thekinginyellow

A Question For The Audience

2009-10-21T23:40:28Z

If you play World of Warcraft:

Why Warcraft?

I don't mean "Why Warcraft as opposed to some other MMO?"--that's pretty obvious. I mean, "why Warcraft as opposed to some other hobby?" What is it that you're getting out of the MMO experience? To what extent do you think those things would be replicable in a non-MMO format?

Help Wanted

2009-10-15T22:36:29Z

Seeking partner for easy, fast, potentially lucrative project. Candidate must be capable of generating (and coloring) simple and cartoony drawings with punch. Must also be possessed of advanced geeky sensibilities. Experience w/ ninjas, dinosaurs, explosions, etc. a plus.

If potentially interested, please comment in this post.

I Told You There Were Sprites

2009-10-12T22:47:46Z

Yeah, yeah...the maker is vastly less robust than Gaia's, and the product is basically an incomprehensible mass of pixels. But I *like* SNES-style graphics. Makes me feel somehow like there might be a *real* fake RPG in there somewhere.

More may come later.

Sprites!...and help requested...

2009-10-11T01:44:37Z

Good news: I found this neato-keen SNES-style sprite generator! http://www.geocities.jp/kurororo4/looseleaf/

Bad news: The site is in moon-man language, so I can't actually figure out how to do much other than fiddle with sprite options. Could someone who speaks Nipponese tell me, e.g., how to save the gorram images?

Brief Review: The City and the City

2009-09-09T04:17:26Z

[Look, I have to have some occasional non-avatar-related content here.]

As far as I can tell, China Mieville has an amazing talent for generating literary fast food. You eagerly procure huge quantities of it, and keep consuming it until it's all gone...but that's not because it's *enjoyable* as such. It's just full of stuff designed to manipulate your unhelpful pre-rational reflexes. And not only does it fail to nourish, it actually leaves you feeling uncomfortable and unhealthy at the end.

This has always been my main comment on Perdido Street Station. You can't look away from the constant kaleidoscope of the worldbuilding--"Wow! The city is cool, and its various imaginative sentient races are even cooler, and the monsters like the handlingers and the demons and the Weaver are even cooler than that..."--and then you put it down, and you realize that you just read a gazillion pages about some unlikeable and uninteresting people, and that the main conflict centered around beating up giant hungry monsters.

The City and the City has one leg up on that, at least; its protagonist/narrator, a bog-standard McNultyesque homicide detective with simultaneous addictions to enigmas and justice, is perfectly tolerable and even vaguely charming at times.

But other than that, the situation is disturbingly similar.

There's a world with a Really Cool Gimmick. In this case, it's that the cities of Beszel and Ul Qoma occupy the same interstitial space, such that you can cross from one into the other by shifting slightly or even just by changing your perceptions. But there's only one legally recognized boundary between them; any other interaction between the two is "breach". Breach, and breach alone, draws the ire of a seemingly omnipotent magical authority that shows up out of nowhere and disappears people. So Besz and Ul Qomans alike have elaborate mechanisms for "unsensing" each other's worlds, and for dealing with (e.g.) driving on roads shared by cars that you're officially not allowed to notice. [It even occurred to me that the "cities" might actually just be a single, ordinary physical-space city with very weird cultural restrictions, since you can usually tell Besz and Ul Qoman people and stuff apart by appearance, which made for an interesting way of thinking about ordinary urban life.]

That is, indeed, a Really Cool Gimmick. It's cool enough that I quickly plowed through a dry murder mystery whose progression was mostly pointless and whose resolution managed to be both predictable and incoherent. I just wanted to see more about the cities' interaction, about breach, about how these people dealt with their impressively stupid situation. And, true to form, Mieville dropped delicious fatty nuggets of worldbuilding at regular intervals.

But--and this is the real killer--even the worldbuilding doesn't pan out. Eventually we learn more about the breach-punishing guys, about the cities' overall situation...and there's no explanation at all for things are the way they are, why anyone thinks breach has to be prevented, why this painfully baroque system is allowed to continue. It's just Mieville playing with the shiny new toy he came up with. And that was a tremendous fucking disappointment.

