276
Forum Games / Re: mafia thing
« on: October 03, 2014, 10:41:27 PM »
I suspect it's more that Mafia is a hard sell these days. The glory days are gone.
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277
Tournaments / The Royal Canadian Rando Tourney Round 2-B
« on: October 02, 2014, 10:33:54 PM »
Round 2-B
Event 41: Forming a Superhero League
Sometimes, the threats facing the world are more than a single hero can handle, no matter how heroic they might be. After all, while Superman is great at smashing things, he can't pull off the sneaky like Batman can. Which brings us to the job at hand for this event, both of our contestants have to put together a superhero team capable of stopping mega-threats.
Gadget Hackwrench comes into this with a bit of an advantage. Sure, none of them are really superheros as such, but the Rescue Rangers are a fully formed team off the bat, and they can probably get a good start with Disney's actual superheros, Gizmoduck and Darkwing Duck. After that, Chip and Dale are actually pretty good at finding things out, and Gadget is great at building stuff that'd be useful at getting the word out. Which is good, because she's got tough competition in Spider-Man. Sure, the guy isn't part of any teams himself, but the guy is a pretty legit superhero by himself, and he's good with people. He's also been part of teams such as the Avengers and hung out with the X-Men and depending on version even worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. once or twice, which means he's got connections in a world that sees team ups on a pretty regular basis.
Event 42: Raiding the Great Maple Syrup Reserve
Gold. Oil. Maple Syrup. What is the one thing that all three of these items have in common? They are considered so valuable that nations hold on to strategic reserves of them. Well, in the case of maple syrup, it's more like nation, singular. And while plots to capture gold reserves or oil reserves are old hat, we're going north in order to raid the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Reserve! First our competitors will have to make their way through the mysterious and exotic land of Quebec in order to reach the reserve, then they must make they way past the crack Mountie guard before making their way back to the border with as much of the liquid gold as they can carry. Or, just make it at all. Of course, if both contestants get caught, then the winner will be the one who can talk themselves into the lesser sentance.
With our first contestant, we have Twitch Raids Canada as a humble prayer is offered up to Lord Helix. How well will this infiltration work with basically everything happening randomly? Probably not well. But on the other hand, they also probably won't get far enough to get a heavy sentance if they get caught either. And if this is pulled off, it will be the biggest triumph of crowdsourced gaming yet. Against this we have a lone speaker of the truthiness. An eagle eyed reported, willing to brave Soviet Canuckistan in the name of Bald Eagles, Apple Pie, and the Maple Syrup Produces of the State of Vermont who are the innocent victims of the sinister Canadian Reserve. Stephen Colbert takes to the field in order to stop this conspiracy once and for all.
Event 43: Excelling at Sports That Don't Even Exist Yet
Anyone can excel at a sport. Only the best can excel at sports that don't even exist yet. As this event really speaks for itself, I'll jump straight to the contestants.
You know who can excel at sports that don't exist yet? Time Travellers. Stocke can use his time travelling ability in order to learn sports that don't exist yet, then go back in time in order to play them. How can one possibly fight against that? Well, by being one of the braver and more ridiculous Monty Python characters. Sir Lancelotte the Brave is no stranger to strange things, and he'll be game to do just about anything.
Event 44: Cat Bathing
Barring some kind of feline abberation, cats take poorly to being bathed. Really, incredibly, poorly. In fact, the only people who tend to deal worse with baths than cats are the people who attempt to bathe them. So, this fine contest presents two sucke... er, contestants with the job of giving a cat a bath without harming it or otherwise incapacitating it.
Our first contestant is one of the few people who might actually be able to get a cat to calm down enough to take a bath without bloodshed. Mr. Rodgers is known for being able to get congress to shell out cash with calm words and a gentle demeanour, so how much harder can it be to calm a bathing cat? Against this we have Samus, who was raised by bird people which probably isn't going to help. On the other hand, she has nice thick futuristic armour, so hey, she's not gonna get hurt.
Event 45: Manliness Contest
It's hard to define exactly what manliness is, but much like the Supreme Courts definition of porn, who know it when you see it. In this event, two contestants are going to be giving us their best take on manliness and the winner takes all.
Our first contestant comes into this with the advantage of actually being a man. Of course, for most of us, being a man doesn't really mean you're manlier than anyone else. I mean, just consider Rydia against Edward, where the former has to literally slap some sense into the latter, as a child. But Rand Al'Thor does a bunch of manly things like conquoring nations, leading armies, and doing reckless stunts because he can't possibly get horrifically injured by them, right? He also does some of the more positive stuff too. I mean, he's no Perrin, but not everyone can be strapping blacksmiths whose muscles probably have smaller muscles. Against this, we have Vin, who... actually is pretty similar to Rand what with the whole badass fighter with powers beyond most who faces threats both mundane and divine. This should be a pretty good match.
Event 46: Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse
It's a really common tale at this point. Somehow, doesn't really matter how, zombies show up and their growth rate is too fast for anyone to cope. Society breaks down, and only ragtag groups of survivors are left. There may be an acceptable end where a group can actually survive and thrive, or it may only be a question of how long you last before the last fading light of civilization falls. Regardless, here the goal is simple, live the longest. If both contestants live, then whoever prospers the most. And living can be accomplished by personal skill at survival, or even just being good at finding and getting accepted in with a skilled group of survivors.
Our first contestant can shoot energy beams from his hands and routinely beats up people who can destroy cars with their bare hands. Yup, Akuma is probably not going to be taken down by zombies while he's awake. And he's crap at playing nice with others, so he's not gonna have someone to watch his back. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure he's some kind of demon, so who knows if he even needs to sleep. Against him we have Lucille Ball, who is, uh... not going to be so good at dealing with things herself. But if she can find others, she will be infinitely better at getting help from them than Akuma would be.
Event 47: Duel Arcane
Any peasant can fight with a weapon. Heck, there's a lot of fighting styles that exist mostly because they use peasant tools in order to kill since they couldn't use anything more lethal. This is the more refined duel arcane, where only the mystical and the magical need apply. It doesn't matter how you use it so long as it can apply under the moniker of arcane.
First up is someone with no magical power whatsoever. However, Mirror B is known for his use of pokemon, and pokemon do pack a pretty mystical punch. This means that he'll be limited to special attacks only, but that should be good enough. Against this, we've got our Red Shirt squad, reporting for duty. They've got a major advantage if you accept that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, at which point they might well be able to claim their phasers. On the other hand, if you don't allow tech, then even phaserless red shirts are, surprisingly, not without recourse as the various Enterprises run into lots of unexplained phenomenon, lots of it deadly. To Redshirts. But if our Red Shirt brigade can have some survivors of their attempt to harness the power of the MacGuffins, and can turn it onto Mirror B, then they may well pull out the win.
Event 48: Winning a War
We've dealt with raising armies, but now we're dealing with how to not only use the armies, but using the resources to keep them running. Yup, it's for us to have a war, with things like several objectives to aim for and lines of supply. Whoever can either render the other side unable to fight or convince them to surrender first.
Mog comes into this without any knowledge of country sized matters, but he does have skill in small unit combat as his first appearance shows. Aside from that, he probably won't be super good at this. But, he will be sane, which will be a step up over his opponent, Queen Zeal. But, Queen Zeal makes up for her insanity with three notable strengths. First, she is legit royalty and wasn't always crazy, so she probably knows what you need to run a war properly. Second, her kingdom flies, making it very hard to invade unless you can fly too. Third, she is crazy, yes, but that craziness also means she won't surrender, period. Of course, if you press her enough she probably will call upon the power of Lavos which will ruin everyone, but will ruin the folks with the flying kingdom more, so that's a kind of Phyrric win condition.
Quick Vote Form
Event 41: Forming a Superhero League
Gadget Hackwrench (Chip n' Dale: Rescue Rangers) vs. Spider-Man (Spider Man)
Event 42: Raiding the Great Maple Syrup Reserve
Lord Helix (TPP) vs. Stephen Colbert (Stephen Colbert)
Event 43: Excelling at Sports That Don't Even Exist Yet
Stocke (Radiant Historia) vs. Sir Lancelotte the Brave (MP&tHG)
Event 44: Cat Bathing
Mr. Rogers (Mr. Roger's Neighbourhood) vs. Samus
Event 45: Manliness Contest
Rand Al'Thor (Wheel of Time) vs. Vin Venture (Mistborn)
Event 46: Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse
Akuma (Street Fighter) vs. Lucille Ball (I Love Lucy)
Event 47: Duel Arcane
Mirror B (Pokemon) vs. Red Shirts (Star Trek)
Event 48: Winning a War
Mog (FF6) vs. Queen Zeal (CT)
Event 41: Forming a Superhero League
Sometimes, the threats facing the world are more than a single hero can handle, no matter how heroic they might be. After all, while Superman is great at smashing things, he can't pull off the sneaky like Batman can. Which brings us to the job at hand for this event, both of our contestants have to put together a superhero team capable of stopping mega-threats.
Gadget Hackwrench comes into this with a bit of an advantage. Sure, none of them are really superheros as such, but the Rescue Rangers are a fully formed team off the bat, and they can probably get a good start with Disney's actual superheros, Gizmoduck and Darkwing Duck. After that, Chip and Dale are actually pretty good at finding things out, and Gadget is great at building stuff that'd be useful at getting the word out. Which is good, because she's got tough competition in Spider-Man. Sure, the guy isn't part of any teams himself, but the guy is a pretty legit superhero by himself, and he's good with people. He's also been part of teams such as the Avengers and hung out with the X-Men and depending on version even worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. once or twice, which means he's got connections in a world that sees team ups on a pretty regular basis.
Event 42: Raiding the Great Maple Syrup Reserve
Gold. Oil. Maple Syrup. What is the one thing that all three of these items have in common? They are considered so valuable that nations hold on to strategic reserves of them. Well, in the case of maple syrup, it's more like nation, singular. And while plots to capture gold reserves or oil reserves are old hat, we're going north in order to raid the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Reserve! First our competitors will have to make their way through the mysterious and exotic land of Quebec in order to reach the reserve, then they must make they way past the crack Mountie guard before making their way back to the border with as much of the liquid gold as they can carry. Or, just make it at all. Of course, if both contestants get caught, then the winner will be the one who can talk themselves into the lesser sentance.
With our first contestant, we have Twitch Raids Canada as a humble prayer is offered up to Lord Helix. How well will this infiltration work with basically everything happening randomly? Probably not well. But on the other hand, they also probably won't get far enough to get a heavy sentance if they get caught either. And if this is pulled off, it will be the biggest triumph of crowdsourced gaming yet. Against this we have a lone speaker of the truthiness. An eagle eyed reported, willing to brave Soviet Canuckistan in the name of Bald Eagles, Apple Pie, and the Maple Syrup Produces of the State of Vermont who are the innocent victims of the sinister Canadian Reserve. Stephen Colbert takes to the field in order to stop this conspiracy once and for all.
Event 43: Excelling at Sports That Don't Even Exist Yet
Anyone can excel at a sport. Only the best can excel at sports that don't even exist yet. As this event really speaks for itself, I'll jump straight to the contestants.
You know who can excel at sports that don't exist yet? Time Travellers. Stocke can use his time travelling ability in order to learn sports that don't exist yet, then go back in time in order to play them. How can one possibly fight against that? Well, by being one of the braver and more ridiculous Monty Python characters. Sir Lancelotte the Brave is no stranger to strange things, and he'll be game to do just about anything.
Event 44: Cat Bathing
Barring some kind of feline abberation, cats take poorly to being bathed. Really, incredibly, poorly. In fact, the only people who tend to deal worse with baths than cats are the people who attempt to bathe them. So, this fine contest presents two sucke... er, contestants with the job of giving a cat a bath without harming it or otherwise incapacitating it.
Our first contestant is one of the few people who might actually be able to get a cat to calm down enough to take a bath without bloodshed. Mr. Rodgers is known for being able to get congress to shell out cash with calm words and a gentle demeanour, so how much harder can it be to calm a bathing cat? Against this we have Samus, who was raised by bird people which probably isn't going to help. On the other hand, she has nice thick futuristic armour, so hey, she's not gonna get hurt.
Event 45: Manliness Contest
It's hard to define exactly what manliness is, but much like the Supreme Courts definition of porn, who know it when you see it. In this event, two contestants are going to be giving us their best take on manliness and the winner takes all.
Our first contestant comes into this with the advantage of actually being a man. Of course, for most of us, being a man doesn't really mean you're manlier than anyone else. I mean, just consider Rydia against Edward, where the former has to literally slap some sense into the latter, as a child. But Rand Al'Thor does a bunch of manly things like conquoring nations, leading armies, and doing reckless stunts because he can't possibly get horrifically injured by them, right? He also does some of the more positive stuff too. I mean, he's no Perrin, but not everyone can be strapping blacksmiths whose muscles probably have smaller muscles. Against this, we have Vin, who... actually is pretty similar to Rand what with the whole badass fighter with powers beyond most who faces threats both mundane and divine. This should be a pretty good match.
Event 46: Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse
It's a really common tale at this point. Somehow, doesn't really matter how, zombies show up and their growth rate is too fast for anyone to cope. Society breaks down, and only ragtag groups of survivors are left. There may be an acceptable end where a group can actually survive and thrive, or it may only be a question of how long you last before the last fading light of civilization falls. Regardless, here the goal is simple, live the longest. If both contestants live, then whoever prospers the most. And living can be accomplished by personal skill at survival, or even just being good at finding and getting accepted in with a skilled group of survivors.
Our first contestant can shoot energy beams from his hands and routinely beats up people who can destroy cars with their bare hands. Yup, Akuma is probably not going to be taken down by zombies while he's awake. And he's crap at playing nice with others, so he's not gonna have someone to watch his back. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure he's some kind of demon, so who knows if he even needs to sleep. Against him we have Lucille Ball, who is, uh... not going to be so good at dealing with things herself. But if she can find others, she will be infinitely better at getting help from them than Akuma would be.
Event 47: Duel Arcane
Any peasant can fight with a weapon. Heck, there's a lot of fighting styles that exist mostly because they use peasant tools in order to kill since they couldn't use anything more lethal. This is the more refined duel arcane, where only the mystical and the magical need apply. It doesn't matter how you use it so long as it can apply under the moniker of arcane.
First up is someone with no magical power whatsoever. However, Mirror B is known for his use of pokemon, and pokemon do pack a pretty mystical punch. This means that he'll be limited to special attacks only, but that should be good enough. Against this, we've got our Red Shirt squad, reporting for duty. They've got a major advantage if you accept that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, at which point they might well be able to claim their phasers. On the other hand, if you don't allow tech, then even phaserless red shirts are, surprisingly, not without recourse as the various Enterprises run into lots of unexplained phenomenon, lots of it deadly. To Redshirts. But if our Red Shirt brigade can have some survivors of their attempt to harness the power of the MacGuffins, and can turn it onto Mirror B, then they may well pull out the win.
