New PFS character

Ok! I have my new PFS character: Azureban Wikileak! Tiefling inquisitor. Charisma 5, but with class features that mean that he uses Wis instead of Cha for social stuff. Str and Wis 16. He’ll be front line with some buffs.

Working for Asmodeus, fighting the good fight. It’s Year of The Demon, and the Blood War is being fought up at the Worldwound. Realistically, I won’t be able to level him up fast enough to fight high levels this year, but I can play the YoTD modules later.

Arena fight!

One of the things which I think we all recognise and appreciate is how much work Andrew puts into the game. He does story for all of the characters. We each have two characters, which is a lot, and yet he’s given Rapha my hobgoblin more work than I have.

Tonight we started off with a bit of story, a bit of a cutscene, but then Andrew dropped us into an arena fight. And it was just great. Three waves of enemies. First, we fought team B. Then, Durian the size L dwarf/goliath champion decided that we were worthy and crashed the party. We dropped him in one round 🙂 . Then OMG! Zombies! Shit just got real.

It was great to have a long combat. Most of our fights have been a few rounds then win or run away, and they have mainly been there to drive plot. Not that that’s a bad thing – nothing duller than a “here are some monsters, fight them” campaign. But goddamn it – you build these characters, you want to try them out! It was cool to do that, and everyone got a feel for what their own characters and all the other characters could do.

And this is not to say there was no plot. Alix’s warlock and Durian are due a rematch, for starters.

For me, Blackfen is a bad guy, which really I personally can’t play forever. He’s definitely an alter-ego. Blackfen is a bit of an a-hole, so new people who have only played with me as Blackfen can’t help but see me in those terms. Him becoming a revenant gives me scope to edit his personality a bit, but he’ll still be pretty dark. Playing my other dude – who has a couple of heals and buffs – it was good to take a break. Support caster (“controller”, in 4th ed parlance) is where I am most comfortable.

And I continued my usual “screw up the DM’s encounter” modus operandi. Everyone was already beaten up when the zombies came out. Rapha had one heal, which he dropped into – Durian! “Durian! Durian! Wake up! Zombies!” Andrew is like “Didn’t think of that…”, but handled it with aplomb, as always. Durian took care of the minions, but Andrew made us do the BBEG.

We are all looking forward to meeting Handsome Hank, whatever his incarnation in this campaign. God, he’s a dick.

Budget 2014

Only a couple of thoughts on the budget.

First, if the coalition were serious about the debt, they wouldn’t be buying billion-dollar aircraft that don’t work. I mean – Who TF do we expect to be shooting? The real reason for the purchase is that military hardware is how the USA extracts tribute from its subject nations.

The USA is an empire, after all, and every empire takes tribute. That’s kinda how they work. The money for the needless planes goes to the defense companies, and they provide employment to the commons and bribes (Sorry! Campaign contributions) to the politicians.

Second, the cruelty of the new dole system: six months on, six months off. If you have no money, you cannot get a job. You don’t have a phone/mailing address, can’t get to interviews, can’t dress for them, can’t get to work for those crucial two weeks before your first pay. Participating in straight society has a barrier to entry. It’s low, but it’s there.

Much like their seven-dollar co-pay, the coalition just does not understand that some people regularly have no money at all.

So what will people do?

Well – many people will beg for money during those six months off. Live off charity organised and unorganised. Expect even more beggars in Civic (Yes, peoples: what they are doing is properly called “begging”. Why should we be comfortable using that word when we are talking about Calcutta, but flinch to admit that that’s what it is here in Canberra? Too Dickensian for you?)

Other people will pair up, form little groups, and share their dole communally. Families, most obviously. The best way to survive this regime is to be a pot-smoking bogan in a family with six adult kids, all on the dole. Another option might be a tiny religious sect.

Thing is: one of the main things you must do to become a productive member of society is to get yourself away from certain people. This budget makes that impossible, because the people you most need to get away from are people who you will most likely be depending on in six months time when your dole stops.

Look, I understand why Australia was sick and tired of the Rudd/Gillard soap opera. It’s heads down and weather the next three years. Lots of people won’t. The Greens did not do a good job of distancing themselves from Labour, so it might be time for another minor party along the lines of the Australian Democrats.

Pingback to Mssr Ian Hall.