108 Stars: Solicitation

2009-09-07T08:29:05Z

So, with the reintroduction of some old favorites, we've clawed our way to the point where there are fewer than 30 avatars left to be made. That's about the point where I should start trying to list everyone I *should* include before I run out of room.

1. I know, with absolute surety, that I'm forgetting several important someones. A little help?

2. There are some people I haven't forgotten, but for whom I really don't have any good ideas. If their names spark anything in anyone else's brain...that'd be awesome.

So I'd like to include, before this is done:

- Paul B.
- Lauren S.
- Rebecca H.
- Kat M.
- Scott M.
- Jesse L.
- Lark-Aeryn S.
- David S. (*)
- Dan L. (**)
- Any up-and-coming undergrads whom I don't know well enough to account for on my own

(*) Was A Baker in previous iterations; could do that again, but it seems like kind of a weird and tangential thing to pick up on
(**) Ditto with A Frost Mage

108 Stars, Again

2009-08-29T17:54:06Z

There have been enough changes and enough updates by now that I figured it was worth throwing
it out there again for thoughts and suggestions. As ever, read only if you care.

Guessing game has been updated with answers for them what want them.

Current Stars count: 82

A Curious Man || Aaron Dinkin

A Traitor || Ada Palmer

A Prince || Alessandro La Porta

A Sorceress || Alexa Fields

A Battle Mage || Alexa Weingarden

A Library Ghost || Alison Miller

A Berserker || Amber Rose

An Artificer || Andrew Lin

A Spy || Bella Wang

An Adventurer || Betsy Isaacson

A Sage || Bill Zaientz

A Dreamwalker || Blake Allen

A Warrior Witch || Bryn Neunschwander

A Scholar || Carl Engle-Laird

A Holy Warrior || Cassia Martin

A Wind Mage || Cassie Stearns

A Seraph || Charles Woodworth

A Fay Enchantress || Chaya Diertani

A Plague Doctor || Chris Doucette

A Paladin || Chris LaBianca

A Minister || Cody Swyer

A Construct || Dan Kane

A Procurer || Dave Kowarsky

An Emperor || Dennis Clark

A Gunslinger || Dev Purkayastha

An Assassin || Elena Yudovina

A Prophetess || Elisabeth Cohen

A Mermaid || Elizabeth Goodman

A Swordsman || Elliot Tusk

A Wizard || Emily Morgan

A Tinker || Emma Cohen

An Apprentice || Eric "Waffle" Wofsey

A Painter || Janet Bruesselbach

A Champion || Jason Brodsky

An Adept || Jason Larue

A Black Knight || Jason Morrow

A Ninja || John Bestoso

A Mysterious Figure || Josh von Korff

A Phantom || Justin Komisarof

A Druid || Kaeia Cerrapin

A Wyld Hunter || Kaitlin Heller

A Fop || Kartik Venkatram

A Dragonlord || Kathy Zhang

An Instructor || Keely Blumentritt

A White Knight || Kevin Carde

A Fool || Kevin Gold

A Guardian || Kevin Orfield

A Lady || Kim Kramer

A Herald || Kirby Haugland

An Infiltrator || Kofi Mills

A Dancer || Kristen Hendricks

A Mimic || Lauren Schiller

A Retailer || Lila Garrott-Wejksnora

A Weaver || Lucy von Korff

A Commander || Luke Reynolds

A Vampire || M.A. Rowe

A Time Mage || Matt Ender

A Showman || Matt Granoff

A Bard || Mauro Braunstein

A Wanderer || Michael von Korff

A Grappler || Nate Ackerman

A Sentinel || Nathaniel Jack

A Werewolf || Neil Sinhababu

An Arbiter || Noam Lerer

A Fairie Hunter || Nora Moseman

A Poet || Paul Broyles

A Maestro || Peter Dong

A Halfling || Rachel Adler

A Retainer || Rebecca Burstein

A Disgraced Peer || Rebecca McKeown

A Cleric || Rebecca Neville

A Saint || Ruth Wejksnora-Garrott

A Loremaster || Sam Tucker

A Princess || Sara Kate Heukerott

A Songstress || Stephanie Mitchell

A Hero || Steven Padnick

A Legend || Tom Lotze

A Chancellor || Tony Vila

A Chef || Tse Wei Lim

An Businessman || Tyler Carbone

A Horror || Warren Tusk

An Investor || Weiyi Guo

Wow. Just...wow.