Event 48: Winning a War
We've dealt with raising armies, but now we're dealing with how to not only use the armies, but using the resources to keep them running. Yup, it's for us to have a war, with things like several objectives to aim for and lines of supply. Whoever can either render the other side unable to fight or convince them to surrender first.
Mog comes into this without any knowledge of country sized matters, but he does have skill in small unit combat as his first appearance shows. Aside from that, he probably won't be super good at this. But, he will be sane, which will be a step up over his opponent, Queen Zeal. But, Queen Zeal makes up for her insanity with three notable strengths. First, she is legit royalty and wasn't always crazy, so she probably knows what you need to run a war properly. Second, her kingdom flies, making it very hard to invade unless you can fly too. Third, she is crazy, yes, but that craziness also means she won't surrender, period. Of course, if you press her enough she probably will call upon the power of Lavos which will ruin everyone, but will ruin the folks with the flying kingdom more, so that's a kind of Phyrric win condition.
Quick Vote Form
Event 41: Forming a Superhero League
Gadget Hackwrench (Chip n' Dale: Rescue Rangers) vs. Spider-Man (Spider Man)
Event 42: Raiding the Great Maple Syrup Reserve
Lord Helix (TPP) vs. Stephen Colbert (Stephen Colbert)
Event 43: Excelling at Sports That Don't Even Exist Yet
Stocke (Radiant Historia) vs. Sir Lancelotte the Brave (MP&tHG)
Event 44: Cat Bathing
Mr. Rogers (Mr. Roger's Neighbourhood) vs. Samus
Event 45: Manliness Contest
Rand Al'Thor (Wheel of Time) vs. Vin Venture (Mistborn)
Event 46: Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse
Akuma (Street Fighter) vs. Lucille Ball (I Love Lucy)
Event 47: Duel Arcane
Mirror B (Pokemon) vs. Red Shirts (Star Trek)
Event 48: Winning a War
Mog (FF6) vs. Queen Zeal (CT)
278
Discussion / Re: DLC X: Back to the Bay
« on: October 02, 2014, 09:23:47 AM »
I am interested. But will confirm nothing unless/until I manage to acquire a passport and a method of getting down there.
279
Tournaments / Re: The Royal Canadian Rando Tourney Round 2-A
« on: October 02, 2014, 07:16:19 AM »
Event 33: Raising an Army
The Rock (Wrestling) vs. Seto Kaiba (YuGiOh: Abridged)
Event 34: Frightening Small Children
Kamina (Gurren Lagenn) vs. Captain Gordon (Disgaia)
These are both terrible, Captain Gordon wins the dubious destinction of being more terrible.
Event 35: Conversing Only with Song/Movie Titles
Toph Bei Fong (Avatar:tLA) vs. Finn the Human (Adventure Time)
Event 36: Killing Everyone
Buffy Summers (Buffy:tVS) vs. Mordin Solus (Mass Effect 2)
Yeah... it's hard to argue with "Has kinda done this" as a match decider.
Event 37: Beauty Pageant
Mohandas Ghandi (Civ series) vs. Spike (Buffy:tVS)
Civ Ghandi is not a beautiful man.
Event 38: Detonating an Asteroid in Space
Ringabel (Bravely Default) vs. Gai Daigouji (Martian Successor Nadesco)
I was originally thinking that Gai was gonna lose this in style. But, space rocks aren't that cohesive, so a Distortion Field should cut through one just fine. At which point, blowing the thing up with just enough time so his dramatic escape is backlit by the blast is really something he'd do. No idea if he'll live through that dramatic escape, but nothing says you have to live, just blow up the rock best.
Event 39: WWF Wrestling
Edward (FF4) vs. Palutena (KI:U)
PA! LU! TE! NA! PA! LU! TE! NA!
Event 40: Dealing with a Used Car Salesman
Cidolfas Orlandu (FFT) vs. Lakitu (SMW)
While Cid may not know much about cars, he's used to politicians. I figure he can read people well enough to take this one.
Also, update in a day or two!
The Rock (Wrestling) vs. Seto Kaiba (YuGiOh: Abridged)
Event 34: Frightening Small Children
Kamina (Gurren Lagenn) vs. Captain Gordon (Disgaia)
These are both terrible, Captain Gordon wins the dubious destinction of being more terrible.
Event 35: Conversing Only with Song/Movie Titles
Toph Bei Fong (Avatar:tLA) vs. Finn the Human (Adventure Time)
Event 36: Killing Everyone
Buffy Summers (Buffy:tVS) vs. Mordin Solus (Mass Effect 2)
Yeah... it's hard to argue with "Has kinda done this" as a match decider.
Event 37: Beauty Pageant
Mohandas Ghandi (Civ series) vs. Spike (Buffy:tVS)
Civ Ghandi is not a beautiful man.
Event 38: Detonating an Asteroid in Space
Ringabel (Bravely Default) vs. Gai Daigouji (Martian Successor Nadesco)
I was originally thinking that Gai was gonna lose this in style. But, space rocks aren't that cohesive, so a Distortion Field should cut through one just fine. At which point, blowing the thing up with just enough time so his dramatic escape is backlit by the blast is really something he'd do. No idea if he'll live through that dramatic escape, but nothing says you have to live, just blow up the rock best.
Event 39: WWF Wrestling
Edward (FF4) vs. Palutena (KI:U)
PA! LU! TE! NA! PA! LU! TE! NA!
Event 40: Dealing with a Used Car Salesman
Cidolfas Orlandu (FFT) vs. Lakitu (SMW)
While Cid may not know much about cars, he's used to politicians. I figure he can read people well enough to take this one.
Also, update in a day or two!
280
General Chat / Re: Would anyone be interested in a DL writing group?
« on: September 29, 2014, 10:22:52 PM »
I actually like the skype idea. Though, I may be limited if I can't find my headset.
281
Tournaments / Re: Staring at the third ass in line- Round 3
« on: September 29, 2014, 09:55:03 PM »
Percival Fraulein (Suikoden III) vs Chris Lightfellow (Suikoden III)
Excellen Browning (Super Robot Taisen Series) vs Yueying (Dynasty Warriors Series)
Mitsuru Kirijo (Persona 4 Arena) vs Nina Wyndia (Breath of Fire II)
Hrist Valkyrie (Valkyrie Profile series) vs Karin Koenig (Shadow Hearts: Covenant)
Lightning Farron (Final Fantasy XIII) vs Elhaym van Houten (Xenogears)
Nel Zelpher (Star Ocean: Till the End of Time) vs Melissa Mao (Full Metal Panic! series)
Thor Odinson (Marvel Cinematic Universe) vs Katherine McBride (Catherine)
Oerba Yun Fang (Final Fantasy XIII) vs Lucia (Fire Emblem Series)
Excellen Browning (Super Robot Taisen Series) vs Yueying (Dynasty Warriors Series)
Mitsuru Kirijo (Persona 4 Arena) vs Nina Wyndia (Breath of Fire II)
Hrist Valkyrie (Valkyrie Profile series) vs Karin Koenig (Shadow Hearts: Covenant)
Lightning Farron (Final Fantasy XIII) vs Elhaym van Houten (Xenogears)
Nel Zelpher (Star Ocean: Till the End of Time) vs Melissa Mao (Full Metal Panic! series)
Thor Odinson (Marvel Cinematic Universe) vs Katherine McBride (Catherine)
Oerba Yun Fang (Final Fantasy XIII) vs Lucia (Fire Emblem Series)
282
Forum Games / Re: mafia thing
« on: September 25, 2014, 08:43:44 AM »
Who would be moderating this prospective mafia game?
283
Tournaments / The Royal Canadian Rando Tourney Round 2-A
« on: September 25, 2014, 08:39:33 AM »
Results
Event 29: Dog Grooming
Gai Daigouji (Martian Successor Nadesco) IIIII vs. Ruby (Lunar: Eternal Blue)
Event 30: Mecha Piloting
Big Joe (Xenogears) vs. IIIII II Samus
Event 31: Hide and Seek
Judge Doom (Who Framed Rodger Rabbit) vs. IIIII I Stocke (Radiant Historia)
Event 32: The Metal Gear Challenge
Ichigo Kurosaki (Bleach) I vs. III Seto Kaiba (YuGiOh: Abridged)
Airship Combat
{Zhuge Liang (Romance of the Three Kingdoms/Dynasty Warriors)/Michael Carpenter (Dresden Files)/Fox Mulder (X-Files)/Gary Oak (Pokemon)} I v. IIIII I {Morte (Planescape Torment)/He-Man (Prince Adam)/Mirror B (Pokemon)/Bacchus D-79 (Star Ocean: The Last Hope)}
Round 2-A
Event 33: Raising an Army
Depending on when and where you are, raising an army isn't always the easiest of tasks. Regardless, in this competition, both of our contestants have to raise the best, and biggest, army that they're capable of. At the end, the better army will be determined by having them fight. And since this is raising an army, and not leading an army, the contestants won't be leading, instead it'll depend on their managing to recruit suitable leadership along with the rest of the army.
The Rock comes into this with, perhaps not the best grasp of how to raise an actual army, but with loads of charisma and, as his last challenge shows, a decent chunk of cash. This means he should be able to get a fairly loyal force, with no guarantees of how good they'll be. Meanwhile his opponent, Seto Kaiba, not only seems to always be dealing with shady stuff, but he can clearly outspend The Rock since his defining trait is "I have Money". His troops may not be excessively loyal, but he does have experience hiring guards, so how hard can an army be?
Event 34: Frightening Small Children
Kids, as we all know, are supposed to be easily frightened. In fact, it is the job of monsters to scare kids silly. In this contest, we pit two of our contestants to see which of them can better scare a group of small children in the amount of time they're given.
The interesting thing this time is that both contestants are pretty close to being the same damned person this week. And neither of them are all that good at scaring children. First up, we have the leader of the Gurren Brigade, Kamina the man. Who... doesn't scare a single child he comes across. While he seems like he could try if he felt he needed to, he defaults way too easily to being heroic and inspiring and it's hard to tell if, after scaring the children, he might not just have the urge to unfrighten them. Of course, against this is Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth. Who is about as manly and heroic as Kamina. And can compare demon stories to counter Kamina's Beastmen stories. Though... they're not very scary demons...
Event 35: Conversing Only with Song/Movie Titles
This is the classic test of both cultural awareness and quick thinking. Using only the title of works of art, so songs, movies, plays, books, games, you name it, you have to try and keep up a semi-sensible conversation. This means weird tangents are fine, but complete non-sequitirs are not. Also not allowed is saying something that is not a title, or taking more than five minutes to come up with a reply.
Toph may not be an improvisational haiku battlemaster, but she's pretty good at trading quips with the guy who is. Really, she's coming into this with a pretty decent cultural knowlege and a super quick wit. Her one biggest flaw is that books are mostly going to be an unknown to her, which means a whole catagory of potential titles she'll be hard pressed to use. Against this we have Finn from Adventure Time. I'm going to admit to not knowing much about him, but being a heroic type, I'm going to assume he's also quick witted, though I don't know what his cultural knowlege and skill in wordplay will be,
Event 36: Killing Everyone
Look, the title says it all. The goal here is to kill everyone, no exceptions. Whoever can do it the fastest wins. And if neither can do it, whoever gets the higher kill count wins.
We're off to a good start with Buffy, better known as the Slayer. Sure, she mostly just goes after vampires, but the fact that she's so good at downing superhuman threats with pieces of wood means that vanilla humans shouldn't be a huge threat. Really, her biggest problem is that she might just refuse to do it, in which case, her score might be capped at those she will go after. Or just, y'know, to vamps. That said, she was going to have a hard time pulling it off anyways, since she's up against Mordin Solus, a guy who has on his resume, among other things, worked on the newest version of the genophage. For those who don't know, this is essentially a genocide plague, that can be seeded on a planet from orbit. So... yeah. That's just if he wants to be slow and sophisticated about it. Killing Everyone is easily within his grasp.
Event 37: Hotness Contest
So I hear there's some kind of tournament going on where people vote on who they think is the hottest. Welp, in honour of that thing, we're randomly replacing the traditional RandoTourney Beauty Pageant with our own Hotness Contest. Vote for whoever you think is more attractive!
And, in honour of the Nama's we've got ourselves a complete sausagefest going on here, but what a sausagefest as we've got a pair of immortals up for your viewing pleasure. First up is the eternally young Spike, who also has that vampire thing going on. Meanwhile, against him we've got Mr. Nuke 'Em Til They Glow himself, Mohandas Ghandi, fresh from his eight thousand year reign over India and it's assorted conquored territories.
Event 38: Detonating an Asteroid in Space
This just in. NASA reports that there is a bigass meteor heading towards Earth. If it lands, all life as we know it will be doomed to extinction. While we do have a cadre of trained professional astronauts, we're not going to be using them in favour of these two random guys. And, just because using untrained labour isn't crazy enough, we're gonna make them compete too. Each saviour will be loaned a spaceship if they can't get one of their own, as well as enough explosives and a rig to set them up with. Again... if they don't have their own way to deal with a giant space rock. If it matters, anyone who can cast the spell Meteor can use it, but it's pretty much the opposite of helpful in this match since it'll just make this sucker drop faster.
Our first contestant is a man without memory. Ringabel takes to the skies in order to save the Earth, but he does come complete with instinctive knowledge of how to fly. Granted, it's mostly airships, but he is well trained and he might well be able to translate it to spacecraft. After that, all he has to do is finish the job. Given how popular both heros and astronauts are with the ladies, he's sure to motivated to finish this job. His opponent is, well, actually an astronaut with a rating in space combat. Yup, Gai Daigouji has both the skills and the training to knock this one out of the park with ease... if he does it by the book. Odds are, he's not gonna want to do that, and is instead going to grab an Aesti Valis and fire up the Distortion Field in order to hit the meteor with a Gekigan Flare.
Event 39: WWF Wrestling
Everyone knows that WWF Wrestling isn't proper wrestling, it's more like a soap opera for guys. That said, in this competition, it's expected that the contestants will follow everything but the script. Which means that folding chairs are godly weapons, and egging on the crowd and getting them to cheer for you actually does make you stronger until you finally pin down your opponent. Or, they manage to run away from you and stay outside the ring long enough for the ref to officially declare them a wuss and a loser. Either or.
First up is someone who should know how to work a crowd what with his bardic training. Which is good because Edward certainly can't fight. Sadly, his trademark Hide skill won't be of much use here because it'll lead to him both pissing off the crowd and getting declared with a loss. But, if he can get the crowd behind him, he's got a chance. Especially since the universe seems keen on giving him those chances. After all, last time he was up against a child, and now he's up against a woman. Now that I'm done with the pro-Edward side of this, I can now point out that his opponent is less woman, and more goddess. Specifically, Palutena who is prooobably going to be a fan favourite. And now that she's enthusiastically joined Smash, we know that she's going to be good at brawling, grabs, and she'll come with a fan chant ready to go. In addition, she'll be used to grabbing weirder weapons than folding chairs. And just to add insult to injury, her Eye of Palutena means that poor Edward won't even be able to hide.
