Enoch

You're contradicting yourself. First you argue that the Revolution was primarily about representation rather than taxes, and then you state that the current American government-- a product of representative democracy-- should be overthrown because of high taxes. If the main reason to overthrow an oppressive government is lack of representation, then modern Americans shouldn't be considering revolt. (And, by and large, they aren't.)

... not to mention 100,000 gold coins.

By the way, I am planning on buying a magic bag or two when I get back to town. They were a bit too expensive so far, but with the haul I'm bringing back from the orc caves, I'll probably have money to burn. Plus, because I did the 2 caves in direct succession, I'm hitting the weight limit for my characters, and I've had to ditch a fair amount of loot (e.g., lots of suits of studded leather +1).

Thanks, all. Unfortunately, my party is currently level 9, so I'll have to wait until we get to 12 for the next round of feat selection. I haven't used Qara since I met the gnome, though, so I think she'll be due for her level 9 feat when next I see her. Without spoiling me too badly, at about what level does Sand become a joinable NPC?

Actually, while we're on the subject of loot & crafting, I've got a couple of questions. Who should take the crafting feats? I'm still in ch. 1 (just killed Logram), and I've been avoiding them. But I've finally found a tome with weapon recipies, so I'm intruiged. Does the character with the crafting feat have to be the same one who casts the spell required for the item being made?

Seriously, what do you do with your money? When I hit Neverwinter I typically have something like 30000 GP at least. Spending 2000-3000 on a bag wouldn't even make a dent. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I do not recall, but it was nothing extravagant. Some better armor for the Dwarf is probably the priciest thing I bought in Highcliff (Banded +1, I think). I did take the diplomatic solution to early quests wherever I could (Bandits, Lizardfolk), which probably got me less loot. I was also saving a fair amount of equipment that under the theory that I might pick up a new companion who could use it. Were I on a repeat play-through knowing what to expect, I probably would have sold much more. Edit: I also recall spending a fair amount of cash at Sand's shop, picking up all the lvl 1-3 spells that my main character (Rog-Wiz) had missed.

jorian just noted that for him it were randomn... which meant that you might never find any that were other than store bought... and keep in mind we said MORE than 2x... were at least 2k. for much o' chapter 1 that is considerable. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I'll back that up. I'm just hacking my way through the second orc cave in chapter 1, and up until this point, it would've taken about half of my cash to buy a magic bag. I'll probably do so when I get back to the city, though. I'm finally reaching the limits of what Khelgar can carry. (I didn't make a sell-off run between the 2 orc caves.) Edit: And I only played for an hour or so yesterday, but the patch was working fine (once I turned down the camera scroll speed to a sane level).

War? Taxes? Social Security? Abortion? Crime? Sure, that's all good stuff, but when I go into the voting booth, the first issue on my mind is whether I can see blood, guts, and b00bies when I hook up my XBox.

What resolution? (I have the same card, but my processor is sub-spec, so I'm playing with everything turned down.)

The Bears' problems at QB are going to doom them in the playoffs. They'll get homefield (thanks to the patsies they share their division with), but they're not going to win 2 straight against playoff-caliber opponents. (And CHI fans calling for Griese should actually go back and look at the tapes of him playing. He ain't the answer.) And my Giants have beaten themselves again. They were the better team (despite both of their safeties sucking mightily) when they weren't shooting themselves in the foot with penalties, drops, poor clock management, etc. Really, injuries have decided the NFCE. The Eagles lost McNabb, which takes them out of the picture. The Giants lost their starting Left Tackle and their most reliable WR for the season, and scads of defensive players for a significant number of games. The Cowboys, on the other hand, have lost exactly 1 important player (Ellis), and have nobody else even listed on their injury report. Insanely good injury luck for this late in the season. (The Redskins just stink, which, as a Giants fan in northern VA, delights me to no end.)

