Archive for March, 2010
2010 Ice Games Media Montage
And Finally a YouTube Video!
Ice Games Summary: “Easy to Learn, Hard to Master!”
Monster Minute: Ogres
Ogres in Real-World Mythology
In most classic works, an ogre is a large, cruel monster with hideous features. They are often described in fairy tales as humanoid monsters who feed on people. In art, they are seen as having a large head, draped in unkempt hair, and sporting a dirty beard. The images always show them looming over people ready to eat human and livestock alike.
The word ogre originates from France and hasn’t changed its meaning nor spelling since it was first written in a 12th century French poetry work called Perceval, the Story of the Grail. Literary scholars think that the word could have originated from Beowulf and the Old English word for orcs, orcnēas.
DDO Cocktail Hour Ep7 Yak’s Fault!
DDO Cocktail Hour, Episode 7, Its all Yak fault!!!! Warning: Very little educational conternt is contained within this show! If you are looking for hard-hitting news, please refer to the DDO Cast. Otherwise sit back, relax, grab a box (or crate) of wine and enjoy!Welcome to another zany episode of DDO Cocktail Hour! The show that focuses on the lighter side of gaming in Dungeons and Dragons Online- Eberron Unlimited! This week, Samius and Lessah welcome special guest: Yak! The bad boy of the DDO Podcasting network and the good boy of the MMO Smacktalk Network! Plus, the team talks about short term goals, DDO Bonus Points and MORE! Thanks so much for listening! 00:30 Intro: What are you drinking?04:32 Tweets: Save the Planet and Shopoholic!14:10 Confessions of an MTG nerd14:52 March Madness ddo Cocktail Hour Style16:26 Yak-Hazing (Samius teases the Yak) 19:00 Morah talks to Yak and autotunes21:38 Permadeathers True Reincarnate!24:15 Yak Therapy: Bowling for Gomosh30:50 Shroud Crafting Chat32:50 Lessah is keeping her shield 4-EV-RLeviks Defender & Leviks bracers (Lessah needs these!)36:05 Raid Loot talk38:55 Making the most of the your game night41:28 The Yak Attack43:09 Movie Talk49:00 Yak and Samius compare members.51:14 Random Twitter Question: Wizards and Mithral Chain52:54 Its All Yaks Fault!55:35 Can you teach a fat halfling new tricks?57:30 Lessah cuts the email58:26 Outro and toast
This post is syndicated from OurDDO Clean.
DDOcast 161
DDOcast is a weekly DDO podcast created by fans for fans! We discuss nearly everything related to Dungeons and Dragons Online – Eberron Unlimited.
Hi everyone! Episode 161 of DDOcast is now ready to go – here’s a LINK to the episode, just left-click to play, right-click and ‘save as’ to download as an mp3.
This week’s show is our live chat from PAX East! We’re joined by a whole bunch of Turbine’s DDO folks in addition to some DDO players like ourselves. We discuss the latest news from the show in addition to just about anything else on our mind. There’s also live calls! Thanks for listening. Clankenbeard wraps up the show with a report from PAX South!
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:00 Intro
3:00 Airships!
5:00 Half-Orcs, Wilderness Area, Facebook, Surveys for Points
7:00 Booth Chat
12:45 Turbine Point Uber-Sale
15:07 SVNGR Chat
19:08 Steiner’s tips
19:53 First Call
26:35 general “what ya been up to today”
28:00 Wil Weaton chat
33:45 more “what ya been up to”
41:00 Panel chat
43:37 Second Call-Lessah
46:30 Mod 11 Delay in Europe
47:06 The Escapist Voting, errata
1:05:25 Clankenbeard gets the last word – Clerical Errors #2
END
TOTAL TIME: 1:08:48
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LINK to the PAX East web site.
LINK to my PAX East DDOcast post featuring the news from Turbine at the show, including pics of a guild housing airship!
LINK to DNote’s post on the status of DDO-Europe and the delay for Mod 11.
LINK to the PAX East super-Turbine Point offer.
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Thanks everyone who called in and everyone who listened to us live on Friday!
Jerry
The New PAX East 2010 Greeting Protocol
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/3/26/
I wish they thought of this last year for PAX Prime 2009. Probably would have saved us from a Swine Flu break out.
Top 9 Things You Should Do @ PAX East 2010
#1 – Witness the Omegathon
Just like March madness but with video games and the occasional meat-space game. Winners get a cash prize of $2.5K and a trip to Gamescon.
#2 – Attend the Keynote with Will Wheaton
He’s the official Elected president of PAX Prime! All heed his words!
#3 – Rock out at the Geek Concerts
WTF! Who doesn’t love Jonathan Coulton!? Add on Paul & Storm, MC Frontalot, Protomen, and The Video Game Orchestra and that’s just like finding a amp with a nob that goes to 11 instead of 10!