Event 40: Dealing with a Used Car Salesman
Sooner or later, everyone will have to get a new ride. And let's face it, most people won't be able to afford a new one, because who has that kind of scratch? (Well... our two contestants in this case, but since they got this event, now they get to join in the fun) This means facing the friendly faced con-men and hucksters we know as used car salesmen. The folks out to sell you cars of questionable quality for the highest tag and most useless add-ons they can manage. In this case, the winner will be awarded to the contestant who manages to get the highest quality ride for the cheapest price.
Our first contestant probably doesn't know a whole lot about cars, but he is shown to be clear headed, able to argue effectively, and able to read people. TG Cid is here to show why reading people is better than specific know how, especially since before we had used car salesmen, we had horse traders who filled a fairly similar role. Or, in this case, Chocobo Traders. Against this, we have a competitor who doesn't deal much with cars himself, but does have a lot of experience fishing them out of lakes, rivers, lava, and the emptiness of space. Lakitu should know his cars, though his people knowledge may be lacking. But, this does mean it'll be harder to sell him a lemon, and he won't need much in the way of coverage since he's his own towing company.
Quick Vote Form
Event 33: Raising an Army
The Rock (Wrestling) vs. Seto Kaiba (YuGiOh: Abridged)
Event 34: Frightening Small Children
Kamina (Gurren Lagenn) vs. Captain Gordon (Disgaia)
Event 35: Conversing Only with Song/Movie Titles
Toph Bei Fong (Avatar:tLA) vs. Finn the Human (Adventure Time)
Event 36: Killing Everyone
Buffy Summers (Buffy:tVS) vs. Mordin Solus (Mass Effect 2)
Event 37: Beauty Pageant
Mohandas Ghandi (Civ series) vs. Spike (Buffy:tVS)
Event 38: Detonating an Asteroid in Space
Ringabel (Bravely Default) vs. Gai Daigouji (Martian Successor Nadesco)
Event 39: WWF Wrestling
Edward (FF4) vs. Palutena (KI:U)
Event 40: Dealing with a Used Car Salesman
Cidolfas Orlandu (FFT) vs. Lakitu (SMW)
Event 29: Dog Grooming
Gai Daigouji (Martian Successor Nadesco) IIIII vs. Ruby (Lunar: Eternal Blue)
Event 30: Mecha Piloting
Big Joe (Xenogears) vs. IIIII II Samus
Event 31: Hide and Seek
Judge Doom (Who Framed Rodger Rabbit) vs. IIIII I Stocke (Radiant Historia)
Event 32: The Metal Gear Challenge
Ichigo Kurosaki (Bleach) I vs. III Seto Kaiba (YuGiOh: Abridged)
Airship Combat
{Zhuge Liang (Romance of the Three Kingdoms/Dynasty Warriors)/Michael Carpenter (Dresden Files)/Fox Mulder (X-Files)/Gary Oak (Pokemon)} I v. IIIII I {Morte (Planescape Torment)/He-Man (Prince Adam)/Mirror B (Pokemon)/Bacchus D-79 (Star Ocean: The Last Hope)}
Round 2-A
Event 33: Raising an Army
Depending on when and where you are, raising an army isn't always the easiest of tasks. Regardless, in this competition, both of our contestants have to raise the best, and biggest, army that they're capable of. At the end, the better army will be determined by having them fight. And since this is raising an army, and not leading an army, the contestants won't be leading, instead it'll depend on their managing to recruit suitable leadership along with the rest of the army.
The Rock comes into this with, perhaps not the best grasp of how to raise an actual army, but with loads of charisma and, as his last challenge shows, a decent chunk of cash. This means he should be able to get a fairly loyal force, with no guarantees of how good they'll be. Meanwhile his opponent, Seto Kaiba, not only seems to always be dealing with shady stuff, but he can clearly outspend The Rock since his defining trait is "I have Money". His troops may not be excessively loyal, but he does have experience hiring guards, so how hard can an army be?
Event 34: Frightening Small Children
Kids, as we all know, are supposed to be easily frightened. In fact, it is the job of monsters to scare kids silly. In this contest, we pit two of our contestants to see which of them can better scare a group of small children in the amount of time they're given.
The interesting thing this time is that both contestants are pretty close to being the same damned person this week. And neither of them are all that good at scaring children. First up, we have the leader of the Gurren Brigade, Kamina the man. Who... doesn't scare a single child he comes across. While he seems like he could try if he felt he needed to, he defaults way too easily to being heroic and inspiring and it's hard to tell if, after scaring the children, he might not just have the urge to unfrighten them. Of course, against this is Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth. Who is about as manly and heroic as Kamina. And can compare demon stories to counter Kamina's Beastmen stories. Though... they're not very scary demons...
Event 35: Conversing Only with Song/Movie Titles
This is the classic test of both cultural awareness and quick thinking. Using only the title of works of art, so songs, movies, plays, books, games, you name it, you have to try and keep up a semi-sensible conversation. This means weird tangents are fine, but complete non-sequitirs are not. Also not allowed is saying something that is not a title, or taking more than five minutes to come up with a reply.
Toph may not be an improvisational haiku battlemaster, but she's pretty good at trading quips with the guy who is. Really, she's coming into this with a pretty decent cultural knowlege and a super quick wit. Her one biggest flaw is that books are mostly going to be an unknown to her, which means a whole catagory of potential titles she'll be hard pressed to use. Against this we have Finn from Adventure Time. I'm going to admit to not knowing much about him, but being a heroic type, I'm going to assume he's also quick witted, though I don't know what his cultural knowlege and skill in wordplay will be,
Event 36: Killing Everyone
Look, the title says it all. The goal here is to kill everyone, no exceptions. Whoever can do it the fastest wins. And if neither can do it, whoever gets the higher kill count wins.
We're off to a good start with Buffy, better known as the Slayer. Sure, she mostly just goes after vampires, but the fact that she's so good at downing superhuman threats with pieces of wood means that vanilla humans shouldn't be a huge threat. Really, her biggest problem is that she might just refuse to do it, in which case, her score might be capped at those she will go after. Or just, y'know, to vamps. That said, she was going to have a hard time pulling it off anyways, since she's up against Mordin Solus, a guy who has on his resume, among other things, worked on the newest version of the genophage. For those who don't know, this is essentially a genocide plague, that can be seeded on a planet from orbit. So... yeah. That's just if he wants to be slow and sophisticated about it. Killing Everyone is easily within his grasp.
Event 37: Hotness Contest
So I hear there's some kind of tournament going on where people vote on who they think is the hottest. Welp, in honour of that thing, we're randomly replacing the traditional RandoTourney Beauty Pageant with our own Hotness Contest. Vote for whoever you think is more attractive!
And, in honour of the Nama's we've got ourselves a complete sausagefest going on here, but what a sausagefest as we've got a pair of immortals up for your viewing pleasure. First up is the eternally young Spike, who also has that vampire thing going on. Meanwhile, against him we've got Mr. Nuke 'Em Til They Glow himself, Mohandas Ghandi, fresh from his eight thousand year reign over India and it's assorted conquored territories.
Event 38: Detonating an Asteroid in Space
This just in. NASA reports that there is a bigass meteor heading towards Earth. If it lands, all life as we know it will be doomed to extinction. While we do have a cadre of trained professional astronauts, we're not going to be using them in favour of these two random guys. And, just because using untrained labour isn't crazy enough, we're gonna make them compete too. Each saviour will be loaned a spaceship if they can't get one of their own, as well as enough explosives and a rig to set them up with. Again... if they don't have their own way to deal with a giant space rock. If it matters, anyone who can cast the spell Meteor can use it, but it's pretty much the opposite of helpful in this match since it'll just make this sucker drop faster.
Our first contestant is a man without memory. Ringabel takes to the skies in order to save the Earth, but he does come complete with instinctive knowledge of how to fly. Granted, it's mostly airships, but he is well trained and he might well be able to translate it to spacecraft. After that, all he has to do is finish the job. Given how popular both heros and astronauts are with the ladies, he's sure to motivated to finish this job. His opponent is, well, actually an astronaut with a rating in space combat. Yup, Gai Daigouji has both the skills and the training to knock this one out of the park with ease... if he does it by the book. Odds are, he's not gonna want to do that, and is instead going to grab an Aesti Valis and fire up the Distortion Field in order to hit the meteor with a Gekigan Flare.
Event 39: WWF Wrestling
Everyone knows that WWF Wrestling isn't proper wrestling, it's more like a soap opera for guys. That said, in this competition, it's expected that the contestants will follow everything but the script. Which means that folding chairs are godly weapons, and egging on the crowd and getting them to cheer for you actually does make you stronger until you finally pin down your opponent. Or, they manage to run away from you and stay outside the ring long enough for the ref to officially declare them a wuss and a loser. Either or.
First up is someone who should know how to work a crowd what with his bardic training. Which is good because Edward certainly can't fight. Sadly, his trademark Hide skill won't be of much use here because it'll lead to him both pissing off the crowd and getting declared with a loss. But, if he can get the crowd behind him, he's got a chance. Especially since the universe seems keen on giving him those chances. After all, last time he was up against a child, and now he's up against a woman. Now that I'm done with the pro-Edward side of this, I can now point out that his opponent is less woman, and more goddess. Specifically, Palutena who is prooobably going to be a fan favourite. And now that she's enthusiastically joined Smash, we know that she's going to be good at brawling, grabs, and she'll come with a fan chant ready to go. In addition, she'll be used to grabbing weirder weapons than folding chairs. And just to add insult to injury, her Eye of Palutena means that poor Edward won't even be able to hide.
Event 40: Dealing with a Used Car Salesman
Sooner or later, everyone will have to get a new ride. And let's face it, most people won't be able to afford a new one, because who has that kind of scratch? (Well... our two contestants in this case, but since they got this event, now they get to join in the fun) This means facing the friendly faced con-men and hucksters we know as used car salesmen. The folks out to sell you cars of questionable quality for the highest tag and most useless add-ons they can manage. In this case, the winner will be awarded to the contestant who manages to get the highest quality ride for the cheapest price.
Our first contestant probably doesn't know a whole lot about cars, but he is shown to be clear headed, able to argue effectively, and able to read people. TG Cid is here to show why reading people is better than specific know how, especially since before we had used car salesmen, we had horse traders who filled a fairly similar role. Or, in this case, Chocobo Traders. Against this, we have a competitor who doesn't deal much with cars himself, but does have a lot of experience fishing them out of lakes, rivers, lava, and the emptiness of space. Lakitu should know his cars, though his people knowledge may be lacking. But, this does mean it'll be harder to sell him a lemon, and he won't need much in the way of coverage since he's his own towing company.
Quick Vote Form
Event 33: Raising an Army
The Rock (Wrestling) vs. Seto Kaiba (YuGiOh: Abridged)
Event 34: Frightening Small Children
Kamina (Gurren Lagenn) vs. Captain Gordon (Disgaia)
Event 35: Conversing Only with Song/Movie Titles
Toph Bei Fong (Avatar:tLA) vs. Finn the Human (Adventure Time)
Event 36: Killing Everyone
Buffy Summers (Buffy:tVS) vs. Mordin Solus (Mass Effect 2)
Event 37: Beauty Pageant
Mohandas Ghandi (Civ series) vs. Spike (Buffy:tVS)
Event 38: Detonating an Asteroid in Space
Ringabel (Bravely Default) vs. Gai Daigouji (Martian Successor Nadesco)
Event 39: WWF Wrestling
Edward (FF4) vs. Palutena (KI:U)
Event 40: Dealing with a Used Car Salesman
Cidolfas Orlandu (FFT) vs. Lakitu (SMW)
284
General Chat / Re: Would anyone be interested in a DL writing group?
« on: September 25, 2014, 07:56:48 AM »
Possibly set up a dropbox where we can keep the writing, and then set aside some time each week in order to discuss the writings of the group?
285
General Chat / Re: Would anyone be interested in a DL writing group?
« on: September 23, 2014, 08:35:47 PM »
Hmm, I have been trying to get back into writing. Something like this would be good for me.
286
Tournaments / Re: The Royal Canadian Rando Tourney Round 1-I
« on: September 23, 2014, 06:37:41 AM »
Update tomorrow!!!
Vote now or face eternal and unredeemable REGRET!!
Vote now or face eternal and unredeemable REGRET!!
287
Tournaments / Re: #3 Contest of having of the beauty- Round 2
« on: September 22, 2014, 06:45:51 AM »
Percival Fraulein (Suikoden III) vs Rose (Legend of Dragoon)
Chris Lightfellow (Suikoden III) vs Raquel Applegate (Wild Arms 4) - Huh, apparently I am Suikosexual.
Squall Leonhart (Final Fantasy VIII) vs Excellen Browning (Super Robot Taisen Series)
Yueying (Dynasty Warriors Series) vs Igrene (Fire Emblem: Binding Blade)
Mitsuru Kirijo (Persona 4 Arena) vs Lyn (Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword)
Lorelai (Suikoden Series) vs Nina Wyndia (Breath of Fire II) - Or is it Sinisexual? What'd be a good litmus test?
Hrist Valkyrie (Valkyrie Profile series) vs Alice Elliot (Shadow Hearts) - Right, Suikosexual it is.
Aya Brea (Parasite Eve) vs Karin Koenig (Shadow Hearts: Covenant)
Lightning Farron (Final Fantasy XIII) vs Geoffrey (Fire Emblem Series)
King (King of Fighters) vs Elhaym van Houten (Xenogears)
Nel Zelpher (Star Ocean: Till the End of Time) vs Nailah (Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn)
Whim (Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy) vs Melissa Mao (Full Metal Panic! series)
Thor Odinson (Marvel Cinematic Universe) vs Cordelia (Fire Emblem: Awakening)
Katherine McBride (Catherine) vs Gaignun Kukai, Sr. (Xenosaga series)
Haken Browning (Endless Frontier) vs Oerba Yun Fang (Final Fantasy XIII)
Sophitia Alexandra (Soul Calibur series) vs Lucia (Fire Emblem Series)
Chris Lightfellow (Suikoden III) vs Raquel Applegate (Wild Arms 4) - Huh, apparently I am Suikosexual.
Squall Leonhart (Final Fantasy VIII) vs Excellen Browning (Super Robot Taisen Series)
Yueying (Dynasty Warriors Series) vs Igrene (Fire Emblem: Binding Blade)
Mitsuru Kirijo (Persona 4 Arena) vs Lyn (Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword)
Lorelai (Suikoden Series) vs Nina Wyndia (Breath of Fire II) - Or is it Sinisexual? What'd be a good litmus test?
