caenissnow’s stuff

[caenissnow]

And you just described why I write.

There is nothing like your own imagination for adventure. 🙂

[Kelemelan]

Oh yeah. 🙂

[caenissnow]

Speaking of which… Chapter 12 of my second book is done finally! YAY!!! 😛 That one was tough. 😛 And all while sitting here in the middle of Tropical Storm Hermine, constantly checking email, Facebook and this forum. (And answering texts on my phone from my mother who lost power.) 😀

Multitasking, always. 😀

[Fasoldgames]

Pizza and much drinking….and a lot of smart guys….sounds like my RPG sessions in the 90’s and the early years of our new millennium. Guess not much has changed 🙂

I remember them fondly, but we had trouble finding a good DM. The one we had was a great guy, but not very consistent in his storytelling, and without much authority, he was a bit too nice, and allowed us all kinds of freedoms with the rules…

I remember one time (here come’s grandpa’s endless and boring anecdote 🙂 ), that we had to attack a city held by an evil prince. Well, we had the Polymorph spell, and our DM allowed us to use it as much as we wanted. And the description in the Player’s Guide said the spell was….Permanent!. So we went to a flock of sheep and polymorphed them all into flying Pegasi. We had several Bags of Holding, which could hold infinite weight without weighing much themselves, and with several strength potions, we filled those with huge boulders and loaded them unto the pegasi.
Then, we proceeded to bombard the city from the sky….

After that, the story kind of fell apart, as no one could take it seriously anymore and it ended as so many sessions, with too much wisecracks and Monty Python references. Still, good times!

Oh, and congrats on the finishing of your book chapter! Its always great when something large is finally done 🙂

[caenissnow]

😀 That campaign sounds like fun. Very crazy.

Ironically, I didn’t drink and still don’t. 😀 But it was fun anyway. My dad wasn’t too happy though. One of the guys who played with us drove a HUGE Harley and also didn’t drink so he drove me home once. 😀 And he was complete biker dude, leather, tattoos, etc. Sweet as he could be but scary to look at back in the 80’s. 😀

By the 90’s I had stopped playing. I had 2 kids. Life changes then, yeah?

Yeah – my first DM was super smart and very unforgiving.

Thanks about the book. 🙂 Yeah…. slow going. Already at 126,000 words in the second book though. Another epic. 😛 Maybe someday I’ll finally get them up on Amazon.

[Kelemelan]

Well, if you can’t find the GM you need, become him/her 😉

When you’re looking for superhero rpgs like I do, most of the time it’s the easiest choice. 🙂

I used to actually DM, that is, use D&D, but by then it was still called AD&D, so no, I’m definitely a GM, not a DM. 😉

Oh, hey, and anecdotes are the best parts of rpgs. Pity they sound much better irl though 😉

[kalnaren]

[quote=”caenissnow” post=2798]

Another thing I would LOVE to see is a way to set up several instances of Skyrim with different mod sets like I can do with Minecraft. I’d love to try some of those HUGE mods like Enderal, but I don’t want to lose all the work it took to get my current set up going. 🙂 But I do kinda hope I can still use DirectX 9. This pc is old and honestly I can’t afford a new one any time soon. I’m worried it’s gonna come out and my pc won’t be able to run it.
[/quote]

That’s exactly what Mod Organizer does. That’s why most modders stopped using Nexus Mod Manager. MO makes modding Skyrim WAY easier.

Can get slightly tricky with mods that install via exec or without MO support, but basically you keep your Skyrim /data/ directory clean and MO streams in a virtual file system depending on what profile you have active. Works really slick. Also doesn’t overwrite anything, so you can more easily resolve and revert with mod conflicts.

DX9 support is a problems with Windows 10. It limits VRAM to 3 or 4 gigs. Regardless, pretty sure Fallout 4 required a DirectX 11 GPU, so likely the remastered Skyrim will as well.

[caenissnow]

@kalnaren

I forgot about Mod Organizer. I tried to use it before but wow…. it’s so different. I couldn’t get my head wrapped around it.

