let's not get all lost here guys. Let's either get through Vrill's door or find him in Greyhelm. If we can't get the door open in the next 2 days I'm going to Greyhelm to find Vrill. I think he might have locked up his daughter behind the door, we need to get her too.
Also flagged by blogger spellchecker:
ha
huh
well
undead
xorn
...
Actually, if you press the 'Next Blog' button in the upper right, you might observe that it's a little absurd for blogger to have a spellcheck feature at all.
Yeah is Ed ok, or least still Ed? Or is Ed now Melinda, or something, and as such can't post to D&D blogs anymore? It's because of Mel's new tran-sgender friends isn't it? Fuck it's so weird when people change their sex and assume the gender roles that are the societal norm for that sex. Eh, good luck with your new vagina Ed. P.S. I think it's funny that Blogger's spell check doesn't recognize the word "blog".
Lord Kinross, that name kicks ass. That's a sweet NPC name. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out.
The book I am reading is so dry, it's almost just a timeline. I guess it will be a good primer to reading some more Ottoman history.
Gao Qi and I were at the MET in New York a couple of years ago, and they had a large collection of Ottoman stuff. I really wish I would have had a clue at the time.
hmmm.... I wonder why no one else has ever registered that name before... well, it's mine now.
My place of employment also blocks several things on the web... AIM being one of them. So if we were to have an online session, for me it would have to be in the evenings or on the weekend. I am surprised access to blogger has lasted as long as it has... and gabbly behaved REALLY strangely when I tried it from work. Maybe I should be just working at work...
I think the thing that worries me about an online session would be the Chaos. We should probably discuss and lay down some basic ground rules for an online session. I could see it getting REALLY crazy and out of hand if it were free-for-all.
Thoughts?
Hey Brogg... is Ed okay?
Hey just a heads up.
Folks can subscribe to the Gabbly RSS and read the entire transcript. I tried on Bloglines.com and could read everything that was typed thus far.
Just in case you wanted to keep some things off the radar.
I'll drop some books and info:
I do neuroscience research in Detroit. I'm reading a book called "Osman's Dream" about the Ottoman Empire. I tried to get a book on Ataturk, but found this instead. -Chris and I are suckers for history or historical biography books.
My undergrad was in physics, and I love the subject, but I've read too many books like "A Brief History of Time".
I've been reading the New Yorker lately.
Here are three good books:
"Godel, Escher, Bach": Hofstadter
"Moby Dick": Melville
"War and Peace": Tolstoy
For hobbies, I paint, write, and play Magic with Ed.
As for the Gabber thing, my work blocks it, so it will only be a go when I am at home. However, I am going to need a heads-up.
I am pretty sure the time zone breaks down as follows:
Brogg & Cinder are Eastern time. I am pretty sure the blog is Eastern time as well.
I [Schmektor] am in Mountain time, (-2 hours)
Rob, Marivhon, Renwick, and Dave, Fist of Odin are all Pacific (-3 hours).
Scratch Yahoo... AIM seems that it would be our best bet. If you're up to it, we could do the whole thing in AIM. I have done some test runs with some friends of mine. I am able to have several people chatting on macs and windows. I can log the conversation and then post it later.
Anyone other ideas?
I'm checking out some other options as well.
Gabbly is giving me trouble at the moment, and upgrading my version of Firefox may not be an option. I'll keep trying some stuff, see if I can get it working. I'd be cool with going to the arena, but I also wouldn't mind just sticking to the blog. What's the time zone difference between myself and the majority of the players, anyhow? 2 hours? 3?
Oh, and I agree with Schmektor, no problem with getting knocked out. I've played in far too many AD&D campaigns where getting killed or KO'd simply didn't happen. Boring as hell.
Rob, any particular translation of DQ you'd recommend? I currently have one checked out that seemed less poetic but more readily readable than the others. I've got nothing but time, but I'd like to get to read lots of things, and some of the stuff I've read recently has slowed me way down (I'm beginning to remember why I didn't finish Paradise Lost at school...)
Okay, here's a chat thing.