Hrist Valkyrie (Valkyrie Profile series) vs Alice Elliot (Shadow Hearts) - Right, Suikosexual it is.
Aya Brea (Parasite Eve) vs Karin Koenig (Shadow Hearts: Covenant)
Lightning Farron (Final Fantasy XIII) vs Geoffrey (Fire Emblem Series)
King (King of Fighters) vs Elhaym van Houten (Xenogears)
Nel Zelpher (Star Ocean: Till the End of Time) vs Nailah (Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn)
Whim (Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy) vs Melissa Mao (Full Metal Panic! series)
Thor Odinson (Marvel Cinematic Universe) vs Cordelia (Fire Emblem: Awakening)
Katherine McBride (Catherine) vs Gaignun Kukai, Sr. (Xenosaga series)
Haken Browning (Endless Frontier) vs Oerba Yun Fang (Final Fantasy XIII)
Sophitia Alexandra (Soul Calibur series) vs Lucia (Fire Emblem Series)
288
General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« on: September 19, 2014, 09:56:56 PM »
Sadly, the problem with that comic is that you cannot swim through all that money. The ability to swim through metal so long as it has been duly minted into coins by some soverign power is Scrooge McDuck's greatest super power.
289
Tournaments / Re: The Royal Canadian Rando Tourney Round 1-I
« on: September 17, 2014, 10:11:41 AM »
Event 29: Dog Grooming
Gai Daigouji (Martian Successor Nadesco) vs. Ruby (Lunar: Eternal Blue)
They both seem equally skilled at this event. But I can just sorta see dogs really getting along with Gai's gung ho personality while Ruby, being fairly feline, will probably just set them on edge, even if they don't know why.
Event 30: Mecha Piloting
Big Joe (Xenogears) vs. Samus
I'm totally down with the Gravity Suit counting as a SS size mech, and Samus will live up to that classes reputation of being nigh impossible to hit. So this is basically a boss fight.
Event 31: Hide and Seek
Judge Doom (Who Framed Rodger Rabbit) vs. Stocke (Radiant Historia)
Man, I was pro-Stocke even before I was reminded he could turn invisible.
Event 32: The Metal Gear Challenge
Ichigo Kurosaki (Bleach) vs. Seto Kaiba (YuGiOh: Abridged)
Ichigo just can't seem to go anywhere without being super noisy and obvious about it, or otherwise picking some kind of fight. Meanwhile, Seto Kaiba, especially in the abridged universe, just seems to have this absurd ability to show up just about anywhere for little to no reason.
Airship Combat
{Zhuge Liang (Romance of the Three Kingdoms/Dynasty Warriors)/Michael Carpenter (Dresden Files)/Fox Mulder (X-Files)/Gary Oak (Pokemon)} v. {Morte (Planescape Torment)/He-Man (Prince Adam)/Mirror B (Pokemon)/Bacchus D-79 (Star Ocean: The Last Hope)}
This is a hard one. While I agree that Bacchus seems to be heads and tails above the rest in terms of skills for this fight, he's also only one guy. He can only do one job, and everyone needs to pitch in in order to win. To add to this, they're basically a man down as well, because Morte is just a disembodied skull. Sure, he'll be great at preventing Zhuge Liang from pulling anything too sneaky on the team, but that's all he'll be able to do.
On the other hand, Zhuge Liang is super smart and super sneaky. He comes with the sort of skill set that would normally let him single handedly win this sort of event. However, the setting robs him of a lot of that, because more of his terrain tricks won't work, he can't really get the other team to start infighting, and getting too tricky won't work because Bacchus and Morte are pretty smart. The big advantage his team has is that Gary has some powerful pokemon his team can use, and Michael's right place, right time ability not only doesn't seem to need to be used against the forces of darkness, but works on people he's working with as well so long as he's traveling with them. Which means that anything team Dragon tries will happen at the best possible moment.
Neither team will really have any major personality conflicts, since they both have two people who'll be able to keep the other half in line. So, I'm going to go with Team Bacchus not quite having enough man power paired with the perfect timing thing being enough to eek out a bare victory here.
Gai Daigouji (Martian Successor Nadesco) vs. Ruby (Lunar: Eternal Blue)
They both seem equally skilled at this event. But I can just sorta see dogs really getting along with Gai's gung ho personality while Ruby, being fairly feline, will probably just set them on edge, even if they don't know why.
Event 30: Mecha Piloting
Big Joe (Xenogears) vs. Samus
I'm totally down with the Gravity Suit counting as a SS size mech, and Samus will live up to that classes reputation of being nigh impossible to hit. So this is basically a boss fight.
Event 31: Hide and Seek
Judge Doom (Who Framed Rodger Rabbit) vs. Stocke (Radiant Historia)
Man, I was pro-Stocke even before I was reminded he could turn invisible.
Event 32: The Metal Gear Challenge
Ichigo Kurosaki (Bleach) vs. Seto Kaiba (YuGiOh: Abridged)
Ichigo just can't seem to go anywhere without being super noisy and obvious about it, or otherwise picking some kind of fight. Meanwhile, Seto Kaiba, especially in the abridged universe, just seems to have this absurd ability to show up just about anywhere for little to no reason.
Airship Combat
{Zhuge Liang (Romance of the Three Kingdoms/Dynasty Warriors)/Michael Carpenter (Dresden Files)/Fox Mulder (X-Files)/Gary Oak (Pokemon)} v. {Morte (Planescape Torment)/He-Man (Prince Adam)/Mirror B (Pokemon)/Bacchus D-79 (Star Ocean: The Last Hope)}
This is a hard one. While I agree that Bacchus seems to be heads and tails above the rest in terms of skills for this fight, he's also only one guy. He can only do one job, and everyone needs to pitch in in order to win. To add to this, they're basically a man down as well, because Morte is just a disembodied skull. Sure, he'll be great at preventing Zhuge Liang from pulling anything too sneaky on the team, but that's all he'll be able to do.
On the other hand, Zhuge Liang is super smart and super sneaky. He comes with the sort of skill set that would normally let him single handedly win this sort of event. However, the setting robs him of a lot of that, because more of his terrain tricks won't work, he can't really get the other team to start infighting, and getting too tricky won't work because Bacchus and Morte are pretty smart. The big advantage his team has is that Gary has some powerful pokemon his team can use, and Michael's right place, right time ability not only doesn't seem to need to be used against the forces of darkness, but works on people he's working with as well so long as he's traveling with them. Which means that anything team Dragon tries will happen at the best possible moment.
Neither team will really have any major personality conflicts, since they both have two people who'll be able to keep the other half in line. So, I'm going to go with Team Bacchus not quite having enough man power paired with the perfect timing thing being enough to eek out a bare victory here.
290
Tournaments / The Royal Canadian Rando Tourney Round 1-I
« on: September 16, 2014, 08:55:26 AM »
Round 1-I
Event 29: Dog Grooming
Almost anyone can, with a bit of time and effort, wash a dog. In fact, a lot of them can get downright agreeable about it once you actually get them in the water and soap them up. What not everyone can do is take an utter mess of a dog, and turn them into a beautiful specimen that is a delight to behold and at home in the most fashionable of kennels. Today, that is the trial we put or contestants through.
Our first contestant may not have much in the way of grooming skills, but that will make no difference for Gai Daigouji will groom with the BURNING PASSION OF A MAN'S SOUL!!! Yes, this Aesti Valis pilot will show that hot bloodedness can be used for more than just piloting robots! Against this we have the more level headed Ruby who has the advantage of out powering the dog by a lot as one of the four divine dragons of Althena. Of course, Ruby also spends a lot of her time as, well, something really resembling a cat. Which means even if she is hot about the grooming aspect of all this, she may go about it in a way wholly unacceptable to a dog. Which, seems like the wild card of this match. Can Ruby be more competant than Gai's Gekigan-Grooming?
Event 30: Mecha Piloting
This is pretty much just a duel, except that instead of personally duking it out, both competitors have to get into mecha in order to do it. Both competitors can use whatever mecha they can get their hands on, and if they can't then a mass production Gespenst (with no stat boosts purchased) will be loaned to them. Fighting must be done only with the mechs, and the last mech standing is the winner.
Our first competitor likes fighting AND gears, but sadly we don't ever get to see him pilot one. That said, fan favourite Big Joe takes to the stage, and given his ability to get his hands on high quality Zeboim parts, it shouldn't be too surprising if this guy manages to get a standard model gear and soups that thing up as well as it can be souped up. The only question then is, how well can he fight? Given that his fans probably will have gears or other mecha of their own, their reaction to the fight will be legal. Meaning that this is a battle that will be exciting and dynamic! His competitor is a bit of a conundrum. Samus takes to the stage, but there's two options for her. First, she's from a world that's advanced enough, and she's had enough training that she can probably get and use some pretty decent mecha. But, if we use the Super Robot Wars precedent, then she's really not that different from Tekkaman Blade who also uses a suit of powered armour pretty similar to Samus' Gravity Suit. Which means that she's got the option to pick any of her suits that aren't the Zero Suit (and really, why would she want that one?) and go to town with them.
Event 31: Hide and Seek
Every child and person who once was a child knows this game. In this case, we're going to go with two versions. One where they each have a turn at finding each other, and then one where they take turns at finding a dozen children in a nice, safe, forest. Lowest combined time wins.
Both of our competitors this week have some special skills that are very relelvant to this hunt. Our first competitor is Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He brings to the table considerable amounts of psychological knowledge combined with a ruthless hunter's intensity and attention to detail. If there is something to find, he WILL find it. Aaaaand, we have a team comprised of Yuri and Terra to take custody of the children once they are found so there's no 'accidental' dippings. Against this we have Stocke, who is not just a secret agent, but a time-travelling secret agent, which I am told is, after James Bond, the best kind of secret agent. And his time travel is the sort where he can use his secret agent skills to find everyone, then go back in time to before the contest starts and restart everything with knowledge of where they all are.
Event 32: The Metal Gear Challenge
Lots of games seem to have these. Stealth sections where, for whatever reason, weapons simply aren't useful and getting caught will kick you back to the start of the section. Or, if it's a less good game, will simply kill you. Regardless, we've stuck a macguffin in the centre of a secure facility with a few hidden key cards that make it less secure and the traditional man sized air ducts perfect for climbing around in, and then we stuffed it full of guards of dubious intelligence. First one out with the macguffin wins.
Our first competitor is more of a fighter than a sneaker, but this won't be the first time he's had to learn a skill on the fly. That's right, we have Ichigo Kurosaki, noted for being that rare beast, a mortal Shinigami. His combat skills are top notch and he's hot headed enough to use them often, so this'll be a challenge for him. Fortunately for him, he's learned how to harness his spiritual powers to do things like run on air and use the incredibly useful Flash Step technique which lets him move from place to place without really having to cover the ground inbetween. Against this he's facing Seto Kaiba, specifically the Abridged version of Kaiba who has access to tons of high tech gadgets (though they're all oddly meant for playing a children's card game) and has so much money that he can screw the rules. But will rule screwage be a useful ability here?
Team Event 4: Airship Combat
Ah, airships. Such wondrous creations of artifice and magic, allowing people to soar in settings where airplanes are just plain anachronistic. And, of course, there is one thing that comes to the minds of most people when considering these majestic crafts: making them fight each other. So yes, each team is going to get an Arcadian Battle Airship, complete with the need for only four people to man them, and the ship that stays aloft longer wins. So, what are the roles these teams have? Well, there's five roles. First up we have the captain, a mostly informal role that's meant for the team leader and can be used concurrently with any other role. The other roles are Pilot, Engineer, Gunner, and Repairman. Each of these is pretty simple, but let's go over them. The Pilot's role is to steer the Airship, trying to get into a good position for their gunner to fire while avoiding the guns of the opposing ship. The Engineer is responsible for keeping the engine running, and making sure the power is moved to the different engines and guns as the others need them. The Gunner has control over the different batteries on the ship, being able to fire the guns at their opponent. And the Repairman has the job of fixing any damage to the ship, as well as being able to assist the Engineer or Gunner if there is no damage. As for the field, it's just above a mountain range with a valley halfway through the combat zone, complete with it being partially cloudy so there is some cover to take advantage of.
The first team will likely end up with Gary Oak as its captain. Mostly because he's the only one to be that eagre to be in charge. But it's not like he's that terrible a choice, since he's generally pretty competant. Odds are good he'll probably end up at the guns, using his Pokemon to give him an edge there. Their weakest link will probably be Fox Mulder who, despite being fairly creative and capable, is something of a loose cannon and doesn't have any special skills for this competition. However he will probably be put either on the wheel or in the engine room, both places where he should be competant. Next up is the heart of the team, Michael Carpenter, a man colloquially known as the Fist of God. Sadly, outside of being under some divine protection and his knack for being in the right place at the right time, his divine and combat powers will be mostly useless in this contest. On the other hand his mundane powers, being charismatic and inspiring and being really good at building and fixing things, will make him a shoe-in for the role of Repairman. And this brings us to the best asset Team One has, the brain of the outfit, the Sleeping Dragon of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang. The best strategist in a work full of brilliant strategists, he even manages to turn his own death into a tactical advantage. So, yeah, he's the guy the Suikoden writers were thinking about when they wrote down the Silverburgs. Heck, he's even reknown as an inventor, so he can probably fit as either the Engineer or as the Pilot in order to best use terrain and timing. Regardless, if cleverness can come into play, he's got a good chance of using good tactics to his team's advantage.
The second team is coming into this almost a man down. This isn't to say that Morte is going to be dead weight. He's got a sharp brain on him, and he'll do the best he can to help. But unfortunately, his best weapon here, his taunts, are going to be going up against a team where half of its members will be resistant to them (Michael Carpenter is just that humble, while Zhuge Liang also excels at them.) That said, he may still be able to work the helm or engine room, especially given who he has as backup for advice if he needs it. One of the best people you could have on your team for an Airship Duel, it's Bacchus D-79, who is both an Engineer by trade and skilled with cannons, making him a perfect fit for two of the positions on his ship. Backing up these two, is the noted hero He-Man, who is taking a break from saving Eternia to join this crew, and with his strength, he'll probably be in charge of the repairs, being able to easily manhandle broken parts back into place. And finally, on the helm is that famed Pokemon Gangster, Mirror B. If he wants his pokemon in play, he'll probably be in the Engine Room where they might help boost power. And if not, his having a body means he'll probably prove better on the helm than Morte.
Regardless, these teams both have a shot depending on what will win the battle. Will Zhuge Liang and his superior tactics take the day, or will Bacchus D-79 and his superior ability to operate an airship prove the deciding factor?
