just what the Hell he was thinking.

Well, if you want to get technical about it, it seems that every role Keanu plays is Ted.

"Quicksand" by David Bowie always makes me pause and reflect on my life.

And to pick one that is a bit more obscure, see if you can find "Maggie" off of Colin Hay's album "Going Somewhere". Around my household, it is referred to as "The Song of Ultimate Sorrow".

"At the Mountains of Madness" is probably Lovecraft's best work of all time, not coincidentially because it also happens to be his longest. I have also always been partial to "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath". It is very much unlike his other stuff, which invariably has some New Englander protagonist being driven mad by some nameless/shapeless horror. "Dream-Quest" is much more fantasy-like, but the depth and texture of the setting is incomparable. Plus, it sets you up to enjoy the Hero of Dreams series, by Brian Lumley. Of all the authors who belong to the modern narrators of the Lovecraft Mythos, Lumley is, in my opinion, one of the best.

Did you just find this site recently? I've had it bookmarked for weeks now. I go there every time I'm having a bad day, and I need either a good laugh, or just a reminder that I am actually in the good end of the gene pool.

I'm going to guess that you also liked Love & Monsters. It starts out with an absurd monster chase that seems to say "Hey, audience! This is the worst chase scene we could manage! Enjoy!"

(Or does it not count when it's deliberate?)

I couldn't finish watching that episode. In fact, that was the LAST episode of the new show I ever tried to watch.

Er, no. Couldn't stand Love & Monsters, actually. Granted, it had a couple of good lines, like the running joke with the monster's name ("Abzorbaloff, yes, I like that one.") but overall was boring and trite. And featured Jackie waaaay too much.

I guess I should be more specific - I like the bad episodes from the Old show, not from the New show. The New show has its merits, but it seems at times to be way too self-conscious. The Old show was so amusing because it seemed to lack any sense of humor (or "post-post-modern self-awareness" for all you Buffy fans out there) about itself, which is what made it so precious. All of the extras whose performances were so wooden that they seemed less real even than the rubber masks, for example. It just slays me.

That is indeed the difference between us. While I agree that City of Death is pure garbage, it is also, hands down, my favorite episode of all time. Take an episode like The Time Warrior - yeah, it's got an interesting story, great acting, fascinating concept - but I still say it's got nothing on the pure, abject silliness of, say, The Happiness Patrol. And that's what keeps me coming back, and will for years to come.

But if you really must insist on a good story, then I've got just a single word for you: Blink. If you only watch ONE episode of the "New Who", make it this one.

Oh, and to the OP, and to the others with their big lists. I can't believe you're forgetting the bad episodes. See, for me, the bad episodes were so bad that they were good, better than the good episodes even. Horns of the Nimon? Is that ridiculous enough for you? Planet of Evil? Beyond bad. The Brain of Morbius? Blasphemously bad. CITY OF DEATH? Still cracks me up, to this day, after decades and dozens of viewings.

Is Robots of Death the greatest "Killer Robot" story of all time?

I heart io9.

I've also had a lot of fun DMing for a solo player. A lot of the important points have already been covered in this thread; role-play like there is no tomorrow, hide the rolls and fudge them when necessary, and mix in red-shirt NPCs to fill out missing roles. In this particular campaign, the PC was a Warlock (worked great, since she never ran out of ammo) with a level of Aristocrat. An NPC character class is a crappy choice as far as optimization goes, but it fit with the character concept, so we tweaked its functionality just a bit. The PC picked up the Leadership feat as soon as possible, which gave a "buffer/healer" cohort in the form of a Mystic Theurge, and all of the followers were the Aristocrat's subjects. Since it's ridiculous to drag 1st-level mooks along on an adventure and expect them to live, we just treated them like cannon fodder or comic relief, and they got replaced in between each session with more peasants/men-at-arms/whatever. The "whatever" was sometimes the most fun of all, like a Mariachi Band comprised of a half-dozen low-level bards, or a small Cult of Personality made up of low-level clerics, or, just once, a band of ten 1st-level ninjas that died hilariously in their very first fight.

Ahh, sweet sweet nostalgia. I think the very first thread I ever read on the Paizo messageboards devolved into a Liefield hate-fest. Our disdain and resentment for him will never die.

