NWO: The Demon Lord of Gnolls

Hi all! For those who play Neverwinter Online, my brother has spent a long time working on this foudnry quest and is looking to get more plays and feedback.

It's called "The Demon Lord of Gnolls" [NW-DGC43C4KM] by @DragonlordDrm.

Just as a heads up, it is a pretty long adventure so either have an hour or so free to tackle it or plan on hitting each area over the course of a few days. There's an exit door next to the mini-map that lets you do that - which is also handy for resetting an area if needed (might be needed in zone 3 in particular).

Lots of hard work went into these custom maps!

There is also a fair bit of reading and a few jumping bits involved so fair warning! Hopefully you all like it! :)

Projects and Journals

Welcome to my "new" projects and journals page! I decided it needed a reboot after the photobucket burn, but all my previous ones are still available here.

ADVENTURE JOURNALS
My little library of "books" regarding my in-game experiences and adventures.
The date beside each is when it was last updated. :)

Party Time [6 Nov 2024]
Superhero Stories [22 Aug 2024]
The Cursed [23 Jul 2024]
Xenonauts [16 Nov 2023]
Elden Ring [22 Oct 2023]
Tower of Fantasy [24 Aug 2023]
The Wasted Land [16 Jun 2023]
Voidstar: Warframe-128 [19 Nov 2022]
The Legends of Andor [5 Jun 2022]
Thousand Year Old Vampire [25 May 2022]
XCOM 2: Defending the Earth, Again [9 May 2022]
Forgotten Waters [24 Mar 2022]
Dark Souls: The Card Game [19 Nov 2021]
Cthulhu: Death May Die [8 Nov 2021]
Adventures in Black Desert Online [16 Sep 2021]
Tales of the Blight II: More Dragon Age [26 Oct 2021]
Diary of Zombies [1 Oct 2021]
The Banner Saga [21 Aug 2021]
Remnant: From the Ashes [8 Jun 2021]
Metal Gear: A Soldier's Diary [28 Jan 2021]
Assassin's Creed: Odyssey [12 Nov 2020]
Civilization VI: The Conqueror's Tale [19 July 2020]
Adventures in Space [19 May 2020]
Firefly Adventures: Bandits and Browncoats [13 May 2020]
The Wild Hunt [22 Dec 2019]
Kingdom Come: Deliverance [27 Jun 2019]
BattleTech [20 Nov 2018]
Shadowrun Chronicles [20 Oct 2018]
Masters of Eador [20 Sep 2018]
The Direbug Saga [12 Mar 2018]
Fate of Heroes [14 Dec 2017]

CREATIVE WORKS
Here is a repository of links to my (and my guild mates) creative works online. Really should work on putting more of my stuff out there.

AI Art Gallery (letting the computer draw for me)
Absurd Game Ideas (because bad ideas need a space too)
Gallery Works (a place for drawings)
The Design Folder (thoughts about game creation)
Night Time View (Lyv's Youtube Music Channel)
Neverwinter Online Foundry: The Demon Lord of Gnolls (by Dragonlord)
The Forge of Winter (Neverwinter Foundry Creations)
The Golem City (youtube novel preview by Timothy Andrews)
Mabinogi: Ferghus Commercial (youtube)
Dragonarm Chronicles Chapter 1 (flash)
Tribute to Equilibrium (flash)
Dragonarm Chapter 1 (Neverwinter Nights module by Dragonlord)
Random posts tagged with "Art"

Wolfenstein: The New Order

Where the allies lost the war!

Blazkowicz is back in this sharp and fun first person shooter which seems him fighting the (quite literal) Nazi war machine(s).

Nazis have an interesting take on armored infantry.

The graphics and game play are great, as are the wide array of arsenal and I quite liked the optional stealth approaches in some missions. The cut scenes also jump straight to the action without wasting any time which is cool, though conveniently avoids answering some plot hole questions in the very wacky, and quite adult story.

As a shooter, the levels are expectedly linear and you could probably finish it in a weekend if you put your mind to it and the AI relies more on HP than smarts (Nazi's aren't as smart as the foes in FEAR for example), but my biggest complaint is not being able to skip the opening credits - which is small fry in the scope of things.

I give it 4.5 robodogs out of 5 and highly recommend this to FPS fans, and also recommend you play on the hardest difficulty straight up, as it really isn't that bad if you know to aim for the head / weakspots.

Castle Ravenloft (Boardgame)

Where the big figurine isn't the boss.

After completing the Legend of Drizzt, my group have finally reached the game that started this D&D board game system with modular, interlocking dungeon tiles to begin with: Castle Ravenloft. The components are good, but given this is the first in the series the dungeon tiles have less mechanism to them than the future games. Not that I mind, since it is a vampire's castle after all.

Well, that *almost* happened.

What this game does well is in the theme. Strahd personally showing up regularly to mess with the players via non combat cameo encounter cards throughout the campaign is awesome because by the time you get to actually fighting him you really, really hate the guy.

By then he's probably randomly bitten one of you, tossed a fireball or two from the shadows, teleported you into a room of monsters, or forced one of you to attack another. Comparatively, the future games main bosses are quite "absent".

Because of that investment in making Strahd present the whole time, and because it's an awesome game - I give it five wooden stakes out of five!

Score after re-review: Four wooden stakes out of five.

