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Happy Fallout-Ween!
Oct. 31st, 2021 11:17 pmYes, I ended up having a rather nice Halloween, all things considered! The weather FINALLY cleared up today -- mid-60s and sunny for most of it. I'd almost forgotten what sunshine LOOKED like after last week's absolutely miserable rain and gloom. . . I wore my costume all day, which was nice and comfortable, we found a good way to stop the Pip-Boy slipping around on my arm by using a bit of bubble wrap, I got a mask to wear for passing out candy -- and we ended up seeing a LOT of kids! More than in previous years, in fact! Started out slow, but by 6:30 PM, we were getting some big groups. Dad thinks it's because so few people did Halloween last year (we sure as heck didn't), so a lot of people were making up for lost time. We finally shut down around 8:15 PM, after one last big group nearly wiped out our candy supply. Still had a few leftovers though, which I've partially eaten. XD Have one of every kind I like still left, though, which I may eat one by one over the next week. :p
Also, have some pictures in clickable thumbnail form! Our pumpkins this year (including Vault Boy lit up) and my costume, in case you were curious:
:) So yeah, good times this Halloween! And I even made good on my to-do list:
1. Work some more on "Worst Lot In The World"OR something "Fallout of Darkness"-related: Check on the first – added in “you can put in laundry and/or vacuuming if you have those kits” as “optional hard mode” rules in my ruleset, and came up with challenges that I felt were appropriate for removing the “Grody and “Creepy Crawlies” challenges. Also think I am going to allow “Quake Zone” to be removed after you solve the StrangerVille Mystery, as the idea of the quakes being caused by the Mother’s roving roots just appeals to me too much. I’m still stuck on “Filthy” and “Volcanic Activity,” though. . .and I’m unsure if “Dark Ley Line” should involve two generations as I currently have it (parent needs to complete “Successful Lineage” or “Super Parent” with a vampire child, while the vampire kid needs to eventually complete “Good Vampire”), or if I should just go with “have a vampire child, complete “Super Parent” and max out Vampire Lore skill.” Hmmm. Will continue to think about it!
2. Watch the OXBox/OXtra stuff in my Watch Later, keep up on YouTube Subs, and watch Jon's FO4 YOLO episode: Check, though I did actually substitute in a freshly-uploaded OXBox video for the list video I was going to watch in my WL. The new video was more Halloween-themed, though, so I’m cool with that. XD As it stands –
A) Started with some board-game-related goodness from my OXBox and OXtra parasocial peeps:
I. OXtra’s “Show of the Weekend,” featuring Andy, Mike, and the board game “Ghost Castle!” Where you must escape the wrath of Count Spooksalot. XD It’s a ‘Mouse Trap”-esque game – you control a team of two paranormal investigators, and you must navigate them out of the attic and through the four rooms of the castle (lab, library, portrait gallery, entrance hall) to the exit. Every time you end your turn in a “red zone,” however, or roll a ghost on the die, you must press the ghost of Count Spooksalot, who is loaded with a ball that can trigger four traps randomly – go down the stairs, through a tunnel in the library, swing open a portrait, or send an axe down on the wobbly ramp. Whoever gets knocked over by these traps has to go back to the closest “blue zone” – generally the beginning of the room. Though it might be worth triggering the portrait trap, because if you’re on the right spot in the library, you can use the opened portrait as a shortcut into the gallery! Whoever gets both their team out first wins, with whoever gets left behind losing. Ellen played a pair of adventurers (Grandpa Indiana Jones and his Ghostbusting granddaughter); Mike played a pair of meddling kids (iCarly and Mike Jr (so named because he had one of Mike’s trademark hoodies and his curly hair); and Andy played a couple of over-the-top drama queens (a guy with an eyeball staff and Madame Spooks the fortune teller). There were many tricks and traps and sneaky sneaky moves, but eventually Mike won by getting iCarly and Mike Jr out first. Ellen managed to follow by having Grandpa Indiana Jones take the long way out before having Granddaughter brave the wobbly floor – Andy just managed to get Eyeball Staff out, but Madame Spooks was felled by the axe before she could escape! Too bad, Andy! But everybody clearly had a lot of fun, and that was sweet. :)
