Natterings From Nepantla

When the resurrection of KeyForge was announced, I mentioned how its original publisher had described the deck-building algorithm as "broken" but the new one was saying "lost". Just for the heck of it, I asked through the new publisher's contact form what had really happened. I expected a reply that amounted to "no comment", but instead I got this:

Hi Petrea,

Thanks for your message!

This is a good question. I can tell you that the software was lost in its entirety (although the deck data remains intact), and that we are rebuilding it from scratch. However, how this happened is not our story to tell, so I would suggest that you ask this of Asmodee.

May Your Keys Always Turn,

Christian Petersen Strangest Star Ghost Galaxy

While I will keep wondering about the juicy details of what happened (there are some wild rumors out there, including a ransomware attack and the revenge of a laid-off programmer), that's a definitive official answer on the crucial point. The older decks have nothing wrong with them and so I would expect them to stay legal for KeyForge play for the forseeable future.

It is inevitable that as you get close to a convention, someone will wind up having to back out at the last moment. The Westercon gaming track has lost an RPG session because the GM won't be able to make it. That's okay, there's a backlog several ideas that didn't make it onto the schedule, so its replacement is a session where I see if anyone wants to learn to play KeyForge. Or maybe where I encounter someone who has, unlike me, kept in practice during the pandemic, and get soundly defeated.

The bigger loss is that the SO, who was going to split gaming room supervision duty with me, isn't going to make it. An item has been added to the "help wanted" page on the Westercon site looking for additional room hosts, but so far no luck. I'm currently figuring that I will just be spending most of the con there and closing the game library when I need a meal break. At least we know this ahead of time so I can be prepared.

It was dark when I got up even though I lazed around until after 7am. I can't wait for the end of daylight saving time.

Cat

A rather handsome if apprehensive fellow on the catio tour. No, I didn't take many pictures of actual catio features...

Fandom

I got my Orycon panel schedule. It consists of one panel, but it's one I've been pitching to almost every convention I've been a panelist at for over a decade, so I'm happy.

Gaming

Went to the Portland Retro Gaming Expo this weekend, which is a post all by itself. While there, played a lot of Mii Plaza and a couple chapters of Fire Emblem: Awakening.

I learned that The Crucible, the unofficial online KeyForge play forum, has updated itself to the current card set after all, so I've started playing a game or two a day there. It's a good way to practice not making stupid mistakes, but it's not going to replace the gaming store games. It doesn't have the camaraderie, or the benefit of just getting out of the house... and what it does have is rather a lot of people who will quit in the middle of games rather than lose.

Books and media

The final push to get the anime premieres over with crowded just about everything else out. Though I did finally remember to pre-order Salvation Lost.
( Politics )

I had to put my thermal on for the morning commute on Monday. In September! It's not supposed to get that cold this soon.

Cat

Another cat from the catio tour. I didn't really take many pictures of actual catio features.

Fandom

Any day now I should be getting my Orycon schedule. Their programming department usually gets schedules out a month before the con. If that sounds reasonable, about 2 weeks ahead is more typical of sf cons in my experience.

Gaming

Made real progress toward the Fame goal in Sunless Skies. I didn't expect to play it at all once the anime premieres got started, but they've been very evenly spread.

I had a very meh showing at this weekend's KeyForge event with a deck I wasn't very enthusiastic about anyway, so I decided to open one of the unopened ones I have lying around and got Iron "Updog" Jonas, who has some neat cards I haven't seen before.

Books and media

Before the Renaissance book, I forgot to mention I read Broken Stars, a collection of recent Chinese short fiction edited by Ken Liu. Since it's intended to provide a wide range, not everything is going to work for everyone. My favorites were one about philosophers trying to impress the first Qin emperor, and one that had a different take on the whole idea of alternate history. I can't really say why without massive spoilers.

No time to watch anything but anime this week. My current favorite premiere is the one that turned out to be a Harry Potter parody.

Politics

Not that politics haven't been very interesting in the English-speaking world lately, but you're probably all up to date on whichever parts of it matter to you.

Fall is here! (Meteorologically speaking, anyway.) On the one hand, this means colder weather. On the other hand, it means the return of the crossing guard in that intersection by the school where people regularly stop in the crosswalk when there isn't anyone controlling traffic.

Cat

I wanted to get a picture of Monty and Phosphor to demonstrate how huge Phosphor is. Instead of holding still to serve as a scale reference, Monty did this. I tried to get a picture of Marlene instead, but she suspected I was up to something and ran off.

Fandom

Now that the anime columns are being posted about separately and I haven't heard back from DisCon III, there's not much to talk about here. There's a project I could talk about, but it needs its own post to explain why the current challenge is trying to find a way to get along with Angular 2.

Gaming

Eggsy is now down to four chains, and I have accepted that getting it up to six chains playing against very good players who were bringing decks with no handicap at all was enough of an accomplishment. Next time I bring one of the ones that I unsealed in May and haven't played since.

Made good progress in Sunless Skies, exploring a new Realm and then finding an interesting way to die. Must remember to do that ritual differently with the next captain.

