Dungeons & Chimneys: Level up!

Avast, my dear readers! I would like to have written this post two months ago but I couldn't do earlier. You know, between exams and holidays you end up forgetting everything. Better late than never at all, as we say in Spain. Welcome back to Dungeons & Chimneys.



Levelling up from level 1 to level 2 is probably the best gift a DM can give to the party. Every class has its pros and cons but, honestly, all of them suck at level 1. Especially clerics.

But level 2, on the other hand, is so cool. Everybody gets their skills improved. They start being good at something specific and are able to use their skills more often or more efficiently. Level 2 is a very well deserved reward for having suffered so much trouble at level 1. Level 3 is cool as well (new feats!) but we didn't go that far on our little campaign.

Dungeons & Chimneys: DM Tricks (or Treats)

Greetings, everyone!

Yesterday I spoke with Minna, my DM when I played D&D in Guildford.

It had been a while since our last conversation and she seemed happy that I was doing ok in my game. I asked about hers but it seems it's been paused for a couple of weeks because of exams and stuff like that. Exams start next week for me, which is something I'm not looking forward to, actually.

Anyway, Minna and I had a pleasant chat about the best and worst things about DMing. We shared some DM tricks — and cheats.

Dungeons & Chimneys: Noobz & Prohs, Or The Other Way Round

New players are just great.

Don't misunderstand me: I'm not being sarcastic. Honestly, players with absolutely no experience in RPGs are the best role-players at the end of the day, because they lack everything that regular videogamers expect of an RPG. Experienced players often forget how to think as their characters and tend to commit meta-gaming — which is not very convenient in a D&D game.

Let me show you a couple examples.

Hammertime: Need a displacement here!

Hello there!

One of the most fun steps in the creation of a map in Hammer is creating terrains, aka displacements. It is also the one that causes most errors, at least in my maps.

CP_Parchis (remember it's just a codename) includes a castle on the top of a mountain, so terrains are essential. Since it is a floating castle, those mountains collide with the edge of the map - the skybox. This usually causes lots of errors. I've been trying to put up with the following problem:

Finding displacement neighbors...
Warning: invalid neighbor connection on displacement near (4.84 3584.00 0.00)
Warning: invalid neighbor connection on displacement near (-64.00 4096.00 0.00)
Warning: invalid neighbor connection on displacement near (2.96 4111.19 143.51)

HammerTime: The CP_Parchis Project

Greetings!

In this new section, Hammer Time, I'm going to talk about my first steps at mapping with Hammer. Hammer, in case you are wondering, is a map editor for the Source Engine (HL2, TF2, CSS, etc), also known as VHE (Valve Hammer Editor). I already had some experience with this tool, although none of my first works is good enough to show it here. I suppose my current project won't be succesful either, but I just want to write about it. So, here we go!

Exam Article: L4D Saga Review

Hello there! It's been a while since my last post in this blog. Sadly, I don't have so much time nor ideas, and when I write something, I tend to write in Las Chancletas de Hermes (you know, my other blog). But now I have something in English I wanted to show you - although I know no one will read it.

Recently I made a preparation test for the Advanced Cambridge Exam. One of the exercises in the Writing part consisted on writing an article of 180-220 words, comparing two videogames: their graphics, pros and cons and prices. Piece of cake.

This has been one of the best writing exercises I've made ever - my score was 18/20. So I decided to publish it (the corrected version the teacher gave me back).

Butterflies in the Stomach

When I see you, I feel... butterflies in the stomach.

Hello there! It's been a while, innit? This is the problem of Summertime: you have no time for blogging.

Anyway, I promised to devote a post to talk about butterflies. No, not those bright-colored-winged insects. The only interesting thing I know about those is that their tongue is called "proboscis".

I'm talking about butterfly knives, a.k.a. balisongs. Wikipedia says a balisong is "a folding pocket knife with two handles counter-rotating around the tang such that, when closed, the blade is concealed within grooves in the handles". This image may help understanding the description.

OVERTIME: Mac Fortress 2

Hello there!

You should try TF2 now. And I realise I say this every time there is a big TF2 update, but this time I have damn good reasons!

This weekend only, you can play TF2 for free, AND you can buy it (via Steam) with a 50% discount!

Comeacrossness: MADRID EDITION (Day 3)

DAY ONE - DAY TWO - ...

DAY THREE

Unusually, I woke up early... again. After a while, I decided it was time to wake Erik up so he could turn on his laptop. I had been two days without looking at my mail, so it was about time. Team Focata's forum had gone a little wild without my administration. Ah, BTW, I forgot to say that, the day before, we made somre "staff clearance".

Anyway, that day we decided to order a pizza. We ordered a huge 50-centimeter-diametred monster which almost couldn't pass through the door. We couldn't decide between four cheese or meat, so we rolled the dice and tried out the combination "four cheese-bacon". It resulted to be a great mixture.

