Rick Tyger

My precise numbering of the following games shuffles, so I'm just going to post them as a non-numbered list. Skyrim. Yeah, there are some bugs and glitches, but it's very much a spriritual successor to the old Legend of Zelda, in terms of "there's a story, but the game's really about exploration and fighting badguys". This is one of those "the developers tried to think of everything" games. They put in so much stuff that the Xbox 360 can't properly handle it if you install the game to the hard drive, instead of playing it from the disc. Plus, I'm a big fan of werewolves and quite a hater of vampires and zombies. I have the Legendary edition and It's quite satisfying for me to be a werewolf Dawngaurd member. It's also quite nice being able to learn to forge your own equipment and improve most any sort of armor or weapon, and to be able to learn and apply enchantments to them. So many RPGs make you tied down to what you can find or buy in the stores. I find this "take some raw materials and make your own stuff" or "let's improve a Daedric Artifact weapon/armor" to be quite rewarding. The only things that would really make this game better: A spell like "dead thrall" that works on animals and a means of actually becoming a dragon. Prototype 2. This game really satisfies the Thing Fan in me. I didn't like how Alex Mercer was such a jerk in the fist game. I rather like James Heller's personality a lot better. Plus, most of the powers have been upgraded and a few news ones have been added. For added bonus: You get to kill Alex Mercer. Prey. This game is cool on so many levels. First, our main characters are Cherokee. Second, you get to kick ass with a variety of bio-weapons (my favorite is the Hunter's Rifle). Thirdly, this may not be a The Thing game, but a lot of its creatures and whatnot sure seems like they were inspired by it. And finally, the whole "There is not defined direction in space" aspect, that lets you explore walls, ceilings, and floors without ever being sure just which way is supposed to be up. Raptor: Call of the Shadows. And old Apogee DOS game. It's one of those top-down scrolling shooter games, where you amass money and weapons. Not really much more to it than moving around shooting stuff. But the music rocks and it's a great way to kill some time. The original Doom and Doom 2. Still just as much fun as they were back when they came out. And if you feel like mixing it up a bit, you can load them through the D!Zone program, if you have it. Origional Legend of Zelda: This is just a fun old game. It even has a fan-site where they make all sorts of goofy PC variants and have stuff like game editors for you to make your own or edit the ones that aren't password protected. A Link To The Past: The true successor to the original. I really like how the dark and light world interact. Zelda: Twilight Princess. This is the true successor to A Link To The Past. Midna and Wolf Link rock. Plus, bomb arrows are a thing! And again, the light and dark worlds that somewhat interact is a nice touch. Link really gets a level in badass, too, with stuff like finisher moves. My only real gripe is that the world is too small and the game itself is too short. The Smash Bros games. Brawl is my current favorite (I don't have a Wii U but when I get one, I'll be getting the Smash bros for it, too). These are just plain fun, either in single-player or with one of more friends. Kirby has long been a favorite character of mine, due to his copy ability (sound like anything else I'm a fan of?). This has made him a good choice of fighter for the games. In Melee, I added Bowser to my lineup of characters I'm good at fighting as. In Brawl, that list has been revamped to include Wolf, Snake, ROB, and Sonic. I look forward to seeing how it evolves when I can afford the next generation. The Boderlands Games. Good ol' fashion action/comedy/sci-fi. I pity the person who had to program the RNGs for this game. They're very good at ensuring that every time you reset an area, you'll be surprised by what sort of loot you'll get. I picked up the boxed set and have yet to complete all of the games. But they're rather addicting even when just level grinding and item farming. Rage. This is what happens when you have the makers of Doom make a Mad Max world. If that sounds awesome, it's because it is. There's even a BFG ammo for one of the weapons, which I've never had the money to risk testing on lesser badguys, and haven't ran into a boss since obtaining them yet. Resident Evil 4. This is another game that really satisfies the Thing Fan in me. I'm not a big fan of "survival shooters" but this game is good enough to overcome that shortcoming, provided one has an Action Replay to avoid running out of ammo until they can get ahold of a Chicago Typewriter and Infinite Launcher. Though, I do hate the liberal use of "quicktime events". Deady Creatures. While I'm not a fan of spiders, I have to admit that the one in this game is alright. But what really makes the game worthwhile for me is the scorpion. He's a lot more fun to play as, for me. The game makes you switch characters between chapter points, since each of the arachnids will overhear different parts of the humans' narrative at the appropriate times in the game. I've come to think of the spider as Jackie Chan (more nimble fighter who doesn't do so much direct brawling) and the scorpion as Chuck Norris (beats the hell out of the opposition more directly).