2009-08-15T04:52:28Z

I don't know how many of you out there have heard of Agrippa's Trilemma (also apparently called "Munchhausen's Trilemma"). I certainly hadn't before tonight. But it's a concept that I've been groping at for years, and one that I'd more or less nailed down, in a vastly sloppier and less elegant way.

Really, philosophical education should start with this. Once we've established exactly why it is that it's so damn hard to argue anything conclusively, this awful weight comes off everyone's chest.

So...yeah. It feels weird to be giving an LJ shoutout to an ancient tidbit of logic theory. But still--check it out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnchhausen_Trilemma

It's Here

2009-08-04T00:20:07Z

The Cthulhu Unbound ^2 anthology is in print and available for your delectation. It is, for example, findable at

http://www.amazon.com/Cthulhu-Unbound-Vol-John-Sunseri/dp/1934861146/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1249345026&sr=8-2

This is the one in which my story "RICERCAR" is published.

(In case you hadn't heard, the anthology is full of Lovecraft mashup stories that dip into a wide variety of wacky and surprising genres.)

So...yeah.

Avatar Frippery

2009-07-27T02:41:34Z

This one's a waste of time, even by the rather sad standards of my avatar-making projects. It doesn't really exploit any of the coolness available in the generator except for the wide variety of pretty dresses. But after hearing that beautiful rendition of the story at Milk & Cookies, and finding this rather delightful background, I thought some time-wasting might be in order.

Any resemblance to individual persons real or fictitious is, of course, completely coincidental.

With that, I give you

HRSFA Magic Set

2009-07-10T15:59:28Z

We're, uh, making one. And have been for a while.

Mostly, we're trying to be pretty quiet, since it'd be nice if we could generate a genuinely surprising and delightful product for people to draft with. (The existence of Journeyman makes this a far more feasible proposition.) But in terms of flavor/top-down design, I would like to throw the floor open for ideas.

What HRSFA concepts are distinctive/awesome enough to merit their own Magic cards?

These don't have to be famous pan-HRSFAn institutions, although obviously those are great; localized references and inside jokes are welcome. Bonus points you can suggest an obvious card slot that the idea falls into (e.g., "big green dude", "removal", "bounce", etc.).

Some starter ideas, just to get the ball rolling:

* The Hour (Chronos, disciples of Chronos, burning clock)
* The Wyld Hunt (stag, hunters, possibly antlers/woad)
* The Myld Hunt (fox, hunters)
* Noncon elections
* Night arrows
* Schmowell House
* Not stopping the beat
* Salt hippos (?)

Survey Question of the Day

2009-06-17T07:48:07Z

What's the name of your Gundam? You know, the one that embodies your philosophy-of-action?

(If it's more appropriate to your narrative, you can give me the name of your flagship frigate or Star Destroyer or whatever instead.)

Seriously, you guys...

2009-06-10T03:12:09Z

Mainline liberal bloggers have a lot of irritating habits. Enough of them, in fact, I'm reluctant to discuss any of them due simply to pissing-in-the-wind reasoning. Furthermore, talking on my livejournal is obviously not going to accomplish much more than venting; there's a grand total of maybe-kinda-sorta-one person amongst my readership who might actually be able to *do* anything with the things I'm saying. But this particular thing just bugs me so goddamn much...

Stop pretending that liberalism is the cool kids' club.

You see this fucking everywhere. Lefties are young, beautiful, smart people who eat delicious food, have fantastic sex, and live fulfilling and stimulating lives. Conservatives, meanwhile, are bitter morlocks who can't get laid (or, alternatively, are trapped in soulless and repressive relationships) It is at least implied, and sometimes stated, that their entire philosophy consists of wanting to tear the cool kids down because they're just envious of how awesome we are in comparison.