Instead of typing in:
http://www.descentintodepths.blogspot.com/
type in:
http://www.gabbly.com/http://www.descentintodepths.blogspot.com
Opens the webpage like normal, but also has a little chat window that pops up. Unfortunately, there's no security about names, so anyone can pick any name and change it at any time, making DMing only feasible by the PCs good graces.
That solves the easiest of the three technical problems about chatting: "how do we do it?"
The two other problems are harder:
2) How do we save a log of the chat and post it in a readable fashion to the blog? Anything that happens on chat is part of the game and should be logged.
3) How do we all congregate, or at least get a quorum? Maybe after the Knight battle, you guys should go to the Arena of Kyuss, for a trial run in a simple combat. We'll pick a date and time and see what happens.
Rob, don't worry about knocking us out... it's par for the course as a low level adventurers. And hell, you didn't force me into the cage with chainsaw dude. Some day my HP and ability to do damage just might catch up with my mouth. Until that day I plan on diving into combat, cleaver in hand... and being dragged out and bandaged within a round or two. And crazy mad props to my brothers in arms for bandaging my bloody stumps and pulling me out of there.
Chris, good to hear about the new job. You recommend Ivanhoe, huh? I'll have to take a look.
Other books. I loved Don Quixote. In case you don't know, it's about a guy who reads too many fantasy novels and decides to go off and be an adventurer. There are fucking hilarious parts I only aspire to here on DiD, it's basically an epic adventure gone horribly, horribly wrong, mainly because it's in the real world, where there aren't damsels in distress, monsters, wizards, etc.
Have you read A Game of Thrones? I picked it up and got 20 pages into it, put it down because the whole 7-wolves-for-7-heirs thing was fucking cheesy. "We found six. But then we found a scrappy white albino pup! Who will take care of such a sickly yet dangerous beast?"
"I will," says the littlest knight. The monks nodded gravely to each other... was this an omen? A cold wind blew.
Or something. But if anyone can recommend it, I'll try it again.
We could probably all talk books for a while, so I'll keep a list of recommendations short:
Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov
The Prestige, Christopher Priest
Foucault's Pendulum, Umberto Eco
All amazing, unique books... the first two are rather short.
...
As for me, well you sorta know my story. I try to stay as anonymous here as possible though. "Behind the DM screen" so to speak.
I attend a liberal arts college in Virginia. I haven't declared my major yet, but my intended concentration is Psychology. Currently out for summer break, I haven't been able to find employment yet, but not for lack of trying. My hobbies are basically whatever creative endeavor grabs me at the moment, but I'm a fan of writing, RPGs, and bike-riding. As for pets, I'm a cat person. As for books, well, I've had a lot of free time recently, so I've been reading a bunch of them. I finally finished Thus Spoke Zarathustra a few days ago, and I enjoyed what I understood. Then I read The Green Mile. Wow, just wow. That book completely blew me away. Today I got back on track reading Paradise Lost, which I was reading and loving back at college, but stopped for lack of time and need to return it so I could check out other books I needed for a research paper. I've been trying to read more "good" books recently, to attone for reading almost nothing but fantasy novels for a number of years. If anyone here has recommendations for stuff to read of absolutely any sort though, I'd like to hear them.
I guess I've been in kind of a funk recently too, though not really job related. I'm hoping that'll all clear up once I can get back to school.
Glad to hear you got out of the funk Chris. Nothing like a bad job to leave residual negativity in your life. The last time I saw you I was doing the computer thing. At the moment I am working for State Farm of all places... selling insurance [State Farm = Da Funk]. Needless to say I am out looking for somthing new.
The wife and I have three kids now. We moved from Colorado to Utah for the current job. Utah is.... well... utah. We'll see where we end up with the new job. I am looking back in the tech sector, the film business, and as always, toying with the idea of grad school. We'll see where the wind blows.
Random Haiku has really been kicking out some gems:
I'm a Zen Master
Relentless in it's motion
I'm a Zen Master
....
May I touch your boob?
One day you'll see the Heavens
It gets me going
...
Bold move, Steve. -We'll reincarnate you at the very least.
And...
how to knock yourself unconsious
Is there anything funnier than the search phrases that bring people to DiD?
I knew some one was going to crack a KOA campground joke when I asked the question... figures it would be Dr. K.
That wasn't yogurt
Nestled in mountain forest
A double bed please
Today's random haiku.