Ugh… I ***hope*** remastered Skyrim will be backwards compatible. 🙁 My pc just can’t run DX11. It struggles, bad. I tried Wildstar a long while back and would hit water and completely stop. And my Dragon Age: Inquisition lags incredibly badly and thats DX10. Sadly, there’s no way to get me a new pc any time soon. 🙁

[Kelemelan]

That’s why I tried my luck with computer games and went back to actual pen and paper RPGs. The latter are always compatible if you need them to be. 🙂

[caenissnow]

@Kelemelan

Well, the thing is, with modding, there’s a challenge in making all the pieces work together. I get almost as much joy out of taking a hammer to my Skyrim and mashing all those mods in and making it run without crashing as I do actually playing the game, if that makes sense. 🙂 I have 255 mods crammed in there and many more you don’t see in the list because they’re merged. I think my Nexus thinks there about 325 or so. I also make my own mods. (I have one on the Nexus for Oblivion btw.) I get kidded a lot by my daughter because when I’m on a Skyrim kick I always end up fiddling with mods and ‘breaking’ my Skyrim. 😀

But yeah, I can see the RPG paper thing. Ultimately, I write to escape in the same way. I don’t play games like that because I’m usually alone.

[Kelemelan]

Okay, all I’m saying is if Skyrim was PnP, you could have created 325 optional rules too.

But with an online game, when they will turn Skyrim off, or when current comp won’t be able to run it, you will loose everything.

Happened (at least) twice to me. So now, I trust what I can rely on. 🙂

[caenissnow]

@Kelemelan

😀 Skyrim isn’t online thankfully.

The only online game I’m currently playing is Guild Wars 2. I’ve spent a fortune over the years on online games, most of it in PWI, but GW2 is Buy to Play so once I bought the game I never had to put another dime in it. But I do know what you mean….

And no… I have backups on top of backups for everything, including Skyrim. 🙂 I’m prepared. 😀 Plus, that would be a challenge too. Starting over and rebuilding the game as I want it from the ground up. Fun. 😀

The thing is, I am alone about 99.9% of the day, every day. My only social interaction is online. 😛 I wouldn’t know anyone to play a tabletop game with. My youngest son is mentally disabled. I thought after he got too violent for me to deal with and moved into a group home a few years ago that I would have more happening in my life but, with PTSD and depression and all I ended up a hermit in my house. 😛 So online games for me. 😀 I do get what you’re saying, but… I think for me, those days are gone. At least right now.

[Kelemelan]

Sure, that’s why I also said “or when current comp won’t be able to run it”. I had that same distasteful experience with Freedom Force and Freedom Force vs the 3rd Reich which decided not to work due to changes in the OS for a looooong while.

From the sound of it, you’re having the same kind of issues with Skyrim as I understand it. Technology and software are evolving but our machines aren’t unless we spend more money on new comps anyway. 🙂

Now, in my mind tabletop, doesn’t mean face to face. A virtual tabletop is fine with me. Especially since we all have our own issues and it’s easy to make schedules meet when everyone is in fact staying at home. So, yeah, online games are fine, but I’m still more of an old school RPG guy anyway, even though I’m using new tools to that end. 😉 🙂

[caenissnow]

I was feeling kind of down after this discussion so I went in GW2 and made myself some eye candy. 😀 I tried to replicate him in ePic Character Gen but couldn’t get him quite right. That’s why I’d love more hair and beard choices in the sketch thinkgy for us ladies who love to make sexy guys. 😀

[kalnaren]

P&P RPGs and computer RPGs scratch different itches. I generally prefer computer RPGs for the tighter narrative and visuals, but they seldom hold up to the social aspect. Hard to do beer and pretzels with friends over a computer RPG :/.

I’d do more P&P if my group wasn’t so busy. I’ve managed two sessions of our current campaign in the last two and a half months. At this rate I’m going to have to can it :(. Hopefully it can pick up.

I hardly play any MMOs any more. Just don’t have the time to dedicate to them these days and I’m honestly not a huge fan of themepark MMOs. I rather miss the gold old ones like EQ, Dark Age of Camelot, etc. Very few of those around these days. I have one or two I log into every now and then (I have a lifetime sub to Star Trek Online, so I jump into that for a bit every few months), GW2 on occasion as well. I just don’t have anyone to play them with so meh.. I stick to SP games.

I think I’ve broken Skyrim more times than I can count. I had to tone down the amount of mods I have in this playthrough because I kept blowing the RAM stack and couldn’t make it run stably. I do love tinkering with it though.

For my own worlds though I also prefer writing. I like worldcrafting and tinkering with mechanics more than telling stories though, probably why my main hobby has always been boardgame/tabletop game design.

I should re-visit some of the worlds I created in my earlier writing.. I’m sure some of it could do with a big overhaul.

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