If you're a liberal blogger reading this: knock it the fuck off.

Not because it's obnoxious and rude, although it is. Not even because it's wrong, although it's that too...poll after poll has shown conservatives to be happier overall, and there's a reason for that. You should stop because it's the LEAST ATTRACTIVE THING YOU COULD POSSIBLY SAY. The cool kids are, almost invariably, loathed intensely. Anyone who reads your self-congratulatory blather, and doesn't immediately think of himself as one of the Beautiful People leading a charmed life--to wit, virtually everyone--will want to crush you and all your allies simply out of spite. I certainly do, and I fucking agree with your politics.

If you think you're right, then say so. This particularly ugly form of ad hominem is just painful.

108 Stars Is A Go

2009-06-02T18:16:41Z

OK, so TekTek just released a swarm of new toys. Which include not only things I'd been wanting for a long time--like an open tome-style book and a more functional rapier--but also things I hadn't actually even thought to hope for seriously. Like, say, a small blue dragon. I'm taking this as a sign.

108 Stars will be revived and completed with maximum efficacy.

This post exists primarily to ask for input amongst interested parties. In particular, if you have any requests or ideas for your own avatar--concepts, desired props, etc.--this is where you tell me. TekTek has what it has, but I'll do the best I can.

The project still has a generic fantasy J-RPG theme, but at this point I'm loosening most of the restrictions in the name of giving people what they want as much as possible.

Question in re avatar generation

2009-05-27T07:15:24Z

For them of you what care about my Tektek projects:

I've gotten the idea, from several independent sources, that this tactics-RPG thing doesn't have anything like the same kind of widespread appeal amongst my readership that the 108 Stars did, and that I might be better served by reviving (and finishing) that one instead. I should point out, at the outset, that the 108 Stars tends to fizzle out for a reason: it's hard (for me) to come up with 108 people who are well-enough known to enough people for it to make sense, especially if they also have to have fantasy-RPG personas that 1) make sense and 2) can be represented with the available sprites, and the difficulty is only compounded by the fact that reviving old Tektek projects necessarily entails making a bunch of fiddly edits and upgrades to accomodate new toys. Nonetheless, I'm willing to give it a stab, if it would brighten enough people's day.

I should point out that, if 108 Stars is going to be complete, the first step is going to have to be coming up with a comprehensive list of people matched with avatar concepts. This patchwork version isn't working. Help with this would be very much appreciated, especially given that there are lots of people whom I should really know but don't (like the undergrads).

What say you?

Avatar Time

2009-05-26T19:34:17Z

Yep. There's a bunch of new toys on Tektek, and y'all know what that means. I can't exactly say that it's the *most* wonderful time of the year, but...one way or another, it happens.

Note that this project doesn't consist primarily of making sprites for specific people in my circle of acquaintances--although a few of them may sneak in, here or there, in some form or other--so if that's what you're here for, you can move along without regret.

As usual, I don't actually expect people to be interested in this, because it's *very* silly and pointless. Even more so than usual this time, really.

CURRENT CLASS COUNT: 53

So this time, for whatever reason, the nonexistent video game is a job-class-oriented tactics RPG like FF Tactics or Tactics Ogre. For them of you what don't play those games, the basic idea is that you have a party consisting of a fairly large number of characters, many/most of whom are faceless mooks without individual personality, whom you can train in many different ways to fulfill many different roles. Many of the character classes have prerequisites, remaining unavailable to a given character until that character has achieve a certain level of proficiency in one or more specific *other* classes. In general, unsurprisingly, the more powerful and interesting classes often have the most demanding prerequisites.

My goal here, of course, is to create a tree of character classes that's as big and comprehensive as possible while still remaining comprehensible and balanced.

There are also some "special classes", each of which belongs to one specific individual who joins your party; nobody else can train in that class, meaning that the character in question has unique and irreplaceable skills.

The ground rules, such as they are, are as follows:

* Every normal class gets two sprites, one male and one female. These are mostly going to be near-identical, but (as you'll see) there are a few classes where the sexes actually look pretty different, so it's a good precedent. The only exceptions are for those very few weird classes that are for some reason available only to one sex.

