First off with some business to attend to that is Blaugust related. The very awesome Chestnut has been maintaining a twitter list of all of the folks participating in Blaugust 2018 that are on that platform. Next up I was asked to participate in a couple of blogs, one with recording a promo that they could edit in and another actually sitting down and talking a bit about the event. Those have both made their way into production as it were, and first off you have my promo that appears near the tail end of Geek to Geek Podcast with Void and Beej. Next up I recorded a bit with Syp at the tail end of the Massively OP Podcast, but in both of these cases you should totally listen to the entire show because they are excellent. I always enjoy the conversations that happen between Void and Beej and then Syp and Bree as well so two shows always worth listening to.
Over the last few days I have not done the whole morning Blaugust updates in part because the sign ups had slowed down a bit. However with the spots on the two podcasts we seem to have had an influx of new folks. On the sheet I ask where folks heard about Blaugust, and so far one of my happiest moments is when I get a submission that says something other than the equivalent of “Bel Told Me” because that means we are spreading out and expanding our reach. At this point we have 48 blogs signed up to participate and we still have some time before the festivities actually start… I am cheating a bit with that number because technically one has not signed up but I know it is incoming. If you are wanting a list of all of the participants and mentors I am keeping a google sheet with only the relevant information in it for folks to use on blogrolls and the like.
New Mentors
- Braxwolf – Gaming Conversations/Beyond Bossfights
New Participants
- punFLOWER – Simply Janine
- SDWeasel – Blog In The Works
- Matt – Geeky Dad Fitness
- Sharlen Grey – Gray’s Cozy Nook
- Troy – TroytlePower
- Tessa/Endalia – Princess in a Castle
As always though there is plenty of time to get started. Pop over and fill out the sign up sheet to get registered, and then pop by the Discord to hang out with other Blaugustans.
In gaming news, last night I started the Dark Brotherhood series of quests and so far they are pretty freaking cool. This was always one of my favorite guilds in the Elder Scrolls games because I like the whole Sithis and the Night Mother thing going on as well as the fact that in spite of being a bunch of blood thirsty killers… there is this interesting family dynamic happening. This sanctuary is no different and there are some really cool things happening from the sounds of it, and I am interested to see how the events fold out this time. The Dark Brotherhood quest lines tend to go in a specific direction… as do the Thieves Guild to be honest. The Elder Scrolls Online Thieves Guild was in fact a traditional Elder Scrolls Thieves Guild story… so I have certain expectations of how things are about to go here as well.
I am not very far into the quest line and have only done a few contracts, but I am absolutely and completely down with how Blade of Woe has been implemented in this game. I like that it just gives me an assassination ability instead of making me wield a freaking dagger. I am not a stealthy character, but the truth is… Dark Brotherhood is probably going to make me one because I am not sure how long I can pay the upkeep of constantly having a couple thousand gold in bounties on my head. Now the first trait in the DB skill line seems to reduce the amount of bounty gained when someone witnesses a murder… but regardless I need to be at least a little stealthy in my hits.
I do not really like forced stealth mechanics, and my brand is more about charging into battle in a nonsensical manner and as a tank gathering up all that enemy hate. This is not conducive to the Thieves Guild, but you can absolutely go in that direction with the Dark Brotherhood. If you want to complete a mission by making sure there is 100% body count… then by all means that is a thing that can happen. However it becomes painfully obvious that every one of those kills is going to cost you in the long run, with a very tangible bounty associated with it. I came out of one mission with roughly 5500 gold in bounty on my head… and while I could have waited awhile for that to drop I made my way to the nearest outlaws refuge and took care of it rather than be hassled by the guards.
Now that I have gotten slightly better at using Blade of Woe I am doing a better job of getting those kills in unnoticed and as a result reducing that gold footprint. This game is teaching me to be stealthy and while it is weird for me to say it… I am actually enjoying it more than I have in pretty much any other game. I was extremely proud of myself the first time I got into a building unnoticed and back out without having to use one of the magical stealth baskets. The mission I ran at the beginning of the night involved roaming around a palace and it mostly felt easy to go where I needed to go because I am starting to develop the reflexes needed to sneak about. There is a certain muscle memory that I am developing that I have never really had in the past. In other Elder Scrolls Games the only reason why I ever used sneak… was to land a bow shot with the damage multiplier. This time it feels like it allows me to move around freely and avoid entanglements I might not want to deal with. All in all… still having a blast even though I was initially grumpy with the forced stealth.