It's fun being me!

ULTIMATE MANGA DEATHMATCH Round 2.6

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 21:35:15 GMT

Competitor: One Piece
In direct contrast to Berserk I find everyone in this manga likeable I was even caring about a dog that had only been around for half a chapter. As you keep reading the art style beings to grow on you and the result is a solid manga.
My only concern is that after 550 chapters it still hasn't ended.

ULTIMATE MANGA DEATHMATCH Round 2.5

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:30:31 GMT

Competitor: Berserk
If someone were to tell that Berserk is a manga about a dark and brooding master swordsman who battles monsters, you would probably be interested. The problem is that I just don't care about Guts, so the well drawn 30 page epic battles lack any tension because I don't care who wins.
It should work but just doesn't.

ULTIMATE MANGA DEATHMATCH Round 2.4

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 08:40:41 GMT

Competitor: Rurouni Kenshin
Kenshin gets the honour of being the only manga that when I finished its first volume in round one I immediately wanted to read the next. Now that I have all I can say is that is didn't disappoint.
The current #1

Warhammer Fantasy RPG Session 3 & 4

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:36:30 GMT

It's been a while since the last update as I have been busy with amongst other things writing and play testing my game for buckets.

Once the effects of the mad cap mushrooms were off the party climb out of the cave and return to Altdorf.
The find that the city is full of flagellants and doom sayers all in full rant mode. When they finally get to the witch hunter they discover that Luthor Huss, an outspoken reformist in the cult if Sigmar is in town as well. Luthor is due to speak in the temple tomorrow and the party are advised to attend.
In the temple the next day Luthor denounces the Electors on the council and claims that they have perverted to true teachings of Sigmar. For this he is reprimanded and confined to three days contemplation after which he is to move before the council and apologise.
Von Buren, fearing that Luthor will be assassinated asks the party to guard over him. For the first two nights nothing happens but on the third night a pair of assassins attack. Despite the parties best efforts Luthor is wounded by a poison dart, but thanks to the surgical skills of Fabian he suffers no negative side effects.
The next day Luthor returns before the council, denounces them once more and smashes an altar with his war hammer. The council call for guards but the Grand Theologist Volkmar arrives and instead tells Huss to leave Altdorf and find salvation.
The party hurry to tell Von Buren what happened but arrive to see him being dragged off down the road by several bloodied and battered members of the town guard.
Afraid that they too would be wanted by the guard the party flee Altdorf and travel to see Sven in the tavern.

After a day in the tavern collecting supplies, on the second of Fore-Mystery the party set out for Marienburg, by way of Frederheim. In Frederheim the rumour mill talks of ratmen trying to gain access to a mine somewhere nearby and the bounty office wants Leopold von Buren on the charges of Treason, Sedition, Murder, Assaulting a town guard and Jail break.
In order to travel faster the party book passage on a barge down the river. After a couple of days travel they come to the smoking ruins of Eilhart which had only recently been raised to the ground. Strangely there were no bodies and survivors so the party quickly head off again. A little down the river they came across the body of a dead halfing whose cause of death could only be determined by autopsy. The autopsy revealed that his heart had exploded with no obvious explanation of how or why.
On the 8th of For-Mystery the party finally arrive in Marienburg, where Sven is challenged a drinking contest which he loses.
Trying to find work the party are hired by a wizard who wants them to head into the dead marsh and find a rare pitcher plant which stinks of death. Eager for money the party accept, however they decide that they should leave Dirk behind so that he doesn't drown in the marsh. Before heading out they purchase some supplies and hire a guide.
On their first day of travel in the marsh the party come across some giant rats eating the corpse of a noble.
They attack the rats and eventually drive them off but not before one of the rats burrows into the chest of the guide, while another severely wounds Harold. Battered and bruised the party quickly return to town to rest and collect Dirk before trying again.

Warhammer Fantasy RPG Session 2

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 07:53:38 GMT

We pickup again on the 22nd of Summer-Tide with a good ol' burning to inspire the peasants.