* In this system, special classes are reserved for things that are definitionally unavailable to regular characters, because they require being born into either an unusual social station (e.g. "Princess") or an unusual species (e.g. "Troll"). Anything that could reasonably go into the class tree really should.

* All normal classes have "class levels", reflecting how hard they are to take; higher-level classes have harder prerequisites. A class's level is equal to one more than the number of other classes you have to master in order to take it, counting all immediate prerequisites, and their prerequisites as well.
If at all possible, I'd like to maintain some sort of parity between different branches of the tree in terms of class level; it shouldn't be that you can zoom to a Level 20 class as a caster, say, while being a fighter will take you only to a Level 4 class.

* All the undead classes are corporeal undead, largely because of limitations in the Gaia engine. Wraiths and suchlike will be Necromancer-class spell effects, not characters.

* Contributions are welcome! I want the tree to be as big and as cool as possible, and to have a bunch of nifty special classes as well; if you come up with something I haven't, I probably want it. Also, if you think that something is in the wrong place on the tree or has the wrong prerequisites, I'm certainly open to argument.

So, without further ado...

= LEVEL 0 NORMAL CLASSES =

Adventurer

[This is what characters start as by default. It's functionally a prerequisite to everything, such that we can basically ignore it. When you level up as an Adventurer, the stat gains are excellent, but you aren't learning any skills.]

= LEVEL 1 NORMAL CLASSES =

Acolyte

[The base class for all things prayerful and divine.]

Apprentice

[The base class for all things scholarly and arcane.]

Rogue

[The base class for all things tricksy, larcenous, and backstabbity.]

Outdoorsman

[The base class for all things primal, natural, and ranged-attack-oriented.]

Warrior

[The base class for all things smashy and meatshieldful.]

= LEVEL 2 NORMAL CLASSES =

Artificer
Prerequisites: Apprentice

Assassin
Prerequisites: Rogue

Bard
Prerequisites: Rogue

Brawler
Prerequisites: Warrior

Cultist
Prerequisites: Acolyte

Knight
Prerequisites: Warrior

Monk
Prerequisites: Acolyte

Priest
Prerequisites: Acolyte

Ranger
Prerequisites: Outdoorsman

Sailor
Prerequisites: Outdoorsman

Samurai
Prerequisites: Warrior

Shaman
Prerequisites: Outdoorsman

Thief
Prerequisites: Rogue

Wizard
Prerequisites: Apprentice

= LEVEL 3 NORMAL CLASSES =

Astrologer
Prerequisites: Apprentice, Wizard

Barbarian
Prerequisites: Outdoorsman, Warrior

Druid
Prerequisites: Acolyte, Outdoorsman

Fencer
Prerequisites: Rogue, Warrior

Hierophant
Prerequisites: Acolyte, Priest

Iai Master
Prerequisites: Samurai, Warrior

Kung Fu Master
Prerequisites: Brawler, Warrior

Marksman
Prerequisites: Outdoorsman, Ranger

Necromancer
Prerequisites: Apprentice, Wizard

Sentinel
Prerequisites: Knight, Warrior

Tactician
Prerequisites: Apprentice, Warrior

= LEVEL 4 NORMAL CLASSES =

Abbot
Prerequisites: Acolyte, Monk, Priest

Ninja
Prerequisites: Assassin, Rogue, Thief

Streetlord
Prerequisites: Bard, Rogue, Thief

= LEVEL 5 NORMAL CLASSES =

Cabalist
Prerequisites: Acolyte, Apprentice, Priest, Wizard

Diablerist
Prerequisites: Acolyte, Apprentice, Cultist, Wizard

Fusilier
Prerequisites: Apprentice, Artificer, Ranger, Outdoorsman

Paladin
Prerequisites: Acolyte, Knight, Priest, Warrior

Pirate
Prerequisites: Outdoorsman, Rogue, Sailor, Thief

Shaolin Monk
Prerequisites: Acolyte, Brawler, Monk, Warrior

Yamabushi
Prerequisites: Outdoorsman, Samurai, Shaman, Warrior

= LEVEL 7 NORMAL CLASSES =

Sniper
Prerequisites: Apprentice, Artificer, Fusilier, Marksman, Outdoorsman, Ranger

= UNDEAD CLASSES =

Zombie
Conditions: Zombie Powder or "Create Lesser Undead" spell used on any character corpse

= SPECIAL CLASSES =

Black Prince

Centaur

Clockwork Construct

Emperor

Gorgon

Rose Prince

Sinner [Jotun]

Sinner [Monkey]

Sinner [Titan]

White Prince

Whee.