Quick Vote Form
Event 29: Dog Grooming
Gai Daigouji (Martian Successor Nadesco) vs. Ruby (Lunar: Eternal Blue)
Event 30: Mecha Piloting
Big Joe (Xenogears) vs. Samus
Event 31: Hide and Seek
Judge Doom (Who Framed Rodger Rabbit) vs. Stocke (Radiant Historia)
Event 32: The Metal Gear Challenge
Ichigo Kurosaki (Bleach) vs. Seto Kaiba (YuGiOh: Abridged)
Airship Combat
{Zhuge Liang (Romance of the Three Kingdoms/Dynasty Warriors)/Michael Carpenter (Dresden Files)/Fox Mulder (X-Files)/Gary Oak (Pokemon)} v. {Morte (Planescape Torment)/He-Man (Prince Adam)/Mirror B (Pokemon)/Bacchus D-79 (Star Ocean: The Last Hope)}
Event 29: Dog Grooming
Almost anyone can, with a bit of time and effort, wash a dog. In fact, a lot of them can get downright agreeable about it once you actually get them in the water and soap them up. What not everyone can do is take an utter mess of a dog, and turn them into a beautiful specimen that is a delight to behold and at home in the most fashionable of kennels. Today, that is the trial we put or contestants through.
Our first contestant may not have much in the way of grooming skills, but that will make no difference for Gai Daigouji will groom with the BURNING PASSION OF A MAN'S SOUL!!! Yes, this Aesti Valis pilot will show that hot bloodedness can be used for more than just piloting robots! Against this we have the more level headed Ruby who has the advantage of out powering the dog by a lot as one of the four divine dragons of Althena. Of course, Ruby also spends a lot of her time as, well, something really resembling a cat. Which means even if she is hot about the grooming aspect of all this, she may go about it in a way wholly unacceptable to a dog. Which, seems like the wild card of this match. Can Ruby be more competant than Gai's Gekigan-Grooming?
Event 30: Mecha Piloting
This is pretty much just a duel, except that instead of personally duking it out, both competitors have to get into mecha in order to do it. Both competitors can use whatever mecha they can get their hands on, and if they can't then a mass production Gespenst (with no stat boosts purchased) will be loaned to them. Fighting must be done only with the mechs, and the last mech standing is the winner.
Our first competitor likes fighting AND gears, but sadly we don't ever get to see him pilot one. That said, fan favourite Big Joe takes to the stage, and given his ability to get his hands on high quality Zeboim parts, it shouldn't be too surprising if this guy manages to get a standard model gear and soups that thing up as well as it can be souped up. The only question then is, how well can he fight? Given that his fans probably will have gears or other mecha of their own, their reaction to the fight will be legal. Meaning that this is a battle that will be exciting and dynamic! His competitor is a bit of a conundrum. Samus takes to the stage, but there's two options for her. First, she's from a world that's advanced enough, and she's had enough training that she can probably get and use some pretty decent mecha. But, if we use the Super Robot Wars precedent, then she's really not that different from Tekkaman Blade who also uses a suit of powered armour pretty similar to Samus' Gravity Suit. Which means that she's got the option to pick any of her suits that aren't the Zero Suit (and really, why would she want that one?) and go to town with them.
Event 31: Hide and Seek
Every child and person who once was a child knows this game. In this case, we're going to go with two versions. One where they each have a turn at finding each other, and then one where they take turns at finding a dozen children in a nice, safe, forest. Lowest combined time wins.
Both of our competitors this week have some special skills that are very relelvant to this hunt. Our first competitor is Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He brings to the table considerable amounts of psychological knowledge combined with a ruthless hunter's intensity and attention to detail. If there is something to find, he WILL find it. Aaaaand, we have a team comprised of Yuri and Terra to take custody of the children once they are found so there's no 'accidental' dippings. Against this we have Stocke, who is not just a secret agent, but a time-travelling secret agent, which I am told is, after James Bond, the best kind of secret agent. And his time travel is the sort where he can use his secret agent skills to find everyone, then go back in time to before the contest starts and restart everything with knowledge of where they all are.
Event 32: The Metal Gear Challenge
Lots of games seem to have these. Stealth sections where, for whatever reason, weapons simply aren't useful and getting caught will kick you back to the start of the section. Or, if it's a less good game, will simply kill you. Regardless, we've stuck a macguffin in the centre of a secure facility with a few hidden key cards that make it less secure and the traditional man sized air ducts perfect for climbing around in, and then we stuffed it full of guards of dubious intelligence. First one out with the macguffin wins.
Our first competitor is more of a fighter than a sneaker, but this won't be the first time he's had to learn a skill on the fly. That's right, we have Ichigo Kurosaki, noted for being that rare beast, a mortal Shinigami. His combat skills are top notch and he's hot headed enough to use them often, so this'll be a challenge for him. Fortunately for him, he's learned how to harness his spiritual powers to do things like run on air and use the incredibly useful Flash Step technique which lets him move from place to place without really having to cover the ground inbetween. Against this he's facing Seto Kaiba, specifically the Abridged version of Kaiba who has access to tons of high tech gadgets (though they're all oddly meant for playing a children's card game) and has so much money that he can screw the rules. But will rule screwage be a useful ability here?
Team Event 4: Airship Combat
Ah, airships. Such wondrous creations of artifice and magic, allowing people to soar in settings where airplanes are just plain anachronistic. And, of course, there is one thing that comes to the minds of most people when considering these majestic crafts: making them fight each other. So yes, each team is going to get an Arcadian Battle Airship, complete with the need for only four people to man them, and the ship that stays aloft longer wins. So, what are the roles these teams have? Well, there's five roles. First up we have the captain, a mostly informal role that's meant for the team leader and can be used concurrently with any other role. The other roles are Pilot, Engineer, Gunner, and Repairman. Each of these is pretty simple, but let's go over them. The Pilot's role is to steer the Airship, trying to get into a good position for their gunner to fire while avoiding the guns of the opposing ship. The Engineer is responsible for keeping the engine running, and making sure the power is moved to the different engines and guns as the others need them. The Gunner has control over the different batteries on the ship, being able to fire the guns at their opponent. And the Repairman has the job of fixing any damage to the ship, as well as being able to assist the Engineer or Gunner if there is no damage. As for the field, it's just above a mountain range with a valley halfway through the combat zone, complete with it being partially cloudy so there is some cover to take advantage of.
The first team will likely end up with Gary Oak as its captain. Mostly because he's the only one to be that eagre to be in charge. But it's not like he's that terrible a choice, since he's generally pretty competant. Odds are good he'll probably end up at the guns, using his Pokemon to give him an edge there. Their weakest link will probably be Fox Mulder who, despite being fairly creative and capable, is something of a loose cannon and doesn't have any special skills for this competition. However he will probably be put either on the wheel or in the engine room, both places where he should be competant. Next up is the heart of the team, Michael Carpenter, a man colloquially known as the Fist of God. Sadly, outside of being under some divine protection and his knack for being in the right place at the right time, his divine and combat powers will be mostly useless in this contest. On the other hand his mundane powers, being charismatic and inspiring and being really good at building and fixing things, will make him a shoe-in for the role of Repairman. And this brings us to the best asset Team One has, the brain of the outfit, the Sleeping Dragon of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang. The best strategist in a work full of brilliant strategists, he even manages to turn his own death into a tactical advantage. So, yeah, he's the guy the Suikoden writers were thinking about when they wrote down the Silverburgs. Heck, he's even reknown as an inventor, so he can probably fit as either the Engineer or as the Pilot in order to best use terrain and timing. Regardless, if cleverness can come into play, he's got a good chance of using good tactics to his team's advantage.
The second team is coming into this almost a man down. This isn't to say that Morte is going to be dead weight. He's got a sharp brain on him, and he'll do the best he can to help. But unfortunately, his best weapon here, his taunts, are going to be going up against a team where half of its members will be resistant to them (Michael Carpenter is just that humble, while Zhuge Liang also excels at them.) That said, he may still be able to work the helm or engine room, especially given who he has as backup for advice if he needs it. One of the best people you could have on your team for an Airship Duel, it's Bacchus D-79, who is both an Engineer by trade and skilled with cannons, making him a perfect fit for two of the positions on his ship. Backing up these two, is the noted hero He-Man, who is taking a break from saving Eternia to join this crew, and with his strength, he'll probably be in charge of the repairs, being able to easily manhandle broken parts back into place. And finally, on the helm is that famed Pokemon Gangster, Mirror B. If he wants his pokemon in play, he'll probably be in the Engine Room where they might help boost power. And if not, his having a body means he'll probably prove better on the helm than Morte.
Regardless, these teams both have a shot depending on what will win the battle. Will Zhuge Liang and his superior tactics take the day, or will Bacchus D-79 and his superior ability to operate an airship prove the deciding factor?
Quick Vote Form
Event 29: Dog Grooming
Gai Daigouji (Martian Successor Nadesco) vs. Ruby (Lunar: Eternal Blue)
Event 30: Mecha Piloting
Big Joe (Xenogears) vs. Samus
Event 31: Hide and Seek
Judge Doom (Who Framed Rodger Rabbit) vs. Stocke (Radiant Historia)
Event 32: The Metal Gear Challenge
Ichigo Kurosaki (Bleach) vs. Seto Kaiba (YuGiOh: Abridged)
Airship Combat
{Zhuge Liang (Romance of the Three Kingdoms/Dynasty Warriors)/Michael Carpenter (Dresden Files)/Fox Mulder (X-Files)/Gary Oak (Pokemon)} v. {Morte (Planescape Torment)/He-Man (Prince Adam)/Mirror B (Pokemon)/Bacchus D-79 (Star Ocean: The Last Hope)}
291
Tournaments / Re: The Royal Canadian Rando Tourney Round 1-H
« on: September 15, 2014, 11:14:16 AM »
I've decided I may as well start voting on these things. It does mean that tie-breaks are now firmly in the hands of the most convenient RNG device I have on hand.
Quick Vote Form
Event 25: Debate
Roy Mustang (Full Metal Alchemist) v Donatello (TMNT)
Charisma has it's place, even in a formal debate. Which should be enough to tip things in Roy's favour since he's one of the best speakers in his series. Not just pure charisma, but with some pretty solid reasoning to back it all up. And his series has some pretty good competition in that regard. So, Roy over Donny in a tight match.
Event 26: Staying Calm in the Face of Antagonism
Beast Boy (Teen Titans) v Spider-Man (Spider Man)
No vote. I don't know Beast Boy well enough to vote on this.
Event 27: Running a Petting Zoo
Erutus Profiteur (BD) v Rita Repulsa (MMPR)
Rita will win the fight, but Profiteur makes more money even before you include all the cash he'll rake in from the gambling on when the fight will start and who will win.
Event 28: Write a Novel
Aggron (Pokemon) v Don Cherry
Mastery of a language would be enough even if the guy hasn't already written some.
Pairs Event 7: Running a Con
{Mr. Rogers (Mr. Roger's Neighbourhood)/Julius Caesar (Shakespear)} v. {Constable Odo (Star Trek: DS9)/Jaime Lannister (Game of Thrones)}
Man, I was all set to vote for the other guys, but then this other consideration of running a convention came out. And I love that randomly moving the goalposts so much that I'm gonna vote for that interp. And when it comes to running a convention, Mr. Rogers and Julius Caesar make for some kind of twisted dream team.
Pairs Event 8: Tandem Chess
{Worker 8 (FFT)/Aya Brea Parasyte Eve)} v. {Oberyn Martell (Game of Thrones)/Rand Al'Thor (Wheel of Time)}
I've always seen Worker 8 as less computer, more magical construct, which means the Golum interpretation is what I'm going with. Which means you can't just swap in and out programming and he instead is what he is. And what he is isn't going to win this match, leaving Aya outmatched.
Quick Vote Form
Event 25: Debate
Roy Mustang (Full Metal Alchemist) v Donatello (TMNT)
Charisma has it's place, even in a formal debate. Which should be enough to tip things in Roy's favour since he's one of the best speakers in his series. Not just pure charisma, but with some pretty solid reasoning to back it all up. And his series has some pretty good competition in that regard. So, Roy over Donny in a tight match.
Event 26: Staying Calm in the Face of Antagonism
Beast Boy (Teen Titans) v Spider-Man (Spider Man)
No vote. I don't know Beast Boy well enough to vote on this.
Event 27: Running a Petting Zoo
Erutus Profiteur (BD) v Rita Repulsa (MMPR)
Rita will win the fight, but Profiteur makes more money even before you include all the cash he'll rake in from the gambling on when the fight will start and who will win.
Event 28: Write a Novel
Aggron (Pokemon) v Don Cherry
Mastery of a language would be enough even if the guy hasn't already written some.
Pairs Event 7: Running a Con
{Mr. Rogers (Mr. Roger's Neighbourhood)/Julius Caesar (Shakespear)} v. {Constable Odo (Star Trek: DS9)/Jaime Lannister (Game of Thrones)}
Man, I was all set to vote for the other guys, but then this other consideration of running a convention came out. And I love that randomly moving the goalposts so much that I'm gonna vote for that interp. And when it comes to running a convention, Mr. Rogers and Julius Caesar make for some kind of twisted dream team.
Pairs Event 8: Tandem Chess
{Worker 8 (FFT)/Aya Brea Parasyte Eve)} v. {Oberyn Martell (Game of Thrones)/Rand Al'Thor (Wheel of Time)}
I've always seen Worker 8 as less computer, more magical construct, which means the Golum interpretation is what I'm going with. Which means you can't just swap in and out programming and he instead is what he is. And what he is isn't going to win this match, leaving Aya outmatched.
292
Tournaments / Re: The Royal Canadian Rando Tourney Round 1-H
« on: September 15, 2014, 08:15:31 AM »
This has been up for five days now. Update will be either tomorrow or possibly the day after.