Phat Loots: Curse that Cursespewing (Or How I Got my Swirly Party Hat!)
What is Cursepewing? Is it something my wife does when I’m late for dinner?
Well, here’s what it says when you examine a weapon with this property:
Cursespewing – Every time this weapon deals damage, the target must succeed on a Will save (DC 15) or be affected by a curse that confers a -4 morale penalty on attack rolls, saves, skill checks, and ability checks.
Cursespewing gives a weapon an enhancement equivalency of +3. Improved Cursespewing does the same thing, except it has a DC 20 Will Save and has an equivalent enhancement trait of +5. Sadly, since penalty types from this weapon are the same (a morale penalty), the negative effects don’t stack (they overlap), even with Improved Cursespewing. The only thing “improved” is the DC save.
More…
DDO Cocktail Hour Ep6 w/ Tolero
DDO Cocktail Hour, Episode 6, Pants are for losers! With Special Guest Tolero!This week DDO Cocktail Hour welcomes special guest, DDO Developer Tolero! Sit back, relax, and listen as our hosts engage Tolero in all kinds of mayhem! Thanks so much fo…
This post is syndicated from OurDDO Clean.
Monster Minute: Rust Monsters
Rust Monsters in D&D History
The Rust Monster was patterned after a small plastic toy found in a grab bag of toy monsters and dinosaurs sold in the 1970s & 1980s. As stated by Gary Gygax himself in Dragon Magazine #88, in an article entailed “Ecology of the Rust Monster”:
“When I picked up a bag of plastic monsters made in Hong Kong at the local dime store to add to the sand table array … there was the figurine that looked rather like a lobster with a propeller on its tail … nothing very fearsome came to mind … Then inspiration struck me. It was a rust monster.”
DDOcast 160
DDOcast is a weekly DDO podcast created by fans for fans! We discuss nearly everything related to Dungeons and Dragons Online – Eberron Unlimited.
Hi everyone! Episode 160 of DDOcast is now ready to go. Here’s a LINK to the episode – just left-click to play, right-click and ‘save as’ to download as an mp3.
This week features our first successful call-in live show! Big group joins me this week for the show – we talk about Update 4, the State of the Game Address and much more. Clankenbeard has a really funny “Clerical Errors” and I have an interview with Kudesnik about his new iPhone app – the DDO Library. Thanks so much for listening!
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DDOcast Episode 160 (3-20-10)
:15 Intro
4:25 Monday downtime
4:40 Update 4 on Lammania
6:15 First Call! More Upd 4 talk
14:44 Europe status – Mod 11
15:15 State of the Game Address
29:50 Second Call!
42:24 Half-Orcs, PrE’s, Cleric Domains and more
1:00:05 International plans
1:03:20 GDC talk
1:14:40 Clerical Errors #1!
1:19:25 Concordant Opposition
1:24:15 Hirelings and Raids
1:25:07 Third Call!
1:27:50 Pale Master talk
1:31:25 Interview with Kudesnik – DDO Library
1:55:30 Community Notes
2:07:10 PAX East talk
2:15:30 DDO Store
2:16:21 Fourth Call!
2:19:12 Fifth Call!
2:29:55 Emails
END
TOTAL TIME: 2:41:27
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LINK to the Update 4 Release Notes on Lammania.
LINK to a pic of the evil bunny hat! (Thanks Kudesnik.)
LINK to Fernando Paiz’ State of the Game Address (2010).
LINK to the Ten Ton Hammer.com article about Fernando Paiz at GDC.
LINK to Eladrin’s discussion on Concordant Opposition.
LINK to Eladrin’s post about the Pale Master Prestige Enhancement.
LINK to Kudesnik’s iPhone app – the DDO Library!
LINK to the latest update to the DDO Herald, another iPhone app.
LINK to the Massively.com article looking at the DDO community.
LINK to the Polycast Civilization podcast in which DDOcast’s Steiner-Davion guest starred!
LINK to Yak’s latest cast featuring guest Tolero!
LINK to the 5th episode of the DDO Cocktail Hour!
LINK to the DDOcast Forums, where we’ve got voting open for the Turbine DDO dev team March Madness tournament!
LINK to Clankenbeard’s comic on The Escapist!
LINK to The Escapist’s March Mayhem tournament, Turbine just won round one!
LINK to the latest Eberron Chronicle.
LINK to Monk’s Mobile Quest info at PAX East.
LINK to the thread about the Umber Hulks’ St. Patrick’s Day parade, now with screenshots.
LINK to Anne’s (Theris’) My.DDO.com post looking at seeker weapons and picks.
Jerry
What’s your Top 3 Favorite Static Raid Loot & Why?