"See how the Empire takes care of you!" Begins Cpl Darlinton.
"You didn't care when our crops failed!" Retorts a red nosed peasant.
"Ah but we do protect you from Chaos, in fact it was probably Chaos that caused your crops to fail."
The next response comes in the form of a turnip thrown by an unseen member of the crowd. Cpl Darlinton tries to keep the peace but is silenced by the barrage of vegetables. Eventually Fabian steps in and manages to restore order.
After a brief explanation of how to identify the threat of Chaos the peasants inform the party of a wandering trickster who pulled rabbits out of empty boxes. Concerned with the state of the town and the potential threat of Chaos returning a search is conducted, in the Inn a book is found in the innkeeper’s room with unknown writing inside. The party decide that the town is to venerable to simple be left so Sven is left in charge of the inn while the rest of the party return to Altdorf.
After two days travel they arrive at the capitol and find it much as they left it, Dirk, Fabian and Konrad immediately head for the temple district and make offerings before going to see the witch hunter. He is most concerned about what has happened confiscates the book and orders the party to return to the village and burn down the town hall since it has been defiled by a daemon's presence. Once they have done this they are to track down this wandering mage and investigate him.
So back to the village goes the party again, deciding that it would be easier to conduct the questioning before burning down the town hall their orders are carried out in the appropriate order. The villagers reveal that the mage went west along the ring road that connects the small towns that surround Frederheim.
Following this road the party find more reports of the mage who goes by the name "The Great Karajan". The trail eventually turns off the ring road and starts to head towards Carroburg but when the party reach the river crossing the trail dries up. Just in case the mage crossed either without being noticed or perhaps at a different point the party carry on the Carroburg where they talk with the Carroburg Greatswords who inform them that they have heard of the mage but he has never been seen on this side of the river.
Concerned that they don't have the skills needed to track a mage through the woods the party hire Walter Haleberry, a halfling hunter who is well travelled this region. It doesn't take long for Walter to locate a trail branching off from the road into the woods which the party decide to follow until it gets to dark to continue. After an uneventful night’s sleep the party resume following the trail and find that it ends at a cave.
Walter informs them that many sets of footprints are going in and out of the cave, so the party carefully sneak inside to discover that no one is at home. Inside is a bed, a bookshelf, a desk and a stove. It all seems very innocent until Konrad notices that there is no cave wall behind the bookshelf and proceeds to prove his point by tipping it over revealing a passageway. The party leave Walter to watch the front of the cave and follow the passage way which leads to a room full.
In the room are glowing mushrooms which look as though someone is harvesting and another passage way. The party pocket a couple of mushrooms and follow the passage. As the head on the passage gets narrower and they are forced to walk single file. Harold calls the party to a halt as he can hear noises which sound live voices, except they are not speaking Reikspeil. He creeps along the passage until he comes to the next room inside of which are many snotling, some goblins and an orc.
Instead of charging in the party decided to get the greenskins to come to them by calling out and fighting them at the point where the passage narrows. The battle that follows sees about half the group pulling their weight as Dirk, Fabian and Walter picking of snotlings left, right and centre. The winds of magic blow poorly for Konrad who struggles with his casting while Harold gets his neck badly bitten by a snotling. He then decides to show his martial prowess and attempts a feint against the snotling, which goes awfully as the snotling easily follows the real attack.
Eventually with only one snotling two goblins and the orc left alive The Great Karajan arrives. Luckily for the party the winds of magic are also blowing poorly for him as his first few attempts at casting only cause him to start glowing and the temperature to drop. The orc on the other hand gets the hang of this fighting thing and begins hacking away at Dirks only remaining arm. It seems certain that Dirk will have his arm severed by the orc when suddenly the goblin decides that he want to be the one to kill the halfing and attacks the orc. With the two greenskins fighting each other Walter throws a lamp into the mushroom patch which ignites creating a barrier of flame between the party and the hostile mage. The winds of magic pick up again and the mage responds by spitting a stream of blood across the fire onto Walter who falls to the ground screaming as his face and chest melt off. The rest of the party dispatch the two greenskins and run off down the passageway deeper into the cave away from the evil wizard.
The come to the room where the greenskins had been working to discover that they had been mining some strange green stones. A statue had also been uncovered as a result of their efforts. The party tries to get Konrad to identify the stones and statue but it soon becomes obvious that he breathed in too much of the mushroom smoke as all he wants to talk about are the colours.
Konrad decides to have a lie down and the party hear a mighty crash from back up the corridor. They backtrack to discover that there has been a cave in and that they will need to find another way out. Dirk points out a ventilation shaft in the excavated room which they should be able to use one Konrad has regained his senses.
When Konrad eventually does come around he identifies the rocks as warp stone, which he says is most concerning and insists that they must return to Altdorf as soon as possible.