Comeacrossness: MADRID EDITION (Day 2)

If you didn't read "Day One", go NOW!! If you did, welcome to day two.

DAY TWO

The first night I couldn't sleep more than three hours in a row. Yet I could find my own feet at the morning. I woke up (for once) at 9:00 and had a look around Habbit's room for an hour. Actually, I spent most of the time leafing through a book called "The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster". I'm still loling! It's fu**ing AWESOME!!!

At about 10:00 I decided to have a shower. I find it really weird to shower in someone else's bath. It's like disturbing their sanctuary. I don't like it.

Comeacrossness: MADRID EDITION (Day 1)

Hello there! Hope you're having nice Easter holidays.

As some of you know, I have spent Easter Week (Wordreference forums say that "Holy Week" is not correct) in Madrid with some friends from Team Focata. What, you didn't know? Then I'll tell you now: I spent Easter Week in Madrid with some friends from Team Focata.

In this post I'll put my best efforts in describing my adventures in the capital. I hope I don't miss anything.

DAY ONE

OVERTIME: Crappy Community Content

Hello there! Welcome again to OVERTIME, and thank you for not closing the window at seeing the logo (that sounded like some English teacher I know, lol).

This week a new TF2 update has been released, as you will notice if you have the game. The contents of this update are somehow polemic: they have been created by TF2 community, instead of by Valve. That means that actual players have been responsible for the items which I am talking about today. Oh my.

The Aperture Science Periodically Updated Post Publication System

Welcome to the Aperture Science Periodically Updated Post Publication System,
directed and written by F. Tido. At the end of the reading there will be cake. Post will begin in 5... 4... 3... *bzzzz*

I think that is what GLaDOS would say about this blog.

Hello there! You may be wondering what is this post about. This week I'm talking about a videogame I like. No, it's not TF2, although it's been created by Valve Software as well. I'm talking about a game like no other one you've seen: Portal.

OVERTIME: Team Focata's First Anniversary and Erik Mat's Accident

Hello there! I must start this post with an apology, for being out of the Internet this whole week. I had tones of work (and I still have).

So, I'm a bit late, but today I'm talking about the great Team Focata. Some of you already know it; some of you don't. So, a little explanation.

OVERTIME: Translation Fortress (part 2)

Note: This post continues where the previous one ended. If you haven't read Part 1, click here.

OVERTIME: Translation Fortress (Part 1)

Hello there! It's me again! No, please, don't close the window. This time I'm talking about something really interesting.

Some of my regular readers have complaint about not understanding a word when I talk about TF2. I usually try to explain it in a way that everyone can understand it, even without actually playing the game. Anyway, I'll try to be more clear. In this post, I'm attaching some links to TF2 wiki. Click them in case you find something you don't understand or want to increase your knowledge about the matter.

In this post (and maybe one or two more), I'll explain why I talk so much about a videogame in a blog about translation. This time I'm talking about the translation of Team Fortress 2. Sorry to my potential non-Spanish readers, because this post will have almost the same number of words in Spanish as in English.

OVERTIME: War! A comic translation

Hello there!

Don't worry too much about seeing the administrator's face again in this blog. Today I'm not reading another riot act about TF2. Today I want to tell all of you that I have finished translating the complete TF2 comic "War!" (as I started to say some weeks ago).

OVERTIME: The War Update, released!

Hi everyone! This has been an exciting week for TF2 players. I commented and recommended to follow the War Update of TF2, even if you didn't play the game, because it has been simply amazing. I know you ignored my advice, so I'm going to summarize the whole week in this tiny itsy bitsy post. Click all the links for more info (preferibly opening them in another window/tab).

The War Update presented the end of the friendship between the Demoman and the Soldier. As every TF2 update, it presented three new weapons for both characters, plus a fourth special weapon for the one who won the war. During the week, literally millions of Demomen and Soldiers perished, winning the latters by just a matter of 25000 deaths.

OVERTIME: The Administrator and Demoman/Soldier Update

Hello there! This week I decided to create a new section in this blog. I once talked about Team Fortress 2, one of my favourite videogames, and I promised to continue talking about it. Well, now I will for sure, since it's going to be a whole section, titled OVERTIME.

Comeacrossness: The Forgotten Shop

Hi everybody!

I come from a small town (well, it's gradually getting bigger, but it is small compared with Castellón), so I find everything in Castellón extraordinarily big and complex. Almost everyday I come across something I hadn't seen before (specially weird people). That's why I've decided to start this new section, titled "Comeacrossness", where I'll explain these weird things that happen to me in the city.

In this first episode of Comeacrossness I want to tell a little anecdote. I was looking for a videogame store in Castellón, so I decided to search in Google Maps. I typed "tiendas de videojuegos Castellón" and took the first result. "Centro Email, Avda Rey Don Jaime 43". I memorized the adress and the next day I went to visit the shop.