ChrisTalbot.com

After playing a rather long and boring game of Zombies!!! on Saturday night, I got to thinking about how I could make the quicker and more fun. The game on Saturday took over two-and-a-half hours to play out, and the last hour was bloody painful for all involved. It was damn boring doing the grind towards the helipad. I'd really like to re-work the game so that it can be easily played in under an hour (and preferably under forty-five minutes).

The other thing to consider is scenarios. I'd like to see a scenarion in which players race across a zombie-infested city; first one to get to the end wins. Or what if the players only had one life? Once they're dead, they're dead. Last one standing or first people to reach the helipad (or kill X number of zombies) wins. Or for something a bit more bizarre, what about something like a capture the flag scenario played out between two teams? There are zombies everywhere, and while you're fighting them, you're also trying to get through the city to steal your opponent's flag and return it to your base. I think some player versus player combat would be absolutely necessary in a scenario like that, but I think it could be fun. :D

It wasn't all that long ago that the only problem I had regarding board games was finding enough players to play a game. Now, the reverse is true. I find I'm having to be careful that I don't invite too many people or there will be too many people for whatever game I want to play. It's a nice problem to have. :)

After years of hearing nothing but positive things about it, I finally picked up a copy of the Watchmen graphic novel and started reading it. I'm only through the first three chapters, but it's pretty damn good.

After I'm finished Watchmen, I have another Alan Moore graphic novel to read -- V For Vendetta.

Can anyone explain to me why the world needs to be subjected to a movie version of Miami Vice?

I've been re-reading Interview With The Vampire recently. I'm just about finished it, actually. It has been quite some time since I've read it, and my plan was (and still is) to read Interview, The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned. It was after Queen that the story jumped the shark, so to speak, but up until that point, it was going along okay ... although Queen was still a bit of a disappointment.

It took about twenty years, two name changes and a merging with a dying political party, but the Reformers finally took power in Canada last night.

I dropped out of the AFMBE PbP I was participating in at RPG.net today. Unfortunately, most of the posting activity is happening on the weekends, and I don't really get much of a chance to check email or the forums I frequent on Saturday or Sunday. I've been holding up the game a bit lately because of this, so today I decided it was time to leave the game.

Oh well. Another AFMBE game that better fits my schedule is bound to pop up eventually. And if it doesn't, I can always try running one. ;)

Being without Internet access is like being without a phone (and I should know, as I went without landline service for over a week last year because of those fuckers at Bell). Sometime on Friday evening, my cable modem died, and I had to have somebody from Rogers come in on Sunday and replace it. The new modem has a much smaller footprint. According to the Rogers guy, it's also a faster modem, but somehow I doubt I'll see any real difference in throughput.

My comments have now been spammed for the first time, so I'm disabling the ability to comment anonymously. If you don't have a Blogger username, you won't be able to comment anymore.

The weather scared me off the roads tonight. We're getting some nasty freezing rain that's making the roads kind of slick, so I chickened out of driving up to David B.'s place for our Granada: The Fall of Moslem Spain rematch. :(

While at Wyldstar on the weekend, I saw a neat comic on the stands. Marvel Zombies seems right up my alley, but unfortunately only the second issue was in. The first had sold out (meaning I have to wait for a reprint or a trade paperback). Of course, Dave at Wyldstar told me the story started in another series (turns out it was Ultimate Fantastic Four), so I'm going to have to dig up the Crossover story arc, as well. And then I'll be good to go when I finally get my hands on Marvel Zombies.

I just saw the Ultraviolet trailer. It looks like it could be fun -- mindless fun, perhaps, but fun nevertheless.

The burner works, so it looks like my installation was successful. Yay, me!

I finally took the plunge and bought a DVD burner over the weekend.

We've been without a functioning CD burner for quite some time now. I don't think our burner has worked in over a year -- maybe even two years. I'm really not sure how long ago it was that it quit. I just know it was a long time ago.

So while I was in Best Buy getting a new mouse for my laptop, I ended up browsing the entirety of the computers section -- and I realized that DVD burners had become dirt cheap. I swear I stood in the aisle for ten minutes or more having an internal debate as to whether I should drop the cash on it or not. Eventually, the "yay" side of my brain won out, and I left the store with a brand-spankin' new DVD burner.

I installed it yesterday, but I haven't had a chance to test the burning function yet. I'll hopefully get around to doing that today.

Practical science or mad science? Check out the glowing pigs.

It had been more than a decade since I last played Car Wars, but Logan dropped by last night and we played a couple of quick arena battles using standard Killer Kart and Shrimp subcompacts.

Our first battle ended spectacular when the two cars collided head-on at a combined speed of 105 mph. Kaboom! The second battle took a bit longer, and there was definitely some more maneuvering. Logan got the better of me, though. The battle ended when Logan rear-ended me hard enough to destroy the back end of my car and kill my driver.

I'm looking forward to playing again. Now I just need to re-learn how to construct vehicles.

On Friday night, I finally had a chance to play Warhammer 40K at Xavier's place. Four of us sat down for a two-on-two game. I ended up with an ork army, while my partner (Xavier) was playing a tyranid army. We played against a couple of human (Imperial?) armies. While the human armies won the day, it was a close call. If Xavier had managed to kill off one more man in his last close combat assault, the game would've been a draw instead of a win/loss.

After one play, I think I have a mostly positive opinion of the game. It was fun, but I see the mechanics of the game getting old rather quick. I think the "bucket of dice" mechanic makes the game based a little too much on luck and not enough on tactics. Granted, tactics still play a role in the game, but it seems more based on who can roll the most fives and sixes than who has the best overall strategy.

It would be fun to play Warhammer 40K here and there, but I don't think I'll really get into it.

Freakiest site on the Internet? Maybe. Check out Cute Overload and be afraid.

I wonder exactly what the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Game 2006 is.

This is a few days late, but... Happy New Year!

Since my last post just before Christmas, things have been a bit hectic. I was running around a lot on the 24th through the 26th, and then things started to get a bit quieter. After the family stuff was all over, I had some time to get together with a few friends and play board games, but I also managed to find some time throughout the week to watch some of the DVDs I got for Christmas.