II. OXBox’s sponsored Halloween treat – Jane, Mike, and Andy playing Resident Evil: The Board Game! Which is apparently on Kickstarter as of today – huh. Anyway, despite being a “board” game, there’s no board – you in fact build the mansion with various map cards as your characters (Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, though you are given the opportunity to play as Barry and Rebecca if you like) explore and open doors, and play is done in three phases – “Action,” where your character may move around, attack zombies (with results depending on both dice rolls and what weapon cards they have – and guns have ammo counters that you have to keep track of!), or search for items; “Reaction,” where the game master moves the zombies around and has them attack you (you can try to evade with the evasion dice, but it’s not a sure thing); and “Tension,” where you draw a card from the special “tension” deck, which can be an all-clear, or some awful thing to happen on the next person’s turn. The goal? Defeat the Hunter in the main hall, get the sword key for the front door, and get out of there! At least, that’s the goal in this little demo kit that the OXBoxers received. Mike served as game master while Jane and Andy played Chris and Jill respectively, carefully working their way around the mansion. Both of them got a little gnawed on, despite generally good evasion – they were both on “Caution” on their health-track-meter cards by the end. Also, Jane kept drawing cards that spawned new encounters as they went around (to Andy’s annoyance), and both of them proved to be hilariously inept with their knives. XD But they both survived, Chris getting the sword key while Jill took down the Hunter in the main hall – and then, thanks to Jill being the “master of unlocking,” she was able to unlock the front door and get them both out alive (as she’s allowed to open any door as long as SOMEONE has the key in their inventory). Honestly, the hardest part was the tension card that said “if anyone talks on the next person’s turn, more zombies are spawned,” meaning both Jane and Andy had to be silent while Chris Redfield proceeded down a corridor (Jane skirting the rules by making some “hmm” sounds, but Mike didn’t penalize her for it). Looks fun if you’re into those multi-phase “build your own board” games (like – crap, I forget the name, but it’s based on H.P. Lovecraft’s stuff), so maybe go search the Kickstarter if you’re into it!
B) Then it was over to Call Me Kevin for a Halloween treat – him annoying all his friends (but in particular Daithi, Dan/RTGame, and Kiwo) in Mario Party Superstar! Yes, the latest iteration of the Mario Party franchise is out now, and as of today, it includes Kevin as Troll Daisy! Mainly in the form of hoarding “Chomp Calls” to use Chain Chomps to move the Super Star over Toadette whenever anyone gets near it. XD And deliberately fucking up minigames whenever he could, notably by dragging his friends into logs when he was in the boat on a waterskiing game. XD There was QUITE a lot of yelling from Daithi, as is per usual whenever he plays with this group of Lads. XD And hilariously, despite being in last place for most of the game, he actually managed to play well enough near the end to slip into second, with RTGame (as Rosalina) taking first, Daithi (as Luigi) third, and Kiwo (as Donkey Kong) fourth. Fun times, even if it makes me glad I’ve never played a multiplayer game with Kevin!
C) Then, after trick-or-treaters and supper and shower and all that, it was time for GrayStillPlays and Voodoo Doll: The Reckoning. More fun voodoo doll mobile game action for Halloween! It was the usual – coworkers arguing amongst themselves while you’re trying to give a presentation? Forcibly make them all mute! Boyfriend arguing with you over the phone? Make it so you can literally punch him through the screen! Boss deriding your performance? Make him electrocute himself with his computer! Boyfriend cheating on you yet again? MAKE THE OTHER WOMAN RIP HIS CHEST OPEN WITH HER TEETH. It actually got to the point where the game began looping back on itself, with Gray able to choose a few different options for early-game levels (like making the elevator-cutting lady get decapitated instead of losing her legs). I mean, if the girl with all these dolls is stuck in a time loop, it might explain her bad attitude and casual disregard for other people. . .at any rate, always nice to see Gray come back to such a weird and wacky game!
D) And finally, we had our usual Fallout 4 YOLO episode from Jon! A short one today, which actually works out for me, given that Halloween stuff always takes up a good chunk of my evening during years where I’m actually giving out candy. Today, having decided that he’ll cross the Preston bridge when he comes to it (aka he’ll figure out whether or not he can still Minuteman his way through the ending when the next major mission comes up), Jon sent Finalley into the General Atomics Factory (after some mutant shooting and some careful jetpacking across the water) to start clearing out the Automatron main quest! The poor guy was pretty certain that he was going to get hit simply because the factory is pretty damn crowded with robots, but an early pop of a Stealth Boy got him over to the bathrooms for some cover right away, and then he was able to slowly and carefully take out each robot in the first couple of rooms. There was a close call with a Legendary Quantum bot as he tried to get into the third room, but Jon was able to crit it and take it out, then kill the first robobrain in its little prison via grenades through a hole in the floor above. Got in, got the radar beacon, got a few more rads to bring up Finalley’s damage, left behind an Irradiated Institute pistol on the Legendary, teleported back home to talk to Ada and discover where the game was going to randomly spawn the next robobrain (as the second one is a randomized location, unlike the first and third which are fixed).