Steve, the KoA has hundreds of locations across America, providing fun, safe campgounds at a reasonable price. They have RV plots too.
The KoA are also extra-dimensional Knights who have invaded the Prime Material Plane for some unknown reason. The Summary Page will tell you as much as we know.
I am thinking a realtime session is going to be hella hard to organize.
Can some one give me the nickel version of who the Knights of Armek are, and why we are trying to catch one in the tart?
sorry... I have been reading back and trying to figure out all of the history... but it is a bit foggy.
And also, is anyone else interested having an online session? I'll work on the details if there is any interest. Let me know if you are running mac, windows, linux, or somthing else so I can get somthing going. or just tell me to piss off and I'll leave the idea behind.
ok guys I'm moving this weekend and my Dsl is going down, so I might be posting intermittantly. I can still post from work on saturday or if I go there in the mean time. Well the moral is good luck, I should be around enough to help if things are bad.
uh maybe, they did. It could have been Vrill trying to cause some player DM tension. Ignore it Rob, he's so juvenile. Don't stoop to his level.
Okay, there's no way that FOUR people used the search phrase:
"Marivhon attacks that pussy rob"
to come to our site.
No fucking way.
So after Steve asked about ScrapsAhoy, I went back and read the Feb06 Table Talk archives. Some interesting stuff. Like how Brittany Spears was going to revitalize poop music. Er, pop music, sorry, that really was an unintentional typo.
Anyway, now here it is, months later, and what? Nothing. Same old crap. But maybe BS isn't the salvation we need. Maybe it's really Paris Hilton. I heard she wants to cover Gnarls Barkley's 'Crazy'. Her cover could just be the perfect pop song of all time.
Awaiting with bated breath, yours truly,
Rob the DM.
...
By the way, talking about random blogs, here's a gem:
http://phaedrus-uk.blogspot.com/
It's your classic day-in-the-life kinda blog, with typical bizarre variety in the posts. One day it's about what he does for his computer job. The next day he fucks a prostitute in the ass. Day after that? More bitching about personal problems at work. Sort of "The Stranger" in play-by-play, or maybe an awkward Mike Leigh movie. From the banal to the... well, I think you know where I'm going with that one. Cheers.
ScrapsAhoy. I don't even remember where this came from. I think it might have been from clicking the 'Go to a random blog' button at the top right corner too much. I think we just all loved the name and the... the earnest-ness of the site. Maybe I'm reading to much into it, but maybe something there resonated with us gamers... you know, the whole quasi-social aspect of sitting around, working on a project that's kinda lame and very personal, rolling dice or pasting doilies, arguing with the DM or comparing wallpaper sample patterns. Two sides of the same coin, mayhaps.
Actually if you look through the archives, go to Feb 06 and you'll find where Ed turned us onto it. During a time when we were all enamoured of everyone's awesome blogs out there.
I'm Windows. Like I said, I'm not gonna be the one to do it, but if someone else can make it easy for all of us to log on at the same time, same website, go for it, let's give it a try. I've got a few hrs free here and there I guess.
Thanks for the nod Paul. Blogger was trying to hold me under their oppressive thumb... but alas, I have broken free. Thanks for the "re-invite" Mark. I don't know which part of the process was feebing the sweed, but its done. Glad to be here.
I like the idea of an actual online session. I think gmail chat would work fine, or even just open a chat room at yahoo or somthing. There are also several apps we could use to do an audio session. Is everyone in windoze? or are there any mac users in the crew? any linux kids?
BTW, what's with the ScrapsAhoy link on the main page?
I hadn't updated Random Haiku for some time. However, I got this beauty today:
I'm a Zen Master
Like a ninja in the dark
A nuclear blast
-So fucking awesome.
Steve, send me an alternate email. We can try that.
BTW, if you have any 5 or 7 syllable phrases to add to the mix, hook me up.
And, I also updated the Reference Page a bit. Dave, your 4th level spells are up. I still can't figure out why the Reference Page gets wacky with Firefox. Unfortunately, DiD looks better with IE...
Oh yeah, fighter specialization info is up there too, Justin. -I don't know if you'll be needing it yet.
