The thrill of the drill.
I don’t often comment on how the year went. I did a couple of years ago because two unusual and major events happened, neither of which had anything to do with the election.
Maybe I’ll comment upon 2018 at the end.
January
Building L5R Characters – Origins
January 2015 seemed like a flopping heavy time, what with my reporting on Shadowfist sessions multiple times and V:TES tournaments. While not great literature, if you want to see what playing V:TES is like for me as opposed to virtually anyone else in the history of the game {question mark, frowny face, birthday cake}, can read the tournament report post.
Meanwhile, in terms of “this is worth mentioning again after three years” posts, we finally get to this post. Even as I was writing this post, I was getting off of what I wanted to write about. However, intermixed with talking too much about mechanics, there’s a point made about finding the right character, even if that right character may be related to the right character sheet.
I know that HoR has been a problem for me because I’ve spent too much time on the character sheet and not enough on the character. Nightmare War was actually better because I didn’t obsess with how the numbers would look, plus it was just more interesting than HoR3 was or HoR4 has been.
Sure, there’s a lot of stating the obvious, but, I guess, I feel like the obvious needs to be stated because people make questionable decisions constantly even when they have experience. People. People with blogs. People with blogs who have written the best analysis of L5R 4e mechanics in the history of creation.
One hook is probably not sufficient to give a character enough to work with. See my upcoming post on the dual hook-wielding build methodology for creating the most fun and most approaching absolute zero PCs ever.
February
Building L5R Characters – Traits
What happens when you get old is that you remember fewer details of your life. Now, some of the reason for that makes logical sense – the older you are, the more details you have, thus any given detail is less of the memory pie.
I am shocked, shocked I say, that I wrote Origins before these other posts. I think of Origins as something I did after hitting basics, though, to be fair, The Elemental Party was a prior run on talking about 4e Traits.
Does Void suck? Well, I do find that my perspective does vary by metagame. As mentioned somewhere, having a clearly defined role where you have Reflexes 5 is very different from playing with a bunch of strangers in a mod where nobody bothered to be a brain or a talker or a perceiver or whatever. Still, Void would come after Awareness, Reflexes, Perception at a minimum and Earth-3 could be a higher priority. I guess that’s not suck territory.
People with blogs are not any one thing. They may flop. They may chuck. They may criticize poetry from the early 20th Century and still may have watched like tons, one might even have said oodles, of “reaching back for something extra”, “what intestinal fortitude”, “Super-Crazy”.
’80s pro wrestling was often frustrating becomes it was so repetitive. Modernistic sports entertainment has the … exact same problem. Just changed from crushing jobbers to … whatever.
Somewhere, there is a great story to be had. Of course, it’s all in the execution, which is why you favor mic gods like The Rock over … whoever.
I rarely call out convention reports. I believe that I don’t feel that stating facts is as compelling as stating my perfecto o-pinions.
But, I feel like local cons and I are moving away from each other. I just don’t feel the experience as I did a decade prior. How mysterious and totally impossible in any way to figure out why.
So, here’s to 2015, when I reported a lot on Shadowfist casual play but also kept up with the scene in the ‘hood.
Does anyone even get the joke of this post? I don’t know that I do, anymore. Old. Let’s just say I’m superclever when I’m not on the spot to be clever – wait, isn’t that just a different word?
This is not that profound. I just feel like calling it out.
Building L5R Characters – Advantages
Apparently, I ruled the blogosphere in February of 2015. Because, obviously, nothing else matters more than L5R 4e mechanics analysis.
Formatting on this was kind of (nope), which I fixed to a degree later in my Disads post by using the power of bolding words.
Geez, Marie-Louise, I kind of see why my blog has gotten less popular in 2018. I used to write useful stuff.
March
Not a more gooder post, so why bother? It’s long. It mentions my “24” deck building methodology.
But, you know what? I don’t do it as often I could, but I have posted deck lists. Not tournament winning deck lists or here’s how to be furrier than the average bear deck lists, but sheer, unbridled insanity … to make a point. No, to prove a point. A thousand points. A thousand points of CCG light.
It’s easy to have fun with CCGs. Well, CCGs that don’t have Fate. Build decks. Identify other players who are fun to play with. Play.
Building L5R Characters – Disadvantages
Yup, brilliant formatting makes this as easy to read as the make and model on Wonder Woman’s jet.
Sadly, I still follow my own advice. I gravitate towards the cheese. Not that I build a ton of PCs these days, so maybe I’ll learn to go back to when I liked my PCs.
[Classic] TR Vampire Ratings [6/1/2008]
This used to be my thing. Arguing about stars for cards is fun like getting to ride in Wonder Woman’s jet.
It’s not just that fewer cards come out for CCGs I play. It’s that I’m much more interested in just getting to play some daft Punks rather than worrying about if something is less gooder.
The original combat guide was more profound for bringing up common mistakes players make. Neither is the definitive work on the subject. In my upcoming post, I will …
Actually, it was a discouraging revelation to me that controlling a Unicorn Riding Horse in combat is much harder than I thought. I don’t know why I got different rolls mixed up.
Anyway, I used examples. Therefore, most goodest.
I no longer read comic books. So, here’s my comicing outlet. Besides knowing more than the substandard chipmunk, I happen to be the most entertaining reviewer of all things Arrowverse this side of Paradise Island.
Faster than a speeding locomotive, on to the next month …
April
Same Phat Channel, Same Phat Time …
Oh, the bronze-knees.
I was looking at our session tracker for Rokugan 1600.
Do you, wait, do I realize that each season has only been three main sessions long? Well, yes, blog writer, I do realize that each season has been only three main sessions long. It just doesn’t feel remotely like that. I feel like I’m running a campaign that jumps around but still keeps building on what has transpired before (or introduces new stuff that makes the foundation of the campaign a mess).