The game spawned the damn thing at Chaos Junction – aka RIGHT DOWN THE ROAD FROM JON’S BASE AT HANGMAN’S ALLEY. Jon was – surprised, to say the least. XD He decided that the best solution to THIS mess was an artillery strike, and he was right – after some lovely shots from the people at Oberland Station and Hangman’s Alley, the robobrain and their companions were all very, very dead. Jon collected the radar beacon, brought it to Ada, then prepped for the penultimate dungeon, which is the Fort Hagen Satellite Array, home of the Rust Devils! So now we have raiders AND robots – a delightful combination! Is anyone surprised Jon chose to take a Fat Man and a couple of mini-nukes for his journey? And, indeed, Finalley ended up having reason to use it even before she reached the base – along the way, she discovered a rather large Rust Devil gang walking along the road, going straight to where she was – and after a few attempts to keep ahead of them and figure out what the hell was going on as she drew closer to her destination, she decided to nuke the lot once she got the whole group in her sights. So that’s one less group of raiders and robots to worry about. But ooh, she’s got the gang headquarters to worry about now. . .or, rather, next week, as Jon decided to do a cliffhanger. XD To be fair, Automatron was one of the DLCs really terrifying him just BECAUSE of the random robot death squads (and having fought Rust Devils plenty in my first FO4 game, I know what shitheads they are), so giving himself something of a break by keeping the episode short is his prerogative. :p Still, we’ll see if he can pull off the win next week!
3. Play some more Fallout 4, get Victor out of Vault 111: Check – did exactly that today. Went through the Vault, read all the terminals (because a) I like doing that and b) it would be in-character for Victor), fought the radroaches, got chewed up by the radroaches (seriously, the only person worse at fighting them than me is Call Me Kevin on a pacifist run), collected the gun and 10mm pistols and whatever other goodies I could find, then got the Pip-Boy, opened up the elevator, and returned to the surface! And made sure I had some saves right before and right after exiting Vault 111, because next time?
We start reactivating mods that are NOT the Unofficial Patch. *grimace* We’ll see how that goes. . .ugh, why is adding in stuff like apple trees, new recipes, and some new encounters such a terrifying prospect with this game? I just don’t know if I can take it crashing the moment I try to enter Concord again. . .
4. Work on tumblr queues: Check, though only for Valice Multiverse – four ask replies in the queue for tomorrow, w000. Better than nothing!
And holy shit, I didn't realize it had gotten that late O.o Time to wrap up and hit the sheets! Night all! Hope you all had a nice Halloween!