I just keep calling them thief, and everybody knows how old I am.

I also think we should go back to "backstabbing."
Use the "sneak attack" mechanic and all, just call it "back stabbing."
It has a beefier feel to it.

So which do you use, then: wizard, mage, or magic-user?

Wow it feels nice to finally know for a fact that I've been pronouncing his name wrong this entire time. Silly me.

AM I EXCITED ABOUT PONYO? If I was a little girl, I'd be peeing my pants right now.

Not too familiar with the Lurk, or maybe my memory just isn't that good. What's its 20th level capstone ability now?

Well, we need to breed to produce at least some new people. Propagation of the species, and all that. Unless you are suggesting that we all just use clones from here on out?

Speaking as a resident of Minneapolis for the last 20-odd years, I think that Erik really got it right in mentioning some of the best spots. Dreamhaven, the Source, and Uncle Hugo's have been some of my favorite spots for years now, especially since Phoenix Games closed down a few years back (It was a FLGS in Uptown, right across the street from Dreamhaven's old location. I used to spend all day in one store, walk 50 feet, and spend all evening in the other store). If you're looking for a good burger, the list is just about endless. All of the places mentioned are great, and I would add "Key's" to the list. Home of the burger that is AS BIG AS YOUR FACE.

Of course, there is lots more to Mnpls than food and books. If you are into culture, there are many awesome art galleries and museums. If you like theater, you have your choice of half-a-dozen fantastic venues in downtown alone. If you like music, there are lots of great places, including historic First Avenue (the ex-bus station that turned into a music club, featured in the movie Purple Rain). If you like to shop, you have your choice of either the Downtown Skyway System (a second-floor massive artery that connects all of the major buildings downtown, lined with shops and stores and cafes and restaurants. The Skyway crosses between buildings in the middle of the street, which makes it an ideal place to watch the Holidazzle Parade every December. It is also just a terribly convenient way to walk around downtown, without having to hit the street - it gets CCCCCOLD here) or the fabled Mall of America. Being a local, I tend to frown on visiting the Megamall, but it's fun to see it anew through the eyes of visitors.

Oh and did I mention that even though it's right in the heart of the Midwest, Mnpls consistently ranks at the top of most "wired city" lists? The tech industry here is more advanced than you would think, as well as it being a major hub for banks and law offices.

But far and away the best part about Minneapolis is the green spaces. There are lakes and ponds and rivers and streams all over, and it seems as if the unifying design principle in the city was that no matter where you are, you are within walking distance of at least one park. There are several major lakes in town that are all linked by bike/walking paths. My favorite is Lake Harriet, where you can stop at the Bandshell to see local free concerts, or wander through the connected Rose Gardens/Japanese Stone Garden (where my buddy got married to a nice Japanese girl who didn't speak a word of English a few years back. Ah, young love).

And I could on, but if I talk anymore then I think the Board of Tourism will owe me a check. Suffice it to say, visit us. You will not regret it!

Planet of the Dead seemed, to me, more like an oversized episode (with certain amounts of filler) than a Special. The only real twist was that he had to do everything without the TARDIS, but other than that? Not much in the way of fundamental change, or major revelations, or anything else (not-)earth-shattering. Yes, there was the "he will knock four times" bit at the end, but that's all we get? Foreshadowing?

Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy this episode. But I feel that it could have been trimmed down to regular episode length, and not much would have been lost. Of course, it did mean more shots of Lady Christina, which is just fine by me. Here's hoping we've not seen the last of her!

The vampire chick Sylea from the PS2 game "Champions of Norrath". She has one of those outfits that makes you wonder how the little gold bangles stay stuck on her. Sheer force of will, I suppose. Plus, her accent gives me shivers.

And for bonus points, in the sequel "Champions: Return to Arms" she grants you a second magic-earring item slot by nibbling your ear when you rescue her.

Honorable mention (also appearing in both games) is Kerriel the Naughty Mermaid. She writhes about on her rock and very suggestively offers you a... reward... for completing her quest.

I feel your pain, man. I've never had a problem with my mailbox, but my wife's car was the subject of vandalism a few years back. The driver-side window was completely smashed in - nothing stolen, just a violence for the sake of violence. In Minnesota. In December. And my wife has to drive highways to get to work.