Here’s a fun question, but really the fun part is WHY you like that loot item – from goofy answers, to power-gamer answers! I want to hear them all!
I’ll start first! I hope folks answer 🙂
Review: Greater Reincarnation
Actual Cost
Today I spent $49.99 on 5,000 Turbine Points to get enough Greater Heart of Woods to convert my 28 point characters to 32 point characters, in addition to fixing their ability scores, feats, and skills.
The exchange rate at that cost is about $1 US Dollar for every 100 Turbine Points. The cost of a Greater Heart of Wood is 1495 Turbine Points or $14.95. I ask myself was it worth it? I would say yes, because it saves me time. I can make far more than $15 in opportunity costs in the time that it would take me to loot one by grinding out quests.
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Phat Loots: Having Fun with Seekers & Picks!
What is Seeker? And why the heck would you use it with picks?
If you examine a seeker weapon, here is what you will see:
Seeker X – Provides a X enhancement bonus to confirm critical hits, and a X enhancement bonus to critical hit damage (before multipliers are applied).
This is a prefix weapon trait that ranges from 2 to 10 and has an enhancement level equivalence of half its Seeker value. Thus Seeker 2 is +1 equivalent and Seeker 10 is +5. Seeker weapons add their value to your critical confirmation rolls and also add that number to base weapon damage on crits – before the critical hit multiplier is applied. This seeker trait also applies to your main hand weapon if the offhand weapon has the Seeker trait.
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Monster Minute: Minotaurs
The Minotaur in Real-World Mythology
The Minotaur originates from Classical Greek Mythology and is first mentioned in Ovid’s Metamorphoses: King Minos prayed to Poseidon to send him a snow-white bull so that he could show his brothers and his people that he had the right to rule Crete. Instead of sacrificing the bull as he was told to do so by Poseiden, King Minos kept the bull because of its beauty. Poseidon punished Minos by causing his Queen, Pasiphaë, to fall madly in love with the Cretan Bull (different than the snow-white bull). From the union between Pasiphaë and the bull was born the Minotaur, a monster that was half man and half bull. Though Pasiphaë nursed him in his infancy, he grew and became ferocious. The Minotaur had no natural source of nourishment and thus devoured men for food. King Minos, to hide his shame, had the great Athenian architect, Dadalus, construct the Cretan Labyrinth in which to hide the monster.
The word Minotaur was originally a proper noun to reference this classic mythical creature. Modern genre fiction now uses minotaur as a common noun to refer to members of a generic race of bull-headed creatures. More…
Monster Minute: Beholders
History of the Beholder
Unlike most D&D monsters, the Beholder was created specifically for D&D by Terry Kuntz, brother of Rob Kuntz. Both Terry and Rob are game designers and long time associates of Gary Gygax. Terry invented the Beholder in 1970 while playing in Gary’s new game, the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Later Gary elaborated on the monster for publication. The Beholder’s first official debut was in a D&D campaign supplement called Greyhawk in 1975 and was even illustrated on the cover. In this incarnation, the Beholder was described as the “Eye Tyrant – a levitating globe with ten magical eye stalks.”
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DDOcast 159
DDOcast is a weekly DDO podcast created by fans for fans! We discuss nearly everything related to Dungeons and Dragons Online – Eberron Unlimited.
Hi everyone! Episode 159 of DDOcast is now ready to go. Here’s a LINK to the episode – just left-click to play, right-click and ‘save as’ todownload as an mp3. You can also find DDOcast on Cyberears.com,iTunes, the Zune Marketplace and many other podcast aggregators.
Thisweek’s show is a two hour live-streamed chat! Alex Haddox andRowanheal join me to talk DDO. Mical has a look at “The Caster Corner”and I chat with Walt from the new DDOSource.com. Callers, a chat roomand more! Thanks everyone who joined us live.
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DDOcast Episode 159 (3-13-10)
:15 Intro
4:00 The Caster Corner
9:45 Massively.com article – new class/race & Europe
15:53 Europe talk
20:00 Rowanheal uses the DDO Store!
21:45 First Call! (voice mail) – Ranged and Pale Master talk
33:27 Monks@PAX?
35:30 Connectivity
35:55 Escapist’s March Mayhem
37:50 Wizards have the cure
41:40 Ranged tip from Eladrin
43:00 Press chat, YouTube and more
47:50 Store chat
50:50 DDO Source interview
1:14:25 Auction House talk
1:30:38 Top Five Spells in DDO
1:42:55 Community Notes
1:47:10 Email – F2P talk
1:55:15 Second Voice Mail – Nat Gann
End
TOTAL TIME: 1:58:50
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LINK to DDOcast’s UStream channel.
LINK to DDOcast’s Snapvine voice mail system.
