What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement?

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Re: What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement

Post by Dave Syrinx »

Glad to see who's alive and kicking! :D

So many games. It's like Christmas.... It's kind of soon is!
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Re: What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement

Post by DrPeterson »

I'm reading Guerilla Warfare by Che Guevara, which is great.
I've just finished watching Penny Dreadful, which was nice enough.
And I've been playing the updated version of Knights of the Old Republic II, which is a massive improvement from the original release.
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Re: What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement

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I enjoyed reading along with Leagues of Adventure, and I'd been hoping to get in on the followup (The Great Game), but unfortunately it never started.

I finished grinding in Ultima V, and now I have magic axes all around, ample armor, and plenty of gold. I haven't had time to play in a while, but when I do, I'm ready for my first expedition to the Underworld to find the amulet and the shards of Mondain's gem. I finished my PBEM game of Civilization IV Beyond the Sword, winning a cultural victory in the late 1940s. Two of my rivals double-teamed me with a surprise declaration of war some ten turns before I won, but I cleaned their clocks and took a few cities from them, then got them to make peace and pay me for it. Soon I plan to start a PBEM game of Civilization IV Colonization. I've almost finished reading through the Civilopedia, and I have a pretty good idea of how it works and how to play it now. I never knew that KoTOR II was updated. I'll have to buy it on GoG or Steam the next time it's on sale for 75% off or more.

I'm four episodes away from finishing The Avengers, but I put that on hold because I got new series on Blu-ray that I want to watch first. I just finished the second half of Outlander Season 1, and I'm about to start Homeland Season 4.

I completed the first book of Shinte Warrior and started on the second, but I temporarily put that aside to play Lone Wolf Book 22 when I received it. Then I went back to Shinte Warrior 2, but I ran into a gamestopper - an entire section of text is missing, and it's the one I need to read next. I informed the author, but I can't make any more progress until he produces the missing section. I'll probably start on the Way of the Tiger series in the meantime, starting with Book 0: Ninja!, the new prequel that I haven't read yet.

I got to play a few solo board games in October, but I haven't had time since then, and I've built up a huge backlog as some of the games I backed on Kickstarter have arrived, and I bought more on sale online for huge discounts. My first game of Hostage Negotiator didn't go so well, but my second went great. The abductor was the one based on John Q, and I won by getting medical care for his son, saving both of them and all of the hostages. Everybody wins! I plan to play Zombie 15' solo with the new campaign when I have time, whenever that is. I've played board games with other people in the group I found, and some of them like the same sort of games I like. A week and a half ago, I brought Eldritch Horror, and the game kicked our butts. Last weekend I brought Fortune and Glory and played a four player competitive game, which was a lot of fun even though I lost (but I came close a couple of times).
Doctor Who/CoC Campaign:
(viewforum.php?f=176)The Terror Out of Time
(viewforum.php?f=191)]The Ninth Planet
The Shadow Over Dunwich
The Brotherhood of Death
The Horror in the Blackout
The Masque of Nyarlathotep
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Re: What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement

Post by Dave Syrinx »

Guess who's knee deep in Fallout goodness? Playing through F3 & F4 atm.
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Mythos reads

Post by carnage_lee »

I thoroughly enjoyed the 'Harry Stubbs' books by David Hambling. Mythos investigation adventure stories set in Norwood, South London (very close to where Home Front Mythos was set (which was one of the reasons I bought the books). I picked them up for my kindle for a couple of quid each. Both stories have a 'pulp' vibe and the first one 'The Elder Ice' is most definitely Lovecraftian and would make a nice little Call Of Cthulhu scenario.

The Elder Ice (Novella)
Introduces our new hero Harry Stubbs, an ex-boxer, employed by a firm of solicitors as their 'debt recovery' specialist. A seemingly lost cause to recover debts from the estate of a renowned (and knighted) Polar Explorer (ohh alright it's , Ernest Shackleton) leads to a dangerous conclusion... what did Shackleton bring back from the Antarctic?


Broken Meats
What ties an agent of the 'Si Fan Society', the shooting of a dead man and a group of Theosophists together? Join Harry Stubbs as he's coerced into assisting the enigmatic 'Mr Yang' and once again gets drawn into more weird happenings on the streets of South London in 1925.


Hambling also has a short story collection out 'The Dulwich Horror & Others' has a couple of really nice Mythos stories, especially the 'The Dulwich Horror' (a re-telling of the 'Dunwich Horror' with the English branch of the Whatley family up to no good in South London) - the characters from that story pop up in two others extending the story further, with a very nice twist in the last one. For me the 'stand out' tale was set in Vermont - a PI on the trail of an elusive scientist and his 'break-through process', Chicago Gangsters and certain 'fungi' based extra-terrestrials.
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Re: What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement

Post by RonaHattingh »

Well, I have just watched "Man from U.N.C.L.E" - great movie. Waiting for Star Wars 7.
Series that i am following at the moment is Limitless, Teenwolf, Vampire Dairies, Blue Bloods, Big Bang Theory, Supernatural, N.C.I.S + Los Angeles, Hawaii 5-0, Agents of Shield.....lots more (I love my series).
Books, last one I've read was from Gena Showalter - Lords of the Underworld
And I am playing Sims 3 and Anno 1404 at the moment on PC.
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Re: What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement

Post by Dave Syrinx »

Welcome Rona!