I'm normally a very calm kind of a dude, nonconfrontational almost to a fault. But all I could think about was catching the guy who did it, and how I was going to kick him and keep on kicking him until his nuts were ruptured. Probably a good thing I never did find him (for both of us).

Not even a tiny cameo? Are you certain? The walls of my world have come crashing down...

I do believe that this is the most courteous flamewar I have ever seen!

But make no mistake, DW, that is indeed what you have initiated. You set it off with your aggressive comments, and then perpetuated it by your refusal to apologize or to back down.
Whether you are justified in so doing is between you two. It is none of my business, and I will henceforth stay completely out of this (remarkably civilized) debate.

Oh yeah, and almost all of my best injuries have also been stone-cold sober. Wonder why that is?

I've taken a couple of hits to the lip over time. A small(ish) one was when I was pulling apart a wooden crate with a crowbar. A piece of wood flew up and into my lip (four stitches, small scar). Then a different time I smacked my face into something and almost completely severed my lip in half (seven stitches, but the scar is less visible since most of the damage was on the inside of my mouth). That one took about ten years to really properly heal to the point where I can mostly no longer feel a thick vertical ridge of flesh (scar tissue) inside my lip. My girlfriend told me that it was interesting kissing me because of it.

Cats don't usually throw up for no reason.

Not my experience at all. My last cat was such a puker, I think he did it sometimes for fun. Like, if I ever left a book on the floor - HUUUUURRRRK!!!

Disclaimer: This is a thought experiment. You asked for thread topics that could result in a ban. I came up with these...

** spoiler omitted **

I am sure I could think of more, but these are a few off the top of my head. I would not discuss any of them on Paizo, because it is a welcome escape from my normal preoccupations.

Dude! You're a little too good at this!

I have a looong history with scars. As a matter of fact, I don't think I have ever met anyone who has had more stitches in their lives than I have (admittedly, it's not a topic you usually get into with casual acquaintances). My best scar is unfortunately not usually visible, as it is hidden by my beard. When I was in college I fell off a ledge and into a window well. Not drunk - totally sober - just dumb. I fell about twenty feet onto concrete and took the entire impact on the point of my chin. It fractured my mandible on both sides, most of my teeth, and absolutely shattered my jaw at the point of impact. The doctor told me it was incredible I didn't break my neck. I was also lucky that a buddy was with me, so he could help me up out of the window well. I walked to the hospital, about a mile (shock is actually your friend in situations like this - I didn't feel any pain at all until I was in the ER). A nurse told me the next day that I walked right up to the front desk, white as a sheet, with blood and tiny bits of bone dribbling out of my beard. Freaked her the hell out, apparently!

I now have a 5-cm piece of surgical steel on my jawbone, which is also the site of my most impressive scar - 33 stitches on that one! Had to have my jaw wired shut for about six weeks, which regrettably included Thanksgiving. Turkey and gravy through a straw just isn't the same, I can tell you.

My second-best scar is also, unfortunately, not immediately visible. Ten stitches, right on the top of my head, when as a child I was accidentally hit on the noggin by a six-inch metal Star Destroyer when my mother was cleaning a shelf of my toys. My dad loves to tell this story, because my response to the doctor when asked what happened was: "Mom didn't mean it. I don't want to talk about it."

Are human children better fried, baked, or steamed?

Well, you can't say that and not show us pictures, now can you?

The situation in Iran (or Darfur, or wherever) will be just as screwed up in 3 days' time. The King of Pop only passes away once. That may sound cynical, but there it is. I see no problem with letting America (or, really, practically the entire Western World) take a few days to grieve for one of its cultural icons. If this media blitz continues to the exclusion of all else for weeks and weeks, then we have a problem...

A million congratulations! I can thoroughly empathize with your situation, since I am the proud father of newborn twin girls myself. As far as names go, please don't name them anything cutesy like Sienna & Sierra (saw that on a baby-name website). The kids will already have a challenge throughout their lives of establishing their own identities and personalities that are separate and distinct from each other. Naming them something that is one-letter-off of each other will just promote confusion, and possibly identity issues. However, you still want to designate the fact that they are twins and therefore interrelated to each other. What we did was give one a name starting with A, and one starting with Z (and middle names were variations of Grandma's names).