Always nice to meet someone new. I hope you have a good time, here.

Ok... So... My Training Room Registration Desk got moved and now I no longer have the clearance to view it. This also blocks it from content searches. A: I have no idea where it is, now. B: clicking on the link from the post update thingy along the right of the forums gives me this message: Sorry, there is a problem You do not have permission to view this content. Error code: 2F173/H

Because I forgot to take out the DVD after it's done playing, I'm listening to the Voltron theme over and over and over and over and over again. At least it's a good tune, though.

Huh... And here I thought it was a misspelling of "Bananarama"... Anyhow, belated welcome.

As an RPer and GM, I'm quite pleased to see so many people interested in RPGs. Most of my RPGs are origional works, based on dreams I've had. As such, I tend to welcome any sort of characters. OCs are great, as they aren't tied down to someone else's ideas of how they should be. They're your own ideas and often work better with any curve-balls I may throw your way, and may even throw some curve balls back at the GM (I think this is great for creative purposes). I do also allow fanfic characters and even characters from whatever source you're comfortable playing with, so long as I can nerf their powers if they're deemed to be over-powered. Look for an RPG Ideas topic soon after I make this post.

I never owned a Sega system, because they were too expensive for my folks to consider worthwhile. I didn't even know anyone who wasn't in the same situation. So, the games really have no bearing on my early Sonic experience. SatAM was my real introduction to Sonic. As such, it's my gold standard. I was 13 when SatAM came out. Too old my folks thought for cartoons. And my brother was only 2 at the time, too young for a show that wasn't "Barney"... I got my occasional dosage of SatAM from hanging out with my second best friend on the weekends. He has some younger brothers and a sister who were prime cartoon age. So, my best friend and I would go over there to get our cartoon fix on saturdays. After SatAM, we were all made to go outside to play. Since we lived out in the country, it was easy to imagine that we were Freedom Fighters and were defending Knothole. One time, we mixed it up a bit and took on the rolls of action heroes helping the younger kids (naturally, I got the Chuck Norris character from the Missing In Action movies: James Braddock). Another time, we included my friend's older brother in the action to work it up so that the Freedom Fighters had hired the A-Team (I was Murdock). Many of my memories of SatAM were fuzzy over the years, until I found out about the boxed set's release, and got to speak with the people involved on the old FUS boards. While many people gravitated to Sally and Bunny as the "hot Sonic babe" roll, I've always held Lupe in that respect. Maybe because of the NA connection, or simply because she's a wolf and I've always liked wolves. My proper introduction to the Sonic games didn't come until they released the Sonic Gems and Sonic Mega Collection for the Gamecube. Then, I could see what everyone was really excited about all those years ago. They're fun games, still. I now have the Sonic collection for the Xbox 360 (rescued from the bargain bin at Wal-Mart), so I don't have to dust off the Gamecube as often. I really haven't kept up with the more modern games or the other cartoons. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Sonic was to be included in Smash Bros Brawl and have actually gotten rather good with using him in that game. I really just don't have the money to go out and buy games and whatnot. And I don't have the internet connection to handle videos. So, this status stagnation is likely to persist until such time as I come into some sort of financial windfall or something.

I have a secondary therapist that i see bi-weekly who does some traveling on her vacation time. Recently, she went to New Mexico and had a lot of fun out there. So, I'm thinking of adding that region to my travel list. It would be nice to experience this "dry heat" that people talk about as being better than the "damp heat" of southeastern Kansas. I think perhaps just take a week to go and be a tourist.

Good t'see ya here. This site just keeps getting more awesome by the day.

