Tabletop Games



The last of our D&D podcasts went up today setting the stage for our live game at PAX Prime. If you missed it there are seven episodes available over on the WOTC site. Acquisitions Inc. has gained a new intern named Viari played by Patrick Rothfuss. We had a ton of fun playing with Pat, he’s a great role player and really brought a cool character to the table.

So go listen to the podcasts and then check out the live game 3:30 on Saturday in the main theatre to see Scott, Jerry, Pat and myself pick up where the podcast leaves off.

Video games.

I picked up Splinter Cell Blacklist specifically for the promised “classic” spies vs. mercs multiplayer. Robert and I must have played a hundred hours of the original Spies vs. Mercs multiplayer in Pandora tomorrow. When we saw that Blacklist was bringing it back we were crazy excited. Only they didn’t bring it back.

What they have is a two vs. two spies vs. mers option but they have stripped out everything that made the original game so great. There is no way to interact with the opposite team now that does not involve killing them. Spies can’t grab a merc and hold them hostage, whisper to them or use them to bypass security. You can’t knock someone out and make their teammate come over and revive them. There is no built in security for the spies to try and deal with. No lasers, cameras or alarms. The merc can’t place trip lasers, shoot his own mines or even cycle through multiple vision modes. So there is no more catching a glimpse of a spies electromagnetic signature through the ceiling. or using your motion vision to see him moving through the shadows. The spy can’t jump or boost his teammate or back flip off a wall. Also he has a crossbow now because… I have no idea why he has a crossbow now.

Needless to say it was a huge disappointment. I tried the single player but got bored after a few hours.

Dad Stuff

I was driving in the car yesterday with my son who is currently 8. It was just the two of us and the song Same Love by Macklemore came on the radio. I like the song but I looked over and saw that Gabe was being really quiet. He was obviously thinking. You can always tell when an eight year old is working through something in their head. I listened to the lyrics and thought “wow here it comes. He’s gonna ask about what it means to be gay and I gotta have an answer ready,”

So I started working through my response in my head. “son” I’d say “sometimes boys love girls and girls love boys. But sometimes boys love boys and girls love girls. That’s what being gay means and there’s nothing wrong with it that’s just how some people are born. Some people might tell you that being gay is bad but that’s not true. In fact there are people we love, friends and even people in our family who are gay.” I felt like that was a pretty solid start. Obviously I’d need to go into the concept of gay marriage and try and explain why certain people don’t like it. I’d need to talk about religion and how that colors certain people’s views. I figured I would play by ear after that and field any follow up questions as they came. Sure enough he said “can I ask you something Dad?”

“Sure buddy” I responded

He turns to me and asks “do you think Master Chief could beat a Kaiju all by himself?”

Please be eight forever son.

-Gabe out