Love that film. One of only 2 films where Fred MacMurray played against type and was not the wholesome "Disney dad." Which makes it one of only 2 Fred MacMurray films that are interesting to watch. (Not coincidentially, the other, The Apartment, is also directed by Billy Wilder.) Anyhow, I saw Stranger than Fiction this weekend. Worth seeing. Ferrell is very good in a mostly understated role (there's a tiny bit of his traditional wackiness, but it's all appropriate for the character). Emma Thompson is also excellent as a neurotic, chain-smoking, death-obsessed author (she also narrates). Some creative directing, too. I only wish that the film's main themes weren't quite so banal and overdone. (Live life to the fullest, yada, yada, yada.)

I'm just relieved that the secret formula for Tang has not been compromised.

In a third-person RPG with multiple party members, "claustrophobic" = huge pathfinding problems. I don't see how this is something to be encouraged.

I own that one, but haven't gotten to it yet. I think it's somewhere under this stack of clutter on my desk. I recently finished Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. A pulitzer-prize winning romantic novel about 2 cousins (one a Jew who escaped the Nazis in pre-war Prague, the other a native of Brooklyn) who make it big in the comic book business in the 1930's. I really liked it.

Thankfully, I am now too old to be drafted under the current selective service law. That said, education is a great way to ensure that you get a military position well outside the range of enemy fire. If drafted, I would go (refusal would probably ruin my career) and count on that to keep me safe. Then again, my current boss was a reservist in the Army JAG corps a few years back, and was called up and sent to Iraq to handle legal disputes with contractors. So nothing is guaranteed.

I'm just tipsy enough to agree with you on that. It would be helpful to know what type of business Mr. TEETH works at. Office? Retail? Construction? etc. (I doubt that it's the latter, since the clear answer to the boss' question in that case would be "everybody!") Plus, we can't have the thread close before we find out what happens to Derwood.

. That descending bass line through the refrain is just perfect.

Umm... Obsidian isn't in the business of "reporting." They're in the business of selling games. No company in the entertainment business links to negative reviews on their official site.

The frustrating thing to me is that the "attack nearest" broadcast command apparantly un-toggles puppet mode. I tried using that early on in the game to clean up a lone zombie, and Wham!-- my character chugged an invisibility potion, Neeshka threw an alchemy grenadelike, etc. If "attack nearest" simply ordered each character to attack the nearest enemy with the weapon they currently had equipped, without removing puppet mode, the game would go a lot faster for me.

I found it entertaining that one of the tags for the video was "drole." The video, on the other hand, seemed clever for the first 30 seconds. That's about it.

It should be one of the options in the menu you get from right-clicking on the party member.

We federal bureaucrat attorneys laugh at your pitiful attempt at an unholy profession. And I am drinking tea and searching for cases in the Principles of Federal Appropriations Law.

And this, kids, is why you never spend big money on a kicker. There was a statistical study published in the NY Times a few weeks ago showing that a kicker's past FG% had almost no predictive value regarding his future success. The difference between a big-name kicker and one you can pull off the waiver wire is negligible. And, the Giants are dying. :angry: Besides the injuries (6 defensive starters, plus the most reliable WR and the starting OLT), my scapegoat is QB coach Kevin Gilbride. His less-than-stellar past with QBs (*cough* Leaf *cough*) leads me to believe that he's behind Eli's regression over the last few months.

Best Bond theme ever = Thunderball, as sung by Tom Jones. Lyrics are idiotic, but the arrangement is good and Jones' performance is amazing.

I've been taking my time. Just started the "Protect the Informant" quest for the city watch. (Once I realized what a pain-in-the-arse that estate would be, I decided it was time for bed last night.) I'm getting very tired of fighting "Thugs." Wondering: How long a window do I have to do the sidequests? Most of the main-plot quests I've gotten since coming to the city have been of the "Do it Now!" variety, (at least in how they're explained to me. I'm sure that I could get meta-gamey and put them off for a long time, but I'm trying to avoid that as much as possible) so I've been ignoring the sidequests. So far, I have Elanee wanting me to go to Skymirror, and the quest to rescue the trapped priest of Tyr. (I know that Neeshka has a sidequest for me, too, but I don't like her very much.) Should I be worried that my opportunity to do these quests will run out if I keep doing main-plot quests?