Books and media

Having made it to the end of The Wealth of Nations, I am celebrating by, uh, reading more British nonfiction. Grease Junkie by Edd China (or a ghostwriter, for all I know) is a belated birthday present from the SO. It details Mr. China's many adventures in building odd mechanical things, ranging from the world's fastest couch to the time he decided to try converting a bus into an apartment. Lots of useful technical details with a occasional asides like "there were only a few minor fires".

Politics

Nothing worth linking to this week.

After a spate of cool weather last week, it's back to summer. Kinda. It's been warm, but also very gray and gloomy.

Cat

Monty is a grabby little cat even when he's trying to sleep.

Fandom

Anime commentary happened. The Ones Within is never going to make it to the level of the other two shows but I can sure count on it to keep things weird every week.

Hugo voting statistics have been released (PDF) and, as usual, nothing I nominated even turned up on the extended lists. I'm very happy to see Into the Spider-Verse (which I didn't nominate because I didn't get a chance to see it until a few weeks ago) picking up another award, though.

Gaming

Despite what I said last week about the crashes, I decided to try Sunless Skies one more time, and it didn't crash. And then another, and it didn't crash then, and so forth, and now it's been a week of playing it almost every day and just an occasional stutter. I'm loving it now.

Eggsy got two wins and one agonizingly close loss in this week's tournament, for two more chains. One more result like this, and it'll reach power level 2, at which point I'll take it out of FLGS play for now.

Books and media

After another chunk of Adam Smith, started on Teckla. I'm enjoying the organization of the book as a list of explanations for the stains that need removal and damage that needs repairing in the narrator's business clothing.

BEM is finally back and has certainly erased all trace of whatever parallels episode 4 had with the KyoAni tragedy.
( Politics )

It's user conference time at work, commencing with optional excursions today. I volunteered to help "host" one (which means helping keep track of everyone, taking some pictures for the end-of-conference slideshow, and otherwise just enjoying the tour) going to the Oregon coast. It was all very nice and picturesque but various delays meant we got back over an hour later than planned and I wound up having dinner at 7:30.

Meanwhile, what passes for excitement in my neighborhood is that our street got paved this week.

Cat

Mouse, one of the resident cats of Camp 18.

Fandom

The official sendoff and setting of the anime lineup included obligatory thoughts about KyoAni. The death toll is up to 35 people as of yesterday.

Books and media

Made some headway in The Wealth of Nations.

Gaming

Eggsy is now up to 4 chains but that's partly because there was a small field and two newbies this week.

Made it through several chapters of Fire Emblem Awakening. "Hard" mode is... feeling not that hard. Though that's partly because it needs a lot less level grinding outside of combat.

The second of the two play-by-post games I started simultaneously finally finished. No more until the online convention in August.

( Politics )

Summer weather is back, I've survived the biggest crunch time of the year at work, things are looking up. I wonder what I'm forgetting.

Cat

This is Monty (originally Shiitake, for those who read about him on Facebook). Now just over a year old, he's another ex-feral, but you'd never know it from the way he's developed into an absolute love bug.

Fandom

The weekly anime commentary happened. FIFTY-EIGHT EPISODES.

The summer anime preview got written, and should be up soon. I'll have 14 premieres to watch if they all get licensed.

Spikecon finally posted its schedule. I don't have to moderate anything. Disappointed to not see any moderators reaching out before the con. I always send out a quick "here's some questions to think about, and is there anything you want to make sure to get a chance to say?" message to panelists beforehand when I'm moderating.

Books and media

Still have a second reading project to blog about. Now that work crunch is over, might actually get myself to do that.

Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse made it to Netflix, so we watched it last night. WOW. Absolutely would not mind if that won the Hugo.

It's a good thing I only had two anime shows left to watch this week, because I have many closing thoughts about Attack on Titan. And about the incredibly misleading buzz that was circulating about this part of the story, and anime fandom and its ability to grapple with sf generally. Okay, some of those thoughts should not be put into print.

Gaming

Sezan did not do so well this week, so next time I promised to bring my Time Traveller deck.

I thought I'd try practicing with it ahead of time, so I tried out The Crucible, which allows online casual play. Unfortunately it turns out not to have the cards from the expansion implemented.

But there was a GitHub repository mentioned on its help page, meaning it's an open-source project that people can just show up and help with. No, turns out there's no code there, it's just used for issue tracking. A little later, I learned that development has stopped because Fantasy Flight Games is working on its own official online play offering. No one knows when it's going to be released, though.

Maybe I can find someone up for a casual game at Spikecon.

( Politics )

Last night, the friendly local gaming store held a tournament to celebrate the new KeyForge release, Age of Ascension. This introduces a bunch of new cards, and a few new mechanics, but all decks are supposed to be compatible and balanced with the original release.

It was a three-round sealed-deck tournament, so we got a new deck every round with five minutes to look it over before playing.

The deck-naming AI is still producing quirky results that never quite hit the mark.



On the other hand, flavor text is significantly improved. Much of the text in the first set looks like it was written by an intern ten minutes before a deadline. Now, though...