Hey, this guy gave us 'blog of the day', for my post about how there should be lots of Robs posting on the internet. Scroll down after the nice tree picture.
http://www.crabapplelane.net/
I love how searching for 'jump motherfucker jump motherfucker jump' led someone to our modest website.
Hey you, whoever it is:
Now you're just a bunch of jumping motherfuckers.
Cue the beats.
...
And if you haven't yet seen the Gnarls Barkley/Star Wars/YouTube thing yet, then you aren't very good at using the 'Internet', now, are you?
Hey Justin, welcome to the... uh, welcome to the blog.
Fighter-mage-thief is a bold choice. Yeah, don't worry about the stat requirements. Marivhon totally broke those, and there's no going back now. As for starting spells, it's straight outta 1E DMG. You get a spellbook with Read Magic, Detect Magic, and roll 1d8 three times, once for an offensive spell, once for defensive, and once for misc. You can take care of that here or over on the normal DiD page.
The way mage spells work is this: being first level, you get to memorize one spell out of your book each day, but if you have a high IQ, you get bonus spells just like a cleric would (so if your IQ is 15, you get to memorize 3 first circle spells each day). You can take the same spell three times if you wish, any combination will do.
Each time you level, pick two spells, and roll to learn them based off the IQ table. Even if you don't make it, you effectively get a 'scroll' of this spell, and you can try to learn it next level. You can learn extra spells from other guys' spellbooks or by trading, e.g., with Renwick. Trading is basically a 1-for-1 basis, and you each get one roll to learn the spell. You can trade as many spells as you want though.
If it sounds complicated, don't sweat it, it'll get worked out. Anyway, I'll add you to the main game now. Good luck!
Got most of the stuff done on my character sheet. I went with F/MU/Th over the standard bard, so I figure I'll just learn to play the lute or something once I get a(n) NWP. He doesn't totally suck, but leveling is going to be slow going with 3 classes. And he has terribly low charisma, so any sort of talking his way out of anything is right out. Kinda odd for a bard wannabe, but I figure the low-personality misfit thing goes with a guy named "Moth" pretty well anyhow.
A few quick questions for the DM:
Theoretically my 4 in charisma limits me to being an assassin. It shouldn't be hard to rework the character if you decide to go with that call.
If I get to keep my mage powers, how do you want me to determine starting spells?
Thanks
I used 3d6 straight down for my character and he sucks. I made him a half-elven monk even though that shouldn't be allowed because of his race and stats. So I think it's a play what you want as long as he sucks kind of thing. Playing a bard is perfect in that sense. They have to advance as so many things so many levels before they actually get to be a bard. 5 levels of fighter minimum and 5 of thief minimum. You should go to Level 7 as a fighter so you can get 2 attacks with your specialized weapon, so you would be 12th level before you become a bard and get 1 lowsy first level druid spell. Whatever, just don't play a gnome or a halfling cause they suck, and we'll have to beat you with a stick. Hell play a bard and we might even have more rap battles. We don't backstab the party that is true. We even cart our less than active players around and change their diapers. We leave the fucking us over to Rob. He does it so well.
Well thats all, Marivhon the "Monk".
ps hey Mark isn't the Mug gonna get kinda crowded?
Hey,
Glad to meet you all! My name is Justin and I'm a college student from Virginia. I've been reading your blog for a while now, ever since someone linked to it on the rpg.net. Anyhow, I checked out the reference page, thought the whole thing looked interesting, especially with the anachronisms, humor, blogs for important npcs, etc., so I started reading from the beginning and eventually caught up with the storyline. DiD has been somewhat like an extremely humorous fantasy novel for me, and I'm quite enthusiastic to take part in its future writing.
About my character, his name is Moth, and I'm going to go with half-elf for race, and I'm thinking either Bard (if I can figure out exactly how the 1e bard works) or Fighter/Magic-User/Thief for class. As for my experiences/thoughts on gaming, I've been playing D&D in small campaigns since high school, and got to start a longer ongoing game in college. I've DMed mostly, almost always in custom worlds. I started off playing 2nd edition, but the bulk of my experience has been with 3rd edition. I have a small collection of 1st edition books, though, so I'm familiar with what's going on here. I've always been pretty laid back about gaming, and while I usually keep my milieu mostly serious, I think humor is an important part of the game.