Berserk: Band of the Hawk

A decent catch up mechanism for the non-manga readers.

The easiest way to sum this game up is: Dynasty Warriors Berserk, which is probably why it's also known as Berserk Musou. You control one character of your choice (primarily Guts) and rampage across numerous battle fields slaying literally tens of thousands of foes.

The graphics aren't fantastic and the camera is not great but they serve their purpose, and the keyboard controls (PC) are a bit clunky but serviceable. What caught me by surprise is the length of the game, which goes well past the Golden Age arc which is the extent I thought it would cover as the cut scenes directly come from the remade anime.

Afterwards, it just uses regular CGI but the jist of the story is still there (despite the hundreds of filler monsters) and that is the highlight for me as a Berserk anime fan who doesn't read the mangas!

Once you complete the story line that's available (because the manga itself isn't finished) you then have the option to go into the "Endless Eclipse" mode to unlock bonus outfits, gear, or just fight some more with the small caveat that to win it - you must reach 100 levels of Endless Eclipse without stopping.

Rest is for the weak!

One might say that is the "true" game too, since you can only complete it once story mode is done. If you like Dynasty Warriors type games and/or like Berserk, then this game is worth a look. I give it three behelits out of five.

Today I Smiled: Power Up!

The grind through the River District and Chult continues in Neverwinter Online, so much so that I've not been typing blog posts! Oops! It's great to see my characters improving again though, using Baphomet as a measuring stick.

Once I put some thought into what enchantments I actually used in my gear, my mounts and my npcs companions (who I previously didn't equip at all), I'm now easily beating the demon prince.

Speaking of training, here is the real-life weapons training of Keanu Reeves for John Wick 2, which is pretty awesome. Thank you to the poster who told me about it. Also cool is this site about military strength by country which is an eye opener. Some are higher than I thought!

If that is too violent for you, I've also just learned that Japan has a cat island and a rabbit island which is cute-overload at first, but when carefully thinking about it are islands full of a) rabbit poop or b) critters that actively seek to overthrow the human race. :P

As usual I'm going to end with some musical links - the first one being the Coconut song on an airplane and the last one is Peter Hollen's version of Hands of Gold from Game of Thrones! Have a great weekend everyone! :)

Logan

Proves that old dogs are saltier...

It is the future, and mutants are dying out. Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is tired, old, and not regenerating as he once did. His limo driving job is mainly just to cover the expenses of looking after an even older and now demented Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), who occasionally has seizures which he shares to everyone around thanks to the strength of his "gift".

It's a pretty dark and depressing state, simply waiting for the end. Fortunately having a little girl who is wanted by the "bad guys" (of course) suddenly thrust into their care, forces them to go on another adventure. It helps that the little girl plays her part well - always risky with child actors (she's better than Mowgli for sure)!

Thumbs up!

Visceral, on-screen dismemberment and gore is featured right from the get go, which is a big step up from just suggesting "he stabbed a guy / bloodlessly" from the rest of the X-men franchise and the action sequences are great, which makes up for the ok plot.

While people say this is a "dark" movie, I disagree as it still features some up beat parts. Perhaps I've just gotten used to the likes of Hotel Inferno and Adam Chaplin though. If you just want a more mature X-men film, this does a great job. I enjoyed it a lot and would definitely watch it again. But would I buy the DVD? Hmm, not sure. Three and a half comic books out of five.

John Wick 2

He just has one bad day after another.

After an action filled start where John Wick (Keanu Reeves) finishes off that nasty business from the first movie, he almost makes it back into retirement just before another incident ropes him back into work, and what beautifully choreographed violence that work is.

It's amazing to watch.

I quite liked that Mr. Wick only has an 80% accuracy rating and gets hit repeatedly, and while he is wearing a layer of plot armor (especially against head shots), its significantly less since they explain a bit with the load out portion of the film - one of my favorite parts as it not only shows their love of weapons but also expands on the "assassin's world".

Despite a predictable plot, the trail of blood and guts and violence galore makes for a fantastic spectacle. Is it better than the first movie? Not particularly, but it's just as good so three and a half shotgun shells out of five. I highly recommend it if you are an action fan, or if you enjoyed the original. Would I watch it again? Definitely yes! I might even go get the DVD. :)

Jungle Book (2016)

Where wolves are American, cats are English and giant monkeys are Christopher Walken.

I've always been interested in seeing this Disney adaptation of the Jungle Book, which has the orphaned boy Mowgli being raised by the generally very compassionate creatures of the forest as one of their own, which is a problem to only the villainous tiger Shere Khan who harbors a hatred for humans.

Bad kitty!

It would be ok if this was just a regular tiger, but Shere Khan is feared by pretty much everyone else and rightly so. Only when Mowgli starts adventuring does he run into other not-so-friendlies. Guess the wolf pack did a good job keeping him safe!

All the CGI creatures are amazing, and damn the mommy wolf actually made me tear up with some of her lines and emotion. In contrast, Scarlett Johansonn as Kaa didn't really work too well for me. Ironically the weakest actor is Mowgli himself, though he does make up for it with all the action pieces he gets.

Being a Disney movie there are some musical numbers but they are very toned down and cut short during the film, with full versions in the entertaining credits. It's definitely an entertaining movie, one I wouldn't mind watching again. I give it three and a half, giant red flowers out of five.