(Mars First: "'Mars second, third, and fourth, too, if you ask me.' -Ulyq Megamouth")

(Eureka!: "15 years, 40 million UX credits, and a 3% improvement on the real duck.")

This, though, is everyone's new favorite card. Who cares if you can only play one card if it's a really good one? And it's a common, so this will be popping up a lot.



Much fun was had by all. Of the three decks I got, the first (Sezan) feels like it has the ability to demolish pretty much anyone that gets in its way. The second (Loudfighter) was full of good anti-creature cards, but unfortunately my opponent had almost no creatures. The third (Vegas) got me a win due to a couple of lucky draws of just the right combination of cards.

Somehow this placed me third, for which the prize was... one more deck, thus upsetting my carefully laid plan of buying a four-deck-sized box a couple weeks ago, since now I have five. Argh.

Next week it's back to Chainbound tournaments every other Saturday, so I think I'll bring Sezan and see if it really bulldozes everyone the way it looks like it can.

First, the hotel: The current home of Game Storm is the Red Lion Jantzen Beach, aka The Other Hotel to people who recall Orycon's old home across the way. Unlike its late lamented twin which a definite main floor with most of the meeting rooms, the current hotel puts the ones in the wings a level below the lobby. That plus the much more linear layout makes for a fair amount of walking and stair-climbing for able-bodied members and probably a lot of frustration for disabled ones. (There are elevators, but some distance from the lobby, and the lowest level isn't contiguous throughout the hotel.)

Other than that, though, a comfortable and welcoming hotel worthy of the Red Lion name.

PFS #10-01: Oathbreakers Die - I was going to sign up for this in a play-by-post convention because it seemed like a good one to bring my investigator character to, but then I saw there were already two investigators signed up for it. Anyway, it did turn out to be a good one for her, as it does, in fact, feature a murder early on.

Roll Player - Yes, someone has built an entire game around rolling up a new character. I'd played this before in two-player form, and was figuring it would be better with more than two-- and it is. One of the people I played against this time had prior experience with it, and one did not. Guess who wiped the floor with his opponents? Yup, the newbie.

Fun, would play again, but I can't see my way to spending $60 for it.

PFS #10-08: What Prestige Is Worth - Forever to be known as The One Where You Literally Go To Hell. If visiting Hell doesn't sound like a bad enough idea, how about visiting Hell with a party of seven character where three are part-angel? And all three belong to the religious order of one of the biggest do-gooder gods in the PFS setting? And they will most assuredly not be able to engage in random evil-smiting, because Hell is the realm of lawful evil. It's basically the Lawyer Dimension. The scenario made excellent use of this aspect (says the person who brought a wizard instead).

KeyForge - aka Richard Garfield's apology for Magic: the Gathering. You buy one deck, and you play with exactly that deck. No boosters, no card trading, no expiring after two years. I love this idea. I did fairly well with mine (2 wins, 1 tie in the tournament) and will be looking for more opportunities to play.

The biggest problem with KeyForge at the moment is that even the $40 deluxe starter set doesn't include a physical copy of the rules. They're available online, but the lack of something that can be easily flipped through at the table has led to a lot of secondhand learning of the game wrong.

March of the Ants plus upcoming expansion - A quick resource-management/exploration game that would have been more fun with a better teacher. Particularly one who emphasized the duration of the game and the actual end goal. It's been said that game designers tend to be terrible at teaching their own games.

Solo Una Noche - Then again, some game designers do okay. This one showed up in a luchador mask and cape to go with the theme of the game. Quick and simple, with an advantage for players willing to be unselfconscious in a crowded room.

Designer: Normally, the player with the best announcer voice goes first, but we can just--

Me: I'M READY TO RUMBLLLLLLE

Designer: --okay, you've got it.

The SO and I played this in melee format with another couple, who spent most of the game attacking each other.

Game Storm escape room - You are trapped in a lab which has been ransacked, with unstable experiments about to go critical! Can you uncover the hidden clues in time to keep the whole place from blowing up?

Terrific work here by whoever put this together. There was a wide variety of physical and intellectual puzzles that kept our entire team of five busy. Highly recommended if Game Storm runs it again. Or if they come up with a new one.

Channel A Manga Edition (print-and-play) - I ran this. It went fine. The 100-lb cardstock from FedEx Office works beautifully. Really want to get the new Alpha Genesis edition when it becomes available (currently scheduled for May or so).

Dice Throne: Season One - An arena battle where up to six characters with their own set of dice, cards, and powers fight it out. It was fun for the round-plus-a-turn that I survived. Unfortunately, I managed to look dangerous enough that other players decided I needed to die first. Would love to play again against less suspicious opponents.

Elevenses - Even simpler and quicker than advertised thanks to playing it with only two people and being about a round behind my opponent in working out the best strategy. Eh.

PFS #10-11: The Hao Jin Hierophant - The Pathfinders get to do anthropology! And also some fighting of evil horrors. Can't go in to detail about what I liked here without spoilers.

PFS #10-13: Fragments of Antiquity - The Pathfinders get to do library science! And also some fighting of evil horrors. The scenario author is a right bastard but it was fun anyway.