Also, have some pictures in clickable thumbnail form! Our pumpkins this year (including Vault Boy lit up) and my costume, in case you were curious:
:) So yeah, good times this Halloween! And I even made good on my to-do list:
1. Work some more on "Worst Lot In The World"
2. Watch the OXBox/OXtra stuff in my Watch Later, keep up on YouTube Subs, and watch Jon's FO4 YOLO episode: Check, though I did actually substitute in a freshly-uploaded OXBox video for the list video I was going to watch in my WL. The new video was more Halloween-themed, though, so I’m cool with that. XD As it stands –
A) Started with some board-game-related goodness from my OXBox and OXtra parasocial peeps:
I. OXtra’s “Show of the Weekend,” featuring Andy, Mike, and the board game “Ghost Castle!” Where you must escape the wrath of Count Spooksalot. XD It’s a ‘Mouse Trap”-esque game – you control a team of two paranormal investigators, and you must navigate them out of the attic and through the four rooms of the castle (lab, library, portrait gallery, entrance hall) to the exit. Every time you end your turn in a “red zone,” however, or roll a ghost on the die, you must press the ghost of Count Spooksalot, who is loaded with a ball that can trigger four traps randomly – go down the stairs, through a tunnel in the library, swing open a portrait, or send an axe down on the wobbly ramp. Whoever gets knocked over by these traps has to go back to the closest “blue zone” – generally the beginning of the room. Though it might be worth triggering the portrait trap, because if you’re on the right spot in the library, you can use the opened portrait as a shortcut into the gallery! Whoever gets both their team out first wins, with whoever gets left behind losing. Ellen played a pair of adventurers (Grandpa Indiana Jones and his Ghostbusting granddaughter); Mike played a pair of meddling kids (iCarly and Mike Jr (so named because he had one of Mike’s trademark hoodies and his curly hair); and Andy played a couple of over-the-top drama queens (a guy with an eyeball staff and Madame Spooks the fortune teller). There were many tricks and traps and sneaky sneaky moves, but eventually Mike won by getting iCarly and Mike Jr out first. Ellen managed to follow by having Grandpa Indiana Jones take the long way out before having Granddaughter brave the wobbly floor – Andy just managed to get Eyeball Staff out, but Madame Spooks was felled by the axe before she could escape! Too bad, Andy! But everybody clearly had a lot of fun, and that was sweet. :)
II. OXBox’s sponsored Halloween treat – Jane, Mike, and Andy playing Resident Evil: The Board Game! Which is apparently on Kickstarter as of today – huh. Anyway, despite being a “board” game, there’s no board – you in fact build the mansion with various map cards as your characters (Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, though you are given the opportunity to play as Barry and Rebecca if you like) explore and open doors, and play is done in three phases – “Action,” where your character may move around, attack zombies (with results depending on both dice rolls and what weapon cards they have – and guns have ammo counters that you have to keep track of!), or search for items; “Reaction,” where the game master moves the zombies around and has them attack you (you can try to evade with the evasion dice, but it’s not a sure thing); and “Tension,” where you draw a card from the special “tension” deck, which can be an all-clear, or some awful thing to happen on the next person’s turn. The goal? Defeat the Hunter in the main hall, get the sword key for the front door, and get out of there! At least, that’s the goal in this little demo kit that the OXBoxers received. Mike served as game master while Jane and Andy played Chris and Jill respectively, carefully working their way around the mansion. Both of them got a little gnawed on, despite generally good evasion – they were both on “Caution” on their health-track-meter cards by the end. Also, Jane kept drawing cards that spawned new encounters as they went around (to Andy’s annoyance), and both of them proved to be hilariously inept with their knives. XD But they both survived, Chris getting the sword key while Jill took down the Hunter in the main hall – and then, thanks to Jill being the “master of unlocking,” she was able to unlock the front door and get them both out alive (as she’s allowed to open any door as long as SOMEONE has the key in their inventory). Honestly, the hardest part was the tension card that said “if anyone talks on the next person’s turn, more zombies are spawned,” meaning both Jane and Andy had to be silent while Chris Redfield proceeded down a corridor (Jane skirting the rules by making some “hmm” sounds, but Mike didn’t penalize her for it). Looks fun if you’re into those multi-phase “build your own board” games (like – crap, I forget the name, but it’s based on H.P. Lovecraft’s stuff), so maybe go search the Kickstarter if you’re into it!
B) Then it was over to Call Me Kevin for a Halloween treat – him annoying all his friends (but in particular Daithi, Dan/RTGame, and Kiwo) in Mario Party Superstar! Yes, the latest iteration of the Mario Party franchise is out now, and as of today, it includes Kevin as Troll Daisy! Mainly in the form of hoarding “Chomp Calls” to use Chain Chomps to move the Super Star over Toadette whenever anyone gets near it. XD And deliberately fucking up minigames whenever he could, notably by dragging his friends into logs when he was in the boat on a waterskiing game. XD There was QUITE a lot of yelling from Daithi, as is per usual whenever he plays with this group of Lads. XD And hilariously, despite being in last place for most of the game, he actually managed to play well enough near the end to slip into second, with RTGame (as Rosalina) taking first, Daithi (as Luigi) third, and Kiwo (as Donkey Kong) fourth. Fun times, even if it makes me glad I’ve never played a multiplayer game with Kevin!