I'm enjoying:

The Leftovers (Lost/Helix - esque.)
Legends (Sean Bean!!)
The Knick (On Cinemax)
The Man In The High Castle (Finally!)

Rereading Dance of Dragons by GRR Martin.
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Re: What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement

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I just read A Dance with Dragons for the first time earlier this year, so I'm all ready for The Winds of Winter, which is supposed to come out next year. I've read the book The Man in the High Castle, which was great, and I'd really like to see the series, but I'll have to wait for it to come out on video.

Home Front Mythos was great! I have plans to run a scenario myself set in London in September 1940 called "The Horror in the Blackout" as part of my Doctor Who/Call of Cthulhu campaign, but I've only recently started The Brotherhood of Death, so it'll be a while before I can run that one. I have plenty of ideas in my head, but I haven't written any of it yet.

I started the PBEM game of Civ IV Colonization, and I'm off to an excellent start! I'm playing George Washington (New England), and my human rival is playing Samuel de Champlain (New France). I spotted land on my first turn, but I couldn't get close enough to let my colonists ashore until my second turn. I found an excellent site and built my first settlement, Jamestown, on a rich iron deposit, plus there's valuable silver in the mountains nearby. There's an Arawak village just three tiles to the north, and my starting soldier is about to visit the chief and get a gift of gold (doubled because they have the Gracious trait). My settlement also popped a Burial Grounds that gave me a map of the area, so now I can see the Pacific as well as the Incas to the southwest, plus other Burial Grounds and Ancient Ruins are now visible. I have sites for two more settlements planned out once I'm ready to expand. My caravel is on its way back to Europe, and it'll get there just in time to pick up the first immigrant, an Expert Ore Miner. That's the specialist I need the least, as I'm already getting more free ore than I know what to do with yet. I'll also fill my second hold with trade goods to sell to the Arawak. Once I drop off my Expert Ore Miner (who will be mining silver instead and won't get a bonus), I'll pick up the colonist currently in Jamestown and sail to the Arawak village to establish a mission. That will ensure a steady stream of Converted Natives flowing into my colony (at double speed, since the Arawak are Impressionable), and they're great at harvesting raw resources such as silver and food. After I sell the goods and sail back to Europe again (possibly picking up what silver I've managed to mine so far if I need more money), I'll pick up the next two immigrants. There's a Seasoned Scout, though I'll have to buy horses for him, and an Expert Fisherman, which I desperately need and may have to rush. Jamestown should one day make a great soldier factory, which combined with my trait that requires half the number of guns to equip soldiers, will help me on the way to independence. Right now, though, I'm only four turns in, and that's a long way away.

I'm in the middle of the third episode of Homeland Season 4, and things are already getting very interesting.

I'm making good progress in Ninja!. For my trial I need to find and acquire two of five flags in cities on the Island of Plenty, and I just managed to snag my second one. Now I have to finish crossing the island where I'll face my final test against whichever of my rivals also manages to get two flags.

I haven't had time to play solo board games, but I did play in my group today. I brought A Touch of Evil, which was fun, though one of the other players found and defeated the Scarecrow first and won the game. Then we played a couple of quick games of Loot, a card game where the cards represent merchant and pirate ships. In my first game I got almost all merchant ships and did terribly as a result, but in the second game I got mostly pirate ships and won by a landslide. Next week I plan to bring Firefly, which is always a lot of fun.
Doctor Who/CoC Campaign:
(viewforum.php?f=176)The Terror Out of Time
(viewforum.php?f=191)]The Ninth Planet
The Shadow Over Dunwich
The Brotherhood of Death
The Horror in the Blackout
The Masque of Nyarlathotep
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Re: What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement

Post by kabukiman »

I'm still playing Baldur's gate 2. I'm in chapter 7, I just saved the tree of life and now it's time to find Irinecus.
I'm also playing Rome total war: the barbarian invasion by the west roman empire. Since I have a budget problem (too much troops and buildings to mantain and low income and a population that is furious with the taxes) I have reduced the rhe taxes, sold most of the buildings (except temples and markets) and I'm attacking the barbarian tribes in the border to reduce my troops and pillage their cities. It's working for now.
I have watch (again) bladerunner.
And I have also buy the bundle from Ubiquity; but in this case, I was more interested in the the hollow earth corebook.
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Re: What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement

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My PBEM Colonization game is going well. My strategy of bringing in lots of colonists is starting to pay off, and I'm racking up a small fortune from selling silver and surplus ore, plus I discovered an ancient treasure and got gifts worth a lot from the natives. I established a mission with the Arawak village on the tenth turn, but I still haven't gotten a Converted Native after fourteen more turns. Maybe next turn I'll finally get my first one. The immigrants actually seem to come to docks in random order, but so far it has favored the ones on the right. The Expert Ore Miner is still waiting, and he can keep waiting. I have too much ore as it is.

