Descent 2nd Edition Review-ish

In highschool, my friends used to come round on Friday nights and play Descent. Not much has changed, except I'm twenty four instead of sixteen, and now we're drinking tea instead of beer. Sad times.

Except not sad at all! Second Edition Descent arrived in the post the other day (thanks Dad) and it is really, REALLY fun.

Me, or Leoric of the Book

The updates to this game have made it super fun. I mean, Descent was always super fun, but it used to take sooooo long to finish one dungeon. In four hours, we finished the first three maps. There are also outdoor scenarios as well as indoor ones, to make it more interesting, and there is a massive campaign joining all the maps together! Yay! Of course we started that. So now you can take your XP and gold into towns and upgrade your weapons and stuff.

They've made the Overlord character (pretty much a DM) more fun too, as there are relics to find for them and the hero characters.

The best thing so far has been how evenly matched each scenario was. Like, up until the very last turn it could have gone either way.

For anyone who hasn't played Descent before, one of my friends described it as a mixture between Warhammer and traditional RPGs, with very simplified rules. The simplicity is what makes it for me - it's a very streamlined game, not a lot of sitting around and figuring things out. And now that the individual games can be finished in around an hour, you can play it without much preparation.

Awesome.

Music, games and presents.

A few things have been happening, like I graduated, but I haven't got the photos back in order to properly share it. In the meantime, here are some photos from today, from my band rehearsal. I'm in a band called Nun of the Tongue. I am the drummer.

This is our sexy lead singer, Oscar, also known as my boyfriend. 

This is our bass player Hamish, also known as our housemate.

In other news, we played Dungeon Quest for the second time yesterday, but the first time properly, since the real first time was spent trying to figure out the ridiculous combat rules. It's a really fun game but the combat rules are stupid.

So yeah. Perhaps we will think of an alternative way to speed up the combat, because it really interrupts the flow of the game. It's a fast paced, crazy sort of game, and that's the appeal, so it's kind of a bummer when it gets all boring during the fighting. Apart from that though, I really enjoy it. I love it that it's really easy to die, out of nowhere. And it's different every time.

My friend Zoe of Texta Chainsaw Massacre made me this badge, and it is the cutest, best badge ever!! I am in the process of making her something in return, but it will never make up for how cool it is. You can order them from her blog. And yes, it fits in a matchbox. <3

And this is my new camera, with which I took all the photos! It was a graduation present from my parents. Thanks, parents. It is REALLY fun. Now I can take proper photos for my blog. Hooray.

Why do I have to be a Girl Gamer? Can't everyone be a Girl Gamer?

All the big questions in life. Even though I love Rookie to bits, I feel like I have to mention that some of their posts concerning video games make me cringe a little. Here's the issue: gaming is seen as a traditionally male dominated thing. Yet so many girls game, and have for a long time. In mainstream media, that whole 'Beauty and the Geek' thing is still being pushed (VOMIT. VOMIT SO MUCH.) and so non-gamers might think that there aren't any girls gaming. Which is typical of mainstream stuff anyway so who cares, whatever, right?

My issue is that people from awesome, progressive places are still making jokes about the fact that there are like three girls waiting in a line of geeky, nerdy dudes for a midnight game release. I mean... is that even relevant anymore? And is it helpful? Because I would say no to both. Maybe it's just me, but as a gamer I am pretty sick of the whole "OMG ur a grl who games lol no way there are none of those!" Because COME ON. Ever since the internet, we've known that there are millions of those. We are girls, we like playing games, and we're everywhere. Even if you're writing an article addressing people who you assume are majority non-gamers, I think it's MORE important to stop suggesting that there aren't many girl gamers, because otherwise how will they learn? A more helpful message would be Yes, there are lots of girl gamers, it's not a big deal. I am proud of being both a girl and a gamer, but I don't think my gender has anything to do with my urge to play games, so can we please stop mentioning them together like it does?

And while we're at it, the phrase 'Girl Gamer' annoys me when it's used outside of a context where the gender of the gamer is relevant. Why is it Gamer and Girl Gamer? Why can't everyone just be Gamer? Or, if like me you hate the neutral to always be male, why can't everyone be Girl Gamer and be done with it?

Of course, when talking about things where gender IS relevant, I'm totally happy to be a girl gamer. I am so happy for stuff like Geek Girl Con to exist, because the convention is a celebration of specifically female 'geeks' in an industry where they aren't celebrated enough on their own, or given a platform to speak about what they do. You see the difference? Women may not be celebrated enough in most industries, but that doesn't mean they aren't there, invisible, in their homes at 2am smoking a jay and playing Skyrim. And they don't like being mentioned in passing like they're a rare breed, or like they know what it's like, being the only girl doing something. That just serves to promote Girl Competition, the thing that occurs whenever more than one girl is doing something, and everyone makes a big deal about how there's already a token girl doing that thing.

For example, when booking bands at festivals, female fronted or all-female bands are usually classified as Girl Bands and all the other bands are just called Bands, leading to a quota of Girl Bands being filled but leaving unlimited space for Bands. As if being a girl is a GENRE. This happens like aaaalllll the fricken time. It makes girls feel smug and righteous when they're doing something conventionally un-girly, and makes them hate all the other girls who try and take their spot. And as I have already said, girl hate is the plague. It was started by rats and ends up with huge pustules in your throat. (Sorry rats, i was jk.) (Oh god, rats probably hate that stereotype, I am sincerely sorry.)


On an unrelated note, here is my outfit for today. I love this skirt but never know what to wear it with, so I'm glad I managed to find this combo:

My camera was all NO EYES ALLOWED and so I was like whatever. My top is crocheted and shock horror, only a bra underneath. I thought (wished) it was kind of 90's Gwen Stefani. The skirt is kind of 50's so I thought an icecream brooch made sense. It has cute Spanish-y people on it, the girl at the shop said it was made from the material of a 50's dress. Aaaand my fav $5 shoes.

Crochet top: WE, icecream brooch: A Japanese clothing shop in the city, Skirt: Some vintage store in Canada, Socks: Buffalo Exchange, Shoes: Kmart