2009-03-26T19:22:48Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAYl0uSNW20

AMV fun times. Go check it out, at least if you like both Utena and Saiyuki.

It's a well-done, er, concept piece.

Idle Thoughts on the MBTI

2009-03-17T07:54:33Z

So, if you're at all immersed in the wonderful world of personality testing, then you probably know something about the relative distribution of Myers-Briggs types in the population. Specifically, you know that SJ types are common, SP types slightly less so, NF types rare and NT types very rare. The alleged statistics get thrown around all over the Internet. See http://everything2.com/title/summary%2520of%2520MBTI%2520types.

I have to admit that those distributions make a sort of intuitive sense; it wouldn't surprise me to learn that the world worked like that.

And yet, when you actually go poking around the places where you find people talking about this stuff, you find *lots* of people claiming to be NTs and NFs, and virtually nobody claiming to be SJs. (Also more Is than Es, which is comparably surprising.) There are apparently many active mailing lists and community websites for all the NT types, or at least all the INT types; I'm pretty sure that this is completely untrue for the more "common" types.

I can think of three easy explanations for this phenomenon:

1) The data is wrong.

2) For some reason people think it's desirable to be an NT or an NF, and are lying/deluded.

3) NTs and NFs are the sort of people who care about personality tests, or who spend their time talking about themselves on the internets.

Thoughts?

The WPA

2009-01-29T00:18:51Z

...really as cool as all that?

http://bradhicks.livejournal.com/422902.html

I'm going to hold off on comment, for now, because I happen to find this particular guy *really* convincing in general. Commentary from my more economics/finance-type friends would be appreciated.

This Is To Satisfy A Friend

2009-01-22T23:53:04Z

Lois McMaster Bujold
Once put her best writing on hold.
With the series suspended,
Her fans are offended;
She'll have Miles to go 'til they're sold.

Don't Follow This Link

2009-01-15T01:16:14Z

http://www.the-isb.com/?p=980

Seriously.

This isn't me being coy, saying "oh, the thing behind this link, it's so mind-bendingly wacky". If there's anything, anything at all, that could make you say "goddamit, TKIY, why'd you make me go look at that?"--this is it.

If you're really sure you're not going to be sorry, however, the contents are...pretty funny.

Yet more 108 Stars silliness

2008-12-27T00:51:23Z

Excerpted from the strategy guide:

** DENNIS's Palace **

When you first step in off the World Map, you'll find yourself in a large courtyard in front of the palace proper. If you've been slacking off on the leveling grind, this is an excellent place to play catchup; there are lots and lots of enemies to fight, and most of them will leave you substantial XP and AP rewards. (Be careful of the C.Traders, however--if you don't kill them fast, they'll abscond with a fair chunk of your cash.)

Before you head in through the giant double doors, make sure you collect all the treasure from the courtyard. The chests in the alcoves on either end give you only a BeefStick and an EnergyDrink, but looking behind the columns yields greater rewards: you should end up with a DamSteel, an Opal, and a DogCoat (which is better than any cloth armor you have at the moment). There's a save point right by the doors. We heartily recommend that you use it, since the moment you walk in you'll be hit with a cutscene, and then it's time for:

---

[-Boss Battle-]
TYLER, ELENA, JASON & AMBER

This is a much, much harder battle than your skirmishes with the individual Black Generals would have lead you to believe. All the ones you've fought before have learned some new tricks, and TYLER is just as much of a monster as you've been led to believe. Furthermore, given how dysfunctional they seem to be off the battlefield, their combat teamwork is remarkable. Be prepared for a long, hard slog of a fight.