I'm now about a third of the way through Homeland Season 4, which is filled with twists and turns.

I'm now probably most of the way through Ninja! Getting the flags was the easy part (I actually have three of them now). My rivals and I have been facing repeated ambushes by a mysterious and deadly enemy.
Doctor Who/CoC Campaign:
(viewforum.php?f=176)The Terror Out of Time
(viewforum.php?f=191)]The Ninth Planet
The Shadow Over Dunwich
The Brotherhood of Death
The Horror in the Blackout
The Masque of Nyarlathotep
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Re: What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement

Post by kabukiman »

I have finished baldur's gate II; I really liked the story, specially chapter 2, with the huge area that we were free to explore. Now I'm playing the expansion, the throne of Baal.
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Re: What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement

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My PBEM Colonization game is going great for me. I'm building up my infrastructure in preparation for becoming self-sufficient, and I'm exploring a lot and amassing quite a fortune. I'm on track to victory, though my large population actually makes it harder for me to get enough Rebel Sentiment to declare independence, and the King keeps adding more units to the forces he'll eventually send at me. The French are in trouble, having encroached on Inca land an awful lot while leaving their settlements ungarrisoned. The Inca eventually attacked them, destroying their newest one (and their best source of silver) and destroying a wagon train that had just left it. Now they threaten their remaining two towns. New France is holding out, but the war is crippling them. The Dutch attacked the Aztecs and destroyed one of their two villages, but now the Aztecs are fighting back, killing their units and invading their territory. Meanwhile, I've reached the Underworld in Ultima V. Now I'll have to consult my notes, which I made a long time ago, to track down Lord British's amulet and the shards of Mondain's gem (which will allow me to destroy the Shadowlords).

I just finished Homeland Season 4 and am in the middle of the bonus materials. After that, I intend to watch the last four episodes of The Avengers.

I successfully completed Ninja!, though it took some doing. I nearly won in my first attempt, but the final battle finished me. I'd started out doing really well, but I was killed by a run of bad luck. More bad luck ended a few more attempts, but I finally won through. I'm planning to order the new versions of the Way of the Tiger books eventually, but in the meantime I've gone back to the Wizard editions of Fighting Fantasy. I've recently started the classic House of Hell. I've died several times, but that helps me to map it out so I can find the best route through it.

I still haven't had time for solo board gaming, but I should over the next couple of weeks, as I'll have some time off from work. Last week I brought Firefly to the board game group and played it with three other people. It was a lot of fun, but I kept getting stopped after one space right after I started a full burn, causing me to waste a lot of time and fuel, so I didn't even achieve the first goal before someone else won. I also played Between Two Cities and Sheriff of Nottingham there, both of which I enjoyed.
Doctor Who/CoC Campaign:
(viewforum.php?f=176)The Terror Out of Time
(viewforum.php?f=191)]The Ninth Planet
The Shadow Over Dunwich
The Brotherhood of Death
The Horror in the Blackout
The Masque of Nyarlathotep
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Re: What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement

Post by Dave Syrinx »

Merry Christmas guys!
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Re: What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement

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My colony in Civ IV Colonization is growing, and I now have Elder Statesmen in each settlement generating a bunch of liberty bells, which I need to increase rebel sentiment enough to declare independence and win the game, plus they help me in many other ways. I've assembled a small force, but it was enough to take down the Aztecs and plunder their wealth. I'm now able to produce my own guns too, so I don't need to buy them from Europe, and I'm producing a lot more silver. Of course, the price has dropped quite a bit in Europe due to me selling them tons of it.

I'm in the middle of the last Emma Peel episode of The Avengers, The Forget-Me-Knot, which also introduces the character of Tara King (who replaces Emma in later episodes). The one before that, Mission...Highly Improbable, also features Nicholas Courtney (later the Brigadier on Doctor Who) in a small (literally) role.

I'm still exploring House of Hell and getting killed a bunch, but I've only actually died of fright twice. However, I'm mapping out the best way through the upstairs and starting to poke around downstairs.