293
Tournaments / Re: Drool-worthy tourney of adorability 3rd- Week 2
« on: September 15, 2014, 03:46:28 AM »
Lightning Farron (Final Fantasy XIII) vs Gambit (Marvel universe)
Henne Valkyria (Endless Frontier) vs Geoffrey (Fire Emblem Series)
Myuria Tionysus (Star Ocean: The Last Hope) vs King (King of Fighters)
Lin (Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter) vs Elhaym van Houten (Xenogears)
Laguna Loire (Final Fantasy VIII) vs Nel Zelpher (Star Ocean: Till the End of Time)
Nailah (Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn) vs Malik Ceaser (Tales of Graces F)
Rahal (Suikoden V) vs Whim (Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy)
Yuri Hyuga (Shadow Hearts) vs Melissa Mao (Full Metal Panic! series)
Thor Odinson (Marvel Cinematic Universe) vs Greg Russelberg (Wild Arms 5)
Miang Hawwa (Xenogears) vs Cordelia (Fire Emblem: Awakening)
Katherine McBride (Catherine) vs Frederick (Fire Emblem: Awakening)
Juli Mizrahi (Xenosaga Series) vs Gaignun Kukai, Sr. (Xenosaga series)
Lulu (Final Fantasy X) vs Haken Browning (Endless Frontier)
Hope Estheim (adult) (Final Fantasy XIII-2) vs Oerba Yun Fang (Final Fantasy XIII)
Sophitia Alexandra (Soul Calibur series) vs Noel Vermillion (BlazBlue)
Judith (Tales of Vesperia) vs Lucia (Fire Emblem Series)
Henne Valkyria (Endless Frontier) vs Geoffrey (Fire Emblem Series)
Myuria Tionysus (Star Ocean: The Last Hope) vs King (King of Fighters)
Lin (Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter) vs Elhaym van Houten (Xenogears)
Laguna Loire (Final Fantasy VIII) vs Nel Zelpher (Star Ocean: Till the End of Time)
Nailah (Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn) vs Malik Ceaser (Tales of Graces F)
Rahal (Suikoden V) vs Whim (Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy)
Yuri Hyuga (Shadow Hearts) vs Melissa Mao (Full Metal Panic! series)
Thor Odinson (Marvel Cinematic Universe) vs Greg Russelberg (Wild Arms 5)
Miang Hawwa (Xenogears) vs Cordelia (Fire Emblem: Awakening)
Katherine McBride (Catherine) vs Frederick (Fire Emblem: Awakening)
Juli Mizrahi (Xenosaga Series) vs Gaignun Kukai, Sr. (Xenosaga series)
Lulu (Final Fantasy X) vs Haken Browning (Endless Frontier)
Hope Estheim (adult) (Final Fantasy XIII-2) vs Oerba Yun Fang (Final Fantasy XIII)
Sophitia Alexandra (Soul Calibur series) vs Noel Vermillion (BlazBlue)
Judith (Tales of Vesperia) vs Lucia (Fire Emblem Series)
294
Tournaments / The Royal Canadian Rando Tourney Round 1-H
« on: September 11, 2014, 07:00:31 AM »
Round 1-H
Event 25: Debate
It's a classic image. Two people on a stage before a crowd, trying to get people to see things their way. This is a formal debate, with time for points, rebuttals, and counter-points to be made. Complete with some questions from experts and from the crowd. Naturally, there is also a topic. In this case, the topic will be the role of Ancestral Legendary Weapons in a Changing Society.
Leading the case for the practical usage of ancient weapons in modern society we've got our debater in a half shell: Donatello. Having been raised to use ancient fighting styles and weapons against even modern weaponry, he'll have the prime view point on why these weapons are necessary in this changing society. As well, he'll be backing up his points with a wealth of knowledge and a keen intellect that few in this competition can match. But arguing for modernization and the benefit of new technologies over ancient legacies is the Flame Alchemist himself, Roy Mustang. He's seen the benefits that modern technology can bring to the table, both in terms of guns and tanks as well as the modern studies in the art of Alchemy. And while he doesn't have the keen intellect of Donatello, he's no slouch at the brain game, and he brings to the table his own Charisma, as someone who managed to win to his side, with conviction, reason, and rhetoric, a loyal group of followers and allies in his attempt to overthrow a military dictatorship and topple an ancient conspiracy.
Truly, these are both very skilled opponents, and this is going to be a debate for the ages.
Event 26: Staying Calm in the Face of Antagonism
Sometimes you really want to be able to deal with some annoyance or another, but you just can't. Maybe doing so would tip your hand too early. Maybe you need the help of their friends. Or perhaps the source of the antagonism is also the only guy in town willing to employ you. Regardless, restraint and temperance is a skill worth cultivating. And in this case, it's the name of the game. We're going to be locking each of our competitors in a small room with a marathon of the most annoying people we can find. The first one to crack and lose their cool loses the match.
First up is a competitor I don't actually know that much about aside from the fact that he's a teen, and he can turn into all kinds of animals. So Beast Boy could be super awesome at this. Besides, he can't let himself lose since he needs to uphold that DC pride against Marvel's big boy, the amazing Spider Man. Of course, that could be hard, since one of his traits in a fight is to try and annoy the other side into loosing their cool, and the guy has to put up with a collossal amount of shit in his day to day life. Not the least of which is J. Jonah Jameson. So, kudos to Beast Boy if he can win this, but it's gonna be a tough fight for him.
Event 27: Running a Petting Zoo
This is a pretty simple event. Operate the petting zoo, making sure the animals stay alive, nothing happens to the patrons, and money is made at the end of the day. Should be easy, right?
Well, with our first competitor, more than just the sheep will be getting fleeced as Erutus Profiteur is not a fan of other people having money if he can help it. But, while there will be all sorts of crooked practices, his own petting zoo will be a profitable affair. His only problem will be if he gets too greedy and decides to ensure there is only one petting zoo to visit because that will provoke his opponent. Rita Repulsa has many flaws when it comes to running a petting zoo. The least of which that she'll probably try and use it to take over Angel Falls and get put out of business by the Power Rangers partway through the day. The one thing she will not have a problem with is dealing with people who try and shut her down by turning her animals into giant combat monstronsities. Of course, this is not a combat event, so whoever starts the animal combat first (or gets tagged with the blame for it) loses.
Event 28: Write a Novel
Like running a petting zoo, this is a simple task. Our competitors have three months to write a novel, and then the better novel wins. Aggregate of critical applause and copies sold.
This will also be a short writeup, because our first competitor is an energetic nationalist demagogue with a passion for hockey. Yup, Don Cherry is up to bat, and he's shown that he can pull out that popular appeal, having done so for decades with his Coaches Corner. And his opponent is a God Damned Aggron. Anything he gets out might have some novelty value, but he's up against a known quantity.
Pairs Event 7: Running a Con
If you want to run a con, everyone knows that the best ones need at least two people. The best ones are also the ones where no one even suspects there's a con going on. In this case, our two teams are going to be running their own cons. And they're going to be rated on two things. First, how gutsy is their con. Basically, the more they get from their con, the better their score is going to be. And secondly, if they can pull it off. A failed con is worth squat no matter how ambitious or clever it was.
Our first team has a pair of formidable contenders. Julius Caesar conquored Gaul and almost became emperor of Rome. Sadly, both of these guys are somewhat at a disadvantage here as they're both straight shooters and tackle things from the front. In fact, Caesar's big problem is that he either didn't see, or didn't properly prepare for, the assassination attempt that got him. That said, if these guys can get a good con going, they both are going to be good at convincing folks they're on the level.
On the other hand, we have a pair of contenders who are less likely to get along, but who both have experience in cons. Specifically, Constable Odo who, as law enforcement on a border station, has to be able to think crookedly enough to keep up with Ferengi hucksters. And Jaime Lannister, who also tends towards the straight and narrow, but has to have the requisite skills for a con if he doesn't want to lose his head. After all, we can ask the Starks how people who don't have these skills fare in Westeros. The only question is if law enforcement and a man known as The Kingslayer can work together well enough to make a good team.
Pairs Event 8: Tandem Chess
Tandem Chess is an interesting variation on chess. You set up two boards, with one member of a team playing white, and their teammate playing black on the other board. And, whenever a player captures a piece, it's gifted to their ally on the other board.
EDIT: Apparently play goes until just one checkmate. Who knew? Snowfire, that's who. Thanks for the correction. And for this match, first to mate wins.
The first team will be Worker 8 and Aya Brea teaming up together. Worker 8 may be a bit of a problem here because while he is a machine, he's not so much a higher cognitive function machine. Or, to put it another way, he's fine in a fight, but might not be the best at an abstract fight like Chess is. Aya Brea on the other hand, is reasonably smart and should know the rules.
Now, who are they facing. One is a player in the Game of Thrones, the other is adept at the Game of Houses. But no matter how you name the Great Game, we have two men who walk amongst the nobility. First up is Oberyn Martel of Westeros, who probably doesn't have the patience of a true master, but is cunning and smart, both good resources to have in playing chess. Partnered with him is the Dragon Reborn, who is quite intelligent, has some skill with the sorts of tactics the game calls for. And even if Rand never learned the game, Lews Therin probably did, and Rand can just pull on those memories.
Those are the teams, now for who is facing who. On board 1, Worker 8 is white against Oberyn's black army. While Aya Brea takes black against the slightly ironic white army of the Dragon Reborn.
Quick Vote Form
Event 25: Debate
Roy Mustang (Full Metal Alchemist) v Donatello (TMNT)
Event 26: Staying Calm in the Face of Antagonism
Beast Boy (Teen Titans) v Spider-Man (Spider Man)
Event 27: Running a Petting Zoo
Erutus Profiteur (BD) v Rita Repulsa (MMPR)
Event 28: Write a Novel
Aggron (Pokemon) v Don Cherry
Pairs Event 7: Running a Con
{Mr. Rogers (Mr. Roger's Neighbourhood)/Julius Caesar (Shakespear)} v. {Constable Odo (Star Trek: DS9)/Jaime Lannister (Game of Thrones)}
Pairs Event 8: Tandem Chess
{Worker 8 (FFT)/Aya Brea Parasyte Eve)} v. {Oberyn Martell (Game of Thrones)/Rand Al'Thor (Wheel of Time)}
Event 25: Debate
It's a classic image. Two people on a stage before a crowd, trying to get people to see things their way. This is a formal debate, with time for points, rebuttals, and counter-points to be made. Complete with some questions from experts and from the crowd. Naturally, there is also a topic. In this case, the topic will be the role of Ancestral Legendary Weapons in a Changing Society.
Leading the case for the practical usage of ancient weapons in modern society we've got our debater in a half shell: Donatello. Having been raised to use ancient fighting styles and weapons against even modern weaponry, he'll have the prime view point on why these weapons are necessary in this changing society. As well, he'll be backing up his points with a wealth of knowledge and a keen intellect that few in this competition can match. But arguing for modernization and the benefit of new technologies over ancient legacies is the Flame Alchemist himself, Roy Mustang. He's seen the benefits that modern technology can bring to the table, both in terms of guns and tanks as well as the modern studies in the art of Alchemy. And while he doesn't have the keen intellect of Donatello, he's no slouch at the brain game, and he brings to the table his own Charisma, as someone who managed to win to his side, with conviction, reason, and rhetoric, a loyal group of followers and allies in his attempt to overthrow a military dictatorship and topple an ancient conspiracy.
Truly, these are both very skilled opponents, and this is going to be a debate for the ages.
Event 26: Staying Calm in the Face of Antagonism
Sometimes you really want to be able to deal with some annoyance or another, but you just can't. Maybe doing so would tip your hand too early. Maybe you need the help of their friends. Or perhaps the source of the antagonism is also the only guy in town willing to employ you. Regardless, restraint and temperance is a skill worth cultivating. And in this case, it's the name of the game. We're going to be locking each of our competitors in a small room with a marathon of the most annoying people we can find. The first one to crack and lose their cool loses the match.
First up is a competitor I don't actually know that much about aside from the fact that he's a teen, and he can turn into all kinds of animals. So Beast Boy could be super awesome at this. Besides, he can't let himself lose since he needs to uphold that DC pride against Marvel's big boy, the amazing Spider Man. Of course, that could be hard, since one of his traits in a fight is to try and annoy the other side into loosing their cool, and the guy has to put up with a collossal amount of shit in his day to day life. Not the least of which is J. Jonah Jameson. So, kudos to Beast Boy if he can win this, but it's gonna be a tough fight for him.
Event 27: Running a Petting Zoo
This is a pretty simple event. Operate the petting zoo, making sure the animals stay alive, nothing happens to the patrons, and money is made at the end of the day. Should be easy, right?
Well, with our first competitor, more than just the sheep will be getting fleeced as Erutus Profiteur is not a fan of other people having money if he can help it. But, while there will be all sorts of crooked practices, his own petting zoo will be a profitable affair. His only problem will be if he gets too greedy and decides to ensure there is only one petting zoo to visit because that will provoke his opponent. Rita Repulsa has many flaws when it comes to running a petting zoo. The least of which that she'll probably try and use it to take over Angel Falls and get put out of business by the Power Rangers partway through the day. The one thing she will not have a problem with is dealing with people who try and shut her down by turning her animals into giant combat monstronsities. Of course, this is not a combat event, so whoever starts the animal combat first (or gets tagged with the blame for it) loses.
Event 28: Write a Novel
Like running a petting zoo, this is a simple task. Our competitors have three months to write a novel, and then the better novel wins. Aggregate of critical applause and copies sold.
This will also be a short writeup, because our first competitor is an energetic nationalist demagogue with a passion for hockey. Yup, Don Cherry is up to bat, and he's shown that he can pull out that popular appeal, having done so for decades with his Coaches Corner. And his opponent is a God Damned Aggron. Anything he gets out might have some novelty value, but he's up against a known quantity.
Pairs Event 7: Running a Con
If you want to run a con, everyone knows that the best ones need at least two people. The best ones are also the ones where no one even suspects there's a con going on. In this case, our two teams are going to be running their own cons. And they're going to be rated on two things. First, how gutsy is their con. Basically, the more they get from their con, the better their score is going to be. And secondly, if they can pull it off. A failed con is worth squat no matter how ambitious or clever it was.
Our first team has a pair of formidable contenders. Julius Caesar conquored Gaul and almost became emperor of Rome. Sadly, both of these guys are somewhat at a disadvantage here as they're both straight shooters and tackle things from the front. In fact, Caesar's big problem is that he either didn't see, or didn't properly prepare for, the assassination attempt that got him. That said, if these guys can get a good con going, they both are going to be good at convincing folks they're on the level.
On the other hand, we have a pair of contenders who are less likely to get along, but who both have experience in cons. Specifically, Constable Odo who, as law enforcement on a border station, has to be able to think crookedly enough to keep up with Ferengi hucksters. And Jaime Lannister, who also tends towards the straight and narrow, but has to have the requisite skills for a con if he doesn't want to lose his head. After all, we can ask the Starks how people who don't have these skills fare in Westeros. The only question is if law enforcement and a man known as The Kingslayer can work together well enough to make a good team.
Pairs Event 8: Tandem Chess
Tandem Chess is an interesting variation on chess. You set up two boards, with one member of a team playing white, and their teammate playing black on the other board. And, whenever a player captures a piece, it's gifted to their ally on the other board.
EDIT: Apparently play goes until just one checkmate. Who knew? Snowfire, that's who. Thanks for the correction. And for this match, first to mate wins.
The first team will be Worker 8 and Aya Brea teaming up together. Worker 8 may be a bit of a problem here because while he is a machine, he's not so much a higher cognitive function machine. Or, to put it another way, he's fine in a fight, but might not be the best at an abstract fight like Chess is. Aya Brea on the other hand, is reasonably smart and should know the rules.
