Playstyles: Part 1 - Fighter, Mage, and Thief

Which do you gravitate towards in the classic triptych?

Geekdom Madness 2017: Bumps in the Night/Nicknames

This week: The frighteners and the frightened

GM17: Not Just a Toon/Classic Kaiju Victors

Now things are getting interesting.

The Victors of the fourth round of the preliminaries are...

Elizabeth Brisby

"I don't know how I let you talk me into this!"

and...

Godzilla

"SKREE-onnk!"

Not only have we gotten more total votes so far this year (mostly because I've finally started to plug it in my IRL circles), but the results were a total mirror match. Both of our Victors won their matches with 6 votes out of 9 (66%). I hope we keep this momentum going forward.

Here's the breakdown. Check back tomorrow!

We got both size extremes this week.

This Is Technically A Non-GM Post This Week So I've Kept My Promise, Right?

Playstyles will be juuuuust a few days late because the time I had set aside to write it got eaten up by an unexpected scouring of our apartment.

I wonder if I should mention time management has never been a strongsuit of mine?

Regardless, I know longtime readers have absolutely no reason to trust me on this, but I SWEAR by all that can be considered holy to any and everyone that this is NOT indicative of yet another long lapse in posts. I'm done with that, that part of my life is over.

So after Playstyles wraps up whenever it does, I actually wanted to give a few belated words on Doctor Strange and Fantastic Beasts which I saw both last fall, LEGO Batman which I saw a few weeks ago, and the Beauty and the Beast remake which I am seeing this weekend as part of my gift to my wife on our 5-year (?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?) Wedding anniversary. In addition, I really did want to finish that Undertale series I did like one shot of last year, do some Nilbog Watches posts regarding a number of shows I've watched in the last year (speaking of, I really need to get back on Classic Who - I only just started Four last time), and - yes - celebrate the 40th anniversary of New Hope in May like any self-respecting Star Wars fan (and any non-self-respecting one too, I'm sure).

Of course, I am always open to subject suggestions from my readers and in fact am usually better at responding to prompts than coming up with something wholesale. So while this is not a formal "Ask Nilbog" post like we've done before, I would be honored and obliged if anyone has a question/topic they'd like my personal perspective on that I can address at a later date.

Geekdom Madness 2017: Not Just a Toon/Classic Kaiju

This Week: Classic 80s animation and The Original City-Demolishers

GM17: Hothouse Power/Personality Shift Victors

Someone didn't vote for Match 2.

The Victors for the third round of the preliminaries are...

Anakin Skywalker

"You underestimate my power!"

and....

The Beast

"I'LL give you a place to stay!"

At least this week was not quite so one-sided. Anakin won the day with 5 votes out of 7 (71%). Match 2 came in with a complete tie, both combatants getting 3 votes out of 6 (50%). A tiebreaker D20 roll had Beast's 18 beat Saruman's 14 - fitting given what was just released yesterday.

Here's the breakdown. Check back tomorrow!

A hateful boy who learned to love and a loving boy who learned to hate...

Playstyles: Prologue

Starting next week, I'll be doing a small limited series I call "Playstyles."

While I still have a lot of cinematic and lore analyses to compose on a wide range of subjects, it has been gaming filling up what's left of my free time of late, and I wanted to ruminate on just how we like to play.

This isn't going to be a completely in-depth analysis on gaming class archetypes - that's been done numerous times around the web and far better than I ever could. What I want to do is discuss it in a crash-course setting and foster discussion amongst however many of you dear readers I still have left. I want this to be one of those things where I work out my own preferences and find out what all yours are.

I don't have a specific day of the week these will be posted. Like all non-GM posts, they'll be pretty random. I am committed to at least one per week in order to avoid the long hiatus' that have plagued me over the past year or two. However, I can give you an outline of the subjects I will be covering, though this can be subject to change as the weeks fly on:

Prologue: This
Part 1: Fighter, Mage, and Thief
Part 2: Tank, DPS, and Healer
Part 3: Aggro, Control, and Combo
Part 4: Hybrids, Bards, and Flavors
Part 5: My Personal Playstyles

Now, most of these examples and terminologies will be used in relation to Fantasy RPGs (either tabletop or digital) and Part 3 describes mainly trading card games. But this can be extrapolated into almost any style and genre of game with minimal fudging and the elements of the playstyles remain the same.

Happy Gaming!

Geekdom Madness 2017: Hothouse Power/Personality Shift

This week: Divergent Character Evolution!

GM17: Weirdmageddon/Cretaceous Land Victors

Yet another depressingly small landslide!

The Victors for the second round of the preliminaries are...

Mabel Pines

"I know that hurts because I've accidentally done it to myself! Multiple times!"

and...

Rexie

*Trumpeting Roar*

The results are essentially the same as last week, though there was one more total vote. Both of our Victors received 5 out of 6 votes (83%). I hope matches going forward aren't this one-sided.

Here's the breakdown. Check back tomorrow!

You ask for strong female characters, I give you a T. rex!

A Promise

I am actually going to do my best to keep my child's exposure to Star Wars to a bare minimum until I feel they are old enough to watch the Saga. With their arrival set for early October, that's at least a 5-7 year wait, not even accounting for the possibility of siblings.

However, once that day comes, and if I still have some internet presence, I will be chronicling the experience for you all.

I have already decided that I will be doing flashback order for their first viewing. That's VI-V-I-II-III-VI. All rewatches will be in Episode order. As far as additional material goes, if they like the Saga well enough to want more, I will make available what I can to them. This includes Clone Wars, Rebels, VII-IX, and the various EUs. While I will make my child(ren) aware that these materials have some fundamental differences, they will not be discouraged from liking whatever they wish

As a matter of fact, while I will give my personal opinion when asked, I will ALWAYS encourage my child(ren) to like what they like regardless of my feelings about the work in question. As the appreciation of the subjectivity of art is one of my core values, it is something I want t instill at a young age.

There are other values I want to instill at a young age, but that's a topic for another time.

Geekdom Madness 2017: Weirdmageddon/Cretaceous Land

This week: Forces of Nature and Forces of...random.

GM17: Last Dreams/Sub Stories Victors

I guess I only have myself to blame for low turnout. I just hope it improves.

The Victors of the first round of the preliminaries are....

Terra Branford

"For all our sakes, I won't lose!"

and...

Toriel

"Prove to me you are strong enough to survive!"

Both matches had the exact same outcome: 4 votes out of 5 votes total (80%). While I expected these two to be slightly more popular, I'm surprised so few fans of the others were here. Hope turnout ramps up in the future.

Here's the breakdown. Come back tomorrow!

Goat mom is best mom?

Belated Memorium

John Hurt. Mary Tyler Moore. Bill Paxton.

These names all deserve a lot more words from me than I can give them right now. All have left their mark on me, to varying degrees. All will be missed.