There are some esoteric aspecsts of Skyrim that for one reason or another, you won't find much (if any) reference to online. Here's one of my personal findings: If you shield-bash a Dead Thrall 4 times in a row, they will turn hostile, but won't be flagged as an enemy. This means that you can wait while they're attacking you, so long as they aren't doing elemental damage or bleeding damage (don't equip them with an axe). Thus, it's possible to grind your defensive skill levels effectively, while ensuring that you won't die in the process. This is best done on the novice game difficulty, to ensure that the thrall (or thralls if you have the Twin Souls perk and choose to get both to attack you) doesn't just kill you with a power-attack. If you're using an Argonian, you can wait for a full 24 hours and re-use Histskin to further minimize the chance of death. Otherwise, you simply need to wait an hour after taking some damage. When you've had enough of this, either kill the thralls, or use a different summoning spell to revoke their unlife. The latter option is preferred, if you want to use them again, since you can still decapitate them with your attacks. Ever wonder how to get the most experience out of your destruction spells and thus avoid too much grinding with them? Set the skill difficulty to "adept". The destruction magic is a bit odd, in that it requires unmodified damage to be maximized for minimal magic cost. This is optimized in the "adept" setting, as the "novice" and "apprentice" settings boost your spell damage, actually making it take longer to raise the skill level. Want to maximize alteration and restoration skills at the same time? Go through the Mages' Collage quest until you get to Labyrinthia and obtain the "equilibrium" spell. Then, equip equilibrium to one hand and healing to the other. Press and lock both triggers down (I've found a pair of safety pins will do the trick, if placed properly). Then, you just have to wait while the spells feed off of eachother and proceed to level up both skills at the same time. This is only doable properly on the Novice setting, since higher settings will make equilibrium consume more health, and healing to heal less per magic cost. Money for nothing! Not just a good song with an awesome tune. You'll want to stop by Halted Stream Camp as soon as you can in the game. On your way there, you'll find a leveled sword at the southern end of stream that leads to the camp. Just look for the skeleton arm sticking up out of the water. If your level is high enough, you'll get a free ebony or daedric sword. The key to doing that is to beat the crap out of the soldier you followed into the Keep, before sneaking past or killing the bear (backtrack to a previous room after you're given the bow and they'll follow you. Attack them there. They won't fight back. [bonus trick: attack them as soon as they get up after falling to their knees and you can restore their health instead of waiting for it to regenerate {super extra bonus: if this causes them to stop taking damage, just talk to them until they respond, then attack them again}]) and get up to around level 80 or 100 before leaving the cave. This will take a lot of time, but will make your character way more badass and thus able to survive much better, unless you waste level points on stamina (don't do that). Anyhow... After you get your free sword, simply follow the stream north to the camp. Kill the mooks guarding it (beware of the sorcerer. There's always a sorcerer there), enter the mine, kill the mooks inside, and snag the Transmute spellbook (use it). Then, pick up a pick axe and mine ALL of the iron ore veins. Then, step outside and start casting Transmute. It will first transform iron ore into silver ore, and then silver ore into gold ore. Once you've got all your iron turned into gold, go to a Smelter (closest one is in Whiterun) , and convert your gold ores into gold ingots. Then, head over to a forge and forge the ingots into rings (or if you have the option, into valuable jeweled rings or jeweled amulets). Don't bother making golden amulets. You want the golden rings. They'll net you more money and making them jacks up your smithing skill faster (smithing anything expensive makes the skill progress faster, proportional to the net value of the items smithed/improved). From there, go and sell your rings to a general goods store, or a mage. If you want to maximize your speech skill, sell everything that you sell individually (no bulk selling at all). It will take forever to clear your inventory, but you'll be able to unlock better haggling prices, and the Alure (better prices from the opposite gender) and Merchant (sell any non-stolen item to anyone who buys/sells anything). One final trick in this whole thing: If your merchant runs out of money, save the game, then attack them, then reload the saved game. This will reset the merchant's inventory and gold. Just remember to save each time before attacking and to load right after attacking. Otherwise, you'll wind up with a dead merchant on your hands and bounty on your head.

That sounds rather cool. Maybe also something with Lupe and the Wolf Pack's holographic projector, or the wall of hieroglyphics or something?

Australia. It's been a fascination of mine ever since early childhood. Preferably, taking a week or 2 to just casually enjoy the country. And since we're dealing with fantasy stuff, why not add in the part where I bring back a hot Australian gal? That would be my absolute dream vacation. After that, Florida. It's my ancestral land and I would like to see it at least once. Preferably, I'd have time to really visit the ancestral grounds and learn from those Muskogee who still live in there. Go check out the mounds my ancestors built. Stuff like that. Ideally, bring back a jar of soil from there, for the whole "medicine" thing (the mystical connection to people/animals/places/objects; not pharmaceuticals). Thirdly: Hawaii. It just seems like such a great place to visit, if you've got the time and money. I think I could have a good time, there. This is my "party vacation" option. And finally, Antarctica. This is just to satisfy the Thing fan in me. I wouldn't want to stay there long. Just maybe long enough to get an ice sample in a vial.

Yay! Someone who could possibly be another GM for RP stuff! I sometimes like to step away from the GM roll and just be an RPer. I can't say for certain if we've run into eachother before, but welcome to the site. I hope you have a good time, here.

