Bugs! Bugs! Everywhere! Bugs!

[angharad_gam]

The X-Box version of Skyrim is a little bit buggy. Some of the bugs are somewhat amusing. In one place horses randomly fall from the sky.  In one quest Andy walked into a bandit camp where the bandits completely ignored him and went about their business while he fireballed their leader. Others are slightly more annoying, such as the tendency of things to randomly become invisible, and the quest I got stuck on where the dialogue option that would have asked the NPC with the key to open the door that could not be opened any other way, disappeared.

Quite aside from this I haven't been playing Skyrim as much lately. Partly I'm not finding it as engaging as Oblivion. I think perhaps too many of the quests are of a 'Find the Foozle' nature, which is just a little bit old. But partly there is just less time to play now the ratings season has started and there are a few more interesting things on the telly. The new Sherlock episodes have been awesome, and not just because of Benedict Cumberbatch in a sheet....

Comments

[reverancepavane.livejournal.com]

Nope. That was a tournament game I wrote, and this was someone elses game (where I got to play for a change). Fun game. Especially when Arioch gave us an all expense paid vacation in the Lower Hells (having a vendetta with one of the major gods of the campaign [and the DM's favourite in point of fact] makes life interesting. Unfortunately the vacation was cut short as we were kicked out of Hell for Good behaviour.

Hmmm. That was the game where I finally got to use "Flesh to Stone; Rock to Mud; Destroy Water; Gust of Wind." Sure, I could have just use Disintegrate, but that wasn't the point, or rather it didn't make the point emphatically enough.

But, yes, I was the one that made the warning sign, so it does show my particular sense sense of humour. Also cf Am Bushes, the Emperor's Daughter running away to become Queen of the Orcs, Gobbledok the Troll's Vegetarian Restaurant ("We Serve Elves"), and all the other bits that make my players groan in pain.

PS: If you can get your hands on them, try reading Dan Crawford's NImestl series, especially the second book Sure Death of a Mouse (and the first one To Rouse A Sleeping Cat) to make sense of the world). It comes fairly close to my campaigns, especially the Chaos Magician and His Floozy. One of my favourite quote was when the protagonist announced she was to she him, "suddenly non-cjalanace went out of style.")

Season this with a bit of Simon R Green's The Forest Kingdom series (especially the first book). Add an awful lot of Paul Kidd's Justicar series for the correct approach in playing Old School Dungeon Modules. And one mustn't forget W Mark Simmons Dreamland Chronicles (get the omnibus edition, it has the most excellent forward). [The elite Amazon unit are the Green Barettes; there is a nightmare name Beuntoyou; Smug the Dragon, etc.]

Add more than a touch of Chris Stasheff's The Warlock In Spite Of Himself, not to mention any of John Moore's fractured story tales. Include the dark sword and sorcery of Karl Edward Wagner's Kane and the light sword and sorcery of Gardner F Fox. Avoid the seriousness of Tolkein at all costs. And of course, once you start, carry on in the finest traditions of PTerry and build on what you have dome to make it your own.

It'ssimply not enough to crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women.

You have to beat them with style.

[reverancepavane.livejournal.com]

And Mary Gentle's Grunts of course.

[angharad-gam.livejournal.com]

I can never hear that phrase any more and not think of Conan the Musical...