Every Time I Come In, They Pull Me Back Out

Just when I was getting back on track, my life began to upend itself. Some in good ways, mostly not. I still don't feel comfortable telling the story until it is fully resolved, which may not be for several more months.

For anyone that still cares at this point that I am alive, I have not given up. It may take some more time before I find my voice here again, but sooner or later it will happen.

Until then, wish me luck.

Geekdom Madness 2017 Victor

We are ready to announce the Victor for Geekdom Madness 2017! As per tradition, I'm going to add a page break because SUSPENSE!

Geekdom Madness 2017: The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny

And only one will survive. I wonder who it will be?

GM17: The Semi-Final Victors

What a heated match!

The Victors for the Semi-Final are...

Luna Lovegood

"Don't worry. You're just as sane as I am.

With 7 out of 11 votes (63%) she muddled Mabel. She has what it takes.

and...

Chronormu

"Hmm...haven't we done this before?"

With 6 out of 11 votes (54%) she twisted Toriel. She has what it takes.


Here's the breakdown. Tomorrow, the Geekdom Madness 2017 Final!

I don't know if I can take the pressure, man!

Geekdom Madness 2017: The Semi-Final

Hello all, and welcome to Geekdom Madness 2017's Semi-Final. Our Elite Four will be whittled down to the final two. So let's not waste any time!

GM17 - QF: Strange Intelligence/Manic Pixies Victors

Landslides!

The Victors for the second round of the Quarter-Final and the last two Elite Four are...

Luna Lovegood

"Don't worry. You're just as sane as I am.

and...

Chronormu

"Hmm...haven't we done this before?"

Match 1 was a flawless victory, with Luna getting 100% of the 8 votes total. Chromie was almost as successful, garnering 7 of the 8 total votes (87%).

So now, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Elite Four of Geekdom Madness 2017

MABEL PINES

TORIEL

LUNA LOVEGOOD

CHRONORMU

Tomorrow, this Final Four will be whittled down to the Final Two, and after that, There Can Be Only One!

Here's the breakdown. Check back tomorrow!

Once again this Elite Four is aaaaaallll woman.

Rumor Control: Here Are the Facts

The day last week that I had set aside to do my big Star Wars Anniversary post, we got a rather alarming bit of news that we've had to spend the intervening time dealing with that. We are not sharing exactly what this news is yet except with immediate family, select friends, and bosses/co-workers it would directly impact. When we have decided it's okay for the world at large to know, it will go here.

I had hoped to do the post in May when it would be relevant, but expect it in the next week along with some more backlogged articles.

The Geekdom Madness posts will continue as usual - they've been mostly written ahead of time up to this point, though now I REALLY have to wait for the results.

I pick the most inconvenient times to come back to writing.

Geekdom Madness 2017 - Quarter-Final: Strange Intelligence/Manic Pixies

After last week's upset, I'm hoping this week sees similar or greater turnout. In the meantime: Reptiles vs. Beauties

GM17 - QF: Precocious/Kingdom of Monsters Victors

Wow, where did these extra votes come from?

The Victors for the first round of the Quarter-Final and the first of our Elite Four are...

Mabel Pines

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

and...

Toriel

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

We've had the largest last-minute influx of votes this year so far. Match 2 was unaffected since Toriel commanded an early lead and stayed there, but Match 1 did a complete 180 allowing the straggling Mabel to come out on top. In the end, both Victors won with 7 votes out of a whopping 12 votes (58%).

Here's the breakdown. Check back tomorrow!

I knew I should have posted my Star Wars anniversary posts sooner

Geekdom Madness 2017 - Quarter-Final: Precocious/Kingdom of Monsters

Now things are getting serious! The next two weeks will see who ends up this year's Elite Four, and then another two weeks after that will see a Champion.

GM17 - TRG: Editors/Perfect Intellect Victors

We lost some voters....

The Victors for the fourth and final round of The Real Game are....

Luna Lovegood

"Don't worry. You're just as sane as I am."

and...

Leeloominai Lekatariba Laminai-Chai, Ekbat De Sebat

"Ecto gammat!"

Both matches only had 5 votes total. Luna had a flawless victory with all 5 votes going to her (100%), where as Leeloo won with a single vote, with 3 out of 5 (60%).

Here's the breakdown. Check back tomorrow for the Quarter-Finals!

20th Anniversary will do that to you.

Geekdom Madness 2017 - The Real Game: Editors/Perfect Intellect

Happy Mother's Day! This week: keen minds compete!

GM17 - TRG: Rough Textures/Bronzed Victors

What an explosive turnout!

The victors for the third round of The Real Game are...

The Lizard

"You need to hurry...I'm...lossssing control....."

and...

Chronormu

"Hmm....haven't we done this before?"

Chromie got a commanding lead early on and maintained it throughout despite a last-minute influx. This last minute influx however swung the lead away from Candlejack and to The Lizard, squeaking him by as the polls were closing. In the end, both Victors won with 5 votes out of a total of 9 (55%). 9 is the current record total for this year, though we've had much higher numbers in the past.

Here's the breakdown. Check back tomorrow!

Technically they're both scaly, contrary to previous descriptions.