Between AMBER's physical attacks and TYLER's BlackWaltz ability, you'll probably be losing a character every turn. With luck, this won't happen to your primary healer too often. Nonetheless, don't be shy about using healing and revival items. There won't be another fight as hard as this one for a good while, and you'll have plenty of time to restock by then. At the very least, do whatever it takes to keep your healer up and running, since once he's down you're toast; at this stage, you're simply not going to be able to deal out damage at the rate the Black Generals can.

None of these guys has any revival magic, so you should be focusing your entire assault on one enemy at a time. JASON should probably be your first target; he's got the lowest HP of the bunch, and he can inflict seriously crippling status effects (notably Despair and Rage) on several party members at once. Once he's gone, turn to the beaters. Save ELENA for last--her Evade is sufficiently good that, despite her mediocre HP, she'll probably take the longest to kill. While her various bow techniques are irritating and can occasionally cause some real hurt, you can survive them while you focus on something else.

Other than that, standard boss tactics apply. Don't get scared if it seems like it's taking forever; this fight is supposed to feel like that.

---

When you've beaten the Black Hounds, you'll be treated to another cutscene...and then TYLER will join your crew!

Whether or not you switch him in to the active party is really up to you. Pound-for-pound, he's one of the best melee fighters in the game, and his solo abilities (including BlackWaltz, which he starts off with) are incredibly powerful. Furthermore, unless you've been extremely diligent about leveling, he should be at a higher level than most of your characters. On the other hand, he doesn't have many combos and techs, and most of the good ones involve characters you don't have yet. If you're building around synergy he won't do much for you.

If you decide not to use TYLER for the upcoming dungeon crawl, and you have any Sword users in your active party, make sure to deequip his Galt Blade and give it to someone else. It's a sufficiently nice weapon that you won't want to miss out on it in the tough fights ahead, and there isn't another save point for a good long while.

*********

Well, I had fun.

If you have any additions of your own to the walkthrough, feel free to post them. Fleshing this out will only make it cooler.

Link to character list is here: http://thekinginyellow.livejournal.com/68540.html.

More 108 Stars silliness

2008-12-26T09:08:12Z

I'll write something funny later. For now: there have been several updates and shuffles. Some I'm not quite sure of, so thoughts are always appreciated.

Link to character list is here: http://thekinginyellow.livejournal.com/68540.html.

108 Stars: Brainstorming

2008-12-22T06:12:59Z

You know the drill: if you don't care, don't read.

As you've probably already seen, a few people have been added and a few things have been shuffled around. I'm mostly happy with how things stand; in particular, I see no reason that the main character has to be a callow, adventuresome boy. MvK is now at loose ends, since on reflection I think Matt Ender really has notional dibs on the Time Mage slot, but I'm sure we'll come up with something.

(A note: the "Equip: ---" category is for characters who actually pummel the enemy with physical bits of their body--fists, claws, tentacles, etc.--when you use the Attack command. It's not a catchall for characters whose concepts don't incorporate weapons.)

In any event, this post exists mostly so I can exhort my readership (such as it is) to pass me character concepts. I am, now more than ever, burdened by a lack of personal acquaintance with many of the people who really ought to be on this list...and by a failure to come up with anything good for some of the people I do know. (See, e.g., Jeff Filippini '02; Cassia Martin '04.) This is, unsurprisingly, particularly an issue with regard to people before and after my time.

I'm happy to do the grunt work of fiddling with avatars, but I suspect this will end up better if the characters aren't limited to the random suite of my acquaintances for whom I have workable avatar ideas.

This is also the place where you tell me whether particular character concepts from the last go-round are worth retaining, if you have opinions on the subject.

A highly incomplete shortlist of people I haven't come up with anything good for, just to kick things off:
Jason Brodsky
Rachel Storch
Kevin Martin
Michael von Korff [given everything]
Josh von Korff
William Zaientz [I mean, come on, the man was a groomsman at my wedding...]
anyone sufficiently new that I have no real means of contact (Dan Kane, Waffle, etc.)
and the aforementioned Jeff and Cassia

And no, Kevin Martin will not be included in this game as "A Big Wank".