C) Then, after trick-or-treaters and supper and shower and all that, it was time for GrayStillPlays and Voodoo Doll: The Reckoning. More fun voodoo doll mobile game action for Halloween! It was the usual – coworkers arguing amongst themselves while you’re trying to give a presentation? Forcibly make them all mute! Boyfriend arguing with you over the phone? Make it so you can literally punch him through the screen! Boss deriding your performance? Make him electrocute himself with his computer! Boyfriend cheating on you yet again? MAKE THE OTHER WOMAN RIP HIS CHEST OPEN WITH HER TEETH. It actually got to the point where the game began looping back on itself, with Gray able to choose a few different options for early-game levels (like making the elevator-cutting lady get decapitated instead of losing her legs). I mean, if the girl with all these dolls is stuck in a time loop, it might explain her bad attitude and casual disregard for other people. . .at any rate, always nice to see Gray come back to such a weird and wacky game!
D) And finally, we had our usual Fallout 4 YOLO episode from Jon! A short one today, which actually works out for me, given that Halloween stuff always takes up a good chunk of my evening during years where I’m actually giving out candy. Today, having decided that he’ll cross the Preston bridge when he comes to it (aka he’ll figure out whether or not he can still Minuteman his way through the ending when the next major mission comes up), Jon sent Finalley into the General Atomics Factory (after some mutant shooting and some careful jetpacking across the water) to start clearing out the Automatron main quest! The poor guy was pretty certain that he was going to get hit simply because the factory is pretty damn crowded with robots, but an early pop of a Stealth Boy got him over to the bathrooms for some cover right away, and then he was able to slowly and carefully take out each robot in the first couple of rooms. There was a close call with a Legendary Quantum bot as he tried to get into the third room, but Jon was able to crit it and take it out, then kill the first robobrain in its little prison via grenades through a hole in the floor above. Got in, got the radar beacon, got a few more rads to bring up Finalley’s damage, left behind an Irradiated Institute pistol on the Legendary, teleported back home to talk to Ada and discover where the game was going to randomly spawn the next robobrain (as the second one is a randomized location, unlike the first and third which are fixed).
The game spawned the damn thing at Chaos Junction – aka RIGHT DOWN THE ROAD FROM JON’S BASE AT HANGMAN’S ALLEY. Jon was – surprised, to say the least. XD He decided that the best solution to THIS mess was an artillery strike, and he was right – after some lovely shots from the people at Oberland Station and Hangman’s Alley, the robobrain and their companions were all very, very dead. Jon collected the radar beacon, brought it to Ada, then prepped for the penultimate dungeon, which is the Fort Hagen Satellite Array, home of the Rust Devils! So now we have raiders AND robots – a delightful combination! Is anyone surprised Jon chose to take a Fat Man and a couple of mini-nukes for his journey? And, indeed, Finalley ended up having reason to use it even before she reached the base – along the way, she discovered a rather large Rust Devil gang walking along the road, going straight to where she was – and after a few attempts to keep ahead of them and figure out what the hell was going on as she drew closer to her destination, she decided to nuke the lot once she got the whole group in her sights. So that’s one less group of raiders and robots to worry about. But ooh, she’s got the gang headquarters to worry about now. . .or, rather, next week, as Jon decided to do a cliffhanger. XD To be fair, Automatron was one of the DLCs really terrifying him just BECAUSE of the random robot death squads (and having fought Rust Devils plenty in my first FO4 game, I know what shitheads they are), so giving himself something of a break by keeping the episode short is his prerogative. :p Still, we’ll see if he can pull off the win next week!
3. Play some more Fallout 4, get Victor out of Vault 111: Check – did exactly that today. Went through the Vault, read all the terminals (because a) I like doing that and b) it would be in-character for Victor), fought the radroaches, got chewed up by the radroaches (seriously, the only person worse at fighting them than me is Call Me Kevin on a pacifist run), collected the gun and 10mm pistols and whatever other goodies I could find, then got the Pip-Boy, opened up the elevator, and returned to the surface! And made sure I had some saves right before and right after exiting Vault 111, because next time?
We start reactivating mods that are NOT the Unofficial Patch. *grimace* We’ll see how that goes. . .ugh, why is adding in stuff like apple trees, new recipes, and some new encounters such a terrifying prospect with this game? I just don’t know if I can take it crashing the moment I try to enter Concord again. . .
4. Work on tumblr queues: Check, though only for Valice Multiverse – four ask replies in the queue for tomorrow, w000. Better than nothing!
And holy shit, I didn't realize it had gotten that late O.o Time to wrap up and hit the sheets! Night all! Hope you all had a nice Halloween!