Geekdom Madness 2017 - The Real Game: Rough Textures/Bronzed

This week: Burlap vs Leather, and Fur vs Scales

GM17 - TRG: Courage of the Heart/Bestial Victors

Slightly higher turnout this week!


The Victors for the second round of The Real Game are...

Anakin Skywalker

"You underestimate my power!"

and...

Godzilla

"SKREE-onnk!"

Anakin won his match handily with 6 votes out of 9 (66%). Godzilla won his match by only one late-week vote, ending with 5 votes out of 9 (55%). As I recall, the last match where we had 9 total votes was the last time Godzilla competed, so I'd be surprised if we didn't see more from him going forward.

Here's the breakdown. Check back tomorrow!

Also, Anakin wins on the Revenge of the Sixth

Geekdom Madness 2017 - The Real Game: Courage of the Heart/Bestial

Sorry for the late start, but we're plumbing all the hidden depths this week

GM17 - TRG: Sparkles/Big Mamas victors

Very close match.

The Victors for the first round of the Real Game are...

Mabel Pines

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

and...

Toriel

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

Both of our Victors this week won by one vote, getting 4 votes out of 7 total (57%). Not much more to say about this, but I'm intrigued to see where this goes.

Here's the breakdown. Check back tomorrow!

This was the most stressful match in a while for me.

Loot Chest Unboxing

So yesterday afternoon, Heroes of the Storm 2.0 launched. It completely revamped the progression system, adding "loot chests" of four items each - items that could previously only be gotten through real money purchases, as well as brand new cosmetic flavorings.

Those who played before the change logged in with special chests based on their total hero levels prior to the change. When the number were crunched, I ended up with 5 common chests, 55 Epics, and 6 special Veteran chests (basically a common chest with a fifth guaranteed Legendary item). Duplicates award "shards" which allow you to craft the item you want if you didn't get it.

My original plan was to open them next Monday at my gaming group in front of my friends, but they were all excited to play yesterday so I logged each item I got. I am posting them here, mainly for my friends who didn't get to see it in person. But if you're a HotS player, you may appreciate it too...

Playstyles: Tank, DPS, and Healer

Know your role!

Geekdom Madness 2017 - The Real Game: Sparkles/Big Mamas

Welcome to Geekdom Madness: The Real Game! Once again, our combatants have made it through the preliminaries and are now fighting for spots in the Quarter-Final! This week we have some dooseys, so let's get to it!

GM17: Miscellaneous Victors

Unstable


The Victors for the eighth and final round of the preliminaries are...

Charles Foster Kane

"There's only one person in the world who's going to decide what I'm going to do and that's me..."

and...

Sherlock Holmes

"Elementary."

While our Victors maintained a lead, their opponents nearly caught up with them. In the end, however, a vote influx secured victory with 5 out of 8 votes for Kane (62%) and 6 out of 8 votes for Sherlock (75%).

Here's the breakdown. Tomorrow, the Real Game begins!

Holmes, in what school did you say you studied deduction?

I Know What You're Thinking, but April Vacation was Merely a Setback!

Weekly non-GM posts to resume next week. Muahahaha. Ha. Haaa............

Geekdom Madness 2017: Miscellaneous

Those of you who are Easter people get a nice basket of WTF this week!

GM17: Spooky Blondes/Fiery Redheads Victors

Sorry for the slight lateness, but here we are.

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

Luna Lovegood

"Don't worry. You're just as sane as I am."

and...

Leeloominai Lekatariba Laminai-Chai, Ekbat De Sebat

"Ecto gammat!"

Both Victors won their matches with 5 votes out of 7 (71%).

Here's the breakdown. Check back tomorrow!

It means "Never without my permission"

Geekdom Madness 2017: Spooky Blondes/Fiery Redheads

This week: One of these things is not like the others...

GM17: Lego Genetics/Here Be Dragons Victors

I was getting worried there for a minute.

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

The Lizard

"You need to hurry...I'm...lossssing control....."

and...

Chronormu

"Hmm....haven't we done this before?"

It took several days for any of you to consider your choices, but in the end the matches turned out equal. Both Victors won their respective matches with a respectable 5 votes out of 7 total (71%).

Here's the breakdown. Check back tomorrow!

That'll get nerfed later.

Geekdom Madness 2017: Lego Genetics/Here Be Dragons

This week: animal-people and witty wyrms.

GM17: Bumps in the Night/Nicknames Victors

I assure you this is real and accurate in spite of the date.

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

Candlejack

"I'm gonna need more rope"

and...

Miles "Tails" Prower

"I've changed a lot since I started hanging with Sonic, but I can't depend on him forever."

Both victories were decisive, but not flawless, with Candlejack getting 5 votes out of 8 (62%) and Tails getting 6 votes out of 8 (75%).

Here's the breakdown. Check back tomorrow!

Believe it, or Not!

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.

Geekdom Madness 2017: Last Dreams/Sub Stories

Welcome to Geekdom Madness 2017! I'd like to remind everyone that this is explicitly a popularity contest. This is not who would win in a fight, but who YOU - the reader - like better.

Our first matches: two Final Protagonists and some underground ladies.

Geekdom Madness 2017 Bracket

I was going to post this in the previous post, but I decided to keep this separate and easy to find. Start making your predictions now!

Click to Enlarge so you can Actually Read It

Geekdom Madness 2017 starts on Sunday, February 26th.