A couple of days ago, I finally had time to play three board games solo, making a slight dent in my backlog. I played a game of Dungeon Roll, which I'd played once before. I was the Half-Goblin, and I got a very good score. Then I played the inrtroductory scenario in Zombie 15', a real-time game where you play teenagers who have to survive after all of the adults have turned into zombies. The first scenario was easy, and I finished in less than five minutes, but it's there mainly to teach the basic mechanics of the game. Then I played Tiny Epic Galaxies, though due to bad luck there were no planets that generated culture for almost all of the game, which made it impossible to stop the AI player from upgrading its empire until it won the game. However, I came fairly close to winning, and I think I can do better in my next game. I also played some games at my board game group yesterday. I played a few quick games of Dimension, an abstract game where you have to stack different colored balls to fit randomized rules, and Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, a deduction game that was a lot of fun. I was disproprtionately the murderer a few times, but I did manage to get away with it once. Then I played a five-player game of the game I brought, Battlestar Galactica. Two of the other players were Cylons, but they exposed themselves early. One revealed himself and went over to the Cylons before he could be confined to the Brig, but we locked up the other one (until she managed to escape). The Cylons brought in a massive fleet and made it impossible for us to jump, and we were getting our butts kicked (both of our pilots happened to be the Cylons). The game dragged on, and eventually we just called it for the Cylons, as they were going to win in the end anyway.
Doctor Who/CoC Campaign:
(viewforum.php?f=176)The Terror Out of Time
(viewforum.php?f=191)]The Ninth Planet
The Shadow Over Dunwich
The Brotherhood of Death
The Horror in the Blackout
The Masque of Nyarlathotep
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Re: What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement

Post by Ritterton »

On my end, I am on to episode three of the Man in the High Castle from Amazon. Interesting to say the least.

We got in our annual Star Wars RPG game yesterday with family friends. The son, he's now about 30, visits from California and then we all get together and play out a day long adventure. It was a lot of fun and really well done. We use LEGO characters and have a great time.

Reading - got two books going right now: Sword of Shanara and really enjoying returning to that world that I last visited some 35 years ago. The other is Ivory Vikings: The Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the World and the Woman Who Made Them by Nancy M. Brown. Will also be reading her book on Snorri as well. So doing the 1200 period of history - fascinating time period.

My son and I hope to play Star Wars Imperium, and maybe get a go or two in of Mysterium....then next weekend a Call of Cthulu scenario if I can pull it off. Great way to spend a vacation!
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Re: What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement

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I read Sword of Shannara about twenty years ago, after having played the Shannara computer game (the book came free with it, in fact). I remember that there seemed to be a lot of repeated words and phrases in there (characters kept collapsing, for instance), but it was a great story, and I loved the fact that it was a post-apocalyptic world that used to be our world. Terry Brooks also wrote a series of books about how our world became the world of Shannara, but I never got around to reading them. I also heard that there's going to be a Shannara movie, which should be awesome.

I just saw the new Star Wars movie today as well, but I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it. It was very reminiscent of the first movie (Episode IV), but not as good as it. Still very good though, and definitely better than Episodes I-III.

I've played Mysterium a couple of times with my board game group. It's hard to be the ghost, but we barely managed to squeeze out a victory in the game where I was.
Doctor Who/CoC Campaign:
(viewforum.php?f=176)The Terror Out of Time
(viewforum.php?f=191)]The Ninth Planet
The Shadow Over Dunwich
The Brotherhood of Death
The Horror in the Blackout
The Masque of Nyarlathotep
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Re: What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement

Post by Ritterton »

MTV here in the states is doing a Shannara miniseries in January...so that was the nudge to pick it up to read again.

Totally agree with the new Star Wars...great movie and really fun to watch. No spoilers here either. Though I will say I liked the richness of I-III that played different from the action in VII...but what a great movie.
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Re: What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement

Post by DrPeterson »

I loved the new Star Wars! And as a massive SW enthusiast I was really relieved that it didn't feel as artificial as Ep's I-III and was indeed more reminiscent of the original trilogy.

I also liked the fact that a lot of the new people were very clearly low-level PC's. And the new antagonist!
Kylo Ren,I love how Kylo Ren is emotionally layered and prone to failure, as opposed to the perfect uber-bad that was Vader.
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Re: What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement

Post by Mr. Handy »

I was lucky enough to see it on IMAX, so it looked even more impressive.

The Shannara miniseries was what I mentioned above, but I had thought it was a movie. A miniseries is even better! The computer game (made by Legend) is also well worth playing, but it might be hard to find a copy of it these days.
Doctor Who/CoC Campaign:
(viewforum.php?f=176)The Terror Out of Time
(viewforum.php?f=191)]The Ninth Planet
The Shadow Over Dunwich
The Brotherhood of Death
The Horror in the Blackout
The Masque of Nyarlathotep
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Re: What´s my/your current reading/viewing/playing amusement

Post by Tabs »

I remember reading Sword of Shannara way back when. Funny to think of our slight connection 20 years ago and the path which has led us to this forum today.
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