Warhammer Fantasy RPG Session 1

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:07:18 GMT

Yesterday was the first session of my Warhammer Fantasy RPG...
We began in the city of Altdorf on the 18th day of Summer-Tide, about a dozen people (well some of them were Halflings and there was one Dwarven slayer) had gathered outside the Hammer and Star in response to an advertisement for new recruits for Sigmar's Anvils.
The applicants were met by a captain of the Reiksguard who lead them to a nearby barracks for testing. The first test was a question and answer session which I am pleased to say no one failed. After this the Witch hunter Von Buren entered and gave a speech about how the Empire is threatened by Chaos from within and all must be vigilant and strong. He then asked if any of those present thought they didn't have the strength to resist chaos. A frail peasant raised his and confessed that maybe he didn't have what it took.
The witch hunter thanked him for his honesty and then shot him with a crossbow so that he would die while still pure. After no one else confessed a weakness for the dark gods the remaining candidates were taken to the sparing ring to demonstrate their martial prowess.
It is here that I will introduce our first batch of PCs
Harold Knightson: A squire, who despite his age and apparent lack of martial prowess was so adamant that his demilance should protect the Empire that he was permitted to join anyway.
Sven Muller: A miner whose life of hard labour had tempered him into a fine young man perfectly suited to serving the Empire.
Konrad Atzwig: An apprentice wizard born to pig farming parents Konrad is lucky enough to be born with the spark of magic, however his eccentricities do mean that he must be watch carefully.
These three PCs all passed the final test, in which the witch hunter disguised himself as a captain and tried to convince them to leave, and where attached to two experienced members of Sigmar's Anvils
Cpl Dirc Darlington: A Halfling mercenary who lost his arm in the sewers against a horde of rat men, or at least so he claims.
Fabian Bianchi: A Tilean Barber-surgeon and companion of Dirc, well known for his liberal used of leaches.

The newly formed squad were sent to investigate the small hamlet of Stirvol to the south of Frederheim and meet up with L.Cpl Uderling who had sent a message by courier hawk warning of a possible chaos threat. They arrived after an uneventful two days travel (21st of Summer-Tide) in Stirvol and since it was getting late went to the local establishment, the Empty Bowel. A small and shabby looking Coaching Inn, it is known for its hard cider, dry beer and locally produced brandy. The innkeeper, a large nosed man by the name of Boris, set the party up with a room for the night, but was rather cagey when asked about L.Cpl Uderling.
Searching room in which Uderling was supposed to have stayed Fabian discovered a silk book mark in a copy of Prayers to Sigmar. Finding this all too suspicious the party decided that they should sneak out in the middle of the night.
About two hours before the intended sneak out time Sven was woken by a loud bang, he quickly woke the rest of the party who donned armour and weapons and began searching the inn. In their search they woke a couple of other guests but couldn't find the innkeeper. This caused them to expand their search out into the town.
Noticing that the lights were on in the town hall the party crept over and looked through the window to discover that four villagers, one of whom was Boris, were performing some kind of demonic ritual with someone tied to a table.
The party barged in and a battle ensued, three of the cultists moved to engage the party while Boris continued the ritual. The party seemed to have the upper hand until Boris's skin began to bulge and swell until eventually it burst and a pink horror emerged. This caused Sven and Konrad to freeze with fear. The rest of the party battled on dispatching the cultists and wounding the horror. Sven finally found his nerve and brought his two handed pick down of the horror with a blow that would certainly kill, except instead the abomination split into two smaller blue horrors. Konrad spurred on by Sven’s valiant actions rejoined to fray and before long the daemons were banished.
After searching the bodies and discovering that they all had painted an eye on their chests the corpses were dragged outside and burnt as a warning to the rest of the village the next day.