I was trying to do three session story arcs to get more of an episodic feel with the ability to pivot faster. Let’s see if I can wrap up season 4 in a way that doesn’t irritate the players and we can pivot for season 5 into something weird, like non-time travel, non-romance war stories.
May
Building L5R Characters – Skills
If it wasn’t for the fact that some people actually are playing FFG’s L5R, maybe I could spread out my geniusness over a longer stretch to not get everyone’s hopes up and, then, give them 2018’s travelogue.
Remember the single most important thing about this post: I own the rights to factotumness, the rights of righteousosity.
June
July
Princess Police – Episode Guide
I’m used to short campaigns that don’t end as much as they cease to exist. I’m fighting to try to avoid having me be the GM for such campaigns, while I haven’t played in anything for quite a while that wasn’t HoR.
What made The Princess Police interesting was how much the campaign took off long after it started. I mean, sure, campaigns just seem to get richer as they go along until they stop, but this campaign survived long enough to have the depth of play that I hope for.
I think you can see how events became more meaningful to me later in the campaign. This and HoR2 were the two L5R campaigns that I played that really satisfied in terms of L5R play.
August
You know how I constantly call out convention reports. Well, here’s another mundane, ho hum, hum drum convention report where I get into everyone’s favorite topic – food reviews.
September
Looking back is not so easy for the old. There are so many B5 thoughts that I can probably only access by looking at old emails. I don’t remember cards off the top of my head, anymore.
The B5 era was a hugely important era for me. I became a playtester. I became a designer. I crusaded (but rarely Crusaded) for a game hard. I played in the first Worlds. I volunteered at major cons rather than just playing RPGs the whole time.
I got a foundation in CCGing that just being a V:TES player or UC! player or Magic judge didn’t.
I do realize that certain types of posts are more likely to get likes, it’s kind of interesting that this one didn’t, but, maybe, talking B5 long after the game died wasn’t a way to rapturize the masses.
I like some things. Because I don’t really enjoy activities unless other people enjoy them, I subordinate my interests a great deal to enable groups to enjoy playing stuff. Sure, meetup.com exists, etc., so I could find other people with more similar interests, but that requires a level of effort I’ve avoided.
I could probably write ten, twenty more words about what sort of RPGs I like. Occurs to me that style of play isn’t something I talked much about in this post. In my upcoming blog post on style of play I prefer, I will … But, here’s what gets me looking for that Ring of Three Wishes so that I can blow a wish on the important stuff.
I know. It’s hard to provide commentary when everything the writer writes is pure, unadulterated geniusness.
Actually, I have an extremely reactive personality, which is why it can be challenging for me to get inspired to blog or to write more for Traveller. So, if you want more geniusness spewed rather than the week’s latest ramble, maybe better to actually ask for what you want to hear about.
And, then, you will know everything there is to know about core book shugenjahood. Every little thing.
October
Double-Striking, Swampwalking Squirrel Pumpers
This was a surprising hit to me. I played a lot of Type P. I built a lot more Type P then goldfished those builds.
Most of my Magic play, in the entire history of the cosmos, was, I’m sure, Type P.
Why don’t I talk about Type P more? Well, I don’t play anymore and more recent efforts to play didn’t capture the Magic.
One hopes that blogging since 2009 would give readers a bit of insight into how my mind works. This post should be one that gives pretty goodier insight.
If you ever want good sigs, like how I used to use good sigs on a regular basis, can take some quotes from this post.
Want: Land destruction, good way to blow up my own critters over multiple turns, maybe zombies
November
When gaming is a way of life, and I’d argue that it is for someone who has only ever been to England because of card tournaments in Germany, life is the shapemeister, baron von shape of gaming. Sure, fiction is not quite so experiencey as, er, doing things that require physically moving more than the eyes and hands.
If staleness is a frequent problem with so many things, more posts like these might be the antistale needed.
Need more of this, somehow.
Ratings were too high on average.
This post actually take a lot of time to write, so I’m not that motivated to point out where I changed my mind, but I’d be happy to argue the rating of a card.
Ah, elitism, superiority complexion. I can’t seem to escape pointing out that D&D is not remotely high fantasy. While shopping for Christmas presents, I looked at possibilities of books I could get myself. I’m sure no one else in the history of the multiverse has ever done that, ere now. I didn’t shoot the wallaby. Again, pretty much got myself a reference book for Aztec/Mayan society, which I still haven’t gotten anything out of.
December
Some things matter more to me than others. Plus, I included an image.
Certain truths are self evident. Btw, I don’t have high hopes that part three will redeem the problems of parts one and, especially, part two.
** ** ** ** **
So, looking back on 2015, I can clearly see why 2015 had better stats than 2018. I had the L5R character build posts and even more to say about 4e mechanics. I had more original posts when it came to personal stuff or interests outside of gaming that I could pretend related to gaming.
Yup, 2015 looked mighty. This was in the pre-True Dungeon period with lots of casual card play reports. I even talked about Ultimate Combat!. I wonder. I wonder if because I changed jobs in 2015 and started traveling fairly often to Shanghai that I was more fired up even without the gaming five days a week thing I once had.
Leaving 2018 with what will inspire any and all to flood this blog with views, likes, and comments to prove that this blog has been made great again, here are some flavor texts from the best two-player CCG of them all:
- Learned early, soon perfected – always a lance of destruction.
- Denied the blood of life, first brain then body fail.
- A good sweep takes you down like a patch of ice – without warning.
- Draining speed and vitality, sand slows us all.
- With the speed of a cobra, this whip to the head strikes true.
- Flying enhances penetration.
ICLee's Gaming Blog 
Hey, I started reading because of the big Babylon 5 post. Also the Shadowfist stuff. No one else talks about them anymore.