If you have identical twins, you have the choice about whether you want to dress them in identical outfits, as well. We decided against this, as much for our own sake as for theirs (the first time I had to take one to the pediatrician for her two-week checkup, I actually got mixed up and grabbed the wrong baby. Thankfully, the doctor thought it was hilarious). Since easily 50% of ALL girl-baby clothes are pink, Zoey always gets dressed in pink, and Astrid always gets dressed in some other color. This also helps the relatives easily identify which baby they are cooing at, and aids in establishing familial bonds.

And a word about paternal/fraternal twins - sometimes you will be surprised. I have read that some babies will be born looking somewhat different, but over the course of the first year will grow to look more and more like each other. So even if you don't think they are identical at first, that isn't necessarily the case.

Man, I could go on for hours. I've done so much research about twins that it's silly. Did you know that, statistically, twins are becoming more common in modern society? This is attributed to the increasing use of fertility drugs, and also to the increasing average age of mothers giving birth, both of which are contributing factors to the occurance of twins. Did you know that once you have twins naturally, you are statistically more likely to have them again with successive pregnancies? (you might not want to share that particular factoid with the wife)

Overall, though, my advice is not to panic. It can be overwhelming, especially when both babies are screaming AT THE SAME TIME. But hey, you've got two arms, and you've got two babies. Learn the techniques to feed them both simultaneously, and just work on efficiency in general, or else you'll be spending every minute of your waking life tending to them. And since you already have kids, you understand to forget about getting any sleep for the first, oh, 18 years of their lives. I am surprised at how well I was able to adapt to sleep deprivation. Going on four months now that I haven't slept for longer than 4 hours at a stretch. Yeah, I hallucinate a little sometimes, but it's workable.

The one thing you have to keep telling yourself: At least it's not triplets.

There IS a God!
(or at least some gigantic, omnipotent, nebulous entity, or possibly a computer, that lives at the center of the universe)

Thanks for the links. Regrettably, my boss surrounded me with a Wall of Fire and I can't access them right now. Where does he get off, wanting me to actually work instead of watching YouTube? Don't worry, I'll get even someday and set the building on fire.

ATT-I-CA! ATT-I-CA!

...Cartoons funded by the UN and Iran.

I'm curious about this. Could you give a little more explanation please?

Hey dude, there's nothing wrong with moderation (I hear it goes well in "all things"), or mix-n-match playing. Maybe it wasn't your intent, but your comment comes off as a little elitist. Some people even use some elements of 4e strapped onto the 3.5 chassis, and that's okay too. On the other hand, some people are violently opposed to anything whatsoever 4e, but since ToB is cannon 3.5, it's actually okay to use. I don't get why you would condemn a rule-set for its designers' intentions. Unless I misunderstand your point, maybe?

Is there an icon for a rimshot?

MEEE-OWWW!!!

So what's the sequel? COLOSSAL SEAHORSE?

Well, any argument can be carried to a ludicrous extreme. Any suggestions that we get rid of industry, or stop driving altogether, are silly.
And the analogy that was made earlier about smoking cigarettes is, at the same time, both a good and bad one. Yes, smoking cigs is empirically unhealthy, and by the same logic as the seat belt laws it shouldn't be allowed. But the difference is that smoking is only harming yourself, and thus is considered by many to be a personal liberty. However, have you noticed all the new legislation that is being put in place over the past few years and where and when you can smoke? Like not in public buildings, or not within 20 feet of certain high-traffic entrances (at least in my state, at any rate). What this applies to is that grey area in which an individual's personal liberties start to intrude on someone else's. As in, you can feel free to smoke that stuff and poison your body, but I don't want to have to breathe it and harm my health (and besides, quitting was very hard for me and I still hate to see other people enjoying it. Bastards!)

Okay then, I see your point. You are clearly well-informed about this matter, and have done your research. But the average citizen can probably not make the same claim, and many people may not understand the safety implications. As much of a hassle as it is to create and enforce legislation, it is still the best way to get the most amount of people to comply with what is, essentially, a suggestion about how to be a better driver. Greatest good for the greatest number, and all that jazz.

And I'm not trying to be insulting to you - my apologies if it came off that way. It just seems a little... reptilian... to weigh the possibility of saving a life against your inconvenience at having to wear a seat belt.