Now, who are they facing. One is a player in the Game of Thrones, the other is adept at the Game of Houses. But no matter how you name the Great Game, we have two men who walk amongst the nobility. First up is Oberyn Martel of Westeros, who probably doesn't have the patience of a true master, but is cunning and smart, both good resources to have in playing chess. Partnered with him is the Dragon Reborn, who is quite intelligent, has some skill with the sorts of tactics the game calls for. And even if Rand never learned the game, Lews Therin probably did, and Rand can just pull on those memories.
Those are the teams, now for who is facing who. On board 1, Worker 8 is white against Oberyn's black army. While Aya Brea takes black against the slightly ironic white army of the Dragon Reborn.
Quick Vote Form
Event 25: Debate
Roy Mustang (Full Metal Alchemist) v Donatello (TMNT)
Event 26: Staying Calm in the Face of Antagonism
Beast Boy (Teen Titans) v Spider-Man (Spider Man)
Event 27: Running a Petting Zoo
Erutus Profiteur (BD) v Rita Repulsa (MMPR)
Event 28: Write a Novel
Aggron (Pokemon) v Don Cherry
Pairs Event 7: Running a Con
{Mr. Rogers (Mr. Roger's Neighbourhood)/Julius Caesar (Shakespear)} v. {Constable Odo (Star Trek: DS9)/Jaime Lannister (Game of Thrones)}
Pairs Event 8: Tandem Chess
{Worker 8 (FFT)/Aya Brea Parasyte Eve)} v. {Oberyn Martell (Game of Thrones)/Rand Al'Thor (Wheel of Time)}
295
Tournaments / Re: The Royal Canadian Rando Tourney Round 1-G
« on: September 08, 2014, 01:05:54 AM »
Ok folks, update is tomorrow!
296
Tournaments / Re: 3rd Overtly Pandering Contest of Hotness- Round 1, Week 1
« on: September 08, 2014, 01:05:01 AM »
Week 1
Percival Fraulein (Suikoden III) vs Tiki (Fire Emblem:Awakening)
Quistis Trepe (Final Fantasy VIII) vs Rose (Legend of Dragoon)
Jean (Lunar: Eternal Blue) vs Chris Lightfellow (Suikoden III)
Raquel Applegate (Wild Arms 4) vs Kika (Suikoden IV)
Lawfer (Valkyrie Profile) vs Squall Leonhart (Final Fantasy VIII)
Volug (Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn) vs Excellen Browning (Super Robot Taisen Series)
Yueying (Dynasty Warriors Series) vs Leliana (Dragon Age: Origins)
Jacqli (Ar Tonelico Series) vs Igrene (Fire Emblem: Binding Blade)
Mitsuru Kirijo (Persona 4 Arena) vs Arshtat Falenas (Suikoden V) I don't like her P4A outfit much at all, but I'm gonna be voting for P3 Mitsuru.
Lyn (Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword) vs Xenobia: (Lunar Silver Star)
Lorelai (Suikoden Series) vs Katt (Breath of Fire II)
Kallian (Xenoblade Chronicles) vs Nina Wyndia (Breath of Fire II)
Iori Yagumi (King of Fighters series) vs Hrist Valkyrie (Valkyrie Profile series)
Alice Elliot (Shadow Hearts) vs Millia Maxwell (Tales of Xillia)
Sopko (The RPGDL) vs Aya Brea (Parasite Eve) - I'm assuming this is a Flame Champion vote.
Edea Kramer (Final Fantasy VIII) vs Karin Koenig (Shadow Hearts: Covenant)
Percival Fraulein (Suikoden III) vs Tiki (Fire Emblem:Awakening)
Quistis Trepe (Final Fantasy VIII) vs Rose (Legend of Dragoon)
Jean (Lunar: Eternal Blue) vs Chris Lightfellow (Suikoden III)
Raquel Applegate (Wild Arms 4) vs Kika (Suikoden IV)
Lawfer (Valkyrie Profile) vs Squall Leonhart (Final Fantasy VIII)
Volug (Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn) vs Excellen Browning (Super Robot Taisen Series)
Yueying (Dynasty Warriors Series) vs Leliana (Dragon Age: Origins)
Jacqli (Ar Tonelico Series) vs Igrene (Fire Emblem: Binding Blade)
Mitsuru Kirijo (Persona 4 Arena) vs Arshtat Falenas (Suikoden V) I don't like her P4A outfit much at all, but I'm gonna be voting for P3 Mitsuru.
Lyn (Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword) vs Xenobia: (Lunar Silver Star)
Lorelai (Suikoden Series) vs Katt (Breath of Fire II)
Kallian (Xenoblade Chronicles) vs Nina Wyndia (Breath of Fire II)
Iori Yagumi (King of Fighters series) vs Hrist Valkyrie (Valkyrie Profile series)
Alice Elliot (Shadow Hearts) vs Millia Maxwell (Tales of Xillia)
Sopko (The RPGDL) vs Aya Brea (Parasite Eve) - I'm assuming this is a Flame Champion vote.
Edea Kramer (Final Fantasy VIII) vs Karin Koenig (Shadow Hearts: Covenant)
297
General Chat / Re: Idiot of the day 2014: Your one stop topic for everything dumb.
« on: September 06, 2014, 08:59:05 AM »
Eh, it's not so terrible for someone to base a part of their self image off of an activity that they actively get enjoyment out of. The problem is when it's the sole source of identity they have, or where they have a compulsive need to have everyone use the lable in the exact same way they do.
298
General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« on: September 03, 2014, 05:39:40 AM »
I've been playing some games in the time I've been gone.
Been fiddling around with Romance of the Three Kingdoms 7 around when I dropped offline. First playthrough was a nice one, decided to play a combatworthy thug with some charisma, but dumb as a rock and no good at politics. Tried seeing if I could help vault a minor power to a major force up in the northern plains, but the guy never actually did anything, so I left and joined up with Cao Cao who was busy conquoring the joint. Got plenty of fights that way, and eventually got to be a governor and led a major campaign southward, eventually getting to be a part of the collapse of Sun Quan's Wu. (The Liu family's Shu got taken out by the Sun family.)
This led to The Legend of Cao Cao, because I found an english patch for it, and it's rare to see a FE style of game that is not FE itself. I've gotten up to the battle of Chi Bi, which is as brutal as it really ought to be, and the game is kinda fun. You're given choices, some of which are story choices which move you on this Good/Bad, or perhaps Orderly/Chaotic meter, which will apparently branch the story sooner or later. And some of which let you decide on your objectives in battle, or even if you're going to retreat instead of fighting on. And picking the correct answer there can net you more powerful equipment.
This leads to the next game because the two above both prominently feature one class. The Tactician/Strategist. Complete with their fluffy war fan. So, naturally, the next game in the chain is Suikoden 5, because Lucrecia is the closest thing the series has to a proper Chinese Strategist.
This game, the plot is still strong. Probably not as strong as 3, but that's not really a failing. On the downside... loading times are a big one. The games used to be great at keeping battle times down, but here it's just terrible. Recruitment is also bad, with several recruitments getting their own quests or dungeons. And with their trolling you with the old school "Please join me" options. Fortunately, I was able to borrow a strategy guide which got me all the characters, but still. Finally, the army battles, which have two major flaws. The more easily seen one is that it's a real time strategy thing where you have no ability to pause or slow things down to give commands. Or even, really, to move around the screen without cheating the system a bit. This is troubling, since the game will outslug you if you don't give good commands and the game seems to love following up a skirmish in one location with a Barrage on the other side of the map so your response is delayed. But, the bigger flaw, in my opinion, is that the game gives you very little freedom in building your units. This is a series where you have 108 characters, and most of them get to play in the army sequences. But, a lot of the battles have forced units, and the naval units are probably the worst about this. After you get the beavers, the rest of the naval units are basically just support for them. And the Dragon Horses should just add to that. But the game always forces them to take up a land unit slot. Because a godly naval unit should start off as a passable land unit, AND should force you to make another floating Recover repository instead of getting another land unit that'll actually fight.
Ah well, at least the plot is still good. Just at the final dungeon now.
And finally, the portable games.
Seventh Dragon - I've been fooling around with this. Currently in the first arc after the prologue. Don't know if I'm actually going to finish, or if it'll eventually feel too grindy, which is part of what turned me off EO3. But right now I'm digging the actual dungeons, and the attempt at a plot. And the benefits for dealing with the Dragons properly.
Edgeworth 2 - Currently in the middle of the third case.
I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I'm having a hard time really getting into this game. That said, I did dig the second case once it got near the end. And I suspect I'll do the same with this case. I also really enjoy the interaction between Courtney and Edgeworth. But... DeBest... on the one hand, I do find him kinda funny. But on the other hand, his logic makes my head hurt. And I am having such a hard time dealing with why Courtney is putting up with him at all. So, yeah. Kinda want to finish the game just to see what the deal is there.
Also, one random thought. You name your ship the Red Rum in the Phoenix Wright universe and then are surprised when a) a corpse shows up on it, and b) you're accused of killing them? It's tempting fate in the same way as running around in a thunderstorm holding a lightning rod as high as you can is asking to get electrocuted.
9 Hours, 9 People, 9 Doors
Completed. I had an old save where I got the Submarine ending from a year ago, and decided to take another crack. Basically, I did five and a half playthroughs (the half is where I was going for the Coffin ending, but decided to save before locking myself into it to check a door option that was still white. Got a repeat of the Sub ending, which was expected, then went back to my save and did the Coffin ending as planned) in rapid succession. It actually worked fairly well since each repetition revealed something new, and it felt like I got the appropriate progression.
I kinda wanted to make this post while the ending was still fresh in my mind, instead of about a week old. But c'est la vie. Regardless, I enjoyed the game a lot once I got into it. Each ending did a great job of adding a little more to my understanding of what was going on. And the twist in the True end was actually pretty good, though it added some questions of it's own. That said, I've since resolved some of my speculations by reading the Answers section on the game's website. So, yeah.
I knew something was up with Akane. Everyone had their reason for being there, but Junpei's only connection was her, so I knew something about her had to explain why Junpei was there. Was not expecting that the bottom screen narrator was going to be pre-teen Akane though.
The other thing that really caught my interest is the climax. It's weird. On the one hand, I was thinking "So, a nine year conspiracy to commit kidnapping and murder for the sole reason of time travelling sudoku solving." On the other, I was totally caught up in the moment. I cared. Which means that as ludicrous as the climax objectively is, it did it's job.
And that, as they say, is that.
Been fiddling around with Romance of the Three Kingdoms 7 around when I dropped offline. First playthrough was a nice one, decided to play a combatworthy thug with some charisma, but dumb as a rock and no good at politics. Tried seeing if I could help vault a minor power to a major force up in the northern plains, but the guy never actually did anything, so I left and joined up with Cao Cao who was busy conquoring the joint. Got plenty of fights that way, and eventually got to be a governor and led a major campaign southward, eventually getting to be a part of the collapse of Sun Quan's Wu. (The Liu family's Shu got taken out by the Sun family.)
This led to The Legend of Cao Cao, because I found an english patch for it, and it's rare to see a FE style of game that is not FE itself. I've gotten up to the battle of Chi Bi, which is as brutal as it really ought to be, and the game is kinda fun. You're given choices, some of which are story choices which move you on this Good/Bad, or perhaps Orderly/Chaotic meter, which will apparently branch the story sooner or later. And some of which let you decide on your objectives in battle, or even if you're going to retreat instead of fighting on. And picking the correct answer there can net you more powerful equipment.
This leads to the next game because the two above both prominently feature one class. The Tactician/Strategist. Complete with their fluffy war fan. So, naturally, the next game in the chain is Suikoden 5, because Lucrecia is the closest thing the series has to a proper Chinese Strategist.
This game, the plot is still strong. Probably not as strong as 3, but that's not really a failing. On the downside... loading times are a big one. The games used to be great at keeping battle times down, but here it's just terrible. Recruitment is also bad, with several recruitments getting their own quests or dungeons. And with their trolling you with the old school "Please join me" options. Fortunately, I was able to borrow a strategy guide which got me all the characters, but still. Finally, the army battles, which have two major flaws. The more easily seen one is that it's a real time strategy thing where you have no ability to pause or slow things down to give commands. Or even, really, to move around the screen without cheating the system a bit. This is troubling, since the game will outslug you if you don't give good commands and the game seems to love following up a skirmish in one location with a Barrage on the other side of the map so your response is delayed. But, the bigger flaw, in my opinion, is that the game gives you very little freedom in building your units. This is a series where you have 108 characters, and most of them get to play in the army sequences. But, a lot of the battles have forced units, and the naval units are probably the worst about this. After you get the beavers, the rest of the naval units are basically just support for them. And the Dragon Horses should just add to that. But the game always forces them to take up a land unit slot. Because a godly naval unit should start off as a passable land unit, AND should force you to make another floating Recover repository instead of getting another land unit that'll actually fight.
Ah well, at least the plot is still good. Just at the final dungeon now.
And finally, the portable games.
Seventh Dragon - I've been fooling around with this. Currently in the first arc after the prologue. Don't know if I'm actually going to finish, or if it'll eventually feel too grindy, which is part of what turned me off EO3. But right now I'm digging the actual dungeons, and the attempt at a plot. And the benefits for dealing with the Dragons properly.
Edgeworth 2 - Currently in the middle of the third case.
I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I'm having a hard time really getting into this game. That said, I did dig the second case once it got near the end. And I suspect I'll do the same with this case. I also really enjoy the interaction between Courtney and Edgeworth. But... DeBest... on the one hand, I do find him kinda funny. But on the other hand, his logic makes my head hurt. And I am having such a hard time dealing with why Courtney is putting up with him at all. So, yeah. Kinda want to finish the game just to see what the deal is there.
Also, one random thought. You name your ship the Red Rum in the Phoenix Wright universe and then are surprised when a) a corpse shows up on it, and b) you're accused of killing them? It's tempting fate in the same way as running around in a thunderstorm holding a lightning rod as high as you can is asking to get electrocuted.
9 Hours, 9 People, 9 Doors
Completed. I had an old save where I got the Submarine ending from a year ago, and decided to take another crack. Basically, I did five and a half playthroughs (the half is where I was going for the Coffin ending, but decided to save before locking myself into it to check a door option that was still white. Got a repeat of the Sub ending, which was expected, then went back to my save and did the Coffin ending as planned) in rapid succession. It actually worked fairly well since each repetition revealed something new, and it felt like I got the appropriate progression.
I kinda wanted to make this post while the ending was still fresh in my mind, instead of about a week old. But c'est la vie. Regardless, I enjoyed the game a lot once I got into it. Each ending did a great job of adding a little more to my understanding of what was going on. And the twist in the True end was actually pretty good, though it added some questions of it's own. That said, I've since resolved some of my speculations by reading the Answers section on the game's website. So, yeah.
I knew something was up with Akane. Everyone had their reason for being there, but Junpei's only connection was her, so I knew something about her had to explain why Junpei was there. Was not expecting that the bottom screen narrator was going to be pre-teen Akane though.