Well that's about all I can think of to say at the moment. I'll get to work on my character sheet. I'm just going to assume that we're using the 4d6 drop lowest method for stat generation and that Bards are allowed, if I'm incorrect just let me know. Look forward to gaming with you all! Oh, and Rob, now worries about my character backstabbing the party. I've dealt with enough players like that. Ech.
BTW Schmektor, please title your main page posts with your name only (as above). We reserve fancy titles for Rob only to avoid confusion.
That is awesome. I have to put a link to Awful Blogs on our link page.
I thanked him, but I don't know if he'll allow the comment.
You know, I've always thought that D&D bashers were kind of like homophobes. Pretzl's disclaimer about role playing: "I played a role playing game once in a friend’s basement, but I sucked." could just as easily serve as a bicurious confessional.
Not that being gay is bad, Pretzl. What's bad is denying yourself who you really are.
Don't get me wrong, but I think you are repressing some feelings about gaming there. C'mon, give me a hug buddy. Here, pick up the d20... yeah, we'll take it slow.
Check it out:
http://awfulblogs.com/2006/06/01/descent-into-depths/
Plus, I think we've been deleted from wikipedia.
Thanks guys, always nice to hear. So Steve Stamps should be a go, he's accepted the invitation and should be posting any day now. Things should get back on track, more or less.
Looks like Steve has officially joined us, and entered combat...
Yeah, hell of a job, Rob.
I've been writing grants. That has been a drain, but I'd like to think that I've put in my fair share, nonetheless.
In all honesty, Hello Airport was kind of a mental drain. I can only keep so much straight on this blog, and HA was pushing it to the limit. I felt all fuzzy and helpless.
Not to say that I want it to be all "falling in giant's caves", but something in between.
Let's keep it closed to the public, eh? Steve, yeah that's cool, but Jeremy Renaldo from Iowa? Man, fuck Jeremy. Where was he when we were fighting the Crystal Mage?
Hey all,
So yeah, I've been off-line for awhile. But opening DiD up to the world? Really? I mean, Steve Stamps - cool. But some randoms from the fucked-up internet? I just dunno. Would that make it more fun?
Hmmm. I say, make it on a case-by-case basis, and I'd really rather not have people on here that I've never met. But that's my $0.02.
Oh - and really, it'd be fun playing with Steve! I'm down with that.
Hey all,
Sorry for not posting in the last few weeks - my life got crazy busy.
As Paul pointed out - "Too busy to post?" Well, yeah. Finals, two classes to prep for, too many papers to write, defense, beating up Paul's cat - it's been hectic.
Sigh. I was feeling like I was just kinda tagging along before my hiatus, not really much to say, but that's more about me and what's going on here than the adventure. Hello Airport sounded like a blast, and I wish I'd poked around a bit more, but . . . I dunno. I guess I went down to 'critical-only tasks' mode.
But now I'm back! I'm-a gonna catch up on what I missed, and maybe jack a guy in the face, and off we go.
And hey - Rob - you're doing a hell of a job here. I mean, you do it 'cuz you love DMing, and the world-building, and all of that. I know how it is, being a DM myself. But, let me restate that:
Rob's doing a hell of a job DMing this DiD stuff around. My not participating lately has in no way been because I've gotten skull-fucked - and really, the Fist of Odin kinda expects that sort of behavior from the deities - but 'cuz I've been crazy busy here.
That's it. Oh, except in a week I leave for an International Conference - the exicitng, jet-setting lifestyle of the Math Ed Grad Student! - so posting may be spotty there. We'll see about connectivity...
-Dave
Sorry, I was away for the weekend. Yeah, it's weird, for whatever reason this all just cooled way down. Paul, I'll try to give you admin status, and if you know anyone who'd play, invite 'em & we can just keep on. You can keep your guy or make a new one, same world, but maybe change the focus a bit. I'll invite Steve Stamps on board. Maybe when everyone else realized that we weren't going to be boingboing darlings, they said 'fuck it'.
Dave, I'll get those 4th level spells up now that you'll be needing them.
Has anyone else noticed that the Reference Page gets screwy if you are using Firefox?