ULTIMATE MANGA DEATHMATCH Round 2.3

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 22:26:31 GMT

Competitor: Violinist of Hameln
The second volume has much less musical lectures in it and the result is that you see exactly how flimsy the story is. I mean seriously, "I will kill you with my gold piano.", "I will kill you with my giant violin.", "I will defeat you with panties."
It's all getting silly!

ULTIMATE MANGA DEATHMATCH Round 2.2

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:24:25 GMT

Competitor: Love Hina
Amazingly the amount of sleaze has been greatly decreased this week and as a result you can almost fell sympathetic for the main character in his struggle. It's just a shame that what could have been a reasonable story has to be full of 13 year old girls in compromising situations.
A bit less fan service and this could actually be a good series.

ULTIMATE MANGA DEATHMATCH Round 2.1

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:00:23 GMT

Competitor: Eyeshield 21
More football, more shenanigans and more rules explanations. The story is fine but the regular breaks to explain about how gridiron works don't help with the flow, plus it runs the risk of just going from game to game with no character development.
We'll see...

ULTIMATE MANGA DEATHMATCH Round 1 Elimination

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 01:39:02 GMT

So at the end of round one the bottom three Manga's are:
Monster: For being soooo boring!
Love Hina: For being creepy, dude she's 13 and that's only because she had a birthday in chapter 3!
Berserk: For being written by a ADHD child on a sugar high

And the eliminated Manga is...

Monster.
Berserk may be dumb and Love Hina creepy but at least they seemed to be trying to do something. Monster was just plain boring, stupid Dr Tenma I don't care that you are a brilliant surgeon at least that's what all the people who look exactly the same keep saying. I don't really get how they brains are drawn so detailed but yet all the people are identical, seriously what's with that?

ULTIMATE MANGA DEATHMATCH Round 1.10

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 10:43:44 GMT

Competitor: Rurouni Kenshin
The story of a legendary swordsman who has become a vagabond during the Meiji period of Japan. During this time to carry a sword is illegal which does pose some problems when you are a swordsman, but since his sword is bladed on the wrong side most of the authorities don't mind.
A really good manga with some truly bad hair.

ULTIMATE MANGA DEATHMATCH Round 1.9

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:46:18 GMT

Competitor Trigun Maximum
Since the first Trigun series is only three volumes long it is too short to take part in the Ultimate Manga Deathmatch, however Trigun Maximum, which picks up two years after the end of the original, has fourteen volumes so is acceptable. It is also a good read, Vash is a very likable character, being a person with almost limitless power who refuses to kill.
Just make sure you read the first series before reading this, otherwise you might be a little confused.

ULTIMATE MANGA DEATHMATCH Round 1.8

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 10:35:29 GMT

Competitor: One Piece
I had very low hopes for this manga as I had seen a couple of episodes of the anime and they hadn't really done anything for me. However I was pleasantly surprised, much like Naruto and Bleach this manga has a quirky charm which combines well with it's simple plot.
There's something charming about incompetent people trying to be number one.

ULTIMATE MANGA DEATHMATCH Round 1.7

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 10:03:07 GMT

Competitor: Berserk
Violence, swords, fighting, boobs, repeater crossbows, monsters, guts, more violence and liquid testosterone! At least that's what the writer is trying for. Berserk seems like someone did a brainstorm of all the things that might just you know maybe sound cool in a fantasy hero setting and decided to just use all of them instead of actually refining the story.
Also the main character is a jerk!