The other thing that really caught my interest is the climax. It's weird. On the one hand, I was thinking "So, a nine year conspiracy to commit kidnapping and murder for the sole reason of time travelling sudoku solving." On the other, I was totally caught up in the moment. I cared. Which means that as ludicrous as the climax objectively is, it did it's job.
And that, as they say, is that.
299
Tournaments / The Royal Canadian Rando Tourney Round 1-G
« on: September 03, 2014, 03:55:05 AM »
Given that Shinji was able to open the way back for everyone, it's no surprise that the winning option was Individuality. Never mind that fact that a Galaxy hopping orange Giga Bowser would've been a pretty sweet, and oddly fitting, end to the Rando Tourney.
That said, a return to normality means also a return to the events! So I give to you, Round 1-G!
Event 21: Treasure Hunting
In this world, there are two truths. There are people who have treasure and want to keep it. And there are people who have no treasures, and want to claim the treasures of others. The first kind of person tends to stick their treasures in all sorts of places in the hopes that it will either never be found, or that if found, will prove to be too much trouble for anyone to grab. The second kind of person is the kind that will do well at our competition today, as the one that can find and claim the most hidden treasure will win.
Our first competitor is everyone's favourite Quik-E-Mart vendor, Apu. He has had to face many challenges over his life, and has actually gone on a few adventures. So going out and looking for treasure won't be the strangest thing he's ever done. On the other hand, his competitor has both a huge advantage, and a potentially crippling disadvantage. You see, this competitor is from an RPG world, where treasure is routinely lying around where it can be reached with a modicum of difficulty. In fact, in the world of pokemon, it's often left near patches of tall grass in otherwise unassuming pokeballs. Of course, the disadvantage being faced here is that this hunter isn't really a person, or arguably sentient. Who's that Pokemon? It's Arcanine! Yup, this fire dog may be Officer Jenny's best friend, but can he hunt treasure as well as he hunts crooks? Only this event will tell!
Event 22: Cheating
Despite what the behavioural experts will tell you, we here at the Rando Tourney believe everyone can play fair and make use of the best policy; honesty. But, like all things, fair play and honesty has a time and a place. And that time and place is not here, and not now. That's right, it's time for the cheating contest. This event will involve a gauntlet of challenges, all of which can be done properly, but all of which can also be done faster than that if the contestant cheats. There will also be two sets of judges. The first set of judges will consist of reasonably observant judges who think the challenges are the challenge and who don't know about the second set of judges. Their job is to make sure everyone follows the rules. The second set of judges are some of the most observant people we can find who know what the real challenge is, and they'll be ranking the competitors not only on how fast they get through the gauntlet, but also on how skillfully they cheat, and how well they manage to not get caught by the fake judges.
Our first competitor is no stranger to the shadier side of the law, and is well versed in doing whatever she has to to get what she wants. Dahlia Hawthorne may be best at using patsies to do her job for her, but she's shown that she has a crafty and devious mind, and the willingness to use it. Against her is the humble Koopa Troopa, the standard soldier in Bowser's forces. He hasn't shown much in the way of deceit before, but perhaps it's just been well hidden, as a deceitful nature ought to be.
Event 23: Lawyering (Phoenix Wright Style)
Ah, the courtroom, a place of procedures and protocols. Where boring and staid people make their arguments in a sedate and order... wait... no? You mean this isn't a regular courtroom, but a Pheonix Wright courtroom? Where insane witnesses and surprise evidence of dubious acquisition are the order of the day? And almost anything goes? As always, we're going to have two cases, complete with a really guilty looking, but innocent, defendant, and a twisty path to the truth. And both contestants will take their turn as prosecuter, and as the defense attourney. If someone can win both cases, then they win, if they both take one, then the one to have the fewest penalties wins.
Our first lawyer to be is Marisa Kirisame, who I admittedly know almost nothing about. The little I do know suggests she has a commanding personality, and she probably has a mystical weapon of some sort, so she's gonna fit right in in this zany world. Which is good because her opponent's Objections are backed with NUCLEAR WEAPONS! Fresh from Civ 1 and 5, Ghandi takes to the bench! And while his real life counterpart was actually a lawyer, that may not hold for his over the top fictional national leader self.
Event 24: Finding the Holy Grail
The Object: A cup or chalice, two thousand years old, give or take a few decades. Properties: Purported to have held the blood of Christ on the Cross, after that, if it fits with the general subset of holy powers, this thing's been rumoured to do it. Location: Unknown. But we've got two contenders who're ready to fix that.
First up, we've got the sort of hero that would be right at home in the more creative tellings of the Round Table. Coming from the future of Fire Emblem: Awakening, we have Sumia's daughter, Cynthia searching high and low for the Sa'an Grail. And what she lacks in knowledge and street smarts, she'll be making up for with sheer energy, determination, and pre-battle one liners. Going up against her is a hero who is, in a lot of ways, her polar opposite. Lightning Farron is cynical, insightful, and professional. Oh, and a wanted criminal. But just like Cynthia, she's more than capable of taking care of herself, and will bring a certain amount of dedication to the task.
Team Event 3: Synchronized Swimming
There are few things more graceful that a body flitting through water. One of them is several bodies moving together in water, working as one. That is the core of synchronized swimming, where four competitors have to work together to first make a routine of grace and beauty, fit to make the soul weep. And then to use their week of training time to actually pull it off.
The first team has it's strengths, and some weaknesses. Starting with their strengths, they've got two athletes with their ace being the star player of the Zanarkand Abes himself, Tidus. While the only thing gracefulness probably earns Tidus is more scorn from Jecht, you have to admit, the guy is fast, probably has done a lot of formation drills as a pro-Blitzer, and let's face it, swimming is one of his primary skills. As well, he does have a certain level of showmanship and charisma. Backing him up is his fellow entertainer/athlete Hulk Hogan, who may not specialise in swimming, but who should be good at this anyways. The problem comes with their other two teammates, noted Super Genius Wile E. Coyote, whose plans always fail in the most interesting of ways, and Luna Lovegood, who means well, but whose ideas are a little off the wall. And let's just hope she doesn't distract Tidus from planning with her wild conspiracy theories about things like Zanarkand existing. All we can say is that at least it'll be hard to justify using anything from Acme Corp. for this event.
Against this we have, an, ummm... interesting team. Queen Serenity, as Queen of the Negaverse, is of course a natural leader, graceful in all she does, and a pretty ok planner. Of course, she's paired with a guy called Professor Chaos and Slimer, who is the very antithesis of graceful. That said, she's also paired up with Terry MacGuinness, who as Batman Beyond, has probably trained to be the best at everything in the future; perhaps second only to Bruce Wayne. And let's be honest, while Slimer does cause problems, they're ones that can be managed by a good team, whereas Wile E. Coyote just seems to make problems at an existential level simply by existing.
Quick Vote Form
Event 21: Treasure Hunting
Apu Nahasapeemapetilon (The Simpsons) vs. Arcanine (Pokemon)
Event 22: Cheating
Dahlia Hawthorne (AA: Trials and Tribulations) vs. Koopa Troopa (SMW)
Event 23: Lawyering (Phoenix Wright Style)
Marisa Kirisame (Touhou) vs. Mohandas Ghandi (Civ series)
Event 24: Finding the Holy Grail
Cynthia (FE:Awakening) vs. Lightning Farron (FFXIII)
Team Event 3: Synchronized Swimming
{Wile E. Coyote (Super Genius), Hulk Hogan (Wrestling), Tidus (FFX), Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter)} vs. {Professor Chaos (South Park), Terry MacGuinness (Batman Beyond), Queen Serenity (Sailor Moon), Slimer (Ghostbusters Cartoon)}
That said, a return to normality means also a return to the events! So I give to you, Round 1-G!
Event 21: Treasure Hunting
In this world, there are two truths. There are people who have treasure and want to keep it. And there are people who have no treasures, and want to claim the treasures of others. The first kind of person tends to stick their treasures in all sorts of places in the hopes that it will either never be found, or that if found, will prove to be too much trouble for anyone to grab. The second kind of person is the kind that will do well at our competition today, as the one that can find and claim the most hidden treasure will win.
Our first competitor is everyone's favourite Quik-E-Mart vendor, Apu. He has had to face many challenges over his life, and has actually gone on a few adventures. So going out and looking for treasure won't be the strangest thing he's ever done. On the other hand, his competitor has both a huge advantage, and a potentially crippling disadvantage. You see, this competitor is from an RPG world, where treasure is routinely lying around where it can be reached with a modicum of difficulty. In fact, in the world of pokemon, it's often left near patches of tall grass in otherwise unassuming pokeballs. Of course, the disadvantage being faced here is that this hunter isn't really a person, or arguably sentient. Who's that Pokemon? It's Arcanine! Yup, this fire dog may be Officer Jenny's best friend, but can he hunt treasure as well as he hunts crooks? Only this event will tell!
Event 22: Cheating
Despite what the behavioural experts will tell you, we here at the Rando Tourney believe everyone can play fair and make use of the best policy; honesty. But, like all things, fair play and honesty has a time and a place. And that time and place is not here, and not now. That's right, it's time for the cheating contest. This event will involve a gauntlet of challenges, all of which can be done properly, but all of which can also be done faster than that if the contestant cheats. There will also be two sets of judges. The first set of judges will consist of reasonably observant judges who think the challenges are the challenge and who don't know about the second set of judges. Their job is to make sure everyone follows the rules. The second set of judges are some of the most observant people we can find who know what the real challenge is, and they'll be ranking the competitors not only on how fast they get through the gauntlet, but also on how skillfully they cheat, and how well they manage to not get caught by the fake judges.
Our first competitor is no stranger to the shadier side of the law, and is well versed in doing whatever she has to to get what she wants. Dahlia Hawthorne may be best at using patsies to do her job for her, but she's shown that she has a crafty and devious mind, and the willingness to use it. Against her is the humble Koopa Troopa, the standard soldier in Bowser's forces. He hasn't shown much in the way of deceit before, but perhaps it's just been well hidden, as a deceitful nature ought to be.
Event 23: Lawyering (Phoenix Wright Style)
Ah, the courtroom, a place of procedures and protocols. Where boring and staid people make their arguments in a sedate and order... wait... no? You mean this isn't a regular courtroom, but a Pheonix Wright courtroom? Where insane witnesses and surprise evidence of dubious acquisition are the order of the day? And almost anything goes? As always, we're going to have two cases, complete with a really guilty looking, but innocent, defendant, and a twisty path to the truth. And both contestants will take their turn as prosecuter, and as the defense attourney. If someone can win both cases, then they win, if they both take one, then the one to have the fewest penalties wins.
Our first lawyer to be is Marisa Kirisame, who I admittedly know almost nothing about. The little I do know suggests she has a commanding personality, and she probably has a mystical weapon of some sort, so she's gonna fit right in in this zany world. Which is good because her opponent's Objections are backed with NUCLEAR WEAPONS! Fresh from Civ 1 and 5, Ghandi takes to the bench! And while his real life counterpart was actually a lawyer, that may not hold for his over the top fictional national leader self.
Event 24: Finding the Holy Grail
The Object: A cup or chalice, two thousand years old, give or take a few decades. Properties: Purported to have held the blood of Christ on the Cross, after that, if it fits with the general subset of holy powers, this thing's been rumoured to do it. Location: Unknown. But we've got two contenders who're ready to fix that.
First up, we've got the sort of hero that would be right at home in the more creative tellings of the Round Table. Coming from the future of Fire Emblem: Awakening, we have Sumia's daughter, Cynthia searching high and low for the Sa'an Grail. And what she lacks in knowledge and street smarts, she'll be making up for with sheer energy, determination, and pre-battle one liners. Going up against her is a hero who is, in a lot of ways, her polar opposite. Lightning Farron is cynical, insightful, and professional. Oh, and a wanted criminal. But just like Cynthia, she's more than capable of taking care of herself, and will bring a certain amount of dedication to the task.
Team Event 3: Synchronized Swimming
There are few things more graceful that a body flitting through water. One of them is several bodies moving together in water, working as one. That is the core of synchronized swimming, where four competitors have to work together to first make a routine of grace and beauty, fit to make the soul weep. And then to use their week of training time to actually pull it off.
The first team has it's strengths, and some weaknesses. Starting with their strengths, they've got two athletes with their ace being the star player of the Zanarkand Abes himself, Tidus. While the only thing gracefulness probably earns Tidus is more scorn from Jecht, you have to admit, the guy is fast, probably has done a lot of formation drills as a pro-Blitzer, and let's face it, swimming is one of his primary skills. As well, he does have a certain level of showmanship and charisma. Backing him up is his fellow entertainer/athlete Hulk Hogan, who may not specialise in swimming, but who should be good at this anyways. The problem comes with their other two teammates, noted Super Genius Wile E. Coyote, whose plans always fail in the most interesting of ways, and Luna Lovegood, who means well, but whose ideas are a little off the wall. And let's just hope she doesn't distract Tidus from planning with her wild conspiracy theories about things like Zanarkand existing. All we can say is that at least it'll be hard to justify using anything from Acme Corp. for this event.
Against this we have, an, ummm... interesting team. Queen Serenity, as Queen of the Negaverse, is of course a natural leader, graceful in all she does, and a pretty ok planner. Of course, she's paired with a guy called Professor Chaos and Slimer, who is the very antithesis of graceful. That said, she's also paired up with Terry MacGuinness, who as Batman Beyond, has probably trained to be the best at everything in the future; perhaps second only to Bruce Wayne. And let's be honest, while Slimer does cause problems, they're ones that can be managed by a good team, whereas Wile E. Coyote just seems to make problems at an existential level simply by existing.
Quick Vote Form
Event 21: Treasure Hunting
Apu Nahasapeemapetilon (The Simpsons) vs. Arcanine (Pokemon)
Event 22: Cheating
Dahlia Hawthorne (AA: Trials and Tribulations) vs. Koopa Troopa (SMW)
Event 23: Lawyering (Phoenix Wright Style)
Marisa Kirisame (Touhou) vs. Mohandas Ghandi (Civ series)
Event 24: Finding the Holy Grail
Cynthia (FE:Awakening) vs. Lightning Farron (FFXIII)
Team Event 3: Synchronized Swimming
{Wile E. Coyote (Super Genius), Hulk Hogan (Wrestling), Tidus (FFX), Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter)} vs. {Professor Chaos (South Park), Terry MacGuinness (Batman Beyond), Queen Serenity (Sailor Moon), Slimer (Ghostbusters Cartoon)}
300
General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2014?
« on: August 04, 2014, 07:23:55 AM »
Hrm? 3BP? I am now curious as to how you come by that.
I am now also going to make a point of finishing that fight.
I am now also going to make a point of finishing that fight.