I've recently gotten back into Skyrim. As such, I've been tuning out external music for the most part the past couple of days, so I can enjoy the in-game music.

The only things that people really need to know about Godzilla stuff: Godzilla doesn't breathe fire. He breathes radiation. Gigan rocks. This doesn't show up so much in the movies, as it does in the games. Destroy All Monsters will give you new respect for this weird whatever the heck it's supposed to be. What's not to love about grabbing an opponent and spinning them on the buzzsaw protruding from your gut?! Best videogame fighter move ever! Plus, it's one of those few weird monsters that you can't tell what it's supposed to be, unlike Mothera, Rodan, and even Megalon. Even on the Outpost 31 site (a fan site dedicated primarily to John Carpenter's The Thing, for those who don't know), Godzilla is considered to be an absolute badass. In "Godzilla vs The Thing", the Things are unable to assimilate Godzilla, due to his radioactive nature. It goes against the general principle of The Thing fanfiction (everything is Thing prey), but nobody really questions it because it actually makes sense in a weird way. I dare say the only badass more badass than Godzilla would have to be Chuck Norris. But I doubt such a fight would be outright decisive...

So... I clicked on the Crazespiricy Zone section and received the following error message:

I don't have any of the above mentioned account types, due to being on dial-up. But, if there any Kingdom Of Loathing players here, you can find me under the name VladYvhuce or player number 1798867. I have a long-time item trading partner who is the leader of a clan and is quite a nice individual. As such, we could make arrangements for clan white-listing and dungeon access. KOL has an in-game chat function, as well as the "kmail" and item trade functions, for a variety of player interaction. The clan dungeons are actually intended to be cleared by multiplayer use, though a single individual with too much time on their hands can do so, if they wish. I can also be of help in farming up some good items for friendly players. Since I've been playing KOL for so long, I've accumulated most of the stuff I really need, and anything more tends to be stuff that I'll just sell in the mall. And yes, some of these items are things that will make various quests a lot easier for you. Personally, I'd rather see these items go to people who will use them, rather than someone who's just buying at my low price to mark up and resell. I currently have 175 different familiars, and many of those also produce item drops (some unlock content, while others are food or spleen items [these increase your adventure count]). I won't be giving out my 5 nightly turkey boozes (booze also increases adventure count, but over-drinking makes it so you can't adventure properly until the next game roll-over), as I use those myself. But I do farm up a lot more spleen items and foodstuffs and non-turkey boozes than I will ever use. So, I can hook you up with a bunch of those, as well. Chances are that if it's not a Mr Store, Discontinued, Ultra-Rare, or otherwise generally unobtainable item, I can get it for you for free. Depending on the item drop rarity of what you want, I may be able to farm up a whole bunch of what you want. I don't know much about the PvP fighting system, as I've never used it, so I may not be able to be any help in that particular aspect of the game.

If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion for amendment to the time constraints: 2 days may not be workable for a lot of RPers (and some GMs). I'd suggest maybe a full week, to accommodate people's schedules and unforeseen difficulties better. I've found that rushing people too much leads to confusion and bad RPing. I know that things happen in life that will prevent people from being able to post, or even from being online for a few days. But, such things rarely take a full week to resolve, thus giving some leeway and not unduly punishing someone who may have gone through a hardship.

I have a habit of having my regular TV turned on for something to listen to while I'm gaming and/or at the computer. Tonight, I've decided to revisit an old favorite and put Dominion Tank Police in the DVD player.

And I'm preceded by another of my loyal RPers. Good to know you're here, VHS!

*A SWAT Bot approaches. Its torso suddenly explodes. A second later, the echo of a gunshot is heard from the horizon. An old black pickup truck pulls up and a 5'3" tall thylacine-like creature steps out, and kicks the metallic corpse.* Greetings. I'm the writer/RPer/GM formerly named Vlad Yvhv. I've decided to take on the name of my other alter-ego: Rick Tyger, in the spirit of coming to this site for a new beginning. Vlad is still lurking around in the back of my mind, but I think you guys will enjoy this persona better. Vlad has become too much of the cynical and jaded individual. Rick is more of an 80's style action hero. I'm honored to have received the invitation to join this community. While I may not always leave everyone smiling, I'll try to at least go for an amused smirk. I do quite apologize ahead of time if I happen to step on someone's toes. I don't get out much, and I'm not very PC. I'll do my best not to intentionally cause any problems. Since I can't read minds, it would help greatly if one were to bring any such missteps to my attention, so I can work on avoiding doing so again.