Link to character list is here: http://thekinginyellow.livejournal.com/68540.html.

108 Stars Character List

2008-12-22T05:25:44Z

CURRENT COUNT: 74

Equips: --- [4]

N. Ackerman
"A Grappler"

N. Sinhababu
"A Werewolf"

D. Kane
"A Clockwork Construct"

W. Tusk
"A Horror"

*****

Equips: Axes [1]

A. Rose
"A Berserker"

*****

Equips: Brushes [1]

J. Bruesselbach
"A Painter"

*****

Equips: Bows [3]

E. Yudovina
"A Sniper"

E. Goodman
"A Ranger"

H. Folse
"A Warden"

*****

Equips: Canes [4]

D. Kowarsky
"A Procurer"

M. Granoff
"A Showman"

K. Venkatram
"A Fop"

W. Zaientz
"A Philanthropist"

*****

Equips: Devices [1]

K. Gold
"An Artificer"

*****

Equips: Eggs [1]

A. Dinkin
"A Curious Man"

*****

Equips: Harpoon Guns [1]

L. Reynolds
"A Gentleman Scholar"

*****

Equips: Greatswords [6]

K. Heller
"A Wyld Hunter"

A. la Porta
"A Fae Prince"

C. Woodworth
"A Seraph"

K. Orfield
"A Guardian"

K. Carde
"A Paladin"

D. Clark
"A Tyrant"

*****

Equips: Guitars [1]

M. Braunstein
"A Composer"

*****

Equips: Katanas [3]

R. Burstein
"A Retainer"

T. W. Lim
"A Chef"

A. Palmer
"A Traitor"

*****

Equips: Knives [10]

A. Lin
"A Calculator"

N. Moseman
"A Fairy Hunter"

S. Tucker
"An Archivist"

S. K. Heukerott
"A Recluse"

A. Miller
"An Instructor"

T. Vila
"A Chancellor"

D. Speyer
"A Baker"

M. Ender
"A Time Mage"

C. Doucette
"A Psychic"

E. G. Cohen
"A Jewelcrafter"

*****

Equips: Lamps [1]

E. H. Cohen
"A Jinn"

*****

Equips: Masks [1]

S. Mitchell
"A Mimic"

*****

Equips: Needles [2]

K. Hendricks
"A Weaver"

R. Adler
"A Halfling"

*****

Equips: Pistols [2]

D. Purkayastha
"A Gunslinger"

J. Crowley
"A Rebel"

*****

Equips: Rods [2]

N. Lerer
"An Arbiter"

C. Swyer
"A Minister"

*****

Equips: Spears [4]

K. Haugland
"A Herald"

H. Filippini
"A Mermaid"

J. Brodsky
"A Champion"

B. Neuenschwander
"A Valkyrie"

*****

Equips: Spheres [2]

M. Hamburg
"A Juggler"

J. Liptrap
"A Go-dokoro"

*****

Equips: Staves [5]

S. Genstein
"A Necromancer"

T. Lotze
"A Legend"

C. Mastroianni
"A Wise Woman"

M. von Korff
"A Lost Soul"

A. Fields
"A Sorceress"

*****

Equips: Swords [6]

A. Weingarden
"A Duelist"

E. Tusk
"A Swordsman"

E. Isaacson
"A Wanderer"

D. Berdichevsky
"A Priest-King"

R. Storch
"A Commander"

T. Carbone
"A Dark Knight"

*****

Equips: Twin Daggers [3]

C. A. Diertani
"A Sidhe Dubh"

J. Bestoso
"A Ninja"

C. Martin
"An Assassin"

*****

Equips: Umbrellas [1]

B. Allen
"A Dreamwalker"

*****

Equips: Wands [7]

E. Morgan
"A Wizard"

L. James
"A Fire Mage"

L. Garrott-Wejksnora
"A Witch"

M. Borkin
"A Star Mage"

R. Wejksnora-Garrott
"A Saint"

P. Dong
"A Maestro"

S. Padnick
"A Stone Mage"

*****

Equips: Whips [2]

J. Morrow
"A Tormentor"

R. McKeown
"A Fiend"

*****