ULTIMATE MANGA DEATHMATCH Round 1.6

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 09:45:43 GMT

Competitor: Violinist of Hameln
A long time ago Pandora opened a box and unleashed unspeakable evil on the world, now when townsfolk are plagued by monsters they cry out for a hero. Instead they get Hamel, a greedy fool who plays a double bass like a violin.
It's alright except having every village and person named after music is a bit odd.

ULTIMATE MANGA DEATHMATCH Round 1.5

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 11:02:03 GMT

Competitor: Love Hina
Reading this manga I wasn't sure if it was aimed at young girls or 40 year perverts (checking with wiki it is actually meant for teenage boys). The male protagonist is left a female dormitory by his grandmother and ends up getting into 'trouble' with the tenants.
Overall I find the scenarios more sleazy than funny.

ULTIMATE MANGA DEATHMATCH Round 1.4

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:50:52 GMT

Competitor: Yakitate!! Japan
This is a manga about making bread of all things. The weird thing is that it's good, I mean you would think that making bread would be about as boring as a story can get but you would be wrong.
Oh Japan, making even the most trivial of topics interesting.

ULTIMATE MANGA DEATHMATCH Round 1.3

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 05:00:19 GMT

Competitor: Claymore
A fairly standard fantasy story about an organization of half human half monster female mercenaries. Currently following a monster of the week storyline.
Biggest problem with this manga is its fugly artwork.

ULTIMATE MANGA DEATHMATCH Round 1.2

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 08:58:15 GMT

Competitor: Monster
Dr. Tenma is a neurosurgeon and he does some surgery and annoys the hospital admins. But really it feels like very little is happening.
Not a promising start.

ULTIMATE MANGA DEATHMATCH Round 1.1

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 03:09:35 GMT

Competitor: Eyeshield 21
Sena joins the American Football club as team manager, but is forced into being the running back at gun point because he has "Golden Legs".
Everything is over the top and the result is quite amusing, will be interesting to see how it develops.

Building a MAME machine

Sat, 17 Jan 2009 08:29:52 GMT

Picked up the cabinet for the arcade machine I'm building today.
Slight problem as the original owner had lost the keys for it, but the lock was easy to pick and in fact I spent longer on wiki reading up on how to do it than I did picking it.
My good fortune continued as an old monitor I had fitted inside perfectly once the case was removed. It's quite stable as it is but I'll probably build some extra support/safety features for it.
Then my good luck ended as the old PC I was going to use keeps crashing half way through boot up. I'll reinstall Windows and hopefully that will fix the problem.
Apart from that all I need to do is hook up some speakers and get some buttons, joysticks and a keyboard encoder and I'm away laughing.

ULTIMATE MANGA DEATHMATCH

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:54:04 GMT

Coming this January Ultimate Manga Deathmatch see 10 Manga series pitted against each other in brutal knockout competition.
The rules: Each week the surviving Mangas will have one volume (6-8 chapters) read and the weakest one will be eliminated.
If you would like to see your favourite Manga competing for the coveted title of ULTIMATE MANGA please send in your suggestions.

Emotionally Scarred

Sun, 20 May 2007 10:07:31 GMT

I just walked in on my father watching...

THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE!!!

Magic!

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 10:54:44 GMT

Played in the Future Sight prerelease.
Day one: Win, Win,Lose, Lose, Win (Yay prizes!)
Two-headed Giant: Win, Win, Lose, Win (No prizes for me)
Not bad but I did get rather poor cards, two Moonlaces for example.

Day two: Lose, Lose, Lose, Win, Win (My deck hated me!!! the first loss was to a good player, the next two were to bad players who both finished lower than me at the end of the day!)
Two-headed Giant: Win, Win, Win (9 boosters (prize split the finals because otherwise we might have got nothing) and a tee shirt.)
Got super sexy cards, Teferi and a foil Psi blast!

Now I just need to find someone to play in the PTQ

It's a

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 10:23:52 GMT

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