LINK to the Massively.com interview with Fernando Paiz.
LINK to the SVGNR web site about monks at PAX.
LINK to the Escapist’s March Mayhem tournament.
LINK to Household Hacker’s look at DDO on YouTube.
LINK to XPlay’s DDO mention in The MMO Report.
LINK to Beckett’s Massive Online Gamer 2009 Reader’s Choice Awards.
LINK to the transcript for the 11th edition of Ask the Devs.
LINK to DDOSource.com and thanks Walt for chatting with me!
LINK to HolyAlliance’s DDO Mythbusters YouTube channel.
LINK to Yak’s 16th Cast.
LINK to DDO Cocktail Hour Episode 4
LINK to the Sublime’s quest through The Dreaming Dark.
LINK to Robi 3.0’s F2P Game Guide.
Jerry
Monster Minute: Gargoyles
Gargoyles in the Real World
Gargoyles, the term originates from the French word gargouille which means “throat” or “gullet”. The word represents the sound that a gargoyle makes as it fulfills its original purpose as an ancient architectural invention: a water spout designed to pass water away from the side of a building. Ancient architects saw that water erodes the mortar between blocks of stone and devised a way of dividing the flow of water. As time passed, artists sculpted the water spouts into whimsical creatures or ugly human faces. Soon they also became non-functional ornamental figures to adorn homes and gardens. Some of the oldest gargoyles can be found on Egyptian buildings and Greek temples. The grand Temple of Zeus (built in 470-456 BC in Olympia, Greece) originally had 102 gargoyles or spouts. People of today consider the grotesque or chimera shaped statues on modern structures as gargoyles. The most famous 20th century gargoyles can be found on the Chrysler Building in New York City.
More…
Monster Minute: Kobolds
Kobolds in Real World Mythology
In real-world mythology, the Kobold or kolbolt is a sprite in German folklore. Belief in kobolds dates to at least the 13th century, when German peasants carved kobold effigies for their homes. They are said to be invisible or take the form of fire or mundane object. In some texts, they take the form of an animal or person. Though their favorite form is humoresque figures the size of children. Their environment often dictates their shape. For example, kobolds that live in mines or caves are ugly and hunched, while the ones who dwell in human homes often look like peasants. There is even a type of kobold that lives in the smoke pipes of steam powered sailing ships; they like to wear sailors clothing.
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Obligatory Into Post
So the first step in to do an introduction — the typical who, what, where, when, and why. I’ve been playing DDO on and off since Feb. 2006. I’ve officially logged over 1,800 hours of DDO according to my XFire profile.
DDOcast 158 – Ask the Devs #11
DDOcast is a weekly DDO podcast created by fans for fans! We discuss nearly everything related to Dungeons and Dragons Online – Eberron Unlimited.
Hi everyone! Episode 158 of DDOcast is now ready to go. Here’a a LINK to the episode – just left-click to play, right-click and ‘save as’ todownload as an mp3.
This week’s show features the 11thEdition of Ask the Devs, a listener-submitted Q-and-A session with someof the fine folks who make DDO! Rowanheal and Samius join me this weekfor an experimental test of a live streamed show as well. Babale talksarea of effect spells in “Surviving DDO!” Music provided by a chorusof warforged, courtesy of Envinyatar.
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DDOcast Episode 158 (3-5-10)
:30 Intro and music by Envinyatar
3:05 Ask the Devs 11
30:50 ATD post-chat w/group
35:18 Maintenance
35:33 Cedwin’s awesome work!
39:30 DDO Store stuff and Greater Reincarnation
47:00 Scavenger Hunt/Ice Games
49:20 Lawsuit update
52:30 Europe Update!
53:55 Mournlands update
55:11 Team Turbine
56:14 Surviving DDO – Area of Effect
1:03:10 Stacking Planner
1:03:50 Featured Player – Jaggie!
1:04:30 Cocktail Hour
1:05:55 Top five sources of drama while gaming in DDO
END
Total Time: 1:27:06
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LINK referenced in Ask the Devs chat re:support.
LINK to Cedwin’s MyDDOLite.
LINK to Server web site widget.
LINK to Sidebar server widget.
LINK to server RSS feed.
LINK to DDO Forums Search provider.
LINK to DDO Store Release Notes, reference for Greater Reincarnation.
LINK to new DDO Store items.
LINK to the latest filing in the Turbine vs. Atari lawsuit.
LINK to info on Team Turbine’s work to raise money in a walk for a local hunger cause.
LINK to Bruntash’s Stacking Planner.
LINK to the 5th Eberron Community Chronicle.
LINK to the latest Featured Player on My.DDO.com – Jaggie!
LINK to Episode 3 of the DDO Cocktail Hour.
LINK to the 15th Yak Cast.
Jerry